Monthly archive : "August, 2014"

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International Law Is a Tool in the Hands of Great Powers

International Law Is a Tool in the Hands of Great Powers

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent international lawyer Gilles Devers says that Israel is an occupying power and according to the principles of international law, it has a responsibility to protect the civilian population under its rule. Gilles Devers believes that Israel's blockade against the Gaza Strip constitutes a form of collective punishment and should be lifted as part of its obligations to ensure the protection and safety of the besieged people of the tiny coastal enclave. The French lawyer stated that Israel is not only failing to do enough to help the people of Gaza, but is also exacerbating the conditions of their daily lives. Expressing his surprise that Israel is not taking any action to improve the living conditions of the...

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Majority of Young Americans Don’t Support Israel Anymore

Majority of Young Americans Don’t Support Israel Anymore

Kourosh Ziabari: An Iranian-American professor of Islamic studies believes that the world is waking up to the atrocities and cruelties of the Israeli regime and this is manifested in the mass rallies being held in condemnation of Israel across the world. According to Prof. Omid Safi, although the Western governments have been mostly silent on the carnage of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the people in different countries, from France to Brazil and from Malaysia to Argentina have strongly stood by the people of Palestine and held massive demonstrations to voice their support for them. "The latest studies indicate that now a majority of younger people in America are no longer supportive of Israeli policies," said Prof. Safi...

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Western media’s biased coverage of the war on Gaza irrational: Ilan Pappé

Western media’s biased coverage of the war on Gaza irrational: Ilan Pappé

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: As Israel continues its massive military aggression against the Gaza Strip, which has already cost the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians, the international condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Tel Aviv regime and its cruel massacre of the unarmed citizens of the besieged Gaza grows steadily. Just recently, a group of Jewish scholars, most of whom were born in the Occupied Territories and teaching at the Israeli universities, have signed a petition, calling on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to stop its deadly incursion into the coastal territory. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2,030 Palestinian have been killed so far, including...

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Interview with the Norewegian physician who helped the oppressed people of Gaza

Interview with the Norewegian physician who helped the oppressed people of Gaza

Kourosh Ziabari: Dr. Erik Fosse, a prominent Norwegian medical doctor, who has been in the Gaza Strip during the recent Israeli incursion has detailed his experiences with the deadly Israeli aggression and its impacts on the Palestinian civilians. According to Dr. Erik Fosse, more than 400 children were killed during the Israeli regime's military operation in Gaza since early July and about 30% of the injured are children 18 years old or below (the international bodies have put the number at over 475). "I've worked in the Middle East and with the Palestinians for more than 30 years, and what often surprises me is not the fact that so many people get traumatized by these wars, but that all the young people that experience tragedies like...

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Exclusive interview with former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday

Exclusive interview with former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The growing worldwide condemnation of the atrocities of the Israeli regime in the occupied Gaza Strip by the young students, activists, media personalities, public intellectuals, independent politicians and former UN officials underlines the fact that Israel cannot always get away with its criminal, discriminatory treatment of the Palestinian people and enjoy impunity from being held accountable. Despite the deafening silence of the Western leaders regarding the mass killing of Palestinians in what the Tel Aviv regime termed "Operation Protective Edge" and claimed more than 2,000 lives including 541 children, there are courageous public figures who have spoken out frankly against the illegal conduct...

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International Criminal Court Should Investigate Israel’s War Crimes

International Criminal Court Should Investigate Israel’s War Crimes

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: A humanitarian tragedy is playing out in the Gaza Strip these days; a coastal enclave of about 360 km2 besieged from land and sea where more than 1.8 million people are living under the direst conditions. Israel is creating the most heinous and repugnant scenes in the beleaguered territory. So far, nearly 1,900 people have been massacred amidst the deafening silence of the international organizations and the world powers, around 30,000 homes have been destroyed and the mosques, schools, universities and UN facilities have sustained damages which seem to be irretrievable in the short-run. Electricity access it virtually cut off. The hospitals have no empty rooms to receive the injured, and access to food,...

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Exclusive interview: 1993 Nobel Peace Prize laureate F. W. de Klerk

Exclusive interview: 1993 Nobel Peace Prize laureate F. W. de Klerk

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: When the deep-rooted system of racial discrimination and segregation in South Africa, known as "Apartheid", was officially terminated in 1994, almost the entire world came to believe that it's possible to put an end to longstanding and complicated disputes and conflicts within the national boundaries through dialog and meaningful negotiations, and that is why the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized the strenuous efforts made by the last president of apartheid era F. W. de Klerk and the first black president of the nation Nelson Mandela in 1993 by awarding them the Nobel Peace Prize. F. W. de Klerk, who ruled South Africa as the president from August 1989 to May 1994, was the harbinger of negotiations...

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Maintaining the Unlawful Siege of Gaza is a Crime against Humanity

Maintaining the Unlawful Siege of Gaza is a Crime against Humanity

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: As the dust surrounding Israel's one-month aggressive incursion into the beleaguered Gaza Strip begins to settle, the international law experts, UN officials, scholars and intellectuals are reviewing and examining the different aspects of the massive onslaught in which some 1,900 Palestinians were killed and thousands of others became homeless and dispossessed. A high-ranking UN official believes that Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Gaza Strip are discriminatory and criminal according to the principles of international law. As noted by Prof. Richard Falk, Israel's policies and practices against the subjugated nation of Palestine are overtly apartheid and should be...

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My exclusive interview with 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta

My exclusive interview with 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: East Timor: a country about which we rarely think or of which there are not usually groundbreaking headlines on the newspapers and TV channels. It's a small nation located in the Southeast Asia adjacent to the Indonesian Archipelago, with a population of about 1,172,000. It's economy is emerging and its trade ties with the rest of the world are getting developed. However, East Timor, also known in Portuguese as Timor-Leste, has had a tumultuous and turbulent history which was that of a continued plight and predicament. As a result of its geostrategic importance, it has been invaded over the past centuries by different colonial powers: the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Australians, the Japanese and...

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