Friday, June 14, 2019

Palestinians warn of hunger strike as Israel reneges on promises

Tamara Nassar -14 June 2019

Palestinians demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in front of the Red Cross office in Gaza City on 10 June.

Mahmoud AjjourAPA images

Palestinian prisoners are threatening to launch a hunger strike in Ashkelon prison after Israel failed to implement concessions from the last protest.

This comes as prison authorities moved some 80 prisoners to Ramon prison in the southern Naqab region of Israel on Monday, where there are jamming devices that block phone reception in certain wings to prevent Palestinians from communicating with the outside world.

The transferred prisoners are demanding that the devices be deactivated and that prisoners be allowed to spend the day in wings where they are not installed so that they can use their mobile phones.

In April, Palestinian prisoners refused food for eight days in protest of punitive measures imposed by prison authorities, including frequent transfers.

Prisoners suspended their hunger strike only after Israel reportedly agreed to the majority of demands, including the removal of the phone jammers and the installation of four public telephone booths in every prison.

The Israel Prison Service “is planning to install these next month, but technical difficulties may cause a delay of a few months,” according to Tel Aviv daily Haaretz, which cited unnamed sources.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club published the renewed list of demands on Wednesday.

They concern basic rights Israel denies prisoners, including hot water, regular access to books and clothes, the right to take pictures with family members and to buy fresh fruits and vegetables without restrictions.

69 days without food

Palestinian prisoner Hassan Awewi suspended his hunger strike after 69 days without food.

Awewi, 35, is from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

He was arrested by Israeli occupation forces on 15 January and issued a six-month administrative detention order – imprisonment without charge or trial.

He began refusing food on 2 April in protest of his administrative detention and demanded to be released.

Israeli occupation forces transferred Awewi from the Nitzan-Magen prison to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon after severe deterioration in his health and significant weight loss.

Palestinian prisoner Hassan Awewi. (Addameer)

He suspended his hunger strike on Sunday after an agreement with the Israeli military court, his lawyer toldprisoners rights group Addameer.

“According to the agreement, Awewi will be released after one more renewal of his detention,” Addameer said.

Israeli prison authorities subjected Awewi to several punitive measures to try to stop his hunger strike, including isolating him, transferring him to different prisons and denying him family and legal visits, according to the solidarity group Samidoun.

The frequent transfer of prisoners is a form of abuse, during which they are transported in tiny metal cages with arms and legs chained, over long journeys in a vehicle known as the bosta.

Awewi, a father of three, has spent a total of three years in Israeli jails, including time under administrative detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Awewi’s mother joined him in a solidarity hunger strike a couple of days before he suspended his own fast:

View image on Twitter

شبكة قدس | الأسرى@asranews

والدة الأسير حسن العويوي تواصل إضرابها عن الطعام دعماً وإسناداً لنجلها المضرب من 69 يوماً.

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8:14 AM - Jun 9, 2019

Another Palestinian prisoner, Mutaz Obeido, has entered his second week of hunger strike also in protest of his administrative detention.

Obeido, 40, is from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. He uses a wheelchair because of injuries related to an arrest in 2011.

Due to his severe injuries, he spent approximately three years at the Ramle prison clinic, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Obeido was being held at the Naqab prison but has since been transferred to solitary confinement at the Ohalei Kedar prison.

Imprisoned journalist

Israel’s Ofer military court sentenced Palestinian journalist Lama Khater to 13 months in prison and a fine of more than $1000.

Khater was arrested from her home in Hebron in July last year and Israel has harshly interrogated her since then.

View image on Twitter

شبكة قدس | الأسرى@asranews

معتقلة بتاريخ 24/7/2018..هيئة الأسرى: الاحلال يحكم على الأسيرة لمى خاطر (43) عاماً من الخليل بالسجن لـ13 شهراً وغرامة مالية بقيمة 4 آلاف شاقل.

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6:15 AM - Jun 10, 2019

Anti-Syrian refugee sentiment ramps up in increasingly hostile Lebanon

From xenophobic statements by Lebanon's foreign minister to hostile public campaigns, Syrians are feeling less accepted than ever

By Kareem Chehayeb-14 June 2019

On 8 June, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil posted a video on Twitter depicting a few dozen supporters of his political party chanting the national anthem in front of a restaurant.

But this was not a celebratory occasion - they were protesting against the restaurant’s management hiring Syrian workers.

That same day, Bassil’s political party, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), announced that volunteers from its youth wing would campaign to shut down businesses that employ Syrian refugees and non-Lebanese nationals.

