holiday:independence day

  • Israel’s leftist media pushing for war with Gaza -

    This is journalism that betrays its mission, fully and voluntarily co-opted over the most important issue of all
    Gideon Levy
    Mar 27, 2019

    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-s-leftist-media-pushing-for-war-with-gaza-1.7063744

    If there’s another war with Gaza, God forbid, it will be largely due to the incitement of the leftist media. If war is avoided, it will be largely thanks to the restraint of that media’s bête noire, the rightist Benjamin Netanyahu. Left and right, baying for blood in near-unison, clamoring for action. This periodic psychosis, journalism that pushes for war while still being considered leftist, has become the norm. This is our warrior journalism, fighting for war.

    It works like this: First, for years they systematically and deliberately ignore the motives and justifications for Palestinian violence. They conceal the oppression and the occupation. It’s all terror, they’re all terrorists. Then they inflate the scope of the damage. Finally, they demand unimaginable vengeance. A primitive rocket that destroys a home in a farm community takes on the dimensions of an apocalypse. A few people were injured: near-genocide.

    >> A war now will strengthen Hamas | Opinion ■ Choose calm, not punishment | Editorial

    The headline, “A miracle: Tony the dog took some shrapnel and saved Grandma Susan,” is a parody of journalism. There were a flood of stories about Grandpa, Grandma, the children and the shrapnel. It’s emotional and familiar and it incites, and to hell with proportionality and professionalism.
    Haaretz Weekly Episode 20Haaretz

    Tens of thousands of Gazans who never had a swing in their yard as in Mishmeret are still homeless from the last war, but no one hears about them. In Mishmeret they are promising that the house will be rebuilt by Independence Day, but in Gaza there’s no Independence Day and no one to rebuild. Not a word is written about life under siege, dying cancer patients, hunger, unemployment and the fear of airstrikes in a land without bomb shelters. The press conceals this, derelict in its duties. Soldiers hit a blind man in his bed and kill a man in his car, for nothing; there are almost daily killings in the West Bank, and not a word. Only the destruction of the home in Mishmeret. The inescapable conclusion is that Israel mustn’t hold back.

    A diplomatic reporter, a former military reporter, coldly asks the prime minister next to his plane in Washington, “How is it that there are no reports yet of fatalities in Gaza?” Indeed, how come you haven’t killed anyone yet, Benjamin Netanyahu? We’re all waiting. Army Radio puts on a Gaza man who describes a little of the suffering there, together with a man from Sderot, and social media erupts in screams: How dare they compare a Gazan to a Sderot resident, an animal to a human being? Army Radio, turning cowardly and insensitive, will no longer interview Gazans. Only in Sderot is there suffering, only one side of the fence are there human beings. Only in Mishmeret are there children. The headlines call out, “Enough,” “Exact a price.” Time is of the essence, there must be killing. It’s not enough to destroy a hundred homes. It should be a thousand, and with blood.

    The experts in the broadcast studios: Hit them. Deterrence. The usual ridiculous clichés: “We can’t let this go.” Why not, in fact? “We can’t show restraint.” Why not? “We cannot remain silent.” Perhaps that’s preferable? And no one would even dream of lifting the blockade: That’s insane.
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    Bombing a helpless land: That’s logical. Generals argue over who was the hero who assassinated Ahmed Jabari, and no one calls it what it was: murder. All this is in the leftist media, many of whose journalists will vote for Benny Gantz or for Meretz, but that’s a trivial detail. What’s important is that they’re responsible for Israelis receiving tendentious, brainwashed information, a dialogue between the right and the extreme right. This is journalism that betrays its mission, fully and voluntarily co-opted over the most important issue of all.

    The picture that it paints is that Palestinians were born to kill. They are beasts, we are human beings. They impose war on the most peace-loving country, a war that it so does not want. But the war that is never enough is now our dream. If Netanyahu doesn’t get that, then we, the leftist journalists, will explain it to him. It could end in the Gazan city of Rafah and in blood. If not this time, then the next. Thank you, Yedioth Ahronoth; see you around, Israel Hayom; good-bye to the television channels and the radio stations, we’ll meet at six, after the next war.

  • Israel passes controversial nation-state law defining country as Jewish national homeland

    62 lawmakers vote in favor of the bill after a stormy debate ■ Arab lawmakers tossed out after they tear bill in protest, call it ’apartheid law’

    Jonathan Lis and Noa Landau Jul 19, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-passes-controversial-nation-state-bill-1.6291048

    The Knesset passed early Thursday a controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and asserts that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” with 62 lawmakers voting in favor of the legislation and 55 opposing it.
    The nation-stae law also includes clauses stating that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country’s official language. Another says that “the state sees the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.”
    It passed after a long and stormy debate that began in the afternoon, with lawmakers voting on hundreds of clauses presented by the opposition that objected to differents parts of the bill. 
    >> Nation-state bill heralds the end of Israel as a Jewish, democratic State | Analysis ■ As an Arab, I support Israel’s Jewish nation-state bill | Opinion ■ Israel’s nation-state bill betrays insecurity about its right to the land
    Immediately after the law passed, Arab lawmakers tore copies in protest, and were subsequently removed from the Knesset plenum hall. Lawmaker Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List, released a statement saying that Israel “declared it does not want us here” and that it had “passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citiziens.”

    Speaking moments after the bill passed into law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This is a defining moment – long live the State of Israel.”

    Arab lawmakers tear the nation-state bill in protest after it passes in the Knesset.
    Netanyahu further said that “122 years after Herzl made his vision known, with this law we determined the founding principle of our existence. Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, and respects the rights of all of its citizens.”
    The prime minister also said that "in the Middle East, only Israel respects [rights]. This is our country, the Jewish state. In recent years there have been those who have tried to undermine that and question the principles of our existence. Today we made it into law: This is the country, the language, the anthem and flag. 

