Crimes Against Humanity
Israel’s intense Practices to Uproot the Palestinians in Jerusalem
Palestinians experienced the bloodiest and most brutal year of all time in 2022. They witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of settlers, settlement expansion, martyrs, and confiscation of lands, especially in Jerusalem. The occupation’s relentless endeavours aim at uprooting the Palestinians in Jerusalem by controlling more Palestinian lands. They try to impose facts on the ground by building and expanding settlements and legitimizing building settlements, especially in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is like no other city in Palestine. Israel’s ideology puts more greed in Jerusalem than any other city in Palestine. The focus on Jerusalem pictures a conflict between two histories, two geographies and two very different identities. It includes the Palestinian Arab native and the trespassing zionist. Accordingly, Israel’s ideology directs at eliminating the cultural landmarks of the capital or the Holy City. In addition, it aims to fake history aimed at reshaping the city with its exclusive Jewish output. They make it after erasing the Arab historical identity and its expression of Christian and Islamic diversity. Consequently, taking into consideration all intense practices to uproot the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Geographical and Demographical Judaization
Israel’s Jewdization ideology plan started its first steps in Jerusalem by initially cutting off Jerusalem from its perimeter. Their point was isolating Arab Jerusalemites from their civil, national and administrative institutions and from any activity that would maintain their interdependence. Their first planned step was initiating a vast campaign to isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, politically, geographically, economically, socially and demographically. They also erected the apartheid wall around the Holy City as well as settlement belts around it entirely. Israel also constructed and strengthened settlements in the heart of Arab neighbourhoods and the Old Town in Jerusalem.
Read more on this: Israel is Hiding Crucial Demographic Facts About Palestinians
Land Confiscation
Moreover, Since Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has begun confiscating lands inside Jerusalem, and other Palestinian cities until it expanded to the ghetto of the Old Town which Arabs inhabited and had no trace of Jews. Land confiscation expanded until it reached the Mughrabi neighbourhood, Beit Safafa village, Beit Jala, al-Nabi Ya ‘qub, and Sheikh Jarrah area lands. Land confiscation has been happening and still happening until this day under Israel’s false pretexts. Israel has also promulgated legislation and laws prohibiting construction in large areas covering various areas of the city. In addition, they have announced other areas as “green areas” for no building.
To this day, The Israeli occupation exploits the classification of Palestinian lands according to the Oslo Accord (a, b and c) to tighten control over Palestinians, especially in areas classified as (c) under its full control over security, planning and construction. Israel’s occupation directly exploits 76% of the total area classified as (c); 63% of which regional colonial councils control. Equally important, the areas confiscated for military bases and military training sites represent about 18% of the West Bank area, as well as the apartheid wall and expansion that isolated more than 10% of the West Bank area.
Shamelessly, Israel’s military forces forcibly expel Palestinian citizens from their homes, inhabit them by Jewish settlers arriving from abroad, and transfer Palestinian properties to the settlers. For example, Sheikh Jarrah’s neighbourhood has been suffering from this issue. In 2008, the occupation authorities forcibly expelled the first Palestinian families from the neighbourhood and were repatriated by Jews. They expelled the Al-Ghawi family by force of arms from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. To date, 28 Palestinian homes remain threatened with expulsion and transfer of their homes to settlers.
Demolishing “Unauthorized Construction”
In order to build homes in East Jerusalem and Area C, Palestinians must apply for a permit from the Israeli authorities, who control these areas. The vast majority of demolition orders are issued because a home or structure has been built without an Israeli permit. Every year Israel demolishes hundreds of Palestinian homes under the pretext of what Zionists call illegal construction in East Jerusalem (unauthorized construction).
