Category Archives: racism

Settlers firebomb Palestinian home in revenge attack | Maan News Agency

Settlers set fire to a Palestinian home in the Ramallah village of Sinjil overnight Wednesday, in an apparent revenge attack following the killing of an Israeli soldier, PA security sources said.

Settlers entered the village overnight and threw a firebomb at the home of Khaled Khalil. Five members of his family suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to a Ramallah hospital for treatment.

Settlers also sprayed graffiti on the side of a wall which read: \”Hi from Eden, revenge,\” Israeli news site Ynet said.

B\’Tselem field researcher Iyad Haddad said Rawada and Khaled Dar Khalil saw several people outside of their home in the middle of the night, with one of them pouring gasoline on their front porch.

They then lit the gasoline and drove off.

The family were trapped in the home as the front door is the only entrance and went up onto the roof. The Palestinian Authority fire department arrived forty minutes later and Israeli forces about an hour later.

via Settlers firebomb Palestinian home in revenge attack | Maan News Agency.

Not so smooth for new white mayor to fire first black city manager of Cincinnati – FAIL!Cincinnati City Manager Dohoney will resign – Cincinnati Business Courier

\”It was best for the both of us to go in a different direction,\” Cranley said.

During the campaign, Cranley had said he would interview Dohoney for the city manager\’s job. Under the city\’s charter, the mayor does not have the power to fire the city manager without the consent of five council members.

At the news conference, Cranley denied that he had told Dohoney he had a choice between resignation or dismissal. But three sources with knowledge of the situation told the Courier otherwise, and Cranley did not deny the story when he was contacted for comment about it earlier Wednesday.

Cranley said he plans to pick an interim city manager when he takes office on Dec. 1 and would begin a search for a permanent city manager shortly thereafter.

\”I want the best city manager that shares my vision and values,\” Cranley said.

via Cincinnati City Manager Dohoney will resign – Cincinnati Business Courier.

French Fail! Black minister compared to a monkey – again – FRANCE – FRANCE 24

The latest racist attack on Taubira appeared on the cover of the far right weekly magazine, Minute, which featured a photograph of the 61-year-old black politician with the title, “Crafty as a monkey, Taubira gets her banana back”.

In French, the phrase, “to get your banana back” also means putting a smile back on your face.

The word-play was not appreciated across large swathes of French society – particularly because it was the third time the French politician has been compared to a monkey in recent weeks.

In an interview with the left-leaning French daily Libération earlier this month, Taubira recounted how she was taunted with a banana by a twelve-year-old at a street protest against same-sex marriage.

Born in the French overseas territory of French Guyana, Taubira has been a vocal defender of legislation allowing gay marriage, which was passed earlier this year.

via Black minister compared to a monkey – again – FRANCE – FRANCE 24.

Hard to believe Israel wants peace… Israel ‘plans 20,000 new settler homes in West Bank’ | Maan News Agency

Israel plans to build 20,000 new settler homes in the West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Tuesday, the biggest batch of tenders since peace talks restarted.

\”The housing ministry announced tenders for the planning of 20,000 settler homes,\” Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer told Israeli public radio.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\’s office stressed he had opposed some 1,200 of the homes slated for construction in the highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1.

via Israel ‘plans 20,000 new settler homes in West Bank’ | Maan News Agency.

Jerusalem family forced to remove caravans on debris of ruined home | Maan News Agency

Living under occupation is like living in an ever evolving Kafka novel – it should not be this way!

A Palestinian family on Monday disassembled and removed their mobile homes in Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem upon orders by the Israeli municipality, a family member said.

Afif Castero told Ma’an that municipality inspectors arrived Monday morning and took photos of two caravans and a room made of bricks before they ordered his family to remove them immediately.

The inspectors, he explained, told the family the tin houses must be removed before Tuesday morning “otherwise municipality teams will remove them and the family will have to pay the bill.”

The pretext was construction without license.

Castero highlighted that his family moved to live in caravans after Israeli bulldozers demolished the family’s two-story building in February because it was built without license from the municipality.

via Jerusalem family forced to remove caravans on debris of ruined home | Maan News Agency.

What it is like to be occupied and oppressed: Israeli forces using Hebron Muslim cemetery for military drills | Maan News Agency

Israeli troops have been using a Muslim cemetery in Hebron as a location for military drills and practice, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said on Wednesday.

Yesh Din captured footage of the soldiers carrying out military exercises inside the Palestinian cemetery near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

\”Think of the scandal we\’d see if Palestinian policemen, or other foreign troops, were to use a Jewish cemetery for practice purposes; is it even conceivable for the IDF to use a Jewish graveyard for training purposes?\” said Yossi Gurvitz, author of the Yesh Din blog post.

\”One is pressed to imagine greater callousness of heart: turning a graveyard, a place on which every society places many taboos and much sensitivity, into a place where soldiers practice,\” Gurvitz said.

The incident continues a practice of using populated Palestinian areas for Israeli military drills since at least 2007, the author added.

The exercises are not announced to Palestinian locals in advance, and thus it is not always clear to nearby residents that these are mere drills.

Israeli military sources contacted by Yesh Din said that they were \”obliged to maintain security and public order in the Judea and Samaria Region [the West Bank]. In order to maintain the capability of the IDF forces to carry out this mission, the IDF is forced to hold exercises, sometimes in populated areas.\”

During military drills, Israeli forces can enter Palestinian homes and involve Palestinian civilians in their operations without warning them that the raids are mere practice.

via Israeli forces using Hebron Muslim cemetery for military drills | Maan News Agency.

Is English losing its appeal in China?: Shanghaiist

As elsewhere, as nationalism and right wing or conservative values grow, there are wannabe leaders who complain that they are losing their culture – you hear that in Japan, Hungary, Germany, France, Britain and other states.

“Recently, in fact, the former spokesman with the Ministry of Education posted comments on Weibo calling for English classes in elementary schools to be canceled so that there could be more time for Chinese lessons.

\”These years, so many people are learning English but our Chinese language proficiency is degrading quickly,\” one netizen said in response to the post.”

via Is English losing its appeal in China?: Shanghaiist.

Settlers torch 2 cars in Hebron village, spray graffiti | Maan News Agency

Settlers torched two Palestinian cars in a Hebron village on Thursday, locals said.

A group of settlers from Kiryat Arba set fire to the vehicles, which belonged to brothers Abed al-Menm and Mohammad al-Salayma al-Jalajel.

The settlers also sprayed threatening graffiti in the village reading \”Good things are coming,\” apparently referring to future attacks being prepared by settlers, locals said.

Settlers routinely attack Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank with impunity.

Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler crimes fail to lead to a prosecution.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law. The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

via Settlers torch 2 cars in Hebron village, spray graffiti | Maan News Agency.

Black French minister sounds alarm over rising tide of racism | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

\”It is not about careless little slips of the tongue, it is much more serious than that,\” Taubira said in an interview with left-wing daily Liberation. \”Inhibitions are disappearing, dykes have been breached.\”

In the last month alone, Taubira has twice been publicly compared to a monkey, once by a group of children whose parents had taken them on a protest against gay marriage and once by an electoral candidate of the far right National Front, who wrote on her Facebook page that she would prefer to see the minister \”swinging from the branches rather than in government.\”

Taubira said those well-publicised incidents were only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the hostility she has encountered since she was named as one of the four most senior ministers in the Socialist government that took office last year.

\”I\’ve been getting monkey and banana insults for a long time but there is also something more subtle going on that nobody has highlighted,\” she said.

By way of example, the minister noted how the opponents of gay marriage had targeted her personally rather than the government as a whole and had emphasised the \”Frenchness\” of the protest movement.

She also pointed to the outspoken reactions that her initial appointment had provoked. These included Jean-Francois Cope, one of the leaders of the main opposition party, warning centre-right voters that: \”If you vote for the FN, you get the Left and you get Taubira.\”

Taubira\’s concern over a perceived increase in racism — or the acceptability of racism — in French society, echoes warnings issued recently by various rights groups and social commentators.

via Black French minister sounds alarm over rising tide of racism | News , International | THE DAILY STAR.

Keeping Black Voters in Their Place – NYTimes.com

Once Alabama Republicans gained control of the levers of power, they wasted no time using the results of the 2010 Census to reinforce their position of dominance. Newly drawn lines further corralled black voters into legislative districts with large African-American majorities, a tactic political professionals call “packing and stacking.” Redrawn district lines minimize the potential of coalitions between a minority of white voters and a solid core of black voters. Under these circumstances, white Republican voting blocs remain dominant.

At the core of this strategy is an unexpected twist: Republicans in Alabama and in many other states have gone out of their way to protect black legislative districts and black legislators from Republican or white Democratic challenges.

via Keeping Black Voters in Their Place – NYTimes.com.