Housing discrimination against African-Americans, also known as redlining, has long been a form of institutional racism in the post Jim Crow era.

Under the Federal Housing Act, federal loans were systematically denied to African-Americans, which helped create ghettos and further segregated blacks from whites. Ferguson is just one example among many which employed the practice.

The latent effects of racism are rooted throughout Ferguson. 93% of drivers arrested are black, yet only 67% of the city’s population is black. One-quarter of the town’s revenue is due to fines issued by a police force that disproportionately targets African-Americans.

There are unabashedly racist cops, like police lieutenant Hayes, who ordered officers to racially profile minorities. According to a whistleblower, Hayes said things like “let’s have a black day” and “make the jail cells more colorful.” Adding insult to injury, the police broke the law while investigating him.

With this reality in mind, fatal police shootings of black teens like Mike Brown are bound to happen.

The mass protests in Ferguson caused Amnesty International to make an unprecedented deployment of observers to the streets, including Jasmine M. Heiss, who told Media Roots that “Ferguson has sparked an intense and overdue conversation about race and justice in the United States.”

Heiss also witnessed the racial divide created in the West Bank, where Jewish settlements and surrounding Palestinian population had been segregated by walls and checkpoints. While illegal settlements in Hebron enjoyed basic necessities, Palestinians were denied access to human rights like water. After witnessing numerous arrests of journalists and peaceful protesters amid the tear gas, rubber bullets and sound cannons in Ferguson, Heiss said she felt like she was back in the West Bank, noting the striking similarity between the two cities in their militarized crushing of dissent.

Journalist Max Blumenthal has documented this parallel, underscoring how Israeli security state tactics have been outsourced to the US in a trend he calls the “Israelification” of American police forces. In fact, according to Electronic Intifada’s Rania Khalek, “at least two of the four law enforcement agencies that were deployed in Ferguson—the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Police Department—received training from Israeli security forces in recent years.”

Enforcing security based on racist ideology has long been field tested by Israel, which uses Palestinians as lab rats before outsourcing its defense and intelligence capabilities to other world powers. Whether it be Israeli forces training ICE officers in Tacoma, outsourcing a Behavior Pattern Recognition security system for US airports, or intelligence contractor Elbit Systems winning multimillion dollar contracts to patrol the US-Mexico border, Israel’s idea of security has now become America’s. As a result, Big Brother’s gaze is discriminatory, and racial minorities are unfairly targeted by the system.

When the state engenders unjust policies like those epitomized in places like Ferguson, the press has a duty to engage, raise awareness and advocate the reinstatement of justice. Standing in solidarity with the oppressed and amplifying the plight of the voiceless is the primary function of the Fourth Estate. Unfortunately, the police state has appropriated the corporate press and criminalized journalists who challenge systemic injustices.

In response to the police killings of Mike Brown, Ezell Ford and Eric Garner, activist groups like Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders and the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, have gained traction. To be sure though, the Defense Department has been anticipating the growth of such activism, whether it be Muslims in Michigan, blacks in Ferguson, or any other minority group which could “threaten social unrest.”

In a four-part series for Occupy.com, Dr. Nafeez Ahmed unveils a government data-mining project dubbed The Minerva Initiative. Under the guise of enhancing the drone Kill List and targeting American-Muslims that have the “potential to become terrorists,” the flawed algorithms used to search out ‘terrorists’ abroad are now being retrofitted to seek out political dissidents on US soil.

Ahmed details how a nexus of metadata and social media are being used by the Pentagon to develop a “radicalism scale” for potential social uprisings in the US, and the unconstitutional spying operation is being aided and abetted by Universities like Arizona State and the University of Washington. Effectively, social sciences are militarized with professors acting as spy proxies reporting back to their DC overlords.

One specific DoD project “seeks to uncover the conditions under which political movements aimed at large-scale political and economic change originate, and what their characteristics and consequences are.” As Ahmed states in an interview with Abby Martin, Ferguson is an example of what the Minerva Initiative sets out to suppress.

Even more disturbing, the use of predator drones on American soil is a real possibility considering the direct correlation between data-mining and extrajudicial executions. If current trends continue, American skies could soon be populated by drones targeting and potentially even executing non-violent activists.

Given the aggressive characteristics police displayed during Occupy Wall Street and Ferguson combined with the Pentagon’s intent to seek out and destroy potentially “threatening” movements, the War on Terror has officially come home to roost.

Written by Michael D. Micklow, image by flickr user Tony Webster

They told us all we had to do to get rich was work hard. They said we had a world of opportunities to achieve all the success we wanted. Yet an uncomfortable truth is dawning over America: the American Dream was simply never meant for everyone. Anyone could get rich – but not everyone at the same time. It’s only a dream for a privileged few, and a nightmare for everyone else.

