It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Mariupol teenagers in danger of forced mobilization to fight Russia’s war against Ukraine
26.12.2023
Halya Coynash
Russia is compounding the war crime it is committing against Ukrainians through its mobilization of civilians by targeting 17-year-olds
’Mobilization’ in occupied Donbas Screenshot from YouTube
As feared, the Russian invaders appear intent on forcibly mobilizing Ukrainians on occupied territory, with teenagers their latest target. The Mariupol City Council has posted an ‘instruction’ from a so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic district educational department’ to place students born in 2007 on the military register, with all such 17-year-olds to be forced, from January 2024, to register at the Russian occupation military recruitment office. These young lads will be in danger of open or covert mobilization into Russia’s army. It is a war crime to force people on occupied territory to serve in the invading state’s army, yet Russia began conscripting Ukrainians in occupied Crimea soon after its invasion in 2014. The situation became especially critical in February 2022, with Ukrainians sent by the invading state to fight fellow Ukrainians on Ukrainian territory.
The current regime in Russia is seeking ways of increasing the number of fighters for its war of aggression against Ukraine. Measures taken in 2023 removed the requirement that young men physically received call-up papers. Electronic notification is now deemed sufficient, whether or not the person appears at the military recruitment office. He can then be banned from leaving the country and will likely face other measures when found. On 21 December 2023, Russian leader Vladimir Putin issued instructions for the autumn call up “of Russians” in 2024 to be carried out with the use of a single register, including all those who had received such electronic notification.
Mobilization in Russia itself is hugely unpopular and, with Putin currently intent on faking his supposed ‘re-election’, the Kremlin will be seeking all possible ways of finding men to find its war. One such measure, seen in occupied Donbas in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is to forcibly mobilize men from occupied territory. In the Russian proxy ‘Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics’ [occupied Donbas], men were seized at their working place, on the street or at home, with all sent to fight, regardless of their state of health. All of this was much more convenient for Moscow, since there were no official statistics, no access to international observers or media. The men were, essentially, used as cannon fodder, being often sent, without training or appropriate gear, to the worst parts of the frontline.
In an interview to Donbas Realities in July 2023, Andriy Cherniak from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence said that 55-60 thousand men had been forcibly mobilized from occupied Ukrainian territory. The figure probably did not include Ukrainians from occupied Crimea who were either illegally conscripted or included in Russia’s supposedly partial mobilization announced by Putin on 21 September 2022.
It was feared from the outset that Russia would forcibly mobilize men from areas that fell under its occupation after 24 February 2022. Such measures have been slower, mainly because Russia has clearly needed to use coercion to foist its citizenship on Ukrainians in occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. The forms of coercion have become very aggressive, with people refused medical treatment, employment and threatened with having their children taken away if they do not agree to receive Russian passports. Once men of conscription age have taken Russian citizenship, they are in immediate danger of being forced to fight. It is now clear that the aggressor state is trying to gain control of young lads who will soon turn 18.
On 24 September 2023, Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre reported that the occupation regime had created so-called ‘federal commissariats’ in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts in order to form a register of all those Ukrainians on occupied territory whom Russia claims are liable to call-up.
Officially, conscripts are not sent to fight, however it is clear even in Russia that the situation is similar to that in 2014, with young conscripts being placed under enormous pressure to sign contracts, agreeing to fight. In occupied parts of Ukraine, there are even fewer restraints on Russia’s lawlessness and very active terror against the population.
Russia’s use of conscription, open or covert forms of mobilization, and its aggressive militarization, especially among children, are all in unequivocal violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 51 of this document, which is binding upon the Russian Federation, states that “the Occupying Power may not compel protected persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces. No pressure or propaganda which aims at securing voluntary enlistment is permitted”.
Human Rights Watch recently issued a statement stressing that Russia is committing a war crime by compelling Ukrainian civilians to serve in the Russian armed forces. They drew attention also to Russia’s “practice of pressuring Ukrainian civilians in detention, who have nowhere to hide or flee, to join the Russian forces.” They had spoken with three men held in detention. One of them described the methods of ‘persuasion’ or coercion used. One man had repeatedly refused, and had been “placed in a damp, cold, and overcrowded cell with 12 other people, most of whom had active tuberculosis. He and other detainees were deprived of water for extended periods and frequently given rotten or mouldy food. “When we complain, they respond: ‘if you don’t like the conditions here, going to war is your way out,’”
Another detainee told HRW that, “to his knowledge, hundreds of detainees from the facility he was held at had been sent to areas of active fighting and most did not survive.”
