Tag Archives: Mideast

Dutch pension fund divests from two Israeli banks over settlements’ finances

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from WAFA, Palestinian News and Info Agency

The ABP, the largest pension fund in the Netherlands, has decided to divest from Israeli banks, Hapoalim and Leumi, for their finance of construction projects in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement attributed to the ABP’s spokesperson.

The spokesperson reportedly pointed out that the location where companies operate plays a role in investment appraisals and criteria, which include revenue, costs, risks, and sustainability.

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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?

Divestment: is it an effective tool to promote sustainable development?

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“We expect companies operating in areas with high risk of human rights violations to have a human rights policy,” said the spokesperson.

In January 2014, PGGM, the country’s second largest pension administrator, announced the divestment from five Israeli banks, citing their activities in the illegal Israeli settlements built in the West Bank.

The Netherlands and the European Union consider Israeli settlements as illegal.
Last April, the European Union issued a warning against the Israeli government’s intention to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, saying that such a move “would constitute a serious violation of international law.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the 27-member bloc does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Palestinian territory and that it will “continue to closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

Israeli annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank would break international law – UN experts call on the international community to ensure accountability 

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

A news article from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

The agreement by the new coalition Government of Israel to annex significant parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank after 1 July would violate a cornerstone principle of international law and must be meaningfully opposed by the international community, UN experts said today. Forty-seven of the independent Special Procedures mandates appointed by the Human Rights Council issued the following statement [on June 16]:

“The annexation of occupied territory is a serious violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions, and contrary to the fundamental rule affirmed many times by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly that the acquisition of territory by war or force is inadmissible. The international community has prohibited annexation precisely because it incites wars, economic devastation, political instability, systematic human rights abuses and widespread human suffering.

Israel’s stated plans for annexation would extend sovereignty over most of the Jordan Valley and all of the more than 235 illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This would amount to approximately 30 percent of the West Bank. The annexation of this territory was endorsed by the American Peace to Prosperity Plan, released in late January 2020.

The United Nations has stated on many occasions that the 53-year-old Israeli occupation is the source of profound human rights violations against the Palestinian people. These violations include land confiscation, settler violence, discriminatory planning laws, the confiscation of natural resources, home demolitions, forcible population transfer, excessive use of force and torture, labour exploitation, extensive infringements of privacy rights, restrictions on the media and freedom of expression, the targeting of women activists and journalists, the detention of children, poisoning by exposure to toxic wastes, forced evictions and displacement, economic deprivation and extreme poverty, arbitrary detention, lack of freedom of movement, food insecurity, discriminatory law enforcement and the imposition of a two-tier system of disparate political, legal, social, cultural and economic rights based on ethnicity and nationality. Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, are slandered, criminalised or labeled as terrorists. Above all, the Israeli occupation has meant the denial of the right of Palestinian self-determination.

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Question related to this article:

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

Israel/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?

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These human rights violations would only intensify after annexation. What would be left of the West Bank would be a Palestinian Bantustan, islands of disconnected land completely surrounded by Israel and with no territorial connection to the outside world. Israel has recently promised that it will maintain permanent security control between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Thus, the morning after annexation would be the crystallisation of an already unjust reality: two peoples living in the same space, ruled by the same state, but with profoundly unequal rights. This is a vision of a 21st century apartheid.

Twice before, Israel has annexed occupied land – East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981. On both occasions, the UN Security Council immediately condemned the annexations as unlawful but took no meaningful countermeasures to oppose Israel’s actions.

Similarly, the Security Council has repeatedly criticised the Israeli settlements as a flagrant violation under international law. Yet, Israel’s defiance of these resolutions and its ongoing entrenchment of the settlements has gone unanswered by the international community.

