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Friday, April 17, 2009

JAC Joins Senator Boxer in Global Effort to Eliminate Abuse of Women

All over the world, women are being discriminated against, abused and violated in the most egregious ways. Girls have acid thrown at their faces for committing the crime of seeking an education. Women are gang raped, while their government turns a blind eye. Girls are sold into sexual slavery by families that consider them expendable. Men kill family members who are rape victims as a way to restore "honor" to their families. Girls are subjected to sexual mutilation in order to make them acceptable for marriage. Women are stoned for sexual crimes for which men receive no punishment. Women receive less money than men for doing the same work. They are denied birth control and proper medical care. And the examples go on and on...

Line of text in abortion bill draws political line in the sand

Topeka — It’s just one line in a 16-page bill, but abortion rights advocates say it represents a callous overreach by anti-abortionists.

Under Senate Bill 218, a woman seeking an abortion must be informed at least 24 hours before the procedure that, “The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”

Israel and “the A Word?” You Must Be Joking.

For many outside of Israel, their perception of the country has been framed by the international media. They have allowed their opinions to be shaped by a constant stream of pictures and articles with one main idea: between Arabs and Jews there can be only hatred and violence. With this mindset, the delegates traveled to Haifa, Israel, one of the most beautiful cities on Earth, a place where beauty is about more than geography.

Muhammad al-Dura: Theater of the Absurd?

When ARD documentary filmmaker Esther Schapira viewed the now iconic images of Muhammad al-Dura and his father Jamal back in 2000 she felt there was more of a story to tell. So she set out to produce a film called How Soldiers Live with the Knowledge of Killing a Young Child. But during her research it emerged that this wasn’t simply the story of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers. “It wasn’t clear who killed him,” Schapira said. “But ultimately it appeared highly unlikely that he was killed by Israel.”