Global News Roundup: Dec. 21-Dec. 27

By Niki Kottmann

1. Iraqi Military Announces First Major Victory Over the Islamic State

American and Iraqi soldiers board a Marine Corps helicopter in Ramadi, Iraq in 2009. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The U.S.-trained Iraqi army declared its first major victory over ISIS in 18 months on Sunday. Iraqi troops stormed the city of Ramadi on Dec. 22 in an attempt to drive out ISIS, which took control of the Sunni Muslim city in May. According to Reuters, the operation to recapture the city, which is about 60 miles west of Baghdad, began in early November, but progress was slow due to the government’s attempt to rely solely on its own troops. The alternative would be to use Shi’ite militias like it has in the past, but the government wants to avoid rights abuses that occurred after using outside militias previously. After weeks of encircling the city, troops made a final push Sunday and seized the central administrative complex. A U.S.-led coalition continues to wage an air campaign against ISIS in Iraq.  

2. Islamic State Releases Message Supposedly from Leader Al-Baghdadi

Mugshot of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by U.S. armed forces at Camp Bucca in 2004. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A new audio message that is said to be from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released Saturday saying that airstrikes by Russia and a U.S.-led coalition failed to weaken ISIS. According to Reuters, the authenticity of the message is in question because it was posted via Twitter accounts that have published ISIS statements in the past but have not been verified.

“Be confident that God will grant victory to those who worship him, and hear the good news that our state is doing well. The more intense the war against it, the purer it becomes and the tougher it gets,” says the voice in the audio recording, according to Reuters.

3. New Israeli Bill That Restricts Foreign-Funded Nonprofits Criticized

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, earlier this month,  rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comment that if the Palestinian government collapses, the Israeli government must govern the West Bank. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Critics say a new Israeli bill that was given preliminary approval by Israeli Cabinet ministers Sunday is meant to restrain groups that are critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy towards Palestinians. According to Al Jazeera, the bill was proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and approved by a committee of ministers. The bill imposes restrictions on nonprofits that receive more than half of their funding from other countries. Critics of the bill mention that most nongovernmental groups that don’t agree with the Prime Minister are majorly dependent upon donations from European countries.

4. Pope Addresses Terrorism and the Migrant Crisis in Christmas Speech

Pope Francis, who shared his support Friday for non-extremist Muslims and others practicing their faith who are condemned because of extremism: “To our brothers and sisters, who in many parts of the world are being persecuted for their faith, may the child Jesus grant consolation and strength.” Courtesy of Wikipedia.

In his annual Christmas address Friday, Pope Francis called for worldwide peace and reconciliation. According to BBC, the Pope expressed his support for the recent United Nations resolutions for peace in Syria and Libya, saying he would pray for their success. He also condemned the violent acts that took place in France, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Mali in the past year and praised countries that have welcomed Middle Eastern refugees past their borders. The Pope’s address came a week after the U.N. Security Council created a resolution to end the nearly five-year  war in Syria, proving to be both a breakthrough and a roadblock in peace negotiations since the fate of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the classification of armed groups as terrorists are still highly contested.

5. Chicago Police Questioned After Fatally Shooting Two People

Location of West Garfield Park, a neighborhood where two fatal shootings occurred Saturday, within the city of Chicago. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and Bettie Jones, 55, were shot and killed by police in West Garfield Park on Saturday after officers responded to a domestic disturbance report. Authorities say that Jones, a mother of five, was shot by accident. According to the Chicago Tribune, the fatal shootings are the first to occur at the hands of Chicago police officers after a 2014 video was released last month of Laquan McDonald’s death, putting the city in national headlines as police shootings continue to be one of the most controversial topics in the U.S. After confirming that the woman’s death was an accident, the police department announced that officers involved in shootings will now have to be placed on administrative duty for 30 days following the instance. This is a big change for officers because the previous policy said that those involved in shootings must go off active duty for three days.

 

Saree Makdisi’s lecture incites student call for action

By Jessica Karins

On Nov.14th, Saree Makdisi, professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Los Angeles, gave a lecture at MU titled “The Everyday Occupation of Palestine”.

Makdisi was born in Lebanon but is of Palestinian descent, and is the nephew of influential Palestinian writer Edward Said. He delivered a speech aimed at refocusing the debate around Israel and Palestine away from abstract political concepts and towards ordinary human suffering.

