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By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Among the signatories are Nobel laureates, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, from Norway and Susumu Tonegawa from Japan.

More than 1,000 psychologists and neuroscientists from across the world have signed an open letter demanding that the Israeli government respect international humanitarian law and end the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

The letter, which began circulating on December 3, also calls for “an immediate ceasefire in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon”.

Among the signatories are Nobel laureates, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, from Norway and Susumu Tonegawa from Japan.

[https://twitter.com/A_Marie_sci/status/1863960173556961624]

Although the letter condemned the operation carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, it stated there is an asymmetry of power.

“There is symmetry of humanity – and its propensities for despair, hatred and extremism – on each side of borders between Lebanon, Israel and Palestine,” the letter states. “But there is an asymmetry of power.”

“In the present case, the state of Israel is the stronger party, dominating the area and its people through illegal occupation, including control of movement, and access to electricity, water, agricultural land, and even to humanitarian aid”.

The letter called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop the war.

“We therefore call for decisive international pressure on Israel to stop the war, including stopping the provision of offensive arms to Israel and reassessment of economic partnerships and collaborations with institutions in occupied territories (which are illegal according to international law),” it said.

‘Respect Academic Freedoms’

The signatories called on “all human beings on this planet to non-violently and peacefully stand up with determination and condemn violence against all civilians, no matter their nationality, religion, ethnicity, political or cultural affiliation.”

They also called for international governments to pressure towards peace in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, respect of international humanitarian law, and the end of occupation.

“And we demand that our institutions scrupulously respect academic freedoms and resolutely uphold freedom of expression in accordance with the law,” the letter stated.

Staggering Death Toll

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

[https://twitter.com/PalestineChron/status/1864635685786784230]

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,580 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 105,739 wounded.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Millions Displaced

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

5 December 2024

Source: palestinechronicle.com

By Dr Marwan Asmar

At first France said it would adhere to the decision of the International Criminal Court and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he landed in Paris because he is wanted as a war criminal.

This angered Netanyahu. In a private telephone call with President Emmanuel Macron, the two leaders had a terse conversation on the international legality of the ICC decision. Netanyahu questioned its validity in the strongest manner.

While this was going on, France was interested in reaching a ceasefire deal on Lebanon and Hezbollah. Israel started another battle on its northern borders come mid-September and was busily attacking south Lebanon up to Beirut’s south district, seen as a Hezbollah stronghold.

The French government soon started its diplomacy and started to push for a ceasefire. Thus the context became that if France waived the Netanyahu arrest and that of his ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, should they travel to France, a deal can be reached on Lebanon.

And thus a 60-day ceasefire was finally reached; this was a ceasefire that could be extended.

Meanwhile France needed to provide its pretext for “arresting/not arresting Netanyahu” if he landed in France. Excuses had to be made: Israel wasn’t privy to ICC decisions because it was not a signatory to the world body as well it was felt that that Netanyahu couldn’t be arrested because he was a sitting prime minister.

This meant that the whole issue was becoming very confusing. But the ICC decision was binding on all 124 of its members in the world that includes France which is bound to follow the decisions of the international court with no excuses!

This political diplomacy maybe water on a duck’s back because Netanyahu is still promising that he will go after Hezbollah soon and that means an Israeli war on Lebanon is likely to start again in the near future.

But is this likely as well, since the north of Israel is clearly devastated and neither the Israelis nor their army would prefer to see war re-starts again. For the time being however, its touch and go.

Dr Asmar blogs at crossfirearabia.com

30 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Marwan Asmar

Over 190 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, 2023 for daring to report and utter the truth.

The Government Media Office in Gaza states the number of journalists killed in Gaza, as reported on 30 November, 2024, now stands at 191 after the death of Mamdouh Quneita in the Baptist-al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Quneita was an editor of the Al-Aqsa satellite channel, the media office said which means that he also managed the television station as well as reporting.

“The Government Media Office condemns in the strongest terms the targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation. We hold it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

[https://twitter.com/DayPal_official/status/1862910790895915294]

His name is trending on the social media for he was killed by an Israeli drone in the middle of Gaza City on Saturday afternoon in the courtyard of the Baptist Al Ahli hospital.

According to the Anadolu Agency, as of Nov 27, 190 journalists have been killed in Gaza from Israeli attacks since 7 October, 2023. This is the latest targetting by the Israeli army.

One blogger writes: Shame on mainstream medias and all western journalists who remain silent in the face of Palestinian journalists being killed in unprecedented numbers by the Israeli colonial and apartheid regime. @MariamBarghouti, @ReporterSol

Another said Israeli forces shot and killed Mamdouh Quneita with a direct bullet to the head while he was performing his journalistic duties near Al Mamadani (Baptist) hospital. He added that 191 journalists are bow killed by Israel in just 13 months. This should be met with outrage and consequences in the West.

[https://twitter.com/MariamBarghouti/status/1862885810837561560]

Quneita was killed at the same hospital that Israel bombed on 17 October, 2023 killing 400 people in one go and setting the precedent for what later became a targeted attack on the Palestinian health infrastructure— including the rape and execution of doctors, nurses, and their own children.

One writes that the killing of Palestinian journalists is more than that of the whole of WWI, WWII and Vietnam war combined yet the killing goes on the silence by the international community is maintained.

[https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1862888231701811385]

Yet the shocks continue by shallow statements from such western politicians.

[https://twitter.com/ColinM48126070/status/1862846294685065511]

Over the past 14 months the Israeli army has killed photographers, editors, journalists, reporters across the media board in television, radio, newspapers and websites.

Dr Asmar is a journalist based in Amman anad is the editor of the www.crossfirearabia.com

1 Disember 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

New York (Quds News Network)- Tanya Haj Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor who addressed UN member states on the 2024 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Tuesday, shared the harrowing realities faced by Palestinians in Gaza under Israel’s genocidal war.

“Palestinians don’t need our pity. They don’t need our praise. They need our meaningful and truthful solidarity,” she said.

Hassan conveyed witness accounts and stories from Palestinian healthcare workers, urging the world to listen to their experiences, move beyond pity and offer meaningful solidarity.

Hassan have worked in Gaza many times over the past decade, and most recently as part of an emergency medical team working in a hospital in Gaza’s middle area during the ongoing genocide.

As one of the few international observers allowed into Gaza, Hassan said, “Spend just 5 minutes in a hospital there and it will become painfully clear that Palestinians are being intentionally massacred, starved, and stripped of everything needed to sustain life.”

“Collectively, for the past 14 months, we have treated people subjected to civilian massacre after civilian massacre at the few remaining, partially-functioning, hospitals in Gaza.”

“Entire families have been eliminated, wiped off the civil registry. Our healthcare and humanitarian colleagues are being killed in record numbers.”

“We have treated countless children who lost their entire families, a phenomenon so frequent in Gaza that they have been given a specific name: Wounded Child No Surviving Family. We held the hands of children as they took their last breaths with no one but a stranger to comfort them. Those who recovered enough to leave hospital continued to face the obvious risk of death, be it through another bombing, starvation, dehydration, or disease.”

“History has clearly shown us that doctors cannot stop genocide. This is why it’s called the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”. And why I am here today,” Hassan added.

Messages from Healthcare Workers in Gaza

Hassan asked some of her colleagues in Gaza if they had messages they wanted her to convey during her address to the UN.

“Tell them that we are tired.. We are without homes…on the street…Our loved ones are gone and we are all stories.” This was a message sent to her by an ER nurse.

An intensive care doctor, besieged in Gaza and separated from his family, told her, “Tell them everything you came and saw with your eyes.” “Tell them that I want to see my wife and son, because I really miss them.”

Saed, a nurse who was detained and tortured by Israeli forces, told Hassan, “We are being buried, every minute we are being buried, every minute we disappear, every minute we are abducted, we are experiencing things that the mind cannot even comprehend. We die and don’t find anyone to bury us. I am asking you to share my story, my whole story, with my name. I want the whole world to know that I am a human being. At the end I am not pen on a paper, I am not anonymous, I am a human being created by God.”

“Why aren’t Palestinians the ones speaking for our cause. Why are we not there and able to speak? The Palestinian people, the people in Gaza? Why not me, why not my neighbour, why not my colleague?”

Hassan added, “Our Palestinian colleagues are not here because the systems we currently exist in don’t recognize the value of Palestinian life.”

30 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gza (Quds News Network)- A civil vehicle belonging to World Central Kitchen (WCK) was targeted by an Israeli drone on Salah al-Din Street in the eastern part of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis city on Saturday morning, killing three WCK workers and two civilians.

