Displaced and Refugees

By Jon Queally, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned along with his mother, Rehan, and older brother, Galip, while the family attempted to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece on Wednesday. A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi after he drowned when the boat […]

Over 1 mn. Syrian Refugees in Lebanon fear Unrest will Expel them Again

contributors

RT | (Video News Report) – – “More than a million Syrian refugees feel unwelcome guests in Lebanon, where anti-government protests are only worsening. Many fear the Syrian scenario may repeat there and they will have to flee again.” RT: “Syrian refugees in Lebanon fear fleeing unrest again, may head to Europe”

Displaced and Refugees

Why I Shared a Horrific Photo of a Drowned Syrian Child

contributors

By Peter Bouckaert | Director, Emergencies | (Human Right Watch) | – – I thought long and hard before I retweeted the photo. It shows a lifeless toddler, lying face down on a popular Turkish beach, one of eleven Syrians who have almost certainly died as they tried to reach safety in Europe by boarding […]

Apartheid

Israeli Policies could make Gaza uninhabitable in 5 years: UN

contributors

UNCTAD Press Release | UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2015/026 | (Geneva, Switzerland) | – – Gaza could become uninhabitable in less than five years in wake of 2014 conflict and ongoing de-development, according to new UNCTAD report. UNCTAD’s report [pdf] on assistance to the Palestinian people states that Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current economic trends […]

Displaced and Refugees

Ghoul’s Glossary: “Migrants” or “Refugees” or “Anchor Babies”?

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Migrants: Those who voluntarily go to another country to live and work, seeking a better life. Refugees: Those who are forced out of their homes, because of political persecution or natural disaster or a chronically bad economy. and have no choice but to try to make […]

Displaced and Refugees

Austrian Truck Tragedy echoes Palestinian Story, reminding us of 7 mn still stateless

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The gruesome discovery of an abandoned truck in eastern Austria with 71 dead refugees in it, 4 of them children, has horrified the world. But few will realize that the plot of this story was laid out in the 1960s by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, in […]

Displaced and Refugees

Germany decides to Accept Syrian Refugees, Waives EU Rule

contributors

Der Tagesspiegel by Andrea Dernbach translated by Samuel Morgan [NB Germany is expecting 800,000 asylum seekers this year, 40% of the EU total.] Germany has ceased applying the rules of the Dublin system to Syrian refugees. All deportations to other EU countries have been halted, Tagesspiegel reports. The Dublin system’s critics have said for years […]

Apartheid

Major World Aid Groups & 150,000 people demand end to Israel’s Gaza blockade

contributors

Oxfam | (Press Release) – – Oxfam Press Release : More than 150,000 people from around the world have today joined 35 aid, faith, development and human rights organizations in backing an unprecedented joint call urging world leaders to press the Israeli government to lift the blockade on Gaza and remove the restrictions on basic […]

Apartheid

President of Israel declares Israeli Squatting in Palestinian West Bank a “Right”, key to Zionism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday declared Israeli squatting on the Palestinian West Bank a “right” and as an essential Zionist principle. Reuven, a former chairman of the far-right Likud Party now in power, is known to favor a paternalist form of the one-state solution. He […]