HRW report: Syria lost a decade as far as human rights reforms are concerned

 Bashar al-Assad with his wife Asma

In his inaugural speech on July 17, 2000, the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad spoke of the need for "creative thinking," "transparency," and "democracy." However, the period of tolerance that followed al-Asad's ascent to power was short-lived, Human Rights Watch asserts in een report released on 16 July.
In the Report, 'A Wasted Decade', HRW points to the fact that when Assad came to power it looked as if Syria was living through a'Damacus Spring'. Groups were meeting in private houses and discussing an new political future and the highpoint was the shutting down of the dreaded Mezze prison whereby hundreds of  politcal prisoners were set free. owever Syria's prisons quickly filled again with political prisoners, journalists, and human rights activists. The report lists 92 names since Assad jr's ascent to power.  In the most recent examples, Syrian criminal courts in the last three weeks separately sentenced two of Syria's leading human rights lawyers, Haytham al-Maleh, 78, and Muhanad al-Hasani, 42, to three years in jail each for their criticisms of Syria's human rights record.

Promises by al-Asad for new laws that would broaden political and civil society participation have not materialized. In March 2005 he told journalists that "the coming period will be one of freedom for political parties" in Syria. However, Syria is still a de facto single party state with only the Ba`ath Party able to operate freely.
"Whatever hopes Syrians might have had for a new era of political openness under al-Asad's rule have been dashed," HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said. The Kurdish minority, estimated to be 10 percent of the population, is denied basic group rights, including the right to learn Kurdish in schools or celebrate Kurdish festivals, such as Nowruz (Kurdish New Year). Official repression of Kurds increased further after Syrian Kurds held large-scale demonstrations, some of which turned violent, throughout northern Syria in March 2004 to voice long-simmering grievances. Despite repeated promises by al-Assad, an estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds are still waiting for the Syrian government to solve their predicament by granting them citizenship. Syria has emerged from its Western-imposed isolation since 2007, with officials from the US and European countries reaching out to Damascus and regularly meeting with al-Asad. According to Whitson Assad has no excuse to continue to stall on reforms. "Now that he has emerged from his internationally imposed isolation, he should open up his country."

Lebanese parliament indecisive on issue of granting rights to Palestinian refugees

The Palestinian camp Ain al-Helweh near Saida (Sidon)



Lebanon's parliament on Thursday postponed to 17 August talks on the controversial issue of granting the Palestinian refugees in the country the right employment, social security, medical care, and ownership of property.
A deep divide over the motion has emerged between Christians and Muslims in the 128-strong parliament, which is equally split between the two confessions. Christian parliamentarians -although on other issues often deepjy divided - are unanimous in their refusal to grant Palestinians property rights, fearing the move would lead to permanent settlement and giving the mainly Sunni Muslim refugees full-fledged citizenship. Palestinians have consistently said they refuse Lebanese citizenship. Members of Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri's ruling bloc have stepped up talks with their Christian Maronite allies on an alternate proposal, which will likely not include a clause on property, in a bid to come to an agreement.
Christian MPs have also lashed out at the cash-strapped UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing it of trying to shift its responsibilities to the shoulders of the Lebanese state. "UNRWA's budget is shrinking and it is failing to meet its responsibilities and placing them on Lebanon," MP Sami Gemayel of the Maronite Kataeb (Phalange) party said before going into the meeting. "That is dangerous because if the international community is no longer responsible for this matter and is trying to throw all responsibility on Lebanon, we have begun to move step by step towards naturalisation."
Lebanon houses close to half a million Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA, who live in a dozen impoverished camps across the country. Lebanese officials have said no more than 300,000 refugees actually reside in Lebanon.

