Québec Government Canada Doctoral Research Scholarships for Foreign Students 2017/2018

Application Deadline: November 1st, 2016 | 

Offered annually? Yes

Announcement of Results: End of April

Scholarship Name: Doctoral research scholarships program for foreign students

Brief description: Research Fund of Quebec – Nature and Technology funded Doctoral Research Scholarships Program for International Students in the fields of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering at Québec University, Canada 2016-2017

Accepted Subject Areas

The scholarships are aimed at foreign students who had been preselected by a Québec university and who wish to carry out their doctoral studies in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering fields. To be eligible, applicants must specialize in the following areas:

•   Aerospace
•   Information and communication technologies
•   Health technologies
•   Genomics
•   Nanotechnologies

About Scholarship

The Doctoral Research Scholarships Program for Foreign Students (DE) of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et les technologies (FRQNT) aims to stimulate international student’s interest in beginning or pursuing doctoral studies in Québec and provide financial support to leading international Ph.D. candidates in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering fields.

Scholarship Type: Doctoral Scholarship in Canada

Eligibility: Candidates must:

• Meet all eligibility criteria by the competition deadline on November 1st, 2016.
• Have been preselected by a Québec university by September 23rd, 2016.
• Not have obtained a Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students from the Ministère de l’Education de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recheche (MEESR) or one of the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
• Not be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
• Not have submitted an application for permanent residence under Canadian immigration laws.

Selection Criteria: 

• Only students who have been preselected by a Québec university may apply to the competition.
• Universities may support two competition applications per year.
• Candidate’s preselection is the sole responsibility of the university. Information on preselection deadlines is available In the Toolbox.

Value of Scholarship: From $20,000$ to $60,000

Duration: 12 to 36 months

Eligible Countries: Foreign students

To be taken at: Any Québec University in Canada

How to apply

Visit the Scholarship Webpage for details

Google RISE Awards 2016 Application – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Deadline for applications: The Google RISE program is currently accepting applications through September 23, 2016

Brief Description: The RISE program supports and connects not-for-profit organizations around the world to increase equity in Computer Science education with a focus on girls, minorities who are historically underrepresented in the field, and youth from low-income communities.

Google believes that technology will continue to play an important role in shaping our future, and the youth of today will help innovate and drive these technologies for years to come.

We hope that all students will one day have the chance to reach their potential and achieve great things in science. To that end, we aspire to help students take one step closer to achieving their potential by offering organizational growth and development opportunities through the Google RISE Awards.

Value of Award: RISE Awards include:

• Capacity Building: Access to a 12-month capacity programme that exposes candidates to Google expertise
• Financial: Grants of $10,000 – $25,000
• Operational Support: Customised to the needs of the organisation such as volunteers or pro-bono consulting
• A community of Practice: Continued peer engagement through a community of practice connects awardees, alumni, and beyond so that communities around the world can learn from best practices and lessons learned.

Fields of Interest: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as Computer Science (CS)

Who is Eligible?: Organizations from around the globe who are working to promote and support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as Computer Science (CS). with emphasis on increasing engagement of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, girls, and under-represented minorities are eligible for consideration.

Program Guidelines:

• Google RISE Awards are specifically geared towards STEM and CS educational and outreach programs around the world
• Applications are encouraged from organizations and educational institutions regardless of the socio-economic status, race, or gender of the students they serve
• Please note that the RISE team is not able to provide one on one consultations during the review process (both prior to applying and after applications have been submitted) to ensure no bias is given to specific organizations

The following are countries eligible for RISE:

• Afghanistan, Åland Islands, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin,Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bonaire, Saba & Saint Eustatius, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde,Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos [Keeling] Island, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Congo, Republic of, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands [Islas Malvinas], Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia , Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Republic of,Madagascar, Malawi,, Malaysia, Maldives,Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique,Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn , Islands, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Saint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands,Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, Ukraine,United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

If you have additional questions about whether or not your organization meets these eligibility requirements, please contact: google-rise@google.com

How to Apply: To apply, please complete and submit this application by the deadline.

View Awards Webpage for details

NB: Be sure to read through the guidelines on the Google RISE Award pages before applying.

Nestle Nutrition Postgraduate Fellowship Program for Young Professionals – Up to 40,000CHF in Grants

Application Deadline: 1st October 2016. 

