Palestine takes center stage at Jaipur Literature Festival, world’s largest literary show

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Updated 30 January 2025
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Palestine takes center stage at Jaipur Literature Festival, world’s largest literary show

  • Pankaj Mishra, Gideon Levy, Avi Shlaim, Selma Dabbagh to discuss Israel’s deadly war on Gaza
  • More than 400,000 people attended JLF in 2024 and even more are expected to show up this year

JAIPUR: The 18th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, India’s largest literary event, began on Thursday with a special focus on the history and present-day situation in Gaza and Palestine.

Known as the “greatest literary show on earth,” the five-day event is held in Jaipur, the capital of the northwestern state of Rajasthan, bringing to one venue dozens of leading voices from literature, politics, science and the arts from India and abroad.

More than 400,000 people attended the event last year and organizers expect even more to show up this time.

Many of the festival’s sessions will be devoted to Gaza, covering events there during the past 18 months of relentless Israeli attacks that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the territory’s civilian infrastructure.

“What’s happening in Gaza is, in my opinion, the most appalling moral issue of our time and I’m very proud that we are giving this issue the prominence it deserves, and I think in a way that many Western literary festivals might be nervous to do. We are in a position in this country to speak frankly and openly about the horrors coming out of Gaza, and we intend to do so,” Scottish historian and writer William Dalrymple, one of the JLF’s directors, told Arab News.

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Among the speakers will be Pankaj Mishra, the Indian novelist and essayist whose latest book, “The World After Gaza,” is a reckoning with Israel’s latest war on the enclave, its historical context and geopolitical ramifications.

Pankaj will be joined by Palestinian writer and lawyer Selma Dabbagh to discuss how the war — which brought Israel to trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice and has led to International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant — challenges understandings of justice and decolonization.

In another session, Nathan Thrall, an author and journalist known for his 2023 nonfiction work “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy,” who has covered Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, will speak about the human impact of Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.

“It’s really an extraordinary lineup. We’ve got Gideon Levy from Haaretz — one of the most outspoken anti-Netanyahu journalists from the Israeli media — speaking in several sessions. I think he’s the bravest Israeli journalist of the lot, and the most outspoken on the horrors,” Dalrymple said.

Levy will speak about the unprecedented loss of civilian life in Gaza during the latest war and how it is likely to impact the future of the region.

Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, will be talking about his memoir, “Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew,” which “exposes Mossad operations, which tried to get the Jewish community in Iraq to leave through false flag operations, bombing synagogues and so on,” Dalrymple said.

“Then we have Philippe Sands, a very important international lawyer, who was strongly involved in the International Court of Justice case.”

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For Dalrymple, who has spent many years reporting from and writing about the Middle East, raising the issue of Palestine as someone who knows the region also comes with a sense of responsibility. The subject and “the historical background of the terrible injustices which are taking place” are “often badly misrepresented,” he said.

“I have a duty to share what I know with those that are often misled and misguided about what’s happening ... people are seeing a lot on their social media but often they don’t have the education in the history and the politics to make sense of it all.”

Most of the people who will come to the festival may not have a thorough understanding of what is happening, but they can easily gain it by taking part in the event.

“Sometimes there isn’t as much knowledge and as much understanding of the issue, which is why people come to literary festivals. Not everyone in the modern world has time to read 300-page books on the history of Palestine but you can attend very easily a 50-minute session with experts summarizing it,” Dalrymple said.

“Literary festivals in the West are often scared of bringing this up and we’ve seen many examples of sessions on Palestine canceled in venues in the West. For example, when Pankaj Mishra was trying to speak on the same subject which he’s speaking with us, his session was famously canceled at the Barbican last year. So, he’ll be having with us the session that was censored in London ... we pride ourselves on the freedom with which our authors will be able to talk about all these things.”


Pope ‘rested well’ on eighth night in hospital: Vatican

Updated 54 min 28 sec ago
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Pope ‘rested well’ on eighth night in hospital: Vatican

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis “rested well” during his eighth night in hospital, where the 88-year-old is being treated for double pneumonia, the Vatican said Saturday.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with bronchitis, but it turned into pneumonia in both lungs, causing widespread alarm.
The pontiff’s doctors had told a press conference on Friday there was no imminent risk to his life but that he was “not out of danger.”
The Vatican’s early morning update Saturday was shorter than usual, without mentioning that he had eaten, saying simply: “Pope Francis rested well.”
The Gemelli’s Professor Sergio Alfieri told reporters Friday that the pontiff’s condition has been slightly improving, allowing doctors to incrementally lower the amount of medication he is taking.
“The question is, is the pope out of danger? No, the pope is not out of danger,” Alfieri said.
“If you then ask whether he is in danger of dying at this moment, the answer is still no,” he added.
His hospitalization has cast doubt over Francis’s ability to continue as head of the world’s almost 1.4 billion Catholics.
But Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin dismissed this as “useless speculation” in an interview published Saturday with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily.
“Now we are thinking about the health of the Holy Father, his recovery, his return to the Vatican: these are the only things that matter,” the cardinal said.
Parolin said he personally had not yet been to see the pope, saying he was available but so far there was no need.
“It is better if he remains protected and has as few visitors as possible, to allow him to rest and make the treatment he is undergoing more effective,” he added.

HEALTH ISSUES
Francis, who is staying in a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital, has been moving between his bed, a chair and an adjacent chapel where he prays.
He will remain in hospital “at least for all next week,” Alfieri said.
“If we send him to Santa Marta (his home at the Vatican), he’ll start working again as before,” he said.
Asked if the pope would be well enough to lead the Angelus prayer from his hospital window this Sunday, Alfieri said “the pope will decide.”
The doctor said “the real risk in these cases is that the germs pass into the blood,” which could result in sepsis, a life-threatening condition.
Doctor Luigi Carbone said the pope, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, now has a chronic lung condition and “is by definition a fragile patient.”
But Alfieri stressed that “at the same time, he has incredible resilience — How many others would have endured all these infections with the workload he has?“
He added that Francis has difficulty breathing but was not on any machines and was “in good spirits.” He still has the wit of “a 70-year-old, maybe a 50-year-old.”
But Francis’s absence from the Vatican means questions are being raised over the future of a leader with a punishing schedule who has been increasingly plagued by health issues in recent years.
Since 2021 he has undergone colon and hernia surgery, is overweight and suffers constant hip and knee pain, which force him to use a wheelchair most of the time.
Francis is also one of the oldest popes ever — and though he has said the job is for life, the pope has left the door open to resigning like his predecessor Benedict XVI.


New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill

Updated 22 February 2025
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New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill

  • It was the Chinese warships’ second exercise in two days in international waters of the Tasman Sea
  • Australia said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday’s drill

WELLINGTON: A Chinese naval cruiser fired live rounds Saturday during a task force drill in the sea between Australia and New Zealand, government officials said, prompting an alert to commercial air traffic.
It was the Chinese warships’ second exercise in two days in international waters of the Tasman Sea, held despite Canberra and Wellington raising concerns over a lack of prior notice.
Australia and close ally New Zealand have been monitoring the three Chinese navy vessels – a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker – since they were spotted off Australia’s shores last week.
Personnel on a New Zealand naval frigate “observed live rounds being fired from the Zunyi’s main gun, as would be expected during the course of such an exercise,” New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins’ office said in a statement.
The three Chinese ships were in international waters in the Tasman Sea at the time, her office said.
“As happened yesterday, the Chinese Task Group advised via radio channels of its intent to conduct live firing,” it said.
“Defense is working with the NZ Civil Aviation Authority to ensure all aircraft are notified. The safety of all people, aircraft and vessels in the area remains our paramount concern.”
New Zealand said its concerns over notification times and best practice would be “communicated appropriately.”
Australia said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday’s drill, in which the warships broadcast a “disconcerting” live-fire warning that forced commercial flights to change course.
In Friday’s exercise, “no weapon firings were heard or seen” from the Chinese task force despite it temporarily deploying a floating firing target, Canberra said.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said that while China abided by international law, it did not follow best practice of giving 12-24 hours’ notice, and Canberra had raised this with Beijing.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong had also discussed it directly with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Johannesburg.
Beijing has described Friday’s maneuvers as training exercises that were “safe, standard and professional” and in line with international law, without commenting on whether live ammunition was used.
It was the latest in a string of tense encounters between China and Australia in the increasingly contested airspace and shipping lanes of the Asia-Pacific region.
Last week, Canberra rebuked Beijing for “unsafe” military conduct, accusing a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares near an Australian air force plane patrolling the South China Sea.
A Chinese fighter jet was accused of intercepting an Australian Seahawk helicopter in international airspace in 2024, dropping flares across its flight path.
In 2023, a Chinese destroyer was accused of bombarding submerged Australian navy divers with sonar pulses in waters off Japan, causing minor injuries.
The Australian government says it respects the right of all states to pass through international waters and airspace.
The United States and its allies including Australia frequently cross through the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China, which claims jurisdiction over the waters.


US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats

Updated 22 February 2025
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US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats

  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges UN members to approve the ‘simple, historic’ resolution
  • Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.
Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.
It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies, countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.
The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv’s “territorial integrity.”
The text also repeats the UN General Assembly’s previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favor.
Washington’s text, seen by AFP, calls for a “swift end to the conflict” without mentioning Kyiv’s territorial integrity, and was welcomed by Moscow’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia as “a good move” — but stressed that it did not address the “roots” of the conflict.
“The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace,” Rubio said in a statement Friday, without commenting in detail on the contents of the proposed resolution.
In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.
Instead the 65-word text begins by “mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
It then continued by “reiterating” that the United Nation’s purpose is the maintenance of “international peace and security” — without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.
France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU’s only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment “for the moment.”
“A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine’s territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
“I think even a lot of states that favor an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter.”


At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru

Updated 22 February 2025
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At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru

  • The collapse occurred at the Real Plaza shopping complex in Trujillo, the country’s third largest city
  • Search for survivors ongoing, with more than a hundred firefighters and police officers searching through debris

LIMA: At least three people are dead and around 74 injured after the roof of a food court at a busy shopping center collapsed in northern Peru, authorities said Friday.
“So far we have three deceased, two men and a woman,” fire department Commander Gelqui Gomez said on America TV.
The number injured had risen to 74, said local government health official Anibal Morillo, after the health ministry earlier reported 20 injured.
“We have evacuated 74 injured to hospitals and clinics, 10 of whom are children. There are 11 seriously injured,” Morillo told RPP radio.
Dozens of families were in the food court of the shopping mall when the roof collapsed, according to local media reports.
The collapse occurred at the Real Plaza shopping complex in Trujillo, the country’s third largest city, located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital Lima.
The search for survivors was ongoing, with more than a hundred firefighters and police officers searching through the debris.
“There is a child trapped” under the roof’s metal structures, Morillo told broadcaster Panamericana.
Interior Minister Juan Jose Santivanez estimated the collapsed roof area was 700 to 800 square meters.
“We need hydraulic cranes to lift part of the roof that has not yet been removed because it is so heavy and to continue rescue operations for those who may be trapped,” the minister told Canal N television channel.
According to the Regional Emergency Operations Center, the collapse occurred at 8:41 pm, but was only reported about half an hour later.


US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs

Updated 22 February 2025
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US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs

  • The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, received 17 exemptions worth more than $30.4 million
  • Also released was $397 million for US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistan that a congressional aide said monitored Islamabad’s use of US-made F-16 fighter jets

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration released $5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, mostly for security and counternarcotics programs, according to a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters that included only limited humanitarian relief.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on January 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe.
The freeze sparked a scramble by US officials and humanitarian organizations for exemptions to keep programs going. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers in late January on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the top US allies in the Middle East, and for life-saving humanitarian aid, including food. The waivers meant those funds should have been allowed to be spent.
Current and former US officials and aid organizations, however, say few humanitarian aid waivers have been approved.
Reuters obtained a list of 243 further exceptions approved as of February 13 totaling $5.3 billion. The list provides the most comprehensive accounting of exempted funds since Trump ordered the aid freeze and reflects the White House’s desire to cut aid for programs it doesn’t consider vital to US national security.
The list identifies programs that will be funded and the US government office managing them.
The vast majority of released funds — more than $4.1 billion — were for programs administered by the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military affairs, which oversees arms sales and military assistance to other countries and groups. Other exemptions were in line with Trump’s immigration crackdown and efforts to halt the flow of illicit narcotics into the US, including the deadly opioid fentanyl.
More than half of the programs that will be allowed to go forward are run by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, and are aimed at helping fight drug trafficking and illicit migration to the US, according to the list.
Those exemptions were worth $293 million and included funds for databases to track migrants, identify possible terrorists and share biometric information.
A State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters could not determine if some exemptions had been granted but were not on the list.
Trump has long railed against foreign aid, which has averaged less than 2 percent of total federal spending for the past 20 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Trump has described the US “foreign aid industry” as “in many cases antithetical to American values.”
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has led an effort to gut the United States Agency for International Development, the main delivery mechanism for American foreign assistance and a critical tool of US “soft power” for winning influence abroad.
In contrast to security-related programs, USAID programs received less than $100 million in exemptions, according to the list. That compares to roughly $40 billion in USAID programs administered annually before the freeze.
Exempted USAID programs included $78 million for non-food humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which has been devastated by war. A separate $56 million was released for the International Committee of the Red Cross related to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the list showed.
The list did not include specific exemptions for some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, including Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar and Afghanistan, which means funds for those places appeared to remain stopped.
Security exemptions included $870 million for programs in Taiwan, $336 million for modernizing Philippine security forces and more than $21.5 million for body armor and armored vehicles for Ukraine’s national police and border guards, the list showed.
The biggest non-security exemption was $500 million in funding for PEPFAR, the flagship US program fighting HIV/AIDS, which mainly funds health care services in Africa and is credited with saving millions of lives. That compares with PEPFAR’s annual budget in 2024 of $6.5 billion. PEPFAR is administered by the State Department’s global health bureau.
‘DYSFUNCTIONAL’
A current USAID employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the process for requesting exemptions as “very dysfunctional” and said the agency’s remaining staff have sought clarity on what criteria are being used. Rubio has said the Trump administration reached out to USAID missions overseas to identify and designate programs that will be exempted.
J. Brian Atwood, USAID’s administrator from 1993 to 1999, said reducing foreign aid to a narrow set of exemptions was shortsighted. “When people are starving or feeling desperate, they are going to become a security problem eventually,” he said. “They’ll migrate or become an immigration problem, or they will be more inclined to move to terrorism.”
The foreign aid that was paused by Trump had previously been approved by Congress, which controls the federal budget under the US Constitution. As a candidate and as president, Trump has said he opposes foreign aid for “countries that hate us” and would prefer to instead spend the money at home. The exemptions in the list were granted before a federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before January 20. Reuters was unable to establish what exemptions, if any, had been granted since February 13.
Many of the unfrozen programs reflect Trump’s focus on drug trafficking, including funds supporting fentanyl interdiction operations by Mexican security units and efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations. Trump’s aid freeze has thrown a wrench into those efforts, however.
Reuters reported last week that the pause halted anti-narcotics programs funded by the INL Bureau in Mexico that for years had been working to curb the flow of the synthetic opioid into the United States. More than $64 million was released to support Haitian police and a UN-approved international security force that is helping Haiti’s government fight escalating gang violence that has displaced more than one million people.
The money covers supplies of small arms, ammunition, drones, night vision goggles, vehicles and other support for the force, according to the list. The force is led by Kenya and includes personnel from Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, focused on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, received 17 exemptions worth more than $30.4 million, the list showed.
Also released was $397 million for a US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistan that a congressional aide said monitored Islamabad’s use of US-made F-16 fighter jets to ensure they are employed for counterterrorism operations and not against rival India.
Some of the released funds were for small expenditures — including $604 for Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system to run biometrics registration programs in the Darien Gap, a treacherous 60-mile route linking South and Central America used by US-bound illegal migrants.