Conflict

Articles

Lethal Loopholes

In Ottawa, legislation that would have halted Canadian military support for US-Israeli genocide in Gaza fails. The GPM speaks with Rachel Small, Canada Organizer for World Without War. And, the second part of a conversation about critical education with Canadian academic, Henry Giroux.


Paradise Lost

Sustainable development and a stable climate – these are human rights. The GPM speaks with Bonny Ibhawoh, Chair of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development. And, the Chagossian people have a right to return to their ancestral homeland, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Big problem: the UK and US have turned it into a huge military base — launch pad for US wars around the planet. The GPM speaks with author David Vine about the plight and human rights struggle of the Chagossian people.


Genocide Infection

Amidst the death and destruction Israel-USA has wrought in its genocidal war on Gaza, infectious disease now plagues the besieged enclave – diseases few if any drugs can treat. We speak with the author of a recent Lancet report — Multidrug-resistant bacteria amid health-system collapse in Gaza.


Criminal Kingpins

Criminal arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant; more charges and warrants in the pipeline. A conversation about the ICC with British barrister Toby Cadman. And, a conversation with Francesca Albanese, about US-Israeli crimes, impunity, and justice


Naming Crimes

Israel-USA’s genocidal war on Gaza enters its 21st month. The most influential Western states wring their hands and mouth empty words about peace, while continuing to sell weapons to Israel. And they refuse to name Israel’s crimes. British legal scholar Penny Green talks about this, and about an innovative Israel combat aim: creating a population of disabled people.


Crippling Those Who Survive

Israel-USA’s genocidal war on Gaza enters its 21st month. The most influential Western states wring their hands, mouth empty words about peace, and continue to sell weapons to Israel. At a People’s Tribunal, late last month, a pair of doctors described what they witnessed at Gaza’s hospitals — all but destroyed by US, German and British bombs, missiles, and tank rounds — and a British legal scholar shines a light on an innovative Israel combat aim: creating a population of disabling people.


Domicide

Ceasefire in Gaza: respite for those who’ve survived Israel’s genocidal onslaught – perhaps. And homeless, amid the ruins left behind by US bombs and missiles. The GPM speaks with Paula Gaviria Betancur, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons. And, an intensive care pediatrician tells the UN Security Council about Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health care system.


No Reason to Cheer

A conversation about the downfall of Bashar al-Assad with Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, and about the global nuclear menace with Columbia chemist and nuclear arms analyst Ivana Nikolic Hughes


Corruption, Crimes & Incompetence

In the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s downfall at the hands of a small army of jihadist rebels — no doubt aided and abetted by the US and Israel (aka Israel-USA) — the GPM speaks with Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs. From events in Syria, our conversation turns to the non-existent rule of law, prospects for Palestine once Donald Trump moves into the White House, and the nature of competent leadership.


Scholasticide

Scholasticide: bombing schools, libraries and cultural centers. Killing students and teachers. Sound like genocide? It is. The GPM speaks about Israeli scholasticide in Gaza with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, and with a Palestinian academic doing top-drawer scientific research in the West Bank, against all odds. And, we play back voices at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, talking about Israel’s attempt to pulverize the foundation of Palestinian society, its learning institutions and its children.



Wages of Impunity

A conversation about Palestine-Israel with Dutch-Palestinian commentator Mouin Rabbani. The GPM met up with Rabbani in The Hague for an extended discussion about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Palestinian people’s depleted, divided and leaderless ‘national liberation movement’, the much-touted ‘Axis of Resistance’, and about what the future holds – for the Palestinian people, Israel and the wider Middle East.


Staatsräson

Almost a million uncommitted US voters want Kamala Harris to stand up for an arms embargo on Israel, and an end to the Gaza genocide. The GPM speaks about this, and more, with CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin. And, why does Germany criminalize pro-Palestine discourse? It’s not about Auschwitz, it’s about NATO. The GPM speaks with Wieland Hoban, Chairman of Germany’s Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East — Jüdische Stimme.



Killing the Future

Killing the future in Gaza. Reducing it to rubble. Forcibly transferring its people into filthy tent camps, or onto the street. Starving them. Hunger and disease go hand in hand. The GPM speaks with Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and authority on human-engineered food crises, and with Margaret Harris, global spokesperson for the World Health Organization.


Gaza, the West Bank & Belgium

Navi Pillay, chair of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, reports to the Human Rights Council in Geneva about high Israeli and Hamas crimes — crimes one Palestinian and a good Israeli friend know too well. Atta Jaber and Jeff Halper describe settler land theft and violence in occupied Hebron. And, ugly crimes recalled, a century later, in German-occupied Belgium.


Scholasticide

Scholasticide. Bombing schools, libraries and cultural centers. Killing students and teachers. Sound like genocide? It is. The GPM speaks about Israeli scholasticide in Gaza with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, and with a Palestinian academic doing top-drawer scientific research in the West Bank — against all odds. And, we play back voices at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, talking about Israel’s attempt to pulverize the foundation of Palestinian society — its learning institutions and its children.


