Alternative News

Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.

Hundreds of thousands of travelers urged to boycott Botswana - News from Survival

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 17:40; Written by editor

Hundreds of thousands of travelers urged to boycott Botswana

An advertising campaign to highlight the persecution of Botswana's Bushmen has reached hundreds of thousands of travelers. © Survival International

A worldwide advertising campaign calling for a boycott of tourism to Botswana, launched by Survival International – the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights – has reached hundreds of thousands of travelers.

The ad has been published in international travel and lifestyle magazines including Wired, Escapism, Departures and Centurion magazines in France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan, and the U.K.

The ad, titled “Discover…the hidden secrets of Botswana” exposes the Botswana government’s intention to drive the last hunting Bushmen off their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, while promoting the reserve as a tourist destination.

Botswana’s Tourism Organization uses images of hunting Bushmen in their efforts to attract tourists to the country, while the Bushmen are literally starved off their land by not being allowed to hunt for subsistence, and harassed, arrested and beaten by wildlife scouts if they do.

The ad reads, “The government use glossy and contrived images of Bushmen to attract tourists – but they are using violence, torture and intimidation to deport the Bushmen from their ancestral lands in the country’s largest game reserve… This could mean the end for the last hunting Bushmen in Africa.”

New Campaign website and crowd-sourcing! We Can Do This!

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 17:40; Written by editor

Français à suivre

It’s finally ready! For months we have been working on a campaign website that will spell it all out – Why Every Vote Should Count! Why Proportional Representation will create the solid foundation we need to deal with the most important issues of our time – climate change, income inequality, a stable economy and fair representation for women and minorities.

But we’re not finished! We used the resources we had to create the website; now we need to raise the funds to build one of the biggest campaigns ever!

We’ve created this crowd-sourcing video to drive a massive fundraising campaign!
We want to raise our campaign budget now so that we are ready when the writ drops in 2015.

http://bit.ly/1oSopnY

Can you help us build the most important electoral reform campaign in Canadian history?

If we can raise $10,000, we can create 3 motion graphics videos that will highlight different
examples of proportional representation.
If we raise $15,000, we can create three videos plus add an interactive cross-country map
on our website that will give voters crucial riding information going into the 2015 election.
If we collect $60,000, we can create the videos, the map and organize ads in community newspapers.

I think you get the picture. The more we collect, the more we can do – ads, billboards and lawn signs.

Canadians, like us, know we need a better system – one that represents everyone so we can work on the most important issues of our time.

There are a lot of things wrong with our democracy. Getting rid of our winner-take-all first-past-the-post system and replacing it with a system that makes all our votes count is crucial – and we need the resources to get it done.

Bankers vs starving children

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:20; Written by editor

Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and other big investment banks are making billions by speculating on the price of food--driving up food prices and pushing billions of people into hunger worldwide.

Can you chip in $1 to stop financial speculators from driving up the price of food?

Imagine you were walking down the street and saw a wealthy banker snatch food out of the hands of a homeless child. What would you do?

Give him a dirty look? Demand he give the food back? Call the police?

You don’t have to imagine it, because it’s happening every day--not out on the street where people can see it, but in financial markets where speculators are making billions driving up the price of food.

In fact, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley together made $3.7 billion betting on food prices from 2010-2012—causing food prices to rise and pushing hundreds of billions of people into hunger.

SumOfUs is a global movement of consumers and shareholders, and with or more than 4 million members, we have the power to force these banks to change—if we organize. Can you chip in $1 to help launch a major global campaign to end food speculation by wealthy bankers?

Yes, I'll chip in $1 to stop financial speculators from driving up the price food.

Food speculation has skyrocketed in recent years with the deregulation of financial markets.

You see, it used to be that markets were limited to only farmers and other people actually involved in selling and buying food. But today, as much as 60-80% of some markets are controlled by speculators--who simply drive up the price of food and get rich by taking food out of the mouths of starving people.

Costco and GMO

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:20; Written by editor

GMO salmon could be coming to your dinner table unlabeled and unregulated — unless Costco joins the grocery chains pledging to keep it from their shelves.

Tell Costco to commit to not selling GMO salmon and other seafood.

We have a plan to ensure that Canadians are not the world's guinea pigs for FrankenSalmon -- getting grocery chains like Costco to commit to keep its shelves free of GMO fish.

