Archives: Articles

By Dr Marwan Asmar

The current talks between US officials and Hamas leaders in Qatar is certainly a deep wound for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who had long promised that he would finish off the Islamic organization in Gaza for good.

Indeed, it’s a double-wound for Netanyahu and his extremist government who had been under an illusion, perhaps a strong word to use, that US President Donald Trump would long share the Israeli extremist objectives of taking over Gaza, getting rid of its people en masse, and end Hamas rule in the 364-kilometer enclave.

Trump, especially over the past few weeks, had certainly given the Israelis that impression, especially when he blurted out at a devastating press conference with Netanyahu in the White House in early February 2025, that what he wants is to create a Middle East Riviera in Gaza that would include ‘voluntarily’ displacement of the 2.2 million Palestinians living there and swiftly end Hamas-rule. The president added what he wants to do is for the United States to take over Gaza and make it a top property front-beach development.

The whys, ifs, and hows didn’t matter whilst the details were left to be ironed out for later, while the focus zoomed on what was Trump saying which literally seemed to be straight off the top of his head as unrehearsed “blabber” non – certainly not members of the new administration – knew about as the new man in the White House dictated his shallow views and hearsay.

To Netanyahu it was music to his ears and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He just stood, smiled, glared and looked into the cameras pleased with his friend. To say the least however, he was gob-smacked and taken off-guard.

Trump’s bombshell announcement created an almost mass hysteria among the Palestinians, Arab world and internationally with people aghast, not knowing what to say, what to do and how to respond. Trump had then just announced the trampling on decades of international law – behest through the United Nations resolutions condemning Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and its heinous and vile military rule.

Enters Hamas in US thinking

However, Netanyahu’s smirk was soon wiped off when it became clear that Trump was offering him Dutch-courage support while directly talking to Hamas officials at the same time. The Israelis become livid, especially when they got to know about the on-going meetings through third parties and leaked sources.

Today, Netanyahu is in a state of a quandary. For the first time he is finding that the political strings and threads are no longer in his court anymore as was the case with the former administration and despite the fact Trump just unfroze the MK-84 2000-pound bombs to Israel which Joe Biden slammed on Israel in May 2024 and adding that the security of Israel remains his top priority.

But today Netanyahu has become deeply-troubled with what is being regarded as double-talk and double-dealing! The bombs supply were to be a palliative to what is being “cooked” behind closed doors.

In Trump, and through his team led by Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler, Netanyahu is finding out that the new republican president in the White House is not an easy man and despite the strong Israeli lobby in Washington he doesn’t necessarily mean what he says and he is always looking out for America as the No. 1 interest. It is high politics trickery designed to get things done.

For the first time in this 16-month war on Gaza which Israeli started after 7 October, 2023, Netanyahu is finding himself in a corner, no longer able to pay just lip-service to the multitude of talks held in Doha and Cairo over the months of 2024 and which led to nowhere but increased the destruction of Gaza and the killing of its people.

Although Trump maybe a very good friend to Israel – a claim registered in his earlier administration when he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, a first-ever move by a US president and openly-backed the continued occupation of the Golan Heights, the businessman-politician is not interested in wars and has moved immediately to stop the three-year-old Ukraine war with Russia and now is dilly-dallying with Gaza.

The current talks in Doha are aimed to extend the ceasefire to be executed in three stages reached on 19 January, just one day before Trump officially entered the White House.  While stage I has just ended, the Netanyahu government is foot-dragging, not wanting to move onto the second and third stage mainly because of ideological, domestic political reasons and his eminent threat of going to prison on corruption charges.

Netanyahu fears continuing the ceasefire deal would mean the end of his government that is controlled by extremists who want the war on Gaza to continue and have stated time and again that they would bring the government down if Netanyahu makes a deal that is less than re-occupying Gaza and stamping out Hamas which continues to be a fanciful dream.

Present talks

But the present US talks in Gaza with the Islamist organization that ruled the enclave since 2007, and under a tight Israeli siege that continues today, is creating a flurry of muted tense relations between Tel Aviv and Washington occasionally coming out in-the-open as was the case through a leaked phone call between Boehler, a new man in charge of the hostages file in the US administration and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close Netanyahu ally.

His protest was made recently by refusing to go with his Israeli team to join the latest bout of negotiations in Doha to kick-start the second stage of the ceasefire and release more hostages at their current number of 60  including one US-Israeli soldier and four American bodies that have been killed by Israeli bombardment and kept during Israel’s war on the enclave in the last months.

At the present time four meetings were held between American and Hamas officials with the last headed by chief of the movement Khalil al-Hayya. To say the least, Israel is irritated, angry, and dumbfounded and what is happening. Netanyahu is simply flabbergasted at Trump which he always regarded as a deep personal friend of him and Israel. He  and Dermer had impressed on the US administration not to take Hamas directly but it is clear the latter has not and is not heeding to the suggestion and going their own separate way.

Through different media sources and to the annoyance of the Israelis Boehler has stressed that talks so far has been “very helpful” and indicated that a resolution of the freeing of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza would be finalized in the next few weeks.

The world is watching to see how this intricate situation will unfold. The Trump administration is trying to play down their meetings with the Hamas leaders, but this is not working, especially as  Boehler keeps talking to the media about how constructive the talks are going and the fact that these Hamas leaders are “pretty nice guys,” and these “guys are just like us,” as he recently told CNN.

The next few weeks will show more. When he came to office, Trump said that if Hamas doesn’t surrender, he would turn Gaza into hell. Judging what is happening on the ground today such a comment is merely rhetorical.

Dr Marwan Asmar is an Amman based journalist
E-mail: marwan.asmar59@gmail.com

11 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Misinformation has circulated online, claiming that Israel supplies electricity to Gaza for free or as a humanitarian effort. In reality, the situation is entirely different.

Does Israel Provide Electricity to Gaza?

Before the Israeli genocide, which started in October 2023, Gaza used to buy about 120 megawatts of electricity from Israel each month. The Palestinian Authority (PA) paid approximately $11 million for this electricity, with Israel deducting the amount from Palestinian tax revenues it collects on the PA’s behalf. This supply came through ten power lines and covered about half of Gaza’s energy needs.

In October 2023, Israel cut off all power to Gaza as part of its genocide. This decision left nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents without electricity. By December 2024, Israel restored one power line to supply a desalination and wastewater treatment plant. This was done due to sanitation concerns and fears that worsening conditions could impact Israeli prisoners held in Gaza.

Doron Arbel, the head of the Israeli Electric Corporation, stated that there is currently no electrical line transmitting power from Israel to Gaza, and they do not maintain the electricity network there at all. “Most of the electricity provided in Gaza comes from rooftop solar panels or electrical generators,” he added.

He also mentioned that the power line supplying the water desalination plant in Gaza with Israeli electricity has been disconnected. This plant, the only one in Gaza that relied on Israeli electricity, had been operating and providing water since July. However, it has now stopped working.

Israel’s Contradictory Announcements

Despite already cutting off Gaza’s power, Israel announced in March 2025 that it would stop supplying electricity to the strip. Analysts believe this statement was meant for internal Israeli audiences, suggesting pressure on Hamas in negotiations.

Before Israel’s blockade, Gaza needed and used to pay for around 500 megawatts of electricity daily. Only 212 megawatts were available:

• 120 megawatts purchased from Israel.
• 32 megawatts purchased from Egypt.
• 60 megawatts generated by Gaza’s sole power plant.

Even with this limited supply, power cuts were common. Residents received electricity in eight-hour intervals, which dropped to six hours during peak summer and winter demand. Many relied on private generators, but Israel’s blockade of fuel has made that impossible since the war began.

Since October 2023, Israel has destroyed much of Gaza’s power grid. According to the spokesperson for the Gaza Electricity Company, Mohamed Thabet:

• 70% of distribution networks, totaling 3,680 kilometers, have been damaged, with losses exceeding $450 million.
• There have been 51 martyrs among the company’s staff and employees.
• 90% of the company’s storage facilities have been destroyed.
• 80% of its vehicles and equipment have been lost.
• No spare parts or equipment have been allowed in for repairs. Without urgent intervention, Gaza’s electricity crisis will continue to worsen.

Consequences of Power Cuts

The lack of electricity has led to severe humanitarian consequences:

Hospitals in Crisis: Medical centers rely on fuel-powered generators. Israel’s blockade of fuel has led to hospital shutdowns, increasing preventable deaths.

Water and Sanitation Breakdown: Without electricity, water pumps and desalination plants cannot operate, leaving residents without clean drinking water. Sewage treatment plants have also failed, causing wastewater to flood streets and spread diseases.

Food Shortages and Starvation: Bakeries cannot operate without power, worsening food shortages. Limited humanitarian aid and Israel’s continued blockade have pushed Gaza to famine.

School Closures: The lack of electricity has disrupted education. Schools remain closed or function at minimal capacity, impacting the future of Gaza’s children.

On January 19, 2025, a ceasefire agreement facilitated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States temporarily halted fighting. However, Israel has not fully honored the terms, leading to worsening humanitarian conditions.

Despite growing international pressure, Israel continues to block essential supplies, including electricity, water, and fuel. The situation remains dire, with no clear resolution in sight.

11 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Andre Damon

The Israeli government announced Sunday that it will completely shut off electricity into Gaza, following the blockade of all food and humanitarian supplies earlier this month.

The total blockade is aimed at implementing the plan, first proposed by far-right members of the Israeli government and later publicly adopted by the Trump administration, to ethnically cleanse Gaza by making the enclave unlivable, forcing its people to flee “voluntarily” in order to avoid starving to death.

When asked, “What does Israel’s government allow to get into Gaza so far?”, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric replied, “Nothing. I mean, there’s been no goods coming in. No trucks coming in.”

UN humanitarian coordinator Muhannad Hadi said:

The entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza has been halted for nine consecutive days. … International humanitarian law is clear: Civilians’ essential needs must be met, including through the unimpeded entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance.

“Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, adding that it is a “genocide alert.”

Since October 11, 2023, Gaza has experienced a complete electricity blackout after then-Energy Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli Electric Corporation to halt electricity supply. On November 14, 2024, the South Sea desalination plant became the only facility in Gaza to be reconnected to Israel’s power grid.

The plant, Gaza’s main water desalination facility, which provides the majority of the enclave’s drinkable water, has been operating at only 20 percent capacity on generator power. The plant will be completely shut down within 10 days if the blockade continues, a spokesperson for the Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility said Monday.

In December, Amnesty International reported that in several parts of Gaza, Palestinians had access to only 2 to 9 liters (a half gallon to less than 2.5 gallons) of water per person each day for both drinking and washing. This falls significantly below the 15-liter (almost 4 gallons) per person minimum required for basic survival.

Tania Hary, executive director of the Palestinian rights organization Gisha, said:

Cutting the electricity supply used for civilian purposes like desalinating water is not “using the tools at our disposal,” as Minister [Eli] Cohen says, it’s committing the crimes at Israel’s disposal.

As a result of the shutoff of electricity and fuel, Gaza’s food supply is just days away from total collapse.

Six out of 22 bakeries still in operation have been forced to close in recent days after running out of fuel, the head of Gaza’s bakers’ union told Reuters. “The remaining bakeries may close down in a week or so should they run out of diesel or flour,” he said.

As mass hunger stalks Gaza, people have been waiting in lines for hours for less than a day’s worth of food. “For every person, there’s only half a loaf of bread, half a pita bread. I leave home at 6:00 a.m. and return at 1:00 p.m. with just one loaf of bread,” 75-year-old Abu Essam Abu Sahloul, a Khan Younis resident, told Reuters.

Samah Sahloul, another resident of the city, told Reuters:

We used to have electricity to cook with, but now there’s no electricity, and there’s no firewood to bake in an oven. As for the children, how am I supposed to feed them?

Ghada al-Rakab, a mother of six living in a tent in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera:

What kind of life are we living? No electricity, no water. … What else is there left in life? May God take us and give us rest.

In a statement, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the cutoff of food and fuel “is clearly a weaponization of humanitarian aid.”

Amnesty International spokesperson Erika Guevara Rosas said:

Israel’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza’s main operational desalination plant, a week after it halted the entry of all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies, including fuel and food, violates international humanitarian law and is further evidence of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

She continued:

These inhumane and unlawful actions are a clear indication that Israel is continuing its policy of deliberately imposing on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction—an act prohibited under the Genocide Convention. They are also a reminder of the control Israel has as occupying power, allowing it to turn life-critical services on and off at any given point.

Seif Magango, spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office, told AFP that “blocking access to the necessities of life for civilians intended to pressure a party to an armed conflict through hardship imposed on the civilian population as a whole raises serious concerns of collective punishment.”

Even as it continues the total blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israel has only expanded its daily attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, despite a nominal “ceasefire.”

In a report published March 10, B’tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, accused Israel of carrying out the “Gazafication” of the West Bank. This includes mass arrests, severe movement restrictions, airstrikes and widespread destruction. From October 2023 to March 2025, airstrikes killed 261 people, a drastic rise from previous years. Mass displacement has forced thousands into makeshift camps.

The organization concluded:

Israel intends to use the shift in combat to establish irreversible facts on the ground: reshaping the West Bank to further its aspiration of permanently displacing some Palestinians and forcing others into living conditions that will eventually drive them to leave.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the Israeli government is creating an administration for the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. “We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said.

Endorsing Trump’s proposal for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Smotrich said that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”

He continued, “If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” adding, “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”

11 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Phil Pasquini

Located on busy M Street in tony Georgetown, the Tesla dealership was the scene of a weekly protest on March 8 as part of an ongoing worldwide #TeslaTakeDown campaign. Protesters demonstrated against the electric car company and its unelected CEO Elon Musk head of DOGE for the dismantling of the American government and for ongoing public displays of his Nazi sympathies.

While small in number, this Saturday’s #TeslaTakeDown protest was popular with passing motorists one of whom stopped in traffic on the busy street in front of the dealership and continuously blew his horn to the delight of the protesters and passersby and to the frustration to those caught in the traffic backup that resulted.

Both the driver and passenger of one Tesla that passed by attempted to cover their faces from the protesters as supporters and others stopped to take pictures of the protest along with selfies.

Signs being held aloft referred to Musk as a “menace” in denoting the DOGE looting of the Treasury, along with their “stealing of taxpayers’ personal and financial information and data.” The takeover of Social Security, and the firing of 30,000 federal workers along with the gutting of our scientific and essential infrastructures were also dully referenced.

By targeting Tesla, protesters are sending Musk a financial shockwave to erode his wealth along with that of his stockholders by placing intense pressure on the company’s finances and reputation. Many owners have elected to express their disgust with Musk by selling their Tesla stock and cars to free themselves of any links with him and the company. The protests, both big and small, have been gaining momentum across the country and globally as Musk continues to eviscerate federal government.

Tesla dealerships and charging stations along with the cars and Cyber trucks have also been taking a toll with increased vandalism. And this week, seven of the company’s charging stations were set on fire in Massachusetts and an arsonist in France torched twelve vehicles at a dealership destroying eight cars and severely damaging four others. The Georgetown dealership had been recently damaged by someone with a sharp instrument who etched its surface.

The New York Times reported that on Thursday last week, during a Cabinet meeting in the Oval Office, a contentious confrontation broke out among co-president Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. The article related that Musk accused Rubio of having fired “nobody” and through a series of heated exchanges, Rubio told of 1,500 workers who had taken early retirement and buyouts thus reducing the workforce at State. Reuters reported that Trump in his usual about face from an intransient position “…told his Cabinet heads that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies.”

Trump also changed his analogy from letting Elon “go wild” to that of department heads using a scalpel implying that the original approach was not working. Trump laughingly has also praised Musk by calling him an “amazing and caring person.”

When questioned later by a reporter about the confrontation, a sore point for the irritable Trump, he denied that it had occurred. Which brings about what former mayor of New York Ed Koch once said about Trump: “I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized.”

Tesla protests, along with Musk’s DOGE firings, Nazi salute, chainsaw dance antics and his interference in European politics, have resulted in the company’s stock taking a plunge since January from $404 per share to $262 on Friday. The 41.58 percent decrease in stock value means that for Musk, who owns 13 percent of the company, a loss of $102 billion. All of this is “self-driven” by numerous factors including a growing global dislike for all things Musk. In Tesla speak, it can be characterized as an “unscheduled disassembly.”

The decline in share value is being driven by European and UK sales that have dropped by an average of 47.5 percent while US sales have declined by 24 percent since January. China, where the car was once quite popular and is now facing strict competition with less expensive and well-appointed EVs like BYD and others, saw sales drop by 29 percent.

After Musk’s Nazi salute coupled with his interference in the recent German election, where he supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD) an extremist-far-right nationalist political party, sales have taken an immense decline by plummeting 59 percent since January. However, Spain has the record for the largest sales decline of 74.5 percent.

Even with the introduction of the new long range Model Y, the company is expected to continue losing money as its less than popular CEO continues ignoring his “cash cow” in favor of taking over the US government on his new foray into politics. His “clown car” government antics while admired by some are a big turnoff to most people as reflected in the sales decline.

It is anyone’s guess as to how much longer the “Bro-Fest” between Musk and Trump will continue as Musk becomes increasing hungrier for power and in becoming a liability instead of a foil for Trump. Once he has served his purpose, whatever that might be, Musk’s sure to be dumped.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

© 2025 nuzeink all rights reserved worldwide

10 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Cedric Prakash

Many years ago, there was a popular American song which one gustily sang at camps, picnics and other get-togethers. Thanks to its very catchy tune, it was always a hit. The chorus of the lyrics went thus:

“This land is your land, and this land is my land

From California to the New York island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me”

A special stanza of the song was:

“There was a big, high wall there that tried to stop me

A sign was painted said ‘Private Property’

But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing

This land was made for you and me.”

The song is essentially a protest song, first composed by the American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940. It was a critical response to Irving Berlin’s ‘God Bless America’ Its melody is based on a Carter Family tune called ‘When the World’s on Fire’. The song was a hit then, particularly during World War II; over the years, the lyrics of the song have undergone several changes and adaptations. The essence however remains the same, “this land was made for you and me.” In 2025, it was listed at No. 11 of ‘The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time.’ Given the context of the highly polarised and divided world we live in– this song is definitely all the more relevant today!

About a week ago, on Sunday 2 March, at the 97^th Academy Awards, ‘No Other Land’ won the coveted Oscar for the Best Documentary Film. The film has been made by four Israeli and Palestinian activists (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor) and is a powerful examination of life under occupation. It is their directorial debut. They describe the film as an act of resistance on the path to justice during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

‘No Other Land’ is a portrait of a West Bank village under Israeli military occupation. The documentary film gets its title from a statement by a long-time Masafer Yatta resident who says, “we have no other land. It is our land. That is why we suffer for it.” For the ones who have seen this path-breaking documentary. ‘No Other Land’ is a breathtakingly powerful chronicle of what it means to live with the constant threat of eviction. The film captures with heartrending detail the relentlessness of Israel’s effort to remove any trace of Palestinian presence in the West Bank. This reality is what the world painfully witnesses today and yet does not dare to address collectively!

The documentary has the friendship between Basel and Yuval as a backgrounder. Their relationship is filled with intense emotions. Basel is very anxious over the fate of his family and village, to the point of exhaustion. Yuval expresses guilt and sorrow over being unable to prevent imminent destruction or to persuade his fellow- Israelis to see reason. There is a sad but grim irony when Basel says that he has a law degree, but can only find work as a construction labourer in Israel. The manner in which the judiciary can be used to redesignate land use and thus enable unfeeling eviction policies points to a familiar playbook predicated on absolute denial of basic human rights.

In their acceptance speech, two of the film’s four directors pleaded for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist who is from Masafer Yatta, a region of the West Bank said, “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now – always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.…We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.” Adra also described the issues faced by his village, including home demolitions and displacement.

Yuval Abraham, an Israeli investigative journalist, co-director of the film said, “When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control. Israelis and Palestinians are ‘intertwined’; my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe.”

