This blog is a part of my body of research that seeks to analyse civil society's and academia's understanding of national security models from an academic perspective with a focus on Canada, Israel and the UK.
Sometimes… home is where the hurt is. Physical – Sexual – Threats. Don't keep family violence a secret. Help IS available. Talk to a person you trust. Report incidents of violence to your local police.
When someone is missing, every detail is important. Your tip could help bring a loved one home. Report what you know to your local police or Crime Stoppers.
Operation Protective Edge has taken place in the Gaza Strip in July 2014 (as of July 7). The operation was launched in response to high trajectory rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip against Israel that included approximately 300 rockets and mortar shells. This was in contrary to 65 rockets and mortars fired in whole of June. Since the beginning of the operation up until late July, 2,622 rockets and mortars were fired against Israel. Most of them reached the area surrounding the Gaza Strip (circa 66%, 1,733 items) (a range of up to 20km), and about a quarter (25.5%, 688 items) reached a medium range of up to 50km. Less than 10% of all the launchings were long ranged: circa 6.9% (181 items) with a range of up to 80km, reached Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, Jerusalem, the Negev, Hadera and northern Israel, and 1.2% (32 items) with a range of more than 80km. Also, 24 rockets were launched from the Sinai against Israel. Other salient terrorist attacks against Israel included 6 infiltrations into Israel, 1 explosive tunnel attack, 3 suicide attacks, and dozens of sniper, AT, IED and hand grenade attacks.
64 people were killed and 312 were injured in July. 3 of the fatalities were civilians: 2 Israelis and 1 foreign worker, died as a result of high trajectory fire that reached Erez Crossing (July 15), an area near the city of Dimona (July 19), and the area surrounding the Gaza Strip (July 23). 61 IDF soldiers were killed in July: 24 in a collision, 13 from IED attacks, 12 as a result of mortar shells that also fell in assembly areas outside the Gaza Strip, 6 from AT launching, and 6 from shooting (including sniper attacks). There has been a sharp increase in attacks and riots in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem. The operation in Gaza came with an added tension of the murder of Palestinian boy Muhammad Abu Khdeir from Shuafat (July 2). In that regard, Judea and Samaria had a record of 424 attacks in July as opposed to 89 in June, and 83 in Jerusalem as opposed to 11 in May and June. 4 Israelis were injured in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem: 3 civilians and 1 Israeli security officer. 2 of them (a female civilian and a soldier) were injured by an IED throwing near Shuafat / Jerusalem (July 2) and Beit Omar / Hebron (July 20); one civilian was shot at Rehalim junction / Samaria (July 22); and a female civilian was injured by a firebomb near Beitar / Judea (July 14). Data regarding terror attacks in July 2014 Following is a regional distribution of attacks: 1,643 attack from the Gaza Strip (36 in June); 424attacks in the Judea and Samaria (89 in June); 83 attacks in Jerusalem (11 in June); 9 from Sinai (none in June). Jerusalem and the Judea and Samaria area: Most attacks executed in July 459 out of 507 were in the form of firebombs (June: 71 out of 100). Distribution of attacks according to regions and pattern profile: Following is a distribution of attacks in July 2014 according to regions: The Gaza Strip – 1,643 attacks: 1,473 rockets and mortar shells launching; 76 sniper and small arms shooting; 64 AT; 18 IED; 6 infiltration into Israel ; 3 suicide; 2 hand grenade ; 1 explosive tunnel. Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – 507 attacks: 35 IED (5 in Jerusalem); 13 small arms shootings (1 in Jerusalem); 459 firebombs (77 in Jerusalem). Sinai – 9 attacks: rockets launching
High-trajectory launchings from Gaza Strip and Sinai
Throughout July 2014 2,859 rockets and mortar shells were launched** from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, and 24 rockets were launched** from Sinai. In June: 62 rockets and 3 mortar shell in 34 attacks from the Gaza Strip.
**Clarification: The number of launchings is the number of rockets/mortar shells actually launched during one high-trajectory fire attack. For example: one attack may include a salvo of three launchings, that is, three rockets/ mortar shells, and so it will be counted as one attack and three launchings. Monthly summary – July 2014 docx.pdf
Former Shin Bet Director Critical of Ceasefire Agreement
Wednesday, August 27th, 2014) Former ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) Director Yuval Diskin told the press that citizens of Israel are entitled to the details of the ceasefire agreed to by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The former senior security official expressed criticism over the prime minister’s conduct, his decision to agree to the ceasefire without bringing it to his cabinet ministers for a vote. Leaders and residents of Gaza border communities and other southern municipalities feel betrayed by the prime minister. Some question why 64 military personnel and 6 civilians had to be killed when in the end the prime minister sold out the nation’s security interests.
