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.

First Congress of World Leaders, International Cities of Peace, at the invitation of the Fundación El Sol

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

Notice from International Cities of Peace

You are invited as a world leader for peace to this Convention in order to share your experiences and those of other leaders about unique ways to create a community culture of peace.

Video of invitation

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

The grand event will be held from June 4 to 8, 2018, in the Plaza Mayor Convention and Exhibition Center. Green Room, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia.

We thank the organizer of the Congress, Sol Mary Valencia Acevedo, founder of Fundación El Sol and leader of Medellín: City of Peace.

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE. Support includes air travel, accommodations, meals, and transport to and from airport. Please send your inquiries to: mailto:arment@fredarment.com

FUNDACIÓN EL SOL, Sede administrativa Carrera 80C # 34A-71 Barrio Laureles. Medellin, Colombia.

Cell (+57) 3113427410 • (+57) 3176473933 e-mail: fundacionelsol.org@gmail.com

(Click here for a version in Spanish)

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, global, Latin America

Belize and Guatemala host Garifuna Cultural Event

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Belize Guardian

A two-day event, from April 8th to 9th, was held in Guatemala City. There, Belize and Guatemala, together, held “The Belizean and Guatemalan Garifuna Culture as an Expression of Social Cohesion, Intercultural Dialogue and Promotion of Peace.” The aim of the event was to promote intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace.

The event consisted of both cultural and academic presentations which were meant to showcase the historical coexistence of the communities living on the borders of Livingston and Puerto Barrios, Izabal, Guatemala, and the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts of Belize. The program had the full support of UNESCO, the OAS, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation, the Garifuna Council of Belize, and CODIRSA – the Presidential Commission against Discrimination and Racism of Guatemala.

(This article is continued in the column on the right.)

Question related to this article:

Solidarity across national borders, What are some good examples?>

(This article is continued from the column on the left.)

During the cultural presentations, the Garifuna groups Lirahunu Satuye of Dangriga Town and Luwaruguma Guifu of Livingston, Guatemala, performed in venues located in some of Guatemala City’s busiest outdoor centers, attracting large audiences.  In addition to individual country performances, both groups collaborated in joint performances showcasing a celebration of unity through culture.

The program also included an academic conference which consisted of presentations by experts of both countries.  Presenters from Belize included the President of the Belize National Garifuna Council, Sandra Miranda, Roy Cayetano, and Sebastian Cayetano.  Experts from Guatemala included Alfonso Arrivillaga, Dr. Gutberto Leiva, and Olivia Núñez.  The presentations reflected on the history, culture, and traditions of the Garinagu people.

Guatemala and Belize share great cultural, ecological, and patrimonial richness. Both nations are making the necessary efforts to resolve their historical territorial differences within the framework of the United Nations and International Law, seeking a lasting and peaceful solution to their dispute.

The event was organized through the joint efforts of the Embassy of Belize in Guatemala, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, UNESCO office in Kingston accredited to Belize, and the UNESCO office in Guatemala.

Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Young people: actors for peace and national reconciliation in Mali

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from UNESCO

“Young Actors for Peace and National Reconciliation” is the title of the joint UNICEF-IOM-UNESCO project. It has been set up to accelerate the implementation of the agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali (resulting from the Algiers process), through the operationalization of the new mechanism of the Regional Support Teams for National Reconciliation. (ERRNA), as well as through the involvement and empowerment of young people and women, in the implementation of the G5 Sahel Youth Strategy and the fight against cross-border trafficking and exploitation of young people.

So far, most of the peacebuilding projects have been implemented in northern Mali, but today the center of the country also has a great need for conflict prevention and resolution. The project directly targets 2,500 young people, including 900 young women, from 25 communes in the regions of Ségou and Mopti.

The project, officially launched on March 29, 2018 in Bamako, saw the participation of the Minister of Youth and Citizen Construction and Government Spokesperson, the Minister of Digital Economy and Communication, the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Reconciliation and Social Cohesion, MINUSMA, UNESCO, UNICEF and IOM.

