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By Bharat Dogra

Several persons whose commitment to peace and justice is well-established have argued that while the USA and its western allies were obviously wrong in taking several provocative actions against Russia, nevertheless Russia should have avoided the invasion of Ukraine.

These analysts agree that western steps such as constantly pushing NATO eastwards in breach of previous promises, assisting the 2014 coup in Ukraine, instigating and arming neo–Nazi groups to attack Russian language speaking citizens of Ukraine and accentuating such provocative actions in 2021-22 were wrong and provocative, but despite this Russia should not have attacked Ukraine, as this further damaged world peace, and instead Russia should have explored and adopted other policy options.

Now what could have been these other policy options? Unfortunately the analysts who have argued for this have been generally short of making specific suggestions that could have effectively protected essential Russian security interests as well. Nevertheless this question of alternative possibilities is an important one for world peace, and hence should be explored. Such discussion can be fruitful for suggesting alternative course of action in future conflict situations also.

One stand that can be taken is to just make a sweeping statement that in present day conditions of a very troubled world, no war or invasion is justified. This can be called a very noble statement, and if Mahatma Gandhi was in a leadership role he would have opted for this, regardless of consequences. But in a more practical world, this question should be posed in a somewhat different way—could Russia have protected its most essential and legitimate security interests without invading Ukraine, regardless of past and continuing provocations of USA/UK/NATO/Ukrainian neo-Nazis?

In order to increase these possibilities of addressing its essential concerns without even thinking of an invasion, Russia would have needed more favorable international conditions compared to what is the present day unfortunate reality.

Russia made repeated efforts in the past to draw wider attention to the various provocations and to the fact that certain red lines exist which should not be crossed in order to avoid wider and dangerous escalation. However these did not receive adequate attention, either from the involved governments, or from the UNO or even from the media.

If adequate attention had been given and remedial actions had been taken, then there would have been no need of any invasion and in probability there would have been no invasion.

However as provocative actions in breach of past promises were continuing, Russia faced the prospect that attacks on Russian speaking citizens would intensify further, Ukraine with its long border with Russia would become a NATO member and would remain in a condition of increasingly high hostility with Russia with highly destructive NATO weapons being placed here quite close to Moscow. The question is how long Russia should have just lived quietly with this, whether this would have been acceptable to the people of Russia and whether this would be in their best interests? The leaders of Russia are after all elected by their people to protect their interests and cannot segregate themselves from this responsibility.

All these factors should be considered while trying to get an honest answer to the question—was the invasion avoidable?

The Minsk Accords were the most discussed step to sort out the problems before these became too serious. However very senior western leaders have stated openly that through these accords they were just giving Ukraine adequate time to be better armed. Where does this leave Russia? Whom should it trust in its quest for protecting its interests?

So what we can say is that while the option of entirely avoiding invasion is certainly the most noble option for world peace, in order for this to become practical, effective and more likely, the international community, the UNO and media also need to improve significantly in their commitment to peace and justice to address serious problems and concerns at an early stage.

Without justifying the invasion in any way, it can be stated certainly that if some genuine concerns of Russia repeatedly voiced had been addressed at an early stage, the invasion is unlikely to have taken place.

So instead of the one-sided discourse on this issue which dominates western countries and demonizes Russia endlessly, there should be more discussion on how legitimate concerns of Russia were irrationally and arrogantly ignored by the west, leading to accentuation of problems, something which has been very convincingly argued by several western diplomats and experts as well.

This would be helped also by a more sympathetic assessment of what has been happening in Russia in recent years. Instead of only talking of autocracy or adverse news, for a change why not ask if Russia has achieved something positive. Many people will be surprised to see the UN data which tells us that for the latest year 2021 the child mortality rate was 5.1 in the Russian federation, while it was 6.2 in the USA. Hence Russia has been able to achieve a lower child mortality rate despite being confronted with very difficult conditions.

If we see this data for the period 2000-2021, then in the USA this declined from 8 in year 2000 to 6.2 in 2021, while in Russia this declined from 20 to 5.1, a very significant reduction. In the case of infant mortality (or mortality under 1 year of age per 1000 births), according to Macrotrends data, the infant mortality in Russia declined in a big way from 19 in 2000 to 4.8 in 2023, while during the same period infant mortality in the USA declined from 7.2 to 5.4, so that Russia which had been far behind the USA surged ahead of it.

In the case of maternal mortality rate or MMR (reported per 100,000 births), according to UN data, from year 2000 to 2020, this declined very significantly in Russia from 52 to 14, while that of the USA actually increased from 12 to 21. Thus during this period, according to UN data, Russia was recording a very big decline of 6.66% per year while the USA was recording not a decline, but instead an increase of 2.88% per year in maternal mortality rate.

According to Macrotrends data, from 2000 to 2017, the maternal mortality rate of the Russian Federation declined from 56 to 17, while this rate increased in the context of the USA from 12 to 19.

During 2000-2019 according to UN data the life-expectancy in the Russian Federation increased significantly from 65.3 years to 73.2 years. According to Macrotrends data, this increase was from 65.4 in 2000 to 72.98 in 2023.

The increase of income or GNI per capita in Russia during this period was very significant—from $1710 in year 2000 to $4450 in 2005 to $9980 in 2010 to $11,610 in 2021. On the contrary when the Russian economy was acting much under western influence earlier during year 1991 to year 2000, there was a huge decline from $3440 to $1710.

The literacy rate for the Russian federation is over 99% while that for the USA is lower.

The Human Development Index of Russia has improved from 720 in 2000 to 822 in 2021.

Thus as far as the welfare and progress of the people of the Russian Federation is concerned, the progress of Russia during the last two decades has been quite remarkable, although much more remains to be done for democracy and human rights, for environment protection and peace, for reducing inequalities in a big way and improving the overall development model.

Without ignoring the real problems, if a more sympathetic and informed understanding of Russia and its concerns is attempted by the people of western countries in particular, this would be helpful to reduce misunderstandings caused by irrational demonization, in turn paving the way for friendship and better understanding and ultimately for peace. As President John Kennedy had stated, trying to understand the perspective of your adversary improves the prospects of peace. In the present context if people of western countries have a better understanding of the genuine security concerns of the people of Russia as well as what they have been trying to achieve in the middle of many difficulties and hurdles, this will certainly contribute to better understanding.

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

25 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jean Shaoul

On Monday, just before the Knesset’s summer recess, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, of his right-wing Likud Party, ultra-religious parties and fascist parties based on settlers on the West Bank, rammed through the first in a series of laws aimed at curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court.

The bill passed 64-0 after the opposition boycotted the vote in protest and stormed out of the chamber chanting “shame.” There are 56 members in the various opposition parties, so Netanyahu’s bid for absolute power by ending judicial oversight of his government is based on a narrow majority.

The law, enacted as a Basic Law that is the nearest Israel has to a constitution, ends the Court’s power to strike down the decisions of elected officials on the grounds of “unreasonableness,” by granting the Knesset the power to overturn the Court’s ruling with a simple majority.

