Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 43673
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2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/8     

2006/7/14-19 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Others, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:43673 Activity:nil
7/14    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060714/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel_62
        "The level of damage inflicted by Israel appeared finely
        calibrated. For example, a missile punched a hole in a major
        suspension bridge on the Beirut-Damascus road but did not destroy it,
        unlike less expensive bridges on the road that were brought down. An
        Israeli strike hit fuel depots at one of Beirut's two power stations
        sending massive fireballs and smoke into the sky but avoided the
        station itself."
        \_ Israel's attack is always "pinpointed."  But the past record showed
           pinpointed attack often result in death of, let say, 7 month old
           terrorist, or entire terrorist's family age from 9-17.  Some
           would argue that "unjustified death" from those Israel attack
           validates sucide bombing tactics in the middle of crowded buses.
           You know, those Arab has such twisted sense of what is justifiable
           what is not... those 7 month old, future terrorist, and those 1
           year old future terrorist *DESERVED* to be bombed or shelled;
           ANY reasonable person from the Western world would agree with that.
           \_ the goal of a terrorist bomber is to kill as many civilians
              as possible.  this speaks for itself.
              \_ the goal of terrorist bomber is to make the cost of
                 occupation as high as possible.
              \_ The goal of a terrorist bomber is not something for a
                 modern democracy to measure its actions by.  There is a very
                 big line between civilian casualties incurred from
                 hitting a military or paramilitary target, and
                 indiscriminately killed women or children.  The former is
                 tragic and to be avoided whenever possible, but before
                 judging, what would _you_ do?  -John
                 \_ remember, more Iraqi civilians died of US bombing
                    during the invasion than those killed by suicide bombers.
                    (iraqibodycount)
                    are you saying that as long as we kill civilians via
                    arial bombing, that will be ok?
                 \_ What would I do?  Get the fuck out.  I'd move to America
                    or Europe and not look back, if I were either Israeli or
                    Arab.  -!pp
                    \_ To them it's home.  By this logic, I don't think
                       anyone would stay where they're from (because no
                       matter where you are, it's get-the-fuck-outtable in
                       someone else's view... -John
                       \_ this is great.  Those Arabs who live there for
                          1800 years doesn't belong there.  those who
                          migrate to there in 1948 consider that "home" and
                          have the right to defend itself...
                          \_ Israel has no problems with allowing Arabs
                             in the country and holding government posts. Arabs
                             seem to have a problem with Israelis being there.
                             \_ Why won't they let the 1948 refugees back in
                                then? Isreal only allows a very few Arabs
                                in their country and the ones that they do
                                allow are 2nd class citizens, ala apartheid.
                                \_ They left.  Why should they be allowed back
                                   in?  Can the Jews who got kicked out of the
                                   Arab countries in the Middle East return
                                   home and get their stuff back, too?  No.
                                   There are Arabs in the Israeli government.
                                   They were elected to office just like in
                                   any democracy.  If you have a specific
                                   example of second classness, please share.
                                   \_  http://www.csua.org/u/gg7
                                       http://www.csua.org/u/gg6
                                       45% of Isreali Arabs live in poverty,
                                       compared to 15% of Isreali Jews.
                                       Okay, I step back from my apartheid
                                       statement though, that is going too
                                       far. But they are second class citizens.
                                       Unlike the Palestinians stuck in the
                                       occupied territory, who are not even
                                       citizens at all.
                                       \_ So there is evidence that Israeli
                                          Arabs are being oppressed by the
                                          government and lack the full rights
                                          of Israeli Jews and this explains
                                          the higher poverty rates?
                       \_ how about this kind of turkey shoot?  these guys
                          are 1. civilian and 2. trying to get out:
                          http://tinyurl.com/lwxtj
                          according to your logic, bus bombing from the air
                          or artillery shell is perfectly ok?  I am sorry,
                          I ain't no Hezbollah or Hamas, but I don't find this
                          convincing.
                          \_ No, according to my logic its okay if you're not
                          \_ No, according to my logic its tragic, but maybe
                             very regrettably unavoidable, if you're not
                             blatantly trying to whack civilians (and trying
                             to avoid doing so whenever possible.)  Which, as
                             far as I'm aware, is usually the case.  And as
                             for who's lived there longer, let's see, I think
                             most Arabs (and most Israelis) were probably born
                             there after 1948?  They're both there now, and
                             bitching about whose grandparents were where first
                             won't solve it.  -Johnj
                             won't solve it.  -John
j
                             \_ bombing a civilian bus call it "tragic?"
