Man in India regains consciousness before his cremation on funeral pyre: reports

The man, who was deaf and mute, was reportedly declared dead without a post-mortem exam

 By Brie Stimson Fox News
Published November 23, 2024 

A 25-year-old man who was declared dead and about to be cremated in India this week was found to be still alive by witnesses, according to reports.

Rohitash Kumar, 25, who was deaf and mute, was declared dead at a hospital in the state of Rajasthan in the northwestern part of India without a post-mortem examination, according to The Times of India.

Once it was clear Kumar was alive at his cremation on Thursday afternoon, his family reportedly took him back to a hospital where he died early Friday morning.


A crematorium in India. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Three doctors involved in declaring Kumar dead at the Bhagwan Das Khetan district hospital have since been suspended, the newspaper reported.

Kumar had suffered an epileptic seizure and was declared dead after he flatlined while doctors were performing CPR on him, the Daily Mail reported, citing the AFP news service.

Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, in 2021. (AP Photo/Amit Sharma, File)

"The situation was nothing short of a miracle," a witness at the funeral pyre told local news outlet ETV Bharat. "We all were in shock. He was declared dead, but there he was, breathing and alive."

Ramavtar Meena, a government official in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, called the incident "serious negligence."
The state of Rajasthan in northwestern India. (Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"Action will be taken against those responsible. The working style of the doctors will also be thoroughly investigated," he said.

Meena added that a committee had been formed to investigate the incident.

A strong treaty can end plastic pollution and save lives

Failure to do so is not an option.

Kirsten Schuijt
Director General, WWF International
Published On 22 Nov 2024

Plastic waste from the sand is collected in a sieve at a beach in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, October 21, 2024 [Manami Yamada/Reuters]

Two years ago, global leaders promised to establish a treaty by the end of 2024 that would lay the groundwork to end plastic pollution.

The words used then to describe the treaty, such as “international”, “legally binding” and “addresses the full plastics lifecycle”, suggested a strong global treaty with teeth, one that evoked hope that countries were ready and united to do the utmost.

Since then, and after four divisive rounds of negotiations due to consistent opposition from a small minority of oil-producing countries, language governing the scope and mandate of this treaty has been pared down, with strong measures at risk of being replaced with weak alternatives such as “nationally-determined”, “voluntary”, and “waste management” (rather than the full plastics lifecycle).

This week, as we head into the fifth and final round of negotiations, scepticism about whether negotiators will reach a strong global treaty is understandable. However, we must not give in to those who seek to continue with business as usual. Governments must stand strong and unite to prevent irreversible loss for all, knowing that they have the support of the rest of the world.

We have done this before – the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances provides us with a shining example of how countries can come together to agree on common global rules that have brought us back from the brink. We must do this again and we must do it now as plastic pollution is rapidly escalating the threats to both nature and humanity.

Failure is not an option when there’s ample proof of plastics’ pervasive danger. Two years ago, just after the world agreed to create the treaty, researchers detected, for the first time, microplastics in human breast milk, potentially poisoning our children.

The more vulnerable among us need our support – not because they cannot help themselves, but because individual actions are insufficient to tackle the issue without the systemic changes needed to end plastic pollution. This is where our leaders need to step up and put in place a strong global treaty that the world not only wants but urgently needs.

The reasons we must take action now are clear, and so are the solutions that an effective treaty must entail.

One, a strong treaty will save lives. Research indicates that the current volume of plastic pollution is projected to increase exponentially, and it is already destroying ecosystems and wildlife populations, prompting climate change and infiltrating our bodies through the air we breathe and the food and water we consume.

To protect human lives and nature from the worst effects of plastic pollution, we need a strong treaty that bans the most harmful plastic products and chemicals. Additionally, a strong treaty is one that establishes global product design requirements so we can ensure the plastics we use are safe and can be effectively recycled.

Two, a strong treaty will help us address some of the current inequalities created and exacerbated by plastic pollution. The world is inundated with plastic pollution, yet its effects are not felt equally. In low-income countries, the lifetime cost of plastic is 10 times higher than in wealthier nations. Even in affluent countries, the plastic pollution toll can be severe and even deadly for some, as seen in Cancer Alley in the United States, an economically distressed area that accounts for a quarter of the country’s petrochemical production. Decades of plastic, petrochemical, and industrial pollution have led to this region having the highest cancer rate in the US.

To counter the crippling inequities in the plastics value chain, a strong treaty must contain robust financial mechanisms to support a just transition, especially in the Global South. This means aligning both private and public financial flows with the treaty’s obligations, while also mobilizing and distributing additional financial resources – especially for implementation in developing countries – to reduce plastic pollution. Furthermore, a treaty like this, through the mechanisms we just discussed, will be capable of halting harmful financial flows that contribute to the crisis.

Lastly, a strong treaty is the only approach that has the potential to deliver on the goal of ending plastic pollution. From scientists and governments to citizens and businesses, there is widespread agreement that the world urgently needs a treaty with global binding obligations. This type of treaty will raise the bar, create a level playing field for all, and mandate a shift away from destructive business-as-usual models towards meaningful systems change.

Securing enduring and impactful global action requires courage and leadership in carving a path that breaks free from harmful and deeply ingrained practices. Our leaders must take responsibility and be accountable for the promise they made two years ago to deliver a strong treaty, one that we need to put our planet on a path to recovery.

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

Trudeau calls officials 'criminals' over fake intel of Modi link in Nijjar plot

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticised his own national security officials, accusing them of leaking classified information to the media and misrepresenting the facts after reports emerged linking PM Modi to the alleged plot to murder Hardeep Singh Nijjar.


Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls his officials “criminals” for leaking top-secret information to the media, which he said has “consistently gotten their stories wrong.” (AP photo)

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,: Nov 24, 2024 
Written By: Devika Bhattacharya

In Short

Media report links Indian leaders to killing of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar

Trudeau says media has 'consistently gotten their stories wrong'

Canadian government denies evidence linking Indian leaders to crime


Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply condemned his own national security officials, calling them “criminals” for leaking top-secret information to the media which he said has “consistently gotten their stories wrong.”

Trudeau made the stern remarks after a Canadian newspaper report linking top Indian leaders to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar put further strain on already fraught India-Canada ties.

"We have seen, unfortunately, that criminals leaking top-secret information to the media have consistently gotten those stories wrong,” he said at a press conference in Brampton on Friday.

"That's why we had a national enquiry into foreign interference, which has highlighted that criminals leaking information to media outlets are unreliable on top of being criminals," he stated.


Earlier this week, a prominent Canadian media outlet quoted an unnamed national security official as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew of the alleged plot to murder Nijjar.

The report also claimed that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were in the loop about the operation allegedly headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. However, the source-based story provided no evidence to support these claims.

The Canadian government, however, refuted the allegations on Thursday. In a statement, Trudeau's intelligence adviser, Nathalie Drouin, said, “The Government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of the evidence, linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”

Following the publication of the media report, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the claims as “ludicrous,” with MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the allegations “smear campaigns” that should be “dismissed with the contempt they deserve.”

Diplomatic ties between the two nations have been fraught since Trudeau accused Indian agents of involvement in Nijjar’s killing in June 2023. New Delhi has denied the accusations, calling them “absurd” and politically motivated. India has also long accused Canada of providing a safe haven for individuals involved in terrorism and criminal activities targeting Indian interests.

The tensions escalated last month when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) linked Indian agents to criminal activities, including murder, extortion, and intimidation, on Canadian soil. Both nations responded by expelling senior diplomats.

Published By:
Devika Bhattacharya
Published On:
Nov 24, 2024

Canada's Trudeau condemns violent protests as NATO meets in Montreal

By Nia Williams

November 23, 2024

REUTERS

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on, on the day he makes an announcement at Aylesbury Public School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, November 22, 2024.

 REUTERS/Carlos Osorio/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday condemned violence and antisemitism at anti-NATO and pro-Palestinian protests in downtown Montreal on Friday night, where NATO delegates have gathered for the alliance's annual assembly.

Around 300 delegates from NATO members and partner states are meeting in Montreal from Nov. 22-25.

Local media reported that protesters burned an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lit smoke bombs.

Two separate protest groups merged into a march, and some protesters started throwing smoke bombs and metal objects at officers policing the demonstration, Montreal police said.

Police used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd and three people were arrested for assaulting officers and obstructing police work. Protesters set two cars on fire and smashed windows as the march was dispersed around 7 pm ET, police said.

Videos and pictures posted to social media showed masked rioters burning flares and battering storefront windows.

"What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling. Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them," Trudeau said in a post on social media website X.

Pro-Palestinian protests have been taking place across Canada since the Israel-Gaza war started late last year.

Israel's 13-month campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once, according to Gaza officials.
The war was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has said.

Montreal Protests: Justin Trudeau Reacts to Violent Anti-NATO Demonstration

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned violent protests in Montreal Friday night as the city hosted delegates for the annual parliamentary assembly of NATO 

Published Nov 23, 2024 
By Adeola Adeosun
Weekend Night Editor

NEWSWEEK

"What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling," Trudeau wrote Saturday on X, formerly Twitter. "Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them." He added that the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) is in communication with local police, stating "there must be consequences and rioters held accountable."

Newsweek contacted Trudeau's office via email on Saturday for comment.

What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling. Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them.

The RCMP are in communication with local police. There must be consequences, and rioters held accountable.— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 23, 2024

The demonstration, organized by Divest for Palestine collective and independent labor union CLAC, coincided with Montreal's hosting of the 70th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Approximately 300 delegates from NATO members and partner states are attending the four-day event, which runs from November 22-25.

According to Montreal police spokesperson Const. Manuel Couture, the protest began at Place Émilie-Gamelin around 4:30 p.m. before merging with another demonstration near Place des Arts. The demonstration escalated around 6:10 p.m. when protesters lit a mannequin on fire and began throwing objects including smoke bombs and metal barriers at police.

Three people were arrested - a 22-year-old woman for obstructing police work and assaulting an officer, and two men aged 22 and 28 for obstructing police work. All three were released pending court appearances according to local authorities.

Police deployed chemical irritants and other crowd control measures after protesters set two vehicles ablaze and vandalized multiple storefronts, including windows at the Palais des congrès. The demonstration was dispersed by 7 p.m.

Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum, Defense Minister Bill Blair characterized the events not as lawful protest but as "anarchy," saying "This was engagement in violence and hatred on display in the city of Montreal." Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly added that "violence, hate and antisemitism... has no place on our streets."

Montreal police noted they had not received any reports of antisemitic acts or hate crimes related to the demonstration as of Saturday afternoon.

Quebec Premier François Legault condemned the events, writing on X that "The violent and hateful scenes we witnessed last night in the streets of Montreal, with attacks specifically targeting the Jewish community, are unacceptable," adding that "burning cars and smashing windows is not about sending a message, it's about causing chaos."

The protest coincided with the second day of student-held pro-Palestinian strikes across Quebec. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been occurring across Canada since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

According to Gaza officials, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once. The conflict began following an October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people in Israel and led to the taking of more than 250 hostages.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante condemned the "shocking" actions, stating they have no place in a peaceful city like Montreal, and thanked police for making arrests.

Update 11/23/24, 11:44 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to reflect the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) as not associated with this demonstration.

RIGHT WING RAT UNION ASS KISSERS TO THE BOSSES

Justin Trudeau dances at Taylor Swift concert amid destructive riot in Montreal, sparking outrage

Trudeau later wrote that the protesters must be 'held accountable'

 By Andrea Margolis Fox News
Published November 23, 2024

VIDEO
Montreal demonstrators clash with police, set off smoke bombs in destructive protest

A group of anti-NATO, pro-Palestinian demonstrators wreaked havoc on the streets of Montreal on Friday night, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. (Credit: Reuters)

Video of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dancing at a Taylor Swift concert amid a destructive protest in Montreal drew outrage over the weekend.

Trudeau, who represents a district in Montreal, had attended the Taylor Swift concert in Toronto on Friday night. A viral video posted on X shows the Canadian politician dancing and singing along to the song "You Don't Own Me" before Swift took the stage.

Toronto is roughly 280 miles west of the Canadian capital of Ottowa and 330 miles west of the Montreal district that Trudeau represents.

During the same night, anti-NATO demonstrators set off smoke bombs and marched through the streets of Montreal with Palestinian flags. According to the Montreal Gazette, the rioters set cars on fire and clashed with police.

Protesters also threw small explosive devices and metal items at officers. At one point, the group burned an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The image of Trudeau dancing amid protests in his hometown sparked outrage online. Some social media users even compared Trudeau to Nero, the infamous Roman emperor known for "fiddling while Rome burned."

Don Stewart, a Member of Parliament (MP) representing part of Toronto, called out the prime minister in a post on X.

Video of Justin Trudeau dancing at a Taylor Swift concert amid a destructive protest in his city sparked criticism over the weekend. (Getty Images / Reuters)

"Lawless protesters run roughshod over Montreal in violent protest. The Prime Minister dances," Stewart wrote. "This is the Canada built by the Liberal government."




"Bring back law and order, safe streets and communities in the Canada we once knew and loved," the MP added.

On Saturday, Trudeau denounced the protests and called them "appalling."

Protesters set off smoke bombs at the Montreal anti-NATO demonstration. (Reuters)

"What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling," the Canadian leader said. "Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them."

"The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] are in communication with local police. There must be consequences, and rioters held accountable."


Demonstrators reportedly hurled metal objects at police and set vehicles on fire. (Reuters)

Canada's top military commander calls out US senator for questioning a woman's role in combat

The first woman to command Canada’s military is calling out a U.S. senator for questioning the role of women in combat

Gen. Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defense Staff, participates in a media availability after a change of command ceremony at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File) 

ByROB GILLIES

 Associated Press
November 23, 2024, 

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- The first woman to command Canada's military called out a U.S. senator on Saturday for questioning the role of women in combat.

Gen. Jennie Carignan responded to comments made by Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was asked on Friday whether President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, should retract comments that he believes men and women should not serve together in combat units.

“I think it’s delusional for anybody to not agree that women in combat creates certain unique situations that have to be dealt with. I think the jury’s still out on how to do that," Risch said during a panel session at the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday.

Carignan, Canada's chief of defense staff and the first woman to command the armed forces of any Group of 20 or Group of Seven country, took issue with those remarks during a panel session on Saturday.

"If you’ll allow me, I would first like maybe to respond to Senator Risch’s statement yesterday about women in combat because I wouldn’t want anyone to leave this forum with this idea that women are a distraction to defense and national security," Carignan said.

“After 39 years of career as a combat arms officer and risking my life in many operations across the world, I can’t believe that in 2024, we still have to justify the contribution of women to their defense and to their service, in their country. I wouldn’t want anyone to leave this forum with this idea that this is that it is some kind of social experiment.”

Carignan said women have participating in combat for hundreds of years but have never been recognized for fighting for their country. She noted the women military personnel in the room.

“All the women sitting here in uniform, stepping in, and deciding to get into harm’s way and fight for their country, need to be recognized for doing so," she said. “So again, this is the distraction, not the women themselves."

Carignan received a standing ovation at the forum, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies.

Hegseth has reignited a debate that many thought had been long settled: Should women be allowed to serve their country by fighting on the front lines?

The former Fox News commentator made it clear, in his own book and in interviews, that he believes men and women should not serve together in combat units. If Hegseth is confirmed by the Senate, he could try to end the Pentagon’s nearly decade-old practice of making all combat jobs open to women.

Hegseth’s remarks have generated a barrage of praise and condemnation.

Carignan was promoted to the rank of general during the change-of-command ceremony this past summer, after being chosen by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to become Canada’s first female defense chief.

Carignan is no stranger to firsts. She was also the first woman to command a combat unit in the Canadian military, and her career has included deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Syria.

For the last three years, she has been the chief of professional conduct and culture, a job created as a result of the sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.

Her appointment this year comes as Canada continues to face criticism from NATO allies for not spending 2% of its gross domestic product on defense. The Canadian government recently said that it would reach its NATO commitment by 2032.

Risch said Friday Trump would laugh at Canada’s current military spending plans and said the country must do more.

‘Genocide-free’ cola makes a splash in the United Kingdom

Cola Gaza offers its drinkers an ‘apartheid-free’ alternative as they boycott big-name brands.

