Gaza: Is this a war on children?

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Jon Snow has been speaking to youngsters in Gaza City about their lives and how they’re coping with living in a warzone. And he also talks to Dr Mads Gilbert – a Norwegian doctor working at al Shifa hospital – who is treating some of the children.

At least 59 Palestinian families suffered multiple casualties over four weeks of Israeli bombardment in Gaza, according to data collated by the Guardian. The youngest casualty was 10-day old Hala Abu Madi, who died on 2 August; the oldest was Abdel al-Masri, aged 97, who was killed on 3 August.

The figures are based on data from three independent Palestinian human rights organisations – the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al Mezan, both based in Gaza, and the West Bank-based Al-Haq; the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem; and the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

However, it is almost certainly an incomplete picture. Systematic identification of bodies and logging of data have been hampered by the sheer scale of the casualties in Gaza – about 2,000 killed in total, including 470 children, and 10,000 wounded – types of injuries, and the need for swift burial.

Among families in which four or more people died, 479 people were killed in total, including 212 children under the age of 18, and 15 people aged 60 and over. The deadliest day was 30 July, when 95 members of 10 families were killed. On 20 July, 65 members of 10 families died, and on 21 July, 71 members of six families were killed.

Pictures of Palestinian children in Gaza who, having escaped death during Israel’s military operation, are nevertheless suffering from various diseases due to living in overcrowded places that are not suitable hygienically for them, following the displacement of their families as a result of the Israeli air bombardment and ground attacks.

Senior UN officials say the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has left thousands of children traumatized across the besieged Palestinian territory. Latest figures show 400,000 Palestinian children are in immediate need of psychological help due to the “tragic impact” of the Israeli assaults.

The Guardian has interviewed six families who suffered multiple casualties. In each case, relatives say there was no warning of attack, and all deny any connection with militant organisations in Gaza.

However, in many cases there may have been a military target among the dead. But the number of women and children killed in such attacks has led human rights organisations and international observers to question whether Israel’s use of force was proportionate and in keeping with the obligation under international law to protect civilians in war.

Shaqqura, of the PCHR, said: “What has been significant about this onslaught is the deliberate attacks on families – whole families have been smashed under the rubble. We have documented 134 families, in which two or more members have been hit by Israeli forces – a total of 750 people.

“No justification can be accepted in targeting civilians, even if there is a security threat [in the vicinity]. Israel’s excessive use of force is contrary to international law on two counts – the principle of distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants, and the principle of proportionality, under which attacks must be proportionate to threat.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli court has recently banned the broadcast of Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem that listed the names of Palestinian children killed during Israel’s month-long offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Supreme Court have rejected B’Tselem’s appeal to overturn a decision by the Israel Broadcast Authority to ban a broadcast produced by the NGO, saying it is of political nature. The broadcast listed the names of children killed in the war in the besieged enclave.

Gaza counts the cost of war: ‘Whole families smashed under the rubble’

BBC News – Gaza: What does the future hold for the children?

How Israel targeted the children of Gaza – Global Research

Stop the genocide!

The face of our forefathers. OUR FACE. The face of our children.

Our beloved homeland went through pain that will NEVER be forgotten.

Alawite victims of ISIS, beheaded and arranged as a display for the media and public

A Christian girl was beheaded by ISIS terrorists as a warning to others.

This is evil in its purest, crystalline form.

Isis persecution of Iraqi Christians has become genocide, says religious leaders

ISIS Genocide: Iraq Terror Group Beheads Christians, Displaces Hundreds Of Thousands

ISIS on Christians: ‘There is nothing to give them but the sword’

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The organisation we are invited to call the Islamic Caliphate (Isis) possesses the virtue of clarity, if nothing else. Hitler’s genocidal plans for the Jews became public knowledge only years after he came to power. The Soviet gulags were for a long time shrouded in secrecy. But Isis has never made any bones about either means or ends.

The ends: to establish a worldwide Islamic state based on the most reductive and intolerant version of Sunni Islam. The means: the elimination of everyone who believes something different and refuses to convert.

Since their capture of Mosul on 10 June, these fanatics have wasted no time slaughtering large numbers of brother Muslims who follow the Shia tradition. They boast of having “executed” 1,700 Shia soldiers in the town of Tikrit. But there was no reason to suppose they would look more benignly on other types of “infidels”, and now they have turned their attention to the remnants of the other communities that until recently made Iraq a rich patchwork of ancient beliefs.

Syrian Minister: We Are Ready to Back Erbil Against IS

In an exclusive interview with Rudaw, the director of the Syrian state media expressed his country’s readiness to support the Kurdistan Region against the Islamist State (IS/ISIS) armies. Minister Omran al-Zoubi also revealed that Syrian government forces are battling the IS gunmen side-by-side with the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in the Kurdish-controlled areas of the country. The minister called on the international community to unite against IS in the region, directly accusing Turkey and Saudi Arabia of funding the extremist factions.

Syrian Minister: We Are Ready to Back Erbil Against IS

50 doctors and professors from different countries

demand a safe haven for Assyrians/ Syriacs/ Chaldeans!

