Posts tagged : "Israeli-Palestinian conflict"

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: 70 years after the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in its current form following the 1948 exodus and what came to be known as Nakba, the international community still appears to be unable to find viable answers for many questions arising from this conflict. Several UN resolutions, Security Council meetings, statements and peace-making committees, fact-finding missions and literally millions of newspaper articles, hundreds of TV documentaries and thousands of hours of negotiations have failed to bring an end to the humanitarian crisis in the offing in Palestine and the political dilemma between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israel is on a quest for recognition, consolidated...

Kourosh Ziabari - Organisation for Defending Victims of Violence: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza has entered its 11th year as the crippling siege by Israel is making the living conditions of Palestinians more complicated with time. The blockade in what is popularly referred to as the world's "largest open-air prison" means growing unemployment, people havng intermittent access to pure water, the economy is almost dysfunctional and poor infrastructure and lack of funding make the two-million population vulnerable to heavy rains and extreme weather. The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories believes Israel is not doing enough to make the living conditions of Gaza...

Kourosh Ziabari: An American singer and songwriter who has composed several songs in solidarity with the people of Palestine says that Israel is conducting a campaign of slow genocide in the Gaza Strip. David Rovics believes that the Israeli regime kills the Palestinian people with impunity and no country in the world dares to take military action to prevent it from carrying out its project of mass killing in the Occupied Territories. The Oregon-based singer, who has been called an anti-Semite by the Israeli-allied media in the United States for his outspoken criticism of Israel says the truth should be stated regarding the nature of this regime: "I have been branded as anti-Semitic for stating the obvious many times. But it is most...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prof. George Bisharat, a renowned Palestinian-American professor of law, is of the opinion that without the US moral support, the Israeli regime would not have been able to massacre the Palestinian people so ruthlessly. "The United States’ veto power in the United Nations Security Council is the single most important factor in enabling Israel’s decades long impunity from international law," Prof. Bisharat said in an exclusive interview. Prof. Bisharat whose commentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly appear on the academic publications and major newspapers in the United States says that there's no elctoral advantage for the politicians to criticize Israel for its war crimes, instead, they can raise...

Kourosh Ziabari: A prominent American peace activist says that although the Israeli lobby has enormous influence over the major political decision-making centers in the United States, it is starting to lose its iron-clad grip on the Congress. According to Medea Benjamin, more American people are waking up to the atrocities committed by Israel and its inhumane siege of the Gaza Strip, and that is why the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement has gained momentum as a worldwide effort to protest at the racist policies and practices of the Israeli regime. “I think that the tide is turning. Israel is turning to more and more desperate measures as more people around the world call for justice for Palestinians. The movement for boycott,...