#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Kashmir: Businesses call for reopening cross-border trade with Pakistan

Three years after trade was halted across the "Line of Control" between India and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the impact is being felt by thousands of villagers in remote areas who had depended on free trade.

Before the crossing was closed, trucks loaded with goods would enter

 India-administered Kashmir four times a week

Traders in India-administered Kashmir are demanding authorities reopen trade routes with Pakistan as the prices of goods and food continue to skyrocket.

In 2008, India and Pakistan opened trade across the "Line of Control (LoC)," a heavily militarized de-facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The move was seen as a "confidence-building" measure between New Delhi and Islamabad.

However, New Delhi stopped cross-border trade in April 2019 as it prepared to scrap India-administered Kashmir's semi-autonomous status. India claimed the route was being misused by people with links to terrorist groups.

During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, more people are eating fruits and buying other commodities in Muslim-majority regions of India-administered Kashmir. The closure has led to high prices for common goods.

Hilal Turkey, chairman of the LoC traders' association in Kashmir, told DW that the prices of commodities have increased by 200% after the suspension.

"Buying fruits like grapes, oranges, dates, Miswakhs (teeth-cleaning twigs), or spices that were traded through the LoC is now beyond many people's budget," he said.

Informal trade has big impact on rural communities

When cross-border trade in Kashmir was active, 21 items were allowed to be traded, including varieties of fruits, vegetables, and handicrafts. The trade was carried out duty-free using a barter system and did not involve exchanges of currency.

Trucks would cross the border at the Chakan-da-Bagh station near the town of Poonch, and at a crossing near the town of Uri to the north.

The trade route created a frontier economy and provided livelihoods to thousands of people living in remote areas that usually see meagre economic activity.

Uri and Chakan-da-Bagh turned into business hubs and thousands of traders from across northern India would converge there to buy commodities at cheaper prices. New shops, warehouses, and restaurants sprang up, engaging local youth as managers, drivers, and daily wage workers.

The route also allowed the remote region cheaper access to food staples and commodities that otherwise would enter Kashmir from mainland India at a higher price.

Even cotton items and suits brought from Pakistan-administered Kashmir would be sold at cheaper rates on the Indian side of the border.

The trade route was opened in 2008 to much fanfare

Traditional Pakistani footwear and suits became a big hit. Many boutiques sprang up across Kashmir, selling Pakistani suits.

Within ten years, annual trade via the LoC route was estimated to be at the $1.2 billion mark.

However, as the trade continued to grow, it also drew controversy as traders in mainland India paying taxes on their goods complained that the cheap, tax-free goods entering India via Kashmir were distorting competition.

Additionally, authorities became concerned after reports of narcotics, weapons, and counterfeit currency on trucks coming from Pakistan raised suspicions that the trade was being used to promote anti-India militancy. In April 2019, New Delhi suspended the trade indefinitely.

Border closes and money dries up

Official data shows more than 4,000 families were directly involved in the day-to-day trade operations across the LoC. Manufacturers, farmers, and truckers that provided and moved goods also benefited.

After the route was closed, many traders either stopped the business or are under heavy debt.

"We became victims of the harassment from investigative agencies and banks," said LoC traders' association head, Turkey, whose fruit business has since closed.

Laborers in the once-bustling border towns now struggle to find work. Before the suspension of trade, laborer Mushtaq Ahmad used to earn $10 a day.

"I have three children and one of them quit his studies to work in a hotel in Srinagar because there was no income for the family," Ahmad said.

Trade was a bridge between India and Pakistan

The cross-LoC trade was an important contributor to economic and social development in the conflict-torn Himalayan region.

A sign at a bridge crossing the LoC reads: "From home to home, we extend a very warm welcome to our Kashmiri brethren."

"The objective of the trade was to bring peace to the region. It did create a virtuous cycle between trade, trust and people-to-people connectivity, with its impact spilling over to the overall India-Pakistan dynamics," said Afaq Hussain, an economist who has done extensive research on the LoC trade route.

According to him, the ban has resulted in the loss of goodwill and cooperation that had gradually built because of trade.

Hussain has found that trade was critical to promoting peace and regional cooperation in the region, and said it should resume immediately.

"The LoC trade may be only a minuscule part of India's overall economy, but its impact goes beyond standard metrics. The cases of thriving businesses and reunited families on both sides of the LoC stand testimony to the effectiveness of these confidence-building measures," he told DW.

