In the wake of the Holocaust in the 1940s and earlier in the century the genocidal attacks against the Armenians by Turkey and the German slaughter of the Herero and Namaqua peoples in SW Africa, the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide. In 1948 the UN adopted the Genocide Convention. On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a case with the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of the crime of genocide in its ongoing assault on Gaza. The Convention defines genocide as “the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” Israel has dismissed the South African charge calling it “meritless.”

[Adila Hassim, Richard Falk, Irene Gendzier] Gaza: A Case of Genocide

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"India's democracy is being systematically disassembled,” says renowned writer and activist Arundhati Roy. She adds, “Any kind of dissent is just smashed with an iron fist." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party openly espouse Hindutva, a racist ideology rooted in a mythical past and fueled by magical thinking. It’s a supremacist doctrine that privileges and elevates one group, Hindus, over all others. Its animus toward Muslims is particularly acute but Christians and other minorities also incur its wrath. Hindutva nationalists want to dominate Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. The Himalayan region has endured decades of occupation by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. There is resistance. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris are dead and missing. Human rights violations are routine. Yet the Kashmiri quest for azadi, freedom, continues.

[Mohamad Junaid] Modi, Hindutva & Kashmir

The award-winning Oppenheimer film has brought attention to the origins of the atomic bomb and the anguish of its inventor. Almost 80 years after that first explosion in New Mexico, the threat of global Armageddon not only remains but has increased. Until and unless nuclear weapons are abolished, humankind will always be in danger of massive death and destruction. Yet instead of moving toward abolition, the U. S. is upgrading its arsenal. The Doomsday Clock is ticking. Sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally, terminal war will destroy the planet. The only way to prevent that from happening is to eliminate all nuclear weapons. As long as they exist, humanity hangs by a thread.

[Sarah Scoles] The Future of Nuclear Weapons

How can the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity take lessons from the Black Liberation Movement? Historical circumstances are clearly different yet there are similarities. Both are located in a colonial-like situation, where a powerful oppressor dominates another less powerful group. Racism is a major factor. The Black Liberation Movement and Malcolm X’s eloquent voice and militant politics resonate with Palestinians struggling for their freedom. Liberation struggles are not easy. Resistance to change is entrenched. Power does not readily give up its prerogatives. 2CDs

[Eugene Puryear] From Birmingham to Bethlehem (part 2)

Hindutva is theocratic Hindu nationalism. It is a powerful force in what is now the world’s most populous country. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is a lifelong member of the RSS, an openly Hindu supremacist organization. Le Monde Diplomatique reports: Hindutva “followers regard India as a Hindu country. Non-Hindus are at best guests, at worst invaders, and must be identified, watched, deprived of certain rights, and in some cases expelled or even eliminated. The main victims of Hindutva are India’s large Muslim minority. Hindutva adherents oppose mixed Hindu-Muslim marriages, calling them a ‘love jihad’ that aims to convert Hindu women so that their offspring will be raised as Muslims. This paranoid fantasy has encouraged violence and widespread denigration of Indian Muslims.” Recorded at the Swedish Academy at the Thought and Truth Under Pressure conference.

[Arundhati Roy] India: On the Road to Theocracy

Corporate power is more concentrated than ever before. The rich are significantly richer. And the poor? Well, they know their place. There’s an odor of fascism in the air. FDR once warned, “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.” You can hardly turn on the radio or TV or go online and not hear or read the sentence: This is the most important election in American history. In response to the current crises, note the plural, we can moan and groan or we can act. The task for concerned citizens is what it always has been: organize at the grassroots, resist oppression and put forth positive alternatives.

[Adila Hassim, Richard Falk, Irene Gendzier] Gaza: A Case of Genocide

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