Archives: Articles

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice was speaking during the 50th Annual Convention of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) on the topic of ‘The Struggle of Kashmir: Justice and Freedom of a Forgotten People.’ More than 35,000 people attend the convention who came from all America. There were delegation from many  countries including Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, etc..

Dr. Fai said that the international policy making experts and agencies have always warned that the Kashmir dispute is known to have the potential of large-scale international conflict with the possibility of nuclear confrontation. They have cautioned that Kashmir has produced two wars between India and Pakistan and a third cannot be ruled out unless a resolution is sought to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

Dr. Fai emphasized that recent nuclear tension between India and Pakistan is a proof that although paused so that sanity shall prevail, but it has not ended altogether. The timely intervention by President Donald J. Trump persuaded both India and Pakistan to have an immediate ceasefire, otherwise the world would have witnessed the dangerous war games between two nuclear armed countries with devastating consequences and tens of millions of people would have been absorbed and destroyed by war and coming generations would have suffered from the ramifications of nuclear disaster.

“Global initiative, like the one initiated by President Trump in Kashmir will not only end the bloodshed and suffering in Kashmir, but also have a direct positive effect on international security by eliminating regional fighting, and national tensions. It is in everyone’s interest to settle the Kashmir conflict peacefully without further delay,” Fai added.

Fai remarked that there is a threat to fundamental human rights in Kashmir including freedom of expression and freedom of opinion. If you dare to speak out against Indian army in Kashmir, you will be immediately put behind the bars or even eliminated. One prime example is that of Khurram Parvez, Chairperson of Philippines-based ‘Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances” who documented 550 pages report on The Structure of Violence in Kashmir, (TSOV).

Khurram delivered the hard copies of the report to the office of ‘UN High Commissioner on Human Rights’ Office of the ‘UN Secretary General’, many international NGO’s and various dignitaries.

Although Khurram Parvez was recognized as one of the 100 most influential people of the world by US-based Time Magazine in 2022 but he can no longer present this report to anybody anymore because he was arrested by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) of India on November 21, 2021, under terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defender tweeted: ‘Khurram Parvez is not a terrorist. He is a Human Rights Defender.’

Another example is that of Mohammad Yasin Malik, one of the most recognizable leaders of Kashmiri political resistance movement who was arrested on August 8, 2024. The plan and intentions of the current fascist regime are more sinister when it comes to the case of Yasin Malik. The international community must take cognizance of the historical behavior of India. By eliminating peace-loving leaders like Yasin Malik, the Indian regime is closing any avenues of peace in the region and pushing the youth of Kashmir towards actions that can be detrimental to the peaceful resolution of Kashmir conflict.

What is the crime of Yasin Malik. He has said is at the hearing at Delhi High Court that “If seeking Azadi (Freedom) is a crime, then I am ready to accept this crime and its consequences.”

“Under a bizarre and illegal ‘Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Order, 2020’, the citizens of India will now be able to get Domicile Certificate and by virtue of this certificate they will be able to settle in Kashmir, own the property there and compete for jobs in the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Khurram Parvez, has highlighted that “By virtue of this order, outsiders are… going to be the claimants of jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, which already has a huge unemployment problem. This is an act against the interests of unemployed youth.”

“The situation in Kashmir is a living proof that the people of Kashmir will not compromise, far less abandon, their demand for self-determination which is their birthright and for which they have paid a price unparalleled in the history of South Asia,” Dr. Fai concluded.

Sardar Zarif Khan, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir, Sardar Shoaib Irshad, General Secretary, Kashmir American Welfare Association (KAWA), Sardar Zeeshan Khan, young human rights activist, and a delegation of Kashmiri Americans from Boston, including, Choudhary Irfan Ul Hassan, Choudhary Ejaz Ul Hassan, Choudhary Imran Ul Hassan, Hamza Irfan Choudhary traveled from long distances to attend the session.

Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435  or gnfai2003@yahoo.com

www.Kashmirawareness.org

Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 25 May 2025

Over the last eighteen months the world has witnessed undiluted militarised cruelty targeting the entire population and the supportive natural habitat of Gaza – with not so much as an ounce of mercy or compassion, let alone justice, or sensitivity to issues of ecological viability.

No one has been spared in this onslaught: not civilians, not children, women or the elderly, not humanitarian workers or UN personnel overseeing the distribution of aid, not homes, schools, places of worship, or hospitals.

No logic can begin to explain or justify this genocidal policy of indiscriminate maiming and killing, or the calculated and systematic starvation of the already traumatized Palestinian population. These and other unspeakable atrocities leave us with just two words to describe the conduct of the cabal presently ruling the State of Israel: pure evil

Faced with such vicious behaviour, humanity has but one option: to call out the evil and take appropriate action to put an end to such outrageous conduct.

In the name of humanity we therefore call on all peoples and governments to:

1.Terminate all transactions with the State of Israel that relate to military capabilities until a just and lasting peace settlement has been reached, which gives effect to the inalienable right of Palestinian self-determination. This embargo should include:
a.A ban on the export of all weapons and dual-use equipment as well as ammunition, whether supplied directly or through a third party
b.A ban on the import of all Israeli weapons and military technology
c.A cessation of all other forms of military cooperation, including joint operations/exercises/logistics and communications initiatives, intelligence cooperation and sharing, and expert exchanges and visits
d.A ban on all financing arrangements designed to facilitate the above activities.