    As they left the Knesset plenum, Arab MKs from the Joint List party confronted Netanyahu. MK Ahmed Tibi and MK Ayeda Touma-Souliman yelled at Netanyahu: “You passed an apartheid law, a racist law.” 
    MK Tibi lashed at Netanyahu: “Why are you afraid of the Arabic language?” The premier retorted by saying: “How dare you talk this way about the only democracy in the Middle East?” 
    Opposition head Isaac Herzog also spoke up at the plenum, saying that “it’s a little sad to me that the last speech I make will be against this kind of backdrop. The question is whether the law will harm or benefit Israel. History will determine. I really hope that we won’t find the fine balance between a Jewish and democratic state to be hurt.”
    The sponsor of the bill, MK Avi Dichter, said during debates that took place prior to the vote that “unlike the disinformation and fake news that were tossed around [regarding the bill], this basic law doesn’t hurt the culture of minorities living in Israel, doesn’t hurt their sabbaticals and holidays and certainly doesn’t hurt the Arabic language, which remains a mother tongue for 1.5 million of Israel’s citizens.”
    The draft bill the Knesset voted on is fundamentally different form the version the coalition had sought to advance in the past decade. Its main clauses were moderated following pressure within the coalition ranks and beyond.
    Initially, the bill was intended to significantly limit the discretion of Supreme Court justices’ decisions, requiring them to set the state’s Jewish character above its democratic character in rulings where the two clashed. This clause was removed from the bill already in May.

    The most controversial clause, which appeared to pave the way for the creation of communities segregated by nationality or religion, was removed from the legislation earlier this week.

    The nation-state law establishes as a basic law, or quasi-constitutional law, a set of values, some of which already appear in existing laws. The law stipulates that Israel is the Jewish nation’s historic homeland and that this nation has the singular right to national self-determination in it. The law anchors the flag, menorah, Hatikva anthem, Hebrew calendar, Independence Day and Jewish holidays as national symbols.
    The law states that the “whole and united” Jerusalem is the state’s capital, which appears today in Basic Law: Jerusalem. The nation-state law further grants the status of an official language only to Hebrew.
    Another controversial clause stipulates that the state will invest resources in preserving Israel’s affiliation to world Jewry, but not in Israel. This wording was demanded by the ultra-Orthodox parties to prevent the state from linking up with the Reform and Conservative communities in Israel.
    As part of the protest against the law, Peace Now activists waved a black flag in the Knesset balcony during the debate, until security guards made them leave the room. Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh also raised a black flag during the debate against the legislation.
    “As [the 1956 massacre] in Kafr Qassem was a blatantly illegal order, with a black flag over it, so is a black flag hoisted over this evil law,” he said.
    J Street’s president and founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami, harshly criticized the nation-state bill and Netanyahu’s government: “It was born in sin, its only purpose is to send a message to the Arab community, the LGBT community and other minorities in Israel, that they are not and never will be equal citizens. Two months ago we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, where it was written that the State of Israel ’will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or gender.’ Today Netanyahu’s government is trying to ignore those words and the values that they represent.”
    On Monday, Netanyahu said the bill was “very important to guarantee the foundations of our existence, which is Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people” – though critics say he is mainly keen to drum up support before the next Knesset election, due by November next year.

  • Facebook finds Independence document ’racist’ - BBC News
    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44722728

    Facebook’s algorithms have ruled that parts of the US Declaration of Independence are hate speech and removed excerpts of them posted to the platform.

    In the run-up to Independence Day, a US community paper based in Texas had been posting small daily chunks of the historic document on its Facebook page.

    At issue was a part of it that referred to “merciless Indian savages”.

    Facebook later apologised and allowed the posting.

    The Liberty County Vindicator had been sharing excerpts from America’s founding document to its Facebook page in an attempt to encourage historical literacy among its readers.

    Part 10 did not appear, with the paper receiving a notice from Facebook saying the post went against its standards on hate speech.

    Editor Casey Stinnett wrote afterwards of the offending paragraph: "Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson written it as ’Native Americans at a challenging stage of cultural development’ that would have been better.

    “Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans.”

    The newspaper later confirmed that Facebook had had a change of heart and apologised.

    “It looks like we made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our community standards,” the company told the Vindicator.

    “We want to apologise and let you know that we’ve restored your content and removed any blocks on your account related to this incorrect action.”

    In a blogpost, assistant editor of political magazine Reason Christian Britschgi said the decision demonstrated the problem with automated searches for hate speech.

    “A robot trained to spot politically incorrect language isn’t smart enough to detect when that language is part of a historically significant document,” he said.

    #Intelligence_artificielle #Déclaration_indépendance #Facebook

  • How NASA’s Mission to Pluto Was Nearly Lost - Issue 60: Searches
    http://nautil.us/issue/60/searches/how-nasas-mission-to-pluto-was-nearly-lost

    On the Saturday afternoon of July 4, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission leader Alan Stern was in his office near the project Mission Control Center, working, when his cell phone rang. He was aware of the Independence Day holiday but was much more focused on the fact that the date was “Pluto flyby minus 10 days.” New Horizons, the spacecraft mission that had been the central focus of his career for 14 years, was now just 10 days from its targeted encounter with the most distant planet ever explored. Immersed in work that afternoon, Alan was busy preparing for the flyby. He was used to operating on little sleep during this final approach phase of the mission, but that day he’d gotten up in the middle of the night and gone into their Mission Operations Center (MOC) for the upload of the (...)

  • Sixty thousand fascists march in Warsaw - World Socialist Web Site
    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/14/pola-n14.html

    Sixty thousand fascists march in Warsaw
    By Clara Weiss
    14 November 2017

    On Saturday, November 11, at least 60,000 fascist demonstrators from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia gathered in Warsaw, the Polish capital, on Poland’s “Independence Day” to stage what has been described as the biggest far-right demonstration since the fall of Nazism. Some estimates suggested as many as 100,000 participants.

    #pologne #extrême-droite

  • When a black fighter won ‘the fight of the century,’ race riots erupted across America
    https://timeline.com/when-a-black-fighter-won-the-fight-of-the-century-race-riots-erupted-acros

    On Independence Day, 1910, race riots ignited across America. Jack Johnson, a black boxer, had defeated the white Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight fight in the middle of the Reno desert. Cities around the nation, including Houston, New York, St. Louis, Omaha, New Orleans, Little Rock, and Los Angeles, erupted with the anger and vindication of a racially divided country.

    The day after, newspapers set on the difficult task of tallying the aftermath. “One man was shot in Arkansas, two negroes were killed at Lake Providence, La.; one negro was killed at Mounds, Ill., and a negro fatally wounded in Roundeye, Va.,” reported one local newspaper, explaining that “the tension that existed everywhere vented itself out chiefly in street shuffles.”

    A report from Houston read, “Charles Williams, a negro fight enthusiast, had his throat slashed from ear to ear on a streetcar by a white man, having announced too vociferously his appreciation of Jack Johnson’s victory in Reno.”

    In Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood, a mob set fire to a black tenement, while blocking the doorway to prevent the occupants’ escape. In St. Louis, a black crowd marched the streets, pushing No one knows how many died in the wake of Johnson-Jeffries fight, but records show between 11 and 26 were killed. Likely hundreds were assaulted or beaten. To quell the disturbance, cities barred the fight video from being shown in theaters, and Congress tried to pass a bill to ban the screening of all boxing films.

    William Pickens, president of the all-black Talladega College, was heartened by the symbolic victory, acknowledging it came at a great cost. “It was a good deal better for Johnson to win and a few negroes to be killed in body for it,” he said, “than for Johnson to have lost and negroes to have been killed in spirit by the preachments of inferiority from the combined white press.”

    As Johnson biographer Geoffrey C. Ward pointed out, “No event yielded such widespread racial violence until the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fifty-eight years later.”whites off the sidewalk and harassing them, before being clubbed and dispersed by police.

    In Washington, two white men were fatally stabbed by black men, with 236 people arrested in that city alone. And in Omaha, a black man was smothered to death in a barber’s chair, while in Wheeling, West Virginia, a black man driving an expensive car — just as the playboyish Jack Johnson was famous for — was beset by a mob and hanged.

  • Dunkerque : Nolan, l’art au détriment de l’histoire - Le Vent Se Lève
    http://lvsl.fr/dunkerque-nolan-grandiose-detriment-de-lhistoire

    A part un personnage de resquilleur qui tente de prendre le large, à l’anglaise, avec un uniforme volé de la British Army, les Frenchies ne sont là qu’au début et à la fin. Une présence en forme d’alibi. « Je suis innocent puisque vous voyez bien qu’on les aperçoit, là, les grenouilles, à 3 minutes 40. » Perverse dédicace, quota indigne. Ultime et honteux retournement, c’est même l’amiral anglais qui décide finalement de rester sur la jetée pour aller récupérer encore d’autres Français. On croit rêver, quand on sait que 16 000 soldats français sont morts pour défendre la ville, que 123 navires français ont été coulés, que Dunkerque a été détruite à 90% !3 Accueillant avec les honneurs les 140 000 soldats français et belges évacués, le peuple anglais avait été en son temps moins ingrat. Un journaliste du Monde a parlé de « cinglante impolitesse » pour qualifier cet oubli.4 Indélicatesse impardonnable, pourrait-on ajouter.

    • Lors d’une interview à la radio le 15/07, la veille de la projection à Dunkerque, Nolan disait (en gros, je n’arrive pas à trouver un podcast, je ne sais même pas sur quelle radio c’était, mais je suis sure de l’avoir entendu) « "Dunkerque", c’est une histoire anglaise, qui se passe en France et qui a nécessité un budget Hollywoodien. » Pas surprenant donc que l’on parle peu des français dans le film.

    • The Dunkirk spirit: how cinema is shaping Britain’s identity in the Brexit era | Film | The Guardian
      https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/20/dunkirk-spirit-british-film-brexit-national-identity-christopher-nolan

      You can’t blame Christopher Nolan for Brexit. The director was halfway through making Dunkirk, his new war epic, when the EU referendum took place last June. But if the leave campaign had wanted to make a rousing propaganda movie to stir the nation, it couldn’t have picked a better subject matter. Dunkirk has got it all: Britain standing alone against the world, our manufacturing superiority prevailing, the nation coming together – all in a literal effort to get out of Europe. If he had got the film together a little earlier, perhaps Nigel Farage wouldn’t have needed to cite Independence Day in his morning-after victory speech.

      The Dunkirk analogy has already been trotted out by leave campaigners, of course. Last February, for example, three months before she (wrongly) claimed that Britain would be powerless to prevent Turkey joining the EU, Tory minister Penny Mordaunt wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph titled “The spirit of Dunkirk will see us thrive outside the EU”. “In our long island history, there have been many times when Britain has not been well-served by alignment with Europe,” she wrote. “When Britain stood alone in 1940 after the defeat at Dunkirk, we were cut off and ridiculed. True leadership sometimes does feel isolating. Yet we have never suffered for it. We are resourceful; we are well connected; our brand is strong in the world.

      Never mind that Britain didn’t actually stand alone at that precise point during the war. Or that Winston Churchill favoured “indissoluble” union with an as-yet undefeated France. Or that by standing together with our European neighbours over the past 40 years, we have avoided another Dunkirk. This is the Brexiter version of British identity in a nutshell: proudly isolated, independent, not European, and “strong in the world”. And to be clear, this is primarily English identity we are talking about, given that a majority in Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.

  • I hope Turkey avoids our mistakes in fight against terrorism: US ambassador

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/i-hope-turkey-avoids-our-mistakes-in-fight-against-terrorism-us-a

    U.S. Ambassador to Ankara John Bass has said Turkey should “avoid making the mistakes that the U.S. made” in its fight against terrorism, warning that an overly broad definition of terrorism could erode fundamental freedoms. 

    “We hope our friends in Turkey will avoid making some of the same mistakes that we have made,” Bass said during the Independence Day reception hosted by the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on the evening of July 6. 

    “Unfortunately it has been another painful year since many of us gathered last July, a few short days before the terrible events of July 15,” he added, referring to last year’s military coup attempt in Turkey.

    “Our socities, America, Turkey and those of many of our friends, have again suffered pain and loss at the hands of terrorists. As we saw almost one year ago today, on the terrible night of July 15, Turkish citizens defended democracy against the people who attacked it, at great coast,” he said, extending the U.S. government’s “deep condolences to everyone in this country who has suffered losses from violence over the last year.” 

    “If we have learned anything from last year and the violence of this year, it is that the only answer to terrorism and violence is justice and tolerance,” Bass added. 

    “We support the Turkish government’s ongoing efforts to bring to justice those who were responsible for the terrible events of a year ago. In our own experience dealing with terrorism in recent years, in the U.S., we have learned some painful lessons. Among those lessons, we have learned that rushing to justice or making an overly broad definition of terrorism can erode fundamental freedoms and undermine public confidence in government. We learned those lessons the hard way. It is our hope that our friends in Turkey will avoid making some of the same mistakes that we have made,” he said.

  • On Independence Day, India’s new rulers are the World Bank, IMF, WTO and Monsanto - The Ecologist
    http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2987992/on_independence_day_indias_new_rulers_are_the_world_bank_imf_wto_and_m

    India celebrates its Independence Day today, writes Colin Todhunter. But the highly visible system of British colonial dominance has been replaced by a new imperial hegemony: the invisible, systemic rule of transnational capital, enforced by global institutions like the World Bank, while US-based global agribusiness corporations have stepped into the boots of the former East India Company.

    #colonialisme #FMI #BM #institutions #agro-industrie

  • #Soudan_du_Sud : nouveaux combats dans la capitale

    Des tirs ont de nouveau été entendus dimanche à #Juba, où des soldats gouvernementaux et d’anciens rebelles s’affrontaient à la périphérie de la capitale sud-soudanaise, ont déclaré des habitants et la mission locale de l’ONU.

    http://www.courrierinternational.com/sites/ci_master/files/styles/image_original_765/public/afp/acc0f652e71376f959f49ef3aaf7176dbb8c68fb.jpg?itok=-HNBfPLI
    http://www.courrierinternational.com/depeche/soudan-du-sud-nouveaux-combats-juba-la-capitale.afp.com.20160
    #Sud_Soudan #conflit

  • U.S. flag at half-staff 328 days last year : Is the tribute overused ? - San Jose Mercury News
    http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_30080628/u-s-flag-at-half-staff-328-days
    #en_berne

    Nearly every day, somewhere in the country, the Stars and Stripes was lowered to half-staff last year in one of the most significant official gestures of mourning and respect, an Associated Press analysis found.

    The centuries-old practice can be a visible, public answer to extraordinary loss, as when more than four dozen people were killed last month at a gay nightclub in Florida. But as the nation marks Independence Day on Monday, flag buffs have noted that the honor has been extended more widely over time, including to celebrities and police dogs. And some have questioned whether the country has lowered the bar on the lowering of the flag.
    […]
    Eight states had orders lowering the U.S. flag in effect over more than 30 days; Massachusetts led all others, keeping the flag at half-staff for over a quarter of the year, including on the Fourth of July.
    […]
    Even denying flag honors to a convicted felon didn’t fly in Rhode Island. Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo initially declined to lower flags this year for longtime former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci, a Republican-turned-independent who’d been convicted of corruption. Amid an outcry from Cianci fans, Raimondo changed her mind “out of respect for the office he held for 20 years.

    Difficile d’imaginer en effet que Levallois-Perret ne porte pas le deuil de son maire emblématique lorsque celui-ci achèvera le cours de son existence. Et son patronyme mériterait de rejoindre, voire remplacer, ceux des immortels spéculateurs fonciers qui ont donné leurs noms à la commune.

  • Israel Independence performance draws Nazi comparisons | Middle East | DW.COM | 15.05.2016
    http://www.dw.com/en/israel-independence-performance-draws-nazi-comparisons/a-19259492

    Only days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a statement by the #Israel Defense Forces deputy chief, who had compared the country’s increasingly fervent nationalism to that of Nazi Germany, a disturbing slogan appeared on live broadcasts of the official Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony: a sign of moving from grief over fallen soldiers to celebrations.
    This year’s theme, “Civic Heroism,” was celebrated with fireworks and speeches about the achievements of Israelis who have made significant contributions to society. While marching on the parade grounds of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, soldiers formed various popular Israeli symbols and idioms, but one of them was the sentence “one people, one state.”

    Critics were outraged by the choice of phrasing. “Am I the only one seeing a terrifying resemblance to the notorious #Nazi slogan?” one Twitter user asked, referring to words made famous by German Chancellor Adolf #Hitler: “One people, one empire, one Führer.”

    Via angry arab #Israël

  • In the Darkness of Israeli Society, a Few Rays of Light Are Shining Through - Opinion - Haaretz - Israel News Haaretz.com

    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.718865

    This week that begins with Holocaust Remembrance Day, followed by Memorial Day and capped by Independence Day, is the most Israeli week there is. It transports us from memories of the terrible Holocaust to the experience of rebirth and independence. It sums up our entire modern history — that of a persecuted and humiliated nation that shook off its past and managed to establish a state, to build a society and an economy and to maintain an army that doesn’t allow anyone to even dream about another Final Solution.

    So, yes. I know that it’s possible to paint the entire reality that we have created here in the blackest of colors, to say that we’re the most immoral nation in the world and not to find even a small ray of light. I am proposing another possibility: grasping those rays of light, enhancing them and hoping that with their help, “Our hope is not yet lost,” as our anthem states.

    #israel #obscurité #lumière

  • Why were Kenyans tweeting #52YearsofSufferinginNEP on this year’s Independence Day?
    http://africasacountry.com/why-were-kenyans-using-52yearsofsufferinginnep-on-this-years-indepe

    Last week was Madaraka/Independence Day in Kenya, and it was marked by lots of government fanfare and spectacle. While many did voluntarily turn up at the stadium to be part of.....

    #AFRICA_IS_A_COUNTRY #Garissa #Madaraka_Day #Uhuru_Kenyatta

  • #FMEP President Matt Duss went to Gaza in March. Here’s what he found.

    Remember #Gaza?

    A visit to Gaza City, for the latest from Hamas, Fatah, Benjamin Netanyahu—and Marine Le Pen

    by Matthew Duss

    Two weeks ago saw the latest blow to the on-again-but-mostly-off-again reconciliation between the two leading Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah. A Fatah delegation from the West Bank entered Gaza for what was planned as a weeklong visit to address the sticky issue of payment to some 40,000 Hamas government employees, which was one of the main drivers of Hamas’ decision to accept a reconciliation agreement in April 2014, largely on Fatah’s terms. Instead, the Fatah delegation stayed only one day, departing after claiming that Hamas had prohibited it from traveling from their beachfront hotel to their offices. Hamas, for its part, responded that the makeup of the delegation had not been appropriately cleared in advance.

    A few days later, as Israelis celebrated their Independence Day, the first rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip in four months. An Israeli tank barrage into Gaza followed shortly after.

