More Nights than Days

A Survey of Writings of Child Genocide Survivors. By Yudit Kiss Publisher’s Blurb: This is a unique exploration of the experience of children who survived the Holocaust—including Roma and Sinti victims—and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. Children are among the principal victims of armed conflicts and slaughters; nonetheless, they perceive events through the… Read More More Nights than Days

Despite the truce, people in Gaza will keep dying: this horrifying death toll must never be forgotten

Comparison with other conflicts paints a harrowing picture of children being killed in unforgivable numbers Owen Jones Even if the truce between Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas results in the promised four-day pause in hostilities – or longer – the horror enveloping Gaza in terms of lives lost is worse than many people think. Among those who… Read More Despite the truce, people in Gaza will keep dying: this horrifying death toll must never be forgotten

The Revolutionary Temper by Robert Darnton review – a nation at breaking point

The ancien regime”, as applied to 18th-century France, always sounds like such a solid proposition. It speaks of arbitrary power, stiffened with protocol, girded by gold, topped by a dusting of icing sugar (you could always spot a noble by their terrible teeth) and utterly stuck in its ways. Until, that is, revolution arrived in 1789… Read More The Revolutionary Temper by Robert Darnton review – a nation at breaking point

Israel has long wanted Palestinians out of Gaza: my father saw it first-hand

Events point to Israel’s strategy of emptying the north of Gaza of its Palestinian population, with both the massive bombardment that has damaged at least 222,000 residential units, and the refusal to accept a ceasefire so essential life-saving provisions cannot enter. All this shows the massive pressure on the Palestinian population to move south, thus ethnically… Read More Israel has long wanted Palestinians out of Gaza: my father saw it first-hand

Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

First posted May 04, 2020 Unit 731 Museum: UNIT 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development wing of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. Commanded by General Shiro Ishii, an officer in the Kwantung Army, the exact number… Read More Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

Unworkable: Swapping Palestinian workers with Indians

Bharat Bhushan The government has denied that there are requests by Israel to export 100,000 Indians to replace Palestinian workers. Glossing over such reports, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said the government was not aware of any specific requests and if taken up, the initiative would be a “long-term” issue. Yet, India… Read More Unworkable: Swapping Palestinian workers with Indians

The Roots of Antigypsyism. To the Holocaust and After

NB: The victims of the death camps whom most of us don’t know or talk about. DS Ian Hancock Di zelbike zun vos farvayst di layvnt,farshvartst oykh’m Tsigayner. – “The same sun that whitens the linen also turns the Gypsy black.” – Yiddish proverb “One exhibit [at the Holocaust Museum at Buchenwald] quotes SS chief Heinrich Himmler… Read More The Roots of Antigypsyism. To the Holocaust and After

Israel’s Million-dollar Question: What to Do With the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Carolina Landsmann This column isn’t about Hamas. It doesn’t address the question of what Hamas wants and doesn’t try to put the events of October 7 into their historical context, much less into their moral context. What’s theirs is theirs. This column also isn’t about the more general question of what the Palestinians want and… Read More Israel’s Million-dollar Question: What to Do With the West Bank and Gaza Strip

In a distressing world, moments of beauty seem elusive. I found one in a Sydney theatre

Paul Daley Given humankind’s recent showcasing of its infinite capacity to inflict misery upon itself, joy sometimes seems so elusive as to be borderline extinct. It sometimes feels near impossible to find moments of beauty, let alone a line of them, in such a distressing world. And, so, given that beauty may now be a… Read More In a distressing world, moments of beauty seem elusive. I found one in a Sydney theatre