At least 26 killed, 300 wounded in attack by Sunni rebels in Iranian Baluchestan

The death toll from twin suicide bombings at a Shiite mosque in predominantly Sunni southeast Iran has risen to 26. Hossein Ali Shahriari, parliamentarian from the city of Zahedan where the attacks occurred, told this  on Thursday, according to the Iranian press agency IRNA. He put the number of wounded at more than 300.
Among those killed were a members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.
The Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah said it was behind the attacks, telling Al Arabiya TV in an e-mail that it had carried them out in retaliation for Iran's execution in June of the group's leader, Abdolmalek Rigi. Rigi was hanged after being convicted of carrying out other deadly attacks. His younger brother Abdolhamid was hanged one month earlier in Zahedan. The suicide bombings took place near Zahedan's Grand Mosque, and Jundollah said they were carried out by relatives of Rigi and were aimed at a Revolutionary Guards gathering. The group said the suicide attacks were carried out by Abdolbaset Rigi and Mohammad Rigi. It warned of more operations to come.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which shares a border with Pakistan. The province is known for its instability and faces frequent clashes between police and drug dealers, smugglers and bandits.

Iran accuses Jundollah of having links to al-Qaeda and has also accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundollah to create instability in southeast Iran. All three countries have denied this, and Jundollah denies having any links with al-Qaeda and says it fights for more rights for the Sunnis in Baluchestan.  

Report: Israeli attack on Iran would provoke long war with unpredictable consequences for the region

 President Ahmadinejad inspects an Iranian nuclear facilty (Reuters)

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would start a long war and probably not prevent Iran from eventually acquiring nuclear weapons. That is the conclusion of  study by a British think-tank, the Oxford Research Group, which promotes non-violent solutions to conflict. It said that military action is not a  solution to prevent Iran to acquire nuclear weapons ambitions."An Israeli attack on Iran would be the start of a protracted conflict that would be unlikely to prevent the eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran and might even encourage it," it said in a report. It would also lead to instability and unpredictable security consequences for the region and the wider world, it added.

The report is written by Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford. It says that it is unlikely that the US would  take military action against Iran, but that Israel's capabilities had increased. According to the report Israel could use long-range strike aircraft it acquired from the United States, combined with an improved fleet of tanker aircraft, in combination with long-range drones. Also it is possible that it can make use of support facilities in northeast Iraq and Azerbaijan. All of which increase Israel's potential for action against Iran, according to the report. Israeli leaders usually speak only of leaving all options on the table. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, however, said in May that Israel had the capability to hit Iran.

Any Israeli strike would be focused not only on destroying nuclear and missile targets, but would also hit factories and research centers and even university laboratories to damage Iranian expertise, the report said.
This would cause many civilian casualties, it added. Military action would include the direct bombing of targets in Tehran and probably include attempts to kill technocrats who managed Iran's nuclear and missile programs, the report said.

Iran's responses to an Israeli attack could include withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and immediate action to produce nuclear weapons to deter further attacks, the report said. They could also include missile attacks on Israel, closing the Strait of Hormuz to push up oil prices and paramilitary or missile attacks on Western oil facilities in the Gulf. After a first strike, Israel might have to carry out regular air strikes to stop Iran developing atom bombs and medium-range missiles, the report said. "Iranian responses would also be long-term, ushering in a lengthy war with global as well as regional implications," Rogers said.

The Oxford report estimates that it might take three to seven years for Iran to develop a small arsenal of nuclear weapons if it decided to do so. It said there was no firm evidence such a decision had been taken by the leadership of the Islamic Republic. The United Nations Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran last month over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons in secret. Iran says it wants nuclear energy for peaceful uses only. According to the report alternatie options for the West to deal with a possible Iranian nuclear ambition would be to redouble efforts to get a diplomatic settlement or accept that Iran may eventually acquire a nuclear capability and use that as the start of a process of balanced regional de-nuclearization, the report said.

Arrested suspect of Jewish terrorism claims to have worked for Shin Bet

Pearlman. Photo (Moti Kimchi, Haaretz)

 No lack of strange stories in Israel. One after the other. This one is about the arrest of a muderer of Arabs, who says he acted at the request of the internal security services, Shin Bet. This is what YNet reports:

 Jerusalem police on Tuesday night arrested Kach activist Haim Pearlman on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a number of Palestinians. He is also suspected of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
Sources close to Pearlman said the Shin Bet persuaded the Kach activist to commit the alleged acts. "He has proof of this. The Shin Bet is operating out of vindictive motives," one of them said.
Pearlman, 30, is suspected of murdering a number of Arabs in the 90s, in what was called the "serial stabber" affair. His associates said he was recently asked by the Shin Bet to serve as a collaborator and was offered NIS 1,500 (about $390) in exchange for any piece of information. According to Pearlman's associates, when he failed to provide any relevant information, a Shin Bet operative visited his home to try to persuade him to harm Arabs. On one occasion, the associates said, the Shin Bet operative asked him to murder Sheikh Raed Salah,the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.They said Pearlman has tapes that verify their claim, adding that he was arrested because the Shin Bet fears the tapes' transcripts will be published in the press. "(The arrest) was an act of pure vengeance," one associate said.
Pearlman, a resident of Givat Washington in central Israel, served time in the past for his involvement in an attack on two Arabs at a Jerusalem supermarket during the funeral procession of Talia and Binyamin Zeev Kahane (the son of the late Meir Kahane, the founder of the Kach movement, and his wife), who were shot dead by Palestinians as they were driving home from Jerusalem on the Ramallah bypass road.
Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing Pearlman, said, "The Israeli public is about to be exposed to one of the most embarrassing affairs, which will reveal the methods of operation of the security agencies that tried to coerce the suspect into linking himself to acts he had nothing to do with."

Again attacks on offices of security services in South Yemen

 Street in Zinjibar, in the Yemeni province of Abyan.

Unknown gunmen assaulted two south Yemen security offices on Wednesday in coordinated attacks, setting off fighting in which at least three people were killed, police said. Witnesses and security sources said attackers on motorcycles roared into the police headquarters and the office of an intelligence agency handling political security in the town of Zinjibar. They opened fire as officers gathered in ranks for the morning roll call."A large number of gunmen attacked the political security and the General Security (police) offices at the beginning of the workday. Security guards fired on them, and there are dead and wounded on the scene," a police source said. "It is believed that the attackers were members of al Qaeda," he added.
Witnesses reached in Zinjibar told Reuters they saw five people believed dead on the street. They added that after the attack and subsequent clashes, the gunmen sped away on their motorcycles.
A doctor at a hospital in the Abyan province where the wounded were taken confirmed three deaths and said at least nine others were wounded, most of them security agents. A security source said the dead included an attacker and two security men.
On 2 July gunmen on motorcyles killed a senior officer of the security services. He was the second killed in less than a month. Eleven people were killed on 19 June during an attack at the headquarters of the security services in the southern capital Aden.  

Court offers Hamas parliamentarian Abu Tir a choice between expulsion or jail

Mohammed Abu Tir in court. (Photo Noam Moskowitz YNet).

The Jerusalem Magistrates' Court on Wednesday gave a ruling on the case of Mohammad Abu Tir, member of the Palestinian parliament for Hamas, in which it offered him a real develish choice. The Hamas parliamentarian, who was born and lives in the district Abu Tor of East Jerusalem, will either be expelled from Israel or remain in jail. If he accepts to be expelled, which taes effect on Sunday.,  he has to sign a paper that he will not return to Israel and to make a deposit of 50.000 shekels (about $ 13.000). If he remains in jail he has to pay considerable sums as well.

Abu Tir was arrested in 2006, together with about 60 other Hamas officials, after Hamas in Gaza had taken the Israeli corporal Gilad prisoner. Abu Tir's residence permit for Jerusalem was taken from him and he served four years in prison, from which he was released in May. Shortly thereafter he was arrested and at the beginning of the month, an indictment was filed against Abu Tir in the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court for remaining in Israel illegally. According to YNet Israel offered him during his years in jail to renounce his political activity and quit Hamas in exchange for which he would be permitted to return to Jerusalem. Abu Tir alledgedly refused this.
The deportation of someone who was born and lived in Jerusalem for political reasons has hitherto never occurred and is therefor a precedent It is also completely illegal. East Jerusalem is occupied territory under international law and the Geneva Conventions forbid to expel inhabitants of occupied lands. Three other members of the parliament for Hamas who await a similar verdict, are holding a protest demonstration in a tent in East Jerusalem