Let’s take the “Dream” apart so we can take a closer look of what it’s made of. I can reap the fruits of my own hard work. I can forge the career of my dreams, and through that career, I can make good money and live the good life. I can free myself from the oppressive chains of government and oligarchy. Me, myself and I. If there’s a single underlying issue with the American Dream, a single virus behind the symptoms of sick lady America, it’s the individualistic mentality that has it locked in a futile battle against none other than itself. It is this mentality that has academics at the country’s most elite institutions concluding that the United States is not a democracy but an oligarchy.

So how did a country that once provided asylum to refugees of Europe’s aristocracy come to be ruled by a modern-day aristocracy? Part of the problem is the inability to realize that certain freedoms and liberties inherently conflict with each other. My freedom as an executive to make as much money as I want conflicts with your freedom as an employee to be able to make a living and afford basic human rights such as food, shelter, education and health care. I could show you some compassion – but not in hyper-individualistic America. Instead, my power as an executive allows my freedom to prevail, whereas your lack of power as a mere worker leaves you deprived of yours.

That is why Detroit, once the embodiment of the American Dream, now epitomizes its sad end: the unleashing of international trade anarchy opened the door to outsourcing, which in turn wiped out the Motor City’s economy. Wall Street finished it off. Neoliberal economists, feigning scientific-ness in order to legitimize the world’s plundering by the corporate elite, preach free trade in the name of maximizing “efficiency”. Poverty, unemployment and thousands of abandoned buildings aren’t exactly a perfect illustration of efficiency.

Hyper-individualism is unsustainable, and until people find meaning beyond the dollar, the American nightmare will continue to be a harsh reality for many.

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How America’s Work Obsession is Killing Our Quality of Life

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How the American Dream Died

Abby Martin comments on a recent poll showing that a growing number of Americans believe the ‘American Dream’ is impossible to achieve; and urges US citizens to rethink what the dream should truly be.

**

Written by Ming Chun Tang; image by Flickr user Memories_by_Mike

The Western media analysis of the Israeli invasion into Gaza dubbed ‘Operation Protective Edge’ has been totally one-sided in its support of Israel. Although there are hundreds, perhaps the most glaring example to date is the IDF shelling of four boys on the beach in Gaza City.

Award-winning journalist and NBC foreign news correspondent, Ayman Mohyeldin, was on the ground when the strike occurred and documented it in harrowing detail. As Glenn Greenwald reported:

“Mohyeldin recounted how, moments before their death, he was kicking a soccer ball with the four boys, who were between the ages of 9 and 11 and all from the same family. He posted numerous chilling details on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, including the victims’ names and ages, photographs he took of their anguished parents, and video of one of their mothers as she learned about the death of her young son.”

Several international, award-winning journalists corroborated the deliberate strike, which amounts to a war crime. Excellent and crucial reporting aside, in the wake of his report, Mohyeldin was suddenly pulled from Gaza. NBC cited security concerns, yet immediately replaced him with foreign news correspondent, Richard Engel. Mohyeldin was removed from his post because his reporting didn’t fit the narrative, as Greenwald underscores:

“Over the last two weeks, Mohyeldin’s reporting has been far more balanced and even-handed than the standard pro-Israel coverage that dominates establishment American press coverage; his reports have provided context to the conflict that is missing from most American reports and he avoids adopting Israeli government talking points as truth.”

Rula Jebreal is another example of corporate media benching reporters for not toeing a pro-Israel bias, whose contributor title was dropped and all scheduled appearances cancelled by MSNBC for speaking out about the absence of Palestinian voices on the network.

In light of the rampant disinformation pumped by major news stations (only five corporations control 90% of what Americans see, hear and read), people are largely ignorant to the facts on the ground. Government talking points are repeated throughout the Internet, infecting the masses with further disinfo. Even worse, such warmed-over propaganda often flies under the guise of objectivity and reason.

A perfect example is a recent op-ed by Ali A. Rizvi on Huffington Post, which appears fair by denouncing the lack of objectivity in media:

“Are you ‘pro-Israel’ or ‘pro-Palestine’? It isn’t even noon yet as I write this, and I’ve already been accused of being both…to come down completely on the side of one or the other doesn’t seem rational to me…That however we intellectualize and analyze the components of the Middle East mess, it remains, at its core, a tribal conflict.”

Unfortunately, at the core of this seemingly unbiased argument is an unwavering support for the occupation of Palestine.

