Category Archives: Gun-violence

Brother and sister slain at checkpoint were executed, Palestinians say | The Electronic Intifada

“Witnesses said it appeared that Ibrahim attempted to grab his sister’s hand and move away from the officers, when they opened fire on her. Maram fell to the ground and when Ibrahim attempted to aid her, he was shot in his tracks,” Ma’an added. “[Maram] had reportedly obtained a permit from the Israeli authorities to enter Jerusalem for the first time when she was crossing on Wednesday,” the agency stated. Eyewitnesses told Palestinian media that Israeli forces fired a barrage of bullets at the pair – “more than 15 rounds into the woman’s body, confirming her death,” the Ma’an News Agency reported. A witness named Ahmad Taha told Ma’an that “Israeli officers approached the two after they had been shot and on the ground before opening fire on them again ‘to ensure that they were dead,’ adding that the officers ‘could have moved the two away without opening fire.’” The man alleged that the knives police said were carried by Maram and Ibrahim were planted. Medical care denied The Palestine Red Crescent Society told Ma’an that Israeli forces denied medics access to the woman and child. Video from the scene shows Israeli forces turning away a Palestine Red Crescent medic and preventing a cameraman from filming. A brother of Maram and Ibrahim told Haaretz that he doesn’t believe his sister intended to carry out an attack, saying that she was on her way to a doctor’s appointment when she was shot dead.

Source: Brother and sister slain at checkpoint were executed, Palestinians say | The Electronic Intifada

New Orleans Police Officers Plead Guilty in Shooting of 6 Katrina Survivors – The New York Times

The five former officers were charged after six unarmed people were shot, two fatally, on the Danziger Bridge in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina.

The guilty pleas, which drew prison terms from three to 12 years, were the latest development in a wrenching 10-year saga that began when police officers responding to a distress call on the Danziger Bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, opened fire on unarmed residents, killing two and injuring four.

The officers — Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and Officer Robert Faulcon, as well as a detective, Arthur Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shooting — were initially indicted on state charges. Those indictments were dismissed, and the officers were then charged in federal court.

Source: New Orleans Police Officers Plead Guilty in Shooting of 6 Katrina Survivors – The New York Times

Kurdish commander: European jihadists plan new attacks – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

European jihadists are the most ruthless fighters within the terrorist group the Islamic State and they have formed special units that focus on carrying out terrorist attacks in Europe, says the commander-in-chief of the female Kurdish forces in northern Syria. “European jihadist who join IS become key figures in the organisation. They become professional terrorists,” says Nasrin Abdullah, who is visiting Sweden this week. “A majority of the suicide bombers and decapitators that we see have been selected from the European recruits.” Abdullah heads the YPJ, the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units in northern Syria. Recently, the Kurds have made significant advances in the region, and have managed to reclaim large areas of land from the Islamic State, also known as IS.  But they have paid a high price. Abdullah has lost more than 500 soldiers in the fight against IS over the past two years, and she says IS has far-reaching plans to carry out further attacks in Europe. “IS has formed special units to attack Europe. To a large degree those units are made up of jihadist who have joined from Europe,” Abdullah tells Radio Sweden.

Source: Kurdish commander: European jihadists plan new attacks – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

A state of Monologue: Terror or Resistance in Palestine

I can assure that every single Palestinian has lost his faith in any possible hope from the Palestinian authority, either by believing that they are helpless, and thus they cannot do anything, or because they believe that thye are in full collaboration with Israel, and their role is nothing but to give a hand to Israeli power.

On the Israeli level of the Palestinian life, when for the whole last year, and as a consequence of the brutal burning and killing of abu Khdeir, more coercion was authorized against Palestinians? Shooting, lynching and imprisoning remarkably targeted children. When restriction increased. Violations expanded. And on top of all, if I was a young Palestinian who wants to be part of a demonstration and I know that throwing a stone will send me to a life imprisonment, I may as well try to stab. The result is always one, either death or prison.

Palestinians reach to a level where full despair made them enter a closed tunnel where they know that the end is a crash that is fatal. With full realization. It could be revenge to the weak disappointing Palestinian authority that failed to meet the minimum of peoples demands, especially in such times when the people are directly targeted and not a single statement is made properly in levels with the situation.

When the Palestinian sees his friend, his neighbor, or the scenes of lynching the bleeding bodies of youngsters with no remorse and absolute inhumanity and fascist behaviors. What does the Israel expect?

My Israeli friend was telling me yesterday: “ do you think it is fair that I will be walking with my infant in the old city and get stabbed?” suddenly for her everything Arab became a red zone and dangerous, even though she lives in abu gosh an Arab town, that she insists they are an exception. They are what stand for the good Arabs in Hillel Cohen’s book “the Good Arabs”. For her the fear of every Arab became the norm. At that instant I could but see the norm of my very own life. She wouldn’t even understand what it means to be a mother in my situation, like all those mothers who have just lost their children thinking that they went to school or colleges, living with an eternal mourning on a child who was just names a martyr for an act that no one really knows if it happened or not, and in any norm, should it have cost him his life? She doesn’t realize that the moment my daughters leave the door of my home, I leave them with a chance of the absolute hideous fate of a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation. She doesn’t understand that if my daughter for any reason made a wrong move and stopped by an Israeli could be the next Palestinian “terrorist” in her eyes.

