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By Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO)

The Jammu & Kashmir Home Department has banned the publication of 25 books on Kashmir, including those by notable authors such as Arundhati Roy, Sumantra Bose and A G Noorani. A notification issued by the Principal Secretary of the Home Department, Chandraker Bharti, by order of Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha, said: “…it has come to the notice of the Government, that certain literature propagates false narrative and secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir… This literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by promoting (a) culture of grievance, victimhood and terrorist heroism. … Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalization of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalization, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc.”  As per the notification, these 25 books were “found to excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India, thereby, attracting the provisions of Sections 152, 196 & 197 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023” (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/arundhati-roy-noorani-jk-bans-publication-25-books-kashmir-propagating-secessionism-10174625/)

A look into the list of books (provided at the end of this Press Release), which are academical outputs, historical accounts, journalistic descriptions or political commentaries, shows that these books include widely acclaimed The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012 by noted constitutional expert, A. G. Noorani, Kashmir in Conflict – India, Pakistan and the Unending War by the British author and historian Victoria Schofield, Kashmir at the Crossroads and Contested Landsby eminent scholar, Prof. Sumantra Bose from the London School of Economics, Azadi by Booker Prize winner and public intellectual, Arundhati Roy., A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 by journalist Anuradha Bhasin. According to the notification, these books need to be declared as ‘forfeited’ as per the provisions of Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita  2023.

The timing of this notification also deserves mention. On the 5^th of August, 2019, the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir was removed, and the constitutional provision, enshrined in the now-abrogated Article 370, was trampled by the present government.  Since then, there has been a seething anger and a burning desire of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to reclaim statehood. Voicing this aspiration, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on the sixth anniversary of the August 2019 parliamentary decree,  wrote in a letter to all national parties, including the BJP,  “Restoration of Statehood is not a concession to J&K but a course correction that the very idea of India is undermined if the Statehood which is foundational and constitutional right is reduced to the discretionary favour of the central government,” Mr. Abdullah wrote in the letter. “ (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jammu-and-kashmir/omar-seeks-restoration-of-jks-statehood-calls-for-course-correction/article69901157.ece). The banning of the books should also be seen against this backdrop of a popular sentiment.

CDRO observes with alarm that this attempt is to stop the reading of widely acclaimed books. We, at CDRO, firmly believe that this is not just an attempt to prevent some specific books from being discussed. These are brazen attempts to curb opinions which are critical of the present regimen and prevent the public to learn multidimensional aspects of political discourses and becoming an informed, rational citizen. Thus, behind this authoritarian step lies the fascist’s desire to control every opinion through the choking of democratic voices.

We note with concern that the bare fangs of fascism are becoming more conspicuous and ready to impose itself on the public, democratic institutions, and the population. CDRO feels that it is high time to stand united against all such onslaughts.  Hence, the CDRO demands an immediate withdrawal of this anti-people notification. It urges all democratic-minded people and, in particular, the authors, journalists and other media personalities, to stand united against the notification and express public solidarity with the authors whose books have been listed. Let us all unite and show our protest through public defiance of the notification.

(Asish Gupta)                                  (Tapas Chakraborty)                    (Kranthi Chaitanya)

Coordinators, CDRO

Constituent Organisations of CDRO:

Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR, Punjab); Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR, Haryana), Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR, West Bengal); Asansol Civil Rights Association(West Bengal); Bandi Mukti Committee(West Bengal); Civil Liberties Committee (Andhra Pradesh); Civil Liberties Committee (Telangana); Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (Maharashtra); Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR TamilNadu); Coordination for Human Rights (Manipur); Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (Assam); Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights; Peoples’Committee for Human Rights (Jammu and Kashmir); Peoples Democratic Forum(Karnataka); Jharkhand Council for Democratic Rights (Jharkhand); Peoples Union for Civil Rights (Haryana), Campaign for Peace & Democracy in Manipur, Delhi; Janakeeya Manushyaavakasha Prasthanam, Kerala.

The list of Books banned by the recent notification are:

1. Human Rights Violations in Kashmir – Piotr Balcerowicz and Agnieszka Kuszewska

2. Kashmiris Fight for Freedom – Mohd Yusuf Saraf
3. Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building under Indian occupation – Hafsa Kanjwal 
4. Kashmir Politics and Plebiscite – Abdul Jabbar Gockhami
5. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? – by Essar Batool, Ifrah Butt, Munaza Rashid, Natasha Rather, Samreen Mushtaq
6. Mujahid ki Azan – Imam Hasan Al-Bana Shaheed 
7. Al Jihadul fil Islam – Abul A’la al-Maududi
8. Independent Kashmir – Christopher Snedden
9. Resisting Occupation in Kashmir – Haley Duschinski, Mona Bhat, Ather Zia and Cynthia Mahmood
10. Between Democracy & Nation: Gender and Militarisation in Kashmir – Seema Kazi
11. Contested Lands – Sumantra Bose
12. In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir – David Devadas
13. Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War – Victoria Schofield
14. The Kashmir Dispute: 1947-2012 – A.G. Noorani
15. Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict – Sumantra Bose
16. A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir after Article 370 – Anuradha Bhasin
17. Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation & Women’s Activism in Kashmir – by Ather Zia
18. Confronting Terrorism – Maroof Raza (Editor)
19. Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of belonging along Kashmiri Frontier – Radhika Gupta
20. Kashmir: The Case for Freedom – Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhatt, Angana P Chatterji, Habbah Khatun, Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy
21. Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction – Arundhati Roy
22. USA and Kashmir – Shamshad Shan
23. Law & Conflict Resolution in Kashmir- Piotr Balcerowicz and Agnieszka Kuszewska
24. Tarikh-i-Siyasat Kashmir – Afaq
25. Kashmir & the future of South Asia – Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal (Editors)

10 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 100 Palestinian children and infants have died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, as Israel continues to block aid, including food, medicine, and fuel, from entering the enclave for five months. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday that the total number of hunger-related deaths is 217.

In a statement, the Ministry said at least 217 have died from malnutrition and hunger since the start of the Israeli genocide in Ocotber 2023. Among them are 100 children and infants.

What We Know

UNICEF has warned that Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food.

Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, warned that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.

Health officials in Gaza issued a stark warning lately: Hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are on the verge of death, their bodies too weak to resist any longer.

The Director of Al-Shifa Hospital said hospitals are dealing with hundreds suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition. “We don’t have enough beds or medicine,” he said. “We’re seeing symptoms like memory loss, exhaustion, and collapse from extreme hunger.” He added: “We have 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a generation being starved to death.”

