Day: July 11, 2014

Europe

Crimean Tatars arrested in Red Square protest

Seven Crimean Tatars were detained in Moscow while holding a peaceful picket calling for an end to ethnic and religious persecution in Russian-annexed Crimea. Around 20 activists—most in their 50s and 60s, veterans of the Crimean Tatar national movement—gathered in Red Square with placards reading: “Our children are not terrorists”; “The fight against terrorism in Crimea is a fight against dissidents” and “Stop persecution on ethnic and religious lines in Crimea.” The picket was held in advance of an appeal hearing for four Crimean Tatars facing “terrorism” charges for their membership in the civil organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. The detained protesters were charged with holding an unauthorized demonstration. One of those arrested is the father of one of the “terrorism” defendants. (Photo: Human Rights in Ukraine)

North Africa

Crisis resolved at Libyan oil terminals —for now

Libya’s Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC) lifted the state of force majeure it had declared at four export terminals in the country's eastern "oil crescent," after the forces of eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar agreed to withdraw from the facilities. Exports are set to resume, and global oil prices began to fall as the news broke. The ports were all handed back to NOC control without any obvious concession being made to Haftar. The Guardian reports that Haftar had been pressing privately for Saddek Elkaber, the governor of the Libyan central bank, to step down, claiming that Elkaber was funnelling monies from the oil industry to militias opposed to him. A warning from Donald Trump that he would take legal action against those responsible for the impasse may have prompted Haftar's capitulation. (Photo: Libya Observer)

Mexico

Mexico: spyware turned on rights investigators

Spyware supplied to Mexico officially to track narco-traffickers and terrorists was instead used against human rights investigators looking into the case of 43 "disappeared" college students. Amid the new scandal, the families of the disappeared continue to wait for justice. There has been one arrest in the case, and the remains of only two of the missing students identified.

Southeast Asia

Philippine strongman’s bloody drug war: year one

One year after Rodrigo Duterte took office on a pledge to expunge the  "virulent social disease" of drug abuse, the civilian death toll in his crackdown may be as high as 8,000. Among the upwards of 80,000 arrested under Duterte's rule are some, including opposition politicians, who have been clearly framed for speaking out against him. And in the restive southern island of Mindanao, he has made good on his threats to instate martial law.

Iraq

Amnesty sees ‘civilian catastrophe’ in Mosul

A new report by Amnesty International charges that ISIS used trapped inhabitants as "human shields" in Mosul, and that the US-led coalition "failed to take adequate measures to protect civilians." The report urged that "the disregard for human life by all parties to this conflict must not go unpunished. Entire families have been wiped out, many of whom are still buried under the rubble today."

Iraq

Iraq: will fall of Mosul widen war?

The full liberation of Mosul from ISIS has been declared, but at a terrible cost in human lives—and multiple contradictions among the alliance assembled to take the city could open a new war in Iraq's north.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ZIONIST PROJECT

Interview: Nadia Abu El-Haj

by Alex Shams, Ma’an News Agency

In early January, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it would begin excavation on an archaeological site inside a Jewish settlement near the heart of Hebron’s old city. The announcement sparked outrage among many who viewed the move as an attempt to legitimize the presence of illegal settlements in the center of the flashpoint southern West Bank city. Since then, Israeli authorities have also moved forward on plans for a Jewish history theme park in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Local residents—dozens of whom have received home demolition orders in recent months—have loudly objected to the idea, while the Al-Aqsa Foundation has raised alarms that Israel archaeologists have destroyed a number of non-Jewish archaeological sites in ongoing excavations nearby.

In order to understand the political uproar over seemingly innocuous archaeological projects, Ma’an interviewed anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj to discuss the broader historical context. Abu El-Haj is a professor at Barnard College and Columbia University and the author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, among other books. Her work explores how archaeology played an integral role in the Zionist settler-colonial project and the legitimization of Israeli territorial claims in the region.

 

Continue ReadingARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ZIONIST PROJECT 

EGYPT: A PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION

Not a Crisis or a Coup

by Nawal El Saadawi, IslamiCommentary

Every revolution in history has had its counter-revolution. Most recently, internal and external forces allied, as they did in Egypt, to abort the January 2011 revolution.

But the Muslim Brotherhood failed to abort this latest revolution on June 30, 2013, and they will continue to fail because those who have rebelled against them have learned the lessons of the past. Their consciousness has deepened with organization and unity.

Thirty-four million youth, men, and women went out into the streets and squares. They were determined to topple the religious government, under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as stand up to all who supported the Brotherhood, at home and abroad .

Continue ReadingEGYPT: A PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION 
Europe

Srebrenica: 17 years later, quest for justice goes on

After 17 years, the authors of the Srebrenica massacre at last face justice at The Hague. But in the Serb-controlled zone of divided Bosnia is a growing genocide denialism—which is shamefully echoed in sectors of the Western “left.”

Europe

Srebrenica: 16 years later, justice at last?

As thousands commemorated the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in eastern Bosnia, Ratko Mladic faces genocide charges in The Hague—yet is still hailed as a hero by Serbia’s ultra-nationalists.