Israelis give their votes to Palestinians in Facebook campaign
On December 26, 2012, a new Facebook page was created, called “Real Democracy.” The basic idea behind it is that Israelis “give up” their vote in the upcoming elections to any of the millions of Palestinians under Israeli rule who have no right to vote. It’s all done on Facebook. The Israeli posts a status saying he/she’s willing to do it, the Palestinian tells him/her who to vote for.
The group behind the page consists of Israeli, Palestinian and international activists. Some of them took part in a similar campaign called “Give your vote” in the 2010 elections in England. In that campaign, thousands of Englishmen gave their votes to people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana “who are directly affected by UK policies.” According to one activist from the group, the idea is to show the “lack of democracy” not only on the local level in Israel/Palestine, but also on the international level, particularly the UN, which “allows the United States to enable the occupation.”
Though the Israeli bourgeois elections reflect over white-supremacy and racial dominance—it’s quite interesting to note that are there several changes taken in the 2013 elections:
1) The Israeli-Arab parties are officially recognized and are allowed to participate in the upcoming elections. On Al-Arabiya, Israelis court overturned the previous ban on Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian Arab politician—representative of Arab leftist party, Bal’ad. [x]
2) To see that majority Israelis oppose the current right-wing imperialist government is a successful act towards a defeat of imperialism and a step forward to form a leftist coalition. Our goal is to see a Jewish-Arab working class union to defeat the Israeli chauvinist regime and the capitalists—who have further oppressed the working class with neoliberal policies.
However, it’s important to note the demographics of the Israeli elections. The majority representatives of the Knesset are right-wing nationalists. The leftist coalition, who stands for Arab equality and Palestinian rights consist less than 10%, according to +972.mag.
As of now, the Likud-Beiteinu has faced an opposition—who are also right-wing chauvinists who take no interest for Palestinian equality or for the non-Jewish Arab/Jewish working class. If the leftist parties form a united front to represent the Knesset, it might create a change within the Israeli government and further alleviate the right-wingers and imperialists. It’s important for a Jewish-Arab working class unity to defeat the capitalist pigs and the elections might reflect such acts.
The suggestion given here is to form an entryist organization—but not a popular front, which will disturb the fundamental issue of the conflict.
To read more about the Israeli elections, click here.
To read my previous post on Wordpress about the Israeli elections, click here.
Courtesy to +972.mag
Source: jayaprada
Airline says it conducts security arrangements according to procedures set by the Israeli government
A Jewish Israeli soldier is demanding an apology from El Al Airlines, claiming he was humiliated by security staff at the Brussels airport because he has an Arab-sounding name. Asaf Abudi flew to Belgium in November to represent Israel in a horseback-riding competition.
After spending five days in Belgium, he arrived at the airport for his return flight to Israel, where he says he was separated from the other passengers and treated rudely, and that some of the contents of his luggage went missing.
The soldier’s father, Avi Abudi, told Haaretz he thinks the airline’s personnel stepped up security for his son, who is Jewish, because of his Arab-sounding last name.
The soldier’s lawyer, Lior Har-Zvi, wrote the airline following the incident stating that his client made it clear to airline personnel that he was an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was in the middle of his compulsory army service, and that he was representing Israel at a horseback-riding competition in Belgium.
Treated like a criminal
“Our client,” the letter said, “was taken by your company’s representative to an isolated area of the Brussels airport, and during the entire time he was held in the isolated area he was prevented from using the restroom, as if he was a dangerous detainee or someone accused of a serious crime.”
The soldier said he was held in an area with two other passengers who were speaking Arabic, and that he was later led onto the plane by security personnel shortly before takeoff.
When he arrived in Israel, he said he discovered that some of his riding gear was missing.
El Al responded that, although it regrets any distress caused to the passenger, it conducts security arrangements according to procedures set by the Israeli government.
It added that any special scrutiny is based on professional criteria and is not meant to offend any particular passenger.
In Abudi’s case, the airline added, procedure required that he be subjected to additional security measures as part of routine security sampling.
hahah
Source: israelfacts
Corrections Corporation of America, recently sued over its collaborating with violent gangs, is now partnering with police to conduct “lock down sweeps” in which high schoolers are locked in their classrooms while canine units search their possessions for illegal contraband. Via PR Watch:
An unsettling trend appears to be underway in Arizona: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.