This time must be different. The international community has solemn legal and political responsibilities to defend a rules-based international order, to oppose violations of human rights and fundamental principles of international law and to give effect to its many resolutions critical of Israel’s conduct of this protracted occupation. In particular, states have a duty not to recognise, aid or assist another state in any form of illegal activity, such as annexation or the creation of civilian settlements in occupied territory. The lessons from the past are clear: Criticism without consequences will neither forestall annexation nor end the occupation.

Accountability and an end to impunity must become an immediate priority for the international community. Available to it is a broad menu of accountability measures that have been widely and successfully applied by the UN Security Council in other international crises over the past 60 years. The accountability measures that are selected must be taken in full conformity with international law, be proportionate, effective, subject to regular review, consistent with human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, and designed to undo the annexations and bring the occupation and the conflict to a just and durable conclusion. Palestinians and Israelis deserve no less.

We express great regret about the role of the United States of America in supporting and encouraging Israel’s unlawful plans for the further annexation of occupied territory. On many occasions over the past 75 years, the United States has played an important role in the advancement of global human rights. On this occasion, it should be ardently opposing the imminent breach of a fundamental principle of international law, rather than actively abetting its violation.”

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, United Nations,

Oppostion to Israel’s proposed annexation of occupied Palestinian territory

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

A letter from Members of US Congress

Despite lack of attention by the commercial media, described by Jan Oberg, Israel’s proposed annexation of occupied Palestinian territory has been opposed by 100 US organizations and by the following letter by members of the US Congress.


Palestinians are gathering in Gaza City and occupied West Bank for demonstrations against the Israeli plan [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

June 30, 2020

To: The Honorable Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Pompeo:

We write to you to express our deep concern over the planned annexation of occupied Palestinian territory by the government of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said annexation could begin as early as July 1, 2020. Should the Israeli government move forward with these plans, they would actively harm prospects for a future in which all Israelis and Palestinians can live with full equality, human rights and dignity, and would lay the groundwork for Israel becoming an apartheid state, as your predecessor John Kerry warned in 2014.We call on you to take all necessary action available to reverse course on this proposal, which will cause more tension and conflict for decades to come. While the full scope and details of the plan are not yet public, Palestinians have overwhelmingly rejected the idea of annexation, and have understandably refused to participate in a process that is not grounded in a recognition of their national rights under international law.

Leading human rights experts warn that annexing parts of the West Bank will perpetuate and entrench human rights violations against the Palestinian people, including limitations on freedom of movement, mass expropriation of privately-owned Palestinian land, further expansion of illegal settlements, continued demolitions of Palestinian homes, and a loss of Palestinian control over their natural resources.

Furthermore, Israel has stated it will not grant citizenship to Palestinians living in annexed territory or to the many more Palestinians living in the isolated enclaves that Israel will opt not to annex, formalizing in law the separate and unequal treatment of the two populations and paving the path toward an apartheid system. Indeed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 has stated that it would “crystalize a 21st century apartheid, leaving in its wake the demise of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

Of further concern, Israeli annexation of the West Bank is a clear violation of international law. Annexation is prohibited by Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and is a prohibited act of aggression under Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, of which Israel is a party. Forty-seven of the independent Special Procedures mandates appointed by the Human Rights Council at the United Nations reaffirm this. Further, already existing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amount to a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court because Israel, as the Occupying Power, is prohibited from transferring, either directly or indirectly, parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

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Question related to this article:

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

Israel/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?

(continued from left column)

Annexation is specifically prohibited because it incites armed conflict, political and economic instability, systematic human rights abuses, and, most importantly, legitimizes the erasure ofidentity. There is no question that the acre by acre de facto annexation since 1967 for the purpose of new Israeli settlements is a blatant attempt to suppress Palestinian identity and nationhood.

Unilateral annexation in the West Bank is in direct opposition to the principles of democracy and human rights that the United States of America is supposed to stand for. At a time when the American people are taking to the streets to demand justice for all in our own country, there is no question but that such an action would alienate many U.S. lawmakers and citizens. Members of Congress should not be expected to support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights.

Should the Israeli government continue down this path, we will work to ensure non-recognition of annexed territories as well as pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way. We will include human rights conditions and the withholding of funds for the offshore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them.

The United States must remain committed to a future in which all Israelis and Palestinians live with full rights, dignity, and democracy. This means that we do not support policies that would prevent that future, as annexation would. We therefore urge you to make clear to the Israeli government that such a move is unacceptable.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Representative Pramila Jayapal

Representative Betty McCollum

Senator Bernard Sanders

Representative Rashida Tlaib

Representative Ayanna Pressley

Representative André Carson

Representative Jesús G. “Chuy” García.

Representative Bobby Rush

Representative Raul Grijalva

Representative Ilhan Omar

Representative Danny Davis

Representative Nydia Velázquez

(Thank you to Phyllis Kotite, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast, North America,

Palestine Must Live: An Online Petition

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

A petition on AVAAZ: The World in Action

In 7 days, Israel’s Prime Minister is set to expand Israel into much of Palestine.

Palestine is recognised by the United Nations. But Israel’s government is simply taking it over, in violation of all international law.

Virtually everyone opposes this, but the question is whether anyone will do anything about it. Europe and others have the power to make Israel think twice, but they need to hear a massive demand for action from citizens first. Let’s give it to them!

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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 a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

(article continued from left column)

CPNN readers are encouraged to add their names to the following petition.

To Heads of State, Foreign Ministers, and Trade Ministers:

The treatment of the Palestinian people has become a stain on the conscience of the world. It is time for the world to stand up and act, to bring sanctions on key Israeli industries until Palestinians are granted full and equal civil rights. We appeal to you for moral leadership and action to save lives.

To sign the petition, go here.

(Thank you you to Phyllis Kotite, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

North Africa: The Corona pandemic and the Struggle for our Peoples’ Resources and Food Sovereignty

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A presentation by Omar Aziki published by The Transnational Institute (reprinted according to a Creative Commons Licence:Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 licence.)

Today, it appears that the Coronavirus Pandemic will inadvertently cause humanitarian tragedies of immense proportions. Its health, social, economic and psychological repercussions vary depending on social status. The lower classes will be the first to suffer from the lack of public healthcare and medication, as well as from the economic recession’s impact on employment and the cost of living.


Watch the video (In Arabic)

The spread of Covid-19 has exposed a relationship between the health crisis and other crises  brought about by the capitalist system. The latter includes financial crises (the crash of stock markets worldwide) as well as economic (the decline of production and economic recession), environmental (climate change and loss of biodiversity) and political ones (the rise of totalitarian governments and an institutional strain of international capitalism). The virus has also found fodder in the immigration crisis (spread across all continents) and the food crisis. There is a correlation between the vulnerability of the human immune system and the recurrence of epidemics. The manner by which agriculture has transformed, from an activity that produces ecological and healthy food, to a profit-making industry built on the poisoning of our bodies and environment.

Capitalism has destroyed subsistence agriculture, a mode of production in harmony with its environment, and caused massive deforestation and over-exploitation of marine resources. Meanwhile, big corporations have seized the genetic heritage developed by peasants through the centuries. They have appropriated a biodiversity constructed through the natural selection process of varieties of seeds, plants, and livestock. As such, GMOs were disseminated based on the logic of excessive production. These organisms form the basis of destructive monoculture, using production techniques that heavily depend on chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides, industrial feed, added hormones and antibiotics. This heinous process of production affects both farm and marine animals. Capitalist conglomerates have dominated plant and livestock production chains, as well as distribution and consumption networks. The globalization of transportation and communication, as well as advertising (which is one of capitalism’s most effective weapons) made the penetration of an industrial consumer-oriented food regime possible.

