Tag Archives: OddBox

Detaining nonfasting​ people in Ramallah

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This is really scandalous!

While Israel kills a Palestinian young man in the village of Nabi Saleh, not far from Ramallah. The PA forces arrest around thirty people sitting in a cafe in the city center of Ramallah. Not only were the detainees accused of not fasting, but also with gambling.

The public shame that took place in the city center, when three police vehicles came and arrested the people is unforgivable.

What are they different from Hamas Islamic governance? What would have they said if Hamas did the same in Gaza?

I seriously feel speechless… embarrassed …. to admit that this is really taking place.

Then we blame Daesh?

We blame fundamentalism?

What do you call this?

How do you want people to live in a place where they don’t even have the freedom to eat or not to eat when they want?

Ramallah and all other cities are not cities inhabited by Muslims only. And Muslims as well may not fast.

Fasting is obligatory for those who want to fast. The rest is peoples choice and responsibility before God .. not before the government…

Meanwhile ….

Israel detains the funeral of Izzideene Tamimi!!!

 

Trump praises NFL’s anthem policy, says protesters maybe ‘shouldn’t be in the country’

Fascist no doubt, like his father! Trump praises NFL’s anthem policy, says protesters maybe ‘shouldn’t be in the country’:

justsomeantifas:

trump just straight up coming out here saying anyone he disagrees with should be deported.

straight up saying anyone who protests things should be fucking deported. 

وعادت رزان مستشهدة

 

 

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بينما أكتب عن رزان ،أخشى أن أنضم لقوافل الرياء في ابتذال الشهداء واستخدامهم لمآربهم الخاصة. ولكن رزان كانت حالة تشبه ما يريده الغزيون من العالم رؤيته من غزة.

ايمان بالحرية حتى الموت.

ايمان بحق القضية حتى الموت.

ايمان بأن الانسان يعيش حرا أو يموت ليصير ملاكا محلقا في سماء حرة.

سماء لا تكبلها حواجز، ولا تخترقها رصاصات ولا قصف مدافع.

رزان النجار ….مثال جديد في درب البطولات الباقية.

شابة دخلت العقد الثاني من عمرها بقرار واضح ومدوي :

“” راجع ومش متراجع …وارشقني برصاصك ومش خايف…وإذا كل يوم هكون بأرضي سلمي وبأهلي حاشد ..مستمرون..”.

هذه الكلمات كانت آخر ما كتبته الشهيدة الملاك رزان النجار على صفحتها بالفيسبوك.

منذ بدء مسيرات العودة ، حددت رزان وجهتها في اختراق المنطقة صفر من المواجهة لإسعاف المصابين والشهداء….ولم يمنحها القدر وقت أكثر لتنضم الى قافلة الشهداء.

صور رزان بزي التمريض الأبيض ووجهها المشرق الجميل تجتاح مخيلتي. هل نالت هذه الشابة مبتغاها؟ أموتها بالفعل شرف واستحقاق ووسام بطولة سترفع عائلتها به رأسها بشموخ؟

هل كانت رزان في حياة سابقة فلورنس نايتنجيل او نسيبة المازنية ؟ وها هي تلحق بمثيلاتها في ركب الجنان البعيدة عن هذه الأرض البغيضة؟

قبل لحظات فقط من ارتقائها، كانت رزان تقاوم من أجل هدف قررته لنفسها . أن تبقى في خط المواجهة لتسعف الجرحى حتى الرمق الأخير … وكان لها ذلك.

 

“يا عمر ورد ضاع في مسك وطيب” كلمات رثاها بها أحد الباكين على فراقها لهذه الدنيا. ماذا كانت ستكون هذه المرأة الشابة لو بقيت على قيد الحياة؟ اذا ما كانت وبهذا العمر الصغير بهذه الجرأة والشجاعة والمقدامية. بسالة واضحة ،وتقدم نحو انقاذ حياة الاخرين بلا تردد.بهكذا أناس تحرر الاوطان .

