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For Immediate Release
January, 08 2009, 09:41am EDT
Contact:
Tel: +1-212-216-1832,Email:,hrwpress@hrw.org
Israel and Egypt: Allow Humanitarian Access to Gaza
Admit Palestinians Seeking Safety and Medical Care
JERUSALEM
Israel and Egypt should open their borders to permit humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and to allow civilians to seek safety from the conflict, Human Rights Watch said today, on the occasion of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, addressing the United Nations Security Council.
Earlier this week, Guterres called for strict adherence to humanitarian principles in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, including respect for the universal right of those fleeing war to seek safety in other states.
"There is no place safe from the fighting for civilians in Gaza at this time," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It is imperative that borders not be closed to people fleeing for their lives."
During the current fighting, Israel and Egypt have blocked the exit from Gaza of many severely wounded people in urgent need of medical treatment. Israel has permitted only a limited number of critically injured patients to enter Israel since the start of the current military operations. Egypt is also preventing timely evacuations of severely wounded from Gaza, despite pledges from Turkey and Qatar, among others, to receive the wounded at Egypt's Rafah border crossings and evacuate them to hospitals in third countries. Since the current offensive began, Egypt has reportedly let a total of 154 wounded persons through Rafah, including 54 wounded on December 30 and 31, 2008.
"For Israel and Egypt to continue blocking the evacuation of severely wounded people is not only unlawful but heartless," said Abrahams.
Ensuring access into Israel and Egypt for the war wounded as well as patients who received regular treatment outside Gaza prior to the current military operations is a serious concern, Human Rights Watch said. Even before the current fighting, medical facilities in Gaza could not provide many advanced services, such as cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, and advanced ophthalmology services.
"We strongly back High Commissioner Guterres' call this week that all of Gaza's borders be kept 'open' for humanitarian purposes and 'safe,' and that Palestinians seeking safety outside of Gaza should not be prevented from doing so," said Abrahams. "The UN Security Council should urge Egypt and Israel to keep their borders open to Palestinian civilians seeking temporary refuge."
Beyond fleeing the fighting, civilians are seeking refuge outside of Gaza because of the worsening humanitarian situation. A densely populated area, the Gaza Strip has a population of 1.4 million. One million are refugees, of whom 750,000 are dependent upon the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for food aid. This includes 94,000 particularly vulnerable "special hardship cases," including the chronically ill, the disabled, the elderly, and the very young. UNRWA told Human Rights Watch on January 6 that they and the agency's other beneficiaries last received regular food distributions on or before December 18, when UNRWA exhausted its warehoused food supply.
Israeli restrictions on fuel and industrial diesel have had a particularly grave impact, limiting the electricity that is required for Gaza's hospitals, water-pumping stations, sewage-treatment facilities, and other infrastructure essential for the well-being of Gaza's population.
"The impact of the armed conflict on the Palestinian population in Gaza has been magnified by months of an Israeli blockade that has caused severe shortages of food, water, electricity, and medicines," said Abrahams. "It's crucial that Israel lift its unlawful blockade of basic necessities immediately."
Despite its 2005 withdrawal of military forces and settlers from Gaza, Israel has maintained substantial control of Gaza's land, air, and sea borders.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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Homophobic Mob Attacks Defenders of LGBTQ+ Equality Outside School Board Meeting in California
"This violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in California," said one California lawmaker. "We stand in strong support of our LGBTQ+ community. Diversity and inclusion is our strength, and our schools WILL remain welcoming to all."
Jun 07, 2023
Far-right fascist groups and homophobic parents instigated violent clashes outside a local school committee meeting in the town of Glendale, California on Tuesday evening which resulted in defenders of the district recognizing June as Pride Month being punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed, and thrown about as police failed to maintain a peaceful situation.
While the Glendale Unified School District board met inside to hear from community members and parents prior to a vote, the overflow crowd that gathered became increasingly confrontational.