Zionist authorities impose doubled penalties on Jerusalemites such as high financial fines reaching tens of thousands of shekels, actual imprisonment, and instructions requiring Jerusalemites to prove ownership of their land by highlighting the land registry. They would also oblige Palestinians to obtain the consent of their neighbours including the Mukhtar of the village or the village chief. Generally, demolition orders are based on false pretexts that Israel considers demolishing their homes itself or even making the situation harder by issuing self-demolition for the Palestinians.
Residence, Mariage, and family reunion
In order to maintain its grip over Jerusalem, Israel took racist Judaizing uprooting practices for the Palestinians in Jerusalem. They included the withdrawal of Jerusalemites’ identities, based on a series of racist regulations, laws and judgments. This policy abolished the residence right of Palestinians living in Jerusalem, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and outside Palestine. In that case, when the families of the banned Palestinians from entering Jerusalem apply for permission to visit them, they grant them an exit permit without returning, nonetheless.
Israel has also applied a compulsory approach to students studying outside Jerusalem. It requires them to renew their identity cards in a manner that disrupts their studying. The right of residence is revoked for those who spend seven years outside Jerusalem for the sake of education. Israel can, under its laws, easily deprive any Palestinian of residence in the city. Internal staff shall apply these instructions automatically without referring to any other reference.
Apart from this, Israel prohibits Palestinians from marrying or reuniting with their spouses from the West Bank and Gaza. As racial discrimination reflects the demographic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Consequently, all these tyrannical practices serve the interest of Israel to forcibly uproot the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
For more: Israel Has No Right to Exist if Palestine Has No Right to Exist
General view
Psychological warfare is Israel’s best-known ideology for uprooting Palestinians to clamp down on Palestinians compelling them to leave their lands. Palestinians will never forget Israel’s true face. They will never forget the execution of the veteran journalist Shirin Abu Akleh. They will never forget the illegal assassinations, willful injuries, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, persecutions and collective punishments against Palestinians, including many children. violence has always been a key feature of Israel. Palestinians will never forget. And they will never forgive.
The world is holding trilateral talks aimed at rehabilitating Bashar Assad who is believed to have been responsible for crimes against humanity.
Bashar Assad is undoubtedly an indelible badge of dishonour and shame, not only for Arabs but for the entire humanity. Indeed, the fact that this contemptible beast is still alive, free and even accorded respect in some quarters, constitutes a clarion indictment of our world, especially ourselves as human beings.
Russia, Iran and Turkey, yes Turkey, are holding trilateral talks aimed at rehabilitating Bashar Assad, who is believed to have been responsible for crimes against humanity comparable to genocidal atrocities carried out by notorious mass killers like Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler prior to and during the Second World War.
Indeed, ever since 2011, when some Syrians took to the streets rather peacefully, demanding free elections, Assad promptly ordered his security forces to strafe them with machine-gun fire, killing and maiming hundreds of mostly school children.
This is how the mass murder of more than a million Syrians, including hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians started.
Rehabilitating Bashar Assad: A badge of dishonour
Assad, army, tightly controlled by his esoteric Shiite sect known as Alawis, employed the regime’s entire death machine including poisonous chemical gases, to exterminate entire neighbourhoods and population centres.
The regime also inflicted incalculable deaths and widespread mass destruction by dropping explosives barrels from high altitudes, flattening largely populated areas, and causing thousands of casualties.
Aside from denunciations by western powers, especially the United States, Assad’s Russian-supplied arsenal continued to spread death and destruction throughout Syria. In 2014-15, when Syrian rebel forces were marching to Damascus, Russia formally decided to intervene by dispatching dozens of military personnel and military equipment including advanced warplanes.
For its part, Iran, in coordination with the Russians, deployed dozens of Shiite militias to protect the only nominally Shiite regime from his mostly “Sunni opponents.” The powerful Lebanese Shiite militia known as Hezbullah also deployed several thousand fighters to protect the terrorist regime from falling. In the meantime, the West refused to supply the rebels with purely defensive weapons to defend themselves from deadly Russian airstrikes. Numerous massacres were perpetrated and hundreds of thousands of civilian homes were destroyed. In short, a majority of Syrian towns and villages came to resemble German towns at the end of the Second World. War.