In the Eshkol Regional Council, which represents a number of Gaza border communities, leaders are instructing residents not to return home, skeptical at best regarding the integrity of the ceasefire agreement. The head of the neighboring S’dot Negev Regional Council called the ceasefire “acquiescing to terror”, decrying the decision to trust a Hamas ceasefire once again.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem) - See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/256308/former-shin-bet-director-critical-of-ceasefire-agreement.html#sthash.5yRBq1hp.dpuf
Media caption5 live's Nicky Campbell interviews a young British man who claims to
be a jihadist. Some people may find the nature of this interview disturbing or
offensive.
Young 'jihadist' on leaving Britain to
fight
4 July 2014
Last updated at 11:23 BST
A British man who claims to have been fighting in Syria says he will only
return to the UK to "raise the black flag of Islam over Downing Street and
Buckingham Palace".
The man, who is in his twenties, says he has been fighting for a year
alongside a number of groups including The Al Nusra Front, who are linked to Al
Qaeda.
He told Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5
live's Breakfast how his family reacted when they discovered he had
gone to Syria. Warning: Some people may find the nature of this interview disturbing or
offensive.
Michel Coulombe said a Canadian extremist who did not immediately return to the country ‘is still a Canadian problem’. Photograph: Brian Stablyk for the Guardian
Canadians who go abroad to join militant groups such as Islamic State (Isis) pose a threat on their return home and could use their foreign contacts to set up networks in Canada, the country’s intelligence director said on Saturday.
Michel Coulombe, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wrote in a Globe and Mail article that “well over 100 Canadians”, both men and women, have left the country to join groups such as al-Qaida and al-Shabaab.
“The most obvious national security threat is the one posed by extremists who return,” Coulombe said. “How many are coming back to Canada more radicalised than when they departed? Will their status as veterans of a foreign conflict better enable them to recruit other Canadians?
“And, most importantly, will they use their terrorist training to attempt violent acts here in Canada? This is a very real prospect.”
Other western governments have expressed similar concerns about citizens who go abroad to join militants fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere and then return home radicalised. Isis militants now control swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Britain announced plans on Saturday to crack down further on such militants. On Friday, Austria raised its estimate for the number of residents suspected of allying themselves with militants fighting abroad.
Last month, a Canadian provincial court imposed a 10-year prison sentence on a man convicted of attempting to join a militant group abroad. The conviction came as Canada wrestles with several cases of radicalised Canadians plotting attacks at home or heading overseas to join militant groups.
Two men were arrested last year and charged with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train bound for New York. Also last year, two Canadians were part of a group that stormed a gas plant in Algeria and took hostages. After a four-day siege, Algerian forces stormed the plant. At least 80 people were killed.
Coulombe said some of those who went abroad had been killed, including the two in Algeria “and a number of other young men from Calgary who met a violent end in Syria or Iraq”.
“Even if a Canadian extremist does not immediately return, he or she is still a Canadian problem,” Coulombe said. “No country can become an unwitting exporter of terrorism without suffering damage to its international image and relations.”
Statement by Dr. Saeb Erekat, PLO Executive Committee Member, head of the Negotiations Affairs Department and member of the Palestinian parliament on the Israeli threats against MP Khaleda Jarrar
Before dawn this morning, Israeli forces raided the home of Palestine Legislative Council Member, Khaleda Jarrar. While there, the forces issued Ms. Jarrar a military order instructing her to abandon her home in Ramallah, and confining her to a specified area of Jericho. This unlawful order is yet another manifestation of Israel’s widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population, and is in clear contravention of Israel’s obligation under international law and treaties to respect the fundamental human rights of individuals, including the rights to self-determination, freedom of movement, privacy, and protection of the family. Moreover, the issuing of this order effectively amounts to attempted forcible transfer, unlawful confinement and persecution, all of which are crimes punishable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and under the universal jurisdiction provisions of the majority of States.
We condemn this illegal Israeli order in the harshest terms, as well the continued detention or administrative detention of 36 additional members of the Palestine Legislative Council. We call upon the Inter-Parliamentary Union to take concrete measures against Israel’s harassment of democratically elected members of the Palestinian parliament. We also call upon the international community and domestic, regional and international human rights organizations to speak out in order to prevent the enforcement of this unlawful order and, thereby, to prevent yet another Israeli crime against the Palestinian population.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated yesterday that the more than 1,100 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada shouldn't be considered a "sociological phenomenon", should only be viewed as "crimes" and he is rejecting a formal inqu...iry.
