Category Archives: Global Politics

Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

This week we witnessed history in the making, when Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman in America’s 240 years to secure the presidential nomination for a major political party. Even many of the feminists who solidly feel the Bern, couldn’t help but get a little verklempt listening to Clinton’s speech after the delegate-clinching Tuesday primaries. She began with a shout out to Seneca Falls, “when a small but determined group of women and men came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights,” and continued with a gracious celebration of that monumental crack in the political glass ceiling. Here, we relish in the groundbreaking nature of this week’s events, with a roundup dedicated solely to HRC.

Source: Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

Israel has destroyed $74 million worth of EU projects | The Electronic Intifada

An $11-million farming project in the Jordan Valley, a $61,200 playground near Nablus and an elementary school serving a Bedouin community east of Jerusalem: all have been destroyed by Israel.These are just a few examples of the at least 150 European-funded structures in the occupied West Bank that Israel demolished in the first three months of 2016.Israel has destroyed more homes, businesses and public infrastructure in these months than in all of 2015, according to a new report by the non-profit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, or Euro-Med.Each month, an average of 165 privately and internationally funded structures were demolished or partially destroyed, representing a more than three-fold increase from the previous rate of 50 demolitions per month between 2012 and 2015.More than 900 Palestinians have been made homeless this year, according to UN statistics, and thousands more have had their livelihoods affected by the wave of destruction.Euro-Med says that the UN deputy coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Piper, has suggested the increase in demolitions is a response to the escalation of violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces that began in October 2015.But Israeli politician Moti Yogev, who has applied pressure on Israeli occupation forces to ramp up demolitions, said, “I have no doubt that the government’s firm stance is in part a result of the unilateral measures taken by Europe,” referring to the EU’s decision to label settlement products late last year.If so, the demolitions can be likened to the “price tag” attacks on Palestinians and their property carried out by settlers as a form of revenge for policies they don’t like.

Source: Israel has destroyed $74 million worth of EU projects | The Electronic Intifada

Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

Steffen Seibert, spokesman to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said on Monday that the Bundestag – Germany’s lower house of parliament – “had reached a sovereign decision.””That must be respected,” he added.The comments from Berlin on Monday came in light of Turkey’s reaction last week to Germany’s decision to pass a resolution which refers to the mass deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey officially denies that the events that started in 1915 amounted to genocide. Ankara’s official line is that ethnic Armenians represented a fifth column backed by Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional – a key requirement in the legal definition of genocide.

Source: Berlin rebuffs Turkey in Armenian genocide row after Green MP receives death threats | News | DW.COM | 06.06.2016

PHOTOS: Nationalist Jewish-Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter | +972 Magazine

Ahead of the march Police order Palestinian shopkeepers to shutter their stalls and stores and Palestinians are cleared from the streets in order to prevent the ultra-nationalist participants from attacking them. Jewish participants have been known to vandalize shuttered stores, bang on the doors of homes, chant racist and violent slogans against Muslims and Palestinians, and even use physical violence against Palestinian passersby. This year, following two consecutive years in which the High Court of Justice ordered police to reign in Jewish participants verbal and physical violence against Palestinian residents, police kept closer reigns on the march. It was limited in time and although individual provocative acts still took place, police and ushers were reportedly more vigilant about maintaining order. A police spokesperson said officers arrested two Jewish minors for shouting racist slogans.

Source: PHOTOS: Nationalist Jewish-Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter | +972 Magazine

Bangladesh attacks kill wife of police officer and Christian | News | DW.COM | 05.06.2016

The first attack took place in the coastal city of Chittagong early Sunday morning when at least three men on a motorbike stabbed and shot the wife of an anti-terror police superintendent. Mahmuda Khanam was walking her son to a school bus stop when the assailants struck. “The attackers came on a motor-cycle. Her son said she was stabbed first. Then they pointed a pistol near her ear and shot several times,” Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Moktar Hossain told news agency AFP. Khanam was the wife of Babul Akter, a police official who led several high-profile operations against the banned Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group in recent months. No one immediately claimed responsibility on Sunday, but police said jihadists could be behind the murder. “We suspect JMB or local Islamist extremists for the attack. Akter led successful anti-militant raids in Chittagong in which several JMB men were arrested,” Hossain said.

Source: Bangladesh attacks kill wife of police officer and Christian | News | DW.COM | 05.06.2016

Return Of Saffron Violence? – Groundviews

a new group of saffron robed extremist monks, who are attempting to come in to the limelight through propagating a racist agenda. The desperate common opposition led by the Rajapaksa faction in parliament has started playing the racist card once more, provoking Buddhist extremism. They are using multiple fronts to attack minorities, especially the Tamils and Muslims after their dismal performance at the May Day rally in Kirulapone, in the hope that they can harness the vote bank of the Buddhists. These forces have now been unleashed to create hate and target the Muslims and evangelical Christians with the hope that the international community and, especially the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) would notice it and impose sanctions on Sri Lanka that would lead to the collapse of our economy.  A ban on the import of Sri Lankan labour to the Middle East would drive the majority of our population to the streets – literally begging for their next meal. The income from foreign remittances is estimated to be around 6-7 billion US Dollars per annum.

