Uruknet on Alexa
>
:: Segnala Uruknet agli amici. Clicka qui.
:: Invite your friends to Uruknet. Click here.
:: Segnalaci un articolo
:: Tell us of an article
|
:: ONU - XX Assemblea Generale (1965): |
La
XX Assemblea Generale dell’ONU (1965)
dichiara "la legittimità della
lotta da parte dei popoli sotto
oppressione coloniale, per esercitare il
loro diritto all' autodeter-
minazione e
all'indipendenza".
Inoltre, l'Assemblea invita "tutti
gli Stati a fornire assistenza morale e
materiale ai movimenti di liberazione
nazionale nei territori coloniali". |
|
:: ONU
- Risoluzione 1514 |
"L'Assemblea
Generale dichiara che: la soggezione dei
popoli a dominio straniero, conquista e
asservimento costituisce una negazione
dei diritti umani fondamentali, è
contraria alla Carta delle Nazioni Unite
ed è un impedimento alla promozione
della pace e della cooperazione mondiali.
Tutti i popoli hanno diritto
all' autodeter-
minazione; in virtù di
tale diritto essi devono liberamente
determinare il loro status politico e
liberamente perseguire il loro sviluppo
economico, sociale e culturale". |
|
:: Convenzione
di Ginevra, Protocollo Addizionale I
(1977): |
La lotta
armata può essere usata, come ultima
risorsa, come mezzo per esercitare il
diritto all' autodeter-
minazione. |
|
:: Tribunale
penale internazionale |
In
base allo Statuto del Tribunale penale
internazionale, sono definiti “crimini
di guerra”:
(1) attacchi lanciati intenzionalmente
contro popolazione civili in quanto tali
o contro civili che non prendano
direttamente parte alle ostilità;
(4) attacchi lanciati intenzionalmente
nella consapevolezza che gli stessi
avranno come conseguenza la perdita di
vite umane tra la popolazione civile, e
lesioni a civili o danni a proprietà
civili ovvero danni diffusi duraturi e
gravi all’ambiente naturale che siano
manifestamente eccessivi rispetto all’insieme
dei concreti e diretti i vantaggi
militari previsti. |
:: Iraq anthem
(click to listen)
|
|
Israel’s Hand in Guatemala’s Genocide
Robert Parry
May 24, 2013- At the height of Guatemala’s mass slaughters in the 1980s, including genocide against the Ixil Indians, the Reagan administration worked with Israeli officials to provide helicopters that the Guatemalan army used to hunt down fleeing villagers, according to documentary and eyewitness evidence. During testimony at the recent genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, one surprise was how often massacre survivors cited the Army’s use of helicopters in the scorched-earth offensives. Journalist Allan Nairn, who covered the war in Guatemala and attended the Rios Montt trial, said in an interview, "one interesting thing that came out in the trial, as witness after witness testified, was a very substantial number of them talked about fleeing into the mountains and being bombed, attacked and machine gunned from U.S. planes and helicopters...
continua / continued  [97866] [ 26-may-2013 05:32 ECT ] |
|
Terracide and the Terrarists
Destroying the Planet for Record Profits
By Tom Engelhardt
May 24, 2013 - We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the conscious destruction of aspects of the environment: ecocide. But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on, the world as humanity had known it until, historically speaking, late last night. A possibility might be "terracide" from the Latin word for earth. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.The truth is, whatever we call them, it’s time to talk bluntly about the terrarists of our world ...In the case of the terrarists -- and here I’m referring in particular to the men who run what may be the most profitable corporations on the planet, giant energy companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell -- you’re the one who’s going to pay, especially your children and grandchildren. You can take one thing for granted: not a single terrarist will ever go to jail, and yet they certainly knew what they were doing...
continua / continued [97864] [ 26-may-2013 04:49 ECT ] |
|
The Palestine Liberation Movement is not about Anti-Semitism
by Paul Larudee
May 24, 2013 - ...The Palestinian cause has nothing to do with Jews, Semites, anti-Semitism, God, Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Noah, Jacob, Ishmael, Shem, Ham and Japheth, whether you believe in them or not. It has nothing to do with the Holocaust, colonialism, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Turks or the British.It has everything to do with the expulsion of Palestinians from their land and with denial of their right to sovereignty, to self-determination and above all their Right to Return. It does not matter who expelled them. It is their land and they have the right to return. It does not matter who denies their existence. They have a right to return.It does not even matter if they are nice people or despicable, whether they are racists or humanists, whether they are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhist or Shinto, whether they are clean or dirty, educated or ignorant, rich or poor, democrats or monarchists. They have the right to return to their homes and to reclaim their country...