Five civilians were killed, including three of the WCK workers without any prior warning.

One of the victims is the director of the charity kitchens here in the Gaza Strip. They are local Palestinians working for the WCK and they were targeted as they were trying to reach one of the places they were operating in.

Breaking | According to the latest toll, four civilians were reported killed, including two employees of World Central Kitchen, following an Israeli artillery shelling that targeted a vehicle northeast of Khan Yunis city, south of the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/PR428a6EQ3

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 30, 2024

In April, seven international aid workers of the WCK were targeted in Deir al-Balah while they were travelling in three vehicles belonging to the organisation, with clear WCK signage attached to the car.

The seven included three Britons, an Australian, a Polish national, a US-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian.

The killings have triggered calls for accountability from around the world, with many, including WCK founder Jose Andres, disputing Israel’s claim that the attack was a “mistake” and a case of “misidentification.” The bleak reality is that in the past few weeks there has been a surge in attacks on buildings considered to be warehouses for the aid organisation.

30 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

 

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- An Israeli air strike killed at least 12 people when it targeted a vehicle and a group of citizens receiving flour in the Qizan al-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis city on Saturday, according to local sources.

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1862835894379532780]

Earlier, an Israeli air strike also targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle as it transported food supplies along Salah al-Din Street in Khan Younis.

The strike killed three workers from the international NGO without any prior warning.

One of the victims is the director of the charity kitchens here in the Gaza Strip. They are local Palestinians working for the WCK.

In April, seven international aid workers of the WCK were targeted in Deir al-Balah while they were travelling in three vehicles belonging to the organisation, with clear WCK signage attached to the car.

30 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ram Puniyani

RSS-BJP and its affiliates take every opportunity to deepen the demonization of religious minorities. Though there are legal provisions for punishing these Hate speeches mostly they go unpunished. Last decade as the communal party is in power the phenomenon has seen a dangerous downslide, which is leading to negative social perceptions about the religious minorities. As reflected in the community whatsapp groups and social attitudes; hating these minorities has become a sort of normal discourse among large sections of society. The increasing intensity of spewing hate is the root due to which negative social perceptions are constructed which in turn lead to severe blow to the concepts of fraternity and communal amity, one of the three legs of the tripod of Indian Constitution.

There are newer dog whistles, as such they are no more just dog whistles; these are more a call to action. They are built on the existing misconceptions and add on to the process of divisiveness. The perceptions like Mughal kings were outsiders and wrought injustices to Hindus, they were temple destroyers, they imposed Islam by force have rapidly been added on to slogans like, ‘Hum Do Hamare do, who Panch unke Pacchis’, (We [Hindus] are two, and they [Muslim] are twenty five), refugee camps housing Muslims were called ‘child production factories’. The new add on are ‘they can be recognized by their clothes, they are killers of our Holy mother- the Cow, they are luring our girls- women through love jihad. Now love jihad is followed by jihad series, the latest being land jihad and vote jihad.

In the wake of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Modi came out with Hate speeches by the dozen. As per Human Rights Watch, Modi had made 110 hate speeches in those elections. The report says, “Modi made Islamophobic remarks intended to undermine the political opposition, which he said promoted Muslim rights, and to foster fear among the majority Hindu community through disinformation.”

Another sample is equally horrifying. Referring to reservations to Muslims as “appeasement” by the Congress, he said, “This is a part of despicable attempts at Islamisation of India and pushing it towards divisions. When the UPA govt came to power, it made such attempts at that time too. BJP had carried out a massive agitation. So, be it Justice Verma committee report or the Sachar committee report, they were all attempts by Congress to loot the reservation of OBCs, SCs and STs” (The Times of India, 2024c).

The assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra saw the peak of this phenomenon yet again. In Jharkhand Himant Biswa Sarma of BJP focused on propaganda of Muslim infiltrators in the state. BJP issued a very demeaning advertisement, which showed a large Muslim family invading the Hindu household and taking it over. One knows Jharkhand has no international border, so who are these Muslims taking over a Hindu household. For a change Election commission got it pulled down but its source and already circulated video may be available at places. Another hate provoking propaganda was that Muslims marry Adivasis women and take over the Adivasi land. No data is needed to support this kite flying so far it serves the purpose of divisive politics. The slogan given was that the Muslim infiltrators were taking away your Roti, Beti, Mati (Livelihood, daughter, land) This statement was from the Prime Minister of the country!

