The FIFA World Cup, due to begin in Qatar in November, will be stained by one of the highest casualty rates amongst workers in the competition’s history, reports Binoy Kampmark.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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COMMENTARY: By John Minto
A detailed study of the killing of journalists released this week by Countercurrents shows that Israel leads the world in this grimmest of statistics:
Apartheid Israel tops the ranking by “average number of journalists killed per 10 million of population per year” that yields the following order:
Occupied Palestine, over 6.164; Syria, 4.733; Afghanistan, 2.563; Israel-Palestine, over 2.190; Somalia, 1.751; Yemen, 1.278; Iraq, 0.897; Mexico, 0.750; Colombia, 0.366; Philippines, 0.283; Pakistan, 0.152; World, 0.084; India, 0.027.
On a per capita basis, the killing of journalists by Apartheid Israel in Occupied Palestine leads the world, and is 73.4 times greater than for the world as a whole. In contrast, India scores 3.1 times lower than the world. The present data shows that Apartheid Israel leads the world by far for killing journalists.
- READ MORE: Other reports on the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh
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- NZ government and media must own up to their silence over Shireen Abu Akleh
- A new book argues Julian Assange is being tortured. Will Australia’s new PM do anything about it?
Israel has a long sordid history of targeting and murdering journalists reporting on its war crimes against the Palestinian people and last month’s killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh should be seen as part of this pattern.
Shireen’s killing hit the headlines because she had such a high profile across the Arab world and was an American citizen.
The New Zealand government waited a week before issuing an insipid tweet calling for an independent investigation into Shireen’s killing.
The US has also been embarrassed into claiming it is “deeply upset” about the killing — usually the US looks the other way, giving impunity to its racist, apartheid proxy in Palestine.
Journalists in US speak up
But journalists in the US are speaking up — even mainstream journalists are beginning to speak out. CNN, for example, has conducted its own probe into the killing and in part concluded:“From the strike marks on the tree it appears that the shots, one of which hit Shireen, came from down the street from the direction of the IDF troops. The relatively tight grouping of the rounds indicate Shireen was intentionally targeted with aimed shots and not the victim of random or stray fire”
Other journalists are also trying to hold the US to account for the impunity it gives to Israeli war crimes:
During a Summit of the Americas event last night in Los Angeles, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was questioned by journalist Abby Martin about the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Secretary Blinken, what about Shireen Abu Akleh?,” asked Martin. “She was murdered by Israeli forces. CNN just agreed to this. These are our two greatest allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“They have murdered American journalists and there have been absolutely no repercussions . . . you’re sitting up here talking about the freedom of press and democracy. The United States is denying sovereignty to tens of millions of people around the world with draconian sanctions for electing leaders that you do not like.
“Why is there no accountability for Israel or Saudi Arabia for murdering journalists?”
“I deplore the loss of Shireen,” Blinken responded. “She was a remarkable journalist, an American citizen…We are looking for an independent, credible investigation. When that investigation happens, we will follow the facts, wherever they lead. It’s as straightforward as that.”
Deafening silence on Assange
Meanwhile, there has been a deafening silence from most journalists about the plight of Julian Assange who has been persecuted by the US and its allies for exposing the truth behind the US pursuit of endless wars around the globe.Exposing Israel’s horrific record in the targeted killing of journalists is journalism at its best. Silence about the fate of Julian Assange is journalism at its worst.
John Minto is a political activist and commentator, and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. This article was first published by The Daily Blog and is republished with the author’s permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the statements made by the BJP spokesperson
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on May 29 during the so-called annual “March of the Flags”, held to celebrate Israeli occupation of the city, reports Peoples’ Dispatch.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Posted on streetlamps all over Germany are stickers showing fleeing silhouettes with the caption, “Refugees welcome – bring your families”. Some have been blacked out with felt markers or ripped partially away. The Germans have mixed feelings about refugees, as demonstrated in the earlier waves from the Mideast and the current one from the Ukraine.
Germany took in over two million refugees from the Mideast wars, far more than any other country. The equivalent for the US population would be eight million.
