Pakistan court indicts jailed ex-PM Imran Khan in state secrets case
Guilty verdict could bring up to 10 years in prison in a case that reduces Khan’s chances of being released in time to campaign before elections next year. Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has pleaded not guilty to charges of leaking state secrets under an indictment that deals a new blow to his chances of contesting Pakistan’s general election in February. The charges are related to a classified cable called a cypher sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington last year that Khan is accused of making public. “The charges were read out loudly in the courtroom,” government prosecutor Shah Khawar said on Wednesday, adding that Khan and his co-accused, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, both denied the charges. Khan’s lawyer Gohar Khan contested the indictment, saying it would be valid only if signed by the accused. The former prime minister has previously said the contents of the cable appeared in the media from other sources. A guilty verdict under the Official Secrets Act could bring up to 10 years in prison, lawyers said. It is the second time Khan has been indicted on the same charges after a superior court struck down an earlier indictment on technical grounds, saying the correct procedure had not been followed. A new trial, being conducted in jail on security grounds, is due to begin on Thursday in the presence of his lawyers, family and a few selected journalists. Khan, 71, has been in jail since he was convicted and sentenced to three years on corruption charges on August 5. Khan says the cable was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistani military and US government to topple his government in 2022 after he visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington and Pakistan’s military deny the accusations. The former international cricketer won the last general election in 2018, a victory that his opponents say was achieved with the backing of the military. Khan and the military later fell out, mainly because of differences over the appointment of the chief of the main spy agency. Khan has had dozens of legal cases filed against him, which he has denounced as an effort to banish him from politics. The corruption sentence has been suspended by a higher court, but he remains in prison in connection with other cases, including a charge of instigating violence after one of his arrests. Khan has been disqualified from contesting elections because of the conviction, but his legal team is pushing for his release on bail and an overturning of the ban. The new indictment reduces his chances of being released from jail to campaign for his party before the elections on February 8. Military trials of Khan supporters to begin Also on Wednesday, Pakistan’s top court allowed military courts to resume the trials of more than 100 supporters of Khan on charges of attacking military installations during violent demonstrations that broke out following his arrest in May. The latest order by the Supreme Court came less than two months after five judges on the same court stopped the trial of 103 civilians who were arrested as part of a crackdown on Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The violence subsided only after Khan was released on orders of Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Although Khan is also accused of inciting people to violence, he is not facing military trial. Pakistan’s military has directly ruled the country for roughly half of its 76-year history and continues to exercise enormous power. Adblock test (Why?)
It’s not shocking to see Israeli children celebrate the Gaza genocide
In November, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, uploaded on its official X page a video of Israeli children singing a song celebrating their country’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The broadcaster deleted the video clip after a huge online backlash. Even after the video was silently erased from social media, however, the song remained a subject of discussion and controversy. Many across the world were shocked to see children sing happily about “eliminating” an entire people “within one year”. Yet a closer look at Israeli literature and curricula shows this open celebration of genocide was the only natural outcome of Israel’s persistent indoctrination – or brainwashing to be more blunt – of its children to ensure that they do not view Palestinians as human and fully embrace apartheid and occupation. There is myriad evidence of Israel’s brainwashing of its citizens to erase the humanity of Palestinians spanning many decades. Israeli scholar Adir Cohen, for example, analysed for his book titled “An Ugly Face in the Mirror – National Stereotypes in Hebrew Children’s Literature” some 1700 Hebrew-language children’s books published in Israel between 1967 and 1985, and found that a whopping 520 of them contained humiliating, negative descriptions of the Palestinians. He revealed that 66 percent of these 520 books refer to Arabs as violent; 52 percent as evil; 37 percent as liars; 