If an American biotech firm get their way, Canada will be the first country in the world to allow its citizens to consume GMO meat. Just last winter, Environment Canada allowed American firm Aquabounty to grow its genetically modified salmon for research purposes. And now Health Canada is considering allowing GMO salmon for human consumption, which means FrankenSalmon may soon hit a fish aisle near you.

Here's the good news -- consumer power has worked to ensure genetically modified meat stays off our shelves. More than 60 grocery retailers in North America have pledged not to sell genetically engineered salmon and seafood, and Friends of the Earth just got Safeway to commit to GMO-free meat. Costco is one of the last hold outs, and if it commits to not sell GMO-meat, it would make the government's decision null and void because there will be no stores to sell the FrankenSalmon.

Tell Costco to pledge not to sell GMO salmon or other seafood.

OWS Protesters Get $600K Settlement for False Arrests.

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:20; Written by editor

June 10, 2014 at 9:51 am.

Posted by LaborSolidarityCommittee

Categories: Front Page, Open Mic

As the New York Times reports

The city has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking the largest settlement to date in an Occupy-related civil rights lawsuit, the marchers’ lawyers said Tuesday.

Of course that’s not true. Both Scott Olsen, who received a $4.5 million settlement, and Kayvan Sebeghi, who received $645,000, got larger settlements. However, this settlement is the largest settlement so far in New York City and likely anywhere else in the country with the exception of Oakland. The Times report continues:

The $583,000 pact involves...

Retrograde. Offensive. Anti-semitic.

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:20; Written by editor

Action Alert

The Israel Lobby has launched an all-out smear campaign against nonviolent direct action. We need your help to overcome their slander.

I support divestment because I believe in nonviolence.

You can show brave Presbyterian activists
they aren't alone.

Destroying more than 18,000 homes since 1967. Developing biometric ID cards that segregate people by ethnicity and religion. Selling surveillance systems to protect illegal settlements throughout the West Bank.

Sound like corporations you’d want to invest in?

Probably not.

Next week, the Presbyterian Church is going to take up that exact question: should they divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions – three companies that all profit from the Israeli occupation?

So please: show Presbyterian activists ready for real change you're with them!

Click here to sign an e-card explaining who you are and why you support divestment.

We all know the Israel Lobby has a way of making people of conscience feel real lonely standing up.

And the Presbyterian Church is coming under intense pressure from the Lobby to say “no” to divestment. Supporters of this non-violent, time-honored tactic are being labeled “Retrograde.” “Demonizing.” “Offensive.” And, of course, “anti-semitic.”

But think about it for a moment – what are they’re really saying beneath those buzzwords? To pro-actively invest in occupation.

It’s cynical, but sadly, effective.

Taking out the Spikes for the homeless

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:20; Written by editor

Posted on June 8, 2014

Homelessness is on the rise whether it be from housing shortages, evictions from bedroom tax, over crowding and any other number of social reasons, domestic abuse, substance abuse…..The only difference between me and that homeless person is a roof nothing more and nothing less.

With the gentrification of London and the continuous “Cleansing” of newly developed areas such as King Cross St Pancreas, Stratford and Soho the vulnerable people of the street are becoming invisible. This is taking place in very subtle ways. Westminster tried to make it illegal to feed homeless people and get rid of soup kitchens. But there was such an outcry that they did a U turn. However under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill it can be illegal to be homeless. Creating Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) these can be used by councils for actions including banning spitting, banning homeless or young people from parks, banning begging or rough sleeping and banning smoking in outdoor public places. This is such a broad remit it is obviously going to be open for wide spread abuse.

Then there is the sleeping spots. A couple of years ago we started seeing the appearance of partitions on public benches. No longer where we able to draw down our hat in the mid day sun and rest our weary feet and soak up the sun and rest our souls, reading our books, or finishing off the crossword because some poor unfortunate soul may have the misfortune to have to make this bench their bed. I heard the out cry but nothing was done and now we never see a homeless person in our parks. Saving some the horrible and inconvenient truth of having to explain to their young that there are homeless people.

Things now seem to have taken an even more sinister turn and the use of spikes seem to have come into play, under passes, door wells and any place a weary person may take shelter and rest.

Establishments such as Tesco in Regent St London.

No more cosy spots were the air vents from the shops keep you warm or the overhang keeps the rain of your sleeping bag. So the appearance of these spikes are the next stage of the cleansing of our city of homelessness.

So what shall we do ?

RAPID CEMENT

Rapid cements come in various types and you can get it from any builders merchants and can set in times ranging from as little as 30 minutes to an hour.

Step 1

Go and check out the area that has been laid with studs, the studs being used in door ways are usually about an inch deep. You need to take a rough estimate of the square metre of the area.

Step 2

No second class citizens in my Canada

Details: Published on Thursday, 12 June 2014 13:00; Written by editor

"Bill C-24 appears to divide Canadians into two classes: those that hold Canadian citizenship, and those that hold more than one passport. And somehow, that doesn't ring true. A citizen is a citizen, right?" said Jian Ghomeshi on this Monday's edition of "Q" on CBC Radio.

According to the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and their nearly 30,000 petition signers, Bill C-24 will grant the Federal Government "the unprecedented power to strip any Canadian with dual citizenship of their Canadian citizenship under certain circumstances."

Bill C-24 is only a few steps away from becoming law but there's still time to add your name to the petition and let the Federal Government know what you think of their efforts to re-define what it means to be Canadian.

For more information on Bill C-24, to sign the petition, or listen to Jian Ghomeshi's essy on "Q" scroll down or check out www.change.org/secondclasscitizens

Hon. Chris Alexander, PC, MP: Canadian Government: Stop Bill C-24! Don't turn millions of us into second class Canadian citizens

By Josh Paterson; BC Civil Liberties Association; Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers Vancouver

Sign Our Petition

What rights are you guaranteed as a Canadian citizen? For millions of Canadians the answer to that question could change dramatically -- and without their knowledge -- in only a few weeks.

As I write this, our federal government is quietly pushing through one of the most dangerous laws we've seen yet -- a new law which will create a second class of Canadian citizens who have fewer rights than others.

Through Bill C-24, the government is trying to grant itself the unprecedented power to strip any Canadian with dual citizenship of their Canadian citizenship under certain circumstances. This will apply even to those who were born here. Most frighteningly, according to the bill, they would not even have to take the matter before a court in many cases, leaving millions of Canadians potentially vulnerable to faceless government bureaucrats abusing their power.

So big and so terrible.

Details: Published on Wednesday, 13 August 2014 17:20; Written by editor

r1 Coal companies want to build a giant coal export terminal on the Great Barrier Reef. Will you help stop it by sending a message to UNESCO urging them to protect The Reef?

www.350.org/reef

Dear friends around the world,

From time to time, fossil fuel companies will try to get away with something so big and so terrible that only a massive global outcry will stop it.

That's happening right now, where I live in Australia -- and so I'm calling on people around the world to help us stop the development of the world’s largest coal port in the Great Barrier Reef.

Here's the background: companies and investors from around the world have their eyes on Australia, and have developed dangerous plans to double our coal exports and triple our emissions over the coming years. These plans will lead us straight to climate catastrophe.

What’s worse,...

The Nike Nine

Details: Published on Wednesday, 11 June 2014 12:20; Written by editor

Nike's up to its old union-busting tricks again. Nine Indonesian Nike workers have been fired for forming a union and pushing for better pay and conditions.

Tell Nike to stop crushing its employees' rights, and reinstate the Nike Nine now!

Nike says it respects its employees' rights to join a union 'without harassment, interference or retaliation.' But it fired nine workers in Indonesia for doing exactly that.

The 'Nike Nine' formed a union at Nike's Chang Shin shoe factory to negotiate for better wages, better health insurance and the payment of promised bonuses. First management ignored their demands. Then when demonstrations began, the bosses started to intimidate them. Ultimately, they were all fired, and the police were called on the group's leader, Ato.

It's ridiculous for Nike to allow its factories to crush workers' demands for decent pay and conditions. The global sportswear giant made $25.3 billion in revenue last year. It can afford to pay its employees a living wage.

Tell Nike: reinstate the 'Nike Nine' with full back pay, and clean up your supply chain so that joining a union is genuinely respected.

After they were fired, Ato and the other eight workers set up camp outside the Chang Shin factory gates. They were soon joined by other union members for a peaceful solidarity demonstration. This was met by a heavy and intimidating security presence, including police, Indonesian military, factory security and hired thugs.

