By Al Jazeera
Johan Galtung, considered the father of peace studies, discusses why he dedicated his life to waging peace in the world.
Recorded on 26 Mar 2010
Johan Galtung (24 Oct 1930 – 17 Feb 2024), a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, was the founder of TRANSCEND International, TRANSCEND Media Service, and rector of TRANSCEND Peace University.
28 April 2025
Source: transcend.org
By Dr. Ramzy Baroud
To conquer a place is to fundamentally subdue its population. This must be clearly differentiated from ‘occupation’, a specific legal term that governs the relationship between a foreign “occupying power” and the occupied nation under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention.
When Israeli forces were ultimately compelled to redeploy from the Gaza Strip in 2005, a direct consequence of the persistent resistance of the Palestinian population there, the United Nations resolutely insisted that the Gaza Strip remained an occupied territory under international law.
This position stood in stark contradiction to that of Israel, which conveniently produced its own legal texts that designated Gaza a ‘hostile entity‘ – thus, not an occupied territory.
Let us try to understand what appears to be a confusing logic:
Israel proved incapable of sustaining its military occupation of Gaza, which began in June 1967. The paramount reason for Israel’s eventual redeployment was the enduring Palestinian Resistance, which rendered it impossible for Israel to normalize its military occupation and, crucially, to make it profitable – unlike the illegal settlements of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Between 1967 and the early 1970s, when Israel began investing in building illegal settlement blocks in the Strip, the Israeli military under the command of Ariel Sharon relentlessly strove to suppress Palestinians. He employed extreme violence, mass destruction, and ethnic cleansing tactics to subdue the Strip.
Yet, at no juncture did he achieve his ultimate and comprehensive objectives of complete subjugation.
Subsequently, he invested in his infamous, but failed ‘Five Fingers‘ plan. At the time the head of the Israeli army Southern Command – which included Gaza – Sharon stubbornly believed that the only way to defeat the Gazans was by severing the contiguity of the Strip, thus hindering organized resistance.
In pursuing this aim, he sought to divide Gaza into so-called security zones where the main Israeli Jewish settlements would be built, fortified by massive military build up. This would be joined by Israeli military control of key routes and the blocking of most coastal access.
However, this plan never fully actualized, as creating these ‘fingers’ required that Palestinians on both sides of the ‘security zones’ would have to be pacified to some extent – a condition that reality on the ground never delivered.
What did actualize was the building of isolated settlement blocks: the largest was in the southwest of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, known as the Gush Katif, followed by the northern settlements, and finally the central settlement of Netzarim.
Housing a few thousand settlers, and often requiring the presence of a far greater number of soldiers assigned to protect them, these so-called settlements were essentially fortified military towns. Due to the limited geography of Gaza (181 square miles or 365 square kilometers) and the stiff resistance, the settlements had limited space for expansion, thus remaining a costly colonial endeavor.
When the Israeli army emptied the last illegal settlement in Gaza in 2005, the soldiers snuck out of the Strip in the middle of the night. At their heels were thousands of Gazans who chased the soldiers until the last of them fled the dramatic scene.
That singular and powerful episode alone is more than sufficient to allow one to assert with unwavering certainty that Gaza was at no point truly conquered by Israel.
Though Israel withdrew its permanent military presence from the main population centers of the Strip, it continued to operate within so-called buffer zones, which were often significant incursions into Palestinian territory, far beyond the armistice line. It also imposed a hermetic siege against Gaza, which starkly explains why the majority of Gazans have never stepped a foot outside the Strip.
Israel’s control over airspace, territorial water, natural resources (mostly Mediterranean gas fields), and much more readily led the UN to its immediate conclusion: Gaza remains an occupied territory.
Unsurprisingly, Israel vehemently opposed this reality. Tel Aviv’s true desire is absolute control over Gaza, coupled with the convenient and self-serving designation of the territory as perpetually hostile. This twisted logic would grant the Israeli military an endlessly exploitable pretext to initiate devastating wars against the already besieged and impoverished Strip whenever it deemed convenient.
This brutal and cynical practice is chillingly known within Israel’s military lexicon as ‘mowing the grass‘ – a dehumanizing euphemism for the periodic and deliberate degradation of the military capabilities of the Palestinian Resistance in an attempt to ensure that Gaza can never effectively challenge its Israeli jailors or break free from its open-air prison.
October 7, 2023, ended that myth, where Al-Aqsa Flood Operation challenged Israel’s long-standing military doctrine. The so-called Gaza Envelope region, where the late Sharon’s Southern Command is based, was entirely seized by the youth of Gaza, who organized under the harshest of economic and military circumstances, to, in a shocking turn of events, defeat Israel.
While acknowledging the UN designation of Gaza as occupied territory, Palestinians understandably speak of and commemorate its ‘liberation’ in 2005. Their logic is clear: the Israeli military’s redeployment to the border region was a direct consequence of their resistance.
Israel’s current attempts to defeat the Palestinians in Gaza are failing for a fundamental reason rooted in history. When Israeli forces stealthily withdrew from the Strip two decades ago under the cover of night, Palestinian resistance fighters possessed rudimentary weaponry, closer to fireworks than effective military instruments. The landscape of resistance has fundamentally shifted since then.