This has created an enormous financial and cultural strain in a country that historically has had little immigration. It comes at a time when poverty is increasing and social services are being reduced. The once-generous welfare state is gradually being dismantled. This financial squeeze is worsening now because of expenses for the refugees. The two million newcomers receive enough money to live on plus free healthcare, education, and access to special programs. Some cheat on this, registering in several places under different names and getting multiple benefits. Many Germans resent paying for all this with high taxes while their own standard of living is declining.
The trauma of war and displacement has caused a few refugees to lose their moral compass. They do things here they wouldn’t do at home.
Two-thirds of the refugees are young men, some of them convinced Allah has ordained males to dominate females. In their view, women who aren’t submissive need to be punished. Since being male is the only power many of them have, they feel threatened by women in positions of power, and they sometimes react with hostility. Over a thousand women have been physically attacked — some murdered and raped and many aggressively grabbed on the breasts as a way of showing dominance. Many more have been abused — insulted, harassed, spat upon.
Many refugees are aware that Germany, as a member of NATO, supports these wars that have forced them to flee their homes. They’re not fooled by the rhetoric of “humanitarian intervention.” They know NATO’s motives are imperialistic: to install governments agreeable to Western control of their resources and markets. Although they are now safe, their relatives and friends are still being killed with weapons made in Germany and oppressed by soldiers and police trained and financed by Germany. Rather than a grateful attitude, some have come with a resentful one.
Crime has increased, especially violent crimes such as knife attacks. Police and others have been killed and wounded by refugees. Organized criminal clans have become established in Germany’s lenient legal atmosphere. A few ISIS and al-Qaeda members slipped in with the refugees. They have bombed a Christmas market, attacked synagogues, murdered Jews on the street, recruited new members in mosques.
In the past 75 years Germany has become a peaceful country. The current violence is profoundly disturbing to them. It brings back terrible memories.
The violent refugees, though, are only a small minority. Most of the newcomers have a positive attitude. They are getting a fresh start in life, recovering from trauma, getting an education, learning new skills. They’ve been introduced to other cultural possibilities.
Women in particular are responding favorably to this new environment. Seeing how women here live, some of them are beginning to free themselves from patriarchal bondage. With help from German feminists they are developing the energy and determination to challenge male rule and change the conditions of their lives. And they’ll inspire their sisters back home.
The situation with the Ukrainian refugees is much different. The cultures are similar, so there’s less clash. The war hasn’t been going on for long, so there are few of them and problems have not yet developed. They are being celebrated as brave heroes standing up to an aggressive Russia intent on dominating Europe. Anti-Russian feelings have been strong in Germany for two centuries, so this propaganda finds ready acceptance. During the Cold War the German government beamed out the constant danger of Russian attack in order to justify the presence of US troops and nuclear weapons on their soil. Now they condemn Putin as the new Hitler. Atrocity stories of Russian troops get enormous coverage, those of Ukrainian troops against separatists in Donbass are ignored. Every small Ukrainian victory is cheered with blood-thirsty enthusiasm. Welcoming these refugees is part of the strategy for maintaining NATO dominance.
But, of course, it is important to take them in, to shelter them from this latest capitalist butchery. Like the Arabs, most of them are fine people, and many will stay and contribute to the society in their new home.
Germany still has anti-foreign, anti-Semitic, right-wing extremists, but since World War Two the West German government has systematically pushed them out of public life. Unfortunately that wasn’t true in East Germany. There the Stalinist regime ignored the problem, as did Stalinist governments in the eastern European countries. They didn’t want to risk provoking uprisings against their dictatorships. In the former East Germany, which is much smaller than the West, right-wing extremists are a small minority, but a hateful, well-organized, and sometimes violent one. In eastern Europe they are much stronger, sometimes the most powerful political force.
The establishment press in the USA, Britain, and France jump at every opportunity to exaggerate right-wing incidents in Germany in order to divert attention from problems in their own country. The right wing in the USA is much more powerful and dangerous than that in Germany. That’s why our resistance to it is so important.
The post Report from Germany: Refugees Welcome … Sometimes first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
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Israel’s announcement that it will not pursue an investigation into the killing of famed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was not surprising, writes Miko Peled.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Photos from Melbourne rally for justice for Palestine on the anniversary of the Nakba, by Jacob Andrewartha.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Justice for Palestine Meanjin has vowed to defy police restrictions on the right to march at next year’s rally. A line of police blocked the road as activists marched “as hundreds of rallies” have done.
