FOOD INSECURITY AND UNREST: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Photo courtesy of Rawpixel.

• BYTHOMAS S. BENSON, ORE KOREN, AND BENJAMIN E. BAGOZZI
• July 12, 2022

Guest post by Thomas S. Benson, Ore Koren, and Benjamin E. Bagozzi

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked fears that skyrocketing commodity prices—especially of wheat (Ukraine and Russia together account for about one-quarter of the world’s exports), oil, and gas—will cause a global wave of food protests. War, coupled with rapidly rising inflation—which has also been linked to bread riots—and more frequent climatic shocks suggest that concerns about food insecurity creating global unrest are timely and warrant further examination.

At the same time, framing the complexities of sociopolitical environments as simple “kneejerk” reactions to rising food insecurity risks oversimplifying the situation and our ability to address it. Previous studies that identify a clear relationship between food prices and protests emphasize this risk. 

Therefore, while food insecurity can clearly raise the risk of mass unrest, the key question is: When do people, faced with food insecurity, choose to mobilize? In a recent paper, we leveraged Twitter data by time and location from several cities in Kenya to answer this question. We coded—using machine learning techniques—hundreds of thousands of tweets in both English and Swahili to identify whether each tweet featured any reference to food or water stress.

Interestingly, we did not find that rising food insecurity, in and of itself, contributed to a higher risk of social unrest. However, we did find that the frequency of unrest events in urban contexts noticeably increased when and where people were simultaneously experiencing both acute food insecurity and acute water scarcity. In contrast, when there is a lack of water scarcity, greater food insecurity was found—if anything—to reduce the frequency of unrest events.

What explains this result? One possibility relates to the importance of context. Researchers who study environmental conflict emphasize that relationships between food and water security and unrest are often moderated. In other words, environmental and climatic factors have a conditional impact on socioeconomic determinants of social conflict/unrest, rather than a simple direct effect. In some contexts, food and/or water insecurity can lead to more violence, in others to none, and yet in other contexts it might lower the risk of unrest.

Another explanation pertains to the fact that the indicators usually used to measure food insecurity, such as food prices, weather variability, crop yields, and even surveys, cannot capture how insecurity is felt by people and societies in real time. These measures also rarely allow researchers to distinguish between different types of stress, such as separating food insecurity from water insecurity.

This is where the value of leveraging Twitter data to effectively measure food and other types of insecurity became apparent. When leveraged effectively, these data indicate a direct and proximate measure of how individuals’ lives are impacted by staple security, which we define as food and water security together. Using these data, researchers can measure different aspects of food insecurity including, for example, stress resulting not only from climatic variability but also from social and economic shocks, including rising food prices, and supply chain issues due to external factors—such as the war in Ukraine. Being able to identify the real-time impacts of food insecurity and distinguish them from the impacts of water insecurity allows us to assess how the two impacts relate to social unrest.

There are some potential limitations with our findings and interpretation. Only a subset of the world’s (typically younger, wealthier, and more urban) population is on Twitter—leading our study to focus only on urbanized areas. Likewise, while the ability of Twitter data to capture how people perceive such issues is a major advantage, it also poses a potential problem of inference. People may experience food insecurity differently across different contexts: what is considered food insecurity in Kenya might be different from how people perceive it in Papua New Guinea or Germany. In addition, the approach used in identifying food and water insecurity tweets in Kenya may not be definitive—as meanings of language can change over time and in the face of different crises.  

At the same time, these findings have important implications. If unrest arises due to a combination of insecurities—water and food, politics and food, or something else—then being able to address one insecurity, in effect, can in some cases neutralize the effect of the other. As we find, food security, in and of itself, is unlikely to generate mobilization. This presents a factor to be considered by policymakers in the wake of a global food crisis that raises questions over the extent to which any social unrest could be generated. It also presents implications for forecasting models of food riots that may be overpredicting the risk of unrest.

Rather, it appears the relationship between food insecurity and unrest—due to rising food prices and otherwise—is a function of socioeconomic features, such as the availability of social safety nets and storage capacity; and political factors, such as government responsiveness to the plight of its citizens. The capacity of societies to be resilient and absorb economic shocks, including rising food prices, should be the focus of policymakers and non-governmental organizations seeking to prevent or reduce the risk of unrest, especially in vulnerable countries.

Thomas S. Bensona is a Princeton Dissertation Scholar and a Dissertation Fellow (ABD Ph.D Candidate) in the department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. Ore Koren is an Assistant Professor of international relations and methodology in the Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington. Benjamin E. Bagozzi is an Associate Professor of Political Science & International Relations at the University of Delaware.

https://politicalviolenceataglance.org/

Dedicated researchers help protect giants of the deep

Zhang Zhihao

A sperm whale can grow to more than 49 feet in length

(PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In many ways, Li Songhai is the direct opposite of Captain Ahab, the vengeful captain in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick.

