IR Aficionado

Exactly two months ago, the Tamil Guardian reported that German authorities had rounded up as many as 100 Tamil asylum-seekers in an attempt to deport the lot to the country which they fled to escape being devoured by a rising tide of ultra-nationalism. As victims of a political culture that licensed racism on the grounds that it is supported by a majority, the asylum-seekers, and their fathers and forefathers, have been discriminated against for the best part of their country’s post-colonial existence. Germany, and much of Europe, has probably become inured to stories of wretched human beings abandoning their war-torn homeland and heading to Europe in search of security and nourishment. The exodus from Syria since 2015 hardened Europe’s stance on immigration. So Germany coldly deported the Tamils to Sri Lanka.  This is one of a great multitude of human stories that have been spawned by a defining global phenomenon of our age; emigration. Particularly, movement not propelled by a...

Following days of intense clashes between Israeli police and far-right Jewish activists on the one side and Palestinians on the other in East Jerusalem, the tensions between the two sides have escalated with Hamas launching attacks in Israel and Tel Aviv retaliating. The security forces in the Holy City were particularly brutal in their treatment of Palestinian demonstrators against whom the forces wielded stun grenades and rubber bullets. Some videos that showed a gang of police officers setting upon a Palestinian went viral on social media. Things began to spiral out of control when the Israel police chief blocked the area around Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, an area where Palestinians gather after breaking their fast in the holy month of Ramadan. Though the order was revoked subsequently, it sparked protests with Palestinians coming out onto the streets to rail against an ‘alien’ people hurting their sensibilities. East Jerusalem had been under Israeli control since 1967 when Tel Aviv...