Category Archives: Government Oppression

As an Israeli citizen who is promoting the vision of a democratic world federation, I often encounter the following challenging question: Your country holds millions of Palestinians under military rule, oppression and discrimination; shouldnt you struggle to bring about real democracy at your local level first, and only then talk about the global level?

My honest reply is that to the best of my understanding, the lack of democracy and rule of law at the global level is, in fact, the most fundamental underlying cause of this conflict, and that therefore it must be addressed with the highest priority if we are serious about ending it.

To understand why, it is useful to consider the rationale of the Zionist movement, whose turn to Palestine ignited the conflict. With all due respect to the ancient longing of religious Jews to return to the biblical promised land, the main reason that so many (mostly secular) Jews turned to Zionism and immigrated to Palestine since the late 19th century, was the fact that as a minority in Europe they were too often prone to persecution and oppression. This experience led many of them believe the nationalist creed that only a nation-state of their own could guarantee their survival. Had there been in the past or today a world federation holding both the power and the democratic legitimacy to defend all humans in the world, it is unlikely that Zionism and many other national movements would have become so popular and powerful.

A world federation to defend all human beings

It is true that in a democratic world federation Israeli Jews would return to be just a small minority and would lack the legal sovereignty that they enjoy today. But that would not be a problem for them as rather than having to defend themselves they will be protected by the far stronger government that represents all humans. In such a world, all other religious, national or ethnic groupings would similarly turn into small minorities. When considering the nearly 8 billion of potential world citizens, we can see that even the largest groupings that we know such as Christians, Muslims, Chinese or Indian would be only large minorities: ~31%, ~24%, ~16%, ~15% respectively. And since these groupings are highly heterogeneous and divided internally, all people will belong to far smaller minorities, and that would be just fine.

Unlike nation-states, which by design are obsessed with maintaining a national majority in the country, in a global federation the people would be composed entirely of minorities. This inherent diversity of the population means that the only social contract that such a polity could be based on would be one that enshrines and protects the basic rights and freedoms of all people and their groups, through effective constitutional and institutional checks and balances and with a democratically elected world parliament at the center.

In such a federation, Jews and Palestinians alike will not be restricted from settling in any part of the Earth.

No land would belong exclusively to any group, and people would be free to live wherever they choose, as is customary within democratic federations.

The vision of a global welfare state

For those who fear that such global freedom of movement would open up the gates for a gigantic wave of global immigration from poor to rich countries, I would say that their fears are ill-founded. Just as national borders are indeed successful today at preventing such immigration, the divisions they create between national legal systems are even more successful at preventing national tax authorities from getting their hands on the wealth of the worlds super-rich. In a world federation, in contrast, whose tax authority would span every corner of the planet, there will be a gigantic wave of redistribution not only of political but also of financial power from the global super-rich to the global super-poor. In such a global mixed economy or welfare state the global poor will suddenly be able to make a decent living in local jobs, providing necessary services and infrastructures to their own communities. Having that option, it is clear that the vast majority will remain in their homelands with their loved ones, rather than tear themselves from their families, friends and cultures, as so many are forced to do today.

Coming back to the narrower question of Israel and Palestine, some people insist and rephrase their question as follows: though a world federation is a noble vision to aspire to in the long run, they say, in the meantime the Palestinians are suffering enormously from atrocious injustices, and cannot wait for global democracy to emerge. The colonialist project of Zionism continues to deprive them of their basic human rights, in flagrant violation of international law, and it is our moral duty to help and protect them first.

To explain the flaws in that argument, it is useful to start with a simple analogy: imagine an armed group that bursts into a conference hall and takes all the attendants as hostages. In our domestic national systems, we know it would take much less than 50 minutes before the place would be surrounded with police cars and special forces coming to liberate the captives. Yet in our anarchic international system, Palestinians can live under occupation for well over 50 years and no police force are rushing to help them.

There is no global authority to protect people

The lesson of this analogy is that while our natural reaction to Israels occupation is to condemn Israel and Zionism, the more basic problem is with the international system, that has no real mechanisms for protecting victims and restoring justice. For this reason anyone who really cares for humans in general, and the Palestinians in particular, cannot ignore this aspect of the problem, or postpone it until after the conflict has been resolved. This systemic problem can be addressed and must be addressed as a precondition, or at least alongside any effort to find a local or particular solution. Yet today it is mostly ignored.

Whether one thinks that the conflict should end by dividing the land into two nation-states, or by turning it into one democratic state, one must recognize the necessity of an external authority equipped with sufficient force and democratic legitimacy to intervene when necessary to enforce such a solution, and protect it. In the current international order such authority does not exist and it will surely not just emerge if we continue to postpone the discussion about it.

The United Nations clearly does not possess the necessary power for such intervention, as the budget of Israels ministry of defence alone is several times bigger than the combined budget of all the UN agencies. As the UN does not have any state power and cannot collect taxes from of the global rich and their corporations, it is completely dependent on the voluntary contributions of the richer member governments, who give very little.

But more importantly, the UN does not possess the democratic legitimacy to intervene, as rather than belonging democratically to the worlds nations it belongs exclusively to the governments who rule over them. It is this characteristic of the UN, more than anything else, which shows the greatest weakness of the movement for Palestinian independence: in todays world there is nothing really unique about the fact that they are oppressed by a government that does not represent them. Openly oppressive governments are perfectly standard, both legally and normatively, in the current international order. One does not need to look far beyond Israel-Palestine to see this plague extending over most countries in the Middle East, across much of Africa and much of Asia.

So we should not be surprised by the experience of many decades, that has shown that repeating cliches about violations of international law and human rights did little to bring an end to the conflict. Thinking of international law: how can it be seriously called a law if no-one is responsible to enforce it? At the most, surely, it should be called only a norm.

Human rights are a privilege of national citizenship

The term human right is similarly misleading and unhelpful. Unlike my Palestinian friend, I enjoy almost all the rights detailed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But what many observers miss about the true nature of these rights, is that I enjoy them not because I am a human but only because I live under the jurisdiction of a national government that gives me those rights. That difference is much more than semantic, and it means that what I enjoy, in fact, are not human rights but only national rights, or to be more precise: national privileges.

When understood this way, it flows that not I nor anyone else in the world enjoys human rights, and that therefore while many atrocities have surely occurred and continue to occur in the conflict, there havnt been any violations of human rights. One cannot violate something that does not exist. To truly institute human rights we need more than a declaration and more than national governments we need a universal federal government that will be responsible and accountable for providing these rights to all human beings. Until then, and as long as the existing international order allows only national privileges and not any human rights, there is nothing surprising at the great support that nationalist parties enjoy.

It is too easy to direct the blame at this player or the other for following their narrow interests, but it is far more important to point to the lack of a global justice system that belongs to us all and protects us all. Our basic choice, in other words, is not between a one-state or a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, but between a federal state system of the entire world, and two-hundred sovereign governments that will continue to divide us.

For me, it is high time we recognized the Earth as our true homeland, and that it is high time that we, humans, had a state.

Realizing the vision of a world federation can be promoted in many ways, and one of the most promising is the creation of a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN that eventually could transform into a world parliament. Such an assembly, whose creation in legal terms is relatively easy as it does not require a UN charter reform, will bring together elected representatives from both coalition and opposition parties from many states. Following the example of the European Parliament, it can be expected that these representatives will form transnational groups who will push forward many other necessary reforms and further democratization at the global level.

Read more from the original source:

World federation and the Israel-Palestine conflict - Democracy Without Borders

from the aiding-and-abetting dept

Anything the Chinese government can weaponize against its Uighur Muslim population, it will. And has. Further details about an iPhone exploit discovered by Chinese hackers show the Chinese government got into the bug bounty program solely to find vulnerabilities to wield against the government's least-liked residents.

Patrick Howell O'Neill's article for MIT Technology Review points out Chinese hackers used to participate in popular hacking competitions like Pwn2Own, providing invaluable assistance to tech companies and tech users by finding vulnerabilities that could be patched before they were exploited by malicious hackers.

In 2017, Chinese participation in international competitions came to a halt. The founder and CEO of tech giant Qihoo 360 publicly criticized Chinese hackers for helping foreign tech companies find and patch security flaws. The CEO suggested this talent should stay at home and help the government find vulnerabilities to exploit.

That's exactly what has happened. The Chinese government banned participation in foreign hacking competitions and started its own. The first homegrown event was won by a researcher working for Qihoo 360, who found an exploit that allowed malicious actors to take control of even the latest iPhones simply by steering the iPhone user to a webpage containing malware.

This was patched two months later by Apple, quietly and with little attention drawn to it. But incidents occurring in the two months between the discovery and the patch didn't go unnoticed. Google's security researchers observed unusual activity and wrote about it.

[I]n August of [2019], Google published an extraordinary analysis into a hacking campaign it said was exploiting iPhones en masse. Researchers dissected five distinct exploit chains theyd spotted in the wild. These included the exploit that won Qixun [of Qihoo 360] the top prize at Tianfu, which they said had also been discovered by an unnamed attacker.

Now, more details about that string of attacks has been revealed. And it shows the Chinese government took the winning exploit and weaponized it against its Uighur population.

Shortly after Googles researchers noted the attacks, media reports connected the dots: the targets of the campaign that used the Chaos exploit were the Uyghur people, and the hackers were linked to the Chinese government. Apple published a rare blog post that confirmed the attack had taken place over two months: that is, the period beginning immediately after Qixun won the Tianfu Cup and stretching until Apple issued the fix.

This has now been confirmed by another source: the US government. Its surveillance agencies also picked up on the malicious hacking efforts and noted their targeting of China's favorite target of oppression. And it was the government's intervention that sped up Apple's response to the exploit.

The US quietly informed Apple, which had already been tracking the attack on its own and reached the same conclusion: the Tianfu hack and the Uyghur hack were one and the same. The company prioritized a difficult fix.

This is the sort of cooperation one prefers to see. The federal government has often portrayed Apple as an enemy -- not just of agencies like the DOJ, but of the American public. In this case, the government worked with Apple to stop attacks on foreign citizens by a foreign government. The Chinese government made the most of this exploit for two months -- one it obtained through a homegrown hacking competition that appears to exist solely to create offensive tech weapons for state-ordained hacking.

Meanwhile, the hacker who discovered the exploit and collected the cash (all while working for the company whose CEO called for Chinese hackers to stop helping foreign companies and start helping The Man stick it to locals and foreign adversaries) is trying to distance himself from the damage his exploit has wrought.

When we contacted Qixun Zhao via Twitter, he strongly denied involvement, although he also said he couldnt remember who came into possession of the exploit code. At first, he suggested the exploit wielded against Uyghurs was probably used after the patch release.

Both of these claims are untrue. And both have been debunked by both independent research and US government surveillance. While it's unwise to tangle with the Chinese government by refusing to hand over discovered vulnerabilities, it's probably a little easier to sidestep that obligation by sitting out government-sponsored hacking competitions. In the end, this isn't the researcher's fault. The government chose to use it this way. But anyone entering a Chinese government-sponsored hacking competition is likely well aware any discoveries they make will be weaponized by an extremely oppressive government.

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Filed Under: china, exploits, hackathon, hackers, hacking competition, surveillance, uighursCompanies: apple

See original here:

Chinese Government's Hacker Competition Is Being Used To Find Exploits To Wield Against Uighur Citizens - Techdirt

Writing in Jacobin this week,Eelam Tamil filmmaker and member of the Tamil Refugee Council, Baranthan Vidhyapathy, saidthe Australian government has whitewashed the atrocities committed by Sri Lanka against Tamilsand "helped equip Sri Lankas state security forces."

Earlier this year, theAustralian government supplied Sri Lankan police with five aerial drones despitesupportinga United Nations resolution just months before,which warned of the deteriorating human rights situation on the island.

"The drones were previously owned by theOperationSovereignBordersJointAgencyTaskForce, part of Australias military-led border security operation whose primary responsibility is to 'deter and disrupt'asylum seekers trying to reach Australia," Vidhyapathy wrote.

"Australiaclaimsthat the drones will be used to support crime-fighting activities. But past experience makes it perfectly clear that the Sri Lankan authorities are likely to use the drones for surveillance of Tamil refugees fleeing the island and government officials in Canberra know it," he added.

Vidhyapathy highlighted that the Australian government previously "provided similar aid that was intended to stop people fleeing."

"On May 13, 2009, as the killings in Mullivaikkal were reaching their peak, the Australian government announced a new aid package for Sri Lanka. With hundreds of thousands of people displaced or held in internment camps around the island, Australiapromisedto spend'$15.1 million over four years establishing posts in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, in an effort to strengthen regional co-operation on people-smuggling.'Like this years gift of drones, the 2009 package was intended to stop people escaping the island."

"Despite overwhelming evidence that theycontinue to face persecution, Eelam Tamils seeking asylum in Australia facesome of the lowest acceptance rates. The Australian authorities have deported many to danger," Vidhyapathy noted.

"Tamil refugees also remain imprisoned in Australian-runonshoreand offshore detention centers.To justify the refoulement of refugees, the Australian government claims that any abuses against Tamil civilians took place as part of a legitimate struggle against a terrorist organization and are now firmly in the past."

"The Left must reject this cynical cover-up and stand in solidarity with Eelam Tamils, recognizing both the genocide committed against them and their right to self-determination. In Australia, this means fighting the deportation of Eelam Tamils to Sri Lanka, freeing all refugeesin onshore and offshore detention, and demanding an end to all military aid to the Sri Lankan state," he concluded.

Read the full piece here.

