By New Age Islam Edit
Bureau
2 October
2020
• Repression of Speech and Scholarship on
Palestine Needs To End
By Azeezah Kanji, Dania Majid and David
Palumbo-Liu
• Intel: Turkey Rejects US, Russia, France Call
for Cease-Fire in Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute
By Amberin Zaman
• Whatever the US Election Outcome, the Iranian
Regime Won’t Be Saved
By Dr Majid Rafizadeh
------
Repression of Speech and Scholarship on Palestine Needs To End
By Azeezah Kanji, Dania Majid and David
Palumbo-Liu
2 October
2020
The
intensification of speech repression coincides with the intensification of
Palestinian oppression and dispossession, with Israel's planned formal
annexation of Palestinian territory, write the authors [AP Photo/Bernat
Armangue]
-----
As lawyers
and academics, we are deeply troubled and exasperated by the pervasive
repression of speech and scholarship on Palestine. This includes recent reports
that the University of Toronto’s Faculty of law rescinded an employment offer
to noted international human rights scholar Valentina Azarova, following a
complaint by a sitting judge regarding her research on Israel’s occupation
policies*.
The
reported treatment of Azarova is consistent with a broader and intensifying
climate of suppression. Lawyers, academics, journalists, teachers, artists,
students, activists, and trade unions in Canada have been subjected to smear
campaigns, event cancellations, physical violence, professional disciplinary
measures, and condemnation by the prime minister and other political leaders
for opposing Israel’s gross violations of international law and expressing
solidarity with Palestinians. In August, Indigenous CBC journalist Duncan McCue
was required to apologise simply for using the word “Palestine” on-air.
The
situation in Canada mirrors that of other countries. In the United States, for
example, 1,494 incidents taking aim at free speech were reported to NGO
Palestine Legal from 2014 to 2019; 74 percent were directed at students and
academics at universities. In France, rights activists have been criminally
convicted for their support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
campaign pressuring Israel to comply with international law. This
criminalisation was recently condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as
a violation of freedom of expression.
The
clampdown threatens to be further exacerbated by the institutionalisation of
the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of
anti-Semitism.
As a 2018
letter from more than 40 Jewish organisations around the world warns: “The
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism,
which is increasingly being adopted or considered by western governments, is
worded in such a way as to be easily adopted or considered by western
governments to intentionally equate legitimate criticisms of Israel and
advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism, as a means to suppress the
former.” A statement signed by more than 400 academics opposes the
implementation of this definition in Canada for this reason.
Even the
original drafter of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, has cautioned against
“enshrin[ing] this definition into law” due to the danger of legally conflating
anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Yet Ontario’s Bill 168 proposes to do precisely
that, by mandating the use of the IHRA definition to interpret
anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws. Motions to adopt this problematic
definition have also been tabled in municipal councils across the country.
The
intensification of speech repression coincides with the intensification of
Palestinian oppression and dispossession, with Israel’s planned formal
annexation of Palestinian territory – denounced by 48 UN human rights experts
as the “crystallisation of an already unjust reality.”
In the face
of these gross and flagrant transgressions, it is vital that the space for
scholarship, speech, and activism in defence of the most basic rights of
Palestinians be preserved. This includes the work of scholars such as Azarova.
It is highly perturbing when academic institutions and law faculties – instead
of protecting free speech and fundamental rights – are participants in the
suppression.
We call on
the University Of Toronto Faculty Of Law to restore Azarova’s employment offer
and issue an apology. We also call on the Canadian Judicial Council to
investigate the conduct of the judge who complained about Azarova’s
appointment. And we call on all academic and government institutions to cease
subjecting those defending justice for Palestinians to censorship and
penalisation.
Signatories:
Judith Butler: University of California,
Berkeley
Diana Buttu: lawyer, University of Toronto
Faculty of Law alumnus
Noam Chomsky: Laureate Professor, University of
Arizona; Institute Professor (emeritus), MIT
Angela Davis: Professor Emerita, UCSC
John Dugard SC: Emeritus Professor of Law,
Leiden and Witwatersrand; former Judge ad hoc, International Court of Justice
Noura Erakat: Assistant Professor, Rutgers
University-New Brunswick
Richard Falk: Milbank Professor Emeritus of
International Law, Princeton University
Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France: former UN Expert
on People of African Descent
Leilani Farha: former UN Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Housing (2014-2020); Global Director, The Shift
Guy S Goodwin-Gill: Professor of Law,
University of New South Wales; Emeritus Professor of International Refugee Law
and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford
Ghada Karmi: doctor; author; former Research
Fellow, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Robin DG Kelley: Gary B Nash Endowed Chair in
US History, UCLA
Viet Nguyen: University Professor, University
of Southern California; Pulitzer Prize winner, Literature
Ilan Pappe: University of Exeter
Avi Shlaim: Emeritus Professor of International
Relations, University of Oxford
Azeezah Kanji
Legal academic and writer based in Toronto.