(continued in right column)

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

Question(s) related to this article:

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

(continued from left column)

There was also the participation of several youth associations including The National Youth Council (NYC), the Youth Association for Active Citizenship and Democracy (AJCAD), the Children’s Parliament of Mali and the Association for the Promotion of Children as Journalists and Communicators (APEJEC).

The participants and the young people, together with the personalities present, emphasized the importance of the dynamics of the culture of peace and social cohesion in order to avoid the risks of conflicts. Mr. Amadou Koita, Minister of Youth and Citizen Construction, and his counterparts in communication and national reconciliation, thanked the technical and financial partners, including MINUSMA, who believed in the capacity of youth to promote peace and social cohesion. They have demonstrated their commitment and support in this project that fits perfectly with the vision of the highest authorities of the State. “My counterparts here and I will accompany you in this noble initiative, because all these actions prepare young people to play their role, which is important, in the implementation of the agreement for peace and national reconciliation. Algiers process, “he stressed.

In her address, Ms. Lucia Elmi, UNICEF Representative in Mali and spokesperson for the three agencies, reminded that the future is about youth, and that it is through young people that can be built a lasting peace. Convinced that through this project, young people will be able to give their opinion and positively influence the search for peace while ensuring the prevention of conflicts, she also stressed that this project will make it possible to popularize the agreement for peace and the national reconciliation resulting from of the Algiers process. Finally, it will add: “by investing in young people, so that they become peacemakers, actors for peace, we guarantee a better future for this country”.

Funded to the tune of 1.4 billion FCFA by the Peacebuilding Fund of the Stabilization and Recovery Section of MINUSMA, this project aims to strengthen the engagement of young people and women in as actors of peace in order to strengthen social cohesion, community dialogue, living together and developing the potential of young people.

Africa, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

7th edition of the Thionck-Essyl International Dance and Music Festival: Culture for Peace in Casamance

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article from Le Quotidien

The 7th edition of the Thionck-Essyl International Dance and Music Festival opens this Friday [April 13]. This locality of Casamance will, during 5 days, vibrate with the rhythms of songs, dances and training workshops for batik, basketry, pottery, as well as colloquiums. The director of the company Bakalama, initiator of this festival, Malal Ndiaye defined the strong axes of the programming, as well as its ambitions to make this festival a lever of economic development of Casamance (through culture and tourism) and a way to cultivate peace.

Casamance has been in conflict for almost three decades. As the director of the Thionck-Essyl International Dance and Music Festival, Malal Ndiaye believes that where politics and the military have failed, culture can succeed in bringing peace. The 7th edition of its festival which is held from 13 to 20 April in Thionk-Essyl (a locality located in the department of Bignona) hoopes to be an opportunity to promote culture and peace. “We have already understood that culture can be a source of mutual understanding of peoples, and that is why we have set up the festival in Casamance and we call on all the localities to come to discuss, understand and move forward together. As a cultural actor, I think and remain convinced that it is only through culture that we can have peace in Casamance”, he argues.

(article continued in right column)

(Click here for the French version of this article)

Question related to this article:

 

Can festivals help create peace at the community level?

(article continued from left column)

Beyond this, it is for the initiators of this festival to promote cultural and tourism participation, as well as economic development of this region of Casamance. The artistic director of the company Bakalama and former manager of P-Froiss also recalls what guided the establishment of the International Festival of Dance and Music Thionck-Essyl “In 2004 we saw that the young people of this locality were passionate about making art. At Thionck-Essyl, there is a real artistic potential, so we decided why not create an artistic festival, but also a festival of development. A festival that can allow us to make a contribution, both in terms of tourism, economy and social . It is these young artists who are in Casamance, especially those in Thionck-Essyl who motivated us ” he informs. And since then, the festival has not departed from its original objectives. Once again this year, it will be an opportunity to address a theme so dear to the promoters of the festival: Culture and tourism leverage for economic development.