Continued here:

'Australia Is Supporting the Oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka' - Tamil Guardian

NewsLaurel V WilliamsYesterdayDavid Abdulah -

As the deadly conflict between Israel and the Palestinians intensifies, the political leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has called on the Government to immediately suspend all economic, military and other co-operation with the Israeli government until it abides by UN resolutions.

On Thursday, a media statement from David Abdulah said the movement unequivocally expressed its solidarity with the Palestinians. Speaking on behalf of MSJ, Abdulah condemned what he considered Israels continued oppression of the Palestinians.

Abdulah also called on the UN to begin to enforce resolutions that have been passed. He believes the resolutions would see Israel respect the right of Palestinians to establish their own state within the borders of Israel returning to that of the pre-1967 war.

Abdulah added, "We call on the UN Security Council to take steps to bring about peace.

"In particular, we wish to see CARICOM support our member state of St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council, taking the lead in this matter since the western powers such as the US have become so compromised over the years by their biased support for Israel."

He said there would be no peace in the "so-called Middle East" until the Palestinians obtain justice.

"Let us never forget the history the modern state of Israel was artificially created by the western powers in May 1948 following the Second World War and the horrors of the holocaust," Abdulah said.

"To enable this state of Israel, it had to be established within a geographical space and that space was Palestine."

Palestinians who occupied that space suddenly became stateless, homeless, and landless.

The MSJ political leader said by an act of US and British imperialism, millions of Palestinians became refugees.

In 2019 the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported that of the estimated 5.6 million Palestinian refugees, 1.5 million live in UNRWA refugee camps.

In total, there are more than 60 refugee camps located in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. He said the actual number of Palestinian refugees is likely to be much higher than the 5.6 million.

Israel has been continuously expanding its land and reducing the areas in which Palestinians have been living.

"This has been done through Israels so-called settler policies where Israeli Jews seize lands and homes of Palestinians, evict them and then occupy the seized properties," Abdulah said.

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been violently displaced in this way, while lands that were never part of the 1948 borders of the state of Israel have been seized and subsequently settled by Jews."

Abdulah charged that Israelis systematically oppress Palestinians.

"Israels military actions have also resulted in many Palestinians being killed, jailed and harassed just because they are Palestinians. It is racist profiling at its worst," Abdulah said.

"The state of Israel has been exceptionally aggressive in all these acts against Palestinians under the government of the right-wing prime minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu."

Abdulah criticised Netanyahu, who is before the Israeli courts, on multiple corruption charges.

He accused Netanyahu of having no clear mandate from his own citizens to lead his country.

Abdulah charged that during the Donald Trump presidency, Netanyahus aggression intensified. Israel announced that it would move its capital to Jerusalem, a decision supported by the US.

Abdulah said: "This was a clear act of provocation as Jerusalem is a city that has holy sites for three major religions Islam, Christianity and Judaism and therefore it has been understood that to locate the capital of a theocratic state, which Israel in effect is would lead to further polarisation."

Israels most recent attempts to evict Palestinians and Arab-Israelis from their homes in Jerusalem have sparked a major rebellion in other cities in Israel.

"This is not about Israel having the right to defend itself. It is first about Palestinians having the right to self-determination and to regain the lands and properties that Israel has seized," Abdulah said.

"It is about ending the refugee status of millions of people. It is about Palestinians being able to live in hope for a better future for themselves and their children, free of persecution and oppression."

On Thursday afternoon, Reuters reported that at least 67 people had been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday. Seven people were killed in Israel.

The report said world powers had demanded de-escalation and the US said it planned to send an envoy for talks with Israel and Palestinians.

Read more here:

MSJ head to Government: Suspend all relations with Israel - TT Newsday

Something important happened in Israel in May 2021. Not just the fact that Hamas in Gaza surprised the army and the intelligence services, not to mention the government, by its ability to take command of a volatile situation, to hit deep into Israel with precision rocketry, and to impose its agenda on an overwhelmingly more powerful enemy. Not only the fact that the government and police have lost control of much of the country, especially mixed Arab-Jewish cities such as Lod, Ramleh, Jaffa, Acre and east Jerusalem, where conditions close to civil war are now in evidence. Not only the acute failure of the Benjamin Netanyahu government to restore some semblance of normalcy, to say nothing of articulating a viable policy for the future.

All these are there for all to see. But the crucial point is that the deeper currents of life in Israel-Palestine, and above all the regnant delusions that have driven Israeli thinking for the past many decades, have been exposed as never before. What we will witness over the coming weeks is a desperate attempt to reestablish these self-destructive axioms as political norms, despite the disaster they have, unsurprisingly, brought about.

It is not difficult to trace the stages through which the current round of violence evolved. One particularly foolish move was the decision by the new police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, to barricade the wide steps leading into the Damascus Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem. During Ramadan, these steps are a favourite place for families to celebrate the evening iftar meal. There was no apparent logic to closing them off apart from a wish to humiliate Muslim Palestinians at a particularly sensitive moment. Fiery protests erupted. Eventually, the police removed the barriers. By then other processes had been set in motion.

Also read: Palestine Is Witnessing the Daily Brutalities of an Occupying Power

In the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, the Israeli courts have recently declared the impending eviction of several Palestinian families from their homes to be legal. I know those families well. For many years Israeli human rights activists have accompanied their struggle to save their homes and their lives, and we have had some success in at least delaying the evictions, often for years. Parts of Sheikh Jarrah were once before the State of Israel came into being owned by Jews; Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war were settled there by the Jordanian government in the 1950s, and they have been living there ever since. But Israeli settlers from the extreme nationalist right have been trying to reclaim these lands for the Jews, and the courts have sadly, and cruelly, gone along with them. I wont go into the legal niceties here. Let me just note that easily a third of the properties in Israeli west Jerusalem belong to Palestinian families who lived there before 1948; under Israeli law, Palestinians have no hope of recovering their lost homes.

With the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, which affect some 300 people, about to happen unless the Supreme Court steps in to stop them, an unlikely move the protests in the neighbourhood came back to life. Young Palestinians, including some from Arab villages in the north of Israel, joined in. Wild-eyed Jewish settler thugs, who now have their own party in the Knesset since Netanyahu brought them back from the limbo to which they had been consigned by law in 1988, descended upon Sheikh Jarrah in order to terrorise the Palestinian residents. Night after night, the neighbourhood turned into a battle ground, the police often siding with and protecting the settlers, as I saw with my own eyes. As so often, the attempt to violently suppress peaceful protest has boomeranged. Sheikh Jarrah is now a rallying cry for Palestinians everywhere in Israel and the West Bank, also for the Arab world beyond Palestine.

