The Hamas March to Destroy Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh • July 15, 2019 at 5:00 am

By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the "Three No's," the organizers of the "Great March of Return" have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: "We don't recognize Israel's right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it."
Hamas's two other "No's" – no to recognizing Israel and no to making peace with Israel – do not come as a surprise. In fact, Hamas appears to be reminding Palestinians of its true objectives as outlined in its 1988 charter: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad (holy war). Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors...[Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered."
This is all that Hamas has to offer the Palestinians 12 years after its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip? Sadly, thousands of Palestinians continue to heed Hamas's call for trying to breach the border with Israel every Friday while ignoring that it is their leaders who are mainly responsible for dragging them from one disaster to another.

One the one hand, Hamas is sending Palestinians to clash with Israeli soldiers along the Gaza-Israel border under the banner of "No to negotiations [with Israel]." On the other hand, Hamas is begging the Egyptians and the UN to help arrange a ceasefire with Israel. Pictured: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh greets protesters in Gaza, at the border fence with Israel, on May 15, 2018. (Image source: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

When the Palestinians launched the weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border in March 2017, they said that their No. 1 goal was to force Israel to lift the "blockade" on the Gaza Strip. The protests, however, according to the organizers, have another goal: achieving the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes inside Israel.

The protests, held under the banner "The Great March of Return," have since been hijacked by Hamas and other Gaza-based Palestinian armed groups who are using them to advance their political agendas.

The weekly demonstrations are no longer aimed either at lifting the "blockade" on the Gaza Strip or paving the way for millions of refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes.

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Turkey: No Rights for the Country's Indigenous People?

by Uzay Bulut • July 15, 2019 at 4:00 am

The root of these violations appears to be Turkey's denial of its extermination of the indigenous Christian peoples from 1913 to 1923.
"[Denial] is the final stage that lasts throughout and always follows genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres." — Dr. Gregory H. Stanton; President, Genocide Watch; "The Ten Stages of Genocide", 2016
To this day, Turkey refuses to acknowledge its past and present crimes against the indigenous peoples whose rights it has vowed to protect. This is among many things that differentiates Turkey from civilized nations that have taken serious steps to improve the rights of their native peoples.

In May, the doors of homes of some Armenian Christians in Istanbul's Samatya district were marked with Star of David graffiti and threatening messages, among them the words: "Attention, Israel." This was a few days after a woman from Armenia in the same district was the victim of a knife attack carried out by two masked assailants shouting, "This is [only] the beginning." Pictured: The upper facade of the Armenian Church of Saint George of Samatya (right), in the Samatya district of Istanbul, Turkey. (Image source: Stilbes/Wikimedia Commons)

Ankara's hair-raising human-rights record, including an ongoing attempt to erase all vestiges of other religions and cultures in Turkey, is one reason that it has been prevented from realizing its long-standing dream of membership in the European Union. It does enjoy status, however, as a member of NATO, and remains a signatory to the 2007 "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," which reads in part:

"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State. [Article 5]...

"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions...[Article 31]"

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