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Remembering Eyad El-Sarraj
by Stephen Lendman
Sarraj founded and headed Gaza's Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP). He called its mission: "Healing the Spirit. Instilling Hope."
He said "(i)f you're not enjoying human rights, then you're definitely not enjoying sound mental health."
Friends and associates called him indefatigable. After Israel's 1967 occupation, his father and brother were arrested. They were brutally tortured and abused.
In the mid-1990s, he became Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights Commissioner General. He took full advantage.
He denounced Israeli and complicit Palestinian Authority human rights abuses. Three times PA authorities arrested him. They imprisoned him. He was isolated, beaten and tortured. He was punished for defending right over wrong. He refused to remain silent.
He was outspoken to the end.
Digital Age Privacy Rights
by Stephen Lendman
Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states:
"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation."
"Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights states:
"Everyone has the right to respect for his privacy and family life, his home and his correspondence."
New York Times Editors Support Wrong Over Right
by Stephen Lendman
Longstanding Times policy is consistent. It promotes establishment values. It supports wealth, power and privilege. It endorses global US dominance.
When America goes to war or plans one, Times editors march in lockstep. Propaganda substitutes for truth and full disclosure. Managed news misinformation is featured.
Editorial policy defends the indefensible. It backs wrong over right. It justifies what demands condemnation.
It supports banksters looting the federal treasury. It does so by not exposing and denouncing them. It does it by not demanding top Wall Street officials be prosecuted.
Monied interests run America. Times editors ignore it. They turn a blind eye to America's de facto one party state. They endorse sham US elections. They give legitimacy to a rigged process.
They give short shrift to growing US poverty, unemployment, underemployment, hunger, homelessness, and human misery.
They support destroying vital safety net protections when most needed. They endorse force-fed austerity instead of denouncing it.
News they claim fit to print isn't fit to read. Managed news misinformation substitutes. Vital truths readers most need to know are suppressed. Core journalistic ethics are violated.
Russian Ukrainian Aid v. US/EU Neoliberal Harshness
by Stephen Lendman
On December 17, Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met in Moscow. Russia offered generous aid.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said providing it helped prevent serious economic trouble. "What would have awaited Ukraine" without it, he asked?
"The answer is clear - bankruptcy and social collapse." He defended Kiev's decision to establish closer ties with Moscow.
Yanukovych called Tuesday's discussion with Putin "fruitful." It "resulted in the signing of documents thanks to (Putin's) political will."
"(T)alks were constructive and content-intensive." He and Putin focused on "practical work in all spheres."
Federal Judge Rules Against Mass Surveillance
by Stephen Lendman
On December 16, Federal District Court of the District of Columbia Judge Richard Leon issued a damning 68-page ruling. He called NSA spying unconstitutional. It's "almost Orwellian," he said.
"The threshold issue is whether plaintiffs have a reasonable expectation of privacy that is violated when the Government indiscriminately collects their telephone metadata along with the metadata of hundreds of millions of other citizens without any particularized suspicion of wrongdoing, retains all of that metadata for five years, and then queries, analyzes, and investigates that data without prior judicial approval of the investigative targets."
"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary' invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval."
Memories of South Africa
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Earlier this year I had the great pleasure to visit South Africa. Compared to most Americans, the passing of Nelson Mandela brought tears to my eyes many times as I recalled being in many of the places being shown on countless news shows.
In particular, I was fortunate in spending significant time with several black elderly South Africans who knew Mandela and were prisoners also, and who spoke in considerable detail about the horrors of living in the apartheid society. Nothing I have seen and heard on many news outlets has presented the true horrors of what life was like for not only blacks but also other people of color in the apartheid society. There were virtually no freedoms whatsoever for nonwhites and the blacks suffered the most. I recall listening to these apartheid experts and feeling absolutely bewildered that the apartheid government and society could actually have been created and prospered for so many decades.
US Scholars Endorse Boycotting Israel
by Stephen Lendman
The American Studies Association (ASA) is the nation's oldest and largest organization involved in the interdisciplinary study of US culture and history.
In 1951, it was chartered. It has 5,000 members. It's affiliated with 2,200 libraries and other institutional subscribers.
Members represent many academic disciplines. They include history, literature, religion, art, architecture, philosophy, music, science, ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, education, and gender studies among others.
Members include academics, researchers, librarians, and public officials and administrators.
On December 16, ASA headlined "ASA Members Vote to Endorse Academic Boycott of Israel." They did so decisively. Over 66% of members support doing so. Less than 31% opposed. Another 3.4% abstained.
Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's lawless siege caused Gazans unspeakable misery. It shows no signs of ending. It got worse. Around 1.8 million people are affected.
Mother nature wasn't kind. Once in a century storm conditions exacerbated human misery. Fierce winds and torrential rain battered the Strip. They began last Wednesday. They continued into the weekend.
Ordinary Gazans explain things best. On Friday, Mohammed Omer painted a nightmarish scenario. It makes grim reading, saying:
On Monday, the Palestine News Network headlined "Gaza Suffers after Storm."
"It is cold, there is no power, and I am charging my computer using a car battery in order to get this message out."
On Friday, things got worse. Gaza's Disaster Response Committee said Israel opened nearby dams. Doing so flooded numerous residential areas. Emergency conditions were exacerbated.
The Sycophantic Palestinian Solidarity Movement
By Gilad Atzmon
In the Palestinian Solidarity Movement we really love celebrities – those famous, rather special people who write great books, play musical instruments (drums included) or even just think great thoughts. We like those people to stand up for Palestine and denounce ‘Zionism’, ‘Israeli Colonialism’ and ‘Apartheid.’ We love them - as long as they don’t say what they really think.
Here’s the problem. Celebrities are often famous and successful because they’re clever and independent. Unlike our progressive, dysfunctional activists, who in most cases lives on income support and repeat our ‘party line’, the celebrity is a confident, career-oriented, self-sufficient subject and, because of their capacity to make autonomous decisions, he or she is assertive and thriving . In short, the activist and the celebrity are made of very different stuff – so a collision is inevitable.
Washington's Dirty Game in Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
Weeks of Ukraine street protests continue. Washington's dirty hands are involved. They're manipulating things disruptively. Imperial ruthlessness operates this way.
International law is clear and unequivocal. Meddling in the internal affairs of other countries is illegal. Doing so is longstanding US policy.
It's to eliminate independent sovereign states. It's about replacing them with pro-Western vassal ones.
It's about weakening major rivals. It aims to eliminate them altogether if possible. It's for unchallenged global dominance.
It's to make the world safe for corporate American profiteers. John Perkins was an "economic hit man." He explained, saying:
"(H)ighly paid professionals cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars."
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