YWCA Canada supports the call for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Visit www.politwitter.ca, find your MP's twitter username and tell them that it's time to take real action against the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
This report examines political violence, sectarianism, insurgency, militancy and terrorism in Pakistan, approaches of political parties and government and its implications for the society and polity of Pakistan. The report focuses on a one-year period after the May 2013 general elections, which saw the PML-N assuming power in Islamabad with the Provinces being led by other national and regional parties.
Prime Minister Modi has to think beyond the immediate circle and leverage the Himalayas as a bridge for India reaching out to wider Eurasian space the access to which has blocked by Pakistan. A way out could be to promote a regional market across the border, woven by a web of spiritual and commercial interests.
There now seems to be greater recognition of India's concerns on transfer of technology and not just about co-production but also co-development of next generation weapons. The larger objective for India, however, must be to reduce its dependence on import of foreign equipment and modernize its armed forces in the quickest possible timeframe.
The death toll from the Ebola virus in West Africa is a serious health concern for the world. There are around 45,000 Indians staying in the region infected by the virus and the real 'test' will be whether the government will allow infected Indians back into the country.
The digest seeks to keep its focus on all round strategic developments taking place in Pakistan on a monthly basis. It culls out information and analyses from the Pakistani media— both English and vernacular— and provides a ready reference material for the wider strategic community. Given the strategic importance of Pakistan for India and the wider world, it is hoped that the digest will be received well by the readers.
The Ask an Expert feature is aimed at promoting awareness and discussion on contemporary security issues. Visitors are welcome to pose short and precise questions, which will be answered by experts.
One common feature among Canadian aboriginal street gangs is to merge the letters in their gang tag, for instance NP, into one letter. Credit: Det. Sgt. Lee Jones
By Det. Sgt. Lee Jones, Saskatoon Police Service, Saskatchewan
When police officers think of gangs, their first thoughts are of violence, drugs and disenfranchised youth. However, there’s another aspect that’s sometimes overlooked and often under investigated: the graffiti that accompanies gangs.
The breakdown of graffiti in Canada mirrors the rest of the modern world. Most graffiti is hip-hop tagger style, with a smaller mix of generic, social, political and gang styles.
We can think of gang graffiti as the newspaper of the street. Reading it is intelligence gathering in its purist form and provides a snapshot of the gang culture in that community at the time it was placed.
Gang graffiti has several important purposes.
First, it communicates the presence of a gang. This is especially important when a new gang is formed, as this will often be used to announce its presence. This is when graffiti is at its most frequent and highest density. For the general public, graffiti will be the first indicator of a gang’s presence. For police, it will corroborate incoming source information.
Second, graffiti can define territorial movements and areas controlled by gangs. In Canada, the use of gang graffiti for territorial boundaries isn’t used to the same extent as it is in American cities, like Los Angeles. American gangs are often more focused on marking territories due to the high number of gangs that can exist in a small urban area.
Finally, graffiti communicates the messages of the gang, usually in the form of roll calls, threats and declarations. The most common are threats, usually to rival gangs and gang members, but on rare occasions, to police.
Deciphering the message
Gang graffiti tends to follow cultural lines in its construction and format. Some gangs use symbolic signs along with universal gang terminology. For instance, gangs will use “4/25” to mean “for life” and “187” to mean “death threat” since 187 is the penal code in California for homicide — another indicator of the influence of American gangs in Canada.
Generally gang graffiti includes the use of numbers linked to the alphabet. However, with Hispanic-influenced gangs, the graffiti can be more artistic in keeping with the mural background of Mexican culture. This artistic trend is starting to evolve as hip-hop taggers are joining the street gangs and bringing their skill set into the gang graffiti format.
The main difference between gang graffiti and other graffiti forms is the use of an identified gang tag.
One common feature among Canadian aboriginal street gangs is to merge the letters, for instance NP as one letter, meaning Native Pride.
While this gang tag is often written in the abbreviated form, it will occasionally be written out in full, to allow the reader to understand the meaning.
When the public sees graffiti they often incorrectly assume that it’s all gang related. This is complicated by the fact that a large amount of gang graffiti isn’t placed by a gang member but rather by a “wannabe” or someone connected with the gang culture.
There are defined characteristics to support its placement by a real gang member, including using personal identifiers in the graffiti such as their street name or initials.
As graffiti damage falls under mischief in the Criminal Code of Canada, it’s not always properly investigated by Canadian police except in cities and areas that have developed anti-graffiti units or graffiti officers.
The advantage of investigating and charging those responsible is immeasurable. Since enhanced sentencing exists in the Criminal Code, having evidence that a gang tag is used by gang members further supports the Crown’s ability to increase sentencing for offenders, when necessary.
There’s also the extra intelligence that gang graffiti provides. Consider this example: I had been injured on the job and was away from work for three months. Upon my return, I mentioned to the head of the Saskatoon Police Street Crime Unit that the Indian Posse and Crazy Cree street gangs were in decline and that the lead operating gang was the Native Syndicate. He told me I was correct and asked how I knew this because he knew that I’d been away for some time. I told him that’s what the gang graffiti was telling me. Det. Sgt. Lee Jones emigrated to Canada from England in 2000 after serving 12 years with the British Army. After joining the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS), Jones developed his expertise in gang graffiti through his nine years working on gang graffiti criminal investigations. In 2006, he established a full-time anti-graffiti unit for SPS and later created an online graffiti investigation course.
Join the CIDI in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal this coming fall for our next round of Community of Practice Events. At the forefront of CIDI’s mission is our commitment to helping Canadian D&I, Human Rights and Equity, and Human Resources practitioners address their most pressing issues. At our premiere Community of Practice Event last year, you told us that leadership buy-in, commitment, and resources were your most pressing issues, so we responded by engaging you in developing the business case toolkit and the strategy toolkit.
Another major challenge you identified is addressing fear and resistance to D&I efforts. Discussions around fear included: fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of self-disclosure, the need to create safe spaces due to fear of discrimination, and fear of dealing with resistance. Discussions around resistance included: hiring managers and middle managers, concerns around “reverse discrimination” and loss of privilege, and a lack of understanding amongst all employees regarding the imperative for inclusion.
For our upcoming Community of Practice Events in this Fall, we’ll provide some thought-provoking pre-reading to get your change-management juices flowing, and ask participants to come ready to tackle some of our toughest challenges as part of our diversity journey: fear and resistance.
8:00 – Doors Open. 8:00 to 8:30 – Networking and Breakfast. 8:30 to 8:40 – Welcome and Update from the CIDI. 8:40 to 8:50 – Setting the Stage. 8:50 to 9:50 – Breakout Working Groups. 9:50 to 10:20 – Report Out. 10:20 to 10:30 – Wrap Up. 10:30 – Session Ends.
*Registration Required. **Registration Fee Required for Non CIDI Members. ***Limited Capacity.
Any employee of the following organizations: Accenture, Alberta Health Services, Aon Canada Inc., Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP , Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, CBC Radio Canada, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, CIBC, CISCO, The City of Calgary, The City of Saskatoon, CN, Davies Ward Phillips and Vineberg , Deloitte, Dentons Canada LLP, Georgian College, Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Home Depot, HSBC, Husky Energy, Hydro Ottawa, IBM, ICBC, KPMG, Loblaw Company Limited, Manulife Financial, McCarthy Tetrault, McDonalds Canada, Microsoft, Morrison Hershfield, Ottawa Carleton District School Board, Ottawa Police Service, PwC, RBC, SAP, Scotiabank, Simon Fraser University, Silverbirch Hotels and Resorts, Sobeys Inc., Sodexo, Stantec, TD Bank, Telus, Toronto Police Service, TransCanada, Upper Canada District School Board, Vancity
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Any individual who is not an employee of any of the above mentioned organizations and who is not a “paid-in-full”Individual CIDI Members.
Feel free to contact us at anytime to inquire if you or your employer are current standing CIDI Members.
#YoungCanadians from diverse backgrounds can contribute to #peace in their communities and around the world.
Darine BenAmara, a member of our Student Advisory Committee, shares her views on the role of effective #publicspeaking in facilitating #dialogue for peace.
Would anyone care if Northern Ireland left the Union?
If there is a majority that opts for Irish unity at some stage, then change will take place. No one is making a first principles argument for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK.
The Northern Ireland Assembly building at Stormont. Photo: Flickr/rovingI
What would the reaction be if it was Northern Ireland or Wales rather than Scotland facing a referendum next month about quitting the UK? Would our political leaders be cancelling their holidays, trudging the highways and byways, desperately trying to convince people there to stay?
Of course, the prospect of the Welsh opting for full-blown independence is so remote as to be purely academic. Indeed, the referendum on the creation of the Welsh Assembly was passed by the slenderest of margins back in 1998 (50.3 per cent to 49.7 per cent). If a few thousand votes had gone the other way, Wales would still be run from Whitehall.
Yet if there was a sudden surge in nationalist sentiment sometime in the future it is hard to imagine the rest of the UK being overly perturbed. Wales – without oil and nuclear submarine bases – is simply of less strategic importance to the UK than Scotland.
