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Destruction of coastal forest for a major tourism project raises questions about Jamaica’s climate change posture · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Mangrove in Jamaica. Image by Sergei Mutovkin on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
As Caribbean governments and people are painfully aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a serious blow to tourism. The Jamaican industry continues to struggle through another year of “lockdowns,” fluctuating vaccine supplies, and ever-changing travel requirements. However, as Jamaica works towards the reopening of hotels and attracting visitors again, a new development is raising concerns—and questions about the government’s commitment to climate change.
In outlining his “Blue Ocean Strategy” for recovery, tourism minister Ed Bartlett noted that “for the last fiscal year, the Jamaican Government lost direct revenue from the tourism sector of $46.3 billion,” and that visitor arrivals at the end of 2020 represented “a 68 percent decrease from the 4.3 million visitors to the island over the same period in 2019.” Moreover, government advisories from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada (the country's three primary tourism markets) caution against travel to Jamaica, mainly because of COVID-19 rates.
Tourism officials, therefore, seem especially pleased with the development on the west coast of a five-star Grand Luxury Princess Hotel, a Spanish chain which says it prides itself on a commitment to sustainability and environmental awareness.
The first phase of the hotel, expected to be completed in late 2022, will consist of 1,012 rooms. Following a year's break, 1,025 rooms will be built in the second phase. On 84 of 180 acres of land owned by the developers in Industry Cove, Hanover, near the small town of Green Island, the plan is to eventually build four hotels and a casino. Tourism officials have cited several other development projects in the pipeline, promising that they will bring thousands of jobs.
As the preparation work got underway, however, many Jamaicans were startled by drone footage shared on Twitter by Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), showing a large area that had already been flattened, and zooming in on a bulldozer removing mangrove forest. JET founder Diana McCaulay, herself the author of a novel on climate change commented:
Jamaica is NOT a climate leader. #purechat Please share, everybody.. https://t.co/34riHWSPFM
— Diana McCaulay (@dmccaulay) April 30, 2021
JET's review of the Environmental Impact Assessment on the project in March 2020 concluded:
A development of this nature is wholly inappropriate for an area which has been afforded several levels of environmental protections, and is well recognised for its diverse and healthy coastal ecosystems.
Jamaica's welcoming of this hotel appears contrary to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ regular, high-profile appearances at United Nations climate change events. In September 2019, he sought increased adaptation financing from the Green Climate Fund at a high-level luncheon co-hosted by himself and French president Emmanuel Macron. Both leaders had been appointed in the previous year to mobilise climate funding.
Holness, whose website lauds him as “a global leading voice on climate action,” addressed the Leaders’ Summit on Climate Change on Earth Day on April 22. He was also specially invited to speak at the Virtual Leaders’ Summit hosted by United States president, Joe Biden. The prime minister’s work on the UN panel for Climate Financing, Holness’ website continues, “has positioned Jamaica as one of the leaders in climate action and COVID recovery.”
Jamaica has been designated the lead national authority among seven Caribbean countries for the Green Climate Fund's Civil Society Organisations project, which is being undertaken through a US$1.2 million grant, a role that seems at odds with pristine coastal forest being destroyed by the hotel development:
Ground level pic of the healthy, mature mangrove forest at Green Island, Hanover coast, now being bulldozed.. pic.twitter.com/VXCbg7OKA9
— Diana McCaulay (@dmccaulay) April 30, 2021
Jamaican climate activists, who had been vocal on social media over a proposed mining development near a coastal rainforest (the matter is now being contested in court), responded swiftly. Eleanor Terrelonge, who heads the four-year-old Jamaica Climate Change Youth Council, created a video on the value of mangroves and their role in preventing climate change, addressing her tweet directly to the prime minister:
Hello @AndrewHolnessJM;
Earlier you said “Trees are essential to the sustenance of nature, climate, and humanity” and you're 100% correct.
Here's why mangroves (which are also trees FYI) are specifically essential #MangrovesMatter #PreserveGreenIsland #YouthForChangeJA pic.twitter.com/7KjBEstPny
— ?? Actinomagnificent (@JamaicanLabrat) May 3, 2021
Other activists expressed disillusionment:
Next time I'm on a panel speaking on my country and our bold climate leadership, I fear I may choke. This was my presentation a few months ago, how don't care but [not sure of meaning. Maybe leave this one out?] clear mangroves.? https://t.co/qNZHCkvGti
— Dainalyn (@LynnSwaby) April 30, 2021
Then we bawl for funding to restore mangroves, that may never be rehabilitated, in the name of ecosystem-based adaptation
— JamaicanEcofeminist (@AyeshaConstable) April 30, 2021
Another Twitter user reminded his followers of past environmentally sensitive development issues:
Goat Island
Cockpit country
Green Island
I think Dry harbour was another
We have been having repeated issues where decisions are being made that could threaten the environment. Why?
The government doesn't care ??♂
— Ʌ ℜ ᘳ Ʌ Ŋ ㆔ (@Arcanamus) May 2, 2021
Youth discussions were also being hosted on the Twitter Spaces platform to explain “the facts behind the feelings” when it comes to the importance of mangroves:
Hey all! ?
Tonight at 6 PM, we’re talking about Mangroves in Jamaica!
We’re testing out Twitter’s ? new feature: Spaces to give everyone a platform to speak on issues like these and more ?
Tune in to our Twitter! @OurFootprintJA_ pic.twitter.com/PBSgQi8MfV
— OurFootPrintJa (@OurFootprintJA_) May 1, 2021
Several social media users felt that the environment should not be sacrificed for economic growth and tourism:
I am all for development and growth but destroying mangroves to build a hotel is not the way. Sad
— Mark (@Munro90J) April 30, 2021
Considering that we literally live in paradise, we must have individuals with a sustainable plan for the future with tourism.
The last 30 years of traditional development needs to end, we cannot keep making the same mistakes over and over again, we will lose the paradise.
— Stuart Smellie (@stuartsmellie) April 30, 2021
The hotel development appears to be a precursor to a much more ambitious plan, called the “New Negril Master Plan,” named for a popular tourist resort about 20 km down the coast from the hotel site, announced in parliament in early May as:
a model 21st century community…creating a smart, sustainable and resilient technology-driven inclusive community where opportunities are created for every member of the community to improve their quality of life in a meaningful and sustainable manner […] through the diversification of tourism products, stimulating economic growth and job creation, improving the social amenities and physical infrastructure while preserving the natural and fragile ecology of the area without compromising the opportunities for future generations…Not only are we building towards sustainability, we are also creating investment opportunities!
Ironically, in other parts of the island, efforts are being made—at great expense—to strengthen Jamaica’s coastal defenses through engineering.
With the real impact of climate change becoming more evident, and the government's avowed commitment to fighting climate change, is it heading in the right direction by pursuing such destructive activities along the island's fragile coastline? One member of the Youth Council felt that his country was betraying its natural heritage:
The Tainos never called the land Xaymaca for us to be acting a fool with our natural resources. Y’all stay embarrassing our ancestors at every turn.
— =EmmeC^2 (@TeraLepido) May 7, 2021
“Xaymaca” is the original, indigenous name for Jamaica, meaning “land of wood and water.” With the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season predicted to be a very active one and several major tourism developments in the pipeline, it remains to be seen whether Jamaica is on the right track to preserve its natural heritage.

author: Emma Lewis


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Global Voices is seeking an Asia-Pacific-based English-language subeditor · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Screengrab from a video taken on January 25, 2015, at the Global Voices 2015 Summit in Cebu, Philippines. Video by Global Voices and PR Works.
Global Voices (GV) is seeking to hire an Asia-Pacific based subeditor who will be responsible for editing stories written in or translated into English by our contributors.
GV stories focus on topics such as internet culture, freedom of speech online, technology and digital rights, human rights, civics and political movements, diversity and representation, and language diversity.
Most of Global Voices’ contributors are volunteers and English may not be their first language. Contributors include journalists, advocates, students, teachers, researchers, doctors, scientists, translators and many other professions, as well as GV’s media partners.
Global Voices is a global, virtual organization. The engine of the Global Voices newsroom is a team of part-time editors who work with volunteer contributors and translators around the world to highlight stories and perspectives that are underrepresented in international mainstream media.
Candidates must be comfortable setting their own schedules and working in a wholly virtual environment and be prepared to do some international travel.
We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to the Global Voices project to apply.
A subeditor would be expected to work half-time with some flexibility, and will be treated as a freelance contractors.
Email a résumé and a cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a great fit for Global Voices to jobs@globalvoices.org, with the subject line: .

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Filip Noubel


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The legacy of militarism in Latin America’s police: Shoot to kill · Global Voices
Connectas

