“Provocative” Israeli Settlements Threaten Peace

“Provocative” Israeli Settlements Threaten Peace

By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – The Israeli government granted initial approval for a total of up to 3,000 homes in Jerusalem, including a 1,500-unit settlement in East Jerusalem. The announcement came a day after the U.S. State Department strongly condemned Israel’s plans for building in East Jerusalem.

An Israeli construction site in n the east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo. (Photo courtesy of AP)

The new settlements and expansions to existing ones on land on the Palestinian side of the pre-1967 “green line” was originally announced during Vice President Biden’s visit in 2010. At the time, the announcement resulted in somewhat of a political crisis. It was put on hold because of the controversy it created, but was reinstated and approved this past week. It is one of many plans pushed by Netanyahu to expand into Palestinian territory since November.

Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told CNN: “The actual construction is of 3,000 housing units, as was decided by the government on November 30, 2012. All these units are in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs that will stay a part of Israel in a future peace agreement. All other announcements regarding construction refer to stages of planning and zoning, a bureaucratic process that takes years to complete. In any case, this process necessitates a separate decision by the government before actual construction can begin.”

In November, the U.N. granted Palestine an upgrade of their status to nonmember observer state status. Although the change in status still does not recognize Palestine as a State, the U.N. decision symbolically created a degree of statehood for Palestine.  Israel was unhappy with the outcome of the U.N. vote and some see this expansion of settlements as a direct reaction to Palestine’s change in status.

The United Nations and many countries in the world consider Israeli settlements illegal and an impediment to the peace process because they inhibit a two-state solution.

“If there is a financial cliff in Washington or the United States today, there is a political cliff over a two-state solution (here), and I think we are already slipping down the cliff, because the implementation of the massive settlement program that Israel has announced just today and yesterday it is putting an end to the possibility of a two-state solution,” Mohammad Shtayyeh, a Palestinian Authority negotiator and minister, told CNN on Wednesday.

Victoria Nuland, U.S.  Department of State spokesperson said, “we are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action,” and said that such actions “run counter to the cause of peace. Israel’s leaders continually say that they support a path towards a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further at risk.”

For more information, please see:

JPost – Analysis: In the Eye of the Beholder – 24 Dec. 2012

CNN- Israel Says it Will Build Settlements in East Jerusalem Neighborhoods – 20 Dec. 2012

Telegraph – U.S. Condemns ‘Provocative’ Israeli Settlement Building – 19 Dec. 2012

Al Jazeera – U.N. Votes to Upgrade Palestinian Status – 29 Nov. 2012

 

 

Syrian Revolution Digest – Thursday, 20 December 2012

The Long Road Ahead!

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 20, 2012 

It’s counterintuitive but it’s true. The road to a political solution in Syria goes through further militarization, while saving the whole require working on stabilizing and securing the pieces. Few will understand this logic and many will see it as a conspiracy, as such, it will have few early adopters on the ground, that’s why a solution may take years to come. 

Today’s Death Toll: 117 (including 5 women and 9 children)

42 in Damascus and suburbs, 23 in Daraa including 6 field executed in refugee camp and 5 in Izra’, 18 in Hama including 7 in Halfaya, 14 in Aleppo, 10 in Homs including 7 in Houla, 5 in Deir Ezzor and 5 in Idlib.

Points of Random Shelling: 274

Clashes: 133

Rebels liberated the check point at Tal Alnasr in Deir B’alba and too control of Al-Ishara Batallion in Homs. In Deir Ezzor, they took control of a military industrial complex. In Hama, they liberated a number of towns and villages including Kafar Naboda, Karnaz, Breidij, Kafar Zeita, Jabin, Alzaka, Alhamamyat, Heyalin, Ellatamneh and Halfaya, and are currently trying to liberate Morek (LCC).

 

News

Syria conflict turns ‘overtly sectarian,’ U.N. reports

U.N. condemns rights abuses in Iran, North Korea and Syria

Putin Defends Position on Syria and Chastises U.S. on Libya

Activists scoff at Putin’s remarks on Syria

As Last Member of NBC Team Escapes Syria, More Details on Hostage Drama Emerge

Russian Speakers Become Prey in Syrian Conflict

AP source: Syria again using Scud missiles on foes

Syria Unleashes Cluster Bombs on Town, Punishing Civilians

Post-ABC poll: U.S. involvement in Syria In general, Americans widely oppose U.S. military involvement in Syria, but majorities support establishing a no-fly zone and direct action rises if chemical weapons are used by the government.