Flyers were distributed across Beirut, calling on Lebanese to send photos and videos as evidence of businesses employing Syrians.

'Our lives matter': Lebanon’s migrant workers fight for their rights

They read: “Protect Lebanese workers and file a complaint about violators. Syria is safe for return and Lebanon can no longer take it.”

While Bassil’s controversial comments on Twitter and in speeches in recent years are not an anomaly, statements in recent weeks have been met with some hostility.

This includes a tweet on 7 June, where he said, “our affiliation to the Lebanese is above any other”, adding that it was “genetic” and that this national affiliation is about “integration” among Lebanese “while [also] refusing refugees and the displacement”.

The foreign minister’s comments were met with two opposing social media campaigns.

One supported Bassil’s comments, viewing them as patriotic, while the other called for his resignation, with some people directly comparing the foreign minister to US President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.

A moral obligation

Those who were outraged by Bassil’s comments have taken to the streets to protest what they described as hate speech.

“This [hate speech] is not new,” protestor Maya Ammar told Middle East Eye.

“But when you have an organised campaign by a political party backed by the media and state security, this is an escalation.”

Ammar was among around 100 people protesting in downtown Beirut on Wednesday against what they see as racist and xenophobic incitement against refugees.

Lebanese protestors in Beirut decry comments they describe as xenophobic and racist towards Syrian refugees by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and other officials (MEE/Kareem Chehayeb)

Most people who attended the demonstration stood silently, holding signs and banners denouncing hate speech, while others directly targeted the foreign minister himself.

“I don’t think this protest is going to change anything,” Ammar said. “But it’s important that [we] stand in solidarity with these workers who feel unsafe being there themselves.”

Another protestor in attendance, Jean Kassir, told MEE that the Lebanese had a “moral obligation” to protest against the inflammatory rhetoric towards refugees.

'We have to expose the lies that are being said about the extent of the economic impact of Syrian refugees'

- Jean Kassir, protester

“We also have to expose the lies that are being said about the extent of the economic impact of Syrian refugees on our economy, as well as not mentioning any of the positives,” the young Lebanese activist said.

“We have to stand against the hate speech coming from senior Lebanese officials, including the foreign minister.”

Bassil, his party, and those who sympathise with the initiative, claim the seemingly xenophobic campaign is not racist but simply clamping down on violations of Lebanese labour law, which restricts Syrians to only a handful of jobs.

Protestors told MEE that the situation is not as straightforward as has been presented.

Ammar sees the labour law as “racist” and believes that it is unfair that Syrian refugees are unable to work most jobs in Lebanon while also being unable to register under the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) following a government decision in 2015.

If registered with UNHCR, Syrians are entitled to aid and benefits such as food rations, subsidies and greater freedom of movement.

Palestinian refugees allegedly banned from AFC Cup match in Lebanon

“[Syrian refugees] can’t register as refugees nor as documented workers,” Ammar said. “So what do they want these human beings to do?”

Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun, often claim that the large population of Syrian refugees weighs on Lebanon’s limited resources and infrastructure, while competing with Lebanon’s labour force at lower wages.

They cite Syrian refugees – which number around a million in Lebanon, a quarter of the country’s population – as a key source of the ongoing economic hardship.

Kassir, however, sees this as a shortsighted narrative.

“The government is using the refugee crisis as an excuse for the problems that [economically] vulnerable communities face,” he said, pointing to the country’s northern Akkar and eastern Bekaa regions.

“These areas were neglected prior to the refugee crisis.”

Fearing forced returns

“There’s been seven or eight years of xenophobia [towards refugees in Lebanon],” Yazan, a Syrian-Canadian and six-year resident of Beirut, solemnly told MEE.

“I guess the urgency we’re seeing now comes from the discussion about refugee returns.”

While curfews, encampment raids and evictions, often seen as retaliation for attacks by militant groups, are commonplace in Lebanon, recent events indicate that they are increasing.

In less than two weeks, 25,000 Syrian refugees were evicted from their homes.

On 9 June in Arsal, northeastern Lebanon, over 5,600 structures housing Syrian refugees were destroyed following a decision from Lebanon’s military-affiliated Higher Defence Council determining that the concrete-based structures are illegal.

Lebanon has outlawed the construction of permanent structures to house Syrian refugees.

Two girls walking past a demolished schack in a refugee housing in the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, in the Bekaa valley (AFP) — Two girls walking past a demolished shack in refugee housing in the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, in the Bekaa valley (AFP)

According to international humanitarian organisation Save the Children, around 15,000 children risk homelessness. It expects hundreds of other families to be evicted for similar reasons across Lebanon’s eastern provinces.

