Revealed: Israel charity funded Campaign Against Antisemitism 

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and Asa Winstanley

The Electronic Intifada

25 August 2023

The Campaign Against Antisemitism organized protests against Jeremy Corbyn when he was leader of Britain’s Labour Party. Ben CawthraSIPA USA

The Campaign Against Antisemitism recently took credit for persuading UK trade union Unite to cancel the Bristol launch of Asa Winstanley’s book Weaponising Anti-Semitism, alongside an associated screening of the film Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie.

This was only the latest in a long series of attacks by the Israel lobby group targeting the Palestine solidarity movement and the wider left.

But The Electronic Intifada can today reveal that the CAA has been given almost half a million dollars by the UK partner of the Jewish National Fund, Israel’s quasi-governmental settler-colonial agency.

The donations were hidden in obscure Charity Commission documents uncovered by our research. In an email to The Electronic Intifada, the CAA confirmed it had been in “past receipt of donations from JNF UK” but denied current JNF funding.

“JNF UK has never exercised or sought to exercise any influence over our activities,” the CAA claimed.

The 2018 and 2019 donations were later reclassified by the JNF as fundraising costs, implicating the CAA in Israeli settler-colonization efforts.

Founded in 1901, the JNF – known in Israel as Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – is committed to colonizing historic Palestine.

It is one of Israel’s four key “National Institutions” which, since 1948 have worked “to advance the Zionist enterprise.” The JNF has been described by noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappé as a “colonialist agency of ethnic cleansing.”

Founded in Britain in 1908 and registered in 1939 as a charity operating in “Israel” – a state which had not yet been established – the JNF’s British partner group JNF UK says it has been “building Israel for over a century.”

It does so by fundraising in the UK and passing the money collected onto Israel, primarily for projects in the southern Naqab desert, displacing Palestinian citizens of Israel in favor of Jewish settlers.

JNF UK has also funded a number of projects supporting illegal settlements in the West Bank – a war crime under international law.

JNF funding to CAA

Founded in 2014, the CAA was formally registered as a charity the following year.

UK law requires charities to declare all donations they receive from organizations with common trustees as “related party transactions.”

An analysis of the CAA’s accounts, crosschecked with those of the JNF’s British partner shows that the CAA has received large donations from JNF UK.

Crucially, these donations were made during the most intense period of the manufactured anti-Semitism crisis in Britain’s Labour Party in 2018 and 2019.

CAA chief executive Gideon Falter was in 2017 appointed as a director and trustee of JNF UK and he is also a vice chair.

In 2018, the CAA declared in its accounts disclosed to the Charity Commission that a donation of almost $220,000 had come from a “related party.”

This amounted to nearly half of its income for that year.

Funding a “crisis”

The following year, the CAA declared that $230,000 had come from a similarly undisclosed “related party.”

The 2019 figure amounted to 20 percent of its income but 60 percent of its expenditure.

In 2019, JNF UK declared expenditure of the exact same amount as the donation declared by the CAA that same year.

JNF UK paid $230,000 “for grants provided to a UK charity, which has a trustee who is also a trustee of JNF Charitable Trust.”

According to its website, “JNF Charitable Trust” is simply the official name of the JNF UK charity and they “are the same” group.

The 2019 JNF UK accounts also stated that in 2018 it had made a donation of almost $220,000 to the same unnamed “UK charity.”

In other words, both the 2018 and the 2019 donations from JNF UK were the exact same amounts as those received by the CAA in the exact same years – totaling $450,000.

Given that the donations for both years from JNF UK are exactly the same as the mysterious donations to the CAA from a “related party,” and given that CAA trustee Gideon Falter is also a trustee of JNF UK, the most logical conclusion is that JNF UK donated both these sums.

And the CAA’s email confirming that it had received “donations from JNF UK … some years ago” puts that conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt.

This means that JNF UK funded the CAA to the tune of nearly half a million dollars during the most intense period of its “anti-Semitism crisis” campaign against Labour and its then leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2018 and 2019.

Electoral interference

It was during this period that the CAA’s lawyers referred the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission alleging “institutional anti-Semitism.” This also covers the period of the 2019 general election.

All this suggests that the JNF’s British partner financially supported both the CAA’s legal action against the Labour Party and its negative campaigning during the 2019 general election.

According to JNF UK’s 2019 accounts, its accounts for 2018 were later altered “to show a reclassification of a grant made to a UK charity previously shown under UK Charitable Projects.” The beneficiary would now instead be “included under [JNF] fundraising.”

JNF UK’s funding to the CAA was thereby redefined. No longer was it to be understood as a simple grant to a UK charity.

Instead, the financial support was given to help the JNF’s own efforts.

In other words, the CAA had become an active part of the machinery of fundraising for Israel’s occupation.

In its statement emailed to The Electronic Intifada, the CAA denied ever fundraising “for JNF UK.” The CAA declined to comment further when asked to explain JNF UK’s own accounts stating that it had.

Attacking Palestinians

The CAA was founded in 2014 during Israel’s deadly war on the population of the Gaza Strip. Jewish anti-Zionist author and activist Tony Greenstein has described the group as a “campaign against Palestinians.”

It has attacked Palestinians in the UK, as well as the wider solidarity movement.

Palestinian academic Shahd Abusalama was pushed out of her job at Sheffield Hallam University last year after a relentless campaign by the CAA.

In 2017 the group attacked Malaka Mohammed – then a student at the University of Exeter – smearing her as a “terrorist-supporting anti-Semite.”

The group has encouraged its supporters to go onto British campuses and “record, film, photograph and get witness evidence” during Palestine solidarity events such as Israeli Apartheid Week. A group of more than 240 academics wrote to The Guardian in 2017 referring to the CAA’s “outrageous interferences with free expression” and “direct attacks on academic freedom.”

Attacking Labour

The CAA made the Labour Party its main target during the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who is a veteran Palestine solidarity campaigner.

Throughout Corbyn’s leadership, the group was at the forefront of claims of rampant anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, organizing demonstrations and petitions and amplifying anti-Corbyn voices.

In 2016, more than 100 left-wing Jewish activists wrote an open letter against “the pro-Israel lobbyists of the Campaign Against Antisemitism” and their attacks on Labour.

Even Labour lawmaker Margaret Hodge – herself one of the leading weaponizers of anti-Semitism against Corbyn and the left – has said that the CAA is guilty of “using anti-Semitism as a front to attack Labour.”

After Corbyn was defeated at the 2019 general election, the CAA took credit, with leading CAA researcher Joe Glasman claiming it had “slain” Corbyn, “the beast.”
Lobbying for Israel

The CAA claimed its first dubious victory in 2014, during the aforementioned war on Gaza.

In response to Israel’s violence, London’s Tricycle Theatre asked the UK Jewish Film Festival (which the theater was due to host) to return around $2,500 in funding it had received from the Israeli embassy. The theater made clear it wanted the festival to go ahead and even offered to replace the funds itself.

Consistent with the state of Israel’s aggressive strategy of combating “delegitimization,” the CAA was instrumental in promoting the lie that the theater was going to boycott the festival.

The nascent group led a protest outside the theater, waving Israeli flags and carrying placards featuring such slogans as “No to Jewish Film Festival Ban” and “Tricycle Theatre: We Support Israel.” The CAA explained at the time that the placards “were carried by strongly Zionist Jews who also carried flags and sang Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.

The CAA has also taken part in the main conferences at which the Israeli government draws up strategy to combat “delegitimization.” In both 2015 and 2018, it attended Israel’s “Global Forum for Combatting Antisemitism” in Jerusalem.

During the 2018 conference, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs even tagged the CAA in several tweets, suggesting a kind of official Israeli endorsement of the group.

In its statement, the CAA said such a suggestion was “completely absurd.”

Despite its claims of fighting anti-Semitism, one of the conference’s main priorities is to fight BDS, the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

This is often done in a way which conflates anti-Zionism – opposition to the Israeli state’s official, racist ideology – with anti-Semitism: hatred or prejudice targeting Jewish people.

Flouting charity law

The Charity Commission explains that it is only legitimate for a charity to use “emotive or controversial material, where this is lawful and justifiable in the context of the campaign,” but that “such material must be factually accurate and have a legitimate evidence base.”

In January 2015 the CAA published the first of its periodic assessments of anti-Semitism in the UK, which claimed to show that “more than half of all British Jews feel that anti-Semitism now echoes the 1930s.”

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research, however, described this as “irresponsible,” saying it was based on biased research that “falls short both in terms of its methodology and its analysis.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz observed that, “in their eagerness to prove a point, the CAA has created its own definition of anti-Semitism, which is more a reflection of what is impolite to say in public than what is actual bias against Jews … the CAA seems to be over-diagnosing the illness.”

The Zionist CAA has also exhibited more than a tinge of Islamophobia.

In a now deleted report, seen by The Electronic Intifada, chief executive Gideon Falter alleged that, “On every single count, British Muslims were more likely by far than the general British population to hold deeply anti-Semitic views.”

In its emailed statement, the CAA doubled down, claiming the controversial polling underlying the report “has since been corroborated,” and denied being criticized as Islamophobic, claiming to have “allies” in “the Muslim community,” although they did not name them

.

Charitable registration places obligations on organizations, particularly when it comes to political campaigning. The Charity Commission insists that “trustees must not allow the charity to be used as a vehicle for the expression of the political views of any individual trustee or staff member.”

But the CAA has flouted this guidance on multiple occasions.

In April 2018, coinciding with a House of Commons debate on anti-Semitism, three billboards were driven in convoy past Britain’s Parliament and Labour Party headquarters, bearing the claims: “Holocaust deniers harbored by Labour,” “Failure to act on anti-Semitism” and “Institutional anti-Semitism in Corbyn’s Labour.”

In his later “beast is slain” speech, the CAA’s Joe Glasman took credit for “lorries carrying huge billboards.” The CAA reported that more than 130 people had contributed to the cost of the billboards and that “activists have generously decided to donate excess funds from their crowdfunding campaign to [the] Campaign Against Antisemitism.”

Benefiting financially from an anti-Labour campaign is completely at odds with the requirement of charities to observe party-political neutrality.

In its email the CAA denied flouting Charity Commission rules and denied organizing the billboards, calling both “made up false claims.”

“The Charity Commission has consistently found [the] Campaign Against Antisemitism to be operating lawfully,” the group claimed in its statement.

Asked in a follow-up email to explain why Glasman took responsibility for the billboards and why the CAA apparently benefited financially from the billboards, the CAA declined to comment further.

During Corbyn’s leadership, the supposedly apolitical charity published further iterations of its anti-Semitism research, claiming to demonstrate that more than four in five British Jews suspected the Labour Party of harboring anti-Semites and that two in five British Jews had considered leaving the UK because of anti-Semitism in general and Corbyn in particular.

