Tag Archives: Discrimination/Terror/Hate Crimes

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Eritrean Refugee

Eritrean refugee mistaken for Palestinian, killed by Israeli mob
  • Haftom Zarhum, 29, died of injuries from being shot and beaten by a mob who mistook him for a Palestinian attacker at a bus terminal in the city of southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
  • Video footage shows individuals attacking Zarhum, the latest victim in a tide of violence that has seen 44 Palestinians and eight Israelis killed to date.
  • The actual Palestinian assailant had been killed after stabbing an Israeli soldier, stealing his rifle, and opening fire in the bus terminal, injuring 10.

Read more:
“Eritrean mistaken for Palestinian shot dead in Israel” (Al Jazeera)
“Hunt for Israelis who killed Eritrean man falsely implicated in bus attack” (The Guardian)
“Netanyahu calls on Israelis not to pursue vigilante justice” (The Times of Israel)

(Image Credit: Dudu Grinshpan/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Sweden News | Black Swedes

UN report finds increasing “Afrophobia” and discrimination against African-Swedes
  • A new UN report countered Sweden’s diversity-friendly image with data on discrimination faced by African-Swedes, who make up 2% of Sweden’s 9.6 million people.
  • In addition to discrimination in housing and employment, a national crime study found that hate crimes against people of African descent increased by more than 40% between 2008 and 2014, with a fifth of last year’s incidents involving violence.
  • Sweden has come under fire for several measures anti-racism advocates argue undermine their work, including removing the word “race” from the country’s Discrimination Act and the country’s failure to own up to its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Read more:
“Sweden’s liberal reputation tarnished as race attacks rise” (The Guardian)
“Sweden’s liberal image is a mirage that hides a very ugly problem” (Quartz)
“Afrophobic hate crimes on the rise in Sweden” (The Local)

(Image Credit: Anders Wiklund/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Arabs

Several Israeli cities effectively bar Arab laborers from their jobs in schools as violence in the country grows
  • Several municipalities including Tel Aviv, Rehovot, Hod Hasharon, and Modiin-Maccabim-Reut prohibited school staff including maintenance workers, cleaners, and construction workers (most of whom are Arab) from going to work during school hours.
  • To date, 41 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in recent weeks as cycles of revenge killings, protests, and state-driven violence continue.
  • While Arab-Israeli politicians and NGOs denounced the restrictions as illegal and racist, the Interior Ministry called for respect and equality without reversing the restrictions.

Read more:
“Four Israeli cities, citing security, ban Arab workers from schools” (Reuters)
“Israeli Towns Move to Ban Arab Workers From Schools” (Haaretz)

(Image Credit: Moti Milrod/Haaretz)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Argentina News | Transgender Women

Argentinian president calls for investigation after murder of trans activist
  • Trans rights activist Diana Sacayán was found dead in her apartment, the victim of a fatal stabbing that police believe may have been perpetrated by an acquaintance of Sacayán.
  • Sacayán had led both the International Association of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals (ILGA) and the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL) in Argentina, and had been personally issued her new national identity card with her correct gender identity by President Cristina Kirchner.
  • With Sacayán’s death the third for transwomen in a month, President Kirchner called for local police and national security forces to investigate as a part of a broader push to tackle the high rates of gender-based violence in the country.

Read more:
“Matan en Flores a una dirigente trans de una puñalada” (La Nación, in Spanish)
“Hallan muerta a la activista trans Diana Sacayán en Argentina” (teleSUR, in Spanish)
“Argentine President Demands Inquiry into Trans Activist’s Death” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: La Izquierda Diario, via teleSUR)

Religion + Belief

Indonesia News | Christians

Conservative Islamic youth group attacks Christian churches in Indonesia’s Aceh province, leading to injuries, one death, and locals’ flight
  • The group, known as the Aceh Singkil Islamic Care Youth Students Association (PPI), set fire to two churches in a Christian village in the Aceh Singkil regency for reportedly being unlicensed houses of worship.
  • One in the attacking group was reportedly killed after a third Christian congregation defended their church, and there were conflicting reports of masses of locals fleeing for neighboring regencies.
  • The Aceh province is Indonesia’s most conservative, having implemented Sharia law and allowed for a decades-old agreement in Aceh Singkil limiting Christians to one church and four houses of worship in the regency.

Read more:
“Thousands leave Aceh after church burning” (The Jakarta Post)
“Churches attacked and one man killed in clashes in Aceh, Indonesia” (BBC)
“Indonesia deploys troops to calm religious unrest in Aceh province” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Hotli Simanjuntak/The Jakarta Post)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

France News | Intersex

French court rules in favor of establishing third gender option for intersex individual
  • A French court has for the first time allowed for the establishment of a third gender option for an individual’s legal status, ruling in favor of a 64-year-old intersex individual to change their status from male to “neutral gender.”
  • The judge ruled that the gender assigned to the individual at birth was “pure fiction” and that the creation of a third option was not the recognition of a third gender, but of the impossibility of ascribing binary gender to individuals who present with both male and female sexual characteristics.
  • A 2011 legal memorandum outlined administrative guidelines for intersex newborns, allowing for a one- to two-year deferral of gender assignment on a newborn’s birth certificate if the child presents as intersex, while Europe’s main human rights authority recently spoke out against surgical gender assignment for intersex newborns.

Read more:
“Une personne de «sexe neutre» reconnue par l’état civil” (20 minutes, in French)
“Le sexe « neutre » reconnu pour la première fois en France” (Le Monde, in French)
“French court recognises third gender for first time” (France24)

(Image Credit: Luca Sartoni, via Le Monde)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

UK Feature | LGBT British Asian

At the Intersection: Queer & British Asian

The UK has made major strides in LGBT political rights in recent years, but the social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals has struggled to keep up. DESIblitz takes to the streets to survey British Asian perspectives on their community’s evolution regarding LGBT rights. Tackling religion, education, and the factors at work in the cultural politics of immigration and integration, interviewees present the complexity of acceptance and homophobia in British Asian families.

Read more:
“Is being Gay acceptable in British Asian society?” (DESIblitz)

(Image Credit: via DESIblitz)

Health + Ability

Jamaica News | People with Disabilities

Jamaica-based disability foundation to focus on education in annual conference
  • The Nathan Ebanks Foundation was founded by Christine Staple-Ebanks as a disability support organization after Staple-Ebanks found local resources lacking after her child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
  • Poor visibility of disability issues in the country have made public advocacy and resource-building difficult, a problem which the foundation tackles through its annual conferences.
  • Scheduled for October 28-31 in Montego Bay, this year’s conference will focus on inclusive education both to inform Jamaicans with disabilities of their rights and to combat lack of awareness about disability issues in Jamaica.

“What floored me was not the diagnosis, it was what to do. All the different specialists that we went to were only telling me what my child would never ever do but no one could tell me what my role was as a mother or how I could better support my child.”

Read more:
“Conference to help educate, sensitise people about disabilities” (The Jamaica Observer)
The Nathan Ebanks Foundation

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Southeast Asia Feature | LGBT

LGBT in Southeast Asia

The Huffington Post has launched a series exploring the state of LGBT life in Southeast Asia, a region whose climate ranges from the liberal gender norms of Thailand to the Sharia-driven sexual persecution of Brunei. Some activists argue that countries like Singapore’s success in an exclusive focus on economic development to the detriment of human rights has provided an alternative model to the Western liberal-democratic tradition for countries like China and Russia. Writers explore endemic violence, the effects of limited civil society on advocacy, and some nations’ burgeoning acceptance and recognition of the need for political protection.

Read more:
“Being LGBT In Southeast Asia: Stories Of Abuse, Survival And Tremendous Courage” (The Huffington Post)

(Image Credit: Associated Press, via The Huffington Post)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Lithuania Feature | Muslims

Lithuania’s Muslims

Lithuania’s Muslim Tatar community has inhabited Lithuania for more than six centuries, nearly as long as it has existed as a unified nation. That has not prevented contemporary politicians from joining the other Baltic nations in debating legislation perceived as anti-Islam or ignoring the long history of Muslims in the country while disparaging Muslim refugees. The Economist takes a brief look at this history and the contemporary debates about national identity driving immigration and humanitarian action.

Read more:
“The Mosques of Lithuania” (The Economist)

(Image Credit: Martynas Zaremba/The Economist)

Religion + Belief

Australia News | Muslims

Hundreds show up for anti-Islam protest and counterprotest in Bendigo, Victoria
  • Right-wing protesters from the United Patriots Front rallied in the rural Australian town against the proposed construction of a mosque in the town.
  • The protest was met with counter-protest by anti-racism activists, which, though largely peaceful, led to four temporary arrests.
  • A massive police presence accompanied the demonstration, which was a part of a coordinated series of anti-Islam, anti-mosque demonstrations around the world.

Read more:
“Bendigo mosque: Anti-mosque protesters face off with counter activists” (ABC News)
“Hundreds face off in Australian town in anti-Islam protest” (Reuters)
“Bendigo mosque protests: Anti-racism demonstrators face off with nationalists” (The Age)

(Image Credit: Patrick Rocca/ABC News)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel & Palestinian Territories | Palestinians

Numerous Palestinians killed and wounded following clash with army at Gaza border and knife attack by Jewish Israeli man
  • Six Palestinians were killed after Israeli troops opened fire during a confrontation at the Gaza Strip border, with estimates of the wounded ranging from 19 to 50.
  • Four Arab individuals were stabbed by a Jewish Israeli in the town of Dimona because of reportedly “nationalistic” motivations.
  • Violence throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories has been increasing since Israeli authorities limited access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem following the murder of Jewish Israelis in the holy city.

Read more:
“Six killed in Gaza as Israeli-Palestinian violence widens” (Reuters)
“Israeli troops kill several Palestinians in Gaza” (Al Jazeera America)
“Four Arabs stabbed in southern Israel, Jewish suspect held” (Reuters)
“At least 6 Palestinians die in clash with IDF along Gaza border” (The Times of Israel)

(Image Credit: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Malaysia News | Transgender

Challenge to ban on cross-dressing dismissed by Malaysian high court on technicality
  • Malaysia’s Federal Court rejected the challenge to the state of Negeri Semblian’s ban on cross-dressing, overturning a lower-court decision striking down the ban.
  • The case brought by three transgender individuals was dismissed by the court on a technicality, saying the case should have first been taken up by the Federal Court.
  • The rejection comes as Islamic conservatism increases in the Malay-majority country, with Shariah law a difficult hurdle for gender and sexual minorities to clear.

Read more:
“Court of Appeal wrong to declare religious law unconstitutional, rules Federal Court” (The Malaysian Insider)
“Transgender case: Federal Court overturns Court of Appeal’s decision” (Astro Awani)
“Malaysia court upholds ban on cross dressing by transgender Muslims” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Olivia Harris/Reuters)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel & Palestinian Territories News | Israelis & Palestinians

Palestinian teen dead, Israeli teen wounded as violence grows in Jerusalem and the West Bank
  • A Palestinian teenager was killed as Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces during a police operation in the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
  • Following the murder of two Israeli men in Jerusalem, a follow-up stabbing by another Palestinian wounded an Israeli teenager.
  • As Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the knife attack, PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced the homes of attackers would be destroyed and access to the Old City in Jerusalem limited.

Read more:
“Violence intensifies in Jerusalem, West Bank, raising security concerns” (Reuters)
“Jewish Teen Moderately Wounded in Latest Jerusalem Stabbing Attack” (Haaretz)
“Israel bans Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Old City after knife attacks” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Atef Safadi/EPA, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel & Palestine News | Israelis

Four Israelis dead following dual attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem
  • An Israeli couple was killed in the West Bank near the Israeli settlement of Itamar while their three children remained unharmed in the backseat.
  • The murder was followed by another attack on an Israeli family in East Jerusalem, leaving two men dead and a woman and child injured in violence claimed by the Islamic Jihad organization.
  • Riots by Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank followed, with outraged Israeli officials condemning Palestinian authorities for lack of response.

Read more:
“2 Israeli men killed in Jerusalem attack were Nehemia Lavi, Aharon Benet” (The Times of Israel)
“Palestinian Gunmen Kill Israeli Parents of 4 in West Bank” (The New York Times)
“Thousands attend funeral of murdered Israelis as tensions flare in W. Bank” (i24 News)
“Israéliens tués: des colons réclament vengeance” (Radio France Internationale, in French)

(Image Credit: via The Times of Israel)