AKA BUYCOTT

Cans of Cola Gaza are seen for sale during a National March for Gaza protest on September 7, 2024 in London, England, the UK [Leon Neal/Getty]

By Amy Fallon

23 Nov 2024

London, UK – On a sunny autumn day, the Hiba Express – a fast food chain in Holborn, a bustling central London neighbourhood packed with restaurants, bookstores and shops – is full of diners. Above Hiba is Palestine House, a multistorey gathering place for Palestinians and their supporters, built in the style of a traditional Arabic house with stone walls and a central courtyard with a fountain.

Osama Qashoo, a charismatic man who wears his hair pulled back in a bun and a thick beard and moustache ending in impressive curls, runs both establishments in the six-storey building.

Recommended Storieslist of 4 itemslist 1 of 4
‘Stripped of our human dignity’: What it means to be hungry in Gazalist 2 of 4
Updates: Deadly new attack on Lebanon’s capital as Hezbollah hits Tel Avivlist 3 of 4
ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu for ‘war crimes’ in Gazalist 4 of 4
The view from Gaza: What the US decision not to punish Israel looks likeend of list

At the Hiba Express, his team serves up Palestinian and Lebanese dishes made from his family recipes. Inside the space, which is decorated in warm colours and with tree branches and placards with slogans such as “From the river to the sea”, patrons move halloumi cheese, chickpeas and falafel around their plates. At the eatery’s entrance, a doll dressed in a black-and-white keffiyeh scarf sits on a table with a sign above written in blood-coloured ink: “Save the children,” referring to the thousands of Palestinian children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past year.

On several tables sit cherry-red soda cans decorated with the black, white and green stripes of the Palestinian flag and Arabic artwork, and bordered by a pattern from the keffiyeh. “Gaza Cola” is written in Arabic calligraphy – in a script similar to that of a popular brand of cola.

It’s a beverage with a message and a mission.

Qashoo, 43, is quick to point out that the drink, which is made from typical cola ingredients and has a sweet and acidic taste similar to Coca-Cola, “is totally different from the formula that Coke uses”. He will not say how or where the recipe originated, but he will affirm that he created Gaza Cola in November 2023.

Osama Qashoo, creator of Gaza Cola, hands out cans and leaflets in the Holborn area of London, the United Kingdom, as part of the beverage’s soft launch in September [Courtesy of Gaza Cola

‘The real taste of freedom’

Nynke Brett, 53, who lives in Hackney, east London, discovered Gaza Cola while attending a cultural event at Palestine House. “It’s not as fizzy as Coke. It’s smoother, easier on the palate,” she says. “And it tastes even better because you’re supporting Palestine.”

Qashoo created Gaza Cola for several reasons, he says, but “number one was to boycott companies that support and fuel the Israeli army and support the genocide” in Gaza. Another reason: “To find a guilt-free, genocide-free kind of taste. The real taste of freedom.”

That may sound like a marketing tagline, but Palestinian freedom is close to Qashoo’s heart. In 2001, he co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group that uses nonviolent direct action to challenge and resist the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. This organisation paved the way for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement four years later, explains Qashoo. BDS boycotts companies and products that they say play a direct part in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

Qashoo was forced to flee Palestine in 2003 after organising peaceful demonstrations against what he calls the “apartheid wall” in the West Bank. He arrived in the UK as a refugee and became a film student, determined to communicate Palestinian stories through filmmaking. His trilogy, A Palestinian Journey, won the 2006 Al Jazeera New Horizon Award.

In 2007, Qashoo co-founded the Free Gaza Movement, which aimed to break the illegal siege on Gaza. Three years later, in 2010, he helped organise the Gaza Freedom Flotilla mission to bring humanitarian aid from Turkey to Gaza by sea. In May 2010, one of the flotilla’s ships, the Mavi Marmara, was attacked, and Qashoo lost his cameraman and filming equipment. He was later arrested and then tortured while detained with nearly 700 others. His family went on a hunger strike until he was safe.
Advertisement


After resettling in the UK, Qashoo continued his activism but found it challenging to try to earn a living from films. He then became a restaurateur. But he never expected to become a carbonated beverages purveyor. “I wasn’t even thinking about this” until late last year, Qashoo explains. He adds that he also wanted to create a product that was “an example of trade not aid”.

Fifty-three percent of consumers in the Middle East and North Africa are boycotting products from certain brands over recent wars and conflicts, George Shaw, an analyst at GlobalData, tells Al Jazeera.

“These companies that fuel this genocide, when you hit them in the most important place, which is the revenue stream, it definitely makes a lot of difference and makes them think,” Qashoo says. Gaza Cola, he adds, is “going to build a boycott movement” that will hit Coke financially.

Coca-Cola, which operates facilities in the Israeli Atarot industrial settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, faced a fresh boycott starting on October 7 last year.

Family has also been a factor in Qashoo’s drive to launch Gaza Cola. Today he doesn’t know the whereabouts of his adopted 17-year-old son in the West Bank, who was shot in the head in June. “I have family in Gaza who have been decimated,” says Qashoo. “I’ve got friends, I don’t know where they are.”

A banner advertising Gaza Cola hangs on the scaffolding on the front of Palestine House in Holborn, London, UK [Courtesy of Gaza Cola]

Not willing to compromise

Although it was only a year in the making, Qashoo says that creating Gaza Cola has been a challenge. “Gaza Cola was a very hard and painful process because I’m not an expert in the drink industry,” says Qashoo. “Every potential partner was suggesting compromise: compromise the colour, compromise the font, compromise the name, compromise the flag,” he says. “And we said ‘no, we’re not compromising on any of this’.”

Creating the drink’s logo was tricky. “How do you create a brand which is quite clear and doesn’t beat around the bush?” Qashoo says with sparkling eyes and a cheeky grin. “Gaza Cola is straightforward with honest and clear messaging.”

However, finding places to stock the drink, which is produced in Poland and imported to the UK to save money, was a problem. “Obviously we can’t get to the big markets because of the politics behind it,” says Qashoo.

He began by stocking Gaza Cola in his three London restaurants, where, since the beverage was introduced in early August, 500,000 cans have been sold. The cola is also sold by Muslim retailers such as Manchester-based Al Aqsa, which recently sold out, says the store’s manager, Mohammed Hussain.

Gaza Cola is being sold online too, with a six-pack going for 12 British pounds ($15). For comparison, a six-pack of Coke sells for about 4.70 pounds ($6).

Qashoo says that all profits from the drink are being donated towards rebuilding the maternity ward of the al-Karama Hospital, northwest of Gaza City.

A bevy of boycotts

Gaza Cola finds itself among other brands raising awareness of Palestine and the boycott against big-name colas operating in Israel. Palestine Drinks, a Swedish company that launched in February, sells an average of three to four million cans of their beverages (one is a cola) per month, co-founder Mohamed Kiswani tells Al Jazeera. Matrix Cola, created in Jordan in 2008 as a local alternative to Coke and Pepsi, which operates its main SodaStream factory in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reported in January that production had doubled in recent months. And Spiro Spathis, Egypt’s oldest carbonated drinks company, saw a big spike in sales during their “100% Made in Egypt” campaign last year.

Sales of Spiro Spathis, Egypt’s oldest soda drinks brand, grew as a result of a nationwide boycott campaign targeting Western names [Yasmin Shabana/Al Jazeera]

Jeff Handmaker, an associate professor of legal sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, says that although consumer boycotts seek to hold companies and states accused of atrocity crimes accountable, it’s a tactic to generate awareness of and accountability for corporate or institutional complicity in atrocity crimes, and not an end in itself.

“That’s not even their objective, but rather to raise awareness, and in this regard the campaign to boycott Coke is evidently successful,” Handmaker adds.

Qashoo is now working on the next version of Gaza Cola, one with more fizziness. Meanwhile, he hopes that every sip of Gaza Cola reminds people of Palestine’s plight.

“We need to remind generations after generations of this horrible holocaust,” he says. “It’s happening and it’s been happening for 75 years.”

“It just needs to be a tiny, gentle reminder, like ‘by the way, enjoy your drink, greetings from Palestine’.”


Source: Al Jazeera

Palestinian pottery sees revival in war-ravaged Gaza

By AFP
November 23, 2024

The Gaza war has displaced almost all of the territory's 2.4 million people, forced to flee without many everyday items like crockery

 - Copyright AFP/File Eyad BABA

Youssef Hassouna

Traditional clay pottery is seeing a resurgence in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are forced to find solutions for a shortage of plates and other crockery to eat from in the territory ravaged by more than a year of war.