The state has graced national headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with the for-profit prison industry. Such controversies have included the role of private prison corporations in SB 1070 and similar anti-immigrant legislation disseminated in other states; a 2010 private prison escape that resulted in two murders and a nationwide manhunt; and a failed bid to privatize nearly the entire Arizona prison system.
And now, recent events in the central Arizona town of Casa Grande show the hand of private corrections corporations reaching into the classroom, assisting local law enforcement agencies in drug raids at public schools.
t 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.
Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school — with a student population of 1,776 — on “lock down,” kicking off the first “drug sweep” in the school’s four-year history. According to Hamilton, “lock down” is a state in which, “everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves — nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school.”
“Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won’t move.”
While such “drug sweeps” have become a routine matter in many of the nation’s schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson, four “law enforcement agencies” took part in the operation: CGPD (which served as the lead agency and operation coordinator), the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Gila River Indian Community Police Department, and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
(via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)
Source: anukkinearthwalker
Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a monastery and a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem overnight, in two apparent “price-tag” attacks, police told AFP on Wednesday.
“Overnight, graffiti was sprayed on the gates of the entrance of the Armenian cemetery reading ‘Jesus is a son of a bitch’ in Hebrew, and on a monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox saying the same thing,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Samri said the attackers also wrote “Happy Hannukah” and “price tag” at the second site, the Valley of the Cross monastery, and slashed the tyres of nearby cars.
“Price tag” is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists, which normally target Palestinians and Arabs.
Initially carried out in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, they have become increasingly unrelated to any specific government measures.
The attacks tend to involve the vandalism or destruction of Palestinian property and have included multiple arson attacks on cars, mosques and olive trees.
Perpetrators are rarely caught.
At first, the attacks were predominantly in the West Bank, but they have expanded over time to include sites inside Israel, and in Jerusalem. In recent months, Christian sites have been targeted as well.
Samri said a third apparent “price tag” attack had been reported in a West Bank village called Shukba, near the city of Ramallah, in which attackers set fire to a car and sprayed “price tag” and “happy holidays” nearby.
Police were investigating all three attacks, she said.
Source: sinidentidades
Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is unhappy about the commercial hype over the supposed ancient Maya predictions of an end of the world on December 21.
The date marks the end of an era that lasted over 5,000 years, according to the Mayan “Long Count” calendar. Some believe that the date, which coincides with the December solstice, marks the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs — an idea ridiculed by scholars.
Nevertheless, millions of tourists are expected to flock to Mexico and Central America for celebrations that will include fireworks and concerts held at more than three dozen archaeological sites.
But don’t expect much authenticity, said Menchu, an indigenous Guatemalan of Maya ethnicity.
“The authentic celebration of the Mayas — that will not be seen by everyone, that is part of the private lives of the Mayas,” said Menchu late Monday as she marked the 20th anniversary of her Nobel win.
“We are going to bid farewell to the grandfather sun and will bid him farewell in thousands of ways,” Menchu said. “We don’t care what the government will do.”
The government of President Otto Perez has planned events at 13 archeological sites, especially at Tikal, some 530 kilometers (330 miles) north of Guatemala City.
Native Maya communities, however, have separate ceremonies planned at 11 other sites.
Menchu is hardly the first native Mayan to decry the exploitation of her heritage.
“We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit,” Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlajuj Ajpop, said in October. “They are not telling the truth about time cycles.”
The Maya culture flourished between the years 250 and 900, then slowly entered a period of decadence ending around 1200.
Archeologists believe long catastrophic drought sparked political destabilization and triggered wars that led to the collapse of Maya culture.
Scholars say that December 21 simply marks the end of the old Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new one.
Source: sinidentidades
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has downplayed the recent hysteria over Syria’s chemical weapons, insisting Israel does not believe it is at threat from the Assad government’s arsenal and that there has been no indication of their imminent use.
“Syria has been armed for the last decades with chemical missiles and weapons, but our deterrent factor is stable and the proof is that they haven’t used it against us yet,” noted Ya’alon, a former military chief of staff and a likely candidate to replace Ehud Barak as Defense Minister.
US officials have been the ones fueling reports of a possible use of the chemical weapons, and are likewise leading the call to threaten war against Syria if they are used. So far, however, no evidence has been presented to that effect.
