UAE to award India’s Modi highest honour amidst growing concern over fate of Kashmir

The UAE is set to honour India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the highest civilian award amid growing concerns over the BJP leader’s record on human rights and support for far-right Hindu nationalism.

Modi will visit the Gulf for three days later this week. In his first stop, Abu Dhabi, he will receive the UAE’s highest civil honour, the “Order of Zayed” during a private ceremony set to take place on Saturday night.

… Hindu nationalists known as the Hindutva. Modi is a life-long member of the group whose founding ideology draws inspiration from right-wing fascist European groups, including Hitler and Mussolini.

Followers of Hindutva seek to define India in terms of Hindu values alone. This has often led to the targeting of minorities whose place in India under rising Hindu nationalism is gravely threatened, along with India’s much vaunted democracy. As the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi presided over the worst communal bloodletting in India’s recent history in 2002, when 1,000 Muslims are said to have been slaughtered by sword-wielding Hindus. He earned the title of “the butcher of Gujarat” as a result and was accused of abetting the mobs. His alleged involvement in the massacre prompted the US to deny him a visa, and Britain and the European Union to boycott him.

The UAE’s decision to honour Modi has come under sharp criticism from British Member of Parliament Naz Shah.....

weiterlesen auf MEMO

Rabaa survivors: ‘Sisi responsible for one of 21st century’s deadliest atrocities’

'We call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to declare 14th of August 'International Day for the Victims of Mass Killings'

In a joint statement, former Egyptian Minister of Investment Yehia Hamed and former Minister of Planning, Amr Darrag, argued that “six years after the deadly crackdown that saw 800 arrested and over 1,000 killed, we still have no justice or accountability for those who orchestrated the deadliest day in modern Egyptian history”.

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the Rabaa massacre, during which the Egyptian army – led by then-General Al-Sisi – stormed a sit-in in the Cairo square and slaughtered over 1,000 people protesting against the removal of the country’s first democratically-elected President, Mohamed Morsi.

Protesters were shot, burned alive and suffocated with tear gas in what Hamed and Darrag today labelled “a planned and orchestrated attack”. “The regime chose to broadcast the attack live. They chose to target peaceful protesters loyal to President Mohamed Morsi and democracy for political gain”.

see VIDEO here on MEMO

READ also:

Rabaa field doctor: They burnt them dead or alive

Remembering the Rabaa Massacre

Husband and son in Prison. Daughter shot in Rabaa....

Israel projects aim to export the Gaza problem to Egypt’s Sinai

There has been an increase recently in Israeli projects seeking solutions to what it calls the “Gaza problem”. They have been focusing on Egypt’s Sinai, and appear to be foreshadowing a potential population transfer of Palestinians to the Sinai peninsula. Such a move would relieve Israel from the security burdens of managing Gaza and instead transfer it onto the Egyptian authorities.

The Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, run by Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and former Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, revealed a plan to solve the Gaza problem. This plan calls for a seaport and an airport in the Sinia thus facilitating travel for people and goods to and from Gaza. It also aims to establish a power plant and a water desalination project to meet the needs of the Palestinians in Gaza, as well as a train track extended from Al-Arish to Gaza and hotels and entertainment facilities.

This Israeli project was put together by Shimon Shapira, who served as the former Military Secretary to the Prime Minister and as Israel Foreign Ministry chief of staff, and by Shlomi Fogel, one of the proposers of the regional initiatives between Israel and its Arab neighbours. This relies on keeping economic and tourism projects under the responsibility of the Egyptian government. The inhabitants of Gaza will also be under Egyptian security supervision. This project is a continuation of the past Israeli government projects that call for extending Gaza south, towards Sinai.

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Under the war on terror Egypt is ethnically cleansing the Sinai Bedouin

Last month the Egyptian government demolished Bedouin-owned houses in Tarabin village in South Sinai on the grounds that they were not “legally” owned.

Tarabin is located in Nuweiba, along the northwest bank of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the dramatic mountain range and ramshackle huts on the water’s edge have long drawn travellers.

Beyond the camps that dot the coastline and pull the crowds, Sinai has an underbelly well-known to the local population but perhaps not to these tourists. Ongoing, but heightened since the 2013 coup and Al-Sisi’s rise to power, is the systematic repression of the Bedouin.

Egyptian law imposes tight restrictions on property ownership in Sinai and the government has asked residents and companies in the peninsula to prove they own houses by September, a loose deadline subject to change, or else they will be considered to be illegally occupying state-owned land.

In North Sinai alone around 40,000 pieces of land have been inherited through the wad al-yad practice, meaning houses, farmlands and businesses have been passed through the generations without official documents which prove ownership.

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Over 1,700 settlers storm the Al-Aqsa mosque

Hundreds of Jewish settlers on Sunday forced their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official, Anadolu reports.

“Since the morning, over 1,729 Jewish settlers have entered the compound,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority said in a statement.

“The settlers incursions were backed by Israeli police officers,” he said.

Palestinian Red Crescent, meanwhile, said that 61 Palestinian were injured after Israeli forces attacked the worshipers with rubber bullets, teargas and truncheons.

read mort at MEMO

Manifestos of Hate: What White Terrorists Have in Common

…… “If the El Paso shooter had been a Muslim,” Bayoumi wrote in the British Guardian newspaper on August 6, US President Donald Trump “would be lobbing accusations such as ‘Islam hates us’ in the direction of Muslims and not lecturing the public about video games.”

Bayoumi was referring to the double standards that define much of western official and media discourses regarding violence. When the alleged perpetrator of violence is a Muslim, then the case becomes a matter of national security and is categorically dealt with as an act of terrorism. When the perpetrator is a white male, however, it is a whole different Story...... 

...… Crusius, Tarrant and many such white terrorists are connected through a deep bond that exceeds the supposed claim of mental illness into something truly sinister.

These individuals are all part of a larger phenomenon, an amalgamation of various ultra-nationalist governments, political movements and groups all around the world, all united by their hate for immigrants, refugees and Muslims.

Crusius and Tarrant were not “lone wolf” terrorists, as some would want us to believe. Even if they were single-handedly responsible for the mass murder of those innocent people, they are members of a large, ideological, militant network that is dedicated to spreading hate and racism, one which sees immigrants – especially Muslims, as “invaders”.…

… White militants are gripped by the groundless fear that they are being “replaced”. “Great Replacement” promoters argue that Islam and the Islamic civilization are “ethnically replacing” other races and that such a supposed phenomenon must be stopped, using violent means if necessary. Unsurprisingly, they see Israel as a model country that is succeeding in fighting against the “Muslim menace”.

What makes violent white supremacists even more dangerous is the fact that they now have friends in high places.

read all at MEMO

Asylrechtsanwalt Frühwirth: „Ich habe diesen Glauben verloren“

Anfang August gab Rechtsanwalt Ronald Frühwirth bekannt, seine Kanzlei zu schließen. Auf Asylrecht spezialisiert, verlor er den Glauben an die Rechtsstaatlichkeit. Im Interview mit Angelika Adensamer und Levin Wotke spricht er über Wendepunkte in der Rechtsprechung und warum er heute eher Schwimmkurse belegen, als Jus studieren würde.

Mosaik: Du hast vor kurzem bekannt gegeben, deine auf Asylrecht spezialisierte Kanzlei nach vierzehn Jahren anwaltlicher Tätigkeit zu schließen. Du schreibst dabei, dass du nicht mehr Teil dieses Rechtssystems sein willst. Was meinst du damit?

interview zu lesen im mosaik-blog

Kushner’s desperate visit to Morocco

US Envoy and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s visit to Morocco is indicative of many things, not least that he is busy shoring up regional consensus for the Bahrain conference about Palestine, before unveiling the economic portion of the “deal of the century”. Depending on media revelations — secrecy is part of the deal’s propaganda — the supposed “peace plan” is but a unilateral arrangement to dash Palestinian hopes, re-arrange the geography of Palestine and prepare the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region for more partitioning and political-economic annexation. Logically, Morocco aligns itself with those who oppose the deal, because supporting it will mean the political demise of Arab countries.

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This triumvirate of evil has turned its sights on Kashmir

Russian revolutionary leader Lenin once said, “Show me who your friends are, and I will tell you what you are.” If we apply this to Narendra Modi and India, we can see that the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy counts among his closest allies both Israel and Myanmar. That speaks volumes, and does nothing for his carefully nurtured uncle-ji image.

It cannot be lost on anyone that Israel and Myanmar have appalling records for riding roughshod over international human rights and UN sanctions whilst enforcing brutal occupations, committing war crimes and carrying out ethnic cleansing. That’s why the world should not be too surprised that India has delivered a dream scenario to the extremist Hindu nationalists in its ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by stripping Indian-controlled Kashmir of its decades-old special status which gave the Muslim-majority state unique levels of autonomy.

However, the disputed land of Jammu and Kashmir appears to be in danger of being ethnically cleansed by Modi, who has repeatedly demonised the region and its people by labelling it as a hotbed of religious extremism and terrorism. That’s the well-worn terminology used by various tyrants around the world when they want to crush and oppress ordinary people.

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What does Netanyahu build and plant in occupied Palestinian lands?

…. Netanyahu is building and is promising to build more and more settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territories. Beyond this, he is promising to annex these territories. Yes, he is building and establishing a nation, but on the ruins of unlimited number of Palestinian homes, mosques, cemeteries and the dreams of the Palestinians – owners of the territories who have been there for thousands of years.

…. If we go back several decades, we will see that Netanyahu’s predecessors have built their state on the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian cities and village, as well as on the skulls and bones of hundreds of Palestinians who were massacred by Zionist paramilitary groups in 1948, which later became the core of the Israeli army.

Menachem Begin, who at that time headed one of these paramilitary organisations, the Irgun, later became Israeli prime minister and miraculously became a dove of peace by signing a peace treaty with Egypt.

In the past 15 years – during most of which Netanyahu was prime minister – the Israeli occupation has destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes in the occupied Palestinian territories and homes of Palestinian citizens of Israel. It has also destroyed scores of homes during major offensives in the Gaza Strip, as well as complete villages and residential quarters such as Khan Al-Ahmar, Al-Araqeeb and Wadi Al-Hummus....

… In light of these facts and figures, Netanyahu is requested to clarify how he builds and plants when Palestinian “terrorists” destroy and uproot. Everything which is being built and planted by Netanyahu is based on racism and racial discrimination.

article in MEMO

Morocco activists, politicians oppose ‘Frenchification’ of education system

…. The activists’ meeting included former Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane; President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Ahmed Al-Raissouni; Chairman of the Leftist Socialist Democratic Vanguard Party, Abderrahmane Ben Amarou; and a number of other intellectual and political activists.

All announced their rejection of the draft law and called for it to be considered a violation of the Moroccan constitution, its laws and Moroccan identity.

A copy of the group’s statement obtained by Arabi21 conveyed “the total rejection of the articles of the framework law that imposed foreign languages ​​in teaching scientific and other subjects in all educational disciplines”.

“This constitutes a legitimisation of the imposition of teaching in French, and it would foster the expansion of Francophonism in all its manifestations in the system of education and training and most dangerously the different areas of public life in our country,” the statement stressed….

more in MEMO

Morocco PM slams his party for calling for French-based education System

article here on MEMO

Fragen und Antworten: Warum Indien im Kaschmir mit dem Feuer spielt

Seit Jahrzehnten garantiert die indische Verfassung der Unruheregion Autonomie. Nun droht nach einem Beschluss der Regierung die Eskalation – auch mit Pakistan

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