₦airaland Forum

[size=18pt]Rocket aimed at Nigerian Muslim school kills boy-army
[/size]


By Buhari Bello

JOS, Nigeria | Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:25pm BST

(Reuters) - A rocket fired at a Muslim school in the central Nigerian city Jos on Tuesday killed a boy aged about 10, a military spokesman said.

Salisu Mustapha said the rocket had missed the main school building and the boy who was killed was walking on a road nearby and was not a pupil there.

Jos is the capital of Plateau State in the heart of Nigeria's religiously diverse "Middle Belt", where the mostly Muslim north meets the largely Christian south.

Plateau has been a tinderbox of ethnic and religious tensions over land and power between local people and migrants from other areas. More than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes in the state in the last four years.

Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 65 people on July 7 in Plateau and for the assassination of two more people - a prominent senator and a local lawmaker - at a funeral for the casualties the following day.

But security forces blame much of the violence on majority Muslim migrant Fulani herdsmen who have been clashing with Christian Berom communities. The two groups have been fighting over who has a right to fertile farmlands in Plateau.

The military Special Task Force (STF) said this week it will clear out many of the villages affected by the violence this month to restore calm, but Fulani groups say this is a deliberate effort to drive them out of the region.

"This directive by the STF is a reflection that the federal government and its security agencies have fallen into the hands of the Plateau state government," said Ahmed Yandeh, secretary of the Mobgal Fulbe Development Association, a Fulani group.

"Plateau government's agenda has consistently been that of intimidating, killing of Fulbe, destruction of their livestock and properties," Yandeh added.

STF spokesman Mustapha denied the security forces take any sides and said the operation would continue to restore order.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan, including several suicide attacks on churches in Jos.

Security experts believe Boko Haram's attacks on churches in central and northern Nigeria are an attempt to provoke a wider religious conflict inside the country, Africa's biggest oil producer.

(Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/17/uk-nigeria-violence-idUKBRE86G0IB20120717

afam4eva: How did these agberos gain admission in the first place?

perhaps if they didn't gain admission,we could have seen them in LASTMA uniform.

very sad state of confusion and anarchy.i am not sure who to side with-the unruly and ill-mannered students or the unruly and cash-thirsty lastma looking for excuses to oppress people.

stupid people and their silly prayers and joke.you think plane crash is a joke? i dont blame you but the fool who posted it on the front page.

wahala dey!

moderator that needs to be moderated!

@ Vedaxcool,

it looks like someone have finally volunteered to put up a defense.

you have not told us if you will stop eating tomatoes.and if you're female,do you still get into close contact with cucumbers? seems wahhabi/salafist women cannot be trusted when they are close to anything long and pointed.

please tell us if you will stop eating tomatoes.no need for redherrings and trying to attack others out of being slapped with the truth.

if they don't like tomatoes,then let them try bananas or plantain

these people are not serious.they should keep amusing us with their comedy so far they stop their terrorism.

[img]http://previous.presstv.ir/photo/20120624/khashayar20120624140621170.jpg[/img]

Cape Town, South Africa: I am writing from South Africa, the land that won its war against apartheid.


Even though 22 years have passed since Nelson Mandela left prison, in a crucial turning point in his “Long Walk To Freedom,” the apartheid past has not totally disappeared. It is evident in the structural economic gaps between rich and poor that persist as well as forms of self segregation and inter-group hostility.

It’s also not surprising that a country that suffered so long under the yoke of a racist system of imposed racial division would be sensitive to the presence of any similar appearing system of apartheid elsewhere in the world.

Many South Africans see contemporary parallels of their experience in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where they condemn a replay of apartheid as Israel constructs walls and barriers in the name of security and treats the Palestinians the way the old South Africa treated people of color.

As a result, South Africans who became active in their fight for freedom identify with the cause of Palestinians who, they argue, are oppressed by a form of unacknowledged racism that has led to old-style South Africa-like police occupations, forced relocations, and abuses of all kinds justified by discriminatory and repressive legislation.

This issue is frequently in the press. In the past week, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu was on page one of a Cape Town newspaper responding to a decision by a Jewish South African journalist to repudiate her religion in solidarity with the suffering of the people of Palestine.

The anti-apartheid icon who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here years ago has been outspoken in his criticism of Israeli conduct and shares the view that there is apartheid there.

The Israelis have been stung by his morally based condemnations and criticisms by others here including Nelson Mandela.

But, Tutu was not persuaded by this journalists’ action, arguing that her religion was not responsible for decisions by politicians in Israel who often invent a Biblical rationale for actions that are internationally scorned as human rights violations.

Interestingly, the pro-apartheid Security police involved in torturing prisoners used to tell their victims that they were there because they had been misled by “the Jews.”

(In the Middle East itself, stereotypes and labels can reduce political differences to religious or ethnic factors with all sides frequently speaking of “The” Arabs and “The” Jews as if these communities are monolithic and homogenous. As for the wall, on July 24th 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared the Israeli Wall “contrary to international law” and instructed that its construction end. Israel ignored the decision.)

Tensions flared recently as Israel moved to deport African immigrants after riots broke out. There were ugly statements by some extremist government officials that were widely seen in Africa as racist and demeaning. A column by Montli Makhanya in this week’s Sunday Times lambasts Israeli attitudes and is headlined, “Take Heed of the World’s Disgust At This Official Racism.”

Israeli newspapers have carried articles criticizing the treatment of Immigrants too. A few years back, Haaretz featured an article by an Israeli arguing, “Israel’s apartheid is worse than South Africa’s…The system preserving this apartheid is more ruthless as it is equipped with the lie of being ‘temporary.’

The debate over whether or not Israel practices apartheid is an intense one here as many activists rally behind what’s called a BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), all tools that were used for years by opponents against South Africa’s white dominated regime.

A long time ANC leader and former of Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, himself a South African Jew, is active in the movement challenging Israel.

When a South African Artists Against Apartheid placed radio ad denouncing apartheid in Israel was challenged in Court, the artists prevailed, writing, “In a bold ruling defending the right to freedom of expression and political speech, the South African media watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), unequivocally dismissed all complaints relating to the SA Artists Against Apartheid radio advert that called for the boycott of Israel and compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa.”

This year in March, 9 universities in South Africa, participated in the annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), an international series of events (including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings and multimedia displays) held in cities and campuses across the globe.

These events were supported this year by South African struggle stalwarts including Achmed Kathrada who was imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela in Robben Island, and Zackie Achmat, the country’s leading anti-AIDS campaigner.

Pro-Israeli students have denounced these events insisting they distort the truth and are not “balanced.”

The Jewish Deputies organization in South Africa invited former South African journalist Benjamin Pogrund and Palestinian activist, Bassem Eid, of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, to tour the country to challenge the idea that Israeli and South African apartheid are linked.

They wrote in the Mail & Guardian, “Nelson Mandela’s words in support of Palestinian freedom were flung at us (and also appear in propaganda leaflets issued by Palestinian-supporting organizations). He was quoted as saying: “But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

That resonates strongly among South Africans and Mandela did indeed say that, on 9 December 1997, on the occasion of Palestinian Solidarity Day. But it’s actually half of what he said in the context of freedom for all people. His other (omitted) words explain the context and the dishonesty of the propagandists in singling out Israel:”- without the resolution of conflicts in East Timor, the Sudan and other parts of the world.”

“…we both spoke in bleak terms about peace prospects in the near future; second, we each castigated our own leaderships for double-talk and pretence and for their lack of boldness and vision and we pointed to the growth of Jewish settlements on the West Bank as undermining the chances of an independent and viable Palestinian state.

We stressed that we welcomed interest in our part of the world-but warned that some members of Palestinian solidarity movements have never visited the occupied territories and they damage the Palestinian cause abroad because they act out of ignorance and they foster division and hatred between Arabs and Jews; they do not help to bring peace.”

The intentions of these may have been good but they doesn’t seem to recall that most of the people who condemned apartheid and protested it overseas never visited South Africa. Did they really have to? And did the people who came here then really know what was going on with media censorship in place and so many activists behind bars?

And so the debate continues, not only in South Africa but in other parts of the world where the example of South Africa resonates not only for the evil done in the name of apartheid, but for its example as a people that did struggle for, and win, liberation with global support.

Significantly, the South African struggle led by Mandela was initially non-violent but then took on an armed character triggered by state violence. It was only when it promoted unity among oppressed peoples, provided respected leaders who enlisted mass support and the solidarity of people worldwide, for all its peoples that real negotiations could occur and elections held. The ANC led by building popular alliances around a morality-based agenda for justice and democracy.

There are lessons here for those struggling in the Middle East.

DS/PKH

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/24/247751/south-africans-fight-apartheid-in-israel/

maclatunji: Even if I gave everybody on this forum a million dollars, I would have critics. I know that I do my best for this section and I am not partial. You are entitled to your opinion about me. My job here is not to please everybody but to make it enjoyable for the majority of Muslims.

the forum can still be enjoyable to the majority of you even when you tolerate and accommodate other views of the minority.if the majority view is the "acceptable" and "right" view,then there would be no need to even have a forum in the first place to discuss,debate and dialogue.a forum is meant to be for the purpose of dialogue.if everyone hold the same views then it is as good as monologue where people can compliment each other instead of criticize and challenge others' beliefs and views.

no one is really saying you should give anyone a million dollars or please everyone.but the least you can do as a fair judge/referee is to tolerate dissenting views especially when you as moderator do take part yourself in debates and arguments.you do not try to shut everyone up because others (even if they are a minority) have views that annoy you or you do not share.a forum is a place that everyone should be able to use to air and propagate their views.

you as moderator should only shut or censor those who use insults and bad expressions to express themselves.

maclatunji: My brother, just exercise patience, let OP and his crew express themselves and the world should know them for what they are. Mukina2, don't let it get to you miady.

it looks like you do not have a good record to preach freedom of speech.

i see you ban people for expressing their views you do not agree with.i do not think that is the function of a moderator.you do not ban people for having views opposing yours.i also see you let others who use bad words free roaming the forum because they share your own beliefs.that is not fair O!

[b]the united states only carry out drone attacks when they intend to punish the people or government of any particular country.drones are unmanned.that means many civilians would be killed and even the intended targets could be missed.and those targets could all the same be missed since boko haram have no stationed base known in Nigeria.in yemen,afghanistan and pakistan,many civilians die.and in my view this is an ineffective way of fighting terrorists with unmanned planes.may be this way is cost effective for the US government.

my own worry is if the united states kills nigerian civilians anywhere in Nigeria,then the united states and boko haram both would be regarded as enemies and terrorists.you do not use careless methods to fight terrorists you do not easily see if at all and in the process kill innocent civilians who are also victims of boko haram.the US would then come out to "apologize" or "regret" the loss of civilian lives.nonsense!

if the united states kills civilians in Nigeria,anywhere in Nigeria,they should be ready to face the wrath of Nigerians.we could see street action against american interests in Nigeria and their diplomatic offices by the people of nigeria.

you do not come into another country poking your big nose into our affairs in the name of helping us by using drones to kill us.boko haram so far is a threat to nigeria and nigerians and not to america.whatever happens within nigeria,is for the government here to solve.Nigeria is not yet afghanistan or somalia.if the US tries that and kills civilians,then they intend to escalate the situation.and if that happens,they should be ready to face the consequences from the people of Nigeria.i am sure our government would do nothing more than verbal protest and may be expelling the american ambassador for two weeks.and i doubt they would expel him if there is such american attack violating nigerian sovereignty and killing civilians.but i foresee the nigerian people burning in anger and confronting the US.[/b]

this man is just another politician making empty promises to win election.the fact is he cannot confront america when saudi arabia,the home of his sectarian wahhabi ideology is subservient to america.likewise,he cannot confront israel as many egyptians oppose the camp david accord with israel.

if he is true in following the wishes of the egyptians,he may be forced to ally his country with Iran.so far Iran as an islamic republic has being successful both in politics and also in terms of achievement and the economy inspite of western sanctions aimed at crippling the iranian islamic regime and blackmail it to submit to western imeprialist dictates.so there is alot he can learn from Iran.he should thank God if Iran accepts friendship with him after his extreme wahhabi oriented remarks against Shi'ism in Egypt.Iran is predominantly a Muslim country that follows the Shia brand of Islam.

it is a very good thing for them to inspect the bridge and repair to prevent any calamity.

i really hope this initiative is for the good of the people and to save lives.i hope it is not for the sake of issuing out contract and finding ways to spend and embezzle money.in 2008 the 3rd mainland bridge underwent repairs for months.they spent a huge amount of money.what we saw was patching the bridge surface and levelling some areas that have sunk in.then,it was vibration that was the reason to inspect the bridge.

since 2008,the government could have built more bridges to connect the mainland to the island.3rd mainland bridge cannot serve forever.even with repairs,if it gets too old,it will one day collapse.if the bridge is in bad condition,the government should build more bridges connecting the mainland to the island.they should start thinking on how to forget about the 3rd mainland bridge.

do you guys remember this in Lagos?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICO1X-JEL9o

CORRECTION:

it was not Sanusi that started the Islamic Banking provision or gave it license.it was a christian and an igbo man that did.Charles Soludo is his name.

as for the confused judge,he really does not have a clue on how to promote his religious bias and sentiments.he is lost.the way a bank decides to operate its business solely have to do with the owners of the bank and whether or not the CBN approves of that mode of operation.as far as the Islamic Bank does not force anyone to bank with it,there is no question of constitutionality.

if the name "Islamic Bank" is what is tormenting Christians,christians should open their christian banks and charge interest.Oyedepo,Adeboye and Oritsejafor are all very rich men.

if the constitutionality of Islamic Banking is put into question,then Muslims too would have the right to question christian and muslim schools and universities where students are forced to follow a religion they do not adhere to.

[img]http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5iCXkM4FKHzNUGEuFyQR5u_RaET0Q?docId=c11d8097e4d54d01be2cc5b74500a953&size=l[/img]

In this June 11, 2012 photo, Andre Pshenichnikov, a 23-year-old immigrant from Tajikistan who was recently detained by Israeli police for residing illegally in the Dheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, poses for a picture in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel. In what has to be considered one of the oddest twists to the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian saga, Pshenichnikov has embarked on a new fight: renouncing his Israeli citizenship and moving to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank. It's incredibly rare for Israelis to seek living under Palestinian rule, only a few precedents of Israelis who have done so are known. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5joT3cDOsbMQc9C6ruswZLGWdXaig?docId=32cd89446fed4275b94e10f69ded0b11&index=0

Ex-Israeli soldier seeks Palestinian citizenship

By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press – 16 hours ago

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — In an odd twist to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian saga, a former Israeli soldier has embarked on a new fight: He wants to renounce his Israeli citizenship and move to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.

Andre Pshenichnikov, a 23-year-old Jewish immigrant from Tajikistan, was recently detained by Israeli police for residing illegally in the Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. There he told police that he wants to break all ties with Israel, give up his Israeli citizenship and obtain a Palestinian one instead.

Pshenichnikov is currently traveling in Europe for two months. When he returns, he hopes to move to the West Bank.

It's incredibly rare for Israelis to seek to live under Palestinian rule. There are only a few known cases of Jewish Israelis who have done so, mostly ones who have married Palestinians, as well as a journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz who moved to Ramallah and reports from there. None are known to have renounced Israeli citizenship — though some Israelis living abroad have. Nor are any known to have sought Palestinian residency instead. People are not allowed to be dual citizens.

Reached at his Israeli home, Pshenichnikov's mother Svetlana said she was troubled by her son's plans.

"I'm his mother and I am trying to support him like a mother should," she said. "But I don't support his war."

The family immigrated to Israel when Pshenichnikov was 13. Israel grants automatic citizenship to anyone who is Jewish. He later completed his three years of mandatory military service, enlisting as a computer programmer in the army's signals corps, and even served an additional year and a half as a career soldier.

But sometime during his military service, he began to question Israel's relationship with the Palestinians. Since then, he has completely rejected his adopted country. After his service ended, he moved to the refugee camp in April and worked as a waiter in a Bethlehem hotel and as a construction worker in Deheishe.

"I hate Zionism ... I want to be part of the Palestinian resistance," Pshenichnikov told The Associated Press. "I call for other Israelis who support the existence of a state of Palestine to do the same, to come live in the West Bank or Gaza as Palestinians."

The Palestinians want to make the West Bank part of an independent state. For the time being, in accordance with past agreements with Israel, they technically don't have a Palestinian citizenship but the self-rule authority issues I.D. residency cards and Palestinian passports.

Pshenichnikov said he chose to live near Bethlehem in hopes of taking advantage of his fluency in Russian to guide Russian tourists in Jesus' traditional hometown.

Residents say he was initially treated with suspicion. Many Palestinians suspected him of being an Israeli spy and Palestinian officials eventually handed him over to Israeli authorities. But Pshenichnikov remained undeterred, returning to Deheishe where was apprehended by Palestinian forces and handed over to Israel again.

Israeli police released him under restrictive conditions and banned him from entering the Palestinian-controlled areas pending the end of legal proceedings against him.

Tareq Abu Sheikha, who rented Pshenichnikov a room for a month, said he was "suspicious and not honest."

Abu Sheikha said Pshenichnikov presented himself as a Russian foreign activist and was even seen throwing stones at Israeli soldiers during demonstrations. But he was also heard speaking in Hebrew on his phone and carried his old military I.D. card with him.

"We don't have a problem with any Israeli coming to be one of us. We'll be honored and give them an I.D. card, but this young man was suspicious and he lied and that's why we handed him to the Israelis," he said.

Officially renouncing Israeli citizenship is a lengthy, complicated process. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said that one has to file a request at an Israeli representative office overseas, prove that one has another citizenship and then await a ruling, which is not always granted. She said she wasn't familiar with Pshenichnikov's case, but that only few hundred people have their citizenship revoked each year.

The Israeli military declined to comment on Pshenichnikov.

Abdel-Fatah Hamayel, the governor of Bethlehem, said that in principle there should be no problem granting Pshenichnikov Palestinian citizenship, but that it would have to go through the proper legal channels.

"He wasn't supposed to come illegally. If people knew his true identity, there's no guarantee for his safety. He should have informed the Palestinian side with an official request and his request would be considered," he said.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5joT3cDOsbMQc9C6ruswZLGWdXaig?docId=32cd89446fed4275b94e10f69ded0b11

another concentration camp by israel.

[size=14pt]Israel to put thousands of Africans in detention camp[/size]

AFP – Fri, Jun 8, 2012

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).

"As soon as the facility is completed, which could be in a few months -- and alongside it we plan to put up a tent city with all the accepted conditions -- then we shall start moving migrants from south Tel Aviv, from (the Red Sea town of) Eilat ... wherever they are."

The rising number of Africans in Israel has hit the headlines in recent weeks, after a spike in racial tensions led to a riot in southern Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of migrants live.

Interior ministry statistics show that approximately 60,000 African immigrants have entered Israel illegally, the vast majority of them from Sudan and Eritrea.

Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home nations, but others are economic migrants.

Yishai said he estimated a further 6,000 may have sneaked across the border from Egypt undetected.

"I hope that in the coming months we shall be able to move all the infiltrators to detention facilities and allow Israeli citizens in south Tel Aviv and others to live in a proper way ... in quiet and security," he added.

Israel is building a giant, hi-tech security barrier along its 240-kilometre (150-mile) border with the Egyptian Sinai.

So far 170 kilometres have been erected and the project is due to be completed later this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-put-thousands-africans-detention-camp-184419459.html

[size=14pt]Israel to put thousands of Africans in detention camp[/size]

AFP – Fri, Jun 8, 2012

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).

"As soon as the facility is completed, which could be in a few months -- and alongside it we plan to put up a tent city with all the accepted conditions -- then we shall start moving migrants from south Tel Aviv, from (the Red Sea town of) Eilat ... wherever they are."

The rising number of Africans in Israel has hit the headlines in recent weeks, after a spike in racial tensions led to a riot in southern Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of migrants live.

Interior ministry statistics show that approximately 60,000 African immigrants have entered Israel illegally, the vast majority of them from Sudan and Eritrea.

Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home nations, but others are economic migrants.

Yishai said he estimated a further 6,000 may have sneaked across the border from Egypt undetected.

"I hope that in the coming months we shall be able to move all the infiltrators to detention facilities and allow Israeli citizens in south Tel Aviv and others to live in a proper way ... in quiet and security," he added.

Israel is building a giant, hi-tech security barrier along its 240-kilometre (150-mile) border with the Egyptian Sinai.

So far 170 kilometres have been erected and the project is due to be completed later this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-put-thousands-africans-detention-camp-184419459.html

Do not let $1200 make you forget:

[size=14pt]"Israeli Violence And Racism Against African Immigrants"[/size]
https://www.nairaland.com/946139/israeli-violence-racism-against-african

Blatant hypocrisy

June 09, 2012 01:33 AM


The Daily Star


Many words come to mind when one reviews the recent moves by Israel authorities against African migrants, such as hypocrisy, and irony, and of course, chutzpah.

The Israelis have deemed it necessary to erect tent cities for thousands of African nationals who have entered the country illegally in recent years, and are taking sudden measures to encourage all of them to leave, whether with their consent, or without.

The authorities have couched their actions in terms of taking legal steps against a worrisome domestic development, but the entire process has been bound up with the ugliest kinds of outright racist rhetoric, and violence, against Africans by Israeli society.

The entire affair smacks of the 1940s, when Nazi authorities labeled whole categories of people as undesirables, and either deported or slaughtered them.

The irony and hypocrisy arise when one remembers that Israel was supposedly established as a state to protect people from the Holocaust, although Zionist colonization in Palestine had begun decades earlier.

Added to this is the bizarre notion that a state that is supposedly obsessed with national security, and one that is fond of lecturing everyone else about protecting borders, suddenly wakes up to find that tens of thousands of people have been able to stream across Israel’s borders, seemingly with little difficulty.

Israeli leaders have also taken the opportunity to warn against the “loss of Israel’s Jewish character” due to the influx of migrants, while the statistics happen to defeat the other racist claims – police point out that the crime rate among the migrants is in fact lower than that in ordinary Israeli society.

In plain English, Israel is practicing a form of state terrorism, by suddenly realizing that it has a threatening population within its midst, even though many people are lured there by the prospect of securing jobs – the Israelis have had no problem exploiting such a group, and then suddenly deciding that they are redundant and must be evicted.

Israel has a long track record of reacting with the policy of collective punishment, whether it’s against Palestinians, or the people of south Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the western world, full of allies of Israel, is silent amid these outrages. A single dissident in China becomes an international cause célèbre, while the oppression of thousands of Africans in Israel is something that does not merit condemnation.

Every other state in the Middle East is subjected to lecture after lecture by Western leaders who hold up the slogans of human rights to issue criticisms left and right.

The Israelis are fond of regularly seeking out international sympathy as victims, and they have the audacity, or chutzpah, to brand entire groups of people as undesirables, and round them up to be placed in centers of detention.

The irony, and the hypocrisy, are obvious to all except those who willingly choose to ignore such actions.

http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Editorial/2012/Jun-09/176254-blatant-hypocrisy.ashx#axzz1xHiadLvG

very sad!

Somorin#1:
That's idiocy at it's highest. Same issue with ageing out good vehicles from being imported.

An aircraft is a piece of machinery, and it can last for a very long time as long as it's properly serviced and not overstressed, meaning being used withing it's desigend parameters.

The Dana air crash was a bomb waiting to explode (search the web for it's previous issues with Alaska Airlines).

What the government needs to do is set up a real (not jeko jeko) airline safety board. Pay the members/staff well so they don't resort to bribes, etc and hold them accountable to safety standards.

Don't let us throw out the bath water with the baby in it.

PS: Dana Air Chairman should do the honorary thing that Japanese people do, have him swallow a sword.

PPS: There should be daily train departured from Lagos to Abuja on a world class train service. We as a nation, looking at the decrepit state of infrastructure are not ready to take flight just yet. The common theme amongst savvy foreigners, including me, is to never fly internally in Nigeria.

i beg to differ!

if a plane has being in use for 20 years,then that plane has really worked.even if the plane is 20 years old and rarely flying,i think you still need good maintenance.but yet still,for how long do you expect a plane to be used?until it crashes?

it is like in nigeria companies do not ground their planes,until the planes get too tired to fly and kill people.very sad reality!!!

so please do not try to cover up on age.it is not like new planes do not crash.but there is higher risk of older planes after reaching a certain age to crash.

[b]it is very true that air nigeria is indeed a flying coffin.i flew with them a few months back around the time their pilots were on strike regarding the same issue of safety.in the plane,there was heat coming into the cabin close to my feet.i was seated by the window.i informed one of the air attendants who said it is normal! i was very uncomfortable throughout the flight.

please,the ministry of aviation should keep record of how long planes are being put to use and how old they are.most of these planes that Dana and Chanchangi and others fly are very old planes.they should be thrown into the garbage dump.not worthy to use at all.the ministry should also take note of how frequent planes undergo maintenace and how safe each plane is.but i doubt the ministry cares about all those details and even more.

too bad that every 5 years when our old local planes get old and over-used,the companies running them will not put them out of use until they crash and kill people.most of these planes are what is regarded garbage in europe and america that they refurbish and put to use in Nigeria.this is really sick!it is not like we do not pay to travel.[/b]

Yewe2011: This has nothing to do with West Africans (Ghanaians, Nigerians, Senegalese, etc.)

This is primarily Eritreans and Sudanese being deported for illegally being in the state of Israel.

This is not our issue.

didn't you read the article in the OP where a Nigerian was climbing his rooftop to hide?

ndahbros1: Have u checked d news as of this morning? Israel Airforce has hit two arms factories in Gaza as well as three other targets.

you people should be deceiving yourself and supporting brutality and crimes against humanity because your "god" is jewish.foolish people.

an israeli soldier on palestinian land is a legitimate target.an israeli soldier is an occupier of another man's land and supporting injustice.

you are cheering for the israeli propaganda about hitting weapon factories.how many civilians have they killed with their indiscriminate airstrike?

and that fool there is cheering that for one israeli terrorist soldier 1000 civilians would die.God will hold you all responsible.

justwise: They can get rid of him without western direct intervention, it will take time but it will definitely happen, the involvement of outside militant groups, the use of suicide bombing, pressure on Assad's diplomats in foreign missions, ministers, security agencies will start cracking the Govt, more and more of them will start feeling isolated from within Arab and western countries and would want to leave Syria and desert the Govt. Russia and China will protect Assad for life.

why dont you honest and tell us that the west and the countries of arabia are sending in terrorists to do suicide bombing? what a wonderful post-suicide bombing to achieve democracy

people are just shameless and even nigerians are falling for the propaganda.Assad did not commit the massacre against harmless civilians.but people are already buying that.

‘Do you feel more Arab or more American?’: Two women’s story of being detained and interrogated at Ben Gurion

by Najwa Doughman and Sasha Al-Sarabi on June 2, 2012

https://mondoweiss.net/images/2012/06/ben-gurion-airport.jpg
Ben Gurion Airport


I am an American citizen. I went to American schools my entire life, graduated from an American university and work as an architect in New York City. Why was this happening to me? It all started with a simple question. “What is your father’s name?”

“Bassam.”

“Okay, please wait a few moments in the waiting room over there.”

Little did I know that my father’s Arab name would make me guilty until proven innocent. A “few moments” would turn into a 14-hour nightmare at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

https://mondoweiss.net/images/2012/06/SN2.jpg
Sasha Al-Sarabi and Najwa Doughman

I was hoping they wouldn’t separate me from my friend Sasha, whom I was traveling with. We had been warned about possible interrogations and security checks but were reassured that since we were both young, female professionals from New York City with American passports, it wouldn’t be a problem to enter Israel. It was going be my third visit and Sasha’s first.

Sasha was called in to be interrogated by a bleach-blonde pregnant woman and was led into a small office to the left of our waiting room. Twenty minutes passed until Sasha came out, walking quickly back to her seat.

She attempted to reassure me. “It’s going to be fine. They just want to see if we’re lying about anything.” But she was obviously flustered.

Now it was my turn.

“Najwa, come.”

- - -

“Do you feel more Arab or more American?” she asked. I had answered the ten previous questions very calmly, but with this question I looked back at the security official confused and irritated. She couldn’t have been much older than me—her business attire and stern facial expressions did not mask her youth.

“I don’t know, I feel both. Why? Does this affect my ability to get in?”

She ignored my question. “Surely you must feel a little more Arab, you’ve lived in many Middle Eastern countries.”

I did not see the correlation. I have never felt the need to choose. “Yes I have but I also lived in the US for the past seven years, and was born there, so I feel both.” My response did nothing to convince her.

“Hm. Will you go to Al-Aqsa?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Will you go to Jewish sites as well?”

“Yes, why not? We want to see everything.”

“But you have been here two times already. Why are you coming now for the third time? You can go to Venezuela, to Mexico, to Canada. It is much closer to New York, and much less expensive!”

I realized the conversation was going nowhere. “Right, but I wanted to come back here again. Don’t you have tourists who come back more than once?”

“I’m asking the questions here,” she replied disgruntled.

“Okay, we are going to do something very interesting now!” Her face transformed from a harsh stare to a slight smirk. She proceeded to type “www.gmail.com” on her computer and then turned the keyboard toward me. “Log in,” she demanded.

“What? Really?” I was shocked.

“Log in.”

I typed in my username and password in complete disbelief. She began her invasive search: “Israel,” “Palestine,” “West Bank,” “International Solidarity Movement.”

Looking back, I realize I shouldn’t have logged in. I should have known that nothing I did at this point would change my circumstances, and that this was an invasion of my privacy. Yet all the questions, the feeling that I had to defend myself for simply wanting to enter the country, and the unwavering eye contact of the security officers left me feeling like I had no choice. I was worried I would let Sasha down if I refused and that it would be the reason for both of our denials into the country.