 

The Kashmir Files: Bollywood film that divides India

A Bollywood film about the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus has sparked a huge controversy in India. While some people see it as a true depiction of the Hindu killings in the 1990s, others say it distorts historical facts.

Will the war in Ukraine delay India's green energy transition?

With global prices of crude oil, gas and coal spiraling, a lengthy Russia-Ukraine war could delay India's progress in achieving renewable energy and climate change targets.

India is in a race against time to hit its renewable energy targets

Russia's war on Ukraine has triggered a huge rise in global crude oil prices and for India, which imports 80% of its crude oil and 45% of its natural gas, there is a high price to pay.

The war is driving up food inflation and increasing manufacturing production prices. India's wholesale price-based inflation quickened to 14.55 % in March from 13.11 % in February amid hardening of fuel prices. Retail inflation last month has also climbed to 6.95 %, a 17-month high, as food prices went up.
A tough transition to clean energy

Given that fossil fuels are intrinsically economically volatile, experts believe that one viable way to shield consumers from global oil price fluctuations, in the long term, is to cut reliance on fossil fuels by boosting India's clean energy capacities.

Currently, India's energy mix is skewed towards the use of coal for power generation, oil for transport and industry, and biomass for residential heating and cooking. Since the 1990s, over 80% of India's energy needs have been largely met by the three — Coal, Oil and Biomass (COB).

Increasing electricity output while cutting coal will require huge growth in renewables, especially wind and solar, paired with energy storage. High energy prices could also make it harder politically for some countries to push through green policies.

According to Chandra Bhushan, CEO of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology, the conflict in Ukraine has clearly brought out the vulnerabilities in India's energy security framework.

"The ever-increasing import of fossil fuels, the increasing energy prices coupled with increasing impacts of the climate crisis means that India will have to quickly shift its energy sources that are renewable, less inflationary and can be sourced domestically," Bhushan told DW.

"While the progress on renewables is quite impressive so far, to meet the Glasgow targets India will have to increase installation of solar energy by at least thrice the rate than in the past. It will also need to invest massively in storage and grid infrastructure. These will be difficult but necessary adjustments that India should make for energy security and climate crisis," he added.

A promising start but a long road ahead

The share of renewables in global energy production has grown steadily over the last few decades.

The government has set targets to reduce India's total projected carbon emission by 1 billion tons by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation's economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade, achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, and expand India's renewable energy installed capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

Onshore wind and solar are India's principal renewable energy contributors and are on the right track to reach the target of 175 GW for the financial year 2022-23.

Moreover, a goal for India to become a global hub for electric vehicles and green hydrogen production has been unveiled.
Reliance on imported fuels 'expensive'

"Global events have revealed that reliance on imported fuels can be expensive, risk energy security and can dampen economic growth. India should fuel its economic growth by substituting coal, oil and gas demand with renewable energy alternatives," Vibhuti Garg, lead energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told DW.

Garg pointed out that even though India is decarbonizing its electricity sector, more impetus should be given to the decarbonization of transport and other hard-to-abate sectors like steel and fertilizers, through prioritizing new technologies like green hydrogen.

"The Indian government has a target to increase the share of gas in India's energy mix from 6% in 2021 to 15% by 2030. But to meet its energy demand, rather relying on gas as a transitory fuel, India can build renewable energy capacity," she said.

INDIA: FARMERS CELEBRATE REPEAL OF FARM LAWS — IN PICTURES

Farm laws repealed

Farmers feed each other sweets at the Ghazipur border. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will be repealing three controversial farm laws, over which farmers and their unions have been protesting for a year. The law was passed in September last year, and protests began in November.

123456

In order for the country's 50% energy requirement to be met using renewables from the current levels of 3%, a 1,567% of growth rate is required over the next nine years, according to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The study said India would have to increase its solar power capacity to 5630 GW from its current 41 GW in order to become a net-zero emissions nation by 2070.

Green hydrogen could contribute 19% of the energy consumed by industry in 2070 and transition to net-zero could cost India 4.1% of GDP in that time frame.

Observers maintained that the direct impact of oil price shocks is that there is an inflationary consequence on the economy along with an increase in the import bill, thus posing a challenge for macroeconomic management.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine 'definitely' has an impact

"India is minimizing this impact through buying subsidized oil directly from Russia. The impact on other energy sectors like solar depends on the extent of the hit such global price shocks and macroeconomic headwinds have on domestic fiscal resources," Vaibhav Chaturvedi, a fellow at CEEW, told DW.

