RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19807/palestinians-apartheid-lebanon

“The procedures and restrictions imposed on the entry of building materials into the Palestinian camps in Lebanon are in contradiction with the principles of human rights.” — Hassan al-Sayyida, a researcher and human rights activist at the Palestinian Association for Human, palinfo.com, July 10,2023

This is the second case within a year in which a Palestinian has been arrested on charges of a “construction violation.” On July 28, 2022, the Lebanese authorities arrested another Palestinian woman, Amal Mousa, also on the pretext of building a house without a permit. Mousa was released only after she was forced to demolish the foundations of her house.

Israel, too, has demolished illegal houses — but for Arabs and Jews…. Israel is not even doing much about the massive illegal building by Arabs, who have reportedly seized 30% of the land unpoetically called “Area C”: land that by mutual agreement in the Oslo Accords belongs wholly to Israel. One can go to the edge of Jerusalem and see literally countless illegal skyscrapers built by Arabs as well as smaller illegal buildings that extend south for miles. “At present [2022]…there are 81,317 illegal Arab-built structures in this area….” according to the research group Regavim. Moreover, Israel never arrests or keeps anyone in prison because of a construction violation.

[T]here is an urgent need to build new houses for the Palestinians in Lebanon, “especially since the existing houses are not sufficient and do not meet the demographic increase in the population”… [M]any Palestinians, as in the case of Um Wissam, are forced to build houses on top of the roofs of their homes. — The Palestinian Association for Human Rights, refugeesps.net, July 10, 2023

Palestinians in Lebanon “face substantial challenges to the full enjoyment of their human rights. They are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property.” — UNRWA, reporting that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering; unrwa.org, updated September, 2020

“Palestinian refugees [in Lebanon] consistently report experiencing discrimination in hiring practices and opportunities for employment. They are faced with informal restrictions on the types of jobs and industries they can be hired for due to additional bureaucracy around contracts and work permits and discrimination.” – UNRWA, reporting that the Palestinians in Lebanon are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering; unrwa.org, updated September, 2020

“[I]t is difficult to deny that the Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon have been subjected to systematic discrimination and to the violation of their basic human rights. The Palestinian refugees have been forced into abject poverty by the Lebanese government’s denial of their rights to remunerated employment, social security, public health care, public education and property ownership. The argument that Palestinian integration into Lebanese society would either cause them to lose their right of return or would upset Lebanon’s sectarian balance is just a pretext the Lebanese government uses to discriminate against the Palestinians, whom many Lebanese blame for causing the Lebanese civil war. The Palestinian refugees are not asking for citizenship; they are simply asking to be afforded the rights given to other refugees around the world.” — The Palestine-Israel Journal , 2008

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/07/17/welcome-to-canada-the-doctor-wont-see-you-now-but-the-undertaker-will/

Earlier this month, Boy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Taylor Swift to take her tour to Canada, where she so far has no concert dates. “We hope to see you soon,” he tweeted. If she does, she’d better hope none of her crew becomes ill. A person could expire while waiting to see a doctor in Canada.

The Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, which has long documented Canada’s miserable government-run health care system, estimates the cost of waiting for care “for patients who were in the queue in 2022 was almost $3.6 billion … an average of about $2,925 for each of the estimated 1,228,047 Canadians waiting for treatment.”

The real toll is actually worse than that. Fraser’s “conservative estimate” does not place an “intrinsic value on the time individuals spend waiting in a reduced capacity outside of the work week.” When evenings and weekends are entered into the calculation, minus eight hours of sleep each night, the estimated cost of waiting reaches “$10.9 billion, or about $8,897 per person.”

In 2022, it took 12.6 weeks for the average Canadian to land an appointment with a specialist after a referral from a general practitioner. Another 14.8 weeks would elapse after that appointment before treatment by the specialist could begin. Fraser said that ​​taken together, “the total median wait time in Canada for medical treatment was 27.4 weeks in 2022 – the longest in the survey’s history.”