وفي رثاء عقيم ، قد يكون أبسط ما نقدمه هو متابعة لجنازة من بعيد ، متمنين الا تختطف في جسدها الطاهر من أجل علم فصيل ،والا يتقاتل على نسب بطولتها حزب قبل نقلها لمثواها الاخير.

“أفتخر باني فلسطينية” كلمات رددتها رزان .

ربما كلمات رزان للعالم على صفحتها أبلغ ما يقال

فعندما نزلت للمسيرات كتبت ” ما كان للحسناء أن تنزل ساحة الجهاد لو كان بين حكام العرب رجال”.

 

وفي حرب المزاودات كتبت رزان : ” لكل الناس اللي بتزاود ع مسيرة العودة وسلاح المقاومة وع الطواقم الطبيةوالصحافة ..احنا بنروح ع السلك بدون ما حد يجبرنا ولما يصير علينا اشي احنا بنتحمل الوجع مش انتو لهيك كل واحد بحكي ع الشباب اللي بتتصاوب وبتستشهد ع السلك يسكت. ”

 

لا أجد كلمات تعبر عن شعور الحزن مع كل شهيد يرتقي بإذن الله الى عالم به عدل ونعيم في جنانه. رزان ورفاقها يصرون على الحرية . يصرون على ان للحياة معنى فقط اذا ما عشناها من اجل قضية.

وكانت قضية هذه الصبية واضحة . قضية نعيشها نحن الفلسطينيون ولا نزال نحلم رغم انعدام الامل وضياعا لفرص وخسارات تتكرر لابطال ستخلدهم ذاكرتنا ويبقوا …ويبقى مع ذكراهم خيط من فيض أمل لحرية حقيقية. لعدل بلا ظلم . لفك حصار وحياة كريمة لوطن لا يزال ابناؤه الصالحين على عهد بالموت والحياة في سبيله.

وطن يخرج من رحم نسائه ملائكة .

وطن تودع الامهات فيه ابنائها ….ويعودون شهداء…

وعادت رزان….شهيدة

 

اختم بمنشور للصديق جبرا الشوملي في رجاء أخير:

” لا تقتربوا من رزان

رزان ليست حورية لأحد منكم

رزان ممرضة الله

الله الذي أصابته رصاصة غادرة على الأسلاك في غزة..”.

 

My State of Justice…

 

My state of justice

Something popped into my head as I was involved in some discussions about the possible solutions to our conflict. As my head is spurring from Plato to Dante, and my brain and emotions swift between the perfect state the consequences in a divine comedy, things seemed possible after all.

This could be a very unacceptable view for all sides. To avoid being judgmental and start with assuming that the other will not accept. I have to put my papers on the table directly, the first opponent to my idea was my daughter, then my sister, then my other daughter, then my other sister. To start with it was impossible to continue with explaining my smart evolutionary idea because after the second sentence my Palestinian fellow would jump and refuse to listen.

I kept tempting them, that if they continued to the end, it would be a great deal… but …no interest.

Something else I realized from my piloting to this idea for a few days with my fellow family members, a significant question we Palestinians need to face ourselves with, what do we want?

Do we want a Palestinian state with the Palestinian leadership, or do we want a Palestinian state with Israeli given civil services?

As the discussion exploded from its beginning with my daughter, I tried to prove myself right in cornering her with the civil services concerning sovereignty, and she was straight in saying that she does not want to be ruled by the Palestinian leadership, insisting that she did not choose this current leadership. They do not represent her.

What my daughter mentions is what the street feels as well. However, how do we make our choices? We want a Palestinian state; we need to be responsible for our decisions. We cannot create a Palestinian leadership from the perfect space. After all, these people are from us, and they are a reflection of our needs and desires… well.. they turn into nightmares… but they are ou choice… like a bad marriage.

There is a lot of what came out before I even went on with my magic solution. One can only imagine what the Israelis will think… I have to admit that I was biased because I started with the discourse in asking the Palestinians to accept what they don’t want to see… the legitimacy of the state of Israel in being.

