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In Pictures: Gaza Strip under Israeli attack
Over the past 48 hours, the Israeli army has escalated their aerial and ground attacks against the Gaza Strip. At least five Palestinians, including children, have been killed, and more than 30 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.
Four of these deaths and 38 of the injuries, some of them serious, resulted from an Israeli attack in the residential neighborhood of al-Shoja’iya, east of Gaza City, which occurred on Sunday.
(Credit for photographs: Anne Paq / Al Jazeera)
i can feel my heart shatter
allah yi7mee balady<3
(via yafilasteen)
An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.
After reading the article, it is as bad as it sounds. The autopsy leaves little to the imagination:
Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child’s body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. “She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs,” he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. “The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face.”
Just a reminder, everyone: the occupation of Palestine is funded by the United States. We pay for the IDF to riddle children with bullets.
(Source: letterstomycountry, via so-treu)
Sent this to the racist who decided to try and profit off his flash image of a Native American woman in a headdress with a knife through her face-I hope his business suffers greatly
You’re a piece of human garbage. Seriously. I do sincerely hope your profession and ability to make money is severely damaged by your racism. The fact that you think your are ENTITLED to make money off of creating images celebrating the abuse of specifically Native and Indigenous women is a goddamn horror and I hope it hits you wherever you feel it most-since you don’t have a conscience, then in the wallet will suffice.
(via auberginebreeze)
23 Days in Israeli Jails: A Palestinian Student Real Life Story
Twenty–three days is the amount of time that I spent in an Israeli jail. Twenty-three days seems like a small part of a person’s life, but it was enough time to change the rest of mine.
I want to share my experiences of the twenty-three days that I spent in jail; how I dealt with what I saw there and the people whom I met. For twenty-three days my freedom was stolen. Other Palestinians are not so lucky. They don’t know if they will ever be free.One cold night in March, I threw myself on my bed after a hard day at the university. It was raining heavily outside, the weather was cold. I was tired enough to go sleep early. I didn’t know what awaited me the next day; my thoughts were focused on how I would get to the university the next day in the cold weather. I had many exams that week and I was worried about getting good grades.
Because I was tired, it didn’t take more than a moment until my eyes closed and I fell asleep.
What felt like a second later, my eyes opened again.I wish they had not. Suddenly there was a noise I couldn’t recognize. A huge sound shook my house; I would later find out that the sound was the front door of my home being broken into.
I thought it was a nightmare. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, a soldier was aiming his gun at me. It felt like a dream. I closed my eyes for the last time and then opened them again. The soldier was still there.
(Source: frompalestinewithlove, via themindislimitless)
Negotiator: Early Israeli Vote May Be Exploited for Moves Against Palestinians
PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat today discussed the announcement of early Israeli elections (with officials putting a likely January 15 date on them), saying he is concerned that the ruling coalition will escalate moves against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as a political maneuver.
Erekat said he believes that the outgoing government is likely to escalate the expansion of settlements in the West Bank as well as approve major new moves toward the “Judaization” of the Palestinian portions of East Jerusalem.
Erekat’s assessment is likely reasonable, as many of the parties in the current far-right government will be running on a platform of settlement expansion and the continued forestalling of the peace process, and will likely be trying to “out-hawk” one another on the West Bank ahead of the vote, courting the settler vote.
The negotiator insisted, however, that the PLO would not change any of its positions because of the announcement, that they intend to not interfere in the vote and that they will continue to pursue recognition as a “non-member state” at the UN General Assembly.
(Source: jayaprada)
Anaheim police murder sparks protest as officers respond with more brutality
July 22, 2012A police shooting that left a man dead led to a near riot Saturday as angry witnesses threw bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds.
Protesters stormed the police department shouting, “No justice, no peace!” and “Cops, pigs, murderers” as officers stood by.
The man was shot around 4 p.m. in front of an apartment complex on the 600 block of North Anna Drive following a foot chase, Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said. He died three hours later at a hospital.
The Orange County Register cited family members and neighbors who said the man shot was Manuel Diaz. Dunn said he could not confirm the man’s name early Sunday.
His niece, 16-year-old Daisy Gonzalez, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement. “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez said.
Residents, protesting what they say is an increased police violence against them in the community, started the near riot after the shooting on nearby La Palma.
Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the shooting, told the Register the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura said.
“They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said.
Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations because the shooting is under investigation.
Jay Jackson, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said Saturday night’s scene was chaotic.
The residents blocked off a street and set fire to at least one dumpster.
Earlier in the day, police in riot gear, fired rubber bullets into the crowd. Several protesters lifted their shirts to show large red welts on their torsos and backs.
One man said, “They just started shooting.”Residents told Jackson that police overreacted and created the disturbance.
Police also set a K-9 officer on one woman and a bystander they said were agitating the situation.
Said Susan Lopez, “I had my baby with me. My baby! The dog scratched me and then grabbed me.” She added, “They shot at me while I was holding a baby!” Another woman yelled, “They just shot at us, they shot at a little kid, too.”
According to police, two patrol officers observed three male suspects in an alley.
Police said the suspects tried to flee on foot when a chase ensued.
The shooting reportedly occurred after one of the officers encountered one of the suspects in a courtyard.
No officers were injured.
The other two suspects are at-large.
Dunn said, “What exactly led to the shooting, we don’t know. We’re still investigating. But a shooting did occur. And the male was taken to a hospital.”
Authorities said the circumstances regarding the shooting were under investigation by members of the gangs unit and Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video.
(via jayaprada)
Israel to put thousands of Africans in detention camp
Israel’s interior minister said on Friday he hoped to soon start moving tens of thousands of illegal African migrants from Tel Aviv and elsewhere to a detention camp being built and a planned “tent city.”
An Israeli court cleared the way on Thursday for the deportation of an estimated 1,500 South Sudanese, after ruling that their lives were no longer threatened in their homeland.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai told public radio 40,000 Sudanese and Eritreans were next in his sights.
“There are still about 15,000 from north Sudan and some 35,000 from Eritrea,” he said. “I am not allowed to get them out at the moment.”
He said he expected legal obstacles would be removed and that the government was also offering a grant to those prepared to leave voluntarily.
“They are close to being expelled either willingly or against their will,” he said. “This is a number that threatens the Jewish identity.”
As a first step, he said, illegals would be rounded up and moved to a detention centre being built in southern Israel at a projected cost of 250 million shekels ($6.7 million, 5.4 million euros).
I never want to hear “but Israel isn’t racist” ever again.
what the actual fuck “this is a number that threatens jewish identity” i want to die
“I am not allowed to get them out at the moment”
oh my god what
Anonymous asked: How do you envision white people appropriately participating in tearing down racist institutions, attitudes, etc?
[Tw: Racial slur]
*note before I start*These are only a few things I thought of today which could answer your question seeing as this question is dissertation (broad but very heavy) worthy to begin with. Also, I’ve been on vacation and just got off the plane so this is 7 hours late and not proofread because most of this was started on my phone. I’m also probably going to get a lot of hate after I publish this saying how all of this is fairytale and unrealistic but you asked so you get an answer*end note*
First white people would look at what they’ve done to society and stop seeing just greatness.
They’d see the Diasporas they’ve caused and instead of complaining when white guilt sets in. Actively do things to change it. Get the fuck out of African Nations(give them back their free water supply, stop invading for oil, trees, metals, and gems). They would see the pain and the illness in this world and not pass over it in the name of Manifest Destiny, economy, profit gains, or means to an end. They would throw away Manifest Destiny from this day forth. They would apologies to Natives, and treat them with respect, they would lower the prizes of food on the rez, get them proper shelter, and get them off of all mascot, shirts, pins, backpacks; etc positions because they are people, not tokens. They would dismantle the KKK and other Brotherhoods(Aryan, Italian; etc). They would redo history books to include original thinkers and creators whose names were overlooked in favor of white apprentices/thieves. They would apologize and compensate the Chinese for the railroads they built. They would look back at the Industrial revolution and see how big of a role race played in getting Lithuanian and other migrant countries to accept lower wages and apologies to them. They would look at what it means to be white and understand whiteness for the step stool made of PoC’s backs, fingers, and heads that it is. Look at projects,”ghettos” and jails and realized the historically the color scheme has gotten darker in those areas for a reason. White people during the IR moved into these places and when white privilege made it easier for them to move up in the word the broken down developments became home to more PoC’s than sometimes humanely possible. Respect Rroma people and understand that they suffer too. Stop calling them ‘gypsies’! They are not a costume they are a people who have long earned the respect white people have refused them. Speak to them about whether they want to be considered white people. Respect their lives. Give what they ask in terms of respect and resources.
And so and and so forth.
Second, they shouldn’t beg PoC about their opinions and advice about race to alleviate their guilt like we are mammy milkmaids.
They would do what white privilege denies them and that is be accountable for what happen and let* it mark their history because no one else (besides men in general) have gotten a free pass at globally editing history.
Third, when someone said or done something racist(in “isolated” incidents) there is no consoling the racist. Period.
They are to feel ashamed for what they have said or done because HISTORICAL WEIGHT GIVES NO JUSTIFICATION FOR SUCH THINGS TO CONTINUE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. POC HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH FOR A MILLENNIA. Stop thinking other PoC can’t say problematic shit but don’t think that it’s OK to rip them apart for it either. Your boat for that sailed a long time ago. Say your piece and go away. Also, stop treating lighter PoC or straight haired PoC better than others. You are only adding to the disgusting institution your families created and uphold.
Fourth, I need media/Hollywood who ever to realize that PoC can have complicated roles, dark skin, natural hair, and are human beings.
Like Games of Thrones (obviously this story will contain more European/white characters)has 2 African descent person and he’s a pirate with less than 100 words combined if that. I’m tired of all of the stories, movies, books, making me feel like white people are the only people who ever had adventures, were heroes, have conflicts, and doubt their abilities even if they are excellent people. I’m tired of race being a way to real in viewers with controversy instead of because it makes the sense that PoC should be involved in everything white people are involved in. Shows like NBC’s Scandal need more light but I shouldn’t have to be excited because 5+ of the 14+ characters are PoC. The point is we have rich history and stories to be told to. They can be just as good as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Dexter, BBC Sherlock or Supernatural.
Fifth, white people realizing money is apart of privilege in a very real way.
Let’s see white people refuse their inheritance and give it the DREAM organizations or black youth or other PoC self development organizations. Find the families of your ancestors and pay reparations to children of laborers. Rebuild places like Newark, NJ where race riots are still historically visible in broken down/fire damaged buildings and NOT gentrify them like white people are doing now. Go to schools where white people aren’t the overwhelming majority in both classrooms and faculty rooms and see how different your education turns out.
Six, Most importantly. PoC are intelligent, efficient, and capable just like white people. Don’t think you need to coddle us forever.
Once we have sufficient tools for ourselves we will not stand for White Saviors; that’s just another way to keep PoC from being their own people and being their own heroes. We don’t need collective parents we need peers.
Don’t just live out change on the internet. Don’t just go to the projects for a class assignment. Actually cut off the white-only bootstraps and live with us.
So those are 6 or so ways I think racist institutions can be dismantled.
Anon will stay open for a while so stop in if you have anything else to ask. Also, just like when most of my loaded asks come in. I’ll be on Skype too: rjanedoe69 (which is what I use for tumblr only).
Long story short, white people have a lot of work to do.
(Source: bmoburns, via brashblacknonbeliever)
Why I hate it when other white people say the phrase: “I’m not racist”
Because I still am one. Because it never goes away. Because as a white person, I have absorbed messages for my entire life that I am better than the majority of people on earth, I have absorbed messages telling me that the only lives worth caring about are the ones belonging to those with pale skin. Every day of my life, I absorb more messages that tell me that. Those voices in my head are pretty loud.
There is no “delete” button for that.
What can happen is that the voices of people of color can be louder. If you really listen, if you commit yourself to looking whiteness in the face for what it is, you can hear other voices, voices screaming out their own humanity in the face of white supremacy. They shout pretty loudly.
But the racism is still there. It always will be. It never goes away. You can fight it, but you are never absolved.
As soon as you say: “I’m not racist” you wash your hands of any further responsibility to fight those messages that tell you that white skin makes you better, that anyone without it doesn’t deserve empathy or human dignity. As soon as you say “I’m not racist” you commit yourself fully to racism.
Lightening Dark Skin For Beauty, Money and Cancer
Until today I’d assumed “whitewashing” (the practice of bleaching one’s skin to alter its color to a lighter and thus more appealing tone) had all but died in most parts of the modern world.
Holy fuck was I wrong.
This year, British Vogue’s November 2011 cover features none other than Rihanna (aka, the sexiest woman I’ve ever known) posing in one of her classic fierce stances in a blonde wig. When I first saw the cover I was a bit confused why Rihanna looked so different; but, knowing Rihanna’s penchant for unconventional hairstyles, I was initially able to naively overlook her seemingly Marilyn Monroe-inspired do; but a doubletake of the whole ensemble made me realize something a little disconcerting. Rihanna doesn’t just have Marilyn’s hair, but also her eyes, her pose, even her skin. “But Vogue is a fashion magazine, that look is chic, sexy, couture.” Vapid fashion vocabulary aside, it certainly sells, right? Now, I definitely don’t want to deny or minimize the blatant and subliminal sexism the fashion industry is chronically rife with; given fashion magazine’s long history of blatant sexism, it might not be immediately disconcerting to the average reader. But what is disconcerting to anyone who loves the Barbadoan babe like I do is how fucking white Rihanna looks.
As colorlines.com so eloquently put it:
It could be the actual lighting on set, it could be that we’ve gotten used to her wearing a fire engine-red wig, or it could be that someone forget to tell Vogue’s retoucher that Rihanna is in fact black.
Now before you chime in with “what’s so wrong about white skin?” I’d like to point out that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, there’s certainly nothing wrong with looking black, either. And call me cracked, but in my mind a few red flags go up when I see an international organization that claims to decide what’s hot and what’s not is photoshopping a world-famous superstar in the name of fashion sense.
Apparently Rihanna hasn’t been the only one “touched-up” with the desaturation tool either. Back in January of this year, ELLE India went with a lighter-tinted version of Aishwarya Rai, the sensational Star of Bollywood making headlines all over the internet and the world, and named by 60 Minutes as the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
So why does the supposed “Most Beautiful Woman in the World” need any photoshopping? Isn’t she already the pinnacle of perfection? Thankfully, not everyone agrees. Especially Miss Rai, who stated to The Times of India that the former Miss World is “furious with the bleaching blotch-up” and is considering pursuing legal action against the magazine.
But unfortunately Miss Rai isn’t the only celebrity ELLE’s taken to the light room. Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe also miraculously changed colors on the cover of U.S. edition of ELLE back in October of 2010.
And judging from some more photo shoots taken in 2009, L’oréal isn’t above whitewashing either. Just do a double-take of international stars Beyoncé and Freida Pinto. Any red flags yet?
As colorlines.com journalist Julianne Hing points out:
It’s a common, tired practice, and the routine is well-practiced: beauty companies and fashion magazines regularly lighten women’s skin (and darken the faces of black men), pissed off consumers shout back, and sometimes an apology is issued. But come the next fall collection or election season, photo retouchers are inevitably back to trying to make women of color more attractive by lightening them, and darkening the skin of men of color to make them seem more dangerous and suspect. Color, still, is everything.
At some point you have to stop and wonder just what the fuck is going on.
Fortunately, in the case of Aishwarya Rai at least, Change.org has begun a campaign asking the magazine to issue a public apology. However, in light of the situation (no pun intended), why should a campaign be necessary? Shouldn’t ELLE make a statement free of coercion by activist groups, regretting the mistake they knowingly made? I mean they do regret their “mistake,” right? Which brings me around to my point: Why the fuck is this still occurring?
In July in India, Vaseline launched a facebook app that allows the user to lighten their profile pictures to a more “appealing” tone. In 2005 Indian cosmetics mogul Emani began a new product campaign aimed at both men and women’s insecurities, launching their new skin-whitening cream for men called “Fair and Handsome” (the women’s version of course being called “Fair and Lovely”).
Closer to home, a study conducted by Dr. S. Allen Counter of Harvard Medical School in 2003 showed some pretty frightening findings:
96% of over 300 patients in the Southwestern United States that have higher than normal mercury levels were female and all had used skin lightening products; likewise 90% of women tested in clinics in Arizona who were Mexican-American had been using the same products (2).
Women more often try to whiten their skin and as a consequence poison their bodies. These lightening creams such as ‘Crema de Belleza-Manning’, which is made in Mexico, contain mercurous chloride and is easily absorbed through the skin.As you may or may not know, toxic levels of mercury lead to mercury poisoning, which causes neurological and kidney damage, as well as being a possible cause of psychiatric disorders. It can also cause birth defects. So it’s some pretty serious shit.
Aside from the horrors that survey alone should instill, there’s more where it came from:
Doctors in the UK were confused by symptoms presented by a woman when no reason for her weight gain, stretch or stripe marks and inability to conceive could be found. It was only after further questioning that she admitted to using a skin lightening product (1).
The product, which is illegal in the EU, was clobetasol. This is a cream containing high levels of the steroid corticosteroid. Typically this cream is prescribed for skin conditions including eczema and psoriasis, and is only to be used for up to two weeks at a time.
The UK doctors reported that the woman far exceeded the recommended usage, using two tubes of clobetasol a week for over seven years.
Such products are being increasingly used by people in a number of countries in an attempt to lighten the skin. Older people as well use skin lightening to remove age or liver spots and other skin darkening conditions.
However few people are warned of the dangers of the toxic ingredients which, as well as containing steroids, includes hydroquinone. While hydroquinone is allowed in the US by the FDA, it is banned in Europe because of the potential to cause cancer.
The list of side effects of the steroid corticosteroid is long. The most serious is Cushing’s disease, a malfunction of the adrenal glands leading to an overproduction of cortisol. Other side effects include:
* increased appetite and weight gain
* deposits of fat in chest, face, upper back, and stomach
* swelling
* slowed healing of wounds
* osteoporosis
* cataracts
* acne
* muscle weakness
* thinning of the skinKind of ruins that old saying “beauty is only skin deep,” doesn’t it?
So yeah, there’s that. If it wasn’t already alarming that people are getting whiter on paper, in reality the lightening products themselves have some terrible, toxic side affects. If you’re willing to lighten your skin color for the sake of appearing more attractive, you’re also willing to risk a myriad of other much more devastating skin problems (if psoriasis, eczema, acne, and thin skinning weren’t enough of an indication). In the end, the real cost of lighter skin is often paid in irreparable or even fatal damage to the user’s health, mind, and body—and often the products themselves advertise much better than they actually perform. So why does the fashion industry support this? Why, despite not only obvious health risks and the even more obvious fact that dark skin is beautiful all by itself, is lighter skin encouraged? Maybe it happens because people don’t really know all the serious risks behind skin whitening; maybe fashion companies are simply more concerned with a better quarterly statement than the health of their customers. Or maybe skin lightening is a symptom of the stigma that remains after hundreds of years of oppression, colonialism, and racism latent in our still very segregated and unequal world today. Maybe it’s all true. Whatever way you choose to view it, it’s a grim reality and a heavy price to pay, all for the ‘right look.’ But in our world, it’s the price of beauty.
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