Wrap up speech by organiser Phil Monsour at Nakba commemoration in Meanjin/Brisbane on May 13.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Palestine solidarity activists commemorated the Nakba in Brisbane. Photos by Alex Bainbridge.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Ali Samoudi, another Palestinian journalist, was hospitalized in stable condition after being shot in the back
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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The rebranding of Saudi Arabia’s blood-stained image using sports has been spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, palace coup plotter and figure behind the butchering of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, writes Binoy Kampmark.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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A teacher in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin, was issued a fine for communicating in Kurdish and Arabic with his students, reports Medya News.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the refusal by a public office to register a baby with the name “Ciwan” — which contains the Kurdish letter “W” — was constitutional, reports Medya News.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due to their heavy reliance on Russian energy sources.
The horrific scenario, however, awaits countries in the Global South which, unlike Germany, will not be able to eventually substitute Russian raw material from elsewhere. Countries like Tunisia, Sri Lanka and Ghana and numerous others, are facing serious food shortages in the short, medium and long term.
The World Bank is warning of a “human catastrophe” as a result of a burgeoning food crisis, itself resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war. The World Bank President, David Malpass, told the BBC that his institution estimates a “huge” jump in food prices, reaching as high as 37%, which would mean that the poorest of people would be forced to “eat less and have less money for anything else such as schooling.”
This foreboding crisis is now compounding an existing global food crisis, resulting from major disruptions in the global supply chains, as a direct outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as pre-existing problems, resulting from wars and civil unrest, corruption, economic mismanagement, social inequality and more.
Even prior to the war in Ukraine, the world was already getting hungrier. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 811 million people in the world “faced hunger in 2020”, with a massive jump of 118 million compared to the previous year. Considering the continued deterioration of global economies, especially in the developing world, and the subsequent and unprecedented inflation worldwide, the number must have made several large jumps since the publishing of FAO’s report in July 2021, reporting on the previous year.
Indeed, inflation is now a global phenomenon. The consumer price index in the United States has increased by 8.5% from a year earlier, according to the financial media company, Bloomberg. In Europe, “inflation (reached) record 7.5%”, according to the latest data released by Eurostat. As troubling as these numbers are, western societies with relatively healthy economies and potential room for government subsidies, are more likely to weather the inflation storm, if compared to countries in Africa, South America, the Middle East and many parts of Asia.
The war in Ukraine has immediately impacted food supplies to many parts of the world. Russia and Ukraine combined contribute 30% of global wheat exports. Millions of tons of these exports find their way to food-import-dependent countries in the Global South – mainly the regions of South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Considering that some of these regions, comprising some of the poorest countries in the world, have already been struggling under the weight of pre-existing food crises, it is safe to say that tens of millions of people already are, or are likely to go, hungry in the coming months and years.
Another factor resulting from the war is the severe US-led western sanctions on Russia. The harm of these sanctions is likely to be felt more in other countries than in Russia itself, due to the fact that the latter is largely food and energy independent.
Although the overall size of the Russian economy is comparatively smaller than that of leading global economic powers like the US and China, its contributions to the world economy makes it absolutely critical. For example, Russia accounts for a quarter of the world’s natural gas exports, according to the World Bank, and 18% of coal and wheat exports, 14% of fertilizers and platinum shipments, and 11% of crude oil. Cutting off the world from such a massive wealth of natural resources while it is desperately trying to recover from the horrendous impact of the pandemic is equivalent to an act of economic self-mutilation.
Of course, some are likely to suffer more than others. While economic growth is estimated to shrink by a large margin – up to 50% in some cases – in countries that fuel regional and international growth such as Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia, the crisis is expected to be much more severe in countries that aim for mere economic subsistence, including many African countries.
An April report published by the humanitarian group, Oxfam, citing an alert issued by 11 international humanitarian organizations, warned that “West Africa is hit by its worst food crisis in a decade.” Currently, there are 27 million people going hungry in that region, a number that may rise to 38 million in June if nothing is done to stave off the crisis. According to the report, this number would represent “a new historic level”, as it would be an increase by more than a third compared to last year. Like other struggling regions, the massive food shortage is a result of the war in Ukraine, in addition to pre-existing problems, lead amongst them the pandemic and climate change.
