Pediatrician Details 'Cataclysmic' Reality for Gaza Kids Under Israel Assault

"I remember I was counseling new mothers on breastfeeding, and I looked out of the ward, and there were plumes of smoke rising in the air and bombs narrowing in on the hospital, and it felt very surreal," said Dr. Seema Jilani.


Injured child at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital after Israeli airstrikes.
(Photo by Saeed Jaras/APA Images)


JULIA CONLEY
Jan 31, 2024

COMMON DREAMS

In what one historian called "an understated plea for the world to not look away," a pediatrician who has provided care across the globe and in numerous war zones described in an interview with The New Yorker on Tuesday how over two weeks working in a hospital in Gaza recently, she saw firsthand how Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the blockaded enclave has created conditions unlike anything she has witnessed elsewhere.

Dr. Seema Jilani, a senior technical adviser at the International Rescue Committee, told journalist Isaac Chotiner about the life-and-death decisions doctors in Gaza are being forced to make on a daily basis, even as they try to keep their own families safe from Israel's relentless air and ground attacks.

Jilani arrived in central Gaza for a two-week assignment around Christmas Day and immediately began working alongside Palestinian doctors at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, where she worked to save as many lives as she could as the facility faced a dwindling supply of medical equipment and medications including morphine—forcing them to rely on over-the-counter drugs like Motrin to provide pain relief to people with serious injuries and burns.

"Within the two weeks that I was there, I saw it go from a semi-functional hospital to a barely or nonfunctional hospital as a result of increasing violence in surrounding areas," Jilani told The New Yorker.

The U.S.-born pediatrician, who has treated civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan previously, described a one-year-old boy who was among the first patients she treated at Al-Aqsa:
His right arm and right leg had been blown off by a bomb, and flesh was still hanging off the foot. He had a bloodstained diaper, which remained, but there was no leg below. I treated the baby while he lay on the ground. There were no stretchers available because all the beds had already been taken, considering that many people were also trying to use the hospital as a shelter or safe space for their families. Next to him there was a man who was on his last breaths. He had been actively dying for the last twenty-four hours, and flies were already on him. All the while, a woman was brought in and was declared dead on arrival. This one-year-old had blood pouring into his chest cavity. He needed a chest tube so he wouldn't asphyxiate on his own blood. But there were neither chest tubes nor blood-pressure cuffs that were available in pediatric sizes. No morphine had been given in the chaos, and it wasn't even available. This patient in America would've immediately gone to the O.R., but instead the orthopedic surgeon bandaged the stumps up and said he couldn’t take him to the operating theater right now because there were more pressing emergencies. And I tried to imagine what was more pressing than a one-year-old with no hand and no legs who was choking on his own blood. So that, to me, was symbolic of the impossible choices inflicted on the doctors of Gaza, and how truly cataclysmic that situation is.

Doctors and nurses in Gaza are trying to provide care in a state of "chaos," Jilani told the magazine, with patients arriving at the few remaining functional hospitals "on makeshift stretchers, if you're lucky, or by an ambulance that was overflowing with people, [or] via donkeys."

Jilani's organization also posted a video of her speaking about her time in Gaza, where she saw one physician pitching in at the hospital after he had visited a friend who was there.

"That's the level of devastation but the level of commitment that the Palestinian healthcare forces is having right now," said Jilani.




Since Israel began its bombardment in October, Jilani and other humanitarian volunteers have gone to Gaza to help "fill in some gaps" left by doctors who have been displaced and forced to leave their homes to protect their families. As Jilani's assignment drew to a close, the situation at Al-Aqsa grew more perilous.

"Each day became more and more tense, with more and more people piling into surrounding areas looking for safe shelter," Jilani told The New Yorker. "I remember I was counseling new mothers on breastfeeding, and I looked out of the ward, and there were plumes of smoke rising in the air and bombs narrowing in on the hospital, and it felt very surreal. One day, a bullet went through the ICU. The next day, the road to the hospital had been deemed unsafe for us to use. And then the Israeli military dropped leaflets, designating areas surrounding the hospital as a red zone. Given the history of recent attacks on medical staff and facilities in Gaza, our team was unable to return, and people began evacuating the area in panic."

Soon after Jilani left Gaza, Al Jazeerareported that hundreds of patients and medical staffers were missing from Al-Aqsa after being "forced to leave" due to Israeli strikes in the area.

Jilani told The New Yorker that prior to the mass evacuation from the hospital, "there was a period of time when I believe they ran out of fuel."


"I don't know if that has been refreshed or not, but all I know is I can't stop thinking of whether my patients got out, my babies in the neonatal I.C.U. incubators," said Jilani. "Who would take care of them? The kids with facial burns: How are they going to be able to see enough, and be well enough to leave? So I don't know, and I wish I did have more information on that."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported Wednesday that as Israeli forces have killed at least 26,900 Palestinians since October 7, 19,000 children in Gaza have been left orphaned. In addition to facing the threat of relentless bombings and ground attacks, the enclave's population is also "starving to death," the World Health Organization's emergencies director said Wednesday, with all 2.2 million residents "at imminent risk of famine" due to Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid.

While traveling to Al-Aqsa from Rafah, on the border of Egypt and Gaza, Jilani told The New Yorker that she witnessed "a sea of human tragedy," with huge crowds of displaced people "walking barefoot" or crammed into donkey carts or vehicles, with "looks of total resignation and abject despair."

"I'm a pediatrician, so I didn't expect to be of great use in a war zone," Jilani said. "I'm disheartened and really disturbed to say that I had many, many pediatric patients who were war-wounded, burned orphans, traumatic amputations, and that is something different than what I witnessed in Iraq, or elsewhere."

Dónal Hassett, a historian at University College Cork in Ireland, called Jilani's account "harrowing."

"May this Isaac Chotiner interview with Dr. Seema Jilani about her experiences treating patients in Gaza be a wake-up call," said Noah Gottschalk of the refugee agency HIAS.

Bending Biden Towards a Cease-Fire in Gaza

The push for an end to Israel's assault on the people of the Gaza Strip is coming from the grassroots of the president's own party and though Biden continues to resist, the needle is moving.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to a crowd during a South Carolina Democratic Party event on January 27, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina.
(Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)



JAMES ZOGBY
Jan 29, 2024

The Arab American Institute

Despite the Biden administration’s refusal to back a cease-fire that would help end Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, momentum is growing across the US calling on the administration to reverse course. What is significant is that the opposition to the White House’s position is coming from within the president’s own party.

The administration’s stubborn aversion to even the use of the term cease-fire remains inexplicable. It may be recalled that just a few days after the Israeli bombings that followed the October 7th attacks, the State Department issued a statement calling for a cease-fire that was quickly taken down and followed by a guidance memo to diplomats saying the term was not to be used. As the number of civilian casualties continued to grow, administration officials repeatedly fell back on the line that Israel had the right to defend itself, that Hamas had to be eliminated, and that a cease-fire would only allow Hamas to rebuild its capacity. The administration attempted to absolve itself by coupling this rejection of a cease-fire with appeals to Israel to avoid civilian casualties and with support for humanitarian aid.

Those arguments have failed the test of time. The carpet bombing of residential areas of Gaza, the clear intent to demolish housing and infrastructure, the forced evacuation of millions, and more have led to Israel being charged with genocide. And leading analysts in the U.S. and Israel have noted that the “elimination of Hamas” is at best “a fool’s errand.”

As the dimensions of the human tragedy unfolding in Gaza became clearer, the U.S. has found itself virtually isolated in the world community in its rejection of a UAE-sponsored Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire that would allow unimpeded humanitarian aid. Countering this proposal, the U.S. supported increased aid to Gaza but would not consider the reality that without an end to the bombing aid could not be delivered or reach those most in need.

Slowly but surely U.S. public opinion has changed with substantial majorities now wanting a cease-fire and voters indicating by a two-to-one margin that they are more inclined to support candidates who call for a cease-fire, with the margin of support for a cease-fire greater among Democrats and key Democratic constituencies (young voters and non-white voters). Still the administration resists.

This past week, a leading Democratic Senator, Chris Van Hollen, joined the chorus of legislators calling for a cease-fire, making him the 68th member of the Senate or House of Representatives to do so. This represents more than one-quarter of the Democrats in Congress and can be expected to grow.

More significant, and somewhat unexpected, are the numbers of City Councils who have taken up the call for a cease-fire. Led by grassroots mobilizations of Palestinian Americans, progressive Jewish groups, and Black activists, major cities like Atlanta, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Detroit, Seattle, St Louis, and three dozen other municipalities have passed strong cease-fire resolutions. And while a vote on a similar resolution has been delayed for a few days in Chicago, the nation's third largest city and home of this year’s Democratic National Convention, that city’s Mayor, Brandon Johnson, this week issued a strong call in support of a cease-fire.

Because the language used by Mayor Johnson was so evocative it warrants consideration. Echoing the sentiments of his voters, he not only expressed his horror at the loss of life, but also tied the liberation of Blacks with the justifiable need for Palestinian liberation. He said, “I’m not mayor of the city of Chicago if people weren’t pushing the government to recognize the value of liberation—what it means for people, groups, and nations. And, in this instance, people should be liberated.”

Just two weeks ago, an Emergency Summit on Gaza was convened in Chicago under the auspices of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition. During those sessions, prominent Black clergymen similarly connected their struggle for justice with that of the Palestinians living under occupation. They were joined by progressive Jewish rabbis, Protestant church leaders, Arab Americans, and American Muslims—all united in the call for a cease-fire and committed to advancing this effort nationwide. The effort is advancing.

I am reminded of a debate I had two decades ago with a PLO representative. We were addressing the convention of a Palestinian American organization on strategies to advance the Palestinian cause. The representative spoke about their successes in securing overwhelming victories in the UN General Assembly and then lamenting their losses in the Security Council because of the U.S. veto. His solution was that they were going to bring yet another resolution before the Security Council the next fall.

In my response, I said that since that new resolution would also be vetoed by the U.S., the only vote that mattered was the U.S. vote and that could not be changed or swayed in the court of world opinion. It had to be changed in the U.S. and the only way to do it was to advance that change through grassroots political activism from the bottom up. Two decades later, that effort is underway.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. often said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What King didn’t say, but understood, was that it didn’t bend by itself. It required the hands of many to push the arc in the right direction. That is what’s happening now. And it is to be celebrated.


JAMES ZOGBY
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. Through voter registration, education and mobilization, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream. Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1988, he led the first ever debate on Palestinian statehood at that year's Democratic convention in Atlanta, GA. In 2000, 2008, and 2016 he served as an advisor to the Gore, Obama, and Sanders presidential campaigns.

Israel Cannot Hide From the International Court of Justice


Israel urgently requires leaders who embrace international law over military force, humility over arrogance, and peacemaking over brutality.


JEFFREY D. SACHS
Jan 29, 2024

Common Dreams

It is easy to be cynical about the international rule of law. No sooner had the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against the Palestinian people than the U.S. State Department declared, “We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded and note the court did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling…” Israeli leaders declared the case to be “outrageous” and “antisemitic.” Yet the risks for Israel of the ICJ ruling, and its follow-up in the next year or two, are profound. If Israel spurns the Genocide Convention, it imperils its place within the community of nations.

True, the ICJ provisional ruling by itself will not end Israel’s war in Gaza or perhaps the mass killing of the Palestinian people, already at 26,000 and rising (with 70 percent women and children). The ruling by itself will not end America’s complicity in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. Israel could not fight the war in Gaza one more day without the U.S. providing the munitions and other military support.

Yet the ruling has started the clock on Israel’s future. If Israel continues to act with impunity and finds itself declared as genocidaire in the ICJ’s final ruling, Israel will become a pariah state. Young Americans in particular will pull the plug on U.S. backing for Israel. Israel will stand utterly alone, condemned by the world.

Israelis should understand that the U.S. cannot—and will not—save Israel in the long run.

Most of the 193 governments in the United Nations already disdain Israel’s behavior. Most see a country that has occupied the neighboring territories of Palestine for 57 years (since the 1967 war), that has scorned and failed to act on dozens of votes by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, and illegally and blatantly settled more than 700,000 Israelis in the occupied territories.

Most UN member states hear clearly the expressions of visceral hatred by many Israeli leaders toward the people of Palestine. For example, the statement by Israeli President Herzog blaming all of the people of Gaza, as cited by the ICJ; and they understand clearly the intention of today’s Israeli government to occupy Palestine and rule over the 7 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in Israel and Palestine today. South Africa brought the ICJ case against Israel in part because it knows murderous apartheid rule when it sees it, and it sees apartheid rule in Israel’s ongoing domination over the Palestinian people.

Israel has so far not been deterred by global opinion because of its nuclear weapons, its messianic zeal, and most importantly, the military, financial, and public backing of the United States, including its votes in the UN Security Council and General Assembly. Moreover, the U.S. and Israel have acted on the belief that the offer of American money and weapons systems to the Arab nations would induce them to turn their backs on Palestinian people. Israel and the U.S. act with supreme arrogance, believing that military might makes right and that money talks. Yes, Israel also acts out of fear of the Palestinians, but that is the overbearing and grossly unjustified fear of the underdog, the conquered, and the displaced. By recognizing and making peace with an independent state of Palestine, Israel would remove the hate and humiliation that fuels support for Hamas, and thereby diminish the threats that lead to Israel’s own fears.

Israelis should understand that the U.S. cannot—and will not—save Israel in the long run. It will not do so any more than America has “saved” South Vietnam; Iran after the U.S.-U.K. coup in 1953; Afghanistan after 2001; Iraq after the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003; Syria after the U.S. attempted overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in 2011; Libya after the NATO overthrow of Moammar Qaddafi in 2011; or Ukraine since the U.S.-led coup in 2014. American military force is useless or worse in sustaining regimes that lack broad international support and legitimacy. America tires of each misguided military adventure and moves on, and will eventually do so vis-à-vis Israel if Israel becomes a pariah and outlaw state.

Nor will U.S. money and weapons systems carry the day with the Arab neighbors. The U.S. is at the end of its financial largesse. The U.S. public debt is already 122.9 percent of GDP and rising rapidly. There is no consensus in Washington, D.C. on how to stabilize the U.S. budget, but one point is clear: large support for foreign countries will not be part of the bargain. The cutoff of U.S. financing for Ukraine, despite the intense lobbying by the politically powerful military-industrial complex, is a vivid case in point. Even access to advanced U.S. weapons systems will not persuade Arab nations to abandon the cause of a Palestinian state. In any event, Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Chinese, and other advanced weapons systems will be on highly competitive offer in future years, and with better financing terms.

At the moment, the Israeli public ardently backs Israel’s brutality and slaughter in Gaza. The public is gripped by a combination of overwhelming fear, religious zealotry, and state propaganda. Israelis widely believe that the Arab nations are implacably out to destroy Israel. They do not travel in the Arab countries and do not know or understand the attitudes and policies of those neighboring societies. They do not attend to the statements of Arab and Islamic leaders calling for peace based on the two-state solution because Israeli mainstream media, like U.S. mainstream media, is in the grips of relentless state propaganda, brain-deadening patriotism, and relentless war-mongering.

Israeli society is immeasurably traumatized by the Nazi Holocaust, which remains the central fact of modernity and memory of every Jewish family of European roots in any part of the world. An eventual finding by the world’s highest court that Israel itself has now become a perpetrator of genocide will therefore shake Israeli society to the roots and will rupture Israel’s social contract with world Jewry. At that very painful and very dire stage, Israeli public opinion may begin to reconsider its current assumptions.

Yes, despite the ICJ ruling Israel’s killing goes on, but under greatly heightened legal and political scrutiny. Every Israeli murder in cold blood, every bombing of a hospital, every destruction of a Palestinian school or university, every Israeli denial of food and water for Gazans, will be meticulously recorded by South Africa’s superb legal team, and by highly respected legal institutes around the world, including the Center for Constitutional Rights and Law for Palestine. All will be duly conveyed to the ICJ.

Palestine will survive the current horrific ordeal, deeply wounded but with strong worldwide backing. Israel’s future, by contrast, hangs in the balance, as it could soon find itself banished by the community of nations as a stark violator of international law. Israel urgently requires leaders who embrace international law over military force, humility over arrogance, and peacemaking over brutality. And Israel—no less than the United States—must come to understand the self-destructive futility of deploying military force to deny justice and political rights for the Palestinian people.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


JEFFREY D. SACHS is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sachs is the author, most recently, of "A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism" (2020). Other books include: "Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable" (2017) and "The Age of Sustainable Development," (2015) with Ban Ki-moon.

International Court of Justice President Joan Donoghue and ICJ judges arrive prior to the verdict announcement in the genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa in The Hague, Netherlands on January 26, 2024.
(Photo: Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

NAKBA 2.0

Israel Ministers Call for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza at Settler Conference

"The colonial meeting in Jerusalem poses a blatant challenge to the International Court of Justice decision, accompanied by public incitement to forcibly displace Palestinians," the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during a convention calling for Israel to resettle Gaza Strip and the northern part of the West Bank at the International Convention Center on January 28, 2024 in Jerusalem, Israel.
(Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images)


OLIVIA ROSANE

COMMON DREAMS
Jan 29, 2024

Members of the Israeli government—including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—attended a far-right conference on Sunday calling for the "resettlement" of Gaza and increased Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The conference, at which both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich repeated calls for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, came days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to prevent its military from committing genocide in Gaza.

"The colonial meeting in Jerusalem poses a blatant challenge to the International Court of Justice decision, accompanied by public incitement to forcibly displace Palestinians," the Palestinian Foreign Ministry wrote on social media.

"These are the people who are making policy in Israel, and these are the people who were calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza."

Sunday's conference, titled "Conference for the Victory of Israel—Settlement Brings Security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria," was organized by the right-wing Nahala organization, according to Haaretz and Al Jazeera. The group argues for an expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, even though these settlements are illegal under international law, as Reuters explained.

Israel also held settlements in Gaza for 38 years before withdrawing them in 2005. At Sunday's conference, Smotrich said that settlers who had left Gaza as children had returned as soldiers during Israel's ongoing bombardment and invasion of the enclave.

"We knew what that would bring and we tried to prevent it," Smotrich said of the 2005 withdrawal. "Without settlements, there is no security."

Ben Gvir also said that he and others had warned against leaving Gaza.

"If we don't want another October 7, we need to return home and control the land," he said, as Reuters reported further. He also called for Israel to "encourage emigration" of Palestinians out of Gaza.

Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir have made similar statements in the past, with Smotrich saying in December, "What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration," as Al Jazeera reported at the time.

In early January, Ben Gvir said the war presented an "opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza," according toThe Times of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel does not plan to establish permanent settlements in Gaza, as Al Jazeera reported, but he has also dismissed calls for a Palestinian state at the end of the war, which is the favored policy of the United States, arguing that Israel needs "security control over all territory west of the Jordan River."

A National Security Council spokesperson said the U.S. was "troubled" by Sunday's event, as The Times of Israel reported.

"We have also been clear, consistent, and unequivocal against the forced relocation of Palestinians outside of Gaza," the White House said in a statement. 'This rhetoric is incendiary and irresponsible, and we take the prime minister at his word when he says that Israel does not intend to reoccupy Gaza."

In addition to Smotrich and Ben Gvir, 12 ministers from Netanyahu's Likud party were also present at Sunday's event, as Israel's Channel 12 News reported.

One, Likud Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, said of calls for voluntary migration out of Gaza that, during a war, "'voluntary' is at times a state you impose [on someone] until they give their consent," as Haaretz reported.

Conference organizer Daniella Weiss outlined a plan to use starvation to force population transfer in a video from the event posted on social media.

"So we don't give them food. We don't give the Arabs anything. They will have to leave," she said. "The world will accept them."



United Nations workers and doctors warned this month that famine in Gaza imposed by Israel's blockade was already causing children to die of starvation.

Palestinian-American expert and advocate Mariam Barghouti told Al Jazeera, that 15 Knesset members were also present at Sunday's conference, adding that it was "not a joke."

"These are the people who are making policy in Israel, and these are the people who were calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, complete ethnic cleansing of the people of Gaza," Barghouti said.

Former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth pointed out on social media that there was a "consistency problem" among Israel's allies such as the U.S., who continue to fund Israel after ministers call for "a war crime" but cut funds to the United Nations Relief and Public Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after it fired 12 of its workers over reports from Israel that they were involved in Hamas' October 7 attack.



The October 7 attack killed around 1,100 Israelis and led to the taking of around 240 hostages into Gaza. Israel's subsequent campaign against Gaza has now killed 26,637 people and wounded 65,387, Gaza's Health Ministry announced on Monday.

Where Are the Progressives as Biden Marches Toward War?

This should be a four-alarm fire. Is there anyone effectively organizing against Biden just casually leading us into another war?

A group of Jewish elders chained themselves to the White House perimeter fence Monday in protest of US President Joe Biden's policies during the war in the Gaza Strip in Washington DC, United States on December 11, 2023.

(Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)


MURSHED ZAHEED
Jan 31, 2024

Responsible Statecraft

The general silence around the progressive establishment as the current Democratic administration prepares to launch military strikes against more foreign targets risking a wider war in the Middle East is so depressing and disconcerting.

As deeply disturbed I am about Rep. Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) recent bizarre and absurd attacks on peace advocates, I am even more distressed about the prospect of a casual stroll into an all out war against Iran in response to the militia attack on U.S. military personnel near the Jordan/Syria border over the weekend, which killed three Americans and wounded dozens more. Why U.S. troops are even there to begin with is a whole other matter.

Since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response, Biden administration officials and the president himself have repeatedly said they do not want the conflict to spiral out of control in the region. But in response to the attack on U.S. troops at the Jordan/Syria border, President Biden is reportedly considering “striking Iranian personnel in Syria or Iraq or Iranian naval assets in the Persian Gulf” which, if he follows through, could carry with it a tit-for-tat path of escalation that risks spiraling out of control.

Biden and his team are sleepwalking into a direct war in the Middle East, a course of action that will be beyond devastating...

Also, the Biden administration apparently does not see a link between U.S. support for Israel’s carnage in Gaza and the violence in the Red Sea and elsewhere in the region. Instead, Politico reported this week that an unnamed U.S. official “poured cold water on a pair of alternative options the U.S. could take: Reassessing troop deployments in the region and pressuring Israel to end fighting in Gaza, since that’s what has been angering the proxy groups.”

The same report, however, quoted former State Department official and international law expert Brian Finucane saying that “non-military options are likely to be more effective at bringing about an end to attacks on U.S. troops.”

Keep in mind President Biden is already on record saying that recent U.S. strikes targeting the Houthis haven’t been working. Furthermore, Qatar has already reportedly warned that U.S. retaliation to strikes in Jordan could hurt the ongoing hostage negotiations.

There have been some in the progressive foreign policy space offering sober, level-headed progressive approaches on how to diffuse the tension. For example, Matt Duss, former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, has suggested better non-military options like negotiating a new Iran nuclear deal, pushing for a legitimate two-state solution, and conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel. “Ultimately, you need to get to some kind of modus vivendi of which Iran is a part," he said.

Win Without War, a grassroots-focused group that promotes progressive foreign policy, has been on point as usual with their messaging imploring President Biden to change his current course in the Middle East.

But apart from that, there are not many people speaking out from the progressive mainstream and there are very few, if any calls to action.

Meanwhile, many on the right wing are filling the void and talking the most sense about the situation at this moment. For example, Tucker Carlson called Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) “f*cking lunatics” for calling on Biden to attack Iran. Former GOP presidential candidate and now Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy blasted Graham and Nikki Haley for "giddily calling" for war: "It's disgusting & says a lot about the kind of GOP they're trying to recreate," Ramaswamy tweeted. And Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) piled on, asking Graham, "Is there anyone you don't want to bomb?"

This should be a four-alarm fire. If I was at my old job running the political advocacy programs at CREDO Mobile today, emails would be going out lighting up the Capitol Hill switchboards trying to prevent a Democratic president from leaning even further into this maddening military conflict (which is exactly what we did a handful of times during the Obama administration).

Where is the leadership from the Left — leaders at big organizations with outsized email programs and social media assets to deploy?

What is happening? Is there anyone effectively organizing against Biden just casually leading us into another war?

I fully support an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate release of all hostages. Those two outcomes are linked. And, I admire everyone pouring their heart and soul into their advocacy to make that a reality.

But, right now, President Biden and his team are sleepwalking into a direct war in the Middle East, a course of action that will be beyond devastating and one that requires the Left’s urgent attention.
© 2023 Responsible Statecraft


MURSHED ZAHEED
Murshed Zaheed has more than 15 years of experience as a leader, organizer, and advocate in a career that stretches from the Congressional corridors in Washington DC to the Bay of San Francisco
Full Bio >

Analyst Rips Biden Admin for Touting Record Arms Sales Amid Gaza Carnage


Arms industry researcher William Hartung argued the U.S. should focus on "the human consequences" of its weapons transfers instead of bragging about them.



JAKE JOHNSON

COMMON DREAMS
Jan 31, 2024

An arms industry analyst criticized the U.S. State Department on Wednesday for bragging that American weapons sales surged to record levels in fiscal year 2023 as Israel continues to use U.S.-made bombs and other munitions against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this week, the State Department announced that "the total value of transferred defense articles and services and security cooperation activities conducted under the Foreign Military Sales system was $80.9 billion" between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023, prior to the start of Israel's latest war on Gaza.

"This is the highest annual total of sales and assistance provided to our allies and partners," the department said in a statement, emphasizing the message with bold font. The "fact sheet" highlights the sale of Apache helicopters to Poland, battle tanks to Kuwait, helicopters to Qatar, and F-35 aircraft and munitions to South Korea.

The surge in arms sales last year led top U.S. defense contractors to boost their profit outlooks for 2024.


William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, called the State Department's celebration of record weapons transfers "tone deaf" amid mounting concerns over Israeli forces' use of American arms to commit atrocities in Gaza.

"Leaving aside the dispute about whether Israel is committing genocide or 'just' widespread war crimes, its military activities have killed over 26,000 Gazans, displaced 1.9 million people, and hindered the delivery of medical and food aid," Hartung wrote. "This could not be, and is not, in line with U.S. law or the Biden administration's stated policies."




On Monday, as Common Dreams reported, a group of Democratic lawmakers and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded that the State Department explain its rationale for bypassing Congress twice to expedite the sale of arms to Israel, including 155mm artillery shells that humanitarian groups have described as "inherently indiscriminate" when used in densely populated areas like Gaza.

A State Department spokesperson dismissed the lawmakers' concerns during a press briefing on Tuesday, insisting that the arms transfers followed established procedures for "emergency" circumstances.

The U.S. is far and away Israel's top arms supplier. An Amnesty International investigation released last month found that Israeli forces used U.S.-made munitions to carry out airstrikes on a pair of homes in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 43 people—including 19 children.

Amnesty is one of more than a dozen leading human rights organizations calling on the U.S. and other Western nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel, warning that "Israel's bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable."

"A good start would be to withhold further transfers to Israel as leverage to force a cease-fire in Gaza."

Hartung stressed Wednesday that Israel "has been routinely exempted from U.S. human rights strictures with respect to its use of U.S.-supplied weapons." Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate killed a Sanders-led resolution that would have required the State Department to produce a report on how the Israeli government is using American weaponry in the Gaza Strip.

"To make matters worse," Hartung wrote, "the Biden administration has made it harder for Congress and the public to know what weapons it is supplying to the Israeli military by circumventing congressional notification requirements and providing weapons from stockpiles without reporting on what is being taken and transferred."

Hartung argued that "instead of bragging about the enormous value of U.S. arms transfers and providing a sanitized view of their impacts, the Biden administration should take a hard, cold look at the risks of unrestrained arm exports on the reputation and security of the United States, as well as the human consequences of their use by U.S. allies."

"A good start," he added, "would be to withhold further transfers to Israel as leverage to force a cease-fire in Gaza."

Israeli soldiers fire missiles near Gaza-Israel border structure on January 3, 2024.
(Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)

'Uniting for Peace': Chicago Now Biggest US City to Demand Gaza Cease-Fire

Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson cast a tiebreaking vote to pass the Chicago City Council resolution.


JESSICA CORBETT

COMMON DREAMS
Jan 31, 2024

A drawn-out battle in Illinois over a Chicago City Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Israel's war on the Gaza Strip ended Wednesday when Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson cast a tiebreaking vote to pass the "Uniting for Peace" measure.

Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States by population—after New York City and Los Angeles—and now the country's biggest to demand a cease-fire nearly four months into the U.S.-backed war. Dozens of other smaller communities nationwide as well as advocacy groups, labor unions, and political leaders have issued similar calls while the death toll in Gaza has mounted.

"There are people that are still digging through the rubble, for their loved ones, for their babies."

"Why is it urgent that we pass this resolution? Over 26,000 Palestinians now have been killed. The majority of them are women and children," said resolution sponsor Ald. Rossana Rodríguez Sanchez of the 33rd Ward, according to the Chicago Tribune. "There are people that are still digging through the rubble, for their loved ones, for their babies. Weeks of digging through the rubble."

Also sponsored by Ald. Daniel La Spata of the 1st Ward, the resolution calls for "a permanent cease-fire to end the ongoing violence in Gaza" as well as "humanitarian assistance including medicine, food, and water to be sent into the impacted region, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

The measure—which will be sent to the Illinois congressional delegation and White House—also advocates for "plans to protect civilian population in the region in particular to support the needs of women, children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly."

Wed

Wednesday's 24-23 vote came after Johnson cleared the chambers due to disruptions during the debate over the symbolic resolution. The council previously planned to vote last week but was delayed after a request led by Ald. Debra Silverstein of the 50th Ward, the only Jewish member, related to an International Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution.

Observers interrupted Silverstein on Wednesday when she attempted to express her "disappointment and frustration" that the council was voting on what she called a "one-sided, lopsided resolution" rather than crafting one that "could have gained unanimous support."

As the Chicago Sun-Times reported:
As Silverstein spoke about the October 7 attack, a man in the audience yelled "Wadea was murdered because of your lies." The man then exited the council chambers on his own to applause and high-fives.

He was referring to Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in Plainfield a week after the Hamas attack. The boy's mother, who was wounded, had called 911 to say her landlord was attacking her. Police said they were targeted because of their Muslim faith.

The Tribune noted that "the final push to pass the resolution included an endorsement Monday from powerful unions like the Chicago Teachers Union and a widespread school walkout Tuesday that included cease-fire calls from hundreds of high school students. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended the start of the meeting, also threw his support behind the resolution."

The city's progressive mayor personally lobbied for the resolution and called for a cease-fire at a press conference last week.

In These Timesshared some remarks from the public comment period preceding the vote in Chicago on Wednesday:
Cease-fire advocate Marty Levine, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said, "I do this because I believe it is what I, as a Jew, must do." He continued: "The lessons we are required to learn from the Holocaust are that it can never happen again and we can never allow it to happen again. 'Never again' is not for some people, it is for all. We are taught that to save one life is to save all of humanity."

40th Ward resident Jennifer Husbands said, "We have bore witness to the mass murder of Palestinians." Noting that a majority of likely voters and three-quarters of Democrats support a cease-fire, she argued that "our tax dollars are being used to carpet bomb Palestinians" rather than fund services like housing, education, and gun violence prevention. "As Tupac said, 'They got money for war but they can't feed the poor.'"

The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid and since the war started, U.S. President Joe Biden has sought a new $14.3 billion package for the country while also bypassing congressional oversight to arm Israeli forces who have been accused of genocide in a South African-led case now before the International Court of Justice.

Reutersreported Wednesday that when asked for comment on Chicago's resolution, "the White House, which has said it is pressing Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, referred to previous statements that a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas." Still, peace advocates welcomed the vote in the county with the country's largest Palestinian population.

"Today was a test for our city and we passed," declared CodePink co-director Danaka Katovich. "Our city took a stance firmly against genocide and in support of a cease-fire... This is just the start of what the movement for Palestine can accomplish together."

The Chicago arms of IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement: "We are proud that Chicago City Council heeded the calls of Palestinians and over a thousand Chicago Jews to support the growing movement demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine. In the wake of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we affirm that never again means never again for anyone and will continue to organize until there is a cease-fire and the liberation of Palestinians."

Pro-Palestine demonstrators rally while the Chicago City Council debates a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on January 31, 2024 in Illinois.

 (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Ocasio-Cortez: US Should Restore UNRWA Funding 'Immediately'

"Among an organization of 13,000 U.N. aid workers, risking the starvation of millions over grave allegations of 12 is indefensible," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.


Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024.
(Photo: AFP via Getty Images)


JAKE JOHNSON

COMMON DREAMS
Jan 29, 2024

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday urged the Biden administration to restore funding for the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency without delay and condemned the decision to suspend aid as an act of collective punishment.

"Cutting off support to UNRWA—the primary source of humanitarian aid to 2 million+ Gazans—is unacceptable," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. "Among an organization of 13,000 U.N. aid workers, risking the starvation of millions over grave allegations of 12 is indefensible. The U.S. should restore aid immediately."

The U.S. State Department announced last week that it would temporarily pause any additional funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as it reviews Israel's allegations that a dozen of the agency's employees were involved in Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel.


Several countries have followed the U.S. in suspending aid to the UNRWA, including Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan, putting the agency's critical operations in Gaza at risk of total collapse.

Observers noted that the U.S. and other Israel allies were quick to suspend aid to the UNRWA but have refused to cut off military assistance to the Israeli government despite the overwhelming evidence that it is committing war crimes in Gaza.



U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Sunday that nine of the 12 UNRWA employees that Israel accused of taking part in the October 7 attack have been fired, one is confirmed dead, and the "identity of the two others is being clarified."

Guterres pledged that "any U.N. employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution"—but warned that funding cutoffs to the entire UNRWA over the alleged actions of a handful of employees could have dire consequences for starving, desperate Gazans who depend on the agency's assistance.

The UNRWA's current funding levels are only enough to sustain its Gaza operations through February, Guterres said.


"While I understand their concerns—I was myself horrified by these accusations—I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations," the U.N. chief added. "The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences. But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met."

Israel's allegations against the dozen UNRWA employees are laid out in a dossier that the Netanyahu government has reportedly provided to the Biden administration.

The New York Timesreported Sunday that one UNRWA worker "is accused of kidnapping a woman", another "is said to have handed out ammunition," and a "third was described as taking part in the massacre at a kibbutz where 97 people died."

A majority of those accused were teachers at UNRWA schools, according to the Times. Others were described as a clerk, a social worker, and a storeroom manager.


"Two Western officials confirmed on the condition of anonymity that they had been briefed on the contents of the dossier in recent days, but said they had not been able to verify the details," the Times reported. "Although the United States has yet to corroborate the Israeli claims itself, American officials say they found them credible enough to warrant suspending aid."

In

In a statement on Saturday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said it is "shocking to see a suspension of funds to the Agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff, especially given the immediate action that UNRWA took by terminating their contracts and asking for a transparent independent investigation."

"UNRWA is the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza, with over 2 million people depending on it for their sheer survival," said Lazzarini. "Many are hungry as the clock is ticking towards a looming famine. The agency runs shelters for over 1 million people and provides food and primary healthcare even at the height of the hostilities."

Lazzarini stressed that the UNRWA "shares the list of all its staff with host countries every year, including Israel," and has "never received any concerns on specific staff members."

"It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement, and political crises in the region," he continued. "I urge countries who have suspended their funding to re-consider their decisions before UNRWA is forced to suspend its humanitarian response."

Corruption trial shines harsh light on Norway's biathlon boss

Oslo (AFP) – Fancy watches, hunting parties and suspicions of Russian influence-buying all figure prominently in the trial of Norway's biathlon honcho Anders Besseberg, accused of accepting improper gifts during his reign as the sport's global chief.

Issued on: 30/01/2024 - 

Prosecutors say Anders Besseberg received luxury watches and other gifts from Russian officials while president of the International Biathlon Union 

© BARBARA GINDL / APA/AFP

The 77-year-old Norwegian, who was head of the International Biathlon Union from 1992 to 2018, has been on trial near Oslo since January 9 on a charge of aggravated corruption, which he denies.

The five-week trial has been extensively covered in the Norwegian media, with a parade of more than 20 witnesses called to testify including Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistle-blower at the origin of revelations about organised Russian doping in the early 2010s.

"Why did the Russians want to corrupt Besseberg?" prosecutor Marianne Djupesland asked on the first day of the trial.

According to prosecutors, from 2008 to 2019 Besseberg was given three watches worth a total of more than 30,000 euros ($33,000), invited on trips to hunt deer and wild boar, and offered services from sex workers, all paid for by Russian official

He admits to receiving some gifts, but rejects any charges of corruption.

"I have no interest in watches nor any expertise about brands and their value," he said, describing himself a "simple farmboy."

Asked about an Omega watch worth more than 17,000 euros he received in 2011 for his 65th birthday, he said: "I did not think it was undeserved."

Despite his love of hunting, he said the organised trips did not affect any IBU decisions, over which he claims to have had little influence.

And he denies any contact with sex workers, acknowledging only what he said was a consensual affair with a 42-year-old Russian.
'Elephant in the room'

As head of the IBU when the Russian doping scandal exploded in the 2010s, Besseberg was accused of initially hiding cases of Russian doping in his sport in exchange for favours.

Prosecutors dropped that line of attack, but in Norway, receiving improper favours, even if no services are provided in exchange, is enough to constitute corruption.

Russia remains the "elephant in the room", wrote the reporter from the Verdens Gang newspaper who is following the trial.

The prosecution has presented evidence that Besseberg was suspiciously complaisant with Russians while running the IBU.

The evidence includes a wire-tapped telephone conversation in December 2017 with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen, where he defended the IBU's lack of reaction to the revelations about Russian doping.

During the same period, the IBU's secretary general, Nicole Resch of Germany -- who was also accused of corruption in a 2021 report -- was caught on tape saying that Besseberg was "insanely pro-Russian".

According to an inquiry launched by Sweden's Olle Dahlin, who succeeded Besseberg as head of the IBU, Besseberg pushed to hold the 2021 biathlon world championships in Tyumen, Siberia, despite the Russian doping scandals. The contest was eventually awarded to Pokljuka in Slovenia.

Russia isn't the only shadow hanging over the trial.

According to the accusation, Besseberg also went on fully paid hunting trips in Austria and in the Czech Republic, and for seven years drove a leased BMW X5, all paid for by Infront, a marketing company that held television rights to the sport.

The trial, being held in Hokksund, a city 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Oslo, will last until February 16.

The charge of "aggravated corruption" carries up to 10 years in prison.

© 2024 AFP

 

GMOs Will Destroy Indian Agriculture, Which is Non-GMO and Will Harm the Health of 1 Billion Indians and Their Animals

by Aruna Rodrigues / January 31st, 2024

Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.

There have been five days of intense hearings on this matter in the Supreme Court (SC) — the GMO Public Interest Writ filed almost 20 years ago in 2005 by the author, which ended on 18 January 2024.

In these last 20 years, piecemeal hearings have dealt with submissions relating to individual crops like hybrid Bt cotton, the attempted commercialisation of hybrid Bt brinjal (2010) and now the attempt to commercialise hybrid HT mustard.

The evidence provided here is a distillation of the critical inputs of those 60+ submissions based on the affidavits and studies of leading, independent scientists and experts of international renown.

However, there is a serious and proven conflict of interest among our regulators, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture along with the International Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which promote GMOs in Indian agriculture. This evidence reflects the findings of the TEC Report (Technical Expert Committee) appointed by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2012 and two Parliamentary Standing Committees of 2012 and 2017.

‘Modern biotechnology’ or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are products where the genomes of organisms are transformed through laboratory techniques, including genetically engineered DNA (recombinant) and its direct introduction into cells. These are techniques not used in traditional breeding and selection.

GMOs create organisms in ways that have never existed in 3.8 billion years of evolution and produce ‘unintended effects’ that are not immediately apparent. This is why rigorous, independent protocols for risk and hazard identification are the sine qua non of correct regulation in the public interest. The Indian ‘Rules of 1989’ describe GMOs as “hazardous”.

Contamination by GMOs of the natural environment is of outstanding concern, recognised by the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity), of which India is a signatory. India is one of 17 listed international hot spots of diversity, which includes mustard, brinjal and rice.  India is the centre of the world’s biological diversity in brinjal with over 2500 varieties grown in the country and as many as 29 wild species.

India is a secondary centre of origin of rape-seed mustard with over 9000 accessions in our gene bank (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources). With a commercialised GM crop, contamination is certain. The precautionary principle must apply, is read into the Constitution and is a legal precedent in India.

Hybrid Bt cotton was introduced in 2002 and remains the only approved commercialised crop in India. It has been an abject failure.

Failure of Bt cotton

India is the only country in the world to have introduced the Bt gene into hybrid Bt Cotton.  It was introduced in hybrids as a ‘value-capture mechanism’, according to Dr Kranthi, ex director of the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR). The hybrid technology disallows seed saving by millions of small farmers. Conservative estimates indicate that Indian farmers may have paid an additional amount of Rs 14,000 crores for Bt cotton seeds during the period 2002-18, of which trait fees amounted to Rs 7337.37 crores, (Dr Kranthi). There was also a phenomenal three-fold increase in labour costs in hybrid cotton cultivation.

Prof. Andrew Gutierrez (University of California, Berkeley) is among the world’s leading entomologists and cotton scientists and provided the ecological explanation of why hybrid Bt cotton is every bit a disaster that it is in India. Most hybrid cottons are long season (180-200-day duration). This increases the opportunities for pest resurgence and outbreaks because it links into the lifecycle of the pest. The low-density planting also increases the cost of hybrid seeds substantially.

Hybrids require stable water too (therefore, irrigation, as opposed to rain-fed) and more fertiliser. Some 90% of current Bt cotton hybrids appear susceptible to sap-sucking insects, leaf-curl virus and leaf reddening, adding to input costs and loss of yield. Most telling is that India produces only 3.3 million tonnes from its irrigated area of 4.9 million hectares compared to 6.96 million tonnes from an equivalent area in China.

Hybrid Bt cotton in India has resulted in a yield plateau, high production costs and low productivity that reduce farmer revenues, correlated with increased farmer distress and suicides. It has stymied the development of economically viable high-density short-season (HD-SS) Non-Bt high-yielding straight-line varieties. The failure of hybrid Bt cotton is an abject lesson for GMO implementation in other crops.

Yet, the regulators attempted to repeat history in the form of hybrid Bt brinjal and Hybrid HT Mustard.

Field trial solutions (CICR data) of high-density short-season (HD-SS) NON-GMO pure-line (non-hybrid), rainfed cotton varieties have been developed in India that could more than double yield and nearly triple net income.

The Central Government admitted in its affidavit in the Delhi High Court (22 Jan 2016), adding, (on 23 January 2017), that Bt “cotton seeds are now unaffordable to farmers due to high royalties charged by MMBL (Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd) which has a near monopoly on Bt cotton seeds and that this has led to a market failure”.

Moreover, there is no trait for yield enhancement in the Bt technology. Any intrinsic yield increase is properly attributable to its hybridisation in both Bt cotton and Bt brinjal. Lower insecticide use is the reason for introducing the Bt technology worldwide.

The pink bollworm has developed high levels of resistance against Bollgard-II Bt cotton, leading to increased insecticide usage in India, increases in new induced secondary pests and crop failures. The annual report 2015-16 of the ICAT-CICR confirms that Bt cotton is no longer effective for bollworm control

Insecticide usage on cotton in 2002 was 0.88 kg per hectare, which increased to 0.97 kg per hectare in 2013 (Srivastav and Kolady 2016).

Matters were deliberately muddied in India, leading to any hybrid vigour being attributed to the Bt technology! Yields have stagnated despite the deployment of all available latest technologies, including the introduction of new potent GM technologies, a two-fold increase in the use of fertilisers and increased insecticide use and irrigation. And yet, India’s global rank is 30-32nd in terms of yield.

In 13 years, the cost of cultivation increased 302%. In 15 years, there was 450% increase in labour costs. The costs of hybrid seed, insecticide and fertiliser increased more than 250 to 300%.

Net profit for farmers was Rs. 5971/ha in 2003 (pre-Bt) but plummeted to net losses of Rs. 6286 in 2015 (Dr Kranthi)

Regulatory failure: Bt brinjal

Regulators tried to commercialise Bt brinjal and in hybrids in 2009. The Bt gene is proven to be undeniably toxic (Profs. Schubert of the Salk Institute; Pusztai, Seralini and others have confirmed this).

In August 2008, the regulators were forced to publish the Developers’ (Monsanto-Mahyco) self-assessed bio-safety dossier on their website, 16 months after the order of the SC to make the safety dossier data public (15 Feb 2007).

