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For Immediate Release
January, 05 2009, 11:00am EDT
Contact:
AIUSA media office, 202-544-0200
x302, lspann@aiusa.org
UN Security Council Must Not Fail Civilians Caught in Gaza Conflict
Amnesty International today urged the UN
Security Council to take firm and decisive action to address the
increasingly grave situation in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International today urged the UN
Security Council to take firm and decisive action to address the
increasingly grave situation in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
"Civilian casualties and destruction in Gaza are on an unprecedented
scale. The UN Security Council must not remain silent. The Council can
and must act and it should do so without further delay," said Malcolm
Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa
Programme.
There are growing concerns about the safety of the civilian populations
in the area, particularly the 1.5 million Palestinians who are trapped
in the Gaza Strip and facing a spiralling humanitarian crisis amid
continuing Israeli attacks and after many months of blockade.
"The UN Security Council has a key responsibility to help ensure
that the parties to the conflict respect international human rights and
humanitarian law," said Malcolm Smart. "It is imperative that the
Council urgently adopt a strong resolution condemning attacks against
civilians by both Israel and Hamas and demanding that such attacks
cease immediately."
Amnesty International said the UN Security Council should urge
Israel to lift restrictions on the passage of humanitarian aid into
Gaza -- medicines, food, fuel and other necessities urgently required
to alleviate civilian suffering -- and to allow humanitarian and human
rights workers and journalists unfettered access to Gaza.
"With only a few exceptions, humanitarian workers and journalists
have been barred from Gaza by the Israeli military since early
November," said Malcolm Smart. "Their presence now is urgently required
to independently assess humanitarian needs and report on the situation
on the ground, including abuses of international law."
Amnesty International also urged the UN Security Council to consider the deployment of international monitors.
"Civilians on both sides continue to pay a heavy price, which might
be alleviated if international monitors were to be deployed whose
functions should include verifying compliance with international law by
both Israel and the Palestinian administration in Gaza," said Malcolm
Smart.
Background
More than 500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes and
other attacks since 27 December. Those killed include more than 100
unarmed civilians, including scores of children, as well as some 165
civilian police taking no part in the conflict. More than 2,000
Palestinian civilians have been injured. While many Israeli attacks
have targeted and killed Palestinian combatants, including leaders of
Hamas, other attacks have been directed at civilian buildings not being
used for military purposes. They have targeted civilians such as police
cadets, or have been disproportionate, recklessly endangering civilians
and causing a mounting toll of civilian casualties. The number of
civilian casualties is expected to increase further as a result of the
ground incursion by Israeli forces which began on 3 January and the use
of heavy weaponry in densely populated civilian areas.
In the same period, five Israelis have been killed, including three
civilians killed in rocket attacks launched by Palestinian armed groups
from the Gaza Strip.
Those killed in Israeli air strikes include:
* Eight-year-old Abed Rabbo al-Astal, his 12-year-old brother
Muhammad and their 10-year-old cousin 'Abd-al-Sattar, killed on the
afternoon of 2 January while playing near their home in al-Qarara
village, east of Khan Yunis (southern Gaza).
* Thirteen-year-old Sujud Dardsawi was fatally wounded on 2 January while in her home in the Shaja'iya district of Gaza City.
* Ihab al-Madhoun, a medical doctor, and Muhammad Abu Hasida, a
paramedic accompanying him, were killed on 31 December as they were
trying to evacuate people wounded in an earlier attack in eastern Gaza
City. The air strike also damaged their ambulance.
* A night watchman/guard was killed on 3 January when the International
School (commonly known as the American School, though it has no link to
the US government), in the north of Gaza, was destroyed by an Israeli
air strike. Known as one of the best private educational institutions
in Gaza, the school provided education to hundreds of children from
kindergarten to age 12.
As well as air strikes, Israeli forces have also used artillery -
which is notoriously inaccurate and should never be used in densely
populated areas - including from gunboats ranged along the Gaza coast.
Leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft over Gaza have warned residents to
leave the area, although they are physically prevented from doing so,
causing panic and confusion among the population. Like the telephone
calls made by the Israeli military to Palestinians warning them to
leave their homes to escape attack, the leaflets seem to be random and
dropped all over Gaza.
