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Tag: human rights

Tax Docs Reveal Goldman Sachs Donated $18,000 To Violent, Illegal Israeli Settlers
Israeli soldiers patrol an open air market in the Palestinian city of Hebron in this August 2004 photograph. (Wikimedia Commons / Justin McIntosh)
April 18, 2016
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Tax Docs Reveal Goldman Sachs Donated $18,000 To Violent, Illegal Israeli Settlers

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Goldman Sachs is a financial supporter of one of Israel’s most violent, racist illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.

Documents published last week by Haaretz, one of Israel’s most liberal mainstream newspapers, revealed that the controversial investment banking giant made an $18,000 tax-deductible donation to the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund, via the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund.

All Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories are believed to be in violation of international law. And while settlements are known for the violent actions of their residents, Hebron in particular has achieved a reputation for settlers’ extreme actions against indigenous Palestinian residents.

“Hebron is a perpetual nightmare,” wrote Maya Haber, director of programming and strategy for Partners for Progressive Israel, in Haaretz. ”About 700 Jews live in tiny fortified urban settlements at the center of a city inhabited by 180,000 Palestinians.”

Read moreTax Docs Reveal Goldman Sachs Donated $18,000 To Violent, Illegal Israeli Settlers
At UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia Supports Right To Torture & Execute LGBT People
In this Aug. 10, 2010 photograph, Vancouver residents protest to bring attention to countries, like Saudi Arabia, which imprison or execute LGBT people. (Flickr / DragonWoman)
April 13, 2016
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At UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia Supports Right To Torture & Execute LGBT People

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

At the most recent session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia objected to a resolution that condemns the use of torture by law enforcement and reaffirms the human rights of LGBT people.

The resolution, passed during the council’s 31st session, which closed on March 24, condemns the use of torture “and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” and urges nations to prevent torture by police or during pre-trial detention.

While the report is primarily focused on police and governmental use of torture, it briefly references the latest report by Juan Mendez, the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which was issued during the session.

According to a U.N. press release, Saudi Arabia protested because Mendez’s report “included 65 references to sexual orientation and was an attempt to use the eradication of torture to promote other issues, which lacked any ground in international law.”

Read moreAt UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia Supports Right To Torture & Execute LGBT People
Israeli Settlers Send Death Threats, File Police Complaint Against Palestinian Who Filmed IDF Execution
An IDF soldier stands over the body of a fallen Palestinian who was accused of stabbing another soldier. (YouTube screenshot)
March 29, 2016
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Israeli Settlers Send Death Threats, File Police Complaint Against Palestinian Who Filmed IDF Execution

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

After a video of an Israeli soldier executing an incapacitated Palestinian suspect went viral, two Israeli settlers are demanding a police investigation of the activist who recorded the act and the human rights group that released it online.

On March 24, Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, 21-year-old Palestinian men, were shot by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint near Hebron.Emad Abu Shamsiya, a Palestinian staff member at the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, recorded Elor Azraya, an IDF soldier, shooting al-Sharif at point blank range in the head as al-Sharif was on the ground, motionless but alive.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bentzi Gopstein, two settlers known for subscribing to an extremist form of Zionism, have filed a formal police complaint alleging wrongdoing by Abu Shamsiya and B’Tselem, according to a March 27 report from Mondoweiss, a progressive Jewish news site.

Read moreIsraeli Settlers Send Death Threats, File Police Complaint Against Palestinian Who Filmed IDF Execution
Can ‘Sousveillance’ Bring Down Police States?
A group of masked Japanese protesters film the police with a videocamera in this Dec. 21, 2008 photograph. (Flickr / David Shackelford)
March 17, 2016
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Can ‘Sousveillance’ Bring Down Police States?

Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and SXSW

From the footage of Eric Garner’s death to YouTube videos of Israeli soldiers’ violence against Palestinians, recordings made by everyday people are providing powerful evidence against the actions of police states around the world.

One NGO is harnessing that power and using it against some of the world’s most repressive regimes and dangerous criminals. Videre Est Credere (Latin for “to see is to believe”) provides hidden cameras and specialized training to victims of war crimes and human rights abuses from Africa to Asia.

Oren Yakobovich, CEO of Videre, said the organization’s main goal is to force governments to “protect human rights, or take another kind of action to make people’s lives better. It doesn’t matter how they do it, whether it’s in court or changing legislation.”

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New Technologies Connect Prisoners to the Outside World
Laurin Hodge, Marcus Bullock and Teresa Hodge appeared at SXSW on March 11, 2016 for a panel on prison technology. (Kit O'Connell)
March 14, 2016
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New Technologies Connect Prisoners to the Outside World

Posted in Austin, Journalism, SXSW, and The Texas Observer

Can the tech industry be recruited to help end mass incarceration?

On Friday at SXSW Interactive, part of Austin’s nine-day SXSW music, film and technology conference, a panel of app developers and nonprofit founders took on the question, connecting lower recidivism rates with keeping incarcerated people in touch with family and friends.

“If you haven’t been in prison, You can’t understand how important mail calls are,” said panelist Marcus Bullock.

Bullock’s the CEO of FlikShop, an app that allows family and friends to inexpensively turn photos into postcards that are then automatically mailed to prison facilities.

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72 Percent Of Aid To Palestine Ends Up ‘In Israeli Hands’
In this Oct. 11, 2006 photograph, a volunteer holds a cement block during a home rebuilding project in Palestine. (Flickr / Amos Trust)
March 14, 2016
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72 Percent Of Aid To Palestine Ends Up ‘In Israeli Hands’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Aid money to Palestine ends up benefiting the Israeli economy, and may even help perpetuate the occupation, according to an analysis published last year.

Published by Aid Watch Palestine, a Palestinian NGO that scrutinizes the spending of foreign relief money, the September 2015 study by Shir Hever suggests that at least 72 percent of foreign aid actually ends up back in Israeli hands.

Palestine’s economy is dependent on foreign aid, although foreign nations sometimes pledge more than they actually give. The World Bank reported that of $3.5 billion pledged to Palestine in 2015, “only 35 percent has been disbursed, $881 million less than what was supposed to be disbursed so far” by September.

“[D]espite over two decades of sustained aid, the occupation has not come to an end and Palestinians are not yet sovereign in their own country,” Hever noted in the report. “The question that arises is not only whether aid is effective, but whether it also causes harm.”

Read more72 Percent Of Aid To Palestine Ends Up ‘In Israeli Hands’