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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.

Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Hospital Strikes Worsen Health Crisis and should be Investigated as War Crimes.

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from Human Rights Watch (Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND/3.0/us/)

° The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.

° Concerns about disproportionate attacks are magnified for hospitals. Even the threat of an attack or minor damage can have massive life-or-death implications for patients and caregivers.

° The Israeli government should end attacks on hospitals. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the ICC should investigate.


Medical workers treat a Palestinian injured in an Israeli strike, using flashlights due to the lack of electricity at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. © 2023 Anas al-Shareef/Reuters

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5, 2023, of “Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals,” no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.

(Note by the editor: There is no doubt that there are tunnels and bunkers underneath Al Shifa hospital, because they were constructed not by Hamas but by the Israelis, according to a recent CNN interview with a former Israeli prime minister.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that at least 521 people, including 16 medical workers, have been killed in 137 “attacks on health care” in Gaza as of November 12. These attacks, alongside Israel’s decisions to cut off electricity and water and block humanitarian aid to Gaza, have severely impeded health care access. The United Nations found as of November 10 that two-thirds of primary care facilities and half of all hospitals in Gaza are not functioning at a time when medical personnel are dealing with unprecedented numbers of severely injured patients. Hospitals have run out of medicine and basic equipment, and doctors told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to operate without anesthesia and to use vinegar as an antiseptic.

“Israel’s repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure,” said  A. Kayum Ahmed, special adviser on the right to health at Human Rights Watch. “The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care.”

Human Rights Watch investigated attacks on or near the Indonesian Hospital, al-Ahli Hospital, the International Eye Care Center, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, and the al-Quds Hospital between October 7 and November 7. Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with two displaced people sheltering in hospitals and 16 healthcare workers and hospital officials in Gaza and analyzed and verified open-source data, including videos posted to social media and satellite imagery, as well as WHO databases.

Israeli forces struck the Indonesian Hospital multiple times between October 7 and October 28, killing at least two civilians. The International Eye Care Center was struck repeatedly and completely destroyed after a strike on October 10 or 11. Strikes hit the compound and vicinity of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital on October 30 and 31. Damage to the hospital as well as a lack of fuel for hospital generators resulted in its closure on November 1. Repeated Israeli strikes damaged the al-Quds Hospital and injured a man and child out front. Israeli forces on several occasions struck well-marked ambulances, killing and wounding at least a dozen people in one incident on November 3, including children, outside al-Shifa hospital.

These ongoing attacks are not isolated. Israeli forces have also carried out scores of strikes damaging several other hospitals  across Gaza.

WHO reported  that as of November 10, 18 out of 36 hospitals and 46 out of 72 primary care clinics were forced to shut down. The forced closure of these facilities stems from damage caused by attacks as well as the lack of electricity and fuel.

Health workers at Gaza’s hospitals told Human Rights Watch they are dealing with unprecedented numbers of injured patients. Additionally, thousands of internally displaced people sheltering at hospitals have been put at risk, facing shortages of food and medicine. Gaza’s hospitals have been forced to address these issues with shortages of medical staff, some of whom have been killed or injured outside their work.

A doctor at Nasser Medical Center said: “At 3 a.m. I dealt with a 60-year-old woman with a cut wound in her head. I can’t make a suture to heal her wound—no gloves, no equipment—so we have to use unsterile techniques.”

Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. Hospitals only lose their protection from attack if they are being used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy,” and after a required warning. Even if military forces unlawfully use a hospital to store weapons or encamp able-bodied combatants, the attacking force must issue a warning to cease this misuse, set a reasonable time limit for it to end, and lawfully attack only after such a warning has gone unheeded. Ordering patients, medical staff, and others to evacuate a hospital should only be used as a last resort. Medical personnel need to be protected and permitted to do their work.

All warring parties must take constant care to minimize harm to civilians. Attacks on hospitals being used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy” are still unlawful if indiscriminate or disproportionate. The use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas heightens the risk of indiscriminate attacks. Attacks in which the anticipated loss of civilian life and property are excessive compared with the concrete and direct military gain are disproportionate. Concerns about disproportionate attacks are magnified with respect to hospitals, since even the threat of an attack or minor damage can have massive life-or-death implications for patients and their caregivers.

The Israeli military on October 27 claimed that “Hamas uses hospitals as terror infrastructures,” publishing footage alleging that Hamas was operating from Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa. Israel also alleged that Hamas was using the Indonesian Hospital to hide an underground command and control center and that they had deployed a rocket launchpad 75 meters from the hospital.

These claims are contested. Human Rights Watch has not been able to corroborate them, nor seen any information that would justify attacks on Gaza hospitals. When a journalist at a news conference showing video footage of damage to the Qatar Hospital sought additional information to verify voice recordings and images presented, the Israeli spokesperson said, “our strikes are based on intelligence.” Even if accurate, Israel has not demonstrated that the ensuing hospital attacks were proportionate.

Israel’s general evacuation order on October 13 to 22 hospitals  in northern Gaza was not an effective warning because it did not take into account the specific requirements for hospitals, including providing for the safety of patients and medical personnel. The sweeping nature of the order and the impossibility of safe compliance, given that there is no reliably secure way to flee or safe place to go in Gaza, also raised concerns that the purpose was not to protect civilians, but to terrify them into leaving. The WHO director general has said that “it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives.”

The Israeli government should immediately end unlawful attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian objects, as well as its total blockade of the Gaza Strip, which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment, Human Rights Watch said. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups need to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks and not use civilians as “human shields.”

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel should investigate apparently unlawful Israeli attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor has jurisdiction over the current hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that covers unlawful conduct by all parties. The ICC’s Rome Statute  prohibits as a war crime “[i]ntentionally directing attacks against … medical units and transport.” Israeli and Palestinian officials should cooperate with the commission and the ICC in their work, Human Rights Watch said.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other countries should suspend military assistance and arms sales  to Israel as long as its forces continue to commit widespread, serious abuses amounting to war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity. All governments should demand that Israel restore the flow of electricity and water to Gaza and allow in fuel and humanitarian aid, ensuring that water, food, and medication reach Gaza’s civilian population.

“Israel’s broad-based attack on Gaza’s healthcare system is an attack on the sick and the injured, on babies in incubators, on pregnant people, on cancer patients,” Ahmed said. “These actions need to be investigated as war crimes.”

Blockade’s Effect on Hospitals

Israel’s blockade  has severely constrained hospitals, which have run out of essential medicines and basic equipment. While Israeli authorities have allowed minimal humanitarian aid into Gaza, they have continued to block  the entry of fuel, which hospitals need for their generators. WHO  reported that “hospitals are on the brink of collapse due to the shortage of electricity, medicine, equipment and specialized personnel.”

On October 22, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expressed grave concern about the impact of the blockade. They noted that 120 newborn children were in incubators, 70 of whom required mechanical ventilation. The incubators and ventilators cannot operate without a stable electricity supply. “The death toll will increase exponentially if incubators start to fail, if hospitals go dark, if children continue to drink unsafe water and have no access to medicine when they get sick,” UNICEF  said. Between November 11 and 13, three premature babies and 29 other patients reportedly died at al-Shifa hospital amid the power outage and lack of medical supplies, according to UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Emerging reports show that unsanitary conditions at hospitals are further affecting access to health care. Tanya Haj Hassan, a doctor who runs a support network  for Gaza healthcare workers, told The Guardian that “hundreds of people are sharing one toilet and living in the hospital corridors, and that obviously has significant concerns for hygiene, sanitation and the functioning of the hospitals.” Doctors are also reporting that more and more patients are showing signs of disease  associated with overcrowding and a lack of sanitation.

A doctor at al-Aqsa Hospital told Human Rights Watch on October 23: “There is a huge shortage of medicines, no electricity, no diesel, no solar, no water to drink or to use. And the electricity company shut electricity to all civilians. … There is a chronic triage and restrictions on medication; we have had to make referrals to Egypt, but there is no way to get there.”

