Adri Nieuwhof: Have you read the Breaking the Silence report with testimonies about the abuse of Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers? What was your first impression when you read it?

Rifat Kassis: As an organization working in the field, and as one that works to monitor and document Israeli violations of Palestinian children’s rights, the information revealed by the Breaking the Silence report is not news to me. But my first impression was — as I often reflect during my work with DCI-Palestine — that these practises do not just affect Palestinian children. Rather, they also affect the Israeli soldiers themselves, as well as Israeli society at large: at the end of the day, these soldiers will return home and deal with their own children or their own siblings as changed men and women. They will invariably be affected by their roles in the occupation, and they may display their consequences in a number of ways: they may be more violent in dealing with their children, for example, or they may find themselves behaving in two distinct and contrary ways, which may affect their overall psychological wellbeing.



AN:  Are the practises described by Breaking the Silence in line with the data and observations of DCI-Palestine?

RK: Yes. At DCI-Palestine, we usually document and report the accounts of the children themselves, whether they were eyewitnesses or victims. The testimonies revealed by Breaking the Silence support the stories that children tell us.

Almost all children inform DCI-Palestine that the Israeli soldiers try to terrify and intimidate Palestinian children in order to prevent them from participating in any activity against Israel, or in order to intimidate them during arrest and transfer to prepare them for the interrogation stage. Others have informed us that soldiers kick or otherwise mistreat them out of boredom, wanting to “have some fun.” I’m also thinking of one young boy’s account: upon being transported to a military camp, this boy was headbutted and punched by the soldier who received him; handcuffed, blindfolded, and put out in the yard, at which point other soldiers came to punch and spit at him; and intimidated him with a gun during his interrogation. “Can we shoot him?” one soldier asked another. “Yes, shoot him,” the other replied. “He’s an animal.” Then a third said, “Don’t. We’ll execute him in Ofer [a military prison].” According to our documentation, almost all children arrested by the Israeli army are exposed to at least one form of ill-treatment. 

Further, between 2004 and 2011, DCI-Palestine and other organisations documented the cases of 17 Palestinian children being used as human shields by Israeli forces.

To me, the Breaking the Silence report completes the reports we carry out by adding the stories of the perpetrators, which we usually can’t obtain. These accounts lend credibility to our reports, which represent the narrative of the victims.

AN: The report is based on testimonies of 30 soldiers. How do you assess the information they gave? Do you think the practises they report are common?

RK: I think that these practises are not simply the arbitrary acts of a few soldiers who don’t abide by the rules. They are part and parcel of the ideology of the state and the Israeli army. This argument is supported by the fact that the Israeli authorities rarely opened investigations on these allegations. And when cases do come to light, the state reaction is mild to the point of evasive, negligent. For example, when two Israeli soldiers were convicted for using a nine-year-old boy as a human shield during the offensive on Gaza — they forced him at gunpoint to search for explosives — the Israeli military court merely demoted their ranks and gave them three-month suspensions for “inappropriate conduct.” So, again, the abuse of Palestinian children’s rights is not only common, but also systemically carried out and institutionally protected. It is by no means incidental.


AN: How do you assess the impact of the abuse of children on families? What do you see in your day-to-day dealings with protecting the rights of Palestinian children?

RK: The impact of the abuse on children varies from child to child. It depends on the child’s age, on what exactly happened to him, and on the support that he received from his family. In general terms, though, almost all children experiencing these kinds of trauma are deeply affected. In the same way, families are affected, too. The absence of a child, the constant awareness that he is in prison and being subjected to ill-treatment there, puts an even heavier burden on families and how they try to cope with it. To summarize this burden, I will quote a mother of three children in or formerly in detention as interviewed in a report conducted by Save the Children Sweden and YMCA: “It’s epidemic; they come and take our children away in order to break us emotionally. And that affects a whole society, a whole people — I think none of us recovered from the trauma of our children being taken away from us.” 



AN: Is there anything you would like to say to the soldiers who testified?

RK: It is very important to speak up about these abusive practices and to reveal the truth about the occupation. What’s even more important, of course, is that soldiers refrain from abusing and mistreating children in the first place.

Sharing this information is important for the wellbeing of the soldiers themselves — including those who witnessed destructive practises and were unable to put an end to them. These accounts could be an important part of our future “truth and reconciliation” era, where the perpetrators reveal such information as a first step toward reparation and rehabilitation on the long road to justice.

The Israeli society and the international community should be aware of what the Israeli soldiers do in the OPT  [occupied Palestinian territory] and how the occupation destroys Palestinian lives — but it’s also crucial to remember, as Uri Avnery once said, how it corrupts the Israelis themselves. When it comes to occupation, no one emerges unharmed.


AN: What needs to be done to end the abuse?

RK: There must be accountability. The international community must work to stop Israel’s impunity. Israel must respect its obligations under international law. Both victims and perpetrators must speak about these abuses and make them known to the public — so that the public, then, can truly and effectively engage with putting pressure on Israel to abide by international law. BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] actions are one of the most direct and important measures the international community can take toward stopping these oppressive practices and bringing about a just peace in our region.


First published at Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

UNPFII logo

Feminist researcher Bina D’Costa and I were recently discussing a range of obstacles faced by the Jumma [1] women’s movement as well as all indigenous women’s movement today. D’Costa observed that one of the challenges that confront women’s political activism and rights based movements is to forge meaningful alliances and re-build linkages with indigenous human rights and women’s groups that the latter could also embrace as their own. Although in recent years a lot of mainstream Bengali women’s rights activists have spoken out about violence against indigenous women, there are still some communities, like the tea plantation workers and Saotal and Khasi women, whose issues have only been very sparsely addressed. And this is reflected in a lot of the national and international reporting on women’s rights.

The other side of this is of course how the indigenous leadership, including women leaders, has persistently failed to include women’s voices in high level forums. This year, despite the increasing number of cases of violence against women and girls in the indigenous areas in Dinajpur and in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, there were no indigenous women representing at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Also, of course the debate is much larger than the Forum itself. It is just a symptom of the crisis in the women’s movement, a crisis that plagues all nationalist or even issue-based movements. It reminds me about how some men, demonstrating for their own democratic rights at Tahrir Square during the ‘Arab Spring’, had swooped on women journalists and sexually assaulted them, about how, questions about race and gender marginalization continue to be raised at present in America’s Occupy Wall Street movement.

Kalpana, a feminist activist had recognized the sexual/gendered politics within her own community much earlier, as Meghna Guhathakurta observes in her article ‘Kalpana’s lasting contribution’ (New Age, June 12, 2008). Guhathakurta writes, “…in most nationalist or ethnic movements the gender question becomes a subtext to the larger ‘national’ one.”

In a similar vein, D’Costa in her recent book Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia (Routledge, 2011) notes that “structural factors and strategic choices have shaped the outcomes of particular policies followed by women’s movements within the country.” Perhaps this is also true of the Jumma women’s movement.

Kalpana was ‘vanished’ 16 years ago on this day, a day before the national parliamentary elections. Her brother Kalicharan recognized the military officer Lieutenant Ferdous Kaiser Khan of Kojoichari Army camp who, accompanied by 7-8 others in plainclothes, came to their house at 1:30 in the morning, blindfolded her and her brothers, and took them away. Her brothers returned. Kalpana is still ‘missing’. Despite overwhelming evidence against the Army officers, numerous calls for justice from national and international human rights activists, and several layers of ‘investigations’, there has been no development.

Kalpana was the general secretary of the Hill Women’s Federation, a student at the Baghaichari Kachalang College. Friends who knew her talked about her outspoken protest against army occupation in the CHT. After her death, the discovery of her diary and letters exchanged with comrades of the movement revealed her single-minded determination to fight against Bengali colonialism through militarization. Sixteen years after her disappearance Raja Devasish Roy speaks to New Age about meeting her, about her life and the investigation of the case and the effect of her struggle, in life and ‘disappearance’, on the Jumma women’s movement of today.

Raja Devasish Roy is the chief of the Chakma Administrative Circle, an official body, and the traditional raja of the Chakma community. He’s also an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) for 2011-13. Barrister Devasish Roy is an advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

HSA: In her life and in her disappearance, Kalpana Chakma has become an icon of the Jumma feminist movement. Her fights were not just against military oppression, but also the discrimination within the greater Jumma movement led by men. What do you think were the strongest areas in her struggle?

RDR: Three things, among others: (a) her deep insights into internal and externally-originated gender-based and other discrimination (b) her conviction, despite the odds, to struggle against the denial of the right of self-determination and against gender-based discrimination at the same time and (c) her moral courage to speak out and act based on those beliefs and convictions.

HSA: Please tell New Age readers a little about your interactions with her.

I met her only once, and briefly, at the house of the headman of her village in New Lalyaghona, which I was visiting, along with my (now late) wife and family, some months before her disappearance. She had joined the local people in welcoming our entourage and being hospitable to the guests.

HSA: How do you think her ideology and struggles are relevant to the Jumma women’s movement today?

Her courageous stand is a source of inspiration to Jumma women today to not give up the struggle, and to stay focused on the goal of ending discrimination against women, within their own society and overall, and of struggling for self-determination against racist and discriminatory forces.

HSA: I feel that the strength of the Jumma women is not the same as it was before the 1997 CHT ‘Peace’ Accord. This is reflected in the fact that the prevalence of sexual violence against Jumma women has grown, but there seems to be little in the way of retribution. Is it because of a crisis within the Jumma women’s movement or is it something else? What are your thoughts on this?

RDR: The Bangladeshi state is yet to learn to deal in context-specific ways with the pervasive discrimination practiced against Jummas and other indigenous peoples in general, and against Jumma women in particular. In combating sexual violence against indigenous women, there is a need for context-specific measures on prevention, deterrence, punishment and rehabilitation through legislative, judicial, executive and programmatic acts. Awareness-raising of communities is also essential. The aforesaid measures need to be informed by enquiry, assessment, analysis. The primary responsibility lies with the state. However, civil society as a whole shares this burden too. Jumma society as a whole has done little in this regard. Before the 1997 CHT Accord, women’s groups, such as the Hill Women’s Federation, had its own distinct identity, and relative autonomy, from regional political groups. This is no longer the case, both with regard to women’s organizations and those of students and youth. The Hill Women’s Federation – of which Kalpana was an office-bearer – in the case of both the Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS) and the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) are now little more than passive adjuncts to the aforesaid parties. Some of the women’s groups that are not affiliated with any political party have done admirable work. However, their work is limited to the urban centres, partly a result of insufficient support from national and regional political parties and human rights groups.

HSA: What do you think human rights activists generally and the Jumma women activists should do to put national and international pressure on the Government to solve the case of Kalpana Chakma’s disappearance? As a lawyer, what do you think are the legal loopholes and how can they be overcome?

RDR: The Bangladeshi state has not learnt to take effective measures against its errant security personnel when they have violated human rights, particularly if the matter concerns incidents in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Legally, there are no impediments to take punitive measures, as there is no limitation for such crimes, and security forces are not legally exempt from prosecution in such cases. If Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassination can be pursued decades after the event, so should it be in the case of crimes against others from humbler origins and acuter situations of disadvantage. And it can be so.

