Human Rights
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Does the ABC regard Palestinians as humans, equal to Ukrainians?
An open letter to the ABC, 22 March 2023. Continue reading »
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Imperial power: The Iraq war, 20 years on
Iraq’s trauma is regarded in some quarters as an ill-gotten remnant of the past: something to be air-brushed from history. But not so for those experiencing the ravages of imperial power. On the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq – March, 20, 2023 – the people of Iraq await a historical reckoning. Continue reading »
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The betrayers of Julian Assange
I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful. We have become friends, and I have sat in many courtrooms listening to the tribunes of the state Continue reading »
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Silent collaborator
Exclusive new Declassified Australia report details Australia’s official neglect of detained WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, revealed in Federal Government files obtained under FOI legislation. Continue reading »
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Palestinians are not terrorists
Australia supports, indeed resources, Ukrainian armed resistance to Russia’s invasion and its attempt to forcibly exert its sovereignty over Ukrainian soil. Very few Australians appear to find fault with this position. For what reason is Israel’s provocative and continuing colonisation of Palestine not seen in the same light? Continue reading »
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An open call for genocide in Palestine
Some might think that state genocide is a new phenomenon in Israeli occupied Palestine. I can assure you that this is the very essence of Zionism. The point was, and still is, to occupy the land, get rid of the people by any and every means, and change the topography and the demography of Palestine Continue reading »
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Discarding article 9 of the Japanese constitution is not inducive to peace in Asia Pacific
Those service personnel who died in WWII fighting against the Japanese would turn in their grave if they knew that their descendants were rearming Japan. There is no reason for any accelerated arm race or nuclear proliferation in the East Pacific. Why are we creating one? Continue reading »
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Ha’aretz: Israel is now a “formal, full-fledged apartheid regime”
Following yet another Israeli Settler killing spree and the “annexation of the West Bank”, Israel is now a “formal, full-fledged apartheid regime”, writes leading Isreali newspaper Ha’aretz. Continue reading »
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Young Afghan women are pivoting to online education after the Taliban ban
It has been over a year and half since girls’ secondary education was banned by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and recently, they banned women from studying at universities too – which led the future of many women and girls to darkness. Continue reading »
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The one hope for peace in the West Bank
Last Thursday, the Australian government condemned Israel for planting more settlements on the occupied West Bank: 10,000 extra units. It’s a big step to criticise Israel because in Australia its organised friends are a powerful lobby. But this was a huge breach of international law. And, as Penny Wong pointed out, a deliberate blow to Continue reading »
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A plan for human survival
Among the world’s many pressing needs, the most urgent of all is a plan for human survival. And Australia should be the country to lead its creation. Continue reading »
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In Kashmir’s cycles of violence, progeny of former counterinsurgents are trapped in traumatic past
Ganderbal, India – The sun has just come out on a grey wintery afternoon and the snow-clad peaks of Harmukh are shining in the distance, casting sharp reflections over the horizon. Continue reading »
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CCTV cameras: of arrogance and ignorance
What motivated the Australian government when it announced that it would get rid of CCTV cameras on public buildings because they were Chinese devices? They are to be discarded not because they malfunction but because they function all too well. Continue reading »
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Why did Australia oppose an ICJ advisory opinion on Israeli settlements?
Surely the Australian people are entitled to an explanation as to why in December last year the government voted against an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Continue reading »
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Indonesia seeks Myanmar peace talks
Indonesia is chair of ASEAN this year and using its position to try and end the two-year crisis in Myanmar that’s already cost more than 3,000 lives. Continue reading »
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Platitudes don’t bring peace to occupied Palestine
The blood bath that was 2022 in occupied Palestine claimed the lives of more than 230 Palestinians. The Israeli Occupation Forces and the heavily armed illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank have continued their feral killing spree into 2023 unabated. Continue reading »
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Amnesty International’s submission to UN committee highlights Xinjiang
Amnesty International just made a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and some of it surprised me. Continue reading »
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Netanyahu’s collective punishment of Palestinians
Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-right government’s reported response to the “terrorism” of the Palestinian who killed seven people at a synagogue in east Jerusalem on 27 January 2023 includes the likely collective punishment of the family of the attacker, such as loss of citizenship, house demolition and deportation. Continue reading »
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Australia needs a royal commission into immigration detention
Australia needs a Royal Commission into its heinous, wasteful, privatised immigration detention policy. This is imperative in order to uncover immigration detention’s secrets, racism and appalling costs, to change public attitudes and to explore humane alternatives. Continue reading »
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Occupation: are we indifferent to the cruelty imposed on Palestinians?
The actions of Israeli Defence Force troops last Wednesday — entering the Jenin refugee camp and killing nine Palestinians — seemed inexplicable from the brief reports I heard on the ABC and SBS. Continue reading »
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Explaining Israel’s oppression: cruelty, evil, apartheid and colonisation
On January 27, Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians in Jenin, including two youths and an elderly woman. The following day a lone Palestinian gunman shoots dead seven Israelis as they leave a synagogue in a settlement in East Jerusalem. Continue reading »
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90 seconds to midnight: what the Doomsday Clock means in 2023
We are now at the most dangerous moment in history. We face multiple existential crises that are not under control, but growing more acute, while failures of leadership become more damning. We have no time to lose. Continue reading »
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Zionist protesters in Tel Aviv forgot their Palestinian neighbours
The classmates of 7-year-old Rayan Suleiman sit near his body during the boy’s funeral in Tuqu, a village south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Continue reading »
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Fear to criticise Israel fosters racism and apartheid
An extremist Israeli government insists that apartheid policies will be permanent, that the 2022 slaughter of Palestinians will be repeated, that settler stealing and violence will be ignored and international law derided. In these circumstances, surely no Australian citizen, let alone a politician, could justify such policies? Continue reading »
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Killing Times: Indonesia grapples with legacy of government-organised mass murder
When is a purge a genocide? When a young Australian researcher finds solid evidence that’s long eluded international scholars, proving the minds of millions have been poisoned with lies. Continue reading »
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Cricket Australia’s ‘Afghanistan problem’
In cancelling its scheduled March series of three one-day matches against Afghanistan, Australian Cricket takes us into familiarly problematic territory. It brings to mind the battle, fought for two decades against South Africa’s apartheid regime, where cricket and rugby boycotts played a significant role. Continue reading »
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Neocons and the Ukraine Coup – a repost from Feb 23, 2014
Exclusive: American neocons helped destabilise Ukraine and engineer the overthrow of its elected government, a “regime change” on Russia’s western border. But the coup and the neo-Nazi militias at the forefront also reveal divisions within the Obama administration, reports Robert Parry. Continue reading »
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The deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since the second Intifada in numbers
Middle East Eye analyses figures of record Israeli violence in 2022 in which the majority of victims were civilians, including children and journalists. Continue reading »
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As crimes of apartheid worsen, the West’s exceptionalism toward Israel must end
Israel’s new administration will be one that does not conceal its intention to preserve and further entrench the apartheid tyranny over the Palestinians, while fully cultivating Jewish supremacy as a political and legal credo. Continue reading »
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A tale of two genocides: Xinjiang and Khalistan
In how we respond to allegations of genocide, there are double standards and hypocrisy in Washington, London, Ottawa and Canberra. Continue reading »