All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

World’s Children Launch Appeal for Peace from Rabat

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

An article from the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication of Morocco

Children from 26 countries launched an appeal for peace in Arabic and English on Wednesday from the Parliament building in Rabat, calling for a world of understanding and harmony, free of hatred and intolerance.


Video of Festival

“We, children from different parts of the world, are gathered here in Morocco to raise our voices and call for peace in all corners of our beloved country,” they stressed in this message read by one of the girls participating in a ceremony organized by the House of Representatives on the occasion of the 15th International Children’s Festival for Peace, organized by the Bouregreg Association under the honorary presidency of HRH Princess Lalla Meryem (July 23-31).

In their appeal, these children recall with hope and pride the achievements of the Moroccan football team during the World Cup in Qatar, noting that the round ball has once again demonstrated its power to unite hearts, spread love and strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between peoples. “Through their dedication and selflessness, the Atlas Lions have shown the world the power of diversity and cultures,” they said.

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This spirit of solidarity can go beyond the stadiums and point the way to the peace that is longed for, the signatories of the appeal said, noting that in today’s world, the emergence of artificial intelligence offers endless opportunities to strengthen peace, understanding and cooperation around the world.

In this context, they called on governments, institutions and individuals to prioritize the ethical and responsible development of AI, while ensuring that this technology is governed by principles of justice and transparency for the benefit of humanity.

Speaking on the occasion, Hassan Benomar, Vice-President of the House of Representatives, said that the appeal launched by these children was aimed at instilling the culture of peace, friendship and fraternity in the minds of future generations.

He pointed out that the International Festival of Children for Peace has become a tradition that makes it possible to know Moroccan children and their life in a strong, democratic, stable and peaceful society.

He welcomed all the children participating in the Festival, highlighting Morocco’s millenary history, its cultural richness and its orientations that privilege universal values under the wise and insightful leadership of HM King Mohammed VI.

He also welcomed the choice of the United Arab Emirates as Guest of Honor for this edition, as a tribute to its cultural and social characteristics, as well as its economic and urban development.

For his part, Abderrahmane Rouijel, founding director of the International Children’s Festival for Peace, told MAP that 500 children participated in the preparation of the Rabat Appeal, which was launched from the seat of the Parliament and addressed to the whole world.

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

PAYNCOP Gabon Trained Youth and Women in Political Leadership in the City of Oyem

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

Special for CPNN by Jerry Bibang

Thanks to the support of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) the Pan-African Youth Network for the Culture of Peace, Gabon section (PAYNCOP Gabon) trained, over the past weekend, around thirty youth and female candidates from the commune of Oyem for political leadership.

The town hall hosted the training workshop which brought together nearly forty participants, from the political parties of the majority and the opposition as well as independent candidates.

Long before the training workshop, an intergenerational dialogue was organized between the local authorities and the participants. This dialogue allowed participants to exchange freely with local authorities in order to strengthen collaboration between the two parties, in an inclusive management approach that gives young people the opportunity to participate in public affairs.

“We cannot all be mayors, municipal or departmental councillors. However, it is possible to participate in the management of public affairs when there is genuine collaboration between the local authorities and the citizens united in associations. This is the meaning of this intergenerational dialogue,” explained Jerry Bibang, the Project Coordinator.

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(Click here for the original French version of this article)

Question related to this article:
 
Youth initiatives for a culture of peace, How can we ensure they get the attention and funding they deserve?

How should elections be organized in a true democracy?

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“The representation of young people and women remains very low in political decision-making bodies, although they are the most numerous activists in the political parties of the majority and the opposition. This is why we want to accompany them during these various elections in order to improve this representativeness,” he added.

For the Secretary General of the prefecture, Cyprien Meboune M’Esso, “the project is in line with the country’s public policies, in particular the National Youth Policy (partnership contract for responsible youth) which recommends associating young people in the management of public affairs. It is also part of the political will of the highest authorities, a will materialized by several measures, in particular “the youth seven-year term” and “the women’s decade”.

The training, provided by the geopolitical expert and international consultant Francis Sima Mba, was intended to be very practical, essentially concerned elements relating to the electoral campaign, including political strategy, development of a political program, political marketing as well as public speaking tips.

“It was very instructive for us. We learned a lot about the actions to take before, during and after the vote. I also learned about managing a campaign team and even how to behave during the campaign,” said Junior Franck Nkou-Nkou, young candidate for the Forum pourla République Gabonaise (FRG) political party.

“The seminar was very fruitful for us because we learned how to run an effective campaign with limited resources,” added Mengue Arlette, young candidate for the Mon Destin en Main (MDM) party.

In addition to training, the project provides logistical support for young and female candidates who meet the defined criteria.

Africa, DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Three large South American economies sign an agreement in Cartagena to tighten tax policies against “ghost companies”

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from Euro ES Euro

The First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean for an inclusive, sustainable and equitable global taxation, had the participation of 16 governments of the region and is taking place in Cartagena. Twitter/@MinHacienda


Three of the main economies of South America (Chile, Colombia and Brazil) joined forces at the ‘First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean for global, inclusive, sustainable and equitable taxation’ held in Cartagena de Indias, in which officials and Finance ministers from 16 Latin American countries met to establish a joint regional platform.

The objective of this initiative is to address the challenges posed by the global economic landscape, especially in relation to the impact of tech giants like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon in the region.

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Question for this article:

Opposing tax havens and corruption: part of the culture of peace?

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The summit, which included the participation of three other large economies in the region, such as Mexico, Argentina and Peru, represents an effort to discuss and harmonize the reform of certain shortcomings in the tax structure of Latin American nations, which are characterized by being one of the most unequal areas of the world in terms of wealth distribution.

The debate on the need to establish a worldwide corporate tax rate was the subject of discussion for a long period, however, the inherited social imbalances of the pandemic accelerated the urgency to take action on it.

The large economies of the world have already reached recent agreements to tax the profits of technology companies and other large transnational corporations operating in their countries with a minimum of 15%.

Former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo who played a key role in the preparation of the summit, emphasized in an article published in the daily Time  about the importance of facing the challenges posed by the digital economy.

Ocampo pointed out that large fortunes and corporations use “shell companies” in tax havens to evade a significant part of their tax obligations, which has aggravated inequality in the region.

José Antonio Ocampo led the preparation of the summit from his position as minister, highlighting how the emergence of the digital economy allowed corporations to use more “shell companies” in tax havens. Twitter/@JoseA_Ocampo

This is related to awareness of tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon paying taxes in jurisdictions with very low tax rates, where they establish their financial headquarters, rather than in the countries where they operate and generate revenue.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

English bulletin August 1, 2023

NEWS FROM THE PALESTINE ISRAEL CONFLICT

“Israel’s military occupation has morphed the entire occupied Palestinian territory into an open-air prison, where Palestinians are constantly confined, surveilled and disciplined.” This is the conclusion of the latest report to the United Nations by its Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory.

The report “finds that since 1967, over 800,000 Palestinians, including children as young as 12, have been arrested and detained under authoritarian rules enacted, enforced and adjudicated by the Israeli military. Palestinians are subject to long detention for expressing opinions, gathering, pronouncing unauthorised political speeches, or even merely attempting to do so, and ultimately deprived of their status of protected civilians. They are often presumed guilty without evidence, arrested without warrants, detained without charge or trial and brutalised in Israeli custody.”

Not surprisingly, the rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, is under vicious attacks by Israel and it supporters. This is described in detail in the an article from the Jordan News.

Another recent report comes from Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, and Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former UN Secretary-General, based on a three-day visit to Israel and Palestine.

They heard from Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organisations about the “ever-growing evidence that the situation meets the international legal definition of apartheid: the expansion and entrenchment of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the establishment of dual legal regimes and separation infrastructure in the occupied territories, and the institutionalised discrimination and abuses perpetrated against Palestinians. ”

Their report concludes that “The Government of Israel’s intent to exercise sovereignty over all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea undermines the democratic ideals of the Israeli state, denies the Palestinian people their right to self-determination, and risks an uncontrollable explosion of violence on both sides.”

An editorial from Argentina summarizes recent events that threaten the democratic ideals of the Israeli State, in particular a new law that reduced the power of the Supreme Court of Justice to challenge government decisions. The editorial concludes that “the concentration of power makes it almost impossible to remove the president despite holding elections. Israel would thus seek to progressively abandon its democratic character, essential to maintain strong ties with the West and, particularly, with its greatest ally in the world, the United States.”

However, Israelis are not accepting the reforms without protest. As the editorial says that the protests are the greatest in Israeli history: “For more than 30 weeks, hundreds of thousands of protesters defy rain, cold or heat, opposing a reform that they simply consider a coup d’état.”

We are reminded of the apartheid regime in South Africa that was defeated by the combination of struggle within South Africa and diplomatic and economic pressure from the rest of the world.

The movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid (BDS) continues to grow. A summary of BDS events over the past 18 years shows how this has developed.

The most recent BDS declaration comes from the American Anthropological Association, which voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions on the grounds that ““The Israeli state operates an apartheid regime from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” and “Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the Israeli state’s regime of oppression against Palestinians… including by providing research and development of military and surveillance technologies used against Palestinians.”

Concerning the struggle by the Palestinians themselves, we publish two articles in CPNN this month.

The initiative Swim with Gaza proposes a solidarity swim with the children of Gaza on August 26: “Since 2007 the people of Gaza have been imprisoned. They have no parks, no mountains, no valleys. But they have the sea. Their only free space for fun. Let’s join them in the sea for a solidarity swim. Each year they have a swimming festival on Gaza beach. This year the Swimming Festival will be held on 26th August. So join in wherever you are – Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, Morocco, Spain, Ireland, Brazil or Chile.”

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian activist whom we quote often in CPNN, responds to the recent Israeli invasion of the city of Jenin including the Jenin Refugee camp. He asks himself the question of whether the Palestinian resistance can be non-violent or will it end in violence, and responds with a long quote from his friend, the historian Howard Zinn, including the following excerpt:

“We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”



HUMAN RIGHTS




Dismantle Israel’s carceral regime and “open-air” imprisonment of Palestinians: UN expert

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY



18 Years of BDS. 18 Years of Impact in Turning Darkness into Light

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



G77 Statement to High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION



Comments on the Project for a National Program on Culture of Peace in Colombia
  

WOMEN’S EQUALITY



Global Women for Peace United Against NATO members

EDUCATION FOR PEACE



Promotion of the Culture of Peace in Africa – A Pan-African School of Peace in Yamoussoukro

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY



11th World Peace Forum held in Beijing

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION



UCLG Africa and ACCORD are joining efforts to build a Culture of Peace in Africa
d-human rights

Israel: Democracy in Danger

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An editorial in La Nación, Buenos Aires (translation by Other News )

The Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, approved a law days ago that reduced the power of the Supreme Court of Justice to challenge government decisions, starting a dangerous path of weakening the most fundamental institutions of a country.


Israeli citizens protest against the reform proposed by Prime Minister Ohad Zwigenberg – AP

The ruling coalition is the most far-right in Israel’s 75-year history. Among its ranks are members of ultra-Orthodox parties, more interested in accentuating the Jewish identity of the State of Israel than in preserving its democratic component. In addition, members of the cabinet have been accused of supporting terrorist organizations, as well as being confessed homophobes who have called for violence against Palestinian populations.

Reforms to the judicial system have triggered protests never before seen in Israel. For more than 30 weeks, hundreds of thousands of protesters defy rain, cold or heat, opposing a reform that they simply consider a coup d’état.

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(click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Question related to this article:

Israel/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?

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Western democracies such as France and Germany added their criticism. The US president, Joe Biden, after 50 years of unconditional support for Israel, has personally demanded that Netanyahu stop the initiative and agree with the opposition on a reform that does not alter democracy. The move was also met with disappointment by many Jewish organizations in the United States such as the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.

Within the Israeli government coalition there are voices and initiatives that would reduce the rights of the country’s minorities, mainly Palestinians with Israeli nationality, but also the rights of women and LGBTQ groups, among others.

Many analysts agree that, in line with what happened in Hungary, Poland or Turkey, where the concentration of power makes it almost impossible to remove the president despite holding elections, Israel would thus seek to progressively abandon its democratic character, essential to maintain strong ties with the West and, particularly, with its greatest ally in the world, the United States.

As Raanan Rein, the prestigious Israeli historian and former vice president of Tel Aviv University, explained, many coups are no longer carried out with tanks in the streets, but through the progressive erosion of individual liberties, through the domination of Justice, the media and the educational system.

If we continue on this path, the social fracture could be very detrimental to the country. Military reservists are threatening not to report to duty, the country’s largest doctors’ association has declared a 24-hour strike in protest of the vote and union groups are threatening force.

The sector that opposes the reform is made up mainly of groups of enormous economic weight, such as technology. Moody’s risk rating agency has already warned about the “negative consequences” of the reform. Following the vote, four Israeli daily newspapers published a large black spot on their front pages with the phrase “A black day for Israeli democracy.”

It is imperative that the Israeli government reconsider its progress on Justice, avoid further damage to its international prestige and the cohesion of its population with the aim of maintaining a plural society, a modern economy and a political system aligned with the democracies of the West, according to with the provisions of its declaration of independence.

(Thank you to Other News for sending this article to CPNN.)

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast

American Anthropological Association Endorses Academic Boycott of Israeli ‘Apartheid Regime’

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Brett Wilkins from Common Dreams (reprinted according to license of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

The American Anthropological Association on Monday became the largest U.S. academic association to endorse a Palestinian call to boycott Israeli universities and other institutions complicit in what the group called Israel’s “apartheid regime.”

In a major victory for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian human rights, more than 7 in 10 of the 37% of American Anthropological Association (AAA) members who participated in the monthlong referendum voted in favor  of a motion  to back the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

With 12,000 members, the AAA is the largest U.S. scholarly group to support BDS’ boycott call. The motion applies only to institutions, not individual anthropologists.

“This was indeed a contentious issue, and our differences may have sparked fierce debate, but we have made a collective decision and it is now our duty to forge ahead, united in our commitment to advancing scholarly knowledge, finding solutions to human and social problems, and serving as a guardian of human rights,” AAA president Ramona Pérez said in a statement.

“AAA’s referendum policies and procedures have been followed closely and without exception, and the outcome will carry the full weight of authorization by AAA’s membership,” Pérez added.

The AAA motion, drafted in March, notes that ever since the Nakba, the 1947-49 dispossession and expulsion of more than 700,000 Arabs by Zionist Jews establishing the modern state of Israel, “Palestinians—including activists, artists, intellectuals, human rights organizations, and others—have documented and circulated knowledge of the Israeli state’s apartheid system and ethnic cleansing.”

“The Israeli state operates an apartheid regime from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the internationally recognized state of Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank,” the motion asserts, adding that “Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the Israeli state’s regime of oppression against Palestinians… including by providing research and development of military and surveillance technologies used against Palestinians.”

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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?

Israel/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?

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“Israeli academic institutions do not provide protections for academic freedom, campus speech in support of Palestinian human and political rights, nor for the freedom of association of Palestinian students on their campuses,” the document continues. “Israeli academic institutions have failed to support the right to education and academic freedom at Palestinian universities, obstructing Palestinian academic exchanges with academic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

In a statement, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) said, “We thank the many AAA members who worked tirelessly to ensure the association was on record as refusing ties with Israeli universities complicit in Israel’s crimes against us. We thank those who took the time to learn from and listen to indigenous Palestinian voices.”

“The AAA membership vote to boycott complicit Israeli universities is wholly consistent with the association’s stated commitment to anti-racism, equality, human rights, and social justice and furthers the drive to decolonize anthropology and academia in general,” PACBI added.

The motion notes that a United Nations special rapporteur and groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem—an Israeli organization—"have confirmed that Israeli authorities are committing apartheid against the Palestinian people, and have documented the institutionalization of systematic racial oppression and discrimination."

Others who have condemned Israeli apartheid include former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South African cleric and activist Desmond Tutu—both of whom were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize—and multiple cabinet-level former Israeli government officials.

Focusing on its field of expertise, AAA’s motion claims “anthropological frameworks and methods, ethnographic and archaeological, are actively used by the Israeli state to further its system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing,” and that the organization’s 1999 Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights  states that “anthropology as a profession is committed to the promotion and protection of the right of people and peoples everywhere to the full realization of their humanity.”

Therefore, according to AAA, anthropologists have an “ethical responsibility to protest and oppose” human rights crimes, and “the discipline of anthropology, as the study of humanity, bears a distinct and urgent responsibility to stand against all forms of racism and racist practices.”

AAA also highlights U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel, which the group calls “decisive” in “enabling and sustaining” Israeli apartheid, including the 56-year illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the unlawful construction and expansion of Jewish-only settler colonies there, and the “ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip.”

Last year, the Middle East Studies Association, the leading learned organization dedicated to study of the region, voted 768-167  to join the BDS movement, which counts more than 350 academic departments, programs, centers, unions, and societies worldwide among its supporters.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, North America,

18 Years of BDS. 18 Years of Impact in Turning Darkness into Light

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from the BDS Movement

Today marks 18 years since the historic call from the largest Palestinian coalition to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid (BDS). On this anniversary we acknowledge the many dark days that have cast a shadow over our hearts. This year alone, Palestinians everywhere have faced escalating Israeli massacres, atrocities, siege, pogroms, airstrikes and unmasked genocidal calls. As painful and devastating as they are, these are also signs of the darkest hour of this 75-year-old regime of oppression and of the nearing light of liberation. 

From Jerusalem to Gaza, from Masafer Yatta to Jenin, from an-Naqab to the Galilee, and across our refugee camps in Palestine and in exile, we resist the colonization of our land and the forcible displacement of our people, just as we resist their attempts to colonize our minds with horror and hopelessness.

With our popular resistance in its many diverse forms, we are steadfast, we resist, and we insist on our full “menu of rights”. 

BDS supports Palestinians to continue to endure and resist the darkness of settler-colonialism and apartheid until we reach the light of freedom, justice and dignity. The nonviolent, anti-racist BDS movement is now supported by mass movements struggling for racial, social, Indigenous, economic, climate and gender justice representing tens of millions of people worldwide, as well as by dozens of progressive Jewish groups. 

International figures including Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Annie Ernaux, Charles P. Smith, Mairead Maguire, Adolfo Peres Esquivel, Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchú and Betty Williams, and influential authors including Naomi Klein, Stéphane Hessel, Judith Butler, among many others, have endorsed BDS, military embargo on Israel, or other BDS-related accountability measures in solidarity with Palestinian rights. 

To mark the BDS movement’s 18th anniversary, we are highlighting its indispensable role in bringing about an unprecedented narrative shift around Palestine and the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, and we are sampling the most significant moments (outside the Arab world) of BDS-related impact in advancing accountability and fighting state, corporate and institutional complicity worldwide.

APARTHEID-FREE POLICIES

2023: The unified Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Call is issued by the Anti-Apartheid Department of the PLO, the BDS movement, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), and the Palestinian Ministry of Justice, calling for establishing a “Global Front to Dismantle Israel’s Regime of Settler-Colonialism and Apartheid.”

2020 – 2023: 10 ex-Presidents and 700+ MPs, eminent personalities and civil society leaders from the Global South respond to the Palestinian call against Israel’s apartheid by urging the UN to investigate Israeli apartheid, re-activate the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid and to impose sanctions. Since then, led by South Africa and Namibia, a growing number of states have acknowledged Israel’s apartheid, and civil society across the globe is pushing for UN action now.

2023: Cities around the world cut ties with Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid, including Barcelona, Liège, Verviers, Oslo, and Belem.

2023: Apartheid-Free Communities is launched, convened by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), endorsed by tens of faith and other communities in North America pledging “to step away from any and all support to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism.”

2016 – 2023: Thousands of social clubs, restaurants, stores, offices, student unions, city councils and organizations around the world declare themselves Apartheid Free Zones.

2021 – 2022: Amnesty International (2022), Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem (2021), and Al-Haq (2022) release groundbreaking reports concluding Israel is perpetrating the crime against humanity of apartheid over the Palestinian people.

STATE-LEVEL ACCOUNTABILITY & SANCTIONS

2023: South Africa’s parliament votes for downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel. Minister of International Relations & Cooperation Naledi Pandor calls on the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for the “leaders of apartheid Israel” who are responsible for “the massacre of the people of Palestine.”

2023: The European Parliament PEGA Committee recognizes that spyware originates from Israel and is illegally tested on Palestinians, becoming the first official EU body to recognize that military ties with Israel pose a significant risk to human rights and to call for restricting it. This comes after sustained pressure from the BDS movement’s #BanSpyware campaign, including a recent Global Day of Action against spyware, with over 3.4 million people worldwide calling to ban spyware.

2022 – 2023: Following a year long European Citizens Initiative (ECI) to ban settlement trade, the European Committee on Petition (PETI) decides unanimously that the European Commission must respond to our demand to stop trade with illegal settlements.

2020: In a major legal win for BDS, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rules unanimously that the French highest court’s 2015 repressive conviction of BDS activists nonviolently advocating for Israel boycotts violates article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

2016: EU High Representative, Federica Mogherini, affirms the #RightToBDS in the EU region, following grassroots campaigns and letters signed by 350+ human rights organizations and 30 MEPs. The same year, the Netherlands rejects calls for punishing BDS activities on the grounds that they involved “discrimination” against Israel, saying “human rights, including the prohibition of discrimination, aim to explicitly protect individuals [and] groups of individuals,” not states.

2014: The Chilean government freezes free trade agreement talks with Israel following campaigning by MPs and Palestinians in the country.

2014: Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) cancels a project with Israel’s biggest military corporation Elbit Systems to build a microsatellite for the Brazilian military, and the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) cancels a contract with Israel’s national water carrier Mekorot for a major water purification plant.

2013: The EU issues guidelines that prohibit EU financing of Israeli activities and projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem.