continua / continued [97863] [ 26-may-2013 04:35 ECT ] |
|
"This time they destroyed everything": Uprooted Bedouins face more evictions
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours |
March 24, 2013-A clothesline hangs between heaps of twisted metal and cracked slabs of concrete, while a handful of olive trees lay haphazardly, their roots exposed, under the scorching Naqab desert sun.Less than a week ago, this was where approximately 600 Israeli police officers were deployed to demolish 18 structures, including 10 homes, and uproot 600 trees in the "unrecognized" Palestinian Bedouin village of Atir-Umm al-Hieran, just 30 minutes from the major city of Bir al-Saba (Beersheva).Residents reported seeing approximately thirty flatbed trucks haul away most of the rubble, while Israeli police set up a dozen roadblocks in both directions along the main road, preventing residents from trying to stop the bulldozers. Only a few destroyed buildings were left behind and broken toys, notebooks and other personal effects remained scattered across the sand...
continua / continued [97862] [ 26-may-2013 04:26 ECT ] |
|
The Ruling Class as Full-Time Sadistic Torturers
Arthur Silber
May 24, 2013 - ...Having said this, it is also true that the ruling class will lie about specific topics, when they are of special importance and when lying carries benefits that are valuable to them. Yesterday, in his widely-heralded speech (another one, God help us), Obama said:"We unequivocally banned torture..." This is flatly, unequivocally not true. It is a lie. Yes, Obama knows he is lying. There is no way in hell he cannot know he's lying. But I expect serial murderers to lie. What is equally disgusting -- and even more disgusting, from one point of view -- is that almost everyone, including almost all "dissenting" writers, are willing to accede to the lie. The near-universal embrace of this lie has conferred numerous benefits on Obama and the ruling class in general. Most critically, acquiescence in the lie encourages people to view Obama as humane, decent, even enlightened; because people have willingly surrendered not only what ought to be perpetual skepticism about power but their most basic analytic abilities, the lie has allowed Obama literally to get away with murder. This is the very rare occasion where "literally" means literally...
continua / continued [97860] [ 26-may-2013 04:07 ECT ] |
|
Father of Muhammad al-Dura rebukes Israeli report on son's death
Harriet Sherwood |
May 24, 2013 - In a scrubby cemetery in central Gaza, where crumbling tombstones nestle in the sand amid wind-blown rubbish, Jamal al-Dura crouched at the grave of his son Muhammad to recite the Muslim prayer for the dead. With the youngest of his 11 children at his side, he took his hands from his face, laid them on the marble slab and looked up, a bitter as well as a bereaved man.
"Israel says my son isn't dead. Can you imagine how this feels for a father who has lost his child? They have all the technology tools in the world. He's not dead? Then bring him to me," he said. The long, acrimonious war over the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura in September 2000 was reignited this week with the release of an official Israeli report attacking a 55-second television broadcast, aired on that day 13 years ago, for what it said was distortion, falsehood, fabrication and incitement to terror...
continua / continued [97859] [ 26-may-2013 04:04 ECT ] |
|
Old Masters and the Masters of War: Guernica – Gaza
By Vacy Vlazna |
May 24, 2013 - The Israeli military occupation is not only an external experience of ubiquitous soldiers, guns, teargas, tanks, F16s , Apache helicopters, warships, checkpoints, prisons, it is a virulent pathogen that infects and debilitates the psyches and bodies of its living hosts – the men, women and children of Palestine contaminating every precious instant of their lives from the first breath to death. The omnipresence of Israeli aggression is strikingly conveyed in internationally acclaimed Gazan artist, Mohammed Al Hawajri’s new exhibition, Guernica – Gaza 2010-2013, featuring 28 extraordinary artworks which present the Israeli reign of terror invading the artistic vision of certain Old Masters...
