Forum Topic

More Islamist genocide by the Janjaweed,  an Arab militia group that operates in Sudan, particularly in Darfur, and eastern Chad. They are notorious for carrying out atrocities in Darfur under instruction from al-Bashir in the 2000s. The militia’s name is thought by many to be derived from the Arabic jinnī (spirit) and jawad (horse), although its etymological origins are not completely clear. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are also known as the Janjaweed militia, started their mercenary march with a number of tribal-based forces in the early 2000s, under Al-Bashir’s regime. From BBC News today."Death is everywhere': Sudan camp residents shelter from attacks"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg41r3w0e19o'Devastating attacks on a camp hosting hundreds of thousands of people who had fled Sudan's civil war have continued for a third day, residents have told the BBC.One person in the Zamzam camp described the situation as "extremely catastrophic" while another said things were "dire".More than 100 civilians, among them at least 20 children and a medical team, have been killed in a series of assaults that began late last week in Sudan's western Darfur region, the UN has said.The attacks – on the city of el-Fasher and two nearby camps – have been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It has said reports of atrocities were fabricated.The camps, Zamzam and Abu Shouk, provide temporary homes to more than 700,000 people, many of whom are facing famine-like conditions.News of the attacks comes on the eve of the second anniversary of the start of the civil war between the RSF and the army.Contacting the BBC on Sunday morning, one Zamzam resident who works at a community kitchen providing food for those in the camp, said "a large number of young people" had been killed."Those who were working in the community kitchen have been killed, and the doctors who were part of the initiative to reopen the hospital were also killed," Mustafa, 34, said in a WhatsApp audio message."My uncle and my cousin were killed. People are wounded, and there is no medicine or hospital to save them - they are dying from bleeding."The shelling is still ongoing, and we are expecting more attacks in the morning."He added that all routes out of the camp were closed and it was "surrounded from all four directions".Does this not read like typical commentary describing what it is claimed is happening in Gaza ?Would there be more accusatory Forum comment and protest marching were the Jewish IDF involved and were it as fashionable for the 'progressive' left to wear Sudanese dress as it is to wear a black and white tea towel ? And when are Labour MPs flying in to report on this appalling sate of affairs ?Two tier hypocrisy ?

John Hawkes ● 79d

Ms BondThought of any answers yet ?I would like to quote you from "Myths and Fact" by Mitchell  Bard - ISBN 9781537152721; page 3.'When the distinguished Arab-American professor at Princeton Philip Hitti testified before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946 he said "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not".Prior to partition Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference they adopted the following resolution:"We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geographical bonds".In 1937 a local Arab leader Auni Bey Hadi told the Peel Commission: "There is no such country as Palestine ! 'Palestine is a term the Zionists invented ! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country for centuries was part of Syria".The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations echoed this view in a statement to the general Assembly in May 1947 which said Palestine was part of the Province of Syria and the Arabs of of Palestine did not comprise a separate political entity. A few years later Ahmed Shuqeiri, later chairman of the PLO told the Security Council: "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria"Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-WWI phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the Six-Day war of 1967.Yet note today the Palestinian people have international recognition and claim the rights to self-determination, independence, and territory.And they do have territory; Gaza and the West Bank.It's only Hamas that stops them profiting from this fact and developing a life style similar to Israel's.