That’s how famine developed; from which more than 820 million people suffer around the world today. And we mustn’t forget that the numbers do not reflect the extent of malnutrition in the countries of the South (especially amongst women and children) and its repercussions on the outbreak of diseases. The food dependency of most of the countries of the South was intensified by the agricultural policies of the big capitalists who produced to export what the world markets required according to the international division of labour. The import of essential commodities became dependent on speculative food markets. This is the reality experienced by the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, which have become one of the largest global importers of foodstuffs. These countries live at the mercy of food markets, a reality which has subjected them to regular bread riots as food prices have risen during the last 40 years. The most recent are the protests resulting from the food crisis in the context of the 2007-2008 international financial recession. This food crisis can be directly linked to the subsequent popular uprisings we witnessed in most countries in the region, from the end of 2010 until the beginning of 2020 when confinement measures obliged protesters to desert the streets.

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Question for this article:

What is the relation between movements for food sovereignty and the global movement for a culture of peace?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

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Today, as our region faces the Covid-19 outbreak, we see direct producers risking their lives as they resume their activities. Meanwhile, agricultural capitalists continue to show their disregard for the workers’ lives. They deny their right to preventive health measures both in transportation and inside production units while benefiting from state support, tax concessions, loan facilities and other benefits. On the other hand, small farmers, fishers, herders and agricultural labourers suffer from the lack or insufficiency of social subsidies, public healthcare, on top of a rise of prices for essential commodities, falling incomes and outright job loss.

The North African Network for Food Sovereignty, to which I belong, has put forward a series of demands and urgent measures  to be implemented through the entire health emergency period:

a. For small farmers, fishers, herders, forest workers and the unemployed in rural areas:

b. The payment of monthly compensation, no less than the minimum wage in rural areas, for the entire health emergency period.

c. The amount of compensation should be proportionate to the number of dependents in the worker’s household.

d. The universalization of social security and healthcare coverage and access to regular pensions.

e. The cancellation of debt owed by small farmers.

f. Providing all types of support to subsistence farming activities (in plains, mountains, forests and oases), subsistence stockbreeding, and coastal subsistence. As well as encouraging the consumption of their products through the creation of direct markets and fighting illegal and monopoly speculation.

For employees who lost their jobs in the fishing and agriculture sectors:

a. The payment of full wages.

b. The payment of employees’ social security contributions.

c. The cancellation of consumer credit and micro-credits.

For all direct producers in agriculture and fishing sectors:

a. The creation of a fund to regulate the prices of essential commodities (major food crops, vegetable oils, sugar, butane gas…)

For households, the state must cover the cost of:

a. The means of protection against Covid-19.

b. Medication and all medical services.

c. Water, electricity, communication networks and rent.

d. Children’s education.

Indeed, the deterioration of living and healthcare conditions will once again fuel popular uprisings which are already finding new ways to manifest themselves during the lockdown. We in the North African Network for Food sovereignty will work to engage with and mobilise small farmers, fishers, herders, forest and agricultural workers in this upcoming struggle.

We will continue, from within the Network, our activism and campaigns for:

* Popular education.

* Strengthening solidarity and organizational links.

* Speaking up against repression and the stifling of freedom of expression

* Exposing the prevailing model of production and consumption.

* The alternative of Food Sovereignty.

Africa, Mideast, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT,

The Elders call for new Middle East peace plan to counter Israeli annexation threat

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. ,

A press release from The Elders

The Elders today called for new engagement from the international community to deliver a just outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and uphold international law in the face of plans by the new Israeli government to illegally annex swathes of the West Bank.


Photo: Dennis Jarvis / Flickr
Click on image to enlarge

A new initiative in the spirit of the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 is needed to bring both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as regional and international powers, into meaningful dialogue on the way forward. Existing multilateral mechanisms like the Quartet should be revitalised and potentially expanded to give a greater role to other powers in the region.

Conversely, The Elders warned that the annexation plans represent a unilateral repudiation of the two-state solution, and are opposed by most countries in the region and internationally. Annexation risks plunging the region into deeper turmoil, further fomenting bitterness and alienation among Palestinians, antagonising Israel’s neighbours and eroding the democratic and constitutional framework of the Jewish state.

Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said:

“The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can only ever be solved by finding a solution that guarantees peace, security, rights and dignity to both peoples. Unilaterally seizing territory and ignoring international law achieves precisely the opposite. Such a move betrays both the interests of Israeli citizens and the ideals of the State’s founders.”

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Question related to this article:

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

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US support alone cannot deliver lasting success on the ground when the proposals announced by President Donald Trump in January have been comprehensively rejected by all strands of Palestinian leadership and Israel’s neighbours.

Jimmy Carter, Elder Emeritus and former President of the United States, said:

“If the joint mapping of Palestinian lands to be seized by the Israeli government continues, the standing of the United States in the international community will be further damaged. The West Bank belongs to Palestine, and any changes should be mutually agreed upon.”

Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, added:

“The principles of international law are the bedrock of our global order. They provide a framework for defending rights and exercising power that is crucial to all global challenges. Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank would not only be an act of aggressive folly, it would have a destructive influence on global rights and norms. I call on the whole world to speak out against this damaging agenda.”

The Elders welcomed the efforts of brave voices in Israeli civil society and Jewish diaspora groups who have opposed annexation, and encouraged them to stand firm in their support for peace, democracy and a two-state solution.

They further warned that a situation where Jewish communities in the West Bank live under Israeli civilian law, while neighbouring Palestinians live under Israeli military law, would inevitably prompt parallels with historical repressive and discriminatory regimes, including apartheid South Africa.

Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian Foreign Minister and UN diplomat, said:

“The Palestinian people deserve the world’s solidarity and support. Their independence and agency are denied, their polity divided and their rights ignored by the occupying power, even when Palestinian doctors and nurses work tirelessly in Israeli hospitals to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The Palestinians have an inalienable right to their land and to their state. And they have the right to struggle for those rights. The world has overlooked its responsibility to the people of Palestine for too many decades. Silence now would be a bitter betrayal, and is certain to have dire consequences for all concerned.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations: Five Youth-Led Organizations Selected as Recipients of the Youth Solidarity Fund for 2019

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Excerpts from the newsletter of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

UNAOC has announced the latest recipients of the Youth Solidarity Fund (YSF) [ announced in 2019]. More than 600 proposals were received from over 70 countries in response to the call for applications. Five organizations based in Africa and Asia were then selected to receive seed funding of up to USD 25,000 for the purpose of implementing projects with innovative and effective approaches to intercultural dialogue and interfaith harmony. These five recipients join a group of 63 other youth-led organizations that have been funded by UNAOC since 2008.

In addition to seed funding, YSF recipients will also receive technical support to strengthen the implementation of their projects. UNAOC has partnered with Search for Common Ground to facilitate a capacity-building programme called Youth 360, involving online workshops and ongoing support from mentors. YSF recipients will have access to this support until the end of their project implementation period in November 2020.

The current edition of YSF is implemented through financial contributions from the Governments of Finland, Malta and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Umoja Mashinani – Kenya

“Our project, Umoja Mashinani, can be loosely translated to mean Peace Ambassadors in the Grassroots. We aim to enhance the capacity of community radio journalists to promote messages on non-violence, religious respect and intercul- tural cohesion. With UNAOC, we hope to build a sustainable and impactful platform together, fostering a community of young people who work for peace.”

Bonface Ochieng Opany, 27 years old
Project Coordinator, Umoja Mashinani
Youth Solidarity Fund Recipient, Amani Centre (Kenya)

Theatre for Peace – Sri Lanka

“Our project will bring young people with diverse backgrounds together to connect, create and transform. Through theater, we will facilitate a process of introspection to explore and challenge our own identities, beliefs, biases and perspectives. With the resources and the solidarity shared through UNAOC we will be stronger to stand up and challenge the polarization and separation in our society.”
Sivatharsini Raveendran, 28 years old Project Coordinator, Theatre for Peace – Connect.Create. Transform

For Youth Solidarity Fund Recipient, Centre for Communication Training (Sri Lanka)

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

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

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We Play for Peace – Lebanon

“We are launching ‘We Play for Peace!’ which is a project funded by UNAOC to create a safe space for youth from different religions, nationalities and backgrounds. Through sports, young people from the North Bekaa region of Lebanon will get the opportunity to set their differences aside and play together in peace. Youth will erase the memory of conflict and be a source of positive change for the future.”

Mehdi Houssein Yehya, 31 years old
Project Coordinator, We Play for Peace! Youth Solidarity Fund Recipient, Peace of Art (Lebanon)

Dismantling Stereotypes – Kingdom of Eswatini

“We are curating interfaith and intercultural conversations amongst young people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. With the grant from UNAOC, we aim to inculcate a culture of mutual understanding, respect and tolerance for these young people. Our goal is to place youth in the center of pre- venting any religious and cultural differences from breaking out into violence or developing into mechanisms for excluding other people.”

Sicelo Christopher Gama, 29 years old Project Coordinator,
Dismantling Religious and Cultural Stereotypes for Social Cohesion and Sustainable Peac
Youth Solidarity Fund Recipient, Swaziland Intent Youth Organization (Kingdom of Eswatini)

Nurturing for Peace – Uganda

“We thank UNAOC for their support of our project that will engage youth from seven sects of Islam and Christianity to strengthen interfaith understanding and foster new friendships. The project aims to reduce support for religiously motivated recruitment and acts of violent extremism in Eastern Uganda. We are confident that our project will be a living symbol to the ideals of interfaith cooperation and friendship among faiths.”

Zulaika Nanfuka, 32 years old
Project Coordinator, Nurturing for Peace
Youth Solidarity Fund Recipient, Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum (Uganda)

Africa, Mideast, South Asia, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, United Nations, , ,

From Nazra for Feminist Studies (Egypt): A Letter of Solidarity; Together, We Stand in Solidarity..To Build

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A letter from Nazra for Feminist Studies (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License)

At the present time, we and humanity as a whole are experiencing a new crisis, which can be considered the biggest crisis of our modern time. In these times, the world adopts a number of feminist values and convey them to the globe such as joining forces in times of fear, loss and build, collective responsibility and action towards our survival, international cooperation and collectiveness in order to understand and identify ways to overcome this crisis.

COVID-19 pandemic not only comes as a threat to our lives, but it threatens women by increasing the possibilities of discrimination and oppression against them. In light of this development, we reconsider the concept of survival for these women, while revisiting the different intersectionalities of women’s lives.

In this moment, we, women and feminists, are conscious of the magnitude of the fears, burdens and risks that we face.

Additionally, we realize that we have a significant role towards humanity in which history testifies for us playing this role in previous similar times. Moreover, we are aware of how to cooperate with others in order to develop values of feminist solidarity as well as our responsibilities toward each other’s and toward our causes.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

(continued from left column).

We are aware that together we can build bridges to cross over the fears and dangers and together we can build a new start in history for the feminist movement.

The feminist movement has continuously established feminist solidarity and collective action, while consolidating their values and disseminating them to the world through inspiring experiences. Most of these experiences reflect dedication, sacrifice and the adoption of collective survival values to enhance women’s lives. The feminist movements, wave after another have learned how to fight oppressive and discriminatory structures while being mindful of the intersectionality of women’s conditions. Moreover, they learned how to build and make progress out of major crises.

This message in such times is a reminder to ourselves and to feminist activists all over the world that we are aware of what to be done.

We know that this is a time to hold strongly to our values and causes, it is a time to share our experiences, to share our agonies and fears, to share awareness and develop it together, to exchange ideas, support and feminist solidarity, a time to build.

We know that this is a time to think about all the women who are now frightened and threatened and in need of our voices. A time to make sure that we listen to women and their experiences, and we know very well that these crises as they present pain to women, they provide them with resistance and resilience.

This time might constitute a new beginning, and we need to cooperate together and to evolve together in order to survive through various means and with an awareness that is shaped by us to present humanity with new rich values as we have always did that emanates from the continued act of resistance and dedication to defend women’s rights, while adhering to our feminist values.

(Thank you to Anwarul Chowdhury for calling our attention to this article.)

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

A global call from Palestine Action for the Planet

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

 An blog by Mazin Qumsiyeh in the Popular Resistance Blogspot

More and more people realize that the current global political and economic structures are unable to deal with global climate crisis, the endless conflicts, proliferation of WMD, and the increased frequency of pandemics. This is no longer just a question of morality and rights but a question of our survival as a civilization and as a planet facing mass extinction. erg,” he said.

World War II transformed our planet in ways not foreseen before, including creating instruments like the United Nations ostensibly to stop wars and conflict and encourage cooperation across borders. Yet we have had many wars and economic blockades and inequality that have killed tens of millions of people since 1945. A large part of this had to do with the flawed system created: the dominance of five nations at the UN, the presumption that challenges in 1945 would be the same as our challenges decades later, and the hegemony of the United States, then thought to be more benevolent than others as a policeman of the world. This hegemony includes the use of the US dollar in global trade and as a reserve currency even after the US dropped the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971. The IMF and World Bank instruments also drifted to become tools of hegemony and control.

This system, whether one thinks it worked for a while or not, is clearly unsustainable in the 2020s and beyond – an era of global challenges such as climate change and pandemics. The COVID-19 crisis shows clearly that we cannot continue in this system of supposed “growth” in certain national economies via rampant uncontrolled capitalism and hegemony of rich individuals and corporations who can and do usurp democracy, including via mass media. The rich thus got richer and the poor poorer even in supposedly rich countries. 

We humans of all backgrounds, living across this planet must work together to create new paradigms and systems. We collectively make this urgent call to restructure: not just to face this COVID-19 crisis, but to face climate change and future global challenges.

Boldly, we demand and will work towards these objectives:

1)  The institutions created following World War II were dominated by the five victors and now must be democratized and transformed to serve all people of this planet particularly the impoverished people. This can be done via votes proportional to populations and via ensuring collective global security.  A new program for a healthier global system can and must be developed with the widest participation of professionals and the general public. It will build on the excellent UN Sustainable Development Goals and other conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Building on those is with the aim of sustainability and survival of our species and our fragile ecosystems. But communities and countries can also start such programs without waiting for change in the UN system.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(continued from left column).

2) Measuring development by GDP or the averaged PPP (GDP per person averaged at a national level) is a misleading approach and ignores human needs. We demand that governments do not burden future generations with debt and an illusion of growth that is profiting few at the expense of the many. The earth has plenty of resources and production to keep all of us healthy and well-fed when we reset our priorities towards: social services (the elderly and others in need), agriculture (especially permaculture), health, education, and research (technological advances that help sustainability).

3) Drastically reduce military spending (increasingly militarized police) and redirect to serve rather than kill and exploit people. Even a small fraction of the 1.8 trillion spent on the military annually would be enough to end hunger and cure pandemics.

4) We can choose to respond to crises without giving-up on our liberties. History has shown that national authorities remove our liberties in crises and then rarely return them in full. To address this, citizens must vote directly on certain issues and all measures must expire and be renewed, if need be, within a reasonable timeframe via a vote by citizens

5) Nationalism as a political organizational structure has run its course and like other systems before it (city-states, kingdoms, and empires) must now evolve into a new system to face new realities of global threats. The nature of a new system needs significant thinking, but it is clear that to respond to an increasingly global crisis (climate change and pandemics), we have to have both local empowerment and global systems of joint struggle and solidarity. A corollary of this is that certain natural resources such as the Amazon rainforest and oceans must be protected as a planetary resource, and not left to the whims of national systems that can shift quickly for greed and imperialism. Thus, we must strengthen local communities, particularly native people. Another corollary is that we must limit national authority and create new systems that challenge colonialism, racism, sexism, and exploitation.

