Atheists get Santa Monica Nativity's display spaces in park: For nearly 60 years at Christmastime, Christian congregations from Santa Monica have come together to organize a life-sized Nativity scene, using 14 display areas in a city park to illustrate the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
This year, however, the story had to be abridged.
Because of a city lottery system to dole out available spots in Santa Monica's Palisades Park, along Ocean Avenue, atheists have been able to claim most of the display spaces traditionally used for the Nativity, leaving room for only three of the scenes.
Damon Vix, an atheist, had a display last year that included a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson: "Religions are all alike -- founded on fables and mythologies." And this year, he told the Santa Monica Daily Press that he encouraged other atheists to join him.
"For 60 years, it's almost exclusively been the point of view of Christians putting up Nativity scenes for a whole city block," Vix told the Daily Press.
But the group that has long organized the Nativity scenes bristled at the atheists' move, saying it upends a long-standing winter tradition for the city -- and impedes their freedom of expression.
"By trying to push the Nativity scene out of the park and silence us, these people are infringing on our freedom and 1st Amendment rights," said Hunter Jameson, a Nativity organizer, said in a statement. "The truth is this: The Nativity Scenes Committee has no objection to displays anyone else puts up under the rules that disagree with ours. That is fine. That is the American way of free speech and fair play. Unlike our opponents, we are not trying to push anyone out of Palisades Park. There is plenty of room for all the displays that ever have been erected at Christmas, including this year."
One of the other displays includes a menorah set up by a Jewish group.
City officials said it turned to the lottery system to make sure the process for distributing the display spaces was fair. City Atty. Marsha Moutrie told the Daily Press that "everyone has equal rights to use the streets and parks for expressive activities."
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Photo: A Nativity display in Santa Monica. Credit: KTLA-TV
Palestinian Activist Dies After Israeli Soldier Shoots Tear Gas Canister At Point Blank Range:
A U.S. diplomatic cable from February, 2010 released back in September by WikiLeaks revealed that the Israelis had said that at the time that they were having trouble dealing with unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank against the Israeli occupation. According to the cable, one Israeli military official warned that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “will start to be more assertive in how it deals with these demonstrations.” The February, 2010 cable also said that “[l]ess violent demonstrations are likely to stymie the IDF,” and included a quote from Defense Ministry Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs Amos Gilad: “We don’t do Gandhi very well.”
That sentiment was on full display last Friday in the small Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh. Every Friday for nearly three years, village residents and other activists demonstrate against nearby religious Israeli settlers who claimed a fresh water spring belonging to a Palestinian family.
During Friday’s demonstration, an IDF solider shot a tear gas canister from close range that hit 28 year-old Palestinian Mustafa Tamimi. He died Saturday morning of the wounds suffered from the incident. Video was captured of the protest and the incident’s aftermath. Tamini’s run in with IDF soldiers occurs at around the 6 minute mark. Warning, images are graphic:
IDF officials called the event “exceptional” (+972′s Noam
Sheizaf notes that this kind of thing has happened before) and the Israeli military has launched an investigation into Tamini’s death. Army officials seemed to try to justify the incident by tweeting photos of a slingshot (the implication being that Tamini threw stones at the Israeli soldiers). The New York Times reports that those present “did not dispute that Mr. Tamimi had thrown rocks at the armored vehicle before the shooting, but witnesses claimed that the Israeli officer had fired the shell directly at him in violation of Israel Defense Forces regulations.” Sheizaf circles in red the weapon and the tear gas canister. Tamini is on the left in white:
Haaretz reports that the Israeli army said the soldier “didn’t see” Tamimi. But Haim Schwarczenberg, the photographer of the above photo, said, “From what I saw, there is no chance that the soldier had not seen him.”
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