Russian strike on mines in Donetsk Oblast kills 3, injures 6
A Russian strike on two mines in Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast killed three civilians and wounded five others, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Dec. 21.
The Interior Ministry later reported an update that six people had been injured.
Toretsk, an industrial town situated less than 10 kilometers from the front line, is frequently a target of Russian attacks.
At one mine, two aerial bombs killed one person and injured two others, Klymenko said. There were 32 miners underground who have since been brought to the surface.
Two more aerial bombs hit another mine, killing two people and injuring three others. "Administrative buildings and equipment were damaged," according to Klymenko.
The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that it had started a pre-trial investigation into the war crime. Those killed were men aged 41, 42, and 45 years old.
Khalil Abualya (fourth from left), a Palestinian American student at the University of Mississippi, has been among the leaders of an effort to build support for Gaza. (Andrea Morales for The Washington Post)
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As she watched the conflict in Israel and Gazaunfold this fall, 17-year-old Asmmaa Zaitar finally had enough. She decided to organize a protest in support of the Palestinian cause in a very unlikely place — a courthouse in Huntsville, Ala.
Initially, Zaitar, a second-generation Palestinian American, was terrified that no one would show up. Zaitar knewit was a conservative town better known for divisive debates over Confederate monuments than for protests against a war overseas.
But as the rally began, dozens of fellow Muslims, including women wearing headscarves, trickled into the town square in late October carrying signs decrying Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. Local media showed up, and Zaitar knew she had succeeded in connecting her city — and its growing Muslim population — to a conflict halfway around the globe.
“People now know there is a Palestinian voice in this city,” said Zaitar, a student at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. “Everyone has a voice and can say whatever feels right and fight back using our voice.”
Across the nation, from the Deep South to Appalachia and relatively rural communities in the Midwest, protests in support of the plight of Palestinians are springing up, showcasing the continued spread of the U.S. Muslim population into the country’s heartland. Children of refugees from Muslim nations organized many of the demonstrations, evidence ofa political awakening among a new generation of young Americans who are helping to shape U.S. public opinion in support of a cease-fire in the Middle East.
Khalil Abualya, a Palestinian American student at the University of Mississippi, set up a table to spur conversation about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. (Andrea Morales for The Washington Post)
In the process, the antiwar rallies in places such as Huntsville, Oxford, Miss., and Boone, N.C., are creating a senseof community among Muslims who only recently would not have dreamed they could pull off such gatherings. Now, they vow to continue their activism to influence the public debate while showcasing the emerging political power of American Muslims.
“Just because we live here in the U.S. doesn’t mean we are isolated or separated,” said Hammad Chaudhry, 24, a second-generation Pakistani American who helped organize several pro-Palestine demonstrations at Appalachian State University in Boone. “We live in a globalized world where the tiniest thing somewhere can have a massive impact somewhere else.”
The burst of activism — which Muslim scholars said would have been unthinkable just a decade or so ago — is rooted in the broad spread of Muslim families throughout the United States.
From the first major waves of migrants to the U.S. in the 1970s through the 1990s, Muslims tended to cluster in just a handful of states, including New York, California and Michigan.
Like many immigrant groups, over time some moved elsewhere in search of jobs and opportunities. More recently, many new refugees from Muslim-majority nations have settled directly into states in the South or Midwest in hopes of finding more affordable housing.
A 2017 analysis from Pew Research Center estimated that3.45 million Americans are Muslim, three-quarters of whom are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Overall, the nation’s Muslim population is far younger than the overall U.S. population, with Pew finding 35 percent of Muslims were 18 to 29 that year, compared to 21 percent of the overall population.
Using data on religious institutions gathered by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, a Washington Post analysis found that 234 U.S. counties have seen an increase in the number of Muslim congregations since 2000, representing around 7 percent of counties nationwide. In 217 counties, mosque membership doubled between 2000 and 2020.And across the nation, the number of mosques has more than doubled since 2000, according to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a research firm that studies Muslim communities.
Some of the most noticeable growth has taken place in smaller areas that are now seeing more young Muslims speak up about the plight of Palestinians. Huntsville, for example, now has four Muslim congregations with 3,935 members, compared to two congregations with 1,218 members in 2000.
Youssef Chouhoud, an assistant professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., said young Muslims are now “coming of age” and speaking out about Middle East politics in ways that prior generations of American Muslims were unable to.
Chouhoud, 40, an Egyptian American, said initial waves of Muslim immigrants were focused on securing jobs and settling into U.S. culture. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in particular, Chouhoud said, younger Muslim Americans felt an urgency to “fit in” and become “ambassadors for their faith” by going about their lives in nonconfrontational ways.
“It was a period where many Muslims were thinking we just need to get our house in order, and kind of make sure we grounded ourselves first and foremost because there was search for what it means to be an American Muslim,” said Chouhoud. “Now, the folks that are in college and high school, they are very comfortable in their own skin, and they are much more willing to raise their voice and protest with regards to any number of issues.”
Students talk about the Israel-Gaza conflict at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. (Andrea Morales for The Washington Post)
Khalil Abualya is a second-generation Palestinian American who grew up in Tennessee. A pre-med and pharmacy student at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, the 23-year-old senior said he never thought his college experience at “Ole Miss” would include becoming an antiwar activist
Then during his sophomore year, he went to a meeting of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), which has about 100 members. Oxford’s local mosque has also seen its membership grow from 163 to 275 congregants since 2000, according toa Washington Post analysis.
“I thought, ‘Wow, there are a lot more Muslims than I previously thought,’ and that made me want to become more active,” Abualya said.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Abualya and other members of the MSA started seeing activists at other colleges take sides in the conflict.
Enraged by estimates showing two-thirds of those killed in Gaza during Israel’s strikes have been women or children, Abualya and other members of the MSA decided it was time for an antiwar presence at Ole Miss, a college that was at the forefront of battles over civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.
“I feel like Oxford, Mississippi, especially considering where it is, is a very pivotal place for something like this,” Abualya said. “We can show the dialogue is open here too.”
The first event was a “silent protest” at the Grove, a tree-lined park that is synonymous with student life, including tailgating before college football games.
Before the event, Abualya, like Zaitar,was anxious whether anyone would show up. He was thrilled when about 50 people did, standing mostly in silence to bring attention to the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
After the event, Abualya began setting up a table about three times a week near the student union to try to influence others with one-on-one appeals. He shares photographs of civilian casualties in Gaza and provides his perspective on the history of the conflict.
He believes he is making a difference.
“A lot of people, especially a minority like myself, when you think of the South, think of stereotypes like very ignorant people who don’t care about other people,” Abualya said. “But you have all of these people that walk up to the table … and they just want to talk. They just want to hear about what is happening and have an open dialogue.”
In recent weeks, amid a wave of protests, polls show U.S. public opinion has shifted in favor of a cease-fire. An Economist-YouGov poll in late November found 65 percent of U.S. citizens support Israel and Hamas agreeing to a cease-fire, while 16 percent opposed it, and 19 percent were not sure.
Still, support for a cease-fire doesn’t mean Americans are less supportive of Israel or its right to defend itself against Hamas,the controlling political force in Gaza. The Economist-YouGov poll found 38 percent saying they sympathize more with the Israelis, 11 percent with the Palestinians and 28 percent both equally.
A protester makes a peace sign as he and others call for peace in the Gaza Strip during a Nov. 9 demonstration in Jackson, Miss. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
Nationally, pro-Palestinian protesters have been cast by critics as Hamas sympathizers or antisemitic. The new protesters say that is unfair. “They can say whatever they want, and we can’t do anything about that, except use our voice and fight back,” Zaitar said.
Many of the protesters said they do not support Hamas nor the tactics they used when militants invaded Israel with brutal force, killing and kidnapping scores of Israeli civilians. But the protesters do not believe Israel’s response has been proportional and arguetheir demonstrations are designed to showcase how Palestinians civilians are now swept up in the conflict.
As they step up their organizing, young Muslims have faced Islamophobia and hate-filled heckling.
In Huntsville, vehicles circled the protesters and called the demonstrators “rapists,” Zaitar recalled. Salma Treish, 21, who helped organize the protest at Appalachian State, recalls that some people drove by “yelling degrading things.”
Demonstrators in both cities, however, said their own experiences with Islamophobia have been rare.
“I know this can be considered a more conservative area, but in my personal experience, dealing with people more conservative than I am, they have mostly been willing to listen to what I have to say,” said Treish, a second-generation Palestinian American.“And that is the beauty of all of it, the beauty of having all of these conversations has been pretty great.”
A key driver of many of the demonstrations in smaller communities has been social media. One Instagram account, Appalachians for a Free Palestine, has been widely disseminating statements that seek to connect the Palestinian cause to the historical labor and economic struggles of Appalachia.
“It would be hypocritical to celebrate our ancestors for fighting against their oppressors by any means necessary while criticizing Palestinians for doing the same,” one Instagram post read.
Khurram Tariq, a Pakistani American cancer specialist in Boone, said the cause of Palestinian rights has become far easier to promote in rural North Carolina because the Muslim community has grown larger and more established.