“Why are people asking for Israel to end the ‘occupation’ in Gaza?…Because they have short memories…In 2005, Israel ended the occupation in Gaza. It pulled out every last Israeli soldier. It dismantled every last settlement. Many Israeli settlers who refused to leave were forcefully evicted from their homes, kicking and screaming.”

Rizvi’s appeal to emotion is nothing but an attempt to persuade the reader to invest in the idea that Israeli homes were wrongfully taken from them. But according to international law, the continuous settlement building and military occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank are illegal. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 issued a court order demanding Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their homes. The International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, and the United Nations Security Council all regard Israel as an illegal “Occupying Power,” as well as the official Israeli Sasson Report.

Specifically, the report uncovered a “secret cooperation between various ministries and official institutions to consolidate ‘wildcat’ outposts, which settlers began erecting more than a decade ago.” Such military outposts encroaching further into Palestinian land are anything but legitimate.

Rizvi also begins his timeline at 2005, ignoring how the military occupation has lasted over sixty years, dating back to 1948. A blockade of one’s airspace, borders and seaports is an occupation, one that’s being waged by an apartheid state armed with industrial warfare.

Here’s a thought experiment to emphasize the dreadful nature of a blockade after being ruled by martial law for nearly six decades. Imagine the following scenario from the Palestinian perspective:

After occupying your house for a few generations, here’s your keys back. Now I’ll just erect roadblocks outside your streets; build massive walls and checkpoint systems dividing your family and friends; rummage through everything before you buy it and put you on “diet” to keep you on the brink of a humanitarian crisis (Wikileaks).  

Would you feel liberated?

Because of this missing context, the author inaccurately perceives this as an “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” – a false equivalency between the occupier and occupied. Instead, this is a state-sanctioned military occupation, financially backed by the US to the tune of three billion dollars a year. If this were an equal “conflict” between two legitimate states, you would see aid being provided both ways to quell the humanitarian crisis. Instead the US provides 8.5 million dollars each day to Israel while providing only a miniscule amount to Palestine.

If 1.8 million people are kept trapped in one of the poorest, densest regions in the world and subjected to constant policing and harassment, militant resistance against the occupiers will inevitably build. Hamas, an organization which arose in the eighties and was elected to govern the Gaza strip, must be seen in this context. Without justifying rockets launched by Hamas into Israel, it must be understood that Palestinian refugees in Gaza have been blanketly cast as detainees in an open-air prison – even worse, terrorists.

According to former Congressman Ron Paul, the US and Israel facilitated the rise of Hamas in order to counterbalance the power of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. The US playbook of funding opposition groups is nothing new with its emboldening of both al-Qaeda and ISIS militias. If true, that fact alone warrants an immediate end to the blockade and US relief package sent to Palestinian refugees along with a fucking apology letter.

Moving on to the oft repeated meme that has been doggedly used in the media – the idea that Hamas hides behind its own people, AKA uses them as “human shields.”

Rizvi states that Hamas puts its civilians in the line of fire, but the only evidence he provides is a link to a Hamas spokesperson talking about individual Muslims choosing to willingly martyr for religious and spiritual reasons. This would suggest consent – a pretty crucial distinction. This stands in stark contrast to the narrative being waged in corporate media which asserts, without evidence, that Hamas is using unwilling subjects to hide behind and storing missiles in populated hospitals or schools. One promoted tweet by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even depicted a Hamas solider hiding behind an unsuspecting mother pushing a baby stroller. This is the epitome of agit-prop, where overly emotional arguments are used to demonize the enemy.

Not to mention how Israel is the last entity that should be pointing fingers, considering that between 2000 and 2005, the IDF admitted to using 1,200 Palestinians as human shields. After the Israeli High Court found the IDF’s use of them illegal, there are several instances where IDF soldiers continued to employ the tactic. 

One must also understand the historical context of this term. Media Roots has reported an analysis of this oft-used phrase to smear one’s adversary in order to legitimize war. In almost every case, there is very little evidence proving the allegations.

Using this very notion as the backbone of his argument, Rizvi continues:

“…there is no justification for innocent Gazans dying…But let’s back up and think about this for a minute. Why on Earth would Israel deliberately want to kill civilians?”

I don’t know Mr. Rizvi – but when IDF forces have been found guilty of using innocent Palestinians as bomb sniffing dogs to clear buildings, speculating about Israel’s intent is immaterial. Accredited sources have reported that the IDF is using high grade weaponry like DIME micro-shrapnel and flechette shells against innocent civilians in Gaza, a weapon that indiscriminately shoots thousands of little metal darts. In previous sieges, Israel has used white phosphorus, a chemical weapon that burns so hot it can melt straight to the bone.