However, we cannot overlook the fact that the law is prevented from taking its own course on account of the lack of political support to end this culture of impunity, where members of the security forces and others are implicated. The intervention of the Supreme Court may be sought. The jurisdiction of the international human rights mechanisms can also be invoked, combined with media and other campaigns within and outside Bangladesh. I feel that a combined approach is necessary.

In the long run, I am confident that justice will prevail. For Kalpana, for Sagori, for Sujata, Alpana, Bishakha and countless others. We cannot and should not give up.

[1] The hill people identify themselves as ‘Jummas’ collectively, which refer to their use of shifting cultivation (Jhum cultivation).

AUTHOR: Hana Shams Ahmed
URL: http://hanashams.wordpress.com
E-MAIL: hana.shams.ahmed [at] gmail.com

Simon Natas

Simon Natas is a London-based lawyer specializing in criminal defense law and human rights. Natas is involved with the organization Jews for Justice for Palestinians and has defended a number of Palestine solidarity activists, including four who blockaded the cosmetics retailer Ahava’s London flagship store in Covent Garden on two occasions in 2009. Ahava closed the store last September; this decision followed a long series of protests outside the store, which led its landlord to refuse to renew the lease.

The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof interviewed Natas about the protesters’ case and the role of G4S Israel, a subsidiary of British-Danish security firm G4S, in Israel’s occupation and repression of Palestinians. Meanwhile, G4S won a massive security contract with the London 2012 Summer Olympics worth £200 million ($312.7 million) (“100,000 eye Olympics security jobs with G4S,” The Independent, 15 May 2012).

Adri Nieuwhof: Can you talk about the case against the activists who blockaded Ahava’s shop in London?

Simon Natas: In 2009, I defended a number of activists who carried out a peaceful blockade of the Ahava shop in Covent Garden. That case was discontinued. There were further blockades in 2010 which resulted in a trial that summer. That trial — again — collapsed and all the defendants were acquitted. Then there were further blockades which resulted in a trial in which there were convictions. Two of those we successfully appealed last month in the High Court. The two remaining convictions were upheld. We are now seeking to appeal in the Supreme Court.

AN: What was your main line of defense in the case against the Ahava protestors?

SN: My clients were charged with an offense known as aggravated trespass. It makes it a criminal offense to trespass on somebody else’s property and in doing so, obstruct lawful activity. So it is part of the prosecution’s case that the activity that you obstruct or intend to obstruct is lawful. You cannot be guilty of the offense if you are obstructing activity that is itself criminal.

Now, the defense that my clients relied on was that the activity they had obstructed was unlawful on a number of different grounds. All arose from the fact that the Ahava products were manufactured in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank called Mitzpe Shalem.

We relied on a number of different allegations of illegality, one of them was the labeling of those products. They were labeled “manufactured by Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories Ltd, Dead Sea, Israel.”

It is quite clear that anybody reading that label would assume that the products were manufactured in Israel, but of course they are not. They are manufactured in the West Bank, which is not recognized by the international community as being part of Israel. Throughout Europe we have laws designed to ensure that consumers are not misled by people who market products.

In the UK, they have been incorporated into our domestic law and are known as the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations of 2008. They make it a criminal offense to engage in a misleading omission or misleading action that would cause consumers to buy goods that they might not otherwise buy had they known the true facts or had they not been misled as to the true facts. My clients argued that the labeling of Ahava’s products were clearly misleading, because there are many people out there who would not want to buy products from an illegal Israeli settlement.

There were other allegations of illegality as well. One of the things that my clients argued was that it was potentially illegal to market any product which was the proceeds of a crime in international law. They argued that the establishment of an illegal settlement and a factory on that settlement breached international law and that all the goods that were produced on it were the proceeds of crime. It followed that anyone dealing in those goods was also dealing in the proceeds of crime.

The district judge accepted that my clients had adduced a considerable body of evidence to back up their argument and also that the argument had considerable force, but he did not feel able to rule that Ahava’s trade was unlawful in the context of proceedings in which the company was not itself a party.

AN: G4S is involved in the provision of services to Israeli checkpoints, the police and Israeli prisons. How do you assess G4S’s role in Israel’s violations of international law?

SN: The first thing we need to establish is that we are talking here about G4S Israel, or Hashmira. The shares in this company are held overwhelmingly [91%] by the parent company, which is the British Danish company G4S. But it is G4S Israel operating the contracts in Israel and the occupied territories [the West Bank and Gaza Strip].

The background to this is that in 2002, G4S took over the Israeli security company Hashmira. That company had been engaged in activities in the occupied territories that included providing security services, security guards for settlements in the West Bank and also for businesses and prisons in the West Bank and prisons for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Over the years, the parent company G4S has faced considerable criticism from NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], particularly in Denmark, for the activities of its Israeli subsidiary. G4S says it has given up a number of contracts. They say they no longer provide security contracts for settlements themselves. They do still provide services to some businesses and also a police station in the West Bank.

One of the most problematic services they operate is the provision of technical equipment and maintenance for checkpoints. Those include checkpoints in the wall, known by many as the apartheid wall, although the Israeli authorities describe it as the separation barrier.

The wall cuts deep into Palestinian territory, encompassing most of the area of major Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, and cuts through Palestinian towns such as Qalqiliya. It prevents Palestinians from getting to their land and blocks Palestinian access to East Jerusalem.

The building of this wall was determined by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 2004 as being illegal, not just because the UN Security Council had said Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was illegal and determined that Israel should leave the occupied Palestinian territory but also because through the construction of this wall Israel was pursuing conduct which they found in breach of Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This provision makes it a crime for an occupying country to transfer its own population into the territory that it occupies. So the transfer of Israeli civilians into the settlements in the West Bank is a grave breach of the convention.

The court said that the wall had become an integral part of this crime because it was part of a policy of de facto annexation. What they saw was that Israel had created settlements in the West Bank and it had then constructed this wall which was designed ultimately to enable Israel to annex that territory. The court also observed that the wall had a serious impact on Palestinians’ right to access their land, water, education, health care. So it has a significant humanitarian impact as well.

The court talked not only about the wall, but about the wall and its associated regime. It considered that “the construction of the wall and its associated regime create a fait accompli on the ground that could well become permanent in which case and notwithstanding the formal characterization of the wall by Israel it would be tantamount to de facto annexation.”

When one talks about the associated regime of the wall, one certainly talks about the checkpoints, because the wall cannot operate without checkpoints. The checkpoints enable Israeli settlers and indeed Israeli citizens who are not necessarily settlers but may be visiting the settlements, to pass through that wall and access other parts of the West Bank, such as the Jordan Valley, which is subject to a considerable amount of economic exploitation by Israel. Much of the settlement produce which comes out from the [occupied West Bank] comes from the Jordan Valley.

So the checkpoints are necessary in order to allow Israelis access to the West Bank [and] to prevent Palestinians from passing the other way. If you are providing the technical facilities like the scanners and other equipment, and you also have a contract to look after them, to fix them when they go wrong, to ensure that they are working properly, then you are assisting in that process by ensuring that the checkpoints can effectively regulate the movement of people through the wall. That is one area in which G4S Israel may be assisting in something which the International Court of Justice has condemned as a breach of the Geneva conventions.

AN: And how do you assess G4S Israel’s involvement in prisons in Israel?

SN: One of the main areas of criticism from NGOs in Europe and far more significantly, from within Palestine, is the fact that G4S provides electronic security systems to prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners are held. These include both prisons and detention and interrogation centers.

It is well-established that Israel’s detention of Palestinian political prisoners breaches human rights norms routinely. Administrative detention has been much in the news as a result of the recent hunger strike, but it is a very longstanding issue. Criticism of G4S Israel has evolved around its involvement in providing security equipment to those prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners are held. Whether in doing that they are assisting in Israel’s breaches of international law is matter of argument, but it seems to me something that one would not easily be able to exclude.

As a result, it seems to me something G4S should not be doing. Clearly on moral grounds, but it may be legally problematic as well. G4S Israel is participant in the UN Global Compact which has ten principles for businesses. Principle one is that business should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights. Principle two is that they must not be complicit in human rights abuses.

Activists and members of NGOs which are concerned about what Western corporations are doing in other parts of the world can look at these legal principles and the norms that they attempt to establish and protect, and then one can look at what these companies are involving themselves in when they provide services to regimes which routinely breach human rights as Israel does in the occupied Palestinian territories.

AN: Do you think companies or its staff can be held accountable for breaches of international law?

SN: Companies themselves cannot be prosecuted in international courts. In domestic jurisdictions there are various crimes that corporations can commit, for example, corporate manslaughter or bribery. Not so for breaches of international law.

It is in theory possible for individuals who are responsible for the behavior of companies to be personally liable. There have been successful prosecutions of directors of companies. There was a well-known case in the Netherlands, the Van Anraat case, in which the director of a company was convicted of selling chemicals to the Saddam Hussein regime, knowing that they would be used to make mustard gas which then be used against civilians. He had no other involvement with the Saddam Hussein regime and no involvement in planning or organizing the attacks. Van Anraat was prosecuted on the basis that he was personally liable for the actions of his company. So it is possible to hold corporate officials responsible for the actions of a company, but every case will turn on its own facts, for example, who was responsible for the decisions and what their state of knowledge was.

AN: Palestine solidarity activists have campaigned to exclude the transportation giant Veolia from bidding for public contracts because of the company’s role in several Israeli projects in the occupied West Bank. They argue that this involvement can be qualified as grave professional misconduct. Do you think the same would apply for G4S?

SN: I think the same arguments made about Veolia can also be made about G4S Israel. I don’t know if the corporate structures of Veolia and G4S are similar, but I think the general point that is made about Veolia is that this is a company which operates in the occupied Palestinian territory through its involvement in building and operating the Jerusalem light railway.

There is a strong argument that the Jerusalem light railway breaches article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a similar criticism to that which can be made about G4S’s involvement in checkpoints for the wall. The Jerusalem light rail connects West Jerusalem with settlements in the [occupied West Bank] and appears designed to achieve the same goal that the International Court of Justice condemned in relation to the building of the wall, i.e. a policy which leads to the de facto annexation of territory in the West Bank and particularly territory around East Jerusalem. So in my opinion the same criticism can be made about G4S’s involvement in the wall. There is a clear analogy there.

First published at the Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, who developed testimonial models for torture survivors in India, was in Bangalore, talks to newzfirst.

Lenin, Executive Director/Secretary General and founder-member of Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) is a Ashoka fellow,2007 Gwangju Human Rights awardee ,2008 , ACHA peace star awardee and Weimar Human Rights Award, Germany, 2010.

Being an Ayurvedic physician by profession, has been working for the rights of child and bonded labors and other marginalized section of people in Uttar Pradesh. In 1996, he and his wife, Shruti Nagvanshi founded PVCHR to break the closed, feudal hierarchies of conservative villages by building up local institutions and supporting them with a strong human rights network.

Purpose of visit to Bangalore?

Testimonial therapy plays crucial role in fight for justice and helps the victims of casteist aggression, police torture, communal violence or any other kind of injustice, to come out of the trauma.  After successful results in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, PVCHR is planning to initiate the ‘testimonial therapy’ in Karnataka with the help of like-minded organizations.

What is Testimonial Therapy?

