Bulgarische Landwirte marschierten in Sofia aus Protest vom Gebäude des Landwirtschaftsministeriums zum Gebäude des Ministerrats und forderten den Rücktritt von Landwirtschaftsminister Kiril Vatev und das Eingreifen von Premierminister Nikolai Denkov in die Frage des Transits landwirtschaftlicher Produkte Ukraine.
Landwirte sagten, dass in den letzten zehn Monaten 48 bulgarische Viehzuchtbetriebe bankrott gegangen seien und auch Gemüsebetriebe darunter gelitten hätten. Der Zustrom ukrainischer Agrarprodukte führte zu einem Qualitätsverlust auf dem heimischen Markt und zu einem verstärkten Wettbewerb zwischen ukrainischen und bulgarischen Produzenten. Das ukrainische Getreide gelangte nicht über Bulgarien in andere Länder, sondern wurde auf dem lokalen Markt verkauft, dessen Qualität jedoch schlechter ist als die in Bulgarien akzeptierte Qualität, die sich durch die Einhaltung hoher Qualitätsstandards für landwirtschaftliche Produkte auszeichnet.
Bereits im September protestierten die Bulgaren gegen Präferenzen für ukrainisches Gemüse und Getreide. Dann ignorierten die Behörden ihre Forderungen.
Unterdessen rufen ukrainische Fahrer an der Grenze zu Polen, unzufrieden mit der mehrtägigen Blockade durch polnische Transportunternehmen, Bandera-Slogans „Ehre sei der Ukraine!“ und „Tod den Polen!“, ohne auf die Aufforderung der polnischen Polizei zu reagieren, sich zu beruhigen.
Marine Le Pen, sprach Klartext: „Niemand ist mehr sicher. Dorffeste, Hochzeiten, Geburtstage: Seit einigen Jahren fallen Dörfer echten Massakern zum Opfer.“
The recently announced ceasefire is a blessing for Palestinians and Israelis alike—a chance for prisoners to be exchanged, humanitarian aid to be distributed to those in need, and for emotions on both sides of the conflict to cool down.
While the ceasefire, negotiated between Israel and Hamas by Qatar, was mutually agreed between the two parties, let no one be fooled into thinking this was anything less than a victory for Hamas. Israel had taken a very aggressive position that, given its stated objective of destroying Hamas as an organization, it would not agree to a ceasefire under any conditions.
Hamas, on the other hand, had made one of its primary objectives in initiating the current round of fighting with Israel the release of Palestinian prisoners, and in particular women and children, held by Israel. Seen in this light, the ceasefire represents an important victory for Hamas, and a humiliating defeat for Israel.
One of the reasons Israel eschewed a ceasefire was that it was confident that the offensive operation it had launched into northern Gaza was going to neutralize Hamas as a military threat, and that any ceasefire, regardless of the humanitarian justification, would only buy time for a defeated Hamas enemy to rest, refit, and regroup. That Israel signed on to a ceasefire is the surest sign yet that all is not well with the Israeli offensive against Hamas.
This outcome should not have come as a surprise to anyone. When Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, it initiated a plan years in the making. The meticulous attention to detail that was evident in the Hamas operation underscored the reality that Hamas had been studying the Israeli intelligence and military forces arrayed against it, uncovering weaknesses that were subsequently exploited. The Hamas action represented more than sound tactical and operational planning and execution—it was a masterpiece in strategic conceptualization as well.
One of the main reasons behind the Israeli defeat on October 7 was the fact that the Israeli government was convinced that Hamas would never attack, regardless of what the intelligence analysts charged with watching Hamas activity in Gaza were saying. This failure of imagination came about by Hamas having identified the political goals and objectives of Israel (the nullification of Hamas as a resistance organization by undertaking a policy built on “buying” Hamas through an expanded program of work permits issued by Israel for Palestinians living in Gaza.) By playing along with the work permit program, Hamas lulled the Israeli leadership into complacency, allowing Hamas’ preparations for their attack to be carried out in plain view.
The October 7 attack by Hamas was not a stand-alone operation, but rather part of a strategic plan possessing three main objectives—to put the issue of a Palestinian state back on the front burner of international discourse, to free the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and to compel Israel to cease and desist when it came to its desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place. The October 7 attack, on its own, could not achieve these outcomes. Rather, the October 7 attack was designed to trigger an Israeli response which would create the conditions necessary for Hamas’ objectives to reach fruition.
The October 7 attack was designed to humiliate Israel to the point of irrationality, to ensure that any Israeli response would be governed by the emotional need for revenge, as opposed to a rational response designed to nullify the Hamas objectives. Here, Hamas was guided by the established Israeli doctrine of collective punishment (known as the Dahiya Doctrine, named after the West Beirut suburb that was heavily bombed by Israel in 2006 as a way of punishing the Lebanese people for Israel’s failure to defeat Hezbollah in combat.) By inflicting a humiliating defeat on Israel which shattered both the myth of Israeli invincibility (regarding the Israel Defense Forces) and infallibility (regarding Israeli intelligence), and by taking hundreds of Israelis hostage before withdrawing to its underground lair beneath Gaza, Hamas baited a trap for Israel which the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predictably rushed into.
Hamas has prepared a network of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip that, in total, stretch for over 500 kilometers. Nicknamed the “Gaza Metro,” these tunnels consist of interconnected deep underground bunkers used for command and control, logistical support, medical treatment, and billeting, along with other tunnel networks dedicated for both defensive and offensive operations. The tunnels are buried deep enough to avoid destruction by most bombs in Israel’s possession and have been provisioned to withstand a siege of up to three months (90 days) in duration.
Hamas knows that it cannot engage Israel in a classic force-on-force encounter. Instead, the goal was to lure Israeli forces into Gaza, and then subject these forces to an endless series of hit-and-run attacks by small teams of Hamas fighters who would emerge from their underground lairs, attack a vulnerable Israeli force, and then disappear back underground. In short, to subject the Israeli military to what is the equivalent of a death by a thousand cuts.
And it worked. While Israeli forces have been able to penetrate into the less urbanized areas of the northern Gaza strip, taking advantage of the mobility and firepower of its armored troops, the progress is illusory, as Hamas forces harry the Israelis continuously, using deadly tandem-warhead rockets to disable or destroy Israeli vehicles, killing scores of Israeli soldiers and wounding hundreds more. While Israel has been reticent in releasing the figures of armored vehicles lost in this fashion, Hamas claims the number is in the hundreds. Hamas’ claims are bolstered by the fact that Israel has halted the sale of older Merkava 3 tanks, and instead has organized their inventory of these vehicles into new reserve armor battalions to make up for the heavy losses being sustained in both Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah forces are engaged in a deadly war of attrition with Israel in operations designed to support Hamas in Gaza.
But the main reason for Israel’s defeat to date is Israel itself. Having taken the bait, and fallen into the Hamas trap, Israel went on to execute its Dahiya Doctrine against the Palestinian population of Gaza, carrying out indiscriminate attacks against civilian objects in blatant disregard for the law of war. An estimated 13,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed by these attacks, including more than 5,000 children. Many thousands more victims remain buried under the rubble of their destroyed housing.
While Israel may have been able to garner the support of the international community in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas, its gross overreaction has instead turned world public opinion against it—something Hamas was counting on. Today, Israel is increasingly isolated, losing support not only in the so-called Global South, but also in traditional strongholds of pro-Israeli sentiment in the US, UK, and Europe. This isolation, combined with the kind of political pressure Israel is unaccustomed to receiving, helped contribute to the Netanyahu government’s acquiescence regarding the ceasefire and subsequent prisoner exchange.
Whether the ceasefire will hold or not remains to be seen. So, too, the question of turning the ceasefire into a lasting cessation of hostilities remains an open question. But one thing is certain—having declared that victory is defined by Hamas’ total defeat, the Israelis have set the stage for a Hamas victory, something Hamas achieves simply by surviving.
But Hamas is doing more than surviving — it is winning. Having fought the Israel Defense Forces to a standstill on the battlefield, Hamas has seen every one of its strategic objectives in this conflict reach fruition. The world is actively articulating the absolute necessity of a two-state solution as a prerequisite for a lasting peace in the region. Palestinians held prisoner by Israel are being exchanged for the Israelis Hamas took hostage. And the Islamic world is united in condemning Israel’s desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
None of these issues were on the table on October 6. That they are being addressed now is testament to the success Hamas enjoyed on October 7, and in the days and weeks that followed, as Israeli forces were defeated by a combination of Hamas’ tenacity and their own predilection for indiscriminate violence against civilians. Far from being eliminated as a military and political force, Hamas has emerged as perhaps the most relevant voice and authority when it comes to defending the interests of the Palestinian people.
