Norway archaeologists find 'world's oldest runestone'




Kristel Zilmer, professor of written culture and iconography at the Museum of Cultural History, displays a runestone found at Tyrifjorden, Norway, on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. Archaeologists with the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

 (Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP)

JAN M. OLSEN
Tue, January 17, 2023 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Archaeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.”

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press.

Older runes have been found on other items, but not on stone. The earliest runic find is on a bone comb found in Denmark. Zilmer said that maybe the tip of knife or a needle was used to carve the runes.

The runestone was discovered in the fall of 2021 during an excavation of a grave near Tyrifjord, west of Oslo, in a region known for several monumental archaeological finds. Items in the cremation pit — burnt bones and charcoal — indicate that the runes likely were inscribed between A.D. 1 and 250.

“We needed time to analyze and date the runestone,” she said to explain why the finding was first announced on Tuesday.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters (12.2 inches by 12.6 inches), the stone has several types of inscriptions and not all make linguistic sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug” — which could be the name of a woman, a man or a family.

Zilmer called the discovery “the most sensational thing that I, as an academic, have had."

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, dubbed the Svingerud stone after the site where it was found.

“Without doubt, we will obtain valuable knowledge about the early history of runic writing," Zilmer said.

The runestone will be exhibited for a month, starting on Jan. 21, at the Museum of Cultural History, which has Norway’s largest collection of historical artifacts, from the Stone Age to modern times.

Runes are the characters in several Germanic alphabets that were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the adoption of the Latin alphabet. They have been found on stones and different household objects.

Mexico tourist train to require 6,500 military guards

Tue, January 17, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The environmental and financial costs of Mexico’s Maya Train tourism project are already massive, but authorities revealed another, unexpected cost of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet project on Tuesday.

The Defense Department said the project will require over 6,500 soldiers and National Guard officers to permanently guard its tracks and stations, out of the country's total 166,000-member combined force.

Even though the railway is still under construction, the troops were already listed as assigned to the duty this week.

In comparison, that is more than double the number of officers assigned to drug eradication nationwide, and more officers than are assigned to all but three of Mexico's 32 states.


The 6,500 number is similar to the 10,000 officers assigned to protect all sensitive government installations nationwide.

It was not immediately clear why so many guards would be needed. A similar number of Guard officers were deployed in the Mexico City subway last week after city authorities expressed fears of sabotage. However, the government hasn’t expressed any public concerns about sabotage on the Maya Train.

The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.

Originally projected to cost around $8 billion, the train line now appears likely to rise to between $11 billion and $15 billion. Because no real feasibility studies were done, it is not clear whether the train will draw enough tourists or recoup its costs.

While some stretches of the train line run over existing tracks or alongside existing roads, other parts are being cut through the jungle, including a controversial stretch that cuts a 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.

Brazil’s New President Faces ‘Scorched Earth Scenario’ Left Behind by Bolsonaro
Joaquim Salles, Grist
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva display a Brazilian flag during the presidential inauguration ceremony at Planalto Palace on January 1, 2023 in Brasilia, Brazil.

It is the tradition of inaugurations in Brazil for the incoming president to ascend the ramp of the Planalto Palace, the country’s equivalent to the West Wing of the White House, and receive the presidential sash from the outgoing head of state. The gesture is meant to symbolize a peaceful transition of power. In the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which took place on January 1, things were a little different. In a final emulation of his political idol Donald Trump, the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, often referred to as the “Trump of the tropics,” was absent. He had flown to Orlando, Florida, two days earlier for an extended vacation.

Instead, Lula used the moment to send a political message. He chose to walk the ramp with a small group of individuals meant to represent those his government will prioritize. Among them was the 90-year-old Indigenous leader Raoni Metukitire, of the Amazonian Kayapó people. Bolsonaro had attacked Raoni in a 2019 United Nations General Assembly speech, accusing him of being a pawn of foreign governments and NGOs that seek to undermine development in the Brazilian Amazon. Raoni’s presence at the Planalto signaled that Indigenous rights and protection of the environment will be high on Lula’s new presidential agenda.

“Our goal is to reach zero deforestation and zero greenhouse gas emissions in our electrical grid,” Lula said in his inaugural address to Congress, adding that Bolsonaro’s government had “destroyed environmental protections.”

The diagnosis is an accurate one. Over four years, Bolsonaro dismantled environmental regulations, much of it through executive action, and gutted federal agencies tasked with enforcing environmental laws. His actions and rhetoric emboldened illegal miners and loggers, who felt they could act with impunity. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest spiked 60 percent during Bolsonaro’s presidency, the highest relative increase since the beginning of measurements by satellite in 1988.

The preservation of the Amazon is crucial to the climate crisis. The rainforest was once the world’s greatest carbon sink, but because of forest clearing fires and degradation caused by rising temperatures, there are large regions of the Amazon today that emit more carbon than they absorb. The situation could get substantially worse. Studies show that if 20 to 25 percent of the Amazon is deforested, the biome would no longer be able to sustain itself. This would trigger an irreversible process of dieback that could turn the forest into a savannah in a matter of decades. Currently, 15 to 17 percent of the Amazon has already vanished.

Lula served two previous terms as president between 2003 and 2011. During this time, in stark contrast to Bolsonaro’s tenure, deforestation in the Amazon fell by a historic 67 percent. Marina Silva, a well-known environmental activist and politician in Brazil, led this crackdown as Lula’s Minister of the Environment. Silva will once again hold that office, but environmentalists say this time around the government will have to rebuild Brazilian environmental policy virtually from the ground up if it is to achieve comparable results.

