Pages: << 1 ... 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 ... 1279 >>
Munir’s Story 28 years after the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila
Franklin Lamb Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, Beirut
The untreated psychic wounds are still open. Accountability, justice and basic civil rights for the survivors are still denied.
Scores of horror testimonies have been shared over the past nearly three decades by survivors of the September 1982 Sabra- Shatila massacre. More come to light only through circumstantial evidence because would be affiants perished during the slaughter. Other eyewitness are just beginning to emerge from deep trauma or self imposed silence.
Some testimonies will be shared this month by massacre survivors at Shatila camp. They will sit with the every growing numbers of international visitors who annually come to commemorate one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century.
There are no average massacre testimonies.
Moment of reckoning
Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
Palestinian women from Ramallah stopped at a checkpoint by an Israeli
soldier on their way to Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque
As direct Palestinian-Israeli talks begin, few are optimistic, but all know the outcome will be decisive.
As US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) get underway in Washington, most observers are reluctant to give them the benefit of the doubt given a long legacy of failure after many years of direct and indirect talks between the two sides, especially since the conclusion of the Oslo Accords nearly two decades ago. And while both sides are saying that they are going to the talks "with an open mind", it is clear that there is a little change -- if any -- in the declared positions of Israel and the PA on the basic contentious issues. On the eve of the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continued to make largely propagandistic statements, saying he wished Israel would have a peace partner like former Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat. This statement ignores the clear fact that the intensive building of Jewish settlements all over the West Bank, not the absence of Sadat on the Arab side, has been the main obstacle impeding resolution of the Palestinian cause.
Global BDS Against Israel Is Working
by Stephen Lendman
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the Global BDS movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees.
The Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute (RI) provides "real-time strategic decision-making" support in areas of national security and socioeconomic policy. Its new report titled "The Gaza Flotilla: The Collapse of Israel's Political Firewall" suggests it's working. It followed an earlier one on "creating a political firewall" against Israel's "delegitimization challenge," recommending sabotage and subterfuge against growing global forces it fears, not an equitable solution it rejects.
Israel/Palestine: More on the Sham Peace Talks
by Stephen Lendman
On and off for the past 35 years, so-called "peace" talks repeatedly have been stillborn from inception, a grand illusion masking an Israeli/Washington partnership intolerant of peace, demanding unconditional surrender, nothing less, the de facto Oslo result, one-sided for Israel, Palestinians given nothing to this day, enduring worse conditions now than then.
What chance then now for peace with no legitimate partner, its democratically government excluded, a coup d'etat president 20 months past his term's expiration representing them, and an Arab hating Israeli Prime Minister once calling it "a waste of time."
Who pays for the loss of life in Iran?
Kourosh Ziabari
Since the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979 which toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran has been facing with devastating and agonizing financial sanctions of the United States and its European allies who didn't favor the post-revolutionary Iran's doctrine of confrontation with the superpowers and its denial of Western liberal democratic values.
The 1979 revolution which put an end to 2,500 years of imperial monarchy in Iran was pivoted on theocratic and ideological values which the sumptuous, thrilling West usually tends to dislike and rebuff. Under the spiritual leadership of Imam Khomeini, Iranians declared that they wouldn't need the support of Western and Eastern superpowers, will stand on their own feet and only seek to realize a political regime which establishes its bases and principles in accordance with morality and Islamic solidarity.
Honduran Repression Continues Unabated
by Stephen Lendman
Earlier articles explained the June 28, 2009 coup and aftermath, the latest accessed through the following link: sjlendman.blogspot.com
For Hondurans, the event marked a new beginning, not an end to their dark history. Widespread killings and human rights abuses followed and a sham November election, installing Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo Sosa president, a US-friendly stooge heading a fascist regime. The nation's military is firmly in control against popular resistance, street violence and death squad terror its repressive tools. The Obama administrative stands firmly supportive. It blessed the coup, the new government and provides aid, all for hardline rule, none for popular needs.
Why Negotiate …Again?
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Another round of the Palestinian/Israeli bargaining negotiations started September 2nd despite all the predictions and expectations of miserable failure. The two parties had met for the nth time, within the last 17 years, where they had discussed the same old issues again and again, and then departed without any positive results despite the American mediation (falsely called the honest broker).
Palestinian/Israeli peace negotiations started in 1993 with Oslo Accord that was supposed to end the conflict between the two parties by 1999. Yet conflict and further Israeli colonization on usurped Palestinian land continued. In 2002 came the Road Map proposed by US President George W. Bush promising to end the conflict with two states solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005. Then, came Annapolis Conference in November 2007 to postpone the creation of the Palestinian state to 2008. Yet, still nothing happened; neither peace nor statehood. Now, 2010, comes the direct talks. What is different this time? Why re-negotiate the same issues one more time when it has proven, again and again, that such negotiations did not resolve any of these issues?
UNLOCKING "THE HURT LOCKER"
By Jack A. Smith
Why did "The Hurt Locker," a well-acted, tension-filled but otherwise undistinguished Hollywood war movie focusing on a military bomb-disposal team in Iraq, win the 2010 Academy Award for Best Picture?
After viewing the film recently, it appears to us that the main reason the U.S. movie industry bestowed the honor is that Kathryn Bigelow, who also received the Best Director prize, concealed the real nature of the American war in two distinct ways.
Dems must make jobs the message
Mary Shaw
For far too many Americans, there wasn't much to celebrate this Labor Day holiday. It's hard to sincerely celebrate the American workforce when you've been out of work, or underemployed, for a year or more. It's hard to celebrate when CEOs continue to rake in obscene salaries while shipping U.S. jobs overseas to exploit cheap sweatshop labor. And you can't appreciate the extra Monday off from work when you're off from work every Monday against your will.
It may be especially hard for Democrats who voted for President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress, many of whom are feeling ripped off and disillusioned. Continued unemployment is no change we can believe in.
"U.S. troops join Baghdad battle against militants" AP 2 hours ago
BAGHDAD —"Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq's ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.
"It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.
<< 1 ... 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 ... 1279 >>
