Category Archives: racism

ISIS Affiliate in Egypt Warns of Attack Against Israel in Rare Direct Threat — Egyptian Streets

In a rare direct threat, the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video warning Israel that it will soon “pay a high price.” “Oh Jews, wait for us. The punishment [we’ve prepared for you] is severe,” the narrator of the video reportedly says, adding that “this is only the beginning.” The video,…

via ISIS Affiliate in Egypt Warns of Attack Against Israel in Rare Direct Threat — Egyptian Streets

Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Shin Bet accusationsThe Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that Halabi was detained by Israeli forces as he attempted to return to Gaza through the Erez crossing from present-day Israel.According to Haaretz, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency has accused Halabi of funneling “tens of millions of dollars” of World Vision resources to Hamas, “some of it to fund digging military-related tunnels and to purchase weapons.” Citing Shin Bet, The New York Times put the figure at $43 million allegedly funneled to Hamas in just six years.Israel has not explained how such astonishing sums could have gone missing without the charity noticing, especially in Gaza where relatively small sums of development money could have a potentially massive impact.Shin Bet claims that $80,000 contributed by UK donors for needy families and to support civilian projects “were used to build a Hamas position in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, to pay Hamas activists’ salaries and bonuses [for] members who had fought against Israel in the 2014 war,” Haaretz said.Halabi’s attorney Muhammad Mahmoud told the newspaper that his client denies any ties to Hamas and that the fact the investigation took more than 50 days indicates a “problem” with the evidence.Shin Bet has routinely used torture in interrogations of Palestinians.World Vision said in its statement that it has “detailed procedures and control mechanisms in place to ensure that the funds entrusted to us are spent in accordance with applicable legal requirements and in ways that do not fuel conflict but rather contribute to peace.”Halabi’s lawyer told Haaretz that some allegations appeared to be linked to an incident allegedly in which “armed Hamas members came in two commercial vehicles with a machine gun mounted on it and under threat they took what they wanted” from World Vision stores.“We will study the file and its evidence some more but I think this file started off very inflated and the balloon has since been deflated,” the lawyer added.CrackdownIsrael has a history of making baseless allegations that various organizations are tied to Hamas.The accusations regarding World Vision also come months after Amnesty International expressed concern over harassment and intimidation by Israel aimed at hampering and discrediting the work of Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations.The arrest of Halabi may be an ominous sign of a broader crackdown specifically targeting humanitarian workers in Gaza.“Other information obtained while investigating Halabi has raised suspicions that other humanitarian aid organizations, as well, including United Nations institutions, have exploited their jobs for Hamas,” Haaretz reported, citing Shin Bet sources.It said that details of these cases are under Israeli gag orders.Evangelical ChristiansThe arrest was first reported by the blog ThinkProgress on 1 August.ThinkProgress revealed that a senior Gaza staffer – presumably Halabi – had been held for more than 40 days “without evidence or trial” and that occupation forces had searched World Vision’s offices in East Jerusalem.The charity works closely with UN agencies and the Red Cross and has received funding from the US and European governments.“The detention of a World Vision employee and subsequent raids potentially complicates the historically strong relationship between Israel and evangelical Christians in the United States,” ThinkProgress commented.World Vision Gaza humanitarian aid christian activism Hamas armed resistance Mohammad El Halabi Shin Bet ThinkProgressAli Abunimah’s blog Add new commentYour nameE-mailThe content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.HomepageSubjectComment policyComment *Content limited to 2000 characters, remaining: 2000 Notify me when new comments are posted All comments Replies to my commentBy submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.ALI ABUNIMAH Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.TwitterFacebook What’s really behind Israel’s attack on Christian charity World Vision?Ali Abunimah 5 August 2016 Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only roadAli Abunimah 3 August 2016 Israel temporarily lifts travel ban on BDS co-founder Omar BarghoutiAli Abunimah 2 August 2016 Israel uses Caterpillar equipment in apparent extrajudicial killingAli Abunimah 28 July 2016 Saudi-Israeli courtship heats up with general’s visitAli Abunimah 27 July 2016Main menuFeaturesOpinion and analysisReviewsBlogsSearch form Search

Source: Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

LONDON — Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here.Black Lives Matter U.K. had called for a nationwide “shutdown” to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality; racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing; the treatment of immigrants in detention; inadequate mental health services; and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain’s decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union.“We are here because we have no choice,” Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. “We are here because this is a crisis.”The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France.

Source: Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

 

Eight-year-old Anwar Burqan was playing with her young sister and brothers in al-Ibrahimi Street, near their home in Hebron’s al-Salaima neighborhood on 25 July when their games were interrupted by Israel’s pervasive military occupation.The video above, filmed by local resident Raed Abu Ramileh and published by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, shows some of what happened.According to Anwar’s account, she was riding a bicycle belonging to one of her brothers when an Israeli Border Police combatant ran over, stepped on the bicycle and took it away from her.

Source: Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice. – The Washington Post

Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family.When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.

Source: Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice. – The Washington Post

Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump – Vox

Trump’s actual response, though, wasn’t fine.”If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” he said, on national television. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”This wasn’t a slip of the tongue. In an interview with Maureen Dowd, Trump took the same tack. “I’d like to hear his wife say something,” he said.Let’s be very clear about what Trump is doing here: as ABC wrote, he’s suggesting “Khan’s wife didn’t speak because she was forbidden to as a Muslim.” This is bullshit. It is flatly, verifiably, false. But that’s almost beside the point.Trump listened to a speech by the bereaved father of a fallen Muslim soldier and used it to slander the fallen soldier’s family. That was his response. That is his character.At this point, I honestly don’t know what to say. I don’t have new language for this, I haven’t found another way of saying this isn’t okay, this isn’t kind, this isn’t decent. Instead, I’ll note James Fallows’s response. He quotes Joseph Welch, speaking to Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954.”Until this moment,” he said, “I think I never really gauged your cruelty.”If you would like to see Ghazala Khan speak, you can do so in this interview she gave to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. As Fallows writes, she breaks down sobbing while speaking of her son. It suggests she let her husband give the DNC speech for a simple reason: she remains overwhelmed by grief.This is the woman Trump decided to slander. This is the gauge of his cruelty.This isn’t partisan. This isn’t left vs. right. Mitt Romney never would have said this. John McCain never would have said this. George W. Bush never would have said this. John Kerry never would have said this. This is what I mean when I write that the 2016 election isn’t simply Democrat vs. Republican, but normal vs. abnormal.Trump also wanted the Khans to know that, like them, he had sacrificed for this country.”I’ve made a lot of sacrifices,” Trump said. “I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”I honestly do not understand how a human being can respond to a family that lost their son for this country by saying that he has sacrificed too, he’s worked really hard, he’s built “great structures,” he’s had “tremendous success.”This is not a question that needs to be asked in most elections, but it needs to be asked in this one: what kind of person is Donald Trump? What kind of person says these things? And is that really the kind of person we want to be president?

Source: Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump – Vox

Father of Muslim American soldier: ‘Donald Trump, you have sacrificed nothing’ – video | US news | The Guardian

Khizr Khan gave a stirring speech at the Democratic convention in honor of his son, Humayun, who was killed in Iraq when a suicide bomber attacked his unit. Khan said that under a Trump government, Humayun wouldn’t have even been allowed in the country. ‘Have you even read the United States constitution?’ he asked Trump, before offering up his own copy

Source: Father of Muslim American soldier: ‘Donald Trump, you have sacrificed nothing’ – video | US news | The Guardian

Trump the Traitor by Bernard-Henri Lévy – Project Syndicate

The implications of Trump’s election would be truly terrifying. The problem would not only be his vulgarity, sexism, racism, and defiant ignorance. It would be his possible infidelity to America itself. The party of Eisenhower and Reagan has been commandeered by a corrupt demagogue who betrays not only his country’s ideals, but also its fundamental national interest.

Source: Trump the Traitor by Bernard-Henri Lévy – Project Syndicate