The US-backed Israeli apartheid state is ground zero in this battle. And in the same vein as Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolent protest is a time-tested, worthy ally in the fight against corporate and state oppression.

One such method of resistance is the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that originated in Palestine, which aims to boycott, divest and sanction companies that profit off of the Gaza siege and occupation. BDS is the single-most important tool at our disposal, because we can fight back with our purchasing power – the same economic pressure that helped end the apartheid state in South Africa.

Ali Hasan Abunimah is a Palestinian-American leading the charge. In his book The Battle for Justice in Palestine he argues that the battle for independence will be won on college campuses. He writes:

“[The situation] is deteriorating in the West Bank with Israel’s relentless theft and colonization of land. It’s deteriorating in Gaza where the siege is even tighter than ever, where in recent days you see electricity being cut off once again and Israel closing the only food and fuel crossing into Gaza. And it seems to be getting worse in present-day Israel, where it seems every other week a new racist policy is passed–most recently the law to discriminate between Palestinian Christian and Palestinian Muslim citizens…So it’s not to discount the struggle people there are waging, but I wanted to focus on the fact that in the U.S. and other parts of the world, Palestinians are winning many battles, and Israel and the Zionist movement are really faltering in their efforts to win hearts and minds.”

A population of nearly 2 million, 40 percent of which are children are being terrorized by Israel on a daily basis, whether it be with checkpoints, house demolitions or warfare. After Operation Pillar of Defense (Israel’s 2012 bombing which paled in comparison to now), the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children doubled, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency. Only when Palestinians can be born with basic dignity and human rights can this terrifying cycle of violence come to an end.

For those interested in how to get involved in BDS refer go here.    

Written by Michael Micklow for Media Roots, Image by Anthony Freda Studio

The humanitarian catastrophe resulting from Israel’s latest killing spree in Gaza should weigh heavily on the conscience of US citizens, given that Israel remains the largest recipient of US foreign aid, to the tune of 3 billion dollars a year.

According to Reuters, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has now dropped bombs on over 1,000 targets across what has been deemed the world’s largest open-air prison. Scenes of extreme suffering and loss abound, like that in the town of Khan Younis, where a house filled with civilians was bombed, or the missile that leveled Gaza’s police headquarters, killing 18 members of one family.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) observed “Israeli warplanes launched 39 airstrikes targeting houses, agricultural plots, open areas, a charity and a bank in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.” Furthermore, “Israeli tanks and gunboats … fired dozens of shells at agricultural and open areas,” killing “9 Palestinian civilians, including 2 women …” PCHR also documents that 149 houses in Gaza have been “targeted and destroyed.”

These outbursts of state terror are so periodic and unceasing, it’s difficult to express the gravity of the situation. Much like the previous large-scale Israeli military assault on Gaza in 2012 called ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, ‘Operation Protective Edge’ has unleashed horrifying levels of violence against Palestinian civilians. Doctors on the ground are now reporting that Israel is using weapons against Gazans which have been banned under international law, “[causing] major damage to [their] bodies, especially the limbs.” Responding to this gruesome development, Palestinian Health Ministry Undersecretary Youssef Abo al-Rish condemned  “Israel’s use of internationally banned weapons” as “a blatant violation of human rights and international agreements.”

Compounded with the devastating human toll this savagery has spawned is a media narrative that all but ensures it will continue. Both television and print media repeatedly cast Israel as merely “defending itself” or “retaliating” against Hamas rockets. Writing in the Boston Globe, Chairman of the Anti Defamation League Jeff Robbins notes “Those who have been fortunate enough not to have endured rockets aimed at their homes can be counted upon to issue the familiar incantations about Israeli ‘collective punishment,’ dodging as always the question of what, precisely, Israel is supposed to do about attacks against its civilians if not to try to prevent them.”

Ignored in this callous dismissal of Israeli war crimes is the fact that the people of Gaza are under a foreign military occupation in violation of international humanitarian law and multiple UN Security Council Resolutions. That this brutal occupation may be the source of the rocketing is untouched in the corporate press. Instead, American audiences are presented with a de-contextualized narrative of a cycle of violence from both sides, accompanied, almost invariably, by vague and insincere demands for a de-escalation of the conflict.

If the vast disparity in firepower between Hamas and the IDF doesn’t illustrate the specious framing, then the death toll certainly does. Since the beginning of Israel’s assault, 170 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,120 have been injured according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Based on figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “70 percent of Gaza fatalities are civilians,” and of that number, “30 percent are children.” Conversely, zero Israelis have been killed. Nonetheless, the western authors of this mass slaughter are unrestrained in their exuberance, foremost the “leader of the free world.”

