U.S. Pres. Barack Obama chairs the Security Council Summit on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Credit: Bomoon Lee/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2016 (IPS) – The world’s nuclear arsenal continues to decline – from 15,850 warheads in early 2015 to 15,395 in 2016, according to the latest figures released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Still, the more distressing news is that none of the nine nuclear weapon-possessing states – the US, UK, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – are prepared to give up their existing weapons now, or in the foreseeable future.

The decrease in the overall number is due mainly to Russia and the US – which together still account for more than 93 per cent of all nuclear weapons – further reducing their inventories of strategic nuclear weapons.

However, despite the implementation of the bilateral Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) since 2011, the pace of their reductions remains slow, said SIPRI.

The equally bad news, however, is the continued modernization of nuclear weapons both by the US and Russia.

Although details of the Russian program are not public, the US plans to spend $348 billion during 2015–24 on maintaining and comprehensively updating its nuclear forces.

Some estimates suggest that the US nuclear weapon modernization program may cost up to $1 trillion over the next 30 years, according to SIPRI.

Alice Slater, an Advisor to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and who serves on the Coordinating Committee of Abolition 2000, told IPS the US has committed to spending $348 billion over the next ten years on two new bomb factories, new warheads and upgraded delivery systems by planes, submarine and land-based missile, estimating a budget of one trillion dollars over the next 30 years.

Last summer, the US tested a dummy warhead in Nevada for an earth-penetrating nuclear bunker buster, she pointed out.

Despite President Barack Obama’s qualified April 2009 Prague speech urging a world free of nuclear weapons – for which he received a Nobel Peace Prize, even after having noted that his dream of a world free of nuclear weapons “may not happen in my lifetime”- he has made the smallest reductions in the US nuclear arsenal compared to any previous post- cold war US President, said Slater.

And Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for US President at the November elections, famously misquoted Obama’s Prague speech when she was Secretary of State, saying Obama had said a nuclear weapons free world may not happen for “several lifetimes,” she added.

Last month UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his call for a world without nuclear weapons.

“Disarmament is part of the DNA of the United Nations, which was formed when the first and last use of nuclear weapons in war was fresh in people’s minds.”

Since then, he pointed out, all countries have rejected the use of nuclear weapons.

“But until these weapons are completely eliminated, they continue to pose a threat to our common well-being. Fears of nuclear terrorism make disarmament even more urgent and important,” he added.

Hans Kristensen, co-author of the SIPRI Yearbook said the ambitious US modernization plan presented by the Obama Administration is in stark contrast to President Barack Obama’s pledge to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and the role they play in US national security strategy.

The other nuclear weapon-possessing states have much smaller arsenals, but have all either begun to deploy new nuclear weapon delivery systems or announced their intention to do so, he added.

China appears to be gradually increasing its nuclear forces as it modernizes the arsenal. India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles and missile delivery capabilities.

North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for approximately 10 nuclear warheads. However, it is unclear whether North Korea has produced or deployed operational weapons, said Kristensen.

“Despite the ongoing reduction in the number of weapons, the prospects for genuine progress towards nuclear disarmament remain gloomy,” said Shannon Kile, Head of the SIPRI Nuclear Weapons Project.

“All the nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to prioritize nuclear deterrence as the cornerstone of their national security strategies,” he added.

Apart from counting bombs in the respective nuclear arsenals, Slater told IPS, “we must factor in the aggressive and provocative expansion of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) up to the Russian border as a block to nuclear disarmament, despite promises given to (former Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev when the Berlin Wall came down that NATO would not expand beyond East Germany as well as the US having planted new missile bases in Turkey, Romania and Poland after President Bush walked out of 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

It is significant that part of the deal US President John F. Kennedy made with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev when the Soviet Union took their missiles out of Cuba was that the US would remove its missiles from Turkey.

“Well they are back in Turkey. The US also plans to modernize the nuclear weapons it bases in five NATO countries, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, and Italy. And the US Asia “pivot” with expanded bases in Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines is an enormous obstacle to enroll the Asian nuclear powers in endorsing nuclear disarmament,” declared Slater.

She argued that US plans to dominate and control the military use of space also block further possibilities for nuclear disarmament.

Gorbachev and (US President Ronald) Reagan spoke about abolishing nuclear weapons, but Gorbachev pulled his offer off the table when Reagan wouldn’t promise to forego Star Wars.

Then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered a deal to (US President Bill) Clinton “to cut our massive arsenals to 1,000 nuclear weapons each, at which point we could invite all the other nuclear weapons states to the table to negotiate for their elimination, but only if Clinton would forego the development of missile bases in Eastern Europe.

Slater said Clinton refused, and subsequently Bush unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty in 2002. Russia and China have actually been proposing, since 2008, a draft treaty to ban weapons in space which the US vigorously opposes by blocking consensus to even discuss it in the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva.

Finally, the nuclear weapons states have boycotted the 2016 Geneva meetings of the Open Ended Working Group for Nuclear Disarmament, established by the UN General Assembly, which have been discussing the legal gap in the law that fails to prohibit and ban nuclear weapons as we have done for biological and chemical weapons.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) merely promises “good faith efforts” for nuclear disarmament and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) left a gap in its 1996 decision on the legality of nuclear weapons when it said it couldn’t decide if nuclear weapons were illegal in the case where the very survival of a state was at stake.

“It appears that the non-nuclear weapons states may be prepared this year to start negotiations on a ban treaty without the rogue nuclear weapons states and some of the hypocritical “weasel” states who profess to want nuclear abolition but rely on the US nuclear umbrella for their ‘security’.”

These include NATO states and Japan, incredible as that may seem, as well as Australia and South Korea. Hopefully, a treaty to ban the bomb signed by the 127 countries that are supporting the effort at this time, may break up this discouraging logjam for meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament as reported in the recent SIPR Annual count of the world’s nuclear arsenals, Slater noted.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com
© Interpress Service News Agency. Reposted with permission.

