Turkey attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 3,761 times in past 8 months, killing 33 and wounding 124

Turkey has attacked the autonomous region of northeast Syria 3,763 times since the beginning of the year. 33 people died and 124 people were injured. The intensity of the attacks has increased greatly in recent months.

KAHRAMAN DILSOZ
MANBIJ
Saturday, 13 Aug 2022, 

On 1 June 2022, the Turkish state threatened another invasion of Northern and Eastern Syria. Although it is said that the operation has not received sufficient authorization from the major powers, a different picture emerges when looking at the attacks on the region. In a two-and-a-half-month period, there were 1,420 attacks, killing 23 people and injuring another 57. Since January 2022, the Turkish state has carried out at least 3763 attacks on Rojava. 33 people were killed and 124 people injured.

January: 387 attacks, 25 injured

The Turkish occupying forces and the mercenaries they controlled attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 387 times in January. At the same time, the region was overflown five times by fighter jets and 80 times by reconnaissance drones. The attacks injured 25 civilians.

Type of attacks: Drone (4), Mortar (77), Howitzer (124), Tank (2), Katyusha (1), Rocket (5), Grenade Launcher (18), Doçka (107), Rocket Launcher (1) B- 7 (5), Assassination (3), BKC (5), Sabotage (1), Sonic Bomb (1). There were also 20 jamming fires, twelve ground attack attempts and one infiltration attempt.

February: 432 attacks, two dead, 16 wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and its mercenaries carried out 432 attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria in February. At the same time, seven times fighter jets were seen in the region, as well as 119 reconnaissance drones. The attacks killed two civilians and injured 16 civilians.

Type of attacks: Drone (13), Mortar (67), Howitzer (153), Tank (14), Katyusha (3), Rocket (2), Grenade Launcher (25), Doçka (146), SPG-9 (2), Assassination (3), BKC (3), Sabotage (1).

March: 288 attacks, ten injured

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 288 times in March. At the same time, there were 20 movements of combat aircraft and 123 movements of reconnaissance drones detected in the region. Ten civilians were injured in these attacks.

Type of attacks: Drone (3), Mortar (34), Howitzer (28), Tank (2), Rocket (3), Grenade Launcher (23), Doçka (154), Assassination (13), BKC (23), Sabotage (2). There were also two jamming fires and an infiltration attempt.

April: 529 attacks, four dead, nine wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 529 times in April. At the same time, there were 20 fighter jet flights and 177 reconnaissance drone flights in the region. The attacks killed four people and injured nine people.

Type of attacks: Drone (12), Mortar (73), Howitzer (234), Tank (41), Rocket (2), Grenade Launcher (18), Doçka (103), Assassination (17), BKC (26), Sabotage (3). There were also four jamming fires, one ambush and three infiltration attempts.

May: 711 attacks, two dead, seven wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 711 times in May. At the same time, fighter jets and 222 reconnaissance drones were deployed in the region. The attacks killed two people and injured seven people.

Type of attacks: Drone (6), Mortar (131), Howitzer (333), Tank (19), Rocket (6), Grenade Launcher (33), Doçka (148), Assassination (12), BKC (17), Sabotage (3), other attacks (3).

June: 451 attacks, three dead, twelve wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 451 times in June; Fighter jets were active in the region 43 times and reconnaissance drones 315 times. The attacks killed three people and injured twelve people.

Type of attacks: Drone (10), Mortar (74), Howitzer (150), Tank (10), Rocket (14), Grenade Launcher (33), Doçka (117), Assassination (18), BKC (11), Other Attacks (14).

July: 363 attacks, seven dead, 25 wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries carried out 363 attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria in July. At the same time, 13 overflights of fighter jets and 401 flights of reconnaissance drones took place. The attacks killed seven people and injured 25 people.

Type of attacks: Drone (18), Mortar (73), Howitzer (120), Tank (17), Katyusha (10), Rocket (4), Mortar (36), Doçka (43), Assassination (21), BKC (7), sabotage (1), other attacks (13).

August: Over 600 attacks, 15 dead, 20 wounded

The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries have carried out more than 600 attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria as of 13 August. These attacks with drones, artillery and howitzers killed 15 people and injured more than 20 people.

TAJÊ: Now is the time to reclaim the holy Yazidi land and resistance

“The Turkish state wants to avenge ISIS. We urge women and young people to stand up to the Turkish attacks and to protect their land and dignity,” the Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) said.

ANF
SHENGAL
Friday, 12 Aug 2022, 

The Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) released a written statement against the increasingly ongoing Turkish invasion attacks.

Defining the Turkish state as “the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and the historical enemy of the Yazidis”, TAJÊ said, “The Ottomans wanted to wipe out the Yazidis through dozens of massacres. To this end, it first targeted prominent members of the Yazidis. However, the heroic Yazidi people have resisted the 74 massacres they have experienced. After these 74 mass slaughters, they organized themselves and established their own defence forces. They are currently resisting the new Ottomans.”

The statement continued, “The invading Turkish state has attacked Syria and Iraq several times since 2017, targeting Rojava, Shengal, Maxmur and Medya Defense Zones. The Turkish state is trying to avenge ISIS through its attacks. Turkey is carrying out air strikes in violation of all international laws in cooperation with the KDP. Moreover, since April the invading Turkish state has been using chemical weapons against PKK guerrillas in the mountains of Kurdistan and killing civilians. Last year, it carried out a massacre after striking the Sikêniyê hospital and this year in Zakho. Human rights organizations remain silent in the face of all these crimes against humanity. The invading and genocidal Turkish state targeted many leading Yazidi people such as Mam Zeki, Seid Hasen, Zardeşt Şengali and Marwan Bedel to leave them without leadership in cooperation with the KDP.”