In February 2024, at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, ‘No Other Land’ won the Berlinale Documentary Award and the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film. During his acceptance speech then, Abraham criticized Israel saying, “We are standing in front of you now, me and Basel are the same age. I am Israeli; Basel is Palestinian. And in two days we will go back to a land where we are not equal. I am living under a civilian law and Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights. Basel is not having voting rights. I’m free to move where I want in this land. Basel is, like millions of Palestinians, locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end”.

Adra chipped in saying, “It’s our first movie; since many years my community, my family has been filming our community being erased by this brutal occupation. I am here celebrating the award, but also very hard for me to celebrate when there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered and massacred by Israel in Gaza. Masafer Yatta, my community, is being also razed by Israeli bulldozers. I ask one thing: for Germany, as I am in Berlin here, to respect the U.N. calls and stop sending weapons to Israel.”

Since its release in February 2024, the documentary has won numerous awards and accolades from all over the world. However, for obvious reasons it has not been screened in India. Even its entry to certain Film Festivals here, has been inexplicably cancelled. The fascist regime which rules the country today will not allow Freedom of Speech and Expression to its citizens. A film which shows the Israeli regime in poor light, is in India, a certain ‘no-no’! Even in the United States, the film has failed to find a distributor because it reveals truths that Americans should not see! When the film won the Oscar, it was natural that some Israelis were outraged, using every trick in the book to denigrate the directors of the film and the cast.

‘No Other Land’ is about divisiveness and discrimination, about demonization and denigration, about demolition and destruction! At the receiving end are the Palestinian people – the ‘other’! It is not without reason that Pope Francis has been praying every single day for them and regularly speaking to those affected in Gaza. It is a film which is a powerful manifestation of the terrible reality faced by millions all over the world. Here in India, the Kuki-zo people of Manipur and the minorities (particularly Muslims and Christians) have to face this reality daily!

As the bull-dozers, continue to go on rampage demolishing and destroying the lives and homes of the vulnerable, it is time that the fascist and dictatorial rulers of the world realise that “this land was made for you and me” and wake up to the statement by the Masafer Yatta resident “we have no other land. It is our land. That is why we suffer for it.”  Yes, there is No Other Land!

*(Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/ writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com  )

10 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The conversation on settler colonialism must not be limited to academic discussion. It is a political reality, clearly demonstrated in the everyday behavior of Israel.

Israel is not merely an expansionist regime historically; it remains actively so today. Additionally, the core of Israeli political discourse, both past and present, revolves around territorial expansion.

Frequently, we succumb to the trap of blaming such language on a specific set of right-wing and extremist politicians or on a particular US administration. The truth is vastly different: the Israeli Zionist political discourse, though it may change in style, remains fundamentally unchanged throughout time.

Zionist leaders have always associated the establishment and expansion of their state with the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, later referred to in Zionist literature as the “transfer.”

Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, wrote in his diary about the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population from Palestine:

“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

It is unclear what happened to Herzl’s grand employment scheme aimed at “spiriting” the population of Palestine across the region. What we know is that the so-called “penniless population” resisted the Zionist project in numerous ways. Ultimately, the depopulation of Palestine occurred through force, culminating in the Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948.

The discourse of the erasure of the Palestinian people has been the shared foundation among all Israeli officials and governments, though it has been expressed in different ways. It has always had a material component, manifesting in the slow but decisive takeover of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, the confiscation of farms, and the constant construction of “military zones.”

Despite Israeli claims, this “incremental genocide” is not directly linked to the nature and degree of Palestinian resistance. Jenin and Masafer Yatta illustrate this clearly.

Take, for example, the ongoing ethnic cleansing in the northern West Bank, which, according to UNRWA, is the worst since 1967. The displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians has been justified by Israel as a military necessity due to the fierce resistance in that region, primarily Jenin, but other areas as well.

However, many parts of the West Bank, including the area of Masafer Yatta, have not been engaged in armed resistance. Yet, they have been primary targets for Israel’s colonial expansion.

In other words, Israeli colonialism is in no way linked to Palestinian resistance, action or inaction. This has remained true for decades.

Gaza is a stark example. While one of the most horrific genocides in recent history was being carried out, Israeli real estate developers, members of the Knesset (Parliament), and leaders of the illegal settlement movement were all meeting to discuss investment opportunities in a depopulated Gaza. The callous tycoons were busy promising villas on the beach for competitive prices while Palestinians starved to death, amid an ever-growing body count. Even fiction cannot be as cruel as this reality.

It is no wonder that the Americans joined in, as evidenced by equally ruthless comments made by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and eventually by the President himself.

While many at the time spoke about the strangeness of US foreign policy, few mentioned that both countries are prime examples of settler colonialism. Unlike other settler colonial societies, both Israel and the US are still committed to the same project.

Trump’s desire to take over and rename the Gulf of Mexico, his ambition to occupy Greenland and claim it as American territory, and, of course, his comments about owning Gaza are all examples of settler colonial language and behavior.

The difference between Trump and previous presidents is that others used military power to expand US influence through war and hundreds of military bases worldwide without explicitly using expansionist language. Instead, they referenced the need to challenge the Soviet “red menace,” “restore democracy,” and launch a global “war on terror” as justifications for their actions. Trump, however, feels no need to mask his actions with false logic and outright lies. Brutal honesty is his brand, though in essence, he is no different than the rest.

Israel, on the other hand, rarely feels the need to explain itself to anyone. It remains a model of a ferocious, traditional colonial society that fears no accountability and has no regard for international law.

While the Israelis pushed to conquer and ethnically cleanse Gaza, they remained entrenched in southern Lebanon, insisting on remaining in five strategic areas, thus violating the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, which was signed on November 27.

A perfect case in point was the immediate—and I mean immediate—expansion into southern Syria, the moment the Syrian regime collapsed on December 8.

As soon as the events in Syria opened up security margins, Israeli tanks rolled in, warplanes destroyed almost the entirety of the Syrian army, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the armistice agreement signed in 1974.

That expansion continued, though Syria represented no so-called security threat to Israel whatsoever. Israel is now in control of the Sheikh Mountain and Quneitra inside Syria.

The unquenchable appetite for land in Israel remains as strong as it was upon the formation of the Zionist movement and the takeover of the Palestinian homeland nearly eight decades ago.

This realization is crucial, and Arab countries, in particular, must understand this. Sacrificing Palestinians to the Israeli death machine with the flawed calculation that Israel’s ambitions are limited to Gaza and the West Bank is a fatal mistake.

Israel will not hesitate for a minute to militarily move into any Arab geographic space the moment it feels able to do so, and it will always find US support and European silence, regardless of how destructive its actions are.

Jordan, Egypt, and other Arab countries could find themselves facing the same predicament as Syria today: watching their territories being devoured while remaining powerless and without recourse.

This realization should also matter to those busy finding “solutions” to the Palestinian-Israeli “conflict,” which narrowly frame the problem to that of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Settler colonialism can never be resolved through creative solutions. A settler colonial state ceases to exist, and a settler colonial society ceases to function if territorial expansion is not a permanent state of affairs.

The only solution to this is that Israel’s settler colonialism must be challenged, curtailed, and ultimately defeated. It may be a difficult task, but it is an inescapable one.

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

10 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

The escalation in serious crimes across several villages and towns in the Latakia and Tartus governorates along the Syrian coast is deeply concerning, said Euro-Med Monitor in a statement.

Armed clashes have erupted between Syrian government forces and militant groups loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, resulting in the killing and detention of hundreds of civilians. These individuals were subjected to physical and verbal abuse during their captivity, while properties and homes were indiscriminately set on fire—acts seemingly driven by vengeance.

Field reports indicate that the clashing parties carried out field executions of dozens of individuals across several areas in Latakia and Tartus, particularly in Baniyas and the villages of Al Mukhtareyah, Al Haffah, Dwaer Baabda, Beit Ana, and others. Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have carried out arbitrary arrest campaigns targeting hundreds of civilians, subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment.

Furthermore, testimonies from the ground confirm that victims included children and the elderly, revealing that the attacks indiscriminately targeted both civilians and militants alike.

Euro-Med Monitor asserts that no excuse—whether political or security—can justify these crimes. Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, destruction of property, and spreading fear among civilians are serious violations that require a firm stance to ensure accountability, achieve justice, and prevent impunity.

Revenge is not justice; it is fuel for an endless cycle of violence that can only be broken through legal accountability, transitional justice, and reconciliation founded on truth and equality—ensuring victims’ rights and preventing future crimes.

The Syrian government must take immediate action to protect civilians, stop all violations, launch a serious and independent investigation to hold individuals and leaders accountable for the crimes, ensuring justice for the victims and those affected.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

10 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Hakan Özal

In Syria, the Western-backed Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime’s massacre of Alawites has escalated, with over 1,000 people killed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that armed groups affiliated with the HTS regime have killed at least 745 civilians, including women and children, in the coastal region since Thursday. The brutality of the killings was demonstrated by the bodies being left in the streets as a warning.

HTS jihadist terror against Alawites and other religious minorities is not new. As the World Socialist Web Site has reported, these attacks have been systematic since it took power in Syria in December, toppling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. In late December, the aggression of the regime forces led to mass protests.

According to BBC reports, the violence began when residents of Beit Ana village in Latakia refused to hand over a suspect to security forces on Thursday and quickly spread to other coastal cities in the northwest. Armed groups composed of former Syrian army soldiers launched coordinated attacks on government checkpoints, security convoys, and military positions. In response, the interim government forces launched a large-scale operation.

By Saturday, SOHR was already reporting that at least 745 civilians, 148 insurgents, and 125 regime soldiers had been killed during the operation. Alawite men who served in the security forces during the Assad regime were executed by the new government forces, and many Alawite villages were looted and set on fire.

Jenan Moussa, Al-Aan TV’s Middle East correspondent, shared footage on social media related to HTS militia’s attacks in the Latakia region on Friday. The videos show severe violence against individuals described by the Syrian regime as “remnants of the old regime,” with most victims wearing civilian clothes. Moussa’s footage revealed 29 men executed in the Al- Mokhtariyeh area and 11 in Al-Hafa.

The videos included sectarian insults and slogans. In one, an HTS supporter referred to the victims as “dead animals.” Another showed a man in civilian clothes and slippers being shot at close range.

SOHR is an anti-Assad organisation funded by the UK Foreign Office and other European powers. It’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, was imprisoned three times in Syria before fleeing to the UK. He stated that the widespread massacres in areas with dense Alawite populations, such as Jableh, Baniyas, and surrounding regions, are among the worst violence in the 14-year civil war. Abdulrahman emphasized, “This is not about being pro or against the former Assad regime. These are sectarian massacres that aim to expel the Alawite population from their homes.”

On Saturday, social media platforms were filled with photos and condolence messages from Syrian users regarding those killed in the coastal region. Reuters spoke to six residents who reported that thousands of Alawites and Christians fled their homes due to safety concerns since Thursday. Many, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were forced to seek refuge at the Russian military base in Hmeymim, Latakia.

Abdulrahman noted that Alawite civilians, including women and children, were “executed,” and their homes and property looted. He reported that killings, looting, and arson continued throughout the night in Baniyas and surrounding villages as of Saturday.

Aron Lund from the independent research foundation Century International told AFP, “The authority [of the new regime] is based largely on radical jihadists who consider the Alawites to be enemies of God.” Lund added, “When there is an attack, these groups then carry out raids of Alawite villages, which don’t just include armed former soldiers but also vulnerable civilians.”

The Syrian state news agency SANA cited an unnamed security official stating that many fighters went to the coastal regions to avenge attacks against security forces.

Allegations suggest that HTS-affiliated groups, the successor organisation of the al-Nusra Front—which was formerly allied with al-Qaeda—have made calls in mosques stating that “killing Alawites is obligatory.” There are videos supporting these allegations on social media.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Damascus, Resul Serdar, reported on Saturday afternoon that the intensity of clashes had significantly decreased, although fighting continued in the outskirts of towns. Serdar emphasized the growing “tragedy” due to increasing casualties, noting, “Hundreds of people have been killed and the majority of them are civilians.”

BBC Verify confirmed the authenticity of two videos showing a corpse being dragged through the streets in Latakia.

A Syrian activist in Latakia told BBC Newshour that the violence has instilled great fear in the Alawite community. The activist, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “They are feeling so fearful… They don’t know what to do. There is no government or state who is ready to help them, to protect them.”

Curfews were imposed in Homs, Latakia, and Tartus, where Alawites are densely populated, while the governor of Latakia announced ongoing power outages in the region.

HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani (Ahmed al-Sharaa), declared “interim president” after the regime change, defended the massacre in a video message, stating, “Remnants of the ousted regime tried to test the new Syria without understanding it, and today they are relearning Syria.” Al-Jolani stated, “Prisoners should not be humiliated or beaten, as this is against God’s command and the country’s laws,” in order to avoid putting NATO allies in a difficult position.

While the NATO powers, including Turkey, have largely remained silent on the bloody aggression of their new ally, the HTS regime, some of the statements made are an example of utter hypocrisy.

“I am deeply shocked by the numerous victims in the western regions of Syria,” Stefan Schneck, Germany’s special envoy to Syria, said on X. Michael Ohnmacht, the European Union’s envoy to Syria, retweeted Schneck’s post, adding, “I share the opinion of my German counterpart regarding the call for all parties to exercise restraint.”

