Uprooted Palestinian: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM – سلام القدس عليكم

Monday, 25 March 2019

Yemen: «Wearing a School Uniform Is No Longer a Dream»

In Yemen, 24 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection. Of them, 17.8 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation. As a result, people are resorting to unimproved water sources and lack adequate sanitation. This increases the risk of diarrheal disease, which in turn leads to deteriorating nutritional status and, in some cases, greater risk of death. Although trucked or bottled water may offer relatively safer water sources, prices have risen considerably – up to 45 per cent in some areas.

But not having access to clean water impacts not just people’s health, but their ability to lead a normal life. Rashad, a villager Najd Al-Barad, tells us that his village had seen many instances where women had to leave the house to bring water for their family, often leaving babies unattended. Because the journey is often very long, they would come back to find that their babies had passed away. Similarly, young children are often forced to help their parents carry clean water and every day, and as a result they often miss school.

The Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF) has been providing vital funds to local partners to bring clean water to local communities. On World Water Day, Amani and Abdullah’s story tell us how access to clean water can be truly life-changing.

Amani’s story

Amani ^[1] is a 9-year old girl from a marginalized group living in Shareef, a village of Alzubia which has been hit by drought most of the year and is far away from the nearest water well. People use donkeys or travel long distances on foot to fetch water.

Amani told us how she would feel sad seeing young girls wearing school clothes and laughing on their way to school while she was walking long distances with her daily companion, the family donkey, to look for water: “If my family did not need me to collect water every day, I could go to school and prove that marginalized people can study and succeed like the rest of the children”.

But things for Amani have changed. Her village was one of those selected by Al-Atta for Relief & Development (ARD), a Yemen-based development association, to be equipped with water networks thanks to funding from the YHF. A representative from ARD explained to Amani that the project would bring water to the village and promised her to help her enroll in school despite her late age. Amani was shocked and did not believe this was possible.

During the project implementation, ARD staff got in touch with Amani’s family and the village school, and they were able to persuade the school to accept her as a regular student. Amani is now studying in the first grade and no longer dreams of wearing school uniform and going with her classmates on the school road. Now her dream is to continue studying as a doctor in the future to prove that marginalized girls can do just as well as other girls.

Abdullah’s story

“My wife and children used to spend most of the day going back and forth carrying heavy buckets and jerry cans filled with water on their heads or on our poor donkey”, Abdullah^[2], 50 years-old and father of nine children, told us. He lives in the Najd Al-Barad village, Al-Maqatera district of Lahj governorate, and they did not have direct access to clean, potable water.

“My children could not go to school because they were too busy helping us bring water to our house for our basic needs”. Because men would be busy working most of the day or in other governorates looking for job opportunities, women and children would be the ones carry the burden of walking about three-hours distance to bring the water. Things changed with the intervention of Nahda Makers Organization (NMO), a humanitarian organization operating in Yemen.

The village of Najd Al-Barad, where Mr. Rashad and Mr. Abdullah live, was one of the areas where NMO, with funding from the YHF, rehabilitated water systems. NMO replaced the old submersible pump, rebuilt the diesel generator and provided all needed equipment to restore the network. Most importantly, NMO established a community water committee and trained its members to manage, operate, and maintain their water supply scheme to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Now, more than 13,000 people have direct access to water. “Finally, the water reaches my house and all of my children go to school”, Mr Abdullah told us. “The water reaches most of the villages in Najd Al-Barad and the people can now go on with their lives without worrying about going back and forth from one village to another in order to fill a 10-litre jerrycan”.

^{[1] [2]}Names have been changed.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Jaafari on Golan: Trump Tweet Flagrant Violation, Contempt for International Law

March 23, 2019

Bashar Jaafari Syria UN Representative Ambassador - UNSC بشار الجعفري مندوب سوريا الدائم لدى الأمم المتحدة - سفير

His Excellency Bashar al Jaafari issued an urgent statement on Syria’s Golan, via a UN stake out, 22 March 2019. While maintaining his immaculate standard of professional diplomat, the Syrian ambassador crushed US President Donald J. Trump’s “irresponsible tweeting.” He laid waste to the escalation of “American arrogance,” and explained the many UN Security Council Resolutions which support Syria’s sovereignty over its Golan, resolutions which call for the end of illegal Israeli occupation.