Israeli Evacuation Orders

Israeli authorities have ordered  the evacuation of all 22 hospitals in Gaza city and northern Gaza. “These [evacuation orders] are impossible to carry out, risking the lives of inpatients and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and particularly the most vulnerable requiring life support,” WHO said, adding that there is “insufficient ambulance capacity for transfer and insufficient bed capacity to care for these patients in the south.” WHO described the order as “a death sentence for the sick and injured.”

OCHA  expressed concern that “thousands of patients and medical staff, as well as about 117,000 IDPs, are staying in these facilities.” Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) general director Meinie Nicolai said: “Israel’s 24-hour notice that people in Northern Gaza must leave their land, homes and hospitals is outrageous—this represents an attack on medical care and on humanity.”

As of November 13, all but one of the hospitals in Gaza city and northern Gaza are reportedly out of service, according to OCHA.

Human Rights Watch interviewed two people with disabilities sheltering in hospitals who said they could not evacuate. “If they bomb the hospital, I will be dead. I know I cannot move,” said Samih al-Masri, a 50-year-old man who said he lost both legs in an Israeli drone strike in 2008 and was sheltering at al-Quds hospital.

Indonesian Hospital


The Israeli military repeatedly struck the compound and vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one  of two major hospitals in northern Gaza.

On October 7, an airstrike hit an area behind the Indonesian Hospital, which OCHA reported  killed two men, including a staff member, and injured five others. Hosni Salha, a security guard, was killed while sitting in one of the hospital’s vehicles along with the driver and a paramedic, a doctor from the hospital said. After the attack, the doctor took a photo at the scene that shows a destroyed vehicle. The second civilian was a man passing by the hospital when the attack occurred, the doctor said.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

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The doctor said that the hospital was treating patients injured in the hostilities, including families wounded in airstrikes that hit their homes. He said that following airstrikes that hit his apartment building, he searched for his daughter, a second-year engineering student. The strikes killed her and four other civilians, including a child: “I started digging with my hands with all my strength; civil defense members haven’t arrived yet. I kept digging with my hands until I saw part of her t-shirt, I kept digging, when I saw her, she was already martyred.”

The doctor said the Israeli military provided no order to evacuate or advance warning before the first attack on the hospital. He said that on October 13, a week after the first strike, the hospital received an Israeli evacuation order.

Even those who finish their treatment can’t leave. They have no place to go after losing their houses and families and there is no safe place. We have a girl at the hospital who lost her entire family. She currently has no one to stay with, no place to go to. There’s also a boy staying at the hospital. We are waiting for him to be identified by a family member or relative. 

On October 16, another airstrike hit five meters away from the hospital, partially damaging the building, which the doctor said terrified patients and staff.

He said that on the night of October 27, after the Israeli government apparently deliberately disrupted telecommunications in Gaza, the hospital was struck again, causing additional damage to the building. Human Rights Watch geolocated a video and three photographs released on October 28 showing a crater inside the hospital’s courtyard.

On October 30, OCHA reported  that this attack came after a renewed order by the Israeli military to immediately evacuate the hospital.

CCTV footage published by Al Jazeera on October 29 shows the moments the hospital ceiling collapsed due to strikes near the hospital. The hospital published photos of the collapsed ceiling to its Facebook page, which it said were the result of strikes in the vicinity of the hospital. Another strike on October 30 targeted an area near the hospital, causing dust and smoke to spread to its entrance. Footage from November 4 and November 6 show additional strikes in the hospital’s vicinity.

In a November 5 news conference, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson alleged that “the Indonesian Hospital is being used by Hamas to hide an underground command and control center,” that Hamas had a rocket launchpad 75 meters from the hospital, and that it was stealing fuel from the hospital.

In a news conference  the next day, the Indonesia-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), a volunteer group that funds the hospital, disputed the allegations, stating that the only tunnel connected to the hospital was used to send fuel to the hospital’s fuel tank to power its generators. Human Rights Watch is not in a position to corroborate the claims by Israel or the committee.

A MER-C volunteer told the media on October 30 that 2,530 people had been treated at the hospital for injuries and that 164 patients remained hospitalized. He said that more than 1,500 displaced residents were also sheltering in empty hospital rooms and in courtyards. On October 31, an influx  of patients were sent to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike on Jabalia refugee camp that Gaza’s Health Ministry reported  killed more than 50 people and injured 150. On November 2, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported  that the hospital’s main generator stopped operating due to a lack of fuel.

International Eye Hospital

Human Rights Watch reviewed and verified photos and video footage of the International Eye Hospital in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City showing large structural damage to the main building. In the published material and in satellite imagery from October 10 and 11, damage signatures are consistent with an airstrike using a large air-dropped munition. Two strikes appear to have taken place: one on October 8 and another on October 10 or 11, which destroyed the facility. On October 21, the hospital wrote in a post  on its Facebook page that the “hospital no longer exists” with a photo showing its complete destruction. 

Human Rights Watch was unable to find any published information from Israeli authorities in English, Arabic, or Hebrew reflecting that any advance warning was given or providing any legal basis for the attacks on the medical facility.

Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital


Beginning the night of October 30-31, the Israeli military repeatedly struck the compound and vicinity of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, south of Gaza City on the campus of the Islamic University of Gaza’s Faculty of Medicine. The hospital served as the only specialized cancer treatment center in the Gaza Strip.

In satellite imagery collected on the morning of October 30, three impact craters are visible, one measuring 10 meters in diameter, less than 100 meters from the main hospital complex. On the morning after, an additional crater is visible within the hospital complex in the courtyard, measuring at least 15 meters in diameter.

OCHA reported  on October 31 that the hospital had been “hit for the second night in a row,” that there was damage to the third floor, and that staff and people sheltering in the hospital were exposed to smoke, causing suffocation and panic.

The hospital director, Sobhi Skaik, told Human Rights Watch on November 3 that the October 31 attack struck the third floor of the hospital, affecting both the east and west wings, as well as the approximately 100 to 150 cancer patients there, their families, and hospital staff.

Human Rights Watch verified several videos posted on social media that show the effects of the attacks. A video  posted to social media early on October 30 shows damage to the hospital’s interior. A video  taken from inside the hospital and published on social media early in the evening on October 30 shows a strike near the hospital complex. A loud blast is heard in the video followed by billowing smoke.

Photos and video published by the media and on social media on October 31 show damage inside the hospital’s east wing, where there is a large circular hole in the southeastern-facing exterior wall, blown out windows, and a destroyed interior wall.

Human Rights Watch determined that the damage was most likely caused by a shell from a direct fire weapon, such as a tank’s main gun. A video  posted on social media on October 30 shows an Israeli tank along Salah al-Din Road, 1.7 kilometers east of the hospital. Multiple clusters of armored military vehicles, including tanks and bulldozers, are also visible on satellite imagery from October 31 southeast of the hospital following the Israeli offensive inside the Gaza Strip. On that day, the closest armored vehicles were less than 500 meters from the hospital.

The hospital shut down  on November 1 because of the airstrikes and lack of fuel. Skaik said hospital staff were forced to evacuate patients to the Dar al-Salam hospital in Khan Younis in unsafe conditions. “We evacuated under fire,” he said. “We had no protection.” He said an international agency told him that all they could do was “convey the message” to the Israelis.

According  to Skaik and the Gaza Health Ministry, on November 2, four cancer patients died following the hospital evacuation. Skaik said that Dar al-Salam hospital was trying to provide services but that it was unable to provide the cancer patients the treatment they needed without the medical devices at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which cannot be transferred, and that medications were running out. The Health Ministry warned that the condition of 70 of the hospital’s cancer patients was critical.

Human Rights Watch was unable to find any published information from Israeli authorities in English, Arabic, or Hebrew providing any advance warning to the hospital or a legal basis for the attacks on the medical facility. Turkish  officials have condemned the Israeli military’s attack on the hospital as a violation of international law.

Al-Quds Hospital


Multiple Israeli strikes had hit the vicinity of the al-Quds hospital in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City by October 16, as shown in videos and photos posted to social media that Human Rights Watch collected and reviewed. The strikes followed Israeli evacuation orders, despite visual evidence  that the hospital was being used to treat patients and shelter displaced families. Several high-rise buildings were completely destroyed in the streets adjacent to the hospital, as is evident in November 6 satellite imagery.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) issued a statement  that the hospital, which is under its auspices, had received an Israeli order to evacuate by 4 p.m. (initially 6 a.m.) on October 14. By October 16, strikes had hit the vicinity of the hospital five times, the PRCS said. A video it published  on October 18 shows a strike hitting less than 200 meters from the hospital’s entrance.