The height of madness was reached in the Haram al-Sharif during the final days of Ramadan, when tens of thousands of worshippers come to the Al-Aqsa mosque. Some of them threw stones at the police, who responded with extraordinary brutality. Hundreds of Palestinians were wounded, along with some 20 policemen. The Al-Aqsa mosque, mentioned in the Quran, is sacred to over a billion Muslims. It takes truly unusual degrees of imbecility to send policemen throwing stun grenades and tear gas at worshippers inside the mosque during Ramadan. Moreover, since the very beginning of the conflict in the early 20th century, Palestinian Muslims have seen the Zionist enterprise as aimed, first and foremost, at destroying the Haram so the Jews could rebuild their temple there. For many Palestinians, the Israeli police have now, not for the first time, substantiated this false notion.

A Palestinian man runs for cover during an Israeli air strike near the ruins of a tower building which was destroyed in earlier strikes in Gaza City, May 13, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Suhaib Salem

There were other factors in play. Elections were supposed to take place in Palestine this spring; the Palestinian Authority cancelled them, fearing they would lose ground to Hamas. Its a reasonable fear; the PA has failed miserably to deliver anything of lasting value to the Palestinian national movement. Hamas, furious at President Abu Mazens decision, eagerly took over the role of defending Jerusalem, the Haram, Sheikh Jarrah and the West Bank, the latter languishing for the last 74 years under a regime of state terror and institutionalised theft of Palestinian land for Israeli settlement.

And there is one more far from negligible element. It cannot be by chance that this crisis developed, to the point of war, just as the Israeli opposition parties seemed to be close to establishing a government in the wake of the last Israeli elections. Netanyahu, who has driven the country through four indecisive elections in the last two years for the sole purpose of evading the criminal charges pending against him in court, was likely to lose power. The new government-that-almost-was is now on hold, possibly ruled out. The reader can draw her own conclusions about Netanyahus role in running this politically useful catastrophe.

All of this story has been told by others. For most Israelis, the causal chain is either invisible or forgotten, as the war unfolds. And Hamas has its own lethal actions to account for. But the core of the matter lies in the axioms I mentioned in the opening paragraph. It isnt possible to enslave forever a population of millions, to deny them all basic human rights, to steal their lands, to humiliate them in a thousand ways, to hurt them, even kill them, with impunity, to create a regime meant to ensure permanent supremacy of one population over another, and all this by the exercise of massive military force. In fact, forever is an overstatement. A tiny state like Israel can apparently get away with such a policy for some decades, using, actually mis-using, the memory of the Holocaust as its moral capital. Sooner or later, severe oppression rebounds against the perpetrator. In Israel, when that happens, the answer is always and inevitably to use more violence. Most of the country, and especially its elected leadership, suffers from a chronic learning disability.

Also read: Jerusalem Is Ablaze Again and Israels Growing Settler Movement Was the Trigger

During these dark days and nights, one can hear a host of Israeli generals speaking, ad nauseam, about deterrence, the alleged goal of this war, a goal they think can be achieved by inflicting vast destruction on Hamas in Gaza. It is, I think, fair to say that this fantasy of deterrence has never worked. Only a nation haunted by a fundamental sense of impotence could cultivate such a delusion, even turning it into the cornerstone of its worldview and the guiding compass of its policies toward others, including the intimate Palestinian other who shares this land with the Jews.

In the midst of so much mindless destruction, one searches desperately for some tattered scraps of hope. I used to think I would live to see the change that must happen here to see the elementary principle of equality for all, enshrined in Israels Declaration of Independence, begin to take root in Israeli minds; to see Israelis and Palestinians embrace the many ties that bind them. Im no longer so sure Ill get to see that day.

David Shulman is an Indologist and an authority on the languages of India. A Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is an activist in Taayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership.

Original post:

The Delusions Driving Israeli Thinking Have Been Exposed as Never Before - The Wire

"Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well." Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

My body is a complex of overlapping and intersecting histories, migrations, oppressions, and struggles.

My mother's Malaysian Indian ancestors worked in rubber plantations that supplied cheap rubber for the American automotive boom, fueling the rapid industrialization of cities like Detroit. Malaysian Indians were then displaced from the plantations to make room for mechanized and ecologically destructive palm oil cultivation. Generations later, my mother's community, whose labor physically and economically transformed the planet, are now described as "tragic orphans" forgotten by India and treated with oppressive contempt by Malaysia. Malaysian Indians are disproportionately sicker, less educated, poorer, incarcerated, more often stateless, and killed more frequently by the police. Cheap rubber and palm oil are still in most of the products we use, while the physical and psychological toll their production takes on Malaysia's tragic orphans continues unnoticed.

On my father's side, our Sri Lankan Tamil community has endured one of the longest civil wars in modern history, culminating in the indiscriminate massacre of tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians. The island's civil war spurred a state of collective trauma. Sri Lanka, with a population comparable to metropolitan New York City, has one of the world's highest number of enforced disappearances. Sri Lanka is also adjacent to the world's busiest global shipping lane, prompting countries around the world to largely ignore state-sponsored war crimes and human rights atrocities. The erasure of the Tamil community's trauma is an essential feature of international trade.

War ruins adjacent to a cemetery in a Tamil-majority region of Sri Lanka (Credit: Kartik Amarnath)

To describe his intellectual purpose, Dr. Cornel West often paraphrases the philosopher Theodor Adorno: "the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak." Despite crossing borders, oceans, and generations, my family's suffering still struggles to be heard. When collective suffering goes unacknowledged, it doesn't disappearit transforms. My family suffers in silence from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction. Through illness, our bodies express the trauma that goes unspoken.

From histories of Indigenous dispossession to the racial segregation built into our cities through state-sponsored redlining, oppressions are imprinted into the bodies of the vulnerable in the form of disease. Many of society's prevalent diseases are predicated on unresolved legacies of injustice.

In the spirit of Dr. West, I hope to combine my knowledge and skills across urban, environmental, and medical fields to create interdisciplinary forms of health practice in which unseen suffering is allowed to speak. Health practice, from the lab bench to the field, must move beyond siloed, top-down, and piecemeal interventions and toward a justice-oriented ethic informed by and accountable to vulnerable communities.

Science does not exist in a vacuum; we choose where and how to deploy our resources. Our duty to treat symptoms has to extend toward addressing their underlying root causes in structural inequities and oppressive histories.

Anything less would suggest that we're complacent with suffering and tragedy.

Author Kartik Amarnath presenting on climate justice and New York City's heat vulnerability and energy shortfall projections at the City University of New York Graduate Center. (Credit: CUNY Climate Action Lab)

I came to the realization that we need a vision for justice-oriented health practices while working as the Energy Planner of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), an alliance of grassroots organizations serving the city's most environmentally burdened low-income communities of color.

We worked in communities such as the South Bronx, a neighborhood with multiple sources of pollution, high rates of child asthma, vulnerabilities to sea level rise and extreme heat, and home to the nation's poorest Congressional district. My role was to work with city and state governments to reduce health and economic burdens from polluting energy infrastructure concentrated in low-income communities of color. I stewarded renewable energy projects and policy proposals that addressed systemic injustices. However, despite how creative, transformative, or even feasible our proposals were, we constantly ran into political gridlock.

