Zeinab Merai, Sada al-Mashrek
In part 1, author, lawyer and traveller Daniel Kovalik delineated changes the world is experiencing in response to Western hawks’ plots to undermine Russia. Several anti-war activists’ arguments were as well presented, and their demand (that the Government of Canada stop arming and funding the Russia-Ukraine conflict and recruiting mercenaries for Ukraine) was echoed.
In this part of the interview, Kovalik delves further into this issue and reminisces about his visits to Middle Eastern cultures. His arguments against the intentional destruction of heritage are reverberated by Canadian archaeologists, and his viewpoints regarding this war are supported by other anti-war activists.
False narratives
What’s happening today wasn’t unforeseen. Hollywood has forever been depicting Russians (alongside some others) as the ‘bad guys’ that just work day and night to sabotage the US and that must be fought back. Today, not only have US and Canadian sanctions been imposed on Russia, but also the Russians are being unbelievably vilified by US and Canadian corporate media.
Kovalik draws a different picture from that of prejudiced international press, saying that what Westerners think is the ‘world’ that’s aligned against Russia is actually not. “That’s a small slither of it, and the rest of the world is aligned against the West because they’ve had it with the exploitation and war.”
Kovalik highlights that about 145 countries in the world out of 195 are NOT supporting sanctions against Russia. “These are countries form the East, the Global South, many of which have been abused by the US and NATO. They know what’s happening, what this war means and that this is a counterassault against years of NATO aggression. And the world’s just taking it; it had to take it. It wasn’t strong enough to resist; well, now it’s resisting. There have been some victories: [President] Assad survived in Syria. Iran and Venezuela have survived; their economies are on the rebound. Nicaragua and Cuba have survived,” says Kovalik.
The passport story
Kovalik recalls a particular incident he and his colleagues, a Canadian and a Brasilian, encountered in Syria while they were working on a documentary last year.
Having crossed the Lebanon-Syria border, the cameraman found out he had left his passport in a taxi that had just went back to Lebanon. Kovalik says that while he watched the luggage, the cameraman and another person went back to the Syrian checkpoint on the border to talk to the soldiers, who were familiar with the taxi driver because he crossed the border all the time. They contacted him, and he came back with the passport.
Kovalik says it “would have been a disaster because the passport mentioned was worth a $1,000 or 2,000 to anyone, or maybe more, but the guy and the Syrians helped him bring it back. The uninitiated wouldn’t expect this kind of help, and in the US you might never see that passport. We were treated amazingly by the Syrian soldiers and by everyone.”
Harrassed by the “same old line”
Asked whether he’s been threatened or challenged because of his outspokenness about a verity and variety of issues, especially ones that pertain to the ME and oppose global mainstream media depictions, the critic says, “Mostly it’s personal challenges and people attacking me… But it does feel like the walls are closing in. I know journalists – in all this anti-Russia mania – are losing their platforms.”
Here the human-rights advocate warns that just like Canada’s ‘Freedom-Convoy’ truckers’ bank accounts were frozen, there are now people saying that RT staff ‘should have’ their bank accounts frozen. “So I certainly live in a certain amount of anxiety that that could happen to me; it would be catastrophic, but you do what you’ve got to do… The world’s a vast place, and if it doesn’t work for me here, I’ll go somewhere else, where I’ll be loved,” says Kovalik.
Who’s really guarding civilisation?
Concerning claims about the ‘terrorism’ of Iran and Hezbollah, the critic sees that “the truth is all that is upside down.” Kovalik says he was raised Roman Catholic, and it’s still something important in his life. He reminisces about visiting the Syrian town of Maaloula, where “Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, is spoken… It’s one of the few places on earth that still does that,” says Kovalik, adding he then learnt that the Free Syrian Army – a US-Western backed terrorist group – had invaded Maaloula and tried to burn yet another church.
“Thank God it was made of stones and that didn’t work, but they kidnapped the nuns there and destroyed Christian relics. Had they been victorious, they would have destroyed the Christianity in Maaloula. This would have been a huge loss for the world. Who comes in and stops that? The Syrian army and Hezbollah. Hezbollah was there and in a lot of places in Syria to beat these crazy people back. I wrote about this several years ago. In a book called The Plot to Attack Iran, I say: The US and the West try to claim that they’re the guardians of Western civilisation. In fact, they are the threat to Western and Eastern civilisation… In Syria, they destroyed ancient and Roman architecture, and they supported people that destroy these things,” says Kovalik.
“We see this in Palestine now: Israel is trying to deny that Palestinians had a history, were there and had their cities before Israel was there. They tried to portray the Palestinians as having lived in the desert on sand before the Israelis got there. That’s not true. Palestinians are some of those intellectual people on earth… We see this complete destruction of human history that the West is waging. It is a neolistic force that has to be resisted, and there is a resistance to this; again, it’s Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah – they’re pushing back against this. And thank God,” says Kovalik.
Having sightseen Iran’s old churches, mosques and synagogues, he remarks that “people don’t realise that Jews live in Iran, there are 25,000 of them and they practice Judaism. And there’s a Jewish hospital in Tehran that has been given a lot of money by the government, including [former] President Ahmadinejad, who was totally vilified by the West. This is where culture is, there’s no more cultural place on earth than Iran. All the ancient antiquities are there, why? Because the 82nd Airborne [Division] hasn’t bombed it yet!”
The lawyer’s argument resonates with a 2015 joint statement issued by the members of the Canadian Archaeological Association, the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organisation and the International Council of Museums Canada. The statement denounced the “directed and intentional destruction of cultural heritage and heritage sites within Iraq and Syria,” which “represent thousands of years of human development and artistic expression. Their destruction is a devastating strike against cultural diversity and an attempt to erase the complex and intertwined history of our collective human experience… The extent of the damage to Iraq and Syria’s heritage will only be truly understood once the region stabilises.” (Joint Statement on Cultural Destruction in Iraq and Syria | Canadian Archaeological Association / Association canadienne d'archéologie (canadianarchaeology.com))
They’d like to knock Russia out because it’s foiling their plans
Asked whether it’s been intended to weaken Russia, following its alliance with Syria, Hezbollah and the IRGC in the fight against terrorist Takfiri organisations like ISIL, whose rerise in the ME would serve ISIL creators and financers, Kovalik says, “ISIL is a tool used by the US, which does resent Russia for having stopped its plan that even predated 9/11 and was revealed by General Wesley Clark. It was to overthrow 7 countries, including Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and Syria, which would be the last step to Iran – the big prize.”
They had to get [President] Assad out, and Russia stopped their evil plan. Syria has survived, though barely; it is still a very fragile state economically and is largely unreconstructed. The US still occupies third of it, then you have Idlib, where you still have terrorists… They’d like to knock Russia out because it’s foiling their plans, then they want to move on to China; that’s their grand prize now,” says the anti-imperialist author, whose calls have been paralleled by some Canadian intellects.
“The US has a long history of disseminating false stories to justify its imperialist intervention. The governments of Canada and the United States are sabotaging the [Russian-Ukrainian] negotiations, ignoring those European voices saying that it was a mistake to promise NATO to Ukraine,”* says Montreal-based author and Contributing Editor for The Canada Files Arnold August.
Ali Yerevani, the Political Editor of Canada’s Fire This Time newspaper, also confirms “the need to respond to imperialist propaganda, which falsely claims that the Russian military action was unprovoked, and that Ukraine is a democracy, while it overlooks the role of fascism in the opposition to Russia.”*
Ken Stone, Treasurer of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, notes that “Canadian support for Ukrainian President Zelensky is a great act of hypocrisy because for 100 years, Canada has been interfering in Ukrainian affairs, initially as an ally of British imperialism, and later as an ally of US imperialism.”*
*The marked quotes used here were reported by Professor Charles McKelvey following a March webinar: “The Ukraine Crisis: What Is the Cause, Russia or US/NATO?” (Canadian and US activists reject media Cold War propaganda against Russia — The Canada Files).
Picture: courtesy of Daniel Kovalik
Thanks for reading part 2. Please keep an eye out for the last part.