On the program side, director Malal Ndiaye reveals that a whole string of musicians, dancers, rappers will come from Dakar as well as regions of Casamance to take part in this festival. “45 artists will leave Dakar to join Thionck-Essyl and there they will find other dance companies such as the company Bakalama, the troupe Kalonkigne, Koubalang, Niaffrang … The Gran Jabel group will come from Guadeloupe to participate at the festival”, notes Mr. Ndiaye, who is pleased with the support of the municipal authorities. “The budget for this festival is 12 million, the 2 million are managed by the city council, and the Bakalama company which brings the artists participates for 1.5 million.” To make up the rest of the budget, Malal Ndiaye is counting on the support of the ministries in charge of Culture, Tourism and Crafts. “We have debts, we need transportation, accommodation, sound, we hope the support of the government,” he says.

Africa, DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

Israel: “I’m going to prison rather than serve in the Israeli army”

. DISARMAMENT & SECURITY.

An article from Finalscape (translation by CPNN)

My name is Nattan Helman. I’m 20 years old, I come from Kibbutz Haogen.

On November 20, I will refuse to serve in the Israeli army for reasons of conscience. In the third year of college, I came across documents about the occupation and started asking: What are we doing there? How does this affect our society? How does it affect me?


Video of interview

(Continued in the right column)

Question related to this article:

“Put down the gun and take up the pen”, What are some other examples?

(Continued from the left column)

After doing some research, after reading books, articles and testimonies of soldiers, after seeing the territories, I concluded that Israeli policies were oppressing Palestinians and Israelis.

When I received my first call from the army, I knew I would not go. I told my parents. At first they took it very badly, then they understood and they supported me.

At first, I felt lonely and thought I was the only one to think so. I knew that my refusal was a violation of the law but in front of every law there is morality, a conscience, a limit.

In the past, there was a lot of social injustice that was legal. The Holocaust in Europe, apartheid in South Africa, slavery in the United States are all examples of legal injustice. A law requiring enlistment in an army that opposes an entire population is not an ethical law and I do not feel the obligation to obey it.

I spoke with former objectors about the conditions of life in prison, and I try to get used to the idea of ​​living there.

The situation is frightening and stressful, but I think if I continue to believe in my values, they will strengthen me and protect me there.

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

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

Memphis’ MLK50 commemoration marks ‘time for a political revolution’

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Kevin McKenzie for High Ground News (reprinted as non-commercial use)

As thousands of union members and supporters prepared to march in Memphis on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s slaying while supporting the city’s sanitation workers, the point of the outpouring became clear.

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union still representing those workers today, tied the past to the present.

“Fifty years ago those brave 1,300 sanitation workers, the faith-based community, our community partners, walked together hand-in-hand, singing together, praying together, walking and demanding justice and dignity for those sanitation workers,” Saunders told the marchers. “We will do the same today, sisters and brothers. That same coalition, coming together, fighting the good fight. Are you ready?” he asked.


Teddy McNeal (center) raises his fist during Common’s performance outside the AFSCME Hall. McNeal traveled from Kinston, NC with his Machinists union. (Andrea Morales/MLK50)

Fusing together broad coalitions and movements to harness the power of voting, nonviolent civil disobedience and union organizing were a clear message repeated during three days of conferences, speeches and workshops culminating with Wednesday’s march.

Martin Luther King III echoed those themes during a closing rally in a South Memphis field adjacent to Mason Temple, where King spoke the night before he was slain at the Lorraine Motel, now part of the National Civil Rights Museum.

“We’ve got to find ways to register people like never before,” King said. “And we’ve got to vote in November like never before. Black Lives Matter, Me Too movement and finally the student high school movement to address guns in this country, we should be excited about that,” King said.

Before the march started from AFSCME Local 1733 headquarters, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said called King a nonviolent revolutionary. Honoring his legacy means following his footsteps and transforming the country.

“Dr. King was many, many things,” Sanders said. “What he was mostly about was understanding that we are all of a common humanity — black and white and Latino and Asian American and Native American. We have common dreams and today we tell the president of the United States and anyone else, you are not going to divide us up.”


AFSCME and the Memphis-based Church of God In Christ, headquartered at Mason Temple, partnered to support an I Am 2018 conference and the march.

(article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
What’s the message to us today from Martin Luther King, Jr.?

(article continued from left column)

Rev. William Barber, co-founder of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival, which rekindles King’s Poor People’s Campaign by harnessing civil disobedience to target government policies, shuttled between appearances, including the rally, to urge fusion and action.

“You dishonor the movement and dishonor the prophet if you just remember the prophet without having a revival of the movement the prophet stood for,” Barber told the marchers. “I’ve come today to tell you this is not time for a party, it is time for a political revolution.”

AFSCME and other public-sector unions also are preparing for what they fear may be a damaging U.S. Supreme Court case to be decided in coming months, Janus vs. AFSCME, that could cripple their ability to collect fees in some states.

The unions, as well as Democratic candidates they tend to support, would suffer the blow.

Entertainers including Common and Sheila E, who also delivered a speech at the closing rally, performed for the marchers.

CNN cable news political commentator Van Jones introduced speakers at the closing rally. Jones said his father was born in Memphis, went to Melrose High School, and was in Memphis the day King was slain.

“My father said that was the worst day of his life and the worst day in the life of Memphis. I wish he were here today to see the beauty, to see the strength to see the resilience, to see the power,” he said.

Another CNN political commentator, Angela Rye, also spoke, continuing a war of words with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

“Tell him that my facts are straight and here are the facts, Mayor Strickland, because I asked you if this was a Memphis that you are proud of, if you and the way that you are dealing with your workers in 2018, which is far too similar to the way that Mayor Loeb dealt with workers in 1968,” Rye said.

The city paid Rye to be keynote speaker Feb. 24 at an MLK50 event. Rye, who had met with Memphis activists beforehand, spoke critically of issues ranging from progress to policing in Memphis with Strickland sitting nearby.

The mayor told The Commercial Appeal that he didn’t know who Rye was, that she was wrong and out of touch at times, but that it was good to be challenged. He later followed up with a more detailed rebuttal.

Rev. Al Sharpton was among speakers who pointed to the continuing issue of police shootings of unarmed black men, as well as poverty and income inequality.

“We’re shot too much, incarcerated too long, that’s why we march,” Sharpton said.

Tilman Hardy, 41, is with Step Up Louisiana, which pushed for a statewide economic platform that was shot down by a House committee in the state legislature on party lines, with nine white Republicans voting no and three black Democrats voting yes, he said.

“That still shows that our nation is divided and all of these years later it seems like we still haven’t moved the needle as much as we could have. So days like today mean a great deal to America and New Orleans,” said Hardy, helping to hold a banner as he marched.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

USA: The Missing Link in the Gun Debate

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .

An article by Greta Zarro for Common Dreams (reprinted according to a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License)

America is up in arms about guns. If last month’s “March for Our Lives,” which attracted over one million marchers nationwide, is any indication, we’ve got a serious problem with gun violence, and people are fired up about it.  
But what’s not being talked about in the mainstream media, or even by the organizers and participants in the March for Our Lives movement, is the link between the culture of gun violence and the culture of war, or militarism, in this nation. Nik Cruz, the now infamous Parkland, FL shooter, was taught how to shoot a lethal weapon in the very school that he later targeted in the heart-breaking Valentine’s Day Massacre. Yes, that’s right; our children are trained as shooters in their school cafeterias, as part of the U.S. military’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) marksmanship program.  



Members of the Patch High School drill team compete in the team exhibition portion of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps drill meet at Heidelberg High School April 25. (Photo: Kristen Marquez, Herald Post/flickr/cc)

Nearly 2,000 U.S. high schools have such JROTC marksmanship programs, which are taxpayer-funded and rubber-stamped by Congress. Cafeterias are transformed into firing ranges, where children, as young as 13 years old, learn how to kill. The day that Nik Cruz opened fire on his classmates, he proudly wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the letters “JROTC.” JROTC’s motto? “Motivating Young People to Be Better Citizens.” By training them to wield a gun?  

I want to know why America isn’t marching against the military’s marksmanship programs. I want to know why millions aren’t knocking on their representatives’ doors and refusing to pay their taxes, until congressionally-approved firing ranges are removed from schools. Meanwhile, military recruiters hobnob with students during lunch break, then train them how to shoot in that same cafeteria and lure them to enlist. No doubt, the military’s pitch is slick, and economically enticing. That is, until the trainees turn on their classmates and teachers.