I will never forget one of the last times I spoke at a public meeting on energy efficiency hosted by New York State's energy regulators. These "public" meetings attracted the usual technocrats: utility companies, academics, developers, engineers, and bureaucrats. I pointed out that these meetings always prioritized dollars and cents but, for the most vulnerable New Yorkers absent from the room, this was about life and death.

I told them that in Brooklyn alone hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people faced the overlapping threats of gentrification, extreme heat, stormwater surge, and an energy shortfall. Lives were on the line.

As usual, those present wouldn't acknowledge human suffering. Energy bureaucrats refused to commit to any lifesaving measures if it complicated the bottom line of the very industry they are mandated to regulate.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn's looming threats became reality far sooner than I expected.

In 2019, facing an energy shortfall during one of the worst heat waves on record, Con Edison shut off power for a working-class community of color that, according to New York City government data, is also one of the most vulnerable to extreme heat. The utility company, in their calculation of dollars and cents over life and death, shut off power for the most vulnerable in order to preserve it for everyone else. The multibillion-dollar company claimed they weren't aware of the publicly available health data on heat vulnerabilitythough my colleagues and I had been telling them for years.

The Harlem River Yard Power Station. (Credit: Ben Schumin/flickr)

Many people think of the energy sector as benign, providing fuel to turn on lights and power appliances. However, switching on a light, and all that is required to make that simple act possible, has a dark side.

The American power gridthe largest machine on Earthrelies heavily on aging infrastructure and fossil fuels. Along the energy supply chain, vulnerable communities differentiated by race and class are disproportionately harmed. Electricity generation alone contributes to more than 50,000 excess deaths annually, while African Americans and low-income communities face the highest health risks from power plant pollution. More than two-thirds of African Americans in the U.S. live within 30 miles of coal plants or oil and gas refineries, which helps explain why they also have higher rates of lung disease despite lower rates of smoking.

Household energy bills are often costlier for low-income communities and communities of color who, due to the racist legacy of redlining, disproportionately live in inefficient housing. In the summer of 2020, five times as many African American households and eight times as many Latinx households experienced electricity shut-offs due to nonpayment compared to white households. This all played out while being told to stay indoors during a devastating global pandemic, economic recession, America's largest nationwide protests, and one of the hottest summers on record.

Author Kartik Amarnath with Sarah Martin, co-chair of the NYC-EJA member organization Morningside Heights/West Harlem Sanitation Coalition, at a protest commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy (Credit: Kartik Amarnath)

Being in meetings with energy decision-makers made me realize that their unwillingness to address legacies of harm was a morally indefensible choice. I came to understand today's health burdens as embodiments of injustice, where vulnerable communities would continue to get sick and die because of willful inaction.

I wanted skills to clinically intervene in this situation, where structural transformation was not happening fast enough. Now, as an aspiring clinician, I can't accept the notion of treating patients without interrogating the oppressions that led to their afflictions. Yet, just like the energy technocrats, health practitioners traditionally fail to acknowledge maladies as manifestations of injustice.

A robust understanding of inequity, injustice, oppression, and their relationship to disease should permeate every area of health practice. This is no small undertaking. It will require addressing questions that don't have clear answers. I hope to be part of a new cadre of health practitioners who commit to answering these questions.

The task is large but there are glimpses of inspiration.

Author Kartik Amarnath (far right) at a rally on the steps of New York City Hall (Credit: Annel Hernandez)

In December 2016, during one of my first days at NYC-EJA, I experienced a moment that would set the tone for my intellectual and professional journey. More than 200 organizations had gathered for a NY Renews rally to demand the state pass the most aspirational climate legislation in the country, aimed at dismantling intersecting environmental, health, and economic harms.

A representative from the local nurses' union rose to speak. Noise suddenly enveloped us.

It was a recording of an asthmatic child wheezing, interspersed with the child's cries for help. It was as if her voice were wet clay slowly pressed through the mesh of the speakers. The once raucous crowd went silent. When the recording stopped, the nurse told us that she was from the South Bronx, where racist urban planning concentrated some of the nation's dirtiest power plants. These sounds were her daily reality.

The sounds may have come from a single patient, but they captured how the energy industry's legacy of injustice was etched into the bodies of oppressed peoples. In just a few minutes and using fewer words, the nurse demonstrated how health practitioners can apply their training toward struggles for environmental justice.

It is by connecting the dots between medical symptoms and the injustices that shape our society that patients and populations can be fully seen, and we move from simply managing suffering to delivering a lasting cure. Only then will we truly fulfill our oaths as health practitioners.

This article is inspired by and dedicated to the late Tamil feminist physician Dr. Rajani Thiranagama and surviving members of the University Teachers for Human Rights Jaffna.

Kartik Amarnath, MS, is the Policy Specialist for PUSH Buffalo and a MD and MPH candidate currently on a leave at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. His writing on energy, environmental health, and climate justice has been published in The Guardian, Naked Capitalism, The Albany Times Union, and academic journals in law and medicine. He can be reached at kkamarnath91@gmail.com.

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Allow suffering to speak: Treating the oppressive roots of illness - Environmental Health News

(JTA) Gal Gadot might have decided for a while to steer clear of current events after drawing criticism for her rendition of John Lennons Imagine during the height of the COVID pandemic. But the Israeli movie star was so moved by the deepening conflict in her country that she posted a message to her 53 million Instagram followers on Wednesday.

My heart breaks, the Wonder Woman star, who served in the Israeli army, wrote Wednesday.

My country is at war, Gadot continued. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same I pray for better days.

Gadot was one of countless celebrities to weigh in on the conflict, which has grown fierce over a matter of days and resulted so far in the deaths of six Israelis and over 50 Palestinians.

For the latest news on the conflict, follow our coverage here.

Many of the celebrities to weigh in are being highly critical of the Israeli governments actions. Heres what theyre saying and how theyre being received.

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah devoted a Daily Show segment to the conflict. (Screenshot from YouTube)

The Daily Show host devoted nearly nine minutes of his popular Comedy Central show Tuesday night to discussing the nuances of the current conflict and the difficulties people have in talking about it.

If you start from Israel fired rockets into Gaza, well then Israel is the bad guy but then you take a step back in time and you go, Well Hamas fired rockets at Israel, then Hamas is the bad guy. But then you take a step back and you go, Well, the Israeli police, they went in and started beating people up in a mosque during Ramadan well then Israel is the bad guy. But then you go well the Palestinians, they were throwing rocks well the Israelis, they were kicking people out of their homes well the intifada well Israel keeps taking more and more land well the Arab invasion [could be referring to Yom Kippur War or 1948 War of Independence] and back and back and back, and who knows how far!

