publishedmedium:the face

Israeli Druze commander quits army over nation-state law in open letter to Netanyahu

In a Facebook post, Capt. Amir Jmall calls on leaders of his community to work toward putting an end to the compulsory conscription of Israeli Druze

Yaniv Kubovich
Jul 30, 2018 5:36 PM

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-druze-quits-idf-over-nation-state-law-in-letter-to-netanya

In the letter, Jmall also called on leaders of his community to work toward putting an end to the compulsory conscription of Israel’s Druze. The Facebook post has since been removed.
“This morning, when I woke up to drive to the [army] base, I asked myself, why? Why do I have to serve the State of Israel, a state that my two brothers, my father and I have served with dedication, a sense of mission and a love of the homeland, and, in the end, what do we get? To be second-class citizens,” Jmall wrote.
>> ’When we’re in uniform they treat us well’: Israel’s Druze no longer feel like blood brothers
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"Continue serving the country? I do not want to continue and I am sure that hundreds more people will stop serving and will be discharged from the army following your decision, Netanyahu, that of you and your government,” he continued.
"After many thoughts ran through my head, I decided to let go and to discontinue serving the country, a country that has a government that takes and does not give back.”
In conclusion, Jmall wrote: “I ask everyone who is against the nation-state law to share and share my proposal to community leaders to stop the conscription law for members of the Druze community.”
The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, also known as the nation-state law, approved by the Knesset on July 19, affirmed that only Jews have the right to self-determination in Israel. It also downgraded Arabic to a language with “special status,” among several other controversial measures that affect the Israeli Druze.
The nation-state law is designed to alter the application of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty in court rulings, and permits judges to give priority to Israel’s Jewish character in their rulings.

Last week, Druze lawmakers were the first to file a High Court of Justice petition against the legislation. A hundred Druze Israel Defense Forces reserve officers added their voices to that effort on Wednesday, prompting Education Minister Naftali Bennett to speak out in support of “our blood brothers” on Twitter.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon echoed similar sentiments on Thursday, telling Israeli Army Radio, “The enactment of the nation-state law was done hastily,” and adding: “We were wrong and we need to fix it.”
On Saturday, Israeli Arab lawmaker Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) announced his intention to resign from the Knesset in protest of the law. "The law oppresses me and oppresses the population that sent me to the Knesset,’’ he said.

Douglas Schifter blamed politicians for ruining life | Daily Mail Online
▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5359349/NYC-cab-driver-shot-railing-politicians.html

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/02/06/22/48F1373700000578-5359349-image-m-65_1517955482196.jpg

Livery cab driver who shot himself dead in front of New York’s City Hall blamed politicians and ride-sharing services like Uber for ’financially ruining’ his life

A livery driver shot himself dead in his car in front of New York’s City Hall on Monday morning after venting on Facebook about the transportation industry
Douglas Schifter, 61, wrote a lengthy post about two hours before his death blaming ride-sharing services as well as politicians for financially ruining his life
Schifter, a driver since the ’80s, also ranted about issues in the transportation industry in columns he wrote for the for-hire publication Black Car News
Neil Weiss, owner of Black Car News, said his friend had been struggling to pay his bills recently and had to move in with extended family in Pennsylvania

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/02/06/21/48F06CF300000578-5359349-image-a-61_1517953895400.jpg

By Minyvonne Burke For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 18:47 GMT, 6 February 2018 | Updated: 00:06 GMT, 7 February 2018

A livery cab driver in New York vented on Facebook that politicians and ride-sharing services like Uber had ’financially ruined’ his life hours before he shot himself dead on Monday in front of New York’s City Hall.

Douglas Schifter drove up to the east gate of City Hall around 7.10am and shot himself in the head while sitting in his car, the New York Police Department said. The 61-year-old driver was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured.

Around 5:30am, less than two hours before his suicide, Schifter posted an ominous message on Facebook blaming Uber as well as Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Michael Bloomberg for destroying his livelihood.

’I have been financially ruined because three politicians destroyed my industry and livelihood and Corporate NY stole my services at rates far below fair levels,’ Schifter wrote in a lengthy post.
Douglas Schifter, a livery can driver in New York, killed himself on Monday morning
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Douglas Schifter, a livery can driver in New York, killed himself on Monday morning
Police said Schifter drove to the east gate of New York’s City Hall and shot himself in the head

Police said Schifter drove to the east gate of New York’s City Hall and shot himself in the head
About two hours before his death, Schifter vented on Facebook that ride-sharing services like Uber as well as politicians had ’financially ruined’ his life
+4

About two hours before his death, Schifter vented on Facebook that ride-sharing services like Uber as well as politicians had ’financially ruined’ his life

’I worked 100-120 consecutive hours almost every week for the past fourteen years. When the industry started in 1981, I averaged 40-50 hours. I cannot survive any longer with working 120 hours! I am not a Slave and I refuse to be one.’

Schifter accused companies of not paying their drivers ’fair rates’ which in turn caused drivers desperate to make ends meet to ’squeeze rates to below operating costs and force professionals like me out of the business’.

’They count their money and we are driven down into the streets we drive becoming homeless and hungry. I will not be a slave working for chump change. I would rather be dead,’ he fumed.

Later in the post, Schifter slammed Uber as a company ’that is a known liar, cheat and thief’.

Schifter expressed similar frustrations in columns he wrote for Black Car News, a publication for the for-hire vehicle industry.

While venting about congestion pricing, Schifter wrote: ’The government is continuing its strong drive to enslave us with low wages and extreme fines. It’s a nightmare.’

Neil Weiss, a friend of Schifter’s and the owner of Black Car News, said Schifter had been struggling to pay bills and moved in with extended family in Pennsylvania. He said his pal had texted him about 90 minutes before he killed himself that he was ’making it count’.

’I worked 100-120 consecutive hours almost every week for the past fourteen years. I am not a Slave and I refuse to be one’, the 61-year-old driver wrote on his Facebook page

According to taxi and limousine records, Schifter had driver livery cabs, black cars and limousines since the early 1980s

Weiss told the New York Post that he assumed Schifter’s cryptic message was in reference to the Facebook post his friend shared earlier on Monday.

’Obviously, that’s not what he meant,’ he said.

’He was a really sweet guy. His life had just gotten destroyed by the way the transportation industry had been going in New York City. There’s been some very significant adjustments in the past few years.’

According to Weiss, Schifter complained for years that the change in their industry - which saw an increase in drivers and the introduction of ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber - was ’hurting a lot of people’.

’There’s been a lot of changes in the transportation industry in New York City over the past bunch of years and not for the better,’ Weiss said. ’I was hoping he was getting things together.’

Taxi and limousine records show that Schifter had driven livery cabs, black cars and limousines since the early 1980s.

#USA #travail #disruption #suicide #Uber #taxi

Israel arrests Palestinian because Facebook translated ’good morning’ to ’attack them’ - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.818437

The Israel Police mistakenly arrested a Palestinian worker last week because they relied on automatic translation software to translate a post he wrote on his Facebook page. The Palestinian was arrested after writing “good morning,” which was misinterpreted; no Arabic-speaking police officer read the post before the man’s arrest.
The Facebook post that mistranslated ’good morning’ to ’hurt them’

Last week, the man posted on his Facebook page a picture from the construction site where he works in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Ilit near Jerusalem. In the picture he is leaning against a bulldozer alongside the caption: “Good morning” in Arabic.

The automatic translation service offered by Facebook uses its own proprietary algorithms. It translated “good morning” as “attack them” in Hebrew and “hurt them” in English.

Arabic speakers explained that English transliteration used by Facebook is not an actual word in Arabic but could look like the verb “to hurt” – even though any Arabic speaker could clearly see the transliteration did not match the translation.

But because of the mistaken translation the Judea and Samaria District police were notified of the post. The police officers were suspicious because the translation accompanied a picture of the man alongside the bulldozer, a vehicle that has been used in the past in hit-and-run terrorist attacks. They suspected he was threatening to carry out such an attack and the police arrested him. After he was questioned, the police realized their mistake and released the man after a few hours.

The Judea and Samaria District police confirmed the details and said a mistake in translation was made, which led to the mistaken arrest. The police agreed the correct translation was “good morning.”

The Palestinian man declined to speak with Haaretz. He removed the post from his Facebook page after the arrest.

#palestine #israel #lost_in_translation

(via Angry Arab)

Non, on n’a certainement pas encore touché le fond avec ces histoires de fake news. Continuons à creuser : Facebook and Google make lies as pretty as truth - How AMP and Instant Articles camouflage fake news
▻http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/6/13850230/fake-news-sites-google-search-facebook-instant-articles

The fake news problem we’re facing isn’t just about articles gaining traffic from Facebook timelines or Google search results. It’s also an issue of news literacy — a reader’s ability to discern credible news. And it’s getting harder to tell on sight alone which sites are trustworthy. On a Facebook timeline or Google search feed, every story comes prepackaged in the same skin, whether it’s a months-long investigation from The Washington Post or completely fabricated clickbait.

While feed formatting isn’t anything new, platforms like Google AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, and Apple News are also further breaking down the relationship between good design and credibility. In a platform world, all publishers end up looking more similar than different. That makes separating the real from the fake even harder.

Was Kate Moss exploited as a young model? - The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2012/oct/31/was-kate-moss-exploited

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/10/31/1351711195713/Kate-Moss-photographed-in-010.jpg

She is laughing, but the body language couldn’t be clearer – Kate Moss covers her bare breasts with an arm, and hunches over, trying to conceal the rest of her naked body with a sunhat. The photograph, one of a series taken by Corinne Day that also included a topless photograph, appeared in the Face magazine in 1990 and launched Moss’s career, though two decades on she does not remember the shoot as a happy one.

“I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird,” she says in an interview with Vanity Fair. “But they were like: If you don’t do it, then we’re not going to book you again. So I’d lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it. I never felt very comfortable about it.”

Moss also tells the magazine that she sought medical help for anxiety two years later. “Nobody takes care of you mentally. There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do.”

This happened 20 years ago – and Moss, of course, went on to have a phenomenally successful career, becoming one of the most powerful models, and remained close to Day.

Other models, though, say the industry is not much different now. “Nothing has really changed,” says Victoria Keon-Cohen, a model and founding chair of Equity’s Models’ Committee, which now has around 800 members. “Until we started the union there wasn’t any recognition of this kind of treatment in the industry. We wanted to help young models assert themselves and understand what rights they have. Unfortunately what Kate is talking about does still happen and has happened to me.”

“It is not uncommon for models who are children to be asked to take nude or semi-nude photos,” agrees Sara Ziff. “I started modelling at 14 and there were several occasions where I was put on the spot to take topless photos.” Ziff founded the Model Alliance union in the US to set standards, and doesn’t think “significant change is going to happen until there are laws that protect child models in the way other child performers are protected”. In a previous interview, she described how, when a 16-year-old model complained that a 45-year-old photographer had propositioned her, “her agency said she should have slept with him”.

But as Moss’s comments show, it isn’t only predatory men who are the problem, but a blurring between sexual imagery and fashion, and the models who have to negotiate it are often young – and fear speaking out.

For any model worried about their career, the pressure to keep quiet is strong enough, she says, “And then you’ve got girls from eastern Europe who are responsible for supporting their families.”

#mannequinat