While the thousands of sanctions imposed on Russia are yet to achieve any of their intended purpose, it is poor countries that are already feeling the burden of the war, sanctions and geopolitical tussle between great powers. As the west is busy dealing with its own economic woes, little heed is being paid to those suffering most. And as the world is forced to transition to a new global economic order, it will take years for small economies to successfully make that adjustment.
While it is important that we acknowledge the vast changes to the world’s geopolitical map, let us not forget that millions of people are going hungry, paying the price for a global conflict of which they are not part.
The post Cost of the Ukraine War Felt in Africa, Global South first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
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Israeli occupation forces attacked Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, wounding more than 150 Palestinians, reports Maureen Clare Murphy, while it was filled with Ramadan worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Kuwait,
The Kuwait’s Prime Minister, Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah, submitted the cabinet’s resignation to Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the official KUNA news agency reported.
The move comes a day head of a parliamentary vote on a letter of non-cooperation. Ten lawmakers submitted against the PM after he had been accused of committing “unconstitutional” practices, including corruption.
Oil-rich Kuwait has been shaken by disputes between lawmakers and successive governments dominated by the ruling Al-Sabah family for more than a decade, with parliaments and cabinets dissolved several times.
Kuwait is the only Gulf Arab state with a fully elected parliament, which enjoys wide legislative powers and can vote ministers out of office.
Earlier, in February, the country’s interior and defense ministers resigned in protest over the manner of parliamentary questioning of other ministers.
Parliament had questioned Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed Al-Sabah (royals) over corruption claims and alleged misuse of public funds.
Sheikh Ahmed survived a no-confidence vote on February 16, but Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah said the lengthy grilling was an “abuse” of power.
“Interrogations are a constitutional right but parliamentary practices are hindering us from fulfilling the aspirations of the Kuwaiti people,” he was quoted as saying at the time by Kuwaiti media.
The country’s last government was sworn in December, the fourth in two years, after the previous one resigned in November amid political deadlock.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
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A US$1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Israeli government provides cloud services for the Israeli apartheid state to spy on Palestinians, reports Ramzy Baroud.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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The outpouring of support for Ukrainian refugees contrasts with the brutality shown to those fleeing wars in Africa and the Middle East, writes Rupen Savoulian. It is time governments based their refugee policies on our common humanity and international law.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Bayda,
A one-eyed baby boy was born in Al Bayda province of Yemen, but could not survive as he passed away on Wednesday an extra ordinary event that gains global attention.
Yemeni journalist Karim Zarai tweet the pictures which soon went viral. In the pictures, the newborn can be seen lying in an incubator.
A baby boy was born in Yemen with 1 eye, in a very rare world case.
The baby also had 1 eye socket & a single optical nerve, Yemeni journalist Karim Zarai, who posted the child’s photos, said.
The world saw just six such cases in about five centuries, according to media reports pic.twitter.com/aU2eMNLQ7t
— The Stranger In DEEN
(@SaddiqB5) March 20, 2022The baby was pictured at the Al Bayda governorate with one eye socket and a single optical nerve. Zarai called it a very rare case that was ‘known in Greek mythology’.
According to medical officials, Hussein al-Abbasi took his wife Zahra al-Abbasi to Al-Hilal maternity hospital in Radaa for the delivery.
Official recognized this case a congenital deformity that occurred due to usage of ‘prohibited weapons’ in various Yemeni areas.
The official added there are birth defects that have occurred to newborns in several Yemeni areas. The official also mentioned that such birth defects have nothing to do with genetics as Zahra gave birth to healthy children.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
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There’s a lot going on right now (life-changing floods, bushfires, war, the threat of nuclear catastrophe, an impending election where both major parties are committed to fossil fuels for decades to come), but still, it could be worse, writes Carlo Sands.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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On 3 March, Israeli forces dismantled and confiscated a Palestinian agricultural packing house in the village of Cardalah, in the occupied Jordan Valley.
The Jordan Valley, part of the occupied West Bank, is home to 65,000 Palestinians. Since Israel’s military occupation began in 1967, almost 50 illegal Israeli colonies have been established across the Valley, housing 13,000 Israeli colonists. .
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem tweeted:
This morning at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and four crane trucks to the village of Cardalah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated an agricultural structure and shed owned by a village resident > pic.twitter.com/DgO2alGSVM
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 3, 2022
Demolitions like this are a near daily occurrence in the West Bank. During 2021, Israel carried out demolitions of 937 Palestinian structures, displacing almost 1,200 people.
This is at least the second military demolition that’s occurred in the Jordan Valley in the last few weeks.
While Palestinian agricultural infrastructure is subject to demolitions by the Israeli military, Israel’s colonies in the Jordan Valley are getting rich from exporting their products to Europe. These colonies are situated on land stolen from Palestinians using military force.
Apartheid agriculture
The Jordan Valley is a fertile area – known as the bread-basket of the West Bank.
Israel took control of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, by military force in 1967. Since then, Israeli colonists have been establishing lucrative agricultural settlements in the valley, taking advantage of the fertile land and paying low wages to the oppressed Palestinian workforce.
Research group Corporate Occupation found in 2021 that dozens of Israeli companies were operating out of the Jordan Valley colonies, paying Palestinian workers less than the Israeli minimum wage (which they are entitled to under Israeli law), often employing child labour and using dangerous labour practices.
These Israeli agricultural companies in the Jordan Valley are exporting to UK and European supermarkets.
“Water apartheid”
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley have called out the Israeli occupation’s “water apartheid”. Rashid Khudairy – coordinator of campaign group Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS) – shared this video:
"Like other farmers in the world, I hope to practice my right to access water, stay on my land, cultivate it and improve it."- Rashid Kudairi, the Jordan Valley.
Watch a video here to learn more about his story: https://t.co/zkuECLcNNr#StopWaterApartheid— Stop The Wall (@stopthewall) March 3, 2022
Israel’s military occupation of the Jordan Valley maintains domination of water resources through demolishing Palestinian water infrastructure and monopolising water supplies for Israeli colonies. According to JVS:
Israel controls 80 percent of Palestinian water resources and Israeli settlers use approximately six times the amount of water used by the 2.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Most settlements are located close to water resources, which Palestinians are restricted from accessing. Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley use large quantities of water to grow agricultural produce for export, while Palestinian farmers struggle to irrigate their crops.
Palestinian communities are at risk of becoming isolated enclaves. The de facto annexation of the fertile land of the Jordan Valley in particular, the food basket of the West Bank, would render a functioning Palestinian State impossible, depriving it of the land and natural resources necessary to sustain itself.
JVS argues:
Water apartheid is used by Israeli occupation forces as a tool for displacement. It is directly connected to the theft of agricultural land, minerals and other resources, and is imposed through settlement expansions and acquisition of territory by force in violation of international law.
Residents of the Jordan Valley and southern Hebron Hills are exposed to the impact of water apartheid on a daily basis and face constant threats from the occupation.
Boycott Israeli apartheid
Don’t believe the mainstream media pundits who say this situation is complicated. It’s actually pretty simple. The Israeli state is using the seizure of land, the demolition of Palestinian infrastructure, and the monopolisation of water resources to benefit Israeli colonists.
Palestinians have called repeatedly for a boycott of Israeli agricultural goods. In 2013, 17 Palestinian organisations made the following call:
We, Palestinian organisations and unions representing farmers struggling for their right to their land and to food sovereignty, urge international civil society organisations to build effective campaigns and work towards ending agricultural trade with Israel that finances and rewards the destruction of Palestinian farming.
In 2020, Corporate Occupation published several interviews with Palestinian agricultural labourers working for Israeli companies on Israel’s Jordan Valley colonies. Many of them made statements in support of the boycott call. Khaled – who worked in the Israeli settlement of Tomer – said:
I wish that everyone around the world would boycott Israeli goods; it is resistance. If the settlement companies closed down because of the boycott I would be happy.
Solidarity
Palestinians have been calling for a boycott of Israeli goods since the 2005 civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, when a coalition of hundreds of Palestinian groups wrote:
We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.
Since 2005, the situation for Palestinians has only got worse. We must not forget the Palestinian communities who are continuing to resist Israel’s occupation by refusing to leave their lands. Those of us who oppose racism, colonialism, and apartheid must heed their call and boycott Israeli goods.
Featured image via Ahmed Abu Hameeda/Unsplash (resized to 770 x 403 pixels)
By Tom Anderson
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The federal government has declared its intention to designate Hamas a terrorist organisation. Jacob Andrewartha reports.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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A resolution with wide bipartisan support is being pushed through Congress that would codify one of Donald Trump’s controversial foreign policy initiatives — the so-called Abraham Accords which strengthened U.S. support for Arab dictatorships in return for their formal recognition of Israel.
The Israel Relations Normalization Act has 329 House cosponsors, and 72 cosponsors in the Senate, almost evenly divided between the two parties.
The bill celebrates and seeks to strengthen Trump’s deal which led Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan and Morocco to normalize relations with Israel. None of these countries would have recognized Israel were it not for a series of actions by the United States that essentially amounted to bribery and extortion.
The bill asserts that the deals brokered by Trump and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, were “peace agreements.” However, except for a small contingent sent by Morocco partway through the October 1973 conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, none of the signatory countries had ever been at war with Israel. None of these countries were threatening Israel, none of them had the capacity to threaten Israel, and Israel’s distance from these countries range from 750 to 3,200 miles.
If passed, the bill would require the State Department to “develop and submit to the appropriate congressional committees a strategy on expanding and strengthening the Abraham Accords,” including ways in which the U.S. government intends to “leverage diplomatic lines of effort and resources to encourage normalization.”
The “normalization” of diplomatic ties in the 2020 agreements Congress seeks to expand and strengthen were part of a quid pro quo: In 2020, the tiny Gulf sheikdoms of Bahrain and the UAE agreed to recognize Israel in return for lucrative arms deal with the United States that Trump threatened to otherwise withhold. Sudan’s government agreed to normalize relations with Israel in return for the United States lifting devastating sanctions on that country. Most controversially, Morocco agreed to recognize Israel in return for the United States becoming virtually the only country to formally recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, which has been under a brutal Moroccan military occupation since its conquest of the former Spanish colony in 1975.
Criticisms of the Abraham Accords are effectively banned in these Arab states, each of which have notoriously bad human rights records. Bahrain, with the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, engaged in a brutal and deadly crackdown against nonviolent pro-democracy activists in 2011 and peaceful dissent continues to be suppressed in that island kingdom. The UAE is also a repressive regime which is particularly abusive to foreign workers which make up the majority of the population, and it has engaged in war crimes in Yemen. Sudan is ruled by a repressive military junta which has violently cracked down on pro-democracy activists after staging a coup this past fall, ousting the country’s civilian-led coalition government. The Moroccan monarchy continues its horrific decades-long occupation of Western Sahara, which Freedom House has ranked as second only to Syria in its suppression of political rights.
This bill could be seen as part of the decades-long tradition of the U.S. propping up Arab dictatorships suppressing pro-democracy struggles while then justifying its support for the Israeli occupation on the grounds that Israel is “the sole democracy in the Middle East.”
This legislative initiative perpetuates the myth that the key to Middle East peace is in having autocratic Arab states recognize Israel, not on Israel ending its occupation. There is no mention of the Israeli occupation in the bill, much less a call for it to end. Indeed, by weakening Arab leverage on Israel by recognizing that government prior to Israel recognizing Palestine, it eases pressure on Israel to make the necessary compromises for peace. For nearly 20 years, every Arab country has been on record supporting normalization of relations with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. This bipartisan majority in Congress sponsoring this bill, however, is insisting that Arab recognition be unilateral. This legislation, therefore, appears to be designed to remove this leverage from the Palestinian side, one of the few routes remaining to the millions of Palestinians suffering under the Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank.
It has long been a priority of successive U.S. administrations and congressional leaders of both parties to push Arab countries to recognize Israel while actively discouraging other countries to recognize Palestine. (Indeed, U.S. law requires cutting off all U.S. aid to any United Nations agency that includes Palestine as a member, which led President Obama to suspend U.S. contributions to UNESCO in 2011 and President Trump to withdraw altogether in 2017, resulting in major cutbacks to efforts to promote peace through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.)
As a result, despite the pro-peace rhetoric in the bill, the Israel Relations Normalization Act appears to be designed to make peace even more elusive by strengthening the Israeli occupation and weakening nonviolent means of challenging it.
