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By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 19,424 children have been killed in Israeli attacks over 700 days of genocide in Gaza, the equivalent of one child every 52 minutes. Among the victims are 1,000 infants under the age of one. As relentless Israeli bombardment, forced displacement, and starvation continue, warnings grow louder: nowhere in the enclave is safe for children.

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres as early as November 6, 2023.

According to the latest death toll update by the Palestinian Health Ministry, children in Gaza account for more than 30 percent of the deaths as Israel’s genocide entered its 700th day on Friday.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that no place is safe for children in the enclave. UN-run schools have become shelters for “hundreds of thousands of people” in Gaza amid constant Israeli bombardments that have levelled homes, UNRWA said.

Citing the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, UNRWA noted that in the past five months of the war, since Israel violated a ceasefire deal and resumed its assault, “an average of over 540 children have been killed every month, per reports”.

Meanwhile, women (10,138) and the elderly (4,695) constitute 23 percent of the overall death toll. Men make up 46.7 percent of casualties (29,975).

UNICEF communications manager Tess Ingram said that the “suffering of children in the Gaza Strip is not accidental”.

“Malnutrition and famine are weakening children’s bodies as displacement strips them of shelter and care, and bombardments threaten their every move,” Ingram said.

134 children and infants have died due to malnutrition and starvation since the war began, as Israel continues to block aid from entering the enclave, including food, medicine, and fuel.

According to the Ministry in mid-July, more than 900 children were killed by Israel before their first birthday.

Many were killed in their beds. Others while playing. Some were buried before they learned to walk.

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one child per hour during the Israeli assault. “Consider that for a moment. A whole classroom of children was killed, every day for nearly two years,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council.

6 September 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Zukiswa Wanner and Jared Sacks

We sail to sustain hope. To lose hope is to give up on the people of Gaza and surrender them to an evil regime.

Food. Medication. Shelter. Freedom of movement. Water. Air.

Six basics for the survival of any human being and yet, for the past 23 months, we have watched with horror as apartheid Israel, backed by some of the most powerful governments in the world, has robbed the people of Gaza of these basic necessities for survival.

Together with many in the world, we have marched, spoken up, boycotted – reflecting the sentiments of the global majority. But this has not been enough to pressure world governments to stop Israel’s siege on Gaza and ensure that a genocide, occurring in real time, is put to an end.

While we are unable to deliver all six of the basics listed above, we hope to break the blockade and deliver food, medication and water to a besieged and starving population. This is the mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF).

The GSF is the largest citizen-led humanitarian flotilla mission to Gaza ever, combining previous humanitarian missions to Gaza over land, sea and air. It builds on decades of Palestinian resistance and international solidarity. It includes activists, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy and lawyers – all of whom have come together to take direct action to break the siege.

The South African delegation includes 10 people coming from all over the country and from different backgrounds: Christians, Muslims, Jews, agnostics and atheists united in a common goal of bringing aid to Gaza.

Our efforts are closely aligned with the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 26, 2024, and its subsequent orders from March 28 and May 24, 2024, as part of the case of South Africa vs Israel. In the provisional ruling, the ICJ specifically required Israel to take all measures within its power to enable the provision of urgently needed humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

Yet, as South Africa has consistently highlighted in its advocacy before the court and in its leadership role as co-chair and founding member of The Hague Group, Israel has to date failed to comply with these orders. The worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza makes it clear that we cannot remain silent in the face of such impunity.

That is why people of conscience started organising grassroots-run flotillas in an attempt to break the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza.

On June 9, Israeli forces intercepted the Madleen vessel carrying humanitarian aid in international waters. A little more than a month later, on July 25, the Israeli occupation forces intercepted the Handala, another ship carrying supplies, about 70 nautical miles (130km) from Gaza, again in international waters.

While we were able to ensure that the activists on board returned home, some endured physical assaults and trauma at the hands of the Israeli military forces, which constitute crimes and need to be investigated. Apartheid Israel prevented the much-needed food and medicines on board from reaching Gaza, continuing its medieval siege, which amounts to a crime against humanity.