    It was not the first rocket launched since the August cease-fire that ended Operation Protective Edge, the summer of 2014’s hugely destructive Israeli assault on Gaza that lasted 52 days. Back in February, Hamaslobbed two rockets into the Mediterranean, ostensibly to test their launch system and intimidate Israel. Omar Shaban, a Palestinian analyst who runs the small think tank, PalThink, in Gaza, had a different interpretation. “They’re sending you a message,” he told me. “You should be wise enough to hear it.”

    The message is that Gaza is creeping toward another explosion. It’s a depressingly similar pattern. Just like after previous conflicts, Israel’s cease-fire demands have been met. Hamas has prevented rocket fire, while the group’s demand for an end to the blockade that has suffocated Gaza for nearly a decade has not. Last month I visited the coastal strip to view the damage from the summer’s war, assess the state of reconstruction, and explore the possibilities of reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

    I’d last been to Gaza in February 2012. There have been two wars since then, in addition to a number of smaller incursions and exchanges of fire. In February 2012, much of Gaza City remained in rubble from December 2008-January 2009’s Operation Cast Lead. This time, there was rubble lying atop the rubble.

    Shaban pulled up next to a huge pile of broken cinder block and twisted metal. “Here’s the Finance Ministry.”

    Despite Hamas’ role in the escalation that led to the war, however, polls have shown that the group retains a significant measure of public support. One poll taken immediately after Operation Protective Edge found, for the first time since 2006, Hamas would best its rival Fatah in both presidential and parliamentary elections. Part of this has to do with Hamas being seen, unlike Fatah, as a party willing to fight the status quo. Part of it has to do with Hamas’ strategic distribution of resources to activists and supporters. But it’s also related to the fact that their civil servants are actually respected for the work that they continue to do in hugely difficult circumstances.

    “You see that policeman? He shows up for work every day. He hasn’t been paid in over a year,” Shaban said as he drove us through Gaza City’s clogged arteries. He was pointing out a traffic cop, standing in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, smiling, in a smartly pressed uniform. “Yet Fatah people in Ramallah aren’t paid for two weeks and they complain. People in Gaza see this; they appreciate the commitment.”

    In the wake of Protective Edge, there was widespread recognition that the status quo could not continue. Then, as after previous rounds, it did. While Israel has recently begun to slightly loosen its blockade, allowing more laborers into Israel, and allowing exports of produce into both the West Bank and Israel, this is not nearly enough to address the real economic and humanitarian needs in the Strip.

    “There have been some baby steps in the right direction: for example, limited ability to sell goods from Gaza in Israel and the West Bank and more travel permits issued to senior traders,” said Tania Hary, deputy director of Gisha, an Israeli NGO that monitors Gaza. “These small adjustments to policy aren’t being felt by most people in Gaza, where unemployment and poverty remain high. Real change requires a shift in the concept that access restrictions are bargaining chips and that civilians can and should pay for lack of political progress.”

    In March, the Swiss government put forth a plan to deal with the issues of salaries for civil servants, in hopes that it would in turn enable the transfer of security control at Gaza’s crossing points to Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, which would then be able to kick-start the economic development and reconstruction process in Gaza. As of now, the plan lies dormant. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is an obstacle to the plan’s implementation, demanding complete capitulation from Hamas, and denying them any sort of fig leaf—such as a small official presence at the crossing points over which the P.A. would control security—that would enable them to save face. While this is the sort of thing that one expects to hear in Gaza, what surprised me was how it was affirmed in Ramallah—including by people close to Abbas.

    It’s understandable why Abbas would be hesitant to move back into Gaza. He already has a situation in the West Bank where he shoulders a great deal of security responsibility with vanishingly little concomitant power. Were he to attempt to re-establish power in Gaza, he would also face a situation where Hamas has spent almost a decade solidifying its influence and embedding its loyalists within Gaza’s governing institutions. And he’s quite aware that Hamas wants the P.A. essentially to serve as its ATM while giving up the barest minimum of authority necessary to increase the flow of humanitarian and reconstruction aid. It’s a recipe for continued dysfunction and struggle.

    But Fatah and Hamas officials I spoke to recognize that the continuing division between the two groups and territories is a disaster for the Palestinian people. It also provides Israelis a decent pretext to question the value of any agreement with an Abbas-led PLO.

    “This conflict [with Israel] is a political, not religious one,” insisted an official with the Hamas government as we sat in an office in downtown Gaza City. He was drinking tea. I was on coffee to beat the jet lag. The bare minimum that the Palestinians can accept is what is based in international law, he said. “The ’67 borders, minimum. Talks won’t work without that recognition.” If Abbas gets a two-state solution, and Palestinians agree with him, that’s OK with Hamas, he said. Yes, Hamas dreams of taking back all of Palestine. “But there are dreamers all over the world.”

    Defending Hamas’ inclusion in Palestinian politics, he offered a comparison that surprised me: France’s National Front Party, led by Marine Le Pen. “Le Pen hates foreigners, but they’re a part of the political system.” He cited a comment from Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Palestinian citizens of Israel who opposed Israeli policies should have their heads cut off. “Can you imagine the reaction if [Gaza Prime Minister Ismail] Haniyeh had said such a thing?”

    But aren’t Israel’s and the United States’ concerns regarding Hamas’ continuing use of violence legitimate? I asked. “You can’t ask me to think peacefully while I’m imprisoned in Gaza, while my land is being taken in the West Bank, while my holy places are under attack. You are nourishing violence by maintaining a system of injustice.”

    I asked him about Hamas’ notorious charter, which includes a reference to a Quranic exhortation to kill Jews. He appeared defensive about it, as if he recognizing it as a problem, which I took as a good sign, because, of course, it is. “Thousands of Hamas members never even see the charter,” he said. “But we are working to revise it.” But it’s difficult, he said, to make any moves toward moderation under conditions of siege. “I am a doctor,” he said. “The first step in dealing with an abscess is to relieve the tension.”

    I raised the same question later with a younger Hamas analyst. He responded that Fatah had accommodated demands to a change its charter back in the 1990s, during the Oslo process, and received very little in return. “Hamas sees this,” he said, and it affirms the arguments of the group’s most militant elements that there’s little to be gained from a nonviolent approach.

