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By Ramzy Baroud

Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo

Wafaa Aludaini is a witness to many of Gaza’s recent tragedies and also never-ending resistance. She experienced the violent Israeli occupation, the subsequent blockade on the impoverished Strip, and several wars that resulted in the death and wounding of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

But none of Israel’s wars impacted Aludaini’s life as much as the 2014 onslaught which Israel dubbed ‘Operation Protective Edge.’

Of the nearly 18,000 houses destroyed, two homes, one belonging to Wafaa’s family and the other to her in-laws, were also destroyed by Israel’s bombs.

Gaza’s infrastructure, which was already dilapidated as a result of previous wars and a protracted siege, took a massive beating during the 51-day Israeli bombardment.

The most irreplaceable of all of this tragic loss is human life, as 2,251 Palestinians were killed and over 11,000 wounded, many maimed for life.

War and siege, however, only strengthened Wafaa’s resolve as she became more involved in covering news from Gaza, hoping to reveal long-hidden truths and defy mainstream media narratives and popular stereotypes.

During the ‘Great March of Return’, a popular movement that began on March 30, 2018, Wafaa joined the protesters, reporting on a daily basis on the killing and wounding of unarmed youth who flocked to the fence that separates besieged Gaza from Israel, to demand their freedom and basic human rights.

Enraged by the refugees’ daily chants of ‘End the siege’, ‘Free Palestine’, and their adamant insistence on their ‘Right of Return’ to their original villages in Palestine, which were ethnically cleansed during Israel’s violent birth in 1948, Israeli snipers opened fire. In the first two years of the March, over 300 Palestinians were reportedly killed, and thousands wounded.

Aludaini was there during the entire ordeal, reporting on the dead and the wounded, consoling bereaved families, and also taking part in an historic moment when all of Gaza rose and united behind a single chant of freedom.

Aludaini was not a typical journalist chasing after a story at the fence, as she was both the story and the storyteller.

“I am a journalist, but I am also a refugee. My parents were expelled from their village in Palestine, which is now in Israel,” she said.

“Being a journalist in Gaza is not easy, because every single day, you are subjected to (the possibility) of being killed, injured, or arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. In fact, many journalists were murdered by Israeli fire this way.”

On why she chose journalism as a career although she studied English literature at a local Gaza University, Aludaini said that the more she understood mainstream media’s reporting on Palestine, the more frustrated she felt by the unfair depiction of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle.

“Journalists who are (advancing) mainstream media (narratives on Palestine) are, in a way, helping the Israeli occupation in killing more innocent people in Palestine, in particular, in the Gaza Strip. (They) are strengthening the people (Israelis) who expelled us in 1948, encouraging them to violate international law,” Aludaini said.

“So I am asking them to come here, to Palestine, to see for themselves, to see the Apartheid wall, to see the checkpoints, to see what is happening in Israeli jails. Only after they see it with their own eyes, can they tell the truth, because journalists should tell the truth and stand for humanity, regardless of religion and regardless of anything else.”

In a similar tone, Aludaini challenged “defenders of the Israeli occupation” to come to Palestine and to “listen to the people who had their children killed; to those who got expelled from their homes. In every home in Palestine, there is a story of misery, but you will never find (these stories) in mainstream media.”

Regarding the Great March of Return, Aludaini said that the March was “a popular protest where the people of Gaza collectively gathered at the separation fence between Gaza and Israel,” to exhibit various forms of resistance that focused mostly on cultural resistance.

Protesters carried out various forms of “traditional activities, like dancing dabka, singing old songs, cooking Palestinian dishes,” Aludaini said, noting that the most touching of these scenes were those of “elderly Palestinians holding the keys of their homes from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948 during the Nakba,” or the Great Catastrophe.

“This kind of popular resistance is not new for Palestinians (as they) have always used all their means to fight for their rights, to fight (against Israeli military) occupation, like the weekly protests (at the Gaza fence), or (the symbolic acts of) stone-throwing. Even when Gazans resort to armed resistance, people never stop displaying popular (forms) of resistance as well.”

But is this the end of the March of Return?

Aludaini said that the March is not over, however, the strategy will be reformulated to minimize the number of casualties.

“After almost three years of the protests, the High Committee of the Great March of Return decided to change the approach of the protests. From now on, the marches are only going to be held on national occasions instead of being held on a weekly basis because Israel uses lethal force against peaceful and unarmed protesters.”

According to Aludaini, the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is already overwhelmed by the lack of hospital equipment, electricity, and clean water, can no longer handle the pressures of daily deaths and injuries.

Aludaini herself spent many hours in Gaza’s hospitals, interviewing and comforting the wounded. She told us of a Gazan mother of four who participated in the March every Friday without fail. “One day, she was shot in the leg, and it was hard for her to walk. But the following Friday, she returned to the fence. When I asked her why is she back despite her injury, she told me: ‘I will never allow the Israelis to steal my land. This is my land; these are my rights and I will come back (to defend them) again and again.’”

For Aludaini, it is the resilience of these seemingly ordinary people that inspires her and gives her hope.

Another story is of a 19-year-old girl who implored her parents repeatedly to join the protests. When they finally relented, the young girl was shot in the eye by an Israeli sniper. Aludaini and her comrades rushed to the hospital to show support for the protester who lost her eye, only to find her in high spirits, stronger and more determined than ever.

“She told us that as soon as she leaves the hospital, she plans to go back to the fence.”

Aludaini challenges “Israeli propaganda” that claims that its wars and ongoing violence in Gaza are motivated by self-defense. If that is the case, “why is Israel targeting the West Bank which is also subjected to annexation and apartheid?” she asks.

“(Currently) There is no armed resistance (in the West Bank), but (the Israeli occupation army) still kills people every single day.”

Aludaini, who is frustrated by the lack of emphasis on media studies in Gazan universities, is determined to continue with her work as a journalist and as an activist, because when the media fails at exposing Israeli crimes in Gaza, it is the likes of Wafa Aludaini who make all the difference.

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

8 June 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Gideon Polya

The 8 minutes 46 seconds murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops has prompted huge “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in the US and thence in the UK, Western Europe and Australia (where 434 Indigenous Australian have died in police custody since 1991). Largely deleted by Mainstream media is Apartheid Israeli killing of  10,000 of its Palestinian Subjects since 2000,  and large-scale  Israeli training of  US cops in deadly restraint techniques, including the deadly “knee on neck”.

One can deeply appreciate the indignation of “Black lives natter” demonstrators in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere around the world, but I must make 2 key humanitarian  points. Firstly,  the lack of social distancing in these  mass demonstrations is very likely to lead to a spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths, most notably in the US and UK where gross failure by  the respective governments has already lead to appalling mass mortality. Secondly, largely  ignored are  the Indigenous Palestinians of the Occupied Palestinian Territory who  have been in highly abusive and deadly custody for 53 years under the heel of serial war criminal Apartheid Israel. Careful analysis reveals the shocking statistics that “annual deaths in custody per million of population” are 1.5 (unarmed Black Americans killed by cops), 30 (Indigenous Australians in custody)  and 110 (Occupied Palestinians violently  killed by Israeli armed forces).

(1). Nevertheless “Palestinian lives matter” has surfaced despite massive censorship and self-censorship  of Zionist-subverted Western  Mainstream media.

I get most of my news from Australian ABC (the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC), the multicultural Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS),  the American ABC, the US PBS, the UK and Australian Guardian, and, of course, progressive Alternative media such as Countercurrents. However Mainstream coverage of anything in the Zionist-subverted  US or in Zionist-subverted, US lackey Western nations is heavily censored  by massive constraints on reportage of  the daily crimes of a nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, serial war criminal, grossly human rights-abusing, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel.

A major reason for this massive censorship and self-censorship is that the endlessly mendacious, ferocious and genocidally racist Zionists and their collaborators have established a Mainstream norm that falsely labels any criticism of Apartheid Israel as “anti-Semitic”, and falsely defames anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish critics of Apartheid Israel as “anti-Semites”. Indeed anti-racists  Jews are   not only falsely defamed as “racists” and “anti-Semites” but also as “self-hating Jews” and “self-loathing Jews” [1, 2]. Many examples of this ferocious Zionist censorship and intimidation can be given, but the most damaging example was the destruction of progressive and anti-racist UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by the traitorous, pro-Apartheid Israel lobby [1]. As for  my own country, Australia, many examples can be given of the persecution of journalist, writers  and academics daring to criticize the appalling crimes of Apartheid Israel [2-10].

However this extraordinary censorship and self-censorship of Western Mainstream media about Apartheid Israel is occasionally evaded. Indeed this Zionist-established  norm  was notably  broken  in June 2020 by the respected UK Guardian newspaper in publishing an article by Oliver Holmes entitled “Palestinian lives matter: Israeli killing of autistic man draws US comparison” [11]. The article referred to a Tweet  by the Ramallah, Occupied West Bank-located  Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD) about the Israeli shooting to death in Jerusalem of an autistic Palestinian man,  Eyad Al-Hallaq ,despite the desperate pleas of his carer: “Eyad and George were victims of similar systems of supremacy and oppression. They must be dismantled. [Captions on victim pictures stated] Two countries similar system. George Floyd, African American, suspected for using a counterfeit $20 bill, killed by US police. Eyad Al-Hallaq, Palestinian with autism, [Police] suspected his cell phone for a gun, killed by Israeli police” [12]. Warda Abu Hadid (caregiver of the  unarmed and fearful autistic Eyad Al-Hallaq shot dead by Israeli police who ignored her pleas and assumed that his mobile phone was a gun): “[I shouted in Hebrew] He’s disabled, disabled Wait a moment, take his ID card, check his ID”. Suddenly they fired three bullets at him, in front of my eyes. I shouted: “Don’t shoot him.” They didn’t listen; they didn’t want to hear. They came up to me, pressed their guns against me and said: “Give us the pistol he gave you” [he didn’t]” [11].

A Google Search for the phrase “Black lives matter” yields 55,000,000 results whereas a Google Search for “Palestinian lives matter” yields only 27,000 results i.e. over 2,000 times fewer results. However something is better than nothing,  and the Mainstream media reporting “Palestinian lives matter” in the first 5 pages of the Search results include NPR, Los Angeles Times, Times of Israel, Haaretz, Guardian, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Gulf News, Huffington Post, Telegraph and Herald.

In similar vein, a Google Search for “Rohingyan Genocide” yields 350,000 results.  Wikipedia reports 24,000 killed and more than 700,000 refugees in the ongoing Rohingyan Genocide [13].  However a Google Search for “Palestinian Genocide” yields only 22,000 results, a very surprising outcome in view of the relatively  huge dimensions of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide: 7 million refugees, and 2.2 million Palestinian deaths from violence (0.1million) or from imposed deprivation (2.1 million) since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1 [14-27].

I devote 1 chapter each to the “Rohingyan Genocide” (Chapter18 ) and to the “Palestinian Genocide” (Chapter 16) in my recently-published book “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” [27]. Indeed the Epilogue of this book contains a List of 58 Holocausts and/or  Genocides (in which deaths in holocausts, genocides and famines and deriving from actual violence or from imposed deprivation are given in brackets) from (1) the  1978-1997 Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (6 million deaths) to (58) the 2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (circa 0.1 million deaths) [26, 27]. Most of these 58 atrocities are variously ignored, downplayed  or not given the precise “Holocaust” or “Genocide” appellation  by Western Mainstream media for the reason explored in “The Politics of Genocide” by Edward S. Herman and  David Peterson. This book  exposes holocaust-ignoring and genocide-ignoring by Western  Mainstream media, political and academic Establishments except when the atrocities are committed  by perceived “enemies” of the US Alliance (all non-European countries plus Serbia) [28, 29]. The Rohingyan Genocide is indeed a Genocide and recognized as such by US-beholden Mainstream media because the perpetrator, Myanmar, is linked to China (hated by the US). Conversely,  the Palestinian Genocide is ignored as such and  greatly downplayed by US-beholden, Zionist-subverted Western Mainstream media.

(2). Each year on average at least 65 non-violent US Blacks are killed by cops versus about 550 Palestinians (mostly civilians) killed violently by Apartheid Israel, and 14 Australian Aboriginal deaths in custody – “annual deaths in custody per million of population” is 1.5 (unarmed Black Americans killed by cops), 30 (Indigenous Australians in custody)  and 110 (Occupied Palestinians violently  killed by Israeli armed forces).

 It is estimated that annual fatal encounters of Americans with police have totalled  about 700 per  year and that Blacks are 3 times  more likely to be killed by police than White people [30]. If one assumes for the purpose of calculation that Black = Non-White,  this data indicates about 365 White deaths each year and 335 Non-White deaths each year at the hands of US cops. Assuming that about 90% of the Non-White deaths are actually Black deaths (African American deaths) then we can crudely estimate that about 300 Black Americans are killed by US cops each year out of a Black American population of 44.0 million (13.4% of the US population of 328 million). It is similarly estimated that an average of 688 Americans  died each year in such killings by cops (2003-2009), with 75% involving response to a violent offence, and the remaining 25% associated with  “non-violent “crimes”  [31]. Applying this to our crude estimate of 300 Black Americans killed each year by US cops, we can estimate that 25% (75) of these deaths did not involve violent crimes and were public-order offenses, drug offenses, or otherwise had no specific context.

Of the circa 700 annual  deaths from US cops, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that: “Of reported arrest-related deaths, 45 percent of persons allegedly engaged in assault immediately prior to or during the arrest…. Of reported persons who died during the process of arrest, 95 percent were male. About 42 percent were white, 32 percent were black/African American [224] and 20 percent were Hispanic or Latino. More than half (55 percent) were between ages 25 and 44, and juveniles (persons under age 18) were about 3 percent of all arrest-related deaths” [14]. Of these 224 Black deaths, 25% (56) did not involve violent crime.  From these 2 approaches we can estimate that about 65 Black Americans die each year in arrests not involving violent crime i.e. in similar  circumstances to the murder of George Floyd. Note that the US population is presently 328 million and the African American population totals 44 million.

While only 4,000 Zionist invaders were killed by Palestinians in the period 1920-2019, since the British invasion of the  Middle East in 1914  about 2.2 million Palestinians have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million. In the 21st  century an average of 550 Palestinians have been killed violently each year by the Israeli police and military [32-36]. However it gets worse. Poverty kills and the per capita GDP is a deadly $3,199 for Occupied Palestine as compared to $41, 715 for Occupier Apartheid Israel (World Bank, 2018 [37]).  From differential infant mortality data between Apartheid Israel and Occupied Palestine one can estimate 4,200 avoidable deaths from imposed deprivation each year in Occupied Palestine out of a population of 5 million (an estimated 84,000 such avoidable deaths since 2000) [20].

The Indigenous People of Australia  (Australian Aboriginals) have suffered a 242-year Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Australian Aboriginal Ethnocide that are still ongoing. In short, before the British Invasion in 1788, Indigenous Australians had  been living in Australia for about 60,000 years. There were 350-750 different tribes and a similar number of languages and dialects, of which only 150 survive today and of these all but about 20 are endangered.  After the British Invasion the Aboriginal population dropped from about 1 million in 1788 to about 0.1 million in the first century through introduced  disease, deprivation and genocidal violence. The last massacres of Aborigines occurred in the late 1920s but no Treaty has ever been signed. Indigenous Australians were only counted  after a referendum in 1967, and were finally given some protection by the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act. In 1998  about 4,000 Aborigines out of an Aboriginal  population of 500,000 died avoidably  every year but the avoidable deaths as a percentage of population per annum has declined from 0.8% pa in 1998 to 0.6% pa in 2013, with still  circa 4,200 annual avoidable deaths out of an Indigenous population of about 700,000. Indigenous Australians are far worse off than White Australians in relation to housing, health, wealth, social conditions, imprisonment, avoidable death and life expectancy [38-40].

Annual avoidable deaths from deprivation as a percentage of population per annum is  about 0.0% for White Australia, Apartheid Israel and the US, but 0.4% (South Asia), 0.6% (Indigenous Australia)  and 1.0% (sub-Saharan Africa) [38, 39, 41].

Annual Aboriginal deaths custody in the period 1991-2020 total 434 deaths/30 years = 14.5 deaths per year.   The Australian Aboriginal population was 0.266 million in 1991 and 0.700 million in 2020 for an average of 0.483 million. Accordingly, for Indigenous Australians  the annual deaths in custody per million of population = 14.5 deaths/0.483 million people = 30 [38-40].

Annual deaths in custody per million of population are 1.5 (unarmed Black Americans killed by cops), 30 (Indigenous Australians in custody)  and 110 (Occupied Palestinians violently  killed by Israeli armed forces).

(3). Covid-19 deaths per million of population 340 (Apartheid US), 44-828 (Western Europe), 597 (UK), 32 (pro-Apartheid Israel), 4 (pro-Apartheid Australia) and 0.8 (the Occupied Palestinian Territories).

In view of the huge “Black lives matter” demonstrations in the US, UK, Europe and Australia, and the likely impact of consequent  large-scale lack of social distancing on the spread of the coronavirus, it is useful to consider Covid-19 deaths in Apartheid US, Apartheid Israel, Apartheid Australia and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” ratio (as of 7 June 2020) is  339 (pro-Apartheid US), 32 (Apartheid Israel), 4 (pro-Apartheid Australia) and 0.8 (the Occupied Palestinian Territories) [42, 43].

Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention state unequivocally that an Occupier must provide its conquered Subjects with life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” [44]. However in relation to huge Subject avoidable deaths from deprivation, and ventilator non-provision in  the context of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic,  the US and Australia grossly violate the  Geneva Convention in Occupied Afghanistan, and Apartheid Israel grossly violates this in Occupied Palestine.

Thus “annual avoidable deaths from deprivation” are huge in impoverished Occupied Afghanistan (84,000) and Occupied Palestine (4,200) but zero (0) for the rich and war criminal Occupiers, pro-Apartheid US, pro-Apartheid Australia and Apartheid Israel [45].

Ventilators  per million (/M) people  are 504/M (Occupier US), 173/M (Occupier Australia) and 407/M (Occupier Apartheid Israel) versus 8/M (Occupied Afghanistan), 38/M (Occupied Palestine) and 13/M (Gaza Concentration Camp) [45].

The “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” statistic for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (0.8) is  very good in relation to other world leaders in tackling Covid-19: 0.1 (Kerala), 0.3 (Hong Kong),  0.3 (Taiwan),  0.8 (Occupied Palestine), 3 (China),   4 (New Zealand), 4 (Australia), 4 (Singapore),  5 (South Korea) and 7 (Japan) [42] – but clearly could have been 8 times better but for criminal insufficiencies  imposed by genocidally racist Apartheid Israel.

This excellent result for Occupied Indigenous Palestinians – notwithstanding being under brutal Occupation – is in stark contrast to the gross failure of governments in North America, the UK and Western Europe as revealed by the following “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” statistics (as of 8 June 2020): 44 (Norway), 75 (Austria), 102 (Denmark), 105 (Germany), 145 (Portugal), 176 (Luxembourg), 205 (Canada), 222 (Switzerland), 340 (Ireland), 340 (US), 351 (Netherlands), 462 (Sweden), 447 (France), 561 (Italy), 580 (Spain), 597 (UK) and 828 (Belgium [42].

The excellent Occupied Indigenous Palestinian outcome can be attributed to key factors such as (1) much greater practical social empathy among Occupied Palestinians as in Kerala, and (2) being hermetically sealed off under Israeli Apartheid from its brutal Occupier, Apartheid Israel proper, which due to greedy neoliberalism has a “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” ratio of 32 [42].

(4). Apartheid Israeli and Apartheid US “knee on neck” images – Apartheid Israelis train US police in deadly restraint techniques.

The whole world is now familiar with horrifying images of the slow and public 8:46 minute  killing  of African American George Floyd. You will be utterly shocked and appalled by the New York Times  video reconstruction “How George Floyd was killed in police custody” [46].

However images are now appearing of “knee on neck” and “knee on chest” techniques being applied by  Apartheid Israel IDF and police goons to Indigenous Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Further, clear evidence is emerging that such deadly techniques are being taught by neo-Nazi Israeli practitioners  to US enforcement officers across America. I will let the following   images and words testimony do the talking.

(i). Mohammad Alqadi (Palestinian athlete, tweeting 4 images of  “knee-on-neck” being applied by Israelis to Palestinians): “Crazy how the same thing happens in Palestine but the world chooses to ignore it” [47].

(ii). TRT World reports (with a “knee to neck” image): “For Palestinians living under military occupation in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, the worst excesses of the kind seen in the US recently, are a near everyday occurrence. … “Crazy how the same thing happens in Palestine but the world chooses to ignore it,” Palestinian athlete Mohammad Alqadi wrote on his Twitter above four separate images of Israeli soldiers pinning Palestinians to the ground with their knees on their necks or head” [48].

(iii) Israeli Tactical Krav Maga Counter Terror Academy (law enforcement and counter-terrorism techniques training) writes as follows (with “knee on neck” imagery): “Krav Maga [“Contact Combat” in Hebrew] trainings are certified by Israeli Tactical School – Counter Terror Academy is a program based on Shin Bet special agents training. Police and the security service. Krav Maga training for police designed in particular for those who serve and public safety organizations, including: training for Police; training Government Protection Bureau ; training for an internal security agency, etc. Israeli Tactical School instructors were background in the Shin-Bet as Executive Protection special agents team leaders, Chief Security officers & Krav Maga instructors. Our instructors combat and special operations experience side by side with vast teaching experience offer a unique learning experience from the source. Shin–Bet or the Israeli Secret Service is a leading counter-terror and security agency responsible to protect Israel most value assets – prime minister, diplomats and airlines. For security reasons and adjustment of the level of training, civilians can participate in training after an earlier interview and verification. Department of law enforcement is part of each of the instructor training in Israeli Tactical School” [49, 50].

(iv) Neta Golan ( co-founder of International Solidarity Movement , ISM): “When I saw the picture of killer cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by leaning in on his neck with his knee as he cried for help and other cops watched, I remembered noticing when many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006. They started twisting and breaking fingers in a particular way around the same time. It was clear they had undergone training for this. They continue to use these tactics — two of my friends have had their necks broken but luckily survived — and it is clear that they [Israel] share these methods when they train police forces abroad in ‘crowd control’ in the US and other countries including Sudan and Brazil” [51].

(v). UK Morning Star newspaper reports: “The training of US police officials by Israeli forces is widespread” [51].

(vi). “Steve Sweeney (Progressive journalist): “ Officers from the U.S. police force responsible for the killing of George Floyd received training in restraint techniques and anti-terror tactics from Israeli law enforcement officers. Floyd’s death in custody on Memorial Day, the latest in a succession of police killings of African Americans, has sparked continuing protests in U.S. cities. At least 100 Minnesota police officers attended a 2012 conference hosted by Israel’s Chicago consulate, the second time such an event had been held. There, they learned the violent techniques used by Israeli forces as they terrorize the occupied Palestinian territories under the guise of security operations. The so-called counterterrorism training conference in Minneapolis was jointly hosted by the FBI… The training of U.S. police officials by Israeli forces is widespread” [52].

(vii). Amnesty International: “Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others from Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state as well as the DC Capitol police have all traveled to Israel for training. Thousands of others have received training from Israeli officials here in the U.S.. Many of these trips are taxpayer funded while others are privately funded. Since 2002, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs have paid for police chiefs, assistant chiefs and captains to train in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)” [53].