“We urge women and young people to stand up against Turkish attacks and to protect their land and dignity. Now is the time to reclaim the holy lands and resistance.”

International Kurdish Solidarity Collective: Pressure must be put on Turkey

The International Kurdish Solidarity Collective said that they will try to create public pressure on NATO and related institutions to stop Turkish aggression.

MUHAMMED KAYA
BERLIN
Saturday, 13 Aug 2022

The International Kurdish Solidarity Collective, co-chaired by South African women's rights activist Fazela Mahomed and Left Party former MP Jürgen Klute, issued a call earlier this week warning both the relevant forces and the public against the Turkish occupation and its ongoing attacks.

Fazela Mahomed and Jürgen Klute spoke to ANF about the collective, the call and what they plan to do.

Erdogan receives green light from NATO

Pointing to the Turkish state's attacks in South Kurdistan and North-East Syria and the threat of a new invasion, co-spokesperson Klute said: “This is happening in the shadow of the Ukraine war. Erdogan used the request of Sweden and Finland to join NATO. It wants to exploit the NATO-Russia rift against the Kurds. NATO is also silent because it needs Turkey to fight Russia and support Ukraine. So NATO gave Erdogan the green light to attack the Kurds.”

Jürgen Klute noted that the International Kurdish Solidarity Collective requested NATO and the international community to put pressure on the Erdogan government to stop its attacks.

Request for a meeting with German Foreign Minister Baerbock

Klute, finding positive that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Turkey's actions against the Kurds against international law during her last visit to Turkey, said: “We will contact her and of course request a meeting. Because as a member of the German government for decades, this is the first time someone has opposed Turkish politics. I don't remember when the last time was. As a German politician, she says 'no' and demands respect for human rights.”

Collective reaction to Turkish attacks

South African activist Fazela Mahomed, co-spokesperson of the International Kurdish Solidarity Collective, said: “The Collective started mainly in response to Turkey's ongoing attacks against the Kurdish people. It was an important response to the escalation of the war waged by the Turkish regime against the Kurdish people. We agreed to seek the support of high-profile people around the world for this initiative. In particular, it is unacceptable that the war in Ukraine gives Erdogan the opportunity to continue his attacks against the Kurdish people with impunity. For this, we have tried to ensure that sensitive voices around the world take a common stance. It is important to achieve this against the Turkish regime.”

Erdogan wants to continue the war

Fazela Mahomed said that they are trying to persuade NATO and other important organizations and create public pressure, and continued as follows: “They should stop supporting Erdogan's violence against the Kurdish people. He exploits the current situation in Ukraine. We know that Erdogan is not interested in bringing peace. His plan is to continue the war and actually increase his influence in the Middle East. That’s why we say he must be stopped.”

We will continue to campaign

The spokespersons of the International Kurdish Solidarity Collective said that they will continue their campaigns uninterruptedly and try to ensure the participation of more people and added: “We will enter into dialogue with politicians and other groups from civil society. We can hold a conference to put pressure on Turkey. Maybe we can send a delegation to Northern and Eastern Syria and the Federal Kurdistan Region.”

International Kurdish Solidarity Collective calls for an end to the Turkish attacks on Kurdish areas

More than 70 politicians, academics and cultural workers from several countries, who have joined together to form an International Kurdish Solidarity Collective, demand an end to the Turkish attacks on Kurdish areas contrary to international law.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 10 Aug 2022

In the shadow of the war in Ukraine, the Turkish army has once again intensified its attacks on Kurdish settlements, which violate international law. This time, mainly Kurdish settlements in northern Iraq are being attacked. In one of the attacks by the Turkish army, 9 Arab tourists were recently killed. Furthermore, there are clear signs that the Turkish army is currently preparing for further attacks on Kurdish areas in northern Syria.

More than 70 politicians, academics and cultural workers from several countries, who have joined together to form an International Kurdish Solidarity Collective, demand an end to the Turkish attacks on Kurdish areas, which are contrary to international law, in a joint declaration published 10 August 2022 in Brussels. Among the signatories are Shirin Ebadi, Human Rights Lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2003, Iran; Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1997, USA; Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel Prize in Literature 2004, Austria; Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics, Member of Greek Parliament and MeRA25 leader, DiEM25 co-founder; David Adler, General Coordinator, Progressive International, USA; Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, Former Leader of the British Labour Party, UK; Srecko Horvat, Philosopher, co-founder DiEM25, Croatian; Massimo D’Alema, Former President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Italy; Gregor Gysi, MP Germany, former Co-Chair of Die Linke and former Chair of the European Left, Germany; Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium; Zingiswa Losi, President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), S-Africa; Amineh Kakabaveh, Member of the Sweden Parliament, Sweden; Ögmundur Jónasson, Former Minister of Justice, Iceland; Pierre Laurent, Vice-President of the Senat, President of the National Council of PCF, France; Jonas Staal, Artist, Founder New World Summit, Netherlands; Ken Loach, Film Director and Screenwriter, UK; Robert Daza, Senator of the Republic of Colombia; Vincenç Vidal, Member of Senate of Spain; Leo Gabriel, Anthropologist and Member of the Inernational Council of WSF, Austria; Paolo Ferrero, Former Minister, Vice President of the European Left party, Italy; Debbie Bookchin, Journalist and Author, USA.

The group’s co-spokesperson, South African activist and women’s rights activist Fazela Mahomed said, “We want to support the Kurds with this action and we stand with them against NATO’s support for the Erdogan regime’s policy of occupation and annihilation. Above all, we condemn the Turkish operations in Iraq, which are contrary to international law and murderous, and which aim to kill those who defended the world against IS in 2014, when no one else responded to the calls for help.”

