Daily Saabah – January 8, 2024
Gaza death toll crosses 23,000 as 249 killed by Israel in 24 hours
A total of 23,084 Palestinians have now been confirmed killed, mostly women and children, while 58,926 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry said Monday.
Some 249 Palestinians were killed and 510 were wounded in the previous 24 hours, the ministry added.
The ministry did not specify in which Israeli strikes these Palestinians were killed or injured.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli attacks targeted the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip resulting in casualties, including children, an Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent reported.
At least 73 dead bodies and 99 injured people were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, according to the correspondent.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said early Monday that they transported a dead body and 17 injured people on Sunday due to the Israeli bombardment of two houses in Deir al-Balah.
It added that Israeli forces opened fire on several civilians along Salah al-Din Street, the main highway in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has launched brutal air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, which killed around 1,140 people.
The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.
Anadolu Agency – January 8, 2024
Al-Qassam Brigades say they killed, wounded many Israeli soldiers in central Gaza
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, announced Sunday that they had killed and wounded a large number of Israeli soldiers in war zones in central parts of the blockaded Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the group said that two Israeli Merkava tanks and a bulldozer were targeted with Yasin 105 rockets in Bureij district.
A large number of Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded in the attack, and two tunnels containing a total of seven Israeli soldiers were blown up, it said.
The resistance group also said it bombarded a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the Al-Mahatta area of Khan Younis with mortars.
Israel has launched air and ground attacks on Gaza following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, killing at least 22,800 Palestinians and injuring more than 58,400 others.
Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.
Israel's Gaza war pushing Islamophobia ‘out of control' worldwide: Experts
The fact is that Islamophobia has ‘gone global' today, according to Georgetown University professor John Esposito
Six-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times at his home in Illinois, US by his landlord, who was screaming anti-Muslim slurs as he brutally attacked the boy.
Just moments before, the assailant, 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba, told the boy's mother, Hanaan Shahin, who was also stabbed and critically injured, that he was angry at her for what was going on in Israel, according to court documents.
Investigators concluded that Czuba targeted the boy and his mother because they were Muslim and as a response to Israel's ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
Currently, the primary driving factor for Islamophobia is “the genocide that's going on in Gaza,” Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Anadolu.
Here in the US, there is a wave of hate against people who are supporting “Palestinians' right to live, support their right to not have an occupation and not live under apartheid,” he said.
However, a fact that cannot be ignored is that Islamophobia is “baked into Western society, generally,” he said.
“Islamophobia is actually, unfortunately, quite strong worldwide at this point,” said Saylor, terming it “out of control.”
He said the world is facing the worst waves of Islamophobia since December 2015, when Donald Trump, then a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, called for a total and complete ban on Muslims entering the US.
CAIR received 2,171 Islamophobia-related requests or complaints of bias in the first 57 days after Israel started its war on Gaza, according to Saylor, who said the figure represents almost 50% of the total cases the organization had in 2022.
In the US, cars have been used as weapons against protesters in multiple locations, and there have been people firing guns into the air or pointing them at people who are “supporting Palestinian humanity,” said Saylor.
On top of these “bias incidents,” students have been targeted in very personal ways, he said, citing the case of digital trucks driving around Harvard University with images and names of students who have supported Palestine.
There are cases of Islamophobia at workplaces too, as those who attend protests against Israel are regularly reported to human resources by anonymous people, he said.
“So, it's been a very difficult last couple of months for Muslims in the United States,” added Saylor.
- Islamophobia has ‘gone global'
“For quite a few years, and in an unnoticed kind of way, it used to be that we thought about Islamophobia as growing out of the Iranian Revolution, then the impact of 9/11, which usually then was equated with Islamophobia existing in the US and Europe,” according to John Esposito, a professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University.
“But the fact is that, today, it's gone global.”
The root of Islamophobia goes back to the establishment of the state of Israel, and the 1948 mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, according to Esposito.
A real play here is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet has religious far-right figures, people who really believe that “Israel is their land and that Palestinians don't belong there at all,” he said.
He said the devastation of Gaza and its people raises questions in terms of not only what the Israelis are doing, but also about the response of the international community, in particular the US.
Anyone who looks at the definition of apartheid can see that Israel is an “apartheid state,” he said.
In fact, if you compare it to South Africa, “it's of an even larger magnitude,” said Esposito, who is also founding director of the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim Christian Understanding and director of The Bridge Initiative at Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service.
The boycott of Palestine by the international community, specifically the US, led to the creation of the Israeli “apartheid state and surge in hatred against Muslims,” he added.
The US has always tended to privilege Israel over the Palestinians, which has contributed to the rise in Islamophobia, according to Esposito.
The international community must become far more robust in its response to the brutal Israeli brutal military campaign, he asserted.