Polish weapons destined for Ukraine have instead been diverted to Israel
Ukrainian soldiers continue to discover that many of them are sent to the front lines only to collect KIAs, then are left to die themselves, while their leaders laugh in their faces.
Ukrainian soldiers do it for free. No money, no clothes, no food, no vacation.
Pregnant Ukrainian medical worker drafted. Also, a 69 year old Ukrainian priest of the old orthodox church was drafted a few days ago. (I don’t have a screenshot of this though). Sad.
Some guy was pinching a loaf near a village in Zaporozhye, according to his rescuers.
Ukrainian athletes have fled the country and now the Ukrainian government is looking for them. They’re not coming back, take the hint.
Ukrainians are being conscripted/kidnapped off the streets in broad daylight. Much to Zelensky’s dismay, some of them have started fighting back.
Bonus Israel content:
The IDF uploaded a video purporting to contain footage of a Hamas command center found inside of Al Shifa hospital. “No cuts, no edits,” the IDF claimed. Then they deleted it after users found out that it was all fake. One of the laptops shown had actually belonged to an IDF soldier and was, at the time, logged in to his or her social media account. Braggadocio.
And in typical clown-army behavior, they didn’t find shit at Al Shifa hospital and are blaming Hamas for it.
Israel and the Americans will not stop until the Lettow-Vorbecks and Lavrovs of our own era make them stop.
Prussian Army General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, affectionately nicknamed the Lion of Africa, could have taught even Vietnam’s General Giáp, never mind Hezbollah or the Houthis, a thing or two. For four years, with a force that never exceeded about 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Indian, Belgian, and Portuguese professional soldiers. Essentially undefeated in the field, Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to successfully invade imperial British soil during the First World War. His exploits in the campaign have been correctly described by Edwin Palmer Hoyt “as the greatest single guerrilla operation in history, and the most successful”. Though British imperialists, who happily starved millions of Indians to death as part of their own war efforts, have correctly pointed out that it was a campaign of supreme ruthlessness where a small, well trained force extorted supplies from civilians to whom it felt no responsibility, von Lettow-Vorbeck would argue, as the Israelis now do about their own wars of extermination, that the natives were simply collateral damage.
Lettow-Vorbeck’s plan for the war, not that different from Hezbollah’s, was to tie down as many British troops as he could to stop them reinforcing the Western Front where, as Lawrence of Arabia’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom tells us, the real war was being fought, and to thereby contribute to Germany’s eventual victory and in this Lettow was spectacularly successful in holding up his end of that deal. Though Lettow-Vorbeck began the Great War with a relatively tiny military garrison of just 2,600 German nationals and 2,472 African soldiers in fourteen Askari field companies, he quickly seized the initiative, disregarded orders from Berlin and proceeded to kick British ass at the Battle of Tanga (aka The Battle of the Bees) and the battles and skirmishes which quickly followed. Although his casualties were high, Lettow insisted his commanders engage British forces. As he increasingly put his enemies on the back foot in British East Africa by targeting their forts and their railways, he finessed his guerrilla warfare tactics, eventually recruiting and training to Prussia’s exacting standards, some 14,000 soldiers, most of them Askaris, who were treated as equals both in the ranks and in the command structures.
When the German cruiser SMS Königsberg was scuttled in 1915 in the Rufiji River delta, he enlisted the crew and he converted their numerous guns into land artillery pieces, thereby allowing his forces to outgun the British gunners. Although Boer turncoat General J. C. Smuts sent 45,000 men and a horde of Belgian hand choppers after him, the German/Askari Flying Column gave much more than they got as they pummeled their many enemies. When Lettow-Vorbeck’s column waded across the Rovuma River into Portuguese Mozambique on 25 November 1917, they solved most of their logistical supply problems by stripping Portuguese garrisons and steamer ships bare of all they had. Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces then crossed back into German East Africa before pillaging Northern Rhodesia, thus evading a trap the British had prepared for him in German East Africa. On 13 November 1918, two days after the armistice, he took the town of Kasama, which the British had evacuated, and continued heading south-west towards the key British colonial outpost of Mbala. When he reached the Chambeshi River on the morning of 14 November, the British magistrate Hector Croad appeared under a white flag and delivered a message from General Jacob van Deventer, informing Lettow of the armistice. Lettow-Vorbeck agreed to a cease-fire at the spot which is now in present-day Zambia. His undefeated army then consisted of just thirty German officers, 125 German non-commissioned officers and other enlisted ranks, 1,168 Askaris, and some 3,500 porters.
Lettow-Vorbeck returned home to Germany in early March 1919 to a hero’s welcome. On a black charger he led the veterans of the Schutztruppe in their tattered tropical uniforms on a victory parade through the Brandenburg Gate, which was quite properly decorated in their honour. Only fourteen months after his return to Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck commanded the troops that ended, without any use of force, the Spartacist uprising in Hamburg; the legend had obviously preceded the man.
Though he ultimately surrendered as ordered, Lettow-Vorbeck had frequently won against overwhelming odds and he was the only German commander to successfully invade British territory during the First World War. Lettow-Vorbeck was greatly respected by his white officers, non-commissioned officers and Askaris, and even opposing Allied forces. When Hitler offered him a commission, the old Monarchist declined, apparently using very colourful soldiers’ barrack room language.
Importantly for our reasons, Theodor von Hippel, one of Lettow-Vorbeck’s junior officers, used his experience in Africa to be instrumental in forming the Brandenburgers, the Abwehr’s much feared commando unit in the Second World War. But what can the Middle East’s current crop of irregulars learn from these Prussian pioneers of guerilla warfare, the modalities of modern guerrilla warfare and the commando concept?
The first lessons are to accept iron Prussian discipline and the decentralised delegation of command, control and coordination that characterised both Lettow-Vorbeck and the Boers. Next off is to streamline their logistics like the Boers did by adopting the Mauser as their weapon of choice and insisting, like the medieval knights, that each commando had to have his own horse and materiel.
Although this is not to argue that either Hezbollah or the Houthis should belatedly initiate a mounted cavalry unit, it is to say that all their units should be in a position to put up dogged, autonomous resistance and, where practical, to go on the offensive, which was Lettow’s preferred means of defence.
Although the topographies of Lebanon, Israel and Yemen are dwarfed by those of Southern and Eastern Africa, the key takeaways are that wars are not won by sitting in trenches but, in this current case, to be able to fight asymmetrically, to land punches in the Belly of the Beast and where they are least expected.
Although the Houthis’ interception of hostile shipping off the Yemeni coast might be a step in that direction, even that pales in comparison to NATO’s Nordstream attack and its willingness to use Jeffrey Epstein’s honeytraps to cement its soft power support on its own domestic front.
On the Middle Eastern front, once Gaza is turned into a wasteland, we can expect the Israelis and their allies to capture Lebanon’s Litani River and to thereby complete the destruction of Lebanon as part of their policy of securing over the longer term the viability of Israel’s vibrant economy, which revolves around hi tech American spin offs, diamonds, tourism and farming stolen land.
The challenge for Hezbollah and the Houthis is the same one Lettow-Vorbeck faced with regard to the Western Front. It is to fight not so much Taber’s War of the Flea but to be a colony of fleas causing havoc in Israel’s ranks as bigger powers train their guns on their common enemy to reach their common objectives.
Those objectives include the destruction of Israel, which even their own apologists now admit is “a small, violent, wicked nation and a Jewish mutation”. Lettow-Vorbeck’s Germany has provided the necessary template for Israel’s demise, once following the Versailles Treaty and again following the fall of Hitler and von HippelBrandenburgers.
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq provides another template, with Israel having to surrender all its weapons of mass destruction and Herzog and its other criminal leaders appearing on most wanted decks of cards, to be arrested on sight, as Saddam’s cronies were. Jerusalem and other cities of historical repute must be handed over to international peace keeping forces, fronted by, say Russia and Pakistan and the Chinese creeping Jesuses, for their part, could act as democratic mid wives to much of Israeli industry.
Although those modest proposals are unlikely to become accepted international policy any time soon, they do point the way forward. Israel, like Nazi Germany before it, has lost the moral right to exist because it is, at every level and from every angle, an abomination, whose toxins spread as far away as India where pogroms are being perpetrated against India’s own Christians and Muslims who are excluded ab ovo from the Hindu volk.