31 percent as greedy; 28 percent as two-faced and 27 percent as traitors. Such persistent negative descriptions dehumanised Palestinians in the eyes of generations of Israelis, established them as dangerous “others”, and paved the way for children to celebrate their genocide in a video produced by the state broadcaster in 2023. Towering Palestinian academic and literary critic, Edward Said, also elaborated on the issue in his 1979 book The Question of Palestine, noting that Israeli children’s literature “is made up of valiant Jews who always end up by killing low, treacherous Arabs, with names like Mastoul (crazy), Bandura (tomato), or Bukra (tomorrow). As a writer for Haaretz said on September 20, 1974, “children’s books ‘deal with our topic: the Arab who murders Jews out of pleasure, and the pure Jewish boy who defeats ‘the coward swine!’” Israel has also used the painful memory of the Holocaust to desensitise Israeli children to the suffering of Palestinians and support without question Israel’s treatment of them. In his 1999 book, One Nation Under Israel, historian Andrew Hurley explained how Israel weaponises the Holocaust education it provides to Israeli children against the Palestinians. “The mind of a child (or of anyone else for that matter) cannot absorb the horrors of the Holocaust without finding someone to hate,” Hurley argued. “Since there are no Nazis around against whom vengeance can be sought, [Former Israeli Prime Ministers] [Menachem] Begin, [Yitzhak] Shamir and [Ariel] Sharon have solved this problem by calling the Arabs the Nazis of today and a proper target for retribution.” Israel’s current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appears to be eagerly continuing with this tradition and has even claimed that it was a Palestinian who gave Adolf Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. Israeli professor Meytal Nasie strongly corroborates Hurley’s view above on the ramifications of the way the Holocaust is taught. In her 2016 study, Young Children’s Experiences and Learning in Intractable Conflicts, she found that 68 percent of Israeli children suggested “beating,” “fighting,” “killing,” or “expelling” the Arabs as a solution. Nasie states that imparting these beliefs at such an early age, in a frequent and intense manner, leads to inculcation of these conflict-related narratives deep within the children’s socio-psychological repertoires. Of course, the Israeli state’s brainwashing of its citizens against the Palestinians is not limited to ridiculous lies about history told by political leaders or to children’s literature. This propaganda effort is highly systemic and at the very core of Israeli education. Just take a look at Israel’s official textbooks. For his 1998 research paper, The Rocky Road Toward Peace: Beliefs on Conflict in Israeli Textbooks, Israeli academic Daniel Bar-Tal analysed 124 Israeli textbooks on various subjects and for various age groups approved by the Israeli Ministry of Education to be used in religious and secular schools across the country. To map out the ideological content transmitted to Israeli children in the education system, he looked at which “societal beliefs (society members’ shared cognitions on topics and issues of special concern for their society)” received the most coverage in state-approved textbooks. He found that overall, the societal beliefs relating to (national) security received the most emphasis, followed by those concerning a positive self-image of Jews, and those that present Jews as the victims of the conflict. A majority of the analysed books were also found to include negative stereotypes about Arabs, portraying them as “cruel, immoral, unfair” and determined “to annihilate the State of Israel”. The widespread demonisation of the Palestinian “Other” in textbooks, coupled with the emphasis placed on the positive representations of Jews and the claim that they are the “victims” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and supported by overarching narratives about the importance of national security and survival, created the perfect conditions for generations of Israelis to leave the education system convinced that any and all aggression against Palestinians – including ethnic cleansing and genocide – are at least justifiable, if not necessary. This is because when children are thought that they belong to an inherently good “chosen people” and that they are being attacked and victimised by a demonic and inhuman “Other”, they easily accept the oppression, displacement or mass killing of those who belong to this “Other” (ie, the Palestinians) without any moral qualm or hesitation. Bar-Tal’s study is from over 20 years ago, but more recent studies show that the situation is hardly any different today. For example, for her 2013 book, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan analysed Israeli history, geography and civic studies textbooks for grades 8-12 and reached a conclusion rather similar to Bar-Tal’s: That in Israeli school books, Palestinians are still represented as
Israel-Gaza war on US campuses: Why are top university leaders under fire?