Dr. Jaafari explained to his audience there is no “Golan heights,” there is only the Syrian Golan. The word “heights” was affixed by Israeli propagandists as part of its psychological warfare campaign to make its illegal occupation appear more powerful.

Syria’s ambassador read a five-minute statement in Arabic, followed by its English translation, after which he took questions from the reporters.

https://videopress.com/embed/kHWr00z2?hd=0

One reporter said that Syria’s official request for the UNSG to publicly condemn Trump’s aggression was met by a generic response that the SG stands by all resolutions, but is not ready to condemn the US president’s tweet.

Here, the author interjects to again remind our readers of the corruption and bias of Antonio Guterres — Guterres, the friend of war criminal Tony Blair, Guterres whose own imperialist arrogance contains putting lies in writing. Consider his claim that the OPCW “fact-finding mission” was “in the Syrian Arab Republic,” despite OPCW’s admission it was too afraid of terrorists to actually send in investigators.

Diplomat Jaafari meticulously explained that Trump’s imperious tweet — “diplomacy now about tweeting, apparently” — was contemptuous of the international community, showed “flagrant violation of international law, the charter of the UN and the simplest…values and ethics,” and demonstrated escalation against member states of the United Nations: It’s “my way or the highway.”

Before taking questions, the Syrian diplomat asked everyone to focus exclusively on the Golan. He told them that there would be another “humanitarian meeting” on the 27th, at which time they could ask all questions. His request to “Please let us focus on this important issue” of course fell on deaf western ears, as someone immediately asked about Trump’s statistics on the remaining “Islamic State.”

Excellency Jaafari did respond, however, to educate the reporter that there is no such thing, there is “a bunch of terrorists gathered from all over the world…all kinds of hyenas.”

One English-speaking colonialist whined from a State Department-type script, about these being “different times.” Nu, is it not always different times? Since when does the movement of the planet legitimize theft, authorize a third party to declare theft to be lawful?

Not surprisingly, one of the most fetid collections of questions came from an incel-sounding voice claiming to be of the Middle East Eye. “MEE” is the offspring of the inbred relationship of UK’s The Guardian and Qatar’s al-Jazeera, consistently supportive of NATO Spring takfiri in Syria.

“MEE”‘s first question was sheer idiocy, suggesting that a tweet has the power to legalize a crime. The second question was an attempt to propagandize against Syria’s Golan, and to propagandize for future hypothetical victimhood of Israeli occupiers on the Golan which belongs to the SAR.

Syrians on Syria’s Golan fly the Syrian flag.

Dr. Jaafari carefully explained that Syria will regain that which it owns, and that there are no Israeli civilians on Syrian land: “They are settlers, not civilians. They must leave.”

Multiple attempts were made to provoke Dr. Jaafari into a response to create another wave of anti-Syria hysteria in western media. His character state of professional diplomat is likely the reason his urgent statement on Trump’s criminal tweet in support of Israel’s criminal occupation of the Golan has been ignored by “mainstream media.”

ADDENDA:

Ambassador Jaafari’s statement focused on UNSC Resolutions supporting Syria’s ownership of its Golan.

We remind our readers that both the US and Israel are signatories to the Geneva treaties, which have strict principles governing occupation, which is supposed to be temporary:

We also remind our readers that Israel has bragged about providing terrorists with state of the art medical care on the Syrian Golan, which it occupies; that Israeli medium reported that Israel is the number one purchaser of oil stolen by terrorists; that Israel breaches all of the principles governing what is supposed to be temporary occupation.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Zarif Reveals Distortion of Torah to Serve Iranophobia

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US administration is giving voice to the Zionist entity’s falsification of the Torah to promote Iranophobia.