It will enable Netanyahu to reappoint his key ally, Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, as head of the Health and Interior Ministries, an action the Supreme Court overturned as being “unreasonable” due to Deri’s multiple convictions for fraud, bribery and tax evasion, as well as his pledge as part of a plea bargain not to seek public office again.

Even more importantly, the legislation will enable Netanyahu to press ahead with other dictatorial measures secure in the knowledge that the Court—the only state institution that is able to hold Israel’s single-chamber parliament to account and which his right-wing cabal does not control—will be unable to overturn them. It would also facilitate legal moves that would enable Netanyahu, currently on trial on corruption charges that could put him behind bars for years, to evade conviction or see his case dismissed.

Netanyahu’s fascistic coalition partners are openly bragging about their power to do whatever they like. They have long railed against the Court for its occasional restrictions on the settler outposts, deemed illegal even under Israeli law. Speaking to reporters after the bill became law, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a settler leader who heads the fascistic Jewish Power, said the passage of the law was “only the beginning” and that “There are many more laws we need to pass as part of the judicial overhaul.”

Netanyahu has pledged to defy international law and annex the West Bank, illegally occupied by Israel since the 1967 war with its Arab neighbours. This land seizure is in pursuit of his coalition’s twin aims of establishing a Jewish-supremacist state in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and increasing the power of the religious authorities over everyday life.

Far-right ministers have called for laws banning Arab parties from participating in elections and discriminating against Israel’s own Palestinian citizens, as well as gay and non-religious people, and enforcing gender separation in public places. Their next step is legislation granting the government greater power in appointing the judiciary.

Monday’s passage of the “reasonableness override” law took place in the face of the largest demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday that Israel has ever seen, a movement that Netanyahu says is endangering Israel’s democratic system.

Tens of thousands took part in a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in scorching heat to protest outside the Knesset on Saturday, while more than 100,000 people flocked to Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for the 29th consecutive week of demonstrations, and similar numbers took part in rallies in towns and cities across the country. Israel’s doctors went on a two-hour strike in protest, while tens of thousands of protesters shut down roads and infrastructure, sparking fears of violent confrontations between protesters and the government’s far-right supporters.

More than 10,000 army reservists—including hundreds of air force pilots, cyber warfare experts, and commanders of elite units upon which the IDF depends—have announced they will refuse to serve if the judicial coup goes ahead, saying they are unwilling to continue risking their lives for a government that is no longer democratic. Netanyahu has lambasted them for “crossing a red line” when Israel faces external threats and depends upon a reservist army. Security and defence officials have written to the government warning that this could have a significant impact on the air force and its operational readiness.

The unprecedented opposition to the Netanyahu government’s abandonment of bourgeois-democratic norms is fuelled as well by the widespread economic hardships produced by the soaring cost of living, including the sky-high cost of housing, as well as deepening concerns over failing public services, such as education, health and transport, and the increasing role of ultra-orthodox religious groups over everyday life. No less important are the deep fears that the US-NATO-led war in Ukraine against Russia will escalate into a far broader conflagration, even as the government stokes war against the Palestinians, Iran and its allies in the region.

It is expected that the Supreme Court will review the legislation and strike it down, leading to a constitutional showdown with the government and a broader political crisis that commentators fear could escalate into civil war.

The Movement for Quality Government argues that the law is unconstitutional, as “it fundamentally changes the basic structure of Israeli parliamentary democracy and the nature of the regime, while de facto abolishing the judiciary and seriously damaging the delicate fabric of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances in the State of Israel.” It has petitioned the Court to rule against the law, saying, “The government of destruction has raised its malicious hand against the State of Israel; now it’s the Supreme Court’s turn to step up and prevent this legislation.”

Mass rallies against the bill continued on Monday, with protesters blocking roads, to which the police responded by using water cannon to disperse them and arresting at least 20 people. Israel’s Medical Association has announced a 24-hour hospital strike for Tuesday.

The self-proclaimed opposition leaders, including former ministers, generals and security and intelligence officials, many of whom have served under Netanyahu, have pledged to continue the anti-government demonstrations and rallies. They have no fundamental policy differences with the government, but fear that Netanyahu is going too far in establishing a personalist dictatorship based on fascist and ultra-religious groups, which will destabilize the country politically and socially. Israel is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with enormous wealth accumulated by a handful of super-rich families, while most Israeli workers, Jewish and Arab alike, struggle to survive.

Like former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz, they are no less committed than Israel’s far-right government to the Zionist state and its oppression of the Palestinian people. They have drowned the mass rallies in a sea of Israeli flags and refused to make any appeal to Israel’s Palestinian citizens, much less to the Palestinians in the occupied territories, who have long suffered under Israel’s savage military repression and brazen vigilante and settler violence—all upheld by the Supreme Court and reinforced by the protest “leaders” when they were in office.

These opposition leaders sought to “negotiate” with Netanyahu—fruitlessly as it turned out–after he agreed to “pause” the legislation at the end of March in the face of the largest outpouring of popular opposition in Israel’s history, which included massive street protests and a full-scale walkout by large sections of the Israeli working class.

Lapid and Gantz duly fell in line and gave Netanyahu their full-throated support when he used the “pause” to mount a series of criminal provocations against the Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel has illegally occupied for 56 years. They also backed his military operations against Iran, Syria and Lebanon, whose aim was to deflect tensions outwards and create a sense of national unity.

Now Lapid has promised to petition the High Court against the new law, calling it an abuse of power, while urging military reservists to wait before pulling out of military service, saying, “Don’t stop serving, while we still don’t know the High Court of Justice’s ruling.”

The working class has the power to bring down Netanyahu’s far-right coalition through a general strike, which would have the support of the majority of the Israeli population. However, a major obstacle has been the corporatist Histadrut trade union federation that has from its establishment been committed to the Zionist project. It has refused to mobilise its members against the government, pushing frantically for some kind of “mediation” or compromise. The only time in the last seven months of mass weekly protests that Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David called a general strike was in response to Netanyahu’s sacking of his defence minister Yoav Gallant after Gallant had called on him to abandon the plan to neuter the judiciary because the political conflict over it was splitting the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Now Bar-David, who is coming under increasing pressure to call a strike, is preparing a token stoppage to allow his members to let off steam. He declared, “From this moment on any unilateral advancement of the reform will have grave consequences, up to and including a full strike” of workers’ unions throughout the country. No trust can be placed in this faithful servant of the Israeli bourgeoisie.

It poses the urgent necessity of breaking the stranglehold of the reactionary Zionist leadership of the protest movement and fighting to unite Arab and Jewish workers, along with workers internationally, in a common struggle to defend jobs, living standards and democratic rights, including those of the Palestinian people. This can only be done based on the programme and perspective of international socialism.

25 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ranjan Solomon

Despite having their home stolen and constantly facing dehumanization, the Sub Laban family remains unbreakable. This Palestinian family in Jerusalem set up an impromptu exhibition yesterday morning on top of the remains of their furniture, a powerful testament to the ongoing Nakba. We are in awe of their steadfastness and resilience.