The first step will be to reverse many of the changes Bolsonaro enacted though executive action. This process has already begun. On his first day in office, Lula issued a series of decrees that overturned some of Bolsonaro’s most egregious changes to environmental regulations. He reinstated environmental funding programs, restructured key agencies that had been hollowed out, and reestablished the government’s anti-deforestation plan, which had been discontinued by Bolsonaro. But there is much more work to be done.

“It’s a scorched earth scenario,” said Suely Araújo, referring to the environmental regulatory apparatus that Lula inherited from his predecessor. Araújo is a senior specialist in public policy at Observatório do Clima, a coalition of climate-focused civil society organizations. She spent the last months of 2022 working with Lula’s transition team, prepping the first steps in what is expected to be a long process of recovery. “It will take longer to rebuild these institutions than it did to destroy them.”

Early in his administration, Bolsonaro tried to dissolve the Ministry of the Environment entirely, but was unable to do so due to backlash from civil society and Congress. Instead, his administration’s strategy became to weaken the country’ scientific and environmental institutions from within. Describing this process during a ruling about a slew of changes to environmental policy by Bolsonaro’s government, a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice evoked the image of a termite infestation eating away at environmental protection agencies from the inside out.

Shortly after Bolsonaro took office in 2019, Natalie Unterstell, of the watchdog group Política por Inteiro, began monitoring executive actions that had an impact on deforestation and climate change. “They were pressing buttons that sent shocks through the entire system,” she said.

Unterstell began this monitoring effort alone, keeping an updated spreadsheet, but the process soon became overwhelming due to sheer quantity. She enlisted the help of data scientists and developed an algorithm that would scrape the daily government bulletin, pinpointing the decrees that merited closer attention. In four years, Política Por Inteiro identified 2,189 executive acts that are “relevant to climate and socio-environmental policy.”

Many of the early decrees involved institutional reform. Offices and task forces within the executive branch that had climate change or deforestation in the name were simply eliminated. Regulatory agencies were transferred wholesale from the Ministry of the Environment and put under the purview of sectors they were supposed to regulate. The Forestry Service for example, which manages nature reserves, became an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture. The National Water Agency, which regulates water resources and use, was transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development.

Bolsonaro also named loyalists friendly to logging, mining, and agribusiness interests to head key environmental agencies like the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable and Natural Resources, also known as IBAMA, the main agency involved in monitoring and enforcing laws against deforestation.

Three months into his presidency, Bolsonaro issued a decree that froze the Amazon Fund. The fund, which is bankrolled by foreign governments, aims to support Brazil’s efforts to preserve its forest and is a crucial source of financing for IBAMA. The move possibly deprived Brazil of $20 billion in funding for environmental conservation projects, according to a report from the government’s own comptroller.

A critical element of the government’s strategy was to remove civil society and the scientific community from the environmental regulatory process. In 2019, Ricardo Salles, Bolsonaro’s Minister of the Environment, issued orders that restructured the National Environment Council, or CONAMA, a body that makes key decisions relating to environmental policy in Brazil. CONAMA was traditionally composed of a diverse group of stakeholders, including business interests, scientists, NGOs, Indigenous groups, and federal, state, and local representatives. Salles downsized the council and in doing so cut seats belonging to non-business civil society organizations from 11 to 4, giving them less proportional representation.

“They would bring four or five decisions up for a vote at once, and the councils were weakened so they had the opportunity approve whatever they wanted,” said Unterstell.

The system of environmental fines, which was already inefficient before Bolsonaro took office, suffered significant changes. Operations to curb deforestation began to be executed primarily by the military instead of IBAMA, an agency with decades of expertise in combating environmental crimes and the power to fine illegal deforesters. Even though the military reportedly spent $110 million to monitor roads and rivers in the Amazon region — roughly 10 times the yearly budget for IBAMA — deforestation rates skyrocketed. An investigation by the Climate Policy Initiative and World Wildlife Fund showed environmental fines decreased by almost a third during the Bolsonaro administration when compared to 2015 levels. The government also created a convoluted appeals process which in practice ground the entire system to a halt, resulting in fines being paid at an even lower rate than before. From 2019 through 2021, 98 percent of IBAMA fines went unpaid.

“The message was that if you commit environmental crimes you don’t need to worry because the chances that you will be held accountable are minimal,” said Unterstell.

During the pandemic the pace of deregulation accelerated. In a leaked video of a cabinet meeting in 2020, Salles, the country’s then-environment minister, urged his colleagues to use the global crisis as an opportunity. “We need to make an effort while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage, because they are only talking about COVID, and push through and change all the rules and simplify the norms,” he was heard saying in the video.

Among other significant changes to environmental norms was a directive from IBAMA, then-led by pro-industry Bolsonaro supporters, that loosened proof of origin documentation requirements for exported wood (later struck down by the Supreme Federal Court), and a presidential decree that encouraged mining in Indigenous territory. The government was changing regulations as late as December 2022, weeks after Bolsonaro’s loss in the polls, when IBAMA issued a measure that allowed for logging on Indigenous lands as well.

Lula might have gotten started on Day 1 in reversing many of these environmentally harmful policies, but scientists and environmentalists warn that results will take time. It is one thing to commit changes to paper and another to implement them on the ground.

“There are major trends of illegality that need to be reversed and a whole rebuilding process that has to happen. We won’t be seeing 2012 levels of deforestation in six months or a year,” Araújo told Grist, referring to the year with the lowest deforestation rate since records began in 1988. “The government will face a resistance that was not as strong back in 2003.”

