Sweden’s Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) released a statement opposing the deal with Turkey to clear the way for Sweden’s membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has given the Turkish state “the green light for genocide against the Kurds”, with the deal struck between Turkey, Sweden and Finland as the price of the latter states’ membership of the military alliance, reports Peter Boyle.
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About 30,000 people, including more than 100 international guests, attended the 5th Congress of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara, Turkey on July 3, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Academic and Australian Kurdish solidarity activist John Tully responds to the announcement that Sweden and Finland struck a deal with Turkey to betray the Kurds, while clearing a path to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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Peter Boyle reflects on the achievements of the Rojava revolution in north and east Syria, which continues in the face of great adversity to inspire activists around the world.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Saudi Arabia now also allows women to attend the hajj unaccompanied by a male relative, a requirement that was dropped last year
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Janine Jackson interviewed Raed Jarrar about Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia for the June 24, 2022, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
CounterSpin220624Koshgarian.mp3
New York Times (6/5/22)
Janine Jackson: During the 2020 campaign, the New York Times explained, Joe Biden pledged, if elected, to stop coddling Saudi Arabia, after the brutal murder of a prominent dissident and Washington Post contributor, Jamal Khashoggi. “We are not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We’re going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.”
When officials said Biden would visit the kingdom in July and meet with Mohammed bin Salman, understood as the architect of Khashoggi’s murder, the New York Times explained, “It was just the latest sign that oil has again regained its centrality in geopolitics.”
NPR said it tighter, telling listeners, “Biden has changed his tune on Saudi Arabia,” and “oil is a big part of the reason.” Vox had a long, twisty piece about the visit as a sign of “tensions” in Biden’s foreign policy. He wants policy to benefit the middle class, like trying to lower gas prices, but he wants policy to center human rights, a “reflection,” the outlet assures us, “of Biden’s gut feeling about democracies delivering better for people.”
Pity the earnest soul trying to make sense of US foreign policy by way of news media, always being asked to believe in values that are nowhere in evidence, principles that are overthrown at the first turn—and, above all, something called “realism,” that always seems to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable.
Vox (6/21/22)
What would a humane, independent press corps be talking about when we talk about Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia? We’re joined now by Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, Democracy for the Arab World Now, an organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi. He joins us now by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Raed Jarrar.
Raed Jarrar: Thank you for having me again.
JJ: Jamal Khashoggi comes up in virtually every piece about this visit. Bloomberg‘s editors say that “Biden isn’t likely to elicit any public contrition, but Saudi leaders should at least guarantee that no similar atrocity will take place again.”
You get the impression from coverage that Saudi leadership did one bad thing, so maybe we should all just try to get past it. It’s very strange, but given an absence of information, that might be what many people will come away with.
RJ: And that is a very misguided analysis, obviously. The Saudi government, and many other governments in the Middle East—Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and others—have been committing human rights abuses on a daily basis.
And the Biden administration made big, grand promises before President Biden came into office. But regardless of these promises, what the administration is doing now is that it is breaching US and international law by continuing to support and aid these abusive and apartheid governments in the Middle East. And, unfortunately, we are just hearing a new set of excuses to justify the same old policy.
Raed Jarrar: “His visit will not help peace. It will not help human rights. It will not help US interests in the region.”
JJ: Well, yeah, because people are going to read stories saying this visit is a bad idea, or it’s a good idea, or it’s a bad thing but we have to do it…. What we’re not seeing is discussion of what might be the real purposes or the likely outcomes of this trip. And I wonder what you make of that, and of this sort of scramble to present it as a necessary reset in terms of US/Saudi policy.
RJ: I wish there was a reset in US/Saudi policy. It is more or less the same for the last decade. The US policy in the Middle East in general has been on autopilot for decades, and many think tanks and human rights organizations in Washington, DC, have been pleading that this administration should change the status quo, and should rethink US foreign policy in the Middle East, whether it’s the $3.8 billion that we give to Israel every year, whether it’s the $1.3 billion that we give to Egypt every year, whether it’s the hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Emirates.
These are entrenched practices and policies that have been taking place for a long time. They are so deeply rooted in Washington, DC, protected by special interests and lobbyists, and all of the reasons why DC is broken.
