Author Archives: Arab America

Today 135 U.N. member states recognize the state of Palestine as declared in 1988 by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. A renewed round of activity around recognition of Palestine was initiated by Sweden’s newly elected center-left government. During his October 3, 2014 inaugural address, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that a two-state solution was the only way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and “Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine,” which Sweden officially did last October 30.

Sweden’s recognition triggered the parliaments in a wave of European states — United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, as well as the parliament of the European Union – to pass advisory resolutions recommending that the appropriate head of government formally recognize the state of Palestine.

Source: mondoweiss.net

Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey shows that only 48 percent of those identifying as Democrats sympathize more with Israelis in tensions in the Mideast than with Palestinians. In contrast, 83 percent of Republicans side with Israelis. The figure for all Americans is 62 percent.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Truly, US President Barack Obama’s recent call to address the root causes of violence, including that of the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) and al-Qaeda was a step in the right direction, but it is still miles away from taking the least responsibility possible for the mayhem that has afflicted the Middle East since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“The link is undeniable,” Obama said in a speech at the State Department on 19 February “When people are oppressed and human rights are denied – particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines – when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism. It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit.”

Of course, he is right. Every word. However, the underlying message is also clear: it’s everyone else’s fault but ours. Now, that’s hardly true, and Obama, once a strong critic of his predecessor’s war, knows it well.

Writing at MSNBC.com, Sarah Leah Whitson went a step further. In “Why the fight against ISIS is failing,” Whitson, criticised the anti-IS alliance for predicating its strategy on militarily defeating the group, without any redress of the grievances of oppressed Iraqi Sunnis, who, last year welcomed IS fighters as “liberators”.

“But let’s not forget how Iraq got to that point,” she wrote, “with the US-led Iraq war that displaced a dictator but resulted in an abusive occupation and destructive civil war, leaving more than a million dead.”

Source: www.middleeasteye.net

The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured.

The damages are to be $655.5 million, under a special terrorism law that provides for tripling the $218.5 million award made by the jury in Federal District Court.

The verdict ended a decade-long legal battle to hold the Palestinian organizations responsible for the terrorist acts. While the decision was a huge victory for the dozens of plaintiffs, it could also serve to strengthen the Israeli claim that the supposedly more moderate Palestinian forces are directly linked to terrorism.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Former United Nations diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi said on Monday the United States is to blame for the current situation in Iraq. Brahimi also called on Monday for Iran to become involved in negotiations surrounding Syria.

Speaking at the first ever International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) 2015, held in Sharjah, UAE, Brahimi singled out the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, for ‘providing an environment that allowed insurgency to grow in Iraq, helping a group like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to flourish.’

“The U.S. is to be blamed,” Brahimi said. “It created conditions that allowed ISIS to grow.”

Source: english.alarabiya.net

Big story going viral on Facebook and in the Israeli press about a vulgar and racist exchange between some Israeli passengers and a flight attendant on an Israir Airlines flight to Varna, Bulgaria.

Ami Kaufman at +972 cuts to the chase:

The headlines are pretty much the same all over, and include the words: “Watch: The Ugly Israeli,” in reference to what Israelis see as the rude behavior they are notorious for worldwide.

However, few (including mainstream media) paid attention to the little gem hidden in the video, a one-liner that epitomizes the casual racism so widespread in the Jewish state.

The flight attendant refuses to sell chocolate to a passenger (apparently he was busy with another passenger, it’s difficult to discern the exact reason). Things heat up. Then, her sister sitting across the aisle says at 0:28 in the video below: “She just wants to buy chocolate, what is she – an Arab?”

……Of course, this is understandable. The only reason a flight attendant refuses to sell chocolate to someone is because they’re Arab.

#Facepalm.

Few paid attention? Maybe they tried to bury it?  The Jerusalem Post, published the video with English captions (original Hebrew) but skipped mention of the racist segment of the exchange.  It’s difficult to comprehend how casual racism is so embedded in Israeli society that the insertion of the woman yelling her bigoted screed is completely passed over in their coverage. We’ve documented the casualness of Israeli racism before. It’s ugly and sad, something I’ll likely never get used to or expect.

This video exposes that casualness which may be the reason, thus far, it’s gotten passed over by western media. But with all the attention it’s garnering on social media that’s probably about to change.

Source: mondoweiss.net

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday (Feb. 25) will hear the case of a young Muslim woman who says the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store illegally denied her a job because she wears a hijab in keeping with her faith.

The store argues that company policy used to forbid floor “models” — the company’s word for store employees who interact with customers — from wearing caps, and that it was up to Samantha Elauf, 17 at the time of her interview, to make it clear that she needed a religious accommodation.

A federal district court agreed with Elauf and her lawyers in the case, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores Inc., which originated in Tulsa, Okla. But the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Abercrombie.

Now the Supreme Court, which in recent years has generally sided with those who say that their religious rights have been trampled, will hear Elauf’s appeal.

Her attorneys say she is protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the grounds of race, national origin, sex and religion.

If the high court agrees with the 10th Circuit, it would “permit an employer to discriminate against a job applicant on the basis of her religion without legal consequence if the applicant does not know that she must expressly state her need for a religious accommodation, even when she is unaware of employer policies that would require it,” said William Burgess, senior staff attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed a brief in the case.

On the store’s side, the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, argued in its brief that it must be up to the prospective employee to raise the issue of a religious accommodation.

“Any other rule not only foments tremendous awkwardness in the employer-employee relationship, but puts the employer in the untenable position of having to inquire into certain sensitive personal information even as such queries themselves are legally
disfavored,” the Cato brief states.

The court is expected to decide the case in the spring or early summer.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

On the afternoon of Sunday, February 22nd, UCLA students reported having seen the above posters outside of Powell Library, Ackerman Union, on Veteran and Sunset, and inside of apartment complexes at Strathmore and Levering Avenue. As of this writing, we do not know who is responsible for these acts, although the placement of posters at particular locations on campus and at an apartment complex known to house undergraduate students suggests that the perpetrator(s) is familiar with the campus body.

These posters are a clear example of hate speech directed against Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as supporters of Palestinian freedom and equality. They rely on Islamophobic and anti-Arab tropes to paint Palestinians as terrorists and to misrepresent Students for Justice in Palestine as anti-Semitic. It hardly bears repeating that SJP at UCLA is an organization that prides itself on its opposition to all forms of racism and bigotry, and which is open to and promotes the membership of students from all walks of life. As organizers, we are concerned that these acts are an attempt to delegitimize and slander the work that we have done to pass divestment on our campus. Furthermore, defacing school property and intimidating a specific group of students creates a deeply harmful environment that prevents student learning and community-building. Coupled with the recent uprise in Islamophobia on a national scale, we are concerned for the safety of our fellow students and student organizers.

Regardless of who perpetrated these acts, we do not believe such actions reflect the opinions or values of any community on our campus. However, we must point out that these posters are only the most recent manifestation of a larger, egregious pattern of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim bigotry that has gone unchecked throughout the UC system. Earlier this month, a Muslim student wearing a hijab was singled out during the public comment portion of a University of California Student Association meeting for wearing religious clothing, following a pattern where the freedom of expression for Muslim women become routine targets on campus. UCSA members were deliberating divestment when the incident occurred. Outside the meeting, multiple witnesses observed protesters yelling slurs such as, “This campus is a breeding ground for terrorists” and “Terrorists don’t belong on UCLA’s campus.” Students in support of Palestinian rights, particularly Muslim women, were harassed, filmed against their will, and repeatedly called “terrorist”, all to administrative inaction. Additionally, after being attacked in the campus paper, an SJP member received an email stating: “Get out of our country! Go back to whatever Islamic shit hole you were defecated from.” Earlier this year, we saw various efforts in opposition to divestment explicitly suggest conflating SJP and ISIS and labelling SJP as “Hamas on Campus”. Today’s events only serve to remind us of how dangerous this rhetoric can be.

Hate against any community is unacceptable and must be swiftly–and publicly–condemned. SJP-UCLA calls upon the campus community to not let this be another instance where bigotry against Palestinians, Arabs and/or Muslims is tacitly condoned. With this in mind, SJP at UCLA also thanks Bruins for Israel as well as USAC President Avinoam Baral for their messages of support and concern, and for assisting in taking down these posters and attempting to locate the perpetrators. We received and are grateful for both of their messages, which serve to reaffirm that although our groups may disagree on political questions, we remain uniformly opposed to all forms of bigotry and oppression against any and all communities.