Final comments.

All decent people are obliged to follow the examples of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish critics  of nuclear terrorist Apartheid  Israel and its ongoing Palestinian Genocide [54-58]. Palestinian lives matter. Black lives matter. All lives matter. Decent people must inform everyone they can about gross human rights  abuses. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity.

Yet speaking out alone is insufficient. Decent people must take individual and collective action  against the mendacious and murderous racists  running Apartheid America, Apartheid Israel and Apartheid Australia. Decent folk must urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against these racist psychopaths and all those supporting them.  Apartheid America, Apartheid Israel and Apartheid Australia require de-Nazification.

References.

[1]. Gideon Polya, “UK racist Zionists falsely defame  UK Labour Party in support of democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 10 August 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/08/uk-racist-zionists-falsely-defame-uk-labour-party-in-support-of-democracy-by-genocide-apartheid-israel/ .

[2]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-Apartheid Israel Australian Labor Party scraps outstanding anti-Apartheid candidate, Melissa Parke”, Countercurrents, 17 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/pro-apartheid-israel-australian-labor-party-scraps-outstanding-anti-apartheid-candidate-melissa-parke/ .

[3]. Ali Kazak, “Why should Israel’s lobby have different standards?”, Independent Australia, 9 November 2017: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/does-the-nation-have-a-new-white-australia-foreign-affairs-policy,10913 .

[4]. Gideon Polya, “Yassmin Abdel-Magied censored on Anzac Day – jingoists trash Australian free speech”, Countercurrents, 28 April 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/04/28/yassmin-abdel-magied-censored-on-anzac-day-jingoists-trash-australian-free-speech/ .

[5]. Letters to The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia) re Zionists and politicians demanding the banning  of a politics book for high school students and mentioning US and Israeli state terrorism: http://www.theage.com.au/news/letters/he-who-shouts-loudest-not-necessarily-the-best/2006/09/16/1158334730192.html?page=fullpage .

[6]. Paul Heinrichs, “Textbook links US and Israel to “state terrorism””, The Age, 10 September  2006: https://www.theage.com.au/national/textbook-links-us-israel-to-state-terrorism-20060910-ge33s6.html .

[7], Gideon Polya, “Mike Carlton, Top Australian Columnist, Forced From Job For Criticizing Apartheid Israeli Gaza Massacre”,  Countercurrents, 8 August, 2014: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya080814.htm .

[8]. Gideon Polya, “Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK”, Countercurrents, 16 December, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya161215.htm .

[9]. Gideon Polya, “Dual Israeli citizenship & Zionist perversion of America, Australia , India and Humanity”, Countercurrents, 30 July 2017 : https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/30/dual-israeli-citizenship-zionist-perversion-of-america-australia-india-humanity/ .

[10]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Zionism and Israeli State Terrorism threats to Australia and Humanity”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/racist-zionism-and-israeli .

[11]. Oliver Holmes, “Palestinian lives matter: Israeli killing of autistic man draws US comparison”, Guardian, 1 June 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/01/palestinian-lives-matter-israeli-police-killing-of-autistic-man-draws-us-comparison .

[12]. Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, Tweet, 1 June 2020: https://twitter.com/ThePIPD/status/1267121540753129472 .

[13]. “Rohingya Genocide”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide .

[14]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal  Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/20/apartheid-israels-palestinian-genocide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/  .

[15]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .

[16]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents,  9 June  2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .

[17]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .

[18]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide

[19]. Gideon Polya, “COVID-19: Occupiers US, Australia & Apartheid Israel grossly violate Geneva Convention re conquered Subjects”, Countercurrents, 7 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/covid-19-occupiers-us-australia-apartheid-israel-grossly-violate-geneva-convention-re-conquered-subjects/ .

[20]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[21]. Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals  exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism.”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .

[22].  “One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine” : https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .

[23]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/  .

[24]. “State crime and non-state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/  .

[25].  Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide poem: “And then they stole the falafel” , Countercurrents, 31 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/palestinian-genocide-poem-and-then-they-stole-the-falafel/ .

[26]. “Report genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/reportgenocide/list-of-holocausts-and-genocides .

[27]. Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, June 2020; see: https://korsgaardpublishing.com/portfolio/23945/ .   

[28]. “The Politics of Genocide” by Edward S. Herman and  David Peterson (foreword by Noam Chomsky; Monthly Review Press, New York , 2010).

[29]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “The Politics Of Genocide” by Edward Herman And David Peterson”, Countercurrents, 5 December 2011: https://countercurrents.org/polya051211.htm .

[30]. Lauren O’Neill, “Number of U.S. blacks killed by police hard to pin down with no official figures”, CBC News, 9 July 2016: https://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/number-of-black-people-killed-by-us-police-still-no-stats-1.3670513 .

[31]. John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille, “Deaths in police custody in the United States: Research review”, Journalist’s Resource, 2 July 2016: https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/deaths-police-custody-united-states/ .

[32]. Gideon Polya, “Israelis kill ten times more Israelis in Apartheid than do terrorists”, Countercurrents, 1 March 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/israelis-kill-ten-times-more-israelis-in-apartheid-israel-than-do-terrorists .

[33]. Gideon Polya, “Sharpeville Massacre & Gaza Massacres compared – Boycott Apartheid Israel & all its supporters”, Countercurrents, 6 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/06/sharpeville-massacre-gaza-massacres-compared-boycott-apartheid-israel-all-its-supporters/ .

[34]. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Terrorism deaths in Israel – 1920-1999”, 1 January 2000: http://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/terrorism/palestinian/pages/terrorism%20deaths%20in%20israel%20-%201920-1999.aspx .

[35]. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Victims of Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000” : http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Victims%20of%20Palestinian%20Violence%20and%20Terrorism%20sinc.aspx .

[36]. “Crime in Israel”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Israel .

[37]. “List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita .

[38]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .

[39]. Gideon Polya, “Aboriginal Genocide by Apartheid Australia”, Sovereign Union – First nations asserting sovereignty, 16 February 2014: http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/aboriginal-genocide-apartheid-australia .

[40]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Statistics on the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, 1994: https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/3d68c56307742d8fca257090002029cd/8dc45512042c8c00ca2569de002139be!OpenDocument .

[41]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes  an avoidable mortality-related history of every country from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal  on the web  : http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/  .

[42]. Worldometer, “Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic”: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ .

[43]. WHO, “Coronavirus disease 12019, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 14 May 2020: https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-situation-report-29-occupied .

[44]. “Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War”, 12 August 1949: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf .

[45]. Gideon Polya, “COVID-19: Occupiers US, Australia & Apartheid Israel grossly violate Geneva Convention re Occupied Subjects”,  Countercurrents, 7 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/covid-19-occupiers-us-australia-apartheid-israel-grossly-violate-geneva-convention-re-conquered-subjects/ .

[46]. New York Times,“How George Floyd was killed in police custody”, YouTube, 1 June 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksEJR9EPQ8 .

[47]. Mohammad Alqadi, “Crazy how the same thing happens in Palestine but the world chooses to ignore it”,  Twitter, 30 May 2020: https://twitter.com/alqadipal/status/1266675209676959745  .

[48]. “The “knee-on-neck”, long a staple of Israel’s occupation of Palestine”, TRT World, 1 June 2020: https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-knee-on-neck-long-a-staple-of-israel-s-occupation-of-palestine-36787  .

[49]. Israeli Tactical Krav Maga Counter Terror Academy: https://israelitacticalkravmaga.com/law-enforcement/ .

[50]. Israeli Tactical Krav Maga Counter Terror Academy,´” About Us”: https://israelitacticalkravmaga.com/about-us/ .

[51].  Steve Sweeney, “Minnesota cops “trained by Israeli forces in restraint techniques””, Morning Star, 1 June 2020:  https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/minnesota-cops-trained-israeli-forces-restraint-techniques .

[52]. Steve Sweeney, “Israeli forces trained cops in “restraint techniques” at Minneapolis conference”, People’s World, 3 June 2020: https://peoplesworld.org/article/israeli-forces-trained-cops-in-restraint-techniques-at-minneapolis-conference/ .

[53]. Amnesty International, “With whom are many U.S. police departments training? With a chronic human rights violator –Israel”: https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/ .

[54]. “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home .

[55]. “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[56]. “Boycott Apartheid  Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.

[57]. “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration  .

[58].  “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty and reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/nuclear-weapons-ban .

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades.

8 June 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Helen Yaffe

4 Jun 2020 – The response of socialist Cuba to the global SARS-CoV2 pandemic has been outstanding both domestically and for its international contribution. That a small island nation, subjected to hundreds of years of colonialism and imperialism and, since the Revolution of 1959, six decades of the criminal United States blockade, can play such an exemplary role is due to Cuba’s socialist system. The central plan directs national resources according to a development strategy which prioritises human welfare and community participation, not private profit.

Cuban authorities reacted quickly to Chinese information about SARS-CoV2 at the start of the year. In January, authorities established a National Intersectoral Commission for COVID-19, updated their National Action Plan for Epidemics, initiated surveillance at ports, airports and marines, gave COVID-19 response training for border and immigration officials and drafted a ‘prevention and control’ plan. Cuban specialists travelled to China to learn about the new coronavirus’ behaviour and commissions of the government’s Scientific Council began to work on combating the coronavirus. Throughout February, medical facilities were reorganised, and staff trained to control the spread of the virus domestically. In early March a science and biotechnology group was created to develop COVID-19 treatments, tests, vaccines, diagnostics and other innovations. From 10 March inbound travellers were tested for COVID-19. All of this was before the virus was detected on the island.

On March 11, three Italian tourists were confirmed as the first cases of COVID-19 in Cuba. Cuban healthcare authorities stepped into action, organising neighbourhood meetings, conducting door-to-door health checks, testing, contact tracing and quarantining. This has been accompanied by education programmes and daily information updates. The population went under ‘lockdown’ on 20 March, required to abide by social distancing rules and wear facemasks when leaving homes on essential business. Business taxes and domestic debts were suspended, those hospitalised had 50% of their salaries guaranteed and low-income households qualified for social assistance and family assistance schemes, with food, medicine and other goods delivered to their homes. Workshops nationwide began to produce masks, bolstered by a grassroots movement of home production, and community mutual aids groups organised to assist the vulnerable and elderly with shopping for food as long queues became the norm. On 24 March, Cuba closed its borders to all non-residents, a tough decision given the importance of tourism revenue to the state. Anyone entering the country was required to spend a fortnight in supervised quarantine, under a testing regime. Defence Councils in the Provinces and Municipalities were activated.

In April payment of utility bills was suspended, likewise local and regional transport, while transport was guaranteed for medical staff and other essential workers. Havana and other cities were disinfected. 20 communities in six provinces were placed under total or partial quarantine. A Cuban-designed mobile phone app, ‘Virtual Screening’, went live with an opt-in application allowing users to submit an epidemiological survey for statistical analysis by the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP). Measures were taken to keep the virus out of prisons, with active screening twice daily and no reported cases by 23 April.

By May 24, a Cuban population of 11.2 million had reported 82 deaths and fewer than 2,000 confirmed cases; 173 confirmed cases per million people, compared to 3,907 per million in Britain. Not one healthcare worker had died, although 92 had been infected by mid-April.

Cuba’s exemplary response is based on five features of its socialist development. First, its single, universal, free public healthcare system which seeks prevention over cure, with a network of family doctors responsible for community health who live among their patients. Second, Cuba’s biopharma industry which is driven by public health needs, produces nearly 70% of the medicines consumed domestically and exports to 50 countries.[1] Third, the island’s experience in civil defence and disaster risk reduction, usually in response to climate-related and natural disasters. Its internationally applauded capacity to mobilize national resources to protect human life is achieved by a network of grassroots organizations which facilitate communication and community action. Fourth, the island’s experience in operating infectious disease (border) controls. For decades, Cuba has sent healthcare professionals to countries which have infectious diseases long-since eradicated on the island and has invited tens of thousands of foreigners from those countries to study in Cuba. It has well-developed procedures for quarantining people (re)entering the island. Fifth, Cuban medical internationalism, which has seen 400,000 healthcare professionals providing free healthcare for underserved populations in 164 countries; some 28,000 medical personnel were serving in 59 countries when the pandemic began. By late May, an additional 2,300 healthcare specialists from Cuba’s Henry Reeve medical brigades, specialists in epidemiological and disaster response, had gone to 24 countries to treat patients with COVID-19.

A commitment to high-standard public healthcare

In 1959, Cuba had some 6,000 doctors but half of them soon left; only 12 of the 250 Cuban teachers at the University of Havana’s Medical School stayed. There was only one rural hospital. The revolutionary government faced the challenge of providing a high-standard public healthcare system almost from scratch. To that end, in 1960, the Rural Medical Service (RMS) was established and over the next decade hundreds of newly graduated doctors were posted in remote areas. RMS physicians served as health educators as well as clinicians. National programs were established for infectious disease control and prevention. From 1962 a national immunization program provided all Cubans with eight vaccinations free of charge. Infectious diseases were rapidly reduced, then eliminated. By 1970, the number of rural hospitals had reached 53. Not until 1976 was the pre-revolutionary ratio of doctors to citizens restored. By then, health services were available nationwide and indicators had improved significantly. A new model of community-based polyclinics was established in 1974 giving Cuban communities’ local access to primary care specialists. Training and policy emphasized the impact of biological, social, cultural, economic and environmental factors on patients. National programs focused on maternal and child health, infectious diseases, chronic non-communicable diseases, and older adult health.

In 1983, the Family Doctor and Nurse Plan was introduced nationwide. Under this system, family doctor practices were set up in neighborhoods, with either the doctor or the nurse living with their family above the practice, so medical attention is available 24 hours a day. Family doctors coordinate medical care and lead health promotion efforts, emphasizing prevention and epidemiological analysis. They rely on history-taking and clinical skills, reserving costly high-tech procedures for patients requiring them, holding patient appointments in the mornings and making house calls in the afternoons. The teams carry out neighborhood health diagnosis, melding clinical medicine with public health, and individualized ‘Continuous Assessment and Risk Evaluation’ (CARE) for their patients. Family doctors and nurses are also employed in large workplaces and schools, child day-care centers, homes for senior citizens and so on.

By 2005, Cubans had one doctor for every 167 people, the highest ratio in the world. Cuba now has 449 policlinics, each attending to 20,000 to 40,000 people and serving as a hub for 15 to 40 family doctors. There are more than 10,000 family doctors spread evenly throughout the island.

Primary Health Care as the backbone of Cuba’s response

An article in April 2020 Medicc Review describes Cuba’s primary health care system as a ‘powerful weapon’ against COVID-19. ‘Without early access to rapid tests, massive testing was clearly not in the cards as a first strategic option. However, primary health care was.’ Cuban authorities ensured that everyone in the healthcare system, including support staff, received COVID-19 training before the virus was detected. Senior medics from each province were trained at Cuba’s world-famous hospital for tropical diseases, Instituto Pedro Kourí. On returning to their provinces they then trained colleagues in the second tier – hospital and polyclinics directors. ‘Then they went on to the third tier: training for family doctors and nurses themselves, lab and radiology technicians, administrative personnel, and also housekeeping staff, ambulance drivers and orderlies. Anyone who might come into contact with a patient’, explained a polyclinic director, Dr Mayra Garcia, who is cited in the Medicc article.

Each polyclinic also trained non-health sector people in their geographical area, in workplaces, small business owners, people renting homes, especially to foreigners, or managing childcare facilities, telling them how to recognize symptoms and take protective measures. Senior medical professionals in the polyclinics were sent to family doctors’ offices as reinforcement. Medical staff were posted in local hotels to provide 24-hour detection and health care to foreigners residing there. Walk-in emergency services were re-organized to separate anyone with respiratory symptoms and to provide 24-hour assessment. Non-COVID-19 related appointments were postponed where possible or shifted to home visits for priority groups.

The Medicc article underscores the importance of the CARE model for combating COVID-19. All Cubans are already categorized into four groups: apparently healthy, with risk factors for disease, ill, and in recovery or rehabilitation. Doctors know the health characteristics and needs of the community they serve. ‘The CARE model also automatically alerts us to people who are more susceptible to respiratory infections, the people whose chronic diseases are the risk factors most commonly associated with complications in COVID-19 patients’ explained Dr Alejandro Fadragas.

Throughout Cuba, CDRs, or street committees, organized public health information meetings for family doctors and nurses to advise neighborhoods about the pandemic. Once the first cases were confirmed, the family doctors daily house visits were extended and became the ‘single most important tool’ for active case detection, to get ahead of the virus.[4] Some 28,000 medical students joined them going door to door to detect symptoms. This procedure means the whole population can be surveyed.

People with symptoms are remitted to their local polyclinic for rapid evaluation. Those suspected of having COVID-19 are sent on to one of the new municipal isolation centers established throughout the island. They must remain for a minimum of 14 days, receiving testing and medical attention. If the case appears to be another respiratory illness, they return home but must stay indoors for at least 14 days, followed up in primary care. Hospitals are reserved for patients who really need them.

Primary healthcare professionals are also responsible for rapid contact tracing for all suspected cases; those contacts are tested and must isolate at home. In addition, the homes and communal entrances of patients sent to isolation centers are disinfected by ‘rapid response’ teams consisting of polyclinic directors and vice directors, alongside family members. Family doctors’ offices are also disinfected daily. Meanwhile, workers in hotels where foreigners are lodged are checked daily by medical staff. The polyclinic provides them with PPE and disinfectants. Polyclinics and family doctors are also responsible for 14 days follow-up for COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.

Home-grown medicine

The Cuban treatment protocol for COVID-19 patients includes 22 drugs, most produced domestically. The focus has been placed on prevention, with measures to improve innate immunity. Early on the potential of Cuba’s anti-viral drug Heberon, an interferon Alfa 2b human recombinant (IFNrec), was identified. The biotech product has proven effective for viral diseases including hepatitis types B and C, shingles, HIV-AIDS, and dengue. Produced in Cuba since 1986 and in China since 2003 through a Cuban-Chinese joint venture, ChangHeber, in January 2020 it was selected by the Chinese National Health Commission among 30 treatments for COVID-19 patients. It soon topped their list of anti-viral drugs, having demonstrated good results.

The drug has most efficacies when used preventatively and at early stages of infection. In Wuhan, China, nearly 3,000 medical personnel received Heberon as a preventative measure to boast their immune response; none of them contracted the virus. Meanwhile, 50% of another 3,300 medics who were not given the drug did get COVID-19. Cuba’s IFNrec is recommended in the medical protocols of several countries, by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Johns Hopkins Medical Centre and the World Journal of Paediatrics among others. The product was already registered in Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Jamaica, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Uruguay. By mid-April requests for its use had been received from some 80 countries and it was being administered by Cuba’s Henry Reeve medical brigades treating COVID-19 patients overseas. On 14 April it was reported that 93.4% of COVID-19 patients in Cuba had been treated with Heberon and only 5.5% of those had reached a serious state. The mortality rate reported by that date was 2.7% but for patients treated with Heberon it was just 0.9%.

Other Cuban medicines reporting promising results include:

• Biomodulina T, a immunomodulator which stimulates the immune systems of vulnerable individuals and has been used in Cuba for 12 years, principally to treat recurrent respiratory infections in the elderly.
• The monoclonal antibody Itolizumab (Anti-CD6), used to treat lymphomas and leukemia, administered to COVID-19 patients in a severe or critical condition to reduce the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, which cause the massive flow of substances and liquid in the lungs.
• CIGB-258, a new immunomodulatory peptide designed to reduce inflammatory processes. By 22 May, 52 COVID-19 patients had been treated with CIGB-258; among those in a severe stage, the survival rate was 92%, against a global average of 20%. For those in a critical condition the survival rate was 78%.
• Blood plasma from recovered patients.

Cuban medical scientists are producing their own version of Kaletra, an antiretroviral combination of Lopinavir and Ritonavir, used to treat HIV/AIDS. Domestic production will eliminate costly imports from capitalist big pharma and subject to the US blockade. Meanwhile, the homeopathic medicine, Prevengho-Vir, which is believed to strengthen the immune system has been distributed for free to everyone on the island. Medical scientists are evaluating two vaccines to stimulate the immune system and four candidates for specific preventative vaccine for COVID-19 are under design.

By early May, Cuban scientists had adapted SUMA, a Cuban computerized diagnostic system, to detect antibodies for COVID-19 rapidly, allowing for mass testing at low cost. ‘The objective is to find new cases and then intervene, isolate, seek contacts, and take all possible measures to ensure that Cuba continues as it is now’, said Cuba’s top epidemiologist, Francisco Durán during his daily televised update on 11 May. This means the island no longer relies on donated tests or expensive ones purchased internationally. Cuba’s comparatively high rate of testing is set to soar.

BioCubaFarma is mass producing facemasks, personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical and sanitary products, as well as coordinating state enterprises and self-employed workers to repair vital equipment, such as breathing ventilators. Cuban efforts to purchase new ventilators have been obstructed by the US blockade which, for almost 60 years, has included food and medicines among its prohibitions.

Leading the global fight

On March 18, Cuba allowed the cruise ship MS Braemar, with 684 mostly British passengers and 5 confirmed COVID-19 cases, to dock in Havana after a week stranded at sea, having been refused entry by Curacao, Barbados, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and the United States. Cuban authorities facilitated their safe transfer to charter flights for repatriation. Three days later, a 53-strong Cuban medical brigade arrived in Lombardy, Italy, at that time the epicenter of the pandemic, to assist local healthcare authorities. The medics were members of Cuba’s Henry Reeve Contingent, which received a World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health Prize in 2017 in recognition for providing free emergency medical aid. It was the first Cuban medical mission to Europe. By 21 May, over 2,300 Cuban healthcare professionals had gone to 24 countries to treat COVID-19 patients, including a second brigade in northern Italy and another to the European principality Andorra.

The threat of a good example

Cuban medical internationalism began in 1960, but the export of healthcare professionals was not a source of state revenue until the mid-2000s with the famous ‘oil for doctors’ program under which 30,000 Cuban healthcare workers served in Venezuela. US President Bush’s administration responded by attempting sabotage Cuba’s medical export earnings with the Cuban Medical Parole Programme. This induced Cuban professionals, who had paid no tuition costs, graduated debt free and voluntarily signed contracts to work abroad assisting underserved populations, to abandon missions in return for US citizenship. President Obama kept the Programme, even while praising Cuban medics combating Ebola in West Africa. It was ended in his last days in office in January 2017.

The Trump administration has renewed attacks on Cuban medical missions, fuelling their expulsion from Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia, and leaving millions of people in those countries without healthcare. The motivation was the same; to block revenues to a nation which has survived 60 years of US hostility. In the context of the pandemic, when the US government’s wilful failures have resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, socialist Cuba’s global leadership has represented the threat of a good example. Lashing out, the US State Department has labelled Cuban medics as ‘slaves’, claiming that the Cuban government seeks revenues and political influence. It has pressured beneficiary countries to reject Cuban assistance in their time of urgent need. These attacks are particularly vile; it is likely that Cuba is receiving no payment, beyond costs, for this assistance.