In July 2018, the CAA organized a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament. Falter pronounced that, as a result of Corbyn’s leadership, the “Labour Party is a racist party, the Labour Party is an institutionally anti-Semitic party in the grip of racists.”
Smears

Between September 2016 and July 2018, the CAA filed three complaints about Corbyn with the Labour Party.

On the last day of July 2018, the organization referred the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, alleging that the party had broken equality law.

The referral was addressed to Rebecca Hilsenrath, the commission’s CEO. Hilsenrath’s husband, Michael Hilsenrath, was at that time a trustee and deputy president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, a group which had funded the CAA’s widely derided 2015 “anti-Semitism barometer.”

Also in the summer of 2018, the CAA launched a petition proclaiming that “Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and must go.”

Asked to investigate, the Charity Commission ruled that “charities must stress their independence from party politics and demonstrate party political balance.”

The petition has since been altered to “Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and is unfit to hold any public office.” It has attracted in excess of 58,000 signatures and garnered comments wishing death upon Corbyn.

In the run-up to elections, Charity Commission rules dictate that, “charities must not support or oppose a political party or candidate” or otherwise try to “influence voter behavior.”

But on 8 December 2019, just four days before the general election, the CAA convened a demonstration in London’s Parliament Square under the banner of “Together Against Antisemitism.”

Ahead of the rally, Falter told The Jerusalem Post: “I firmly believe that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and that he and his allies have corrupted the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party to become institutionally anti-Semitic.”

He claimed that: “The fact that an anti-Semite like Jeremy Corbyn has risen this far in British politics, and now may become prime minister, is a terrifying thought for many Jews.”

The following day, the CAA released a series of “case files” branding 29 Labour candidates and elected representatives anti-Semites.
Israel lobby

All of the CAA’s activities in 2018 and 2019 – the demonstrations, petition, case files and Equality and Human Rights Commission referral – were sponsored by JNF UK, which claims the funding was given to assist its own fundraising for the colonization of historic Palestine.

In the aftermath of the election, when a complaint was lodged with the Charity Commission about Glasman’s “beast is slain” diatribe, the CAA stated that the organization had “no reason to anticipate any regulatory action.”

The CAA has in the past had to deny being “a pawn employed by a foreign government to smear its enemies.”

Despite such denials, it is abundantly clear that the CAA exists to lobby on behalf of the state of Israel.

This influential organization has been proactive in an attack and sabotage strategy on behalf of Israel to combat “delegitimization” – campaigning in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Funded by the occupiers of Palestine, the CAA has aided Israel, including by helping to take down a left-wing leader of the Labour Party. Such partisan activity is entirely incompatible with genuine charitable status.

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt is a researcher who stood as a Labour Party parliamentary candidate at the 2019 general election. Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist and an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada.

Israelis cheer after Palestinian boy is executed in Jerusalem

Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 31 August 2023

ELECTRONIC INFITADA

 

Israelis crowd at the scene of an alleged stabbing attack at a light rail in East Jerusalem in which a Palestinian boy was killed, 30 August, Atef SafadiEFE

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians, one of them 14, in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday and Thursday. Both cases may amount to extrajudicial killings.

On Thursday, Daoud Abd al-Razaq Dares, 41, was killed by guards at Hashmonaim checkpoint northwest of Jerusalem after striking a group of Israeli soldiers with his truck at another checkpoint, killing a soldier and injuring six other people, three of them soldiers.

The soldiers were on their way from an army post to a bus station in order to travel to a “team-building” exercise, Israeli media reported, citing the military.

Israeli authorities said that Dares was attempting a second car ramming attack when he was shot dead.

At least 222 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians so far this year, or died from previously sustained injuries, according to The Electronic Intifada’s tracking.

Thirty-five people in Israel and Israelis in the occupied West Bank were killed by Palestinians in the context of the occupation during the same period.

There are numerous examples of Palestinians being shot and killed in what Israel says were attempted attacks, only to be later found that no such attack had taken place.

Israeli media reported that Dares, who resided in the West Bank and had a permit to work in Israel, arrived at Maccabim checkpoint, located along the Green Line demarcating Israel and the West Bank, from the western side.

“The driver approached the checkpoint, but suddenly turned the vehicle back towards Israel,” according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, apparently relying on the Israeli military’s account of events. “Only then did the ramming attack take place.”

Haaretz, citing the military, added that “the group of soldiers who were run over are members of an artillery battalion” and had left their post and were walking towards a bus stop, “where the driver noticed them and ran over them.”

A soldier was seriously injured and two others sustained light injuries, according to Haaretz, which said that “two adults in a nearby car, and a Palestinian worker were also injured.”

Israeli authorities claimed that Dares sped away from the scene of the fatal crash and was stopped by guards at a nearby checkpoint, at which point he was shot and seriously wounded. He later died at a hospital.

Israeli authorities said that Dares had attempted a second car ramming attack at the checkpoint where he was killed. However, it is possible that Dares was executed by guards at the second checkpoint, who had been alerted after the crash at the first checkpoint, without having attempted an attack.

Israeli authorities have a long track record of lying about the circumstances in which Palestinians are killed, including when it comes to alleged attacks at checkpoints and those involving the death of Israeli officers and soldiers. Yet Israeli media were quick to describe Dares as a “terrorist,” deferring without skepticism to the Israeli defense ministry narrative.