Today’s Amazon is a very different place than the one Lula encountered when he began his first term as president. Brazil as a whole is significantly more polarized and much of the Amazon region is led by governors and mayors who align themselves with Bolsonaro. When Lula won the election in October 2022, Bolsonaro supporters blocked roads and highways to protest what they understood, without evidence, to be a stolen election. Many of these protests occurred in the Amazon’s frontiers of deforestation, such as the town of Novo Progresso in the state of Pará. “Bolsonaro created a bellicosity in the population,” Araújo said.

This tension came to high pitch on January 8, when Bolsonaro supporters, bused into the capital Brasília from all over the country, stormed and vandalized Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the presidential offices. Speaking after the events of that day, Lula speculated: “Many who were in Brasília today could have been illegal miners or illegal loggers.”

The Amazon has also become a more violent and lawless place. While homicides in Brazil overall have been declining since 2018, they have been on the rise in the Amazon. If the Brazilian Amazon were a country, it would have the fourth highest homicide rate in the world. Some of this can be attributed to the increasing presence of organized crime groups in the region, who have become involved in illegal mining, logging, and fishing operations and use the region’s waterways as drug trafficking routes. This trend became international news last year with the murders of Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira.

In addition to these challenges, Lula will face fierce opposition in Congress from politicians friendly to agribusiness and mining interests. Having been elected by a thin margin, he has limited political capital to spend. Some are wary that the administration’s commitment to protecting the Amazon will waver over time. Although the rise in deforestation was much more pronounced during the Bolsonaro years, it began under the administration of Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s handpicked successor after he left office in 2010.

Still, it is widely expected that deforestation rates will be declining by the end of Lula’s now third term as President of Brazil. “We can be sure of that,” said Araújo. “All it takes is for environmental protection agencies to be allowed to do their job.”

Gizmodo

France: March, Eiffel Tower display back Iran's activists

 

Mon, January 16, 2023 at 6:16 AM MST·2 min read


In this article:






Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979




PARIS (AP) — Up to 12,000 people marched Monday to the EU Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg in support of Iran’s anti-government protesters while the Eiffel Tower lit the night with the slogan “Woman. Life. Freedom,” which embodies the protest movement spilling beyond Iran.

The Eiffel Tower display also beamed the message, “Stop executions in Iran,” highlighting a demand of protesters.

Both messages pay tribute to Mahsa Amini, whose death in September triggered demonstrations in Iran, along with arrests and executions.

Paris posthumously declared Amani an honorary citizen in October, and Paris City Hall has said that the Eiffel Tower displays Monday were a homage to Amini and to “those who are bravely fighting for their freedom as the (Iranian) regime is continuing executions of protesters.”

The Strasbourg march was organized by Iranians in Europe on the 44th anniversary of the day when Iran’s last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ailing and under growing pressure, left the country forever. The following month, the monarchy collapsed under the fervor of the Islamic revolution that gave Iran its theocracy. Some of the demonstrators Monday carried photos of the former king.

Local media cited police as saying some 12,000 people took part.

“Your silence is violence,” one banner read, reflecting the demand of Iranian protesters abroad to support their message and ensure Tehran hears it.

Protesters want the European Union to take a firmer stance against Iran, declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

The European parliament's plenary session is to debate the EU's response this week to the protests and executions in the Islamic Republic. A non-binding resolution is to be voted on Thursday, which protesters and others see as a chance to put the Revolutionary Guard on the EU's terrorist list.

A letter last week by over 100 MEPs to Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, called on the bloc to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “in its entirety as a terrorist organization.” The IRGC was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2019.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Monday after a meeting with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in The Hague that they both had summoned Iran’s ambassadors in their respective countries to protest executions of protesters and British-Iranian former defense ministry official Ali Reza Akbari.

Hoekstra said the ministers support moves “to go further with EU sanctions against those responsible, all those responsible for these grave human rights violations in Iran.”

Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police. The protests have since become one of the most serious challenges to Iran's leaders.

REACTIONARY MONARCHISTS PROTEST IN PARIS

An activist holds a picture of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a gathering in support to Iran's anti-government protesters, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Strasbourg march comes after over 100 MEPs signed last week a letter calling on the EU to take a firmer stance on Iran. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

UN's top woman in Afghanistan for talks on Taliban crackdown


Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, arrives at United Nations headquarters, on Sept. 20, 2021, during the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Mohammed, speaking to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, urged countries to urgently consider Haiti’s request for an international armed force to help restore security in the country troubled by gang violence. A U.N. special envoy said intentional killings and ransom kidnappings have increased sharply, armed gangs control the main roads entering or leaving the capital, the police force is shrinking, and a third of schools are closed. 

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Tue, January 17, 2023

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The highest-ranking woman in the United Nations arrived in Kabul on Tuesday at the head of a delegation promoting the rights of women and girls, a response to the recent crackdown by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister and a Muslim, was joined by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, the U.N. agency promoting gender equality and women’s rights, and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Haq said he could not disclose their schedule or specific meetings in Kabul for security reasons.

U.N. officials have held a series of high-level consultations across the Gulf, Asia and Europe “to discuss the situation in Afghanistan in an effort to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights, peaceful coexistence and sustainable development,” the spokesman said.

Members of the delegation met with leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Development Bank, groups of Afghan women in Ankara, Turkey, and Islamabad, and a group of ambassadors and special envoys to Afghanistan based in Doha, the capital of Qatar, he said.

“Throughout the visits,” Haq said, “countries and partners recognized the critical role of the U.N. in finding a pathway to a lasting solution as well as the need to continue to deliver lifesaving support” and asked that efforts be intensified “to reflect the urgency of the situation.”