Knesset revokes priviliges from Arab member Hanin Zoabi due to her participation in Gaza flotilla

A fake Iranian passport for Hanin Zoabi (Picture Haaretz)

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset on Tuesday revoked privileges from MK Hanin Zoabi, due to her participation in the Gaza aid flotilla in May. With a vote of  34 against 16 MKs it voted in favor of invalidating her diplomatic passport and revoking her right to receive funding for legal expenses.
Zoabi, a member of the Arab Balad Party, spoke at a hearing before the vote and said the Knesset's conduct proved that ther was no democracy in Israel. She went on to say that, far from revoking her rights, the other MKs should be protecting them. "You should have protected me from the racism against me because of my opinions," she said.
"A debate such as this cannot be held in a proper fashion, and it would shame any other parliament in the world," said the Arab MK. "You can't claim that democracy exists here. I am an MK and I have the right, even the duty, to fight for my positions.I am an MK from Balad, which means I oppose the occupation and the blockade. Not only do I represent the opinions of my people, I represent those of other Arab MKs. I also represent a global consensus."

MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu), who had previously attacked Zoabi on the stand, now presented her with an Iranian passport bearing her picture. She was thereafter removed from the plenum. But before she left Michaeli told Zoabi, "Most of the Arabs in Israel are smart enough and faithful enough to the state to open their eyes after your incitement. You do not represent them. I take your loyalty to Iran seriously and suggest that you appeal to Ahmadinejad for citizenship and a diplomatic Iranian passport. In the meantime allow me to supply you with a temporary passport that will certainly benefit you in your incitement tours, because we will be revoking your Israeli passport tonight."

MK Shai Hermesh (Kadima) told the Knesset why it would be wrong to push Zoabi out of  parliament. He quoted David Ben Gurion who once preferred to add Moshe Dayan to his cohorts. "I prefer to have him pissing out from my tent, rather than from outside in. Pushing Zoabi out from the Knesset would be a mistake. The damage she will do as a movement outside parliament that can accuse Israel of apartheid is inestimably greater than the damage she can do from inside," according to Hermesh.

{I'd like to add a remark concerning Geert Wilders, our Dutch member of parliament who is an great fan of Israel. If the Dutch parliament would have acted towards him like the Israeli one at present is behaving  towards Zoabi, he would have been  a new immigrant in Australia by now.}

Demolishing houses in Issawiya

Confidence building measures?

Sheikh Raed Salah sentenced to five months for spitting at a border policeman

Sheikh Raed Salah (Picture Ma'an News)

Israel's Jerusalem District Court sentenced Sheikh Raed Salah to five months imprisonment on Tuesday for spitting on an Israeli border guard in 2007. The leader of the Islamic Movement in Northern Israel's earlier  nine months, that was reduced. His sentence takes effect as from 25 July.
A lawyer at the hearing told Ma'an that the ruling, which saw Salah convicted of assault, was unprecedented.
Palestinian member of Israel's Knesset Haneen Zoabi, who was present at the ruling, described it as an "unjustified. This is an exaggeration, and not an objective ruling ... Israel treats Palestinians not as citizens but as enemies. This hostile dealing comes across all institutions, not just politically or in the Knesset, but also the court system, which is supposed to protect the rights of its citizens," Zoabi said.
Salah was indicted on assault charges following reports that he spat on a border guard in East Jerusalem's Old City in 2007 during a rally against Israeli construction near the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.
(This version CORRECTS that Salah was convicted for spitting on a border guard and not for his involvement in the Freedom Flotilla.)

Druze from Golan accused of spying, house search causes uproar

Majdal Shams on the occupied Golan.

A Druze man suspected of committing crimes against state security was the target of a raid on the Golan village of Majdal Shams on Sunday that turned violent as thousands of locals tried to prevent police from searching for him.That is what Haaretz reported on Monday after a gag order had been lifted. It seems the purpose of the raid, which was orchestrated by the Shin Bet security services and the National Unit of International Investigations, as to search for Fada Sha'ar, 27. YNet reports that the raid in fact was baout a search of his house, because the man himself, a musician who studied  several yeras in Syria and lateron in Egypt, was arrested upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport,  when re returned from France. He has been remanded in custody for eight days on suspicion of, as Ynet report, spying for an enemy country. The precise content of the case against him is unknown, because it is still under gag order. Sha'ar is the number so and so much in what appears to be a modest string of similar spying cases, the last one of which is the case agianst Amir Makhoul and Omar Said from Haifa who are still in jail, waiting trial .

