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by Robert Fantina, Counterpunch, May 3, 2023

Photograph Source: US Central Intelligence Agency – Public Domain

Currently, much of the world is focused on the Russian war with Ukraine, and occasionally notices the unprecedented civil unrest roiling the apartheid state of Israel. Talk of suffering in Ukraine and the threat to the only ‘democracy’ (which Israel is not and never has been) in the Middle East seems to emanate from the airwaves of most of the major, corporate-owned and operated media outlets that determine what is and isn’t ‘news’.

Overlooked is the unfolding, ongoing horror being experienced by the people of Kashmir.

In August of 2019, India changed its constitution, revoked the limited autonomy it had granted Kashmir, declared the country an ‘integral’ part of India, and began a savage repression that continues to this day. This is not to imply that India treated Kashmir and Kashmiris with any sense of justice prior to that date; no, the repression that intensified then was just an extension of the suffering under which the Kashmiris had long lived.

As the government of India continues its violations of human rights and international law on a daily basis, among its efforts is the complete suppression of the work of journalists and human rights activists.

A few examples will suffice.

Ifran Mehraj, a Srinagar-based journalist who has worked in a research capacity for the Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was summoned for questioning and then arrested by India’s so-called counter-terrorism task force, The National Investigation Agency (NIA). His was a voice that India could not allow to be heard: he as written for such publications as Al Jazeera, The Indian Express, TRT World, Himal Southasian, among others. Criticism of India’s brutal oppression of the Kashmiri people must not be allowed to see the light of day.

One of his ‘crimes’, apparently, at least according to an NIA press release following his arrest, is that he is an associate of Khurram Parvez, the JKCCS Program Coordinator who has been incarcerated by India since November, 2021. It is unimportant to the Indian government that Khurram Parvez is an internationally-known human rights defenders, who has been honored several times with international awards for his work. It seems, sadly, that this is also unimportant to most of the Western press.

JKCCS itself is a target of the NIA, which has stated the following: “JKCCS was funding terror activities in the valley and had also been in the propagation of a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights”.

The ‘terror activities’ mentioned seem to fall under this broad umbrella, also written by the NIA: “…these NGOs, Trusts and Societies and their members, by words and written means, publish anti-national and incriminating material to bring into hatred, contempt and disaffection towards the Government of India.”

These statements are worth looking at in some depth.

The JKCSS is accused of ‘the propagation of a secessionist agenda in the Valley’. International law, most specifically United Nations Resolution 47, states “…that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite….” Demanding adherence to international law cannot be seen as forwarding a ‘successionist agenda’. Kashmir is not part of India, so it cannot ‘secede’ from it.

The NIA also mentioned that the JKCCS was doing its ‘nefarious’ deeds under the ‘garb of protection of human rights’.  Let us look at a statement from the Kashmir Scholars Consultative Action Network:

“The already dire humanitarian and human rights situation in IAK (Indian-Administered Kashmir) has substantially deteriorated since August 5, 2019 when Indian authorities illegally dismantled guarantees protecting the territorial and cultural integrity of IAK and its people’s rights to their land, educational access and local employment.  Indian authorities have imposed a barrage of new, violative laws and policies on IAK predicated on earlier illegalitiescondemned by the UN Security Council. By delivering on the decades-old declared policy goals of militant, ethnonationalist Hindu supremacists, the Indian government has achieved the disintegration of IAK; the economic and social disempowerment of its Muslim population; and the near-total domination of Muslims of IAK via expropriation of land, destruction of common and private property, various forms of illegal and invasive surveillance, extraction of resources, ecological destruction, and the rapid expansion of forced and illegal demographic change in favor of non-local Hindus. (Indian authorities’ repression has targeted the majority Kashmiri Muslim population which has most vocally stood for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of IAK.”

It would seem that the ‘garb of protection of human rights’ is, in fact, a dedicated effort to support the human rights of the Kashmiri people that are being violated in the most unspeakable ways by the Indian government.

The NIA’s statement that various NGOs are attempting to disgrace the government of India is simply a lie; the government itself, by its brutal violations of human rights and international law, is bringing ‘hatred, contempt and disaffection towards the government of India’. Its effort to prevent NGOs and journalists from exposing these crimes does not remove the responsibility for them from the Indian government.