A Dec. 24 order from the Taliban barring aid groups from employing women is paralyzing deliveries that help keep millions of Afghans alive, and threatening humanitarian services countrywide. As another result of the ban, thousands of women who work for such organizations across the war-battered country are facing the loss of income they desperately need to feed their own families. The Taliban previously banned girls from attending secondary schools and women from attending universities and issued restrictions on foreign travel and their movements within the country.

The Taliban took power again in August 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces after 20 years in Afghanistan. As it did when it first ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, the militant group has gradually reimposed Islamic law, or Sharia, driving women out of schools, jobs and aid work, and increasingly into their homes.

The officials of other nations with whom the U.N. leaders met said it was important for the international community to unite and speak with one voice, Haq noted.

“The need for a revitalized and realistic political pathway was consistently highlighted and all remained firm on the fundamental principles, including women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and public life in Afghanistan,” he said.

Haq said the groups agreed in principle to hold an international conference on women and girls in the Muslim world in March.

Israel deports Italian activist arrested in West Bank raid


Mourners carry the body of 14-year-old Palestinian Omar Khumour during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Khumour died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said that forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire. 

(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) 

ISABEL DEBRE
Tue, January 17, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel deported an Italian activist to Italy after security forces detained her during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said Tuesday, accusing her of having links to a Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli military arrested Stefania Costantin during a pre-dawn incursion Monday into the the Dheisha refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Footage shared on social media shows an Israeli soldier picking up Costantini and flipping her over his shoulders as she shrieks. A group of soldiers drag her out of the camp and shove her into a military vehicle, videos show. Israeli forces fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in the head during the same raid as they opened fire on Palestinians throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Italian media described Costantini as an advocate for Palestinian rights. Israel's Shin Bet security service said Costantini was arrested on suspicion of belonging to, and transferring funds to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The militant group, known as the PFLP, was involved in hijacking passenger planes in the 1960s and 1970s and later claimed responsibility for suicide attacks during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. It is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The Shin Bet said Costantini arrived in Israel on May 2 last year on a tourist visa and was summoned for interrogation last September about her alleged involvement with the PFLP. Costantini did not report to authorities “and even continued her activities" for the militant group, the security agency said. Israel deported her on Monday afternoon, the Interior Ministry said.

The COBAS leftist labor union in Pisa, Italy, to which Costantini belongs, expressed “consternation” at the news of her arrest and deportation. The union said it was concerned for Costantini's “health and safety.”

The group described Costantini as a specialist working with students with disabilities who has long sought to defend "those whose rights are denied.” Several months ago, the group said, Costantini left her life in Italy and moved to a Palestinian refugee camp. It made no mention of the Israeli security agency's allegations.

The Italian consulate in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli and Italian foreign ministries also did not comment.

But on Monday, the day of Costantini's deportation, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote on Twitter that he held a phone conversation with his Italian counterpart. The readout of the call focused on the countries' joint efforts to “fight terrorism” and boost their “political cooperation." It made no mention of Costantini’s case.

Israel has stepped up its fight in recent years against Palestinian activists and rights groups. Last summer, the Israeli military raided and shuttered the offices of Palestinian human rights organizations that it designated as terrorist groups over their alleged links to the PFLP. Nine European countries rejected Israel's charges against the rights groups, citing a lack of evidence.

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

New Israeli power broker seeks to rewrite history to justify violence against Palestinians


Curtis Hutt, Executive Director,

 Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights,

 University of Nebraska Omaha
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Right-wing Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has a long history of anti-Palestinian efforts. AP Photo/Oded Balilty

A right-wing Israeli politician is trying to recast a key part of American history.

That’s not a usual subject for an Israeli Cabinet member. But Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and the international community. A rewrite of American history could help him do it.

In a November 2022 speech in Jerusalem after the recent Israeli elections, Ben-Gvir memorialized Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist leader from the U.S. who moved to Israel and was both elected to Israel’s Parliament and convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990. Ben-Gvir declared that Kahane and his followers saved Jews from the Soviet Union’s antisemitism during the 1970s and 1980s.

Kahane is best known in the U.S. as the founder of the Jewish Defense League, which was originally headquartered in New York City. From the 1960s through about 2001, this group was responsible for numerous terrorist and racist attacks against African Americans, Muslims, Jewish academics and public figures, as well as foreign diplomats.

The Conversation U.S. asked Curtis Hutt, the executive director of the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights at the University of Nebraska Omaha – an academic unit supported by donors who fought to free Soviet Jewry – to review Ben-Gvir’s claim and his motivations.
Who is this person?

Itamar Ben-Gvir is a newly elected member of the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature. He has also been appointed national security minister in the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who in December 2022 again became Israel’s prime minister, a post he previously held from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

Ben-Gvir is a longtime supporter of Israeli Kahanist movements fighting for a theocratic Jewish state. The members of those movements support Israeli dominion over the territory they call “greater Israel,” which includes not only present-day Israel but also the Palestinian territories.
What role and power does he have in the Israeli government?

Ben-Gvir is a critical part of the Knesset’s majority coalition led by Netanyahu. As the new minister of national security with an expanded portfolio, he is now in charge of Israel’s police and border police in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Other members of the political party he leads, Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power,” now hold ministry positions charged with expanding Jewish development in the Galilee and Negev regions, as well as overseeing cultural and religious heritage.
What constituencies does he represent?

