B’Tselem’s report includes testimonies from medical staff describing dozens of heavily armed Israeli personnel raiding the hospital. They forced their way in, attacking security guards and civilians, who tried to defend the facility, with stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets.The Israelis kicked people out of the blood bank where dozens of volunteers were trying to donate desperately needed blood. They raided the maternity ward, including a room where a mother was present, and sprayed pepper spray into another that was empty. Staff gathered most of the mothers in one room and took their babies to the nursery to protect them.Israeli forces blocked ambulanceAbu Ghanam had been involved in confrontations between Jerusalem youths and occupation forces in the al-Tur neighborhood when he was shot in the chest.Israeli forces stood around him for five to 10 minutes without providing any medical assistance, according to B’Tselem. Then when a Red Crescent ambulance arrived, Israeli forces tried to obstruct it. But the paramedics were able to reach Abu Ghanam and get him into the ambulance – which one of the Israeli soldiers tried to get into as well.“There was some mutual shoving between one of my colleagues and the two officers for about a minute, and then we got into the ambulance,” one of the medics told B’Tselem. “I locked the ambulance with the central locking system.”The medics then managed to drive to the hospital, despite Israeli forces trying to block their way.
It wasn’t the Ku Klux Klan and those who wave flags from the Third Reich who were urging nonviolence and trying to save lives in Charlottesville. It was leftist activists like me. There is no room at the table for both you and decency, Mr President. As someone who stood face to face with men bearing torches and swastikas shouting “Jews will not replace us,” as someone who saw the blood spilled in Charlottesville first-hand, I can tell you this: you aren’t on my side. You aren’t on America’s side. You are on the wrong side.
Inciting to riot? No dear.The people protesting you, because you are illegitimate and wrong are not rioting.That was the White Supremacists that you refuse to investigate and label a domestic terrorist group.
The former Breitbart honcho has to be betting that journalists who report on Nazi attacks—and the president’s subsequent responses—have been taught that they have an ethical obligation to present all sides of a story. That they will be afraid of being accused of being unfair or lacking objectivity, of being “the liberal media”. That they will be reluctant to name Trump’s defense of racism for what it is, or write about white supremacy as if it is a fact of life. Reporters must resist this, and push back against editors and producers who don’t believe the word “racist” can be used as an adjective in a news story. Thoughtful editorial boards must decide that Nazi apologists and racist bigotry have no place in their pages.
Civil strife should be dismantled right here, right now. Rallies encouraging terrorism and ill-will like these should be stopped early on. Trump’s feeble attempt at condemning the entire mess is a mockery to human intelligence and furthers the cause of hateful individuals who wave the American flag as a symbol of racial superiority. White supremacist identity politics have no room in the character of the nation; they will only contribute more violence, more deaths, and more outward displays of bigotry. It’s appalling to hear about, read, and watch. Its especially appalling when your friend tells you about how her (brown) daughter wasn’t invited to her (non-brown) best friends birthday party because her parents voted for Trump. Or how another friends’ daughter cries behind closed doors due to the bullying and racist comments she faces weekly. Or how to explain my disgust over people with torches to my six year old as he sees me frown and shake my head. There is no room for this in the home, in our lives, our cities or our country. We will not remain silent. We will not tolerate this.
“We believe that Heather Heyer’s struggle is our struggle and that the fight against fascism is a global battle,” the statement continued. “For this reason, we are calling on women around the world to unite against fascism and put an end to terrorist groups like Daesh and those made from the same cloth that kill women like Heather.”
Trump’s tirade at a press conference in New York supposedly devoted to infrastructure and manufacturing was either incredibly stupid or intensely insane or both. But here is also a third possibility: That it was completely calculated and entirely premeditated, that it will go down in history as the moment when the leader of the free world revealed his true inner self; When he burned political correctness at the stake; When he looked America in the eye and said yes, I’m an enabler of white supremacists. I’m an apologist for slavery and Confederate history. I can see some “fine people” among those who shouted Sieg Heil in Charlottesville and threatened the Jews. I am indeed the worst that’s been said about me, and more, now come and do something about it.
Yes, slavery is over, but in Jamaica beyond the beach, some of us are still not free. Some of us are not “full free.” There has been a long history of resistance to physical slavery, now the fight is on against mental slavery. May the inspiration of Bolt give us hope. Here is a man comfortable in his own skin who rose to the top of his game, not just the game of athletics, but the game of life.
B’Tselem’s report includes testimonies from medical staff describing dozens of heavily armed Israeli personnel raiding the hospital. They forced their way in, attacking security guards and civilians, who tried to defend the facility, with stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets.The Israelis kicked people out of the blood bank where dozens of volunteers were trying to donate desperately needed blood. They raided the maternity ward, including a room where a mother was present, and sprayed pepper spray into another that was empty. Staff gathered most of the mothers in one room and took their babies to the nursery to protect them.Israeli forces blocked ambulanceAbu Ghanam had been involved in confrontations between Jerusalem youths and occupation forces in the al-Tur neighborhood when he was shot in the chest.Israeli forces stood around him for five to 10 minutes without providing any medical assistance, according to B’Tselem. Then when a Red Crescent ambulance arrived, Israeli forces tried to obstruct it. But the paramedics were able to reach Abu Ghanam and get him into the ambulance – which one of the Israeli soldiers tried to get into as well.“There was some mutual shoving between one of my colleagues and the two officers for about a minute, and then we got into the ambulance,” one of the medics told B’Tselem. “I locked the ambulance with the central locking system.”The medics then managed to drive to the hospital, despite Israeli forces trying to block their way.