On October 20, the PRCS reported that the Israeli authorities warned about a strike on the hospital by phone and ordered an evacuation. On October 22, Israeli authorities reportedly ordered the hospital to evacuate twice within the span of half an hour. The PRCS posted a video from inside the hospital showing people standing at its entrance following what the hospital said were intense Israeli strikes 20 meters away. The hospital said the strikes occurred during a meeting of hospital staff with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

On October 29, the PRCS said that Israeli authorities warned it about a strike on the hospital and ordered an immediate evacuation, which was preceded by strikes that destroyed buildings as close as 50 meters from the hospital. Footage published on October 29 shows a strike next to the hospital building, just in front of another PRCS site, and damages to the hospital. Videos published on October 30 show the aftermath of the strike and damage to the PRCS site.

Strikes hitting the vicinity of the hospital continued on October 31, according to posts by the PRCS. Footage published on November 2 by the PRCS and other social media accounts show additional strikes in the vicinity the hospital. The PRCS announced on November 2 that fire from Israeli vehicles one kilometer south injured a man and child in front of the hospital and hit the sixth floor of the hospital where many displaced women and children were sheltering, damaging the hospital’s central air conditioning units and a water tank.

Video footage shows shattered windows, smoke, and dust as a result of what appears to be an explosion roughly 35 meters northwest of the main hospital entrance on November 3. The PRCS reported that the attack, whose effects are shown in video footage posted on social media, shattered internal glass panels and collapsed parts of the hospital’s plaster ceiling. There were 21 injuries reported, mostly to women and children. Further strikes were reported near the hospital throughout the day.

On November 5, footage shows medical personnel moving an injured man into the hospital while an explosion is audible in the background after a hit nearby. The PRCS stated that the strikes then increased in intensity, duration, and proximity to the hospital, and have led to 12 injuries among people sheltering inside, in addition to injuries to two patients, one of whom was in the intensive care unit.

OCHA reported that 14,000 displaced people were in al-Quds hospital along with hospital staff and patients as of October 29. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned that hundreds of injured, bed-ridden, and long-term patients, including those in intensive care, on life-support, and babies in incubators, were being endangered by strikes in the vicinity of the hospital along with displaced people and medical staff, and that it “is close to, if not impossible” to evacuate patients in the current situation.

Strikes on Ambulances

Israeli forces have on several occasions struck ambulances marked with the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem, often near hospitals. Ambulances, like medical facilities, have special protections under the laws of war such that they may not be attacked unless being used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy” and after due warning. In at least one case, the Israeli military claimed that armed groups were unlawfully using the ambulance that had been attacked, but did not provide more information or a warning.

On November 3, the Israeli military struck a marked ambulance just outside of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital. Video footage and photographs taken shortly after the strike and verified by Human Rights Watch show a woman on a stretcher in the ambulance and at least 21 dead or injured people in the area surrounding the ambulance, including at least 5 children. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that 15 people were killed and 60 injured in the strike. An IDF spokesperson said in a televised interview that day: “Our forces saw terrorists using ambulances as a vehicle to move around. They perceived a threat and accordingly we struck that ambulance.” Human Rights Watch did not find  evidence that the ambulance was being used for military purposes.

On October 7, WHO reported  that an ambulance in front of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis was struck around 2 p.m., injuring several paramedics. A verified video  posted to social media and an Anadolu Agency photograph showed the destroyed ambulance outside the complex.

WHO reported  that a separate attack on October 7, which hit two ambulances in Jabalia, killed two paramedics and injured others.

Gaza’s Health Ministry also reported that on October 13, Israeli strikes hit three ambulances, injuring 10 paramedics.

Hostilities and Blockade

The Israeli military’s current operations in Gaza began following an October 7 Hamas-led attack in southern Israel that resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people, hundreds of them civilians, according to the Israeli government. Hamas and Islamic Jihad took hostage 240 people, including children, people with disabilities, and older people. Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have also launched thousands of rockets indiscriminately towards Israeli population centers.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast

Ogarit Younan : Gaza, Now! 8 points

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

To CPNN from Ogarit Younan, Founder of the Academic University for Non-Violence and Human Rights, Beirut – AUNOHR, o.younan@aunohr.edu.lb; younan.ogarit@gmail.com

Dear all,

Under the weight of suffering, and without introduction, I present you with 8 points upon which to reflect together. It is more than a plan of action, above the moment of urgency. It is more than an innovative strategy much needed in this historic conflict. This is a reflective text written in the first week of the war of October 2023.

1. Our humanity, our humanism, above all.

According to the words of Bertrand Russell: “Remember your humanity and forget the rest.”

It is about our morality, our ethics. Politics is ethical and efficient at once. As efficiency steers away from ethics, the more it falls into violence to justify itself.

It is about our conscience. The conscience, “the higher law” in the words of Henri David Thoreau, the pioneer of the concept of “civil disobedience”, is radically incompatible with violence. Therefore, it is the position of facing violence, all violence, that is the fundamental question of our humanity.

2. An immediate ceasefire. Urgent common goals.

An immediate ceasefire, including lifting the siege of Gaza, – and more than the introduction of aid -, at the same time, the return of the kidnapped hostages of Israel along with the remains of those killed, and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Urgent objectives, in common, as “one”, before it’s too late. We must insist on both camps showing good intentions, not just to bring an end to this battle, but to be able to continue working on a just final solution.

Israel, the United States and their allies want to free the hostages, and, in principal, this exceeds all expectation. They will enter Gaza, as a father in search for his son, with the right of no other, set everything ablaze as such do the heroes of ruthless Hollywood movies, coming back with the hostages, and the world justifies this oppression while turning a blind eye.

Hamas, the Islamist Jihad and their allies say they want to save Gaza and that it is their duty to do so inasmuch as a Palestinian resistance, and to evacuate the Palestinian prisoners from the prisons of Israel, over and above all other consideration. Wisdom dictates to block Israel’s path in its objectives of destruction, to prevent the continuation of crushing civilians, arresting new prisoners and displacing the population of Gaza: Gaza, of which its objective has gone from breaking the siege to merely surviving.

Our role is to transform the goal of finding the kidnapped, and to free the prisoners, these human targets, that currently serve the purpose of justifying a war, into a cause to stop the war.

Insisting on a ceasefire, without any conditions, because peoples lives everywhere are more important than any conditions. Stop the evil. It is about the capacity to seize the moment.

The moment is not to lift the standard of violence… Basically, victory cannot be achieved over the piles of human bodies! Louis Lecoin, the non-violent French militant was in the habit of saying: “If it were proved to me that making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would still say ‘No’ to war. For one does not create human society on mounds of corpses.”

3. Let’s not forget that the root cause is occupation.

The occupation of Palestine is the problem. We are at the beginning of the eighth decade of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to stir things worldwide, and which has no solution nor justice until now. Nelson Mandela said: “We all know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians…Palestine is the greatest moral issue of our time.”

The supporters of the Israel project, ever since it was offered the “gift” to become an entity, to be implanted “above” Palestine, its land and its people, with the “generosity” of supporting its expansion, stripped of its status of occupation, and further, this “State” has constantly been “cajoled” by the West and its allies, including numerous Arab countries, with a huge denial of justice. This entity was imposed by the wrong-doing of colonialism and their political and economic interests, and also by the west’s attempt to atone for its sin of persecuting the Jews creating a supposed solution leading to problems in every sense of the word. What a shameless and arrogant policy! While claiming to render justice to the Jews, they extended injustice to Palestinian, offering something which didn’t belong to them, this “gift” provided by the “plunder” of the Palestinians at their own cost, with displacement, murder, fragmentation, theft of basic human rights, humiliations, arrests, and biased decisions…up until Gaza today!

Therefore, the only solution is by going to the root of the problem.