Unlike Ahab, who was obsessed with hunting a giant white sperm whale, Li is dedicated to studying and protecting these creatures in the South China Sea.

Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, leads one of the country’s deep-sea marine mammal research teams. The team comprises about 20 people who, he says, are “physically, mentally and spiritually tested” by the harsh conditions for oceanic expeditions in the South China Sea.

Li’s team has found that there is a good chance that the South China Sea is a nursing ground for the endangered sperm whale, the largest toothed whale in the world, which can grow to more than 49 feet in length.

The team’s findings were published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers in April, the first time it had featured a study by Chinese scientists on marine mammals.

Nine groups of sperm whales were sighted in northern areas of the South China Sea from 2019 to 2021

(PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Studying sperm whales and other mammals in the South China Sea is of great scientific, ecological and strategic significance for China’s conservation, management and development of deep-sea biological resources in the region, Li said.

According to the team’s study, nine groups of sperm whales were sighted in northern areas of the South China Sea from 2019 to 2021. They were seen south-east of the island province of Hainan and north of the Xisha Islands. Each group comprised five to seven whales, and seven groups were found to be nursing one or two calves.

Throughout history there have been reports of stranded sperm whales sighted in China’s coastal provinces, Li said, but until now scientists have been unable to directly confirm that there are sperm whale populations in the country’s coastal waters.

“When I first saw a live sperm whale in the South China Sea in 2019 I couldn’t believe my eyes. The sight of a single whale is breathtaking enough, but several times we saw a mother whale swimming with her calf, accompanied by a group of Fraser’s dolphins. This was a sight to behold.”

While adult male sperm whales travel thousands of miles looking for food and mates, females with their calves do not follow suit. Coupled with the fact that the South China Sea has ample food sources for sperm whales, it is possible that it is also a key hunting and breeding ground for the creatures, Li said.

“As these whales are such an essential part of a healthy marine ecosystem, China may need to improve its policies related to marine ecological protection to shield these valuable creatures and other undersea resources from intrusive human activities.”

Such work includes enhancing marine biology research in the South China Sea and establishing a national marine protected area to safeguard waters around sperm whale nurseries, Li said, similar to marine protected areas in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“For many countries, the sperm whale has been a flagship creature for marine research and a poster child for marine conservation,” Li said.

“This is because sperm whales are peaceful creatures that do not compete with humans for resources on land – yet they play a crucial role in the sustainability of the oceans that benefits all of us. This makes them truly altruistic friends of humankind.”

Previously published on Chinadaily.com.cn

Beirut port silos hit by 2020 explosions catch fire

Families of victims fear destruction of a symbol of the disaster

12 JULY, 202

BEIRUT - A fire broke out on Tuesday in Beirut inside of what remains of grain silos destroyed by a devastating explosion in the port of the capital two years ago, according to eyewitnesses and Lebanese media

A column of smoke was reported to be rising from inside the silos, where the remains of grain - now spoilt and fermenting - have been left for two years.

The cause of the flames is unclear.

Families of the victims have told media outlets that they are afraid that it may be a case of arson intending to destroy what remains of the silos, which over time have become a true symbol of the August 4, 2020 disaster in which over 250 people died, over 6,000 were injured, and 330,000 were forced to leave their homes.

On August 4, 2020, some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut's port after being left in unsafe conditions by Lebanese authorities for over six years in one of the port hangars.

The tall grain silos, visible from every side of the Beirut seafront, protected part of the city from the devastating effects of the explosion, which experts rank among the 10 more powerful non-nuclear explosions in history.

After the August 4 disaster, which occurred amid the worst economic and political crisis in Lebanese history, the entire political class was blamed by the victims' families and by broad swaths of public opinion. Massive street protests had already begun periodically starting in 2019 against corruption and bad government.

Several analysts and observers say that the Lebanese political class has thus far managed to impede the Lebanese judiciary under judge Tareq Bitar from identifying those responsible for the August 4, 2020 explosion.

For this reason, sectors of civil society and the victims' families demand that what remains of the silos should remain standing and be transformed into a monument commemorating the disaster and the responsibility of those behind it.

© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved

Blow for French ham, cold meats after nitrates health warning

Agence France-Presse
July 12, 2022

France is one of the world's biggest producers of cold cuts, known locally as 'charcuterie' 

Caroline BLUMBERG POOL/AF

French health authorities said Tuesday they had confirmed a link between nitrates added to processed meat and colon cancer, dealing a blow to the country's prized ham and cured sausage industry.

The national food safety body Anses said its study of data published on the subject supported similar conclusions in 2015 from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Anses "recommends reducing consumption of the range of nitrates and nitrites by deliberately limiting exposure through food consumption", it said in a statement.

Nitrates are added to a range of food products to improve their shelf life and flavor, and to help give pork-based products their pink hue.

France is one of the world's biggest producers of cold cuts, known locally as "charcuterie", which are often consumed as snacks or with early evening drinks.

The government immediately announced that it would unveil an action plan to reduce the use of the additives later this year.

"It is about limiting their use to the strictly necessary," said a joint statement from the health and agricultural ministers. "The reduction must be done in a balanced way that guarantees food security for the consumer."

The 2015 WHO warning caused headlines around the world after the UN body's International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that processed meats should be classified as a group 1 carcinogen.

The warning applied to all processed meats, from the bacon eaten in large quantities in the US and Britain, to Italian salami, Spanish chorizo, German bratwurst and French charcuterie.

Anses said in its statement that reducing nitrates would result in increased risks of serious illnesses such as botulism, listeria or salmonella.

But these dangers could be managed by shorter best-before consumption dates and modified manufacturing processes, it added.


"Faced with the scientific facts, the political class must take action," campaign group Foodwatch, the League against Cancer and health-monitoring app Yuka said in a joint statement.

© 2022 AFP

God's will or ecological disaster? Mexico takes aim at Mennonite deforestation









Tue, July 12, 2022 
By Cassandra Garrison

VALLE NUEVO, Mexico (Reuters) - The largest tropical forest in North America yields to perfect rows of corn and soy. Light-haired women with blue eyes in wide-brimmed hats bump down a dirt road in a horse and buggy, past simple brick homes and a whitewashed schoolhouse: A Mennonite community in southern Mexico.

Here, in the state of Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula at the northern edge of the Maya Forest, the Mennonites say they live to traditional pacifist values and that expanding farms to provide a simple life for their families is the will of God.

In the eyes of ecologists and now the Mexican government, which once welcomed their agricultural prowess, the Mennonites' farms are an environmental disaster rapidly razing the jungle, one of the continent's biggest carbon sinks and a home to endangered jaguars.

Smaller only than the Amazon, the Maya Forest is shrinking annually by an area the size of Dallas, according to Global Forest Watch, a non-profit organisation that monitors deforestation.

The government of President Andres Manuel Lopez is now pressuring the Mennonites to shift to more sustainable practices, but despite a deal between some Mennonite settlements and the government, ongoing land clearance was visible in two villages visited by Reuters in February and May.

Farmers such as Isaak Dyck Thiessen, a leader in the Mennonite settlement of Chavi, are finding it hard to adjust.

"Our people just want to be left in peace," he said, standing on a shaded doorstep to escape the unforgiving afternoon sun. Beyond his neat farm rose the green wall of the rainforest.

In search of land and isolation, Mennonites – for whom agricultural toil is a core tenet of their Christian faith – grew in numbers and expanded into remote parts of Mexico after first arriving from Canada in the early 20th Century.

Despite shunning electricity and other modern amenities away from work, their farming has evolved to include bulldozers and chainsaws as well as tractors and harvesters.

In Campeche, where Mennonites arrived in the 1980s, around 8,000 sq km of forest, nearly a fifth of the state's tree cover, has been lost in the last 20 years, with 2020 the worst on record, according to Global Forest Watch.

Groups including palm oil farmers and cattle ranchers also engage in widespread land clearance. Data on how much deforestation is driven by Mennonite settlers and how much by other groups is not readily available.

One 2017 study, led by Mexico's Universidad Veracruzana, found that property owned by Mennonites in Campeche had rates of deforestation four times higher than non-Mennonite properties.

The clearance contrasts with the traditions of indigenous farmers who have rotated corn and harvested forest products such as honey and natural rubber since Maya cities dominated the jungle from the Yucatan to El Salvador.

Itself under international pressure to pursue a greener agenda, in August the government persuaded some Campeche Mennonite settlements to sign an agreement to stop deforesting land.

Not all the communities signed up.

FIRE AND SAWS

On the edge of the remote village of Valle Nuevo, Reuters journalists witnessed farmers clearing jungle and setting fires to prepare for planting.

Jacob Harder, Jr., a Mennonite school teacher in Valle Nuevo, said the agreement had not made an impact on how Valle Nuevo approaches agriculture.

"We haven't changed anything," Harder said.

Leader Dyck Thiessen and a lawyer representing some communities and farmers said Mennonites, who take a pacifist approach to conflict, felt attacked and scapegoated by the government's efforts.

Jose Uriel Reyna Tecua, the lawyer, said they were unfairly blamed while the government pays less attention to others that deforest.