6) We must abandon our consumerist ways by living simply and humbly and reducing our footprints on this earth. We aim for zero-waste, for using renewable energy, for growing our own food in our own communities, and for cleaner, and healthier environment for all of us (humans, fauna, flora).  Reduce, Recycle, Refuse Refuse. Reduce our use of water (e.g. via compost toilets, proper water management, etc.) and of material and supplies (living humbly). Reduce solid wastes, plastics, and fossil fuels (towards final elimination). Recycle what cannot be eliminated. But most significantly refuse the urge to shop (consumerism).

7) Decrease building of massive and much unneeded infrastructure like stadiums and dams and increase vegetation preferably with native trees and bushes.

8)   Reconnect to nature and learn from it. Ecosystem balance must be restored. We humans must recognize ourselves as part of nature and live in harmony with it.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

Covid-19: A new organization of the world is essential (Moroccan university professor)

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

An article from APA News (translation by CPNN)

Mr. Abdelmoughit Benmassoud Tredano, Professor of Political Science and Geopolitics at Mohammed V University in Rabat, provides an analysis of post-Covid-19 international relations, as well as the first lessons from the coronavirus crisis.

According to him, the crisis has only just begun with the collapse of the stock markets, the fall in the price of oil, against a background of war between the powers, and other more or less serious signals. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Now a new organization of the world is essential. First, at the individual, group and national level, individualism is outdated and solidarity is needed instead.

Also, an understanding of the uniqueness of humans and our common destiny must replace the carefree attitude of before. This certainly implies rethinking the organization of the world on all levels, in the sense of less globalization and above all the rehabilitation of the welfare state, predicts Pr. Tredano.

According to the Director of the Moroccan Journal of Political and Social Sciences and President of the Center for Research and Studies in Social Sciences (CRESS), a new organization of the world must be envisaged and new modes of production and distribution of wealth must be researched and applied. Suffice to say that a challenge to globalization is not only imperative but even beneficial.

“This is not a luxury but an essential and perhaps saving choice. Now we face the choice between the extinction of humanity and our survival. It may seem overwhelming and excessive, but the choice is there, “said the Moroccan academic, author of numerous works, books, articles and studies on internal and international political issues.

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(click here for the original version in French)

Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

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This is an opportunity as well as a crisis. The Covid-19 crisis “can have a virtue: that of allowing the planet a certain break,” he maintains. For him, what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and environmentalists could not impose on economic and financial policy makers, the crisis linked to this pandemic is, in part, realizing it.

Apparently, the air in the Chinese city of Wuhan is starting to be breathable; and the water in the canals of Venice (Italy) has become more transparent!

The coronavirus pandemic poses many challenges. Europe and the world are discovering that they all depend on China; economic indendence, in fact independence in general, is in question.

Also, a questioning of globalization supposes a beginning of relocation and reindustrialisation, he explains, adding that we must re-establish a circular economy, ecological solidarity, cooperation and proximity.

The academic also stresses that the organization of the world by regional groups must be adopted because no single state can stand alone, unless it is an entire continent. He insists on the imperative of solidarity between peoples and states, in these times of planetary crisis.

The global geopolitical configuration will be completely turned upside down, he acknowledges, noting that the signals since at least 2003 are becoming clearer: Europe is crumbling, America is floundering and Asia is asserting itself.

Pointing out that following each world geopolitical cataclysm, there is a need to build a new international order, Professor Tredano believes that the idea of ​​the coexistence of regional and international powers is a track and a guarantee that avoids the domination of the powerful.

“International cooperation must be effective and not just as a slogan that we wave in all international forums if we are to be able to effectively deal with crisis situations such as the one we are currently experiencing. Now everything is global!,” underlines the Professor.

While waiting for a “demondialization”, he continues, the culture of peace and tolerance must be established. “It must meet fundamental and unavoidable conditions of collective life of peoples and states in a difficult and complex world. All of this presupposes a new organization of the world.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY