Category Archives: human rights

Israeli forces order arrest of a 2-year-old child from Jerusalem

Zidani family from Silwan neighborhood South the old city of Jerusalem, was shocked to hear the order of Israeli forces arresting their 2-year-old son, Hamza Zidani on Monday.

The family denied the order, when an Israeli occupation intelligence officer stormed into their house, kidnapped another son of the Family, Mohammad, and stole three computers.

Later, Israeli intelligence told the family that their youngest son, Hamza, was also ordered for kidnap, while the family rejected the order.

According to Defence for Children International Palestine, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons reached 230 during the year of 2014, and children between the ages of 12-15 years reached about 36.

Israel has kidnapped Palestinian adults and minors, either for throwing stones, or for no charge at all.

Each year, occupation tightens the screws on Palestinians, and exerts pressure on them to leave their homes, especially in Silwan area in Jerusalem, to extend the building of Israeli settlements in the area.

The kidnap campaigns are getting wider and including two-year-olds, to exert pressure on Palestinian families.

via Israeli forces order arrest of a 2-year-old child from Jerusalem.

Is Jerusalem the Palestinians’ last battle? | Opinion , Columnist | THE DAILY STAR

Jerusalem today for Palestinians is about the battle between Israel’s attempts to Judaize the city after formally “annexing” it (which virtually the whole world does not recognize) and the Palestinian insistence on resisting the Zionist efforts to control and own the land of mandated Palestine. This battle has been taking place for nearly a century now. Israeli settlers have been trying for years to move into Arab areas of Jerusalem, like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, either by buying homes surreptitiously or forcibly by inhabiting real estate that Israel declares to be state-owned. Because the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (the two overlapping but moribund leadership agencies for Palestinians) are not present in Jerusalem, the Arab residents of the city are on their own in defending their homes and lands.

via Is Jerusalem the Palestinians’ last battle? | Opinion , Columnist | THE DAILY STAR.

Brazil’s indigenous population can use their land, but are not its owners | Latina Lista

In short – Brazil can do whatever it wants with the land since it belongs to the government and not the people who live there!

 

The geographer and researcher from the University of São Paulo, Camila Salles de Faria, tells the Americas Program that in Brazil there are only two modalities for possessing land, a public and a private one. According to her, although indigenous lands will be recognized through demarcation of space, the land does not actually belong to the indigenous people, since in Brazil’s legal system communal or collective property does not exist, thus it remains beneath the jurisdiction of the state, and if at any moment it decides to interfere in the area, it is able to.

via Brazil’s indigenous population can use their land, but are not its owners | Latina Lista.

Americas MexicoBlog: Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead

Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead

Global Voices: Shot, burned in a garbage dump and thrown into a muddy river in black plastic bags. That was the fate of the 43 missing student teachers, known as normalistas in Spanish, who vanished on September 26, 2014, according to Mexico’s federal attorney general on November 7.

Jesus Murillo Karam‘s words were met with disbelief, anger and indignation not only by the students’ families, but also by people throughout Mexico and the world because they rely on the confessions of three drug cartel hit men, not conclusive evidence — human remains discovered near a landfill based on their information haven’t been identified yet.

via Americas MexicoBlog: Outrage as Mexico’s Attorney General Says Missing Ayotzinapa Students Are Dead.

Jerusalem: Historical Illiteracy And Political Exploitation. | Nervana

First, it is rather pointless for Arabs and Muslims to deny the ancient history of the Temple Mount. It is not up to us to decide where Jews should have their holy site. If Jews view the Temple Mount compound as holy to them, so be it. Acknowledging the religious importance of the site to the Jews would be a smart move, as it will strip right-wing Israelis from their fundamental portrayal of Arabs as thieves of history.

In addition, although Muslims label the Western wall of the Temple Mount as the “Buraq wall,” where the Prophet Mohamed landed during his night visit to the city, there is no need to ignore the ancient history of the wall. Jews believe it is the remaining part of their destroyed Temple. The Prophet did not build the wall, it existed before him, and there are many reliable historical sources that prove how Jews used to pray at that site, even after the destruction of the Temple, and well before the rise of Islam.

On the other hand, Israelis needs to remember that their ancient history was not a perfect example of religious tolerance. Following their return from exile in Babylon, Jews excluded foreign wives and children from the membership of Israel, a harsh reminder how the holy city was in many occasions, a city of intolerance, just as in her current, modern time.

Second, acknowledging history does not necessarily mean conceding to demands for prayers at the holy site. Arabs should highlight to the world their part of the story. The Romans destroyed the second Temple hundreds of years before the Arab conquest of the city ___ a fact that Arabs should continue to elaborate and emphasize to the world after showing empathy and sympathy to Jewish claim. Christian rulers, whether in the Byzantine or crusader era, were much more unkind to the Jews than Muslims. According to the Jewish virtual library, the whole Temple Mount area was badly desecrated and was only cleared and restored after Muslim conquest.

Third, while it is smart to acknowledge the ancient Jewish history of the compound, it is also crucial to highlight the current misery of Jerusalem and the failure to achieve peace. East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, has technically been occupied land since 1967. Israel bars Palestinians below the age of 50 from praying in al-Aqsa. Security barriers in the West Bank prevent more Palestinians from reaching the holy compound. How can Israelis expect Palestinians to be more understanding while they live under such occupation? Arabs should remind the world how under their rule, the great Jewish scholar Maimonides visited the Temple Mount in 1165. That was an era of harmony and peace, unlike today’s tension and injustice. Israel must understand that the political deadlock compounds tension and does not leave any room for religious tolerance. Peace would strip radicals on both sides from abusing religion for political gains.

As such, I did not follow my colleague’s advice, and started reading the book as it should be read, from page one. It was an eye-opener. As Armstrong poignantly pointed out, “the history of Jerusalem reminds us that nothing ___ not even mortal hatred ___ is permanent.”

via Jerusalem: Historical Illiteracy And Political Exploitation. | Nervana.

Myanmar plans nationwide project to determine citizenship for minorities – Channel NewsAsia

Another step toward ethnic cleansing – no doubt!

Myanmar is planning to conduct a national assessment to determine whether members of minority groups are Myanmar citizens or illegal immigrants, from next year. It is using a pilot project from a town in the troubled region of Rakhine as a blueprint for the programme.

“After we finish the citizenship verification process for that area (Rakhine), other people, other Bengalis living in other townships will understand the reality, and they will envy the Bengali people who intend to become Myanmar citizens and can enjoy the freedom of movement, and then if they want to apply for the passport, it will be very easy,” said Khin Yi, Myanmar immigration and population minister.

via Myanmar plans nationwide project to determine citizenship for minorities – Channel NewsAsia.

St. Francis Manuscripts Bound for U.S. Display – NYTimes.com

New Yorkers will see it soon, as Father Massetti and his collaborators are finishing restoring 13 medieval manuscripts of the 19 artifacts from the Sacred Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, before their departure for the United States on Monday.

Leaving Italy for the first time in 700 years, the documents will be shown at the United Nations headquarters Nov. 17-28, and then be open to the public in Brooklyn Borough Hall until mid-January in an exhibition, “Friar Francis: Traces, Words and Images.”

via St. Francis Manuscripts Bound for U.S. Display – NYTimes.com.

Activist Brings Catalans Together as They Seek to Secede From Spain – NYTimes.com

So, why is Spain afraid to let Catalans express their feelings and political choices?

The speech, before hundreds of thousands of pro-independence Catalans, was as straightforward as the seven-mile-long V for vote that the crowd formed along two of the main avenues of Barcelona, Catalonia’s regional capital.

“We will vote, and we will win,” the speaker, Carme Forcadell, a teacher and onetime local politician turned street activist, told the cheering demonstrators in September on the Diada, Catalonia’s national day. She stood on a podium with her hand raised and fingers spread to make a V, this time for victory.

While Catalonia is scheduled to hold a significantly watered-down referendum on secession on Sunday, the region remains far from breaking away from the rest of Spain. The vote has been fiercely opposed by Madrid and, after a ruling on Tuesday by Spain’s Constitutional Court suspending it, may not happen at all.

via Activist Brings Catalans Together as They Seek to Secede From Spain – NYTimes.com.

The third intifada is here – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

“Temple Mount Faithful” members and right-wing activists in Israel maintain that Jews have the right to ascend to the Temple Mount, similar to the Muslim right to do so. Even if we assume that their claim is just and that Jews do indeed have the historic right to ascend and pray on the Mount as Muslims do, the choice is between a religiously motivated intifada, and distancing right-wing activists from the center of conflict — the Temple Mount.

Perhaps in the past understandings could have been reached with the Palestinians to allow Jewish groups to ascend to the Mount and pray. But that was not accomplished. Solutions were not obtained, not even in the course of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, talks that have collapsed in the meantime.

What was not accomplished in the past through dialogue and understandings cannot, so it seems, be created now, when the earth in Jerusalem is burning under our feet and there is concern that a “second Al-Aqsa intifada” may well spill over into the West Bank. At that point, no security coordination will be able to stop it. Apparently, there is only one way to try to halt the downward spiral, before we again use a million bullets and transform the bus stations in the capital city into shelters: To close the Temple Mount to Jews.

On the advice of Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and the Jerusalem police, it was decided to place concrete railings around bus stations and underground train stations to protect pedestrians. While these may give some local protection to travelers, they ostensibly won’t be able to stop assailants from among the residents of East Jerusalem who believe that they are engaged in a religious war.

via The third intifada is here – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.