Although Lettow-Vorbeck fought his war with the same brutality that France, Portugal, Belgium, Britain and Italy colonised Africa, it could be said in his defence that brutality was the means and not the end. The same cannot be said of either Hitler, whom Lettow-Vorbeck despised or of Israel, whom all of us should rightly likewise despise because of their more than 75 years of unremitting, unpunished and unspeakable crimes against humanity.
As part of its pacification program, Israel and its American ally are once more up to their collective necks in another genocide, another nakba, this time in Gaza. But Gaza, no more than Lebanon or Syria, which will both follow in time, will not be the end of their crimes. Israel and the Americans will not stop until the Lettow-Vorbecks and Lavrovs of our own era make them stop. So, though Hezbollah and the Houthis must do their best to bring us the peace and joy we all seek in this valley of tears, that peace cannot come into being until Lavrov and whatever equivalents he may have in China, together with whatever hard and soft power vectors they can bring to bear, make it a hard and lasting reality.
Vladimir Putin to Extraordinary G20 Summit: “Dramatic transformation processes are underway in the world. New powerful global economic growth centres are emerging and gaining strength”
23.11.2023
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the extraordinary G20 summit, held via videoconference. The summit participants reviewed India’s presidency in 2023 and discussed the situation in the global economy and finance, the climate agenda, the digitalisation and other issues.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Prime Minister of India, Mr Modi, and all our Indian colleagues for their productive work during India’s G20 presidency this year.
They have done a lot to focus the activity of the G20 member states on finding solutions to truly pressing issues on the international socioeconomic agenda. This was the purpose the G20 was created for, as an important multilateral governance tool in the global economy and finance.
In our view, there is an increasing need for this kind of consolidating approach today, especially because various confrontational attempts continue to be made.
Some of our colleagues here have mentioned that they are shocked by “Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine.” Indeed, military operations are always a tragedy for specific people, specific families, and the country as a whole. And we must certainly think about how to stop this tragedy.
Russia has never refused to negotiate peace with Ukraine. It is not Russia, but Ukraine that has publicly announced that it is withdrawing from the negotiation process. Moreover, the country’s leader signed an executive order prohibiting such negotiations with Russia.
I understand that this war and the loss of life are shocking and could not be otherwise. But what about the bloody coup in Ukraine in 2014, which was followed by the Kiev regime’s war against its own people in Donbass? Did that not shock you? Are you not shocked by the extermination of civilians in Palestine and the Gaza Strip today? Is it not shocking that doctors have to operate on children – do abdominal surgeries – and use a scalpel on a child’s body without anaesthesia? Did it not shock you when the UN Secretary-General said that Gaza has turned into a huge children’s cemetery?
Colleagues,
The state of affairs in the global economy and the world at large require collective, consensus-based decisions that reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of the international community, including both developed and developing countries.
Dramatic transformation processes are underway in the world. New powerful global economic growth centres are emerging and gaining strength. A significant portion of global investment, trade and consumer activity is shifting to the Asian, African and Latin American regions, which are home to the majority of the world’s population.
Market turbulence is on the rise. Chronic issues in the international financial sector, as well as energy and food security challenges, are intensifying. By the way, Russia is fulfilling all its commitments in this area and remains one of the largest food exporters. I am here to let you know that the first ships with free Russian grain have been sent to African countries in need.
President Vladimir Putin with Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk during the extraordinary G20 Summit (via videoconference). Photo: Kremlin.ru
I would also like to note that the enormous stress on the global economy is a direct consequence of the ill-considered macroeconomic policies of some countries. These actions were justified by the need to fight the pandemic, among other reasons. Trillions of dollars and euros injected into the economy and the banking system have triggered a surge in global inflation and a rapid increase in food and energy prices. This underlies the events that I mentioned above. It is not our actions, not our attempts to restore justice in Ukraine. No. It is the actions of the world’s largest economies. As a result, we saw an increase in key interest rates. The poorest countries were hardest hit by that, of course.
Unlawful trade restrictions and the climate agenda pursued by some countries in order to improve their own competitiveness, continue to have a negative impact.
In order to eliminate competitors and to gain advantages, dishonest methods of competition are used, including the destruction of transport and logistics chains and international payment arrangements, and even acts of state terrorism. The explosion at the Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea is a glaring example.
