By James E. Jennings
ATLANTA, Georgia, Sep 17 2024 – Today’s weapons are capable of wiping out entire swaths of humanity, demolishing remaining shreds of culture along with them. News coverage of the one-sided Gaza campaign make it plain that’s exactly what’s happening. Destroying the past destroys the future too. The world must band together to make sure these atrocities stop.

Israel’s war crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza have now reached a new low, despite continuing international protests and UNESCO complaints over the destruction of culture. After nearly a year of overkill, Israeli jets continue to drop bombs on hospitals, schools, and refugees in flimsy tent camps, killing increasing numbers of people who never had anything to do with starting the war.

Four months ago on May 15, Israeli’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, reported to Prime Minister Netanyahu that “HAMAS no longer functions as a military organization.” Lately it has been clear to everybody that there are no more military objectives left in Gaza.

It can only mean that the incessant bombing of the last four months, killing scores of innocent people every week, were intended to punish Gaza by intentionally killing civilians. Despite the claim that those being bombed are terrorists, there is no evidence to support that claim. It’s an outrage. War crimes keep piling up.

Just last week, on September 10 2024, after nearly a year of incredibly destructive bombing, Israeli jets struck the flimsy tents in al-Mawasi Camp, formerly declared a safe zone by the IDF itself, killing dozens of people and leaving three craters 30 feet deep.

A day later, the UN school in Jabalia Camp used as a shelter was bombed for the umpteenth time, killing at least 18, including 6 UN/UNRWA staff members, with local people claiming up to 60 deaths. After so many months and so many innocent people killed, what could possibly account for this continuing barbarity?

Deliberately targeting civilians anywhere is illegal under international law, and especially in declared safe zones within United Nations shelters and tent camps. Such overkill is incomprehensible to most of the civilized world, but also to nearly a million Israelis who regularly protest their government’s unwillingness to accept a cease-fire.

They have been in the streets for months begging the Likud-dominated War Cabinet to stop the war and free the diminishing number of Israeli captives. Weak cautions from the US White House have had no effect.

It is difficult to see how any of this benefits Israel. Their actions have raised worldwide scorn for the government in Jerusalem that insists on continuing the war. They have only succeeded in empowering the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement.

How can continued bombing reach any rational objective except to incite Israel’s enemies with more hatred and revenge killing extending far into the future? A military doctrine of “maximum force” can only mean killing large numbers of non-combatant women and children. These one-sided attacks will soon reach the one-year mark.

The only possible reasons for continuing Israel’s eleven-month killing spree in Gaza—since Netanyahu recently blocked a cease fire with HAMAS that might have rescued the hostages—is to decimate Palestine’s future along with its past, an important goal for the government in Jerusalem.

Targeting Palestine’s youth by bombing schools inevitably destroys their future opportunities along with the historical memory of the Palestinian people’s collective nationhood. Young people will be unable either to get jobs or reclaim their rightful heritage.

This barbaric one-sided atrocity in Gaza continues despite President Joe Biden and Democratic Candidate Kamala Harris’ words supporting two states. That formulation is now an improbable dream—far off if it ever happens. Most analysts believe it’s undo-able at this point, after hundreds of thousands of settlers have moved into the West Bank.

Humanity—meaning all of us—continues to struggle today amid an atmosphere of fear and lust for power. Bloody Gaza is at the center of a growing vortex in today’s sea of troubles.

James E. Jennings, PhD is President of Conscience International www.conscienceinternational.org and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace. Jennings has delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza’s hospitals since 1987, including during the first intifada, the al-Aqsa intifada, and Israel’s “Cast Lead” bombing attacks in 2009 and 2014.

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2024 – Today, the chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, confirmed that the first round of Gaza’s polio vaccination campaign had ended successfully, reaching 90 percent coverage. The second round of this campaign is set to begin by the end of September, delivering Gaza’s children with a critical second dose of the polio vaccine.

Last Friday, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit that oversees Israel’s policies during its occupation in the Gaza Strip, announced that 559,000 children across Gaza had been vaccinated, with extra efforts being put into vaccinating those in the northern regions, which are the most restricted.