Image by Connectas
Written by Suhelis Tejero for Connectas, edited and updated by Global Voices.
In broad daylight and in full view of everyone, a woman lay down on the ground with a police officer's knee on the back of her neck on a street in the tourist resort of Tulum, Mexico. Victoria Salazar Arriaza, a Salvadoran migrant, cried out in distress and her body went limp. Her death, which sparked international outrage, was caught on video and showed once again that police brutality is rampant in Latin America.
Just a few days later, in Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic, a couple who are evangelical pastors were returning from preaching with some followers when the police “mistook” the vehicle they were traveling in for that of alleged criminals. The survivors do not remember hearing an order from the police patrol to stop. Only the twelve gunshots that killed the newlywed couple.
Since late April, videos showing protesters in Colombia killed by police bullets have been shared thousands of times on social media. As of early May, at least 19 people died and hundreds were injured in the 2021 Colombian protests that began against a tax reform and then turned into demonstrations against rising inequality and state repression. More videos revealing a large repressive security apparatus continue to flood social media.
These episodes are the latest results of more repressive approaches which have become more present in police forces around the world, as witnessed by the people of Minneapolis in the United States in April. The phenomenon in Latin America is compounded by its historical problems of violence, impunity, and weak institutions.
Los actos de abuso policial en México son cada vez más frecuentes, pero el de Victoria Esperanza Salazar fue uno de los que más conmocionó a México…#AbreLosOjos #ImagenNoticias con @franciscozea @ElOpinadorTV @ImagenZea pic.twitter.com/hD5r5DS3yb
— Imagen Televisión (@ImagenTVMex) April 2, 2021
Acts of police violence in Mexico are becoming more and more common, but the case of Victoria Esperanza Salazar was among those that most shocked Mexico…
“Police violence in Latin America is often the result of widespread impunity, a lack of oversight, and an institutional culture of opacity that tolerates and sometimes encourages abuse,” said César Muñoz, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch, in an article published by The New York Times last November.
In general, people across the region do not have much confidence in the police. At least, that is what is shown in the surveys conducted by Barómetro de las Américas in recent years. The 2019 regional report showed that, at best, 53 percent of the population trusted the police, as was the case in Brazil that year. However, in other countries such as Mexico, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Peru, barely a third, or even less, of the population said they had faith in the police forces.
An important factor behind this mistrust has persisted through the years: military-style training which prevails over the idea of the civilian service that police officers are supposed to provide. In some countries, this has clearly identifiable origins: some security forces were created during the years of the region's many dictatorships, such as in Chile, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. In others, such as Colombia, the police were involved in the fighting during the worst moments of the war against armed groups.
In fact, in Colombia's case, Barómetro surveys show that the public to some extent regained confidence in the police after 2016 when the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement. From 34.9 percent confidence in 2016, it rose to 42.4 percent two years later, although recent events suggest that this percentage may have dropped substantially.
The militaristic influence is still there. In Colombia, Brazil, and Peru, for example, the legal system does not treat police officers as civilians, at least not judicially. When a police officer commits an abuse or uses excessive force in the exercise of their duties, they are tried by military courts, even though in a strict sense they are not part of the armed forces.
The World Organisation Against Torture, an umbrella organisation of more than 200 non-governmental institutions around the world, recently expressed its alarm at the “disturbing trend towards militarisation” of civilian police forces internationally.
The Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), a U.S. think tank, wrote in their report that uniformed police forces have been transformed into “hyper-hierarchical structures with high levels of concentration of power and decision-making,” with divisions similar to those of the military.
The organization also stressed an issue that characterizes the functioning of the region’s police forces: the control of protests. IAD highlighted the case of Nicaragua, whose police force for years focused on preventing crime and had a close relationship with the public, but since 2018 has taken part in the repression of protesters and critics of Daniel Ortega's government. A similar picture of police brutality against protests has been seen in Venezuela in 2014, and in Chile since the end of 2019.
It was in Chile that Gustavo Gatica suffered his worst moment. “I saw little stars everywhere, like in cartoons, and then everything went black,” he told the BBC. Gatica was blinded after Chilean police known as carabineros fired small bullets at his face in 2019, and became the symbol of the victims of police repression there. Using non-lethal weapons against demonstrators, police officers severely injured hundreds of participants during the first months of the nation's social unrest in 2019.
Acts of police violence, such as the repression of demonstrators in Chile or the death of the evangelical couple in Dominican Republic, have caused enough outrage for these governments to hasten to announce police reforms, something that for years had been absent from the political debate, despite calls from human rights organisations.
The task is more difficult than it seems. One of the police officers arrested for the death of the evangelical couple admitted under questioning that he and his colleagues fired “on instinct,” almost mechanically, at the couple's vehicle. In Mexico, Victoria Salazar’s death was not an isolated incident, as the police force in Quintana Roo has a long history of abuses against the public.
It remains to be seen then, as the months pass and the furor fades, if governments’ promises will become reality and begin to leave behind a militaristic culture that has been ingrained for many years.

author: Connectas


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Using Clubhouse to counter Beijing-imposed amnesia: An interview with Ai Weiwei · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Thirteen years after China was hit by a major earthquake in Sichuan, China, exiled Chinese artist of international acclaim Ai Weiwei is using his creativity and influence to keep the memory of the disaster alive through his most recent project on the social media platform Clubhouse. By reciting the names of the victims of the earthquake, most notably young school children, in the virtual discussion rooms, he hopes to push back against the Chinese government's censorship of the events.
Screenshot from  Ai Weiwei's YouTube video channel from his documentary “深表遗憾” [So sorry] about the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to censor the role of corrupt local authorities who skirted laws on school construction safety, leading to the deaths of 5,000 school children.
Sichuan is one of the most populated provinces of China, prone to earthquakes because of its location on the Longmenshan Fault line. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake that caused the death of between 250 to 700,000 victims, depending on estimates, lives in the collective memory of locals. When a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit the Chinese southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008, the whole country froze. The initial sense of alarm was rapidly confirmed: an estimated 70,000 people died, mostly in Wenchuan, the epicenter of the earthquake in the center of Sichuan.
For the Chinese government, the disaster hit at a particularly sensitive time: three months before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The international event was cause for unprecedented national pride, as it was the first time China had ever been awarded the games. The country was in a festive mood, and under increased international media coverage.
So the government wanted to act swiftly to show nothing could deter it from hosting the games, and that it could cope with the security of large crowds. The authorities concentrated their efforts in providing rescue and humanitarian aid.
One fact emerged rapidly: an unusually high number of victims were students, in a country that still applied at the time a strict one-child policy. Given the local time of the earthquake around 2:30 p.m., many children were in school and died crushed under collapsing roofs. The phenomenon even got its own name,  豆腐渣校舍, or tofu schools, in reference to their rapid collapse in comparison to other nearby buildings. Chinese officials admitted “substandard building materials” played a role in the devastation.
The authorities, hoping to avoid a scandal just before the Olympics, were quick to cover up that particular aspect of the disaster, despite efforts by investigative journalists and family members of the victims to demand explanations. The government only started to admit possible failures in safety standards after the 2008 Olympics were over. Yet, the families demanding a full investigation on the case were still harassed by the police five years after the fact and the government refuses to this day to admit full responsibility.
Back in May 2008, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei immediately joined the group of daring voices requesting full transparency, as he recalls in this interview with Global Voices:
地震刚发生不久我就去了汶川，去了那里的目的是为了感受一下，这么大的一个地震是什么样子，因为我当时已经失语了，我找不到词汇去谈论我内心的感受，所以我觉得我还是需要去一下。我当然去了很多的学校，校址，看到了那些废墟。
这个5.12对我来说是一个很重大的问题，是我在人生当中第一次碰到一个这么大的一个事件，我卷入到这个事件当中，因为当时确实有点失望。我必须去四川做死亡学生的调查，因为我们都知道政府一直是含含糊糊的，说是要调查，温家宝多次说我们要调查学校的腐败工程，但是从来没有做过。
I went to Wenchuan shortly after the earthquake. My goal was to experience an earthquake of such proportions, because I was left speechless, and couldn’t find the words to describe my inner emotions, thus I needed to go. Of course I went to many school sites and saw the ruins.
The Wenchuan earthquake is very important for me: it was the first time in my life that I encountered such a big disaster. I became involved because I felt somehow desperate at that time. I had to go to Sichuan to investigate the number of dead school students, because we all know that the government has always been vague, when it said it wanted to investigate the situation. Wen Jiabao [China’s head of government from 2003 to 2013] has repeatedly said that we want to investigate corruption projects in schools, but it was never done.
In the face of the government's censorship, Ai launched a project called Citizen Survey that sent over 40 groups of people to Wenchuan. Despite being arrested by the police dozens of times, and being forcefully sent back to Beijing, the groups compiled a list of 5,197 names. All of this research, as well as three documentary movies, and interviews with family of victims, are available on a website 5122018.com that is blocked inside China.
The list of all the children who died while inside schools, which was compiled by this team, was completed thanks to painstaking interviews with families and under a ban from the government to establish any independent investigation. A full list of names was printed and glued to the walls of Ai's Beijing studio in 2013, with a recording of the names read, as can be seen and heard in this video:
In 2013, Ai Weiwei also created an audio art project, called 喊 [To shout or to cry] in which he shouts more than 2,000 names of that list until he became hoarse and had to stop, as can be heard in this recording:
Due to permanent attacks and harassment by the Chinese authorities, and a 81-day long detention in a secret prison in 2011, Ai Weiwei left China in 2015, but continues to rise as a global artist and activist highlighting sensitive issues around China's human rights record, the failure of the West in the face of migrants, the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of his new platforms is the audio-only social media platform Clubhouse that gained huge popularity in February 2021 after Elon Musk used it for a press conference. The platform allows users to host discussions on any topic for up to 5,000 people, so the Chinese authorities censored it in February after it was used to discuss issues around Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. Yet technology-savvy residents of mainland China still manage to access it via VPN (Virtual Private Networks).
As Ai Weiwei explains, this means Chinese-speaking rooms on Clubhouse are a unique and uncensored space where Chinese people from Taiwan, China, Singapore, the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong can meet and talk. This gave him the idea to give a new life to his project 念 [to read aloud, or to miss someone] of reading the names of the child victims, but in a new format. As he told Global Voices:
我在想怎么能够利用这个平台做一个艺术项目，因为我个人是做艺术的。我们就和几个朋友说我们做一个项目, 做这个项目实际上说起来简单，就是“念”吗。他利用了这些在海外的华人，在三个地区，欧洲地区，北京和澳洲是一个地区，美国东部地区。这三个地区呢刚好我们能在24个小时之内覆盖这个8个小时。但实际上呢，是很难，因为你做为CH的管理人，一个人在上面呢是有危险的，如果你掉了线这个房间就关掉了，所以呢，需要保持两个人在上面。
实际上这个项目的性质呢，是：大型的，公共参与的行为艺术，那么他的主题呢，是纪念5，12地震遇难的学生。这个概念很简单，但是，把他付出与实践，就是让他真正能够act, 这个并不是很简单，实际上从哲学意义上来说，说和行是两件不同的事，中国人说：听其言，观其行。那么我觉得中国人也把言行放在一起。就是英文的说：talk the talk, walk the walk, 所以我们说我们来试一下。
I was thinking on how to use this platform for an artistic project, since I am an artist. So with a few friends, we decided to do one, and simply to call it “read aloud”. The project overseas Chinese from three regions: Europe, Beijing and Australia, and the East coast of the US. With those three regions, we can have a 24h coverage. But this is quite difficult in fact, because as a room moderator, if you lose contact [in case of an external phone call, for example], there is a risk and the room shuts down, so you need two people as moderators.
In fact, the nature of this project is to be large-scale, participatory form of behavioral art. Its mission is to commemorate the students who died in the May 12 earthquake. The idea of commemoration looks simple, but the only way to put that into practice is to act it out. And that is not so simple. In fact, speaking and acting are two different things, from a philosophical perspective. The Chinese have a proverb: 听其言，观其行, which means “Do listen to words, but watch the deeds.” Well, I think Chinese people do align their words with their deeds, similar to the English expression: “Talk the talk. Walk the walk.” So we decided to give it a try.
As Ai remarks, in the beginning of this room, which started soon after Sweeping-Tomb day, a traditional Chinese festival held on the 15th day of the spring equinox when Chinese people pay visits to cemeteries, the virtual Clubhouse room had about 500 people. Yet recently, the number of participants has dwindled to as little as 12 people. Yet according to Ai, the numbers do not matter, what really counts is this:
我觉得对我们来说花这个时间非常重要。一个是，我们通过自己的行为来做自己心中觉得应该做的一件事。另外一个是：我们通过这样大型的社会活动，长时间的，39天的，可以看到今天世界对这样事情的一个态度和是否会参与。
I believe that the time we spend in the room is very important, because through this act, we are acting out of the belief present in our hearts and minds about what should be done. Besides, thanks to this large social movement that spreads over time, 39 days all in all, we can witness the world's attitude towards this issue and whether it is ready to take part in the commemoration or not.
Beyond the May 12 commemoration, Ai Weiwei is determined to challenge the political culture of secrecy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by continuing his fight against the erasure and twisting of historical memory, whether it is about the June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the initial cover-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, the situation of Uyghurs and Tibetans in China. As he concludes:
在建国以前，中共是一个地下党，他一直做的所有的工作是秘密的工作。那么这个党已经执政100年了，旦他的很多做法是地下党的做法，包括中国共产党的入党宣誓，他有9000万党员，他的宣誓的誓词，里面有一句叫做：保守党的秘密。我在想你都已经建国都快80年了，建党100年了，你还在保守党的什么秘密？为什么你要为党保密和为党牺牲一切？这个秘密党的方法是很有用的，很有效的，因为他要保证他的统治。
在中国， 你总是知道上面的人比你知道的多，更容易控制你，这是他和西方的最大的不同。那么西方呢，一直在说什么呢，标榜自己有言论自由，新闻自由，司法独立，实际上这个也不是真正的完全是这样。但是中国是要控制言论自由，新闻自由和司法独立，这些西方的价值观，我们绝对不会让这个事发生在中国，这是中共的优势。
Before the PRC [People's Republic of China] was established [in 1949], the CCP was an underground party. All the work it conducted was secretive. This party has been in power for 100 years, but its practices remain those of an underground party. This extends to the oath to become a party member, valid for its current 90 million members, which includes this sentence: ‘protect the party's secrets’. I mean, you have been in charge of this country for almost 80 years, your party is 100 years old, what kind of party secrets can there be left to protect? Why do you have to keep the party's secrets? This secrecy is very useful and effective because it is there to guarantee its rule.
In China, you are always aware that the people above you know more than you do. So it is very easy to control you. That's the main difference with the West. In the West, people boost about their freedom of expression, media freedom, the independence of the judiciary, yet in fact things are not entirely at they claim, yet China's goal is to control freedom of expression, media freedom, the independence of the judiciary. These are Western values that will not be allowed to develop, and that is the advantage the CCP has.