The date of the conflict of the 7th of October, is not a military breech, a new group of prisoners or a hospital’s groans that shook the world, neither “Hamas” nor “Gallant” nor “Netanyahu”, neither the siege of Gaza…The occupation is the fundamental cause of distress.

Whereas the horror of today’s violence, has become clear to the point that violence breeds violence and pulls everyone under, and of which it imposes each time further decline to the solution and a fragmentation of the problem. Have we not seen that the solution is yet to be found, since 1948 and the perpetuation of conflict and its violence?! It is an existential and strategic question.

4. The war on and by civilians.

The scene is lost between the thirst for violence, exploitation of violence and aversion to violence. Unfortunately, with everything that has happened, the thirst for violence and its investments continue and increase till today.

(Click here for this article in French.)

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Question for this article:

Can peace be guaranteed through nonviolent means?

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Thankfully, and maybe due to the horror of what happened, the aversion to violence and its attitude towards it have lost in vigor.

In the logic of war, civilians are used as tools. Humans are no longer humans, but mainly “arms” and targets that the adversary seizes, no matter their destruction, they become “Things”. In the non-violent French philosopher Simone Weil’s words: “Violence is that which makes a thing of whoever submits to it. Exercised to the extreme, it makes the human being a thing quite literally, that is, a dead body.”

There exist supporters of just cause all over the world, only left is to sustain the struggle of non-violence, or else we will be complicit in the strategy that renders civilians as Things. “Violence believes it destroys evil, but it is in itself an evil” according to the words of the French philosopher of Non-Violence Jean-Marie Muller.

5. The political result is the question.

The political result is the question and the goal. In the struggle for non-violence, “The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree”, like Gandhi used to say. While in violence and Machiavellian politics, all is permitted and cruelty is at its height.

The supporters of Israel affirm its right to self-defense, to strike and destroy Hamas as some continue to present them as the Islamic State (IS). They promote this as the political issue of the battle, despite similar and scandalous propaganda upon which the blood hasn’t dried yet (the invasion of Iraq, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, September 11th, ISIS, etc.)

The supporters of Hamas and their allies, as well as those of Hezbollah, affirm that they draw once again the lines of power between the main actors, the USA and Iran, with Iran’s blessing, and they have effectively brought the Palestinian question to the forefront in an unprecedented manner and so victoriously. The reality is that Gaza loses every day, more and more horrible losses that determine themselves the political issue at hand. It is true that the Palestinian question fills our screens, but at what price and whose gain?

As to Iran and the USA, we looked over the “flirting”, the parallel declarations and the shared tune, as well as the rhythm of exchanged strikes. “They are in an existential partnership, within a crossed fertilization of evil”, according to the words of non-violent Arab thinker, Walid Slaybi, in his book “Forces of Death, Forces of Life”.

We are distrustful of violent parties, and we are unsure of the true objectives of all the violent forces.

The political result to which we aspire measures in the restoration of rights, justice and peace for the oppressed people.

6. Two violent camps, based on religious ideology, currently lead the ring of combat.

Two camps of violence are leading the war of October 2023 from now on, and with them included are the two great camps of USA and Iran.

In this context, we don’t have only war and violence, but we are confronted with an additional dilemma, represented by the political nature of violent theocratic sources of those that are the leaders of the current arena from now on, at the light of the rise of extremist forces in Israel, the control of extremist Palestinian forces of resistance in Palestine. This is an obstacle in itself to any solution of justice and peace.

For our part, we reject violence coming from all parties, we reject terrorism of all parties, we reject the ideological violence in the name of religion or other doctrines, and we reject the perverse manipulation of peoples and their just cause by hegemonic countries, from western and non-western countries alike.

7. We cannot equate the violence of the oppressor to the violence of the oppressed. And we do not justify any violence whatsoever.

As Walid Slaybi says, who wrote and advocated a lot for a non-violent resistance in Palestine:

* “By using violence, the oppressed looks ‘equal’ to the oppressed.”

* “I do not think that violence yields a desired just goal, for a simple reason, it’s not because it cannot win over the bearer of the unjust scheme, but because it defeats the bearer of the just cause.

And you can say that the moment of the peak of the military victory over the adversary is the moment of the peak of the militant’s defeat.

The adversary is defeated militarily, the militant is defeated humanely; violence has won.”

* “The violence of the oppressor serves the cause of the oppressor. The violence of the oppressed serves the cause of the oppressor too.”

*”YES TO RESISTANCE. NO TO VIOLENCE.”

8. We are not doomed to unilateral violence. The responsibility of the non-violent.

Violence exists. Non-violence exists. We are not condemned to unilateral violence. There is hope.

All logic is lost if we describe each party as though they follow one absolute direction: “Everyone in Israel is made up of violent racists who reject peace, thrive on occupation and the elimination of the people of Palestine.” “Everyone in Palestine is made up of violent extremists, who reject peace, thrive on militarization and the elimination of the other party.”

Our prime duty is to gather non-violent forces, individuals and groups, in Palestine, in Lebanon, in Israel, throughout the world, to highlight their voices, and thus accelerate, in order for the image broadcast to be over and above violence. We know that the majority who await solutions other than through means of destruction, including those who are currently suffering the destruction, prefer a non-violent solution, and at least, disfavor a violent solution.

From now on, it is a crucial moment, we are on a hinge, and not pessimistic. Walid Slaybi used to say: “We are not in a world where violence has won, we are in a world where Non-Violence has not won enough yet.”

The Palestinian cause continues to sway, even to regress. “Occupied” Palestine which remains its name until now, is not just Palestine, but a name and nickname, awaiting its nickname to be eliminated and resolved. What the Palestinian people have the right to do, is to revolt against injustice. Of course, we want it to be non-violent. As Albert Camus said: “I rebel, therefore we exist. The rebellion is limited to refusing humiliation for the self without asking for it for the other.”

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Mideast

Mazin Qumsiyeh: Are we being duped to focus only on Gaza suffering?

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

A blog by Mazin Qumsiyeh

Israel’s genocide of Gaza is intentional, planned and ongoing with no sign of slowing down. The contrary, with no water, food and medicine it is accelerating. Israel leaders boast openly that they do not care about what the UN says or what world leaders say. Israeli fascist leaders say they do not care what statements are issued by governments of Muslim and Arab countries. Nor do they care if public pressure causes some western leaders to moderate their language from unconditional support for Israel to show concern for the “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding in Gaza (without naming the perpetrator). Israel actually can use the humanitarian catastrophe (as if it is an act of God not their agency) as bargaining chips. Israel can offer pauses in the slaughter in exchange for further weapons from Western governments and for release of Israeli prisoners. Maybe even a temporary ceasefire and fuel to any remaining hospitals in exchange for additional support to continue the genocidal occupation and for impunity from facing tribunals for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israeli leaders are crystal clear about their crimes and they get their way by genocide and total state terrorism against populations. If you have any doubt, listen to them (see below).


Extreme nationalism leads to genocide: Nazis and Zionists
(click on image to enlarge)

They even  say openly that if Hizbollah continues its resistance in South Lebanon, then all of Lebanon will pay a devastating price and Beirut will be like Gaza (i.e. totally devastated). Israeli military spokesemen gave the same threats to cities in the West Bank like Jenin and Tulkarem and even Ramallah. These are not idle threats. If the world is not willing to to stop Israel from devastating cities in Gaza strip and is even giving it more weapons to commit its genocide there, why would it not also devastate Lebanon or the West Bank. If you get away with one genocide you get away with others.  After all International law cannot be enforced in this case. According to Israeli leaders global public opinion and “diplomatic” pressure will not end its carnage. Many human rights advocates are at a loss as to how to end the carnage.