Leaders at the three top universities in the United States have faced calls to resign after their testimony before a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism set off a firestorm of criticism. On Tuesday, Harvard University announced it would keep political scientist Claudine Gay as its president, after her counterpart at the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, stepped down over the weekend. Gay, Magill and Sally Kornbluth, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have all faced a backlash since their joint appearance before Congress on December 6, where they were asked how they would address anti-Semitism at their universities. Republican Representative Elise Stefanik grilled the academic leaders for offering evasive answers about whether calls for the “genocide of Jews” violated their schools’ codes of conduct. “Calling for the genocide of Jews is dependent on the context?” Stefanik said incredulously in response to their answers. “That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer yes.” Fears over anti-Semitism and other forms of hate have spiked since the start of the Israeli war in Gaza on October 7, which sparked widespread campus protests in the US. As pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed, university leaders faced scrutiny over what speech is protected on school grounds – and what, if anything, should be limited. Let’s take a look at the congressional hearing and why the presidents’ testimonies have drawn bipartisan backlash, including from the White House: [embedded content] Why was the hearing held? Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League and some other similar groups have warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise on US campuses, particularly since the start of the Gaza war. The staunchly pro-Israel group, however, has been accused of conflating the criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. And the Department of Education has opened investigations into more than a dozen universities since the war began, citing possible “discrimination involving shared ancestry” – an umbrella term that covers both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Politicians, particularly on the right, have pointed to those reports as evidence that the liberal atmosphere on college campuses has gone too far. Pro-Israel groups have deemed student chanting of the slogan, “from the river to the sea”, to be pro-Hamas, but analysts say the term has more complex roots. They say the phrase is an expression of the Palestinian desire for freedom from oppression across the historical land of Palestine. On December 6, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing to address concerns about campus anti-Semitism, calling on Gay, Magill and Kornbluth to speak. “Today, each of you will have a chance to answer to and atone for the many specific instances of vitriolic, hate-filled anti-Semitism on your respective campuses,” Republican Representative Virginia Foxx told the university presidents. She added that the tense atmosphere denies students “the safe learning environment that they are due”. What happened at the hearing? The three university presidents testified at the five-hour-long hearing, addressing how they balanced free speech with concerns for campus safety. But it was their interaction with Stefanik towards the end of the hearing that fuelled viral outrage. Stefanik pressed the three leaders about whether calling for the genocide of Jews would be considered harassment, insisting on direct answers. In one such exchange, she posed a hypothetical question to Magill: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?” Magill said it would depend on the context. “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes.” “I am asking, specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?” Stefanik said. “If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment,” Magill answered. “So the answer is yes,” Stefanik said, appearing exasperated. All three presidents refused to issue blanket statements that calling for genocide would constitute conduct violations. At one point, Gay said terms like “intifada” – the Arabic word for “uprising” – were “personally abhorrent”, but she underscored her support for “free expression, even of views that are objectionable”. [embedded content] Why did the testimonies spark controversy? Much of the outrage stemmed from the fact that the university presidents did not unequivocally condemn calls for genocide, thereby appearing tolerant of hate speech. Tom Ginsburg, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, said the presidents came across as “lawyered”, “defensive” and perhaps “out of touch”. However, he said, “in substance, it’s not clear that anything any of them said was wrong or inaccurate”. The presidents were simply reflecting the broad protections for free speech afforded under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. “We live in a country where you can call for the genocide of groups and, if you’re not imminently going to cause them harm, that’s legal,” he explained. “Go on to Twitter. It happens all the time. So [the presidents] were trying to talk about their policies, obviously, in a way which preserved their ability to say that they were applying the First Amendment.” What kind of speech is limited on US campuses? Zach Greenberg, a First Amendment lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) advocacy group, explained that the university presidents had to navigate a fine legal distinction in their testimonies. The US Constitution includes sweeping protections for “political speech”, which can comprise, in extreme cases, discussions or even the advocacy of violence. But it does not protect speech that veers into threats and harassment. The distinction is that unprotected speech represents a “serious intent to commit unlawful violence and becomes a pattern of severe, pervasive, offensive conduct that detracts a student from having an education”, Greenberg explained. But private universities, like Harvard and MIT, have the power to go further in restricting speech, he added. They have the right “to set their own policies and determine what standard of free speech they’re going to give to their students”. Still, free speech is the norm on most US campuses, which have traditionally been hotbeds for political activism, Greenberg said. “The vast majority
