In line with GA!’s aspiration to connect current events with history, you can find this week’s headlines below, provided with additional commentary from a historical perspective.
“Israel officially informs UN of end to relations with Palestinian relief agency”
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law last week banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East has been facilitating humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees since the First Arab-Israeli war in 1948. In recent years, Israel has accused UNRWA of harbouring Hamas terrorists and even indirectly facilitating the attacks of October 7. Now Israel has officially announced to the UN that it will not allow UNRWA to operate on its territory.
After the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948, multiple UN organisations were created to help the Palestinian refugees. After it became clear a quick settlement of the conflict would not come about, UNRWA was created in 1949 to facilitate aid to the Palestinian refugees. 700 Thousand Palestinians had to flee their homes as a result of the war, an event which has become known as the Nakba, ‘the Catastrophe.’Originally, UNRWA defined the Palestinian refugee as “persons whose regular place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Since then, the UNRWA definition of the Palestinian refugees has been broadened to encompass those displaced by “the 1967 and subsequent hostilities” and their descendants.
Since then, UNRWA has grown to an enormous organisation with more than 30 thousand employees who are not only active in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, but in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan too. It has the responsibility over some 6 million Palestinian refugees in these areas, as well as nearly 60 refugee camps and 700 schools.
Since the attacks of October 7, the position of UNRWA has become precarious. Israel has for a long time been critical of the UN and had accused UNRWA of having Hamas members among its employees. After inquiries revealed 13 Hamas members who worked for UNRWA were in some way involved in the attacks of October 7, many countries stopped their funding until this had been cleared up. These accusations were quickly put into perspective. UNRWA in Gaza has some 11 thousand employees, and because a substantial portion of the population in Gaza support Hamas, it is not at all remarkable some UNRWA employees had ties with Hamas. Furthermore, UNRWA and the political branch of Hamas have to work together because they facilitate the same services in healthcare and education in Gaza.
Despite international funding resuming after that contextualisation, these accusations have proved sufficient for Israel to now fully ban UNRWA from operating on its territory. UNRWA was the leading organisation in providing humanitarian aid for Gaza. This effort was already severely obstructed since October 7, but a complete humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided so far, as seen by the quick vaccinations campaign against polio. Because UNRWA does still have its mandate from the UN General Assembly, it will most likely be able to continue its work in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as well as the West Bank, because this is not official Israeli territory but occupied territory as acknowledged by international law. The Israeli law against UNRWA does allow it to operate in Gaza and the West Bank. But because of the Israeli occupation of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Gaza cannot be reached without passing through Israel, which is now banned, while the West Bank can be reached from Jordan. The Knesset then, has made humanitarian aid for Gaza nearly impossible to provide, at least through UNRWA. The extraordinary suffering in Gaza may thus increase even more because of this Israeli law and their standoff with the UN.
“Sikh Activists See It as Freedom. India Calls It Terrorism.”
The diplomatic row between India and Canada has taken on a new dimension as Canada has accused Indian Home Minister Amit Shah of orchestrating a wider campaign of intimidation against Sikhs in Canada. This diplomatic row has a broad historical context which plays an important role in today’s worldwide geopolitical struggle. It started in September of last year when the Canadians accused India of assassinating Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a Sikh who advocated for the independence of Khalistan. The Sikhs are a small religious minority in India, consisting of some twenty million people, mostly living in the northern region of Punjab. Since the 1930’s, a portion of these Sikhs have been advocating for their own state, Khalistan. The tensions this brought about reached a peak in the middle 1980’s. In June 1984, the Indian Army attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most sacred site in Sikhism, to capture a militant Sikh leader who was held up in the temple. The attack became a bloodbath, with thousands of casualties. As revenge for this attack, two Sikh bodyguards of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi killed her in October of 1984 because she had ordered the attack on the Golden Temple .
Violence has since died down, but part of the Sikh diaspora still advocates for the independence of Khalistan. Large groups of Sikhs live in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. Despite the violence regarding the matter of Khalistan having subsided, the Indian government still sees the Sikh diaspora advocating for independence as a threat. The Indian government accuses them of being terrorists as well as being involved in organised crime and drug trafficking. Since Prime Minister Narenda Modi has gained power in India, he has also continuously portrayed India as a strictly Hindu nation, thereby excluding other religious groups such Muslims and Sikhs and indirectly labelling them as threats to India. With regards to the Sikhs, this resulted in the murder of Hardeep in June 2023.
