Muammar Gaddafi’s spokesperson during NATO’s bombardment of Libya, Moussa Ibrahim, will be joining African Stream for a special live podcast to discuss the 13th anniversary of the Western-backed Libya War.

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ALI: WHY IS EVERYTHING SO WHITE?

Widely considered to be the greatest heavyweight boxer the world has ever seen, the legacy of Muhammad Ali extends far beyond the ring. Throughout his career, he was outspoken about racial injustices and inequality. He had a perspective that was difficult to ignore or argue with.

In this clip from a 1971 interview with talk-show host Michael Parkinson, the three-time world heavyweight champion relates how, as a kid, he would pester his mother with questions, especially when he wondered why everything ‘white’ was portrayed as ‘good’ and everything ‘black’ as ‘bad.’

Even though the interview is more than 50 years old, Ali’s wit is remarkable and his words are as salient as ever. Did you ever ask yourself similar questions as a kid?

(For more on this theme of ‘white = good’ versus ‘black = bad,’ check out this week’s Facts of the Week!)

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ISRAELI SOLDIERS' RAMADAN MESSAGE

This viral clip of Israeli soldiers wishing Muslims a happy Ramadan is sadistic at worst and a failed public-relations stunt at best.

Israel has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, injured close to 74,000 and restricted food for the Gaza Strip's 2.1 million people.

Israeli police attacked Muslim worshippers at the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site, on the first night of Ramadan (10 March). Restrictions for the entry of worshippers continued during the first week of the holy month of Ramadan, with a 20 per cent reduction this year of people who were able to enter the holy site for the first Friday of Ramadan prayers.

Continued….Men above age 55 and women above 50 only were allowed in with a permit, leaving more than 95 per cent of Palestinians out, according to Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative. Last year, on the first Friday of Ramadan prayers, about 100,000 people entered the holy site.

Meanwhile, Israel has warned it may attack Rafah, the southernmost point of Gaza, escalating the ongoing humanitarian crisis for the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians taking refuge after being displaced from points north.

A question for Muslim and non-Muslim Africans: What do you make of this clip? Let us know below.

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Video Credit: @Anna_AnninaEl

ISRAELI YOB SPITS AT PALESTINIAN BOY

A video has emerged of an Israeli boy spitting at a Palestinian child in the West Bank. A glimpse of what daily life looks like under occupation. The footage has been geo-located to Massager Yatta, which is also known as Firing Zone 918. It’s a cluster of Palestinian villages and hamlets south of Hebron.

Firing Zones were introduced by Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon in 1979, ostensibly for military training purposes. But in reality, they impose great restrictions on Palestinians living within them. And as this video shows, Palestinians are routinely harassed by Jewish settlers who want to force them out.

Under international law, firing zones are illegal since they are on occupied land. According to a 2022 UN report, they cover nearly a fifth of the West Bank.

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CANADA BANS ARMS SALES TO ISRAEL

Canada will ban all arms shipments to Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has announced.

The move comes after lawmakers voted 204-117 on Tuesday in favour of a non-binding motion to stop the weapons sales, after a lengthy debate Monday.

Initially, the motion was for a weapons sales suspension, but that was changed to an outright ban. The motion also included a clause that called for support of the eventual "establishment of the State of Palestine."

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, said the vote represented a "small step forward for ending Canadian complicity in Israel's genocidal war in Gaza."

Continued….Canada exported over CAN$21 million (US$15 million) in military gear to Tel Aviv in 2022. The highest amount sent to Israel was CAN$28 million (US$20.5 million) during the First Intifada (Palestinian uprising) in December 1987. Lawmakers are concerned that Israel is increasingly using Canadian arms to commit war crimes in Palestinian territories.

Almost 32,000 Palestinians - the majority, women and children - have been killed by relentless Israeli attacks since October 7th, 2023.

Does the ban on arms sales by Canada represent a shift in Western support for Israel's war? Let us know what you think.

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EU’S BORRELL: GAZA FAMINE MAN-MADE, LET AID IN!

The EU’s foreign policy chief is urging action over the famine in Gaza. Josep Borrell has admitted the hunger crisis is man-made - pointing to the many aid trucks stuck at the border, waiting to be let in.

Over a million Palestinians in Gaza - half the Strip’s population - face food insecurity, according to The World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, while Human Rights Watch says Israel is illegally using starvation as a weapon of war.

