Alison Tahmizian Meuse continues with her Twitter/X account @AliTahmizian to report how Armenians are continuing to resist Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan's most recent betrayal of Armenia - his attempt to hand across to Azerbaijan the region of Tavush.
#Armenia: Police are being sent by the busload to clear protesters blocking the highway to Georgia
Protesters are against the ceding of critical heights to Azerbaijan, which will put the northeast region -- including the national gas supply -- under Azeri fire control
(Updates from 21 April) After years of surrender of territory to the neighbouring Azerbaijan, by President Nikol Pashinyan, Armenians have stood up and opposed Pashinyan's latest betrayal, the attempted handover of Tavush, the region painted red on the map in the north-eastern corner of Armenia. Currently, Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan is allowing the export of oil to the fascist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu which, has, in the six months since 7 October 2023, murdered over 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The oil is piped from Baku in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the north of Armenia, thence through Turkey to its port of Ceyhan, from where it is shipped to Israel. This is in spite or Turkish President Erdogan's supposed opposition to Israel's genocide. In recent nationwide local government elections, Erdogan's so-called "Justice and Development" party was wiped out because of the disgust by Turkish voters at Erdogan's duplicity. Hopefully these protest in Armenia will not only lead to the ouster of President Pashinyan, buy also of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. For further information, please follow the Twitter/X account of Alison Tahmizian Meuse at @AliTahmizian or her embedded posts here.
House of Representatives (Australia) Monday, 18 March 2024. Chamber. Unfortunately this motion, of which you can read the detail and debate below, failed with 6 for and 63 against.
Some welcome relief for two million people in Gaza as Australian Government restores lifesaving aid. Massive public pressure has greatly contributed to the Government’s decision following Open Letters and history making 22 consecutive weeks of tens of thousands marching in capital cities for the people of Gaza. Australia must pressure for immediate and permanent ceasefire to stop the genocide and end occupation.
WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH 2024: This important webinar co-sponsored by over 18 organisations will feature Pine Gap expert, Professor Richard Tanter, whose forthcoming paper, "Pine Gap, Gaza and Genocide", will be summarised to spark discussion among the panelists on the role of Pine Gap in colonial violence and surveillance in Australia and Palestine.
The webinar is moderated by Dr Amy McQuire, Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist
In the recent 29 February by-election for the UK seat of Rochdale, George Galloway campaigned against Israel's mass-murder of Palestinians in Gaza and for Julian Assange's freedom. He defeated the two major pro-war parties, Labor and the Conservatives, to become the new MP for Rochdale in the House of Commons. In the attached 18 minute YouTube video, he is interviewed by Syrian-born British journalist Richard Medhurst.
George Galloway has been declared winner of the Rochedale by-election in the United Kingdom. Previously, Galloway had been an elected member of the House of Commons in 1987 for 8 years, in 2005 for 5 years and in 2012 for for 3 years. In all those years George Galloway has been an outspoken supporter of struggles against imperialism, against apartheid in both Israel and South Africa and for the rights of the working classes and underpriveleged at home.
On 29 February 2024, Israeli soldiers machine-gunned crowds of Palestinians in north Gaza while they stood waiting for food to arrive. Something between 80 and 200 Gazans were killed and hundreds are wounded. "How can this still be possible?" a friend wrote in an email sent to me at 02:19 hrs.
The following has been adapted from a leaflet PDF file. (See Appendix for how to print the PDF file, from which this article was adapted.) In the face of overwhelming votes for a ceasefire by both the United Nations General Assembly on 22 December and by several meetings of the UN Security Council, the Israeli ‘Defence’ Forces (IDF) have continued their latest war against the men women, children and babies of the Gaza Strip. This war began on 7 October, 134 days ago. Since then, with aerial bombardment, tank and artillery shells, rocket fire, banned phophorous, bullets - and who knows what else – the IDF have killed as many unarmed Palestinians in Gaza as they were able to. At the outset of this war, Israel also cut off power and stopped supplies of food, water, medicine and other essentials from going into Gaza, thereby causing many to die of starvation, thirst and illness.