In developing countries where torture is perpetrated, there are few resources for the provision of therapeutic assistance to the survivors. The testimonial method represents a brief cross-cultural psychological approach to trauma.  The method was first described in Chile in 1983, and has since been used in many variations in different cultural contexts.

The aim of the testimony is to facilitate integration of traumatic experiences and restoration of self-esteem. It is also useful as it channels the victims into socially constructive actions like production of a document that could be used as indictment against the offenders.

We have four step approach, we earnestly listen to the narrations of victim as nobody listens to them emotionally, appropriately or completely. And then we prepare the narration systematically in ‘I’ form and read it before victim, while victim edits it wherever he feels the need. It helps the victim to present himself/herself in placid way before the concerned people or authorities. We hold testimonial ceremonies where-in testimonials are read out and survivors are facilitated. It boosts up the morale and confidence among them. This creates an atmosphere of understanding among the survivors of different kind of violence and between different communities. Finally, we keep them following up as per UN standards, until everything becomes normal.

You are working for cause of human rights since 1996, what is the status of human rights in India, especially northern part?

Casteism, creed, racial feelings, pre-independence British hegemony, communal forces and vested political interests have infused the practice of rights’ violation among the people. Rights’ violation has been taking place in new forms and on raise even-after serious guidelines. Sangh Parivar, with a slogan of ‘Hindu-Hindi-Hindustani’ and with issues like Kashmir and north-east, have been engaged in spreading hatred among the different communities, leading to gross violation of minorities’ human rights. Unfortunately, we bound to organize a convention on “Reducing Police Torture against Muslim Minorities” recently. Even after six decades of independence and enactment of constitution, Dalits are still victims of caste violence. Atrocities and extortion on Dalits, fake encounters, refusal to register FIR against the dominant class, arbitrary arrests on false charges, illegal detentions and custodial deaths of Dalits are still common. There is no bigger corruption than ‘casteism’ in India and it has to be eradicated first. There is a strong relation between caste/class/ community and violation of human rights.

Amidst coarse violation of human rights, there is a need to work for unity against the ‘divide and rule’ movements.

There are national and international laws, measures, guidelines, campaigns for awareness; still there is increase in rights’ violation by individuals and authorities.

In India, there are several laws, guidelines and rules &regulations are formulated to uphold the human rights, these are excellent in its own, but the implementing authorities are ineffectual. Either these institutions that are responsible for implementation itself are pervaded with rights’ violation or are under the influence of the violators. There is a need of radical change in psyche & practice of casteism, communalism, impunity among the people in administration, law& order, judiciary and society, in this regard.

What about awareness and education of Human Rights among common people?

It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the protection of rights’ of its citizens. It needs conviction, plans, strategies, education and proper implementation. Here, in India, governments are lacking seriousness in this regard. Lack of rights’ education among both oppressors and victims has led to gross violation of rights. Government should take an initiative to teach human rights’ as a subject in for all students in schools & colleges through a systematic curriculum; especially among minorities of all kinds- religious, caste, linguistic or sexual.

What response you have been receiving to your struggle, by people and authorities?

Initially it was poor, but after our successful endeavors, people from different section of the society started supporting the cause. We have very good communiqué with administration, law & order authorities and state & national human rights’ commissions and response too.

How longer one can rely on others to fight for him or his people or his community? One has to fight for the justice for himself, his people and his community. We have succeeded in producing that kind of numerous individuals in this journey of struggle. To be a successful social transformation, there is a need of action from both the ends, i.e. from authorities and the people.

‘Silence’ is the biggest promoter of impunity. We wanted to break the culture of silence, silence against impunity. Through our struggle people have achieved it to a good extent.

What are the difficulties you face in this struggle?

Difficulties are integral part of this struggle. My family, friends and relatives were apprehensive when I changed my field from medical doctor. Later I faced discouragement from the community. And, followed by many-more kinds of hardships posed from vested interests and political powers, as they always wanted to sabotage the voice of oppressed.  Threats have become common these years.

These hardship helped me to expand my cause. It got widespread support from the nook and corner of the state; communities working at International level for the rights too have joined the hands.

What you want to convey to your fellow Rights’ defenders?

Pointing out at casteism and injustice, my grand-father, a Gandhian and freedom fighter always used to say “Struggle is still pending after the freedom; it is not against British but against our own people.”

I would like advice youths that ‘be always connected to society, especially marginalized section of people and rule of law, with the values of justice, secularism, democracy and non violence. Use the all possible means to raise the voice for justice, especially Information Technology has to be utilized to amplify the unheard voice of people.’ 

AUTHOR: Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi
URL: http://www.pvchr.net/
E-MAIL: pvchr.india [at] gmail.com

Ridley took part in an interview with me, discussing her viewpoints regarding the prospect of Iran-West relations, the expansionistic policies of the Israeli regime in the Occupied Palestine and the popular uprisings of the Arab world widely known as Arab Spring.

Kourosh Ziabari: One of the recent events which stained the already blurred relations between Iran and the UK was Iranian students’ assault on the British embassy in Tehran in the late 2011. Some political analysts say that it was an undiplomatic action and Britain’s response in closing the Iranian embassy in London was natural. However, some others believe that it was an intrinsic consequence of the UK’s hostile policies toward Iran. What’s your viewpoint in this regard?

Yvonne Ridley: As the UK Government found out last year, when students get angry and in a destructive mode nothing will stop them. The Conservative Party headquarters in London was trashed and vandalized by angry students in the UK who felt they had been lied to over the increase in student fees. And they caused much more damage to the Tory Party HQ than the rampaging students in Tehran, yet no one accused the British police of turning a blind eye or encouraging acts of vandalism and violence. The UK Government was, however, outraged but I feel it used the event as an opportunity to accelerate hostile relations between both countries.

KZ: Tensions between Iran and the West has been mounting in recent months, especially since IAEA released its latest report on Iran’s nuclear program. What’s your prediction for the future of Iran-West relations? Do you foresee any chances of reconciliation and restoration?

YR: The tensions are predictable and there is a weary feeling of deja vu among anti war activists who fear the worst between Iran and the West having witnessed a similar build up of hostilities over non-existed WMD in Iraq during Saddam’s rule.

KZ: Israel, the U.S. and their European allies have repeatedly threatened Iran against a preemptive military strike. Are these war threats realistic or merely media propaganda aimed at intimidating the Iranians? Why doesn’t the UN take any decisive action against the states who propagate such threats and spread fear?

YR: The UN is weak and in the sway and influence of America but I doubt if there will be a military strike, for several different reasons. The USA is struggling in Afghanistan against the Taliban, a bunch of ill-equipped fighters in flip flops and shalwa khameez so there is no way it would tackle Iran which has a strong army, is armed and will retaliate. Furthermore there are tens of thousands of U.S. and other western civilians, oil workers, missionaries and NGOs in Iraq and if one single strike touched Iranian soil, there is a very real danger 10 million or so Shiite in neighboring Iraq will rise up against westerners. This could manifest itself in another disastrous hostage situation similar to the one in Iran from which the USA has still not psychologically recovered.

KZ: The U.S. and its European allies are persuasively lobbying around the world to convince the economic partners of Iran join the global sanctions, especially the newly proposed oil embargo against Iran. Will these sanctions bear fruit for the U.S. or it will backfire? Will the economic pressures finally bring Iran to its knees?

YR: Iran is not marginalized or as isolated as the U.S. and UK would want. Several countries in the Euro-zone rely on Iran for cheap oil while Russia, China, Brazil, Venezuela and other countries in South America have expressed solidarity with Iran.

KZ: President Barack Obama had promised during his presidential campaign that he would pursue a policy of detente and tension easing with the Muslim world, especially Iran, and follow the path of diplomacy and “change” to resolve Iran’s nuclear controversy. But we saw that he followed the path of his predecessor and even talked of the option of a nuclear strike against Iran. What’s your idea about his approach toward the Middle East in general, and Iran in particular? Has he fulfilled his promise of change?

YR: This latest U.S. president, given a Nobel peace Prize because he was not George W. Bush, is a one-term president. He made many promises on the road to the White House and broke more than 60 percent of them. He is, sadly, a man who promised to deliver so much and failed. He escalated the war in Afghanistan, was forced to retreat from Iraq – make no mistake the departure of American troops in Iraq was reluctantly done and the soldiers left in one of the quietest U.S. exits in history.

KZ: What has been in your view, the main stimulus behind the revolutions of the Arab world? We know that corrupt regimes had existed in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen for many decades, but the nations of the region revolted against their rulers all at once. What’s the reason in your view?

YR: The people lost their fear in the tyrants, most installed and supported by the West; and as they grew stronger they began to rediscover their Faith in God and as they got closer to their Faith they became stronger as they held on tight to the Rope of Allah.

KZ: Will the chained revolutions of the Arab world, especially the revolution in Egypt, weaken the status of Israel in the Middle East? What about the U.S.? Political commentators believe that if the revolutionaries in Bahrain and Yemen achieve their goal, the United States will lose two of its strategic allies in the region. What’s your take on that?

YR: The U.S. was caught out by the Arab Spring, but since the CIA missed the fall of the Berlin Wall it is hardly surprising that there was a huge intelligence failure in this area. Israel is unusually mute because it is very concerned over what is going to manifest from the revolutions and it can no longer rely on the USA to crack the whip and make the tyrants pull their people into line. The U.S. has already lost its control in the region and should Yemen and Bahrain succumb to the will of the majority then it will lose strategic allies.

KZ: It seems that the United States will not lift its unconditional support for Israel, at least in the foreseeable future, and Israel will be able to continue its repressive policies in the occupied lands and with regards to the subjugated people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip like before. What’s your assessment regarding the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Will the Arab League supported initiative for peace help solve the crisis?

YR: My belief in this solution has been the same for more than three decades, much longer than I’ve been a Muslim. The Palestinian people will be victorious because they have time and patience on their side. In 50 years time their children will ask: “Was there really a state called Israel?” Israel is on a permanent war footing and not one single country can survive in that situation forever. I’ll give the Zionist another decade before it implodes.

KZ: Israel is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and it’s not a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well. The United States has not allowed a comprehensive investigation of the nuclear facilities of Israel so far, and Tel Aviv regime is continuing to develop nuclear bombs in its underground installations. Isn’t the nuclear program of Israel a threat to international peace and security?

YR: What nuclear weapons? Israel says it has no nukes! Pf course the world knows they are lying thanks to the heroic Christian convert Mordechai Vanunu who is still being persecuted for telling the world about the Zionist State’s deadly arsenal of nuclear weapons. The poor man has served his sentence but he is still not allowed to leave Israel where he is under continuous surveillance. The vindictiveness of the state knows no bounds when it comes to this man.

KZ: And finally, let me ask your idea about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Why has such a revolutionary movement taken shape in the U.S.? What are the major grievances of the protesters? What’s your idea regarding the government’s treatment of the protestors?

YR: A number of American people have woken up to the injustices of capitalism and what is being done in their name by the U.S. Government – this wonderful movement has captured the imagination of many and while they are taking their fight to the streets of the USA and the West there is another army that the USA should really be concerned about … Anonymous. They are leading the battle in cyber-warfare and are showing that when the people rise up and they begin to lead the leaders become increasingly irrelevant. Watch this space.