2.Break diplomatic relations with the State of Israel until a complete and durable ceasefire has been established across all the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

3.Seek the exclusion of Israeli participation in international cultural and sporting events and call for national boycotts of foreign and domestic cultural and sporting happenings until a complete and durable ceasefire has been established across all the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

4.Apply maximum pressure on those governments that have been Israel’s primary backers, notably the United States, Britain and Germany, to cease forthwith any support of Israel’s inhuman conduct in Gaza and Palestine as a whole.

5.Support and financially contribute to the Arab plan for Gaza’s reconstruction formally adopted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in March 2025, and to this end call for an immediate UN-sponsored international summit, open to all supportive governments, relevant regional organisations and sympathetically disposed civil society, philanthropic and business organisations. The reconstruction process in Gaza and the proposed international summit should be mindful of Palestinian rights, especially the right of self-determination as applicable to all developments pertaining to Israeli Occupied Palestine. States complicit in the Gaza genocide should be excluded from participation in the summit.

6.Encourage nonviolent solidarity initiatives by civil society, both individual and collective action of the sort that proved helpful in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. A mobilized people can change history, and bring political evil to an abrupt end, especially where, as is the case in Gaza, a severe humanitarian emergency exists.

Such measures on the part of states need to be complemented and reinforced by resolute, collective action at the UN General Assembly. A special session of the General Assembly should be urgently called to denounce the heinous crimes being committed in Gaza and the West Bank and the constant threats to cleanse Palestine of its people by measures of forced displacement.

The General Assembly should consider and adopt a series of resolutions which demand:
a.An immediate ceasefire in all parts of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and adjacent areas
b.The establishment of  a UN peacekeeping contingent of sufficient strength to monitor and supervise the ceasefire and deter in timely fashion actions that would lead to a renewal of violence
c.The unimpeded flow of water, food, fuel and medicines to Gaza
d.Strong measures designed to protect humanitarian aid workers, health and medical personnel, and agencies and institutions engaged in the running of hospitals, clinics, kitchens and other essential services
e.Decisive measures to enable journalists and media personnel to carry out their duties in safe and secure environments.

We also request the world’s religious organisations to issue a call addressing from a spiritual and ethical perspective the evil of genocide as it continues to unfold in Gaza. They are uniquely placed to set forth the ethical criteria that should govern an agreement on the cessation of all military hostilities in the Occupied Territories and the creation of just and durable peace in Palestine.

Since October 2023, millions have exposed and protested against Israel’s conduct in Gaza. They have succeeded in raising the level of global public awareness even though their cries for humanity and justice have thus far gone unheeded. The complicity of the rich and the powerful have stood in the way.

People of good will everywhere must now redouble their efforts in solidarity with the Palestinian people. They must peacefully and resolutely unite their voices and work closely together for as long as it takes.

A powerful global dialogue for a just peace in Palestine that brings together people of diverse social, cultural and religious background is a primary ethical imperative of our time. So is accountability, which means punitive action against leaders of the State of Israel and the complicit enabler governments, including imposing obligations to pay reparations to the victimised population of Gaza and contributions to the funding of reconstruction.

Issued on behalf of SHAPE and its Coordinating Committee by
Professor Emeritus Richard Falk, Dr Chandra Muzaffar and Professor Emeritus Joseph Camilleri
SHAPE Co-Conveners

22 May 2025
Email: savinghumanityandplanetearth@gmail.com
Website www.theshapeproject.com/

Jenin / PNN – By Yara Mansour

Seventy-seven years have passed since the Nakba — the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 war — and yet for many, it is not a memory but an ongoing, lived experience. The grandfather was uprooted, and now the grandson is, too. In refugee camps, among the ruins of demolished homes, and across public squares, the Nakba remains etched into Palestinian life.

Palestinians who lived through the original catastrophe in 1948 insist that the Nakba is not merely an annual commemoration. Rather, it is a continuous reality that takes new forms with every generation. Between displacement, life in camps, and shifting political landscapes, the narrative continues to evolve. Yet, the dream of return persists, and the right of return, many say, remains inalienable.

Among those displaced twice is 90-year-old Subhiyya al-Masri. She was a teenager during the original Nakba and, in 2025, has found herself uprooted once again amid new waves of Israeli military escalation. “What is happening now brings back all the memories,” she told PNN, recounting her forced departure from her village of Sha’ab in 1948, when Jewish militias attacked surrounding towns. Her family fled to Jenin, where they lived in refugee tents.

“I left my village without even being able to collect my ID card,” she said. “We left under fire, and we’ve been refugees ever since.”

Al-Masri recalls the presence of Iraqi troops stationed in the Palestinian village of Rummana at the time, describing them as brave fighters who died defending the area. She added that the local population had supported the Iraqi army and continued resisting ever since — a legacy that, she said, lives on in the younger generations who are still fighting today.