“Even the Torah is distorted to serve Iranophobia. What it actually says: Persian king saved Jews from captivity in Babylon. Another Persian king saved Jews from genocide. Genocide plotter hailed from Negev, not Persia. Persian king is only foreigner referred to as MESSIAH,” Zarif said in a message posted on his Twitter account on Sunday.

The tweet came in response to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who claimed it was possible God raised New York real estate tycoon [US President] Donald Trump to be president in order to protect ‘Israel’ from Iran.

Pompeo traveled to occupied al-Quds this week and made a controversial visit to the Buraq Wall, called by ‘Israel’ as the Wailing Wall, in the occupied Old City.

The visit made him the highest-ranking US official to visit the site with any ‘Israeli’ leader and appeared to further signal the Trump administration’s support for the Zionist entity’s control of the contested city.

Asked “could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” he said, “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible”.

In the legend, Esther is the main heroine of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which was celebrated this week. According to Jewish accounts, Persian King Xerxes I discovered a plot by his viceroy Haman the Agagite who hailed from Negev to slaughter Jews some 2,500 years ago and had him executed.

Relatively, it is worth mentioning that Iran is home to some 25,000 Jews who are a recognized minority and are allocated a seat in parliament.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Sunday, 24 March 2019

Gilad Atzmon on Richie Allen Show Pointing at Those Who Make Britain into an Authoritarian Disaster

March 20, 2019 / Gilad Atzmon

Yesterday on Richie Allen Show, I spoke about Corbyn’s buddies and their desperate attempts to turn Britain into a close society. Once again, this bunch of authoritarian characters faced a wall of resistance. Not one Momentum member followed the call of Judea to picket my sold-out concerts at the Vortex. In fact, many Momentum members resigned. The same applies to Jewdas’ members. Even they start to detect the duplicity at the core of what is going on. By now Brits know what Momentum stands for. They also accept that Jewdas may have figured out how to cook passover dinner, but an ‘alternative’ to the Zionist Diaspora they are not.

We could only be grateful for Labour’s politicians and Momentum for warning us in advance about the obscene tyrannical nature of their party. Brits will have to decide whether they want to vote far a party that crudely intervenes with the arts, culture, freedom of speech and elementary human rights.

In the next few days I will publish Justin Brett’s (Jewdas leader, presumably) mass email to Labour politicians, including Diane Abbot. I suggest that some Labour actors, including Hackney Mayor, consult with legal specialists as they will have to address some very difficult questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBM7dXpZiOI my part starts around 18:35

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Russia Gives US Red Line on Venezuela

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM | 22.03.2019 | WORLD / | FEATURED STORY

Russia Gives US Red Line on Venezuela

At a high-level meeting in Rome this week, it seems that Russia reiterated a grave warning to the US – Moscow will not tolerate American military intervention to topple the Venezuelan government with whom it is allied.

Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, President Donald Trump was again bragging that the military option was still on the table, in his press conference with Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro. Trump is bluffing or not yet up to speed with being apprised of Russia’s red line.

The meeting in the Italian capital between US “special envoy” on Venezuelan affairs Elliot Abrams and Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov had an air of urgency in its arrangement. The US State Department announced the tête-à-tête only three days beforehand. The two officials also reportedly held their two-hour discussions in a Rome hotel, a venue indicating ad hoc arrangement.

Abrams is no ordinary diplomat. He is a regime-change specialist with a criminal record for sponsoring terrorist operations, specifically the infamous Iran-Contra affair to destabilize Nicaragua during the 1980s. His appointment by President Trump to the “Venezuela file” only underscores the serious intent in Washington for regime change in Caracas. Whether it gets away with that intent is another matter.

Moscow’s interlocutor, Sergei Ryabkov, is known to not mince his words, having earlier castigated Washington for seeking global military domination. He calls a spade a spade, and presumably a criminal a criminal.

The encounter in Rome this week was described as “frank” and “serious” – which is diplomatic code for a blazing exchange. The timing comes at a high-stakes moment, after Venezuela having been thrown into chaos last week from civilian power blackouts that many observers, including the Kremlin, blame on American cyber sabotage. The power grid outage followed a failed attempt by Washington to stage a provocation with the Venezuelan military over humanitarian aid deliveries last month from neighboring Colombia.

The fact that Washington’s efforts to overthrow the elected President Nicolas Maduro have so far floundered, might suggest that the Americans are intensifying their campaign to destabilize the country, with the objective of installing US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido. He declared himself “acting president” in January with Washington’s imprimatur.

Given that the nationwide power blackouts seem to have failed in fomenting a revolt by the civilian population or the military against Maduro, the next option tempting Washington could be the military one.

It seems significant that Washington has recently evacuated its last remaining diplomats from the South American country. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented on the evacuation by saying that having US personnel on the ground “was limiting” Washington’s scope for action. Also, American Airlines reportedly cancelled all its services to Venezuela in the past week. Again, suggesting that the US was considering a military intervention, either directly with its troops or covertly by weaponizing local proxies. The latter certainly falls under Abrams’ purview.

After the Rome meeting, Ryabkov said bluntly: “We assume that Washington treats our priorities seriously, our approach and warnings.”

One of those warnings delivered by Ryabkov is understood to have been that no American military intervention in Venezuela will be tolerated by Moscow.

For his part, Abrams sounded as if he had emerged from the meeting after having been given a severe reprimand. “No, we did not come to a meeting of minds, but I think the talks were positive in the sense that both sides emerged with a better understanding of the other’s views,” he told reporters.

“A better understanding of the other’s views,” means that the American side was given a red line to back off.

The arrogance of the Americans is staggering. Abrams seems, according to US reporting, to have flown to Rome with the expectation of working out with Ryabkov a “transition” or “compromise” on who gets the “title of president” of Venezuela.

That’s what he no doubt meant when he said after the meeting “there was not a meeting of minds”, but rather he got “a better understanding” of Russia’s position.

Washington’s gambit is a replay of Syria. During the eight-year war in that country, the US continually proffered the demand of a “political transition” which at the end would see President Bashar al Assad standing down. By contrast, Russia’s unflinching position on Syria has always been that it’s not up to any external power to decide Syria’s politics. It is a sovereign matter for the Syrian people to determine independently.

Nearly three years after Russia intervened militarily in Syria to salvage the Arab country from a US-backed covert war for regime change, the American side has manifestly given up on its erstwhile imperious demands for “political transition”. The principle of Syrian sovereignty has prevailed, in large part because of Russia’s trenchant defense of its Arab ally.

Likewise, Washington, in its incorrigible arrogance, is getting another lesson from Russia – this time in its own presumed “back yard” of Latin America.

It’s not a question of Russia being inveigled by Washington’s regime-change schemers about who should be president of Venezuela and “how we can manage a transition”. Moscow has reiterated countless times that the legitimate president of Venezuela is Nicolas Maduro whom the people voted for last year by an overwhelming majority in a free and fair election – albeit boycotted by the US-orchestrated opposition.

The framework Washington is attempting to set up of choosing between their desired “interim president” and incumbent Maduro is an entirely spurious one. It is not even worthy to be discussed because it is a gross violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Who is Washington to even dare try to impose its false choice?

On Venezuela, Russia is having to remind the criminal American rulers – again – about international law and respect for national sovereignty, as Moscow earlier did with regard to Syria.

And in case Washington gets into a huff and tries the military option, Moscow this week told regime-change henchman Abrams that that’s a red line. If Washington has any sense of rationale left, it will know from its Syria fiasco that Russia has Venezuela’s back covered.

Political force is out. Military force is out. Respect international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty. That’s Russia’s eminently reasonable ultimatum to Washington.

Now, the desperate Americans could still try more sabotage, cyber or financial. But their options are limited, contrary to what Trump thinks.

