Category Archives: racism

Israeli extremist tries to remove Palestinian flag, gets caught on barbed wire (Video) – Ads Against Apartheid | Ads Against Apartheid

“Why are you on my roof?” asked Sidr in broken Hebrew.

The settler, who had a Russian accent, also spoke in broken Hebrew as he answered Sidr.

“I’ve come to talk with you,” the settler said. As he spoke, he hung onto the building’s stone ledge, his shirt stuck in the barbed wire and his feet still on the ladder.

His antics attracted the attention of Hebron’s Jewish community, which gathered below to watch the spectacle.

The settler, undeterred by his precarious position, asked Sidr to remove the two Palestinian flags.

Sidr refused and asked the settler how he would feel if Sidr attempted to climb onto his roof to remove an Israeli flag.

“Would that be good?” asked Sidr.

“But this roof is my roof.

This is all mine, this is my country and my land,” said the settler.

“No. This is my house.

Why are you here?” asked Sidr.

“You just think it’s yours.

But this whole country is the Land of Israel,” said the settler.

“Hebron is not in Israel.

This is Palestine. I am not in Tel Aviv,” said Sidr.

“What is Palestine? It is only what the Romans called it. This is the Land of Israel. This is my country.

And everything that is here is mine,” said the settler.

via Israeli extremist tries to remove Palestinian flag, gets caught on barbed wire (Video) – Ads Against Apartheid | Ads Against Apartheid.

Let them drown? Suspend rescue of migrants at sea, Italy’s Northern League party says – UPI.com

Neo-Fascist Northern League wants to let wannabe immigrants drown?

An official of Italy’s Northern League political party called for a suspension of operations to rescue the thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy by sea, calling it an expensive “invasion.”

Party secretary Matteo Salvini said a proposal will be sent to the two Italian parliament houses, calling for the rescue, called “Mare Nostrum,” to end. He claimed the operation costs Italy 300,000 euros ($414,362) per day.

“That will end the financing of smugglers and the invasion of our shores,” Salvini said. His political party has often taken strong positions against immigration to Italy.

Immigration is a point of conflict in Italy, as thousands of migrants arrive regularly in unsafe vessels regularly from North Africa and other African nations torn by war and poverty. Many die as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. After about 400 died in sinkings of two migrant boats in 2013, within sight of the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italy began its “Mare Nostrum” surveillance and rescue operation.

Boat arrivals have more than tripled in 2014, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended Italy receive financial help for its efforts.

via Suspend rescue of migrants at sea, Italy’s Northern League party says – UPI.com.

The Pretend Complexity of the Nevada Cattle-Grazing Dispute – NYTimes.com – NYTimes.com

This is a pretty straightforward situation—unless you’re an anti-government libertarian, or an anti-government libertarian who aspires to one day run the government.

“This is a real, I think, intellectual and constitutional and legal debate,” Senator Rand Paul told Fox News, “but it shouldn’t be about violence of arms, and I hope that the government will not be there in full arms and provoke a showdown and something terrible will happen. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

It’s Mr. Bundy who has done his utmost to provoke a showdown and there is no real debate, constitutional or otherwise. The Property Clause of the Constitution spells out that “Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the territory or other Property belonging to the United States.”

via The Pretend Complexity of the Nevada Cattle-Grazing Dispute – NYTimes.com – NYTimes.com.

No, not never – Yes, you will! Japan will never stop whaling: fisheries chief | The Japan Times

Hayashi, who took the ministerial post overseeing the country’s whaling program in December, said criticism of the practice is “a cultural attack, a kind of prejudice against Japanese culture.”

via Japan will never stop whaling: fisheries chief | The Japan Times.

Someone’s Handing Out Leaflets in Eastern Ukraine Telling Jews to ‘Register’ – The Wire

According to the Times of Israel, Pushilin has gone on record to a Russian paper denying any involvement in the flyers, instead calling them a “provocation.” Olga Resnikova, a Jewish resident of the region who saw the leaflet told Ynet that “we do not know if the leaflet was spread by pro-Russian forces or someone else, but it did manage to create quite a fear.”