Dania Majid
President of the Arab Canadian Lawyers
Association (ACLA)
David Palumbo-Liu
Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor at Stanford
University.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/1/repression-of-speech-and-scholarship-on-palestine-needs-to-end/
----
Intel: Turkey Rejects US, Russia, France Call
For Cease-Fire In Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute
By Amberin Zaman
Oct 1, 2020
A
picture shows a rocket shell in the Ivanyan community in the breakaway
Nagorny-Karabakh region on Oct. 1, 2020. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces
intensified their shelling on Oct. 1 despite calls from the United States,
France and Russia for an end to days of fighting over the disputed
Nagorny-Karabakh region that has left more than 130 dead. Photo by HAYK BAGHDASARYAN/PHOTOLURE/AFP via
Getty Images).
----
The United
States, Russia and France called for an immediate cease-fire as the ongoing
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the mainly Armenian enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh entered its fifth day. The statement, signed by President
Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel
Macron, called on the warring parties to resume negotiations for a peaceful
resolution of the 36-year-old dispute over the mountainous area that Azerbaijan
and Armenia both claim.
The three
countries calling for a cease-fire are permanent members of the Minsk group
established after the war first erupted between the former Soviet states in
1988, leaving Armenia in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and large swathes of
Azerbaijani territory around it. Turkey backed Azerbaijan, while Iran helped
Armenia. Russia played on both pitches, as it typically does in its former
Soviet dominions to render itself indispensable.
Both
Azerbaijan and Turkey have rebuffed the Minsk group’s calls for a cease-fire
and vowed to fight on. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apparently agrees
that the war must go on. He said the Minsk group’s calls for a cease-fire were
“unacceptable,” and if they were really seeking a solution, then Armenia had to
withdraw from all the territories it had occupied and allow hundreds of thousands
of Azerbaijanis displaced by the war to return.
Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has ruled out any withdrawal, saying
Nagorno-Karabakh is an existential matter for his nation of 3 million.
Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev says the war won’t end until Azerbaijan regains full
control over the enclave and surrounding territories. And Erdogan is egging him
on.
Russia
revealed? Turkey is providing military support to Azerbaijan and, in an unusual
twist, finds itself on the same side as Israel, which is also reportedly aiding
Azerbaijan. The oil-rich republic in the southern Caucasus serves as a critical
base for Israeli surveillance of Iran.
Russia’s
stance remains a question of fierce debate. Today’s joint statement suggests,
however, that contrary to speculation, it has no plans to crash the Minsk
process or manage the conflict and its outcome in tandem with Turkey instead.
The Kremlin
has aired its discomfort with Erdogan’s bellicose rhetoric in support of
Azerbaijan.
It’s also
irked by reports that Syrian rebel mercenaries with a record of abuses have
been flown in to fight on the side of Azerbaijani forces. Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, held a
phone call today to discuss the latest developments in Nagorno-Karabakh. No
details were given.
Enter
Macron: France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who has been pushing back against
Turkish muscle-flexing in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya, upped the ante
today, blaming Azerbaijan for the fiercest fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since
1994.
Macron said
Azerbaijan had fired the first missiles triggering hostilities on Sunday. In a
further poke in Erdogan’s eye, Macron said France had concrete information that
Syrian jihadis had been ferried via the southern city of Gaziantep on the
Turkish-Syrian border, and that this represented “a grave” turn of events that
would be raised during a summit of EU leaders that kicked off in Brussels
today.
What's
next? The EU bloc will be weighing what if any sanctions to impose on Turkey
over its dispute with EU members Greece and Cyprus over exploiting the
hydrocarbon wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean. Macron has been pushing for
unspecified sanctions. Austria’s right-wing conservative chancellor, Sebastian
Kurz, is demanding that “red lines” be “finally set up” to rein in Erdogan. He
says talks for Turkey’s full membership of the EU have to end and sanctions
must be imposed.