Dares was a father of five who lived in Deir Ammar near Ramallah, according to Israeli and Palestinian news outlets. Israeli forces raided Dares’ home as the family learned of his death:

Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said that the incident “is an attack with serious consequences.”

Checkpoints

Speaking at the checkpoint where the soldier was killed, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s extreme-right finance minister, said “we see at this stage the importance of the checkpoints.”

The UN monitoring group OCHA stated last week that there are currently around 650 obstacles impeding Palestinians’ freedom of movement throughout the West Bank – an increase of nearly 10 percent over the number of movement restrictions documented in 2020.

These obstacles include “49 constantly staffed checkpoints; 139 intermittently staffed checkpoints; 304 roadblocks, earth-mounds and road gates; 73 earth walls, road barriers and trenches; and 80 additional obstacles of various types within the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron,” OCHA said.

Israel’s wall in the West Bank and its associated gate and permit regime are the “single largest obstacle to Palestinian movement” in the territory.



“These physical obstacles form part of a range of restrictions that the Israeli authorities have imposed on Palestinians since 1967, including permit requirements and the designation of areas as restricted or closed,” according to OCHA.

“Combined, these restrictions impede access to services and resources, disrupt family and social life and undermine Palestinians’ enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights, undermine livelihoods and contribute to the fragmentation of the West Bank.”

Checkpoints and other forms of movement restrictions are the sites of frequent violence against Palestinians, with the Switzerland-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor describing them as “death traps … where mere suspicion of Palestinian wrongdoing could lead to immediate killing.”

For years, human rights groups have accused Israel of operating under a shoot-to-kill policy that has transformed police, soldiers and armed civilians “into judges and executioners.”

Palestinian boy executed

That policy appears to have been in play with the apparent extrajudicial killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian who allegedly stabbed and moderately wounded an Israeli in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

According to Defense for Children International-Palestine, Khaled Samer Fadel al-Zaanin, 14, “allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack in a light rail station before he was knocked to the ground and disarmed by a bystander.”

“An Israeli paramilitary Border Police officer reportedly shot and killed him as he lay on the ground,” the human rights group added.

Video recorded from inside a light rail car appears to show the boy lying on the ground after he was shot in the side. In the video, he is shown alive, but lying on the ground and holding his hands in the air and presenting no conceivable threat, as an Israeli soldier stands over and aims a gun at him.

Another video appears to show the boy lying lifeless on the ground. Additional videos show Israelis cheering as the slain child’s body lays on the ground and is later evacuated from the scene.

At least one person can be clearly heard shouting “death to the Arabs” in Hebrew.

“Israeli authorities confiscated [al-Zaanin’s] body and are withholding it from his family,” according to Defense for Children-International.



An eyewitness told an Israeli news outlet that he knocked a knife out of al-Zaanin’s hand before police shot the boy.

This account provides additional evidence that Border Police used lethal force against al-Zaanin when he posed no immediate threat to anyone’s life.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing local sources, reported that al-Zaanin was left to bleed to death on the street without first aid being rendered.



“Israeli forces routinely carry out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, including children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a program director at Defense for Children International-Palestine.

“Children suspected of committing criminal acts should be apprehended in accordance with international law and afforded due process of law, not executed on the spot after they no longer pose any threat.”

Border Police officer praised

Kobi Shabtai, Israel’s police commissioner, praised the Border Police officer who killed al-Zaanin, saying that his actions demonstrated “the level of vigilance of our forces in the field, who time and again prevent and thwart terrorist attacks.”

Hours after al-Zaanin was killed, Israeli forces surrounded his family’s home in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem. His parents, sister and twin brother were detained and interrogated separately at Jerusalem’s infamous Russian Compound before being released, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.

Videos show the family’s home in disarray after it was ransacked by police:

Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed at least 42 Palestinian children since the beginning of the year, according to The Electronic Intifada’s tracking. This figure includes a boy in Gaza who died as a result of injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike last year.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch called for an end to the “systematic impunity for unlawful lethal force” used by Israeli military and border police forces against Palestinian children.

The New York-based rights group observed that Palestinian children are killed “with virtually no recourse for accountability.”



Last year was the deadliest for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years and “2023 is on track to meet or exceed 2022 levels,” Human Rights Watch added.

“Unless Israel’s allies, particularly the United States, pressure Israel to change course, more Palestinian children will be killed,” said Bill Van Esveld, an associate director at Human Rights Watch.

VISIBILITY

The Trauma Of Erasure: How Transgender Persons Are Punished For Existing

Acts of gendered people are harming and punishing the existence of sexual minorities

Even in the most-connected realities and corners of the world, there is an erasure of trans identities

 Illustration: Chaitanya Rukumpur

UPDATED: 01 SEP 2023 8:00 AM



To begin a conversation on trans-erasure/phobia and invisibility, there are many intersections and the first one starts with the thought that “nobody should be allowed and will never be allowed to describe themselves in a way that ‘I’ wouldn’t agree with”. A number of trans-phobic/erasure conversations are surrounded by this and it kills—a mere thought that then translates into action is now killing people. To place this in context for someone who isn’t trans and reading this; a trans person is living in a world and sharing a space where your individuality and personhood are being put on trial and surveillance because a random person took a look at you and, in their head, decided that you are not behaving according to the traditional aspects laid down by society on how gender roles should be performed. Sounds horrific and oppressive, right? Well, that’s the world we now thrive in.

