Ainu to launch new national group

The Japan Times

SAPPORO (Kyodo) The indigenous Ainu plan to launch a national organization possibly by the end of this month in an effort to urge the government to establish new legislation to improve their lives and promote their culture, sources said Tuesday.

The Sapporo-based Ainu Association of Hokkaido and the Ainu Utari Renrakukai, an umbrella body of groups of Ainu living in Tokyo and its vicinity, plan to hold an inaugural meeting of the new body in Tokyo later this month, the sources said.

The Ainu, who have lived for centuries in Hokkaido and Russia's Kuril and Sakhalin islands, have their own language and customs. But the government beginning around the late Edo Period (1603-1867) promoted their assimilation.

The Ainu population is currently estimated at about 25,000.

The Ainu Association of Hokkaido said the new national body is intended to share information among various Ainu groups, consolidate their opinions and build a consensus among them.

In July, a government panel on policies concerning the Ainu released a report that urged the state to take concrete steps to improve their lives and promote their culture through new legislation.

Many Ainu expect the next prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to effect policies to promote their livelihoods and culture, the sources said, noting he hails from a Hokkaido constituency.

Hatoyama, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, is certain to become prime minister following his party's historic victory in Sunday's general election for the House of Representatives.

The past forced assimilation caused the Ainu to lose much of their land and become impoverished.

In the July report, the panel acknowledged that the introduction of land ownership and assimilation policies implemented while the government was modernizing the state dealt a serious blow to the Ainu and their culture.

Language of power is focus in legal action over sackings

by Melanie Newman

Times Higher Education

Professors who taught dying tongue say university 'fabricated' claims.

Three academics who were sacked by a Japanese university on charges of "academic harassment" have claimed that they were ousted for attempting to teach an indigenous language.

The professors of educational linguistics, who have asked not to be named, are bringing legal action against Hokkaido University of Education after being fired by the institution in February.

Academic harassment - a relatively new concept in Japan - is defined as the abuse of power of one's academic position.

The university has accused the academics of "violating the human rights of the students under their supervision" by forcing them to work on an "extraordinary volume of assignments" for their own research purposes.

As a result, nine students suffered physical or psychological problems including hallucinations, the institution claimed.

Reports in the Japanese media have highlighted the fact that the three staff had chosen the indigenous language of Ainu as a theme for collaborative research for students majoring in English-language education.

The Ainu people are indigenous to northern Japan, where Hokkaido University is situated.

Historically marginalised, their language is now on the verge of extinction.

Recommendations made recently by a government committee to tackle discrimination of the Ainu people have been opposed by some conservative groups in Japan, which fear that the measures proposed could open the door to land claims and affirmative action.

At the time of their sacking, the three Hokkaido professors were teaching Ainu courses, with the approval of the university, and developing Japanese-Ainu dictionaries.

In 2007, two of the professors started constructing a database of books written in Ainu held by Japanese libraries, enlisting the help of student volunteers.

The professors said that while it was true that some students made complaints, the university "exploited these complaints and fabricated a story about harassment".

In a statement to Times Higher Education, they say the university accused them of "creating a cult group and engaging in mind control of the students".

The professors allege that their department head was told by a senior manager to stop them from teaching Ainu, a claim denied by the university.

After they were removed from their jobs, the Ainu language and culture classes they taught were scrapped, the professors say, adding that Japanese-Ainu dual-language signposts within the university have been taken down.

Yoshiya Goto, the university's executive director, denied that the teaching of the Ainu language had played any part in their dismissal and reiterated the allegation that the professors had "abused students' human rights".

He said: "Our resolution was not arbitrary but was based on a thorough investigation and followed the appropriate procedures. Their complaint is therefore entirely false."

He added that the professors had applied for an injunction against their dismissal at the Sapporo District Court, but their attempt had failed.

Israeli army opens fire on Palestinian Medical team

The Palestine Telegraph

Mo'tasem Awad, in charge of the International Humanitarian Law department at the Red Crescent stated that Israeli occupation forces opened fire at Red Crescent medics while they were trying to approach a wounded child who died of his wounds. The child, Mohammad Riyadh Nayef, 15, from al Jalazoun refugee camp, was shot and seriously wounded on Tuesday after a round of live ammunition hit him in the chest.

As medics tried to approach the child, the army opened fire at them, and a soldier told one of the medics that "the army does not need anybody's help, we have an ambulance on its way".

It took the Israeli ambulance nearly 90 minutes to reach the area, and its medics took the child to an Israeli hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Red Crescent slammed the Israeli violations, and said that Israeli soldiers repeatedly hindered the work of medical teams.

It added that such measures are illegal and violate the Civilian Protection article of the Geneva Convention of 1949.

Not one penny has reached Gaza

The Palestine Telegraph

It has been six months since the international community pledged nearly US$5 billion (Dh18bn) in aid to the Palestinian people, chiefly for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after Israel’s devastating offensive there this year. None of this aid has reached Gaza and no reconstruction has started.
Although Israel is slowly easing its restrictions on the flow of basic humanitarian goods to Gaza, including food and medicine, construction materials remain prohibited from entering, institutions and homes still lie in rubble, and critically needed projects to repair and upgrade Gaza’s power plant and tottering sewage network lie dormant.

The situation is frustrating to development agencies and experts. Two weeks ago, the UN was forced to issue another emergency appeal for funds for Gazans. The UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid and education to Palestinian refugees, decried the condition of Gaza’s refugees as “shameful”. Numbering one million, refugees make up about 70 per cent of the total population in Gaza; and UNRWA asked for $181 million to help it through the rest of the year in a special Ramadan appeal.

Of the billions of dollars pledged for reconstruction by the international community, UNRWA noted in a press release on August 17, “not one penny” has reached Gaza, and reconstruction has proven to be a “mirage”. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to the UN, “remains precarious”.

That such serious humanitarian disasters as a cholera epidemic did not emerge in Gaza, said William Corcoran, the president of the American Near East Refugee Aid agency, (Anera) is partly down to “dumb luck”.

“We expected more serious health scares but thankfully they haven’t occurred,” Mr Corcoran said in an interview last week. “This is partly because sewage pipes have not yet burst into the streets. But they are at the stage where that can happen at any moment.”

In Gaza, Anera is a partner to USAID, the official US aid agency, and is supposed to repair and upgrade most of Gaza’s aged and faulty sewage system. That project – like all the projects, including construction of a seaport and the reopening of the airport, agreed to in the US-brokered 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access – has yet to get off the ground.

Mr Corcoran was keen to highlight the projects Anera has been able to implement in Gaza, including food and medicine deliveries, a programme to provide fresh milk to Gazan preschoolers and the reconstruction of 18 preschools using materials recycled from the destruction wrought in the Gaza war, but he admitted to frustration at the kind of projects Anera is now pursuing.

In the West Bank, he said, Anera helped establish four IT institutes affiliated to four different universities. In Gaza, while plans have been laid for a similar project, Anera’s newest project involved buying shoes for children. “We are forced to lower our expectations for what we can do.”

At heart, the problem is political. The expertise is there, whether with such agencies as the UN and Anera, or with local NGOs affiliated to those international bodies. The money has been pledged even if it has yet to be delivered. The statement from UNRWA noted that, pledges apart, the largest Arab donation to date had been a $34m contribution from the emir of Kuwait.

But what Mr Corcoran calls the “political stalemate” – whether in international efforts to pressure Israel to lift its siege on Gaza, which has been in place for more than two years, or in Palestinian reconciliation efforts – has stymied efforts to begin reconstruction in Gaza.

The latter is crucial in establishing a mechanism for distributing aid to Gaza. International sanctions on official contacts with Hamas tie the hands of agencies dealing with Gaza authorities. International funding, under the current proscriptions, cannot end up in the hands of Hamas, and even a clear commitment by Hamas, offered repeatedly over the past months, will not dissuade the international community from this stance.

The result is that international aid efforts are being channelled through the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas. As emphasised yesterday by Nabil Shaath, a senior aide to Mr Abbas, in a press conference in Ramallah, there will be no reconstruction of the Gaza Strip until there is a unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas.

Even then, however, the international community must still pressure Israel to lift the siege, aid organisations said. The destruction of the war in January aside, the greatest damage has been done not by bombs but by isolation. Unable to rebuild or improve, two years of sanctions have undermined the economy and infrastructure. According to a July survey by the Palestine Trade Centre, 95 per cent of industries in Gaza have had to shut as a result of sanctions and 120,000 private sector employees have been laid off.