Meanwhile, the criminal US blockade, which has been punitively tightened under Trump, is preventing the purchase of urgently needed ventilators for Cuba’s own COVID-19 patients. A Chinese donation to Cuba of medical equipment was blocked because the airline carrying the goods would not travel to Cuba for fear of US fines. There is now a growing international demand for an end to all sanctions, not least against Cuba which has shown global leadership in combating the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. We must all add our voices to this demand. There are also calls from organisations and individuals worldwide to nominate Cuba’s Henry Reeve Contingents for a Nobel Peace Prize. What is clear from its history of principled medical internationalism is that, with recognition or without, revolutionary Cuba will continue to fight for global healthcare wherever its citizens, and its example, can reach.

8 June 2020

Source: www.transcend.org

By Steve Striffler

2 Jun 2020 – On April 7, a top court in Ecuador sentenced the country’s former left-wing President Rafael Correa to eight years in jail in absentia for corruption. The ruling in the case, which came to be known as Sobornos (Bribes) 2012-2016, is still pending appeal and Correa’s lawyers will no doubt take this matter to international institutions where they will argue he has been the victim of a political witch-hunt with no respect for due process.

Correa, who has been living in his wife’s home country, Belgium, since before Ecuador’s current president, Lenin Moreno, unleashed the judiciary against him, is unlikely to be extradited in the context of what has become a highly politicised process.

The fact that Interpol has already rejected a red notice that Ecuador had requested against Correa, albeit for a different case, is a strong indicator that there is little international trust in the political neutrality of Ecuador’s justice system.

The primary goal of the trial, however, is not to imprison Correa, but to make sure he is prevented from entering the country and from appearing on any ballot in the 2021 presidential and parliamentary elections.

This manipulation of the judicial system in order to prosecute opponents is familiar enough to observers of Latin America; indeed, it is such a well-worn strategy of the region’s resurgent right that it has its own name: “lawfare”.

What is new in the case of Ecuador is the scale of this practice. Perverting the legal system in order to subvert the democratic process has become the defining strategy – indeed, the essence – of the current government, which is faced with plummeting popularity and an opposition that would win in any fair election. This is not good news for democracy in Ecuador or Latin America.

The Moreno government has faced rising unpopularity (his credibility rating oscillates between seven and 14.7 percent depending on the pollster, and a recent poll put his approval rating at 18.7 percent) amid the disastrous state of the economy, the gross mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis, and major backsliding in the area of social policy. All this has meant that Correa, whose 10-year rule was crowned by a sharp reduction of poverty and inequality, and sustained economic growth, once again looms large on the political horizon.

Polls suggest that were elections to be held tomorrow, Correa, or even “Correa’s candidate of choice”, would come first place in the first round of presidential elections and possibly even win the runoff. The possibility that Correa’s movement might return to power has led a desperate government to take “lawfare” to new heights, a tendency that has serious implications for democracy in the region, as similar political battles will no doubt play out throughout Latin America in the coming years.

With elections scheduled for February 2021, Moreno’s government has accelerated its attacks on Correa and his followers. In the aftermath of large-scale protests against Moreno’s IMF-driven reforms in October 2019, several Correa allies were arrested on dubious charges, including Paola Pabon, the elected governor of Pichincha province, which encompasses the country’s capital.

Several legislators belonging to Correa’s party sought refuge in the Mexican embassy to avoid being arrested. Under international pressure, including some exerted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Ecuador eventually released some prisoners and allowed safe passage for some who wanted to seek asylum in Mexico.

Some prominent supporters of Correa’s political movement, however, were not as lucky. Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador and a close Correa collaborator, for example, remains in jail on charges of corruption, despite criticism that his trial was aimed at removing him from the vice-presidency.

Correa can no longer run for the presidency after the Ecuadorian constitution was amended in 2018 with a provision barring elected officials from running more than once for the same office. The amendments were approved in a referendum, which the Moreno government convened and which IACHR and the Organization of American States criticised.

However, Correa can still vie for other elected office. If he were to run for the vice presidency or for a seat in the National Assembly, it could draw a great deal of popular support to his political movement and help it win next year’s election. Only a criminal conviction against Correa, confirmed in appeals, could prevent that.

Coincidentally or not, as of April 2020, Ecuador’s chief prosecutor, Diana Salazar, a fervent anti-correista, was overseeing more than 25 investigations against the former president. But only certain types of crimes, in the cases of former civil servants, can be tried in absentia. And only a final conviction, after the appeals process has been fully exhausted, can lead to the stripping of someone’s political rights and bar that person from participating in elections.

So, in May 2019, the prosecution opened a corruption investigation against Correa and several of his former collaborators for illegal campaign financing. The case soon rested on the testimony of one of Correa’s former advisers, Pamela Martinez, who claimed to have accepted money, with Correa’s knowledge from several donors.

After offering her testimony against Correa, Martinez, who had been arrested as part of the investigation, was able to secure her freedom. Part of the evidence used against Correa is a notebook supposedly detailing illegal transactions in 2013-2014.

Martinez claimed she had written the whole notebook from memory “on an impulse” during a flight from Quito to Guayaquil in 2018. The defence has argued that this seemed unlikely, given that she documented amounts to the exact dollar for dozens of cash deposits from different individuals.

On April 6, the day before the court announced its verdict in the case, what appeared to be emails between the secretary of the Prosecutor General and the judge presiding over the case, containing a draft of the final sentence, were leaked by a group of people claiming to be judicial workers. These claims, if proven true, could lead to the judge and those involved in the prosecutor’s office being criminally tried for perverting the course of justice.

The COVID-19 crisis has brought Ecuadorian judicial proceedings to a standstill. But the case against Correa has proceeded, and we can expect to see the appeals process speed up too. If the former president registers as a candidate in the 2021 electoral race on September 18, he would be immune from prosecution until voting is done. The clock is ticking.

The case itself has been marred by irregularities, which could discomfit the judges in the appeals process. And only time will tell whether Correa’s appeal to a higher court will yield the same result or lead to the ruling being overturned.

Likewise, Ecuador’s dire economic travails, its disastrous handling of COVID-19, rising social unrest, and popular anger against the government could still disrupt elites’ carefully crafted plans to subvert the democratic will of the people and be rid of Correa and his politics. Regardless, nothing less than democracy itself will be at stake in Ecuador during the coming months.

Steve Striffler is the Director of the Labor Resource Center and Professor of Anthropology at UMass Boston.

8 June 2020

SOurce: www.transcend.org

By Gregor Link

2 Jun 2020 – The coronavirus pandemic is acting as a catalyst in the scramble by the great powers to redivide Africa. German imperialism sees the crisis as an opportunity to assert its global geopolitical interests by force of arms. In the last few days, the Bundestag (parliament) decided to extend or prolong two military operations. Besides Libya, Mali and Somalia, German forces may operate in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger in the future.

Sahel region

On Friday [29 May], by a large majority, the Bundestag gave the starting signal for a massive escalation of the German military deployment in the Sahel region of west Africa. The stationing of 1,100 Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) soldiers in Mali under the umbrella of the United Nations (UN) MINUSMA mission was extended. At the same time, the training of African troops has been expanded.

The Bundestag resolution provides for the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) programme, which has been running for seven years, to be extended until May 2024 and extended to the entire Sahel region. This means that in the future, European soldiers will also train the armed forces of the pro-Western regimes in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. The European Council had already created a corresponding mandate a week ago.

In Mali, the EUTM “training mission” has so far built up an army of 20,000 troops. However, in a recent editorial, Lorenz Hemicker, political editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, considers the results achieved so far to be insufficient. He complains that the Malian armed forces are not yet capable of “fighting insurgency on their own,” although the Bundeswehr informs the government troops “about the best tactics in local and house fighting.”

For this reason, the new mandate provides for the mission to be strengthened by Germany with 100 additional soldiers. The troops of the Bamako regime, which is hated by the population, will thus be able to go into action in the future accompanied by up to 450 German “trainers.” In this way, the Bundeswehr is provoking violent clashes between German soldiers and local oppositional militias, which in turn could provide the pretext for the deployment of armed combat drones in the region. A currently unarmed Heron combat drone has been in service with the Bundeswehr in Mali since 2016.

In addition, the EUTM mission is being transferred from Koulikoro in southern Mali directly to the war zone in the interior of the country. The new base will be in Sévaré near Mopti, where the heaviest battles between government troops and militias are raging. Only a few kilometres away, unknown persons murdered the inhabitants of the village of Ogossagou last March, including many women and children.

As eyewitnesses told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk radio at the time, the murderers included heavily armed men in uniforms of the Malian army. They were equipped “with bulletproof vests and modern weapons, as the Malian army has them,” a witness reported. The Malian government troops, according to their own statements, had “withdrawn” from the village a few hours earlier and did not return to the scene of the massacre until hours later—although the villagers had sent desperate distress calls to the authorities.

For years, the Malian regime has been demonstrably committing atrocities against the civilian population. A report to the UN Security Council spoke of at least three “attacks on civilians” in 2018, including a “suspected mass execution with 44 dead” and an attack on a cattle market in which “12 civilians were killed.” UN investigators also discovered several mass graves. In 2019, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which also supports military action, wrote that the regime-supported “militias…terrorise the population in order to impose its influence in disputed regions.”

This policy is now being extended to Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad in the interest of German and European imperialism. A strategy paper of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) states that “the regional security forces” are indeed “part of the problem”—but “without them, it is not possible.”

Since “overcoming the corona crisis will temporarily push everything else into the background,” the German government should work towards “including countries like Burkina Faso and Niger and better linking all missions [in the Sahel]. The focus initially should be on civil and medical projects, rather than military capabilities [emphasis added].”

In other words, under the pretext of the fight against COVID-19, Bundeswehr troops and the murderous “regional security forces” trained by Europe should “link up” their combat strength with the UN mission MINUSMA and the French military mission code-named Barkhane.

MINUSMA comprises up to 15,200 foreign soldiers and police officers who were stationed in Mali “following Opération Serval” in order to “stabilise” conditions. Barkhane, the successor mission to Serval, in turn officially includes 3,000 French soldiers for “counterinsurgency” measures and the killing of “Islamists,” as well as special forces and mercenaries of the Foreign Legion.

In addition to access to gold, uranium, and labour, involvement in the region, from the German point of view, is particularly concerned with combating so-called “illegal migration”—i.e., using armed force to fight desperate refugees.

People fleeing from ethnic violence and colonial oppression and seeking a way through the Sahara meet watering points that are blocked by the Nigerian military. The result is a gigantic death strip right across the African continent. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that the number of people who die in the desert is at least twice as high as the number of dead migrants in the Mediterranean. The organisation estimates that more than 30,000 people “disappeared” in the Sahara between 2014 and 2018.

In Niger, which has been armed to the teeth by Germany in particular, the Bundeswehr also maintains a military base that, according to media reports, acts as a “hub” for all German military operations in the Sahel region. Chancellor Merkel had thanked Nigerian President Issoufou Mahamadou in 2018 for the “highly successful cooperation” in the “fight against illegal migration.”

Germany is directly involved in this bloody “fight.” For at least half a year now, elite German navy troops (KSM) have been on combat duty in the country and training special units of the Nigerian military. The secret mission had previously taken place without a Bundestag mandate, but with the extension of EUTM, a mandate has now been created for the so-called Operation Gazelle.

Those who do not die of thirst in the Sahara are threatened with enslavement. In Mauritania, whose troops will in future also be trained by European soldiers, slavery was legal until 2007, though the economic structures of it still exist. According to estimates by local anti-slavery organisation SOS Esclaves, there were still 600,000 slaves in Mauritania in 2010.

Horn of Africa

On Wednesday, the Bundestag extended the European “Atalanta” mission off the coast of Somalia by another year, by an overwhelming majority of 536 parliamentary deputies. This means that up to 400 German soldiers will continue to participate in the European Union’s so-called anti-piracy mission, which has been ongoing since 2008. The German and European naval forces are defending imperialist interests in a region that has suffered unprecedented social devastation due to Western overfishing, unilateral trade agreements and decades of civil war.