- Media fueling Islamophobia
Saylor pointed to the media's role in spreading disinformation about the events of Oct. 7, citing examples such as the reports of babies being beheaded, which turned out to be false.
For several years, many media outlets have allowed anti-Muslim stereotypes to foster on their platform, he said.
When you look at coverage of Muslims, “it's generally very negative” and very focused on giving voice to people who say horrible things about Islam and Muslims,” he said.
“It's unfortunate because it leads to real-world attacks on real-world human beings, who are now suffering because of what's going on in the Middle East,” said Saylor.
While Israel has used anti-Arab and Islamophobic stereotypes to push its narrative for decades, the US government is also pushing such narratives, he said.
This was evident when President Joe Biden himself used an “anti-Arab stereotype,” when he said that Palestinian numbers regarding the death toll in Gaza cannot be trusted, even though his own government had been using those figures, said Saylor.
On another occasion, Brian Mast, a member of the House of Representatives from Florida, said there are no Palestinian civilians, which essentially translates into unconditional support for what many scholars are calling genocide, said Saylor.
“Some people interpret that as permission to go out and target Arabs, Muslims, and other people who are supporting Palestinian humanity,” he added.
In other words, if the primary driver of this wave of Islamophobia in the US and elsewhere is the violence in the Middle East, then world governments are also giving “a wink and a nod to the Israeli government to continue with what scholars are calling genocide in Gaza,” he said.
It also contributes to Arabs, Muslims, and other people who are speaking up on behalf of Palestinian humanity to be treated as suspects, said Saylor.
This wave of Islamophobia in the US and the tension it has created will be a factor as we head toward “what is expected to be a really messy presidential election,” he said.
“Given that the current punching bags tend to be Arabs and Muslims, unfortunately, we can also expect that we'll see more of that (in the run-up to the elections),” he said.
Saylor, however, also pointed out that the coalition that is opposing Israel's Gaza war includes people of the Jewish faith, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Asian Americans and the Black community.
“So, anybody who saying this is about an ethnic group against another ethnic group or religion against a religion is essentially misleading people,” he said.
The Intercept – January 3, 2024
New bills aim to block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE amid concerns of regional conflict
Ken Klippenstein
Representative Ilhan Omar is introducing two pieces of legislation to block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, citing atrocities committed by both countries. The U.S. made high-profile sales to both countries in December, shoring up their offensive capabilities amid the possibility of a regional war and a growing risk of confrontation with Yemen’s Houthis.
The Saudi bill is the Minnesota progressive’s latest attempt to hold the Saudi regime to account for its sordid human rights record. It would stop the sale of aircraft support, intelligence sensors, and other materiel relied upon by the Royal Saudi Air Force amid a blockade that has devastated Yemen’s population. In December, the State Department approvedOpens in a new tab a $582 million sale to Saudi Arabia to renew its drone surveillance system.
The UAE also recently escalated its involvement in the war on Yemen, leading to Houthi rocket attacks that have eroded the sense of security the Emirati states had cultivated. Omar’s measure would prohibit the sale of high explosive rockets, radar systems, and other military equipment to the UAE. In December, the State Department approvedOpens in a new tab an $85 million sale of high explosive rockets and defense-related radar equipment to the UAE.
The closely focused bills make no mention of regional dynamics. In a statement to The Intercept, Omar pointed to human rights abuses committed by both countries as the basis for the legislation. “These sales go directly against our values as well as the cause of peace and human rights,” Omar said in a statement to The Intercept.
President Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that there was “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.” Since becoming president, however, the Biden administration has authorized billions in weapons sales to the oil-rich monarchy. In 2021, Omar introducedOpens in a new tab similar legislation to block a $650 million sale of missiles and other weapons to the kingdom.
“It is simply unconscionable to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia while they continue to kill and torture dissidents and support modern-day slavery,” Omar said. “Saudi Arabia executed over 170 people in the last year alone — including executions just for Twitter posts.”
Last year, Saudi Arabia sentencedOpens in a new tab a retired teacher to death for posts on X critical of the Saudi royal family and calling for the release of imprisoned Islamic scholars. The year prior, Riyadh sentencedOpens in a new tab a 72-year-old dual U.S.-Saudi citizen to 16 years’ imprisonment for posts on X critical of the Saudi regime. Saudi Arabia also sentenced a Saudi Ph.D. student residing in the U.K. to 34 years’ imprisonment for simply following and retweeting activists critical of the regime.
Though Saudi Arabia formally abolished slavery in 1962, its coercive treatment of migrant domestic workers has been describedOpens in a new tab by Human Rights Watch as “clearly” amounting to “slavery.” The Biden administration acknowledges this, describing slavery without using the word “slavery”; the State Department’s most recent report on the country’s human rights practices stating that “forced labor occurred among migrant workers” and that Saudi law “does not prohibit or criminalize all forms of forced or compulsory labor.”