Continued…..While he’s finally making the right noises, Borrell appears unaware of the extent to which Europe, whose foreign policy he represents, is responsible for for the situation in Gaza, given the material support EU members have given to Tel Aviv, not just now but over the years. Nicaragua, for example, recently filed a case against Germany at the International Court of Justice, accusing Berlin of “facilitating Israeli genocide” in Gaza.

It was Borrell, of course, who infamously referred to Europe as a ‘garden’ and much of the rest of the world as a ‘jungle’ - a remark that’s not just racist, but willfully ignores the role European colonial plunder had in the region’s prosperity and industrialisation. That kind of language also mirrors talk of Israel as “a villa in a jungle” touted by some Israeli politicians, which clearly seeks to dehumanise Palestinians.

What do you think? Has the penny finally dropped for Borrell and co.? Or is this just another self-serving, too-little-too-late political expediency?

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KENYANS SPEAK THEIR MINDS ON HAITI DEPLOYMENT

Nairobi’s plans to send Kenyan police to Haiti on a US-funded mission to restore order to the troubled Caribbean nation have been mired in controversy from the get-go.

Critics say that - despite the rampant gang violence on the island - the last thing Haiti needs is more meddling by outside actors (especially at Washington’s behest). Moreover, Kenya badly needs to get its own security situation under control - and can’t spare the men.

Kenya’s High Court recently ruled the plans unconstitutional, and now more doubt has been cast on the entire mission after the Haitian prime minister’s sudden resignation.

African Stream canvassed opinion in the streets of Nairobi on the very idea of sending Kenyan officers to Haiti, and got reactions to the news that the deployment has, for now, been put on hold.

Your views on this also matter to us. Please share them in the comments.

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BIKES STOP ELEPHANTS ATTACKING SCHOOL KIDS

School runs don’t get much more hazardous than this.
Children living near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, regularly pick their way through dangerous wild animals en route to the classroom. Elephants are a particular problem, with the park being home to 65,000 of them, four times it’s capacity! But help is at hand. Bikes are being handed to pupils to ensure they get to school more quickly and safely.

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ISRAEL’S PLAN TO REPLACE EGYPT’S SUEZ CANAL

In this clip, an African brother from the United States breaks down a decades-long US and Israeli plan to replace Egypt’s Suez Canal by buliding a two-directional canal through the besieged Gaza Strip.

The controversial Ben Gurion Canal Project was originally proposed in the 1960s. For now, the Suez Canal provides the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe and handles roughly 12 percent of the world’s trade. In 2023, it generated $9.4 billion in fees for Egypt.

If Israel could construct an alternative route, it would give Tel aviv and its Western allies significant control over global trade and deal an economic blow to Egypt. The US had once proposed using 520 nuclear bombs on the Negev Desert to blast through rock to help create the canal.

The question is, would Tel Aviv and Washington go through with the plan in a post-war Gaza scenario?

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EX-APARTHEID ENVOY ADMITS REGIME
NEEDED VIOLENCE

In this clip from the ‘80s, a former diplomat for the apartheid regime in South Africa basically admits that violence against Blacks was the foundation of White-supremacist rule in the country. Gerrit Olivier - who was an envoy to the Soviet Union - explains that, without ‘ruthless measures,’ Afrikaners - aka, White South Africans of Dutch origin - would “lose.”

This insight into the settler-colonialist mindset is highly relevant to events today in the Middle East, where ‘ruthless measures’ are again being advocated - and practised to devastating effect - against the Palestinian people, supposedly in self-defence: backers of the horrific war in Gaza claim it’s necessary to ensure the safety of Israelis.

Continued….Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant recently went as far as to brand Palestinians in Gaza ‘human animals.’ Historically, that kind of slander hasn’t been limited to Palestinians. Africans and Indigenous people the world over have been referred to by European settler-colonialists as ‘uncivilised’ and ‘savages.’ Coveted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote a piece noscriptd ‘Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom’.

In the same way, defenders of apartheid would try to dehumanise Black South Africans - branding them things like ‘communist terrorists’ who wanted to kill Whites.

Given the pain and suffering this way of thinking still inflicts, how to overcome it is an urgent issue. Please share your ideas on how.

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UAE CREATING ELITE ‘FOREIGN LEGION’ FOR AFRICA OPS?

The UAE has engaged in multiple colonial endeavors in Africa, including funding proxy wars in Sudan and Libya.

Despite its small size, its large wealth has enabled it to pursue an aggressive foreign policy - supporting Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan and Khalifa Haftar in Libya, as well as securing significant influence over strategic waterways in Yemen and Somalia.

Now a leaked job advertisement has apparently revealed Abu Dhabi is hiring an elite force, modelled on the French Foreign Legion - to be deployed in support of Emirati proxy wars on our continent.

African Stream’s Ahmed Ghoneim gives his personal take on the revelation. Give him a shout out in the comments if you share his sentiments!

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DEE-1: THREE WEEKS IN AFRICA CHANGED ME FOREVER!

In this video, rapper Dee-1 opens up to journalist James Whitlock about the first time he visited Africa as a young boy. He reveals how a trip to Ghana - as part of a school-exchange programme - changed him “forever.”

One of the things that impressed him most was that his brothers and sisters in the motherland were less materialistic: whereas he obsessed about things like clothes and status symbols, his Ghanaian peers were more focused on education and improving their community. Dee-1 was also struck by how they displayed respect for elders - an act rooted in traditional African culture.

While the Western media still can’t let go of the image of Africa as a basket-case continent ridden with war and famine, Dee-1’s experience should be a spur for others in the diaspora to discover the true beauty of their African heritage. What do you think?

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2 REFUGEES DEAD, 22 INJURED AFTER STORM HITS DRC 🇨🇩

Here is one of the grim consequences of foreigners and African leaders exploiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for centuries.

In the Bulengo Camp that hosts more than 100,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of Goma city in the North Kivu province, a report from @akilimalichoma_ via @chakabars indicates heavy storms left two people dead and 22 injured between the night of 14 March and the morning of 15 March.

The United Nations has said militias, neighbouring countries and multinational corporations have helped stoke violence in the eastern DRC, forcing about 6 million Congolese to seek refuge in overcrowded IDP camps and grapple with meagre resources, as food and shelter are scarce. Every passing storm adds another layer of hardship to their precarious existence.

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NAMIBIA’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

Namibia is celebrating Independence Day after breaking free from South Africa’s apartheid rule 34 years ago. It brought to an end a bloody conflict that costs thousands of lives.

The victory was spearheaded by The People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, a guerrilla group led by Sam Nujoma, who became the country’s first president. It marked a new beginning after a century of struggle and subjugation. From 1884 until just after the First World War, Namibia was ruled as a German colony. Following that, it was governed by South Africa after the League of Nations mandate in 1920.

It sparked decades of resistance and neighbouring countries like Zambia and Angola, supported the fight for Independence. Finally, on March 21st, 1990, Namibia established itself as a sovereign state. Today the anniversary is celebrated nationally with pomp, colour, parades and political ceremonies.

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NIGERIEN KIDS BURN MACRON VAMPIRE EFFIGY

Video has emerged of children in Niamey setting fire to a cardboard cut-out of French president Emmanuel Macron depicted as a vampire.

Anti-French sentiment is high in Niger, which underwent a coup last summer. Coup leaders, with popular backing, have expelled French troops stationed in the country - and have also just ended a military agreement with the US.

The general anti-imperialist mood of the nation has clearly rubbed off even on its younger citizens. Let’s hope the country’s new direction means they’ll be able to grow up free of neocolonial exploitation and the resentment such treatment naturally breeds.

Do you think their futures burn brighter now?

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SOUTH AFRICA REMEMBERS SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE

The 21st of March reminds South Africans how far they have come as a nation. On this date in 1960, apartheid security forces killed 69 unarmed Black protesters in Sharpeville township in Vereeniging. The victims had taken to the streets to demonstrate against laws that required Black people to have a permit to travel around the country.

The Pan-African Congress party, which had organised the protest, was banned shortly after. So was the African National Congress which was the country's leading anti-apartheid movement.

The atrocity sparked an international outcry, drawing global attention to the brutality of the apartheid system. It also prompted the UN to declare 21st March the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

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WESTERN DOUBLE-STANDARDS AT UN

African Stream looks at South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor's comments in September 2022 regarding the West deciding when to pay attention to African voices.

Pandor argued the Russian military operation in Ukraine sparked questions about UN Security Council members' veto powers, while the UN General Assembly's resolutions are not legally binding.

Not only has the West granted Israel political cover, it has also provided military and economic aid as Israel continues a campaign that has killed nearly 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.