“Publishing this could cost us our jobs”
JVL Introduction
Four American scholars of human rights law and international law have put their careers on the line by publicising reports concluding that Israel has engaged in acts of apartheid against the Palestinian population and that its actions meet the international definition of genocide.
Writing in the Guardian, they say:
By publishing this op-ed, we expose ourselves to harassment and risk losing our jobs. But if we silence ourselves on Palestine, how can we call ourselves human rights defenders?
NWI
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 15 May 2025. Read the original here.
We are human rights lawyers. Our new report is clear: Israel perpetrates apartheid
We conclude that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including mass killing, arbitrary detention and torture, meets the legal threshold for the term
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What can you say about a US president whose biggest ally, and one of his biggest financial backers in the election campaign, does a blatant Nazi salute on prime time TV. Twice!
And the president – who fraudulently attacks and accuses people of A/S – had absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. It was unmistakable, and one can only wonder about those who tried to play it down. As Lenz Jacobsen, a journalist, wrote in Die Zeit in a piece headlined ‘A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute’:
“Whoever on a political stage, making a political speech in front of a partly far-right audience, elongates his arm diagonally in the air both forcefully and repeatedly, is making a Hitler salute. There’s no such ‘probably’ or ‘similar to’ or ‘controversial’ about it. The gesture speaks for itself.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gesture-speaks-for-itself-germans-divided-over-musks-apparent-nazi-salute
Q. If it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…..what is it?
Answers on a postcard to Sir K Starmer, c/o the former Labour Party.
I have the greatest respect for these Human Rights Lawers for telling the truth….but hey that’s what their job is..it is a shock to accept that we have to be careful about what truths we are allowed to share. We are brought up to tell the truth even in fairy stories i.e ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ is one I always quote to children and adults about truth telling. Perhaps Starmer and Co needs this lesson.