The charade is over

Details: Published on Wednesday, 11 June 2014 12:20; Written by editor

Donate Now

The opportunity to make concrete progress has never been greater. But we need your help.

We're $48,000 away from our summer campaign goal. Join JVP with a $36 gift today

In the coming days, we’re sending a team of JVP rabbis, grassroots leaders, board members, and staff to Detroit to stand with allies in the Presbyterian Church as their General Assembly votes on divestment from companies that profit from the occupation.

We’re bringing our strategic, engaged, and passionate advocacy to our on-the ground relationships with Christian and Muslim allies, carrying the same message together:
Divestment is pro-peace. It is pro-unity. It is pro-justice— for all people.

In the post-talks era, this is the best way forward. And our allies in the Presbyterian Church who are willing to take a moral, visionary stand deserve all the support we can mobilize - especially in the face of the tidal wave of slander coming from the right.

For us, this work is a form of tochecha, the Jewish tradition of sacred rebuke, the obligation to remind members of one’s community to live by their values. It is fueled by love for justice, equality, and human rights, like every justice movement the world has seen.

Please consider giving $36 now. We need your help shaping this new era, together.

There’s a reason JVP and this movement are growing hand-in-hand. More importantly, there’s a reason to take it a step further. So that all people in Israel and Palestine can live in peace, side by side, as equals.

I have to admit that I feel a sense of relief.

Now that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have collapsed, the world can stop pretending.

Israel’s provocative settlement expansion during these recent talks (and for decades before) sent a crystal clear message: the Israeli government has no interest in Palestinian rights, international law, or a lasting peace for both peoples.

But this time around, there was nearly universal recognition of Israel's role in ending the talks. That's a game-changer.

Read more: The charade is over

Who Belongs?

Details: Published on Tuesday, 10 June 2014 11:40; Written by editor

r1 ...

Tune into Bold Action Tonight!

Details: Published on Tuesday, 10 June 2014 11:40; Written by editor

Friends,

Tonight at 7 PM Pacific, 10 PM Eastern we're getting ready to kick off a new wave of organizing on pipelines, tar sands and fossil fuel divestment with a national simulcast of Bold Action: the Moral Call for Climate Justice. Will you tune in?

The event will be broadcast live from Vancouver, and features Reverend Lennox Yearwood from the Hip Hop Caucus, Sean Devlin of ShitHarperDid/the Yes Lab and Heather Milton-Lightening, with the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, this will be a chance to talk about stepping up action this summer.

You can find a local watching party near you or tune in online by clicking here and clicking play when the time comes.

Join me, and let's get ready to take bold action for climate justice,

Cameron Fenton, 350.org

350.org is building a global climate movement. Read more: Tune into Bold Action Tonight!

Celebrations as last cattle rancher leaves Yanomami territory in Brazil - News from Survival

Details: Published on Monday, 09 June 2014 11:20; Written by editor

Celebrations as last cattle rancher leaves Yanomami territory in Brazil

Yanomami shaman and spokesman Davi Kopenawa celebrates the removal of ranchers from his tribe's land© Mario Vilela/FUNAI

A joyous ceremony was held in a Yanomami community in northern Brazil on 31 May to mark the withdrawal of the last rancher to occupy the tribe’s land along the notorious ‘Northern Perimeter Highway’.

The celebrations held in the community of Ajarani were attended by Yanomami, public prosecutors, NGOs and representatives of the government’s indigenous affairs department, FUNAI.

In 2013, public prosecutors drew up an agreement with the last 12 ranchers who had occupied the south-eastern tip of Yanomami land for decades, even though the territory was officially recognized as belonging to the Yanomami in 1992.

Anti-gay restaurant opens in Canada

Details: Published on Monday, 09 June 2014 09:00; Written by editor

Anti-gay restaurant chain Chick-fil-A has just opened its first branch in Canada. The massive US fried chicken franchise has donated millions to homophobic organisations.

Tell Chick-fil-A its bigotry is not welcome in Canada.

Would you like your fried chicken with a side of homophobia? That's what's on offer at the Calgary International Airport, where notoriously anti-gay restaurant Chick-fil-A has just opened its first Canadian branch.

The fervently Christian American company donated nearly $2 million to anti-gay organizations in 2010, with a particular focus on lobbying against equal marriage. In 2012 its CEO Dan T. Cathy owned up to being 'guilty as charged'. He openly condemned those who “have the audacity to define what marriage is about,” saying they were “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.”

Chick-fil-A has been beset with boycotts and protests ever since, but this hasn't stopped it planning to expand into 108 new locations this year - including Canada.

Tell Chick-fil-A: we don't want your bigoted views here. Please stay out of Canada.

The fast-food giant is one of the largest privately-held restaurant chains in the US, but its public image took a nose-dive in 2012 with revelations about its anti-gay stance. Since then, some new US branches have been prevented from opening, and one was removed from the University of Atlanta campus after opposition from students.

Brazilian Indian leader assaulted ten days before World Cup

Details: Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 16:20; Written by editor

Breaking news: Brazilian Indian leader assaulted ten days before World Cup

Valmir Guarani was kidnapped, tied to a tree in a forest, blindfolded, and tortured.

A young Brazilian Indian leader was assaulted on Monday by four armed men, despite being under the care of a government protection program since he witnessed the murder of his father-in-law.

Valmir Guarani Kaiowá, of the Guarani tribe, was kidnapped, tied to a tree in a forest, blindfolded, and tortured. He managed to escape and said, ‘They tied me up and told me that I was going to die and that no one would ever find me. They put a bitter liquid in my mouth and told me to swallow it. Then, they fired several shots by my ears and I couldn’t hear any more… then they left in their car.’

Valmir’s late father-in-law, Nísio Gomes, was killed by masked gunmen in 2011, having led his community back to part of their ancestral land which had been stolen from the Indians and occupied by a cattle ranch.

In 2012, 18 men were arrested in connection with the murder, including the owner of a ‘private militia’ security firm which has since been closed down. Some of the men are believed to have been released.

Valmir is a key witness, and continues to push for the murder investigation to be completed and for the land to be returned to his tribe.

He told a Survival researcher last year, ‘Nísio told me to be strong and fight for our land. All we need is for it to be protected for us.’

In the run up to the FIFA World Cup, Survival is highlighting ‘The dark side of Brazil’. Click here to find out more about the situation of Brazilian Indians and the government’s attacks on their rights to their land.

New study reveals world's highest suicide rate among Brazilian tribe - News from Survival

Details: Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 16:20; Written by editor

New study reveals world's highest suicide rate among Brazilian tribe

The Guarani suffer extremely high rates of suicide and violence as a result of the theft of their land.

A shocking new study has revealed that a Brazilian tribe now suffers the highest suicide rate in the world. In 2013, at least 72 members of the Guarani tribe committed suicide (equivalent to 232 per 100,000), a rate that has nearly tripled over the last two decades. The majority of victims are between 15 and 30 years old.

The news follows violent clashes between police and indigenous protestors on the eve of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The Guarani, who live in Brazil’s southern agricultural heartlands, have lost most of their land to cattle ranches and sugar-cane plantations, and their leaders are regularly attacked and assassinated. Forced from their land, the Guarani are living in squalid conditions by the roadside or in overcrowded reserves where alcoholism, disease, violence and suicide are rife.

One Guarani man said, “There’s no future, there’s no respect, there are no jobs and there is no land where we can plant and live. They choose to die because actually, they are already dead inside.”

Coca-Cola, one of the World Cup’s main sponsors, is implicated in the landgrabbing scandal which has brought misery and death to the Guarani. Coca-Cola has been sourcing sugar from U.S. food giant Bunge – which in turn is buying sugar cane from land which has been stolen from the Guarani.

In a letter to Coca-Cola, the Guarani pleaded, “We ask Coca-Cola to consider our suffering … We want Coca-Cola to stand beside us and feel our pain and suffering, because the sugar cane is destroying any hope of a future for our children. We ask Coca-Cola to stop buying sugar from Bunge.”

Coca-Cola and FIFA's image has been contrasted with an angry Indian man demanding, 'Let the Guarani live!'© Survival International

2014 European Parliament elects x2 Romani candidates.....invite them to the Hill!!

Details: Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 14:00; Written by editor

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Viktória Mohácsi

Member of the European Parliament In office
2004–2009 Preceded by Gábor Demszky Succeeded by ? Personal details Born (1975-04-01) 1 April 1975 (age 39)
Berettyóújfalu, Hungary Political party Alliance of Free Democrats

ASSIST VIKTORIA MOHACSI IN HER IMMIGRATION HEARING! CANADA NEEDS POLITICIANS LIKE HER!!!! RTR

Tute can hair a covva ferridearer if you jāl shukár.

You can do a thing better if you go about it secretly the tao of the Roma/ Traveller Rumi

EP: Two Roma MEPs elected

Strasbourg, France, 26.5.2014 17:32, (ROMEA)

Soraya Post (left) and Damian Draghici (right) became MEPs in 2014. (Collage: Romea.cz) Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 35 Roma people will occupy a total of two seats in the newly-elected European Parliament (EP). Soraya Post, a Roma activist and human rights fighter from Sweden, led the candidate list of the Feminist Initiative to victory yesterday.

Post will also continue in her position as Vice-Chair of the European Roma and Travellers Forum as well. The other MEP of Roma nationality is Damian Drăghici of Romania.

The success of Soraya Post is significant given the topics that she might be able to shore up at the EP and win more attention for. According to her campaign statements, the presence of a feminist representative could enhance the effort to enforce certain current issues, such as that of equality between men and women or the fight against racism, xenophobia and discrimination on the basis of age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.

Rising anti-Romani tendencies in various European states should also become a more-discussed topic. "If I am elected to the EP, the first thing I will attempt will be to push for the establishment of a European Commissioner on Equal Rights and the Fight against Racism," Post said during her campaign.

Damian Drăghici is currently a senator in the Romanian Parliament and an adviser to the Romanian Prime Minister on Roma issues. He ran on the Social Democratic ticket during the EP election.

Currently only 15 of the 766 MEPs come from or somehow represent ethnic or religious minorities, which does not correspond to the reality of an EU in which more than 10 % of the population belongs to some minority. Up to now only three Roma had ever won seats since direct elections to the EP began in 1979.

My dad, day 37

Details: Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 14:00; Written by editor

Action Alert

My father has always been my hero.

L to R: my mother Lamis, brother Wadea, father Abdul, & me.

Help free him and other Palestinians indefinitely detained by Israel.

My name is Basil Farraj, and my father has always been my hero.

I am 22 years old and I recently graduated from Earlham College in Indiana with a B.A in Peace and Global Studies.

But unlike most other young people my age, I’m counting every second, every minute, every hour and every day until I can hug my father again, which is why I’m asking for your help.

My dad, Abdul-Razeq Farraj, is the Administrative Director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a grassroots group that helps Palestinian men and women small farmers survive under the Occupation.

But because of his tireless work for basic fairness for farmers, he has been indefinitely detained in an Israeli prison, without charge or trial. In fact, he has spent a total of 8 years detained without trial. On May 1st, he joined nearly 125 other Palestinian administrative detainees in an open-ended hunger strike to protest administrative detention.

It is now day 37.

Please help me free my father and the other detainees.

Click here to send a letter to the Israeli Military Judge Advocate General to demand an end to administrative detention, and the release of all detainees.

Administrative detention is a practice used by the Israeli occupation to detain Palestinians from one to six months - repeated as many times as Israel wants. They are held without charge or trial, based on a “secret file” that neither the prisoners nor their lawyers have access to, and the charges can be renewed—indefinitely.

My husband will miss the birth of our first child

Details: Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 13:40; Written by editor

There's a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested in signing it:

Citizenship and Immigration Canada: Grant temporary entrance visas to people whose wives are expecting babies in Canada.

By Marina Wilke Peterborough

Sign Marina's Petition

I believe that it is a basic human right to witness the birth of your child. My family is currently in a situation where CIC has denied my husband (and father of my unborn child) temporary entry into Canada to witness the birth of our first child and support me during this lifechanging time. Our baby is due on June 18th, 2014. We as a couple have been waiting on the processing of our spousal sponsorship permanent residency for almost 2 years. With no way of expediating the permanent process and no avenue of temporary entrance into Canada allowed (so far) we are desperate for support. Please help us by signing this petition and letting our government know that it is NOT O.K. to seperate families simply because one spouse is from a foreign country. Even if this petition is too late to help our cause, it may be used as an example to help other women struggling to be united with their spouses during this crucial time.

Sign Marina's Petition

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