Ifran Mehraj, mentioned above, is just the latest in a long line of journalists who have been jailed or killed for exposing India’s crimes. Fahad Shah, the editor of The Kashmir Walla, recently completed one year of his jail sentence, for the ‘crime’ of reporting on a deadly Indian police raid in Jammu and Kashmir.

Another Kashmiri journalist, Aasif Sultan, has now been incarcerated for over four years. He has been charged with a variety of crimes, ranging from harbouring militants, to murder, all of which he denies and for which there is scant evidence. However, in July of 2018, he wrote an article for the Kashmir Narrator, of which he is the editor, discussing the assassination of Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri rebel commander who was killed in 2016 by Indian forces, when he was only 22. This story, highly critical of Indian actions, is the actual reason Aasif Sultan is in prison.

Journalism student Sajad Gul, a trainee reporter for The Kashmir Walla, has now been incarcerated for over two years. His ‘crime’ was posting a video of a woman protesting the killing of a Kashmiri activist.

These and many other activists and journalist have been detained under the infamous Public Safey Act. This act initially allowed for detention for up to two years without any charges being made, let alone a trial. This was eventually changed, with the length of detention without charge or trial being reduced to one year, but in most cases, when a prisoner is released after one year, he or she is immediately arrested on a different spurious charge as soon as leaving the police station.

India is trying to suppress the voices of those fighting the oppression of the people of Kashmir. The efforts of the journalists, human-rights activists and others who stand for peace, justice and international law must not be in vain. These brave individuals must have international support as they oppose crimes against humanity which are being perpetrated by India on a daily basis. As their voices are silenced, we must raise ours on their behalf.

Robert Fantina’s latest book is Propaganda, Lies and False Flags: How the U.S. Justifies its Wars.

Kashmir: The Forgotten, Ongoing Tragedy

JEREMY CORBYN led calls today for the immediate release of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on World Press Freedom Day.

The former Labour leader highlighted how Mr Assange has spent four years in maximum security prison Belmarsh for exposing the truth.

He said: “We cannot stand by and let governments silence those who seek to expose the truth.

“Today, let’s defend free and democratic journalism everywhere.”

In 2010, Mr Assange published US government records on WikiLeaks that revealed its military committed war crimes against civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the killing of two Reuters journalists.

Since April 2019, he has been held at Belmarsh, fighting extradition to the US. If found guilty, he faces a jail term of up to 175 years.

Mr Assange’s filmmaker brother Gabriel Shipton said: “Each day Julian spends in prison is another day we must all question whether journalists around the world are truly free to report US foreign and military policy.

“Four years of confinement in a maximum-security prison and 13 years isolated from the world – what will it take for the appetite of those who wish to punish Julian to be satiated?”

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has also called for the release of Mr Assange and for charges against him to be dropped.

A union statement said: “The prosecution of Mr Assange by the US government and efforts to extradite him have been vehemently opposed by the NUJ.

“Journalists in receipt of classified information regarding the US may choose not to pursue and publish information, in fear of being prosecuted in the same way.”

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morningstaronline.co.uk

Corbyn leads calls for ‘immediate release’ of Assange on World Press Freedom Day

Haidar Eid, Middle East Eye, 2 May 2023

In an open letter, Gaza-based political analyst Haidar Eid insists the EU commission president should apologise for the blatant racism in a recent speech celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Israeli regime

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shakes hands with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on 23 January 2023 (AFP)

We in Palestine are saddened that, 30 years after the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, the president of the EU Commission has not learned the lessons of that shameful history and continues to defend blatant racism and settler colonialism.

I write this letter from the besieged Gaza Strip. Besieged by whom, you might wonder? Perhaps you may think that it is a self-imposed blockade and that 2.4 million people have decided to die slowly through incremental genocide.

Two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their villages and towns by the country you are in love with and whose narrative you have completely endorsed.

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It seems you are unfamiliar with the works of Israel’s New Historians who debunked the Zionist narrative many years ago. If you are genuinely interested in historical accuracy, rather than ideology, then perhaps you should read Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’sThe Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, especially since you don’t trust Palestinian historians. A person in your important position should avoid myths that have long been refuted.

You must be familiar with reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the reputable Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, and the executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) findings about the apartheid nature of the Israeli government. (I refrain from mentioning Palestinian human rights organisations as you may deem them less credible.)