Her more recent displacement came after the Israeli army threatened to destroy homes in Jenin camp, where she lived. Fearing for their children and loved ones, families fled with nothing. “Just like in ’48,” she said, “they stole everything again — even the jerry cans of olive oil. They filled them up and took them to sell.”

Analysts and historians see this year’s 77th Nakba anniversary as more than symbolic. It comes as Palestinians in Gaza endure what many describe as one of the most catastrophic Israeli assaults in history, now ongoing for over 580 days. More than 50,000 people have been killed and 100,000 injured, while tens of thousands of homes have been reduced to rubble. Gaza, observers say, has been pushed beyond the limits of human survival.

In the West Bank, the situation is similarly grave. According to political analyst and American University professor Dr Ayman Yousef, over 50,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from northern areas such as Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. “The Nakba is being renewed in every sense,” Yousef told PNN. “What happened in 1948 — the displacement of 800,000 Palestinians and the destruction of 534 villages — is happening again, but on an even larger, more brutal scale.”

He noted that while Israeli settlement expansion continues under the far-right government led by figures like Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu and Smotrich, international efforts to halt the violence or negotiate peace have faltered. “The international community has failed to impose any vision on the Israeli government,” he said.

Despite the devastation, Yousef argued that there has been a notable shift in global awareness of the Palestinian cause. “We are witnessing a victory of the Palestinian narrative and identity on the world stage,” he said, adding that Palestinian resilience in Gaza and the West Bank has strengthened their national consciousness and global visibility.

In the streets of Jenin, the Nakba is no longer just an echo from the past — it is a reality unfolding in real time. For Palestinians, the fight for return, justice and freedom continues, seventy-seven years on.

15 May 2025

Source: english.pnn.ps

By  Maung Zarni

Another day of revolting news updates, emanating from the still center of world’s power – USA.    Trump tried to pull a fast one one a visiting S. African President: showed a video of S. Africa committing white genocide against the Afrikaner.

We had a neighbour who died a few years ago:  a Boer.  A fanatical Christian, she told me and my wife Mandela was “a devil”.  We just listened.  There was no conversation to be had beyond weather and dog walks with such mind or mindlessness.

With his revolutionary intellectual mind, Mandela would most definitely have shredded Trump, this Class A  con-man sitting in the Oval Office in a few minutes.

Post-Genocide Joe, Trump’s USA has continued to provide Israel with a massive quantity of arms, talked criminally rubbish with “owning Gaza” – and turning it into a Freedom Zone – a shift from the real estate man’s rivera.

At the Karim Shalom Crossing less than a year ago – on 29 August 2024 – I saw with  my own eyes Made-in-USA  armored vehicles coming from inside Gaza, after their morning round of slaughter, heard loud explosion, and saw plumes of smoke a kilometer away from where we were holding a peace vigil.

In this 1 minute video clip, I used the Auschwitz analogy, not lightly.  In fact, Gaza’s population subjected to the relently genocidal destruction and slaughter since 8 Oct 2023 is 2.3 million.  That is to say, Gaza’s population is 1 million larger than Auschwitz-Birkenau.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdH-H8iEcgY&sfnsn=scwspmo]

Between 50,000 – 54,000 have been killed of which 20,000 were children.   Lancet studies estimate, very probably, the actual numbers are 4 times higher than this Hamas Health Department figure.

Everyday I feel physically sick that the world of states – particularly the Western patron states of Israel have given the mass-murderous Jewish Supremacist state  a blank check of “self-defence”.     In particular, Germany, USA, UK, Czech, France and Hungary are collaborator states.

Genocides are NOT simply single state crimes: they are in fact inter-state joint crimes, whether one looks at Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar military’s joint genocide against Rohingyas, or the CIA and Suharto-joint genocide in Indonesia in 1965 or Khmer Rouge genocide which Singapore, China, Thailand, USA, and UK were intimately involved.

One third of Cambodia’s population perished in 4 years – between 1975-1979.   We are looking at a significant percentage of the Palestinian population across the Occupied Territories.

As a former academic, I am so incredibly disgusted with the Western academia.   I couldn’t bring myself to mention any university I was ever associated with in any capacity over the last 35 years.   I find taxi-driving a more honorable profession than today’s academic careerism.

The Ivory Tower – run by selfish careerist philistines, with neither moral spine nor intellectual integrity – is on the side of the killers.   When I saw Columbia U. President Shipman talking at this year’s commencement, I felt revolted.

(On a personal level, my respect for my older daughter who will turn 26 in a few months shot up!  She ditched Columbia for good and transferred to a different institution to graduate before the place got so rotten.   She doesn’t have to have that life-long association with the shit institution).

What makes Israel’s genocide so revolting, traumatizing and sickening is that the entire Western world save a few states are collaborators, and we as common and decent humans KNOW what Israel is doing with Western supplies of arms to largely defenseless population under total siege, and we feel largely powerless.

In Israel, I saw Western Imperialism and its White Supremacist Cancer merging with Israel’s Jewish Supremacist Nazism.