One Gaza resident, a supporter of the Fatah party led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Amnesty International:
"My children see the leaflets and go crazy with fear, they want to
leave home; but we have nowhere to go. My family and my wife's family
live close to the border, in even more dangerous areas; and we can't
just stay outside, it is equally dangerous, children have been killed
walking or playing in the street. There is no electricity, we can't
even find food, and we are not safe even in our homes. We have nothing
to do with Hamas, I've been detained and harassed by Hamas, but the
Israeli bombardments are indiscriminate. No one is safe"
The last two weeks of fighting have increased the humanitarian crisis
caused by Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, in force continuously
since June 2007. The UN and international aid agencies report that
there is an acute shortage of food and most basic necessities.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
Israeli bombardments have damaged water supply lines making it
difficult for some families to obtain access to safe drinking water,
and hospitals are running short of key medicines and depend on
unreliable generators for their power. The Gaza Pediatrics' Hospital
reported that most of its windows have been smashed by the blasts and
plastic sheets are being used to block the cold. An air strike on 2
January damaged a pipe supplying water to 30,000 residents of Nuseirat
Refugee Camp, south of Gaza City. Continuous Israeli strikes also make
attempts to carry out repairs extremely dangerous.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.
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"Still a lot more to do but this is the impact of electing an environmentalist like Lula over a right-wing populist like Bolsonaro," said one observer.
May 13, 2023
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest decreased by 68% this April compared with last year, according to preliminary government data published Friday.
The finding reflects positively on the administration of leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to make the destruction of the crucial ecosystem "a thing of the past."
As Reutersreported:
Official data from space research agency INPE showed that 328.71 square km (126.92 square miles) were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon last month, below the historical average of 455.75 square km for the month.
That interrupted two consecutive months of higher deforestation, with land clearing so far this year now down 40.4% to 1,173 square km.
Lula's victory last October over Brazil's far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was hailed as a critical step toward rescuing the Amazon from more severe and possibly irreversible damage.
Parts of the Amazon, often referred to as the "lungs of the Earth" due to its unparalleled capacity to provide oxygen and absorb planet-heating carbon dioxide, recently passed a key tipping point after Bolsonaro intensified clearcutting of the tropical rainforest during his four-year reign. Bolsonaro's regressive policy changes pushed deforestation in Brazil to a 15-year high last year, helping to drive the country's greenhouse gas emissions to their highest level in almost two decades.
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During a November speech at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt—his first on the international stage after defeating Bolsonaro—Lula said that "there's no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon," roughly 60% of which is located in Brazil.
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As Reuters noted Friday, "Experts say it is still too early to confirm a downward trend, as the annual peak in deforestation from July to September lies ahead, but see it as a positive signal after rainforest destruction rocketed in late 2022."
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"The environmental agenda has been resumed, but we know time is necessary for the results to be reaped."
Friends of the Earth campaigner and author Guy Shrubsole was quicker to give Lula credit.
"Still a lot more to do but this is the impact of electing an environmentalist like Lula over a right-wing populist like Bolsonaro," tweeted Shrubsole, whose books include The Lost Rainforests of Britain and Who Owns England?
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Earlier this month, Lula secured "an 80 million-pound ($100.97 million) contribution from Britain to the Amazon Fund, an initiative aimed at fighting deforestation also backed by Norway, Germany, and the United States," Reuters noted. Last month, he "resumed the recognition of Indigenous lands, reversing a Bolsonaro policy, while announcing new job openings at the environment ministry and [the] Indigenous agency FUNAI."
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President Joe Biden claims that the United States is leading "democracies" in a fight against "autocracies" to establish a peaceful international order, but his administration approved weapons sales to nearly three-fifths of the world's authoritarian countries in 2022.
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The U.S. has been the world's largest arms dealer since the end of the Cold War. Data released in March showed that the U.S. accounted for 40% of global weapons exports from 2018 to 2022.
As Semler explained:
In general, these exports are funded through grants or sales. There are two pathways for the latter category: foreign military sales and direct commercial sales.