So the fact that the administration is continuing the exact same policy now…. The administration is telling us that it’s for our own good, or it’s for the realpolitik, just to be reasonable and realistic, that we have to go down the path of funding apartheid in Israel and selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and doing all of these crimes, supporting all of these crimes in the region.
It’s not true. That’s actually not true. The United States does have an option to stop these policies, shift our policies in the Middle East and elsewhere, and start abiding by our own law. We have existing US law that prohibit the United States from funding and aiding and selling weapons to human rights abusers.
We have other options when it comes to energy; we don’t have to actually have all presidents fly and shake the hand of the mastermind of the murder of Jamal Kashoggi to bring us oil. That’s not true. There are so many other options for energy independence. There are many other options for the reduction of use of energy in the US. There are options for getting other types of energy. There are options of getting oil from other places.
These narratives that we’re dealing with now are fake narratives, lazy narratives to justify the status quo, because changing the status quo in DC is not easy.
JJ: Absolutely. And part of what presents an obstacle is this kind of misinformation or even disinformation that comes from the media—and from politicians. I’m just looking at media credulously repeating Biden’s quote: “Look, I’m not gonna change my view on human rights. But as president of the United States, my job is to bring peace if I can…. And that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
Going back to the Bloomberg editors, they say, “Healthy US/Saudi ties are critical to calming a volatile part of the world.” So I think even well-meaning folks are reading that and thinking, “Okay, well, shaking hands with someone, if that’s going to calm volatility, and if that’s going to bring peace, well, then I’m for that.”
Bloomberg (6/21/22)
And yet distinguishing that from actual diplomacy is something else again.
RJ: That’s right. And listen, I grew up in the Arab world. I am half Palestinian and half Iraqi. I grew up in different parts of the Arab world, in Iraq and Jordan and Saudi Arabia and other countries. And I’m very familiar with the narrative of trying to use Israel/Palestine, and peace for Israel/Palestine, as a justification to continue abusive government policy.
This is how we grew up. Saddam Hussein always told us that we have to not criticize the Iraqi government, because he’s working to bring peace and end the occupation of Palestine, right? Assad says the same and Mubarak said the same, and all of these other dictators.
And now we are hearing, ironically, a similar narrative coming from the United States. So President Biden is telling us that to bring “peace” to Israel/Palestine, he needs to travel to the region and normalize relationships with dictators, normalize relationships with apartheid regimes. That is not true.
The United States’ role in Israel/Palestine is a part of the problem, and there is no war between Saudi Arabia and Israel that President Biden has to go there and negotiate an end or peace treaty for. What President Biden is doing is, he’s continuing a negative US role in the region, a negative US role that has contributed, along with apartheid Israel, to additional human rights abuse in Saudi Arabia.
And his visit will not help peace. It will not help human rights. It will not help US interests in the region. It will help maintain the very narrowly defined special interests that we have here in Washington, DC, whether they are the oil lobbyists or the weapon lobbyists or Israel lobbyists or Saudi Arabia lobbyists, the very, very narrowly defined interests that come from very, very, very small groups. Those are the people who are benefiting from this.
The United States as a country is not, the US people are not, and people in the Middle East region are not.
JJ: Let me just ask you, finally: While many in elite media are trying to hurry us past the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and see that as something to put behind us in order to move forward, lots of folks are not supporting that and, in fact, have put in place, a symbol to say that this is not something we’re going to forget. Let me just ask you to end with that street renaming in DC, which I understand is in front of the Saudi embassy. Is that right?
(CC photo: Joe Flood)
RJ: That is right. Last week, we finally officially changed the name of the street outside of the Saudi embassy to Jamal Khashoggi Way.
We placed official street signs, after the DC council voted to change the name of the street, and after the DC Department of Transportation worked with us to unveil these signs. We have four signs right outside of the Saudi embassy. One of them is immediately outside the door of the embassy. So everyone who’s going to the embassy will see that.
But not only this, if you look at Google Maps today, at the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC, the name of the streets right outside that has been changed also on Google Maps to Jamal Kashoggi Way. And this is a daily reminder to anyone who is going to the embassy, whether they work there or visiting, that Jamal Kashoggi has not been forgotten, and we will continue to fight for justice for Jamal.