At one meeting last year, Agustin Avila, a senior official at the federal environment ministry, warned villagers the military could be brought to the area to prevent deforestation if the communities did not change their ways, Reyna Tecua said.

"That was the direct threat," Reyna Tecua said.

In response to a Reuters question about Avila's alleged comments, the environment ministry denied any mention of using the military, saying the government operated on the basis of dialogue.

Carlos Tucuch, head of the Campeche office of Mexico's National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), told Reuters the government was not singling out the Mennonites and was also tackling other causes of deforestation.

THE MOVE SOUTH

Mennonites trace their roots to a group of Christian radicals in 16th century Germany and surrounding areas that emerged in opposition to both Roman Catholic doctrine and mainstream Protestant faiths during the Reformation.

In the 1920s, a group of about 6,000 moved to northern Mexico and established themselves as important crop producers.

Still speaking Plautdietsch - a blend of Low German, Prussian dialects and Dutch - a few thousand moved to the forests of Campeche in the 1980s. They bought and leased tracts of jungle, some from local Maya indigenous communities. More arrived in recent years as climate change worsened drought in the north.

In 1992, legislation made it easier to develop, rent or sell previously protected forest, increasing deforestation and the number of farms in the state.

When Mexico opened up the use of genetically modified soy in the 2000s, Mennonites in Campeche embraced the crop and the use of the glyphosate weedkiller Roundup, designed to work alongside GMO crops, according to Edward Ellis, a researcher at Universidad Veracruzana.

The higher yields mean more income to support large families - 10 children is not unusual - and live a simple life supported by the land, said historian Royden Loewen, explaining that settlements often invest as much as 90% of profits to buy land.

At least five Mennonites who spoke to Reuters said they wanted to acquire more land for their families.

While most Mexican Mennonites remain in the north, there are now between 14,000 and 15,000 in Campeche spread over about 20 settlements.

"If God grants you, then you grow," said Dyck Thiessen, who has attended government meetings but did not sign the agreement.

FOREST TOLL

The Mennonites largely maintain a tense peace with local indigenous communities who serve as guardians to the surrounding forest but also rent equipment from their new neighbors for their own land.

"With them, we began to have access to machinery. We see that it gives us results," said Wilfredo Chicav, 56, a Maya farmer.

Such advances in agricultural efficiency have taken a toll on the Maya Forest, home to fauna that includes up to 400 species of birds.

Its 100 species of mammal include the jaguar, at risk of extinction in Mexico if its habitat shrinks, said the forestry commission's Tucuch.

Between 2001 and 2018, the three states that comprise the forest in Mexico lost about 15,000 sq km of tree cover, an area that would cover much of El Salvador.

This is driving a shorter rainy season. Farmers used to schedule planting for the first of May, now they often wait until July as less forest implies less rainfall capture, leading to a drop in moisture uptake in the air and a decrease in rain, Tucuch said

Campeche's Environment Secretary, Sandra Laffon, said the Mennonites in the state did not always have the right paperwork to turn the forest into farmland.

Reyna Tecua acknowledged problems with land purchases. Families sometimes fall victim to deals based on a handshake and verbal word, and sellers can take advantage by promising land that is not up for legal sale in the first place, he said.

The agreement signed last year created a permanent working group between the government and Mennonite communities to try to resolve permitting, land ownership and administrative and criminal complaints against them from local people including for illegal logging.

Laffon said there were signs the agreement is having an impact. Global Forest Watch data showed a decrease in deforestation in Campeche in 2021, but said that could be the result of factors including a lack of remaining land suitable for agriculture and government incentive programs, which include a nationwide scheme popular with Maya indigenous farmers that rewards tree planting.

Mennonite leaders are seeking a proposal from the government that won't cut their production dramatically, Reyna Tecua said. A government plan to phase out glyphosate by 2024 is the biggest worry for many, he said.

However, lower production may be a price farmers, including Mennonites, have to pay to protect the environment, Laffon said.

"We are at the point of having to sacrifice our position" as Mexico's second largest grain producer "for a healthier Campeche," she said.

Lifting his cap to wipe sweat from his brow, Dyck Thiessen, the Mennonite leader, doubted organic methods proposed by the government would be successful. Tension with officials has stalled his plans to acquire more land, he said.

Still, he has faith.

"If the government shuts us down," he says, "God will open for us."

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; additional reporting by Adrian Virgen and Jose Luis Gonzalez; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Frank Jack Daniel)

US Democracy Under Concerted Attack

GEORGE SOROS fears that the radicalization of the US Supreme Court is part of a larger plan to create a repressive regime.

GEORGE SOROS
Jul 4, 2022

The American public has been alarmed and aroused by the US Supreme Court's growing extremism. But voters need to recognize the Court's radical majority for what it is: part of a carefully laid plan to turn the US into a repressive regime.