Efforts on vaccination have run relatively smoothly thus far, with Lazzarini saying “Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required “humanitarian pauses” showing that when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption”. Despite this, it is difficult to predict if hostilities will remain dormant for the continued period of humanitarian pause.

Last week, an airstrike on the Al-Mawasi displacement camp left 40 killed and over 60 injured, despite Al-Mawasi being considered a “safe-zone”. This attack not only caused great structural damage to Gaza’s most populated refuge camp but also overwhelmed local medical facilities and aid personnel.

Additionally, on September 11, an airstrike on the Al-Jouni school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat caused 18 casualties, six of which were UNRWA aid workers. This brings the number of aid workers killed in this conflict to approximately 280.

These attacks have impeded efforts at vaccination, damaging critical infrastructures, such as roads, power lines, and water sanitation systems, exacerbating the spread of disease and limiting access to particularly vulnerable areas.

A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) states that aid workers “need safe, unimpeded access so they can visit households, markets, transit points, and health facilities to check children for the prominent purple dye marked on their little finger when they are vaccinated. These efforts will provide an independent measure of the percentage of vaccination coverage achieved and reasons for any unvaccinated children”.

The UK Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Barbara Woodward, informed reporters that “mass Israeli evacuation notices and the use of heavy weaponry mean that nowhere is safe in Gaza. We join the Secretary-General’s call for compliance with international law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution in attacks. We are horrified by the further killing of aid workers”.

Israel’s commitment to a humanitarian pause must be upheld so the polio crisis can be eradicated effectively. These attacks must stop so humanitarian workers can access all areas in the Gaza Strip. The second round of the vaccination campaign will be crucial in ensuring that the outbreak doesn’t spread further.

The WHO states, “Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible…At least 95 per cent vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign is needed to prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its re-emergence, given the severely disrupted health, water and sanitation systems in the Gaza Strip”.

Currently, negotiations of a ceasefire, spearheaded by the US, Egypt, and Qatar, are being discussed. However, even if the polio epidemic is eradicated and a ceasefire is achieved, the process of rebuilding Gaza is estimated by experts to be lengthy, difficult, and costly.

A major reason for this is due to the extent of damage done to Gaza’s infrastructure in the duration of this conflict. Nearly 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been leveled beyond repair. “There will be an enormous task in helping those in Gaza to rebuild. Early recovery will include clearing unexploded ordinance and rubble and providing essential services”, added Woodward.

Critical infrastructures, such as schools and hospitals, have been destroyed or are unusable due to their use as shelters. This significantly limits essential services such as healthcare, education, access to food and water, and sanitation.

The UN delegate for Sierra Leone emphasized how detrimental the effects of war have been on the Palestinian people, saying that the ongoing war “risks breeding a generation that is traumatized, uneducated, maimed, orphaned, homeless and — more dangerously — aggrieved”.

Additionally, the war has caused a significant economic decline. Aya Jaafar, an economist at the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO), stated, “Gaza has witnessed an almost complete destruction of economic activity in all sectors”.

According to ILO estimates, approximately 200,000 jobs have been lost, equating to 90 percent of the workforce prior to the conflict. Jaafar adds that emergency employment programs and continued humanitarian contributions will be necessary to facilitate a stable environment for Gaza.

Although it is too early to determine how long it will take Gaza to rebuild, Rami Alazzeh of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates, “ it will take decades and the will of the international community to fund tens of billions of dollars of investments to reconstruct Gaza”.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 17 2024 – Today, we stand with solemn hearts as the world marks this week the three-year ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.

Today and every day, we must stand up for the millions of Afghan girls and women living under the yoke of gender-apartheid: systematized and institutionalized oppression, exclusion, and marginalization based exclusively on their gender. However, standing in solemnity for their suffering is not enough. We must act to remove the oppression and injustice. Against all odds, we must continue to deliver results to provide the girls access to an education well beyond grade sixth.

