07/01/2017
Yes, We Can
Human Wrongs Watch
By Uri Avnery*
7/1/2017
DURING WORLD WAR II, when German bombers terrorized Britain, a small group of gallant airmen faced them every day. Their life expectancy was numbered in days.
Uri Avnery
Once, a genius at the propaganda ministry devised a poster: “Who is afraid of the German Luftwaffe?”
When it was posted at one of the Royal Air Force bases, an anonymous hand penned underneath: “Sign here”.
Within hours, all the airmen had signed.
These were the men about whom Winston Churchill said: “Never have so many owed so much to so few!”
If somebody today were to devise a poster asking “Who is afraid of the settlers?” I would be the first to sign.I am afraid. Not for myself. For the State of Israel. For everything we have built during the last 120 years.
LATELY, MORE and more people in Israel and around the world have been saying that the “Two-State Solution” is dead.
Finito. Kaput. The settlers have finally killed it.
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07/01/2017
Finland Experiments with a Basic Income Scheme for Unemployed
Human Wrongs Watch
Finland has recently begun a two-year trial providing basic income for the unemployed. The concept of a universal basic income, which aims to supply a monthly stipend regardless of employment, has gained currency in recent years. Finland, however, is the first country in Europe to put the idea into practice.
**Image: “Printing paper money at Goznak factory in Perm”. | Author: Alexey Kudenko | Permission: Commons:RIA Novosti | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Under the new provisions, 2,000 unemployed citizens, selected at random, will receive €560 (£460) per month. The amount will be deducted from the recipient’s other benefits. There are no restrictions on how the money is to be spent and the salary will continue if recipients find work.
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07/01/2017
Migrants Seeking Europe Catch Their Breath in Morocco
Human Wrongs Watch
By Fabíola Ortiz*
City of Rabat, Morocco. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS
No more than 15 kilometers separate the Spanish enclave Melilla and the Moroccan coastal city of Nador, in the northeastern Rif region. This tiny Spanish town of 70,000 people became a major crossing point for those seeking to reach asylum in Europe.
Melilla, together with Ceuta, are the remaining Spanish territories on the African continent and the European Union’s only land border. Precisely for that reason, many Sub-Saharan Africans and increasing number of Syrians dream of reaching the other side as a promised land and better life.
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07/01/2017
‘As Temperatures Drop, Asylum-Seekers on Greek Islands Need to Be Moved to Mainland’
Human Wrongs Watch
6 January 2017 – Drawing attention to situation of hundreds of asylum-seekers on the Greek Aegean islands, facing further vulnerability as temperatures are expected to drop in the coming days, the United Nations refugee agency underlined the urgent need to accelerate their transfer to the mainland.
Child refugees in Greece. (file) Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev
07/01/2017
2016 Deadliest Year Ever for Migrants Crossing Mediterranean – UN
Human Wrongs Watch
6 January 2017 – More migrants were killed crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2016 than ever before, according to the United Nations migration agency in the region.
Migrants from the Mediterranean are rescued in the Channel of Sicily, Italy. Photo: IOM/Francesco Malavolta (file)
At least 363,348 people crossed the sea – mostly to Italy and Greece – but 5,079 additional people were either killed or are missing. The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 6 January 2017released its preliminary figures, but they are expected to increase with the addition of fatalities from December.
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07/01/2017
Myanmar’s Handling of Northern Rakhine Makes ‘Bad Situation Worse’
Human Wrongs Watch
6 January 2017 – An independent United Nations expert will assess the human rights situation in Myanmar starting next week. The announcement comes shortly after the top UN human rights official warned that the Government’s “short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous” approach to the handling of the crisis could have grave long-term repercussions for the country and the region.
Ethnic Rakhine people shelter in a stadium in Sittwe. Photo: Joe Freeman/IRIN | Source: UN News Centre
An independent United Nations expert will assess the human rights situation in Myanmar starting next week, it was announced, following increasing concerns about civilians in Kachin State and the escalating violence in Rakhine State.*
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07/01/2017
‘Russia Makes Good Hollywood Villain for US’
Human Wrongs Watch
5 Jan, 2017 (RT)* – US animosity directed at Russia is misdirected anger, said Larry Johnson, retired CIA and State Department official. The propaganda plays upon the ignorance of US people, who know little of Russia and the history of its relations with the US, he added.
**Demonstration in front of Sydney Town Hall in support of Julian Assange, 2010, December 10 | Author: Elekhh | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.| Wikimedia Commons
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, in an interview with Fox News, said that even a teenager could have hacked the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief John Podesta.
Thousands of emails were published by the whistleblowing website before the presidential election, with claims then coming from Washington that Russia was behind it all.
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07/01/2017
Trump’s Guantanamo Tweet Was Uninformed and Ill-Advised
Keeping Facility Open Threatens US National Security
By Laura Pitter*
January 4, 2017 (Human Rights Watch) – US president-elect Donald Trump’s tweet yesterday [Jan. 3] that everyone held at Guantanamo Bay is “extremely dangerous” is ill-informed. What’s worse, his proposed course of action – stopping all releases – shows a lack of understanding about the danger of keeping Guantanamo open poses to US National Security.
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06/01/2017
Anti-Semitic Zionists
Human Wrongs Watch
By Uri Avnery*
WHAT REALLY got me was the applause.
Uri Avnery
There they were sitting at the round table, the representatives of the entire world, applauding their own handiwork, the resolution they had just adopted unanimously.
The Security Council, like the Knesset, is not used to applause or any other spontaneous outbursts. And yet they clapped their hands like children who had just received their Christmas gift.
(It was indeed a day before Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah, a coincidence that happens once in decades, since the Christians use the solar calendar and the Jews still use a modified lunar calendar.)
The delegates were deliriously happy. They had just achieved something that had eluded them for many years: the condemnation of a blatant breach of international law by the government of Israel.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 