Category Archives: Gun-violence

Palestine – IDF deliberately fires teargas at Jordanian TV crew

Israeli troops deliberately fired teargas at two Palestinians journalists with Jordan’s Ro’ya TV while they were covering a peaceful Palestinian demonstration near Jaba, a village north of Jerusalem, on 2 July.

The demonstration was held to mark the first anniversary of the death of Mohamed Abou Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian who was murdered a few days after three young Israelis were kidnapped and murdered near the West Bank city of Hebron.

Ro’ya TV posted a video online showing Palestinian Territories bureau chief Nebal Farsakh and cameraman Mohamed Shousha being targeted although they were wearing bulletproof vests marked “Press.” They were taken to a hospital with facial burns.

The Israeli security forces must respect the physical integrity of journalists who are just doing their job by covering demonstrations,” said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Middle East and Maghreb desk. “We remind them that the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in March 2014 recognizing that journalists play an essential role by covering protests.”

The incident was not isolated. Israeli police used force to prevent a crew with Russian TV station RT from filming during Jerusalem Day on 17 May, which commemorates Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem and the Old City during the Six Day War.

Although they had accreditation, RT reporter Dalia Nammari and cameraman Muhammad Aishu were manhandled and their camera was broken. They have filed a complaint.

Nidal Ashtiyeh, a Palestinian photojournalist working for the Chinese news agency Xinhua, was covering a Palestinian demonstration near Nablus on 15 May marking the 67th anniversary of the Nakba (Palestinian defeat and exodus in 1948) when he was badly injured in an eye by a rubber-coated bullet fired by an Israeli soldier. He has not yet recovered his sight in the eye and needs to receive special treatment.

The Israel Defence Forces <a href=”http://www.madacenter.org/report.php?lang=1

via Palestine – IDF deliberately fires teargas at Jordanian TV crew.

String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States | Hatewatch

“From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression,” Love wrote.

“Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life,” the writer added.

The most recent fires occurred early today at the Glover Grover Baptist Church, in Warrenville, S.C., and at the Greater Miracle Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Fla.

Federal agents have been brought in to assist local officials in determining the unknown cause of the fire at the Glover Grove Baptist church. In Tallahassee, fire officials say the fire that totally destroyed the Apostolic Holiness Church may have been caused by a tree limb falling on overhead electrical lines.

via String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States | Hatewatch.

Republicans Tread Carefully in Criticism of Confederate Flag – aka: cowardice

The challenge for Republicans has been great as they seek to broaden their party’s appeal while trying not to risk offending the conservative white voters who venerate the emblem.mf.gif

 

 

via Republicans Tread Carefully in Criticism of Confederate Flag.

NCP: G4S in violation of human rights

PNN/Bethlehem

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) released a statement Thursday night stating that global prisons company G4S has been found to be in violation of human rights obligations as specified by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

 

The indictment of G4S is in regards to its Israeli contracts and was presented yesterday evening by UK National Contact Point (NCP), part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills). The finding comes after the G4S annual meeting was dominated by pro-Palestine activists demanding an end to G4S’s contracts with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), police and prison service.

Chair of PSC Hugh Lanning said: “Last week I, along with other campaigners and shareholders, attended the G4S AGM and listened to the claims of its Chief Executive that G4S was complying with human rights guidelines.

“Today those claims have been blown out of the water with this landmark ruling.”

The ruling from NCP was in response to a complaint submitted by UK legal charity, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, and is the culmination of a year-long investigation.

NCP found that G4S has not complied with OECD guidelines to “respect the internationally recognised human rights of those affected by their activities” in Israel and Palestine. It also ruled that G4S was failing to fulfill its obligations by not minimalising “adverse human rights impacts” linked to their business operations in Israel and Palestine.

As part of its contracts with the Israel Prison Service, G4S installs and maintains security systems in prisons within Israel and the West Bank. Palestinians, including children, are detained in these prisons, often without charge or trial, and many are tortured.

G4S also services baggage scanning equipment and metal detectors in checkpoints throughout the Palestinian West Bank, some of which are also used in the apartheid wall, severely restricting Palestinian freedom of movement.

Lanning stressed NCP’s recommendation to G4S to comply with its human rights obligations, saying, however, that: “G4S’ complicity with the human rights violations being carried out by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people will not end until it finally terminates its Israeli contracts.

“All companies should take note of today’s ruling and be aware of the toxicity of entering into contracts with an Israeli state that refuses to abide by international law and which systematically violates Palestinian human rights.”

via NCP: G4S in violation of human rights.

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.

via Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian.