Category Archives: racism

US Official: (Dumb-Dangerous 2 all- un-needed!) Israeli warplanes strike Syrian missiles in Latakia | Maan News Agency

A US official Thursday confirmed an Israeli air raid on the Syrian city of Latakia.

The official, who declined to be identified, told CNN that Israeli warplanes struck Syrian missiles in Latakia on Wednesday.

via US Official: Israeli warplanes strike Syrian missiles in Latakia | Maan News Agency.

Settlers destroy over 600 olive trees in Nablus | Maan News Agency

Does no one care about Israeli Settler terrorism?

Settlers destroyed over 600 olive trees in a Nablus village on Wednesday, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma\’an that settlers from Yizhar cut down hundreds of olive trees belonging to the Hamad, Hussein and Allan famlies in the village of Einabus.

Settlers also used a chemical agent to destroy the trees.

According to a 2012 report on Israeli settler violence released by the Palestine Center, a Washington-based nonprofit, every year the olive harvest period sees the highest peak in attacks on Palestinian civilians and property.

In 2012, settlers damaged or destroyed over 7,500 olive trees between January and October, according to OCHA.

via Settlers destroy over 600 olive trees in Nablus | Maan News Agency.

IPS – Genocide Replaces Separatism in Tamil Diaspora Vocabulary | Inter Press Service

Focusing so greatly on genocide puts a full reckoning of the war at risk and muddies chances for reconciliation, said Alan Keenan, a Sri Lanka analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“It is certainly possible that one might someday be able to prove in a court of law what happened in Sri Lanka was genocide,” Keenan told IPS.

“But the current use of the genocide framework makes it harder for Tamils to have a discussion about the various ways that the LTTE contributed to their community’s catastrophe. And by painting things in such a black and white fashion, it also makes it harder for Sinhalese to accept their own community’s responsibility for atrocities.”

Weiss, whose book, “The Cage,” lays out a detailed case for charging the Sri Lankan government with war crimes, believes no lasting solution can be reached without an investigation and eventually a truth and reconciliation process that puts the crimes of both sides out in the open.

Yet the current political set-up, fueled in no small part by the diaspora, gives the Rajapaksa government little incentive to cooperate.

“Part of the problem is their culpability is intimately entwined with allegations of war crimes,” said Weiss. “It makes it very unlikely that the current government will be going down the path [of a true investigation] unless they can sell an amnesty package.”

This leaves diaspora groups in a painful bind. Do they prioritise engagement via the TNA and national politics or focus their attention on a distant and slow-moving international system, beholden to the whim of unfriendly U.N. Security Council members?

The diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka can postpone self-reflection in part because the government has continued with land grabs and human rights abuses and exhibited a general intransigence when it comes to reconciliation, said Keenan.

“If the Sri Lankan government gave reforms that would treat Tamils as equal citizens, that would give Tamils more space to criticise their own past leadership,” said Keenan. “As long as the government is being so harsh, it’s hard for Tamils to look at their own leaders’ mistakes.”

via IPS – Genocide Replaces Separatism in Tamil Diaspora Vocabulary | Inter Press Service.

Corporate giveaway of public land – Largest urban farming and reforestation project in the U.S. gets underway in Detroit — City Farmer News

Insane giveaway to investor who will do who knows what with the land in 10 years to no benefit to the community.

The lots being sold to establish Hantz Woodlands consist of approximately 140 acres of land in an area roughly bounded by Van Dyke Street on the west, St. Jean Street on the east, Mack Avenue on the north and Jefferson on the south.

via Largest urban farming and reforestation project in the U.S. gets underway in Detroit — City Farmer News.

Ironic and shameful – Settlers prevent Bethlehem farmers from reaching their land | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers and military forces prevented dozens of Palestinian farmers from reaching their land east of Bethlehem on Wednesday.

Armed settlers assaulted villagers from Tuqu while Israeli soldiers stood by and prevented them from reaching their land to harvest olives, a Ma\’an reporter said.

Head of Tuqu village council Taysir Abu Mifreh said that settlers from Noqedim also used dogs to intimidate Palestinian farmers.

A confrontation developed between settlers and farmers, with Israeli soldiers intervening on behalf of the settlers, locals said.

via Settlers prevent Bethlehem farmers from reaching their land | Maan News Agency.

ASIA/SRI LANKA – The Commission “Justice and Peace” in Jaffna denounces “the genocide of Tamils” – Fides News Agency

\”A genocide of the Tamil people is in progress in Sri Lanka\”: this is a strong and circumstantial complaint sent by the Commission \”Justice and Peace\” of the diocese of Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka, to the Apostolic Nunciature and all the Bishops of the country.

In a long and detailed letter, sent to Fides Agency, the President of the Commission, Fr. S.V.B. Mangalarajah, launches the alarm and calls the Vatican to exert political pressure on the government of Sri Lanka in order to propose an \”equitable political solution\” regarding the national structure, in the post-civil war.

via ASIA/SRI LANKA – The Commission “Justice and Peace” in Jaffna denounces “the genocide of Tamils” – Fides News Agency.

Vichy French opposition would revoke automatic citizenship – FRANCE – IMMIGRATION – FRANCE 24

“This is anti-republican,” Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the National Assembly, while the party’s parliamentary leader Bruno Le Roux added that the UMP was “in a mad spiral, looking to initiate a debate that will only serve to bolster the FN\”.

via French opposition would revoke automatic citizenship – FRANCE – IMMIGRATION – FRANCE 24.

Roma teens deportation was right, says French minister – FRANCE – FRANCE 24

Roma teens deportation was right, says French minister – FRANCE – FRANCE 24.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls told French media Sunday that he has no regrets about the way a 15-year old girl of Roma gypsy origin and her family were rounded up and deported, after widespread criticism in the media and from his own political party.

“We should be proud of what we are doing, rather than feeling sorry for ourselves,” Valls, a Socialist, told the Journal de Dimanche weekly in an interview published on Sunday.

He should be fired!