Tag Archives: War_crimes
Finding peace in post-war Sri Lanka
Tamil casualties in Sri Lanka, 2009
What’s being done to achieve reconciliation after war?
(AL JAZEERA) Between 1972 and 2009, at least 100,000 people were killed in conflicts between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lankan military. In 1983, clashes between the two groups escalated into war following a period known as Black July. The Tamil fight for a state independent of Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority fueled a war that lasted nearly three decades.
Topography of my soul
“Does that grey colour in your hair mean you’re going to die soon, mama?”
Nahida Izzat Global News Centre
(LONDON) The following poem is from Nahida Izzat, whose family was forced to flee Palestine during teh Six Day War in 1967.
When I was seven,
At gunpoint,
I was driven out of my land, Palestine
A Naksa, survivor, daughter of Nakba survivors
Eyes moist, gazing at the horizon
Fixated towards Jerusalem
Ever since
Nobel Peace Laureates endorse violence
Given the systematic atrocities planned, organised, sponsored, financed and committed by the US government throughout its history, which have been carefully documented by one author after another, one can only presume that the authors of the letter are delusional, incredibly ignorant or utterly devoid of compassion for those who have suffered or are still suffering from the extraordinary violence inflicted by military and economic forces controlled by the United States elite.
Robert J. Burrowes Global News Centre
(TASMANIA) In a recent letter to US President Barack Obama twelve Nobel Peace laureates declared their support for the long history of US elite violence against Native Americans and enslaved Africans, as well as the US imperial violence around the world that has butchered tens of millions of people over the past 200 years. See ‘US: An End to Torture: Twelve Nobel Peace Prize laureates write to President Barack Obama asking the US to close the dark chapter on torture once and for all. Obama responds’. http://thecommunity.com/no-to-torture/
Pollard May Be eligible for parole but he is hardly the victim his supporters portray
Pollard
Ever since this convicted spy’s incarceration, there has been a concerted campaign for his release by his American supporters and by the Israeli government.
Allan Brownfeld Global News Centre
(WASHINGTON DC) Jonathan Pollard, the U.S.intelligence analyst who spied for Israel and was sentenced to life in prison, could be released as early as November when he becomes eligible for mandatory parole, according to the Justice Department.
Human Rights: illness becomes wellness
occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com
Quote of the day: “When ‘I’ is replaced with ‘we’ even illness becomes wellness” Malcolm X
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Global News Centre
(BETHLEHEM) Palestine Museum of Natural History Progress in the last week:
- You are invited today (Wednesday July 22) at 2 PM for a talk by Hodgkin the author of “A History of Mathematics From Mesopotamia to Modernity” and retired math professor from King’s College in London. His lecture is titled “Mathematics and justice: what is mathematics doing to us, and what could it do for us?” Earlier, we took a trip with Prof. Hodgkin to Artas because he is the grandchild of Mrs. Crowford (she and Louise Baldensperger were partners in the 1920s/1930s in studying Palestinian plants and folklore in that town)
Colombo intent on subjecting more Tamil GS officers to ‘military rehabilitation’
Ki’linochchi photo courtesy: misshelen.wordpress.com
While 6 Eezham Tamil Village Officers (GS) from Ki’linochchi, recently interdicted from their jobs by Colombo’s Ministry of Public Administration, are now forced to undergo ‘military rehabilitation’, the occupying Sri Lankan military, which seeks to retain its control on the civil affairs has instructed Karu Jayasuriya’s ministry to subject 12 more Tamil GS officers to the genocidal military rehabilitation, civil sources in Jaffna said. Mr T. Kanagarasa, the coordinator of SL Human Rights Commission in Jaffna said he had sent a letter to the SL ministry of Public Administration seeking clarification after receiving a complaint from a young mother, who has been interdicted from her work. In the meantime, Mr S. Varathan, the president of the interest organisation of the GS officers in Jaffna accused that the SL Government Agents have failed to protect the interests of the GS officers.
Global News Centre
[TamilNet) Five GS officers from Jaffna district and 4 GS officers from Mullaiththeevu district are among the other GS officers, who have been subjected to interdiction in recent days, the civil sources told TamilNet.
A home denied
“The Zionists wanted Palestine, all of Palestine, preferably with no Palestinians in it.” - Jewish historian, Ilan Pappé, from his book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Jafar M Ramini Global News Centre
(LONDON) They came uninvited. The Zionist zealots arrived on our shores with the Bible in one hand and a machine gun in the other. They declared, “this is our land, promised to us by our God and you, the Palestinians, have no place in it.”
“What happens to a dream deferred?”
Injustices, that is, such as Israel’s oppressive military occupation of the Palestinian people, an occupation that began either in 1948 or 1967, however one wishes to measure the history of stolen land and stolen lives.
Dr. James Wall Global News Centre
(CHICAGO) What happens to a dream deferred?
The question comes from Langston Hughes’ poem, Harlem, which inspired Lorraine Hansberry to write her drama, A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
The danger of redefining “anti-semitism” to mean criticism of Israel
Judaism is a religion of universal values. Israel is a sovereign state. It has violated international law by occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The boycott movement is a nonviolent effort to show opposition to this occupation, similar, its advocates argue, to the movement of sanctions against South Africa to show opposition to apartheid.
Allan Brownfeld Global News Centre
(WASHINGTON DC) The following letter, which I wrote concerning the redefinition of the term “anti-Semitism,” and the use of this term to characterize criticism of Israel, appears in today’s (June 16, 2015) Washington Post.
In the June 13 news article “In Israel, concerns rising over boycott movement,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the movement to boycott Israel or disinvest from those doing business in the occupied territories as “anti-Semitic.” Similarly, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who recently presided over a meeting that raised more than $20 million to fight this movement, referred to it as “anti-Semitic.” Whether one agrees with this movement or not, and many Jews are leading participants, the fact is that it is in no way “anti-Semitic.”
Justice in Sri Lanka: With just 273 political prisoners in custody, how many have disappeared?
The haphazard arrests, detentions, killings, disappearances and the impunity that prevailed during the former President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government led families of the disappeared to live in ignorance as to whether their loved ones were dead or held incommunicado in Government custody.
By JS Tissainayagam
(ASIAN CORRESPONDENT) New questions about wartime and post-war disappearances in Sri Lanka emerged following a bombshell revelation that the Government hs only 273 political detainees in its custody. Families of the disappeared believed the numbers are much higher. This announcement also hardens doubts if a Sri Lankan-led judicial process into mass atrocities, such as disappearances, will bring justice to the victims.
Tax-exempt U.S. funds should not be building Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank
planetinvestigations.com
As young people ask questions about the meaning of life and seek to discover a meaning and purpose for their own lives, the place once occupied by the church is, more and more, now empty.
Allan Brownfeld Global News Centre
(WASHINGTON DC) For nearly half a century, Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. During that period more than half a million Israelis have settled in these occupied territories. The U.S. Government, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, views these settlements as illegal. So does the United Nations and International law. U.S. policy has long called for a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian state to be established on the West Bank. Israeli occupation of the land, however, makes the two-state solution unlikely. And Israel’s new government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, with some members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government openly calling for annexation. In early June, at the Herzliya Conference, Israel’s premier security meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely declared: “I negate the idea of a two-state solution.”