John Hawkes ● 81d

Well Messrs Carter, Ainsworth, Brigo and Ms Bond; how do you defend not only the kidnapping, murder and sexual assault of women, children and the elderly attacked by Hamas Palestinians last October, and how do you feel to read their testimony ?  "Part of us is still in Gaza': Freed Israeli hostages fight for a new ceasefire"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3qq51dv7lo'"This week is Passover - the festival of freedom," Liri Albag, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza for 15 months by Hamas, told a crowd of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv last weekend. "But what kind of freedom is it when 59 people are still in Hamas hell?"'Twenty-four of those who have been held captive since the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel of 7 October 2023 are still believed to be alive'.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxnwnz1ldko'Parents of four young female Israeli hostages freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza have told the BBC about how their daughters were abused, including being starved, intimidated and threatened by armed men, and forced to cook and clean.They recounted how the hostages were held in underground tunnels and buildings, witnessed physical abuse and were made to participate in Hamas propaganda videos, including, in one case, by faking her own death.They said the women found strength through sharing stories, drawing and keeping a diary.None of the women have given interviews to the media since their release, and their parents say the full details of what they endured are still emerging. There are also things they can't speak about due to fears it could put the hostages still in Gaza at risk.Three of the four women whose parents spoke to the BBC were female soldiers kidnapped by Hamas from the Nahal Oz army base near Gaza on 7 October 2023.The hostages' access to food and their treatment by male guards varied over the 15 months they were held, their parents said. They were moved between locations, rarely seeing sunlight."It was very different between the places that she went - it could be a good tunnel, it could be a very bad tunnel. It could be a good house or a bad house," said the father of Agam Berger, 20, a soldier who had been at Nahal Oz.Some of the places had good food, some had "very bad food... they just tried to survive," Shlomi Berger said."

John Hawkes ● 82d

Ms BondAny chance you might find time to answer my post 09/04/25 15:35:00 ?You can run but cannot hide !Some historical facts for you to digest.It would seem that Palestine has existed since 1988.Israel has existed as a state since it was founded as a nation on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared its independence. This event marked the establishment of the State of Israel and was followed by conflict with neighboring Arab states.'During the British mandate period, numerous plans of partition of Palestine were proposed but without the agreement of all parties. In 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was voted for. The leaders of the Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted parts of the plan, while Arab leaders refused it. This triggered the 1947–1949 Palestine war and led, in 1948, to the establishment of the state of Israel on a part of Mandate Palestine as the Mandate came to an end'.'The Palestinian Declaration of Independence formally established the State of Palestine, and was written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and proclaimed by Yasser Arafat on 15 November 1988 (5 Rabiʽ al-Thani 1409) in Algiers, Algeria. It had previously[1] been adopted by the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), by a vote of 253 in favour, 46 against, and 10 abstaining. It was read at the closing session of the 19th PNC to a standing ovation.[2] Upon completing the reading of the declaration, Arafat, as chairman of the PLO, assumed the title of President of Palestine.[3] In April 1989, the PLO Central Council elected Arafat as the first president of the State of Palestine.[4]

John Hawkes ● 82d

Mr Rose'Yes, I too have noticed his (Mr Carter) relative silence over the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Russia and China.And I have not read much if any condemnation from him of the Muslim backed genocide in Sudan'.But of course most leftists and Labour supporters are very selective when it comes to who they criticise in the Middle East crisis.Other than the fact of course when it comes to Israel which in their eyes is continually committing 'crimes against humanity'.A laughable, were it not so predictable is the recent incident when two Labour MPs Yang Yuan and Abtisam Mohamed were prevented from entering Gaza by Israel on the quite understandable grounds that they were just grandstanding and looking to cause trouble.And that like the UK (though we seem loath to enforce the power against foreign trouble makers) they have a right to decide who enters their country.After all is what is happening in Gaza well understood whether one supports Israel's actions or not ?What is the issue really to do with us ?What beneficial contribution would these Labour MPs make to resolving the conflict ? The first MP is of Chinese ancestry and the second Yemeni.We all know the political stance of China and its treatment of its Muslim minorities.And the Yemen is a hotbed of Islamist anti-West activity.The BBC reports -"The US launched what it called a "decisive and powerful" wave of air strikes on Houthi targets on Saturday as part of efforts to stop Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.Washington says some key Houthi figures are among the dead, but the group has not confirmed this.Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said his militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continued its attacks on Yemen.Also The Houthis said it would continue to target Red Sea shipping until Israel lifted its blockade of Gaza, and that its forces would respond to the (UK and US) strikes.The Iranian-backed rebel group, which considers Israel its enemy, controls Sanaa and the north-west of Yemen, but it is not the country's internationally recognised government.The Houthis have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed - often falsely - that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members". Would one not think that these Labour MPs would concentrate their (albeit miniscule) political influence on countries and regions of the world they presumably have some knowledge of and jump off the anti-Israel pro-Palestine bandwagon ?Yet they now seem to be the heroines of the Parliamentary Labour Party !I wonder if they have support of Putney's Labour MP Fleur Anderson ?

