Is British Imperialist Agenda Pushing Migrants to Rwanda Camps?

Jenin : The Never-ending Battle

Video Clips Document Horrendous Massacres

by Syria’s Assad

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Is British Imperialist Agenda Pushing Migrants to Rwanda Camps ? www.majalla.com

Editorial On April 2022 ,14, Britain and Rwanda had officially signed an agreement that will round up and relocate illegal migrants – mainly single men – seeking to settle in Britain, to refugee holding facilities 6,000 kilometres away in another continent to await the processing of their papers: Rwanda in Africa.

The deal was signed between Britain’s home secretary, Priti Patel, and Vincent Biruta, Rwanda›s minister of foreign affairs, during a visit to Kigali in April and Britain has even paid Rwanda an initial 156$ million for a five-year trial plan.

Britain will also pay Rwanda for each migrant the African nation accepts.

In the cover story, Meera Ravi writes how Britain’s imperialist ambitions dictate Rwanda asylum policy. Ravi said that comparing the Rwanda deal with the safe haven opened up to Ukrainian refugees in recent weeks, it is clear that UK immigration policy is biased in terms of race, religion and skill-set.

A stabbing rampage took place in Elad town near Tel Aviv on Thursday night, killing at least three people and wounding four others before the attacker fled in a vehicle, Israeli authorities said.

Police said they suspected it was a Palestinian militant attack and launched a massive search for the assailant, setting up roadblocks and dispatching a helicopter. The stabbing, coming on Israel›s Independence Day, was the latest in a string of deadly attacks in Israeli cities in recent weeks. The identity of the assailant was not yet known at the time of writing.

In the politics section, Suzan Quitaz writes about how since March 22 there have been a number of terrorist attacks in Israel killing at least 15 Israelis including two Arab Israeli police officers.

There was a lot of speculation in the media about the timing, the possible connection between the attacks and motivations. Furthermore, experts on Israeli and Palestinian affairs were trying to detect a common denominator or explaining the reasoning behind these attacks.

Meanwhile in Syria, the Syrian security authorities continue to release dozens of detainees after the Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad issued an amnesty for the “terrorist crimes” committed and for which Syrians were convicted before the decree was issued last Saturday, April 2022 ,30.

Jiwan Soz speaks to families of victims in horrendous attacks by the Syrian regime. The families tell Majalla how tourte is preventing them from recognizing their children.

In the culture section, Maryam Raafat writes about “Awalem Khafeya” which is an independent contemporary belly dance troupe formed by a group of women who are challenging societal taboos.

Awalem is an Arabic synonym for a dancer, and Khafeya means hidden, referring to covering the face sometimes while dancing upon the request of some of the band›s dancers.

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla.com. As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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Ghassan Charbel The Editor Mostafa El-Dessouki HH Saudi Research and Marketing (UK) Ltd 10th Floor Building 7 Chiswick Business Park 566 Chiswick High Road London W4 5YG Tel : +44 207 831 8181 Fax: +44 207 831 2310

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

26 Questions over Exact Relation between Trump & Putin

Issue 1903- May- 06/05/2022

60 The Challenge of a Lifetime

44 Dancing to Break Stereotypes 5

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36 Elon Musk Isn›t Buying Twitter to Defend Free Speech

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The Haunting of Prince William

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Healthcare Workers Continue to Burn Out

58 Learning to Right a Wrong

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Eid al-Fitr in Al-Seddik Mosque Cairo

People gather to attend Eid al-Fitr prayers outside Al-Seddik Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, 02 May 2022. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid alFitr, the three days festival marking the end of Ramadan. Eid al-Fitr is one of the two major holidays in the Islamic calendar. EPA

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Syrian celebrations Eid al-Fitr

Syrian boys play with plastic toy guns during Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, near the Turkish-held Syrian city of al-Bab in the eastern countryside of Aleppo province on May 2, 2022./AFP

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SAU

LEBANON

EGYPT Egypt's Suez Canal recorded its highest monthly revenue to date in April, reaping $629 million in ship transit fees, the authority managing the waterway said, as traffic rebounded from the impact of the pandemic.

The monthly revenue in April was 13.6% higher than a year ago, canal authority chairman Osama Rabie said in a statement.

The total number of ships that passed through the 193 km (120 miles) waterway that links the Red and the Mediterranean seas increased by 6.3% from a year ago to 1,929 vessels.

They carried cargoes weighing in total 114.5 million tons, the highest monthly net cumulative payload to transit the waterway, he said.

A Lebanese probe into alleged embezzlement and money-laundering by the central bank governor and his brother was set to access new account information on the brother on Thursday, a development that could advance the investigation.

Central Bank Chief Riad Salameh is facing judicial probes in Lebanon and at least five European nations into the alleged embezzlement of at least $330 million in public funds by him and his younger brother, Raja.

Both have denied the accusations.

On Thursday, the Central Bank’s special investigations commission agreed to hand over account information on Raja Salameh to Lebanon’s top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, Riad Salameh confirmed to Reuters.

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Saudi Arab possibility billion dep extending joint state agency SP Last year, Pakistan's foreign res account d low as $10 dire need

AUDI ARABIA

bia and Pakistan will discuss the y of supporting the kingdom's $3 posit in Pakistan's central bank by g its term "or through other options," a ement carried by Saudi state news PA said on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia deposited $3 billion in s central bank to help support its serves. With a yawning current deficit and foreign reserves falling to as 0.8 billion, the South Asian nation is in of external finances.

UAE The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) said on Wednesday it decided to increase its base rate by 50 basis points to 2.25% effective from Thursday, in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve's move as it seeks to fend off inflation at multi-decade highs.

The bank said it would maintain the rate on borrowing short-term liquidity from the CBUAE through all standing credit facilities at 50 bps above the base rate.

IRAQ A series of dust storms across central and southern Iraq have led to thousands of Iraqis attending hospitals and clinics to seek treatment for breathing problems, medical officials said on Thursday.

During the latest storm, which began overnight on Thursday and covered the capital Baghdad and many other areas in a thick haze, at least 3,000 people sought medical help, hospital workers in several governorates said.

Iraq has seen an increasing number of dust, sand, and windstorms in recent years, including several in recent weeks. Most Iraqis say that cannot remember experiencing so many storms in such a short space of time.

IRAN Iran called on Monday for a new meeting "as soon as possible" in the talks that have been held in Vienna aimed at restoring its frayed 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

Tehran has been engaged in negotiations with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly and the United States indirectly to revive the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"It is appropriate that a face-to-face meeting is held as soon as possible," foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told his weekly press conference.

"It is not yet decided where and when to have this meeting and at what level it should be held, but it is on the agenda."

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A WEEK ACROS CANADA.

U.S. U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he would speak with other leaders from the Group of Seven advanced economies this week about potential additional sanctions against Russia over its continuing and intensifying war in Ukraine.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States was in constant discussions with its partners about further sanctions and could take "additional actions" to pressure Moscow.

At a Wall Street Journal conference, Yellen would not preview any specific actions under consideration, but stressed that further measures were likely "if Russia continues this war against Ukraine."

American pharmaceutical company Moderna will build a vaccine factory in Montreal, its first outside of the United States, the company and government officials announced.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Trudeau said the factory will be operational as soon as 2024, will employ up to 300 people and able to produce 100 million doses of mRNA vaccines a year.

“It also will have a significant impact in the research that they’re doing on a range of illnesses,” Trudeau said. “We talked about Alzheimer’s, we talk about cancers, we talk about the range of things that messenger RNA is able to deliver to keep Canadians and people around the world healthy.”

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the CDN$180-million ($140.5 million) factory will better prepare Quebec for future pandemics by reinforcing domestic supply chains and vaccine independence.

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ETHIOPIA.

Ethiopian officials say they have arrested 76 suspects following un that erupted in the capital, Addis Ababa, during Eid al-Fitr prayers o Monday.

The unrest followed days of tensio between the East African nation’s Christians and Muslims in various parts of the country after at least Muslims were killed on April 26 in northern city of Gondar.

Muslim representatives charged t extremist Christian groups carried the killings and a dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed in Gond tourist destination and one of Ethiopia’s largest cities with more 300,000 people.

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nrest

UKRAINE. CHINA.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday the problem of global food security could not be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production and Russian food and fertilizer output to the world market.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has added to volatility in financial markets, sending commodity prices higher and affecting logistics, potentially derailing the economic recovery from COVID-19 in many countries including Nigeria.

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INDIA. India registered about 475,000 more total deaths in 2020 than the previous year, government data released months ahead of schedule on Tuesday showed, as the World Health Organization readies its estimates of excess COVID-19 deaths whose methodology New Delhi has opposed.

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The Chinese capital Beijing shut dozens of metro stations and bus routes on Wednesday in its campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19 and avoid the fate of Shanghai where millions of residents have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.

New evidence has emerged that China's uncompromising battle against the coronavirus, believed to have emerged in a market in the city of Wuhan in late 2019, is undermining its growth and hurting the international companies invested there.

Late on Tuesday, another city announced work-from-home and other COVID curbs for the coming week. The central city of Zhengzhou, home to 12.6 million people and a factory of Apple's iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, joins dozens of big cities in full or partial lockdown.

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Is British Imperialist Agenda Pushing Migrants to Rwanda Camps ?

Inhumane Subcontracting of Immigrants Calls UK’s Human Rights Intentions into Question

By Meera Ravi In March, the UK government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (which is clumsily shortened to DLUHC) and the British Home Office jointly announced that individuals,

families, charities or businesses – in short, just about anybody – can sponsor Ukrainian refugees to escape the war and come to the UK for an initial period of 12 months. This was fol-lowed by a slew of feel-good PR photos of Britons welcoming Ukrainians in railway stations with warm

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hugs as they got off the trains, underscoring how Britain is doing its bit to help underdog Ukraine win its fight against Goliath Russia and how the UK is joining the rest of EU in taking the side of Ukraine.

Contrast this to the shocking announcement on April 14, 2022, that Britain and Rwanda had officially signed an agreement that will round up and relo-cate illegal migrants – mainly single men – seeking to settle in Britain, to refugee holding facilities 6,000 kilometres away in another continent to await the processing of their papers: Rwanda in Africa. As if that is not enough, the fine print says that these relocated refugees shall be ‘encour-aged’ to continue to stay in Rwanda for a further five years after their pa-pers are approved and their immigration status is regularised. The system is not unlike the old practice of shipping out toxic waste from developed countries to Third World landfills and pretending that the payment for the service was adequate “development fees”.

British home secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta sign the policy to house illegal migrants to UK in Rwanda detention centres.

“Africa is both struggling to develop amid myriad environmental, social and economic problems and is rich in resources. human rights activists around the world and even religious lead-ers like the Archbishop of Canterbury are adding their (raised) voices to the argument. In his Easter sermon, the Archbishop Justin Welby — the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church — criticized the policy saying, “Subcon-tracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God.”

The policy targets mainly asylum seekers who cross into British waters via the English Channel in small boats. More than 4,500 The deal was signed between Britain’s home migrants have crossed the English Chansecretary, Priti Patel, and Vincent Biruta, nel from France to Britain in small boats Rwanda›s minister of foreign affairs, dur- this year, four times more than the total this ing a visit to Kigali in April and Britain has time last year. Overcrowded and with-out even paid Rwanda an initial $156 million for safety measures like life rafts, there have a five-year trial plan. Britain will also pay been dozens of fatalities, in-cluding 27 miRwanda for each migrant the African nation grants who drowned when their boat capaccepts. sized off the north-ern French coast in November 2021.

While the UK government has promised smooth operations, it is unclear how asylum The British government clearly knows that seekers relocated from the UK might be ac- the prospect of being sent to Rwanda, which commodated in Rwanda, beyond temporary is not exactly known for respecting human plans to convert a former hostel into a de- rights, is repug-nant to migrants because a ten-tion centre. There is also no clear idea of key explanation for the policy was that it will what will happen to those who are not grant- deter asylum-seekers from choosing the UK. ed asylum.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that the UK is “a beacon of openness and genComparing the Rwanda deal, then, with the erosity”. He lauded the great British tradisafe haven opened up to Ukrainian refugees tion of offering sanctuary to those who seek in recent weeks, it is clear that UK immigra- it through legal routes while outlining how tion policy is biased in terms of race, reli- he intends to curb what he termed illegal migion and skill-set. The Rwanda policy is gration. He has already suggested that the wrong in so many ways that it has aroused Rwanda scheme a prototype which could be the ire of refugee support organiza-tions and replicated elsewhere.

