All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Estate Life: Working-Class Communities and Social Housing

The loss of council estates will likely increase homelessness and return working-class families to the pre-council estate era of cramped and squalid privately rented accommodation. My family was able to escape that world and found security, community, and friendship on the council estate. That this won’t be afforded to future generations is heartbreaking. The end of council estates and their diverse communities will be a huge loss for the country. I hope many people will speak up in opposition and defeat this bill.

Working-Class Perspectives

Recently, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced that his government plans to demolish problem council estates due to their concentration of social problems and related crime. The scheme will include rebuilding projects, and current tenants will hold on to their homes (albeit in a redevelopment).  Cameron’s current Tory government do not have a good track record on the provision of public housing, and it is difficult not to be cynical about this announcement. But there are other reasons to be concerned, including the language Cameron has used to describe estates: – ‘sink’ estates, full of ‘anti-social behaviour’, and havens for gangs and other criminal behaviour. I see a different side to council estate life – one that includes rich diversity, community, and strong local connections.

Council estates are social housing projects and part of the fabric of life in Britain. Council estates, whether low-density houses built on urban…

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Egyptian Aak 2016 – Week 2 ( Jan 11- 17)

Nervana

Top Headlines

  • Egypt extends state of emergency in North Sinai until April. Tuesday
  • Egypt’s Cabinet has approved a draft law criminalizing the use of “terrorist” symbols. Wednesday
  • Egypt extends participation in Yemen conflict for up to one year. Thursday
  • As Jan 25 looms, more activists arrested today, police also raid news site Masr al-Arabiya. Friday
  • Admin court turns down denaturalization suit against Wael Ghoneim. Sunday

 

I participated in Januray 25

‘I participated in January revolution’ tops Twitter trends in Egypt. Via Ahram

Main Headlines

 Monday

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Settlers spray “Slaughter the Christians” slogans on walls of Jerusalem monastery

PNN/ Jerusalem/
A group of extremist right-wing Israeli settlers on Sunday dawn have sprayed slogans that call on slaughtering Christians, on the walls of an old monastery in Jerusalem.

The slogans are thought to have been written by the extremist “Pay The Price” group, which  has repeatedly attacked Palestinian homes, churches and mosques overnight, which included the church of loaves and fishes (Tabgha) in Tibereas, and mosques in Ramallah and Nablus.

Following the attack on the church back in May, The Rabbis for Human Rights group said that there have been 43 similar attacks against churches, mosques and monasteries in Israeli-occupied land, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2009, Reuters reported.

Slogans read “Death for Christians, the enemies of Israel,”  and calls to “Slaughter Christians and send them to hell,” in addition to anti-Christ words.

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Israeli police claimed to have opened an investigation in the case, but the Jewish extremists are expected to not be punished in Israeli law.

According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, Israeli police closed 85.3 percent of investigations due to the failure “to locate suspects or find sufficient evidence to indict suspects”; only 1.9 percent of Palestinian complaints against Israeli civilian/settler attacks resulted in a conviction, and 7.4 percent of investigations generated indictments against suspects.

Moreover, a Yesh Din report published this month found that in the past five years, only 3 percent of the criminal investigations launched by the Military Police Criminal Investigations Division into alleged offenses by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians resulted in the indictment of suspects.

These groups are also responsible for deadly attacks on Palestinian families.

In July, they have torched the home of the Dawabsheh family overnight in Duma village near Nablus, killing 11-month-old baby Ali Dawabsheh and both his parents. Only one member of the family survived, Ahmad Dawabsheh (4), and he is still recovering in the ICU.

They are also suspected in the murder of Mohammad Abu Khdeir (16) whom they abducted and burned alive in July 2014.

Israeli Occupation Authorities claim to start an investigation, but often fail to hold the attackers accountable for their crimes, as in the Dawabsheh case, where Israel said that the evidence against the Jewish suspects was “not enough” to try them.

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Mossad proxy faked violent Facebook anti-Semitism | The Electronic Intifada

An Israeli legal group with intimate ties to the state’s intelligence agencies has admitted to faking an ostensibly pro-Palestinian Facebook page and using it to post anti-Semitic statements including “Death to all the Jews.”The Israeli group has also filed a lawsuit against Facebook, for allegedly permitting Palestinian “incitement.”Shurat HaDin claims to be a “civil rights organization.” Various media reports have described it as an “Israeli non-governmental organization,” an “advocacy group,” or even a neutral-sounding “law center” – the group’s self-description also adopted by The Guardian and PBS.But US embassy cables leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by WikiLeaks tell a very different story.Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner privately told a US embassy official that her group “took direction” on which court cases to pursue. She claimed that she “receives evidence” from Israel’s international espionage and assassination agency Mossad and from Israel’s National Security Council.Mossad anti-SemitismIn a video published to YouTube last week, Shurat HaDin claimed responsibility for the creation of a Facebook page titled “Stop Israelis” on 29 December.

Source: Mossad proxy faked violent Facebook anti-Semitism | The Electronic Intifada

Senator Heinrich: Armed Extremists at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Must Be Prosecuted – Native News Online

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs, expressed his concern over the continued takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by armed extremists, and urged the U.S. Department of Justice to fully prosecute anyone who has broken the law.US Senator Martin Heinrich“Unfortunately, the attack on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is only the latest effort in a growing campaign by anti-government interests to seize and sell off the American people’s public lands,” Sen. Heinrich wrote in the letter. “I am concerned that the absence of federal prosecution after similar events in the past, such as the 2014 standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada, may have emboldened these individuals to seize federal property in the Malheur standoff. There must be consequences for this sort of dangerous action. When the federal government does not fulfill its duty in prosecuting violations of the law, individuals are emboldened to further defy the law.”Efforts to seize and sell off America’s public lands are deeply unpopular in the West. Recent polling in Western states, including New Mexico, found that an overwhelming majority of voters in the region oppose transferring national public lands to state ownership.

Source: Senator Heinrich: Armed Extremists at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Must Be Prosecuted – Native News Online

How Syrian refugees helped an American student during the Cologne attacks | Germany | DW.COM | 17.01.2016

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But the police outside weren’t much use. Overwhelmed by the mass of people in the main square in front of the station and trying to keep the situation under control, the authorities ended up forcing Duncan back into the crowd. From there, she found herself surrounded by another group of young men who started grabbing her body, pulling her hair and trying to push her down.”At that point I was pretty stressed-out, and pretty scared, ” she said.Unbeknownst to the American at the time, she was caught up in an event that would make headlines around the world and throw intense scrutiny on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policies in Germany. Hundreds of women reported being assaulted around the train station that night, mostly by men who appeared to be of North African or Arab descent. Since then, concern has grown in some circles about the possibility of truly integrating Middle Eastern refugees into Germany, and Merkel’s government has ramped up efforts to deport many of them back to their home countries.While the media coverage of that night shed light on many horrifying episodes, it also had the effect of obscuring some of the more positive developments. Duncan’s experience is one such example.After she managed to break away from the crowd, the American once again talked to the police – who, once again, seemed incapable of helping her. Desperate to find her boyfriend, who had her wallet and her phone, she hung around the edges of the crowd, scared and frustrated.Around that time, a young Middle Eastern man came up to her and asked, in German, if he could help her. Since she didn’t speak German and he didn’t speak English, the man called over one of his friends, Hesham Ahmad Mohammad, who did speak English.’We can help you’ Despite the fallout from the events, Ahmad Mohammad says he’s not afraidA 32-year-old former teacher, Ahmad Mohammad had, along with his four friends, braved an arduous journey from his native Syria to reach Germany, where he had been living for six months. The trek had taken the group to Turkey, then to Greece by boat, then through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, until finally they reached the Bavarian city of Passau.The five men, all of whom now lived in different parts of western Germany and had therefore not seen each other since their arrival, had chosen to reunite in Cologne for New Year’s Eve. But what they saw when they arrived at the central station shocked them. The people were extremely rowdy, Ahmad Mohammad said, and he even witnessed an attempted robbery.”We knew [shortly after we arrived] that that’s a dangerous place for us, because we saw that many people were drinking and they lost their minds,” he told DW.When he and his friends came across Duncan, he said the American was crying and clearly “afraid of all men.”After a while he convinced Duncan to let them help her. “At that time she said to me, ‘I’ve lost my friend and I am alone. I am American. I am here alone.’ I said to her, ‘You must stop crying. We can help you.'”As she set out once more to find her boyfriend, Ahmad Mohammad accompanied her. He said ten other men attempted to harass her, but he shielded her from them. Soon, his other friends also came to her aid, forming a circle around her.

Source: How Syrian refugees helped an American student during the Cologne attacks | Germany | DW.COM | 17.01.2016