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Nadia Rahman, Researcher and Policy Advisor in Amnesty International’s Gender, Sexuality and Identity Team

“You held my hand. Promised me a revolution. How did you forget me? How?” These lyrics by Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila echoed at a Cairo concert on a September evening in 2017. They are perhaps more devastatingly relevant today than they were three years ago. 

Sarah Hegazy, a queer feminist in the audience, probably felt a fleeting sense of freedom while watching a popular Arab band with an openly gay frontman sing to a packed audience in a conservative country, and she dared to raise the rainbow flag. Those brief moments of hope where she decided to unapologetically celebrate who she was, changed her life. And three years later, snatched it away too.  

"To my siblings - I tried to find redemption and failed, forgive me. To my friends - the experience [journey] was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me. To the world - you were cruel, to a great extent, but I forgive."

Amnesty International Canada is deeply concerned with and strongly opposes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to “annex” a large portion of the West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In the upcoming weeks, Israel is expected to “annex” at least 30% of the West Bank.

In May 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plan to “annex” parts of the Jordan Valley, namely the City of Jericho. It is expected that at least 60,000 Palestinians will be forced to leave their homes. Prime Minister Netanyahu has also announced that the displaced Palestinians would not be granted Israeli citizenship.

Israel’s “annexation” plans follow the January 2020 announcement by President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century”, which proposed areas of the occupied West Bank to be annexed by Israel.

By Daniella Barreto

Pride is a celebration of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Every year these communities host events to centre identities that are often pushed to the margins of society by creating spaces by and for themselves.

Usually, there are events around the world from large public parades and parties to smaller community gatherings. COVID-19 has forced many Pride organizers to cancel this year’s in-person events and look to alternative ways of celebrating. Regardless of its form, what remains at the foundation of the Pride movement is protest and a fight for human rights.

The history of colonization around the world is a story about control of land and perceived resources: the juggernaut of colonial power moving its way from territory to territory, continent to continent, claiming lands, resources, and people across the globe.

As this powerful system travelled around and gobbled up people to enslave, it also gobbled up the land that had been cleared of its rightful caretakers, land that was rich in quantity, quality and economic resources both above and below the soil. The two processes are connected: removing humans through whatever means, including forced displacement, labour, social collapse and infection; and asserting ownership over territory through violence, edicts, and renaming. All to gain economic, geographic, and political power.