No matter where the flyer comes from, the very real issue of anti-Semitism in Ukraine following the change of power there has been a fraught one. Pro-Russian groups have taken pains to paint the new interim government in Kiev as in collusion with anti-Semitic nationalists. But a New York Times look into Jewish life in Ukraine following the change of power found that many in the country were more concerned about anti-Semitism coming from Russia than they were about nationalist backlash from the new Ukrainian government. It seems no matter the crisis, the worst bigots will always find a way to exploit it.

via Someone’s Handing Out Leaflets in Eastern Ukraine Telling Jews to ‘Register’ – The Wire.

Retro-“Plantations” and Chain-gangs… A Disturbing Trend in Agriculture: Prisoner-Picked Vegetables | TakePart

Lodge’s bill is one of many similar measures introduced across the country in the last 10 years. From Vidalia onions in Georgia to watermelons in Arizona to apples in Washington to the potatoes of southern Idaho, prisoners are increasingly called on to harvest the food Americans eat.

via A Disturbing Trend in Agriculture: Prisoner-Picked Vegetables | TakePart.

Israeli forces clash with worshipers in Aqsa compound, dozens hurt | Maan News Agency

Dozens of worshipers were hurt Wednesday morning in fierce clashes with Israeli forces who stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound via the Moroccan and Chain gates.

Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers and police officers broke into the compound and deployed in the southern quarter firing stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets at worshipers.

Director of al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Azam al-Kahtib told Ma’an that “about 1,000 Israeli officers stormed the compound.” He highlighted that Israeli officers used live ammunition.

Special forces deployed at the main gates since dawn prayer, witnesses said, denying Palestinian worshipers entry to the compound.

Employees of the ministry of endowment and students who attend schools inside the compound were also denied entry. Only security guards were allowed in addition to men over 65 years old. Several people performed dawn prayer in the alleys near the gates.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that Palestinians threw “stones and firecrackers” at police when they opened the walled compound’s gates.

Police responded with stun grenades, Rosenfeld said, and closed the complex to Jewish visitors after a small number had toured the site.

via Israeli forces clash with worshipers in Aqsa compound, dozens hurt | Maan News Agency.

Apparent Hate Crime Aimed at Jews Instead Strikes Christians Who Gave to Others – NYTimes.com

William L. Corporon was a longtime family doctor, but to his family, he was Popeye, a nickname bestowed by a grandson, Reat Underwood.

{Haters are not all that smart and remember all those innocents killed over the years by racist haters}

On Sunday, it was Popeye who was drafted to take Reat to audition for KC SuperStar, a singing competition for high school students in the Kansas City area. A member of church and school choirs and an actor in summer theater productions in the park, Reat had wanted to try out for years. Now, as a 14-year-old high school freshman, he was finally old enough.

Dressed in a coat and tie, he had prepared a song called “You’re Going to Miss Me When I’m Gone,” which he sang for his mother on Sunday. She kissed him goodbye. Then he jumped into his grandfather’s truck.

But in early afternoon, the authorities say, Reat and his grandfather were both fatally shot in the parking lot outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan., where the audition was being held.

via Apparent Hate Crime Aimed at Jews Instead Strikes Christians Who Gave to Others – NYTimes.com.

Caught on video – Gunmen terrorize Brazilian Indians – Survival International

A violent gang of gunmen who have been terrorizing a community of Brazilian Indians since they returned to their ancestral land has been caught on video. The gang is believed to be employed by the rancher occupying the Guarani Indians’ land, which was seized from them in the 1970s, and cleared for ranching.

Last Monday one of the members of the community of Pyelito Kuê managed to film the gunmen driving past their village and firing shots at them in broad daylight.

via Caught on video – Gunmen terrorize Brazilian Indians – Survival International.

Watch: Christian groups decry Israeli restrictions ahead of Easter | Maan News Agency

“There is no more freedom for Christians in reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Benayot added, stressing how the combination of checkpoints and police violence had deterred many Christians from coming during the holy week leading up to Easter.

Every year, millions of Christians — including tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians — converge upon the holy city to mark the holiest days of the Christian calendar.

In recent years, however, these celebrations have been marred by violence, and at times Israeli authorities have even banned Palestinian Christians from entering the city to celebrate their holidays, even while allowing foreign pilgrims in.

Benayot said that last year when he tried to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he was assaulted at a checkpoint Israeli forces had erected.

via Watch: Christian groups decry Israeli restrictions ahead of Easter | Maan News Agency.