In 1971, Kahane came to Israel from the U.S. and founded the Kach Party to bring his views to the voting public, but it was disqualified from participating in electoral politics in 1987 when changes to Israeli law banned groups that incited racism.

In 1994, Kach member Baruch Goldstein, who had also been a member of the Jewish Defense League, massacred 29 Muslim worshippers in a mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As a result, both Israel and the U.S. declared Kach to be a terrorist organization.

In 2007, Ben-Gvir was convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization – Kach. He also once had a portrait of Goldstein hanging in his living room.

In the 2009 election that brought Netanyahu back into power from the opposition, Kahanist disciple Michael Ben-Ari was elected to the Knesset for the first time. Four years later, he formed a new Kahanist party, Otzma Yehudit, which didn’t win any Knesset seats in the 2013 elections. In 2019, Ben-Ari was banned from running for public office because of his alleged extremist activity.

In the Palestinian-dominated Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir, center, with arm extended, argues with demonstrators objecting to forced evictions of Palestinian residents. Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images

At that time, Ben-Gvir, who was seen as being more moderate and more politically skilled than Ben-Ari, took over party leadership.

In 2022, an alliance between Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and Bezalel Smotrich’s messianic Religious Nationalists resulted in their candidates’ winning 15 Knesset seats, becoming the third-largest political bloc in Israel and Netanyahu’s primary coalition partner.

Ben-Gvir’s position as co-leader of this extreme right-wing alliance is so strong that his agreement to join Netanyahu’s coalition government includes a commitment to remove the clause in Israel’s Basic Law disqualifying a person from serving in the Knesset for inciting racism – for which Kahane was first banned, and of which Ben-Gvir has also been convicted.
What is Ben-Gvir saying about Rabbi Kahane and his activity?

In his November 2022 speech in honor of Kahane, Ben-Gvir credited Kahane and the Jewish Defense League for leading the successful fight against antisemitism and, specifically, in freeing Jews from the USSR.

During the Cold War, it was extremely difficult for Soviet citizens to leave the country. This put religious minorities like Jews, Protestants and Roman Catholics – all of whom were persecuted by the atheist regime – at great risk. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jewish communities across the U.S. mobilized on behalf of Soviet Jews, seeking to get them safely out of the country, often to Israel.

Throughout this period, the Jewish Defense League repeatedly physically attacked Soviet officials and cultural figures in the U.S. The group took over a New York City synagogue to demonstrate against Soviet diplomats whose offices were across the street.

Members poured blood on a Soviet official in Washington, D.C. They also set off an explosive device during a performance by a Soviet dance troupe. A bomb planted in the office of an agent finding work for Soviet entertainers killed the secretary, Iris Kones.

In my view – and the views of many Jewish leaders at the time – these efforts did not encourage the Soviet Union to change its policies or to release imprisoned dissidents. They were also exclusively focused on Russian Jews, rather than other religious minorities in the USSR, who were in a similar position as Roman Catholics and evangelicals. For the Jewish Defense League and others in Israel like new Israeli Cabinet member Avi Maoz, it was a battle to protect Jews from threats, not a struggle to improve human rights for all.

Sen. Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, and Shirley Goldstein, an advocate for Jewish and human rights, speak while working on a federal law aimed at freeing Soviet Jews from oppression. Goldstein Family Archives in the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

At the same time, the human rights aspect of the struggle in the USSR was a central focus of a U.S. political movement. A wide range of groups, including the Jewish community and its allies, but also Christians in the United States who were likewise aware of abuses against their own churches in the USSR, pushed Congress to act.

In 1975, that effort – not the work of the Jewish Defense League – achieved the enactment of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which curbed U.S. trade with countries that restricted freedom of movement and other basic human rights. As a result of Jackson-Vanik, by the year 2000, 573,000 refugees, including large numbers of Jews, were able to come to the U.S. Another million Jews made their way to Israel.
What is Ben-Gvir trying to claim credit for?

Ben-Gvir wants to rehabilitate Kahane’s terrorist legacy to gain support among the larger Jewish public in Israel and the U.S. For Ben-Gvir, Kahane’s so-called past successes – as exemplified in the fight to free Soviet Jewry – justify contemporary violent Kahanist tactics on behalf of Israeli Jews against Palestinians, political and religious opposition, the LGBTQ community and others.

He claims that the Jewish Defense League’s violence, even against innocent people, freed the Soviet Jews. In doing so, he is seeking to take credit for what was really a human rights effort. In the meantime, Ben-Gvir and his allies claim that human rights organizations and activists are a danger to Israel because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Ben-Gvir wants people to think that Kahanists were responsible for rescuing Jews from the USSR. History shows that this is not true. Kahanists acted at odds with the human rights activists and politicians responsible for the victory. Ben-Gvir and his allies act to only protect the rights of those they consider to be observant Jews in Israel. In my view, Ben-Gvir, as Israel’s new national security minister, sees Kahane-style aggressions as the best way to protect the Jewish nation-state.

Just as Kahane was uninterested in advocating for the rights of non-Jews in the USSR or elsewhere, I see Ben-Gvir promising aggressive “Jews First” governance for Israel, and a Jewish state expanded at the expense of Palestinians.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Curtis Hutt, University of Nebraska Omaha. 

Read more:

Israel’s new hard-line government has made headlines – the bigger demographic changes that caused it, not so much

A stunning political comeback for Israel’s Netanyahu may give way to governing nightmare ahead

I am the Executive Director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights.

Peru protests highlight rural-urban divides – and a desire to belong

Mitra Taj
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Peru is living through it’s worst conflict this century, and the scenes in many ways are reminiscent of its internal conflict of the 1980s and ’90s: Indigenous villagers carry coffins through the streets, parents wail for children taken too soon, and human rights groups decry excessive government force.

The wave of violent anti-government protests, sparked when interim President Dina Boluarte took office last month, also highlights historic dividing lines in Peru: between the rural, mostly Indigenous poor, and the ruling elites in the capital, Lima.

Many protesters support former leftist President Pedro Castillo, who was arrested in December for trying to illegally take control of Congress and the courts. Mr. Castillo is the son of illiterate farmers from a poor Andean region, and despite his transgressions, he is someone many protesters in rural and Indigenous Peru identify with. Instead of seeing him as a would-be dictator, they see him as the victim of racist elites who never wanted to share power with him – and by extension, them.

Now, they are agitating for President Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of Congress, new general elections, and a new constitution. As death tolls climb, reaching 50 victims nationally since protests exploded in December, the need to identify a peaceful path ahead, starting with healing historic divisions, has grown more urgent.


“We feel we’re hated by those who govern Peru,” says Lucas Pari, a representative of the National Union of Aymara Communities, which supports the protests. “That hatred was always there, but now people are getting organized to demand respect for our fundamental rights to life, to equality, and to our identity.”
“Equal citizens”

At the heart of the current crisis is a long-standing division between those living in the capital, Lima, and rural and Indigenous Peruvians who have faced historic marginalization. Southern Andean regions tend to prefer anti-establishment politicians promising big change, and have produced several campesino uprisings.

After Peru’s independence from Spain, Peruvian campesinos continued to toil as indentured servants on plantations owned by elites up until 1969, when a leftist dictator redistributed land. Many were barred from voting for another decade due to literacy requirements, and scores of communities in Peru’s southern Andes were caught in the crosshairs of bloody battles between leftist insurgents and state security forces and paramilitary groups. Despite a rapid economic expansion during the commodities boom in the early 2000s, extreme poverty has persisted in many rural villages, which frequently lack access to basic sanitation, paved roads, schools, and hospitals.

The pandemic further exposed Peru’s geographic inequality. When the government imposed a strict lockdown, thousands of migrant workers in Lima and other urban hubs were left to trek home en masse after losing their jobs.

Though he had no prior experience governing, Mr. Castillo promised to remedy historic injustices with a new constitution and heavy spending on health and education. Instead, his 16 months in office were marked by corruption scandals, political and managerial missteps, and growing polarization as he blamed his troubles on Lima elites, many of whom tried to overturn the results of his election with unfounded claims of voter fraud.

“When people in Lima saw Castillo’s sombrero they said, ‘No, the son of an illiterate farmer!’ But here people felt ‘he’s one of us. He’s on our team,’” says Rolando Pilco, an anthropologist from Puno, who is Aymara.

Mr. Pilco says the lack of Indigenous representation in national politics is part of the problem. Unlike neighboring Bolivia, where former President Evo Morales passed a constitution that empowered Indigenous groups and introduced quotas for Indigenous representation in Congress, in Peru decision-makers are disproportionately part of the country’s white and mestizo elite.

“People want change. They want to feel like equal citizens in the country,” he says.
Deepening the fury

While Ms. Boluarte was elected alongside Mr. Castillo as his vice president, many who once voted for her now see her as a traitor. They remember her promises to resign when Mr. Castillo faced his first impeachment attempt five months into his administration, and they criticize her for forming a center-right Cabinet backed by Congress, the least popular institution in the country.

A shocking spate of deaths in clashes between security forces and protesters in regions outside of Lima has only deepened the fury.

Last month, protesters blocked dozens of roads, attacked regional airports, and vandalized prosecutors’ offices, courthouses, and factories. Protests were suspended for the holidays but resumed on Jan. 4, and over the past week, the death toll doubled to 50, according to the country’s ombudsman’s office. The worst of the violence unraveled in Juliaca, a highland town in the region of Puno, near Lake Titicaca and the border with Bolivia.

There, in a single day of clashes between police and protesters trying to take control of the airport, 17 civilians were killed, all shot with projectiles from firearms, including multiple bystanders.

“We just want to live in peace,” says Jakeline Zapana, the head of a local animal rights group in Juliaca. One of her group’s young volunteers, Yamileth Aroquipa, was shot dead while making her way to a local market when clashes broke out.

Ms. Aroquipa was 17 years old, bilingual in Spanish and Quechua, and had just started studying psychology. “We’re all in shock,” says Ms. Zapana, who isn’t hopeful military or police officers will be held accountable. The deaths of protesters – especially when they are killed far from Lima – are rarely solved, she says.

The massacre in Juliaca was “the largest registered attack [on] civilians by police since Peru returned to democracy,” says Jo-Marie Burt, a human rights advocate and professor at George Mason University in Virginia. Police are “shooting to kill, aiming at the heads and upper bodies of protesters,” she says.

Ms. Boluarte’s government says it didn’t give orders to fire on protesters and would cooperate with prosecutors. But, in a late-night message to the nation on Friday, she blamed radicals for stirring up unrest, comparing recent vandalism at protests to terrorist attacks by the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s and ’90s.
“The only way” to take part in politics?

Thousands of Indigenous people were “disappeared” by government-backed death squads without trial during that time period, and for many living in these historically repressed areas, the comparison to the Shining Path was deeply offensive. It’s part of the stigmatization of leftists and Indigenous people that many in Peru have embraced since its return to democracy in 2000.

“We’re not terrorists. We’re people who know that this system has to be changed to bring true representation,” says Janyce Garcia, a protester in her late 50s, marching alongside thousands of demonstrators in Lima on Saturday.