Israeli forces raid Bil’in, arrest one

International Solidarity Movement

Shortly after 3am, Bil’in was invaded again. 4 Jeeps and a military truck entered the village with over 50 soldiers. The Israeli occupation forces raided three homes simultaneously and arrested Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (age 19). In the second house, they tried to arrest Yaseen Mohammed Ali Yaseen (21), but he was not at home. They left a military order for him to turn himself in by 9am the next day. In the third house, they wanted to arrest Mohammed Ahmed Yaseen (age 21), but did not find him at his home either.

The soldiers acted very swiftly. As they encountered many international activists who stood in their way filming and challenging their action as well as following the movement of the jeeps, the soldiers threw tear gas and sound bombs to disperse them and clear the way. They also used a laser beam on some of the activists as a means of intimidation.

At around 4am, all the military vehicles left the village exiting toward the Apartheid Wall.

Gaza Fishermen - Daily Suffering with No Notice

by Ayman T. Quader, in Gaza

The Palestine Telegraph

Everyday in the news, I hear about the suffering of the Gaza fishermen - one was killed, others wounded, and the Israelis are firing on still others. And I wanted to shed a light on their pain.

I went to the main Gaza port. While I was there, I figured out how sad the sea and the fishermen are. Boats are stuck and fishermen are looking at the sea with no hope.

The Palestinian fishermen have been consistently harassed by the regular Israeli attacks on them, as they abuse the fishermen for pursuing their livelihood. Furthermore, they are prevented to work for far distances inside the sea. The allowed distance for them is just around 4.5 Km. Unfortunately, once they reach that distance, they find themselves under Israeli fire.

Around 3000 fishermen are now despondently jobless and in a real tragedy. The tragedy began with the complete blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. The fishermen are prohibited from going to a deeper and richer area of fishing, and they have been dramatically affected with these restrictions from the Israeli navy forces. Indeed, they now have very low incomes with which to feed their families.

Ismael Kalilo is a 65-year old fisherman in Gaza City, who has spent 50 years of his life in the sea, and now lives in the Beach Camp. "I am totally satisfied to be a fisherman in Gaza, but completely exhausted by the conditions imposed on us."

The aged fisherman is also a father of 8. I asked him how he takes care of his dependents, and how he feeds them: "No one can bear the situation that the fishermen are living with. He should go to the sea and see how much they suffer. We were peacefully fishing before the time of the siege on Gaza, as we just depended on our livelihood. We have become unable to secure even the basic needs of our life.

I asked him about his own experience regarding the Israeli navy forces. He took deep breath, then pointed at his son to tell us the story. Ahmed is 24 years old, and is also a fisherman.

"I was with my boat about a year ago at Sudania coast, north of the Gaza Strip," he said. "With no alert and at 10 pm, I found that the Israeli ship started firing missiles toward my boat, exactly at my net. They ordered me to get back without my net. I tried to save my big net, which costs around $2000, but it was in vain. Then I found myself obliged after staying in the sea from 10am to 7am to get back home, and they took the net - including what I had fished. That even had increased our tragedy, as they took the net which we all depend on for fishing."

"We are passing through a rough time, and we are suffering," said Ismeal, as he took me to see the bullets still in the boats, the fishermen unable to get them repaired. "The siege has suffocated us for almost 3 years."

Ismeal finished his interview with me, calling upon all of those people who claimed humanity, to stand beside the Palestinian people, their besieged people in Gaza, and to take responsibility for ending this daily suffering.

Israeli military murder a 15 year-old child in Ramallah

The Palestine Telegraph

Palestinian medical sources announced that Palestinian boy Mohammed Riyad Nayif (15 years) was killed today at down in Al Jalazone camp northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The medical sources detailed that he sustained his wounds near the settlement of "Beit El".

Israeli troops refused to hand him over to the Palestinian medical crews to take him to the hospital, who took him by helicopter to a military hospital "Hadassah Ein Karem".

The Palestinian ambulances have also taken the boy on the Palm (16 years) to Sheikh Zayed hospital in Ramallah, a bullet wounded him in his hand, and his condition was described as moderate.

The witnesses said that Israeli soldiers fired several bullets and gas & sound bombs towards the citizens and medical personnel, an ambulance driver, Osama al-Najjar, wounded by shrapnel from the Israeli grenades and he was taken to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Ramallah for treatment.

In the meantime, Palestinian local sources confirmed that Israeli forces arrested four citizens, a state of extreme tension spread in Al Jalazone camp, especially after the death of the boy Mohammed Nayef.