Embracing apartheid

In Israel, institutionalised racial discrimination is unequivocally founded on ensuring the primacy of a group of Jewish settlers over the Palestinian Arabs.

When comparing the applications of the apartheid policy, it is difficult to identify any differences between white rule in South Africa and its Israeli counterpart in Palestine, in terms of the segregation and designation of certain areas for Israeli Jews and others for Arabs.

Other similarities between apartheid Israel and apartheid South Africa include the delineation of certain laws and privileges for Jews, and a discriminatory set of laws that apply only to Palestinians.

Israeli protesters take to streets to safeguard master-race democracy

Read More »

Currently, in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories there are two road systems, two housing systems, two educational systems, and different legal and administrative systems for Jews and non-Jews. Every law enacted by the South African apartheid system has a corresponding law in Israel.

These include the Group Areas Act, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, the Law on Movement and Permits, the Public Safety Act, the Population Registration Act, the Immorality Act, the Land Act, and, of course, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act.

The corresponding Israeli laws are the Law of Return, the 2003 “temporary” laws prohibiting mixed marriages, the Population Registry Law, the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, the Israeli Nationality Law, and various land and property laws.

And Israel now has decided to become openly an apartheid state by definition: the infamous Nation-State Basic Law specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people only.

Anti-apartheid icons Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are only two of many South African activists who strongly believe that what we experience in Palestine is far worse than apartheid in South Africa in its heyday.

Even former US President Jimmy Carter expressed his distress at the situation on the ground during his last visit to Palestine and called Israel an apartheid state. Perhaps his words would have more credibility to you?

Fond of colonialism

Sadly, your condescending response to the Palestinian foreign ministry – which rightly called your remarks “anti-Palestinian racist tropes” – reminds one of the 19th-century language used by the white supremacists of South Africa and the American South under Jim Crow laws.

You have made it absolutely clear that you are fond of colonialism by using archaic colonial cliches

But you have made it absolutely clear that you are fond of colonialism by using archaic colonial cliches. Arab barbarians needed the white Ashkenazi European to spread “democracy” in the heart of the uncivilised Arab world and “literally make the desert bloom”. Mind you, this biologist ideology which maintains that non-whites have backward, undemocratic cultures has no place in today’s postcolonial world. Hence, your denial of the Nakba.

Were you a supporter of the Bantustan system in South Africa under apartheid? Are you opposed to equal rights and the transformation of Israel and Palestine into a state for all its citizens? The two-state solution which you keep referring to (without doing anything to implement it) means the Bantustanisation of Palestine.

Are you opposed to civic democracy, which is the demand of most Palestinian civil society and grassroots organisations? Was Nelson Mandela wrong to spend 27 years of his life in pursuit of justice by demanding equality for the indigenous people of South Africa? Do you realise that what you are supporting in the Middle East is a racist solution par excellence? A solution based on “ethnic nationalism”?

Do you realise, Madam President, that the ministers in the cabinet of your “vibrant democracy” are calling for Palestinian villages and cities to be wiped out, thanks to your commission’s complacency and support?

To our horror, here in Palestine where we are fighting for our mere survival thanks to the racist policies of apartheid Israel, you had no sympathetic words whatsoever for our suffering as a result of the establishment of the only remaining apartheid country in the world. You did not even want to give the false impression that you are balanced and objective.

While I hesitate to quote a Palestinian to you, this observation by the late scholar Edward Said in his Representations of the Intellectual aptly describes this recent incident:

“Nothing in my view is more reprehensible than those habits of mind in the intellectual that induce avoidance, that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position, which you know to be the right one, but which you decide not to take. Your hope is to be asked back, to consult, to be on a board or prestigious committee, and so to remain within the responsible mainstream; someday you hope to get an honorary degree, a big prize, perhaps even an ambassadorship… For despite the abuse and vilification that any outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights and self-determination earns for him or herself, the truth deserves to be spoken, represented by an unafraid and compassionate intellectual.”

Does this ring a bell, Madam President?

The views expressed in this letter belong to the signatory and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Dr Haidar Eid is Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip, Palestine.