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Any scientific institution offering a program in the fields of Maternal and/or Child Health and Nutrition

Brief description: The Nestle Nutrition Institute Fellowship Program is offering Young professionals in healthcare the opportunity to study Nutrition and Maternal and/or Child Health in leading institutions.

Eligible Field of Study: Maternal and/or Child Health, Nutrition and any related field(s)

About the Award: The Fellowship offered by Nestle Nutrition Institute regularly offers young professionals from developing countries training in research skills and knowledge on Nutrition. Since 1981, more than five hundred (5oo) doctors and scientists have benefited from this fellowship and clinical grants in different ways, which have directly impacted the health sectors of Africa and other regions.

Offered Since: 1981

Type: Postgraduate Scholarship

Eligibility: 

• Potential candidates should submit an application describing their interest in participating in the NNI Research training Fellowship.
• Priority consideration for this prestigious fellowship will be given to candidates in junior positions from emerging countries.
• The candidates’ history of previous or alternate grants will be taken into consideration.
• Candidates will be notified of their eligibility by letter.
• The application form must be accompanied by the following:
  1. Curriculum Vitae,
  2. A plan of the proposed training/activity clearly indicating its specific outcomes and
  3. Two letters of recommendation (1 from the institution where the candidate is working and 1 from the host institution*).
  4. Letter stating intent to return to the home country upon completion of the training program
  5. Details of their current level of training

Selection Criteria:

• Fellowships are available for post graduate qualifications only
• Applicant has to be affiliated with an academic/clinical institution
• Successful candidates will be required to start their training within 1 year of being notified of the fellowship award
• Duration of the support for the research training lasts for a maximum of 12 months
• Upon certification, fellowship awardees must return to their home countries.

The Panel will not accept applications, which are submitted by:

• Candidates who have already spent more than 12 months outside their home country during the 3 years preceding the application. Exceptions could be made if the applicant can justify how this additional training will supplement the one(s) already obtained
• Candidates who have already left their country at the time of applying for the fellowship
• Candidates who have completed more than one half of any training programme they may already be enrolled in
• Candidates who, at the time of submitting their application, already have a grant from any other training program
• Applications will not be entertained if the applicant’s home country law prohibits the nature of this activity.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship:  The grant includes learning a specific laboratory technique, statistics, nutrition, etc. The NNI grant up to 40’000 CHF can be used to pay course registration fees, round trip travel to the host institution, lodging and living expenses and health insurance coverage for the duration of the course.The grant offer of 40’000 CHF is also given and can be used to pay course registration fees, round trip travel to the host institution, lodging and living expenses and health insurance coverage for the duration of the course.

Duration of Scholarship: Maximum of twelve (12) months

How to Apply: 

• Applications should be sent by email to NNI@nestle.com or by fax to + 41 21 924 2836.
• Applicants should plan to start their program not sooner than 3 months after the application deadline to give time for approval process and administrative arrangements with a host institution.
• Applicants are urged to submit only one application and for a single programme. If you have more than one project, decide which is your best option and submit that one.
• Applications without all documentation, including a letter of acceptance by the faculty at the hosting institution will not be considered.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Nestle Nutrition Institute

Important Notes: The NNI grant will be given to the Host Institution which will disburse it to the fellow. In no case will any money be given directly from the NNI to the fellow.

Before any money can be allocated to the research training fellowship, applicants will need to produce proof of health insurance for the country they will be visiting for the whole duration of stay.

Commonwealth Professional Fellowships for Developing Countries, 2017 UK

Application Deadline: 23.59 (GMT) on 12th September 2016.

Offered annually? Yes

Brief description: The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission is offering Research Fellowships for mid-career professionals of Developing Commonwealth Countries to study at a UK host organization.

Eligible Field of Study: Priority will be given to applications with practical relevance in the following broadly-defined areas:

Agriculture/fisheries/forestry
Economic growth
Education
Engineering/science/technology
Environment
Governance
Public health

About Scholarship: The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan is one of the largest  and  most  prestigious  scholarships schemes for international study in the world. Since it was established  in  1959,  around  30,000  individuals  have benefited – 24,000 of them have held awards funded by the  United  Kingdom,  managed  by  the  Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom (CSC)

Commonwealth  Professional  Fellowships  support  mid-career  professionals  from  developing  Commonwealth countries  to  spend  a  period  of  time  with  a  UK  host organisation  working  in  their  field  for  a  programme  of professional development.