Chaturvedi pointed out that if fiscal resources are hit hard, less funds would be available, in terms of policy, to support many sectors, and this could impact the pace of solar additions.


"If the landed cost of imported panels increases due to higher transportation cost and other global macroeconomic dynamics, it again wouldn't bode well for India's solar ambition. So, while ascertaining the exact impact on solar targets is very difficult, one could say that the Russia-Ukraine crisis will definitely make it more challenging for Indian policy makers," he added.

India is on the right path to energy transition with building blocks for a low-emissions future being put in place, but "developers and investors now need to be confident in stable and robust policies that do not change with political upheaval," said Garg.

Edited by: John Silk

Swedish police shoot 3 during fresh riots

Three people were injured as police fired warning shots at rioters in the eastern city of Norrkoping. The unrest had started after a far-right politician threatened to burn a copy of the Quran.

Police said all three people who were shot had also been arrested

Three people were injured when police fired warning shots into a crowd of rioters in eastern Sweden on Sunday, local media reported.

The country has been rocked by days of violence triggered by far-right Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan.

Paludan's anti-immigration and anti-Islamic Stram Kurs (Hard Line) movement has threatened to burn copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book during extremist rallies.

What do we know so far?

The newspaper Aftonbladet said the incident took place in the city of Norrkoping when police moved in to disperse a group of people who were throwing stones at officers.

The group of counter-demonstrators had gathered after Paludan said he would hold a rally in the city on Sunday, despite being turned down by police.

In a statement on its website, the local police wrote how officers had "fired several warning shots" after coming under attack.

"Three people seem to have been hit by ricochets and are now being cared for in hospital," the statement added. "All three injured have been arrested on suspicion of committing criminal acts."

Several vehicles were set on fire as the violence unfolded and at least 11 people were detained, Aftonbladet said.

Riots also broke out for the second time in the city of Linkoping, where Paludan also planned a rally on Sunday.

Linkoping was the scene of similar disturbances by counter-demonstrators three days earlier.

Aftonbladet described how the situation quickly escalated as hundreds of people, mainly youngsters, arrived on the scene. It said 14 people were arrested.

Minister tells rioters to 'Go home'

During an interview with Aftonbladet on Sunday, Sweden's Justice Minister Morgan Johansson told the rioters to "Go home, immediately."

While labeling Paludan a "right-wing extremist fool, whose only goal is to drive violence and divisions," Johannsson said that "Sweden is a democracy and in a democracy, fools also have freedom of speech."

"Those who attack the police are criminals. There is no other way to deal with them than to put up a hard fight," he insisted.

In Malmo, a bus was torched but fortunately passengers escaped uninjured

Quran threat sparks days of violence

Similar clashes in recent days have caused damage and injuries in several Swedish cities.

On Saturday, a bus and a number of other vehicles were set on fire in the southern city of Malmo over rallies by far-right extremists.

And on Friday, nine police officers were injured in similar clashes in Orebro in central Sweden. 

mm/dj (AFP, dpa)

In France, undocumented migrants and their supporters protest for more rights • FRANCE 24 English

 

Several dozen undocumented migrants and their supporters took over unoccupied flats in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on Monday to demand rights for all.

Tunisian coastal city ravaged by 'industrial pollution and overfishing for the past 50 years'

France 24 is joined by Kenzie Azmi, Campaigner at Greenpeace MENA, who describes Gabes as a Tunisian coastal city plagued by a half-century of industrial activity. "Gabes is a location that has already been impacted by a lot of industrial pollution and overfishing for the past 50 years. And so it really cannot take much more environmental impact. The community is really being devastated by the impact on its fresh water, on its marine life, and on its soil from neighboring industries."

First killing by police in Sri Lanka

protests

AFP , Tuesday 19 Apr 2022

Sri Lanka police shot dead a protester and wounded 24 others on Tuesday in the first fatal clash with residents demonstrating against the government over the island nation's crippling economic crisis.

The island nation is in the grip of its most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948. AFP

The South Asian country is in the grip of its most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948, with regular blackouts and severe shortages of fuel and other goods causing widespread misery.

Huge protests have called for the resignation of the government, which is preparing to negotiate an urgently needed bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

Police fired live rounds at a crowd that had blockaded a railway line and highway connecting the capital Colombo with the central city of Kandy to protest oil shortages and high prices.

"One man died of gunshot injuries," a hospital official told AFP by telephone.

Another 16 protesters were wounded, with eight in need of emergency surgery, while a further eight police officers were injured when demonstrators threw back tear gas canisters they had fired at the crowd.

