Local council adopts step against exchange with Israeli military practices synonymous with the occupation of Palestine.
By Ali Younes | 19 April 2018
AL JAZEERA — A coalition of community organisations in the city of Durham in the US state of North Carolina has successfully lobbied the city council to ban training and exchanges between Durham’s police department and the Israeli military.
Durham’s city council unanimously voted to adopt the measure on April 16, prohibiting an exchange with the Israeli military, making the first US city to ever explicitly take such measure.
The resolution read: “The council opposes international exchanges with any country in which Durham officers receive military-style training since such exchanges do not support the kind of policing we want here in the City of Durham.”
The statement emphasised the commitment of Durham, a city of over a quarter million people, to create safe and healthy environment of its residents and to “recognise and share the deep concern about militarisation of police forces around the country”.
“We know that racial profiling and its subsequent harms to communities of color have plagued policing in our nation and in our own community,” the statement said. […]
Hell, even our police are globalized.