AUTHOR: Kourosh Ziabari
URL: http://www.intifada-palestine.com
E-MAIL: kziabari [at] gmail.com

Shawan Jabarin

For most of the past six years, Israel has forbidden Shawan Jabarin, a prominent human rights advocate and former administrative detainee, from leaving the occupied West Bank. On exception, he was allowed travel to Geneva this week to meet Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression.

Israel imposed its travel ban on Jabarin — based on “secret evidence” — after he was appointed director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in 2006. Neither Jabarin or his lawyers have been allowed to see the evidence.

Adri Nieuwhof interviewed Jabarin when he arrived to Geneva’s airport.

Adri Nieuwhof: Welcome to Geneva. What does it mean for you to be here?

Shawan Jabarin: Today I asked myself that question. I was here before in a bit of the same situation. This time I felt that Israel stepped back because of the solidarity, the support that came from various groups and different people all over the world. Besides the people who wrote articles, Amnesty International had a campaign for one year. Hundreds of letters and messages were sent to Ehud Barak [Israel’s defense minister], asking him about my case.

To be here reactivates me, strengthens the belief of the [Palestinian] people and the right to defend that strongly. I am in the struggle for people’s rights. It [this visit] is a push for me to do more and more.

I have to recognize Frank La Rue from Guatemala, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, [for facilitating my travel to Geneva]. I met him when he came to Palestine. I will meet him tomorrow [27 February]. I think that during his visit of two weeks he got the full picture of the situation of the Palestinians and how it affects their rights in every aspect. He released a statement which includes my case. He sent me an invitation to speak at a meeting with representatives from different states at a side event to the Human Rights Council. He closely followed my case to come here, to speak to the people in the UN. It is important, even with pain in the heart that this organization does not really stand behind rights with action, only with words. It is important to continue addressing them.

On a personal level, to be outside is to take a breath, to see the snow on the mountains, to refresh your mind with new technology on airplanes. I have not travelled for years. To be exposed to the new way of life. To taste the normal life, to live free. To impose a travel ban is like imposing imprisonment. My prison is a big prison.

The first thing I did when I arrived in Jordan was [to go] to the cemetery with my uncle and his son to visit the grave of my uncle who died two years ago. I could not go to his funeral. I did not eat — I went straight to the cemetery.

AN: How do you assess the current situation in relation to Israel’s respect for rights of the Palestinian people?

SJ: I think their practices and actions speak for themselves. They have no peace on their agenda. If it is on their agenda, they have their own interpretation. Israel is killing Palestinians every day, pushing peace further away. Israel killed any opportunity for real peace, completely ignoring Palestinian fundamental rights. For them, Palestinians are not a people that have rights.

It was clear when I crossed the bridge [Allenby bridge between the West Bank and Jordan]. The Shabak [Israel’s General Security Service] officer asked me if there is a Palestinian people and if they have rights.

The continuation of the oppression, the suffering, it creates a mentality of ignorance. The settlers, even the young generation, show not just hatred, they show it in a very, very aggressive way. I can see an explosion coming. The settlers will be the main players. I have real concern about their killing a big number of Palestinians, a massacre. Or violence at al-Aqsa [mosque in Jerusalem]. The settlers are supported by public figures, the Israeli government.

I have no doubt that there is no hope in the near or mid-term future. But there is hope for the long-term future. There is a lesson in history that criminal oppression will not continue forever. I see something growing, some change at the level of the public opinion.

If you look at the bigger picture on an international level, I feel that — even if I don’t travel — there is a change in the people’s understanding. The face of Israel as an occupying power is clear. In Europe, it is a genuine change. In the United States, the support to Israel is unconditional, but we see every day new voices of intellectuals, activists and politicians who speak about this taboo, they criticize Israel.

This month, media from the US contacted me many times. Many visitors of our website [www.alhaq.org] are from the US. It is not enough to conclude that there will be change tomorrow. But it is important. The absence of political will in the international community makes it difficult. I have pain in my heart. Why do we have to pay such a high price as a people? Peace and justice will come one day.

AN: The hunger strikes by Khader Adnan and Hana al-Shalabi have led to more attention for Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian political prisoners. Do you think it is important to campaign for the rights of the prisoners?

SJ: Everyone has to support the prisoners’ rights, to support human values. The prisoners are struggling for their cause, for peace, for values. Even if Israel calls them terrorists, Palestinians look at them as heroes, as leaders.

Israel completely ignored the international standards of treating prisoners in a human way. They are sending a message to people who defend rights: go to hell. Wives, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers could not visit their relatives. Give me one example in the world where visits to relatives in prison are denied because of security risks.

Israel is a superpower, controlling everything with technology. What does a security threat reason mean to deny a visit to a seventy-year old father? I am ready to deal with it with an open mind, but I cannot see the logic. The punishment mentality is guiding the Israeli practices and policies. Every day new rules are created, [prisoners] have to take off their clothes while the rooms are searched, [the prison authorities] are transferring prisoners, isolating them for years. It is psychological torture. It is part of a revenge, a punishment mentality. To restrict [Palestinians] from their freedom is not enough.

The administrative detention policy was created by the British in the 1940s, and now Israel uses this policy [to detain Palestinians without charge of trial]. It is a violation of the principles and standards of due process and fair trial practiced in all democracies. This is what you teach young lawyers. Israel ignores this. It brings administrative detention orders to a military court that follow military law. The evidence is secret. The court rubber-stamps the order. It is arbitrary detention.

It is difficult to live under administrative detention. These days there are approximately 320 Palestinians detained under administrative detention, and 24 of them are members of the Legislative Council. Israel uses it as a stick to beat people, because they dislike their activities or way of thinking. It is politics.

Khader Adan, when he took his step to go on hunger strike, he knew well what it meant. He knew you have no rights. He sent a message. He lost a lot of weight and maybe harmed his physical functions. Maybe he will not fully recover. His hunger strike was like shouting, using a strong voice. It has cost him a lot. It is a historical act, 66 days on hunger strike. [Irish political prisoner] Bobby Sands died after 66 days of hunger strike.

The Israelis can renew administrative detention orders indefinitely. Some people are detained for five or eight years under administrative detention based on secret evidence. What is security? What is a secret file? A main principle is to receive a fair trial. Israel acts in a way of revenge against the Palestinians. It will not build security.

First published on The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Jonathan took part in an enlightening, explosive interview with me and expressed his viewpoints regarding the renewed war threats of Israel against Iran, Tehran’s nuclear program, the new allegations of the White House against Iran, the true nature of Israel as a state and what he feels is the greatest threat facing our world today. An excerpt of this interview appeared in the Tehran Times, Iran’s leading international daily.

Ziabari: Israel possesses up to 200 nuclear warheads, but it has constantly threatened Iran with a military strike over its nuclear program, warning that Iran should be prevented from acquiring nuclear technology. How is it possible to justify this stance?

Azaziah: The nucleus of the Zionist mindset, the energy source that drives those who think in this manner to behave like the inhuman monsters that they are, is Jewish supremacism; the need to destroy all that it is not Jewish, the goyim, in order for “the Jewish people” to survive. The developer of the neutron bomb, Samuel T. Cohen, was a Zionist with a strong Talmudic-Jewish upbringing, as was Robert J. Oppenheimer, the creator of the atom bomb. The supremacist-need to destroy all non-Jewish peoples and cultures was close to the blackened hearts of the early leaders of the usurping Zionist entity, hence why Ben-Gurion, Dayan, Eshkol and Peres collectively came up with the “Samson Option,” the military plan to unleash ‘Israeli’ nukes upon the world if any nation or every nation attempted to confront Zionist power. The polar opposite of this thuggish outlook on existence, is the Islamic Revolutionary Republic of Iran, a nation whose Persian history is rooted in the very essence of creation. The finest poets, artists, mathematicians, scientists and theologians that the world has ever known originate from this great land.

The Zionist entity is something far more cruel, and far more insidious than the apartheid regime of South Africa. The Zionist entity, in its twisted collective mind, must destroy Iran because the Islamic Republic represents everything that it is not: tolerant, beautiful, non-destructive, non-aggressive and most importantly, God wary. Iran does not bow down to the feet of the Zionists and their rabbinical overlords, it only bows before Almighty God and for this, it has drawn the ire of the Zionists and their imperial conduit puppets. From the geopolitical perspective, the Zionist entity must not allow any Islamic nation to acquire nuclear weapons because that would neutralize its domination of the region; the annihilation of Iraq, the demolition of Libya and constant assault on nuclear-armed Pakistan are prime examples of this.

Ziabari: Some political commentators believe that Israel represents the features of an apartheid state. What’s your idea? Do you consider Israel an apartheid regime?

Azaziah: The term “apartheid” is an attempt to make international Zionism seem like it is more innocuous than it actually is or closely related with previous colonial endeavors when in reality, it is something far worse and far uglier. Apartheid is simply one facet of the Zionist regime that it is criminally and disgustingly occupying holy al-Quds and the rest of historic Palestine, as is colonization, and most importantly, they are only temporary; they represent symptoms, they do not represent the disease itself. The true goal of Zionism is to wipe out all non-Jewish peoples in vast parts of Egypt, including most of its north, all of Sinai and Cairo, all of Jordan, all of Kuwait, a gargantuan portion of Saudi Arabia, all of Lebanon, all of Syria, all of Cyprus, an elephantine part of Turkey up to Lake Van and finally, part of Iraq south of the Euphrates River. The expulsion and/or mass murder of these peoples would lead to the creation of the Zionist dream known as Greater Israel. So branding this usurping dragon of an entity simply as an “apartheid state” is not only incomplete, it is deceptive. And this disingenuous injection of language into the vocabularies of Palestine’s supporters is also meant to deflect the attention from the root cause of this 63-year occupation: the age-old Talmudic ideology that gave birth to Zionism, which is an amalgamation of terrorism, racism, barbarism, supremacism, expansionism and imperialism. After all of the massacres committed against our brothers and sisters, all of the babies murdered, women raped, trees uprooted, mosques and churches destroyed, resources confiscated and land usurped, the least we can do is label this extremist enclave what it actually is: a fabricated entity that has no right to exist.

Finally, all persons who represent this entity, all of its occupiers and squatters, must be thrown out immediately so the 8 million Palestinian refugees worldwide can finally return to their homes. Its sayanim across the Western world must be prosecuted for treason. We will not make peace with this usurping Jewish supremacist beast. We will never recognize this filthy entity. We will not share our lands with thieves and thugs, killers and degenerates. There will not be ‘equal rights’ for oppressed and oppressed. There will only be equal rights for Palestinians, the true owners of the land, and whoever that they decide will live with them, chiefly those who respect their dignity and who have fought alongside them from Nakba to Naksa to now, not those who killed them and maimed them; they will be delivered into the clutches of justice for a century of inhumanity and malevolence.

It must also be noted that Apartheid South Africa did not own and control global mass media; Zionism does. Apartheid South Africa did not control global commerce; international Jewry does. Apartheid South Africa didn’t have a worldwide Afrikaner lobby network that dominated governments into submission; the Zionist entity does. And Apartheid South Africa didn’t have a foreign intelligence directorate committing false flag attacks all over the world in order to further its geopolitical objectives; ‘Israel’ does, with its Mossad. International Zionism is strangling the world because its agents think that their “chosen-ness” gives them a free pass to do so. Al-haqq (the truth) is our best weapon against these persons; an awakened globe, armed with information exposing the beast, is what will take the beast down. The past fight against the apartheid of South Africa and the current fight against international Jewish supremacism are two different creatures; just as a matter of intellectual honesty, the two should not, and must not be confused.