In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau accused the Indian intelligence services of carrying out this assassination. India has repeatedly asked Canada to arrest Sikhs leaders advocating for Khalistan, but Canada said this is simply freedom of speech and Hardeep had actually been a Canadian citizen since 2007. The diplomatic row has now thus continued because of Canada’s accusations against Amit Shah, who is widely considered Modi’s right hand man. This is a precarious position in the global geopolitical struggle. The West would very much like to tie India to its camp as the threat from Russia, Iran, North Korea and China grows. But the ‘world’s largest democracy’, as it’s often referred to, realises this as well and knows it can play the game with the leverage it has. The historical conflict surrounding Khalistan then, through the Sikh diaspora in the West, has a direct impact on today’s global struggle for hegemony.
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“Donald Trump wins presidential election, defeating Harris to retake White House”
Donald Trump has won the American Presidential elections and will return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a second term. Despite polls indicating a very close race as in 2020, Trump has won the elections convincingly. As of Friday morning (08-11), Trump has 295 electoral votes against Harris’ 226 and Trump also looks to have won the popular vote by significant margin: 73,4 million votes for the Republican and 69 million for the Democrat. This will be only the second time the Republicans have won the popular vote and the elections outright since 1992. Only George W. Bush won the popular vote on behalf of the Republicans in 2004, while Bush did win the electoral college and thus the elections in 2000 and Trump did the same in 2016. Trump will be only the second president with two separate terms, making him the 45th and 47th president while Grover Cleveland was the 22nd (1885-1889) and 24th (1893-1897) president. Trump has made many statements about both his domestic and foreign policy goals. Responses from European allies have been relatively formal, all accepting the results and hoping to come to good cooperation. What he will actually do will be seen after January 20.
“Moldova’s pro-Western Sandu claims election win after meddling allegations”
After the outcome of a referendum on joining the EU in Moldova swung towards Europe two weeks ago, the presidential election has now swung the same way. Sitting pro-European president Maia Sandu won the second round of the presidential elections against Alexandr Stoianoglo who also supports European integration but also stands for good relations with Russia. Sandu claimed her opponent would be a Russian puppet, calling him a ‘Trojan Horse’. We wrote about Moldova’s history on our website two weeks ago after the referendum. After these two crucial elections then, it seems Moldova has made a definitive swing towards the EU and the West. However, if history tells us anything, it is that Russia will not just give up its influence. The election results were decided by Moldova’s diaspora who overwhelmingly voted for Sandu. Within the country itself, she actually had less votes than her opponent. Moldova’s pro Western course then, is certainly fragile.
“Iranian woman detained after taking clothes off at university in Tehran”
A remarkable incident at an Iranian university went viral this weekend. A female student was filmed walking around in her underwear. This was apparently an act of protest after the student was harassed for not wearing her headscarf properly. Other sources claim her clothes were ripped off after she was stopped by moral police. Whatever the circumstances, it is clear tensions around women’s freedom to dress are still here, two years after the large scale protests in Iran following the death of Masha Amini. Amini was a 22 year old woman who was arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly. She subsequently died in prison. Iran was one of the most progressive countries regarding emancipation in the Middle East shortly before the revolution of 1979. Despite 45 years of Islamic rule, it seems Iranian women have not forgotten what has been taken away from them and continue to protest a government which does not allow them to wear what they want.
“Ukraine faces toughest winter yet as energy shortages loom”
A brutal winter may be coming for Ukraine. Ever since the start of the war in February 2022, Russia has attacked much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Over the past two winters, with the help of European allies, Ukraine has managed to gather enough resources to make it through these past winters. Over the past months though, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure relentlessly and it seems regardless of Western support, Ukraine will not have enough resources to make it through the coming winter. Russian attacks have decreased Ukraine’s ability to generate electricity by 9 gigawatts. As a result, Ukraine is now largely dependent on its nuclear power. If Russia cripples these facilities as well, and Ukraine faces a cold winter (which climate experts have predicted could be possible), Ukraine will face a grave humanitarian crisis. Ukrainians may possibly only have electricity 4 hours per day. This will most likely also see a new wave of refugees coming into Europe. Alongside the critical situation at the front then, Ukraine’s resilience will also be tested in their own homes this winter.
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