Dispersing Jerusalem's Gays : Same Time, Same Place?
"I do think that homophobia is rooted in the city, but that's the point of the parade." "We are trying to change that. And hopefully we will change that. It takes one man to create a scene like this. Hopefully he's a minority." Benny Zupick, 21, Jerusalem
"People celebrating their freedom and expressing their identity were viciously stabbed." "We must not be deluded a lack of tolerance will lead us to disaster. We cannot allow such crimes and we must condemn those who commit to support them." Israeli President Reuven Rivlin
"The battle is not over. Those unclean people want to continue defiling Jerusalem."
"To protest is an obligation in my
opinion, but it is not enough. [The goal must be] to disperse
them, even by force."
Yishai Schissel, ultraorthodox Jerusalem resident
"All we ask and expect is that LGBTQ people are free and safe to live in
Jerusalem. This is only a sign we need to continue our work and our
marches." Jerusalem Open House
Security forces moved to arrest Yishai Schlissel, who carried out a similar attack 10 years ago.Credit
Sebastian Scheiner/Associated PressMost certainly Gay Pride parading through the streets of Tel Aviv would find enthusiasm greeting them along with disinterested city dwellers going about their business, none caring that gays were embarking on their annual visual presentation to the public. In Jerusalem, where ultraorthodox Jews and pious Muslims and Christian Palestinians dominate in many quarters with their obvious distaste for anything remotely 'abnormal' according to their religious tenets, the surprise is that a similar atrocity isn't a regular feature of the parade.
It would seem that one man, however, who finds such exhibitionism utterly detestable, has staged a repeat performance. He may have pledged that once every decade he would embark on a mission to carry out a violently repulsive act that his deranged mind may feel is equal to the public presence of gays celebrating their gender-otherness. He did so in 2005, stabbing a handful of parade participants and paid the penalty of a prison sentence.
And his repeat performance took place this week in Jerusalem. Israeli justice should find him as a repeat offender someone who is not amenable to learning from the punishment originally meted out to him. As a recidivist he has more than adequately demonstrated that he is a man deserving of institutionalized separation from mainstream society. His fervent fanaticism marks him as a man incapable of restraining his murderous impulse.
Yishai Schlissel, as a result, will and should be returned to prison after a court of law finds him guilty of stabbing six young people, leaving two of them in serious condition. He is said to have hid his presence as the excited, happy parade-goers marched past a supermarket. When he appeared, withdrawing his knife, catching everyone by dismayed surprise at his fearful presence, his swift attack even caught police by surprise.
Asi Ahroni speaking for the Jerusalem police spoke of a "massive presence" of police meant to secure the safety of those taking part in the parade. "Unfortunately the man managed to pull out a knife and attack."Once the wounded were taken to hospital the parade continued but the spontaneous air of gaiety was hugely subdued.
On the other hand, thousands of residents of the city who hadn't taken part in the parade and under other circumstances likely would never have envisioned themselves going anywhere near such an unorthodox spectacle, saw it fit and needful that they flood into the street by their thousands, offering solidarity and support to the marchers.
The police arrested a man identified as Yishai Schlissel after an attack on a gay pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday.Credit
Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press
"This exceptional migrant situation has dramatic human consequences. Calais is a mirror of conflicts tearing up regions of the world."
"If we want to solve this problem in
Calais, if we want to prevent the networks of smugglers from driving
vulnerable men, women and kids to Calais, we need to work on this
problem in its origin."
"We need to work on this from the migrants' countries of origin and follow their path which leads to the European territory." French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
"Smugglers sell migrants the notion that Britain is the only El Dorado for a better life." Emmanuel Agrius, deputy mayor, Calais
"Two thousand migrants didn't arrive just like that."
"We
can't possibly imagine it's a wave of 2,000 migrants. Let us be clear: Those are 2,000 intrusions on the site. To compare,
about three weeks ago, it was around 500."
Calais police Officer Gilles Debove
"The authorities will now work with
migrants to inform them about the potential dangers they could face on
the A16."
"They need to be aware that they are putting their lives in danger."
Gaetan Genel, spokesman, Nord Pas de Calais region, France
"In Calais, the French government has already been pushing for extra
resources and extra police resources. And the UK government
will be pushing up to 17 million pounds ($26.5 million) more to ensure
the security of the Eurotunnel."
"[France and Great Britain agreed
to work together] to return migrants, particularly to West Africa, to
ensure that people see that making this journey does not lead to them
coming to Europe and being able to settle in Europe."
British Home Secretary Theresa May
Eurotunnel is seeking compensation from the British and French governments
French authorities and Eurotunnel, the private company operating the tunnel between France and Britain stated that about two thousand attempts on each of two consecutive nights were carried out, to storm through from France to Britain taking place with migrants looking to find their way through to a new life. According to Britain's home secretary "a number" of those migrants made it through successfully.
In recent weeks barriers set up around the Eurotunnel site has spurred attempts to cross into Britain. The 50-kilometre Channel Tunnel, used by passenger trains and freight services to connect France and Britain is under siege. People are risking their lives to attempt the successful breaching of tunnel safeguards against migrant entry.
One migrant had been crushed to death, another injured critically, electrocuted, amidst tens of thousands of breach-of-security attempts, fuelling a crisis on the channel. Pressing north toward both France and Britain migrants flee conflict, the oppression of dictatorship and grinding poverty, flooding in from Africa and the Middle East.
www.aol.co.uk
Calais Migrants Continue To Board Vehicles At The Channel Tunnel
Migrants who initially land in Italy, speedily attempt to make their way north from southern Europe. Two ships unloaded their miserable human cargo on Wednesday; one with 435 passengers along with 14 cadavers, and the second carrying 692 migrants. Many represent families from Syria, according to Giovanna De Benedetto, spokeswoman for Save the Children, in the port of Messina.
Britain is increasingly alarmed over the influx of foreigners, while French officials are concerned about the thousands of migrants living in encampments representing lawless sites scattered in the Calais area. A few succeeded in leaving Calais for Britain by boarding trains covertly. Caught on the French side, they are freed to return to the camps.
Those detained on the British side may have their applications for asylum considered. Many choose to remain hidden aboard trucks rolling off trains until the trucks stop for fuel, when the migrants leap off and disappear. Eurotunnel authorities insisted they had blocked over 37,000 attempts since January. Since June, nine people have died, including a mid-20s Sudanese man crushed by a truck.
"It's become a phenomenon which is beyond our means", said John Keefe speaking for Eurotunnel. "We're just a small transport company operating in a little corner of Europe." Attacks, according to Mr. Keefe, on the fences are organized. "This is very clearly criminal gangs or human traffickers who co-ordinate attacks on the fences."
The Wednesday night mayhem caused truckers on either side of the Channel to be backed up for miles as the highway became a parking lot. Cargo trucks were backed up in Calais for several kilometres. British police stopped all movement on a highway near the British end of the tunnel.
Ultimately, mused Home Secretary May, "The answer to this problem is to ensure we are reducing the number of migrants who are trying to come from Africa across into Europe, that we break that link between making that dangerous journey, as it often is for people, coming to settle in Europe."