How does this impact a trans person? How deeply is this affecting their existence—which is an act of rebellion and resistance towards society and its norms?


The joy of trans people seems to emanate from their ‘genuine depth’ and their erasure in medical hospitals, because even nurses are averse to their presence. A lot of this does impact an individual and their mere everyday ways of expressing their fundamental and universal emotions. There is individual erasure and erasures of many other identities. Erasure of certain identities happens even within the trans spectrum, and for me, inclusion of such identities is all about the person’s self-determination and autonomy.

My friend, Shreyas, who is gender-fluid, says: “I have personally stopped expecting some visibility in any space. Even when there’s a dialogue about trans folks around me, I’ve now learnt that they are often binary trans-people. I find it difficult to talk openly even in the queer-friendly spaces about being gender-fluid, especially because I don’t overtly dress in a way that everyone expects me to. I fear everyone involved will forget that I too am a part of the community, and not take my existence seriously.”

I wanted to know what gives Shreyas joy, despite this treatment. He says, “My joy, however, lies closely to non-gendered pronouns like ‘they/them’. And even with the ‘identifying as a man/woman’ jokes that people make, I have found it easy to go along with them, and nobody bats an eyelid because I am playing into the ‘bit’ and I love the muddy waters it creates for everyone.”

Another friend, Ritash, says: “For them, rejection or indifference or erasure as a gender-fluid person means that there is misgendering involved, there is conflation with gender-transitioned folks and being constantly asked the gender ‘I’ identify more with.”
Calling Non-Binary, Gender-Fluid, Gender-Queer And Gender Non-Confirming Identities Fake And Unreal Shows That There Is A Lot Of Internalised Trans-Misogyny That Is Prevalent.

Ritash adds that many gender, sexual minorities and LGBTQIA+ folks also contribute to this erasure. So, there is some intensive labour that goes into explaining and hoping people understand things correctly, at least in terms of existence and acknowledgement.

For transgender, non-binary and other identities, living through the trauma of being marginalised is like it’s encoded in your genes. There are a number of ways in which people cope and sometimes they use humour to do so. But a cisgender person using humour to mock and berate us is not and never okay. As a non-binary person, it always felt traumatic to feel as though my self-worth would be accepted only if I conformed to my expected gender. It was distressing to hide; to not be visible; and, to be cut off from connections and people that made me happy. It’s disturbing to explore yourself in an environment that is a clear threat to your life. Forms of masculinity and femininity can be traumatic, especially to me. This was very real, and yes, I can joke about it. But only because I know what I have endured is real and life-changing. But when you have not endured what I have, and you treat it as a joke, it only tells me that you are a bigoted transphobe; that I do not have to be around you; and, that you carry certain expectations about people in order for them to exist and be valuable in your eyes.

Let’s acknowledge a very crucial component of this trauma, which begins in our own homes and with our parents. They preach unconditional love, until you are someone they are embarrassed of; until you love someone they do not approve of; and, until you become what they never thought you would be. There is a lot of shame involved in how society gives us these mean, remorseful, deviant and disgusting forms of expressions. In fact, they arise from some people who are very preachy about their message of love and inclusion.

Let’s normalise by adding that all trans, non-binary and other identity folks deserve respect for their boundaries and it is time to start acknowledging and respecting these. I think we should value practising empathy more in our everyday lives.

All these intersections are intrinsically interconnected to each other, and many of them are very individually connected to each other. Another intersection we need to explore is around the systematic and structural trans erasure. Even in the most-connected realities and corners of the world, there is an erasure of some magnitude happening. However, a very important aspect of this erasure sometimes is, in fact, enabled by many binary trans folks themselves. Calling non-binary, gender-fluid, gender-queer and gender non-confirming identities fake and unreal shows that there is a lot of internalised trans-misogyny that is prevalent.

Let me quote my friend ‘A’ who, while working for a queer setup witnessed something. ‘A’ told me: “This one trans-woman often kept referring to her social media influencer friend as ‘he’, while their Instagram account was widely used for non-binary advocacy and it also showed that this person used ‘they/them’ pronouns. I did correct the trans-person, but I don’t think she ever took me seriously.”

So what we see here is that, by default, some acts are harming the existence of others—whether intentional or not. A discourse on the future of trans and non-binary people cannot happen when the present circumstances are very punishing for many to exist.

Duha Co-founder, Intersex Human Rights India

(This appeared in the print as 'The Trauma Of Erasure')

 

Latest IssueVisibility In Politics
Transcending Barriers: Transgender Community Awaits Inclusion In Politics And Employment

The fruits of Palestine and their symbolism

Beyond their simple colours and shapes, these fruits carry the weight of history, shared culture, and loss.

Olives and olive trees represent Palestinians’ deep-rooted connection to their land

 [File: Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA]

By Adam Sella
Published On 31 Aug 2023

What do watermelons, oranges, olives and eggplants all have in common?

Yes, technically, they are all fruits. Maybe you think they’re all delicious. But for Palestinians, they symbolise Palestinian culture and identity.

In protest, agriculture, cuisine and literature, Palestinians use watermelons, oranges, olives and eggplants to represent national identity, connection to the land and resistance.

Watermelons

Watermelon shares the same colours as the Palestinian flag and is used to protest Israel’s suppression of Palestinian flags and identity

 [File: Abid Katib/Getty Images]

The watermelon is perhaps the most iconic fruit to represent Palestine. Grown across Palestine, from Jenin to Gaza, the fruit shares the same colours as the Palestinian flag – red, green, white and black – so it’s used to protest against Israel’s suppression of Palestinian flags and identity.

Following the 1967 war, when Israel seized control of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and annexed East Jerusalem, the government banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied territory.

Although the flag has not always been banned by law, the watermelon caught on as a symbol of resistance. It appears in art, shirts, graffiti, posters, and of course the ubiquitous watermelon emoji on social media.

Recently, the flag has come under fire again. In January 2023, the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir instructed police to confiscate Palestinian flags from public places. This was followed in June by a bill to ban the flag in state-funded institutions, which Haaretz reports received preliminary Knesset approval.

In response, Zazim, a grassroots Arab-Israeli peace organisation, placed the Palestinian flag – in watermelon form – on about a dozen Tel Aviv service taxis.

In Gaza, young watermelons, eggplants and tomatoes are roasted to make a spring salad [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

“If you want to stop us, we’ll find another way to express ourselves,” says Amal Saad, a Palestinian from Haifa who organised Zazim’s watermelon campaign.

Saad was unsure whether the right wing would try to stop her, so she kept her planning under the radar. However, Saad said the support she received was overwhelming, with more than 1,300 activists donating to the cause.

Grassroot donations allowed Zazim to keep the watermelons up for two weeks, a week longer than was originally planned, and the campaign has now shifted to distributing watermelon shirts.

Oranges

Ghassan Kanafani wrote about the anguish of a family in the Nakba, forced to leave behind all they every knew and ‘all the orange trees that [they] had abandoned’ 

[File: Abid Katib/Getty Images]

The Jaffa orange, which originated in the 19th century, gained prominence for its sweetness and thick, easy-to-peel skin, which made it well-suited for shipping.

Before the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 when the creation of Israel led to the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from villages and towns that their ancestors had lived in for centuries, Jaffa oranges were an important export for Palestinian farmers and businessmen.

Because of their prominence, the oranges also became a symbol of national identity in literature and art. Palestinian novelist and journalist Ghassan Kanafani used oranges to symbolise loss in his 1958 short story about the Nakba, called The Land of Sad Oranges.

The story begins with the narrator and his friend, both young boys, observing their family on the eve of the Nakba. The families pack what they can, but they are forced to abandon “the well-tended orange trees that [they] had bought one by one”.

The fact that these trees were carefully nurtured over a long period of time indicates the strong connection between Palestinian farmers and the land, which hundreds of thousands were forced to forsake during the Nakba.

Jaffa oranges were an important export for Palestinian farmers and businessmen 

[File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

The last contact the narrator has with Palestine before entering Lebanon is a peasant selling oranges along the road. Amid the sound of his family weeping, he picks up a few oranges and brings them into Lebanon – a memento to “all the orange trees that [they] had abandoned to the Jews”.

In Lebanon, life is very hard for the refugees, in particular for his friend’s father. The story ends after the narrator witnesses his friend’s father having a mental breakdown. Next to the crying, shivering grown-up, the narrator “saw at the same moment [a] black revolver … and beside it an orange. The orange was dried up and shrivelled.”

The revolver, a symbol of death, is connected to the shrivelled orange by the narrator’s gaze. Forcibly displaced from the “land of oranges”, the narrator realises the extent of the Palestinian people’s loss.

Olives

A Palestinian man collects olives with his wife. In recent years, Palestinian olive trees have come under attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank 

[File: Abid Katib/Getty Images]

Olive trees can be found across Palestine and are a symbol of resistance. Nour Alhoda Akel, a 23-year-old Palestinian from the Ara valley, believes olive trees are associated with Palestinian identity because, like the orange trees in Kanafani’s story, they represent Palestinians’ deep-rooted connection to their land.

“Olive trees can live for hundreds of years,” says Akel. “So if the tree outside my house is 100 years old, I have an automatic connection with it”, referring to the land on which the tree stands.

Every year during the olive harvest, Akel joins her extended family to pick olives from their grove, a family heirloom.

“The whole family goes out and everyone helps,” says Akel. After a week of picking, they make olive oil and cure the olives, enough to last the family until next year’s harvest.

Many Palestinian farmers make their own olive oil and soap for personal use and for sale [File: Ali Ali/EPA]

For other Palestinians, the olive harvest is an important source of income. In addition to the oil, which Akel says is an essential ingredient in Palestinian cuisine, olives are used in cosmetics and soap.

In recent years, Palestinian olive trees have come under attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. According to the UN, more than 5,000 olive trees belonging to West Bank Palestinians were vandalised in the first five months of 2023.

In previous years, settlers attacked Palestinians during the olive harvest, which normally falls in October and November. On one day alone in October 2021, Al Jazeera reported that settlers uprooted 900 olive and apricot saplings, and stole olive crops in the village of Sebastia, north of Nablus.

Eggplants

For Edward Said, eggplants were a way to connect with Palestine, despite living most of his life as an exile

 [File: Abid Katib/Getty Images]

In Edward Said’s photonovel on Palestinian identity, called After the Last Sky, he devotes a few pages to eggplants, in particular those from Battir.

Battir is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for eggplants. It even periodically hosts an eggplant festival.

For Said, eggplants are a way for him to connect with Palestine despite living in the United States. He lived most of his life as an exile. At the time of writing this book, Said was still a member of the PLO, so Israel barred him from entering his homeland.

Said recounts that his family was particularly attached to the Battiri eggplants.