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family constructed a living exhibition of the Nakba using pieces of furniture thrown to the street by the Israeli settlers who displaced them from their home in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City two weeks ago. Despite the challenges they face, the family courageously displayed their history and the injustice they have endured. In a distressing turn of events, Rafat Sub Laban, the son of Nora and Mustafa Sub Laban and one Israeli solidarity activist were arrested by Israeli occupation forces during this time. It is heart-wrenching to witness the relentless oppression and injustice faced by this family.

The forced eviction of the Sub Laban family from their home in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, where 68-year-old Nora, the mother, was born, is a grave injustice not only against her and her husband Mustafa (72) but also part of a long-standing effort to ethnically cleanse the Old City and Jerusalem as a whole, reflecting the ongoing Nakba across the country.

During the 1948 war, a significant portion of the al-Quds (Jerusalem) area was subjected to ethnic cleansing, including neighbourhoods in West Jerusalem like Talbiya, Qatamon, and Baq’a. The Palestinian inhabitants, including the Ghaith family, Nora Sub Laban’s parents, were forcibly displaced from their homes, which were subsequently destroyed, expropriated by the Israeli regime, or given to Jewish immigrants.

Many of the Nakba refugees sought refuge in East Jerusalem, which came under Jordanian rule. However, in 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, bringing these refugees under its rule. In a blatant violation of international law designed to protect civilians under occupation, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and has since been actively involved in Judaizing the city, essentially cleansing it of its Palestinian residents.

One example of this is the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law, allowing properties owned by Jews before 1948 to be returned to them through the Custodian General, despite the fact that Jews forced out of their homes during the 1948 war had already been compensated by the state, some by repossessing Palestinian homes. Comparing this law to the 1950 Absentee Property Law, which transferred all properties of uprooted Palestinians to state ownership, highlights a clear example of an apartheid regime, applying different legal systems to individuals of different ethno-nationalities.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem has been pursued gradually and piecemeal since 1967, utilizing a creative array of bureaucratic pretexts. However, recent developments indicate acceleration in this policy, with a sharp rise in house demolitions this year, accompanied by an increase in construction for Jews only. The Sub Laban family is just the latest victims of this unjust policy. Throughout their prolonged struggle, the Sub Laban family has welcomed hundreds of activists, supporters, and reporters into their home and even the walls of the house have become a statement of belonging and steadfastness, adorned with political art. Hours after their forced eviction, Jewish settlers have already entered the house, draping it with the flags of the colonialist regime. An elected member of the Jerusalem city council posted a photo of himself inside the house with the words: “Nakba now”.

In the face of this crushing abuse and dehumanization, the Sub Laban family shows us a glimpse of a different future, supported by Israeli, Palestinian, and other activists. While another house has fallen victim to insatiable colonialist greed, it has also given us hope for a potential future of connection instead of separation, partnership and solidarity instead of supremacism and uprooting. It is time for more of us to join the struggle for this future, envisioning a return to justice and freedom for all.

27 July 2023

By National Alliance of People’s Movements

23^rd July, 2023: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), along with over 3,200 + activists, academics, artists, retired bureaucrats and concerned citizens, many representing hundreds of movements and organizations from across the country issued a fervent and urgent Appeal to Madam Draupadi Murmu, Hon’ble President of India, seeking her immediate intervention, in the very grave circumstances of Manipur, requesting her to visit the state and assure justice to all the violated people, in particular the Kuki Zo women who have faced immense sexual, physical and mental violence.

Some of the signatories to the Appeal include Dr. Roop Rekha Verma, Medha Patkar, Harsh Mander, Prof. Virginius Xaxa, Ruth Manorama, Meena Kandasamy, Dr. Gabriele Dietrich, Prafulla Samantara, Elina Horo, SR Darapuri, Prof. Sandeep Pandey, Agnes Kharshiing, Holiram Terang, Prof. Rama Melkote, Jitendra Paswan, Ramarao Dora, Anant Phadke, Kalyani Menon Sen, Kavitha Kuruganti, Ulka Mahajan, Deepa Pawar, Diana, Tavers, Dr. Maroona Murmu, Nalini Nayak, Tshering Chopel Lepcha, Gautam Mody, Henri Tiphagne, Sugathakumari, Romita Reang, Madhu Bhushan, Steffi Lawbei, Manshi Asher, Aquila Khan, Priyanka Samy, Lalita Ramdas, Nandita Narain, Shaktiman Ghosh, Abhirami, Raina, Syed Ali Nadeem and many others.

The Appeal decried the role of the Central and State Government, which has not only failed to restore normalcy to the burning state since 3 months, but has infact been complicit in deepening ethnic tensions and enabling majoritarian violence, leading to gross human rights abuses. It called for a comprehensive and time-bound judicial inquiry to ensure due legal process and accountability of violators and authorities, not only in the ‘viral’ case of sexual violence and murders, but in hundreds of other cases, as admitted by the Chief Minister Mr. Biren Singh, himself. The signatories felt that given their colossal failure, the Union Home Minister and the Chief Minister of Manipur must be asked to immediately step down, owning moral and legal responsibility.

Amongst other things, the Appeal also urges the President to uphold the rights and safety of all vulnerable sections, especially the tribal women and ensure that there is no unconstitutional and unfair change in the list of Scheduled Tribes. The President has also been requested to hold back assent to regressive amendments to forest laws that would have far-reaching adverse impact on forest cover and forest-dwelling communities, in North-East and across India.

Issued by: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

24 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ramzy Baroud

[Along with other intellectuals, I was asked by a New Zealand solidarity group to share a few ideas on what meaningful solidarity with Palestine entails. This talk inspired the article below.]

It is a new era in Palestine.

This new era is taking shape before our very eyes, through the blood, tears and sacrifices of a brave generation that is fighting on two fronts – against the Israeli military occupation, on the one hand, and collaborating Palestinians masquerading as a ‘leadership’, on the other.

But how do we, in Palestine solidarity communities around the world, respond to the changes underway, to the new language and to the actual unity – wihdat al-Sahat – which are reanimating the Palestinian body politic?

First, I believe that we must insist on the centrality of the Palestinian voice to any solidarity action pertaining to Palestinian freedom anywhere.

Not any ‘Palestinian voice’ suffices, however; only voices that truly epitomize and capture the aspiration of the Palestinian people; voices that do not speak factional language or represent powerful classes with financial and other interests.

Second, solidarity groups, especially in the West, must know how and when, if at all, to engage with smear campaigns and fraudulent ‘dialogues’ on multi-faithism, racism and anti-Semitism.

This cannot be the centerpiece of conversations on Palestine or the solidarity movement. Numerous experiences in the past have taught us that allocating most of our energies to fight smear campaigns is a losing battle, which will ultimately have little impact on raising awareness of the struggle for justice in Palestine itself, or the championing of the Palestinian cause.

Indeed, the main task of solidarity is just that – solidarity, as in adopting and advocating moral positions with the hope of achieving future political shifts in support of oppressed and/or freedom-seeking peoples in Palestine and anywhere injustices may be found.

Third, we must remember that solidarity is not speaking on behalf of anyone; rather, it is the creation of spaces and platforms, and the navigation of margins that would allow others to represent their own struggles – while rendering and advocating these positions in one’s own local and national settings.

In other words, it is the localization of international struggles. It is doing our part to ensure our local representatives, regional/state parliaments and, ultimately, national governments shift their position from supporting Israeli apartheid in Palestine to adopting positions that are consistent, partly or wholly, with the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

How to achieve this differs from one political and social context to another. Local activists must assess their own surroundings and opportunities and make that decision for themselves.

Fourth, I believe that a foundational step in any successful advocacy campaign must always start with enlarging solidarity circles to include workers’ unions, student and religious groups and people from all walks of life and backgrounds to collectively serve as a strong base for effective political advocacy.

Fifth, for an organic and effective solidarity to flourish, activists must avoid playing the role of judges and should confine their position on the type of collective struggle or resistance chosen by the Palestinian people to that of mere personal position. In other words, solidarity cannot be pre-conditioned.

Frankly, this is more relevant in the West than in the Global South. Since the latter category has much in common with Palestinians in terms of shared anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles, they can guide Palestinians in terms of what works and what does not.

However, those in the West, many of whom are direct beneficiaries of colonialism, imperialism and apartheid, must simply take responsibility for that sordid past, by holding their governments accountable for the present. Past crimes cannot be undone, but their harmful impact can be challenged and, indeed, through concerted efforts, even reversed.

Sixth, we must be wary of self-seeking activism. There are those, even within the Palestine community, who try to use international solidarity for political gains, factional rivalry and the like.

To prevent this, solidarity groups must adhere to a certain degree of democratic process, to liberate our communities from the influence of individuals with personal agendas and to accentuate the role of the collective.

Indeed, all solidarity compasses must constantly and directly point to the collective struggle of the Palestinian people in Palestine, and Palestinian refugee communities anywhere else in the world.

Seventh, intersectionality is key. Intersectionality is a strategy and can be a winning strategy, if utilized correctly.

Of course, morality lies at the heart of intersectional solidarity, but we must be careful not to insist on imposing our unique moral values, which are driven by distinctive cultural, political, social, historical and even religious priorities and experiences, on everyone else if we truly want to create a global movement for Palestine.

For illustration, since identity politics was not as predominant in the past as it is today, past intersectional struggles for the liberation of many countries in the Global South – mostly among nations in the Global South – did not set pre-conditions that all these nations had to adhere, for example, to a social code that is acceptable by all.

Palestine must not be subjected to any kind of insistence on global conformity to a single set of ideas, ideologies or self-definitions.

The recent success of the BDS movement can be, in part, attributed to its appeal as a global movement advocating basic, universal human rights such as equality, freedom, justice and so on, for all Palestinians. It has done so while tailoring its messages and language to fit historical, political and even social frames of reference to many social and political settings.

And, finally, we are at the cusp of a major transition in Palestine; a new generation is trying to take the helm of the Palestinian cause. They have earned this right through their sacrifices, courage and unified action.

We must make the right choice of joining them, and abandon old, tired and cliched references to a bygone era of Oslo, peace process and all the rest.

It is time to listen to Palestinian voices and to voices that genuinely represent them, and support them through strategic mobilization, establishing of media alternatives, holding corporate media accountable and through direct political pressures.

This is how solidarity can translate well-intentioned, morally driven ideas into making a tangible difference on the ground.

All the creeks and streams of this success will eventually flow into a single, raging river, ultimately creating the paradigm shift that we have long fought for and desperately coveted.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

24 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Bryan Dyne

Saturday marked the 20th consecutive day of the hottest temperatures recorded in human history. Since July 3, the average global temperature (the temperature over Earth’s entire surface, averaged over 24 hours) has remained above the previous high of 16.92 degrees Celsius (62.46 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in August 2016, according to preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Several regional temperature records have been set concurrently. Greece, Italy and Spain have seen new record high temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 F). Temperatures in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, have reached 49 degrees Celsius (120 F) and Algeria has witnessed temperatures of 51 degrees Celsius (just under 124 F). Much of the Mediterranean region is 5 degrees Celsius (9 F) above normal.

In the United States, high temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona have stayed above 43 degrees Celsius (110 F) for 21 days and above 32 degrees Celsius (90 F) for the past 70 days. On parts of the US-Mexico border, where thousands of migrants are seeking refuge in the US each day, temperatures have soared to more than 50 degrees C (122 F). At least 167 Mexicans have died as a result of the heatwave in Mexico, and an unknown number of refugees have been left to die in the scorching desert as they are refused entry into the US by customs and immigration authorities.

The two major factors of the current global heatwave are the onset of El Niño, a semi-regular pattern that warms the Pacific Ocean, and the formation of four high-pressure regions known as heat domes, which simultaneously trap heat over a region and prevent cooler weather from moving in.

The simultaneous heatwaves across the world are a direct result of global warming. The uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide and methane, into Earth’s atmosphere by capitalist industry traps more and more energy from the Sun, increasing temperatures globally and causing weather extremes regionally. From longer and more intense heatwaves, wildfires and droughts, to more powerful hurricanes and, in contradictory fashion, to more frigid polar vortexes and torrential flooding.

The ongoing heatwave in South Asia that peaked in April and May serves as an example of the stark dangers of climate change. In the past, the severe heat that caused temperatures to reach above 50 degrees Celsius (120 F) in Thailand and which killed 13 people in a single day in India would have been characterized as a “once-in-200-years” event. Now, such events are 30 times more likely to occur each year as they were before global temperatures began to rise. And if temperatures continue to rise as they have, such heatwaves could occur in South Asia once every two years.

Heatwaves are among the deadliest extreme weather events. Tens of thousands of people worldwide die every year from dehydration and heatstroke. Extremely dry air can prevent sweat from forming on the skin, stopping one of the human body’s main mechanisms for cooling itself. Extreme humidity can prevent heat from properly radiating. And both are especially deadly for those who work in construction, agriculture and other essential outdoor jobs, where employers often do not provide adequate breaks, shade and water, all of which would eat into their profits, although these are absolutely vital for workers to stave off the many dangers caused by working in high temperatures.

And while the dangers of spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have been known for more than a century, the world’s capitalist governments have proven completely incapable of resolving the crisis. It is not that the various ruling elites are incapable of seeing the crisis—though, of course, there are the particularly right-wing climate-change deniers in every country—but that global warming, a fundamentally international problem, cannot be resolved within the framework of the existence of rival capitalist nation-states.

The recent visit by John Kerry, the US special climate envoy, to China to reopen climate talks between the two countries, is an expression of this contradiction. For three days last week, Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, amid one of the worst global heatwaves ever recorded, and yet were able to come away with no concrete results to deal with the crisis. Kerry was at best limited to calling the talks “productive.”