Scholarship Type: Research Fellowship

Eligibility: To be eligible for these fellowship, candidate must:

• Be a citizen of a developing Commonwealth country, refugee, or British protected person
• Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country
• Have normally at least five years’ relevant work experience in a profession related to the subject of the application, by the proposed start of the fellowship
• Be available to start their fellowship within prescribed dates as stated on the CSC website
• Not have undertaken a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship in the last five years
• Not be seeking to undertake an academic programme of research or study in the UK. Academics are eligible to apply for the scheme, but only to undertake programmes of academic management, not research or courses relevant to their research subject

Organisations from any sector can apply either to host one or more Commonwealth Professional Fellows within their own organisation, or to nominate one or more Fellows to be hosted by another organisation with which they have links. To apply for these fellowships,organisations must:

• Be based in the UK
• Have set up a programme of activities for the fellowship
• Have identified a Fellow/Fellows who they wish to nominate, through existing networks or wider advertising
• Be able to demonstrate the capacity to set up and manage the fellowship(s) on a day-to-day basis

Selection Criteria: 2016 applications for Commonwealth Professional Fellowships will be judged on the following criteria:

• The extent to which the proposed Fellowship will ensure the transfer of skills relevant to the needs of a Commonwealth developing country
• The extent to which those skills will lead to practical benefits for the developing country following the Fellowship
• The extent to which the Fellowship will have a catalytic effect, either within the developing country concerned, or in establishing new relationships with the UK

Number of Scholarships: Several

Value of Scholarship: A commonwealth Fellowship covers the living expenses for the Fellow as well as a return airfare to the UK. It also provides funding support to the host organisation, with a budget of up to £3,000 available for attendance at conferences, on short courses, and other eligible costs.

Duration of scholarship: Typically 3-months but could be extended to 6-months

Eligible Countries: Developing Commonwealth country

To be taken at: UK Universities

How to Apply: If you are nominated by a UK organisation for a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship, you will be asked to complete an application using the CSC’s Electronic Application System (EAS).

If your application does not include two references – one from your current employer – it will be considered ineligible. You must check with your referees that they have submitted their references via the EAS by the application deadline – further information for referees on how to submit a reference

You must liaise with your host/nominating organisation well in advance of this date to agree a deadline to complete the EAS, so that the organisation can submit the full application by the official deadline.

Visit the Scholarship Webpage details on how to apply

Sponsors: Department for International Development (DFID) UK.

$37,000 Facebook International Fellowship 2017/2018 for PhD Students

Application Deadline: 1st November 2016.
(Applications may be saved and edited up until application deadline)

Offered annually? Yes

Scholarship Name: Facebook Fellowship Award

Brief description: Facebook Fellowship Program is open to full-time PhD students (domestic and international) enrolled during the current academic year and studying computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system architecture, or a related area.

Research Areas

• Artificial Intelligence
• Connectivity Hardware
• Computer Vision
• Data Mining
• Databases
• Distributed Systems, Networking & Operating Systems
• Economics and Computation
• Electrical Engineering
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Machine Learning
• Natural Language Processing
• Programming Languages & Compilers
• Security & Privacy
• Social Computing
• Software Engineering

About Scholarship

Giving people the power to share and connect requires constant innovation. At Facebook, research permeates everything we do. We believe the most interesting research questions are derived from real-world problems. Our engineers work on cutting edge research with a practical focus and push product boundaries every day. We believe that close relationships with the academic community will enable us to address many of these problems at a fundamental level and solve them. As part of our ongoing commitment to building academic relationships, we are pleased to announce the two year Facebook Fellowship program to support PhD students in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.

Scholarship Type: PhD Fellowship

Selection Criteria and Eligibility

• Full-time PhD students who are currently involved in on-going research.
• Students work must be related to one or more relevant disciplines.
• Students must be enrolled during the academic year(s) that the Fellowship is awarded.
• The Fellowship Program is open to PhD students globally who are enrolled in an accredited university in any country.

