Selves and Others

In the flurry of letters and comments against the boycott of Israeli academics who, according to Natfhe, are complicit through their work or silence, in the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the reality facing the other side of the coin, that of Palestinian academics, researchers and educational institutions, has been ignored. The crux of the anti-boycott but pro-peace argument is that academia is one of the few places where constructive argument is possible, and Israeli academic freedom is the cornerstone for the push for change in Israeli policy and ultimately, for the end of military occupation in the Palestinian territories.

The circle this argument fails to close is that without the freedom of Palestinian education the prospect of any genuine dialogue on the long-term solution to the conflict cannot materialise. And in the absence of a sizeable and meaningful denunciation of Israeli clampdowns on Palestinian education, what other mechanisms are there to awaken the pro-dialogue, pro-peace camp? (...)

Ehren Watada is a 27-year-old first lieutenant in the United States Army. He joined the Army in 2003, during the run-up to the Iraq war, and turned in his resignation to protest that same war in January of 2006. He expects to receive orders in late June. He is poised to become the first lieutenant to refuse to deploy to Iraq, setting the stage for what could be the biggest movement of GI resistance since the Vietnam War. He faces a court-martial, up to two years in prison for missing movement by design, a dishonorable discharge, and other possible charges. He says speaking against an illegal and immoral war is worth all of this and more. Journalist Sarah Olson spoke with Watada in late May about his reasons for joining the military, and why he wants out.

Sarah Olson: When you joined the Army in 2003, what were your goals?

Ehren Watada: 2003 was a couple of years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I had the idea that my country needed me and that I needed to serve my country. I still strongly believe that. I strongly believe in service and duty. That’s one of the reasons I joined: because of patriotism.

I took an oath to the US Constitution, and to the values and the principles it represents. It makes us strongly unique. We don’t allow tyranny; we believe in accountability and checks and balances, and a government that’s by and for the people. The military must safeguard those freedoms and those principles and the democracy that makes us unique. A lot of people, like myself, join the military because they love their country, and they love what it stands for. (...)

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others" Aristotle

When Lieutenant Ehren Watada’s Army unit from Fort Lewis, WA leaves for Mosul in northern Iraq this month, he will not be among them. The 28-year-old Army officer will formally refuse today to ship out when his unit deploys to Iraq.

"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to ’stay the course,’" said Watada, on a web site supporting his cause. "I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression." (...)

The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong

New York, Ballentine Books, 2005

In this ambitious book, Karen Armstrong attempts to explain the origins and goals of the major fundamentalist movements in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is an heroic attempt which she ultimately fails to accomplish. Along the way, however, she presents an entertaining, if superficial, account of the history of religious fundamentalism over the last five hundred years.

Why do I think she fails to accomplish her task of explicating the origins and goals of fundamentalism? The reason is that she does not really understand the social role of religion and its relation to the economic base of society. Her explanations are almost uniformly conditioned by idealist fantasies on the nature of religion as an independent force which exists to make us better people (more compassionate) and to help us find a "truth" about the nature of life that "reason" cannot provide... (...)

Lost in the discussion of peace processes, military raids, Qassam rocket fire and unilateralism carried out by the Israeli government for ’security purposes,’ is the climate of fear that is the defining feature of Israeli and Palestinian life.

The Hungarian dissident and writer Istvan Bibo who wrote volumes on the topic defined it as the primary element of human societies in a historical perspective. It does more damage than anything else. The threat of coercion, of bureaucratic reprimand, the hold up of paperwork, the threat of home demolitions and a myriad of other policies force normal people in to silence even when their rights are violated. (...)

The killing of 24 people, including children, inside their homes in the Iraqi town of Haditha is at last receiving widespread media attention in the US and Britain. But it is thanks to coincidence that the story ever came to light.

News of the November 2005 massacre would have been buried alongside many other stories of occupation atrocities had it not been for the presence of mind of an Iraqi journalist, who photographed the horrific scenes before the bodies were buried, and the perseverance of an Iraqi lawyer. For US military crimes to be exposed takes overwhelming evidence, massive perseverance and a good deal of luck. On the other hand, mere speculation from occupation and pro-occupation Iraqi sources is routinely reported as an accurate reflection of events. (...)

Joe Stalin wasn’t just an ordinary dictator, he was a

very savvy one. He had to have been to have held on

to power for over 30 years, succeed in outfoxing his

rivals, and even be able to break the back of the

vaunted Nazi Wehrmacht that turned the tide of the war

in Europe and led to Hitler’s demise. His political

control at home and over his allied Warsaw Pact

countries was best explained by the philosophy he

reportedly once expressed: "It’s not the people who

vote that count; it’s the people who count the votes." (...)

WASHINGTON, Jun 7 (IPS) - A long-awaited report by the Council of Europe on European complicity in "extraordinary renditions" secretly carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against suspected terrorists was hailed here Wednesday by human rights groups, even as the U.S. State Department tried to cast doubt on its findings.

"Amnesty International applauds today’s Council of Europe report that makes clear that the United States has woven a renditions ’spider web’ outside the rule of law that includes, ’disappearances’, arbitrary detentions, illegal transfers and torture or other ill-treatment," said Larry Cox, director of Amnesty’s U.S. chapter.

At the same time, however, State Department spokesman Sean McCormick denounced the report by Swiss Senator Dick Marty, which is based largely on the flight records of suspected CIA planes in and out of Europe and the testimony of some of the individuals who have been subject to rendition. (...)

A British soldier criticised his lack of training last night as he was cleared, along with two other servicemen, of killing an Iraqi teenager.

Guardsman Martin McGing, along with a fellow Irish Guard, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, and Sgt Carle Selman, then of the Coldstream Guards and now serving with the Scots Guards, were on their last day of duty in Basra in May 2003 when they caught four Iraqis looting a garage. (...)

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 7 (IPS) - The 191-member General Assembly is expected to elect Iraq as chair of a key U.N. committee dealing with human rights and social development.

But the proposed election comes at a time when both the United Nations and several human rights organisations have accused successive U.S.-backed governments in Baghdad of either committing or ignoring human rights abuses in the military-occupied country. The 54-member Asian Group, of which Iraq is a member, endorsed the country’s candidacy after politically-troubled Nepal was forced to withdraw its candidature last month, primarily because of its own poor human rights record and absence of rule of law.

"We had two evils before us," one Third World diplomat told IPS, "And we decided to choose the lesser evil." (...)

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 7 (IPS) - Frustrated with what they see as increasing lawlessness in South Africa, leaders from political parties such as the Freedom Front Plus, the Christian Democratic Party and the Pro-Death Penalty Party are united in one cause: that capital punishment needs to be reinstated.

Still, those who worked hard to abolish the death penalty 11 years ago say they will push with equal force to maintain the ban. They point to a decrease in the country’s murder rate over the past five years, and say South Africa’s brutal apartheid history shows that too often, innocent people can be hanged by the state.

South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995, a year after the demise of apartheid. But Pieter Uys, spokesman of the Pretoria-based Freedom Front Plus, told IPS it was a mistake to scrap the law. (...)