Any such
moves would bring Turkey’s already tottering economy to its knees.
Fearing chaos,
Germany, which has an estimated 3 million Turkish origin people living within
its borders, is opposed to harsh measures against Turkey. It’s been mediating
between Turkey and Greece. Today the two countries announced they had
established a deconfliction mechanism following a series of talks at NATO
headquarters in Brussels. It remains to be seen what fresh crises lie in store
as the war in Nagorno-Karabakh escalates and the death toll on both sides
rises.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/10/intel-turkey-armenia-azerbaijan-ceasefire-russia-macron-us.html
----
Whatever the US Election Outcome, the Iranian
Regime Won’t Be Saved
By Dr Majid Rafizadeh
October 01,
2020
Joe
Biden was vice president during the Obama administration. (Reuters)
----
Some
scholars, policy analysts and politicians believe that, if Joe Biden were to
win the US presidential election in November, US-Iranian relations would return
to what they looked like during the Obama era and Tehran would again prosper
economically and politically, strengthening the regime’s hold on power.
Their
argument goes that Biden will rejoin the nuclear deal, sanctions against Iran
will be lifted, billions of dollars will flow into Tehran’s treasury, and the
pressure on the Iranian leaders will thus be removed. But it is not that easy.
For many reasons, Iran’s golden era during the Obama administration will not
come back, even if Biden is elected.
First of
all, some of the sanctions passed by the Trump administration cannot simply be
revoked by the next US president because they were passed by an overwhelming
vote in Congress, with support from both sides of the aisle. Some of the most
important sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime were passed via the
Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017. This
is a key US sanctions law against Iran and it will continue to be a robust blow
to Tehran. CAATSA targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for
its terrorist activities and destabilizing behavior, and for being a national
security threat to the US and its allies. Any individual or entity directly or
indirectly linked to the IRGC or its affiliates was also sanctioned as a result
of this important act.
The IRGC is
the backbone of the clerical establishment in Iran. It controls significant
sections of the country’s economic and ideological centers. In 2017, the
Washington office of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran
released a 175-page book entitled “The Rise of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Financial
Empire,” in which it demonstrated that the IRGC controls more than half of
Iran’s gross domestic product and owns several major economic powerhouses and
religious endowments, such as Astan Quds Razavi in the northeastern city of
Mashhad. The group also published another book in 2017 that reported on 15
terrorist training centers in Iran, where the IRGC provides ideological,
military and tactical training to foreign recruits, who are later dispatched
around the Middle East and beyond to carry out terrorist activities.
Some senior
IRGC officials have a vital say in Tehran’s domestic and foreign policy and its
support for proxy groups. The IRGC is also engaged in the domestic repression
of protesters and dissidents, the suppression of the freedoms of speech, press
and assembly, and the imprisonment of opponents. Many human rights and
political activists, particularly those who are suffering under the iron rule
of the IRGC and the ruling clerics, are in favor of the US sanctions.
The
sanctioning of the IRGC is a powerful move and will continue to have severe
consequences for Iran and its leaders, even if Biden does become president and
returns to the nuclear deal. Every country, organization and individual that
deals with Iran will have to be extremely cautious. Almost every major
transaction with Iran is conducted, either directly or indirectly, through the
IRGC due to the fact that it has the largest stake in Iran’s economy and
political affairs. CAATSA will remain detrimental to Tehran’s potential trade with
Western companies as it will make other nations hesitant to do business with
Iran due to the potential repercussions from the US.
Another
reason that Iran won’t see a return to the days of the Obama era is that the
regime is extremely unpopular at home. The disaffectedness of the population
and the protests and demonstrations against the regime will not go away if
Biden becomes president and rejoins the nuclear deal. Thousands of protesters
have been killed by the IRGC in the last few years. According to a September
report by Amnesty International, various branches of Iran’s government are
involved in these abuses and crimes. The report stated: “Iran’s police,
intelligence and security forces, and prison officials have committed, with the
complicity of judges and prosecutors, a catalogue of shocking human rights
violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and
other ill-treatment, against those detained.”
Despite the
regime’s deployment of brute force, the deep frustration and anti-regime anger
shared by many in the country has remained intact and will most likely continue
to rise.
So, even if
Biden does become US president, the Iranian regime will still be doomed. Its
leaders will continue to face unprecedented levels of pressure both
domestically and regionally.
----
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated
Iranian-American political scientist.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1742851
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URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/middle-east-press-repression-speech/d/123012