Another point of criticism in the statement is that Sweden and Finland have given in to the demands of NATO member Turkey with regard to female clients and Kurds in the context of NATO accession negotiations. “We therefore demand,” says Jürgen Klute, a former MEP from Germany and co-spokesperson of the group, “that Sweden and Finland do not submit to Erdoğan’s anti-democratic policies and reject the illegitimate demands for the extradition of citizens of Kurdish origin. Our central concern is to defend democratic principles – our democracy matters!.”

On the other hand, Mahomed and Klute took a positive view of the fact that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, during her recent visit to Turkey, sharply criticised Turkey’s actions against the Kurds, which are contrary to international law. “We call on Ms Baerbock,” they continued, “to stick to this foreign policy line and to put pressure on Turkey to withdraw its military forces from Southern Kurdistan and Rojava.

Similarly, both welcomed the Iraqi government’s intention to use the killing of the 9 Arab tourists in the northern Iraqi town of Zakho as an opportunity for taking the Turkish army’s abuses to the UN Security Council. “We hope”, say Mahomed and Klute, “that the political pressure on Turkey will continue to increase and that the killings will finally come to an end. Our joint declaration should also contribute to this.”

Three Factors Driving Down Size of Russian Population, El Murid Says

Paul Goble

Saturday, August 13, 2022

 Anatoly Nesmiyan, who blogs under the screen name El Murid, says that three factors are currently driving down the size of the Russian population: emigration and rising death rates, the first two, are the most obvious, but the third, the decision of Russians not to have children because of conditions in the country, may ultimately be the most consequential.

            Emigration, of course, is a natural response to the military violence and repression the Putin regime has inflicted on the country; and rising death rates reflect not just the aging of the population but the regime’s attack on Russia’s already rickety healthcare system, the blogger says (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=62E37496F1791).

            The decision of potential parents not to have children now or perhaps ever is a product of similar factors. When medical care is uncertain and repression is increasing, such people don’t really know what tomorrow will bring and so postpone or cancel plans for an investment as long-term as having a child.

            All three of these factors, El Murid continues, are the result of the Putin regime behaving in a textbook fashion. “Dying itself, it is poisoning the space surrounding it with its own decay and decomposition, killing all life around it because the regime itself is already a walking corpse.”

Anyone familiar with films about zombies knows that such creatures don’t die easily but do try to drag down as many people around them as possible, “living and not yet born and those who will never be born,” exactly what the zombie regime in the Kremlin now is doing

GOP lawmakers adopt ‘defund’ rallying cry for FBI, not police

Cheyanne M. Daniels - The Hill

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black Americans by police officers in recent years have sparked protests around the country. Many activists demanded cities defund their police, an idea scorned by Republicans.

Now, though, some GOP leaders have adopted the rallying cry when it comes to the FBI and former President Trump.

After the FBI conducted a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday, Republicans reacted in outrage, with a handful calling for the FBI to be defunded or abolished.

South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan (R) wrote on Twitter, “The FBI has proven time and again that it is corrupt to the core. At what point do we abolish the Bureau and start over?”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted “DEFUND THE FBI!” and is now selling apparel bearing the same slogan.

It’s quite a turnaround for any Republican to talk about defunding a national law enforcement group, given that the GOP has used calls from progressives to “defund the police” as a political attack line.

In fact, those GOP arguments were so politically potent that most Democrats have abstained from the “defund the police” slogan even when they are deeply in favor of police reform. President Biden has made it clear he does not want to defund the police.

Most Republicans attacking the FBI over its search of Trump’s estate also were not calling for the FBI to be defunded, even as they did question its actions.

Those that did use the phrase, however, showed few signs of walking it back, even after a search warrant was released publicly on Friday and showed authorities are looking into whether the Espionage Act was evaded through classified materials being brought to Mar-a-Lago.

Greene’s office said she was not available for an interview with The Hill. But she has been active on social media, accusing Biden of “weaponizing” the FBI and the Department of Justice in a Telegram post.

In an interview on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s podcast, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) compared the FBI officers to East German Stasi officers.

“The antidote has to be not one more damn penny for this administrative state that has been weaponized against our people in a very fascist way,” said Gaetz.

However, in a statement to The Hill, Gaetz said his comments “do not call for defunding the FBI” but for “reformation of the worst elements of the administrative state. Congress should use the power of the purse to achieve that goal.”

He added, “Taxpayer money shouldn’t fund any agency that targets its political opponents.”

It’s quite a shift from the GOP rhetoric about state and local police in the context of their policing of minority communities in particular.

Republicans have criticized Democratic lawmakers for encouraging the notion of “defunding” and even “abolishing” police forces.

Some Republicans have claimed Democrats’ approval of the idea has led to a recent uptick in crime across the country — despite the fact that Biden has pushed back at the defunding language.

“Crime is exploding in Democrat-run cities … this is 100% the result of their left-wing policies of defunding the police, backing BLM / ANTIFA, destroying families, and coddling of criminals!” Greene tweeted in June 2021.

In a 2020 Twitter thread, Duncan said that while he supports the right for people to “peacefully protest about policing concerns,” most law enforcement officers are “great public servants” who “care deeply about protecting individual rights.”

“It’s a sad and scary day in America when we have citizens calling to defund and dismantle the police,” Duncan’s thread said. “This dangerous call to action would NOT make our communities safer. It would only weaken law & order and cause far more chaos than we’ve already seen.”

Duncan’s office did not respond to request for comment.