The ‘King’ of Saudi Arabia, seen here with top Zionist leaders, is serving the agenda of ‘Israel’ and will not help Iran in the face of an attack.

Ziabari: What will be the consequences of a possible Israeli attack against Iran? Will the Muslim and Arab nations unite to support Iran?

Azaziah: Unfortunately, while the peoples of the Islamic world will indeed stand with the Islamic Revolution if the Zionist regime and its puppets attempt to assault it, the leaders of the Islamic world will not because let us be honest, they represent Islam as much as the idols destroyed by the Holy Prophet (SAWW) during the beginning days of his advent represented Islam. The monarchies of the Arab world are the worst kinds of hypocrites and the GCC, led by the morally-bankrupt and Zionist House of Saud and Al-Thani family, are now serving as the willing and able agents of the Zionist entity and its Anglo allies in America and Europe and if they are ordered to do so, they will participate in the planned onslaught against Iran. The true face of the House of Saud and Qatar can be seen in their participation in the ravaging of Libya and ongoing shadow operations inside Syria. What must be said though is that the Zionists and their marionettes are not ready for a full-brunt military confrontation with the Islamic Revolution, hence why they have chosen to use underhanded methods of subversion, through Mossad, CIA and Israeli-funded terror proxies like the MEK and Jundallah, to conduct a covert war against Iran for three decades. And as multiple authentic ahadith confirm, if the forces of Dajjal enter the lands of Persia, it is there, where they will be buried by the righteous. Insha’ALLAH.

The Zionist regime and its marionettes are trying to provoke the Islamic Republic of Iran into war.

Ziabari: International pressure on Iran is mounting these days. From one hand, we have the accusations of the U.S. and its cronies against Iran with regards to the human rights issue. From the other hand, we have the Saudi envoy assassination plot allegation, and as the third phase of the project, we have the IAEA’s controversial report on the country’s nuclear program. How do you assess this trilateral attack?

Azaziah: The ludicrous, ridiculous “Saudi assassination plot” has already been debunked as another Mossad false flag and I must say, it was one of the most pathetic that the Zionist regime had concocted in quite some time. The allegations of “human rights violations” in the Islamic Republic are nothing but atrocious attempts by the Zionist-occupied United States government to generate international sympathy for the “poor, suffering Iranian people” so subsequently, there will be a global outcry and support for regime change. We know this to be massively farcical. The people of the Islamic Revolution wholeheartedly and overwhelmingly support the government of President Ahmadinejad and would sacrifice their lives for Ayatollah Sayyed Khamenei. Additionally, there is no larger violator and destroyer of human rights than the United States, which under Zionist direction, has initiated one war after another in the last 100 years and murdered tens of millions of innocents in the process.

How dare these hooligans and monsters criticize Iran for “human rights abuses” after their fire bombing of Tokyo, their nuking of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, their decimation of Dresden, Frankfurt and Hamburg, their concentration camps set up after WW2 that murdered over 1 million innocent Germans, their strafing of Korea, their rape of Vietnam and Cambodia for the expansion of Jewish mob boss Meyer Lansky’s criminal narcotics syndicate, their eradication of Iraq over the last 20 years, their crushing of Afghanistan, their ruining of Libya and their incessant drone bombing of Pakistan, Yemen and occupied Somalia, along with their assistance in the ongoing six-decade-long brutalizations of Palestine and Hindutvadi-Zionist-occupied Kashmir. Their hypocrisy is legendary and sickening. And the IAEA report is such a joke, such a steaming mound of rubbish that it is not even worth analyzing. It is clear that the reason for this ‘trilateral attack’ that you speak of is desperation. The Iranian leadership is cool, calculated and undeterred. They have not taken the Zionist bait in responding to the multiple transgressions that the occupier of Palestine has committed against them and this display of sabr (patience) has infuriated the monsters greatly.

The Zionist-engineered sanctions against Iran are taking a terrible toll on the Iranian people.

Ziabari: What do you think about the increased sanctions of the U.S., EU and the UNSC against Iran? Are these sanctions going to disrupt Iran’s economy? Will these sanctions bring Iran to its knees and force it into surrendering its nuclear rights?

Azaziah: I do not believe for a second that the sanctions will bring the Islamic Revolution to its knees; not even a single second. The Persian people, first and foremost, kneel only before ALLAH (SWT) and this was proven by their triumph over the Shah and the CIA-Mossad-run counter-revolution in 1979. The would-be-invaders and ‘arrogant powers’ that Ayatollah Sayyed Khamenei constantly refers to know that the only way Iran will break is through all-out aggression and as described already, they are not ready for this kind of war at this juncture. This is why we see increased cooperation between the GCC countries, America and the Zionist entity, mainly the excessively large weapons deals between the House of Saud, America and Germany as well as the increased ‘defense’ relations between the House of Khalifa in Bahrain and the Zionist-occupied US government. International Zionism loves nothing more than Muslims killing Muslims and nothing would satisfy its bloodlust quite like a ‘Sunni-Shi’a, Persian-Arab’ war, in which its Israeli occupation forces would not have to lift a single weapon; the goyim would do all the work for them, eliminating the usurping Jewish supremacist state’s greatest enemy.

The Zionists and the real power behind them, their racist genocidal rabbis, according to their satanic Talmud, view the Arab and Persian peoples as “Ishmaelites” and “Amalekites” who must be destroyed in order to erect a “Jewish Utopia” on earth, in which Jews rule over non-Jews in a sort of supremacist paradise. It is a religious duty for Zionists to murder us, steal our lands and desecrate what it is holy to us and they have the authority in their Talmud to use any and all means to do it, including using our own people against us. Therefore, the sanctions are only a precursor to what the globe holders really have in store for Iran. I think it is an undeniable fact that unfortunately, the sanctions have indeed had a negative effect on the Iranian economy and more importantly, the Iranian people, specifically in the Aero sector, which as you have revealed in some of your previous works brother, has seen thousands of innocents die in airplane crashes since 1996.

The United States and the Zionist entity: world’s greatest terrorists.

 

Ziabari: The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of violating human rights and sponsoring terrorism. Don’t you think that the U.S. is itself a sponsor of terrorism as it has supported and financed Saddam Hussein in an 8-year war with Iran and has been unconditionally supporting the reactionary regimes of Hosni Mubarak, Al Khalifa, Al Saud and Ali Abdullah Saleh who kill their innocent people ruthlessly?

Azaziah: There is no doubt that the United States, the ‘golem’ of the international Zionist Power Configuration and Jewish banking interests, is the world leader in terrorism. The US is in no moral position to condemn any government or group in the world until it fesses up to its own blood-soaked history. 100 million Native Americans exterminated. 150 million Africans, many of them Muslims, murdered in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which was dominated by Spanish Jews like Aaron Lopez who had an entire fleet of slaveships and financing from the Rothschild family; these Jews, who were of the extremist and now dominant Talmudic-Kabbalistic school of thought, also introduced the Curse of Ham to their Gentile slave-trading brothers, a horrific, racist story concocted and developed by the rabbis in their Talmud which lowered the rank of our brothers and sisters of beautiful black skin to animals. This Talmudic drivel was used to justify the dehumanization of millions of others and in the greater geopolitical sense, it is now being exercised to justify more Zionist aggression on the African continent.

These two historical atrocities alone show the true face of America, and its support of brutish dictators and monarchical maniacs across the globe is well-known. And while Iran’s millennial history is one of peace and diplomacy with its neighbors, the US has launched hundreds of wars, covert and overt over its short two-century history. There is an old Kufan saying that my uncle once shared with me, which has been around since Al-Mukhtar (RA) launched his rebellion against the Umayyads to defend the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) more than 1,300 years ago, that perfectly sums up the United States’ glorious fraudulence. Loosely translated from Arabic, it goes, “He who spills the most blood, talks of the most peace.” I cannot think of truer words that have been spoken.

The IAEA is nothing but an instrument of international Zionist propaganda and psychological warfare

Ziabari: Israel is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It is not a NPT signatory and no IAEA inspector has ever investigated its atomic arsenal. How is it possible to justify IAEA’s double standards with regards to Israel’s nuclear program?

Azaziah: First and foremost, the IAEA is not an independent outfit like its public relations stooges would like the world to believe. The IAEA reports directly to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council and coordinates all of its actions with these two institutions of Zionist power. Therefore, without question, it can be said that the IAEA is nothing but a tool of the UN. The same UN that hasn’t done a damn thing to stop Zionist tyranny in Palestine, scripting hundreds of resolutions against this racist usurping entity but enforcing none of them. The same UN that has done nothing to stop Hindutvadi tyranny in Kashmir, which is intimately aided by the Zionist entity with arms and intelligence, scripting dozens of other resolutions and enforcing none of them. The same UN that introduced Resolution 661 to Iraq, the treacherous ‘sanctions resolution,’ which crippled Iraq, prepared it for the Zionist invasion of 2003 and murdered over 2 million people by starvation including 800,000 Iraqi children. The same UN that paved the way for the mutilation of Libya, in which at least 100,000 have been mass murdered by NATO and its Israeli-advised rebel thugs. The same UN that now seeks to turn Syria into another Iraq or Libya 2.0.

And besides, what is the UN really? As is the case with all matters of history and the revisionism that follows, we must return to the beginning; the origins. The origins of the UN can be found in the financing of the same Zionist banking families, the Rothschilds, Schiffs, Warbugs, Lazards and Oppenheimers, who have financed strife on this earth for centuries. The UN was created to justify the existence of the Zionist entity as a legitimate nation-state, to put a shroud on its hideous supremacist character; this rings true with the fact that the Security Council never even ratified the resolution which proposed the legitimacy of a Jewish ‘state’ in Palestine. Despite this, and despite the illegal Jewish colonization of Palestine financed by the Rothschild family since the 1880s and the horrible Zionist atrocities of the Nakba in 1948, still the UN recognized this fabricated regime, still gave it a name and a seat. Why? Because its godfathers, the Zionist bankers, wanted it that way. The UN is a tool of international Zionist power and by extension, so is the IAEA.

And if the evidence isn’t clear enough, one simply needs to look at the previous IAEA head, Mohamed ElBaradei, who is hailed as a great humanitarian and even a hero, when he is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a snake in the grass, a two-faced Zionist hypocrite who has condemned the Islamic Resistance of illegally besieged Gaza, who supports the insane ‘right to exist’ of the Zionist entity and who shakes hands with Israeli war criminals. While El Baradei ran the IAEA, he sat on the board of the International Crisis Group, a highly-influential international Zionist think tank, right next to none other than Shimon Peres, George Soros and Morton Abramowitz, three of the most powerful Zionists on this planet. While ElBaradei ran the IAEA, he did nothing to stop the American-British invasion of Iraq, which was launched under a false “WMDs” pretext engineered by Jewish-Zionist extremists in the Bush administration’s Office of Special Plans. He knew the “intelligence” against Iraq was sheer Zionist falsehood but he watched as Iraq was skewered. There is your ‘IAEA independence,’ yet another Zionist fraud.