Productive toward what? These talks were the first between the two countries in a year, a delay resulting from Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022, when she was still Speaker of the House. That visit further undermined the “one-China” policy that had been acknowledged by the US until the Trump administration, and further encouraged Taiwanese separatism in an effort to goad China into a confrontational military response. To reinforce her ability to travel to Taiwan, which Chinese officials repeatedly warned they would “stop,” Pelosi was accompanied by a full US aircraft carrier battle group. The provocation risked inciting world war with a nuclear-armed power.

Since then, top US generals have been beating the war drums in the Pacific, with Air Force General Michael Minihan even asserting that the US will be at war with China over Taiwan by 2025. Under such conditions, any talk of US-China cooperation in the global climate crisis is entirely fanciful.

The discussions between Kerry and Xie addressed rival economic interests as well. The longstanding US position is that China must reduce its consumption of coal, which has powered much of China’s growth in recent decades. In contrast, China asserts that emission reduction targets should focus on cumulative historic emissions, which would especially target the greenhouse gas emissions of countries which industrialized earlier, in Europe and North America.

In other words, the main focus of the talks is not about fighting global warming by the two countries that emit the most greenhouse gases, but using the ongoing and accelerating climate crisis as another lever in geopolitical maneuvering which carries with it the danger of a US-China war instigated by Washington.

These objective contradictions are why no faith can be placed in agreements between the various capitalist powers, much less nationally based “Green New Deals” in the US or elsewhere. Global warming is a fundamentally international problem that requires the mobilization of the only fundamentally international social force, the working class. The solution is not merely scientific, but political: in overthrowing the social order—capitalism and the profit motive—that has created the vast ecological devastation humanity is now confronting, and replacing it with a higher society based on rational planning and a scientific restructuring of the world’s economy to meet human needs, on a socialist basis.

24 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ranjan Solomon

It is, perhaps, crucial to define two terminologies at the very outset that defines the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine-Israel.

‘Sumud’ – which implies ‘steadfast perseverance’ – is a Palestinian cultural value, ideological theme and political strategy that first emerged among the Palestinian people through the experience of oppression and resistance in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War.

By discrepancy, the ‘Nakba’ (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) which ‘Sumud’ seeks to confront through multiple forms of resistance, represents the Jewish intent of the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian Arabs.

Recapping the Israel-Palestine conflict

On the ‘Nakba’ of May 15, 1948, 750,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of Palestine’s Arab population, were forced to flee their homes to accommodate Israel’s creation.

Seventy-five years later, the number of Palestinian refugees is over eight million. These agonising figures make Palestinians the largest and oldest unsettled refugee population in the world.

Israel’s direct repression of Palestine began with the ‘Nakba’. Often referred to as the “original sin” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the refugee crisis is one of the core status questions that define the unsettled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The remaining issues include the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security and water rights, and Palestinian freedom of movement.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Partition Resolution 181 that would divide Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948. It was patently discriminatory. Palestinian-Arab leadership rejected the partition measures as unacceptable, given the inequality in the proposed population exchange and the transfer of one-third of Palestine, including its best agricultural land, to new Jewish arrivals.

The UN partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem internationalised. Israel proclaimed its independence and in the 1948 war that involved neighbouring Arab states, it expanded its territory of mandate Palestine to 77%, including the larger part of Jerusalem. Over half of the Palestinian Arab population fled or were expelled. Jordan and Egypt controlled the rest of the territory assigned by a UN resolution to the Arab state.

The Six-Day War in June 1967 was fought between Israel and the Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The war was decisively calamitous for Palestine and its neighbours. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly and Israel captured more territory that is still deemed occupied. Israel still does not show any intent to return the land occupied under hostilities. The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated to be at half a million.

A Security Council Resolution formulated the principles of a just and lasting peace, including an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict, an appropriate settlement of the refugee problem, and the termination of all claims, and of hostilities.

The 1973 Arab-Israeli War, called the Yom Kippur War/Ramadan War, the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.

The UN Security Council called for peace negotiations between the parties concerned. In the next year, the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence, sovereignty, and to return to their home.

It also established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and conferred on the Palestine Liberation Organisation the status of observer in the Assembly and in the UN conferences.

Meanwhile, Israel persists in ceaselessly grabbing Palestinian land. It has fought and won eight recognised wars with its neighbouring Arab states, including two major Palestinian Arab uprisings known as the First Intifada and the Second Intifada, (Intifada in Arabic means  ‘rebellion’) and a series of armed engagements in Palestinian territories.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War came the Palestinian Fedayeen (Fedayeen means someone who redeems himself by risking or sacrificing his life), when Palestinian militants engaged in insurgency (1950s-1960s) to which there was furious retaliation by the Israel Defence Forces.

Other uprisings included the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”), the first large-scale Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from 1987-1990. This Intifada was a robust display of the militancy and muscle of the Palestinian youth. It led to the Oslo Accords which held out a mirage of peace. The Oslo Accords lacked political construct, and therefore, collapsed. Its failure led to the Second Intifada (2000-2005), a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.

Later, multiple vigorous clashes occurred such as the three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008-2009. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings. The uninterrupted airstrikes, artillery shelling and ground operations resulted in the killing of 1,383 Palestinians, including 333 children and 114 women, and injured over 5,300 people.

Israel’s appetite for killings seemed unquenchable. By November 2012, it launched an operation in the Gaza Strip. Two years later, it launched yet another war in Gaza in response to the collapse of the American-sponsored peace talks, and attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government. This led to an increase in rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants.

In May that year, there were riots between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities. Hamas in Gaza sent military rockets into Israel, and Israel viciously retaliated.

Since the first five months of 2023, the number of people killed by the Israeli forces have tripled as compared to the figures in January and December 2022.

Amjad Mitri, a human rights lawyer, points out: “Millions of Palestinians worldwide live in forced diaspora and are cut off from their homeland by Israel’s colonial practices and policies. The Zionist movement and the army has displaced more than half of the Palestinian population and in turn created numerous laws, regulations, and military orders such as the Prevention of Infiltration Law and military orders to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes and properties.”

“Israel marks Palestinians who try to do so as “infiltrators”, and has deported or even shot at them on sight. Israel has created a privileged colonial status, which in all facets of life, including the political, social, and cultural levels, is superior to that of non-Jewish Palestinians. Whether this system is labeled as apartheid, colonial rule, or Zionist state ideology, it is a manifestation of control and domination of one people over another that leaves no room for alternative interpretation,” he added.

The Israeli mindset seeks to erase Palestinian identity and history and wipe Palestine off the map. Israel makes the fictitious claim that Palestinians and Palestine never existed; they were simply scattered groups of people living in the area before 1948.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, believes that the new generation of the dispossessed and displaced indigenous population will self-erase their heritage and sense of belonging to their land. Israel must obstruct them from making their claim that they have the right to return.

Palestinian resistance

The military power of Israel has failed to curb Palestinian resistance. Palestinians are convinced that the might of Israel’s colonialist-apartheid structure will, one day, crumble, due to its lack of moral legitimacy.

‘Sumud’ captures their resilience and fearlessness.

As mentioned earlier, ‘Sumud’ means collective determination and resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of ongoing challenges, including displacement, occupation, and discrimination. It encompasses maintaining their cultural identity, preserving land and property, upholding their rights, and sustaining a sense of community.

Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp located just south of Bethlehem in the West Bank, typifies ‘Sumud’. Established in 1949, after its inhabitants were dispossessed by marauding Zionist forces, the population fled seeking safety for their lives.

In 1948, these families originally came from 44 Palestinian towns and villages from the borders of today’s Israel. They established a camp in 1949 located along the main street in Bethlehem. The camp, originally built to serve 3,000 refugees, now has a population of roughly 15,000. It has strong civil society organisations whose resistance is vigorous.

As Palestinians commemorate the 75th anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ in 2023, Palestinian refugee camps like Dheisheh continue to be subjected to exclusion, an acute lack of basic services and unyielding marginalisation and habitual military assaults by Israeli forces.

Dheisheh has been the centre of constant Israeli raids, resulting in the loss of young lives. This year started with the killing of two teenagers by Israeli forces during military raids. They were aged 14 and 15, middle-school classmates and friends. They had something else in common: they both carried farewell letters in their pockets – they were prepared to die.

Many Palestinian teenagers carry farewell letters in their pockets. It is not a symbol of resignation; rather an assertion of the right to resistance against an illegal and racist colonisation of Palestinian lands. They know they may die anytime at the hands of a sharp shooter atop a building, or even a deliberate face-to-face murder by an armed soldier or Jewish settler.

In January this year, Israeli forces arrived at the Jerusalem-Hebron road that connects the north of Bethlehem to its south. Military vehicles stopped at the road, unloaded dozens of foot soldiers, armed and trained for army-to-army combat. As Israeli forces withdrew news began to flow from house to house that one of the youngsters was killed during the raid.

Adam Ayyad was only 15. In his pocket, his friends found a wrinkled notebook paper, with 11 lines of scribbled hand-written text. The letter read:

“I had many things that I dreamed of doing, but in our country, one cannot realise one’s dreams. I want to send my message to the entire world, I want all the people to wake up, and direct all your compasses towards the occupation.”

“Adam was a normal boy, playful and helpful to all people around him,” his mother mourned. He had wanted to continue his studies and become a lawyer.

Manaa, a 22-year-old young man, was killed in an earlier Israeli raid in December. According to Ayyad’s mother and aunt, the death of Omar Manaa impacted him so much that he began to spend hours on end by his tomb at the Dheisheh cemetery.

“We only thought that Adam was sad for his friend, but never thought at the beginning that he was entertaining the idea of death himself.”

He witnessed an occupation raid for the first time when he was five, and grew up seeing people in the camp and neighbourhood being arrested or killed.

Countless families welcome mourners into their house. The open-house ritual usually lasts for three days, but it had been a week since 14-year-old Amer Khmour was killed by Israeli soldiers during their last raid into Dheisheh, and mourners kept pouring into his family’s house.

Khmour didn’t talk a lot about politics, or about the situation in the camp, as he was mostly having fun with his friends, like all boys his age.

Colonialism

Israel’s stealth and occupying presence on Palestinian land, employing militaristic strategies rooted in colonial-racist ideologies, results in assaults targeting children and youngsters. It even targets the elderly who only ask for their right to liberation and dignity.

When Britain abandoned their mandate and handed it to the United Nations, it was clear that the US and Europe would choose sides and advocate for an uneven resolution in favour of Zionist demands, rather than addressing the concerns of Palestine.

Zionism is an ideology which shoves Palestinians to the margins of political space. It is aligned with the movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine during the 19th and 20th centuries. Its history and significance are a matter of contention.

The Balfour Declaration was the direct outcome of a sustained effort by the Zionist Organisation to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. It meant that Palestinians faced the prospect of being outnumbered by unlimited immigration, and of losing control of Palestine to the Zionist drive for sole sovereignty over a country that was then almost completely Arabic in population and culture.

In order to achieve justice, it’s imperative to put an end to the misrule of Occupied Palestinian territories, which are subjected to Israel’s racist laws, colonial practices, and an apartheid regime.

The two-state solution, as a means to end the Palestine-Israel conflict, appears to be no longer viable. By clinging to this impossible solution, the international community prolongs Palestinian agony.

With some 750,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem the principle of separation of the two communities is an absolute non-starter. Achieving lasting peace in Palestine-Israel requires an innovative solution, which must prioritise justice above all else.

Ranjan Solomon is a political commentator, writer, and human rights activist.

20 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Vijay Prashad

On Monday, June 17, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, announced, “The Black Sea agreements are no longer in effect.” This was a blunt statement to suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative that emerged out of intense negotiations in the hours after Russian forces entered Ukraine in February 2022. The Initiative went into effect on July 22, 2022, after Russian and Ukrainian officials signed it in Istanbul in the presence of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Guterres called the Initiative a “beacon of hope” for two reasons. First, it is remarkable to have an agreement of this kind between belligerents in an ongoing war. Second, Russia and Ukraine are major producers of wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed and rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil, as well as nitrogen, potassic, and phosphorus fertilizer, accounting for twelve percent of calories traded. Disruption of supply from Russia and Ukraine, it was felt by a range of international organizations, would have a catastrophic impact on world food markets and on hunger. As Western—largely U.S., UK, and European—sanctions increased against Russia, the feasibility of the deal began to diminish. It was suspended several times during the past year. In March 2023, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responding to the sanctions against Russian agriculture, said, “[The main] parameters provided for in the [grain] deal do not work.”

Financialization Leads to Hunger

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that his country regrets Russia’s “continued weaponization of food” since this “harms millions of vulnerable people around the world.” Indeed, the timing of the suspension could not be worse. A United Nations report, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023” (July 12, 2023), shows that one in ten people in the world struggles with hunger and that 3.1 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. But the report itself makes an interesting point: that the war in Ukraine has driven 23 million people into hunger, a number that pales in comparison to the other drivers of hunger—such as the impact of commercialized food markets and the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2011 report from World Development Movement called “Broken Markets: How Financial Market Regulation Can Help Prevent Another Global Food Crisis” showed that “financial speculators now dominate the [food] market, holding over 60 percent of some markets compared to 12 percent 15 years ago.”

The situation has since worsened. Dr. Sophie van Huellen, who studies financial speculation in food markets, pointed out in late 2022 that while there are indeed food shortages, “the current food crisis is a price crisis, rather than a supply crisis.” The end of the Black Sea Grain Initiative is indeed regrettable, but it is not the leading cause of hunger in the world. The leading cause—as even the European Economic and Social Committee agrees—is financial speculation in food markets.

Why Did Russia Suspend the Initiative?

To monitor the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the United Nations set up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul. It is staffed by representatives from Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Nations. On several occasions, the JCC had to deal with tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the shipments, such as when Ukraine attacked Russia’s Black Sea Fleet—some of whose vessels carried the grain—in Sevastopol, Crimea, in October 2022. Tensions remained over the initiative as Western sanctions against Russia tightened, making it difficult for Russia to export its own agricultural products into the world market.