NEW YORK – The United States has been a constantly evolving democracy ever since it was founded in 1776, but its survival as a democracy is now gravely endangered. A set of loosely interconnected developments at home and abroad is responsible for this crisis.

From abroad, the US is threatened by repressive regimes led by Xi Jinping in China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia who want to impose an autocratic form of government on the world.

But the threat to the US from the domestic enemies of democracy is even greater. They include the current Supreme Court, which is dominated by far-right extremists, and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which placed those extremists on the Court.1

What qualifies the majority of the Court as extremists? It is not merely their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that recognized a woman’s right to choose whether to give birth. What qualifies them as extremists is the arguments they used to justify their decision and the indications they gave of how far they might be willing to go in carrying out those arguments.

Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the majority opinion, based his ruling on the assertion that the Fourteenth Amendment protects only those rights that were generally recognized in 1868, when the amendment was ratified. But this argument endangers many other rights that have been recognized since then, among them the right to contraception, same-sex marriage, and LGBTQ rights.

Carried to its logical conclusion, this line of reasoning could even allow states to ban inter-racial marriage, as some did until 1967. It is also clear that this Court intends to mount a frontal attack on the executive branch. One of the most consequential rulings of the Court’s just-completed term denied the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to issue regulations needed to combat climate change.

It doesn’t take long to find the common denominator in the Court’s recent decisions: support causes promoted by Trump’s Republican Party and weaken or outlaw causes favored by the Democratic Party. Consider gun laws. The Court’s radical wing listens closely to the pro-gun lobby. So, though a recent epidemic of mass shootings created such a national outcry that even some Republicans supported a new federal gun law, the Court compensated the National Rifle Association for the loss by striking down a longstanding New York law that placed strict restrictions on carrying concealed handguns (New York State immediately passed new gun laws, that are likely to end up before the Supreme Court).

The Supreme Court used to be among the most highly respected institutions in the US. Through its recent decisions, the extremist majority has driven its approval rating to a historic low, and disapproval of the Court to new highs. The dissenting opinion in the case that overturned Roe flatly stated that the majority decision “undermines the court’s legitimacy.” Unfortunately, the minority is likely to remain in the minority for a long time, because the extremists are younger and hold a 6-3 majority.

There is only one way to rein in the Supreme Court: throw the Republican Party out of office in a landslide. That would allow Congress to protect through legislation the rights that had been entrusted to the protection of the Supreme Court. It is now clear that doing so was a big mistake. Congress must act, starting with protecting a woman’s right to choose. If the filibuster must be amended to achieve that, so be it.

But when it comes to organizing a landslide victory against the radicalized Republicans, opponents face almost insuperable obstacles. Republicans have not only stacked the Supreme Court and many lower courts with extremist judges. In states such as Florida, Georgia, and Texas, they have enacted a raft of laws that make voting very difficult.

While these laws focus on disenfranchising African Americans, other minorities, and young voters generally, their ultimate goal is to help Republicans win elections. As a Florida federal judge recently wrote in striking down one of these laws, they were enacted “with the intent to restructure Florida’s election system in ways that favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party.”

These laws would be bad enough if they only targeted who can vote. But Republicans are now going even further, by attacking the vote-counting and election-certification process. From changing the law to make subversion of the electoral system easier, to recruiting believers in Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him to oversee the process, we are watching Republicans attack our system of democracy from every angle. And here, too, the radical Supreme Court has done its part, gutting the federal Voting Rights Act and allowing naked partisan redistricting to weaken minority voting power.1

Fortunately, I am not alone in claiming that the survival of democracy in the US is gravely endangered. The American public has been aroused by the decision overturning Roe. But people need to recognize that decision for what it is: part of a carefully laid plan to turn the US into a repressive regime, particularly targeting women regardless of the devastating consequences.

We must do everything we can to prevent that. This fight ought to include many people who voted for Trump in the past. I am a supporter of the Democratic Party, but this is not a partisan issue. It is about reestablishing a functioning two-party political system which is at the core of American democracy.

GEORGE SOROS
Writing for PS since 1997
122 Commentaries
George Soros is Chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations. A pioneer of the hedge-fund industry, he is the author of many books, including The Alchemy of Finance, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means, and The Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival? His most recent book is In Defense of Open Society (Public Affairs, 2019).

The world needs U.S. antitrust legislation: Big Tech must not determine global human rights



11 JULY 2022 

“Truth and democracy will forever be under attack with Big Tech calling the shots and manipulating information flows to pad their pockets.”

A very small number of U.S. tech companies exercise outsized control over global human rights in the digital age — This must change. Today, Access Now and 29 civil society organizations from around the world issued an open statement calling on the U.S. Congress to tackle this dangerous dominance head-on by passing the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act.

