NOVANEWS
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midl;and PSC
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From Arrigoni to Bernadotte to RFK to 9/11– how much global damage has this conflict produced?
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Arrigoni documented Israeli attacks on Palestinian ambulance workers, ‘the most heroic people I ever met’
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An open letter to our rabbinical colleagues
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Director of Emergency Committee for Israel cackles over Arrigoni and those who mourn him
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Mubarak may face death penalty
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Livni pushes int’l code to police Arab elections and bar some parties (hint: Muslim B’hood)
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Palestinian state is ‘the most important issue for us in the region,’ Qatari Emir tells Obama
From Arrigoni to Bernadotte to RFK to 9/11– how much global damage has this conflict produced?
Apr 16, 2011
Philip Weiss
Whoever the fanatics are that killed Vittorio Arrigoni and Juliano Mer-Khamis in Palestine in the last two weeks, it can be safely said that the occupation killed these good men: that they died because the denial of freedom for Palestinians over 44 years of military occupation has produced despair and radicalism and brutalization, and called on great souls to act. If the occupation were happening in New Jersey, we would be far more violent than the Palestinians have been.
Arrigoni was drawn to the conflict from Italy. Because world governments had so failed to enforce the Geneva Conventions and secure the rights of fishermen and mothers and farmers and children under collective punishment, he left his country to become a human shield. He was a brave, handsome, lionhearted man, and he knew for three years that his life was in danger. I have met other volunteers for the International Solidarity Movement who are as idealistic and courageous as Arrigoni. And I have read enough by and about Rachel Corrie, the ISM volunteer who was killed by the Israelis in 2003, to know that hers was the finest moral spirit that America produces. Gone.
And I just want to pause tonight to reflect on how many people outside the actual parties to this conflict have been affected by it now, and how many of them have been killed. From the time that Jacob de Haan was killed in Holland in 1924 for being an anti-Zionist to England’s Lord Moyne killed in Palestine in 1944 for his opposition to Zionism, to the Stern gang’s killing of the Swede Folke Bernadotte in 1948 for his plan to internationalize Jerusalem and restore the UN Partition line, the violence inside the conflict has radiated out and destroyed others. Just last year Israel killed nine unarmed Turkish men who were moved by Gaza’s suffering to risk their lives on the high seas. The youngest of them was also an American, Furkan Dogan, and the same day young Emily Henochowicz, an American artist, was blinded in her left eye by the Israelis during a protest at a checkpoint. And yes another Israeli teargas canister maimed American Tristan Anderson a couple of years ago.
Most of these people were called to the conflict by the injustice. But if you expand the category to include collateral damage, well then you begin to comprise the thousands of Americans killed on 9/11– for even the 9/11 commission has acknowledged that a root cause of the hijackers’ action was anger over Palestine, and bin Laden has said so too. And any fair audit would have to include Bobby Kennedy, the charismatic American leader whose support of Israel cost him his life in ’68.
Take it further and you can say that the Iraq war, with its destruction of an entire society and tens of thousands of people, had a source in this conflict and the neoconservatives’ idea of how to end it. And the oppression of 84 million Egyptians for 30 years under a tyrant at the behest of the United States– this also was rationalized as the cost of containing this intractable problem next door.
I like to think of myself as a realist; well this body count is hardly realistic. And no wonder realists have been among the most vocal opponents of the occupation. Because they know this list– a list that our media never tallies, let alone asks us to consider, Is that enough?
I am not even talking about the parties themselves. I’m not talking about the Israelis killed by suicide bombers or by rockets in Sderot, nor the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees created in ’48, nor all the dead of Cast Lead. I’m not talking about Chaim Arlosoroff murdered by Zionist thugs on the beach in Tel Aviv in ’33, nor Yitzhak Rabin murdered a few miles away in ’95. Nor Jawaher Abu Rahmah killed by Israeli tear gas last year or her brother Bassem killed by tear gas the year before that.
No I am talking about the price that this conflict has demanded of the world. And in the name of beautiful Vittorio Arrigoni, I ask, How many seas must the white dove sail before she can sleep in the sand?
Arrigoni documented Israeli attacks on Palestinian ambulance workers, ‘the most heroic people I ever met’
Apr 16, 2011
Philip Weiss
An amazing video of the late Vik Vittorio Arrigoni from May 2009. At minute 6 he documents the attacks on Palestinian ambulance drivers during Cast Lead; you see two stretcher-bearers being shot at in Gaza City. Remember, this is an essential point of the now-disputed al-Samouni case, in which ambulances were prevented from approaching the bombed family, and at least one person died who surely might have survived their injuries. Doesn’t that constitute a deliberate attack on civilians?
This is from the Goldstone Report on the al-Samouni family:
[A]t around 4 p.m. [January 4, 2009], PRCS ambulance managed to come in the vicinity of the house where Ahmad was lying wounded, but was prevented by the Israeli armed forces from rescuing him. Ahmad died at around 2 a.m. during the night… The ambulance had turned west off Salah ad-Din Street when, at one of the first houses in the area, Israeli soldiers on the ground and on the roof of one of the houses directed their guns at it and ordered it to stop. The driver and the nurse were ordered to get out of the vehicle, raise their hands, take off their clothes and lie on the ground. Israeli soldiers then searched them and the vehicle for 5 to 10 minutes. Having found nothing, the soldiers ordered the ambulance team to return to Gaza City, in spite of their pleas to be allowed to pick up some wounded. In his statement to the Mission, the ambulance driver recalled seeing women and children huddling under the staircase in a house, but not being allowed to take them with him.
Arrigoni speaks of 13 Palestinian paramedics who died. “I will remember those martyrs as the most heroic people I ever met.”
At the end of the video Arrigoni quotes the Italian poet Enzo Biagi. “Enzo Biagi said ‘Truth is like poetry, it doesn’t need any adjectives, it is freedom.’ We will keep making poetry of our lives until freedom will be declared over the broken chains of all oppressed peoples.”
An open letter to our rabbinical colleagues
Apr 16, 2011
Rabbi Brant Rosen and Rabbi Brian Walt
This past week, rabbis across the country received a request from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to sign a public rabbinic letter to Congress that urged our Representatives and Senators not to cut any foreign aid to Israel as part of the FY2012 budget. The request was co-signed by the rabbinical leaders of four major American Jewish denominations.
As rabbis who received these appeals for our endorsement, we would like to voice our respectful but strong disagreement to the letter. We take particular issue with the statement:
As Jews we are committed to the vision of the Prophets and Jewish sages who considered the pursuit of peace a religious obligation. Foreign Aid to Israel is an essential way that we can fulfill our obligation to “seek peace and pursue it”
We certainly agree that the pursuit of peace is our primary religious obligation. Our tradition emphasizes that we should not only seek peace but pursue it actively. However we cannot affirm that three billion dollars of annual and unconditional aid – mainly in the form of military aid – in any way fulfills the religious obligation of pursuing peace.
This aid provides Israel with military hardware that it uses to maintain its Occupation and to expand settlements on Palestinian land. It provides American bulldozers that demolish Palestinian homes. It provides tear gas that is regularly shot by the IDF at nonviolent Palestinian protesters. It also provided the Apache helicopters that dropped tons of bombs on civilian populations in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, as well as the white phosphorus that Israel dropped on Gazan civilians, causing grievous burns to their bodies – including the bodies of children.
In light of Israel’s past and continuing military actions, how can we possibly affirm that our continued unconditional aid fulfills the sacred obligation of pursuing peace?
We also take exception to this assertion:
U.S. foreign aid reaffirms our commitment to a democratic ally in the Middle East and gives Israel the military edge to maintain its security and the economic stability to pursue peace.
In fact our ally, the Netanyahu administration, has even rebuffed mild pressure from the US government to comply with the longstanding US position against new settlements in the West Bank. If we believe that any peaceful settlement requires the end of the Occupation and Israel’s settlement policy, how will massive and unconditional foreign aid – and the support of hundreds of rabbis for this aid – promote a negotiated peaceful settlement of the conflict?
An Israeli government that continues to settle occupied territory with impunity will not change its policy as long as it is guaranteed three billion dollars a year. With every other ally, our government pursues a time-honored diplomatic policy that uses “sticks” as well as “carrots.” We believe the cause of peace would be better served by conditioning support to Israel on its adherence to American and Jewish values of equality and justice.
We are also mindful that the Arab world itself feels under assault by the US when it witnesses Palestinians regularly assaulted with American-made weapons. With the vast and important changes currently underway in the Middle East, we are deeply troubled by the message that this policy sends to Arab citizens who themselves are struggling for freedom and justice.
We know that many of our colleagues who have signed this statement have taken courageous public stands condemning Israel’s human rights abuses in the past. We also know it is enormously challenging to publicly take exception to our country’s aid policy to Israel. Nonetheless, we respectfully urge our our colleagues to consider the deeper implications represented by their support of this letter.
Unconditional aid to Israel may ensure Israel’s continued military dominance, but will it truly fulfill our religious obligation to pursue peace?
In Shalom,
Rabbi Brant Rosen and Rabbi Brian Walt
Director of Emergency Committee for Israel cackles over Arrigoni and those who mourn him
Apr 16, 2011
Philip Weiss
Max Blumenthal sent me this. Blumenthal’s been doing all my thinking lately. It’s Noah Pollak’s response to the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni. Blumenthal said it’s a macaca moment. I don’t know what to say. This has been a deeply dispiriting month. All I want to do is beam love to the families of Juliano, Matthew, and Vittorio. They say that if you walk a few steps with the Palestinians you will have Palestinian experiences, all these men did that in their way. And this too is part of that experience: disgusting venom. Pollak is director of the Emergency Committee for Israel.
NoahPollak Noah Pollak
by MaxBlumenthal
My condolences to the anti-Israel crazies mourning their ISM friend. We who do not work with terrorists will never understand your pain.
NoahPollak Noah Pollak
by MaxBlumenthal
My condolences to the anti-Israel crazies mourning their ISM friend. We who do not work with terrorists will never understand your pain.
NoahPollak Noah Pollak
by MaxBlumenthal
@
@ibnezra Aw, sorry fella. Maybe if you work hard enough, Hamas will name a street after you, too.
NoahPollak Noah Pollak
by MaxBlumenthal
@
@ibnezra Aw, sorry fella. Maybe if you work hard enough, Hamas will name a street after you, too.
Mubarak may face death penalty
Apr 16, 2011
Seham
and other news from the Arab uprisings:
Libya
Boats with 5 Libyan officers arrive in Tunisia
Two small boats carrying five Libyan army officers and 13 other people from Libya arrived in a southern Tunisian port on Friday, Tunisia’s state TAP news agency reported., It did not give details of the identities or ranks of the officers, or where in neighbouring Libya the vessels came from. Tunisian officials were not immediately available for comment.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/boats-with-5-libyan-officers-arrive-in-tunisia-tap
Gaddafi ‘launching cluster bombs’
Pro-Gaddafi forces in Libya are accused by human rights campaigners of using cluster bombs, banned by more than 100 countries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13102328
Kadafi forces kill 20 in key Libyan city
The strongman’s army continues its barrage of rockets into Misurata, the country’s third-largest city as rebels send boats with aid and arms. A barrage of rocket fire from forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi killed at least 20 people Thursday in the besieged city of Misurata as rebels continued to send boats with humanitarian aid and weapons to try to tip the battle in their favor.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/m9mmdiKzg5A/la-fg-libya-fighting-20110415,0,3820602.story
NATO air strikes hit Tripoli
NATO has launched three new air strikes in and around Libya’s capital Tripoli, hitting a missile battery to the south and two other targets closer to the city centre. Libya’s government claims at least three civilians were killed in the air attacks. On the diplomatic front, NATO foreign ministers are meeting for a second day in Berlin. Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari has this report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-zGFgNKxRc&feature=youtube_gdata
France eyes new military targets in Libya
PARIS, April 15 (Reuters) – France is pushing for NATO approval to extend military strikes on Muammar Gaddafi’s army to strategic logistical targets, to try to break a deadlock in Libya’s civil war as the civilian death toll mounts. The push comes as France and Britain, which are leading the campaign in Libya, struggle to get coalition partners to step up participation or contribute more hardware, despite pleas from rebels that civilians are dying in the besieged city of Misrata.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/france-eyes-new-military-targets-in-libya
West Libya city overwhelmed by casualties – MSF
SFAX, Tunisia, April 15 (Reuters) – Doctors in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata have released patients early to deal with new wounded from fighting because of capacity problems, a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) doctor said on Friday. “They are overwhelmed with casualties,” MSF Dr Morten Rostrup told Reuters by satellite phone.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/west-libya-city-overwhelmed-by-casualties-msf
Inside Misrata
Fearing a massacre as pro-Gaddafi forces close in.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13102164
Libya rebel chief hopes to take Brega soon -TV
CAIRO, April 15 (Reuters) – Libyan rebels are engaged in a fierce battle in Brega and are hopeful they will soon capture the oil port, their military leader told Al-Arabiya television in comments aired late on Friday. It was not possible to independently verify the claim about insurgent gains on the fluid eastern front of Libya’s civil war. “Our situation is very good. Thank God, today we began advancing toward Brega and there is now a big and fierce battle in Brega and we have high hopes that Brega will be ours in the coming few hours,” Abdel Fattah Younes told Al-Arabiya.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libya-rebel-chief-hopes-to-take-brega-soon–tv
Pro-democracy activists defy Libyan regime
Libyan State television has broadcast pictures of what appears to be a defiant Muammar Gaddafi driving through the streets of Tripoli on Thursday. But as this video sent to Al Jazeera by an anti-government group seem to show, protesters were also out on the same day, calling for Gaddafi to go. The pictures show a gathering in Tripoli, involving men and women, stating their intent to continue defying the ban on freedom of expression and to continue to show their support for those calling for freedom in Libya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC4oq0Yq8Ec&feature=youtube_gdata
Libya: Release Detained Journalists
(New York) – Libyan authorities should immediately provide information on the whereabouts of nine foreign and six Libyan journalists detained or missing in Libya, Human Rights Watch said today. All journalists arbitrarily detained should be immediately released, Human Rights Watch said.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/15/libya-release-detained-journalists
Misrata evacuee ship reaches Libyan rebel city
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 15 (Reuters) – An aid ship brought nearly 1,200 evacuees to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi late on Friday, just a fraction of those stranded in the besieged city of Misrata still desperate to escape. Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have besieged western Libya’s lone rebel bastion for six weeks using rockets and other heavy weapons. Hundreds of civilians are reported to have died in the fighting.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/misrata-evacuee-ship-reaches-libyan-rebel-city
Benghazi port sends aid to besieged western bastion
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 14 (Reuters) – Fishing ships and tugboats loaded with weapons, food and medicine are leaving the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya to help relieve the western city of Misrata, port workers and witnesses said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/benghazi-port-sends-aid-to-besieged-western-bastion
Displaced Libyan families shelter in university
BENGHAZI, Libya, April 13 (Reuters) – Classes at Benghazi’s Garyounis university are out but its dormitories are still packed, the students now replaced by scores of families who fled their homes during Libya’s uprising. Nearly 100 families have crammed into about 80 rooms at the college over the last two weeks after fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in the coastal towns of Brega and Ajdabiyah forced them to flee, volunteers there said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/displaced-libyan-families-shelter-in-university
Moussa Koussa removed from EU sanctions list-UK
LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) – Former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa is no longer subject to European Union sanctions, the British government said on Thursday, the latest move by the West to encourage more defections from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/moussa-koussa-removed-from-eu-sanctions-list-uk
Bahrain
Bahrain’s security clampdown divides kingdom
Anti-government protests in Bahrain have been squashed but resentment of the Sunni monarchy simmers among the tiny Gulf kingdom’s Shia majority, reports the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in the capital, Manama.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13088600
Bahrain backs off on opposition party ban
The pull back from outlawing Wefaq party comes after criticism from US, but probe into the main Shia group continues.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201141573222422175.html
VIDEO: Bahrain’s bid to shut down opposition
The government of Bahrain has gone to court seeking to disband two Shia opposition groups. It comes as international human rights groups warn that abuses are taking place in the Gulf state.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13089092
Bahrain: Investigate New Death in Custody
(Manama) – The death of businessman and activist Kareem Fakhrawi on April 12, 2011, shows the urgent need for thorough and impartial investigations into allegations of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. It was the fourth detainee death reported by the Bahrain government in nine days.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/13/bahrain-investigate-new-death-custody
Bahrain: Is a U.S. Ally Using Torture to Put Down Dissent? (Time.com)
Time.com – In the continuing crackdown on the opposition, the Kingdom may be turning to torture, perhaps including the use of electric shock.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110416/wl_time/08599206519800
Why US silence on Bahrain’s crackdown could backfire
For the fourth time in two weeks, a detainee died in police custody. Witnesses say his body, like the others, bore signs of abuse.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/m6ARO1q0qCM/Why-US-silence-on-Bahrain-s-crackdown-could-backfire
The Brutality of Bahrain
While democracy campaigners have faced vicious crackdowns across the Arab world this year, none have been so thoroughly crushed as the peaceful protesters in Bahrain. With Saudi, Qatari and UAE forces augmenting Bahrain’s mostly foreign police corps, the country has seen countless violations of human rights.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/04/the-brutality-of-bahrain.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kabobfest%2FGrillMe+%28KABOBfest%29
Amy Goodman, “Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United States: Interview with Zainab Alkhawaja and Nabeel Rajab”
Amy Goodman: The Bahraini government is intensifying its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. In a pre-dawn raid Saturday, masked police officers broke into the home of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist. Alkhawaja and other family members were beaten and detained. They remain in police custody at an unknown location. Human Rights Watch has condemned his arrest and called for his immediate release. His daughter, Zainab Alkhawaja, has written a letter asking President Obama to stop supporting the government in Bahrain and asking for American assistance in locating her father and other family members. Her husband, Wafi Almajed, and brother-in-law, Hussain Ahmed, were also picked up the same night. Zainab has tried to determine where they are but has found no answers. On Monday, she started a hunger strike in protest. She’ll eat only once all her family members have been released. She’s joining us now from Manama, Bahrain.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/ar130411.html
As cries for revolution fade, Bahrainis wonder what went wrong
The demonstrations demanding democracy began with great promise, but they fizzled amid harsh crackdowns, leaving increased tension between Sunnis and Shiites. When thousands of protesters spilled into Bahrain’s streets in February, Dr. Mohammed Al-Muharraqi, a self-professed pessimist, thought his country might change for the better.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/zmdEDSml5ug/la-fg-bahrain-divide-20110415,0,225301.story
Police State Terror in Bahrain
Last summer sporadic protests began. By mid-February, major ones erupted. Demonstrators held firm against King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa’s regime. Repression and several deaths were reported from live fire. Anti-government protesters occupied Manama’s Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain’s equivalent of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. They demanded democratic elections, ending sectarian discrimination favoring Sunnis over Shias, equitable distribution of the country’s oil wealth, and resignation of the king’s uncle, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, prime minister since 1971. They also want political prisoners released and state terror ended.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/04/police-state-terror-in-bahrain.html
Syria
Syria protests swell as tens of thousands turn out
Demonstrations are reported across the country, including in Damascus, a day after concessions from President Bashar Assad. ‘People are not afraid anymore,’ says a human rights lawyer. Antigovernment demonstrations sweeping Syria appeared to have crossed a threshold in size and scope, with protesters battling police near the heart of the capital and the protest movement uniting people from different regions, classes and religious backgrounds against the regime.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/UrZC-G2U_XU/la-fg-syria-protests-20110416,0,5281996.story
Syrian women protest over mass arrests
Hundreds of women march after raid by security forces on town of Baida leads to mass arrests.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/201141313548714539.html
Syria’s Daraa peaceful after meeting with president
Many protesters have died at the hands of security forces in the southern Syrian city of Daraa. But tension there seems to have been significantly reduced after a local delegation met President Bashar al-Assad. They say the president promised serious reforms, including to lift the emergency law. Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin has this exclusive report from Daraa, where a peaceful protest was held on Friday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAdUUysuWLg&feature=youtube_gdata
Syria’s Assad orders release of detainees – TV
BEIRUT, April 14 (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday ordered the release of all detainees arrested in a wave of protests, except those who committed crimes “against the nation and the citizens”, state media said. Syria’s state news agency SANA said the move followed a meeting between Assad and “religious and popular” (figures).
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syrias-assad-orders-release-of-detainees-tv
Al Jazeera speaks to Malik al Abdeh about the latest in Syria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAH5QH1qlNc&feature=youtube_gdata
Joshua Landis, “Disinformation about Syria in Western Media”
A number of news reports by AFP, the Guardian, and other news agencies and outlets are suggesting that Syrian security forces were responsible for shooting nine Syrian soldiers, who were killed in Banyas on Sunday. Some versions insist that they were shot for refusing orders to shoot at demonstrators. Considerable evidence suggests that this is not true and that Western journalists are passing on bad information. . . . The Guardian irresponsibly repeats a false interpretation of the video provided by an informant. This is what the Guardian writes: “Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces.” The video does not “support” the story that the Guardian says it does. The soldier denies that he was ordered to fire on people. . . . A three-page document purporting to be a “top secret” Mukhabarat memo, giving instruction to intelligence forces that “it is acceptable to shoot some of the security agents or army officers in order to further deceive the enemy” has been published on the web and republished by All4Syria. A copy was sent to me with a translation by a journalist with a leading magazine for my thoughts. It has blood splattered on it and is clearly a fake.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/landis140411.html
Yemen
Yemen’s rival military factions clash for first time
Rebel security forces led by Gen. Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar are seizing parts of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, but not without a fight from security forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/vpyC1saDZnI/Yemen-s-rival-military-factions-clash-for-first-time
Yemen clerics and tribal leaders want Saleh out now
SANAA, April 15 (Reuters) – Yemeni clerics and tribal leaders joined the opposition on Friday in calling for the immediate resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, leaving the fate of a Gulf Arab mediation effort unclear. Gulf foreign ministers, trying to ease the threat that Yemeni instability could pose to the region, have invited Saleh and his opponents to talks on a transfer of power to end a political standoff that risks devolving into violence.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/yemen-clerics-and-tribal-leaders-want-saleh-out-now
Yemen: Stop Using Children in Armed Forces
(New York) – Child soldiers recruited by the Yemeni army are now being used by a breakaway unit to protect anti-government protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States and other governments should call for an immediate end to the use of children as soldiers or in other security forces, whether for the Yemeni government or the opposition.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/14/yemen-stop-using-children-armed-forces
Al Jazeera interview with Yemeni journalist Mohamed al-Qadhi
Al Jazeera spoke to Mohamed al-Qadhi, the National Newspaper about the deadline given by religious and tribal leaders asking the Yemeni president to leave office within 14 days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeaoVmHLrKI&feature=youtube_gdata
Saudi Arabia
“Saudis March for Revolution in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia” (Videos)
The message of the people of Qatif to the House of Saud, 15.04.11: “Friday, 22 April 2011 will be Qatif’s Day of Wrath.”
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/qatif150411.html
Protests in eastern Saudi town
Shia Muslims call for greater freedoms in oil producing eastern province.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/2011415194659280155.html
Saudi Arabia frees 13 Shi’ites held for protesting
RIYADH, April 13 (Reuters) – Saudi authorities have freed 13 Shi’ite activists detained for taking part in demonstrations calling for the release of jailed relatives in the oil-producing east, activists said on Wednesday. Minority Shi’ites have staged protests in the Eastern Province to demand the release of prisoners and also to call on political reforms in the monarchy. Police dispersed several marches and made arrests for defying a ban on demonstrations.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/saudi-arabia-frees-13-shiites-held-for-protesting
Riz Khan: Saudi Arabia’s counter-revolution
Are regional powers in the Middle East attempting to control the outcome of the uprisings? As the Arab spring continues to blossom, a counter-revolution is taking hold of the region with Saudi Arabia at the helm. On Thursday’s Riz Khan we ask: Will new-found freedoms across the Middle East affect Saudi Arabia’s hold on the region? You can watch the show at 1930 GMT on Al Jazeera English. Repeats will air next day at 0430 GMT, 0830 GMT and 1430 GMT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EneVeTacmlo&feature=youtube_gdata
While the Saudi elite looks nervously abroad, a revolution is happening | Soumaya Ghannoushi
The gap between the Saudi regime’s conservative ideology and modern urban reality has fed discontent across society. The Saudi regime is under siege. To the west, its heaviest regional ally, the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, has been ousted. To its north, Syria and Jordan are gripped by a wave of protests which shows no sign of receding. On its southern border, unrest in Yemen and Oman rages on. And troops have been dispatched to Bahrain to salvage its influence over the tiny kingdom exerted through the Khalifa clan, and prevent the contagion from spreading to Saudi Arabia’s turbulent eastern provinces, the repository of both its biggest oil reserves and largest Shia population.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/saudi-elite-revolution-conservative-modern
Egypt
Mubarak to be shifted to military hospital
Prosecutor says the former president will remain under guard pending interrogation.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/2011415115933698435.html
Mubarak may face death penalty
Former President Hosni Mubarak was rushed Friday to a military hospital in Sharm el Sheikh, even as it was reported that he could face the death penalty if a pending probe proves that he ordered the crackdown against demonstrators that left at least 385 dead, state media said Friday.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/15/145504.html
Egypt will see this revolution through
Finally, Hosni Mubarak and his sons have been arrested, but the military council must work hard to restore Egyptians’ confidence. If there is one feature that would best describe the popular uprising in Egypt that turned into a full-fledged revolution it is sheer perseverance. Since the start of protests on 25 January and even after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, Egyptians have been demanding that Mubarak and his men be prosecuted and justice be served.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/15/egypt-revolution-hosni-mubarak-sons
Mubaraks Arrested
that Gamal and Ala Mubarak, the sons of deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, have been arrested and will be moved from Sharm El Sheikh to the maximum security Tura prison in the Muqattam hills above Cairo. They are said to have sat stunned and silent for some time on receiving the news. They will be held for 15 days while the office of Egypt’s chief Prosecutor interrogates them about their possible role in ordering secret police to attack nonviolent protesters during the rallies that began January 25. Nearly 900 persons are now thought to have been killed in the various attempts at crackdown by the Amniyyat al-Dawlah or security police.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/04/mubaraks-arrested.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Mubarak’s arrest a watershed moment for Egypt
Even if the former president and his sons are eventually cleared, the fact that they are being brought before the law means the world to many Egyptians. For almost three decades he wielded unquestioned power, a seemingly invincible figure ruling with a sense of privilege and ruthlessness that epitomized autocrats across the Middle East.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/jBfVvhTd3Wc/la-fg-egypt-mubarak-20110414,0,5707370.story
Other Mideast
U.S. reviewing Mideast arms sales (Reuters)
Reuters – The U.S. government is reviewing arms sales to Middle Eastern countries on a “case-by-case basis” given turmoil in the region, and has already halted some sales, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110413/pl_nm/us_mideast_usa_arms
Clashes erupt in Jordanian town
Islamists clash with monarchy supporters in industrial town of Zarqa.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/2011415153839185473.html
Iraq restricts protests to three Baghdad stadiums (AFP)
AFP – Iraqi officials have barred street protests in Baghdad, and restricted approved demonstration sites to three football stadiums in the capital, a security spokesman said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110413/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsunrestdemo
Letter to His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Regarding the Arrest of Activists
We are writing as the officers of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division to express our grave concern regarding the deteriorating human rights situation in the United Arab Emirates. We are concerned in particular by the apparent targeting of human rights activists, including our colleague Ahmed Mansoor, who is a prominent blogger, a vocal human rights advocate and a member of this Advisory Committee.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/13/letter-his-highness-shaikh-khalifa-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-regarding-arrest-activists
Book Talk: Algeria’s leading novelist says time for change
ALGIERS, April 14 (Reuters Life!) – Novelist Mohammed Moulessehoul (pseudonym: Yasmina Khadra), Algeria’s biggest literary export, has strong views on his native country’s cultural life, and on the urgent need for political change.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/book-talk-algerias-leading-novelist-says-time-for-change
Livni pushes int’l code to police Arab elections and bar some parties (hint: Muslim B’hood)
Apr 16, 2011
Philip Weiss
Simon Schama has a slavering interview with Tzipi Livni, the champion of Gaza, at the Financial Times. Says my tipster: go straight to the last paragraph, where you’ll see she “champions” a new “international standard” for elections–which would outlaw “in Muslim countries” anyone using “democratic means” to “overthrow democracies.” It is an implicit reference to Muslim Brotherhood in the previous paragraph. I suppose Israel will now define democracy for the world.
That, she explains, is the true conflict at the heart of the Middle East, one even bigger than the enmity of Jew and Arab: the genuinely irreconcilable clash between theocratic and autocratic regimes, and liberal democracies. Right now, and for a little time perhaps, an Israeli party of reason might be able to make the peace with its Palestinian counterpart. Evidently there has been something like a meeting of minds across the “security fence”. But not forever. No one knows which side – Islamic militancy or democratic secularism – will emerge from the Arab spring. But that uncertainty only makes the need for an early settlement more, not less, pressing.
Not least because Israel, too, has a domestic cultural conflict on its hands that is undoing assumptions about what kind of Jewishness the Jewish state is supposed to embody. Between the Jerusalem ultra-orthodox Haredim, for whom the only true Jewish state is one based on rigid obedience to halacha, the precepts of the religion, and those whose Israel is pluralist and secular, there is as wide a gulf as between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Tweeters of Tahrir Square. The two crises – of the outer borders of the Jewish state and its inner identity – Livni sees as organically connected. It says something about her forthrightness as well as her optimism that Livni wants a written Israeli constitution that would make a clear demarcation between synagogue and state.
But then she is a great believer in the strength of principle, championing an international code of practice to govern elections in newly born democracies. Recalling that in Israel the expulsionist Kach party was disbarred from participating in elections, she wants the same principle to apply to parties in Muslim countries that use democratic means to overthrow democracy. Hitler, she remembers, came to power through the ballot box. “This would not be patronising or imperialist,” she says. “They can all do what they like. But if they want to participate in an international community they should abide by those conventions.”
Palestinian state is ‘the most important issue for us in the region,’ Qatari Emir tells Obama
Apr 16, 2011
Philip Weiss
Thursday at the White House, Obama appeared with the Emir of Qatar. The president made a long statement that included a very vague reference to the issue:
We discussed our mutual interest in seeing a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Emir was not restrained, and his view of the matter bulked far larger in a short statement:
HIS HIGHNESS EMIR SHEIKH HAMAD BIN KHALIFA AL-THANI:
And, of course, the most important issue for us in the region is that Palestine-Israeli conflict and how to find a way to establish a Palestinian state. And we do understand your position, Mr. President, in supporting the existence of two states peacefully living side by side, and we support your position.