In his July 8 Op-Ed in Haaretz, President Obama celebrated the growing “security relationship” between the US and Israel, a bond that is “stronger than ever.” Perhaps the “strength” of this bond can be measured in the overwhelming silence and distortion that has greeted this latest chapter in the Palestinian people’s long record of national humiliation. So when ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer misidentifies Palestinian civilians devastated by IAF airstrikes as Israelis, a simple one minute apology to American viewers (not to the people of Gaza) suffices.

Any deeper investigation into the dominant narratives of Palestinian villainy that have long characterized US media discourse is forbidden. For example, the New York Times will issue no apology for featuring a front page photograph of a masked Palestinian slinging a stone alongside an article about the brutal lynching of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khadeir. Unlike Sawyer’s “mistake”, misrepresentations of this kind are the norm, and therefore merit no apologies. These images are illustrative of Palestinian menace or an ominous “demographic problem” pensively waiting to destroy an Israeli state–an island of civilization in a “tough neighborhood”–“forced to take action to protect its civilians.” Rhetoric of this kind is highly reminiscent of the US genocide against North America’s indigenous population, which was carried out to “protect” the European colonists from the “terror” of “merciless Indian savages,” as Thomas Jefferson described them in one of his lesser known contributions to “enlightenment” philosophy.

Incidentally, the traditional imperial pretext of “protecting civilians” has been stretched to surreal dimensions under the current offensive. Among the “military” targets selected in this campaign to “protect” Israelis are beach-side cafes, mosques, and rehabilitation centers. The New York Times headlined the attack on the beach-side cafe as follows: Missile at Beachside Gaza Cafe Finds Patrons Poised for World Cup (my emphasis). It would be instructive to observe the response within the US if the terrorist attack against innocent civilians at the Boston Marathon was headlined Exploding Pressure Cooker Finds Athletes Poised for Boston Marathon. Needless to say, more than a simple “correction” would be demanded.

Underlying these socially sanctioned exhibitions of dehumanization is a doctrine of state violence which was articulated most powerfully by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. In a shockingly unambiguous entry in his Independence War Diary he noted “Blowing up a house is not enough. What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place and casualties. If we know the family–[we must] strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action there is no need to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.” Under ‘Operation Protective Edge’, the Israeli military has adhered to this pernicious doctrine with a frightening degree of discipline.

Overshadowing this record of atrocities is the inescapable fact that the United States is complicit in the killing of every innocent Palestinian under Israeli occupation, a reality systematically omitted from conventional narratives. A particularly dramatic illustration of this norm could be perceived in a recent State Dept. press conference. After establishing the dogma that Palestinians had no “right to defend themselves”, State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked what Washington would do to pressure Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to “rein in” Hamas.

Since Hamas and the PA formed a “unity government”, the journalist protested, Abbas certainly shared “responsibility” for the Hamas rocketing into Israel. Another question could have easily been asked, namely what was the Obama administration going to do to “rein in” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critical inquiry of this kind is inconceivable in US establishment journalistic circles. Consequently, the leader of the “only democracy in the Middle East” (typical language in imperial societies that lack self-reflection, the US being a dramatic example) can launch missiles at unprotected civilian structures–murdering the elderly, women, and children–and the best headline Human Rights Watch can produce to capture the tragedy is Palestine/Israel: Indiscriminate Palestinian Rocket Attacks. On the IAF airstrikes on houses? They “appear to be” collective punishment.

At a recent Palestine solidarity rally, author and activist Max Blumenthal proclaimed “This is not a conflict. It is a conquest. It is an illegal conquest.” Beyond the highly misleading, and often racist, commentary that prevails in the establishment press, this is arguably the most succinct description of Israel’s ongoing war against Palestinians. Much like the global conquerors in Washington, the regional conquerors in the Israeli government interpret any expression of autonomy by those over whom they rule as not only threatening but criminal. It is through this perverse logic that the systematic subjugation of an entire people is made to look virtuous or, to borrow Benjamin Netanyahu’s words in reference to its threats against Iran, “those in the international community … don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.” Throughout history, all oppressive states have imbibed this psychotic worldview, some in more lethal doses than others. One shudders at the thought of future servants of empire retelling this chronology of suffering and the monstrosities they will inevitably conceal in the name of “freedom”.

Written by Xavier Best @Xav711

Photo by flickr user Jose Mesa

Source: Chomsky, Noam. The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Boston, MA: South End, 1983. Print.