Advocates for defunding the police have said the idea is to provide different, more humanitarian resources for overpoliced communities, and that Republicans have twisted the meaning behind the phrase.

Alicia Garza, principal of Black to the Future Action Fund and a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization, said the Republican lawmakers’ “hypocrisy” over the phrase is nothing more than “political theater.”

“They’re playing this role where they’re going to try and stir up as much false outrage as possible,” she said. “People use these kinds of moments not only to create wedges between communities but to distract people from what’s really at stake and, frankly, to distract people from the fact that they don’t have real solutions to some of the challenges that we’re facing.”

She added that the demands to defund police are “fundamentally trying to bring humanity back to communities who have been dehumanized” and these politicians “don’t deserve to stand on that same platform.”

“Hospitals are closing in our communities, and grocery stores and quality schools — all the things that make communities thrive,” said Garza. “Black people are saying, we need our communities refunded. Our communities have been stripped of all of the services and safety net protections that we have fought hard for … What I hear Black communities saying through our year-long Black Census Project is not necessarily that they want to defund police. What I hear is we want police to be held accountable when they commit crimes in our communities.”

But Garza said she’s not holding her breath for those conversations to take place.

“These are the real kinds of policy discussions that we should be having,” said Garza. “Unfortunately, because this is mostly theater, we’re not going to have those conversations.”

Press freedom is under attack in Indonesia

With several courtroom battles ongoing, fates of countless journalists are hanging in the balance.

Kyle Delbyck
Senior Program Manager at the Clooney Foundation for Justice's TrialWatch initiative
Published On 13 Aug 2022

Although repressive forces are gaining ground, there is still hope that the authorities will side with those fighting for fundamental freedoms, writes Delbyck 

[File: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters]

Journalist Muhammad Asrul is awaiting word from Indonesia’s Supreme Court about whether he will spend further time behind bars for reporting on corruption issues. The decision will have a profound impact not only on his life but also on press freedom in Indonesia.

The country is at a turning point following its transition at the end of the 20th century from military dictatorship to democracy.

Many, including civil society and members of the judiciary, have sought to protect journalists – they see a free, functioning press as part of Indonesia’s future. Others, however, are waging a battle against independent media and freedom of speech, through prosecutions like Asrul’s and through the impending passage of a criminal code that smacks of authoritarianism. With Indonesia’s two-decade-old democratic path in real jeopardy, the next several months will be decisive.

In 2019, Asrul penned a series of articles alleging corruption by a local political official. The same official filed a complaint with the police, who subsequently arrested and detained Asrul. After spending more than a month in jail as the police conducted investigations, Asrul was prosecuted under the country’s draconian Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE Law), which criminalises the electronic transmission of information that defames or affronts. At the end of 2021, a court found Asrul guilty and sentenced him to three months in prison.

While this would be egregious enough on its own, in Asrul’s case the police chose to bypass Indonesia’s Press Council. The Press Council is an independent government body tasked with protecting journalists in press-related disputes. The police are supposed to coordinate with the Press Council to determine whether a case should be funnelled into the criminal justice system or resolved through mediation or other solutions outside of the courts. But the police did not give the Council a chance to settle the complaint against Asrul, sidestepping this critical institution. Equally worrying, the court that convicted Asrul stated that the police have the power to override the Press Council in a range of situations, including where individuals offended by news articles go straight to the police instead of the Council.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative, where I work as a senior program manager, monitored Asrul’s trial through its partner the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights. This coming week, we will file an amicus brief requesting that the Supreme Court overturn Asrul’s conviction and ensure that the protections offered by Indonesia’s Press Council remain a reality for journalists throughout Indonesia. TrialWatch monitors trials such as Asrul’s in more than 35 countries, seeking to overturn unjust convictions against journalists and marginalised individuals and to reform the laws used to target them.

The ITE Law is one such example. Since its enactment in 2008, the ITE Law has been a key tool in suppressing freedom of expression and press freedom in Indonesia, with prosecutions spiking in recent years. During the first nine months of 2021, for example, at least 81 people were charged with violating the ITE Law, “most of them accused of defamation” – the provision under which Asrul was prosecuted. Those found guilty of defamation can face up to four years behind bars.

While the ITE Law has been a darling of government officials seeking to quash legitimate criticism, it has also been deployed by businesses and other powerful actors who simply do not like what someone has posted online. TrialWatch recently monitored a trial in which a woman, Stella Monica, was prosecuted for Instagram complaints about acne treatment she received at a dermatology clinic. Monica was acquitted but the clinic aggressively pursued the case, subjecting her to almost two years of legal proceedings.

This playbook for stifling speech may soon receive a boost with the revision of Indonesia’s colonial-era criminal code. In many countries, the amendment of colonial laws has been a step forward, but Indonesia’s iteration is so regressive that when a draft was published in 2019 it triggered widespread protests. Although the government withdrew the legislation following the protests, this year the new code was resurrected, retaining provisions from the 2019 version that endanger press freedom.

In addition to providing for a potential jail sentence of up to three years for perceived insults to the president and vice president, the draft code criminalises the dissemination of “incomplete” news and so-called “fake news”. In neighbouring countries like Cambodia, we’ve seen fake news provisions deployed against those who criticise the authorities.

Just how troubling these developments are is clear from the Indonesian government’s attempts to hide them. The Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister in charge of the revision process had previously pledged that the legislature would vote on the code by August 17, Indonesia’s Independence Day. He also stated that the authorities would not share the draft text with either civil society or the public because of the risk of disorder. After an outcry, however, the government published the draft in July and promised further consultations, still leaving civil society with scant time to deliberate and engage the government if the vote indeed takes place in the next few months.