Ultimately, the only way to halt the tide of migrants fleeing Africa and Middle Eastern countries like Syria and places like Gaza is to persuade Islamists and Islamist governments that it is their duty to those who rely upon their governments to protect and shelter citizens both from government oppression and the danger posed to them by fanatical Islamists who see their duty to Islam in persecuting Muslims.
While many in the
international community and media hold Israel fully responsible for the
plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Abrash offers a
completely different perspective.
Referring to widespread corruption under the Palestinian
Authority (PA) in the West Bank, the former Palestinian minister reveals
that Palestinian academic institutions, including universities and
colleges, have become "commercial projects for granting certificates
that have no scientific value or content."
This is a voice that is rarely given a platform in mainstream
media outlets in the West, whose journalists continue to focus almost
entirely on stories that reflect negatively on Israel. Western
journalists based in the Middle East tend to ignore Palestinians who are
critical of the PA or Hamas, because such criticism does not fit the
narrative according to which Israel is solely responsible for all the
bad things that happen to the Palestinians.
Abrash's criticism of Hamas and the PA -- whom he openly holds
responsible for the suffering of their people -- actually reflects the
widespread sentiment among Palestinians. Over the past few years, a
growing number of Palestinians have come to realize that their leaders
have failed them again and again and are now aware that both Hamas and
the PA, as corrupt as ever, are hindering efforts to rebuild the Gaza
Strip.
It is almost unheard of for a prominent Palestinian figure to hold
the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas equally responsible for
corruption and abuse of power.
Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, a former Palestinian Minister of Culture from the Gaza Strip, recently surprised many Palestinians by publishing an article that included a scathing attack on both the PA and Hamas, holding them responsible for the continued suffering of their people.
In his article, Dr. Abrash also holds the two Palestinian parties
responsible for the delay in rebuilding thousands of houses that were
destroyed or damaged in the Gaza Strip during last year's military
conflict between Israel and Hamas. He points out that Hamas and the PA
have been holding each other responsible for the suffering of
Palestinians. "Sometimes, they also put all the blame on Israel for all
that is happening in the Gaza Strip," he said.
Referring to the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority, which reached its peak with the violent takeover
by Hamas of the entire Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Dr. Abrash
accused the two rival parties of exploiting their dispute to cover up
corruption in vital sectors of Palestinian society.
"In light of the division [between the PA-controlled West Bank and
Hamas-run Gaza], corruption and absence of accountability have become
widespread," Dr. Abrash wrote. "This division has led to the collapse of
the political system and the system of values, and an increase in
corruption. This has also allowed many opportunists and hypocrites to
reach important positions, where they do anything they want without
being held accountable."
J'Accuse.
Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, a former Palestinian Minister of Culture (left),
accuses Palestinian Authority and Hamas officials of corruption,
extortion, opportunism and hypocrisy. Pictured in the middle is PA
President Mahmoud Abbas, and at right Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
And while many in the international community and media continue to
hold Israel fully responsible for the plight of the Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip, Dr. Abrash offers a completely different perspective.
Noting that the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip have fallen victim to
the power struggle between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, he says
that no one today knows who is supposed to be helping the people living
there.
"The interests of the people have been lost as result of the two
parties' rivalry," Dr. Abrash said. "No one knows who is in charge of
the people's needs in the Gaza Strip -- Hamas, which is the de facto
authority in the Gaza Strip, or the Palestinian Authority and its
national consensus government. Or is it UNRWA and the donors who are
responsible? Or is it the sole responsibility of Israel as an occupation
state? To whom should the people direct their complaints?"
Referring to widespread corruption under the PA in the West Bank, the
former Palestinian minister reveals that Palestinian academic
institutions, including universities and colleges, have become
"commercial projects for granting certificates that have no scientific
value or content."
Dr. Abrash points out that no one knows whether universities and
colleges in the Gaza Strip are subject to the supervision of the
Ministry of Education in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
He also blasts the PA's Ministry of Civilian Affairs for exploiting
and extorting Palestinians who seek travel permits, especially those
wishing to leave the Gaza Strip. He goes on to hold Hamas responsible
for "harassing" Palestinians who wish to leave the Gaza Strip through
the Erez border crossing (to Israel). Dr. Abrash claims that some
Palestinians are forced to pay bribes to Palestinian officials to obtain
a travel permit.
"Many people have been subjected to blackmail and procrastination [by
Palestinian officials] after Israel eased travel restrictions at the
Bet Hanoun [Erez] border crossing," he said. "But the people are afraid
to complain, out of fear that they would be denied travel permits in the
future. What is happening at the border crossing has created favoritism
and bribery."
Dr. Abrash concludes his article with a rhetorical question: "Isn't
it shameful and irritating that while Israel has been issuing travel
permits for those with special needs, some influential [Palestinian]
officials are placing obstacles? Until when will they continue to
manipulate and blackmail the people of the Gaza Strip?"
Dr. Abrash's article represents a rare voice of sanity among
Palestinians. This is a voice that does not blame all the miseries of
Palestinians on Israel alone and holds the Palestinians leadership also
responsible for the continued suffering of their people.
However, this is a voice that is rarely given a platform in
mainstream media outlets in the West, whose journalists continue to
focus almost entirely on stories that reflect negatively on Israel.
Western journalists based in the Middle East tend to ignore
Palestinians who are critical of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
That is because such criticism does not fit the narrative according to
which Israel is solely responsible for all the bad things that happen to
the Palestinians.
Dr. Abrash's criticism of Hamas and the PA -- whom he openly holds
responsible for the suffering of their people -- actually reflects the
widespread sentiment among Palestinians. Over the past few years, a
growing number of Palestinians have come to realize that their leaders
have failed them again and again. Today, many Palestinians are aware of
the fact that both Hamas and the PA are responsible for hindering
efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip and that the two parties are as
corrupt as ever.
But when will the international community and media wake up and
comprehend what many Palestinians came to understand years ago, namely
that the real tragedy of the Palestinian people has been -- and remains
-- bad and irresponsible leadership? Unfortunately, this is unlikely to
happen as long as the world continues to see Israel as the villain.
“We are obviously in discussion with our Turkish
ally constantly on Syria. We continue to think that
we don’t want to further militarize the situation.
We obviously understand that they have their
national security interests as well, but we don’t
think that further militarization right now is the
way to go. [The Syrian opposition continues to] gain ground in Syria and has started to hold
greater territory.”
“I don’t think we are at a point where we are going
to see -- or we are hearing greater calls for an
immediate external military operations into Syria."
“The public message [U.S. advice to Turkey] that I
said here, that we don’t want and don’t think that
further militarization is the way to go right now,
is the same thing that we’re delivering in private.” Patrick Ventrell, director, press office, U.S. State Department, 2012
"The US of course recognizes the PKK specifically as a terrorist
organization. And so, again, Turkey has a right to take action related
to terrorist targets. And we certainly appreciate their interest in
accelerating efforts against ISIL [ISIS]." White House spokesman Ben Rhodes, July 2015
Turkey refuses to negotiate with "terrorists". Ankara has the PKK listed as a terrorist organization. The 30-year conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been mutually destructive. But yet a ceasefire was agreed to in 2013 and now it is undone."It seems Erdogan wants to drag us back into war. When things reach this level and when all of our areas are bombed, I think by then the ceasefire has no meaning anymore", statedPKK spokesman in Iraq, Bakhtiar Dogan.