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“The persistent circumventing of our laws and immigration rules and the reality of a system that is open to gain and to criminal exploitation has eroded public support for Britain›s asylum system and those who genuinely need access to it,” Priti Patel said. “Putting evil people, smugglers, out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our dis-posal and also to find new solutions.

She promised that asylum-seekers relocated to Rwanda “..would have their asylum claims decided and those who are resettled will be given the support, including up to five years

“The Rwanda scheme presents troubling echoes of the UK’s imperial past; it tasks Afri-ca yet again with working to the UK’s interests for only shortterm financial benefits.”

of training, with the help of integration, accommodation, [and] health care so that they can resettle and thrive.”

Further, the UK-Rwanda immigrant relocation deal was painted as an eco-nomic winwin for both countries by Rwanda›s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta who told reporters that “This [plan] will not only help them, but it will benefit Rwanda and Rwandans and help to advance our own de-velopment.”

Refugee rights groups say that the first objection to the scheme is that it strips refugees of their right, as afforded by the International Refugee Convention, to have their cases considered in the country in which they have chosen to seek ref-uge. It denies them agency. It doubles their displacement. And it exposes them to prolonged uncertainty and further risk, namely, Rwanda’s worrying human rights record. In fact, London itself has flagged human rights concerns about Rwanda and in 2018, in particular, a dozen refugees were reportedly killed by Rwandan police after protests outside the offices of the UN high commissioner for refugees in Karongi district.

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Migrants arrive into the Port of Dover onboard a Border Force vessel after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, December 17, 2021. REUTERS/ Henry Nicholls

A migrant with a child walks past members of the British military as he ar-rives at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

However, having signed the agreement, Patel says Rwanda is “..a safe and se-cure country with the respect for the rule of law and clearly a range of institu-tions that evolved and developed over time.” She also said Rwanda already has resettled almost 130,000 refugees from multiple countries.

While the UK government has said that the scheme will apply mainly to undocu-mented single men and strike at the root of people smuggling, research shows that it does not cut back on migrant numbers.

“If that is the case, what you might find is that the next boats coming across the Channel will carry those groups which are not going to go to Rwanda — we might see increased numbers of women and children com-ing on that boat,» said Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, «And the concern there is if those boats sink or if they run into trouble, you’re likely to have a much higher human toll if there are more women and children on the boat.”

James Wilson, deputy director of the group Detention Action, called the policy “inhumane, expensive and ineffective”.

“The U.K. is a signatory to the refugee con-

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“Subcontracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God.” – Archbishop of Canterbury. vention. We have a legal and moral obligation to be assessing any asylum claims to the U.K. in the U.K.” But what is the alternative to the very real issue of illegal migration? This kind of subcontracting of ‘migration pressure’ is not new.

Britain has his-torically practiced similar management of prison overcrowding by shipping off criminals and prisoners to distant colonies like Australia. More recently, until 2014, Australia sent thousands of migrants to offshore processing centers in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus Island. Many asylum-seekers are still being held in these facilities. The pol-icy failed to deter migrants, says Madeline Gleeson.

“In the first year of offshore processing being

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in place, more people arrived in Australia by boat than at any other time in recorded history of asylum-seekers arriving that way,” she said. “(In the case of Britain), There will be a cap on how many people can go to Rwanda. And so, the U.K. risks run-ning into the problem we found here in Australia, which is very quickly — within 12 weeks of this policy starting — we had already maxed out the full capacity offshore.”

Going by earlier patterns, there are also concerns that the migrants who are sent to Rwanda will simply try again to reach Brit-

“The U.K. is a signatory to the refugee convention. We have a legal and moral obligation to be assessing any asylum claims to the U.K. in the U.K.” – Deputy Director of the Detention Action.

ain, thereby fueling the human trafficking gangs that operate from Africa to Europe and on to-ward the English Channel.

Wilson said the government should provide safe routes for refugees to reach Britain. “A humanitarian visa system, so that those who have reached France and are looking to claim asylum in the U.K. and having some grounds for doing that would be able to apply for a visa to come to the U.K. to have their asylum claim considered. If we put that kind of scheme in place, which we think is entirely practicable, it would end the need for Channel crossings,” Britain says asylum-seekers should apply for refugee status in the first safe country they arrive in, including France. The United Nations disagrees. “There›s nothing in international law that says you have to ask in the first country you encounter,” said Larry Bottinick, a senior legal officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR understands the frustra-tion of the U.K. government on that and is not in favor of Channel crossing, of course. We think there›s more effective ways and more humane ways to address this,” Bottinick told The Associated Press.

The EU, meanwhile, is in talks, via its border

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Members of Britain›s Border Force tow into the Port of Dover an inflatable boat used by migrants who were rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022. REUTERS/ Peter Nicholls

and coastguard agency Frontex, with the government of Niger to establish frontier zones on African soil. With the support of the International Organization for Migration, the aim is to keep undocumented people there while their cases are processed.

This attempt to move the immigration process offshore is part of a wider strategy deployed by the powerful governments of richer nations, from Aus-tralia to the EU, to discourage unwanted arrivals by creating conditions that are hostile or inhumane.

Writing in The Conversation, Parvati Nair, Professor of Hispanic, Cultural and Migration Studies at Queen Mary University of London, has said, that re-search shows that plans like these are a strategy of empowerment for already powerful nations. They allow them to offload, back to poorer countries, un-wanted migrants, especially those who come from outside of Europe. At the same, they give those richer nations a political and economic foothold in re-gions of interest.

Decoding the implications of the deal, Nair says, the UK’s offer of $156 million to kickstart this partnership is attractive for Rwanda precisely because it comes under the ae-gis of development. The country is ranked 160th out of 189 in the 2021 Human Devel-opment

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Index, has long been a recipient of UK foreign aid and international assistance and already hosts nearly 130,000 refugees, 90% of whom remain in refugee camps and transit centres. The scheme would help elevate Rwanda’s international profile as an engaged partner in global migration and refugee governance.

Africa is both struggling to develop amid myriad environmental, social and economic prob-lems and is rich in resources, Nair says.

Not only does Rwanda have a mining industry in tin ore, gold, tungsten ore and methane, it is also home to Lake Kivu, which is enormously rich in gases and a potential source for energy generation.

The Rwanda scheme presents troubling echoes of the UK’s imperial past: the colonial transportation of slaves and indentured workers across continents and seas; the em-powerment of the imperial heartland through the violence that accompanied its histori-cal ravages, for which reparation can never be complete. In a repeat of colonial politics, it tasks Africa yet again with working to the UK’s interests for only short-term financial benefits.

In the long term, Africa’s needs - and that of the asylum-seekers - remain unmet.

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Jenin: The Never-ending Battle Resistance Surges Again in Rebel Epicenter

By Suzan Quitaz Since March 22, there have been a number of terrorist attacks in Israel killing at least 15 Israelis including two Arab Israeli police officers.

On Thursday evening, towards the end of Independence Day, with many people gathering outdoors to celebrate

the country’s 74th anniversary. A fifth attack took place in the Ultra-Orthodox city of Elad near Petah Tikva. At least three people were killed and four wounded.

Since then there has been a lot of speculations in the media about the timing, the possible connection between the attacks and motivations. Furthermore, experts on Israeli

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and Palestinian affairs were trying to detect a common denominator or explaining the reasoning behind these attacks. But within the Israeli intelligence community there was no surprise when it’s emerged that two of the five assailants were from Jenin. For the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s intelligence agencies, Jenin has always been a source of violence since its very establishment. According to many military experts if the situation in Jenin is not brought under control Jenin’s trouble can flame tensions to spill over and can lead to a major military confrontation.

The terrorist attack in Beni Brak on March 29, 2022, was carried out by Dhia Hamarsha who came from the village of Yaabed, south of Jenin. His attack and the 7 of April attack on Tel Aviv, also car-ried out by another terrorist from Jenin. These two attacks clearly shows that the battle of Jenin which was supposedly won 20 years ago was not won. Once again Jenin is of being the epic center of West Bank terrorism and according to Israeli authorities at least 23 of the 60 suicide bombers that attacked Israel come from Jenin, especially its refugee camp, according to Israel, more than any other city in the West Bank.

Twenty years ago, precisely on March 29, 2002, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large-scale military operation known as Operation Defensive Shield, in several West bank towns, including Jenin refugee camp. In one month alone, March 2002, more than 138 Israelis lost their lives and more than 683 were wounded. On 27 of March, 2002, just two days before the start of the IDF military operation, a Palestinian suicide bomber disguised as a religious Jewish woman entered the ground floor of the Park Hotel in Netanya, where a Passover Seder dinner was being held. He detonated his powerful bomb, killing 30 Israeli civilians and injuring hundreds.

Palestinian gunmen take part in the funeral of Muhammad Zakarneh, 17, who died of inju-ries sustained a day earlier during a raid by Israeli soldiers, in Jenin on Monday. Credit: JAAFAR ASHTIYEH – AFP

THE PARK HOTEL MASSACRE During the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, Israeli cities and towns were subject to wave of Pal-estinian terrorist’s attacks. Suicide bombers, which many of them were from Jenin would denoting their bombs in busy Bazars, buses and other civilian places. The IDF tried to battle the wave of at-tacks by conducting small-scale operations and arrests in West Bank, to avoid invading cities.

The atrocities of the Park Hotel immediately changed the rule of the game. Back then prime minis-ter Ariel Sharon’s government ordered the army to launch an invasion. The IDF launched “Opera-tion Defensive Shield” – the largest military operation in the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.

The operation began with the entrance of IDF soldiers into Jenin. During the ten days of intensive fighting be-

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For many Palestinians, Jenin is a ‘Symbol of Resistance’ and have long been proudly re-ferring to Jenin as “the factory of men and the lion’s den”. tween IDF and various Palestinian armed groups, Jenin refugee camp was almost flat-tened, 100s of homes were severely damaged, with some 52 Palestinians, mostly militants, and 23 IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting. The fighting also led to the disposition of more than quarter of the camp’s population and contributed to building of the West Bank Security Barrier (separation wall).

Yaron Buskila, a Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) who served more than 10 years as a Battalion Command-er and Operation Officer of Juda and Samaria Division in West Bank, recall the memories of the bat-tle of Jenin “the resistance was very severe, 23 soldiers were killed, and the terror-ists tried to abduct soldiers’ bodies. But it was difficult because they used the civilian population as a human shield, if the IDF had not tried to be careful to-wards the civilian population the resistance would not have been considered sig-nificantly in the face of a strong force like the IDF”.

A JOURNEY INTO JENIN CAMP PAST AND PRESENT For many Palestinians, Jenin is a ‘Symbol of Resistance’ and have long been proudly referring to Jenin as “the factory of men and the lion’s den”. It’s the home to the first Palestinian resistance against the British rule, led by the Syrian-born Izzedin Al Qassam who was killed by the British in 1935 in Yaabad in Jenin. His death led to mass protests and contributed to the outbreak of the Ar-ab Revolt of 1936-1939. After his death he became a symbol of the Palestinian resistance and when Hamas was established, it named its military wing after him, the Izzedin Al-Qassam Brigades.

From 1950s and onwards new militant groups began to emerge like Fatah, the Black Panthers, Black September, Abu Nidal organization (ANO) and the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group who carried out skyjackings during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these terror groups were centered on around Jenin region. Some of them moved away from classic guer-rilla rural-based warfare and internationalized their so-called resistance. Many launched a series of

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hijackings, kidnappings, bombings and shootings, culminating in the kidnapping and subsequent deaths 11 of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

The notorious ANO carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing and injuring hundreds of people. Targets have included the USA, UK, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the group also target-ed moderate Palestinian opponents and was suspected of killing PLO deputy chief Abu Iyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul in Tunis in January 1991. ANO assassinated a Jordanian diplomat in Lebanon in January 1994. The group’s activities died out and today they have a modest presence.