In 2000 and 2006, Hezbollah, the righteous Lebanese Resistance led by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, defeated the Zionist entity; the same result awaits the usurping regime if it dares to engage with Iran.

Ziabari: Will Iran succeed in withstanding the international pressures? Should it give up its nuclear program and get freed from the sanctions and military strike threats? What’s your idea?

Azaziah: For 22 years, South Lebanon was savagely occupied by the monstrous Zionist entity. The righteous Islamic Resistance of Lebanon, Hezbollah, liberated its land, conquering the fourth (some say third) mightiest military in the world and rightfully humiliating it. In 2006, the Zionist entity launched a criminal war against Lebanon to avenge its defeat 6 years earlier. Unleashing cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium on the dignified and innocent Lebanese people, the usurping regime murdered nearly 1,500 Lebanese and the unexploded cluster bombs continue killing to this very moment.

Defiantly, and inspired by the steadfastness of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah defeated the Jewish supremacist entity again, crushing its plots to reoccupy Lebanon and upholding their Resistance to global Zionism. How was this small fighting force able to best such a monolithic military power? Because the faith of a people cannot be pierced with bullets or devastated by bombs. Because the dignity of a people cannot be occupied or colonized. The Zionists have no faith; they are godless, satanic supremacists. The Zionists have no dignity, they are the swindlers of humanity.

Comparatively, the Palestinian people have been occupied for 63 years. Still, the Zionists have not been able to expel them to exalt their ‘Greater Israel’ dream. The Kashmiri people have been occupied for 64 years. Still, the Hindutvadis have not been able to crush them to initiate their first phase of ‘Greater Hindutva.’ Why? Because like Hezbollah and the exceptional Lebanese people, the Palestinians’ and Kashmiris’ faith and dignity are weapons that cannot be defeated by their occupiers. And the revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran, is like Hezbollah, the Palestinians and Kashmiris on a greater scale, with more weaponry at its disposal. It will not give up its nuclear program nor will it bow before hollow military threats because it doesn’t take orders from Zionism; Iran does not recognize Zionism or the Jewish supremacists that govern it as legitimate authorities. Iran only takes orders from Al-Hakam (SWT), the supreme Judge of this universe. For us, Allah (SWT) is Al-Mu’izz, because He has honored us with Resistance and martyrdom if we die in our path of Resistance, giving hope to our brothers and sisters still struggling because as the Holy Qur’an says, we are alive though we are not seen. For the monsters, the enemies and the ‘arrogant powers’ though, Allah (SWT) is Al-Moumit, and the day of the Zionists’ doom at His hands is much nearer than they think. Iran and all those who support it will be victorious.

~ The End ~

The interview was first posted in maskofzion.com

AUTHOR: Kourosh Ziabari
URL: http://www.intifada-palestine.com
E-MAIL: kziabari [at] gmail.com

]]> http://www.nl-aid.org/continent/middle-east/%e2%80%9cinternational-zionism-is-strangling-the-world%e2%80%9d-interview-with-jonathan-azaziah/feed/ 1 http://www.nl-aid.org/continent/global/interview-no-political-system-can-function-without-a-free-press-mark-kingwell/ http://www.nl-aid.org/continent/global/interview-no-political-system-can-function-without-a-free-press-mark-kingwell/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.nl-aid.org/?p=9333

Prof. Mark Kingwell

Prof. Mark Kingwell is a world renowned Canadian author and philosopher. He is the associate chair at University of Toronto’s Department of Philosophy. Kingwell is a fellow of Trinity College. He specializes in theories of politics and culture. Kingwell has published twelve books, most notably, A Civil Tongue: Justice, Dialogue, and the Politics of Pluralism, which was awarded the Spitz Prize for political theory in 1997. Spitz Prize is annually awarded by a panel based in the Department of Political Science of Columbia University to the author of the best book in liberal and/or democratic theory.

Kingwell is the contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine. His articles on philosophy, culture, journalism, art and architecture have appeared on the New York Times, Utne Reader, Adbusters, Harvard Design Magazine, Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail and the National Post.

His main areas of interest are political philosophy, cultural criticism, philosophy of art and continental philosophy.

Mark has been the editor of “The Varsity,” the second oldest student newspaper of Canada from 1983 to 1984 and the “University of Toronto Review” from 1984 to 1985.

Prof. Kingwell’s works have been translated into ten languages and among his notable books are ” Dreams of Millennium: Report from a Culture on the Brink,” “Practical Judgments: Essays in Culture, Politics, and Interpretation” and “Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams.”

Prof. Kingwell kindly joined me in an exclusive interview and answered my questions about philosophy, popular culture, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street Movement and ethics in journalism.

Kourosh Ziabari: Philosophy, journalism and architecture. How do you make a connection between these three? As to what I have noted, you were enthusiastically interested in journalism since you were very young. Please tell us about your journalistic experiences in the days of youth. Certainly, it’s a fantastic opportunity to work with Globe and Mail. Am I right?

Mark Kingwell: I don’t consider myself a journalist, just someone who writes for newspapers and magazines as well as academic journals and literary quarterlies. It’s true that I edited my university’s student newspaper, and worked as a city desk reporter and editorial writer at a big national paper, The Globe and Mail. This was invaluable experience in how to write concisely and accessibly, and also a fast-track education in how cities work. I hung out at city hall and the harbour commissioner’s office. I saw dead bodies, fires, and corrupt landlords. I interviewed the survivors of plane crashes. I called the police desk sergeant every night to get crime updates. It was exciting, and very illuminating. But to be honest I liked the romance of it more than the reality, and enjoyed writing more than reporting.

I once had to choose between a fairly secure career in journalism and the uncertainty of a doctoral program. I chose the latter because I knew I could always write magazine or newspaper articles as a philosopher, but I could not philosophize — not, at least, with any rigor — as a journalist. I’ve never regretted the choice.

Philosophy and architecture is a more recent conjunction of interests, growing out of my work in political theory. Too many political philosophers write as if the subjects of their theories were not real people at all, living and working and raising families in actual places, but abstract bundles of interest, or of decision. At the same time, too many architects use philosophy as casual window-dressing for their work, without actually struggling with the details of the views in question. I have written two books so far that try to address these related gaps: one about a single building, the Empire State in New York (Nearest Thing to Heaven, 2006) and one that is a sort of phenomenological meditation on the built environment and its social dimensions (Concrete Reveries, 2008). I have also edited a collection of essays (Rites of Way, 2009, with Patrick Turmel) which address the issue of public space—a key point of contact between political philosophy and architecture.

 KZ: I know that you’ve focused on the questions of social obligation and the role of citizenship in sustaining a just and democratic society. In the developing societies, like Iran, the citizenship rights are not observed to the full and people have a long way to understand the principles of decent citizenship, neighborhood and social interaction. Can we conclude that one of the reasons why democracy is not institutionalized in such countries is this lack of citizenship culture?

MK: I think we can. At least since Aristotle it has been argued that political institutions will function to foster justice if and only if there is some substantial bonds of ethical life between persons—what Hegel called Sittlichkeit. The focus on the virtues of citizenship in my book The World We Want (2000) was an attempt to join Aristotelian insights about virtue, character, friendship, and justice—the main topics of the Nicomachean Ethics—with a liberal-democratic idea that there could be a distinction between my obligations as a good citizen and my non-conflicting but separate obligations as a good person.

This attempt was perhaps only partially successful, but what remains clear to me is that citizenship is an essential category of political theory. Even the most elaborate theory of social justice or democratic procedure will need to address issues of motivation, fellow feeling, and shared vulnerability. There are numerous ways to do this—Adam Smith’s sympathy, Herder’s einfuhlen, Derrida’s hospitality—but they all make a similar point. Unless and until I see the other as someone to whom I am obliged in some profound way, there can be no political justice.

One form of trouble for this prospect lies in cultural differences concerning fellowship, neighborliness, civility, and the like. I have tried to write about these, especially civility, many times; but it can be very hard to deploy persuasive arguments when the issue comes down to differences in perception. Something I find offensive may not even raise your eyebrows. As philosophers, where do we go from there? Indeed, as members of political bodies—nation-states, regions—how can we forge minimal bonds of connection across such differences?

I am lately exercised by a sense of vulnerability, the shared capacity for suffering, as a start. But that, too, is always open to question. Maybe the pain you feel at the pain of another is just a socio-biological trick that your neurons play on you! Well, maybe. But even so, it creates opportunities to cooperate and coordinate our actions, such that even a confirmed Hobbesian can see the point.

KZ: You have surely taken note of the popular uprisings in the Middle East, instigated by the self-immolation of a young Tunisian vendor before the municipality office. What are the peoples of the region looking for? Are they after improved living conditions, social freedoms and civil liberties? If they’re fed up with their authoritarian regimes, why hadn’t they taken any step to bring down the autocratic despots in the past years?

MK: It’s not for me to say what people in the Middle East want, except that I see, as everyone must, that there is growing dissatisfaction with the very idea of authority, especially if it is suspected to be aligned with decadence, hereditary privilege, or corruption. People will put up with a lot of hardship, and go about their business even in poverty, if they feel that things cannot be better. But if the hardships are perceived as unnecessary, or wedded to the privileges of others, they will resist. This was as true in 1776 and 1789 as it is now.

As for why it has taken this long, I would only suggest that we recall just how capacious is the human spirit. Most people just want to get on with their lives, to make do. It’s only an assault on their basic dignity, as in the case of Mohamed Abouazizi that you mention, which can make someone adopt extreme measures of resistance. This shows something essential about us: we mostly desire to be left in peace, but no peace is worth the cost of feeling debased, or degraded, or subject to contempt.

KZ: What are the features of an inclusive, effective and comprehensive democracy? Is democracy confined to holding elections and giving people the chance to elect president or parliament members?

MK: ‘Democracy’ is the opaque signifier of our political moment: it means everything and nothing at once. I’m rather with Derrida on this: democracy is always to come, not yet here. One could articulate the basic features of a democratic system—free elections, independent media, strong participatory citizenship, and so on— and still fall short of democracy. Some people, for instance Carl Schmitt, even think that democracy is only present when a being is united against a common enemy in a struggle for survival, and hence democracy is incompatible with liberalism.

Obviously I think is not only extreme, but mistaken. Let us suffice with two very basic points. In emerging democracies, such as those that might be burgeoning in your region, the most important thing is the public enactment of franchise, that is, free and fair elections. In developed democracies, however, the most important thing is to try and minimize the corruption that attends our allegedly free elections, the way they are held hostage by large donors and other corporate interests. There is a cautionary tale in this contrast: one can have apparently open elections, with universal franchise, and still not have democracy.

 KZ: What’s your analysis of the Occupy Wall Street movement? Do you think that it was inspired by the Arab Spring? Why the American protesters call themselves the 99% of the population and question the authority and supremacy of the 1%? Is there anything wrong with capitalism and corporatism that has exhausted the people? What’s your view about the police crackdown on the protesters?