With this history of activists’ attempts at breaking the siege of Gaza, there are those who will ask, why do you think that you will succeed where others have failed before?

To this we answer: Our democracy was won by no small measure with solidarity from the conscientious people of the world who boycotted, divested and demanded that apartheid South Africa be sanctioned. In this sense, sailing on the GSF is the right and humane action to take.

We have protested, we have boycotted, we have demanded divestment from our institutions and we have pressured governments to impose sanctions. The GSF mission is part of this continued action.

Although many nations have the capacity to sanction Israel and even authorise military intervention to end the ongoing genocide, they have done almost nothing beyond rhetorical statements. While we commend the South African government for taking apartheid Israel to the ICJ for the crime of genocide, we also take note that South African companies continue to export coal that fuels the genocide. So far, our government has ignored our demands to impose a coal embargo.

We are sailing on the GSF not only to keep up the pressure but also to sustain hope. To lose hope is to give up on the people of Gaza and surrender them to an evil regime. Having a conscience demands that we do not lose hope.

Part of our strength is that the movement for justice and human rights is growing as more and more people recognise that this is not a war but a genocide. This time around, there is not one flotilla but over 50 from more than 40 countries.

This important mission is comprised of hundreds of people of good conscience from all over the world determined to break the siege and help expose Israel’s planned starvation of the Palestinians. We may be a delegation of only 10 from South Africa, but we represent the majority of South Africans. We, therefore, sail with confidence as our people will be watching and wishing us well because ours is a just mission.

We may be a few hundred on the GSF mission, but we are part of a global majority who have been watching the livestreamed genocide carried out by Israel. As South Africans, as citizens who want a better and just world, we travel on the GSF, noting, as Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego wrote in a letter to the flotilla, “Peace is not a utopia, but an obligation.”

Zukiswa Wanner is an award-winning writer and cultural activist. She received the Goethe Medal in 2020 and later returned it in protest against Germany’s support for Israel.

Jared Sacks is an activist and writer based in Cape Town. He has a PhD from Columbia University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Johannesburg.

7 September 2025

Source: aljazeera.com

By Brett Wilkins

Congress was reportedly never informed about the covert attempt by the first Trump administration to plant a listening device in North Korea during high-stakes nuclear negotiations.

US Navy SEALs shot dead a number of civilians during a botched secret mission to plant a listening device inside North Korea during tense nuclear negotiations between the first Trump administration and the government of Kim Jong Un in 2019, The New York Times reported Friday.

Dave Philipps and Matthew Cole reported for the Times that President Donald Trump personally approved the covert operation, which was tasked to SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron, the same unit that assassinated Osama bin Laden. Although the elite sailors rehearsed the nighttime mission for months, things fell apart when a small fishing boat appeared out of the dark in what the SEALs thought was a deserted area.

“Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire,” wrote Philipps and Cole. “Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead. The SEALs retreated into the sea without planting the listening device.”

Officials familiar with the mission told the Times that the SEALs then pulled two or three bodies from the boat, punctured the victims’ lungs with knives so their bodies would sink, and threw the dead fishers into the sea.

According to the Times:

The 2019 operation has never been publicly acknowledged, or even hinted at, by the United States or North Korea. The details remain classified and are being reported here for the first time. The Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission. The lack of notification may have violated the law…

The aborted SEAL mission prompted a series of military reviews during Mr. Trump’s first term. They found that the killing of civilians was justified under the rules of engagement, and that the mission was undone by a collision of unfortunate occurrences that could not have been foreseen or avoided. The findings were classified.

It is not known whether or how much North Korea’s government knew about the mission. While Trump’s erstwhile untried tactic of direct negotiations with Kim averted escalation of the 2018-19 standoff, the high-profile summits between the two leaders yielded no substantial progress toward denuclearization or a peace treaty.

The US and North Korea are technically still at war. Between 1950-53 US forces killed an estimated 20% of all North Koreans—around 1.9 million men, women, and children—according to Gen. Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay, who served as strategic air commander during the war after overseeing World War II firebombing raids on Japanese cities that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

5 September 2025

Source: commondreams.org

“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” says Isaac Herzog.

by Jamie White

Image Credit: Askin Kiyagan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Israeli President Isaac Herzog was under fire Thursday for asserting that nobody is innocent in Gaza, including Palestinian civilians, as Israel conducts airstrikes against Hamas.

