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Archive 2012

Human rights violations are described as becoming increasingly gross and more seriousĀ in jerusal

By Maisa Abu Ghazaleh – Palestine News Network

The city’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, along with the monitoring group the National Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, were part of a report issued under the name the Alahli Coalition regarding Israeli violations during the month of July.

The findings were not encouraging, with the Israeli authorities continuing to “commit more serious and gross violations of human rights which is inconsistent with the provisions of international law and the rules of international humanitarian law.”
The report, issued yesterday afternoon, is divided into chapters in which the first addresses the issues of home demolitions and attempts to seize property and evacuate homes, demolition, bulldozing, confiscation and settlements.

Chapter II addresses the issues of barriers, blockades, closures and raids, arrests and arbitrary detention, and abuse of the right to live. The report indicated that seven houses were demolished while 60 more notices were distributed.

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Britains barbaric terror strategy

Here we have the three Ds – destitution, detention and, finally, deportation

By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

(source: The Independent)

Last week a British ship returned from Brazil after it was found to be carrying 1,400 tons of noxious waste to be dumped there. The Environment Agency says the UK does not allow the transfer of volatile rubbish to pollute poorer nations. That is the official position. The truth is that it still happens unless there is a furore, as there was with the Brazilian authorities. Sending thorny problems abroad is a long and hearty tradition. In the glory days of empire, subject nations were used and misused to sustain the industrial might of the ruling power. Troublesome people too were banished to distant shores.

From the late 18th century prisoners – many innocent or guilty only of trivial offences against the rich – were pushed off to Australia. Today, our declared56has led to suspects – including British citizens – being held and tortured in Middle Eastern prisons, and many Muslims who have been tried in our courts and acquitted are forcibly returned to their countries of origin. Nobody cares. All Muslims are, these days, assumed to have anti-western toxins coursing in their hot blood.

On the day the ship came back from Brazil, two Pakistani men studying in Britain went back home to face an uncertain future. They were among the 12 students arrested in Liverpool and Manchester by the security services who claimed the men were planning an al-Qai’da bombing spree in the UK. It was a spectacular round-up which delivered no convictions. Not one of the men arrested was charged. The evidence presented against them was laughably flimsy, except no one is laughing. Instead of being released, however, they were returned to the cells and told they would be sent packing. Why? "Visa irregularities," apparently. Some tried to appeal against the decision, but most have given up the battle. Held without charge for over 140 days so far, they have to agree to leave or forcibly be put on planes.

Honourable chaps like David Miliband, Jack Straw and Gordon Brown make stirring speeches on the rule of law and ethical conduct. Unofficially, the policy of D&D – detain and deport– is now used as a matter of course to rid the country of targeted Muslims whether guilty or patently innocent. (You could even say that the return of al-Megrahi to Libya has stopped a public inquiry and the mess that might have spilled out.) I have no problems with the removal of proven villains. The notorious Omar Bakri was packed off to the Lebanon and is thankfully no longer inciting hatred here, and the Law Lords have ruled that Abu Qatada, another firebrand cleric, can be sent back to Jordan which has been seeking his extradition. But when D&D is used as a matter of course by politicians and our security agencies against those they cannot nail, it is both vindictive and immoral.

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Mrn press release

Goldstone Report finds Israel guilty of War Crimes

By Dr Firoz Osman

The MEDIA REVIEW NETWORK notes with interest media reports on the Goldstone Report, which found Israel guilty of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity for its invasion of Gaza in December and January 2008/9. 

This investigation of Israeli war crimes corroborates the findings of many other organisations such as Amnesty International, the International Committee for the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and others.

Israel, not surprisingly, arrogantly rejected the findings, dismissing it as biased and one-sided. Israel refused to cooperate with the Goldstone Commission, denying it permission to enter its territory. The Hamas government ruling Gaza fully cooperated with the Goldstone investigation, allowing it free access throughout the territory.

One thousand four hundred Palestinians were brutally killed, five hundred of them women and children. In contrast, only thirteen Israelis were killed during the conflict. Whilst the Goldstone Commission also accuses Palestinian militants of war crimes, Hamas cites International Law that permits it the right of self defence.

The overwhelming criticism of the 574 page report condemns the Israeli Defence Force for failing to avoid civilian deaths and injury; for the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas; firing high-explosive artillery shells on hospitals; using Palestinian civilians as human shields; and deliberately attacking food supplies.

Israel has violated International Law with impunity for the last sixty years. The MEDIA REVIEW NETWORK awaits with interest the action, if any, will be taken by the United Nations Security Council against Israel. 

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