According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, over 650,000 children under the age of five face an imminent and severe risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, out of a total of 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip.

Currently, around 1.25 million people in Gaza are living under catastrophic hunger conditions, while 96% of the population is suffering from severe levels of food insecurity, including more than one million children, according to the Office.

UNRWA warned, “The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.”

Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”.

“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) two weeks ago, two out of three famine thresholds for food consumption have been breached across most of Gaza, with acute malnutrition levels in Gaza City confirming aid agencies’ repeated warnings.

“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC assessment maintained.

“The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

“It’s clearly a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens,” said Ross Smith, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergencies.

“This is not a warning, this is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” he told journalists in Geneva.

The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit “catastrophic” levels.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said: “Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.”

“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it.”

Is Humanitarian Aid Reaching Gaza?

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with human rights organizations accusing it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza.

Moreover, mass killings of aid seekers near and at GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces and American mercenaries. Testimonies and evidence from US mercenaries working with GHF, as well as from Gaza civilians, reveal that aid seekers are being directly and deliberately targeted, despite posing no threat.

Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.

According to the UN human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed while seeking food near or at the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”

514 were also killed by Israeli forces along the routes of food convoys, OHCHR added.

Human Rights Watch stated last week that Israel’s killing of aid seekers at GHF sites amounts to war crimes.

With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza, the Israeli military announced a “tactical pause” in military activity in some areas of Gaza which it claimed would make it easier to send in UN convoys. However, attacks and killings have been reported across most of the Strip.

A UN worker said the “last minute” aid windows may not be enough to treat malnourished children.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

Last week, the WFP said it is not getting the necessary volumes of humanitarian assistance into Gaza despite Israel claiming it issued new measures to enable more supplies to enter the enclave.

“We have not gotten the authorisation, the permission to move in the volumes that we’ve requested,” Smith said.

Smith said the disaster unfolding in Gaza is “unlike anything we have seen in this century”, adding that it was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.

On Sunday, the Gaza Government Media Office and aid groups confirmed that only 1,210 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Israel announced on July 27 that it would allow the entry of aid, an average of just 84 trucks per day. This represents just 14% of the estimated 4,800 trucks required to meet minimum humanitarian needs.

It added that Gaza requires at least 600 aid and fuel trucks daily to provide for the essential needs of its health, public service, and food sectors.

The Office noted: “We confirm that there are more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks currently parked at the Gaza Strip crossing gates, most of which belong to UN and international organizations and various entities.”

On Friday, the World Food Programme (WFP) called on Israel to allow at least 100 aid trucks per day into Gaza, noting that only 60 of its aid truck drivers have been vetted and approved by the Israeli military to date.

The 100 trucks per day the organisation called for is a fraction of the 600 per day other UN agencies and Gaza authorities have said are needed to meet the basic needs of residents in the Strip.

“Since July 27, 266 WFP trucks arriving at crossing points were turned back, 31 percent of which had initially been approved,” the agency’s latest report said.

“Convoy movements are frequently hampered by last-minute changes by Israeli authorities, and heavy insecurity due to military activities along convoy routes.”

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, also noted on Saturday that it has not been allowed to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food and medicine, for more than five months, depriving hungry and ailing Palestinians of what they need to survive.

“Engineering Starvation” in Gaza

Israel has deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Gaza Government Media Office said, as most of the aid trucks that entered Gaza were looted in a “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”.

“What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the Media Office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients.

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security has also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of targeting its staff “carrying out their duty of securing aid trucks distributed by international organisations, preventing them from reaching those in need safely”.

It also accused Israeli forces of sponsoring “networks of thieves and thugs to seize control of aid trucks, depriving more than two million citizens of safe access and perpetuating famine in the Strip”.

“This is a blatant attempt by the occupation to absolve itself of legal responsibility for using starvation as a weapon in times of war,” the Ministry said in a statement.

This strategy forces Palestinians to travel long distances for aid, putting themselves at great risk, the statement read, adding that this has led to the “destruction of some of the aid supplies due to stampede and overcrowding”.

“Meanwhile, the occupation directly targets them and commits massacres, killing dozens daily near the routes leading to the entry of aid.”

10 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Arun Mitra

Everyone by now knows the dreadful effects of the atomic bombs used by the US on human population at Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August 1945 respectively. Testimonies by the survivors, the Hibakusha and the reports by the Red Cross speak effectively of the catastrophe that occurred in these two places. Over two lakh people died. Number of people injured, rendered destitute, homeless and orphaned far exceeds this number.  Effect of radiations on the generations after that is still felt. That was the time of unprecedented humanitarian crises and agony never heard of before.   

Dr. Marcel Junod, the new head of the ICRC’s delegation in Japan was the first foreign doctor to reach Hiroshima on 8 September 1945, one month after the dropping of the atom bomb. He described that the center of the city was a sort of white patch, flattened and smooth like the palm of a hand. The medical care was in shambles and rudimentary with any medicines or equipment to support the medical care. Dr Junod noted the consequences of the bomb for Hiroshima’s medical corps; out of 300 doctors, 270 died or were injured; out of 1,780 nurses, 1,654 perished or were injured. He made an appeal for the bomb to be banned outright, just as poison gas was outlawed in the aftermath of the First World War. 

This catastrophe should have been a lesson for the world community to move forward for complete abolition of nuclear weapons from earth. On the contrary the number of nuclear weapons possessing countries increased with present number to be at nine. These include USA, Russia, Britain, France, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan and Israel. It is an irony that five of these are in Asia, which is relatively a deprived region.

In 2023 China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and US spent a combined $91.4 billion on their nuclear arms, which breaks down to $173,884 per minute, or $2,898  a second.  The United States’ share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together

It is now well proven through various studies that the nuclear weapons are a real threat to not only the human population but the whole flora & fauna on earth. A study on Climate Consequences of Regional Nuclear War has pointed out that even a limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan using 100 Hiroshima sized nuclear weapons would put over two billion people at risk of starvation and death. A nuclear exchange between the two major nuclear powers, the Russia and the USA could be end of modern civilisation built through thousands years of human labour.     

It is therefore imperative that nuclear weapons are abolished for good. On-going wars must stop. Nuclear weapon will not be used suddenly but conditions for their use are created by the pre-existing war conditions. Any further escalation between Russia and Ukraine as indicated by the NATO, EU and the decision of the US to supply long range missiles to Ukraine could lead to dangerous results. Continuing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the Zionist Israeli regime and its quest to increase the area under control to other parts of the Middle East could be dangerous in the long run. Recent war between Iran and Israel can be dangerous even now as the tension is not over. Tension between India and Pakistan and also China the three nuclear powered neighbours is to be seen with serious concern. On-going conflicts in parts of Africa add to their concerns for food and health. Trump;s rhetoric to take over Panama Canal, change the Gulf of Mexico, lust to control Green Land and also his desire to make Canada another state of the US is fraught with danger. 

Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Gutteres has said that ‘Humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation’. It is time now that all states must condemn the recent threats to use nuclear weapons, the increase and modernization of nuclear arsenals, and the increased role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines.   

To achieve the goal of nuclear abolition there is need to build strong anti- nuclear narrative. This would need a strong peace movement. The immediate post 2nd world war period saw emergence of such peace initiatives. Powerful public protests in 1980s led to several treaties like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the START which played a significant role in bringing down the number of nuclear weapons which was at its peak in 1985. Coordinated action by the global south is needed as was seen when the Non –aligned movement was active.  There is need to rejuvenate the NAM, SAARC. Promote Nuclear weapons Free Zones. The so called big power must accept the reality of multi polar world. The Trump administration should shed its plans for global dominance. Any increase in the economic inequalities around the globe will add to tensions and arms race. There is need to reject the thought that peace comes through military power. Peace education should be given from the very childhood child hood to save the future.

Dr Arun Mitra is a Practicing ENT Surgeon in Ludhiana, Punjab. 

8 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on July 27 describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged the ongoing Israeli war crimes.

The report accused Israel of committing genocide, a conclusion reached after a detailed analysis of the military campaign’s intent, the systematic destruction of civilian life, and the government-engineered famine. This finding is significant because it adds to the massive body of legal and testimonial evidence affirming the Palestinian position that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.

Moreover, the fact that B’Tselem is an Israeli organization is doubly important. It represents an insider’s indictment of the horrific massacres and the government-engineered famine in the Strip, directly challenging the baseless argument that accusing Israel of genocide is an act of antisemitism.

Western media were particularly interested in this report, despite the fact that numerous first-hand Palestinian reports and investigations are often ignored or downplayed. This double standard continues to feed into a chronic media problem in its perception of Palestine and Israel.

Claims by Palestinians of Israeli war crimes have historically been ignored by mainstream media or academia. Whether the Zionist militia’s massacre of Tantura in 1948, the actual number of Palestinians and Lebanese killed in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982, or the events resulting in the Jenin massacre in the West Bank in 2002, the media has frequently ignored the Palestinian account. It often gains a degree of validation only if it is backed by Israeli or Western voices.

The latest B’Tselem report is no exception. But another question must be asked: why did it take nearly two years for B’Tselem to reach such an obvious conclusion? Israeli rights groups, in particular, have far greater access to the conduct of the Israeli army, the statements of politicians, and Hebrew media coverage than any other entity. Such a conclusion, therefore, should have been reached in a matter of two months, not two years.

This kind of intentional delay has so far defined the position of many international institutions, organizations, and individuals whose moral authority would have helped Palestinians establish the facts of the genocide globally much earlier.

For example, despite the ICJ’s historic ruling on January 26, 2024, that determined that there are plausible grounds for South Africa’s accusation of Israel of committing genocide, the court is still unable, or unwilling, to produce a conclusive ruling. A definitive ruling would have been a significant pressure card on Israel to end its mass killing in Gaza. 

Instead, for now, the ICJ expects Israel to investigate itself, a most unrealistic expectation at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises his extremist ministers that Israel will encourage the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

The same indictment of intentional and politicized delays can be attributed to the International Criminal Court. While it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister on November 21, 2024, no concrete action has been taken. Instead, it is the Chief Prosecutor of the court, Karim Khan, who finds himself attacked by the US government and media for having the courage to follow through on the investigation.

Individuals, too, especially those who have been associated with ‘revolutionary’ politics, the likes of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, among others, have been reluctant to act. On March 22, 2024, Ocasio-Cortez refused to use the term genocide in Gaza, going as far as claiming that, while she saw an “unfolding genocide,” she was not yet ready to use the term herself.

Sanders, on the other hand, who has spoken out repeatedly and strongly against Netanyahu, describing him in an interview with CNN on July 31 as a “disgusting liar,” has had repeated moral lapses since the start of the war. When the term genocide was used by many, far less ‘radical’ politicians, Sanders doubled down during a lecture at a university in Ireland. He said that the word genocide “makes him queasy,” and he urged people to be “careful about it”.

These are not simply lost opportunities or instances of moral equivocation. They have had a profound and direct impact on Israel’s behavior. The timely intervention of governments, international institutions, high courts, media, and human rights groups would have fundamentally changed the dynamics of the war. Such collective pressure could have forced Israel and its allies to end the war, potentially saving thousands of lives.

Delays born of political calculation and fear of retribution have given Israel the critical space it needed to carry out its genocide. Israel is actively exploiting this lack of legal and moral clarity to persist in its mass slaughter of Palestinians.

This must change. The Palestinian perspective, their suffering, and their truths must be respected and honored without needing validation from Israeli or other sources. The Palestinian voice and their rights must be truly centered, not as an academic cliché or political jargon, but as an undeniable, everyday reality.

As for those who have delayed their verdict regarding the Israeli genocide, no rationale can possibly absolve them. They will be judged by history and by the desperate pleas of Gaza’s mothers and fathers, who tried and failed to save their children from the Israeli killing machine and the world’s collective silence or inaction.

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

8 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan on Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City. The plan involves displacing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many who had already been forced to flee northern Gaza, to camps in central Gaza.

Netanyahu had earlier said Israel intended to take over all of the Gaza Strip, but the plan only mentions Gaza City.

“The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Israel’s military claimed.

Reports in Israeli media say the plan initially focuses on taking full control of Gaza City, displacing its one million residents further south. Forces would also take control of refugee camps in central Gaza.

The Israeli security cabinet’s approval of an expansion of the war would includes more than one phase, according to CNN, citing an Israeli source.

The deadline for the first phase is October 7, according to the source. October 7, 2025, is the second anniversary of Israel’s war in Gaza.

A second source said that the plan calls for no aid distribution within Gaza City as a means of forcing Palestinians to flee.

The UN has warned that a complete military takeover would risk “catastrophic consequences” for Palestinian civilians and Israeli captives held in Gaza. The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said it would be “a huge mistake”.

The Israeli military currently takes control of about three-quarters of Gaza, and almost all of its 2.1 million citizens are now in the quarter of the territory that the military does not control.

The UN estimates some 87% of Gaza is either in militarised zones or under evacuation orders.

There are areas in central Gaza and along the Mediterranean coast that Israel does not occupy, according to the UN.

These include refugee camps, where much of Gaza’s population is now living after their homes were destroyed by Israel. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced by the war, many people several times over.

Top UN official Miroslav Jenča told the UN Security Council earlier this week that a plan to occupy Gaza would be against international law and was a “deeply alarming” prospect.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that taking over Gaza was “really up to Israel”.

“Where Should We Go? We’re Already Starving and Displaced”

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza have voiced outrage and fear in response to the announced plan.

Mohamed Shabaan, who was already displaced from his home in the Tuffah neighborhood, which was completely destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, called the plan a “disaster.”

“We’re already living in a disaster. We are starving and displaced. Where should we go next?” he told Quds News Network.

Shabaan added that people simply cannot endure being forcibly displaced over and over again.

“People have no money. They’re starving, their children are starving. Bombing is everywhere. We are tired and exhausted.”

Aya Naim, a displaced widow and mother of a two-year-old boy, said she has nowhere to go if the plan is implemented.”

“I have no money to buy a tent or flee with the little I have. My child is starving, and the situation is already deteriorating.”

She added, “We were displaced to the south last year. This is insane. I have no family except my child. I’m afraid for him. There is no safe place. No food. No water. No life.”

“Haven’t they had enough of killing and destroying?” she continued.

“There is nothing left to occupy. There is no Gaza left. Israel has already destroyed all of Gaza and squeezed all of it into the western part of Gaza City, and that’s all that’s left,” Houssam al-Kahlout said.

Global Outrage Erupts as Israel Announces Plan to Occupy Gaza City

On Thursday, Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, sparking widespread outrage and condemnation. The plan involves displacing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many who had already been forced to flee northern Gaza, to camps in central Gaza.

Netanyahu had earlier said Israel intended to take over all of the Gaza Strip, but the plan only mentions Gaza City.

“The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Israel’s military claimed.

Reports in Israeli media say the plan initially focuses on taking full control of Gaza City, displacing its one million residents further south. Forces would also take control of refugee camps in central Gaza.

The Israeli security cabinet’s approval of an expansion of the war would include more than one phase, according to CNN, citing an Israeli source.

The deadline for the first phase is October 7, according to the source. October 7, 2025, is the second anniversary of Israel’s war in Gaza.

A second source said that the plan calls for no aid distribution within Gaza City as a means of forcing Palestinians to flee.

The Israeli military currently takes control of about three-quarters of Gaza, and almost all of its 2.1 million citizens are now in the quarter of the territory that the military does not control.

The UN estimates some 87% of Gaza is either in militarised zones or under evacuation orders.

There are areas in central Gaza and along the Mediterranean coast that Israel does not occupy, according to the UN.

These include refugee camps, where much of Gaza’s population is now living after their homes were destroyed by Israel. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced by the war, many people several times over.

Here’s some reactions to the announced Gaza occupation plan:

Palestine

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Friday that Israel’s decision to occupy the Gaza Strip reveals the true nature of its war, “an unjustified campaign against Palestinian civilians.”

In a statement, the ministry condemned the Israeli Security Cabinet’s newly approved plan as a “dangerous and illegal escalation.”

“This decision reveals that the Israeli war was never defensive; it has always been a war of extermination and forced displacement against the people of Gaza,” the ministry said, warning of the “certain death” of civilians remaining in the strip.

“This development cannot be ignored,” the ministry said.

Hamas slammed the plan, saying “Netanyahu’s remarks represent a blatant reversal of the negotiation process and clearly expose the real reasons behind his withdrawal from the latest round of talks, despite us being close to reaching a final agreement.”

The Netanyahu plan “leaves no doubt that he aims to sacrifice the captives to serve his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda.”

Palestinians in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza have voiced outrage and fear in response to the announced plan.

Mohamed Shabaan, who was already displaced from his home in the Tuffah neighborhood, which was completely destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, called the plan a “disaster.”

“We’re already living in a disaster. We are starving and displaced. Where should we go next?” he told Quds News Network.

Shabaan added that people simply cannot endure being forcibly displaced over and over again.

“People have no money. They’re starving, their children are starving. Bombing is everywhere. We are tired and exhausted.”

Aya Naim, a displaced widow and mother of a two-year-old boy, said she has nowhere to go if the plan is implemented.”

“I have no money to buy a tent or flee with the little I have. My child is starving, and the situation is already deteriorating.”

She added, “We were displaced to the south last year. This is insane. I have no family except my child. I’m afraid for him. There is no safe place. No food. No water. No life.”

“Haven’t they had enough of killing and destroying?” she continued.

“There is nothing left to occupy. There is no Gaza left. Israel has already destroyed all of Gaza and squeezed all of it into the western part of Gaza City, and that’s all that’s left,” Houssam al-Kahlout said.

Turkey

Turkey has condemned “in strongest terms Israel’s decision to expand military operation in Gaza, which constitutes a new phase of expansionist and genocidal policy.”

“Every step taken by the fundamentalist Netanyahu government to continue the genocide against the Palestinians and to expand the occupation deals a heavy blow to international peace and security, increases regional instability, and deepens the humanitarian crisis,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement.

UK

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Netanyahu to reconsider his plans to take over Gaza City and said the move would only bring more bloodshed.

“Every day the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and hostages taken by Hamas are being held in appalling and inhuman conditions. What we need is a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages by Hamas and a negotiated solution,” Starmer said.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said it was increasingly clear that Netanyahu’s goal was “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. He urged Starmer to cease all arms exports to Israel and sanction Netanyahu and his cabinet.

The energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh told Sky News the Israeli decision to take over Gaza City was wrong. “We think that it will risk escalating an already intolerable situation, and the consequence will be more bloodshed,” she said. “There’s no one that can see what is happening and unfolding in Gaza that isn’t horrified by it.

China

China expressed “serious concerns” on Friday over Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, urging it to “immediately cease its dangerous actions”.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a message.

UN

Israel’s “plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza strip must be immediately halted. It runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-State solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volket Türk said in a statement.

“On all evidence to date, this further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.”

Instead of intensifying this war, he said, Israel “should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza’s civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid. The hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released by Palestinian armed groups. Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel must also be immediately and unconditionally released.”