So much so that even “during the many years since any of us had Battiri eggplants, the seal of approval on good eggplants was ‘They’re almost as good as the Battiris,’” he writes.

Battir, whose terraces are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, grows legendary eggplants. Environmental groups say an Israeli settlement project slated for a nearby hilltop could threaten its ancient terraces

 [File: Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Germany wants to boost the use of geothermal energy to reduce dependency on Russian gas supplies

By Kristina Jovanovski

EURONEWS

Published on 31/08/2023 

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Berlin is looking at ways to reduce its dependency on gas supplied by Moscow.

Germany is considering using an out-of-use airport to implement its geothermal plans, as Berlin looks to become more energy-independent – and cleaner.

Geothermal energy is a form of thermal energy that has been exploited as a source of both heat and electric power. The site of the former Tegel airport is just one of many proposed locations.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said last week the country’s goal is to get as much geothermal energy as possible by 2030, focusing on providing heating to buildings.

The war in Ukraine forced Germany to massively decrease its reliance on Russian gas. The German Geothermal Association says since then,there's been a strong spike in interest.

While a more cleaner energy source, the group’s managing director says there are obstacles to expanding geothermal use.

Andre Deinhardt, Managing Director of the German Geothermal Association, says: “We don’t have enough money in the market for geothermal. And there are some moves of the government in this direction but it’s not fast enough. And then we have to be faster, a lot faster in permitting these geothermal installations.”
Berlin’s Tegel airport to be transformed into environmentally friendly 10,000 person community

One study by the Fraunhofer Institute last year found that geothermal energy could provide more than a quarter of Germany’s heating.

Berlin’s local government plans to start deep digging in 2025. But some environmentalists say the whole country should go one step further – and fully eliminate the use of fossil fuels.

“There is no other way to be aligned with the Paris Agreement and other climate targets than renewable energy,” says Anike Peters, a Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace.

“And that’s why it’s so important that the German government stops investing in fossil fuels and starts pushing really hard and only for 100% renewable energies.”

Supporters say geothermal energy will help Germany be more self-sufficient with its resources. Berlin also wants to expand into its other alternative industries – like solar.

"We are independent, it’s cheaper, you have it every time. Especially if it’s cold then you often don’t have enough sun. But geothermal energy is a heat flow that you have every time – 24 hours, 7 days,” Deinhardt concludes.

What's behind Vietnam's worsening sex ratio imbalance?

Rodion Ebbighausen
3August 31, 2023

Vietnam finds itself alongside countries like China and India when it comes to skewed sex ratios. A traditional preference for boys, ultrasound tech and a two-child policy are all to blame.

The shortage of women in Vietnam has become a regular topic of conversation at the dinner table. Even a few years ago, if a woman in her mid-20s was not yet married, her marriage prospects were one of the biggest concerns for her family.

But many families' concerns are now increasingly directed at their sons.

Questions like these are preoccupying their minds: Is his education enough? Does he earn enough? Does he know how to behave?

If the answers to these questions are in the negative, then his prospects of finding a wife diminish.

There are already 1.2 million more boys than girls among Vietnamese under the age of 19, according to the 2019 census.

Vietnam finds itself alongside countries like China and India when it comes to such skewed sex ratios.

The social consequences of this development are dramatic for men, who cannot find female life partners, as well as for women who are exposed to increased challenges as a result of being a contested "commodity."
Traditional preference for boys

A 2018 study entitled "Gender Imbalance In Vietnam: Problems And Solutions" identifies several reasons for the imbalance of boys and girls.

The imbalance is partly a result of society's preference for boys, where traditionally, a female child is valued less than a male.

Is Vietnam set to replace China as the world's factory?  02:55

Confucianism, which has a strong influence on Vietnamese society, calls for a strict separation of gender roles and the subordination of women to men.

When women marry in Vietnam, they usually join their husbands' families and are thus "lost" to their own families.

Since the state doesn't provide an adequate social safety net, parents depend on their sons to provide for them in their old age.

Impact of tech and two-child policy?

The widespread use of prenatal testing methods such as ultrasound imaging has also made it possible to determine the sex of the unborn child, despite the government's 2003 ban on ultrasound testing for gender identification.

Today, as many as 83% of pregnant women know the sex of their child before birth, reported the United Nations Country Gender Equality Profile 2021.

Ultrasounds, along with policies to curb population growth, have negatively influenced the country's sex ratio. The Vietnamese government adopted a two-child policy in 1988, but it is not rigidly enforced.

Most families in the country want a son to continue their lineage. As a result, there has been an increase in the abortion of female fetuses, especially when it comes to a second or third pregnancy.

The consequences for mothers are clear, said Thu Hong Khuat, director of the Institute for Social Development Studies in Hanoi.

"Vietnamese women are under extreme pressure to give birth to a son. If they don't succeed, their husbands and families are likely to treat them badly, especially in rural areas," she told DW.

Human trafficking, social instability on the rise

Contrary to what one might expect, the skewed sex ratio has not led to an improvement in the status or social standing of women in Vietnam.

Instead, they are increasingly becoming victims of "forced marriage, human trafficking and other forms of violence against women and girls," according to the study "Gender Imbalance In Vietnam: Problems And Solutions" by Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and other authors.

In addition, there has been an increase in prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation. At the same time, the risk of social unrest is on the rise as the number of socially and sexually frustrated men grows.

These problems will continue to worsen, and the gender mismatch will grow, unless the government succeeds in reversing the trend.

The abortion of female fetuses has increased in Vietnam since ultrasound technology was introduced nationwide

Pascal Deloche/GODONG/picture-alliance

UN estimates suggest the population gap between men and women in the 20-39 age group will grow from the current 3.5% to about 10% by 2059.

This means that, in purely mathematical terms, one in 10 men of marriageable age will not be able to find a wife.
Strong laws, but weak welfare state

A comprehensive package of measures is needed to resolve the problem, said Thu Hong Khuat, pointing out that the challenge at hand is nothing less than changing a centuries-old cultural norm.

She stressed that it will require laws, education and a stronger welfare state.

Vietnamese woman seeks justice for Agent Orange victims  03:29

The Vietnamese parliament passed an equality law in 2006, and the 2013 constitution banned gender-based discrimination. The government is currently implementing the second 10-year plan to promote gender equality, the "National Strategy for Gender Equality 2021-2030."

"There is a strong political will of the government in Vietnam to promote gender equality," stressed Thu Hong Khuat.

Public awareness of the problem has also increased significantly, she said. "Nowadays, people are aware that gender equality is a good thing, but culture and tradition are still very strong."

However, she underlined that laws and public awareness alone aren't enough.

"Until we improve the social system, the social safety net, change cannot go very far," she said, noting that children needed to be freed from the financial and material burdens involved in taking care of their parents in old age.

This would require, for instance, integrating more Vietnamese into the pension system. According to the International Labor Organization, just over a third of the population is currently part of the system.

This article was originally written in German.

INFOGRAPHICS AND CHARTS

The internet celebrates its 40th birthday, but some users are twice its age

!NICCOLÒ COMINI|

WORLDBANK.ORG

AUGUST 31, 2023

The charity HelpAge in India promotes digital literacy and internet safety programs for the elderly. © Shutterstock

Does internet help you to stay in touch with family and friends? If you answered yes, you could claim that internet is benefiting your health! Scientific research has demonstrated that social isolation – often correlated with age – is a risk factor for premature death comparable to smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. According to the UN, the share of individuals that are 65 years or older is increasing more rapidly than the population below that age.

Estimates indicate that this segment will account for 16 percent of the global population in 2050 (up from 10 percent in 2022), with the number of 60 and over who may face age-related disabilities expected to reach 2.1 billion. As the world goes digital, with everything from banking to healthcare and government services moving online, this trend raises new challenges for policymakers as older people tend to be less familiar with the internet. While we often talk about the digital divide across genders or urban and rural groups, the wide gap in internet use between generations is another crucial area of focus.

Today, nearly 70 percent of the global population over the age of 10 uses the internet. However, if we look at data more closely, people between the ages of 15 and 24 use it more compared to the rest of the population. For instance, in the USA, one of the most connected countries globally, around a quarter of people aged 65 and older are not online. In Brazil, almost half of the population over 60 has never used the internet.

In many cases, older people have spent much of their lives ‘offline,’ going to work in an office, handling financial matters at a brick-and-mortar bank or visiting friends in person, which means they may not have had the need or opportunity to develop digital skills. At the same time, a significant proportion of older people in developing countries often cannot afford devices and internet subscriptions. And despite the increasing call for digital skills, many older adults living with low income are unprepared for the digital world. This means that a segment of our society is being left behind when it comes to accessing basic services, social interactions, and economic opportunities.

It is important that older people can get online for a variety of reasons. There is a predominant social aspect underlying the internet that can be crucial to enhance seniors’ quality of life. Moreover, among this segment of the population, mobility may be limited. Hence, internet can facilitate access to a wide spectrum of resources, from signing up for public services to grocery delivery. Digital health could complement traditional healthcare services, for instance facilitating remote monitoring for an older person who lives alone. Access to good quality internet and digital public infrastructure is also key to increase resiliency during health shocks and promote social assistance response.

There are examples around the world of specific programs to bring the aged population online. For instance, the charity HelpAge in India promotes digital literacy and internet safety programs for the elderly, who may be more vulnerable to online fraud or scams. In Colombia, a program led by the government is working with the Universidad Nacional to strengthen seniors’ digital skills – for example teaching them how to use technology to access public information, carry out requests for services online or communicate with family and friends. Several mobile operators in different countries offer discounted internet subscriptions to older users.

The World Bank’s digital development team supports digital skills trainings as part of various projects around the globe, targeting the whole age spectrum. For instance, the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) in Nicaragua trained nearly 600 individuals over the age of 45 on foundational and more advanced digital skills, and about a third of them reported an increase in salary after six months of completing their training program.

Considering the global demographic shifts we are seeing and how quickly our everyday lives are moving online, it’s crucial to equip all with the skills to connect in a safe and meaningful way. Digital inclusion programs should follow a holistic approach so that everyone – young and old – can reap the benefits of the digital transformation. Digital skills programs, whether led by the government, academia, or the private sector, should target elders, focusing on their specific learning gaps and needs.

Public resources such as the universal service funds - a system of subsidies, fees, and funding designed to increase access to telecommunications resources - may be leveraged to support these activities as well. Digital public services should be designed considering the potentially limited digital skills available for this segment of people, promoting user-friendly interfaces while ensuring online safety. Finally, each of us can also play a role, encouraging senior citizens to get online in productive ways, from using online messaging applications to stay in touch to teaching them how to make the most of e-commerce platforms. Together we can help narrow the aged-based digital divide.