Burkini debate reignited in France as Grenoble women defy ban

Last week, a group of seven burkini-clad swimmers in Grenoble entered a public pool, defying a municipal ban.

… "The burkini has no place in France, where men and women are equal," said Eric Ciotti, a member the right-wing Les Republicains (The Republicans) party, writing on Twitter. "To let these Islamist activists in Grenoble or anywhere else in France is to renounce the Republic. I will never accept it."

… "Women, whatever their religion or way of life, should be able to access municipal baths," Schiappa told the main local newspaper, Le Dauphine Libere.

But, she added, "When it comes to dozens of women wearing a burkini, there is a political message there. The message is cover up and its goal is to create a new norm."

… "What's most important for me as a feminist is that women support women," Fatima Benomar, one of the founders of the feminist group Les Effronte-es, told Al Jazeera.

"No one has a problem with a woman wearing a veil if she's doing their housecleaning or washing the company toilets. But the second she leaves her 'place,' then it becomes a scandal."

In response to the burkini protesters, one group has planned a counter-protest on Sunday encouraging Grenoble residents to "get naked"...…

read more Details on aljazeera

Bahrain’s Workshop: The Palestinian resistance can never be bought

….. One may ask: If the US administration “respects” the dignity of the Palestinian people, why has all its decisions regarding the conflict gone against them? How is cutting support for UNRWA and suggesting – as Grenblatt did – to dismantle it a sign of respect for the Palestinians?

During previous administrations, there were agreed principles that no US president crossed. These principles included the commitment to a two-state solution, support for UNRWA and more. However, under President Trump’s reign, we have witnessed the complete opposite: the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) office in Washington and the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

We also have seen recently the US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, saying that Israel has the “right” to annex some of the West Bank, all of which indicate bias in the United States’ peace plan....

The everyday challenges that the Palestinians are facing have never changed. The only difference between the past and the present is that today, Palestinians are not only facing the Israeli occupation but instead are also facing additional challenges.

The first is some of the Gulf countries, which for the sake of strengthening ties with Israel have sold out the Palestinians….

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The steal of the century: stolen land, stolen water, stolen images

….. The message, in all its arrogance, was clear: if you don’t take what is on offer, it is going to get a hell of a lot worse. However, we know we have made it impossible for you to take what is on offer, so guess what? The two state solution is well and truly dead; the path to a greater Israel is secured; welcome to the new reality of Palestinian Bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza. And, oh yes, we promise to throw cash at you, $50 billion; that’s a lot of dosh, if you do what is commanded of you. If you don’t, well that money is off the table……

…. There you have it: in the eyes of Kushner, Netanyahu, et al, the path to peace lies through the annexation of what is left of most of the West Bank, including its most valuable agricultural asset, the Jordan Valley. It goes without saying, therefore, that Kushner’s Peace to Prosperity document has something to say about real estate and the settling of land claims. It is right there on page 19: “Project one, Property Ownership Resolution: Enhance court capacity to quickly and effectively resolve property disputes and contested-ownership claims.”

So the game is this: annex as much as possible using the guise of pursuing a peace deal; declare those lands and buildings already annexed as legally belonging to Israel; and then go to court to decide who gets whatever is left over. And, of course, you can guess whose courts and whose judges. Peace to Prosperity doesn’t say anything about it, but I think we know the answer.

Read the document a little further on and it gets worse. There is a whole section devoted to agriculture. It sounds wonderful until you reflect that the most valuable agricultural asset is already off the table. True, there is a water irrigation project to help sustain Palestinian farmers, but guess what? The Israelis already control West Bank aquifers including those in the Jordan Valley where they have drilled deep bores circumventing and cutting off Palestinian wells and requiring the Palestinians to buy their own water back from Israel....

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Die AfD und die Kunst: Islamophobie und Rassismus im kulturell veredelten Schafspelz

Im Europawahlkampf spannte die rechtspopulistische AfD Kunst vor ihren Karren. Die Partei bekennt sich zu einer Hochkultur-Strategie. Beobachter warnen vor Islamophobie und Rassismus im kulturell veredelten Schafspelz. Von Stuart Braun
…. "Eurabia" ist ein islamfeindlicher Begriff, der im Zusammenhang mit einer Verschwörungstheorie verwendet wird, die besagt, dass Europa bald von Muslimen übernommen werde - eine Theorie, die beispielsweise vom norwegischen Rechtsextremisten Anders Breivik vorangetrieben wurde, der im Jahr 2011 77 Menschen ermordete.

Gezielte Rückgriffe aufs kulturelle Gedächtnis - Das Plakat - eines von mehreren aus der AfD-Kampagne "Aus Europas Geschichte lernen", für die die Partei verschiedene berühmte Kunstwerke uminterpretiert hatte, um bei den EU-Wahlen eine fremdenfeindliche Agenda voranzutreiben - zeigt "Der Sklavenmarkt" (1866) des französischen Malers Jean-Léon Gérôme. Dabei handelt es sich um ein orientalistisches Werk, eine rassistische Ikone aus der Kolonialzeit.

Ebenfalls verwendet wurde das Gemälde, um die Wähler daran zu erinnern, was in Köln während der Silvesternacht 2015 geschah, als mehr als 600 Frauen Opfer sexueller Übergriffe wurden, die mehrheitlich von Männern mit "nordafrikanischem" Aussehen begangenen worden sein sollen.

Der Besitzer des Gemäldes forderte die rechtspopulistische Partei dazu auf, die Plakate abzuhängen - ohne Erfolg.....

weiterlesen auf qantara.de

US ‘Peace to Prosperity’ conference actually offers Palestine little hope

.... America’s vision for a high-rise Metropolis conveniently overlooks the Palestinian civilians killed and injured in their tens of thousands during three major Israeli military offensives against the enclave. So-called Operation Protective Edge, launched on 8 July 2014, for example, slaughtered thousands of civilians over a seven-week period during which carnage, punishment bombings and devastation on a massive scale were inflicted upon Gaza’s besieged population who had nowhere to run. More than 550 Palestinian children were among those killed, while hundreds more received life-changing injuries in war crimes which still have to be accounted for.

These are the facts bulldozed to one side by the son-in-law of the US President who wants the world to embrace his vision for economic prosperity in Palestine.....

..... What he will not do is address the real problem, which is exactly how Palestinians will achieve their aspirations for a sovereign state of Palestine. Kushner is doing everything in the wrong order; ......

... The truth is that all the evidence points to the fact that a Palestinian State could flourish only if Israel stepped back and stopped meddling. Israel, though, does not want to see Palestine prosper beyond Zionist control. ....

... What’s more, thanks to the continuing expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Palestine has been reduced to a series of “Bantustan” pockets of land surrounded by roadblocks, the grotesque wall and settler-only highways making it impossible to establish free movement for trade or any other normal life. ...

I have another word of warning for the Palestinians. Promises of state money, foreign investment and international funding upon achieving independent statehood were once made to the good citizens of East Timor and South Sudan. Their experience demonstrates that promises are easy and plentiful, but real investment is more elusive until and unless genuine freedom is part of the deal. Trump’s “deal of the century” is unlikely to provide anywhere near that. “Peace to Prosperity” actually offers Palestine and its people very little hope indeed.

article on MEMO

Israel's settlements: 50 years of land theft explained

To the casual visitor or tourist driving through the occupied West Bank or Jerusalem, Israeli settlements may appear as just another set of houses on a hill.

The middle-class suburban style townhouses, built fast and locked in a grid of uniform units, stand like fortified compounds, in direct contrast to the sprawling limestone Palestinian homes below.

Settlement homes, mostly constructed of cement with a cosmetic limestone cladding, tend to fashion a similar look: American-style villas topped by red-tiled roofs and surrounded by lush, neatly trimmed green lawns.

The largest settlement, Modi'in Illit, houses more than 64,000 Israeli Jews in the occupied West Bank. The mega-settlement has its own mayor, as well as schools, shopping malls and medical centres.

Some settlements even have their own universities.

learn more About These illegal Settlements on Al-Jazeera

US-led Bahrain meeting on Palestine: All the latest updates

 

Bahrain has hosted the so-called "Peace to Prosperity" workshop to discuss what the United States has described as the economic part of President Donald Trump's "deal of the century", his proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinian leadership is boycotting the meeting on June 25 and 26 in Manama, leading critics to question the credibility of the Event.

• Managing director of IMF says peace is missing from economic Workshop
• Kushner accuses Palestinian leadership of failing its People
• UAE says 'give plan a chance'
• PLO reiterates rejection of US plan
• Oman to open embassy in West Bank
• Saudi minister says US plan could succeed
• IMF chief urges 'job intensive' growth

more Details on aljazeera

The architects behind the US plan for Middle East peace

There are at least three things that Jared Kushner, David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt all have in common. One is that they are all Orthodox Jews, and another is that prior to their appointment as officials in the Trump administration, all three men had no prior political or diplomatic experience.
The third is that this triad has connections to Israel, or more specifically, to the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

… The event has been criticised by Palestinians across the political spectrum as a plan to buy out Palestinian rights, without addressing core political problems - chiefly the Israeli occupation that has devastated the day-to-day lives of Palestinians for decades.

Al Jazeera takes a closer look at the architects behind the US attempt at Middle East Peace...….

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India embraces Israel in unprecedented anti-Palestine vote at the UN

India’s drift towards ethno-nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the biggest developments of the century. This shift has seen a marked change in the country as it ditches features of liberal democracy and embraces a political ideology that accommodates exclusivism and racism.

This transformation has been evident in its stance towards Israel and Palestine. After decades of standing behind the Palestinian people, India under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tilted in Israel’s favour as the Hindu nationalism of India finds common cause with the ethno-nationalism of the Zionist state.

….. India’s history in the anti-colonial movement made the country a strong ally of the Palestinian cause. Previous Indian prime ministers, including the country’s founder and revered leader Mahatma Gandhi, had opposed the Zionist state believing it to be a colonial enterprise. The leader of the Indian independence movement against the British was strongly opposed to the idea of a Jewish national home in Palestine, believing it to be an expression of ethno-nationalism that was inimical to the values of secular liberal democracy.

Under Modi, however, India has made a radical shift and aroused right-wing Hindu nationalists who are known for their anti-Muslim hatred.

article on MEMO

Morsi’s death was a political assassination by a vindictive regime

Mohamed Morsi will forever be remembered as Egypt’s first democratically-elected President, something that his enemies can never take away from him…..

…. Morsi died as a direct result of the inhumane treatment meted out to him by a brutal, vindictive regime headed by his own former Defence Minister, General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who led the 2013 military coup against his former boss. That is why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was prompted to describe Morsi as a “martyr”. He went on to blame Egypt’s “tyrants” for the 67-year-old’s demise, but there are a few other guilty parties who also had a hand in Morsi’s death.

Any number of Middle East rulers, tyrants and despots — men whose hatred of democracy fuelled their fear of the Muslim Brotherhood — could have reined-in Al-Sisi over his treatment of Morsi. However, it suited their own selfish purposes to have him isolated, abused and locked up. Israel also breathed a sigh of relief when the coup succeeded, as President Morsi had reached out to become a friend of the Palestinians, something untenable as far as Tel Aviv was concerned.

more on MEMO