Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai and American President, Richard Nixon at the official banquet in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People during the first visit of a US Leader to China, 1972.
The good news is that over the long term, freedom has spread to a diversity of countries too, including numerous ex-socialist countries, Latin American nations, one sub-Saharan African country (Mauritius) and several Asian countries that all belong to the top quartile of the freest countries in the index. Many are on the rise, and some, like Taiwan, have seen notable increases in freedom in recent years.
The past month has been marked by cataclysmic tremors in world politics, from the news that Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States of America to the ruling in November that legitimises settlements build on private Palestinian land in the West Bank. These watershed moments, though stemming from different contexts and significant in their own respective ways, herald a difficult new era for the international solidarity movement.
On the 29th November the United Nations commemorated International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; an annual affirmation of the organisation’s commitment to pursuing a lasting peace and justice in the region. In his speech to the assembly, Jan Eliasson, the Deputy Secretary General commended the efforts of the global solidarity movement in reaching historic milestones for the movement, such as the formal recognition of Palestine as an Observer State in 2012. However, Eliasson also acknowledged that the past decade has been characterised by symbols of solidarity rather than lasting measures to pursue peace.
As events on the world stage unfold, unfortunately the reality on the ground for Palestinian refugees remains woefully unchanged. With winter approaching, the situation is uncertain. Our fundraising team visited the Lebanese refugee camps in November to speak to staff from the Lebanon Field Office and see the conditions of the camps for themselves. You can read more about their trip here.
The winter stretches ahead of us, as the temperature drops and the nights draw in, it can be easy to forget about those for whom winter is a time of harshness, not comfort. This year, we aim to deliver aid to over 5000 Palestinian families, as well as to Syrian refugees displaced by the ongoing crisis. Only with your help can we equip those in need with vital supplies to see them through the winter. As we look ahead to 2017, let’s come together #ForPalestine and keep them out of the cold.
this has a very subtle “isn’t the west racist so you should sympathize with them less, the Ukrainians are less sympathetic because they’re benefiting from racism” message. Not openly stated…but you felt a bit less charitable and positive towards Europe and Ukrainians when you read it, didn’t you? That’s not an accident.
here’s the rest of the post with a partial list of Russian propaganda tactics currently being used:
this kind of stuff is not being posted/tweeted/passed around out of CONCERN for other groups of refugees. This stuff is being pushed specifically by Russia to get people to care LESS about THESE refugees. Look at the tweet. “Begrudge” is a really good word, isn’t it? It’s unusual, it sticks in your mind. “I don’t begrudge them” sort of implies a lot of people do, doesn’t it? Or even that maybe some people should. How interesting.
This. …Some of these old games go WAY back. :/
(Also, as a mildly interesting linguistic side note: colloquial Irish has a specific word for the local form of this: “begrudgery.” [Though the precise Irish-usage definition is a little more nuanced. Normally it indicates a reluctance or refusal to acknowledge someone’s accomplishments, because that person just might be thinking those accomplishments make them somehow better than you / than Average People.])