Argentina’s Milei starts shock therapy by devaluing peso by 50 percent
New president Milei warns of painful measures as currency value slashed, subsidies cut, public works tenders cancelled. Argentina’s government has announced it will slash the value of its currency, the peso, by more than 50 percent against the US dollar as its new far-right president seeks radical solutions to fix the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. President Javier Milei‘s economy chief announced the painful measure on Tuesday, saying it was necessary for Argentina to “avoid catastrophe”. The devaluation would drop the peso’s value from 400 to the dollar to more than 800 to the dollar, a blow to tens of millions of Argentinians already struggling to make ends meet. Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced a raft of other austerity measures, including sweeping subsidy cuts, the cancellation of tenders for public works projects, and plans to axe nine government ministries. However, the government plans to double social spending for the poorest to help them absorb the economic shock. “For a few months, we’re going to be worse than before,” Caputo said in his televised address. “If we continue as we are, we are inevitably heading toward hyperinflation,” he said. A sign outside a store reads, in Spanish, ‘We accept dollars’, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 12 [Tomas Cuesta/Reuters] ‘Tough pill to swallow’ The planned measures drew praise from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to whom Argentina owes $45bn, but sparked harsh criticism from some progressive activists. Left-wing activist Juan Grabois said that Caputo had declared “a social murder without flinching like a psychopath about to massacre his defenceless victims”. “Your salary in the private sector, in the public sector, in the popular, social and solidarity economy, in the cooperative or informal sector, for retirees and pensioners, will get you half in the supermarket,” Grabois said. “Do you really think that people are not going to protest?” Jimena Blanco, chief analyst with risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, said Milei’s government was trying to temper an otherwise guaranteed economic crash landing. “He promised a very tough pill to swallow and he’s delivering that pill,” she said. “The question is how long will popular patience last in terms of waiting for the economic situation to change.” Economic shock The economic overhaul is part of the new strategy by Milei, who was sworn in on Sunday and has aggressively sought to tackle the fiscal deficit he believes is the root of Argentina’s economic woes. A self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, Milei argues harsh austerity is needed to put Argentina back on the path to prosperity and that there is no time for a gradualist approach. However, he has promised any adjustments will almost entirely affect the state rather than the private sector. Argentinians, disillusioned with skyrocketing inflation and a 40 percent poverty rate, have proven surprisingly receptive to his vision. Still, Milei’s road map is likely to encounter fierce opposition from the left-leaning Peronist movement’s lawmakers and unions it controls, whose members have said they refuse to lose wages. Adblock test (Why?)
Thai MP sentenced to six years for insulting monarchy
Move Forward Party MP Rukchanok Srinork, 29, was sentenced to prison time for posts deemed defamatory to the crown. A Thai activist-turned-lawmaker has been sentenced to six years in prison for insulting the country’s powerful monarchy on social media. Move Forward Party (MFP) MP Rukchanok Srinork was sentenced on Wednesday over a series of posts that a judge deemed defamatory to the crown, her lawyer and members of her progressive political party said. “Rakchanok Srinork was sentenced to three years on a 112 (lese-majeste) charge and three years on a Computer Crimes Act charge,” MFP leader Chaithawat Tulathon told the AFP news agency. Srinork has applied for bail and offered 300,000 baht ($8,500) as security. The 29-year-old faces disqualification as a member of parliament for Bangkok if the court does not grant her bail, her lawyer and fellow lawmaker Weeranan Huadsri told the Reuters news agency, adding she would appeal the sentence. Rukchanok was convicted for retweeting posts in 2020 on the social media platform now known as X that related to a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine. She denies all charges. Weaponised Thailand’s lese-majeste law is one of the strictest of its kind in the world, protecting the king, queen, heir and regent from criticism and carrying a jail sentence of 15 years for each perceived insult to the monarchy. Critics say the law has been weaponised to silence dissent. The Computer Crimes Act has also been criticised by rights groups as giving overly broad powers to the authorities to restrict free speech. There has been an upsurge in charges under the laws – known in Thailand as “112” after the relevant section of the criminal code – since youth-led pro-democracy street protests in 2020. Rukchanok gained prominence as an activist in an antigovernment, youth-led democracy movement that called for reforms to the palace and the lese-majeste law and at times drew crowds of more than 100,000 people. She later joined the progressive MFP, which campaigned to amend the royal insults law and was elected to parliament in May’s general election. MFP won the vote but failed to form a government amid strong opposition from lawmakers appointed by or allied with the royalist military. At least 262 people have been charged with insulting the monarchy since 2020, according to data tracked by the advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