As a staunch champion for girls’ human rights, not the least the most foundational right – their right to an inclusive and continued quality education – Education Cannot Wait and our strategic partners call out to the world through our #AfghanGirlsVoices advocacy campaign. Together and collectively, we have brought together artwork and calls to action by global leaders, and conveyed the inspiring stories of hope, courage and resilience straight from Afghan girls and young women refusing to succumb to oppression and refusing to give up on their right to an education.

The quotes from Afghan girls are heart-breaking, poetic and passionate. Some resound with hope: “Every beat of my heart resounds with a rhythm of hope, pushing me forward in my quest of education despite all odds.” Others chart the abuse and fear that millions of girls face on a daily basis: “At just 14 years old, I became a bride, when I should have been in the ninth-grade learning and playing with my friends. Instead of holding a pencil, I held the weight of a marriage I never wanted.” Others are defiant: “In the face of adversity, my dreams become my armour, shielding me from doubt and empowering me to forge ahead towards knowledge.”

Celebrities, world leaders and passionate influencers continue to promote the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

“The world must unite behind Afghan girls. Denying their right to education is a violation of the UN Charter, Convention on the Rights of the Child and basic human rights. Through the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, people everywhere can stand up for human rights and gender-justice by sharing their words of courage, hope and resilience,” said The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group.

As Khaled Hosseini, best-selling author of The Kite Runner, puts it: “Today, some three years after Afghan girls were banned from secondary education, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and woman are out of school. Many are forced into unwanted marriage. This is a catastrophe, because denying Afghan girls access to school not only violates their human right to education and jeopardizes their future, it jeopardizes the future of the homeland as well.”

The pursuit of knowledge is a key tenant of Islam, and a key component in delivering on our universal promises of peace, equality and human rights. Education for all of Afghanistan’s daughters is essential to rebuilding this long-suffering nation.

Today, we ask world leaders everywhere to join ECW and our global strategic partners in calling for an end to the ban on education and to take action. We call on you to fund the ongoing education initiatives at the local level defying this illegal and irrational ban. Second, we call on you to resolve the catastrophe for the girls of Afghanistan stemming from ignorance rather than enlightenment. Afghanistan deserves better and it is urgent.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait

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By IPS Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2024 – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has delivered quality education to children in crisis “against all odds,” ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif said at the United Nations today. “And you can imagine the odds. We are seeing more armed conflict, a growth of climate-induced disasters and the biggest refugee movement since World War 2.” 

Education Cannot Wait’s ‘Results Against All Odds: 2023 Annual Results Report’ launched today (September 17, 2024) gives details of the dire need for additional funding. While the number of children in urgent need of education support has nearly tripled since 2016, for the first time in a decade funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises dropped.

The global community is falling behind on its promise to ensure ‘quality education for all’ by 2030, the report says, as armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change, and other emergencies and protracted crises have left more than 224 million crisis-affected children in urgent need of education support, a sharp rise from 75 million in 2016.

Overall humanitarian funding for education decreased by 3% last year, from US$1.2 billion in 2022 to US$1.17 billion in 2023, according to the report.

Despite this, ECW, the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, and its strategic partners continue to deliver life-saving, life-sustaining and multi-year investments in education to the world’s most vulnerable children and adolescents.

Sherif thanked ECW’s partners and the global community that supports education for children in crisis.

“Most of all, we have to thank the children who are clinging on to hope despite the darkness and the odds against them, still wanting to go to school, wanting to learn and wanting to change their lives. Now, despite all these alarming trends and realities, education cannot wait,” Sherif said, noting that this report gave details of many children that had been reached since ECW became operational in 2017. 

“That’s six years, 11 million (children reached) with a holistic quality education, an education that is child-centered and that entitles the entire spectrum of school means academic training, arts and mental health and psychosocial services, protection, teacher training and teacher support, amongst so many other things.”  In 2023 alone, 5.6 million girls and boys were reached, she noted.

More Funding Needed to Meet 2026 Goal

To date, the fund has mobilized more than US$1.6 billion from public and private donors. However, US$600 million is urgently needed in donor contributions for ECW and its strategic partners to reach a total of 20 million children and adolescents with inclusive, quality education by the end of its 2023-2026 strategic plan period.

