Israel, the misbegotten Zionist entity,  on Wednesday, May 5  celebrated the 74^th anniversary of its birthday,  an allusion to the usurpation by brutal military force of the Arab-Muslim land of Palestine.

In the process, Zionist gangs, armed and funded by wealthy Jews and colonialist Western powers, such as the UK, carried out a well-devised terrorist campaign of indiscriminate murder and violence against the virtually-unarmed and defenseless  Palestinian community, during which dozens of hideous massacres, like Dir Yasin, were perpetrated by Zionist gangs, like the Hagana, Irgun, Stern, and others.

Also Read: The most brutal massacres of the “Zionist gangs” in Palestine in 1948

 The grisly atrocities forced the vast majority of Palestine’s population at that time, in 1948, to flee their villages lest they face the same fate that the people of Dir Yasin, Tantura, Dawaymeh, and many other hamlets and villages had just faced.

The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when 130 Jewish terrorists from the paramilitary terror groups of Irgun and Lehi stormed Dir Yasin near Jerusalem and murdered 107  Palestinian civilians. Other sources, like New York Times, put the number of victims at 200.

Also Read: Israel having free season on Palestinian civilians including Children and Journalists

In his Memoirs,  the Rvolt, Menachem Begin, the head of the Irgun terror group, who eventually became Israel’s Prime minister,  described the Dir Yasin massacre as a  real miracle because it cast terror in the hearts of the Palestinian populace, prompting them to leave. Even before Dir Yasin, Begin was branded by the British government as “leader of the notorious terrorist organization and banned from entering the UK.”

Since Dir Yasin  74  years ago, Zionist massacres of Palestinians have never really stopped as successive Zionist governments retained and maintained the original Zionist strategy toward the people of Palestine. This genocidal strategy was aimed at achieving three main goals: Expulsion of the bulk of Palestinians.  (There are 7 million Palestinian refugees today), enslaving Palestinians as as “water carriers and wood hewers,”   (apartheid),  or outright physical extermination. This is not propaganda or media hypes. This is the un-official but authentic ideology of the ruling Zionist establishment, even today.

Also Read: Religious Fascism in India & Israel: Tweedledum and Tweedledee

In 1967, Israel launched the 6-days war, during which it seized the rest of mandatory Palestine, namely the West Bank which was under the Jordanian rule, and the Gaza Strip, under the Egyptian rule. Thus, Islam’s first Qibla and third holiest religious place,  al-Aqsqa, fell under the Zionist occupation. 

When East Jerusalem was seized from Jordan, the Israeli army’s rabbi Moshe Goren, strongly advised army generals to blow up the gold-gilded Dome of the Rock, which is part of the Aqsa Mosque. However, a prominent general refused to heed Goren’s exhortations.

Ever since that time, Israel transferred hundreds of thousands of its citizens into the West Bank to live on land that belongs to another people. The purpose of this criminal act is to re-enact the White settlements of the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa and former Rhodesia as well as the Russian demographic presence in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, pending the annexation of the territory and possible expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

Also Read: Palestine-Vs. Ukraine: Stark Western hypocrisy  on Palestine and  Ukraine

Numerous UN resolutions were issued, ruling that the settlements were illegal and in a brazen violation of international law. Furthermore, Israel consistently refused to consider the West Bank as an occupied territory, insisting that the region was a “disputed” rather than “occupied” land. The Israeli defiance of the UN and its Security Council’s resolutions is attributed to the almost total American submission to the Zionist entity.

A few years ago during a televised debate with an Israeli official,  I confronted him with the settlements problem as he claimed that it was Israel that really wanted peace and that the Palestinians were the party that displayed intransigence. I asked him rather tersely if he thought that a peace-loving country would build 300 colonies on occupied territories and transfer hundreds of thousands of its citizens to live on land that didn’t belong to them. He was dumbfounded.

Clearly, the brazen Israeli insolence and arrogance of power stem from the absolute, unlimited, and total backing the Jewish state receives from the United States due to the overwhelming influence of American Jewry on the US government, congress, and political life in America.