“There is an unprecedented demand for plates as no supplies enter the Gaza Strip,” 26-year-old potter Jafar Atallah said in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah.

The vast majority of the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Fleeing bombs amid Israel’s devastating retaliatory military offensive, which has destroyed large amounts of civilian infrastructure, everyday items like cups and bowls have often been lost, broken or left behind to perish.

With imports made increasingly difficult by Israeli restrictions and the dangers of delivering aid, Gazans have had to find resourceful ways to meet their needs since the war began.



– Bare-bones –



To keep up with demand, Atallah works non-stop, producing around 100 pieces a day, mainly bowls and cups, a stark contrast to the 1,500 units his factory in northern Gaza made before the war.

It is one of the numerous factories in Gaza to have shut down, with many destroyed during air strikes, inaccessible because of the fighting, or unable to operate because of materials and electricity shortages.

Today, Atallah works out of a bare-bones workshop set up under a thin blue plastic sheet.

He carefully shapes the clay into much-needed crockery, then leaves his terracotta creations to dry in the sun — one of the few things Gaza still has plenty of.

Each object is sold for 10 shekels, the equivalent of $2.70 — nearly five times what it was worth before the war led to widespread shortages and sent prices soaring.

Gazans have told AFP they are struggling to find all types of basic household goods.

“After 13 months of war, I went to the market to buy plates and cutlery, and all I could find was this clay pot,” said Lora al-Turk, a 40-year-old mother living in a makeshift shelter in Nuseirat, a few kilometres (miles) from Deir el-Balah.

“I was forced to buy it to feed my children,” she said, noting that the pot’s price was now more than double what it was before the war.

– Old ways –

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 44,176 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Following each Israeli army evacuation order, which generally precedes fighting and bombing, masses of people take to the roads, often on foot, carrying whatever they can manage.

But with each passing month and increasing waves of displacement, the loads they carry grow smaller.

Many Gazans now live in tents or other makeshift shelters, and some even on bare pavement.

The United Nations has warned about the threat of diseases in the often cramped and unsanitary conditions.

But for Gazans, finding inventive ways to cope with hardship is nothing new.

In this, the worst-ever Gaza war, people are using broken concrete from war-damaged buildings to build makeshift homes. With fuel and even firewood scarce, many rely on donkeys for transport. Century-old camping stoves are reconditioned and used for cooking.

Traditional pottery is another sign of a return to the old ways of living.

 

German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma’ dies, aged 96

Ursula Haverbeck, a hero of the country’s far-right and neo-Nazi movement, was awaiting latest prison term

By Andrew Lapin (JTA)November 23, 2024, 2:26 pm

Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck

She claimed Auschwitz was just a work camp, not a death camp, and that nobody had been gassed to death there.

She challenged a German court to prove that the Nazis committed mass murder, and declared on TV that the Holocaust was “the biggest and most sustainable lie in history”.

She spent years in prison, as an elderly widow, for lying about the Holocaust, and was called the “Nazi grandma” by German media.

On Wednesday, Ursula Haverbeck, one of Germany’s most infamous Holocaust deniers and a hero of the country’s far-right and neo-Nazi movement, died while awaiting her latest prison term. She was 96.

Her antics, particularly in the last two decades of her life, brought shame to many Germans and helped keep Holocaust denialism from being completely snuffed out of public life there. She routinely flaunted national laws designed to keep citizens like herself from denying or downplaying the atrocity of the Jewish genocide.

“We won’t have any impact on you with words,” one German judge, Lisa Jani, announced during one such 2022 sentencing of Haverbeck. In explaining why a prison term was necessary for the nonagenarian, Jani said the defendant had “strayed miles from the historical truth” and “damaged the memories of millions of murdered people.”

“She is a lost cause,” Magistrate Bjoern Joensson, who issued an earlier sentence against Haverbeck, said about her in 2015, according to German news agency Deutsche Welle. He added that it was “deplorable that this woman, who is still so active given her age, uses her energy to spread such hair-raising nonsense.”

Born in 1928, Haverbeck married Werner Georg Haverbeck, a former Nazi officer nearly two decades her senior. Ursula largely stayed in her husband’s shadow until his death in 1999, after which she began publishing writings and other work glorifying him and the Nazis and questioning the historical record on the Holocaust.

She was first convicted and fined in 2004 for such writings; many more convictions followed. At a highly publicized 2015 trial of an Auschwitz guard, Haverbeck stood outside the courtroom and went on TV to deny that Auschwitz had ever been a death camp. She also challenged the court to prove that people had been murdered there, leading to her being sentenced to 10 months in jail.

More such sentences followed, the longest — for more than two years — coming after magazine articles Haverbeck published in 2016. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to appeal her sentence, Haverbeck initially failed to show up for her sentencing date in 2018. She was finally arrested and served the time, running for a seat in the European Parliament under the auspices of a fringe far-right party while behind bars.

Even then, Haverbeck continued to spread denialism and face heavy legal consequences. Her latest conviction for incitement came just this past June. She was sentenced to a year and four months in prison for her lies about Auschwitz and died while appealing the ruling.

As Haverbeck spread lies throughout the last years of her life, German society was shifting further to the right. Far-right ultra-nationalist parties, who have promoted messages of German pride and argued that Germans should no longer have to feel guilty about the Holocaust, have gained more seats in parliament; celebrity politicians have made waves for inciting comments, including employing banned Nazi phrases.

 

Six Israeli soldiers commit suicide, thousands more get mental health treatment

By

 5Pillars (RMS)

 -

23rd November 2024

AI generated image from Shutterstock

At least six Israeli soldiers have taken their own lives in recent months, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth revealed yesterday, citing severe psychological distress caused by prolonged wars in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon as the primary cause.

The investigation suggests the actual number of suicides may be higher, as the Israeli military has yet to release official figures, despite a promise to disclose them by the end of the year.

The report highlights a broader mental health crisis within the Israeli army. Thousands of soldiers have sought help from military mental health clinics or field psychologists, with approximately a third of those affected showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the investigation, the number of soldiers suffering psychological trauma may exceed those with physical injuries from the war.

The daily cites experts as saying the full extent of this mental health crisis will become clear once military operations are completed and troops return to normal life.

In March, Lucian Tatsa-Laur, head of the Israeli military’s mental health department, told Haaretz that approximately 1,700 soldiers had received psychological treatment.

Multiple reports have since emerged indicating that thousands of troops are suffering from mental health issues owing to extended deployments in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Regional tension has escalated due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 44,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Over 800 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting since October 7, 2023.

The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with figures and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

In a landmark move, the International Criminal Court on Thursday announced it had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

The conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Israel launching deadly strikes across the country in an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war.

Ben-Gvir Leads Jewish Settlers in Storming Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque

November 23, 2024
in News, West Bank

DaysofPal- Thousands of Jewish settlers, led by the far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil, in the southern occupied West Bank on Friday, to mark a Jewish holiday.

Aref Jaber, a member of a local committee working to defend al-Khalil against Israeli violations, said that several buses transported the settlers to the Ibrahimi Mosque, where they performed Talmudic rituals for the Jewish holiday known as Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah).

“The Israeli army completely sealed off the Old City in al-Khalil and imposed a curfew on the local residents,” Jaber added.

He noted that the settlers were escorted by Israeli ministers, including Ben-Gvir.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in al-Khalil, an old city in the southern West Bank that is controlled by Israel.

Following the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshipers inside the mosque by a Jewish extremist settler named Baruch Goldstein, Israeli occupation authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshipers, with the Jews receiving the largest area.

Hamas warns of Ben Gvir’s “arrogance”

The Hamas Movement stated that the Israeli government is continuing its efforts to carry out its criminal plans in the occupied West Bank, allowing its settlers to commit crimes against the Palestinian people and their sanctuaries without accountability.

“A serious violation that comes as part of the ongoing Israeli Judaization projects that threaten our Islamic and Christian sanctities in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem,” the Movement said in a statement released Friday evening, denouncing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s break-in at the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Hamas emphasized that these dangerous measures “require a real Palestinian rise up to break this cycle of terrorism and arrogance, confront the Israeli settler projects, and make them pay the price for their crimes and violations.”

Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=58982