By Candice Bodnaruk

June 11, 2016: Peace Alliance Winnipeg member Candice Bodnaruk spoke at the Winnipeg Walk for Peace on the impact of Israeli occupation on Palestinian education. Photo: Paul S. Graham

In so many ways children are the greatest victims of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. We know Israel deliberately targets children, whether it’s sniper attacks in the West Bank that kill kids on their way to school, or Israel’s deliberate assaults on UN schools in the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge (where many children were taking shelter). Israel is determined to undermine Palestine’s youth, which represents its future.

Today I will be talking about the direct role Israel’s occupation plays in the destruction of Palestinian education.

The most obvious example of Israel’s attack on children’s education is the actual physical destruction and demolition of schools. During Israel’s 2014 illegal invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel killed over 500 children and destroyed 83 schools. Of those schools, 22 were UNRWA schools. Operation Protective Edge attacks also damaged another 118 schools. At the time these schools were well-marked; Israel had their coordinates and Human Rights Watch has said they were deliberately targeted.

In Gaza alone, UNRWA is responsible for educating 240,000 students. Israel’s direct attack on these schools is clearly an attack on children and the UN’s ability to provide schooling. In total, the UNRWA operates 692 schools for Palestinian refugees, nearly half of which are inoperable because of violence in the past years. Moreover, many of the schools damaged in Operation Protective Edge have yet to reopen, and the ones that have told months to rebuild.

Clearly if children do not have schools to attend they will fall behind in their education. In fact, 300 UN schools in the Middle East that serve Palestinians have been attacked or shut down in the past five years.

Israel has also damaged schools donated by European governments in the Negev for Bedouin school children. The result of such school demolitions is children are taught outside in the open air.

Gaza Flotilla Attacks

I also interpret Israel’s regular attacks on the Gaza Flotilla, the international ship that delivers humanitarian aid to Palestinians, including school supplies and books for children, as a direct attack on children’s education.

Harassment and Assaults

Another example of Israel’s assaults on Palestinian education are the daily assaults children may experience when they physically attempt to go to school. In the West Bank, where there are over 500 checkpoints, parents do not know if their children will come home alive or if they will be killed in a sniper attack or be detained at a checkpoint. Soldiers also throw children’s school books on the ground.

Moreover, settlers often harass small children on their way to school. In Hebron, which is known for its extremist settler population that has taken over the town, Palestinians are forced to walk on one side of the street and Israelis on the other. In Hebron soldiers shoot into school areas.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, Israel also restricts the flow of school materials that reach children as part of its ongoing blockade of the Strip.

Other physical barriers include road blocks in Palestinian neighbourhoods, as well as giant boulders that Israel has begun to place there to prevent Palestinians just from being able to go about their daily lives in their communities, whether it’s going to work, the doctor, or of course children going to school.

Palestinian children may also have to travel greater distance than their Jewish peers to get to school because of a ban on the construction of schools in certain Palestinian towns.

Detention of Children

The fact that Israel regularly arrests and detains young children, sometimes for months at a time, leads to great psychological trauma for children. This means that even once they are released they may have trouble concentrating and may end up dropping out of school altogether. Children’s trauma may mean their lost education takes years to regain.

As well, most Palestinian children do not have access to important childhood programs to begin with. Schools are often overcrowded and teachers may not have adequate training.

UN on Discrimination in Education

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination points out that Israel maintains two separate education systems for its citizens, one for Jewish children and another for the children of the Palestinian minority, a structure that reinforces the segregation of Israeli society.

Lack of Funding Means Separate and Unequal Education for Palestinians Living in Israel

Another way that Israel undermines a separate and unequal education system for Palestinians is through cuts to its Christian schools, where many Palestinian families send their children because they are considered better than the Arab sector schools.

About 25% of school children in Israel are Palestinian. Many of the Christian schools were established by Christian orders over 100 years ago, before the creation on Israel and under international law Israel must recognize the protected status of schools that existed before Israel’s creation. They are in fact the only independent schools that cater to Israel’s community of 1.5 million Palestinians.

The church schools have accused the Israeli government of discrimination.

Palestinian families in Israel often send their kids to the church schools because they teach the history of the Nakba and also provide Palestinian cultural education, including lessons on national Palestinian education and Palestinian rights as citizens. Children also perform better in these schools than in the Arab state schools. In fact, Israel’s Christian schools are some of the highest achieving institutions.

In contrast, in the Arab state schools, Jewish officials appoint the principals, vet teachers, and dictate curriculum. They also don’t teach the Nakba. The lessons are Israeli in content and promote Israeli politics, culture and identity.

Israel recently announced that 47 of the Christian schools would have their state subsidies cut. Previously the church schools received 60-75% of their funds from the Israeli government; the rest was covered through fundraising and tuition. Now because of the cuts they will only receive 45%. It is interesting to note that the current Israeli Education Minister is the leader of a settler party.

Parents have also been told that they are not allowed to make up the shortfall for the costs and are also not allowed to raise funds for the schools. Higher tuition fees may also be a hardship for families that are already economically disadvantaged.

Arab Knesset members have said it is important to improve the quality of the Arab education sectors, saying the education system in Israel advances Zionist values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and promotes Jewish culture and heritage. Palestinian leaders argue the church schools, which educate both Christians and Muslims, are the only hope for families trying to escape the dire conditions in a government run education system for Arab citizens.

Funding Gaps

There are also major funding gaps between Arab and Jewish pupils in state schools in Israel. For example, Jewish pupils receive on average $1100 each compared to $192 that each Arab pupil receives in the Arab schools. The Arab education sector in Israel also has a shortage of classrooms and teachers, while Jewish schools have twice as many computers.

Conditions of Schools

Schools for Palestinian children in Israel are often overcrowded and poorly equipped. They make lack libraries, labs and art space in comparison with schools for Jewish children. Clearly, it is a lack of such important resources that hold kids back and in state schools for Palestinians kids are set up to fail.