Number of Scholarships: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Each Facebook Fellowship includes several benefits:

• Tuition and fees will be paid for the academic year (up to two years).
• $37K grant (one-time payment during each academic year).
• Up to $5,000 in conference travel support.
• Paid visit to Facebook HQ to present research.
• Opportunity for a paid internship at Facebook.

Duration of Scholarship: Facebook Fellowship Award to cover two years!

Eligible Countries: Domestic and International Students

To be taken at (country): Any country (excluding US embargoed countries)

Required application materials:

• 1-2 page research summary which clearly identifies the area of focus, importance to the field, and applicability to Facebook of the anticipated research during the award. Please reference the topical areas below.
• Student’s CV (with email, phone and mailing address). Please include applicable coursework.
• 2 letters of recommendation (one must be from an academic advisor).

How to Apply: The Application is now live. Go to the application site and enter your information.

Visit scholarship webpage for details

Sponsors: Facebook

Our Deteriorating Environment: Is Anybody Listening?

Mel Gurtov

While the scientists have been doing their job in calling attention to the multiple ways in which environmental decline threatens the planet, we hear less and less from political leaders. Their focus is on the here-and-now—terrorism, jobs, immigration—and not on commitments to the future. Last year’s Paris Agreement on climate change seems like a distant memory.

Here is some of the latest scientific evidence, which points not only to the magnitude and immediacy of the problem but also to the interdependence of its parts:

*Five scientists from the Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in College Park, Maryland, give findings on the rate of climate change increase—“unprecedented for at least the past 1,000 years”—and therefore the need for an accelerated response.

*To the now familiar melting of the Arctic ice packs—which the most recent study shows is likely to cause a sea level rise of “at least several meters”– should be added the equally if not more dangerous thawing of the permafrost, which means increasing emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. “Indeed,” Chris Mooney reports, “scientists have discovered a simple statistic that underscores the scale of the potential problem: There may be more than twice as much carbon contained in northern permafrost as there is in the atmosphere itself. That’s a staggering thought.” (Methane, by the way, seems to be the unsung villain: all the attention to carbon dioxide, Bill McKibben tells us in The Nation, detracts from methane’s equally potent heat trapping. Increased use of natural gas, plus fracking, are significantly increasing methane emissions in the U.S.)

*The world’s largest forest “carbon sink,” the Amazon basin, is losing its ability to soak up excess carbon dioxide, a British study reports. In a nutshell, growth—i.e., conversion of forest land to agriculture—is outpacing forest sustainability.

*Human expansion, such as in the Amazon basin, is imperiling the ecosystem itself. A study by European scientists finds that biodiversity levels have fallen below the point where the ecosystem can remain intact. Species decline of 10 percent, the scientists estimate, is dangerous; “but their study found that overall, across the globe, the average decline is already more like 15 percent. In other words, original species are only about 85 percent as abundant (84.6 percent to be precise) as they were before human land-use changes.” Climate change will add substantially to this sobering assessment.

*A new UN Environment Programme report covering all parts of the globe found that well-known problems are intensifying. Two problems in particular: “One was worsening air pollution problems, driven, again, by large populations and the swelling of urban cores. Another was widespread water scarcity problems, exacerbated by climate change but also greater demand in growing cities.” More than 1,200 scientists from 160 countries participated in the study.

*The first-ever international report on declining populations of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators underscores the looming threat to world food supplies and the agricultural system that supports it. The causes of pollinator extinction are well known: global warming, pesticides, and overuse of agricultural land.

*New studies of flooding confirm that rising sea levels as the result of global warming are occurring at a faster rate than ever before. The coastal flooding witnessed in recent years in Miami, Charleston, and Norfolk is likely to be more frequent and prolonged in the future. Ocean levels may rise up three to four feet by 2100.

*China, while promising to draw 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources, is, in fact, continuing to construct coal-fired plants—on average, one plant a week until 2020, according to the latest Greenpeace report. The extraordinary fact about this new construction is that it creates huge excess capacity, the result not of central government dictates but rather of permits for investment in coal-fired plants by leaders in distant provinces. Unless this trend stops, as much as $200 billion will be wasted, and water availability will dramatically decline.