As protesters made their way through Lima’s upscale district of Miraflores, some locals shouted “communist” and “terrorist” at them. A man told a truck full of riot police officers to “burn them all,” referring to the protesters.

“These messages are not innocuous. On the contrary, they contribute to creating an environment of permissiveness and tolerance towards discrimination, stigmatization, and institutional violence against this population. Especially when they come from public authorities,” said Stuardo Rolán, the head of an Inter-American Human Rights Commission delegation that visited Peru last week.

In times of political crisis, peaceful protests can be “the only way for communities that face structural discrimination or political and social exclusion to take part in politics,” he said in a press conference.

Initial hopes for dialogue to end the crisis have faded amid growing polarization. Counterprotesters have launched “marches for peace,” backed by the police, occasionally clashing with demonstrators.

Ms. Boluarte proposed early elections for April 2024, but doing so requires a constitutional reform that lawmakers are reluctant to pass. That has led to growing calls for Ms. Boluarte’s resignation, which could force Congress to schedule a new vote without the need for reforms.

Even with new elections, high levels of polarization could lead to a result similar to the outcome of the 2021 vote, when Mr. Castillo faced a far-right politician in a divisive runoff race.

“There is no promising scenario,” says Peruvian political analyst Fernando Tuesta. “But elections are always an opportunity.”

Peru braces for new rally in Lima despite state of emergency

Mon, 16 January 2023 


Lima was bracing for a new rally against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Monday as thousands of demonstrators began mobilizing in the capital following weeks of deadly unrest.

Protesters from all over the country began heading to Lima over the weekend in a bid to maintain the pressure on authorities, even as a state of emergency war declared in a bid to maintain order.

At least 42 people have died in five weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces, according to Peru's human rights ombudsman.

Supporters of ousted president Pedro Castillo -- who was arrested and charged with rebellion amongst other offenses after trying last month to dissolve parliament and rule by decree -- have set up burning roadblocks, attempted to storm airports and staged mass rallies.

They are demanding Boluarte's resignation, the closure of Congress and fresh elections.

"We're going to be in the capital to make our protest voice heard," Jimmy Mamani, an Aymara indigenous leader from Puno region, told AFP.

Mamani, the mayor of a small village near the border with Bolivia, said peasants from all over Peru had arranged to meet up in Lima for a "peaceful" demonstration.

Protesters are set to defy a state of emergency in the capital.

"It's not right that the executive cannot listen to our demands, they turn a deaf ear," added Mamani, who ruled out dialogue with authorities.

At least 3,000 protesters from Andahuaylas in southeastern Peru were heading for Lima on Monday in a caravan of trucks and buses.

In Cusco province, dozens of peasants were organizing themselves to leave for the capital.

The government extended by 30 days a state of emergency from midnight Saturday for Lima, Cusco, Callao and Puno, authorizing the military to back up police actions to restore public order.

The order also suspended constitutional rights such as freedom of movement and assembly, according to a decree published in the official gazette.

In protest epicenter Puno, the government declared a new night-time curfew for 10 days, from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am.

Almost 100 stretches of road remained blockaded Sunday in 10 of Peru's 25 regions -- a record, according to a senior land transport official.

Castillo, a former rural school teacher and union leader, faced vehement opposition from Congress during his 18 months in office and is the subject of numerous criminal investigations into allegations of widespread graft.

His December 7 ouster sparked immediate nationwide protests, mainly among the rural poor.

- 'Terrible cruelties' -

In the run-up to Monday's demonstrations, attitudes among both protesters and government officials appeared to harden.

"We ask that Dina Boluarte resign as president and that Congress be shut down. We don't want any more deaths," Jasmin Reinoso, a 25-year-old nurse from Ayacucho, told AFP.

Prime Minister Alberto Otarola called for protesters to "radically change" their tactics and opt for dialogue.

"There is a small group organized and paid for by drug trafficking and illegal mining that wants to take power by force," Otarola said on local television.

Defense Minister Jorge Chavez said the government would do everything in its power "to avoid a violent situation" in Lima.

But he also pleaded with protesters to demonstrate "peacefully without generating violence."

An Ipsos poll published Sunday said Boluarte had a 71 percent disapproval rating.

The unrest has been largely concentrated in the southern Andes, where Quechua and Aymara communities live.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said that in order to end the crisis, these groups need to be better integrated into Peruvian society.

- Radical groups? -

Peru has been politically unstable for years, with 60-year-old Boluarte the country's sixth president in five years.

Castillo has been remanded in custody for 18 months, charged with rebellion and other crimes.

Authorities insist radical groups are behind the protests, including remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group.

As proof, they have presented the capture this week of a former member of that organization, Rocio Leandro, whom the police accuse of having financed some of the unrest.

cm/ljc/dga/bc/mlm

The rich and powerful flocked to Davos via private jet to discuss climate change, study finds

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Tue, January 17, 2023 

CANADIAN MADE

A new Bombardier Global 7500 business jet.

 (Pierre Albouy/AFP via Getty Images)

At the World Economic Forum, which started Monday in Davos, Switzerland, the global business and political elite will discuss how to combat climate change, but their own private jet travel to attend the conference will cause a spike in planet-warming carbon emissions, according to a new study from Greenpeace International.

The research, released last Thursday, which was compiled by the Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, found twice as many private jets flew to and from airports serving Davos during the 2022 WEF meeting compared with an average week. The carbon dioxide emissions from these extra flights were equal to putting roughly 350,000 gasoline-powered cars on the road for the same weeklong period.