The PKK is the militarily active group within Turkey acting on behalf of the Turkish Kurdish population, anxious to somehow, finally attain a homeland of their own. The Kurds represent the largest ethnic group denied their own land. They are dispersed in their ancestral homelands which just happen to overlap into Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. And Turkey, with its overall population of 75 million people has a Kurdish demographic of 20 million.
On Saturday, while declaring its intention to begin bombing ISIL, and making no distinction between the terrorist jihadis and the Kurds, Ankara dispatched warplanes to bomb Kurdish military bases as well. Turkish bombers were sent on three separate missions to destroy logistics positions, warehouses, barracks and PKK bases
in northern Iraq. This, Ankata claims, is retaliation for PKK attacks against Turkish security forces and police.
Turkey subsequently called a NATO meeting to discuss its security concerns not
only about Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) but the PKK as well. Taking off from the Diyarbakir air base, four F-16 fighters hit targets in Hakurk in northern Iraq, local media confirming the airstrikes: “At around 9:00pm
(6:00pm GMT), Turkish planes started bombing some of our positions in
two areas [north of Dohuk and north of Arbil]”, stated Bakhtiar Dogan.
There are reports in the media that roughly 50 PKK camps were hit in three
separate air operations with up to 300 bombs dropped on PKK
positions. "It is not possible for us to continue the peace process with those who threaten our national unity and brotherhood", stated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Those who exploit the people and the state's tolerance and patience will receive the answer they deserve as soon as possible."
And since Turkey striking out at the Kurds who alone from among all the militias in the geography have been capably responding to Islamic State's violently barbaric aggression, and competently reclaiming territory taken by the ISIL 'caliphate', it isn't quite in the best interests of NATO, or the United States, which has given air cover to the Kurdish military, and the European Union to accept Turkey's psychotic attacks on Kurdish positions.
Turkey called an urgent NATO meeting to discuss the situation; ostensibly to render their self-defence position and make their claims for security and defence a NATO prospect. NATO responded with a statement that it stands in "strong solidarity" with Ankara against "terrible acts of terror". NATO, and the United States, needless to say, would like Turkey as a NATO member to begin pulling its weight against ISIL, alongside the U.S.-led airstrikes.
On the other hand, the 'terrible acts of terror' demonstrably would register Turkey's violence against the Kurds.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG's push-back against Islamic State has been a success story. Western allies now have the headache of balancing gains against losses; Turkey's entry in the air raids on the jihadists, offset against its sanctimoniously destructive attacks against the Kurdish positions. "Reconciliation should continue", said the Dutch NATO ambassador, stating what other officials have also remarked upon. The EU urged "proportionality" against the PKK.
The YPG's estimable role in the allied war against ISIL, particularly in besieged Kobani, was on the cusp of earning it removal from international terrorism lists. When the PKK killed a Turkish army sergeant near the border with Iraq all bets were off. When ISIL struck Suruc earlier, killing 32 socialist Kurds and wounding 100, as they rallied preparatory to moving into Kobani to help rebuild schools and medical clinics, the issue was clearly one that could be shrugged off.
Now, Ankara is giving equality of response to both ISIL and the PKK, and so much for proportionality. And Erdogan, livid with rage has threatened Kurdish MPs with investigation into "connections to terrorism". The main Kurdish political party, the HDP, which won seats for the first time to parliament in June threw Erdogan's Justice and Development Party's majority into minority status.
It is that issue which drives the Turkish response to the PKK.
"Moderate forces like the Free Syrian Army will be strengthened, a structure will be created so that they can take control of areas freed from ISIL, air cover will be provided." "It would be impossible for them [Syrian rebels] to take control of the area without it." Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Turkey has finally emerged from its covert background role as a supporter of Islamists whom it believes can be instrumental in detaching Syrian President al-Assad from power in Syria. The Justice and Development Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan found it convenient to give support and haven to the Islamist jihadis forming their nascent caliphate in belief that an ally had been found who might be wholly effective in their single-minded efforts at capturing Syria from the Alawite regime to bring Syrian Sunnis to power.
Unfortunately, that brand of Sunni Islamism has proven to be a threat to any semblance of reasonable moderation and effective administration of the country's residents. It solves the problems relating to caution and distaste for its 'pure Islam' that indulges in wholesale atrocities against those of too-little faith, or the wrong faith, tribe, ethnic group or culture by casually destroying those opposed to its rule, or whose presence is seen to insult its rule.
One might conceive from this that the Turkish administration of President Erdogan found it loathsome to cast its lot in with Islamic State jihadis and their fierce barbarism but there has been nothing out of Ankara to support that contention. Confrontation by Turkish forces against Islamic State appears to be a byproduct of the tardy realization that they now comprise a threat to Turkish peace. Although Turkey doesn't mind disturbing its peace when it comes to imposing conflict on its Kurds.
President Erdogan's raging distrust and hatred against Kurds, those in Turkey, in Syria and Iraq [perhaps those in Iran haven't come to his notice yet], identifies them as Turkey's most important threat. The 30-year conflict between the Turkish administration and its Kurdish minority seeking a degree of sovereignty at least and the possibility of a future national home at the very most, has never been settled, despite a temporary accommodation to end the mutual violence.
President Erdogan amply demonstrated the esteem in which Kurds are held by Turks through the regime's choice to allow bloodthirsty Islamic State jihadists to lay siege to and destroy the border Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, even if it meant that thousands of its desperate civilian residents were forced to cross the border into Turkey for respite from the fighting and temporary haven from violation of all normative caution against taking civilian lives in conflict situations.
Finally, Turkey has agreed to take part in the U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State positions, and to permit the United States and its allies to use the Incerlik air base to aid in nearer proximity to bombing missions. The two countries have agreed to the need to roust ISIL from Syrian territory along the border with Turkey. Unfortunately that plan comes up hard against the reality that most of the border is held by Syrian Kurdish forces.
While the YPG, loathed by Turkey, is in effective possession of 910 kilometres of border territory between Turkey and Syria, Islamic State controls a 100-km stretch of the border, wedged between Islamist insurgents and Kurdish Peoples Protection Unit, the YPG. The YPG, affiliated with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) whose insurgency in Turkey caused the country to label it a terrorist group views Ankara's plan for the border as a disguised effort to dislodge the Kurdish hold on the border.
Things become somewhat complicated by the fact that the United States views the Kurdish fighters as their only competent allies in the battle against Islamic State. Should the plan by Ankara be placed into effect, it would limit the Syrian Kurdish forces' advance; the war against ISIL used as a pretext to influence Washington not to work in tandem with the YPG. Nawaf Khalil who heads the Kurdish Center for Studies based in Germany comments that "this will not work".
Thousands of Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere have protested against Turkey's shelling of Kurdish targets [EPA]
As for Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's Foreign Minister, "There is no difference between PKK and Daesh", he spat, placing things in their Turkish-viewed perspective. Justifying Turkish attacks against Kurdish emplacements. At the same time a State Department spokesman in Washington stated that no joint military effort alongside Turkey is to include a no-fly zone in Syria to halt its government air raids.
For doing so, it is feared, might draw American forces into the civil war.
Turkey called for an urgent meeting with NATO allies, concerned over its security and its airstrikes. "NATO has a duty to protect" Turkey's border with Syria and Iraq, Turkey insists. Again, the situation is such that it comes up against the U.S.-supported Kurdish fighters in Syria, the most successful of all those involved in the battle against Islamic State.
Israel’s Best Diplomat Offers Hope to the Entire Middle East
George Deek is an Arab in a Jewish state and
Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world—and he recognizes that
his multilayered identity is an asset
When George Deek uses the word “we” in a conversation, it is not
entirely clear whether he means “we Palestinians,” or rather “we
Israelis,” or perhaps “we Westerners,” or even “we Arabs.” At the age of
30, with a constant five-o’clock shadow compensating for his baby-face
and thin silhouette, he is both an Israeli diplomat, representing the
Jewish state, and a descendant of a Palestinian family who fled its home
during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. His cousins live today in Canada,
Dubai, Damascus, and Ramallah, and some of them are considered by the
United Nations to be refugees of that same war.
This personal tension came fully into being last summer, during the
war between Israel and Hamas, when Deek was Israel’s chargé d’affaires
in Oslo. He presented Israel’s positions and defended its actions, while
Norwegian TV networks were screening endless footage of destruction
coming out of the Gaza Strip. He explained how the Israeli army works,
without ever serving in it. He spoke on behalf of Israel, when none of
his viewers and listeners knew that he was actually (also) a
Palestinian.
A few weeks later, at the end of September, he decided to unveil his
personal story for the first time. In a lecture in the House of
Literature in Oslo, during the launching of the Norwegian translation of
Benny Morris’ history book dedicated to the 1948 war, Deek recounted
how his grandfather fled Jaffa and reached Lebanon, how he insisted on
getting back into Israel when the war ended, and how he raised his
family in the nascent Jewish state. He talked about the personal
suffering of his own family, now scattered all around the world, but
also about the fact that “the Palestinians have become slaves to the
past, held captive by the chains of resentment, prisoners in the world
of frustration and hate.”
But he talked mainly about the way forward, and mainly about hope. He
spoke about his neighbor Avraham, a Holocaust survivor, who taught him
always to look to the future and not to the past. He gave his listeners a
sense of why a young Arab-Palestinian has decided to dedicate his
career to the Israeli Foreign Service. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
speech quickly went viral under the somewhat ironic title “the best
speech an Israeli diplomat ever held.”
***
As a native son of Jaffa, the mixed Arab-Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv
(population 60,000), Deek knows its decaying streets and alleys inside
out. Our meeting occurred when he was in Israel for the winter holidays,
just after he returned from Sunday prayer in the local Christian
Orthodox church. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and a pair of shiny
black shoes. His late father, Joseph, was head of the Orthodox community
in town, so everybody knew him and greeted him with a nod. A group of
elderly women sitting outside a simple one-story home, all in black
dresses, called to him and urged him to find himself a woman already. He
chuckled.
Deek took me to where his grandfather’s house stood in the Ajami
neighborhood before 1948; it was now a complete ruin. His grandfather
George worked as an electrician and had some Jewish friends who even
taught him Yiddish, making him one of the first Arabs to ever speak the
language. He got engaged to his wife Vera in 1947. A few months later,
when the United Nations approved the Partition Plan, Arab leaders warned
that the Jews would kill them if they stayed home. “They told everyone
to leave their houses, and run away,” said Deek. “They said they will
need just a few days, in which together with five armies they promised
to destroy the newly born Israel.”
His family, horrified by what might happen, decided to flee to the
north, toward Lebanon. They stayed there for many months, and when the
war was over, they realized that they had been lied to—the Arabs did not
win as they promised, and the Jews did not kill all the Arabs, as they
were told would happen. “My grandfather looked around him and saw
nothing but a dead-end life as refugees,” said Deek. “He knew that in a
place stuck in the past with no ability to look forward, there is no
future for his family. Because he worked with Jews and was a friend to
them, he was not brainwashed with hatred.”
His grandfather did what few others would have dared—he got hold of
one of his old friends at the electricity company, and asked for his
help to get back into Israel. That friend not only was able and willing
to help him come back, but even made sure that he got his job back.
We stared at the ruined house for a few more moments. “Let’s continue?” he suggested.
Among Deek’s siblings and cousins living in Israel there are
accountants, hi-tech engineers, factory managers, university professors,
doctors, lawyers, architects—and of course electricians. “The reason we
have succeeded,” he said, “and that I am an Israeli diplomat, and not a
Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, is that my grandfather had the courage
to make a decision that was unthinkable to others.”
He spoke slowly and softly, as someone who had given much thought to
the issue. He said that his grandfather’s choice should be a model for
the Arab minority in Israel as a whole: “Unfortunately, Arabs in Israel
today are forced to choose between two bad options. One is
assimilation—young Arabs look at their Jewish peers and decide they want
to speak like them, walk like them, and behave like them. This attempt
is a bit comic but also sad, since it is doomed to fail. In the end they
are not Jews and will never be.
“On the other hand, and this is a far more common choice, there is an
option of separatism, which is promoted by the Arab political and
religious leaders. They say that we are not really Israelis, only
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, but this nuance creates
dissociation. They speak about Arab cultural autonomy and about
separation, which I think lead to extremism and animosity with the Jews.
According to this version, a loyal Arab-Israeli must define himself
first and foremost through being anti-Israeli.
“With the first choice, you lose who you are; with the second, you
lose who you can become. But I believe that there’s a third way. We can
be proud of our identity and at the same time live as a contributing
minority in a country who has a different nationality, a different
religion, and a different culture than ours. There is no better example
in my view than the Jews in Europe, who kept their religion and identity
for centuries but still managed to influence deeply, perhaps even to
create, European modern thinking. Jews suffered from the same dissonance
between their own identity and the surrounding society. Their success
was not despite their distinctiveness, but because of it. I am talking
about Marx, Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Wittgenstein.
“Are we less smart? I don’t think so. We must contribute to the
common good and be part of the Israeli mainstream in politics, economy,
culture, fashion, technology, music, everything. We have our role
models. Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran; Judge George Kara, who sent
a Jewish president to jail; Weizmann Institute researcher Jacob Hanna;
and authors such as Sayed Kashua and Anton Shammas, who are doing to
Hebrew what Franz Kafka did to the German language.”
He lamented the fact that Arab leaders don’t follow this path and
instead put the Arab identity and the Israeli identity on a constant
collision path. The Arab minority in Israel, he said, could have a
paramount role in creating a bridge with the entire Arab world through
commerce, culture, and literature, thanks to its unique position. “There
is a challenge here for the Jewish community as well,” he added, “who
have to accept a minority that wants to maintain its distinct character
and still be part of the decision-making process.”
***
Orthodox Christians in Jaffa celebrated their New Year in mid
January, and so a few thousand of them lined the city’s main street on a
chilly winter’s night for the annual festive parade. There was a mixed
boys-girls group of break-dancers, and huge balloons, and many many
fireworks, but the main attraction was the Orthodox Christian scouts
band that played anything from “Jingle Bells” to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
As a trumpet player and a former leader of the band, Deek does not miss
an opportunity to play with the band; each year he returns to Israel
for the winter holidays to be once again part of the community.
As a boy he studied in Jaffa, but his father sent him to one of the
best high schools in northern Tel Aviv, where he was the only Arab. He
stood out as an eloquent speaker, and when the second Intifada broke out
in 2000 he enthusiastically defended the Palestinian side, though he
says today that already at that time he felt that he was only playing a
role written for him and not expressing himself. After graduating, he
practiced law for a few years but got bored. One day he saw an ad in the
newspaper for the upcoming cadet course for diplomats.
His Arab friends told him he did not stand a chance; he didn’t even
serve in the military, they said. Convincing his father, an Arab
nationalist and member of an anti-Zionist political party, was a tougher
sell. The young Deek promised his father that he was doing it out of a
real sense of purpose and not for the status or the perks. “I will never
forget his answer,” he said. “He told me that he wanted to bring up a
man, and therefore taught me how to think and not what to think.”
Representing Israel in Norway, where for a while he was the most
senior diplomat in the embassy, wasn’t always an easy task. However, his
mixed and conflicting identities helped him notice elements that other
people would have probably missed; always a stranger, he picked up
nuances that others were blind to. “Despite all differences,” he said,
“Norwegians and Israelis have in common the feeling that they know
better than anyone else how to do things. Norwegians have this sense of
geographical superiority toward the rest of the world; sort of ‘we are
far away and above all this.’ I remember that when I just arrived there
from my previous post in Nigeria, I saw a billboard advertising a ‘Films
from the South’ festival. I was sure that these were going to be
African films, but I discovered they were actually German and French
films. For Norway, that was south. That’s beyond geography. That’s about
the mentality of looking at the world from a higher pedestal.”
‘How could it be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian, and a diplomat in Norway?’
Until recently, Norway was considered one of the most hostile
countries in Europe toward Israel, and Deek had to confront these
sentiments on a daily basis. “If you ask me how many Norwegians think
that Jews belong to an inferior religion, or that Jews control the
world, the answer would be very little,” he said. “But I think that the
State of Israel itself has become a substitute for those same old
anti-Semitic sentiments.
“Back when religion was the source of authority, the Jews suffered
because of their religion. When science became the source of authority,
Jews suffered because of their racial-biological features. Now the
source of authority is the issue of human rights, and the Jewish State
is accused of committing all the gravest abuses at once: apartheid,
genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity. Just as
Jews posed a challenge to the non-Jewish society throughout the ages,
so does Israel pose a challenge to the world today. This is what I had
to deal with: the Norwegians’ ability to accept a Jewish State with all
its uniqueness.”
He had a revealing conversation with one of Norway’s YMCA leaders,
who decided to boycott Israel. “I asked her, ‘Why Israel?’ There are
surely much graver cases of human rights abuses around the world. Even
if everything she said was true, Israel was still not the worst country
in the world. And to my astonishment, she replied, ‘Well, we have to
start somewhere.’ She reminded me of the famous story of the former
president of Harvard University, who when asked why he singled Jews out
for quotas, responded, ‘Jews cheat.’ When he was reminded that
Christians also cheat, he said: ‘You’re changing the subject. We are
talking about Jews now.’ ”
One of the tricks he uses when discussing Israel is to reveal his
full identity only halfway through the conversation. “During the war
between Israel and Hamas in 2012, I invited a very senior journalist who
was reporting at the time on the conflict. At a certain point he
started to accuse me, saying, ‘You Jews don’t want the Palestinians to
have their own state.’ I answered that I was not Jewish. I represent the
Jewish State but I am an Arab-Palestinian with relatives in Ramallah,
and I can tell him that he is wrong.
“Every Israeli diplomat could have told him that he was wrong, but
when I did so, it had a different meaning. He said, ‘Wait a moment, are
you Israeli?’ I replied yes. He asked, ‘And you represent Israel?’ I
said yes. ‘But you are Arab?’ I said yes. He was very confused and did
not understand how it could be that I was both Israeli, Arab, Christian,
and a diplomat in Norway. And this was someone supposedly knowledgeable
in Israel and its society. But many times very prominent figures in
politics, in the media or the academia, make up their thoughts based on
fashion and not on facts or substance.”
***
Why, of all jobs and professions he could pick, did Deek chose to
align himself with one part of his identity, which is set in such a
conflict with other parts of his identity? A key to the answer lies
perhaps in the fact that stories like his can happen only in free and
open societies. His decision to fight for Israel and pursue the career
of a diplomat is in a way a fight for himself—a multilayered persona,
struggling to find his own voice in a double minority situation: Arab in
a Jewish state and Christian in a predominantly Muslim Arab world.
Israel’s survival guarantees his own survival.
“If there is no place in the Middle East for a Jewish State, than
there is no place for anyone who is different,” he said. “And this is
why we see today persecution of Yazidis, Christians, Baha’i, Sunni
against Shia and vice versa, and even Sunni against other Sunni who do
not follow Islam exactly the same way. The key to change is connected
deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others.
Therefore, the Jewish State is our biggest challenge, because it has a
different nationality, religion, and culture. Jews pose a challenge
because as a minority they insist on their right to be different. The
day we accept the Jewish State as it is, all other persecution in the
Middle East will cease.”
‘The key to change is connected deeply to our ability as Arabs to accept the legitimacy of others.’
It is clear to him that the problem with Israel, in the eyes of the
Arab world, is not its policies but its identity. If Israel were a
Muslim state, he says, nobody would care about its policies; after all,
most Muslim states treat their citizens much worse, and no Arab cries
foul at other abuses, wars or cases of occupation in the Middle East.
“You don’t need to be anti-Israeli to acknowledge the humanitarian
disaster of the Palestinians in 1948,” he said. “The fact that I have to
Skype with relatives in Canada who don’t speak Arabic, or a cousin in
an Arab country that still has no citizenship despite being a third
generation there, is a living testimony to the tragic consequences of
the war.”
But at the same time, he continued, some 800,000 Jews were
intimidated into fleeing the Arab world, leaving it almost empty of
Jews. And the list goes on: When India and Pakistan were established,
about 15 million people were transferred; following World War II some 12
million Germans were displaced; and only recently, more than 2 million
Christians were expelled from Iraq. The chances of any of those groups
to return to their homes are non-existent.
Why is it then that the tragedy of the Palestinians is still alive in
today’s politics? “It seems to me to be so,” he said, “because the
Nakba has been transformed from a humanitarian disaster to a political
offensive. The commemoration of the Nakba is no longer about remembering
what happened, but about resenting the mere existence of the state of
Israel.
“It is demonstrated most clearly in the date chosen to commemorate
it, May 15, the day after Israel proclaimed its independence. By that
the Palestinian leadership declared that the disaster is not the
expulsion, the abandoned villages or the exile. The Nakba in their eyes
is the creation of Israel. They are saddened less by the humanitarian
catastrophe of the Palestinians, and more by the revival of the Jewish
state. In other words: they do not mourn the fact that my cousins are
Jordanians, they mourn the fact that I am an Israeli.”
“I,” said Deek clearly this time; he didn’t say “we.”
A
sheikh in Jerusalem's Old City teaches children the glories of
martyrdom on July 27, 2015. (Screen capture: Middle East Media Research
Institute)
A Muslim sheikh was filmed in
the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Temple Mount, teaching children
about martyrdom and virgins in paradise on Monday. A passerby attempted
to stop him, telling him “shame on you.”
In
a four-minute video released by the watchdog Middle East Media Research
Institute, Sheikh Khaled al-Maghrabi is seen instructing a group of
children, the oldest of whom are barely adolescents, that “the martyr is
absolved with the first drop of his blood.”
The children were taking part in the so-called Al-Aqsa Mosque Summer Camp, according to MEMRI.
To the group of boys and girls, the religious leader explained, “The martyr would be married off to two virgins in paradise.”
On Judgment Day, the sheikh added, someone who dies while engaged in ribat
— the Muslim concept of defending the faith, named after a
fortress-like structure — would be able to save 70 members of his or her
family.
After several minutes of this instruction, a passerby approached the sheikh and asked him to stop preaching to the children.
“Listen, sheikh, they do not understand what you are saying. They are children,” the man said in Arabic.
Passerby
outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City scolds sheikh for
teaching children the glories of martyrdom on July 27, 2015. (Screen
capture: Middle East Media Research Institute)
The sheikh attempted to quickly brush the man off, but was unsuccessful.
“You are talking to them about ribat, martyrdom, virgins of paradise,” the man told the sheikh, “Shame on you.”
The man went on, “You can teach lessons like this to adults like us, not to them. Look at what you’re planting in their minds.”
“Shame on you,” the man repeated before returning to stand with his friends.
The video ends with the same children
chanting, “We shall sacrifice our souls and our blood for you, Al-Aqsa!”
and “Khaybar! Khaybar! Oh, Jews! The army of Muhammad will return,” in
reference to the fortress city once controlled by Jewish tribes, but
later overtaken by Muslim forces.
The day before the video was filmed, dozens of
masked Palestinian protesters hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and
firecrackers at police officers on the Temple Mount compound in
Jerusalem’s Old City, before being pushed back into the Al-Aqsa Mosque
by security forces who were rushed to the area.
According to police, the protesters had
stockpiled homemade explosives, firecrackers and wooden boards inside
the mosque, with the intention of attacking thousands of Jewish
worshipers gathered below for prayers at the Western Wall on Tisha B’Av,
a fast and day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the
first and second Jewish Temples.
"If we thought we will be victorious in all the battles everywhere at the same time ... this is unrealistic and impossible. We are forced to give up areas to move those forces to the areas that we want to hold on to." "We are in a fateful phase with no half solutions.... Are the Syrian armed forces able ... to defend the homeland? Yes, it is certainly capable. But the army in the first degree is a matter of manpower which would then utilize the weapons and ammunition. Everything is available, but there is a lack of manpower." "[Our sister nation] Iran only gave us military expertise, and as for our loyal brothers [Hezbollah] in the Lebanese resistance, they fought with us ... their blood combined with the blood of their brethren in the army and the armed forces." "The homeland is not for those who live in it and who carry its passport or citizenship ... but is for those who defend it and protect it." Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Footage shown on Al-Manar shows the Barada-Zabadani road where Hezbollah blows up militant tunnels on July 22, 2015 -- Daily Star / Al Manar (HQ)
Clearly, the 'homeland' is not for Syria's Sunni majority population. That would be the Syrians whose mild protest four years ago against inequality in citizenship the Alawite government of Bashar al-Assad responded to by arresting, imprisoning and torturing protesters, including children. The violence that the regime hurled against the Syrian Sunnis left them little option but to form themselves into rebel militias to fight back against the tyrant whose idea of citizenship obviously excluded them.
Like his father before him, al-Assad experienced no moral misgivings by using chemical weapons to punish Syrian civilians whom he believed were sympathetic to the Sunni rebels. Helicopter warships, artillery strikes, barrel bombs; no punishment too dire to deliver to the audacious Sunnis who dared contest his leadership qualities and the values inherent in an Alawite Shiite Baathist government. If the world thought that Iraq's Sunni Baathist Saddam Hussein was a barbarian, al-Assad has stepped into the breach left vacant by Saddam's departure in Iraq.
President al-Assad explained initially that those contesting his reign were thugs and terrorists and he had no option but to eradicate them. In the process he has overseen the deaths of over 200,000 people, the forced migration of millions of Syrians and the refugee status of millions more sheltering in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, glad to have escaped the chaos resulting from Assad's livid umbrage over Syrian Sunni challenges to his continued governance.
Those victories against the rebels and the foreign Islamists that filtered in droves into disintegrating Syria were achieved by government forces only because they had the aid of Hezbollah fighters and the battlefield strategic advice of Iran's al Quds generals and allied troops. Iran has generously shared with Syria Iraqi and Syrian Shia tribal jihadists willing and eager to comply with Iran's orders, anxious of their own accord to diminish the number of Sunnis in the Middle East.
A video grab from Al-Manar shows smoke billowing from buildings in Zabadani after being targeted by Hezbollah and Syrian army forces, Saturday July 4, 2015 -- The Daily Star/Al Manar
And tellingly enough while the Syrian army has undergone troublesome incidents of desertion from its ranks, so too has Hezbollah. It has been rumoured that Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah has given warning of "dire consequences and the imposition of capital punishment" for the growing number of deserters from Hezbollah. Where some Hezbollah members resent being Iran's pawns in its wars in the Middle East.
Syrian army shortages are to the favour of the armed opposition. The pre-conflict strength of some 300,000 troops in the Syrian military has been cut in half after four years of fighting. Casualties numbering between 80,000 to 100,000, defections and desertions have taken their inevitable toll. The Syrian military is exhausted, and Hezbollah is in little better shape. War has decimated the Alawite minority community, leaving them unable to respond as recruits for the war that their leader initiated and cannot win.
The territorial control of the Syrian government is no more than 25 percent of the country now, the bulk of the geography taken by armed groups including ISIL, other rebel groups and the best organized of all, the Kurdish militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, tracking the trajectory of the war that has destroyed Syria. The state-controlled areas remain home to the majority of the population, however.
Iran has sent members of its Revolutionary Guards Corps to fight in Syria, sending as well irregular forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, mobilizing Shiite populations to go to battle as a noble undertaking against the Sunni opposition. President al-Assad's government has issued an amnesty for draft dodgers and soldiers who have defected, estimating that a few thousand might take advantage of the amnesty to re-enlist in the army.
President Bashar al-Assad heads a government under siege. One so complex with so many players that he has finally understood that it will take a miracle for him to overcome the forces arrayed against his ongoing rule in a country his vicious sectarian hatred and violent atrocities has destroyed.
Rebel fighters fire home-made mortar rounds
towards Syrian regime forces on July 20, 2015, on the outskirts of the
Syrian city of Idlib (AFP Photo/Omar Haj Kadour)
"We expect a lot of people to die if the water situation remains unchanged. This is a catastrophic threat." Ahmed Shadoul, World Health Organization head of mission in Yemen
"It used to be that we would run for shelter when it rained. Now, if there's rain, we all run outside with buckets." Hussein bin Mohammed, pharmaceutical salesman, Taiz, Yemen
The United Nations and aid agencies state that at least 8,000 suspected cases of malaria and dengue fever have arisen in recent weeks in embattled Yemen. Among the impoverished population many are forced to become internally displaced refugees by the war in Yemen with the Houthi Shiites challenging the Yemeni government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in favour of their choice for President, strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni protesters attend a demonstration in Sanaa on February 21, 2015,
against the Shiite Huthi movement (AFP Photo/Mohammed Huwais)
A five-day truce was unilaterally declared by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis responded by continuing to shell residential areas in the country's third largest city of Taiz. "Military actions by coalition forces will be stopped yet if Houthi
militias and forces loyal to them may launch military operations or
build up military movements in any area, they would be confronted by the
coalition forces", a coalition spokesman stated, and added: "There is a commitment from the UN that the Houthi militias will accept (the) ceasefire." An earlier Saudi-initiated humanitarian pause lasted for only five days in May [AFP]
The ceasefire came at the request of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who remains in refuge in the Saudi capital along with other members of his contested government. The truce was sought to allow the "delivery and distribution of the
maximum amount of humanitarian and medical aid," according to the Saudi press agency. The number of residents with no access to drinking water has doubled since the war began.
Over 20 million people, representing roughly 80 percent of Yemen's population, find it a daily struggle to obtain water sufficient to serve their daily needs; potable water for drinking and cooking, and water for even the most basic of hygiene purposes. Malaria is on the spread and hundreds have already died with residents forced to use unsanitary water sources. The threat of famine is not far behind. "People are shaving their heads because they don't have enough water to wash their hair", Mubarak Salmeen, living in Aden with his wife and five children complained. In a country with a long experience with the shortage of water in their dry climate and a tradition of water resources mismanagement by government, the present situation is putting people to an existential test.
Yemenites are addicted to khat, a plant that endows people with a stimulative effect when the leaves are chewed. And growing khat takes an enormous amount of water, wasted for an inedible plant's survival, using huge amounts of groundwater diverted to cultivating the plant. An increase in the violence has meant that water is even more difficult to access than ever, Water infrastructure in Aden with its one million people have seen their taps dry up.
Power plants and electricity lines have all been bombed. Municipal authorities have been unable to pump water to residents. Even the diesel fuel for use in back-up generators used to power pumps has become a scarce commodity. Transporting it through war zones is beyond difficult. There is an air and naval blockade by the Saudi-led coalition and its result has restricted imports. The price of water has soared beyond the capability of most Yemenites to afford it.
"I never thought we'd be at the point of thinking about whether we can afford water", Fuad Abdulrahman Ali from Sanaa, a father of three, said of the quadrupled price for water trucked in from surrounding villages' wells. Wildcat drillers are busy boring wells to extract untreated groundwater. Leaving residents to store water in uncovered containers that quickly become breeding places for mosquitoes.
Cholera and other water-borne diseases are likely to spread under these conditions, warns the United Nations and aid agencies. And then there is the risk through the displacement of so many people, of conditions aggravating human relations. Disputes over water access and land ownership already kills thousands of Yemenis every year.
"Ground blockades by the Houthi forces have been stopping aid and
cutting off places like Aden and preventing food supplies and medical
supplies from getting in", reported independent journalist Iona Craig. The pause in fighting declared by the Saudi coalition is meant to aid areas of the country desperate for basic staples like water, rice, flour, fruit, vegetables and fuel.
It appears as if the Turkish government is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).
Turkey just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be
open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS. But the moment
Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions in Iraq, in
addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria.
In Turkey, millions of indigenous Kurds are continually
terrorized and murdered, but ISIS terrorists can freely travel and use
official border crossings to go to Syria and return to Turkey; they are
even treated at Turkish hospitals.
If this is how the states that rule over Kurds treat them, why is
there even any question as to whether the Kurds should have their own
self-government?
Turkey's government seems to be waging a new war against the Kurds,
now struggling to get an internationally recognized political status in
Syrian Kurdistan.
On July 24, Turkish media sources reported that Turkish jet fighters
bombed Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) bases in Qandil, in Iraqi
Kurdistan, as well as the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
Turkey is evidently unsettled by the rapprochement the PKK seems to
be establishing with the U.S. and Europe. Possibly alarmed by the PKK's
victories against ISIS, as well as its strengthening international
standing, Ankara, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria, has
been bombing the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi
Kurdistan, where the PKK headquarters are located.
There is no ISIS in Qandil.
As expected, many Turkish media outlets were more enthusiastic about
the Turkish air force's bombing the Kurdish militia than about bombing
ISIS. "The camps of the PKK," they excitedly reported, "have been covered with fire."
It appears as if Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)
is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK. Ankara just announced that
its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces,
presumably to fight ISIS, but the moment Turkey started bombing, it
targeted Kurdish positions. Those attacks not only open a new era of
death and destruction, but also bring an end to all possibilities of
resolving Turkey's Kurdish issue non-violently.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that
"a second wave operation against Daesh [ISIS] in Syria
was started. Just after that, a very comprehensive operation was carried
out against the camps of the terrorist organization PKK in northern
Iraq. I am glad that the targets were hit with great success. We have
given instructions to start a third wave operation in Syria and a second
wave operation in Iraq."
The "great success" of the Turkish military has brought much damage
and injury to even Kurdish civilians -- including children. The Kurdish
newspaper Rudawreported
that two Kurdish villagers in Duhok's Berwari region were carried to
hospital in the aftermath of a Turkish artillery bombardment in the
Amediye region. One of the victims was 12 years old. The second victim
lost a leg in an airstrike. Four members of the PKK were killed and
several others were injured.
Shortly after military operations against the PKK started, access to the websites of pro-Kurdish newspapers and news agencies was denied
"by decree of court." These websites -- including Fırat News Agency
(ANF), Dicle News Agency (DIHA), Hawar News Agency (ANHA), Ozgur Gundem
newspaper, Yuksekova News, Rudaw and BasNews -- are still blocked in
Turkey.
ISIS, meanwhile, has not so far made any statement regarding Turkey's so-called bombings of ISIS in any of its media outlets.
Had the Turkish military attacked the PKK alone, and not in addition
to attacking ISIS, it would probably have received widespread
international condemnation. So to add "legitimacy" to its attacks
against the Kurdish PKK -- whose affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD)
in Syria and its armed wing, the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG)
have been resisting ISIS and other Islamist terrorist groups since 2013
-- Turkey declared that it will also attack ISIS. This would give it
cover for its attacks against Kurdish fighters.
In 2014, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described
the plan he wanted to carry out in Syria and Iraq: "The problem in
Syria should be taken into account. Iraq too should be considered
similarly. Moreover, there needs to be a solution that will also deal
with the Syrian wing [PYD] of the separatist terrorist organization
[PKK]."
The AKP government, dissatisfied with the results of last month's
parliamentary elections, also seems to want to hold new elections, to
push the mainly Kurdish HDP Party below the required 10% threshold, and
thus force them out of parliament. Perhaps the government thinks that
bombing the PKK will generate Turkish nationalist enthusiasm that will
work in the AKP's favor to help it regain a majority in early elections.
Apparently, Turkey does not need Kurdish deputies in its parliament.
Apparently, the state prefers to slaughter or arrest the Kurds -- as it
has done for decades. Why hold talks and reach a democratic resolution
when you have the power to murder people wholesale?[1]
Sadly, Turkey has preferred not to form a "Turkish-Kurdish alliance"
to destroy ISIS. First, Turkey has opened its borders to ISIS, enabling
the growth of the terrorist group. And now, at the first opportunity, it
is bombing the Kurds again. According to this strategy, "peace" will be
possible only when Kurds submit to Turkish supremacism and abandon
their goal of being an equal nation.
In the meantime, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish minister of foreign affairs, said
that the Incirlik air base in Turkey has not yet been opened for use by
the U.S. and other coalition forces, but that it will be opened in the
upcoming period.
Kurdish forces, therefore, are the only forces that are truly resisting the Islamic State.
They have been repressed by Baghdad and murdered by Turkey and Iran.
If this is how the states that rule over Kurds treat them, why is
there even any question as to whether the Kurds should have their own
self-government?
As a result of the ISIS attacks in the region, the Kurdish PKK -- as
well as its Syrian Kurdish affiliate, Democratic Union Party (PYD) and
its armed wing, Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) -- have emerged as
America's most effective battlefield partners against ISIS. Ever
since ISIS became a major force in Syria, the U.S. has apparently relied
heavily on YPG to stop ISIS from advancing. According to Henri Barkey,
a former State Department specialist on Turkey, "The U.S. has become
the YPG's air force and the YPG has become the U.S.'s ground force in
Syria."
* * *
Attacks on the Kurds were already under way last week. On July 20, a bomb attack
in the Kurdish town of Suruc (Pirsus) in Turkey killed 32 people during
a meeting of young humanitarian activists, who were discussing the
reconstruction of the neighboring Kurdish town of Kobane.
The
scene of the suicide bombing in Suruc, Turkey. An ISIS suicide bomber
murdered 32 people and wounded more than 100 others in a July 20 attack
on Kurdish humanitarian activists. (Image source: VOA video screenshot)
The blast took place while the activists were making a statement to
the press in the garden of a cultural center. At least 100 others,
mostly university students, were wounded. (Graphic video of the explosion)
The suicide bomber
was identified through DNA testing, according to reports in the Turkish
news media. Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz was reportedly a 20-year-old
Turkish university student, recently returned from Syria, and believed
to have had ties to ISIS.
Alagoz targeted a meeting of 300 secular activists, members of the
Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), who gathered at a
cultural center in the province of Urfa, opposite the Kurdish town of
Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan. As part of an effort to rebuild Kobane, they
were preparing to provide aid, give toys to the children there and
build a hospital, school, nursery, children's park, library and a
memorial forest for those who had lost their lives in Kobane.
"Work on the building of hospitals and schools needs to be done," Oguz Yuzgec, the co-president of the federation, said
before the explosion. "One of the things we will do is to build a
children's park in Kobane. We will name it after Emre Aslan, who died
fighting in Kobane. We are collecting toys. We will participate in the
construction of the nursery that the canton of Kobane is planning to
build. We have the responsibility of helping the nursery function. We
need everybody who knows how to draw and can teach children."
Mazlum Demirtas, a survivor of the attack, said:
"The main one responsible for this incident is the state of Turkey, the
AKP fascism, the AKP dictatorship. ... It attacked us with its gunmen
and gangs. Since yesterday, parents have been collecting the dismembered
body parts of their children. They are trying to identify the
dismembered bodies. This is called fascism, inhumanity and barbarity."
Pinar Gayip, another survivor of the attack, said in a telephone interview
on the pro-government Haberturk TV that, "Instead of helping the
wounded, the murderer-police of the murderer-AKP threw tear gas at the
vehicles with which we carried the wounded." She was taken off the air.
All across Turkish Kurdistan, there were protests
condemning the massacre and the government's alleged involvement in it.
Police in Istanbul used plastic bullets and water cannons against people who gathered to remember those murdered in Suruc.
The Turkish authorities briefly blocked access to Twitter
last Wednesday to prevent the people from viewing photos of the bombing
in Suruc. Officials admitted that Turkey had asked Twitter to remove
107 URLs (web addresses) with images related to the bombing; before the
ban, Twitter had already removed 50.
Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Party
(HDP), said that state surveillance activities were intensive in Suruc,
and that the intelligence service was recording the identity of everyone
traveling to and from Suruc.
As Demirtas's own convoy had recently not been permitted to enter Suruc, he emphasized
the extent of state surveillance in the town, and said that nobody
could argue that someone could have managed to infiltrate the crowd and
carry out the suicide attack without state support.
"Today, we have witnessed in Suruc yet again what an army of barbarity and rape, an army that has lost human dignity, can do," Demirtas said.
"Those who have been silent in the face of ISIS, who have not dared
even raise their voice to it, as well as the officials in Ankara who
threaten even the HDP every day but caress the head of ISIS, are the
accomplices of this barbarity."
In the meantime, Mehmet Gormez, the head of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), announced on its Twitter account that the perpetrators of the Suruc attack do not have religion.
However, three days before the massacre in Suruc, about 100 Islamists -- alleged to be ISIS sympathizers -- had performed mass Islamic Eid prayers
in Istanbul. They demanded Islamic sharia law instead of democracy.
ISIS sympathizers had performed the same Eid prayers at the same place
the year before, as well.
Over the border in Syrian Kurdistan, shortly after the blast in
Suruc, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a checkpoint in Kobane.
Two Kurdish fighters were killed in the explosion, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Last month, a deadly blast
hit the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir in Turkey, during an election
rally of the pro-Kurdish HDP that was attended by tens of thousands of
people. Just before the HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas was going to
speak, two bombs exploded at different places. Four people were killed, and more than 100 people are estimated to have been wounded. One of the wounded, Lisa Calan, 28, a Kurdish art director from Diyarbakir, lost both legs in the explosion.
As the wounded were being carried to hospitals, police used tear gas against people trying to run from the area in panic
In Turkey, millions of indigenous Kurds are continually terrorized
and murdered, while ISIS terrorists can freely travel and use official
border crossings to go to Syria and return to Turkey; they are even treated at Turkish hospitals.
Emrah Cakan, for instance, a Turkish-born ISIS commander wounded in
Syria, got medical treatment at the university hospital in Turkey's
Denizli province in March.
The Denizli governor's office issued a written statement on 5 March:
"The treatment of Emrah C. at the Denizli hospital was
started upon his own application. The procedural acts concerning his
injury were conducted by our border city during his entry to our country
and they still continue. And his treatment procedures continue as a
part of his right to benefit from health services just like all our
other citizens have."
The "compassion" and hospitality that many Turkish institutions have
for ISIS members is not even hidden. The silence of the West is
mystifying and disappointing.
The U.S. government cooperates with oppressive regimes -- including
the terrorist regime of Iran, under which Kurds are forced to live -- to
the detriment of the Kurds, to the detriment other persecuted peoples,
and to the detriment of the future of the West.
Many Middle Eastern regimes are ruled by Islamist, often genocidal
governments -- so there is not much to expect from them in terms of
human rights and liberties.
The Kurds need real support, real arms and real recognition.
Otherwise, there does not seem to be much difference between the
dictatorial, genocidal Middle Eastern regimes and the West, which used
to represent democracy and freedom.
Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim, is a Turkish journalist based in Ankara.
[1] The so-called "peace
process" was reportedly started in 2012 and through it, Kurds and the
Turkish government were to resolve the Kurdish issue through
negotiations.)
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