“For our 25 strategic donor partners, these transformative investments deliver a quality child-centered and holistic education, and thus represent a commitment to sustainable development, human rights, economic resilience and global security,” said Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group.

“Education is the most powerful tool to restore hope in a world marred by brutal conflicts, human rights violations and inequality. It is our investment in a new generation of leaders.”

From Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, the West Bank, to Haiti, the Sahel, Sudan, Ukraine and other hotspots around the globe, ECW’s report highlights the profound impact of education in crisis settings.

Funding Education: A Moral Choice

“Girls and boys in crises are enduring the worst impacts of brutal man-made conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other disasters. Our new report proves that despite these challenges, it is possible to provide them with the protection, hope and life-changing opportunity of a quality holistic education. To do this, we urgently call for US$600 million to meet our strategic plan targets and ensure a better future for 20 million girls and boys by the end of 2026,” said Sherif. “This is the time to make a moral choice that is aligned with political action.”

The new report shows ECW’s strong focus on the world’s most vulnerable and at-risk children: of the children reached in 2023, more than half were girls (51%), 17% were internally displaced and 22% were refugees.

The quality and impact of the education delivered—even in the most difficult of circumstances—are also improving. In all, 9 out of 10 programmes reported improved school enrollment and 72% showed gender-equitable progress. ECW reported that, among programmes able to monitor learning outcomes, 80% of its investments demonstrated academic improvements and 72% showed improvements in children’s social and emotional learning and well-being.

ECW investments also improved the continuity of learning, with notable increases in the number of girls and boys reached through the Fund’s investments in early childhood education and secondary school, disability inclusion, gender-transformative approaches, mental health support, and agile, holistic solutions that address whole-child needs.

The climate crisis is an education crisis. The number of children reached through First Emergency Responses resulting from climate-induced hazards nearly doubled from 14% in 2022 to 27% in 2023.

The report lays out ECW’s distinct approach and results in improving coordination at the humanitarian-development nexus, joint programming, increasing localization and community engagement, and building stronger data and evidence systems.

It demonstrates ECW’s efforts with partners to deliver on key United Nations initiatives and reforms, including the Grand Bargain agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Secretary-General UN reform. The report shows that the systems are in place and that Education Cannot Wait has brought a revival through bold support to make the systems work at its best. But funding is required to achieve the goals.

“Education is a public good and a fundamental right. To achieve our goals, global leaders must align policies, funding and humanitarian principles. Multilateral aid funding must immediately be increased to reverse the current downward trend, and partnerships and collaboration must be strengthened across humanitarian, development and peace efforts. Education Cannot Wait has shown us that the seemingly ‘impossible’ is indeed possible—provided that the funding is made available,” said Brown.

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2024 – The constant drumbeat of nuclear threats seems never ending—emanating primarily from the Russians, Israeli right-wing politicians and North Koreans.

The threats also prompt one lingering question: Can there be a World War III without the use of nuclear weapons?

In a report August 27, Reuters quoted a senior Russian official as saying the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles—and cautioned the United States that World War III would not be confined to Europe. 

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longstanding foreign minister and former UN ambassador, said the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was “asking for trouble” by considering Ukrainian requests to loosen curbs on using foreign-supplied weapons.

Putting it in the right context, the Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA) pointed out last week, “the global nuclear security environment could hardly be more precarious.”

Carol Giacomo, chief editor of Arms Control Today, the ACA’s flagship publication, said that weeks before the US elects a new president, the global nuclear security environment could hardly be more precarious.

“Russia continues to raise the specter of escalating its war on Ukraine to nuclear use; Iran and North Korea persist in advancing their nuclear programs; China is moving to steadily expand its nuclear arsenal; the United States and Russia have costly modernization programs underway; and the war in Gaza threatens to explode into a region-wide catastrophe entangling Iran and nuclear-armed Israel, among other countries,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are refusing to enter arms control talks with the United States, new countries are raising the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons and decades of arms control treaties are unraveling.