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Several NGOs denounce censorship of Palestinian voices by tech companies · Global Voices
Dahlia Kholaif

Several NGOs have launched a petition demanding that big tech companies stop silencing Palestinian voices, as violence boils over in Palestine. Graphic from SMEX. Used with permission.
Several non-government organisations launched a petition on May 11 calling on tech companies to stop silencing Palestinian content, in light of recent provocations by Israeli authorities against Palestinians in the occupied city of Jerusalem which have led to some of the worst violence in years.
At least 49 Palestinians and 6 Israelis were killed in an exchange of missiles between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs the enclave of Gaza, while hundreds of Palestinian protesters were wounded in Jerusalem as Israeli forces violently confronted demonstrations triggered by restrictions on movements of Palestinians in the Old City and appropriation of their homes by Israeli Jewish settlers.
According to the statement by the signatory organisations, which include SMEX, 7amleh, INSM, Samir Kassir Foundation, Masaar, Team Community, JOSA and the Lebanese Center for Human Rights:
This past week we have witnessed escalations in Israeli police brutality against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Families in the neighborhood now face the imminent threat of being expelled from their homes, while being violently attacked by the Israeli police and Israeli Jewish settlers. Violence spread across the Old City as Israeli forces besieged and raided Al-Aqsa mosque with sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring over 300 worshippers and protestors.
Tensions have been brewing since the beginning of Ramadan, Islam's holy month of fasting, which began April 13. Israel's occupation forces blocked Palestinians from accessing and gathering on the steps near Damascus Gate in the Old City, preventing them from keeping a tradition they have long observed after they break their fast. This action coincided with the conclusion of decades-long legal procedures that sanctioned the appropriation by Israeli settlers of the houses of several families in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in the city.
In solidarity with Palestinians, people have taken to social media using several hashtags, including #SaveSheikhJarrah, as the petition noted:
People inside and outside Palestine circulated information documenting and denouncing Israel’s war crimes and human rights violations on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. #SaveSheikhJarrah is getting international attention. Soon enough, we started receiving countless reports of censorship against Palestinian content on these platforms.
The NGOs’ statement labelled as “improbable mistakes” the fact that Facebook reported two “technical issues” within 48 hours which they said targeted Palestinian users and “compromised Jerusalemites’ right to freedom of expression as they tried to make their voices heard globally and sabotaged worldwide coverage of Israeli violence in Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah.” The statement did not specify the dates of the technical issues.
“It is difficult not to see how these series of technical errors, with their incredibly critical timing and already silenced targets, were actually based on attempts to hide and silence Palestinian voices on social media platforms. We refuse to accept these false excuses as valid explanations for limiting and removing Palestinian content,” the statement said.
Both Facebook and Twitter have been repeatedly been the target of allegations of collaboration with authoritarian regimes in the Middle East to stifle voices of dissent, in a region where social media has played a key role in organising protests and empowering youth and opposition, notably during the Arab Spring.
The statement demanded that Facebook and Twitter immediately stop censoring Palestinian content, reinstate affected posts and accounts, and outlined several steps that both platforms should follow. The statement called the taking down of these accounts and content a “breach of international standards on freedom of expression,” and demanded transparency on the decision-making processes involving Palestinian-related content takedowns.
It also demanded that an investigation into these two incidents be opened immediately.  “Companies must indicate exactly which term in the Community Standards/Policy was violated in each case of censored content,” the petition said.
The petition also demanded the publication of all requests submitted by the Israeli Cyber Unit, including numbers of complaints received, content removal, account suspensions and other content restrictions, along with details on the category of content that was removed as a result of such requests. A further demand by the NGOs is for Facebook and Twitter to cease automatic and AI-based moderation targeting Palestinian content, adding that both platforms should:
Publicly commit to resist government and court orders in breach of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, particularly Article 43 of the Hague Regulations which imposes obligations on Israel, as the occupying power, to be “respecting unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country”.
The statement also urged both platforms to commit to the baseline principles outlined by the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation, and, for Facebook to abide by its own Corporate Human Rights Policy, which was launched in March 2021 and in which the company announced its commitment to the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights.

author: Dahlia Kholaif


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Why the proposed European Super League collapsed before kick-off · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

“File:002 men at work UEFA 2009, Rome.jpg” by funnydae is licensed under CC BY 2.0
On April 18, football fans across Europe and the world woke up to the announcement of the formation of the European Super League, a breakaway tournament from the region's main football competition, the UEFA Champion's League.
The Super League would consist of an annual tournament to be contested by Europe's top clubs, with 15 “founding clubs” as permanent participants, and five who would have to qualify. English clubs dominated the list of the founding clubs, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool. From Spain, there was Atletico de Madrid, Real Madrid, and Barcelona. Finally, the Italian clubs were AC, Internazionale, and Juventus.
The intended kick-off was August 2021, but the proposed League collapsed long before then as it received widespread condemnation from disgruntled fans and football authorities, including FIFA. Major sponsors also expressed exasperation with the plans, as they claim to have been kept in the dark about the Super League plans. As one Chief Marketing Officer who sought anonymity said to Tim Crow of isportconnect.com on the iSportLearn platform, “We’ve only just re-negotiated the contract because of COVID-19, we were more than fair, and this is how they repay us.”
SkySport's Gary Neville labelled the involvement of English clubs as a “disgrace” and called for them to be sanctioned by the English Premier League. “I'm not against the modernisation of football competition,” he said, “but to bring forward proposals in the wake of COVID is an absolute scandal. United and the rest of the big six clubs that have signed up to it should be ashamed of themselves.”
The backlash from the respective club fans was also intense, with Chelsea fans staging a protest at the Stamford Bridge stadium on April 20, before their Premier League game with Brighton. This led to the withdrawal of the English clubs from the Super League, with Manchester City and Chelsea taking lead and the four others following suit. In Italy, Inter Milan also withdrew from the proposed league following the criticism.
Politicians too were forced to wade in, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeting:
Plans for a European Super League would be very damaging for football and we support football authorities in taking action.
They would strike at the heart of the domestic game, and will concern fans across the country. (1/2)
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 18, 2021
On participation from other European clubs, according to media reports, German clubs Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund had been approached but rejected the offer. France's Paris Saint Germain (PSG) had also been among the proposed sides to round off what was originally envisioned as a 15-team group of founding clubs, but rejected this too, earning plaudits from the French President Emmanuel Macron.
Both FIFA and UEFA indicated they would suspend individual players from the World Cup or Euro championships in case they participated in the proposed League. It gets complicated too for the participating clubs as they would need approval from their respective associations who govern domestic competitions.
The development of a European Super League has been in the pipeline as early as the 1980s. In 2018, German publication Der Spiegel reported on the proposal of a European Super League consisting of 16 teams, like the Champions. It also indicated that there would be 11 “core founding teams” who would have their places guaranteed for the next 20 years. An additional five would be made up of teams that qualify.
The driving force behind these plans is the potential revenue that could be made from media and TV earnings, major sponsorships, and match-day earnings. The prestige of being among the top performers in both domestic and continental leagues adds to the allure.
From reports shared, there was 5 billion USD committed by American investment bank JP Morgan to finance the formation of the league. The funds would be used to support their infrastructure and offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plans projected to share 32.5 percent of commercial revenues with the founding clubs, a further 32.5 percent distributed between the 20 participating clubs, and 20 percent of the revenues allocated depending on the “merit-based” performance of the clubs. Fifteen percent of the revenues would be based on the broadcast audience size.
A major point of discontent is that only five of the clubs in the 20-strong competition would enter based on “sporting achievement.” Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli was quipped saying, “our 12 clubs founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies.” What he may have missed is that the dozen are currently not the most historically successful, biggest earners, or current top-performing clubs. These founder clubs would be less motivated to do well in their domestic leagues due to the permanency guaranteed in the Super League.
This attempt at creating a parallel league to the Champion's has caused a storm in the world of football. The winners, for now, may be the fans and football associations. However, the owners and chairman who have had to publicly apologize will still look to consolidate more power and influence in the revenues. One battle down, but an interesting future lies ahead for the biggest global sport.