This long-standing reality has been upended in recent months. All Israeli estimates suggest that tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, wounded, or psychologically impaired since the start of the Gaza war. Since Israel failed to subdue the Gazans over the course of two relentless decades, it is not merely improbable, but an outright absurdity to expect that Israel will now succeed in subduing and conquering Gaza.
Israel itself is acutely aware of this inherent paradox, hence its immediate and brutal choice: the perpetration of a genocide, a horrific act intended to pave the way for the ethnic cleansing of the remaining survivors. The former has been executed with devastating efficiency, a stain on the conscience of a world that largely stood by in silence. The latter, however, remains an unachievable fantasy, predicated on the delusional notion that Gazans would willingly choose to abandon their ancestral homeland.
Gaza has never been conquered and never will be. Under the unyielding tenets of international law, it remains an occupied territory, regardless of any eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces to the border – a withdrawal that Netanyahu’s destructive and futile war cannot indefinitely postpone. When this inevitable redeployment occurs, the relationship between Gaza and Israel will be irrevocably transformed, a powerful testament to the enduring resilience and indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
26 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Dr. Ramzy Baroud
“Rights are granted to those who align with power,” Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, eloquently wrote from his cell. This poignant statement came soon after a judge ruled that the government had met the legal threshold to deport the young activist on the nebulous ground of “foreign policy”.
“For the poor, for people of color, for those who resist injustice, rights are but words written on water,” Khalil further lamented. The plight of this young man, whose sole transgression appears to be his participation in the nationwide mobilization to halt the Israeli genocide in Gaza, should terrify all Americans. This concern should extend even to those who are not inclined to join any political movement and possess no particular sympathy for – or detailed knowledge of – the extent of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, or the United States’ role in bankrolling this devastating conflict.
The perplexing nature of the case against Khalil, like those against other student activists, including Turkish visa holder Rümeysa Öztürk, starkly indicates that the issue is purely political. Its singular aim appears to be the silencing of dissenting political voices.
Judge Jamee E. Comans, who concurred with the Trump Administration’s decision to deport Khalil, cited “foreign policy” in an uncritical acceptance of the language employed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio had previously written to the court, citing “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” stemming from Khalil’s actions, which he characterized as participation in “disruptive activities” and “anti-Semitic protests”.
The latter accusation has become the reflexive rejoinder to any form of criticism leveled against Israel, a tactic prevalent even long before the current catastrophic genocide in Gaza.
Those who might argue that US citizens remain unaffected by the widespread US government crackdowns on freedom of expression must reconsider. On April 14, the government decided to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding to the University of Harvard.
Beyond the potential weakening of educational institutions and their impact on numerous Americans, these financial measures also coincide with a rapidly accelerating and alarming trend of targeting dissenting voices within the US, reaching unprecedented extents. On April 14, Massachusetts immigration lawyer Nicole Micheroni, a US citizen, publicly disclosed receiving a message from the Department of Homeland Security requesting her self-deportation.
Furthermore, new oppressive bills are under consideration in Congress, granting the Department of Treasury expansive measures to shut down community organizations, charities, and similar entities under various pretenses and without adhering to standard constitutional legal procedures.
Many readily conclude that these measures reflect Israel’s profound influence on US domestic politics and the significant ability of the Israel lobby in Washington DC to interfere with the very democratic fabric of the US, whose Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and assembly.
While there is much truth in that conclusion, the narrative extends beyond the complexities of the Israel-Palestine issue.
For many years, individuals, predominantly academics, who championed Palestinian rights were subjected to trials or even deported, based on “secret evidence”. This essentially involved a legal practice that amalgamated various acts, such as the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), among others, to silence those critical of US foreign policy.
Although some civil rights groups in the US challenged the selective application of law to stifle dissent, the matter hardly ignited a nationwide conversation regarding the authorities’ violations of fundamental democratic norms, such as due process (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments).
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, however, much of that legal apparatus was applied to all Americans in the form of the PATRIOT Act. This legislation broadened the government’s authority to employ surveillance, including electronic communications, and other intrusive measures.
Subsequently, it became widely known that even social media platforms were integrated into government surveillance efforts. Recent reports have even suggested that the government mandated social media screening for all U.S. visa applicants who have traveled to the Gaza Strip since January 1, 2007.
In pursuing these actions, the US government is effectively replicating some of the draconian measures imposed by Israel on the Palestinians. The crucial distinction, based on historical experience, is that these measures tend to undergo continuous evolution, establishing legal precedents that swiftly apply to all Americans and further compromise their already deteriorating democracy.
Americans are already grappling with their perception of their democratic institutions, with a disturbingly high number of 72 percent, according to a Pew Research Center survey in April 2024, believing that US democracy is no longer a good example for other countries to follow.
The situation has only worsened in the past year. While US activists advocating for justice in Palestine deserve unwavering support and defense for their profound courage and humanity, Americans must also recognize that they, and the remnants of their democracy, are equally at risk.
“Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere,” is the timeless quote associated with Abraham Lincoln. Yet, every day that Mahmoud Khalil and others spend in their cells, awaiting deportation, stands as the starkest violation of that very sentiment. Americans must not permit this injustice to persist.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
26 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Jessica Corbett
As Israel continues to bomb and impose a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, the United Nations World Food Program announced Friday that “WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens” in the Palestinian enclave, which “are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.”
“For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza. Despite reaching just half the population with only 25% of daily food needs, they have provided a critical lifeline,” the U.N. program said in a statement. “WFP is also deeply concerned about the severe lack of safe water and fuel for cooking—forcing people to scavenge for items to burn to cook a meal.”
This is just the latest troubling update from the group since Israel began its total blockade on March 2—following months of severely restricting aid and commercial goods—and then ditched a fragile cease-fire with Gaza-based Hamas that had been in effect since mid-January. Last month, all 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed due to lack of wheat flour and cooking fuel, and program parcels with two weeks of rations for families were exhausted.
“No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed,” WFP said Friday. “This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems. Food prices have skyrocketed up to 1,400% compared to during the cease-fire, and essential food commodities are in short supply, raising serious nutrition concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.”
Over 18 months into a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the Interenational Court of Justice, WFP said that “the situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point: People are running out of ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire have unravelled. Without urgent action to open borders for aid and trade to enter, WFP’s critical assistance may be forced to end.”
While conditions are dire, WFP is prepared to keep feeding people, if Israel will allow aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. The program highlighted that “more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance—enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months—is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be brought into Gaza by WFP and food security partners as soon as borders reopen.”
The program called on “all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
[https://twitter.com/WFP/status/1915798126603948459]
The Associated Press reported that “COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid in Gaza, declined to comment on the amount of supplies remaining in the territory. It has previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the cease-fire.”
The WFP statement came after an Israeli drone strike that hit a food distribution center in central Gaza on Thursday and Israel’s Tuesday airstrikes that destroyed several bulldozers used to clear streets and remove bodies from beneath rubble.
While humanitarian organizations have shared fresh warnings about conditions in the enclave this week—Oxfam’s Clemence Lagouardat said Tuesday that “it’s hard to explain just how terrible things are in Gaza at the moment”—Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, shared violent rhetoric.
Ben-Gvir claimed that “senior Republican Party officials” whom he met at U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence “expressed support for my very clear position” that Gaza “food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages” taken during the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel.
[https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1915851034158674132]
While Trump—like his Democratic predecessor—has supported Israel’s military assault, he also claimed to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week, “Gaza came up and I said, ‘We’ve got to be good to Gaza… Those people are suffering.’”
According toReuters.
When asked whether he raised the issue of opening up access points for aid into Gaza, Trump replied, “We are.”
“We’re going to take care of that. There’s a very big need for medicine, food and medicine, and we’re taking care of it,” he said.
Asked how Netanyahu responded, Trump said: “Felt well about it.”
As for cease-fire negotiations, Drop Site News obtained a draft proposal for a 45-day “bridge” deal that is “being pushed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators.” The outlet reported Friday that “while the current proposal largely aligns with the one that Hamas agreed to on March 29 and which Israel rejected, the new terms related to disarmament and no clear path to complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will likely meet stiff resistance from Hamas’ negotiators.”
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
26 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Aman Namra
The terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people, is not just a regional tragedy but a deep wound to the conscience of the entire nation. This brutal incident not only robbed tourists of their joy but also plunged the entire country into deep mourning. However, alongside the sorrow, another crucial image emerged: one of hope and unity—where the country’s Muslims and Hindus stood together against terrorism.
From Lucknow to Bhopal, from Niwari to Ratlam, and from Delhi to Jaipur, the Muslim community came forward wearing black armbands, chanting slogans against Pakistan and terrorism outside mosques. Leaders like Maulana Kalbe Jawad and Maulana Khalid Rashid were among many religious scholars who not only condemned the violence but also raised their voices in favor of national unity and peace.
Similarly, the closure of shops by traders across the country, or ordinary citizens participating in protests, signifies that this is not just the government’s or the military’s battle—this is the struggle of every citizen who loves the nation.
But the question remains—when the public stands so clearly against terrorism, when Hindus and Muslims raise their voices in unison for the defense and unity of the country, why do certain forces still attempt to break this harmony?
In reality, this is the same politics that requires division to maintain power. This is the politics that sells fear in the name of religion, and collects votes by sowing discord. It finds its problems when slogans like “Hindu-Muslim Bhai-Bhai” are raised from the Tille Wali Masjid in Lucknow, because such unity goes directly against the politics of hatred.
The Pahalgam attack was horrific, but what was even more significant was the collective response from across the nation. This response was not a result of any TV debate, nor was it driven by any party’s appeal. It was the natural human and national sentiment of the people—that terrorism will not be tolerated, regardless of its form or source.
Therefore, it is important that we remember and preserve this unity, repeating it time and again. The role of the media becomes crucial here—will it prioritize this unity or will it again make a headline out of an inconsistent statement, further dividing society?
Because it is clear: when common Hindus and Muslims unite against terrorism, it is not just a single voice, it becomes a force. A moral pressure that holds governments accountable, exposes terrorist organizations, and undermines the politics of hatred.
Now is the time to ask—Who are those who try to divide us again and again in the name of religion? And why do they plot to tear down the walls of trust between us just to stay in power?
Because when the country cries together, gets angry together, and demands justice together—this is not politics; this is a moment of humanity.
Aman Namra is a Development Journalist
25 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Justice Markandey Katju
A dastardly attack in Baisaran, near Pahalgam in Kashmir was done on Tuesday by militants in which 28 unarmed Hindu tourists were massacred in cold blood.
The culprits should certainly be punished, but who were they ? They disappeared into the dense jungle after the incident, and as yet are unidentified and untraceable, and I doubt they, or the master minds behind them, will ever will be found.
This incident raises pertinent questions about the methods the Indian police often employ to ‘solve’ crimes.
Criminal investigation is a science. In the fictional stories of Sherlock Holmes, we observe Holmes solving crimes by scientific methods– visiting the scene, collecting evidence such as blood stains, ashes, footprints, etc., and using logical deductions.
Similarly, on platforms like YouTube, we see how police in modern countries like America collect evidence (fingerprints, fibers, bullet casings, semen, blood, ashes, etc.) and take them to scientific laboratories for analysis. Modern methods of interrogation of witnesses and suspects are used, with data like fingerprints and DNA fed into a national database for matching.
In contrast, most policemen in India lack training in scientific investigation and do not have access to scientific equipment. Yet they are under pressure from superiors or politicians to solve crimes, particularly those having political ramifications.
So to ‘solve’ crimes they often resort to the time-tested method of torturing suspects, for example, using the ‘danda’ (stick). Torture is such a terrible thing that one will confess to anything under torture. Joan of Arc, for instance, confessed to being a witch under torture.
India frequently experiences terror-related incidents, such as bomb blasts, putting immense pressure on the police to solve these crimes. However, with limited or no training and resources in scientific investigation, the real culprits often remain at large, while innocent people are arrested, often on false and trumped up charges, and spend years in jail.
There are many such cases, as evidenced by numerous reports and articles.
Now coming to the Pahalgam attack, the police has as yet no clue as to who were the culprits and who was the master mind behind them, and it is doubtful they will ever find out, because, as mentioned above, they neither have training in scientific investigation nor have the equipment and facilities for it. Yet someone must be blamed. Who better for that than our favourite whipping boy and scapegoat, the Pakistani devils ?
So jingoism began on our worthless Indian media soon after the incident, with hawkish panelists ( many of them being retired generals, lieutenant generals or major generals, or self proclaimed ‘defence analysts’ ) appearing on TV shows and calling for revenge by military strikes against Pakistan. Demonstrations have been held in many Indian cities demanding revenge against Pakistan
Since India is an upper riparian country vis-a-vis Pakistan, cries can be heard to deprive Pakistan of even a drop of water and turn it into a Karbala.
Both Indian and Pakistani governments have announced a number of steps against the other country, which will not affect the rulers, but will hit the common man who is already having a miserable time with massive poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, price rise, lack of healthcare, etc.
And the master minds who organized the attack, as well as the culprits who executed it, must be laughing at the stupidity of both Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, who are at each other’s throats.
Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of Press Council of India.
26 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By T Navin
The Pahalgam attack on 22nd April 2025 was a tragic incident which claimed 26 lives, mostly Hindu tourists, in Baiwaran valley of Jammu and Kashmir. Terrorists from the group Resistance Front inquired about the identity of the tourists and based on their identity, targeted the men in the families. It was an unfortunate incident both to the lives of the tourists who lost their family members as well as the local Kashmiri families whose livelihoods would be affected due to its effect on tourism for a few months. The act needs to be condemned and has been criticised by wide sections including the civil society in Kashmir.
What followed later after the attacks was a display of humanity by the local Kashmiri Muslims which has caught the attention and been even appreciated by the family members of the victims. Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a 20-year-old Kashmiri pony ride operator and the sole breadwinner for his family, lost his life while protecting tourists during the attack. He was shot at when he attempted to shield a tourist on his horse and even tried to disarm a terrorist by grabbing their rifle.
Drishti Singh, a tourist from Pune, described the exemplary support offered by Kashimiri locals in the wake of the tragedy. She noted that local volunteers came forward to assist affected tourists, providing food, shelter and transportation without charge. Some even offered money to help stranded families return home. Abdul Wahid Malik, a Pahalgam based hotelier and former president of the local hotelier’s guild arranged four rooms at his hotel for a stranded tourist family after the attack. He emphasized that the immediate duty was to ensure their safety, stating, “The attack has devastated us.”
Across Kashmir, locals expressed grief and solidarity through collective action. On April 23, the valley observed a complete shutdown, with businesses and educational institutions closing in protest against the attack. In Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, trade body leaders and political actors held demonstrations with placards reading “Violence will never win.” Mosques across the region offered prayers for the victims, with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a prominent religious leader, setting an emotional tone of shared grief and support.
Sajjad Ahmed Bhatt, a mule handler carried the young son of Pallavi and Manjunath Rao, a couple from Karnataka, on his back to safety during the chaos that followed Pahalgam attack. Manjunath Rao, was killed leaving his wife Pallavi and his son, Abhijaya stranded amidst the gunfire. Sajjad hearing the child’s cries and pleading to be saved, lifted the child on his back and ran through the Baisaran meadow to transport him to a hospital in Anantnag approximately 7 km away.
A tour guide named Waheed after hearing gunfire in Baisaran meadow helped transport wounded tourists, including children, on horseback to safety. His emphasis was on saving lives. His quick actions ensured that several injured victims, including those with young families, received timely medical attention.
Abdul Waheed Wani, the president of the Pahalgam Ponywalla Association, coordinated rescue efforts, messaging other ponywallas to join him in evacuating the wounded. He personally helped transport 10 injured tourists on horsebacks to areas where they could be driven to hospitals.
Gurudwaras across Kashmir, supported by local Muslim communities, opened their doors to shelter tourists fleeing the Valley. Local Muslim families provided temporary accommodation, food and emotional support to those traumatized by the attack. These efforts were particularly crucial for families with young children. These acts of kindness helped mitigate the fear and uncertainty faced by visitors.
The humanitarian support extended by Kashmiris was acknowledged by the tourists. Group of tourists from Maharashtra described the effort of Aadil as that of a ‘true saviour.’ One tourist remarked, “His kindness restored our faith in humanity.” Drishti Singh stated, “The way they helped us without expecting anything in return kept humanity alive”. Aarathy Sarath stated that “The locals risked their lives to help us, showing incredible courage and care”. Describing the effort of Musafir and another driver, Sarath stated “they treated me like a younger sister. Kashmir has now given me two brothers”. Pallavi Rao stated “Sajjad saved my son’s life. I can never thank him enough for his courage”.
These humanitarian acts by common citizens need to be told at a time when the polarising forces at both ends of the divide would use every opportunity to divide communities based on identities. The group Resistant Front conducted an inhuman act based on religious identity. Similarly, the news reports are indicating that there is targeting of Kashmiri students in places like Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, with reports of harassment, assaults, and eviction threats. The forces demonising ‘Kashmiris’ and ‘Muslims’ are on the rise in social media and godi media.
At a time when the divisive forces would try to assert themselves, the stories of selflessness and solidarity, acts of kindness and compassion need to be widely shared. It is necessary to popularize acts of enduring spirit of humanity displayed by Kashmiris. These stories not only bridge communal divides but also remind us that shared grief and kindness can transcend identity-based conflicts. These narratives can counter the rhetoric of hate and division.
While the act of the Terrorist group needs to be condemned, it is important to realise that Kashmir may not be what is shown in ‘Kashmir Files’ but Kashmiriyat as displayed by the acts of locals. This syncretic cultural ethos, rooted in communal harmony, hospitality and sufi-inspired values of compassion, shone through as locals transcended religious divides, offering food, shelter and solidarity to grieving tourists, embodying the enduring spirit of unity and humanity that defines Kashmiriyat.
T Navin is an independent writer
26 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Dr Suresh Khairnar
The attack on Pahalgam by terrorists is a living example of 100% communal polarization. But the common people of Kashmir have completely rejected this. Kashmiri people providing various services there have tried to save the passengers by risking their own lives. After this accident, the auto drivers of Srinagar started giving free service to the passengers travelling on their autos from the airport to the railway station for their return journey. They have put stickers of free service on the windshield of their autos.
The most important thing is that one of the 26 passengers killed at the accident site is Adil Hussain Shah. He used to ferry passengers on his pony. During the terrorist attack on Tuesday, he himself confronted the terrorists and told them that “don’t kill them, they are guests of Kashmir”. And when he tried to snatch the AK-47 gun from the terrorists, the terrorists shot him three times on his chest and killed him. Adil was the only son of his parents. Similarly, others have played a role in saving the BJP councilor and his family safely.
In the last few years, communal elements have succeeded in creating communal polarization on a large scale in our country. But while travelling to and fro Kashmir for more than fifty years, I have seen that from Qazigund to Srinagar and other places, hoteliers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, boatmen, students and teachers of Srinagar University, lawyers, doctors and Hurriyat Conference leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and other citizens of Kashmir, all of them always speak against terrorists. This is because the economy of Kashmir is dependent on tourism business. And among the departments of the Kashmir government, the tourism ministry is considered the most important. Therefore, no tourist goes in an atmosphere of terror. Therefore, most of the people of Kashmir want peace and harmony.
I stayed in Jammu and Kashmir for two weeks during the shutdown that took place after the killing of Burhan Wani in August 2016. During that period, Zahoor sahab, the editor of Srinagar edition of Kashmir Times, told me that “You are roaming every inch of Kashmir in such a delicate situation. Seeing this, Senior Gilani wants to meet you. So you should leave Kashmir only after meeting him.” And before leaving Kashmir, I went to Gilani’s house to meet him. He was under house arrest. So the security officer called his senior officer on the wireless and after reading my identity card, told him my name and address and he said “Our senior officer has given you permission to meet Gilani. But it is very surprising that Yashwant Sinha had come and gone just before you. But he was not allowed to go. And he is allowing you to meet him.” And he himself said that I want to take a selfie with you.” Maybe this selfie was also a part of his duty.