While passage of the code in its current form would be a triumph for government officials and corporate interests seeking to restrict critical speech, it would also be a victory for the increasingly powerful conservative Islamist parties on which President Joko Widodo has relied to maintain power. The draft code falls squarely on the side of conservatives in Indonesia’s roiling cultural battles, threatening jail time for sex and co-habitation before marriage, which would also functionally criminalise LGBTQ+ relationships. Another provision swells the already expansive blasphemy law, extending it to criminalise comments made on social media.

Although the draft code reflects the reality that repressive forces are gaining ground, there is still hope that the authorities will side with those fighting for fundamental freedoms. The government has shown itself to be responsive not only to pressure from hardliners but also to pressure from pro-democracy forces. The withdrawal of the code after the 2019 protests and the recent sharing of the draft text are good examples. In another recent example, after enduring intense criticism about overly broad enforcement of the ITE Law, President Widodo commissioned guidelines limiting its application – in particular against journalists. The guidelines, which were introduced after Asrul’s case had already begun, explicitly state that in cases where a news outlet has published an article, then press regulations – not the ITE law – should apply. While enforcement has been shaky thus far, the guidelines demonstrate the power of public pressure and are an additional tool in the battle for press freedom.

Other institutional safeguards are in place. Indonesia’s Press Council has a mandate that puts it on the same level as other government entities and gives it real power to protect journalists – hence the importance of Asrul’s case and the impending Supreme Court decision on the Council’s role. To show how significant the Press Council is we need only hop across the ocean, where press freedom advocates in Malaysia have been fighting to establish a similar mechanism for years, recognising its potential to stop the harassment of independent media.

The courts are also making positive noises. In the face of campaigns by government officials, religious conservatives and businesses to clamp down on speech, some judges have ruled in favour of human rights protections – from the acquittal of Monica for her dermatological troubles to a recent high-profile acquittal in a blasphemy prosecution.

What this means is that unlike in countries where the decks are stacked, with the legislature, judiciary and press co-opted by authoritarian powers, all is not lost in Indonesia. Civil society has proven that it can mobilise and that institutional levers can be pulled. But this upcoming period will be crucial. Buffeted by competing winds, the Indonesian government will decide whether to move forward with the current version of the new criminal code. Actors at the local level, like police and prosecutors, will decide whether to enforce – or not enforce – rights-positive guidelines and laws. The judiciary will consider cases with wide-ranging consequences for press freedom and freedom of speech, like that of Muhammad Asrul. And even if the criminal code is passed, it awaits a barrage of constitutional challenges, putting the judiciary in the spotlight.


Through its TrialWatch initiative, the Clooney Foundation for Justice will continue to monitor these courtroom battles and advocate for those unjustly targeted in criminal prosecutions. With key decisions forthcoming, the fate of Asrul and many others hang in the balance.

Grace Hauser, TrialWatch Legal Fellow at the Clooney Foundation for Justice, contributed to this article.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance

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Kyle Delbyck
Senior Program Manager at the Clooney Foundation for Justice's TrialWatch initiative
Kyle Delbyck is Senior Program Manager at the Clooney Foundation for Justice's TrialWatch initiative, where she coordinates trial observations and ensuing advocacy. She previously directed the trial monitoring program at the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights. Ms. Delbyck has also worked on accountability for war crimes, including at TRIAL International in Bosnia and Herzegovina and international tribunals such as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.

'The perfect little noose': How facemasks became a lethal threat to wildlife during the pandemic

Thomas Wintle

CGTN

A new study looks at the global impact of face masks and gloves on wildlife during the COVID-19 pandemic. /Declan Friel

The face masks that protected us during COVID-19 are proving to be a lethal threat to wildlife, according to a new study about the environmental impact of protective equipment during the pandemic.

Much of the Western world has cut down on personal protective equipment (PPE) in recent months. However, the billions of face masks and gloves produced amid coronavirus have created an "emerging type of litter category" that, according to the report, could negatively impact animals for centuries to come.

The study, published in The Science of Total Environment, uses global community science observations to assess the damage of PPE pollution on birds and other wildlife.

One of the most serious threats it cites is from entanglement, with some animals being killed after getting caught in the plastic debris, the majority of which were birds. However, bats, crabs, hedgehogs and a variety of other wildlife were also affected by masks and gloves.

"What's really bad about face masks is the fact that they're almost the perfect trap for an animal to get tangled up in," Justine Ammendolia, the report's lead writer, tells CGTN Europe.

"You have these elastic loops on either side that act almost like a booby trap, or a perfect little noose. And unfortunately, we started seeing cases of animals dying from hanging by face masks from trees."

One of the most common sightings in the report was birds getting entangled in masks and gloves, such as this Osprey in the U.S. /Monica Hawse


Global impact

At the height of the pandemic, global demand for face masks hit over 129 billion per month. The consequent number of abandoned masks increased 80-fold between March to October 2020, making up almost 1 percent of all abandoned litter around the world.

The report cites cases of animals interacting with PPE in 23 different countries, which Ammendolia says, despite being a dramatic understatement of the real number, goes to show how extensive the problem was.

"It wasn't just happening in North America or Europe," she says. "It was literally happening all over the world."

There were many reports in the study of birds dying after becoming entangled in discarded PPE, such as this rare razorbill in Scotland. /Trish Loli Brewster

Taking advantage of the importance of digital life during the pandemic, the researchers mined the data from Internet reports between April 2020 and December 2021, relying on social media, reports from colleagues, and records from the global citizen science database 'Birds and Debris', where wildlife enthusiasts can upload photos of such incidents.