In this video, journalist Owen Jones summarises South Africa's very detailed and horrific case against Israel for genocide against Gaza. A ruling by the court could take years that we don't have.
The aircraft carrier battle group is a legacy system going back to World War 2 that has no application in modern warfare. America's been exposed as an empty shell. It's not so much about the Red Sea. The Strait of Hormuz has just been guaranteed by the Houthi. The whole idea of the Strait of Hormuz was the perception that America could control it, but that's been exposed as a lie. So the Iranians are empowered.
It's a relief to see Yemen use intelligence and a sense of humour to bring pressure on Israel and its backers' vicious attempts to obliterate Gaza-Palestine! Yemenis are now taking boatloads of tourists to sight-see on the Galaxy Leader, the part-Israeli-owned ship they captured on 19 November. You can also see them dancing in a line on its deck, here.
The group ‘Unionists for Palestine’ will rally tonight outside Patrick Terminal in Port Melbourne to make clear that Israeli-owned ships and shipping companies are not welcome in Australian ports. They will protest the Israeli-owned Cali, and publicly welcome the news that ZIM’s Sparrow changed course to Port Kembla after the announcement of the planned picket.
Australia should be focusing on diplomatic efforts to end Israel’s invasion and occupation of Gaza
Australia’s signing of the UN resolution on ceasefire was in direct contrast to the USA’s decision and IPAN calls for a similar stance on the request regarding a war ship
Australia must stop sending military equipment to Israel
The University of Melbourne is censoring graduating Palestinian and pro-Palestine students and is withholding graduation images from ceremonies taking place this week at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, Melbourne.
Across multiple faculties and departments, graduating students are expressing solidarity for Palestine by wearing keffiyeh’s and carrying signs demanding that Uni Melb divest from arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
(Update, 6:24am Wed 13 Dec: The meeting won't be starting for another 36 minutes, that is, 7am AEDT in Victoria and NSW and 8am AEST in Brisbane.Apologies, for my miscalculation.) Tomorrow at 3pm New York Time or, in Australia, at 6pm AEDT in Victoria and NSW or at 5pm AEST in Queensland, the United Nations General Assembly will comme
"The horror and trauma children are facing in Gaza right now is indescribable and unconscionable - suffering and killing must stop now." (Plan International Australia, 6 December 2023)
Suffering and killing in Gaza must stop now
After a pause in fighting for just one week, Plan International is devastated by the resumption of violence in Gaza over the weekend and the shocking number of civilians and children being killed in a matter of days.
The following article has been adapted from a double-sided A4 leaflet which was handed out at a protest for Palestine, which commenced from Queen's Park in the Brisbane CBD at 2pm on Sunday 26 November. The 344K PDF file is attached here (earlier version here).
Palestine-born and trained doctor who, at 12 yrs old, was shot in the neck by a sniper on his way home from school, speaks of then and now at a pro-Palestinian rally in Brisbane on 19 November 2023. The rally was very large and a later march took up several blocks, where numerous groups of supporters lined the footpaths. People are aghast, shocked, disturbed, at the failure by world leaders to heed the suffering and extinction of so many people in Gaza, in full view, 24/7.
With the exception of some members of the cross-bench, mostly Greens, both Australia's houses of Parliament support Israel's war against more than 2 million Palestinians (who are also mostly Israeli citizens) crowded into the Gaza strip.
"The West Bank already started to be destroyed
Jenin streets and homes and another hospital besieged
Our fate will be like Gaza, the terrorist army warned
Beirut too soon and other cities will also be damned
for our "new Middle East" with Starbucks
Grow General Electric and all war stocks
The USA has got Israel's back and gives the weapons to kill
American Taxpayers foot the bill
Will anyone signal stop?" [More of this poem and links inside.]