As one might expect, the delays are deadly, and are becoming deadlier. Research from Second Street (a think tank that tells “the stories of Canadians from all walks of life and how they’re affected – for better or worse – by government decisions”) found that a record number of Canadians died awaiting care during the country’s 2021-22 fiscal year.

“​​At least 13,581 patients died while waiting for surgeries, procedures and diagnostic scans,” the report says. “This year’s total is up from last year’s total of 11,581.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19805/persecution-of-christians-june

The genocide of Christians at the hands of Muslims continued to rage throughout the month. Muslim “Fulani jihadists” slaughtered 2,500 Christians and “burned down or wantonly destroyed” 18,200 churches in just the first six months of 2023. Fifty million Christians have further been “forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness.” — news.band, June 3, 2023 – Nigeria

“All I can say is that war has been declared on Christians in Mangu [Plateau State, Nigeira]. The terrorists are just attacking and killing Christians in most of the communities around Mangu… Christians here really need help.” — Markus Artu, a member of the Mangu Local Government Council, after 150 Christians were killed in the first three weeks of June; Morning Star News, June 27, 2023 – Nigeria

On June 7, the mutilated body of Shazia Imran Masih, a 40-year-old Christian widow, was found. Earlier, four Muslims had “abducted, gang-raped and killed” her “for refusing to convert to Islam and marry the primary suspect.” – Morning Star News, July 7, 2023 — Pakistan

“The accused are very influential, and they have been persistently threatening us….” — Zafar Masih, a member of a local evangelical church, Moring Star News, July 3, 2023– Pakistan

“Indonesia’s Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths.” – Moring Star News, June 23, 2023– Indonesia

“We…. are not building a church. So what’s the problem? When we pray, where is the problem?” — Elysson Lase, Christian woman, Morning Star News, June 23, 2023 — Indonesia

Egypt’s “contempt of religion” law — supposedly meant to protect the sanctity not just of Islam, but of Christianity and Judaism as well, is a farce…. [T]his law exists solely for the benefit of Islam….” – Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 — Egypt

“Some of the more enlightened [Muslims] and Copts responded by asking why the alleged response by Abanoub Imad were to be considered as a reason to arrest him and put him under trial [even if he did indeed post them], when it was simply a reaction to insults against Christianity? Why are those who insulted Christianity in the first place not to be tried as well? And why are Christians always the only ones to be held accountable for contempt of religions, even though there are countless pages/sites that insult Christianity non-stop?” – Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 — Egypt

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19802/erdogan-europe

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talks about an “evil West” but wants to become part of it — perhaps to “improve” it?

Erdoğan needs money. He needs it now, and preferably from Western markets instead of one-off cash injections from Russia and friendly Gulf states.

Erdoğan aims to… [k]eep within the EU membership process, which he calculates may give Turkey better borrowing options on international markets, as well as the possibility of sending 84 million more Turks into Europe and potentially changing its prevailing religion.

Could [Erdoğan] be hoping that the U.S. Congress will endorse the sale of F-16 Block 70 fighter jets to Turkey? There will be many horse-trading moments during the process, but this is the beginning of a new tactical warfare between Erdogan’s Turkey and the West.

“The Swedes were too eager to receive Erdoğan’s blessing and Erdoğan used that yearning to tie them down. Remember Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput?” — Eugene Kogan, defense expert, Tbilisi, Georgia, to the author, July 10, 2023.

If logic worked in politics, the question to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should have been: Why has your country had so passionately sought out, in vain, membership in the European Union?

Erdoğan talks about an “evil West” but wants to become part of it — perhaps to “improve” it? Why did Turkey send its 15,000 sons, only to greet with honor 700 dead soldiers in a war that took place 8,000 km away on the Korean Peninsula? Turkey has been a full member candidate for the EU since 1987, but the Korean military campaign earned it NATO membership in 1952.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19800/pakistan-forced-marriage-conversion

Imagine if you are a child from a persecuted religious minority living in one of the world’s most oppressive countries. The country’s majority culture and institutions are largely shaped by a religious ideology that has no regard for anything outside that system, as well as a record of mistreating women and girls.

