#Israel / Global Index: Israel falls out of the liberal democracy category for the first
time in over 50 years; substantive decline also include freedom from #torture
With the question of whether a “Jewish State” can even be a real democracy put aside, Israel is no longer even that. Strangely, Israel seems to to have finally assimilated in the Middle East, but in the worst possible way.
[…] The Middle East and North Africa (#MENA) remains the most autocratic region in the world, with 98% of its population residing in autocracies. A large share (45%) lives in closed autocracies such as #Iran, #Libya, and Saudi Arabia, but 53% live in electoral autocracies, such as #Türkiye and Iraq. 2% of the region's population reside in #Tunisia, which is in the “grey zone” electoral autocracy category. The remaining 2% live in Israel. Notably, Israel lost its long-time status as liberal democracy in 2023. It is now classified as an electoral democracy – for the first time in over 50 years. This is primarily due to substantial declines in the indicators measuring the transparency and predictability of the law, and government attacks on the judiciary.
[…] Among other things, Israel’s Knesset passed a bill in 2023 stripping the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable. Indicators that are in substantive decline also include freedom from torture.
4 other #sheriff’s deputies & a Richland #Police Dpt officer,all #White, also pleaded #guilty & are scheduled for sentencing this week. …Federal prosecutors said the #Mississippi officers — who called themselves the “Goon squad” — forced entry into a #Braxton, MS, home on Jan 24, 2023, w/o a warrant & #assaulted the 2 #Black victims, #MichaelCoreyJenkins & #EddieParker, w/a stun gun, sex toy & other objects.
Christian Dedmon, a fmr #RankinCounty#sheriff's dpy, was sentenced to 40 yrs [better] in prison for his role in torturing #MichaelCoreyJenkins & #EddieParker, & for a separate incident where he led the #torture of a White man [oh, that’s why 40], Alan Schmidt, in Dec 2022.
Dedmon, who did not look at Jenkins & Parker as he spoke, apologized & said he'd never forgive himself for the pain he caused.
Today in Labor History March 16, 1968: Up to 500 Vietnamese villagers were slaughtered by U.S. troops in the My Lai Massacre. The story was broken by investigative journalist Sy Hersch, who also covered Watergate, the secret US bombing of Cambodia, CIA domestic spying within the US, and the US torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. More recently, he has written articles showing that Syrian rebel forces, not the Assad regime, contrary to US propaganda, were responsible for the sarin gas attack in Ghouta. And that the US, with Norwegian collaboration, blew up the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany (also contrary to US propaganda).
'Violated Principles of Natural Justice': Caravan Files Petition Against Govt Order On Army Story
In its petition, The Caravan has underlined that the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting's order asking the magazine to take down its article on allegations of torture and murder against the Indian Army also violated the fundamental right to free speech and expression and the freedom of the press.
#UNRWA / How the Biden Administration Kneecapped the Most Essential Aid Group in Gaza and how the pause may become permanent
In January 2024, following accusations by Israel that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in a #Hamas attack, the #Biden administration paused contributions to UNRWA despite the agency's head firing the accused employees and initiating an independent investigation. Over a dozen U.S. allies followed suit, putting around $450 million in donations on hold and pushing UNRWA to its "breaking point," according to its leadership. At the same time, the U.S. has continued providing military aid to Israel, despite allegations of war crimes during its assault on Gaza.
With #Gaza is on the brink of famine, the move has imperiled UNRWA's unique capacity to deliver aid, as it operates schools, clinics, and food distribution networks serving millions of Palestinian refugees. Experts are warning that attempts to redirect funds through other organizations is not a viable solution given UNRWA's unparalleled infrastructure and institutional knowledge in the region.
#Biden immediately cut funding to #UNRWA, a crucial humanitarian organisation, during an unfolding attempt at #extermination of the population they serve, based purely on the word of the government committing the #CrimesAgainstHumanity (and already revealed to have lied about many previous aspects of their crimes).
It is now revealed publicly but was already predictable (and likely already known by the US administration) that the 'evidence' for these lies was likely based on testimony obtained under #torture.
Despite all this becoming clear, and more Palestinians dying of deliberately-imposed #starvation every day, Biden has still not reinstated UNRWA funding.
That alone is a very shitty thing to do (and is the context for jonburr's judgement), indeed there are plenty of lawyers who say it constitutes legal complicity in crimes against humanity.
You can say Biden is shitty and deserves to face the #ICC while pointing out that his opponent is far worse.