The NATO powers and their pseudo-left advocates, who claim that Islamist jihadists hostile to basic democratic rights have led a “democratic revolution” in Syria, share responsibility for these massacres. They hailed the coming to power last December of the Islamists they had backed since 2011 in the war for regime change, in order to undermine Russian and Iranian influence in Syria and the broader Middle East, and rushed to cement their ties with the new regime.

10 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By V.A. Mohamad Ashrof

Zionists cling to and ceaselessly trumpet the belief—reflected in global media—that Jews form a distinct ethnic group, that Israel is the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham, and that the Jews living in Israel today are the direct descendants of King David. A book that throws a wrench into this narrative is ‘The Invention of the Jewish People ’, published in 2009. (1)

This book sent shockwaves through Israeli academia. Shlomo Sand, a historian at Tel Aviv University, boldly challenges the very foundation of Israel’s national ideology in his hard-hitting 332-page work. An English translation of Sand’s book was published in the US and Britain in 2009. The French translation, published by Layard in 2010, was hailed as the best work in modern history and politics. The book has also been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Japanese, and Indonesian, spreading like wildfire across intellectual circles.

Born in Austria in 1946, Sand moved to Israel with his family in 1948.

Origins of Ashkenazi Jews

In the 1920s, shortly after World War I, Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, published a four-volume work called The International Jew, (2) which argued that only a fraction of contemporary Jews was of ancient biblical Jewish heritage. Of course, Ford’s work is riddled with anti-Semitic propaganda and has been soundly discredited by scholars. In 1951, Colonel John Beatty, a US military intelligence officer, published The Iron Curtain Over America (3), a 265-page book presenting evidence that Eastern European Jews were of Khazar-Mongol descent and had no genetic connection to the Israelites.

This theory was later expanded upon in The Thirteenth Tribe (4), published in 1976 by world-renowned author Arthur Koestler (1905-1983). Koestler meticulously argued that Ashkenazi Jews were Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 8th century AD in the Caucasus region. He asserted that Ashkenazi Jews had no historical connection to the Jews of biblical tradition, and that European anti-semitism was built on a house of cards sustained by ignorance. One of Koestler’s key objectives was to demonstrate that European Jews were not the Palestinian Jews of biblical lore, thus rendering accusations of Christ-killing against Jews as baseless as a mirage in the desert. It is crucial to note that nine out of ten modern Jews belong to the Ashkenazi lineage.

The Khazars, originally from the Caucasus, later migrated westward, settling in present-day Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and Germany. The Jews of Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, who speak Yiddish, are all of Khazar origin.

Sand traces the roots of Eastern European Jewry to the Khazar Empire. (5) In 740 AD, the Khazar ruler Bulan took the plunge and converted to Judaism, with many of his subjects following suit. Jewish history recognizes the Khazar state as a Jewish state in its own right.

Sand’s Findings

Sand opens his study of Jewish nationalism with a quote from Karl Deiss: “A nation is a people who agree on a common error about their origin and who are united in common hostility towards their neighbours.” (6)

Nationalist fervour swept through Germany, giving rise to the infamous slogan “Germany for the Germans,” which marginalized Jews, Slavs, and Roma. At the same time, nationalism gained ground in Italy and Greece, where a shared language and culture formed the backbone of national identity. Sand argues that modern Jewish nationalism was reverse-engineered, influenced by German nationalism in the mid-19th century. (7) It was historian Heinrich Graetz who wove the tale of an ancient Jewish dynasty, the mass expulsion of the Jews, and their centuries-long wandering. (8) This historical fabrication was inspired by German nationalism.

Like other European national groups, Zionists painted a golden past for themselves, claiming an uninterrupted presence since antiquity. (9) Sand argues that the Nazi image of Jews as bloodsuckers was borrowed and repurposed by Zionist thinkers. When Jewish Zionist thought took root in the 1840s, the Greek concept of racial purity was at its core. He suggests that Hitler’s genocidal ideology drew inspiration from the racial theories embraced by Zionists.

Graetz coined the term ancient people for the Jews, portraying them as a lost tribe yearning for home after the destruction of Canaan. (10) Later, Moses Hess’s 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question fully reflected the racial ideologies gaining traction in Europe. (11)

Since there is no historical evidence that Jews were forcibly expelled en masse, the idea of their rightful return to Israel falls apart like a house of cards, Sand observes. (12) Jewish conversion was widespread under the influence of Hellenistic culture. (13) The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, was produced as part of this process. The Jewish historian Josephus followed the same agenda. (14) Later, Zionism adopted the Christian narrative of Jewish exile. (15)

Sand dismantles the claim made by scholars like Martin Goodman that Jews discouraged conversion. (16) He further highlights that most ancient Jewish farmers later converted to Islam, a fact even acknowledged by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. (17)

The Fallacy of Zionist Racism

Zionism is built on the flimsy foundation that Jews form a distinct ethnic group. In reality, Judaism has survived through a melting pot of intermarriages and conversions.

Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, was not religious, yet he clung to the notion that Jews were an ethnic group. Christian Zionism, too, developed its theology based on this ethnic distinction.

The Zionist movement sprang to life in the 1850s in Central and Eastern Europe, amid a tide of nationalist sentiment stretching from Vienna to Odessa. (18) Nathan Birnbaum, who coined the term Zionism, was an unabashed racist. Other early Zionist intellectuals, including Max Nordau, Martin Buber, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Arthur Ruppin, wore their racism on their sleeves. (19)

Herzl, though secular, readily embraced the religious notion that Israel was a divine promise to the Jews through Abraham. Under this ideology, any Jew, regardless of nationality, had a golden ticket to Israeli citizenship.

But Who Is a Jew?

From Israel’s inception, the question of Jewish identity has been a legal quagmire. (20) In 1962, a Catholic priest of Jewish origin sought recognition as a Jew by nationality, but the High Court slammed the door shut on his claim. (21) The 1968 Law of Return declared that only those born to a Jewish mother, converts to Judaism, or individuals without another religious affiliation qualified as Jews. (22)

Israel, despite its lofty claims of democracy, functions as an ethnocracy, Sand argues. (23) Though he does not deny Israel’s existence, he calls for it to become an open, pluralistic, and democratic state free from the shackles of ethnic, territorial, and mythical claims.

Sand shines a light on Israel’s systemic human rights violations (24) and envisions a future where all Israeli citizens—Jewish or Arab—are treated as equals. (25) His meticulous deconstruction of Zionist myths lays bare the uncomfortable truth about Israel’s foundation and policies.

