Category Archives: Apartheid

A Palestinian Writer in Search for Freedom – Fanack Chronicle

“On my blog and in my books I write about my life: what it’s like to be a woman, who is a Muslim, who is living under occupation, while being divorced. These are not so much hardships, except the occupation. But combined, these factors are a hardship as hard as the occupation itself. It’s the patriarchal society I’m living in that makes it a burden to be a divorced Muslim woman.“I want to be liberal. To be free. Freedom is something you choose, from the inside. I don’t wear a headscarf and I have a boyfriend. My life would be perfectly normal somewhere else. But not in Palestine.”Meet Nadia Harhash, a Palestinian writer based in East Jerusalem. Her blog, called “Living in the Shoes of a Woman“, receives widespread attention in her home country, not least because of her coverage of Palestinian politics. Her posts are also published on the websites of Huffington Post English and Arabic.“I was married for 13 years. I’m a normal person. People can get divorced. But in my case, it was like getting divorced from society, from everyone I know and don’t know. I had just hoped that both our lives would become better without each other in it. But suddenly, everyone was involved. A divorce threatens the very structure of our society.“It’s like a mafia culture: it looks good on the surface, but actually my divorce threatened my mother, my sister, my friends. Everyone is having problems in their marriages: people cheat, women get beaten. But instead of supporting me, my female family members and friends started attacking me. I made them reflect on their own lives. I unveiled the truth. My mother was afraid that my sisters would want to divorce their husbands as well, and what would the people say? But I still went ahead with it. In the end, it’s my life.”

Source: A Palestinian Writer in Search for Freedom – Fanack Chronicle

FBI covered up Russian influence on Trump’s election win, Harry Reid claims | US news | The Guardian

Harry Reid, outgoing Senate minority leader, compared FBI director James Comey to the agency’s notorious founder, J Edgar Hoover, and called for his resignation. A secret CIA analysis found that people with connections to the Russian government provided emails, hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks in the final months of the election, according to a Washington Post report published late Friday.“ The FBI had this material for a long time but Comey, who is of course a Republican, refused to divulge specific information about Russia and the presidental election,” Reid told MSNBC’s AM Joy on Saturday.  Comey testified to Congress in July that he was no longer a registered Republican, though he belonged to the party most of his life. “Everyone should know WikiLeaks was involved from the very beginning,” Reid continued. “They leaked the information as if it was run by one of the great political operatives in America when in fact it was run by the political operatives in Russia. “Russia has a pretty good way of cheating. Look at what they did with athletes,” he added, alluding to the long-running doping scandal of Russian Olympic athletes.Pressed on whether he believed Comey had information on Russia’s influence and sat on it, Reid replied: “That’s right, that is true.”Advertisement“I am so disappointed in Comey. He has let the country down for partisan purposes and that’s why I call him the new J Edgar Hoover, because I believe that,” Reid added, calling for the director’s resignation.

Source: FBI covered up Russian influence on Trump’s election win, Harry Reid claims | US news | The Guardian

Danish People’s Party MP: ‘Shoot at migrants’ – The Local – Trump thinking about offering him a job?

In one exchange, Berth said that migrants who try to reach Europe by boat should be shot.  “The only way you can do it effectively is simply to turn the boats away and say ‘You can’t sail into this territorial border, if you do you will either be shot or you will be turned around and sailed back’,” he said.  The debate’s host, Ole Stephensen, gave Berth the opportunity to clarify himself by asking if he really believed boats of migrants should be fired upon. Berth said it was “an example” of what could be done to protect the EU’s borders.  “We need to do what is necessary to ensure that the border is not violated,” he added.  His debate opponent Bosse seemed to hardly be able to believe what she had just heard.  “You cannot stand here and say that they be shot in the Mediterranean. I simply refuse to believe it,” she said.  As the clip of his comments began to circulate, Berth took to Facebook in an attempt to “address a coming press storm”.  “I of course don’t mean that a ship under the command of Nato or Frontex should shoot at migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean. What I mean is that warning shots should be fired at a vessel that is crossing into European territorial waters!” he said.  A lawmaker for the ruling Venstre party, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, said on Twitter that the remarks were “not okay” and that “warning shots are… a warning of what is to follow.”

Source: Danish People’s Party MP: ‘Shoot at migrants’ – The Local

The Rolling Stones. sympathy for the devil. (powerful images) – YouTube Deja vu too 1968-2016

warning: this video contains images that may cause upset.I put up some of the most powerful photographs we have all more than likely seen at some point in our lives.the things we humans do to each other!they all seemed to fit with the music.

Israel singled out African scholar for deportation, world church group says | The Electronic Intifada

The World Council of Churches has strongly condemned Israel’s deportation of its associate general secretary Dr. Isabel Apawo Phiri.In a statement on Tuesday, the Geneva-based ecumenical organization said that Apawo Phiri had been “apprehended, interrogated and deported” upon arrival at Tel Aviv airport.The World Council of Churches said it “deeply regrets the Israeli antagonism against the WCC’s initiatives for peace with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis.”Apawo Phiri was the only African member of a WCC staff delegation and “the only one denied entry,” according to the group. The reason Israeli authorities provided, according to WCC, was “prevention of illegal immigration considerations.”The WCC said it had instructed lawyers to appeal against “this patently unjust and discriminatory action.”