Anyway, as soon as I met Gilani, he said “May God keep you safe.” Without caring for your life, you have been meeting people in the fields and barns of the valley for two weeks even during such a strict shutdown. This is a very good thing.” I told him that “It has been two months since August. The shutdown is going on. Even vehicles carrying people to the hospital are being stopped. Don’t you think that the shutdown should end now?” So he said that now people are not listening to me.” After hearing this from his mouth, I understood that people’s faith in the so-called Kashmiri separatists has weakened. And I have even seen some people cursing them that “they have no problem with such a shutdown. It is we who are troubled. They are in cahoots with both the governments, their children are studying abroad.” We are the ones who are facing trouble. Our children’s schools are closed, and we are not able to go out of the house for livelihood and employment. The leaders are getting all the facilities even while staying at home.
And A.S. Dulat, who was the head of the IB, and before that was posted in Kashmir for more than twenty-five years, has written about terrorism in his book ‘Kashmir the Vajpayee Years’. It is very shocking. He has revealed what all has been done in collusion with both the government agencies. After reading this, I have been demanding action against them since 2016. But action is a far cry. He and former Pakistan ISI chief Asad Durrani have jointly written a book titled ‘Spy Chronicle’ and exposed even more shocking facts. And both the authors have worked at the highest positions in the biggest agencies of their respective countries, giving the biggest time of their lives.
I am also requesting the common people of Pakistan on this pretext that despite the division between the two countries for the last 78 years, the budget that is being spent on security and the lives of people on both sides are being lost is an even more serious matter. Can’t we resolve the disputes by talking to each other? How long will both the countries continue to waste their resources on defence for the sake of giving a better life to their respective people on priority? The political breads of the people involved in politics are being baked but at what cost?
Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal
24 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Maj Gen Amin Naik
On April 22, 2025, the serene meadows of Baisaran in Pahalgam, often called the “Mini Switzerland” of Kashmir, were shattered by a horrific act of terrorism. At approximately 2:30 PM on April 22, 2025, militants affiliated with The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, launched a brutal assault, indiscriminately firing on tourists and locals. The attack claimed 26 lives, including 24 tourists, a Kashmiri resident, and two foreign nationals, with over 20 others injured, many critically. This cowardly act is condemned as an assault not only on innocent lives but on the essence of Kashmiriyat, the spirit of humanity, hospitality, and unity that defines Kashmir.
The attack in Baisaran was a calculated act of barbarism. Survivors described how five to six militants, disguised in military-style uniforms, emerged from the forest and opened fire on unsuspecting tourists in the picturesque meadows. Posing as security personnel, the attackers demanded names and identities before shooting victims at close range. Among the fallen were a Naval officer, Bharat Bhushan, a tech professional from Bengaluru, and Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a local horse rider who heroically attempted to shield others, sacrificing his life. The deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians marks a chilling escalation in Kashmir’s history of violence.
This was not a clash with security forces or a strike against military targets but a massacre designed to instil fear, disrupt peace, and tarnish Kashmir’s image as a welcoming destination. The TRF’s claim that the attack was a response to alleged “demographic changes” in the Valley is dismissed as a hollow justification for their cowardice. The killing of tourists who came to admire Kashmir’s splendour serves no cause but to deepen suffering and isolation.
Kashmiriyat, the syncretic culture that unites Kashmiris, is rooted in hospitality, tolerance, and shared love. Kashmiris have welcomed visitors with open hearts for centuries, regardless of their origins. This attack strikes at the core of that tradition, threatening the livelihoods of countless locals reliant on tourism. As Chief Minister Omar Abdullah noted, the exodus of tourists following the attack, coupled with airlines adding extra flights and markets closing in protest, reflects the collective grief and anger of Kashmiris.
The attack is unequivocally condemned as an assault on humanity. Targeting civilians, particularly tourists, is a spineless act that achieves no legitimate goal and exacerbates the hardships faced by Kashmiris, for whom tourism is a vital economic lifeline. In 2024, over 3.5 million visitors revitalised local businesses and fostered goodwill in the Valley. This tragedy risks undoing years of progress, replacing joy with fear in places like Pahalgam.
Kashmiris are called to stand united against this violence and reject the divisive narratives spread by terrorists and their handlers across. The protests across Kashmir, marked by candlelit vigils and voices raised against terrorism, demonstrate the Valley’s total rejection of this brutality. The attack was not only on people but on Kashmiriyat itself.
Collective action is urged to counter the fear sown by this tragedy, encouraging the world to see Kashmir as a land of warmth and beauty. The people of our Nation and beyond are asked not to let this tragedy define the Valley, emphasising Kashmir’s resilience in overcoming darkness. Every Kashmiri, Indians and person of conscience is called to condemn the attack and work toward a future where such horrors are unthinkable.
Honouring the 26 lives lost requires recommitting to peace, unity, and the enduring values of Kashmiriyat. In the meadows of Baisaran, where tragedy struck, seeds of hope must be planted. With collective strength, Kashmir will prevail for the sake of humanity.