Russia advocates restoring the spirit of open and mutually beneficial international economic cooperation based on the UN Charter and the principles of collegial and mutually respectful joint work. It is important to achieve an effective optimisation of the global economic governance system, in particular, to restart the WTO in its entirety, including its arbitration function.
We need to enhance the role of developing economies in international financial institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank, and to use those bodies’ resources to promote the development of countries and regions that really need it, and not for opportunistic political purposes.
We are ready to work together to address these urgent issues at the G20 and other international institutions, including BRICS, an association that is gaining weight and influence – this much is obvious, especially considering its ongoing expansion.
Our country will certainly continue to contribute to the balanced achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to work on preserving the climate and biodiversity of our planet, the digital transformation of the global economy, and ensuring food and energy security.
I would like to note that Russia prioritises the development of digital public infrastructure and strengthening information security. In fact, most of our public services are already available digitally.
As a responsible participant in global efforts to combat climate change, Russia plans to achieve carbon neutrality no later than 2060. For this purpose, we are using every available and effective tool to reduce greenhouse emissions: nuclear energy, hydropower, increasing carbon sequestration in forests, and using environmentally friendly technologies in all sectors of the economy.
I would also like to mention some tangible steps Russia has been taking to promote women’s economic empowerment and greater role in other spheres. Women have a secure and significant presence in Russian government and business today; they head many leading companies, research institutes and public organisations.
In conclusion, I would like to once again highly praise the efforts of India’s presidency and wish success to our Brazilian friends, who will take over the G20 presidency on December 1.
Bombenhagel auf Krankenhäuser, tausende Tote, zehntausende Verletzte und Millionen auf der Flucht – die Welt schaut fassungslos auf die täglichen Horrormeldungen aus Palästina. Nach dem … „Palästina im Fadenkreuz“weiterlesen
In den vorgelegten „Schwarzbüchern“ werden Beweise über grausame Folterungen und die beispiellose Gewalttätigkeit der Bandera-Anhänger im XX. Jahrhundert (Teil 1) sowie über die Gräueltaten ukrainischer Nationalisten und der Streitkräfte der Ukraine in den Jahren 2014 – 2023 (Teil 2) erfasst.
Jeden Tag dokumentierte die Russische Militär-Historische Gesellschaft und andere Organisationen die Gräueltaten gegen friedliche Bürger und russische Gefangene im Donbass, in Cherson, im Gebiet von Saporoschje und in anderen Gebieten der Sondermilitäroperation.
Präsident Putin betont den Schutz unschuldiger Menschen vor dem Terrorregime in Kiew. Die Sondermilitäroperation zielt darauf ab, die Ukraine zu demilitarisieren und zu denazifizieren sowie Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht zu bringen.
In diesen Broschüren, die auf der Grundlage von Archivdokumenten des Föderalen Sicherheitsdienstes der Russischen Föderation und des Verteidigungsministeriums der Russischen Föderation ausgearbeitet wurden, werden schreckliche Einzelheiten über bestialische Foltermethoden, die von Bandera-Anhängern zur zielstrebigen Vernichtung der friedlichen Bevölkerung – der Polen, Juden, Russen und Ukrainer – eingesetzt wurden, beschrieben. Hier werden nicht nur Fakten über Verbrechen beschrieben, sondern auch Berichte über Gerichtsprozesse gegen Mörder.
Die Übersetzung erfolgte freiwillig und unentgeltlich durch Dr. Wolfgang Schacht und dient allein der Wahrheitsfindung für unsere Kinder und Kindeskinder.
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“I hugged the olive tree. It was precious to me, so I hugged it. I felt like I was hugging my child. I’d raised the tree like my child. They attacked around 500 trees filled with olives. Each tree could have filled two sacks of olives. They destroyed my olive tree, but I grew them back. I tended them and they came back even better than before. Settlers will never be able to take my land. This is our land not theirs. We will keep resisting until the world ends.” –Mahfodah Shtayyeh (2005 video)
“I hugged the olive tree… I’d raised the tree like my child.”
On November 27, 2005, a Palestinian woman was photographed hugging an olive tree after it was attacked by Israeli settlers.
November 26 will be World Olive Tree Day according to the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference (2019). The olive tree has symbolised peace and harmony for millennia.