Boone did not have a mosque until two years ago, after one of Tariq’s patients reached out to him to say they also were Muslim.
The pair identified even more Muslims in town, including Appalachian State students and several Afghan refugees who had recently settled there. An Islamic center that includes a mosque, which Tariq oversees, opened in July of 2022. Boone, a city of 18,000 residents, now also has a restaurant and bakery that conforms to Islamic dietary restrictions.
The growing community, Tariq said, showcases how the “diaspora has matured.” That has given more space for their children to pick up the Palestinian cause with vigor.
“The Palestinian issue had been there, festering for years, but to be honest we were just too busy with our lives,” said Tariq, 40. “But now you have their children, and their children, speaking out … and the Muslim diaspora in general has become more active as the generations evolve.”
Chouhoud, from Christopher Newport University, added the plight of Palestinians now “unites Muslims across the board,” a departure from recent decades when U.S. Muslims had been more focused on domestic issues or the fallout from the war on terror.
“The plight of Palestinians, perhaps while not absent from considerations, just didn’t take priority because foreign policy in general was not taking a priority,” Chouhoud said.
Khalil Abualya's table outside the University of Mississippi student union, was meant to promote conversation about Gaza. (Andrea Morales for The Washington Post)
The surge in activism today coincides with steadily increasing political clout for Muslim Americans that could have repercussions in 2024.
Ahead of the 2020 election, after four years of Donald Trump policies that included a travel ban from five Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East or Africa, Muslim leaders made a major push to increase voter turnout.
Emgage USA, a political group focused on turning out Muslim voters, concentrated on 12 states that had acombined 1.5 million registered voters who identified as Muslim. That Election Day, Emgage USA estimated that 71 percent of them cast a ballot, about five points higher than the nation’s 66 percent overall turnout rate.
Muslim voters overwhelmingly supported Biden, andhelped the Democrat carry several states including Michigan and Virginia.
Wa’el Alzayat, chief executive of Emgage, said efforts to organize Muslim voters in 2020 and last year’s midterm election laid the groundwork for today’s protests. Young Muslims have become comfortable discussing thorny political issues and are now angry over “what is happening in their name” in U.S. foreign policy, Alzayat said.
“This reminds me of some of the protest dynamics that occurred during the ‘Arab Spring,’ said Alzayat, referring to the anti-government protests that swept the Middle East in the early 2010s. “Young people are receiving their information on social media, and mobilizing alongside each other, and this represents the decentralized reality of social media reaching everyone at the same time, everywhere.”
Alzayat said he expects will continue to broaden their activism. “This is a generational thing,” he said.
Chaudhry, who helped organize the protest at Appalachian State, said he’s already seeing his fellow Muslims becoming more vocal about other overseas conflicts, including the civil war in Sudan, as well as domestic issues such as affordable housing and health care.
But Chaudhry warns that Biden’s support for Israel — and perceptions that he has been less sympathetic to the victims in Gaza — will make it harder for him to turn out young Muslims in the 2024 general election, even if it’s a rematch with Trump.
“I think young Muslims ideally would want to vote for Biden, but they feel like Biden isn’t hearing what they have to say and it’s kind of wearing them down,” Chaudhry said. “So, they feel they have no option but to withdraw their support.”
Still, Chaudhry adds, “that doesn’t mean they will be supporting Donald Trump either.”
From left: Khalil Abualya, Zynub Al-Sherri, Khaled Abu-Salah and Jana Abuirshaid, Palestinian American students at the University of Mississippi, have been among those protesting for peace in Gaza. (Andrea Morales for The Washington Post)
Many young organizers feel their movement now transcends traditional politics, the fallout from a war that feels exceptionally personal.
Abualya, the organizer at Ole Miss, notes that most of his family still lives in Gaza or the West Bank. At least in Mississippi, Abualya said, first- and second-generation Americanscan use a staple of their American citizenship — free speech — to try to change others’ opinions.
“We believe our parents [living overseas] didn’t have this tool,” Abualya said. “So, since they didn’t have this opportunity, and I have this opportunity, why wouldn’t I take it?”
Tim Craig is a national reporter on the America desk. He previously served as head of The Washington Post’s Afghanistan-Pakistan bureau, based in Islamabad and Kabul. He has also reported from Iraq, the District and Baltimore.Twitter
Clara Ence Morse is a political data reporter at The Washington Post. She joined The Post as the Investigative Reporting Workshop intern with the Data team, and previously served as the editor in chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. She lives in Washington, D.C.Twitter