Maj Gen Amin Naik, a veteran and former Additional Director General at the Army Headquarters, was born and raised in Kashmir.
24 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org
By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Palestinian Territory – The Israeli project in the Gaza Strip has reached its most revealing and dangerous stage yet. Israel is no longer concealing its intention to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homeland—it now announces this plan more openly than ever before, through official rhetoric at the highest levels. Through actions on the ground and institutional measures designed to reframe the crime as “voluntary migration”, Israel has attempted to implement its displacement campaign by exploiting the international community’s near-total silence, which has enabled the continuation of the crime and Israeli impunity despite the unprecedented nature of humanity’s first livestreamed genocide.
Israel is now attempting to carry out the final phase of its crime, and its original goal: the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine, specifically from the Gaza Strip. For a year and a half, Israel has carried out acts of genocide, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of people, erasing entire cities, dismantling the Strip’s infrastructure, and systematically displacing its population within the enclave. These actions aim to eliminate the Palestinian people as a community and as a collective presence.
The current plans for forced displacement are a direct extension of Israel’s long-standing settler-colonial project, aimed at erasing Palestinian existence and seizing land. What distinguishes this stage is its unprecedented scale and brutality—Israel is targeting over two million people who have endured a full-scale genocide and have been stripped of even the most basic human rights, under coercive, inhumane conditions that make living any sort of a normal life impossible. Israel’s deliberate objective is to pressure Palestinians into leaving by making it their only means of survival.
Having succeeded in revealing the weak principles of international law, such as protections for civilians based on their perceived racial superiority or lack thereof, Israel is now reshaping the narrative once again. Armed with overwhelming force and emboldened by the international community’s abandonment of legal and moral responsibilities, Israel seeks to portray the mass expulsion of Palestinians as “voluntary migration”. This is a blatant attempt to rebrand ethnic cleansing and forced displacement using dishonest language—like “humanitarian considerations” and “individual choice”—and is a direct contradiction of legal facts and the reality on the ground.
Euro-Med Monitor emphasises that forced displacement is a standalone crime under international law. It involves the removal of individuals from areas where they legally reside, using force, threats, or other forms of coercion, without valid legal justification. Coercion, in the context of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, goes beyond military force. It includes the creation of unbearable conditions that render remaining in one’s home practically impossible or life-threatening. A coercive environment includes fear of violence, persecution, arrest, intimidation, starvation, or other forms of hardship that strip individuals of free will and force them to flee.
“Israel has already committed the crime of forced displacement against Gaza’s population,” stated Lima Bustami, Director of Euro-Med Monitor’s Legal Department, “having driven them into internal displacement without legal grounds and in conditions that violate international legal exceptions, which only permit evacuation temporarily and under imperative military necessity, while ensuring safe areas with minimum standards of human dignity. None of these standards have been met. In fact, Israel has used this widespread and repeated pattern of displacement as a tool of genocide—aimed at destroying and subjecting the population to deadly living conditions.”
She added: “Although the legal elements of the crime are already fulfilled, Israel is further escalating it to a more lethal level against the Palestinian people—manifesting its settler-colonial vision of expulsion and replacement. Now it is attempting to market the second phase of forced displacement, i.e. beyond Gaza’s borders, as ‘voluntary migration’: a transparent deception that only a complicit international community—one that chooses silence over accountability—would accept.”
Today, the people of the Gaza Strip endure catastrophic conditions that are unprecedented in recent history. Israel has obliterated all forms of normal life; there is no electricity or infrastructure, and there are no homes, no essential services, no functioning healthcare or education systems, and no clean water services. Around 2.3 million Palestinians are confined to less than 34% of the Strip’s 365 square kilometres. Approximately 66% of the territory has been turned into so-called “buffer zones”, or areas that are completely off-limits to Palestinians and/or that have been forcibly depopulated through Israeli bombings and displacement orders.
Most of the population is now living in tattered tents amid the spread of famine, disease, and epidemics and an accumulation of waste—conditions symptomatic of the near-complete collapse of the humanitarian system. Israel continues to systematically block the entry of food, medicine, and fuel; destroy all remaining means of survival; and obstruct any efforts aimed at reconstruction or restoring even the minimum conditions for a healthy life.
These conditions in place are not the result of a natural disaster; rather, they have been deliberately engineered by Israel as a coercive tool to pressure the population into leaving the Gaza Strip. The absence of any genuine, voluntary alternative for Palestinians in the enclave renders this situation a textbook case of forcible transfer, as defined under international law and affirmed by relevant jurisprudence.
“While population transfers may be permitted in certain humanitarian contexts under international law, any such justification collapses if the humanitarian crisis is the direct consequence of unlawful acts committed by the same party enforcing the transfer,” according to Bustami. “It is impermissible to use forced displacement as a response to a disaster one has created—a principle clearly upheld by international tribunals, particularly the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”
Framing this imposed reality as a “voluntary” migration and an option not only constitutes a gross distortion of truth, but undermines the legal foundations of the international system, erodes the principle of accountability, and transforms impunity from a failure of justice into a deliberate mechanism for perpetuating grave crimes and entrenching the outcomes of such crimes.
Repeated public statements from the highest levels of Israel’s political and security leadership have escalated in intensity over the past year and a half, and expose a clear, coordinated intent to displace the population of the Gaza Strip. In a blatant bid to enforce a demographic transformation serving Israel’s colonial-settler agenda, senior Israeli officials—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have publicly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Strip and for the settlement of Jewish Israelis in their place.
Netanyahu expressed full support in February 2025 for United States President Donald Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip, describing it as “the only viable solution for enabling a different future” for the region. Likewise, Smotrich announced in March that the Israeli government would back the establishment of a new “migration authority” to coordinate what he termed a “massive logistical operation” to remove Palestinians from the Strip. Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, has openly advocated for the encouragement of “voluntary migration” coupled with calls to resettle Jewish Israelis in the territory.
The 23 March decision of the Israeli Security Cabinet to establish a dedicated directorate within the Ministry of Defence, to manage what it calls the “voluntary relocation” of the Gaza Strip’s residents to third countries, is evidence that this displacement is not a by-product of destruction or political rhetoric, but an official policy. This policy is being implemented through institutional mechanisms, directed from within Israel’s own security apparatus, with full operational powers, executive structures, and strategic goals.
Current Defence Minister Israel Katz’s statement on the new directorate confirmed that it would “prepare for and enable safe and controlled passage of Gaza residents for their voluntary departure to third countries, including securing movement, establishing movement routes, checking pedestrians at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip, as well as coordinating the provision of infrastructure that will enable passage by land, sea and air to the destination countries”.
The true danger of establishing such a directorate lies not only in its institutionalisation of forced transfer, but in the new legal and political reality it seeks to impose. It rebrands displacement as an “optional” administrative service while stripping civilians of their ability to make free, informed decisions, therefore cloaking a war crime in a veneer of bureaucratic legitimacy.
Any departure from the Gaza Strip under current circumstances cannot be considered “voluntary”, but rather constitutes, in legal terms, forcible transfer, which is strictly prohibited under international law. All individuals compelled to leave the Strip retain their inalienable right to return to their land and property immediately and unconditionally. They also have the full right to seek compensation for all damages and losses incurred as a result of Israeli crimes and rights violations, including the destruction of homes and property, physical and psychological harm, the assault on human dignity, and the denial of livelihood and basic rights.
Under its obligations as an occupying power responsible for the protection of the civilian population, Israel is prohibited from forcibly transferring Palestinians and bears full legal responsibility to ensure their protection from this crime. The rules of international law, particularly customary international law and the Geneva Conventions, require all states not to recognise any situation arising from the crime of forcible transfer and to treat it as null and void. States are also obligated to withhold all material, political, and diplomatic support that would contribute to the entrenchment of such a situation.
International responsibility goes beyond mere non-recognition. It includes a legal duty for states to take urgent effective steps to halt the crime, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide redress to victims. This includes ensuring the safe, voluntary return of all displaced persons from the Gaza Strip, and providing full reparations for the harm and violations they have suffered. Any failure to act in this regard constitutes a direct breach of international law and complicity that could subject states to legal accountability.
The international community must move beyond deafening silence and abandon paltry rhetorical condemnations, which have come to represent the maximum response it dares to make in the face of the livestreamed genocide unfolding before its eyes. It must act swiftly and effectively to halt Israel’s ongoing project of mass displacement in the Gaza Strip and prevent it from becoming an entrenched reality. This action must be based on international legal norms, a commitment to justice and accountability, and an honest reckoning with the root structural cause of the crimes: Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967.
Endorsing or remaining silent about Israeli plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip not only exonerates Israel but rewards it for its illegal conduct by granting it gains secured through mass killing, destruction, blockade, and starvation. This is not just a series of war crimes or crimes against humanity—it embodies the legal definition of genocide, as established by the 1948 Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
All states, individually and collectively, must uphold their legal obligations and take all necessary measures to halt Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. This includes taking immediate, effective steps to protect Palestinian civilians and to prevent the implementation of the US-Israeli crime of forcible transfer that is openly threatening the Strip’s population.
The international community must impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its systematic and grave violations of international law. This includes halting arms imports and exports; ending all forms of political, financial, and military support; freezing the financial assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; imposing travel bans; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that offer Israel economic advantages that sustain its capacity to commit further crimes.
States must also hold complicit governments accountable—chief among them the United States—for their role in enabling Israeli crimes through various forms of support, including military and intelligence cooperation, financial aid, and political or legal backing.
The ethnic cleansing and genocide taking place right now in the Gaza Strip would not be possible without Israel’s decades-long unlawful colonial presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This is the root structural cause of the violence, oppression, and destruction in the besieged enclave. Any meaningful response to the escalating crisis in the Strip must begin with dismantling this colonial reality, recognising the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and securing their freedom and sovereignty over their national territory. As Israel and its allies must be compelled to abide by the law, international intervention is the only path to ending the genocide, halting all forms of individual and collective forcible transfer, dismantling the apartheid regime, and establishing a credible framework for justice, accountability, and the preservation of human dignity.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
25 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org