Ok…

Let’s start with the common ground of how we want to achieve the just world- state. The united nations. I don’t also like the united nations, but there are some factors we cannot bypass. We Palestinians stand out to the world in every major and minor issue and ask for recognition and justice through the UN. We pray for the application of the UN resolutions starting from 181 and ending with the one that recognized us as a state.

One important thing we need to accept and work accordingly fully is that as this UN a resolution created the state of Israel within the real decision we want to apply.

Yes, creating a state for Jewish people on land that had people was not the best choice.. for the people who were there. And we those people did not make things very easy . but the UN created this resolution, we the Ottoman Empire lost the war because we the people helped in that loss. The Arabs wanted a revolution against them, and they got their nation states.

In between, some details are primary, but of course, we skipped… Belfour and the Zionist conspiracy … well, that Zionist conspiracy did not only compose of jews. From day one apparently, those imperialist and colonizing countries could not pass anything without the acceptance of the Arab leadership. Back then it was sheriff Hussein of Hijaz. Whether we like him or not, we approve him or not. We allowed him to get us the Arab nations we wanted … and of course, that should have been a good deal.. after all the Arabs were part of a losing falling empire.

We all know about Belfour promise to the jews, and we of course decline and refuse his pledge, yes it is true that it was a war and we were on the losing side, Britain was controlling the scene. They won we lost.

Not precisely we lost … because we wanted the ottomans to disappear. And they did…

It does not matter if we all agreed or not. It does not matter if many were against this. What matters is that those who bargained on the future of the people of the region were also from us.

Before one also tells me that who is Hussein of Hijaz? Well.. this was the choice of the famous hallucinating epic of what we know of Lawrence of Arabia.

This man not only represented us, but we followed him with his Arab revolution. So we are responsible.

Of course, who is we is another thing .. but here we have this historical collective responsibility.

Our enemy was not one … it was not Britain giving birth to Israel on our account only … Britain did this with the Arab leadership agreement.

Little we know of the agreement between Hussein and Weizmann in 1919 as Arabs. We don’t even know that this agreement existed. Of course, the man was tricked, and they gave him a translation of something and made him sign something else. But the man got an expensive watch and a car, and he wandered with them in the desert proudly.

We Palestinians were the sacrifice of the creation of the other four Arab nation states that Hussein was promised to have. The deal was closed and signed.

We the people did not know….

Is something else…

We the people did not change much since then.

I can imagine we applauded for Hussein and the Arab revolt, as much as we praised for Oslo.

Here again … the collective is responsibility, and it does not matter if we those who keep saying we did not choose chose or not … in the end, we accepted by not being strong enough to resist or say no…

Anyway, this is all history.

The un gave the jews a state, and they also gave us a statement on the same land.

Yes, we did not agree. And yes, we would not have accepted now … you don’t bring a stranger to my land and tell me he is my fellow new landlord… in the best scenario of course… because the colonial side of this was not the fellow landlord. He was here to be my landlord in my land.

Anyway…

We are in 2018, and all scenarios of possible states and no state solutions failed.

It is not also easy for me as a Palestinian to open my eye wide and admit that those Israelis are here and they are staying …and well.. they do have a narrative.

This narrative is getting stronger and more human.

Some twenty-thirty years ago, I was always superior to the debate, where are you form is the first question that takes my opponent out because he is likely to be from somewhere else before taking my land.

Now, Israelis my age have been born here. Their children are born here, their grandchildren as well.

In ten-twenty years when my grandchild ask an Israeli child where is he from, he and his father and his grandfather and maybe his great-grandfather are from here. If his great grandfather, for instance, is Netanyahu, he is very rooted he will think. ..and he is ….

Since my real belief stands on the grounds of justice, and justice for me will be based on three significant facts: two people, two states, on land.

Both people believe they have the right to be here.

Both people are here.

Both people want their state.

Both people should live on the same land.

I believe that there is space for everyone…

I know there is a problem,

Israelis want a Jewish state where all the jews can live

Palestinians want a Palestinian Arab state where all Palestinians can live.

Well.. we have a tip here, the un resolution 181 says this .. and they kind of split the land into two 48, or 49 percent to 52, or 53 percent will not be an issue when we all believe and decide that this land is for all of us.

