Army officer resigns due to US support for Israel’s war in Gaza

‘Shame and guilt’ drove Major Harrison Mann to quit in November, but he was ‘afraid’ of expressing it earlier.

The US is providing Israel with weapons and intelligence [File: AFP]

Published On 14 May 202414 May 2024

A former officer of the United States Army has explained that his resignation several months ago was prompted by his country’s “unqualified support” for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Major Harrison Mann expressed “incredible shame and guilt” in a letter posted on LinkedIn on Monday. He resigned from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in November.

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NSM-20: ‘Inconsistencies’ plague US assessment on Israel’s Gaza war conduct

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Israeli tanks, bulldozers surround evacuation areas, shelters in Jabalia

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US university ties to weapons contractors under scrutiny amid war in Gaza

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Hezbollah says will keep fighting if Israel presses on with assault on Gaza

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Several other US military personnel have quit since the war in Gaza was sparked by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas in October. That operation saw about 1,139 people killed in Israel and about 240 taken captive.

Israel’s seven-month-long war has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with most of the enclave’s 2.3-million-strong population displaced and short of food and medicine. The US continues to provide weapons and intelligence support to Israel.

Most of those who quit the US military have publicly deplored Washington’s role at the time, rather than waiting months to explain their departure. US airman Aaron Bushnell died after setting himself on fire in protest outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC in February.

Mann said in his letter that he had been afraid of giving his reasons for his resignation.

“I was afraid. Afraid of violating our professional norms. Afraid of disappointing officers I respect. Afraid you would feel betrayed. I’m sure some of you will feel that way reading this,” he wrote.

Mann shared the note with colleagues last month before publishing it on his LinkedIn profile. He wrote that he felt shame and guilt for helping advance US policy that he said contributed to the mass killing of Palestinians.

“At some point – whatever the justification – you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he said.

“Employee resignations are a routine occurrence at DIA as they are at other employers, and employees resign their positions for any number of reasons and motivations,” a DIA official told the Reuters news agency.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Apex court upholds Hindu mother’s win against unilateral conversion of kids to Islam

Apex court upholds Hindu mother’s win against unilateral conversion of kids to Islam

Loh Siew Hong (second from left) and her lawyers arrive at the Federal Court in Putrajaya May 14, 2024. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 2:16 PM MYT


PUTRAJAYA, May 14 — The Federal Court today affirmed the Court of Appeal’s ruling in favour of Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong over the unilateral conversion of her Hindu children to Islam by their Muslim convert father, bringing an end to Loh’s years-long legal battle to have their conversion declared unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired the Federal Court’s three-judge panel, delivered the unanimous decision alongside Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.


“Dismissed, we make no order as to cost,” Tengku Maimun said.

Today’s decision follows a hearing by the apex court on a leave application filed by the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) and the Perlis government regarding the religious position of the three children in their case against Loh as decided by the Court of Appeal.


At the Federal Court stage, the Federal Court’s leave must be obtained first before it proceeds to hear an appeal.


With the leave application filed by MAIPs and the Perlis government now dismissed, the Court of Appeal’s January verdict — in affirming Loh’s children were unilaterally and unconstitutionally converted — will be taken as the final decision.

As for today’s verdict, Tengku Maimun said the present appeal concerns issues which have been covered in the Federal Court’s decision in M. Indira Gandhi’s case — that unilateral conversion is invalid — and thus saw no reason to revisit them.

She also said the lower courts have also made concurrent findings on the issue of whether there is a prescription of the Bahasa Melayu version of the Federal Constitution being the authoritative text.

Fact of the case

The Court of Appeal had on January 10 this year allowed Loh’s appeal against the conversion of her three children to Islam without her consent, overturning an earlier High Court decision in May 2023 that had dismissed her challenge.

Subsequently, the four respondents — the Perlis registrar of Muslim converts, MAIPs, the Perlis mufti and the Perlis state government — filed an appeal on the appellate court’s decision on February 8.

As for the January 10 decision, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail who chaired a three-man panel, had in a unanimous decision ruled that a Perlis state law provision that allows conversion of children to Islam with just one parent’s consent is unconstitutional.

In the decision, the Court of Appeal also granted all nine orders that Loh asked for in her legal challenge against her children’s unilateral conversion to Islam, including declaring the three children are adherents of Hinduism.

The other nine court orders that Loh won include an order to quash the July 7, 2020 certificates of conversion to Islam which were issued to the three children; an order to compel the Perlis Registrar of Mualaf to remove the three children’s names from the Perlis registry of Muslim converts; and a declaration that Section 117(b) of a Perlis state law (which allows children to be converted without both parents’ consent) is unconstitutional and invalid.

Most importantly, the appellate court also made it clear that the Federal Court’s decision in M. Indira Gandhi’s case — that unilateral conversion is invalid — is still a binding decision on the lower courts, and said Loh did not consent to her three children to become Muslim converts.

This means that the Court of Appeal has declared the current Section 117(b) — which allows children to be converted to Islam without getting both parents’ consent — is against the Federal Constitution.

MORE TO COME


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‘Leave me alone’, Hindu mum of kids unilaterally converted by dad tells Perlis Islamic authority after Federal Court rules in her favour

Loh Siew Hong (centre) and her lawyers at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya May 14, 2024. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 3:12 PM MYT


PUTRAJAYA, May 14 — Relief was apparent on the face of Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong today when Malaysia’s highest court affirmed as unconstitutional the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam by their father.

She was effusive in her gratitude to the Federal Court judges and the lawyers who took up her case that began four years ago, when her estranged husband who was born and grew up Hindu but later became Muslim, converted their children to his new religion without her knowledge or permission.


“I do not want MAIPs to disturb me, leave me alone. Enough, enough,” she told reporters at the Palace of Justice here after a panel of three Federal Court judges chaired by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat unanimously ruled in her favour.

The other two judges were Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.


Loh was represented by A. Srimurugan and Shamsher Singh Thind.


“I am very happy and I really do not want MAIPs to again and again disturb me,” she added, referring to the officials from the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council by its Malay abbreviation.

MAIPs and the Perlis government had filed a leave application to challenge a previous ruling by the Court of Appeal that first ruled that the unilateral conversion to Islam of Loh’s three children as against the Federal Constitution.

The Federal Court refused to grant leave or permission to MAIPs and the Perlis government to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision, citing the landmark case of M. Indira Gandhi, another Hindu mother whose three children were unilaterally converted to Islam by their father as setting the precedent.

In January, the Court of Appeal granted all nine orders that Loh asked for in her legal challenge against her children’s unilateral conversion to Islam, including declaring the three children are adherents of Hinduism.

The other court orders which Loh won include an order to quash the July 7, 2020 certificates of conversion to Islam which were issued to the three children; an order to compel the Perlis Registrar of Mualaf to remove the three children’s names from the Perlis registry of Muslim converts; and a declaration that Section 117(b) of a Perlis state law (which allows children to be converted without both parents’ consent) is unconstitutional and invalid.

Subsequently, the four respondents — the Perlis registrar of Muslim converts, MAIPs, the Perlis mufti and the Perlis government — filed an appeal on the appellate court’s decision on February 8.

White House: US doesn’t believe ‘genocide’ occurring in Gaza

White House: US doesn’t believe ‘genocide’ occurring in Gaza

The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians. — AFP pic

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 7:36 AM MYT

(kt comments) - Bye-Deen: Dei Tambee, just a few Arab kids getting scratches on their knees and elbows, WTF! Israel told us so.

WASHINGTON, May 14 — The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said yesterday.

As ceasefire talks stall and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with militant group Hamas.


“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.

The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, Sullivan added.


Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell”, Sullivan said.


Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to “take a step back” and set out the Biden administration’s position on the conflict, amid criticism from both ends of the US political spectrum.

Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.

The US president believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?’” Sullivan added.

This would avoid Israel “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.” — AFP

Is Tian Chua having another “bite” at political fame by ditching Batu entirely to champion the Palestinian cause?

Focus Malaysia:

Is Tian Chua having another “bite” at political fame by ditching Batu entirely to champion the Palestinian cause?

FEW politicians actually retire. Hooked to the limelight and sometimes, public adulation, many of these political animals metamorphosise into creatures that keep them at the centre of attention.

Take former PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang or better known as Tian Chua. Since he stood as an independent candidate in the Batu parliamentary seat during the 15th General Election (GE15) and lost, the pioneer reformasi activist has faded into almost political oblivion.

But just like two-time former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and eighth prime minister (PM) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, “retirement” is not in the vocabulary of Tian Chua who was sacked from PKR in January 2023 for standing against the party’s candidate in the Nov 19, 2022 poll.

Tian Chua is now actively behind Sekretariat Solidariti Palestin (SSP), a civil society movement championing the plights of Palestinians in Gaza.

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Among others, the once active social activist student leader whose mates include Malaysiakini co-founders Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran has taken part in pro-Palestine rallies under the SSP ambit which saw participation from the likes of Dr Mahathir and opposition leaders like Tan Sri Hadi Awang and Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

Many of the media statements and stance taken by Tian Chua as spokesman of the SSP appear to mirror those by the opposition’s – instead of reflective of the unity government’s – even though many current Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders including PKR president and PM Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had been politically intimate with him during the early days of reformasi.

For example, Tian Chua had condemned the participation of several weapons manufacturers at the recently-concluded Defence Services Asia (DSA) and National Security (NATSEC) Asia 2024 exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur notwithstanding that the event was graced by PMX. These companies allegedly sold guns and jets used by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza.

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Defence Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin had earlier defended the participation of these companies as they were “business matters that Malaysia should not interfere with”.

More recently, the Melaka-born Tian Chua, 61, was quoted in PAS organ HarakahDaily as saying that “he too supported the plight of the Palestinians despite being s Chinese”.

Is Tian Chua posturing for some political ends since the two-term former Batu MP’s long political sojourn was cut short by disqualification to seek a third term in 2018 due to a RM2,000 fine for a court case?

During the years leading to and after first becoming an MP in 2008, the former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee had several run-ins with the law. This includes a 2007 demonstration in front of the parliament where Chua had bitten a police constable’s arm during a scuffle.

But given his long years in politics, it’d be premature to brush off Tian Chua as a political has-been. People like him will grit their teeth and find ways – sometimes in an unorthodox fashion – to claw their ways back to the public spotlight or political resurrection. – May 13, 2024