When questioned during a press conference about the humanitarian impact of the IDF’s relentless airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Herzog angrily claimed all Palestinians bear some responsibility for the rise of Hamas and its attack on Israel.

“We are working, operating militarily, according to rules of international law, period. Unequivocally,” Herzog stated.

“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.”

Israeli President Says No One in the Gaza Strip, Including Civilians, is Innocent

“They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat. But we’re at war. We are at war. We are at war.”

“They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat. But we’re at war. We are at war. We are at war.”

“We are defending our homes,” he continued. “We’re protecting our homes. That’s the truth. And then, when a nation protects its home, it fights. And we will fight until we break their backbone.”

Channel 4 reporter Matt Frei pressed Herzog on his remarks, “You seem to hold the people of Gaza, the civilians of Gaza, responsible for not removing Hamas and therefore, by implication, that makes them legitimate targets.”

Herzog defended his statements, saying they were mischaracterized and that Israel has the responsibility to ensure another attack by Hamas cannot be repeated.

“No, I didn’t say that. I did not say that — I want to make it clear. I was asked something about separating civilians from Hamas. But with all due respect, with all due respect, if you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself? Yes,” he explained. “That’s the situation. These missiles are there, these missiles are launched, the button is pressed, the missile comes up from the kitchen onto my children.”

[https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1712415516978024466]

[https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1712490591689363573]

Contrary to Herzog’s statement that Israel is operating within the boundaries of international law with its airstrikes against Gaza, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk claimed Israel is violating international law by cutting off electricity and water to Gaza ahead of a “total siege.”

“The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the High Commissioner said.

“Any restrictions on the movement of people and goods to implement a siege must be justified by military necessity or may otherwise amount to collective punishment.”

[https://twitter.com/UNHumanRights/status/1711670003303424354]

Israel insisted it has been taking measures to adequately warn Palestinian civilians about impending airstrikes and ordered them to evacuate the northern region of Gaza.

[https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1713201571444507018]

Many Palestinians, however, are refusing to leave their homes.

Watch the full press conference:

Israel President Isaac Herzog Press Conference LIVE | Israel-Hamas Attack News Updates LIVE | N18L

15 October 2023

Source: greeknewsondemand.com

By Peiman Salehi

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) summit in Beijing, marked by both symbolism and substance, underscored the slow erosion of Western financial dominance. While mainstream coverage focused on China’s military parade, the real significance lies in the economic agenda advanced by SCO members. Discussions of a potential SCO Development Bank, expanded use of local currencies, and closer coordination with BRICS initiatives point to a growing determination across Eurasia and the Global South to challenge the monopoly long exercised by the United States and its allies through the IMF, the World Bank, and the dollar system.

For decades, these Western-controlled institutions have functioned as instruments of geopolitical leverage. Structural adjustment programs dismantled social protections, imposed privatization, and locked countries into cycles of debt dependency.

The dollar, presented as a neutral global currency, has been repeatedly weaponized through sanctions, financial exclusion, and manipulation of international payment systems. In this context, the SCO’s economic discussions must be seen for what they are: not technical proposals, but acts of resistance. By seeking alternatives to dollar-based finance and conditional lending, SCO members are asserting that the age of Western financial coercion is no longer uncontested.

China and Russia, the central actors in this process, have both experienced the coercive use of Western financial power.

Sanctions on Russia and tariffs on China have reinforced the urgency of building parallel institutions. For smaller states, particularly in the Global South, the stakes are even higher. Access to credit that is not tied to Washington’s geopolitical priorities could mean the difference between austerity and investment, between dependency and sovereignty. The SCO’s proposals are embryonic, but they point toward a broader trend: the emergence of multipolar finance as a shield against unilateral domination.

Critics in the West have rushed to dismiss these efforts, portraying them as impractical or politically motivated. But such dismissals miss the point. The very fact that alternatives are being openly discussed and partially implemented signals the weakening of Western monopoly. The creation of the BRICS New Development Bank, the use of local currencies in trade between Russia, China, and India, and now the SCO’s initiatives all mark a shift from rhetoric to practice. Each new mechanism reduces the ability of the United States to dictate terms unilaterally.

This does not mean China or Russia will replace Washington as the new hegemons. Rather, it means that unipolarity is ending. The world is moving toward a multipolar order in which no single state can control the flows of finance, trade, and development. For Global South nations, this creates both opportunities and risks. It offers the possibility of diversifying partnerships and rejecting conditionality, but it also requires vigilance to avoid reproducing dependency under new patrons. Multipolarity is not a guarantee of justice, but it is a necessary precondition for breaking the cycle of Western domination.

The SCO summit should therefore be understood as part of a larger civilizational struggle over the architecture of world order. Western hegemony has rested not only on military alliances and cultural influence, but on financial coercion. By weaponizing the dollar, Washington has sought to enforce compliance far beyond its borders. The SCO’s economic agenda represents an attempt to reclaim sovereignty in the face of this coercion, to create breathing space for states that refuse to align with U.S. geopolitical priorities.

What emerges from Beijing is not a fully formed alternative, but a direction of travel. Multipolar institutions are being built step by step, challenging the illusion that Western institutions are eternal or indispensable. For countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, this is a call to action. It is an invitation to participate in the shaping of a world where development is not dictated from Washington or Brussels, but negotiated among equals.

The mainstream media will continue to focus on parades and symbols, but the real revolution is occurring in the realm of finance. The SCO summit was a reminder that the West’s monopoly on money and credit is cracking, and that the future of global order will be defined not by a single hegemon but by the collective efforts of states refusing to submit. For those seeking peace, justice, and sovereignty, this is a development to be welcomed, nurtured, and defended.

Peiman Salehi is a Political Analyst & Writer from Tehran, Iran.

6 September 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Rima Najjar

From Caracas to Gaza — The Machinery of Demonization

There is a pattern to how empire speaks. It criminalizes resistance, rewrites history, and recasts domination as defense. Whether the target is a Latin American leader, a Palestinian movement, or an Iranian militia, the language is the same: terrorism, fanaticism, chaos. The goal is not just to justify violence — it’s to make it feel inevitable.

This is the logic behind the Trump administration’s $50 million bounty on Nicolás Maduro. Framed as a crackdown on “narco-terrorism,” it’s a textbook case of regime change propaganda. The bounty is not about justice — it’s about spectacle. It tells the world who the villain is, and it sets the stage for assassination as policy.

But this logic doesn’t stop at Caracas. It echoes across the propaganda Hugo B has been spouting in our exchanges on Medium.

Who Is Hugo B?

Hugo B is a prolific commenter whose posts consistently reproduce the ideological scaffolding of U.S. and Israeli foreign policy. Over the course of our exchanges, he has:

• Reduced Palestinian resistance to “jihadist nihilism”
• Blamed Arab states for the Nakba while absolving Zionist militias
• Dismissed refugee status as a weapon to prolong war
• Denied the right of return, the right to resist, and the right to narrate
• Framed Jewish self-determination as sacred while denying Palestinian existence
• Rejected international law when it affirms Palestinian rights

His language is not original — it’s derivative of a broader imperial playbook. And it mirrors the same tactics used to justify U.S. intervention in Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine.

Shared Tactics Across Geographies

1. Criminalization of Resistance

Maduro is labeled a narco-terrorist. Hamas is reduced to jihadist fanaticism. Iraqi militias are proxies. The goal is to strip movements of political legitimacy and recast them as threats to global order.

2. Erasure of Context

Hugo B speaks of Palestinian violence without acknowledging siege, displacement, or apartheid. U.S. officials speak of Venezuela’s collapse without referencing sanctions, economic warfare, or CIA-backed destabilization.

3. Moral Inversion

The oppressor claims the moral high ground. The U.S. presents itself as a defender of democracy while backing coups and bombing civilians. Hugo B echoes this inversion by portraying Israeli legislation as democratic while denying Palestinians basic rights.

4. Narrative Control

The bounty on Maduro is a media event. It defines the villain. Hugo B’s rhetoric operates the same way: it’s not about debate — it’s about defining who gets to be human and who gets to be erased.

The Broader Pattern

From South America to the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy follows a formula:

1. Identify resistance as extremism
2. Deploy economic, military, or legal force
3. Control the narrative through media and proxies
4. Justify intervention as humanitarian or defensive

This isn’t diplomacy. It’s imperial management.

And Hugo B, whether knowingly or not, is reproducing that logic in miniature — using the language of supremacy, erasure, and moral panic to delegitimize Palestinian life and resistance.

Toward a Just Peace

If peace is ever to be real — whether in Venezuela, Palestine, Iraq, or Iran — it must begin by dismantling the propaganda that criminalizes resistance and sanctifies domination. It must reject the logic that says sovereignty is only legitimate when it aligns with U.S. interests, and that survival is only moral when it belongs to the powerful.

A just peace means:

• Ending siege and occupation, not managing them
• Recognizing the right to resist, not pathologizing it
• Restoring the right of return, not erasing it
• Upholding international law, not selectively applying it
• Centering the voices of the oppressed, not speaking over them

It means confronting the legacy of U.S. interventionism — from coups in Latin America to invasions in the Middle East — and refusing to replicate its logic in our discourse, our media, or our diplomacy.

It means seeing Palestinians not as proxies, but as people. Venezuelans not as narco-states, but as a nation under siege. Iraqis and Iranians not as threats, but as communities with histories, futures, and the right to self-determination.

Peace will not come from bounties, bombs, or rhetorical erasure. It will come from truth, accountability, and the radical act of listening to those we’ve been taught to fear.

Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa.

7 September 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Drago Bosnic

24 years later. The commemoration of 9/11. One of the most momentous and tragic events in America’s history. 

This video production focusses on the unanswered questions of 9/11. What was the role of Al Qaeda and the alleged “act of war” by Afghanistan against the United States of America on the morning of September 11, 2001. 

Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts were known. He was hospitalized on September 10th, 2001, one day before the 9/11 attacks. (CBS Report, Dan Rather)

How on earth could he have coordinated the attacks from his hospital bed in a heavily guarded Pakistani military hospital located in Rawalpindi.

English (original)

Français,  عربي, Русский, Español, 中文, Farsi, Српски, 日本語, Deutsch, Italiano, Türkçe

Our objective is to reach out to people worldwide.

Forward the video directly to your friends worldwide. click below: languages with hyperlinks

Our longstanding commitment is to world peace and “true democracy.”

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

8 September 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai

Chairman

World Forum for Peace & Justice

Washington, D.C.

September 6, 2025

Sometimes circumstances bring back old gold memories. That is exactly what happened few days back when I was at a grocery store in Northern Virginia and unexpectedly met an old friend from Kashmir, who happened to be from the Pandit community. At first, he was genuinely happy to see me after such a long time. We then went outside to a nearby restaurant, but soon the conversation became a little tense. He asked me why the Muslim community had let them down in the 1990s, and why they do not openly say that the Pandits should return to the Valley. Why should not Yasin Malik face the justice when he was responsible for the exodus of Pandits in 1990s? He added that, although he personally does not subscribe to it, some Pandits still speak of having a separate homeland in Kashmir. We had lunch and spent more than two hours together, and I tried to address all his concerns so that he would feel more at ease when discussing these issues with his family. I wish to present a summary of our discussion for the benefit of the wider Pandit community.

To begin with, in addressing the Pandit community, we could evoke the memories, the sympathies and the aspirations and much else that is intangible which together constitute Kashmiriyat — now as in the past. However, due to propaganda that has been unleashed by certain elements, even an expression of genuine sentiment is liable to be misunderstood.

I believe that the time has come for the members of the Pandit community mentally to extricate themselves from India’s fatal grip and reattach to Kashmir. In Kashmir, they have same future as their compatriots. For what can India do for you? It is, of course, large enough to accommodate you.  But it can only provide you shelter in a refugee camp. It cannot make possible you’re living as a community. Torn away from Kashmir, the Pandit community will become a mass of dispersed individuals and families, forced to speak alien tongues, driven to cope with an inhospitable climate, made to walk on unfamiliar soil. I tell you most sincerely that we are dismayed by that prospect.