“Through its presence in the sea area off the Horn of Africa, the EU…protects European interests and contributes to the stabilisation of the region,” reads the German government’s mission statement. Among other things, the mission plans to use armed force to shield UN food supplies from unauthorised access and to fight local “pirates” with naval forces.

The military mission has not failed to have its effect over the past 12 years. According to a report by weekly Die Zeit, which welcomes the mission, the number of attacks on transnational trawlers has “decreased enormously” in recent years. Illegal fishing by foreign fleets, on the other hand, has continued to increase in the slipstream of European warships, according to UN sources.

Somalia and other countries in East Africa are currently suffering the worst floods in 40 years. The massive rains have caused dams to burst, which in turn have destroyed infrastructure and homes, forcing people to stay in home-made huts. Nearly 1 million people have been affected, and 400,000 have lost their homes.

The flood disaster is also hampering the humanitarian work of the UN, including the fight against COVID-19, and has created the conditions for the second plague of locusts since the beginning of this year. Twenty million Somalis are at risk of starvation, and almost 3 million are refugees. The country’s infrastructure has been largely destroyed after three decades of armed conflict.

As for COVID-19, the country is threatened by the epidemic. The US Johns Hopkins University lists the country in second last place in its Global Health Security Index (GHS Index), which represents the state of preparedness to deal with epidemics in 195 countries. The university currently measures the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Somalia at 1,731. The number of cases has been rising rapidly since the beginning of April, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be high; the 67 officially registered fatalities include the Minister of Justice of the state of Hirshabelle.

Although the imperialist powers have created the conditions for this maelstrom of displacement, natural disasters and pandemic in the last decades, they are now using the devastating situation as a pretext to prepare a geopolitical redivision of the region using military force. The Atalanta mission also fulfils a “deterrent function” in this respect, Die Zeit notes.

“Germany and Europe face several challenges in dealing with COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa, but there are also opportunities,” notes a current strategy paper published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Germany has proven to be a “reliable partner” for the East African regimes and should now “lead the way” in taking on the role of “coordinator” within the EU.

In this context, the paper suggests “hosting a Sudan conference,” as the country on the Red Sea is of “enormous strategic importance” for the entire region. At the beginning of May, the Bundestag sent almost 300 Bundeswehr soldiers to Libya, where such a conference was held in January chaired by Germany.

8 June 2020

Source: www.transcend.org

By John Scales Avery

A new freely downloadable book

I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents evidence supporting the thesisthat elimination of excessive economic inequality makes societies happier and better. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Benefits-of-Equality-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Ideals of the Enlightenment

The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas during the 17th to 19th centuries. Sir Isaac Newton’s rational explanations for cosmic phenomena demonstrated that reason is better than superstition. Diderot’s Encyclopedia and the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau paved the way for the end of Feudalism, the end of the theory of the Divine Right of Kings, and the liberation of serfs and slaves throughout the world.

In England, John Locke was expressing the spirit of the times when he wrote: “Men living together according to reason, without a common superior on earth with authority to judge between them, is properly the state of nature… A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature and the use of the same facilities, should also be equal amongst one another without subordination or subjection…”

“`But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence… The state of nature has a law to govern it, which obliges every one; and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.”

Locke’s ideas were reflected in the wording of the American Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalinable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Sadly, these ideals do not hold in the United States today, and perhaps they never did. Although years of slavery were ended after the Civil War, and dispite the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement, racisim is widespread today, and in fact US President Donald Trump was elected on an openly racist platform. During his term of office he has been a racist in both word and deed.

Recently many American cities have erupted in protests over the senseless killing by police of yet another black man – George Floyd. The country is deeply divided.

Racism, colonialism and exceptionalism

It seems to be possible for nations, and the majority of their citizens, to commit the worst imaginable atrocities, including torture, murder and genocide, while feeling that what they are doing is both noble and good. Some understanding of how this is possible can be gained by watching the 3-part BBC documentary, “The History of Racism”:

http://www.africaspeaks.com/reasoning/index.php?topic=8708.0;prev_next=prev

The series was broadcast by BBC Four in March 2007, and videos of the broadcasts are available on the Internet. Watching this eye-opening documentary can give us much insight into the link between racism and colonialism. We can also begin to see how both racism and colonialism are linked to US exceptionalism and neocolonialism.

Looking at the BBC documentary we can see how often in human history economic greed and colonial exploitation have been justified by racist theories. The documentary describes almost unbelievable cruelties committed against the peoples of the Americas and Africa by Europeans. For example, in the Congo, a vast region which King Leopold II of Belgium claimed as his private property, the women of villages were held as hostages while the men were forced to gather rubber in the forests. Since neither the men nor the women could produce food under these circumstances, starvation was the result.

Leopold’s private army of 90,000 men were issued ammunition, and to make sure that they used it in the proper way, the army was ordered to cut off the hands of their victims and send them back as proof that the bullets had not been wasted. Human hands became a kind of currency, and hands were cut off from living men, women and children when rubber quotas were not fulfilled. Sometimes more than a thousand human hands were gathered in a single day. During the rule of Leopold, roughly 10,000,000 Congolese were killed, which was approximately half the population of the region.

Oligarchy and war

Today the world spends almost two trillion dollars ( $ 2,000,000,000,000) every year on armaments. This vast river of money, almost too large to be imagined, is the “devil’s dynamo” driving the institution of war. Politicians notoriously can be bought with a tiny fraction of this enormous amount; hence the decay of democracy. It is also plain that if the almost unbelievable sums now wasted on armaments were used constructively, most of the pressing problems now facing humanity could be solved.

Because the world spends almost two thousand billion dollars each year on armaments, it follows that very many people make their living from war. This is the reason why it is correct to speak of war as an institution, and why it persists, although we know that it is the cause of much of the suffering that inflicts humanity, and that we live under the constant threat of an all-destroying thermonuclear war.

Money from wealthy oligarchs in military-industrial complexes buys the propaganda of the mass media and the votes of politicians. Numbed by the propaganda, citizens allow politicians to vote for obscenely bloated military budgets, the oligarchs are further enriched, and thus the circular flow of money continues. Excessive economic inequality is at the root of the problem of war, as well as the loss of our democratic institutions.

The poor suffer most in the COVID-19 pandemic

The poor are suffering most from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rich can isolate themselves in comfort, working people with no savings are faced with the choice between risking their lives in unsafe work-places or starvation because of lack of income. Here are quotetions from a recently-published article by Jake Johnson entitled “’Grotesque’: While 41 Million People Lost Jobs Due to Covid-19, US Billionaires Grew Nearly $500 Billion Richer”, Common Dreams, May 28, 2020:

“Billionaire wealth is surging at the same time that millions face suffering, hardship, and loss of life. This is a grotesque indicator of the deep inequalities in U.S. Society.

“Statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor show that with 2.1 million new unemployment claims filed last week, a staggering 40.7 million Americans have lost their jobs over just the past 10 weeks as mass layoffs induced by the coronavirus pandemic continue.

“During that same 10-week period, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the combined net worth of America’s billionaires soared by nearly half a trillion dollars, bringing their total wealth to $3.4 trillion.”

Equality, happiness and renewable energy in Scandanavia

The Green New Deal can simultaneously address the climate crisis and the problem of excessive economic inequality. In this context, it is interesting to look at the social and economic systems of the Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

In these countries the contrast between the rich and poor has been very much reduced. It is almost true to say that poverty has been eliminated in these countries. At the same time, the Scandinavians have strong policies to address the climate emergency. Thus Scandinavian successes are a counter-argument to those who say that the Green New Deal cannot be put into practice.

The Scandinavian countries also rank very highly on the Global Happiness Index and the Human Development Index, thus demonstrating the benefits of equality,

To achieve a happy and sustainable world, we urgently need to decrease excessive economic inequality, both within and between nations.

Other books and articles about global problems are on these links

http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/.

https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery

5 June 2020

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. Because they control the minds of the masses, they have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power…If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X

“For one bright moment back in the late 1960s, we actually believed that we could change our country. We had identified the enemy. We saw it up close, we had its measure, and we were very hopeful that we would prevail. The enemy was hollow where we had substance. All of that substance was destroyed by an assassin’s bullet.” – William Pepper (page 15, The Plot to Kill King)

***

Across America, as well as in Western Europe, there is an ongoing campaign against racism following the dramatic events in Minneapolis. Our thoughts are with George Floyd, his family and friends. We stand in solidarity with African-Americans who are the target of police killings and racial discrimination. Colonial and contemporary history has left its mark. Today, African-Americans are also the victims of neoliberalism which triggers poverty, social inequality and unemployment.

The campaign against racism including the protest movements cannot be divorced from the broader battle against neoliberalism and the carefully designed instruments of economic and social oppression.

At this juncture, there is an important question which must be addressed. The Covid-19 pandemic, which is based on manipulated data coupled with a fear campaign is destroying people’s lives. It is an act of economic and social warfare against humanity. It is carried out Worldwide.

The most recent evidence from a leaked report of Germany’s Ministry of the Interior confirms that the COVID-19 virus is a “Global False Alarm”. According to the team of experts contracted by the German Government, Covid-19 is of lesser significance than the 2017-2018 seasonal flu, which barely made the headlines. While the report acknowledges the dangers to public health, it nonetheless emphasizes that “The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses. There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm”. [in German in the report: globalen Fehlalarm]

Other reports come to similar conclusions not to mention the manipulation of death certificates.

Italy’s lockdown in early March was justified by quoting “fake data”. Vittorio Sgarbi, MP stated in Parliament that the closure of 60% of Italy’s economy was taken on the basis of an “estimated” 25,000 Coronavirus deaths.

“It’s not true,” he said. “According to the National Institute of Health, 96.3% did not die of coronavirus, but of other pathologies stated Sgarbi – which means that only 925 have died from the virus and 24,075 have died from other things claimed Sgarbi, “… the virus was little more than an influenza. Don’t lie! Tell the truth!”

The lies are numerous: Both in Britain and the US, “duplicate counting” has been used to inflate the reported positive cases.

Many prominent scientists and politicians have courageously spoken out:

Senator Dr. Scott Jensen of Minnesota “received a 7-page document that showed him how to fill out a death certificate as a “COVID-19 diagnosis” even when there isn’t a lab test confirming the diagnosis”. According to Jensen:

“Right now Medicare is determining that if you have a COVID-19 admission to the hospital you get $13,000. If that COVID-19 patient goes on a ventilator you get $39,000, three times as much. Nobody can tell me after 35 years in the world of medicine that sometimes those kinds of things impact on what we do.” (Dr. Sen. Scott Jensen, from Fox Interview, emphasis added)

Meanwhile, politicians have been lying through their teeth, the media has been entrusted to sustaining the fear campaign. People’s lives are threatened. Lies and Bribes are the driving force. Politicians and scientists are co-opted.

All of which is intent on justifying “social distancing” as well as enforcing the infamous lockdown which confines people to their homes, in many cases without income, food and medical attention. And people obey because they are scared.

But why have these issues not been raised by the anti-racism campaign?

Confinement is “racist”. It serves as a justification to deny peoples’ fundamental right to employment. It’s social engineering. The lockdown destroys our institutions, undermines family life and social relations, destroys culture (including music and the arts), closes down schools and universities, and of course it impoverishes large sectors of the World population.

And if the pandemic is “A Global False Alarm” (Official Germany Report), there is no justification for closing down the economy. But that report along many other independent reports is subject to media censorship.

The Anti-Racism Campaign and The Lockdown

The lockdown from the outset is being used as a means to destabilize the US economy and create massive unemployment. Why then is the campaign “against racism” firmly supportive of the lockdown?