Bt brinjal was the first vegetable food crop in the world to be approved for commercialisation, by the collective regulatory body and their expert committees, virtually without oversight. When the international scientific community examined the raw data, their collective comments were scathing. Prof Jack Heinemann stated that Mahyco has failed at the first, elementary step of the safety study: “I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of molecular data than in this study”.

He criticised Mahyco for using outdated studies, testing to below acceptable standards and inappropriate and invalid test methods.

Prof David Andow, in his comprehensive critique of Monsanto’s Dossier, ‘Bt brinjal Event EE1’, listed 37 studies of which perhaps one had been conducted and reported to a satisfactory level by Monsanto. He concluded: “The GEAC set too narrow a scope for environmental risk assessment (ERA) of hybrid Bt brinjal, and it is because of this overly narrow scope that the EC-II is not an adequate ERA… most of the possible environmental risks of Bt brinjal have not been adequately evaluated; this includes risks to local varieties of brinjal and wild relatives, risks to biological diversity, and risk of resistance evolution in BFSB.”

The Central Government itself declared an unconditional and indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal in Feb 2009 based on the collective responses of the scientific community.

Disaster in the making: GM Hybrid HT Mustard

Like Bt, HT is a pesticidal crop (to kill weeds). These two GMO technologies represent about 98% of crops planted worldwide, with HT crops accounting for more than 80%. Neither has a trait for yield. In its 2002 Report, the United States Department for Agriculture stated: “currently available GM crops do not increase the yield potential… In fact, yield may even decrease if the varieties used to carry the herbicide tolerant or insect-resistant genes are not the highest yielding cultivars… Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of GE crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative.” 

The developer’s (Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants University of Delhi) bio-safety dossier, in contempt of the SC orders, has never made its data public. A Right to Information (RTI) request was filed in 2016 with the Directorate of Rape-Seed Mustard Research, which conducts protocols of non-GMO mustard trials for crop improvement programmes for our farmers, for varietal stability and performance. The RTI was an eye opener. Virtually all the directorate’s norms were flouted in the field trials, making them invalid. Hybrid mustard HT DMH 11 was out yielded by more than the 10% norm by non-GMO varieties and hybrids, which forced the developers to admit this fact in their formal reply affidavit in the SC.

Hybrid HT mustard DMH 11 employs three transgenes: the male sterility gene, barnase, the female restorer gene, barstar, and the bar gene that confers tolerance to Bayer’s herbicide glufosinate ammonium or BASTA. Each of the parent lines has the bar gene that makes them both HT crops along with their resulting hybrid DMH 11. The reason for employing barnase and barstar is because mustard is a closed pollinating crop (even though it out crosses pretty well, 18%+) and this technology (a male sterility technology) makes it easier to produce mustard hybrids.  It is not a hybrid technology. Its counterpart in non-GMO male sterility technology is the CMS system (cytoplasmic male sterility). Employing male sterility in mustard allows it to be used more easily in already existing hybridisation technology.

It is curious the extent to which the regulators have tried to obfuscate the facts and muddy the waters. Their first response was that the acronym HT in mustard DMH 11 means ‘hybrid technology’. When this didn’t work, the next ‘try’ was that DMH 11 isn’t an HT crop!

This too was easily proved wrong because of the presence of the bar gene. Now, this fact has been admitted.

Furthermore, the regulators have failed either intentionally, or because they are simply unable to stop, illegal HT cotton being grown on a commercial scale for the last 15 years or so. This is the state of GMO regulation in India.

Bayer’s own data sheet states that glufosinate causes birth defects and is damaging to most plants that it comes into contact with. Like its counterpart, glyphosate, it is a systemic, broad spectrum, non-selective herbicide (it kills indiscriminately soil organisms, beneficial insects etc) and is damaging to most plants and aquatic life. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies glufosinate ammonium as “persistent” and “mobile” and is “expected to adversely affect non-target terrestrial plant species”.

Glufosinate is not permitted in crop plants in India, under the Insecticide Act. Since it is very persistent in the environment, it will certainly contaminate water supplies in addition to food. Surfactants are used to get the active ingredients into the plant, which is engineered to withstand the herbicide, so it doesn’t die when sprayed. The herbicide and surfactant are sprayed directly on the crops and significant quantities are then taken up into the plant.  The weeds die — or used to!

The US Geological survey noted that while 20 million pounds/year of glyphosate was used prior to GE crops (1992), 280 million pounds/year was used in 2012, largely as a result of glyphosate-resistant crops. In the U.S. alone, glyphosate-resistant weeds were estimated to occupy an area of over 24 million hectares as of 2012. This is a failed and unsustainable technology anywhere, and for India it will be disastrous.

The stated objective by the regulators themselves for HT mustard is that the two HT parent lines (barnase and barstar each with the bar gene), will be similarly employed in India’s best (non-GMO) varieties to create new crosses resulting in any number of HT hybrid mustard DMH crops. Thus, Indian mustard varieties (non-GMO) in a very short time will be contaminated and Indian mustard agriculture (which is non-GMO) destroyed.

The regulators claim that GMO HT hybrid DMH 11 will create a significant dent in India’s oilseeds imports. Given that GMO mustard has no gene for yield enhancement, is significantly out yielded by non-GMO mustard hybrids and varieties, this is indeed a magic bean produced from thin air by the regulators, defying all logic and commonsense. Mustard Oil imports are virtually zero (ie rapeseed mustard as distinct from canola rape oil which is also illegal GMO).

The story of the current steep decline in oilseeds production in Indian farming must be laid at the door of a wrong policy decision that comprehensively ignored national and farmers’ interest to severely slash import duties on oilseeds of around 300% to virtually zero. In 1993-94, India imported just 3% of our oil-seed demand; we were self- sufficient. Then we happily bowed to WTO pressure and now import almost 70% of our demand in edible oils! (Devinder Sharma).  This is the real reason for our heavy import bill.

The TEC recommend a double bar on GM Mustard — for being an HT crop and also in a centre of mustard diversification and/or origin. It is hoped that our government will recognise the dangers of GMOs, bar HT crops, including GM mustard, and impose a moratorium on all Bt crops.

Aruna Rodrigues

Lead Petitioner in the GMO PIL filed in 2005 for a moratorium on GM crops.

Aruna Rodrigues is Lead Petitioner in the PIL in the Supreme Court of India for a moratorium on GMOs since 2005. She is also part of a dedicated group of researchers into COVID-19, its policies, vaccines and health impacts. She can be reached at: arunarod@gmail.com. Read other articles by Aruna.