author: Richard Wanjohi


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Amid Eid ul-Fitr celebrations, a look at the Muslim presence in the Caribbean · Global Voices
Fausia S. Abdul

A stamp showing a Muslim mosque in Trinidad and Tobago, with the image of Queen Elizabeth II. Photo by Mark Morgan on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
From Barbados’ Quran memorisers (hafiz) and Guyana's religious radio programmes to open-air, socially distanced Arabic classes in Trinidad and Tobago, Muslims and their religious practices have been a part of the regional landscape since the first indentured labourers were brought from India nearly 200 years ago—and even before.
One of the most prominent Islamic observances is the holy month of Ramadan. For the close to half a million Muslims scattered across the Caribbean archipelago, who worship at more than 400 masjids (mosques), Ramadan is marked by sunrise to sunset fasting, prayer, engaging with other communities, and remembering their connection to Muslims worldwide.
The celebration of Eid ul-Fitr 2021 takes place on May 13, bringing to a close the traditional month of reflection for observant Muslims. While some modern-day Muslims use technology to predict the ascending of the new, crescent moon which marks the start of Ramadan, many in the Caribbean still follow the tradition of peering up at the sky in search of the crescent moon, often standing on beaches waiting for the glowing sun to sink into the sea.
This is the second year that Ramadan is being relegated to the home because of the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, but Muslims have got creative, doing Zoom-iftars (a meal to break the fast), online prayers, and azan-apps (the call to prayer). As for the search for the new moon, which signals the time for Eid, it once again happened from balconies or gardens instead of in public places.
Though predominantly Christian, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname are, nevertheless, the only nations in the western hemisphere to have a national public holiday in observance of Eid ul-Fitr. Because of the region's multicultural make-up—and Islamic traditions of community—people of other faiths join in the Eid celebrations, visiting Muslim friends’ and neighbours’ homes to bring greetings and gifts, and share in meals prepared for this special day.
Islam in the Caribbean began in earnest with the arrival of different waves of indentured labourers from South Asia, starting in 1838 after the end of African slavery in the British West Indies. Many Muslims were counted among the mainly Hindu workers.
The indentured workers came from the northern Indian provinces of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Significantly smaller groups came from the Sindh region of Pakistan, the Punjab, Kashmir, and what was referred to as the Northwest Frontier, with the latter mostly comprising political activists, academics, and freedom fighters who were deemed a threat to the British empire. They maintained links with their home country, which resulted in many religious leaders coming from Pakistan and preserving Urdu as the preferred religious language. Trinidad's most popular mosque, the Jinnah Memorial, exemplifies this strong connection.
However, there is a different side to the coin. In one research paper, Raymond Chickrie, quoting a Guyanese Islamic teacher based in New York, describes how many in Guyana and Suriname did not even realise that Urdu and Arabic were two different languages:
The Arabic here is different than that which I was teaching at the madrasa in Guyana. I remember the Arabic alphabet being alif, be, pe, se, jim che, he… zabar’, and `pesh.
In Arabic, there is no `pe’, `che’, `zabar’, and `pesh,’
Today, the largest concentration of Muslims in the region—an estimated 100-120,000—can be found in Suriname. With contemporary communities finding solace in shared practices and celebrations, different Muslim sects have formed strong bonds by looking past their cultural differences to embrace the commonalities of their religious practices.
However, the region’s first Muslims were not South Asians at all. Christopher Columbus, with his first lieutenants from Morocco and Spain, initially brought Muslims to the Americas—in chains.
Stripped of their identity and religious customs, enslaved people from West Africa—mainly Mandingo and Fulani, with a minority of Moriscos from Spain and North Africa—could not hold on to their Islamic roots. The modern generation, however, has increasingly become more aware of Islam, and they are among the largest number of converts.
Historians have even credited Muslim expertise—traders’ maps and nautical information—for Columbus’ success in reaching the “New World,” and there have been many controversial studies suggesting that the Muslim presence in the Americas predated Columbus by several centuries.
The region has had its share of controversy, as well. In the 1960s, ties with the Arab world were strengthened via educational opportunities offered by Libya and Egypt, which attracted a lot of young people wanting to pursue courses of study.
Those who returned home were strongly influenced by Wahhabism rather than the Indo-Iranian influences initially practiced in the region. As a result, Shi’a minority practices slowly disappeared, as well as particular Sunni practices associated with Shi’ism.
Since then, as the producer of the highest number of Islamic State (ISIS) foreign fighters per capita in the West, Trinidad and Tobago was dubbed a “terrorism hotspot”, playing a significant role in the caliphate’s development, but the island had felt its tremors about a decade before ISIS was founded, during a 1990 coup attempt led by the Jamaat al Muslimeen, a local Islamic group.
Over the years, with many from the region migrating, mainly to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, new generations of Caribbean Muslims are being born and raised in the diaspora. This has created a type of religious hybrid; the Islam they practice is of a different calibre, with its mixture of different ethnicities and religious associations sometimes putting traditional methods under strain.
Twenty-one-year-old Afifa Khatoun, who is originally from Suriname but now lives in The Netherlands, told Global Voices:
I have no connection with Suriname at all. If I want to do something religious, it will be with my Moroccan and Afghan friends. I am sometimes even ashamed if they ask me about the Caribbean and how we can be Muslims there with all the partying going on.
Sarah Imani, 19, whose family has Trinidadian roots, but was born and raised in the United Kingdom, added:
My grandmother tells me sometimes how she celebrated Eid back home with her Christian girlfriends. My friends here think I am crazy if I tell them to bring some food to the church or invite people from other religions.
Despite some challenges, the Caribbean is definitely a region of religious tolerance. The practice of Islam, having been well accepted by the wider society, has flourished. Suriname, for instance, has a synagogue, a church, and a mosque on the same street and the practitioners of all three faiths are known for celebrating religious feasts with one another. Even in a pandemic, Eid's spirit of peace and togetherness is one not to be forgotten.

author: Fausia S. Abdul


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Global Voices is seeking an Associate Editor · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Screengrab from a video taken on January 25, 2015, at the Global Voices 2015 Summit in Cebu, Philippines. Video by Global Voices and PR Works.
Global Voices (GV) is seeking to hire an Associate Editor, who will support the Global Voices editorial team and volunteer community of contributors, working closely with the Managing Editor to produce stories and provide editorial support on special projects in line with our goals and mission.
GV stories focus on topics such as internet culture, freedom of speech online, technology and digital rights, human rights, civics and political movements, diversity and representation, and language diversity.
Most of Global Voices’ contributors are volunteers and English may not be their first language. Contributors include journalists, advocates, students, teachers, researchers, doctors, scientists, translators and many other professions, as well as GV’s media partners.
Global Voices is a global, virtual organization. The engine of the Global Voices newsroom is a team of part-time editors who work with volunteer contributors and translators around the world to highlight stories and perspectives that are underrepresented in international mainstream media.
Candidates must be comfortable setting their own schedules and working in a wholly virtual environment and be prepared to do some international travel.
We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to the Global Voices project to apply.
An Associate Editor would be expected to work full time with some flexibility, and will be treated as a freelance contractor.
Email a résumé and a cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a great fit for Global Voices to jobs@globalvoices.org, with the subject line: .


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Villagers in Turkey’s İkizdere resist mine construction · Global Voices
Sevgi Yagmur Bulut