As Australian academic Tim Anderson has pointed out (see below), the Aramaic language, which was spoken by Jesus Christ and now spoken only in Syria, has been under threat by the war against the Syrian people that started over a decade ago on 15 March 2011. This war has been waged mainly by tens of thousands of paid terrorist proxies of the United States and its allies - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, France and Turkey. This terrible war has, so far, cost over 400,000 Syrian lives, including 80,000 Syrian soldiers by one estimate and caused the internal displacement of more than half of Syria's population and has caused many others to seek refuge overseas. (Wikipedia's somewhat less terrible figures can be found here.)
The ancient language of #Jesus of Nazareth, #Aramaic , is now only spoken in some parts of #Syria, but it would have become extinct if #NATO's #wahhabi mercenaries had their way. 'The Lord's Prayer' in Aramaic. pic.twitter.com/RzrlEVlfHX
In spite of the victories by the Syrian Arab Army, Lebanese Hezbollah volunteers, Iranian military advisers and Russian Army and Air Force contingents, the enemies of Syria seem to be resolved to keep their terrorist war going, to maintain crippling economic sanctions and, in the case of the United States, maintain its illegal occupation of Syria's oil fields in Eastern Syria and the theft of Syria's oil. They apparently intend to continue this war for however long it takes to break the resistance of the Syrian people - another 10 years, another 50 years or however long it takes. The longer this continues, the harder it will be for the Aramaic people to preserve their language and culture.
For this war to ever end, people in the West will have to organise protests in solidarity with the Syrian people and against their own governments' criminal conduct towards Syria.
Julian Assange and Wikileaks can help stop the war against Syria
There is not, currently, a great deal about Syria on Wikileaks. Its page on Syria is dated Thursday 5 July 2012, only one year and four months after that war had commenced. It is somewhat critical of the Syrian government as well as of the terrorist opposition, as even many defenders of Syria were back then:
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: 'The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria's opponents. It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.'"
So far, not a lot has yet been leaked to Wikileaks about the Western nation's criminal conspiracy against Syria. Still, the Wikileaks news service remains our best hope of finding out the vital facts behind the Syrian war in addition to all the other wars about which Wikileaks has revealed so much.
It is vital that we continue our campaign against the British government's illegal imprisonment and torture of him and against the United States' attempt to kidnap extradite Julian Assange.
Following our successful protest outside the Melbourne British Consulate, Melbourne supporters of Julian Assange will be resuming our weekly Friday evening vigil from 6:30pm outside Flinders Street Station. We will be holding our vigil on this coming Good Friday public holiday of 2 April.
At that vigil, we will also be demanding as shown on our large banner that the Australian government act to end the British government's illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange.
Please be there to help us hold our banner, distribute leaflets and listen to speeches.
Our city was alight last night as was the countryside
the first, an exhibition the latter ecocide.
Infernos rage devouring branches, trees and leaves,
baking soil, cooking worms, singeing feathered wings ,
fragile membranes of flying foxes, gliders,
or burning them to oblivion. These creatures cannot outrun
the raging flames gathering force, uniting over ridges.
Wind assisted, the fires grow and gather speed.
These fires can turn a house, a car, a firetruck
into a skeleton or a mere suggestion of what was there before,
an imprint on the ground around what was yesterday a fireplace and chimney.
Smoke envelops once carefree seaside towns. The skies are dark at midday
and penetrating that thick blackness,
the sun appears faintly like a distant headlight through a London fog.
Cancelled camping trips leave city children disappointed.
Now trapped and urbanised, they take refuge in their phones
while those living on the coast are bailed up on beaches, homeless and afraid.
Others lost their lives, eaten up by flames.
The greatest toll was wildlife 500 million dead I'm told.
The rescued ones bear scars on ears and legs and toes
and there's nowhere to return to if by chance they are restored.
Australia's cities were alight last night in magnificent displays,
As the remnants of our forests were consumed in such a blaze!
Video inside: Tom Duggan lives in Damascus, Syria. This week he covered the Jaishal Islam (Saudi supported) terrorist group leaving Douma, Syria. He reports, "We were expecting between 3000 and 8000 hostages to be released. We got less than 100. Where did they all go? They had been held for between four and six years. Jaishal Islam submitted the names of these people, their ID numbers, and the Syrian Government, in good faith, accepted the release of the terrorists in exchange for the hostages they claimed to have. This is a huge example of genocide, but the UN has not even acknowledged it." Up to 8000 Syrians slaughtered or starved by Jaishal Islam, which the Syrian Government has been fighting, and, meanwhile the United states posing as an 'exceptional' state, is threatening to attack Syria, which will draw Russia and probably China into war, on the basis of a completely unproven allegation that the Syrian Government used 'chemical weapons' against its own people. Duggan knows there is a high risk of Damascus being attacked by the rogue 'exceptional' US state, but he has decided to remain there.
The flooding of Europe by countless waves of refugees may be the result of the “strategic depopulation” of Syria carried out by opponents of the country’s government, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has suggested.
Transparency organization WikiLeaks has looked through its diplomatic cables and unearthed “an interesting speculation about the refugee movement,” Assange said in an interview with Geek news site, ThePressProject.“So, the speculation was this: Occasionally opponents of a country would engage in strategic depopulation, which is to decrease the fighting capacity of a government,” he explained.
The whistleblower pointed out that “it’s predominantly the middle class that is fleeing” Syria on account of having “language skills, money, some connections.” Engineers, managers and civil servants are “precisely, the classes that ...[are] needed to keep the government functioning,” he said.
Syrian people are encouraged to flee their country “by Germany saying they’ll accept many-many refugees, and by Turkey taking nearly three million refugees, thus significantly weakening the Syrian government,” Assange stressed.
Syria isn’t the only case of migration being used as a weapon in recent history; during the Iraq War, Sweden told the US that “the acceptance of Iraqi refugees was part of its contribution,” according to cables.
The WikiLeaks founder said that it’s a “disgrace” that the US refuses to take in Syrian refuges because it’s Washington who should be held accountable for the hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Europe and making EU states close its borders with one other.
“The situation comes about as a result of the US, UK and French policy in the Middle East together with the behavior of US regional allies in the Middle East – Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Israel… and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The intercepted documents, already published by WikiLeaks, revealed that the US had been plotting to overthrow the Syrian government since around 2006, Assange stressed.
“It was trying to make the Syrian government ‘paranoid’ trying to get it to ‘overreact’ by instilling that fear and paranoia; trying to make it worried about coups; trying to stir up sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias … trying to stop foreign investment in Syria and secretly funding a variety of NGOs in Syria also to make trouble, using the Saudis and Egypt to help push that along,” he said.
Meanwhile any of Assad’s attempts to battle terrorism and the expansion of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) strength were presented as a demonstration of weakness and “an example of [the] Syrian government not having full control over its territory to encourage the government overthrow,” the whistleblower added.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights and Irin both purport to be disinterested information sources on conflict in Syria and boast that the UN relies on them as its primary source. But they are not disinterested. There is abundant evidence that they promote the 'rebel' or terrorist side of the conflict and that their funding is from organisations and countries aligned with US-NATO support for aggression in the region. They are in fact promoting war propaganda against Syria and it is amazing that people one would expect to be more discerning, take this on face value. In this article I try to find out why Tim Costello, of World Vision, came to accuse the Syrian government of killing more people than ISIS without taking into account that these deeds were actions by a national army defending its people from multiple assaults by violent gangs, including ISIS, many of them supported by US-NATO funding and arms.
"Question for Tim Costello: Why does World Vision ignore analysis on the war in Syria (it seems to me) and instead repeat the claims of 'rebel' supporters and western politicians with no scrutiny, and in so doing World Vision ignores experts, for example MIT's Prof Ted Postol and former UN weapons inspector Richard Lloyd http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1006045-possible-implications-of-bad-intelligence.html and more importantly it ignores millions of Syrians who take refuge in government controlled cities and towns, such as Damascus, Hama and Latakia? Australians should be aware of the terror and fear faced by those Syrians who don't support 'rebels', men with guns who depend on foreign money, clerics who incite the killings of civilians (leading to killing fields), foreign jihadis and the foreign policy of US neocons?" (Susan Dirgham on QandA facebook in response to Tim Costello's remarks on QandA of 14 September 2015.)
QandA, the very popular Australian TV program on public television, on 14 September 2015, dealt with the question of bombing ISIS in Syria without the Syrian government’s permission, supposedly at the invitation of Syria’s neighbour Iraq asking for help. (Program link here.)
World Vision's ambiguous message
Tim Costello, the CEO of the 'community development organisation World Vision', spoke generally against interventions and bombing in general, saying correctly that war survives on arms manufacture and that the US and Russia account for 60% of arms exports, and that the arms are funnelled by the US and Europe via Saudi Arabia and by Russia ‘with’ Iran. He stated that the war has now killed 250,000 people and that there are 16 m Syrians in need of humanitarian relief. Failing to note that Syrian Government is helping many millions itself, he said, “We are working there and in the camps.” He suggested that the war could only end if ‘Putin and Obama’ came to the decision not to send any more arms. He then repeated, apparently gratuitously, a new piece of war propaganda against the Syrian Government, with, “You’re right, Assad has killed, this year, seven times more people than ISIS has.”
Origin of war slogan circulated by mass media and 'trusted' 'authorities'
Now where did that ‘information’ come from and what did it mean? Although the same phrase was quoted as far and wide as the Washington Post[1] and the International Business Times, it seems to have come from two NGOs which profess to be neutral but which clearly support ‘rebel’ terrorism against the Syrian Government.
These organisations are the Syrian Network for Human Rights and Irin - a corporate subsidised branch of a UN publication.[2] They are 'responsible' for almost all 'fact and opinion' cited by the western mainstream and the UN on Syria.[3]
World Vision, by taking sides. could cause more deaths than it prevents
Tim Costello's remarks, arguing against war on the one hand, but demonising an elected government on the other hand, cancel each other out and pose no effective logical obstacle to Australia’s illegal entry into Syrian airspace. They show that the CEO of World Vision has taken sides in a war against a legally elected government which provides with the Syrian national army the only safe haven for 70 to 80 percent of the population against terrorists which ‘our side’ calls ‘rebels’, ‘moderates’ and Da’esh. World Vision should maintain impartiality in all wars because it expects to have access to people in need in territories at war and cannot be trusted if it takes sides. World Vision also solicits donations all over the world on the principle that it is a trustworthy force doing good in conflict zones and refugee camps. It was therefore alarming that Costello spoke against the elected Assad Government, whilst ostensibly talking down war.
Shadie Taled's logical and important challenge to war propaganda
On the same episode of QandA there was a video question from Shadie Taled, who said, under the heading, “Assad is fighting ISIS”, that, “Statistics suggest that most Syrians, my father included, support Dr Bashar Al Assad, even though he has been labelled by the West as a dictator, despite the lack of information and evidence to suggest so. If we genuinely cared about Syrian citizens and were serious about combating ISIS, why haven't we considered supporting Dr Assad who has been fighting ISIS for years? https://www.facebook.com/abcqanda/posts/10152989388771831
After this impressive videoed question/statement, the members of the ‘expert’ panel, to a man or woman, including famed 'peace' activist, Joan Baez, completely ignored this Mr Taled's burning question. It was a remarkable televised demonstration of ‘selective perception’; how people simply choose not to see or hear things that contradict a particular bias. However the same panel agreed with lengthy remarks from two members of the audience, who called for the bombing and removal of the Syrian Government.[4]
Syrian point of view suppressed
There were several Syrians in the audience who, like Mr Taled, held the opposite view and wanted to express this. We must remember that they had come to that studio in an effort to stop further destruction of their country. Although they had been invited to the studio, they were not given the chance. They were extremely disappointed, with one describing their treatment as ‘appalling’.
Experts or war-mules?