The protest was one of many spontaneous gatherings staged around Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after the country's main petrol retailer hiked prices by nearly 65 percent.

Local media footage showed dozens of police officers wearing anti-riot gear firing tear gas into the crowd.

"Fire, fire and chase them out," a senior officer is heard shouting while directing his men to attack the crowds with tear gas.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the police to use live rounds.

Police said demonstrators had stopped road and train traffic for hours by the time of the shooting.

A fuel bowser had been parked across railway tracks to block trains while burning tyres were obstructing traffic on the nearby road.

Footage from the local hospital showed victims being rushed into the facility and a man pleading for someone to treat his brother, who had been shot in the abdomen.

"Please rush quickly, my brother is bleeding," the man shouted.

Tens of thousands of angry motorists blocked arterial roads with parked buses and burning tyre mounds to condemn the latest rise in fuel prices and months of acute shortages.

In the capital Colombo, a large protest crowd has been camped outside the seafront office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for more than a week, demanding the leader step down.

Doctors at Sri Lanka's main children's hospital also staged a protest on Tuesday over a severe shortage of medicines and equipment.

'I deeply regret it'

In a bid to address growing calls for his entire government to resign, Rajapaksa on Monday appointed a new cabinet and acknowledged public anger over the ruling family's mismanagement.

"People are suffering because of the economic crisis and I deeply regret it," the president said Monday.

Sri Lanka is seeking three to four billion dollars from the IMF to overcome its balance-of-payments crisis and boost depleted reserves.

Dozens of Rajapaksa's lawmakers have turned against the administration and on Tuesday took seats on opposition benches in parliament.

Sri Lanka's economic meltdown began after the coronavirus pandemic torpedoed vital revenue from tourism and remittances.

The government last week announced a default on its $51 billion foreign debt and the Colombo Stock Exchange has suspended trading to prevent an anticipated market collapse.

Rajapaksa's administration has urged citizens abroad to donate foreign exchange to help pay for desperately needed essentials after announcing a default on its entire external debt.

Colombo has sent a delegation to Washington to open bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund from Tuesday.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
EU fraud agency accuses Marine Le Pen of misusing public funds

Paris prosecutors are studying a report by the European Union's fraud agency accusing French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other members of her nationalist party of misusing public funds while serving in the European Parliament.

© Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters/File

The report was disclosed by French investigative news site Mediapart just days before Le Pen faces incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a runoff election Sunday that could determine Europe’s future direction. Le Pen's party National Rally seeks to diminish the EU’s powers.

Le Pen denied wrongdoing, dismissing the report as “foul play by the European Union a few days before the second round" of the election. Speaking Monday on a campaign stop in Normandy, she said, “I am well accustomed to this, and I think the French will absolutely not fall for it.”

A similar EU fraud investigation was disclosed ahead of the 2017 French presidential election, which Le Pen lost to Macron. Le Pen was handed preliminary charges by French investigators over that case, which is still ongoing.

Macron, a pro-EU centrist, leads Le Pen in polls ahead of Sunday’s vote, though the race is tighter than when they faced off in 2017.

EU fraud agency OLAF submitted its latest report last month to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which is “in the course of analyzing it,” the prosecutor’s office said Monday. No formal investigation has yet been opened, and no further details were released.

According to Mediapart, the OLAF report found that Le Pen, her firebrand father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and other party members who served in the European Parliament used 617,000 euros of public money for “fictitious” reasons, notably for the benefit of companies close to the party. The fraud office is reportedly seeking reimbursement of the funds and potential fraud and embezzlement charges.

OLAF accused party members of “grave violations” and said the “inappropriate behavior” of members of National Rally - formerly called the National Front - “imperiled the reputation of the Union’s institutions,” according to Mediapart.

OLAF didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday, a holiday in Belgium and several European countries.

It's not the first time Le Pen has been accused of misusing EU funds. Among several legal affairs that have dogged her party, Le Pen was handed preliminary charges in 2018 based on a separate investigation by OLAF accusing members of her party of using aides on the European Parliament’s payroll for the party’s political activity. Other French political parties faced similar accusations.

Le Pen, who served in the European Parliament from 2004-2017, smiled for selfies as she met with hundreds of voters Monday in the Normandy town of Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. A small group of Macron supporters came with posters to urge voters to prevent the far-right from running France.

She and Macron face a crucial debate on Wednesday.

(AP)

BIDEN YEAR 2.0

Biden restores environmental safeguards dropped by Trump

US President Joe Biden's administration has restored key environmental safeguards dropped under Donald Trump (AFP/MANDEL NGAN) (MANDEL NGAN)


Tue, April 19, 2022

The administration of President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced it would restore safeguards in a cornerstone environmental law weakened under Donald Trump -- including a duty to assess the climate impacts of proposed infrastructure projects.

The changes concern the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was enacted by Congress in 1969. Rules about how it was applied were tweaked in 2020 by the then Republican president, an ardent supporter of the fossil fuel industry.

"Restoring these basic community safeguards will provide regulatory certainty, reduce conflict, and help ensure that projects get built right the first time," said White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) chair Brenda Mallory in a statement.

"Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help projects get built faster, be more resilient, and provide greater benefits to people who live nearby."


The restorations include a requirement that federal agencies evaluate both the direct and indirect impacts of projects, including by assessing climate change impacts and the consequences of releasing additional pollution in communities already affected by air pollution and dirty water.

It will also allow agencies to work once more with local communities to devise alternate plans to minimize environmental and health harm, and establish NEPA regulations as the floor, rather than the ceiling, for environmental review standards -- paving the way for stricter measures if needed.

The White House said it was also working to further broaden the scope of NEPA and would announce more changes soon.

Reacting to the announcement, Leslie Fields of the environmental group Sierra Club said: "We are encouraged to see the Biden administration take action to restore this bedrock environmental protection.

"NEPA plays a critical role in keeping our communities and our environment healthy and safe, and Donald Trump's attempts to weaken NEPA were clearly nothing more than a handout to corporate polluters."

The move comes days after the Biden administration was slammed by critics for announcing a resumption of oil and gas leasing on public lands, violating the Democrat's campaign promise.

On Friday, the interior department said it would post notices "for significantly reformed onshore lease sales" across roughly 144,000 acres of land.

Experts say steering clear of new fossil fuel projects is vital to meet the goal of limiting long term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and averting a climate catastrophe.

ia/dw

Unsung, unseen and unheard: Kuwait’s stateless Bidoon women speak out

Society8 min read
Yousef H. Alshammari
14 April, 2022

Facing both a complicated set of socio-political obstacles and cultural impediments, women in Kuwait continue to struggle in voicing their political needs in political action. For stateless women, much of that same voice is largely muffled

“Let’s get to the Kuwaiti woman first and then we’ll get to worrying about the Bidoon one.”

Hadeel Al-Shammari, a stateless woman, recalled hearing an audience member interrupt famed human rights activist Ibtihal Al-Khatib, who is also a professor in Kuwait University’s literature and the English department, during an event held by local women’s rights organisations.

The interruption, Hadeel said, was a symbolic moment where “despite the efforts to amplify the struggles stateless women endure, their attempts for representation are silenced on the spot.”

"Long regulated to the side-lines in the fight for naturalization and civil rights by both the state and stateless men, Bidoon women stereotypically occupy a short selection of roles in the Kuwaiti imagination, roles that are both demeaning and draconic"

Spanning from late 2020 to well past Summer 2021, Kuwait has witnessed what many have dubbed a #MeToo moment in the Gulf nation. A rising number of femicide and sexual harassment cases have gone unpunished, with a male-only parliament uninterested in legislating progressive laws securing women’s rights, thus prompting an uproar of Kuwaiti women's voices.

Women organised protests, mobilised their voices across social media and went far enough to gain access to members of parliament to negotiate better laws.

With a deadlocked parliament and exhausted activism, no substantial change was enacted. Although Kuwaiti women’s efforts for change carried considerable momentum, not all voices managed to carry the same weight.

“In truth, this society doesn’t know anything about Bidoon women,” said Hadeel, who’s long been an activist for stateless rights and a writer often covering the various realities stateless women face. “And that’s because they don’t want to know.”

At the end of March, a group of activists began a hunger strike and launched the #Bedoon_strike hashtag in English and Arabic.

"In solidarity with the stateless people on hunger strike. Personally, my family has reached 5 generations of statelessness, many of us with Kuwaiti mothers. Leaving gave me my basic human rights, and robbed me of my language, culture, and family," tweeted US-based writer Zahra Marwan.

Entering their third week of the hunger strike, the Bidoon activists continue in their attempts to pressure the government to give them their full rights

An ostracized group

Kuwait’s stateless population, more commonly referred to as Bidoon, short for Bidoon Jinsiya which translates to English as “without nationality and/or citizenship,” is estimated to amass between 150,000 to 350,000 people.

Because the Bidoon population, mostly and historically of tribal origins, is without government documentation and the privileges that come with a nationality, they are effectively barred from any and all access that the citizen and residents alike enjoy.

The stateless individual suffers inaccessibility to education, health, housing, economic stability and political representation.

For the stateless woman, Hadeel said, that exclusion is tenfold. Alongside the state ostracizing Bidoon women from their access to rights, specific power dynamics further charge both their erasure and dismissal.

On one hand, she explains, patriarchal norms violently squelch their voices while on the other hand, more powerful women, specifically Kuwaiti women, dominate the spaces in which those squelched voices could reach society at large.

Stateless Arabs, known as Bidoon, take part in a protest to demand citizenship and other basic rights in Jahra, 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Kuwait City [Getty Images]

“To the multitudes of institutional bodies focused on women’s rights, the Bidoon woman has never been a priority. She is politically weak, she has no say on her representation in these institutions, she can’t even become a member let alone sit on the board and direct an initiative,” Hadeel said, having direct experience with women’s associations in Kuwait and often partaking as a guest speaker.

“The struggles of women overlap, regardless of their place in society, but the stateless woman suffers an acute form of systemic oppression because she has no access to any civil right.”

An activist for stateless and women’s rights from a young age, Asrar Al-Hazaa observed over the years what she details as a rapid evolution in feminist rhetoric. From her years active as a stateless college student to her current participation in Kuwait’s intellectual scene as a librarian for Takween, a prominent publishing house, Al-Hazaa recalls a growing yet still restrained movement.

“The conversations on women’s rights quickly shifted from wanting a sense of autonomy and equality to realising these freedoms need to be protected by policy,” she told The New Arab. “These are not superficial battlegrounds, women need all of these freedoms. But, these voices came from a very specific, elitist sylo.”

Kuwait's stateless Bidoon community faces rising human costs

When Bidoon voices step in and speak of their struggles, Al-Hazaa said the exclusion was rampant. Despite their best efforts to “ward off untruthful and harmful ideologies in society,” the dismissal is blatant enough to tell the stateless community that “you don’t exist to me,” she added.

This erasure of realities suffered by stateless people plays into a “cycle of racism,” which leaves Al-Hazaa dispirited when confronting misplaced public opinion. For her, the erasure sends Bidoon women one of two messages, either discouraging their activism or worse: “you’ll never be one of us.”

Long regulated to the sidelines in the fight for naturalization and civil rights by both the state and stateless men, Bidoon women stereotypically occupy a short selection of roles in the Kuwaiti imagination, roles that are both demeaning and draconic.

In one role, the Bidoon woman is the disposable, hypersexualized commodity; she is the attractive storefront welcoming patrons with the comfort of a Kuwaiti face and an approachable accent, or the sexual object of a Kuwaiti man ill-suited to marry a compatriot.

In another role, she is the elderly ground-level gargoyle, gowned in black and begging for money outside of mosques and markets.

"The term ‘woman’ often goes unchallenged, but when we look at it closely it is often used among government officials and women’s organizations to describe a specific kind of woman in Kuwait"

Coming from a family of stateless rights activists, Hadiya Al-Onan is no stranger to the same dynamics Hadeel or Al-Hazaa experience. Al-Onan, who is also stateless herself, explained two distinct dynamics a stateless woman endures more acutely than any other faction of women in Kuwait.

“Stateless people make for extremely cheap labour, cheaper than migrant workers but still with that Kuwaiti appearance and dialect which makes them the ideal set of spare parts for the national capitalist machine,” Al-Onan said. “That puts stateless women in the lowest circles of social mobility alongside social pressures against her working.”

The other dynamic focuses on a “trickle-down-oppression,” she said, as the state “corners a stateless man into a place where no political frustration can be expressed until that bottled-up helplessness finds a suitable, weaker target: the stateless woman.”

Bidoons have long been marginalised and are not entitled to state-provided services and benefits 

[Getty Images]

Al-Onan calls her observation of “state-sponsored misogyny” the “broken man syndrome,” outlining the direct patriarchal relationship between political erasure of stateless people as a whole and the violence it inflicts on stateless women.

“But now, a lot of our men have had this awakening recently, a better economic understanding of how the Kuwaiti government views us and a better appreciation of what Bidoon women bring to the activist field,” she said. “Now, our education is more encouraged than before. Now, more Bidoon men realise they can’t win without us.”