We will also try to work on other streets around the United States, around the US consulates, maybe in Los Angeles and Boston and New York, to also change the names of the streets there to Jamal Kashoggi Way, so that will serve as a permanent reminder to everyone who passes there every day about the crime that took place in 2018.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, Democracy for the Arab World Now. They are online at DAWNMENA.org. Raed Jarrar, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
RJ: Thanks again for having me.
The post ‘In the Middle East, We Are Hearing a New Set of Excuses to Justify the Same Old Policy’ appeared first on FAIR.
This post was originally published on FAIR.
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In a previous blog, I wrote about the ethno-cultural diversity across the MENA region – the Middle East and North Africa. However, I learnt from feedback and my own experiences, that there is even more diversity out there!
And so, here is part two: ten more groups with highlight the ethno-cultural and religious diversity of the region.
Take a look!
1. Mandaeans: Mesopotamia’s disappearing minority
Image credit: Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0. The Mandeans are an ethnoreligious group from Southern Iraq and Iran who follow the religious practice of Mandaeism – a gnostic, monotheistic ethnic religion. Also known as the Sabians, they are one of the world’s smallest and oldest religious groups. The liturgical language is Mandaic.
Having lived in the Middle East for over 1,000 years, there are now around 60,000 to 100,000 Mandeans globally, including in diaspora communities in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia and Syria.
In Iran, following the Iranian Revolution, reports circulated of the groups’ persecution, however the community survived. Due to the Iran-Iraq war, the community was later separated.
After 2003, violence further affected Iraqi Mandeans with 90% of Iraqi Mandeans leaving Iraq between 2003 and 2019. Following the fall of ISIS, very few Mandeans have returned to Iraq. The community in Iraq now fears being obsolete.
In Iranian Mandeans sadly also continue to face ongoing discrimination, including being denied access to further education if openly identifying as Mandean.
2. Lurs: a pre-Iranian population
A Lurish man and woman in traditional costume, Iran (Image credit: Shadegan, CC BY-SA 4.0). Iran is rich in ethnic diversity and the Lurs (Lor) are a great example!
The Lurs are the fourth largest ethnic group in Iran – making up around 6% of the population. It’s estimated that around two million Lurs live in Iran, with the community based in southern and south-western Iran.
Tradition states that they were originally Kurdish but separated off as a community about 1,000 years ago. Other sources state that they are of Persian and Arab descent.
Mainly pastoral nomads, the Lurs have been living in the land for around 40,000 years and speak Luri (very close to Persian) and Laki (closer to Kurdish).
In terms, the community identity mainly as mainly Shia Muslims with a minority of Sunni Muslims and some following Yarsanism – a syncretic religion dating back to 14th century Iran.
As an ethnic minority in Iran, the Lurs “pose a particular security problem for Iran”. Ethnic minorities in Iran for example are not allowed to run schools or give testimony in court in their native languages.
3. Coptic Christians: Egypt’s largest religious minority
Coptic priest holding a cross, Egypt (Image credit: Michal Huniewicz, CC BY 2.0). Egyptian’s Coptic Christian population – who largely do not identify as Arab – are the largest ethno-religious minority in Egypt, making up around 10% of the country’s population of 101.48 million people.
Following an Eastern Orthodox tradition, they also larger than Christian populations in the Middle East, with populations also in Sudan and Libya. A significant diaspora population also live in North America, Australia and Europe, with groups also across the Middle East. Overall, there are around one million Copts globally, with over 100 churches.
The church in Alexandria (Egypt) is considered to be the main Coptic centre of worship. However, in Egypt the community has sadly been subjected to violent attacks and ongoing State-based discrimination in Egypt.
During the 2011 revolution, the Egyptian military in fact killed around 28 Coptic protestors, injuring many more in what is known as the Maspero Massacre.
However, the revolution and Egyptian society has also shown repeated acts of solidarity amongst Muslims and Copts in Egypt.
During the “Day of Departure” protest in Tahrir Square (Cairo), as Muslims performed noon prayers, their Coptic siblings formed a human chain around them to protect them.
Likewise, following a terrorist attack on a Coptic church on New Year’s Day which killed 21 people, Muslims came to a local Coptic church in Alexandria to protect their Coptic neighbours as they celebrated Christmas.
4. Assyrians: Survival of Syriac Christians
Assyrian children sitting next to the fence surrounding a statue of the Virgin Mary, having fled with their families from ISIS held Mosul, Iraq. Image credit: Christiaan Triebert, CC BY-NC 2.0). Assyrians are an ethnic minority native to Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran – the region known as Assyria. The community date back to 2500BC in ancient Mesopotamia. They speak Syriac – an Aramaic dialect.
There are over five million Assyrians globally today, with more Assyrians living in the diaspora than their homeland.
The community have faced ongoing persecution including/during:
- The Assyrian genocide in which at least 250,000 Assyrians were killed by the Ottomans during WWI
- The Iranian Revolution – since which the Assyrian churches have been raided, closed down, with leaders being imprisoned and, in some cases, sentenced to death.
- Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with attacks on Assyrian churches an estimated 60% of Iraqi Assyrians fleeing Iraq since the start of the war
- The takeover of Syria by ISIS, in which ISIS attacked Assyrian villages, killing and imprisoning Assyrians, with to tens of thousands of Assyrians facing exile or death for not paying jizya (minority tax)
Diaspora communities are now based in a range of countries including the USA, Sweden, Jordan, Germany, Lebanon and Australia.
5. Arameans: An ancient people
An Aramean lady wearing religious jewellery. Whilst some Assyrians identity as Aramean, Aramean identity is also maintained as a separate identity by a number of people in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, with Israel also recognising Arameans as a distinct minority group .
A Christian minority, most Arameans are members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, but also the Maronite Catholic Church and Syriac Catholic Church.
The community traces their roots back to the Ancient Arameans of 1st millennium BC. Arameans today speak Neo-Aramaic and the languages of their resident country, such as Arabic and Hebrew.
The community have a history of persecution, for example by the Ottomans and ISIS, and struggled during the economic hardships of the Kurdish-Turkish war in the 80s and 90s.
Today there is a large diaspora community in Western Europe, mainly Germany and Sweden.
6. Azeris: Iran’s largest minority
An Azeri woman. The Azeri people – Iranian Azerbaijanis or “Persian/Iranian Turks” – are a Turkic-speaking people of Iranian origin.
As Iran’s largest minority group, there are around 12 million Azeri in Iran, with other estimates totalling up to 20 million people – almost a quarter of Iran’s population.
Native to the Iranian Azerbaijani region in the north-west of Iran, Azeris also live in smaller numbers in regions/areas including Kurdistan, Tehran and Karaj in northern Iran. Members of the diaspora also live in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Canada and the United States.
Mostly adherents of Shia Islam, they are supposedly “afforded more freedoms” than non-Shiite ethnic minorities in Iran. However, the group do face political and cultural discrimination, with reports of Azeri children being prohibited from speaking Azeri in schools, Azeri activists being harassed and Azeri town names being changed.
7. Maronites: Lebanon’s leading minority
A Maronite Priest during a Sunday Maronite Rite Mass. Image credit: Catholic Church England and Wales, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). A Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Levant, Maronites today make up around 21% of Lebanon’s population.
The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic Church – dating back to the 4th century – in unison with the Pope and the wider Catholic Church. The name Maronite derives from a third century Syriac saint named Maron.
Originally Aramaic speakers, Maronites use Syriac as their liturgical language and speak Arabic/the local country language.
Globally, there are around 8 million Maronites living outside Lebanon, with communities in Syria, Cyprus, Israel and an additional diaspora community, most notably in Brazil.
Historically, the group has faced persecution under the Ottoman Empire, during the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915-18) and the Damour Massacre by the PLO (1976) during the Lebanese Civil War.
Today, politically within Lebanon itself, the head of State Michael Aoun is however a Maronite. This makes Lebanon the only country in the Middle East with a Christian head of State.
8. Samaritans: Surviving in the Holy Land
A group of Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim, West Bank. Image credit: Edkaprov (Edward Kaprov), CC BY-SA 3.0). A tiny community of under 900 people, the Samaritans are believed to be descendants of the ancient Israelites (as are the Jewish community) before the Assyrian exile of 722 BCE.
An ethnoreligious group, they practice Samaritanism – an Abrahamic faith. They believe to hold the original unchanged Torah (holy book of the Jewish community), known as the Samaritan Pentateuch written in Samaritan script, alongside additional books belonging to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
The group has faced historic persecution, including during the Roman Empire and under Byzantian rule and has survived, having narrowly avoiding being obsolete due to ongoing persecution and assimilation.