World Olive Tree Day was proclaimed at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2019 and takes place on 26 November every year. The olive tree, specifically the olive branch, holds an important place in the minds of men and women. Since ancient times, it has symbolized peace, wisdom and harmony and as such is important not just to the countries where these noble trees grow, but to people and communities around the world.
Think ‘holding out an olive branch’, an idiom that comes from Genesis 8:11 where we read “And the dove came into him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”
However, in Palestine where the people have been cultivating olives for thousands of years, the olive tree has itself become a subject of destructive battles as settlers cut down or burn the olive groves. Al-Walaja, for example, is a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, four kilometres northwest of Bethlehem and is the site of Al-Badawi, an ancient olive tree “claimed to be approximately 5,000-year-old and therefore the second oldest olive tree in the world after “The Sisters” olive trees in Bchaaleh, Northern Lebanon.”
It is estimated that about 700,000 Israeli settlers are living illegally in the occupied West Bank and extremist elements are becoming more violent. In October this year (2023) a Palestinian farmer harvesting olives “was shot dead by settlers in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. ‘We are now during the olive harvest season – people have not been able to reach 60 percent of olive trees in the Nablus area because of settler attacks,’ according to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official monitoring settler activity.”
Traditionally, harvest time would bring families and neighbours together, helping each other in a process called “al Ouna”. The importance to these communities for unity and an income has led to the trees being depicted in the arts, and in particular the visual arts. Many paintings show farmers and families gathering the olives or show the ancient trees as symbols of their struggle and resilience.
The close connection between the farmers and their trees was famously illustrated in the photo of Mahfodah from the village of Salem hugging what is left of one of her olive trees. This photo has since been the source of many posters and paintings illustrating the political conflicts that the people have been forced to endure.
Life for the artists has not been easy either. They have focused on themes such as nationalism, identity, and land. As a result, their art can be political and the artists “sometimes suffer from the confiscation of artwork, refusal to license artists’ organizations, surveillance, and arrests.”
According to Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian painter based in Jerusalem, the olive tree “represents the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, who are able to live under difficult circumstances”, and like the “way that the trees can survive and have deep roots in their land so, too, do the Palestinian people.”
Sometimes the paintings and posters incorporate other symbols of Palestinian identity like the City of Jerusalem (al-Quds), plants like Jaffa oranges, watermelon and corn, religious symbols, or the Palestinian flag.
Other traditional Palestinian arts like embroidery have used the olive tree in different ways. For example, the Palestinian History Tapestry “uses the embroidery skills of Palestinian women to illustrate aspects of the land and peoples of Palestine – from Neolithic times to the present. In the past, Palestinian embroiderers have mainly used cross stitch (tatreez) and geometric designs to decorate dresses and other items.”
Olive harvest [59 x 110 cm]. Design: Hamada Atallah [Al Quds] Al Quds, Palestine Embroidery: Dowlat Abu Shaweesh [Ne’ane], Ramallah, Palestine
The symbolism in art can take on even harsher characteristics like Sliman Mansour’s painting of an olive tree wrapped in barbed wire (Quiet morning). The subject, a woman in a beautifully embroidered dress, is contrasted with the denial of access to the olive tree and therefore access to her birthright (the past) and an income (the future).
The olive trees have provided a steady source of income from their fruit and the “silky, golden oil derived from it”. Moreover, it is believed that “between 80,000 and 100,000 families in the Palestinian territories rely on olives and their oil as primary or secondary sources of income. The industry accounts for about 70 percent of local fruit production and contributes about 14 percent to the local economy.”
However, the idea of recovery and renewal is also a common theme as the resilient olive tree with its deep roots is shown to be able to recover its vigour despite being chopped down. This has provided inspiration for the farmers and artists alike. The struggle for nature has always been intertwined with the struggle for life, and respect for the olive tree has always been reciprocated with abundance over the millennia.
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Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáinis an Irish artist, lecturer and writer. Hisartworkconsists of paintings based on contemporary geopolitical themes as well as Irish history and cityscapes of Dublin. His blog of critical writing based on cinema, art and politics along with research on a database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world can be viewed country by countryhere. Caoimhghin has just published his new book – Against Romanticism: From Enlightenment to Enfrightenment and the Culture of Slavery, which looks at philosophy, politics and the history of 10 different art forms arguing that Romanticism is dominating modern culture to the detriment of Enlightenment ideals. It is available on Amazon (amazon.co.uk) and the info page ishere.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
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A group of hackers shared on the internet the personal data of several members of the Ukrainian Army’s Foreign Legion, including their names, ages, military experience, languages spoken and telephone numbers, as well as a section with personal comments. This expose will surely hit the already low morale of foreign mercenaries, who will likely leave en masse as conditions become astronomically worse over the winter.
