When the complaint was lodged in May 2019, there was a sense of the audacious about it. Eight Torres Strait Islanders had taken the trouble to petition the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee, citing climate change and Australian violations as their main concern. Australia, they claimed, had violated their fundamental rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
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When the complaint was lodged in May 2019, there was a sense of the audacious about it. Eight Torres Strait Islanders had taken the trouble to petition the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee, citing climate change and Australian violations as their main concern. Australia, they claimed, had violated their fundamental rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On 14 August 2020 the Australian ABC radio and TV news announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to recognize Israel and exchange ambassadors with what the ABC described as “the Jewish State”. Not only was this descriptive false and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (Arabs are 50.3% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel)
On 14 August 2020 the Australian ABC radio and TV news announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to recognize Israel and exchange ambassadors with what the ABC described as “the Jewish State”. Not only was this descriptive false and anti-Arab anti-Semitic (Arabs are 50.3% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel) it was also grossly anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (all anti-racist Jews totally condemn the crimes of a nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial war criminal, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel).
One can readily identify 4 particularly notorious and brutal Apartheid states in the world today, namely (1) Apartheid Israel (it prosecutes a century-long and ongoing Palestinian Genocide, and 72% of its now 50.3% majority of Indigenous Palestinian Subjects have been violently deprived of all human rights for 53 years and cannot vote for the government ruling them); (2) Apartheid Myanmar (through rape, murder and destruction it has killed thousands of Muslim Rohingyas and driven 1 million from their homes in Rakhine State in an ongoing Rohingyan Genocide); (3) Apartheid UAE (50% of its Arab population are women and girls who are subject to gross human rights abuse, as are its foreign worker underclass); and (4) Apartheid Saudi Arabia (that grossly abuses the 50% of its population who are female and also grossly abuses foreign workers as does Apartheid UAE [1-4].
Apartheid is regarded as a vile and punishable crime against Humanity by the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid [5]. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) should be applied to all of these degenerate Apartheid rogue states and to all their supporters and collaborators as were successfully applied to Apartheid South Africa and its racist supporters [6].
(1). Apartheid Israel and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide.
Sari Nusseibeh (a professor of philosophy at Al-Quds University, Palestine) on why Israel can’t be a “Jewish State” (2011): “Third, recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” implies that Israel is, or should be, either a theocracy (if we take the word “Jewish” to apply to the religion of Judaism) or an apartheid state (if we take the word “Jewish” to apply to the ethnicity of Jews), or both, and in all of these cases, Israel is then no longer a democracy – something which has rightly been the pride of most Israelis since the country’s founding in 1948. Fourth, at least one in five Israelis – 20 per cent of the population, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics – is ethnically Arab (and are mostly either Muslim, Christian, Druze or Bahai), and recognising Israel as a “Jewish State” as such makes one-fifth of the population of Israel automatically strangers in their own native land and opens the door to legally reducing them, most undemocratically, to second-class citizens (or perhaps even stripping them of their citizenship and other rights) – something that no-one, much less a Palestinian leader, has a right to do” [7].
Professor Sari Nusseibeh was prescient. The race-based Apartheid Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed the racist Jewish Nation-State Law on 18 July 2018, with a vote of 62 to 55 with two abstentions. This racist law offensively and intolerably ignores the Indigenous Palestinians who are 50% of Israeli subjects and enshrines a special, dominant, race-based position for the Jewish Israelis who constitute a 47% minority of the subjects of Apartheid Israel. The racist Israel law states that Hebrew is the official language but concedes that “The Arabic language has a special status in the state” – however Arabic is not an official language despite being presently spoken by over 50% of Israeli subjects, having been spoken by 95% of the Palestinian people before commencement of Zionist colonization a century ago , and having been the overwhelmingly dominant language in Palestine for about 1,400 years. It further states that “The regulation of the Arab language in state institutions or when facing them will be regulated by law” but the law has been passed by a bare majority in a racist Apartheid state that excludes 72% of its now 50% Indigenous Palestinian population from voting for the government ruling it [8, 9].
The racist, Apartheid Israeli “Jewish Nation-State Law” makes it abundantly clear that the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel are resolutely committed to a neo-Nazi Apartheid State and endless, deadly subjugation of the Indigenous Palestinians with the ever-present threat of 100% ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The world must act over Apartheid Israel as it did over Apartheid South Africa. A clear, humane solution to the continuing human rights catastrophe in Palestine is a unitary state (a “one state solution”) as in post-Apartheid South Africa that would involve return of all refugees, zero tolerance for racism, equal rights for all, all human rights for all, one-person-one-vote, justice, goodwill, reconciliation, airport-level security, nuclear weapons removal, internationally-guaranteed national security initially based on the present armed forces, and untrammelled access for all citizens to all of Palestine. It can and should happen tomorrow [10, 11].
America, the UK, and US- and Zionist-subverted Mainstream Australia routinely and falsely describe Apartheid Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” when (a) there are other democracies in the Middle East (Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon) and (b) Apartheid Israel is only a democracy-by-genocide – of 14 million Palestinians, 7 million are Exiled and cannot step foot in what has been the land of their forebears for millennia, 5 million Occupied Palestinians have zero human rights and cannot vote for the government governing them (Apartheid) [12], and about 2 million “lucky” Israeli Palestinians can vote but exist as Third Class citizens under over 60 race-based, neo-Nazi, discriminatory laws that invite them to leave if they don’t like it [13, 14].
In the territory ruled by Apartheid Israel for 53 years (formerly Mandated Palestine plus ethnically cleansed and illegally annexed parts of Lebanon and Syria) the total population in 2020 is 8.7 million (100%) comprising 6.9 million Indigenous Palestinians (50.3%), 6.4 million Jews (46.7%), and 0.4 million non-Arab non-Jews (2.9%). The sorely oppressed Occupied Palestinians represent 72% of the majority 6.9 million Palestinians, have zero human rights, and cannot vote for the government ruling them i.e. Apartheid that is regarded as a crime against Humanity [12].
In the sense of “democracy as satisfaction of fundamental popular wishes”, Apartheid Israel also fails because of the horrendous and deadly deprivation imposed on millions of Exiled Palestinians in Middle East refugee camps, 5 million Occupied Palestinians and indeed many of the 2 million “lucky” Palestinian Israelis. Thus the GDP per capita is $42,000 for Israelis as compared to a deadly $3,200 for Occupied Palestinians [15, 16] whose life expectancy is 10 years less than for Israelis. In the 21st century on average each year about 5,000 Occupied Palestinians have died from Israeli violence (550) or from Israeli-imposed deprivation (4,200). In the century-long Palestinian Genocide since the British invasion of the Middle East in 2014 about 2.2 million Palestinians have died from violence (0.1 million) or from imposed deprivation (2.1 million). Numbers of expelled Palestinians totalled 800,000 in the 1948 Naqba (Catastrophe) and a further 400,000 Arabs were expelled in the 1967 Naksa (Setback)[17-20]. 120 mosques were destroyed by the Zionists after 1948 and over 500 Palestinian villages and towns were demolished [21, 22].
Pro-Apartheid Australia is second only to Trump America as a supporter of Apartheid Israel, but for all that US lackey Australia slavishly supports Apartheid Israel, this genocidal rogue state does not repay the favour and variously violates, perverts and subverts Australians and Australian institutions in some 50 ways [23]. Apartheid Israel has not confined its genocidal criminality to the Palestinian Genocide – it has been complicit in genocidal atrocities around the world, notably in Myanmar, Guatemala, Sudan and Sri Lanka [24]. Apartheid Israeli forces have violently and murderously attacked the territory and/or assets of 13 countries (Tunisia, Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the US). Apartheid Israel war criminality has generated a huge tally of avoidable mortality (excess mortality) from deprivation in Israeli-occupied countries. The summary data provided here is of 1950-2005 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for each country occupied and as a total for all the countries subject to Occupation by Apartheid Israel: Apartheid Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] – Egypt [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% [25].
One notes that war is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. Article 2 of the post-WW2 UN Genocide Convention states: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” [26]. Eminent International Law expert Professor Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) re the Palestinian Genocide (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, under which a government can be guilty of genocide even if it intends to destroy a mere “part” of the group” [27].
(2). Apartheid Myanmar and the ongoing Rohingyan Genocide.
Silence over genocide is complicity in genocide. Even worse is whitewashing of genocidal Myanmar military action that has killed thousands of Rohingyas and generated 1 million Rohingyan refugees [13, 28-30]. Once lauded but now globally condemned, Myanmar politician Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied the Rohingyan Genocide, for example: “It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abnegate responsibility. We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence … Since 5 September, there have been no armed clashes and there have been no clearance operations” [31]. Half the Rohingyan refugees are children and three quarters are women and children. There is something utterly awful about women excusing atrocities against women and children. One is reminded of US Ambassador to the UN (and later US Secretary of State) , Madeleine Albright, who on 12 May 1996 defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a “60 Minutes” segment in which anti-racist Jewish American journalist Lesley Stahl asked her “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” and to which Albright replied “We think the price is worth it.” [32, 33]. Apartheid Israel is intimately involved in Aung San Suu Kyi-led Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide through supply of advanced gunboats and armaments as well as military training to genocidal Burmese forces in Rakhine state [34-36].
(3). Apartheid UAE, gross suppression of females, maltreatment of foreign workers, Yemeni Genocide and Muslim Genocide.
The wealthy United Arab Emirates (UAE) grossly suppresses the rights of females who represent about 50% of the population, an egregious suppression that must be described as Apartheid. Human Rights Watch: “Discrimination on the basis of sex and gender is not included in the definition of discrimination in the UAE’s 2015 anti-discrimination law. Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 regulates personal status matters. Some of its provisions discriminate against women. For a woman to marry, her male guardian must conclude her marriage contract; men have the right to unilaterally divorce their wives, whereas a woman must apply for a court order to obtain a divorce; a woman can lose her right to maintenance if, for example, she refuses to have sexual relations with her husband without a lawful excuse; and women are required to “obey” their husbands. A woman may be considered disobedient, with few exceptions, if she decides to work without her husband’s consent. UAE law permits domestic violence. Article 53 of the penal code allows the imposition of “chastisement by a husband to his wife and the chastisement of minor children” so long as the assault does not exceed the limits of Islamic law. Marital rape is not a crime. In 2010, the Federal Supreme Court issued a ruling, citing the penal code, that sanctions husbands’ beating and infliction of other forms of punishment or coercion on their wives, provided they do not leave physical marks” [37].
The UAE Islamo-fascoid dictatorship has an appalling record of human rights abuse in relation to dissenters and migrant workers as well as being involved in the ongoing Yemeni Genocide and continuing devastation of starving Yemen in gross violation of the Natural Law, Islamic Law and International Law. Thus Human Rights Watch: “The government continues to arbitrarily detain and forcibly disappear individuals who criticize authorities. The UAE maintains their leading role in the Saudi-led military coalition, which has conducted scores of unlawful attacks in Yemen. The UAE was implicated in detainee abuse at home and abroad. Labor abuses persist. Migrant construction workers face serious exploitation. The UAE introduced a domestic workers law providing them labor rights for the first time in September 2017, but some provisions are weaker than those provided to other workers under the labor law” [37].
There is something utterly awful about a rich, Arab and Muslim country like the UAE being involved in the Western-imposed mass murder of fellow Arabs and fellow Muslims. Thus the US- and hence Apartheid Israel-aligned UAE has played a key role in the following atrocities in the Muslim world (deaths from violence or imposed deprivation in brackets): (1) the 2011 onwards Libyan Genocide (0.2 million deaths, 2 million refugees; the UAE backs the French- and Egyptian- supported, Benghazi-based Libyan National Army under General Khalifa Haftar in the ongoing civil war) [38, 39]; (2) the 2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million deaths, 11 million refugees; the UAE initially opposed the Assad Government during the US-backed Syrian Civil War and had Kurdish and US involvements but in 2019 resumed diplomatic relations with the Syrian Government that were broken in 2011; it is now actively assisting the Assad Government, much to US displeasure [41, 42]; (3) the 1990 onwards Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million deaths and 6 million refugees; UAE hosts US military bases involved in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide [43, 44]; the 1978 onwards Iranian Genocide (3 million deaths from the Iraq-Iran War and US sanctions; the UAE aligns with the US and Saudi Arabia against Iran) [43, 45]; and the 2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (0.1 million deaths; the rich UAE continues to make illegal and genocidal war on impoverished starving Yemen) [43, 46]. The rich and Machiavellian UAE makes a significant contribution to the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide involving 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or from imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 people [47, 48]. UAE betrayal of the Palestinians is just a further anti-Arab anti-Semitic crime of Apartheid UAE.
(4). Apartheid Saudi Arabia, gross suppression of females, maltreatment of foreign workers, Yemeni Genocide and Muslim Genocide.
Like the Apartheid UAE, the Apartheid Saudi Arabian Islamo-fascoid dictatorship grossly suppresses the rights of females who represent about 50% of the population, an egregious suppression that must be described as Apartheid. Human Rights Watch sets out the medieval conditions in Saudi Arabia in 2019: “Saudi Arabia faced unprecedented international criticism in 2019 for its human rights record, including the failure to provide full accountability for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in October 2018, as well as the country’s dismal treatment of Saudi dissidents and human rights activists. Amid the criticism, Saudi authorities announced landmark reforms for Saudi women that, if fully implemented, represent a significant step forward including allowing Saudi women to obtain passports and travel abroad without the approval of a male relative for the first time. However, discrimination remains in other areas, and women’s rights activists remain detained, on trial, or silenced for their activism. Through 2019, the Saudi-led coalition continued a military campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen that has included scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and wounded thousands of civilians… As the leader of the coalition that began military operations against Houthi forces in Yemen on March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia has committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law… Saudi authorities in 2019 continued to repress dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics… Saudi Arabia applies Sharia (Islamic law) as its national law… [despite some changes] Saudi women still must obtain a male guardian’s approval to get married, leave prison, or obtain certain healthcare. Women also continue to face discrimination in relation to marriage, family, divorce, and decisions relating to children (e.g. child custody). Men can still file cases against daughters, wives, or female relatives under their guardianship for “disobedience,” which can lead to forcible return to their male guardian’s home or imprisonment. Women’s rights activists who fought for these important changes remain in jail or on trial for their peaceful advocacy…. Some migrant workers suffer abuses and exploitation, sometimes amounting to conditions of forced labor. The kafala (visa sponsorship) system ties migrant workers’ residency permits to “sponsoring” employers, whose written consent is required for workers to change employers or leave the country under normal circumstances. Some employers confiscate passports, withhold wages, and force migrants to work against their will” [49].
Like the UAE, a paradoxically anti-Arab anti-Semitic Saudi Arabia makes a significant contribution to the ongoing, US-imposed, post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide (deaths from violence or imposed deprivation in brackets) : (1) the 2011 onwards Libyan Genocide (0.2 million deaths, 2 million refugees; Saudi Arabia backs the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led by Khalifa Haftar and supported by Russia, Egypt and the UAE in the ongoing civil war) [39, 43, 50]; (2) the 2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million deaths, 11 million refugees; the Saudis were part of a coalition of US-linked nations (US, UK, France, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Apartheid Israel) variously backing jihadis and others seeking to overthrow the Syrian Government; arms used by ISIS were supplied by the US and Saudi Arabia to Syrian opposition fighters and exceed those captured in battle [51]); the 1990 onwards Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million deaths and 6 million refugees; Saudi Arabia US military bases are involved in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide [43, 44]; the 1978 onwards Iranian Genocide (3 million deaths from the Iraq-Iran War and US sanctions; Saudi Arabia aligns with the US against Iran) [43, 45]; and the 2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (0.1 million deaths; the Saudi-led coalition continues to make illegal and genocidal war on impoverished and starving Yemen) [43, 46]. Saudi Arabia makes a major contribution to the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide involving 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or from imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 people [47, 48]. Will Saudi Arabia also betray the Palestinians by following the example of the UAE in officially recognizing Apartheid Israel in addition to its covert alliance with the anti-Arab anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rogue state?
Saudi Arabia has been the primary source for spreading Islamic fundamentalism throughout the world and for supporting violent jihadism, most notably its support for US-backed jihadism in Afghanistan post-1978 and thence elsewhere. Such variously state-backed jihadi non-state terrorism has been of major benefit to US imperialism (US state terrorism) because every jihadi atrocity (especially against European targets) provides an “excuse” for disproportionately huge US Alliance attacks on Muslim countries. Thus the atrocities by the barbarous ISIS provided the excuse for US destruction of Mosul (40,000 killed, 600,000 displaced) and Fallujah (up to 6,000 killed, 370,000 displaced) with scores of thousands ultimately dying from imposed deprivation [52-55]. The US removed secular governments in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and only Russian intervention prevented removal of the secular government in Syria [41].
Final comments.
Apartheid implies excluding a large section of a population from basic human rights on the basis of attributes such as race, religion or gender, and is exampled by the horrendous persecution of the Indigenous Palestinians who are over 50% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel, the violent persecution of the Rohingyas in Apartheid Myanmar, and the outrageous, medieval and barbaric treatment of women and girls in Apartheid UAE and Apartheid Saudi Arabia. When that exclusion means that a large part of a persecuted population are forced out of a country (as in Libya, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan) then the Apartheid transmutes to genocide. Such barbarities are utterly unacceptable in the 21st century. What can decent people do? Decent people around the world must urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel, Apartheid Myanmar, Apartheid UAE and Apartheid Saudi Arabia, and against all people, politicians, parties, collectives, corporations and countries supporting these utterly detestable Apartheid states that are a foul blot on Humanity.
References.
[1]. Gideon Polya , “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” , Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 4 June 2020: https://www.amazon.com/US-Imposed-Post-9-Muslim-Holocaust-Genocide/dp/8793987056 .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Mainstream ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide””, Countercurrents, 17 July 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/racist-mainstream-ignores-us-imposed-post-9-11-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Scores Of Huge Realities Resolutely Ignored By Mendacious, US Lackey Mainstream Australia”, Countercurrents, 11 August 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/scores-of-huge-realities-resolutely-ignored-by-mendacious-us-lackey-mainstream-australia/ .
[4]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[5]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .
[6]. “Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.
[7]. Sari Nusseibeh, “Why Israel can’t be a “Jewish State””, Al Jazeera, 1 October 2011: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/09/201192614417586774.html .
[8]. “Read the full Jewish Nation-State Law”, The Jerusalem Post, 19 July 2018: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Read-the-full-Jewish-Nation-State-Law-562923 .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli Jewish Nation-State Law Enshrines Apartheid And Genocidal Racism”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/israeli-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrines-apartheid-and-genocidal-racism/ .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Democratic One-State Solution (Unitary State, Bi-National State) For Post-Apartheid Palestine”, Countercurrents, 22 December 2018: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .
[11]. “One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .
[12]. Gideon Polya, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Palestinians. Apartheid Israel violates ALL Palestinian Human Rights”, Palestine Genocide Essays, 24 January 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-palestinians .
[13]. Susan Abulhawa, “Israel’s “nation-state law” parallels the Nazi Nuremburg Laws”, Al Jazeera, 27 July 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-nation-state-law-parallels-nazi-nuremberg-laws-180725084739536.html .
[14]. “Discriminatory laws in Israel”, Adalah, https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 .
[15]. “List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita .
[16]. World Bank, “GDP per capita (current US$) – West Bank and Gaza”: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=PS .
[17]. Gideon Polya, “70th anniversary of Apartheid Israel & commencement of large-scale Palestinian Genocide”, Countercurrents, 11 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/11/70th-anniversary-of-apartheid-israel-commencement-of-large-scale-palestinian-genocide/ .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “Democratic One-State Solution (Unitary State, Bi-National State) for post-Apartheid Palestine”, Countercurrents, 22 December 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/22/democratic-one-state-solution-unitary-state-bi-national-state-for-post-apartheid-palestine/ .
[19]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .
[20]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 9 June 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .
[21]. Gideon Polya, “Notre Dame, Christchurch & Sri Lanka Tragedies Spotlight Historical Destructions & Violations Of Places Of Worship”, Countercurrents, 22 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/notre-dame-christchurch-sri-lanka-tragedies-spotlight-historical-destructions-violations-of-places-of-worship/ .
[22]. Ramzy Baroud, “Nakba forever internalised among exiled Palestinians”, Al Jazeera, 16 May 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/nakba-internalised-exiled-palestinians-170514104942696.html .
[23]. Gideon Polya, “50 Ways Australian Intelligence Spies On Australia And The World For UK , Israeli And US State Terrorism”, Countercurrents, 11 December, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya111213.htm .
[24]. “Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) Individuals exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism & (B) Countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .
[25]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global Avoidable Mortality Since 1950” that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/chapter-3-correlates-and-causes-of-post.html .
[26]. UN Genocide Convention : http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html .
[27]. Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, 21 August 2013: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2339254 .
[28]. Gideon Polya , “Hitler, Churchill, Trump, Aung San Suu Kyi & Genocidal Intent To Destroy”, Countercurrents, 29 September 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/09/hitler-churchill-trump-aung-san-suu-kyi-genocidal-intent-to-destroy/ .
[29]. “Rohingya persecution in Myanmar (2016-present)”,Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_persecution_in_Myanmar_(2016%E2%80%93present) .
[30]. “Rohingya people”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people .
[31]. Oliver Holmes, “Fact check: Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech on the Ronhingya crisis”, Guardian, 30 September 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/fact-check-aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya-crisis-speech-myanmar .
[32]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[33]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .
[34]. Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide–imposing Apartheid Israel Complicit In Rohingya Genocide, Other Genocides & US, UK & Australian State Terrorism”, Countercurrents, 30 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/palestinian-genocide-imposing-apartheid-israel-complicit-in-rohingya-genocide-other-genocides-us-uk-australian-state-terrorism/ .
[35]. Gili Cohen, “Israel sold advanced weapons to Myanmar during anti-Rohingya ethnic cleansing campaign”, Haaretz, 24 October 2017: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.818550 .
[36]. Areeb Ullah, “Israel sold military gear to Myanmar at height of Rohingya crackdown”, Middle East Eye, 23 October 2017: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/more-proof-israel-had-sold-weapons-myanmar-during-rohingya-crackdown-613292003 .
[37]. Human Right Watch, “United Arab Emirates”, 2019: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates .
[38]. Giorgio Caferio, “The UAE “runs” France’s Libya policy”, TRT World, 21 July 2020: https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-uae-runs-france-s-libya-policy-38285 .43 .
[39]. Gideon Polya , “Review: “The Return” By Hisham Matar – Libyan Genocide & Seeking The Disappeared”, Countercurrents, 5 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/review-the-return-by-hisham-matar-libyan-genocide-seeking-the-disappeared/ .
[40]. “UAE training Syria regime intelligence agents, providing aid to Damascus”, Middle East Monitor, 24 June 2020: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200624-uae-training-syria-regime-intelligence-agents-providing-aid-to-damascus/ .
[41]. Gideon Polya, “Syrian Holocaust and Syrian Genocide by US Alliance state terrorism”, Countercurrents, 23 January 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/01/syrian-holocaust-and-syrian-genocide-by-us-alliance-state-terrorism/ .
[42]. “Syria- United Arab Emirates relations”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria%E2%80%93United_Arab_Emirates_relations .
[43]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[44]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[45]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel bombing Syria & Iraq –hotting up deadly 4-decade US war on Iran”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/apartheid-israel-bombing-syria-iraq-hotting-up-deadly-4-decade-us-war-on-iran/ .
[46]. Gideon Polya, “Saudi crimes: Khashhoggi murder, Yemeni Genocide & complicity in US-imposed Muslim Holocaust & Muslin Genocide”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/apartheid-israel-bombing-syria-iraq-hotting-up-deadly-4-decade-us-war-on-iran/ .
[47]. Gideon Polya, “Paris atrocity context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .
[48]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[49]. Human Rights Watch, “Saudi Arabia”, 2019: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/saudi-arabia .
[50]. Mohamed Al-Shamaa, “Saudi Arabia, UAE support El-Sisi’s “right to self-defense” in Libya war”, Arab News, 21 June 2020: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1693381/middle-east .
[51]. “ISIL weapons traced to US and Saudi Arabia”, Al Jazeera, 15 December 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/isil-weapons-traced-saudi-arabia-171214164431586.html .
[52]. Gideon Polya, “Mosul Massacre Latest In Iraqi Genocide – US Alliance War Crimes Demand ICC & BDS”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/mosul-massacre-latest-in-iraqi-genocide-us-alliance-war-crimes-demand-icc-bds/ .
[53]. Gideon Polya, “” Review: “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History” – Ongoing Iraqi Genocide”, Countercurrents, 30 January 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/review-the-sacking-of-fallujah-a-peoples-history-ongoing-iraqi-genocide/ .
[54]. Ross Caputi, Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn, “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History”, University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.
[55]. “Fallujah”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, including a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: https://countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see the BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; and Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ). He has recently published Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2020 (for details see: https://korsgaardpublishing.com/portfolio/23945/ ).When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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Wherever on this distressed and yet magnificent Earth you live, this is for you. Right here, right now: Let’s be open and honest before one another. Please. Look at the world without illusions, without hiding, without trying to escape. Don’t be crippled by confusion or disgust. Don’t allow yourself to lose your natural born goodness and become infected with internal fear and stained by the ooze of external hatred.
The ordeals of the migrants and other working classes are not going to end if they survive from the COVID-19. The central and state governments are making sweeping changes to the labour laws to lure capital investments. There is no
ideological difference between the BJP and Congress party when it comes to assault on rights of labourers
Secular India needs to adopt Buddha’s Idea of Egalitarianism rather than the Ram Rajya on the occasion of 74th Independence Day
The secular and democratic India has now completed 74 years of its political journey. It is now important to deliberate and reflects on what went wrong in the experiment of Indian’s secular democratic polity. The fact cannot be denied that India had got political freedom in 1947 after the long-drawn anti-colonial struggle launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
Liberties (PUCL) is dismayed and disappointed over a Full Bench decision of the Supreme Court holding Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, guilty of criminal contempt of court for a set of tweets which the court felt “undermines the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India and directly affronts the majesty of law”.
Condemn NIA summons to Delhi University professors Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan!
The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the summons by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan, faculty members in Delhi University, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case yesterday.
Some 30 years ago, a documentary film in Tamil by the name of Kutty Japanin Kuzhandaigal (Children of Mini-Japan) was made. Directed by Bangalore-based Chalam Bennurakar, the film related the stark tragedy of Sivakasi’s children without childhood.