Israel is the only country on earth that did not set any border for itself. It is also the first colonial power whose base is not a geographic area away from the area it colonized (e.g. France was the base for colonizing Algeria). The Zionist base is wherever Zionists occur in positions of power in Western Countries(originally France and England but now the US and other countries). The original Zionist plan is setting up an Eretz Yisrael is in the area between the Nile of Egypt to the Euphrates. But this is changing where Israel dominion as Netanyahu showed in a map at the UN includes the Arabian Peninsula and the gulf states. But the Zionist plans are far more than about geography. Geography is negotiable if there are guarantees of economic and colonial hegemony. Gaza is needed because of the gas fields there worth hundreds of billions but that is a small part of a wider plan for which 2.3 million people are dispensible.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are already colonized economically and are run by easily contolled leaders who will do the US/Israel bidding.  Zionist grip on the US system is visible everywhere from Hollywood to mainstream media to congress that allocates more mone to Israel than South America and Africa combined. In many western countries, the Zionist lobby succeeded in even silencing free speech so asking for freedom in Palestine is persecuted. There is a war on truth.

So what is to be done? First please note that while many media like Al-Jazeera show Palestinian suffering, they do not provide coverage of Israeli/Zionist statements or intent. The genocidal statements are rarely seen in either Western but also in Eastern media. This is important because humanitarian suffering elicits sympathy from those with peope who care about fellow human beings. But most people and certainly most leaders are willing to ACT only if they see direct impact on them. Unfortunately, the statements of Zionist leaders and their direct actions including suppression of free speech in supposed “democratic countries” if exposed would be more likely to get results than pleading to save Palestinian children (as important as that is). Thus, we must spend at least as much time in publicizing the Zionist plans and words . Documenting slaughter must be accompanied by documenting the intent and plans for slaughter. We must expose why this is not merely about Palestine but about an evil tribal ideology called Zionism that is not content with Palestine but subverts and hurts people around the world. For example, it is critical to show how Israel is hurting US public interest and destroying the US and even got away with killing US citizens like the sailors of the USS Liberty.

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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?

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

(continued from left column)

Millions of people are mobilizing. You do make a difference. All individual efforts count.  Below are materials you can use and publicize. Telling the truth is a revolutionary act. The pen can be mightier than the sword sometimes.

Anyway, please do take the time to look over this material and use them extensively:

Middle East Monitor

Huffington Post

 The Wire : Israeli President says there are no innocent civilains in Gaza and that they are responsible

Youtube video : “The only solution is the complete destruction of Gaza” Moshe Feiglin 

facebook page : Zionist thought about Churches and mosques 

facebook page : Zionist thought about civilians

“When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.” – Amnon Sofer, Israeli demographer in 2004

“There will be no food, no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting animal people, and we are acting accordingly” – Yoav Galant, Israeli Defense Minister on 9 October 2023

“We will turn Gaza into an island of ruins” – Benjamin Netanyahu 8 October 2023

”We are dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza. The focus is on destruction, not accuracy” – Daniel Hagari, Israeli army spokesperson 10 October in Haaretz

“Animal Humans will be treated accordingly, you wanted hell and you’ll get hell” Ghassan Major General of the Israeli army October 9 Social media post

“There is an entire nation who are responsible. This rhetoric about civilians supposedly not being involved is absolutely untrue (…) We will fight until we break their backs” – Yitzhak Herzon, Israeli President Press conference

“Jericho missile! Doomsday weapon! That is my opinion. Powerful rockets to be fired without limits/borders. Gaza to be smashed and razed to the ground. Without mercy” – Tally Gotliv Likud Partly, 9 October on X/Twitter

“Wipe out their families, their mothers and their children. These animals must not be allowed to live any longer” – Ezra Yachin, Israeli Veteran who participated in the ethnic cleansing of 1948 (Nakba)

“Now there is only one goal: Nakba. A Nakba in Gaza that will dwarf the Nakba of 1948” – Ariel Kellet, :Likud Party Politician 7 October on X/Twitter

“The only thing that needs to enter Gaza are hundreds of tons of explosives, not one ounce of humanitarian relief” – Itamar Ben Gvir (Israeli minister in Charge of Police and arming setters)

“They should go, as well as the physical homes in which they raised the snakes in. Otherwise more little snakes will be raised there” – Ayelet Shakid
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children ” – Golda Meir (old but shows the racist ideology)

“I am here today not only as the US Secretary of State but also as a Jew … as long as the US exists, you will never have to do this [alone] because we will always be with you” – US Secretary of State Blinken 12 October (already hundreds of special US Delta force boots are on the ground).

Michael Ben-Ari, ex-member of the Knesset: “There are no innocents in Gaza. Mow them down … Kill the Gazans without thought or mercy.”

Israel Katz, Minister of Transportation: “Gaza should be bombed so hard the population has to flee into Egypt.”

Avi Dichter, Current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Former Shin Bet director and Minister of Internal Security: “Gaza should be wiped clean with bombs.”

Israeli military Rabbi and Israeli soldiers

And here on this link  you can find more damning statements from Zionist leaders.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Mideast

Women, Peace, and Security Conference underway in Juba, South Sudan

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from the Catholic Radio Network

The Annual National Conference on Women’s Peace and Security began in Juba on Wednesday 25th October 2023, calling for civic education and preparation for anticipated general elections in 2024.

The Conference focuses on women’s political participation, the constitution-making process, federalism, electrical, the role of media, and many other topics. More than two hundred women across the country are taking part in the conference.

Minister of Interior, Hon. Angelina Teny says this is the high time for women to start engaging in preparation for the elections.

“So we need to now think consciously, how we are going to be part of all these instruments and mechanisms that are going to be involved in ensuring a safe environment, for all the women and all the candidates to campaign.”

Hon. Angelina encourages the women to work hard to ensure their internal democratic processes contribute to a free, fair, and credible election in 2014.

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Questions for this article

Can the women of Africa lead the continent to peace?

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“You have to work hard to ensure that your internal democratic processes contribute to a free, fair, and creditable election that will ensure the participation of the women and other sectors of society.”

Hon. Teny revealed her Ministry role to promote free, fair, and credible elections through maintaining security across the areas in South Sudan.
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Eve Organization for Women, representative, Jacqueline Natepo, says this is a moment for women to position themselves and effectively contribute to shaping the future of South Sudan.

“This period presents an opportunity for all women in South Sudan to position themselves and effectively to the shaping the future of South Sudan, for us, our children in the future generation to come especially peaceful stable inclusive and developed South Sudan.”

Natepo adds that women need to participate in the coming election as it’s getting to the end of the transitional period. She calls on women to take the conference seriously because women are a key part of democracy.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands’s Ambassador to South Sudan, Miriam Choppers says much has been achieved since the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution.

She is worrying that the implementation of women’s peace and security is left behind. Choppers believes that a real measure of the strength of democracy is to measure the strength of women.

The two-day annual National Conference on Women is organized by Eve Organization under the theme, “Building Inclusive Democracy: Women’s Leadership and Political Participation.

Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Secretary-General Tells Security Council Open Debate ‘Standing with Women Is Good for the World’, Stresses Patriarchy ‘a Massive Obstacle’ to Culture of Peace

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from the United Nations

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council annual open debate on women, peace and security, in New York today:

Thank you for inviting me to brief the Council on this vital issue.  And for reminding us of the key contribution Bertha Lutz made to the UN Charter and to women’s rights.

Many of you here today will have visited the exhibition on display outside the United Nations building.  You will have seen the images of the women who embody the agenda we are discussing — women who are fighting injustice, building peace, and taking their rightful place at the table.  It is a snapshot of the immense contribution women are making to peace and security around the world and a testament to the power of women’s leadership.

The world must take note.  And it must take inspiration.  Because today, we are on a knife’s edge.  Conflicts are raging.  Tensions are rising.  Coups are erupting.  Authoritarianism is on the march.  The nuclear threat has mushroomed.  Climate chaos is inflaming security challenges.  And mistrust is poisoning global politics — weakening our ability to respond.

The figures speak for themselves on the dire state of our world: military spending is at a record high; displacement due to violence, conflict and persecution is at a record high; and 50 per cent more women and girls are living in countries threatened by fighting than in 2017.

Where wars rage, women suffer, where authoritarianism and insecurity reign, women and girls’ rights are threatened.  We see this around the world.  In Sudan and Haiti — women and girls brutalized and terrorized by sexual violence.  In Afghanistan — the denial of women’s basic rights is wrecking lives and depriving people of life-saving assistance.  And women and girls fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are at risk of being preyed on by traffickers and abusers.

