Category: Middle East,

40+ Jewish groups worldwide oppose equating antisemitism with criticism of Israel

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Religion,Leave a comment

“From our own histories we are all too aware of the dangers of increasingly fascistic and openly racist governments and political parties,” the global letter states. “The rise in antisemitic discourse and attacks worldwide is part of that broader trend. At times like this, it is more important than ever to distinguish between the hostility to or prejudice against Jews on the one hand and legitimate critiques of Israeli policies and system of injustice on the other.”

First ever: 40+ Jewish groups worldwide oppose equating antisemitism with criticism of Israel

 

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The Double Standard In The Ilhan Omar Controversy

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Religion,Leave a comment

Were the Republicans denouncing Omar even sincerely opposed to anti-Semitism, they would not support Donald Trump. Trump, after all, in 2013 tweeted that “I’m much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz—I mean Jon Stewart.”

He ran for president on a slogan laden with anti-Semitic associations from the 1930s: “America First.” In 2015 he told a Jewish audience that “You’re not gonna support me because I don’t want your money… you don’t want to give me money, but that’s ok, you want to control your own politicians that’s fine.”

In 2016 he retweeted an image of Hillary Clinton surrounded by money and a Jewish star. He closed his presidential campaign with an ad that showed three Jews—Janet Yellen, Lloyd Blankfein and George Soros—alongside language about “global special interests” that “control the levers of power in Washington.”

In 2017, he said there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville. And in 2018, his racist fear mongering about a caravan of Central American migrants provoked a Pittsburgh man to commit the worst anti-Semitic atrocity in American history. Unlike Omar, he has not apologized for any of this.

If you denounce Ilhan Omar but support Donald Trump, you don’t really oppose bigotry. You don’t even really oppose anti-Semitism. What you oppose is criticism of Israel. That’s the real reason Republicans are so much more outraged by Omar’s tweets than by Trump’s. They’re not trying to police bigotry or even anti-Semitism. They’re using anti-Semitism to police the American debate about Israel.

The Sick Double Standard In The Ilhan Omar Controversy – The Forward

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Embracing a community’s practice to promote the measles vaccine

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Religion,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Mimicking a news-sharing custom common among ultraorthodox Jewish communities, two Penn Nursing students created and placed large posters around a Jerusalem neighborhood, deriving content from a mystical technique that assigns a numerical value to each Hebrew letter.

…They used their background and what they’ve learned in nursing school to create an outreach program promoting the measles vaccine geared at an ultra-religious Jewish group called Haredi. Because many in that community get their news from black-and-white posters called ‘pashkevilim’ hung around the neighborhood, the Penn students decided to make one. 

….“From our fieldwork, we learned that, especially in insular communities, it’s important to understand what they value. This is something they place high value on.” 

Using gematria, they calculated a numerical value of 500 for the Hebrew word for “measles,” then looked for other words and phrases with the same value. They came up with the Biblical phrase for “spiller of blood.” 

Embracing a community’s practice to promote the measles vaccine | Penn Today

Very cool.

The wind in my hair: one woman’s struggle against the hijab

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,, Middle East,Leave a comment

The irony, though, was that Masih’s parents were dedicated supporters of the revolution. “They were poor, they wanted better jobs, they wanted greater opportunities for equality, and they thought the revolution would bring these changes. But before the revolution there was social freedom, women were allowed to participate as equals in much of life – they could do sport, they could go to the gym, there were female judges. The people who backed the revolution wanted political freedom, and they ended up not getting that – plus, they lost their social freedom.”

…The revolution, she says, was a revolution against women. “The first thing that happened was the introduction of the compulsory hijab and everything else came after that, because it was the most visible and essential way of controlling the women. The revolution took our bodies hostage, and it is taking them hostage still.”

…To people who tell her that the hijab is just a bit of cloth, and there are much bigger problems to be faced in the Middle East, Masih has this message: “This is about a government that’s controlling a whole society through women. It makes me so sad when people say it’s a small thing, because everything starts from that infringement of our rights.” A whole culture of intolerance, she says, is built on that; and women bear its brunt, from the age of seven.

The wind in my hair: one woman’s struggle against the hijab | Global | The Guardian

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Iran and the headscarf protests

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,, Middle East,Leave a comment

Veiling in Muslim societies has always been heavily contingent on geographic, socioeconomic, and historical context, and in contemporary Iran, the issue has long been politicized. In 1936, the first Pahlavi shah issued a decree that prohibited veiling in a bid to modernize his country and inculcate a sense of national identity; he also mandated European-style hats for men. The edict lapsed a few years later, when the shah was forced into exile and his young son took the helm. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi doubled down on his father’s secular, pro-Western orientation, and in the 1970s, as anti-government activism gained momentum, many women consciously adopted headscarves or all-enveloping chadors as tangible rejections of the monarchy.

…Today, any violation is punishable by modest fines and a two-month prison sentence. Compulsory hijab was the sartorial manifestation of a broader imposition of legal and cultural misogyny by Iran’s post-revolutionary leaders. They quickly nullified the monarchy’s nascent efforts to advance the status and rights of women and in its place erected a legal framework that enshrines gender discrimination.