The U.S. government acts as an intermediary for FMS acquisitions: It buys the materiel from a company first and then delivers the goods to the foreign recipient. DCS acquisitions are more straightforward: They're the result of an agreement between a U.S. company and a foreign government. Both categories of sales require the government's approval.
Country-level data for last year's DCS authorizations was released in late April through the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. FMS figures for fiscal year 2022 were released earlier this year through the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency. According to their data, a total of 142 countries and territories bought weapons from the U.S. in 2022, for a total of $85 billion in bilateral sales.
To determine how many of those governments were democratic and how many were autocratic, Semler relied on data from the Varieties of Democracy project at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, which uses a classification system called Regimes of the World.
"Of the 84 countries codified as autocracies under the Regimes of the World system in 2022, the United States sold weapons to at least 48, or 57%, of them," Semler wrote. "The 'at least' qualifier is necessary because several factors frustrate the accurate tracking of U.S. weapons sales. The State Department's report of commercial arms sales during the fiscal year makes prodigious use of 'various' in its recipients category; as a result, the specific recipients for nearly $11 billion in weapons sales are not disclosed."
"The Regimes of the World system is just one of the several indices that measure democracy worldwide, but running the same analysis with other popular indices produces similar results," Semler observed. "For example, Freedom House listed 195 countries and for each one labeled whether it qualified as an electoral democracy in its annual Freedom in the World report. Of the 85 countries Freedom House did not designate as an electoral democracy, the United States sold weapons to 49, or 58%, of them in fiscal year 2022."
Despite the White House's lofty rhetoric, it is actively bolstering the military power of a majority of the world's authoritarian countries, from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to dozens of others, including some overlooked by researchers at the University of Gothenburg.
For instance, the Varieties of Democracy project characterizes Israel as a "liberal democracy" even though human rights groups around the world have condemned it as a decidedly anti-democratic apartheid state. Washington, meanwhile, showers Israel with $3.8 billion in military support each year, resources that the government uses to violently dispossess and frequently kill Palestinians at will.
As Semler put it Saturday in his "Speaking Security" newsletter, "These findings fly in the face of Biden's preferred framing of international politics as a "battle between democracies and autocracies."
The president's narrative "lends itself more to a self-righteous foreign policy than an honest or productive one," Semler argued. "Dividing the world between democratic and autocratic countries—in the spirit of 'with us or against us'—makes conflict more likely and has had a chilling effect on calls for diplomacy and détente. It's also harder to cooperate with the international community while insisting you're locked in an existential fight with roughly half of them."
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United Pilots Picket for Better Contract After American, Southwest Counterparts Authorize Strikes
On the heels of strike-authorization votes by American and Southwest pilots, United pilots protested at airports across the U.S. on Friday to tell management that "enough is enough."
May 13, 2023
Following what the Air Line Pilots Association called "more than four years of empty promises," 3,000 off-duty United Airlines pilots represented by the union protested at major airports across the U.S. on Friday, demanding the finalization of a contract with higher pay and humane scheduling practices.
"Thousands of United pilots are picketing coast-to-coast today to deliver management a message they cannot ignore: Enough is enough," Capt. Garth Thompson, chair of the United ALPA master executive council, said in a statement.
"United management needs to stop slow-rolling negotiations... and do the right thing for their pilots."
"We have been stuck with an antiquated scheduling system and a contract nowhere near industry-leading standards," said Thompson. "We want United to succeed as industry leaders, and every day that passes without an agreement is another day the best and brightest future aviators go elsewhere."
United pilots—joined by ALPA president Capt. Jason Ambrosi, fellow ALPA pilots, and union supporters—demonstrated in front of terminals at airports in 10 cities as well as outside the company's flight training center in Denver.
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA president Sara Nelson was among those who participated in an act of solidarity.
\u201c\u270a #OneCrew\u201d— AFA-CWA (@AFA-CWA) 1683910072
"I am proud to stand here today to send United Airlines management a message that the airline's pilots have the full backing of their international union in their fight for the contract they have earned," said Ambrosi, who leads the 69,000-member union and joined a picket line in Chicago. "United management needs to stop slow-rolling negotiations that have dragged into their fifth year and do the right thing for their pilots."
Management has failed "to recognize the value pilots bring to the overall success of the airline," ALPA said. "United pilots were there for customers during one of the worst times for travel in recent history, and they also helped United Airlines emerge from the pandemic stronger than before."