Screenshot from DW report on Ikizdere.
Known for its beautiful green valleys, tea cultivation, and beekeeping, Turkey's İşkencedere Valley, located in Rize province near the Black Sea, is facing its most serious environmental threat to date.
In March, a presidential decree stripped part of the valley of its protected area status, so that Cengiz Construction, a subsidiary of Cengiz Holding allegedly with close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party, could carry on with its plans to build a stone quarry in the area.
Around 16 million tons of stones will be dug out to be used in the construction of a new port that Cengiz Construction is building in nearby Rize city. The company was granted a concession to mine the area in İşkencedere Valley for the next 75 years.
On April 21, construction began; and so did the resistance by İşkencedere's residents.
In an interview with BBC Turkish, the Federation of İkizdere Association, speaking on behalf of the three nearby villages of Şimşirli, Cevizli, and Gürdere, said that the use of dynamite and chemicals in the mine will contaminate the area's water supply.
The Federation also claims at least 32,000 trees will be cut because of the project. These include 50-year-old chestnut trees, essential in the production of chestnut honey for which the local communities are known. Speaking to Turkish Evrensel Daily, villager Musa Yilmaz said residents watched the felling of the first trees in tears.
Removing trees, along with the scrapping of 20 cm of vegetal soil — a necessary process in basalt mining — will increase the risk of floods and landslides in the region, according to Ordur Environment Association. In a statement issued in support of the local communities, Ordur also said that the dynamite blasts could damage nearby houses.
Location of İkizdere Valley
Residents claim that construction has already contaminated the nearby stream. Pervin Baş, one of the villagers, told Turkish media: “I have to protest against [the construction] since I cannot cook anything for my children if [it] proceeds. We do not have access to fresh water since all our water supply has stopped since they started construction.”
Local news platform Solcu shared images of the area before and after the construction:
İkizdere;
Cengiz’den önce / Cengiz’den sonra#İkizdereTasOcağıOlmasın#İkizdereSahipsizDeğildir pic.twitter.com/GOqjDscQ19
— Solcu Gazete #0 (@solcugazete) May 2, 2021
İkizdere, before Cengiz and after Cengiz
The villagers are suing the Turkish state, in the hopes that a court could revert the presidential decision to strip the area of environmental protection, in a case pending at the Rize Administrative Court. In an interview with Sozcu newspaper, lawyer Yakup Okumuşoğlu, who is representing the villagers, said that they are expecting a ruling in favor of them.
This isn't the first time that İşkencedere's residents have organized in order to protect their environment from harmful infrastructure projects. In 2019, they sued contractor SR Tarım, which had been granted permission to start a similar mine in the valley. At the time, a judge ruled in favor of the community, and the mine was permanently canceled. The court stated at that time: “Construction and operation processes would inevitably and irreversibly damage the natural landscape.”
Cengiz construction has been involved in other controversial infrastructure projects, such as the new Istanbul Airport, the construction of which removed 13 million trees in the time span of seven years, according to Northern Forests Defense a local environmental advocacy movement. During the construction of the Ilisu dam in Mardin, in 2018, the 12,000-year-old town of Hasankeyf was submerged.
Since March, local residents have been protesting against the project with sit-ins and by rallying support on social media.
On April 24, the protests managed to force the company to halt the mine's construction. They celebrated their brief victory with a traditional folk dance called “horon”:
Günün sonunda Cengiz iş makinalarını çekmek zorunda kaldı. İkizdere halkı da horona durdu.✌?#İkizdereTasOcağıOlmasın#İkizdereVadisineDokunmapic.twitter.com/DXFr7fLsHz
— Kazdağları İstanbul Dayanışması (@kazdaglariist) April 23, 2021
At the end of the day, Cengiz was forced to remove its construction equipment. The people of Ikizdere danced to horon.
Evet evdeyiz. Pandemi yüzünden çıkamıyoruz ama onlar durmuyor. Cengiz Holding’in İkizdere’ye taş ocağı yapma isteğine karşı en azından bir şeyler söyleyebiliriz. Karadeniz’i HES’lerle tarumar ettiler. Suyu bitirdiler. Şimdi sıra taşa toprağa geldi!
#İkizdereTasOcağıOlmasın pic.twitter.com/GhUIez0fCn
— Koray Doğan Urbarlı (@Urbarli) April 24, 2021
Yes, we are at home. We can't go outside because of the pandemic, but they are not stopping. At least we can say something against Cengiz Holding's incentive to build a stone quarry in İkizdere. They destroyed the Black Sea with hydroelectric power plants. They ended the water supply there. Now they are after stone and soil!
In their attempt to stop the construction, community members even put their beehives in front of excavators.
Cevizlik Taş Ocağı! Arılar da yaşam alanlarını korumaya gelmiş! Orta dünyanın son mücadelesi! #İkizderedeTasOcağınaHayır pic.twitter.com/B9OYwzGque
— Yakup Ş.Okumuşoğlu (@Okumusoglu_Av) April 24, 2021
Cevizlik stone quarry! Bees have also come to protect their living spaces! The last fight of the middle earth!
On April 25, the police barricaded the construction site, but residents still managed to reach the area through forest paths. Tear gas was deployed against the protesters, and 15 were arrested (eight have been released since).
Akın akın ormandan gidiyorlar.. yolları kesmişler.. sokakta gördüklerine ceza kesiyorlar.. #İkizdereTasOcağıOlmasın pic.twitter.com/3JXs0Bt0sM
— Yakup Ş.Okumuşoğlu (@YakupOkumusoglu) April 25, 2021
They are walking through the forests. [The police] blocked the roads, handing out fines on anyone they see on the streets.
#İkizdere’de halka saldırı https://t.co/HNwGS08qwg
— Murat Çepni (@MuratCepniHDP) April 25, 2021
Attack on the people in İkizdere.
İkizdere’de müteahhitin makinası doğayı katledebilsin diye hemşerilerimize biber gazı sıkıldı. Firdevs teyzemize bunu reva görenlere yazıklar olsun!#ikizderetasocağıolmasın pic.twitter.com/0C4NRvRnah
— Sevgi Kılıç (@avsevgikilic) April 25, 2021
In İkizdere, our people are teargassed so that the contractor's machine can kill nature. Shame on those who make this to our aunty Firdevs.
On May 5, Cengiz Construction published a statement in response to the protests. “Taking into account the environmental impact, all alternative stone quarries have been investigated by the [Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure] since the start of the process,” it said.
Despite the protests, Cengiz Construction requested that the Ministry of Environment increase the mine's extraction limit. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure issued a permit for the company to open a second mine in Gürdere Village.
From the first day of the protests, women have been at the forefront of the struggle in İkizdere.
Kadınların Direnişi Her Yerde!
Cengiz Holding'in #ikizdere halkının direnişine rağmen İşkencedere vadisinde yapmaya çalıştığı taş ocağını, doğanın talanını kabul etmiyoruz.
Kadın iradesi her yerde!
Kadınlar barikatın en önünde!
(?görsel alıntıdır.) pic.twitter.com/CUves9l0E2
— Özgür Kadın Dayanışması (@OzgurKadinDay) April 27, 2021
Women's Resistance is Everywhere!
We do not accept the stone quarry that Cengiz Holding tried to build in the valley of İşkencedere despite the resistance of the people of İkizdere, and the plunder of nature.
Women's will is everywhere!
Women in front of the barricade!
#ikizdere ‘deki katliam devam ediyor. İçlerinde yaşlı kadınlarında bulunduğu grub itilerek uzaklaştırılıyor. Ağaç kesimi devam ediyor.#ikizderedireniyor #ikizderesahipsizdeğildir pic.twitter.com/boqIRYk5tC
— Kanatsız Doğa (@DogaKanats) April 28, 2021
The massacre in #ikizdere continues. The group including old women is pushed away. Tree cutting continues
Haklıyız kazanacağız! #İkizdereDireniyor pic.twitter.com/HBnl8E62F4
— Murat Çepni (@MuratCepniHDP) April 28, 2021
We are right, we will win. #İkizdereResisting
Local resident Emine Tuncer told DW: “We are beekeeping here, our pastures are here […] How can we make honey now?”
Women from neighboring regions also expressed their solidarity. The Fındıklı Municipality Women's Choir joined the protests with music:
“Satamayınca gölgelerini, sattılar ormanları.”
Fındıklı Belediyesi Kadın Korosu, İkizdere’de taş ocağı yapımına karşı direnen köylülerin yanında.#İkizdereDireniyor pic.twitter.com/lSEXM17bRo
— Fındıklı Belediyesi (@findiklibel) April 28, 2021
Fındıklı Municipality Women's Choir stands with the villagers who are resisting against stone quarry construction in İkizdere.
Some climbed the trees to prevent them from being cut:
Herkese bir ağaç.. #İkizdereDireniyor pic.twitter.com/nr1gEkPFjd
— Yakup Ş.Okumuşoğlu (@YakupOkumusoglu) April 28, 2021
A tree for everyone
The locals told Bianet, a local online media platform: “We won’t give our tea or our gardens to anyone. Our grandmothers, and grandfathers, built our village with their hands, we have no other place to go.”

author: Sevgi Yagmur Bulut


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Who is artist Luis Manuel Otero, symbol of the resistance and thorn in the side of the Cuban regime? · Global Voices
Luis Rodriguez