Although I am used to seeing and hearing constant propaganda about Syria on Australian and US media, I was dumbfounded by the crassness of the propaganda that came out of Tim Costello and other panelists’ mouths because I realised that it would be used to help justify the Australian airforce invasion of Syria on the flimsiest of pretexts and would decrease the ability of the Syrian Army to defend the Syrian people. To me there is no excuse for educated people to market propaganda in a war because they have every opportunity to find out the other side. Were none of these irresponsibly arrogant 'experts' capable of looking at RT or Iranian Press TV or the numerous citizen reports on you-tube or studying the many detailed interviews given by President Bashar al-Assad? Were they completely ignorant of the June 2014 elections where he was resoundingly re-elected in elections that were monitored by international observers who reported to the UN? Could they possibly be unaware of the role of our criminal ally, the grotesquely brutal Saudi Arabia dictatorship, in financing the attempted destruction of Syria and the obliteration of Yemen?
Each member of the panel came out damning the Syrian government and thereby providing positive propaganda for the Australian Government’s invasion of Syria purportedly in defense of Iraq, but with a stated desire to see the ‘Assad regime’ removed. The consequences of such a role could not just mean many millions more refugees and economic migrants from a devastated territory, but a new world war over this region so bitterly contested by world powers. In the short term it could mean the survival or obscene destruction of one of the oldest civilisations in the world and its people. It therefore seems to me that to repeat allegations that justify illegal invasion or comfort aggression by the questionable painting of a leader of an elected government as evil is a war crime.
NOTES
[1] The Washington Post used the remark in a big article about a battle in Douma,[1] which quotes its source as, "Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain."
[2] Note that anyone including many business organisations or governments may become partners and supporters of the United Nations and advertise themselves as such. All kinds of businesses do, including disaster capitalists, awful government departments and propaganda units. The UN has “corporate, government, community and media partners as well as our supporters whose generous support ensures the ongoing success of our many programs and activities.” That is not to say that there are not good things about the UN; just that you need to be sure which bit of the UN you are dealing with who their donors are.
Irin http://newirin.irinnews.org/our-team/, has 'partners' in major development organisations in Switzerland, Sweden, and indirectly via the Jynwel Foundation , which is a branch of ‘Jynwel Capital, an international investment and advisory firm’ that promotes an association with the United Nations. Irin's website carries frankly anti-Assad propaganda, such as this article, http://www.irinnews.org/report/101861/the-road-to-damascus-key-syrian-artery-under-threat
The Syrian network for Human Rights and Irin involved in promoting the Syrian Government as worse than ISIS describe themselves as impartial on their websites, but their statements elsewhere show them to be pro-‘rebel’; Prepared to accept US military strikes at any cost, including the destruction of Syria.
“But Fadel Abdul Ghani of the Syrian Network for Human Rights told me that he and his group feel that a likely post-attack surge in Syrian refugees and possible deaths resulting from U.S. strikes are still preferable to doing nothing.
[4] BOURAN ALMIZIAB: "They are - they are brutal. They are - they are the worst kind of people. We acknowledge that. But before ISIS, tens of thousands of Syrians were killed. Why wasn't there any kind of intervention before? Why is it only ISIS that's the lights are spot on ISIS? We were killed before that. We were killed in tens of thousands, massacres, chemicals, bombs. Everything you call - everything that's in the book, we were there. Tens of thousands of Syrians were killed in jails. They were starved. They were tortured and then they died slowly. Why is it only ISIS being targeted? Why isn't it the Assad regime targeted as well? [...]"
This is a letter to Malcolm Turnbull, Communications Minister, from Susan Dirgham of AMRIS. It draws his attention to the danger presented to Australia by biased reporting on Syria. Ms Dirgham points out that such biased reporting may have caused young Australians to join ISIS and other 'revolutionaries' in the mistaken impression that they were fighting for freedom. She also gives a link to where an Al-Jazeera reporter called for the genocide of Alawis in Syria and suggests that the tens of thousands of Alawis in Australia may not be immune from similar intimidation either. She asks Mr Turnbull to exercise some leadership in this matter. Candobetter.net Editor:We have updated this article (which initially contained the words of an email document sent yesterday) to reflect some changes in the wording of the hard copy which was sent today.
The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull
MP, Minister for Communications
PO Box 6022, House of Representatives
Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT 2600
21 May 2015
Dear Minister,
As you are Australia's Communications Minister, I urge you to give attention to a program broadcast this month on Al-Jazeera: #10;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULtNYSUqYHw&feature=youtu.be
The program targets an Arabic speaking audience, and it would have a significant number of viewers in Australia. The host of the Al-Jazeera program and one guest express support for the killing of Alawis in Syria. They do not exclude women and children.
Note, there is at least one petition being distributed protesting this incitement to genocide by the host of an Al-Jazeera program:
This call for genocide on Al-Jazeera may appear to be an aberration and as such dismissed by many. However, I contend that there is a tolerance for such vitriolic hatred within our own community and the groundwork for it has been partially laid by mainstream reporting of the Syrian conflict. (It is worth noting that prominent Al-Jazeera journalists have resigned in protest over that media outlet’s coverage of the conflict in Syria and Bahrain.)
In the last four years, I have contacted the ABC on numerous occasions to alert journalists to the distortion and bias in reports on Syria and to warn them that such reporting will encourage some in the community to support a violent jihad in Syria, something which can have repercussions in Australia. My last formal complaint was in regards to the bias in a report on AM. Despite the weight of my arguments and the implications of a mainstream broadcaster presenting militias intent on destroying the army of a secular society in a positive light, it was not upheld. http://susandirgham.wordpress.com
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, much of the reporting and official commentary on Syria has been framed in terms of 'a brutal Alawi regime oppressing the Sunni majority'. As the guest who stood up against the calls for genocide on the Al-Jazeera program explained, this does not reflect the reality of the Syrian government, the army or the conflict.
There must be some serious examination of the media presentation of the conflict in Syria and how that impacts Australians who support ISIS or al-Nusra in Syria. It would seem appropriate that you initiate it.
Like Syria, Australia is a diverse and secular society. It too can suffer from hatreds and divisions stirred up by malevolent forces.
For example, there are tens of thousands of people with Alawi Muslim backgrounds in Australia who have come from Syria, Lebanon or Turkey. Unbeknownst to most of us, they may already be facing intimidation from sections of the community who are influenced by calls to hate, both direct and indirect, from a range of sources.
On the other hand, retired U.S. General Wesley Clark has claimed that friends and allies of America created ISIS in order to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLqaSZPe98
What is the truth? At times it seems the world is edging towards an abyss and we are being taken there with our minds, our eyes and our mouths closed.
An esteemed professor at M.I.T., Professor Theodore Postol, and a former U.N. weapons inspector, Mr Richard Lloyd, published a paper that contended that the Syrian army could not have fired the weapons that purportedly carried sarin and killed over 300 people in Damascus in August 2013. Unsubstantiated claims that the Syrian government was responsible for this 'massacre' and others have contributed to many people's bafflement regarding the war and to their disengagement in regards to supporting peace or the war's victims. On the other hand, the claims have led to the active engagement of others on the side of the terror. The implications of Postol and Lloyd's findings are extremely significant, yet our public or corporate media eschews them. Here is a link to the Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd report: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1006045-possible-implications-of-bad-intelligence.html
To unite Australians and to fear the future less, it is vital that we espouse and live values that reflect our common humanity and which can inspire us all. Organizations cannot display courage; individuals must.
In the past four years, many brave people in Syria have been committed to the work of reconciliation. If Syria is not to become a failed state and its people destitute and brutalized for decades to come, these efforts must be acknowledged and supported. "The Babbila Reconciliation: a Light at the End of Syria’s Dark Tunnel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSS-AhrqGps
As Communications Minister and as someone committed to reconciliation, you are in an excellent position to take a lead. I urge you to give attention to the call for genocide on the Al-Jazeera program and to respond appropriately. Also, with the increasing number of reports of Australians being lured to Syria to support designated terrorist organizations, there is an urgent need for an independent parliamentary enquiry into the coverage of the conflict in Syria by our Public Service Broadcasters.
Yours faithfully,
Susan Dirgham
National Coordinator of "Australians for Reconciliation in Syria" (AMRIS)
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