Category Archives: Viva!

‘Apologise for falsehoods and canards’, Manmohan tells PM

Political temperatures soared on Monday with former PM Manmohan Singh demanding his successor Narendra Modi apologise to the nation for “canards and falsehoods” linking a meeting with Pakistani dignitaries attended by him with the Gujarat elections and a conspiracy against BJP.

Download comprehensive police shootings data

We are all alike so what explains more shootings in some cities over others? Local politics, history, management, un-management?

Data for police shootings is usually the subset that only includes fatalities. Vice News made requests nationwide to get data on people who were shot but not killed by police. To accompany their story, Vice News made the data and code available for download:

Ultimately, we obtained some data from 47 departments — with 4,099 incidents in all. Departments in New York’s Suffolk and Nassau Counties didn’t provide us with any data. Maryland’s Montgomery County Police Department gave us only partial incident-level information and no total number of police shootings, so we excluded them from the analysis.

We put all this information together to analyze trends across the departments and to compare them with one another — the first time this has ever been done for both fatal and nonfatal shootings.

Get the data and look for yourself.

Tags: police, shootings, Vice

الحياة بين افئدة الوجود

نادية حرحش

http://www.huffpostarabi.com/nadia-harhash/-_3291_b_8893250.html

يتساءل الكثيرون عن سر الفلسطيني. ويتساءل الفلسطيني إن كان هناك فعلاً سر في وجوده. وفيما بين التساؤلات عاش الفلسطيني بقناعة ما بأنه لا بد من وجود سر به..

مما لا شك فيه أن هناك شيئاً ما غريباً بالفلسطيني. به بعض السحر الذي يقترب إلى معضلة السر ربما. فهذه القدرة على التعامل مع الواقع تحت الاحتلال قدرة غريبة. ترى الإنسان الفلسطيني فيها يتكيف مع كل الأحوال والظروف الصعبة التي تستمر في إعادة تشكيل نفسها لتزيد من الصعوبة عليه، ويخرج عادياً قوياً مصرًّا متحدياً. هناك قوة ما بإصرار الفلسطيني على الوجود مع احتضانه الزاهد للموت. هناك تحدٍّ يبدو أنه يغلب التحدي نفسه أمام عنفوان وكبرياء لا يُفهم له مبرر ملموس.

هناك واقع صعب يفرض نفسه كالسهل الممتنع. لا يكاد الناظر من بعيد يراه، والداخل إليه لا يلتفت إلى تعقيداته حتى يصادف أول حاجز.. ويتساءل عن امتداد الجدار الذي مع كل خطوة يبدو أنه يقترب من التهامه. وذلك النظام المتمثل بجندي أو…

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This Week in Egypt: Week 50- 2017 ( Dec 4-10)

Nervana

Top Headlines

  • Arab ministers meet in Egypt amid anger at the US
  • Arab states urge U.S. to abandon Jerusalem move
  • Egypt’s Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Coptic Pope reject meeting with Pence over Jerusalem move
  • Egypt’s Sisi to meet Abbas on Monday

Jerusalem protest

Egyptian students at Al-Azhar university protest US Jerusalem move

(Photo: Ahram Arabic Gate)

Main Headlines

Monday

Tuesday

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Europe, wake up and smell the coffee

“It is high time to stop waiting for Washington, Moscow, Budapest or Jerusalem. It is time to stand up for human rights, to demand nothing short of an end to the occupation, and to spell out how European leadership will effectively reject the unacceptable reality of the past 50 years. Backed by an almost global consensus reiterated in last year’s UN Security Council resolution 2334, in solidarity with Palestinians and likeminded Israelis, and together with international actors near and far – this is a task to be realized by a genuine coalition committed to non-violence, human rights, and justice. Europe, wake up.”

Netanyahu’s Israel openly mocks the values that Europe claims to hold dear. When will European leaders stand up and reject the unacceptable reality of the past 50 years?

By Hagai El-Ad

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian youth during a protest against Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Hebron, West Bank, December 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian boy during protests against Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Hebron, West Bank, December 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

European foreign ministers attending Prime Minister Netanyahu’s breakfast in Brussels this Monday may find their thoughts wandering, as the guest of honor once again speaks of Iran, self-indulgent whining of “double standards,” and “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Some breakfasts are more difficult to swallow than others.

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And so, given a recent speech by a certain American president, the attending ministers’ thoughts may drift — perhaps to the occupied Palestinian territories. They may ask themselves some of the questions Israeli governments have consistently refused to address, such as: given how Israel’s grasp over the West Bank is being further cemented, why does Netanyahu’s government even bother to pay lip service to the “peace process?” And isn’t Israel’s policy of forced displacement of Palestinians from parts of the occupied territories a war crime? How many hours of electricity a day does Israel plan to ration for the 2 million Palestinians living at its doorstep in the Gaza Strip next week? And, embassy fanfare aside, what about the 370,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, living with no political rights since Israel’s annexation half a century ago?

Such unanswered questions may leave one’s mouth dry, and so the very same questions may percolate closer to home. For if Israel continues to cement its grasp all over the West Bank, why does Europe take seriously the occasional Israeli lip service to the “peace process?” And as Israel’s policy of forcibly displacing Palestinians from parts of the occupied territories is indeed a war crime, what is the EU’s effective counteraction? And for how much longer will the lie of “Israeli democracy,” alongside a 21st-century version of institutionalized oppression and dispossession, be accepted at Europe’s doorstep?

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Here’s a caffeine shot: it is all good and well to forever be disappointed by others while standing by and watching as unilateral moves become fait accompli. But it is Europe that has worn away its own credibility for years by repeatedly “expressing concern” over “the eroding possibility” of bringing an end to the occupation. How long can a position be eroded before it is wholly ground to dust courtesy of an Israeli bulldozer?

Yet thanks to the sheer bluntness of current American positions and Israeli actions, Europe can no longer pretend with any degree of credibility that the policy it is pursuing is one of supporting an American-led “peace process.” Such self-evident fiction undercuts Palestinians striving for freedom; Israeli human rights defenders striving for justice; and Europe’s values-driven vision towards a future based on the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.

The guest at Monday’s breakfast openly mocks these values, yet somehow here he is — white tablecloth, croissants, and dignitaries listening politely. In July 2017, in a meeting in Budapest with the prime ministers of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, Netanyahu repeatedly called the EU “crazy” for being “the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel… on political conditions.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán chimed in alongside, from his intra-EU perspective. Budapest and Jerusalem seem to be sharing more and more values these days.

As Israel’s number one trade partner, Europe has all the leverage it needs to inform Israeli voters that they cannot continue to have it both ways – enjoy perks justified by presumed shared democratic values, all while trampling those very values. Raising the stakes, Netanyahu is now pushing to further leverage the silencing effect of false accusations conflating the rejection of the perpetual occupation with “incitement to anti-Semitism”, while at the same time cashing in on internal European divisions. He thus aims to sideline even the modest, ineffective conditionality that has existed to date. And he, or his successor, will market such an achievement to Israeli voters as a sign that Israelis can in fact continue having it both ways.

By continuing to express “serious concern” instead of acting, Europe is deciding to allow others to lead the way, and de facto accepting the abundantly clear consequences. Trump’s America is far away from all this, both geographically and morally: it is shielded by an ocean, and outspoken in alignment with Putin, Duterte, Orbán – and Netanyahu. While America is distant, all this is unfolding in Europe’s immediate neighborhood. Out of sheer self-interest, can Europe withstand the consequences of abandoning the values underpinning its post-WW2 project?

It is high time to stop waiting for Washington, Moscow, Budapest or Jerusalem. It is time to stand up for human rights, to demand nothing short of an end to the occupation, and to spell out how European leadership will effectively reject the unacceptable reality of the past 50 years. Backed by an almost global consensus reiterated in last year’s UN Security Council resolution 2334, in solidarity with Palestinians and likeminded Israelis, and together with international actors near and far – this is a task to be realized by a genuine coalition committed to non-violence, human rights, and justice. Europe, wake up.

Hagai El- Ad is Executive Director of B’Tselem.