War in Syria: Clashes ease at Damascus Palestinian refugee camp Some of the more than 100,000 residents who fled the brutal violence in the Syrian capital of Damascus began to trickle back on Thursday as the fighting subsided.

Wounded Presage Health Crisis for Postwar Syria Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say a post-conflict Syria won’t be able to provide. Making things worse, there has been a sharp spike in serious injuries since the summer, when the regime began bombing rebel-held areas from the air, and doctors say a majority of the wounded they now treat are civilians.

Living Conditions Difficult in Rebel-Held Syria The crude oil they’re using to heat one room in the house is expensive. So is the gasoline for the car that Hassan needs for his work as a driver. Food is five times more expensive than last summer, when it was already high.  A week ago, the electricity the 40,000 townspeople rely on for most heat was cut and now they are struggling to keep the bitter winter cold at bay. Hassan and his family only use one room now to eat and sleep – the rest of the house is frigid.

 

Special Reports

The Salafi Emirate of Ras Al-Ain
The city, as many Kurdish cities, acted as a sanctuary, free from the spread of the Assad regime’s forces. Today, Ras al-Ain is under the grip of jihadis and young men with black beards and black flags circling the streets under the banner of the FSA. Tunisians, Moroccans, Afghanis, Iraqis, Saudis, and Syrians are in the squares, raising the Turkish flag alongside the black flag, and the flag of independence. They distribute bags of rice, flour, and sugar to poor and terrified residents, after seizing many grain warehouses, with the goal of garnering local support and using residents under the guise of freedom and toppling the regime.

Could an Alawite State in Syria Prevent Post-Assad Reprisals?
What remains unanswered is whether the Alawites could survive as a military power in the mountains. Landis says that would depend on two factors:  “Whether Iran is willing to continue to invest and support them militarily by sending weapons and money, and whether the Sunni Arabs overcome their deep factionalism and unify.”

Local Opposition Councils Act As Government In Parts Of Syria
Now that the U.S. and more than 100 other countries have recognized Syria’s opposition coalition, the dynamics are changing for local councils in provinces under rebel control. These councils are going to get money and become humanitarian aid organization and now they have to figure out how to deliver 1,200 tons of bread a day for a population of 6 million people in Aleppo province. Melissa Block talks to Deborah Amos.

Iliana Mourad: ‘Schizophrenic Life’ in Syria
“In Syria, life can be schizophrenic at times. I was travelling with colleagues outside Damascus one day. We were riding in office vehicles, and on one side of the road we could see people shooting while on the opposite side others were going about their normal business as if nothing was happening. It was like a sci-fi movie.”

 

Syria Deeply

Conversations: On Aleppo University
As part of our effort to highlight civilian stories, below is a conversation between Syria Deeply and a law student at Aleppo University. He stopped going to class after the regime crackdown on student protests earlier this year. The student, originally from Raqqa, allowed us to reveal his full name but Syria Deeply decided to keep it private. Last week his classmate was abducted by regime agents after speaking to the press, revealing his true identity.

Send Austin Home

Missing American journalist’s parents: Send our son home from Syria for Christmas

The Sectarian Turnabout

The crackdown in Syria was sectarian in nature from the very beginning, as evidenced by the statements of various Syrian officials at the time including those of Assad himself. Still, thanks to the goodwill and hard work of the country’s pro-democracy activists, it took almost 18 months to transform the revolution into a sectarian uprising. The tide began to turn in the Summer of 2012, during which the overwhelming brutality of the Assad regime, the cynical indifference of western powers, the competing agendas of regional players, and the shameful inadequacy of traditional opposition groups combined to feed the most extremist tendencies on the ground, and Syria began to fracture.

By August 2012, and as I noted in my report at the time, The Shredded Tapestry, the point of no-return in the devolution of Syria seems to have been reached. Only a massive intervention can save the country now, and there are no takers. We may not be able to save the whole anymore, but we might be able to stabilize the pieces so that humanitarian conditions are improved and spillover effects are contained. It will take many years to put the pieces back together. But these processes will not be possible until all sides realize that they cannot have it all.

A combination of pain, anger and ideology will make selling this vision at this stage a well-nigh impossible task.

But, and as my colleague, Amr al-Azm, argues, getting to a point where dialogue over these issued is made possible, requires serious investments in militarization. Indeed, a political solution requires changing the military realities on the ground.

Entering negotiations to hand over power to the opposition requires the regime’s loss of one or more major urban cities. The potential ability to seriously threaten core areas of Alawites, Assad’s tribesmen, and Damascus simultaneously would be significant game changers. The loss of Aleppo and Idlib would put opposition forces within reach of the Homs and Hama hinterlands, core areas of the Alawite communities. The loss of Deir Al-Zor would lay open the desert road Tariq Al-Badiya that swings across the eastern steppe through Palmyra and opens up the eastern and southern approaches to Damascus, where fighting is on-going.  Such a threat would force the regime and its Iranian and Russian mentors to reconsider their calculus regarding the containment of the crisis, making them more likely to seriously engage in alternative options, such as negotiations for a transition.

Meanwhile, we should always be weary of Russian leaders waxing wise and reasonable, as Russian President Putin just did:

“Our position is not for the retention of Assad and his regime in power at any cost but that the people in the beginning would come to an agreement on how they would live in the future, how their safety and participation in ruling the state would be provided for, and then start changing the current state of affairs in accordance with these agreements, and not vice versa.”

The question is here: what did Putin do to get Assad to accept sitting down with the opposition to discuss these issues? The Obama Administration was willing to give Putin the lead in this matter for many months, but he produced nothing. Rather he and his officials refused to put any kind of pressure on Assad, whether through the UN or their own outreach. Moreover, in their media coverage and official statements, they wholly adopted Assad’s version of events, and in all their discussions with opposition figures, they put the burden for halting ongoing violence on them! Their strategy was to beat down the victims into submission and prep them to accept whatever pittance Assad chooses to offer them. Meanwhile they kept arming Assad. The net effect of their activities: giving Assad enough time to tear the country apart.

So, pardon us for not buying whatever offer Putin seems to be peddling.

Video Highlights

Fierce clashes took place in the plush Mazzeh Neighborhood in Damascus City at night http://youtu.be/cXAoMFeUtKk , http://youtu.be/X5LM3BFKEHk Earlier in the day, missile launchers from the nearby military airport were busy pounding surrounding suburbs http://youtu.be/79Sc_YELW5

Towns and communities around Damascus continue to come under heavy shelling: Deir Al-Assafeer http://youtu.be/hB1eeGOuilY

Rebels in Damascus Suburbs use their confiscated tanks to pound pro-regime positions around Damascus International Airport http://youtu.be/ZvOlzAEBi6c Clashes also take place near Agraba http://youtu.be/M2Bor8k1EIg

Leaked video shows pro-Assad militias abusing women detainees in Haffeh, Lattakia http://youtu.be/SJMg5SB042c

Syrian Revolution Digest – Wednesday, 19 December 2012

What Order?

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 19, 2012 

While world leaders keep foraging for a policy, Syria’s increasing refugees are foraging for the basics of life: food, shelter and security. Where does the buck stop in our contemporary world? Where do we go to plead our case with a reasonable expectation of a just hearing?

Today’s Death Toll:161 (including 7 children and 3 women)

67 in Damascus and suburbs including 6 field executed in Kafar Sousseh, 50 in Aleppo including 40 in a car explosion in Marjeh neighborhood, 19 in Daraa, 8 in Hama, 8 in Deir Ezzor, 5 in Homs, 3 in Idlib and 1 in Suweida.

Points of Random Shelling: 246

Clashes:104

Rebels downed a plane in Albal’as mountains in Hama, launched an assault against the Koris Military Airport in Aleppo, took control of the checkpoint at Alsoyouf Square in Deir Ezzor City, and liberated the checkpoint at Mjaimar in Suweida City (LCC).

News

U.N. Seeks New Aid for Syria Crisis and Predicts 1 Million Refugees by Mid-2013

New Syria Rebel Chief Describes Clandestine Life

Rebels seize towns in central Syria

Syria Interior Minister Wounded by Bomb Last Week Syria’s interior minister suffered a serious back injury in the bombing of his ministry last week and was brought to Beirut on Wednesday for treatment, Lebanese security officials said.

Syrians Pack Up to Flee Damascus as Battle for Capital Escalates

Abbas Urges UN to Help Palestinian Refugees in Syria

As Last Member of NBC Team Escapes Syria, More Details on Hostage Drama Emerge

U.N. warns Lebanese against meddling in Syria conflict

Lebanon’s Shiites and Sunnis Battle in Syria, but Not at Home

Drogheda man killed fighting regime in Syria

Online pirate army fights for downfall of Assad

Amman warns: Jihadists are hijacking Syrian revolution, may target Israel, Jordan next

Jordanians saw the first signs two months ago when their intelligence service caught a cell of 11 Jordanian Salafists who had assembled in Syria and were planning, under the aegis of Al-Qaida, to attack shopping centers and Western embassies in Jordan.

 

Special Reports

FREDERIC HOF: Syria’s Time Is Running Out
The country tears itself further apart with each passing day. This is the moment to do something about it… In these circumstances, time is the enemy of humanity. The longer the regime has to break the Syrian people into combustible categories of sect and ethnicity, the greater the chance that Syria will become a stateless, chaotic and expanding black hole in a region where stability is a challenge in the best of circumstances. Lebanese, Turks and Jordanians already feel Syria’s agony — and share in it. Time, in this case, is not the great healer. Time is the deadliest of enemies… Time is the enemy. Time is of the essence. Time, for Syria and its neighbors, is running out.

Aleppo’s History Under Threat
Aleppo has been designated a World Heritage site since 1986, recognized for its ancient market, citadel and mosques, and the United Nations in recent months has called several times for its protection while emphasizing the tremendous toll the war has taken on civilians.

SYRIA: IDPs brace for winter in rebel-controlled camps
Cold and afraid, many here say they want desperately to leave Syria’s nearly two-year conflict behind and cross into Turkey. But for the moment, their northern neighbour has refused to accept them, citing overcrowding. Fourteen Turkish camps, hosting 141,000 people, are already well over capacity, with thousands of people sleeping in communal tents or in neighbouring villages for lack of space.

The humanitarian crisis in Syria, everyone is responsible
Lack of cooperation on all sides has left the doors open to the most extremist financiers from the Arab Gulf countries to force their own agendas on the brigades they are financing, agendas that have nothing to do with Syria’s cause of freedom and dignity.

 

Syria Deeply

Conversations: A Frustrated Assad Supporter

The last thought that doesn’t let me sleep at night is the decision by the government to move the vital enterprises, facilities and factories to the “safe” provinces. What do they mean by safe provinces, are they the coastal area? And what a coincidence, because after Damascus airport wasn’t available for several days last week, the governor of Tartous announced that the agricultural airport in Tartous will start operating as a commercial airport. Are we moving towards separation? This is my worst nightmare…no Syrian can afford this.

Has the Arab Spring Lived Up to Expectations?

My contribution to a just released briefing by Woodrow Wilson Center.

For those who expected a fast and smooth transition to liberal democratic norms, the Arab Spring has certainly failed to deliver. But for those who simply wanted to push their countries into taking one important and necessary step in the right direction by breaking the prevailing political stalemate in their societies, then, the Arab Spring has definitely lived up to expectations.

The fear barrier is now broken; the anciens régimes are gone; and pent-up political forces, with their good, their bad, and their downright ugly, have been released. The Islamists might have the upper hand at this stage on account of their stronger organizational capabilities, but the more secular elements are not giving up and have, in fact, made it clear that they, too, have strong grassroots connections and support—and not only among minority communities but within the larger Arab Sunni community as well.

No longer can any of the sides dismiss the other as irrelevant. The choices confronting all are now stark and clear: accommodation, civil war, or civil war eventually ending in accommodation. A return to the autocratic past with one side dominating the other and imposing its ways is not feasible. Each side of the divide has enough regional and international backers to ensure the near impossibility of such an outcome. The sooner the representatives of the different political forces realize this, the better for all. For only when accommodation is reached can democracy finally begin to take root in our region.

 

Video Highlights

Leaked video from the Damascene suburb of Daraya shows wounded loyalist militias receiving treatment in the field, before being forced to withdraw with their tanks when MiGs showed up to bomb rebel positions http://youtu.be/uuIWEk6UT_4

Another leaked video documents the use of missile launchers by pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/4xsjog7ZZP8

Rebels take a stand in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus City http://youtu.be/8Ly_9baT4u4 In Ain Terma, pro-Assad militias pound the community with tanks http://youtu.be/EgR2CePNc1g Residents of nearbyMleihah evacuate their town http://youtu.be/rMtNuJvJOfc As MiGs continue their raids on the region of Eastern Ghoutah: Hamouriyeh http://youtu.be/8lhjVXWhiNw Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/VyTitCfcSAY

ICC Acquittal on Tuesday of Ngudjolo of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – Earlier this week on Tuesday, the International Criminal Court, Trial Chamber II, handed down their decision in the case against Mathieu Ngudjolo.  Ngudjolo was charged with committing crimes against humanity in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1993.

Mathieu Ngudjolo sits in the courtroom during his ICC trial. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

The judges unanimously acquitted Ngudjolo of the charges, with one filing a concurring opinion.  Presiding Judge Bruno Cotte (France) said that the prosecution’s case was unable to present the evidence that made it possible for the court to find that Ngudjolo was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ngudjolo was charged with three counts of crimes against humanity and seven counts of war crimes, stemming from the destruction of the village of Bogoro on 24 February 2003.  It was alleged Ngudjolo was the leader of the Lendu group that murdered and raped some 200 people, including women and children.

Prosecutors presented witnesses who described the day, relating that babies were thrown against walls, women raped and villagers hacked to pieces with machetes.  The three key prosecution witnesses, used to show Ngudjolo was the leader of the attack, were found by the judges to be unreliable.  Their testimonies were too vague and contradictory for them to prove the prosecution’s claim of Ngudjolo being the leader.

The ICC judges stressed that they did not, “question what the people of this community have suffered on that day … If an allegation has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt … this does not necessarily mean that the alleged fact did not occur.”

The acquittal is only the second verdict handed down by the ICC since it opened its doors 10 years ago.  Earlier this year, the court’s first verdict found Thomas Lubanga, another Congolese rebel leader, guilty of using child soldiers and sentenced him to a 14 year prison term.

As the verdict was read, Ngudjolo showed no emotion.  His defense team, whose case rested on the claim that Ngudjolo was not even present in the village that day and only heard about the attack in the days after, was sure the court’s verdict was correct.  Jean-Pierre Kilenda, one of his lawyers said that the judges properly showed that they respected the rights of defendants.

Experts in international law are worried what this verdict will do for the faith the public has in the prosecution team.  Eric Witte of the Open Society Justice Initiative said that Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensoda and her team might need to rethink the way that cases are built as, “a pattern of prosecution failures could undermine support for the court as a whole.”

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Congo-Kinshasa: ICC Acquits Mathieu Ngudjolo in Second Verdict – 18 December 2012

Congo Planet – International Criminal Court Acquits Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui – 18 December 2012

The Guardian – ICC Acquits Congolese Militia Leader Over Atrocities – 18 December 2012

NY Times – Court Acquits Congo Rebel Leader of War Crimes – 18 December 2012

Extremist Group Acknowledged as Malian, Not Foreigners in Mali

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali—Just yesterday, on December 19, 2012, the Malian President said that the Islamist group struggling to take control of the region is made up of mostly Malian citizens and not foreigner. The group has carried out public executions and amputations in the northern regions of the country. This is the first time that the country’s leader has acknowledged that the group, Ansar Dine, is not made up of foreign citizens.

The group claims to have carried out the attack on U.S. facility in Benghazi. (Photo Courtesy of WND World)

The government previously maintained that the group was made up of militants from Al-Qaida’s North Africa branch along with other foreigners who had moved to the region from Libya. On Wednesday, however, the President, Dioncounda Traore, noted that Ansar Dine fighters “are mainly made up of our fellow countrymen.”

Ansar Dine, or “Defenders of the Faith,” continues to control regions of Mali, including the towns of Kidal and Timbuktu in Northern Mali. The group has decided to impose a strict form of Islamic Sharia law in the regions under their control.

John Guandolo, former FBI counterterrorism officer and terrorism and security analyst, said that Ansar Dine’s Sharia movement confirms a dangerous trend for the region. He also noted that, “Northern Mali is a major transit area for all kinds of criminals, terrorists, and other operatives of all kinds.”

It also turns out that the cousin of Ansar Dine’s leader is one of the people in charge of an AQIM (Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb) brigade in Kidal. The Islamic group emerged as a dominant group in Mali after a military coup in the country’s old capital creating a power vacuum. In recent weeks, as reported, the leaders of the group made efforts to make concessions—including distancing themselves from terrorist activities—however many analysts questioned their sincerity.

Moran Roach, analyst for the Heritage Foundation Africa, further confirmed that Northern Mali is quickly becoming a haven for terrorist groups. “Ansar is not limited to eastern Libya, but if present throughout North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula,” Roach said. Roach also continued saying, “Ansar has reportedly put out a hit list in Egypt. The Coptic pope was reportedly on it. Ansar claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi and is certainly a threat to U.S. security and interests in the region.”

Because of the vast empty space that northern Mali encompasses, the region provides any group a safe haven with hundreds of square miles of open territory.

 

For further information, please see:

ABC News – Mali Leader Acknowledges Extremists Not Foreigners – 19 December 2012

Fox News – Mali President Acknowledges that Extremist Group Ansar Dine Made up of Mostly Malians – 19 December 2012

Long War Journal – Ansar Al Sharia in Mali – 18 December 2012

WND World – Benghazi Terrorists Setting Up Shop in Mali – 18 December 2012