You have left the Valley in large numbers, living rootless lives in an unfeeling environment. You are not only uprooted; you are also told lies. You are being kept in Delhi and Jammu in conditions of insult and injury merely to be used as concocted evidence against the resistance in Kashmir. The privileged members of your community can fend for themselves even in a calamity, but our concern is for those who are not so resourceful. They must be rehabilitated in safety and with honor in their homes in Kashmir. Even that process of rehabilitation will depend for its success on the goodwill which your Muslim compatriots have for you, and which draw an affectionate welcome from them. The smiling embrace of your neighbors must mark your return to your homes.

Late Syed Ali Geelani, former Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), consistently said that Pandits are an integral part of Kashmiri society and that Kashmir would be incomplete without them. Geelani said on January 20, 2017, as reported by Deccan Chronicle that, “We will welcome return of Pandits to the Valley. They are a part of our society, and we have always asked them to return, and we will welcome if they are willing to settle within us and in our society.”

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, former. Chairman, APHC said while meeting with the leadership of the Jammu & Kashmir Peace Forum in New Delhi in January 2025 that “I would once again ask Pandit brethren to return to their motherland which awaits them, and live here as they did in the past, in our common and shared heritage. It’s time to reconcile and rebuild the broken bonds. We owe it to our next generation.”

Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani, Chairman, Jammu Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR) and a renowned Jurist has consistently advocated for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland. He has emphasized that their displacement is a significant loss and has condemned it in various reports, including the 1996 JKCHR report which was submitted to the Secretary General of the United Nations where he stood for their right to return to their homes in safety and dignity.

A group, we are told has emerged among you with the slogan of ‘Separate Homeland. We are appalled at the group’s blindness to reality and at the self-induct desperation that drives it to demand for itself a separate homeland. Why prefer a ghetto to a home – the home of all Kashmiris, the home that has been devastated by Indian occupation, yet devastated homes are repairable? 

I totally agree with Mr. Sanjay Tickoo, Chairman of Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, who said that “the separate zones will set a dangerous precedent.” He added, “Wherever there is minority (community) it should live with the majority.”

Mr. Tickoo truly represents the sentiments of all Kashmiris when he emphasized that “Separate settlements will go against the basic ethos of Kashmir and Sufi tradition.” You will fall into a trap devised by those who do not – and cannot – wish your community well.

It is alleged that you trusted your Muslim compatriots who let you down. The fact is that you did not trust them. In reality, the Muslim community did not let Pandit community down. You have so isolated yourselves from Kashmir that not once, have you raised a voice against the barbarities being committed by Indian army on civilian population there. The brutal forces of Indian occupation wanted you out of Kashmir in order to misrepresent – indeed, to disfigure – the resistance as an anti-Hindu campaign and also to clear the field for acts of mass slaughter and rape arson. We doubt that you can be happy with the results. This was a fatal blunder. That is the sad part of the story. The happy part is that the blunder is reversible.

We all know that the Pandits languishing in the refugee camps in Jammu, Delhi and elsewhere were victims of the tragedy of Kashmir for which the Government of India must take responsibility. Only Governor Jagmohan made this Pandit community flee and desert Kashmir at its hour of trial. They were made to abandon their own people. It is a pity that India is using these helpless victims of India policy as pawns in a cynical propaganda game. Kashmiri Pandits want to return to their homes. Muslim families, despite their own plight, are ready to welcome them back. But I am afraid that Indian authorities will try to score points in the debates. To them human rights are of secondary importance.
 
Some Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) have realized that their fleeing from Kashmir was misguided and ill advised. Dina Nath Raina (Kashmiri Pandit) described the exodus in his book Kashmir: Distortions and Reality. There is evidence that the transport was provided in a planned manner to Pandit families in particular localities and the police department was fully involved in organizing the exodus.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, former Federal Minister of India & Chief Minister of former Jammu and Kashmir said on March 22, 2022, that late Jagmohan Malhotra, Governor of Jammu & Kashmir in 1990, had put Kashmiri Pandits in buses and told them they would be brought back in two months. However, that did not happen, he said.  

