Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

I have lived in Brussels for 21 years but never considered this city as my home — until Donald Trump insulted it.

By describing Brussels as a “hellhole” because of its sizeable Muslim population, Trump was attacking my friends and neighbors. Trump was attacking people like the cheerful Syrian I see almost every day; his daughter is in the same class as mine.

As it happens, my Syrian acquaintance was the last person I saw as I left the school on Tuesday morning. A short while later, I received a text message from my wife, telling me about the explosions. She had made it safely to work, thank God. On the way, she had traveled through Maalbeek metro station, just minutes before a bomb went off there.

We don’t yet know the identities of all the people killed. We do know, however, that they belonged to a mixture of ethnicities and nationalities. They spoke different languages. Some were probably religious, others not.

In short, they represented the thing that I like most about my adopted home: its multiculturalism.

Donald Trump’s first reaction to the attacks was to claim vindication for his “hellhole” comments. Once again, he was displaying his bigotry. The wannabe president will use any opportunity to whip up fear.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/brussels-i-reject-israels-solidarity

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

After France, simultaneous attacks targeting Belgium have claimed almost 40 lives, with around 200 injured people. The attacks targeted Zavantem International Airport and Maalbeek metro station. The security alarm in the country have been raised to the maximum level. The attack was claimed by ISIS, but considering the scope, attacks of this extent are extremely hard without aid from any country.

Two weeks before the attacks, following the EU-Turkey refugee deal, on March 8 a committee consisting of Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders, Minister of Interior Jan Jambon, Minister of Justice Koen Geens and Minister of Asylum and Migration Theo Francken visited Turkey.

The Belgian committee met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Interior Efkan Ala and Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ from the Turkish committee before the Turkey-Belgium Ministers of Foreing Affairs, Justice and Interior Affairs meeting on March 9.

The main agenda of the meeting was sharing information on ISIS recruits from Belgium and the joint efforts of police forces regarding common finger print databases. The Belgian committee knew going in to the meeting that the Turkish side would put the Kurds in Belgium and their institutions. The Belgian committee wanted to reach an agreement on sharing information on 1224 Belgian nationals with relations to ISIS. Thinking they would reach said agreement with minor compromises regarding Kurds, the Belgian committee withdrew from the meeting when the Turkish side raised difficulties. The reason for the withdrawal was Turkish committee insisting on the arrest of Kurdish politicians (several politicians including Kongra Gel President Remzi Kartal, KCK Executive Council Member Zübeyr Aydar) in Belgium, their return to Turkey and the shutting down of Kurdish institutions (KNK, foundations and Kurdish press institutions). Pointing out that these requests would mean breaking their own laws, the Belgian committee withdrew from the agreement when the Turkish committee made the agreement harder at the last minute.
http://anfenglish.com/features/the-truth-behind-brussels-attacks

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

In the aftermath of the latest bombings in Brussels, attacks against Arabs and Muslims have again escalated in both Europe and the United States. Madrid’s biggest mosque was one of the first to suffer. Racial profiling in airports, train stations, and other public places continues to intensify.

Our hearts go out to the victims of the attacks. We share the grief of such profound loss and violence. As the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini put it shortly after the attacks, “It’s also a very sad day for Europe, as Europe and its capital are suffering the same pain that this region has known and knows every single day, being it in Syria, being it elsewhere.” As she added, “it is quite clear that the roots of the pain we are suffering around our region are very much the same.” We would go further, and locate the roots of the attacks and the immense violence saturating the Arab world in historic and current European and US foreign policies. Nor, for that matter, is the pain of everyday violence new to many communities in the US, Europe and elsewhere.
Additionally, we deplore the cynical use of their deaths to further accelerate attacks on and repression of Muslim and Arab people both domestically and abroad. One crucial aspect of this is how Israel, the United States, and Europe make false links between the attacks in Brussels and the resistance of Palestinians to occupation and colonization. The goal is to show how Israeli policies continue to be a model for the West, and how the Israeli “experience” in repressing the Palestinian population can be replicated as other countries repress their own populations who resist racism, displacement, land theft and exploitation.
http://www.ijan.org/uncategorized/ijan-statement-attacks-brussels-2/