Thompson, who called Friday's nationwide informational picket a "resounding success," stressed that "United pilots will always be there for our customers."
"Unfortunately," he added, "the same cannot be said about management, who seems to think that a last-minute cancellation of a United pilot's scheduled day off, or abrupt trip reassignments that extend into planned days off, is acceptable for a United pilot's family."
"This old pilot contract impacts our ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance," Thompson continued. "United pilots will deal with this adversity in our usual professional and safe manner. We will continue to work in 2023 despite staffing shortages in Air Traffic Control facilities, aggressive summer schedules, capacity constraints, and weather." However, he noted, "United pilots want the company and the public to know that the bold 'United Next' growth plans cannot work without an updated pilot contract."
"This old pilot contract impacts our ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance."
The action by United pilots comes in the wake of a pair of successful strike-authorization votes by pilots at other airlines.
On May 1, 95% of American Airlines pilots voted to authorize a strike. (Of the airline's 15,000 pilots, 96% participated, with 99% expressing support for a possible strike).
"We will strike if necessary to secure the industry-leading contract that our pilots have earned and deserve—a contract that will position American Airlines for success," said Capt. Ed Sicher, president of the Allied Pilots Association. "Our pilots' resolve is unmistakable. We will not be deterred from our goal of an industry-leading contract."
"The strike-authorization vote is one of several steps APA has taken to prepare for any eventuality and use all legal avenues available to us for contract improvement and resolution," Sicher noted. "The best outcome is for APA and management to agree on an industry-leading contract—achieved through good-faith bargaining—benefiting our pilots, American Airlines, and the passengers we serve."
On Thursday, 97% of Southwest pilots voted to authorize a strike. (Of the airline's 10,000-plus pilots, 98% participated, with 99% expressing support for a possible strike).
"This is a historic day, not only for our pilots but for Southwest Airlines," said Capt. Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. "The lack of leadership and the unwillingness to address the failures of our organization have led us to this point. Our pilots are tired of apologizing to our passengers."
Murray and other union leaders have attributed Southwest's meltdown last winter to executives' yearslong refusal to invest in much-needed technological upgrades despite benefiting from billions of dollars in federal aid during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We want our passengers to understand that we do not take this path lightly," Murray said Thursday. "We want our customers to be prepared for the path ahead and make arrangements on other carriers so that their plans through the summer and fall are not disrupted."
United's 14,000 pilots could be next in line to vote on strike authorization.
As The Associated Pressreported Saturday, "Pilots at all three carriers are looking to match or beat the deal that Delta Air Lines reached with its pilots earlier this year, which raised pay rates by 34% over four years."
"United has proposed to match the Delta increase, but that might not be enough for a deal," AP observed. Citing Thompson, the outlet noted that "discussion about wages has been held up while the two sides negotiate over scheduling, including the union’s wish to limit United's ability to make pilots work on their days off."
The nation's pilots "are unlikely to strike anytime soon, however," AP reported. "Federal law makes it very difficult for unions to conduct strikes in the airline industry, and the last walkout at a U.S. carrier was more than a decade ago."
"Under U.S. law, airline and railroad workers can't legally strike, and companies can't lock them out, until federal mediators determine that further negotiations are pointless," the outlet explained. It continued:
The National Mediation Board rarely declares a dead end to bargaining, and even if it does, there is a no-strikes "cooling-off" period during which the White House and Congress can block a walkout. That's what President Bill Clinton did minutes after pilots began striking against American in 1997. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill that Congress passed to impose contract terms on freight railroad workers, ending a strike threat.
Regardless of the legal hurdles to a walkout, unions believe that strike votes give them leverage during bargaining, and they have become more common. A shortage of pilots is also putting those unions in particularly strong bargaining position.
Although Congress is highly unlikely to permit an airline strike, disgruntled pilots could still cause disruption through "work to rule," Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, told AP.
"They could say, 'We're not working any overtime,'" said Wheaton. "I don't anticipate the pilots trying to screw up travel for everybody intentionally, but bargaining is about leverage and power... having the ability to do that can be a negotiating tactic."
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