The Bidoon woman continues to suffer a grand societal rejection, the snubbing has softened over the years as a combination of social media access and civil coalition building, although minimal, empowered the voices of stateless women. The social barriers, however, remain well in place.

Before she migrated to Canada, Areej Al-Shammiry, formerly stateless yet remains an activist on many Kuwaiti issues through her doctoral research and writing, was “directly involved” with a number of movements and organisations for stateless rights.

“There was never a mention of Bidoon women or migrant women in any of the discussions about women’s rights,” Areej told The New Arab, adding that her participation in women’s rights circles left her “unseen and unheard.”

Now, Areej’s solidarity with women’s rights movements is predominantly online and one great obstacle when digitally sharing real-life narratives, she said, it’s co-opted by classist and state rhetoric. When it isn’t morphed out of context or silenced, the voice of a Bidoon woman is painted as colourful lies.

“The term ‘woman’ often goes unchallenged, but when we look at it closely it is often used among government officials and women’s organisations to describe a specific kind of woman in Kuwait,” Areej explained, pointing to the series of proposed bills for women’s rights in parliament during 2021 which, by proxy of their statelessness, excluded Bidoon women.

A larger burden of death: Kuwait's migrant workers and COVID

Like Al-Onan, Areej sees a greater problem hiding under the slew of social and cultural barriers prohibiting women from political participation at large.

Beyond the conservative lines drawn to silence women, Areej sees a connection between “the systemic violence of the state” and the “patriarchal institution of the home.”

“This omission of gender dynamics and conditions that exists in the Bidoon community, and leaves Bidoon women fending for themselves in the private realm, leave their struggles with the state and patriarchy non-politicized,” she said, noting that which remains “taboo” cannot be used to “break down barriers.”

Yousef H. Alshammari is a US-based Kuwaiti journalist and writer with a focus on international politics and culture.

Follow him on Twitter: @YousefWryRonin

Iraq 'green belt' neglected in faltering climate fight

Envisioned as a lush fortress against worsening desertification and sand storms, the "green belt" of Iraq's Karbala stands as a wilted failure

Sixteen years after its inception, only a fraction of the

 76-kilometre crescent-shaped strip of greenery has materialised 

[AFP/Getty]

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
19 April, 2022

Envisioned as a lush fortress against worsening desertification and sand storms, the "green belt" of Iraq's Karbala stands as a wilted failure.

Sixteen years after its inception, only a fraction of the 76-kilometre (47-mile) crescent-shaped strip of greenery has materialised, though the years proved a deep need for protection against mounting environmental challenges.

Eucalyptus, olive groves and date palms first took root in 2006 as part of a plan for tens of thousands of the trees to form a green protective shield around the city in central Iraq.

"We were very happy because the green belt would be an effective bulwark against dust," said Hatif Sabhan al-Khazali, a native of Karbala - one of Iraq's Shiaa holy cities that attracts millions of pilgrims every year.

Iraq's host of environmental problems, including drought and desertification, threaten access to water and livelihoods across the country.

Iraq's second largest lake drying up, turning up dead fish

But nowadays, the southern axis of Karbala's green belt is only about 26 kilometres long while the northern axis of the 100-metre (328 feet) wide strip is even shorter, at 22 kilometres.

Irrigation is sparse. No one pulls out the weeds anymore. Branches of the stunted olive trees sway between date palms - symbolic of Iraq - that struggle to grow.

"The construction was stopped," said Nasser al-Khazali, a former member of the Karbala provincial council.

He blamed "lack of interest from the central government and local authorities," saying: "The funding didn't follow."

According to him, only nine billion dinars ($6 million) was spent on the northern axis, out of the originally planned 16 billion dinars.

It does little

"Negligence" is how Hatif Sabhan al-Khazali explains the fate of the green belt project.

It's a frequent refrain - along with "financial mismanagement" - on the lips of many Iraqis and was a driving factor behind near-nationwide protests against graft, crumbling public services and unemployment that shook the country in 2019.

Iraq has consistently been a low scorer on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 157th out of 180 countries for perceived corruption levels in state institutions last year.

What was meant to be a buffer against frequent dust storms that envelop the country does little to lessen their impact.

Earlier in April, two such storms blanketed Iraq in less than one week, grounding flights and leaving dozens hospitalised due to respiratory problems.

According to the director of Iraq's meteorological office, Amer al-Jabri, sand and dust storms are expected to become even more frequent.

He attributed this increase to "drought, desertification and declining rainfall", as well as the absence of green spaces.

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20 percent drop in water resources by 2050 due to climate change.

Water shortages have been exacerbated by the building of upstream dams in neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

UN warns of 'dangerous' water scarcity in Iraq

'Criminal gangs'

These water shortages and the attendant soil degradation have led to a drastic decline in arable land.

Iraq "loses around 100,000 dunams (about 250 square kilometres or 97 square miles) of agricultural land every year", said Nadhir al-Ansari, a specialist in water resources at Sweden's Lulea University of Technology.

"This land is then transformed into desert areas," he said, warning that Iraq should "expect more dust storms" - which would have dire consequences on agriculture and public health.

Ansari blamed this on the Iraqi government and the "absence of water planning".

During the country's last dust storm, the agriculture ministry assured that it was working on "restoring vegetation cover" in Iraq.

Last year an official with the Ministry of Water Resources referred to "several initiatives" to plant green belts but he said that "unfortunately these belts were not maintained," the state INA news agency reported.

As an example the official cited Karbala, where Hatif Sabhan al-Khazali despairs at seeing the city's green belt left to "criminal gangs and stray dogs".

Dozens injured as Israeli forces attack worshippers
Palestinians resist brutal Israeli soldiers' attacks in east Jerusalem


Israeli border police attacked worshippers in Al Aqsa mosque.

Israeli forces attacked Palestinian worshippers in the occupied city of Jerusalem twice over the weekend, as they gathered during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The attacks come almost a year after similar raids sparked an uprising across all of Palestine.

Israeli border police stormed the site of the Al Aqsa mosque on Sunday, in the east of occupied Jerusalem. They used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets to clear Palestinians from the large square inside the mosque’s compound. It came after an even bigger raid on Friday of last week when Israeli police arrested as many as 300 Palestinians at the mosque all at once. They also injured at least 158 people.

The Islamic endowment that runs the site said Israeli police entered in force before dawn on Friday, as thousands of worshippers gathered for early morning prayers. Videos show Palestinians fighting back heroically, throwing rocks at the heavily armed cops and barricading themselves inside the mosque. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical charity said Israeli forces also hindered the arrival of ambulances and paramedics to the site.

Israel said the raids were meant to ensure that Jewish worshippers—who also consider the site holy—could enter during the Passover holiday. They, and many media reports in Britain, want to present the fighting as an issue of Palestinian Muslims’ hostility to Israeli Jews. It is actually about whether Palestinians can live freely in their own city.

Israel invaded and occupied the eastern side of Jerusalem in 1967. Though it later declared the entire city its capital, it denies the Palestinians who live there full citizenship rights. It has used a raft of laws that can remove a Palestinian’s right to live in the city to push them out gradually.


Palestinians fight back against Israel’s aggression

Meanwhile Israeli settler groups, backed by the state, run years-long campaigns to evict Palestinians and take over their homes and neighbourhoods. Battles over access to the mosque are about control of a site central to Palestinian life in the city. The compound is still managed by an authority based in neighbouring Jordan, but Israeli settler groups want to claim it and deny Palestinian access altogether.

Right wing settler groups use Ramadan and Passover to stage provocative stunts and invasions at the site. Last week a settler group offered a cash prize to anyone who entered the Mosque and sacrificed a goat—a Jewish religious ritual that is prohibited inside. Palestinians at the mosque prepared to resist incursions by Israeli settlers and police.

Attacks on Palestinians in east Jerusalem last April triggered a mass uprising. Israeli cops cracked down on protesters resisting the eviction of Palestinian families in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. They then tried to stop Palestinians from coming to Al Aqsa mosque to pray. After Palestinians fought back, resistance spread across all areas of historic Palestine, including a historic general strike.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa complex in Jerusalem

Settlers celebrate Jewish Passover holiday

News Service

April 19, 2022

AA

File photo


Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Tuesday forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a Palestinian agency.

In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees holy sites in Jerusalem, said 622 settlers stormed the site in groups under heavy police protection and stayed for more than three hours inside the compound.

Prior to their incursion, Israeli police forced Palestinian worshippers to leave the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque where they were held inside the Qibli Mosque, one Al-Aqsa's main mosques, during the settler tour, eyewitnesses said.

According to previous statements, hundreds of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa complex since Sunday to mark their week-long Jewish Passover holiday.

Tension has mounted across the Palestinian territories since Friday when Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards and attacked worshippers, injuring hundreds.

Daily settler incursions into the flashpoint site to celebrate the Passover holiday have further inflamed the situation.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Since 2003, Israel has allowed settlers into the compound almost daily.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar