Peoples without Nation
Turkey is invading the Kurdistan region of Iraq – and the world has hardly blinked 20/04/2022 https://medyanews.net/turkey-is-invading-the-kurdistan-region-of-iraq-and-the-world-has-hardly-blinked/ journalist and columnist Sarah Glynn evaluates Turkey's invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan
Bit by bit, Turkey has been invading, and effectively colonising, large areas of a sovereign neighbouring state, but their attacks have been deemed hardly worthy of a headline, let alone international censor. Indeed, Turkey acts with Western knowledge and approval. As a strategic NATO ally, Turkey is exempt from criticism, but – more than that – Turkey has dressed up its invasion as a fight against terrorism. The ostensible targets of its attacks are the bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Iraqi mountains; and the United States and its allies have followed Turkey’s lead and their own political prejudices to label the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
Turkey’s invasion of Iraq is much more than a “counter-terrorism operation”, and – as mentioned – the designation of the PKK as a terrorist organisation is being questioned too. Legally, as ruled by the Belgian courts, the PKK is a non-state actor in an armed conflict against the Turkish state– and so liable to the rules of war, not criminal law. The PKK has been signed up to the Geneva Convention since 1995. They have long been seeking a peace agreement that would allow Kurds in Turkey to live with dignity, and have instigated many ceasefires in the hopes of seeing a negotiated solution. They also played a major role in freeing Iraq and Syria from ISIS. International law allows a role for liberation movements; however, the United States and its friends will not allow a role for a movement that defines itself against liberal democracy and that is actively engaged in building an alternative communitarian society with grass-roots democracy.
Kurds everywhere – including very many people in Iraq who are angry at the role being played by their government – are very concerned about what is happening. There have been protests in European cities, where an oft-repeated chant is the call for a political solution for Kurdistan. Kurds in Scotland are preparing a protest too
This is the first article in a two-part series. https://thewire.in/world/law-and-humanity-buried-in-gaza-rubble
Law and Humanity Buried in Gaza Rubble 19/02/2024
Mass murder has in an Orwellian switch, come to be seen as self-defence ever since Israel began bombing the isolated and impoverished Gaza strip on October 8. And Israel’s principal backer on the global stage, the US has vowed unquestioning loyalty.
Thia is the second article in a two-part series https://thewire.in/world/legal-foundations-of-the-world-are-collapsing-in-gaza
Legal Foundations of the World Are Collapsing in Gaza 20/02/2024
HAMAS OFFICIAL: WE FULLLY SUPPORT THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION FORCES
An interview with Hamas official Talal Nasser, aired on Dec 2, regarding recent developments in #Syria.
He voiced strong support for the Syrian opposition forces and dismissed all claims that Syria’s revolution is Zionist.
He revealed that Hamas received $20 million in one month alone from the Syrian opposition factions and that Hamas was in regular contact with them.
He also revealed that the Syrian Revolutionaries freed several political prisoners who had been imprisoned in Aleppo Prison by Bashar al-Assad.
#Palestine
On January 11, South Africa accused Israel of genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice – the UN’s top court. The country, which moved this court asked it to issue orders that will compel Israel to suspend military operations in the Palestinian region.
Adila Hassim, advocate of South Africa’s high court, presented the case for why Israel’s actions can be clearly construed as genocidal. https://thewire.in/world/israel-south-africa-genocidal-acts-icj
Below is her submission in full. Almost each line of the original text carries a footnote. The Wire has removed them for ease of reading. The original text and annotations are available here.
Genocidal acts
Israel continues to exercise control over the airspace, territorial waters, land crossings, water, electricity, electromagnetic sphere and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, as well as over key governmental functions. As the honourable minister has said, entry and exit by air and sea to Gaza is prohibited with Israel operating the only two crossing points.
Gaza, which is one of the most densely populated places in the world is home to approximately 2.3 million Palestinians, almost half of them children.
For the past 96 days, Israel has subjected Gaza to what has been described as one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in the history of modern warfare. Palestinians in Gaza are being killed by Israeli weaponry and bombs from air, land and sea.
by Adila Hassim
11/01/2024
https://thewire.in/history/israel-gaza-palestine-aerial-bombing
The bombing continues, and one question stands out: Why 1,200 people killed by guerillas matter more to Western governments than 12,000 – and counting – killed by bombs from the sky. Why one is a barbaric crime, and the other a civilised military action.
There are many correct answers to that. One of them is the history of bombing.
In a single line: From its beginnings, over a hundred years ago, aerial bombing was a technology meant for colonial powers to use exclusively against colonised, usually indigenous people.
For a hundred years, the West’s monopoly over that most lethal violence has conditioned how we see the victims of bombs – if we see them at all.
In 1920, the Royal Air Force carried out the world’s first systematic bombing campaign against Somalis. Thereafter, the first societies in to experience bombing were in Iraq, North and East Africa, and the North-West Frontier of India.
Every deflection and defence of Israel’s leadership – they’re not trying to hit civilians, Hamas is at fault for placing its fighters among civilians – is old news, straight from a hundred-year-old textbook for colonial collective punishment.
Meanwhile Israeli commanders have been saying it out loud, from day one: “The emphasis is on damage, not on accuracy.”
by Raghu Karnad
17/11/2023