Category Archives: Middle East

The Kind of Woman the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Imprisons and Possibly Abuses and Tortures for Her Activism On Behalf of Other Muslim Women

14 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, International Development, Political Psychology, Religion, Saudi Arabia

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Blogger; mother of four; B.A., English, University of Birmingham; M.A., English as a Second Language; post-graduate Ph.D. field: linguistics; religion: Wahabbi Muslim.

Present Location: Dhaban Central Prison, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

Disclosure: BackChannel’s editor’s Facebook friendship and correspondence with Eman Fahad Al Nafjan dates back to May 12, 2011.

The editor’s last note to Eman — it was a long time ago given the richness of the Internet experience: August 16, 2016 — contained reference to a Muslim Matters piece, “World’s Largest Women’s University Opens in Saudi Arabia” (May 31, 2011), and had to do with Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman Women’s University, Riyadh. The find had to do with work on a BackChannels’ piece: “Sixteen Women — The Kingdom’s Most Powerful.” November 2, 2016.

The Kingdom had to have seen this greater day coming, “greater” for connecting the privileged of Saudi Arabia with the full breadth of the world’s English-speaking and other intelligentsia, i.e., the broad if thin international band of cosmopolitan, engaged, informed, and rapidly “chatyping” personalities. Nafjan has not only fit right in with the world’s intellectual class, she appears to be in trouble with the medieval kingdom for having been raised for the modernizing path and role taken.

What is it about feudal / medieval / tribal peacocks that so sustains contempt and fear in relation to women that the royal response to mild challenge, criticism, and practical reasoning comes to a still barbarous demand: “Lock her up!”

Addendum – March 14, 2019 (added to post July 27, 2019)

NEW YORK—PEN America announced today that it will award the 2019 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award to journalist, blogger, and activist Nouf Abdulaziz, activist and social media commentator Loujain Al-Hathloul, and blogger, columnist, and activist Eman Al-Nafjan—three Saudi women imprisoned for challenging, through their writing and their activism, therestrictive guardianship system that governs Saudi women and limits theirability to travel, marry, work, or receive education and healthcare without approval from a male guardian. Abdulaziz, Al-Hathloul, and Al-Nafjan each used their digital and news-reporting platforms to speak out on women’s rights and other forms of human rights repression in Saudi Arabia, including the long-standing ban on women driving. The ban was lifted in June 2018, yet immediately thereafter, many of those who had advocated for this change were arrested. Today these three writer-activists are among those still incarcerated for their dissent, reportedly facing torture, isolation, and threats of rape. In early March, Saudi authorities announced that they are planning to indict a number of those detained on national security-related charges; initial hearings in the trials of Loujain Al-Hathloul and Eman Al-Nafjan began March 13.

Pen America. “Pen America to Honor Imprisoned Saudi Writer-Activist and Woman’s Rights Champions Nouf Abdulaziz, Loujain al-Hathloul, and Eman al-Nafjan with the Pen/Barbey Freedom to Write Award at 2019 Literary Gala”. Press Release, March 14, 2019.

Related Online

Al Jazeera. “The Saudi women detained for demanding basic human rights.” Reposted on News24, November 30, 2018. –>

Those under arrest have been branded threats to national security and have been accused of being foreign agents. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the reason for the arrest is to silence the women and prevent others from participating in activism.

Rights organisations and governments around the world have called on the Saudi authorities to release all political prisoners, but to no avail.

Al-Nafjan, Eman. “Saudi Arabia, My Changing Home.” The New York Times, June 8, 2012. –>

Most people in the West, naturally enough, get their ideas about Saudi life from the media. They learn that women here are forbidden to drive, that they must be almost completely covered up when they appear in public, that unmarried women and girls can’t appear in public unaccompanied by family members.

All of this is more or less true, but it omits the reality that, for the average middle class Saudi woman who comes from a healthy family background, life is pretty good.

When everything is in place, a Saudi woman can live a comfortable life. A respectable husband is arranged for her to marry; she typically has a driver, servants and an extended family ready to give her financial and emotional support. All that’s expected of her is to have babies and fulfill social obligations.

Amnesty. “Saudi Arabia: Release Women’s Human Rights Defenders Immediately!” June 21, 2018. –>

Official statements in state media accused Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Youssef of forming a “cell,” posing a threat to state security for their “contact with foreign entities with the aim of undermining the country’s stability and social fabric.” A related hashtag describing them as “Agents of Embassies”, along with a graphic showing the six activists’ faces, have also been circulating on social media and Saudi Arabian print and broadcast media. Amnesty International is concerned that if charged, the activists could face up to 20 years in prison. Now is the time to take action and defend these brave activists, who are some of the most prominent heroines of the human rights movement in Saudi Arabia.

As the world praises Saudi Arabia for recent “reforms” – including allowing women to drive – we must raise the alarm for these imprisoned defenders who have fought tirelessly for years for women’s rights in the Kingdom.

Amnesty International. “Saudi Arabia: Release women human rights defenders now!” Update on detainees and FAQs. n.d.

Amnesty International. “Saudi Arabia: Reports of Torture and sexual harassment of detained activists.” November 20, 2018. –>

According to three separate testimonies obtained by the organization, the activists were repeatedly tortured by electrocution and flogging, leaving some unable to walk or stand properly. In one reported instance, one of the activists was made to hang from the ceiling, and according to another testimony, one of the detained women was reportedly subjected to sexual harassment, by interrogators wearing face masks.

Associated Press. “Saudi Arabia tortured female right-to-drive activists, says Amnesty.” The Guardian, November 20, 2018.

Committee to Protect Journalists. “Saudi blogger Eman Al Nafjan detained.” May 22, 2018.

Facebook. “Emad Al Nafjan”.

Fahim, Kareem. “Jailed Saudi women’s rights activists said to face electric shocks, beatings and other abuse.” The Washington Post, November 20, 2018.

Human Rights Watch. “Saudis Arrest 7 Women’s Rights Activists who had Upstaged Crown Prince on Driving.” Reposted by Juan Cole in Informed Comment, May 19, 2018. HRW Location.

Wikipedia. “Eman al-Nafjan”.

Saudiwoman’s Weblog. “About”.

The Guardian. “Eman Al Nafjan”. Profile and authored stories.

The Kingdom’s brand for the Kingdom’s best: “Traitor”.

Author of the tweet: Jamal Khashoggi.

—33-

Moscow as Medusa with All the Snakes Attached

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Islamic Small Wars, Kurdistan

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,


“Medieval v Modern”

It’s a trope here on BackChannels, and it has an analog:

“Feudal Political Absolutism v Democratic Checked and Distributed Power”

More state of mind than state, “Kurdistan” has already its “Medieval v Modern” civil separation, and perhaps unwittingly, the Soviet-Era PKK, a NATO and U.S. State Department designated terrorist organization, remains mired in the flipped absolutism of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Another BackChannels trope, this one about Russia: “Two major revolutions in one-hundred years (1917-2017), three forms of government, and not one change in the nation’s affections in relation to ‘paternal authoritarianism'”.

For that last label, “paternal authoritarianism”, credit the late scholar Richard Pipes, but BC will not be looking up the specific source at this time.

The affection for strongmen — and perhaps helplessness before their “politically absolute” organizations — has the medieval world clawing the modern one backward.

Of course, the defectors from medieval worlds, those made refugee by them, those left bereft and without defenses, essentially drain the tapped resources of the same, leaving those worlds to become spiritually hollow, absent of conscience, lacking in their own humanity, and burnt out and purposeless.

Moscow, that “Third Rome”, has deals — call it what it is: “leverage” — with everyone: Assad, Khamenei, Hezbollah — low-hanging fruit: the “Syrian Tragedy”, BackChannel’s term, could not have taken place without Moscow’s endorsement and direct military support in arms and occasional actions (like bombing hospitals); Erdogan: “Turkish Stream” – Big Energy project demanding Ankara’s cooperation with Moscow: France – Marine Le Pen and the Newest Nationalism — but France is more brave in its defense of its still revolutionary democracy — Le Pen lost her bid for the presidency; Germany – energy supply dependence; Hungary – Orban’s bromance and narcissism; USA – only Mueller knows . . .

FTAC: From the BackChannels Reading Page on Facebook, January 2, 2019

The text about to be quoted accompanied as introduction on the BackChannels reading page on Facebook the URL to Roy Gutman’s December 28, 2018 political analysis in The Intercept in which he lays out aspects of character and control by the PKK that had been long supported by Moscow through the end of the Soviet Era and, obviously, 26 years beyond.

The problem BackChannels has seen has been that of Moscow operating the Syrian Theater in a way that perpetuates the existence of ISIS for as long as it remains a politically useful tool against the liberal and open democracies of the west.

In essence, it appears the Soviet methods in power imparted to the PKK during Russia’s Communist Party Era have become ingrained and difficult for western or liberal allies of the Kurds to displace.

In response and with reference to https://theintercept.com/2018/12/28/syria-withdrawal-kurds-pkk/

——

The Phantoms of the Soviet, a government dissolved in bankruptcy more than 26 years ago, continue to haunt or shadow the Kurdish Community in its bid for survival against the emergent Turkish Sultanate, as BackChannels views it, still supported by NATO, and ISIS, which is “handled” by Damascus as flanked by Moscow and Tehran.

In the ganglion of the Syrian Tragedy, too many threads lead back to Moscow — and Moscow has well demonstrated its peculiar absence of conscience in the general support of Assad the Tyrant, its own repeated bombings of Syrian hospitals, and its defense of Iranian advanced missile manufacturing.

Moscow has also partnered with Ankara on the Turkish Stream energy project.

😦

The true battle is one having to do with time: the medieval world of feudal absolute power — the power known to the world’s dictatorships, none of them responsible to either the Earth or Humanity — wishes to overrun the modern one built on the freedom accompanying democratically checked and distributed power.

According to Gutman, the Kurds appear stuck with both old habits of mind and with the organizational habits that have flowed down from the Soviet Era.

Of late, Kurdish representatives online have taken to pairing the United States and NATO with the backing of Turkey, a state no longer even proto-democratic and one long bent on the cultural annihilation of the Kurds. While the rhetoric may be shrugged away, the character of the PKK, well described by Roy Gutman (as cited) but also by Kyle Orton (as referenced below) may not be so easily covered over or glossed.

What portion of the Kurdish People remain behind or with the PKK?

That’s an open question for BackChannels.

Defectors from the conscripted ranks of the organization apparently (so noted by Gutman) have some options within “Kurdistan”, but the impression made by the Soviet affiliate would today repulse all humanity-, freedom-, and peace-loving advocates of influence in western politics who would otherwise more enthusiastically support a true indigenous people’s striving for autonomy and self-determination.

This poster by the young Danish communist Rune Agerhus features three flags, and they are from left to right as follows: Socialist Party of Kurdistan; National Liberation Front of Kurdistan; People’s Liberation Army of Kurdistan. Source for Kurdish flag and pennant identification: https://fotw.info/flags/krd%7Dpkk.html

The flag better known to represent “Kurdistan” in the west (as judged at least by the “Flag of Kurdistan” page on Wikipedia):

During the seven-year course of the KGB Theater’s Production — call it “guided” (most likely) — of “Assad v The Terrorists”, Bashar al-Assad has managed to barrel bomb half his state into rubble and destroy or displace nearly half of his population (as known in 2011). He has won for his efforts the expansion of Russian and Iranian military interests on his formerly sovereign property and through related sadism — reference: Sednaya Prison — lost entirely the respect of the modern world.

As regards Soviet / post-Soviet alignment with Moscow, much less Damascus, the Kurds may not expect to sustain their alignment with the ruthless (who would even provide the useful enemy known as ISIS) while currying the favor of the democratic, humanist, liberal, and deeply socialized west.

Reference

Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine. “Kurdish Repression in Turkey.” June 1982.

Gutman, Roy. “In Syria, U.S.-Backed Kurdish Fighters Face Trump’s Withdrawal — and the Legacy of Their Own Mistakes.” The Intercept, December 28, 2018.

Horvath, Zoltan. “Kurdistan”. CRW Flags, updated June 2, 2018.

Oppenheim, James S. “Reflexive Control Process: “Allahu Akbar Terrorism” -> New Nationalism -> New Feudalism.” BackChannels, March 11, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “Syria — Assad — ISIL — Background.” BackChannels, December 9, 2016.

Orton, Kyle. “The Problems With the West’s Partners Against the Islamic State.” Kyle Orton’s Blog, May 10, 2017.

Wikipedia. “Flag of Kurdistan”.

W.W. “Paternalistic policy: Against baby authoritarianism.” The Economist, June 11, 2012.

Yayla, Ahmet S. and Colin P. Clarke. “Turkey’s Double ISIS Standard.” Foreign Policy, April 12, 2018.

Addendum – January 3, 2018+

Szuba, Jared. “‘This is our reward?’: After 4 years fighting ISIS, Syrian Kurds face uncertain future as US pivots to Turkey.” The Defense Post, January 2, 2018.

Syrian Democratic Council.

–33–

FTAC: Syria: Brief Observation on the Triumph of Criminals

23 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Middle East, Political Psychology, Regions, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

No. They would have been left to starve through Syria’s drought. No need to go on to global warming: the protests were motivated by economic suffering as much as or more than democratic sentiments.

Syria: The Horror: 2011

Assad the Tyrant, using snipers to make his statement — and arresting school children to make it clear — turned a modest popular protest into possibly the most sadistic “civil war” on earth and in history. Unrivaled in its abuses of noncombatant Syrians, he managed to destroy his state, for all intents, and have it serve as a platform for Hezbollah, the Russian Army, and sundry attempts (impeded by Israel) at the manufacturing and delivery of advanced missiles for launching in southern Lebanon.

The Soviet Union collapsed in bankruptcy 26 years ago this December 25.

It turns out that Soviet / Post-Soviet Russia has become truly the “Mafia State” — Luke Harding’s term — and not the least reformed as an aggressive and barbarous monstrosity.

Prompt: the claim that had the west stayed out of Syria, Syrians would be happily alive and domiciled.

Bunk.

UA-Syria-181223-1029

Screen capture, LiveUAMap, December 23, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. EST.

–33–

Lebanon’s Chief Threat: Hezbollah

19 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Regions

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Lebanon deserves better than the war sustaining and warmongering of Moscow and Tehran.

For Israel, Moscow has had to be delicately handled, but BackChannels has over many years relayed some sense of Moscow’s endemic and deeply entrenched history of animus toward the Jews. Credit Stalin with picking up the relationships that Hitler and the Nazis could not hold at the end of World War II; credit Yuri Andropov with the airline hijacking of the 1970s beneath the banner of communist revolution on behalf of the Palestinian Cause; credit successive Soviet Era regimes with the abuse and captivity of Russia’s Jews yearning by the tens of thousands for freedom beyond Russia’s borders; credit Moscow today with the continuing diplomatic defense of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among others, that appear intent on bringing chaos and death to their own people as well as sustained impoverishment and political repression.

Tehran’s role in the stoking of anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist hate needs little introduction. It’s deadly political rhetoric keeps spilling into related “field operations”. Not only Hamas has been building “terror tunnels”.

Posted to YouTube December 6, 2018.
Posted to YouTube December 18, 2018.


However, he said,  “the fact that the Lebanese army is doing nothing means that they are either unable, or unwilling, or both. It doesn’t absolve Lebanon’s culpability. Their territory is being used to attack our territory. Therefore, we hold Lebanon accountable.”

Netanyahu spoke immediately after IDF Spokesman Jonathan Conricus announced the discovery of another tunnel.

https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/announcing-new-tunnel-netanyahu-says-lebanon-responsible-for-hezbollahs-actions – 12/19/2018


“There is a clear line of communication between LAF elements and the terrorist organization; those elements help Hezbollah destabilize the region,” Danon said on Tuesday. “Under the Lebanese government’s watch, Hezbollah has created an entire network of tunnels and factories for precision-guided missiles; this is a brazen violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution but also endangers the lives of the residents of southern Lebanon, who are being used as human shields.”
Danon vowed that “Israel will act with force against Hezbollah and any other entity that tries to undermine its sovereignty.”

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/world_news/israel-to-present-evidence-proving-lebanese-army-is-helping-hezbollah/article_6f90cb89-4135-5d2c-8b91-248709548a8a.html – 12/19/2018


An examination of Security Council Resolution 1701 twelve years later indicates that the key paragraphs, whose objective was to give full sovereignty over the country to the Lebanese government and to prevent the reconstruction of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, were not enforced by the Lebanese government and army. To replace the infrastructure damaged during the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has constructed an upgraded, improved, more extensive infrastructure, centering around an arsenal of more than 130,000 rockets and dozens of precise missiles. Hezbollah’s arsenal threatens Israeli population centers and strategic sites. Hezbollah built its military infrastructure in the region south of the Litani River, embedded within the local Shi’ite population. Hezbollah’s weapons were smuggled from Iran through Syria to Lebanon, in direct violation of Security Council Resolution 1701.

https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/security-council-resolution-1701-systematic-violation-hezbollah-iran/ – 12/19/2018

Lebanon and its defense forces remain weak before Hezbollah, its sponsor in Tehran, and its armorer in Moscow.

While the Lebanese may prefer peace, this criminal rogue — see https://www.jns.org/justice-department-designates-hezbollah-as-transnational-crime-group/ from October of this year — has positioned the same for arms caches and slaughter.

Nice people.

Again, it appears today that Hezbollah fairly “owns” the Lebanese Army, which has become too weak to defend the better interests of the state.

–33–

Listening, Reading, Waking: Sunday, November 18, 2018

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, BCND - BackChannels News Day, Politics, Syria, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

“The barbaric and feudal politics of the world’s civilizational past would seem to be getting its claws into the world’s future and dragging it backward.”

https://twitter.com/Ahmad1618A/status/1064111091201073153

https://www.unian.info/world/10340964-russian-official-may-become-interpol-s-next-president.html

One of the two candidates in the upcoming vote by Interpol’s 192 member states, is from Russia despite allegations that Moscow has used Interpol’s procedures to pursue political enemies.

Related

Peel, Michael.  “Interpol chief urges China to reveal more on corruption case.”  Financial Times, November 16, 2018.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/17/arron-banks-emails-steve-bannon-brexit-campaign-funds.

Banks, as founder of Leave.EU, wanted Bannon’s data firm Cambridge Analytica to devise a plan in late 2015 for raising funds in the US that would support the unofficial Brexit campaign, according to the correspondence.

The emails are likely to be scrutinised in the US where Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, has interviewed Bannon a number of times.

Observation

It would seem all paths back toward the renewal of feudal political absolutism in the authentically democratic free world lead back to Moscow (and now perhaps Beijing as well). 

Without Putin’s permit, Assad’s Sadnaya Prison would not exist.  The memory of that obscenity will burn in history long after the “eye doctor” has succeeded in more fully destroying his own estate.

The Interpol stories involving Russia and China: which despot would wish himself to be policed?

Which despotic elite should be entrusted with the coordination policy of the world’s basic global policing element?

And how well will the west stand when it has itself been riven by the renewal of feudal governance?

https://www.unian.info/world/10341087-eu-may-impose-sanctions-against-hungary-mp-ariev.html.

The EU may impose sanctions on Hungary for adopting laws against the development of civic society, that’s according to MP Volodymyr Ariev, who is also vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, chairman of the PACE Committee on Culture, Education, Science and Media.”In Hungary there are very serious problems with the European Union, with Brussels. They stem from those very anti-democratic laws that were passed by the Hungarian authorities, in particular against civic society, against the Soros University, public organizations, and not only that. Now the EU is on the path toward imposing sanctions on Hungary,” Ariev told Pryamiy TV channel.

Observation

EU / NATO has effectively lost Turkey as a partner for democracy, and it has seen democracy seriously degraded in Hungary as well.  While BackChannels has thought it politic to lay off the United States in similar regard, the “Fake News!” President has made that tack similarly difficult.  He has degraded the media (for many, America’s “Fourth Estate”); taken a hard run at the Department of Justice (Comey firing; effort to degrade or derail the Mueller Investigation; the out-of-order appointment of Matthew Whittaker as Acting Attorney General); and packed the court with the appointment of an at best marginally acceptable (Senate confirmation vote: 50 to 48) “old boy” of a lawyer.

Politics Medieval v Politics Modern and Democratic?

The barbaric and feudal politics of the world’s civilizational past would seem to be getting its claws into the world’s future and dragging it backward.

Steve Bannon, former political strategist for Donald Trump, said he plans to work closely with the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban in the run-up to next year’s European Parliament elections.
Mr Bannon revealed that he had visited Budapest to speak to the far-right leader and his aides in meetings not previously made public.

The political operative also suggested Hungary would make an ideal home for “The Movement” – his new campaign group aimed at electing right-wing nationalists in Europe.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/steve-bannon-viktor-orban-hungary-budapest-european-parliament-elections-a8638591.html. (11/17/2018)

–33–

FTAC: Palestinian Rebirth

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

After 70+ years of Arab apartheid — separation in camps; separate diminished treatment — deep political control and suppression (from Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/23/palestine-authorities-crush-dissent), this may be the beginning for the Palestinian People. No longer Jordanian; no longer Egyptian; no longer Ottoman; no longer anything that has been before but a part of everything that has crossed through the middle east, there’s definitely a population that has been in modern times isolated in time and space, i.e., A People!

Flip the baby over and let it be born and breath refreshed and new.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/11/01/a-jot-on-the-palestinians/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/02/06/set-palestinian-kgb-and-other-backchannels-observations-related-to-the-middle-east-conflict/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/23/ftac-these-too-are-palestinians/

Related Online

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/palestinian-high-tech-workers-plugging-shortage-of-israeli-tech-staff-1.6243852

Addendum – November 13, 2018

Posted this morning —

The Palestinian People may be so only as consequence of more than 70 years of Arab Apartheid, i.e., separation in the camps of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. They will learn that they have been duped as well by the PLO and, later, Hamas — and ultimately by Moscow.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674768048

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/02/06/set-palestinian-kgb-and-other-backchannels-observations-related-to-the-middle-east-conflict/

How is it that today you hate Israel?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/palestinian-high-tech-workers-plugging-shortage-of-israeli-tech-staff-1.6243852

The real revolution in the Middle East may be normalization — peaceful Palestinian democracy in Gaza and the West Bank; citizenship and inclusion with full return of state rights in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt, albeit slowly to fade the Soviet Era’s poison from the system.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/23/ftac-these-too-are-palestinians/

The Palestinians may be many people — they may be even a little bit of all of the people whose cultures and languages and lives have cross-crossed that small patch of earth for millennia.

–33–

A Few References Concerning Palestinian Child Soldiers

28 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

New Vimeo Release by David Bedein and the Center for Near East Policy Research

The terror of return – 3min from David Bedein on Vimeo, published October 28, 2018.

Related Reference

Awford, Jenny. “GAZA’S CHILD SOLDIERS Palestinian militant group Hamas parade toddlers armed with machine guns in chilling echo of ISIS ‘cubs of the caliphate’”. The Sun, December 12, 2016:

One image which showed a schoolboy holding a rifle was captioned: “Hamas cubs, they are the next soldiers of Gaza and the next liberation army, god willing.”

Another picture of a toddler wearing a beret and holding a gun was captioned: “Generation after generation Hamas is increasing its enthusiasm, dignity, and power.”

Arutz Sheva. “PA curriculum inciting terrorism”. Interview with David Bedein. October 9, 2018.

Child Soldiers International. Forward. “Why 18 Matters”. PDF. 2018:

When I spoke with a warlord ‘General’ about why he recruited children he said, ‘Children are abundant, stupid, they obey orders, don’t ask questions, and cost nothing. They are very cheap! They never desert, cannot go home and I can get as many as I want immediately.

Cohen, Shimon. “UNRWA teaches children to blow themselves up”.  Arutz Sheva, August 10, 2018.

Bassem Eid as quoted by Shimon Cohen:

Eid also criticized the education provided in UNRWA schools. “I worked in several UNRWA schools in the territories and in Jordan, and children aged 9-10 want to be killed and kill Jews and to release their people. “Who taught you that?” I asked. They said that was what they were learning in schools, and I asked teachers at UNRWA schools in Jordan if children were taught to blow themselves up and be killed. They said “of course. How else will they liberate the land from the Israeli occupation? ” UNRWA is aware of this, and the international community knows that all UNRWA studies are full of hate and incitement. The international community continues to inject funds because it is against Israel.”

Gordon, Evelyn. “How the World Encourages Hamas to Recruit Child Soldiers”. Commentary Magazine, January 21, 2015.

Gross, Judah Ari. “IDF: Hamas cynically sent 7-year-old girl to breach Gaza border”. The Times of Israel, March 30, 2018:

According to the army, the young girl was spotted by soldiers as she approached the security fence. The troops, who were on the Israeli side, met the girl as she reached the fence, an army spokesperson said.

“When the IDF troops realized it was a girl, they picked her up and made sure that she could get back to her parents safely,” the army said. It did not say how it coordinated with girl’s parents on the Gaza side.

Grossman, Hannah. “The Child Soldiers of Palestine.” The Excelsior, March 21st 2018.

Hilkowitz, Michael.  “Palestinian Child Soldiers: The Horrifying Silence.”  The Times of Israel, October 29, 2015:

For some reason, we never hear any discussion of child soldiers in Palestine, but we all very clearly know they exist and that it is nothing new. The PLO, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have for decades used children as fodder to throw rocks, fireworks and explosives at soldiers, as bombers, as lookouts and couriers. Hamas has been even more brazen, publicizing its recruitment of an army of child soldiers. In the current wave of terrorism in Israel and Palestine, we have seen attackers as young as 13 years old. These child soldiers have been called to action by Abu Mazen, The PA, and Hamas who then glorify them to encourage more children to commit attacks.

Pardo, Eldad J. “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016-17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program.” IMPACT-se, April 2017:

The curriculum also promotes the century-old paradigm of a ceaseless effort to destroy Israel in stages. A new generation of Palestinian children is methodically being educated in the spirit of the Ten-Point Program adopted by the Palestinian National Council ([PNC] (the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], at its twelfth meeting in Cairo June 8, 1974). The plan called for the establishment of a national authority “over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated” with the aim of “completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory”. The curriculum includes an uncompromising rejection of Israel and a combination of violence and international community pressure to accommodate Palestinian demands. What used to be the strategy of one extremist guerilla movement has now become the standard for all Palestinians students.

Toameh, Khaled Abu. “Hamas Forms “Liberation Army” in Gaza, Thanks to EU Support.” Gatestone Institute, January 21, 2015:

The Hamas campaign, entitled, “Vanguards of Liberation,” is aimed at recruiting young men whose ages range between 15 and 21.

So far, the Hamas recruitment program has attracted hundreds of youths from the Gaza Strip who, according to the movement, will form the nucleus for the new “Liberation Army.”

 

“Children’s Army of Hamas – short” – David Bedein, published to YouTube March 22, 2015.

Wikipedia. “David Bedein”.

Wikipedia. “Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group”.

“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us” — Golda Meir, n.d.

 

–33–

Epistemological Khashoggi: A Kind of Poem

23 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Middle East, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

“Indeed, it would appear Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, flight, or murder has become a matter most delicate, most intriguing, most opaque.”

Epistemological Khashoggi

Things we know.
Things we don’t know.
Things we don’t know we don’t know.
Things we don’t want to know.
Things we will never know.
Thing we know but don’t know that we know.
Things we don’t know but fervently believe.
Finally
Things we would like to find out.

One of the 15 suspects in the death of dissident Jamal Khashoggi dressed up in his clothes and was caught on surveillance cameras walking around Istanbul on the day Khashoggi went missing.

Footage being used as part of the Turkish government’s investigation into Khashoggi’s death was shared with CNN, and shows the man, identified as Mustafa al-Madani, leaving Saudi Arabia’s consulate through the back door wearing Khashoggi’s clothes, a fake beard, and glasses, a senior Turkish official told CNN.

Caralle, Katelyn. “After Jamal Khashoggi disappeared, a Saudi agent left the compound in his clothes.” Washington Examiner, October 22, 2018.

Were they really Jamal Khashoggi’s clothes?

Even so, what has happened to other potential evidence of murder?

Above all: where is the body?

A man in a foreign land leaves his fiancee (of another nationalist) parked by the curb, walks into his nation’s embassy to obtain a permit for marriage and fails to walk back out to drive off into the sunset with his presumed beloved.

Missing: the body.

Also missing: blood spatter; the odor of disinfectant; the appearance of discarded  . . . anything: clothing; a table or parts of one involved in a murder; not even a shoelace, much less a pair of shoes, has been shown to the public.

Also for public notice: embassies are considered a part of the sovereign territory of the state represented: what have the Turks been doing (directly) in the Saudi’s building?

Everyone knows the answer to that question — one good reason for the invention of the “Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF)” within buildings intent on defending the most private and sensitive of conversations.

Bold added:

Erdogan called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice in Istanbul and questioned whether the Vienna Conventions, which give immunity to diplomatic staff, applied in this case.

It was the first time that any official in Turkey has publicly outlined the Turkish contention that Khashoggi was killed by a hit squad sent from Saudi Arabia. But while Erdogan had promised the “naked truth,” he offered few details beyond those revealed by Turkish officials speaking privately.

Tuysuz, Gul and Eliza Mackintosh. “Erdogan says Khashoggi was victime of ‘ferocious’ pre-planned murder.” CNN, October 23, 2018.

Perhaps when Jamal Khashoggi left his fiance waiting at the curb, he had cause for wanting to leave . . . everything — and become a new man.

Perhaps a body will turn up.

Perhaps we will hear a recording or be subject inferential visual data.

However, the public may be left with an impossible question: whose data — whose story — should it adopt as true?

Related Online

Gall, Carlotta. “Security Images Show Khashoggi and Fiancee in His Final Hours.” The New York Times, October 22, 2018.

Perper, Rosie. “Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée wrote a touching tribute for him on Twitter hours after Saudi authorities confirmed his death.” Business Insider, October 21, 2018.

But officials are skeptical of Saudi’s explanation for the Khashoggi’s death. Turkish officials have repeatedly touted claims that Khashoggi was brutally tortured and dismembered by what appeared to be a 15-person kill squad flown in from Saudi Arabia.

Where are the bones? The clothes? The “body bag”? Was there a sink? A plastic or porcelain tub? Where are the clothes of the killers? Where was the fire and smoke needed to burn things that burn? Where are his shoelaces and their plastic tips (if of common construction)? No nails? No hair follicles?

O’Connor, Tom. “Saudi Arabia Fires Intelligence Officials, Blames Them for Khashoggi Death.” Newsweek, October 19, 2018.

After his transforming Turkey into a family enterprise, what motive has anyone from the post-Enlightenment west for believing the presentations of President Erdogan?

In Sum

Where is the body?

Where, in fact, is the story?

BackChannels may suggest that the Saudi confession to murder should have been accompanied immediately by its evidence.  Today, the lag in time between the confession and the turning up of evidence — so late as to make fabrication possible — may make the confession suspect.

The time may be running out for even the telling of an untimely untruth.

Indeed, it would appear Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, flight, or murder has become a matter most delicate, most intriguing, most opaque.

Breaking Online

Haaretz. “Report: Saudi Journalist Khashoggi’s Remains Found.” October 23, 2018:

Multiple sources suggested Khashoggi had been cut up and his face “disfigured,” Sky News reported.

Sources in the Istanbul Prosecutor’s office denied that Khashoggi’s remains were found at the consul general’s home, adding that a picture on social media purportedly showing the corpse is fake.

Haaretz and Reuters. “Explained Turkey Takes Aim at MBS: What’s Driving Erdogan in the Khashoggi Scandal.” Haaretz, October 23, 2018.

BackChannels will try to stop at this point: where is the body?  Is a body found really the body?  If a man wished to leave his body, loosely speaking, would he also not leave behind his old clothes?

There is no way to address such questions from an armchair or by watching television.

That may not be the problem — so the man is dead or, perhaps, on his way to early skiing vacation in the Swiss Alps (never let it be said the editor of this blog has not been a foolish romantic); what is the problem is that “the public” — or respective national publics or statistical clumps of national or party identity — may lose its basis for believing anything from any source.

What then?

What now?

Update: October 24, 2018

Kobrin, Nancy Hartevelt.  “Why the Saudis Had to Cut Up Khashoggi’s Body.”  Clarion Project, October 24, 2018.

Gruesome, brazen and barbaric were some of the terms that were thrown around in response to learning his fingers were cut off first, then his head and finally his body was chopped into small pieces in order to “disappear” it from the crime scene.

Images of such a sadistic act were the linchpin in inciting the political debacle. Yet, since the remains of Khashoggi’s body had not been found yet, it also served to precipitate a war over who controlled the narrative. With this “memory” destroyed, who owned the truth?

–33–