The story of Bilal, who works as a legal consultant for the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces, began shortly over three years ago when he was driving to work through the Huwara military checkpoint outside Nablus when he was stopped and shot at by the Israeli army. Bilal was severely injured and an Israeli army helicopter came and picked him up and transferred him to an unknown location.
Language matters. Aside from its immediate impact on our perception of great political events, including war, language also defines our understanding of these events throughout history, thereby shaping our relationship with the past, the present, and the future.
As Arab leaders are mobilizing to prevent any attempt to displace the Palestinian population of war-stricken Gaza – and the occupied West Bank for that matter – I couldn't help but reflect on language: when did we stop referencing the 'Arab-Israeli conflict,' and substitute that with the 'Palestinian-Israeli conflict'?
Aside from the obvious problem that military occupations should not be described as 'conflicts' – a neutral term that creates a moral equivalence – the removal of 'Arabs' from the 'conflict' has greatly worsened matters, not only for Palestinians, but Arabs themselves.
This article first appeard on the Buckeye Flame
At the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio in downtown Columbus, a busy cast and crew are preparing to open the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fat Ham.”
Early this year, the theater was awarded a $10,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to produce James Ijames’ overtly Black and queer adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Vladimir Putin right now has in his sights nearly 300 pre-deployed atomic weapons set to easily launch a radioactive apocalypse with a single drone strike.
He may already have crashed an early warning into the sarcophagus at Chernobyl.
And taken as a whole, the “Peaceful Atom” lends a terrifying reality to Donald Trump’s Oval Office threat of an impending World War 3.
Some 180 operational “Peaceful Atom” reactors now operate throughout Europe. There are 93 more in the US, 19 in Canada, two in Mexico.
Putin, or anyone else of his ilk, would need precisely one technician with one weaponized drone to turn any “peaceful” nuke into a radioactive apocalypse.
When Donald Trump brought Ukraine’s Volodymir Zelensky into the Oval Office to accuse him of flirting with “World War 3,” atomic reactors were among the specifics he failed to cite.
Did you know ICE puts Ohioans in jail who haven’t even been charged with crimes?
You guessed right. It's about money for the jailers, not what's best for our communities.
The people we're talking about are Ohioans who have cases in immigration court, or who are eligible for deportation — a civil matter. Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, "Incarceration is an extreme action. It's separation from your family, your job, your home. The loss of liberty. It's isolating; it makes people sick; and it's terrifying. If it seems patently inhumane to put people navigating a civil process in a criminal jail, that's because it is."
I think that no head of state visiting the White House ever got treated as badly as Ukrainian president Zelenskyy did recently. Trump and VP Vance attacked and insulted him mercilessly. They acted more like gangsters "making someone a deal he couldn't refuse" rather then acting with diplomacy and respect. They needlessly sabotaged the meeting and did everything they could to blame others for their own ignorance and incompetence. They wanted Zelenskyy to sign an agreement he would never approve.
Keep in mind that English was not Zelenskyy's first language and I'm sure he was unprepared for the level of contempt and betrayal he received from America's misleaders.
Trump and Vance have spread numerous lies about the issue. They blamed Zelenskyy for starting the war! They even blamed our European allies and Biden for causing the conflict.
They did not blame who is truly responsible - Vladimir Putin. Instead, they called Zelenskyy a dictator for trying to save his country from Russian aggression.