A genocide was perpetrated 99 years ago upon the Christians of the Middle East, including the Aramaic-speaking Assyrians, Chaldeans and Aramaeans. Now we see history repeating itself.

Christian towns and villages, such as Qaraqosh, Telkepe and Alqosh, which had largely escaped the violence of recent decades, are now emptied of their people. These towns, with ancient monasteries, are of huge historical and cultural significance. In this area, furthermore, Aramaic has been spoken for thousands of years.

Wave upon wave of refugees, amounting to hundreds of thousands of people, are now crowded into the small Kurdish region, itself gravely threatened by the Islamic State forces. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Yazidis have fled via the mountains without shelter. Urgent aid is needed, but in the longer term the refugees cannot stay in Erbil.

As scholars engaged in the study of their language and cultural heritage, we call upon Britain, the governments of the European Union, the United States, and the international community to do all in their power to allow the refugees back to their homes in the plain of Mosul and to institute an internationally protected safe haven in northern Iraq of the kind that, 20 years ago, protected the Kurds from genocide. This enabled the region up to now to enjoy a stability and prosperity that we would wish for all Iraqis.

50 doctors and professors from different countries demand a safe haven for Assyrians / Syriacs / Chaldeans!

HERE

Take slavery in Iraq to the International Criminal Court – Walk Free

UN officials have reported that as many as 3000 women and children fleeing religious persecution in Iraq have been captured and may be at risk of modern slavery by the Sunni extremist group that is rampaging through parts of Iraq and Syria.

Khandhar Kaliph’s daughter is one of them. “She said she is going to be sold as a slave […] for $10. What can a father say to that? How can I help? We all feel so useless.” Khandhar has been despairing over the safety of his child ever since.

In early August, tens of thousands of people belonging to a religious minority group rejected by the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) fled their homes in terror as militants took over their town.

Hundreds of these women have reportedly now been kidnapped and are being held inside a police station in northern Iraq. Without immediate action, they and thousands more like them could be at risk of modern slavery.

One thing you can do right now is help secure justice for Khandhar’s daughter and others like her. Call for the International Criminal Court to immediately investigate and try those suspected of enslaving Iraqis.

Join me and Walk Free and help take ‪#‎ModernSlavery‬ in Iraq

to the International Criminal Court: http://bit.ly/1ozBWm6

Christians and Yazidis in Iraq Subjected to ‘Savage Rapes,’ Sexual Slavery

ISIS Sets Up Sex Slave Market to Sell Hundreds of Christian Women

ISIS fighters selling little girls as “sex slaves” for around $10.00 U.S.

Crisis in Iraq: Rape and Sex Slavery as a Strategic Weapon of War

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery – Iraq

Yazidi Women Speak Out About Imprisonment By ISIS

It is estimated that 29.8 million people are forced to live in slavery around the world today

Source: Global Slavery Index 2013

Walkfree.org

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass for the Armenian Genocide Centennial on 2015

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass for the Armenian Genocide centennial in the Basilica of San Pedro on April 12, 2015, as announced by the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires Mario Poli during a mass in the Armenian Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Narek on Sunday 17th August.

“The Pope replied to the invitation from the Armenian Catholic Church a year ago through the Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX to celebrate a mass for the recognition of the Genocide,” stated the pastor of Narek, Pablo Hakimian, when asked by Prensa Armenia.

During the meeting with the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmourini in June last year, Francisco also received the daughter of a surviving family of the Armenian genocide, he heard her, took her hand and said: “It was the first genocide of the twentieth century.” This gesture draw criticism from Turkey, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement considering that “the expressions of Pope Francis are absolutely unacceptable.”

Iraq crisis: Is Turkey’s government supporting ISIS?

Qaraqosh
Just a day after The Inquisitr reported about the 40,000 trapped Yazidi people atop the Sinjar Mountains of northern Iraq, we have yet another humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country. Islamic State (ISIS) militants have continued their push towards northern Iraq and have now reportedly overrun the city of Qaraqosh – known to be Iraq’s largest Christian city located between Mosul, which has been under the control of the ISIS for the past few months – and Arbil which is the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq.Qaraqosh had a population of around 50,000 almost entirely composed of Christians. According to fleeing residents and Christian priests, several towns including Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been “cleansed” of their original Christian population. These towns are now under the total control of ISIS fighters. Invading ISIS fighters have managed to push back Kurdish troops from the city and have in an overnight raid captured several Christian towns in the region, reports The Guardian. According to Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, the situation in these towns are “catastrophic and tragic” as told to the AFP. ISIS Fighters Overrun Iraq’s Largest Christian Town Qaraqosh, Residents Flee

Isis seizes Iraq’s largest Christian town

Islamic State’s offensive sends Iraqis running

Iraq jihadist offensive sparks mass Christian exodus

Iraq Christians flee as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh

BBC reporter: Hundreds of ISIS terrorists receive war training in Turkey

Jiyar Gol, BBC’s Kurdish correspondent in a live broadcast from Kurdish northern city of Erbil claimed that Turkey’s intelligence established new camps to instruct African and Caucasian terrorist with military training and then dispatch these terrorist elements inside irq to join ISIS ranks.