We can have two states with separate governments in every city; each state will be given the same opportunities and resources. No borders will be assigned, each citizen of each country will be living in his same geographical place. I live in Jerusalem, I stay in Jerusalem, I receive the same services and benefits, and I pay my taxes, and I vote for my council that is Palestinian. And the Israeli will do the same to the Israeli side.

I live in Nablus, and Israeli lives in Ariel, the same. Two governates, councils, whatever we call them, and each citizen will belong to his government .palestinians for Palestine and Israelis for jews.

If Israel wants its state Jewish .. they are free to do this so that it will be Israel for the jews,

And Palestinians and Israeli Arabs will be with Palestine.

If I live in Haifa, I am a Palestinian living in Palestine. If the Israeli lives in Haifa, he is also an Israeli living in Palestine.

Each state will have its constitution where they will design the country they want.

So in the end, we will have, 20 million Jews, and 20 million Palestinians.

I still believe there is enough space for all. Refugees are free to come back to their original places. If the area is occupied a committee of reconciliation and compensation will be created to all those case. The committee is composed of a group of wise people from both sides.

Everyone is free to come and live here on the land of Palestine and the land of Israel in whatever we want to call.

One condition only,

Citizens of Palestine and citizens of Israel are only allowed to single citizenship.

You can only be Israeli or Palestinian. You can have other nationality, no dual citizenships in the state.

Those who want to live in this land with only one citizenship that belongs to this land Israel or Palestine are welcome….

I can only imagine who will want to stay and who decides to leave…

I think this is a real test for all those who claim their attachment and right to this land. We want national states … let’s go all the way.

ماذا بعد نقل السفارة؟

 

جاء رمضان وبدد الإهتمام بالأمور المهمة. الإنشغال ما بين الطعام والمسلسلات. الطوش اليومية بسبب غضب صائم او غير صائم.

اختفى الاحتلال عن المشهد ، الا من فضه للمنازعات اليومية بالقدس بين الفلسطينيين. ويقنص براحته على الحدود الفاصلة عن غزة ونعد الشهداء ونفرزهم لمصلحة هذا الفصيل أو ذاك.

كل شيء مهم تجمد الا النزاع والاقتتال ، بين الفصائل من جهة ، وبين فئات الشعب المقتتلة من أجل قطايف أو مصف للسيارة او عدم غض البصر عن مفطرات الصيام ولمز واساءة لفظية للإناث.

ولكن …

ما يحدث أكبر ولا يوجد من نلوم في ما يحدث غيرنا . فبن سلمان حتى اختفى من المشهد، وترامب أرجأ إعلان صفقته لما بعد رمضان ، ونحن منشغلون بما سنأكل وما سنشاهد وأين سنسهر.

وأقصى ما نراه من بعض المسؤولين ،بينما ينتظرون خبر انتهاء عمر الرئيس اذا ما توعكت صحته أكثر ، ببعض التنديد والاستياء . فالدول بدأت تهرول بنقل سفاراتهم الى القدس ، واسرائيل شرعت بالاعلان عن بناء توسيعي بالمستوطنات لمئات او الاف الوحدات السكنية في أنحاء الضفة الغربية .

تم موت أسير بشبهات مؤكدة بتعريضه للتنكيل والضرب ولا من حتى وقفة أحتجاجية ومطالبة حقيقية بتحقيق.

وبمناسبة التحقيق، نعم تحركت الدبلوماسية الفلسطينية نحو محكمة الجنايات لتقديم ملف الاستيطان ، وكأن اسرائيل ردت بتمرير قرار انشاء المزيد من الوحدات الاستيطانية لترد على الخطوة الفلسطينية التي استغرقت عقدين.

مر افتتاح السفارة بالقدس ولم ترق السلطة الى استدعاء ممثل او قنصل او سفير . لم تفكر اصلا بتوقيف مشاريع هذه الدول او التهديد بوقف التعاون.

