Category Archives: human rights

Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Shin Bet accusationsThe Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that Halabi was detained by Israeli forces as he attempted to return to Gaza through the Erez crossing from present-day Israel.According to Haaretz, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency has accused Halabi of funneling “tens of millions of dollars” of World Vision resources to Hamas, “some of it to fund digging military-related tunnels and to purchase weapons.” Citing Shin Bet, The New York Times put the figure at $43 million allegedly funneled to Hamas in just six years.Israel has not explained how such astonishing sums could have gone missing without the charity noticing, especially in Gaza where relatively small sums of development money could have a potentially massive impact.Shin Bet claims that $80,000 contributed by UK donors for needy families and to support civilian projects “were used to build a Hamas position in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, to pay Hamas activists’ salaries and bonuses [for] members who had fought against Israel in the 2014 war,” Haaretz said.Halabi’s attorney Muhammad Mahmoud told the newspaper that his client denies any ties to Hamas and that the fact the investigation took more than 50 days indicates a “problem” with the evidence.Shin Bet has routinely used torture in interrogations of Palestinians.World Vision said in its statement that it has “detailed procedures and control mechanisms in place to ensure that the funds entrusted to us are spent in accordance with applicable legal requirements and in ways that do not fuel conflict but rather contribute to peace.”Halabi’s lawyer told Haaretz that some allegations appeared to be linked to an incident allegedly in which “armed Hamas members came in two commercial vehicles with a machine gun mounted on it and under threat they took what they wanted” from World Vision stores.“We will study the file and its evidence some more but I think this file started off very inflated and the balloon has since been deflated,” the lawyer added.CrackdownIsrael has a history of making baseless allegations that various organizations are tied to Hamas.The accusations regarding World Vision also come months after Amnesty International expressed concern over harassment and intimidation by Israel aimed at hampering and discrediting the work of Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations.The arrest of Halabi may be an ominous sign of a broader crackdown specifically targeting humanitarian workers in Gaza.“Other information obtained while investigating Halabi has raised suspicions that other humanitarian aid organizations, as well, including United Nations institutions, have exploited their jobs for Hamas,” Haaretz reported, citing Shin Bet sources.It said that details of these cases are under Israeli gag orders.Evangelical ChristiansThe arrest was first reported by the blog ThinkProgress on 1 August.ThinkProgress revealed that a senior Gaza staffer – presumably Halabi – had been held for more than 40 days “without evidence or trial” and that occupation forces had searched World Vision’s offices in East Jerusalem.The charity works closely with UN agencies and the Red Cross and has received funding from the US and European governments.“The detention of a World Vision employee and subsequent raids potentially complicates the historically strong relationship between Israel and evangelical Christians in the United States,” ThinkProgress commented.World Vision Gaza humanitarian aid christian activism Hamas armed resistance Mohammad El Halabi Shin Bet ThinkProgressAli Abunimah’s blog Add new commentYour nameE-mailThe content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.HomepageSubjectComment policyComment *Content limited to 2000 characters, remaining: 2000 Notify me when new comments are posted All comments Replies to my commentBy submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.ALI ABUNIMAH Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.TwitterFacebook What’s really behind Israel’s attack on Christian charity World Vision?Ali Abunimah 5 August 2016 Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only roadAli Abunimah 3 August 2016 Israel temporarily lifts travel ban on BDS co-founder Omar BarghoutiAli Abunimah 2 August 2016 Israel uses Caterpillar equipment in apparent extrajudicial killingAli Abunimah 28 July 2016 Saudi-Israeli courtship heats up with general’s visitAli Abunimah 27 July 2016Main menuFeaturesOpinion and analysisReviewsBlogsSearch form Search

Source: Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Dangers lurking in the permafrost | Environment | DW.COM | 05.08.2016

Zombie bacteria

After the death of a young boy and more than 20 other illnesses from anthrax in Siberia this past week, it has been speculated that a recent heat wave has awoken anthrax bacteria that had been lying dormant within the carcasses of long-deceased reindeer buried in the permafrost. Anthrax bacteria can survive in the form of spores for decades”The anthrax spores lay in wait in the permafrost for more than a century,” an agriculture watchdog was quoted in the newswires as saying.And indeed, anthrax bacteria do form spores in asexual reproduction. These spores are highly resilient, and can survive temperature extremes over decades and even centuries. They come back to life when conditions become amenable for them – like in thawing permafrost.Other bacteria form spores as well. Many of those bacteria are also pathogens, or produce deadly toxins – like the tetanus bacterium or Clostridium botulinum.

Source: Dangers lurking in the permafrost | Environment | DW.COM | 05.08.2016

Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

LONDON — Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here.Black Lives Matter U.K. had called for a nationwide “shutdown” to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality; racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing; the treatment of immigrants in detention; inadequate mental health services; and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain’s decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union.“We are here because we have no choice,” Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. “We are here because this is a crisis.”The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France.