Higher Education

Israeli universities also fail Palestinian students. Palestinian students often fall short on matriculation or psychometric exams because again they focus on Jewish school curriculum. A recent study by the Association for Advancement of Civic Equity found the higher you go in the education system, the lower the number of Palestinian students. In 2012, according to the Israeli Council for Higher Education. Palestinians made up only 11% of Bachelor degree students in Palestine.

A sociologist, Majid-al Haj, at the University of Haifa, has said Israeli universities fail Palestinian students. Students may feel alienated in an academic environment that resists integration and seems designed to affirm rather than challenge discrimination.

Palestinian students are filtered out of the education system at a higher rate than Jewish students. Clearly, if students are denied access to kindergarten, for example, they will do less well in elementary school and students in high schools that are falling apart may be funneled into work as carpenters or mechanics, rather than doctors, lawyers or professors.

Israel’s Obligation Under International Law

Palestinians in the West Bank in East Jerusalem are protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states “the Occupying Power shall, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities, facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of children.”

Clearly, Israel has not fulfilled its obligation under the Geneva Convention and literally defunds education. In fact, it attacks these very institutions and demolishes schools.

However, I want to end on a positive note. This past March a Palestinian teacher who was raised in a Bethlehem refugee camp was awarded a one million dollar teaching award by Dubai’s ruler, who is also the Prime Minister of the UAE.

Hanan al-Hroub, a Palestinian primary school teacher, reacts after Pope Francis named her recipient of the second annual Global Teacher prize. Photograph: Kamran Jebreili/AP

The award was set up to recognize one outstanding teacher who has made an exceptional contribution to the profession. Teacher Hanan al-Hroub used her childhood experiences to develop a teacher technique that focused on play as a learning tool and shunned violence.

Hroub has encouraged her colleagues to review the way they teach, their classroom management strategies and the methods they use to curb violence in school.

She hopes that through education eventually there will be an elimination of violence altogether.

This is a woman who grew up as refugee and lived under Israeli occupation only to make a lasting difference for Palestinians.

Winnipeg, May 28, 2016: Peace Alliance Winnipeg and Independent Jewish Voices Winnipeg joined forces to hand out information to Liberal Party delegates about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel and to remind them that Liberals must not cease supporting free speech and human rights. Photo: Paul S. Graham

By Glenn Michalchuk

The 2016 Walk for Peace had as its theme “Freedom for Palestine”. It was the culmination of several events in the month of May which dealt with issue of Palestine and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. The events were organized by different organizations showing the developing movement in support of the Palestinian cause.

The month began with the MayWorks production of the play about Rachel Corrie, a young American peace activist, who was killed while in the West Bank protecting a Palestinian home from demolition by the Israeli Defence Force. On May 15, a commemoration of the Nakba was held in Memorial Park. This was followed by an action at the Liberal Convention to oppose the stand the Liberal Party and Parliament took to condemn supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)campaign aimed a bringing economic and political pressure on the state of Israel.

Following this was a demonstration outside the “gala” for the Jewish National Fund which is heavily involved in the colonization of Palestinian lands.

All these events are important for developing the movement in support of Palestine. It is important because it rests with civil society to push forward this movement. There is a clear parallel between the struggle against in apartheid in South Africa and the apartheid practiced by Israel. The struggle against apartheid South Africa was not accepted at its outset by most nations let alone the most powerful. In 1974, 13 years after the Sharpeville massacre, the United States, the U.K. and France voted against a resolution to expel South Africa from the U.N. for human rights violations. Today, the same official intransigence is taking place with respect to Palestine.

While there is some small progress in recognizing the right of Palestinians to self-determination overall it remains a travesty of international neglect and particularly so when it comes to the foreign policy of Canada. In February, the House of Commons supported a Conservative resolution condemning any Canadian who supported the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. The exceptions were a mere handful of Liberal MP’s, the NDP and the Green Party. Canada may claim it is against settlements in the West Bank and supports the right of Palestinians to self-determination but when push comes to shove it chooses to condemn the broad movement for BDS.

The actions in May were the result of the efforts of trade unions, organizations committed to social justice and human rights, faith groups and even individuals. The fact that this movement rests with civil society to develop shows the importance to continue such actions.

Glenn Michalchuk is Chair of Peace Alliance Winnipeg.

By antiatom.org

In August 1945, two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki instantly turned the two cities into ruins and took the lives of about 210 thousand people. Even now, more than 200,000 Hibakusha, or A-bomb survivors, are carrying with them scars. Their tragedy should not be repeated anywhere on earth.

The call for the elimination of nuclear weapons is becoming ever widespread across the world. Citizens are taking actions, and many governments are endeavoring to reach this goal. The surest guarantee against there being another Hiroshima, or Nagasaki, is a total ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

In May 2010, the 189 parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including the Nuclear weapons States, agreed “to achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. Now is the time to act to accomplish it.

We call on all governments to enter negotiations without delay on a convention banning nuclear weapons.

Please sign the online petition here. Or download, sign and mail in this one.

By Kazumi Matsui, Mayor, The City of Hiroshima

Hiroshima’s Mayor Kazumi Matsui in 2015 Photo: Kyodo News/Associated Press

1945, August 6, 8:15 a.m. Slicing through the clear blue sky, a previously unknown “absolute evil” is unleashed on Hiroshima, instantly searing the entire city. Koreans, Chinese, Southeast Asians, American prisoners of war, children, the elderly and other innocent people are slaughtered. By the end of the year, 140,000 are dead.

Those who managed to survive suffered the aftereffects of radiation, encountered discrimination in work and marriage, and still carry deep scars in their minds and bodies. From utter obliteration, Hiroshima was reborn a beautiful city of peace; but familiar scenes from our riversides, patterns of daily life, and cultural traditions nurtured through centuries of history vanished in that “absolute evil,” never to return.

He was a boy of 17. Today he recalls, “Charred corpses blocked the road. An eerie stench filled my nose. A sea of fire spread as far as I could see. Hiroshima was a living hell.” She was a girl of 18. “I was covered in blood. Around me were people with skin flayed from their backs hanging all the way to their feet—crying, screaming, begging for water.”

