The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Jamie Stern-Weiner -
How can the Palestine solidarity movement win? What demands should it make in order to achieve the maximum amount of justice within the constraints of what is politically feasible? And how should it frame those demands in order to reach a broad public?
These are questions of political judgment rather than science. But sound political judgment will be rooted, so far as possible, in a clear-eyed assessment of current (or incipient) public opinion. A movement that wants to persuade a...
A video has emerged showing Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers raiding Palestinian homes, forcing parents to wake up their children before questioning and photographing the youngsters. Children as young as four have been questioned during the night raids. The list of mistreatment of children doesn't end there. IDF soldiers regularly harass, manhandle and set attack dogs on young Palestinian children in public spaces. The IDF arrests up to 700 children each year. Human Rights Watch contends...
Laura Flanders of GRITtv interviews Phyllis Bennis author of "Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" after the release of Justice Richard Goldstone's report on Gaza -- an extremely high level investigative report that looked into the abuse of international human rights law. Bennis is interviewed immediately after the report was released at the United Nations (UN) in a session that she attended. This is the most important report of many that have been released about Gaza...
On 30 June 2009, "Spirit of Humanity," a ship carrying activists from eleven countries with humanitarian aid for Gaza was hijacked by Israeli forces and forcefully prohibited from completing its mission. On 15 July 2009, a convoy of 200 human rights activists managed to drive a truck caravan into Gaza after ten days of delays and harassment at the hands of Egyptian and US officials, reports Laura Flanders of GRITtv. Flanders speaks to Huwaida Arraf, a human rights...
Yoni Goodman, director of animation for the Academy Award-nominated film Waltz with Bashir, collaborated with Open Society Institute grantee Gisha to create a powerful animated film about how the Gaza Strip’s 1.5 million residents experience living in a "closed zone." Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space. This includes substantial,...
There are 312 km's of road in the West Bank that Palestinians are forbidden to use. The roads are strictly reserved for use by Israeli's. The most prominent apartheid road is a 15km stretch of Highway 443 from Modi'in to Jerusalem, which cuts through an area of the West Bank creating serious challenges for Palestinians wishing to travel to the city of Ramallah, their main social and economic hub. 35,000 Palestinians live alongside the road. all entrances to Palestinian villages are blocked....