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Why is Turkey supporting Islamic State fighters in Iraq?

Iraq crisis: Is Turkey’s government supporting ISIS?

10 Percent of ISIS Fighters Reportedly Turkish

Syrian Kurdish Leader: Turkey Turns Blind Eye to ISIS

Evidence Mounting That Turkey Is Behind ISIS Recruitment To Establish An Islamic Caliphate

Kurdish security chief: Turkey must end support for jihadists

The head of the Kurdish security police in northeast Syria, Ciwan Ibrahim, said that his security forces are willing to cooperate with Turkey if it ends its support for radical jihadist groups.

The head of the Syrian Kurdish security police forces, Ciwan Ibrahim, tells Al-Monitor that they are willing to cooperate with Turkey if it halts its support for jihadist groups.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Ibrahim accused Turkey of continuing to support jihadist groups such as the Islamic State (IS), which is in the throes of a major and vicious assault against Kurdish populations in Syria and Iraq.

The Kurdish security police, known as Asayish in Kurdish, operates in Syrian Kurdish cities to combat crime and terrorism. Amid the turmoil of Syria’s civil war, the Kurds established their own autonomous system and security apparatus in northeastern Syria in January.

The Asayish is seen as being affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), although Ibrahim denied any link to any political party.

Relations between the Syrian Kurds, steered by the PYD, and Turkey have been hostile, fueling repeated accusations from the PYD and the Asayish that the Erdogan government is supporting the radical IS, which is currently besieging the Kurdish enclave of Kobani and massacring Kurdish Yazidis in Iraq.

Kurdish security chief: Turkey must end support for jihadists

ISIS Fighter Claims Turkey Funds the Jihadist Group

Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party have a well developed reputation for anti-Semitism and anti-Israel policies generally. But now ties to the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, are emerging. The Jerusalem Post reported one Islamic State member said Turkey, a member of NATO, provided funds for the terrorist group.

“Turkey paved the way for us. Had Turkey not shown such understanding for us, the Islamic State would not be in its current place. It [Turkey] showed us affection. Large [numbers] of our mujahedeen received medical treatment in Turkey,” said the man, who was not identified. “We do not have the support of Saudi Arabia, but many Saudi families who believe in jihad do assist us. But anyhow, we will no longer need it, soon,” he said.

ISIS Fighter Claims Turkey Funds the Jihadist Group

The Muslim Brotherhood Declares “Turkey is the Capital of the Islamic Caliphate” (Prophecy is being Fulfilled)

Is Earth Fucked? – This changes everything

Top ten books on the climate change movement

27 Powerful Photos That Show The Reality Of Climate Change Today

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This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

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Naomi Klein: ‘Our Economic Model Is at War with Life on Earth’

Forget everything you think you know about global warming. The really inconvenient truth is that it’s not about carbon—it’s about capitalism. The convenient truth is that we can seize this existential crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better.

The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems. In short, either we embrace radical change ourselves or radical changes will be visited upon our physical world. The status quo is no longer an option.

In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies.

She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.Klein argues that the changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should not be viewed as grim penance, but rather as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now.

Can we pull off these changes in time? Nothing is certain. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is still up to us. In her most provocative book yet, Naomi Klein, author of the global bestsellers The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, tackles the most profound threat humanity has ever faced: the war our economic model is waging against life on earth.

Bill Moyers & Naomi Klein:

How Climate Change Is an Historic Opportunity for Progressives

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Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, says the tragic destruction of Hurricane Sandy can also be the catalyst for the transformation of politics and our economy. She’s been in New York visiting the devastated areas — including those where “Occupy Sandy” volunteers are unfolding new models of relief — as part of her reporting for a new book and film on climate change and the future, and joins Bill Moyers to discuss hurricanes, climate change, and democracy. “Let’s rebuild by actually getting at the root causes. Let’s respond by aiming for an economy that responds to the crisis both [through] inequality and climate change,” Klein tells Bill. “You know, dream big.”

The Shock Doctrine

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A documentary adaptation Naomi Klein’s 2007 book, The Shock Doctrine. An investigation of disaster capitalism, based on Naomi Klein’s proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism — the rapid-fire corporate re-engineering of societies still reeling from shock — did not begin with September 11, 2001.

The films traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today.

New, surprising connections are drawn between economic policy, shock and awe warfare and covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, research that helped write the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay.

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas through our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

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Overdose:

The Next Financial Crisis. Award-winning youtube hit giving fresh insight into the greatest economic crisis of our age: the one still awaiting us.

With the US raising their debt ceiling, are we in a global bail-out bubble that will eventually burst? This doc offers a fresh insight into the greatest economic crisis of our age: the one still awaiting us.

The financial storm that has rocked the world began brewing in the US when congress pushed the idea of home ownership for all, propping up those who couldn’t make the down payments. When it all went wrong the government promised the biggest financial stimulus packages in history and gargantuan bailouts. But what crazed logic is that: propping up debt with more debt? “They’re giving alcohol to a drunk: it just sets him up for a bigger hangover.”