How the days of American imperialist swagger are numbered. There was a time when it could rampage all over Latin America. Not any more, evidently. Thanks in part to Russia’s global standing and military power.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Al-Mikdad Slams Trump’s Statements on Occupied Syrian Golan, Stresses US Is Biggest Rouge State

2 March 2019 23:43

DAMASCUS, (ST)- The occupied Syrian Golan is part and parcel of the Syrian Arab Republic territories and liberating it from the Israeli occupation by all internationally-guaranteed means is a priority of the Syrian national policy, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faysal al-Mikdad said in an interview with “al-Mayadeen TV” on Friday.

Commenting on the US President’s Donald’s Trump’s statements in which he announced his intention to recognize “Israel’s sovereignty” over the Syrian Golan, Al-Mikdad said “The United States is the biggest rogue state in the world as it sponsors terrorism, defies international resolutions on the occupied Syrian Golan and poses threat to world peace and security.

He pointed out that Trump’s announcement violates the UN Charter and principles as well as the Security Council Resolution No. 497 for 1981 which all approve that the Golan is an “occupied land” and that any procedures adopted by the Israeli occupation in this occupied territory are null and void and of no legal effect.

“Syria’s right to restore the occupied Golan is firm. It isn’t subjected to negotiations or concession and it have no statute of limitations,” said al-Mikdad, reiterating that the occupation forces’ full withdrawal from the Golan to the June 4^th 1967 line should be implemented in accordance with the principles of the international law and international legitimacy resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 242, 338 and 497.

Al-Mikdad made it clear that the people of occupied Syrian Golan, since the first day of the Israeli occupation, have been stressing that occupied Golan is an integral part of Syria and that the Syrian identity is their permanent identity to which they will continue to be adherent.

He reiterated that the people of the Golan will continue resisting the Israeli occupation’s attempts to displace them and judaize their lands. They will foil the US administration and the Israeli occupation’s attempts to change the status of Golan as they did before with Israel’s annexation decision and its attempts to impose the occupation’s identity and to hold local councils elections.

Hamda Mustafa

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Lebanon Shows Entire World Pride in Face of US Tyrant

March 23, 2019

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his entorage waiting for President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace

Mohammad Salami

US officials’ visits to the world countries in most of the cases seem to be political raids aimed at imposing certain conditions which serve the interests of Washington and its allies.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on Friday (March 22) in Beirut to convey the Israeli demands and conditions to the Lebanese officials, pertaining the demarcation of the marine borders and the natural resources investments.

Pompeo also wanted to pressure the Lebanese officials against tackling the displaced Syrians file in order to exploit their crisis in the US scheme which targets Damascus.

Pompeo and his entourage started touring the various decision-making centers in Beirut in order to provoke the Lebanese against Hezbollah resistance which has protected the country from the Zionist and the takfiri enemies.

The victorious country decided to show the heavy guest and the entire world how power can never defeat national dignity and pride, blocking the way of the US tyrants’ schemes in Lebanon and the region.

President Michel Aoun coldly shook hands with Pompeo and disregarded his assistant David Hale, stressing during the meeting that Hezbollah is a Lebanese party stemming from a popular base that represents one of the main sects in the country.

Aoun also asked Pompeo for his country’s assistance in the return of the Syrian refugees to the safe areas in Syria, stressing that the refugees’ return operations administered by the General Security will continue.

House Speaker Nabih Berri received Pompeo and highlighted the importance of maintaining stability in Lebanon and the need to deal with the maritime borders issue, including Lebanon’s Special Economic Zone.

Berri also stressed that Hezbollah is a “Lebanese party represented at the parliament and the government. Its resistance and that of the Lebanese are the result of the continued Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.”

Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil explained to pompeo the dangers posed by the issue of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon, asking for US help in this regard and stressing that Hezbollah is a non-terrorist party that has a great popular support.

The US Secretary of State, consequently, failed to impose on the Lebanese officials any of Washington’s and Tel Aviv’s conditions, stating that his talks in Beirut were “negative”.

As coincidences may convey truth more than planned events, Pompeo’s “yellow” necktie says so much about the yellow flag which have been always squeezing the US plots in Lebanon and the whole region.

Source: Al-Manar English Website