person:abdullah

  • U.A.E. Splits With U.S. Over Blame for Oil Tanker Attack in May - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-26/u-a-e-splits-with-u-s-over-blame-for-oil-tanker-attack-in-may


    A U.S. Navy vessel guards the Japanese oil tanker Kokuka Courageous in the Gulf of Oman.
    Photographer: Mumen Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

    The United Arab Emirates appeared to distance itself from U.S. claims that pinned attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Iran.

    Honestly we can’t point the blame at any country because we don’t have evidence,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Wednesday in Moscow. “If there is a country that has the evidence, then I’m convinced that the international community will listen to it. But we need to make sure the evidence is precise and convincing.

    While an investigation by the U.A.E., Norway and Saudi Arabia concluded that a “state actor” was most likely behind the incident in May, no nation was singled out. Still, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that Iran was almost certainly responsible.

  • Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Child Near Bethlehem
    May 31, 2019 12:10 PM IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-a-palestinian-child-near-bethlehem

    Israeli soldiers killed, Friday, a Palestinian child near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and injured a young man from Hebron, while trying to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

    Media sources said the soldiers shot and killed Abdullah Luay Gheith , 16, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, after opening fire at him and several Palestinians, who were trying to enter Jerusalem from Wad Abu al-Hummus area, near the villages of al-Khass and an-No’man, east of Bethlehem.

    The slain Palestinian child was shot with a live Israeli army round in his heart, and died instantly after the soldiers shot him.

    They added that the soldiers also shot and seriously injured a young man, identified as Mo’men Abu Tbeish, 21, in the same incident.

    The seriously wounded young man, from Hadabat al-Fawwar area, near Hebron, was rushed by Palestinian medics to Beit Jala governmental hospital.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • » Updated: Army Kills One Palestinian, Injures 30, Including 4 Children And One Medic, In Gaza
    May 10, 2019 8:28 PM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/army-injures-30-palestinians-including-4-children-and-one-medic-in-gaza

    Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly Great Return March processions on Palestinian lands along the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding 30, including four children, and one medic who was shot in the head.

    The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdullah Jom’a Abdul-‘Al , 24, east of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

    It added that the soldiers also injured thirty Palestinians, including four children, and a volunteer medic, who suffered a head injury while providing treatment to wounded Palestinians.

    The medic, identified as Mohammad Abu T’eima, was shot as he, and several other medics were providing treatment to wounded protesters, who were shot by the soldiers on Palestinian lands, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region.

    Eyewitnesses said the soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the protesters by firing a barrage of live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity gas bombs at them.

    #Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour

  • Accord nucléaire : l’Iran a décidé de suspendre certains de ses engagements (Le Figaro)
    https://www.crashdebug.fr/international/15997-accord-nucleaire-l-iran-a-decide-de-suspendre-certains-de-ses-engag

    Le président iranien Hassan Rohani - Crédits photo : REUTERS/Abdullah Dhiaa Al-Deen

    Téhéran donne 60 jours pour sauver l’accord de Vienne signé il y a un an.

    Téhéran a décidé de cesser d’appliquer « certains » de « ses engagements » pris dans le cadre de l’accord sur le nucléaire iranien de 2015, a indiqué mercredi 8 mai le ministère des Affaires étrangères iranien.

    En clair : l’Iran a décidé de cesser de limiter ses réserves d’eau lourde et d’uranium enrichi comme il s’y était engagé au titre de l’accord international de 2015 limitant son programme nucléaire. L’Iran va cesser de vendre son uranium enrichi et son eau lourde à d’autres pays.

     » LIRE AUSSI - États-Unis : les scénarios d’une guerre avec l’Iran

    La décision a été notifiée officiellement aux ambassadeurs des (...)

    #En_vedette #Actualités_internationales #Actualités_Internationales

  • » Reports that 18 Palestinians, 4 Israelis Killed on Sunday
    May 6, 2019 12:47 AM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/reports-that-18-palestinians-4-israelis-killed-on-sunday

    Palestinian and Israeli media sources are reporting that up to 18 Palestinians and 4 Israelis have been killed on Sunday, as Israeli forces escalated their bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian resistance groups fired more rockets into Israel.
    (...)
    According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Abdel Rahim Mustafa Taha Al-Madhoun and Hani Hamdan Abu Sha’ar , 37, were killed by Israeli missiles in the northern Gaza Strip.

    Four civilians, including a pregnant woman and her two children, were killed in an overnight raid on the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. They were identified as: Abdullah Abdul Rahim Al Madhoun, 22, Fadi Ragheb Badran, 31, and Shahida Amani Al-Madhoun (33 years old), who was killed along with her unborn baby – she was nine months pregnant.

    In addition to the three killed, eight others were reportedly injured in the Israeli airstrike, which targeted Al-Faraj Sheikh Zayed in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

    Two Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed in the shelling of Rafah. They were identified as Musa Muammar, 24, and Ali Abdul Jawad, 51 years old . Three people were seriously injured in that same airstrike, which targeted a residential building in the city of Rafah.

    The Israeli airforce reportedly targeted the home of the Director General of the Internal Security Forces in Gaza, Major General Tawfiq Abu Naim in Nuseirat central Gaza Strip.

    Two apartments were destroyed in Tower No. 10 in the Sheikh Zayed Towers in the northern Gaza Strip.

    The Ministry of Health also announced that two citizens were martyred in a bombardment targeting agricultural land behind Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

    Two Palestinians were killed in that airstrike, they were identified as Mohammad Abdul Nabi Abu Armaneh, 30, and Mahmoud Samir Abu Armanah, 27.

    Both were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir Al-Balah .

    Israeli airstrikes destroyed the internal security building inside the governor’s palace west of Gaza City, following the destruction of another house belonging to the Mashtah family in central Gaza and a house belonging to the Abu Qamar family in al-Sina’a Street in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in the west of Gaza City. (...)

    #Palestine_assassinée

    23 Palestinians, Including Infant & 12-Year Old, Killed by Israeli Airstrikes
    May 6, 2019 12:47 AM IMEMC News

    Palestinians killed (confirmed) :
    May 5, 2019

    Maria Ahmad al-Ghazali, 4 months
    Ahmad Ramadan al-Ghazali, 31 (Maria’s father)
    Eman Abdullah Mousa Usrof al-Ghazali, 30 (Maria’s mother)
    Abdul-Rahim Mustafa Taha al-Madhoun, 61
    Abdul-Rahman Talal Atiyya Abu al-Jedian, 12
    Eyad Abdullah al-Sharihi, 34
    Mohammad Abdul Nabi Abu Armaneh, 30
    Mahmoud Samir Abu Armanah, 27
    Mousa Moammar, 24
    Ali Ahmad Abdul-Jawad, 51
    Hani Hamdan Abu Sha’ar, 37 (Rafah)
    Abdullah Abdul Rahim al-Madhoun, 22
    Fadi Ragheb Badran, 31
    Amani al-Madhoun (Abu al-Omarein), 33/Ayman al-Madhoun(her fetus), northern Gaza
    Abdullah Nofal Abu al-Ata, 21
    Bilal Mohammad al-Banna, 23
    Hamed al-Khodari, 34
    Mahmoud Sobhi Issa, 26
    Fawzi Abdul-Halim Bawadi, 24

  • » Israeli Missiles Kill Three Palestinians East Of Gaza
    May 5, 2019 3:55 PM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/israeli-missiles-kill-three-palestinians-east-of-gaza

    The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has confirmed that Israeli missiles killed, Sunday, three young Palestinian men, east of Gaza city, amidst ongoing Israeli bombardment and shelling targeting several parts of the coastal region. Two Israelis kills by Palestinian shells.

    The Ministry said the Israeli missiles killed Bilal Mohammad al-Banna , 23, and Abdullah Nofal Abu al-‘Ata , 21, in the Sheja’eyya neighborhood, east of Gaza city.

    Bilal Mohammad al-Banna
    Abdullah Nofal Abu al-Ata

    It added that the soldiers also killed one Palestinian, identified as Hamed Ahmad al-Khodary , 34, and injured three others, after the army fired missiles targeting al-Khodary’s car in the ad-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza city.

    Hamed al-Khodari

    They were among many Palestinians targeted by the Israeli missiles, leading to several injuries, and serious property damage.

    His death was a targeted assassination as Israel claims he was in charge of funneling money from Iran to Hamas movement in Gaza.

    In addition, Israeli sources said one Israeli man, 50, suffered a critical injury when a Palestinian shell directly struck his car near Kibbutz Erez, and added that a house was directly hit with a shell in Be’er as-Sabe’ (Beersheba).

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • Israeli Army Kills Two Hamas Fighters In Central Gaza
    May 4, 2019 1:55 AM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/israeli-army-two-hamas-fighters-in-central-gaza

    The Israeli army fired, on Friday evening, several missiles into a site run by the al-Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas, in central Gaza, killing two fighters; the army said it was retaliating to gunfire that injured two soldiers.

    The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdullah Ibrahim Abu Mallouh , 33, from the Nusseirat refugee camp, and Ala’ Hasan al-Bobali, 29, from the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza.


    The two fighters were in a site, run by the al-Qassam Brigades, east of the al-Maghazi refugee camp, when the army fired missiles at it.

    The Israeli army said it fired the missiles after Palestinian fighters shot and injured two soldiers near the perimeter fence.

    According to the Israeli “Jerusalem Post”, the Israeli Air Force “struck a Hamas post, following Palestinian sniper fire that injured two soldiers, one of them is a female.”

    In addition to killing the two Palestinians, the Israeli missiles caused excessive property damage.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • L’Australie exporte ses réfugiés

    Au nom de la lutte contre les passeurs, Canberra sous-traite une partie de sa gestion des demandeurs d’asile à des pays tiers. Cette politique d’externalisation inspire les gouvernements européens et indigne les défenseurs des droits humains, tant les réfugiés s’y réduisent à une monnaie d’échange.

    C’est un petit restaurant dans une ruelle du sud de Phnom Penh, un comptoir, quelques tables et une odeur de falafels. Mideast Feast propose des spécialités syriennes et libanaises. Une rareté dans une capitale certes cosmopolite mais où les ressortissants du Proche-Orient ne sont pas légion. Du Cambodge M. Abdullah Zalghanah, le propriétaire, ne connaissait rien, jusqu’à ce qu’il y soit parachuté.

    M. Zalghanah est syrien. Il y a huit ans, il était encore boulanger et restaurateur à Deraa, où il vivait avec son épouse et leurs quatre enfants. Puis, comme tant d’autres, il a fui sa ville, devenue un champ de bataille, jusqu’au Liban. Il y a laissé sa famille pour se mettre en quête d’un pays d’accueil. « Je ne voyais pas d’avenir pour mes enfants au Liban, avec les milices de Bachar Al-Assad traquant les réfugiés, la situation économique et les conséquences de la guerre », raconte-t-il. En 2012 débute un long périple qui le mènera de l’autre côté du monde, porté par l’espoir de rejoindre l’Australie, un pays « paisible » où, lui a-t-on dit, « on peut se reconstruire une vie en six mois ». « Dans la communauté syrienne, il se disait que l’Australie était une meilleure option que l’Europe. Et j’avais un frère là-bas, qui y était parti avant la guerre », explique-t-il. On le met en contact avec des passeurs, qui l’expédient en Indonésie. Là, il doit prendre un bateau avec soixante et onze autres personnes. Une simple barque à moteur, pour une traversée de plus de quatre cents kilomètres jusqu’à l’île Christmas, territoire australien perdu au milieu de l’océan Indien. « Le voyage a été terrible. Au bout d’une journée, l’un des deux moteurs a cessé de fonctionner. Plus d’une fois, j’ai cru que nous allions mourir. » Quatre jours et une nuit d’angoisse, jusqu’à ce que les passeurs indonésiens les abandonnent sur une plage. Là, ils sont cueillis par des gardes australiens et menés dans un centre de rétention. En cet été 2013, plus de deux mille personnes s’y entassent : des demandeurs d’asile, en attente de transfert dans l’un des camps de détention sur l’île-État de Nauru ou en Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée. Aucun ne pourra jamais rejoindre l’Australie. Car, quelques mois plus tôt, Canberra a réactivé et durci sa politique radicale de refoulement des boat people — ce qu’on appelle la « solution du Pacifique ».

    Lancée au début des années 2000, cette politique repose sur des accords passés avec ses deux voisins pauvres. En échange d’une compensation financière, ces États acceptent de recevoir les demandeurs d’asile arrivés clandestinement. Le temps que leur dossier soit examiné, ils sont détenus dans des camps extraterritoriaux construits aux frais de Canberra et gérés par des sociétés privées sous contrat avec le gouvernement. Officiellement, il s’agit de lutter contre les réseaux de passeurs en décourageant toute tentative de rejoindre les côtes par bateau.

    Selon les organisations de défense des droits humains, l’Australie s’arrange avec le droit international, notamment avec le principe de non-refoulement figurant dans la convention de Genève sur les réfugiés, dont elle est signataire (1). Et sa méthode a fait école au sein de l’Union européenne, qui a mis au point des politiques d’« externalisation des frontières », tel l’accord avec la Turquie.

    En Australie, les conservateurs qui ont conçu cette stratégie de sous-traitance notent une nette diminution des arrivées clandestines : moins de 150 par an entre 2002 et 2008, contre 3 000 à 5 500 par an entre 1999 et 2001 (2). Toutefois, en 2007, un rapport d’Oxfam estime son coût total — des interceptions de bateaux aux frais de gestion des camps — à plus de 1 milliard de dollars australiens (625 millions d’euros) en six ans (3), pour la prise en charge de moins de 1 700 personnes. Sous le feu des critiques, la « solution du Pacifique » a été suspendue en 2008 par le gouvernement travailliste qui arrivait au pouvoir. Les camps de Nauru et de l’île de Manus (Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée) ont été vidés… pour être rouverts quatre ans plus tard.

    En réponse à un nouveau pic d’arrivées clandestines et de naufrages meurtriers (4), le gouvernement réactive les accords de coopération avec les deux États et durcit sa politique. Si l’Australie continue d’accueillir plusieurs milliers de demandeurs d’asile arrivés légalement sur son sol (5), elle affiche désormais une tolérance zéro vis-à-vis des clandestins. « Nul demandeur d’asile arrivé en Australie par bateau ne sera jamais autorisé à s’installer sur le territoire en tant que réfugié », assène le premier ministre Kevin Rudd (British Broadcasting Corporation, 19 juillet 2013). Peu importe la légitimité de sa demande de protection et les difficultés rencontrées pour la formuler. Un Syrien qui dépose une demande d’asile pour l’Europe ou l’Australie à partir d’un pays voisin où il a pu fuir, comme la Turquie ou le Liban, s’expose à un refus sous prétexte que la requête est émise d’un pays « sûr ». Obtenir un visa temporaire n’est pas moins ardu. Quant aux clandestins pris dans les filets de cette politique, ils auront le choix entre un vol retour vers leur pays d’origine et un transfert dans les camps extraterritoriaux — pour une durée indéterminée.
    Improbable accord avec le Cambodge

    Si l’accord passé avec la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée prévoit, en théorie, une installation permanente des réfugiés sur le territoire, dans les faits « les autorités ne leur octroient pas de statut légal », dénonce un rapport d’Amnesty International (6). Celles de Nauru refusent officiellement toute installation permanente. Les réfugiés reçoivent au mieux un visa de cinq ans, puis de dix ans, payé par les autorités australiennes. « Les camps extraterritoriaux, qui étaient à l’origine des lieux de transfert, sont ainsi devenus des centres de détention permanente, sans autre issue que le retour au pays », nous explique M. Ian Rintoul, porte-parole de la Refugee Action Coalition, une organisation non gouvernementale (ONG) australienne.

    Quand M. Zalghanah est transféré à Nauru, en avril 2014, environ 1 200 personnes y vivent. « Nous dormions à quarante dans de grandes tentes sales, sans aucune intimité. Il n’y avait que dix toilettes et dix douches sans porte. Nous n’étions pas des criminels, mais ce camp, c’était une prison. » Au-delà de ces conditions de vie insupportables, c’est sa situation, floue et sans issue, qui le détruit. « Nous étions tous sous antidépresseurs et sous somnifères pour pouvoir dormir. L’atmosphère n’a cessé de se dégrader, avec des rixes qui éclataient, mais surtout des suicides. Je me souviens d’un homme qui a avalé une boîte de pilules, d’un autre qui s’est immolé par le feu… » M. Zalghanah perd le compte, mais les disparus peuplent toujours ses cauchemars. En dépit des restrictions d’accès imposées par les autorités, plusieurs enquêtes successives dénoncent les conditions de vie des détenus. Le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR), dont une délégation s’est rendue à Nauru fin 2013, évoque une « détention systématique et arbitraire » contraire au droit international, et critique l’absence de solution à long terme pour des personnes maintenues dans l’incertitude (7).

    À partir de 2013, la campagne « Frontières souveraines », opération militaire de refoulement des navires clandestins vers leur point de départ, limite les arrivées. Mais il devient urgent de trouver une solution pour les quelque trois mille réfugiés entassés à Manus et Nauru. La Nouvelle-Zélande a bien proposé d’en accueillir cent cinquante chaque année, mais l’Australie a décliné l’offre, estimant qu’une telle perspective, trop alléchante, ne ferait que soutenir le commerce des passeurs. Canberra pense trouver son salut dans l’externalisation.

    Le 26 septembre 2014, M. Scott Morrison, alors ministre de l’immigration, annonce la signature d’un accord inédit avec le Cambodge. Négocié en secret, il prévoit l’installation sur le territoire cambodgien d’une partie des réfugiés parqués à Nauru, Phnom Penh recevant en échange 40 millions de dollars australiens (25 millions d’euros) sous forme d’aide au développement. Le voyage, l’accueil et l’installation des réfugiés sont également à la charge de l’Australie, laquelle prévoit d’y consacrer un budget global de 15 millions de dollars (9,4 millions d’euros), sans plus de précision.

    « L’un des pays les plus riches du monde a convaincu l’un des plus pauvres d’accueillir les réfugiés dont il ne veut pas », résume le magazine américain Foreign Policy (8), tandis que M. António Guterres, l’actuel secrétaire général de l’Organisation des Nations unies, alors haut-commissaire des Nations unies pour les réfugiés, critique une « inquiétante dérogation aux normes internationales (9) ». S’il ne viole pas explicitement le droit international, l’accord n’en constitue pas moins « un dangereux précédent qui porte atteinte à l’intégrité du système de partage des responsabilités à l’égard des réfugiés », analyse Madeline Gleeson, avocate et chercheuse à l’université de Nouvelle-Galles du Sud (10).

    « Avec cet accord, l’Australie espère avoir enfin trouvé la pièce manquante de sa politique d’asile extraterritorial : une solution de long terme », souligne la chercheuse. L’entente est au moins claire sur un point : les réfugiés doivent se porter volontaires. Or les prisonniers de Nauru n’accueillent pas la nouvelle avec enthousiasme. Alors que les ministres de l’intérieur australien et cambodgien sablent le champagne, une nouvelle vague de protestations agite les camps entre fin septembre et début octobre 2014. Quand les premières délégations cambodgiennes s’y rendent, début 2015, aucun volontaire ne se présente. « Dans les mois qui ont suivi, on nous a rapporté des pressions exercées sur les réfugiés, du chantage, de fausses promesses », dit M. Rintoul. En vain : seuls sept d’entre eux acceptent d’être envoyés au Cambodge.

    M. Zalghanah est du nombre. En 2016, il consent à sa relocalisation à Phnom Penh, à condition que l’Australie y rapatrie également sa famille restée au Liban. « Au début, ils disaient que le rapprochement familial était impossible. Mais, après un an, ils ont fini par me dire que ma famille me rejoindrait au bout de trois ou quatre mois », raconte-t-il. Débarquant dans la capitale cambodgienne en novembre 2016, il est pris en charge par l’antenne locale de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations. Celle-ci le guide et l’héberge pendant trois mois, à l’issue desquels il lance un projet de restaurant grâce à une allocation de l’Australie. Mais, plus d’un an après son arrivée, le rapprochement familial est au point mort. M. Zalghanah craint d’être oublié, évacué dans les vieux papiers d’un accord raté. Car l’entente entre le Cambodge et l’Australie prenait officiellement fin à l’automne 2018. Son échec est si cuisant qu’elle ne sera pas reconduite. Sur les sept réfugiés transférés, quatre ont déjà quitté le pays.

    « Depuis le début, cet accord n’était qu’une vaste blague, dénonce M. Rintoul. Le gouvernement désespérait de trouver une issue à sa politique d’asile extraterritorial. En définitive, il a payé plus de 40 millions de dollars pour délocaliser sept personnes. On atteint des sommets d’absurdité. » Des tentatives de négociations similaires avec d’autres pays, dont le Kirghizstan, n’ont jamais abouti.

    Reste une issue possible : l’entente conclue avec les États-Unis lors des derniers mois de la présidence de M. Barack Obama selon laquelle Washington prendrait en charge jusqu’à 1 200 réfugiés des camps extraterritoriaux. Les clauses de l’accord de septembre 2016 n’ont pas été rendues publiques. Mais, le même mois, Canberra annonçait son intention d’accueillir un nombre non défini de demandeurs d’asile sud-américains actuellement dans des camps gérés par les États-Unis. De quoi alimenter les rumeurs d’« échange de réfugiés », malgré les dénégations du gouvernement australien (11). Contre toute attente, M. Donald Trump n’a pas mis un terme à l’arrangement. Si le président américain a jugé l’accord « stupide », il s’est engagé à l’honorer. Depuis l’automne 2016, 445 réfugiés relégués à Nauru et Manus ont obtenu l’asile aux États-Unis. Washington aurait refusé près de 200 autres personnes, parmi lesquelles de nombreux Iraniens. Et aucune nouvelle procédure de transfert n’a été annoncée.
    « Une population au-delà du désespoir »

    Selon un rapport du Parlement d’Australie, entre 2012 et 2017, la politique de détention extraterritoriale des demandeurs d’asile aurait coûté près de 5 milliards de dollars (plus de 3 milliards d’euros) à l’État, sans compter le budget de l’« aide au développement » prévue dans les accords régionaux. Une somme coquette pour la détention de 3 127 réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile, au total, depuis 2012. Mille quatre cents d’entre eux seraient toujours bloqués à Manus et Nauru. Si les camps sont désormais ouverts, les îles n’en restent pas moins des prisons pour ces hommes, femmes et enfants qui disposent dans les faits d’une liberté de circulation relative. Expulsée en octobre dernier par les autorités nauruanes après avoir passé onze mois auprès des réfugiés, l’ONG Médecins sans frontières décrit une population « au-delà du désespoir » et recense « un nombre alarmant de tentatives de suicide et de cas d’automutilation » (12). En décembre 2018, 1 200 réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile, soutenus par l’association National Justice Project, ont lancé une procédure judiciaire à l’encontre de l’État australien, accusé devant la Haute Cour d’emprisonnement arbitraire, de persécution, de torture et de crimes contre l’humanité.