The lack of concern from Israel is telling about the seriousness of the putative “threat,” however, particularly given this Israeli government’s tendency to see existential threats in almost anything.
pretty sure israel isn’t concerned because they’re confident it’s just going to be assad using them on rebels
Source: jayaprada
We Palestinians don’t talk about fear, we talk about death. Our rockets scare them; their rockets kill us. We have no bomb shelters, we have no sirens, we have nowhere we can take our children and keep them safe. They are scared. We are dying.–
Mohammed al-Khoudry, a Palestinian farmer
133 Palestinians and 5 Israelis have been killed in the latest round of violence which started on Wednesday after Israeli soldiers shot Palestinian boys while they were playing soccer, one of whom was 13-year-old Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa. At least 27 of the dead were babies and children.
One Israeli strike on Sunday killed 12 Palestinians in the same house: four small children and five women including an 80-year-old all from the same family were among the dead [graphic].
(via israelfacts)
(via iradeh)
Source: israelfacts
Full image link →
Israeli solider stepping on an innocent Palestinian girl. These are the images the US news doesn’t show.
This is not okay. STOP the war in Gaza. Please reblog, don’t be blinded by the lies.
Israel doesn’t need to do anything to worsen it’s image but this picture is from a street performance
second angle:

Source: unauthorized21
U.S. researchers helped to infect Guatemalans with syphilis to study disease
In the late 1940s, U.S. researchers used Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients, and soldiers as laboratory animals, infecting them with syphilis without their knowledge in order to test new treatments for the disease.
The experiments, which came to an end with the development elsewhere of penicillin as a treatment, remained secret until several years ago, when a Wellesley College researcher stumbled upon them while looking into similar cases involving poor African-American men in Tuskegee, Ala.
When news of the experiments came to light in 2010, it sparked an international uproar, claiming headlines and prompting apologies from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The news also led to a phone call from President Barack Obama to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, who called the experiments “a crime against humanity.”
On Tuesday, a Harvard Law School panel discussed the case, highlighting options for reparations and warning against thinking that something similar can’t happen again. In fact, one panelist said, new laws in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the subsequent anthrax attacks, and global disease outbreaks like H1N1, which were designed to increase protections against liability for disease researchers, could be used to protect those who engage in experiments similar to those in Tuskegee and Guatemala today.
“While we like to think we’ve learned our lessons from Tuskegee and Guatemala, I’m not sure we have,” said Wendy Parmet, a professor and associate dean at Northeastern University’s School of Law.
In addition to Parmet, the panel included Susan Reverby, the Wellesley College professor who discovered the documents; I. Glenn Cohen, assistant professor of law and director of Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics; Fernando Ribeiro Delgado, clinical instructor at Harvard Law School; and Holly Fernandez Lynch, executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center. The event, which was held in the Wasserstein Building, was sponsored by the center and the Law School’s Human Rights Program.
The experiments occurred at a time when syphilis was taking a large toll in human life and undermining U.S. troops, Reverby said. Though the Tuskegee and Guatemala experiments were similar, there was a key difference, Reverby said. In the Tuskegee experiments, researchers withheld treatment but never infected anyone. In those cases, which ran from the 1930s until 1972, African-American men who had the disease were followed to track its course.
The experiments occurred at a time when syphilis was taking a large toll in human life and undermining U.S. troops, Reverby said.In the Guatemalan experiments, however, researchers paid prostitutes who already had syphilis to have sex with the study subjects. The subjects never consented to being infected with the disease and, though some were treated afterward, it is unclear if all were.
Among the thousands of pages of documents and photographs detailing the experiments, there was evidence that the researchers knew what they were doing and knew that it was wrong, Reverby said. The question about how to remedy the situation remains open, panelists said.
In the wake of the revelations, the U.S. government conducted an investigation and took some steps toward making the situation right. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health pledged funding for programs to fight sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala, but little was done to compensate the victims, panelists said. In fact, a class action lawsuit on the Guatemalan victims’ behalf was dismissed, largely because there are high hurdles for individuals in other countries to sue the U.S. government, even for American actions in their country.
Still, the panelists said, there are other potential avenues, including congressional approval of a settlement, according to Cohen. Other possible avenues include pursuing remedies through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or other international bodies.
Wow. Just wow.
(via inautumn-inkashmir)
Source: fearandwar
The Republican critics of Mitt Romney have had enough of their party’s failed presidential nominee. After Romney told donors his loss was due to “gifts” Obama and Democrats bestowed on women and minorities, Republicans are essentially coming together in a collective “go away, Mitt.”
thank you for the reaction image mitt
(via deliciouskaek)
Source: 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com