MK: I’m certain there was some inspiration taken from the Arab Spring, yes. The very topic of OWS’s connection to the Arab Spring became a contentious issue here, however. Critics of OWS—who grew more repressive and condescending by the day, until the parks were forcibly cleared—were vehement that no comparison with Arab Spring was valid, or even allowed. It was if popular uprising were democratic, and wonderful, but only if they happened somewhere else. One particularly loathsome journalist labeled the OWS protesters as ‘capitalism’s spoiled children’, as if they had no right to object to a system than does not work, that is grossly unjust, and that is sustained by only a sham politics of puppet candidates permanently indebted to the monied interest. Shut up, and get back to shopping for gadgets! It was a disgusting spectacle of provincial, toy-time fascism.

I was especially upset about the police crackdown because of the cavalier way in which ‘health and safety concerns’ became a blanket justification for police action. The books in the OWS library—including a small volume I co-write, The Wage Slave’s Glossary (2011, with Joshua Glenn)—were tossed in garbage containers. In a strange way, this blithe trashing of books was worse than setting fire to them. For this neo-liberal police state, books are not even dangerous or important enough to burn. A depressing thought.

It remains to be seen what political upshot there is from OWS. My own feeling is that the objections to corporate capitalism will not be as easy to eradicate as were a few tents and bodies. They used to say to us left-wingers, when we were young, that socialism is a nice idea, only it doesn’t work. Here’s an update: capitalism doesn’t work either, and it’s not even a nice idea.

 KZ: Would you please give us a gist of some of your important tips for better living which you proposed in your book “Better Living: In Pursuit of Happiness From Plato to Prozac”? Why are some people so unfriendly with the self-help books? Is it really possible to realize a better living by practicing what the self-help books prescribe? Some people argue that the lifestyle is something inherent and inborn and cannot be changed by practice and exercise, because it’s related to one’s mindset and ideology. Do you agree?

MK One of my favorite reviews of Better Living called it “the self-help books for people who hate self-help books.” In one broad sense, all books of philosophy, at least in the so-called wisdom tradition, are self-help books: they offer a kind of therapy, in book form, whose basic message is that same as that found in Rilke’s musing on the Archaic Torso of Apollo: You must change your life! But the therapy is intellectual and ethical, often ironic and prickly, and not delivered in twelve easy or even twelve hard steps. So I wanted to criticize the recent fad of lifestyle guidance by, once again, revisiting some basically Aristotelian insights in a modern form. That’s why I used personal narrative, some cultural criticism, and different forms of ironic discourse in the book.

I can’t distill the book into tips, but the most obvious take-away is the old insight that a happiness worth having is not a matter of feeling good all the time, or achieving constant joy or bliss, but of cultivating personal virtue, contributing to causes and structures larger than yourself, and exploring human possibility. In a way, Book X of the Nicomachean Ethics makes the best version of the argument: contemplation is the most divine experience we know. The point of our striving, indeed of all our institutions, is finally to give us the space to enjoy the most amazing thing about us, namely that we can play, create art, have philosophical conversations, and enjoy each other’s presence.

I have little patience with the idea that lifestyle is inherent, by the way. Most people simply take cues from the cultural surround, follow the herd, and try not to think too much—and then call this a lifestyle. It’s always been the job of philosophers to knock them off-course a little, to shake things up. Self-help, maybe, but of a peculiarly challenging sort.

 KZ: What’s your definition of media ethics? How should the mass media cling to the codes of morality in disseminating the news and publishing the reports? Are the media permitted to publish whatever they want, without having any restriction? From one hand, one may argue that restricting the media and defining limits for their performance is contrary to the freedom of speech which is a prominent value of the democratic societies; however, we should also take note of respecting the privacy of people, avoid directing ad hominem attacks against them and distinguishing between criticism and personality attack. What’s your take on that?

MK: I’m one of those paranoid people who think there is already too much information, too much surveillance, and too much revelation of the personal in our world. I find most social media distasteful because it is predicated on a narcissistic trumpeting of the usually banal individual, but I fall on the individual’s side when it comes to the media. Short of some pressing political interest, there is no possible justification for an invasion of privacy, and even there the burden of proof must be overwhelming since it is so easily corrupted. The Murdoch papers phone-tapping scandal was an appalling spectacle of media self-righteousness allowed to grow to a pathological level. I can’t help thinking sometimes that the arrogance of newspaper and media people is in direct proportion to their slipping sense of actual influence. They’re not nearly as important as they think they are.

At the same time, no political system can function without a free press. What this means in practice, then, is that the media are not unlike other bodies of professional workers. They need to police themselves first, maintaining the strictest standards of fairness and respect; and then there must be recourse in the public forum for those whose privacy has been violated. This gets especially tricky under U.S. law where corporations are legally like persons, and have similar protections and abilities. In an ideal world, those decisions would be repealed. Not only would it improve democratic oversight of corporate actions, now sometimes impossible to investigate; it would also limit the amount of corporate money spent, and hence influence bought, in the centers of political power.

 KZ: What’s your prediction for the future of television in the wake of the growing influence of web-based media and social networking websites? In your book the “Practical Judgments,” you accurately pointed out that television is still the dominant medium of information and entertainment of the age. Don’t you believe that with the growing penetration of internet in the families, television will be debased and lose its position? I think that internet, with its multimedia attractiveness and dynamic atmosphere will even eliminate the traditional newspapers and magazines. Don’t you think so?

MK: The essays in Practical Judgments (2002) were gathered from work I published in the previous decade or so, and the claims about television must now be revised somewhat. In some important sense, television is over. People may still use the sets to watch programs, but the programs have been downloaded, or selected via pay-per-view, or recorded on Blu-Ray or DVD. Even cable television involves self-selection to the point where is no longer any such thing as a television audience. This is great in some ways, since we have more entertainment options; but it comes with the usual price imposed by the tyranny of choice, namely that feeling of ennui or boredom when there are so many options that, somehow, none of them seem worth committing to.

Beneath this, television of a certain sort (The Wire, Game of Thrones, Mad Men) now begins to function more like visual literature. You find yourself discussing it with someone who is also a devotee, the way you might discover another Pynchon or Updike enthusiast at a party or dinner. It helps that some of these programs are as narratively complex and emotionally satisfying as any first-rate novel.

Television news, meanwhile, is floundering in the contradictions of a medium whose primary purpose—entertainment—has always afflicted its attempts at seriousness. Political news shows, at least in North America, are a running joked of extreme positions, brain-dead rhetoric, and baggy oratory. The only good news here is that most people no longer look to television to gather their political views, or track current events. The bad news is that the places where they do so, because self-selected, may be even more polarized and worse!

KZ: What’s your idea about using media for the purpose of black propaganda? Is it moral to demonize those who we consider enemies, especially at the level of governments, by publishing misinformation about them and blackening their public image? Do you consider state-sanctioned propaganda an intrinsic and natural function of the mass media?

MK: One word answer here: never. Propaganda is worse than falsehood; it is, as in the analysis of philosopher Harry Frankfurt, bullshit. That is, it does not even heed the norm of truth enough to violate it. Therefore, propaganda is even more dangerous than lies, which at least are violations whose existence confirms the idea of truth. (You can compare my earlier remark about why throwing books in dumpsters is actually worse than burning them.)

 KZ: In your book “Concrete reveries: consciousness and the city,” you analyzed the relationship between urbanism and personal identity. Do you believe that urban construction gives people certain identities and bestows upon them special characteristics? Then, is there any difference between the personal characteristics, demeanors and deportments of people in a city like New York in which the most prominent incarnations of modern architecture can be found, and a city like Tehran (the capital of Iran) which is actually an emerging city and is gradually embracing the new modes and styles of urban construction?

MK: Yes, the material environmental absolutely conditions the consciousness of a person. It can be as obvious as how one walks—how fast, with what demeanour, dodging or bumping into people, looking at a phone or not, and so on. But even less obvious things are quite central to how we experience ourselves. So large cities have many similarities but it is easy, when one travels, to see subtle differences in self-presentation: clothes, gestures, the way space is occupied. These in turn are symptoms of the experience of consciousness we call selfhood. The aim of Concrete Reveries, as I mentioned earlier, was to bring political philosophy and architecture closer together, somewhat in the manner of Hannah Arendt. But it turned out that the common term between them was really phenomenology, especially in our aspects of embodied consciousness. They we inhabit rooms, cross thresholds, mount staircases—these are all forms of thought as well of physical deportment.

In the book I try to get at these somewhat abstract insights by contrasting the feeling evoked by two very different large cities, New York and Shanghai. The provided, as it were, phenomenological case studies for my larger argument. They also allowed me to re-introduce some of the first-person and second-person styles I had used in other writing. I wanted to produce a book with something of the feeling (if not the grace!) of Bachelard’s Poetics of Space. I was really happy that the publisher allowed me to include dozens of images that leaven the text, and make the book itself a kind of phenomenological flanerie, an intellectual stroll through the complex of ideas concerning what cities are, and how they work. In a very roundabout way, this actually ties me back to those days spent as a city-desk reporters, encountering the city’s corners, margins, and undersides day after day. . .

KZ: As my final question, I want to ask you about the course of globalization and the future of local, traditional cultures. Will the process of globalization abolish local cultures, vernacular languages and ancient customs and rituals of different peoples around the world? Do you see any chances for their survival in the wake of the domination of Western culture over the developing world?

MK: I suspect we have already witnessed the worst of the globalization cultural bulldozer. What is happening everywhere is the hybridization of culture, such that local traditions, practices, and vernaculars are folding in elements of global culture—not really a culture at all, just an economic expansion program—and creating unique human customs that will continue to evolve. This is precisely what humans have always done with culture, especially in times and places with lots of mobility. My main wish for these ‘bottom-up’ hybrids is that they include elements of the best in Western culture, especially the discourses of philosophical justification for human rights and social justice. The West has exported lots of awful things, but there are some good things too!

AUTHOR: Kourosh Ziabari
URL: http://www.intifada-palestine.com
E-MAIL: kziabari [at] gmail.com

Israel’s deporting of dozens of international activists earlier this year generated bad publicity.

Plans are underway to challenge Israeli apartheid during 2012 by having a large number of international activists land in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport and state openly that they wish to visit Palestine. Scheduled for 15 April, the “Welcome to Palestine 2012” initiative will be the second such attempt to affirm the right of Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank to receive visitors.

In July this year, international airlines collaborated with Israel in preventing black-listed participants to board planes. More than a hundred activists with the Welcome to Palestine “Flytilla” reached the Tel Aviv airport, but they were detained by Israeli forces upon arrival, and subsequently deported.

The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof recently interviewed Mick Napier, chairman of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and a Welcome to Palestine 2012 organizer in the United Kingdom, about the project. Napier was one of the participants in this year’s “Flytilla” who was detained by Israel.

Adri Nieuwhof: Can you clarify how you become involved in Palestine solidarity activism and what drives you?

Mick Napier: Well, I spent years at university opposing the [US] invasion and devastation of Vietnam. I took from that the idea that it is possible to defeat even the greatest crimes. If we organize ourselves and link the people in colonial countries with a principled solidarity movement in the metropolitan countries, we can win.

AN: Can you tell us more about the Welcome to Palestine initiative?

MN: It is a French-Belgian initiative, with a few of us from the UK joining last year. As soon as I heard about it, I knew it would be a serious challenge [to] the fencing off of the Palestinians in the West Bank. In the same way as the [Gaza Freedom] Flotilla has done. With “Welcome to Palestine” we can show people the crimes Israel commits against the Palestinians.

In July, about 500 people were prepared to fly to Tel Aviv, and 125 arrived. We know we wrong-footed the Israelis. We know, if we multiply the numbers, we can challenge Israel and the compliance of our governments. Not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank as well.

AN: You participated in the first Flytilla. How was the reception at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv last July?

MN: The reception in Tel Aviv shows that Israel is a lawless state. Upon not infringing passport control after we said that we want to visit Palestinian friends in Bethlehem, we were frog-marched to a detention center and from there moved to two other prisons. We were assured by Israeli officers that we were guilty of something but not [told] of what. While we were in prison, the Israeli embassy in London issued a statement that we were not held in a prison.

AN: What are the lessons you have learned from the Flytilla?

MN: The Israeli authorities in the days before 8 July became hysterical. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu announced that people who fly to Tel Aviv to go to Bethlehem are a threat to the security of Israel. The Israeli police chief, who is a hooligan himself, called us hooligans who will be dealt with appropriately. We learned we should fly in huge numbers and [that it is important] to liaise with Palestinians and friends in Israel.

The Israelis have constructed enormous prisons for Palestinians. But prisoners have a right to visits. Our countries are in league with Israel. Israel denies the most basic rights to Palestinians. Their response to our initiative was to score an own-goal. The publicity and sympathy we received was quite remarkable.

Small towns adopted people who would go. Israel was portrayed as the problem, not the British citizens. Even quite right-wing communities wondered at the stupidity of Netanyahu and the police minister. The stupidity, the lack of subtlety and the belief they can solve any problem with oppression, it is all in our favor.

AN: With the first Flytilla, airlines received lists with names of people who would be denied entry to Israel, [and the] airlines did not allow them to board the plane. What role will the airlines play in the coming Flytilla?

MN: There are indications that airlines felt manipulated by Israel. European airlines have felt it is costly in terms of money and public relations. There will be demonstrations if we are not permitted on board. There will be a chance they [the airlines] will leave Israel to deal with us. Airlines should refuse to be the auxiliary prison guards for Israel’s illegal occupation.

AN: Not everybody can participate in the next Flytilla on 15 April 2012. Do you have suggestions what people who want to support the Palestinians can do?

MN: Everyone can participate. Not just the hundreds of people that will fly. People are needed to explain why it is important to adopt the tactic, to explain why people are going to visit Palestinian friends openly. We need a support system on the ground like the Flotilla to inform the public in case we are detained.

The wider answer to your question is boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). We respond to the Palestinian call of boycott of any institution of the Israeli state. So [Israeli airline] El Al is most definitely not an option to fly that day.

Fundamental to what we do is the understanding — shared by Zionists — that Israel has become a toxic brand. The knowledge about Israel’s criminal behavior has spread far and wide in every European country. Therefore, when Israel crosses another red line by a massacre on sea, or by not allowing visits to prison for Palestinians, they dig themselves deeper into a hostile public opinion which is the basis of all BDS successes that have been secured until now.

First published at The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

A special investigative journalism assignment fully supported by the Taco Kuiper Grant for Investigative Journalism

A new nation has emerged defined by its bustling 10 states Warrap, Lakes, Jonglei, Upper Nile, Western Equatoria, Northern Bah el Ghazal, Unity, Western Bah el Ghazal, Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria out to host the world.

A few years ago it wouldn’t have been easy to imagine such a boon amidst the sweltering heat of Southern Sudan and especially its heart in Juba.

Thanks for the vast reserves of oil.

The pull of Juba or is it the Southern Sudanese Pound is exerting a pull on all to the banks of the Nile to get the promise of a better life. It is here in Juba that economic dreams of a better life from home are being nurtured and realized. When South Sudan took its place in the global community of nations, it did so with much aplomb economically. Currently, South Sudan’s Pound (SSP) is the strongest currency in the continent and this explains why all kinds of investors are streaming into this new nation.

The allure of the South Sudanese Pound (currently exchanging at US$1 = 3.50SSP) is hard to resist despite the fact that the new nation lacks basic amenities.

“In the next 20 years, South Sudan will be a booming economy. This is the right time to be here.” Paul Gitahi, Equity Bank South Sudan Executive Director says.

Long before the river port city of Juba, attracted all and sundry, it resembled a typical hinterland Payam (village) with thatched houses all around. “There were only six vehicles in all of Juba.” George Conway, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says.

Today Juba which is the latest capital in the world, brimming with immense bounties is far from the six vehicles on gravel road of six years ago. Like most cities in the world Juba is no exception, it experiences traffic jams at peak hours too on its 67km tarmacked roads out of 350kilometres.

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005 in Nairobi, Kenya, the eventual peaceful secession referendum and the coming of independence thatched houses are fast disappearing and mansions, maisonettes, villas, flats and multi storeyed buildings are springing up. From one telecommunications tower in the country, there are over 500 today making mobile phone coverage possible to much of the country.

Geographically South Sudan may appear disadvantaged as it is landlocked but this may only be for a time as the new country has much to offer. Daily flights from major world capitals further buttress this belief of a land full of bounties as are the daily long interstate bus rides from the neighbouring countries with skills or wares for sale.

In 2009 SAB Miller became the first multinational manufacturer to venture into South Sudan with the establishment of its subsidiary the $37 million South Sudan Beverages Limited in Juba.

With the coming of independence SAB Miller invested a further $15 million in the Juba facility so as to boost production capacity and meet increasing local demands. In simple parlance business is good to warrant more capital injection.

“Our investment in South Sudan continues to bear fruit due to the country’s improving economic outlook and a continued positive consumer response to our brand portfolio.” Ian Alsworth-Elvey SSBL Managing Director says. “Increasing our brewing capacity takes the business to the next level. Supporting growth in our key mainstream segments and helps us to build market share.”

Demand for White Bull and the locally brewed Nile Special Brand have been the main motivators for the increase in SSBL production. By November this year the Juba facility is expected to increase production to 500,000 hectolitres. SSBL not only produces beer but has also ventured into non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks and bottled water brands.

The fact that South Sudan is still in infancy and is a net importer has proved to be a major challenge to investors. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, South Sudan is a net importing country and its largest trading partners are Uganda, Northern Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia in that order. Uganda’s main export market at present is South Sudan. In 2009 Uganda exported goods worth $184 million.

“The cost of doing business in South Sudan is significantly higher than in other places and part of that is the fact that we have exceptionally higher transport costs from Mombasa port in Kenya. To bring a container from Europe to Mombasa by ship costs about $2000. It then costs you close to $8000 to move it from Mombasa to Juba.” Alsworth-Elvey says.

Providing direct employment to over 300 South Sudan nationals SSBL has endeared itself to the psyche of the new nation. Alsworth-Elvey however sees the cost of doing business in South Sudan changing and the future offering brighter prospects.

“The return of our investment has been successful and we expect to grow. I think the economy of South Sudan has grown and will continue to do so in the next decade. The parliament has passed what I think is the best Investment Promotion Acts in Africa if not the world. It has boosted this with a ministry solely dedicated to investments. This demonstrates the commitment in attracting more investments.” Alsworth-Elvey says.

According to South Sudan’s Vice President Riak Machar, in the next five years, the SPLM government intends to mobilise $500 billion from the private sector to bolster infrastructure development.

In every corner and all buildings in Juba there is a generator not only showcasing the need for urgent investments in electricity generation, transmission and supply but also revealing how Khartoum underdeveloped Juba. The South Sudan Electricity Corporation (SSEC) produces 10mega watts daily against a demand of 50MW. Most businesses, government ministries, NGOs generate their own power through acquisition of generators. As it stands now SSEC uses 48,000litres of diesel daily to generate for its customers as the government paves the way for heavier investments in the power sector to bring energy costs to manageable levels. High demand for power in Juba is currently being pushed by the hospitality industry which is placing a huge demand on the national grid. Independent estimates show that South Sudan can harness close to 1400MW along the River Nile.

But as South Sudan seeks to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of development a major set back has already reared its ugly head in the form of the seat of South Sudan’s government. It is now official that the capital Juba will perhaps get a world first as the “metropolis” which had the shortest history as a capital city. This move comes after the new South Sudan cabinet unveiled in late August decided to relocate its capital to Ramciel in the Lakes state after an unending dispute over Juba which apart from being the capital city of South Sudan also serves as the seat of Central Equatoria’s government.

A bitter dispute between the government and the indigenous Juba inhabitants, the Bari community over access to land is what has caused this costly move by the government.

“Juba is like a slum. You have nowhere to build roads. You have to quarrel to get land. Where do you put government institutions and investors? We need a large parcel of land to accommodate development projects.” Barnaba Marial Benjamin, information minister says. “The government has not succeeded to persuade and allay the fears of the local community and so the cabinet decided to relocate the capital to a better area.”

This move by the South Sudan government will no doubt have serious ramifications on the country’s oil dependent economy as it is bound to affect the current infrastructure estimates upwards. It is an open secret that the new nation is which controls 75% of all the oil in Sudan and is wholly dependent on oil which foots 98% of the Juba’s $2.8 billion annual budget.

Competing to get this oil from the ground are China National Oil Petroleum, Malaysian oil giant Petronas, Moldovian oil Company Ascom Group, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh and Sweden’s Lundin. All these business deals are courtesy of the peace dividends and business confidence pegged on Juba.

RYCE MOTORS: THE KENYA COMPANY THAT DARED

INTERVIEW WITH A.S SELVARAJAH, DIRECTOR, RYCE MOTORS

1. When did Ryce Southern Sudan venture into South Sudan?

SELVARAJAH: We have been doing business for the last 5 years in South Sudan from Nairobi, we are now based in Juba since May 2011. A part of our regional expansion to meet our hinterland customer needs.

2. What was the reason for this move?

SELVARAJAH: I attended the first ever South Sudan Business Development Conference in 2006 in Nairobi and realized the great business opportunities and started to make plans to set up base in Juba. Five years later and the plans have been realised.

3. How have the locals taken to your services considering they just got their independence?

SELVARAJAH: The locals are very happy that we have brought our services to their doorstep and are very welcoming.

4. What have been the challenges so far?

SEELVARAJAH: Sincerely we have no complaints, the only challenge we face is lack of skilled and educated local labour, but we understand why, we have employed five Sudanese already and hope to increase to 50 within one year when we start the After Sales Services. As the country stabilizes it will only grow as the leaders are determined to see it growing.

5. How is the private sector coming up in this new nation?

SELVARAJAH: There are not many Corporate Investors due to the wait and see attitude. However lately this has changed and interest in this country has grown very fast.

6. Have your clients grown with time?

SELVARAJAH: Yes our clientele base is steadily growing, we are happy with the progress being made here in South Sudan and the operational environment. In our case we have both corporate and individual customers. Representatives from a number of Corporates have visited even our showroom exploring the opportunities since independence came to Juba. We look forward to brighter prospects in future.

7. What products do you seek to roll out in future?

SELVARAJAH: Agricultural machinery and implements, Construction machinery, Construction and Water supply projects. Service, repairs and spare parts.

AUTHOR: Wanjohi Kabukuru
URL: http://www.africasia.com/
E-MAIL: wanjohi [at] positiveoutcomes.org