Two pieces of good news: nuclear power is in trouble everywhere, and the ozone “hole” over the Antarctic is starting to heal. The latest “World Nuclear Industry Status Report” details the numerous nuclear power plants that have been or in a short time will be shut down. Financing problems, aging plants, and technical breakdowns are a big part of the reason; but competition from renewable energy sources is becoming the most important factor. The future energy picture is captured in this notation: “Globally, wind power output grew by 17 percent, solar by 33 percent, nuclear by 1.3 percent” in the past year, and “Brazil, China, India, Japan and the Netherlands now all generate more electricity from wind turbines alone than from nuclear power plants.” Meantime, thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol that phased out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone layer is growing back—a sign that international agreements backed by a coalition of scientists do work.

Public opinion trails behind scientific findings on climate change, according to Pew Research Center polls. The urgency of climate change is felt more strongly in Europe and Latin America than in the U.S. and China. That fact is worrisome: Americans and Chinese, who live in the biggest carbon producing societies, should be the most concerned about climate change. On the other hand, Americans’ concern is rising again: the percentage of Americans polled by Gallup in 2016 who believe climate change is a worrisome problem stands at 64 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, only 10 percent of U.S. adults now discount global warming as a major problem. But before we celebrate, we need to remind ourselves that expressions of concern don’t equate to what people are willing to do to combat the problem, even at the polls. And if many of them are inclined to “let the politicians figure it out,” or hide behind “I’m not a scientist” disclaimers, we’re in great trouble.

Sadly, climate change is barely on the election-year agenda. That’s hardly surprising in the case of Donald Trump, a climate change denier. His comeuppance will be when his prize Florida hotel, Mar-a-Lago, goes under water in perhaps thirty years, along with many other coastal properties as mentioned above. Beaches and streets are already flooding in Miami. As for Hillary Clinton, she has mentioned global warming of course, but it’s clearly not a high priority in her campaign. Whether or not that changes in her presidency remains to be seen.

A final thought, which comes from an opinion piece by William Gail, former president of the American Meteorological Society: Future generations may have to start from scratch in grappling with the “new dark age” of climate-altering changes. Their learning process will have been disrupted. Models, technologies, and other resources used to identify patterns, and predict and act on Earth’s dramatic changes, will be largely useless. Our children and grandchildren have no idea what they are inheriting.

Amid Zika Scare, FDA Clears Way For GMO Mosquito Trial In Florida

 Lauren McCauley

In a move that public health advocates are calling “irresponsible and frightening,” the U.S. Food and Drug Association on Friday cleared the experimental release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Key Haven, Florida.

Pivoting off of the recent news that there is an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus that has infected over a dozen people in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, the UK-based developers of the genetically modified organism (GMO) reportedly also called on the FDA to grant emergency authorization to release the insects in Miami.

Oxitec, which produces other GMO products like “Arctic” apples and “AquaBounty” salmon, has developed what they describe as “self-limiting mosquitoes,” genetically engineered to die before reaching adulthood.

As the company explains, Oxitec has genetically engineered male mosquitoes—known as OX513A males—which it will release into the wild to mate with native female Aedes aegypti, which bite and can potentially spread disease. Their offspring die off, reducing the population.

“Releasing GMO mosquitoes into the environment without long term environmental impact studies is irresponsible and frightening,” said Zen Honeycutt, director of the anti-GMO group Moms Across America, in a statement on Saturday. “What about the creatures who eat the mosquitoes and all the life forms up the food chain? The impact could be irreversible… Allowing uncontrollable genetically altered life forms into the wild is not justified.”

The Key Haven trial would run for between six and 22 months and the company said it could release anywhere from 20 to 100 mosquitoes per person on the island.

However, they must contend with strong local opposition first.

Residents of Key Haven will have the chance to vote in November on a non-binding ballot measure on the GMO trial, and a majority of the community’s commissioners said they would abide by the will of the voters. And over 168,000 people have signed a petition calling on government officials to reject the trial.

Israel and The World Vision Crime Sham

Vacy Vlazna

The crackpot Israeli Hasbara* Circus featuring the four clowns of the truth apocalypse, Shin Bet, the Israel government, Shurat HaDin and the mainstream media fools, has, yet again, hit the world stage with the usual lame show of fact contortions, tight rope slander  and smoke and mirrors fantasies.