The core slogan this time was from Yogi Aditya Nath. Batenge to Katenge… (If we are divided we will be butchered). He meant Hindu unity. Backing him up the father organization of BJP, RSSs’ Dattatray Hosabale made it clear that, “The important point is that when Hindus are united, it will be beneficial for all. Unity of Hindus is the Sangh’s lifetime pledge..,”.

Modifying a bit on Adityanath’s ‘Batenge to Katenge’ Mr. Modi Came up with ‘Ek hain to safe hain’ (If Hindus are united they will be safe) putting forward that the Hindu unity is foundation for keeping them safe from apparently the minorities, because of whom ‘Hindu Khatre mein hai’ (Hindu in Danger).

Maharashtra Chief Minister not only focused on land jihad and vote jihad, he went on to call the Bharat Jodo Yatra as the one which had participation of Urban Naxals and ultra left, apart from the other slogans.

The impact of this is shown not only on the polarization and thereby the voting pattern but also on social perceptions, as reflected in the thousands of whatsapp groups and drawing room chats of Hindu Households.

Christophe Jaffrelot, the outstanding scholar focusing on Hindu Nationalism’s rise in particular, quotes from a study conducted by CSDS from March 28 to April 2024 by scholars. The study tried to elicit the opinions of Hindus about how they see Muslims. In an immaculate study they solicited answers to questions like are Muslims not as trustworthy as anyone else, are they being appeased etc. The study shows the empirical presence of negative perceptions in society overall.

Scholars should also be able to help us how these negative sentiments are worsening over the years and decades. To cap it all, BJP and Modi are trying to say, as reflected in Modi’s speech, that they will not indulge in communal rhetoric. In interviews with journalists, when asked about anti-Muslim speeches during the campaign, Modi responded: “The day I start talking about Hindu-Muslim [in politics], I will be unfit for public life. “I will not do Hindu-Muslim”. That is my resolve.” The gross difference between what one says and what one’s actions is so apparent here! It is these perceptions among Hindus that leads to an atmosphere of hate in the country. The spiral of Hate is worsening by the day; it leads to ghettoisation on one hand and pushing the Muslims community towards ‘second class citizenship’ on the other.

How to combat this divisiveness? There is a need to inculcate among the people the alternative narrative which was the base of India’s freedom movement, the narrative which talks of the syncretic traditions of India, the narrative which led to unity of people of all religions to participate in freedom movement, the values of which are enshrined in our Constitution.

29 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

At Annual Meetings in Washington last month International Monetary Fund head, Kristalina Georgieva claimed Sri Lanka as a debt restructuring ‘success’ story.[i]  Left unsaid by the IMF’s Managing Director was that Sri Lanka’s debt had apparently ballooned from $26 billion to a purported whopping $100 billion during two years of “reforms’ under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF)![ii]

A month later the island’s newly elected Cabinet led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka signed off on an official “bond exchange” with International Sovereign bondholders under the EFF agreement, having done a U-turn on election pledges to re-negotiate agreements with the IMF and bondholders that were widely perceived to be detrimental to the county.

Euphemistically called ‘the invitation’ printed on paper with a gold embossed letter head, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and National Development announced the launch of the “bond exchange’ of “outstanding international Sovereign bonds totaling approximately USD 12.55 billion as of 25 November 2024.” The bond exchange was clearly designed to bailout predatory International Sovereign Bondholders (ISB), the largest being BlackRock, in lieu of odious debt cancellation and significant haircuts sought by citizens, trade unions and 182 international economists calling for Debt Justice. [iii]

In a nutshell the bond exchange would ensure that the county would soon exit the Sovereign Default staged in 2022, in order to borrow once again from the same predatory ISB lenders, ironically, in order to pay them back under terms and conditions to be specified later, including opaque Macro-economy linked vanilla, blue, green and strawberry bonds, flavoured and sweetened to mask the odious debt restructure operation (DSA). This would of course deepen the geostrategic island’s Eurobond debt trap and extend the IMF’s bailout business. After all, ISBs were primarily responsible for Sri Lanka’s odious debt pileup in collusion with corrupt politicians that led to the geostrategic county staging a first ever Sovereign Default in the wake of two years of Covid-19 lockdowns.