John Hawkes ● 84d

1) I don’t think John Hawkes repeated any of the details of October 7. What I suspect, Philippa, is that like  other supporters of the Palestinian cause you would rather gloss over the events of October 7 because the pogrom conflicts with your cosy view of Hamas as freedom fighters in an ongoing struggle for Palestinian rights. They are nothing of the kind. They are fanatics who abduct, rape, mutilate and murder their victims with the avowed aim of exterminating the Jewish population of Israel.And far from fighting for the rights of Palestinians, they punish any dissent from their rule and put the lives of civilians in danger by deliberately firing from schools, hospitals and residential buildings in order to create martyrs to their  cause for propaganda purposes.2) In actual fact the situation Gaza before October 7 was relatively peaceful. Israel had tried to normalise relations with Hamas to an extent by granting up to 18 000 visas per year  to Palestinians from Gaza to work and earn much needed income in Israel. 3) You confuse, perhaps deliberately, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. There are no Israeli settlements in Gaza, Israel having unilaterally withdrawn from Gaza in 2005. There was no reason for Hamas to declare war on Israel, continually firing rockets onto towns in the Souther part of the country. They could have tried to turn Gaza into an economic success, maybe as the kind of holiday destination that Trump talks about. Instead they devoted all their energy  into amassing weapons and creating an underground fortress, diverting EU funds for the purpose.4)  I agree that the situation on the a West Bank is pretty awful., not helped by the behaviour of some of the settlers. Israel made a grave error in 1967 by occupying the West Bank and then building more and more settlements. The Palestinians themselves committed a grievous error in 2000 by turning down Israel’s offer to withdraw from 95% of the West Bank in return  for peace. Arafat rejected Barack’s offer because Israel would not also grant a right of return to the millions of Palestinians and their descendants who left in 1948, an influx which would effectively have meant the end of the Jewish State of Israel. Barack actually offered a right of return to up to 100 000 Palestinians in order to unite families but Arafat, according to President Clinton, feared assassination by his own side if he accepted. And apart from the difficulty of rehousing 700 000 Israeli settlers, this more than anything makes Israel wary of withdrawing from the West Bank. The Israelis fear that that the Palestinians would use an independent state on the West Bank as a stepping stone to conquer the whole of Israel.5)  You refer frequently to the ‘naqba’ when hundreds of thousand of Palestinians were exiled from Israel in 1948 but never take account of the fact that hundr3ds of thousand# of Jews were forced out of Muslim countries in the the Middle East and North Africa. Why is that?

Steven Rose ● 84d

Mr Ixer'However, I don't know the exact statement or context it was made in so I wonder if it was a prayer for God (Allah) to destroy their houses rather than the congregation would that circumvent it being an offence?'Weasel words and hair splitting I'm afraid.Don't you find such religious nonsense a throwback to mediaeval times - a period to its credit at least the CofE moved on from ?'the barrister representing Prince Harry in his appeal against the decision regarding his UK protection arrangements is a Muslim woman'. Why would we want to know the religion of any barrister ?And would we trust her to represent us in a case that contravenes anything said in the Koran ?For example -'The Quran addresses homosexuality in several ways:It refers to homosexual acts as "lewdness" or "shameful deeds" (al-fahishah) and emphasizes the importance of chastity and avoiding sexual immorality. Some interpretations suggest that the Quran condemns homosexuality as a sin, but it does not mandate Muslims to intervene against it. Specific verses, such as those related to the people of Lot, are often cited to illustrate the Quran's stance against homosexual acts. Scholarly commentary provides further insights into the verses related to homosexuality, indicating a range of interpretations. Overall, while the Quran does not explicitly mention homosexuality as a crime, it is generally viewed as sinful within Islamic teachings'.Very concerning were the more primitive tenets of Islam to exert even more influence over  western society, in the Courts or elsewhere.

John Hawkes ● 84d

Mr RoseI think you are too generous in your interpretation of the political views of Mr Carter.'It goes without saying that Richard is not a supporter of Hamas. If he does not criticise them on the Forum it is because he thinks they are so depraved as to make criticism redundant'.I have seen little evidence to back up what you say.If he does not support Hamas he seems willing to justify the actions only of Palestinians and concentrate his venom on Israel.Whilst putting aside any criticism of the October 2023 pogrom.And since when has it been seen as an excuse that an organisation is so depraved that it is beyond criticism ?Yes, I too have noticed his relative silence over the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Russia and China.And I have not read much if any condemnation from him of the Muslim backed genocide in Sudan - BBC News:'The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said he is appalled at what he described as "credible reports" of extrajudicial killings of civilians by the Sudanese army, after it recaptured the capital Khartoum last week.In a statement Volker Türk called for a full investigation into the allegations.He expressed his concern over the "credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces."Videos have been circulating for several days on social media of alleged killings of civilians by armed men, purportedly in and around Khartoum'.But of course these issues are not part of the current pro-Palestine protest zeitgeist as is criticism of and attacking Israel.And you don't get a complimentary black and white tea towel to wear.And who knows, you might get quietly bumped off on the street if you criticise Russia and China.Israel certainly should be held to the same standards as every other country and in my view it sets high standards and takes actions against those that do not meet them.BUT it should not be forgotten that unlike all of the Arab and Muslim countries that surround and threaten it -1) Israel is a democracy with a pluralistic political Party system that accommodates those that are not Jewish based.2) Unlike in adjoining states such as Gaza people are free to vote how they choose without coercion.3) It is the only Middle Eastern state that has a free press that is often critical of the government.4) It has an independent judicial system that can hold politicians and others to account and has done so when the IDF has overstepped the mark.5) It has a thriving economy based on world leading biotech and IT companies.6) Women have full equal and political rights as men and do not live under a religious doctrine that deems them 'different' if not inferior.7) There is freedom of expression for gay rights and as far as I know no homosexual has been hung from a crane because of his sexuality.8) They have made and still do make an enormous contribution to western culture: musicians such as Bernstein, Gershwin, Copeland, Berlin, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Glass, Schoenberg, Rodgers, Hammerstein: artists such as Chagall: film makers such as Woody Allen; Richard Benjamin, Peter Bogdanovich, Mel Brooks, the Coen brothers, Steven  Spielberg.And of course music performers such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Isaac Stern and perhaps the finest female singer of all time  Barbra Streisand.I don't buy the argument "We love and admire you really Israel, and our criticisms are based on our disappointment that you alone fail in our eyes the high standards we adhere to as a western democracy".No.Those that vociferously criticise Israel and not other states and political groups see nothing good in it and don't like Jews.

John Hawkes ● 85d

The Al Jazeera video was grim to watch. If Israeli soldiers have deliberately targeted children, as the film suggests, they should clearly be punished. But  is it true and if true, were they acting under orders from the Israeli military?The doctors interviewed in the film provided no evidence of  murder other than the fact that large numbers of children  have been brought to hospital with bullet wounds, which they claim could only have been deliberately rather than accidentally inflicted.Al Jazeera made no effort in the film to verify the accusations of war crimes. As to why the Israelis would behave in this way, one observer said , ‘because they can’, implying that it was wanton murder which proliferated because it went unpunished, while a doctor suggested that it was deliberate genocide of the next generation of Palestinians.  Neither of these interpretations was questioned.What was so extraordinary about the film was that Hamas was not once mentioned, nor the events of October 7, nor the hostages, nor even the war itself. It was as if all this killing of children was taking place in a political and historical vacuum. The fanciful analogy that comes to mind is that of a foreign camera crew who are interviewing civilians who have lost loved ones amid the ruins of Berlin in 1945 without ever mentioning Hitler of the Nazis or the extermination camps.Given the lack of objective reporting, it is hard to see the Al Jazeera film as anything other than a propaganda exercise designed to convince the American public to put pressure on their representatives in Congress to stop military aid to Israel.

