International

The European Parliament today voted by a large majority to extend the right of the citizen to information. Commenting on the vote, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: 'The European Commission wants to furnish the citizen with less information, even though many members of the public already complain that they find Brussels to be a “black box”. The EP must put pressure on the Commission to put an end to back room politics, by which lobbyists from major corporations always have a head start when it comes to being informed and thus disproportionate influence.’

On Friday 9th December 28-year-old Palestinian Mustafa Tamimi was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier from close range with a tear gas grenade. That night he died from his wounds. He was the first fatal casualty from the village of Nabi Saleh where protests have been taking place since December 2009 against the annexation of a hill and an important source of water, for the benefit of the Israeli settlement of Halamish. He was certainly not the first victim of banned uses of teargas. Israeli soldiers regularly use teargas in ways which are not permitted, to attack and wound unarmed civilians rather than to disperse them.