Perhaps what’s key above all, however, is that JROTC, and U.S. militarism as a whole, is embedded in our sociocultural framework as Americans, so much so that to question it is to cast doubt on one’s patriotic allegiance to this nation. To me, this explains why the Nik Cruz JROTC connection is not even an option on the table in the dialogue about gun violence. Why, at last month’s March for Our Lives in D.C., when my colleagues held up signs about the JROTC marksmanship program, marchers nodded in approval and bragged that they were JROTC trained.  

(Article continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Do you think handguns should be banned?, Why or why not?

(continued from left column)

The culture of war is pervasive in our society, through military-funded Hollywood films and video games, the militarization of the police, and JROTC and ROTC programs in our schools. The Pentagon receives the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all of our children, unless parents tell their children’s schools to opt them out. Nearly all of us are culpable, wittingly or unwittingly, in supporting the spread of U.S. militarism through our silent complicity and our tax dollars.  

The average mass shooter in this country is, by and large, an American male with a history of mental illness, criminal charges, or illicit substance abuse, according to a recently released March 2018 report by the U.S. Secret Services. He is not an ISIS terrorist or Al-Qaeda plotter. In fact, findings show that, above any ideology, mass attackers are most often motivated by a personal vendetta. What the Secret Services report does not talk about, however, is the disproportionate number of mass attackers who have been trained by the U.S. military. While veterans account for 13% of the the adult population, the data shows that more than 1/3 of adult perpetrators of the 43 worst mass killings between 1984 and 2006 had been in the U.S. military. Further, a 2015 study in the Annals of Epidemiology found that veterans kill themselves at a rate 50% higher than their civilian counterparts. This speaks volumes about the damaging psychological impact of war, and, I would argue, the deleterious potential of the warlike “us vs. them” mentality that JROTC and ROTC programs instill in the minds of developing youth, not to mention the very real marksmanship skills that they teach.  

While military recruits with access to a gun pose a risk to Americans at home, meanwhile, our soldiers abroad are not much more effective at policing the world. As military spending has skyrocketed in recent decades, now accounting for over fifty percent of U.S. federal discretionary spending, according to the National Priorities Project, so has terrorism.

Despite our country’s endless state of military “interventions” in other nations, the Global Terrorism Index in fact records a steady increase in terrorist attacks from the beginning of our “war on terror” in 2001 to the present. Federal intelligence analysts and retired officers admit that U.S. occupations generate more hatred, resentment, and blowback than they prevent. According to a declassified intelligence report on the war on Iraq, “despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.” With the U.S. government spending a combined $1 trillion annually on war and preparations for war, including the stationing of troops at over 800 bases worldwide, there is little left of the public purse to spend on domestic necessities.

The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks U.S. infrastructure as a D+. We rank 4th in the world for wealth inequality, according to the OECD. U.S. infant mortality rates are the highest in the developed world, according to UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. Communities across the nation lack access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation, a UN human right that the U.S. fails to recognize.

Forty million Americans live in poverty. Given this lack of a basic social safety net, is it any wonder that people enlist in the armed forces for economic relief and a supposed sense of purpose, grounded in our nation’s history of associating military service with heroism? 
 
If we want to prevent the next mass shooting, we need to stop fueling the culture of violence and militarism, and that starts with ending JROTC marksmanship programs in our schools.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

Palestine’s Great March of Return: A New Defiance Campaign

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by By Iqbal Jassat for the Palestine Chronicle (the author is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network)

In a remarkably fresh approach in resistance to Israel’s seven decades of colonialism, Palestinians have geared up to mobilize en masse in what has been dubbed as Great March of Return.

Starting Friday 30th March 2018, thousands upon thousands head towards homes and lands from which they were forcibly expelled. Victims of evictions and ethnic cleansing whose losses have never been admitted by Israel despite being acknowledged by the United Nations, have every right under International Law to reclaim the theft of their land.


Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return. (Photo: ActiveStills.org)

Though month of March each year since 1976 has been commemorated as Land Day, this year sees it expanded in a very creative way.

The popular sentiment shared amongst Palestinians in the diaspora as indeed within the suffocating occupied territories is “Returning to our stolen lands and homes is legal under International Law and UN resolutions”.

