Human Rights

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The gunman who nursed a seething hatred of his California workplace amassed an arsenal and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at the home he tried to burn down before killing nine co-workers at a rail yard, authorities said after searching the residence.

Samuel James Cassidy’s home in San Jose was a hoarder’s nest of clutter and weaponry that included 12 guns, nearly two dozen cans of gasoline and a dozen or more suspected Molotov cocktails, Santa Clara County sheriff’s officials said Friday.

28 May 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International has called on Israel to cancel plans to forcibly displace two Palestinian families from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa area of the Silwan neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Saleh Higazi, said: "For years Israel has sought to expand illegal settlements in the area of Silwan, forcibly displacing more than 200 Palestinians from their homes."

28 May 2021; MEMO: The UN Human Rights Council yesterday agreed to launch an open-ended international investigation into violations and "systematic" abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories following 11 days of Israeli bombardment on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

28 May 2021; MEMO: An international peacekeeping force must be deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories to protect civilians from repeated Israeli aggression, Pakistan's Minister of Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain demanded yesterday.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The Israeli Magistrate's Court in Nazareth yesterday indicted Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy chairman of the Islamic Movement in Israel and a member of the Arab Follow-Up Committee, and extended his detention until Sunday.

The public prosecution filed charges against Sheikh Al-Khatib accusing him of "incitement to terrorism, violence, and identifying with a terrorist organisation" in reference to the Islamic Movement which was outlawed by Israel in 2015.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The head of Hamas movement in Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, has described the ceasefire agreement recently concluded with Israel as "fragile" and having not addressed the root causes of the problem.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The Saudi Arabian academic and opposition figure Saeed Bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi has revealed that the authorities in Riyadh have recently arrested another thirteen activists because of their "human rights activities and communication with activists abroad." He did not reveal the names of those detained.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is said to have offered to help rebuild the Gaza Strip provided Hamas does not intervene in the reconstruction efforts, Israel's Kan channel reported yesterday.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said yesterday that her organisation has not seen any evidence that the civilian buildings bombed by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip had been used for military purposes.

28 May 2021; MEMO: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said yesterday that the international community's failure to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes encourages it to keep committing more atrocities against Palestinians.