EU

Israel’s decision to extend its military operation in Gaza “must be reconsidered”, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

“Humanitarian aid must be given immediate and unhindered access to Gaza to deliver what is urgently needed on the ground.”

“A ceasefire is needed now,” she added.

Australia

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Israel “not to go down this path”, saying it will “only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.

She said permanent forced displacement was a violation of international law and repeated calls for a ceasefire and aid to flow unimpeded.

Australia’s Environment Minister Murray Watt had earlier also voiced his criticism, saying the government “strongly opposed the forced occupation of Gaza”.

Germany

Germany will suspend its arms exports to Israel which could be used in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in reaction to Israel’s plans.

“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.”

Historically, Germany has been one of the largest arms suppliers to Israel.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US was Israel’s largest supplier of military imports in the period between 2020-2024, with Germany the second largest.

Denmark

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called on Israel to “immediately reverse its decision to take control of Gaza.”

8 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Justice Markandey Katju

When I was a Judge in Allahabad High Court ( 1991-2004 ) I heard dozens of cases of Pakistanis who had come to India who on a short term ( usually one month ) visa, and were served deportation orders for deporting them to Pakistan, when their visas expired but they did not go back. They filed writ petitions against these orders, which came up before me. In all such cases I passed this order “ Until further orders the petitioner will not be deported from India “.

These Pakistanis were old people who had migrated from UP in India to Pakistan after Partition of 1947. When they migrated they were young people, who left India either because of religious feelings, or because of a sense of insecurity. They had left behind many relatives and friends in India, and now that they were old and passions had subsided they wanted to spend the evening of their lives in the place they had grown up in, and with their relatives and friends in India. The graves of their forefathers were here, and they wanted to be buried next to these graves when they died.

In view of the hostile relations between India and Pakistan it is difficult for Pakistanis to get an Indian visa ( after the recent Indo-Pak hostilities they have been stopped altogether ). And even when granted, it was usually for a very short term of about one month, and with all kinds of restrictions e.g. that one can visit only one city, report to the nearest police station every week, etc.

So these petitioners who appeared before me had come on one month visas for visiting some city in UP like Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Benares, etc. When that one month period was over, and still they did not leave, they were served deportation orders, which they challenged.

As I mentioned above, I stayed all such deportation notices till further orders.

Now the Allahabad High Court has a heavy pendency of cases ( about 10 lacs or 1 million ). Consequently, a case heard on a certain day usually comes up for the next hearing after 4-5 years. So the result of my orders in these cases was that by judicial orders I converted one month visas into 4-5 years visas. Why did I do this ? Now that the matter is old I can reveal the real reason.

I regard, and have always regarded, India and Pakistan as one country. I regard Partition of 1947 as a a British swindle, and I believe that one day Pakistan will reunite with India, from which it has only been temporarily and artificially separated. We share the same culture, look like each other, and were one since Mughal times.

So I regard all Pakistanis as Indians. And therefore I regarded these petitioners as Indians. So how can an Indian be deported from India ?

Of course I did not say this in my orders, but this was the real reason.

The great Urdu poet Munawwar Rana has written a long poem called ‘Muhajirnama’ about the anguish and nostalgia of many muhajirs who had migrated from India to Pakistan at the time of partition, and who remember the land where they were born and grew up. In particular, I remember the lines in that poem relating to my home town Allahabad ( where I lived for 58 out of my 77 years ) :

“ Gale milti hui nadiyaan, gale milte hue mausam

  Allahabad ka kaisa nazaara chhod aaye hain

  Kal ek amrood waale se kehna pad gaya mujhko

  Jahaan se aaye hain is phal ki bagiya chhod aaye hain

  Kuch der tak to woh takta raha mujhe, phir bola

  Woh sangam ka ilaaqa chhut gaya, ya chhod aaye hain ?

  Abhi hum sonch mein gum the ki usse kya kaha jaaye

  Hamaare aansuon ne raaz khola chhod aaye hain “

I also remember the lines relating to Lucknow, where I was born :

“ Moharram mein hamaara Lucknow Iran lagta tha

  Madad maula Husainabad rota chhod aaye hain “

Or these lines :

 “ Bhateejee ab saleeqe se dupatta odhti hogi

   Wahi jisko jhoole mein humakta chhod aaye hain “

It must have been these feelings which made these petitioners stay over after expiry of their one month visa.

Why do I say that India and Pakistan ( and Bangladesh ) are really one country ?  Because we share the same culture. Why do I say that we share the same culture  ? 

Because culture is largely based on language, not on religion. In large parts of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh a common language Hindustani ( called Hindi in India, and Urdu in Pakistan ) is spoken, if not as a first language then as a second language. That is what unites us. I speak to many Pakistani friends on whatsapp in Hindustani.

We were one for 500 years since the time of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, whom I call the real Father of the Indian subcontinent, not Gandhi and Jinnah, who were really British agents

What is Pakistan  ? It is Punjab, Sind, Balochistan and KP. These were all part of India since the time of Moghul Emperor Akbar. 

Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis living abroad socialise and intermingle as if no Partition ever took place, 

Partition in 1947 was a British swindle, based on the bogus two nation theory, using Gandhi and Jinnah as their main agents. It was the biggest tragedy of India in our 5000 year old known history. 

It is high time Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis know the truth. Unless we reunite we will never be able transform our subcontinent into a modern industrial giant ( for which we have all the potential with our huge pool of bright engineers, scientists and immense natural resources ), which transformation alone can abolish the curses which have plagued us for centuries–massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in our subcontinent is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for ourmasses, etc but will waste our precious resources in hostility with each other.

Of late, a great change has come about in the mindsets of a large number of Pakistanis. Let me explain.

I am a well wisher of Pakistanis, and want them to have decent and prosperous lives. I have often said that 95% Pakistanis are good people, just as 95% Indians are good people, 95% Hindus are good people, just as 95% Muslims are good people.

At the same time, I have consistently and repeatedly said that Partition of 1947 was a British swindle on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, and its purpose was to keep our people backward and semi-feudal, so that united India does not emerge as a modern industrial giant, like China ( for which it has all the potential ) and thus become a big rival to Western industry. I regard Pakistan ( and Bangladesh ) as part of India, with which it will inevitably reunite one day under a secular government, though that will take time.

Earlier when I used to say this, almost every Pakistani would respond by hurling the choicest abuses, invectives, vituperations, fulmination, and insults on me.

Today that is no longer so. I now see a sea change among a large number of Pakistanis, who do not feel offended when I say this. I talk with a lot of Pakistanis on whatsapp, and many now agree with me. How has this metamorphosis come about ?

I attribute it to three reasons.

(1) Truth has great power ( satya mein badi shakti hoti hai ). As Victor Hugo said ” There is one thing more powerful than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come ”. The idea that India and Pakistan ( and Bangladesh ) are really one nation and are bound to reunite one day under a secular government, is an idea whose time has come.

When I first mooted the idea of reunification, many people scoffed at me, and said I was day dreaming. But the same was said of Mazzini when he put forward the idea of Italian unification ( Risorgimento ) something which was later achieved by Garibaldi and Cavour in 1861. German unification was achieved under Bismarck in 1871. 

Some people object that much water has flown after 1947, and hence reunification of India now is not feasible. But German reunification was achieved in 1990 after a separation of 45 years. Vietnam was reunited in 1975 after 30 years. China has still not given up its claim over Taiwan.

Others object that there is too much religious fanaticism, and so we cannot unite. But as I have pointed out in my article “The Truth about Pakistan” ( see online ), there was no communal fanaticism or bigotry before 1857 ( see also online ‘History in the service of Imperialism’ by BN Pande ). Before 1857 Hindus and Muslims used to live amicably like brothers and sisters, help each other, and participate in each others festivals. It was only after 1857 that the seeds of communalism were artificially injected into our body politic by the British policy of divide and rule, which led to Partition. So communalism is an artificially-created phenomenon, and can easily be suppressed by a strong secular government.

Of course, reunification will not be achieved easily or immediately. It will take time, maybe 15-20 years. The Western powers who divided us will not allow us to reunite easily, for they do not want another modern industrial giant like China as an industrial rival (one China has created enough headaches for them). But reunite we must if we wish to escape from poverty, hunger, etc.

The main problems of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the same — massive poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of healthcare and good education, etc. If we reunite, we can pool in our resources and overcome these problems in 15-20 years. We can save much of the billions of dollars we spend annually on purchasing arms abroad, and use it for our people’s welfare.
We were befooled by the British into thinking we are enemies, but how much longer must we remain befooled? How much longer must blood flow between us ?

After reunification, which in my opinion is bound to happen since we are really one nation, we must rapidly industrialise on a gigantic scale. That alone can solve our country’s huge socio-economic problems, and give our people a high standard of living and decent lives.

As stated above, when I expressed the above ideas many years ago, many people ( both in India and Pakistan ) ridiculed me and sneered and jeered at me, saying that I was the only one in the world holding such views. I replied that they should examine whether my ideas are correct or not, and not go by the fact that no one till now has ever expressed them. It often happens that one man alone is correct, and the rest of the world is wrong. 

I gave the example of Copernicus who in 1543 said that it is the earth which goes around the sun ( the heliocentric theory ) and not the sun which goes around the earth ( the geocentric theory ) of the Bible and the ancient Greek thinker Ptolemy ) which was believed by the whole world at that time. Today everyone agrees with Copernicus.

If there were no new ideas in the world there would be no progress. So the charge against me that I express novel ideas is  specious

(2) Abraham Lincoln said ” You can fool some people all the time, and all people for some time, but you cannot fool all people all the time ”.  We have been fooled enough for too long a time

(3) Historical experience shows that wisdom dawns on most people only when life becomes unbearable to them in the prevailing situation. 

Life for most Indians and Pakistanis has become unbearable because of the terrible socio-economic conditions now prevailing, with massive unemployment, skyrocketing prices of food and other essential commodities, highly inflated electricity bills, water shortage, etc. Without this situation, truth would never have dawned on Indians and Pakistanis. 

A great change has now come about in Pakistan. Pakistanis, who were earlier hostile to me, and pooh poohed and ridiculed my idea of Indian reunification, now realise I am their well wisher, and stand for the truth. I want them to have good lives, but they will never have them until and unless we undo the fraudulent Partition, and reunite under a secular government led by modern minded leaders determined to rapidly industrialize the country and raise the standard of living of the people, and give them decent lives. 

We have been befooled for 78 years since 1947. For how much longer must we remain befooled ? It is high time now to reunite. 

Some people ask what will be the practical steps for Indian reunification ? My answer  is : presently we have only to spread the idea that we must reunite, and for that I have created an organization called the Indian Reunification Association or IRA ( see online ). Later, when the idea of reunification is widespread ( as it is bound to be, since it is based on truth ), people will use their creativity and find out ways and means of peaceful and voluntary reunification.

Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of Indian Supreme Court

6 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The combined tariff of fifty percent on Indian exports to the United States imposed by President Donald Trump should not come as a surprise, despite India’s undefined and directionless strategic partnership with the U.S. Indian liberals and their right-wing counterparts had celebrated this so-called strategic partnership with the United States. However, from technological embargoes to trade barriers, this steep tariff reflects a historical continuity of anti-India foreign policy pursued by the U.S. America was never, is not, and likely will never be a true friend to a developed and sovereign India. It has consistently pursued various forms of strategic foreign policy aimed at undermining India’s strength and independence. American racial capitalism and its ruling elites are fundamentally opposed to the idea of an independent and developed India.

Even the much-touted food aid under U.S. Public Law 480 (PL-480)—ironically referred to as “American 420 food supply” by some—while it helped alleviate food shortages in India during the 1950s, was also strategically designed to undermine India’s food sovereignty. By initially dumping surplus American agricultural products, it aimed to create a dependency and eventually open up India as a market for U.S. food exports. India’s response, however, came through the establishment of a universal and integrated Public Distribution System (PDS). This system not only laid the foundation for the Green Revolution but also strengthened the country’s food sovereignty, particularly with the rise of Food Corporation of India (FCI) storehouses. It played a major role for the production, storage and consistent supply for food to poor and ensuring food security for all.  The PDS ensured a minimum support price for producers, incentivised foodgrain production, and guaranteed a steady food supply to consumers, thereby promoting long-term food security. This state-led intervention ultimately countered the U.S. strategy that sought to make India dependent on American agriculture and food corporations.

The 1991 New Economic Reform programs initiated by the Congress Party were further deepened by the BJP, weakening both agriculture and food security in India by revamping and targeting the Public Distribution System (PDS). The rural agrarian crisis that India is experiencing today is a direct outcome of these reform measures implemented by both the Congress and the BJP. The fifty percent tariff on Indian exports is a bullying tactic by the American ruling class, intended to pressure India into further liberalising its agricultural sector. This would open up the internal food market to American food corporations, thereby strengthening U.S. agriculture at the expense of India’s agrarian economy and the livelihoods of its farmers and agricultural workers. So, the opposition to this American strategy is therefore essential to safeguarding the interests of the Indian working people.