Seventy-one years later, over 15,000 nuclear weapons remain, individually much more destructive than the one that inflicted Hiroshima’s tragedy, collectively enough to destroy the Earth itself. We now know of numerous accidents and incidents that brought us to the brink of nuclear explosions or war; today we even fear their use by terrorists.

Given this reality, we must heed the hibakusha. The man who described a living hell says, “For the future of humanity, we need to help each other live in peace and happiness with reverence for all life.” The woman who was covered in blood appeals to coming generations, “To make the most of the life we’ve been given, please, everyone, shout loudly that we don’t need nuclear weapons.” If we accept these appeals, we must do far more than we have been doing. We must respect diverse values and strive persistently toward a world where all people are truly “living together.”

When President Obama visited Hiroshima in May, he became the first sitting president of the country that dropped the atomic bomb to do so. Declaring, “… among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear, and pursue a world without them,” he expressed acceptance of the hibakusha’s heartfelt plea that “no one else should ever suffer as we have.” Demonstrating to the people of the U.S. and the world a passion to fight to eliminate all remaining nuclear weapons, the President’s words showed that he was touched by the spirit of Hiroshima, which refuses to accept the “absolute evil.”

Is it not time to honor the spirit of Hiroshima and clear the path toward a world free from that “absolute evil,” that ultimate inhumanity? Is it not time to unify and manifest our passion in action? This year, for the first time ever, the G7 foreign ministers gathered in Hiroshima. Transcending the differences between countries with and without nuclear weapons, their declaration called for political leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and fulfillment of the obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament mandated by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This declaration was unquestionably a step toward unity.

We need to fill our policymakers with the passion to solidify this unity and create a security system based on trust and dialogue. To that end, I once again urge the leaders of all nations to visit the A-bombed cities. As President Obama confirmed in Hiroshima, such visits will surely etch the reality of the atomic bombings in each heart. Along with conveying the pain and suffering of the hibakusha, I am convinced they will elicit manifestations of determination.

The average age of the hibakusha has exceeded 80. Our time to hear their experiences face to face grows short. Looking toward the future, we will need our youth to help convey the words and feelings of the hibakusha. Mayors for Peace, now with over 7,000 city members worldwide, will work regionally, through more than 20 lead cities, and globally, led by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to promote youth exchange. We will help young people cultivate a shared determination to stand together and initiate concrete action for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Here in Hiroshima, Prime Minister Abe expressed determination “to realize a world free of nuclear weapons.” I expect him to join with President Obama and display leadership in this endeavor. A nuclear-weapon-free-world would manifest the noble pacifism of the Japanese Constitution, and to ensure progress, a legal framework banning nuclear weapons is indispensable. In addition, I demand that the Japanese government expand the “black rain areas” and improve assistance to the hibakusha, whose average age is over 80, and the many others who suffer the mental and physical effects of radiation.

Today, we renew our determination, offer heartfelt consolation to the souls of the A-bomb victims, and pledge to do everything in our power, working with the A-bombed city of Nagasaki and millions around the world, to abolish nuclear weapons and build lasting world peace.

Winnipeggers once again came together at Memorial Park to commemorate the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.

By the War Resisters Support Campaign

Across the country, supporters of U.S. Iraq War resisters have been working hard to ensure that the Liberal government acts quickly to resolve their cases and let them stay. Your letters, emails and phone calls have had a real impact – but we aren’t there yet.

The Federal Court has given the government a deadline of September 16th to indicate whether the litigation against U.S. Iraq war resisters that was initiated under Harper will continue, or whether the Liberal government will stop pursuing Harper’s policies on this issue.

War resisters need your help – here are two important things you can do right now:

1. Contact Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to state your support for U.S. Iraq War resisters, and to ask that the issue be positively resolved NOW. The message can be brief, underlining that every day of delay continues the hardship imposed on these courageous conscientious objectors to the Iraq War by the previous Harper government.

• by email: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
• by mail (postage free): The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
• by phone: 613-995-0253

2. Make a donation to ensure that the Campaign has the resources it needs to help war resisters stay in Canada.

• Donate online at gofundme.com/letthemstay , or
• Send a cheque or money order made out to the War Resisters Support Campaign to: War Resisters Support Campaign, Box 3, 427 Bloor St. West, Toronto, ON M5S 1X7.

Thank you for your ongoing solidarity and support! Please share widely!

An eight-meter-high “security wall” borders part of the Aida refugee camp, 1.5 km north of the city of Bethlehem. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS

By Fabíola Ortiz, Inter Press Service News Agency

AIDA CAMP, West Bank, Oct 10 2016 (IPS) – Over almost five decades of Israeli occupation, the number of Palestinian refugees has grown with every generation, saturating basic services in the 19 camps that are home to about 200,000 people in the West Bank run by the United Nations.

“Every year, the camp becomes more and more crowded and difficult to live. We don’t have privacy, any comfort, it is not easy,” Mohammad Alazza, 26, told IPS.

He was born and raised in Aida camp, 1.5 km north of the city of Bethlehem and bordered by the 721-km wall that separates Israel and the West Bank.

Families in Aida endure spotty water provision and frequent energy shortages. Nearly all households are connected to water, electricity and sewage networks, but they are old and in poor condition, the UN says. After a recent agreement with the Palestinian Water Authority, water is provided to Aida camp for two days every other week.

Next year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the occupation since 1967 and a hundred years since the Balfour Declaration (1917), that is said to have laid the foundation for the formation of the State of Israel.

Founded in 1950, Aida’s first inhabitants came from 17 villages destroyed in western Jerusalem and western Hebron during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, what Palestinians call ‘nakba’, catastrophe in Arabic.

“At that time, the families that were expelled from the villages had the expectation they might come back to their houses someday. They just closed their houses and took the key with them thinking the war would be over in some weeks. We are still waiting for this moment to come,” stressed Alazza, whose grandparents originally came from Beit Jibreen.

At the entrance of the camp there is a tall gate with a huge key on top, symbolising what Aida’s families claim as their right of return. “Each family still keeps the original key from their homes. People believe that one day they will go back to their land. We live with this hope and we believe this occupation will end eventually,” Alazza said.

There are currently 5,500 people living in Aida registered at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), of whom around 3,000 are children. The camp faces serious challenges related to overcrowding, lack of space, poor infrastructure, high levels of unemployment, food insecurity and protection issues due to regular incursions by the Israeli army.

The director of UNRWA operations in the West Bank, Scott Anderson, says that due to the occupation, the Palestinian economy is stagnant. He added that human rights for Palestinians are still not fully embraced. Israeli settlements continue to exacerbate tensions.

“It is challenging if you are a Palestine refugee. Everything is a bit worse in the camps: unemployment rates, housing, access to water and electricity. Despite their resilience, they have a difficult reality,” he told IPS.

Aida camp is located between the municipalities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Jerusalem and is near two large Israeli settlements – Har Homa and Gilo – considered illegal by the international community.

“Gilo is less than two km away and they have 24-hour fresh water, gardens and schools for children. We live just next to this settlement and we suffer from lack of all of these. We’ll never accept this. My home village is 40 minutes distant and I can’t reach it. It is not easy to be a refugee in my country,” Alazzo complained.

Aida has been a hot spot since the Second Intifada (also called as Al-Aqsa, a Palestinian uprising started in 2000) and refugees became highly exposed to violence as a result of military operations.

The increasing number of injuries in the camp are due to excessive force documented by the UN. In 2015, there were 84 incursions by Israeli security forces, 57 injuries (21 were minors), 44 arrests (including 13 minors), and one fatality with the death of a minor.

Walking through the alleys and narrow streets of Aida, it is common to hear stories about men and boys taken from their homes by Israeli security forces.

“We’re always afraid of our sons being taken by Israeli army. I never leave them alone. It is normal for the Israeli soldiers to take kids. It’s a scary life,” Sumayah Asad, a 40-year-old mother of six, told IPS.

It was a Friday morning, a sacred day for the Muslims, and she was handing out chocolates and sweets as gifts to whoever passed in front of her house. Asad said she was celebrating her 12-year-old son’s release after five days in detention.

“I’m happy now to see my son released from the Israeli occupation. Soldiers came to my house at three in the morning and caught my boy. They let him out after discovering he hadn’t done anything. Kids should be playing or be in the school, not in jail,” she said.

Although not everyone agrees that coexistence is possible among Jews and Palestinians, Munther Amira, 45, who was born in Aida and whose family came from the village Dier Aban (South Jerusalem), remains optimistic that peaceful change can be achieved.

“Yes, we can coexist. The idea of coexistence is based on human rights and should include our right of return. Here in Palestine, Christians and Muslims already live together. It’s difficult to develop a democracy under an occupation,” he told IPS.

Amira is an activist with the national Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign. In his opinion, boycotting Israeli products is a peaceful tool to bring pressure in order to reach into an agreement.

“We are under siege. We can’t import anything without the permission of the Israeli occupation. By boycotting Israeli products, we support the freedom of Palestine. It’s a non-violent tool against the occupation, if it’s done collectively, it’ll be very effective,” he suggested.

Reposted with permission. Copyright Inter Press Service News Agency.

Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky in Winnipeg Nov 9, 2016. Photo: Paul S. Graham

Winnipeg, Nov. 9, 2016: Israeli filmmaker and correspondent for The Real News Network Lia Tarachansky screened and then discussed the motivation for and the making of her documentary film “On the Side of the Road.” The former West Bank settler examines Israelis’ unwillingness and/or inability to look at the impact of the 1948 founding of the State of Israeli on the Arabs who lived there and who were expelled. Along the way we meet Palestinian refugees, Israeli veterans of the 1948 war and the memories of Tarachansky herself as she recalls her experience as a girl growing up in the Occupied Territories.

The screening of this documentary sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices – Winnipeg, Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba, United Jewish Peoples Order, Conference of Manitoba & Northwest Ontario – The United Church of Canada, St. Paul’s United Church – Morden.

This event was hosted by the CMU Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies department.

You can purchase On the Side of the Road at http://www.naretivproductions.com.

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Brussels (AFP) – NATO will step up naval war games and surveillance in the Black Sea to complement its increased presence of land and air forces near a more assertive Russia, the alliance said Thursday.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the decision taken by alliance defence ministers in Brussels was not designed to be a provocation at a time of heightened tension with Russia, which annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

“We agreed on… an increased NATO naval presence in the Black Sea for enhanced training, exercises and situational awareness,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

Russia swiftly condemned the move.

This is “another step towards increasing tension in the regions that touch on Russia’s vital interests,” Russia’s ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko told Russian news agencies.

“Of course all the necessary measures will be taken to ensure Russia’s security interests in this region,” he added.

A NATO official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the decision was taken to counter Russia’s military buildup in the Black Sea and bolster the alliance’s southeast flank after it sent troop reinforcements to the Baltic States and Poland in the northeast.

The official also said the goal was to bolster intelligence gathering, for example of Russian ground-to-air missiles in the region.

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by Peter Symonds, World Socialist Website

Just days after taking office, the Trump administration has set course for a conflict with China over the South China Sea that threatens military clashes and war.

President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, on Tuesday backed up an earlier assertion by the administration’s nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, that Washington would bar Chinese access to islets being built up by Beijing in the South China Sea.

In his first full press briefing, Spicer bluntly declared, “The US is going to make sure that we protect our interests there.” Referring to Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed waters, he continued: “It’s a question if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we are going to make sure we defend international territories from being taken over by one country.”

The reckless character of the Trump administration’s threats was underscored by the Washington Post’s headline: “Is Trump ready for war in the South China Sea, or is his team just not being clear?” While the Post suggested the problem was unclear or misspoken remarks, Spicer’s statements were fully in line with what was said less than two weeks ago by Tillerson.

At his congressional confirmation hearing, Tillerson lashed out at China, declaring that its land reclamation activities in the South China Sea were “akin to Russia’s taking Crimea.” He warned that China’s island-building would have to stop, adding that its “access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

These comments mark a decisive shift from Washington’s previous stance, which, nominally at least, took no position on the territorial disputes, but declared that it had a “national interest” in ensuring “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea. Under the Obama administration, the US Navy provocatively sent guided missile destroyers on three occasions within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit around Chinese islets.

The Trump administration is directly challenging China’s control over the islets. Asked how the US would carry out its threat to bar Chinese access, Spicer said that “we’ll have more information on that” as the situation develops.

As various analysts have pointed out, the only means of barring China would be a naval and air blockade in the South China Sea. Such action, a clear breach of international law, would constitute an act of war.

The islets in the South China Sea are not “international territories,” but are occupied by various countries and subject to longstanding disputes. Washington’s cynicism and hypocrisy are staggering. It is not proposing to take action against islets occupied by rival claimants—the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The Chinese foreign ministry yesterday reaffirmed that China had “indisputable sovereignty” over the islets and warned that “we are firm in safeguarding our rights and interests.” After pointing out that US had no direct claim in the South China Sea, spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged Washington to “speak and act cautiously to avoid damaging peace and stability in the area.”

An earlier editorial in the state-owned Global Times declared that any attempt to prevent China’s access to its islands would “involve large-scale war” and suggested that Tillerson “bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories.”

The willingness of US imperialism to threaten a nuclear-armed power and risk a nuclear conflagration cannot be ascribed simply to the outlook or psyche of the right-wing demagogue Donald Trump or the militaristic and fascistic individuals in his administration. While Trump’s rise to power represents a qualitative shift in global politics, the basis for the looming confrontation with China was laid by the Obama administration’s aggressive “pivot to Asia.” If Hillary Clinton, one of the chief architects of the “pivot,” had won office, her administration, whatever the differences in style, timing and tactics, would have pursued essentially the same war-mongering course.

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People participate in an anti-nuclear rally in Union Square in New York. (photo: Seth Wenig/AP)

by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

[The following statement from 21 Nobel Peace Laureates was released at the conclusion of the 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Bogota, Colombia.]

On March 27, negotiations will commence at the United Nations for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. As Nobel Peace Laureates we applaud the UN General Assembly for convening this negotiating conference, fully support its goals, and urge all nations to work for the speedy conclusion of this treaty in 2017 and for its rapid entry into force and implementation.

The nine nuclear-armed states retain some 15,000 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy the world many times over. Nearly 2,000 of these warheads are on hair-trigger alert. They can be launched in a matter of minutes at the whim of an unstable or intemperate leader, and leaders of nuclear-armed states have made increasingly dangerous and irresponsible statements about the use of these weapons. Some display a shocking and appalling ignorance about the nature of nuclear weapons and the consequences of their use.

In response to this danger, more than 120 nations around the world have supported a Humanitarian Initiative that seeks the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons. The nine states that possess these weapons have responded with plans to spend more than a trillion dollars to upgrade their nuclear arsenals and make them even more dangerous. Their behavior is an intolerable threat to the lives of everyone on this planet, including the citizens of their own countries. That behavior must change.

A large-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would cause a global winter that would kill most of the people on the planet, and possibly cause our extinction as a species. Even a very limited nuclear war, as could well take place involving states with smaller nuclear arsenals, could disrupt the climate sufficiently to cause a prolonged global famine that would put up to 2 billion people at risk of starvation and destroy modern civilization.

The danger of nuclear war is growing. The time for action is now. We must prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

Oscar Arias (1987)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (1989)

F. W. de Klerk (1993)

Shirin Ebadi (2003)

Leymah Gbowee (2011)

Mikhail Gorbachev (1990)

International Campaign to Ban Landmines (1997)

International Peace Bureau (1910)

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985)

Tawakkol Karman (2011)

Mairead Maguire (1976)

Medecins Sans Frontiere (1999)

Rigoberta Menchu (1992)

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (1995)

Jose Ramos-Horta (1996)

Kailash Satyarthi (2014)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984)

Lech Walesa (1983)

Betty Williams (1976)

Jody Williams (1997)

Muhammad Yunus (2006)

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As of February 1, 2017, a petition launched by Mayors for Peace to abolish nuclear weapons had 2,469,821 signatures.

The petition reads:

We, the undersigned, make the following request of the leaders of all nations states,and urge the United Nations to exercise strong leadership in the following:

• To ensure that no city will ever again be destroyed by a nuclear weapon, Start Negotiations Now! on a nuclear weapons convention!
• Do not allow war and do not target any city or civilian! Cities Are Not Targets!

You can sign the online petition here or download petition forms here.

Formed in 1982 and headquartered in Hiroshima, Japan, Mayors for Peace is composed of cities around the world. As of February 1, 2017, membership stood at 7,219 cities in 162 countries and regions. The organization was registered as an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in May 1991. Winnipeg became a member in 2003.

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Based on current trends, the UN predicts that in 2017 at least 450,000 more people will join those already internally displaced

Afghan refugee children watch a short video clip about mines during a mines and explosives awareness program at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) registration centre in Kabul, Afghanistan September 27, 2016. Picture taken September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

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Canadian soldiers of Joint Task Force Ð Ukraine support urban operations training at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre in Starychi, Ukraine, on August 31, 2016. Photo: Canadian Forces

By David Rennie, Hamilton Spectator

Canada’s military mission to Ukraine expires in March. For several reasons, it shouldn’t be renewed.

First, the present Ukrainian government, installed in a coup orchestrated by Washington, isn’t worthy of our support. According to the BBC, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland admitted that the U.S. spent $5 billion over a number of years to instigate regime change in Ukraine.

(1) She overthrew the democratically-elected Yanukovich government in 2014 which had less than one year remaining in its term of office and was trying to deal with competing pressures to take a financial bailout from either Russia, on the one hand, or the European Union, on the other.

(2) On Feb. 21, 2014, Yanukovich secured an agreement with European Union officials on EU economic assistance, sharing of power in Ukraine, and moving up Ukrainian elections.

(3) The agreement was not good enough for U.S. Senator John McCain and other key Democratic U.S. policy-makers. After violent street protests, the U.S. installed a pro-Western junta, headed by billionaire Poroshenko. According to the CBC, the Harper government allowed the Canadian embassy in Kyiv to shelter the violent street protesters for one week and one embassy staffer to use an embassy vehicle (later burned) to take part in the protests.

(4) In other words, Canadian taxpayers supported U.S. regime-change in Ukraine.

Second, the agents of regime change recruited by Nuland were none other than gangs of thugs from several fascist parties, remnants of the very same Ukrainian fascists allied to Hitler in the Second World War. They fought soldiers and police in the main squares of Kyiv and other cities. Poroshenko’s coup government has the dubious distinction of being the only government in Europe with fascists in cabinet, several holding key security posts. Canadian veterans might be surprised to learn that the Trudeau government is considering renewing Canada’s military mission to a country with the same fascists in government that they fought in the Second World War.

Third, the Ukrainian junta immediately implemented divisive policies, such as banning the use of the Russian language and some of the country’s most popular political parties. It seems logical that Crimea would have been less likely to have voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia, and eastern Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine would have been much more hesitant to seek independence if a more moderate and tolerant government took office following constitutional procedures. War and economic decline could have been avoided as well. Ukraine, a former Soviet republic (and a province of Czarist Russia for the previous 200 years) could have sought peaceful relations and constructive economic engagement with both East and West and particularly the booming economic “silk road” trade deals with China. Instead, seeking EU and NATO membership, while implementing draconian austerity policies, have only brought Ukraine to the point of economic and social collapse.

A fourth reason is the reaction of the Ukrainian government to the brutal Odessa massacre of May 2, 2014. On that day, over 40 peaceful anti-government protesters were killed and some 200 injured when pro-government thugs set fire to the Trade Union House in which they had taken shelter. This incident has not been properly investigated and no culprits arrested or punished.

Finally, contrary to the promises made to the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, NATO expansion continued to the east, along with a continuing military buildup, missile installations, and war games right up to Russia’s borders. It’s completely understandable why Russians feel encircled by NATO, especially now with the possibility of Ukrainian membership. We should remember that Russia was invaded twice in the 20th century from the West, costing tens of millions of Russian lives and huge devastation. A major war, possibly a third world war, could develop from aggressive NATO expansion along the Russian frontier. Placing Canadian soldiers there makes no sense at all.

It’s time that the Trudeau government broke with aggressive Harper-era policies and dealt fairly and diplomatically with the Russian Federation. For this reason, it would be far wiser for the Trudeau government not to extend the military mission to Ukraine and to pull its troops and equipment out of all the frontier states with Russia. Indeed, Canadians would benefit from cutting ties with NATO altogether and pursuing instead a peaceful, humane, and independent foreign policy.

David Rennie writes on behalf of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War.

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Months after the Pentagon said it wouldn’t use a controversial type of armor-piercing ammunition that has been blamed for long-term health complications, US aircraft fired thousands of the rounds during two high-profile air raids in Syria in November 2015, the Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday.

The use of the ammunition, a 30mm depleted-uranium bullet called PGU-14, was first reported by a joint Air Wars-Foreign Policy investigation on Tuesday. The 5,265 rounds of the munition were fired from multiple A-10 ground attack aircraft on Nov 16, 2015, and Nov. 22, 2015, in airstrikes in Syria’s eastern desert that targeted the Islamic State’s oil supply during Operation Tidal Wave II, said Major Josh Jacques, a US Central Command spokesman.

The strikes, which involved 30mm PGU-14 cannon fire, rockets, and guided bombs, destroyed more than 300 vehicles, mostly civilian tanker trucks, the Pentagon said at the time. The two incidents were championed by the Pentagon and footage of trucks being destroyed were posted online. The Pentagon said that no civilians were present during the bombardment because fliers had been dropped before strafing runs warning those in their trucks to flee.

Before the November strikes, the Pentagon said it would not use depleted-uranium munitions in the campaign against the Islamic State. In response to a query from a reporter in February 2015, Captain John Moore, a spokesman for the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition in Iraq and Syria said in an e-mail that ‘‘US and Coalition aircraft have not been and will not be using depleted-uranium munitions in Iraq or Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve.’’

Source: Boston Globe

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Gao, Mail- UN Peacekeepers from Senegal on an early morning patrol in Gao, Mali on Sunday, January 15, 2017. Despite the end of the occupation, many Malians find that security is still a major issue speaking of incidents of car jacking and looting. Even though crime is high, most of the deadly attacks that occur are against the United Nations Minusma mission, Malian soldiers and the French military.
(Jane Hahn for the Washington Post)

Since World War II, U.N. peacekeepers have been dispatched to 69 conflicts — civil wars, border disputes and failed states. But now they are confronting an unsettling new threat: al-Qaeda.

Here in the vast, lawless desert of northwest Africa, their convoys are being torn apart by improvised explosive devices and their compounds blasted by 1,000-pound car bombs. It is a crisis that looks more like the U.S. ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than the cease-fires traditionally monitored by U.N. missions.

In the past four years, 118 peacekeepers have been killed — making the U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, the world body’s deadliest ongoing peace operation. The bloodshed has raised questions about how an institution developed in the 1940s can serve a world under threat from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The issue is especially potent given the expectation that U.N. peacekeepers will eventually go to places such as Syria and Libya.

“We are trying to learn these lessons here, rather than in Iraq, Libya or Syria,” said Dutch Col. Mike Kerkhove, commander of the U.N. intelligence unit in Mali. “This is not the end of this type of mission. It’s the beginning.”

In 2012, Islamist radicals linked to al-Qaeda hijacked an uprising by ethnic Tuareg people and went on to seize cities across northern Mali, holding on for nearly a year until they were forced out by a French military intervention. When 11,000 U.N. troops arrived in 2013, they were meant to protect a fledgling peace deal and train the Malian army. But Islamist extremists regrouped across the region. It did not take long before the militants started targeting peacekeepers, whom they dubbed “Crusader occupation forces.”

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ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Aircraft mechanics prepare a B-2 Spirit bomber before a morning mission. Photo: U.S. Air Force / Master Sgt. Val Gempis

by Bruce Gagnon

The publication called Business Insider is carrying a story promoting a US first-strike attack on North Korea. The article includes a quote from the Wall Street Journal that reads, “An internal White House review of strategy on North Korea includes the possibility of military force or regime change to blunt the country’s nuclear-weapons threat, people familiar with the process said, a prospect that has some U.S. allies in the region on edge.”

The BI article also states:

Military action against North Korea wouldn’t be pretty. Some number of civilians in South Korea, possibly Japan, and US forces stationed in the Pacific would be likely to die in the undertaking no matter how smoothly things went.

Talk about an understatement. A US first-strike attack on North Korea would likely escalate quickly into a full bore war that would consume the entire Korean peninsula. China and even Russia (both have borders with North Korea) could easily be dragged into such a war.

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Canadian military instructors and Ukrainian servicemen take part in a military exercise at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, Ukraine, July 12, 2016. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

by Yves Engler

Why is the Trudeau government escalating its belligerence towards Russia?

Yesterday it was confirmed that 200 Canadian troops would remain in the Ukraine for at least two more years. This “training” mission in the Ukraine is on top of 200 troops in Poland, a naval frigate in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and a half-dozen CF-18 fighter jets on their way to locations near Russia’s border. Alongside Britain, Germany and the U.S., Canada will soon lead a NATO battlegroup supposed to defend Eastern Europe from Moscow. About 450 Canadian troops are headed to Latvia while the three other NATO countries lead missions in Poland, Lithuania and Estonia. From the Russian point of view it must certainly look like NATO is massing troops at its border.

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By Matsui Kazumi
Mayor, The City of Hiroshima

AUG. 6, 2017 – Friends, seventy-two years ago today, on August 6, at 8:15 a.m., absolute evil was unleashed in the sky over Hiroshima. Let’s imagine for a moment what happened under that roiling mushroom cloud. Pika—the penetrating flash, extreme radiation and heat. Don—the earth-shattering roar and blast. As the blackness lifts, the scenes emerging into view reveal countless scattered corpses charred beyond recognition even as man or woman. Stepping between the corpses, badly burned, nearly naked figures with blackened faces, singed hair, and tattered, dangling skin wander through spreading flames, looking for water. The rivers in front of you are filled with bodies; the riverbanks so crowded with burnt, half-naked victims you have no place to step. This is truly hell. Under that mushroom cloud, the absolutely evil atomic bomb brought gruesome death to vast numbers of innocent civilians and left those it didn’t kill with deep physical and emotional scars, including the aftereffects of radiation and endless health fears. Giving rise to social discrimination and prejudice, it devastated even the lives of those who managed to survive.

This hell is not a thing of the past. As long as nuclear weapons exist and policymakers threaten their use, their horror could leap into our present at any moment. You could find yourself suffering their cruelty. This is why I ask everyone to listen to the voices of the hibakusha. A man who was 15 at the time says, “When I recall the friends and acquaintances I saw dying in those scenes of hell, I can barely endure the pain.” Then, appealing to us all, he asks, “To know the blessing of being alive, to treat everyone with compassion, love, and respect—are these not steps to world peace?”

Another hibakusha who was 17 says, “I ask the leaders of the nuclear-armed states to prevent the destruction of this planet by abandoning nuclear deterrence and abolishing immediately all atomic and hydrogen bombs. Then they must work wholeheartedly to preserve our irreplaceable Earth for future generations.”

Friends, this appeal to conscience and this demand that policymakers respond conscientiously are deeply rooted in the hibakusha experience. Let’s all make their appeal and demand our own, spread them throughout the world, and pass them on to the next generation.

Policymakers, I ask you especially to respect your differences and make good-faith efforts to overcome them. To this end, it is vital that you deepen your awareness of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, consider the perspectives of other countries, and recognize your duty to build a world where all thrive together.

Civil society fully understands that nuclear weapons are useless for national security. The dangers involved in controlling nuclear materials are widely understood. Today, a single bomb can wield thousands of times the destructive power of the bombs dropped 72 years ago. Any use of such weapons would plunge the entire world into hell, the user as well as the enemy. Humankind must never commit such an act. Thus, we can accurately say that possessing nuclear weapons means nothing more than spending enormous sums of money to endanger all humanity.

Peace Memorial Park is now drawing over 1.7 million visitors a year from around the world, but I want even more visitors to see the realities of the bombing and listen to survivor testimony. I want them to understand what happened under the mushroom cloud, take to heart the survivors’ desire to eliminate nuclear weapons and broaden the circle of empathy to the entire world. In particular, I want more youthful visitors expanding the circle of friendship as ambassadors for nuclear abolition. I assure you that Hiroshima will continue to bring people together for these purposes and inspire them to take action.

Mayors for Peace, led by Hiroshima, now comprises over 7,400 city members around the world. We work within civil society to create an environment that helps policymakers move beyond national borders to act in good faith and conscience for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In July, when 122 United Nations members, not including the nuclear-weapon and nuclear-umbrella states, adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, they demonstrated their unequivocal determination to achieve abolition. Given this development, the governments of all countries must now strive to advance further toward a nuclear-weapon-free world.

The Japanese Constitution states, “We, the Japanese people, pledge our national honor to accomplish these high ideals and purposes with all our resources.” Therefore, I call especially on the Japanese government to manifest the pacifism in our constitution by doing everything in its power to bridge the gap between the nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states, thereby facilitating the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. I further demand more compassionate government assistance to the hibakusha, whose average age is now over 81, and to the many others also suffering mentally and physically from the effects of radiation, along with expansion of the “black rain areas.”

We offer heartfelt prayers for the repose of the atomic bomb victims and pledge to work with the people of the world to do all in our power to bring lasting peace and free ourselves from the absolute evil that is nuclear weapons.