The scorched-land policy which Russia employed in Syria forced as many as 15 million Syrians to leave their homes or what had remained of them.
Assad warmly welcomed the expulsion of the bulk of Syrians, saying rather gleefully and shamelessly that Syria didn’t need disloyal citizens. In other words, the Stalinist Butcher considered as treacherous and disloyal to every Syrian demanding democratic rights, human rights, free elections and basic civil liberties such as freedom of speech.
The criminal Iranian role
Iran’s determined support for Assad’s sectarian regime is believed to be motivated by Iranian Mullacracy’s religious hatred of Sunni Islam, to which a majority of Syrians adhere to. Iran’s ultimate goal in Syria is to proselyte considerable numbers of Syria’s Sunni majority into the Twelver Shiite sect, the official religion of Iran. It is really sad and lamentable that a regime that prides itself on fighting and toppling the defunct repressive regime of Shah Muammed Reza Pahlavi has been embracing an even more murderous and evil regime, namely the thuggish Assad regime.
Read Also : Iran’s embrace of Bashar Assad: An indelible shame
Rehabilitating Bashar Assad: a message of Betrayal
There is no doubt that Rehabilitating Bashar Assad represents a message of Betrayal to the forces of democracy, liberty and human rights in the Middle East and beyond.
The message states in a clarion manner that it is futile to try to depose criminal tyrants and evil dictators no matter what they do and how many millions of people take to the streets demanding their departure.
I am not going to elaborate much on the Russian role in Syria. Russia under the Putin dictatorship accords no value to liberty and wouldn’t really care how many Syrian children are exterminated by Bashar Assad.
Russia is Russia and Putin is Putin, and expecting the evil tyrant to morph into something more humane or more civilized would be a futile exercise in naivety, wishful thinking and gullibility.
Just look at what he is doing in Ukraine. He has simply destroyed Ukraine just as he had destroyed Syria.
Hence, there is no point in rebuking Putin for his gargantuan evil crimes.
Nor will I expect any positive change on the part of the Iranian regime. A regime that claims to carry a sublime divine message while showering demonstrators with bullets is a murderous regime par excellance, very much like Israel and the Syrian regime itself. It is a hopeless regime.
Enter Turkey
I don’t wish to lump Turkey with Iran and Russia. At the very least Turkey doesn’t indiscriminately spray demonstrators with machinegun bullets as the Syrian and Iranian regimes do. Moreover, Turkey has hosted more than five million Syrian refugees who fled the Russian-backed and-Iranian-funded Assad’s holocaust against his own people, so that he would remain President forever against his people’s desire.
Turkey gave these Syrians accommodation, education and in many instances employment. This is why, it would be unfair to lump someone who gives refugees shelter, food, protection and accommodations with someone who gave Bashar Assad the weapons and financial means to brutally oppress them, slaughter their families and rain bombs and explosive powder barrels on their homes and neighbourhoods. The difference is very vast, indeed.
Turkey: Vital Strategic Asset for Muslims
Moreover, Turkey remains an important strategic asset for the Muslim world, a fact ignored and dismissed by Iran and Assad.
None the less, the Turkish involvement in efforts aimed at reanimating the Hitler of Damascus is making Turkey’s friends and supporters anxious and gravely worried. This is because Assad must under all circumstances be given the chance to commit a greater holocaust than the one he has already carried out.
Undoubtedly, Assad and his murderous regime will remain a badge of dishonour for the entire humanity. This is what the Turkish leadership must realize.
True, restoring relations with Assad, might bring some tactical benefits for Turkey, especially with regard to Kurdish rebels in northeastern Syria.
However, initiating any measure of strategic cooperation with Bashar Assad would immensely harm Turkey’s image. Assad and his Iranian masters should belong to the past, not to the future.
Moreover, Turkey which was on the verge of war with Russia in order to protect Syrian refugees in the Idlib region from the devastating Russian airstrikes and savagery of Assad’s sectarian army must make sure that these refugees will not be the target of Assad’s revenge attacks. (end)
Authors Note – This week’s article is a special edition as I have collaborated with a Rohingya refugee living in Cox’s Bazaar camp in Bangladesh after fleeing the Myanmar genocide. His name is Jamal Hossain. I have also collaborated with Rohingyatographer Magazine, a unique project created by a team of talented photographers based in Cox’s Bazaar. They have kindly allowed me to share some of their thought-provoking photography. A special thank you to both collaborations.
The above image is by © Sahat Zia Hero – The man is Hafsan, an 82-year-old Rohingya Islamic scholar.
Over One Million Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar
Rohingya Muslims are still waiting for justice and the protection of their human rights after the Myanmar military launched a brutal regime of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State on the 25th of August, 2017. The Myanmar military began a sweeping campaign of massacres, rape and arson against the Rohingya population. Approximately 750,000 Rohingya fled their homes and sought refuge in precarious, flood-type camps in Bangladesh.
Over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees have fled ongoing violence in Myanmar. Many stateless Rohingya live in the world’s largest refugee camp, Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. Many Rohingya say the camp conditions and safety have deteriorated as the humanitarian crisis prolongs. In 2021, aid groups sought nearly $1 billion in donor funding as shortages have grown acute.
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries by land or boat for many decades due to ongoing violence and persecution. Five years later, the Myanmar government has still not been held accountable for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide. Moreover, an UN-mandated fact-finding mission on Myanmar says abuses and rights violations in Rakhine “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”.
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya are an ethnic group who lived for centuries in Myanmar until the government committed genocide on their population. The Rohingya are known as the “world’s most persecuted minority”.
Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as part of its 135 official ethnic groups. Since 1982 they have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, effectively rendering them stateless. Nearly all the remaining Rohingya in Myanmar live in the western coastal state of Rakhine. It is one of the poorest states in Myanmar, with ghetto-like camps and a lack of essential services and opportunities. Refugees are not allowed to leave without the government’s permission.
Read also: Rohingya Muslims: Citizens Of Nowhere.
An Interview With Jamal, A Brave Rohingya Refugee
Who is Jamal?
While researching and writing this article, I had the privilege of interviewing Jamal, a Rohingya refugee currently living in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Jamal is twenty-years-old and is originally from Myanmar, Rakhine state. In 2017, Jamal and his family fled to Bangladesh and are currently living in an uncomfortable makeshift camp. I am helping Jamal to get his story across to the international community. Jamal works at a local news agency, “The Territorial News”, highlighting the Rohingya histories, cultures and traditions.
The image below shows Jamal helping a 75-year-old Rohingya refugee, Maher Khatun, who is suffering from serious health complications in the camp. The refugees have minimal access to health care services or supplies. Despite Jamal having very little, he talks about how he often brings her to the nearest shop to feed her milk and juices.
Jamal’s Unforgettable Nightmare
On the 25th of August 2017, Jamal and his family fled Myanmar and walked for five days straight until they arrived in Bangladesh. They started living in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazaar while the World Food Programme provided them with essentials.
Jamal speaks of how he fled from the gunshots and the Burmese military as they eradicated his people.
“My journey was horrible and an unforgettable nightmare. It took me and my family a long time to escape Myanmar and to get safe and sound to Bangladesh. On our way here, we wandered like prey being hunted, hiding in paddy fields and forests, starving for days, and feeding on raw leaves or weeds. Those fields were full of wounded souls, crawling among corpses and blood, just trying to make it towards the safe zone. I often thought: “today is my last day in this world”, but luckily God was beside me and he wished for me to be alive.”
Jamal, Rohingya refugee living in Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp.