…Alinejad’s campaign focuses on one of the central symbols of theocratic rule: obligatory hijab, or modest dress, which enshrined in Iran’s post-revolutionary legal framework on the basis of Quranic injunctions. Her project was born of an expression of joy: a photo that Alinejad posted of herself running through a London street with her hair aloft, which she noted would be a crime in Iran. The photo and message went viral, and that unexpected outpouring of support launched a movement: first, a Facebook page branded as “My Stealthy Freedom” that invited Iranians to post images of themselves without hijab; within a month, the page had nearly 500,000 “likes.” That was followed in 2017 by a hashtag campaign encouraging women to wear white scarves on Wednesdays to protest laws requiring hijab.

Iran and the headscarf protests

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World Para Swimming Championships: Malaysia stripped of hosting 2019 event

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

Malaysia has been stripped of hosting the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships for refusing to let Israelis compete, says the International Paralympic Committee.

Malaysia, which is a majority Muslim country, banned the athletes because of what Kuala Lumpur sees as Israel’s poor treatment of Palestinians.

World Para Swimming Championships: Malaysia stripped of hosting 2019 event – BBC Sport

Whatever one’s issues with a particular country are, it is guaranteed that is not the athletes competing in  international events that re causing the issues.

Can we please, as a species, keep politics out of sports? Please?!

Israeli teenager charged with killing Palestinian woman in stone attack

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old mother-of-eight, was driving through the occupied West Bank when her car was targeted in what prosecutors called a terrorist act motivated by hostility towards Arabs.

…Mrs Rabi was travelling in a car being driven by her husband along Route 60 near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on 12 October when it was hit by a stone weighing about 2kg (4.4lb).

The stone went through the windshield on the passenger’s side and struck Mrs Rabi in the head. Her husband rushed her to a nearby clinic but she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

…According to the indictment filed by Israeli prosecutors, the 16-year-old charged over the killing threw the stone at the car from a nearby hilltop “out of an ideological motive of racism and hostility towards Arabs everywhere”.

Israeli media reported that on Wednesday a judge had revealed that the student’s DNA was found on the stone that struck Mrs Rabi.

Israeli teenager charged with killing Palestinian woman in stone attack – BBC News

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Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Iraq on Monday mourned the loss of Lamia al-Gailani, a beloved archaeologist who helped rebuild the Baghdad museum after it was looted following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Al-Gailani, who died in Amman, Jordan, on Friday at the age of 80, was one of Iraq‘s first women to excavate the country’s archaeological heritage.

…”She was very keen to communicate on the popular level and make archaeology accessible to ordinary people,” said her daughter, Noorah al-Gailani, who curates the Islamic civilizations collection at the Glasgow Museum in Scotland.

Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News

Sounds like an incredible lady. R. I. P.

Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

A Palestinian man has been shot dead, and dozens others have been wounded in the occupied West Bank during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the village of al-Mugheir, northeast of Ramallah.

The 38-year-old, identified as Hamdi Naasan, was shot in the back [emphasis: mine] and succumbed to his wounds shortly after at a hospital in Ramallah, the health ministry said on Saturday.

An Israeli military official confirmed to Haaretz newspaper that settlers used live fire during the confrontation.

…According to local media, confrontations broke out when Jewish settlers attempted to raid the village with the protection of Israeli soldiers.

…Between 600,000 to 750,000 Israelis live in the occupied Palestinian territories of occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. They live in hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements built on Palestinian land.

…Meanwhile, a Palestinian teenager who was shot dead by the Israeli army on Friday was buried in his village of Silwad, near the city of Ramallah. 

Ayman Hamed, 18, was shot in the chest with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers stationed at a watchtower near the village, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

Hamed’s mother Inas accused the Israeli army of executing her son in cold blood, leaving him bleeding until he died and preventing ambulances from immediately reaching him.

Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank | Israel News | Al Jazeera

Until the settler who fired the gun is arrest, prosecuted, and jailed for murder, Israel cannot make the claim to law and order.

Tolerating theft and murder by individuals whose very presence in the area is an aggressive criminal act because the victims aren’t Jewish doesn’t make Israel a Jewish state, it makes it culpable.

A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? – The New York Times

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

To the Palestinians, she was an innocent martyr killed in cold blood, an example of Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life. To the Israelis, she was part of a violent protest aimed at destroying their country, to which lethal force is a legitimate response as a last resort.

…The Palestinians trying to tear down the fence are risking their lives to make a point, knowing that the protests amount to little more than a public relations stunt for Hamas, the militant movement that rules Gaza. And Israel, the far stronger party, continues to focus on containment rather than finding a solution.

In life, Ms. Najjar was a natural leader whose uncommon bravery struck some peers as foolhardy. She was a capable young medic, but one who was largely self-taught and lied about her lack of education. She was a feminist, by Gaza standards, shattering traditional gender rules, but also a daughter who doted on her father, was particular about her appearance and was slowly assembling a trousseau. She inspired others with her outward jauntiness, while privately she was consumed with dread in her final days.

The bullet that killed her, The Times found, was fired by an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view. A detailed reconstruction, stitched together from hundreds of crowd-sourced videos and photographs, shows that neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel. Though Israel later admitted her killing was unintentional, the shooting appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished.

A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? – The New York Times

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