Steven Rose ● 87d

Mr CairnsSome comments here from Brendan O'Neill, ex-editor of Marxism Today and now a commentator for the Spectator.Now I know many on Forum see the Spectator as only slightly less 'right wing' than Der Stürmer.But I am sure you are more open minded than this and I look forward to reading your responses to the observations below he has made in the online version of the periodical."Its pummelling of Gaza is one of the most barbarous onslaughts against civilians in history, they say. New research suggests these feverish claims have no basis in truth. What Israel’s voluble haters call ‘mass murder’ is in fact a pretty normal war.Too many have made themselves the Lord Haw-Haws of Hamas.Strikingly, Hamas appears to have quietly dropped thousands of deaths from its casualty figures. Its fatalities list for March 2025 dispensed with 3,400 names that were contained in its lists in August and October last year. These include 1,080 children. Just like that, overnight, Hamas erased thousands of Gazans that it previously claimed had perished as a result of Israel’s actions.Salo Aizenberg, of the US-based non-profit group Honest Reporting, clocked the disparity. It seems these ‘deaths’ never happened, he says. ‘The numbers were falsified.’ That we’ve just witnessed the deletion of 3,400 ‘fully identified’ fatalities, 3,400 ‘deaths’ of actual named individuals, should give our media serious pause for thought before citing Hamas death counts.Andrew Fox, the former British paratrooper who now does research for the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), thinks Hamas is trying to make its death counts look more convincing. They’ve been ‘accepting names onto that list with no evidence whatsoever’, he says. Now it seems they’re removing the names ‘they cannot substantiate at all’. Are there others among the 50,000 fatalities we so often hear about who also aren’t dead, or who died, but not as a result of Israel’s war?Death counts from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health should always be treated with scepticism. The HJS has previously exposed Hamas’s over-reporting of fatalities among women and children. Then there’s Hamas’s failure to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. That it never tells us how many of its own militants are among the 50,000 who’ve supposedly died means the fundamental truth of the war, the reality of Israel’s just crusade against the army of anti-Semites that attacked it 18 months ago, is continually hidden from us.Israel says it has taken out 20,000 Hamas fighters. If that’s accurate, then far from being an act of genocidal lunacy, its war in Gaza is in truth a normal and successful battle with the evils of terrorism.Even if we accept Hamas’s claim that 50,000 have died, that 40 per cent of those deaths were of Hamas’s own bigoted killers means Israel’s military action is entirely of a piece with most other modern wars, where a similar civilian/combatant death ratio holds.It is the demographics of the death count from Gaza that are most telling. Studies – unbiased ones, that is – suggest that up to 72 per cent of the fatalities aged 13 to 55 are men. This backs up Israel’s claim that it is targeting fighting-age males (Hamas deploys even very young males to carry out its terror). The West’s noisy Israelophobes frequently say that as many as two-thirds of the dead in Gaza are women and children. There’s no evidence for this. It’s a defamation masquerading as a statistic.No sane person denies that the war in Gaza has caused enormous suffering, including for civilians.It is a moral outrage that Hamas brought this tragedy onto the Palestinian people with its fascistic assault on Israel on 7 October 2023. Yet the story we so often hear about Israel’s war – that it is uniquely murderous, a genocide, a bloodlusting assault on women and children – is just not true. It is heavy on hysteria and light indeed on facts.We’ve now had a year-and-a-half of the most unhinged animus for Israel. On our streets, on our campuses and most unforgivably in our press, the cry has gone out: Israel is one of the most murderous nations in history. One can’t help but hear the echo of old, dark bigotries in this curious loathing for Israel. The idea that the Jewish nation is inherently genocidal, that it targets children for ‘bloodletting’, resuscitates the medieval calumny that treated the Jews as a child-sacrificing race".

John Hawkes ● 88d