Human Rights

Ramallah-based rights group The Palestinian Prisoners Society accused Israeli authorities of cracking down on all Palestinian lawyers, following the indictments and arrests of several attorneys, charged on passing information between the Hamas and people inside and outside Israeli prisons. The organization said that the moves against the attorneys were “dangerous” and “unprecedented”. The groups’ head Qaddura Fares said that the …

Israeli organization Zochrot will release the I-Nakba phone app on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day, on 5th May at 20:00. Nakba, the Arabic word for “catastrophe”, will let users of the app locate any Arab village abandoned in the 1948 war on an interactive map, add comments, photos, and data and learn about the history of the village, including …

Gunfire stopped distribution of food today in a besieged Palestinian refugee camp, a United Nations spokesperson confirmed today, reiterating demands that the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees be allowed to safely and without interruption distribute substantial quantities of food and other humanitarian assistance inside Yarmouk. Spokesman Chris Gunness said the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the …

The police in the northern Israeli coastal city Haifa on Friday said that suspected Jewish extremists had vandalized a Muslim grave in a cemetery in the city, the latest in a string of racist attacks in Israel. In a statement, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that “Graffiti was found sprawled on and around a grave in the Al-Qassam cemetery in …

On Wednesday, Syrian air forces killed over 20 people, including 17 children, in an air strike on the battered city of Aleppo, as civilians continue to bear the brunt of the brutal civil war in the country. The air strikes come a day after a twin car bomb attack, claimed by the al-Nusra Front, on a pro-regime area in Homs …

UK has called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to “urgently” carry out an investigation into the alleged use of Chlorine gas in Syria. The OPCW on Tuesday said that a mission would depart “soon”. However, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said “time is of the essence in establishing the full facts”. He added that claims …

On Wednesday, UN humanitarian chief Valarie Amos said that a Security Council measure aimed to provide aid to more than nine million desperate Syrians was “not working”. According to Amos, instead of relieving the misery of the Syrians who urgently need help, the humanitarian crisis in the country has only worsened since the Security Council adopted Resolution 2139 in February. …

UN officials on Wednesday vowed to do everything they can to stop conflict-wracked South Sudan from falling into genocide, and warned all the warring factions that they will be held responsible if famine breaks out in the country. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay verbally attacked both rebel leader Riek Machar and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, …

On Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch called for the UN Security Council to stop the supply of weapons to the Syrian regime, which it said was launching attacks with “barrel bombs”. The Human Rights Watch said that it had documented 85 aerial attacks by the Syrian regime against the opposition in areas they control, like the Aleppo province, since …

Suspected Jewish extremists vandalized a church and a mosque in Israel, the police said on Tuesday, in the latest of a string of religious and racist attacks in the country. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that the vandals scribbled “Close mosques and not yeshivas” on the outer walls of a mosque in the Arab town Fureidis, near the port city …