Russia put three requirements on the table to the United Nations regarding its own agricultural system. First, the Russian government asked that the Russian Agricultural Bank—the premier credit and trade bank for Russian agriculture—be reconnected to the SWIFT system, from which it had been cut off by the European Union’s sixth package of sanctions in June 2022. A Turkish banker told TASS that there is the possibility that the European Union could “issue a general license to the Russian Agricultural Bank” and that the Bank “has the opportunity to use JP Morgan to conduct transactions in U.S. dollars” as long as the exporters being paid for were part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Second, from the first discussions about the Grain Initiative, Moscow put on the table its export of ammonia fertilizer from Russia both through the port of Odesa and of supplies held in Latvia and the Netherlands. A central part of the debate has been the reopening of the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline, the world’s longest ammonia pipeline. In July 2022, the UN and Russia signed an agreement that would facilitate the sale of Russian ammonia on the world market. The UN’s Guterres went to the Security Council to announce, “We are doing everything possible to… ease the serious fertilizer market crunch that is already affecting farming in West Africa and elsewhere. If the fertilizer market is not stabilized, next year could bring a food supply crisis. Simply put, the world may run out of food.” On June 8, 2023, Ukrainian forces blew up a section of the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline in Kharkiv, increasing the tension over this dispute. Other than the Black Sea ports, Russia has no other safe way to export its ammonia-based fertilizers.

Third, Russia’s agricultural sector faces challenges from a lack of ability to import machinery and spare parts, and Russian ships are not able to buy insurance or enter many foreign ports. Despite the “carve-outs” in Western sanctions for agriculture, sanctions on firms and individuals have debilitated Russia’s agricultural sector.

To counter Western sanctions, Russia placed restrictions on the export of fertilizer and agricultural products. These restrictions included the ban on the export of certain goods (such as temporary bans of wheat exports to the Eurasian Economic Union), the increase of licensing requirements (including for compound fertilizers, requirements set in place before the war), and the increase of export taxes. These Russian moves come alongside strategic direct sales to countries, such as India, which will re-export to other countries.

In late July, St. Petersburg will host the Second Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, where these topics will surely be front and center. Ahead of the summit, President Putin called South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa to inform him about the problems faced by Russia in exporting its food and fertilizers to the African continent. “The deal’s main goal,” he said of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was “to supply grain to countries in need, including those on the African continent, has not been implemented.”

It is likely that the Black Sea Grain Initiative will restart within the month. Earlier suspensions have not lasted longer than a few weeks. But this time, it is not clear if the West will give Russia any relief on its ability to export its own agricultural products. Certainly, the suspension will impact millions of people around the world who struggle with endemic hunger. Billions of others who are hungry because of financial speculation in food markets are not impacted directly by these developments.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter.

20 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Martin Kreickenbaum

On June 14, a fishing vessel carrying hundreds of refugees, the Adriana, sank off the Greek port city of Pylos. Roughly 600 people, including children, drowned. An investigation by German regional broadcaster NDR, the Guardian, the research agency Forensis and the Greek organization Solomon has now come to the clear conclusion that the Adriana was towed by the Greek coast guard towards Italian waters and then, when this was unsuccessful, capsized.

The search team spoke to 26 survivors, evaluated the available court records and examined the logbook entries of the ships involved. The Coast Guard ship 920 reached the Adriana, which had just received water, food and fuel from the tanker Faithful Warrior, on June 13 at 10:40 pm. Video footage shows that the completely overloaded Adriana was already listing dangerously by this point, and that an immediate rescue action should have been initiated.

The Adriana had been drifting for hours due to a broken compass and lack of fuel, propelled only by the current. But after the arrival of the Greek coast guard, she again moved at a steady speed towards Italy. Survivors report that the coast guard led them, claiming that an Italian coastguard ship was already waiting for them.

Around 1:40 am on the morning of June 14, the Adriana stopped, apparently the engine had failed again. Then it moved a few hundred meters to the east, which cannot be explained by wind or current. Eyewitnesses report that after the renewed engine damage, masked men from the Greek coast guard ship boarded the vessel and attached a rope to the bow of the Adriana.

It is fitting that the coast guard ship 920 had left Chania in Crete and, according to the logbook entry, had taken a four-member team of the KEA stationed in Chania on board. The KEA is a military unit that specializes in carrying out dangerous operations at sea.

The coast guard claims that the rope was attached to stabilize the Adriana. However, Stefan Krüger, an expert on ship safety, expressed strong doubts about this version to the NDR. “This kind of listing momentum, which you certainly bring on with such a tow, does not lead to the ship being stabilized.” Krüger rather believes “that the motivation was to tow the ship because the engine no longer worked.” Only a short time after the tow rope was attached, the Adriana capsized.

Two survivors, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of the Greek authorities, told the BBC about how the capsizing occurred. “They fixed a rope from the left. Everyone went to the right side of our boat to balance it out. The Greek ship quickly moved away and tipped our boat. They took it with them for a long time.”

Another survivor told the Guardian that Greek soldiers had attached the rope and the Adriana had been pulled for about 10 minutes. “I felt that they tried to push us out of the Greek water so that their responsibility ends.” Other survivors said the Adriana suddenly moved forward “like a rocket” even though the engine was not running.

The fact that the version of the Greek coast guard does not correspond to the actual course of events is also evidenced by the testimony of the survivors before the investigating judge, who is examining the sinking of the Adriana. According to this, the statements recorded and published by the coast guard were made under pressure and manipulated.

As the Guardian reports, the statements made by two survivors of different nationalities, according to the coast guard, surprisingly agree word for word: “We were on the boat that was old and rusty with too many people … That’s why it capsized and eventually sank.”

But under oath before the prosecutor, the same survivors days later blamed the Greek coast guard for the sinking. A survivor who told the coast guard in his testimony that the trawler capsized because of its age and overcrowding later testified, “When they boarded the boat (and I’m sorry to mention that), our boat sank. I think the reason was the towing by the Greek boat.”

Survivors told the BBC that they were intimidated by the coast guard. Whenever it was said that the Greek coast guard had caused the capsizing, they were told to shut up. “You have survived death! Stop talking about the incident! Don’t ask any more questions about it!” they were told.

Other incidents demonstrating that the Greek coast guard was never interested in rescuing the refugees have come to light. The European border protection agency Frontex also remained idle, although it was informed at an early stage that there was an urgent case for a naval rescue.

According to information from the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the boat was first sighted by Italian authorities at 6:51 a.m., according to an internal Frontex document. Frontex previously claimed to have only learned about the overloaded ship at 9:47 am through a reconnaissance drone. In fact, as early as 8:51 a.m., the sea rescue center in Rome alerted both Frontex and the control center in Piraeus, from where rescue operations of the Greek coast guard are controlled. The information also reportedly included the fact that two children had died on board the fish trawler.

Nevertheless, it took hours for the Greek coastguard ship 920 to leave Crete. It remains unclear why boats located much closer in Kalamata, Pylos or Patras were not alerted and sent. Speaking to the Guardian, a member of the Greek coast guard expressed his complete incomprehension that a rescue operation had not been initiated immediately: “It was a situation in which you send everything you have. The trawler was clearly in need of help.”

