REPORT: Recreational use of Marijuana is no longer a crime in Israel

In Israel’s divisive political climate, a common cause between right and left has emerged: cannabis.

Israel’s Cabinet decriminalized the recreational use of cannabis, or marijuana, at its weekly meeting on Sunday in a move hailed by politicians from across the spectrum.
Under the new policy, first-time offenders caught using marijuana in public will be subject to a fine of approximately $250, but will not face criminal charges. The money will be used for drug rehabilitation and education. A second offense will be subject to a fine of approximately $500, while a third offense may require rehabilitation, education and a suspended driver’s license. A fourth offense will be subject to prosecution and a possible prison term.

“Whether one supports use of cannabis or is opposed, it is wrong to judge cannabis users per criminal law and its derivatives,” right-wing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said. “The State of Israel cannot turn a blind eye in light of changes worldwide regarding cannabis consumption and effect.”

Israel’s decision to decriminalize cannabis comes as global attitudes about the drug are rapidly shifting. More than 20 countries are exploring changes to their marijuana laws — in the United States, eight states and the District of Columbia now allow for recreational sales and medical prescriptions.
Worldwide, many nations have already decriminalized cannabis in an attempt to combat societal problems associated with its use — including the Netherlands, Mexico, Czech Republic, Costa Rica and Portugal.
“This is an important step, but it’s not the end of the road,” said Tamar Zandberg, from the left-wing Meretz Party.
Zandberg also serves as chairwoman of the Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. “It’s a message that millions of Israelis who consume cannabis are not criminals.”
Marijuana advocates hope the new policy encourages entrepreneurship and investment in Israel’s burgeoning cannabis industry.
Israel is one of the world leaders in medical marijuana, backed by the Ministry of Health, whose ultra-Orthodox leader has encouraged research and innovation. Numbering only a few dozen medical marijuana users a decade ago, Israel now has approximately 25,000 users. Cannabis companies estimate the industry could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars soon, even in such a small country.
“Decriminalizing cannabis in Israel is another step towards creating a Canna-Tech global industry, with Israel at the forefront,” said Saul Kaye, CEO of iCan, a cannabis entrepreneurship incubator. “This step, although not legitimizing use, is due to reduce the negative perception of the plant as ‘immoral or ‘criminal’, increasing openness to its outstanding medicinal and wellness properties.”
“The Cabinet approval is an important step on the way to implementing the new policy that will put emphasis on explaining and treating rather than on criminal enforcement,” said Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
The Ministry of Public Security recommended decriminalizing marijuana earlier this year. Sunday’s announcement signaled the official adoption of the policy.

BREAKING: Trump says Israel settlement growth not ‘good for peace’.

US President Donald Trump does not believe Israeli settlement growth in Palestinian territories is “good for peace”, he told a paper Friday, in his most direct comments on the matter since inauguration.

 

In an interview published in Hebrew by the Israel Hayom newspaper, Trump was quoted as saying he was “not someone who believes that advancing settlements is good for peace”.

 

Source: AFP

BREAKING: Isis claims attack on Israeli port of Eilat with rockets launched from Egypt.

Isis has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on the southern Israeli port town of Eilat.

 

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system shot down three missiles fired from neighbouring Sinai late on Wednesday, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) said. Up to seven are thought to have been fired in total.

 

The branch of the jihadist group based in the neighbouring province in Egypt is believed to have attacked Israeli targets multiple times in the past.

UN Condemns Israel’s West Bank Settlement Plans.

The United Nations has condemned Israel’s plans to build more settlements in the occupied west bank.

 

A UN spokesman said “unilateral actions” are an obstacle to peace based on a two-state solution.

 

According to the BBC, on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would build 2,500 more homes in Jewish settlements “in response to housing needs”.

 

It is the second of such announcements by the Israeli authorities since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

 

Palestinian officials however say the plans undermine peace hopes by building on land what they want for a future state.

 

President Trump on the other hand, has indicated that he will be more sympathetic to settlement construction than his predecessor, Barack Obama, and has appointed a staunch settlement supporter as his ambassador to Israel.

 

Source: Channels TV

Israel condemns settlement vote at UN Security Council

The Israeli Government has come out in full force against a UN Security Council vote scheduled on Thursday on a draft resolution demanding a halt to settlement activity in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the U.S. to veto the “anti-Israel resolution,” while the Israeli UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said he expected “our greatest ally” to sink the document.

According to media reports, the draft resolution, submitted by Egypt on Wednesday, condemned the settlements as a violation of international law and as a hurdle to implementing the two-state solution.

The global community, including the U.S. and the UN, has long condemned settlement activity.

The U.S. had vetoed a similar draft resolution in 2011, saying it would further hinder Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The resolution came amid the announcement recently that David Friedman, who has said that he does not think Israeli settlement activity is illegal, was named as the future U.S. ambassador to Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama, with less than a month left in office, had called for a settlement freeze upon taking office in 2009, but continued expansion paved the way for sour relations with Netanyahu.

Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN, had requested that the council take action on the settlements in October.

Mansour said that the Palestinians and their Arab partners were seeking a clear course of action to confront this main obstacle to peace.

The peace process has been long frozen, and a last attempt, led by the U.S. and supported by several global bodies, collapsed in 2014.

The vote in New York is scheduled at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Trump Nominates US Ambassador To Israel

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated David Friedman, a hardline Zionist, as US ambassador to Israel, likely paving the way toward a controversial decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds

Friedman, a fervent supporter of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and opponent of the so-called two-state solution, served as one of Trump’s main advisers on Israel during his presidential campaign.

“(Friedman) has been a long-time friend and trusted adviser to me. His strong relationships in Israel will form the foundation of his diplomatic mission and be a tremendous asset to our country as we strengthen the ties with our allies and strive for peace in the Middle East,” Trump said in a statement Thursday.

Friedman said he looked forward to filling the diplomatic position at a future US embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds, a move that would distance Washington from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world.

Trump vowed during his presidential campaign that he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds, a step that would enrage Palestinians and create an international furor.

Former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush promised the same thing during their presidential campaigns in order to court pro-Israel voters, but later reversed their proposals.

Read More: presstv

Israel’s parliament moves to quell anger over short skirt ban

Israel’s parliament speaker went on national radio on Thursday to try to quell anger over a ban on female staff wearing skirts deemed too short.

The lawmaker, Manuel Trajtenberg, noted that the move had caused a scandal in a legislature where informal dress had long been the fashion.

The furore began about 10 days ago when Knesset security guards began turning away women they accused of being dressed immodestly, even though the rules do not specify a skirt length.

On Wednesday, about 30 women protested at the Knesset’s security entrance, posing for news cameras wearing above-the-knee skirts or dresses in defiance of the ban.

They were supported by a man wearing a skirt over his trousers and a member of parliament who stripped down to his undershirt.

Trajtenberg complained that soon women would have to wear burkas.

Parliamentary Speaker Yuli Edelstein said on national radio that the Knesset had not gone, in his words, Iran-Taliban.

The issue has been referred to a special committee, where lawmakers and aides, male and female, would take a look at the dress code and decide to what extent it should be implemented.

Edelstein defended the need for decorum in the legislature and said parliament’s administrative director had only been doing his job when he sent round a letter in October reminding everyone of the dress code.

He said the official had been acting on numerous complaints from legislators and staffers about people clad inappropriately.

The debate touched on sensitive religious issues in increasingly conservative Jerusalem, where the secular majority and ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority are traditionally at odds over the role of women in society and their attire.

At the Knesset, some women staff said male guards had embarrassed them publicly by ordering them to unbutton their coats so they could see the length of their skirts.

The controversy seemed almost out of place in a legislature where business suits are as much the exception as polite debate and where shouting matches are de rigueur.

For an institution charged with enacting laws, its own dress code is not written in stone.

While banning tank tops, ripped trousers, flip-flops and shorts, it does not set a precise hemline, merely forbidding short skirts and dresses.

A ban on open-toed sandals and jeans has only been enforced inconsistently in the last decade.

Netanyahu Congratulates Trump, A ‘True Friend’ Of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Donald Trump on his election as US president on Wednesday and called him “a true friend of the state of Israel.”

“President-elect Trump is a true friend of the state of Israel, and I look forward to working with him to advance security, stability and peace in our region,” the right-wing premier said in a statement.

“The ironclad bond between the United States and Israel is rooted in shared values, buttressed by shared interests and driven by a shared destiny.

“I am confident that president-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the unique alliance between our two countries and bring it to ever greater heights.”

Credit:

http://guardian.ng/news/netanyahu-congratulates-trump-a-true-friend-of-israel/

Israel Retaliates For The Terror Attack Two Palestinians Carried Out In Tel Aviv

Two gunmen disguised as ultra-Orthodox Jews carried out a terror attack in a Cafe at Tel Aviv, Israel yesterday June 8, killing four Israelis and injuring at least five others. The Israeli military has now revoked all permits for Palestinians to visit Israel and travel abroad during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

COGAT, an Israeli defense body, revealed today that all 83,000 permits have been frozen for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit family in Israel, attend Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem

or travel abroad via Israel’s Tel Aviv airport.

In addition, the military says it has frozen Israeli work permits for 204 of the attackers’ relatives, and is preventing Palestinians from leaving and entering the West Bank village of Yatta, the attackers’ home. Entering or leaving will only be permitted for humanitarian and medical cases.

Israel Jails Former Prime Minister For Receiving Bribe

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been ordered to serve 18 months in jail for bribery. Olmert had been sentenced to six years by a lower court in 2014, but this has now been reduced by the Supreme Court.

The 70-year-old was convicted over a property deal that took place while he served as mayor of Jerusalem, prior to becoming prime minister in 2006.

Olmert, who stepped down in 2009, will become the first former Israeli head of government to go to prison. He is due to begin his sentence on 15 February.

 

The Supreme Court acquitted Olmert of receiving a 500,000-shekel ($130,000; £86,000) bribe from the developers of Holyland, a controversial block of flats in Jerusalem, after he appealed against the March 2014 conviction.

A separate conviction of illicitly taking a 60,000-shekel payment for another project was upheld.

Several other government officials and businesspeople were convicted alongside Olmert in 2014.

In a separate case, Olmert was sentenced earlier this year to eight months in prison for fraud and breach of trust for accepting illegal payments from an American businessman.

Revealed: The Only Country ISIS Fear..

ISIS militants only truly fear one of the nations that opposes it, according to a journalist who spent time living among them., Islamic State fighters told Jürgen Todenhöfer, 75, that Israel is the one nation they are wary of.

Mr Todenhöfer, who spent 10 days in Syria in 2014, told Jewish News:

“They think they can defeat US and UK ground troops, who they say they have no experience in city guerrilla or terrorist strategies.”But they know the Israelis are very tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and terrorists.”They are not scared of the British and the Americans, they are scared of the Israelis and told me the Israeli army is the real danger.”

Israeli Police Shoot Two Palestinian Teenage Girls After They Attack Elderly Man With Scissors

Israeli police shot two Palestinian teenage girls after the pair reportedly attacked an elderly man with a pair of scissors. One of the girls was killed in the incident, while the other was injured.

The shocking CCTV footage appears to show the girls, aged 14 and 16, pulling scissors out of their schoolbags before waving the blades around in the air.

They then advance towards the elderly onlooker, thought to be 70-years-old. Seconds later, a police officer is seen confronting one of the girls and shooting her with his pistol.

Attack: The girls appear to pull scissors out of their schoolbags

 

 Shooting: An officer shot both of the girls, killing one

He then turns his attention to the other girl and shoots her several times, even after she was lying motionless on the ground.

It is believed the attack took place outside Mahne Yehuda, a busy outdoor market in central Jerusalem.

A 27-year-old Israeli security guard was taken to hospital after the event.

Shooting: An officer shot both of the girls, killing one

 

Deadly: Police are believed to have shot one of the girls multiple times after the attack

He is thought to have suffered cuts on his hand from bullet shrapnel.

Questions are now being raised over the excessive force used by police.

Secured: The area outside the market is taped off by police

Security forces in the area have been on high alert after a spate of stabbings recently. Eighty-six Palestinians have been killed in a wave of recent violence since October 1.

Israel, Brazil To Assist Nigeria End Boko Haram

Chief of Army Staff(COAS), Lt-General Tukur Buratai, yesterday appealed to the Brazilian government to help train Nigerian soldiers in jungle warfare.

This is even as the Israeli government promise to assist Nigeria end Boko Haram insurgency.

Buratai, who made the appeal when  he hosted the Deputy Chief of Army Staff for International and Special Affairs, Brazilian Army, Major-General Pereira Junior, in his Abuja  office, said the training was necessary to assist Nigeria wipe out insurgency and other security challenges in the country.

The COAS, while commending Brazil for its continuous support to the Nigerian Army, also declared the Army’s readiness to end terrorism soonest.

Read More: sunnewsonline

Outrage After S.A Minister Denied Entry To Israel

South Africa demands explanation from Tel Aviv after minister is denied visa to visit Israel for diplomatic work.  The government of South Africa has expressed outrage after Israel’s decision to deny a visa to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.

Clayson Monyela, Deputy Director General of Department of International Relations and Cooperation, told Al Jazeera on Thursday the Israeli government needed to offer a reason for the snubbing. “We are taking it up through the proper channels.

“We need to receive a proper explanation for the denial of a visa to a sitting cabinet minister,” Monyela said.

The minister was scheduled to travel to the occupied Palestinian territories from April 25-29. He was scheduled to secure further collaboration with the University of Johannesburg and institutions in Palestine.

Nzimande’s spokesperson told local media that the denial of the visa had caused a “serious diplomatic problem“.

Read More: aljazeera

4 Israelis Killed in Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, attacking worshippers praying inside with meat cleavers and a gun, and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, officials said.

The attack, the deadliest in Jerusalem in years, is bound to ratchet up fears of sustained violence in the city, already on edge amid soaring tensions over a contested holy site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel will “respond harshly” to the attack, describing it as a “cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke to Netanyahu after the assault and denounced it as an “act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began. He also called for an end to Israeli “provocations” surrounding the sacred site.

In a statement, Abbas’ office said he “condemns the killing of the worshippers in a synagogue in west Jerusalem.” The statement called for an end to the “invasion” of the mosque at the holy site and a halt to “incitement” by Israeli ministers.

Israeli police called the incident a terrorist attack and said the two Palestinian assailants were cousins from east Jerusalem. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP statement did not specify whether the group instructed the cousins to carry out the attack. Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six people were also wounded in the attack, including two police officers. Four of the wounded were reported in serious condition. He said police were searching the area for other suspects.

Associated Press footage from the scene showed the synagogue, in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood, surrounded by police and rescue workers following the attack.

Wounded worshippers were being assisted by paramedics and a bloodied meat cleaver lay near the scene of the attack. Initially, police had described the weapons used as knives and axes.

“I tried to escape. The man with the knife approached me. There was a chair and table between us … my prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped,” Yossi, who was praying at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israeli Channel 2 TV. He declined to give his last name.

Yosef Posternak, who was at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israel Radio that about 25 worshippers were inside when the attackers entered.

“I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere. People were trying to fight with (the attackers) but they didn’t have much of a chance,” he said.

A photo in Israeli media from inside the synagogue showed what appeared to be a body on the floor draped in a prayer shawl, with blood smattered nearby.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attackers were Palestinians from east Jerusalem, which has been the scene of relentless clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in recent months. She identified the assailants as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood.

Soon after the attack, clashes broke out outside the Abu Jamals’ home where dozens of police had gathered to carry out arrests in connection with the attack. Residents hurled stones at police who responded using riot dispersal weapons.

Israel has been on edge with a spate of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, killing at least six people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Tel Aviv in recent weeks, prior to Tuesday’s casualties.

Jerusalem residents had already been fearful of what appeared to be lone wolf attacks using cars or knives against pedestrians, but Tuesday’s synagogue assault harkens back to gruesome attacks during the Palestinian uprising of the last decade.

Israel’s police chief said Tuesday’s attack was likely not organized by militant groups, similar to other recent incidents, making it more difficult for security forces to prevent the violence.

“These are individuals who decide to do horrible acts. It’s very hard to know ahead of time about every such incident,” Yohanan Danino told reporters at the scene.

Tensions appeared to have been somewhat defused last week following a meeting between Netanyahu, Kerry and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman. The meeting was an attempt to restore calm after months of violent confrontations surrounding a sacred shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Israel and the Palestinians said then they would take steps to reduce tensions that might lead to an escalation.

In his statement, Netanyahu blamed the violence on incitement by both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and said the international community ignores the incitement.

Kerry blamed the attack on Palestinian calls for “days of rage,” and said Palestinian leaders must take serious steps to refrain from such incitement. He also urged Palestinian leaders to condemn the attack “in the most powerful terms.”

“Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue. They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder,” Kerry said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, speaking alongside Kerry, also condemned the violence.

Hamas’ statement praised the synagogue attack, saying it was a “response to continued Israeli crimes, the killing, desecrating al-Aqsa (mosque),” a reference to a recent incident at the holy site.

Abbas, at a meeting later with security officials, called for calm.

“We call for a complete calm and a halt to all these attacks to enable us to move ahead with our political work,” he said, according to the Palestinian official Wafa news agency.

Much of the recent violence stems from tensions surrounding the Jerusalem holy site referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount because of the Jewish temples that stood there in biblical times. It is the most sacred place in Judaism; Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The site is so holy that Jews have traditionally refrained from going there, instead praying at the adjacent Western Wall. Israel’s chief rabbis have urged people not to ascend to the area, but in recent years, a small but growing number of Jews, including ultranationalist lawmakers, have begun regularly visiting the site, a move seen as a provocation.

Credit: Yahoo News

 

#KakandaTemple ~ A Letter to that Nigerian-Palestinian

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Dear Friend,

Before you accuse me of finding nothing worth praising about you and yours, let me quickly empathise with you, and of course myself, over the killings in Gaza. You, as a humanist, one whose empathy has no border, are a citizen of the world, one of the reasons the earth is still habitable by the sane. It would be morally irresponsible for anyone to frown at your frantic advocacy which seeks an end to the killings in Gaza, only that commonsense demands a man whose house is on fire to rush for the extinguisher for his own dwelling first, before attending to a similar fire elsewhere.

London stands up for Gaza, because London is not bereaved. New York Stands up for Gaza because New York isn’t being threatened by hurricane-somebody now. Palestine would not stand up for Chibok because they also have a strip of misery in which they are just as worthless: Gaza. And the young Malala Yousafzai who came and roused the conscience of her fathers in Nigeria, was not here as a Pakistani as you have announced in defending your geographically insensitive activism from my “secular advocacy”. She was here as a Birmingham, England-based NGO owner, to stand with the girls of Nigeria in whose education Malala Fund has invested thousands of dollars. She has, as the news says, even “offered to partner with the UN efforts to mitigate the impacts of the abduction and help the girls (whose welfare is a responsibility of her NGO) return to school.”

You see, it’s not the way you internationalise your empathies that disturbs me, it’s this seeming pretence that all is well in your backyard while you weep over the blazing fire in faraway Gaza. If you, and others like you, had been half as passionate and emotional in your reaction to local tragedies as you are over the killings in Palestine, the troubles in the northeastern Nigeria wouldn’t have escalated to its present extent. The Palestinians, and their global solidarity soldiers, have gone berserk over the burning of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, their citizen, and you, amnesiac activist of a burning nation, have also been losing sleep over Khudair, ignoring the tens of Khudairs who die in your backyard every day!

It’s not the internationalisation of your empathies that disturbs me, it’s your lack of wisdom to understand that Khudair has his fighters — and he’s fully named, his age too revealed –while all the killed and abducted Dantalas and Asma’us and Johns and Naomis of Yobe and Borno are seen as mere statistics, unworthy of collective advocacy by you.

Ours is not a criticism of the northern establishment, but that of its hypocritical allegiance to “brotherhood of faith”, which is what you say in your solidarity with the Palestinians, ignoring that we’re just as bereaved here, and unknowing that Palestine is also a home for non-Muslims. But, wait, what sort of a human being is responsive to the tragedies that fall upon just the people of his faith?

Ours is a criticism of the collective, not of a specific group. This is a reminder that we have not done enough, not a declaration that we have not done anything at all. It’s a criticism of me and you who, safe from the bullets of Boko Haram, have not done anything comparable to the emotions shown in the sensitivity of our countrymen to the happening in Gaza. Are you, my dear global citizen, trying to say that we, especially resident northerners, need CNN and Aljazeera to remind us that there are carnages going on in our backyard before we acknowledge them?
Haven’t we all lost friends and friends of friends and relatives and relatives of relatives in this madness? What media is more effective than being actually bereaved? The most effective media is our emotions, and on this I dare say that we haven’t shown and done enough. My participation in #BringBackOurGirls shows me the hypocrisy of our Muslim brothers and sisters who, dismissing our hashtags as a gimmick, are now loud champions of #FreePalestine.

See, we are as bereaved as the people of Palestine and it’s quite ironic that, instead of gathering our lots to empathise with ourselves first and demand solutions and justice, we pretend as though all’s well in our house. Why are the people of Palestine not empathising with the people of Borno if our “brotherhood of faith” is actually reciprocal? Why? I repeat: why aren’t the people of Palestine extending their “brotherhood of faith” to us in the hours of our bereavements? The Palestinians have never stopped fighting. They have their men up and running against oppression. Who’s up fighting for us, especially for Chibok and the larger northeast? Why leaving these campaigns against Boko Haram’s terrors to just the members of Civilian JTF and #BringBackOurGirls campaigners?

You even said that no atrocity is more than that going on in Gaza, and I ask: is there an experience worse than having minors abducted, savagely raped and impregnated by terrorists? Saying that no atrocity is as bad as that in Gaza means that the sanctity of a Palestinian’s life is higher than that of a Nigerian’s. And that, fellow countryman, is an unfortunate and disturbing utterance.

Similarly, you have to be really careful in your advocacy. At least get relevant history books to properly understand the religious and political complexity of the territorial conflicts that have turned Gaza into a prison-mortuary. Your alignment with the Palestinians, your brothers-in-faith, may lead you into something called antisemitism. And you also need to understand that it’s the peak of such misguided hatred that resulted into the formation of a racist ideology that once sought to promote the “Aryan” German race as the best of humans. Nazism, consequently, championed the killings of the innocent Jews, who were considered threats to proposed German nationalism.

In your analyses of the happenings in Gaza, you have, quite sadly, pandered to a way of the Hitler-led Aryan racists who considered the Jewish race abolishable pests.

Do have restraint in understanding that the happenings in Israel is not a crime perpetrated, and supported, by the whole of Jews. It’s a crime perpetrated by a monstrous ideology championed by a people of Jewish identity, just the way Nazism was not supported by the whole of Germans, but by a small but powerful National Socialist party clique. If you’re to adopt this form of flawed thinking in portraying ethnic or religious groups, obviously the whole of Muslims should be similarly persecuted for the crimes of Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabbab, the Taliban and even Boko Haram who all pretend to be advocates of rights for the Muslim!

Hate the Israelis who, under zionism, did to Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews, but do not go close to hating the whole of Jews. Saying I hate the Jews means I hate some significant figures that shaped me, mine and the larger world. Saying I hate the Jews means I hate Jesus, who in my theology is Isah (AS), needed to authenticate my belief; saying I hate the Jews means I hate Moses (AS), similarly needed; saying I hate the Jews is an ingratitude to Albert Einstein’s contribution to science; saying I hate the Jews is an ingratitude to Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, whose invention has redeemed me in ways I’m incapable of repaying; saying I hate the Jews is also an ingratitude to Mark Zuckerberg whose innovation is the reason you and I are “friends” – even though we’ve never met – sharing thoughts on the ways of the world.

As long as you’re on Facebook, and employ Google to aid your quests for knowledge, both creations of inventors of Jewish identity, declaring that you hate the Jews is a contradiction, a joke clearly on you. And, as Muslims, your faith is threatened the moment you withhold your love for Jesus and Moses.

Don’t let a criminal be a representative of his race, religion and nationality. This approach, this dangerous stereotyping, has been the reason for these many conflicts we are still unable to resolve in this damned world. We must embrace our humanity, the only thing we all have in common, if we’re indeed interested in resolving our racial, religious, political, regional, territorial and ethnic conflicts!

Unlike you, whenever I see a group of people, the first identity that strikes me is the human, not the religious, not the political, not the racial, and obviously not the ethnic. Aside from my immediate family, my next closest family are the righteous people, people always in pursuit of Justice without discrimination, and of their other identities I’m unmindful.

I’ve long overcome the naiveté of hating a people based on the crimes of a group of which they are non-compliant members, just the way I don’t owe any non-Muslim and southerner apology for the atrocities of the Boko Haram. I only owe them explanation, defence, solidarity and empathy. My seeming silence over the killings in Gaza is simply because I’ve also been mourning, and also holed up in a mess of immeasurable depth. The Palestinians, I know, have global solidarity soldiers fighting for them. But, beyond hashtags, who are actually fighting for the redemptions of this place in which we don’t need a visa to reside?

This week, at our Abuja’s #BringBackOurGirls sit-in, as I listened to Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a woman whose public service records never really attracted my curiosity, but I’ve come to like as a humanist and patriot of impressive resilience, lament on the fate and conditions of the abducted girls and the dysfunctionality of the system in charge of our safety, something within me collapsed. So I withdrew from the crowd, hoping that could stem it, but I still couldn’t fight the tears. And that was how I left the sit-in, broken. This is because, in the cruel politics of migrations in this century, I have no home other than Nigeria, and the tragedy that befalls a fellow countryman, irrespective of his/her religious and ethnic and regional affiliations, is a shared grief.

I’m not inconsiderate to your reference to “brotherhood of faith” in standing for the people of Gaza, but I will never ever stand for them simply because we’re of the same religion. My own version of that excuse of yours is: “faith in the universal brotherhood of Man.” I only empathise with them because of a shared humanity. As for those who rightly explain that humanity has no border, which I also endorse, my belief in yours may only be confirmed if you also recognise the conditions of the Iraqi Christians who’re now fleeing Mosul, for they have been told by the ISIS animals to convert to Islam or lose their lives. Many of you are in Abuja, but participating in #BringBackOurGirls is seen as a “waste of time”, insulting those who defy the tasks of their 9-to-5 daily to be a part of the campaign, ignorant of the impending dangers, the danger of becoming refugees in your own city!

Yet, some of you have sought to typify my refusal to label corpses in order to know which deserves my empathy as simply a bid to earn a medal from the non-Muslims I’ve been struggling so hard, according to you, to impress; some of the same non-Muslims who, in a spark of mischief, have in their turn called me an “Islamic propagandist”, whatever that is, for condemning the profiling of northerners in the East, for endorsing a Muslim as presidential candidate… But I’m indifferent to their malicious labeling just as I’ve been to yours because you’re both incapable of denying me the rights to such expressions.

Humanity is still a joke because of this army of cerebrally malfunctioned brothers and sisters to whom we’re seen as hypocrites merely trying to impress the non-members of our group, for exposing a form of oppressive hypocrisy. Well, my dear friend, I don’t write to influence or change you; my writing is a sport that seeks to prove that I don’t think the way you do, and that the way I think is independent of yours. I hope this would be taken in good faith. May God save us from us!

By Gimba Kakanda
@gimbakakanda (On Twitter)