United States of War

The United States of War: The United States of America has been waging wars for all but about a dozen years in its 250-year history, some of them genocidal. The GPM speaks with David Vine, author of a book called The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State. American military bases make its wars – and its nuclear weapons arsenal — possible. The Marshall Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, were the scene of 67 US nuclear weapon tests between 1946 and 1958, and continue to act as a bullseye for US intercontinental ballistic missiles.


Genocide in Gaza

South Africa versus Israel at the International Court of Justice. Lawyers for South Africa depose. And, weaponizing genocide justice. Western powers accuse official enemies of committing it, while defending their dearest friend and ally. A conversation with Canadian genocide scholar William Schabas.


Algorithmic Warfare

Artificial Intelligence — to translate voices or access your bank account; to select targets to bomb and a few people to kill, along with thousands of others you weren’t targeting. The GPM speaks with the Realities of Algorithmic Warfare Project. Wherever you are in occupied Palestine, Israeli soldiers target everyone and everything, children’s theaters included. Last July, the GPM spoke with Mustafa Sheta, founding director and General Manager of the Jenin Freedom Theater. Today, he sits in an Israeli jail, one of 8000 Palestinian political prisoners.


Canada Stands On Guard

The Canadian military shops for surveillance drones that can kill. The GPM speaks with arms researcher Matt Korda. The Canadian government slaps sanctions on a Russian discussion group. Who’s disinforming whom, University of Manitoba political scientist Radhika Desai asks? And, Canadian activist Dimitri Lascaris calls on real leftists to challenge fake peaceniks on the right.


Everybody Crying Mercy

Terrorist atrocities in Israel, Israeli atrocities in return. Seeds sown, reaped, then sown again. Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, the US vs. Russia and China … What sense to be made?


Bosses Old & New

In West Africa, French colonialism officially ended in the 1960s. Six decades later, neocolonialism lives on. These days, America is the world’s preeminent imperial power and NATO its most powerful tool. In Cambodia, French colonists are long gone. Military chiefs and their rich clients rule the roost, much to the detriment of biodiverse ecosystems.


Poisonous Legacies

Uranium mining in Niger: a filthy, toxic business. Fifty years after the end of America’s war on Vietnam, traces of US chemical weapons linger. And, the Anthropocene. A geologist talks about humanity’s transformation of Planet Earth.




Palestinian Journalists Under Fire

Basel Adra is a 27-year-old Palestinian journalist from the village of Mufagara, in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern Palestinian West Bank. Basel is an accredited journalist with the Israeli publication +972. On July 15, while covering a Jewish settler attack on his village, Basel was detained by Israeli military forces. After several hours of abuse — bound and blindfolded under a hot sun — Basel was released.


Green Planet Monitor Podcast

Nothing woolly-headed or Utopian about it: A universal, guaranteed basic income. A hundred years later, memories of war that do not fade. And, one of humanity’s great revolutions – the 1950s Great Acceleration has transformed Earth’s surface completely, hurtling our planet into an uncertain future.



Green Planet Monitor Podcast

A US Supreme Court ruling throws American wetlands under the bus. In the oven, wheat and corn flour turn into bread and tortillas; spread on farm fields, rock flour reacts with carbon dioxide, turning into carbonates that get stored – forever. And, sharp questions off his tongue and a smartphone in hand, a Canadian activist ambushes politicians.


Green Planet Monitor Podcast

“War is not healthy for children and other living things.” It isn’t healthy for Planet Earth’s climate system either. The cradle of crop diversity here on Planet Earth – Ethiopia. And, Israel-Palestine – a discreet toponym, six syllables tripping off the tongue.


Militarism & Climate Breakdown

The connections between America’s permanent war economy, its military-industrial complex and climate system breakdown are the subject of a campaign by US-antiwar group CODEPINK. The GPM talks about militarism and Earth’s rising climate crisis with CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.


Green Planet Monitor Podcast

Turning tall cane stalks into small, supple reeds for woodwind instruments. Decarbonizing construction; tons of carbon are embodied in buildings; there’s plenty of ways to decarbonize them. And, the Palestinian village of Jubbet al-Dibh. Last week, the Israeli military bulldozed its elementary school!.



Green Planet Monitor Podcast

Young Israelis who refuse to serve in the military. And, as climate catastrophe sweeps the planet, in the Swedish city, Goteborg, engineers and students are designing the sort of building where people can live – comfortably — without squandering Earth’s limited resources, or polluting its atmosphere


Pandemic Reporting Police

No newsroom is too small to evade the vigilant and exacting gaze of staunchly pro-Israel “Honest” Reporting Canada. The PEI Guardian, based in Charlottetown, received a furious, hateful blast after publishing a letter about Covid-19 in occupied Palestine. Listen to what Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem has to say on the matter.


Robert Fisk in Winnipeg

In a hyper-polarized world where everyone disagrees about everything and even the most straightforward affairs seem uncertain, an eminently erudite, well-traveled and literate critic is liable to draw a large crowd. Robert Fisk, dean of Middle East journalism, is one such man.


The A-Word

That awful A-word, preceded by the adjective ‘Israeli’. Israel boosters scream ‘antisemitism’ when they hear or read the phrase. Mainstream media avoid it like the plague. The international legal community has no difficulty likening Israel’s system of governance in the colonized West Bank to the South African prototype. Listen to my conversation with Professor Dugard.










Silwan

As Donald Trump ponders whether or not to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem – endorsing Israel’s claim to the city as its “eternal, undivided capital” – Israel moves heaven and earth to cleanse East Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents.





A Village Called Battir

Standing on the edge of little Battir, I feasted my eyes on an astonishing sight: an amphitheater of ancient stone terraces covered in a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, herbs and trees — including olive trees over a thousand years old.


Global Palestine

Israel plays a host of key roles in today’s troubled world: Jewish homeland. Bastion of peace and democracy in the troubled Middle East. Clever “start-up nation” the world can turn to for smart solutions. Israeli-American activist Jeff Halper pinpoints a darker niche.



Seven Days in Hebron

I took off for Hebron on a Sunday morning. Throngs of Israeli soldiers filled the bus station, soldiers on the move, barely more than teenagers, large backpacks and automatic weapons flung over their shoulders, smart phones in their hands.









Ghosts of Hate Radio

This coming spring will mark the twenty-second anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. An estimated eight hundred thousand were killed by ethnic Hutu extremists armed with knives, hoes and machetes. Over the radio, venom flowed.



Al-Quds

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/AlQuds.mp3

Universities are engines of higher learning – also of national development and prosperity. No one knows this better than Israel – home to some of the world’s most prestigious universities. Palestinian schools struggle under Israeli occupation.






Mubarak Awad

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/MubarakAwad.mp3

According to Mahatma Gandhi, nothing poses more of a threat to an oppressive regime than well organized, non-violent resistance. Mubarak Awad — some call him the Palestinian Gandhi — is a case in point.


The Cage

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/TheCage.mp3

The largest of Israel’s hundred or so checkpoints, Qualandia — between northern Jerusalem and the road to Ramallah — is a masterpiece in population engineering. Israeli Machsom Watch activists keep an eye on what happens there.




Hebron Settlers

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/HebronSettlers.MP3

Jewish settlers in the Palestinian city of Hebron wear skull caps and carry Glock pistols. They have forcibly expanded their settlements, closed Palestinian shops, and expelled residents.


African Lion Down

Some thoughts on Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. Under Gaddafi’s autocratic rule Libya improved greatly, especially for the poor and women, with a distribution of wealth hitherto unknown in any country on the continent. But he was a dictator.



Afghan Women

http://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropbox.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/AfghanWomen.mp3

Young girls run and shout here at the Afghans4Tomorrow girl’s school, much as they do everywhere in the world. But the sight is unusual in Afghanistan because these girls wear school uniforms, not all-encompassing burkas.



Palestinian Rappers

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/PalestinianRappers.mp3

Palestinian rap is only about a decade old, but it has spread throughout Israel, Palestine, and now to Lebanon. The rappers look to Tupac Shakur and the socially conscious rappers, and reject the gangsta image so popular in the west.


A Marine Returns

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/MarineReturns.mp3

Almost a hundred thousand U.S. troops now serve in Afghanistan, but the insurgency continues and expands. GPM contributor Reese Erlich visited with a group of anti-war activists, including an American marine who had fought there.



Lebanese Wine

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/LebaneseWine.mp3

Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley has produced wine for over four thousand years. That tradition continues today, with Lebanon boasting some world-class reds. But vintners have had to deal with fundamentalists, civil war, and invading armies.


Land and People

http://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/www.greenplanetmonitor.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/landandpeople.mp3

Southern Lebanese farmers are in a bind. On the one hand, Israeli cluster bombs continue to pollute their fields. On the other hand, they’ve been abandoned by Lebanon’s political elite, who prefer to see Lebanon import its food.



New Horizon

https://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/314577/GPM%20III/Audio%20stories/ExInsurgents.mp3

Of all the conflicts in Latin America, none was more brutal or costly in human lives than the forty-year civil war in Guatemala. Today, former rebels are presenting their perspective of the struggle–to tourists.



Farming in Palestine

http://media.blubrry.com/thegreenbluesshow/www.greenplanetmonitor.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/palestinian_farming.mp3

Palestinian farmers face a myriad of challenges. In the “West Bank,” Israel’s so-called “Security Barrier” has walled them off from their olive and vegetable groves. Farmers in Gaza are liable to be shot by soldiers manning Israel’s “security” perimeter.