Israel Signs Ironic Human Rights Declaration

In a precedent-setting move, Israel signed the UN's anti-discrimination declaration that calls for decriminalization of homosexuality. The declaration was sponsored by France and Holland and signed by 66 countries. Syria sponsored an opposing declaration, which 60 countries signed. Conspicuously absent from either declaration was the U.S.

But no matter.

The interesting thing here is not Israel recognizing the human rights of homosexuals- Tel Aviv, in particular, has been an accepting city for gays and lesbians for quite some time. The newsworthy bit about this is that this is the first time any country has formally recognized the human rights of sexual minorities before recognizing the human rights of racial minorities.

Approximately one million Israeli Arabs are treated as second class citizens- many have reported housing discrimination, job discrimination, violent attacks, and property damage- and millions more are treated worse than animals in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ha'aretz writes:

The declaration strongly condemns “all forms of stereotyping, exclusion, stigmatization, prejudice, intolerance and discrimination and violence directed against peoples, communities and individuals on any ground whatsoever, wherever they occur, and especially use of the death penalty and the practice of torture and other forms of cruelty for reasons of sexual identity.”

Yet the Israeli government tacitly and explicitly supports this sort of treatment of Palestinians, both living inside Israel as Israeli citizens, and those living in the West Bank and Gaza. I do not post here every injustice I see, hear about, or read about, because they are too numerous. My blog would become a laundry list of human rights abuses if I were to cull from the Internet every single violation of international law by Israel. Government-sanctioned racial violence and humiliation happens every day, everywhere that Palestinians live, work, or shop.

For just a sampling of this week's abuses in Israel and the occupied territories go here, here, and here.

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"One thing is for certain: he caused you to ask me a question about him."

The internets are abuzz with the whole shoe throwing fiasco. In case you just got back from outer space or whatever, what happened was an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference, and also called him a dog, which is the second worst insult in Arabic, #1 being, "your sister's pussy."

W ducked just in time, with an amused smile on his face, then ducked again when the second shoe was thrown. You can see the BBC's fancy slow-mo video of that here. The best part was when a reporter later asked him a question about the incident and he said, "I don't know what his cause is.[...]But one thing's for sure: he caused you to ask me a question about him."

The journalist, Muntadar al-Zeidi, has become an overnight hero in the Arab world, with comics already commemorating the incident. He was arrested after the incident, of course, and today thousands of Iraqis protested his incarceration and demanded his release, many saying that he did what world leaders were too afraid to do: stand up to Bush and denounce, among other things, the killing of 98,000 Iraqi civilians since 2003.

His shoes are still being held as evidence. He may never see them again.

Playground Antics from Hamas

More than 150,000 Gazans filled an arena today to celebrate the 21st anniversary of militant group Hamas. The highlight of the event was when Hamas paraded a mock Gilad Shalit before the crowd. He was in fact a Hamas loyalist, but was dressed in an IDF uniform and begged to be released, in Hebrew.

This is not the first time I have been disappointed by Hamas- the abduction of Shalit two years ago is case in point- but never have I seen them so thoroughly disgrace their own name and harm their own cause. Palestinians, especially Gazans, are rightly angry and have a right to fight. I believe they even have a right to fight dirty, since the playing field is not even. But an event like the one yesterday only tells the world that Palestinians, especially those loyal to Hamas, are not worthy of the world's sympathy.

Men of honor do not parade someone else's pain to incite celebration. Men of honor do not find happiness in cowardly actions.

Link to Ha'aretz article here.

"It's All in the Medical Report"

The best part? His haircut. Which I didn't even notice until like 6:40.

Go here to read commentary by the Kabobers.

House of Contention Update

In a troubling update about Beit Hameriva, the House of Contention, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Ha'aretz writes:

Medics said 18 Israelis and seven Palestinians were hurt in the violence. The clashes took place near Hebron's "House of Contention," where settlers have been holed up in defiance of a Supreme Court eviction notice...IDF officials described the severity of the settlers' riots as 'unprecedented.' They said the violent clashes were initiated by the settlers and not by the Palestinians, who only responded by throwing rocks.

Israeli security officials are planning a large operation to evict the settlers from Beit Hameriva, but they decline to state when that operation will be, for fear of allowing the settlers enough preparation time to prepare a defense against the IDF.

It is also worthwhile to note that an Israeli parliament member (Member of Knesset) is currently living in the House of Contention, which illustrates the political support right wing settlers enjoy and explains why their activities are referred to as "protests" in some newspapers, and "riots" in others. Many of you have asked me why violent settlers are not punished for their continued violence, and I offer this as only one reason why. Violent settlers are a very small minority of the Israeli people, and yet they enjoy tremendous power.

For another post I wrote on this curious phenomenon, go here.

In Case You Forgot

An update on the consequences of Israel's siege on Gaza:


The Gazan people are living without adequate supplies of food, clean water, medicine, and basic human rights and freedoms. What I have found most noteworthy, and most heartbreaking, is that the collective punishment Israel utilizes to prevent terrorist attacks only fosters a hatred of Israel that makes terrorist attacks more likely. An entire generation of children suffers right now because of Israel, and they are too young to understand the particulars. As adults, they will only remember that their childhoods were characterized by cold and hunger because of this mythical beast "Israel" and they will be all the more vulnerable to indoctrination by those who seek to use them as weapons.

From the video:

The people are generally frustrated here and they think that this policy of collective punishment is cold, it's wrongful, it's sad, and it's more harmful for the Israelis than beneficial, because it makes a kind of hatred growing with the new generation...we Palestinians, we need freedom. We fight only for freedom, we don't fight for any other thing.