Category Archives: FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Dialogue Remains Best Key To End Conflicts In Africa – Obasanjo, Ex-President of Nigeria

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An article by  Bolaji Jimoh in New Telegraph of Nigeria

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former President of Nigeria on Tuesday said dialogue remains the best way to end numerous crises in Africa.

Tinubu made this known while speaking at a youth leadership conference in Abeokuta on the theme, “Opportunities for Peace: Roles of the Youths in Conflict Prevention in Africa.”

According to him, in order to encourage young people to be leaders in promoting peace rather than being used as tools for committing acts of violence across the continent, efforts to instil in them a culture of security and peace must be intensified.

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Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

Youth initiatives for a culture of peace, How can we ensure they get the attention and funding they deserve?

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The programme which was organized by Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library and Institute for African Culture and International Understanding, the Centre for Human Security and Dialogue is one of the events planned in honour of the former president’s 87th birthday.

As per the former President, it is imperative to prioritise compassion and tolerance over hateful narratives and negative attitudes that fuel conflicts and ultimately lead to violence. Peace is a non-negotiable for development and economic success.

Instead of being drawn in or utilised as tools of destabilisation, he added, young people in Africa ought to be agents of peace and stand hard against conflicts in any area of the continent.

“We must begin to bring up our youth in a culture of peace and security. The chances are that where we have a culture of love, we will have peace.

“The first thing to do is to inculcate in the youths the ingredients of peace, which is love and fellowship.

“Look at the attributes that God gave us to have a life of stability, a life of peace; they are, as I mentioned, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness,’’he said.

African Union Calls for a 4th Edition of the Luanda Biennale Forum for the Culture of Peace

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An excerpt from tha African Union Assembly published on horseedmedia

ASSEMBLY OF THE AFRICAN UNION Thirty-Seventh Ordinary Session 17 – 18 February 2024 Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

DRAFT DECISION ON THE REPORT ON THE THIRD (3RD) EDITION OF THE PANARICAN FORUM FOR THE CULTURE OF PEACE AND NON-VIOLENCE – “LUANDA BIENNALE”

The Assembly,

1. COMMENDS the Government of the Republic of Angola, the African Union and UNESCO for the excellent organization of the 3rd Edition of the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial”, held in Luanda from 22 to 24 November 2023.

2. ACKNOWLEDGES the connection between the theme “Education, Culture of Peace and African Citizenship as a Tools for the Sustainable Development of the African Continent” of the 3rd Edition of the Pan-African Forum on Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial” and the African Union´s theme for the year 2024 “Educating an adequate African for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems to increase access to inclusive, lifelong, quality and relevant learning in Africa.

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Question related to this article:

The Luanda Biennale: What is its contribution to a culture of peace in Africa?

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3. GUIDES the African Union Commission and UNESCO in preparing and disseminating activities and programs inherent in the Roadmap of the theme of the 3rd Edition of the Pan-African Forum on Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial” during the year 2024

4. REQUESTS the Member States and the Regional Economic Communities, within the framework of the implementation of the roadmap of the theme of the year 2024, to include activities related to theme of the 3rd Edition of the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial”

5. CONSIDERS the crucial role played by the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial” in the process of continental pacification and stability and ENCOURAGES the Government of the Republic of Angola, together with the African Union and UNESCO, to organize the 4th Edition of the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial”.

6. CALLS FOR the active participation of Member States and Regional Economic Communities in the 4th Edition of the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence “Luanda Biennial”.

7. FURTHER DIRECTS that future editions of the Pan-African Forum on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence be henceforth held during the month of October.

The Biennale of Luanda 2023 – Through eyes of its young participants

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The transcript of the UNESCO Youtube video

(Editor’s note: The 2023 Biennale of Luanda included 790 participants from all of Africa including some young people since the Biennale “advocated the establishment of partnerships between political leaders and young people, in sustainable social and economic projects, which could benefit society as a whole.” In addition to those listed below, three youth were invited from Togo. The previous Biennale in 2021 included 118 young people from 49 African countries and 14 countries of the Diaspora.)

Hello, my name is Mpule. I am from Botswana and I was selected together with eleven other young people from across Africa to participate in the third edition of the Biennale of Luanda. Every two years since 2019. the Biennale brings together heads of state, international organizations, the private sector, artists, academics and young people to boost dialogue and foster collective actions for peace in Africa. The event lasted three days with many discussions between youth and political leaders, thematic forums as well as cultural festivities.

Palmira Cassova from Angola: This third edition of the Biennale of Luanda is of great importance for us, young people, because it was a learning moment and a moment to share experiences with young people from other countries such as Egypt, Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, We believe that we will remember this for life and we will be able to contribute with what we learned here to peace in Angola and Africa.

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(click here for the French version of this article. or here for the Portuguese version )

Question related to this article:

The Luanda Biennale: What is its contribution to a culture of peace in Africa?

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60% of Africans are under 25 and the Biennale placed young Africans at the heart of the discussions. We engaged in dialogue with heads of states and focused on the vital role young Africans play in education, culture, climate change and many more.