Had the President done a volte-face on his promise to renegotiate IMF and ISB agreements and the fight against corruption in order to restore economic sovereignty eroded by ISB-IMF mission and mandate creep into Domestic Debt Restructure? Had President Dissanayake betrayed the people’s mandate and hopes vested in him– less than a month after his party swept to power, and if so why? Were there other debts to be paid to external actors that helped a dizzying ascent to power?

The ‘bond exchange’ agreements were signed without review by the newly appointed Cabinet despite the National People Power (NPP) party’s massive two-thirds Parliamentary majority received just two weeks earlier in a General Election. The NPP came to power on a promise to restore economic sovereignty and fight corruption. The President had earlier reversed the privatization of the Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lankan Airlines that the IMF had long promoted.

Fragility and Resilience: Dual Narratives or Economic Gaslighting?

While the visiting IMF team leader Peter Breuer praised Sri Lanka’s “resilience” and economic turnaround last week in Colombo, President Dissanayaka claimed the that the county’s economy was too ‘fragile’ to risk displeasing the bondholders and IMF and hence the agreement must be signed immediately.

Moreover, the bond exchange agreements had been negotiated with ad hoc groups of ISBs, and the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) of the colonial Club de Paris and London Club over the past two years, by the previous Ranil Rajapakse government with a gravy train of international advisors and Economic Hitmen including Lazard and Clifford Chance with known conflicts of interest given links to ISBs! ‘

Economic hit men’, wrote John Perkins in his best-selling book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’, are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars” in the name of Development assistance.

Hence too, the rush to’ launch the bond exchange’ sans review by the newly appointed cabinet pledged to fight corruption, despite the agreement being negotiated by the previous Ranil Rajapakse regime, accused of corruption and successive bond scams at the Central Bank. After all, a responsible new government in normal circumstances would review such agreements –especially those with long term implications for the economic security of the country.

Of course, the US Ambassador Julie Chung had done her fair share to confuse matters by spreading fear psychosis in October as the tourist season began. Chung warned that terror attacks were due in the debt-trapped county, prompting fears that tourists would stay away. This would damage the tourism-dependent economy and render the ‘resilient’ island’s economy ‘fragile’.

IMF’s Timing: Economic Hitmen and Gaslighting the Public

This explosion of debt numbers was largely due to ISB and IMF mission and mandate creep into local rupee denominate domestic debt enabling the conflation and inflation of external dollar denominated debt numbers. DDO also enabled plunder of the Employment Provident (EPF) retirement funds of working people to pay off predatory bond holders as part of the new “bond exchange” operation through opaque Macro-economy Linked Bonds (MLB) and scams.

Despite IMF claims to fight corruption, the new NPP government was given little time to review the bond exchange agreements drafted by the previous regime. Indeed, the IMF team led by Peter Breuer arrived in Colombo from Washington even before the new cabinet of Ministers elected to fight corruption and mismanagement was sworn on November 18!

The IMF team’s visit seemed perfectly timed to bamboozle the new Cabinet of Ministers into signing the ISB Bond Exchange agreement negotiated by a previous Ranil Rajapakse regime accused of high financial crimes and bond scams, without review. Not surprisingly the new bond exchange agreement as several economists have pointed out would extends and arguably deepens the debt setting up the country for a new default.

This raises the question: was there bi-partisan collusion between the former and newly elected governments for a brand new bond exchange scam -brokered by the IMF as part of a debt restructure agreement (DSA)?

What is increasingly apparent is that the IMF’s Debt Restructuring Agreement (DSA) and EFF agreements rather than reduce debt traps, are designed to deepen and extend them. The EFF is aptly named! This may partially explain why Sri Lanka is on its 17^th IMF program and Argentina on its 23^rd at this time. Moreover, there are 55 other countries across Africa, Asia and South America in similar post-Covid-19 ISB deb traps and the IMF’s neocolonial bailout business at this time.

Often DSA seem to enable and precipitate successive defaults, also given the IMF’s principle of ‘compatibility of treatment’ of creditors regardless of whether they charge predatory interest. This has been challenged by multi-lateral and bi-lateral lenders. So too, the practice of “lending into arrears” which appears designed to enable a victim of loan sharks to once again borrow from the same loan sharks whose identities are undisclosed—in order to pay them back. This despite the IMF claiming to fight corruption and seek good governance.

In Sri Lanka’s case the IMF’ ‘Lending into arrears’ appears to have enabled predatory lenders whose identities are secret (including the Hamilton Reserve Bank presumably) to enter into bad faith negotiations with debt trapped counties with opaque macro-linked bonds, even as the county is forced to borrow from the same predatory ISBs.

Double Standards on Corruption: Bad faith and Moral Hazard

While the IMF talks up the need for governments to engage in ‘good faith’ negotiations with lenders there appears to be no concomitant requirement that predatory lenders whose names are kept secret to also negotiate in good faith.

Many of the predatory ISB lenders, BlackRock being a good example have assets that exceed the wealth of many debt trapped nations.

Moreover, under the new bond exchange agreements, the EPF pension funds of working citizens would be plundered to pay down predatory ISB which raises the question of Moral Hazard. As pointed out in an open letter signed by 182 international economists calling for debt justice for Sri Lanka; lenders who made big profits charging predatory interest rates citing risk, should not be enabled to make bigger profits when risk matures.[iv] This is particularly true of countries subject to incessant exogenous economic shocks – such as terror attacks, Covid-19 lockdowns and hybrid maritime warfare.

However, instead of debt cancellation and significant haircuts sought by national experts campaigning for debt justice, the ‘bond exchange’ agreement has been foisted on the people of Sri Lanka with the Washington Twins claim that since Sri Lanka is a Middle Income Country (MIC), it was ineligible for debt cancellation and substantial haircuts.

Rather, the IMF and ISB claim that since the purportedly ‘bankrupt’ country is actually an MIC, it must pay off the bond holders either by plundering banks and risking an economic meltdown or by plundering the Employees Provident Fund EPF!

This is of course a false choice, riven with moral hazard, bad faith and logical contradiction. Such false choice arguments often distract from the economic gas lighting, Lawfare, and pumping and dumping of countries subject to staged default, and into the waiting arms of the lender of last resort. As they say: ‘the devil is in the detail”

TO BE CONTINUED

Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake is a social and medical anthropologist with research expertise in international development and political economic analysis.

______________________________________

[i]https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/10/25/sp102524annual-meetings-plenary

[ii] https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/10/25/sri-lanka-met-with-bondholders-aims-to-exit-default-as-soon-as-possible-central-bank-governor-says/

[iii] https://debtjustice.org.uk/press-release/ghosh-piketty-and-varoufakis-among-182-experts-calling-for-sri-lanka-debt-cancellation

[iv] https://debtjustice.org.uk/press-release/ghosh-piketty-and-varoufakis-among-182-experts-calling-for-sri-lanka-debt-cancellation

29 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Sandeep Pandey and Saleem Khan

To: Antonio Guterres
Secretary General, United Nations
New York

Dear Mr. Guterres,

The genocide – the ongoing Holocaust in Gaza – and who stands in clear opposition to that – is the defining moment today for anyone with a moral conscience. For 415 days now – the Israeli regime, its Zionist citizens and its entirely amoral supporters in the west, have been aiding and abetting this blood-letting. Upwards of 200000 Palestenians have been slaughtered, 70% of whom are women and children. And it’s now just how they are being murdered – by siege and starvation, as well as deliberately imprecise aerial bombing of buildings, hospitals, and displaced tents –  using US-made and Indian weapons (Hermes-900 drones made by Adani Elbit Defence Systems in Hyderabad), it’s also the arbitrary detention of thousands of civilian males, their subsequent torture and custodial killings. Such is the recent case of Dr Adnan al-Bursch, a noted surgeon in Gaza, who was abducted, sodomized and then brutally left to die within the prison. His murder  – is not an isolated case – and helps illustrate how Israel and the US regimes see the Palestine people.

Israel, the Occupation government of Palestine, has blatantly ignored calls from peoples of the world, the UN, to stop the killing and the ICC has now called for the arrest of its ring leader Netanyahu and his henchman Gallant. All the while, Mr Biden in the USA – a lame duck literally demented President – has extended American taxpayer dollars and weapons to the Israeli thuggish regime – which flouts international laws and the Geneva convention.  None of this is controversial, indeed – the outspoken Ms. Fransesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur has published a fully annotated assiduously documented report detailing Israeli criminal behaviour.  Large numbers of people in the world have noticed – from social media not from legacy media – that the moral-free Israeli occupiers have also killed hundreds of journalists, civil rescue workers, and international kitchen workers delivering food aid within Gaza. The ‘Israelis’ and their backers seem to simply not care. There is little doubt in the world’s collective minds that Israel needs to go, and be dismantled. The time for Palestenians has come. Just yesterday, the Irish barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC  who was part of the team at the ICC for South African said this in a two minute speech.

What we ask – urge the UN to do  – is to expel the so-called country of Israel from its rolls. To do the right thing.

Thank You, Sincerely,

Sandeep Pandey

National General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)

Saleem Khan

Uttar Pradesh General Secretary

E-mail: socialistpartyindia@gmail.com

Drafted by Venkatesh Narayanan, email.venkatesh.narayanan@gmail.com

29 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Nizar Visram

Israel ‘Defense’ Forces, with unconditional support of the United States, have been waging a genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023, resulting in an unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe. They dropped over 85,000 tons of bombs, exceeding the amount of explosives used in World War II.

More than 44,000 Palestinian have been killed, including over 16,000 children, 190 journalists, 1,000 health workers, 230 United Nations staff members and many others. Over 104,000 are wounded – most of them children and women – while at least 11,000 are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes.

As part of its genocide, Israel is also committing sporticide, killing more than 500 Palestinian athletes, including over 344 footballers. Two of them were on the Palestinian National Team, including Mohamed Barakat, the first Palestinian to score over 100 goals professionally. Israel also jailed footballers, referees, and club owners.

Israel’s air strikes in Gaza have resulted in extensive destruction of stadiums and, sports facilities in Gaza and the West Bank. They turned football stadiums into concentration camps where they detain and humiliate thousands of Palestinians who are paraded almost naked on television screens.

Thus, the Al Yarmouk stadium was turned into a makeshift concentration camp for Palestinian detainees. Men, women and children were rounded up, stripped down to their underwear, and blindfolded, while armed soldiers and tanks encircled the field. Blindfolded men and women were forced to kneel in front of a goal with the Israeli flag attached to the net.

Israel allows football clubs based in illegal settlements in West Bank to compete in official Israeli leagues in violation of international law. In the occupied Jerusalem they mounted a violent attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA).

In Apartheid Israel sports is rampant with racism and dehumanization of Palestinians. At an Israeli match a banner is displayed saying the lives of Palestinian children are worth nothing. Israeli football fans’ favorite anthem is “Death to the Arabs!” Such practices were noticed when Israeli team was playing in Netherland

At the same time, Palestinian football teams, including the national team, are denied freedom of movement between the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza. They are prevented from joining the national team in regional and international matches.

Detentions and restrictions on movement force the Palestine Football Association (PFA) to suspend football leagues in Palestine, while it hinders setting up camps for the national team abroad to participate in FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

While FIFA allows Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in the West Bank to compete in official Israeli leagues, the sports body has failed to take action against Israel for its inclusion of these illegal teams in its official leagues, and for its attacks on Palestinian football. It is sportswashing Israel’s decades of forced displacement of Palestinians, its apartheid regime and its genocide against Palestinians. It is thus complicit in Israel’s breach of international law, while continuing to shield Israel’s decades-old regime of apartheid, and now genocide, from accountability.

Actually, FIFA is violating its own statute which states that discrimination of any kind against a country, a person or group on account of race, color, ethnicity, nationality, social origin, gender, disability, language, religion, political opinion, or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.

FIFA member associations and their clubs are not allowed to play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval. Yet FIFA allows Israeli sports clubs based in illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land to play in its official leagues. This is despite the International Court of Justice ruling that the settlements are illegal and a war crime.

FIFA allows outright racism and dehumanization in Israeli sports. This happened when mobs of racist, genocide-inciting Israeli football fans went on a violent rampage in Amsterdam. They stole Palestinian flags from private buildings, burned them, while chanting racist slogans, and attacked people appearing to be Arab in the streets.

And so we see global calls on FIFA to ban Israel. Such calls came, for example, from the 47-member Asian Football Confederation, as well as a petition that gathered over one million signatures. Almost 60 rights groups accused FIFA of applying “a different yardstick to Israeli actions,” undermining its credibility and exposing it “to allegations of political bias and hypocrisy.”

The protestors included Human Rights Watch, UN Special Adviser on Sport, 66 members of European Parliament, 38 British MPs, 41 Danish MPs, and 30 Swiss MPs. They all called upon FIFA to exclude Israeli team from illegal settlements.

‘The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025’ ran a petition that gathered more than 112,000 signatures, calling for an immediate suspension of Israel from all international sports “until it fully complies with international law and sports regulations.” In Palestine itself 174 sports clubs wrote a letter calling on FIFA to suspend the Israel Football Federation (IFF).

A report presented to FIFA by FairSquare, a human rights organization, said there were numerous grounds to expel the IFA, such as “the holding of matches in occupied Palestinian territory, systematic racial discrimination, Israel’s killing of Palestinian players and the systematic destruction of PFA facilities.” Most of these have been taking place well before 7 October 2023, the report asserted.

In March 2024, PFA submitted a draft resolution, supported by six member associations, calling for FIFA to hold Israel accountable for sports rights and human rights violations against Palestinians. The resolution was to be tabled before the FIFA Congress scheduled to take place in Thailand in May.

At the time PFA president, Jibril Rajoub, told the Congress:

 “For 15 years we have consistently raised the same concerns with FIFA, only to see them repeatedly deferred from one Congress to another, from one committee to the next. Now, as our football faces the same existential threat as our Palestinian people, FIFA must make a choice either to passively stand by, or uphold its core values and human rights obligations, and stand firmly on the right side of history.”

Rajoub made a passionate plea to the delegates from 211 member associations to vote for suspension of Israel from FIFA, adding: “The suffering of millions of Palestinians, including thousands of footballers, deserves as much. If not now, then when? The ball is in your court.”

In response to Rajoub’s submission, FIFA ordered an “urgent and independent” legal assessment, promising to table it for voting at an extraordinary meeting of its council in July. It didn’t happen. Instead, FIFA said the assessment would be presented to its next council meeting in August. The vote was again rescheduled to October.

But when FIFA met in Zurich on 3rd October it once again postponed the decision to ban Israel. This time it said its disciplinary committee will “review the allegations of discrimination” raised by the PFA. Thus FIFA has repeatedly delayed taking action, procrastinating the vote, and shielding Israel from accountability.

One wonders what “legal assessment” FIFA is seeking. Back in 2016 Wilfried Lemke, then UN special adviser on sport for development and peace, wrote to FIFA stating that the UN regards Israeli settlements, and by extension Israeli football teams that play in them, to be “illegal under international law”. He thus urged FIFA to suspend the IFA.

Actually, what was done clandestinely became evident when, on 5 May 2024, prior to the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, an Israeli news outlet YNet reported that, “the Israeli military is working around the clock with the aim of arriving as prepared as possible and torpedoing the initiative of the Palestinian Association, which has already succeeded twice – in 2015 and 2017 – in raising the Israeli issue for discussion.”

The report stated that legal advisors of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, and ministry of culture and sports plus the IFA Chairman, were among the members of a WhatsApp group formed, calling itself “remaining in FIFA”.

Under these circumstances, In May 2024, the Israeli Foreign Minister threatened to imprison Rajoub, and revoke his travel pass. The minister published a statement in social media, saying:

“Jibril Rajoub, a terrorist in a suit who openly supported Hamas’s crimes, is working around the clock to get Israel removed from the international soccer association. We will work to thwart his plans, and if he doesn’t stop—we will imprison him.”

And so, in June 2024, Australian authorities denied Rajoub a visa to enter the country, when Palestine was set to play Australia in a World Cup qualifier. And while returning home from Paris 2024 Olympic Games in August, Israeli forces detained Rajoub as he was entering Palestine at the Karama crossing with Jordan. They confiscated his passport, searched him, and handed him a summons for interrogation.

FIFA’s double standard becomes unambiguous when we consider that sanction was imposed on Russia immediately after its forces invaded Ukraine. FIFA took stern and strict measures against Russia without vacillating, suspending it from all competitions. On the other hand, FIFA turns a blind eye and refuses to hold Israel accountable for it decades long record of war crimes against Palestinians.

Thus, FIFA invents lame excuses, allowing Israel to participate freely in international competitions. Israel is not held accountable for it decades of military occupation, illegal settlements and grave crimes against Palestinians, including genocide. FIFA refrains from applying the same sanction on Israel that it has done in the case of Russia.

Rather than following its principles, FIFA kowtows to the West’s blatant hypocrisy and double standards.

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Nizar Visram is Tanzanian writer and commentator, currently based in Ottawa (Canada). He is contactable at nizar1941@gmail.com,

29 November 2024

Source: countercurrents.org