More recently, around 700 Syrian refugees were forced to flee Deir al-Ahmar, a town in Lebanon’s east, following an altercation between some of the Syrians and Lebanon’s Civil Defence.

UNHCR told local media that this was a form of “collective punishment”, adding that refugees were not allowed to return to their tents to pick up personal documents, medicine and other belongings.

Local governments have imposed curfews on Syrian refugees, claiming that this would prevent violence and altercations due to tensions between them and host communities. One mayor even said that some residents wanted to burn down refugee camps.

'You wouldn’t see the authorities stop a Range Rover on the street at night to check if the driver and passengers are Syrian or not'

- Yazan, Syrian refugee

Yazan feels less safe and more uncomfortable in Lebanon than ever before, but believes that Syrian refugees who are of lower socio-economic standing, including agricultural workers, are at even greater risk.

“When [the Lebanese government] talks about Syrians, they are talking about that particular class,” he said.

“You wouldn’t see the authorities stop a Range Rover on the street at night to check if the driver and passengers are Syrian or not.”

Amnesty International Lebanon researcher Sahar Mandour said there is cause to be concerned about the increased hostilities towards Syrian refugees.

“Refugees are telling me that their situation is bad and they do want to return, but don’t return to Syria because they fear for their lives,” she told MEE.

Mandour urged Lebanon to respect the rights of refugees and to stop “harassing” them.

'I just want to survive': Syrian refugees in Lebanon weather storm after storm

Stuck in legal limbo, unable to make ends meet and losing their makeshift homes, pressure on Syrians to return to their war-torn country after eight years of displacement is ratcheting up.

“Most Syrians obviously want to go back home,” Yazan said, adding that the continued conflict in Syria stops them from doing so.

He cited ongoing air strikes in Idlib, instability in Syria’s eastern cities, and allegations of harassment, forced conscription, and torture by the Syrian government as some of the factors that obstruct safe returns.

Ammar said it was shocking and ironic to hear these calls for return to Syria with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, considering his country’s previous 15-year military presence in Lebanon, often referred to as an occupation.

“It’s baffling when you have people who call for their return to Syria, knowing that they have [previously] tasted oppression from the Syrian regime.”

How online activists are contributing to Ireland’s immigration debate

Paraic O'Brien-14 Jun 2019Correspondent

Ireland’s population is booming. This year is expected to see the sharpest rise for a decade.

Around one in six people now living in Ireland wasn’t born there, while tens of thousands of Irish citizens left to seek work abroad after the financial crash in 2008.

All this has sparked a fierce debate over immigration, with some groups claiming Ireland’s culture is in some way under threat and a handful of online activists apparently influenced by America’s alt right.

We have been to the town of Longford to investigate.

Doctors to widen strike demanding improved safety after attack

A doctor holds a placard at a government hospital during a strike demanding security after the recent assaults on doctors by the patients' relatives, in Agartala, India, June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey

Rupak De Chowdhuri, Shounak Dasgupta-JUNE 14, 2019

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian Medical Association called for a nationwide strike on Monday, stepping up protests by medical staff demanding better security at hospitals after an attack on doctors in Kolkata.

The move could paralyse hundreds of government-run health facilities across India. Thousands of doctors across the country went on a strike on Friday.

West Bengal, of which Kolkata is capital, has been the worst hit by the strike with at least 13 big government hospitals affected.

The protests were launched in response to an attack at the NRS Medical College in Kolkata on Monday that left three junior doctors seriously injured after a dispute with a family whose relative had died.

Doctors demanding better security began a strike but their action was confined to the state. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned them on Thursday, saying police did not strike when one of their colleagues was killed.

Banerjee’s remarks, which included a warning that junior doctors would be evicted from their hostels if they did not go back to work, triggered a nationwide reaction.

The IMA said the “barbaric” attack at the NRS reflected a national problem and called for a countrywide protest. It also demanded legislation to safeguard doctors.

Nearly 30,000 doctors were on a one-day strike on Friday, most in West Bengal, New Delhi and Maharashtra, according to figures proved by medical associations.

The IMA had previously called for a protest on Friday, but later in the day asked for the protests to continue over the weekend, and a nationwide withdrawal of non-essential services in all health care institutions on June 17.

All emergency and casualty services will continue to function, IMA, which represents nearly 350,000 doctors in the country, said.

The federal health minister Harsh Vardhan called for doctors to be protected.

“The government must pass a law to make any attack on doctors a non-bailable offence with minimum 12 years of jail,” Vardhan, who is himself a doctor, said on Twitter.