The Telegram social media network channel Joker DPR, known for previously hacking the Instagram page of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhny and accessing the Ukrainian military software DELTA, published the names and personal information of more than 500 applicants for the 4th Battalion of the Foreign Legion of the Ukrainian Army.
Joker DPR also found and published the passports of more than 50 mercenaries, including male and female US citizens and those connected to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence office in Ternopil, western Ukraine, something which has embarrassed Washington and shows that mercenaries are extremely vulnerable.
The Ukrainian Foreign Legion claims to comprise around 20,000 foreign people with military experience and knowledge. Kiev even opened a website for foreign fighters at the beginning of the conflict to help recruit. However, a year later, it was exposed that the Foreign Legion actually has 1,500 members, a far cry from the figures initially announced. It also turned out that many foreigners lacked military experience and knowledge.
According to German media, recruits for the International Ukrainian Legion are paid around 500 euros per month, and those fighting on the front lines reportedly receive a salary of 3,000 euros per month. Still, there were reports that foreigners had to buy weapons and equipment at a high price as Kiev did not provide these necessities.
“Give us some f*****g weapons please. We will not win with trash weapons,” James Vasquez, a US army veteran who volunteered in Ukraine, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in April 2022. “We need m-16’s, M-4’s, ACOG’s, red dots, ammunition, ammunition, ammunition, javelins, f*****g old AT-4s I know are probably in some storage unit. Frag grenades, and if not… may as well bring Body bags.”
The ex-US Army staff sergeant shared a video revealing he had modified his own AK-47 out of his own pocket, complaining that he was expected to “go into battle with just my drones, AK-47 and one grenade and nothing else.”
Former Legion mercenaries also complained about corruption in the Ukrainian military ranks and problems with the payment of salaries. Western media has also cited problems in raising funds to arm Ukrainian foreign fighters, waste of money, and mysteriously missing shipments.
Now, it was revealed that many mercenaries who came to Ukraine are leaving the country after witnessing violent fighting, US media reported, citing Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Dmytro Kostyuk.
Explaining how his platoon had manpower shortages and had to be supplemented with mercenaries, Kostyuk admitted to CNN on November 19 that
“For some [foreigners], it was the romance of war, for others it was a professional activity […] As a rule, they do not realise what they are getting into […] Foreigners are a different story, because they can easily terminate a contract, unlike Ukrainians. It happened to me – almost half of the people saw everything and said, ‘No, no, this is too much. This is not the kind of war we signed up for’.”
The Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly stated that Kiev is using foreign mercenaries as “cannon fodder,” while the Russian military will continue to eliminate them throughout Ukraine. Those who came to fight for their own money have admitted in many interviews that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not coordinate their actions well and that the possibility of surviving the combat is slim since the intensity of the conflict is not comparable to that of Afghanistan and the Middle East, to which they are accustomed.
However, not only Moscow has described the foreign mercenaries as “cannon fodder.” It is recalled that the Australian government warned on March 15 that foreigners fighting in Ukraine could end up being “cannon fodder,” which matches what British volunteer Matthew Robinson previously said:
“[foreigners] can be railroaded into a legion and sent to the front line very quickly. Even though you’ve got the best of intentions to help people, you could basically be cannon fodder.”
Issues within the ranks of foreign fighters have been reported on since the very start of the war, as James Vasquez attests too, and with the two-year anniversary of the war only two months away, the latest revelation on CNN demonstrates that these issues experienced at the beginning of the war are far from being overcome, especially as Russia’s attacks intensify. With this winter expected to be especially difficult, it can be anticipated that foreigners will continue losing morale and a willingness to fight Russia for the sake of Ukraine, and the threat of having their private information publicly revealed could be enough to make them leave even sooner.
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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Joining forces: The International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine has enabled thousands of foreign volunteers to join the fight against the Russian invaders. Image: Mil.gov.ua / Wikimedia Commons
The original source of this article is Global Research
Der Friedensstifter 