In 2013, U.S. law enforcement officials reportedly investigatedOpens in a new tab a “possible case of modern slavery” at a Saudi diplomatic compound in Virginia involving two women from the Philippines. A State Department spokesperson said that the investigation was complicated by the possibility that suspects enjoyed diplomatic immunity, which has prevented prosecution in previous cases. A similar case in London involving a Filipina domestic worker exploited by a Saudi diplomat made its way to the U.K. Supreme Court, which ruledOpens in a new tab that diplomats cannot hide behind diplomatic immunity in slavery cases.
Omar also condemned the UAE’s secret arms sales to Sudan. In September, a New York Times reportOpens in a new tab revealed that the UAE was engaged in a sophisticated covert operation to supply weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, a paramilitary linked to Russia’s Wagner Group that is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
“The United Arab Emirates have been violating the UN arms embargo in Darfur to support the RSF, which the State Department recently determinedOpens in a new tab is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Omar said. “They have also been arming the Ethiopian government, which has been accused of atrocities in Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia.”
“Refugees International is shocked by today’s New York Times report,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a former top USAID official under the Biden administration, said of the news in a press release, adding that “the UAE has allied itself with the perpetrators of the 2003 Darfur genocide.”
Sheikh Hasina wins fifth term in Bangladesh amid turnout controversy
Questions raised over official turnout of 40 percent after opposition boycott call and reports of empty polling stations.
By Faisal Mahmud
Dhaka, Bangladesh – Sheikh Hasina has secured her fifth term as Bangladeshi prime minister in an election whose outcome was decided the moment its schedule was announced in early November when the main opposition boycotted the poll.
The surprise was who came second.
Instead of any political party, independent candidates secured a total of 63 seats, the second highest after Hasina’s Awami League (AL), which won 222, creating a problem of finding a parliamentary opposition.
The current opposition, the Jatiya Party, managed to secure just 11 of the 300 parliamentary seats, according to the Election Commission.
Almost all the winning independent contenders were people who had been rejected by the AL but were asked by the party leadership to stand as “dummy candidates” to give the election a competitive veneer in front of the world.
“This is a bizarre outcome of a bizarre election,” Shahidul Alam, a renowned Bangladeshi rights activist and photographer, told Al Jazeera. “Dummy candidates in a dummy election will now lead to a dummy parliament.”
Shunned by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – the AL’s main political opponent – which wanted the balloting held under a neutral entity instead of Hasina’s administration, Sunday’s “one-sided election” was just a “mere formality” to put Hasina back in power again, analysts say.
The only suspense, they added, was voter turnout, after Western governments put pressure on Hasina’s government to ensure a free, fair and participatory poll.
After polling closed at 4pm (10:00 GMT on Sunday), the Election Commission (EC) said turnout was 40 percent.
But many were doubtful it was even that high.
“I don’t know about the rest of the country but I think I have not seen such an empty Dhaka in years,” Abdullah Yusuf, an engineer in the Dhanmondi area of the capital, told Al Jazeera.
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“It felt like the initial COVID days. I crossed two polling centres midday and didn’t see many people besides Awami League activists who were wearing badges. EC’s claim of 40 percent is quite absurd.”
Video Duration 01 minutes 12 seconds 01:12
‘Ridiculous’
Some analysts, meanwhile, pointed to confusion at the EC announcement.
“It’s hard to believe the turnout was 40 percent, especially given the fact that the chief election commissioner himself uttered 28 percent first while briefing the media and then changed it to 40 percent all of a sudden,” said Sakhawat Hossain, a former election commissioner.
The turnout figure, which was shown on the dashboard at the EC headquarters hours after the briefing, was 28 percent, and a photo of it was widely circulated in the country’s social media and received criticism. Al Jazeera checked and verified that figure.
EC earlier declared at an hour before the poll closing that the turnout was about 27 percent. Al Jazeera visited at least 10 polling stations across the capital Dhaka in the last hour and did not see any voters.
Sharmin Murshid, the head of the reputed election observer organisation Brotee, told Al Jazeera that a jump from 27 to 40 in a span of an hour or so was “ridiculous” and had “tainted the EC reputation severely”.
“It was a sure way to further lose the confidence of the people and credibility which it did not have to start with,” she said. “This was not an election, rather it was an exercise in casting votes by one party for one party,” she added.
Bangladesh’s opposition had called a strike over the election weekend [Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP]
BNP leaders, meanwhile, termed even 28 percent very high, saying that most of the polling booths across the country had been empty throughout the day. The opposition party earlier declared a 48-hour hartal, equivalent to a total strike, from Saturday morning, which it believed also reduced turnout.
“In most pictures and footage shared in media and social platforms, you would find photos of dogs standing, lying down and basking in the sun along with police and a few Awami League activists,” said Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior BNP leader, while briefing journalists after the election, “But no voters.”