"We were really interested in understanding how all that extra plastic that we were using in our daily life, how that was actually coming into play with our wildlife - not only around our cities, but in forests and different natural areas," says Ammendolia.

The report collected 114 unique sightings of animals interacting with waste PPE in 22 different countries. /Lancy Cheng

In one of the first studies of its kind to use social media to extract biologically relevant images of PPE pollution, the researchers found 114 unique sightings of wildlife interactions around the world, a significant increase from 38 in 2020 when the database was first started.

Only using English-language search engines, Ammendolia adds that the real number of incidents is likely to be significantly higher.

"Every country has their own platform and unfortunately, we weren't able to incorporate China and Asia because they tend to use WeChat and a lot of their own social platforms," she says.

"The fact that we were searching in English obviously limits how much we were able to detect, so there were a number of downfalls with that study, but generally speaking, this is more than anyone's done before."

Tangled up

The report also confirms the findings of other earlier studies on the same topic, with the data suggesting the majority of incidents with PPE - 83 percent - involved birds. However, more than 10 percent of other sightings included mammals.

Most of the sightings were related to wildlife getting tangled up in the masks and gloves or incorporating them into their nests.

The report also collected sightings of bats, crabs, hedgehogs and a variety of other wildlife interacting with PPE. /Mirjam van Otterlo

While it may appear a novel sight specific to the pandemic, Ammendolia points out that birds have been using plastic to build their homes since the material's invention.

"But the fact that face masks were adopted that quickly after everyone started using them just goes to show how resourceful these animals are in finding nesting material," she says.

However, she adds that very early into the pandemic, it was clear that animals using PPE for such purposes was proving to be fatal.

"One of the first observations reported from Canada... was a robin suspended from a tree," she says. "That only happened two months after the pandemic was declared."

The majority of incidents of animals interacting with PPE in the while - 83 percent - involved birds. /Adrian Silas Tay

She adds that while the phenomena of animals adapting so quickly to their surroundings may be intriguing, it's essentially a morbid fascination.

"This isn't something we want to see, especially with the amount of the number of endangered birds there are out there. And the fact that you're introducing plastics that could be very dangerous for their chicks," she adds.

Emotional toll

With disposable face masks estimated to take up to 450 years to decompose, the researchers say they hope the report will highlight the "systemic problem" that has caused so much plastic pollution to contaminate the environment.

Ammendolia says she hopes to continue to the work and build their database further, with the researchers calling for more work to develop better community science platforms to help people from all walks of life to help cut PPE pollution.

Researchers involved in the project say looking at the pictures of animals struggling due to PPE pollution takes a personal toll. /Paolo Nicolai

However, the project has taken a personal toll on Ammendolia and her colleagues.

"Having this kind of responsibility in terms of looking at image after image of very sad content does take a toll on you, and there is a certain amount of grief involved with it," she says.

"This isn't fun because you're watching animals die horrible deaths that are totally unnecessary," she adds. "Although the study was very important to get out, to continue this kind of work would take a lot of emotional labor."

The thing that keeps her going is the potential impact the work could have on saving animals from the growing threat of PPE pollution.

"Just making sure that all of us use these images, and really turn that sadness and grief into action, is very critical," she says.

UN official says Iraqi Kurds 'should agree on elections soon' and end political deadlock

Dana Taib Menmy
Iraq
11 August, 2022

The United Nation's top official in Iraq has stressed that all Kurdish political parties should reach a settlement soon on the Kurdistan Region’s upcoming parliamentary elections. 


UN Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert speaks during a press conference regarding the upcoming early general elections, on October 05, 2021 in Baghdad, Iraq. [Getty Image]

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Special Representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is reportedly concerned about the political deadlock in the Iraqi Kurdistan region with parties still unable to agree on upcoming parliamentary elections, a source has told The New Arab.

Hosted by the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, five of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's main political parties convened for a third time in Erbil on Wednesday to discuss upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for 1 October.

Plasschaert also attended the meeting and was unhappy about the current stalemate, the source said.

"Plasschaert expressed concern that the meetings are not yet fruitful and that the Kurdish political parties should settle their differences as soon as possible so that a new date [for voting] can be chosen after the postponement of parliamentary elections," a source who attended the meeting told The New Arab.

"She also expressed concerns that if the Kurdish political parties did not reach a settlement soon, the situation in the Kurdistan region [could be as] destabilised as the rest of Iraq."

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Plasschaert previously headed a meeting with top officials from the Kurdish political parties in Erbil on 26 May in a bid to seal an agreement on upcoming elections. She also participated in another meeting with the political parties on 9 June.

Key issues are impeding the chances of elections being held in October, including differences among Kurdish political parties over the composition of the electoral commission and calls for amending the region's decades-old election law.

"Mrs. Plasschaert delivered a speech about the significance of the political parties reaching an agreement on the election issue and setting a date for the process to take place. She also expressed the full support of the United Nations for the elections to be held successfully," the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP) said in a statement after the meeting.

"Furthermore, Mrs. Plasschaert stressed that all political parties should reach a conclusion soon, because of time constraints.

"It was decided that the last meeting will be held in early September to complete all discussions regarding the election issue and to solve the problems that face the process."

The UNAMI did not comment on the source's claims.

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Yassin Hama Ali, head of the elections commission at the Kurdish Movement of Change (Gorran), said it is unlikely that elections will be held in October and that a special committee will continue to work with parties to find a compromise on the postponement of the election.

"The political parties are still disagreeing on some contested issues, including the quota of the minorities, and how the region's election commission will be reactivated," Hama Ali told The New Arab.

