Palestine – Features

By Allister Sparks

(source: Businessday, Cape times + Mercury Online)

The tectonic plates of Middle Eastern politics are shifting. Having just returned from my eighth visit in the past six years to the world’s most explosive region, I believe a completely new political landscape will emerge there over the next two years.
Old dominant players are fading and new ones emerging, while the centrepiece of its volcanic core, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is itself undergoing a change of dynamics.

The most significant change is that the US is going to withdraw from the dominant role it has played in the region for decades. The US has exhausted itself in the two wars it has had to wage since George W Bush launched his "shock and awe" attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq seven years ago.

The shock has been the US’s. The unquenchable civil wars those invasions ignited have drained the US of blood and treasure to the point where that weakened superpower no longer has the political will to tolerate the costs. President Barack Obama is committed to withdrawing from both countries by the end of next year, even though they are likely still to be strife-torn and insecure.

Read More »Can Isarael plot the shifting sands of the middle east?

(source: Kashmir Media Service)

HRW asks India to repeal Black Law in IHK 

World human rights body, Human Rights Watch has said that Indian leaders should seek the immediate repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and a transparent probe into rights abuses in occupied Kashmir.

The Human Rights Watch in a statement in New York said that the authorities should release the findings of its inquiry into allegations of excessive use of force during the ongoing protests in Kashmir.

Referring to the AFSPA, Human Rights Watch said that the immunity this law gave to the Indian forces not only lead to its widespread abuse, but also protected the members who commit crimes.

Valley turned into a virtual prison: Syed Ali Gilani

In occupied Kashmir, veteran Kashmir Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani has said that the occupation authorities have turned the Kashmir Valley into a virtual prison and waged a war against unarmed Kashmiris to suppress the ongoing movement.Syed Ali Gilani, talking to mediamen at his residence in Srinagar said, “The Valley has been turned into a prison and marshal law has been imposed to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris.

In prison, the inmates are allowed basic amenities. But in the Valley, the troopers and cops are leaving no stone unturned to confine the Kashmiris to their homes and starve them to death. This is the worst form of state terrorism.” He said that the troopers and policemen at the behest of New Delhi and the puppet administration were behaving in such an aggressive way with unarmed Kashmir as if they were fighting a super power in the Valley.

He condemned hampering of medial emergencies, supply of milk and essential supplies across the Valley. “The troopers and cops are so frustrated that they have been spilling the milk on roads. The newborn babies are sufferings for want of milk and medicines. This has exposed the façade of India’s so-called democracy,” he added. He appealed the child rights organizations particularly the UNICEF to take cognizance of sufferings of newborn babies and impress upon India not to hinder the essential supplies particularly baby food, medicines and milk. Syed Ali Gilani denounced the killing of innocent civilians and curbs imposed by the authorities on media to prevent coverage of atrocities on people by the occupation forces. “On one hand, India shows concern to save the Tiger and other endangered animals and on the other is treating Kashmiris worst than animals just for suppressing their aspirations. The international community must take note of India’s hypocrisy,” he said.

The veteran leader castigated the authorities for launching propaganda against the program announced by him in connection with the Quit Kashmir Movement for staging sit-ins near the camps of troops and paramilitary forces on September 21, Tuesday. “I want to maintain that the objective of our program is to remind the Indian forces that they might be serving the national interest by performing duties, but their presence in Kashmir has no legal or democratic sanction. We want to awaken the conscience of the troopers that in the name of national interest they are committing rapes, killings and torturing Kashmiris,” he said.

Syed Ali Gilani deplored that while Kashmiris were sacrificing their lives for withdrawal of troopers from the Valley, the authorities were planning to establish an Army camp on 18 kanals of land in Pazalpora in Sopore. He Expressed concern over the situation in Tangmarg and said that after the Monday’s shootout, nobody was being allowed to go there to know the condition of people. He pointed out that the ongoing movement had reached a decisive phase and even the people living in heavily militarized areas of the territory had extended their support. He rejected unconditional dialogue with New Delhi and maintained that the ongoing movement would continue until the five demands put forth by him were implemented on ground.

IHK people deprived of newspapers for 6th day

In occupied Kashmir, amid indefinite curfew for the 6th day, today, not a single English or Urdu daily newspaper was published in the valley. The non-publication of the about 50 local newspapers has affected the ”Surkhiyan”, a morning programme on Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, based on headlines of newspapers.

The occupation authorities have also banned the telecast of 30-minute news on local cable channels and also stopped airing Pakistani channels. Most of the local newspaper offices remained closed, as the employees, including reporters who could not make it to their offices because of curfew.

Leading newspapers, including Greater Kashmir continued to update its Internet edition. The newspaper in its Internet editions said that the Srinagar print edition of Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Uzma failed to hit the stands today due to severe restrictions and curfew. »

Read More »In occupied Kashmir

By Patrick O’Connor

(source: Worls Socialist WebSite.org)

Nearly a fortnight after Japan’s north east coast was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, the country and wider region remain under threat from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Radioactive contamination is leaking from at least one of the reactor cores, while the state of the highly toxic spent fuel rods stored in water pools remains unclear. Authorities have now warned the 13 million people of Tokyo not to allow their children to drink the irradiated water supply.

Damning information continues to emerge about the substandard design and operation of the Fukushima plant, the appalling safety record of its corporate operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and the negligent emergency response of the Japanese government.

What is revealed at every level are the destructive consequences of the profit system. In Japan, as internationally, the social needs of the population—including the need for a safe and environmentally sustainable energy system—are subordinated to the financial interests of the major corporations.

From the very first moments of the crisis at Fukushima, when the tsunami destroyed the nuclear facility’s backup power generators after sweeping over the inadequate coastal seawalls, considerations of corporate profit overrode those of public safety.

Read More »Nuclear power private ownership the profit system

Robert Fisk: I saw these brave doctors trying to save lives – these charges are a pack of lies

Eyewitness: Bahrain didn’t invite the Saudis to send their troops; the Saudis invaded and received a post-dated invitation

(source: Independent.co.uk)

Has the Khalifa family gone mad? Yesterday, the Bahraini royal family started an utterly fraudulent trial of 48 surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses, accusing them of trying to topple the tin-pot monarchy of this Sunni minority emirate. The defendants in this flagrantly unfair military court are, of course, members of the majority Shia people of Bahrain. And since I was a witness to their heroic efforts to save lives in February, I can say – let us speak with a frankness that the Bahraini rulers would normally demand – that the charges are a pack of lies.

Doctors I saw, drenched in their patients’ blood, desperately trying to staunch the bullet wounds of pro-democracy demonstrators shot in cold blood by Bahraini soldiers and police, are now on trial. I watched armed policemen refusing to allow ambulances to collect the wounded from the roads where they had been cut down. These are the very same doctors and nurses I stood beside four months ago in the Sulaimaniya emergency room, some of them weeping as they tried to deal with gunshot wounds the like of which they had never seen before.

“How could they do this to these people?” one of them asked me. “We have never dealt with trauma wounds like these before.” Next to us lay a man with bullet wounds in the chest and thigh, coughing blood on to the floor. The surgeons were frightened that they did not have the skills to save these victims of police violence. Now the police have accused the doctors and staff of killing the patients whom the police themselves shot.

How could these fine medical men and women have been trying to “topple” the monarchy?

Read More »Charges are a pack of lies