DIVESTMENT

2009 – 2021: Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund in 2009 divests from Elbit Systems and in 2021 divests from 2 firms linked to Israeli settlements in the OPT. Also in 2021, with over US$95 billion worth of assets, Norway’s largest pension fund KLP divests from 16 companies due to their ties to settlements.

2020: The University of Manchester (UK) divests nearly £2 million from companies complicit in Israel’s oppression. In the US, students at Columbia University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and San Francisco State University all vote to divest from Israeli apartheid.

2021 & 2012: In 2021, New Zealand Superannuation Funds, which had in 2012 divested from Elbit Systems, divest from Israeli banks. Also in 2021, the East Sussex Pension Fund (UK) divests from Elbit Systems.

2016 & 2014: Presbyterian Church USA in 2014 divests from HP, Caterpillar, and Motorola Solutions. In 2016, the United Methodist Church divests from G4S and all Israeli banks.

2012: The Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation and US pension fund giant TIAA-CREF divest almost $73 million from Caterpillar.

ECONOMIC & CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

2023: With the rise of the far-right Israeli government and its far-reaching judicial plans, Israel’s economy is facing serious instability and capital flight, further exacerbating the impact of the ongoing Palestinian-led campaigning in isolating apartheid. Moody’s downgrades Israel’s credit outlook; US Tech Companies begin to shut down Israel operations; Israeli hi-tech companies move abroad; investments in Israeli hi-tech are declining sharply; and former chair of Israel’s National Economic Council Prof. Eugene Kandel predicts 2 scenarios for Israel’s economy, “a heart attack or cancer.” In short, Israel is fast becoming a #ShutDownNation.

2023: #BDS declares a major victory as the world’s largest security firm G4S divests completely from apartheid Israel by selling its shares in its police training academy.

2023: Carrefour announces it will not open any stores in settlements, to avoid “risk of complicity,” provoking a counter boycott campaign against the company by far-right Israeli settlers. Carrefour’s ongoing complicity in apartheid also means the BDS #BoycottCarrefour campaign is continuing.

2022: The multinational, socially-responsible ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s stops operating in apartheid Israel. In 2021, the company’s independent board had decided to stop selling its products in Israel and its illegal settlements.

(article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

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

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

(article continued from left column)

2018: AXA IM, the fully-owned AXA subsidiary, divests from Elbit Systems, following pressure from the Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid coalition. AXA’s ongoing investments in deeply complicit Israeli banks means the #BoycottAXA campaign is continuing.

2016: Orange drops Israel affiliate following inspiring BDS campaign, and Irish building materials corporation CRH exits the Israeli market selling its equity stake in its complicit Israeli company Nesher Cement.

2015: French conglomerate Veolia buckles under massive BDS pressure, which cost it global tenders worth over $20 billion, ending all its Israeli business.

2014: Israeli company SodaStream is forced to close its illegal settlement factory near occupied Jerusalem, following a worldwide BDS campaign that made many retailers dump its products.

2013: Unilever closes its factory in the illegal Israeli settlement of Barkan following boycott threats and pressure from human rights organizations. A UN report condemning companies operating in illegal settlements and calling on them to withdraw is issued around the same time.

2011: Giant Swedish Mul-T-Lock manufacturer Assa Abloy closes its factory in the illegal Israeli settlement of Barkan after pressure from human rights organizations and the Church of Sweden.

2011: Agrexco, Israel’s primary fruit and vegetable exporter and a primary BDS target, goes bankrupt for lack of investors after years of declining sales across 13 European countries.

TRADE UNION-LABOR SOLIDARITY

2005 – 2023: Major trade union federations and labor bodies across the world have endorsed BDS including: Congress of South African Trade Unions-COSATU and South African Federation of Trade Unions; Irish Congress of Trade Union; Central Única dos Trabalhadores-CUT (Brazil); CTA Autonoma (Argentina); Trade Union Congress (UK); LO (Norway); Solidaires (France); Canadian Union of Postal Workers; United Electrical-UE and branches of United Auto Workers-UAW at the University of California, NYU & UMass Amherst (US); Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Belgium); Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia; WFTU-affiliated trade unions including CITU, AICCTU (India); Italian Federation of Metalworkers-FIOM (Italy).

2023: Trade Union Federations MLC, CTSPP, and FPBOU (Mauritius) call on their government to support the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid.

2009 – 2021: Following the attack on the Freedom Flotilla in 2009, dockworkers across the globe prevent apartheid Israel’s ships from docking or unloading in India, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey and the US. In 2021, dockworkers lead or support initiatives, like AROC’s Block the Boat, blocking Israeli ships from loading/offloading in ports from Oakland, California (US) to Durban (South Africa) to protest Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Jerusalem.

2017: All India Kisan Sabha representing 16 million Indian farmers endorses the call for BDS and supports the campaign against Israeli agribusiness interventions in India.

CULTURAL BOYCOTT

2004 – 2023: Thousands of influential artists and other cultural figures worldwide in all fields, in addition to several significant artists’ unions and collectives, endorse the cultural boycott of Israel. These artists include pop and rock stars, rappers, DJs and producers, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and playwrights, leading filmmakers and actors, visual artists, dancers and many others. Pledges such as Black for Palestine, Musicians for Palestine and Visual Arts for Palestine are launched, as well as pledges in Latin America, India, South Africa and across Europe. Figures include musicians Roger Waters, Brian Eno, FKA Twigs, Seun Kuti, Patti Smith, and Rage Against the Machine; writers Sally Rooney, John Berger, Henning Mankell, China Miéville, Caryl Churchill and Kamila Shamsie; visual artist Tai Shani and photographer Nan Goldin, to mention only a few.

2004 – 2023: World famous artists cancel shows and events in apartheid Israel after appeals from Palestinian and international artists and human rights defenders. These include Lorde, Lana del Rey, Shakira, Natalie Portman, Elvis Costello, Pharrell, The Killers, Gil Scott-Heron, Lauryn Hill, Gilberto Gil, Zakir Hussain, Faithless, Big Thief, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Marianah, U2, Bjork, Snoop Dogg, Cat Power, Vanessa Paradis, Gorillaz and many others.

2004 – 2023: Leading film figures including in Hollywood call for meaningful solidarity with Palestinians and endorse accountability measures against Israel. These include Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Tony Kushner, Tilda Swinton, Pedro Almodovar, Miriam Margolyes, Boots Riley, Alia Shawkat, Ken Loach, Julie Christie, Jim Jarmusch, Thandiwe Newton, Gael García Bernal, Maxine Peake, Mike Leigh, Sarah Schulman, James Schamus, Mira Nair, Viggo Mortensen, Harriet Walter and more.

2004 – 2023: Hundreds of artists boycott international events and venues that are sponsored by Israeli embassies and consulates, or that censor and exclude artists supporting Palestinian rights including BDS. These include artists withdrawing from Sydney Festival, Pop-Kultur Berlin festival, Ruhrtriennale festival, German techno clubs, and many more.

2018-19: The year-long campaign to boycott Eurovision hosted in apartheid Tel Aviv results in reducing its international visitors by some 90%, forcing organizers to literally give away empty seats to Israeli soldiers and settlers. Israel is forced to remove the contest from Jerusalem, failing to use the contest to bolster its illegal annexation of the city and occupation of Palestinian East Jerusalem. More than 150,000 people, hundreds of artists and well over 100 LGBTQIA+ organizations and centers join the campaign. Mainstream media consistently describes it as the most controversial Eurovision ever. Across millions of posts, the word most-tweeted alongside Israel’s official Eurovision hashtag, apart from “Israel”, is “apartheid”.

ACADEMIC BOYCOTT & CAMPUS ACTIVISM

2013 – 2023: The US-based American Studies Association (ASA) votes to boycott Israeli academic institutions, as do the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the Association of Black Anthropologists, the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), Canadian Society for Socialist Studies (SSS) and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), with more than 800 research centers in 55 countries.

2014 – 2022: The Graduate Institute Student Association, Harvard’s student newspaper The Crimson, more than 50 New York University student groups, the Canadian Federation of Students, Student Federation of the Austral University of Chile (FEUACh), the UK National Union of Students, among others, pass motions in support of BDS.

2021: In unprecedented numbers hundreds of academic departments, programs, societies and unions, and tens of thousands of scholars worldwide stand for Palestinian rights, including boycotts or other accountability measures.

2021: University of Brasilia Professors Association (Brazil) votes by 80% against collaboration with Israeli apartheid.

2011: The University of Johannesburg (South Africa) severs ties with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU) due to complicity in Israeli apartheid.

2005: Association of University Teacher-AUT (UK) adopts the academic boycott of Israel.

SPORTS BOYCOTT

2021 – 2022: Sports stars and teams stand up for Palestinian rights and refuse to sportswash Israeli apartheid in unprecedented numbers.

2018 – 2022: The Oakland Roots SC, Premier League Qatar Sports Club, UiTM, Malaysia’s largest university, Luton Town FC, Forest Green Rovers FC, and Chester FC drop PUMA sponsorship or pledge not to sign with PUMA over its complicity in Israeli apartheid.

2021: A “friendly” match between FC Barcelona and racist Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem is canceled after FC Barcelona conditioned the match on it not being played in Jerusalem, where Israel continues its gradual ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinian communities.

2021: Malaysia denies Israeli squash team from participating in the world tournament.

2018: Following a pressure campaign, Argentina’s men’s football team cancels a trip to apartheid Israel for a “friendly” match.

2017: More than half of NFL (US) players booked withdraw from an all-expenses paid propaganda trip organized to improve Israel’s image.

ANTI-PINKWASHING

2019 – 2023: Over 50 filmmakers have pulled their films from the pinkwashing, Israeli government-sponsored TLVFest in response to the call from Palestinian queers and partners around the world.

2023: Brit and Grammy award-winning artist Sam Smith cancels their performance in apartheid Israel, avoiding artwashing and pinkwashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.

2022: Lisbon Pride refuses participation of apartheid Israel’s ambassador, saying it would be “hypocritical” to allow an apartheid state to join a celebration of “the struggle for LGBTI+ rights, human rights and equality.”

2020 – 2021: In 2020, Queer Cinema for Palestine (QCP) is launched as a pledge for queer filmmakers committing not to participate in Israeli government-sponsored events, including TLVFest. Over 200 queer filmmakers have signed the pledge. In 2021, the first edition of QCP film festival is organized by a coalition of 30 groups around the world as a solidarity initiative offering a vibrant space to stand together with Indigenous Palestinians. 

These BDS-related impacts are just a snapshot of where we stand today. Thank you for helping us turn darkness into light by continuing to stand in solidarity with our non-violent, anti-racist struggle against apartheid, settler colonialism and occupation and for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality!

global, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,

Dismantle Israel’s carceral regime and “open-air” imprisonment of Palestinians: UN expert

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from the United Nations Human Rights Commission

Israel’s military occupation has morphed the entire occupied Palestinian territory into an open-air prison, where Palestinians are constantly confined, surveilled and disciplined,” a UN expert said today (July 10).

“Over 56 years, Israel has governed the occupied Palestinian territory through stifling criminalisation of basic rights and mass incarcerations,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, in a new report to the Human Rights Council.


Frame from UN video of the Albanese press conference

“Under Israeli occupation, generations of Palestinians have endured widespread and systematic arbitrary deprivation of liberty, often for the simplest acts of life and the exercise of fundamental human rights,” Albanese said. Without condoning violent acts that Palestinians may have committed during decades of Israel’s illegal occupation, most of their criminal convictions have resulted from a litany of violations of international law, including due process violations, that taint the legitimacy of the administration of justice by the occupying power.

The report finds that since 1967, over 800,000 Palestinians, including children as young as 12, have been arrested and detained under authoritarian rules enacted, enforced and adjudicated by the Israeli military. Palestinians are subject to long detention for expressing opinions, gathering, pronouncing unauthorised political speeches, or even merely attempting to do so, and ultimately deprived of their status of protected civilians. They are often presumed guilty without evidence, arrested without warrants, detained without charge or trial and brutalised in Israeli custody.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

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

(continued from left column)

“Mass incarceration serves the purpose of quelling peaceful opposition against the occupation, protecting the Israeli military and settlers, and ultimately facilitating settler-colonial encroachment,” the Special Rapporteur said.

“Bundling Palestinians as a collective “security threat”, Israel has used draconian military orders to punish the exercise of basic rights. These measures have been used as tools to subjugate an entire population, depriving them of self-determination, enforcing racial domination and advancing territorial acquisition by force,” she said. 

Albanese noted that Israel’s “carceral regime” haunts Palestinian life even outside prisons. Blockades, walls, segregated infrastructure, checkpoints, settlements encircling Palestinian towns and villages, hundreds of bureaucratic permits and a web of digital surveillance, further entrap Palestinians in a carceral continuum across strictly controlled enclaves.

“The widespread and systematic arbitrariness of the occupation’s carceral regime is yet another expression of the apartheid imposed on the Palestinians and strengthens the need to end it immediately,” the UN expert said.

“The mass and arbitrary deprivation of liberty that Palestinians have been collectively subjected to for decades aims to protect Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territory, a project with unlawful aims pursued by unlawful means,” Albanese said. “This macroscopic violation of fundamental principles of international law cannot be remedied by addressing some of its most brutal consequences. For Israel’s carceral regime to end, and its inherent apartheid with it, its illegal occupation of Palestine must end,” she said.

Albanese called on Member States to uphold their obligations not to aid or recognise Israel’s settler-colonial occupation and incremental annexation, and use all diplomatic, political and economic measures under the UN Charter to bring it to an end and make sure its architects are brought to justice.

Francesca Albanese is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.

(Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, Albanese is under vicious attacks by Israel and it supporters. This is described in detail in the an article from the Jordan News.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, United Nations,

Russian War Opponents: The Diaspora

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An webinar report made available by Nonviolence International

David Cortright’s Notes of Webinar on Russian war opponents Nonviolence International webinar, June 26, 2023

On June 26, Nonviolent International convened a webinar to provide a space for Russians who have fled the war to speak out about the situation of war resisters and evaders today.

Moderated skillfully by American University Professor Barbara Wien, the program featured a report by NVI Ukraine Director Andre Kameshikov, who recently traveled to several of the countries to which Russian war evaders and conscientious objectors have fled.

Kameshikov has worked as a civil peacebuilding activist in conflict zones throughout the ex-USSR, including as the founder of Nonviolence International–CIS, a civil society organization operating in post-Soviet states for 22 years. Andre works from Kyiv with the local civil society sector to support peace and democratic development in Ukraine. He is now focusing on supporting the anti-war diaspora and movement in Russia.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled the war to neighboring countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. The Russian diaspora consists of three categories: those who were temporarily abroad when the invasion started and did not return, activists in Russia who fled as repression intensified after the invasion, and a large group that left the country at the time of the September 2022 military draft mobilization announcement when hundreds of thousands fled. A conservative estimate of those who fled after the war would be 700,000.

In his travels through the Russian diaspora community, Kameshikov did not meet anyone supportive of Russia’s decision to wage war in Ukraine. Those he met who favor peace said they would like to do something to bring the war to an end.

The first Russian speaker in the webinar was Konstantin Samoilov. He studied in the United States years ago and then returned to Russia to create his own company in thermal electric power production. Now the company he helped to build for 20 years and the entire industry no longer exists. After the war started, he fled to Uzbekistan. His children and family are with him now in Tashkent.

He decided he had to do something to oppose the war. “I consider myself a patriot,” Samoilov said. In working for peace “I found a sense of purpose.”

He is host of the Inside Russia YouTube channel and the creator of the Tashkent International Breakfast Club where Russians and Ukrainians meet to heal and make amends.

There are tens of thousands of fellow Russians in Uzbekistan, Samoilov estimates. He is trying to create a sense of community among them. He has an online digital network of 225,000.

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Questions related to this article:
 
Can the peace movement help stop the war in the Ukraine?

(Continued from left column)

He and his colleagues are reaching out to Ukrainians. The goal is to have Russians and Ukrainians sitting together to speak out against the war. They want to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine, to promote future transformation of Russia, to help Ukraine, and to create online and offline international communities where repentance, healing, and forgiveness takes place.

Also speaking was Evgeni Lyaman, a 25-year old civil activist from Moscow, now living in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is the founder of Emigration for Action and is a former media literacy trainer, organizer and editor. Some of his colleagues from the organization are still in Russia. He and others left after the February 2022 invasion.

His group is providing medicines for Ukrainian refugees. So far they have helped some 7000 Ukrainian refugees.

He and his colleagues also helped the many Russians who fled to Georgia after the September 2022 mobilization. A massive wave of people flooded the roadways and caused a major backup
at the tunnel on the border between Georgia and Russia.

“We are working to build a large coalition of Russian groups that oppose the war,” he said. In July they will announce the creation of a new initiative of 150 Russian groups around the world. “The world will hear the voice of anti-war Russians.”

Nikita Rakhimov is a psychologist-psychotherapist with eight years of practice. He fled Russia in September, 2022, at the time of the mobilization and is living now in Kazakhstan. He said he and other Russians there are trying to define their identity. “We are not immigrants. We are not refugees,” he said. “What are we?” He said that they are unable to plan for the future. “We can’t imagine a scenario for the end of the war. We want to return to Russia, but we don’t know how or whether that will be possible.”

Rakhimov said that many of the Russians in Kazakhstan have problems of work, finances, and families that are still back in Russia. They are safe now in Kazakhstan, he said, but their status is not secure. Many are trying to find another country to enter. The problem is that they have no travel documents. It was possible to enter Kazakhstan with a Russian internal passport (Armenia, Belarus and Uzbekistan also accept these internal passports), but few Russians have international travel passports.

Alexei Prokhorenko also spoke. He said he is a Reserve Lieutenant in the army but did not support the war. He described the atmosphere of fear in Russia after the invasion began. “I posted anti-war stickers in the subways and on buildings, but I was afraid of being arrested.” When the September 2022 mobilization occurred, he saw government authorities grabbing people randomly off the streets, and he decided to leave. “I fled to Istanbul and then got a humanitarian visa to enter Poland.”

He said that the diaspora community in Warsaw is small and not very active. “The Russian community here is atomized,” he said. There is a great deal of apathy and fear.

He also said there is “a problem with the perception of Russians here and in the West.” There is a great deal of animosity towards all Russians. “We need people to discern between Russians who support the war and those who oppose it.”

As Kameshikov said at the end of the webinar, “tens of millions of Russians oppose the war. We need to set up communications networks among them in order to share critical perspectives on the war with the people of Russia.” We also need to communicate with the rest of the world to urge support for Russian war resisters and evaders.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

US prelates lead ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’ to Japan seeking abolition of nuclear weapons

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by John Lavenburg in Crux

A “Pilgrimage of Peace” to Japan led by two U.S. archbishops will soon depart, with advocacy for the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide and for the creation of a peaceful global environment chief among their priorities.

Led by Archbishops John Wester of Santa Fe and Paul Etienne of Seattle, and joined by organizations and archdiocesan officials dedicated to nuclear disarmament advocacy, the delegation also hopes to strengthen ties with the bishops of Japan.


John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, speaking at a recent forum held by Department of Energy officials at the Santa Fe Convention Center. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

“During this Pilgrimage of Peace to Japan, I hope to encourage conversation about universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament and walk together towards a new future of peace, a new promised land of peace, a new culture of peace and nonviolence where we all might learn to live in peace as sisters and brothers on this beautiful planet, our common home,” Wester said in a statement.

Etienne, in a statement of his own, added that to build a community where humanity can flourish, it’s important to “keep educating ourselves, praying for peace, and appealing for verifiable nuclear disarmament, which reflects Catholic teaching and is the path for the common good.”

The delegation will depart for the pilgrimage on July 31, with an itinerary that includes stops in Tokyo, Akita, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. They will return to the States on August 12. The trip is funded by grants and personal contributions; according to organizers, no diocesan funds were used.

(Continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

Religion: a barrier or a way to peace?, What makes it one or the other?

(Continued from left column)

The trip follows a May open letter from Wester, Etienne, Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki and Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama of Nagasaki, where they implored leaders of the Group of Seven countries to take concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament.

The letter came as G7 leaders met in Japan from May 19-21. Out of that meeting leaders from the G7 countries committed to working towards a world absent of nuclear weapons, and called on Russia, Iran, China and North Korea to cease nuclear escalation. Beyond the joint statement in support of nuclear disarmament, G7 leaders took no concrete steps towards that goal.

As of 2022, Russia and the United States have far and away the largest nuclear arsenals. According to data published in March by the Federation of American Scientists, Russia and the United States have 5,899 and 5,244 nuclear warheads, respectively. Third on the list is China with 410, followed by France (290), the United Kingdom (225), Pakistan (170), and India (164). No other country has an arsenal of more than 90 nuclear warheads, the data shows.

Both the Santa Fe and Seattle archdioceses, led by Wester and Etienne, have ties to nuclear weapons. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is the U.S. diocese with the most spending on nuclear weapons per capita, and contains two weapons laboratories and the nation’s largest nuclear weapons depository. The Archdiocese of Seattle is the U.S. diocese that has deployed the most strategic weapons.

Meanwhile, two of the dioceses the delegation will visit on the pilgrimage, the Dioceses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are the only two dioceses in the world that have suffered from atomic attacks when the United States bombed both cities during World War II.

As part of the pilgrimage to Japan, the delegation will pray a novena for peace from August 1 to August 9, the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945.

Wester has been especially outspoken about the need for nuclear disarmament in recent years, prompted both by a 2017 trip he took to Japan, and the reality of his diocese’s involvement in the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. In his statement on the upcoming pilgrimage, he said he holds out hope that one day nuclear threats can be a thing of the past.

“I hope one day, we will stop building these weapons, disarm our state and our world, and embark on a new future without the fear and terror of the nuclear threat,” Wester said.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, East Asia, North America,