• Ted Galen Carpenter, Antiwar. com, May 02, 2023

All governments produce deceptive propaganda about aspects of their foreign policy. However, Joe Biden’s administration seems intent on setting some kind of record for both the number of falsehoods and their brazenness. Three of them stand out with respect to the latter feature.

Falsehood: The world is united in opposing Russia and supporting Ukraine. This boast had scant credibility even at the outset of the Russia-Ukraine war, and it has grown more frayed with the passage of time. The administration’s assertion is based on two UN General Assembly votes, one in March 2022 and the other in February 2023. Those measures did criticize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but they were purely symbolic, since they did not commit UN members to take any actions. Even so, more than 20 percent of the countries represented in the General Assembly cast negative votes or abstentions, despite knowing that such a stance would anger the powerful United States.

In terms of substantive policies, there has been little support for an anti-Russia policy outside of the NATO bloc and Washington’s long-standing security dependents in East Asia. Not only have major powers such as India and China refused to impose sanctions against Moscow, the overwhelming majority of countries throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America also have maintained that posture. In terms of providing financial (much less military) aid to Kyiv, the ranks of supporters are even thinner. Contrary to the smug assertions of Biden administration officials, it is a case of the West versus the rest on such issues.

Falsehood: The Russia-Ukraine war is part of an existential global fight between democracy and authoritarianism. Administration leaders and their supporters in the West’s news media echo chamber have made that argument on numerous occasions. It is false on several grounds, not the least of which is the reality that Ukraine is not a democracy by any reasonable standard. Even before Volodymyr Zelensky’s government adopted additional repressive measures following Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Ukraine received poor marks from Transparency International because of pervasive corruption and a mediocre rating from Freedom House with respect to political liberties.

Since then, Zelensky has outlawed opposition parties and media outlets, imposed rigorous censorship on the rest of the press, effectively banned the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations with “links to Russia,” and jailed numerous individuals (including former top aides) on allegations of treason. The regime even created a “blacklist” of both domestic and foreign critics, accusing them of being “disinformation terrorists” and “war criminals.”

It is absurd for the Biden administration to portray the Russia-Ukraine war as a crucial struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, when neither country is a democracy. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was far closer to the mark when he initially described the conflict as a mundane “territorial dispute” that did not warrant U.S. involvement. Unfortunately, it was a measure of how effectively the Ukraine lobby intimidates anyone who disputes the dominant pro-Kyiv narrative about the war that DeSantis later walked back that accurate characterization.

Falsehood: The United States is not directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine war. When the Russian invasion began, Biden administration officials quickly assured the American people that, while the United States and its NATO allies would assist Kyiv’s defense efforts, there would be no US”boots on the ground” in Ukraine. However, leaked Pentagon documents in April 2023 confirmed that the United States and several other NATO countries had dozens of Special Forces personnel in Ukraine. In a sarcastic comment about that revelation, one wag speculated that perhaps the US troops were wearing slippers instead of boots.

Even without a ground troop presence, the United States (along with other NATO members) has been deeply involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Washington’s official status as a non-belligerentis farcical. NATO, led by the United States, has been waging a full-blown proxy war against Russia. Moreover, the apparent objective goes far beyond helping Ukraine fend off Russia’s aggression. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin candidly confirmed that point when he stated that Washington’s goal was to “weaken Russia” to the point that it could no longer pose a security threat to Ukraine or any other nation. The United States has pushed the International Criminal Court to prosecute Vladimir Putin for war crimes. Administration officials, including Biden, have hinted that NATO’s underlying goal is regime change in Moscow.

The Western powers have supplied Ukraine with increasingly powerful weapons, including longer-range missiles and heavy battle tanks. It is apparent that the United States also has given Ukraine battlefield intelligence, including targeting data. That assistance has enabled Kyiv’s forces to shoot down a Russian troop transport plane with hundreds aboard, kill numerous Russian generals, and sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, among other victories. Such involvement makes the United States a belligerent in the war, risking an incredibly dangerous clash with a nuclear-armed Russia.

The American people should not have to worry about being deceived by their own government. With respect to the Russia-Ukraine war, however, the Biden administration and its allies have systematically misled the public about several important issues. Such behavior exhibits utter contempt for fundamental democratic norms.

–

Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute and a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute. He also served in various policy positions during a 37-year career at the Cato Institute. Dr. Carpenter is the author of 13 books and more than 1,100 articles on international affairs. His latest book is Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy (2022).