These bills have the power to hold U.S. corporations like Alphabet and Meta — whose influence is wielded through their platforms Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — Apple, and Amazon accountable for failing to keep people safe online, and put an end to their reign of data abuse and surveillance.

“As it stands, we live in a world where the decisions of a few Silicon Valley CEOs have more sway over human rights online than democratically elected officials,” said Jennifer Brody, U.S. Policy and Advocacy Manager at Access Now. “This is simply unacceptable. The U.S. government’s regime of negligence is over — It must immediately regulate its home-grown surveillance capitalists and put an end to Big Tech’s shameful history of facilitating human rights abuses around the world.”

U.S. platforms all play a fundamental role in enabling human rights violations and exacerbating inequalities. By amplifying dangerous disinformation, and weaponizing sensitive data against targeted communities, these companies’ conscious decisions have devastating real-world impacts including attacks against human rights defenders in the Philippines and ethnic violence in Ethiopia.

“Big Tech’s massive power over our economic, social, and political lives has been left unchecked for too long,” said Maria Luisa Stasi, Head of Law and Policy for Digital Markets at ARTICLE 19. “It has produced enormous harm to democracy and led people to normalize the violation of their fundamental rights. It is time for the U.S. Congress to act to tame this power and reset the conditions for a fairer, more diversified and innovative economy to flourish, and for people to have choices and see their rights duly respected.”

“Big Tech companies have been allowed to grow too big and too powerful, to the detriment of human rights and democracy,” said Nathalie Maréchal, Policy Director at Ranking Digital Rights. “Passing this antitrust package is key to accountability and to creating a level playing field for future innovation that strengthens society. Just as importantly, Congress needs to protect privacy at the federal level and reform corporate governance.”

The U.S. Congress must seize this opportunity to end years of anti-competitive practices that have given Big Tech no incentive to safeguard human rights. It is time for lawmakers to take a stand on putting people before corporate greed.

Read the full statement.

Israel journalist reveals 20 Egyptian soldiers burnt alive in 1967 war

July 8, 2022 

Palestinian and foreign activists next to a monument commemorating the death of Egyptian soldiers killed during the 1967 Six-Day war [ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images]

A prominent Israeli journalist specialising in security affairs, on Friday, revealed that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive by the Israeli army during the 1967 war, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a series of tweets, journalist Yossi Melman wrote: "After 55 years of heavy censorship, I can reveal that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive and buried by IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) in a mass grave, which wasn't marked and without being identified contrary to war laws, in Latrun. It happened during the Six-Day War."

The website of the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, has published similar details narrated by Melman.

Melman stressed that late Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, days before the outbreak of the war, had signed a joint defence agreement with the late King of Jordan, Hussein bin Talal, who was in control of the West Bank at the time.

"Egypt deployed 2 commando battalions in the West Bank near Latrun, which was no man's land. Their mission was to raid inside Israel and take over Lod and a nearby military airfield," Melman said.

Latrun is located on the road between Jerusalem and Jaffa, about 25 kilometres (some 16 miles) west of Jerusalem. After the 1948 war, an agreement was reached between Israel and Jordan to make it a no-man's land.

In the 1967 war, Israel occupied and annexed Latrun, which is today a suburb of West Jerusalem.

READ: Historical document reveals possible collusion with Israeli occupation pre-Six Day War

"Fire exchanges took place with the IDF troops and members of Kibbutz Nahshon. Some Egyptian troops fled, some were taken prisoners, and some bravely fought. At a certain point, IDF fired mortar shells and thousands of uncultivated dunams of wild bush in the dry summer were set on fire," said Melman.

At least 20 Egyptian soldiers died in the bushfire that spread quickly and they had no chance to escape, Melman quoted Zeen Bloch (now 90 years old), who was the military commander of Nahshon, a left-wing Kibbutz – agricultural community – as telling him.

"The next day IDF soldiers equipped with a bulldozer came to the scene, dug a pit, pushed the Egyptian corpses and covered them with soil. Bloch and some Nahshon members watched with horror as soldiers looted personal belongings and left the mass grave unmarked," the journalist said.

Melman noted: "The veil of silence suited everybody. The few who knew didn't want to talk about it. We were ashamed. But above all, it was IDF's decision in the heat of the war."

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Melman's statement.

In the 1967 war, IDF defeated the Arab armies and occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (which was under Jordanian control), Gaza Strip (which was under Egyptian control), Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights.