    One new factor that could potentially drive that moderation, however, is the new posture of Saudi Arabia under the new King Salman bin Abdulaziz ibn Saud, who acceded to the throne after the death of his half-brother Abdullah in January. Rumors abounded of a rapprochement between Hamas and the Saudi government, part of a broader strategy by the Saudis to try and bring the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist affiliates into the fold and contain rather than crush them. This represents not only a broader recognition that these groups will continue to be part of Sunni Arab politics, but also a more specific effort to draw Hamas, whose relationship with Iran has been rocky since the group withdrew its support for the Assad regime in 2012, further out of the Islamic Republic’s orbit. But this would bring Hamas’ political wing into increased tension with its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, which has been the main beneficiary of Iranian support, and which has used that support to steadily increase its power vis-à-vis the political wing, which has struggled to find political support in the wake of its withdrawal from Syria.

    Part of the new Saudi direction would involve pressure on Egypt’s Sissi regime to ease its crackdown on the Brotherhood and soften its posture toward Hamas, which could prove difficult, given that Sissi has invested a great deal in presenting himself as the bulwark against the Islamists, to an even greater extent than Hosni Mubarak did. Pushing such a shift would also put the Saudis at odds with its allies in the United Arab Emirates, which has strongly backed the crackdown. “We don’t really know what the bottom line is with the Saudi policy. I don’t think they know,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. “The Emiratis are aware, but not sure how far it goes. It’s hard for me to imagine that the Saudis are really going to play hardball on the Brotherhood’s behalf.”

    “They want to minimize the strains and put the Sunni house in order,” Hanna said. Salman’s government “is not as rigid as the Abdullah camp, but no one has a great sense yet of what that means in reality. And it will mean different things for different groups in different countries.”

    Before I left Gaza, I stopped by one of several cemeteries for British Commonwealth soldiers from World Wars I and II. Beautifully maintained by a local foundation, these gardens with their solemn headstones have become popular among young people seeking a quiet escape. Carved with Christian crosses and Jewish stars, these monuments challenge Netanyahu’s claim that “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.” When ISIS takes control of an area, its Christian cemeteries are destroyed. Since taking control of Gaza, on the other hand, Hamas has continued to maintain them. Recent reports that the Israeli government is holding secret talks with Hamas indicate that Netanyahu knows the comparison is a false one. But even a long-term ceasefire would only manage the conflict and not solve it, likely empowering Hamas vis-à-vis the P.A. and further delaying the Palestinian reconciliation that’s necessary for any conflict-ending agreement. If one’s goal is avoiding such an agreement, as it should be clear by now that Netanyahu’s is, that’s not a bad thing. For those who want a Palestinian leadership able to make credible commitments on behalf of Palestinians as a whole, it is.

  • Israeli Arab leader strives to teach Netanyahu something about suffering
    ‘To identify with the stories about the Holocaust, we must fight racism and the persecution of minorities,’ Ayman Odeh says. ’And that’s not what’s happening in this country.’
    By Ofra Edelman | Apr. 26, 2015 Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.653396

    Between Holocaust Remembrance Day and Independence Day, Israel’s week of national holidays, Joint Arab List chief Ayman Odeh felt suffocated in the Knesset. State symbols watched him from all sides — the flag, the menorah, Theodor Herzl — and he felt excluded by them all.

    “There’s something psychological here. In every corner of the Knesset there’s a symbol of the nation, but there are almost no civic symbols. There are no pictures of the country’s landscapes, nature, Arabs and Jews together,” he says.

    “It seems the Jews don’t feel like a majority. Most of the Jews are strong, but they’re also afraid, and that’s awful for the minority. When there’s a majority that feels like a minority and is strong but feels weak and threatened, we pay the price.”

    Odeh has started his first Knesset term heading the grouping that contains four Arab parties in an artificial marriage. The goal was to eclipse the increased 3.25-percent electoral threshold, which the party did with ease — its 13 seats make it the Knesset’s third largest party.

    If Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union enters a unity government — he insists he won’t — Odeh will probably become Israel’s first-ever Arab opposition leader. He was actually supposed to enter the Knesset before the election and replace Mohammed Barakeh as head of the Arab-Jewish Hadash party, but the vote was moved up to March 17.

    Alongside his 10-year plan to reduce inequality between Jews and Arabs, Odeh wants to help the poor and have the unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev recognized. He also wants to increase funding for Arab culture. He has already spoken with key Likud MK Zeev Elkin.

    “I told him: ‘The opposition rarely manages to pass bills when you’re coalition whip, so tell me what you can accept.’ He told me Jews should learn Arabic starting in the first grade. I said: ‘Okay, I’ll propose it.’”

    Before the swearing-in ceremony at the Knesset, Joint Arab List MKs had to decide whether to stand during the singing of the national anthem, which talks about “the Jewish soul.”

    “There was an argument in the party,” says Odeh. He says he asked the other MKs to treat it as an official ceremony and not walk out. In the end, no agreement was reached and Odeh and the other Hadash MKs remained along with Osama Saadia of Ta’al, a component of the Arab ticket. The others left.

    Odeh says that for nearly two weeks he argued with himself over whether to stay. “Sometimes I regret I stayed, sometimes not,” he says.

    After the swearing-in, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was out of touch and nationalist, as if it came out of history 3,000 years ago, Odeh says, adding that Netanyahu spoke so heatedly he was more like an actor.

    A week ago Odeh took part in the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. This time he left before the national anthem, but not because of it. “I’ve read ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ — and also it hurts me how [a Holocaust survivor] collapsed during the Eichmann trial,” he says.

    “All nations’ stories touch me. But to identify in a true and deep way with the stories about the Holocaust, we must fight racism and the persecution of minorities. And that’s not what’s happening in this country. It hurts.”

    Odeh says Netanyahu backs racist laws and wants to discard democracy. He says he has greater credibility talking about the Holocaust than Netanyahu because he’s fighting racism and represents a minority that seeks cooperation based on respect.

    Odeh is due to meet Netanyahu soon, a meeting he says he learned about in the newspapers. Even though he considers the tête–à–tête a media exercise and the prime minister’s attempt to put out the fires he set on Election Day, Odeh asked his MKs whether he should attend — and they all said yes.

    “The burden of proof is on Bibi,” Odeh adds. “He needs to convince us he wants a serious meeting.”

    Odeh will also be meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the next two weeks, as well as with President Reuven Rivlin and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms for terror activity.

    Regarding the criticism that Israeli Arab leaders worry more about the Palestinians than their own voters, Odeh says he wants to lead the battle here in Israel. But he also believes that real equality will be only be possible by solving the Palestinian issue, because the country of which he’s a citizen is at war with the people he belongs to.

    “We’re between the hammer and the anvil,” he says.

    Odeh distinguishes between civil rights, which he thinks can be achieved now, and national rights. Issues such as employment for Arab women and public transportation “don’t need to be part of an ideological dispute. As for national rights, we can disagree.”

  • Un reportage très intéressant sur un couple d’Arabes Israéliens qui tente d’intégrer une communauté israélienne “multiculturelle” “unique, qui prône l’ouverture sur toutes les religions, la tolérance et l’acceptation de l’autre". Et qui essuie un refus.

    But would you celebrate Israel’s Independence Day? - Features - Israel News | Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.653316

    Nes Ammim rejected an Israeli Arab couple who wanted to join the self-described open, tolerant, multicultural community because they answered the question wrong.
    By Amira Hass

    “What will you do if the community invites you to a barbecue on Independence Day?” asked one of the six selection committee members of the Nes Ammim community. He asked the question in English, for the benefit of two of his fellow committee members who were Dutch – members of this Christian community that was established between Acre and Nahariya in 1963.

    In 2012, the community changed its original designation and started releasing agricultural land to allow for expanded housing construction, as part of the process of becoming a “multicultural” community. Despite this, none of the four Israelis on the panel was Arab. They did not introduce themselves by their full names to the interviewees, and two of the committee members them did not even live in the community when the interviews took place.

    The two candidates appearing before the committee were both shocked yet also not entirely surprised by the question. They were human rights lawyer Abeer Baker and Ala Khalikhal, a writer, translator and editor. It didn’t surprise them because this is precisely the kind of question Palestinian citizens of Israel often hear on the street – reflecting ignorance, insensitivity or the desire to irritate. But it did surprise them since they weren’t expecting to hear it at a selection committee for a “unique, high-quality community based on the principles of openness to all religions, tolerance and acceptance of the other,” as is stated on the community’s website. They also were surprised since they thought that in an interview for this kind of community, the bar for measuring acceptance of the Other would be higher, and the horizons for a joint life wider.

    Baker and Khalikhal, parents of 5-year-old Shada and 1-year-old Mohammed, surprised some of their friends when they decided to move to a newly emerging Jewish-Arab community. For both of them, though, this was a natural decision, compatible with their vision of a secular, democratic state for two nations in which the basic condition for its establishment is dialogue with the Jews of Israel, states Khalikhal.

    In mid-2014, when the Nes Ammim initiative was in its second trial year, Baker and Khalikhal heard that not enough Arabs had registered and that an Arab marketing person had been employed to address this. Khalikhal was familiar with the swimming pool at Nes Ammim from his childhood, since Arabs swam there without hindrance. He knew that the Christian founders of the community wanted to live among Jews as a way of seeking atonement after the Holocaust. The definition of the community as a joint one appealed to him and his wife.

    They also knew that the Western Galilee community was built on land that was legally and freely sold by a resident of the Arab town of Abu Snan, and not on terrain from which its Palestinian owners had been expelled in 1948 and then expropriated by the Israel Land Authority. As a result, they thought they wouldn’t have to face nagging questions every morning, such as who are the real and lawful owners of the land? Where are they now – perhaps in the embattled Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria? And what other tragedies befell them after the original one? And, yes, the idea of a house with a garden also attracted them – a small bourgeois dream within reach. “Bourgeois” is a self-directed barb used by Khalikhal. The price was 1,600,000 shekels ($405,000).

    It’s important for them that there is a safe playground for the children and, of course, that “the values on which we raise them will find natural expression in their neighborhood, so they don’t live in dissonance between values they learn at home and their immediate surroundings,” explains Baker.

    They aren’t concerned about being different. For example, Shada often hears them say they don’t believe in Allah – words not often heard in their community. “Who knows, maybe in her rebellious years she’ll wear a veil,” says Khalikhal, sarcastic as usual. A few weeks ago, when Baker muttered “With Allah’s help,” little Shada looked at her scoldingly and said, “But there is no Allah.” Khalikhal knows they could have made things easier by telling their daughter that God exists. But if they were looking for an easier life, perhaps the interview at Nes Ammim would have gone differently.

    When asked about the Independence Day barbecue, Baker told the interviewers that they would turn down the invitation. Khalikhal added, “We live in Acre and there are fireworks on that day. People dance in the streets and we remain at home.” Another choice they could have made while their Jewish neighbors were celebrating their independence at a barbecue would be to participate in a march commemorating one of the Palestinian villages Israel destroyed in 1948.

    “My philosophy is not to put a damper on anyone’s joy, but to insist on having my own space,” explains Baker. “On that day I have a right to live as I wish. [However], this is not accorded to us because of the Other’s refusal to accept my space, because of the Other’s difficulty in understanding that, logically – in essence and in principle – you can’t ask me if I’ll come and join Independence Day celebrations.”

    Both of them are children of “internal” refugees, citizens of Israel whose lands were confiscated and homes destroyed by Israel after 1948. Baker’s father was from the village of Safuriyya (now Tzippori, near Tiberias). Khalikhal’s father is from Kadita, which is now an alternative-style Jewish community in the Galilee, built alongside cisterns and stone houses, including the one owned by his family. They often pass close to these strikingly beautiful places, in which they could have been living without the filter of a selection committee. These places are off-limits to them and their imaginations.

    Up until the first interview in 2014, Baker and Khalikhal were under the impression that the committee phase was simply a technicality. They were encouraged to sign a contract before the interview took place, to choose a plot for their house and to pay an advance of 25,000 shekels. “It didn’t occur to us that we might not be accepted,” admits Baker. She believed that, of all communities, this one would recognize that there are different kinds of Arabs; that there is diverse political activity and multiple viewpoints among them.

    The couple was asked why they had chosen Nes Ammim. Baker replied that she is frustrated by contemporary life in Acre. She was born and raised in that city and remembers the truly mixed neighborhood she lived in and the Jewish girls (from Georgia) who were her friends. It used to be and to feel like a binational and multicultural place, without the hiding of differences, but without obstacles to friendship. “I explained during the interview that today there are no spontaneous mixed social encounters between children and that this is dangerous” she recalls. “And then one of the Jewish interviewers interrupted and pointed out that his mother lives in Acre and still asks for and gets sugar from her Arab neighbors. I understood that for him, saying ‘Good Morning’ to an Arab in the elevator is enough for him to state that there is a Jewish-Arab communal life there.”

    At the second interview, held last January, the Jewish Israelis were silent and the Dutchmen asked the questions. The woman on the committee told Khalikhal that she had Googled him and found an interview with him in which he likened the Knesset to a garbage dump. Khalikhal explained that he knows what goes on there since he had worked as a parliamentary assistant for half a year. To his surprise, the committee never asked about his literary work and only focused on the outspoken style of the opinion pieces he writes. “I told them that as a member of a minority I don’t have access to a microphone, as the majority does, so occasionally I have to yell.” Baker continues reconstructing the interview: “The Dutchman said that it’s bad to yell, that it’s impolite.” Khalikhal understood that his metaphor was lost on that person.

    And then, says Baker, came the comment that blew it all up. “The Dutchman said that they thought we were a very interesting and intelligent couple, but that they were afraid that we would foster confrontations in the community.” Khalikhal replied: “Do you want to tell me that the people in this room are less intelligent than we are and that this is the reason you selected them as community members?” The two of them explained that they were not seeking confrontations and were not concerned about ideological differences. Baker explained that as one ages one realizes that it is possible to hold a dialogue even with ‘enemies,’ accompanying that last word with her fingers indicating quotation marks. One of the men then jumped up and asked in English: “Who are your enemies?” Baker explained in Hebrew that she meant “rivals.”

    It didn’t take long for the letter of rejection to arrive. The deposit was returned. The two tried to appeal the verdict. “The community is not completely populated yet, and communal life has not yet been put to a real test,” they wrote. “Thus, disqualifying someone in advance could derive from prejudice on the part of people who have never experienced joint communal life. It’s highly doubtful that the committee members who have not yet lived in the community and have not yet internalized its principles in practical ways can judge our suitability. Our sense is that our disqualification stemmed from the wish not to hold a dialogue with someone expressing legitimate opinions that may not be acceptable by some of the community’s members.”

    The selection committee replied: “We emphatically reject the claim that the decision to refuse your request was based on discrimination and unwillingness to dialogue. Nes Ammim is a mixed community of Jews and Arabs, Muslim and Christian. It espouses coexistence and interfaith tolerance. We currently have members of all faiths and ‘Arab’ (sic) candidates were accepted both before and after your rejection.”

    The office at Nes Ammim did not respond to a query by Haaretz as to why the word Arab was put in quotation marks, as well as other questions, such as why there is no Arab member on the committee, why its members didn’t give their full names, how many Arabs applied and how many were accepted, and why the reasons for rejection weren’t given in writing, as required by law. The committee only responded by saying that the community is built on private land, so that it is not subject to the admissions committee law (which regulates the criteria by which communities established on state land can select or reject potential members.)

    A request by Haaretz to meet with officials in Nes Ammim went unanswered. In a letter signed by the committee the community is again defined as a “tolerant and accepting community, open to all faiths and nationalities.” The letter states that out of “concern for privacy” the reasons for rejecting Baker and Khalikhal were not given in detail. The committee notes that they accepted “families of different religions and nationalities and any attempt to suggest that their rejection derives from their being members of a minority is erroneous, superficial and unfounded.”

  • Pour Abbas Ibrahim, directeur de la Sûreté générale, Israël et les militants islamistes tentent de déclencher une guerre civile au Liban
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Nov-06/276672-israel-jihadists-seeking-to-ignite-civil-war-in-lebanon-ibrahim

    Israel and Islamist militants are seeking to ignite civil war in Lebanon, General Security head Abbas Ibrahim wrote in an editorial published Thursday.

    "Independence Day arrives while Lebanon battles the odds ... in an ordeal not destined to end until [Lebanon’s] inevitable victory in the battle for existence and identity in the face of organized terrorism, which is seeking to ... strike at its elements of existence through inciting [sectarian] strife and setting the stage for a civil war by targeting the military institution and other security agencies,” Ibrahim said in the article for the November issue of General Security Magazine.

    “Zionism is equally as dangerous [a threat] as takfiri terrorism,” he said.

    Without naming them, Ibrahim said takfiri groups – clearly indicating ISIS and the Nusra Front – in addition to Israel have similar objectives, while each party “is trying to strengthen its status.”

    “It is no secret to anyone that their [Israelis and takfiris] relationship is overt and implicit.”

  • 4chan celebrates Independence Day by spamming Tumblr’s feminism tags
    http://www.dailydot.com/news/4chan-tumblr-independence-day

    Then there was #EndFathersDay and#WhitesCantBeRaped in June, 4chan’s most successful feminism-related prank since Operation Bikini Bridge.

    The operation was spearheaded by 4chan’s politically incorrect board, /pol/, in an effort to anger feminists and make them (and men) look bad.

    “This is a holiday celebrating misogyny, demanding appreciation and gifts for doing what a father should be doing anyway, especially when almost all cases of domestic abuse stem from the father,” an anonymous user on /pol/ wrote.

    #4chan #Feminism #Masculinism

  • Rare, Remarkable Maps Trace America’s Path to Independence | Science Blogs | WIRED

    http://www.wired.com/2014/07/maps-american-independence/?mbid=social_twitter#slide-id-1146761

    If you’re lucky enough to get off work for Independence Day, you’ll probably be spending some time by the grill, perhaps with a few cold beers nearby. It’s practically your duty as an American citizen.

    #cartographie #art

  • Your can’t - and won’t - erase our Nakba from your “independence”
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/your-can%E2%80%99t-and-won%E2%80%99t-erase-our-nakba-your-indepen

    The sounds of celebration have filled the air as the only “democracy” in the Middle East celebrates its so-called independence day. Elsewhere in occupied #Palestine there is no such display of festivities. Instead of barbecues and aerial displays you will be met with a funeral cortège — a solemn procession of mourners bringing attention to what some have called #Israel’s Columbus Day. read more

    #Nakba_Day