continua / continued [97856] [ 26-may-2013 03:19 ECT ] |
|
Syria News - May 23, 2013 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos |
May 23, 2013 - By the end of Thursday, local coordination committees documented 86 martyrs, including 8 women, 10 children and 7 martyrs under torture: 27 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 18 in Aleppo; 14 in Homs; 8 in Daraa; 7 in Hama; 6 in Deir Ezzor and 6 in Idlib. The committees have documented 359 points of shelling, fiercest of which was in Eastern Ghouta cites in Damascus suburbs and Qusair in Homs: Warplanes' air strikes were recorded in 37 points, shelling with cluster and thermobaric bombs was recorded in cities and towns of Eastern Ghouta, also shelling with surface-to-surface missiles was documented in Qusair in Homs, and shelling with explosive barrels was recorded in Qusair in Homs and in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus suburbs. While rocket shelling was recorded in 95 points, mortar shelling in 112 points, and artillery shelling in 118 points in different areas across Syria...
continua / continued [97853] [ 26-may-2013 01:10 ECT ] |
|
From al-Araqib to Susiya: Forced Displacement of Palestinians on Both Sides of the Green Line
by Adalah |
May 23, 2013 - On Nakba Day, 15 May 2013, Palestinians marked the passing of sixty-five years since the massive forced expulsion of Palestinians from their national homeland. The Nakba commemorations demand reflection not only on the "catastrophe" of the loss of life, land, and property in 1948, but also on Israeli policies that are still dispossessing Palestinians of their land today, sixty-five years later. In a new film (view below), Adalah captures the stories of two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib and Susiya–one in Israel, one in the West Bank–that share a single story of struggle against forced displacement...
continua / continued [97849] [ 25-may-2013 17:18 ECT ] |
|
Hezbollah slips in Qusayr
Tony Badran
May 23, 2013 - ...As it became clear that the Syrian opposition was putting up fierce resistance, Hezbollah began adjusting its story about the battle for al-Qusayr. The group was now making it known that it was sending in reinforcements from its elite units, and that the fighting might last at least another week. More troublesome for Hezbollah, however, was the news about the severe losses its units were sustaining, with casualty numbers ranging from 30 to 40 dead after the first day of fighting alone. By Tuesday, Syrian activists in al-Qusayr were claiming another 25 dead Hezbollah fighters. This, of course, is not counting those who had been killed prior to the latest assault, going back to last year. The number and make-up of the casualties raise some interesting questions about Hezbollah’s fighting force post-2006...
continua / continued [97847] [ 25-may-2013 16:47 ECT ] |
|
Iraq snapshot - May 23, 2013
Thomas F Barton
May 23, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, Sahwa and snakes threaten the Iraqi people, US President Barack Obama wishes he could close Guantanamo (he says), Medea Benjamin heckles him, he offers a major speech about how The Drone War and the so-called war on terrorism will continue, IRS official Lois Lerner gets placed on administrative leave, the War on the First Amendment continues, and more.With US President Barack Obama making statements about the press today, we're again starting with The War on the First Amendment. Last week, The War on the First Amendment's big revelations were that the Justice Dept had secretly seized the phone records of a 167-year-old news institution, the Associated Press. This week's revelation is that the Justice Dept targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen...
continua / continued [97844] [ 25-may-2013 05:43 ECT ] |
|
The Militaristic Trajectory
Drones = Assassinations = War Crimes
by NORMAN POLLACK |
May 23, 2013 - ...Obama is expected to reveal the justification for wholesale acts of political murder (now including that of four Americans—but who’s counting?) and the extreme terrorization of whole populations, through never knowing when the sustained buzzing overhead will strike without warning, this last a trick that the Nazis learned about psychological warfare during the London bombings, especially the unmanned aerial vehicles. If the US is skating on the thin edge of fascism in its creation of an hierarchical social order based on monopolization, the unrestrained growth of the military, and, through the political culture of militarism ensuring mass passivity and acquiescence (hardly a peep from organized labor, civil rights and civil liberties organizations, religious groups, students—all of whom played an important part in the civil rights struggle—on assassination as official US policy from the top), the use of armed drones is taking America over the edge...
