Common Dreams:
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday roundly condemned the United States embargo on Cuba for the 23rd consecutive year, calling for it to be lifted.
The nonbinding vote passed 188-2, with only the U.S. and Israel voting against it. As in the 2013 vote, Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained. While General Assembly resolutions cannot be enforced, the annual vote—which first passed in 1992—gives Cuba an opportunity to call for negotiations with the U.S. …
During the vote, several countries—including Iran, Bolivia, Mexico, and India—praised Cuba for its recent efforts in fighting the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. The island nation sent more than 600 doctors to Sierra Leone and the surrounding region, actions that the World Health Organization said were some of the ‘most important’ contributions by a single country.
—>Every year, our newspaper of record either ignores this important vote, or buries it so few readers ever become aware of the US isolation when it comes to Cuba. 188 countries condemning the illegal US embargo, and only 2 supporting it, the US and Israel. This year, the NYT hid the story on its “Editor’s Blog.”
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New York Times:
Our vote for the best whitewashing of Israeli apartheid in the last week. Sunday’s Arts and Leisure Section featured an article entitled ‘Turning Heads in Tel Aviv,’ which featured Shamel Pitts, a black, gay dancer who loves Israel so much he wants to ‘bring my life in Israel to my family and friends in Brooklyn.’
Israel, he claims, makes him feel more comfortable than New York in ‘learning what turns me on, how I like to move, what I believe in.’
Anything he doesn’t love about his new home? A lot of the article is about those terrible rocket attacks, and how he had to leave practice to spend a half hour in a bomb shelter. ‘It was all very extreme,’ the only downside to a truly wonderful place.
No mention of the racist and murderous treatment of the Palestinians, 5.5 million people denied their basic rights based on religion. No acknowledgement of the 500 children slaughtered by US supplied weaponry in Gaza while he was practicing his dance routines.
—>The NYT even uses its arts section to promote Israel as friendly to gays and people of color. Maybe ask the Bedouins, if you don’t believe what the rest of the world is saying about apartheid Israel.
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Common Dreams:
“Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai announced Wednesday that she is donating $50,000 to rebuild schools in Gaza. The amount represents the full proceeds of the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, sometimes called the "Children's Nobel," which the 17-year-old education activist was awarded in Sweden on Wednesday. …
‘I am donating these funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is performing heroic work to serve children in Gaza, in very difficult circumstances,’ she said.
‘The needs are overwhelming—more than half of Gaza’s population is under 18 years of age. They want and deserve quality education, hope and real opportunities to build a future,’ she added.
‘This funding will help rebuild the 83 schools damaged during the recent conflict. Innocent Palestinian children have suffered terribly and for too long,’ she said.”
—>The NYT cited a brief Associated Press notice regarding Malala’s gift to Gaza, but did not cover the story. Omitted from the AP story were Malala’s description of the terrible needs of the Palestinian children.
