Category Archives: human rights

LeBron James Responds to Racial Vandalism: ‘Being Black in America is Tough’ – The New York Times

 

“Hate in America, especially for African-Americans, is living every day,” he said. James said that when he was first notified of the incident, he was reminded of the mother of Emmett Till, who insisted that her son, who was lynched in 1955, have an open coffin at his funeral, so people could not ignore the brutality of the killing.“No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said. “And we’ve got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African-Americans until we feel equal.”

Isabel Allende and Margaret Atwood are Just Some of the Writers Supporting a New Movement to Tackle Exile and Racism – The Ladies Finger

Our world is in crisis. People have always been forced to move against their will: they’ve fled wars and natural disasters, persecution and violence. But never before has the forced movement of people occurred at such a rate. 1 in 113 people in the world today have been driven from their homes. Simultaneously, a rising climate of nationalistic xenophobia among host nations has made resettlement for those who’ve experienced forced displacement increasingly dangerous and uncertain.

Source: Isabel Allende and Margaret Atwood are Just Some of the Writers Supporting a New Movement to Tackle Exile and Racism – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Wheel of Hate? Ex-TV host Chuck Woolery accused of anti-Semitism after controversial tweet – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

 

Some, however, also challenged his ‘facts’, pointing out that neither Lenin nor Marx were practicing Jews. Marx’s parents converted to Christianity and he was raised Lutheran, and became an atheist later. Lenin was baptized Russian Orthodox – he had a Jewish grandfather who converted to Russian Orthodoxy. Others noted that the last prominent figure to grab headlines by making this point was Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2013.

Source: Wheel of Hate? Ex-TV host Chuck Woolery accused of anti-Semitism after controversial tweet – U.S. News – Haaretz.com

Broken and Brave, Still We Ride the Waves. | Rebelle Society

I feel you, Pain. You are hard. You are brutal. You make my knees buckle and my lungs heave. You slice me open and make me bleed. You are heavy. And cold. And dark. You offer not even a sliver of light. But, know this, Pain: I will survive you because I am filled up with light. The light of love given and received. Love is the golden thread that holds me together and warms me from the inside. It makes me solid. It makes me durable.It makes me believe in God and Goodness and Hope and Healing. You will not destroy me, Pain. You will devastate me. You will leave me ravaged and starving, but you will not destroy me. I will ache and break and simmer and rage and seethe and weep and grieve and then, in time,I will let you go.Because even you, Pain, are not meant to be forever.It all comes and it all goes. All of it.Life exists in waves. It undulates.

Source: Broken and Brave, Still We Ride the Waves. | Rebelle Society

Hindu locality: Haridwar girl says attacked with acid because of her faith | Dehradun News – Times of India

A 20-year-old postgraduate student of a city college sustained severe burn injuries after two motorcycle-borne men threw acid at her at Lal Pul near Jawalapur in Haridwar on Monday morning. The girl, who belongs to the Muslim community, alleged that she was attacked because the men wanted her family to leave the locality they were staying in — a predominantly Hindu area of about 200 houses in which the girl’s family are the only Muslims.The girl, who is currently admitted in a government hospital, told TOI that one of her attackers, who has been identified as Sudhir Singh Tomar, a 45-year-old retired Army jawan, had also entered her house on May 25 at about 11pm when her parents were not at home. She alleged that he had threatened her with a pistol and sexually assaulted her, saying that her family should leave the colony as they were Muslims. She repeated the allegations in front of the local cops and the next day she, along with her mother, filed a police complaint.

Source: Hindu locality: Haridwar girl says attacked with acid because of her faith | Dehradun News – Times of India

U.S. Jewish activist to undergo surgery on arm broken by Israeli cops | +972 Magazine

Wednesday’s protest against Jerusalem Day, a highly-charged, intensely nationalistic and consistently violent affair, came as well over 100 American Jews are in Israel-Palestine participating in anti-occupation activism. The “Sumud Freedom Camp,” a Standing Rock-inspired protest encampment set up by Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jews, is currently in its ninth day, having already been dismantled twice by the Israeli army.Police and army violence is near-automatic in response to demonstrations by Palestinians, Ethiopian Israelis, and Israeli photojournalists and anti-occupation activists who attend protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The presence of diaspora Jews has traditionally stayed the authorities’ hand, but as Jews from around the world head to Israel-Palestine in order to step up their nonviolent activism against the occupation, it seems that the authorities are responding in kind.

Source: U.S. Jewish activist to undergo surgery on arm broken by Israeli cops | +972 Magazine

Inoreader – PA… Betrayal is a state of mind

Amad, A Palestinian News Agency, revealed today exchanges of letters between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government, through the channel of the coordination offices from both sides. The letters exposed the request of the PA to cut off the Electricity from Gaza, declaring that they will no longer pay the electricity bills concerning Gaza.The exchange between the two sides that is clearly explained in the letters. I have to say it feels so shameful, embarrassing, I cannot but add that we had reached that day when betrayal became a state of mind.

Source: Inoreader – PA… Betrayal is a state of mind

A Muslim-American Activist’s Speech Raises Ire Even Before It’s Delivered – The New York Times

Brad Lander, a Democratic city councilman from Brooklyn, described the accusations against Ms. Sarsour as “preposterous,” and pointed to her help in raising money to repair two Jewish cemeteries that were vandalized in St. Louis and Pennsylvania in February.“She’s been in my synagogue,” he said. “She and my rabbi are friends. There’s no doubt that part of what this is is backlash against the idea of having a Palestinian-American as a visible leader and inheritor of the civil rights movement.”He added, “One terrible feature of the Trump regime is that it threatens to tribalize all of us.”