Minaret of Freedom Weblog

Israeli police arrested leading Sheikh Jarrah activist Muna El-Kurd at her family’s home on June 6, claiming that she was accused of “participating in riots” …

• Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Muna el-Kurd in East Jerusalem (BBC)

… and ordered Arabs in the city of Nazareth detained suspected of participating in riots “to sit on the floor with their heads bowed and proceeded to beat them with various objects”:

• Israeli Police Allegedly Beat Arab Detainees in Nazareth During Gaza Escalation (Haaretz)

• Israel-Palestine: Sheikh Jarrah Expulsions Likely After Attorney General Declines to Intervene (Middle East Eye)
• Israel’s Supreme Court Could Stop Evictions of Palestinians (Washington Post)

Tehreek-e-Wahdat-e-Islami accused the Modi regime of purposefully holding a Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir in order to “expose Kashmir to the most dangerous Indian COVID-19 variant”:

• Modi Regime Wants to Expose Kashmiris to Indian Variant of COVID: TWI (Kashmir Media Service)

The Observatory of Laicite was formed in 2013 with the purpose of advising the government and training state employees on the French concept of secularism. Today, the organization is being forcibly dissolved for “its criticism of policies targeting Muslims”:

• France: Government Dissolves Embattled Advisory Organization on Secularism (Middle East Eye)

• Supreme Court to Hear Case Involving FBI Surveillance of Muslim Community in California (CBS)

While IEAE officials are now unsure of the extent of Iran’s nuclear capabilities …

• UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Iran Has Failed to Account for Uranium Find (Iran International)

… countries including the “UK, France, Germany and US push for breakthrough in talks”:

• US And Europe Dismiss IAEA Warning in Hope of Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal (The Guardian)

An “estimated one million public and private bomb shelters” across Israel do not benefit “unrecognized” Palestinian-majority  villages such as Dahmash, which does not have access to a single one, and lack “basic services and infrastructure”:

• Israeli Ambassador Slammed for Exploiting Death of Young Palestinian Citizen of Israel (Middle East Eye)

Marathon runners peacefully protesting the Sheikh Jarrah expulsions are greeted at the finish line by uniformed thugs with stun guns:

• Israeli Police Attack Palestinians Running to Protest Expulsions (Aljazeera)

The UN has requested a response from the Indian government regarding severe human rights violations such as, “arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and torture”:

• UN Seeks Indian Govt’s Response on Human Rights Violations in Kashmir (The Siasat Daily)

Al-Jazeera journalist Givara Budeiri was assaulted and detained while covering demonstrations in the Israeli occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood:

• Israeli Police Arrest Al Jazeera Journalist in East Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera)

Following swift withdrawals by US and NATO forces, the Taliban have accelerated their plans to expand into Afghanistan and are rapidly increasing their power in the country:

• The Taliban Are Getting Stronger in Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO Forces Exit (NPR)

Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh on Friday guardedly welcomed a pledge by Myanmar’s shadow government to grant citizenship to members of their stateless community if and when it returns to power, with “refugees saying they have been cheated many times before”:

• Myanmar’s NUG Asks Rohingya to Join Hands in Fighting Junta (Press TV)

The law school grad shares credit for her success with her mother who raised “her children, especially her girls, to be independent” and a teacher who encouraged her to develop “an open mind and about .. to use and value her own opinion to interpret what she read”:

• ‘Go in Strong’: UW Student Paves Way as Among First Muslim Women to Wear a Hijab at Law School Graduation (Seattle Times)

Experts warn that the anticipated Bennett-Lapid coalition’s policies, particularly in regards to Palestine and Iran, will not veer too far from Netanyahu’s:

• Israel’s New ‘Government of Change’ May Mean More of The Same (Middle East Eye)
• Why Israel’s New Government Does N ot Give Palestinians Much Hope (Scroll)

Israel’s Iron Dome seems to have reached its operational limit as Hamas “used massive barrages of rockets in a new way” designed to overwhelm the defense system, which eventually led to “more than 60 rockets” hitting strategic targets in Israel:

• Israel’s Iron Dome Won’t Last Forever (Foreign Policy)

Facebook has repeatedly bowed down to government demands to take down content that is against their interests including removing “posts from prominent Palestinian activists” and helped Indian PM Narendra Modi “stifle criticism of his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic”:

• India and Israel Inflame Facebook’s Fights With Its Own Employees (NY Times)

UN decision to open an inquiry is a welcome first step towards justice for Palestinians as the international community “is left with no choice but to look into Israeli war crimes and HR abuses”:

• Will Israel Be Held Accountable For War Crimes? (Al-Jazeera)

Over 50 foreign and prime ministers have condemned Israel’s obstruction of the International Criminal Court’s efforts to investigate Israeli war crimes in Israeli occupied Palestinian territories:

• Senior Global Figures Slam ‘Obstruction’ of ICC Palestine Probe (Arab News)

Republican lawmaker Lindsey Graham said Israel would ask the US for $1 billion to replenish their Iron Dome security system:

• Sen. Graham Says Israel Plans to Ask for $1b in U.S. Aid Following Gaza Fighting (Haaretz)

Imad Barghouti, a renowned Palestinian astrophysicist, was arrested in 2020 and charged “in relation to the content of some of his Facebook posts” before being put under indefinite detention without trial:

• Renowned Palestinian Astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi Released from Israeli Prison (Palestine Chronicle)

India dismissed three Kashmiri employees without an inquiry, citing “security of the state”, while many see the sackings as part of Indian government efforts to have greater influence and control on government employees:

• India Sacks Kashmir Employees For Threatening ‘Security Of State’ (Al-Jazeera)

Two refugees unable to leave “the flood-prone island of Bhasan Char” after fleeing “violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar” said that they “suffered baton injuries as they protested against the lack of access to a visiting U.N. team”:

• Rohingya Muslim Refugees ‘Injured in Protests’ on Isolated Island During UNHCR Visit (Reuters)

He predicted that he would be fired if he ever changes a single student’s mind; he never made it that far:

• A Teacher at a Main Line Jewish School Criticized Zionism on Twitter. Then He Got Fired (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Iran has claimed that it is unable “to pay the UN is because of US sanctions and it was trying to have the money paid by South Korea where Tehran has frozen funds”:

• Iran May Lose UN Voting Rights for Failure to Pay Dues (Iran International)

Unconditional support for Israel has made it increasingly difficult for the US to claim “moral high ground on the world stage” as Israel employs its “superior military power” to “kill and terrorize residents of Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon with near impunity”:

• It’s Time to End the ‘Special Relationship’ With Israel (Foreign Policy)

Increasing Israeli mass arrests include people for publishing criticism on socialmedia and a man who”tried to protect a 15-year-old Palestinian girl who was being physically assaulted by Israeli police at Damascus Gate” …

• Fear Barrier Broken Despite Hundreds of Arrests in Jerusalem (Aljazeera)

… Israeli police brutality extends to both traumatized children as well as the mentally ill:

• ‘Wake Up Screaming’: Gaza’s Children Traumatised by Israeli War (Al-Jazeera)
• Israel Kills Mentally Ill Palestinians With Impunity (Middle East Eye)

“If, as [Israelis] insist, Jews–any Jews–have the ‘right of return’ to any land previously owned or occupied by Jews, then so must Palestinians have a right to return to land previously owned or occupied by Palestinians anywhere in the territory between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”:

• About that “Real Estate Dispute” in Sheikh Jarrah (Libertarian Institute)

First the BJP destroyed the mosque, then they claimed it never existed, now they claim it was illegal but having failed to produce any proof, the judge has given them three more weeks to find something while prohibiting the arrest of the Muslims in  the case in the meantime:

• India Mosque Demolition: Officials Accused of Filing False Report on Muslim Leaders (The Guardian)

Instagram, the social media giant owned by Facebook, blames a poorly thought out algorithm for suppressing Palestinian activists as well as pro-Palestine content in general, and claims that the issue has been “fixed”:

• Instagram Changes Algorithm Amid Claims of Anti-Palestinian Bias (Middle East Eye)

• Austrian Muslims to Sue Kurz Government for Controversial ‘Islam Map’ (WION)

There are “government employees in Indian-administered Kashmir … whose salaries have not been paid for years because of their past links with the armed rebellion in the disputed region”:

• Suicide in Kashmir Reveals Plight of Ex-rebels Turned Gov’t Staff (Aljazeera)

Argentina voted in favor of a UN resolution announced by the UN Human Rights Council  – a resolution that would allow for the opening of an investigation into possible human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories:

• Israel Demands Explanations For Argentina’s Vote at UN in Favor of Human Rights Probe (MercoPress)

Pakistani PM Imran Khan stated that Pakistan would not “normalize relations with India” until it steps back from the actions taking away Kashmir’s autonomous status:

• Normalizing Relations with India Will Be Tantamount to Betraying Kashmiri  People: PM Imran (Business Recorder)