Chaos and death among refugees in Lesbos

From the Greek Left Review:

Life in Lesbos: “The Children’s Feet Are Rotting – You Guys Have One Month and Then All These People Will Be Dead”

“There are thousands of children here and their feet are literally rotting, they can’t keep dry, they have high fevers and they’re standing in the pouring rain for days on end. You have one month guys, and then all these people will be dead”.

→ read full story at Greek Left Review.

As More Children Drown, Volunteers on Lesbos Say Rescues Are Left Largely to Them

“We have lines of children half dead waiting to be hung upside down so we can pound the water out of their tiny lungs — boat after boat,’’ Trace Myers, a volunteer from England, wrote on her Facebook page. “We have ambulances, wailing, soaked, terrified people.”

→ read full story at Greek Left Review.

Heroes of our time: the man who rescues slaves from DAESH

I was really moved when I watched this documentary yesterday. It is about the plea of the women enslaved by the so-called Islamic State (DAESH) and the former smuggler who works tirelessly to rescue them, Abu Shuja. Must watch:

Source: Russia Today.

Fukushima latest

Some of the latest (and of course disturbing) news on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

Tokyo suburb contamination worse than near Fukushima Daiichi

The data collected by a new study on radioactive pollution in Japan (→ LINK, open access) shows that some areas of Tokyo (Kashima) have levels of cesium contamination four times worse than some sites just two kilometers from the devastated nuclear plant. 

→ EneNews.

Tokyo governor: Fukushima is "NOT under control"

Tokyo governor Naoki Inose declared that: the leakage of contaminated water is not under control necessarily at this stage. 

The Town Assembly of Namie (Fukushima), in an unanimous decision, also protested PM Shinzo Abe's claims of the catastrophe being "under control", claims made to influence the Olympic games decision but which bear no resemblance to reality. 

→ Asahi Shimbun, EneNews.

Radioactive scrap metal seized in China

A shipment of radioactive scrap metal from Japan was seized by port authorities in China.

→ Simply Info.

Russia to extend ban of Japanese seafood imports

Russia will continue rejecting the import of Japanese seafood from NE Japan, in line with a similar recent decision by South Korea.

→ Voice of Russia.

Another illegal dump of radioactive material

Hundreds of tons of radioactive waste (cesium-tainted wood chips reading up to 3000 Bq/kg) were found near Japan's biggest lake (Lake Biwa) in yet another case of mafioso crime against health and ecology.

→ EneNews.

Refugees forgotten in abandoned school

Some 100, mosly elderly, refugees from Futaba Machi have been forgotten by the Japanese authorities in an abandoned school building. 

→ EXSKF.

Palestine: Zionist troops murder three in Qalandiya refugee camp, including UN employee

Not in the mass disinformation media again. 

On August 26, colonial troops attacked the Qalandiya refugee camp, near Jerusalem, in full force, shooting live fire of illegal ammunition (dum-dum bullets, illegal since more than a century ago!) against the inhabitants who could barely hurl stones in self-defense. 

Three people were killed: Jihad Aslan (20), Younis Jahjouh (22) and Rubeen Abdulrahman Zayid (34, URWA worker). Other 18 people were injured, including five minors, 12 of them required surgery. 

The pretext for the aggression was a search for Yousef al-Khatib, who had been released from prison by the very same colonial authorities just weeks ago. They arrested a relative of al-Khatib by error, beating him badly while zip-cuffed and blindfolded. 

Al-Khatib was eventually arrested and they drove his relative back to the camp to identify him. I could barely recognize him. They had broken his nose and knocked out his teeth, and his hand was broken, he explained later. 

Al-Khatib is currently arrested without charges at the Ofer military prison.

The Zionist forces claimed that they were shot at but this is rejected by the witnesses. Yehya Mteir, relative of one of the deadly victims, said:

There was only one tear gas canister fired at the beginning and one at the end, but other than that, it was all live ammunition and dumdum bullets.

There were so many people in the streets because everyone was on the way to work; usually they come in while we’re asleep. The only means of fighting we had were rocks. We had no guns or Molotov cocktails, none of us.

Even such a tendentious organization as Human Right Watch admits this version of events:

All of the people we interviewed strongly denied that Palestinians shot [live ammunition], or said that they were not aware of it,” Bill Van Esveld, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Electronic Intifada. “If the Israeli military has evidence of this, they should make it public.”

UNRWA in turn explained what happened to their worker A. Zayid:

“We have nine independent eyewitness accounts which all confirm that he was unarmed, he was not involved in violence, not engaged in throwing stones, and yet he was shot with a bullet through the chest, no questions,” UNRWA spokesperson Gunness told The Electronic Intifada.

Similar reports exist regarding other victims: absolutely gratuitous murdering.

Source and more details: Electronic Intifada.

Zionist Fascist forces continue genocide with unprovoked attack against civilians in Gaza

Gaza, the largest concentration camp on Earth, hosting in very bad conditions a large fraction of those who were expelled from what is now Israel, has been once again attacked by their racist colonial torturers.

At least 11 people, mostly civilians, have been killed, while more than one hundred have been injured, by a most indiscriminate Zionazi attack against the civilian (mostly refugees from Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel) population of the ghetto.

Among the deadly victims are two children (11 years and seven months of age respectively) and one pregnant woman.

The cowardly and criminal Zionist forces attacked with rocket launchers and air bombings.

Source: Público[es], Window into Palestine.

Some scheduled protests worldwide (from Mondoweiss):

Here is a list of Emergency Global Actions for Gaza being planned around the world. Please tweet @southsouth or @riverdryfilm or email southissouth@gmail.com to add events to the list.

TONIGHT, Wed 14 Nov

• Jerusalem | Damascus Gate, 7:00 p.m.
• Ramallah | al Manara Square, 7:00 p.m.
• Bethlehem | Manger Square, 7:30 p.m.
• Tel Aviv | Ehud Barak's doorstep, 8:00 p.m.
• Istanbul | al Fateh Mosque, 9:00 p.m.
• London | Israeli Embassy
• Quebec | Hall Building, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, 6:00 p.m. [link]

TOMORROW, Thu 15 Nov

• George Mason Uni | Free Speech Sq, 1:30 p.m. [link]
• Nashville | Centennial Park, 3:00 pm [link]
• Washington D.C. | Israeli Embassy, 3:30 p.m.
• San Francisco | Israeli Consulate, 5:15 p.m. [link]
• New York | Israeli Consulate, 42nd Street & 2nd Ave, 5:00 p.m. [link]
• Boston | 4:30 p.m., Copley Square [link]
• Chicago | Outside Obama HQ, 130 E Randolph Street, 4:00 p.m. [link]
• Montreal | Hall Building, Concordia University, 5:00 p.m.
• Vancouver | The Art Gallery, 5:00 p.m.
• Toronto | Israeli Consulate, 180 Bloor Street (east of St. George TTC), 6:00 p.m.
• London | Israeli Embassy, 5:30 p.m.
• Brighton (UK) | Outside EcoStream HQ, 12:00 p.m. [twitter]
• Brighton (UK) | Victoria Gardens, 5:30 p.m. [link]
• Bradford (UK) | 4.30 p.m. [link]
• Oxford (UK)  | Cornmarket Street, 4:00 p.m. [link]
• Dublin | Israeli Embassy, 5:30 p.m.
• Belfast | City Hall, 7:00 p.m.
• Paris | Ministry of Justice, 6 p.m. [link]
• Jerusalem | Outside Hebrew University, 12:00 p.m.
• Beirut | Cola, 10:00 a.m.
• Sydney | Parmatta Town Hall, 6pm [link]

FRIDAY, 16 Nov

• Cairo | Tahrir Square
• Washington D.C. | March from State Department, 6:00 p.m.
• San Francisco | Israeli Consulate, 4:00 p.m. [link]
• Manchester (UK) | Picadilly Gardens, 5 p.m.

SATURDAY, 17 Nov

• Stockholm | 3 p.m. [link]
• Oslo | 3pm [link]

(Provisional news item - gotta go).

Ship to Gaza attacked by Zionist troops

The Zionist armed forces attacked the Estelle in international waters (N 31º26' - E 33º45') at 10:15 CET. No less than five ships took part in the operation, nothing else is known as of yet of this act of piracy. 

Source: Ship to Gaza Sweden (the website has also been subject to intermittent DOS attack along the day).

See also: solidarity videos.

64 years from the Nakba

Huge flag deployed in Gaza

Today the Nakba (catastrophe, Palestinian equivalent to the Holocaust) was commemorated with sadness and rage in Palestine and in the exile.

This video illustrates with photos how a perfectly normal Mediterranean country known as Palestine since some 2000 years ago was erased from the map to make room to European colonists from certain sect and create a new crusader racist state known as Israel. How its inhabitants were expelled at gunpoint and never again allowed to return.

Some 80 people have been injured only in Ramallah in the clashes between Zionist colonial forces and dignified Palestinian People who refuses to die. ··> Uruknet.

Clashes today in the outskirts of Jerusalem (RT):

Palestinian refugees in Egypt and elsewhere, including the largest concentration camp on Earth, Gaza Strip, don't renounce to their right to return, nominally upheld by the UN but systematically sabotaged by the Zionist colony and its de facto motherland: NATO. ··> Uruknet.

Update: here in Bilbao there was also some informative and solidarity action:

Source: SA[eu].

From the Net: 'Japan's nuclear evacuees denied Canadian refuge' (Calgary Sun)

A Japanese woman who claimed exposure to radiation from damaged nuclear reactors has been denied refugee status in Canada almost one year after that nation was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami that left more than 100,000 people homeless.

The woman’s identity has not been released by an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) since she’s seeking asylum in this country. She is among several dozen Japanese nationals who filed refugee claims to stay in Canada following the disaster and is one of the first decisions to be reached by the IRB.

“The claimant feared risks of exposure to radiation,” an IRB member said in a ruling. “She was not convinced by the Japanese government’s assurances of safety from radiation.”

The woman was one of hundreds of Japanese citizens who sought refuge in other countries following the March 11, 2011 catastrophe caused by a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that left more than 15,000 dead and nearly 3300 missing.

... full story at Calgary Sun (found via EneNews).