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara going to the hospital on May 2, 2021. Screenshot of a Canal Caribe news video on Youtube.
This article was written anonymously by an author in Cuba, using the fake name “Luis Rodriguez”
While the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba was held between April 16 and 18, where the continuation of Castroism was confirmed, social media rained down criticism against the besiegement of activists in their homes by the Cuban state. Among them was the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who is now forced to stay in a hospital in Havana after having started a hunger strike against the censorship of freedom of expression. Today, he is considered the face and leader of the opposition on the island.
The events surrounding the life of Luis Manuel Otero have unleashed an unprecedented international media campaign in his support that is even influencing the course of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The United States government expressed its concern about the young artist's health. Otero Alcátara has also received the support of institutions like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights.
During the Congress, Otero Alcántara, the primary leader of the group of dissident artists in Cuba called the San Isidro Movement (MSI), developed the performance “Garrote vil,” which refers to a weapon dating back to at least the 17th century used to strangle a person as a torture device. The performance was a metaphor about repression against freedom of expression. He remained seated for hours with his hands tied by a garrote while sitting in his house.
The performances carried out by Otero Alcántara have always provoked hostile reactions from the Cuban regime, for the symbolic charge that underlies his work and transmits a message to thousands of Cubans on the island thanks to the liberating power of social media. Since he emerged in the public eye as a leader of MSI, Otero Alcántara has been arrested at least 21 times by Cuban police officers.
Since November 2020, groups of artists, intellectuals, and activists have raised their voices in favor of a more democratic Cuba only to be met with government repression. The extent of social repression increased following the tense events in the San Isidro neighborhood on April 4, when officials tried and failed to arrest another member of MSI, Maikel Osorbo.
Just as the Congress of the Communist Party concluded on April 18, the State Security stormed the headquarters of MSI to confiscate the artwork of Otero Alcántara, including the garrote used for his last performance. In response to the confiscation of his work, Otera Alcántara started a hunger strike on April 25 demanding an end to repression and the political siege of his house. He also called for the return of his work or a sum of $500,000 to restore the houses in a deplorable condition in his neighborhood. The hunger strike unleashed huge media attention both within and outside of Cuba. It is his second hunger strike in five months.
The volume of information on the internet around the controversial life of the young artist stigmatized by official media is overwhelming. However, details of his origins as an artist, his childhood, and his life before emerging in the public sphere are scarce.
Otero Alcántara was born in the neighborhood of San Isidro, where he discovered his passion and sensibility for art. Otero Alcántara's physical appearance represents the most genuine expression of Cubans’ combination of African, European, and Indigenous roots and of those most marginalized in Cuban society, in contrast to the rhetoric of the official Cuban discourse that has always proclaimed racial and economic equality. His goal is to liberate Cuba and his marginalized and predominantly Black neighborhood.
In an interview in January with the Cuban comedian exiled in Miami, Alexis Valdés, Otero Alcántara explained that his family did not have access to the arts, although since he was a boy he made sculptures. He lived with more than a dozen people growing up and inherited his spirit of rebellion and fight against injustice from his mother, who recently passed away. Before venturing into art, he had been an athlete.
He learned resilience when he ran marathons. “When you have a kilometer more to run, the only thing that makes you run to the end is yourself. It's not your Mom and your Dad, the only one there is you,” he said to Valdés.
He explained that “art is an exercise in courage,” which comes from his love of art, the love of freedom, and the love of one another. “What my art does it reflect the misery of the Cuban reality, but unlike in other societies where you can create an NGO and express doubts in the president, in Cuba you don't have this option.” He wants “the people to experience this type of freedom that only art can offer. I really believe in freedom and politics is an exercise in non-freedom.”
In the interview, he also discusses his spirituality, his idea of sexuality, how to construct democracy, anti-Black racism in all parts of the world, and his sense of humor.
Some activists and the Catholic Church advised him to abandon the strike out of concern for his health. The hunger strike has unleashed a ferocious media campaign from the official state media to discredit him, especially through the division run by the Cuban state television journalist Humberto López, who depicts the strike as”destabilization” promoted by the United States.
The events led up to April 30 when a peaceful protest was held in support of Otero Alcántara in the street where he lives in Havana, where dozens of activists were arrested. Members of the Catholic Church in Cuba were also present at the demonstration and demanded the freedom of those detained. A week after the strike, on May 2, Otero Alcántara declared: “If my body dies, I hope it may continue to be the spark for the liberation of Cuba.” In years past, Cuban political prisoners have died from hunger strikes.
Otero Alcántara's house, which is also the headquarters for MSI, remained under siege and the internet blocked until the Cuban government forcibly took Otero Alcántara to the Calixto García hospital to prevent him from continuing the strike and to provide medical attention, under international pressure. This act was criticized as a kidnapping since Otero Alcántara is being kept involuntarily at the hospital under high surveillance. “The Cuban regime has kidnapped him to such a point as to not only prevent his artistic creation, but also the right to make decisions about his life,” wrote the columnist Abraham Jiménez Enoa in The Washington Post.
After days of uncertainty about his state of health, a video was released showing the artist in the hospital, where he thanks medical personnel. Yet, many doubts remain about his physical and mental state, and MSI condemns that the hospital remains militarized and they have not been able to see him. On May 4, Cubans exiles in Miami begged for his life and an end to repression in Cuba. For the moment, the Cuban government has not given any sign of responding to the demands of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

author: Luis Rodriguez


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A battle for information is sweeping Colombia amid nationwide protests · Global Voices
Estella Porras

Photo of a vigil during the protests in Colombia in May 2021, by Roger Vallejo, Director of the Sindamanoy de Nariño radio network, used with permission.
As the protests continue in Colombia against the government of President Iván Duque, the battle for information intensifies. The number of victims is increasing but data is scarce and difficult to access.
Most data on the protests is coming from NGOs such as the Indepaz agency and the Temblores organization, as opposed to the Colombian state. For example, despite the fact that thousands of people have been marching peacefully, confrontations and excessive use of force by the security forces have so far left 47 dead, 963 arrested and 548 missing, according to the Indepaz report.
Government offices say that they are monitoring the protests and investigating crimes related to the marches, including homicides and disappearances. But the records of government agencies such as the Office of the Ombudsman, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Attorney General's Office, who are responsible for keeping an official record of deaths, arrests and disappearances, have been inconsistent, according to Diana Salas, a journalist from Colombian news outlet Cuestión Pública. In an episode of En Vivo, Salas explains, “There is no data! And instead of an open data policy, all we have is one of secrecy and suppression.”
The journalist talks about the difficulties she encounters in trying to inform the public about the detained protesters. “Cuestión Pública had to resort to legal action to obtain access to police information, then check these lists against databases of missing persons kept by independent human rights organizations.”
“If we do not know the scale of what is happening, if we do not have information on the arbitrary arrests, on the extrajudicial executions, then people cannot be protected,” says political scientist Sandra Borda, a professor at the University of The Andes.
The general strike that began at the end of April in opposition to a proposed tax reform has turned into nationwide social unrest. In addition to the trade unions, students, Indigenous communities, artists, transport workers and ordinary people from all over the country have participated in the demonstrations. The protests continued even after the government decided to withdraw the tax reform bill. The demonstrators found other reasons to protest, such as police violence and a health system reform bill.
There are also other factors. According to Sandra Borda's analysis, the social unrest can be attributed to the country's tough economic conditions and the sharp increase in poverty during the pandemic. In the episode of En Vivo, Borda highlights that unemployment, corruption and delays in the vaccination process are all factors that contribute to the frustration felt by many Colombians and their loss of confidence in the government.
Hundreds of videos have been shared on social media showing the police using excessive force. Images of a mother crying over the body of her murdered son, civilians allegedly being shot by police on motorcycles, and tanks firing flares and stun guns in residential areas have gone viral.
In Colombia's larger cities there has been vandalism, roadblocks, and reports of plainclothes police officers infiltrating the demonstrations. Amid the uncertainty, government spokespersons have linked the protests to guerrilla groups and describe the situation as “urban terrorism.”
Photo of a vigil during the protests in Colombia in May 2021, taken by Roger Vallejo, Director of the Sindamanoy de Nariño radio network, used with permission.
Lucía L., a young activist who has participated in the protests in Medellín, explained to me that the coverage of the demonstrations by the traditional media is biased and inaccurate. She tells me that “the demonstrations have been massive, with huge crowds of people all protesting peacefully. It's amazing to see. But the news only focuses on the vandalism and ends up showing images of us next to the vandals.”
The media's editorial decisions contribute to creating a certain narrative around the protests, explains journalist and political scientist María Paula Martínez on Presunto Podcast. In her opinion, the front page of El Tiempo, the newspaper with the highest circulation in Colombia, which featured large photos showing the destruction caused during the protests, and an article in Semana Magazine entitled ‘Cali, branch of Hell‘ are part of a rhetoric used to defend the government. This rhetoric “does not allow for any understanding of the experience of the people's uprising and does not focus attention on the human rights violations committed by government forces.”
Martínez explains that “the protests have been covered in real time by the alternative and local media, whose reporters have gone out on to the streets to document the events on Instagram Live, Twitter and WhatsApp and they end up informing the Ombudsman Office of what is happening.” These alternative media sources include Cuestion Pública, Pacifista, Periferia, Cerosetenta and Vorágine, among others.
Faced with this battle for information, social media users have found creative ways to take control of the online discourse. From behind their screens, young activists who are fans of Korean K-Pop music have united online to alter the algorithm that dominates the conversation.
When hashtags such as #vandalosasesinos [#vandalsmurderers] and #terrorismourbano [#urbanterrorism] that were promoted by the government and right-wing groups started trending on Twitter, K-Pop fans quickly began using these to post hundreds of videos of their favorite bands and singers to derail the original meaning of the hashtag. In doing so, young people are not only taking to the streets, but they are also taking control of the online conversation and fighting the government's rhetoric with these videos.
I believe in K-popers supremacy #ElParoEsViolencia pic.twitter.com/VZbbozgbxZ
— Sorry not Sorry (@sorry_not_2021) May 8, 2021
I believe in K-popers supremacy #TheStrikeIsViolence
Elsewhere, in more remote regions and small towns, news of the general strike is conveyed through local and independent media such as community radio stations. I spoke via WhatsApp with several community radio operators from different regions of the country. These radio stations have a direct and personal relationship with their audiences and their sources. Marta Isabel Martínez Rueda, director of the North Santander Broadcasting Network's Radar news program, describes her work in a region that has been the scene of armed conflict between guerrillas and paramilitaries for many years: “In my work, I aim to inform people without putting anyone at risk, to listen and to communicate calmly and respectfully. We seek to understand, not to incite anger.”
From Caquetá, another region that has been plagued by political violence for decades, Ismael Valenciano from Caquetá Stereo tells me that “our job is to raise awareness of the right to protest […] Thanks to our work, the community feels reassured because our media outlets tell the truth. We are in the midst of the action, we tell the story exactly how it happened.”
In Socorro, in the department of Santander, Polidoro Guaitero from La Cúpula radio, tells me about the role of radio in the community. “You have to know how to win people's trust. You have to know how to ask questions, because the community is coming up with ideas for a new model of the country and we need to listen.”
Photo of a vigil during the protests in Colombia in May 2021, by Roger Vallejo, Director of the Sindamanoy de Nariño radio network, used with permission.

author: Estella Porras


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Hong Kong’s public broadcaster is on its way to become a government mouthpiece · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