She sifted through my inbox, reading every single email with those keywords. She read sentences out loud to her colleague, sarcastically reenacting and mocking old Google Chat conversations between Sasha and me about our future trip to Jerusalem. I squirmed in my seat.

The Israeli authorities have a notorious reputation for denying entry to Palestinians of all citizenships, and I had received all sorts of advice, solicited and unsolicited, on how to cope with the problem. The security officer opened an email from a friend living in Jerusalem who had advised me to remove myself from internet searches. “They are heavy on googling names at the airport recently,” he had written. “See if you can remove yourselves, not crucial but helpful.”

The security guard found this especially hilarious. With a laugh, she called her blonde colleague over and reread the sentence mockingly. “You can tell your friend, not only do we google you, we read your emails, too!”

I was beyond uncomfortable, uncertain of how else they would try to humiliate me. “Okay, I think you’ve read enough,” I said. “Is what you’re doing even legal? Can you please log out now?”

The guard became even more defensive. “You could ask me to log out, but you know what that would mean, right? Tell me to log out,” she dared me.

I was speechless. I felt completely helpless, furious, and exhausted; I was now entering my fourth hour of interrogation.

After reading several more emails, they wrote down every contact name, email, and phone number they could find. Finally, the interrogator said, “Okay you can go.” But before I could even feel the slightest sense of relief she added, “Good luck getting into Israel.”

Three more hours passed. A large bald man eventually approached us holding our passports. “Come with me,” he ordered. We walked straight across the hall to another waiting room, in front of two small offices.

“As of right now, you have been denied from entering Israel.” Despite the looming feeling I had after walking out of the interrogation room that my hours in this country were numbered, the words still stung with disappointment, frustration, and anger.

Sasha had had it. “Okay, I want a lawyer,” she said. “And I want to call the American embassy, now.”

The guard was not fazed by her requests. “Yes, yes, call whoever you want, after you do procedure.” He turned his back and walked away.

We peered into the office. A stout woman in uniform, about fifty years old, was taking pictures and fingerprints of a man sitting in front of her. Sasha was called in next. The woman told Sasha to sit in front of the camera.

“Wait, before you take my picture, can you tell me why we have to do this?” Sasha asked.

“This is procedure. This is how we do things in Israel,” the woman responded, looked back to her camera.

“You’re treating me like a criminal! I don’t want you to take my picture,” Sasha said. “We’ve already been denied. Why are you doing this?”

“You will take a picture and then wait in a facility until your flight.”

Sasha was persistent. “What facility? Our flight is in nine days! Why were we denied? We need to call the embassy now!”

“You will call after you take your picture. I don’t know why you were denied. My job is just to do procedure. When I go to America, the same happens to me. I get denied from America,” claimed the woman.

“No,” replied Sasha, “No, you don’t.”

After our pictures were taken, we officially felt like criminals. It didn’t help that two new female guards were now assigned to watch us at all times. The most humiliating thing was each guard couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. Everywhere we went, they were right behind us. Even when Sasha went to the restroom, the security guard went with her. After about 30 minutes, six more security guards surrounded us to walk us to another room across the airport. It was as if all the shepherds had come to herd two small sheep.

We had not committed any crime. Our only sin was being born to Arab parents. It was then that we realized what a sheltered life we had lived. We had always read about racial profiling and heard accounts from family members and friends in college. We always sympathized and were infuriated by it, but never had we felt it first hand.

Sasha and I paced back and forth with anxiety while we were made to wait in the hallway. At one point I turned my head and noticed the female guards pointing at our attire and admiring Sasha’s pants. It hit me then, for the first time, that these guards were actually young girls, interested in fashion and trends, like we were. Under different circumstances, could we have actually been friends?

They led us into the next room, which was painted white and had an intimidating, large “Explosive Detection” machine. The guards proceeded to open our luggage. They picked through every single piece of clothing and every tube of makeup. They inspected my laptop and Sasha’s iPad, wiped each item with a cloth, and ran them through the machine. They x-rayed and scanned everything—twice.

After they had gone through every one of our belongings, they proceeded to the body search. I was taken to the back of the room with one male and two female security officers. The room was smaller and closed off with a curtain. The older woman seemed to be training the younger one. She would murmur directions in Hebrew as the younger officer patted me in different places. The man stood right outside the half-open curtain. They scanned my body with a metal detector, and it beeped at the button on my jeans. “Take off your pants,” said the older officer immediately.

I lost my last nerve. “NO,” I responded. “We’ve already been denied. You searched everything. Why do I need to take my pants off after you’ve denied me? I will not take my pants off.”

“This is how we do things in Israel,” the woman snapped back. “You have to take them off.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then someone will make you.” They all walked out of the room.

I began crying and shaking as my mind went through a million different nightmares. Were they going to get more people to hold me down? What the hell is going to happen to us? I wanted to see Sasha and not be alone for a minute longer, but was too afraid of the consequences of leaving the room.

The guards returned a few minutes later with shorts taken from my luggage. “Fine,” they said. “Wear these.”

I struggled into them with tears streaming down my face. I stood ashamed and mortified as she patted me down all over again. I had never felt so humiliated, so degraded, and so violated.

Once my “security search” was over, I changed back into my jeans and returned to the white room. It was Sasha’s turn to be searched.

When this was over, two men from immigration services approached us holding our passports.

“Now you will be taken to a facility.”

“A facility? You mean a jail? Are we arrested? How long are we going to be there?”

“This is not jail. It’s a facility. This is where everybody goes that is denied entry from the State of Israel.”

They took all of our luggage and our phones and drove us about five minutes away from the airport to a gated, white building. All of the windows had double bars on them, and none of the doors had doorknobs. We walked through the dark halls and passed by open rooms filled with bunk beds.

“You can call your parents from my phone, not yours. Leave your phones here. But if it is an international call, use yours. Your flight back is at 8 am tomorrow morning.”

We called our parents, and he took us to our room on the second floor. Inside were ten bunk beds, four sleeping women, a sink, a bathroom, and a shower.

We both stared at the beds for a minute before lying down. The mattresses looked like they were made of duct tape, the room smelled of urine, and there was a grey, furry sheet on each bed. We folded my sweater in half to use as a pillow, and lay in the three-foot-wide bed together, looking up at the bottom of the bunk above us. “FREE PALESTINE, I Shall Return—Maryam 2006” and “21 Gaza Peace Activists detained” were scribbled on the wood. Reading those sentences over and over gave me an odd sense of peace, and we drifted into a restless sleep.

At about 5 am, the guard came to wake the Spanish woman in the bed beside ours. “Wash your face,” he told her. She sprung up, splashed water on her face, and waited for him to come back and unlock the door. We sat up anxiously in the bed waiting for our turn to leave.

At 6:15, a guard came and told us that the US embassy was phoning for us. My parents had called them from Virginia after our two-minute conversation to inform them of what was happening. Sasha answered the phone. “Oh, thank God, we’ve been trying to get in touch with you! This is Sasha. We’ve been through a lot the past few hours.”

“As I told your friend’s parents yesterday, there is really nothing we can do. I’m just glad that you’re going to be able to get on the next flight.” the woman said dispassionately.

“This is ridiculous. They went through my friend’s email. Is that legal?”

“Well, they can do whatever they want. There is nothing we can do. They are their own country, and they make their own rules.”

“If only you could see the conditions we are in. I just wish you could come and smell the room.”

“Oh, I’m really sorry, but at least you’ll be getting on the next flight,” her voice was annoyingly monotonous.

“I can’t believe we are funding this system. I understand the special relationship between America and Israel, but there is clearly something wrong with the way we are being treated”.

“Well, there’s a lot of things wrong with a lot of systems.” She clearly wasn’t going to help us.

“You are right. We should all just sit here and be complacent like you. Well, thanks for your call.” And Sasha hung up.

We had been desperately waiting for this call, and the amount of frustration we felt after receiving it was overwhelming. We had demanded over and over to be able to talk to the American embassy, hoping that being American would give us some sort of protection or a little sense of security. There is no difference between every citizen in America, we thought naively. Surely the US Embassy would rescue us and demand that we be treated like human beings. Surely they would reprimand the Israelis for their appalling practices and demand that they act like the democracy they claim to be.

If we were two American citizens in a Syrian or Iranian “facility,” would the American embassy’s reaction be the same? Would Obama himself not have made a statement by now, demanding our release? If we were Americans of Polish or Chinese descent, would we have been treated this way? American citizens are usually given a three-month visa upon arrival. Why were we an exception? There are a lot of things wrong with a lot of systems, but when we are funding one with billions of our tax dollars, this means that we are supporting it.

An hour later, which seemed like an eternity, the guard showed up. It was now 7:30 am, which was only thirty minutes before our flight. This turned out to be no problem, as we were driven straight to the steps of the airplane. Our passports were given to the captain of the Air France flight. When we arrived in France, three policemen waited for us at the door of the plane, took our passports from the captain, and led us down the stairs of the airplane straight into their police car.

“Does this happen often?” Sasha asked.

“Every day,” replied the officer.

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-you-feel-more-arab-or-more-american-two-arab-american-womens-story-of-being-detained-and-interrogated-at-ben-gurion.html

for those who want to play the Iran Vs Israel game in this thread.you should know the following:

1.) Israel is the only country in the middle east with nuclear weapons.Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purpose and that nuclear weapons are forbidden according to its supreme leader,who is an ayatullah.

2.) Israel is the country that wiped out another country and people-palestine and the palestinians.those who live by the sword would die by the sword.likewise those who wipe others out are afraid of being wiped.

also,just to correct Ahmadinejad never said israel should be wiped out.that was a translation problem.he referred to the "zionist regime" in palestine.Iran supports a one state in palestine where jews,muslims,christians and arabs live together as one people on their land of indigene in contrast to israel,which is a state only for jews.you are automatically driven out even if your ancestors have lived in palestine for 5000 years (before Abraham himself) if you are not a jew-you can as well be a descendants from Esau from the line of Isaac (as some palestinians' heritage) and still be driven because you are not from the line of Jacob.or your ancestors themselves can be jewish and from the line of Jacob,but if you have become christian or muslim and speak arabic instead of hebrew,you are also out!

now we should please stick to the topic and stop pulling side topics.