continua / continued [97840] [ 25-may-2013 05:14 ECT ] |
|
Dramatic escalation in settler activities
Ali Jaradat
May 23, 2013 -It is not surprising, or even unexpected, to see settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem attacking and threatening the lives of Palestinians, destroying their properties, ruining their farms and targeting their holy sites. These attacks have not stopped since the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem and since settlements and judaisation in the region began. To list examples, it would be enough to mention the attempts of these settlers to assassinate three elected Palestinian Mayors: Basam Al shakaa from Nablus, Karim Khalaf from Ramallah, and Ibrahim Altawil from Albira in 1980. Yet they also attacked students of Hebron University in 1984, attempted to poison water tanks at the schools of Jenin municipality in 1984, and stationed Rabbi Kiryat Arba in front of Dheisheh refugee camp for two years. In addition, settler Baruch Goldstein committed the massacre of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1993...
continua / continued [97838] [ 25-may-2013 05:00 ECT ] |
|
The Monster in the Mirror
Arthur Silber
Ah, my friends. I never thought I would live to see it: the day when most of humanity agrees that needless, brutal, non-defensive murder is monstrously evil and utterly unforgivable. But I was directed to a post offering the front pages of U.K. newspapers today -- and I feel entirely justified in heralding the glorious beginning of a new era for civilization. We finally may be able to use the word "civilization" with accuracy, and even with pride. One front page carries the words: You will never be safe, we will not stop fighting Another states: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We won't stop fighting until you leave us alone . Be sure to understand: these declarations from murderers who are proud of their killing and who refuse to apologize for it are universally condemned. Accompanying these headlines are photos of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and other key figures who had led and continue to lead the West's, and more particularly the U.S.'s, wars of annihilation and murder on a monumental scale. But most people now recognize the evil of these men and all who had supported them.The newspapers point to the genocide in Iraq, a campaign of murder on a world-historical scale. They also mention the ongoing campaigns of slaughter in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and numerous other countries ...
continua / continued [97835] [ 25-may-2013 04:17 ECT ] |
|
Was the London killing of a British soldier 'terrorism'?
Glenn Greenwald |
May 23, 2013 - Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violence against Muslims, media outlets (including the Guardian) and British politicians instantly characterized the attack as "terrorism". That this was a barbaric and horrendous act goes without saying, but given the legal, military, cultural and political significance of the term "terrorism", it is vital to ask: is that term really applicable to this act of violence? To begin with, in order for an act of violence to be "terrorism", many argue that it must deliberately target civilians. That's the most common means used by those who try to distinguish the violence engaged in by western nations from that used by the "terrorists": sure, we kill civilians sometimes, but we don't deliberately target them the way the "terrorists" do...
continua / continued [97834] [ 25-may-2013 04:12 ECT ] |
|
Palestinian hospitalized after IDF handcuffs, abandons him at checkpoint
By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz
May 23, 2013 -About two weeks ago, A. was on his way from Hebron to Jerusalem. A is a resident of Abu Dis, and married to a resident of East Jerusalem; as such, he enjoys Israeli residency. But as he was about to find out, that didn’t help him all that much. On his way home, A. passed through a checkpoint charmingly named "the humanitarian checkpoint," where he ran into a surprise roadblock, manned by a mixed force of soldiers and border policemen. The soldiers asked A. to turn off his engine, leave the car, and hand them his papers. A. noted they spoke "poor Arabic."...
continua / continued [97826] [ 25-may-2013 02:45 ECT ] |
|
Close Guantánamo: Hundreds of Thousands of People Sign Avaaz Petition Calling for Action from President Obama
Andy Worthington
May 23, 2013 - Please sign the Avaaz petition calling for the closure of Guantánamo! Just hours before President Obama delivers a major speech on national security at the National Defense University, in which he will discuss the drone program and will also lay out his plans for Guantánamo, an international petition calling for the prison’s closure, launched by Avaaz, has secured over 400,000 signatures in just one day. The petition calls on President Obama "to appoint a White House official whose responsibility it is to close down the prison, and to use the authority granted to you by the US Congress to immediately transfer the 86 men who have been cleared," which is exactly the message that is required, so please, if you haven’t already signed it, do so now, and then circulate it to everyone you know...