America ruling classes have consistently supported illiberal and reactionary forces in Asia to undermine anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist movements, ultimately weakening the foundations of democracy in the region. It has formed alliances with authoritarian and undemocratic regimes to protect and advance its own strategic interests. The current strategy of weakening India is not new; the United States has pursued similar policies since Indian independence. American foreign policy has long aimed to destabilise Asia by promoting conflicts between nations—India and Pakistan, India and China, and even India and Bangladesh. From manufacturing terrorism and destabilising Afghanistan to backing the Pakistani military—which has repeatedly dismantled democracy within Pakistan and fuelled terrorism and hostilities with India—these actions are rooted in American imperialism. The recent imposition of tariffs reflects America’s broader intent to contain the rise of India, China, and a peaceful, cooperative, and harmonious Asia.

The American alibi of justifying the imposition of higher tariff and criticising India’s friendship with Russia—particularly its purchase of Russian oil and military equipment—is a strategic move aimed at weakening India. This is despite the fact that the U.S. itself imported goods worth approximately US$3.27 billion from Russia in 2024. While preaching that India and other nations should stop purchasing Russian goods in the name of not funding the war in Ukraine, the U.S. continues to engage in trade with Russia when it suits its own interests.

In reality, India has opposed the conflict in uncertain terms and has consistently called for a diplomatic and peaceful resolution between Russia and Ukraine. However, the Yankee imperialists in Europe, led by the United States, seem intent on prolonging the war—not to defend Ukraine, but to weaken Russia and suppress civil liberties across Europe by invoking a perpetual “extraordinary situation” caused by the conflict. Ironically, President Donald Trump, who once promised to end the war during his election campaign, is now fuelling it further to revive America’s defence industry. The American ruling elite is dragging India into this project by pressuring it to purchase U.S. defence equipments. The imposition of higher tariffs on Indian exports is part of this arm-twisting strategy, aimed at disrupting the historic and time-tested Indo-Russian partnership, which Washington views as a threat to its global dominance.

Similarly, the United States is attempting to escalate the limited border conflict between India and China by promoting the idea of an “Asian NATO” under the guise of advancing the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). While presented as a strategy to contain China, this framework ultimately aims to control and constrain India as well. It is crucial to expose such American imperialist strategies, in which U.S. interests remain paramount in all strategic engagements and partnerships, often at the expense of regional peace, autonomy and sovereignty. India must recognize these tactics and consider bold steps—including reducing dependency on American trade and mobilising its own internal resources and diversifying its international trade—to safeguard its economic and military sovereignty, which is increasingly under threat from American geopolitical manoeuvring.

The fall of Soviet Union and weakening of Non Allied Movement (NAM) are two defining events that allows American imperialism to continue its unchecked hegemony which has destroyed stable countries, secular societies and viable economic systems in Middle East, Africa, Asia, Americas and Europe to protect US interests. The worldwide failure of capitalism and weakening of American imperialism makes American ruling elites to fall on their time tested strategy of fuelling global crisis by promoting regional conflicts, terrorism and economic warfare to reestablish itself as unchallenged global police. African, Asian, and Latin American countries are increasingly challenging American hegemony. In response, the United States is resorting to aggressive trade policies and tariff barriers to contain their economic rise. India must recognise and expose these regional strategies pursued by the U.S. while working to build anti-imperialist global alliances. Such alliances are essential not only to protect India’s own people and national interests but also to support freedom-loving, peace-seeking democratic populations across the world.

From agriculture, industry to technology, India has the capacity to mobilise its own internal resources, strengthen regional partnerships, and diversify its international business, trade and economic relations to recover from the strategic missteps and costs of aligning too closely with Yankee imperialism under the guise of a “strategic partnership.” Any compromise or surrender to American pressure will not only undermine India’s sovereignty and development but also weaken the broader global movement toward democratisation and multipolarity of world politics and economy. Therefore, India must stand firm and uphold its historic anti-imperialist legacy to protect and promote universal peace, justice, and harmony.

Bhabani Shankar Nayak is a political commentator

7 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jack Gilroy

Editor’s note: Gilroy and other activists spent weeks consulting with attorneys, finding plaintiffs for the suit and organizing demonstrations at the county jail before the flag came down.

The flag of Israel represents the greatest human rights disaster in modern history, yet has flown proudly at the Broome County Correctional Facility by order of Sheriff Akshar. His dedication to Trump’s unconstitutional actions has also made Broome County one of the leading penal camps for immigrants in New York State. 

For over 600 days the Israeli flag flew over our county jail. It was a flagrant display of a Sheriff knowingly engaging in a divisive, illegal act in violation of New York State Public Building Law.  

New York State Law forbids a foreign flag from flying over public property. The actual wording of the law states, “It shall not be lawful to display the flag or emblem of any foreign country upon any state, county or municipal building; provided, however, that whenever any foreigner shall become the guest of the United States, the state or any city, upon public proclamation by the governor or mayor of such city, the flag of the country of which such public guest shall be a citizen may be displayed upon such public buildings.”

Veterans For Peace notified Sheriff Akshar on July 29 that it would file a lawsuit if the Israeli flag was not taken down within 10 days. After 6 days he relented.

Now that the flag is down, Sheriff Akshar and county officials need to apologize to the general public. The leader of the institution that is supposed to uphold the law and claim their jail is a “correctional facility” has demonstrated the opposite by making a mockery of the law and  betraying the public trust. Sheriff Akshar, with the permission of the Broome County Legislature, has turned citizens’ property into a shameful display of acceptance of an Israeli-United States genocide in Gaza. 

The Sheriff, with Broome County officials standing by, has also made the Broome County jail a gulag, a black hole for immigrant workers wanting to be part of the “American Dream”.

Sheriff Akshar, the leading law enforcer in the county, has lost credibility by knowingly engaging in divisive, illegal conduct.  Given his partnership with ICE, an agency that willfully violates US Constitutional rights, Akshar has demonstrated his personal politics are more important than public service. He should be ashamed of his conduct and admonished for his actions. 

The first words of Sheriff Akshar in his media release following the removal of the Israeli flag showed the depth of his ignorance. 