Source: Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

 

I’ve been into slam poetry for more than two years now and Button Poetry is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I love it so much that it’s the only YouTube channel for which I’ve enabled notifications.Late last night, Lebanon-time, I get a notification that a new poem by Jess Rizkallah has been uploaded. Intrigued by the name, I open the YouTube video to find one of the most enriching, gut-wrenching poems I’ve listened to on that website in months.In three short minutes, Jess Rizkallah was able to convey the struggles that she, a Lebanese-Arab-American woman in the United States goes through trying to juggle her Arab side with her American side, in a culture that is increasingly putting both of her components at odds. I mean just look at a creature like Donald Trump existing and at people, many of whom are Lebanese unfortunately, applauding him.

Source: Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Daughter of murdered Guatemala journalist shot dead – IFEX

The daughter of a veteran Guatemalan radio journalist gunned down on June 25 by unidentified attackers was herself fatally shot on Tuesday, prompting the International Press Institute (IPI) to call on authorities to do more to protect journalists and bring their killers to justice. Lindaura Aceituno, daughter of Álvaro Alfredo Aceituno López and a manager at a local mall, was in her car with her young daughter in the south-eastern city of Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango department, when unidentified assailants on a motorbike shot her several times. Aceituno, 36, died after being taken to a hospital. Her daughter was also shot, but is reportedly in stable condition. The motive for the killing was not immediately known and police did not say whether it might be linked to her father’s murder. Álvaro Alfredo Aceituno López, director of local station Radio Ilusión, was gunned down while walking in a street close to his home in Coatepeque. The gunmen shot Aceituno López, 65, several times at close range, at least once in the head, before escaping in a car. The journalist was rushed to a hospital, where he died the same day. According to colleagues, he had not mentioned receiving any threats and the motive for his killing remains unknown.

Source: Daughter of murdered Guatemala journalist shot dead – IFEX

Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

 

Eight-year-old Anwar Burqan was playing with her young sister and brothers in al-Ibrahimi Street, near their home in Hebron’s al-Salaima neighborhood on 25 July when their games were interrupted by Israel’s pervasive military occupation.The video above, filmed by local resident Raed Abu Ramileh and published by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, shows some of what happened.According to Anwar’s account, she was riding a bicycle belonging to one of her brothers when an Israeli Border Police combatant ran over, stepped on the bicycle and took it away from her.

Source: Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

‘Get the baby out of here’: Trump ejects crying infant from rally | US news | The Guardian

“Don’t worry about that baby – I love babies,” the Republican candidate said, to the mother of a baby that had started crying during his stump speech. “I love babies. I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a baby, what a beautiful baby. Don’t worry, don’t worry. The mom’s running around, like, don’t worry about it, you know? It’s young and beautiful and healthy and that’s what we want.”The audience laughed and clapped politely.Later, when the baby continued crying, however, Trump was a little rougher.“Actually, I was only kidding – you can get the baby out of here,” Trump said firmly. “That’s all right, don’t worry. I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking. That’s OK. People don’t understand. That’s OK.”

Source: ‘Get the baby out of here’: Trump ejects crying infant from rally | US news | The Guardian

Mother of service member booed over Khan question at Pence rally – POLITICO

Barbara Weisenthal, 56, said she was among those booing and that Khizr Khan did not have the “right” to say what he did about Trump at the DNC. His speech “was almost like slander,” she said.Of the woman who asked the question, Weisenthal said it was “probably not the best place to do that.”Jack Christenson, himself a veteran, said the questioner may have had the right to ask her question of Pence, but not “to violate everyone else’s rights,” which he said she did by speaking out at the event.“She was claiming that Trump was somehow insulting the veterans,” said Roen Horn, 29. He called that idea “a bunch of crap.”“She was politicizing the veterans,” she said. “She had an agenda.”

Source: Mother of service member booed over Khan question at Pence rally – POLITICO

Frida Berrigan: “Pow, Pow, Yous Are Dead!” – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

We know where that problem ends, but it starts somewhere, too. One place to begin to look, at least, is at how our kids—particularly our boys—play, and how they are nurtured (or not), and taught to express their emotions (or not). It is, at least in part, up to us, their parents, to decide whether they are going to be the ones who help repair our society and reorient us (or not). And it begins with the kinds of care and love they receive, the kinds of conversations they are invited into, the kinds of expectations they are given about behavior and relationships.I don’t want to raise Seamus, Madeline, or Rosena in the austere, ripped from the headlines of horror, polemical atmosphere that was the essence of my own childhood. But I don’t want them to get comfortable with killing either.I want so much more for, and from, my little boy than “Pow, pow, yous are dead now!” And that starts with taking the gun or the stick or the rainbow flag out of his hands, sitting him down, and having a hard conversation about what guns actually do to people– and how much killing hurts us all.

Source: Frida Berrigan: “Pow, Pow, Yous Are Dead!” – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics