Israel’s ongoing war of annihilation in Gaza has wiped out hospitals, schools, homes, water, and food, reducing the Palestinian territory to a wasteland and leaving a death toll of more than 53,000 people. But an equally lethal campaign has been unleashed against the foundations of Palestinian society and identity.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has targeted libraries, repositories, and institutions of Palestinian culture and heritage in a mission to eradicate the history, literary accomplishments, and political and social existence of Palestine as a place and people.
“The losses in Gaza are vast, incalculable, as we are still in the throes of a genocidal war that has already destroyed 70% of the Gaza Strip and killed or maimed 10% of its embattled population,” says Raja Khalidi, Co-Administrator of the Khalidi Library, an Arab public library founded by the Khalidi family in East Jerusalem more than a century ago. “So has the Israeli war machine in Gaza and the West Bank wrought indiscriminate destruction that threatens erasure of Palestinian written, architectural, and archaeological cultural heritage.”
In a recent report on the destruction of libraries, archives, and museums in Gaza since the conflict erupted in 2023, the solidarity organisation <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/LAP-Gaza-Report-2024.pdf">Librarians and Archivists with Palestine</a> (LAP) stated that “the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza impoverishes the collective identity of the Palestinian people, irrevocably denies them their history, and violates their sovereignty.”
“The greatest loss remains the normalisation of the daily massacres of Gazans, including children. Every Palestinian life is a record, a history. The Zionist war machine realises this and the targeting of children, in particular, is an attempt at destroying the future narrative of Palestine,” says Ahmad Almallah, a Palestinian poet who grew up in Bethlehem and now lives in Philadelphia in the United States.
Bordered by Israel to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Gaza comprises 365 square kilometers of land that is home to about 2.1 million Muslim and Christian Palestinians who have lived under siege for more than half a century. Many Palestinians fled to Gaza following Israeli dispossession of their villages and homes during the Al-Nakba, or the ‘Catastrophe,’ in 1948. Then the territory was part of Egypt. Israel subsequently seized Gaza during the Six-Day War of 1967 until 1993, when the Oslo Accords made way for it to be administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The Islamic resistance organisation, Hamas, then took power in 2005. Its launching of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack">raid and attack within Israel in October 2023</a>, which resulted in the death of 1,200 Israelis with 251 taken hostage, triggered the current Gaza war. Since then, the IDF has sustained a relentless military onslaught leading to the obliteration of every facility for human habitation in Gaza and the escalation of a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-israel-gaza-crisis-hunger-palestinians-war-9caf8f6eb19efe038c1fd50aa1d2d8ec">humanitarian crisis</a> due to lack of food, water, shelter, and medical services.
While a ceasefire began on 19 January, disputes between Israel and Hamas about progress in hostage and prisoner exchanges led to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6yp5d5v9jo">ceasefire fracturing on 18 March</a>. The IDF resumed its offensive with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further threatening to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-gaza-hamas-katz-annex-idf-palestinian-witkoff-rcna197434">annex parts of Gaza</a>.
This month <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/gaza/assessment">UNESCO</a> reported that Israel had destroyed 107 important cultural sites in the Palestinian enclave, including historic buildings, mosques, churches, and museums. And last year, LAP detailed the damage and destruction of <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/LAP-Gaza-Report-2024.pdf">22 libraries and archives</a>, including Gaza’s Central Archives, which contained valuable documentation of the enclave’s 150-year history. 
The Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library, which held tens of thousands of books, was also destroyed, as was the Omari Mosque and Library, which was built in the 7th century and held a major collection of rare books dating to the 14th century. Four university libraries in Gaza also suffered damage, including the Al-Quds Open University Library and the Jawaharlal Nehru Library of Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. Historical records destroyed in Gaza include those that proved Palestinian land and property ownership.‘
Several years ago, the occupation destroyed the National Library in Gaza, razing its towering structure to the ground. With its destruction, the dream of creating a repository for both ancient and modern Palestinian works was obliterated. The site that once promised to preserve a rich cultural heritage became little more than a platform for displaying political party flags and leaders’ portraits,’ Palestinian novelist <a href="https://internationaleonline.org/contributions/the-library-and-the-massacre-a-novelists-testimony-on-the-destruction-of-libraries-in-the-gaza-strip/">Yousri al-Ghoul</a> wrote in January.
The current conflict continues attempts to erase Palestinian history and identity that began during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">Al-Nakba</a> when Palestinian homes and their contents were looted and destroyed.
“As a child of the first intifada in Palestine, even words, the raw material for books, were very dangerous toys to play with. The Israeli occupation banned using the word ‘Palestine,’ and children and teenagers caught inscribing the word on a wall were either shot dead or arrested and subjected to torture. But that didn’t stop Palestinians from writing the word and piling on it poems, literature, and personal and natural history,” adds Almallah.
Together with this loss, Palestinian writers, intellectuals, artists, and journalists have been killed, putting in jeopardy the continuity of knowledge and culture within society and its transmission to the next generation. Those who have lost their lives since 2023 include the writer <a href="https://www.all4palestine.org/ModelDetails.aspx?gid=7&amp;mid=121099&amp;lang=en">Abdul Karim Hashash</a>, who has written many books on Palestinian poetry and culture, and <a href="https://madisonrafah.org/meca-colleague-and-friend-doaa-al-masri-killed-in-gaza/">Doaa Al-Masri</a>, Librarian at Gaza’s Edward Said Library.
In 2016 the International Criminal Court identified the desecration of a people’s cultural heritage as a <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/09/541172">war crime</a> in a case about Islamist attacks on UNESCO-protected monuments in Timbuktu in Mali. Subsequently, in 1954, <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/heritage-armed-conflicts/1954-convention">the Hague Convention</a>, an international treaty stipulating the protection of cultural property in armed conflicts, was established and has now been signed by 136 countries.
More recently, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67922346">South Africa</a> included allegations of cultural dispossession in the case it launched in 2023 of genocide by Israel in Gaza in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It will likely take the court years to reach a ruling. But in January last year, it issued initial orders to Israel to prevent and punish acts and public incitement to commit genocide by its military, an order that Israel continues to ignore.
“The international community has failed Palestinians, it has failed Gaza now. It has not done anything to stop the genocide and the massacring of children. I don’t expect they will do anything to save our books. But despite all Zionist attempts to silence them, we are witnessing Palestine becoming part of world heritage; Palestine is now everywhere,” says Almallah.
In the meantime, there are important institutions in the region taking action to ensure the tactics of erasure will not succeed. In Jerusalem, the <a href="https://www.khalidilibrary.org/en">Khalidi Library</a>, which is home to a rich collection of thousands of books and Islamic manuscripts representing an Arab literary heritage over many centuries, is a testament to cultural resilience. It also conducts extensive manuscript conservation, restoration, and digitization work and has been a pillar of vibrant Palestinian scholarship, thought, and writing since the early 20th century.
Khalidi emphasised that, looking ahead, in any reconstruction plan for post-war Gaza, “the first task will be for competent organisations, such as UNESCO, to launch a proper survey of the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza… then ensure the future preservation and restoration or digitisation of salvaged collections.”
<a href="https://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/palestinians-call-out-israels-mission-to-destroy-their-history-and-cultural-heritage-in-gaza/">Republished</a> under an arrangement with Inter Press Service (IPS).

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The loss of an identity

Following the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/more-than-29000-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-gaza-since-wars-start-health-ministry-says#:~:text=RAFAH%2C%20Gaza%20Strip%20(AP),of%20the%20Israeli%2DPalestinian%20conflict." target="_blank">Hamas-led militants</a>, Israel’s response has led to unprecedented high mortality levels in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll over the 12 month period is among the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/" target="_blank">highest</a> civilian casualty rates in the 21st century. During the first seven months of the war, Israel is estimated to have dropped more than <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii/3239665" target="_blank">70,000 tons</a> of bombs on Gaza, far <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii-18169607" target="_blank">surpassing</a> that of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II, that includes <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/legal-questions-answered-and-unanswered-in-israel-s-air-war-in-gaza" target="_blank">bombing</a> with 900 kg <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-bombs-destruction-death-toll-scope-419488c511f83c85baea22458472a796" target="_blank">bunker-busters</a>, which is one of the most intense civilian <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-bombs-destruction-death-toll-scope-419488c511f83c85baea22458472a796" target="_blank">punishment campaign</a>s in history. Despite US President Joe Biden’s declarations of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/05/29/nx-s1-4983786/where-is-the-biden-administrations-red-line-when-it-comes-palestinian-deaths-in-gaza" target="_blank">red lines</a>, calls for restraint and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-ultimatum-netanyahu-protect-gaza-civilians-or-else-2024-04-05/" target="_blank">ultimatum</a> for Israel to limit Palestinian civilian deaths, the president has experienced a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/opinion/bidens-moral-failure-in-israel.html" target="_blank">moral failure</a> with his unwavering backing of Israel with unequal treatment and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/opinion/bidens-moral-failure-in-israel.html" target="_blank">oppression</a> of Palestinians. While seeking peace, the president has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/biden-israel-war.html" target="_blank">facilitated</a> the Israel-Gaza war. Dozens of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/two-more-us-officials-resign-over-biden-administrations-position-on-gaza-war" target="_blank">U.S. officials</a> have resigned over the Biden administration’s position in the conflict, accusing their own government of not telling the truth about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/two-more-us-officials-resign-over-biden-administrations-position-on-gaza-war" target="_blank">Israel’s obstruction</a> of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The reported levels of mortality provide a stark picture of the war’s lethal consequences on human life in Gaza and Israel. In addition to the mortality based on official reported deaths by Israeli and Palestinian authorities, higher levels of mortality have been estimated by health experts. According to Israeli officials, the number of Israeli deaths resulting from the attack in southern Israel on 7 October was <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/all-fronts/" target="_blank">1,163,</a> with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/world/middleeast/israel-death-toll-hamas-attack.html" target="_blank">70 percent</a> of the victims identified as civilians. The attack is considered to be Israel’s worst <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-opens-probe-into-reports-oct-7-friendly-fire-deaths-2024-02-06/#:~:text=Around%201%2C200%20Israelis%20and%20foreigners,240%20people%20were%20taken%20hostage." target="_blank">loss of life</a> in a single day since its founding in 1948.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061144_c20df646c520d048f8892ec4f0c060e13a43663da3f31d98167faa8b836a1e24.png" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20241104061144_c20df646c520d048f8892ec4f0c060e13a43663da3f31d98167faa8b836a1e24" data-rendition-name="original" width="1254" height="1180" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Gaza war"> <figcaption>Source: Reported mortality from Israel Shin Bet, Gaza Ministry of Health and United Nations.</figcaption> </figure>  In addition to those deaths on 7 October, at least <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-year-of-war-idf-data-shows-726-troops-killed-over-26000-rockets-fired-at-israel/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%20728%20soldiers,the%20ground%20offensive%20in%20Gaza." target="_blank">728 Israeli soldiers</a> have been killed in combat since the Gaza ground invasion began, and <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2023/2024/Costs%20of%20War_Human%20Toll%20Since%20Oct%207.pdf" target="_blank">33 Israeli deaths</a> occurred in the West Bank. Given Israel’s total population of nearly <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-09-26/ty-article/.premium/israels-population-approaches-10-million-according-to-annual-census/00000192-2a51-d1f6-a596-6b594fac0000" target="_blank">10 million</a>, the number of Israeli deaths on 7 October and the subsequent twelve months represents about 0.02% of the country’s &nbsp;population, or 20 deaths per 100,000 population. The death toll in Gaza from Israeli military operations after one year following 7 October is <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/10/07/health-ministry-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-41-909-" target="_blank">41,909 Palestinians</a>. That number of deaths represents about 2% of the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says the proportion of Hamas fighters among the Palestinian deaths is approximately <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/all-fronts/" target="_blank">40 percent</a>. While the Gaza Ministry of Health does not identify whether the deaths are civilian or combatant, approximately <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/7/one-year-of-israels-war-on-gaza-a-simple-guide" target="_blank">two-thirds</a> are reported to be women and children. According to Oxfam, the war in Gaza killed more <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/more-women-and-children-killed-gaza-israeli-military-any-other-recent-conflict" target="_blank">women and children</a> than any other war in the last two decades. The reported number deaths of Palestinians are deemed generally accurate and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02713-7/fulltext" target="_blank">widely accepted</a> by international monitoring organisations, including Israeli and US intelligence agencies. Independent <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02713-7/fulltext#:~:text=The%20Gaza%20MoH%20has%20historically,an%208%C2%B70%25%20discrepancy." target="_blank">studies</a> of the deaths reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health show no evidence of inflated mortality figures. In addition to the nearly 42 thousand Palestinian deaths, Israel’s military action in Gaza has left many more <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/israel-has-killed-wounded-or-rendered-missing-10-percent-of-gaza-population/" target="_blank">wounded</a>, exposed to <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/gaza-impacts-famine-will-last-generations" target="_blank">famine</a> and disease and most of Gaza’s population <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-families-flee-again-shrinking-overcrowded-pocket-land-2023-12-05/" target="_blank">homeless</a>. With an estimated total population of approximately <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/#people-and-society" target="_blank">2.1 million </a>in Gaza, the Palestinian death rate from the war after one year is 1,957 deaths per 100,000 population. That Palestinian death rate in Gaza is 100 times greater than the Israeli death rate. Applying the Israeli and Palestinian death rates to the United States, illustrates the striking differences in the mortality levels and their demographic impacts. When the death rate in Gaza is applied to America’s population, the resulting mortality would be nearly 6.6 million deaths. Similarly, applying the Israeli death rate to the US population yields close to 66 thousand deaths.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061144_93228568c2789f9034f3dac2ff7fd864a18c1cb844757dc104a9cdabfe687094.png" data-media-id="editor_31" data-image-id="20241104061144_93228568c2789f9034f3dac2ff7fd864a18c1cb844757dc104a9cdabfe687094" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="884" loading="lazy" alt="Isreal-Gaza war mortality"> <figcaption>Source: Reported mortality for Israelis from Israel Shin Bet and for Palestinians from Gaza Ministry of Health, and the estimates of U.S. mortality levels calculated by author.</figcaption> </figure>  The true death toll in Gaza is likely to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/gaza-rising-death-toll-civilians/" target="_blank">higher</a> than being reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health because of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with more than <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/war-in-israel/oct-7-how-many-dead-israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank">10,000 missing</a>, untold numbers buried under rubble and many experiencing disease and malnutrition, as <a href="https://time.com/6549715/history-israel-hamas-war-end/" target="_blank">humanitarian assistance</a> is limited by Israel’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/in-gaza-city-death-and-famine-take-hold-amid-israels-war#:~:text=About%20half%20the%20population%20of,As%20are%20meat%20and%20dairy." target="_blank">blockade</a>. <a href="https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024" target="_blank">One group</a> of 99 American health care workers returning from Gaza estimated that the true death toll there is at least <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/us-health-workers-back-from-gaza-estimate-death-toll-is-at-least-119000/#:~:text=As%20the%20anniversary%20of%20the,count%2C%20if%20not%20far%20higher." target="_blank">four times higher</a> than the official reported count, or approximately 119,000.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061148_c2c1bb65e66cd23d09b0e07dd5fedc6c9762c34e5c94c7630c7b8beb28a6d0a5.png" data-media-id="editor_38" data-image-id="20241104061148_c2c1bb65e66cd23d09b0e07dd5fedc6c9762c34e5c94c7630c7b8beb28a6d0a5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="912" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Gaza war mortality"> <figcaption>Source: Reported: Gaza Ministry of Health; Estimated (1): Sidhwa; Estimated (2): Khatib, McKee &amp; Yusuf; Estimated (3): Sridhar.</figcaption> </figure>  A <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext" target="_blank">second analysis</a> by a team of three researchers published in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext" target="_blank">The Lancet,</a> estimated that the number of deaths in Gaza by mid-year was about 186,000. The researchers estimated that the actual death toll could conservatively be about four times the reporting figure and that &nbsp;includes direct deaths due to bombings as well as indirect deaths due to the destruction of the health, food and sanitation systems in Gaza. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/05/scientists-death-disease-gaza-polio-vaccinations-israel" target="_blank">third analysis</a> of the deaths in Gaza by the chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh estimated the death toll to be even higher. The number of deaths in Gaza twelve months after the 7 October attack is estimated at approximately 336,000, and that mortality level also took into account indirect deaths due to widespread disease and starvation. The mortality levels of the Israelis and the Palestinians in Gaza are both high and strikingly dissimilar. Over the past year, the reported number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza is about 20 times greater than the number of Israeli deaths. Also, the mortality rate of the Palestinians is 100 times greater than the Israeli mortality rate. In addition to direct reporting of deaths due to bombing and military operations, the crisis in Gaza has led to high levels of indirect deaths. Those deaths are mainly due to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/opinion/gaza-israel-palestinians-starvation.html?campaign_id=2&amp;emc=edit_th_20240229&amp;instance_id=116455&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;regi_id=26794078&amp;segment_id=159553&amp;user_id=238d32f2dc633f67c3b731d28b9421f3" target="_blank">malnutrition</a>, wasting, stunting and trauma reaching famine thresholds largely due to the <a href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2024/september/israels-siege-now-blocks-83-of-food-aid-reaching-gaza-new-data-reveals/" target="_blank">Israeli blockade</a>. UNICEF has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/health-organisations-disease-gaza-population-outbreaks-conflict" target="_blank">warned</a> that the lack of water, food, medicine, sanitation, road and electricity infrastructures is a bigger threat than bombs to the lives of thousands in Gaza. The true death toll in Gaza may not be known for many years, especially as indirect deaths are expected to exceed the direct death toll. However, based on reported and estimated mortality, it appears clear that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza is among the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/" target="_blank">highest</a> civilian mortality rates of the 21st century. Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-22479-9?source=shoppingads&amp;locale=en-jp#toc" target="_blank">“Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”</a>.

Mortality in the Gaza-Israel War

With the ongoing war, innocent <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396">death and destruction in Palestine by Israel</a>, the recognition of the state of Palestine stands out as the most complicated issue in the history of state recognition.&nbsp; Both Israel and Palestine have their own history and geography as well as their supporters and opponents. Israel's war in the region is escalating, as the air strikes on Lebanon on Sunday shows.&nbsp; It should be acknowledged that Israel and Palestine have equal rights to statehood, to exist, to defend, and to live in peace. Israel and Nepal both applied for <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/5-facts-about-nepals-un-membership/">membership of the UN at the General Assembly</a> in 1949. Israel’s application was proceeded by the Assembly and approved by the Security Council in the same year.&nbsp; Nepal’s membership was blocked until 1955 at the Security Council because of a Soviet veto. In 1960 Nepal was the first South Asian country to recognise Israel by a unilateral government decision and established diplomatic relations. Nepal supported Palestine statehood both at the Non-Aligned forum in the 1980s and the UN General Assembly in recent times. Nepal should now make a formal and unilateral declaration in support of full recognition of the State of Palestine.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-world-s-moral-failure-in-gaza">The world’s moral failure in Gaza</a>, Graça Machel This should be a declaration similar to what Nepal government issued vis-a-vis Israel decades ago, and a new declaration is especially warranted because of the misuse of the veto power by the United States, blocking Palestine’s full membership of the UN. Nepal may emphatically remind itself of being similarly blocked from becoming a UN member for five years because of the Soviet veto. The Palestine question has become a ‘politics of international law’ within and outside the UN. In May 2024, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68983650">the General Assembly referred a proposal to the Security Council</a>, calling for the admission of Palestine as a full member of the UN. The United States used its veto against it. After the US veto Norway, Ireland, Spain and several European countries declared Palestine statehood unilaterally.&nbsp; Informed debate on Palestinian statehood is a rare subject in the Nepali media. Hamas terror on 7 October, 2023 in Israel in which <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack">10 Nepali students were killed</a> and one Nepali citizen is still being hostage, was rightly condemned by the Nepal government and media.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/hamas-releases-thais-but-where-is-bipin">Hamas releases Thais, but where is Bipin?</a>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240827110848_99ae0b3f0825f77dbc91027d5084b46e6b44318a11067dfbc967824925ed5656.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240827110848_99ae0b3f0825f77dbc91027d5084b46e6b44318a11067dfbc967824925ed5656" data-rendition-name="original" width="2400" height="1667" loading="lazy" alt="Damage after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on October 2023 NT 2"> <figcaption>The damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal area in Gaza City on October 9 2023. Photo: NAAMAN OMAR/ WIKIMEDIA</figcaption> </figure>  Anyone who believes in international rule of law must condemn acts of terrorism whether it is by state or non-state actors. But the Nepal government and media seem to be silent on condemning acts of genocide in Gaza. This is despite the<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/experts-react/experts-react-what-the-international-court-of-justice-said-and-didnt-say-in-the-genocide-case-against-israel/"> International Court of Justice acknowledging ‘plausible genocide’</a> by Israel that is not a proportinate response to terrorism.&nbsp; The Nepal government should declare Palestine statehood in the same manner as Prime Minister BP Koirala's government recognised Israel in 1960 -- a bold, unilateral and formal recognition – even though Nepal voted in favour of Palestine in resolutions at the UN General Assembly and Non-Aligned countries' conferences. Of 193 UN member states, 146 have voted for and 94 countries have established formal diplomatic relations with Palestine, yet it is still being <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15670.doc.htm">blocked from full UN membership</a>. The state practice of recognition follows political realities and the process varies from case to case. In the case of Palestine, especially in opposition to the United States veto, Nepal should make an official endorsement with other countries like Norway and Spain to strengthen the de jure status of Palestine. &nbsp; Nepal’s expressed solidarity with Palestine is noteworthy, but voting in UN resolutions is not enough for de jure recognition of Palestine since the Security Council approval is lacking. The<a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/ga12599.doc.htm"> UN General Assembly only gave de facto recognition of Palestine</a>, which helped to upgrade its non-state observer status to a UN member. However, it is still awaiting recognition of de jure sovereignty as well as full membership of the UN. Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/protests-of-despair"> Protests of despair</a>, Slavoj Žižek Right or wrong, the Security Council has ultimate authority to declare so-called ‘hard law’. Under the UN hierarchy of its five permanent members (US, UK, France, Russia and China) have the authority to block any substantive decision. UN records shows that the United States has used its veto 42 times in favour of Israel. All attempts to recognise Palestine’s de jure sovereignty have been blocked by the United States. Contrary to the Security Council, the General Assembly is the global legitimate forum. The Assembly resolutions, however, are only recommendatory, lacking binding force. The weakness of the Assembly resolutions, lamentably, is that they usually form so-called ‘soft law’, but which can still be seen as binding law. The Security Council and supporters of ‘hard law’ do not perceive Assembly resolutions as binding law. Israel is defying not only the International Court of Justice’s rulings but also the orders of Security Council. As a response to a recent request by the General Assembly, the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/node/204176">International Court of Justice on July 19 gave an advisory opinion</a> in which it declared that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 was unlawful. Israel and the United States did not recognise the Court's opinion on this issue.&nbsp; Palestine has some weaknesses to fulfill statehood, which is also the case of Israel. For example, Palestine does not have full control over its territory since it is under occupation. When it comes to Israel, there is a problem with its democracy, democracy being known as a modern criterion of statehood in addition to territory, control over territory, population and government. In this context, Israeli democracy is not free of criticism, with some even calling it an <a href="https://www.vox.com/23924319/israel-palestine-apartheid-meaning-history-debate">‘apartheid state’</a>.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-international-order-is-dying-in-gaza">The International Order Is Dying in Gaza</a>, Mohamed ElBaradei For Palestine to be regarded as a fully sovereign State under international law, it must obtain de jure recognition -- this means legal acknowledgement by the international community. Some are calling for an Israel-Palestine ‘bi-national state’, a homeland for both Jews and Palestinians, but only de jure sovereign Palestine may be helpful for future peace in West Asia.&nbsp; Nepal’s new unilateral declaration will not by itself be enough to make Palestine a sovereign state. It will, nonetheless, make history. Or at least Nepal will be standing courageously on the right side of the history. &nbsp;&nbsp; Katak Malla is a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice in Stockholm University.

Nepal should recognise Palestinian sovereignty

I once asked <a href="https://chomsky.info/">Noam Chomsky</a> how he manages to remember so many facts and figures and hold audience attention. He replied that he did not convey any new information, that his talks are based on materials already in the public domain, he simply joins the dots.&nbsp;
Chomsky teaches us that it is not necessary to be loud and sensationalist in order to be heard. His clear and courageous moral compass over decades is a most valuable lesson.
On 17 June, some media reported that Chomsky, 95, had died after a stroke he suffered last year. He was in hospital in Brazil, and his wife has since said he is continuing treatment at home.&nbsp;
<a href="https://time.com/6987747/noam-chomsky-stroke-brazil/">Noam Chomsky</a> was already a legend when I first met him over two decades ago in December 2001 when he visited Pakistan for the inaugural Eqbal Ahmad Memorial lecture series.
Eqbal Ahmad had been an anti-Vietnam War activist in the US in the 1960s and later taught at Hampshire College and was among Chomsky's circle of friends, which included other legendary figures like Howard Zinn and Edward Said.
He had returned to Pakistan after the death of Gen Ziaul Haq in 1988 and was prominent in the peace and anti-nuclear weapons movements in the region. He died in May 1999, on the first anniversary of India's nuclear test, that Pakistan had followed.
In November 2001, Chomsky did a lecture series in India. Another fellow-traveller, the well-known physics professor and activist Pervez Hoodbhoy invited Chomsky to Pakistan for the Eqbal Ahmad Memorial lecture series. These events were organised months earlier, and Pervez was initially worried about whether there would be an audience.
The 11 September 2001 attacks had just taken place and Chomsky cut through America’s outrage to point out that the attacks were historic not for their scale but because of where they took place, mainland America, which had not been attacked before.
Also, this was not the first, but "the second 9/11". The earlier, <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1MjQxMTc1NDMsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiJjNjNkNDc0NGI5NzBjMTU3In0" target="_blank">“far more serious"</a> 9/11 was the one in 1973, he said, the violent coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile.
Many in America were uncomfortable with such statements, but in progressive circles here and around the world, his popularity soared.
I asked the organisers if I could follow Chomsky around Pakistan for a documentary. They agreed to let me tag along to his room at the Avari Hotel in Lahore. Noam Chomsky and his wife Carol had arrived in Pakistan to a celebrity welcome that discomfited them. Chomsky politely conveyed that we were welcome to film his public events but that he and Carol were uncomfortable being followed around by a camera.
We put our equipment away until he entered the venue where he was speaking. He walked through the packed hall to a standing ovation. A few days later, he addressed a larger audience at another packed venue, an indoor stadium in Islamabad. In both places, people listened in pin drop silence as he spoke, low key and without histrionics.&nbsp;
There was a shameful exception, when he spoke at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University when I was an international Fellow there in 2005-2006. In that intimate setting, another international fellow and her husband, both from Israel, kept interrupting Chomsky, despite being admonished by the moderator and other fellows.
Chomsky didn’t lose his cool, but I heard later that he vowed never to come back to Lippman House. I was glad to hear that the Nieman Fellows prevailed upon him to return in 2017 and that it went smoothly.
In September 2006, John ‘Jack’ Trumpbour, a Research Director at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy (CLJE) at Harvard Law School invited Chomsky as a featured speaker for the <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1MzA0MDkwMDAsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiI2ZDhlOTE5YzNjZTdkOTFkIn0" target="_blank">launch of a collection of essays,</a> The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad (Columbia University Press), September 2006.&nbsp;
I was a speaker, along with Margaret Cerullo, Eqbal's colleague from Hampshire College and one of the book's editors. Stuart Schaar, Eqbal's college buddy from the 1950s at Princeton University was also a speaker. Like Chomsky, he has paid the price for his support of the Palestinian cause, sidelined in the mainstream academia as Eqbal himself was.
Another friend, the journalist David Barsamian, who runs Alternative Radio and speaks Urdu and Hindi, flew in from Colorado for the event. In his speech titled Confronting Empire: Eqbal Ahmad’s Legacy and the Contemporary Crisis, Chomsky talked about how Israeli attacks actually mean “Israeli and US attacks, since the USA supports Israel with weapons as well as diplomatic and ideological support”.
We were then witness to an “unusual historic event” — the destruction of a nation” as Israel punished the Palestinians for “a terrible crime they committed: in the last free election they voted in the wrong people”.
Chomsky commented that the real reason for the Israeli (US-Israeli) aggression is that the then Hezbollah provided the only meaningful support for Palestinian rights, and also because they wanted to eliminate Lebanese deterrents that stand in the way of an attack on Iran.
The aggression has two consequences, he said. First, it deters negotiations. Second, it makes the dissidents and reformers more vulnerable, as regimes under attack tend to become harsher.
In April 2011 the <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1Mzc3NDkwMzQsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiI3ODZjNjVlYjMzZDZkOTViIn0" target="_blank">American Friends Service Committee</a> invited Chomsky to <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1NDA4OTQ3NjMsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiI2ZGQ4OGQ4ZWI5NzFmNjBjIn0" target="_blank">address a seminar</a> at Boston University titled ‘Days of Hope and Challenge’, where I was the other speaker.
I felt privileged to have been invited to contribute towards a compilation for his 90th birthday in December 2018. In my note, I shared some of my memories and thanked him for his vision, courage and consistency over the years, and his principled moral stand that have given strength and courage to so many of us over the years.
Despite his legendary status, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html">Chomsky</a> was always humble and accessible. He always replied personally to emails as long as he could, even if it was a one-line response to a question asking him to confirm whether a Twitter account in his name was genuine (‘The twitter account from what I’ve heard is honest and accurate but I have nothing to do with it’).
He was unfailingly generous in lending his name in support of the causes I and others reached out to him for, endorsing resolutions ranging from human rights and democracy to peace between India and Pakistan. In 2018 he joined many public intellectuals in urging Bangladesh to <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1NDQwNDA0OTIsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiI0NGJhNGUxMzRkZjYxOWJmIn0" target="_blank">release the photojournalist Shahidul Alam</a>. He was also among the public intellectuals including Amartya Sen who <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1NDcxODYyMjEsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiJjNzg1NTFiZDVmMmNmM2I3In0" target="_blank">endorsed a letter</a> calling on Pakistan to release the jailed publisher-editor of the Jang Group Shakilur Rahman, in 2020.
My last interaction with him was in September 2021 when I had invited him to address an online seminar hosted by the <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1NTAzMzE5NTAsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiIwZTFjOWIzZDNkYWJjNDM0In0" target="_blank">Southasia Peace Action Network</a> (Sapan) that over 80 of us had launched in March that year to build a narrative for a Southasian Union along the lines of the European Union, or at the very least, regional dialogue and collaboration between all the countries of the Subcontinent.&nbsp;
But by then Chomsky had moved to Arizona. He agreed to join but didn't show up, which was not like him. The meeting ended. We stopped the recording and were chatting among ourselves, when Noam Chomsky appeared. We asked him to speak and began recording again.
As always, Chomsky <a href="https://yawmle.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjU4NTIxOCxcImxcIjoxMjQ3MTY4MTY1NTU1NzQ4MzIsXCJyXCI6MTI0NzE2ODE3MDAwMTcxMzQxfSIsInMiOiJmMDU0YjI1MzExYTE1ZjgzIn0" target="_blank">put the issue into perspective</a>, arguing for the need to put people first. This would mean engaging with the governing authorities to mitigate and overcome human rights violations, while working with Afghans on the ground especially in rural areas rather than focusing on Kabul.
He advocated pressuring Afghans to shift the economy from opium cultivation to mineral resources, encouraging trade, development, and their integration into the region — “these moves can’t be made through sanctions”.
Uppermost should be the fate of the Afghan people, he said, but engagement “does not mean overlooking the abuses”.
The best way we can pay tribute to Noam Chomsky is by following his example: Stand firm, keep calm, keep speaking out, put information in context, and keep doing our work.
Beena Sarwar is a journalist from Pakistan currently based in Boston. She is the founder and editor of Sapan News. This tribute is <a href="https://beenasarwar.com/2024/06/21/what-ive-learned-from-noam-chomsky/">excerpted from her column</a>, Personal Political.&nbsp;
<a href="mailto:beena@sapannews.com" target="_blank">beena@sapannews.com</a>

Keep calm, keep speaking out

The 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel near the Gaza border killed 1,139 people, 764 of them civilians, 251 were taken hostage, with Nepali student Bipin Joshi possibly among them.&nbsp;
Of the 17 work-study Nepalis at Kibbutz Alumim, 10 were mercilessly murdered by Hamas. This newspaper covered the tragic deaths, profiled the students describing their hopes and dreams, and spoke to their grief-stricken families in western Nepal.&nbsp;
Although the conflicts in West Asia may seem distant, the deaths proved that they directly impact Nepalis. There are thousands of Nepali caregivers and students in Israel, and at least 2.5 million others employed in the Gulf region who will be affected in case the conflict spreads. A larger conflagration would affect food and fuel prices, and further harm Nepal’s struggling remittance-driven economy.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is rooted in history that goes back to the British mandate by the League of Nations and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 following the Holocaust. Although the Jewish people were granted a national home, they were also supposed to protect the rights of the Arab majority in the land.
The conflicts in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq today are essentially proxy wars between Saudi-UAE vs Iran. And because an enemy of an enemy is considered a friend, Israel patched up with Saudi-Emirates which explains the muted response from Gulf governments (and the West) about what is happening in Gaza.&nbsp;
Since 7 October, the world has watched the unending horror of Israel’s asymmetric and disproportionate retaliation against Palestinian civilians. Nearly 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza alone, more than 15,000 of them babies and children.&nbsp;
The Israeli state cannot use Hamas terrorism as an excuse for its own war crimes. The air time and column inches the Western media devoted last week to the freeing of four Israeli hostages was much more than the collateral killing of 274 Palestinians during the rescue.&nbsp;
More journalists (mostly Palestinians) have been killed in 8 months than in all the six years of World War II. Nearly all schools and hospitals have been destroyed. Journalists in Gaza are risking their lives to bring the humanitarian catastrophe to the world's attention. Without them, we would not know the truth.&nbsp;
But even as a military strategy this is not smart. Israel does not have an exit plan.This is not war, it flouts all international conventions on the rules of warfare. A genocide perpetrated 80 years ago cannot justify another one today.&nbsp;
The Israeli government must know what it is doing is wrong because it is thin-skinned about any reference to ‘genocide’ and label everyone from student protesters at US universities to world leaders who speak out ‘anti-Semites’.&nbsp;
When António Guterres only obliquely said the Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum”, it was intolerable for the Israelis. The government lashed back at the United Nations Secretary-General. Israel has also hit back at South Africa for filing a genocide case at International Court of Justice in The Hague for its conduct of the war.&nbsp;
After nearly eight months of relentless bombardment, many Gazans are so fed up that there is reported to be growing resentment against Hamas for using them as human shields. It is clear Hamas does not care much about civilian lives either.&nbsp;
But there is also deep distress among ordinary Israelis about how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sullied their country’s international image.&nbsp;
Netanyahu himself is not fighting Hamas, he is fighting for his political longevity by appeasing extremist coalition partners.
On Monday he dissolved the war cabinet after former general and opposition leader Benny Gantz resigned, Netanyahu is replacing it with a smaller war council made up of hard-right members who now want to go after Hezbollah in Lebanon.
During his acceptance speech at this year’s Oscars in March, Jonathan Glazer, the Jewish director of the movie Zone of Interest set in Auschwitz during the Holocaust, said: “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the on-going attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanisation, how do we resist?”
Nepal recognised the Palestinian state in 1988, and was only the second Asian country to establish bilateral relations with Israel in 1960 at a time when the Jewish state was regarded as a pariah by most of the world. B P Koirala’s friendship with David Ben Gurion was an important factor behind the move.&nbsp;
We wonder what B P would say today of the annihilation of Gaza.
Sonia Awale

Crime against humanity in Gaza

The relentless <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/solidarity-with-gaza" target="_blank">siege on Gaza</a> is a dark reflection on humanity. Well over <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/100th-day-gaza-genocide-100000-palestinians-killed-missing-or-wounded-enar" target="_blank">100,000</a> Palestinians have been declared killed, injured, or missing over the past six months, and the overwhelming majority are innocent civilians who bear no responsibility for Hamas’ <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack" target="_blank">7 October attack.</a>&nbsp;
The United Nations Security Council has finally <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15641.doc.htm" target="_blank">passed</a> a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas. Now, all UN member states, particularly Israel’s political and military allies, must do everything in their power to ensure that the resolution is implemented in full as soon as possible.
For Gazans who survive Israel’s military assaults, a lethal combination of displacement, hunger, and disease awaits. Israel’s blockade of humanitarian supplies, food, and clean water has made life in the enclave a nightmare.&nbsp;
Aid agencies <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/women-gaza-birth-pregnancies-1.7143489#:~:text=Aid%20agencies%20and%20doctors%20say,and%20food%20for%20the%20infants." target="_blank">report</a> mothers giving birth without anaesthetics, babies dying from dehydration and malnutrition, and sickness ravaging entire communities. With no one in Gaza safe from massacre, we have reached the threshold of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/22/unicef-official-utter-annihilation-gaza" target="_blank">population-scale annihilation</a>.
The trauma is now reverberating across the whole region. Gazans are haunted by post-traumatic stress disorder and grief, and more than one million children are in dire need of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/02/child-rights-committee-statement-children-gaza" target="_blank">psycho-social support</a>. The latest devastation adds to the suffering inflicted by Israel’s 18-year-old <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel-unlawful-gaza-blockade-deadly-children" target="_blank">blockade of Gaza</a>.&nbsp;
And in the West Bank, Palestinians face multiple threats, from unconstrained settler violence and forced displacement to the constant threat of arbitrary detention.&nbsp;
At the same time, more than 100 Israelis and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-nepali-s-lucky-escape-from-hamas" target="_blank">many foreigners</a> are still held <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-hostages-israel-gaza-41432124" target="_blank">hostage</a> by Hamas, in contravention of international humanitarian law, prolonging the pain felt by their families and those of the civilians killed on 7 October.
Worse may come if Israel <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-international-order-is-dying-in-gaza" target="_blank">defies warnings</a> from its closest allies and moves ahead with its plans for an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68591487" target="_blank">assault on Rafah</a>, which is currently host to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-rafah-israel-hamas-war-photo-gallery-2a93ded7d44b9720d941f7e53c5bf45e" target="_blank">1.5 million people</a>, including over 600,000 children.&nbsp;
Many of those seeking refuge in this border city have already endured the trauma of multiple displacements over the past half-year. A full-scale Israeli military incursion must not be allowed to happen.
I write these words as someone who looked into the eyes of young Palestinians while preparing the 1996 UN report <a href="https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/about/the-mandate/mandate/the-machel-reports/" target="_blank">The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children</a>. Speaking to children in refugee camps, we promised that their suffering would end.&nbsp;
Not only have we failed to make good on that promise, we have left an even more hostile world for children who happen to be born Palestinian. I carry this haunting failure with me.
I also write these words as a member of The Elders, the group of independent global leaders that I co-founded with my late husband, Nelson Mandela, and which was chaired in its early years by Archbishop <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist/desmond-tutu" target="_blank">Desmond Tutu</a> and former UN Secretary-General <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist/kofi-a-annan" target="_blank">Kofi Annan</a>.&nbsp;
Madiba (Mandela) gave us a mandate to work for peace, justice, and human rights worldwide, and he always considered <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/5/unpack-the-past-mandela-the-keffiyeh-and-south-africas-palestine-embrace" target="_blank">Palestinian liberation</a> to be key to achieving a just and free world for all.&nbsp;
How can any of us speak credibly of universal human rights and the international rule of law when we permit brutality and occupation to continue for decades?
Amid such despair and lack of moral courage by those with the power to stop the current carnage in Gaza, I am proud of the exceptional leadership that South Africa has shown in bringing a <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/node/203454" target="_blank">complaint against Israel</a> for violating the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice.&nbsp;
The ICJ’s preliminary ruling, on January 26, and the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2024/04/01/why-the-international-court-of-justice-gave-israel-a-new-order/#:~:text=On%20March%2028%2C%20the%20International,what%20South%20Africa%20had%20requested." target="_blank">additional measures</a> ordered on March 28, explicitly condemn the atrocities taking place in Gaza and are unambiguous about the steps Israel must take to protect innocent Palestinians, including unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.
Israel and the countries providing it with military and financial assistance must heed the court’s findings and adhere to their obligations under international law. But we are not helpless in the face of this monumental suffering.&nbsp;
As members of one human family, we have an ethical duty to speak out against these injustices in our own circles of influence. We can wield power through our own individual and community activism. With our votes and protests, we can – and must – demand accountability from our political leaders.
Here is what we must demand. First, additional humanitarian land routes urgently need to be opened to meet the overwhelming need for life-saving aid. The safety of aid deliveries must be guaranteed at all times.&nbsp;
Air drops and the recently proposed <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240327-the-new-maritime-aid-corridor-poses-a-major-threat-to-gaza-and-egypt/" target="_blank">maritime corridor</a> are insufficient, and must not be allowed to absolve Israel of its own responsibility to civilians in Gaza.
Second, world leaders must use military and financial leverage to compel Israel to cease its violations of international law and comply with the ICJ’s orders. All countries providing military assistance to Israel should immediately put these shipments under review and set new conditions for future provision. Those that continue supplying arms are enabling the carnage and may be complicit in war crimes.
Third, decision-makers must provide full financial and political support to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Many donors have rushed to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240205-as-donors-suspend-critical-funding-to-unrwa-allegations-against-staff-remain-murky" target="_blank">suspend funding</a> for the organization, pending the outcome of investigations into Israel’s allegations that some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 attack.&nbsp;
This premature, disproportionate response is now irresponsibly endangering the rights and well-being of millions of Palestinian refugees. The Israeli government has made no secret of its desire to dismantle UNRWA once and for all. Will we allow it to become yet another casualty of the war?
The situation cries out for concerted action by a broad coalition of countries committed to a just and permanent peace that enables Israelis and Palestinians to co-exist under conditions of mutual respect, self-determination, dignity, and security. Palestinian and Israeli lives and security are of equal worth. If this fundamental truth does not prevail on political leaders and ordinary citizens, we will continue to forsake generations of innocent children.
Graça Machel is a Mozambican politician, Deputy Chair of The Elders and founder of the <a href="http://gracamacheltrust.org/new/" target="_blank">Graça Machel Trust</a>. She is the widow of former President of Mozambique Samora Machel and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela. &nbsp;

The world’s moral failure in Gaza

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday on a visit that was originally scheduled for mid-October, but was put off due to the Israel-Hamas crisis. Even during his visit he will be busy trying to find a path to peace in the Gaza war. &nbsp; The Israeli government has criticised the Secretary-General for remarks in the Security Council this week in which Guterres said the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October “<a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east%C2%A0">did not happen in a vacuum</a>”.&nbsp; Israel took offence even though Guterres had added that the “grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”. Israel’s censure of the UN Secretary-General’s carefully balanced speech to the Council is itself an indication of the extreme geopolitical polarisation over <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/as-in-nepal-thais-mourn-nationals-killed-in-israel">the Gaza war</a>. On his way to Kathmandu, Guterres will be stopping in Doha where he is expected to engage with Hamas’ Iranian mentors.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231028031036_52c1f0f8be09553e6f6a26831289b6600f4b5fd0181746432cf534b4d50cb3df.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20231028031036_52c1f0f8be09553e6f6a26831289b6600f4b5fd0181746432cf534b4d50cb3df" data-rendition-name="original" width="2478" height="1416" loading="lazy" alt="UN resolution"> <figcaption>An Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on 27 October adopted a resolution calling for 'immediate and sustained humanitarian truce' in the Middle East. Even though it did not explicitly call for a ceasefire, 120 countries (including Nepal voted for the resolution) while most western countries either voted against or abstained. Interestingly, Bhutan voted for the resolution, while India abstained.</figcaption> </figure>  Though not directly involved, Nepal has been affected by the Israel conflict. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack">Ten Nepali agriculture students were killed</a> by Hamas, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/waiting-for-bipin-joshi">one is still missing</a>.&nbsp; The brutality of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/war-in-israel-earthquake-and-grief-in-nepal">the Hamas raid</a> in which most of the 1,400 victims were civilians, including women and children, has been widely condemned. The Israeli response, however, has been disproportionate, asymmetrical, and indiscriminate. More than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and many innocent women and children have been killed and injured. Even in purely strategic terms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response will be militarily counterproductive for Israel. And what is puzzling is the West’s carte blanche to the IDF to continue its carpet bombing of Gaza. The western media’s partisan coverage of the conflict in the name of ‘balance’ is even more troubling. President Joe Biden possibly is driven by his re-election bid in 2024, and bipartisan domestic support for Israel. Western governments do not even want to use the word ‘ceasefire’, preferring to call for ‘a humanitarian pause’ to Israel’s bombing. There is a danger that António Guterres will be preoccupied with the deepening crisis in West Asia so that his two main agenda points in Kathmandu (<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/no-closure-after-nepal-s-insurgency">transitional justice</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/for-destruction-ice-is-also-great-and-will-suffice">climate change</a>) will be eclipsed. &nbsp; Guterres is scheduled to address a joint session of Nepal’s Federal Parliament on 31 October, and meet former Maoist commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal who is now prime minister.&nbsp; Dahal’s main purpose in inviting Guterres to Nepal is to get a UN stamp of approval to the transitional justice process. Survivors and families of the victims of war crimes have opposed efforts by the current coalition government to ram through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-tj-bill-protects-perpetrators-shortchanges-survivors">a bill that would grant amnesty to perpetrators</a>. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons were led by political appointees and remain dissolved.&nbsp; Since the former enemies are now in government together, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">they do not want to rake up the past</a>. The Maoists have tried to make a distinction between ‘political murder’ and ‘criminal murder’, while state security says it was just responding to an anti-government insurgency.&nbsp; Guterres will have to impress upon his Nepali interlocutors that absence of war is not peace, and that there can be no peace without justice. Dahal, Deuba &amp; Co, on the other hand, will try to convince the Secretary General that Nepalis are ready to l<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/restorative-justice-for-peace-building">et bygones be bygones</a> and focus on economic progress, job creation and development.&nbsp; Western support for justice and human rights in Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">is not as robust as it used to be post-2006</a>. A weaker West, and ascendant India and China in Nepal’s neighbourhood may have emboldened Nepal’s leaders to determine that the geopolitical climate is conducive to conclude the peace process 17 years after the conflict ended.&nbsp; The current <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/forgetting-to-remember">Truth and Reconciliation Commission draft bill </a>allows pardons for murder, disappearances, sexual offences and torture. It legitimises the recruitment of child soldiers. And it is fuzzy on who should try such crimes.&nbsp; Allowing known perpetrators of war crimes on both sides to get away would reinforce the climate of impunity that has become even more evident after the recent presidential pardon for a convicted murderer and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-gets-gold-medal-for-corruption">political interference into police investigations into high profile corruption scandals</a>. A predecessor of António Guterres, Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden, visited Nepal in 1961, and that helped give <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/putsch-ek">King Mahendra’s coup</a> some legitimacy. Guterres is in Nepal at a time when crimes against humanity are being committed in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/remittonomics-and-conflict">Gaza war and other conflict zones around the world</a>.&nbsp; The Secretary-General’s message in Kathmandu has to be: forgetting war crimes risks a repeat of war.

António Guterres' agenda in Kathmandu

Nepal’s Embassy in Israel has confirmed that 10 of the students at a kibbutz in southern Israel near the Gaza border were killed in the Hamas attack on Saturday, highlighting once more the dangers Nepalis face as the diaspora spreads to war zones around the world. The ten were among 17 students, all from western Nepal, under the Israel government’s ‘learn and learn’ program assigned to the Kibbutz Alumim when it was attacked by Hamas militants from Gaza. The Embassy has now released the names of the ten, widely circulated on social media, with one student still listed as missing. Four others were injured, two are safe. There has been no confirmation of earlier news that Nepalis were among the hostages Hamas took back with them into Gaza.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231008181020_9e73888ba4ebd6486ed7bf20fec8acb5cb102cb2d142790a652992ec3e56a043.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231008181020_9e73888ba4ebd6486ed7bf20fec8acb5cb102cb2d142790a652992ec3e56a043" data-rendition-name="original" width="957" height="1024" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Hamas conflict"> <figcaption>Gaza Strip</figcaption> </figure>  Earlier on Sunday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister N P Said had met the Israeli Ambassador in Kathmandu <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-learn-and-earn-from-israel">Hanan Godar</a>, before it became clear that there were Nepalis among the fatalities at the farm.&nbsp; There are currently 265 agriculture students from various parts of rural Nepal who are in Israel to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/down-in-sherpa-s-farm">gain experience in farming</a> while earning money working in the kibbutzes. There are another 5,000 Nepali caregivers serving as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/demand-grows-for-nepali-caregivers-in-israel">nurses for the elderly in Israel</a>. “Most Nepali students here are frightened and want the Nepal government to fly them home,” Ramesh Joshi, a Nepali worker who is helping with the rescue told Nepali Times by phone from Israel.&nbsp; “The fighting was so intense even the ambulance and army couldn’t get to southern Israel. We all had to stay in our bunkers for safety,” added Joshi, who is with the Non-Resident Nepalese Association in Israel. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trapped-in-ukraine">Trapped in Ukraine</a> Nepalis involved in the relief operations said some of the Nepalis who had been injured had been calling for help, but even the Israeli Army could not reach them because of the fighting. A Nepali agriculture student Louish Rijal who spoke to Nepali Times from a bunker somewhere in southern Israel on Sunday evening said the Nepalis with him were very scared and wanted to be rescued.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231008181056_35fcf4fe091824119635e336663fd86d857fc518cd740fdb99ec0df116872695.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20231008181056_35fcf4fe091824119635e336663fd86d857fc518cd740fdb99ec0df116872695" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1098" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Hamas conflict Nepalis students"> <figcaption>Louish Rijal</figcaption> </figure>  "We hear about our friends in other farms dying or injured, and we do not understand why the embassy cannot rescue us. Who is our guardian, the school here, the university in Nepal, our employer, or the government? We are going to die of fear if we keep hiding here." This is not the first time that non-combatant Nepalis have been killed in war zones overseas. Twelve Nepalese hostages working in an American facility in Iraq were executed after capture in 2004 by the Ansar al-Sunna group, and the video of the killings aired on television sparked riots in Kathmandu.    13 Nepali security guards who were working for a subcontractor recruitment company were <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/canada-settlement-with-families-of-nepali-guards">killed in a Taliban attack on the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in 2016</a>. The Canadian government was sued and ultimately paid out compensation. "We are still gathering information about exact casualties and relief, from Israel about Nepalis, and we will be sharing that along with the government's response on Monday," said Sewa Lamsal at the Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu. The Ministry released a statement earlier Sunday that condemned the Hamas attack, without naming the Palestinian militant group. It began: 'The Government of Nepal strongly condemns the terrorist attack on Israel today ... at this critical hour we convey our solidarity with the government of Israel.' --- Translation of an audio of a Nepali student trapped at the Kibbutz Alumim calling for help that is circulating on social media: A total of 49 of us from Sudur Paschim University were here as part of the learn and earn 11 months internship program. We were happy, we had dreams. But just two days before we were to receive our first paycheck, the Palestinians attacked. Our farm, in particular, wasn’t affected but when we made videos and shared them with the media, we started getting calls from other Nepali students who were shot and were crying for help. We couldn’t do anything. Even our group of 11 has been stuck here in a dark bunker since 7AM yesterday. We don’t have food, just water. But it’s cold in here and we are starting to get sick. We reached out to the embassy and officials but they only have false assurances for us. But is that enough to save our lives? We request all the Nepalis, foreign ministry and leaders of all political parties to rescue us at the earliest. Do not think of us students but rather as your sons and daughters.

Nepalis confirmed killed in Hamas attack

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

Everest summiteers find new life in the US

At the edge of the dense forest overlooking Bhaktapur, the sound of chirping birds and the wind rustling through the trees have been replaced by the growl of dozens of bulldozers. This Kakrabari Community Forest behind Suryabinayak shrine was c<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/reviving-nepals-community-forestry-success-story">arefully protected and managed </a>by the local Tamang community for centuries. Today, heavy earthmovers claw noisily at the slope, opening it up like a big red wound. With little land left in the densely populated city, developers are venturing further afield to the valley’s rim and forcibly taking over forests that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local communities </a>have depended on for fodder, firewood and to protect their watershed.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_acd2eb20a4839a83f3a15b4c8587dbf82c5b96534f2184043edeaf0f5165145f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250530180528_acd2eb20a4839a83f3a15b4c8587dbf82c5b96534f2184043edeaf0f5165145f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  This project of Nic Vujicic Housing Company in Suryabinayak’s Kakrabari Bhanjyang is just the latest and most blatant example of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/who-now-owns-nepals-forests">encroachment of forests </a>by real estate developers in collusion with local government officials. “One day, they just came and bulldozed my house,” says Shanta Lama of Ghising Danda, whose family has been living in a tent since March. “Company workers gathered my belongings, deposited them in this tent and demolished my house.” Unlike some of her neighbours, Lama refused to give up her home, but stood no chance against the heavy machines and strongmen mobilised by the company.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_ff88453001e3dc521406bda7b6cb06b9e5b70d6821e67251b92257e60e72232a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250530180528_ff88453001e3dc521406bda7b6cb06b9e5b70d6821e67251b92257e60e72232a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Shanta Lama of Ghising Danda whose house was bulldozed last month. She and her family are now living in makeshift huts nearby.</figcaption> </figure>  Adds Shanta: “I have not signed any document of agreement, the company keeps telling me that they will settle the paperwork later.” Her neighbour Bal Bahadur Tamang, says a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ordinary-nepalis-extraordinary-sacrifice"> bulldozer razed his house</a> while he was out grazing goats in the forest. He recalls: “My wife shouted to the neighbours for help, but no one heard her.” &nbsp; The company used strongarm tactics to try to force Bal Bahadur to sign away his small plot at the edge of the forest that the housing company needed. The family refused, so the property was simply taken over. “Many families have been forcibly evicted from their homes and moved elsewhere to make way for the new housing colony,” says Bal Bahadur. But such is the fear of the young vigilantes employed by the company, that they are afraid to speak out.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_b7d1a94af95a0b17703f61397d65fe879c4c9b3b02681706b9104114a5c4e5cd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250530180528_b7d1a94af95a0b17703f61397d65fe879c4c9b3b02681706b9104114a5c4e5cd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Many families this one have been forcibly evicted, and do not want to speak openly because of the fear of vigilantes. </figcaption> </figure>  But there appears to be a generational divide among the local community in Ghising Danda. Many <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-country-for-young-men">young men have migrated</a> to the city or abroad, but those that remain have been promised jobs and a piece of land by the company, and support the project.&nbsp; For centuries, Suryabinayak communities have tended to the land, and the land has tended to them. The protected trees provide them with livelihood,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/multipronged-response-to-nepal-s-multi-hazards"> prevent landslides</a> on the slopes above and recharge ground water so the springs do not go dry. But this historic connection was severed in January when the excavators arrived to chop down trees and dig up the hill, razing 1.1 hectares of the community forest and surrounding settlements.&nbsp; Much of the forest is now gone, and recent rains have washed the red mud down the mountain like a bleeding gash. On a recent visit excavators were levelling the slope.&nbsp; Nic Vujicic Housing is owned by Purna Bahadur Limbu, Prabin Kusma and Dillidhwaj Baraili. It had parcelled 14.6 hectares in the neighbouring Palanse village three years ago, and was even awarded by the municipality for the project.&nbsp; Now, the company is clearing 27 hectares of private property and community forest in Ghising Danda without a planning permit either from the municipality or the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA).&nbsp; In fact, its application has been pending at the Authority since last October. The company has dangled a lollipop by promising 21 out of the 451 private plots to the government.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_08bcc863a21fd35364086877e1f8152d6c470b5fcd4fd650c555577a824c77c6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250530180528_08bcc863a21fd35364086877e1f8152d6c470b5fcd4fd650c555577a824c77c6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  Nepal’s 2015 Basic Standards for the Development of Settlements, and Urban Planning and Building Construction by-laws stipulate that land transactions, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-building-bridges-in-tasmania">construction projects</a>, and housing development via land consolidation require approval from either the KVDA or local government.&nbsp; Projects involving land up to 0.1 hectares require permission from the local level, and those of up to 2.5 hectares require approval from the district authorities, and plans exceeding that area need a permit from the KVDA.&nbsp; Nic Vujicic Housing’s director Dillidhwaj Baraili, is a member of the Federation of Nepalese Industries and Entrepreneurs (FENIE), and close to the ruling UML party.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530180528_2016ffcd828fda3535798e7534067519e9c346e64371866c9a61c571ce70b1b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250530180528_2016ffcd828fda3535798e7534067519e9c346e64371866c9a61c571ce70b1b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> </figure>  While the company did consult with locals, conduct an EIA, tested soil quality, and conducted a hydrological study of the area, these were perfunctory and incomplete for a proper permit application. The approval of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/mind-the-gap-6liiyw5w"> private landowners </a>and the municipality as well as project details were missing.&nbsp; The company had excavated half of Ghising Danda without permission when the local community started raising questions. Only then did it seek permission from the ward, which directed it to apply for a planning permit from the Suryabinayak Municipality.&nbsp; “We are yet to verify whether all the documents submitted by the company are in order, which is why the application is still pending,” Rajendra Prasad Nepal, the municipality’s information officer, told Nepali Times.&nbsp; But the lack of a permit does not seem to deter company director Dillidhwaj Baraili, who uses convoluted semantics to justify using excavators on private and community land. &nbsp; “It is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-unreal-real-estate-prices">plotting of the land</a> that requires approval from the KVDA, we do not need permission from local authorities to operate heavy machinery on the project site,” Baraili told us. However, Ward 9 Chair Bhagwan Khatri says no such permission to use excavators and bulldozers have been given without first obtaining a planning permit. “The housing project is illegal because it has moved forward without a planning permit,” says KVDA’s District Commissioner for Bhaktapur, Safal Shrestha. When the bulldozers started felling trees in the community forest in March, a joint task force of four local guthi put up a resistance, and demanded that the housing company ensure that there would be no mudslide danger downslope <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/before-the-next-monsoon">during the monsoon</a>.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250531030528_44bd6a61a1c81d07ee19e790a51929a9fd13c1db2da7ede2b7ef4d99b8c6c32a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250531030528_44bd6a61a1c81d07ee19e790a51929a9fd13c1db2da7ede2b7ef4d99b8c6c32a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="562" loading="lazy" alt="Plotting to plunder NT"> <figcaption>Dozens of heavy earthmovers were at work at this site one morning earlier this month. With an early monsoon, residents fear mud slides.</figcaption> </figure>  It also wanted the company to make sure the flow of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-heat-beneath-our-feet">water in springs</a> were not affected, and to set up a boundary along the community forest to prevent further encroachment. It also demanded compensation to displaced homeowners.&nbsp; But Nic Vujicic Housing paid no heed, and sent in excavators. Last month, the Kakrabari Community Forest Users Struggle Committee wrote to the Bhaktapur District Administration Office, Suryabinayak Municipality, and the Division forest Office to halt the project. In response, the housing company put out a press release accusing residents of spreading rumours, but the statement presented contradicting information about the status of its planning permit at various levels of the government. &nbsp; It has taken a month for the local government to even send an inspection team to the site. But the team concluded that the forest had been encroached upon and asked the housing company to halt its activities immediately.&nbsp; The company refused to comply, and on 9 May the Police was sent to shut down the project. Baraili maintains the forest was levelled with the consent of all four Guthi as well as Ram Krishna Tamang of the Kakrabari Community Forest User group. Tamang told us he has given no such go-ahead.&nbsp; “How could we have permitted the operation of construction machinery in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/safeguarding-the-soul-of-sal">community forest </a>when the Nepal government itself does not allow the destruction of public property?” adds Tamang. Because of the controversy, the company is now trying to use a carrot and stick approach by placating the local community, while also intimidating those who speak out. “Even though we had obtained permission, perhaps we should have not started using our heavy machinery yet,” Baraili admitted. However, the company is trying to silence dissenters in the community with threats. The company has deployed local youth who have been promised jobs to convince and cajole outspoken community members in Ghising Danda. &nbsp; One of them is Chewang Tamang, who says jobs are more important, and lashes out at locals for being “anti-development”. He says: “There is no point sitting around complaining that a few trees have been cut. The only people who are opposed to this project are those who do not want this place to develop.” &nbsp; <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F6TRxyQjbo50%3Fsi%3DjMRyrgfB9tTX8pP8&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div></div>