In the Middle East, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the ongoing violence, bloodshed and displacement.  Women and girls are among the many victims of Hamas’ brutal atrocities.  And women and children are more than half the victims of the relentless bombing of Gaza.  Tens of thousands of pregnant women are desperately struggling to access essential health care.

This grim backdrop gives renewed urgency to efforts to ensure women’s full and meaningful participation in peace and security.  Twenty-three years after this Council adopted resolution 1325 (2000), women’s participation should be a default, not an afterthought.

But that is not the case.  Women are leading efforts on peace, justice and rights around the world. But still, far too many women’s organizations struggle to fund their essential work, as military spending soars; far too many perpetrators of sexual violence walk free; and far too many peace processes exclude women.

Of 18 peace agreements reached last year, only one was signed or witnessed by a representative of a women’s group or organization.  Despite our best efforts, women represented just 16 per cent of negotiators or delegates in the peace processes led, or co-led, by the United Nations.

We live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.  Centuries of patriarchy are a massive obstacle to gender equality and, in turn, to a culture of peace.  Around the world, women’s rights are under attack.  So are the people that defend them.  At least seven women who briefed this Council last year report facing reprisals for having done so.

(Article continues in right column.)

Questions related to this article:

UN Resolution 1325, does it make a difference?

Does the UN advance equality for women?

(Article continued from left column.)

Violence against women — both on and offline — is endemic; a massive barrier and disincentive to participation in civil and political life.  At the current rate of progress, it will be almost another half century before women are fairly represented in national parliaments.

Addressing this is not a favour to women.  It is a matter of rights, justice and pragmatism.  Standing with women is good for the world.  We know processes involving women lead to more enduring peace.  We know gender-equal parliaments are more likely to increase spending on health, education and social protection, and reduce corruption.

There are pockets of hope.  This year’s report shows good practice and success stories on the women, peace and security agenda from around the world:  from gender parity in Colombia’s peace negotiations to perpetrators of sexual violence in Iraq, Syria and the Central African Republic being brought to justice.

The United Nations is committed to working with countries to drive progress on women, peace and security.  Our operations are supporting women, highlighting their vital work, and amplifying their voices.  The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund of the United Nations has supported more than 1,000 local women’s organizations since it was established in 2016. And we’ve made progress towards gender balance within peacekeeping missions.  But overall, when it comes to women peace and security, the world must urgently bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality.

This annual debate regularly has the longest speakers’ list of the year.  But concrete progress is slow, stagnant or even going backwards.  We need to implement the women, peace and security agenda in full, now.  Because women have had enough of being shut out of the decisions that shape their lives; enough of their work going unrecognized; enough of threats and violence; [and] enough of promises left unfulfilled.  Women demand concrete actions to make real strides forward.

First, that means steps to ensure women are in the room for peace talks.  I encourage Governments supporting conflict mediation to set ambitious targets for women on negotiating teams.

Second, it means money on the table.  If you want to stand with women driving change, if you want to support women enduring conflict, if you want to remove barriers to participation, and if you want women’s organizations to deliver, we need to pay for it.  Yet, the latest figures show aid funding for gender equality in conflict falling.  I urge countries providing overseas development assistance, or ODA, to allocate 15 per cent to gender equality.  Fifteen per cent of funds for mediation work must support women’s participation.

I also call on countries providing ODA to allocate 1 per cent — at a bare minimum — to direct assistance to women’s organizations mobilizing for peace.  By the end of 2025, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund Invest-in-Women campaign aims to raise $300 million.  I urge you to throw yourselves behind this effort.

Third, we need concrete measure to secure women’s full, equal and meaningful participation at all levels of decision-making on peace and security, and all levels of political and civil life.  That means pushing fair representation in national and local governments, cabinets and parliaments.

I was a prime minister and leader of a political party.  I know quotas, targets and incentives work.  We need robust, comprehensive legislation to tackle violence against women — both on and offline — and to put an end to impunity for perpetrators.

And we need to make the most of the Summit of the Future next year to push for progress on women, peace and security.  The Summit is a chance to reform and revitalize multilateralism so that it meets the challenges of today.  In preparation, the policy brief on “A New Agenda for Peace” puts women’s leadership and participation at the centre of decision-making. I urge you to consider its proposals carefully.

Amidst a world in chaos, the clock is ticking down to the twenty-fifth anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000).  A quarter century is ample time to make progress.  We need to translate the energy, commitment and focus in this room into change on the ground and money on the table.  No more stalling, no more coasting, no more delays.

We need to back the change-makers whose images we proudly display outside this building, starting today.  The state of the world demands it.  And women and girls, rightly, expect nothing less.  Thank you.

global, United Nations, WOMEN'S EQUALITY,

Mercosur without Racism: Brazil will propose a campaign at a meeting of ministers from the bloc

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Government of Brazil

The Ministry of Culture (MinC), in the exercise of Pro Tempore presidency of Mercosul Cultural, will propose the campaign “Mercosul without Racism, with Diversity and Inclusion”, to create common strategies to combat prejudice in the countries that make up the economic bloc. The action will be presented on November 9th, in Belém, Pará, during the meeting of Mercosur Ministers of Culture. The meeting will begin at 9:30 am, in the Oval Room of the Government Palace of the State of Pará. 

The expectation is that, with approval of the campaign by the participants, the bloc’s ministers and authorities will sign the joint declaration of adherence to the agenda, expressing the commitment of all Mercosur member countries to adopt actions that guarantee the promotion of ethnic-racial equality in their territories, in an intersectoral and continuous manner.
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Led by Minister Margareth Menezes, the meeting will be attended by the Minister of Culture of Argentina, Tristán Bauer, the Minister of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador, Maria Elena Machuca, the Executive Secretary of the National Secretariat of Culture of Paraguay, Adriana Ortiz, the Vice Minister of Heritage, Memories and Cultural Governance of Colombia, Adriana Molano and the director of the Office of International Cooperation of Peru, Wilyam Abelardo Lúcar Aliaga. The Minister of Cultures, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization of Bolivia, Sabina Orellana Cruz, the National Director of Culture of Uruguay, Mariana Wainstein, and the representative of the Chilean Embassy in Brazil, Alejandro Guzmán, will be present by video.

During the 54th Meeting of Ministers of Culture of Mercosur, which took place in June this year, in Buenos Aires, minister Margareth Menezes received the Pro Tempore Presidency of Mercosur Cultural. At the time, the head of the Ministry of Culture had already announced that one of the main actions of Brazil’s mandate would be Mercosur without Racism.

(Article continued in right column)

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

Question(s) related to this article:

Are we making progress against racism?

Latin America, has it taken the lead in the struggle for a culture of peace?

(Article continued from left column)

Officially, the Campaign is an invitation to the governments of Mercosur member countries, as well as organizations and society. “A Democratic State is only possible by guaranteeing equal rights, social equality, ethnic-racial equality and freedom for all people. At this meeting, we will reaffirm our commitment to adopting social development policies for discriminated and vulnerable populations in the countries. These guarantees are fundamental to improving the region’s economic development conditions”, highlights the minister.

The Secretary of Citizenship and Cultural Diversity in the Ministry of Culture, Márcia Rollemberg, reinforces the need for Mercosur countries to adopt measures that will guarantee the population’s equal rights. She states that the Mercosur Without Racism Campaign aims to recognize the contribution of indigenous and Afro-descendant populations to the social formation and cultural identity of member countries.

“Racism encourages the maintenance of a social structure of great inequalities in access and opportunities, in which skin color and other bodily characteristics establish boundaries and limitations in access to social and cultural rights”, he highlights. “The goal is for countries to value and promote diversity, anti-racist education and good living, strengthening the culture of peace and interculturality in our region”, concludes secretary Márcia Rollemberg.

Mercosur Cultural works in an expanded manner, with the participation of member states Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela (despite the suspension of the latter since August 2017), as well as associated states such as Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Bolivia also participates as an associated state and is in the accession process. This collaboration has strengthened public cultural policies in the region, providing a valuable exchange of information and experiences from successful cultural programs and projects.