Overturning a police car

 What caused the uproar in Majdal Shams, the biggest Druze village on the occupied Golan, was the way the police forced itself into Sha'ar's house. A crowd of several hundred people closed the building in and three officers were held prisoners inside for several hours. Extra forces were called in, skirmishes broke out and some people were injured.
Fada Sha'ar's father complaned bitterly to Ynet about the way the police handled the matter. He went to the airport in order to welcome his son whom he had not seen for several years. Then he got him on the phone telling him that he was not able to get off the plane, and next he got someone on the phone who told him son was arrested. This and the way the police tried to burst into his house, was deeply offending and unacceptable for him and for the Druze community, he told the paper.   

Update 14/7: Majed Sha'ar, the father of the arrested musician, was arrested as well on Wednesday. It is not clear what the charges against him are. The case is under gag order.

Germany bans Turkish aid organisation IHH

Thomas de Maizière, the German minister of the Interior, (Christian Democratic Union), on Monday outlawed the Turkish charity IHH, because it has been giving aid to organisations in the Gaza Strip which are considered to be subsidiaries  of Hamas. The banned charity has no ties with the charity of the same name in Istanbul. De Maizière:   

«Unter dem Deckmantel der humanitären Hilfe unterstützt die IHH seit einem langen Zeitraum und in beträchtlichen finanziellen Umfang im Gaza-Streifen ansässige sogenannte Sozialvereine, die der Hamas zuzuordnen sind», sagte de Maizière. Das «geradezu zynische Verhalten der IHH» komme schon in der Vereinsbezeichnung «Internationale Humanitäre Hilfsorganisation» zum Ausdruck. Sie missbrauche die Hilfsbereitschaft gutgläubiger Spender, um mit dem für vermeintlich gute Zwecke gespendeten Geld im Ergebnis eine terroristische Organisation zu unterstützen.
Da die Hamas Gewalttaten gegenüber Israel und israelischen Staatsbürgern ausübe, beeinträchtige sie die friedliche Verständigung des israelischen und palästinensischen Volkes, sagte de Maizière weiter. Organisationen, die sich unmittelbar oder mittelbar von deutschem Boden aus gegen das Existenzrecht Israels richteten, hätten ihr Recht auf Vereinigungsfreiheit verwirkt.

 In translation:
Under the pretext of humanitiarian aid, IHH supports since long and with substanbtial sums so called social organisations in the Gaza Strip which can be considered to belong to Hamas, Maizière said.The cynical behavior of IHH is already clear from the way it calls itself Ínternational Humanitarian Aid Organisation, according to him. He said it abused the generosity of trusting contributors by using the money that was given to ostensibly charitable goals to support a terrorist organisation.
Because Hamas exerts violence against Israel and Israeli's it inhibits the peaceful relations between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, De Maizière said. Organisations which, from German soil, either directly or indirectly act in contravention of Israels right to exist loose their freedom of association, the minister said..

Well, I thought that Holland was rigid in its refusal to consider the fact that Hamas has more faces than the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades and that - maybe - also the blockade of Gaza is not exactly contributing to peaceful relations between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. But Germany is even more rigid.
The banned organisation is, by the way, not a part of  IHH (İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri İnsani Yardım Vakfı) in Istanbul, one of the main organizers of the Free Gaza Flotilla which was attacked and intercepted by the Israeli marine on 31 May. The Istanbuli IHH said in a declaration on its website: The ''Germany-based Internationale Humanitären Hilfsorganisation has no relation to us, that is to IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation in Turkey. In various European countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, several organizations exist and operate in the same field as us under similar names and logos with our organization. Those organizations carry no actual links to our foundation. IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation only works with partner organizations everywhere it goes to.''