The Sheriff said the attack of October 7, 2023 was “unprovoked”. He seems unaware that the people of Palestine have been murdered by the Israelis by the thousands for 77 years prior to October 7th, 2023. Palestinian homes have been bulldozed, their olive trees cut down, their land given to Israeli immigrant settlers, their children sent to prison for years for throwing rocks at Israeli tanks. Israe’s system of apartheid has tormented the people of Palestine for decades.  The “unprovoked” lie has been repeated over and over in the Western media. The Sheriff has been taught to believe as true the blatant lie of Israeli Zionists–and spread by “Christian” Zionists.

Sheriff Fred Akshar needs to apologize to the people of Broome for 600 plus days of flying the flag of unspeakable human rights violations, the slaughter of tens of thousands of people–all celebrated with the flag of Israel. 

Might does not make right.  Right makes might–the people of Broome County are right.

Jack Gilroy is a member of the Veterans For Peace Stu Naismith Chapter 90 and a Field Representative of VFP

6 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- A Palestinian child was tragically killed on Thursday when an airdropped aid box fell directly on him in southern Gaza. Several aid organizations have warned that airdrops in Gaza are inefficient and can kill starving civilians.

Saed Abu Younis was killed while trying to retrieve airdropped aid in Khan Younis, medical sources at the Nasser Hospital confirmed.

Days ago, a nurse was also killed after an aid box fell on him directly.

Aid groups criticise the strategy as inefficient and incapable of providing the level of food and other resources needed by Palestinians in Gaza.

The falling crates also present a risk of death or injury for Palestinians who cannot move out of their way in time.

In October 2024, Sami Mahmoud Ayyad, aged three, was killed when a parachute on an aid crate malfunctioned and fell on his tent in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

The World Food Programme chief Cindy McCain on Wednesday said the world cannot just continue to carry out food airdrops into Gaza given the scale of hunger because of Israel’s siege.

“We can’t airdrop our way out of an unfolding famine. Not in Gaza,” she wrote on X.

“500,000 people are starving TODAY. The only way to get food to them, at scale, is by land,” she added.

“We’re grateful for the support, but we can’t afford to wait—Gaza is out of food and out of time”.

7 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By John LaForge

This August 6 and 9 are the 80^th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 140,000 civilians at Hiroshima[1] was the effect of jolting the city with a 60-million-degree (Celsius) explosion (ten thousand degrees hotter than the surface of the sun)[2]. Richard Rhodes, in The Making of the Atomic Bomb, explained, “People exposed within half a mile of the Little Boy fireball were seared to bundles of smoking black char in a fraction of a second as their internal organs boiled away….”[3]

The use of the atomic bombs against population centers without warning was rationalized after-the-fact using expert propaganda in the February 1947 Harper’s magazine, which transformed the burning of vast numbers of children[4] into a positive good that “ended the war” and “saved lives, and which has since become gospel truth to generations. This in spite of the front-page New York Times story about Secretary of State James Byrnes August 29, 1945, with the headline: “Japan Beaten Before Atom Bomb, Byrnes Says, Citing Peace Bids.”[5]

The pretext of “saving lives” is now known to have been fabricated. Gen. (and later President) Dwight Eisenhower, who had been Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told Secretary of War Henry Stimson before the July 17, 1945 Potsdam Conference he opposed using the bomb because it “was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives,” according to his memoir Mandate for Change.[6] The general told Stimson, “…Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary….”

Broad declassification of wartime documents and personal diaries has made it possible to learn the facts. In one key example, Gar Alperovitz reports in The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb that the April 30, 1946 report by the Intelligence Group of the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division (“Use of Atomic Bomb on Japan”), first discovered in 1989, found “almost certainly that the Japanese would have capitulated upon the entry of Russia into the war…”[7] which occurred on August 8. Japan surrendered a week later.

Likewise, the authoritative U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey concluded in its official 1946 report “Japan’s Struggle to End the War”: “Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts…it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”[8]

Because the formerly secret documents show that the United States knew by the summer of 1945 that Japan was already defeated, the historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission J. Samuel Walker could report in the winter 1990 edition of the journal Diplomatic History, “The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan and to end the war within a relatively short time.”[9]

Many of the leaders who conducted the war have said the atomic bombings were needless. Winston Churchill wrote in his history of WWII, “It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the atomic bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell.”[10]

Adm. William Leahy, the wartime Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, wrote in I Was There, “The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”[11]

Gen. George Kenny, a commander in the Pacific theater, said in 1969, “I think we had the Japs licked anyhow. I think they would have quit probably within a week or so of when they did quit.”

Gen. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the Army Air Force, wrote in Global Mission (1949), “It always appeared to us that atomic bomb or no atomic bomb the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse.”

Adm. Noel Gayler, a commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, speaking in 1987 about the atomic bombings said, “The Japanese were essentially defeated.”[12]

Likewise, Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers wrote in Reader’s Digest, “Obviously …  the atomic bomb neither induced the emperor’s decision to surrender nor had any effect on the ultimate outcome of the war.”[13] And the renown Gen. Douglas MacArthur, said, “he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb.”[14]

Even more emphatic was Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay who, as head of the 21st Bomber Command, directed the devastating incendiary destruction of Japan’s 67 largest cities prior to August 1945.[15] LeMay said at a Sept. 20, 1945 press conference, “The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians entering and without the atomic bomb.” Asked, “Had they not surrendered because of the atomic bomb?” Gen. LeMay answered, “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.”[16]

Religious, political, and cultural leaders also spoke out contemporaneously against the massacres. On March 5, 1946, the Federal Council of Churches issued a statement signed by 22 prominent Protestant religious leaders titled “Atomic Warfare and the Christian Faith,” which said in part, “We are agreed that … the surprise bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are morally indefensible. They repeated in a ghastly form the indiscriminate slaughter of noncombatants that has become familiar during World War II. … Both bombings, moreover, must be judged to have been unnecessary for winning the war. ”[17]

James Martin Gillis, editor of the journal Catholic World also condemned the attacks, writing: “I here and now declare that I think the use of the atomic bomb, in the circumstances, was atrocious and abominable, and that civilized peoples should reprobate and anathematize the horrible deed.”[18]

Nuclear weapons are still protected by lies like “limited nuclear war,” “deterrence,” and “low-yield warhead.” This month’s anniversaries remind us to rebel against the lies, to demand that the United States apologize to Japanese and Korean survivors and their descendants for the war crimes; to push the U.S. to abandon its nuclear attack plans and preparations; and to finally stands-down and eliminate the crown jewels and poisoned foundation of all government waste, fraud, and abuse ⸺ nuclear weapons.

John LaForge, is Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and is co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States.

6 August 2025

Source: countercurrents.org