Today, the Samaritan community is based in Israel and the West Bank (by Mount Gerizim – their holy site near Nablus), with the community speaking Hebrew and Arabic. For liturgical purposes, the community use Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic. A recognised religious minority in Israel, Israel’s rabbinate considers the Samaritans a Jewish sect.
They are the only community in Israel-Palestine to hold both Israeli and Palestinian identity cards and have been mostly unaffected by the conflict. Some Samaritan youth however have reported difficulty in navigating their lives amongst the division of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
9. Armenians: From genocide to new beginnings
At an Armenian Orthodox Christmas mass in Bethlehem, the West Bank (Ridvan Yumlu-Schiessl, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Although, there is no exact number due a lack of records, it’s estimated that around half a million Armenians live in the Middle East, in Syria, Iran, Lebanon and to a lesser extent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and Iraq. This is compared to a population of three million in Armenia itself.
Armenians traditionally belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, with smaller Protestant and Catholic minorities. The Armenian Church is one of the three primary custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the community in known for having “a long history as one of the most ancient and successful communities in the Middle East.”
During WWI and following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, almost the entire Armenian population was displaced from rural Anatolia (Turkey). The Armenian Genocide (the first genocide of the 20th century) at the hands of the Ottomans (Turks) resulted in the mass displacement and murder of the Armenian population.
In 1915, more than 2 million Armenians lived within the Ottoman Empire. However, from Spring 1915 to Autumn 2016, 1.5 million Armenians died during the genocide. They died either directly in massacres and individual killings or as a result of “systemic” ill-treatment, exposure and starvation.
What’s more, tens of thousands of Armenian children were forcibly removed from their families and “converted” to Islam. Thousands of Armenians fled to countries such as Lebanon and Syria.
Post-WWII, many Armenians stayed in Lebanon, whilst others immigrated to Soviet Armenia. Syria for example – before the recent war – had a thriving Armenian population, with Aleppo as the centre.
With the community however thought to have been in support of President Bashar Al Assad, a lot of the area of Jdaideh – a historic area outside the walls of Aleppo – was later destroyed during the civil war.
On a whole, the Armenian community in the Middle East has both witnessed and been forced to participate in a host of conflicts, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-Iraq War (under Saddam Hussein) and the first Gulf War.
Outside of the Middle East and Armenia, sizeable communities also exist in Russia and the USA. Today around 60,00 also live in Turkey.
10. The Bahá’í: A persecuted religious minority
Members of the Bahá’í National Council in Iran (“National Spiritual Assembly”) who were later kidnapped in August 1980, and are presumed killed (Bahá’í International Community, CC BY 4.0). The Bahá’í community is not an ethno-cultural minority but a religious minority originating from Iran which is now spread worldwide. However, due to their size the persecution faced by the community, it’s important to know more about them.
Belonging to the second largest religion in Iran (after Islam), this community have been consistently and increasingly persecuted since the Iranian Revolution.
Although very similar to Islam as a faith (most Iranian Bahai are in fact of Muslim heritage), the faith emerged in the mid-19th century with now five million followers worldwide. Continuously, the Iranian government sees the community as “apostates” and a threat to their Islamist regime:
“Although followers of the Bahai faith accept the legitimacy of Islam—including the Twelver Shia branch, Iran’s official religion—regime clerics have viewed them as potential challengers from the very beginning of the Islamic Republic.” (Mehdi Khalaji, 2022)
As identifying Bahai, members of the community face ongoing repression, such as:
- Being banned from attend higher education institutions (unless they renounce their faith and identify as Muslims)
- Witnessing the destruction of holy sites (including the graves of Baha’i women previously hung by the government)
- Illegal detention
- Having property confiscated
As a result, many Bahai have sought refuge outside of Iran (and other countries such as Kuwait) in countries such as the USA, Canada and the UK.
With such diversity and unfortunate persecution of these minority groups, it’s critical that we raise awareness of their rich histories, cultures and traditions – and of the struggles they face.
Share this blog and keep their stories alive!
Feature image: A Coptic monk at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy, Egypt’s most famous Coptic monastery (Mark Fischer, CC BY-SA 2.0).
This post was originally published on Voice of Salam.
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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
- RSF calls for independent inquiry into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing
- 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.