RTHK deletes content from Youtube and Facebook. Image from Stand News, used with permission.
It's no secret that press freedom has been waning in Hong Kong since the enactment of the national security law in July 2020. Following the clampdown on Apple Daily newspaper — and the arrest of its pro-democracy owner, Jimmy Lai — the next news outlet on the line is the government-funded public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).
RTHK has been a primary target of Beijing since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The TV station has since then upheld its editorial independence and many of its programs are critical of the government, but pro-China politicians defend that the public broadcaster should play a leading role in promoting government policy. With strong public support, RTHK nevertheless survived the pressure so far.
Since the 2019 anti-extradition protests, however, that pressure has increased significantly — and it could be reaching breaking point soon.
In the past two years, RTHK produced a number of investigative pieces that were critical of the government authorities, such as the July 21 Yuen Long mob attack in 2019 which specifically scrutinized Hong Kong's police.
As the protests subsided in early 2020, Police Chief Chris Tang filed a complaint to the Communications Authority, the media regulator, accusing RTHK's of insulting the police force on the news satire program Headliner.
In May 2020, the regulator accepted Tang's complaint and demanded a review of RTHK's management. Strong-armed, the channel was forced to axe Headliner, a highly popular program first aired in 1989.
The management review report, released in February 2021, slammed RTHK for its “lack of coordination, oversight, and supervision at the corporate level which can give rise to considerable risk to RTHK’s corporate image, reputation, and interests.” As a result, on March 1, 2021, the government replaced Leung Ka-wing, the public broadcaster’s director and a veteran journalist, with Patrick Li, a government bureaucrat.
Soon after taking office, Li demanded to review all programs before airing. He also introduced a pay cut policy on employees as punishment whenever management decides to pull programs.
Within two months, at least two episodes of Hong Kong Stories, two episodes of Hong Kong Connection, and a popular evening talk show have been axed.
The new management came as far as to remove posts from RTHK's Facebook page and YouTube channel:
Removal of archival contents from RTHK YouTube channel has began. The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. pic.twitter.com/WxS2UIgNnf
— Bao Choy (@Baochoy) May 3, 2021
As critical programs vanish, political propaganda creep in. Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong Chief Executive, began hosting a daily talk show on RTHK. In one episode in late April, she praised Hong Kong's new electoral system, imposed by Beijing:
[1/3] #HongKong Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, has been hosting a daily talk show on public broadcaster #RTHK since 28th April. This parody of journalism enables her to promote unpopular policies without exposing herself to questions from journalists. https://t.co/hI6FMMbvXl
— RSF in English (@RSF_en) April 29, 2021
Since Patrick Li took over, at least six senior members of staff have resigned — while more government bureaucrats with no media experience were appointed to management positions.
Some members of staff were pressured into resigning, with three cases becoming particularly symbolic.
Paul Lee, the veteran producer leading the program Hong Kong Connection, resigned after the management rejected story ideas about the 2021 commemorations of the Tiananmen Square incident and the 2019 Yuen Long mob attack:
BREAKING: RTHK's veteran producer Paul Lee, who oversees the award-winning program Hong Kong Connection, has resigned after RTHK management rejected to pursue story ideas about June 4 and July 21 Yuen Long attack, where HKC told can produce “livelihood stories”. https://t.co/Vh5cB9jYXs
— Alvin Lum (@alvinllum) May 6, 2021
Nabela Qoser, a journalist who has been harassed by pro-Beijing protesters for her critical views, had her contract terminated by RTHK earlier in May:
Nabela Qoser, RTHK journalist who was forced to leave the station by the end of this month, is part of a team that won a merit @HRPressAwards. The winner, as we all know, is @Baochoy and team for the July 21 incident investigation, which got her into trouble with the govt. pic.twitter.com/mVOIyaX8Yk
— Kris Cheng (@krislc) May 6, 2021
Yvonne Tong, an outspoken journalist, resigned after months of harassment by pro-Beijing forces:
Hong Kong journalist Yvonne Tong, previously at @rthk_enews and conducted that viral interview where a senior @WHO official hang up on her over a question regarding #Taiwan, has reportedly resigned after being harassed by pro-#Beijing forces in #HK. https://t.co/2Lwi8FqGrA
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) April 13, 2021
There are still many journalists in RTHK fighting to keep the channel's professional standards. But judging from what has happened in the past two months, it seems that the public broadcaster will become an official government mouthpiece sooner rather than later.
As veteran journalist Francis Moriarty says:
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), my former employer for 19 years, is now being brought to heel by the Hong Kong Government at China's behest. For decades the station's output on TV and radio has been high-quality broadcasting that enjoyed widespread public support and credibility. Now, at China's behest, the station is becoming a propaganda organ… What's the next step? Hard to say, but perhaps we might expect an internal reorganization under which the station's English-language services would no longer be placed on the same flow-chart level as Chinese-language services; a new RTHK board would be filled with carefully vetted appointees (not unlike the current one), and the Director of Broadcasting would report directly to the Information Services Department. In short, RTHK would formally become an official government mouthpiece.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Indigenous peoples join the national struggle in Colombia’s strike · Global Voices
J. Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo

Claudia Pai and other Awá women participating in Colombia's Minga and demonstrations. Photo courtesy of Clever Bolaños, used with permission.
Since the first day of Colombia's ongoing National Strike, Indigenous peoples have joined the struggle for justice, equality, and health, drawing on their historical experience of resisting discrimination and unfair treatment. From the time of the arrival of the European conquerors in Latin America in 1492 and the birth of the Colombian Republic 200 years ago, Indigenous people have been challenging the governments that threaten their sovereignty and rights of self-determination, as recognized by the United Nations.
Colombia's National Strike was initially organized on April 28, 2021, against the tax and health reform bills, but it evolved into a social movement prompting support from all over the country. Although the government withdrew the tax reform proposal, popular indignation continued against poverty, corruption, and state-enforced violence.
Juan Orlando Moriano, Awá consejero. Photo taken by Willinton Rodríguez, used with permission.
Diana Jembuel, an Indigenous journalist from the Misak people, explained to Global Voices why her people supported the strike:
Besides the refusal of the tax and health reform, there is another critical issue: the return of aerial spraying with glyphosate, which impacts crops, land, water resources, and people’s health; in addition to the murder of indigenous leaders.
In April 2021, the Colombian government allowed Monsanto's glyphosate spraying on illicit coca fields after the herbicide had been banned since 2015 due to its potential carcinogenic effect. The European Parliament stated that this measure will “seriously affect ecosystems, biodiversity and community rights” and that this “decision comes against the background of increasing violence against indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations and defenders.”
The statistics of violence are discouraging. Last year, Indepaz, the Institute of Studies for Peace and Development, reported 269 Indigenous leaders killed from 2016 until June 2020. This year, 20 of the 60 social leaders assassinated belonged to Indigenous communities.
Indigenous leaders are murdered, among other reasons, out of defending their ancestral land, which they call Mother Earth, from settlers and opposing the presence of multinational corporations and drug dealers on their territory who profit from natural resources.
On May 12,  Misak, Kokonuco, and other Indigenous peoples and Colombians marched in Popayán to the sound of music:
During the first week of May, a humanitarian corridor was set up in Cali to transfer food and medical supplies after the movement of goods was disrupted by the protests. On May 11 and 12, another was set in Popayán to deliver fuel on top of other basic goods. Here, Indigenous peoples played a crucial part by setting up the humanitarian corridors with the help of the Indigenous guard, unarmed Indigenous men, women, and children who monitor and protect their ancestral lands in coordination with their traditional authorities and communities.
During the strike, the goal of the Indigenous guard is to protect the protestors in different locations. First, it was in Cali where young people protested and now, in Popayán.
Awá indigenous guard Photo by Clever Bolaños, used with permission.
Jhoe Sauca, the legal representative of the Kokonuco people, who are part of the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC), told Global Voices why they joined other protestors: “to strengthen the fight.” Sauca continued:
Based on our experience, we help organize and offer mediation with our Indigenous guard, who organized the humanitarian corridors in Cali and Cauca to provide food and fuel despite the attacks against them on Sunday 9 [of May], when at least nine people were injured.
Meanwhile, in the southwest of the country, in the Nariño province, Indigenous men and women protest on the streets. One of them is Juan Moriano, an Indigenous consejero, a community leader of the Awá People and also an Indigenous guard.
Juan Moriano told Global Voices that they have declared themselves in Minga, which refers to a collective community practice to support different social causes:
Our Indigenous guard is here to defend the life and collective interests, and also to inspire young Indigenous people to keep this peaceful practice of protection. On April 28, when the National strike started, we declared ourselves in Minga with the purpose of unifying  forces demanding the Iván Duque's government to stop aerial spraying with glyphosate, the health reform, and to fulfill its obligations emanating from the Peace Agreement signed in 2016.
The Awá people continued to protest on the streets of Nariño against the murder of its people, the numbers now estimated at 42, as well as the disappearances and forced displacement of hundreds of Awá people from their land.
Claudia Pai, a consejera for families and women at the Awá's main organization, the Indigenous Unity of Awá People (Unipa), expressed that it is important to defend their rights in Colombia's multicultural state, where the right to life, dignity, and territory should prevail.
There is still cultural racism and even more [discrimination] towards women. For this reason, it is relevant to make visible our rights, and adhere to the Minga protecting our great territory, Katsa Su.
While this is happening in Nariño, María Montano, a Misak vicegovernor of a reserve in Morales in Northern Cauca told Global Voices that dismantling conquerors’ monuments is another act of resistance because the colonizers carried out the extermination of Indigenous people.
Toppling down of Sebastián de Belalcazar monument in Cali on April 28. Photo by AIS0 Communications, used with permission.
Last year, the Misak people toppled the monument built in honor of conquistador Sebastián de Belalcazar in Popayán, the capital city of Cauca, a province strongly impacted by violence against Indigenous leaders. During the current strike, the Misak removed two more: the statue of Belalcazar in the southwestern city of Cali and the statue of  Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada the founder of  Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia.
While many people understand the need to rewrite historical narratives from the perspective of historically oppressed peoples, other Colombians denominated these actions as vandalism.
María Montano responded to this criticism:
We are not vandals, Sebastián de Belalcazar was a rapist, a murder… Conquerors stole our land. It is why the Movement of Indigenous Authorities of South-West Cauca reject these monuments. We demand the rights of the Indigenous to be respected.

author: J. Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo


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Israeli settlers’ aggressive takeover of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem is part of a decades-long struggle · Global Voices
أيمن حسونة

Screenshots from Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah resident Mona ElKurd's Instagram video of her encounter with an Israeli settler who tells her: “If I don't steal your house, someone else will steal it.” As a result of the video, ElKurd has become an icon of the struggle between the Palestinian residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood and the Israeli settlers who have been authorized by law to evict them from their homes.
“If I don't steal your house, someone else will.”
This is how an Israeli settler called “Yakob” responded to the Jerusalemite journalist Muna ElKurd when she asked him to leave the garden of her home in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
The video of the exchange Kurd posted on her Instagram page was shared on many news pages and sites, going viral and becoming iconic of the oppression her family—and the neighborhood—currently faces.
The ongoing apartheid in Jerusalem.
“Even if i get out of the house, it won’t be returned to u” pic.twitter.com/5sELdmClH5
— Abed? #SaveSheikhSarrah (@Abd_HajYahia) May 1, 2021
Since ElKurd posted her video, tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories have flared up to the worst level in years. The blockaded enclave of Gaza has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes as Muslims mark the end of Ramadan, their holy month of fasting. So far, at least 122 Palestinians, including 31 children, have been killed, and the death toll is climbing.
Eight Israelis have been killed as Hamas, which governs Gaza, fired hundreds of rockets on Israeli-occupied territories, in response to earlier Israeli provocation. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jerusalemites have been wounded by occupation forces who have clamped down on protesters and worshippers in the past weeks.
The tensions in Jerusalem coincided with the start of Ramadan on May 13. Occupation Israeli forces set up barricades to block Jerusalemites from accessing the area of Bab Al-Amud, preventing them from observing a longtime ritual of casual gatherings in that part of the Old City. This resulted in protests—which have come to be called the “Bab Al Amud Uprising”—which eventually displaced the barriers and obstacles erected by the Occupation forces.
This was followed by Israeli forces’ storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest sites, firing tear gas and stun grenades and wounding many, and coincided with Israeli settlers appropriating the homes of Palestinians in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, citing Israeli court verdicts.
The struggle over Sheikh Jarrah dates back to 1948, when representatives of the then-nascent state of Israel tried to storm the neighborhood, displace its people and destroy their homes. They were prevented from doing so by the British forces, which were protecting the city of Jerusalem at the time. Fast-forward to the Six-Day War—also known as the June 1967 War—when Israeli forces occupied the West Bank, including Jerusalem and its environs.
Since then, consecutive Israeli governments have sought to displace the Palestinian population from the city of Jerusalem to shift its demographics to a Jewish majority, in line with efforts to position the city as Israel's capital and mobilize countries to relocate their embassies there. This despite Palestine's United Nations-backed claim to at least part of the city as its capital.
“We will not leave” written on the walls of a Palestinian family's home, at risk of being evicted by Israeli settlers. Photo by Osama Eid. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located to the north of Jerusalem's Old City, contains one of the main arteries linking the concentration of the city's Jewish population in the city to Hebrew University. Seizing control of the neighborhood would bring the entire eastern side of Jerusalem under Israel’s authority.
The expulsion of Palestinians goes back to the period 1948-1967, when Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. In 1956, the Jordanian authorities, in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), constructed housing for 28 refugee families in Sheikh Jarrah. The Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development provided the land, with the proviso that construction took place through the UNRWA and that ownership of the homes would be transferred to their residents three years after the completion of construction. But this did not happen until 1967, when Jordan lost control of the West Bank.
أيام قليلة تفصلنا عن قرار محكمة الاحتلال بإخلاء حي #الشيخ_جراح او تأجيله.
أكثر من 500 فلسطيني موزعين على 28 عائلة يواجهون شبح نكبة جديدة وتهجير قسري.
لنعلي أصواتنا دعماّ وإسنادا لأهلنا في الحي المقدسي. #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/XjDc6pL541
— فلسطين27 (@Pal_27KM) April 30, 2021
A few days separate us from the occupation court's decision to evacuate the Sheikh Jarrah's neighborhood #الشيخ_جراح or postpone it. More than 500 Palestinians over 28 families face the spectre of a new catastrophe and forced displacement. Let's raise our voices to support our people in the Jerusalem's neighborhood. #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح                                      pic.twitter.com/XjDc6pL541                                                                                — فلسطين27 (@Pal_27KM) April 30, 2021
With Jerusalem under Israeli control, Israeli settler organizations began occupying houses whose residents happened to be absent at the time, even if temporarily. The Shatti family, for example, lost their house while they were away on a visit to Kuwait in 1967.
In 1972, two Israeli societies comprising Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews went to the Israeli Land Registry Department claiming ownership of the area of Karm Al-Jaouni in Sheikh Jarrah. The claim was based on a purchase document allegedly dating from the Ottoman period. The societies were granted ownership of the land.
Between 1974-1975, the two societies then filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force four families to evacuate their homes. The Israeli court dismissed the cases because the residents were tenants protected by law.
But the lawsuits resumed again in 1982, this time against 23 families, 17 of whom retained an Israeli lawyer, Tosya Cohen. In 1991, however, Cohen shocked his clients by concluding a deal with the two settler societies, recognizing their ownership of the land. Cohen's recognition created a legal precedent that paved the way for the two societies to strip Palestinians such as the Hanoun and Ghawi families of their homes.
An initial court decision directed these two families to pay rent to the plaintiffs, and although they complied, they were expelled in 2002. In 2003, the two societies sold their share in the land to an investment company. The change in ownership allowed the Hanoun and Ghawi families to appeal their expulsion, enabling them to return to their homes until the case was adjudicated.
Mona ElKurd's family has been the target of lawsuits since the beginning of the 1990s. After numerous rulings, the last of which was in 2009, Israeli settlers were granted the right to appropriate the ElKurd's house. Since that time, ElKurd family has been sharing their home with the settlers who appropriated it, leaving them with only 50 meters to live in.
More recently, in October 2020, ElKurd, Al-Qasim, Al-Jauni and Al-Skafi families received evacuations notifications from the Israeli Magistrate’s Court. In September, three other families—Hammad, Dajani, and Al-Dawoudi—received similar notifications, bringing the total of people facing threats of eviction from their homes to 55. These decisions were suspended until February 2021, during which an evacuation order was issued to be carried out by Thursday, May 6, 2021, resulting in the current escalation.
As tensions brewed, Palestinians took to social media to speak about the oppression they're facing.
Bentzi Gopstein (Lehava), one of the “Death To Arabs” march organizers, is coming to Sheikh Jarrah tonight at 8:30 pm. #SaveSheikhJarrah from colonial violence. https://t.co/ov5rqBjDVE
— mohammed el-kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 6, 2021
The phrase “I can't breathe”—the last words uttered by George Floyd as he was killed by police last year in Minnesota—is trending on social media among Palestinian users and sympathizers, as Israeli occupation forces violently cracked down on those expressing solidarity with the evicted residents of Sheikh Jarrah.
“I cant breath” he said.
The apartheid never stops. pic.twitter.com/jnQXZr6W5M
— Abed? #SaveSheikhSarrah (@Abd_HajYahia) May 4, 2021
Another Twitter user, Kawther, wrote:
The same violence but no one speak . ??#انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/N1HYD5M4iF
— kawther slama (@KawtherSlama) May 6, 2021
In a gesture of solidarity with residents of Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalemites broke their fast every day of Ramadan in front of houses whose residents were being made to evacuate. This prompted Itamar Ben Ghafir, a member of Israel's Knesset and leader of the Israeli far-right party Otzma Yehudit, to participate in a gathering in the district on May 6, the day set by the court to evacuate these houses, where he made the provocative announcement that he would relocate his office to Sheikh Jarrah to confront the “Arab extremists”.
When a crowd of Palestinians gathered to express their rejection of the parliamentarian's incitements, a settler pepper-sprayed the Palestinians, an act documented in many video clips.
Israeli settlers spray pepper gas at Palestinian youths in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
#SaveSheikhJarrah #انقذو_حي_الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/baiP9UeuH0
— Huda Fadil ?? #Gaza (@HudaFadil2) May 6, 2021
This led to a clash between the two sides, involving the throwing of chairs and stones.
مستوطن يرش الشباب بغاز الفلفل وقت الافطار، والشباب ما قصرو معاه ?.#انقذو_حي_الشيخ_جراح #SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/pmNArc0bFy
— شجاعية (@shejae3a) May 6, 2021
A stteler sprays the guys with pepper spray, and the guys didn't disappoint #انقذو_حي_الشيخ_جراح
#SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/pmNArc0bFy
— شجاعية (@shejae3a) May 6, 2021
Israeli occupation forces intervened and arrested several Palestinians.
It’s just so sad how people have to go through all of this just because they’re fighting for their OWN land and yet the world doesn’t say a word about it !#انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/HPBrnCN7jD
— ﮼رَغد ﮼?? (@raghad_jaffal) May 4, 2021
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented the official documents containing details of the displacement operations carried out by Israel to the International Criminal Court on May 5, but the confrontations on the ground are not expected to abate.
On May 10, an Israeli court postponed a session scheduled that day to decide the fate of Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah. Announcing that the date of the upcoming session would be set within 30 days, the court permitted families facing eviction to remain in their houses until the session is held.
Muna ElKurd, whose Instagram video has turned her into an emblem of the struggle of Sheikh Jarrah's residents, wrote:
We should not stop. Freezing [the decision] is not cancelling it.. The movement of Sheikh Jarrah is a popular and global movement against displacement and colonization in Jerusalem and all of Palestine. We must raise our voices, and intensify efforts through our presence and solidarity in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and intensify our voice on social media platforms, because the violence of the colonial occupation is prevalent and its outbreak in our cities has not been frozen.

author: أيمن حسونة


text:
LIVE on May 20: What Eurovision tells us about Europe · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

For many in Europe and beyond, the Eurovision Song Contest enjoys cult status as a yearly ritual, with fans often gathering in groups to watch the final. For others, it's a kitschy, over-long event that, after 65 years, has overstayed its welcome.
But love it or hate it, there's no doubt that Eurovision—and the reactions it evokes—provides a compelling lens through which to regard contemporary Europe, its politics, its self-image and its presumed values.
Join us on May 20 at 5pm GMT for the latest episode in our Global Voices Insights webinar series, in which Global Voices’ managing editor Filip Noubel sits down with Eastern Europe editor Tanya Lokot and Central Europe editor Filip Stojanovski for a conversation about Eurovision as a cultural and political phenomenon.
The episode also features special guest interviews with two performers who'll be hitting the stage in Rotterdam on May 22 as contestants in Eurovision 2021: Benny Cristo, who'll be representing the Czech Republic, and Vasil, who'll represent North Macedonia.
The session is free of charge and open to the public, and will be live-streamed on Facebook Live, YouTube and Twitch
We look forward to having you with us on May GMT (click this link to convert to your local time zone)!

author: Georgia Popplewell