Declaration

The Declaration, which will be presented by Brazil, highlights the importance of adopting and enhancing specific cultural policies for the black population, indigenous peoples and traditional peoples and communities, in confronting inequalities and combating racism. The measures adopted will strengthen cooperation at national, regional and international levels to ensure the full exercise of the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of people who are discriminated against.

The text points out that racism consists of a derogatory and discriminatory attitude based on the race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin of a person or group. The consequence is racial inequality as a structural problem to be faced throughout the region. It also argues that racial discrimination encourages the maintenance of a social structure based on inequalities in access and opportunities, and affects both economic inequalities and influences social, cultural and political dynamics. 

HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

UN Rights Chief Says Israel’s Collective Punishment in Gaza Is a War Crime

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Jessica Corbett from Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk declared  Wednesday that “the collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts… to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians.”

Frame from video interview with Commissioner Türk at the Rafah Crossing

Israel’s monthlong war on Gaza has killed over 10,500 Palestinians, wounded thousands more, displaced 70%  of the strip’s 2.3 million residents, and decimated civilian infrastructure, including homes, religious buildings, and hospitals.

Türk’s comments came after he visited the Rafah border crossing that connects Egypt to Gaza, which he described as “the gates to a living nightmare—a nightmare where people have been suffocating, under persistent bombardment, mourning their families, struggling for water, for food, for electricity and fuel.”

Long before October 7, when a Hamas-led attack killed over 1,400 Israelis and triggered Israel’s retaliation, Gaza was “described as the world’s biggest open-air prison… under a 56-year occupation and a 16-year blockade by Israel,” he highlighted.The U.N. rights chief also stressed that “the atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups… were heinous, brutal, and shocking. They were war crimes—as is the continued holding of hostages.” Israeli officials say there are about 240 hostages.

“We have fallen off a precipice. This cannot continue,” he warned. “Even in the context of a 56-year-old occupation, the current situation is the most dangerous in decades, faced by people in Gaza, in Israel, in the West Bank, but also regionally.”

Türk emphasized that “parties to the conflict have the obligation to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects,” and as an occupying power, Israel is required “to ensure a maximum of basic necessities of life can reach all who need it.”

“I call—as a matter of urgency—for the parties now to agree [to] a cease-fire on the basis of three critical human rights imperatives: We need urgent delivery of massive levels of humanitarian aid, throughout Gaza,” he declared.

(Continued in right column)

Questions related to this article:
 
How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

(Continued from left column)

The official also called for all hostages to be freed without condition and said that “crucially, we need to enable the political space to implement a durable end to the occupation, based on the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to self-determination and their legitimate security interests.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres—who has also been pushing for a cease-fire—called out  Israel’s aerial and ground operations for their impact on civilians during a Reuters conference on Wednesday.

“There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong,” he said.

“We have in a few days in Gaza thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way military operations are being done,” the U.N. leader added.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the Israeli war against Hamas has killed over 4,300 children.

“It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said. “That doesn’t help Israel in relation to the global public opinion.”

While French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to hold a Gaza-focused “humanitarian conference” in Paris on Thursday, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to participate in the event.

Ahead of the conference, 13 human rights and relief groups called on attendees “to do everything in their power to achieve an immediate cease-fire; take concrete steps to free civilian hostages and protect all civilian populations; and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and respect for international humanitarian law.”

Among them was Amnesty International—which, over the past month, has compiled  “damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families.”

Some global experts and critics have demanded  action from the International Criminal Court on “escalating Israeli war crimes and genocide of the Palestinian people” in Gaza.

In a resignation letter to Türk last month, Craig Mokhiber, who was serving as the New York director for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned  Israel’s war as “a textbook case of genocide.”

“In the immediate term,” Mokhiber wrote, “we must work for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the long-standing siege on Gaza, stand up against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank (and elsewhere), document the genocidal assault in Gaza, help to bring massive humanitarian aid and reconstruction to the Palestinians, take care of our traumatized colleagues and their families, and fight like hell for a principled approach in the U.N.’s political offices.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast, United Nations,

UNESCO: How can young people become actors of peace?

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article from UNESCO

On the celebration of the UNESCO Associated School Networks’ 70th anniversary, more than 10.000 students from 68 countries were gathered for a series of three digital Campuses in three languages.

Peace, intercultural dialogue and understanding, sustainable development, and quality education. These are the foundations of the UNESCO Associated School Network (ASPnet), who is commemorating its 70th anniversary.

With many regions of the world facing war and armed conflict, actions on how to build lasting peace remain crucial more than ever. To this end, UNESCO Campus  organized a series of campuses, in three different languages, to reach English, French and Spanish-speaking students and teachers. A unique opportunity to celebrate the first day of the 42nd UNESCO General Conference.  

The dialogues between the experts, students, and teachers led to a list of actions and activities that not only promote peace but enrich our understating on how to be multi-level active global citizens. 
 
Starting from an international point of view, cooperation of different actors, such as international organizations and civil society groups, is essential. Firmin Edouard Matoko, Special Advisor Africa for the Director-General at UNESCO emphasised on cultivating a culture of peace. Historically, peace was defined as the absence of armed conflict and hostilities. However, peace is composed of values, attitudes, and behaviours, which we can all learn from a young age. Peace is a continuous action, in which everyone can contribute to. 

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(Click here for a French version of this article.)

Question(s) related to this article:

Will UNESCO once again play a role in the culture of peace?

How can just one or a few persons contribute to peace and justice?

(continued from left column)

Peace is not only the absence of war. All situations of personal or collective conflict, social or economic insecurity and environmental instability contribute to the absence of peace. Each generation has a mission to accomplish: to guarantee peace for the generations to follow.

– Firmin Edouard Matoko, Special Advisor Africa, Director-General, UNESCO

Important goals can also be achieved at the national and community level. Actions for peace are essential in conflict and post-conflict zones. In this kind of situation an operation of mediation is vital to settle the situation.

To inspire students and to enlighten them about the sheer of mediation, Saurea Didry Stancioff, West Africa Program Manager at Promediation, shared her experience. Mediation is a key tool to establish trust and dialogue between the contending parties of a conflict. The mediation process can help build the first blocks to establish lasting peace, through creating a bridge of dialogue to find innovative solutions. 
 
Talking about the local point of action, Panji Haryo Purnomo, Teacher of Pradita Dirgantara High School, School leader of Fostering Global Citizens through the Memory of the World, provided students and teachers with an example of a successful local peace initiative. His commitment to education and his unwavering dedication to nurturing the youth through knowledge and culture have fostered a sense of peace among his community in Boyolali, Indonesia. Through conflict resolution, the empowerment of youth and the preservation of a shared cultural heritage is fundamental. 

Peacebuilding is not abstract; it’s made of actions and conversations. Let’s be ambassadors of peace, champions of dialogue, and preservers of heritage. Together, we can turn the dream of peace into a tangible reality.

– Panji Haryo Purnomo, Teacher of Pradita Dirgantara High School, School leader of “Fostering Global Citizens through the Memory of the World”

The multiple questions by students and teachers led to a lively discussion on how each one of us can act for peace. Within our day-to-day lives, the experts left the participants with the inspiration on how each one of us can act for peace. For Firmin Edouard Matoko, it is to embrace diversity and seeing it as a strength. For Saurea Didry Stancioff, each of us can start by active listening. Lastly, for Panji Haryo Purnomo, it starts with respect for everyone and everybody. 
 
Fostering peace exists and can be done at multiple levels. All it takes is the courage to start.
 
This event has made possible thanks to TECH4ALL and with the support of France. 

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, United Nations,

The 3rd Edition of the Biennale of Luanda THEME: “Education, Culture of Peace and African Citizenship as tools for the sustainable development of the continent”

. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A media advisory from the African Union

INVITATION TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What:  The 3rd Edition of the Biennale of Luanda   THEME: “Education, Culture of Peace and African Citizenship as tools for the sustainable development of the continent”

When: 22-24 November 2023, Luanda, Angola.

Who: The event is organized by the African Union and the Government of the Republic of Angola (the National Biennale Management Office) in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Why: The Biennale of Luanda – “Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace” aims to promote the prevention of violence and conflict resolution, by encouraging cultural exchanges in Africa and dialogue between generations. It is held every two years in Luanda, the capital city of Angola.

The 34th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, 6 & 7 February 2021, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, underlined the Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace in Africa – Biennale of Luanda, as a privileged space for the promotion of cultural diversity and African unity, provides a unique platform for governments, civil society, the artistic and scientific community, the private sector and international organisations to discuss and define strategies for the prevention of violence and conflict with a view to building lasting peace 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?

Can the African Union help bring a culture of peace to Africa?

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Objectives:

The aim of the Biennale of Luanda for the Culture of Peace in Africa is to work towards a daily and sustainable individual and collective appropriation and implementation, on the continent, of the concept of a culture of peace. 

This initiative reinforces the implementation of Goals 16 and 17 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 7 Aspirations of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, in particular its ”Silencing the Guns by 2030″ initiative. 

Background:

The first edition of the Biennale of Luanda, “Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace” was held from 18 to 22 September 2019 in Luanda, which was a celebration of various African values, beliefs, forms of spirituality, knowledge and traditions that contribute to the respect of human rights, cultural diversity, the rejection of violence and the development of democratic societies. 

The second edition of the Biennale of Luanda took place from 27 November to 2 December 2021 and was celebrated under the African Union’s 2021 theme, “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want”.

For more information, visit the Biennale of Luanda webpage.

Journalists are invited to cover the 3rd Edition of the Biennale of Luanda.

For further inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Ebba Kalondo | Spokesperson to the Chairperson, African Union Commission | E-mail: kalondoe@africa-union.org
Mrs Christiane Yanrou-Matondo | Principal Communication Officer, Cabinet of the Chairperson | E-mail: Yanrouc@africa-union.org
Ms. Limi Mohammed | Web Administrator, African Union Commission, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department, Governance and Conflict Prevention Directorate E-mail: shashlm@africa-union.org
Mr. Gamal Eldin Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer | Information and Communication Directorate (ICD), African Union Commission | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org

Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org


Web: www.au.int | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Follow Us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Africa, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Letter to the world from Mazin Qumsiyeh in Palestine

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

A blog from Popular Resistance the blog of Mazin Qumsiyeh

My first open letter was addressed to the people of Gaza. It had hundreds of responses mostly asking us not to give up and asking for list of actions to do (these are available at ongaza.org and my blog . )

My second open letter was addressed to Jews and Israelis who support the Israeli government. It had 13 sets of questions. Only two real committed Zionists had the courage to answer. A third person told me after answering that he is now abandoning Zionism and wishes to join the ranks of post-Zionist (though not anti-Zionist) Jews. Other reactions were from honest Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists etc, around the world were predictable and supportive. 

As promised this third open letter is addressed to other fellow human beings.

I will start by saying THANK YOU on behalf of all Palestinians. Thank you for keeping your humanity. Thank you for not succumbing to the lies and distortions you heard from corrupt politicians and from corrupt media (yes corrupt is anyone who supports a 75 year apartheid and racist regime – see ongaza.org Q#6 to 9).  Do not underestimate your individual power to act. Millions went to the streets in the last few days in this global uprising(see examples at ongaza.org Question #21 ) . If each of them took time to write to a few others (family, friends, politicians, media), we can stop this genocide. Israel cannot be above the law and cannot get away with state terrorism and with committing a holocaust (yes it is, again see ongaza.org).  We in Palestine are really afraid and not merely for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza being eliminated but for ourselves in the West Bank and 1948 Palestine ignored for decades by the world and with increasing apartheid laws and settler rampage. We are also afraid for the potential lives to be lost by Israelis and Americans in the rage/calls for vengeance growing from the holocaust of Gaza. It is not a coincidence that the young Palestinian men who attacked areas near Gaza had relatives and friends killed earlier or had been themselves targeted in indiscriminate attacks in 2014. Further their families were expelled from those same areas now dubbed “south Israel”.  So the spiral of violence escalates, We are afraid of eroding humanity. 

Today the situation in Gaza is catastrophic as it shifts to a higher stage of carnage: from sudden death and injury of civilians by bombing them without warning to ADD death by thirst, starvation, lack of hygiene, and collapse of health care services (Israeli policies of mass murder by denial of basics of life). This is not incidental death during war: this is genocide of a captive population.  Relentless bombing of residential buildings and of even people on the streets meant hundreds of civilians die daily. Now the official number is 8010 civilians murdered and over 21,000 injured (75% women and children) and if we add those reported missing and are buried under the rubble would make this over 10,000 murdered civilians in three weeks. Compared to populations, that would be equivalent to over one million US citizens killed.  These are not numbers, as noted, the list of names and ages are available and are being translated to English now. Half the population in Gaza are Children and 42% of those killed are children.. But this pales compared to denial of even medicines and fuel (babies and patients on dialysis die with lack of fuel for generators for the remaining devastated hospitals). Health care system completely collapsed and Israel refuses even to pause or to allow humanitarian aid. 

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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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Two days ago we commemorated the anniversary of the 1956 Kufr Kasem Massacre, but the intentional massacres in Palestine have a 75 year history. Here are some examples.

and of course all of that is now eclipsed by the hundreds of massacres committed in the last three weeks in Gaza .Einstein and others were prophetic about the early rise of fascism when they condemned the party that committed the Deir Yassin Massacre of 1948 (my late mother’s best friend was killed with her students in Deir Yassin). Their letter is a must read. ≈Note that the perpetrators of this and many other massacres in 1948 became the Likud that now runs Israel. The language used by Netanyahu like Begin before him is genocidal. See:
Juan Cole;
Mondoweiss;
Chris Hedges.

I urge you to disseminate information like those now available on ongaza.org and hundreds of other website. Our messaging should be clear and our actions should be BOLD:

-There is an ongoing genocide/holocaust in Gaza and it is part of a 75 year program to eliminate Palestinians and transform Palestine to become Israel (an ethnocentric chauvinistic fascist and apartheid state). Like all colonizers, they never accepted the rights of the indigenous people.

-This is not about the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas (founded in 1988) or the dozen other resistance movements, secular or religious. This is about Palestine and Palestinians denied their rights for decades by a western supported regime. Their rights include the rights of refugees to return to their homes and lands and to be treated equally (no more and no less)

-We are not fooled by the endless talk about “two state solution” (Ben Gurion said this was merely a Public Relations Campaign intended to give more time to strengthen colonization). It is intended to distract us from seeking basic human rights so please insist on recognizing Palestinian rights to their lands and to be treated equally “from the river to the sea”  (see my book that centralizes these basic human rights ).

-We always need to put things in historical context but we also need to demand accountability of Israeli and western leaders that support this current unprecedented ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing (war crimes and crimes against humanity). Those leaders have blood on their hands.

-We must insist on expelling apartheid “diplomats” and businesses from all countries (remember all Israelis serve in the army and Israel is not a normal country, it is a terrorist army with fig-leaf of statehood).

-We must accelerate the boycott, divestments, and sanctions campaign (see bdsmovement.net) which helps; just like in South Africa under apartheid. 

-Arab governments like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia should be shamed for ignoring the will of their own people. Same for subservient Western Countries

-We MUST highlight who profits from wars and from attempts at shaping the Middle East to be suppressed and subjugated people (see ongaza.org Q # 14)

-We need to liberate not just Gaza and Palestine from the Zionist occupation but also their occupation of Washington DC and other Western Capitals and their attempt through the media to colonize western minds

There are 15 million Palestinians in the world. 7.3 million are under the direct boots of Israeli occupation and apartheid. The rest are in forced exile. Palestinians have paid heavily with their blood for the imperial interests of Israeli colonialism (see Nur Masalha’s book “Imperial Israel and the Palestinians”). Our resistance and resilience (even during this holocaust in Gaza) is now what keeps Israel from expanding its empire as originally planned. PLEASE we implore you to educate yourself on reality, expose the lies, push to defend human rights, fight oppression and injustice with everything you have. For ideas of specific actions, please see What you can do and Question #19. Action is the best antidote to despair.

Stay human and ACT more

HUMAN RIGHTS