A recent poll of U.S. Middle East scholars revealed that nearly three-quarters of those surveyed recognized the Abraham Accords has actually had a negative impact on the prospects of peace, with only 6 percent saying it has had a positive impact. The majority of congressional Democrats, however, have joined their Republican colleagues in insisting that this broad consensus of Middle East scholars is wrong, and that Trump was right.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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Every year since the abduction and imprisonment of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan 23 years ago, an international peace delegation has collected evidence on the treatment of political prisoners in Turkey, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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A landmark appeal against a 2019 ban imposed on a leading Kurdish publisherand music distributor failed in the German Federal Administrative Court on January 26, reports Kerry Smith.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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A new documentary film, The Other Side Of The River, shows the complexity of the women’s revolution in Rojava and its contradictions. Firat News Agency spoke to director Antonia Kilian about the film.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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West Bank,
A 17-year-old Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank clashes on Monday, during home demolition operation of a suspected “terrorist” of a recent attack. Israel defense forces labelled.
Mohammed Abu Salah was killed in the village of Silat al-Harithiya near the flashpoint town of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank according to Palestinian health ministry.
According to Israel’s army statement that its troops along with border police had entered the village “to demolish the floor of the residence in which the terrorist Muhammad Jaradat lived”.
Israel’s army said Jaradat and others had carried out the recent fatal shooting of a Jewish settler in the West Bank. Jaradat was responsible for the death of Yehuda Dimentman, a 25-year-old religious student and married father shot dead in the West Bank in December.
Dimentman was studying at a religious school in the Homesh settlement in the West Bank when he was killed in a shooting and wounded several others.
Israel arrested several people over the shooting days after it occurred.
The army said “violent riots” broke out ahead of the planned demolition, “with the participation of hundreds of Palestinians,” some of whom thrown explosives at Israeli troops.
“The troops also identified a number of armed demonstrators, and fired towards them in order to defuse the possible threat,” the army statement said
Moreover, Israel’s Army spokesman did not comment on the teen’s death.
Israel regularly destroys the homes of Palestinians with allegations of attacks carried out on Israelis, in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In retaliation of this Israeli forces practice fuels up tensions, while Israeli critics has been claimed this action of Israel Army as a form of collective punishment.
Roughly 2.9 million Palestinians live in communities widely in the West Bank alongside some 475,000 Jewish settlers while under international law this is illegal.
Homesh is among the settlements that even Israel considers it to be unauthorized. Israeli forces occupy the territory in 2005 but settlers have yet continued to operate there which mounting tensions with Palestinians.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War.
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Web Desk:
According to Arab News, an experimental copy of the Qur’an written in Braille for the blind was recently displayed by Al-Azhar Al-Sharif at its stand at the 53rd Cairo International Book Fair, which ended on Monday, Feb. 7.
Al-Azhar Press, under the guidance and patronage of the Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheikh of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, took on the project of printing the Qur’an in Braille using the latest printing systems.
Photo Courtesy: Arab News Al-Azhar said in a statement that this trial version of the Qur’an featured the written words of the Qur’an alongside prominent Braille letters to achieve societal cooperation between the sighted and the blind in memorizing and reading the Qur’an.
According to the statement, this step was taken by Al-Azhar due to its belief in taking care of people with disabilities including the blind, and as an extension of Al-Azhar’s mission in spreading the Qur’an and its sciences.
Photo Courtesy: Arab News The experimental version that Al-Azhar displayed in the exhibition is characterized by its large size and special thick cardboard, where the dots are clear and prominent so that they can be easily read using the fingertips.
Production manager at Al-Azhar Press, Hossam El-Din Mounir, told Arab News that the idea of implementing the Qur’an in Braille came from a desire to help the blind.
“We designed a trial version to gauge people’s opinions first, and then we will start in its final implementation,” he said.
Dr. Eman Karim, general supervisor of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, thanked Al-Azhar in her statements to Arab News for making the Qur’an available in Braille for people with visual disabilities, who represented 5 percent of the Egyptian community, according to the 2015 census.
Photo Courtesy: Arab News Karim called on state education authorities to follow the example of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif by making cultural publications available to people with disabilities, contributing to raising awareness, especially the process of religious education to combat
This post was originally published on VOSA.
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