Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • What the UN doesn’t see

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    "500 miles of tunnels in Gaza and not one UN report…Tunnels under UN buildings, under the UNRWA headquarters…and not one report. 150,000 Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, miles and miles of tunnels and bunkers near the border…thousands of rockets launches…and the UN never sees it."

  • Critical Whiteness Studies

    Jews have been framed in the latest American academic race theories as white, and therefore as oppressors, thereby assimilating the most persecuted minority in European history to the dominant majority, while downgrading the significance of antisemitism. This has had a profound impact on the way Jews and Israel are now seen in left academic circles.

    Alan Johnson interviews Balázs Berkovits at Fathom:

    Whatever the merits or demerits of ‘whiteness studies’ for the understanding of anti-black racism, it has tended to frame Jews and Israel as essentially ‘white’ and so essentially ‘oppressive’ with the result that contemporary antisemitism is denied by ideological fiat, granted no place in the related meta-theory of ‘intersectionality’. ‘Whiteness Studies’ often works in tandem with the related notion of ‘Zionist settler colonialism’ to underpin apologetics or even active support for antisemitic jihadists who are redefined as ‘the progressive resistance of the oppressed’.

    Complicated (ie, needs to be read in full), but:

    The thought that Israel is inherently genocidal is anchored in the interpretative framework that construes it as colonial or settler-colonial in the Western style, constantly practicing oppression and apartheid. That Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians is always assumed, therefore there remains nothing to verify when there is an actual conflict. This has become clear after 7 October. The accusation was automatically triggered, even when facts on the ground were not known. And there has been no genuine intention of finding out the facts by the accusers (let them be politicians, journalists, or representatives of certain NGOs). And conversely: the genocide committed against Israelis cannot be perceived, let alone recognised, since they are known to be the fundamental oppressors….

    Interpreting Jews in the whiteness frame accomplishes the impossible by a number of conceptual reversals: Jews are white, therefore don’t have the status of a minority; Jews have been powerful colonisers in the Middle East and not the most persecuted human group in history; Jews have been profiting from the Holocaust than anything else, by making it seem as if it was unique, etc. Jews are seen as accumulating all the dominant positions in Western societies, unjustly vindicating the status of utmost victims, and illegitimately complaining about antisemitism, which they even instrumentalise to defend Israel and to denigrate real minorities, like Muslims (what detractors call the ‘antisemitism card’).

    With respect to Jews, everything is interpreted in the framework of ‘privilege”: Jews’ social and economic status, their educational capital, alleged ‘skin privilege,’ their ‘Holocaust credit.’ Every objective position they occupy in the social hierarchy is to be criticised as unearned, unmerited, and even harmful, whereas every grievance (Holocaust memory, antisemitism) is tagged as factitious and fake, in need of deconstruction.

  • The chest binder coffee morning

    Back to brave new Scotland, where the gender ideologues run free. School criticised over chest binder fundraiser for trans pupils:

    A Scottish school has been criticised after promoting a teacher coffee morning to raise money to fund chest “binders” for transgender pupils.

    Bannerman High School sent an email to about 100 staff that encouraged them to attend the event with a £2.50 entry fee.

    The idea to raise money for “trans binders” was conceived by students who are members of the school equalities group and a senior pastoral care teacher, it is understood.

    Chest binders are tight fitting garments that are used to flatten breasts with constrictive materials to make a person more male-presenting.

    Coming soon: a jumble sale in aid of foot binding. 

    The original email sent to staff, seen by the Record, said: “Teacher Coffee Morning! Pay £2.50 (or more!) to come along and have some coffee, tea, biscuits and sandwiches to raise money for trans binders for trans pupils! On 19 November during break!”

    After several teachers made their feelings known about the lack of consultation with both parents and staff, the decision was made to distribute the money raised to other causes and a revised email was sent out.

    In 2022 Kirsty Buchan, 33, at teacher at Bannerman High School, was forced to leave her job when it was discovered she was posting explicit pictures on the adult site OnlyFans. In the same year, teachers at the school went on strike for 12 days due to their concerns over violent and abusive pupil behaviour.

    A spokeswoman from the For Women Scotland group said: “Breast binding is a dangerous practice which carries health risks from infection, broken ribs to an increased risk of cancer: surveys show that over 97% of girls using these contraptions reported negative impacts.

    “It is as dangerous as breast ironing which, rightly, is illegal in the UK.”

    Not to worry. Glasgow council is on the caase.

    Glasgow Glasgow city council said: “This is an annual fundraiser organised by the school’s equalities group. The senior pupils will work with school staff to decide the best way to use any funds raised.

    “Bannerman is proud to be an LGBTQ+ Gold charter school. We’d urge any teacher or staff member to raise their concerns with the school’s management team.”

     

  • Sunday School Jihad

    No, nothing to see here:

    A teacher at an Islamic Sunday school “saw it as her duty” to spread jihad among children with a “cartoon-style” book, a court heard.

    Dzhamilya Timaeva, 19, allegedly obtained a role as a teacher at the Sunday school in order to spread “extremist beliefs” about holy war to young children, jurors were told.

    Police who arrested the teenager found notes on her phone, including one entitled “Permissibility of Suicidal Operations”, and a document called the Little Muwahideen, with a colourful cartoon-style front cover designed for children, the Old Bailey heard.

    It was alleged the book included sections on waging war for Islam, as well as reference to “fitna” (which often refers to a heretical uprising in the Quran).

    Opening the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Gareth Weetman accused Timaeva of sharing “pro-IS [Islamic State] propaganda” in 2022-23.

    “The defendant saw it as her duty to teach these extremist beliefs to young children. In order to do so, she obtained a place as a teacher at an Islamic Sunday school,” he told the court….

    The surprise here, surely, is not so much that this happens, but that she's actually being prosecuted.

  • Wanted posters

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    Newsweek:

    Hundreds of "Wanted" posters targeting members of the University of Rochester community were found glued to campus buildings and classrooms, according to the Department of Public Safety.

    The university launched an investigation after discovering the posters targeted Jewish faculty, and staff, including Hillel leaders, with the words "Wanted: Connection to War Crimes" and "Racism. Hate Speech. Intimidation."…

    "These posters insinuate a call for violence. Yet, these same students accuse Hillel leaders of falsely labeling anti-Jewish protestors as violent—the irony is overwhelming," the activist group StopAntisemitism said via X. "This antisemitic intimidation should not be tolerated. A full investigation is needed, and expulsion should be on the table for those involved."

  • The most annoying thing…

    Sam Harris looks back at the election:

    Having the thought police suddenly proscribe the use of the term “woman,” and demanding that we speak instead of “birthing person,” or “menstruators,” or “people with ovaries,” or some other Orwellian construction designed to test everyone's patience and sanity… the sight of people being deplatformed on social media or fired from universities for merely stating that there are two biological sexes—I actually know a professor who lost her job at Harvard over this… witnessing an epidemic of gender confusion spread through our schools, when people with their own eyes could see that this was a social contagion being encouraged by the schools themselves—the ultimate fruition of which, in many cases, is irreversible medical procedures… We've got an epidemic of teenage girls wanting double mastectomies—snd some are actually getting them, based on ideas being spread on TikTok—and any parent who resists this trend gets demonized and, under certain conditions, could lose custody of their kids? 

    Congratulations, Democrats. You have found the most annoying thing in the fucking galaxy and hung it around your necks.

  • Varishe Moradi

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    "They are going to execute her. Her name is Varishe Moradi.

    "Wake up, world. Don’t let bravery die in silence."

    You can read about her here,

  • The Muslim Brotherhood and the West

    Egyptian writer Dalia Ziada:

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  • Roots

    Hadley Woods:

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  • “To breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals”

    The breastfeeding charity that welcomes men:

    A trustee and PR director of Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has resigned after it introduced an inclusivity policy that allowed men to attend support groups.

    Miriam Main is leaving La Leche League GB (LLLGB) after a diktat from the global organisation elicited fears that volunteers would have to give advice to transgender women.

    Directors at the charity’s British arm have already requested that the Charity Commission intervene over the inclusivity policy, which permits biological males to seek support from the organisation.

    Main resigned on Monday, saying that she refused to help biological men “perform a poor imitation of breastfeeding”, which she said put babies’ safety at risk.

    Her departure came as Marian Tompson, 94, an American and one of the founders of the La Leche League in 1956, quit last week over the decision to admit men.

    Tompson described the organisation as a “travesty” and said that its focus has subtly shifted to include men “who, for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding”.

    Her letter, sent to LLL leaders, added: “This shift from following the norms of nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults, is destroying our organisation.”

    The league was founded by a group of mothers in the US and supports more than 1,000 parents each year in the UK.

    In Main’s resignation note, she spoke of “bullying, lies, and cruelty of recent times” and said that this had been “unreasonably hard to endure”.

    She added: “I hope that the wonderful work of hundreds of women is not lost through mixing causes and politics.”

    Documents produced by LLLGB on transgender and non-binary parents stated that it “supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals”. It said: “We do not discriminate based on sex, gender or gender identity.”

    "…to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals". Yes, but what goals? Nurturing infants by breastfeeding – or using them as props to validate a new girly identity while getting a sexual thrill from "chestfeeding" a hormone-drenched discharge. There is a difference.