Evaluation of Shlomo Sand’s Theory

The Khazar hypothesis, which posits that Ashkenazi Jews primarily descend from the Khazars—a Turkic people who converted to Judaism in the 8th century—has been a subject of scholarly debate for decades. While Arthur Koestler’s The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) popularized this theory, it has not gained widespread acceptance in contemporary genetic research. Recent genetic studies indicate that Ashkenazi Jews possess substantial Middle Eastern ancestry, with varying degrees of European admixture. Sand’s assertion that 90% of modern Jews are descendants of the Khazars is not supported by empirical evidence. Although the historical conversion of the Khazars to Judaism is well-documented, its genetic impact on Ashkenazi Jewish populations appears to be negligible. The prevailing scholarly consensus maintains that Ashkenazi Jews trace their origins to ancient Israelite populations, with subsequent admixture from European groups over time.

One of Sand’s most significant contributions lies in his incisive deconstruction of a central tenet of Zionist historiography: the notion of an unbroken, ethnically homogeneous Jewish lineage extending from antiquity to the present. Through rigorous historical analysis, Sand demonstrates that Jewish identity has been shaped by a complex interplay of migration, conversion, and cultural transformation over centuries, rather than by a singular, uninterrupted ethnic continuity. By challenging the nationalist narratives that underpin Zionism, Sand invites readers to critically examine the constructed nature of modern national identities, including that of the Jewish people. His work underscores the fluidity and dynamism of identity formation, offering a counterpoint to essentialist interpretations of Jewish history.

Sand accurately situates the emergence of Jewish nationalism (Zionism) within the broader context of 19th-century European nationalist movements. He highlights the contributions of key figures such as Heinrich Graetz and Moses Hess, who played pivotal roles in shaping modern Jewish historiography and Zionist ideology. Sand argues that Jewish communities expanded significantly through conversion, particularly during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. While there is historical evidence to support the spread of Judaism in the ancient Mediterranean world, conversion was not the sole driver of Jewish demographic growth. Both genetic and historical research suggest a continuity between ancient Israelite populations and modern Jewish communities, alongside evidence of conversions throughout history. Thus, while Sand’s emphasis on conversion as a factor in Jewish history is valid, it represents only one dimension of a more complex demographic and cultural trajectory.

Sand advocates for the transformation of Israel into a pluralistic, democratic state that guarantees equal rights to all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity or religion. This vision aligns with liberal democratic principles and reflects a commitment to inclusivity and equality. However, its realization faces significant political and ideological challenges within the Israeli context. Sand also critiques discriminatory practices in Israel, particularly those affecting Palestinian citizens and other non-Jewish minorities. Issues such as unequal access to resources, restrictions on land ownership, and the implications of the Law of Return have been extensively documented. Israel’s definition as a Jewish state has sparked tension between its Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. Critics claim this framework perpetuates systemic inequalities, while supporters argue it preserves Jewish identity and ensures Jewish population security. Sand’s critique encourages discussion of these competing views, highlighting the tension between national identity and democratic values.

A key strength of Sand’s work is his clear distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. While anti-Zionism pertains to criticism of Israeli policies or the Zionist political project, anti-Semitism involves prejudice or discrimination against Jews as a people. This distinction is crucial and is widely recognized in both scholarly and political discourse. By emphasizing this differentiation, Sand contributes to a more precise and informed discussion of contemporary debates surrounding Israel, Zionism, and Jewish identity.

In conclusion, Shlomo Sand’s work offers a provocative and thought-provoking critique of traditional narratives of Jewish history and identity. While some of his claims, such as the Khazar hypothesis, are not supported by current genetic evidence, his broader arguments about the constructed nature of national identities and the historical fluidity of Jewish communities are compelling. His call for a pluralistic and democratic Israel, alongside his critique of systemic inequalities, raises important questions about the future of Israeli society. Ultimately, Sand’s work challenges readers to reconsider entrenched historical narratives and to engage critically with the complexities of identity, nationalism, and democracy.

Bibliography

1) Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People, (Tr: Yael Lotan), Verso: New York, 2009

2) Henry Ford, The International Jew, Dearborn Publishing Co: Michigan, 1920-1922

3). John Owen Beaty, Iron Curtain Over America, Wilkinson Pub co: Dallas, 1951

4) Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage, Random House: New York, 1976

5) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p. 239-249

6) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.1

7) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.11

8) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.62

9) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.73-77

10) Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem: The Last Nationalist Questions, 1862 (Bloch Publishing Co: New York, 1918)

11) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.78-81

12) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.134-136

13) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.150-154

14) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.161-166

15) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.255

16) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.250.

17) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.186

18) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.250-252

19) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.256-265

20) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.286-288

21) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.288-289

22) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.289-290

23) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.307

24) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.304

25) Shlomo Sand, Op. cit, p.309-312

V.A. Mohamad Ashrof is an independent Indian scholar specializing in Islamic humanism.

8 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Suresh Khairnar

International Women’s Day is celebrated today. But have women really been liberated?

I myself am from the great Maharashtra of Jyotiba Phule and Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar. I was born in the so-called 96 clan Maratha community. 70 years ago our family was a joint family in which my father and his three brothers and one of the two sisters got married and lived in her in-laws’ house. My other aunt’s husband left home after marriage and became a sadhu. His whereabouts were never known. Because of this, my elder aunt, who was the eldest, lived with us. She was childless. In this way, apart from the five women in our house, including my father and his three brothers and their children, we had a family of 25-30 people. I am 72 years old since I was born. (25-12-1953) I have never seen the women of our house coming or going in front of men during the day. I have never seen my parents talking to each other. And the five women used to eat whatever was left after all the men and children had eaten. I have never seen that if there was less food for them, they cooked it again and ate it. That is why I have seen all the women of our house physically weak and underweight! In Hinduism, women have been given the status of Annapurna Devi! But all the Annapurna Devis of our house were victims of malnutrition.

We worry about the rights of Muslim women. But I have seen the phenomenon of darkness under the lamp. My village is also included in the history of Satyashodhak Samaj. And with my own eyes, I have never seen the women of the houses of the so-called Satyashodhak leaders moving around in the village during the day. Although this was 70 years ago.

Since we are talking about love jihad, I remembered that there was a Maratha farmer family in our village. Perhaps that gentleman had married a woman of Sunhar caste, so he kept a sonarin (mistress). And a Maratha professor had married a madam named Kulkarni, so he kept a baamniin (mistress). This word was used by the people of the Satya Shodhak village named Malpur.

I have seen in my own house that the women of the house eat only after the men eat first. How do women become victims of malnutrition? This is one of its classic examples. It is my opinion that women suffering from anemia should not be measured by economic issues. This includes women from affluent families as well. On the contrary, people living below the poverty line, all, that is, both men and women, are victims of malnutrition. Because in terms of food and drink, both eat the same food. On the contrary, among the so-called affluent people, women are fed from birth, in their lactation, that they are girls, this feeling is given at every step. For this, the book named ‘Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir is very good and has been written by looking at everything from biology to social, economic, cultural aspects. Every man and woman doing public work needs to read it. And the name is also very appropriate – ‘Second Sex’.

In the early eighties, I started visiting Bihar because of the JP movement. And after visiting the homes of our socialist, Gandhi-Vinoba followers friends there, I saw that food, tea, snacks, everything was being served regularly, but the hands that made them were not visible. Even today, more than fifty years have passed. And we have not met the life partners of some of our friends.

However, the pair of Bihar movement leader Jayaprakash Narayan and his wife Prabhavatiji is similar to Mahatma Gandhi-Kasturba, seen in Bihar’s public life. But if we leave this exception, the condition of women in all the states of Bihar-North India is not very different even today. A socialist leader had once occupied the seat of the country’s Prime Minister for some time. And Mrinal Tai Gore and some women had got the opportunity to visit his ancestral house. Mrinal Tai Gore told me that I was feeling the lack of women in the meeting room except for some outside women, so I took advantage of being a woman and went inside. And deliberately met the women of the house. And from the conversation, it was found that some of them were MA and some were graduates. But they were forbidden to come to the meeting. And you must also be remembering that during his tenure as Prime Minister, his wife was never seen in any public life. Although he was also considered the son of Acharya Narendra Dev of North India and Jayaprakash Narayan ji.

During 1990-91, while working on the aftermath of the Bhagalpur riots, our team had to frequently visit Muslim localities. Because the Muslims had suffered the most destruction. We saw some eyes of women gathering from the windows of the houses to watch us very closely, but we never saw those women as they were veiled. But there was no dearth of hospitality there either. But the hands that cooked the food were not visible.

So once Manisha Banerjee, Vani Sinha, Shamli Khastgir and Veena Aalase, who were among the women who often visited us from Calcutta and Shantiniketan, told me that in a Muslim dominated village named Rajpur, an exclusive meeting of women only was being organized on the roof of someone’s house in the evening. And the responsibility of addressing that meeting was given to me. After climbing the roof, I saw that except Manisha, Banidi, Shyamlidi and Veenaadi, all the other women were wearing burqa. But as soon as I started my address, I saw that almost all the faces covered with burqa were open. I myself felt embarrassed seeing this sight. And later, till it got dark, our meeting continued in a very beautiful and pleasant atmosphere.

Similarly, fifteen years ago, I had gone to Aligarh Muslim University for the ‘Maulana Azad Memorial Speech’. The main speech was delivered by Kennedy Hall. I saw that all the students were sitting in the lower hall and the female students were sitting in the upper gallery. When I looked up, I could see only burqas in the balcony. I had an extra day, so I expressed my desire to see the university. A professor was put on special duty to host me. And after breakfast, he took me around in the university car. He also took me to the tomb of Sir Syed Ahmed Sahib. And when I was returning from there on foot, an elderly gentleman wearing a sherwani came and greeted me very politely and said, “I am the head of the department of Islamic studies, and I am very impressed with your speech yesterday. If you are not busy right now, can you come to our department for a chat for some time?” So I said, “Today I am just having fun in the university. So let me come to your department for some time.” And that’s how I got along with him, and when I stepped into his department, the very small hall was full of students sitting in burqas. And the head said that “Yesterday you told how Muslims of the whole world are being targeted in a planned manner in the name of political Islam. And this is the reason that these girls of our department, who are talking a lot about you after listening to your speech from the gallery yesterday, as soon as I saw you going to the grave of late Sir Syed sahab, I gave you the trouble of taking the trouble of walking here.” I said “It is not a trouble, you have done me a favour. Because for the last 20 years I have been working on the Hindu-Muslim issue after the Bhagalpur riots and in that I especially focus more on women. Because women have to bear the wounds of any riot and war more. And I saw that in the hall here also all the girls had lifted their burqas over their faces. And a very serious debate went on with all the girls for at least more than two hours. Whereas when my host professor sahab told me that during the teaching It is time for your lunch with the staff and to interact with them. Then somewhere the conversation with those girls was going on continuously. All the girls were MA and some of them said that we have to do research later also. That is why they had also taken my email and phone number.

Half of the world’s population is women. But the condition of women is still very unequal, to a greater or lesser extent. And the worst situation is in those parts of the world where the feudal system still prevails. The condition of women there is even worse.

In which the condition of women is still very pitiable in almost all the countries of North India and South-West Asia. The writings of Tehmina Durrani of Pakistan, Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh and Shirin Abad of Iran show that even today women are treated as slaves.

And in the so-called western culture, as a commodity, the song “Tu cheez badi hai mast mast” is a reflection of the same mentality. Because she is a ‘cheez’ means an object. Which is used. And that is why there is a competition to display their bodies. Who is displayed the most and with how much vulgarity in advertising and fashion shows? Whether it is an advertisement of a man’s underwear or his shaving blade. In that, there is always a woman with minimal clothes.

And the sex trade is its product, it has turned into an industry. I remember (in 1993-94) I got a chance to attend a conference on Human Rights (Huron) in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. And it was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. And I also got a chance to speak. So in my speech, other speakers were only talking about the excesses of the monarchy, police, and army. So when my turn came I said that “You have made all the speakers before me aware of the numerous reprehensible acts of oppression, atrocities and exploitation being done by the government and the royal family. But I have come from India, and I am from Calcutta. And I am from Maharashtra. I have noticed one thing since my childhood, that from the towns of India to the big cities like Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, I have seen 50% of the girls from Nepal in the brothels. And I have not seen anyone even close to Huron thinking about this subject, so it seems a very serious matter to me. And now the Rana regime has ended. And democracy has begun. So I expect from the Honorable Prime Minister that now special efforts should be made to stop the trade of all these women.

So immediately after my speech, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala again came on the mike and announced by taking my name that “I assure Dr. Suresh Khairnar that I will try, especially from my government’s side, to end this practice!” And with an invitation for dinner, Nepal Women’s Organization said that Dr. Suresh, you are the first person we have seen speaking on women’s issues, so we have specially invited you to speak in our organization and after that you have to come for dinner.

Similarly, I have seen women working in every field in Kashmir and Palestine. And they never seemed any less or behind men. During our journey, we have seen women from the Kurdish-dominated triangle of Iraq, Iran and Turkey, which is also called Total Kurdish Area. And we have seen women wearing jeans and T-shirts and fighting, riding vehicles and horses. And we have seen them working in every field of life. And these days they are also taking on the ISIS army. Earlier, these Kurdish women had defeated and pushed back the army of Abu Bakr Baghdadi. So, when I sent them an email of felicitation, they immediately wrote that will you just sit there and do felicitation? Come with us. So I wrote in reply that I have crossed 60.

Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal

8 March 2025

Source: countercurrents.org