Additionally, the UCLA Police Department, Chancellor Block, Vice Chancellor and Provost Waugh, Vice Chancellor of External Affairs Turtletaub, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Montero, and Dean of Students Blandizzi have all been contacted so that UCLA can take the appropriate steps necessary to ensure student safety and launch an investigation concerning the creation and distribution of the flyers. We hope that the administration will release a statement condemning the targeting of a student organization with hate-speech. Hate is unacceptable when directed against any community; we hope that the diverse coalition of students who support Palestinian rights will not be an exception to this standard.

Source: www.sjpbruins.com

Two members of the US Congress have introduced a bill that would turn a giant trade deal between the EU and US into a devastating weapon against the people of Palestine and all those seeking justice alongside them. Together with the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is currently under negotiation, the proposed bill would compel all 28 EU member states to crack down on European groups participating in the growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

In order to combat the increasing isolation of Israel in global public opinion, European governments would effectively be turned into police agents for the US state.

The proposed US-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act presented to Congress on 10 February seeks to make any trade deal with Brussels conditional on the EU’s willingness to stop European governments, organizations or individuals engaging in BDS actions designed to hold Israel accountable for its responsibilities under international law.

The bill is explicitly framed as an attack on the BDS movement, a grassroots global movement responding to the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society asking people of conscience around the world to launch boycotts, divest from and impose sanctions on Israel until it recognizes Palestinian rights in full compliance with international law. The BDS movement has grown enormously since it was first launched, winning endorsement from trade unions and churches, causing multinationals such as G4S and Veolia to lose many contracts with public authorities around the world because of their involvement in Israeli projects that violate Palestinian human rights, and persuading major banks and pension funds to divest.

Source: electronicintifada.net

A Swedish freelance journalist, who went missing close to an ISIS-controlled area in Syria, was freed on Saturday after being held for a week by Syrian government forces.

Joakim Medin, 30, told Swedish daily newspaper Expressen on Sunday he was arrested earlier this week by the Syrian regime at a roadblock in al-Qamishli, a Syrian town on the Turkish border.

He said he was held in an isolation cell with no light for a week but was not exposed to physical violence.

”I feel OK. I’m exhausted both in my mind and body, but it’s OK,” Medin told Expressen.

Medin said he was not sure when he would return home to Sweden and that he had not bought a ticket back yet.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com

The White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world in what has become a nasty grudge match.

There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table.

Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama and Netanyahu, multiple Sunday show television appearances by senior national security aides and a pointed snub of America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, which is holding its annual meeting while Netanyahu is in Washington, according to the officials.

The administration has already ruled out meetings between Netanyahu and Obama, saying it would be inappropriate for the two to meet so close to Israel’s March 17 elections. But the White House is now doubling down on a cold-shoulder strategy, including dispatching Cabinet members out of the country and sending a lower-ranking official than normal to represent the administration at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the officials said.

Vice President Joe Biden will be away, his absence behind Netanyahu conspicuous in coverage of the speech to Congress. Other options were described by officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Source: www.haaretz.com

REUTERS – More than 1,000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city’s Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend.

Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” Norway’s Muslims formed what they called a ring of peace a week after Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a Danish-born son of Palestinian immigrants, killed two people at a synagogue and an event promoting free speech in Copenhagen last weekend.

“Humanity is one and we are here to demonstrate that,” Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the protest’s organizers told a crowd of Muslim immigrants and ethnic Norwegians who filled the small street around Oslo’s only functioning synagogue.

“There are many more peace mongers than warmongers,” Abdullah said as organizers and Jewish community leaders stood side by side. “There’s still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.”

Norway’s Jewish community is one of Europe’s smallest, numbering around 1000, and the Muslim population, which has been growing steadily through immigration, is 150,000 to 200,000. Norway has a population of about 5.2 million.

The debate over immigration in the country came to the forefront in 2011 when Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people and accused the government and the then-ruling Labour party of facilitating Muslim immigration and adulterating pure Norwegian blood.

Support for immigration has been rising steadily since those attacks, however, and an opinion poll late last year found that 77 percent of people thought immigrants made an important contribution to Norwegian society.

Source: www.haaretz.com