Also Read: “Jewish State”: A Nazi Concept Implying another final Nakba

I remember one American writer saying half-jokingly that the Palestinians will not be liberated from the Israeli occupation until America is freed from Zionist domination. The Zionist stranglehold on the American government was described amply and analyzed elaborately by the late Jewish intellectual Alfred Lilienthal in his monumental  book “The Zionist Connection: What price peace.”

The Palestinians remain the ultimate reversioner

Despite its military might, economic prosperity, and international connections, Israel still lacks the legal and moral legitimacy.

In ancient times and the Middle  Ages, military conquests gave conquerors sovereignty over occupied territories. However, in the modern era, sovereignty, especially de jure sovereignty, can not be acquired or gained through war. Otherwise, the occupation by Nazi Germany of 8 European states would have been perfectly legal and compatible with international law. The same thing applies to the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait nearly 30 years ago. The same thing can be said about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

So what makes the Israeli occupation of Palestine, both in 1948 and 1967, different from the Nazi occupation of Europe, the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, and the Russian occupation of Ukraine. In truth, Israel and the Zionist movement have no convincing answer for this crucial question. Instead, they indulge in legalistic sophistry, historical prevarication, and verbal juggling

Also Read: Israel should stop trying to force-feed the Holocaust down people’s throats  as bloody repression of Palestinians  goes on unabated

 Some Zionist apologists try to outsmart themselves by arguing that Israel came under attack and that the occupied territory were won in a  war of self-defense.

However, international law experts make it very clear that coming under attack gives a country the right to repel the attack, but not occupy territories. Thus, the acquisition of territory by military force is absolutely illegal under the international law. This is the reason most countries don’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over both East and West Jerusalem as the city, indeed the entirety of Palestine was conquered by military force, which gave Israel only a de facto sovereignty, but no de Jure sovereign whatsoever.

Needless to say, authentic de jure sovereignty would require all the normal qualifications of sovereignty, which Israel obviously lacks.

Hence, Israel should be viewed as a belligerent occupying power, irrespective of how many countries recognize it and have diplomatic and economic relations with it.

According to Hal Draper ” At the present time Israel is a belligerent occupant of the city (Jerusalem) and is bound by the laws governing such occupation.”

Headly Cook,  an international law expert believes that Israel among all countries of the world possesses not a single inch of territory which she could assuredly proclaim to be her own in perpetuity.(2)

This is why, Palestinians, and Muslims in general, are strongly advised not to ascribe any legal or moral legitimacy to Israel, an entity that has been and continues to be a crime against humanity. (end)

(1)  Draper, Hal.  the Status of Jerusalem,  p. 163

(2)” (Cook, Headly,  Israel: A  blessing and Curse, London 1960, p. 168)

On 14 May, Tens of millions of Turks will go to the polls to elect a President for the Turkish Republic. The main contenders are the incumbent veteran President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in office since 2014, and Kemal Killicdaroglu, a candidate of a six-party alliance for the Presidential race in Turkey.

The Presidential race in Turkey will be hotly contested, as opposition parties seem determined to oust the Quasi-Islamist leader, Erdogan.

Killicdaroglu, a fierce secularist, who hails from the heterodox Alavi sect, doesn’t hide his ambitions to return Turkey to the pre-Erdogan era, when the powerful military-backed quasi-fascist secular establishment, suppressed all public Islamic expressions, including the Islamic Hijab for women as well as  Quranic schools.

Read Also: Why should dignified Muslims never normalize with Israel?

Indeed, this utterly undemocratic “deep state”, which viewed itself as the ultimate guardian,  custodian and guarantor of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s legacy,  had carried out several coups against elected governments, keeping Turkey, the important NATO member-state and one of the most important Muslim countries, democratic only nominally, but effectively authoritarian. In 2002 the Justice and Development  Party  (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP),  a party with Islamic roots, swept the parliamentary elections.

 It came to power under the leadership of Abdullah Gul, Party leader Erdogan was found ineligible to serve in Parliament or as Prime Minister because of a 1998 conviction related to him publicly reciting a few verses of poetry deemed as incompatible with the Republic’s secular principles.

The international community observes closely the Presidential and parliamentary race in Turkey. Western powers, particularly the US, France, and Germany, in addition to Israel and the international Masonic movement, left no stone unturned in order to overthrow the Erdogan regime and replace it with another subservient regime that would keep Turkey revolving in the American orbit.

These persistent efforts to destabilize the Erdogan regime culminated in an attempted coup on 15 July 2016, when a faction of the Turkish military carried out a coordinated attempt to topple the Turkish government.

The bloody attempted coup was eventually crushed by the vigilant Turkish people who stubbornly refused to be robbed of their earned liberties, civil rights and dignity.  The failure of the coup attempt made Muslims around the world breathe a sigh of relief as Turks proved to the entire world that Turkey was not just another  Banana republic or a playground for any foreign power’s intelligence agency.

Needless to say, Western powers and Israel, which had expected to hear the “good news” of Erdogan’s death, arrest or escape,  didn’t hide their frustration and indignation at the failure of the attempted coup. Thus, Turkey remained a thorn in the side of the anti-Islamic powers in Europe and North America.

Turkey must not lose its Islamic face

I realize I am not in a position to lecture, or even advise Turkey,  the Turkish people as to whom they should elect as their President in the Presidential race.

None the less, for the sake of truth, and history,  certain things must be amply clarified.

 As a long-time observer of Turkish affairs since the 1970s, I  believe it was thanks mainly to Erdogan’s leadership that Turkey is what it is today, namely a modern, powerful, preposterous and independent state.

Thanks to Erdogan, Turkey has a modern industrial infrastructure, a powerful modern army and as well as a vigorous economy. Turkey is also a chief regional and world player. This active role proved effective and vital in managing the Ukrainian crisis, the Middle East, NATO, and even Africa.

There is no doubt that the present state-of-affair of Turkey is a thousand times better than it ever was during the pre-Erdogan era when the “Attaturk Cult” dominated the country, crippling creativity, Innovation and progress, and maintaining a tight grip on civil rights and liberties.

Erdogan’s achievements, both domestically and externally, are too numerous to be listed in this short piece.

Domestically, He restored Turkey’s Islamic face without suppressing Western-style freedoms. The Turkish leader came under all sorts of pressure from Western countries to change course.

However, he smartly stayed his course until he achieved his goals. In fact, Erdogan can be a role model for many Arab and Muslim leaders who are more or less at America’s beck and call.

His courageous decision to reconvert the AyaSophia Mosque in Istanbul from a museum into a place of worship was met with widespread satisfaction in Turkey and throughout the Muslim world.

Moreover, Erdogan’s decision to host millions of Syrian refugees, fleeing a deadly rampage of terror, organized by their criminal sectarian regime,  testified to the Turkish leader’s moral and Islamic credentials, despite the numerous security risks and the hefty financial burden inured by the Turkish economy.

Read also: Bashar Assad should be tried for crimes against humanity not Rehabilitated

More to the point, Erdogan’s adopted a brave stance, protecting millions of Syrians from what it would have been a real genocide by the army of Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers.

Regionally, Turkey under Erdogan became a premier supporter of the just Palestinian cause.  Every Palestinian man, woman and child in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, can easily see and feel the positive and tangible impact of Turkish contributions, which bolstered Palestinian steadfastness in the face of Israel’s Nazi-like oppression and occupation.

Moreover, Turkey’s brotherly intervention in places like Libya and Qatar prevented anti-Islamic terrorist forces, like those of Khalifa Hafter, from having a free season on the Libyan people.

Libyans know too well what Hafter’s gangs would have done had they seized the chance to enter Tripoli and other towns in Western Libya.

More to the point, the deployment of Turkish troops in Qatar effectively thwarted efforts by the UAE and Saudi Arabia to overrun the small and peaceable Gulf Emirate, ransack it, savage its proud people and replace its leadership by another that is at Donald Trump’s and Jared Kushner’s beck and call.

Erdogan: The rising star must keep rising

Today, Turkey is an important and influential country on the regional and international arena.

Turkey’s political, economic and military power is undoubtedly a great asset for the entire Islamic Umma as well as for peace in the region and the world. Hence, the upcoming presidential race in Turkey is crucial for the Country’s reputation.

It is hoped that Turkey will continue its march toward national fulfilment, economic growth and military aggrandizement.

It is also hoped that Turkey will soon overcome the devastating effects of the recent earthquake, which hit South Western Turkey and North Western Syria, killing and injuring tens of thousands of people and destroying tens of thousands of buildings.

I know recovery and rehabilitation will be a formidable task and a tremendous challenge. However, it seems that the Turkish government is doing a fairly good job, accommodating the affected families and rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure, including quake-resistant homes for survivors and affected people.

Let us all hope for a successful presidential race in Turkey.

A Background to Women’s Rights in the MENA Region

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and an imperative foundation which lays the groundwork for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. The development of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has seen much progress and obstacles over the past decade. However, the unequal status of women stands out as a particularly challenging problem.

Following “International Women’s Day” last month, this article provides a snapshot of the development of women’s rights in the MENA region as of April 2023. MENA countries include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The MENA region has a reputation for struggling with gender equality. Therefore, this article focuses on this region. However, it is important to emphasize that the MENA region is not the only place women experience inequality. Gender inequality is also seen in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America. Undoubtedly, women continue to face discrimination and significant barriers to fully realizing their rights worldwide.

Any Progress in the MENA Region?

Governments are developing stronger laws and policies to support women’s rights.

Significant laws, policies, and programming developments have focused on gender equality within the MENA region. Moreover, women’s representation in government has increased.

Many countries in the region have established “national women’s machinery”. This machinery is used in government offices, departments, commissions, or ministries. All these provide government leadership and support in achieving gender equality.

Furthermore, there have been notable improvements in education and health within gender-related indices. There has been an increase in specialized programming to support women’s rights and empowerment in this region.

Women struggle to uphold their rights in places like Palestine. It is international human rights laws and conventions which are helping women in advocating for and strengthening their fight. Since the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by the State of Palestine in March 2014, civil society organizations and women human rights defenders have publicly advocated for the implementation of the Convention and the passing of a Family Protection Bill, pending since the early 2000s, which would specifically address gender-based discrimination and violence. In turn, this will help to edge women closer towards gender equality in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Women are increasing their role in civil society and advocating their rights

Women are increasing their engagement in civil society. Women’s and youth feminist civil society has started to dominate the political scene in advocating for and securing gains. In Iran, millions of young women took to the street following Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody for improperly wearing her hijab. These women risked their lives to change the system. Many were arrested and beaten and now face the death penalty for speaking out. This demonstrates women’s power in standing up against authoritarian regimes and fighting oppression.

The Iranian government is brutally repressing women’s voices who courageously stand up for their freedom. The UN has called Iran a “gender apartheid” on women.

Read more: Mahsa Amini: Iranian Women Are Leading an Extraordinary Revolution.

Women’s civil society actively engages internationally with the “Women’s Peace and Security” agenda. Remarkably, women activists have testified before the United Nations Security Council. The UN Women highlighted the gender impact of conflict and occupation on women’s rights.

What Obstacles Hinder the Development of Women’s Rights in the MENA Region?

Women face many inequalities within the MENA society, correlating them as second-class citizens with little to no protection from violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded existing inequalities. Moreover, factors significantly reducing space for constructive civil society engagement with governments include ongoing conflict, the revival of extremist religious groups, and increased political turmoil. These international crises created many setbacks in passing long-term legal change.

Poverty & gender-based violence

The 2022 global poverty update from the World Bank reports that the MENA region is the only place worldwide where the extreme poverty rate increased between 2010 and 2020. Poverty has a detrimental impact on women’s rights.

