On Monday, President Obama’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, spoke to the American Jewish Committee Global Forum and told the audience that the U.S. should pledge $40 billion to Israel. Rice said the money would be military aid and go to Israel over a period of ten years. Rice, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, … Continued
BY: Andrew Hansen/ Contributing Writer In the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando this past weekend, Americans of all ethnicities, age, sexual orientations, and political affiliations are expressing their condolences to the families of the victims of the attack at a gay nightclub, which left 49 dead. Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump seemed to … Continued
BY: Tamara Wong Azaiez/Contributing Writer Following the recent shootings in Orlando, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addressed America’s foreign policy regulations today. In his speech, he chose to target the recent flow of Syrian refugees as a prevalent reason behind the attack; although, the gunman was an American citizen with Afghani descent with no distinct … Continued
By DANIEL SIERADSKI
THE NEW YORK TIMES
IN 1985, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo proposed that New York State divest of its billions of dollars in investments in companies that did business with South Africa “to demonstrate,” he declared, “the abhorrence of our residents to the pernicious system of apartheid.” An opponent of Mr. Cuomo’s plan, the state comptroller, Edward V. Regan, told The New York Times, “We’re not in the foreign-policy business.”
State Republicans blocked Mr. Cuomo’s efforts, and he ultimately settled for divesting personally from apartheid, withdrawing his personal funds from banks with ties to South Africa.
How times have changed.
Last week, Mario Cuomo’s son, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, signed an executive order essentially creating a blacklist of entities that boycott or divest from Israel or encourage others to do so, banning those companies from receiving taxpayer funding.
The movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, known as B.D.S., is a strategy intended to combat Israel’s nearly 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, a situation that three former Israeli prime ministers, as well as Secretary of State John Kerry, have warned would become akin to apartheid if allowed to continue.
I oppose Israel’s occupation and I want the Palestinians to have equal rights and self-determination. Still, I do not support a boycott that targets Israel as a whole. While I avoid buying products from companies that operate in Israeli settlements, I do so out of commitment to the two-state solution and my belief that the occupation endangers Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.
But I also believe that economic boycott is a legitimate form of political expression, one that the government has no business restricting by withholding state business.
Paradoxically, Mr. Cuomo has engaged in a type of boycott himself, issuing three executive orders banning nonessential travel by state employees to Indiana, Mississippi and North Carolina for discriminatory laws against L.G.B.T. people. Apparently, in Mr. Cuomo’s book, boycotts are acceptable against American states with discriminatory laws, but not against a foreign country that has systematically subjected millions of people to decades of oppression.
Documents from statehouses where anti-B.D.S. bills have passed, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, show that there is a concerted effort by advocacy groups, like the Israeli American Council, and even the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic sect, to promote anti-B.D.S. legislation in statehouses and in Congress.
While bills in other states have, for better or worse, gained legislators’ approval, Mr. Cuomo’s executive order is the first to be instituted without democratic ratification. After it became clear a bill with the same purpose would not pass the State Assembly, Mr. Cuomo decided he wanted to take “immediate action,” as he put it at the order’s signing, joking that the legislative process was often “a tedious affair.”
Legal scholars on both sides of the issue have raised flags. On Twitter, Katherine Franke, a professor at Columbia Law School who sits on the Academic Advisory Council of the pro-boycott group Jewish Voice for Peace, called the order “clearly unconstitutional.”
Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, who has supported anti-boycott legislation, has suggested that Mr. Cuomo’s executive order could run up against the First Amendment, and that its language penalizing advocacy of boycott or divestment — the measure is aimed at those who participate in pro-boycott activity or “promote others to engage” in it — was “a bridge too far.”
In analyzing a similar law passed in South Carolina last month, The Harvard Law Review wrote that the motivation behind such laws “could not be more antithetical to the core values of the First Amendment.”
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Worse yet, the vagueness of Mr. Cuomo’s executive order raises more questions than it answers. For example, as the owner of a small web-design business who occasionally does freelance work for CUNY schools and state agencies, will I be denied contracts because I argued against buying SodaStream home carbonation systems while they were being manufactured in a settlement on the West Bank? If a filmmaker declares support for boycotting Israel, will the state deny her production company access to shoot at the new state-funded production center near Syracuse? If a church’s national assembly backs divestment from Israel, will it be denied state grants to operate homeless shelters and soup kitchens in Brooklyn?
And what about companies working in the West Bank that succumb to the economic pressure of boycotts or divestment and move their operations? Will the State of New York tell a private enterprise that it must choose between losing money because of boycotters or losing contracts with the state?
But this is also personal. As a Jew who has lived in Israel and has many relatives there, I feel that the government should not be dictating how I relate to the Jewish state and in what ways I voice my objection to its policies. Regardless of how one feels about the Israeli occupation and the B.D.S. movement, Mr. Cuomo’s decision should be an unsettling precedent.
Source: www.nytimes.com
by James J. Zogby
Arab American Institute
Recent Trump outrages have thrown the GOP establishment into a tizzy. Reactions have been varied, ranging from a few brave souls who have denounced their nominee’s bigotry to those who continue to hope against hope that Trump will begin to behave more “presidential”. Ignored in all of this are two important realities: Trump is Trump; and his message and movement are the handiwork of the very establishment that is now rejecting their creations.
Trump’s xenophobic, male chauvinist, and bigoted bullying campaign rhetoric is not an act. It is who he is and it what the constituency that has propelled his candidacy wants him to be. While this simple truth has been self-evident throughout the campaign, the establishment has been in denial, unwilling or unable to confront reality. With every display of brutish behavior, they pronounced Trump fatally wounded—only to discover that his appalling and dangerous attacks on Mexicans, women, Muslims, people with disabilities, news reporters, and incitements to violence against demonstrators—caused his poll numbers to rise.
Party leaders shouldn’t have been surprised, since it was they who set the table for “The Donald”. For decades, the GOP has preyed off the fears of white voters who are in economic distress. Since the days of Richard Nixon, they have used subtle and not so subtle racial messages to win support. Whether the targets were “welfare queens”, “Willie Horton”, or resentment over “affirmative action”—the appeal was the same: “they are a threat to you” and “they are privileged and are taking from you”.
With the election of Barack Obama, in the midst of the most severe economic crisis since the Depression, this effort swung into high gear with the Tea Party and “birther” movements. New targets were added—Mexicans (“illegals” and “drugs”) and Muslims (“terrorists” and “an existential threat to our way of life”).
In each instance, the GOP fed the beast. They funded, helped to organize, and used the Tea Party to win elections, and with “a wink and a nod” they let the “birthers” fester in effort to deligitimize the president. They encouraged and celebrated vigilante actions against “illegals” and callously exploited the fear of Muslims with trumped-up campaigns against Sharia law and TV ads in congressional races charging Democrats with being “soft on Muslims”.
All of this created a constituency which Trump, the entertainer, understood and toward whom he directed his campaign. He is but the latest in a long line of demagogues to tap into resentment and fear—following in the footsteps of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Michele Bachmann.
The hope of the Republican Party establishment that Trump would become a more “respectable” candidate has been, in part, disingenuous. If he were not the nominee, they would be thrilled to have him campaigning for GOP candidate. But as the standard bearer, he is an embarrassment.
His racist attack on the judge who is hearing the case against the so-called “Trump University” has left party leaders flailing about. In an effort to distance themselves from his behavior, they have expressed everything from disappointment to disgust. Last weekend, Trump compounded his bigotry by noting that not only did he feel that a judge of Mexican descent couldn’t give him a fair trial (because Trump was planning to build a wall between Mexico and the US); he also felt he couldn’t trust a Muslim American judge (because he had called for a ban on Muslim immigrants to the US).
While I do not have polling data on Mexican Americans, I did conduct a survey of US voters a few months ago that demonstrates the sad reality that is behind Trump’s calculations. American voters were asked “If a Muslim American were to attain an important position of influence in the government, would you feel confident that person would be able to do the job, or would you feel that their religion would influence their decision-making?”
A plurality of voters (46%) said they felt that Muslims would be unduly influenced by their religion. More telling: while a plurality of Democrats (47%) were confident that a Muslim American could do the job, 63% of Republicans said a Muslim couldn’t be trusted—including a whopping 75% of voters who said they were Trump supporters.
The bottom line is that Trump didn’t create this mindset or this constituency. It was created for him and he is merely playing to the crowd. Instead of hand-wringing, the party leaders who for years have encouraged this phenomenon need to accept their responsibility. It didn’t just happen, and Trump didn’t will it into being. The fear and/or resentment of Mexicans/Muslims/blacks/strong women/etc has long been cultivated and has now given birth to its evil fruit.
I warned that this beast would turn on its creators, and now it has. Whining or expressions of disappointment won’t make it go away. Decisive action just might. Republicans should repudiate bigotry and demonstrate resolve by listening to those courageous voices who are calling on them to “Dump Trump” and undo the damage they have done to their party and to our country.
Source: www.aaiusa.org
United Church of Christ
Prompted by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to halt state business with companies that back a boycott of Israel, and the growing interest in several state legislatures in criminalizing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement, the national officers of the United Church of Christ are speaking out against what they see as an infringement of First Amendment rights.
Here is the text of their statement:
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order this week calling on his state’s agencies to boycott and divest from any entity that participates in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement related to Israel/Palestine. The governor’s action bypasses the New York legislature. But in seven states, initiatives to criminalize this targeted movement have already been adopted by state legislatures, and thirteen more are yet to be considered (including New York), according to the Jerusalem Post—this with the US Congress’s encouragement.
The United Church of Christ has actively supported human rights campaigns, sometimes through consumer boycotts and even divestment of companies that have profited from injustice. Most recently, the UCC Board of Directors endorsed a boycott of Wendy’s for not joining the Fair Food Program—refusing to pay a fair wage to Immokalee farm workers in Florida to pick tomatoes. Last summer, the UCC adopted a resolution at its General Synod calling for divestment from “companies that profit from or that are complicit in violations of human rights arising from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories by the state of Israel,” and to “boycott goods produced in or using the facilities of illegal settlements located in the West Bank.” While not a full endorsement of Palestinian civil society’s BDS Movement, the UCC’s action clearly supports one of that movement’s calls—an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The UCC is deeply concerned about the attempts by state legislatures to stifle consumer boycott and responsible investment as expressions of free speech—guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The UCC remains committed to seeking justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians, to working to support bringing an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and to using non-violent tactics—including economic leverage—to do so.
We call upon our elected officials at all levels of government to uphold the Constitutional right of free speech, in all its forms, including the right to use economic measures to bring change; we also call on our members, and allies in the quest for justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis, to hold their elected officials accountable to that principle.
The National Officers of the United Church of Christ,
Rev. John Dorhauer
General Minister and President
Rev. James Moos
Executive Minister, Wider Church Ministries
Rev. Traci Blackmon
Acting Executive Minister, Justice and Witness Ministries
Source: www.ucc.org
By Robin Wright
New Yorker
Hena Khan, the author of best-selling children’s books, thought Muhammad Ali’s funeral on Friday was going to be a turning point for American Muslims. “Ali spent his life trying to show the real Islam—battling Islamophobia even as he battled Parkinson’s disease. That’s what was highlighted after he died,” she told me this weekend. “It was nice to feel proud—and to see people saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ interpreted in a positive way.”
On Saturday, Khan was herself honored for the publication of “It’s Ramadan, Curious George,” a groundbreaking new book that also tries to span the cultural chasm for a new generation. The Diyanet Center of America packed its auditorium with kids and their parents to hear Khan read from her book. In this latest spinoff, the mischievous simian learns from his friend Kareem about the sacred Muslim month of fasting, good deeds, contemplation, and evening feasts. Together, they help with a food drive for charity. George gets up to his usual antics, this time planning a good deed to donate all the shoes that Muslims leave outside a mosque when they go in to pray, only to be stopped in the nick of time. In the evening, George and Kareem break the fast together with pizza and chocolate-covered bananas. In honor of Ramadan, The Man in the Yellow Hat—the caregiver who brought Curious George to America seventy-five years ago—dons a yellow fez.
At the end of Khan’s reading, a teen-ager dressed as Curious George raced down the aisles, onto the stage, and fist-bumped Khan. The kids went wild. “It was a weekend of hope and feeling inspired,” Khan told me. “It was a time of reaffirmation,” especially during the first week of Ramadan.
On Sunday, Khan woke up and, as is her habit, checked the news on her cell phone before waking her family. It was consumed with the killings at Pulse, the gay night club in Orlando, Florida. “First it was twenty people, then fifty,” she told me. “I thought, Not another shooting! When is this going to stop? This is insanity.
“Then I saw the name,” Khan said, her voice choking back sobs. Omar Mateen, the lone gunman in the largest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11th attacks, in 2001, is an Afghan-American. Khan is Pakistani-American. Both are second-generation. Mateen, who was twenty-nine, was born in New York and later moved to Florida. Khan, who is forty-two, grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and now lives with her husband and two children in the Maryland suburb of Rockville.
“It added a whole new layer of anguish,” she told me. “I bore this tragedy as much as any American, and then to see his name. You can’t even find the words. It’s unbelievable. And during Ramadan! As a Muslim, your heart sinks.”
Ramadan runs from June 6th until July 5th. The timing is based on Islam’s lunar calendar, which shifts by eleven days each year. Last month, Muhammad al-Adnani, the isis spokesman, released a video calling on other jihadists “to make it a month of calamity everywhere for non-believers . . . especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.” A State Department report warned that a jihadi sacrifice during Ramadan “can be considered more valuable than that made at other times, so a call to martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some.”
Muslim groups across the United States rushed to condemn the attacks. Standing with Orlando officials, Muhammad Musri, the president and imam of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, called the attack “monstrous.” He appealed to Muslims to donate blood for the wounded and to coöperate with Florida police and the F.B.I. At a hastily organized press conference in Washington, Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil-rights and advocacy organization in the United States, scolded isis. “You do not speak for us,” he said. “You do not represent us. You are an aberration. You are outlaws.” He went on, “They don’t speak for our faith. They claim to, but 1.7 billion people are united in rejecting their extremism and their acts of senseless violence.”
Awad also pledged to stand with the gay community. “For many years, members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I. community have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim community against any acts of hate crimes, Islamophobia, marginalization, and discrimination. Today we stand with them shoulder to shoulder,” he said. “The liberation of the American Muslim community is profoundly linked to the liberation of other minorities—blacks, Latinos, gays, Jews, and every other community. We cannot fight injustice against some groups and not against others. Homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia—we cannot dismantle one without the other.”
That has been a common theme in the reaction among America’s Muslims. Khaled Latif, the executive director of New York University’s Islamic Center and a Huffington Post blogger, wrote on Facebook, “Thinking of my brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community this morning. I can only imagine how the loved ones of those killed in last night’s horrific actions in Orlando are feeling. The only way to make sense of such senseless acts is through living with hope, compassion and love. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.”
Khan, the children’s-book author, has also worked with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim group based in Dearborn, Michigan, which published a report on the common challenges faced by Muslims and the gay community. “I view the L.G.B.T. community as an ally in fighting bigotry,” she told me. “There are so many parallels. Anti-Sharia and anti-gay laws reflect overlapping bigotry. We’re learning from each other. The fact that this community was targeted is tragic.”
The mother of two boys, aged eleven and fifteen, Khan posted a reflection on her Web site last October about anti-Muslim campaigns in the United States. “My gut reaction when I heard about the hatred-inspired anti-Muslim protests that are taking place later this week across the country was to grab my children, crawl under the covers of my bed, and distract us all with a Sponge Bob marathon,” she wrote. “My instinct is to retreat to a safe haven and hide, much like I did when I was young child. The difference is that when I was little, I had to wait until Saturday morning for the Looney Toons, and the threats were largely external—fostered by a Cold War and a common enemy that united us all in fear of a nuclear holocaust.
“Today, in this increasingly confusing world I wonder, who exactly is the enemy? Is it . . . me? My children? My Muslim family members who do amazing things that don’t make the headlines: strengthening government systems for the Department of Homeland Security, conducting flight safety tests on aircrafts, performing skin grafts on burn victims? Is it isis? The Taliban? Russia? Or is it the armed hate groups united under a false banner of ‘humanity’ planning to target mosques and Muslim communities to intimidate and bully us in an attempt to take back America from ‘people like you’?”
In the last of several conversations we had over the weekend, Khan said the identification of the shooter as a Muslim had consumed her. “I have this intense fear that it is going to change everything,” she said.
Source: www.newyorker.com
For Immediate Release: Rasmea Defense Committee, June 12, 2016
Palestinian-American Rasmea Odeh to appear in Judge Drain’s Detroit chambers for a status conference Monday, June 13
At the same time, 100 supporters from all over the Midwest will rally outside the federal courthouse in support of #Justice4Rasmea
WHEN:
· Monday, June 13th, 2016, at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time for support rally and Rasmea Defense Committee press availability.
· Status conference in judge’s chambers (closed to the press and public) begins at 11 AM EST.
· Press conference with defense attorneys and other speakers after the status conference.
WHERE: U.S. Courthouse for the Eastern District of Michigan, 231 W. Lafayette Blvd., downtown Detroit
On Monday, June 13, 2016, Rasmea Odeh will appear with her attorneys in Judge Gershwin Drain’s chambers for a closed status conference at the federal courthouse in Detroit, Michigan. The Rasmea Defense Committee is mobilizing one hundred supporters to be there as well—from Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, Dearborn, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Cincinnati, Texas, and other cities and states. They will picket outside the courthouse to urge for a new trial for this Palestinian American icon, who was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge in 2014, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation last year.
In a February 2016 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Judge Drain, saying he had wrongfully barred the testimony of a torture expert that was critical to Rasmea’s defense. At the trial, Rasmea was not allowed to tell the entire story of Israel forcing her to falsely confess to bombings in 1969, when she endured over three weeks of vicious sexual, physical, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.
Rasmea suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of this torture, which, according to world renowned psychologist, Dr. Mary Fabri, caused her to suppress the horrible recollection of the arrest when she answered questions on her immigration application. Judge Drain excluded Dr. Fabri’s testimony from the trial, and disallowed any evidence about the rape and torture. Appeals court judges sided with Rasmea’s defense team, and sent the case back to district court. If the judge cannot determine new legal avenues to exclude the expert testimony, Rasmea will be granted a new trial.
“The conviction of Rasmea Odeh was a travesty of justice. She is a hero who has dedicated her life to organizing for Palestinian liberation, and to building a society with dignity and justice for all. We will stand with her in Detroit on June 13, and call for a new trial, where she can finally tell her story,” said Nesreen Hasan of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), which, along with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR), anchors the defense committee.
The status conference will likely determine the immediate next steps in the case, including the setting of dates for future evidentiary hearings and deadlines for filings. Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression leader Frank Chapman, and representatives of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, CSFR, USPCN, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition will be amongst the rally speakers before and after the closed session in the judge’s chambers.
Source: justice4rasmea.org
By NAHAL TOOSI
Politico.com
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In their so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State extremists have killed suspected gay men by throwing them off buildings. On Sunday, the terrorist network claimed responsibility for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, one that left 50 dead, including the shooter, and dozens wounded at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
That the Islamic State could have played a role in the early morning attack, which came during Gay Pride Month, sent shudders through the LGBT community in the United States, where fears of terrorist assaults on soft targets such as schools, shopping centers and nightclubs already were on the rise.
Gays and lesbians are no strangers to discrimination and violence, but “historically, gay clubs and bars are a safe place so for that type of environment to be the victim of this is just very traumatizing,” said Ida Eskamani, development officer for Equality Florida, an advocacy group. “The whole community is just reeling from this.”
In a televised statement about the attack, President Barack Obama made sure to point out the impact on gays, lesbians and others in their community, calling what happened “an act of terror and act of hate.”
The gunman, Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police, was a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. Media reports said he called 911 shortly before reaching the Pulse nightclub and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The group’s Amaq news agency said Sunday the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter,” Reuters reported. U.S. officials, however, are still investigating the extent of the Islamic State’s connection to the attack; it could have played more of an inspirational role than an operational one.
Mainstream interpretations of Islam generally forbid homosexuality, and gays and lesbians in many Muslim countries live under social and legal threat, so relatively few are open about their sexual orientation. Islamists in particular often point to Western tolerance of homosexuality as a reason Islam can’t be reconciled with liberal values.
Still, the violence practiced by the Islamic State against gays — or for that matter other social, ethnic and religious minorities — is unusually vicious, whether it’s through beheadings, stonings or throwing people off buildings. But the terrorist network apparently views its approach as a sign of its fidelity to the faith — and one way to recruit.
“I’ve seen them point to Western tolerance for homosexuals as a reason why pious Muslims should repudiate Western countries and embrace the Islamic State,” said Will McCants, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on militant Islam.
The shooter’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that the attack “has nothing to do with religion” but added that his son was angered by the sight of two men kissing a few months ago.
Shadi Hamid, author of “Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World,” said the Islamic State’s leaders are far more focused on trying to retain their territory in Iraq and Syria amid a U.S. and Iraqi-led assault than they are on destroying gays and lesbians.
But the fact that the attack was on the gay community makes it easier for the group to justify the attack to Muslims who might question it. “From a messaging standpoint, it helps in the sense that they can argue to their followers that these people deserved to be killed,” Hamid said.
He noted that in part because of greater political awareness among American Muslims (some of it inspired by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.) there has been growing dialogue between Muslims and gay and lesbian organizations around the subject of civil rights.
Muslim organizations in the United States unequivocally condemned the Orlando assault on Sunday, and some urged Muslims to donate blood to help the 53 people wounded in the attack.
“The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence,” said Rasha Mubarak, an official with the Council on American Islamic Relations Florida chapter.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also weighed in with a message of solidarity with gay rights groups. “We have worked regularly with the (gay and lesbian) community, as they have been on the forefront of helping combat Islamophobia and Anti-Arab sentiment,” it said.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including the government of Jordan, a key Muslim ally of the United States. In a news release, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said the country condemns all forms of terrorism and violence “no matter what their source and motives are.”
Eskamani, of Equality Florida, stressed that the gay community is sympathetic to the discrimination faced by Muslims in the United States, especially in the wake of attacks carried out by extremists.
“That hate and that intolerance that they face is the same that the LGBT community faces,” Eskamani said. Equality Florida has launched a fundraising page to help the victims of the attack.
Eskamani said it’s possible that gay nightclubs and similar gathering places will look into ways to further enhance their security, but that because of the history of hate crimes against gays and lesbians, security has long been a priority.
“We don’t want to live in a world of fear, and we’re always going to choose love and compassion over fear and hate,” she said.
Source: www.politico.com
German Lopez
Vox.com
Like other gay Americans on Sunday, I woke up to the news of the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, with absolute horror. My immediate reaction was to turn to my sleeping husband and hug him, trying to ensure myself that we will be okay — that we are safe. But I could not shake the feeling that my community was under attack, and the hate I felt directed at my community was like nothing I have felt as an out gay man in the US for years.
It is the hate I felt directed at my husband, myself, and my community that makes me confident that we should not use this horrific act of violence to perpetuate even more hate — particularly against our Muslim brothers and sisters.
It didn’t take long, shortly after the shooter was revealed to be Muslim, for the typical Islamophobic cries from politicians. Here’s Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for a ban on Muslims entering the US:
I am not Muslim or religious at all. But I know what it’s like to have politicians say horrible things about your people. And I know, today more than ever, how it feels to be hated. So instead of using an act of hate to push even more hate, I would appreciate it if politicians and everyone else used the Orlando shooting as a time to reexamine their own bigotries — against LGBTQ people across the world specifically, but also against Muslim people, black people, Hispanic people, and women.
While it seems easy or possible to lump up Muslims into a monolith to pander to racist and xenophobic voters, the truth is most Muslims — like any other group of people — abhor violence. This is just a fact: Pew Research Center surveys have found that the great majority of Muslims around the world say that violence in the name of Islam is not justified. And it’s worth remembering that the primary victims of terrorist groups like ISIS are other Muslims.
The Orlando shooter, in other words, doesn’t represent the great majority of Muslims.
It’s also true that there are millions of LGBTQ Muslims around the world. Some may even be among the victims of the Orlando mass shooting. (We don’t have a full list of the dead and wounded yet.) They, surely, did not approve of the violence we saw today.
Ramadan and LGBTQ Pride Month are both underway. This should be a time to respect and honor the diversity that makes America so great. No terrorist attack — especially one that seeks to perpetuate hate — should be allowed to change that. We can’t fight hate with hate.
Source: www.vox.com
Ben Norton
Salon.com
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered outside the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, protesting a new pro-Israel policy that legal groups warn is “McCarthyite” and unconstitutional.
Cuomo signed an executive order this weekend that punishes institutions and companies that support a boycott of Israel on behalf of Palestinian human rights.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said the executive order establishes a discriminatory “blacklist” that “raises serious First Amendment concerns.”
Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the new policy “plainly unconstitutional in its McCarthyist vision.”
More than 300 protesters joined the demonstration on Thursday, calling on Gov. Cuomo to rescind the executive order.
Jewish Voice for Peace, a social justice group that co-organized the protest, blasted Cuomo’s executive order as an unconstitutional “attempt to repress the growing movement for Palestinian rights.”
“The overwhelming turnout for this protest speaks to the fact that our political leadership is increasingly out of touch with its constituents,” Beth Miller, an activist with the New York City chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, or JVP, told Salon.
“The sidewalks and streets were packed with hundreds of people, standing literally toe-to-toe, to send the clear message that we refuse to be silenced,” she added.
“Gov. Cuomo’s executive order does not change the fact that it is our constitutional right to boycott, and it does not change the fact that it is right to boycott Israel until it respects and upholds Palestinian rights,” Miller stressed.
A dense crowd of protesters lined downtown Manhattan’s 3rd Ave. on Thursday evening.
(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)
They carried an array of signs and banners. Many expressed solidarity with past struggles.
One man held a sign that read, “Boycott worked in Montgomery and South Africa, and it will work in occupied Palestine.” Montgomery refers to a city in Alabama where a 1955 bus boycott helped kick off the civil rights movement.
(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)
JVP stresses that the “Palestinian-led civil society BDS movement is modeled on the global campaign that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.”
BDS refers to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, an international grassroots movement that promotes nonviolent economic means to pressure Israel to comply with international law and cease its violations of Palestinian human rights. The global campaign was called for by Palestinian civil society in 2005.
Many veteran leaders in the struggle against U.S.- and Israel-backed apartheid in South Africa have endorsed BDS.
“The signs we held and messages we wanted to convey — such as ‘We will continue to boycott for justice until Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and land’ — reflect the many ways Israel is violating basic principles of human rights and international law,” said Donna Nevel, an activist with Jews Say No!, another group that helped organize the demonstration.
These are “the reasons that the BDS movement is so critical,” Nevel told Salon, stressing that BDS can help pressure Israel to change its illegal policies.
Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 157 declares that “the State of New York will not permit its own investment activity to further the BDS campaign in any way, shape or form, whether directly or indirectly.”
The new order, in its own language, establishes “a list of institutions and companies that… participate in boycott, divestment, or sanctions activity targeting Israel, either directly or through a parent or subsidiary.”
Cuomo summarized the new policy: “If you boycott Israel, New York will boycott you.”
JVP Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson published an op-ed in The New York Daily News on Thursday warning that Cuomo’s executive order will “set a dangerous and likely unconstitutional precedent for governments to deny groups financial opportunities and benefits because of their exercise of First Amendment-protected political speech.”
“When a chief executive unilaterally signs an executive order declaring that the state blacklist and divest from companies and organizations with a particular political view, we usually call that state repression,” she said.
At the protest outside Gov. Cuomo’s office, activists articulated many of the important reasons that a boycott is necessary. They carried a large banner that read “We will continue to boycott for justice until…”, which was accompanied by smaller signs that listed reasons for boycotting Israel.
Some of these reasons included: “until Israel respects Palestinian human rights,” “until the brutal occupation of Palestine ends,” “until Israel stops demolishing Palestinian homes,” “until Israel absolishes segregated schools,” “until Palestinian refugees can return home,” “until the siege of Gaza ends” and “until Palestinians have freedom.”
(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)
“Despite being planned at a very short notice, the protest had a robust turnout and a powerful presence by hundreds of outraged human rights advocates,” said Hani Ghazi, a member of Adalah-NY, the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, the third group that co-organized the demonstration.
Ghazi, a Palestinian American activist, told Salon, “We expect the governor to be democratic and to protect our right to free speech and to practice honorable and nonviolent activism.”
“We expect him to side with his constituents, the people of New York, and not with wealthy corporations that profit from, and institutions that comply with, Israel’s human rights abuses, international law violations and other apartheid policies,” he added.
One protester even donned an enormous papier-mache head that looked like Cuomo’s.
For months, the New York legislature unsuccessfully tried to pass anti-boycott legislation. Cuomo circumvented this legal process completely on Sunday, June 5, signing the surprise executive order.
Dima Khalidi, the founder and director of nonprofit legal advocacy organization Palestine Legal and a cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights, blasted Cuomo’s executive action.
“Gov. Cuomo can’t wish away the First Amendment with an executive order,” she told Salon on Monday. “It’s clear that Cuomo is bypassing the legislative process in order to muzzle morally-driven positions protesting systemically discriminatory state policies and a military occupation that is 49 years old this week.”
“As with the constitutionally faulty legislation that was pending in Albany, this Executive Order may not infringe — directly or indirectly — on the rights of New Yorkers to engage in constitutionally protected boycotts to effect economic, political or social change,” she added.
Palestine Legal issued a statement calling the executive order “a blatantly unconstitutional attack on freedom of speech [that] establishes a dangerous precedent reminiscent of McCarthyism.”
Riham Barghouti, another activist with Adalah-NY, accused Cuomo of acting undemocratically in order to implement an unpopular pro-Israel policy.
“Like other politicians, Gov. Cuomo is finding that blind support of the Israeli apartheid state requires repressive, undemocratic measures,” Barghouti said. “He is attempting to silence the growing number of morally conscientious individuals and organizations that support freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians.”
“We, along with our allies, demand that Gov. Cuomo rescind this order punishing supporters of Palestinian rights and BDS,” she added.
(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)
Anti-boycott legislation has been introduced in more than 20 states throughout the U.S. Bills that are likely unconstitutional have been passed in nine states.
Sen. Chuck Schumer heaped praise on Cuomo for his executive order. The New York senator said he is “looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing” across the country.
Activists say Thursday’s protest was the first action in a new campaign to pressure the governor to repeal the order.
“This is a new low for the state-sanctioned backlash against the movement for Palestinian human rights,” Nic Abramson, an activist with Jews Say No!, said in a statement.
Abramson emphasized that the Palestinian solidarity movement “is growing and strengthening daily.”
JVP stands by the BDS movement. Vilkomerson, the executive director, defended BDS in Salon in February, warning that she and her organization were on the verge of being blacklisted.
“We act in solidarity with the Palestinian call for international grassroots pressure on Israel until it complies with international law and ends its ongoing repression of Palestinian rights,” explained JVP activist Gabrielle Spears in a statement.
She emphasized, “We will continue to boycott Israel until Palestinian children can live without fear of imprisonment and torture, until there are no longer separate roadways for Israeli Jews and Palestinians, until Israel stops bombing and killing Palestinians, and until the checkpoints and apartheid wall are dismantled.”
Source: www.salon.com
By Richard Habib Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) The Rubin and Krugel Connection On Dec. 12, 2001, Irv Rubin, national chairman of the JDL, and Earl Krugel, the JDL’s West Coast coordinator, were arrested for plotting to blow up a Southern California mosque and an office belonging to Darrell Issa, a Republican member of … Continued
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