Genila Hiel from Tanzania: The Biennale of Luanda 2023 is a very important platform for me because it gave me a chance to have intergenerational dialogue with very good African leaders to be on the same table expressing my ideas on behalf of my fellow youngsters from Africa in general. But the Biennale is above all a great opportunity for us to build networks and strengthen our knowledge for our work back home.

Hello, my name is Hakim, I am 30 years old. I am Algerian. I am also one of the young people selected for the Biennale. I am honoured to be able to develop solutions with our heads of state for African youth. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is key to reducing inequalities and fostering a culture of peace on the continent. We discussed during the Biennale, inclusive growth as a lever for peace, I strongly believe in it because the sustainability of family businesses and support for entrepreneurship can highlight the potential of our youth so that everyone finds their place in our societies. We also discussed the key role of education and higher education. I am the first of eight children to go to university. I became aware of the importance of getting involved in issues like equal opportunities, education and social justice. Education plays a crucial role in shaping free and well-informed African citizens.

Yasmein Abdelghany from Egypt: Education for peace is an education that provides learners with knowledge, skills and competences to be active agents of the change in their community. It aims to learn to teach them about tolerance, about acceptance, about diversity. Education for peace is very important because at the heart of our African aspirations is to build an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa and this won’t be achieved without education, without teaching our future generations the values of peace and nonviolence.

Mpule from Botswana: I’ve always been actively engaged in promoting women’s empowerment. Today, my mission is to increase women’s participation in leadership and decision making processes. The Biennale highlighted the role of women in peace, security and development processes. On this occasion, we had the opportunity to stress the crucial link between women’s political participation and peace and security. Young people are crucial as catalysts for building a culture of peace. Our presence was felt and our voices were heard. The spirit of the Biennale of Luanda inspires a new generation of young Africans that paved the way towards a peaceful and prosperous Africa.

Join the Pan-African Movement for a Culture of Peace.

Luanda. Capital of Peace in Africa. Join the movement.

Message from World Beyond War Annual Report

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An excerpt from the annual report of World Beyond War

Message from David Swanson, Executive Director

World BEYOND War is growing at an increasing rate. In 2023 we hired organizers in Latin America and Africa, who join our Canada Organizer and our Organizing Director on staff, along with our Executive Director, Education Director, Technology Director, Development Director, Social Media Manager, a researcher, and an intern. Much of our activity is done by volunteers, however, and we leaped from 22 active chapters the year before to 32 chapters in 21 countries in 2023. Our Declaration of Peace now has signers in 196 countries.

In 2023 we placed an increased focus on media work (production of web tools, videos, podcasts, articles, and social media, as well as outreach to media outlets) and reshaped our strategy for ongoing work to emphasize not only education and activism, but the third area of media and communications.

This was a year in which two very different wars, in Ukraine and in Palestine, were big stories in the media. We’ve worked to increase opposition to those wars, to nudge war opponents toward opposing all sides rather than cheering for certain warmakers, to activate newly engaged peace advocates, and to recruit them into a lasting movement for war abolition and peace-building beyond the current crises.

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Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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In 2023, we sought, through our annual conference, our annual film fest, and numerous articles and interviews, to more effectively address the perennial question of how to use nonviolence in the face of violence, how to employ unarmed civilian defense, diplomacy, the rule of law, and alternatives to mirroring the violence of an attacker or invader. We’ve planned a new online course on the topic for 2024.

With the close of 2023, World BEYOND War becomes 10 years old. We’ve educated huge numbers of people about peaceful alternatives. We’ve played a leading role in passing resolutions, in divesting funds from weaponry, in preventing the construction of new military bases. We’ve built a large and growing community of informed global citizens working together, strategically, and cooperatively for steps away from the institution of war and toward a sustainable world. We aim to do much more each year than the year before.

With the close of 2023, World BEYOND War was working with allies around the world to press — with some intial success — for the application of the rule of law to the horrific war on Gaza — among many other steps, generating a half-million emails to governments in support of prosecution at the International Court of Justice. Not only is the reliability of international bodies being tested, but the risk of even wider and more deadly wars is on the rise.

The case for a wiser path is needed more desperately than ever. We are finding our global footing none too soon. Peace!

Fredrik S. Heffermehl (1938-2023)

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An article by  Peter van den Dungen in World Beyond War

Norwegian peace activist and lawyer who waged a long campaign against the Norwegian Nobel Committee for not respecting the will of Alfred Nobel.
A growing unease that the persons Alfred Nobel had in mind as deserving winners of his peace prize were losing out and that the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decisions were often failing to respect Nobel’s intentions (as expressed in his will), led Norwegian lawyer and peace activist Fredrik S. Heffermehl to start a campaign to oblige the Committee to bring its awards more in line with the requirements of the will. With considerable justification he argued that successive Committees had never undertaken a legal analysis of it (as regards the prize for peace) or considered the circumstances which had given rise to the prize.

