Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Blood and tears as Israeli police storm wedding during lockdown

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Police say bride’s brother threw oil and slipped on it; interior minister demands investigation

An Israeli wedding in a settlement outside Jerusalem ended with a bloody fight and sobbing guests after police stormed in to break it up, accusing the family of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules.

Footage of police dragging the bride’s brother out a house, blood streaming down his face as he is escorted past a white cloth table set with flowers, has led to outrage in the government, and an investigation has been opened.

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Israel’s pact with the UAE is not about peace. It’s a business deal | Sami Abu Shehadeh

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Palestinian homes are still being demolished and illegal settlements expanded. That’s why tomorrow I’ll be voting against the agreement in the Knesset

Tomorrow, the Israeli parliament will be voting on the agreement to normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates. A large majority will approve a hugely favourable step towards the Israeli government’s goals: perpetuating its systematic violations of international law and of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights. Those parliamentarians who believe in justice and equality are going to vote against this agreement. I’m afraid, though, that we are a tiny minority.

This week, we were given copies of the agreement, which I read in the three languages (Arabic, Hebrew and English) and figured out a few things. First of all, those who wrote it in different languages tailored it to their audiences. While in English and Hebrew, they repeated the word “normalisation” several times, it is not even mentioned in Arabic. This is a business deal that merely establishes diplomatic relations, and not a peace agreement. The word “annexation” (of occupied Palestinian territory) is not even mentioned.

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Iran at breaking point as it fights third wave of coronavirus

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Trust in government of exhausted and impoverished country is diminishing as death toll continues to rise

Iran, the crucible of coronavirus in the Middle East, smashed two grim records this week, reporting its largest number of deaths in a single 24 hours since the outbreak started in March, and the largest number of new infections.

Iranian health officials openly admit Iran is deep into its third, and biggest, wave of the disease, and evidence suggests an exhausted and impoverished country is struggling to cope as trust in government diminishes, sanctions weaken the economy and hospitals report overcrowded intensive care units.

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Painful but effective? UK can look to Israel for example of short lockdown

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Israel imposed ‘circuit breaker’-style lockdown at same time UK ministers ignored advice to do just that

Days before UK ministers rejected advice to impose a shortened “circuit breaker” lockdown in late September, Israel made the opposite decision and enforced the unpopular and painful policy to stem the spiralling number of virus infections.

The country of 9 million – less than 15% of the population of Britain – was shut down for a second time, with Israeli officials arguing it was essential to halt infections or risk overloading hospitals.

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JCB challenged over machinery used to demolish Palestinian homes

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Foreign Office quango says some of NGO’s claims against machinery firm ‘merit further examination’

The British heavy machinery firm JCB’s sale of equipment used in the destruction of Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is being examined by a UK government body to determine whether its due diligence process complies with human rights guidelines set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The case is likely to test the degree to which multinationals are responsible if their export goods are sold by local distributors in ways that infringe human rights.

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China, Russia and Saudi Arabia set to join UN human rights council

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Rights campaigners voice concerns as Cuba and Pakistan also expected to be elected

China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are expected to be elected to the board of the UN human rights council on Tuesday, leaving human rights campaigners in the countries aghast and pleading with EU states to commit to withholding their support.

The Geneva-based monitoring NGO UN Watch described the situation as the equivalent of allowing five convicted arsonists to join the fire brigade.

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‘They have to be punished’: the mothers trapped in the UAE by ‘love crimes’

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Single migrant women left destitute by Covid can’t leave until they have served sentences for sex outside marriage – but virus restrictions mean prisons won’t accept them

When Reyna* took a taxi to Al-Awir prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, she was hoping to turn herself in and be admitted as an inmate. The former domestic worker from the Philippines had brought her three-month-old son along with her.

Reyna lost her job during the pandemic; she can no longer pay for their rent or food and wants to return to her homeland. But in order to be permitted to leave the UAE she must first serve a jail sentence for having sex outside marriage, which is illegal under the country’s Islamic laws.

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People in Gaza sifting through rubbish for food, UN head says

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Palestinians across Middle East suffering unprecedented poverty, says Philippe Lazzarini

People in Gaza are searching through rubbish to find food as Palestinians battle unprecedented levels of poverty, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.

Across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and elsewhere, Palestinian refugees are suffering at new depths because of the pandemic, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini. “There is despair and hopelessness,” he said in an interview.

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Footballers and fishermen: Italy’s red prawn war with Libya turns ugly

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Libyan forces holding Italian crew demand release of footballers convicted of people smuggling

At two docks on opposite shores of the Mediterranean, two sets of families have been drawn into a small international crisis as the fate of 12 Italian fishermen held in Libya appears to hinge on that of four Libyan footballers jailed in Italy for people smuggling.

In Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily, family members have been calling for the immediate release of 12 men, part of a crew including six Tunisians, whose vessel was seized on 1 September by Libyan patrol boats accusing them of fishing in territorial waters. They were taken to Benghazi, Libya, where the warlord Gen Khalifa Haftar reportedly ordered them detained unless Italy released the four Libyans whose families claim were wrongly convicted.

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Wildfires erupt in Mount Lebanon area after heatwave hits country – video

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Firefighters in Lebanon have been battling fierce wildfires across the Mount Lebanon area and along the country’s border with Israel. The Lebanese Civil Defense said rising temperatures and high wind speeds were contributing to the spread of the fires.

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Lebanon: fuel tank explodes in basement of Beirut building – video

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A fuel tank exploded inside a Beirut building on Friday night, killing four people and injuring several others, the Lebanese Red Cross said. The explosion came two months after a massive blast at Beirut's port killed nearly 200 people, injured at least 6,500 and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

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Lebanon: Beirut fuel tank explodes in building basement, killing four

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Blaze erupts inside bakery shaking city, two months after a massive blast at port killed nearly 200 people

A fuel tank has exploded inside a Beirut building, killing four people and injuring several others, the Lebanese Red Cross said.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the blast in the western neighbourhood of Tariq al-Jadida on Friday night. The state-run national news agency said the blaze erupted inside a bakery in the basement of the building.

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Mohammad Reza Shajarian embodied the timeless beauty of Persian music

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The singer, who has died aged 80, was silenced in his home nation for his outspoken criticism – but his artistry played on in the hearts of Iranians at home and abroad

I vividly remember the first time I met Mohammad Reza Shajarian on a summer afternoon in Berlin in 2011. He was touring Europe, along with his daughter Mojgan and an ensemble of young musicians. For Iranians, this was – along with North America – the only place they could experience their great idol on stage, given that the outspoken maestro of Persian classical music had been banned from performing inside Iran two years earlier.

Related: Iranian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian dies aged 80

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Scientists get hands dirty with research into medieval poop

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Study seeks to compare microbiomes of our ancestors for clues to modern diseases

Researchers working knee-deep in 14th- and 15th-century latrines have found that bacterial DNA from human excrement can last for centuries and provide clues to how our gut contents have changed significantly since medieval times.

Analysis of two cesspits, one in Jerusalem and the other in the Latvian capital, Riga, could help scientists understand if changes to our microbiome – the genetic makeup of the bacteria, virus, fungi, parasites and other microbes living inside us – affect modern-day afflictions.

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Iran: prominent human rights activist released over health concerns

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Narges Mohammadi suffers from neurological condition and was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison

The most prominent human rights activist imprisoned in Iran, Narges Mohammadi, has been released from jail after her sentence was reduced amid renewed fears for her health.

Iran has been hit by a third wave of coronavirus that has seen the daily numbers of new infection break records, with a new high of 4,392 on Thursday.

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‘A threat from within’: Iraq and the rise of its militias

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Shaped by the fight against Isis and a fateful US drone strike, the factions now pose a danger to Baghdad’s weak government

The dust had barely settled on the fall of Iraq’s second city when the call came. It was June 2014 and Islamic State had just captured Mosul, the prize in a fight for control of a country already scarred by more than a decade of war.

Just four days after the city’s capture, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shia cleric in Iraq, issued a fatwa urging Iraqis to volunteer in the fight against the militants. Tens of thousands of mostly young men from the poor Shia south and Baghdad suburbs flocked to recruiting centres, military camps and militia headquarters.

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Iranian musicians help out in secret on Israeli singer’s new record

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‘I don’t agree with anything that comes with seeing Iran as our enemy,’ says singer Liraz Charhi

An Israeli singer of Persian heritage is set to release an album she made by working in secret with Iranian musicians, her long-held aspiration for artistic collaboration despite bitter animosity between the two states.

Using encrypted instant-messaging apps like Telegram and by wiring money through third countries, such as the UK and Turkey, Liraz Charhi said she spent months of sleepless nights fearing those who associated would be in danger.

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UK MPs and lawyers request Saudi visit to check on missing princes

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Mohammed bin Nayef and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz have not been seen in public since March

A group of MPs and lawyers have asked to visit Saudi Arabia to discover the fate of two high-profile Saudi princes, the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz.

The panel has been set up to investigate and report on the detention of the princes as well as other key political figures detained in the region. The princes have reportedly been denied legal advice, medical care and contact with their family since they disappeared in March.

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Turkey and UAE openly flouting UN arms embargo to fuel war in Libya

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Guardian joint investigation finds both sides send military cargo planes to region, in blatant violation of agreement to end conflict

Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are carrying out regular and increasingly blatant violations of the UN arms embargo on Libya, fuelling a proxy war that is evading political solutions, a joint investigation by the Guardian has found.

Flight data and satellite images show both nations using large-scale military cargo planes to funnel in goods and fighters to forces or proxies inside Libya, routinely violating the 2011 UN arms embargo despite political promises to abstain.

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Threat of home demolitions sparks protests among Egypt’s poorest

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Amnesty International says two killed in unrest over law demanding residents pay fines to legalise homes

Rights groups say two Egyptians have been killed and hundreds more detained in a recent wave of protests as anger mounts against a law some of those hit hardest by the economic fallout from coronavirus say now threatens their homes.

The protests, mostly in impoverished remote areas, were spurred on by a growth in anti-government sentiment, in particular over a law demanding residents pay fines to legalise homes built on agricultural land. Many say they cannot afford the fine, despite government threats to demolish the homes of those who can’t pay.

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