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Category: Human rights

Christian asylum seekers and other migrants deported to Panama forced into ‘fenced cages’ in jungle

Christian asylum seekers and other migrants deported to Panama forced into ‘fenced cages’ in jungle

The New York Times reports: Nearly 100 migrants, recently deported by the United States to Panama where they had been locked in a hotel, were loaded onto buses Tuesday night and moved to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle, several of the migrants said. It is unclear how long the group, which was deported under the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to expel unauthorized migrants, will be detained at the jungle camp. Conditions at the site are primitive,…

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Gaza transfer plan: The banality of ethnic cleansing

Gaza transfer plan: The banality of ethnic cleansing

Member of the Knesset, Ahmad Tibi, writes: Widespread support for the idea of transferring the population of Gaza to other countries, alongside the notion that “there are no innocent people” in the Palestinian enclave, constitute a betrayal of every moral principle that should guide a people who endured the Holocaust. All those who support the “voluntary migration” proposal should understand: the Palestinian people are not going anywhere. The fact that polls show overwhelming support among Jewish Israelis for the idea…

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Naomi Klein on Trump, Gaza and the end of the ‘liberal order’

Naomi Klein on Trump, Gaza and the end of the ‘liberal order’

Democracy in Exile reports: “The end of the bombs does not mean the end of the genocide, unfortunately,” award-winning author and journalist Naomi Klein says of the cease-fire struck on January 15 between Israel and Hamas. “Gaza is a crime scene. I think that there’s still going to be a great deal of effort to suppress an honest examination of what has happened in Gaza and what is ongoing.” In a wide-ranging interview with Democracy in Exile, Klein discusses Donald…

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Trump wants to force Palestinians out of Gaza permanently

Trump wants to force Palestinians out of Gaza permanently

The New York Times reports: President Trump said the nearly two million Palestinians that he wants to displace from the Gaza Strip would not be allowed to return to the territory under his hypothetical plan to rebuild it. In a clip from a Fox News interview scheduled to air on Monday, Mr. Trump elaborated on his recent proposal for an American-led takeover of Gaza. Asked if Palestinians who would be removed from the territory while it is cleared would have…

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I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office

I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office

Mark Smith writes: My name is Mark Smith. I am a former diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). I spent my career working in the Middle East directorate and serving in the Arab world. As a lead officer on arms sales policy, I was responsible for assessing whether the UK government’s arms sales adhered to legal and ethical standards under domestic and international law. In August 2024, I resigned over the UK government’s refusal…

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Trump’s gutting of foreign aid is a threat to global health

Trump’s gutting of foreign aid is a threat to global health

Jeremy Youde writes: In its chaotic first few weeks, one of the new Trump administration’s many targets has been global health. With a few strokes of a Sharpie, President Donald Trump halted nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs, including those for global health, and started the process of pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization. Trump made a range of false claims about foreign aid to support his moves, including spreading the lie that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent…

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Trump’s talk of a Gaza takeover masks a more immediate disaster

Trump’s talk of a Gaza takeover masks a more immediate disaster

Neil Hicks writes: The most important outcome of President Donald Trump’s White House press conference this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not Trump’s lawless and immoral musing that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza to create a new “Riviera of the Middle East.” While Trump’s outrageous comments, as they so often do, ignited dutiful praise from his supporters and instant condemnation from his opponents, the intense focus on the U.S. occupying Gaza and forcibly displacing its entire…

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A Palestinian father and journalist reflects on the ceasefire in Gaza

A Palestinian father and journalist reflects on the ceasefire in Gaza

Mohammed Mhawish writes: On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 19, I turned to my son, Rafik. He was building something with blocks, his small hands working furiously to stack them higher and higher. I watched as the tower wobbled and fell. He laughed and started over again. He kept rebuilding, and it kept falling, over and over. I could feel it inside me, somehow — joy and sorrow fighting for control, just like my son’s toy tower. One moment, his…