continua / continued [97829] [ 25-may-2013 03:42 ECT ] |
|
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 - 22 May 2013)
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) |
May 23, 2013 - Summary: Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the oPt continued during the reporting period 16 – 22 May 2013. Shooting: During the reporting period, Israeli forces wounded 17 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children. 3 civilians were wounded during incursions in the Palestinian communities, while 14 others, including 12 children, were wounded in peaceful protests in al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of Ramallah. On 17 May 2012, 3 Palestinian civilians were wounded. The first one was wounded when Israeli forces moved into Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron, while the other two ones were wounded by the newly-employed Tutu bullets when Israeli forces moved into al-Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, as Israeli forces have recently resumed using snipers to disperse Palestinian demonstrations using Tutu rifles, which are sniper rifles with a small barrel....
continua / continued [97828] [ 25-may-2013 03:32 ECT ] |
|
Syria News - May 22, 2013 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos |
May 22, 2013 - By the end of Wednesday, the coordination committees were able to document 125 martyrs, among 11 women, 13 children, and 5 martyrs under torture: 37 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 29 martyrs in Homs; 21 martyrs in Hama; 17 martyrs in Idlib; 9 martyrs in Daraa; 7 martyrs in Aleppo; 2 martyrs in Raqqa; 2 martyrs in Lattakia; and 1 martyr in Deir Ezzor.The committees have documented 342 points of shelling, fiercest of which was in Sbineh in Damascus suburbs and Qusair in Homs: Warplane shelling was recorded in 24 points, fiercest of which was in Hamidieh and Qusair neighborhoods in Homs, shelling with surface-to-surface missiles was recorded in Sbineh in Damascus suburbs and shelling with cluster bombs was recorded in Hamidieh in Homs. Mortar shelling was documented in 95 points, rocket shelling in 103 points, and artillery shelling in 115 points in different areas across Syria...
continua / continued [97825] [ 25-may-2013 02:30 ECT ] |
|
On Eve of Obama National Security Speech, Writers, Performers, Academics Call for Closure of Guantanamo, End of Indefinite Detention & War Crimes
World Can't Wait |
May 22 , 2013 - nspired by the hunger strike of most remaining Guantanamo prisoners, hundreds of people in the arts, law, public life and academia have made an urgent call to Obama to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, where 166 men are still held, and "the release of the cleared Guantanamo prisoners now, and an end to indefinite detention without charge for the others, before they lose their lives." President Obama will speak Thursday, May 23 on national security, and is expected to make a case for expansion of the U.S. drone war and discuss his failure to close Guantanamo after his 2009 promise to do so within a year. Thursday morning, the European Parliament will debate a resolution on the U.S. prison at Guantanamo and U.S. "breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law."...
continua / continued [97822] [ 24-may-2013 22:56 ECT ] |
|
The Enervation of American Politics
Umbrellas and Drones
by ROBERT FANTINA
May 22, 2013 -... U.S. drones, unmanned aircraft, have for some time been bombing targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other countries , all in the sacred name of the U.S. war on terror (whatever that is). In the last couple of years, over 5,000 people have been killed in U.S.– initiated drone strikes, and the frequency of these bombing is escalating rapidly. Their purpose, ostensibly, is to rid areas of Al-Qaeda operatives, a strategically important goal (we’ll not consider the morality of it quite yet), as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, after twelve years of U.S.-sponsored terrorism against the Afghani people. But what of the human debris left in the wake of these bombings? Ibrahim Mothana, a young Yemeni writer, said this in a New York Times op-ed last year: "Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology, but rather by a sense of revenge and despair."...
continua / continued [97810] [ 24-may-2013 21:00 ECT ] |
|
Syria News - May 21, 2013 (Warning: Graphic Videos)
Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos |
May 21, 2013 - By the end of Tuesday, the coordination committees were able to document 89 martyrs, among them 6 women, 9 children, and 2 martyrs under torture: 31 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 27 in Homs; 14 in Aleppo; 6 in Daraa; 6 in Idlib; 3 in Raqqa; and 2 in Deir Ezzor.The committees have documented 365 points of shelling, fiercest of which was in Qusair in Homs for the third day in a row, air strikes by warplanes were recorded in 39 points, fiercest of which was in Qusair and Daraya, shelling with surface-to-surface missiles was recorded in Tal Refaat in Aleppo, and shelling with explosive barrels was recorded in 6 points: Qusair in Homs, Eastern Ghouta cities in Damascus suburbs, Salma in Lattakia, and Tabqa in Raqqa. While mortar shelling was documented in 95 points, rocket shelling in 110 points, and artillery shelling was recorded in 114 points in different areas across Syria...