Before Israel alleges 'anti-Semitism' abroad, it should root out the plague at home

July 12, 2022

Deborah Lipstadt in Rome, Italy on 17 October 2016 

[Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images]

Yvonne Ridley
yvonneridley
July 12, 2022 

When Dr Deborah Lipstadt became America's special anti-Semitism watchdog she decided to embark on an 11-day tour of the Middle East, making Saudi Arabia the first stop. As predicted, it wasn't long before the US State Department's anti-Semitism ambassador was confronted by an explosive episode of Jew-hatred. However, it wasn't in the land of Islam's holiest sites that this took place; it was in Jerusalem, and the culprits were extremist Zionists.

Misogynistic, hard line Jewish men disrupted a pro-women Jewish group during religious ceremonies near the Western Wall; they screamed things such as "Nazis", "Christians" and "animals" at the mixed congregation before ripping up prayer books and drowning out the words of rabbis by blowing whistles. The disruption was caused by dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists who targeted three bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies near the wall a few days ago.

Lipstadt, who was sworn in to the ambassadorial-level post in March, was duly told about the incident. "Deeply disturbed by the troubling actions of a group of extremists last week at the Kotel," she tweeted on 30 June. "Let us make no mistake, had such a hateful incident — such incitement — happened in any other country, there'd be little hesitation in labelling it anti-Semitism."

So why doesn't she call it out for what it is and tell US President Joe Biden precisely that ahead of his Middle East tour which begins this week? That's what Biden appointed her to do, wasn't it? He said that he wanted to crack down on blatant anti-Semitism, so why is no action being taken by Israel's main supporter against this repugnant, violent group of religious fanatics?

The reality is that this form of Jew-hatred has been prevalent in Israel for many years among religious extremists within the Jewish community. While episodes of anti-Semitism have seen internal crackdowns in political parties, colleges and other organisations around the world, the Israeli government has swept its own Jewish problem under the carpet and allowed this home-grown form of anti-Semitic terror to flourish.

Women of the Wall is a group which has been targeted many times since its formation 30 years ago. The founders were Jewish women from Israel and overseas who demanded the right to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and aloud at the Western Wall (the aforementioned Kotel) in occupied Jerusalem.

The Western Wall is Judaism's most sacred holy site and the principal symbol of Jewish peoplehood and sovereignty, and yet women cannot pray there freely. Women of the Wall says it pulls together all denominations of Judaism: Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Masorti, Renewal and Reconstructionist. Its demands to pray by the Western Wall according to their own traditions in a gender-mixed space has proved to be a political hot potato for political leaders in Tel Aviv. The then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a compromise in 2016 by designating an egalitarian space on the southern side of the Western Wall, accessible from the main gate of the plaza, to be managed by a council of representatives of progressive Judaism.

Netanyahu soon came under pressure from sections of the powerful ultra-Orthodox Jewish lobbies, so a smaller space was established, although after violent outbursts and the 30 June incident it can hardly be called a safe space for female Jews. As any Palestinian in occupied Palestine will tell you, compromises in the Zionist State are often not worth the paper they're written on, and it looks as if this is true from the perspective of progressive Jews too.

In 74 years since its bloody inception, Israel has never been able to control the violent religious extremists, mainly from the illegal settlements, who routinely disrupt and brutalise Palestinian lives. If Tel Aviv can't offer protection to Jewish women at Judaism's holiest site, then what hope is there for Palestinians?

No wonder Islam's third holiest site, of which the Western Wall is one boundary, is constantly violated and attacked by Jewish extremists as well as Israel's brutal occupation forces. They make worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque extremely difficult for local and visiting Muslims.

Outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pushed through a compromise during his short tenure while trying desperately not to be sucked into a political row with the hard-line clerics and their followers from the ultra-Orthodox parties. However, as the events of 30 June have demonstrated, velvet glove diplomacy doesn't work with the ever-expanding extreme right-wing Jews in the occupation state.

Dr Lipstadt certainly has her work cut out if she is serious about cracking down on unacceptable Jew-hatred which has been tolerated for far too long in Israel. What these latest episodes have shown us is that the Knesset is running scared of the religious extremists in their midst and there's a reluctance to rein-in their links to terror groups and criminal behaviour. The latter is directed not only against Palestinians, but also against other Jews.

The Biden administration appointed a special envoy with ambassadorial status to tackle anti-Semitism. That's a positive start. Now the hard work must begin in what is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous places for Jews in the world: the self-declared Jewish state of Israel. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, so before Israel cries "anti-Semitism" abroad, it should root out the plague at home in the occupation state itself.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Sri Lanka is Declared ‘Bankrupt’ as Humanitarian Crisis Looms

The country has defaulted on $51 billion USD of foreign debt, while warning of worsening fuel and food shortages amidst continuing public outrage.

on July 12, 2022
By Dr. Monika Chansoria

Sri Lankans protest demanding the resignation of the government in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, May 6, 2022. Protesters have continued nationwide demonstrations against the government over its alleged inability to resolve the worst economic crisis in decades. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka’s caretaker Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared his country “bankrupt.” Meanwhile, the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is in hiding at the moment, is anticipated on 13 July.