“They Planted Nightmares in Me, but I Harvested Dreams”
Jamal began teaching children as a freelance volunteer in the refugee camps. Rohingya refugees must stay within the confinement of the camps. In addition, only informal education is allowed for children under the age of 15 years.
Jamal has lost everything his home, country, citizenship, friends, and education. Although they planted nightmares within him, Jamal used this trauma to harvest new dreams for himself. Remarkably, Jamal is brave and optimistic despite everything he has endured. Jamal hopes that one day he will settle down in a peaceful country. In the future, Jamal wishes to become a teacher and continue helping people.
The Lingering Trauma & Deplorable Camp Conditions
Five years later, the Rohingya still face many challenges in Cox’s Bazaar camps. Fires have ravaged many camps, destroying many makeshift homes and personal belongings. Furthermore, severe monsoon floods have made conditions considerably worse. The Rohingya faced COVID-19 challenges with very few resources.
Read also: Rohingya Refugees: How Long Will Their Suffering Be Overlooked?
Since August 2017, human rights organizations have interviewed hundreds of refugees living in Bangladesh. They described brutal scenes where Burmese soldiers systematically killed and raped villagers before torching their homes. During the brutal crackdown, the security forces killed thousands of people and burned down nearly 400 villages.
There has been a rise in gender-based violence and reported sexual violence in the camps. A climate of impunity prevails as no formal justice system or accountability measures exist.
Most Rohingya refugees live in camps with population densities of less than 15 square metres per person. This is below the minimum international guidelines for refugee camps.
Moreover, Bangladesh has severely restricted the Rohingya’s livelihoods, movement, and education. Hence, Bangladesh has closed community-based schools, arbitrarily destroyed shops, and imposed new travel restrictions.
International Court of Justice: Genocide Case Against Myanmar
In November 2019, Gambia filed a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case concerns Myanmar’s alleged genocide against the ethnic Rohingya population in Rakhine State. The Gambian government alleged that the Myanmar military committed the genocidal acts of “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part.”
The ICJ hearings are the next step in this landmark case to break the cycle of violence and impunity. According to Human Rights Watch and the Global Justice Centre, this case could widely scrutinize Myanmar’s longstanding international crimes.
What is the Rohingya Refugees’ Future?
Myanmar Coup 2021
Prospects for the Rohingya people to return to their land have only grown dimmer following the Myanmar coup in February 2021. This has re-ignited conflicts in Myanmar and worsened the existing humanitarian crisis. The coup has further destabilized Myanmar triggering a nationwide civil disobedience movement.
Read also: Myanmar Coup: Why Are Soldiers Deserting The Military?
Since the coup, junta security forces have carried out mass killings, torture, sexual violence, and arbitrary arrests of the Rohingya. Rights groups claim this could amount to crimes against humanity. Additionally, over 1,500 Rohingya were killed since the coup was established. The Rohingya who are currently living in Rakhine State are facing systematic abuses. These abuses amount to crimes of apartheid, persecution, and deprivation of liberty.
Repatriate or Resettle?
The international community must help either repatriate or resettle the Rohingya people and end this ongoing humanitarian crisis. Moreover, the people in Bangladesh have already suffered enough. Thus, the international community must compensate them for their generosity in welcoming millions of refugees.
Jamal interviewed different community members at the refugee camp who spoke about wanting different outcomes for their futures. Some Rohingya want a dignified return to their land with equal rights and protection measures established. However, whether these protection measures could be effectively introduced remains uncertain. Other community members discuss their wishes to resettle in a third country with new opportunities and fundamental rights.
Final Thoughts
The international response to Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing regime was fragmented and halting. Word leaders preferred quiet diplomacy that achieved little over strategic measures to place real pressure on Myanmar. We must establish a cohesive international response to protect the Rohingya people’s fundamental rights effectively.
We hope for Jamal and all Rohingya refugees that one day they will have a safe and peaceful place to live. As Nelson Mandela once said, “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”.
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