Sadly, the government of Pakistan appears complicit in these and other crimes: it fails to provide women and children with required legal protection. A bill to criminalize forced religious conversions has been presented in the Sindh Assembly at least three times (2016, 2019 and 2021). Each time, it was rejected.

Any military or economic cooperation with Pakistan should be conditioned on Pakistan’s improvement of human rights and liberties for minorities, and a respect for international law. A government that is complicit in the abduction, forced religious conversion, sexual abuse and coerced “marriages” of minority children should not be considered qualified to benefit from any aid or cooperation from the West.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19798/france-chaos

The riots grew bigger. Schools and theaters were destroyed…. churches were burned to the ground; graffiti in red paint on a church in Marseilles declared: “Mohammed was the last prophet”. Bank branches were ransacked and ATMs opened with chainsaws. Slogans were shouted: “death to the police”, “death to France”, “death to the Jews!”

“We are Muslims,” one angry protester shouted, “if the police kill us we have the right to kill; it is written in the Koran!”

Since the 1970s, France has welcomed an ever-increasing number of immigrants from the Muslim world… Only a tiny minority have assimilated into French society. The others live as they lived in their countries of origin. — Sorbonne University Professor Bernard Rougier, author of the book Les territoires conquis de l’islamisme (“The Conquered Territories of Islamism”).

Radical imams came from the Muslim world and allege that France is guilty of having colonized their countries, that Muslims should continue to live according to the law of Islam and that, in the imams’ view, France should pay for its crimes. Many politicians have told the newcomers that France is racist and had exploited them.

Criminal gangs formed and began ruling these neighborhoods. Radical imams justified the gangs’ criminal activities by claiming that the French must pay for what they did in the Muslim world. French political leaders closed their eyes. Meanwhile, these Muslim neighborhoods have grown and crime from them increased.

During the riots of 2005, then President Jacques Chirac asked imams to restore calm and promised to give even more money to Muslim neighborhoods. The police were ordered not to intervene in them at all; they fell entirely under the control of gangs and imams. It was then that these neighborhoods effectively became lawless “no-go zones” (zones urbaines sensibles), of which there are 750.

President Emmanuel Macron suggested that creating a “French Islam,” supposedly quite different from Islam in the rest of the world, would be the solution, but he quickly gave up on that plan. He then said he wanted to fight against what he called “Islamic separatism” (the no-go zones, neighborhoods where Muslims live separately from the rest of the population). He, too, has done nothing.

Macron seems to imagine that he has found explanations for these problems: Parents of rioters, he said, do not exercise their parental authority, and video games poison the minds of young people. His comments seemed completely disconnected from reality…

“The violence is increasing day by day… those who run our country must imperatively find the courage necessary to eradicate the dangers.” — Open letter by 20 retired French army generals to the French government and Macron, April 26, 2023.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19784/french-malaise

These riots did start with the killing of a 17-year boy of Algerian ancestry by the police. But the killing was not racially motivated and, as protesters made clear, what was at issue was police brutality rather than racial hatred… [T]he root cause of the anger that provoked the riots was a deep dissatisfaction with the way the country is governed.

What has happened in France in the past five or six decades is a major change in the balance of power between the state and society. French society today is far better educated, self-confident, better informed and more enterprising than the French state, which has become costlier, less efficient and more arrogant.

The suburbs that burned are precisely the ones that the French state has invested more than 30 billion euros in “improving” over the past 20 years. The result has been the creation of a whole generation of “assisted” people whose ethnic and/or religious backgrounds are treated as heirlooms to justify government handout in various guises.

But just as man can’t live on bread alone, he won’t be grateful and obedient by handouts alone.

Judging by France’s recent history, the month of June should be a quiet moment when people prepare for summer holidays in exotic places. Protest marches, riots and even revolutions usually take place in the spring, with May being the hottest month for political gesticulations. The baccalaureate exams are over, the annual bonuses are paid and the fruit-picking is over. Thus, the riots of the past two weeks that produced mayhem in Parisian suburbs and a dozen other places across France came like bolt out of the blue.