From 1980, new groups were to emerge replacing the old guards. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), who originally emerged in Gaza but today has a strong-grip-

Jenin steadily grow to become the epic-centre of violence and hotbed of various armed groups. It also played a central role during the First Intifada in 1987. So, it’s not unsur-prisingly that many Israelis came to view Jenin as the ‘Capital of Terrorism’.

hold in Jenin region and in particular in Jenin refugee camp. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas also has a significant power in Jenin.

Jenin steadily grow to become the epic-center of violence and hotbed of various armed groups. It also played a central role during the First Intifada in 1987. So, it’s not unsurprisingly that many Is-raelis came to view Jenin as the ‘Capital of Terrorism’.

Jenin refugee camp since its establishment has been a source of ‘headache’ to the Israeli authorities. It was founded in 1953 by Jordan to house displaced Palestinians following the 1948 War. After the Six-Day War in 1967, control of the West Bank was transferred from Jordan to Israel - placing Jenin under Israeli rule until the transformation to PA’s control in early 1990s as part of the Oslo agree-ment.

The camp suffers from severe overcrowding, it sits on 0.42 sq. km and has a population of over 15,000, and the density is estimated at 33,333 per sq. km. It also experiences one of the highest rates of unemployment and poverty among the 19 West Bank refugee camps. Many residents pre-viously relied upon work in Israel, which has been severely reduced since the construction of the Security Barrier and the implementation of the permit regime. Unemployment and poverty has af-fected the youth especially, resulting in widespread dissatisfaction and frustration and contributing to higher school dropout rates among younger adults. There is also a significant drug and substance use in the camp.

When the IDF launched its operation, the main objective was to destroy terrorist infrastructure housed in the Jenin and other West Bank town. There were fierce clashes

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IDF vehicles near the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank during a raid on a terrorist’s home on April 2022 ,9 (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Palestinians run near burning tires during clashes with Israeli forces following a raid, in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 2022 ,9.

REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

taking place and 20 years on one can still finds on the IDF official website an acknowledgment the battle of Jenin was “the most difficult one and therefore is most remembered one”. Lt. Colonel Buskila who served in the West Bank during that time, believes that “the operation achieved its goals because after the operation came 15 years of quiet in Jenin and Jenin changed from a city of terror to a city of marketing and theaters and more”.

At the end of the Second Intifada, the local armed gangs in Jenin’s refugee camp were pushed aside. The Palestinian economy began to grow, and the regime shifted from militant Yaser Arafat to more diplomatic Mahmoud Abbas. Government institutions were rebuilt and Jenin became a vibrant city of cafes, restaurants and shops. Year 2018, Jenin become one of the most prosperous city in the West Bank with much of its economy reliant on Palestinian citizens of Israel who visit the area for shopping and leisure.

However, about four years ago the situation start shifting. The PA became increasingly corrupt and authoritarian and was entangled with crisis of legitimacy and nepotism. Young graduates in Jenin found hard to get jobs, jobs were to go to those with the right connections rather than merits. Then there was the arrival of more division and infightings within Fatah and the cancelling of the Palestinian Elections. Initially, some unemployed youth joined armed gangs dealing with smuggling of arms and drug trafficking. The lucrative crime deals between West Bank including Jenin and the Israeli Arab city of Umma Al Fahm, was a major contributing factor to the growing number of youth join criminal gangs in

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The PA was further weakened when it decided to decrease its security coordina-tion with Israel as a way to protest against the policies of Netanyahu government and Trump administration. order to make a living.

The PA was further weakened when it decided to decrease its security coordination with Israel as a way to protest against the policies of Netanyahu government and Trump administration. The re-sentment and dissidents against Abbas’s leadership and PA was to intensify and a recent poll showed Abbas’ popularity is at its lowest since he emerged to the political scene, more than 80% wishes his departure.

The failure of the PA and the mismanagement of funds contributed to PIJ and Hamas to gain more support and power. They with the support of frictions of Fatah’s military wing began taking hold of the Jenin camp undisturbed by the PA and to some extend by Israel.

Once again Jenin the local militias managed to rebuild a massive network of terrorist infrastructure and flood the camp with weapons.

Hamas, PIJ and Fatah and other armed cells operating

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in Jenin are not to be mistaken as a unifying force, but rather they have different agendas and all battling to be the dominant power there. However, they are all united in their fight against Israel and share equal animosity towards the PA, which they regard as a traitor for cooperating with Israel.

The security situation in Jenin was further worsening as result of the coronavirus pandemic. Lock-downs led to many people losing their jobs and were faced with economic hardships. Palestinian security forces were to engage in forcing Covid-19 restrictions to halt the further spread of the dis-ease. This is at the same time as Israeli

The failure of the PA and the mismanagement of funds contributed to PIJ and Hamas to gain more support and power. They with the support of frictions of Fa-tah’s military wing began taking hold of the Jenin camp undisturbed by the PA and to some extend by Israel.

forces start reducing their operational activities in the camp. All these factors presented the perfect opportunity to PIJ and Hamas to tighten its grip in Jenin.

Palestinians in West Bank and especially in Jenin were to feel increasingly alienated from President Abbas’s leadership. Lt. Colonel Buskila claimed the leadership of PA is significantly weakened especial-ly in Jenin and Nablus. He carries on saying “PA’s corruption and the fact they abused their people has opened the door for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to take the ad-vantage of the situation and become the strongest players there” claims Lt. Col. Buskila.

WEST BANK IS BOILING Last year, the PA replaced many senior officials in Jenin, in hope this move would restore the rule of law. But it’s evident that the PA has totally lost control of Jenin and its security forces are too afraid to enter the camp to deal with armed local groups.

The PA continue to diminish generally in West Bank and in particular in the Jenin camp. PA security forces cannot manage the security situation without its coordination with Israel. All this taking place in a time where most Palestinians have lost hope in the peace process and the dream of a sovereign statehood. The weakening of Abbas leadership has also opened the door to other external actors to get involved: Tehran, who is actively driving past and current tensions through Hamas and PIJ. PIJ is an obedient proxy of Iran who is easily influenced and according to unverified reports Hamas has

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Israeli security personnel work near the scene of a fatal shooting attack near a bar in Tel Aviv, Israel April 2022 ,7.

REUTERS/Corinna Kern

Palestinians carry the body of gunman Ahmed al-Sadi, who was killed during clashes with Israeli forces, in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 2022 ,9.

REU-TERS/Mohamad Torokman

few times prevented PIJ from firing missiles towards Israel, but for how long Hamas can control-manage PIJ, is uncertain.

As recent as less than a year ago, the IDF start recognizing that the Palestinian security forces were losing their grip on terrorist trends and unable to carry out a large-scale operation in Jenin in order to damage the terrorist infrastructure. It was reported that just few months before Israel was hit with the current wave of terrorist attacks that the IDF was planning to launch a military operation to eliminate terror cells there. But the plan was abandoned and the PA forces were pressured into taking care of the job, which they massively failed at.

What makes Jenin more challenging in military terms compare to other West bank towns, to that Lt. Colonel (res) Buskila says “Due to the lack of large clans in Jenin, the atmosphere in Jenin is that everyone is on his own (…) the fact that individuals are individuals without clan / tribal affiliation with economic interests has created a social space that has pushed people, especially young people, to enlist in organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah or the fronts. It can even be said that for the people of Jenin, the organization has over the years become the substitute for the clan, it gives the individual the identity, the support and the vocation”.

The current situation in West bank and particularly in Jenin is a ticking bomb that ready to explode at any moment. On its streets, the tires are piling up in anticipation of the next confrontation and masked heavily

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Palestinians in West Bank and especially in Jenin were to feel increasingly alienated from President Abbas’s leadership. Lt. Colonel Buskila claim the leadership of PA is significantly weakened especially in Jenin and Nablus. armed men belonging to PIJ and Hamas parading in the camp to show their readi-ness to fight. The leadership of Abbas is in a direr situation than ever before now facing a new gen-eration of well-trained operatives, at a level not seen in other refugee camps in West Bank region.

What needed to be done to diffuse tensions and restore order, to that Yaron Buskila who is also a Military Commentator to Channel 14, says “Embarking on an extensive and significant military operation in Jenin and the other cities from which terrorism emerges (…) as well as taking security responsibility from the Palestinian Authority in order to restore order”. However, the question is - will the IDF and the PA succeed this time in ending the battle of Jenin once for all?

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Questions over Exact Relation between Trump & Putin

Three Americans Dwell on Trump’s Reaction to Russian War against Ukraine Washington, Mohammad Ali Salih What is exactly the relation between former president Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin?

Last week, Newsweek magazine quoted a com-

mentator on Russian state-run TV thanking Trump for “upending a plan by President Joe Biden to oust” Putin.

The Russian commentator said: “I am certain that a decision to destroy us was reached in

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2012 by the same group to which Joe Biden belongs. He told President Putin that he had no right to run for reelection. And Putin rejected his demand. From that point on, a conspiracy against us started … And it would have worked if not for Trump. Trump gave us those four years. Thank you very much Trump.”

In 2016, during the presidential campaign and also after being elected president, Trump spoke favorably of Putin.

On the other hand, the Democrats, and others, accused Trump of secret ties with Putin, not only because of Trump’s financial investments in Russia, but also because of Trump’s criticism of NATO, and of fear that he would endanger the security of Europe.

Although Trump has criticized Putin’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine, he had described the Russian president as a “genius” and “smart” just before the invasion.

Former President Donald Trump

The Democrats, with a majority in the House of Representatives, are pushing a resolution that calls for NATO to be more than a military alliance, to be “a force for countries’ sovereignty, integrity and democracy.”

But many Republicans voted against the resolution, arguing that NATO should confine itself to military issues.

Following are three opinions about this subject, excerpted from each author’s tweets, websites and statements to the media: First, Trump argued that Putin could be right in trying to secure Russia’s security and sphere of influence.

Second, Robert Reich, a progressive liberal, who was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, severely attacked Trump and said there was no difference between him and Putin.

Third, Republican Congressman Barry Loudermilk argued that NATO should continue as a military alliance, and shouldn’t become political, and intervene in countries internal

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“I am certain that a decision to destroy us was reached in 2012 by the same group to which Joe Biden belongs. He told President Putin that he had no right to run for reelection.” affairs.

Trump: “I know Putin Very Well”: “I know Putin very well. We talked about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We talked about it a lot. From the beginning, he repeated to me that he was planning to go into Ukraine. But I said to him, ‘You’re not going into Ukraine.’

Of course, he did. But, he would never, ever, have gone into Ukraine if I were the president …

During my first summit meeting with the leaders of NATO’s countries, I told them that I might not abide by NATO’s Article Five, about collective-defense, if those countries didn’t pay more for its budget.

I told the NATO’s leaders that if their countries did not live up to their spending targets (increase their contributions) by the end of 2018, I would do my own thing …

A fellow leader asked me: ‘Does that mean that you won’t help us if we were invaded

by Russia?’ I said, ‘That’s exactly what I mean.’

If I said, ‘No, I don’t mean that,’ then why would they pay?

So, somebody had to say it, and I said it …

Then, later on (in 2018), I was again calling that into question. I, again, suggested it might not be worthwhile for NATO countries to commit to defending tiny Montene-

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gro (population: 600,000) …

Now, in retrospect, would I have abided

by NATO’s Article Five? Most probably, I would have. But I didn’t want to say that at that time (early 2017). But then, I wanted to (late 2017) ...

Now, people should give me the credit that I deserve for actually strengthening NATO, as we now see NATO standing-up to defend its members. I should be given the credit that I deserve for making NATO countries pay more …”

Robert Reich: “Trump is Like Putin”: “Why do Putin, Trump and the Republican party sound so alike?

Putin’s lies and the lies coming from America’s extreme right, are mutually supporting...

Putin and Trump have been promoting much the same narrative – for much the same rea- Which is exactly what Trump and the Reson … publican party have blasted for several years.