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman attends the premiere of Neons Vox Lux at ArcLight Hollywood, Dec. 5, 2018. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Portman has criticized Israels government in the past perhaps most notably in her refusal to accept the Genesis Prize, nicknamed the Jewish Nobel, in Jerusalem over her disapproval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Tuesday, the Israeli-American star reposted a series of images to her Instagram stories amplified on the platform by fellow Oscar winner Viola Davis titled What To Know About Sheikh Jarrah, the contested neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem where Israeli courts have threatened to evict Palestinian families. Tensions over those pending evictions helped lead to the Jerusalem protests that set off the streak of violence, and #SaveSheikhJarrah has been trending on social media since the weekend.

Rihanna

Rihanna performs onstage during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Aug. 28, 2016. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

The pop star called for an end to the violence, saying her heart is breaking in a rare show of solidarity for both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

Innocent Israeli and Palestinian children are hiding in bomb sheltersThere needs to be some kind of resolve! We are sadly watching innocent people fall victim to notions perpetuated by government and extremists, and this cycle needs to be broken! she wrote on Instagram to her over 95 million followers on Wednesday.

She got plenty of responses from all sides.

Gigi and Bella Hadid

Bella Hadid in 2018. (Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons)

The supermodel sisters have a Palestinian father and previously have had harsh words for Israel on social media. Both have shared a series of posts and Instagram stories online since the weekend.

Gigi, the elder sister who has featured on over 30 international Vogue covers, wrote among other things on Instagram to her 66 million followers: One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & womens rights, condemn corrupt & abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression.

Bella, with over 41 million followers, among several Instagram posts included one with a series of images of two illustrated women talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of the women asks, So arent Israelis and Palestinians just fighting over religion? The other woman responds: They are not fighting, Israelis are the oppressors and Palestinians are the oppressed and the situation is about anything but religion.

The format has been mocked by some elsewhere on social media.

Malala

Malala Yousafzai: A Palestinian child should be sitting in a classroom, not in rubble. (Screenshot)

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pakistani activist recorded a video message in which she expressed her solidarity with the Palestinians and called Israels actions a crime against humanity.

After decades of oppression against Palestinians, we cannot deny the asymmetry of power and the brutality from Israeli air strikes on women and children in Gaza, she said.

Lena Headey

Lena Headey in 2014. (Denny Harrison/Flickr)

Headey, the British actress best known for her role as Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones, has reposted multiple posts from an anti-Zionist writer on Instagram. One reads Save Sheikh Jarrah and Zionist Israeli Apartheid over an image of a boy holding a Palestinian flag.

Another note that Headey reposted reads: this is not a Jewish state but an apartheid Zionist regime this is a colonisation of ethnic cleansing upon an oppressed and imprisoned group of people.

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con. (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)

The movie star and known activist called for sanctions on Israel in a tweet: 1500 Palestinians face expulsion in #Jerusalem. 200 protesters have been injured. 9 children have been killed. Sanctions on South Africa helped free its black people its time for sanctions on Israel to free Palestinians. Join the call. #SheikhJarrah.

Roger Waters

Roger Waters in a video message he uploaded to social media. (Screenshot)

The former Pink Floyd frontman is a longtime anti-Israel activist and one of the more prominent public supporters of a cultural boycott of Israel. He posted a video message on Twitter calling for an end to the Sheikh Jarrah saga, or what he calls the genocidal removal of people from their homes. He also criticizes President Joe Biden for staying silent on the issue and says he is starting a new campaign to get FIFA to stop allowing international soccer matches against Israel.

Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa in 2021. (Warner Music New Zealand/Wikimedia Commons)

The Grammy-winning British pop star she is dating the Hadids younger brother, Anwar also put several posts on her Instagram with the #SaveSheikhJarrah hashtag, according to Newsweek. In her Instagram stories she put a tweet by Sen. Bernie Sanders calling on the United States to speak out strongly against the violence by government-allied Israeli extremists in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Halsey

Halsey at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles. (Glenn Francis/Wikimedia Commons)

The pop singer known for hits like Without Me, which has well over a billion Spotify streams, tweeted a note that ends with #FreePalestine and argues that religion and geopolitics are not at the heart of the conflict: It is not too complicated to understand that brown children are being murdered + people are being displaced under the occupation of one of the most powerful armies in the world. It is willful ignorance to conflate these simple horrors with religion + geopolitics.

Veena Malik

Veena Malik in 2019 (Wikimedia Commons)

Malik is an actress and comedian who has starred in over a dozen Pakistani and Bollywood films. On Tuesday, she posted a series of tweets that seemed to rejoice in the violence against Israel including one that quoted Hitler as saying: I would have killed all the Jews of the world but I kept some to show the world why I killed them.

She also tweeted #IronDome is doomed with a laughing emoji, referencing Israels missile defense system, which has been overwhelmed by rockets fired from Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The tweets had been taken down as of Wednesday.

RELATED: The fighting in Gaza, Jerusalem and across Israel, explained

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From Gal Gadot to Trevor Noah, here's what celebrities are saying about the Israel-Gaza violence - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Chinese Communist Party and its leader want to stay in power for a very long time. The party is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year under the slogan Follow the Party Forever. And Xi Jinping plans to be dictator for life. This is unhappy news for the Chinese people and for the world. Dictatorships are oppressive and inefficient at home, and aggressive abroad. And personal dictatorships are particularly bad.

All Communist parties have ruled as dictatorships. They initially excused it as a temporary necessity because they came to power through national convulsions: In Soviet Russia, China, and Vietnam through civil war, in Eastern Europe through the Soviet occupation after World War II, and in Cuba through a military coup.

But they never evolved towards democracy. No ruling Communist party has ever tolerated competing political parties, free elections, an independent judiciary, a free media, or non-political military and police. Dissidents lose their jobs, are imprisoned, and often killedsometimes in large-scale terror campaigns.

At the pinnacle of these dictatorships sits the head of the Communist party who is always the object of a leader cult. Once he takes power, he usually keeps it for decades, never leaves willingly, and is very rarely toppled.

The Soviet Unions Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko died in office. Same for Chinas Mao, Vietnams Ho Chi Minh, Romanias Ceausescu, and North Koreas Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Bulgarias Zhivkov and East Germanys Honecker were only ousted when Communism fell in 1989.

Their countrys economic life is in the tight grip of the Communist rulers as well. Private enterprise is either forbidden or, as in China, centrally controlled. Chinas people are ill-served by this. Communism interferes with free markets and has always produced significantly less prosperity than Capitalism.

At times, gravely misguided economic policies resulted in mass starvation. Millions died during Stalins brutal collectivization of agriculture in the 1930s and during Kim Jong-ils botched economic reforms in the 1990s. Also, tens of millions died during Maos Great Leap Froward in the late 1950s.

Mao ruled in this tradition for thirty years and the effects were disastrous. When he died in 1976, China was impoverished, backward, and closed to the world.

The following thirty years were marked by Deng Xiaopings dramatic reforms. He introduced Capitalism in parts of the Chinese economy and opened the country to the world. Importantly, he instituted collective leadership at the top of the Communist Party and term limits for its senior leaders. China flourished. And there was hope that China will become a democracy and a responsible participant in international relations.

Xi Jinping has been reversing Deng Xiaopings reforms ever since he took power in 2012. He did away with term limits and collective leadership and brought back the leader cult. He is restricting free-market capitalism in China and increasing the role of the Communist party in economic enterprises. And Chinas dealings with other countries are increasingly confrontational.

Xi Jinpings personal dictatorship is suffering from the same ills that have plagued dictatorships everywhere and at all times.

The first and most consequential casualties of any dictatorship are truth and freedom of expression. Dictators reject any challenges to their flawed doctrines and punish dissenters. The resulting uniformity of thought makes it harder to solve the challenges of the day and chart the best course for tomorrow. Even worse, people in a dictatorship have to fake enthusiasm for the party line, which leads to cynicism towards truth throughout society.

In this environment, a servile bureaucracy and media report embellished good news and hides the bad news. Dictators end up with bad data for their decisionmaking.

There are no institutional breaks in a dictatorship. Through fear, dictators have absolute control over the government, legislature, repression apparatus, judiciary, and media. Their bad decisions cannot be discussed, appealed, or stopped.

Entrepreneurship and innovation, the key drivers of economic growth, wilt in such an environment. Job creators need freedom of thought and action, predictable laws, and an independent judiciary.

All dictators view the outside world with suspicion. They resent foreign support for democracy in their country and bristle at foreign condemnations of their oppression. They also tend to create conflicts abroad to whip up nationalist support at home.

Past dictatorships did not lead to stability, prosperity, and peace in the long run. Neither will Xi Jinpings Communist dictatorship. It will slow China down, increase social conflict, and lead to international tensions.

Dan Negrea is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He served in leadership positions at the State Department and was a Wall Street executive. He defected from Communist Romania.

Image: Reuters

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The Damaging Dictatorship of Xi Jinping - The National Interest

COLUMNISTS

In a statement on the escalating conflict inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the SAJBD said: For the past week rockets fired from Gaza have rained down on Israeli towns in the south of Israel. Yesterday, it was Jerusalems turn to be targeted. Rockets are indiscriminate.

Never mind that scores of bodies were piling up on the Palestinian side as the Israeli security forces indiscriminately attacked and killed men, women and children under the guise of self-defence and targeting Hamas.

Never mind that the conflict was sparked by the Israeli governments apartheid-style forced removal actions in East Jerusalem and escalated by security force incursions into the Al Aqsa mosque, one of Islams holiest sites, in the holy month of Ramadan.

Although the conflict is lopsided and that its origins lie in the oppression of Palestinians and discrimination against Palestinians and Arab Israelis, the SAJBD insists that it is a conflict of equals who share equal blame.

READ:Office of the chief justice clarifies Mogoengs long leave

If government, and indeed all political parties, wish to be part of ending this latest tragic outburst of violence, they must show genuine even-handedness. Those who unquestioningly endorse the claims and actions of one side while completely ignoring those of the other do nothing to resolve the conflict. In fact, they only make a bad situation worse, the SAJBD opined.

The organisation called on our government and indeed all political parties and media to show even-handedness, and acknowledge the complexity of the situation. Demonising Israel, as we have seen in certain statements coming out are irresponsible, inflammatory and dangerous. Tensions are already heightened around a number of issues, including a domestic land dispute in East Jerusalem.

Tensions are already heightened around a number of issues, including a domestic land dispute in East Jerusalem

SAJBD

Perhaps the most laughable but insensitive comment was that tensions are already heightened around a number of issues, including a domestic land dispute in East Jerusalem.

So seizing territory from powerless people who have resided on it for generations in order to hand it over to the dominant ethnic group is a domestic land dispute.

The defence of the atrocities was right out of the script of the Israeli government which, through its embassy, has said: Israel has the right to defend itself and will do its utmost to protect its citizens from Hamas deliberate targeting of civilians while continuing to take every measure to prevent conflict or violence. Its the right and duty of every state.

A note here: Hamas are no boy scouts either, but the scale of the response and the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by a state under the guise that militants hide among ordinary people is not justifiable.

READ:Casual racism of a dead prince

As many others have pointed out before, the likes of the SAJBD and others conflate being Jewish as meaning they have to automatically support the state of Israel, regardless of the atrocities it commits and the inhumane and ungodly acts inflict on those it has control over.

They conflate principled stances against this inhumanity with anti-Semitism, which is the furthest thing from the truth.

This type of thing is no different from those Africans, many of them in this country, who unquestioningly supported the late Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PFs terror against Zimbabweans, simply because he claimed to be continuing the struggle against colonialism and western imperialism.

Likewise, those in the Indian diaspora who embrace Narendra Modis discriminatory brand of Hindu nationalism has inflamed tensions, rendered the once progressive democracy unstable, and struck fear into the hearts of minorities.

Injustice is injustice, regardless of who commits it.

Amnesty International has spoken repeatedly about how Israel has continued to impose institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians living under its rule in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has cited forced removals, blockades that cause humanitarian crises, cruel and invasive checkpoints and roadblocks, holding them in administrative detention without charge or trial and subjecting detainees to torture and other ill-treatment, which are carried out with impunity.

Injustice is injustice, regardless of who commits it

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia took a strong stance in 2017, stating in a comprehensive report that Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.

The agencys executive secretary Rima Khalaf said the report clearly and frankly concludes that Israel is a racist state that has established an apartheid system that persecutes the Palestinian people.

Although this was not formally adopted by the UN, where major powers are very protective of Israel, a UN agency needed to go as far as applying the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (Apartheid Convention) on any state other than National Party-ruled South Africa.

Adopted during the international onslaught against apartheid, the conventions far-reaching aim was that even when the racist policy was defeated in South Africa and then Rhodesia, there would be an international framework to prevent it from rearing its head elsewhere in the world.

The Apartheid Convention defined the crime of apartheid as the policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa and the concomitant inhuman acts committed for establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.

Israeli authorities have deprived millions of people of their basic rights by virtue of their identity as Palestinians

HRWs Kenneth Roth

It listed a whole host of crimes of apartheid could be committed, including denial of the racial groups the right to life and liberty; murder of members of a racial group or groups; infringement of their freedom or dignity; arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment; deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part; deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group; and subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Other multilateral formations, international non-governmental organisations, religious bodies and think-tanks have also taken a firm stand against Israels oppressive policies and actions.

Just last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the pre-eminent players in this field, stated categorically that the international community needs to accept that the Israeli government fits the description of a regime that practices apartheid in terms of the Apartheid Conventions definition.

Israeli authorities have deprived millions of people of their basic rights by virtue of their identity as Palestinians. These longstanding policies and systematic practices box in, dispossess, forcibly separate, marginalise and otherwise inflict suffering on Palestinians.

It stated that the term apartheid was increasingly being used in relation to Israel, usually in a descriptive or comparative, non-legal sense, and often to warn that the situation is heading in the wrong direction the Israeli authorities had already turned that corner.

Today Israelis are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, HRWs Kenneth Roth said the launch of the report.

While much of the world treats Israels half-century occupation as a temporary situation that a decades-long peace process will soon cure, the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution, he added.

In light of Israel being confirmed to be carrying out apartheid policies and activities, the world had a responsibility to its relationship with it.

HRW called for UN member countries to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate systematic discrimination and repression in Israel and Palestine.

The body recommended conditions placed on arms sales and military and security assistance to Israel and the vetting of agreements, cooperation schemes, and all forms of trade and dealing with Israel to screen for those directly contributing to committing the crimes against humanity.

It also said the International Criminal Court should investigate and prosecute those credibly implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution and for individual countries to impose travel bans and asset freezes on those associated with human rights infringements.

HRW also wants the international community to re-evaluate the nature of its engagement in Israel and Palestine and adopt an approach centred on human rights and accountability rather than solely on the stalled peace process.

On a more ambitious note, HRW specifically called on the president of the US, the US Congress and state department to condemn Israels apartheid activities and impose sanctions similar to the ones mentioned above.

This is a long shot since if there is anyone issue on which the Democrats and Republicans see eye to eye, it is the need to keep Israel as a reliable ally, regardless of the evils it commits.

As author and conflict analyst CJ Wellerman wrote this week on the TRT website, the USs mantra is that there should be no limits to Israels supposed right to defend itself. This was the sentiment expressed by US President Joe Biden this week, echoing his predecessors.

Israel has a right to self-defence, is what the Obama administration said when Israeli forces killed 2 200 Palestinian civilians, including 500 children, during its 2014 invasion of Gaza.

They are the same words the Trump administration offered when Israeli snipers shot and killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian protesters, journalists and medics during the Great March of Return protests in 2018-19, wrote Wellerman.

Pricking Washingtons conscience was worth a shot nonetheless because it will keep them having to justify why they can condemn dictatorial regimes elsewhere while turning a blind eye on one of the most heartless perpetrators of human rights violations in the world.

HRW called on the EU to do pretty much the same and further to conduct a holistic assessment of the implications for EU and member states relations with Israel arising from the findings of the crimes of apartheid and persecution, identifying, in particular, the legal consequences and obligations under EU and international law.

What HRW was essentially saying is that the Israeli regime should be treated the same way South Africas apartheid regime was treated by the international community, particularly in its last two decades in power.

Not surprisingly, the Israeli government dismissed the report by saying that Human Rights Watch is known to have a long-standing anti-Israel agenda. And then less than two weeks later it was out there doing exactly what HRW had spoken about.

It is probably what the SAJBD also did as it simply refuses what everybody else sees. It is a pity because South Africas Jewry has a proud and long-standing record of commitment to human rights, equality and justice.

Some of the most outstanding stalwarts of our liberation struggle and liberal cause came from this community. They knew right from wrong and stood against inhumanity regardless of the costs.

It is time for the SAJBD to remove its blinkers and see the Israel regime for what it is: a brutal regime enforcing apartheid in manners that are often even harsher and more rigid than the inventors of the original heinous system.

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Mondli Makhanya | SA Jewish Board of Deputies must remove blinkers and see the apartheid Israeli regime for what it is: racist and brutal - News24

They have asked Lancaster and Fleetwood MP Cat Smith to raise the issue in parliament and call for a response from government.

An urgent question was asked in the House of Commons this morning about the current situation in Israel and Palestine.

Ms Smith said she had applied to speak but was unsuccessful.

She said that she had received many letters from constituents about the deepening crisis in Palestine, and condemned the actions taken by Israel.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint.

He said the UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and wants to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions.

The BBC has reported that the deadly exchange of fire between Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military has escalated significantly, with the UN fearing a "full-scale war".

At least 43 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed since Monday, including 13 Palestinian children caught up in the conflict.

Lancaster Mosques and Partners UK said in a statement following an attack by Israeli police on the Masjid Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem on Monday: "The community in Lancaster is truly saddened by the events that have unfolded in Palestine over the last few days.

"Witnessing brutality and destruction caused on one of the holiest sites in Islam in the holiest month of the year is especially painful for the Muslims of Lancaster.

"No-one should ever feel under threat in their place of worship, let alone have to deal with stun grenades, rubber bullets, and gas being thrown at them whilst praying."

The statement goes on to say:

"We call on our local MP Cat Smith and the wider community of Lancaster to openly speak out against the oppression, injustice and violence we have seen over the last few days in the hope that we can start to see change."

Ms Smith said: "I totally condemn the invasion of private Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, the attempts to evict their occupants on the basis of racially-discriminatory laws and the invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"The violence perpetrated by Israeli forces against people at prayer was especially outrageous.

"These are not isolated events but symptoms of the policies of settlement expansion and the ongoing effort to alter the demographic make-up of Jerusalem to minimise its Palestinian population.

"All this activity is a violation of international law - it must cease immediately.

"We have once again seen violence effect communities across Palestine and Israel.

"No party should take action which puts civilians at risk - be that Israeli children needing to shelter from rocket fire or Palestinian residents in Gaza, confined under siege and now once again bombed by Israeli forces.

"I call on all involved to rapidly de-escalate this crisis and work towards a long term agreement.

"I have seen for myself when visiting the region what terrible damage over half a century of temporary occupation has done.

"Jerusalem is a city holy to three faiths - it must be protected and treasured by all.

"The need for a solution that delivers freedom, justice and equality for all her people is more urgent than ever.

"Now is the time for action not words from the UK government and wider international community.

"The UK has rightfully frequently condemned Israeli settlement expansion and land expropriations in Jerusalem, but condemnation is not enough.

"To stop these violations of international law we need concrete political actions.

"A good first step would be to implement the policy adopted by the most recent Labour Party conference.

"This resolved to adhere to an ethical policy on all the UKs trade with Israel, in particular by applying international law on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and stopping any arms trade with Israel that is used in violation of the human rights of Palestinians.

"I have written to the Foreign Secretary to make these demands and will seek to raise them in Parliament."

Several Lancaster organisations signed the statement, including Naba' Arabic School, Jamea Al Khauter Islamic Girls School, Moorlands Islamic Centre, Raza Mosque of Lancaster, Lancaster Islamic Society, Lancaster University Islamic Society, Lancaster University Friends of Palestine Society, Lancaster University Pakistani Society, Global Link, and Lancaster University Arab Society.

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Muslims of Lancaster backed by MP in condemning 'oppression, injustice and violence' in Palestine - Lancaster Guardian