Source: Israel singled out African scholar for deportation, world church group says | The Electronic Intifada

In Washington Pizzeria Attack, Fake News Brought Real Guns – The New York Times

Edgar M. Welch, a 28-year-old father of two from Salisbury, N.C., recently read online that Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in northwest Washington, was harboring young children as sex slaves as part of a child-abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton.The articles making those allegations were widespread across the web, appearing on sites including Facebook and Twitter. Apparently concerned, Mr. Welch drove about six hours on Sunday from his home to Comet Ping Pong to see the situation for himself, according to court documents. Not long after arriving at the pizzeria, the police said, he fired from an assault-like AR-15 rifle. The police arrested him. They found two weapons in the restaurant, a rifle and a handgun. No one was hurt.In an arraignment on Monday, a heavily tattooed Mr. Welch, wearing a white jumpsuit and shackles, was ordered held. According to the criminal complaint, he told the authorities that he was armed to help rescue children but that he surrendered peacefully after finding no evidence that “children were being harbored in the restaurant.” He was charged with four counts, including felony assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a gun without a license outside a home or business.Unbeknown to Mr. Welch, what he had been reading online were fake news articles about Comet Ping Pong, which have swollen in number over time. The false articles against the pizzeria began appearing on social networks and websites in late October, not long before the presidential election, with the restaurant identified as being the headquarters for a child-trafficking ring.

Source: In Washington Pizzeria Attack, Fake News Brought Real Guns – The New York Times

Israeli teens charged for brutally beating asylum seeker to death | +972 Magazine

Two weeks ago two Israeli teens murdered Babikir Adham-Uvdo, a Darfuri asylum seeker who lived in the city of Petah Tikva, not far from Tel Aviv. Adham-Uvdo was attacked after he reportedly spoke to two white teenage girls. The teenagers kicked him in the head for an hour and a half, leaving him for dead. His body was found and brought to Rabin Medical Center. After four days in the hospital, Adham-Uvdo was taken off life support and died.On Sunday the State Attorney indicted the two teenagers, 19-year-old Dennis Bershivitz and a 16-year-old minor, on manslaughter charges. Manslaughter, not murder, since the State Attorney argues that it cannot be proven that the two intended to kill Adham-Uvdo. The State Attorney claims that it cannot be proven that the two acted out of racism.This is an absurd claim: whoever kicks a helpless person in the head for an hour and a half clearly intends to kill him. It is also clear that the killing was racially motivated: had a white person been caught with the teenage girls, we would safely say that the two attackers would not act the same way.Channel 10’s Itay Vered’s excellent report [Hebrew] shows how several Petah Tikva locals responded to the attack. One woman can be seen saying “whoever isn’t Jewish can go fuck himself,” a different woman says “this is the Jewish state, why do we need Muslims?” while a passerby is asked his opinion on the fact that a brutal killing had taken place right where he was standing. His response: “Okay, so what? Yalla.”

Source: Israeli teens charged for brutally beating asylum seeker to death | +972 Magazine

Off-Duty Muslim NYPD Officer Told To ‘Go Back To Your Country’ In Bay Ridge: Gothamist

A Brooklyn man allegedly yelled xenophobic insults at an off-duty Muslim NYPD officer and her teenage son, police sources said.An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that the officer was dropping off her 16-year-old son on Ridge Boulevard and 67th Street in Bay Ridge on Saturday around 6 p.m. After the officer parked her car, she saw a man shoving her son. Police said the man was in his 30s.She approached the man—but did not identify herself as a police officer—who told her “ISIS [expletive], I will cut your throat, go back to your country!” The suspect fled the scene, and the NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the incident as a bias crime.

Source: Off-Duty Muslim NYPD Officer Told To ‘Go Back To Your Country’ In Bay Ridge: Gothamist

Photos: Jewish Group Leads Several Hundred On Anti-Bannon March To Breitbart HQ: LAist

Approximately three hundred members and allies of IfNotNow marched through the Mid-Wilshire area Sunday morning to protest former Breitbart executive Stephen Bannon’s appointment as chief strategist for President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.”Los Angeles has one of the largest Jewish communities in the entire country, and has yet to say anything denouncing the kind of hate speech that Bannon represents,” organizer Max Daniel told KPCC of the march.The march began at 10 a.m. at La Cienega Park and the group continued on to Breitbart’s headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. Breitbart is headquartered in Los Angeles. IfNotNow LA is the local branch of a national Jewish group dedicated to opposing anti-Semitism and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Source: Photos: Jewish Group Leads Several Hundred On Anti-Bannon March To Breitbart HQ: LAist

Muslim Woman Attacked By Men Screaming ‘Donald Trump’ Says No One Intervened: Gothamist

“I was harassed on the subway last night and it was just so dehumanizing I can’t speak about it without getting emotional,” 18-year-old Yasmin Seweid wrote on Facebook. “It breaks my heart that so many individuals chose to be bystanders while watching me get harassed verbally and physically by these disgusting pigs.”According to police, the incident occurred around 10 p.m. on Wednesday while Seweid was waiting for an uptown-bound 6th train at the 23rd Street station. Three men, believed to be around 21 years old, approached her and started screaming Trump’s name at her. The three men also followed her on to the train, where they began to scream xenophobic insults at her.The men allegedly called her a “fucking terrorist” and told her to “get the hell out of the country.” Police say they ripped her purse off her shoulder, breaking the strap, and tried to remove her hijab from her head.

Source: Muslim Woman Attacked By Men Screaming ‘Donald Trump’ Says No One Intervened: Gothamist