The Great March of Return is thus an affirmation of this inalienable right guaranteed by a substantial number of international conventions.

Reports from the colonial regime reveal an aggressive and hostile military reaction is underway. Leaks from Netanyahu’s war-room point to threats to kill any and all  Palestinians who dare to approach the apartheid barriers or “fences” which bar the indigenous population from their homes and lands.

To the dismay of Israel, the Great March of Return is not planned to be a short lived one-day event. And to add to Israel’s PR nightmare, media coverage will in all likelihood revisit core issues at the heart of this March via extensive analysis and historic footage.

Expressing its displeasure at mainstream media and throwing tantrums alongside wailing and howling  – as Israel is accustomed to doing, will not assist the regime’s Hasbara (propaganda) campaigns. In fact it will be entirely counterproductive as the old Nats in apartheid’s heydays in South Africa learnt.

(Article continued in the right column)

Question for this article

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

(Article continued from the left column)

Concealing the ugly reality of Zionism’s imposition of a foreign entity (Israel) and the consequences of the Nakba (catastrophe) which to date are eminently visible throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories OPT, Palestine ’48 and refugee camps dotted across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and elsewhere is not only not possible, but morally repugnant.

Equally it would be outrageous and utterly disgraceful for any media platform to ignore or downplay the enormous burden faced by Palestinians to free themselves from oppression and reclaim justice. The Great March of Return is thus a challenge to media to dislodge themselves from false Israeli narratives fed to them by highly resourced Hasbara campaigns.

It requires a return to an understanding of the enormity of losses suffered by the Palestinians at the hands of a racist colonial entity supported and facilitated by the British government a century ago. It means revisiting notorious historical details which certainly will be unflattering for those European powers who played central roles In the dispossession of Palestine.

The Great March of Return is a challenge to those in the media who’ve been cowed by intimidating threats of economic sabotage and fear being unfairly smeared as “antisemitic”, to get off their fences and jump into the fray. Robust introspection and fearless courageous reports on the reasons why Palestinians have embarked on this momentous peaceful defiance campaign should be par for the course for journalists who value integrity.

In keeping with its irrational conduct, Israel has imposed a “closure” on the Palestinian areas for the so called “Passover holidays”. In addition the settler colonial regime has enforced a “no go” zone on land adjacent to Gaza’s border.  Chief of staff of the military’s occupation forces has admitted that “more than 100 sharpshooters” primarily from elite special forces, have been deployed with permission to “open fire”.

B’Tselem, known for fearlessly challenging Israel’s violations of human rights, is justifiably concerned about threats by the regime to unleash lethal force on the demonstrators.

“Completely ignoring the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and Israel’s responsibility for it, they are couching the planned protest in terms of a security risk, framing the demonstrators as terrorists and referring to Gaza as a ‘combat zone.”

As the March unfolds, reports come through about injuries and deaths caused by the Occupation forces’ deadly weapons. As B’Tselem and other humanitarian organisations have warned, Israel’s war mongering displays blatant disregard for the sanctity of Palestinian life. Nor for any of its obligations under International Law.

The Great March of Return has the support of all the Palestinian factions – Hamas, Fatah, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad. Expected to continue until 15 May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, it’s demands will hopefully resonate across all corners of the world: Right of Return to their pre-1948 homes!

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Eyeless in Gaza

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by Uri Avnery in Transcend.org

14 Apr 2018 – Write down: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief.


A frame from the video of the sniper shooting a demonstrator

We don’t belong to the same army, or to the same state. We hardly belong to the same human race.

IS MY government committing “war crimes” along the border of the Gaza Strip?

I don’t know. I am not a jurist.

It seems that officials of the International Criminal Court believe that the acts of our soldiers do constitute war crimes. They demand an international investigation.

To prevent that, our army command proposes an Israeli military investigation. That is manifestly ridiculous – an army investigating itself about acts committed on direct orders of the Chief of Staff.

As was published in advance, sharpshooters were posted along the border fence and ordered to kill “ringleaders” of the unarmed protesters on the other side of the fence. The Gaza leadership had announced that these unarmed protests were to take place every week, after Friday prayers, until Naqba Day.

During the first two Fridays, 29 unarmed people were shot dead and more than a thousand wounded by sharpshooters.

For me this is not a judicial question. It is a crime, not only against the unarmed protesters. It is also a crime against the State of Israel, against the people of Israel and against the Israeli army.

Since I was a member of that army on the day of its foundation, I think that it is also a crime against my comrades and me.

THIS WEEK a short video, recorded by a soldier at the time of such an action, was widely seen in Israel [See link to video above].

It shows the action from the angle of a soldier who was obviously standing next to a sharpshooter. The sharpshooter sees the demonstrators from a distance of hundreds of yards. The hairs of his sights move at random, than settle on an individual. He shoots. The person drops on the spot.

A joyous cry “Yesh” is heard all around from unseen soldiers who have been watching. “Yesh” means “got him”, a jubilant yell, such as would accompany a hunter’s success in killing a rabbit.

Many hundreds of thousands of Israelis have seen this film by now, since it was shown for the first time on TV. Except for a few articles and letters to the editor (in Haaretz), there has been no protest.

This did not happen overseas, in some remote colony. It happened right next to us, 45 minute’s drive from my home.

The killer was not a hardened mercenary. He – and the joyous soldiers around him – were just ordinary youngsters, drafted at the age of 18 like most Jewish Israelis.

All of them were just “following orders”. (Remember?) We have not heard of one single case of a soldier refusing orders.

UNTIL TWO weeks ago, I had the highest respect for our highest officer, the Chief of Staff, Gadi Eizenkot. Surrounded by officers who are mere military technicians, he seemed an officer who, in spite of his unmilitary appearance, was well capable of upholding the dignity of the army against the punk who serves as Minister of Defense.

No more. Eizenkot has given the murderous orders. Why, for heavens sake?

(Article continued in the right column)

Question for this article

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

(Article continued from the left column)

Like the British in India and the white racists in the US, the Israeli government does not know how to deal with unarmed protest. It has never encountered it. It does not exist in Arab tradition.

By chance this week I saw the classic movie about Mahatma Gandhi. The British tried everything – they beat him and myriads of others into pulp, they shot thousands of others. When Gandhi and his followers suffered this torment and did not hit back, the British eventually admitted defeat and went away.

So did the white racist opponents of Martin Luther King in Alabama. A Palestinian follower of his came to this country at the beginning of the occupation and tried to convince his countrymen to try this method. The Israel army opened fire, and the Palestinians reverted to the armed struggle.

Not this time. The (violent) Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip calls on the population to try unarmed protest, tens of thousands follow. This can lead to unforeseen results. One of them is the sharpshooters’ order to kill more or less at random.

WHEN I stated publicly that I am ashamed, a reader accused me of hypocrisy. He cited from my two books about our (1948) War of Independence, in which I had described atrocities to which I was a witness.

Sure, there were atrocities (as in every war). The perpetrators were soldiers of all ethnic and social groups. But they were denounced by some of their comrades (also of all ethnic and social groups). Most soldiers were in the middle, following the most persuasive.

Now the picture is different. Not only is the shooting of the unarmed protesters, far from the fence, done by order, but there seem to be no other voices. The military and political leadership is united. Even in civilian society, voices against the mass murder are very few.

HOW DO the Israeli media react? Well, they don’t. This momentous event in Israel’s history is almost ignored.

Fortunately for the perpetrators, there are plenty of events to take our minds off them and their actions. President Bashar al-Assad has apparently used chemical weapons against his rebels. The Israeli media are having a feast. How awful! How barbarous! How Arab!

Then there is the problem of the 36,000 “illegal” (meaning non-Jewish) African workers who have entered Israel. The government wants to throw them out. Decent Israelis very properly want to prevent this. That is a full-time job. No time for the Gaza Strip.

And there is, of course, Holocaust Memorial Day, which happens conveniently this week. One can write endlessly about this awful chapter in our history. What is Gaza compared to this horrible event?

WHAT ABOUT our media?

The sorrowful fact is that the Israeli media have reverted to what they were in the early days of the state: an instrument of the government. It took my news magazine dozens of years to break that habit. For many years we had a decent press, with some wonderful journalists and broadcasters.

No more. A few are left, but the great majority of the press is now coordinated with the regime (“gleichgeschaltet” in German). Two minutes on Gaza. 20 minutes on what’s happening in Syria. 10 minutes for the latest (imaginary) outbreak of anti-Semitism in the British Labor Party.

Most of the journalists and broadcasters, honest and well-meaning people all, are not even conscious of what they are doing (or not doing). They are innocent of any other thoughts.

WHERE IS the “Left”? Where is the so-called “Center”?

They have not disappeared, as some lament. Far from it. A shift of some percent or a move of one of the small parties would suffice to topple Binyamin Netanyahu.

But they all seem to be paralyzed. Nobody dares to speak out against the killing, apart from some faint whispers. Even the many admirable groups of youngsters who fight against the occupation, each on some special sector, are silent about the Gaza killings.

No mass demonstrations. No huge protests. Nothing.

So we, too, are to blame. And perhaps more than others.

Please write down: I am guilty!

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Global Anti-war Protests Against US-led Aggression in Syria

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Telesur TV

Leftists and anti-war protesters took to the streets in many cities around the world over the weekend against to renounce and reject the U.S.-led assault against Syrian government structures with the support of France and United Kingdom.


Demonstrators protest after the missile strikes on Syria, outside the White House in Washington, U.S., April 14, 2018. Photo | Reuters

In the U.S. hundreds of protesters gathered in major cities, including New York City, Washington, Chicago and Portland. In Manhattan, people demonstrated in front of the Trump Tower to protest the president’s decision.

In Mexico City, activists met outside of the U.S. embassy and hung banners and flags on the protection fence to demand rights for everyone, regardless of their country of origin, and in rejection of the wall being built between Mexico and the U.S.

In Santiago de Chile demonstrators held a rally outside the U.S. embassy, waving Syrian flags and chanting slogans. They were confronted by the Chilean police and some protesters were arrested.

In London, members of the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) protested Friday outside Prime Minister Theresa May’s residence to demand she refrains from joining any attack on Syria. The protest was joined by people of several backgrounds, including Syrians residing in the United Kingdom.

The protesters read a letter signed by politicians, celebrities, academics and unionists, declaring that “further military intervention, as proposed by Trump, May, or Macron, is not the solution.”

Question for this article:

How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?

In Greece, thousands of people showed up for a rally organized by the Greek Communist Party in Athens to protest the attack on the Syrian government.
According to Greek police, between 6,000 and 7,000 people marched from Syntagma Square to the U.S. embassy, chanting anti-imperialist slogans. Anti-riot police blocked access to the embassy and protesters painted “Americans, murderers of people” in front of it. No clashes were reported and protesters left peacefully.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the head of the Communist Party in Greece, criticized Greek politicians for believing the U.S.’s “flimsy excuses about the use of chemical weapons” by Bashar Assad in order to attack Syria.
“The imperialists once again spill the blood of the local people. They destroy and splinter states by using fabricated evidence,” said Koutsoumbas.

In India, members of the Socialist Unity Center of India-Marxist (SUCI-M) and anti-war activists met Sunday in Kolkata to protest the airstrikes, and burned an effigy depicting Donald Trump, with sketches of Macron and May sticked to it.

Protesters held signs reading messages such as “rise up, protest against U.S. missile attack against Syria” and “”in protests against US missile attack on Syria.”

In Cyprus, left-wing activists also protested Sunday at the gates of the RAF Akrotiri, a British royal air force military base in an “overseas territory” in the Mediterranean island, near Limassol.

The United States, United Kingdom and France fired early Saturday over 100 missiles into Syria according to the Syrian government, Russia and the U.S. military. The Syrian army said that more than 70 missiles of the 105 fired at its structures were intercepted by its air defenses.

The United Nations Security Council rejected Saturday a resolution proposed by Russia seeking to condemn the U.S.-led attack in Syria. Only Russia, Bolivia and China voted in favor of the resolution.

Meanwhile global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW inspectors arrived in Syria Saturday and were due to try to reach the site of a suspected poison attack in the Syrian town of Douma in eastern Ghouta.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global