Israeli forces wound more than 250 Palestinian protesters

About 270 Palestinian protesters have been injured, mostly by tear gas, in confrontations with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Most injuries were sustained in Beita village near Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank where residents have held regular demonstrations since May, when Israeli settlers started to set up caravans and pave roads on a disputed hilltop. The Red Crescent said most of those injured on Friday across the occupied West Bank needed treatment for tear gas inhalation, while seven Palestinians were injured by live fire and about 50 by rubber-coated bullets. The Israeli army told AFP news agency a crowd of about 150 Palestinians in Beita threw rocks and burning tyres at soldiers, who responded “with riot dispersal means” and rounds of gunfire. In the south of the territory, Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinians in Beit Ummar mourning the death of Shawkat Khalid Awad, 20, who was killed by Israeli army gunfire Thursday at the funeral of a Palestinian boy. Two Palestinians have been shot and fatally wounded by Israeli army gunfire in Beita over the past week. Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered earlier in the month in Beita, a hot spot in recent months, to protest the wildcat settlement of Evyatar, located nearby. The protests resulted in 320 Palestinians being wounded in confrontations with Israeli forces, according to the Red Crescent. All Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank are regarded as illegal by most of the international community.

Ben & Jerry’s Co-founders: Nothing ‘Anti-Semitic’ about Ice Cream Embargo of Illegal Israeli Settlements

Ben & Jerry’s co-founders have pushed back against claims of anti-Semitism following the company’s decision to stop offering its ice cream products in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, noting that they themselves are Jews. Writing in the New York Times, Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield said they were “proud Jews” who view Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as a barrier to peace. “It’s possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies, just as we’ve opposed policies of the US government. As such, we unequivocally support the decision of the company to end business in the occupied territories, which a majority of the international community, including the United Nations, has deemed an illegal occupation,” they argued, in an op-ed published on Wednesday. The move to pull Ben & Jerry’s from shelves in Israeli-occupied territories was in keeping with the firm’s “progressive values.” The iconic ice cream duo noted that, while they no longer have operational control of the company, they nonetheless felt that the boycott was “one of the most important decisions” that the firm has made in its more than 40-year history. The co-founders also wanted to make it absolutely clear that they didn’t hate Jews. “That we support the company’s decision is not a contradiction nor is it anti-Semitic,” Cohen and Greenfield wrote. On the contrary, the boycott is in support of justice and human rights, “core tenets of Judaism.”

Pakistan’s PM Criticizes US for Its Policy Towards Taliban

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said the United States and its ally NATO should have talked to the Taliban years before when there was a huge number of foreign forces deployed in the country. “The Americans should have started talking to the Taliban from a position of strength when there were 150,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan,” Khan said on Friday. “That was the time to talk with them. Talking to them when there is an exist date given, and when there are few thousand troops left, how do they expect the Taliban would now compromise?” Khan said that majority of the three million Afghan refugees who are in Pakistan are “sympathizing and supporting the Taliban.” “To have a political compromise between the Taliban and the government, to have a compromise, an inclusive government that is the only solution. Now what the Taliban are doing or not doing has nothing to do with us. All we want is that there should be peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s interest is in peace there,” Khan said. He added: “The three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, almost all of them are Pashtuns and all of them, almost of them, would have sympathies with the Taliban. How is Pakistan supposed to check who is going over there to fight or not when about 25,000 or 30,000 people who cross every day? They are going to Afghanistan and come back.” Meanwhile, Chinese Defense Ministry said that the US is responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan and that it cannot put the burden on the shoulder of others in the region. “The United States as a responsible party in Afghanistan has an inevitable responsibility for the current situation in the country. The US can’t put the entire burden on the shoulders of other countries in the region,” Wu Qian, the director of the Information Bureau of Ministry of National Defense of China, said. “The US needs to take its responsibility with seriousness in order to have confidence about the situation there and to prevent the possible war after the withdrawal of US forces.” Meanwhile, dozens of people at a rally in Kabul accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, something that the neighboring country has denied. “Pakistan has committed aggression against our country. ‘Terrorists’ are directly coming from Pakistan and are killing our people,” said Sayed Rahman Zakhelwal, a Kabul resident. “Pakistan has committed a lot of atrocities against us,” said Akbar Ali, a Kabul resident. This comes as relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have soured over the last few weeks. President Ashraf Ghani earlier this month accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban and said that 10,000 jihadists have flocked from Pakistan recently to fight in Afghanistan.

‘New Form’ of Ice Cream ‘Terrorism’: How Ben & Jerry’s Has Exposed Israel’s Anti-BDS Strategy by Ramzy Baroud

Ben & Jerry’s decision to suspend its operations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank is an event that is proving critical to Palestinian efforts, which ultimately aim at holding Israel accountable for its military occupation, apartheid and war crimes. By responding to the Palestinian call for boycotting apartheid Israel, the ice cream giant has delivered a blow to Israel’s attempts at criminalizing and, ultimately, ending the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. What differentiates Ben & Jerry’s decision to abandon the ever-growing market of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank from previous decisions by other international corporations is the fact that the ice cream company has made it clear that its move was morally motivated. Indeed, Ben & Jerry’s did not attempt to mask or delude their decision in any way. "We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," a statement by the Vermont, US-based company read on July 19. Expectedly, the Israeli government was infuriated by the decision, especially as it comes after years of a well-funded, state-sponsored, global campaign to discredit, demonize and altogether outlaw the BDS movement and any similar initiatives that aimed at boycotting Israel. For years, the Israeli government has viewed the boycott movement as a real, tangible threat. Some Israeli officials went as far as perceiving the "delegitimization" resulting from the boycott campaign as the primary threat faced by Israel at the present time. Well attended conferences were held in Las Vegas, Brussels, Jerusalem and elsewhere, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, fiery speeches delivered, while politicians and "philanthropists" lined up at many occasions, vowing their undying allegiance to Israel and accusing anyone who dare criticize the "Jewish State" as "antisemitic." However, Israel’s biggest challenge was, and remains, its near complete reliance on the support of self-serving politicians. True, those "friends of Israel" can be quite helpful in formulating laws that, for example, falsely equate between criticizing Israel and antisemitism, or render the act of boycott illegal, and so on. In fact, many US states and European parliaments have bowed down to Israeli pressure to criminalize the BDS movement and its supporters, whether in the realm of business or even at the level of civil society and individuals. All of this is amounting to very little. Additionally, Israel doubled down on its attempts to control the narrative in mainstream media, in academia and wherever the anti-Israeli occupation debate proved to be consequential. Through a Kafkaesque, and often bizarre logic, Israel and its supporters deliberately misinterpreted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, applying it at every platform where criticism of Israel or its Zionist ideology is found. The reckless Israeli dialectics was, sadly – albeit predictably – embraced by many of Israel’s Western benefactors, including US, Canada and Italy, among others. Yet, none of this has ended or even slowed down the momentum of the Palestinian boycott movement. This fact should hardly come as a surprise, for boycott movements are fundamentally designed to circumvent governmental control and to place pressure on politicians, state and corporate apparatuses, so that they may heed the calls of civil society. Thus, the more Israel attempts to use its allies to illegalize, delegitimize, and suppress dissent, the more it actually fuels it. The above is the secret of the BDS success and Israel’s very Achilles’ heel. By ignoring the boycott campaign, the movement grows exponentially; and by fighting it, using traditional means and predictable language, it grows even faster. In order to appreciate Tel Aviv’s unsolvable quandary, just marvel at this odd response, which was offered by top Israeli officials in response to Ben & Jerry’s decision. Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, warned the British company that acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, of "severe consequences," threatening that Israel will take "strong action," most likely referring to legal action. But what was truly strange was the language used by Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, who accused Ben & Jerry’s of participating in "a new form of terrorism," namely, "economic terrorism." On July 21, Herzog vowed to fight "this boycott and terrorism in any form." Note how the Israeli response to the continued success of the Palestinian boycott movement remains confined in terms of options and language. Yet on the legal front, most attempts at indicting BDS activists have repeatedly failed, as the recent court rulings in Washington demonstrate. On the other hand, the act of accusing an ice cream company of "terrorism" deserves some serious examination. Historically, Israel has situated its anti-Palestinian propaganda war within a handful of redundant terminology, predicated on the claim that Israel is a Jewish and democratic State, the security and very existence of which is constantly being threatened by terrorists and undermined by anti-Semites. The above mantra may have succeeded in shielding Israel from criticism and tarnishing Israel’s victims, the Palestinians. However, it is no longer a guarantor of international sympathy and solidarity. Not only is the Palestinian struggle for freedom gaining global traction, but the pro-Israeli discourse is finally discovering its limitations. By calling an ice cream company "terrorist" for simply adhering to international law, Herzog has revealed the growing lack of credibility and absurdity of the official Israeli language. But this is not the end of Israel’s problems. Regardless of whether they are branded successful or unsuccessful, all BDS campaigns are equally beneficial in the sense that each campaign kickstarts a conversation that often goes global, as we have seen repeatedly in the past. Airbnb, G4S, and SodaStream, are but a few of many such examples. Any global debate on Israel’s military occupation and apartheid is a BDS success story. That said, there is one strategy that will surely end the BDS campaign, and that is ending the Israeli occupation, dismantling the racial system of apartheid and giving Palestinians their freedom as enshrined and protected by international law. Alas, this is the only strategy that Israeli officials are yet to consider.

‘This is like a nightmare’: Thousands displaced as floods hit Bangladesh Rohingya camps

(Reuters) – Heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and flash floods in refugees camps displacing thousands of Rohingya Muslims in southeastern Bangladesh this week, U.N. and other officials said on Friday. At least six Rohingya, including three children, died in landslides and flooding while 15 Bangladeshis were killed and more than 200,000 stranded by flooding in Cox’s Bazar, said Mamunur Rashid, the district administrator. Nearly one million Rohingya live in crowded camps in the border district of Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017. The refugees mostly live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that cling to steep, bare hills. TV footage showed flooded homes and muddy water cascading down steps and hillsides. Children played in chest-high waters. “This is like a nightmare,” said Rohingya Rokeya Begum. “I have never seen such flooding in the camps in four years. When the water came, there was nobody from my family at home to help. I was alone but I could take my belongings to a safer place. Now I am staying with another family.” The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said more than 21,000 refugees had been “affected” by the flooding while nearly 4,000 shelters had been damaged or destroyed. It said more than 13,000 were forced to relocate in the camps, while thousands of facilities were damaged, including health clinics and toilets. Access has been hindered due to damage to roads, pathways and bridges. Refugees, many of them still recovering from massive fires that tore through the camps in March, said landslides and floods left homes “totally covered with mud”. “Somehow my family members could evacuate,” said Abu Siddique, who lives in the Balukhali refugee camp. “The mud that came down from the hill entered my home… All of our belongings inside are covered in mud.”

Witness to Turbulent American Democracy

Witness to Turbulent American Democracy: The Paradox for Soul Searching of American Acclaimed Values • Written by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD. The Myriad Drama at the US Congressional Committee Hearings Nancy Pelosi, the US House Speaker wanted an independent and non-partisan congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 Trump planned mobbed invasion of the US Congressional complex in Washington, D.C. Its aim was to undo the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden- the President Elect according to the US Constitution. But Republicans subservient to Trump dictum refused this democratic process to allow the truth digging of the catastrophic events in modern American history. Was there a connection to America’s global warmongering and the domestic “terrorism” advanced by the Trump claimed presidency on January 6 insurrections at the Capitol complex? In every political culture there is peculiar psychology to see its own pros and nothing else. Should America and its turbulent democracy ignore the imperatives of living time, its articulation of futuristic time will be totally unlike its own – a contradiction covered by adroit instinct. Could America and its political leadership see the mirror and do some soul-searching? “There are the times that try men’s soul”, noted Thomas Paine in his famous “Common Sense”, the lifeline to American independence. Yesterday, the committee heard DC Metropolitan Police Officers Daniel Hodges, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. All four police officers had first-hand witnessed the January 6, insurrection to explain the psychological trauma and emotional and physical injuries of the insurrection had long-lasting critical consequences that they continued to endure and trying to grapple with. They spoke of pains, anguish and heartbreaking experiences when trying to protect the congressional complex and members of the Congress in attendance at the time. Michael Fanone, one of the officers stated emotionally: “I felt like they were trying to kill me.” Fanone lost consciousness, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized after the clashes, according to the media reports. Harry Dunn pointed out - how the mob attacked him with racist slurs and abused him because of his color of the skin as a black man: Dunn has repeatedly spoken out how he and other fellow Black officers are still grappling with their harrowing experience on January 6, when they endured racist attacks from insurrectionists: “The Black officer struggle was different as in, like I said, we fought against not just people that were, that hated what we represented, but they hate our skin color also…. That's just a fact, and they used those words to prove that. They showed that they hated us and they hated our skin color.” Aquilino Gonell narrated how he was beaten with a flagpole while defending the complex. His hand was sliced open. And he was hit with so much chemical spray that the liquid soaked through to his skin. Daniel Hodges in a video footage was shown crushed in a doorway between a massive press of rioters and the police line, writhing and screaming in pain. The video shows one of the rioters grabbing at Hodges' helmet and trying to rip it off. To the curious mindset of the select committee, these witnesses will also raise questions stemming from how officers are still grappling with the emotional, physical and short-long term psychological wounds they endured more than six months earlier and what care and remedial support they should have gotten from the law and justice officials. Global Eye on Turbulent American Politics of Democracy Along with American masses, the global community continues to watch the congressional committee hearings - how America and its acclaimed liberal democracy are vulnerable to unthinkable change and unpredictability for the future generations. It would affirm that US textbooks on a working democracy are incomprehensible to the “Common Sense” and rational understanding. There appears to be “No Goodwill” active political bridge builders in current extreme American emotional and intellectual decadent upsurge. Those invested with public trust are far from any logical pursuit to speak out truthfully any bipartisan political language of the time. Joe Biden and the Democratic Party appear mature, resilient, intellectual and morally conscience and self-disciplined without erratic behavior to ensure that American systems of political governance should work for the good of WE, the People of America. After several months of the new administration in America, the Republican Party still appears controlled by former President Trump and even at the hearings its members look delusional and intellectually exhausted and making conflicting statements to assert their own verdict of the January 6 insurrection in denial of a planned mobbed attack on the capitol complex. Trump’s moral and political failure and resistance to truth is more of a blindfolded person leading the blinds as there is always inconsistency in politically delusional adventures. Joe Bidden has Opportunity for Political Change and Moral Leadership True wisdom needs soul searching and tranquility of human behavior – the manifestations of true wisdom. If Americans are intelligent, they should listen to voices of Reason and Wisdom before it is too late. Its pains, horrors and cruelty are within itself. America and its democratic manifestations are prone to change under conditions of time, space and waking consciousness. America is in desperate need of moral and intellectual leadership. In situations of adversity and crises, leaders represent self-confidence and optimism for change, not egoistic agenda and belligerent outbursts as the nuisance of individualistic political indoctrination. President Trump was pursuing an unsurpassably intense political conspiracy to degenerate the present and future of American political governance. Trump was a warrior without any characteristics of true wisdom and political vision. Comforting the major paradoxes of history, wrong people, glued to wrong thinking, do the wrong things without any rational sense of time, people's interest and history. Trump failed to see the interests of the America people and global community to a peaceful approach to conflict management through dialogue and non-rhetoric belligerent statements. Naïve egoism and one-sided complacency to individualistic interest cannot further the cause of peace within America. Biden and his team would urgently need rethinking and men of new ideas and creative strategies to undo the harm and distrust that fractured the American political stability. Biden and his team should articulate a Plan enriched with wisdom, vision and forbearance to pursue political, moral and intellectual pursuits for change and rebuilding the 21st century American political culture and values. Would Biden and his team give priorities to dogmatic concepts of power and exploitation of truth or the forgotten - We, the People? In a recent article: “America at Crossroads: Presidential Election and the Clash of Democracy” (Uncommon Thought Journal, USA: 12.14.2020), this author envisaged a rational creative agenda for Biden and team to restore a reasoned and functional outlook of American democracy away from entrenched turmoil and withering of the political partisanship:https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2020/12/14/america-at-the-crossroads-the-presidential-election-and-the-clash-of-democracy.php Would President Trump be held accountable for his insurrection and violation of the tenets of the US Constitution? Or would he go unpunished for his planned complicity and violations of the Constitution? The time and opportunity for a reasoned dialogue and peaceful transfer of power was lost by Trump and the Republican Party leadership. On January 6, the followers of Trump’s cult performed the staged drama to appease the emperor and his complicit supporters. Cynicism about American politicians is endemic across the board. Could the present American leadership restore a sense of political normalcy in a highly turbulent crisis that engulfed the nation to greater risk of insecurity and survival for a sustainable political future? This author noted the following observations in “American Presidential Election and Democracy Look for Change, Moral and Intellectual Leadership.” (Uncommon Thought Journal: 11/19/2020.): To glance ahead, America and its claim to a working democracy will haunt future generations with suspicion and extended discard. Trump and his coercive puppies could not think of America as part of the global community except as conforming to their own fantasies, phobias, prejudices, policies, practices and preferences, favoring Israel and Netanyahu and nothing else for the pandemic entrenched people of America. History will tell of this time when Trump plagued the body politic with the deliberate misinterpretation of the election and outrageous futuristic hypotheses leading nowhere in a civilized society. The sudden and inexplicable democratic plunge into self-geared wickedness must be catastrophic for future generations Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2020

Six months after coup, Myanmar’s political, rights and aid crisis is worsening

It’s been six months since the military coup in Myanmar where there’s grave concern over the widening impact of the deepening political, human rights and humanitarian crisis affecting the country’s people. Speaking to UN News, the organisation’s top aid official in Myanmar, Acting Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator Ramanathan Balakrishnan, described how people have been severely impacted across the country since the junta’s power grab on 1 February. “The situation in the country is characterized now by instability and a deteriorating socio-economic and security situation and to add to that we have a raging third wave of COVID-19,” said Mr. Balakrishnan in an exclusive interview. Highlighting the ongoing nature of armed resistance to State security forces “in several ethnic minority areas” including in the states of Shan, Chin and Kachin, the UN official said that more than 200,000 people had been uprooted from their homes there to date. Displacement swelling In Rakhine state before the coup, the UN Humanitarian Response Plan pointed to some one million people including internally displaced people in need of urgent assistance, but “this number has only swelled”, Mr. Balakrishnan insisted. More widely, “following the coup, an additional two million were identified as those in urgent need of humanitarian aid, and those were largely in the urban areas of Yangon and Mandalay”, he said, adding that the intensification of clashes and the worsening socio-economic situation was pushing “tens of thousands of people” into a humanitarian space” every day. Echoing concerns over rights abuses by UN Children’s Fund UNICEF and others, Mr. Balakrishnan condemned the ongoing and widespread use of lethal force by the military against civilian protesters. Rising hunger Looking ahead, the UN’s priorities include ensuring that millions of people do not fall further into hunger, the aid official said. “There has been an increase in the price of basic commodities for many people…this has also resulted in a reduction of the nutrition value of the food basket that people usually take as they substitute their regular food with cheaper, more readily available items.” Turning to Myanmar’s health system, which is facing extreme pressure because of the coronavirus crisis, as well as attacks on medical personnel and facilities in Myanmar - and a civil disobedience movement by some health professionals - Mr. Balakrishnan warned that even basic services had been disrupted across the country. Standing with Myanmar’s people In a message of solidarity, the top aid official insisted that the UN remained committed to respecting the will of the country’s people. This was despite limited access to parts of the country linked to security concerns and disruption to the banking system, which limited the UN’s ability to transfer funds to humanitarian partners responsible for delivering aid. “The UN will continue to call out human rights violations and is committed to stay and deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar, in addition to sending in the COVID-19 response,” Mr. Balakrishnan said.

In Narendra Modi's India: Mosque in Indian capital’s Rohingya camp bulldozed

New Delhi, India – Police and civil authorities in the Indian capital have demolished a makeshift mosque in a Rohingya camp, say the refugees, weeks after a massive fire had engulfed the settlement. The mosque, made up of tarpaulin sheets and bamboo sticks, was bulldozed at about 7am local time (01:30 GMT) on Thursday, at the camp located in New Delhi’s Madanpur Khader area in the city’s south, bordering Uttar Pradesh state. Nearly 300 refugees, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in neighbouring Buddhist-majority Myanmar, told Al Jazeera the structure was demolished despite their appeals to the authorities not to do so. The Muslim-majority Rohingya say they have been left without a place to worship. “The demotion began an hour after the Fajr prayers in the mosque,” Mohammad, 33, who wanted to be identified with his first name only for fear of reprisal, told Al Jazeera. “They first destroyed the toilets and washrooms, uprooted a water hand pump and then demolished the mosque – all within 10 minutes.” He said when the refugees tried to protest, the officials instead told them they were “illegal immigrants” living in the camp by “encroaching the land”. “I told them this is our place of worship but they said you talk a lot,” said Mohammad. “For us, a mosque is just like the Hindus have temples. What they did is totally wrong but we are powerless.” Obaidullah, a young Rohingya boy, said he felt angry and his eyes welled up seeing the demolition of the mosque but he “could not do anything to stop them”. A police official at the nearby Kalindi Kunj police station told Al Jazeera the demolished structure was not a mosque, but just a ramshackle hut. He refused to answer further questions. Pravir Singh, the subdivisional magistrate of the area, told Al Jazeera he did not know about the demolition of the mosque, adding that he was not competent to give an official statement on the matter. On June 13 last month, the camp that hosts more than 50 refugee families living in ramshackle shelters, was destroyed in a massive blaze – the second time the camp had been reduced to ashes since 2018. A small portion of the mosque, located at the entrance of the camp, was damaged in the fire, which forced the refugees to live in tents provided by local nonprofits and activists. Activist Aasif Mujtaba, whose group Miles to Smile assists the Rohingya and collaborates with the government in their rehabilitation, said officials had been alleging that the camp, including the mosque, stood on encroached land. Shamsheeda Khatoon, a 27-year-old Rohingya woman, alleged the mosque’s demolition was “well planned”. She said officials on Wednesday pitched tents on the road outside the camp. “They asked the refugees living in tents located in the portion of the camp that falls in Uttar Pradesh state to relocate to the roadside tents. Then today morning, they demolished the washrooms and water supply pipes and the mosque,” she said.

Reps. Omar, Schakowsky Lead Letter Calling for the Creation of Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia

July 21, 2021 Press Release WASHINGTON—Today, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), along with 23 Members of Congress led a letter calling on Secretary of State, Antony Blinken to create a special envoy to combat Islamophobia. The letter addresses the rise in attacks against the Muslim community. “Anti-Muslim hate is on the rise both here at home and around the world,” Rep. Omar said. “This year has seen over 500 incidents of hate in the U.S.—and those are just the ones that have been reported. Last month, we witnessed a deadly attack wipe out three generations of a Muslim family in Canada. In countries around the world—from China to India to Myanmar—Muslim communities are being discriminated against. We must all stand united against this horrific rise in hate. I am proud to lead this letter with Congresswoman Schakowsky pursuing a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Islamophobia, and am working legislation to formalize this position.” “Throughout the last decade we have seen an increase in violent Islamophobia around the globe – from the genocide of the Rohingya in Burma, and Uyghurs in China, to the attacks on Muslim refugees in Canada and New Zealand,” said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09). “It is past time for the U.S. to establish a comprehensive plan for combatting this hatred worldwide, and that includes the creation of a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Islamophobia. I am proud to join my friend and colleague Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in calling on the Administration to dedicate the resources necessary to ensure that human rights and religious and cultural freedom are respected around the world.” The letter calls for a comprehensive strategy for establishing U.S. leadership in combatting Islamophobia worldwide. The lawmakers are also asking Secretary Blinken to include state sponsored Islamophobic violence and impunity for Islamophobic violence in next year's annual human rights reports. This letter comes after the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s new findings on the increase in anti-Muslim hate, including over 500 documented complaints in 2021 alone. This included a sudden rise in anti-mosque incidents in May and June involving cases of vandalism and an attempted stabbing, and several physical assaults targeting Muslim women wearing hijab (religious head covering). This also comes in the wake of a terror attack that killed three generations of a Canadian Muslim family in June—and an increase in anti-Muslim repression around the world. "As part of our commitment to international religious freedom and human rights, we must recognize Islamophobia as a pattern that is repeating in nearly every corner of the globe," the Members wrote. "It is past time for the United States to stand firmly in favor of religious freedom for all, and to give the global problem of Islamophobia the attention and prioritization it deserves." The letter was signed by Representatives Rashida Tlaib, André Carson, Karen Bass, Julia Brownley, Judy Chu, Emanuel Cleaver II, Steve Cohen, Mark DeSaulnier, Debbie Dingell, Jesús G. "Chuy" García, Raúl M. Grijalva, Sara Jacobs, Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr., Mondaire Jones, Mike Levin, Alan Lowenthal, James P. McGovern, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Dean Phillips, Mark Pocan, Bobby L. Rush, Bradley Scott Schneider, and Adam Smith. A PDF of the letter can be found here and the full text of the letter is below. The lawmakers will also hold a press conference on the letter that you can watch here. Dear Secretary Blinken, July 20, 2021 In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in violent Islamophobia and the persecution of Muslims manifesting itself around the world. In its 2021 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identified three Countries of Particular Concern primarily for their treatment of Muslims. Several additional countries listed by USCIRF were identified as having patterns of mistreatment and human rights violations against either their entire Muslim populations or particular sects of Muslims. This includes several Muslim-majority countries. In addition to state-sponsored policies of Islamophobia, we have seen a disturbing rise in incidents of Islamophobic violence committed by individuals connected to larger transnational white supremacist networks, including but by no means limited to the mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 and the recent murder of a Muslim Canadian family in London, Ontario. As part of our commitment to international religious freedom and human rights, we must recognize Islamophobia as a pattern that is repeating in nearly every corner of the globe. From the ongoing atrocity crimes being committed against Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Burma, to the significant restrictions on Muslim populations in India and Sri Lanka, to the stoking of Islamophobia by political actors that is leading to violence in North American and Europe, to the severe human rights violations against certain sects of Muslims in Pakistan and Bahrain, this is a genuinely global problem that the United States should tackle globally. For this reason, we are writing to strongly urge you to appoint a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting Islamophobia, and to specifically include anti-Muslim violence per se in next year’s annual human rights reports. It is past time for the United States to stand firmly in favor of religious freedom for all, and to give the global problem of Islamophobia the attention and prioritization it deserves. We look forward to working together to pursue our shared values of religious freedom and human rights. Sincerely, Ilhan Omar Jan Schakowsky Rashida Tlaib André Carson Karen Bass Julia Brownley Judy Chu Emanuel Cleaver II Steve Cohen Mark DeSaulnier Debbie Dingell Jesús G. "Chuy" García Raúl M. Grijalva Sara Jacobs Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. Mondaire Jones Mike Levin Alan Lowenthal James P. McGovern Bill Pascrell, Jr. Dean Phillips Mark Pocan Bobby L. Rush Bradley Scott Schneider Adam Smith

Progress or War: On Islamophobia and Europe’s Demographic Shifts BY RAMZY BAROUD

Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Once more, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate. Of course, anti-Muslim sentiments are rarely framed to appear anti-Muslim. While Europe’s right-wing parties remain committed to the ridiculous notion that Muslims, immigrants and refugees pose a threat to Europe’s overall security and unique secular identities, the left is not entirely immune from such chauvinistic notions. The right’s political discourse is familiar and is often condemned for its repugnantly ultra-nationalistic, if not outright racist, tone and rhetoric. The left, on the other hand, is a different story. The European left, notably in countries like France and Belgium, frame their ‘problem’ with Islam as fundamental to their supposed dedication to the secular values of the State. “A problem arises when, in the name of religion, some want to separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect its laws,” Macron said during a speech in October 2020. Leftist politicians and intellectuals were just as eager as the right to prevent Ihsane Haouach, a Belgian government representative, from serving as a commissioner at the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEFH). Again, both sides joined forces, although without an official declaration of unity, to ensure Haouach had no place in the country’s democratic process. It was a repeat of a similar scenario in France last May when Sara Zemmahi was removed from the ruling party’s candidates list for seemingly violating France’s valeurs de la République – the values of the Republic. These are but mere examples, and are hardly restricted to French-speaking countries. There are many such disquieting events pointing to a deep-seated problem that remains unresolved. In Britain, Rakhia Ismail, who was celebrated as the country’s first hijab-wearing mayor in May 2019, resigned from her post less than a year and a half later, citing racism and marginalization. While the Belgian, French, and British media elaborated on these stories as if unique to each specific country, in truth, they are all related. Indeed, they are all the outcome of an overriding phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, coupled with a wave of racism that has plagued Europe for many years, especially in the last decade. Though Europe’s official institutions, mainstream media, sports clubs and so on, continue to pay lip service to the need for diversity and inclusion, the reality on the ground is entirely different. A recent example was the horrific outcome of England’s defeat in the EURO2020 final against Italy. Gangs of white English, mostly males, attacked people of color, especially black people, whether on the street or online. The extent of cyber-bullying, in particular, targeting dark-skinned athletes is almost unprecedented in the country’s recent history. Various British officials, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, condemned the widespread racism. Interestingly, many of these officials have said or done very little to combat anti-Muslim hate and violence in the past, which often targeted Muslim women for their head or face covering. Strikingly, Johnson, purportedly now leading the anti-racist charge, was one of the most disparaging officials who spoke demeaningly of Muslim women in the past. “Muslim women wearing burka look like letter boxes,” he said, according to the BBC. Of course, Islamophobia must be seen within the larger context of the toxic anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments, now defining factors in shaping modern European politics. It is this hate and racism that served as the fuel for rising political parties like Le Front National in France, Vlaams Belang in Belgium, The Freedom Party in Austria and the Lega in Italy. In fact, there is a whole intellectual discourse, complete with brand new theories that are used to channel yet more hate, violence and racism against immigrants. And where is the left in all of this? With a few exceptions, much of the left is still trapped in its own intellectual hubris, adding yet more fuel to the fire while veiling their criticism of Islam as if genuine concern for secularism. Oddly, in Europe, as in much of the West, crosses and Stars of David as necklaces, or the Catholic nuns’ head covering, velo delle suore, let alone the kippahs, the religious tattoos and many other such symbols are all part of Europe’s everyday culture. Why do we never hear of such controversy of a Jewish man being tossed out of a public building because of his kippah or a white French woman being expelled from university for wearing a cross? The matter has less to do with religious symbols, in general, than of the religious symbols of races and peoples who are simply unwanted in Europe. Also, limiting the discussion to refugees and immigrants may give the impression that the debate is mostly concerned with the non-European ‘others’ who are ‘invading’ Europe’s shores, determined to ‘replace’ Europe’s original, white, Christian inhabitants. This is hardly the case, since a sizable percentage of Belgians and French, for example, are themselves Muslims, estimated at 6 percent and 5% respectively. Namely, these Muslims are European citizens. Haouach, Zemmahi and Ismail actually wanted to be a part of – not break apart from – these societies by honoring their country’s most cherished political traditions, yet without erasing their own cultural heritage and religious identities in the process. Alas, they were all vehemently rejected, as if Europe has made a collective decision to ensure that Muslims subsist in the margins forever. And when Muslim communities try to fight back, using Europe’s own judicial systems as their supposed saviors, they are, once again, rejected. The latest of such spurns was in June, when Belgium’s constitutional court resolved that prohibiting the wearing of hijab does not constitute a violation of freedom of religion or the right to education. It is time for European countries to understand that their demographics are fundamentally changing, and that such change can, in fact, be beneficial to the health of these nations. Without true diversity and meaningful inclusion, there can be no real progress in any society, anywhere. But while demographic shifts can offer an opportunity for growth, it can also inspire fear, racism and, predictably, violence as well. Europe, which has fought two horrendous wars in the last century, should know better.

Rise of the Right: White Supremacy and the Myth of the “White Working-Class” BY ANTHONY DIMAGGIO

America’s battle over “critical race theory” reminds us of an ugly truth about the enduring white supremacy that’s long defined this country. In a potent racist backlash moment against the rising Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, many states have moved in Orwellian “Big Brother” style to entirely ban discussions of structural and institutional racism from K through 12 and college classrooms. And much of the public is on board with this agenda, as July polling from Ipsos reveals that 36 percent of Americans support “a ban on CRT in public schools.” This includes 23 percent of Democrats, 34 percent of independents, and 54 percent of Republicans. The opposition is based on toxic ignorance. In the case of the one group in which a majority supports the CRT ban – Republicans – only an average of 30% of respondents can provide correct answers across 7 factual questions that Ipsos asked about CRT. This is hardly surprising – when has bigotry ever been about being factually informed about the people you dehumanize? America’s culture of white supremacy is longstanding, and not confined to the Republican-right. Recent polling reveals that large numbers of Americans can be classified as white nationalists, including members of both parties. An October 2019 Associated Press poll found that 22 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans agreed that “a culture established by the country’s early European immigrants” is “important” “to the United States identity as a nation.” Such sentiment draws on classic white nationalist sentiments that identify white “European immigrants” as central to the national “culture” and “identity” and what it means to be American. Similar to AP’s 2019 poll, a University of Virginia poll from 2018 revealed that 35 percent of Americans, including 26 percent of Democrats, 29 percent of independents, and 51 percent of Republicans, agreed that “America must protect and preserve its White European heritage.” The poll revealed much about American denialism, as only 8 percent of respondents were willing to admit in the survey that they support “white nationalism,” despite the alternatively worded question above serving as a functional equivalent for white nationalism, and demonstrating that 35 percent of respondents agreed that “America” as a nation should define “its” identity via “White European heritage.” Put another way, the discrepancy here suggests that while only 8 percent of Americans admit they are white nationalists, another 27 percent “fit the bill,” but are unwilling to openly identify as so for fear of the stigma that comes along with it. Donald Trump’s rise to power was notable, not because he created a nation of white supremacists, but because he empowered many closeted white supremacists to show their true colors. Consider that polls from immediately before his election found that majorities of his supporters accepted various abhorrent racial attitudes. As I discussed prior to Trump’s election in 2016 in an essay, “White Supremacist America,” the evidence was always there for those who chose to see it. As I summarized at the time, national polls revealed that 54 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Trump supporters believed (in 2015) in the “birther” conspiracy theory that Obama was born in another country; 65 percent of Trumpeters (2016) thought Obama was a Muslim and 59 percent believed he was born outside the U.S.; 58 percent of Trumpeters (2016) held “unfavorable” views of Islam; 76 percent (2016) supported a blanket ban on Muslims entering the U.S.; 70 percent agreed (2015) with Trump’s gross (and false) generalization that Mexico is “sending people that have lots of problems…they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists”; and two-thirds of Trump supporters agreed (2016) with blanket attacks on “immigrants” who “today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing, and health care.” And as the Pew Research Center found, two-thirds to nearly 80 percent of Trumpeters and 14 to 24 percent of Clinton and Biden supporters believed from 2016 to 2020 that “Newcomers from other countries” “threaten traditional American customs and values.” Mass Denialism Despite an abundance of evidence that Americans have a white supremacy problem, much of the nation remains wedded to romantic depictions of the right. As I documented in detail in my book, Rebellion in America, mainstream journalists in venue after venue routinely repeated the narrative in 2016 that Trump’s campaign was “populist” and that his support base was the “working class.” This narrative has been embraced on the right as well, as it plays into the position that Trumpeters hold legitimate grievances – that they are angry about being forgotten and left behind, rather than primarily driven by misogyny, xenophobia, racism, bigotry, and a cultist blind devotion to an aspiring fascistdemagogue who sought to overturn the 2020 election through violence and extremism. Take, for example, the famous writer of the much-hyped book (and now movie) Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance. The book was endlessly promoted by journalists and intellectuals for enlightening us about how Trump’s America lives. It told the story of Vance’s family troubles in rustbelt America with alcoholism, poverty, low-wage work, drug abuse, and addiction. Vance himself recently appropriated this narrative to launch his 2022 Senate electoral bid, drawing on Trumpism as his foundation. At a steel-tube factory in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, Vance cultivated the working-class mythology and populist rhetoric, lamenting that “the elites plunder this country and then blame us for it in the process.” By tying his campaign explicitly to Trumpism, Vance perpetuates the “working class” narrative and ongoing efforts to link it to the Republican Party. It’s obvious why rightwing Americans would want to obscure the racism, sexism, and (yes) classism that was exposed during the Trump era via their support for his militantly racist, misogynistic, and plutocratic politics. Trump gave his supporters permission to “let it all hang out” – and it must have been a relief to let all that bigotry loose after sucking it in for all those years under Clinton, Bush, and Obama. But that doesn’t mean Trumpeters appreciated critics pointing out that they were bigoted, or that prejudice remains core to Trumpism as a political ideology. Among those feeding romantic myths about Trumpism, we can add Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, who recently conversed with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd about the “need to speak to the struggles of the white working class” and Trump supporters. In Sanders’s words, Trump “very effectively” drew on “the anger and angst and pain that many working class people are feeling.” “The Democratic [Party] elite,” Sanders lamented, “does not fully appreciate” the hardships of the Trumpeters… “We’ve got to take it to them…I intend as soon as I have three minutes, to start going into Trumpworld and start talking to people…It’s absolutely imperative if democracy is to survive that we do everything that we can to say, ‘Yes, we hear your pain and we are going to respond to your needs.’ That’s really what this is about. If we don’t do that, I fear very much that conspiracy theories and big lies and the drift toward authoritarianism is going to continue. You got all these folks out there who are saying, ‘Does anybody pay attention to me?’” Trumpism and the Myth of White Working-Class Insecurity As with any powerful propaganda, the “white working-class insecurity” myth exists independent of verifiable evidence. As I’ve documented for the last half-decade, the case that Trump supporters are disproportionately economically insecure was always anemic to non-existent. In my most recent research, and responding to Sanders’s claims, I find there is little to no evidence to suggest a link between support for rightwing extremism and economic insecurity. Through various “regression” analyses drawing on national surveys from the early to late 2010s, and controlling for factors such as respondents’ gender, race, education, political party, ideology, and age, I find that there is simply no statistically significant relationship between economic insecurity – as measured by Americans’ incomes – and support for various conspiratorial and rightwing extremist movements, including the militia movement, QAnon, “alt-right” neofascism, and neo-Nazism. Furthermore, a large and growing body of research from social scientists such as Diana Mutz, Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, John Sides and his co-authors, Lilliana Mason, and others finds that Trump support is not tied to economic insecurity, that it is driven by reactionary socio-political attitudes, or both. Many self-described leftists I hear from are under the impression that Trump voters are suffering disproportionately from financial insecurity, leading them to conclude that this group could be mobilized by the left in favor of progressive economic causes. It’s a bizarre assumption, since Trump support has never been linked to leftwing economic views. As I show in Rebellion in America, Trump supporters are significantly more likely to embrace rightwing plutocratic views, opposing increases to the minimum wage, opposing regulations on fossil fuel emitters to tackle climate change, resisting government efforts to aid the poor and the needy, agreeing that government regulation of business does more harm than good, and supporting cutting taxes on affluent households (making more than $250,000 a year). They are also not generally motivated by concerns with inequality and the gap between rich and poor as a “major national problem.” The vast majority of Trumpeters – nearly three-quarters – see the rich as virtuous, as deserving of their wealth, and as having “worked harder” than the rest of us to obtain their wealth. Put another way, Trump’s support base is very much grounded in the traditional rightwing neoliberal and plutocratic values of the GOP, so efforts to romanticize his supporters as aggrieved proletarians ready to rebel against capital run very much in the face of observable reality. Attitudes aside, I’ve also documented the lack of a link between financial insecurity and support for Trump and far right extremism over the last five years (see here and here and here and here and here and here). Most recently, my book, Rebellion in America exhaustively examined support for Trump before and during his presidency, across dozens of financial metrics for both Trump supporters overall and white Trump supporters specifically, finding virtually no evidence of a link between financial insecurity and Trumpism. Trump voters, tend to be heavily middle to middle-upper income, with two-thirds coming from households earning more than $50,000 a year and more than a quarter from households earning more than $100,000. Contrary to the white working-class myth, I found in Rebellion in Americathat financial insecurity was consistently linked, not with Trumpism, but with support for Sanders’s leftwing populism, particularly among younger Americans who expressed concerns with improving the quality of education in America and who worried about the nation’s rising education costs. These relationships should hardly be a surprise; Sanders was the only candidate in 2016 who offered a comprehensive political agenda to help the poor, working-class, and the disadvantaged. Importantly, the GOP’s “white working-class” narrative runs contrary to the reality of how financial insecurity affects political attitudes. As I’ve documented through an analysis of dozens of questions from national surveys covering political and economic attitudes in my last book, Unequal America, Americans who report suffering from “poor finances” and from “worsening finances” are statistically more likely to hold progressive-left attitudes, not right-wing ones. And as I documented in Rebellion in America, rising inequality and economic insecurity are associated with increased support for progressive-left social movements like the 2011 Madison protests, Occupy Wall Street, and Fight for $15, not with right-wing ones like the Tea Party. If Sanders wants to learn more about pain on “Main Street” America, he should start by talking to people in the rustbelt and elsewhere that the Democratic Party has spent the last few decades demobilizing via its plutocratic policies, which resulted in millions of former supporters flocking from the party and migrating toward non-voting. This was the primary lesson of the 2016 election, with evidence from rustbelt states demonstrating that the Democratic Party lost 3.5 times more votes from 2012 to 2016, when looking at turnout for Clinton compared to Obama, than the Republican Party gained, comparing votes cast for Romney and Trump. As recent evidence has shown (see here and here), voting in economically depressed regions of the U.S. tends to favor Trump, not because the “white working-class” gravitates toward Trump, but because relatively privileged people in these areas are more likely to vote Republican (as they always do). This outcome should shock no one, considering that affluent Americans are more likely to vote, translating into a serious advantage in favor of Trump in depressed areas, since economic depression is associated with depressed voter turnout among poorer Americans. These poorer Americans are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party, but are less likely to turn out to vote, and as a result, less likely to turn out in depressed regions. Republicans and Joe Six Pack: An Old Con The narrative that the Republican Party is the true representative of your average joe and jane is not new. We can look back to the Rush Limbaugh years of the 1990s and his laments of “limousine liberals” as out of touch with the common man, a term that was replaced in later years with references to out of touch “coastal elites” with little interest in the struggles of Joe six pack in “flyover America.” For Limbaugh, terms like limousine liberal and coastal elites were red meat for the Republican base, to be paired with attacks on the Democratic Party, which he claimed no longer helped “white working class, Reagan Democrats,” but instead preferred “minority” constituents with a “massive welfare state” over the “job creation” supposedly favored by working whites. Limbaugh’s efforts to portray Democrats as enemies of the common person continued over the years, with his references to the “four corners of deceit” – in which he included “government, academia, science, and the media.” Obviously, Limbaugh was referring to Democrats, not Republicans, when he railed against “government” “deceit.” Portrayals of Republicans as defending Main Street America continued under Bush, who cultivated an image of himself as a sort of everyman’s President – the kind of guy you’d want to have a beer with. The “Bushisms” of the era certified that he was a straight shooter, not an elitist – a common guy with a southern drawl who hung out on his ranch in Crawford, Texas clearing brush, with little time for the liberal, brainy elites – the Al Gores of the world who “invented the Internet” and who were too smarmy and out of touch to be bothered with the rest of us. Bush’s image as a dude’s dude was, of course, total nonsense – he was a millionaire of multi-generational wealth who made his money in the oil industry, among other investments and business holdings. He infamously told a group of elite wealthy donors that “this is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have mores. Some people call you elites; I call you my base.” There was nothing common about Bush, contrary to his efforts to cultivate the image of a President who was of, by, and for the working-class. The right’s efforts to nurture a working-class Republican image continued into the Obama years, with growing intensity. As Reece Peck documents in Fox Populism, Fox News during the late 2000s onward routinely “interpellated its audience as the ‘authentic,’ working-class majority, thus allowing it to effectively re-present narrow conservative political demands as popular and universal.” For Fox, Democrats are out to punish the innovators and the job creators through crushing taxes, while confiscating the hard-earned incomes of the middle and working-class, handing out free benefits to the poor, poor people of color, and the immigrants who want something for nothing. This brings us up to modern times and Trump’s efforts to brand his support as based in white working-class insecurity. Those efforts were never more than half-baked. Even as he launched his presidential campaign in his infamous June 2015 speech at Trump Tower, the President-to-be never laid out a coherent or tangible agenda for how he was going to aid working-class people in need. He railed heavily in the speech against Mexican immigrants, widely characterizing them as drug dealers, criminals, and rapists. He complained about China’s “victories” against the U.S. and about Mexico “beating us economically.” He briefly mentioned unemployment, and then moved on to talking about what a “disaster” “Obamacare” was for the nation. He promised to “Make America Great Again,” and insisted that the country needed great leadership. The closest he came to saying anything substantive about employment was his insistence that that the U.S. needed to bring back jobs and manufacturing “from China, from Mexico, from Japan,” yet he provided no road map or plan for how to do that. Contrary to popular myth, he spoke in favor of free trade, calling it “wonderful,” claiming that the nation needed “really talented people to negotiate” the free trade deals and “great leadership” and “smart people” to win in beating other nations. There was nothing meaningful in any of this rhetoric to suggest Trump intended to help the average American who was down on his or her luck in an era of rising inequality and worker insecurity. The only specific proposals he put forward in the speech were promises to build a wall and repeal the Affordable Care Act, the latter of which would have deprived tens of millions of Americans of health care. The Con Rides Again With Trump’s defeat, Republicans got to work again on resuscitating their propaganda campaign to market the party as the savior of “working” Americans. Nowhere was this clearer than in the official planning record, reflected in the Republican Study Committee’s memo between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representative Jim Banks, revealingly titled “Cementing the GOP as the Working-Class Party.” The document bluntly admitted that the goal of such marketing was to aid the party in challenging the longstanding “narrative and the perception that the Republican Party was the party of big business or the party of Wall Street,” and to help it “take back the House by enthusiastically rebranding and reorienting” Republicans “as the Party of the Working Class.” “The Agenda” the party put forward for this branding contains no actual economic policies that will improve the living standards of working-class Americans, but rather a laundry list of previous Republican talking points that rose to prominence during the Trump years. These include: a white nationalist plank that officially rejects not only “illegal” but “legal immigration,” and which specifically targets Mexico as the focus of Republican animosity; generic “opposition to China,” which is condemned as “communist” and “an economic threat to America’s working class”; “anti-wokeness” via explicit opposition to BLM and expansion of civil rights law via the “Equality Act,” which would prohibit discrimination across the U.S. based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations; pro “main street” positions such as opposition to “regressive coronavirus lockdowns” that “harm working class Americans” (although no such lockdowns are currently in place, making such rhetoric meaningless); and a promise to “curb” the power of “Big Tech” and its “egregious suppression of conservative’s free speech.” Based on this review, it’s abundantly clear that the Republican Party is offering nothing of substance to working-class Americans in an era of rising and record inequality and chronic working insecurity. None of these items will significantly improve the material lives of working Americans by increasing their incomes – nor are they designed to. It’s difficult to combat the aggressive and reactionary classism, racism, and sexism that plague modern America when much of the country insists that none of these things exist. Americans have always fed themselves denialist notions that they’re a classless society, and delusions that we had become “post-racial” grew increasingly prominent during the Obama years, although such propaganda should have been finally put to bed with the rising white supremacy that was mainstreamed during the Trump years. One of the most noxious developments of all is the persistent propaganda narrative that the GOP – and by extension its supporters – are the savior of the working-class. This myth must be demolished if those of us who genuinely care about reducing poverty and inequality are to build a mass movement to address the economic challenges of our time. Anthony DiMaggio is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University. He earned his PhD from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and is the author of 9 books, including most recently: Political Power in America (SUNY Press, 2019), Rebellion in America (Routledge, 2020), and Unequal America (Routledge, 2021). He can be reached at: anthonydimaggio612@gmail.com. A digital copy of Rebellion in America can be read for free here.

Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli soldiers in West Bank: ministry

RAMALLAH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian teenager was killed and dozens were injured on Friday in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Mohammed Tamimi, 17 years old, was killed in the clashes at Nabi Saleh village northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah. On Friday, clashes broke out in several West Bank towns and cities during Palestinian protests against Israeli settlement and confiscation of Palestinian lands. Eyewitnesses said that the fiercest clashes took place between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers at the villages of Beita and Beit Dajan south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that a total of 320 Palestinian protesters were injured by Israeli soldiers all over the West Bank after the soldiers fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas canisters. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that two Israeli soldiers were injured in the clashes near Nablus. Enditem

Israelis suspected of starting blaze at Palestinian factory, causing hundreds of thousands in damages

Three Israeli are suspected of setting fire to a Palestinian factory in the West Bank, as violence against Palestinian businesses continues in the region. Three Israeli youths are suspected of setting a Palestinian marble factory in the West Bank on fire on Thursday, according to local media reports. Two of the suspects claimed they were attacked, but Israeli authorities who are investigating say they may have been injured as they fled from the factory. A third suspect was treated at a hospital and then transferred to the Shin Bet security service. The marble factory in the village of Jamma’in is owned by Ghassan Damidi, who told Haaretz that in the middle of the night he was told his factory was on fire after a car drove into it. When he later arrived at the scene of the fire, he noticed a car driving away and when he went after it, the car crashed. One of the people in the car was wounded and the other two fled the scene. Damidi found a gas canister at the scene, and he estimated three million shekels ($920,000) in damages. According to local reports, case details are under a gag order and the suspects are being represented by right-wing legal aid organisation Honenu, which claims the suspects had nothing to do with the fire. Uptick in Israeli violence United Nations’ human rights experts have raised alarm over a marked upsurge in settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, with assaults and property destruction occurring in "an atmosphere of impunity." The Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that in the first three months of 2021, it had documented over 210 settler violent incidents, with one Palestinian fatality. In 2020, it recorded 771 incidents of settler violence causing injury to 133 Palestinians and damaging 9,646 trees and 184 vehicles mostly in the areas of Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah. "We call upon the Israeli military and police to investigate and prosecute these violent acts with vigour and resolve," the experts said in a statement. The attacks, according to the UN agency, were primarily designed to take over land but also to intimidate and terrorise Palestinians. "They primarily target the livelihoods of rural Palestinians, vandalising livestock, agricultural lands, trees and homes. Besides the presence and expansion of Israeli settlements, which are intended to establish illegal claims for Israeli sovereignty, settler violence is meant to make the daily lives of Palestinians untenable," they said.

Turkey condemns EU court ruling on hijab ban as violation of freedoms

Turkey on Sunday slammed a ruling by a top European Union court allowing the banning of hijabs under certain conditions as a "clear violation of religious freedoms", adding the move would exacerbate prejudices against Muslim women in Europe. The Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday that companies in the bloc can ban employees from wearing a headscarf under certain conditions, if they need to do so to project an image of neutrality to customers. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement the ruling was a sign of rising Islamophobia, coming at a time when Muslim women in Europe are being subjected to increasing discrimination for their religious beliefs. "The ECJ decision, at a time when the Islamophobia, racism and hatred that have taken Europe hostage are rising, disregards religious freedom and creates a basis and legal cover for discrimination," the ministry said. On Saturday, the Turkish presidency's communication director Fahrettin Altun condemned the move, saying "this wrong decision is an attempt to grant legitimacy to racism," Reuters reported. The issue of the hijab, the traditional headscarf worn around the head and shoulders, has been divisive across Europe for years, underlining sharp differences over integrating Muslims. Strained ties Thursday's ruling followed two cases brought by Muslim women working in Germany. In enforcing the ban, the employer must nonetheless show it is not discriminating between different beliefs and religions in its policy, the ECJ said. The two women, a cashier in a chemist and a special needs carer, had taken their cases to German courts after being prohibited from wearing the hijab at work. The German courts had then referred the cases to the ECJ for an interpretation of EU law. Ankara has repeatedly accused European nations of not doing enough to prevent discrimination against Muslims, saying it will start publishing an annual report on what it calls examples of Islamophobia around the world. Ties between Ankara and the bloc have been strained over a host of issues, including a dispute between EU member Greece and Turkey over maritime jurisdiction and energy rights in the eastern Mediterranean.