أهم ما يحصل في لساحة الفلسطينية هو مرض الرئيس ومحاولة الوصول الى خليفة قادم ضمن المنتظرين الكثر لفرصة الرئاسة الابدية القادمة. حتى اننا صرنا نسمع بالتوريث!!!

ولكن كل ما يجري بالضفة من مأساوية في كفة ، وما يجري بغزة من استنزاف انساني في كفة أخرى.

لا أفهم كيف استطعنا ووبراعة عجيبة تحويل مسيرة العودة الى هذا. كيف صارت الضحايا ارقاما توزع على الفصائل ؟ كيف تحولت بطولات الناس المسكينة المتعطشة للقمة او حرية لمزادات يتصارع عليها الفصائل المتحاربة؟

كيف حولت حماس المسيرات لاستحقاق تجني منه منافع أعلى سقوفها فتح معابر؟

ما جرى بجنازة الامس مؤسف ومحزن ومخزي ومؤلم . أن نصل إلى مرحلة يرفض فيها امام الجامع بإقامة صلاة الجنازة لأن الشهيد ينتمي لفصيل مناهض ، فبكل أسى اقول ، لا يوجد ما هو حضيض اقعر من هذا.

ولا اعرف لماذا لا استطيع فصل وجودنا برمضان عما حدث ويحدث . ان كانت هذه اخلاق الصائم في أهم الشهور واقدسها لدى المسلمين. ان كان هذا هو الشهر الذي توصد به الشياطين ، فمن اولئك الذين يتصرفون بشيطنة أشد في هذا الشهر الفضيل؟ أين ذهبت الانسانية وكيف تغيب بأبسط ما يذكرنا دائما بأن هذه الحياة فانية ؟ كيف وصلنا الى مكان حتى الميت لا نرحمه ولا نقدم له واجبه الآخير…. وأى ميت؟ شهيد!

في ظل الانحدار الحاصل ، لا يمكن أن يبقى اولي السلطة من كافة الاطراف في هذا الاستنفاذ والاستهلاك للانسان الفلسطيني. لم يبق الا هذا الانسان بعدما ضاعت الارض وفقدنا العرض. ولقد حولتم الإنسان الى رقم محتمل لجني المزيد من الاستحقاقات لجيوبكم على حساب ما كان وطنا وما كان مواطنا .

كفى !

STUDYING ABOUT RACE & RACISM

jane-fonda-patrisse-cullors-usow-summit-

A few weeks ago, the United State of Women’s Conference was held here in Los Angeles and I spoke to the 6,000 women together with Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. This is how I started my speech:

“When Trump was elected and the toxic bedrock of White Supremacy in this country was exposed, I realized something new. I’ve been involved with progressive movements most of my adult life, but because I’m White, the lens through which I had been looking at race was too shallow. So I’m studying. It takes more than empathy, it requires intention to even begin to comprehend what people of color, no matter their class, face every moment of every day, and how much privilege, quite unconsciously, is enjoyed by those of us born White–even the poorest of us.”

After I spoke, Patrisse gave a very moving speech about mass incarceration and her brother who suffers from mental illness and was incarcerated and brutalized.

Here are the names of some of the books I have been reading in my effort to more deeply understand race and racism: “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “When They Call You a Terrorist” by Patrisse Cullors, “Between the World and Me,” “The Beautiful Struggle” and “We were Eight Years in Power” all 3 by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the great Zora Neale Hurston’s 1927 book “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” which has just been published with a forward by Alice Walker. Fascinating and moving. Hurston interviewed a former slave who remembers his life in Africa before he was taken prisoner and shipped to this country. How rare is that? There are more but I’ll stop there.

It has become clear to me as I study, that multiracial coalition-building is what the ruling class, the corporate elite, are the most afraid of. Right before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King was organizing a multi-racial Poor People’s March on Washington to bring economic justice regardless of race. This is what Reverand William Barber and his Poor People’s Campaign is attempting right now. It is this fear of multiracial unity that explains why Trump and his surrogates play the racist card at his rallies and in his policy proposals. Poor and working class Whites must be made to believe that they have privileges and advantages not afforded Blacks. That is why affirmative action, Food Stamps and Welfare are so hated by Whites who have lost their union jobs and sense of identity. They are made to believe people of color are cutting in line ahead of them. This belief is what is pushed by Trumpism. It’s the age old divide and conquer strategy.

What we need to do now is stop turning a blind eye to what’s really happening and help each other understand how racism has caused centuries-long suffering and severe disadvantage to people of color that continues today, particularly for African Americans who Whites were made to believe were not even human in order to justify slavery while still calling ourselves a Democracy. Though it’s more subtle now, Blacks continue to be prevented from enjoying the same rights and privileges Whites do. It is our colorblindness and, dare I say our willful laziness that keep us from seeing the segregated, horrifically unequal schools, the communities redlined by banks to keep Blacks out, the deliberately created food deserts and segregated ghettos where militarized police round up Black and Brown people for drug crimes that Whites are forgiven for.

When the Civil Rights Movement made gains in the ‘60s the white power elite decided to create a new Jim Crow that would not appear racist. They called it the War on Drugs. In the ‘70s Nixon’s National Domestic Policy Chief, John Ehrlichman, said this: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be black, but by getting the public to associate the blacks with heroin and then criminalizing them heavily, we could disrupt their communities. Did we know we were lying? Of course we did.”

In Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” we learn that in 2 short decades, between 1980 and 2000, the number of mostly Black and Brown people incarcerated in our nations prisons and jails soared from roughly 300,000 to more than 2 million. By the end of 2007, more than 7 million Americans, one in every 31 adults, were behind bars, on probation, or on parole. This huge increase was not because crime increased but because of new laws and new instructions to police officers and prosecutors that result in extraordinary persecution and violence against people of color while appearing to be race-neutral. This has become the way to create a racial caste without ever appoearing racist. Every year more than 650,000 people are released from prison, including people with mental disorders and those whose only crime is drug addiction or possession of a small amount of recreational drugs. Again, these mostly Black and Brown people are “barred from public housing by law, discriminated against by private landlords, ineligible for food stamps, and find themselves locked out of the mainstream society and economy permanently.” Following incarceration unemployment is 50% higher for African-Americans and Latino men than white men. They did not create these conditions for themselves. The meager public assistance they receive can hardly be considered “cutting in line.” Whites have no reason to feel entitled. Our privileges were provided us at the expense of other human beings. To begin to heal from this cancer that continues to metastasize within our country, we need to acknowledge the historic harms that have been suffered by communities of color and the racism in the criminal justice system that continues today.

A rising tide doesn’t lift all boats, not the ones tied to the bottom of the ocean by racist laws and policies. What we must admit is that the far right, the Koch brothers, the Trumpists, the Steve Bannons and, yes, even some neo-liberal- Wall-Street-apologists who make sure Blacks and Browns are marginalized are the same ones who also hurt the poor and White working class by weakening labor unions, not coming up with new job development and infrastructure improvements in areas where mines and factories have closed. Once we can see that we share a common enemy, we can truly begin to unite to fight for social, political and economic equality.

Sure, some people are deeply racist and some love Trump because they think his policies will make them richer. But there are those millions of other Americans who believed his promises of jobs, of a better life, better health care, better schools. Ask them how they feel that’s turned out for them. Help them understand that there is strength in numbers and if all the people, of all ethnicities, races and genders who feel screwed and forgotten join together with a vision of a future worth fighting for we can achieve it.

Every document copy stored on used digital photocopiers

CBS News picked up four used photocopiers and looked at the hard drives. There was a lot of private information stored in them:

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive – like the one on your personal computer – storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it’s turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you’re in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

“The type of information we see on these machines with the social security numbers, birth certificates, bank records, income tax forms,” John Juntunen said, “that information would be very valuable.”

Okay, save the dramatics, it’s still disconcerting.

Not every photocopier makes it so easy to access copied documents, but it’s surprising that it’s still so straightforward with some machines these days. Then again, part of the responsibility belongs to the previous owners. As the Federal Trade Commission instructs, it’s like getting rid of a computer.

Tags: photocopier, privacy