Category Archives: human rights

Jewish extremists spray anti-Muslim graffiti on mosque | Maan News Agency

Vandals left anti-Muslim graffiti on a mosque in northern Israel, police said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of racist and religious attacks against Palestinians.

“Unidentified people drew a Star of David and wrote ‘close the mosques and open yeshivas’ (Jewish seminaries) on the outer wall” of the mosque in Fureidis, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

“The tires of several cars parked nearby were slashed,” he said, adding that “crimes committed for nationalist motives are extremely serious.”

On April 18, suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a mosque and sprayed racist graffiti in the town of Umm al-Fahm.

A week earlier, Jewish extremists sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on the walls of a convent west of Jerusalem and damaged vehicles parked nearby.

Slogans including “Mary is a cow,” “price tag,” and “America (is) Nazi Germany” were sprayed in Hebrew on the walls of the Roman Catholic sanctuary.

In March, vandals slashed the tyres of more than 40 cars in East Jerusalem, spraying a slogan reading: “Gentiles in the land are enemies.”

via Jewish extremists spray anti-Muslim graffiti on mosque | Maan News Agency.

Eugene Robinson: The racists among us – The Washington Post

The Republican Party, Fox News and a majority of the Supreme Court would like to believe such naked prejudice is history. Yet some big-city school systems are as segregated as they were in the 1960s. Leading public universities are admitting fewer black students than a decade ago. The black-white wealth gap has grown in recent years. Blacks are no more likely than whites to use illegal drugs, yet four times more likely to be arrested and jailed for it.

No, racism isn’t back. It never went away.

via Eugene Robinson: The racists among us – The Washington Post.

Moldovan citizens will no longer require visas to travel to the European Union

In response to the Ukraine crisis, the European Union has said it will accelerate the Eastern partnerships and from Monday, all citizens of Moldova with a biometric passport can travel visa-free to Europe’s Schengen zone, the European Commission said on Sunday in a statement. Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are all seeking tighter links with the European Union as part of an Eastern Partnership with the bloc, which allows for closer trade and business ties without full EU membership. Photo: MTI/EPA/Dumitru Doru

via Moldovan citizens will no longer require visas to travel to the European Union.

Free Speech or Legalized Libel?

Rcooley123's Blog

With the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case and the more recent McCutcheon decision, campaign finance regulation has, for the most part, been blown to smithereens. Not only are corporations people, but money is speech. To regulate either in the course of political campaigns is a direct violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, so help me, God. If that’s not bad enough, now the Supreme Court is preparing to render a decision, in the case of SBA List v. Dreihaus, which may actually lead to the establishment of outright political lies as protected speech as well.

Politics in this country weren’t screwed up enough before. Now we need to deal with seemingly endless amounts of money being spent by anyone (often anonymously, thanks to the wonder of unregulated dark money) to their heart’s content on advertising aimed at getting us…

View original post 1,221 more words

Tickets Issued For Dooring Cyclists Slowly Increase: Gothamist

Yet dooring is merely a $150 violation, not a crime, under New York State VTL Section 1214 [PDF]. And like Hayley & Diego’s law, which imposes jail time and a fine against drivers who fail to exercise due care, police are reluctant to cite drivers and passengers in dooring incidents unless they witness it themselves. Attempts to amend the law have fallen short in Albany.

“The population of cyclists in the city is growing, but the awareness of this dangerous act of opening a door into traffic is not,” said Daniel Flanzig, an attorney.

Flanzig said half his bike-crash cases involve dooring, with more than 35 clients injured in the past two years, many of whom win settlements. Under state and city traffic laws, it’s the duty of a person opening a car door to look first. Taxi passengers must exit curbside.

via Tickets Issued For Dooring Cyclists Slowly Increase: Gothamist.

Noa (Achinoam Nini) in Concert | Highline Ballroom

Achinoam Nini (known also as NOA), Israeli born of Yemenite origin, raised in the US, currently resides in Israel with her husband and 3 children. She is Israel’s leading international singer/songwriter, having shared the stage with superstars such as Sting and Stevie Wonder, and Israel’s first Good Will Ambassador for FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Together with her longstanding collaborator Gil Dor, she has released over 15 albums which have sold millions the world over. Noa was the first Jew to perform in the Vatican 15 years ago and has done so many times since. She dedicates much of her time to promoting peace and dialogue between Israel and Palestine and was the only leading Israeli artist to agree to perform in the historic peace rally where Yitzchak Rabin was murdered.

via Noa (Achinoam Nini) in Concert | Highline Ballroom.

Cheshire West and Chester Council deputy leader Les Ford in ‘special needs’ storm – Chester Chronicle

Less Ford

{Community would be better served with less Les Ford!}

Deputy council leader Les Ford has apologised for offending parents of special needs children by calling their loved ones ‘a burden’.

Parents, Mencap and the National Autistic Society have complained about Cllr Ford’s remarks during meetings where Cheshire West and Chester Council decided to bill parents of special educational needs (SEN) children £880 a year towards the £5,200 school transport costs.

Pupils up to four-years-old or between 16 and 19 years or with medical needs are eligible for the charge from September, which is reduced to £660 for the first year only. Low income families pay half.

Cllr Ford (Con, Helsby), who has since apologised for any offence, told the April executive meeting: “We have a burden, as everybody does, when you have a person like this in one’s family.”

Parents were also offended by the phrase ‘the state of that child’, when he told the March executive meeting: “Every parent has a duty to get their children to school, irrespective of the state of that child, whether it be SEN, autism or whatever.”

Explaining why he used the term ‘burden’, Cllr Ford told The Chronicle : “It’s our burden, not theirs, because we have to pay for these people.

via Cheshire West and Chester Council deputy leader Les Ford in ‘special needs’ storm – Chester Chronicle.

kNOw justice, kNOw peace | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

kNOw justice, kNOw peace

cop on horseback kept a close eye on the protesters. I saw no incident during the march last Sunday. the HPD did a good job in separating the two opposing groups along the way.

 

567

 

July 21, 2013

via kNOw justice, kNOw peace | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Despite Violence, the Debutante Ball in Beirut Carries On – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Despite Violence, the Debutante Ball in Beirut Carries On – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

That some might find a ball like this, in light of the situation in the country, a bit galling is nothing but a misunderstanding, says Fenianos. Though the circumstances are serious indeed: Opposing camps in the north are firing at each other almost daily, car bombs explode frequently in the south, the economy is in free fall and a fifth of Lebanon’s current population is made up of refugees from the Syrian civil war.

“We know what’s going on,” Fenianos said at the dress rehearsal on the day before the ball. “But we are showing the real Lebanon! We have been holding this ball for 16 years and nothing can stop us, neither crises nor bombs. We also danced in 2006, two months after the war with Israel!”

Settlers attack 7-year-old girl in south Hebron hills | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian family in the south Hebron hills on Thursday, injuring a seven-year-old girl, a peace group said.

At midday on Thursday, two settlers riding a quad bike attacked four children and their mother with stones as they were returning from school to the villages of Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed, Operation Dove said.

A seven-year-old was hit by a stone and fell while attempting to escape, injuring her head. She required five stitches for her wound.

The family was attacked while using the only available path without requiring a military escort, which usually accompanies children from Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed to their school due to the threat of settler violence.

via Settlers attack 7-year-old girl in south Hebron hills | Maan News Agency.