                                The differences is that I don't believe every
                                thing Israeli says, you do.  I sincerely
                                don't think Israeli care too much about
                                civilian casualties, or collateral damage
                                involves MASSIVE number of women and children.
                                Number talk, John.  Arabic civilian casualties
                                is at least one order of magnitude than
                                Israeli civilian in the past conflict.
                                You really think the 18,000 casualties in
                                Lebanon back in 1982 were all Hezbollah
                                fighters?   How about Israeli-backed Christian
                                groups who slaughter every Sunni and Shiite
                                in sight?  The truth is, Israeli doesn't care.
                                They felt they need to defend itself.  If it
                                means 20 civilians or 9 family members going to
                                die along with that one terrorist, they will
                                drop the bomb, fire the missile.  There is no
                                differences between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and
                                IDF.  While American media covers virtually
                                every sucide bombers attack, there is virtually
                                no photographs, video footage or any kind of
                                media coverage of Arabic civilian fleeing
                                Southern Lebanon and being mow down by IDF
                                machine guns.   IDF reminds me a lot of
                                the behavior of Imperial Japanese Army in
                                China backed in the WW2 days.
2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/8     

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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060714/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel_62
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www.csua.org/u/gg7 -> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Arab#Discrimination
edit Muslim Arabs Muslim Arabs, excluding Bedouins, comprise about 70% of the Israeli Arab population. They live predominantly in the north, although a sizable number reside in East Jerusalem and some towns in the south. They are not required to serve in the Israeli military, and few volunteer. In addition, of all Israeli Arab subgroups, they have probably the largest portion of people who identify themselves as Palestinian, often as well as Israeli. This means that around 25% of the children born in Israel today are Muslim, and as a result, the Muslim population is mostly young: 42% of Muslims are children under the age of 15, compared with 26% of the Jewish population, with the median age of Muslim Israelis 18, while the median age of Jewish Israelis is 30. The percentage of people over 65 is less than 3% for Muslims, compared with 12% for the Jewish population. 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Personal preferences, social pressures, a lack of opportunites and differences in education (especially for the older generation) contribute to the variances among the genders and ethnicities. Moreover the Arab sector has been hit harder by the current recession in Israel; in 1989 68% of the Arab men particpated in the labor market compared to 62% for the Jewish men (now both are equal at 60%). The main branch of occupation for Arab men is building (25%) and for women education (38%). The mean hourly rate of the Arab Israelis is 69% of what the Jewish Israelis earned, 63% for the men and 82% for the women (Jewish women earn on average less than Jewish men). The reasons for the atypical gender distribution within the Arab Israeli population can be found in the lower female participation in the labor market (it is mostly the women who can earn a decent salary that work) and the higher proportion of Arab women versus Arab men in government jobs, such as in education. This difference is related to the lower income and higher ownership of housing for the Arab Israeli households (87% as compared to 68% for the Jews). edit Health Improvements in healthcare, environmental conditions, and improved education have led to a lower infant mortality rate for Arabs, from 32 deaths per thousand births in 1970 to 86 per thousand in 2000. The most common health-related causes of death are heart disease and cancer. Around half of all Arab men smoke, and roughly 14% were diagnosed with diabetes in 2000. In the 2002 budget, Israel's health ministry allocated 16m shekels (-L-200,000) to Arab communities out of its 277m-shekel (-L-35m) budget to develop healthcare facilities. Human Rights Watch issued a report in 2001, which stated: "Government-run Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this." The report found striking differences in virtually every aspect of the education system. It found that the Education Ministry did not allocate as much money per Palestinian Arab child as it did for Jewish children. edit Legal and political status Israeli Arabs are full citizens of the State of Israel, with equal protection under the law, and full rights of due process. Unlike Jewish citizens, they cannot be drafted into the Israeli army, but they may serve voluntarily. Salim Jubran was selected as the first Arab to hold a permanent appointment as a Supreme Court Justice. Jubran, 57, is a native of Haifa, born to a Christian family with roots among the Maronites in Lebanon. Bishara has been a critic of what he feels is the lack of democracy in Israel, as he champions a state for "all of its citizens" and believes the Israeli state provides only democracy for certain favored groups. Israeli Communist Party played a major role in mobilising the Israeli Arab