Human Rights
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Don’t undermine the moral clarity of the fight against antisemitism
Giving the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition a special status it was never intended to have undermines the moral clarity of the fight against antisemitism. Continue reading »
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Prospects for Palestinian recovery
Large and unprecedented protests in support of the Palestinian cause this year have led to developments which should enable Palestinians to expand their freedoms. Continue reading »
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An Australian Story of Cruelty: the Biloela family
On Monday, former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone was wringing her hands on ABC TV. Not on behalf of the persecuted Biloela family, though. She was crying crocodile tears to defend a powerful, inflexible government. Continue reading »
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Genocide by big pharma. Millions will die
Big pharma is fiercely opposing measures to scale up production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world. This corporate genocide must be named. Stop protecting crooks. Continue reading »
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Anti-Palestinianism is as damnable as anti-Semitism: a statement is long overdue
Before endorsing the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s definition of anti-Semitism, politicians in Australia and other western countries should consider the implications for the rights of Palestinians. Continue reading »
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Australian government’s secrecy obsession and the role of ASIS in the overthrow of Chile’s Allende
Freshly declassified National Archives documents show just how closely the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) worked with the CIA in the lead-up to the coup-d’état in Chile in September 1973. Continue reading »
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John Menadue-At last,Australia backs Covid vaccine patent waiver. Better late than never
People’s vaccines may yet become a reality. Let’s hope so despite opposition by Big Pharma and rich countries. Continue reading »
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Australians must ask why we haven’t spoken out on Israeli squatter settlements
Australia ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention in 1958. So why do we question the ICC’s jurisdiction over war crimes committed in Palestinian territories? Continue reading »
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Afghan Refugees and the Tampa: will we be cruel again?
Have Australian hearts softened towards Afghan refugees in the twenty years since the Tampa incident? Hopefully, yes.. Continue reading »
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Why we shouldn’t race to mandate vaccination
When governments and health experts call for mandatory vaccination we should be wary. While it is potentially the optimal way to get society moving again and particularly to end the frequency and severity of harmful lockdowns, the requirement for every citizen to have their individual rights trumped by the community interest is a drastic measure Continue reading »
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People-to-people peace initiatives in Palestine must begin with freedom and equality
In 2005, Mohammad Abu Jalhoum left his family in Gaza and underwent multiple life-changing operations in Australia to treat his facial disfigurement. Mohammed’s diet had been restricted his whole life after an Israeli soldier kicked him in the face when he was an infant to silence his crying. Continue reading »
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The Marines in Darwin, the governments dereliction, and sexual assault: predictability all round
The Australian Government needs to reassess its agreement that allows the US Marines to “rotate” through Darwin, especially in the light of the expansionist nature of this agreement. The cause is straightforward: sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape against female members of the Australian Defence Force. And these occur at a time when such offences Continue reading »
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Pandemic paranoia – the penal colony strikes back at those pesky Australians who left
Ever since the pandemic started, Australia has restricted the ability of its citizens to travel overseas in ways few other countries outside of North Korea have done. It is now using the biosecurity laws to also deter those who live overseas from coming back. Continue reading »
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As US hits Biden’s 70% vaccination goal, world’s poor nations barely over 1%
Exposing stark global vaccine inequity amid a fast-spreading delta variant, White House officials said Monday that at least 70% of US adults are now at least partly vaccinated against the coronavirus – compared to just barely over 1% when it comes to the world’s poorest nations. Continue reading »
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When shameful ignorance comes from a minister of education: an open letter to Alan Tudge
As a Palestinian refugee who was ethnically cleansed with my mother by Zionist terrorist groups, and separated from my father when I was a few months old, I am deeply distressed and disappointed, like many in the community, to read your article in The Australian (“Left’s anti-Zionism is just the oldest hatred in disguise”, 5.8.2021) in which you are either deliberately Continue reading »
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Sanctioning Israel: Courage to Present a Petition to Parliament
A petition to be presented to Federal politicians on August 9 seeks the imposition of sanctions on Israel. It asks for condemnation of apartheid as a crime against humanity, demands an end to the cruel 15 year siege of Gaza and the 54 year military occupation of Palestinian lands. Continue reading »
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Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Is a Truth-Teller in a Time of Systemic Deceit and Lethal Secrecy
At times, nearly nine out of 10 people killed in so-called targeted strikes by the U.S. are not the intended targets; exposing the complicity of top U.S. government officials in a secret kill chain that decides who should be assassinated by drone strike; exposing that the U.S. government officially labels unknown people it kills as Continue reading »
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Jeffrey Sachs speech on the state of the world’s “food system” that is rigged against the poor.
We have a world food system but we need a different system, one based on human rights and national sovereignty. The US won’t allow that. Consider the United Fruit Company in Honduras that was backed by the US government and the military and exploited the local population.The US doesn’t even care about it’s own poor. Continue reading »
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Women’s rights in Afghanistan-a lost opportunity in the 1970s.
In Afghanistan today the US calls for the rights of women to be respected. But it was the US that acted in 1978 so that women’s rights would suffer. Continue reading »
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Julian Assange and the culture of revenge
To lessen the macabre prospect of Julian Assange spending 175 years in a US maximum security prison, the US Department of Justice suggests that he could serve prison time in Australia. In a decades long tragedy, this latest act looks like nurture for an all consuming culture of revenge in which legal theatre has provided Continue reading »
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The world is in a crisis of our own making – is it sowing the seeds of change?
The world is in a crisis. And many of our leaders are failing us. People are despondent, angry and sad, many unable to see their loved ones, many more not knowing how to cope. There is no end in sight, unless we look beyond the concreted corridors of power. Continue reading »
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Key Assange accuser backs away from what he told US prosecutors
Why the reluctance of the Australian media to report on a significant development in the Assange case? Continue reading »
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Fascism is alive in Australia
George Orwell wrote that almost any English person would accept bullying as a synonym for fascism. Political theorists refer to fascism as characterised by secrecy in government, by goals for national regeneration plus promotion of masculinity and derision of democracy. Continue reading »
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Adventures in incompetence – Witness K sentenced
This whole farce is more about protecting the real criminals in the case, those politicians and public servants who devised and planned, enabled and financed the shameful act of spying on the Timorese people. Continue reading »
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Two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa join tsunami of ‘apartheid’ accusations against Israel
“It is time for the world to recognize that what we saw in South Africa decades ago is happening in Palestine… time for the world to take decisive diplomatic action… towards building a future of equality.” Continue reading »
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Witness K: was his guilty plea coerced?
After years of suffering oppression, delays and injustice from his employer the Federal Government, Witness K, finally pleaded guilty before a closed court for disclosing classified Commonwealth material to his lawyer about Australia’s dirty antics against East Timor. Two days of sentencing hearing are set down for Thursday and Friday. But was his guilt plea Continue reading »
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The Tamil family: cruelty beggars belief
The continued detention of the Tamil Biloela family, let alone the threat to deport them, confirms the government’s fascination with cruelty as policy. To demonstrate their bravery in defending Australia’s borders, Ministers think that to protect comfortable and fortunate Australians, they must show a wanton disregard of the interests of the powerless and vulnerable. Continue reading »
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Detaining Refugees Indefinitely: The Executive v The Judiciary
Recently, a Federal Court Judge ordered the immediate release of a young man from immigration detention. The man had been in immigration detention for five years. The Federal Government wasn’t happy. It introduced legislation into the Commonwealth Parliament to make sure that no such release could happen again. The Government’s power to detain non-citizens indefinitely Continue reading »
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Australian academics open letter in solidarity with Palestine and call for action
As scholars, academics and students in Australia, a settler colony built on the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation and against Israeli settler colonialism. In the past month, Palestinians have faced brutal Israeli settler colonial violence in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Continue reading »
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