Now, the question is why shouldn’t Yasin Malik face justice? The answer to this question was given by one of the eminent journalists of India and a seasoned diplomat, Ambassador Kuldip Nayyar, who wrote in Redfiff.com on August 7, 1999, “The first militant, Yasin Malik, who raised his gun at a public meeting in the heart of Srinagar, has turned nonviolent and vegetarian. Now he is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.”

Let me mention a report published in local newspaper in April 2015. It says that a group of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley joined JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik in the protest at Maisuma early this week. Reportedly, “The procession marched towards Lal Chowk chanting slogan Sang Sang Jiyain Gay, Sang Sang Marain Gay (we will live together and die together). .

We all know that because of his non-violent ideology, Yasin Malik was invited by Dr. Manmohan Singh on February 17, 2006, for strengthening a dialogue between the Governments of India & Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.    

Considering these factors, we are of the view that releasing Yasin Malik could serve as a constructive step toward fostering dialogue and reconciliation among India, Pakistan, and the Kashmiri leadership, thereby strengthening the broader peace process.

In conclusion, let us agree that both Muslims and Pandits of Kashmir have endured tremendous pain over the last three and half decades. While the Pandits faced displacement and exile, the Muslim community has suffered daily under conflict, with countless families torn apart. Recognizing each other’s suffering is the first step toward healing.

It is a fact that the overwhelming majority of Kashmiri Muslims want the Pandits to return to the Valley. Their presence is part of our shared history, culture, and identity. The call for their return is not just a matter of politics but of conscience — Kashmir feels incomplete without them. It is also true that while some Pandits have spoken of a separate homeland, this idea only creates division. True security and dignity for Pandits will not come from isolation, but from living side by side with their Muslim neighbors, as was the case for centuries. The strength of Kashmir has always been its diversity.

Lastly, our children deserve a Kashmir where Pandits and Muslims live together with dignity, peace, and mutual respect — just as our ancestors once did. That is the future we must work toward.

Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum.

He can be reached at: WhatsApp: gnfai2003@yahoo.com OR 1-202-607-6435

www.kashmirawareness.org

By Dr Marwan Asmar

In another vicious onslaught on the truth, Israel has killed five more journalists as it bombed the top half of the Kan Younis Nasser Hospital complex in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.

More than 10 other Palestinians were killed in the bombing carried out by Israeli planes according to Gaza health authorities and eyewitnesses.

The bombing of the Nasser Hospital Complex is seen as another run-of-the-mill strike which Israel has carried out in the last 22 months on the different parts of the Gaza Strip’s in what is seen as the worst genocide in human history.

The five are Hussam Al-Masri, a photojournalist with Reuters News Agency, Mohammed Salama, a photojournalist with Al Jazeera, Mariam Abu Daqa, a journalist with several media outlets, including Independent Arabia and AP and Moath Abu Taha, a journalist with NBC News. Ahmad Abu Aziz later succumbed to his injuries, raising the journalists’ death toll to five.

[https://twitter.com/DeclanKearneySF/status/1959900606790844642]

The social media has been rife with the latest bombardment and killing of the journalists who have been active in reporting the Israeli genocide with the journalists including Hossam El-Masry who worked for Reuters, camerman Mohammad Salama who worked for Al Jazeera, independent journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa and journalist Moaz Abu Taha who worked for the NBC network.

The latest onslaught on the hospital is confirmed by the Gaza Ministry of Health which states that other people were injured in the bombings.

The Ministry pointed out the Israeli military hit the fourth floor of one of the complex’s buildings in two airstrikes. It noted that the second strike occurred as rescue teams arrived to evacuate the wounded and recover the dead according to the Anadolu news agency.

The Palestinian Civil Defense said in a statement that a fire engine driver was killed in the strike and seven others from his team were injured as they attempted to rescue victims and recover the bodies.

Israel has made it a point of targetting journalists in its genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza. Israeli bombs and drones have killed 244 journalists and media workers. This is not to mention the over 400 journalists it injured.