Northern Ireland, in contrast, is of no strategic importance whatsoever. This was enunciated as the British government’s view as far back as November 1990 when then Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brook proclaimed that Britain had “no selfish, strategic or economic interest” in the place.
“The principle of consent” has been the fig leaf for successive governments ever since. As long as the majority of people want to remain part of Britain, this wish will be upheld. Of course, this is hardly a ringing endorsement of the status quo. No one in British politics seems to care about making the case that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK, as they are happy to do with Scotland. (Indeed, threats to the status of Gibraltar or the Falklands elicit more muscular responses).
The Good Friday Agreement effectively placed Northern Ireland in an ante-chamber. If there is a majority that opts for Irish unity at some stage, then change will take place. No one is making a first principles argument for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK. Indeed, nowhere else in British politics are our political leaders so sanguine about sovereignty. Where Scotland is seen to be an opportunity worth holding on to, Northern Ireland is quietly regarded as a problem eventually worth jettisoning.
Scottish and Welsh elites in politics, business and culture are deeply integrated into British public life. In contrast, Northern Ireland’s idiosyncratic political class finds few soul mates in Westminster. Unionist politicians – more British than the British – are now oddities in our political system. Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson’s recent defence of an evangelical pastor who described Islam as “heathen” and “satanic” (not to mention his wife’s remarks about homosexuality) mean that unionist politics can now seem like something from a different planet. Not to mention the double standard. If Robinson had been a minister, a frontbencher or leader of a council in Britain, then he would have been out on his ear.
The Britain that Unionists claim kinship with is long gone. The only reason Northern Ireland’s status is not more openly questioned is down to inertia; a relief that the Troubles are over. One day that will not be enough. Although the Irish state renounced its territorial claims to Northern Ireland as part of the Good Friday Agreement, its status will remain contested. Constitutional agitation rather than armed struggle will now continue to gnaw at the fraying ropes holding Northern Ireland in the Union.
This is set in the context of British-Irish relations having steadily improved over recent decades. There is even talk of the Queen participating in state commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule. In her state visit to Ireland back in 2011, Her Majesty laid a wreath to the IRA volunteers who fought against Britain in Ireland’s War of Independence (to be sure, many had fought for Britain during the First World War). The prospect of “Dublin rule” is no longer, plausibly, a spectre for unionists.
Things are changing in the north too. While the “sectarian headcount” may be a crude measure of political allegiance, it is worth noting that Catholics now outnumber Protestants at every level of the education system. (As they now do in the former unionist citadels of Belfast and Derry). Northern Ireland’s in-built Protestant unionist majority is shrinking; while the integrative logic of an all-Ireland offering to the outside world, essential in terms of investment and tourism, makes the gerrymandered border seem an anachronism.
In time, a similar referendum to the one we’re seeing in Scotland will play out in Northern Ireland. When it comes, it will be hard to imagine the English people and the British political class busting a gut to keep it. Kevin Meagher is associate editor of Labour Uncut
Today, on the Ninth of Av, we mourned the destruction of the Temple, which was destroyed because of baseless hatred. In the recent days during Operation "Protective Edge", the people of Israel gathered and stood united, in Israel and in the Diaspora.
This unity of Israel, especially during these times, is the realization of the vision told by Rav Kook, one of the founders of religious Zionism: "If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shal...l rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love"
היום ב ט' באב אנו התאבלנו על חורבן בית המקדש, אשר נפל בגלל שנאת אחים חינם. בימים אלו של הלחימה במבצע "צוק איתן", עם ישראל התאחד והתלכד, גם בארץ ישראל וגם בתפוצות. התלכדות עם ישראל כולו יחד בימים אלו הוא מימוש חזונו של הרב קוק, מאבות הציונות הדתית: "ואם נחרבנו ונחרב העולם עמנו על ידי שנאת חינם, נשוב להיבנות והעולם עמנו יבנה על ידי אהבת חינם"
PDF Version – Family Violence Poster
PDF Version – Missing Persons Poster #1
PDF Version – Missing Persons Poster #2
Monthly summary – July 2014 docx.pdf
By Det. Sgt. Lee Jones, Saskatoon Police Service, Saskatchewan
Join the CIDI in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal this coming fall for our next round of Community of Practice Events. At the forefront of CIDI’s mission is our commitment to helping Canadian D&I, Human Rights and Equity, and Human Resources practitioners address their most pressing issues. At our premiere Community of Practice Event last year, you told us that leadership buy-in, commitment, and resources were your most pressing issues, so we responded by engaging you in developing the business case toolkit and the strategy toolkit.