In 2020, Trump said: ‘The goal of ‘cancel In a recent speech from his office in the culture’ is to make decent Americans live in Kremlin, Putin criticized the West’s ‘cancel fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliculture,’ which, he charged, is ‘ ”canceling” ated and driven from society as we know it’ Russia. Canceling an entire thousand-year- … old country,’ he said.

Then there is Trump’s admiration for Putin himself. Just before Putin ordered a fullscale invasion of Ukraine, Trump described him as ‘savvy’, ‘genius’, and ‘smart’ for ‘taking over a country, literally, a vast, vast, location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in’ …

Recently, a European diplomat was quoted saying that the war in Ukraine has caused European nations to address some of the complaints leveled by Trump, including insufficient spending on defense and reliance on Russian oil and gas.

Putin’s lies and the lies coming from America’s extreme right are mutually re-enforcing …

Putin was put into power by a Russian oligarchy made rich by siphoning off the wealth of the former Soviet Union. Likewise, Trump and the radical right in America have been bankrolled by an American oligarchy – Ru-

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Former Democratic Secretary of Labor Robert Reich

In 2020, Trump said: ‘The goal of ‘cancel culture’ is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated and driven from society as we know it’ Instead, the resolution instructed NATO to be involved in politics. It calls for NATO’s intervention when there are ‘internal threats from proponents on illiberalism’.

Who are these? The conservatives?

Let everyone calm down. I still support NATO, but I am opposed to the language of the resolution that was written by leaders of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party wanted a political NATO that intervenes in the internal affairs of countries so as to promote the Democratic Party’s agenda.

Republican Congressman Barry Loudermilk

pert Murdoch, Charles Koch, Rebekah Mercer, Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman, and other billionaires.

What do these two sets of oligarchs get in return?

Strongmen who divert the public’s attention away from the oligarchs’ hijacking of their economies toward cultural fears of being overwhelmed by the ‘other’ … ”

No, I am an isolationist. No, the Republican Party is not an isolationist.

And no, Trump didn’t dictate that to us.

Recently, a European diplomat was quoted saying that the war in Ukraine has caused European nations to address some of the complaints leveled by Trump, including insufficient spending on defense and reliance on Russian oil and gas. Those were the two issues raised by Trump in 2018 ...

I objected not to present-day NATO but to

Republican Congressman Barry Lou- its future direction, which places too large a dermilk: “NATO’s Problems:” burden on the US, and involves too much pro“I am a huge supporter of NATO. I served in the Air Force during the Cold War, worked with NATO during that time period. But certain issues should be left to those individual nations, not NATO’s headquarters …

Yes, I voted against the resolution that did not specifically address strengthening NATO to help Ukraine,

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motion of specific values, sponsored by the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party’s resolution contains ‘unequivocal support’ risks being mistaken for unconditional support …

I objected in particular to the resolution’s endorsement of the Center for Democratic Resilience which is designed to meddle in other countries’ domestic politics...”

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Video Clips Document Horrendous Massacres by Syria’s Assad Victims’ families to Majalla: Torture Prevents Us from Recognizing Our Children! decree was issued last Saturday, April 30, 2022.

The amnesty, however, excludes those convictThe Syrian security authorities continue to re- ed of “terrorist” crimes that resulted in the death lease dozens of detainees after the Syrian re- of a human being. gime President Bashar al-Assad issued an amnesty for the “terrorist crimes” committed and The exact number of prisoners released as per for which Syrians were convicted before the the presidential amnesty is not known. NonetheBy Jiwan Soz - Qamishli

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less, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the release of 150 prisoners 48 hours after the amnesty was issued. These included people who were arrested 10 years ago and were languishing in Saydanaya Military Prison, which Amnesty International described as the “human slaughterhouse” after documenting the execution of about 13,000 prisoners between 2011 and 2015.

Regime Attempts to Whitewash its Image Through Amnesty

The gunman with a fishing hat in a still image from the video of the Tadamon massacre published by The Guardian

It seems that issuing an amnesty law for terrorist crimes that did not lead to the death of a human being comes as an attempt by the Assad regime to whitewash its image and exploit the amnesty in order to evade the serious violations it committed in its prisons for more than a decade. This is highly probable with the successive international reports and pressure from humanitarian and human rights organizations regarding the torture and serious human rights abuses that took place in prisons and detention centers. Data by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reveal that more than 105,000 detainees have been killed under torture inside the prisons of the Assad regime since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011.

Sources told Majalla that the Tadamon massacre’s victims included 16 Palestinian-Syrians.

However, it was not possible to verify their exact identities. the regime forces asking handcuffed and blindfolded people to run before getting shot as they would fall in a pit where other bodies piled up.

This took place in Tadamon neighborhood located in the southern Damascus countryside.

This video turned out to be documentation of the crime that became known as the “Tadamon massacre.”

The 27 clips were published along with a lengthy journalistic investigation report conducted in cooperation between the Guardian and the USA’s New Lines Institute. Several families were able to recognize their children from the videos that showed how they were killed with cold blood.

The number of men who were killed with their bodies burned in the pit totaled 41, according to the videos that were widely circulated on social media and stirred popular anger.

Majalla obtained leaks from the Syrian capital Detainees’ Families Struggle to Recognize their of Damascus indicating that the security author- Sons! ities want to release more detainees as per the recently issued amnesty. This would mean the Sources told Majalla that the Tadamon massarelease of tens of thousands of prisoners who cre’s victims included 16 Palestinian-Syrians. had been languishing in the Syrian regime’s However, it was not possible to verify their exprisons for years. act identities.

Amnesty was issued after the release of video clips documenting bloodbaths in prisons The presidential amnesty was issued days after the Guardian published an expansive journalistic investigation that documented the killing of tens of people by regime forces. The published video clips propelled a shock wave amongst Syrians, especially human rights organizations and civil society institutions.

The tens of video clips released last week date back to 2013. One video shows a member of

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Members of three Syrian families who have detainees in the regime’s prisons for years said, “These clips depict extreme brutality. We tried to identify our sons to know if they were killed.

However, the torture marks altered their shapes and features, rendering identifying our sons a very difficult and impossible task.”

Talking to Majalla, another Syrian, whose son was imprisoned in Damascus in 2012, called on international human rights organizations to prosecute the Assad regime for committing hei-

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nous crimes. Since the start of the war, the Syrian regime has been accused of violating human rights, from torture in prisons, to rape and sexual assaults, and even extrajudicial executions.

For his part, a Syrian human rights defender said, “The videos are not new, but old. They have been around for years being held by the person who filmed them. However, the journalistic investigation took years, and that is why they were only recently published.”

Decree Issue to Divert Attention from Tadamon Massacre

“Large numbers of prisoners will not be covered by the amnesty because there are those who have been detained for years and have not been tried in the first place.

These also amount to huge numbers.”

Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, explained to Majalla that “the amnesty recently issued by the regime comes to divert attention from the Tadamon massacre and other videos. It is useless, however, as 132,000 detainees are currently languishing in the regime’s prisons.”

He added that “the decree includes limited numbers of prisoners because some detainees are subject to dozens of charges. For example, if a detainee was entitled to the amnesty over a mentioned charge, he would still have several other charges that are not covered by the amnesty. Accordingly, he would remain behind bars.”

Abdul Ghany underlined that “the regime is trying to divert attention from the videos convicting it. As a result, pro-regime media outlets circulated reports of an assassination attempt.

All these attempts aimed to turn the page of the Tadamon massacre and other videos documenting violations that not only include killing, but also rape, looting of property and other patterns of human rights violations.”

Amnesty will not Include Prisoners of Conscience and Political Prisoners He stressed that “the amnesty decree has not yet

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A still image from the video of the Tadamon massacre published by The Guardian

A still image from the video of the Tadamon massacre published by The Guardian

been applied in order to find out the number of those included. However, I believe that it will not include prisoners of conscience and political prisoners. Only one batch was released from Saydanaya Military Prison, but the numbers were very limited.”

He pointed out that “large numbers of prisoners will not be covered by the amnesty because there are those who have been detained for years and have not been tried in the first place.

These also amount to huge numbers.”

He considered that “these videos put great pressure on the regime, especially since such videos have not been published for a long time. We have seen their impact and resonance with regime supporters as well, and the US State Department has had its say on them. This means that other countries will act on these videos, in addition to the United Nations and the International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Tadamon Massacre Exerts Pressure on Assad Abdul Ghany indicated that “the video clips will receive great attention and accordingly will be in the spotlight. We, at the Syrian Network for

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“These clips depict extreme brutality. We tried to identify our sons to know if they were killed. However, the torture marks altered their shapes and features, rendering identifying our sons a very difficult and impossible task.”

Human Rights are working to identify the victims’ identities, and we will be issuing a special report about them.”

He stressed that “hundreds of those forcibly disappeared by the regime may be among those who appeared in the videos documenting their killing. Accordingly, there are fears about the fate of hundreds of detainees in the Tadamon suburb and tens of thousands arrested by the regime and its Shabiha, especially since large numbers of Shabiha have their own means of getting rid of detainees’ corpses, such as incineration for example.”

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Decree is Ambiguous and the Prosecution will Manipulate It The Director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights explained what he called the ambiguous aspects of the amnesty decree that was issued after the publication of videos confirming the regime’s perpetration of brutal crimes against its prisoners.

It seems that issuing an amnesty law for terrorist crimes that did not lead to the death of a human being comes as an attempt by the Assad regime to whitewash its image and exploit the amnesty in order to evade the serious violations it committed in its prisons for more than a decade.

In this regard, he said, “This decree has many ambiguous aspects. Unlike previous decrees that clearly specified the numbers of legal articles covered by the amnesty, this decree did not specify the legal articles covered by the amnesty from the Penal Code promulgated by Legislative Decree No. 148 of 1949.”

He added that “applying this decree for detainees who have not been convicted is almost impossible because the Public Prosecution will not be able to determine the legal articles under which they were detained. After all, they have not yet been tried and the security authorities will therefore not release most of the detainees.”

He continued, “There are many detainees who have been sentenced under several laws and legal articles. This means that the amnesty decree includes some of them and excludes others. Therefore, these detainees would not benefit from the decree, which includes an amnesty for the crimes stipulated in only one of the three terrorism laws issued in 2012, which is Law 19. It excludes, however, Laws 20 and 21 of 2012 related to laying off employees and kidnapping people.

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A still image from the video of the Tadamon massacre published by The Guardian

A bomb-damaged Tadamon area on 22 September 2013. Photo: The Asahi Shimbun/ Getty Images

No Guarantee for Those Who Turn Themselves in If They Live Abroad Abdul Ghany suggested that “the judges of the Public Prosecution in charge of implementing the decree will deal with it in the same way they dealt with previous decrees. They will manipulate it by altering the legal description of the crimes convicted and detained.

cree published by pro-Assad media, “granting a general amnesty for terrorist crimes committed by Syrians before April 30, 2022, except for those that led to the death of a human being, and stipulated in the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 19 of 2012 and the Penal Code promulgated by Legislative Decree No. 148 of 1949 and its amendments.”

“This amnesty does not affect the private right Accordingly, it is unlikely that the decree will of action, and the damaged person may, in all be implemented under their oversight. There- cases, file his case before the competent civil fore, neither this decree nor any other decrees court,” according to reports by Syrian state meissued by the regime have any credibility. Trust dia. is lost in this regime that will not guarantee the For the first time, this presidential decree does amnesty for the refugees who are abroad. not require that the wanted person surrender Accordingly, these will not turn themselves in himself to justice, as stated in previous debecause previous incidents are evident of the re- crees. According to the Syrian Observatory gime’s treachery. There are many cases of those for Human Rights, this means dropping the who turned themselves in after the amnesty of penalty completely from detainees without rethe crimes of internal and external fleeing. How- ferring them to any security branches or local ever, they were arrested and their families do courts. not know their fate until today.”