Today in Labor History March 12, 1967: Suharto took power from Sukarno in Indonesia. He ruled Indonesia as an authoritarian, kleptocratic dictator for 31 years, and is widely considered one of the most brutal and corrupt dictators of the 20th century. During that time, he amassed a fortune worth $38 billion. Suharto rose to power under Sukarno during the 1965-1966 genocide. During that ostensibly anti-Communist purge, Suharto’s troops murdered 1-3 million communists, labor activists, peasants and ethnic minorities. During that genocide, he received support military and economic from both the U.S. and the U.K. In 1974, the Suharto regime, with approval of U.S. president Gerald Ford, invaded East Timor, killing over 200,000 Timorese. Another 75,000-200,000 died from starvation and disease. The current Indonesian government is considering awarding him the posthumous honor of National Hero.
Palestinian medical staff in Gaza have told the BBC they were blindfolded, detained, forced to strip and repeatedly beaten by Israeli troops after a raid at their hospital last month.
Ahmed Abu Sabha, a doctor at Nasser hospital, described being held for a week in detention, where, he said, muzzled dogs were set upon him and his hand was broken by an Israeli soldier.
Names of the Palestinian detainees released by Israel at the Karam Al Salem crossing on 03/11/2024:
1 Muhammad Ihab Jihad Al-Bitar
2 Kamal Muhammad Kamel Al-Najili
3 Abdullah Walid Hussein Abu Saada
4 Darwish Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Harash
5 Hassan Kamal Khamis Al-Ghoul
6 Hisham Khalil Ragheb Safi
7 Muhannad Jamil Mahmoud Qwaider
8 Ayesh Musa Ayesh Al-Aimawi
9 Amr Rizk Muhammad Abu Jamea
10 Hassan Fawzi Salman Al-Adini
11 Hussein Sweilem Mubarak Abu Al-Araj
12 Mahmoud Fathi Muhammad Yassin
13 Bassem Awad Muhammad Awad
14 Khaled Atwa Salman Al-Talaa
15 Raed Attia Ghiath Abu Samhan
16 Tayseer Kamel Abdel Rahman Alwan
17 Samah Muhammad Ghazi Al-Khuraidi
18 Ayman Salim Hassan Abu Odeh
19 Nahed Awni Muhammad Al-Araj
20 Waseem Omar Nafez Al-Mashharawi
21 Omar Zakaria Suleiman Al-Akkad
22 Muhammad Ahmed Abdel Karim Hamad
23 Mahdi Abdel Rahman Salama Ghoneim
24 Moamen Hassan Muhammad Abu Hilal
25 Muhammad Khaled Atta Moftah
26 Khalil Abdel Karim Hussein Al-Tanna
27 Khaled Attia Deif Allah Al-Sawarka
28 Mahmoud Atef Bashir Bahar
29 In the name of Abdul Rahman Hassan Abu Hilal
30 Ahmed Muhammad Naeem Awadallah
31 Adi Zuhair Muhammad Abu Nasr
32 Bahaa El-Din Osama Youssef Abu Rabie
33 Nader Naji Muhammad Al-Raqab
34 Tamer Fouad Salim Al-Qurm
35 Ahmed Fathi Ali Abu Sharia
36 Muhammad Jihad Ismail Abu Daqqa
37 Ahmed Atta Hassan Fayyad
38 Ashraf Ahmed Saleh Al-Amoudi
39 Musab Muhammad Ahmed Abu Amer
40 Muhannad Jamal Hassan Salama
41 Ibrahim Zaki Ibrahim Al-Buraim
42 Fawzi Muhammad Hammad Al-Najjar
43 Musa Ahed Muhammad Hassan
44 Musa Majid Ahmed Abu Sahloul
45 Yacoub Jihad Yacoub Al-Sawafiri
46 Zuhair Muhammad Muhammad Fayyad
47 Nafez Mahfouz Awad Fayyad
48 Jawad Sakher Jamal Obaid
49 Muayad Iyad Yaqoub Al-Sawafiri
50 Hosni Muhammad Ali Al-Najjar
51 Ashraf Muhammad Abdel Aziz Alyan
52 Sami Ibrahim Muhammad Al-Yaziji
53 Ziad Abdel Hafeez Muhammad Kattout
54 Ahmed Jamil Abdel Rahman Abu Akar
55 Ahmed Sami Rushdi Al-Haiqi
The stories keep coming and going and people keep forgetting about them and moving on they fall flat for the next lie coming out of this genocidal regime and it's supporters
I honestly can't understand why we just let this to go on. Abs so many people ignore every outrageous crimes committed by them.
Israel-Gaza war: David Cameron says BBC report into Nasser hospital raid 'very disturbing' (www.bbc.co.uk)
UK foreign secretary demands answers from the Israeli government over how medical staff were treated.