    M. Zalghanah, lui, se considère comme un rescapé. En janvier dernier, après deux ans d’attente, sa famille est enfin arrivée au Cambodge.

    https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2019/04/BJURSTROM/59709
    #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Cambodge #Australie #externalisation #réfugiés_syriens

    ping @albertocampiphoto

    v. aussi cette compilation qui parle du deal entre l’Australie et le Cambodge :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/476197

  • Saudi Arabia is carrying out a second oppressive mass slaughter in the era of King Salman, including children, protestors, and activists – European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights
    https://www.esohr.org/en/?p=2196

    Without the knowledge of the victims’ families, the Saudi government today circulated awful news of the execution of 37 people, including minors, protestors, and the disabled. Many of them were linked to the Arab Spring protests that took place in Saudi Arabia, particular in the governorate of Qatif beginning on 17 February 2011. Others were charged by Saudi Arabia with spying for Iran, although most of the charges did not include evidence of actual acts of espionage.

    Among the names were at least six minors: Abdullah Salman Al Sarih and Abdulkarim Mohammad al-Hawaj, whose charges go back to when they were 16 years of age, and Said Mohammad al-Sakafi, Salman Amin Al Quraysh, Mujtaba Nadir al-Sweiket, and Abdulaziz Hassan Al Sahwi, whose charges date back to when they were 17. There are also suspicions that others are likely minors, but the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) was unable to obtain further details.

    Furthermore, among the shocking executions was Haidar Mohammad Al Laif, who according to Saudi Arabia – in its reply to the UN on 13 December 2017 – was given a final sentence of eight years.

    Many of the charges leveled against the individuals whose executions were announced by the Ministry of Interior were not classified as serious or terroristic crimes. For example, there were charges related to the right to expression, peaceful protest, peaceful association, signing political statements, possessing political documents and information on political detainees. Similarly, some of them have been accused of spreading Shi’ism and practicing non-traditional religious activities involving Shiites in the governorate of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.

    The trials of most of the victims of today’s massacre, the details and proceedings of which the ESOHR has followed, have severely lacked the conditions for a fair trial. The trials have taken place in total secrecy and isolation from any of the victim’s relatives or in semi-secrecy, attended by only a few of the victim’s relatives – one to three at most. On the government’s part, select official media entities can attend, as well as members of executive agencies, such as the Mabahith (secret police), and members of the official human rights establishment. Meanwhile, no one from the public or members of civil society can be found at the trial.

    (...)

    In a report issued in February 2019 following a field visit to Saudi Arabia, the former Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Emerson, called for “a prompt review of all current cases of prisoners charged and convicted of terrorist offenses who are facing the death penalty, in order to ensure that minimum international standards are met in each case.” He stressed that this means that the death penalty may not be imposed except for the most serious crimes leading to loss of life and may not be imposed on people who were minors at the time of their crimes or people with mental or cognitive disabilities. Ben Emerson’s report included a clear reference to those who were executed today, stating that when 24 people were brought to trial in June of 2016 because of pro-democracy protests in 2011, the Specialized Criminal Court sentenced 14 of them to death. This again confirms that the trials did not fulfill the required legal processes and the standards of a fair trial and that the accused were subjected to torture and were not able to have a lawyer. This case is a source of serious concern.

    The rapporteur also expressed particular concern vis-à-vis “a pattern of systematic oppression in the Eastern Province where most of the Shiite population lives,” noting that death sentences were issued against many members of the Shiite minority – who were facing imminent execution – for their participation in pro-democracy demonstrations in Eastern Province in 2011 and 2012.

    The brutal executions carried out by Saudi Arabia today blatantly ignored the many urgent appeals of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteurs, and various committees. These appeals included many of the names of people who were killed by Saudi Arabia today:

    (...)

    With the executions today, the number of victims of execution since 2019 to today totals 105, while at this point in 2018 there were 48 executions. The rate has more than doubled by 50% compared to last year.

    As stipulated in Saudi Arabia, executions are carried out only after the signature of the king or his deputy, which makes King Salman directly and explicitly responsible for the executions carried out today.

    The ESOHR does not have information about some of the names mentioned as executed today. This goes back to the Saudi government’s closure of all spaces for civil society and the intimidation surrounding the families of the victims. The ESOHR also emphasizes the lack of confidence in the accounts offered by the state under the justification of “terrorism.”

    The ESOHR believes that Saudi Arabia has entered into a bloody era since the ascension of King Salman and his Crown Prince and their absolute control over the country, both internally and externally. The first and most heinous manifestation of this internal control was the mass execution of 2 January 2016. This was followed by numerous crimes, culminating in today’s crime of executing 37 citizens – among them minors, the disabled, and demonstrators – on charges that fall within freedom and opinion and expression and are not classified as criminal.

    After this heinous crime, the ESOHR calls for an international investigation to be opened in order to hold accountable all those responsible for the crimes and violations that have occurred. The ESOHR believes that this is the response that may bring this bloodshed to an end. The ESOHR also calls for a review of Saudi Arabia’s membership in various UN agencies and committees.

    The ESOHR is raising profound concerns about dozens of people threatened with becoming victims of other executions in the future and advocates all legal means to save their lives.

    #arabie_saoudite notre cliente et alliée

  • Health Ministry : “Army Killed 266 Palestinians In One Year”
    March 31, 2019 7:22 AM
    https://imemc.org/article/health-ministry-army-killed-266-palestinians-in-one-year

    The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has reported, Saturday, that Israeli soldiers killed 266 Palestinians, and injured 30398 others, since the Great Return March processions started on March 30, 2018, which also marks Palestinian Land Day. Four Palestinians were killed, Saturday, and 316, including 86 children and 29 women, were injured.

    The Health Ministry stated that the soldiers killed 266 Palestinians, including 50 children, six women and one elderly man, and injured 30398 others, including 16027 who were moved to various hospitals and medical centers.

    It said that among the wounded are 3175 children and 1008 women, and added that 136 Palestinians suffered amputations; 122 in the lower limbs, and 14 in the upper limbs.

    The Ministry also stated that the soldiers killed three medics, identified as Razan Najjar, 22, Mousa Jaber Abu Hassanein, 36, and Abdullah al-Qutati, 20, and injured 665 others, in addition to causing damage to 112 ambulances.

    Among the slain Palestinians are two journalists, identified as Yasser Mortaja, and journalist Ahmad Abu Hussein, in the Gaza Strip, while the soldiers injured dozens of journalists.

    The latest information does not include dozens of Palestinians who were killed and injured by the Israeli army after crossing the perimeter fence and were never returned to the Gaza Strip. (...)

    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
     » Updated : Land Day ; Israeli Soldiers Kill Four Palestinians, Injure 316, In Gaza
    March 30, 2019 11:56 PM
    https://imemc.org/article/land-day-israeli-soldiers-kill-three-palestinians-injure-316-in-gaza

    Israeli soldiers killed, Saturday, four Palestinians, and injured 316 others, including 14 who suffered life-threatening wounds, during protests across the perimeter fence, in the eastern parts of the Gaza Strip.

    On Saturday at night, a Palestinian teen, identified as Bilal Mahmoud Najjar (Abu Jamous), 17, from Bani Soheila near Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip, died from serious wounds suffered earlier after the soldiers shot him with live fire.


    The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that, among the wounded are 86 children and 29 women.

    Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians gathered on lands near the perimeter fence, marking Palestinian Land Day, and the first anniversary since the beginning of the Great Return March.

    Media sources in Gaza said that National Committee for Breaking the Siege has called for a million-person march, marking Land Day, and the first anniversary of the Great Return March, demanding lifting the siege on Gaza, the internationally-guaranteed Right of Return, the liberation of Palestine and independence.


    On Saturday evening, the Health Ministry in Gaza said the soldiers killed Tamer Hashem Abu al-Kheir , 17, after shooting him with a live round in the chest, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region.

    His death came just hours after the soldiers killed Adham Nidal ‘Amara , 17, who was fatally shot during the processions east of Gaza city.


    On Friday morning, the soldiers killed Mohammad Jihad Sa’ad , 20, east of Gaza city, before the Great Return March processions started.

    #Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour
    https://seenthis.net/messages/771083

  • 28.03.2019|Centre Société Démocratique Kurde de Genève, Maison internationale des Associations, 15 rue de Savoises à #Genève.

    Pour dénoncer et briser le silence et l’isolement quant à l’incarcération d’Abdullah Ocalan et à la répression tous azimuts du Peuple Kurde, M. Mehmet Ali Koçan a entamé une grève de la faim illimitée.

    Action concertée, en effet plus de 7000 prisonniers politiques kurdes, ainsi que des kurdes à Strasbourg et à Bruxelles s’y astreignent depuis le 25 mars. M. M, #Ali_Koçan entame au moment de l’entretien ce 28 mars sont 37ème jour de grève depuis le centre Kurde de Genève.

    Cette action de masse vise à interpeller une fois de plus la société civile et les instances internationales dont le mutisme questionne sur les réelles intentions et les rapports entretenus avec le gouvernement Turc.

    Entretien avec M. #Mehmet_Ali_Koçan et l’aimable interpértation de M. Baytar Ramazan.

    http://libradio.org/?page_id=5148
    #grève_de_la_faim #kurdes

  • Oman’s Boiling Yemeni Border

    The Yemeni province of #Mahra, on the border with Oman, has not been reached by the war so far. However, Saudi Arabia – as Oman used to do to defend its influence – has started to support a large number of Mahari tribes. This has led to large community divisions in local tribal society, for the first time in the history of this eastern province. This support is not limited to the financial domain but also extends to the military. The spread of armed tribal groups has become a new feature in Mahra in light of the indirect Saudi-Emirati-Omani competition for regional leverage.

    In 2015, Yemen’s president, Abdurabo Mansour Hadi, fled to the Yemen-Oman border when the Houthis, along with their former ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, decided to invade Aden to arrest him. The president traveled to the remote provinces of the desert until he arrived in Mahra, through which he crossed the border into Oman. In the meantime, the Saudi-led coalition began its military operations to restore the legitimacy that the Houthis had gained.

    The border strip between Mahra and the Omani province of Dhofar is 288 kilometers long, starting from the coast of Haof district and ending in the heart of the desert at the border triangle between Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia: beyond the desert, there are few agricultural zones and the population lives along the border strip. Although the border area is divided between the two countries, the frontier communities in Mahra and Dhofar appear to be an ecosystem: tribes descend from a single tribe and share many historical, social and cultural constituents. In addition, they speak another language beside Arabic, namely “Mahriya” or “Jabali”, which is a Semitic language not spoken by the rest of Yemenis.

    This social cohesion in border areas has led Oman to deal with this ecosystem as a first line of defense to protect its security from any break-in. To this end, Oman has strengthened its relationships with Mahra society and provided Omani citizenship for many personalities in the area, especially after signing the border agreement with Yemen in 1992. It has also made it easier for those who do not have Omani citizenship to move to Oman. Despite Yemen’s upheavals since 2011, Mahra province has not been affected economically because it relied on Omani markets to obtain fuel and food, depending especially on a major shared market, the Al-Mazyounah, which is a few kilometers from Yemen’s Shihen border-crossing. This explains why Mahra province managed to remain economically autonomous from the other provinces. At the same time, this contributed to protecting the Omani border from any security breakthrough by extremist groups: most tribes are also grateful to the Omani state for this status quo. This does not mean that illegal activities are absent from this area: the smuggling of goods and vehiclesis widespread and recently many human trafficking cases in Dhofar were also recorded, but all the people involved in such activities are Mahris.

    However, the consequences of the war have extended to the border of Mahra province since mid-2015. The Houthis reduced the financial allowances of Mahra employees to a quarter of the amount required for the province, causing non-payment of salaries for many civil and military employees: many of them, especially non-Mahris, had to leave and return to their areas. This provoked a severe shortage of employees in security and service institutions: as a result, the then governor of Mahra handed out Mahra crossings to the tribes, surrounding the areas to take over the management of ports at a governorate level and transfer customs fees to the province’s account. Moreover, Oman provided the necessary fuel for the service facilities and distributed regular food aid to the population. In 2017, the tribes of Zabanout and Ra’feet began to quarrel over control of the Shihen crossing, each tribe claiming the port as part of its tribal area.

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) began to be present in the province of Mahra a few months later at the beginning of the military intervention in Yemen. In 2015 the UAE trained about 2,500 new recruits from among Mahra inhabitants, although they reportedly did not create an elite force due to tribal refusal, while providing a lot of assistance to rebuild the local police and existing security services. It also distributed food baskets and humanitarian aid to the residents of Mahra districts through the UAE Red Crescent Society.

    In the eyes of the sultanate, the UAE presence at its Yemeni border is perceived as unjustified: the two countries have disputes on several issues, most notably the border, especially after Oman accused Abu Dhabi of planning a coup in 2011 to overthrow Sultan Qaboos, which the UAE denied.

    The collapse of Yemeni state institutions and the military intervention of the Saudi-led coalition stunned Muscat, which found itself having to cope with new dynamics and a no more effective border strategy: these concerns have turned into reality. In January 2016 the Omani authorities closed the ports in the Shihen and Surfeet areas, and a few months later al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seized control of the city of Mukalla, the capital of Mahra’s neighboring region of Hadramout. The stated rationale for Oman’s move was to protect its border security from any breakthrough of extremist groups. It is here worth noting that AQAP has never been close to Mahra or its border areas, due to local society, strongly attached to traditional Sufism, which has never accepted al-Qaeda’s ideology. In late 2017, when a group of Saudi-backed Salafists tried to establish a religious education center in Mahra’s Qashan, protests were held against them because locals reject this type of religious belief.

    However, observers believe that the real reason for the temporary closure of the ports was the result of political choices made by president Hadi and Khaled Bah’hah, the prime minister at the time: leaders of security and military services in Mahra were replaced by new leaders and the sultanate was uncertain regarding the future political direction of these appointments. It should be noted that, over the past few years, tensions have arisen between Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the one hand, and Oman on the other, because the sultanate adopted political attitudes not aligned with the Saudi-UAE politics in the region, especially in relation to Qatar and Iran.

    Oman was also accused by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi of providing access to arms and communications devices to be delivered to the Houthis. In August 2015 Marib province authorities seized a shipment of arms and ammunition for the Houthis at one of its checkpoints. In October 2015, the governor of Marib declared that military forces took possession of Iranian military equipment (including advanced communications equipment) in the province: according to their statement, this shipment was coming by land from the Sultanate of Oman. In November 2015, the Yemeni army dismantled an informal network involved in the smuggling of arms and explosives, as well as of military communications equipment, which entered through Mahra ports, said the army. In October 2016, Western and Iranian officials stated that Iran had stepped up arms transfer to the Houthis, and most of the smuggling crossed Oman and its Yemeni frontier, including by land routes. This was denied by the Sultanate of Oman in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arguing that “the news of arms smuggling through Oman is baseless and no arms are passing through the lands of Sultanate”.

    Despite these allegations, there are smuggling routes towards Yemen that seem easier than passing through the sultanate’s borders. The Yemeni coastal strip on the Arabian Sea extends over 1,000 kilometers: this is a security vacuum area and is closer in terms of distance to the Houthis’ strongholds. In any case, smuggled arms or goods cannot reach the Houthis in northern Yemen without the help of smuggling networks operating in areas controlled by the legitimate government forces.

    In October 2017 the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a UAE-backed faction of the Southern Movement seeking independence for southern Yemen, tried to convince the former governor, Abdullah Kedda, to join the council, but he refused, asserting that he supports the authority of the legitimate government led by president Hadi. This disappointed the Saudi-led coalition, especially the UAE, which intends to promote the STC as the only entity representing the Southern Movement: the STC embraced the UAE’s agenda in the south.

    The Omani influence on the tribes of Mahra was a major motivation for Saudi Arabia’s military reinforcement in the region. In November 2017 Saudi forces entered the province and took over its vital facilities, including al-Ghaidha airport, Nashton port and the ports of Srfeet and Shihen on the border with Oman. The Saudis also deployed their forces in more than 12 locations along the coast of Mahra, and dismissed the airport employees.

    These developments worried Mahra inhabitants,pushing thousands into the streets in April 2018: they staged an open protest in the city of Ghaidha, demanding that Saudi forces to leave the facilities and institutions, handing them over to local authorities. Even famous Mahris such as Shiekh Ali Harizi, Shikh Al Afrar and Ahmed Qahtant, described the Saudis as an "occupation power"seeking to seize the resources of the province.

    Therefore, the war in Yemen has opened a subtle but acute season of popular discontent and regional rivalry in Mahra, stuck in a three-players game among Saudis, Emiratis and Omanis.


    https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/omans-boiling-yemeni-border-22588
    #Yémen #Oman #frontières #conflit #guerre

  • #Israel rejected 2014 Saudi proposal on Palestinian peace talks - Axios
    https://www.axios.com/netanyahu-rejected-saudi-diplomatic-offer-gaza-war-62b8c2f6-132b-4e4a-b2af-c7

    Between the lines : The sources told me the Saudis felt they went out of their way toward Israel. They said the Saudis felt angry and humiliated, and they held Netanyahu responsible.

    The sources told me that Bandar conveyed a message to Netanyahu two months later, with the bottom line being that he believed Netanyahu lied to him.

    The big picture : The affair created a deep crisis between Israel and Saudi Arabia and communications between the parties almost stopped — even on the Iranian issue. The crisis ended only a year later, several months after the death of King Abdullah and the inauguration of King Salman.

    #arabie_saoudite

  • 12&000 Kurdes attendus à Strasbourg samedi
    https://www.rue89strasbourg.com/12000-kurdes-attendus-a-strasbourg-samedi-148952

    Plus de 12 000 militants et sympathisants du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) vont défiler dans les rues de Strasbourg samedi 16 février pour demander la libération d’Abdullah Öcalan, le dirigeant et l’un des fondateur de ce mouvement indépendantiste. (lire l’article complet : 12&000 Kurdes attendus à Strasbourg samedi)

  • Opinion | My Father Faces the Death Penalty. This Is Justice in Saudi Arabia. - The New York Times

    The kingdom’s judiciary is being pushed far from any semblance of the rule of law and due process.

    By Abdullah Alaoudh

    Mr. Alaoudh is a legal scholar at Georgetown University.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/opinion/saudi-arabia-judiciary.html

    Despite the claims of Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his enablers, Saudi Arabia is not rolling back the hard-line religious establishment. Instead, the kingdom is curtailing the voices of moderation that have historically combated extremism. Numerous Saudi activists, scholars and thinkers who have sought reform and opposed the forces of extremism and patriarchy have been arrested. Many of them face the death penalty.

    Salman Alodah, my father, is a 61-year-old scholar of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia, a reformist who argued for greater respect for human rights within Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Quran. His voice was heard widely, partly owing to his popularity as a public figure with 14 million followers on Twitter.
    The author’s father, Salman Alodah, has been held in solitary confinement since 2017.CreditFamily photograph
    Image
    The author’s father, Salman Alodah, has been held in solitary confinement since 2017.CreditFamily photograph

    On Sept. 10, 2017, my father, who was disturbed by regional tensions after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar, spoke obliquely about the conflict and expressed his desire for reconciliation. “May Allah mend their hearts for the best of their peoples,” he tweeted.

    A few hours after his tweet, a team from the Saudi security services came to our house in Riyadh, searched the house, confiscated some laptops and took my father away.

    Advertisement

    The Saudi government was apparently angered and considered his tweet a criminal violation. His interrogators told my father that his assuming a neutral position on the Saudi-Qatar crisis and failing to stand with the Saudi government was a crime.

    He is being held in solitary confinement in Dhahban prison in Jidda. He was chained and handcuffed for months inside his cell, deprived of sleep and medical help and repeatedly interrogated throughout the day and night. His deteriorating health — high blood pressure and cholesterol that he developed in prison — was ignored until he had to be hospitalized. Until the trial, about a year after his arrest, he was denied access to lawyers.

    On Sept. 4, a specialized criminal court in Riyadh convened off-camera to consider the numerous charges against my father: stirring public discord and inciting people against the ruler, calling for change in government and supporting Arab revolutions by focusing on arbitrary detention and freedom of speech, possessing banned books and describing the Saudi government as a tyranny. The kingdom’s attorney general sought the death penalty for him.

    Saudi Arabia has exploited the general indifference of the West toward its internal politics and presented the crackdown against reformist figures like my father as a move against the conservative religious establishment. The reality is far from their claims.

    My father is loved by the Saudi people because his authority and legitimacy as an independent Muslim scholar set him apart from the state-appointed scholars. Using Islamic principles to support his arguments, he championed civil liberties, participatory politics, the separation of powers and judicial independence.

  • Pourquoi des militants kurdes sont en grève de la faim à Strasbourg depuis décembre
    https://www.rue89strasbourg.com/pourquoi-militants-kurdes-greve-faim-strasbourg-148488

    En grève de la faim depuis le 16 décembre, des centaines de militants kurdes en Europe et ailleurs réclament la fin de l’isolement du leader du PKK, Abdullah Öcalan. Quatorze d’entre eux sont à Strasbourg pour attirer l’attention du Conseil de l’Europe. (lire l’article complet : Pourquoi des militants kurdes sont en grève de la faim à Strasbourg depuis décembre)

  • » Israeli Soldiers Kill One Palestinian, Injure Another, Near Jenin
    IMEMC News -February 5, 2019 1:47 AM
    http://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-one-palestinian-injure-another-near-jenin

    Israeli soldiers killed, on Monday evening, one Palestinian teen and injured another, near the entrance of the al-Jalama village, northeast of Jenin in northern West Bank. The army claimed that Palestinians were riding a motor cycle and “hurled an explosive at the soldiers,” and did not report any injuries.

    Mahmoud Sa’adi, the director of the Emergency Department of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, said the slain Palestinian has been identified as Abdullah Faisal Omar Tawalba , 19, from the al-Jalama village, and added that Omar Ahmad Hanana, 15, was injured but is in a stable condition.

    Palestinian medical sources said the medics moved the slain Palestinian, and the wounded teen, to Jenin Governmental Hospital.

    They added that Tawalba was shot with several live rounds in the head and legs.

    Eyewitnesses said the two were riding a motorcycle near the village, when the soldiers opened fire at them, and denied the Israeli military allegation, stating that the army will say anything to justify murdering Palestinians.

    They added that the two Palestinians were riding their motorcycle back home, in al-Jalama and ‘Arrana villages near Jenin, while returning from work.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Israeli Army Admits the Palestinian Motorcyclist They Killed Had No Explosives
      February 11, 2019 4:58 AM
      http://imemc.org/article/israeli-army-admits-the-palestinian-motorcyclist-they-killed-had-no-explosive

      Following an investigation by the Israeli military into the killing of a Palestinian motorcycle rider on February 5th, and the severe wounding of his passenger, the military was forced to admit that their initial claim that the young man had explosives was a false claim.

      Abdullah Faisal Omar Tawalba , 19, was shot and killed by Israeli forces on February 5th, 2019, at an Israeli military checkpoint in Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank.

      His passenger, Omar Ahmad Hanana, 15, was also shot by the Israeli military and badly injured, but is in stable condition at the Jenin Governmental Hospital run by the Palestinian Authority.

      Initially, the Israeli military reported to the media that the young men had approached the checkpoint and “tried to plant explosives”.

      An investigation by Israeli military police found no evidence whatsoever of any explosives of any kind.

      The soldiers claimed that they “heard an explosion,” and “where sure “an explosive was thrown at the roadblock, before they opened fire.”

  •  » Israeli Soldiers Kill One Palestinian, Injure 30, Near Ramallah
    IMEMC News - January 26, 2019 6:39 PM
    http://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-one-palestinian-injure-30-near-ramallah

    Israeli soldiers killed, Saturday, one Palestinian and injured at least 30 others, after a group of illegal colonialist settlers attempted to invade the northern part of the al-Mughayyir village, east of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and were intercepted by the villagers.

    The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian, identified as Hamdi Taleb Sa’ada Na’san , 38, was shot with a live round in his back, and the bullet was logged in the upper abdomen.

    The Palestinian was rushed to Palestine Medical Complex, in Ramallah, but died from his very serious wounds.

    The soldiers also injured at least thirty other Palestinians, among them six who were shot with live fire, including one who suffered a very serious injury.

    One of the wounded Palestinians was shot with a live round in his mouth, before he was rushed to the Istishari hospital, in Ramallah, in a moderate-but-stable condition.

    ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
    PCHR
    https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=11937

    A Palestinian Civilian Killed by Israeli Settlers

    At approximately 15:30 on Saturday, 26 January 2019, a group of Israeli settlers moved into al-Moghayer village, northeast of Ramallah, and rioted on the streets while opening fire at several houses; 2 of them belonged to Jamal ‘Ali al-Na’asan and ‘Abdullah al-Na’asan, breaking all the houses’ windows.
    Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian young men gathered to throw stones, empty bottles and Molotov Cocktails at them. In response, the settlers immediately and randomly fired a barrage of bullets, wounding Hamdi Taleb al-Na’asan (38) with a bullet that entered his lower back, hit the lungs and then exited from the chest. As a result, Hamdi fell on the ground and was immediately taken via an ambulance belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where his death was declared in the ED due to arriving in a very critical condition.

    Following that, the Israeli forces moved into the village to provide protection for settlers and opened fire at the Palestinian protestors. As a result, 22 civilians were wounded with bullets and shrapnel; 8 of them were taken to the Palestine Medical Complex, 6 were taken to the Istishari Arab Hospital in al-Rihan Suburb, north of Ramallah, and 8 were taken to the medical center in nearby Termes’aya village. It should be mentioned that Hamdi al-Na’asan was a former prisoner in the Israeli jails, where he served an 8-year sentence. He was also married with 4 children; the youngest is only 1 year old.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Welcome to the Palestine Circus
      Gideon Levy Jan 27, 2019 3:38 AM
      https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-welcome-to-the-palestine-circus-1.6874241

      A lethal weekend for Palestinians — four killed, from Rafah in the Gaza Strip to Ramallah in the West Bank — ended Saturday with the death of a farmer in his olive orchard, in the central West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir.

      It was the afternoon. Hamdi Na’asan and a few fellow villagers were about to finish tilling their fine olive orchard, downhill from the virulent outpost of Adei Ad. It is plowing season and the farmers were turning over the earth on their beautifully terraced orchard. At around 4 P.M., a group of armed settlers approached from the direction of Adei Ad and began attacking them in an effort to chase them off their land.

      That is the routine here in the land of the outposts, especially in Al-Mughayyir. I was in the village last week, and I saw the still and bleeding remains of 25 olive trees planted 35 years ago, cut down by electric saws, tree after tree, on Friday January 11, three days before the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat, sometimes called Jewish Arbor Day.

      Footprints led to the Mevo Shiloh outpost, whose residents took over a half-abandoned army barracks on the hill above Al-Mughayyir’s fields. For the past two months, villagers had gathered every Friday at their land to demand the removal of Mevo Shiloh. Its settlers graze their flocks on the village’s land and have carried out so-called price tag attacks in the village, vandalizing cars.

      On Saturday they came from Adei Ad. A few days before, villagers said they had somehow learned to live with Adei Ad, and their problem was with Mevo Shilo. This weekend it became clear to them that it was a choice between plague and cholera. One week the evil came from the east, from Mevo Shilo, a week later from the north, Adei Ad — a rotation of hate crimes coming from the outposts. You should have seen the fear of the residents as we drove to their orchards last week as we approached Mevo Shilo, to see the atmosphere of threats and terror with which they live.

      After the settlers came down and attacked them, the farmers phoned for help. They were utterly helpless: The army will always side with the settlers, of course. The residents also called the Palestinian liaison bureau but didn’t get any help. Military forces arrived, and soldiers and settlers began shooting live ammunition toward the farmers.

      Villagers deny claims that the settlers were attacked by farmers. Anyone familiar with the Shiloh Valley knows how difficult, impossible really, it is to believe such claims. The settlers descend upon fields that aren’t theirs for the sole purpose of evicting residents from their land and striking fear. That’s the aim, that’s the goal.

      The farmers and villagers who rushed to help them fled south, toward the village, as soldiers and settlers fired first tear gas, that enveloped the homes, and then live ammunition. They shot at them as they fled. Na’asan was shot in the back. The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday night that he was shot by a settler. It took an hour to bring him to the government hospital in Ramallah. An additional 15 villagers were wounded. Nine were admitted to the Ramallah hospital; three needed surgery.

      The view from Al-Mughayyir is gorgeous this time of year, a fertile valley, cultivated amazingly. Brown earth sprouting blossoming olive orchards and green fields. And here are the photographs of Na’asan’s death: His dead face and closed eyes, the small hole in his back, near his spine. He was 38, a father of four, a relative of Abed al Hai Na’asan, the owner of the orchard whose trees were cut down, with whom we went last week to witness the damage and his pain.

      Thus fell the village’s first victim since the start of its popular protest, and he will probably not be the last.

    • UN Mladenov condemns Israeli settler killing of Palestinian father
      Jan. 27, 2019 12:36 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 27, 2019 1:08 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=782366

      BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, condemned in a tweet the Israeli settlers’ killing of a Palestinian father during an attack on al-Mughayyir village, on Saturday.

      Mladenov posted in a tweet, “Today’s violence in al-Mughayyir is shocking and unacceptable!”

      He added, “Israel must put an end to settler violence & bring those responsible to justice.”

      “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the #Palestinian man killed and those injured… All must condemn violence, stand up to terror,” he stressed.

    • Hamdi Naasan, un père de quatre enfants, assassiné par les colons
      Annelies Keuleers - 28 janvier 2019 – Al-Jazeera – Traduction : Chronique de Palestine
      http://www.chroniquepalestine.com/hamdi-naasan-un-pere-de-quatre-enfants-assassine-par-les-colons

      Nikolay Mladenov, l’envoyé des Nations Unies au Moyen-Orient, appelle Israël à traduire en justice les assassins du Palestinien Hamdi Naasan.

      L’envoyé de l’ONU au Moyen-Orient a qualifié le meurtre d’un Palestinien par les colons israéliens en Cisjordanie occupée de « choquant et inacceptable ».

      Nikolay Mladenov a appelé dimanche Israël à « mettre fin à la violence des colons et à traduire les responsables en justice ».

      Hamdi Naasan, âgé de 38 ans, a succombé à ses blessures samedi près du village d’Al Mugheir après que des colons israéliens de la colonie illégale d’Adei Ad, située à proximité, aient tiré des coups de feu.

      Selon le ministère palestinien de la Santé, Naasan aurait reçu une balle de fusil dans le dos. Selon l’agence de presse Maan, au moins 30 autres Palestiniens ont été blessés, dont six par des tirs à balles réelles.

      Des milliers de personnes se sont rassemblées dans le village d’al-Mugheir pour assister aux funérailles de Naasan.

      L’armée israélienne a temporairement empêché les personnes en deuil d’atteindre le lieu de sépulture en érigeant un barrage routier entre l’autoroute et une route menant au village. Lors d’un affrontement qui a suivi, l’armée israélienne a kidnappé deux adolescents palestiniens.

  • En 2011, « Le Monde » écrivait :
    https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2011/06/16/syrie-la-derniere-carte-de-bachar-al-assad_1536986_3232.html

    Sans l’Iran, le régime syrien revient dans le #giron_arabe traditionnel.

    En 2019 l’objectif resterait le même, malgré l’Iran
    https://www.france24.com/fr/20190103-syrie-bachar-assad-diplomatie-retour-ligue-arabe

    Interrogé par France 24, Mohammad al-Hammadi, politologue basée à Dubaï, estime de son côté [...] : « J’estime que les Arabes ont beaucoup perdu en coupant les ponts avec les Syriens, je parle du pays, et non pas du régime ou de Bachar al-Assad. Le boycott arabe a eu des conséquences directes sur le sort de la population, il faut donc que la Ligue arabe prenne une décision claire, pour que la #Syrie retourne dans le giron arabe ».

    • Arab nations inch toward rehabilitating Syria’s Assad
      https://apnews.com/beb8390d4a4e4e26accff0b26995fa28

      The debate now appears to be about when, not whether, to re-admit Syria to the Arab League. At a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said Syria’s return to the League is connected to developments on the political track to end the crisis. Some officials in Lebanon insist Syria should be invited to an Arab economic summit the country is hosting next week, although final decision rests with the League.

      “It could happen slower or faster, but if Assad is going to stay where he is, then obviously countries in the region are going to try to make the best of that situation,” said Aron Lund, a fellow with The Century Foundation. “American politicians can sit in splendid isolation on the other side of an ocean and pretend Syria isn’t what it is,” he said. “But King Abdullah of Jordan can’t.”

      Les MSM occidentaux adorent cette photo avec Bachir du Soudan.

  • Israeli cyber firm negotiated advanced attack capabilities sale with Saudis, Haaretz reveals

    Just months before crown prince launched a purge against his opponents, NSO offered Saudi intelligence officials a system to hack into cellular phones ■ NSO: We abide the law, our products are used to combat crime and terrorism

    Amos Harel, Chaim Levinson and Yaniv Kubovich Nov 25, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-company-negotiated-to-sell-advanced-cybertech-to-the-saudi

    The Israeli company NSO Group Technologies offered Saudi Arabia a system that hacks cellphones, a few months before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his purge of regime opponents, according to a complaint to the Israel Police now under investigation.
    But NSO, whose development headquarters is in Herzliya, says that it has acted according to the law and its products are used in the fight against crime and terror.
    Either way, a Haaretz investigation based on testimony and photos, as well as travel and legal documents, reveals the Saudis’ behind-the-scenes attempts to buy Israeli technology.
    In June 2017, a diverse group gathered in a hotel room in Vienna, a city between East and West that for decades has been a center for espionage, defense-procurement contacts and unofficial diplomatic meetings.
    skip -

    Subscribe Now for Just $1
    Truly understand Israel and the Middle East, from the most trustworthy news source in the region >>

    Arriving at the hotel were Abdullah al-Malihi, a close associate of Prince Turki al-Faisal – a former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services – and another senior Saudi official, Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief. Their interlocutors were two Israeli businessmen, representatives of NSO, who presented to the Saudis highly advanced technology.

    >> Israel’s cyber-spy industry helps world dictators hunt dissidents and gays | Revealed
    In 2017, NSO was avidly promoting its new technology, its Pegasus 3 software, an espionage tool so sophisticated that it does not depend on the victim clicking on a link before the phone is breached.
    During the June 2017 meeting, NSO officials showed a PowerPoint presentation of the system’s capabilities. To demonstrate it, they asked Qahtani to go to a nearby mall, buy an iPhone and give them its number. During that meeting they showed how this was enough to hack into the new phone and record and photograph the participants in the meeting.
    The meeting in Vienna wasn’t the first one between the two sides. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently expressed pride in the tightening ties with Gulf states, with Israel’s strength its technology. The message is clear: Israel is willing to sell these countries security-related technologies, and they forge closer ties with Israel in the strategic battle against Iran.

  • After the Quake

    #Gyumri, the city symbol of the quake that 21 years ago struck Armenia. The stories of the homeless, the #domiks, the migrants, waiting for the opening of the borders with Turkey. Reportage.

    December 7, 1988, 11.41 am – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits northern Armenia, killing 25,000 and leaving many more homeless. Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. cuts short an official visit to the United States to travel to the small South Caucasus Soviet republic as news of the catastrophe makes headlines the world over. Poverty skyrockets as a nation mourned its dead.

    Hundreds of millions of dollars flooded into the country for relief and reconstruction efforts, but two other events of as much significance soon frustrated efforts to rebuild the disaster zone. In 1991, Armenia declared independence from the former Soviet Union, and in 1993, in support of Azerbaijan during a de facto war with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Turkey closed the land border with its eastern neighbor.

    Meanwhile, as corruption skyrocketed, the conflict as well as two closed borders and an economic blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey only added to Armenia’s woes. Yet, despite strong economic growth in the mid-2000s, albeit from a low base, and promises from then President Robert Kocharyan to completely rebuild Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city and the main urban center to be hit by the earthquake, the outlook appears as bleak as ever.

    Once Gyumri had been known for its architecture, humor and cultural importance, but now it has become synonymous with the earthquake and domiks – “temporary” accommodation usually amounting to little more than metal containers or dilapidated shacks. Hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter, others more fortunate found refuge in abandoned buildings vacated during the economic collapse following independence.

    Vartik Ghukasyan, for example, is 71 and alone. An orphan, she never married and now struggles to survive on a pension of just 25,000 AMD (about $65) a month in a rundown former factory hostel in Gyumri. However, that might all change as more buildings are privatized or their existing owners seek to reclaim them.

    According to the 2001 census, the population of Gyumri stands at 150,000 although some claim that it has since grown to 160-170,000. Nevertheless, few local residents take such figures seriously. Pointing to low school attendance figures, they estimate the actual population might be no more than 70,000. Even so, despite the exodus, there are as many as 4-7,000 families still living in temporary shelter according to various estimates.

    Anush Babajanyan, a 26-year-old photojournalist from the Armenian capital, is one of just a few media professionals who remain concerned by their plight. Having spent the past year documenting the lives of those still waiting for proper housing, the anniversary might have been otherwise low-profile outside of Gyumri, but Babajanyan attempted to focus attention on the occasion by exhibiting her work in Yerevan.

    “When I started this project, 20 years had passed since the earthquake and there were families still living in domiks who were not receiving enough attention,” she told Osservatorio. “ The government and other organizations promised to solve the issue of their housing, but their actions were not enough. Since then I have seen very little improvement.”

    “If this issue wasn’t solved in 20 years, it probably isn’t surprising that not much has changed in just a year. However, it has been two years since Serge Sargsyan, then Armenian prime minister and now president, said that the issue of these residents will be solved by now. But, although some districts are being reconstructed, this is not enough to resolve the issue.”

    As the center of Shirak, an impoverished region that most in Armenia and its large Diaspora appear to have largely forgotten, Gyumri suffers from unemployment higher than the national average. Travel agents continue to advertise flights from the local airport to parts of Russia. As elsewhere in the region, the only hope for a better life lies outside. But, with a global economic crisis hitting the CIS hard, there are now also fewer opportunities even there.

    This year GDP per capita has already plummeted by over 14 percent nationwide, far in excess of the decline registered in Azerbaijan and Georgia, while poverty and extreme poverty - already calculated with a low yardstick - has reportedly increased from 25.6 and 3.6 percent respectively in 2008 to 28.4 and 6.9 percent today. Local civil society activists claim that the figures might be twice as high in Gyumri.

    But, some believe, the city could benefit greatly from an open border with Turkey , transforming itself into a major economic and transit hub for direct trade between the two countries. Just 8 km away lies the village of Akhurik, one of two closed border crossings. Repair work had been conducted on the railway connecting Gyumri to the Turkish city of Kars prior to last year’s World Cup qualifying match with Turkey held in Yerevan.

    With Turkish President Abdullah Gül making a historic visit to Armenia for the match, villagers were once again given hope that a border opening would be imminent. “It will be very good if it opens,” one resident told RFE/RL at the time. “We used to work in the past — 40 families benefited from work related to the railway. Now they sit idle without work or have to choose migrant work in Russia. It will be good when the line is opened.”

    But, with pressure from Azerbaijan on Turkey not to sign two protocols aimed at establishing diplomatic relations and opening the border until the Karabakh conflict is resolved, such a breakthrough appears as elusive as ever while unemployment and poverty increases. Nowhere is that more evident than the city of Ashotsk, just 30 minutes outside of Gyumri. Karine Mkrtchyan, public relations officer for the Caritas Armenia NGO says conditions are typical.

    “Everywhere you will see abandoned places, especially public spaces,” she says. “They are ruined. There are no facilities, there is a lack of drinking water, and irrigation. People are on their own to solve their problems. We had a loss of life during the earthquake and then massive migration which stopped in the late 1990s before starting again in early 2000. Now there are even more people who decide to migrate.”

    Last week, on the 21st anniversary of the earthquake, the government attempted to counter criticism of what many consider to be inaction and a lack of concern with the socioeconomic situation in Gyumri. Opening a sugar refinery owned by one of the country’s most notorious oligarchs at the same time, the Armenian president visited Gyumri and promised that 5,300 new homes would allocated to those still without by 2013.

    The $70 million construction project has been made possible through a $500 million anti-crisis loan from the Russian Federation.

    However, whether such promises come to fruition remains to be seen and government critics remain unimpressed. Indeed, they point out, even if the apartments are built and allocated on time, it would have taken a quarter of a century to do so. Moreover, for Gyumri natives such as Mkrtchyan, the need for economic investment and development in the regions of Armenia remains as urgent as ever.

    https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Armenia/After-the-Quake-55719
    #tremblement_de_terre #post-catastrophe #Arménie #histoire #logement #réfugiés_environnementaux #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières

  • Israeli cyber firm negotiated advanced attack capabilities sale with Saudis, Haaretz reveals

    Just months before crown prince launched a purge against his opponents, NSO offered Saudi intelligence officials a system to hack into cellular phones ■ NSO: We abide the law, our products are used to combat crime and terrorism

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-company-negotiated-to-sell-advanced-cybertech-to-the-saudi

    The Israeli company NSO Group Technologies offered Saudi Arabia a system that hacks cellphones, a few months before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his purge of regime opponents, according to a complaint to the Israel Police now under investigation.
    But NSO, whose development headquarters is in Herzliya, says that it has acted according to the law and its products are used in the fight against crime and terror.
    To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz
    Either way, a Haaretz investigation based on testimony and photos, as well as travel and legal documents, reveals the Saudis’ behind-the-scenes attempts to buy Israeli technology.
    In June 2017, a diverse group gathered in a hotel room in Vienna, a city between East and West that for decades has been a center for espionage, defense-procurement contacts and unofficial diplomatic meetings.
    Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter
    Email* Sign up

    Arriving at the hotel were Abdullah al-Malihi, a close associate of Prince Turki al-Faisal – a former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services – and another senior Saudi official, Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief. Their interlocutors were two Israeli businessmen, representatives of NSO, who presented to the Saudis highly advanced technology.

    >> Israel’s cyber-spy industry helps world dictators hunt dissidents and gays | Revealed
    In 2017, NSO was avidly promoting its new technology, its Pegasus 3 software, an espionage tool so sophisticated that it does not depend on the victim clicking on a link before the phone is breached.
    During the June 2017 meeting, NSO officials showed a PowerPoint presentation of the system’s capabilities. To demonstrate it, they asked Qahtani to go to a nearby mall, buy an iPhone and give them its number. During that meeting they showed how this was enough to hack into the new phone and record and photograph the participants in the meeting.
    The meeting in Vienna wasn’t the first one between the two sides. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently expressed pride in the tightening ties with Gulf states, with Israel’s strength its technology. The message is clear: Israel is willing to sell these countries security-related technologies, and they forge closer ties with Israel in the strategic battle against Iran.
    >> $6 billion of Iranian money: Why Israeli firm Black Cube really went after Obama’s team
    According to the complaint, the affair began with a phone call received by a man identified as a European businessman with connections in the Gulf states. On the line was W., an Israeli dealing in defense-related technologies and who operates through Cyprus-based companies. (Many defense-related companies do business in Cyprus because of its favorable tax laws.) W. asked his European interlocutor to help him do business in the Gulf.

    FILE Photo: Two of the founders of NSO, Shalev Julio and Omri Lavi.
    Among the European businessman’s acquaintances were the two senior Saudi officials, Malihi and Qahtani.
    On February 1, 2017, W. and the businessman met for the first time. The main topic was the marketing of cyberattack software. Unlike ordinary weapons systems, the price depends only on a customer’s eagerness to buy the system.
    The following month, the European businessman traveled to a weapons exhibition in the United Arab Emirates, where a friend introduced him to Malihi, the Saudi businessman.
    In April 2017, a meeting was arranged in Vienna between Malihi, Qahtani and representatives of Israeli companies. Two more meetings subsequently took place with officials of Israeli companies in which other Israelis were present. These meetings took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus, where Israeli cybercompanies often meet with foreign clients.
    >> Snowden: Israeli firm’s spyware was used to track Khashoggi
    The meetings were attended by W. and his son. They were apparently friendly: In photographs documenting one of them, W. and Qahtani are shown after a hunting trip, with the Saudi aiming a rifle at a dead animal.
    In the Vienna meeting of April 2017, the Saudis presented a list of 23 systems they sought to acquire. Their main interest was cybersystems. For a few dozens of millions of dollars, they would be able to hack into the phones of regime opponents in Saudi Arabia and around the world and collect classified information about them.
    According to the European businessman, the Saudis, already at the first meeting, passed along to the representatives of one of the companies details of a Twitter account of a person who had tweeted against the regime. They wanted to know who was behind the account, but the Israeli company refused to say.

    Offices of Israeli NSO Group company in Herzliya, Israel, Aug. 25, 2016Daniella Cheslow/AP
    In the June 2017 meeting, the Saudis expressed interest in NSO’s technology.
    According to the European businessman, in July 2017 another meeting was held between the parties, the first at W.’s home in Cyprus. W. proposed selling Pegasus 3 software to the Saudis for $208 million.
    Malihi subsequently contacted W. and invited him to Riyadh to present the software to members of the royal family. The department that oversees defense exports in Israel’s Defense Ministry and the ministry’s department for defense assistance, responsible for encouraging exports, refused to approve W.’s trip.
    Using the initials for the defense assistance department, W. reportedly said “screw the D.A.” and chartered a small plane, taking with him NSO’s founder, Shalev Hulio, to the meetings in the Gulf. According to the European businessman, the pair were there for three days, beginning on July 18, 2017.
    At these meetings, the European businessman said, an agreement was made to sell the Pegasus 3 to the Saudis for $55 million.
    According to the European businessman, the details of the deal became known to him only through his contacts in the defense assistance department. He said he had agreed orally with W. that his commission in the deal would be 5 percent – $2.75 million.
    But W. and his son stopped answering the European businessman’s phone calls. Later, the businessman told the police, he received an email from W.’s lawyer that contained a fake contract in which the company would agree to pay only his expenses and to consider whether to pay him a bonus if the deal went through.
    The European businessman, assisted by an Israeli lawyer, filed a complaint in April 2018. He was questioned by the police’s national fraud squad and was told that the affair had been transferred to another unit specializing in such matters. Since then he has been contacted by the income tax authorities, who are apparently checking whether there has been any unreported income from the deal.
    The European businessman’s claims seem to be substantiated by correspondence Haaretz has obtained between Cem Koksal, a Turkish businessman living in the UAE, and W.’s lawyers in Israel. The European businessman said in his complaint that Koksal was involved in mediating the deal.
    In a letter sent by Koksal’s lawyer in February of this year, he demanded his portion from W. In a response letter, sent in early March, W.’s attorney denied the existence of the deal. The deal had not been signed, the letter claimed, due to Koksal’s negligence, therefore he was due no commission or compensation of any kind.
    These issues have a wider context. From the claims by the European businessman and Koksal’s letter, it emerges that the deal was signed in the summer of 2017, a few months before Crown Prince Mohammed began his purge of regime opponents. During that purge, the Saudi regime arrested and tortured members of the royal family and Saudi businessmen accused of corruption. The Saudis also held Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri for a few days in a Riyadh hotel.
    In the following months the Saudis continued their hunt for regime opponents living abroad, which raised international attention only when the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul came to light in October.
    It has recently been claimed that NSO helped the Saudi regime surveil its opponents. According to an article in Forbes magazine and reports from the Canadian cyber-related think tank Citizen Lab, among the surveillance targets were the satirist Ghanem Almasrir and human rights activist Yahya Asiri, who live in London, and Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in exile in Canada.
    These three men were in contact with Khashoggi. Last month, Edward Snowden, who uncovered the classified surveillance program of the U.S. National Security Agency, claimed that Pegasus had been used by the Saudi authorities to surveil Khashoggi.
    “They are the worst of the worst,” Snowden said of NSO, whose people he accused of aiding and abetting human rights violations.
    NSO’s founders and chief executives are Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio. The company is registered in Cyprus but its development headquarters is in Herzliya. In 2014 the company was sold to private equity firm Francisco Partners based on a valuation of $250 million.
    Francisco Partners did not respond to Haaretz’s request for comment.
    In May, Verint Systems offered to buy NSO for $1 billion, but the offer was rejected. The company is awash in cash. Earlier this month all its employees went on vacation in Phuket, Thailand. Netta Barzilai, Lior Suchard, the Ma Kashur Trio and the band Infected Mushroom were also flown there to entertain them.
    The Pegasus system developed by NSO was a “one-click system,” meaning that the victim had to press on a link sent to him through phishing. The new system no longer requires this. Only the number of the SIM card is needed to hack into the phone. It’s unknown how Pegasus does this.
    Technology sources believe that the technology either exploits breaches in the cellphone’s modem, the part that receives messages from the antenna, or security breaches in the apps installed on a phone. As soon as a phone is hacked, the speaker and camera can be used for recording conversations. Even encoded apps such as WhatsApp can be monitored.
    NSO’s operations are extremely profitable.
    The company, which conceals its client list, has been linked to countries that violate human rights. NSO says its products are used in the fight against crime and terror, but in certain countries the authorities identify anti-regime activists and journalists as terrorists and subject them to surveillance.
    In 2012, NSO sold an earlier version of Pegasus to Mexico to help it combat the drug cartel in that country. According to the company, all its contracts include a clause specifically permitting the use of its software only to “investigate and prevent crime or acts of terror.” But The New York Times reported in 2016 that the Mexican authorities also surveilled journalists and lawyers.
    Following that report, Mexican victims of the surveillance filed a lawsuit in Israel against NSO last September. This year, The New York Times reported that the software had been sold to the UAE, where it helped the authorities track leaders of neighboring countries as well as a London newspaper editor.
    In response to these reports, NSO said it “operated and operates solely in compliance with defense export laws and under the guidelines and close oversight of all elements of the defense establishment, including all matters relating to export policies and licenses.
    “The information presented by Haaretz about the company and its products and their use is wrong, based on partial rumors and gossip. The presentation distorts reality.
    “The company has an independent, external ethics committee such as no other company like it has. It includes experts in legal affairs and international relations. The committee examines every deal so that the use of the system will take place only according to permitted objectives of investigating and preventing terror and crime.
    “The company’s products assist law enforcement agencies in protecting people around the world from terror attacks, drug cartels, child kidnappers for ransom, pedophiles, and other criminals and terrorists.
    “In contrast to newspaper reports, the company does not sell its products or allow their use in many countries. Moreover, the company greatly limits the extent to which its customers use its products and is not involved in the operation of the systems by customers.”
    A statement on W.’s behalf said: “This is a false and completely baseless complaint, leverage for an act of extortion by the complainants, knowing that there is no basis for their claims and that if they would turn to the relevant courts they would be immediately rejected.”

  • In Serious Escalation of Using Excessive Lethal Force Against Peaceful Protestors in Eastern Gaza Strip, Israeli Forces Kill 7 Civilians, Including Child, and Wound 224 Others, Including 42 Children, 3 Women, 3 Journalists and Paramedic
    Palestinian Center for Human Rights | October 12, 2018
    https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=11460

    The persons killed were identified as:

    Ahmed Ibrahim Zaki al-Taweel (23), from Deir al-Balah, was hit with a live bulllet to the chest ineastern al-Buraij refugee camp.

    Mohammed Abdul Hafith Yusuf Isam’il (29), from Deir al-Balah, was hit with a live bullet to the chest in eastern al-Buraij refugee camp.
    Ahmed Ahmed Abullah Abu Na’im (17), from al-Nuseirat refugee camp, was hit with a live bullet to the chest and incised wound to the left arm in eastern al-Buraij refugee camp.
    Abdullah Barham Suleiman al-Daghmah (25), from ‘Abasan al-Jadidah in Khan Younis, was hit with a live bullet that peneterated the right side of the abdomen and exited the left side in eastern al-Buraji refugeec amp.
    Tamer Iyad Mahmoud Abu ‘Armanah (21) from Rafah, was hit with a live bullet to the head in eastern Rafah.
    ‘Afifi Mahmoud ‘Ata al-‘Afifi (18), from Gaza City, was hit with a live bullet to the abdomen in eastern al-Sheja’eiyah neighborhood.
    Mohammed ‘Essam Mohammed ‘Abbas (20), from Sheikh Redwan neighborhood was hit with a live bullet to the head and succumbed to his wounds he sustained in the evening in eastern al-Sheja’eiyah neighborhood.

    Moreover, 224 civilians, including 42 children, 3 women, 3 journalists and a paramedic, were hit with live bullets and direct tear gas canisters. Sixteen of theose wounded sustained serious wounds in addition dozens suffering tear gas inhalation and seizures after tear gas canisters were heavily fired by the Israeli soldiers from the military jeeps and riffles in the eastern Gaza Strip.

    #Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour

    • Updated: Israeli Soldiers Kill Seven Palestinians, Injure 252, In Gaza
      October 13, 2018 2:35 AM IMEMC News
      http://imemc.org/article/seven-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-forces-in-protests-at-gaza-israel-border

      (...) He said that the soldiers have killed the following Palestinians Friday:

      Mohammad Issam Mohammad Abbas, 21, from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza.
      Ahmad Ibrahim Zaki Taweel, 27, from the Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
      Ahmad Ahmad ِAbdullah Abu Na’im, 17, from the Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
      Mohammad Abdul-Hafith Yousef Ismael, 29, from the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza.
      Afifi Mahmoud Ata Afifi, 18, from Gaza city.
      Abdullah Barham Suleiman ad-Daghma, 25, from Abasan al-Jadeeda in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip.
      Tamer Eyad Mahmoud Abu ‘Armana, 22, from Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip.

      It is worth mentioning that Abdullah has two bothers who were killed by the Israeli army; Suleiman was killed in 2005, while Bassam was killed in 2011. (...)

  • Jadaliyya - Seventy Years of the New York Times Describing Saudi Royals as Reformers
    http://jadaliyya.com/Details/34727

    By : Abdullah Al-Arian

    In honor of Thomas Friedman’s latest love letter to the ruling dynasty in Saudi Arabia, here is seventy years worth of the New York Times describing the royal family as reformers.
    1953:
    The article describes King Saud as “more progressive and international-minded than his autocratic father.”

    etc.

  • La vie de désespoir des réfugiés relégués par l’Australie sur une île du Pacifique

    La femme du Somalien Khadar Hrisi a tenté plusieurs fois de se suicider. R, une Iranienne de 12 ans, a voulu s’immoler par le feu : à Nauru, minuscule caillou du Pacifique, des réfugiés relégués par l’Australie racontent à l’AFP une vie sans perspective, sans soins et sans espoir.

    Nauru, le plus petit pays insulaire du monde, vient d’accueillir le Forum des îles du Pacifique (Fip) mais a interdit aux journalistes l’accès aux camps de rétention où Canberra refoule les clandestins qui tentent de gagner l’Australie par la mer.

    L’AFP a toutefois réussi à y pénétrer et à rencontrer des réfugiés dont la quasi totalité ont souhaité l’anonymat pour des raisons de sécurité.

    A Nauru, près d’un millier de migrants dont une centaine d’enfants, sur 11.000 habitants, vivent dans huit camps financés par Canberra, certains depuis cinq ans, selon leurs récits.

    Dans le camp numéro 5, que l’on atteint au détour d’un chemin sous une chaleur écrasante, dans un paysage hérissé de pitons rocheux, le Somalien Hrisi veut témoigner à visage découvert.

    Il n’a plus peur, il n’a plus rien. Sa femme ne parle pas, son visage est inexpressif.

    M. Hrisi la laisse seule le moins possible, à cause de sa dépression. Elle a tenté plusieurs fois de se suicider ces derniers jours, raconte-t-il.

    « Quand je me suis réveillé, elle était en train de casser ça », dit-il en montrant des lames de rasoir jetables. « Elle allait les avaler avec de l’eau ».

    – Problèmes psychologiques -

    M. Hrisi affirme qu’ils sont allés plusieurs fois à l’hôpital de Nauru financé par l’Australie mais que celui-ci refuse de les prendre en charge. L’autre nuit, « ils ont appelé la police et nous ont mis dehors ».

    Le camp numéro 1 traite les malades, expliquent les réfugiés. Mais il n’accueille qu’une cinquantaine de personnes car l’endroit croule sous les demandes. Or beaucoup de migrants vont mal et souffrent de problèmes psychologiques liés à leur isolement sur l’île.

    Les évacuations sanitaires vers l’Australie sont rares selon eux.

    Les ONG ne cessent de dénoncer la politique d’immigration draconienne de l’Australie.

    Depuis 2013, Canberra, qui dément tout mauvais traitement, refoule systématiquement en mer tous les bateaux de clandestins, originaires pour beaucoup d’Afghanistan, du Sri Lanka et du Moyen-Orient.

    Ceux qui parviennent à passer par les mailles du filet sont envoyés dans des îles reculées du Pacifique. Même si leur demande d’asile est jugée légitime, ils ne seront jamais accueillis sur le sol australien.

    Canberra argue qu’il sauve ainsi des vies en dissuadant les migrants d’entreprendre un périlleux voyage. Les arrivées de bateaux, qui étaient quasiment quotidiennes, sont aujourd’hui rarissimes.

    Le Refugee Council of Australia et l’Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ont dénoncé récemment les ravages psychologiques de la détention indéfinie, en particulier chez les enfants.

    « Ceux qui ont vu ces souffrances disent que c’est pire que tout ce qu’ils ont vu, même dans les zones de guerre. Des enfants de sept et douze ans ont fait l’expérience de tentatives répétées de suicide, certains s’arrosent d’essence et deviennent catatoniques », écrivaient-ils.

    R, une Iranienne de 12 ans rencontrée par l’AFP, a tenté de s’immoler. Elle vit à Nauru depuis cinq ans avec ses deux parents de 42 ans et son frère de 13 ans.

    Les enfants passent leurs journées prostrés au lit. La mère a la peau couverte de plaques, elle dit souffrir et ne recevoir aucun traitement.

    – Essence et briquet -

    Le père a récemment surpris sa fille en train de s’asperger d’essence. « Elle a pris un briquet et elle a crié +Laisse-moi seule ! Laisse-moi seule ! Je veux me suicider ! Je veux mourir !+ ».

    Son fils sort lentement de son lit et confie d’une voix monocorde : « Je n’ai pas d’école, je n’ai pas de futur, je n’ai pas de vie ».

    Non loin de là, entre deux préfabriqués, une cuve est taguée du sigle « ABF » et d’une croix gammée. L’Australian Border Force est le service australien de contrôle des frontières, honni par les réfugiés.

    Ces derniers se déplacent librement sur l’île car la prison, ce sont ses 21 kilomètres carrés.

    Khadar reçoit un ami, un ancien gardien de buts professionnel camerounais qui raconte avoir secouru un voisin en train de se pendre. Son meilleur ami a été retrouvé mort, le nez et les yeux pleins de sang, sans qu’il sache la cause du décès.

    Pas de perspectives, et pas de soins. Au grand désespoir d’Ahmd Anmesharif, un Birman dont les yeux coulent en permanence. Il explique souffrir aussi du cœur et passe ses journées sur un fauteuil en mousse moisie, à regarder la route.

    Les défenseurs des droits dénoncent des conditions effroyables et font état d’accusations d’agressions sexuelles et d’abus physiques.

    Les autorités de l’île démentent. Les réfugiés « mènent leur vie normalement, comme les autres Nauruans (...) on est très heureux de vivre ensemble », assurait ainsi lors du Fip le président de Nauru, Baron Waqa.

    Mais les réfugiés soutiennent que leurs relations avec les Nauruans se détériorent.

    « Ils nous frappent toujours, ils nous lancent toujours des pierres », accuse l’adolescent iranien.

    – Economie sous perfusion -

    Un autre Iranien, un mécanicien qui a réussi à monter un petit commerce, crie sa colère. Il vient de se faire voler « la caisse, les motos, les outils ». « La police ne retrouve jamais rien quand ce sont les Nauruans qui volent les réfugiés », assène-t-il.

    Si les conditions sont vétustes dans les camps, où la plupart des logements sont des préfabriqués, beaucoup d’habitants de Nauru semblent vivre dans des conditions plus précaires encore.

    Bon nombre habitent des cabanes de tôle, les plages sont jonchées de détritus. Ils disent ne pas comprendre de quoi se plaignent les migrants.

    En attendant, les camps sont cruciaux pour l’économie de l’île, exsangue depuis l’épuisement des réserves de phosphate qui avait contribué à l’opulence du siècle dernier.

    Selon les chiffres australiens, les recettes publiques sont passées de 20 à 115 millions de dollars australiens (12 à 72 millions d’euros) entre 2010-2011 et 2015-2016, essentiellement grâce aux subventions australiennes liées aux camps.

    « Si on enlève les réfugiés, Nauru est morte : c’est pour ça que le président tient à ce que nous restions », juge le Camerounais.

    Mais tous les réfugiés rencontrés souhaitent partir, n’importe où pour certains.

    « Au XXIe siècle, les gens pensent en secondes, en instants. Le gouvernement australien a volé cinq ans de notre vie... qui s’en soucie ? », regrette le père de la petite Iranienne.


    https://actu.orange.fr/monde/la-vie-de-desespoir-des-refugies-relegues-par-l-australie-sur-une-ile-du-pacifique-CNT0000016r391/photos/un-refugie-du-sri-lanka-a-anibare-sur-l-ile-de-nauru-dans-le-pacifique-l
    #Nauru #externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Australie #photographie
    via @marty
    cc @reka

    • The #Nauru Experience: Zero-Tolerance Immigration and #Suicidal_Children

      A recent visit to Nauru revealed the effects of Australia’s offshore #detention_policy and its impact on #mental_health.

      The Krishnalingam family on the roof of an abandoned mansion in Ronave, Nauru. The family applied for resettlement in the #United_States after fleeing Sri Lanka and being certified as #refugees.

      CreditCreditMridula Amin

      TOPSIDE, Nauru — She was 3 years old when she arrived on Nauru, a child fleeing war in #Sri_Lanka. Now, Sajeenthana is 8.

      Her gaze is vacant. Sometimes she punches adults. And she talks about dying with ease.

      “Yesterday I cut my hand,” she said in an interview here on the remote Pacific island where she was sent by the Australian government after being caught at sea. She pointed to a scar on her arm.

      “One day I will kill myself,” she said. “Wait and see, when I find the knife. I don’t care about my body. ”

      Her father tried to calm her, but she twisted away. “It is the same as if I was in war, or here,” he said.

      Sajeenthana is one of more than 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers who have been sent to Australia’s offshore #detention_centers since 2013. No other Australian policy has been so widely condemned by the world’s human rights activists nor so strongly defended by the country’s leaders, who have long argued it saves lives by deterring smugglers and migrants.

      Now, though, the desperation has reached a new level — in part because of the United States.

      Sajeenthana and her father are among the dozens of refugees on Nauru who had been expecting to be moved as part of an Obama-era deal that President #Trump reluctantly agreed to honor, allowing resettlement for up to 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore camps.

      So far, according to American officials, about 430 refugees from the camps have been resettled in the United States — but at least 70 people were rejected over the past few months.

      That includes Sajeenthana and her father, Tamil refugees who fled violence at home after the Sri Lankan government crushed a Tamil insurgency.

      Sajeenthana, 8, with her father after describing her suicidal thoughts and attempts at self-harm in September.CreditMridula Amin and Lachie Hinton

      A State Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the #rejections, arguing the Nauru refugees are subject to the same vetting procedures as other refugees worldwide.

      Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said in a statement that Nauru has “appropriate mental health assessment and treatment in place.”

      But what’s clear, according to doctors and asylum seekers, is that the situation has been deteriorating for months. On Nauru, signs of suicidal children have been emerging since August. Dozens of organizations, including #Doctors_Without_Borders (which was ejected from Nauru on Oct. 5) have been sounding the alarm. And with the hope of American resettlement diminishing, the Australian government has been forced to relent: Last week officials said they would work toward moving all children off Nauru for treatment by Christmas.

      At least 92 children have been moved since August — Sajeenthana was evacuated soon after our interview — but as of Tuesday there were still 27 children on Nauru, hundreds of adults, and no long-term solution.

      The families sent to Australia for care are waiting to hear if they will be sent back to Nauru. Some parents, left behind as their children are being treated, fear they will never see each other again if they apply for American resettlement, while asylum seekers from countries banned by the United States — like Iran, Syria and Somalia — lack even that possibility.

      For all the asylum seekers who have called Nauru home, the psychological effects linger.
      ‘I Saw the Blood — It Was Everywhere’

      Nauru is a small island nation of about 11,000 people that takes 30 minutes by car to loop. A line of dilapidated mansions along the coast signal the island’s wealthy past; in the 1970s, it was a phosphate-rich nation with per capita income second only to Saudi Arabia.

      Now, those phosphate reserves are virtually exhausted, and the country relies heavily on Australian aid. It accounted for 25 percent of Nauru’s gross domestic product last year alone.

      Mathew Batsiua, a former Nauruan lawmaker who helped orchestrate the offshore arrangement, said it was meant to be a short-term deal. But the habit has been hard to break.

      “Our mainstay income is purely controlled by the foreign policy of another country,” he said.

      In Topside, an area of old cars and dusty brush, sits one of the two processing centers that house about 160 detainees. Hundreds of others live in community camps of modular housing. They were moved from shared tents in August, ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum, an intergovernmental meeting that Nauru hosted this year.

      Sukirtha Krishnalingam, 15, said the days are a boring loop as she and her family of five — certified refugees from Sri Lanka — wait to hear if the United States will accept them. She worries about her heart condition. And she has nightmares.

      “At night, she screams,” said her brother Mahinthan, 14.

      In the past year, talk of suicide on the island has become more common. Young men like Abdullah Khoder, a 24-year-old Lebanese refugee, says exhaustion and hopelessness have taken a toll. “I cut my hands with razors because I am tired,” he said.

      Even more alarming: Children now allude to suicide as if it were just another thunderstorm. Since 2014, 12 people have died after being detained in Australia’s offshore detention centers on Nauru and Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea.

      Christina Sivalingam, a 10-year-old Tamil girl on Nauru spoke matter-of-factly in an interview about seeing the aftermath of one death — that of an Iranian man, Fariborz Karami, who killed himself in June.

      “We came off the school bus and I saw the blood — it was everywhere,” she said calmly. It took two days to clean up. She said her father also attempted suicide after treatment for his thyroid condition was delayed.

      Seeing some of her friends being settled in the United States while she waits on her third appeal for asylum has only made her lonelier. She said she doesn’t feel like eating anymore.

      “Why am I the only one here?” she said. “I want to go somewhere else and be happy.”

      Some observers, even on Nauru, wonder if the children are refusing to eat in a bid to leave. But medical professionals who have worked on the island said the rejections by the Americans have contributed to a rapid deterioration of people’s mental states.

      Dr. Beth O’Connor, a psychiatrist working with Doctors Without Borders, said that when she arrived last year, people clung to the hope of resettlement in the United States. In May, a batch of rejections plunged the camp into despair.

      Mr. Karami’s death further sapped morale.

      “People that just had a bit of spark in their eye still just went dull,” Dr. O’Connor said. “They felt more abandoned and left behind.”

      Many of the detainees no longer hope to settle in Australia. #New_Zealand has offered to take in 150 refugees annually from Nauru but Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, has said that he will only consider the proposal if a bill is passed banning those on Nauru from ever entering Australia. Opposition lawmakers say they are open to discussion.

      In the meantime, Nauru continues to draw scrutiny.
      ‘I’m Not Going Back to Nauru’

      For months, doctors say, many children on Nauru have been exhibiting symptoms of #resignation_syndrome — a mental condition in response to #trauma that involves extreme withdrawal from reality. They stopped eating, drinking and talking.

      “They’d look right through you when you tried to talk to them,” Dr. O’Connor said. “We watched their weights decline and we worried that one of them would die before they got out.”

      Lawyers with the National Justice Project, a nonprofit legal service, have been mobilizing. They have successfully argued for the #medical_evacuation of around 127 people from Nauru this year, including 44 children.

      In a quarter of the cases, the government has resisted these demands in court, said George Newhouse, the group’s principal lawyer.

      “We’ve never lost,” he said. “It is gut-wrenching to see children’s lives destroyed for political gain.”

      A broad coalition that includes doctors, clergy, lawyers and nonprofit organizations, working under the banner #kidsoffnauru, is now calling for all asylum seekers to be evacuated.

      Public opinion in Australia is turning: In one recent poll, about 80 percent of respondents supported the removal of families and children from Nauru.

      Australia’s conservative government, with an election looming, is starting to shift.

      “We’ve been going about this quietly,” Mr. Morrison said last week. “We haven’t been showboating.”

      But there are still questions about what happens next.

      Last month, Sajeenthana stopped eating. After she had spent 10 days on a saline drip in a Nauruan hospital, her father was told he had two hours to pack for Australia.

      Speaking by video from Brisbane last week (we are not using her full name because of her age and the severity of her condition), Sajeenthana beamed.

      “I feel better now that I am in Australia,” she said. “I’m not going back to Nauru.”

      But her father is less certain. The United States rejected his application for resettlement in September. There are security guards posted outside their Brisbane hotel room, he said, and though food arrives daily, they are not allowed to leave. He wonders if they have swapped one kind of limbo for another, or if they will be forced back to Nauru.

      Australia’s Home Affairs minister has said the Nauru children will not be allowed to stay.

      “Anyone who is brought here is still classified as a transitory person,” said Jana Favero, director of advocacy and campaigns at the Asylum Seeker Resource Center. “Life certainly isn’t completely rosy and cheery once they arrive in Australia.”

      On Monday, 25 more people, including eight children, left the island in six family units, she said.

      Those left behind on Nauru pass the days, worrying and waiting.

      Christina often dreams of what life would be like somewhere else, where being 10 does not mean being trapped.

      A single Iranian woman who asked not to be identified because she feared for her safety said that short of attempting suicide or changing nationality, there was no way off Nauru.

      She has been waiting two years for an answer to her application for resettlement in the United States — one that now seems hopeless given the Trump administration’s policies.

      Each night, often after the power goes out on Nauru, she and her sister talk about life and death, and whether to harm themselves to seek freedom.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/world/australia/nauru-island-asylum-refugees-children-suicide.html