Some Stories that may be of interest

[eumelia]

Or not.
Depending if you find my little hell-hole interesting.

Racism you say? No, no! Can't be. A (Jewish) Member of Knesset threatening other (Arab) Members of Knesset with ethnic cleansing.
I'm shocked.
No, no I'm not
Though to be purely candid, this is part of Effie Eitam's regular rhetoric. And he is pretty upset about the fact that Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship (colloquially known as Israeli Arabs) are protesting the IDF's operations in Gaza - calling it War Time Treason.
*sigh* Because protesting military action is treason, but threatening with ethnic cleansing is just dandy.

Something slightly different: "Honour" Killings are more common than people would like to admit. Well, one of the more famous cases in Israel, involving the Abu-Ghanem family of Ramla (a Jewish-Arab mixed town in the Israeli Centre) have shown some progress: Today the murderer (who killed his sister for being "immodest") was sentenced for 16 years in prison.

Like the article says the major problem of this phenomena (in Israel, I wouldn't presume to know about other countries in which "honour" killings are prevalent) is that the Police don't take the problem seriously enough and show a whole lot of lenience towards the families in which this happens because it is considered an internal Hamula issue, that means it all stays in the Clan, in the family; more often than not, a girl who runs away to the police for protection because is sent back because, as I've said, the authorities send her back... let the Sheiks deal with her.

What makes the Abu-Ghanem case a special, and relatively famous, is the fact that the Mother (of the girl and her murderer, seeing as they were siblings) came forward last year.
I can only imagine the kind of will power it took to go to Israeli authorities and talk about the tragedy of nine dead woman, all killed by family members.
You gotta admire them for that and for trying to stop the cycle of women being disposed of like garbage.

And the Peace Talks will continue between Israel and the Palestinians, despite some shiftiness - sans Hamas of course who resumed their rocket firing (or at least didn't stop other groups from firing), no doubt Hamas will resume their own Qassam brigades in no time - their sense of self preservation leaves something to be desired... *sigh*.

Comments

[apemanmaldonado.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind my commenting on two entries in one day.

I don't want to put you on the spot but what is your opinion of what should be done with what is going on in Gaza? I can't help but wonder if maybe Israel should reoccupy Gaza, without planting any settlements of course, to try and stop the rocket attacks. I know this would probably end up in a large loss of life but it seems more humane than bombing Gaza repeatedly and/or sending tanks and soldiers in and destroying everything around and leaving repeatedly. Is there any chance of that happening? Also, I've heard from news here in the US that Iran made rockets have been fired from Gaza, but I know how little proof is needed to accuse Iran of all sorts of things here. Has it really been confirmed that Iran has somehow been getting rockets into Gaza?

Honor killing is a horrible thing. My wife is Palestinian and I was horrified when she told me how her father, who generally seems to be a good guy, said that while he knows honor killings are wrong, he can understand them because the shame would be too great. Not to mention her arrogant brothers. One brother, while still being 17 and getting into all sorts of trouble actually hit his 9 year old sister for wearing shorts outside. I know not all Palestinian are like that but it is one of many reasons I can't stand Palestinian culture.