Category: politics

Kashmir has changed since 1947, even since 1989. In the 90’s it was militant and the Indians used that to build up their own military here. They’re still using it. But things have changed here – a turning point came in 2008 – in August 2008, we had a couple of million people turning out for a single march.The boys now don’t want to join the militants. Education has helped. Kashmiri boys on the street are reading Foucault, Martin Luther, about the Palestinian intifada, about Northern Ireland. They’re trying to equip themselves with knowledge whereas in 1989 they wanted to equip themselves with guns. The mood on the street here is changing but India has not changed its attitude towards Kashmiris – India refuses to see that the earlier militancy has died down and been replaced by a peaceful movement. Full article.

US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority begin today in Washington. Both sides agreed to sit down last month after the US successfully pressured Palestinian leaders to drop their precondition of an Israeli settlement freeze. On the eve of the summit, Palestinian militants killed four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. We speak with Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada. Full article.

As Pakistan struggles to rescue families from flood waters and fend off disease and starvation before winter sets in, it is scrambling to pay out a shocking 30% of its annual budget revenues to foreign creditors on debt incurred by previous dictatorships. If Pakistan is obliged to make these debt payments, rescue efforts for tens of millions of people whose lives have been devastated could be crippled. Earlier this year, we persuaded creditor governments to drop Haiti’s debt after it was devastated by an earthquake — and now we could do the same for Pakistan. Pls sign petition here.

Pakistan’s staggering $55 billion debt burden comes from decades of reckless spending by its autocratic ruling elites, matched by irresponsible lending on the part of Western creditors and banks.

But 60% of Pakistanis still live below the poverty line. It is a tragic irony that these tens of millions of Pakistanis whose lives have been destroyed in these floods and who have received little or no benefit from these massive loans, are the ones now footing the bill of such unjust debt.

In the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake, Hurricane Mitch in Central America, and the Asian tsunami, the world responded by suspending and cancelling debt payments from affected countries. Pakistan’s debt is too vast to cancel in one swoop, but a two year moratorium with accountability mechanisms to ensure that the released funds are spent on relief is a first step and now is the moment to push for it.

If we win this debt campaign, we can make billions available for relief and reconstruction. Let’s make sure the international community does the right thing. Sign the urgent petition above and share this message with all your friends and family.

This video from the American Civil Liberties Union condemns the U.S. government practice of issuing death sentences without due process as part of its targeted killing policy. “Targeted Killing” is being released to coincide with the filing today of an unprecedented lawsuit by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) challenging the government’s asserted authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield without judicial process, and without disclosing the standards it uses to target individuals for death.

[drone attacks on “other” people r well accepted for the most part. i found it interesting that even in this video, the aclu is supporting targeted killing as long as it’s in a war zone. well, if u wanna get really legal about it, both iraq and afghanistan r illegal wars and we r not at war with pakistan. so drone attacks on iraqis, afghans and pakistanis r as reprehensible, illegal and immoral as on u.s. citizens. the whole idea of murder w/o judicial process (much like the dubai assassination of a hamas man by mossad) is unacceptable. what people don’t understand is that as we lower the legal stds of justice (and human decency), at some point it will affect all of us.]

Firas Maraghy, a Jerusalem native and current Berlin resident, has been on hunger strike in front of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin since 26 July, demanding Jerusalem residency rights for his baby daughter and the right to keep his own residency: “My father was born before the establishment of the State of Israel. My grandfather was born before the Balfour Declaration. And I am going to lose my right to be in Jerusalem just because I have stayed in Germany for a few years?” The German section of the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East has sponsored a petition on Firas Maraghy’s behalf. Sign petition here.

hope.

Boycott from Within is a group of Israeli citizens that supports the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). The AIC sat down with Israeli activist Ofer Neiman to discuss the Boycott from Within movement, its goals and what impact he thinks it will have on ending the Israeli occupation. Full article.

Haunting” – In the din of the infamous war on the people of Iraq, the killing and maiming is haunting; the dead and disabled children … the empty chairs at the dinner table … the empty or destroyed houses where whole families once lived … the suffering of those left behind … all of it haunts us; the destruction of a modern infrastructure, power plants, bridges, highways, sewage systems, water supply, public schools, universities, hospitals, clinics, dental labs, irrigation systems, farms, orchards, research facilities are haunting – under Saddam, Iraq had it all, … the destruction of this ancient culture is haunting. Full article.

do we have to invade them in order to protect singers’ rights?

A singer who performed in front of a “mixed audience” of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him “repent,” after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday. Full article.

Birth sex ratio is a well known indicator of genetic damage, the reduction in boy births being due to the fact that girls have a redundant X-chromosome and can therefore afford to lose one though genetic damage; boys do not. Sex ratio was similarly reduced in the Hiroshima survivors children. “This is an extraordinary and alarming result” said Dr Busby, who is visiting Professor in the University of Ulster and Scientific Director of Green Audit, an independent environmental research organization. He added: “To produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened. I am so glad that we have been able to obtain proper scientific confirmation of all the anecdotal evidence of cancer and congenital birth defects. Maybe now the international community will wake up”. Full article.

BBC report here.

Patrick Cockburn writing in CounterPunch:

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study. Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents. Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighboring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait. Full article.

Tariq Ali: The response of the West has been less than generous causing panic in Islamabad with pro-US journalists in the country pleading that if help is not forthcoming the terrorists might take over the country. This is nonsense. The Pakistani Army is firmly in control of the flood-relief effort. The religious groups and others too are raising money and helping the homeless. It’s normal. Since 9/11 a rampant Islamophobia has gripped Europe and parts of North America. A recent opinion-poll in “multicultural Britain” revealed that when asked what their first thought was on hearing the word “Islam” over fifty percent replied “Terrorist”. France and Germany, Holland and Denmark, are no different. This treatment of Islam as the permanent “other” is not unrelated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but the attitude is as wrong as the anti-Semitism that ignited prejudice and genocide during the first half of the 20th century. A million Iraqis dead since the occupation: Who cares? Afghan civilians dying every day: It’s their own fault. Pakistani engulfed in floodwaters. Indifference. That is undoubtedly one reason for the lack of response. Full article.

The real narrative of Pakistan is one that has nothing to do with the outside world, or geopolitics, or conspiracy theories. The real narrative of Pakistan is the story of a country where a fabulously wealthy elite, as well as a large and growing middle class, refuse to commit sufficiently to helping the majority of their brothers and sisters who remain desperately poor. The suffering of the Pakistani majority is usually concealed behind sordid dramas enacted by our venal politicians, hypocritical nonsense about our country’s eternal blamelessness, and carefully choreographed nationalistic, ethnic, and sectarian myth-making. But the floods have washed away these illusions and confronted us with our hungry, wet, fearful truth: Pakistan is a land that lets its people suffer. Full article.

If a state’s case against a condemned prisoner is not “ironclad”, should not that fact trouble those pursuing his execution? This is a question that should be asked of the authorities in Georgia, USA, following a federal judge’s ruling that, if upheld, will clear the way for the state to kill Troy Davis in its execution chamber.

Support full justice for troy davis and sign petition here.

Whilst the water flows freely into the illegal Israeli settlements, Palestinian towns and villages are running dry. Act now. Pls sign.