In recent weeks, Europe has been contending with a number of extreme weather events related to climate change. A heat wave over New Year’s weekend broke records in locations such as Warsaw, Poland, where a temperature of 66 degrees Fahrenheit was 9°F warmer than the previous all-time high. Parts of Switzerland saw temperatures upwards of 68°F, and some ski resorts in the Alps closed due to a lack of snow. In 2022 — the fifth-hottest year on record — heat waves in Europe smashed records for temperatures and wildfire prevalence.

A ski lift in the French Alps is closed temporarily on Jan. 5 due to a lack of snow.

 (Laurent Cipriani/AP)

“Europe is experiencing the warmest January days ever recorded and communities around the world are grappling with extreme weather events supercharged by the climate crisis,” said Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s European mobility campaign, in a statement. “Meanwhile, the rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors.”

The study found that of the 1,040 private jet flights in or out of airports near Davos, 53% were shorter than 466 miles and 38% were under 310 miles. The shortest flight recorded was only 13 miles. Short-haul flights are especially polluting because airplanes are less efficient during landing and takeoff.

For the sake of comparison, the distance between Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn., is 305 miles, and between Boston and Washington, D.C., is 440. While it is not uncommon for Americans to fly such distances, Europe has a much more comprehensive, affordable, fast and reliable train network, which serves Davos.

A Rhaetian Railway train pulling into the station at Davos, Switzerland. 

(Gettty Images)

France recently became the first country to ban short flights between cities that are connected by a rail trip of less than two and a half hours. A spokesperson for the French government said at the time that France won’t ban private jets, but it will produce a plan that would reduce private jet usage through taxation and regulation.

Environmentalists are increasingly arguing that the European Union should ban such private flights. Last November, at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, 700 climate activists staged a sit-in on the tarmac in front of 13 private jets preparing for takeoff, grounding all of them for more than six hours.

“The superrich have got used to polluting as they please with a total disregard for people and planet, and private jets are the pinnacle of these luxury emissions that we simply cannot afford,” Jonathan Leggett, one of the activists, later told the Intercept.

On Monday, activists from the Swiss Debt for Climate group held a similar demonstration with a four-hour blockade at the airport in Altenrhein, Switzerland, near Davos.

Climate activists block an airport in Altenrhein, Switzerland, on Monday. 

(Debt for Climate Switzerland/Handout via Reuters)

Attendees at this year’s WEF include European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Philippine President Bongbong Marcos. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, and Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were among those meeting with a group of business leaders, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri, in Davos on Monday.

In the past, Kerry has been criticized for hypocrisy by conservative media outlets such as Fox News for flying by private jet. Kerry had previously defended his private flights, arguing that his extremely busy travel schedule in the service of combating climate change makes it necessary and noting that he buys carbon offsets to mitigate the impact. But last November, he flew commercial to Egypt to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP27.

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke in Davos on Monday about climate change, arguing that multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank need to make more funding for a clean energy transition available to developing countries. Gore has said that sometimes he has flown by chartering a private jet but that he usually flies commercial. Kerry struck similar notes in his Tuesday speech in Davos.

“I’m convinced we will get to a low-carbon, no-carbon economy — we’re going to get there because we have to,” Kerry said. “I am not convinced we’re going to get there in time to do what the scientists said, which is avoid the worst consequences of the crisis. So how do we get there? ... Money, money, money, money, money, money, money.”

Climate envoy John Kerry speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.

 (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Greenpeace argues that the private jet use makes a mockery of the WEF’s stated commitment to helping prevent catastrophic climate change.

“Davos has a perfectly adequate railway station, still these people can’t even be bothered to take the train for a trip as short as 21 kilometers,” Schenk said. “Given that 80% of the world’s population has never even flown, but suffers from the consequences of climate-damaging aviation emissions, and that the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, this annual private jet bonanza is a distasteful master class in hypocrisy. Private jets must be consigned to history if we are to have a green, just and safe future for all.”

There are other climate-focused protests expected at the forum this week. High-profile youth activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate will be in town to demand an end to new oil and gas drilling projects. Thunberg has made a point of avoiding flying at all when possible, including by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, but she has flown when alternatives are unavailable.

The WEF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2019, when a previous study of private jet usage for flying to and from the forum sparked criticism, the organization responded that participants are taking fewer private flights each year.

“We have been offering incentives to participants to use public transport for some years,” the WEF said in a statement in 2019. “We also ask that they share planes if they have to use them, something that has been gaining popularity in recent years.”

Amazon will not cut jobs in Italy, unions say after meeting

Tue, January 17, 2023 

MILAN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Amazon does not plan to cut any jobs in Italy despite a drop in volumes last year, trade unions said on Tuesday after a video meeting with a company representative.

Amazon.com Inc said earlier this month it planned to cut over 18,000 jobs globally and later disclosed it would shut three warehouses in Britain, sparking concerns there could be workforce reductions in other European countries.

Italian trade unions FIT-CISL, Filt-CGIL and UIL Trasporti said in separate statements that during the meeting, called in response to news reports, an Amazon Italy manager said there was no reason for Italian workers to worry.

The manager added that there would likely be cuts in the workforce in Britain and Spain, according to FIT-CISL.

Amazon Italy declined to comment on the meeting but said the company stood by the comments made by Chief Executive Andy Jassy on Jan. 5 about its plans to cut over 18,000 jobs.

 (Reporting by Elvira Pollina, writing by Federico Maccioni; editing by Alvise Armellini, Jon Boyle and Jonathan Oatis)