The Gaza Media Office calls on “the international community, international organizations, and organizations involved in journalism and media in all countries of the world to condemn the crimes of the occupation, deter it, prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and bring the occupation’s criminals to justice.”

Dr Asmar is an Amman-based writer and blogs on crossfirearabia.com

25 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By BHRN

25 August 2025

Today marks eight years since Myanmar’s security forces carried out coordinated attacks against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State, burning entire villages, killing thousands of men, women, and children, and subjecting women and girls to widespread sexual violence. More than 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh. These atrocities shocked the world, but they were not isolated. They were the culmination of decades of persecution, the stripping of citizenship, apartheid-like restrictions, and state led efforts to erase the Rohingya from Myanmar. Genocide is a process, and for the Rohingya, that process began long before 2017.

For years, the international community witnessed the persecution escalate, and still it did nothing.

The 1982 citizenship law rendered the Rohingya stateless, denying them recognition in their own country. In the decades that followed, they were confined, denied education, healthcare, and livelihoods, subjected to marriage and family restrictions, and regularly targeted with violence and harassment by security forces. Waves of violence in 2012 forced more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps where they remain today. Hate speech and propaganda from state authorities, nationalist monks, and online platforms dehumanized the Rohingya, portraying them as outsiders and enemies.

The structures of genocide were in plain sight. Still, the world did not act.

When security forces launched “clearance operations” in 2016 and 2017, burning villages, killing civilians, and engaging in widespread rape and torture, the international community once again failed to respond with the urgency required. Even as hundreds of thousands crossed into Bangladesh with harrowing testimonies, many governments hesitated to call the crimes by their name: genocide.

Still, the world did not act to prevent further atrocities.

Since the 2021 coup, the situation has only worsened. The military junta has intensified its persecution of the Rohingya, imposing severe restrictions on movement, blocking humanitarian aid, and conscripting Rohingya into forced labor and military service. Arbitrary arrests, torture, killings, and sexual violence continue with total impunity. At the same time, the Arakan Army has also targeted Rohingya communities, carrying out extrajudicial executions, forced displacement, arson, and spreading anti-Rohingya propaganda and hate speech. An estimated 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since mid-2024. And still, the world has failed to act to prevent the ongoing genocide.

Today, more than a million Rohingya remain trapped in Bangladesh, denied legal status and rights, facing shrinking aid, food insecurity, and the loss of education and livelihoods. Across the region, Rohingya continue to die at sea or are detained and turned away from safety. Inside Rakhine State, they remain under siege, confined, deprived of humanitarian assistance, and subjected to systematic persecution by both the junta and the Arakan Army.

International justice efforts are underway. The International Court of Justice is hearing The Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar, the International Criminal Court is investigating crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, and courts abroad are pursuing cases under universal jurisdiction. These processes are critical, but they remain slow, and survivors of genocide cannot live on promises of justice tomorrow while they continue to suffer today.

If states truly wish to honor their obligations under the Genocide Convention, they must act not only to punish, but to prevent. Prevention means restoring aid and ensuring protection for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and across the region. Prevention means halting the ongoing crimes of the junta and the Arakan Army. Prevention also requires protecting other Muslim communities in Myanmar, including the Pathi, Panthay, Pashu, Kaman, and Myaydu, who face systematic persecution and attacks amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, which also may amount to genocide. Prevention means dismantling the entrenched structures of persecution, propaganda, and apartheid that sustain genocide against the Rohingya.

Eight years on, remembrance without action is complicity. If “never again” is to mean anything, states must act now, decisively and urgently, to end the ongoing genocide and secure justice, safety, and dignity for the Rohingya people.

Organisation’s Background

BHRN is based in London and operates across Burma/Myanmar working for human rights, minority rights and religious freedom in the country. BHRN has played a crucial role in advocating for human rights and religious freedom with politicians and world leaders.

Media Enquiries
Please contact:

Kyaw Win
Executive Director
Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
E: kyawwin@bhrn.org.uk
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Ye Min
Editor
Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
E: ye.min@bhrn.org.uk
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