 

Reblogged on WordPress.com

Source: A state of Monologue: Terror or Resistance

Bangladesh Activist Is Killed After Criticizing Militants – The New York Times

Witnesses said a group of cleanshaven men surrounded Mohammad Nazim Uddin, a law student, around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday and slashed his head, then shot him when he fell to the ground, said Syed Nurul Islam, the deputy commissioner of police for Wari, the area of Old Dhaka where the killing took place. Mr. Uddin, 26, was an atheist who frequently expressed his views on Facebook, often posting as many as five times a day. His family had asked him to stop, fearful that the posts would make him a target, and for about four months, ending in January, he had complied, said Gulam Rabbi Chowdhury, a childhood friend. “To tell the truth, he was always a little detached from his family; he had trouble with them because of his views on religion,” he said. “He was very outspoken. He didn’t worry about whether you were with him or not.” Mr. Uddin’s killing deepens the sense of dread among those campaigning for secular causes, said Mr. Chowdhury, an official in a regional chapter of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.

Source: Bangladesh Activist Is Killed After Criticizing Militants – The New York Times

The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy – Groundviews {Textbook Ethno-Racism}

On the 5th April 1971 midnight the revolution began in earnest and it was confined to the areas where the Sinhalese lived. The simultaneous attacks on   police stations went in line with the plan that had been drawn up years before as part of the revolutionary strategy. Between 187-89 the JVP’s armed wing murdered left wing leaders and also trade unionists and activists. Built on a foundation of Sinhalese chauvinism it remains hostile to dissenting political opinions and even the existence of human beings within Sri Lanka of other cultures and religions. This exclusionary nationalism is deeply embedded in the JVP’s DNA, marking their political practice even today. It leaves them with the dubious and contradictory position of upholding majoritarian ethnic nationalism while at the same time adhering to a  ‘proletarian internationalism’. Their answer to the great question of post-Independence Sri Lankan politics, the rights of ethnic minorities is simply to wait for the socialist revolution.  Their political vision is untouched by the need to widen their electoral coalition, persuade voters or make any compromises with the real problems and challenges facing Sri Lankan people. Dissecting the JVP’s ideological and political articulation explains why.

Source: The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy – Groundviews

ASIA/SINGAPORE – The Mufti of Singapore to the Archbishop: “the massacre in Lahore is against Islam”

Singapore – The terrorist attack in Lahore, which targeted civilians indiscriminately, “is not only against Islamic teachings, but it is also an attack against all humanity”: is what the Muslim leader in Singapore, mufti Mohamed Fatris Bakaram said in a letter of condolence sent to the island’s Catholic Archbishop, Mgr. William Goh.The letter, sent to Fides, condemned the criminal act which killed 73 people and over 300 were injured in Lahore on Easter Sunday: “We strongly condemn the attack in Lahore and express our deepest condolences to the families of all the victims. We must join together to tell our clear horror of such acts of inhumanity”. The mufti specifies that “it is unjustifiable to attack another human being just because they have a different faith”, recalling that the attack was “an act of inhumanity and an affront to the people who believe in the values of compassion and peaceful coexistence”. This is “a serious error towards peace and inter-religious harmony, promoted by Islam”.On the same day the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore condemned the acts of violence committed in the name of Islam around the world, including attacks in Istanbul, Jakarta, in Syria, in Ankara, Brussels, as well as in Lahore. “We are saddened and outraged by such cruelty”, the Council said. “Along with all Muslims and all the inhabitants of Singapore, we express closeness and solidarity to the families of all the victims of these senseless tragedies” wrote the Council in a statement.

Source: ASIA/SINGAPORE – The Mufti of Singapore to the Archbishop: “the massacre in Lahore is against Islam”

Israelis rally around soldier filmed executing injured Palestinian | The Electronic Intifada

The new video shows the shooter “shaking hands with far-right activist Baruch Marzel” while al-Sharif’s body is removed from the scene, according to Haaretz. The US-born Marzel, a former leader of the violent group Kach, is notorious for fomenting attacks on Palestinians. Kach was outlawed by Israel after one of its members, the US-born medical doctor Baruch Goldstein, gunned down 29 Palestinians at Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque in 1994. The video provides visible evidence of the close relationship between the Israeli army and the violent settlers it supports and protects.

Source: Israelis rally around soldier filmed executing injured Palestinian | The Electronic Intifada

Israeli Education Minister: Even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment, he is not a murderer – PNN

Liberman, in addition to Education Minister and Jewish Home leader, Naftali Bennett, both attack B’Tselem Human Rights group for publishing the video. Immediately following the release of th e video on Thursday, politicians rushed to “dance to B’Tselem’s fiddle,” Bennett told Israel Radio on Sunday morning, referring to the human rights group that released the video of the killing, Jpost reported. Bennett said that “even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment he was not a murderer.” He said that the possibility of the soldier being tried for murder “demonstrated the total loss of proportions in the matter and he would act to ensure that the soldier would receive a just trial.” When asked about the execution,  El-Or Azarya, the medic soldier who murdered Abdul-Fattah Al-Sharif said that he “did the right thing at the right time.”

Source: Israeli Education Minister: Even if the soldier made a mistake of judgment, he is not a murderer – PNN