Tag Archives: War Crimes

Capitalism, Decolonizing Theory, Empire/ Imperialism, Islamophobia, Right watch

Genocide in Gaza – All the Perfumes of Arabia Will Not Sweeten These Hands…

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As the ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza reaches its most despicable and horrendous phase of killing masses people through forced starvation, I am posting here a piece that I wrote for the art journal Art Deal last year. It was also delivered as a talk in a discussion organized by the All India Students’ Association (AISA) in JNU in September 2024. I am publishing it here with some minor additions/ changes.

Israelis watch the bombing of Gaza in picnic mode outside a town called Sderot, in 2014, nine years before October 7, 2023. Image courtesy Menahem Kahana, Agence France-Presse.

‘Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza’s economy “on the brink of collapse” while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by a Norwegian daily on Wednesday.

Three cables cited by the Aftenposten newspaper, which has said it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks, showed that Israel kept the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv briefed on its internationally criticized blockade of the Gaza Strip.’

 – Reuters, 5 January, 2011, Jerusalem.

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No, it did not begin on 7 October 2023. Notwithstanding all the gaslighting by Israel and its guardians and arms-suppliers in the USA and Europe, the evidence says something else. The US cables leaked to Wikileaks show that not only had Israel been carrying out its genocidal activities for a very long time, its sponsors in the USA knew everything all along.

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Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Excavation, Frontiers, Language, Law, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Statement on David Bergman Case in Bangladesh: Concerned South Asian Journalists and Others

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Guest Post. Statement by Concerned South Asian Journalists, Writers, Historians and Activists

We, the undersigned journalists, writers, historians and activists from South Asia,  are deeply concerned about the use of ‘contempt of court’ law to curb freedom of expression. The conviction and sentencing on December 2, 2014, of Dhaka-based journalist David Bergman by the International Crimes Tribunal 2 on charges of “contempt of court” for citing published research on killings during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, is a serious set-back to Bangladesh’s commitment to free speech and independent scholarship.

At the outset, we reiterate our belief that those responsible for genocide and international crimes during the Liberation War must be prosecuted and punished through an open and transparent process.

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