Taking a leaf from the Bush-Blair weapons of mass destruction hoax, Israel is going all out to divert anti-Israel opinion on its monumental humanitarian disaster to a fictitious crime  allegedly perpetrated by the very victims of said humanitarian  disaster- Israel’s wars on Gaza -by concocting an elaborate false crime of embezzlement and terrorism by Mohammed el-Halabi, the dedicated  zonal manager for World Vision in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.

Mohammed el-Halabi

El-Halabi, a family man and ‘trusted colleague’  has worked tirelessly for World Vision for a decade. On World Humanitarian Day 2014, celebrating aid workers, el-Halabi was profiled by the UN as  a Humanitarian Hero- a truly well deserved honour when one considers the horrors Palestinian families face, and particularly aid workers at the emergency front of the carnage, destruction,  and suffering.

El-Halabi’s decades of  humanitarian care includes Israel’s war crimes in Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defence and the 51 day monstrous war on Gaza, Operation Protective Edge.

This good man of remarkable humanitarian calibre, who like all Gazans, is shadowed by PTSD and the daily incessant stress of the Zionist siege was arrested on June 15 returning to Gaza from World Vision business in the West Bank and held incognito without charge and rights to a lawyer for 25 days by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA)  known as Shin Bet.

Greatly concerned, World Vision’s statement on June 21 states,

“To date, World Vision is not aware of his whereabouts and of what (if anything) he is being accused. World Vision is extremely concerned about the safety of Mohammad, and is working closely with its lawyer, diplomatic and government contacts to get more information on the situation, push for fair legal representation, and ultimately get him released as soon as possible.”

World Visions statement on 29 July affirms el-Halabi’s moral stature,

“World Vision stands by Mohammad who is a widely respected and well regarded humanitarian, field manager and trusted colleague of over a decade.  He has displayed compassionate leadership on behalf of the children and communities of Gaza through difficult and challenging times, and has always worked diligently and professionally in fulfilling his duties.”

and significantly called for his release and called

“on authorities to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and proceed fairly and objectively on the presumption of innocence.”

The presumption of innocence, a precious democratic value that stands at the core of the rule of law was instantly ignored by western mainstream  Pavlovian presstitutes who salivated guilt headlines at the ring of the Zionist bell,

• World Vision Palestinian funds suspended over Hamas charges -The Australian
• Australia suspends World Vision’s Palestine aid after allegations funds were diverted- The Guardian (Australia)
• British donations to Christian charity World Vision were ‘used to build a Hamas military base in Gaza’ – The Telegraph, UK
• World Vision’s Gaza Manager Funneled Millions to Hamas: Israel – NBC News
• Israel: World Vision Gaza boss diverted cash to Hamas – BBC News
• Australia suspends World Vision aid after Hamas stole Gaza charity – Jerusalem Post
• Israel Charges Aid Group’s Gaza Branch Manager With Funneling Funds to Hamas – New York Times

Compare these to

• Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas – Electronic Intifada
• World Vision says Gaza aid is audited, doubts Hamas pocketed millions – Times of Israel
• World Vision: Al-Halabi is a ‘trusted colleague’ – Days of Palestine

World Vision’s scrupulous audits

Along with the presumption of innocence, the lackey press blithely overrode World Vision’s assertion that its operations in Palestine were ‘absolutely clean’ due to meticulous regular audits. Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia,  emphasised,

“We have nothing to do with terror, with diverting funds, and other donor governments, besides the Australian government, that fund us, have done audits too, without ever any suggestion of this impropriety.”

This was affirmed by World Vision International, “Programs in Gaza have been subject to regular internal and independent audits, independent evaluations, and a broad range of internal controls aimed at ensuring that assets reach their intended beneficiaries and are used in compliance with applicable laws and donor requirements.”

Shin Bet fabrications

Furthermore, without a second of research or corroboration, the press duly regurgitated the false information  of a fictional thriller , mediocre at that, fabricated by Shin Bet and disseminated by the Israeli government oblivious to the blatant inconsistencies such as,

“It said the aid money he funnelled to Hamas, and to its military wing the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, amounted to about $7.2m (£5.4m) a year.” (BBC) and “divert up to $50 million over the years to the militant group, which rules Gaza, creating fictitious humanitarian projects and doctoring inflated receipts in order to get the funds to Hamas, said the Shin Bet”  (Washington Post 4-8-16)

These hyperbolic figures far exceed World Vision’s conservative budget for Palestine.

Any journalist with integrity would meticulously question every comma and full stop presented by Shin Bet, let alone el-Halabi’s so-called confession and all confessions extracted under duress  i.e. torture by Shin Bet.

“Arutz Sheva reported that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein “personally and concretely” approved torture” by Shin Bet against the Duma  arson Jewish suspects. Furthermore, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)“ demanded that the Justice Ministry  investigate  the illegal brutal torture, denied by Shin Bet, “that included sleep deprivation for days, the beating of a minor’s sensitive organs until he could not feel kicks and slaps, and one suspect whose head was pulled backwards until he violently vomited.”

And on November 14, 2014,  Shin Bet was accused by the IDF Chief of Staff , Benny Gantz ( the Butcher of Gaza) of presenting a ‘false narrative ahead of potential investigative committee into Operation Protective Edge.”

If Shin Bet can torture and /or falsely accuse their own, imagine what they did to el-Halabi during the 25 days he was held incognito by Shin Bet.

Richard Silverstein  reveals that while the futile military search in April 2015 was conducted for the kidnapping (hoax) of Israeli soldier Niv Asraf, Shin Bet arrested a Palestinian journalist in Al-Khalil and extracted a ‘confession for a crime that never was’.

The  state of Israel everyday cries ‘wolf’ falsehoods that play on its fantasy victimhood. There are far too many examples to list, but here are some-  Israel the fourth largest  nuclear military power  has a right to defend itself- against a Palestinian resistance armed  with stones and piddly home-made rockets. Since October 2015, Israel  has perpetrated  extrajudicial killings against over 200 Palestinians  most of whom were  carrying invisible knives.  Remember how the Israeli commandoes were defending themselves as they massacred nine unarmed humanitarian workers on the Mavi Marmara.

The Hamas factor

A major Israeli hasbara success is the branding of Hamas as terrorist so that mention of Hamas rings alarm bells in the press and public. Consequently,  Shin Bet’s accusation that Mr  el-Halabi is an Hamas operative rendered readers irrationally comatosed to the truth.

Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement. It has the right to resist Israel’s occupation  and oppression  which are illegal under international law. Israel with it war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid polices,  colonial expansionism and acts of genocide against the people of Palestine is a state terrorist and should be expelled from the UN.

Shurat HaDin

Shin Bet’s  yappy sidekick Shurat HaDin, is an Israeli law firm that demeans the law profession. It has a sorry record for falsely accusing BDS activists, such as Professor Jake Lynch of Sydney University of anti-semitism. It has joined the attack on World Vision after having failed  its previous case against the charity in 2012 for allegedly providing “financial aid to a Gaza-based terrorist group”, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which is simply a humanitarian non-profit company. The charge was investigated by AusAID and the Australian Federal Police which concluded there was no evidence to support Shurat HaDin’s absurd claims.

Israeli Government motives

Ali Abunimah has comprehensively sets out the  hidden agendas behind the attack on World Vision: “Israel has launched a major crackdown on domestic and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations through intimidation campaigns and repressive legislation.”; “by spreading sensational allegations that a group as well-known as World Vision is “funding terrorism,” Israel may seek to put other organizations and the Israel-friendly Western governments that fund them on notice that all their operations, especially in Gaza, are at its mercy.”; “It may also be an effort to break growing solidarity for Palestinians in churches, where there has been a strong push to hold Israel accountable through boycott, divestment and sanctions.” and  ensuring it “controls entry of reconstruction supplies into the territory.”

While Shurat HaDin’s, ShinBet’s and the zionist government’s campaign against World Vision and Mr el-Halabi is blatantly bogus, the sunny side, yes, there is a sunny side, these clowns are trashing the fake moral reputation that Israel is desperate to protect.

*Hasbara: propaganda, misinformation, lies.

Detained For Terror: Proposed Indefinite Detention Laws In Australia

Binoy Kampmark

The reactive dimension of global politics – at least at the level of many states – is a broader statement about how far things have rotted.  Nothing is more reactive than a State’s response to terrorism, actual or perceived.  The pure evidentiary dimension is neglected in favour of procedural fluff and unmeasurable contingencies. The box-ticking bureaucrat takes precedence over the judicial officer.

The Turnbull government has come down rather heavily in its response to a spate of attacks in France and Germany, deciding that it is time that something be done in the face of this supposed global madness.  The prime minister Malcolm Turnbull decided to press the issue in a letter to state leaders urging for the creation of a national regime to indefinitely detain terrorists even after the point of serving their sentence.

Civil liberties lawyer Greg Barnes has made the point that such assessments are fundamentally specious. They lack coherence, dimension and remain presumptuous.  The chances, therefore, of a person locked up for years on terrorist charges then engaging in acts of murderous mayhem on leaving, did not compute.

The point is an ominous one for at least 13 prisoners convicted over what has been said to be Australia’s largest terrorism plot in New South Wales and Victoria.  After concluding their sentences, the individuals involved in the Pendennis network, led by Melbourne cleric Abdul Benbrika, would have little guarantee of release.

Buttering in the face of such extralegal nonsense is always deemed necessary.  The Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis explained over the weekend that, “All of the attorneys, as the first law officers of our respective jurisdictions, understand the gravity of the threat that terrorism poses to Australia and its people.”

What Brandis fails to mention is that such officers also owe it to the legal profession, its servants and the citizens of a country, to reassuringly ensure that liberties are not unduly tarnished, let alone entirely abandoned, as is being suggested by these measures.  The insolence of office, one so gleefully embraced, comes to mind.

With that merry insolence, the views of such officers are indifferent to habeas corpus, and the notion that a person who does time has (and here is a novelty), actually discharged the burdens placed upon him for such offences. Terrorism is simply being rendered, rather nonsensically, exceptional, an offence that demands special treatment.

If detention were to be infinite, the hierarchy of punishment would have to be abandoned in favour of an arbitrary notion of convict and permanently incarcerate if you can.  This would effectively eliminate the notion of sentencing as having any value bringing, instead, the fictional notion of a hypothetical terrorist attack to the fray.

Instead of expressing outrage at the heavy-handed, not to mention clumsy approach of the Commonwealth government, the NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton, congratulated Turnbull “on this initiative.  The stakes are high for NSW: make no mistake.  We have more people in our prisons than any other state that would be subject to these laws. All the more reason, one would have thought, for not endorsing such regulations.

Upton’s shoddy reasoning pivots on mere words: “terrorism” qualifies for blanket imprisonment and detention.  Terrorism posed such a risk to the community it meant that no one could be “complacent”.

The situation becomes even more peculiar given the observations by such individuals a Greg Moriarty, national counter-terrorism coordinator and evidently self-proclaimed amateur penologist.  All agencies in the business of “national counter-terrorism” were “committed to preventing people from becoming terrorists; to disrupting and diverting people who are heading down a path towards violent extremism; and to rehabilitating people who are convicted for terrorism offences.”

But for all such noble ventures, there would always be those eggs that would stay rotten, where it was “not possible, or where there are significant areas of doubt”.  This mealy-mouthed assertion is a neat illustration about executive paranoia, enabling people to be detained at the pleasure of the sovereign.

In Australia’s legal soil, noxious precedents flower that enable the Attorney-Generals at all levels of government to push for an agenda hostile to the detainee.  In mental health administration, there are those permanently kept away from trial (and hence a genuine testing of their cases) for reasons of psychic disturbance.

The High Court has also done its bit to add to the regulatory framework of indefinite detention by arguing that stateless individuals can be indefinitely kept at the discretion of the State, a sort of administrative purgatory where risk from the detainee might manifest.   The case of Ahmed Al-Kateb remains something of a nightmare in that regard, an outcome premised on the shallow notion that non-judicial detention is entirely permissible provided it be for the purposes of removal.

There was just one problem for Al-Kateb: his argument that any detention could not be lawful if it has ceased to have a valid basis for removal from Australia was dismissed with more than a bit of contempt.

There are also those deemed genuine refugees under the United Nations Refugee Convention who are not permitted out of Australia’s brutal detention regime because they have been assessed, courtesy of the domestic espionage network ASIO, as a security risk.  All that, despite having no formal charges level.  The proposed change by Turnbull, to that end, remains dangerously, and lamentably consistent with enlarged and unaccountable executive power.