Category: Diary (Page 72 of 300)

In my recent post ‘On The Killing Of Children‘ I wrote:

Implicit in this is the idea that if only Palestinian adults had been killed, the air strikes would have been more acceptable. Because Palestinian adults are seen as dispensible. Or worse: deserving of their fate. An idea that Palestinian adults are fair game, and their lives count for less, because they voted Hamas into power.

Appallingly, this precise sentiment has been voiced more than once in the last few days.   On 28th July, Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, president of the New York Board of Rabbis, gave a public speech:

When you welcome Hamas into your living room and allow them to launch rockets next to your sofa, you are not a civilian you are a combatant.
When you are part of an election process that asks for a terrorist organization which proclaims in word and in deed that their primary objective is to destroy their neighboring country and not to build schools or commerce or jobs, you are complicit and you are not a civilian casualty.

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So its come to this: defending the Human Rights Act through the medium of animated GIFs.  A few months back, Unlock Democracy posted ‘15 Reasons We Should Celebrate The Human Rights Act‘ on Buzzfeed, with some amusing pop-culture animations. (h/t to the brilliant Human Rights blogger Adam Wagner).
If these 15 reasons persuade, it is because they link our human rights to things that ordinary people can identify with: our right to a private life, &cetera.  However, they still refer to instances where the individual clashes with the state, for example at a demonstration, or a council tennacy. Continue reading

As the destruction and death persists in Gaza, we should be thankful that creativity has not yet been suffocated.  Incredibly, authors continue to write through the bombardment.

According to an email from Ra Page, director of Manchester-based Comma Press, which recently published a collection of short stories from writers in Gaza, “all of the Book of Gaza contributors are writing away like crazy, whilst they have power.” (Eighty percent of households in Gaza currently have only up to four hours of power per day as Israel has badly damaged the Strip’s electricity infrastructure.)

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