India spent an estimated 1.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare in 2017/18, among the lowest proportions in the world. Many millions of Indians depend on the cheap but inadequate public health system.

Saradamani Ray, whose 77-year old father is a patient at the NRS Medical College, said she would have to move him because of the strike.

“I will have to take my father somewhere else for his dialysis, maybe a private hospital,” she told Reuters.

“It will cause a lot of financial strain, but there’s nothing I can do. I will have to pay.”

Tattoo parlours pose infection risk, warn health experts

14 June 2019

Shops offering tattoos and piercings pose an infection risk, and laws on who works in them should be tightened, say public health experts.

At present, anyone in the UK can set up a parlour and offer procedures without proper training, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health says.

But with one in five adults now having a tattoo, more should be done, it says, to protect the public.

NHS England said higher standards were "long overdue".

"It shouldn't be left to pick up the pieces from dodgy tattoo parlours who don't take infection control seriously," its medical director Prof Stephen Powis said.

The Royal Society's report looks at so-called special procedures - tattooing, cosmetic piercing, acupuncture and electrolysis - which have all grown in popularity in recent years.

The procedures involve piercing the skin and, without good care by the technician and customer, bacteria and other organisms can get into the body, risking infection.

The report describes how a teenager with an infection in an ear-piercing ended up being put on a drip and having the top of her ear removed.

Infections can come from microorganisms living on the skin or those introduced to the body through dirty needles, the report says. These can include hepatitis, tuberculosis, syphilis and HIV.

Outbreaks of infection have been linked to tattooing and piercing in the UK and all four special procedures have caused allergic reactions, it adds.

What are the side effects?

While most people don't experience any negative effects, a survey of nearly 900 people found a small number did (18%) - with the most common issues being burning or swelling afterwards.

Two per cent said they contracted a skin infection while one in 10 of those with side effects said they needed medical treatment.

A small minority of people experience negative side-effects from tattoos and piercings

In the same survey, 98% of people said training in infection control should be a legal requirement for anyone carrying out the procedures.

But this does not currently exist anywhere in the UK.

What are the laws on these procedures around the UK?

Different parts of the country have different laws and regulations in place.

Wales is the only part of the UK where a compulsory licensing scheme for tattoo parlours and others offering similar services is being planned.

This means technicians who offer the procedures will need to have an approved infection control qualification, and this information will be put into a national database.

This stops technicians moving counties and setting up new businesses if they have a poor history of infection.

Scotland also has a licensing scheme for business owners but there is no requirement for technicians to have a qualification.

In most areas of England and Northern Ireland, business only have to fill in a registration form to open up a shop. The report says these systems are "outdated and do not provide any reassurance to the public that the business they are visiting is safe".

The Department of Health and Social Care in England said local authorities had the power "to regulate the hygiene and cleanliness of tattoo and piercing providers if they judge there is a risk to health and safety".

A spokesperson said: "We are committed to improving the safety of cosmetic procedures through better training for practitioners and providing clear information so people can make informed decisions."

Ministers recently launched a campaign to make sure people were fully aware of the risks of cosmetic procedures.

What else does the report recommend?

The Royal Society for Public Health's report calls for:

non-surgical cosmetic procedures like dermal fillers to be made illegal for under 18s
any infections linked to special procedures to be reported to local councils or health protections teams
tattoo and piercing equipment to only be sold to people with a licence or registration documents
dermal fillers to be included in UK laws around special procedures, eg tattooing, piercing etc

Shirley Cramer, chief executive of RSPH, said: "We would call on the rest of the UK to follow the example set by Wales to ensure infection control and other health risks are minimised, by introducing a mandatory licensing scheme which will require practitioners in place to ensure that the risk of complications is reduced."

Prof Powis said: "Getting a tattoo or piercing might appear cool, but ending up with hepatitis or sepsis certainly isn't.

"All organisations involved need to take their responsibilities seriously, particularly when it comes to young people, and higher standards are long overdue."

NHS England has called for all providers of cosmetic procedures, such as fillers and injections, to be officially registered by the new Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners.

Plastic surgeons support the call for non-surgical cosmetic procedures to be restricted to over-18s, unless there is a medical need.

But the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons said they didn't go far enough.

"The risks associated with cosmetic fillers are far-reaching and, if not administered correctly, the complications can be severe and even life-changing.

"Practitioners must be fully qualified to not only prevent infection, but ensure that only a regulated, high-quality filler product is administered to patients that have been made fully aware of the risks of their procedure."