Julia Conley, Apr 27, 2023

From greenhouse gas emissions stemming from rocket attacks to the threat of “the ultimate environmental crime” of nuclear war, U.S anti-war and climate action groups on Thursday told President Joe Biden and members of Congress that the long-standing call for peace talks in Ukraine is “all the more urgent” as the damage the Russian invasion has done to the planet so far becomes clearer.

CodePink led more than 2,300 “people of conscience” and groups including Amazon Watch, 350.org North America, and Extinction Rebellion U.S. in a letter to Biden saying that “based on climate justice reasons alone,” the U.S. government can and must use its power to ensure that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine happen swiftly.

The groups detailed a number of harmful effects the war has had on the planet in its first 14 months, including the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which the United Nations Environment Program said may have caused the largest-ever single leak of methane, the potent greenhouse gas that can trap 87 times more heat than carbon dioxide in its first two decades in the atmosphere.

On a day-to-day basis, the war is contributing to further fossil fuel emissions as hundreds of thousands of soldiers, their munitions, and people who have been forced to flee their homes make millions of trips across Ukraine. The conflict has also had a considerable impact on public health as communities face the long-lasting byproducts of war even after soldiers retreat from their cities and towns.

“As the fighting has now gone on for a year with no end in sight, Ukraine braces itself for further disruption of local ecosystems, forest fires, blackened trees, air pollution, sewage leaks, and chemical contamination of rivers and groundwater in Ukraine,” said the groups in the letter.

“If any leader of a nation is even remotely serious about protecting the sanctity of life, they would push for a cease-fire and use their influence to establish peace talks.”

Lennard de Klerk, a Dutch carbon accounting expert who is preparing a report on the war’s climate impact that’s expected to be presented to the U.N. in June, toldTime in February that the carbon footprint of the conflict in its first year was an estimated 155 million metric tons—the equivalent of the Netherlands’ yearly output—due to explosions, the reconstruction of buildings, transportation, forest fires, and other factors.

The Thursday letter also points out that Western sanctions on Russian oil have led the U.S. to increase its energy exports to Europe, doubling liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from 2021 to 2022 and sending 1.75 million barrels of crude oil across the Atlantic Ocean daily—a 70% increase from 2021.

CodePink reported that when organizers delivered the letter to congressional offices on Thursday, they encountered Capitol Hill staffers who “were unaware of the deadly environmental consequences of militarism and active war.”

“We will continue to educate, organize, and disrupt until not only the connection is made but action is taken to save people and the planet,” said CodePink organizer Teddy Ogborn. “War can no longer be a policy option for nations. If any leader of a nation is even remotely serious about protecting the sanctity of life, they would push for a cease-fire and use their influence to establish peace talks.”

The more than $100 billion the U.S. has spent on aid to Ukraine in the last year—and billions more spent by European countries—has come with an opportunity cost, said the groups, as the Global South has been left waiting for wealthy countries to fulfill “their 2009 promise to invest $100 billion a year to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.”

“Now the world is looking to the wealthier nations for a loss and damage fund,” they wrote. “Instead of pouring our resources into war, we should be investing these resources into seriously addressing the climate crisis.”

The letter was delivered to the White House and Congress a day after CodePink co-founder Diane Wilson received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to hold petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics accountable for illegally dumping toxic waste on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

During the award ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., CodePink organizer Olivia DiNucci walked onto the stage as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed the crowd. DiNucci carried a sign that read, “War Is Not Green,” while other activists chanted: “Stop the war in Ukraine. We need peace talks.”

“It’s a huge hypocrisy to have Nancy Pelosi speak at an environmental ceremony,” said DiNucci. “Pelosi voted for almost a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget. That money should go for climate justice. The people awarded today represent communities that have been devastated by our war machine.”

Prior to the event Pelosi had explicitly told CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, “We don’t need peace talks. We need victory.”

U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents leaked earlier this month showed that American officials believe that “negotiations to end the conflict are unlikely during 2023 in all considered scenarios.”

“We must stop this madness before it’s too late!” said the groups in their letter on Thursday. “For the sake of future life on this
planet, we urge you to initiate peace talks to end this war now.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Julia Conley

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

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