The situation has also prompted Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA), to warn, in an interview with The Financial Times on August 26, that the global nonproliferation regime is under greater pressure than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

The U.S. presidential election campaign has not engaged publicly on most of these issues in any serious way despite the fact that whichever candidate wins will, once inaugurated, immediately inherit the sole authority to launch U.S. nuclear weapons, wrote Giacomo, a former member of The New York Times editorial board (2007-2020).

Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Graduate Program Director, MPPGA at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS the dangers posed by nuclear arms, and the very powerful institutions and governments that possess these weapons of mass destruction, have never been greater.

“In the last 16 months, we have seen government officials from Russia (Dmitry Medvedev) and Israel (Amihai Eliyahu) threatening to use, or calling for the use of, nuclear weapons against Ukraine and Gaza respectively” he noted.

The rulers of these countries have already shown the willingness to kill tens of thousands of civilians. “Going further back, we can remember U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea. Coming from a person like Trump and a country like the United States that is the only one to use nuclear weapons in war, there is good reason to take such a threat with utmost seriousness”.

Such great dangers, he argued, can be ameliorated only with great visions, by people demanding that no one should be killed in their name, especially using nuclear weapons but not only using nuclear weapons.

This would require people to make common cause with people all over the world, and refuse to be divided by the “narrow nationalisms” that Albert Einstein identified as an “outmoded concept,” as far back as 1947.

Norman Solomon, executive director, Institute for Public Accuracy and national director, RootsAction.org told IPS the momentum of the nuclear arms race is moving almost entirely in the wrong direction. The world and humanity as a whole are increasingly in dire circumstances, made even more dire by the refusal of the leaders of nuclear states to acknowledge the heightened jeopardy of thermonuclear annihilation for nearly all of the Earth’s inhabitants.

As the nuclear superpowers, the United States and Russia, he said, have propelled the drive to keep developing nuclear weaponry. There are always rationalizations, but the result is proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“Nations with smaller nuclear arsenals and those with nuclear-arms aspirations are keenly aware of what the most powerful nuclear states are doing. Preaching about nonproliferation while proliferating is hardly a convincing role model to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to more and more countries,” Solomon pointed out.

“Notably, amid the vast amount of media coverage and diplomatic verbiage about Israel, rarely do we read or hear mention of the fact that Israel — uniquely in the Middle East — possesses nuclear weapons. Given Israel’s impunity to attack other countries in the region, it would be a mistake to have any confidence in Israeli self-restraint with military matters.”

The return of a cold war between the U.S. and Russia, said Solomon, is fueling the nuclear arms race to a dangerous extreme. Arms control has become a thing of the past, as one treaty after another in this century has been abrogated by the U.S. government. The Open Skies and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaties were canceled by President Trump.

Earlier, the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was canceled by President George W. Bush. The absence of those pacts makes a nuclear war with Russia more likely. But President Biden has not tried to revive those agreements snuffed out by his Republican predecessors, he argued.

“If sanity is going to prevail, a drastic change in attitudes and policies will be needed. The current course is headed toward unfathomable catastrophe for the human race”, said Solomon, author, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.”

Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, told IPS: “Looking around today’s world, we see a growing mob of nationalist authoritarian governments and leaders—including in nuclear-armed Russia, Israel, India, China, North Korea and increasingly, the United States. All of them are busily preparing for war in the name of peace.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Reflecting the urgency of this moment, in June, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), the official nonpartisan association of more than 1,400 American cities with populations over 30,000, adopted a sweeping resolution, titled “The Imperative of Dialogue in a Time of Acute Nuclear Dangers.”

The resolution rightly “condemns Russia’s illegal war of aggression on Ukraine and its repeated nuclear threats and calls on the Russian government to withdraw all forces from Ukraine.” But it also calls on the President and Congress “to maximize diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible.”

The resolution, Cabasso said, “calls on the U.S. government to work to re-establish high-level U.S.-Russian risk reduction and arms control talks to rebuild trust and work toward replacement of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the only remaining bilateral nuclear arms control treaty, set to expire in 2026.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

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