Gender-based violence is also one of the main challenges facing women in the region today, with devastating effects on their health and well-being and their economic and civic participation.

Read more: Female Genital Mutilation in Somalia Reflects Deep-Rooted Gender Inequality.

A striking example of gender-based violence was in 2022 when the Israeli forces shot dead Al Jazeera’s journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank. Abu Akleh, a longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was killed on the 11th of May 2022 while covering Israeli army raids in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

Read more: Who is Shireen Abu Akleh?

Women have no right to nationality in the MENA region

The MENA region has the highest concentration of gender-discriminatory nationality laws. An estimated 50% of the 25 countries in MENA deny women equal rights to pass nationality to their children.

Algeria is the only country in the region with nationality laws upholding complete gender equality, including women’s right to confer nationality on their children and noncitizen spouse on an equal basis with men. Thus, gender discrimination in nationality laws is one of the primary causes of statelessness in the MENA region, in addition to causing several other human rights violations.

Lebanon, Kuwait, and Qatar deny women the right to confer nationality to their children and spouses in all circumstances. Other States, including Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), deny women the right to confer their nationality to children in most circumstances.

Read more: World Leaders Remain Silent Over Human Rights Violations in the UAE.

Malnutrition in women and girls increases by 25%

Malnutrition in women and girls increased by 25% in crisis-hit countries in the MENA region between 2020-2022. Over a billion women and adolescent girls are malnourished in the world. This has detrimental health, economic and well-being impacts. Most women and girls affected by this statistic live in the MENA region. Both local and global crises in 2023 could exacerbate the development of women and girls living there. Rising poverty and inequities increase the chances that people will turn to cheap, ultra-processed, unhealthy foods.

“Addressing malnutrition in women and girls is essential to reduce the gender health gap”

Amira Ghouaibi, Project Lead, Women’s Health Initiative, Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum.

Therefore, the world is making slow progress. Issues like soaring food prices, climate change and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic risk making the nutrition crisis an even more significant problem in 2023. Nutrition is a widely overlooked issue; coordinated access and policy intervention are urgently needed.

Read more: Children’s Rights in Yemen Are Teetering on the Edge of A Catastrophe.

Survey Findings Provide Unprecedented Insights into Gender Attitudes in MENA Region

Despite incremental progress and the advancements mentioned above, gender attitudes across the region continue to fall behind internationally recognized standards.

The opinions and attitudes of citizens across the MENA region were recorded in the latest Arab Barometer survey from October 2021 to July 2022. This is the largest publically available survey published since the onset of COVID. Its results were shocking across 12 MENA countries, which collectively are home to 80 per cent of the citizen population in the Arab world. The findings give an unprecedented insight into the everyday lives of these citizens.

The survey showed a plurality of citizens either agree or strongly agree with the following statement:

“In general, men are better at political leadership than women.”

More than three-quarters of Algerians (76%) support this view, as do majorities of respondents in:

• Libya (69%),

• Iraq (69%),

• Jordan (66%),

• Egypt (66%),

• Palestine (65%), and

• Kuwait (65%).

Surprisingly, only in Lebanon and Tunisia do most of the population disagree or strongly disagree with the above statement.

Moreover, governments’ patriarchal character has effectively prevented efforts to address negative cultural and social constructs against women meaningfully. This limits the ability to change prevailing gender power relations and social roles qualitatively.

Concluding Thoughts

The development of women’s rights in the MENA region remains unresolved.

It does not reflect the commitments to the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Incremental progress has been documented, yet the pace is slow. Recent survey results showing gender discriminatory ideologies across the region show we still have much work to do to educate developing countries on gender equality.

Gender-based violence, lack of equal opportunities for economic activities or fundamental rights, and deprivation from political participation and representation have been the challenges facing this region.

Women are rising across the MENA region and fighting for their rights to be heard and implemented. Remarkably, women are igniting a powerful revolution against many corrupt governments, and their strength and courage are both admirable and breathtaking.