February 2010 – Page 11 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Israel closes case of US activist wounded in Palestinian protest, no charges against police

Israel closes case of US activist wounded in Palestinian protest, no charges against police
— report on review of case of injured activist Tristan Anderson from Oakland, California
— Associated Press report: “Israel’s Justice Ministry declared Sunday that no indictments will be filed against police in the case of an American activist who was hit by a tear gas canister and left comatose during a violent demonstration in the West Bank last year.”
— “Israel has said its forces were responding to attacks by violent demonstrators who were ignoring an order declaring the area an off-limits closed military zone.”
— “There were around 400 protesters at the demonstration where Anderson was injured in Naalin last year, the military said at the time. Some of them threw rocks at troops, who used riot gear to quell the unrest, it added, without elaborating.”

Houston: Teenage Muslim Boy Beaten, Called “Terrorist”

FOX 26 News reports on a thirteen year old Muslim boy. Abdul Hamed, who was beaten at a Junior High School and called “terrorist.”
— FOX 26 states: “It happened Tuesday at Beckendorff Junior High School. Abdul Hamed’s father says his son’s jaw and tooth were broken after getting into a fight with a classmate.”
— “The school district issued a statement to FOX 26 News stating both students were minorities in this case, and they both called each other racial and ethnic slurs.”

Germany: Investigator skeptical of new Demjanjuk claim

Germany: Investigator skeptical of new Demjanjuk claim
— AP: “A top German investigator says he’s skeptical about a Sobibor survivor’s new claim to remember John Demjanjuk as a guard at the Nazi death camp.”
— “Thomas Walther led the investigation that prompted Germany to prosecute Demjanjuk, who was deported last year from the Cleveland area.”
— “Walther says if the survivor did remember Demjanjuk, that almost certainly would have come up before, such as during his high-profile 1980’s trial in Israel.”
— “Demjanjuk is being tried on accusations the 89-year-old retired autoworker was the accessory to the murders of 27,900 people while allegedly serving as a guard at Sobibor.”

Bavaria: Rebuffing Scholars, Germany Vows to Keep Hitler Out of Print

Saudi Arabia: Condemned for wanting to broadcast woman’s lecture in Saudi Literary Club.

ChinaAid Issues Joint Statement Commending Freedom Now for Petitioning the UN for Gao Zhisheng

UK: Record number of anti-Semitic attacks in Britain

Daily Telegraph reports:
— “More than 924 reports of bigoted violence and abuse were received last year by the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST).”
— “The charity, which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, said the figures marked the worst year since records began in 1984.”
— CST blog report on Antisemitic Incidents 2009
— The full report is here, or there is a summary here.

Gaza: Red Cross Jeep hit by bomb in Gaza

Gaza: Red Cross Jeep hit by bomb in Gaza
— Explosion occurs near ICRC convoy in Gaza

Uganda: Obama Condemns Anti-Gay Bill in Uganda

Racism Filmmaker Calls for “White Nationalists” to “Fight Back” Against Human Rights Group

Filmmaker Craig Bodeker, who has created the film “A Conversation About Race,” has been contacting Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), via his Facebook site to criticize R.E.A.L.’s efforts to educate the public regarding the American Renaissance group.

Craig Bodeker has written R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm complaining about R.E.A.L.’s informing Washington DC area hotels about the ideological basis behind the planned “white nationalist” American Renaissance group conference, which hotels have been unaware of as the group has been using their lesser known identity as “New Century Foundation.” We note that the studio managing Craig Bodeker’s film efforts is “New Century Productions LLC.”

Craig Bodeker started the discussion by emailing R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm from Craig Bodeker’s Facebook web page.

In Craig Bodeker’s emails, he claims that R.E.A.L.’s efforts by Jeffrey Imm to educate the DC area on American Renaissance’s “white nationalist” ideology has constituted a “war against white people,” claiming that Jeffrey Imm’s public awareness efforts are “anti-white hatred and bias,” ignoring that Jeffrey Imm is himself a white American.

Craig Bodeker vaguely threatens R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm that:
— ” I’d be surprised if someone didn’t decide to correct your behavior :) ”
— “when someone does declares war on us, it’s OK to fight back. With any and all means”

We are not afraid.

Craig Bodeker also denounces humanity’s universal human rights, referring to them as “the bullsh*t rights that you claim are ‘universal.’ ”

The entire discussion is provided below.

In the email discussions, R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm conveys his concern to Craig Bodeker about American Renaissance’s long history of comments and commentary belittling black Americans, and expresses concern about American Renaissance’s heavy promotion by the Nazi white supremacist Stormfront organization whose members have been linked to terrorism, murder, and have recently praised the terrorist who attacked the DC Holocaust Memorial Museum as a “martyr.”

Jeffrey Imm tells Craig Bodeker that:

“we have no war with any race, religion, or identity group. We simply reject hate and promote love and our universal human rights. Those human rights include our right to protest and our free speech. We have not stifled anyone’s ‘rights to free-association.’ We have simply conveyed to businesses who the identity of the New Century Foundation is and what they stand for – something that both hotel chains told me NCF did not do. That is our right of free speech as well.”

Jeffrey Imm also tells Craig Bodeker that:

“I have no anti-white hatred or bias. Responsible for Equality And Liberty and myself both consistently reject hate. We object to the hate promoted by Von Brunn, we object to the hate promoted by Stormfront, we object to the hate promoted by VDARE, we object to the hate promoted by AR.”

“It is our freedom of speech to reject such hate, just like you too have freedom of speech. Our freedom of speech is not declaring war on any one or any race, certainly not my own race or a war on myself. Our goal is to reject hate. We urge others to Choose Love, Not Hate.”

In addition, R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm points that R.E.A.L.’s rejection of groups that promote separatist hate are not limited to “white nationalists,” but includes other extremist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. R.E.A.L. rejects supremacist and separatist hate by any supremacist identity group.

Craig Bodeker claims that R.E.A.L. does not define supremacism, but R.E.A.L. certainly has done so many times. We object to supremacist ideologies that view that their identity group has an inherent superiority that denigrates others and that has an inherent political superiority over others. R.E.A.L. also objects to the hate from American Renaissance that belittles the innate intelligence of black Americans and other non-whites, and that blames non-whites for all crime and ills of the world. Such hate is obvious and clear to anyone, except those that seek to legitimize their hate. We reject such hate, and we call for the promotion of racial harmony, respect, and peace.

R.E.A.L.’s rejection of those organizations and ideologies that promote supremacist hate is never a rejection of our fellow human beings. We know that there are no perfect people, and such imperfection is an inherent part of our very humanity. R.E.A.L. urges those who hate is to abandon hate, and choose love. R.E.A.L. does not offer an upraised fist, but offers an outstretched hand to our fellow human beings in defending all of humanity’s universal human rights.

R.E.A.L. urges those that promote hate, to release the burden of hate from their heart.

Choose Love, Not Hate.