Archive for October 1st, 2014

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01/10/2014

Israeli airline criticized over Orthodox Jews ‘bullying’ women passengers

Human Wrongs Watch

By Russia Today (RT)*, 1 October 2014 — Israel’s national airline El Al has been petitioned to “stop the bullying, intimidation and discrimination against women” on its flights by ultra-Orthodox Jews who refuse to be seated next to women on religious grounds.

**Image: To accommodate Haredi Jews, many coastal resorts in Israel have a designated area for separate bathing. | Source: File derived from Beach2654.JPG | Author: Beach2654.JPG: יעקב - derivative work: Chesdovi | Wikimedia Commons

**Image: To accommodate Haredi Jews, many coastal resorts in Israel have a designated area for separate bathing. | Source: File derived from Beach2654.JPG | Author: Beach2654.JPG: יעקב – derivative work: Chesdovi | Wikimedia Commons

A petition on Change.org has been issued following the last week’s scandal when a transatlantic flight from the US to Israel turned into an “11-hour nightmare,” as one female passenger put it, because of a group of Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) traveling to Israel to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

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Posted in Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

01/10/2014

Loss amid the Rubble in Gaza

Human Wrongs Watch 

By Catherine Weibel (UNICEF*) — For a young girl who lost her father and sister in the recent conflict in Gaza, returning to school is one step in a long process of recovery.

© UNICEF Gaza/2014/El Baba

© UNICEF Gaza/2014/El Baba

GAZA, State of Palestine, 30 September 2014 — Ten-year-old Shaima lives in Shuja’iyeh in eastern Gaza City, a crowded neighborhood now mostly reduced to a vast expanse of rubble. The threat of explosive remnants of war looms around every corner.

An estimated 18,000 houses were destroyed in Gaza during the last round of hostilities, which left 506 children dead and more than 3,000 injured. On piles of what once were homes, banners bear the former occupants’ names and phone numbers, in case someone wants to reach them.

At the end of a dusty street filled with sewage, a different kind of banner hangs on a wall. With a life-size image of a smiling man and a little girl, it marks the entrance to the home where they were killed.

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Posted in Africa | 1 Comment »

01/10/2014

'Returning to a Basic Level of Trust in Relations between Russia and the West'

Human Wrongs Watch

By Lars-Erik Lundin*, 30 September 2014 (SIPRI)

At the height of the cold war, during summits between the Soviet Union and the United States, US President Ronald Reagan frequently made reference to the Russian proverb ‘Доверяй, но проверяй’, or ‘Trust but verify’.

Barack_Obama_and_Prime_Minister_Vladimir_Putin

**Barack Obama meets with Putin at his dacha outside Moscow, July 2009  | Author: Pete Souza of the Official White House Photostream | Wikimedia Commons

Now, some 30 years later, few would expect Western leaders to use the same expression in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While the threat of nuclear war during the cold war era was all too real, in one sense the world is worse off now: even the notion of rebuilding trust on the basis of international commitments is seen as idealistic and unrealistic, or as a liberal fantasy.

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Posted in Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

01/10/2014

Europe Must Help Combat Hunger, Malnutrition — Failure Will Only Boost Migration, Stoke Conflicts

Human Wrongs Watch

European governments must help combat hunger and malnutrition on a global level, as failure to do so will only boost migration flows and stoke conflicts, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

The faces behind the numbers | Source: FAO

The faces behind the numbers | Source: FAO

“Food insecurity and conflict go hand in hand” he said, noting that extreme climatic events, troubles in Africa and the Near East and now the Ebola outbreak in West Africa tend to spill over national borders and into other regions in a globalized world, often through forced migration.*

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | 1 Comment »

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