A few days ago, the President of the Syrian regime issued Legislative Decree No. 7 of 2022, which stipulates, according to the text of the de-

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Jiwan Soz is a researcher and journalist who focuses on * Syrian and Turkish affairs and minorities in the Middle East. He is also a member of Syndicat National des Journalistes (National Syndicate of Journalists [SNJ]). He tweets at @JiwanSoz1

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Elon Musk Isn’t Buying Twitter to Defend Free Speech Business Moguls Tend to Be Big on Protecting Speech, Right Until It Hurts Their Bottom Line

By Adam Serwer Conservatives on Twitter have greeted Elon Musk as a liberator. The mega-billionaire is in the process of purchasing the social-media platform and reorienting it toward what he calls “free speech.” The conservative columnist Ben Shapiro celebrated the news of the new free-speech era by insisting that Musk engage in

politically motivated mass firings of Twitter workers based on their perceived political leanings.

For those who are not terminally online, a little explanation is in order. Compared to the big social media giants, Twitter is a relatively small but influential social network because it is used by many people who are relatively important to political discourse. Although the moderation policies of a

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Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 2022 ,22.

Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS

private company don’t implicate traditional questions of free speech—that is, state restriction of speech— Twitter’s policies have played a prominent role in arguments about “free speech” online, that is, how platforms decide what they want to host.

When people talk about free speech in this more colloquial context, what they mean is that certain entities may be so powerful that their coercive potential mimics or approaches that of the state. The problem is that when private actors are involved, there›s no clear line between one person›s free speech and another: A private platform can also decide not to host you if it wants, and that is also an exercise of speech. Right-wing demands for a political purge of Twitter employees indicate just how sincerely conservatives take this secondary understanding as a matter of principle rather than rhetoric.

The fight over Twitter’s future is not really about free speech, but the political agenda the platform may end up serving. As Americans are more and more reliant on a shrinking number of wealthy individuals and companies for services, conservatives believe having a sympathetic billionaire acquire Twitter means one less large or influential corporation the Republican Party needs to strongarm into serving its purposes. Whatever Musk ends up doing, this possibility is what the right is actually celebrating.

“Free speech” is a disingenuous attempt to frame what is ultimately a political conflict over Twitter’s usage as a neutral question about civil liberties, but the outcome conservatives are hoping for is one in which conservative speech on the platform is favored and liberal speech disfavored.

Conservatives maintain they have been subject to “censorship” by social-media companies for years, either by the imposition of terms of service they complain are unfairly punitive to the right or by bans imposed on particular users. There is ample evidence though, that social-media networks consistently exempt conservative outlets from their own rules to avoid political backlash, a fear seldom displayed when it comes to throttling left-wing content. And despite the right-wing perception of liberal bias on Twitter, an internal audit found that the site’s algorithms “amplify right-leaning political content more than left-leaning content.” The evidence suggests that for all their outrage, conservatives consistently receive preferential treatment from social-media platforms, but are so cavalier about disregarding the terms of service that sometimes they get banned anyway.

Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be surprising that many conservatives still complain that they are being censored even as these platforms’ algorithms continue to favor right-wing content. Indeed, the success

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Although the moderation policies of a private company don’t implicate traditional questions of free speech—that is, state restriction of speech—Twitter’s policies have played a prominent role in arguments about “free speech” online. of these complaints explains their persistence—if conservatives stopped complaining, the favorable treatment might cease. Musk is a sympathetic audience, even if that does not necessarily determine the direction Twitter will take under his ownership.

Liberal users on Twitter have greeted the news of Musk’s pending acquisition of the platform with everything from indifference to despair, while conservative reactions run the gamut from optimistic to worshipful, with some right-wing praise of Musk echoing the unending North Korean style flattery of the Trump years. For his part, Musk has said his priority is “freedom of speech,” a framing that some mainstream media outlets have credulously repeated.

Musk’s subsequent tweets, stating that Twitter should ban only “illegal” content and that “If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect,” suggest that he has not thought all that much about the issue. The state broadly banning certain forms of expression is a much greater infringement on free speech than the moderation policies on a private platform, which anyone can choose not to use.

Every major right-wing Twitter alternative has imposed moderation policies while presenting itself as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter; most comically, posting disparaging comments about Trump originally violated the terms of service of Trump’s own app, Truth Social, which itself continues to ban “filthy” content, harassment, language that is “abusive or racist,” and “profanity.” The moderation of privately owned platforms is itself a form of protected speech; Musk’s ownership of Twitter simply means he will get to decide what those policies are.

And that’s precisely the point. Users on both the left and the right assume that during Musk’s tenure, Twitter’s policies will amplify conservative content and throttle left-leaning content. Both sides suspect that Twitter’s moderation policies regarding harassment will be altered to allow users to more

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frequently employ disparaging language about religious and ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ people. The extent of these changes depends on the balance between Musk’s financial concerns and his ideological ones. Right-wing alternatives to Twitter have failed to take off because conservatives want to make liberals miserable, not build a community in which there are no libs left to own. If conservatives successfully drive their targets off Twitter, or if the network becomes an unusable cesspool, it will become similarly worthless, both financially and politically. Social media platforms’ attempts to deal with harassment and disinformation have less to do with liberal political influence than making their platforms useful to advertisers.

The fact that conservative concerns about Big Tech

Many media outlets have curiously described Musk as a “free-speech defender,” a term Musk enthusiast have interpreted as a euphemism for someone with a high tolerance for bigotry against historically marginalized communities.

vanish the second a sympathetic billionaire buys a social-media platform, however, illustrates the shallowness of their complaints about the power of Silicon Valley. Conservatives are not registering their concern over the consolidation of corporate power so much as they are trying to ensure that consolidation serves their interests. Put simply, conservatives hope that Twitter will now become a more willing vehicle for right-wing propaganda. Even if the platform tilts further in their direction, they will be motivated to continue to insist they are being censored—their criticisms likely exempting Musk himself in favor of attacking Twitter’s white-collar workers, whom conservatives paradoxically perceive as the “elite” while praising their billionaire bosses as populist heroes. The insincerity of right-wing populism is represented by the fact that such “populists” find it preferable to be ruled by ideologically sympathetic barons than share a democracy with people who might put their pronouns in their email signatures.

In Republican-controlled Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis boasts of punishing Disney for its opposition to recent legislation forcing LGBTQ teachers to remain in the closet on the job. Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned of “serious consequences” if the party’s corporate benefactors continued to issue anodyne statements in opposition to GOP legislation aimed at disenfranchising Democratic constituencies. The Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates to unlimited corporate cash in American elections bears McConnell’s name, but apparently money qualifies as constitutionally protected speech only when that money can be relied upon to serve the Republican

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Elon Musk›s Twitter profile is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 2022 ,28.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/ Illustration

The Twitter address is seen in a web browser on a digital device Monday, April 2022 ,25, in San Diego. AP Photo/ Gregory Bull)

Party. As concerned as they might be about socialmedia moderation, conservatives are currently engaged, along with this kind of strong-arming, in the largest campaign of state censorship since the second Red Scare.

Conservative propagandists have represented their demand that corporate America advance the interests of the Republican Party as a populist “break” with Big Business, when it is simply an ultimatum: Serve us, or suffer. The current ideological vanguard of the conservative movement isn’t breaking with business, but with democracy, seeking to keep labor weak, the state captive, and corporate power and religious institutions subservient to its demands. Money is speech, as long as you fund our interests. You have the right to vote, as long as you vote Republican.

You have freedom of speech, as long as you say what the party would like you to say.

Corporate consolidation has made the Republican Party’s turn to authoritarianism much easier. Liberals focusing on how Musk’s acquisition of Twitter might affect their experience on the platform should look at the bigger picture. Corporate America has filled the void in civil society left by the weakness of organized labor, leaving a tiny number of extremely wealthy people with outside influence. All the right-wing “populist” rhetoric in America is geared not toward weakening this influence but toward harnessing it.

Many media outlets have curiously described Musk as a “free-speech defender,” a term Musk enthusiasts have interpreted as a euphemism for someone with a high tolerance for bigotry against historically marginalized communities. But Musk has been perfectly willing to countenance the punishment

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Musk’s subsequent tweets, stating that Twitter should ban only “illegal” content and that “If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect,” suggest that he has not thought all that much about the issue. of those engaging in speech he opposes. Tesla, for example, was disciplined by the National Labor Relations Board for firing a worker who was attempting to organize a union. Similarly, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, but his commitment to free speech falters when it comes to unionizing the warehouse workers who are essential to his business.

Business moguls tend to be big on “freedom of speech” in this more colloquial sense, when it comes to the kind of speech that doesn’t hurt their bottom line. When it comes to organizing their workforces, however, a form of speech that could act as a check against their power and influence, that tolerance for free speech melts away. Workers fearful of how their wealthy bosses intend to use that power should take that reality into consideration.

This article was originally published by The Atlantic.

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Religious Unity During Ramadan

By Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi

For too long, communities are being decimated for matters of no importance to our humanity as a whole. Despite that, Marseille no longer has to prove its capabilities, as it is an interethnic city of solidarity .

Easter, Passover, and Ramadan were held this year at the same period. It is a strong sign for our three dominant religions, insofar as through these holidays, the Christians, Jews, and Muslims share the same values and principles reflecting an image of an open society where we can live in harmony.

After living through an intriguing and complex pandemic, and as we are slowly resuming our lives, we are facing several crises. The war in Ukraine is worrying us all, it is shaking our lives once again and seems to be leading us to higher energy prices and food shortages that are again distressing many of us.

I insist that we shall learn from what we have endured for many months and we shall also focus on short, medium, and long term solutions.

Many of you think that I am privileged. However, those who know me know how attached I am to subjects related to the future of the human being.

For many years, my team and I have been aware of the importance of anchoring ourselves to a different pattern of consumption and addressing sustainable ecological solutions, in particular through approaching 40

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green energy solutions that will cross eras. The survival of our planet is at stake but so is the legacy we will leave to our children.

For too long, communities are being decimated for matters of no importance to our humanity as a whole. Despite that, Marseille no longer has to prove its capabilities, as it is an interethnic city of solidarity. I admire this population that has been able to write its own history through many eras.

We still have room to make progress together, there is an economic potential that must be exploited around countries of the Mediterranean basin. I am convinced that we can stimulate and pursue the construction of strong economic projects in this basin of life forming our gateway between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Let us not be afraid to develop social innovations leading to job creation and training in promising sectors for the future.

Following the request of many associations in Marseilles, I will come to meet you soon in order to share my entrepreneurial experience that I hope will benefit young people who will make history.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Johnny Depp & Amber Heard: From ‘The Rum Diary’ to The Courtroom www.majalla.com

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Dancing to Break Stereotypes

Awalem Khafeya: An Egyptian Contemporary Belly Dance Troup

By Maryam Raafat “Awalem Khafeya” is an independent contemporary belly dance troupe formed by a group of women who are challenging societal taboos.

Awalem is an Arabic synonym for a dancer, and Khafeya means hidden, referring to covering the face sometimes while dancing upon the request of some of the band’s dancers.

“As a troupe, we aim at changing the traditional stereotype of the dancer, starting from the style of dancing, the clothes, the variety of the dancers’ body shapes and the locations we perform in,” Sherin Hegazy, a choreographer and the founder of the troupe told Majalla.

with other forms of dance.

“I find that contemporary dance can encompass several other forms of dance by making the necessary dramatic and choreographic arrangements,” Hegazy explains.

“Contemporary dance allows me to analyze and deconstruct the movements of belly dance. This allows me to develop my own choreography, add other necessary movements, and present a different vision of this art,” Hegazy said.

Hegazy has been working on this project for the last two years.

The band includes 12 dancers so far and they consider their dances as an extension of the ritual dance of priestesses in ancient temples, to honor the source Hegazy is a choreographer who participated in many of life, which is the womb of women. So, the moveimportant events, such as the Pharaoh’s Golden Pa- ments are concentrated around the pelvic area. rade.

She studied engineering and then she joined Reda “Our band works on two main levels, the first is social media, and the second is on the ground by participattroupe for folk dance. ing in different events,” Hegazy told Majalla.

“Dance has always been my first passion, and I joined “The idea came to my mind after the success of the many workshops for different types of dancing and ‘Ya Sim’ play that was directed by me in 2015, the performance,” Hegazy told Majalla. She also studied play was performed in a number of international festivals inside and outside Egypt,” Hegazy added. modern dance and contemporary dance.

