human rights

David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

David Cameron, the former foreign secretary, sat on advice from Foreign Office officials in Israel and London that there was clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licences due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

(https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/03/david-cameron-breaches-international-humanitarian-law-gaza)

You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?

Profits from slaughter

It isn’t just arms manufacturers and the hi-tech industries, with their booming surveillance businesses, whose shares are soaring on the back of the slaughter in Gaza and Ukraine. 
Bloomberg reported last month that Israeli air strikes on Gaza had turned the homes of 2.3 million Palestinians into 42m tonnes of rubble. That’s enough to fill a line of dump trucks from New York to Singapore. 


It won’t be Gaza companies raking in the profits from the mammoth clean-up operation. After a 17-year blockade of the enclave by Israel, Gaza’s industrial and commercial sector barely existed even before Israel’s current wrecking spree. The beneficiaries, once again, will be western corporations.

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathancook/p/you-cant-arm-a-genocidal-state-into?r=7w1yj&utm_medium=ios

India says novelist Arundhati Roy could be tried under antiterrorism law

NEW DELHI — The Indian novelist Arundhati Roy could face serious charges over comments she made 14 years ago about Kashmir after an official from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday authorized her prosecution under a stringent anti-terrorism law.


The decision to invoke India’s controversial terrorism provision against one of the ruling party’s most outspoken — and internationally renowned — critics comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term, and it has been widely viewed as a signal of strength emanating from Modi’s camp.
Although Modi was forced this week to form a new coalition government after a shock election result on June 4 reduced his seat count in Parliament, the Indian leader has projected an image of confidence as he kept his cabinet unchanged in key positions and vowed to double down in his fight against his political opponents, whom he called corrupt.

https://apple.news/A0du0fEUpTaS_t4MkYQQKwA