"Unfortunately, there is a lack of trust among the political parties, the majority of them deem the activation of the commission to be conditional on the Kurdistan parliament guaranteeing an amendment to the election law."

Hama Ali said there are concerns that the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) might avoid amending the laws once a mandate for the current electoral commission is renewed by parliament.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Gorran, partners with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) joined by three main opposition parties - the New Generation Movement, the Kurdistan Justice Party (Komal), and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) - are asking the Kurdistan parliament to amend the election law.

They also want to divide the region into at least four electoral districts and the establishment of a new election commission.

Massoud Barzani's KDP, which has a thin majority of 45 seats in the parliament, insists on upcoming elections being held under the current election law and to be supervised by the region's election commission whose mandate has already expired.

Rival politicians claim that the KDP is opposing the electoral reforms since it fears its share of the vote will diminish if this is achieved.

The Kurdistan parliament includes 111 seats; women have a minimum quota of 30 percent, while 11 seats are allocated for parties that represent minority groups. The KDP, which has dominated the support of 11 lawmakers from minority groups, is considered a kingmaker in the Kurdish parliament.

The last parliamentary election, held in September 2018, saw a turnout of 57 percent and was marred by allegations of large-scale voter fraud by the KDP - which dominates Erbil and Duhok provinces - and the PUK - that controls Sulaimaniyah and Halabja provinces.

Telling the Palestinian story: An uphill battle against Western media bias


Abeer Al-Najjar
28 July, 2022

States of Journalism: The framing, sourcing, selection of facts, and language choices used to report on Palestine in the Western media often reveal systematic biases which distort the Palestinian struggle.

This article is part of The New Arab's States of Journalism series, a sustained exploration of freedom, repression, and accountability in MENA and global media landscapes. Read more of the series' articles here.

The basic principles of Western journalism are to perform the function of a watchdog, holding people in power to account and providing professional, accurate news coverage and insightful commentary to the public.

But Western media seem to have failed in honouring both principles when reporting on Palestine.

Palestinians have been in the news for decades, yet it seems that only occasionally do journalists and news organisations get their story right.

Professional coverage of the Palestinian question would improve the quality of news available on the marginalised, if not outright distorted, Palestinian narrative.

"Even using the word 'Palestine' is still prohibited by editorial policies in some international newsrooms"

Globally recognised journalistic values of accuracy, fairness, and balance, if applied to the Palestinian context, would guarantee a more truthful representation of both the Palestinians and Israel.

Increasingly though, the media is being held accountable by activists who want to see more professional reporting on the Palestinians.

For example, media coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine showed how differently military occupation is treated when the occupier is Russia and not Israel. Such differences include editorial policies, framing, the selection of facts, and language choices.

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Changing the narrative

In December 2021, the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) published a document on best practices to report on Palestine.

Some basic recommendations were to include Palestinian voices and use the framing of Israel’s decades-long military occupation to report on news events, which are common sense approaches.

The fact that they even needed to be presented as guidelines reflects how the report’s authors believed they were not being adhered to in most coverage.

In June 2021, 500 American journalists called on their fellow journalists and editors to change their coverage of Palestine.

They started their letter with this statement: “For decades, our news industry has abandoned those values [professional journalism] in coverage of Israel and Palestine. We have failed our audiences with a narrative that obscures the most fundamental aspects of the story: Israel’s military occupation and its system of apartheid.”

Editorial policies often erase the huge power asymmetry between both parties. Palestinian children amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel's bombardment of Gaza in May 2021. [Getty]


Similarly, in May 2021, 2,000 Canadians - including media professionals, lawyers, and academics - signed an open letter decrying the lack of nuanced coverage of violence against Palestinians during the Gaza war.

The letter pointed out that even using the word “Palestine” is still prohibited by editorial policies in several newsrooms across Canada.

Amid a growing chorus of journalists in North America frustrated over the lack of accuracy in covering Palestine and Israel, the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA sent an open letter to the Los Angeles Times.

In it, the group expressed “grave concern” over the fact that nine of the newspaper’s journalists signed the above-mentioned “anti-Israel” letter in June and attempted to undermine the ethical motivations of the journalists while professionally delegitimising them.

"Newsrooms in the West have repeatedly been accused of prioritising Israeli sources, adopting pro-Israel terminology, and refraining from exposing Israel's actions through the systemic use of the passive voice"

For years, pro-Israel lobbies and organisations including media watchdogs – such as MEMRI, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Media Reporting in America (CAMERA), and Honest Reporting – have publicly and privately employed pressure on the Western media to secure more favourable coverage of Israel while shielding its policies from criticism.

This has often included labelling critical news coverage as anti-Semitic. One of the goals is to dominate the narrative by delegitimising and discrediting journalists and news organisations who challenge the official Israeli discourse.

By doing so, other journalists may be dissuaded from providing fair, contextual, accurate, and inclusive reporting on Palestine.

Recently, however, a more diverse set of voices have held newsrooms accountable when it comes to the quality of their reporting on Palestine and Israel. They include news organisations, journalists, NGOs, celebrities, and social media users worldwide.

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Editorial and newsroom biases

Researchers, analysts, and commentators warn that editorial choices often whitewash Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians, obscure the great power asymmetry between the parties, and exempt Israel from any responsibility for its actions.

In turn, Palestinians are dehumanised and their suffering obscured.

For instance, terms like ‘clashes’, ‘violent escalation’, and ‘tensions’ are examples of tropes that are frequently used by mainstream Western media agencies, including Reuters, The Associated Press (AP), The New York Times (NYT), The Guardian, and others, when Israel uses violence against Palestinians.