This is what makes Israel’s genocide far worse than Hitler’s genocidal invasions of 1930’s and 1940’s: the left and right imperialists (Stalin’s USSR and Churchill and FDR’s UK and USA) fought Hitler.

Have a read.  A few items below.

ZARNI

P.S. A few shots a fellow peace delegate from USA Will Allen-DuPraw took at the Gaza crossing.

We were right near Philadeli Corridor, within sight of the Egyptian border.

24 May 2025

By John Minto

For the first time on our main television channel in Aotearoa New Zealand this evening we had a reasonably balance story from the Middle East. It was an extended look at what is actually happening in Occupied Gaza with Israel’s humanitarian blockade.

We had the head of UNRWA (United NationsRelief and Works Agency) explaining how Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war. Reported also was Israel’s plan to force all two million plus Palestinians into one single massive refugee camp in the south of Occupied Gaza.

Against a background of starving, desperate civilians we had a Palestinian worker at a food kitchen explain that they would have no food left after a few more days. The story even had a Palestinian journalist speaking – I can recall seeing that on only one previous occasion in the past 19 months.

The story showed the aftermath of the bombing of a hospital in Khan Younis with Israel’s preposterous claims it was a terrorist base for Hamas.

It appears the situation in Occupied Gaza has become so monstrous and outrageous that finally western media can no longer justify looking away or justify the reporting of absurd Israeli propaganda.

For the first time I can recall only a few Israeli lies were reported tonight rather than the pervasive domination in all western reporting of Israeli propaganda narratives for 19 months of genocide.Palestinian voices are an afterthought at best.

A lot has been written about the reasons for the silence of western leaders and western media in the face of what all humanity can see is a genocide. Some emphasise that western media has been so well trained over many decades that reporting Israeli lies is hard-baked into news editors and journalists; others that the threat of false smears of anti-semitism from the pro-Israel lobby encourages news organisations to self-censor in favour of Israel; others that western racism towards Arabs and Palestinians provides a natural slippery slide to just go with Israeli bias; others that Eurocentrism means western audiences naturally tend to side with Israelis who speak their own language and share similar values such as a beliefin “democracy” (The inverted commas because Israel has never been a democracyand democracy in western countries is deeply compromised by the power and political influence that comes with huge wealth)

The truth is probably a mixture of all that.

Earlier this year an independent report on Radio New Zealand’s reporting on Palestine/Israel (the report was written by a former senior journalist at the organisation) was unusually and revealing frank about the bias in stories selected for reporting on the Middle East. The reportsays:

In covering international news RNZ (and other New Zealand media) has traditionally seen’relevance to New Zealand’ as giving greater prominence to events in countries in which New Zealand has some active engagement (trade, aid, travel) or from which many New Zealanders originate or have family (the UK, Australia, Sāmoa).This extends to shared language or cultural experience. Israel, as a result oftourism, trade, ‘western’ alignment and language (with English a common firstand second language there) have a greater ‘news proximity’ to New Zealand thando Palestinians and Palestine.  Stories may be chosen for these reasons and the inevitable result is a stronger perception of news relevance of Israeli stories. Coverage of stories with a Palestinian angle will tend to be less often reported. This tendency needs to be recognized.

It’s unusual to see such a frank expression of “Eurocentrism” being used as an explanation for pro-Israeli narratives. In the world today such an explanation looks shocking and reeks of lazy racism. All of us deserve better – Palestinians in particular.

New Zealand as a small country often claims the importance of the “rules-based international order” and by implication the importance of institutions such as the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.

However, when it comes to Israel the rules become the US/Israel “rules” and our country has been shamefully silent in upholding what we claim we believe in.

But despite the built-in bias in favour of Israel, the big majority of people here – and I think across the western world– has a gut feeling of sympathy and support for Palestine over Israel.

Last week the solidarity movement here joined with the New Zealand Māori Council to publish full-page advertisements in three major daily newspapers – if we had a half-decent, moral government this would not be needed. The add was in the form of an open letter to our ForeignMinister:

E te rangatira Minister Peters, tēnā koe

The situation in Occupied Gaza has reached a further crisis point.

We urge ourcountry to speak out and join the other nations demanding humanitarian supplies into Gaza and accountability for the blockade.

For more than two months, Israel has blocked all aid into Gaza – food, water, fuel and medical supplies. The World Food Programme says food stocks in Gaza are fully depleted.  UNICEF says children face”growing risk of starvation, illness and death”. The International Committee of the Red Cross says “the humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse”.

Meanwhile, 3000 trucks laden with desperately needed aid are lined up at the Occupied Gaza border. Israeli occupationforces are refusing to allow them in.

Starving a civilian population is a clear breach of International Humanitarian Law and aWar Crime under the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court.

At the International Court of Justice many countries have stood up to condemn the use of starvation as a weapon of war and to demand accountability for Israel to end its industrial-scale killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

New Zealand has not joined that group. Our government has been silent to date.

After 18 months facing what the International Court of Justice has described as a “plausible genocide”, it is grievous that New Zealand does not speak out and act clearly against this ongoing humanitarian outrage.

Minister Peters,as Minister of Foreign Affairs you are in a position of leadership to carry NewZealand’s collective voice in support of humanitarian aid to Gaza to the world. We are asking you to speak on behalf of New Zealand to support the urgentinternational plea for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and to initiate calls for a no-fly zone to be established over the region to prevent further mass killing of civilians.

We believe the way forward for peace and security for everyone in the region is for allparties to follow international law and United Nations resolutions, going backto UNGA 194 in 1948, so that a lasting peace can be established based onjustice and equal rights for everyone.

New Zealand has an internationally respected voice – please use it to express solidarity forhumanitarian aid to Gaza, today.

Nā,

Ann Kendall QSM,Co-Chair

Tā Taihākurei Durie,Pou

NZ Māori Council

Maher Nazzal

John Minto

National Co-Chairs,Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

What will the response be? No sign of courage or conscience yet.

As they said in the anti-colonial liberation struggle in Angola and Mozambique:

“A luta continua,vitória é certa” (The struggle continues, victory is certain)

John Minto is a New Zealand political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealand’s Top 100 History Makers listed him as number 89

17 May 2025

By Roger D Harris and John Perry

The National Endowment for Democracy gets its project funding reinstated by the Trump administration

The brief freeze and rapid partial reinstatement of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding in early 2025 helped expose it as a US regime-change tool. Created to rebrand CIA covert operations as “democracy promotion,” the NED channels government funds to opposition groups in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, meddling in their internal affairs.

Regime change on the US agenda

In 2018, Kenneth Wollack bragged to the US Congress that the NED had given political training to 8,000 young Nicaraguans, many of whom were engaged in a failed attempt to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Wollack was praising the “democracy-promotion” work carried out by NED, of which he is now vice-chair. Carl Gershman, then president of the NED and giving evidence, was asked about Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, who had been re-elected with an increased majority two years prior. He responded: “Time for him to go.”

Seven years later, Trump took office and it looked as if the NED’s future was endangered. On February 12, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Elon Musk froze disbursement of its congressionally approved funds. Its activities stopped and its website went blank. On February 24, Richard Grenell, special envoy to Venezuela, declared that “Donald Trump is someone who does not want to make regime changes.”

Washington’s global regime-change operations were immediately impacted and over 2,000 paid US collaborating organizations temporarily defunded. A Biden-appointed judge warned of “potentially catastrophic harm” to (not in her words) US efforts to overturn foreign governments. The howl from the corporate press was deafening. The Associated Press cried: “‘Beacon of freedom’ dims as US initiatives that promote democracy abroad wither.”

However, the pause lasted barely a month. On March 10, funding was largely reinstated.  The NED, which “deeply appreciated” the State Department’s volte face, then made public its current program which, in Latin America and the Caribbean alone, includes over 260 projects costing more than $40 million.

US “soft power”

Created in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan following scandals involving the CIA’s covert funding of foreign interventions, the NED was to shift such operations into a more publicly palatable form under the guise of “democracy promotion.” As Allen Weinstein, NED’s first acting president, infamously admitted in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” In short, NED functions as a “soft power arm” of US foreign policy.

The NED disingenuously operates as a 501(c)(3) private nonprofit foundation. However, it is nearly 100% funded by annual appropriations from the US Congress and governed mainly by Washington officials or ex-officials. In reality, it is an instrument of the US state—and, arguably, of the so-called deep state. But its quasi-private status shields it from many of the disclosure requirements that typically apply to taxpayer-funded agencies.

Hence we encounter verbal gymnastics such as those in its “Duty of Care and Public Disclosure Policies.” That document loftily proclaims: “NED holds itself to high standards of transparency and accountability.” Under a discussion of its “legacy” (with no mention of its CIA pedigree), the NGO boasts: “Transparency has always been central to NED’s identity.”

But it continues, “…transparency for oversight differs significantly from transparency for public consumption.” In other words, it is transparent to the State Department but not to the public. The latter are only offered what it euphemistically calls a “curated public listing of grants” – highly redacted and lacking in specific details.

NED enjoys a number of advantages by operating in the nether region between an accountable US government agency and a private foundation. It offers plausible deniability:the US government can use it to support groups doing its bidding abroad without direct attribution, giving Washington a defense from accusations of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. It is also more palatable for foreign institutions to partner with what is ostensibly an NGO, rather than with the US government itself.

The NED can also respond quickly if regime-change initiatives are needed in countries on Washington’s enemy list, circumventing the usual governmental budgeting procedures. And, as illustrated during that congressional presentation in 2018 on Nicaragua, NED’s activities are framed as supporting democracy, human rights, and civil society. It cynically invokes universal liberal values while promoting narrow Yankee geopolitical interests. Thus its programs are sold as altruistic rather than imperial, and earn positive media headlines like the one from the AP cited above.

But a look at NED’s work in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba suggests very much the opposite.

Venezuela

Venezuela had passed an NGO Oversight Law in 2024. Like the US’s Foreign Agents Registration Act, but somewhat less restrictive, the law requires certification of NGOs. As even the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) – an inside-the-beltway promoter of US imperialism with a liberal gloss –  admits: “Many Venezuelan organizations receiving US support have not been public about being funding recipients.”

The pace of Washington’s efforts in Venezuela temporarily slowed with the funding pause, as US-funded proxies had to focus on their own survival. Venezuelan government officials, cheering the pause, viewed the NED’s interference in their internal affairs as a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. In contrast, the US-funded leader of the far-right opposition, Maria Corina Machado, begged for international support to make up for the shortfall from Washington.

WOLA bemoaned that the funding freeze allowed the “Maduro government to further delegitimize NGOs” paid by the US. Hundreds of US-funded organizations, they lamented, “now face the grim choice of going underground, relocating abroad, or shutting down operations altogether.”

With the partial reinstatement of funding, now bankrolling at least 39 projects costing $3.4 million, former US senator and present NED board member Mel Martinez praised the NED for its “tremendous presence in Venezuela… supporting the anti-Maduro movement.”

Nicaragua

Leading up to the 2018 coup attempt, the NED had funded 54 projects worth over $4 million. Much of this went to support supposedly “independent” media, in practice little more than propaganda outlets for Nicaragua’s opposition groups. Afterward, the NED-funded online magazine Global Americans revealed that the NED had “laid “the groundwork for insurrection” in Nicaragua.

One of the main beneficiaries, Confidencial, is owned by the Chamorro family, two of whose members later announced intentions to stand in Nicaragua’s 2021 elections. The family received well over $5 million in US government funding, either from the NED or directly from USAID (now absorbed into the State Department). In 2022, Cristiana Chamorro, who handled much of this funding, was found guilty of money laundering. Her eight-year sentence was commuted to house arrest; after a few months she was given asylum in the US.

Of the 22 Nicaragua-related projects which NED has resumed funding, one third sponsor “independent” media. While the recipients’ names are undisclosed, it is almost certain that this funding is either for outlets like Confidencial (now based in Costa Rica), or else is going direct to leading opponents of the Sandinista government to pay for advertisements currently appearing in Twitter and other social media.

Cuba

In Latin America, Cuba is targeted with the highest level of NED spending – $6.6 million covering 46 projects. One stated objective is to create “a more well-informed, critically minded citizenry,” which appears laughable to anyone who has been to Cuba and talked to ordinary people there – generally much better informed about world affairs than a typical US citizen.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized the NED’s destabilizing activities, such as financing 54 anti-Cuba organizations since 2017. He advised the US administration to review “how many in that country [the US] have enriched themselves organizing destabilization and terrorism against Cuba with support from that organization.”

Washington not only restored NED funding for attacks on Cuba but, on May 15, added Cuba to the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate with its anti-terrorist efforts.”

The NED: Covert influence in the name of democracy

Anyone with a basic familiarity with the Washington’s workings is likely to be aware of the NED’s covert role. Yet the corporate media – behaving as State Department stenographers and showing no apparent embarrassment – have degenerated to the point where they regularly portray the secretly funded NED outlets as “independent” media serving the targeted countries.

Case in point: Washington Post columnist Max Boot finds it “sickening” that Trump is “trying [to] end US government support for democracy abroad.” He is concerned because astroturf “democracy promotion groups” cannot exist without the flow of US government dollars. He fears the “immense tragedy” of Trump’s executive order to cut off funding (now partially reinstated) for the US Agency for Global Media, the parent agency of the Voice of America, Radio Marti, and other propaganda outlets.

Behind the moralistic appeals to democracy promotion and free press is a defense of the US imperial project to impose itself on countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Those sanctioned countries, targeted for regime change, need free access to food, fuel, medicines and funding for development. They don’t need to hear US propaganda beamed to them or generated locally by phonily “independent” media.

Roger D. Harris is with the Task Force on the Americas, the US Peace Council, and the Venezuela Solidarity Network. Nicaragua based

John Perry is with the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition and writes for MR Online, the London Review of Books, FAIR and Covert Action, among others.

20 May 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Bharat Dogra

What is happening in Gaza today, unfolding over several months, is unacceptable violation of the most basic right of any people to live and survive in their own land.

In terms of the number of people who have already died as a result of direct and indirect impacts of the violence and aggression against them by Israeli forces for nearly 20 months, seen as a percentage of the total population, this already represents perhaps the highest conflict-related mortality rate of the 21^st century so far. This has taken place without any effective protection steps from either the UNO or the various big powers, some of whom, like the USA and Germany, have been the leading suppliers of the weapons of destruction to Israel.

Apart from such mass murder being inflicted on the people of Gaza, another issue of great concern relates to the various aspects of the aggression making the region increasingly uninhabitable now as well as in the longer-term, threatening he survival base of the people.

For human existence clean water is needed daily for drinking and for numerous other uses. This is being denied as a result of the various direct and indirect impacts of Israeli aggression against people. This denial of water can itself prove life threatening for many people.

Food is another basic necessity. This too has been repeatedly denied to people not just as a result of war but also by deliberate obstruction of relief supplies. Several humanitarian organizations have reported acute famine conditions from time to time. In addition to denying the supply of basic food materials, the conditions needed for cooking food properly are also being denied to people.

Availability of essential medicines and medical care constitute another basic need and a survival need for many people. However the existing hospitals, medical facilities and even medical personnel have been targeted in a big way in the course of the Israeli aggression.

Housing is another basic need. However most houses in Gaza have been destroyed or badly damaged by relentless bombing. Many people have remained buried under rubble, a reality too painful to even imagine. Even shelter camps in which homeless and displaced people seek shelter have not been spared. Even when they are already homeless, people can be ordered any time to shift from one place to another in entirely arbitrary and disruptive ways. The acute distress and difficulties caused by this can be imagined, considering that some family members may be already ill or injured or disabled at the time of shifting.

For people to survive it is necessary to have some means of livelihood. This has been increasingly denied and disrupted, whether in the form of farming or orchards, fishing or safe transport to area of work, availability of regular wage work or proper jobs, disruption of trade and marketing, destruction of educational or medical facilities, for a very extended period.

When livelihoods are disrupted, humanitarian aid and relief supplies provide the most important avenue of meeting the basic needs of people. While the world is quite willing to supplying these, these often cannot reach the people who need these relief supplies the most due to too many restrictions and obstructions placed by the Israeli authorities.

Any community needs relatively safe and clean conditions to live. However increasingly in Gaza the surroundings have unexploded munitions, dangerous materials, air conditions harmful to health and absence of basic sanitation facilities. All this threatens basic survival conditions.

Even in conditions of temporary collapse of survival conditions, people can still manage to live for some time if there are hopes of improving conditions based on assurances by world leaders that corrective steps or remedial actions are being taken very soon. The people of Gaza have been waiting endlessly for such assurances from world leaders. Instead what they sometimes hear only reduces their hopes for effective remedial actions. Some top leaders like President Donald Trump have actually made statements that more or less amount to displacement and shift of people to other areas. In fact the various actions of the forces of aggression and their suppliers or supporters to render the region uninhabitable are likely to be related to the objective of displacing people, whether or not this objective succeeds.

Hence in Gaza what we see is a combination of two factors. Firstly, an unacceptably large number of people are getting killed and seriously injured by bombings and ground level aggression and this is already the highest number in any 21^st century conflict when seen as a percentage of total population (this can be called mass murder). Secondly, there are several forms of aggressions which amount to making a region uninhabitable by destroying the basic conditions of survival. These two conditions can jointly be described as ‘Mass Murder and Making a Region Uninhabitable (MMMARU in short).

What is more, this unacceptably inhuman strategy is being pursued against the people with the most right to this land. Another highly unethical and dangerous aspect of this tragedy is that this is being pursued in an area that is known for highly dense population. The density of population in Gaza in terms of people living per square km is about 250 times more than the world average. In Gaza the population density in 2023 was 15,609 while the world average is about 63 for people living on land.

While the life-sustaining conditions for people of Gaza are being relentlessly destroyed and disrupted, it must be remembered that at the same time life-protecting conditions for various other life-forms, including domesticated animals as well as wild-life are also being destroyed in the form of bombings, presence of toxic and dangerous substances and pollutants in land, water and air, destruction of trees and crops, shortage of water, food and fodder as well as other factors.

It must be said that the conflict and aggression-related, or MMMARU related threats to life exist here on top of the widely prevalent threats of recent times like climate change which too are aggravated by the conflict conditions.

It is clear therefore that the UNO and the international community, including the world’s most senior statesmen and diplomats, must very soon announce a very big initiative for providing immediate safety and relief to the people of Gaza as well as to ensure their longer-term habitation in Gaza in conditions of safety and ability to meet their basic needs in sustainable ways. This should not be delayed any longer. It is already very late, but it is never too late for such urgently needed initiatives.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now.

20 May 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Gary Smith

How many dead children is it going to take before Israel and its Zionist supporters are satisfied? What is the number that needs to be met before governments in the West intervene? When will the United States and other countries stop selling weapons and funding the genocide of children? This is a serious question.

Because after 19 months of genocide, Israel has reportedly killed 17,492 children. Many more are buried under rubble and presumed dead, but not included in this running total of children killed.

Clearly, 17,492 is not enough dead children, since Israel continues to kill one child in Gaza every 45 minutes, an average of 30 children killed every day.

As of March 2, Israel has cut off all aid to Gaza. Israel has blocked food, water, and medicine from reaching the 2.3 million people in Gaza. “A million children in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid. Their lives are hanging in the balance,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN Relief and Works Agency.

The United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator said the halting of humanitarian aid amounts to “cruel collective punishment.”

The human beings under siege in Gaza are not starving; they are being deliberately starved. There is a very clear distinction between the two.

But apparently, it’s still not enough dead children. Israel broke the latest ceasefire agreement on March 18. The Gaza Health Ministry says 2,326 people, including 732 children, have been killed since that day when Israel shattered the truce. The overall death toll since the war broke out is at 52,418.

Again, how many dead children are enough?

Zionists answer that they want their hostages back. And yet Israel continues to break ceasefires and fails to agree to further “prisoner”-for-hostage swaps. Does anyone honestly believe that Israel’s intentions are to bring home the hostages? Netanyahu recently admitted that it’s not about the hostages, it’s about eliminating Hamas.

This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. The goal is to eliminate Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jerusalem, the same goal Israel has had since 1948 during the Nakba, translated as the catastrophe, referring to the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Before the Nakba, Palestine was a multi-ethnic and multicultural society. Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. To this day, a large portion of the Palestinian population remain refugees, living in camps.

As a Jew, I am well aware that Israel has been systematically killing children for 77 years. This is not new. What is new is the world is watching children blown to literal pieces, and having limbs torn off by United States missiles, while watching on their smartphones. They are watching schools and mosques being bombed. Hospitals. Bakeries. Journalists. NGOs providing food and aid.

Again, how many dead children is enough?

Gary Smith has contributed essays and columns to Newsweek, Jewish Journal, VegConomist, Moment Magazine, Tricycle Magazine, Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Independent, Mother Nature Network, Elephant Journal, and to several books.

20 May 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Networ

Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 60 Palestinians have been killed since midnight in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, as the military has ordered Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to flee ahead of an “unprecedented attack”.

Attacks in northern Gaza on a family home and a school-turned-shelter killed at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1924741112603758728]

A strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Two strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital.

On Monday, Israel’s military issued another forced displacement order to residents of Khan Younis, threatening an “unprecedented” assault after launching a wave of deadly strikes on the area and pressing a punishing new ground offensive.

The displacement order, posted on X by the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, also applies to the nearby areas of Bani Suhaila and Abasan. It calls on Palestinians to move west towards al-Mawasi.

“From this moment, Khan Younis governorate will be considered a dangerous combat zone,” the post read.

It comes a day after Israel’s military issued a separate displacement order for areas of central Gaza, including the town of al-Qarara, as its expanded offensive
continues.

On Sunday, the military announced it has launched a large-scale ground invasion across Gaza.

According to the military, troops from its Southern Command are now conducting operations on the ground in both northern and southern areas of the enclave, backed by intense aerial bombardment, as part of its “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”.

Under the newly launched air and ground offensive, Israel said it plans to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and secure limited aid distribution inside the territory – something that has been widely criticised by aid groups and the United Nations.

20 May 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on President Trump to address and renounce an “insane” plan to ethnically-cleanse Gaza and force its population to Libya as reported in national media.

CAIR said that if the news reporting about the plan is true, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza would be a “moral stain on our nation’s history that brings shame for generations to come.”

SEE: Trump administration working on plan to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya – NBC

NBC reports:

“The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News.

“The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya’s leadership, two people with direct knowledge of the plans and a former U.S. official said.

“In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago, those three people said.”

In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:

“If this news report that the Trump administration truly is plotting the forced transfer of one million Palestinians from their homeland in Gaza to Libya is true, this plan would represent an unprecedented act of ethnic cleansing unseen in modern history.

“This is morally reprehensible and a historic crime against humanity. It is a slap in the face to all the Arab leaders President Trump just met. Any country or entity that takes part in this war crime would rightly face universal condemnation. 

“No Arab or Muslim nation, and no person of conscience of any background, should entertain this insane idea. Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people who live there.

“The Trump administration should be demanding that the Israeli government end its war of annihilation, not try to find new ways to help Netanyahu finish off the Palestinian people.”

Earlier today, CAIR sent a letter to all members of Congress saying it is “now or never” for elected officials to speak out against Israel’s clear genocidal plan to “flatten and occupy” Gaza and finish the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

CAIR also welcomed a Senate resolution signed by 28 senators that calls for the Trump administration to pursue an end to Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid and the war on Gaza.

Also today, CAIR urged the U.S. House Representatives to cosponsor and support H.Res. 409, a resolution introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) recognizing the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba and affirming the rights of Palestinian refugees.

Israel has slaughtered more than 53,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children.

Yesterday, CAIR condemned the Israeli slaughter of more than 100 Palestinians on the day marking the 77th anniversary of the Nakba (May 15), during which Israeli forces carried out the ethnic cleansing of most of Palestine in 1948.

CAIR’s condemnation comes as Human Rights Watch said today that Israel’s total blockade of Gaza, in place since March 2, has become “a tool of extermination.”

Earlier this week, CAIR condemned the Israeli government’s escalating slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 22 children, as a “transparent attempt to sabotage” the Trump administration’s recent push to restart ceasefire negotiations and pursue an end to other regional conflicts.

CAIR also condemned the latest Israeli deadly bombings of Gaza hospitals as indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu says half of Gazans will be ethnically cleansed and there is “no way” Israel will halt its genocide in Gaza, even if a ceasefire is achieved.

Washington, D.C., based CAIR called on the Trump administration to drop U.S.-Israeli efforts to force starving Palestinians in Gaza into de facto concentration camps surrounded by the Israeli military in order to receive food and other humanitarian aid after the release of a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IFSPC) stating that Gaza’s entire population is at imminent risk of famine.

CAIR also condemned the “systematic abuse and torture” that Gaza detainees face in Israeli prisons as outlined in a report released today. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) report says that abuse is “an integral component of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.”

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.

16 May 2025

Source: cair.com