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Register to Vote and Decide the Future of America

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer September 27 is National Voter Registration Day, where organizations, volunteers, and public figures will help encourage Americans to register and vote. Every election cycle, millions of Americans don’t vote because they missed the voter registration deadline or aren’t sure how to register. To combat this problem, the National Association of Secretaries … Continued

#noDAPL solidarity rally unites people and causes on Ohio State campus

By Elizabeth Suarez

The Lantern.com

About 100 activists, students, faculty members and members of Native American tribes from all over the nation convened outside the Ohio Union Thursday evening to join in solidarity for those protesting against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

The rally, which was hosted and organized by Ohio State’s Native American and Indigenous Peoples Cohort, aimed to bring awareness to the cause and collect donations to send to the Sacred Stone Camp, where many are camped out to in an effort to stop the development of the crude-oil pipeline. Protesters say the pipeline would go through land considered sacred by Native Americans and disturb water access.

Raymond Roach, of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, which is located just an hour south of Standing Rock Reservation, has lived in Columbus for many years and is considered the community elder by many in Columbus’ Native American diaspora, those in attendance said.

He led the event from the center of a circle formed by those attending the rally, where a traditional Native American drum lay, with chairs for tribe members to sit in surrounding it. Throughout the two-and-a-half hour rally, he guided the crowd of about a hundred people in traditional songs of prayer. Before the event was over, Roach performed a smudging ceremony on the entire group, asking everyone to get in a large circle and hold hands. The ceremony requires a burning stick of sage to pass over one’s body to cleanse and remove negative energy.

Those in attending the rally gather in a circle in front of the Ohio Union on Sept. 15. Credit: Elizabeth Suarez | Multimedia Editor
While there was an area for donations of money, supplies and food, prayer was emphasized by many members of the community who spoke as the most important approach to stopping the pipeline from being built.

Madison Eagle, a graduate student in the school of social work who identifies as Shawnee and Cherokee, helped plan the event, and said she was not surprised by the turnout.
“I’m really proud that we could bring so many people to this one spot and come together and pray and send up good thoughts to the Creator and fill this space with such good energy,” Eagle said.

Some in attendance called out or displayed on their signs the phrase, “Mni Wiconi”, which in the Lakota language translates to “Water is life.”

Kathy Begay, of the Navajo Nation, located in northwestern New Mexico, plans to travel to the Sacred Stone camp with her family and bring supplies and funds that she and her family gathered.
“We can’t sit back and watch this planet — mother Earth — be destroyed anymore. It’s not a Sioux Nation problem, it is a human race problem. If we keep letting these multi-billion dollar corporations come in and dictate what are future children or grandchildren will be living in, then they will have nothing left,” Begay said.

Other groups not directly connected to the cause also attended to show solidarity Thursday evening.

“We as Palestinians know what it feels like to have our land stolen from us and destroyed. This is why Palestinians stand next to the Native Americans, next to the African-American people of this country because we know far too well what it feels like in our own country,” said Reema Jallaq, a Columbus resident who is Palestinian-American.

Some in attendance also wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to display solidarity with the Native cause.

Eagle referenced the Tyre King vigil, which occurred on the South Oval just before the #noDAPL rally, saying that she appreciates the support from the Black Lives Matter community.
“I’m really proud to say that we stand with Black Lives Matter, and Native Lives Matter. That’s what’s going to create change,” said Eagle.

Source: thelantern.com

Rasmea’s lawyers file motion “to protect defendant from additional harm”

Press Contact: Hatem Abudayyeh

Defense attorneys for Rasmea Odeh, the Palestinian American icon who was wrongfully convicted in a politically-motivated, federal immigration case, filed a motion yesterday in response to last week’s ruling by Judge Gershwin Drain that Rasmea would have to submit to up to 18 hours of a government expert’s examination of her mental state.

The defense motion asks Drain to “require the government to disclose the identity and all other relevant information concerning the expert…and to identify any formal tests that the designated individual intends to administer.”  The defense had asked for this from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Michigan, and was refused.

Last week, Drain sided with the government, and will compel Rasmea to undergo intensive psychological evaluation by a government forensic examiner, even though the judge knows she is a survivor of vicious physical, sexual, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.

For this reason, the defense is asking for additional, “simple modifications” of the judge’s order, like a neutral site for the examination, allowing Rasmea to have a companion with her, and a clear explanation of the exact amount of time needed for the government to assess her.

Dr. Mary Fabri, the torture expert and former clinical psychologist at the world-renowned Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, who diagnosed Rasmea with PTSD, again filed an affidavit with the court, writing that “the risk of Ms. Odeh suffering substantial further mental and emotional trauma from another examination—particularly from an adversarial figure, where the need for safety and trust will be fundamentally important—is very real.”   Fabri adds that “trauma specialists agree that effort must be taken to avoid the retraumatization of survivors, especially by professionals.”

In addition, when the defense asked for the name of the government expert, the prosecution responded with a return to its wild claims that “defense counsel will then foment harassment of the expert by the supporters of the defendant.”  Followers of the case will remember Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel’s attacks on the Rasmea Defense Committee, when he called her supporters “mobs and hoards [sic].”  And even though it appears that Tukel has been removed from the case, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade’s office is still engaging in similar racist attacks against Rasmea’s supporters.

The legal defense responds to the accusation of harassment by calling it “slanderous and unprincipled,” and adding that “[n]o witness in this case has ever been improperly approached, and there is no justification for a secret witness in any event, especially an adversary who intends to spend hours interrogating the defendant.”

The 69-year-old Rasmea is a legend in the Palestine national movement. In Drain’s courtroom in 2014, she was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge, and in 2015, sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation. Rasmea won an appeal of the decision, arguing that Drain had denied her defense the right to make its case.  The appeals court sent the case back to Drain for an evidentiary Daubert hearing, scheduled for November 29th, where the government will attempt to challenge the validity and admissibility of testimony from Fabri.

The decision to allow the government expert (who will clearly try to discredit her) to meet with Rasmea before a Daubert hearing is an unsound legal decision, because a defendant’s mental state is not necessary “for the court to decide the admissibility of an expert’s testimony,” according to the defense.   It is also an unsound moral decision, because even with the safeguards described in yesterday’s defense motion, the ordeal will still be horribly retraumatizing for Rasmea.

The defense committee is mobilizing to fill the courtroom in Detroit for the November 29th hearing, which falls on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; is demanding “Hands Off Rasmea” and “Drop the Charges Now”; will continue to educate the public on Israel’s crimes and this specific case; and asks supporters to help raise money for the defense.

Source: us8.campaign-archive2.com

LA Times Urges California to Veto Anti-BDS Bill

The Times Editorial Board

The LA Times

The California Legislature had a busy final few days in August, passing about 800 bills, not counting the hundreds passed earlier in the year. Some are mundane, some profound. But all will go now to Gov. Jerry Brown for his approval. He has until the end of September to sign or veto them.

If history is any guide, the governor will allow most of the bills to become law, vetoing just a few. The following bills would do more harm than good, and so belong on his “To Veto” list.

Start with AB 2888 and SB 813. Two big news stories prompted these flawed proposals. The former stemmed from the outrage over the sentencing of Brock Allen Turner, the Stanford student found guilty of sexually assaulting a female student when she was unconscious. The judge gave Turner just six months for three felony convictions.

It was a shockingly light sentence, but AB 2888 is not the answer. It would eliminate judges’ discretion to place offenders on probation, rather than incarcerating them, when they’ve committed a sexual assault on someone who’s unconscious or too intoxicated to resist. Not only is this an ill-considered reaction to one headline-grabbing case, but it would reinstate a type of mandatory sentencing at a time when criminal justice experts and policymakers are correctly trying to move in the opposite direction.

SB 813 was a response to rape accusations against actor and comedian Bill Cosby last year. Because California’s statute of limitations for sexual assaults is 10 years, some of the alleged sexual assaults by Cosby could not be prosecuted. But statutes of limitations exist for good reasons. They can help victims see justice in a timely manner by setting a deadline for prosecutors to bring charges. They also protect the rights of the accused. It’s very hard to defend against accusations of crimes committed decades before. Besides, there is already an exception to the time limit for DNA evidence that turns up new suspects in old cases.

AB 2844 is a much-amended bill that in an earlier version would have prohibited the state from entering into contracts with companies that participated in a boycott of Israel. After 1st Amendment objections were raised, the bill was revised (and re-revised) so that now it prohibits would-be contractors from violating existing civil rights laws as part of “any policy that they have adopted against any sovereign nation or peoples recognized by the government of the United States, including, but not limited to, the nation and people of Israel.”

This legislation isn’t necessary to protect anyone from discrimination that is already against the law. It’s essentially a symbolic gesture designed to express disapproval of the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Public officials are free to denounce that movement as individuals, but they shouldn’t clutter the statute books with redundant legislation.

AB 717 and AB 1561. These bills would, respectively, waive the sales tax on diapers and on tampons, among other products used by menstruating women. Making such products less expensive for low-income people seems like an easy way to do a little good. Why not give harried parents of newborns a break on all those Pampers? And tampons are not luxuries for women either.

It’s a great headline, but in the end these waivers wouldn’t make much of an impact on a poor family’s wallet — while also extending an unneeded benefit to middle- and upper-income consumers. What needy families could really use are state credits and vouchers. Losing $56 million in tax revenue from the diaper and tampon exemptions would make it harder to fund such programs. The state’s tax policy could surely use an overhaul, but this is the wrong way to do it.

AB 2147 would authorize police to impound vehicles used in connection with soliciting prostitution. Although officers already have the authority to impound vehicles used in other suspected crimes, we oppose extending that power on the principle that people ought not to be punished or have their property seized before they are convicted of a crime.

This is not a comprehensive list. Surely there are more stinkers among the hundreds that slipped through with little notice. Here’s hoping that Brown will root them out and take appropriate action.

Source: www.latimes.com

Better Know A #PalestineMap

Palestine Studies 

 

Google prides itself on being all things to all people. And, befitting our globalized times, Google’s search pages are localized both linguistically and by web address. Visit Google in Rio de Janeiro and your Brazilian IP address (i.e. internet location) will direct you to google.br rather than the google.com Americans are accustomed to. In France: google.fr; google.tn for Tunisia, and so on.

For Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Google set up google.ps but initially titled the local search page the “Palestinian territories.” Then in Spring 2012, it changed its banner to “Palestine.” This sparked joy in the hearts of Palestinians: the world’s most prominent internet company had recognized the occupied territories as Palestine. Almost on cue, Israel protested. The then-Israeli deputy foreign minister, Ze’ev Elkin, sent an open letter to CEO Larry Page asserting that Google’s recognition of Palestine would “negatively impinge on the efforts of my government to bring about direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.” Palestinians, Elkin argued, would only be emboldened by Google to jettison direct negotiations with Israel and seek “one-sided actions.” Elkin’s histrionic letter had little, if anything, to do with sincere aspirations for peace and everything with Israeli opposition to any recognition, official or otherwise, of Palestine. Elkin’s words are belied by his outspoken opposition to a Palestinian state and support for Israeli annexation of the occupied territories. Google dismissed Elkin’s letter and a spokesman told the BBC that Google takes it cues from “the UN, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and other international organizations.”

Kudos to Google!

Not so fast, however, as Google appeared to bow to Israeli pressure recently by removing Palestine from Google Maps. Online protesters circulated screenshots of the map service alleging that where the West Bank and Gaza had previously been labeled Palestine, now only Israel is labeled and the occupied territories are just marked by a broken line:

A change.org online petition titled, “GOOGLE: Put Palestine On Your Maps!” quickly went viral. It attracted tens of thousands of digital signatures, and the hashtag #PalestineMap was trending Twitter.

It emerged, however, that Palestine was never erased from Google Maps because it was never there to begin with. A perfect example of Internet hordes getting ahead of the fact? Sure, but the false event raises a serious question: Why isn’t Palestine on Google Maps? After all, Google’s search engine −the heart of the company’s business model −recognizes Palestine, so why not Google Maps?

Such recognition would be in keeping with Google’s aforementioned guidelines as Palestine is a “non-member observer state” at the United Nations, a status it won in the General Assembly with the backing of 138 nations (with 9 against, and 41 abstentions) in November 2012. As a less-than-equal UN member (only a Security Council vote confers full recognition, but Palestine’s path is blocked by the ever-threatened U.S. veto), Palestine nevertheless joined the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a full member.

As at end-2015, 136 of the UN’s 193 member states (more than 70%) had recognized Palestine, including China, India, and Brazil, most of in the so-called developing world. Israel frets more about the so-called first world countries recognizing Palestine as Western Europe and the United States are its key trading partners, military suppliers, and diplomatic backers. Although lagging behind the rest of the world, Western countries are increasingly recognizing Palestine. Sweden and Iceland have officially done so; the national parliaments of the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Spain, Belgium, and Ireland have passed non-binding resolutions on the subject; and Italy and Norway have upgraded the Palestinian representative’s office in their respective capitals to a status befitting a sovereign nation. Moreover, the European  Parliament has passed its own motion proclaiming “in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood” by a vote of 498-88. Lastly, The Vatican has also bestowed its blessing of recognition on Palestine.

Last year, when the Palestinian Authority applied to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, there was some question as to whether Palestine could qualify, given its less-than-unanimous status as a sovereign state, but the ICC ended up ruling in favor of membership.

And if you were watching the Summer Olympics in Rio, you might have seen Palestinian athletes competing under the Palestinian flag. The International Olympic Committee has recognized Palestine since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

A free Palestine, of course, remains an aspiration. But unlike, say, Tibet (recognized by no nation) or Abkhazia (recognized only by Russia), Palestine is recognized by most countries around the world, is a member of several international organizations, and is occupied by a power that pays lip service to the idea of a sovereign Palestinian nation. Going back to Google, Taiwan shows up on Google Maps even though the country’s international status−lacking a UN seat, for instance−falls short of Palestine’s. And in Google’s own backyard of Silicon Valley in California, Facebook−the world’s largest social media platform−recognizes Palestine. Facebook’s recognition isn’t akin to that of, say, the United States, but it isn’t a trivial matter either. When the social media behemoth recognized Kosovo in 2013, the New York Times reported, “Kosovo is hailing a grant of legitimacy by a new arbiter of national identity: Facebook.” The Times went on to observe—albeit with a slight hyperbole—that “in an era when accumulating ‘likes’ may top a seat in the General Assembly, at least for many young opinion leaders online, Kosovo’s leadership is hailing a change on a social media site as a diplomatic coup worthy of Talleyrand.”

In other words, what happens online matters, and that is why Israel was so peeved at Google in 2013 and why Palestinians and their allies reacted with alarm to the (false) reports of digitized cartographic erasure. Whenever a major Internet company, the resource of upwards of one billion individuals, recognizes Palestine, the idea of a free Palestinian nation gains a little more traction.

In the end, of course, Google Maps is incidental to the Palestinian struggle. In every tilled field and harvested olive tree, Palestine is a reality on the ground and in the hearts of countless millions around the world. As one Twitter user remarked,

Source: blog.palestine-studies.org

Rasmea’s prosecutors deny the horror of torture; Judge Drain accepts their argument

Press release: Rasmea Defense Committee

Rasmea’s prosecutors deny the horror of torture; Judge Drain accepts their argument

Rasmea Odeh, a survivor of vicious torture at the hands of the Israeli military, will be compelled to undergo hours of psychological evaluation by a government forensic examiner, according to a ruling by Federal Judge Gershwin Drain.  Drain cancelled a September 22 hearing on the matter in Detroit, where supporters from across the Midwest had planned to join Rasmea.

The 69-year-old Rasmea is a legend in the Palestine national movement. In Drain’s courtroom in 2014, she was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge, and in 2015, sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation. Rasmea appealed the decision, arguing that Drain had denied her defense the right to make its case.

In February of this year, in a major legal victory, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Drain was wrong when he refused to allow defense attorneys to present evidence that Rasmea suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The PTSD caused her to misunderstand the questions about the unlawful conviction and imprisonment she suffered under the Israeli occupation. At the trial, Rasmea was not allowed to tell the story of Israel forcing her to falsely confess to alleged bombings in 1969, when she endured over three weeks of brutal sexual, physical, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.

The appeals court sent the case back to Drain for an evidentiary Daubert hearing, where the government will challenge the validity and admissibility of testimony by torture expert and clinical psychologist, Dr. Mary Fabri.  With Drain’s latest decision, issued yesterday, Rasmea will be subjected to as many as six sessions (up to 18 hours) of interrogation by a government expert seeking to support its claim that Fabri’s testimony should still be excluded.

By forcing Rasmea to meet with a government expert whose job it is to discredit her, she faces the real possibility of being re-traumatized by the horrible experiences of her torture. The government is clearly using legal maneuvers to convolute a medical diagnosis by a world-renowned mental health professional, and Drain is allowing it.

In his decision, Drain rejected the defense argument that it is harmful to Rasmea’s mental health to be forced to repeatedly discuss the rape and torture she suffered.  He sided with the prosecution, claiming that Rasmea had discussed the torture on “numerous occasions” … “in the media and elsewhere.”

Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch responded today: “That is just not true.  While Rasmea has become the most famous target of a political trial in the U.S. today, she has always avoided discussion of the crimes committed against her in that Israeli prison in 1969. The government case against Rasmea is based on the word of her Israeli captors, and yet at every turn, Judge Drain has denied her defense the right to challenge those statements in his courtroom. Once again, his latest decision favors the prosecution’s endless attempts to cover up the crimes of Israel against Rasmea.”

The hearing on the challenge to Fabri’s expert testimony is set for November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Rasmea’s supporters are already making plans to stand with her in Detroit that day, and they continue to educate the public on Israel’s crimes and this specific case, as well as raise money for the defense.

Source: us8.campaign-archive2.com

Town hall in Dearborn to focus on profiling in Arab community 

By Andrea Blum
Detroit Press and Guide 

A chance for open discussion about a sensitive topic is being offered as the focus of an upcoming town hall.

“The Feeling of Being Watched: A Town Hall Discussion on Profiling and Surveillance” will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 9 at The Annex of the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn.

The town hall, which is free to attend by RSVP, will feature discussions on profiling and surveillance, an issue that affects many areas, including Arab and Muslim communities.

Award-winning freelance journalist and former “Al Jazeera America” producer Assia Bounadoui will appear to present a portion of her feature-length directorial debut, “The Feeling of Being Watched.”

A town hall-style discussion will follow with Bounadoui and Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Additional panelists will be announced.

A question-and-answer session with the audience and panelists will close out the evening.

RSVP for the event by visiting arabamericanmuseum.org/town-hall-surveillance.

Source: www.pressandguide.com

Hate-crime laws aren’t strong enough

Arjun Singh Sethi 

USA Today

 

These crimes are meant to terrorize entire communities. They need to be prosecuted that way.

Violence against Arabs and Muslims continues unabated in America. Just this month, on Aug. 12, a young Arab American named Khalid Jabara was murdered outside his home in Tulsa, Okla. The next day, an imam and his assistant, Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin, were murdered after praying at a mosque in Queens, N.Y.

In the Queens case, video footage and eyewitness accounts show suspect Oscar Morel approaching Akonjee and Uddin from behind and shooting them in the head. The two victims, dressed in religious garments, had just completed afternoon prayer and were walking outside the mosque. Morel has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, and authorities say they’re exploring whether the killings were a hate crime. If they determine hate was a factor, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean the suspect would be charged with a hate crime.

The suspect in the Tulsa crime has a long history of racism and discrimination and had previously called the Jabara family “filthy Lebanese” and “dirty Arabs.” Just last year, the suspect ran over Khalid’s mother, Haifa Jabara, in a violent hit and run. He took Khalid’s life after being released on bond. Tulsa Police Capt. Shellie Seibert, speaking to The Washington Post last week, blamed the tragedy on a neighborhood dispute and the suspect’s “unusual fixation” with the Jabara family. On Tuesday, however, after days of community pressure capped by more than 50 civil rights and faith-based groups asking authorities to stop minimizing the possible role of hatred, the suspect was charged with murder and committing a hate crime.

The murders of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha in Chapel Hill, N.C. in February 2015 were also viewed in the context of neighborhood friction. The three young Muslim Americans were murdered, two of them execution style, by a man who hated Islam and had previously intimidated the victims. Craig Hicks turned himself in and faces the death penalty on triple murder charges. Yet, because he had a longstanding parking dispute with the victims, he was not charged with hate crimes.

Why are prosecutors reluctant to file hate-crime charges? It’s because courts regularly require prosecutors to show that hate was the sole factor motivating the crime, not just a substantial motivating factor. Those who commit crimes with mixed motives are thus often not charged with hate crimes.

This troubling logic can be applied in numerous ways. If a suspect vandalizes a mosque because he disapproves of Islam, but also dislikes the traffic the mosque causes in his neighborhood, it’s not a hate crime. If a suspect assaults a gay woman because of her sexual orientation, but also because he doesn’t like her mannerisms and attitude, it’s not a hate crime. Both Congress and individual states can remedy this failure by passing legislation or clarifying in guidelines that bias need only be a substantial motivating factor in proving a hate crime, not the sole factor.

America needs strong hate crime laws because hate crimes are intended to intimidate and terrorize entire communities. Attacking a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wis., a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. and a gay club in Orlando, Fla. ripples through impacted communities nationwide. They can cause communities of people to feel vulnerable and isolated, spark national outrage and unrest, and create friction among racial, religious and ethnic groups.

It’s both restorative and cathartic for law enforcement to address hate and bias when it motivates crime. Think of it this way. Hate crimes send a message to vulnerable communities. Hate-crime charges send an even greater message to biased perpetrators.

In addition, the FBI should require hate-crime reporting from law enforcement agencies across the country. Reporting now is voluntary and incomplete. The Associated Press recently found that more than 2,700 city police and county sheriff’s departments, roughly 17% of all city and county law enforcement agencies nationwide, have not submitted a single hate crime report during the past six years. If you don’t understand the severity of a problem, you can’t fix it; if you understate its severity, you’ll look the other way. A requirement would increase awareness and ensure that we have the necessary resources to protect America’s most vulnerable.

Hate has become a quotidian part of life for many minority communities, especially Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, Sikh Americans, and transgender Americans. We may never be able to eradicate bigotry and bias from our country, but we should at least try to curb violence motivated by it through effective laws, data collection and resource allocation.

Arjun Singh Sethi, a Washington, D.C.-based writer and lawyer, is director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University law schools.

Source: www.usatoday.com

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