Bob Dylan and Trayvon Martin [Forward]
Protestors outraged at the shooting of fourteen year old Trayvon Martin have utilized an old Bob Dylan song to create the above video decrying the killing. However, JJ Goldberg argues, their anger is misdirected, and should be aimed at the system rather than a single individual:
“Trayvon Martin’s death, too, has brought thousands of protesters to the streets in Florida and around the country. This time, though, they are marching not for freedom or equal rights but for George Zimmerman’s head. As though Zimmerman were some walking embodiment of the system that imperils young men like Martin, not a hapless pawn lured into pathetic delusions of heroism and licensed by idiotic laws to act out his fantasies.”
Eilat Missile Strike [JTA]
A rocket launched from the Egyptian held Sinai peninsula struck near Eilat early Thursday morning. The rocket hit a residential area, however, no injuries have been reported thus far.
“Egypt’s security chief denied that the attack had originated in Sinai, according to the French news agency AFP. However sources told the news service that security officials were investigating the border area for launchers or other evidence.”
SJP Eviction [Mondoweiss.net]
Florida Atlantic University’s Students for Justice in Palestine posted mock eviction notices to several residential dorms last Friday night to protest Israeli destruction of civilian homes in the West Bank and other territories. The act, which was modeled after similar efforts at other schools, was aimed at starting a conversation about the residential and civilian aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The action was initiated by members of Florida Atlantic University’s Students for Justice in Palestine, who spent their Friday evening posting mock eviction notices to highlight Israel’s illegal systematic policy of civilian home demolitions routinely undertaken in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel proper.”
Hungarian Jews Accused of Blood Libel [JTA]
A right-wing Hungarian lawmaker cited an 1882 blood libel case in an anti-Semitic speech articulated in front of Hungarian parliament this past Tuesday. This reference has sparked outrage across the Jewish and Hungarian communities, both of whom regard the old blood libel cases as part of a history they would rather not remember.
“No-one stopped Barath [the lawmaker] from speaking, but government representative János Fónagy condemned him.”
SkyNews admits to hacking [NY Times]
In the second wave of hacking scandals to hit the Murdoch media empire, SkyNews, a subsidiary of BSkyB, a British media conglomerate in which News Corp owns a stake, admitted that it had, on occasion, authorized journalists to hack into private email accounts. However, they claim that such invasions of privacy were only done out of concern for the public welfare.
“‘We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest,’ the head of Sky News, John Ryley, said in a statement.
Sky did not say what the second hacking episode was, but media reports said the said journalist accessed the email accounts of a suspected pedophile and his wife in an investigation that did not lead to any material being published or broadcast.”
