The humanitarian disasters that have befallen the Middle East of late, namely the religious persecutions of non-Muslim minorities in Iraq and the ‘siege’ of Gaza, have both a human and political dimension. Human, in that the vast majority of those suffering are innocent and passive citizens caught up in other people’s agendas and political, in that the disasters are a consequence of, if not an aim of, the perpetrators, whether it be the Sunni fundamentalist ISIS or the Israeli army.

Being a political organisation we cannot sit idly by without comment or action for these disasters are rooted in politics e.g. the problem of extreme religious fervour (presently amongst the Muslim faith) exacerbated by Western political intervention and the failure of the world, in particular the US, to force the Israeli’s and Palestinians to embrace the ‘Two-state’ solution. Therefore, our self-determinist pressure group Nations without States will be supporting a conference on the plight of the Yazidi Kurds this Sunday.

In the meantime our resident Poet Jason Jesuthasan reflects upon the present disasters……………..