community throughout these years and in demanding full equality for Arab citizens. Its newspapers and journals were important outlets for Arab Israeli expression and cultural production. Six Day War the following year was a turning point in the political development of the Israeli Arab community, as it appeared to prove the durability of the state of Israel. The 1970s saw a number of major developments in the political history of the Israeli Arab community. To combat what they call "violent elements in Arab society" Israeli Arab leaders urge police action against weapons in Arab sector, this was after "over 20 Arab municipality heads have been attacked in recent months as part of an attempt to change their positions or in response to decisions they made". Times notes: "Liberman plans to strengthen Israel's status as a Jewish state by transferring 500,000 of its minority Arab population to the West Bank, by the simple expedient of redrawing the West Bank to include several Arab Israeli towns in northern Israel. edit Economic development of the Israeli Arab community The predominant feature of the Israeli Arab community's economic development after 1949 was its transformation from a predominantly peasant farming population to, in large degree, a proletarian industrial workforce. It has been suggested that the economic development of the community was marked by distinct stages. edit Discrimination On July 2006 Israeli Government decides to brand all Arab communities in country as 'class A' development areas, thus making them eligible for tax benefits. Examples of what the State Department report found include the following: * According to the report, Muslims enjoy full freedom of religion and government "did not affect the rights of Muslims to practice their faith" according to "Legislation enacted in 1961 afforded the Muslim courts exclusive jurisdiction to rule in matters of personal status concerning Muslims. Secular courts have primacy over questions of inheritance, but parties, by mutual agreement, may bring cases to religious courts. Muslims, since 2001, also have the right to bring matters such as alimony and property division associated with divorce cases to civil courts in family-status matters." Human rights advocates claimed that Arab citizens were more likely to be convicted of murder and to have been denied bail." According to the Government's February 2002 report to the UN, government investment per Arab pupil was approximately 60 percent of investment per Jewish pupil. al-Sarafand mosque episode, with Muslims' attempts to restore the mosque and Jewish attempts to stop them, as an example of the 'shifting of dynamics' of the relationship between M...
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www.csua.org/u/gg6 -> www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-01.htm
Nearly one in four of Israel's 16 million schoolchildren are educated in a public school system wholly separate from the majority. The children in this parallel school system are Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin. Their schools are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel's majority Jewish population. Often overcrowded and understaffed, poorly built, badly maintained, or simply unavailable, schools for Palestinian Arab children offer fewer facilities and educational opportunities than are offered other Israeli children. This report is about Israel's discrimination against its Palestinian Arab children in guaranteeing the right to education. The Israeli government operates two separate school systems, one for Jewish children and one for Palestinian Arab children. Discrimination against Palestinian Arab children colors every aspect of the two systems. 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Arab schools also contrast dramatically with the larger system in their frequent lack of basic learning facilities like libraries, computers, science laboratories, and even recreation space. In no Arab school did we see specialized facilities, such as film editing studios or theater rooms that we saw as a sign of excellence in some of the Jewish schools we visited. Palestinian Arab children with disabilities are particularly marginalized, with special education teachers and facilities often unavailable in the system, despite the highly developed special education programs of the Jewish school system. The unavailability of schools for three and four-year-old children in many communities, despite legislation making such schools--and attendance--obligatory, is matched by inadequate kindergarten construction for Palestinian Arab children throughout much of the country, particularly in the Negev. A Bedouin man in a recognized Bedouin town told us, "I have a daughter five years old. Poor school facilities and schools requiring travel over long distances result in children dropping out of the education system altogether at a very high rate. The educational system has given a low priority to teacher training for the Arab school system and provides less "in-service" training to Palestinian Arab teachers already within the system than is routine within the majority system. Palestinian Arab teachers on average have lower qualifications and receive lower salaries than non-Palestinian Arab teachers. Financial incentives for teachers assigned in particularly deprived areas like parts of the Negev are lower than those made available to teachers in Jewish schools identified as hardship postings. Training in special education for teachers in the Arab school system has been largely insufficient. Despite higher rates of disability among Palestinian Arabs, in the area of special education the Ministry of Education spends less proportionately on integration ("mainstreaming"), special education services, and special schools for Palestinian Arab children than it does for Jewish children. "We have been asking for special support for many years," the father of a disabled boy explained. Palestinian Arab children who cannot attend a regular school have only a tiny handful