Newsrooms in the West have repeatedly been accused of prioritising Israeli sources, adopting pro-Israel terminology, and editorially refraining from exposing Israel’s actions through the systemic use of the passive voice, which conceals the identity of the perpetrator.

When on the rare occasion that news coverage on Palestine is fair, and the pro-Israel narrative ceases to dominate, pressure starts to mount on editors and journalists who may well bend in the face of accusations from lobby groups and media watchdogs.

A mural in Gaza of veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in May 2022 while reporting in the occupied West Bank. [Getty]


For example, American broadcaster NBC removed their correspondent in Gaza, Ayman Mohyeldin, after he reported on an Israeli attack which killed four Palestinian children playing on a beach in 2014.

The unexplained removal was revoked and the journalist was reinstated in Gaza as a result of the public backlash on social networks.

In a more literal attack on the international media, on 15 May 2021, Israel bombed and destroyed a tower block in Gaza which housed the offices of both the AP and Al-Jazeera after alleging that Hamas military intelligence was operating in the building.

These claims were then amplified by pro-Israel media and supporters, who in effect blamed AP for the destruction of their own office and put pressure on AP’s perceived objectivity.

Shortly after, Emily Wilder, a news associate at the Associated Press, was fired in late May 2021 after right-wing media criticised her and AP over the journalist’s college pro-Palestinian activism.

"When a pro-Israel narrative ceases to dominate, pressure starts to mount on editors and journalists who may well bend in the face of accusations from lobby groups and media watchdogs"

Some suspect her firing was collateral linked to the mounting pressure from right-wing groups on AP’s reputation following the accusation about their Gaza office, for which Israel has not provided any evidence.

Wilder said she was assured by an AP editor that she would not face any consequences for her activism, before being called again to say she was being fired immediately.

Similarly, several Arab employees of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Arabic service were fired in early 2022 after allegations that they had expressed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views in social media posts and articles.

This led to an internal probe into the organisation and its global partners which resulted in a report which cleared the broadcaster of charges of “structural anti-Semitism”. The journalists who were fired were not given a chance to defend themselves against the report’s findings before it went public. DW was criticised for using its reporters as a “scapegoat”.

Journalists whose contracts are terminated on these grounds often face organisational and professional isolation. When claims of anti-Semitism are made it has a chilling effect on journalists, editors, and news organisations, as in the case of both AP and DW.

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Furthermore, conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism further undermines reporting on Palestine, hindering the platforming of Palestinian voices or reporting accurately on Israel’s policies against Palestinians.

In the end, the strategy of targeting or intimidating journalists and editors over their coverage of Palestine and Israel arguably leads to self-censorship, as it raises the professional stakes of ethical reporting on Palestine, in turn silencing critics and mobilising sympathisers of Israel.

Critical news coverage is vital in ensuring news organisations are accountable to the public for their reporting.

For the public, the basic skills of news literacy are also essential to navigate the abundance of news sources, differentiate between narratives, and critically engage with news content.

It is also critical in terms of news consumption for an individual to be able to make their own decisions about what news sources they follow and what to share or criticise, in turn gaining an understanding of how their own biases could impact their assessment of the news.

Literate news users are certainly capable of noting the absence of the Palestinian narrative from international coverage of Palestine, and the prominence of Israeli sources over Palestinian ones.

They should continue then to question the language, image, and framing choices of news organisations and journalists, in the hope that the Palestinian story will finally be told in an accurate and humanising way.

Dr Abeer Al-Najjar is a Palestinian academic specialising in media criticism, accountability, and critical literacies. She served as the Dean of Jordan Media Institute from 2011-2012 in Amman and is on the editorial board of Journalism Studies and The International Journal of Communication.
Follow her on Twitter: @abeernaji

UN condemns 'unconscionable' killing of Palestinian children after Israel bombing campaign

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
11 August, 2022

The UN has slammed the killing of Palestinian children, after 17 were reported dead following Israel's bombing campaign in the besieged Gaza strip.

The UN say 37 Palestinian children have been killed in Palestinian territories this year [Getty]

The UN rights chief voiced alarm on Thursday at the number of Palestinian children killed and wounded this month and demanded those responsible be brought to account.

At least forty-eight Palestinians - including 17 children - in the besieged Gaza Strip were killed in an Israeli bombing campaign targeting the besieged enclave last week.

"Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing," Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

"The killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable."

The Israeli air and artillery strikes targeted positions of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group.

Her office said that 19 children had been killed in the Palestinian territories in the recent unrest, taking the total number this year to 37.

Seventeen children were killed during the Gaza hostilities from August 5 to 7, while two more were killed on Tuesday in Israeli attacks in the West Bank.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said that among the 48 Palestinians killed in last week's Gaza conflict, there were at least 22 civilians. They included the 17 children and four women.

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Of the 360 Palestinians reported injured, nearly two-thirds were civilians, including 151 children, 58 women and 19 older people, OHCHR said.

"In a number of incidents, children were the majority of casualties," Bachelet's office said.

"Launching an attack which may be expected to incidentally kill or injure civilians, or damage civilian objects, in disproportionate manner to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited," she said.

"Such attacks must stop."

Bachelet's office said that Palestinian armed groups launched hundreds of rockets and mortars, causing civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects in both Israel and Gaza.

She said this was a violation of international humanitarian law.

Israel insists that some of the civilian deaths including children were killed by Islamic Jihad rockets that fell short or misfired.

Bachelet called for investigations into all incidents where any person was killed or injured.

"An almost total lack of accountability persists in the occupied Palestinian territory," she said.

"Whether for violations of international humanitarian law by all parties in hostilities in Gaza, or for recurring Israeli violations of international human rights law and the law of occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."