Sivakasi is a curse, a blight, an abomination that India could do without. Here, workers, especially children, are routinely killed or scarred for life in fires and explosions while making crackers and bombs to feed the fireworks industry. A devastation in Sivakasi, 700 kilometres from Chennai, on September 5, 2012, claimed 54 lives. Between January 2011 and September 2012, there were at least eight explosions in or near Sivakasi, and yet all that the authorities did was to provide one to two lakhs of rupees as compensation to the next of kin of those killed and warn the factory-owners. These are, at best, cosmetic measures which do nothing to remedy the situation. The curse remains as it is, thanks to the political and police patronage enjoyed by the factory-owners. Public memory being proverbially short, both the government and the fireworks industry people know that if things are ‘handled’ properly they are unlikely to suffer any serious damage.
Some 30 years ago, a documentary film in Tamil by the name of Kutty Japanin Kuzhandaigal (Children of Mini-Japan) was made. Directed by Bangalore-based Chalam Bennurakar, the film related the stark tragedy of Sivakasi’s children without childhood. The name ‘Sivakasi’ is instantly recognizable to millions of people in this country. The place is synonymous with matches and fireworks, and calendars advertising these products. But the question is, how many people have any idea about the lives lived by the children of Sivakasi – the young ones who are largely responsible for the production and productivity of the place.
Seventy per cent of the Sivakasi children sweating it out daily in 10- to 12-hour shifts in hellish working conditions for wages that can at best be described as beggarly, are girls – girls in pigtails who should be in school learning the three R’s, laughing and running about and enjoying their childhood. Ironically, the Sivakasi film by Bennurakar was made a short while after the adult world had observed with fanfare the UN-designated ‘Year of the Girl Child’. What a laugh!
Sivakasi is called ‘Kutty Japan’ or mini-Japan by the local people. Not that they have an inkling about how things are in that country. It is just that they have got used to the label dinned into their consciousness over decades together by the local Chamber of Commerce! The roughly century-old industry, founded by two Tamil brothers who had their initial training in money matters and in the manufacture of fireworks in Calcutta, has eager consumers not just throughout India but in many markets abroad as well. Sivakasi fireworks are said to light up American skies on July 4 and have delighted audiences at more than one Olympics.
Bennurakar’s film focused on the over-worked and under-paid children through a detailed enquiry into a given situation which has driven them to the factory gates. Portraying through a series of interviews with factory-owners, farmers and workers, the film examined the pathetic existence of child workers. The morning is still dark when company buses pick up sleepy children from villages around Sivakasi. The daily grind begins once the buses deliver their human cargo at the factory gates. There is a short recess in the afternoon when the children wolf down the curd-rice they bring with them from home. It is late in the evening when, exhausted beyond description, they return home. The film’s interviews are as important as the visuals showing the children being forced to give up their childhood so that a handful of grown-ups may enrich themselves to their heart’s content.
When some, if not many, people complain of governmental indifference to the plight of working children, they forget that there is no dearth of legislation on the subject of child labour – the problem lies in the authorities failing to implement the tall promises and pious resolutions that the nation has become accustomed to hearing. Legislation in the area of child labour is nothing new. In fact, it goes back to 1881 when, alarmed at the already huge number of children employed in hazardous occupations, the British Indian government of the day drafted its first legislation. Over the years, while the number of legislations have gone up and specific Constitutional provisions have appeared, child labour has reached a head-count of millions.
The truth is that every fourth Indian child must go to work for his own and his family’s survival; that today India has the largest number of working children in the world; and that child workers form at least a quarter of the country’s total workforce, contributing more than 25 per cent of the national family income. While official sources maintain that the total number of child workers would be in the region of 20 million, more dependable independent sources claim that 50 million would be a more accurate figure. This may read like a mere recital of statistics to people subscribing to the myth of ‘India Shining’, but there’s no denying the fact that ground realities show how badly the Constitution of India has been betrayed by successive governments at the Centre and the States especially in the matter of guaranteeing children’s rights. It is immaterial whether it is the DMK or the AIADMK is in power in Tamilnadu; whether it is the UPA or the NDA ruling at the Centre. The more things change the more it remains the same. Going through the motions is the name of the game. Democracy in India is best understood by the performing parrot or the performing monkey.
Speaking specifically of Sivakasi, let a PTI despatch from Madurai dated July 12, 1991, be quoted to show, if anything, that despite governmental assurances that measures would be taken to make working conditions safer and enforce penalties on errant employers, nothing has really changed. The explosion in Sivakasi on September 5, 2012, was but a repetition of what had occurred two decades earlier and many times in between. The PTI report read thus : “Thirty-seven persons, most of them child labourers and women, were charred to death and 70 others suffered burns in a major fire at a private cracker factory at Meenampatti, about six kilometres from Sattur in Tamilnadu’s Kamarajar district… Police said 27 bodies were charred beyond recognition while 10 bodies had been identified. They said the fire was sparked by an explosion which occurred due to friction while explosives were being pushed into tubes in one of the factory’s 32 sheds. Soon the fire spread to the other sheds… Rescue operations had been delayed as the factory was difficult to reach owing to lack of proper roads. Eyewitnesses had seen people running with their clothes on fire. No one dared to enter the premises, fearing further explosions. According to the police, the explosion was heard in villages situated over a ten-kilometre radius around the factory. Several bodies were seen plastered to the wall.”
In no time Diwali, the so-called festival of lights but which has over the years degenerated into more ear-splitting sound and accompanying rowdyism than light to dispel the darkness of ignorance and injustice, will be upon us. The more level-headed will buy coloured matchsticks, sparklers and light crackers. In the midst of the mirth and the merriment, is it possible that you, dear reader, and I, the writer, with our respective families, will spare a moment for those children in Sivakasi and other places in Tamilnadu who daily risk their lives to ensure our quota of fun? Maybe we will, but it will, at best, be a momentary, fleeting thought, gone before it is allowed enough time to settle on our troubled middle-class conscience.
It is said that the labour contractors supplying children to the match and fireworks factories examine the fingers of the children closely before taking them on. The girl child with nimble fingers and supple arms is preferred because such limbs make for greater output. Can people with a more diabolical turn of mind, seeking profit in poverty and human misery, be imagined? Pained parents are on record in Chalam Bennurakar’s film that they have no choice but to send their small ones to earn for the family. These are farming people who are at their wits’ end when the crops fail, mainly due to scarcity of rainwater. While the adults have to go to work in nearby stone quarries, the children supplement their parents’ income by risking their lives in the factories, which are nothing but death-traps and infernos when fires break out. Each time there is an explosion, democracy and the rule of law, the twin pillars on which the Constitution of India is said to rest, take a beating. But, truth to tell, things have come to such a pass that the machinations of the political class in particular and the indifference of society at large have combined to reduce Dr. Ambedkar’s vision of equality and justice, to nothing.
Mercifully, the periodic devastations in Sivakasi are noticed by the media, but equally condemnable is the unreported plight of child workers in other industries located in other parts of the country. According to a UNICEF report dating back to 2003, nearly 1.5 million children were employed in hazardous occupations in the glass, carpet and lock-manufacturing industries in Uttar Pradesh which, incidentally, has the largest number of ‘people’s representatives’ in the Houses of Parliament. The most hazardous of these is the glass-making industry where more than 50,000 children below the age of 14 are employed in Ferozabad. It is a fact that the efforts of groups of social workers to alleviate the working and living conditions of these child workers have come to nought as a result of the exertions of the powerful ‘glass lobby’ in the UP Vidhan Sabha.
More than a quarter of a century ago a Calcutta filmmaker had made a commissioned film on the Ferozabad glass industry where the inhumanity of the glass barons towards the helpless child workers had been so diluted as to produce a document sanitized beyond belief. By his own admission, the director of the film had left out shots of small boys unable to stand still on the floor of a factory on account of extreme heat. On being asked why he had deleted such important shots, he blithely replied that the people who had financed the film would not have allowed them to be included. So much for the artistic independence and the moral strength of our creative geniuses!
But if the record of the glass goons of Ferozabad is bad, that of the carpet cartels of Mirzapur is worse. According to the UNICEF report, there were at least 900,000 children between five and fifteen years of age who were employed in the carpet industry which mints hundreds of crores of rupees in profit every year from sales at home and abroad. The report was not certain about the number of children aged around five years employed in the industry, but said it was almost certain that the figure would run into hundreds of thousands. If this is the situation in the State that has produced a succession of Prime Ministers and Presidents, and thousands of parliamentarians of all complexions and persuasions, what must be the scenario in the far-flung corners of the country.
Bennurakar has one shot in his Sivakasi film which speaks at least a thousand words about the plight of child slaves – child ‘workers’ or child ‘labourers’ are but euphemisms which one’s sense of morality should prevent one from using. The shot shows a statue of Gandhi at a village crossing in the Sivakasi area which has had to be encircled by a wall and kept locked, presumably in an effort to protect it from thieves or other malcontents. In a country where the Mahatma has to be rescued from the evil eye, what hope is there for thousands of his youngest children – many of them no higher than a hammer and no lighter than a flower – to be saved from the depredations of a System gone to seed? Sivakasi is a nightmare that is not likely to go away for a long time to come, for there are greedy, powerful people to nurse it and to perpetuate it.
( Vidyarthy Chatterjee writes on cinema,society, and politics.)
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The Punjabi Press Club of British Columbia (PPCBC) has come out with a strong statement against assaults on three reporters by the supporters of ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India.
