holiday:eid al-fitr

  • For six months, these Palestinian villages had running water. Israel put a stop to it
    For six months, Palestinian villagers living on West Bank land that Israel deems a closed firing range saw their dream of running water come true. Then the Civil Administration put an end to it

    Amira Hass Feb 22, 2019 3:25 PM

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-doesn-t-israel-want-palestinians-to-have-running-water-1.69595

    The dream that came true, in the form of a two-inch water line, was too good to be true. For about six months, 12 Palestinian West Bank villages in the South Hebron Hills enjoyed clean running water. That was until February 13, when staff from the Israeli Civil Administration, accompanied by soldiers and Border Police and a couple of bulldozers, arrived.

    The troops dug up the pipes, cut and sawed them apart and watched the jets of water that spurted out. About 350 cubic meters of water were wasted. Of a 20 kilometer long (12 mile) network, the Civil Administration confiscated remnants and sections of a total of about 6 kilometers of piping. They loaded them on four garbage trucks emblazoned with the name of the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan on them.

    The demolition work lasted six and a half hours. Construction of the water line network had taken about four months. It had been a clear act of civil rebellion in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King against one of the most brutal bans that Israel imposes on Palestinian communities in Area C, the portion of the West Bank under full Israeli control. It bars Palestinians from hooking into existing water infrastructure.

    The residential caves in the Masafer Yatta village region south of Hebron and the ancient cisterns used for collecting rainwater confirm the local residents’ claim that their villages have existed for decades, long before the founding of the State of Israel. In the 1970s, Israel declared some 30,000 dunams (7,500 acres) in the area Firing Range 918.

    In 1999, under the auspices of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the army expelled the residents of the villages and demolished their structures and water cisterns. The government claimed that the residents were trespassing on the firing range, even though these were their lands and they have lived in the area long before the West Bank was captured by Israel.

    When the matter was brought to the High Court of Justice, the court approved a partial return to the villages but did not allow construction or hookups to utility infrastructure. Mediation attempts failed, because the state was demanding that the residents leave their villages and live in the West Bank town of Yatta and come to graze their flocks and work their land only on a few specific days per year.

    But the residents continued to live in their homes, risking military raids and demolition action — including the demolition of public facilities such as schools, medical clinics and even toilets. They give up a lot to maintain their way of life as shepherds, but could not forgo water.

    “The rainy season has grown much shorter in recent years, to only about 45 days a year,” explained Nidal Younes, the chairman of the Masafer Yatta council of villages. “In the past, we didn’t immediately fill the cisterns with rainwater, allowing them to be washed and cleaned first. Since the amount of rain has decreased, people stored water right away. It turns out the dirty water harmed the sheep and the people.”

    Because the number of residents has increased, even in years with abundant rain, at a certain stage the cisterns ran dry and the shepherds would bring in water by tractor. They would haul a 4 cubic meter (140 square foot) tank along the area’s narrow, poor roads — which Israel does not permit to have widened and paved. “The water has become every family’s largest expense,” Younes said.

    In the village of Halawa, he pointed out Abu Ziyad, a man of about 60. “I always see him on a tractor, bringing in water or setting out to bring back water.”

    Sometimes the tractors overturn and drivers are injured. Tires quickly wear out and precious work days go to waste. “We are drowning in debt to pay for the transportation of water,” Abu Ziyad said.

    In 2017, the Civil Administration and the Israeli army closed and demolished the roads to the villages, which the council had earlier managed to widen and rebuild. That had been done to make it easier to haul water in particular, but also more generally to give the villages better access.

    The right-wing Regavim non-profit group “exposed” the great crime committed in upgrading the roads and pressured the Civil Administration and the army to rip them up. “The residents’ suffering increased,” Younes remarked. “We asked ourselves how to solve the water problem.”

    The not very surprising solution was installing pipes to carry the water from the main water line in the village of Al-Tuwani, through privately owned lands of the other villages. “I checked it out, looking to see if there was any ban on laying water lines on private land and couldn’t find one,” Younes said.

    Work done by volunteers

    The plumbing work was done by volunteers, mostly at night and without heavy machinery, almost with their bare hands. Ali Debabseh, 77, of the village of Khalet al-Daba, recalled the moment when he opened the spigot installed near his home and washed his face with running water. “I wanted to jump for joy. I was as happy as a groom before his wedding.”

    Umm Fadi of the village of Halawa also resorted to the word “joy” in describing the six months when she had a faucet near the small shack in which she lives. “The water was clean, not brown from rust or dust. I didn’t need to go as far as the cistern to draw water, didn’t need to measure every drop.”

    Now it’s more difficult to again get used to being dependent on water dispensed from tanks.

    The piping and connections and water meters were bought with a 100,000 euro ($113,000) European donation. Instead of paying 40 shekels ($11) per cubic meter for water brought in with water tanks, the residents paid only about 6 shekels for the same amount of running water. Suddenly they not only saved money, but also had more precious time.

    The water lines also could have saved European taxpayers money. A European project to help the residents remain in their homes had been up and running since 2011, providing annual funding of 120,000 euros to cover the cost of buying and transporting drinking water during the three summer months for the residents (but not their livestock).

    The cost was based on a calculation involving consumption of 750 liters per person a month, far below the World Health Organization’s recommended quantity. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 residents. The project made things much easier for such a poor community, which continued to pay out of its own pocket for the water for some 40,000 sheep and for the residents’ drinking water during the remainder of the year. Now that the Civil Administration has demolished the water lines, the European donor countries may be forced to once again pay for the high price of transporting water during the summer months, at seven times the cost.

    For its part, the Civil Administration issued a statement noting that the area is a closed military zone. “On February 13,” the statement said, “enforcement action was taken against water infrastructure that was connected to illegal structures in this area and that were built without the required permits.”

    Ismail Bahis should have been sorry that the pipes were laid last year. He and his brothers, residents of Yatta, own water tankers and were the main water suppliers to the Masafer Yatta villages. Through a system of coupons purchased with the European donation, they received 800 shekels for every shipment of 20 cubic meters of water. But Bahis said he was happy he had lost out on the work.

    “The roads to the villages of Masafer Yatta are rough and dangerous, particularly after the army closed them,” he said. “Every trip of a few kilometers took at least three and a half hours. Once I tipped over with the tanker. Another time the army confiscated my brother’s truck, claiming it was a closed military zone. We got the truck released three weeks later in return for 5,000 shekels. We always had other additional expenses replacing tires and other repairs for the truck.

    Nidal Younes recounted that the council signed a contract with another water carrier to meet the demand. But that supplier quit after three weeks. He wouldn’t agree to drive on the poor and dangerous roads.

    On February 13, Younes heard the large group of forces sent by the Civil Administration beginning to demolish the water lines near the village of Al-Fakhit. He rushed to the scene and began arguing with the soldiers and Civil Administration staff.

    Border Police arrests

    Border Police officers arrested him, handcuffed him and put him in a jeep. His colleague, the head of the Al-Tuwani council, Mohammed al-Raba’i, also approached those carrying out the demolition work to protest. “But they arrested me after I said two words. At least Nidal managed to say a lot,” he said with a smile that concealed sadness.

    Two teams carried out the demolition work, one proceeding toward the village of Jinbah, to the southeast, the second advanced in the direction of Al-Tuwani, to the northwest. They also demolished the access road leading to the village of Sha’ab al-Butum, so that even if Bahis wanted to transport water again, he would have had to make a large detour to do so.

    Younes was shocked to spot a man named Marco among the team carrying out the demolition. “I remembered him from when I was a child, from the 1980s when he was an inspector for the Civil Administration. In 1985, he supervised the demolition of houses in our village, Jinbah — twice, during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr [marking the end of the Ramadan holy month],” he said.

    “They knew him very well in all the villages in the area because he attended all the demolitions. The name Marco was a synonym for an evil spirit. Our parents who saw him demolish their homes, have died. He disappeared, and suddenly he has reappeared,” Younes remarked.

    Marco is Marco Ben-Shabbat, who has lead the Civil Administration’s supervision unit for the past 10 years. Speaking to a reporter from the Israel Hayom daily who accompanied the forces carrying out the demolition work, Ben-Shabbat said: “The [water line] project was not carried out by the individual village. The Palestinian Authority definitely put a project manager here and invested a lot of money.”

    More precisely, it was European governments that did so.

    From all of the villages where the Civil Administration destroyed water lines, the Jewish outposts of Mitzpeh Yair and Avigayil can be seen on the hilltops. Although they are unauthorized and illegal even according to lenient Israeli settlement laws, the outposts were connected almost immediately to water and electricity grids and paved roads lead to them.

    “I asked why they demolished the water lines,” Nidal Younes recalled. He said one of the Border Police officers answered him, in English, telling him it was done “to replace Arabs with Jews.”

    #Financementeuropéen

    • Under Israeli Occupation, Water Is a Luxury

      Of all the methods Israel uses to expel Palestinians from their land, the deprivation of water is the most cruel. And so the Palestinians are forced to buy water that Israel stole from them
      Amira Hass
      Feb 24, 2019 9:45 PM
      https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-under-israeli-occupation-water-is-a-luxury-1.6962821

      Water pipes cut by the Israeli military in the village of Khalet al-Daba, February 17, 2019. Eliyahu Hershkovitz

      When I wrote my questions and asked the spokesperson’s office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to explain the destruction of the water pipelines in the Palestinian villages southeast of Yatta, on February 13, my fingers started itching wanting to type the following question: “Tell me, aren’t you ashamed?” You may interpret it as a didactic urge, you can see it as a vestige of faith in the possibility of exerting an influence, or a crumb of hope that there’s somebody there who doesn’t automatically carry out orders and will feel a niggling doubt. But the itching in my fingers disappeared quickly.

      This is not the first time that I’m repressing my didactic urge to ask the representatives of the destroyers, and the deprivers of water, if they aren’t ashamed. After all, every day our forces carry out some brutal act of demolition or prevent construction or assist the settlers who are permeated with a sense of racial superiority, to expel shepherds and farmers from their land. The vast majority of these acts of destruction and expulsion are not reported in the Israeli media. After all, writing about them would require the hiring of another two full-time reporters.

      These acts are carried out in the name of every Israeli citizen, who also pays the taxes to fund the salaries of the officials and the army officers and the demolition contractors. When I write about one small sampling from among the many acts of destruction, I have every right as a citizen and a journalist to ask those who hand down the orders, and those who carry them out: “Tell me, can you look at yourself in the mirror?”

      But I don’t ask. Because we know the answer: They’re pleased with what they see in the mirror. Shame has disappeared from our lives. Here’s another axiom that has come down to us from Mount Sinai: The Jews have a right to water, wherever they are. Not the Palestinians. If they insist on living outside the enclaves we assigned to them in Area A, outside the crowded reservations (the city of Yatta, for example), let them bear the responsibility of becoming accustomed to living without water. It’s impossible without water? You don’t say. Then please, let the Palestinians pay for water that is carried in containers, seven times the cost of the water in the faucet.

      It’s none of our business that most of the income of these impoverished communities is spent on water. It’s none of our business that water delivery is dangerous because of the poor roads. It’s none of our business that the Israel Defense Forces and the Civil Administration dig pits in them and pile up rocks – so that it will be truly impossible to use them to transport water for about 1,500 to 2,000 people, and another 40,000 sheep and goats. What do we care that only one road remains, a long detour that makes delivery even more expensive? After all, it’s written in the Torah: What’s good for us, we’ll deny to others.

      I confess: The fact that the pyramid that carries out the policy of depriving the Palestinians of water is now headed by a Druze (Brig. Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) made the itching in my fingers last longer. Maybe because when Abu Rokon approaches the faucet, he thinks the word “thirsty” in the same language used by the elderly Ali Dababseh from the village of Khalet al-Daba to describe life with a dry spigot and waiting for the tractor that will bring water in a container. Or because Abu Rokon first learned from his mother how to say in Arabic that he wants to drink.

      Water towers used by villages due to lack of running water in their homes. Eliyahu Hershkovitz

      But that longer itching is irrational, at least based on the test of reality. The Civil Administration and COGAT are filled with Druze soldiers and officers whose mother tongue is Arabic. They carry out the orders to implement Israel’s settler colonial policy, to expel Palestinians and to take over as much land as possible for Jews, with the same unhesitant efficiency as their colleagues whose mother tongue is Hebrew, Russian or Spanish.

      Of all the Israeli methods of removing Palestinians from their land in order to allocate it to Jews from Israel and the Diaspora, the policy of water deprivation is the cruelest. And these are the main points of this policy: Israel does not recognize the right of all the human beings living under its control to equal access to water and to quantities of water. On the contrary. It believes in the right of the Jews as lords and masters to far greater quantities of water than the Palestinians. It controls the water sources everywhere in the country, including in the West Bank. It carries out drilling in the West Bank and draws water in the occupied territory, and transfers most of it to Israel and the settlements.

      The Palestinians have wells from the Jordanian period, some of which have already dried up, and several new ones from the past 20 years, not as deep as the Israeli ones, and together they don’t yield sufficient quantities of water. The Palestinians are therefore forced to buy from Israel water that Israel is stealing from them.

      Because Israel has full administrative control over 60 percent of the area of the West Bank (among other things it decides on the master plans and approves construction permits), it also forbids the Palestinians who live there to link up to the water infrastructure. The reason for the prohibition: They have no master plan. Or that’s a firing zone. And of course firing zones were declared on Mount Sinai, and an absence of a master plan for the Palestinian is not a deliberate human omission but the act of God.

    • Pendant six mois, ces villages palestiniens ont eu de l’eau courante. Israël y a mis fin
      25 février | Amira Hass pour Haaretz |Traduction SF pour l’AURDIP
      https://www.aurdip.org/pendant-six-mois-ces-villages.html

      Pendant six mois, des villageois palestiniens vivant en Cisjordanie sur une terre qu’Israël considère comme une zone de feu fermée, ont vu leur rêve d’eau courante devenir réalité. Puis l’administration civile y a mis fin.

  • Journalists beaten, cameras destroyed: Palestinian police break up anti-Abbas protest in Ramallah

    Dozens beaten and arrested, including foreign journalists, in breakup of demonstration against Abbas’s economic sanctions on Gaza

    Amira Hass and Jack Khoury Jun 14, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-palestinian-forcefully-police-break-up-anti-abbas-protest-in-ramal

    Palestinian Authority riot police forcefully broke up a demonstration in Ramallah Wednesday evening, enforcing a ban on protests citing the Id al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Ramadan month of fasting.
    The police arrested journalist and dozens of protesters, busted cameras and beat many of the demonstrators.
    The protesters called for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to remove sanctions he has imposed against Hamas and residents of the Gaza Strip, for Hamas’s failure to follow through on a power share deal.
    Palestinian security forces fired tear gas, stun grenades and shot bullets into the air. They confiscated cameras and smartphones, breaking a few of them and ordered journalists not to interview demonstrators. The police arrested foreign and Palestinian journalists and beat a large number of protesters. A number of Israeli citizens participated in the protest, too.
    In spite of the violent repression of the protest, a small group of demonstrators managed to evade the police and gathered on side streets, chanting slogans such as: “Woe to the disgrace and woe to the shame,” and “With spirit and blood we will redeem you, Gaza.”

  • Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is good news for Israel and U.S.

    Saudi crown prince Bin Salman agrees with U.S. on Russia, Assad, Iran and ISIS and according to some reports, he’s also met with top Israeli officials

    Zvi Bar’el Jun 21, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.797007

    New Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as Saudi Arabia’s heir apparent was only a matter of time. The “boy,” who will mark his 32nd birthday in August, has been leading the country de facto anyway. He already calls the shots on foreign policy. Many expect that in the not-too-distant future, King Salman, who is ill, will step down and hand the scepter to his son.
    Bin Salman has been undergoing training for the throne since Salman’s coronation two and a half years ago, both through foreign missions carried out on behalf of his father, and also through the war in Yemen that – as defense minister – he planned and carried out (albeit not particularly successfully).
    >>Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro: The impulsiveness of the king-in-waiting should worry Israel and the U.S.
    Before the new crown prince’s advent, his cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, had been in charge of relationships with Washington, especially with the CIA. In short order, Nayef was pushed out and the Americans understood exactly who the strong man in town was.
    Bin Salman became the contact not only between the kingdom and Washington, but also with Russia: the new heir met with President Vladimir Putin several times to coordinate policy on Syria and Iran.
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    Until now, Mohammed bin Salman has been good news for Israel and the United States, as his firm anti-Iranian positions make him an important partner – and not only in the struggle against Iran. Bin Salman agrees with America on the need to thwart Russian influence in the region; to topple President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria; and to act firmly against ISIS and other radical organizations, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hezbollah. During the last two years, several Arab websites have reported that bin Salman also met with top Israelis.

    File photo: US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the White House on March 14, 2017.NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP
    >> Cluster bombs and yachts: 5 things you should know about Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince
    According to these reports, one such meeting took place in Eilat in 2015; another on the margins of the Arab summit in Jordan this March, and there are regular meetings between Saudi and Israeli officers in the joint war room where Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States coordinate. What is not yet known is to what extent Bin Salman can and might want to advance the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan, and whether he can turn around relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
    In a series of tweets this week, the Saudi blogger known as “Mujtahidd” revealed a “plot” by Crown Prince bin Salman and the heir to the Abu Dhabi throne, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to stage a coup in Qatar.
    Mujtahidd – many of whose tweets have proven accurate, and who apparently relies on whispers from the Saudi Arabia monarchial court – wrote, among other things, that the two heirs intended to send Blackwater mercenaries (of Iraqi notoriety) to Qatar, together with forces from the UAE, to seize the government. After that, somebody from the ruling Al-Thani family who would be loyal to them would be appointed. Thusly, according to Mujtahidd, the two thought to reduce the crisis and bend Qatar to Saudi Arabia’s will. Based on these tweets, it was the United States that pressed, indirectly, to torpedo the notion.
    By the way, this information has not been verified, and there is no certainty that these tweets rely on any actual fact. But what is unquestionable is the depth of relations between the two young heirs, a relationship that has created an axis of youth confident of the global mission – or at least Arab mission – placed on their shoulders, and confident that none but them are suited to run the Middle East.

    Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R) talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, June 19, 2017. HANDOUT/REUTERS
    This is a new generation that includes the ruler of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 37. It is a generation that came late to the Gulf states, having been predated by youthful leaders in Morocco, Jordan and Syria.
    Arab leaders like Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and King Abdullah have felt the whip of Saudi foreign relations. Both have been lashed over their “behavior” – and they were punished, too. Saudi Arabia cut off the oil supply to Egypt six months ago because of Cairo’s support for the Russian proposal on Syria, and because what Saudi Arabia felt was Egypt’s retreat from the proposal to return the Sanafir and Tiran islands in the Red Sea to it. Saudi Arabia also suspended aid to Jordan until recently because Jordan refused to let Gulf forces operate from its territory against Syrian forces.

    Mohammed bin Salman, newly appointed as crown prince, left, kisses the hand of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, June 21, 2017./AP
    But the hardest blow was suffered, of course, by Qatar, which was declared non grata by the Gulf nations, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan, which turned the terrestrial and aerial blockade of the Gulf state into an economic one.
    The new crown prince was the living spirit behind all these decisions, which required no more than a formal nod from his father.
    The appointment, which has passed without opposition so far, and with the overwhelming support of the Allegiance Council (which, under the constitution, has the power to approve the appointment of heirs) is not expected to cause any new jolts in the kingdom.
    Potential opponents have already been “summoned for a chat” in the king’s court. The new interior minister, Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, is another youngster, just 34, and is very close to Mohammed bin Salman. From now on, he will be the one responsible for managing the struggle against internal terrorism. He will also be the crown prince’s partner in oppressing subversion.
    To gratify the subjects ahead of the change, King Salman announced the extension of Id al-Fitr (to mark the end of Ramadan) by another week. He also returned all the financial emoluments that were recently taken away from government and army officials. A pay raise is a time-honored way of maintaining quiet calm in the Saudi kingdom.

  • Gaza, Gulag on the Mediterranean - The New York Times

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/gaza-one-year-on-still-in-ruins.html?smid=tw-share&can_id=c04bd6c1866a7591e

    GAZA CITY — At this time last year, as the missiles and bombs rained down in Israel’s lopsided seven-week war against Gaza, I wrote about our struggle to survive during the holy month of Ramadan. This year, another Ramadan has passed, Eid al-Fitr is over and the reality on the ground has changed very little.

    #gaza #blocus #israël #palestine #démolition #occupation #colonisation

  • Gaza, Gulag on the Mediterranean - The New York Times
    By MOHAMMED OMERAUG. 24, 2015
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/gaza-one-year-on-still-in-ruins.html?_r=1
    Sébastien Thibault

    GAZA CITY — At this time last year, as the missiles and bombs rained down in Israel’s lopsided seven-week war against Gaza, I wrote about our struggle to survive during the holy month of Ramadan. This year, another Ramadan has passed, Eid al-Fitr is over and the reality on the ground has changed very little.

    The same dreadful conditions are creating desperation among Gaza’s inhabitants, whose lives are terrorized by war and stunted by the long blockade of this spit of land, 25 miles long and six miles wide. The only difference now is the absence of the smell of gunfire and explosives, and of the smoke trails from missiles fired by Israeli F-16s crashing down among civilian homes.

    I recently visited some of the most heavily damaged areas of Gaza, starting with eastern Rafah, where massive destruction is still visible and bullet holes spatter the walls of houses. Up the road, in the half-ruined village of Khuzaa, the legacy of physical and emotional trauma has yet to be addressed.

    International donors at a conference in Cairo last October pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Instead of permanent new homes, however, people in Khuzaa have received only prefabricated temporary shelters. When it rains, sewage leaks into rooms.

    Farid al-Najjar, 56, whose orange-colored taxi was destroyed in the conflict, regards the Cairo conference as a joke. Reconstruction grants have not touched his life.

    Traveling north to Shejaiya, the only sign of change is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — in a project funded by Sweden — has started removing the rubble. A year later, not one of the damaged or destroyed homes has been completely rebuilt.

    Hassan Farraj, 61, stands in what is left of his house — the walls that remain are peppered with holes from automatic rifle fire and tank shells. The bare ground around the home resembles the shaven head of a vulnerable child, with no sign of anything growing back.

    Everyone expects Israel to be back for another “trim,” or to “mow the grass,” or whatever deadly euphemism is in vogue the next time Israel deems it time to show us who really controls Gaza.

  • A year on, Gazans have no more tears to cry -
    Death has simply become part of ‘normal’ daily calculations in the Gaza Strip, where the traumatic effect of last summer’s war is impossible to escape.
    By Amira Hass | Jul. 25, 2015 - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.667783

    Nawaf is one of the lucky Gazans who works for an international organization. Last week, he received a permit to travel to East Jerusalem for a few days. We met by chance, and I immediately noticed his eyes. They resembled the eyes of every other Gazan I’ve met over the last year. The phrase “extinguished eyes” might have been invented just for them.

    Hassan Ziadah, a psychologist who works at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, is very familiar with this look. The pain and fear are so great that people can no longer cry, he said; all the tears have dried up.

    Few people can leave Gaza, and few can enter. Thus, for the most part, only foreigners – NGO workers, diplomats and journalists – can see with their own eyes how Gaza residents are coping with the burden of loss and destruction from last summer’s war. Everyone else, including journalists from Israel and the West Bank, needs intermediaries.

    Thanks to Al Jazeera in English, we learned about a local initiative in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood to bring a little cheer to people’s hearts by painting the houses’ gray concrete walls in bright colors and filling corners with plants. Tamer, a Palestinian NGO for the promotion of education, donated the brushes and paint, and other neighborhoods plan to follow Zeitoun’s lead.

    Ziadah welcomed the project: It fosters cooperation and helps people overcome the passivity caused by shock and loss, he says. But this is only a small part of the picture.

    A Palestinian journalist from a Western country who was permitted to enter Gaza was shocked to discover how death has become part of “normal” daily calculations. Someone told him a certain school had rearranged its classes, because in one class “12 students were killed” in last summer’s war. Death is the constant; the variable is the rearrangement of the classes. Ziadah said there has been an upsurge in the number of people considering death as a way out.

    Another Western journalist described children filled with admiration for the members of Hamas’ military wing, who marched in honor of the war’s one-year anniversary. He was stunned by the similarity between Hamas’ army and the Israel Defense Forces, and terrified that the marchers’ weapons would accidentally go off in the midst of the crowd.

    Parents say children wet their beds and have nightmares in which they stand paralyzed while a wild animal attacks them. At least some of those who flocked to the parade presumably suffer from similar fears.

    “The children feel angry; they want revenge. So they’re attracted to the power embodied in the military parade,” Ziadah said.

    Nawaf, 45, decided to use his brief respite from Gaza to visit a psychologist. He doesn’t believe a psychologist in Gaza could really help him, since “they suffer from the same trauma as the rest of us.”

    Ziadah knows exactly what Nawaf means. He himself lost his mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and nephew when an Israeli bomb hit his family’s home in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

    During the war, the IDF bombed dozens of houses whose residents were still inside. In 70 cases documented by B’Tselem, 606 people were killed – about a quarter of all Palestinian fatalities. They included 93 children under 5; 129 children aged 5-14; 42 teens aged 14-18; 135 women; and 37 people aged over 60.

    On July 20, 2014, the day the Ziadah house was bombed, the IDF bombed six other houses, killed 76 people – including 41 children and 23 women. But Ziadah’s family got special attention because his sister-in-law’s great-uncle, Henk Zanoli, responded by returning the Righteous Among the Nations medal he received for saving a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

    Ziadah, a senior psychologist, sometimes needs help from his colleagues at the mental health clinic to overcome his own pain and continue treating his many patients. But he also thinks his personal bereavement enables him to better understand his patients – and people who aren’t his patients, too.

    Some direct their fear and anger inwards, resulting in depression, chronic pain and dependency on antidepression medication. R., a field researcher for a human rights organization, noted a new development: Now, even women are becoming addicted to mood-improving drugs, not just men.

    And of course, said Ziadah, there are always those who direct their anger outward.

    Those who lost neither their relatives nor their houses consider themselves the lucky ones. Consequently, they treat their own fear and depression as “luxuries” and view seeking treatment as “self-indulgence.” But there’s no way to keep the war from intruding into the present.

    “In general, people try to forget,” said H., a doctor working for UNRWA. “But for those who directly lost someone or something, everything reminds them of it. My friend’s brothers were killed, and during the [Id al-Fitr] holiday, she refused to leave her room. That’s the day when, traditionally, men visit their female relatives and bless them.”

    Last year, Ramadan overlapped with the war. As a result, this Ramadan brought back memories and many people even feared another war would erupt, R. said.

    “Wherever you go, you see the ruins – all kinds of buildings left with strange shapes after the bombing that haven’t yet been removed,” he said. “Your eyes don’t have a moment of rest from the memory.” Or, as Ziadah put it, people have no chance to engage in the therapeutic activity of avoidance.

    Moreover, shots are heard every day, and drones buzz overhead for days on end. These sounds, the ruins and the uncertainty are reminders that “there’s a real threat to life,” Ziadah said.

    “In a state of worry and fear like this, a person needs a mechanism that will help him overcome and bear this overwhelming suffering all the time,” he added. “There’s religion, a central element of our culture, which has the important element of belief in fate – that this was ‘written for us.’ There’s praying to God to save us and make things easier for us.”

    One foreign journalist said that in mosques, Hamas members order people not to be sad about their dead. H., the doctor, sees the familial and societal solidarity among Gaza residents. But R. sees the “75 percent,” in his estimation, who want to leave the Strip because there’s no future there.

    “I work from morning ’till night in order to forget and not think about the situation, about myself,” he said. “But what about those who have no work? The families with unemployed adults go to the sea and lie about on the beach with nothing to do all day.”

    Nevertheless, like Ziadah, R. is convinced people continue to live, and ostensibly even to adjust – because there’s simply no other choice.

  • Egypte : Morsi de nouveau devant les juges aujourd’hui, notamment avec le Guide suprême des Frères - Ahram

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/135849.aspx

    The trials of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood resumed on Tuesday after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
    Cairo criminal court resumed proceedings in the ’Qatar espionage trial’ in which Morsi and ten others face charges of using their power to leak classified documents to the Gulf country.

    Ismailia court also resumed the trial of Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 104 others - in the case known as the “Ismailia incident” - who have been charged with planning illegal protests, threatening public peace, committing acts of violence and murder.
    (...)
    In June, Morsi was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of spying for the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas. He was also sentenced to death over the 2011 Wadi Natroun prison break case.

    In April, he received a 20-year sentence for inciting violence in the case of the deadly clashes in 2012 outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace.

    MAJ : Morsi unable to attend espionage court session due to health problems - the trial has been postponed http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/135939.aspx

    Sur @OrientXXI Dossier : L’Egypte, 2 ans de pouvoir du maréchal Sissi

    http://orientxxi.info/documents/dossiers/l-egypte-deux-ans-de-pouvoir-du-marechal-sissi,0957

  • New York City becomes the largest school district in the nation to recognize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as holidays on the official school calendar
    http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/mediarelations/NewsandSpeeches/2014-2015/Mayor+De+Blasio+and+Chancellor+Fari%C3%B1a+Designate+Eid+Al-Fitr+and+Ei

    New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña today announced that New York City will become the largest school district in the nation to recognize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as holidays on the official school calendar. In the coming 2015-16 school year, schools will close on September 24 for the Eid al-Adha, ensuring hundreds of thousands of Muslim families can observe the day. Eid al-Fitr, which falls over the summer in 2016, will be designated a holiday for those attending summer school. New York City schools will not lose any instructional days as part of this change to the calendar.

    _“I am truly happy and highly appreciate our Mayor that after a long time of waiting, finally our kids in public schools throughout five boroughs don’t have to choose again between their school and their religious practice. Today, I am a prouder New Yorker,”_ said Imam Shamsi Ali, Spiritual Leader of Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens.

    #laïcité ! #islam #religion #école @pguilli @alaingresh

    Cf. Une timide brise de gauche souffle sur New York, par Eric Alterman
    http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2014/07/ALTERMAN/50640

  • Saudis have lost the right to take Sunni leadership - FT.com
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ab1b61c4-1cb6-11e4-b4c7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz39vcNzTI8

    The kingdom spews out the corrosive poison that helps fuel religion-based fanaticism

    Saudi Arabia not only exports oil, but tanker-loads of quasi-totalitarian religious dogma and pipelines of jihadi volunteers, even as it struggles to insulate itself from the blowback; and King Abdullah, in his end of Ramadan address, warns against the “devilish” extremism of “these deviant forces”.

    Jihadi extremism does present a threat to the kingdom. But in doctrinal terms it is hard to see in what way it “deviates” from Wahhabi orthodoxy, with its literalist and exclusivist rendering of Sunni Islam. Its extreme interpretation of monotheism anathematises other beliefs, in particular the “idolatrous” practices of Christians and Shia Muslims, as infidel or apostate. That can be read as limitless sanction for jihad.

    The modern jihadi is a Wahhabi on steroids. His main grievance with the House of Saud is that it deviates: its profligate deeds do not match its Wahhabi words.

    #Saoud #Wahhabisme

  • Pan-Arab daily expects tough Saudi measures against Qatar over Gaza stance
    Text of report by London-based Arabic e-newspaper Ra’y al-Yawm on 28 July

    [Unattributed report: Saudi Arabia Is Preparing for Taking Escalatory Measures Against Qatar After the Id, and Prince Al-Faysal’s Attack on Doha and Accusing It of Antagonizing Egypt and Its Role in Supporting HAMAS and the War on Gaza Are a Prelude to an Imminent Conflagration."]

    For the Gulf officials to exchange congratulations on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan and to call one another over the telephone on the occasion of the blessed Id al-Fitr, this is something that is within the framework of the norms and traditions that are usually followed, but for one of them to make a quick tour of the Gulf capitals 48 hours before the advent of Id al-Fitr, this is something unusual and indicates something that is highly important that cannot be delayed.

    We are speaking here about the tour which Prince Muqrin Bin-Abd-al-Aziz, deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia and second deputy prime minister, has made to Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and the Sultanate of Oman and ended without visiting the State of Qatar, which is a Gulf country, something which means that this tour concerns it and the relations with it, and that the message which Prince Muqrin is carrying from the Saudi leaders deals with one of two main issues:

    The First: Is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and after the meeting which took place between Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin-Hamad Al Thani and the Saudi monarch King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz in Jedda last Tuesday, has received guarantees and promises from its Gulf sister that stress the implementation of the Riyadh’s document signed last November and the articles in it that are related to the security and stability of the Gulf countries and not harming them, which subsequently means returning the ambassadors of three countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain) to Doha.

    The second: Is that the Saudi leadership has reached a firm conviction that the State of Qatar has not fulfilled its promises to which it was committed towards the implementation of the Riyadh document, something that requires taking other measures against it, which are greater than the step of the withdrawal of ambassadors, such as closing the airspace or the suspension of Qatar’s membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

    The deadline of six months Saudi Arabia has given to the State of Qatar was due to end late in the month of Ramadan and by the end of Id-al-Fitr’s holiday, and perhaps this is the reason that made Prince Muqrin choose the timing of his Gulf tour carefully just two days before the Id.

    Both possibilities are likely since the news that have been leaked about Prince Muqrin’s Gulf tour are very slight and the tour was carried out amid full secrecy, and all that has been said by the official news agencies was that “discussions dealt with the bilateral relations and the situation in the Gulf and the region.” However, it is clear that the second possibility, which is to take tougher measures against the State of Qatar, is probably the most likely one, and there are several indications in this respect:

    First: Muqrin’s tour has excluded Doha, which indicates that Doha is targeted. Had the first possibility been likely, which is returning the ambassadors to it, it would not have been excluded, and every Gulf step from this or that side is intentional and indicates a message from this or that side, whether the way he was received, the team accompanying him, the identity of the prince who is receiving him at the airport and his job and hierarchical order in the family, or even the colour of cloak in some cases.

    Second: The Saudi-Qatari relations are witnessing great tension these days against the backdrop of the disagreement between the two countries on the current regime in Egypt, the support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and the current war in Gaza. While the State of Qatar strongly supports HAMAS in this war and launches an initiative in parallel with the Egyptian initiative and makes great political and media efforts to stop the war, Saudi Arabia strongly supports the Egyptian initiative and accuses HAMAS of igniting this war with Qatari and Turkish support to implicate the ruling Egyptian regime and embarrass it on the Arab and international levels. An article by Prince Turki al-Faysal in the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on Saturday pointed out this fact when he “held HAMAS responsible for the repercussions of the massacres that are going on in Gaza as a result of its arrogance and the repetition of the past mistakes,” pointing out that “Qatar and Turkey are ! concerned with depriving Egypt of its leadership role more than preventing Israel from destroying Gaza.” He accused HAMAS and not Israel of being responsible for the war, which reminds of a similar Saudi charge to Hizballah during the Israeli aggression against Lebanon in 2006.

    Third: The State of Qatar has not altered its supportive stand for the Muslim Brotherhood for even one millimeter, and continued its “unfriendly” stands towards the Egyptian regime. This has clearly been reflected in the coverage by Al-Jazeera of the developments of the situation in Egypt and the intensification of the charges of failure and betrayal by the Egyptian regime towards the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and of closing the Rafah crossing in face of the wounded and the relief teams even if such charges have been made by guests, experts, commentators, or Palestinian officials from HAMAS.

    Fourth: The relations between Qatar and Iran, which are developing quickly, and the signing of defence agreements by the two countries, and the occurrence of a “change” in the Qatari stand towards the Syrian crisis, as well as the hegemony of the Saudi wing in the Syrian opposition and the Opposition Coalition in particular, and excluding those who are loyal to Qatar from the Political Body, the latest of whom is Prime Minister Ahmad Tu’mah during the leadership elections held in Istanbul one week ago.

    Fifth: The gradual restoration of relations between the Lebanese Hizballah and the State of Qatar on a noteworthy pace. The observers have seriously noted that Al-Jazeera has broadcast the full speech which [Hizballah Secretary General] Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah delivered on Friday on the occasion of the International Jerusalem Day.

    Therefore, we should expect surprise and important developments on the level of the Qatari relations with the Saudi, UAE, and Bahraini triangle by the end of Id al-Fitr holiday, which began in the Gulf states yesterday, and the only interpretation of Prince Muqrin’s tour, who has not made any similar tour since he was appointed in his post nearly one year ago, is that he wanted to inform all the Gulf leaders with whom he met of the details of the expected Saudi decisions.

    It is clear that Saudi Arabia, and the same as has been said in the article of Prince Turki al-Faysal, has decided to launch a media war as a prelude to a political war against the State of Qatar, since Prince Al-Faysal cannot write an article that includes these serious charges to the State of Qatar without consulting on them with his leadership, and within the framework of a greater estrangement between the two countries that is going to happen.

    Source: Ra’y al-Yawm, London, in Arabic 0000 gmt 28 Jul 14

    BBC Mon ME1 MEEauprt 300714 mj

  • Death toll in Gaza hits 1,088 as Israel resumes bombardment | Maan News Agency
    http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=716726
    (...)

    ’Eid of martyrs’

    There was little mood for celebration in Gaza City as the three-day festival of Eid al-Fitr that ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan got under way.

    Several hundred people arrived for early-morning prayers at the Al-Omari mosque, bowing and solemnly whispering their worship. But instead of going to feast with relatives, most went straight home while others went to pay their respects to the dead.

    Among them was Ahed Shamali whose 16-year-old son who was killed by a tank shell several days ago.

    “He was just a kid,” he said, standing by the grave. “This is the Eid of the martyrs.”

    The deaths continue

    Ministry of Health Spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra provided a continuing toll of the deaths and injuries across the Gaza Strip Monday night and Tuesday morning.

    The deaths and injuries are provided here in chronological order, with the most recent as the latest.

    Six Palestinians were killed in airstrike on two homes in the central Gaza Strip. He named the victims as Ramzy Hossein al-Far, 68, Salam Muhammad al-Far, 59, Issa Kamel Musa, 62, Abd al-Samad Mahmoud Ahmad Ramadan, 16, Ayman Adnan Musa Shokr, 25, and Azza Abd al-Karim al-Haman al-Falleit, 44.

    Fayeza Ahmad al-Futtah, 59 , succumbed to wounds she received earlier in the day in Jabaliya.

    Ali Hassan Hassan al-Huwwari, 31 , died as a result of wounds received on July 21.

    Mahmoud Abd al-Jalil Abu Kwik, 31 , and fife others were injured in Gaza City.

    Five Palestinians were killed and 20 injured in a strike near the Islamic University in Khan Younis. The dead were identified as Muhammad Jumaa Shaat, 30, Muhammad Fadhel al-Agha, Ahmad Nader al-Agha, Marwa Nader al-Agha, Dalia Nader al-Agha .

    Five were also killed and 20 injured in an Israeli strike on Khan Younis, which killed Najy Ahmad al-Raqqab, 19, Ramy Khaled al-Raqqab, 35, Mahmoud Osama al-Qosas, Shadi Abd al-Kareem Farwana, Mustafa Abd al-Samiee al-Ubadala.
    Five were killed, including three children elderly, and 50 were injured in shelling in Jabaliya. The dead were identified as Maryam Khalil Ruba, 70, Hani Abu Khalifah, a child named Yusef Emad Qaddoura, a child named Huna Emad Qaddoura, and another child named Muhammad Musa Alwan.

    18 were injured in strikes across the central and northern Gaza Strip.

    15 injured, mostly children, in an Israeli strike on Sheikh Radwan.

    Yahiya Mohammad Abdullah al-Aqqad, 49 , was killed and three more injured in a strike on al-Fakhari.

    AFP contributed to this report.

    Baraa Muqdad , 5 ans

    • Killed Monday, July 28
      http://imemc.org/article/68429

      1.Samih Jebriel Jneid, 4, Jabalia.
      2.Mohammad Abu Louz, 22, Jabalia.
      3.Ahmad Abdullah Hasan Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      4.Widad Ahmad Salama Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      5.Sham’a Wael Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      6.Mariam Marzouq Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      7.Falasteen Mohammad Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      8.Abdullah Nidal Abu Zeid (child), Rafah.
      9.Bissan Eyad Abu Zeid, Rafah.
      10.Abdul-Hadi Abu Zeid (Child9, Rafah.
      11.Seham Najjar, 42, Khan Younis.
      12.Abdul-Samad Mahmoud Ahmad Ramadan, 16, Central District.
      13.Ayman Adnan Mousa Shaker, 25, Central District.
      14.Issa Kamel Abdul-Rahman Mousa, 61, Central District.
      15.Salem Mousa Badawi al-Far, 59, Central District.
      16.Ramzi Hussein Ahmad al-Far, Central District.
      17.Salem Mohammad al-Far, Central District.
      18.Azza Abdul-Karim Abdul-Rahman Al-Faleet, 59, Central District.
      19.Mohammad Jom’a Shaat, 30, Khan Younis.
      20.Mohammad Fadel al-‘Agha, 30, Khan Younis.
      21.Marwa Nader al-Agha, Khan Younis.
      22.Ahmad Nader Al-Agha, Khan Younis.
      23.Donia Nader al-Agha, 13, Khan Younis.

  • 10 children killed as Israel bombs Gaza playground, hospital| Maan News Agency
    http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=716699

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Monday bombed al-Shifa hospital and a park near the beach in Gaza City, killing at least 10 children on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, medics said.

    The strike on al-Shifa Hospital, which is the main hospital in the besieged coastal enclave, hit the outpatient clinic, while the targeted park was located beside the al-Shati refugee camp.

    Director of reception at al-Shifa Hospital Ayman al-Sahbani said that a total of 10 children’s bodies had arrived at the hospital as a result of the two strikes.

    Thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge in the al-Shifa Hospital, as 130,000 have fled their homes as Israeli authorities declared more than 43 percent of the Gaza Strip off-limits to civilians and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in recent weeks.

    Initial reports suggested that three of the dead came from a drone strike on the clinic, while seven were killed in the attack on the park. Dozens more were injured.

    Israeli news site Haaretz said that the Israeli army said that “a preliminary investigation has found the Israeli army did not fire at the Shifa Hospital, and the fire is believed to have been Hamas.”

    • #Gaza : plusieurs #enfants palestiniens tués malgré les appels à la trêve - RTBF Monde
      http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_obama-appelle-israel-a-cesser-le-feu-a-gaza-a-la-veille-de-l-aid?id=8323

      A l’exception d’un tir de roquette palestinien sur la ville israélienne d’Ashkelon le matin et une riposte ponctuelle de l’armée sur le secteur d’origine du tir à Gaza, il n’y avait pas eu de bombardement depuis 23h (20h GMT) dimanche.

      Mais ce lundi, selon les services de secours, un enfant palestinien de 4 ans a été tué dans la matinée par un tir de char israélien dans le nord de la bande de Gaza, premier décès annoncé en ce jour de fête du Fitr. Dans l’après-midi des sources médicales annonçaient sept enfants tués par une frappe israélienne sur un camp de réfugiés.

      Un missile israélien est tombé lundi après-midi dans l’enceinte de l’#hôpital Chifa dans la ville de Gaza, le plus grand de l’enclave palestinienne jusqu’à présent épargné, sans faire de victime, selon un journaliste de l’AFP et des sources hospitalières.

      La frappe aérienne israélienne a visé un bâtiment proche de l’entrée de l’établissement, à l’intérieur de l’enceinte, ont précisé des sources hospitalières tandis que le journaliste présent a vu le mur de l’hôpital endommagé par un tir de drone.

  • #Assad visits Damascus mosque to mark #Eid_al-Fitr
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/assad-visits-damascus-mosque-mark-eid-al-fitr

    Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was given a warm reception by the faithful on Monday when he joined in Eid al-Fitr prayers in Damascus, to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Assad took part in prayers at the Al-Kheir mosque, in Muhajarin, near his home in northwest Damascus. State television showed Assad being greeted by Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun and, at the end of prayers, being surrounded by scores of well-wishers keen to shake his hand. read more

    #syria

  • #Israel eases assault on #Gaza as 24-hour #Eid_al-Fitr truce sets in
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-eases-assault-gaza-24-hour-eid-al-fitr-truce-sets

    A Palestinian woman prays over the grave of a relative at Sheikh Radwan cemetery, northwest of Gaza City on July 28, 2014 on the first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday, that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. (Photo: AFP - Marco Longari) A Palestinian woman prays over the grave of a relative at Sheikh Radwan cemetery, northwest of Gaza City on July 28, 2014 on the first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday, that marks the end of Ramadan. (Photo: AFP - Marco Longari)

    Israel eased its assault against the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rocket fire from the besieged enclave declined sharply on Monday, as a fragile Eid al-Fitr truce appeared to be holding up. More than 1,000 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of them (...)

  • Iraqi politicians postpone presidential vote amid growing violence
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-politicians-postpone-presidential-vote-amid-growing-violenc

    Iraqi lawmakers on Wednesday postponed choosing a new president for their ailing country while air strikes, suicide car bombs and summary executions yielded their daily grim crop of bodies. Parliament adjourned without even broaching the election of a new head of state and agreed to meet again on Thursday, their last chance to pick a new leader before the week-long Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday. A government air raid on the jihadist-held town of Sharqat nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Baghdad killed at least three women and a child, a senior army official told AFP. read more

    #Iraq #Jalal_Talabani #Nouri_al-Maliki

  • Will the ’Emirate of the Levant’ be announced on Eid al-Fitr?
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/will-emirate-levant-be-announced-eid-al-fitr

    Fighters from the Islamist rebel group #Al-Nusra_Front allegedly dig a tunnel under a military site of the Syrian government forces in the northern Syrian city of #Aleppo on July 17, 2014. (Photo: AFP-Ahmed Deeb) Fighters from the Islamist rebel group al-Nusra Front allegedly dig a tunnel under a military site of the Syrian government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on July 17, 2014. (Photo: AFP-Ahmed Deeb)

    Preparations are underway by al-Nusra Front on the ground and in terms of sharia (Islamic law) to announce the Emirate of al-Sham [Greater #syria], which a jihadi source expects would be on the first day of Eid al-Fitr [the holiday at the end of Ramadan]. The Nusra waged new battles in #Idlib's countryside, (...)

    #Mideast_&_North_Africa #Abu_Mohammed_al-Joulani #al-Qaeda #Articles #Ayman_Zawahiri #Emirate_of_the_Levant #ISIS #Islamic_Front

  • Sunni Muslims banned from holding own Eid prayers in Tehran | World news | guardian.co.uk
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/iran-forbids-sunni-eid-prayers

    Iran, a Shia country, ordered its Sunni minority not to hold separate prayers in Tehran for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that brings the month of fasting to an end. They were instead asked to have a Shia imam leading their prayers – something that is against their religious beliefs.

    Hundreds of security police were deployed in the capital to prevent Sunni worshippers from entering houses they rent for religious ceremonies.

    #religion