continua / continued [97802] [ 24-may-2013 14:01 ECT ] |
|
Neoliberalism and the Genocide of 6 Million in Congo
Heads of UN and World Bank Visit Congo - Fail to Hold Rwanda and Uganda Accountable
The Real News
May 21, 2013 - Since 1996, more than 6 million people have been killed in civil war in the Congo. In February of this year, a groundbreaking agreement was signed called Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region. The agreement was signed in February by 11 African countries, including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia. On Wednesday, May 22, World Bank Group president Dr. Jim Yong Kim and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a visit to the African Great Lakes region to show their support for this peace agreement and to push for economic development...
continua / continued [97797] [ 23-may-2013 22:55 ECT ] |
|
The Reason for Hunger Strikes-from Northern Ireland to Guantanamo
By Ann Wright
May 21, 2013 -I'm in Northern Ireland and yesterday on May 20, 2013, I spoke with several members of the Northern Ireland Parliament. With over 100 prisoners in Guantanamo on a 100 day hunger strike, the Obama administration would be wise to talk to some of them too--about the importance and legacy of hungerstrikes. In 1981, Pat Sheehan was one of the Maze Prison hunger strikers-a hunger strike that brought huge international attention to the Northern Ireland "Troubles," with the goal of forcing the British government to treat those imprisoned as political prisoners, not criminals. Hunger strikers demanded the right to wear civilian clothes, the right to education and recreational opportunities, freedom from work obligations, and a set of other benefits not afforded to other inmates.Pat was on the hunger strike for 55 days and still alive when the hunger strike was called off by the prisoners...
continua / continued [97795] [ 23-may-2013 22:11 ECT ] |
|
Drones Are the Napalm of Our Crazy Time
by Ethan Casey
May 21, 2013 - I was born in 1965, the year the first U.S. combat troops went to Vietnam. Growing up in middle-class America in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I distinctly remember that "Vietnam" – the place name stood in for a great many things left unsaid – was not discussed, almost taboo, among my parents’ generation. I didn’t realize this at the time, of course. I could only smell it, like the residue of something the dog left on the carpet, through the layers of deodorant and disinfectant. Americans who had lived through "Vietnam" were emotionally and politically exhausted and had declared a tacit truce among themselves. That suited them – all of them, on all sides – but it left my generation poorly served. How can young people learn the lessons of history, if no one is willing to teach them? I had to assemble the puzzle for myself later, through self-directed reading and actually going to live in Southeast Asia ...
continua / continued [97794] [ 23-may-2013 22:05 ECT ] |
|
Two Fishermen Arrested and Fishing Equipment Confiscated; PCHR Condemns the Israeli Forces' Assaults on Palestinian Fishermen in Gaza Waters
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
May 21, 2013 - The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Israeli forces’ attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip and expresses deep concern over the rise in such attacks. In the past two days, the Israeli forces arrested 2 fishermen and held their boat while they were fishing nearly 70 meters off the seashore. The Israeli forces also fired at other fishermen in the central Gaza Strip and confiscated their fishing equipment. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 21:30 on Sunday, 19 May 2013, an Israeli gunboat approached a Palestinian fishing boat boarding 2 fishermen, sailing nearly 70 meters of al-Waha Resort shore in the north of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers fired around the boat and then forced the two fishermen to take their clothes off, jump into the water and swim towards the gunboat. They arrested the two fishermen and held their boat. The two fishermen were identified as Mahmoud Mohammed Zayed, 25, and his brother Khaled, 20. They were released at 11:30 on Monday, 20 May 2013...
continua / continued [97790] [ 23-may-2013 04:54 ECT ] |
|
Prisoners who starved for art honored by Gaza show
Joe Catron |
May 21, 2013 - For former Palestinian detainee Abdelfattah Abu Jahil, prison art is a victory."At the beginning, it was really hard," he said of painting, embroidery and sculpture during his first detention by Israeli forces in 1983. "It wasn’t allowed. We had to keep it hidden from the guards. And we had to smuggle the tools, like beads and threads, to make the art."That changed, he said, when a mass hunger strike forced the Israeli Prison Service to let Palestinian detainees keep and use art supplies."The greatest achievements of the prisoners’ movement were in 1985," Abu Jahil said. "We went on hunger strike to force the Israelis to allow us to make art, among other things. I myself went on hunger strike for 79 days."...