Heffermehl, who has died at his home near Oslo on 21 December (only weeks after celebrating his 85th birthday on 11th November), was a leading member of the Norwegian peace movement, of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), and one-time vice-president of the International Peace Bureau (1910 Nobel laureate). As an active supporter of many public campaigns concerning the abolition of war, disarmament, peaceful conflict resolution, strengthening of the United Nations and international law, and global cooperation, he was well aware that the lack of funding inevitably limited the extent and success of such efforts in which mobilisation of large numbers of people is dependent on raising awareness, inspiring hope, and encouraging engagement. The contrast with the military establishment and the vast resources at its disposal could not be greater. This now consists of an increasingly out of control Juggernaut, the military-industrial complex that U. S. President Dwight Eisenhower (a World War II four-star general) had warned against in his 1961 farewell address to the American people. At the end of the 19th century Alfred Nobel had predicted a return to barbarity within a few decades if the powers that be failed to reform the international system so that recourse to war was no longer an option. Both world wars, and the countless wars since then and continuing today, have confirmed his premonition. For the second year in succession, the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists stands ominously at ninety seconds to midnight – a time of unprecedented danger.

The questions of what is peace, and who deserves what is widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious prize, are raised every October when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announces the name(s) of the new laureate(s). Another opportunity for further debate presents itself two months later when the award ceremony takes place in Oslo on 10th December, the day when Alfred Nobel died in 1896. The prize for what he called ‘champions of peace’ is one of five annual prizes that the Swedish inventor and successful entrepreneur included in his last will and testament drawn up the previous year. The will specified that most of his enormous wealth should be invested in a fund, the interest on which should be used to annually award prizes to those who have conferred ‘the greatest benefit on mankind’. Unlike the prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature, the prize for peace was (and remains) controversial. Heffermehl was its most severe, persistent and passionate critic while also being the most eloquent interpreter of what the prize should have been and still could be.

There was already dismay among those in the know in 1901 (when the first prize was awarded) that Frédéric Passy, the grand old man of the French and international peace movement, had to share the prize with Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. The will specified that the peace prize should go to ‘the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses’. Although the work of the Red Cross is highly meritorious, whether it meets the criteria specified by Nobel is highly debatable. The prize was not meant for helping victims of war, but for efforts leading to its abolition. The same is true for awards that have honoured work promoting, e.g., human rights, freedom of the press, labour relations, food security, care for the environment.

It cannot be doubted that Nobel was greatly influenced by his friendship with the Austrian baroness Bertha von Suttner, author of the bestselling anti-war novel, Lay down your arms (1889) that was translated into most European languages. She wrote the novel after having learnt of the existence of a peace society (the International Arbitration and Peace Association, created in London in 1880 by Hodgson Pratt), in order to bring more people into the peace movement. Soon, she herself became a famous and highly respected leader of it. Money is the sinews of war, and she pleaded with Nobel that it was also the sinews of peace. She founded the Austrian Peace Society, co-founded the German Peace Society and was much involved in the annual conferences of the international peace movement that were held in the quarter century before World War I. Nobel frequently replied positively to her request for funding without which she would have been unable to pursue her work. In her penultimate letter, after Nobel had mentioned his poor health, she urged him to continue his support ‘even from beyond the grave’. It was widely known at the time that Nobel’s posthumous support for the peace movement (through the creation of a peace prize) was due to Bertha von Suttner who was widely expected to be the first recipient. She had to wait until 1905.

In a remarkable campaign stretching back nearly two decades and documented in many articles and several books (English editions in 2010 and 2023), Heffermehl argued that Nobel’s prize was meant to support the peace movement and also to allow young and talented idealists who were working towards a world without war not to have to worry about earning a living as well. In his most recent and highly original book, The Real Nobel Peace Prize: A Squandered Opportunity to Abolish War (see https://realnobelpeace.org/), he examined every award, and all nominations received by the Committee, through this lens, making extensive use of its archives.

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Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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His meticulous research resulted in a list in which more than half of all laureates (including presidents and foreign ministers) have been replaced by leading promoters of peace and international law. He demonstrated how, again and again, promising ideas and initiatives promoting disarmament, demilitarisation and the abolition of war have been overlooked in favour of work promoting, e.g., Norwegian foreign policy, or concerning areas which have only a tenuous link to the pursuit of world peace and a new global order of cooperation, not confrontation. Heffermehl also showed decisively that the Committee could not have been more wrong when, on fifteen occasions (excluding the years of World War II when Norway was occupied), it decided to make no award on the spurious ground that no candidate was considered qualified. There are no instances of this disreputable practice after 1972.

Heffermehl’s middle name was Stang; he was related to Fredrik Stang, a law professor who was also a leading politician as well as a chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee for almost two decades (1921-1940). Heffermehl attended the annual Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo for the first time in 1964 when Martin Luther King delivered his Nobel lecture. He was routinely invited to all ceremonies in future years but this came to an abrupt end when he started his campaign after having carefully examined Nobel’s testament. As recounted in great detail in his most recent book, he found the best peace ideas and people in the archives of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (because of the fifty-year secrecy rule, Heffermehl could only consult them for the period from 1901 until the early 1970s). However, they were often overlooked or deliberately sidelined when it came to choosing laureates. Although the United Nations was established ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ – which was also the objective of Bertha von Suttner and Alfred Nobel – that promise remains unfulfilled. The belief in security by military power continues to reign supreme, even in the nuclear age. A former Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman, Heffermehl observed that what he often found missing in the military sector was consumer protection. While arms and weapons are the most profitable of all markets, he found little truth in its promises of security. Indeed, he argued that the arms industry is selling solutions to problems that it actively creates. Nations respond to fear of other nations by making themselves more frightening, guaranteeing an endless upward spiral in both cost and danger.

Arguably Heffermehl had an over-optimistic view of the potential of the peace prize to materially contribute to the abolition of war (as long as it was awarded in accordance with the founder’s intentions). As he put it succinctly and memorably, ‘the prize that should have been and the world that could have been’.

More than ever, survival in the atomic era necessitates ‘the reduction and abolition of standing armies’ that Nobel stipulated and putting recourse to war (now with weapons of mass destruction) beyond the law. It is thanks to Heffermehl’s campaign that during the past fifteen years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee developed the habit of justifying its choice of laureate by indicating how it fulfils Alfred Nobel’s mandate – even though this frequently amounts to paying lip-service only. As part of his campaign, Heffermehl compiled every year a list of individuals and organisations known to have been nominated and entitled, in his estimation, to receive the prize. He criticised the secrecy surrounding the nomination process and encouraged greater transparency and wider participation. He also took issue with the selection process of the five members of the Committee: whereas knowledge of, interest in, and support for the peace movement should have been a condition to qualify for membership, these attributes have rarely been in evidence. Members are appointed by a committee of the Norwegian parliament in a way that reflects its political composition; membership of the Committee is regarded as a badge of honour but does not necessarily imply expertise. For a long time, members of the Committee were not only members of parliament but at times also prime minister, or foreign minister leading Heffermehl to quip, ‘The managers of the Norwegian military also managed the prize to abolish the military’.

Although the Committee dismissed his campaign as one man’s misguided obsession based on a misreading of Nobel’s will, he enjoyed the support of many legal scholars from Norway and beyond, and even from former justices of the Norwegian Supreme Court, including a former Chief Justice. It goes without saying that his campaign was also supported by leading representatives of the global peace and disarmament movement who, like Bertha von Suttner, are dependent on financial support without which progress is hard to achieve. Against the Committee, Heffermehl also drew on the fascinating private diaries of Gunnar Jahn, a jurist and leading politician, who was a member of the Committee for almost thirty years and who served as its chairperson for a quarter of a century (1941-1966). In his earlier book, The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted (2010), Heffermehl included long extracts, translated for the first time from the Norwegian, showing that on several occasions Jahn threatened to resign because he could not countenance the choice of candidate by fellow members. On such occasions, Jahn justified his unease, and preference for another laureate, by explicitly referring to the terms of Nobel’s will and finding that his colleagues were instead putting forward a candidate whose otherwise praiseworthy work had little to do with peace in the understanding of Alfred Nobel. In his diary Jahn complained that the other committee members were not the least interested when he mentioned Nobel.

In his forensic examination of Nobel’s will, Heffermehl was also able to draw on the insight of Ragnvald Moe, a long-serving secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. In a book that was unusual in tracing the history of the Nobel peace prize and of the peace movement from 1896 to 1930 (published in 1932 in French), Moe noted the changes Nobel had made pertaining to the prize for peace in his final testament compared with the previous version and concluded that they ‘more adequately cover the various aspects of the peace movement in the 1890s’.

Very recently Heffermehl’s campaign achieved an astounding climax when a former chairman of the Committee (2009-2015) declared that Nobel’s understanding of peace (and ‘champions of peace’) should be the guiding principle of the Committee and poses restrictions on the nature of the work that can be considered for the award. He is the prominent politician, Thorbjørn Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister and foreign minister. In 2009 he combined the posts as Nobel committee chair and president of parliament, and afterwards combined being a committee member and secretary general of the Council of Europe. In his memoirs (2021), he wrote that ‘there can be no doubt that Alfred Nobel wanted the world to overcome nationalism and militarism. A new world order had to develop – he wanted to do something with the world. It is clear that the criteria in the will are restrictions on who the prize can be awarded to. It cannot be given to all people of good will who wish the best for humanity. The winners of the award must have a clear agenda which can be said to lead towards the goal of the abolition of militarism and nationalism and the formation of a new international order’. Heffermehl quoted Jagland’s words in his speech at an event in central Oslo last November launching The Real Nobel Peace Prize and rightly claimed that he had now an ally with impeccable credentials. It may well be that Jagland, eventually, had been persuaded by the case so tenaciously pursued by Heffermehl. Heffermehl said, ‘I wish to declare my war of sixteen years with the Nobel awarders over. We can proceed on the basis of a common interpretation’. It is ironic that only a few weeks later he passed away at this crucial turning point. It remains to be seen whether his campaign will have had a lasting impact on future decisions of the Nobel Committee.

Rallies held worldwide as Israeli genocide in Gaza enters 100th day

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An article from PressTV Iran with additions as indicated

Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets around the world on the “day of action,” calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the Israeli aggression reached the 100-day mark.

The global day of action on Saturday saw demonstrations take place in various international capitals, including Washington DC, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Johannesburg, Abuja, Tokyo, Islamabad, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur.


Photo of March in Washington : AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana as published by AP News

Thousands of protesters in one of the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations to date in the US capital, Washington, called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to stop US aid to Israel, as more than three months of Israeli offensive is killing 250 Palestinians per day.

Large crowds waved Palestinian flags and chanted “Ceasefire now,” and “Free Palestine,” while carrying banners and posters that read “End the War in Gaza.” Other signs said the Israeli government is practicing apartheid and charged US President Joe Biden with genocide.

Young protesters were wearing the traditional keffiyeh in solidarity with Palestinians.

(Organizers of the march in Washington said that 400,000 took part.)


Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a National March for Palestine in central London on January 13, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

London, meanwhile, saw its seventh National March for Palestine since October 7 as demonstrators called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demanded that the British government stop arming the Israeli regime.

(According to a mail received at CPNN from the London-based Stop the War Coalition, in London there were almost half a million protesters demanding an immediate ceasefire, led by the anti-war movement in the UK.)

Little Amal, a giant puppet of a Syrian child refugee, representing refugees and displaced people, joining a group of Palestinian children, attended the demonstration.

“While the British public largely supports a ceasefire in Gaza, the UK’s politicians have continued to fund and support the genocide,” Jeanine Hourani, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement attending the march in London said.
UK ‘complicit’ in Israel’s crimes

Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, also joined the protesters calling for a ceasefire. He slammed the UK government for “complicity” with Israel.

“I stand before you with a broken heart but not a broken spirit,” Zomlot said addressing pro-Palestinian protesters in London as he described Palestine as a “nation of freedom fighters.”

He also congratulated South Africa for bringing a genocide case against Israel at the UN’s International Court of Justice.

The London march was one of several others being held in European cities including Paris, Rome, Milan and Dublin, where thousands also marched along the Irish people to protest Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.

Irish Protesters waved Palestinian flags, denouncing Israel’s genocidal crimes in Gaza, chanting “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They held placards critical of the Irish, US governments and Israeli regime.

(As reported by Common Dreams , “In Dublin, organizers of a march that saw more than 100,000 march through city streets called it the largest rally for Palestinian rights in Irish history.”)

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Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

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Rome hosts new pro-Palestine rally, thousands join demonstration

In Rome, thousands of demonstrators descended on a boulevard near the famous Colosseum, with some carrying signs reading, “Stop Genocide.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters also lauded South Africa for bringing Israel’s brutal military onslaught against Gaza to the International Court of Justice.
Rome photo


Rome hosts a new rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Malaysia

At rallies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, people gathered at the United States embassy to send a message to Israel’s staunch ally. People carried placards that read “Stop the genocide,” as well as “Bombing children is not self-defense.”

Last month, the Malaysian government announced it would no longer allow Israeli-owned ships to dock in Malaysian ports. It also said any vessel en route to Israel would not be allowed to unload cargo at any Malaysian port.

Thousands of people also gathered outside the US embassy in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and holding signs that read “Boycott Israel” and “Ceasefire Now.”


Thousands of members from the Muslim community gathered in front of the US Embassy in Jakarta to protest against ‘genocide’ in Palestine and express their support for the Palestinian people.

South Africa protests

Similar protests took place in Johannesburg, South Africa as demonstrators gathered outside the US consulate. The crowd accused the US of complicity in the bombardment of the Palestinian people due to its military support of Israel since the war started.

The protest has been reinforced by South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court in The Hague began hearings on Thursday over a charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

South Africa, which filed the lawsuit at the UN court in December, asked judges Thursday to urgently declare that the Tel Aviv regime has breached its responsibilities under international law since October 7, when it launched hostilities in the besieged territory.

The relentless Israeli military aggression has so far killed at least 23,843 people in Palestine, more than 10,000 of whom are children, while 60,317 others have been wounded.

Other European protests

(In Switzerland , an estimated 15,000 held their first national protest in Basel in support of Gazans since several German-speaking cantons introduced a ban on such actions, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the region.)

(Protests also took place in Amsterdam, Oslo, Uppsala and Tunis according to the Palestine Chronicle.

Artists Pledge to Boycott German Institutions Over Stifling of Pro-Palestine Speech

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An article from Hyperallergic

Hundreds of artists and cultural workers around the world signed a petition calling to boycott German cultural institutions in response to the nation’s “McCarthyist policies” targeting critics of Israel’s violence against Palestinians.

(Update January 23. In response, the Berlin Senate has now dropped the anti-semitism clause in their funding agreements.


One of the graphics accompanying the Strike Germany petition features the word “Strike” overlaid on an icon of German art history: “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” (“The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”) (1818) by Romanticist Caspar David Friedrich. (image via Strike Germany)

Signed by over 650 people including artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, and French writer Annie Ernaux, the anonymously authored “Strike Germany” petition questions the European nation’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, according to which “the targeting of the state of Israel” can be construed as a form of hostility toward the collective Jewish people. Since the German parliament’s 2019 resolution equating the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement with antisemitism, the persecution of pro-Palestine speech and symbols has had profound effects on the local heavily state-subsidized art world.

“As the genocidal campaign on Gaza continues — amounting to one of the deadliest assaults on a civilian population in our times — the German state has intensified the repression of its own Palestinian population and those who stand against Israel’s war crimes,” the petition reads. “Palestine solidarity protests are mislabeled as anti-Semitic and banned, activist spaces are raided by police, and violent arrests are frequent.”

Germany has stood by Israel nearly unconditionally since the October 7 Hamas offensive that killed at least 846 Israeli civilians, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the first Western leader to visit after the attack, declaring that the country had “every right to defend itself.” Since then, as Israel faces accusations of genocide at the United Nations’s top court and the death toll from its ongoing bombardment of Gaza tops 23,000, Germany’s position has shifted slightly but remained staunchly supportive.

Earlier this month, the Berlin Senate introduced a clause that would require recipients of public funds to sign a self-declaration against “any form of antisemitism” as defined by the IHRA. Over 5,600 Berlin-based cultural workers across artistic disciplines, including visual artists Jumana Manna and Jesse Darling, opposed the controversial proposal in a recent open letter; such laws, the missive says, “only serve to create an administrative basis for disinviting and canceling events with cultural workers who are critical of Israel.”

Paradoxically, Germany’s persecution of anti-Israel voices sometimes extends to members of the nation’s Jewish community. Last year, Hamburg’s first antisemitism commissioner publicly attacked South African artist and scholar Adam Broomberg, a vocal critic of Israel who is himself Jewish, because of the artist’s solidarity with the BDS movement.

After he was hired as a visiting professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design this fall, the school’s rectorate told him he could no longer instruct students, according to Broomberg, who explained that he had reached a “verbal agreement” with the administration barring him from teaching, although he would remain on the school’s payroll through the end of his contract this spring.

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Questions related to this article:

Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

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“I think the real danger here is a closing down of academic thinking and critical thinking,” Broomerg said. “And it also puts a lot of the amazing colleagues I had there in very precarious positions, because if journalists and the Senate are going to be scouring people’s social media feeds or anything they’ve ever written, and if you see my situation as a test case, you can imagine that a lot of them feel very anxious.”

The professor was leading a seminar that centered Palestinian and Israeli experiences and histories and had planned a small student trip to Bethlehem and Hebron, although the excursion was canceled after the events of October 7. He claimed the school’s decision was due to pressure from the German government and right-wing press, which has mentioned Broomberg’s active anti-Zionist posts on social media.

A Karlsruhe University spokesperson told Hyperallergic it could not comment on the contractual details of its employees, adding that as a public university, it “must mediate between public interest and the protection of its members.” The spokesperson stated that when confronted with “controversial” social media posts from Broomberg, the school decided to “seek a conversation” with him, to involve the school’s Academic Senate, and to consult “external experts.”

“It really feels kind of McCarthyite,” Broomberg added, repeating the same phrase used in the Strike Germany petition.

Yamna El Atlassi, a Belgium-based Diversity and Inclusion consultant for the cultural sector who travels frequently to Germany, said she sees artists in the nation “facing a level of repression not seen in recent history.”

“I’ve always seen discrimination in play in the cultural sector in all Western countries, but the difference is that Germany was presenting itself as a champion of progressive thinking,” El Atlassi told Hyperallergic. “The dissonance between this attitude and what is really going on is important.”

She specifically cited the controversy surrounding Documenta 15, during which several participating artists in the summer 2022 exhibition faced accusations of antisemitism for their pro-Palestine stance. On October 9, Documenta’s leadership released a statement decrying the curatorial collective ruangrupa, which organized the 15th edition, for its “liking” of social media posts expressing sympathy with the Palestinian cause.

Dystopic episodes of institutions stifling pro-Palestine expressions are far from absent from the United States’s cultural spaces, where just this week, the news of Indiana University canceling an exhibition of 87-year-old Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s works — reportedly over her vocal advocacy for her country — drew outrage. Meanwhile, faculty members there penned a letter this week decrying the school’s decision to suspend their colleague Abdulkader Sinno, a Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies professor, for his alleged involvement in organizing an event with the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The missive asserts that the school’s decision comes as American universities are being pressured to “curtail free speech over the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

But in Germany, whose crimes and burden of guilt against the Jewish people are inscribed permanently in its history, the attitude taken toward Jewish figures who question the Israeli state’s actions strikes many as especially chilling. The irony was felt a month ago when the Russian-American, Jewish writer Masha Gessen received a scaled-down version of Germany’s Hannah Arendt Prize, nearly revoked altogether after they penned a New Yorker article in which they compared the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to Nazi German ghettos.

“German post-reunification ‘remembrance culture’ (Erinnerungskultur) — the state campaign to address Germany’s genocide of the Jews — acts as a repressive dogma, reinvigorating the oppression that real ‘rememberance’ should work against,” the Strike Germany petition articulates.

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Calendar of Resistance for Palestine 2024: update as of December 30, 2023

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article from Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to stand with the heroic Palestinian resistance and confront colonial Zionist genocide and imperialist complicity and involvement. (The list below will be constantly updated at least once a day – please share the link with your friends and comrades!)

These events are organized by many groups around the world — wherever possible, we link to the original organizers so that you can be in direct contact!

NOTES:

  • This list is for action-oriented/outdoor/protest actions specifically. Check out our events listings for the webinars, discussions and meetings we’re involved in!
  • Direct actions like those by Palestine Action are some of the most important and material actions of resistance and solidarity taking place — but they are typically not announced in advance, and those that are not announced in advance are not listed here!
  • We know that these events are mainly international and that the Arab people are marching everywhere for Palestine – we will be honored to add more Arab events whenever we are informed!
  • Times and details may change. Wherever we have it, we have linked to the original organizers’ accounts, posters and pages. Please follow these for the latest information – and don’t hesitate to send us updates!
  • List below is ordered by date, then by country in alphabetical order in English, then by city in alphabetical order in English.

TO ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE CALENDAR: Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or tag us on social media!

Monday, January 1

BAHRAIN

IRELAND

UNITED STATES

Tuesday, January 2

UNITED STATES

Wednesday, January 3

AUSTRALIA

Thursday, January 4

ENGLAND

NETHERLANDS

SPANISH STATE

UNITED STATES

Friday, January 5

AUSTRALIA

NETHERLANDS

SOUTH AFRICA

UNITED STATES

Saturday, January 6

AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND

GERMANY

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Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

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SWEDEN

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 7

AUSTRALIA

CANADA AND QUEBEC

  • SECHELT, BC (CANADA) – Sun Jan 7, 11:30 am, Davis Bay Wharf (Vigil).

DENMARK

NETHERLANDS

UNITED STATES

Monday, January 8

AUSTRALIA

Tuesday, January 9

UNITED STATES

Wednesday, January 10

AUSTRALIA

UNITED STATES

  • ANNAPOLIS, MD (US) – Wed Jan 10, 6:30 pm, Lawyers Mall, State Circle (Vigil)

Friday, January 12

AUSTRALIA

UNITED STATES

  • ST PAUL, MN (US) – Fri Jan 12, 4 pm, Summit and Snelling Aves.

Saturday, January 13

AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND

IRELAND

SPANISH STATE

SWITZERLAND

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 14

AUSTRALIA

CANADA AND QUEBEC

  • SECHELT, BC (CANADA) – Sun Jan 14, 11:30 am, Davis Bay Wharf (Vigil).

Tuesday, January 16

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 28

HAWAI’I

Thursday, February 29

AUSTRALIA

Results of the 2023 Luanda Biennale, Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Excerpts from press releases of the Angola Press Agency

Unlike previous additions of the Luanda Biennale, Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace, there was very little publicity about the results. However, there were several press releases by the Angola Press Agency, that included the following excerpts.

The Biennale calls for the continuation of intergenerational dialogue .

According to the final communiqué, the forum organized by the Angolan Government, the African Union and UNESCO, advised the implementation of policies guaranteeing the participation of young people in decision-making processes to ensure that their proposals are heard and integrated in programs and strategies.


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It called for a review of education systems, prioritizing the training of critical and active citizens, enabling young people and entrepreneurs to better understand political processes and play greater roles in society.

It suggested the formulation of policies promoting gender equality and the creation of scientific research centers and resilience programs to face climate change.

The forum also recommended the promotion of the culture of peace through access and effective use of digital technologies and the creation of a network of African women for conflict prevention, peace negotiation and national reconciliation.

The Biennale also spoke out in favor of the integration of women in conflict resolution, in compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the UN, as well as the increase of the number of women in conflict prevention and resolution actions.

The forum, which brought together 790 participants from different African countries, advocated the establishment of partnerships between political leaders and young people, in sustainable social and economic projects, which could benefit society as a whole.

The role of women in peace processes dominates the second day of the Biennale.

“The process of transforming educational systems, innovative financing practices in the African context” and the “role of women in the process of peace, security and development at the African level” marked Thursday the second day of the Pan-African Forum for the culture of peace – Biennial of Luanda.

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Question related to this article:

The Luanda Biennale: What is its contribution to a culture of peace in Africa?

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The agenda for this second day also included the approach to “Challenges and opportunities for the integration of the African continent and prospects for economic growth” and “Climate change: ethical challenges, impact, adaptation and vulnerability”.

Visit to historical sites marks end of Luanda Biennale.

Visits to the Agostinho Neto Memorial, the Iron Palace and the National Museum of Military History will mark Friday the closing of the Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence – Biennial of Luanda, which has been taking place since Wednesday . Participants will also visit the Mint and Anthropology museums. . . .

The Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence was attended by the Presidents of the Republic of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Carlos Vila Nova and the Federal Republic Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Sahle-WorkZewed. The Vice President of Namibia, Nangolo Mbumba, and the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Manuela Roka Botey also took part in the Luanda Biennale.

Biennale participants commit to spreading the message of peace in their country.

Young participants in the Luanda Biennale 2023 pledged on Friday to disseminate as much as possible, in their countries, the contents and experiences learned during the Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace, held in Luanda, aimed at consolidating pacification efforts on the continent.

Speaking to Angop, the Botswanan Mpule Kgetsi, the Mozambican Cheldon Maduela, the Tanzanian Genila Hiel, as well as the Angolan Antonira de Carvalho discussed the importance of the forum and the need for young people to be proactive in the promotion of actions that contribute to peace and the well-being of societies, highlighting peace as the main element.

According to Genila Hiel, a university student eager to spread the message to fellow citizens, the spirit of peace must be instilled from a young age within communities so that people grow up and work in healthy coexistence for sustainable development.

 For Cheldon Maduela, it is not only up to governments to address issues related to peace and democracy, which is why he considers the Biennale an inspiring platform to disseminate the experiences obtained. He stressed that peace is the “cornerstone” of the socio-economic development of States and that its preservation requires the contribution of all, without exception.

Namibian leader praises Angola’s commitment to peace in Africa.

The Deputy Minister of Education and Culture of Namibia, Faustina Caley, congratulated this Friday, in Luanda, the Angolan Executive for its key role in the process of the culture of peace and democracy in Africa. . . .

She considered the 3rd edition of the Luanda Biennale a success not only for Angola, but for the continent, because it allowed learning about the concerns of young people, as well as the exchange of knowledge and transmission of experiences between government leaders and former African leaders, with the perspective of leading this fringe towards the best paths for healthy coexistence. 

(click here for the original French version of this article.)

David Malcom Krieger, Man of Peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An obituary from Waging Peace

David Malcom Krieger, man of peace, passed away on December 7, 2023 and left the world with one less champion.

David was born on March 27, 1942 to Herbert and Sybil Krieger in Los Angeles. The family settled in the San Fernando Valley where his father was the first pediatrician. David attended North Hollywood High before heading to Occidental College where he graduated with a degree in Psychology. He was getting his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii when he met and married Carolee, his wife of 57 years. He did get the PhD, too.

David traveled to Japan to study as part of his PhD work and was so moved by what he experienced and learned in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that he dedicated the rest of his life to abolishing nuclear weapons and achieving peace. He was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War almost simultaneously. However, his clarity of mind and morals would not allow for participating in war and killing. He was, as far as we know, the first Officer in the Vietnam War to sue for Conscientious Objector status.

In 1972, David came to Santa Barbara to work as an assistant to Elisabeth Mann Borgese at the Center for The Study of Democratic Institutions. Here he collaborated with some of the greatest minds of the time on the subject of democracy. He and Carolee stayed in Santa Barbara, raising their three children among the blood orange trees and peacocks on the property they worked tirelessly to convert from rocks and weeds to the artists’ and gardeners’ paradise that it is now.

In 1982, David, Frank Kelly, Wally Drew, and two others founded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. This was to be David’s proudest accomplishment. David Krieger led the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation until his retirement in 2019. His work, educating, advocating, writing extensively, and speaking all over the world about the dangers of the nuclear age and the insanity of the nuclear arms race helped advance the cause of peace with justice, particularly among young people, however, also with nearly everyone he personally encountered. David’s charisma, honesty, and depth of knowledge on the subject were hard to disagree with. David Krieger was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten separate years.

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Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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David developed a passion for karate when he was in Japan in his early 20s. As with everything he was passionate about, he dedicated himself to being among the best at it, earning his black belt in the Shito-Ryu form, and founding and running his own Dojo, Pacific Karate-Do Institute. He taught many Santa Barbarians karate in the 1970s and 1980s, and counted some of those former students among his closest friends.

David loved to play tennis and for years, his free afternoons and weekend mornings were spent playing with some of his other closest friends.

David was also a prolific poet. He found poetry to be an excellent way to express his impression of world events and daily joys.

David Krieger was a man of thought, of conviction, and of honor. He wanted to make the world safer, more peaceful, and ultimately a kinder and more just place for everyone and everything. He never stopped believing it was possible. In his honor, we admonish you to carry this work on.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to: The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

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Here is an excerpt from his last message as President of the Nuclear-Age Peace Foundation:

When we founded NAPF in 1982, the world was adrift in nuclear dangers. We began with a belief in the necessity of awakening people everywhere to the dangers of the Nuclear Age – a time in which our technological prowess exceeded our ethical development. This dilemma continues today. For nearly four decades, we have been a steady, consistent and creative voice for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons.

As the calendar page turns to 2020, we are working to create a peace literate world, based upon empathy, caring, kindness and overcoming fear, greed and trauma: a world in which nuclear weapons can be abolished and stay abolished. Our Peace Literacy Initiative, headed by Paul K. Chappell, a West Point graduate, goes to the root causes of war and nuclear weapons. It is a profound way of waging peace.

As the next generation prepares to take the helm at NAPF, I ask you to believe in the power of our work now more than ever. We have exciting plans to scale up our Peace Literacy work and deliver measurable and increasing impacts over the coming months and years.