Breaking News PALESTINE: 17 year old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi has been freed from jail
Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi has been released from Israeli prison after completing her eight-month sentence in a case that sparked international condemnation.
Tamimi broke down in tears as an emotional crowd welcomed her in the village of Nabi Saleh on Sunday. She was released with her mother, Nariman, who also served an eight month sentence.
Addressing the crowd, Tamimi thanked activists and the media for their support during her prison stay.
"This is a very happy moment for me," Tamimi's father, Bassem, told Al Jazeera prior to his daughter's release. "We have missed them a lot. But I am also worried because the [Israeli] occupation is continuing and still in our lives."
Bassem's happiness, however, was expressed through a heavy heart, as his 21-year-old son, Waed, remains in Israeli detention since being arrested in an overnight raid on his home in May.
Meanwhile, the occupation continues its damages. Israeli border police forces arrested a Palestinian man and two Italian artists next to the Israeli separation wall in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Saturday evening. The artists, one of whom was identified as Italian citizen Jorit Agoch, have been painting a mural of Ahed Tamini. The Palestinian man arrested along with them is Mustafa al-Araj, 31, a resident of the nearby Aida refugee camp and the co-owner of a local volunteer organization. Al-Araj, recently engaged, is set to be married in 10 days. Video of the incident, which took place yesterday around 7 pm [Noon EST] shows three armed Israeli soldiers pulling the men out of their car and searching them before putting them in handcuffs.
Sources told Mondoweiss that the three were transferred to an Israeli detention center for interrogation in Atarot, Jérusalem.
Pakistan's military deployed more than 371,000 soldiers for the elections, more than it has ever done before, and the results showed.
Each of the country's 85,000 polling stations was secured by army personnel, with civilian law enforcement and, in some cases, electoral officials, relegated to a supporting role
Entry to the polling stations was strictly controlled, and in several instances, media workers reported being disallowed from entering - despite having proper accreditation - by military personnel.
The army says it played "no direct role" in the polling process, and it only ensured security and the sanctity of the ballot process. Opponents allege it intervened directly in vote counts.
The EU's observer mission did not pass judgment on the issue, but did note "during counting, security personnel recorded and transmitted the results, giving the impression of a parallel tabulation".
Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in parliament for the first time ever.The PTI has broken the duopoly held by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for decades.
Pakistan has also been directly ruled by the military for roughly half of its 70-year history.
Iram Khan's PTI's victory was built on the back of two major wins. First, it was able to wrest much of southern and northern Punjab from the outgoing PML-N, breaking the party's vote bank in its political heartland.
Second, it was able to hold on to most of its seats in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which has historically always voted out its incumbent party. The PTI won the most seats in KP in 2013, but holding on to them represented an historic first.
The first and foremost challenge that the PTI faces as a ruling party is to transform Iram Khan from the perennial opposition leader that he has been in his 22-year political career into a statesman and to chalk out a strategy to placate all the major political parties which have declared the election rigged.
Speaking in a televised address on July 26, Khan offered an olive branch to the opposition and said he was happy for them to have any constituency investigated where they thought there were irregularities. He pledged there would be no political victimisation and all state institutions would be strengthened so they remain independent.
He said he would set a personal example of austerity and offer himself for accountability so that a corruption-free society could be realised and vowed policies to pull the poor out of the poverty trap. He also said he would strive to have harmonious relations with all neighbours.
Whether the opposition would accept the olive branch, remains to be seen, but at least initially, they all seem intent on demanding a recount, although the PTI's fairly clear mandate at the centre means the coalition-building process should be relatively straightforward, with the party also expected to lead KP's provincial government. In Sindh, the PPP is expected to form the provincial government, while in Balochistan, the provincial government will likely be led by the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
The key to stability, however, will lie in who leads the provincial government in Punjab, the country's most populous province.The PML-N and PTI are neck and neck in the province, with 127 and 123 seats, respectively, and both are vying to form a government.
If the PML-N is successful in holding on to a province it has governed for more than a decade, it may set up a political confrontation with the PTI at the centre.
Whatever happens, I think Iram Khan's was Pakistanis best choice. He has been open to Iran, to India and to talk about the fate of Kashmir. Therefore, let's hope he will be able to rule and get things right.
Instead of deterring the growth of democracy, the goal should be to empower the populace of Pakistan sufficiently to induce satisfaction with the Pakistani constituency’s role within current geopolitical realities such that a dis-empowered populace does not succumb to ministrations of destructive political ideologies.
Now I turn to India. The ultra-nationalist right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in power in India, and its votaries have completely ignored how diverse communities can grow historically within the framework created by the combined forces of modern national and transnational developments.
The discourse endorsed/ disseminated by the JP serves to emphasize, reinforce, and create cultural myopia and monocultural identities. The short-sightedness of the Bhajpa will prove detrimental to the constitutional integrity of India.
The increasing communalization of Indian politics is a juggernaut that seriously questions the myth of secularism in India, and the increasing religiosity in Pakistan is just as damaging. As a poignant reminder to the student of Indian history and subcontinental politics, I would like to point out that Jawaharlal Nehru observed in the Constituent Assembly of India that the greatest danger to India will not be from Muslim communalism but from Hindutva which could potentially become expansionist and communally belligerent.
Such an irregular politics polarizes these ethnic groups into Hindus and Muslims who are required to disavow their cultural, linguistic, and social unities.
Although former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the olive branch to each other the traditional Indo-Pak enmity has been put on the backburner during Pakistani political parties on the campaign trail, the ideological and power rivalry between India and Pakistan transcend the Kashmir dispute.
During the last decade and a half, each military crisis between India and Pakistan has been followed by attempts at diplomatic rapprochement, which have turned out to be fiascos. The two countries go through sporadic peacemaking efforts, characterized by negotiations. For instance, in January 2004, the then Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, agreed “‘to the resumption of a composite dialogue”’ on all issues “‘including Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides.” Musharraf assured the Indian government that he would not permit “‘any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner.” But this joint statement could not mitigate the existing skepticism.
Many observers interpreted the joint statement as a tacit admission of Pakistan’s past support for the LOC in Kashmir and an indication of its resolve to finally end military confrontation over the dispute. However, there was also considerable skepticism in India on the nature of change in Pakistan’s policy: was it tactical or strategic? Similarly, the Pakistani government feared that India was taking unfair advantage of Islamabad’s restraint to consolidate its political and military grip over Kashmir. At the time, Vajpayee and Musharraf took a judicious approach to nuclear warfare, and a dangerous situation mellowed.
Considering Pakistani foreign policy is dictated by Rawalpindi (the old city), not Islamabad (the modern capital), it remains to be seen what sort of impact elections in Pakistan will have in Indo-Pak relations. A civilian government in Pakistan, particularly a coalition government, cannot take a call on foreign policy without the intervention of the security establishment and military.
Military interventions and self-promotion in the name of democracy, which is a given in autocratic and oligarchic forms of government, must be strongly discouraged by constitutional means and methods in both India and Pakistan.
Vis-à-vis Kashmir, regardless of the possibility of nuclear restraint in South Asia, a resolution of the Kashmir dispute and insistence on accountability for human rights violations would put a monkey wrench in the drive in both countries to beef up their nuclear arsenals.
Now I turn to India. The ultra-nationalist right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in power in India, and its votaries have completely ignored how diverse communities can grow historically within the framework created by the combined forces of modern national and transnational developments.
The discourse endorsed/ disseminated by the JP serves to emphasize, reinforce, and create cultural myopia and monocultural identities. The short-sightedness of the Bhajpa will prove detrimental to the constitutional integrity of India.
The increasing communalization of Indian politics is a juggernaut that seriously questions the myth of secularism in India, and the increasing religiosity in Pakistan is just as damaging. As a poignant reminder to the student of Indian history and subcontinental politics, I would like to point out that Jawaharlal Nehru observed in the Constituent Assembly of India that the greatest danger to India will not be from Muslim communalism but from Hindutva which could potentially become expansionist and communally belligerent.
Such an irregular politics polarizes these ethnic groups into Hindus and Muslims who are required to disavow their cultural, linguistic, and social unities.
Although former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the olive branch to each other the traditional Indo-Pak enmity has been put on the backburner during Pakistani political parties on the campaign trail, the ideological and power rivalry between India and Pakistan transcend the Kashmir dispute.
During the last decade and a half, each military crisis between India and Pakistan has been followed by attempts at diplomatic rapprochement, which have turned out to be fiascos. The two countries go through sporadic peacemaking efforts, characterized by negotiations. For instance, in January 2004, the then Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, agreed “‘to the resumption of a composite dialogue”’ on all issues “‘including Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides.” Musharraf assured the Indian government that he would not permit “‘any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner.” But this joint statement could not mitigate the existing skepticism.
Many observers interpreted the joint statement as a tacit admission of Pakistan’s past support for the LOC in Kashmir and an indication of its resolve to finally end military confrontation over the dispute. However, there was also considerable skepticism in India on the nature of change in Pakistan’s policy: was it tactical or strategic? Similarly, the Pakistani government feared that India was taking unfair advantage of Islamabad’s restraint to consolidate its political and military grip over Kashmir. At the time, Vajpayee and Musharraf took a judicious approach to nuclear warfare, and a dangerous situation mellowed.
Considering Pakistani foreign policy is dictated by Rawalpindi (the old city), not Islamabad (the modern capital), it remains to be seen what sort of impact elections in Pakistan will have in Indo-Pak relations. A civilian government in Pakistan, particularly a coalition government, cannot take a call on foreign policy without the intervention of the security establishment and military.
Military interventions and self-promotion in the name of democracy, which is a given in autocratic and oligarchic forms of government, must be strongly discouraged by constitutional means and methods in both India and Pakistan.
Vis-à-vis Kashmir, regardless of the possibility of nuclear restraint in South Asia, a resolution of the Kashmir dispute and insistence on accountability for human rights violations would put a monkey wrench in the drive in both countries to beef up their nuclear arsenals.
Counting the Cost: Pakistan, the IMF and China
PALESTINA
Ahed Tamimi's press conference
Ahed Tamimi's press conference
Israel has completely shut down a Palestinian university in Jerusalem amid a series of assaults on academic Freedom.
On 14 July, Israeli police raided and shut down the Hind al-Husseini college in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, prohibited an academic conference from taking place and detained 15 participants of the conference.
Police acted on the order of Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs, who claimed that the conference promoted “incitement” against the Israeli state.
As well as being in charge of policing, Erdan leads Israel’s global effort to thwart activism in support of Palestinian rights.
The president of Arab American University, a private institution based in the West Bank city of Jenin, condemned Israel’s closure of the college. Ali Abu Zuhri argued it was an attempt to impose new facts on the ground aimed at changing the cultural and historical identity of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
“Cultural genocide”
Israel’s closure of Hind al-Husseini college “is one more manifestation of Israel’s relentless assault on Palestinian education and culture, a systematic assault that is tantamount to cultural genocide,” said Nada Elia, an organizing committee member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycot of Israel (USACBI). “Israel imposes a Zionist curriculum on Palestinian schools in annexed East Jerusalem and has devised a Kafkaesque system of work permits in the West Bank that prevents faculty who hold foreign passports from teaching there legally, making them prone to arrest and deportation. At the same time", she said, "Israel claims that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, “rather than its own assault on Palestinian education, is preventing academic exchange and the free flow of ideas.”
She says that because Birzeit University – headquartered beside the West Bank city of Ramallah – released a statement earlier this month admonishing Israel’s “breach of academic freedom” after 15 of its academics who hold foreign passports had their visa renewals either significantly delayed or denied outright.
Already, “some professors have been forced to leave the country,” the university stated, while others remain under threat of removal from faculty positions.
“These international professors play a critical role not only in the ongoing provision of quality education at Birzeit University but also in the long-term development of Palestinian higher education,” it said, warning that if this policy continues, Palestinian universities “will be further isolated from the global academic environment.”
More than half of Palestinian academics who hold foreign passports and work at Palestinian universities have had delays or denials of Israeli visas over the past two years, preventing them from beginning or staying in their faculty positions, according to the Palestinian Authority’s minister of education.
Israel has placed foreign academics who teach at Birzeit “effectively under house arrest” in order to avoid any of the hundreds of checkpoints around the West Bank, explained Elia, writing for Middle East Eye.
Birzeit underscored the right to education as a fundamental human right enshrined in international law and admonished Israel for ignoring its responsibility as an occupying power in preventing Palestinians’ access to education.
While Israel holds Palestinian education hostage, it is involved in many exchange programs with educational and research institutions around the world, Elia told The Electronic Intifada.
The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) has launched the “Empty Chair” campaign to bring attention to Israel’s violation of Palestinian academic Freedom.
USACBI is responding to the ongoing attacks on Palestinian education by asking faculty to endorse the academic and cultural boycott of Israel and for students to pledge not to participate in study abroad programs in Israel.
#StopTheWar is a hashtag coming from many activists in #Gaza who urge the international community to hinder Israel’s attempts to launch another large-scale aggression against the occupied, blockaded, unlivable, and exhausted Gaza Strip. #GazaUnderAttack
Gaza Children’s March
Gaza Children’s March
FREE GAZA NOW!
The people of Gaza have been subjected to decades of expulsion, occupation, siege and massacre. They have now seized control of their Fate. They are risking life and limb as they protest nonviolently to reclaim their basic rights. It takes just one minute to send a video showing your support for Gaza in its moment of truth. Do it now! Send your videos to METOOGAZA.COM
Yanis Varoufakis
BRASIL
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