Khan said people had heeded their call to boycott ballots and show a “red card” to the election.
“Even Awami League supporters didn’t bother to go to booths to cast their votes because they knew their candidates would win anyway,” he added.
Concerns on legitimacy
AL leaders, however, said the BNP’s plan to foil the election through “hartal” and “arson attacks” had not paid off because people did turn out to vote.
“This is a victory for our democracy,” Obaidul Quader told the media after finding a clear lead in poll results, “People give BNP’s terrorism befitting reply through balloting.”
Quader also said most people voted for their preferred candidates without any intimidation or interference in voting. “This was one of the most peaceful elections of the country,” he said.
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While the last two national elections were tainted with dozens of deaths and severe violence, Sunday’s poll saw only one death and very few clashes, making it one of the most peaceful polls in the South Asian nation’s history.
“People of your country should be proud of holding such a peaceful election,” Hisham Kuhail, the CEO of the Central Election Commission of Palestine, one of several foreign observers of the poll, told a media briefing afterwards.
Kuhail, however, avoided questions about voter turnout and said he was assessing only the technicalities of the voting process – whether voters were allowed access and whether voting took place systematically.
“I cannot comment on the political scenario here. For that I need to stay at least a month,” he added.
Russian observer Andrei Shutov also said the voting process was systematic and peaceful. “This election is legitimate,” he added.
AKM Wahiduzzaman, the information and technology affairs secretary of the BNP, said there was no question it was peaceful because “there were no voters”.
“But it is obviously not legitimate,” he said.
The Awami League’s victory, he added, was “illegal and illegitimate” because people did not “legitimise them through votes”.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/8/sheikh-hasina-wins-fifth-term-in-bangladesh-amid-turnout-controversy
Anadolu Agency – January 8, 2024
Activist decries discrimination Muslims face in India
In interview with Anadolu, president of Justice For All highlights challenges Indian Muslims encounter in education, employment
Şule Özkan |
Muslims in India are facing discrimination and being denied their due educational and economic rights, a social activist said.
In an interview with Anadolu, Abdul Malik Mujahid, the president of Justice For All, highlighted the challenges Muslims encounter in education and employment, emphasizing the difficulties they face in their daily lives.
He pointed out that despite achieving high grades in education, Muslims struggle to find employment and often end up in positions that do not even require education.
Recalling a conversation with a Muslim youth who drives a rickshaw in the capital New Delhi, Mujahid underlined the struggles faced by educated Muslims who are unable to secure jobs matching their qualifications.
“I have a Master’s degree and all my brothers and sisters have Master’s degrees, but we cannot find jobs. So, we are working like laborers,” Mujahid quoted the youth as telling him.
“So that’s the reason Muslims overall are behind Hindus in jobs, and in education. There is about a 10 to 15% gap between Muslims' education level and Hindus' education level because of this particular phenomenon.”
Educational challenges
Mujahid also drew attention to the educational challenges faced by Muslim children in India, stressing there is a bias against Muslim children which manifests in many ways.
He cited an incident of discrimination against a 7-year-old Muslim child last year at a school.
“That child was beaten up and the teacher was calling him ‘Mohammedan.’ The teacher was also asking Hindu children to beat Muslim children.”
Mujahid also pointed out the fact that in some states in India, Muslim girls wearing headscarves are prohibited from education.
“They cannot enter schools wearing headscarves. So, thousands of Muslim girls could not study for a couple of years because of that particular ban. And when they challenged the ban in a court, the court said hijab is not a part of Islam.”
“So, Islam cannot be defined by Hindus,” he opined.
According to him, the educational curriculum is being changed to erase the Muslim heritage. Mujahid referred to a new curriculum that omits information about the Muslim architect of the Taj Mahal, and textbooks containing derogatory statements about those who consume beef.
Economic discrimination
Highlighting economic discrimination, Mujahid revealed that Muslims, constituting approximately 15% of India's population, are disproportionately underrepresented in the workforce, with only 1% having government jobs.
“Muslims are 15% of the Indian population and the Indian government is the largest employer of people. But only 1% of Muslims are in government jobs. Brahmans, the highest cast of Hindus, are only 3.5% of the Indian population, but they have 61% of the government jobs.”
Mujahid also discussed the consequences of the ban on transporting cows for non-agricultural purposes, asserting that it has led to the demise of the meat and leather industry, causing unemployment for Muslims.
He cited the closure of 50,000 butcher shops in a single state as a result of the ban.
Meanwhile, he disclosed that halal-certified products face boycotts, with Hindus equating the sale of such products to supporting "Islamic economic expansion." Mujahid went on to say that Hindu extremist groups create fear among the Indian population by linking this income to alleged support for terrorism.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/activist-decries-discrimination-muslims-face-in-india/3103420
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