Source: Return Of Saffron Violence? – Groundviews

The Last Survivor of the Black Wall Street Oklahoma Disaster | 3CHICSPOLITICO

A local newspaper had printed a fabricated story that Rowland tried to rape Page. In an editorial, the same newspaper said a hanging was planned for that night. As groups of both Blacks and Whites converged on the Tulsa Courthouse, a White man in the crowd confronted an armed Black man, a war veteran, who had joined with other Blacks to protect Rowland. Eddie Faye Gates, a member of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, formed several years ago to determine exactly what happened, told CNN what happened next. “This White man,” she said, asked the Black man, “What are you doing with this gun?” “I’m going to use it if I have to,” the Black man said, according to Gates, “and (the White man) said, ‘No, you’re not. Give it to me,’ and he tried to take it. The gun went off, the White man was dead, the riot was on.” Truckloads of Whites set fires and shot Blacks on sight. When the smoke lifted the next day, more than 1,400 homes and businesses in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, a prosperous area known as the “Black Wall Street,” lay in ruins. Today, only a single block of the original buildings remains standing in the area. Experts now estimate that at least 3,000 died. Dr. Olivia Hooker was one of the survivors of this racially motivated attack, which she refuses to call a riot.

Source: The Last Survivor of the Black Wall Street Oklahoma Disaster | 3CHICSPOLITICO

OpenFlights: FAQ

What can I do with OpenFlights? Quite a few things: Track exactly how far you’ve flown and how much time you’ve spent sitting on a plane. (Quite a few of our members have been to the Moon and back, but nobody has yet reached Mars.) See at a glance where you’ve been and where you’re going. Rapidly search your flight history: now when did I go to the Bahamas, and on what airline? Share your flights and trips with friends. Check where you can fly to from any airport, or any pair of airports. (Learn more) Check where you can fly to with any airline. (Learn more) Coordinate flights for conferences and other events. (Learn more) View your flights in gorgeous 3D with Google Earth and other visualization apps. (Learn more)

Source: OpenFlights: FAQ

Israelis are no longer buying what Netanyahu is selling | +972 Magazine

It’s not just a change in the people running the country. It’s not just the fact that people no longer want to work with him, including diehard rightists. It is the fundamental psychological change taking place here over the past few weeks, which signals one thing: Netanyahu is no longer able to tell the story of Israel. His point of view, the story he is trying to sell — the Holocaust and the Mufti — are no longer the point of view of most Israelis. At least not entirely. This is a drastic change from the past few decades. Things we must pay attention to: Netanyahu’s story of “widening the coalition” has turned into the story of Ya’alon’s resignation and the appointment of a defense minister whom nearly every Israeli (and non-Israeli) prefers didn’t get the job. If Israelis wanted Liberman as a top political leader, his party would not have just barely passed the election threshold. Never has a prime minister appointed a defuse minister so beyond the consensus, and the Israeli public understood this immediately. This is the most important failure in Bibi’s story. The story that an Arab attacked dozens of policemen in Tel Aviv didn’t work either: Israelis know that their police force is violent, and that appointing Roni Alsheikh to police commissioner was a poor choice. And even at the end of last week, when Netanyahu tried to connect the “Left” and the “media” to a horrifying case of rape (this is the prime minister of Israel), Minister Avi Gabai, one of the most honest and respected people in the government, announced that he was resigning, explicitly saying it was due to the danger of appointing Liberman. Including those same “trends” that Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yair Golan warned against last month. The story is everything. And Netanyahu can no longer tell the story like he could in the past. This is wonderful news; for the first time in a decade, there is a feeling that fewer and fewer people feel the need to protect him, while more people no longer believe his lies or theatrics. Honest rightists such as Moshe Ya’alon and Moseh Arens, Avi Gabai and Orly Levy are saying “enough is enough.” And I believe, perhaps, that we are closer to the end than it seems.

Source: Israelis are no longer buying what Netanyahu is selling | +972 Magazine

Israeli extremist settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque – PNN

Hordes of Israeli extremist settlers stormed on early Sunday morning the holy al-Aqsa Mosque, in Occupied Jerusalem, via the Maghareba Gate. The break-in was carried out under heavy escort by Israeli soldiers and special police troops. The fanatic Israeli settlers reportedly performed provocative rituals and chanted anti-Muslim slogans. A group of Muslim women have been maintaining vigil outside the al-Aqsa after the Israeli occupation police prevented them from entering the Mosque to perform their prayers. Tension has been running high in Occupied Jerusalem as Israeli fanatics stepped up assaults on the al-Aqsa Mosque. Observers said the break-ins make part of Israeli intents to Judaize the mosque and divide it spatially and temporally between Muslims and Jews.

Source: Israeli extremist settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque – PNN