Footage taken from above the protest showed the moment when protesters broke a police line and the fighting between the opposing factions ensued:
\u201cAnti-LGBT protestors attack Pro-LGBT demonstrators outside of a Glendale, CA schoolboard meeting.\n\nThe schoolboard is voting on recognizing June as Pride month.\u201d— Brennan Murphy (@Brennan Murphy) 1686100986
Local reporters estimated that 500 people—which included local parents opposed to recognizing the dignity of LGBTQ students as well as others identified as "traveling fascists" and outside agitators without students in the district, like the far-right Proud Boys and other fascist groups—had gathered outside the meeting.
A large group of parents and others who gathered to approve of the Pride recognition vote and support the LGBTQ+ community in Glendale were also in attendance, carrying signs that said "Dads Against Proud Boys" and "Stop Threatening Educators."
\u201cMultiple anti-LGBTQ protestors push against police officers, eventually some push past police and fight with LGBTQ.\n\nAn LGBTQ supporter who is tackled and beaten on the ground by protestors ends up arrested by Glendale police.\u201d— Sergio Olmos (@Sergio Olmos) 1686100997
In a statement, the police said, "While most of the protest was peaceful, a small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety."
According to local ABC affiliate Channel 7 Eyewitness News:
The school board was set to adopt a resolution recognizing Pride Month, which has been done for the last four years. However, a shelter-in-place order disrupted the meeting as a brawl happened outside.
Board members later unanimously adopted the resolution to declare June as Pride Month.
Many in the crowd opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and recognition wore t-shirts that read: "Leave Our Kids Alone."
The Republican Party and other far-right political actors have increasingly targeted local public schools in their effort to gin up opposition to trans youth and promote a culture war that seeks to equate common-sense love and acceptance of LGTBQ+ children and adults with some kind of leftist "indoctrination" that should be opposed.
\u201cThis violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in California. We stand in strong support of our LGBTQ+ community. Diversity and inclusion is our strength, and our schools WILL remain welcoming to all.https://t.co/hRsD2dzDAT\u201d— Buffy Wicks (@Buffy Wicks) 1686114833
One parent of a queer middle school student in the district who was at Tuesday's meeting told the Los Angeles Times that her child had faced discrimination growing up.
The woman said she was grateful for the commitment by the GUSD board in protecting LGBTQ+ acceptance. "I've never spoken before," she said, "but as an actual parent, I felt that I had to be here because a lot of the opposing people don't believe that I exist."
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Fueled by Stock Buybacks, Pay of Top Insurance CEOs Surged to $335 Million Last Year
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The United States' healthcare system is the worst in the developed world, delivering the highest death rates for treatable conditions, the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, and the lowest life expectancy at birth.
But a system that is failing patients, often in catastrophic ways, has been a massive boon for the executives who run the few private companies that dominate the nation's healthcare sector.
Last year, the CEOs of CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Elevance Health, Centene, Humana, and Molina Healthcare—the top seven publicly traded health insurance giants in the U.S.—brought in a combined $335 million in compensation, STAT recently reported.
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As former Cigna executive Wendell Potter noted Tuesday, "these health insurance CEOs have been so successful not because they have improved the health and well-being of Americans, but rather because they have sustained financial returns for Wall Street investors."
"Not much has changed in how insurer CEOs are compensated since I left Cigna in 2008. Except they're making way more," wrote Potter, who is now the executive director of the Center for Health and Democracy.
In a new analysis of the latest CEO pay figures, Potter observed that "had it not been for their companies' share buybacks"—which help boost the price of their stock by reducing the number of shares outstanding—"they wouldn't have banked nearly that much money."
"My analysis of how much the companies have used our premiums and tax dollars to buy back shares of their own stock showed that combined they spent $141 billion on share repurchases between 2007 and 2022," Potter wrote. "Keep in mind that that is $141 billion that otherwise could have been used to reduce our premiums and deductibles–and keep an untold number of American families out of bankruptcy and away from GoFundMe–but was used instead to increase the wealth of their shareholders and top executives."
\u201c(1/6) LATEST: CEOs from the 7 big health insurance companies pulled in $335 million in just 2022 alone.\n\nHow did they do it?\n\nBy imposing high out-out-pockets requirements and premiums; stock share repurchases; and by gaming the Medicare and drug supply chain.\u201d— Wendell Potter (@Wendell Potter) 1686067073
Potter argued that the CEOs' exorbitant pay packages are "especially alarming when you consider that they are getting more and more of it from us as taxpayers" as tens of millions of Americans go without insurance, struggle to afford their prescription medicines, and drown in medical debt.
In an analysis released earlier this year, Potter estimated that government programs are the source of around 90% of the health plan revenues of Molina, Humana, and Centene.
Centene CEO Sarah London brought in more than $13 million in total compensation last year, and Humana chief Bruce Broussard took home more than $17 million. Both companies are major providers of Medicare Advantage—a privately run, publicly funded, and fraud-ridden program that is a growing source of insurance company revenues.
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Fresh outrage over the pay of insurance industry CEOs, which surged during the coronavirus pandemic as millions lost health coverage and got sick, comes amid a renewed Medicare for All push in Congress.
Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and others reintroduced Medicare for All legislation in both chambers, with more co-sponsors than ever before—though the bill has no chance of passing the divided Congress.
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"PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed."
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Relatives of people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and 9/11 survivors said Tuesday that they are "shocked and deeply offended" by a newly announced merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, a deal widely condemned as "sportswashing" one of the world's worst human rights violators.
In an agreement that will end years of acrimony and litigation, PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)—which owns LIV Golf—surprised the world of golf and beyond by announcing Tuesday that they are merging into "a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity."
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Human rights advocates excoriated Monahan and the deal. Terry Strada, who chairs the 9/11 Families United coalition and whose husband Tom died in the attack on the World Trade Center, said in a statement that "Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA's unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia's reputation."
\u201cJay Monahan changed his tune considerably after telling the media and players his concerns with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour. \n\nPart 1 \ud83d\udc47\u201d— Awful Announcing (@Awful Announcing) 1686093488
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\u201cNothing is more American than the PGA vilifying golfers who took hundreds of millions of dollars to play for an immoral, murderous undemocratic, anti-American regime...\n\nThen partnering with that immoral, undemocratic, anti-American murderous regime.\n\nhttps://t.co/NBIrZbCKxb\u201d— Michael Harriot (@Michael Harriot) 1686065123
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Former President Donald Trump—whose golf courses have hosted LIV Golf events—called the deal "big, beautiful, and glamorous" for the sport.
Other lawmakers—mostly Democrats—condemned the merger.
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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) accused the PGA Tour of paying "lip service" to uplifting the game of golf, which will be used "unabashedly by [Saudi Arabia] to distract from its many crimes."
\u201cSo weird. PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis' human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport.\n\nI guess maybe their concerns weren't really about human rights?\u201d— Chris Murphy \ud83d\udfe7 (@Chris Murphy \ud83d\udfe7) 1686066929
Ruled for generations by the House of Saud under Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia perennially scores near the bottom of most international human rights indices. Women, religious and sexual minorities, and political dissidents are especially repressed. "Crimes" including apostasy—renouncing Islam—blasphemy, witchcraft, prostitution, and even adultery are punishable by death, often by public beheading.
Abroad, Saudi Arabia leads a U.S.-backed coalition intervening in Yemen's civil war, in which nearly 400,000 people have been killed. Despite pledging to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" during his 2020 presidential campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden has, like his predecessors going back to the first half of the 20th century, continued friendly and highly lucrative relations with the monarchy.
\u201c\u201c[Saudis] are scary motherf-ckers to get involved with. We know they killed [Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay.\u201d - Phil Mickelson. Within a day, he apologized to the Saudi Royal Family for these comments.\u201d— Dave Zirin (@Dave Zirin) 1686081241
According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the 2018 kidnapping and brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist with permanent U.S. residency. Biden angered many human rights advocates by moving to protect the crown prince from accountability.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently in Saudi Arabia, where he met with bin Salman in Jeddah Tuesday. Blinken said the pair "discussed deepening economic cooperation, especially in the clean energy and technology fields," while emphasizing that "our bilateral relationship is strengthened by progress on human rights."
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