This campaign against racism is not a protest movement against the financial elites who are pressuring governments to postpone the reopening of the national economy as long as possible.

Big Money controls the politicians. They control the media that wages the fear campaign. They are also the creditors of the State, who are now in the process of concocting a multi-trillion dollar loan package for indebted governments. Their intent is to deregulate the labor market, and pick up the pieces of bankrupt enterprises.

The protests and the riots serve their interests. The financial elites are not the target of the protest movement. Quite the opposite: their elite billionaire foundations are supporting many of the progressive NGOs which are waging the campaign against racism, while also paying lip service to the Democratic Party which is firmly against the reopening of the US economy as part of their 2020 election campaign.

BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 is a campaign aimed to maximize the impact of the BLM movement by galvanizing BLM supporters and allies to the polls in the 2020 U.S Presidential Election to build collective power and ensure candidates are held accountable for the issues that systematically and disproportionately impact Black and under-served communities across the nation.

BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 will focus on issues concerning racial injustice, police brutality, criminal justice reform, Black immigration, economic injustice, LGBTQIA+ and human rights, environmental injustice, access to healthcare, access to quality education, and voting rights and suppression.

This initiative will inspire and motivate people to ask themselves and their candidates are you really addressing What Matters in 2020?

“What Matters in 2020?” While rightly focussing on the police killings and the criminalization of justice, What Black Lives Matter fails to address is that African-Americans are the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic fear campaign, which in practice is contributing to social divisions, racism and the development beyond bounds of a police state apparatus.

It’s a scam: Confinement creates unemployment, affecting African-American communities across the United States. It is an instrument of “economic injustice”. It’s neoliberalism.

The economic and social “collateral damage” of COVID-19 is mass unemployment, poverty, death and despair. It emanates from the financial establishment.

Supporting the lockdown which creates poverty and disrupts economic activity Worldwide has de facto racist overtones. Why? Because it destroys peoples lives.

The damage incurred by a “global economic lockdown” far exceeds the health impacts of the corona virus.

The objective of the financial elites, the billionaire foundations and philanthropists is the concentration of wealth, bankruptcy of the real economy, mass unemployment, social inequality and racism.

If you are against racism, an end to confinement, the reopening of the national economy and the restoration of employment should be a number one priority.

To put it bluntly: There is no mass protest movement against the COVID-19 lockdown. The lies are accepted at face value.

The WHO is funded by the Gates Foundation and Big Pharma, politicians around the World are co-opted and bribed. But at the same time, the billionaire charities and foundations (including Soros, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller et al) are financing the “progressive” anti-racist NGOs, which are acting as a “controlled opposition”.

Manufactured dissent and the funding of dissent is also a multibillion dollar undertaking. “The mechanisms of “manufacturing dissent” require a manipulative environment, a process of arm-twisting and subtle cooptation of individuals within progressive organizations”.

And these NGOs have decided to overlook the fact that African-Americans are the victims of neoliberalism and the lockdown of the US economy.

And the lockdown is an integral part of the 2020 election platform of the Democratic Party, which is a neoliberal pro-war racist agenda imposed by Wall Street, Big Pharma, the Military Industrial Complex, et al.

You cannot wage a battle against the Empire and then ask the Empire to finance your protest movements.

“Everything the [Ford] Foundation did could be regarded as “making the World safe for capitalism”, reducing social tensions by helping to comfort the afflicted, provide safety valves for the angry, and improve the functioning of government (McGeorge Bundy, former National Security Advisor and president of the Ford Foundation, (1966-1979)

BLM does not in any way “endanger” global capitalism:

“… Black Lives Matter is increasingly awash in cash, raking in pledges of more than $100 million from liberal foundations [2016]… [including] The Ford Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy … That funding comes in addition to more than $33 million from top Democratic Party donor George Soros …, as well as grant-making from the Center for American Progress.” [headed by John Podesta Jr., Obama’s White House chief of staff]

This is not an issue of “choice” between Republicans and Democrats both of which are racist and corrupt. It is an issue of confronting the “Big Money” architects of this diabolical project to destabilize the economy, social relations and institutions of the entire planet. The police state and racism is an integral part of that “destabilization agenda”.

A Real Grassroots Movement

What we need is a real grassroots movement, across the land, nationally and internationally, independent of corporate funding. The Coronavirus crisis is an act of war against humanity. We must reach out to all those who are victims of the corona crisis. The legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic depends on fear, disinformation and submission to higher authority.

Breaking the lie means breaking a criminal project of global destruction, in which the quest for profit is the overriding force.

What is required is the development of a broad based independent grassroots network at all levels of society, urban areas, towns and villages, work places, parishes. Workers and farmers organizations, professional associations, business associations, schools, student unions, veterans associations, artists, musicians, church groups would be called upon to integrate this movement. The COVID-19 pandemic is based on a Lie. The consensus has to be broken.

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

6 June 2020

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

By Dr Gideon Polya

Some Palestinian friends in wonderful, peaceful but presently Covid-19 lockdown Melbourne, were considering celebrating International Falafel Day (12 June). The falafel is a delicious Palestinian and Middle Eastern delicacy that is a spicy, deep fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Apartheid Israel having stolen the whole country of Palestine has also appropriated the falafel as its own. On this account I wrote the Palestine Genocide poem “And Then They Stole The Falafel”.

My poem was inspired at several levels by the famous poem by anti-Nazi German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller and known in various forms by the key phrases “First they came..” and “Then they came for me” [1]:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

My Palestinian Genocide poem began its life as a huge List of things the racist Zionists had stolen but I was encouraged to trim it down, and make it scan as the Poem that is reproduced below.

And then they stole the falafel

The violent, lying Zionists stole

All of the ancient land of Palestine,

Three cities, hundreds of villages and towns,

An ancient land ethnically cleansed.

They stole the human rights of Palestinians,

Of Exiled Palestinians, Occupied Palestinians,

And of Israeli Palestinians living as oppressed

Third Class Citizens under race-based laws.

They stole the lives of two million Palestinians,

A hundred thousand dying violently, and

Over two million dying from imposed deprivation

In a Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide.

They stole the futures of millions of children

Abusively imprisoned without charge or trial

In refugee camps, West Bank ghettoes,

And the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp.

They stole the future of all the World’s children

Under threat from Israeli and other nuclear terrorism,

And stole free speech in Zionist-subverted

America, Britain, Canada and Australia.

They stole an ancient religion, Judaism,

Subverting humanism for evil state terrorism,

And the actual history of the non-Semitic Ashkenazim

And of other Jewish peoples around the world.

They stole the very name of Israel,

The ancient name of Torah-observant Jews,

And the religious language of Hebrew,

In the interests of Anglo-American imperialism.

They stole the ancient city of Al Quds,

The third holiest city for Muslims,

And backed America in the US-imposed, post-9-11

Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide.

They stole the Jewish Israeli heritage

Of Berber, Arabic and Yiddish language,

And with evil America helped destroy

Aramaic-speaking societies from Palestine to Iraq.

They stole the flag of Apartheid Israel

From the innocent Greeks, with the Star of David

Stolen from anti-Zionist Orthodox Judaism;

Their national anthem they stole from Smetana.

They stole the reputations of anti-racist Jews,

And of all those opposed to genocide and Apartheid.

They stole the name of a hill facing the Mount of Olives,

Renaming it for genocidal psychopath Herzl.

And then they stole the falafel.

Gideon Polya, 31 May 2020

For those interested in the details and documentation of various aspects of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide the following “Stolen List” may be useful (key, wide-ranging references are [2-25]).

The mendacious, violent, thieving and genocidally racist Zionists stole

(1). the whole of the ancient land of Palestine,

(2). 3 cities (including Al Quds, or Jerusalem, the third holiest city for 1,600 million Muslims around the world),

(3). 400 villages and towns,

(4). the human rights of 14 million Indigenous Palestinians.

(5). all the human rights of 5 million Occupied Palestinians (removal of all human rights specified in the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) [26-28].

(6). the human rights of 7 million Exiled Palestinians,

(7). the human rights of 2 million ”lucky” Palestinian Israelis subject to over 60 Nazi-style, race-based laws [26, 27],

(8). the actual lives of 2.2 million Palestinians (0.1 million violent deaths, 2 million avoidable, premature deaths from imposed deprivation in the over 100 year, ongoing Palestinian Genocide),

(9). over 90% of the land of Palestine,

(10). the future of 1 million children highly abusively imprisoned without charge or trial in the Gaza Concentration Camp,

(11). the future of 1.5 million children imprisoned in West Bank ghettoes,

(12). the future of 3.5 million Palestinian refugee children,

(13). the future of all the World’s children (Apartheid Israel’s nuclear terrorism via its up to 400 nuclear weapons existentially threatens Humanity and the Biosphere) [29],

(14). effective free speech in Zionist-subverted countries (notably the US, UK , France, Canada and Australia [30-39),

(15). a religion (Judaism, subverted and thence appropriated by a genocidally racist ideology and a nuclear terrorist state) [40],

(16). the actual history of the non-Semitic, Khazar-derived, Eastern European Ashkenazim and indeed of all other Jews[ 40-45],

(17). the very name Israel (the collective originally describing Torah-observant Jews),

(18). the very language of Israel (stolen from use of Hebrew in religious observance in Judaism, with the variously Berber, Arabic and Yiddish of the colonists being “disappeared” in the interests of racist Zionism, oil, and Anglo-American imperialism),

(19). the flag of Apartheid Israel (the colour scheme and design concept from the Greek flag, and the Star of David from anti-Zionist Orthodox Judaism),

(20). the reputation and dignity of decent, anti-racist Jews and indeed of all people opposed to racism , genocide and Apartheid,

(21). the reputation and dignity of everyone in a silence-is-complicity Western World that supports nuclear terrorist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel and hence racism, genocide and Apartheid,

(22). the conscience of the West by promoting and participating in the US-imposed, post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide (32 million Muslims killed dead from violence (5 million) or from deprivation (27 million), in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance after the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity (3,000 killed) that many science, architecture, engineering, aviation, military and intelligence experts conclude involved the US Government with some asserting Israel and Saudi involvement [33, 35],

(23). the name of an ancient hill facing the Mount of Olives and re-named Mount Herzl after genocidally racist psychopath Theodor Herzl (founder of genocidal Zionism) [46].

(24). the Israeli national anthem, the Hatikva (the theme of the Vltava, the River Moldau, in Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s beautiful symphonic poem, “My Country” (“Má vlast”) ) [47].

(25). and then they stole the falafel.

Final comments.

Decent anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish people around the world must act (a) by informing everyone they can about the evil of Apartheid Israel and its ongoing Palestinian Genocide, and (b) by urging and applying Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, politicians, parties, collectives, companies and countries complicit in these atrocities, as indeed were successfully applied against Apartheid in Apartheid South Africa.

All this evil was utterly avoidable as evidenced by successful multi-racial societies across the world from the Canada and the UK to Fiji. A clear, humane solution to the continuing human rights catastrophe in Palestine is a unitary state (one-state solution, bi-national state) as in post-Apartheid South Africa that would involve return of all refugees, zero tolerance for racism, equal rights for all, all human rights for all, economic decency for all, one-person-one-vote democracy, justice, goodwill, reconciliation, airport-level security, nuclear weapons removal, internationally-guaranteed national security initially based on the present armed forces, and untrammelled access for all citizens to all of Palestine. It can and should happen tomorrow [15].

And then they can all sit down and have falafels together.

References.

[1]. ”First they came…”, Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…  .

[2]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal  Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/20/apartheid-israels-palestinian-genocide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/  .

[3]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .

[4]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents,  9 June  2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .

[5]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .

[6]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide .

[7]. Gideon Polya, “COVID-19: Occupiers US, Australia & Apartheid Israel grossly violate Geneva Convention re conquered Subjects”, Countercurrents, 7 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/covid-19-occupiers-us-australia-apartheid-israel-grossly-violate-geneva-convention-re-conquered-subjects/ .

[8]. “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home .

[9]. “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[10]. “Boycott Apartheid  Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.

[11]. “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration  .

[12].  “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty and reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[13]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[14]. Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals  exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism.”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .

[15].  “One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine” : https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .

[16]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/  .

[17]. “State crime and non-state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/  .

[18]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .

[19]. UN Genocide Convention: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide.

[20]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli Jewish Nation-State Law enshrines Apartheid and genocidal racism”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2018:  https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/24/israeli-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrines-apartheid-and-genocidal-racism/ .

[21]. United Nations, “Israel’s settlements have no legal validity, constitute flagrant violations of international law, Security Council reaffirms.   14 delegations in favour of Resolution 2334 as United States abstains”, 23 December 2016: https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm .

[22]. Gideon Polya, “Is UN Security Council Resolution 2334 the beginning of the end for Apartheid Israel?””, Countercurrents, 28 December 2016: https://countercurrents.org/2016/12/28/is-un-security-council-resolution-2334-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-apartheid-israel/ .

[23]. Gideon Polya, “Anti-racist Jewish humanitarians oppose Apartheid Israel & support UN Security Council Resolution 2334”, Countercurrents, 13 January 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/anti-racist-jewish-humanitarians-oppose-apartheid-israel-support-un-security-council-resolution-2334/ .

[24]. Gideon Polya, “Israelis kill 10 times more Israelis in Apartheid Israel than do terrorists”, Countercurrents, 1 March 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/01/israelis-kill-ten-times-more-israelis-in-apartheid-israel-than-do-terrorists/ .

[25]. Gideon Polya, “Gideon Polya: “Pro-Apartheid Israel Australian Labor Party scraps outstanding  anti-Apartheid candidate, Melissa Parke”, Countercurrents, 17 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/pro-apartheid-israel-australian-labor-party-scraps-outstanding-anti-apartheid-candidate-melissa-parke/ .

[26]. Susan Abulhawa, “Israel’s “nation-state law” parallels the Nazi Nuremburg Laws”, Al Jazeera, 27 July 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-nation-state-law-parallels-nazi-nuremberg-laws-180725084739536.html .

[27]. “Discriminatory laws in Israel:, Adalah, https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 .

[28]. “Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War”, 12 August 1949: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf .

[29]. Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty & reverse  climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Australian xenophobia targets China but ignores huge Israeli subversion of Australia”, Countercurrents, 7 July 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/07/australian-xenophobia-targets-china-but-ignores-huge-israeli-subversion-of-australia/ .

[31].  “Subversion of Australia”: https://sites.google.com/site/subversionofaustralia/  .

[32]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel & pro-Apartheid US & Canada face word sanctions over  Occupied Jerusalem”, Countercurrents, 20 December 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/12/20/apartheid-israel-pro-apartheid-us-australia-canada-face-world-sanctions-over-occupied-east-jerusalem/ .

[33]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable  Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .

[34].  Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel & pro-Apartheid US & Canada face word sanctions over  Occupied Jerusalem”, Countercurrents, 20 December 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/12/20/apartheid-israel-pro-apartheid-us-australia-canada-face-world-sanctions-over-occupied-east-jerusalem/ .

[35]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .

[36]. Gideon Polya, “Refutation Of Mainstream-Accepted Racist Zionist Lies Behind  Israel ‘s Gaza Massacres And Palestinian Genocide”,  Countercurrents, 26 July, 2014: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya260714.htm .

[37]. Gideon Polya, “Dual Israeli citizenship & Zionist perversion of America, Australia , India and Humanity”, Countercurrents, 30 July 2017 : https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/30/dual-israeli-citizenship-zionist-perversion-of-america-australia-india-humanity/ .

[38]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Zionism and Israeli State Terrorism threats to Australia and Humanity”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/racist-zionism-and-israeli

[39]. Gideon Polya, “50 Ways Australian Intelligence Spies On Australia And The World For UK , Israeli And US State Terrorism”,  Countercurrents, 11 December, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya111213.htm .

[40]. Neturei Karta, “Israeli Independence Day”: http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/20090429IID.cfm .

[41]. Shlomo Sand, “The Invention of the Jewish People”, Verso, London, 2009.

[42]. Arthur Koestler, “The Thirteenth Tribe”.

[43]. Eran Elhaik, “Uncovering Ashkenaz, birthplace of Yiddish speakers”, The Conversation, 6 May 2016:  https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355 .

[44]. Martin Richards et al, “A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages”, Nature, 2013: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131008/ncomms3543/full/ncomms3543.html  .

[45]. Gideon Polya, “Professor Stuart Rees awarded inaugural Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace prize by supporters of Palestinian human rights”, Countercurrents, 6 December 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/professor-stuart-rees-awarded-inaugural-jerusalem-al-quds-peace-prize-by-supporters-of-palestinian-human-rights/ .

[46]. Gideon Polya, “Zionist quotes re racism and Palestinian Genocide”, Palestinian Genocide : https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/zionist-quotes .

[47]. “Má vlast”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1_vlast .

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003).

31 May 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Two of the biggest democracies in the world now face the biggest challenges in their political history. Yes, I am speaking about United States and India. One has failed to accommodate the huge Black population victim of the racism in that country while the other has failed to include the Dalits in the decision making as caste hatred and caste related violence and discrimination is on the rise in India. In fact, Indians take their caste identities along with them when they travel to US as well as other countries such as UK, and Canada.

First let us speak about, United States, which claimed to be the ‘greatest’ democracies of the world actually getting exposed with the growing anxiety among its African American or Black people who remained excluded in the large part of the American life. The brutal murder of a black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th, 2020 sparked an unprecedented outrage in the entire United States and it look as if the level of tolerance and patience shown by the huge black population was now over. Over the years, we have seen American police killing youth of the African American origins at will and the discrimination and exclusion was growing. With President Donald Trump openly siding with white supremacists, it was clear that unless the huge black population does not rise in revolt things wont change.

The way George Floyd was murdered shows the deep rooted prejudices against the African American. Today, a situation has arisen when black youth does not know whether he will return home safe or not. Just a few days ago, there was a video of a white woman calling police in a park where a black youth has just asked her to put her dog on a leash as was required when you bring a pet in the park. Just on this, the woman named Amy Cooper, who worked with Franklin Templeton, called the police that this man whose name is Christian Cooper and hailing from African American origin, is threatening her. Now, can you imagine what happens in the united states when a black man or woman face the police?

George Floyd begged the police officer that he has health issues, he cant breath.. if you watch the video, he is in pain, begging to the police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee over his neck for nearly 8 minutes resulting in painful death. Other police officers too were holding him in such a way that there was no way. George Floyd was arrested for giving fake USD 20 currency in a Deli i.e. Grocery Store combined with a restaurant. Police accused him of not cooperating though the video which was shot by some one shows Floyd begging that he has problem in breathing, dont push your knee on his neck but then the American police has does it that way.

Anyone who saw the video was actually pained. Good thing is that people across community lines including media, the Hollywood as well as big corporations have now started speaking against racism which is a good sign but this is not going to get resolved without the fair representation and participation of the African American in the American power structure. A huge country like America can not have two white dominated corporate funded political parties. The American system has this problem and now the issue of race relations has put the biggest challenge before them. An incompetent leadership which is encouraging white supremacists in the name of ‘America First’ has created such a deep divide that it will need a lot of perseverance and nation building exercise again. You need statesman. Often, the political leadership quote Martin Luther King Jr whenever such crisis comes but African American at the moment seem to tilt more towards the assertive Malcolm X.

India and Indians are not in a good position to preach the United States about ‘democracy’ and ‘equality’. If the police stations, FIRs and killing in the custody is concern, the caste pattern of our forces come out in open. Prejudices are high and in the last one decade situation has worsened. Corona has created more fears among the marginalised while anti CAA protests and subsequent cases being framed against activists belonging to minorities as well as marginalised sections clearly reflect the pattern that powers here too are working on an agenda to strengthen the Savarna monopoly over our administration, judiciary, media and polity. Democracy is not merely voting in five years but in real sense democracy is accepting diversity and divergent views but in today’s India it is difficult to have a dissenting view because you fear the repercussion. You write anything and somebody feel ‘hurt’ in jhumaritalllaiyaa and file a case against you. You dont know the place and dont have the resources but the police can come knocking your door any time and behave the same way as the American do, perhaps worst than them as policing is a colonial system in this country.

But in terms of participation in political structure is concern, thank to Baba Saheb Ambedkar the spaces for the Dalits and other sections is far better than America as Congress there does not have enough Black representative. More over, it is difficult to have political parties in the US without corporate support and there are lobbies. The African American population is not fairly represented. There are no welfare programmes unlike India where we have not only political reservation but also job reservation. But what makes United States better and greater is that it provided opportunities to all. It learnt its lessons from every mistake. The African American people fought and got their dues though not enough but society is individuals and you dont find khap panchayats or a religious rights group threatening to kill you. You can eat what you like, whether Jhatka or Halal, pork or beef and go anywhere, meet any one and enjoy your life. We have so many moral guardians here that life has become more difficult.

So, in the US they have better system and a better social order and that is why even corporate houses like NIke condemn it and Frenklin Templton actually dismissed the woman who called police to falsely implicate the black man in the park. In India such things are rare. In fact, the companies are completely brahmanical dominated by Banias and Jains. All these companies lack diversity at their managerial level. They would not even like to have diversity in their offices. Our news offices are dominated by a few savarna communities and so is the social life where prejudices run deep.

Things were turning better but then we have the onslaught of the right wing supremacists who felt that it is time to deepen their hegemony. The two great democracies are now facing the biggest challenge but it will continue unless they become inclusive embrace dialogue and respect divergent views. If political protest are considered anti nationals and sought to be handled through ‘administrative’ methods where minorities, Dalits, Adivasis, Blacks, African American are considered as criminal or terrorists then situation will turn explosive. Political leadership has to speak up and put a healing touch as the scars are deep. Mature democracies believe in dialogues and resolution through discussions, debate and inclusion. It is time our political leadership show maturity and initiate a dialogue and protect our democracies.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social activist.

31 May 2020

Source: countercurrents.org

By Sally Dugman

I remember on MA tv news watching a white man getting arrested in my state by police for verbally harassing a black couple on a motorcycle in his neighborhood. It was considered a hate crime.

I recall my black friend leading a peaceful protest outside of an MA library against NH white supremacists together in a meeting there. Library administration there started blocking the group from being there in a meeting.

One of our MA sports Icons drove 15 hours to GA to join a protest there where he grew up as a child. How not?

I started stopping racism when I was five years old — the same year that I also tried to help Hiroshima Maidens. It is simply intolerable. Enough!

I have tried throughout my entire life to live peacefully. Yet I can understand the riots in the USA about George Floyd. We are all fed up!

Floyd’s final words are below. They read like some sick sort of poem — a poem from Hell.

“It’s my face man
I didn’t do nothing serious man
please
please
please I can’t breathe
please man
please somebody
please man
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
please
(inaudible)
man can’t breathe, my face
just get up
I can’t breathe
please (inaudible)
I can’t breathe sh*t
I will
I can’t move
mama
mama
I can’t
my knee
my nuts
I’m through
I’m through
I’m claustrophobic
my stomach hurt
my neck hurts
everything hurts
some water or something
please
please
I can’t breathe officer
don’t kill me
they gon’ kill me man
come on man
I cannot breathe
I cannot breathe
they gon’ kill me
they gon’ kill me
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
please sir
please
please
please I can’t breathe”

I’m sorry for you if you are a racist. The rest of us just can’t take your stance anymore.

Sally Dugman writes from MA, USA.

31 May 2020

Source: countercurrents.org