Makdisi’s presentation focused on the way simple things like landscaping can become political weapons–for example, when Israel plans for the planting of forests on the ruins of demolished villages.

“You can see the scene of history at literally the most mundane level; the flowers, the roots, the grass,” Makdisi said. “It’s taking the logic of occupation and translating it into the medium of landscaping.”

Makdisi emphasized the gradual and routine demolition of Palestinian villages and the olive trees from which many people derive their income as one of the most prominent sites of conflict, but not the only one.

According to Makdisi, the key to understanding conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians isn’t militarized violence, but everyday expressions of control. Another example he used was the identification system. Different kinds of IDs are issued according to ethnicity, citizenship, and place of residence. A person’s type of ID card determines many aspects of their daily life.

“What they compel you to think about is the way in which these identity cards, which are of course the expression of state identity, state logic, state thinking, state planning, allows the state to introduce its politics at the level of the individual,” Makdisi said. “Palestinians have to think about it, because to get from point A to point B in their everyday lives they are constantly compelled to negotiate at roadblocks and checkpoints and so forth.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that there are 490 such obstacles that Palestinians, as opposed to Jewish citizens of Israel, face.

In another example, the Israeli government calculated the precise number of calories per person per day that people in Gaza should be consuming, in order to determine how much food will be transported into the region.

While this has been framed as an effort to prevent starvation, Makdisi believes that the real goal is different.

“To maintain Gaza in a situation of not quite starvation,” Makdisi said. “They don’t want it to plunge over into an out-and-out humanitarian catastrophe, but nor do they want it to be a place where you can live a normal life.”

Soldiers are a common site in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Image: Wikimedia Commons

 

MU Socialists, one of the student groups present at the event, plans to ask the MU administration to follow the same path of “boycott, divest, and sanction” (BDS) as other colleges have agreed to.

Oluwafemi Agbabiaka, one of the co-founders of MU Socialists, said the group has several members who are passionate about the issue and decided to start formally organizing around it about a month ago. They plan to hold a “teach-in” on Dec. 4 to begin raising awareness.

Their first objective is to ask the university to stop buying Sabra hummus; the Israeli-owned company contributes funding to the Israeli Defense Forces and has been a frequent target of BDS efforts.

“HP is another one that helped to build the structure for the identification system that Israel uses, and also Coke,” Agbabiaka said. “But those are much larger and we’ll have to build up to that.”

Other students organized an independent protest at Makdisi’s talk. They distributed literature to those arriving that claimed some of Makdisi’s previous statements about Israel were factually incorrect.

MU student Daniel Swindell organized that group. After hearing about Makdisi’s visit to campus, he asked the pro-Israel organization Stand With Us whether there were inaccuracies in Makdisi’s writings and YouTube videos. He said that they found numerous errors.

“My motivation for the protest is that Dr. Makdisi is openly opposed to the two-state solution and openly opposed to the peace process,” Swindell said.

Swindell, who lived in Israel for a year, advocates for a solution that establishes an independent Palestinian state, but preserves Israel as a separate, Jewish state. This is also the position held by prominent figures like President Obama and the United Nations.

Makdisi believes in a one-state solution, a single nation which would include all current territories and citizens of Israel and Palestine. He says that the most important step towards that peace process would be for Israel to end its border policing and simply “let people go home.”

To Swindell, however, the solution is not that simple.

“Hamas is actively declaring war on Israel,” he said, referring to the Palestinian political and military organization. He points to violence carried out by Hamas and its political platform, which calls for the destruction of Israel and establishment of an Islamic state, as major obstacles in the peace process.

“I know the Palestinian people are suffering,” Swindell said. “The difference between Makdisi’s position and my position is that Makdisi believes Israel is responsible for that suffering.”

Swindell said he struggles with the question of how a resolution could be reached.

“I don’t know how you convince people like Hamas to drop their irrational beliefs,” he said.

Hanish Shraideh, an MU student who arrived in the United States three months ago from Palestine, said that the talk resonated with him.

A former water engineer for the Palestinian Authority, he spoke about the demolition of 40 wells in his home of Gaza simply because it was decided the region had access to too much water.

“It’s not about calories, not about rockets, not about Hamas, it’s about occupation,” Shraideh said.