Israel quietly letting Jews pray on Temple Mount, in break with status quo

Israel has quietly started allowing Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount in recent months, in what would appear to be a major change to the status quo that has existed at the holy site since the Jewish state captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan during 1967’s Six Day War, according to a report Saturday. Channel 12’s religious affairs reporter Yair Cherki filmed prayers at the site in recent days, as policemen — who in the past would eject any person suspected of prayer, and sometimes kicked people out for merely citing a biblical verse while speaking — passively looked on. “For months now, every morning this unofficial prayer quorum has been praying on the Temple Mount,” Cherki said. The worshipers gather without prayer books, tefillin or any other symbols of prayer that could draw unwanted attention from Muslims at the compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque. But pray they do, with the cops turning a blind eye. The Islamic Waqf, which administers the compound, is aware of the situation and monitors them from a distance, but has so far not taken action, according to the report. Cherki described the developments as “a revolution, unfolding quietly and gradually under the radar.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Your email GET IT By signing up, you agree to the terms The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, as the site of the biblical Temples. It is the site of the third-holiest shrine in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel captured the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s Old City in the Six Day War and extended sovereignty throughout Jerusalem. Anxious to reduce friction with the Muslim world, however, and given that Orthodox sages generally counsel against ascending the Temple Mount for fear of treading on the sacred ground where the Temple’s Holy of Holies stood, Israel since 1967 allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to maintain religious authority atop the mount. Jews are allowed to visit under numerous restrictions, but not to pray. In recent years, Israeli public perception of the ban on Jewish prayer has shifted. Through the fruits of a long-term concerted PR campaign, now using updated jargon calling for freedom of religion and human rights, the previously fringe Temple Mount movement is increasingly mainstreamed. But in the face of Palestinian claims that Israel seeks to change the status quo on the Mount that have intermittently caused flareups of violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, successive Israeli governments have long maintained that Israel is committed to the status established there over the past few decades and does not intend to change the accepted practices. Channel 12 reported that beyond prayers, lengthy Torah lessons have been held on the Mount, again with the tacit approval of the police. The report cited two main causes for the gradual change: the growing number of Jewish visitors to the site — a record 35,000 came in the year before the coronavirus struck — and productive contacts between some of the religious activists and police. Religious activists have even set up a “Temple Mount Management” body that built a shaded hut at the entrance area leading to the Mount, with refreshments for visitors and a model of the ancient Jewish Temple. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the apparent change in police policy on the Mount. It seemed unlikely such action, with such explosive potential consequences, would be authorized without the knowledge of top officials. Contacted by The Times of Israel, the Israel Police commented: “As part of visits being routinely held in the area of the Temple Mount, police are acting in accordance with the visitation rules at the site that are meant to enable the preservation of public order and the public’s safety and are conveyed ahead of the visitors’ entry. “The existing restrictions on visitors at the site are based on government decisions and High Court rulings on the matter over the years,” police added. “Visitors” is the police’s term for Jews and non-Muslim tourists entering the compound. A spokesperson for Public Security Minister Omer Barlev commented that there was “no change in policy from Tisha B’Av in previous years.” Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, as reported by Channel 12 news, on July 17, 2021. (Channel 12 screenshot) In the past, attempts by Jews to pray at the site, even when quickly stopped by police, have sparked violence. So far though, the report said, the regular prayer sessions have been peaceful and have not led to unrest. Asaf Fried, spokesman for an assortment of organizations active on the Mount, told the network: “The entrance area has been fixed up, there are no lines at the entrance… people go up to the Mount, there’s no Waqf following you. There’s a lot more room to breathe on Temple Mount.” Channel 12’s Cherki stressed that this was still far from complete religious freedom for Jews on the Mount, noting that he was told by police not to film or interview people there, and, as a kippa wearer, to refrain from religious activity. But, on the ground, he says “the cops, in accordance with the new policy, look the other way.” Some of the Temple Mount activists welcome the change, while others say there’s still a long way to go. “Unfortunately it’s not prayer, in the sense that a Jew who has been to a synagogue or at the Western Wall would call prayer,” said Arnon Segal, one of the activists. “It’s very quiet prayer. Often a person who sways more than is allowed or mumbles too loudly is interrupted.” “Praise the Lord for what there is, and there’s a lot more to be done.”

Journalists, activists ensnared in Israeli spyware scandal

European politicians and media groups voiced outrage Monday over reports that an Israeli firm supplied phone malware used by governments to spy on activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians in several countries. The NSO Group and its Pegasus malware -- capable of switching on a phone's camera or microphone and harvesting its data -- have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates. The leaked numbers are believed to be connected to people identified by NSO clients as potential surveillance targets. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the spying, if confirmed, was "completely unacceptable", while French government spokesman Gabriel Attal called it "extremely shocking. - Authoritarian regimes - But the claims that countries such as Azerbaijan, Hungary, India and Morocco, where authorities have cracked down on independent media, spied on dissident journalists at home and abroad sparked indignation. French investigative news site Mediapart claimed that the phones of its founder Edwy Plenel and one of its journalists were among those targeted by Moroccan intelligence services and said it had filed a criminal complaint. - 'Rogue' operators - In some cases, it can be installed without the need to trick a user into initiating a download. "NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement. The Post said the numbers on the list were unattributed, but other media outlets participating in the project were able to identify more than 1,000 people in more than 50 countries. - Journalists 'compromised' - Among them were reporters for Agence France-Presse, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, El Pais, the Associated Press, Le Monde, Bloomberg, The Economist, and Reuters, The Guardian said. "It also puts my sources at risk. People who are speaking to you on condition of anonymity, if they get compromised, that's terrible," he told AFP. "It's bad for democracy, it's bad for journalism. It is terrible." Leading Indian opposition figure Rahul Gandhi was twice selected as a potential surveillance target, The Guardian reported. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters Budapest has "no knowledge of this type of data collection". NSO Group, which is based in the Israeli hi-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, denied any wrongdoing. "We firmly deny the false allegations made in their report," NSO said. The Washington Post said a forensic analysis had revealed that two women close to Khashoggi had been hacked. He was murdered in 2018 by a Saudi hit squad.

Khalilzad: No Military Solution to Conflict in Afghanistan

US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has said that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and that there should be a political settlement for lasting peace in the country. “There is no ultimate military solution, there has to be a political settlement for lasting peace in Afghanistan,” Khalilzad said in an interview with Hindustan Times. “It has been made clear to the Taliban that not only ourselves, but many countries in the region and beyond will not recognize, will not assist the government that takes power by force.” Khalilzad said that the United States will continue to support the Afghan government. “We have said that while forces withdraw, yes, that is ongoing. But we will support the Afghan security forces where the [US] President’s budget has asked for $3.3 billion in assistance for the Afghan security forces. We will provide economic support. We will provide humanitarian support,” he added. This comes as violence remains high in the country and many districts have remained contested between government forces and Taliban.

Gaza 2020: How does Palestinian territory compare globally?

Gaza is just days away from 1 January 2020 - and the date by which the United Nations predicted that the Palestinian territory could be unlivable. The international agency came to that conclusion back in 2012 after calculating that Gaza’s infrastructure and social services would be unable to keep pace with its growing needs and population. Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. But compared to other global cities and regions, such as New York City and Hong Kong, it lags far behind when it comes to measures including unemployment, class sizes and lack of safe drinking water. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/2020-how-big-gaza-compared-to-us-new-york-hong-kong "

Indian Population Control: Will Coercive Measures Work?

Ram Puniyani On the back of population control policy adopted by Assam, where those having more than two children will be barred from contesting local elections and will not considered for promotions in Government service, now UP is coming up with the similar bill, the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021. The claim is that this will control and stabilize the population of the state. Both these states are aiming at coercive measures, carrot on one side and stick on the other, to implement this norm. One believes that family welfare must be a part of country’s health planning. The forthcoming bill by these states is guided more by biases and perceptions rather than by the reality of Indian scene. As far as population control is concerned. India was among the foremost countries to introduce family planning measures right from 1952. Initially it was presented as family planning to control the number of children; later more appropriate word ‘family welfare’ was used as the aim of this program. It was not just to control number of children per couple. The results of these welfare measures are now reflecting in the population profile and reflected in the women’s fertility rate. The total fertility rate (number of children per woman) has dropped to 2.1 currently from 4.97 in 1980. This is due to the measures which are already operative. As per S.Y.Quraishi, whose book on the issue, ‘The Population myth: Islam. Family planning and Politics in India’ is quite a comprehensive account of the issue, in 24 of the 29 states of India it is already coming close to 2.179, the one indicative of a stable population, 2.1 is a mere replacement level. Even in Assam the fertility rate is 1.9 as per NHFS 5. The RSS combine’s Hindu Nationalists see the problem merely as that of Muslims deliberately increasing population to take over the country and convert it into a Muslim state. The ground reality is totally different. Barring the period of Emergency and Sanjay Gandhi’s defamed forced Nasbandi (Vasectomy) program, the policy worked well and the results are there to for those who care to see beyond the superficial understanding and motivated propaganda. Interestingly it was BJP’s previous avatar Janasangh which was opposed to family planning programs. Even currently BJP associates like VHP are vehemently opposing it. There have been hoards of Swami’s (Sakshi Maharaj) and Sadhvi’s (Prachi) who have been advising Hindu women to produce more children. Not to be left behind RSS Chief K. Sudarshan had also given a call to Hindu women to produce more children. The choice between ‘coercion versus volition’ is best demonstrated by the fact that Vasectomy which was becoming acceptable norm and India saw a huge surge in the number of males undergoing this minor procedure faced a set back after the coercive measures imposed during Emergency. India was leading the World in Male sterilization numbers before 1975 and the number of vasectomies went up several million per year before 1975. After two years of forced imposition the number came down drastically. Now it is becoming difficult to revive the same. Earlier people were very appreciative of China’s high handed methods in imposing one child norm. The policy backfired and now the efforts are going on to reverse the trend. So much about the imposition versus encouragement debate! India so far has adopted a humane policy in the matter, which means to understand that number of children per couple depend more on the poverty, illiteracy and health facilities rather than religion. In sum and substance one can say that this program in India which was trying to improvise on health and education is beginning to yield dividends and even currently population explosion is not a menace if we carefully see the demography. The stark fact is that the women’s fertility rate is not dependent on religion as fertility rate of Muslim women of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra is lower than that of Hindu women of UP, Bihar and Rajasthan. The United Nations mantra that the ‘best contraceptive is education’ becomes evident in India as we see that in India the results of family welfare programs are better in states with higher literacy especially among girls. While the laws by BJP Governments don’t mention the religion still the message of targeting Muslim minorities is clear. So why these Chief Ministers are keen to implement these coercive programs in their states; when what is needed improvement in education, alleviation of poverty and improving the health facilities? Assam has recently seen an election and the new Chief Minster wants to stabilize his power through this polarizing move. He has clearly stated that Muslims need to follow the family planning norms. Earlier in June, he had created controversy by saying that, "We can solve numerous social ills in Assam, if immigrant Muslim community adopts decent family planning norms." The other worthies from Hindtva stable have clearly articulated the divisive politics by targeting Muslims on the issue. Giriraj Singh, Union Cabinet Minister had said that increasing population, “especially (that of) Muslims, is a threat to the social fabric, social harmony, and development of the country”. Rajasthan BJP MLA Bhanwari Lal had said that unlike Hindus, “Muslims are worried about...how to take over the nation by increasing their population.” The fact is that Muslims are adopting family planning techniques at a faster pace. The decadal rate of their population increase shows bigger decline. The projection is that if present trends go on the population of Muslims will stabilize around 18% by 2050. The phobia which projects that they will become a majority and convert this into a Muslim country seems to be part of political agenda of inciting the communities in communal direction by creating a sense of fear among the Hindu majority. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stated that the two-child policy is aimed at ensuring "there is a population balance among various communities”. He should know around that half the MLAs of BJP in UP have more than two children. As these things go down to the social media they assume horrendous proportions. The social media posts humiliating the Muslim community abound and are spreading hate using this issue to the hilt. Can one hope that the states will focus more on education, health and poverty alleviation!

Islamic forums in Kashmir decry cattle slaughter ban on Eid

Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), an amalgam of Islamic scholars of Kashmir, headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, on Friday, expressed strong resentment against the government decision to ban sacrifice of bovines on the occasion of Eid al-Adha (Bakra Eid), and urged the government to withdraw the ban. Eid al-Adha, popularly known as badi Eid (bigger Eid) in Kashmir, will be celebrated in July on 21-23. Sacrificing animals like lamb, cows, and camels is an important ritual on Eid al-Adha for the Muslims world over. In Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir, most Muslims sacrifice lambs on Eid al-Adha but some also sacrifice bovines. The MMU, in a joint statement, said it is surprised that sacrifice of bovine animals on the religious occasion of Eid is being termed "illegal" and disallowed under the garb of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The statement said the sacrifice of permitted animals, including bovines, is imperative to the celebration of Eid al-Adha. “Hence, it is an important tenet of religion on this day, and a duty upon persons on whom it is obligatory,” the statement said. “A Muslim indeed has to refrain from any kind of negligence in performing this act of worship. So why are Muslims being restricted by the government in performing their religious obligation?” It said the government should desist from issuing arbitrary orders that are unacceptable to the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir as they infringe on the religious freedom and their personal law, causing them great anguish. It said the government should immediately revoke this arbitrary and discriminatory order. “Let the people of Kashmir celebrate Eid in keeping with its religious obligations and the spirit of the festival,’’ the statement said. It said the MMU will convene an urgent meeting of its key constituents and leading Muftis of J&K on Sunday at the residence of Mufti Azam Mufti Nasir ul Islam and inform people accordingly. The members of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema include Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid Srinagar, Mufti Azam’s Muslim Personal Law Board, Darul Uloom Rehimiyyah, Anjuman-e-Shari'a Shian, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadeeth, Jamaat-e-Islami, Karwaan-e-Islami, Ittehad-e-Muslimeen, Anjuman-e-Himayat-ul-Islam, Anjuman-e-Tabligh-ul-Islam, Jamiat Hamdaniya, Anjuman Ulema Ahnaaf, Darul Uloom Qasmia, Darul Uloom Bilalia, Anjuman Nusrat-ul-Islam, Anjuman-e-Mazhar-ul-Haq, Jamiat Aima Wa Ulema, Anjuman-e-Imam-o-Mashaa’ikh Kashmir, Dar-ul-Uloom Naqshbandia, Dar-ul-Uloom Rasheedia, Ahl-e-Bayt Foundation, Madrasa Kanz-ul-Uloom, Karvaan Khatm-e-Nabuwat, and other religious, social and educational associations. On Thursday, the J&K government banned the slaughter of cows, calves and camels on Eid al-Adha in the Union territory. The ban on the slaughter of cows, calves and camels was communicated by director of Planning, J&K Animal/Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries Department, to the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir, and IGP, Jammu and Kashmir. Citing an official letter from the Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, the communication reads: “In this regard, large numbers of sacrificial animals are likely to be slaughtered in the UT of J&K during Bakra Eid festival scheduled from 21-23 July, 2021 & the Animal Welfare Board of India, in view of animal welfare, has requested for implementation of all precautionary measures to strictly implement the Animal Welfare Laws viz. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; Transport of Animal Welfare Rules, 1978; Transport of Animals (Amendment) Rules, 2001; Slaughter House Rules, 2001; Municipal Laws & Food Safety & Standards Authority of India directions for slaughtering of animals (under which camels cannot be slaughtered) during the festival.”

Officials in Kashmir ban animal sacrifice on Muslim holiday of Eid

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have banned the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, in a ruling that is likely to further stoke anti-India anger in the disputed Muslim-majority region. An order issued on Thursday said the “illegal killing/sacrifices of cows/calves, camels & other animals” must be stopped, citing animal welfare laws. It’s unclear why the government issued a near total ban on sacrificing animals. Generally, cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and slaughtering them or eating beef is illegal or restricted across much of the country. Despite the ban on cow slaughter in Kashmir, beef is widely available across much of the Muslim-majority areas. Muslims traditionally mark Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, by offering special prayers and slaughtering livestock, usually a goat, sheep, a cow or a camel, to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith. The meat of the sacrificed animals is shared among family and friends and poor people who cannot afford to sacrifice animals. This year’s Muslim holiday falls on July 21-23 in the region. Sentiment against Indian rule runs deep in Kashmir, where many Muslim residents seek independence or unification with Pakistan, which controls the other part of the region. Both nuclear-armed rivals claim the territory in its entirety. Kashmiri Muslims fear that India’s Hindu populist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun to alter Kashmir’s demography and identity after stripping the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. Since Modi’s ascendance to power in 2014, India has seen a series of mob attacks on minority groups. Most have involved so-called cow vigilantes from extremist Hindu groups. They have usually targeted Muslims, who make up 14% of India’s nearly 1.4 billion people. Hindus make up about 80% of the population. The victims have been accused of either smuggling cows for slaughter or carrying beef. At least two dozen people have died in such attacks.

How Israel’s Citizenship Law collectively punishes its Palestinian citizens

The Israeli government, for the first time since 2003, has failed to renew its controversial Citizenship Law. According to the Mossawa Center, a Haifa-based civil and human rights organization for Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Citizenship Law is “a racist form of collective punishment that prevents tens of thousands of Palestinian families from reuniting with each other.” In its most basic form, the law prevents the spouses of Palestinian citizens of Israel from gaining Israeli citizenship or almost any other form of legal status in the country, leaving those families that have not yet been forcibly separated by the law to live in constant fear of separation. To understand the real effects this law has on the daily lives of Palestinian citizens of Israel, their spouses, and their children, I spoke with Taiseer Khatib and his wife Lana who currently live in Acre, Israel with their three children. Taiseer was born in Acre, thus he has an Israeli citizenship. He received a degree in Anthropology in Germany and currently teaches anthropology and sociology in college. He is also very active with civil rights and civil society organizations where he leads various projects and initiatives, including conflict resolution between Palestinian and Israeli students. His wife Lana studied economics and business administration at al-Najah University in Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Despite being from Jenin in the West Bank, she moved to Acre with Taiseer after they got married. Because Lana does not have an Israeli citizenship like Taiseer, her status in Israel grants her little to no rights. Lana has been living for 16 years with Taiseer in Acre without, as she put it, “rights, legal status, or opportunities.” “The law does not give us security for our future. There is no guarantee we will remain together. Our family lives in constant fear, stress, and lack of freedom.” Taiseer Khatib According to Taiseer, “the law does not give us security for our future. There is no guarantee we will remain together. Our family lives in constant fear, stress, and lack of freedom.” For them to stay together, Lana must renew her permit to stay in Israel every year. However, this permit grants no social, economic, or political rights to Lana as a resident. Despite her degree in economics and business administration, Lana is currently unemployed as the Citizenship Law makes it extremely difficult for her to find a job. The permit she is granted makes the process of hiring her very bureaucratic for employers; hence, since no employer wants to go through such trouble to simply hire one person, it is practically impossible for Lana to work in Israel. Lana is not even eligible to receive an Israeli driver’s license even though she has a Palestinian and international driver’s license. Tourists in Israel can drive, but Lana, married to a citizen, cannot. Since Lana cannot drive, her children must wait until Taiseer comes home to do anything as he is the only one who can drive. Lana can’t even take them to the zoo or the beach while Taiseer is at work. They must wait until Taiseer comes home to even get groceries. “It feels like a prison for the whole family. It affects the entire family, not just one individual,” Taiseer said. Equally as constricting is the process for renewing the permit itself. Despite her place of residency being in Israel for the past 16 consecutive years, there is no guarantee that every time she applies for the permit it will be renewed. Lana must produce 12 consecutive months of utility receipts and prove that her children study in school for her permit to be renewed. If she so much as misses one of those receipts, she is in jeopardy of not having her permit renewed and thus be forcibly separated from her husband and children. “It’s a very bureaucratic process aimed at making it as hard as possible for Lana to renew her permit,” Taiseer said. At the same time however, any person from abroad who can prove they are Jewish is eligible for full Israeli citizenship, even if they have no connection to the country whatsoever. Furthermore, despite living in a country with universal healthcare and being married to a citizen who has access to such a basic human right, Lana is only granted limited access to healthcare which involves making an initial payment of 8,000-10,000 NIS ($2,500-$3,000) followed by monthly payments reaching 400 NIS ($120). This is especially troubling as most families who suffer from the Citizenship Law live below the poverty line and are unable to afford healthcare. Moreover, many families are unaware of the fact that if the non-citizen spouse of a Palestinian citizen of Israel is giving birth in an Israeli hospital, they are still entitled to the full healthcare coverage granted to all Israeli citizens – this is the only case in which a non-Israeli citizen, such as Lana, is eligible for full healthcare coverage. Still, since the Israeli government makes no effort to clarify this to them, many Israeli hospitals take advantage of such families and charge them exuberant costs. To truly understand how restrictive this law is, Taiseer explained to me how he and Lana had to plan their pregnancies so that she may give birth when her permit is valid, allowing their children to be born with Israeli citizenship. While Taiseer, given his work with civil society organizations, was aware of the fact that his children must be born in an Israeli hospital to be entitled to Israeli citizenship, countless others are unaware of this and subsequently have their children born in the West Bank with no rights. What’s more, the Israeli government forces the parents to undergo the humiliating process of proving their children are in fact their own through a DNA test which can cost upwards of 8,000 NIS ($2,500). “My children are living in constant fear that their family will be torn apart if the government doesn’t renew my wife’s permit . . . my daughter said she was scared of coming home one day and not seeing her mother.” Taiseer Khatib It is the impact the law has on children, however, that is most heartbreaking. “My children are living in constant fear that their family will be torn apart if the government doesn’t renew my wife’s permit,“ Taiseer told me. “There was a time when they were so terrified that we had to take them to a psychologist to help them deal with it. They were 4 and 5 years old. My daughter Yusra, who was 5 at the time, said she was scared of coming home one day and not seeing her mother,” he added. The failure to renew the law provides a much-needed sense of relief for Taiseer, Lana, and their children. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no guarantee preventing the Israeli Knesset from simply passing a similar law in the near future that will reimpose the same restrictions on the Khatib family. Another likely event is that the current Israeli government, which has a razor-thin and unstable majority in the Knesset, will collapse, leading to a new round of elections that may introduce an even more extreme government. What’s certain, however, is that this is a crucial victory for Palestinians and an important steppingstone in the struggle for equality and justice.

Israel: Racist, Violent Policing Is at the Heart of Apartheid

Amnesty International report highlights how Israeli police protect Jewish supremacism from any challenge by Palestinian citizens by Jonathan Cook Police made sweeping arrests of Israel’s large minority of Palestinian citizens after protests rocked the country in May during Israel’s 11-day attack on Gaza. Officers were documented beating demonstrators, and in some cases torturing them while in detention. Police also failed to protect the Palestinian minority from planned, vigilante-style attacks by far-right Jewish extremists. This was the damning verdict of an Amnesty International report published last week. The findings indicate that Israeli police view the country’s Palestinian minority, a fifth of the population, as an enemy rather than as citizens with a right to protest. The report echoes what Palestinian leaders in Israel and local human rights groups have long said: that the default policing of the Palestinian community in Israel is racist and violent. It reflects the same values of Jewish supremacism seen in the Israeli army’s brutal treatment of Palestinians under occupation. The contrast between how police responded to protests by Palestinian citizens and supportive statements from their leaders, on the one hand, and to incitement from Israeli Jewish leaders and violent backlash from the Jewish extreme right, on the other, is stark indeed. More than 2,150 arrests were made following May’s inter-communal violence. But according to reports cited by Amnesty, more than 90 percent of those detained were Palestinian – either citizens of Israel or residents of occupied East Jerusalem. Most face charges unrelated to attacks on people or property, despite how their demonstrations were widely portrayed by police and Israeli media. Rather, Palestinian protesters were indicted on charges such as “insulting or assaulting a police officer” or “taking part in an illegal gathering” – matters related to the repressive policing faced by the Palestinian minority. ‘Torture room’ Amnesty cites repeated examples of unprovoked police assaults on peaceful protesters in cities such as Nazareth and Haifa. That contrasts with the continuing indulgence by police of provocations by the Jewish far-right, such as their march through Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem on 15 June, during which participants chanted: “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn.” Amnesty also documents testimony that Israeli police beat bound detainees in Nazareth’s police station – setting up what the local legal rights group Adalah has described as an improvised “torture room”. In addition, a protester in Haifa appears to have been tied to a chair and deprived of sleep for nine days, using torture techniques familiar to Palestinians in the occupied territories. In contrast, Israeli police were alerted in real time to messages from Jewish far-right groups about precise plans to smash up “Arab” shops and assault Palestinian citizens on the street. And yet, police either ignored those warnings or were slow to respond. An investigation by Haaretz has further suggested that police subsequently failed to use film footage to identify these Jewish vigilantes and, as a result, made few arrests. This picture of police turning a blind eye to planned Jewish violence echoes scenes from the time of the protests. Footage showed police officers allowing armed Jewish thugs – many bused in from settlements – to wander freely around Palestinian neighborhoods during a curfew on the city of Lod. There was even footage of police and Jewish far-right extremists conducting what looked like joint “operations”, with police throwing stun grenades as Jewish extremists threw stones. Jewish politicians who incited against the Palestinian minority – from Israel’s former president, Reuven Rivlin, and Lod’s mayor, Yair Revivo, to far-right legislator Itamar Ben-Gvir – have faced no consequences. Charged with ‘terror acts’ Instead, police arranged what amounted to a provocative, entirely unnecessary assault by special forces on the home of a Palestinian community leader, Kamal al-Khatib, to arrest him. The deputy head of the northern Islamic Movement was charged with supporting terrorism after he expressed pride at what he called the minority’s solidarity with the people of Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem. And last week, apparently too late for inclusion in the Amnesty report, Israel’s racist policing moved in new directions. Small numbers of Palestinian citizens suspected of attacking Jews were charged with “terror acts”, in some cases without any physical or DNA evidence tying them to the crime. In several cases, the defendants were indicted based on confessions made after prolonged interrogation by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet. Israel’s legal system is treating inter-communal violence as an act of terror when Palestinian citizens are involved, and as an ordinary law-and-order issue – assuming it is dealt with at all – when Israeli Jews are involved. Underlining this distinction is the decision to place Palestinian citizens of Israel under administrative detention, jailing them without charge and not allowing lawyers to see the supposed evidence against their clients. This draconian move – with one such order approved last week by Defense Minister Benny Gantz – is usually reserved for Palestinians under occupation, not Israeli citizens. Settling scores In its report, Amnesty pointed to public statements from Israeli police commanders indicating that the current harsh crackdown is really about “settling scores”. And in part, that is true. Nearly two decades ago, a judicial-led public inquiry concluded that Israeli police treated Palestinian citizens as “the enemy”. Nothing has changed since. Police regard it as their primary job to protect the privileges of the Jewish majority by keeping the Palestinian minority crushed and obedient, as a subordinate community inside a self-declared Jewish state. The eruption of protests in May, which caught police off-guard, was implicitly a sign that they had failed in that role. Police interpreted the demonstrations as a public humiliation for which “deterrence” needed to be urgently restored. Israeli politicians, including the then-police minister, Amir Ohana, as well as the Jewish far-right, viewed the protests in much the same light. They argued at the time that police were being held back by legal niceties, and that it was the job of Jewish citizens to back police by taking the law into their own hands. Yet, the “settling of scores” with the Palestinian minority relates to a separate matter. External observers, such as Amnesty, tend to notice Israel’s racist policing only when direct violence is used against Palestinian citizens. But the Palestinian minority’s experience of discrimination from police is much broader. For years, the minority has been taking to the streets in large numbers to protest against not only the violent policing of dissent, but a complementary near-absence of policing towards Palestinian communities in Israel when it comes to tackling crime. The harsh repression seen in recent weeks contrasts strongly with police inaction as a crime wave has swept Palestinian communities, with each year bringing a record number of violent deaths. Both Palestinian and Jewish criminal gangs have exploited the policing void in Palestinian towns and villages, knowing that they are free to act as long as the violence is “Arab-on-Arab”. Even during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Palestinian community leaders kept up the pressure, leading go-slow convoys of dozens of cars along Israel’s busiest roads to draw attention to Israel’s racist policing priorities. These presented a different kind of humiliation for police. Unusually, commanders were forced onto the back foot, swallowing unrelenting criticism and condemnation for failing to deal with crime in Palestinian communities. It even became one of the top issues for Palestinian parties in Israel’s string of recent elections. Now, police are having their moment of revenge. “You want more active policing? We’ll give you more active policing. See how you like this!” seems to be the new message of the mass roundups. Jewish supremacism The reality is that both kinds of policing towards Palestinian citizens – the violent policing of dissent, and the lack of policing of crime – are rooted in the same, ugly ideology of Jewish supremacism. This is the same supremacism highlighted in a report early this year by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. It broke new ground in the human rights community by explicitly identifying Israel as an apartheid state, one that treats Palestinians as inferior, whether in the occupied territories or inside Israel, and Jews as superior, whether in Israel or in the illegal settlements. The new Amnesty report is the latest snapshot of a society where everything follows that apartheid logic, including policing. That should surprise no one, because apartheid is, by definition, systematic. Most Jewish Israelis, whether they identify with the left or right, have shown little interest in the lethal crime wave that for years has washed over Palestinian communities near their own, despite the regular protest campaigns by the Palestinian minority. And now – through their silence – most ordinary Jewish Israelis and their politicians have demonstrated that they support, or are at least indifferent to, the current crackdown by police on the Palestinian minority. The deeper causes of May’s protests, and the violent backlash from the far right, appear to have provoked little self-reflection. The Israeli Jewish public seems equally unconcerned by the fact that Jewish far-right thugs have chanted “death to Arabs” on their streets, that videos show police cooperating with those thugs, or that police have been making mass arrests of Palestinian citizens for weeks on end, while failing to search for the Jews who were filmed attacking Palestinians. Belligerent occupation The truth is that Israeli police get away with racist, violent policing because wider Israeli Jewish society approves. Police regard themselves as defenders of a Jewish supremacism that many ordinary Jewish citizens see as their birthright. The Palestinian minority hoped that it had opened a tentative conversation with Israeli Jews both about the responsibilities of police in a state claiming to be a democracy, and about the right of Israel’s 1.8 million Palestinian citizens to personal security. There was much fanfare at Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List becoming last month the first party representing Palestinian citizens to enter an Israeli government coalition, ousting former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power. Like other Palestinian parties, Abbas put changes to the racist police culture in Israel at the top of his platform. But any signs of progress have been all too readily snuffed out by a reassertion of Jewish supremacism by police and their Jewish far-right allies, and by the silent complicity of wider Israeli Jewish society. Israel had a chance to address its racist policing policies, but that would have required the difficult work of examining the much wider apartheid structures that underpin them. Instead, most Israeli Jews are happy to reassert the status quo – oppressing all Palestinians under Jewish rule, whether they are subjects of a belligerent occupation or third-class citizens of a Jewish state. This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition. Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net. This originally appeared in the Middle East Eye.