Clearly, however, the Greek authorities were more concerned with bringing on board members of the KEA stationed in Chania in order to remove the ship from Greek waters. An actual rescue operation was therefore not planned at any time.

The Greek coast guard has since confirmed that it was informed by Italian authorities at an early point. Greece’s newly appointed migration minister Dimitris Kairidis said in Brussels that “an independent judicial investigation” is underway. If someone is found guilty, “there will definitely be consequences.” “Until then, we should not jump to conclusions or bow to political pressure,” he added.

Frontex has initiated its own pro forma investigation of the sinking. But at the same time, the EU Commission continues to back the investigations of the Greek authorities. These, however, focus on the nine Egyptians arrested after the shipwreck, who allegedly steered the boat and distributed water and food.

The Egyptians are accused of belonging to a human smuggling ring and causing the capsizing of the ship. If convicted, they face life imprisonment. Survivors reported to the BBC that the Coast Guard forced them to refer to these nine as masterminds and people smugglers. “The Greek authorities detained them and wrongfully accused them of covering up their own crime,” one survivor said.

The sinking of Adriana, which killed more than 600 refugees, was evidently an act of mass murder, committed either deliberately or by failing to provide assistance, for which the EU is responsible.

20 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

 

By Dr Mahboob A Khawaja

The NATO summit at Vilnius, Lithuania ended without any tangible move for peacemaking. It was more a show of compelling solidarity to enlarge and sustain the conflicts between Russia, Ukraine and NATO professing to be peacemakers. Out of nowhere, the Wagner group offered some unexpected consolence to many Western protagonists of conflict but it dmeonstarted Russian leadership capacity to manage an unthinkable conflict situation with ingenuity and without much loss of political integrity. Perplexed American and NATO leaders were stunned and speechless how Russia could overcome a difficult internal crisis that they wished to destabilize Russia. In every age and time egoistic leaders have pushed humanity to wars and the dehumanization process ending from NOTHING to NOTHING. When would the morally and intellectually conscientious leaders learn from history that wars are not the solution to man-made conflicts. In a snap shot, beleaguered Ukraine and Russia are entaglend in a proxy war across many conflicting time zones encompassing loss of time, human lives, energies, economic devastation, destruction of earth and its systematic natural setting spilling over to loss of a sustainable future for the rest of mankind. Both sides implying military dictum to tackle differences of human thoughts, geo-political interests and priorities for future-making. Is it a perpetuated ignorance of pertinent facts of life or is it a deliberate surge to silence human wisdom for change and global harmony? When facts of life warrant a change, intelligent leaders take steps to bring change for the best of national interests.

There is a fearsome and ferocious flow of military actions and reactions causing tragic human causalities that could inundate all norms of morality and civilizations plunging us to timeless darkness.  Do the leaders know what they are doing or are they all delusional by nature?  We, the People of knowledge speak logically about the Nature of Things affecting lives and our hopes for future,  and we echo inspiration from the Divine Revelations – the truth and nothing but truth – the Qur’an, the Bible and Torah reveal similar narrative as a stern reminder:

“Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: I will create a vicegerent on earth. They said” Wilt Thou place therein one who will make michchief and shed blood; whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy Holy Name. God said: I know what ye not know.”   (The Qur’an: Chapter 2:30).

The emerging conflicts between the old cold war era enemies represent amassed collections of deep mistrust, hatred and temptation of historic disorder to victimize the rest of mankind. There is no leadership vision and workable plan on table to change the course of contemporary tragic events, massive deaths and destruction as morality and human intellect continued to decline for a navigational change – for an immediate ceasefire to imagine workable peace deal.

They All Manifest  Wrong Thinking for Wrong Reasons and Destroying Earth and Human Civilizations

A rational conflict analysis and search for peace involves listening and learning to divergent viewpoints and finding a common place of reasoning without agreeing or disagreeing to halt the animosities. This is effective communication and enlightened leadership traits. The mankind is fraught with sorrows and fear of unknown animosities and daily killings and displacement thinking process, a society – a nation no matter how normal claims to be, cannot function as normal beings to co-exist with their own self, the surroundings – in human culture and make any positive contributions to sustainable change and progress. The US, NATO, the EU, Russia and Ukraine are stuck in this seamless but vicious entanglement. Ironically, desperation could aggravate anyone to use tactical nuclear weapons unilaterally with global catastrophic consequences.

In all ages, people and nations claiming to be most powerful and transgressors manipulating the Earth and humanity were destroyed by the Laws of God – natural causes. Many empires and egoistic leaders went this natural route of meeting their ends. We, the conscientious people of the globe possess rational understanding of an equilibrium and balanced relationship between Man, Life and God-given living Universe in which we all reside. We, the People of knowledge wonder who else except God created life, the Earth and the living Universe floating in space well balanced and functional since time immemorial.

Who else other than God determined the Earth spinning of 1670 km per hour? Who else than God ordained it to orbit the sun at 107,000 km per hour?  And who else than God made it to spin at 28,437 km per hour at the equator? (https://www.newscientist.com/question/fastearthspin/#ixzz7C8p37S9X). Be aware that earth average distance to the Sun is about 93 million miles (105 million km); the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units and if the distance between the Earth-Sun and the Earth-moon were ever to change, there will be no sign of life, human civilizations or habitats left on Earth. You as human being as One Humanity has one origin –  why can’t we co-exist in peace and harmony? Do people ponder and realize how human beings are created by God and how societies flourish since time unknown to human consciousness?

It is God Who has created you from dust; Then from a sperm-drop,

Then from a leech-like clot; Then He does get you out (into the light)

As a child: then lets you (grow and) reach your age of full strength; then lets you become old,

Though of you there are, some who die before;

And lets you reach a Term appointed; in order that ye

May learn wisdom.       (Chapter 40: 67: The Qur’an)

We, the People aspire for Peace and Global Harmony but Leaders opt for Conflicts

If Russian, America and NATO leaders are honest, proactive and accountable to the global community, they urgently need proactive advisors of new ideas and creative strategic thinking to cope with multiple layers of political conflicts and humanitarian crises and to find peaceful and workable solutions away from the entrenched political box of the few global warmongers.

Recently, this author proposed a strategic framework of dialogue for peace to global leaders to resolve the conflict : Why Can’t Russia, NATO, the EU and Ukraine make Peace: https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2022/06/22/global-conflict-management-why-cant-russia-nato-the-eu-and-ukraine-make-peace.php

The challenging truth arising from the emerging conflicts and leadership failure call for new thinking and new people of ideas and ideals to reject the violent assumptions of militarization and egoistic triumphs by acts of genocidal plans . We, the People of globe ask the global conscientious leaders to avoid the upcoming epicenter of cataclysm and listen to voices of reason for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, stop acceleration of military confrontations between Russia, NATO, America, the EU and others. At the edge of reason, war is anti-human and it could lead to global catastrophic annihilation of human cultures and civilizations. There will be NOTHING left moving on Earth called civilized people.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations.

18 July 2023

Source: countercurrents.org