continua / continued [97788] [ 23-may-2013 04:47 ECT ] |
|
Iraq: Organizer of Anbar protest killed
NINA
May 21, 2013– Sheikh Malik al-Dulaimi, one of the Anbar protest organizers, killed when an improvised explosive device, attached to his car, went off on Tuesday evening, May 21. Security source told NINA that an improvised explosive device attached to Sheik al-Dulaimi's car went off in downtown Ramadi, killing him instantly. Sheikh al-Dulaimi, along with other capable tribal chiefs of Anbar, took care of supplying tents, food and other requirements to the protestors in Ramadi...
continua / continued [97784] [ 23-may-2013 04:33 ECT ] |
|
Guantánamo Hunger Strike: Obama Administration Hints at Progress on Releasing Yemenis
Andy Worthington
May 21, 2013- 100 days after the majority of the remaining 166 prisoners in Guantánamo embarked on a hunger strike, and after a weekend of actions in the US, the UK and elsewhere to highlight the continuing injustice of the prison, the world is waiting — again — to hear from President Obama.As news of the hunger strike filtered out of the prison in late February, and, throughout March, spread like wildfire throughout the world’s media, attracting criticism of the administration from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, as well as critical coverage in the US, President Obama remained silent...
continua / continued [97780] [ 23-may-2013 04:21 ECT ] |
|
The State Explodes Itself
Arthur Silber
May 21, 2013- ...Top Obama aides, including Obama's chief of staff, all knew of the specific nature of the IRS abuses. They all "intentionally kept Obama in the dark." We are informed that systematically depriving the president of critical information is their job.This is your government at work. "Serious" has been banished to another world. I ache for the moment when a single person, finally rebelling against the ludicrous pretense of treating muttered blurps and smuffles as language that signifies meaning, stands up at a press briefing, and cries in despair: "When you lie in bed in the middle of the night unable to sleep, do you ever weep for your shattered soul, that you find it so easy to be such a goddamned liar? And are we any better, that we refuse to acknowledge that you are a goddamned liar, and that we are all liars too?"...
continua / continued [97779] [ 23-may-2013 04:16 ECT ] |
|
Military Resistance 11E13: Now and Forever
Thomas F Barton
May 20, 2013 - The United States may keep a force of 6,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when Afghan forces will be responsible for security across the country, a top American Senator has said. "We are planning to keep a force of perhaps 6,000 to 12,000 after 2014 when all combat forces are to be out of Afghanistan," Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said during a Congressional hearing...
continua / continued [97774] [ 22-may-2013 22:44 ECT ] |
|
Deep in Enemy Territory – Fast Times in Palestine
By Pamela Olson |
May 20, 2013 - A friend from college named Cameron was in Israel visiting family for Passover. He was an adventurous soul, a world traveler and entrepreneur, with curly brown hair, blue eyes, and a slim athletic build. When his family learned I was in the Holy Land, they invited me to their Passover seder — until they realized I lived in Ramallah, at which point they promptly rescinded the invitation.Cameron was a strong supporter of Israel and hawkish on security issues, but he was embarrassed by his family’s behavior. I told him he could make it up to me by visiting the West Bank for a week and seeing the occupation for himself. To my pleasant surprise he agreed. In order not to upset his family, he told them he was heading to the Sinai for a week. He arrived in Ramallah just as the Dancing Traffic Cop was beginning his shift in Al Manara. Tall, lanky, and graceful, wearing reflective silver aviator sunglasses, the man didn’t just direct traffic. He made a show of it. Cameron and I watched in amazement as his long arms moved in quick, precise, exaggerated arcs and twirls to match his intricate, impeccable footwork....
continua / continued [97773] [ 22-may-2013 22:27 ECT ] |
|
Click here to view previous news
|
Uruknet on Twitter
::
RSS updated to 2.0
:: English
:: Italiano
::
Uruknet for your mobile phone:
www.uruknet.mobi
Uruknet on Facebook
The newsletter archive
:: All events
|