of schools to choose from, and there is often only one Arab school in the country for children with a particular disability. Many of these children must travel long distances daily or attend a Jewish school if one happens to be available. But Jewish special education schools are not designed for Palestinian Arab pupils. For example, speech therapists in some schools with both Jewish and Palestinian Arab hearing impaired students do not speak Arabic. For some families, the only option is keep their disabled children at home. Palestinian Arab students study from a government-prescribed Arabic curriculum that is adapted second hand from the Hebrew curriculum: common subjects are developed with little or no Palestinian Arab participation and translated years after the Hebrew language material is published. The government devotes inadequate resources to developing the subjects unique to Arab education. No curricula in Arabic for special education existed until 2000, and it was not available in any of the Arab special education schools that Human Rights Watch visited. The curricula's content often alienates students and teachers alike. For example, in Hebrew language class, Palestinian Arab students are required to study Jewish religious texts including Tanach (Jewish bible) and Jewish Talmudic scholars. This material is included in the mandatory subjects in the matriculation exams (bagrut) taken at the end of high school. A Hebrew language teacher in an Arab high school described her pupils' reaction: "Some children see it as imposed on them. It makes it hard for the teacher to motivate students to study. The Ministry of Education has recently made some positive reforms in Arabic curricula, including in history, geography, and civics. However, many of these changes have not been fully implemented because textbooks and other teaching materials are lacking. Discrimination at every level of the education system winnows out a progressively larger proportion of Palestinian Arab children as they progress through the school system--or channels those who persevere away from the opportunities of higher education. The hurdles Palestinian Arab students face from kindergarten to university function like a series of sieves with sequentially finer holes. At each stage, the education system filters out a higher proportion of Palestinian Arab students than Jewish students. Children denied access to kindergarten do less well in primary school. Children in dilapidated, distant, under-resourced schools have a far higher drop-out rate. Palestinian Arab students who stay in school perform less well on national examinations, especially the matriculation examinations (bagrut)--the prerequisite for a high school diploma and university application. Others are weeded out by a required "psychometric" examination--generally described as an aptitude test-which Palestinian Arab educators describe as culturally weighted, a translation of the test given students of the Jewish school system. A consequence is that Palestinian Arabs seeking admission to university are rejected at a far higher rate than are Jewish applicants. All but 57 percent of the students receiving their first university degree in the 1998-1999 school year were Jewish. The Israeli government has offered various other explanations for the gaps between Jewish and Palestinian Arab students' performance. These include poverty and cultural attitudes, especially regarding girls. Human Rights Watch found that in light of clear examples of state discrimination, neither poverty nor cultural attitudes adequately explained the existing gap. Indeed, in many instances, the data run directly contrary to the claim that these factors, and not discrimination, are at the root of the problem. Moreover, discrimination in education is cyclical and cumulative. When one generation has fewer educational opportunities of poorer quality, their children grow up in families with lower incomes and learn from less well-educated teachers. The remedial and enrichment resou...
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Image The Israeli air force shelled several buildings in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and the city of Trablus, north of Lebanon, soldiers also shelled a seaport north of Beirut, and the coastal area of Amsheet. Medical sources in Lebanon reported that 23 residents were killed when Israeli war planes bombed a bus of evacuees from southern Lebanon who had fled their homes to seek safety further north, on Saturday afternoon. The Israeli army carried four air strikes that targeted Al Dahia Al Janoubiyya area in Beirut, and targeted two vehicles transporting civilians leaving their areas fearing additional Israeli attacks. Fifteen civilians including children were killed in the attack. The air force attacked several offices for Hezbollah party in the area in addition to shelling houses of Hezbollah leaders there. Also, one Lebanese resident was killed in an Israeli air strikes that targeted an area close to the Lebanese-Syrian borders. Twenty Lebanese residents were killed in three Israeli air strikes that targeted Ba'labak city in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that 79 residents were killed and 250 were injured since Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on Wednesday. The Israeli army used loud speakers demanding the residents to leave their cities located south of Lebanon. Dozens of residents tried to take refuge in the centers of the international forces operating in southern Lebanon but they were denied entry and forced away. Hezbollah, for its part, didn't allow the Israeli "foolishness" pass unpunished as volleys of their missiles struck the northern city of Tiberius, Israeli occupied since 1948, that is located 35 km away from the Lebanese borders with Palestine for the first time ever since the start of the Israeli aggressions, the Qatar based Al Jazeera TV reported on its website. The part fired 12 Katusha shells at Tiberius, which is only 30 km away form the vital coastal city of Haifa.