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Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as plan for ethnic cleansing

Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as plan for ethnic cleansing

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. The US president said he would like hundreds of thousands of people to move to neighbouring countries, either “temporarily or could be long-term”. Destinations could include Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt, he…

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Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations

Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations

Chicago Tribune reports: “People are scared,” said Alvarez Vasquez [a legal permanent resident], 56, as she watched as her grandchildren Antonio, 9 and Yulisa, 5 — both U.S. citizens — played on the steps outside their Southwest Side school on Thursday afternoon. “They don’t want to go out. They don’t even go to work much because they’re afraid of being caught or deported.” Indeed, the week saw streets in the Little Village neighborhood, which typically bustle with crowds and businesses,…

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‘My neighborhood was one of the most beautiful in Gaza. All that’s left is rubble’

‘My neighborhood was one of the most beautiful in Gaza. All that’s left is rubble’

Ahmed Ahmed reports: As soon as the ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on Sunday, Hamza Othman had only one thought in his mind: to go and see whether his home was still standing. The 22-year-old had refused to leave the Fallujah neighborhood of Jabalia refugee camp for over a year — even after he was wounded by an Israeli airstrike that killed his mother and brother as they sold candy from a stall in front of the house last…

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Israel can no longer ignore the Palestinian cause after failing to quash it by force

Israel can no longer ignore the Palestinian cause after failing to quash it by force

Meron Rapoport writes: It is still too early to say who won and who lost Israel’s war on Gaza, especially since the ceasefire has not yet begun. But if at least the first stage of the agreement goes ahead, it can be said that Israel has not achieved its war goals. Israel has not succeeded in achieving its pronounced goals: wiping out Hamas and returning the captives by military force. More importantly, its undeclared goal was to eliminate the Palestinian…

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A visual guide to the destruction of Gaza

A visual guide to the destruction of Gaza

Gaza: What does it mean to return "home" when Israel has made your home a dangerous toxic waste site of rubble and destruction? https://t.co/o7Qk8ei9XG — Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) January 18, 2025 The Guardian reports: Israel’s war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people and laid waste large swathes of the territory. Schools and hospitals have been destroyed, and aid flows into the territory have fallen sharply. As Israel and Hamas reach a deal to pause the war for…

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‘Bye Genocide Joe’: Social media reflects on Biden’s legacy on Gaza

‘Bye Genocide Joe’: Social media reflects on Biden’s legacy on Gaza

Middle East Eye reports: As Joseph Biden’s US presidency comes to an end, many on social media this week are saying that his legacy boils down to one thing: his active role in Israel’s fifteen-month war on Gaza, which has been widely defined as a “genocide” by human rights organisations, international bodies and scholars. Biden’s last day as president, on 19 January, is also the first day of the planned Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that was reportedly pushed to the finish…

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Biden’s new constitutional amendment on women’s rights is nothing more than his opinion

Biden’s new constitutional amendment on women’s rights is nothing more than his opinion

Vox reports: Three days before leaving office, President Joe Biden has made a surprising announcement: He declared that a decades-old proposed Constitutional amendment enshrining equal rights on the basis of sex is now “the law of the land.” Except it isn’t. A senior administration official told CNN that Biden was not taking executive action but merely “stating an opinion” that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was in effect. The National Archives — the federal government agency that is the official…

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A ceasefire won’t stop Israel’s genocidal agenda

A ceasefire won’t stop Israel’s genocidal agenda

Tariq Kenney-Shawa writes: Steven Witkoff, Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, reportedly didn’t bother with pleasantries when he informed the Israelis that he would be arriving to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Saturday. When told his visit coincided with Shabbat, meaning the prime minister would be unavailable until the evening, Witkoff made it clear that the Jewish holiday would not interfere with his schedule. Netanyahu, understanding the stakes, went to his office that afternoon to meet the envoy,…

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