“I always see everything dancing, every movement for me is a dancing movement, my eyes automatically transform everything into lines and colors that dance,” Hegazy added.

Hegazy has always wanted to combine belly dance

“We dance in group as we believe that group dances do not have any kind of ‘vulgarity,’ we also want to break the traditional format of the dancer who stands next to the singer at weddings and parties,” Hegazy told Majalla.

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Members of Awalem Khafeya contemporary belly dancing band posing for a photo in Cairo. Credit: The band’s official Facebook page

Despite Egypt’s having a long glorious history in the art of “belly dance” since early 50s and 60s, a wide range of society still looks at dancers with inferiority.

“Such a perception needs to be changed, dance is not a shameful activity, and it was part of the ancient Egyptian civilization.”

Dance has always been my first passion, and I joined many workshops for different types of dancing and performance.

In the golden era of 50’s and 60’s, dancers such as Tahyia Karioka and Samia Gamal excelled and established this art, but they also dealt with great societal challenges in the beginning, and some of them faced the artistic community, or in their social and family relationships. This stigma constitutes a frightening this until their death. barrier and a difficult challenge. I confirm to any girl “We face great difficulties, the most important of before joining the troupe that the road will not be which are social customs, which have a preconceived easy, and we will need some time for narrow-minded notion of the word ‘dancer’ which bears a social people to accept us,” Hegazy said. stigma that denigrated many ‘dancers,’ whether in

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“We are keen to wear everyday clothes such as jeans and T-shirts while performing our dances in order to be closer to people but sometimes we dance in more fashionable and artistic costumes,” Hegazy clarified.

The troupe embraces different and diverse cultural backgrounds, and also different body shapes as well.

“Our philosophy is that there is no such thing called a perfect body for dancing, as all bodies have their

We are keen to wear everyday clothes such as jeans and T-shirts while performing our dances in order to be closer to people but sometimes we dance in more fashionable and artistic costumes

own beauty and distinctive movement as well,” Hegazy said.

“Anybody can dance. I give a one-and-a-half-hour dance lesson once a week to encourage women to appreciate their bodies and the art of dance,” Hegazy explained.

Awalem Khafeya perform their dances on building roofs, on boats and places that are very close to people.

They dismantle the details of the belly dancing, and transform it into group dances that have a unique design of their own.

“Our dances need rehearsals for neuromuscular coordination, this takes a lot of effort,” Hegazy told Majalla.

Another challenge the troupe is facing is the production because they bear the troupe’s full costs on their own. “We hope this will change soon,” Hegazy said.

The troupe now is preparing to produce a theatrical show, where they will use belly dancing to transmit a lot of ideas and feelings.

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Members of Awalem Khafeya contemporary belly dancing band posing for a photo in Cairo.

Credit: The band’s official Facebook page

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The Haunting of Prince William

Nowadays, Future Kings Don’t Get to Relax in Hammocks

By Bryn Haworth When I last tackled the subject of hammocks – see ‘On Cannibals, Part Four,’ published in this magazine – I was unaware of the picture above. That’s a shame, as it would have strengthened my case considerably, that the hammock is a relic not just of the pre-Columbian, but of the prelapsarian state. It’s a leftover from paradise.

In that essay, I described an incident in tropical Ecuador when I had seen a girl lying in a hammock, through the window of a coach. It seemed to me this girl wasn’t just relaxing on a sunny afternoon, the way one might after a long working week. Rather, it was as if she represented an argument for idleness as a way of life. ‘Hammocks are like floating beds,’ I wrote, ‘they are the closest an earthbound human can get to levitating.’ But they didn’t just defy gravity. They seemed oblivious to money, stress and the necessity to work, to death and even to original sin. All of these phenomena of the fallen world could wag their accusatory fingers as much as they pleased: the girl in the hammock paid no heed to any of them.

Davi Kopenawa is a shaman from the Amazonian tribe known as the Yanomami. In his book The Falling Sky, he talks about hammocks all the time. He describes how he got all his best visions in a hammock. He also mentions the hammocks his people sleep in, and the way a woman who wants to marry a particular man will tie her hammock next to his under the communal roof. Whenever a shaman is graced with a visitation from the spirit world, the spirits will first wear themselves out dancing, then nod off in their very own hammocks.

All this lends authenticity to the old engraving, which shows the man who gave his name to America, dressed in his best sixteenth century gear, encountering America herself, in her hammock, at the very moment she awakes. Amerigo Vespucci was the man’s name and he was very far from home. As with Asia and Europe, a feminine version of his name was favoured for christening the New World and, in the process, the woman in the hammock.

Vespucci looks harmless enough here, but the truth is he has always been considered a somewhat untrustworthy individual. The letters he wrote describing his voyages have been treated with scepticism by historians, but he has received short shrift from philosophers too. Ralph Waldo Emerson described him as a “thief” and “pickle dealer” from Seville – he hailed from Florence, actually, and a house near Botticelli’s place – who managed to get “half the world baptised with his dishonest name.” It was enough to make Emerson’s blood boil. Still, I think we can all agree that calling the new land Ralph (or whatever the female equivalent of Ralph might be) would not have been an improvement.

Some people reckon Vespucci lied when he claimed to have found the continent before Columbus. Nonetheless, there he stands, and not Columbus, a very impressive crucifix in one hand, and a sophisticated nautical instrument in the other. He looks pretty fetching in his doublet and hose, while America looks dishevelled, having fallen asleep with little more than her hat on. It’s early morning in the new world. An anteater and a llama amble about, while in the background the cannibalistic equivalent of a full English breakfast is being prepared on an open fire. Mm, you can almost smell that human leg! It’s hard to mistake the expression on America’s face: it is one of pleasant, totally ingenuous

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Hammocks are like floating beds.

They are the closest an earthbound human can get to levitating.’ They didn’t just defy gravity. They seemed oblivious to money, stress and the necessity to work, to death and even to original sin.

Allegory of the New World by Stradanus, depicting Vespucci waking the sleeping America

surprise. She really has no idea where all this is going, but on the way back from one of his voyages, Vespucci’s ship made a little slaving trip to the Bahamas and captured 237 natives before heading back to Spain. It was a none-too-subtle hint of things to come.

In a sense, the kind of repose that Davi Kopenawa speaks of, has never been recovered since the fateful morning that the welldressed Florentine turned up, except perhaps for the members of tribes as yet uncontacted, though even they have mostly heard the news by now – that they have been ‘discovered’ I mean – and in some cases they have deliberately avoided further contact for good reason. One day, it seems, their women will also be surprised in their hammocks, but perhaps not with the same ingenuous expression on their faces.

My second hammock comes from a later stage in this whole brutal and often tawdry story. In fact, it’s a ship’s hammock, and the ship’s cargo includes a generous barrel of Jamaican rum. The scene comes from a cartoon by James Gillray, an artist belonging to a civilisation that was about as far from wide-eyed innocence as one could conceivably wish to get, viz. the London of the British Empire.

To this day, Londoners are pretty much the worldliest people you’re ever likely to meet. Try walking down a contemporary London street in the same garb as old Vespucci – you can bet the only people to bat an eyelid will be the tourists. Londoners have seen everything; even if they’re surprised, they refuse to show it.

A man can walk through town in a ball gown with a kitten tied to each side of his head and no one will seem to notice.

Gillray was one such Londoner. Nothing surprised him. He was also the most fearless of a scathingly satirical generation of cartoonists in Georgian England. His images could be bought readily from a shop on the Strand. This image was considered both too disrespectful and too lewd by the Victorians that came after him, but Gillray definitely belonged to a more irreverent century.

Just what is going on in this particular hammock? Well, it’s com-

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plicated. The young woman is clearly of African descent. The young man is Prince William, the future William IV, known for his amorous dalliances, and the scene is his frigate, the Pegasus.

Gillray alludes to tales of the Prince’s drunken escapades at bawdy houses in Barbados and rumours of a ‘lady of colour’ who was said to be his constant companion.

That is the simple part. It gets more complicated. The name Wouski and the writing beneath the picture refer to two separate productions on the stage at the time, both now forgotten.

The name was taken from George Colman’s popular comic opera Inkle and Yarico (1787), in which Wouski was handmaiden to the black heroine Yarico, both of whom experience inter-racial relationships with white men, but with different outcomes. The words beneath come from a play called Theodosius, or The Force of Love (1680) by Nathaniel Lee: ‘Far be the noise Of Kings & Crowns from us whose gentle souls Our kinder fates have steer’d another way.

Free as the forest birds we’ll pair together Without rememb’ring who our fathers were, And in soft murmurs interchange our souls.’

It is a touching sentiment, but the implication is that when, in due time, Prince William does manage to recall the identity of his father – George III of Great Britain and Ireland, no less – all birdlike devotions will abruptly end. William’s lover is in all probability a slave, so there is added poignancy in the reference to the freedom of birds.

However, the historical record is slightly unclear with regard to his father’s views on slavery. Back in the 1750s, as a teenager, the young George seems to have endorsed Montesquieu’s view that it was “equaly [sic] repugnant to the Civil Law as to the Law of Nature,” but that was so long ago his spelling was still dodgy.

Later, during the War of Independence, there were slaves in the States who took sides with the British, believing their emancipation would come from the old country, rather than from the hypocritical white champions of liberty at home. This belief was influenced by the famous Mansfield case of 17721, when the Court of

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King’s Bench ruled that an enslaved person on English soil could not be forcibly removed from the country and sent to Jamaica for sale. Lord Mansfield decided that slavery had never been authorised by statute within England and Wales, and also that it was unsupported by common law, although he made no comment on the position in the overseas territories of the British Empire. The case was closely followed throughout the dominions, particularly the Thirteen American Colonies, and the judgement is seen as major cause of the American Revolution, particularly in the southern colonies, as it was feared it would lead to abolition.

But even if English soil might hold out the prospect of freedom, its reigning monarch had become more wary. The French Revolution had demonstrated the dangers to monarchy of too much liberty, and the massive revolt by slaves in the French territory of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) confirmed the risks to property and order.

Forts that lined the Gold Coast were known as ‘factories’ to which slaves were often brought by local African chiefs. They were examined, and those who were judged fit were bought by the Royal African Company of England.

A mahogany bust of the king, taken from his yacht the Royal George and dating back to 1817, nicely demonstrates the ambiguity of his views.

The bust has been the cause of some controversy. It was recently removed from display at the National Maritime Museum on the grounds that the apparent servitude of the black men made it ‘inappropriate’. Yet no one seems to know why the black men are there. The point was almost certainly to represent George in the guise of a Caesar, as the vanquisher of Napoleonic France, and since the French revolutionaries had abolished slavery, only for Napoleon to reinstate it, the implications for the British victory over the Corsican upstart were mixed. Were these black men meant to symbolise the restoration of the proper order of things?

By 1799, with concerted moves being made in Britain to abolish the slave trade, Prince William and his father were equally forgetful of their youthful indiscretions. As a result, they were of precisely the same opinion. That year, William went to some lengths to defend slavery against its detractors, showing up at the House of Lords to attest to its fundamental necessity, and claiming that the abolitionists had misjudged the effects of the slave trade on Africa and Africans, and grossly misrepresented the treatment of enslaved men and women in the British sugar colonies. Their campaign to end the slave trade was not only radical and misguided, like the actions of the fanatical French revolutionaries, but also deeply damaging to Britain’s national interests.

William’s impassioned defence of colonial slavery helped to delay abolition, but he badly misjudged the mood of the nation and, in the short term, his public image and the reputation of the royal family suffered as a result. As the only royal ever to have visited the plantations of the Caribbean, sampling more than the delights of rum through the long Barbadian nights, he really should have known better. As a member of the British royal family, however,

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Prince William Henry seated in a hammock tenderly embraces a pretty African or mixed-race girl. Wouski by Gillray – British Museum.

During the War of Independence, there were slaves in the States who took sides with the British, believing their emancipation would come from the old country, rather than from the hypocritical white champions of liberty at home.

George III flanked by black men. A mahogany bust of the king, taken from his yacht the Royal George and dating back to 1817, nicely demonstrates the .ambiguity of his views

William’s attitude was completely orthodox. Previous monarchs had been more personally involved in the slave trade than he was, without ever visiting the Caribbean. Elizabeth I had pretty much got the ball rolling, by investing in the Triangular Trade between West Africa, the Americas and Britain when it was still in its infancy. Her fixer in all this was one Sir John Hawkins, seen here in a very nice ruff.

In 1562, Hawkins set sail with three ships to Sierra Leone, from whence he took 300 slaves to the plantations in the Americas and traded them for pearls, hides and sugar. The trade was so prosperous that on his return to England, Good Queen Bess pledged her support to additional voyages, furnished him with a ship, the Jesus de Lubeck… and granted him a coat of arms, which displayed a male slave on it.

But the involvement of the British monarchy in the slave trade did not end with Elizabeth’s demise and the extinction of the Tudor line. If anything, the whole enterprise was made more systematic by the Stuarts, in particular the Duke of York, later James II. In 1660, after the Restoration, James was entrusted with running the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa by his brother, Charles II. Initially, the company was granted a monopoly over English trade along the west coast of Africa, with the principal objective being the search for gold, but in 1663 a new charter was obtained which also mentioned the trade in slaves.

By 1672, this outfit was superseded by the still more ambitious Royal African Company of England. Its new charter was broader than the old one and included the right to set up forts, maintain troops, and exercise martial law in West Africa, in pursuit of trade in gold, silver and African slaves. In order to protect this lucrative business, English ships attacked those of the Dutch at strategic points along the African coastline.

As governor, James was to oversee the development of Eng-

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land’s slave trade on an industrial scale. It really was conceived as an industry. Many years before the chimneyed landscapes of the industrial revolution, the forts that lined the Gold Coast were known as ‘factories.’ Slaves were often brought to these factories by local African chiefs or rulers, where they were examined by a surgeon, and those who were judged fit were bought by the company. The captives would then be branded on the chest with the initials DoY for Duke of York, or else with the letters RAC. In theory, this was intended to stop the African traders from switching the healthy enslaved people who had been bought, for unfit ones, but it also marked the transformation of a freeborn human being into a commodity. In one cruel instant, the manufacture of a slave was complete. The product could then be locked up in the fort’s dungeons until a slave ship arrived, ready to do some shopping.

According to David Olusoga of Manchester University, this royal enterprise was responsible for transporting “more Africans into slavery than any other company in the whole history of the slave trade in the north Atlantic.” Things had come a long way since the opportunism of a few Elizabethan chancers.

There was a reason, too, why the Stuarts were able to throw themselves into the activity of enslavement with such confidence and a perfect lack of moral scruple: the divine right of kings. This same ‘right’ had been instrumental in Charles I coming to grief at the hands of a recalcitrant populace. It is possible that Charles II was a little more hesitant about mentioning this right after the restoration of the monarchy, but no such reluctance troubled his brother. Moreover, James II was openly Catholic in his beliefs, to the exasperation of his subjects. The problem would eventually be resolved by yet another revolution, though this time round the divine monarch managed to keep his head attached to his shoulders and died in exile.

The English philosopher, John Locke, who had witnessed the execution of Charles I as a schoolboy, went on to have some personal involvement in the Royal African Company, as one of its shareholders. Some critics have pointed to this as hypocrisy on Locke’s part, and implied that ‘liberalism’ was tainted at source, but in ‘Slavery-entangled philosophy’, Holly Brewer demonstrates that ‘Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689)

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argued against the very root of slavery: inherited status, which derived from the same set of ordering ideas and commitments as the monarchy – the divine and hereditary rights of kings. Just as a prince is born the son of a king, with a right to rule, a subject was born to a subject, and a slave born to a slave, each with the obligation to obey king and master.’

Which brings us back to Prince William canoodling in a hammock, blithely forgetting who his father was. While the Amerindian hammock appears to offer a glimpse of paradise, the hammock hitched to the timbers of the Pegasus promises another kind of suspension – that of the strict demarcations of hierarchy and status. In the arms of his ‘lady of colour,’ William can forget both his dad and the guilty conscience of the postlapsarian social order. He can float above it all, he can levitate, free as a bird of the forest. And all this can happen before the slave trade his father once described as ‘repugnant’ has been terminated, and while slavery, that ‘peculiar institution’ as people in the southern states of America referred to it, persists as a daily reality. He’s not just forgetting papa; he’s forgetting himself.

That kind of behaviour has haunted the current Prince William, the one who has recently been seen visiting the twenty-first century Caribbean and receiving a less than enthusiastic welcome there. As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge found out, a week can feel like a very long time in post-colonial politics. In a crammed schedule, they first managed to get snubbed in Belize, then in Jamaica they starred in a disastrous image, touching the hands of their fans through a wire fence.

The trip was dogged by demands for reparations, and by talk of following the example of Barbados and dropping the Queen as head of state. In Jamaica, there was also fury about the Windrush scandal. One irate Jamaican even told a journalist they would have preferred Prince Harry to come. Prince Harry isn’t working for ‘the firm’ anymore, having moved to Silicon Valley, but on the plus side he did marry a woman of African heritage.

Over and above all of this, however, loomed the vexed issue of royal complicity in slavery. Professor Trevor Burnard, director of

the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull, said a better approach would have been for the royals to go prepared to acknowledge and apologise for the family’s role in the slave trade, including through memorial visits to sites connected with slavery, and not to have staged upbeat photo ops. “They should recognise that members of the royal family from Charles II to William IV were involved with and supported slavery and the slave trade, and that this is part of their past.” In a scathing article, he complained that the couple should have visited Kingston’s foreshore and reflected on how many slaves had arrived there in British ships, rather than “kicking a football around and playing bongos in Trench Town” (The Guardian, 25 March 2022).

Was this a fair criticism? The present-day royals can hardly take the blame for, say, the misdemeanours of the Stuart dynasty, and

The royal enterprise was responsible for transporting “more Africans into slavery than any other company in the whole history of the slave trade in the north Atlantic.”

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Sir John Hawkins

The Royal African Company’s slave ‘factory’ of Cape Coast Castle in modern Ghana.

Terrible optics. In Jamaica the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge starred in a disastrous image, touching the hands of their fans through a wire fence

although there may well be some genealogical connections, it is unclear whether any of the family’s present wealth came from the slave trade, unlike that of Richard Drax2, for example, the MP who still owns the land in Barbados where his family kept slaves. The current Prince William is no inhumane apologist for the exploitation of defenceless human beings. Only recently, he is reported to have made secret donations to an African charity. So why, given these extenuating factors, did his ‘profound sorrow’ over slavery, expressed to an audience descended from slaves, seem so inadequate?

* Footnotes: 1) The Mansfield judgement: “The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law.

Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.” Or, as a far earlier court case had avowed, England had ‘too pure an air for slaves to breathe in’ (1569).

2) Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax is Conservative MP for South Dorset. During the 2010 general election campaign, the Daily Mirror reported that Drax’s family had earned their fortune through slavery. Drax’s response questioned his responsibility for “something that happened 300 or 400 years ago”, stating “it’s not what I stand for”, and cited the desperation of his opponents – “all they can do is pick at bits of my family history”. In 2013, the BBC reported that his ancestor John Erle-

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The present-day royals can hardly take the blame for the misdemeanours of the Stuart dynasty. Although there may well be some genealogical connections, it is unclear whether any of the family’s present wealth came from the slave trade.

Drax, who had an estate in Barbados, was recorded in a database created by University College London as having received £4,293 12s 6d in compensation in 1836 for 189 slaves when slavery was abolished. A 2020 investigation by the Guardian found that Richard Drax still owns and grows sugar on the same Drax Hall Estate in Barbados that made the family’s fortune. Over 200 years, 30,000 slaves died at this and the other Drax plantations, according to Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chair of CARICOM’s Reparations Commission. “The Drax family has done more harm and violence to the black people of Barbados than any other,” he said. Barbados’ poet laureate, Esther Phillips, highlighted the Drax plantation as one of the most heinous examples of slave plantations which continue to be going concerns in modern times (Wikipedia).

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Johnny Depp & Amber Heard: From ‘The Rum Diary’ to The Courtroom

By Majalla Illustration by Jeannette Khouri Now in its fourth week, the Johnny Depp – Amber Heard domestic violence court-room drama is a cautionary tale of how they ended up there 13 years after their on-set spark turned into a brief marriage that went wrong.

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million (£38.2 million) for implying in a 2018 Washing-ton Post op-ed that he abused her. Despite the fact that she did not name him, he claims her allegations made it difficult for him to get film roles.

On Tuesday, in the fourth week of proceedings at the court in Fairfax, Virginia, Depp’s legal team rested their case against Heard.

Four weeks have passed since Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against his former partner, Amber Heard. Mr. Depp has sued Ms. Heard for $50 million (£40 million) in retaliation for an article she wrote in which she claimed to be a victim of domes-tic abuse.

Ms Heard is suing for $100 million in turn.

Depp and Heard first met on the set of the 2009 film “The Rum Diary.” Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s book of the same name, the film stars Depp as Paul Kemp, a journalist who takes a job in Puerto Rico.

Heard portrayed Chenault, who Kemp falls in love with at first sight.

Depp testified in the defamation trial about the connection he felt with Heard dur-ing a scene in which their characters kissed in the shower.

Depp and his longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, with whom he has two children, Lily-Rose and John Christopher, divorced in 2012. According to People magazine at the time, Heard and Depp began dating in 2014 and later got engaged.

Depp and Heard married in a private ceremony in Los Angeles in 2015.

After 15 months of marriage, Heard filed for divorce.

She obtained a temporary re-straining order against

Depp, alleging that he abused her while high on drugs and alcohol. Depp denied the allegations, and a $7 million out-of-court settlement was reached in August 2016. Heard promised to give the money to charity.

At the time, the actors issued a joint statement in which they stated, “Our rela-tionship was intensely passionate and volatile at times, but it was always held to-gether by love. Neither party has made false accusations in order to gain financial advantage.

There was no intention of causing physical or emotional harm.”

In December of 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about the treatment of women in domestic abuse cases. She didn’t even mention Depp’s name.

Depp sued Heard for defamation over her Washington Post piece in 2019, claiming it cost him lucrative acting work. Heard’s attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed was unsuccessful. Her $100 million countersuit is still pending.

On April 12, the trial for Depp’s defamation case against Heard began in Virginia. In his opening statement, Heard’s lawyer stated that Depp is “going to try to turn this case into a soap opera.”

Depp has testified about his childhood experiences with an abusive mother, his struggles with substance abuse and his turbulent relationship with Heard.

In his testimony, Depp admitted that he and Heard had disagreements during their relationship, but he added, “Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way, nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.”

Johnny Depp, full name John Christopher Depp II, was born on June 9, 1963 in Ow-ensboro, Kentucky, United States. He is a well-known American actor and musician known for his eclectic and outlandish film choices. As Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, he achieved perhaps his greatest success.

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In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Depp played Captain Jack Sparrow (2003).

Depp received his first Academy Award nomination for his perfor-mance, which was inspired by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. He was nomi-nated for another Oscar the following year for his performance in Finding Never-land as Peter Pan creator James M. Barrie (2004).

Depp maintained his early musical interest by playing acoustic guitar in the film Chocolat (2000) and on the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). His guitar work has also appeared on albums by the Pogues and Oasis.

Amber Heard is an American actress. In 2008, she rose to prominence with roles in Pineapple Express and Never Back Down. Heard’s most successful film to date is 2018’s Aquaman, which grossed over $1 billion at the global box office.

From 2008 to 2012, Heard was in a relationship with photographer Tasya van Ree. During the relationship, Heard’s last name was legally changed to Van Ree, but she reverted to her birth name in 2014.

Heard was arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence in Washington state in 2009 after allegedly grabbing Van Ree and hitting her arm, but she was never charged.

The arrest was only made public during Heard’s divorce proceedings from actor Johnny Depp in 2016, following which Van Ree issued a statement claiming that Heard had been “wrongfully” accused and that the incident had been “misinter-preted and oversensationalized.”

Heard dated tech entrepreneur Elon Musk for a year after her divorce from Johnny Depp, until early 2018.

Shannon Curry, PsyD, MSCP, a forensic psychologist hired by Johnny Depp’s law-yers in the context of the Depp v. Heard defamation trial, diagnosed Heard with borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder, but not post-traumatic stress disorder.

T

echnology

Healthcare Workers Continue to Burn Out Can Technology Help?

By Deb Zimmerman and BJ Schaknowski Healthcare workers are in crisis: Some 35% of surveyed nurse leaders—usually a clinical specialist who oversees other leaders and registered nurses—say low morale and burnout is their biggest challenge, according to a March 2021 study by the American Association for Nursing Leadership. A stunning 16% reported that they are not emotionally healthy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put our healthcare workers under enormous strain, exacerbating burnout and staffing shortages that predate the pandemic. Even with recent increasingly relaxed regulations around COVID-19, the num-

ber of hospital patients remain far beyond normal levels, and staffing shortages continue forcing healthcare professionals to spend more time and energy at work than ever before.

And they continue to risk personal safety and the safety of their loved ones with exposure to the virus and resulting infections at rates higher than the general population.

Unfortunately, the stress continues to grow. The Great Resignation, driven by exhaustion and external factors like lack of childcare and low wages, is reducing the number of healthcare professionals in the workforce, causing remaining staff to shoulder additional responsibilities. According to Morning Consult, nearly 20% of healthcare workers have quit their jobs during the pandemic, another 31% have con-

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sidered leaving, and almost 80% have said that the shortage of workers in the industry has had an impact on them and their office.

As we’ve seen in recent years, technology can play an important role in improving patient outcomes and supporting healthcare workers, and we see it playing an important role in addressing current emergencies in staffing.

First, some context: In 2010, with the passage of Obamacare, healthcare systems across the country were required to implement electronic health records (EHR). At the time, many hospitals still relied on paper records or used basic records-management systems that were not integrated across systems or even across departments within the same system.

Widely adopted EHR systems made it possible to improve patient outcomes by creating a common platform that shares critical information across providers. Today, electronic health records have reduced bureaucracy and improved the healthcare experience overall.

Photo credit: (TNS)

More recently, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic produced a second inflection point in the advancement and adoption of healthcare technology. As COVID gathered steam, many standard healthcare appointments shifted to virtual appointments in order to protect healthcare providers and patients and limit potential exposure. Doctors’ offices and healthcare systems invested in telehealth options, offering patients the opportunity to connect and communicate with medical professionals without leaving their own homes. Two years later, that expansion of telehealth infrastructure means that minor issues are routinely diagnosed and treated over the phone or via digital platforms, with only more serious issues requiring an in-person visit—making healthcare more efficient, more convenient, and more accessible for all.

Today, we are on the cusp of a third wave of healthcare-tech innovation through improved healthcare operations. Healthcare operations deal with the fundamentals of operating a hospital—from workforce management to ensure you have enough staff for each patient, to credentialing systems that identify doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, and their specialized expertise.

In the past, innovation in this portion of healthcare technology has lagged. Outdated technology and piecemeal point-solutions caused headaches for administrators and employees but were generally not thought of as negatively affecting patient outcomes. It is only now that the strain of the pandemic on our healthcare systems has made clear that when technology is not doing its job, quality of care, patients, nurses, and doctors suffer. In the best of times, an extra week to verify the credentials for a doctor joining a new healthcare system or a scheduling mix-up would not necessarily have a tangible and lasting effect on worker

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The COVID- 19 pandemic has put our healthcare workers under enormous strain, exacerbating burnout and staffing shortages that predate the pandemic. morale or patient outcomes. But the cumulative stress and strain of the pandemic, with hospitals and workers stretched beyond capacity, have made these delays and mix-ups result in overworked and overstressed healthcare professionals—and worst patient outcomes.

Here’s just one example of how tech-assisted healthcare operations can fundamentally improve patient outcomes.

Advocate Aurora Health, a 26-hospital system throughout the Midwest that implemented symplr’s software, leveraged its workforce-management tools to effectively respond to COVID-19’s ongoing fluctuations. At the onset of the pandemic, Advocate Aurora created a virtual labor pool, allowing nurse leaders to request and reassign staff 24/7, to quickly adjust and respond to unexpected staffing shortages as workers tested positive for COVID-19. Approximately 5,000 furloughed staff members were quickly reassigned via this new dynamic scheduling system, moving nimbly to meet rising patient needs.

A comprehensive and lasting solution to the breakdowns in our healthcare systems, which have been exposed by the pandemic, will require significant investment in supporting our healthcare workers and recruiting, educating, and deploying reinforcements. This is not a quick or easy fix, and additional federal funding is an important first step.

Additionally, as nurses and nurse managers continue to struggle with mental health challenges like depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital leadership must prioritize frontline workers by listening to their concerns, encouraging them to take breaks when needed, and staffing them properly to avoid additional stress and burnout.

But equally important as providing emotional support is the continued investment in healthcare technology that improves efficiencies and supports healthcare workers. This is something that can, and must, be done today. It’s time for us to invest in the tools and support they need to succeed—and to serve them as well as they serve us.

This article was originally published by Fast Company Magazine.

H

ealth

Learning to Right a Wrong

Forgiving Yourself for Past Actions is a Powerful Healing Tool

By Matthew Solan You may still struggle at times when you think about how someone mistreated you. But what about when you were in the wrong?

It›s not unusual to revisit memories of when you bullied someone, wronged a person at work, or insensitively broke off a relationship with a friend or family member.

«This can occur more often as people age and suffer personal loss or setbacks,» says Richard Cowden, a social-personality psychologist with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard›s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. «They begin to have regrets. But when these memories arise, it›s usually a sign you need to work through those feelings and not push them down.

They may affect you in ways you don›t realize, and this is a chance to address your past mistakes and finally move on by forgiving yourself.»

CHANGE IS GOOD The challenge many men face with self-forgiveness is the misconception that it is a sign of weakness. But it actually takes courage. «Forgiving yourself can culminate in self-growth,» says Cowden. «So, when things come back that we regret having done, we can approach it as an op-

portunity to learn about ourselves and grow in beneficial ways.»

Practicing self-forgiveness can have a range of health benefits. Studies have shown that selfforgiveness is associated with reductions in guilt, shame, stress, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, as well as greater self-esteem and life satisfaction.

«We are often harder on ourselves than on others,» he says. «But once you can forgive yourself and break away from self-punishment, you can begin the process of healing and positive behavior change.»

THE FOUR R’S OF FORGIVENESS There are four parts to the self-forgiveness process: responsibility, remorse, reorientation, and renewal. Here are some ways to approach each one.

Responsibility. Facing what you have done is often the most challenging part of self-forgiveness. «It›s uncomfortable to admit you›ve done something wrong, and it›s natural to protect one›s self-esteem by dismissing what happened or making excuses for your behavior,» says Cowden.

What you can do: Write a letter. Using pen and

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Studies have shown that selfforgiveness is associated with reductions in guilt, shame, stress, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, as well as greater selfesteem and life satisfaction. in the same way.

What you can do: Apologize. Apologize if it›s called for (or send that letter, if that›s easier). Use expressions of regret like «I wish I could take it back,» or «I wish I had been more thoughtful.» Another approach is to ask the person what you can do to make amends. If you can›t communicate with the person, have an imaginary conversation with him or her, or share your apology with someone you both know. «This exercise can help you commit not to engage in the same behavior in the future,» says Cowden. )Photo credit: (TNS

paper or a computer keyboard, outline your errors and acknowledge your misgivings. «You don›t have to send it to the person,» says Cowden. «Just the act of expressing yourself and writing it down can help you process your emotions about your past behavior.»

Remorse. Once you take responsibility for your past, you may experience negative feelings, such as shame and guilt. «This is normal, so don›t bottle them up,» says Cowden.

What you can do: Talk it out. Always remember that you are not alone, and others struggle with similar issues. «Sharing these feelings with a trusted friend could you help you work through them and gain valuable insight, and you often can return the favor,» says Cowden.

Reorientation. One of the most crucial parts of self-forgiveness is to make amends (if that is possible) and to try your best not to transgress again

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Renewal. This is the self-healing stage where you let go of what you did wrong and move forward with the lessons you›ve learned.

What you can do: Reconnect with your spiritual side. If you follow a religious or spiritual practice, have thought about it, or are looking to return to a lapsed practice, this is an opportunity to explore self-forgiveness through prayer or meditation. «This often facilitates internal reflection, which can help you realize that everyone makes mistakes and that you are not beyond repair,» says Cowden.

Self-forgiveness is not easy and may take time and extra effort, but it›s worth it, adds Cowden.

«It can free you from your past mistakes and help you live more fully in the here and now. You might be surprised how much better you feel if you can work through the process of forgiving yourself.»

This article was originally published by Harvard Health.

o

pinion

The Challenge of a Lifetime I wonder what makes someone take up a challenge like wanting to complete a marathon. Why would someone endure this with his body? It is a huge distance of 42km to be run within a certain time frame, regardless of the weather conditions.

By Luisa Markides

But it was the best motivation to get better and improve myself. Our mind is stronger than anything. We just must believe in ourselves and our abilities.

I started running frequently and took part in races. But overall, back then, running outside in nature, helped me The origin of the marathon goes back cope with my mental health. to 490 BC. The Greeks heard that the Persians had entered the city of Mara- Working as a Palliative Care nurse, asthon on their way to attack Athens. It is sisting patients and their families dursaid that a messenger named Pheidip- ing their end-of-life phase is one of the pides ran 260km in two days to Sparta most rewarding jobs, although it can to break the news. have a huge impact on us as we are constantly surrounded by very sad and However, the idea of a proper mara- often difficult situations. thon distance race was carried out for the first time at the modern Olympics Being able to go for a run after my Games in Athens only in 1896, sup- working hours helped me so much to ported by the founder of the modern switch off and have a healthy balance.

Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin. Moving to London in 2014 and raising my two small children, I have had to One of my childhood values with which put my needs aside a little bit.

I have been brought up was to never give up and to always have a clear tar- Lockdown has also left a significant get to achieve. Therefore, I challenged sign on me as on many of us too. myself with a New Year’s resolution But now is the time to get back to of completing one half marathon and my passion. Without much training, one full marathon by the end of 2022. I concluded my first half marathon in Little did I know that it would quickly January within one hour and 48 minturn into an addiction for weekly half utes which I was very pleased with, thinking back to my first race. I could marathons. not be happier by having received the In my mid-twenties, I took part, total- chance to take up a challenge of a lifely unprepared, in a 10km race in my time. hometown in Switzerland. I reached the finish line second last which hit me I have been offered the possibility to run the iconic London Marathon this rather hard.

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AFP

year and to be one of 40,000 people run- their full potential. ning 42.2km through London this October.

Here I am trying to find an answer to my initial question of why I would want to It is very difficult to get an entry for the run 42.2km. This question is purely for London Marathon. For this year’s race, myself and to prove to myself that my over 350,000 applicants were hoping to mind is stronger than my body as well as get an entry though a completely random to give a sign to my children to pursue ballot, but only around 17,000 got in. their beliefs despite the difficulties. When the legs get tired, run with your heart, they Therefore, like myself, we can run for a say. charity, in exchange for fundraising a significant amount of money for them.

It is all within us. We need to trust our mind that wants to take over our fatigue.

I am very proud to be able to run for an So I am putting on my running shoes and incredible charity called “Give it your following a hard training schedule over Max” which supports vulnerable chil- the next 5 months while trying to raise dren by helping them overcome, through money for the above charity. sports, issues such as poor mental health and self-esteem, obesity, inactivity, anti- This might be the toughest physical chalsocial behavior, crime, as well as low as- lenge, but one of the most rewarding to piration levels. Every child, regardless of hopefully get to the finish line in under their background, should have access to four hours. sports, as this can help them tackle these increasingly important issues and reach Aiming high, as always.

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I am very proud to be able to run for an incredible charity called “Give it your Max” which supports vulnerable children by helping them overcome, through sports, issues such as poor mental health and self-esteem, obesity, crime, as well as low aspiration levels .