Refugee designer brings Afghan culture to Paris fashion
NewsFeed An Afghan refugee is making his mark in the Paris fashion scene, thanks to an initiative backed by UN refugee agency UNHCR. Published On 13 Dec 202313 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Allies raising pressure on Israel to halt Gaza bombardment
Calls for a ceasefire are growing after the UN passed a resolution and the US warned of deteriorating support. Pressure is building on Israel after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Following US President Joe Biden’s warning to Israel that it risks losing international support due to its “indiscriminate” bombing of the enclave, on Wednesday a host of Israel’s allies called for a ceasefire. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other allies issued a rare joint statement calling for an end to hostilities and expressing alarm “at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza”. The UNGA resolution demanding a ceasefire passed on Tuesday with the support of 153 of 193 nations. The US, Israel, and eight other states voted against the resolution. Despite maintaining support, the US president offered his sharpest public criticism of Israel since the start of its war with Hamas. “[Israel] has most of the world supporting it, but they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” Biden told supporters at a campaign fundraiser event. Washington has been calling for weeks for Israel to take more care to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, saying that too many Palestinians have been killed. Extreme Biden also suggested that the US views the Israeli government as extreme, expressing concern that the “most conservative government in Israel’s history” is making progress in the resolution of the conflict “difficult”. “He [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has to change this government,” Biden said. Israel “can’t say no” to a Palestinian state. Some hardline members of the Israeli government have rejected a two-state solution. Netanyahu said there was “disagreement” with Biden over how a post-conflict Gaza would be governed. The Israeli government has flatly refused to consider a long-term ceasefire in Gaza until all of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 raids are freed. However, some administration members in Tel Aviv have admitted that the “window of legitimacy” for the operation may be closing, according to the AFP news agency. The White House will send national security adviser Jake Sullivan to Israel this week on a trip that Biden said will again emphasise the commitment of the US to Israel but also the need to protect civilian lives in Gaza. However, analysts suggest that Biden should be doing more to press the Israeli prime minister. “Biden is more popular than Netanyahu within Israel. Netanyahu does not have the trust of most Israelis,” observed Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara. According to him, now is the time for Biden to pressure Netanyahu into changing course on Gaza, including implementing an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. “Biden needs to pull the plug on Netanyahu” if he refuses to abide by the US stance, he said. ‘Continuous suffering’ Australia, Canada and New Zealand all voted in favour of the UNGA resolution calling for a ceasefire, despite close ties with Israel. “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” the leaders of the trio of states said in a joint statement. Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.35 billion or so Catholics, renewed his call on Wednesday for an “immediate” ceasefire and pleaded for an end to suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. More than 18,000 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 others wounded in the Israeli assault on Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian health officials. Many more dead are uncounted under the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances. Israel launched its onslaught in response to a raid by Hamas fighters from Gaza who killed about 1,200 people and took 240 others captive in southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities. Adblock test (Why?)
Palestinians welcome third set of prisoners in Gaza truce deal | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera
Palestinian families gathered to celebrate the third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners freed.
‘Military camp’: Palestinian town of Huwara under 55-day Israeli closure | Features | Al Jazeera
Once-vibrant Huwara has become a ghost town since October 5, the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza made it worse.
Russia-Ukraine war live news: Kyiv vows it ‘won’t back down’ | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera
Goal of securing 1991 internationally recognised borders remains unchanged and ‘nothing will stop us’, FM says.