Wickremesinghe has also agreed to step down, it has been reported, thus paving way for an all-party unity government to be constituted to run the embattled island nation.

Months of Unrest

Rajapaksa had been facing months of sustained protests calling for him to step down from power, with the popular protest slogan ‘#GoHomeGota’ gaining massive ground. He repeatedly declined.

Ultimately, public outrage culminated with the recent takeover and ransacking of the presidential palace, official and private residences, and offices. Extensive media footage of unending throngs of people swarming and overtaking these properties will remain etched in the public memory as a symbol of civic anger and outrage against the apathy of the Rajapaksa clan’s policies and governance.

The political and fiscal bungling by the Rajapaksa administration was multiplied further by the plaguing debts with China, and beyond those by the COVID pandemic. The combination is behind the devastating ongoing economic situation facing the island nation.

Public occupation of the presidential palace in Colombo.

Colombo’s economy has been faltering since 2020. The raging and uncontrollable inflation is expected to hit a record 70 percent in the coming months of 2022, as food prices skyrocket and government coffers run dry.

Further, the energy crisis has led to continuing blackouts.

In all, Sri Lanka is in the midst of a hounding humanitarian crisis with the government already having defaulted on $51 billion USD of foreign debt. It can no longer afford to import fuel, food, and medicines. Economic woes are showing no sign of relenting with multiple incoming warnings of a worsening fuel and food shortages situation.

Ushering In a Food Crisis

The Rajapaksa clan led by the three brothers, Basil, Gotabaya, and Mahinda, has been accused of corruption and financial mismanagement of the island nation’s affairs, which eventually caused the worst economic crisis since Lanka’s independence in 1948.

Moreover, the Lankan public has blamed the erratic and unreflective policies of the Rajapaksa administration for its food shortage. The unperceptive and sudden ban by Gotabaya Rajapaksa on all chemical fertilizers across Sri Lanka in May 2021 directly resulted in momentous drops in agricultural yields. The ban was imposed virtually overnight with no prior warning or training, rendering the farming community furiously helpless.

Even though the ban was rolled back following widespread protests, it caused widespread damage which became unmanageable. In the end it led to a 30 percent drop in annual paddy yields nationwide in 2021.

Being a tropical country, Sri Lanka’s main produce remains rice grown in paddies and banana plantations. The fertilizer ban caused a food crisis never before experienced in independent Sri Lanka’s history.

Food shortages in turn have sparked massive public protests. In fact, food inflation in Sri Lanka has reached a jaw-dropping 80 percent, resulting in a majority population only able to afford eating one meal a day.

Many Steps to an International Response

 

National People’s Power supporters shout slogans during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, May 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

While a team of International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials visited Colombo in June 2022 to hold discussions with Lankan officials on economic reforms and policies that could be supported by an IMF Extended Fund Facility arrangement, it all seems to hinge on what kind of debt restructuring and sustainability plan Sri Lanka will submit to the IMF.

Moreover, an agreement on a comprehensive loan assistance program can only be considered following a repair and recovery plan of Sri Lanka’s runaway fiscal deficit.

Most importantly, IMF negotiations for a fiscal rescue package can begin only after a resolution to the current political crisis – thereby underscoring its vitality.

Approach by India and Japan

Additionally, Sri Lanka is in talks with India and Japan, among others, to form an aid consortium. This should be an opportunity for Tokyo and New Delhi to ensure that a debt trap crisis in Colombo does not get repeated.

In fact, India has been doing most of the heavy lifting, providing $3.5 billion USD of support via fuel supplies, credit lines for essentials, and loan deferments.

I had argued in my previous JAPAN Forward column that it is not just about Sri Lanka suddenly beginning to matter. More to the point, the case of Sri Lanka’s political and economic collapse in South Asia has now come out in the open for the world to see.

There is fear as well that Colombo’s defaults and ultimate collapse could well be the start of a wider financial crisis regionally in South Asia, and perhaps more broadly across the developing world. The effect of this financial emergency could cascade in political and security crises across regions of debt-ridden countries, many of which suffer from coercive debt, with China most often appearing as a common predatory creditor.

Having a pliant political regime in the target country is fast becoming a prerequisite for China as it seeks to engage that particular nation, offering an alternative political model, a communist one, while encouraging it away from democratic norms. It is a potentially catastrophic proposition that needs to be gridlocked.


Author: Monika Chansoria

Dr. Monika Chansoria is a senior fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the JIIA or any other organization with which the author is affiliated. She tweets @MonikaChansoria. Find other articles by Dr. Chansoria here on JAPAN Forward.