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In this mailing:
* Bassam Tawil: Why Are Palestinians Dying in Hamas Prisons?
* Judith Bergman: China Cracks Down on Religion Even Harder


** Why Are Palestinians Dying in Hamas Prisons? ([link removed])
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by Bassam Tawil • March 2, 2020 at 5:00 am
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* The families' calls for launching investigations into the death of their sons while in Hamas detention have been ignored not only by Hamas, but also by the international community, human rights organizations and media.
* Al-Sa'afeen's mother emphasized that the Israelis treat Palestinians much better than Hamas does. "When the Jews arrest someone, they contact his family to say they are holding him... But Hamas refused to provide us with any information about the detention of my son or his health condition.... We told [Hamas] that he's sick and needs medicine, but they refused to give him any treatment. Until today, we don't know why my son was arrested."
* When Palestinians die in Palestinian prisons, the murders are presumably regarded as the handiwork of supposedly savage Arabs, who are -- with racist contempt -- held to a lower standard of conduct than Westerners, and therefore regarded as unworthy of human rights, accountable governance, due process or equal justice under the law.
* They are evidently considered "just" Palestinian families complaining about brutal torture in Palestinian prisons -- so international human rights organizations do not even notice them.

When Palestinians are brutally tortured and die of dubious causes in Hamas prisons, the murders are ignored not only by Hamas, but also by the international community, human rights organizations and media. Pictured: A jailed Palestinian in Gaza City on November 7, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

Essam al-Sa'afeen, a 39-year-old Palestinian from al-Bureij refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip, was pronounced dead on February 23, one month after he was arrested by Hamas security forces. His family and friends are demanding answers from Hamas regarding the circumstances of the death al-Sa'afeen, a father of six.

Hamas says it has formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, which is in charge of the Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip, al-Sa'afeen died shortly after he was transferred from prison to a hospital. The ministry said al-Sa'afeen was rushed to the hospital after a "sudden deterioration in his health condition."

The Palestinian Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Hamas of brutally torturing al-Sa'afeen during his incarceration.

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** China Cracks Down on Religion Even Harder ([link removed])
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by Judith Bergman • March 2, 2020 at 4:00 am
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* "In practice, your religion no longer matters, if you are Buddhist, or Taoist, or Muslim or Christian: the only religion allowed is faith in the Chinese Communist Party." — A Catholic priest, AsiaNews.it, December 31, 2019.
* One mother, who is a member of The Church of Almighty God, said that her son told her to abandon her faith when he returned home after school. "My son told me that if I get arrested, our entire family will be finished. He threatened to jump off the building to end his life if I continued practicing my faith," she recently told Bitter Winter.
* One shop-owner told Bitter Winter, "A few years ago, many shops sold religious couplets. In 2018, the government started banning them. Last year, all couplets were confiscated from shops, and this year, sellers are threatened to be fined and imprisoned. No one sells them in Shangqiu anymore. Who dares to risk?"
* China, meanwhile, maintains that its human rights record is admirable. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, "The Chinese people are in the best position to judge China's human rights condition, which is at its historical best." — Time.com, January 15, 2020.

One mother in China, who is a member of The Church of Almighty God, recently said that her son told her to abandon her faith when he returned home after school. "My son told me that if I get arrested, our entire family will be finished. He threatened to jump off the building to end his life if I continued practicing my faith." Pictured: Members of The Church of Almighty God commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, on June 4, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

China is increasing its already extremely severe suppression of religious freedom. More than a year ago, at a November 2018 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the President of the Religious Freedom Institute, Thomas F. Farr, described China's religious suppression as "the most systematic and brutal attempt to control Chinese religious communities since the Cultural Revolution."

On December 30, 2019, China's Communist Party (CCP) announced new "Administrative Measures for Religious Groups". The measures -- which came into force on February 1, 2020 -- stipulate that religious organizations exist to promote the CCP and its ideology, according to Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China.

According to article 17 of the new measures:

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