By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JUBAISH, Iraq – Oil may be the most notoriously fought over commodity in the Middle East, but there is one resource that can surpass “black gold” in its necessity and ability to provoke conflict:  water.

As the Middle East is in the grip of a drought that has lasted over two years, Iraq’s Euphrates River, one of the boundaries of region known as the Cradle of Civilization, has begun to shrink.  But the drought is only one cause; water policies by Iraq’s neighboring countries have exasperated the crisis.  There are at least seven dams in the Euphrates’ headwaters in Turkey and Syria, and there are no water treaties between the three nations.  Turkey has recently agreed to increase water flow by 60 percent during July and August, which will cover about half of what is needed for Iraq’s famed Anbar rice crop.  This allotment, however, is not a permanent agreement; Turkey has also consistently refused to sign international agreements on water use, such as the 1997 UN Convention on the Law on Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

While Iraq’s government often blames Turkey and Syria, Turkish officials say that Iraq’s almost nonexistent water management policies are the real culprit, and that the current finger-pointing is election-year posturing.  Iraq’s canal and irrigation systems have been notoriously leaky for centuries, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty, local farmers scrape off white mounds of salt at the edges of drainage piles.

Iraq’s marsh Arabs are perhaps most at risk from the effects of a dwindling Euphrates.  The marshes at the meeting point of the Tigris and Euphrates was intentionally flooded in 2003 in an attempt to revive the dying culture, but many marsh Arabs believe that if their crops and livestock do not survive this year’s season, the few marsh Arabs who remain will be forced to leave their ancestral homes in search of more viable economic opportunities.

For more information, please see:

Today’s Zaman – Ankara Deflects Criticism From Iraq Over Water Usage – 17 July 2009

Foreign Policy – What Iraq Needs More Than Oil – 16 July 2009

New York Times – Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates Dwindles – 13 July 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 
GAZA CITY, Gaza – A human rights group founded by Israeli veterans has published testimonies from former soldiers, all of whom report that they were ordered to protect Israeli military lives at any cost.

The veterans are part of Breaking the Silence, a group funded by the EU and several European countries. The soldiers describe that they were given orders to use Palestinian civilians as human shields, as well as deliberate targeting of civilian structures.

One soldier related that in pre-invasion briefings, his officers told him to shoot first, ask questions later. The soldier said the officer told the soldiers that “[i]f you’re not sure, kill. Fire power was insane.”

Another soldier said he felt like “a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants… A 20-year-old kid should not be doing such things to people.”

Several soldiers also described how the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) used white phosphorus, a substance banned by international law. One soldier described walking on the beach in Gaza and finding an area covered in glazed sand, melted by white phosphorus.

A military spokesman has questioned the credibility of Breaking the Silence, calling the veterans’ testimony “defaming and slandering the IDF commanders,” but also said the military would investigate the allegations.

For more information, please see:

The Times – Breaking the Silence: Israeli Soldiers ‘Used Human Shields’ in Gaza– 16 July 2009

BBC News – Breaking Silence on Gaza Abuses– 15 July 2009

Huffington Post – Breaking the Silence: Former Israeli Soldiers Call Gaza War Reckless– 15 July 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 
JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Israeli officials have signaled they would be open to a three- to six-month halt to settlement expansion as part of a U.S.-backed peace deal with the Palestinians.

While such a sentiment has widely been hailed as progress, it falls short of what the U.S. Obama Administration had called for. Such a freeze would not include any construction already underway, nor expansion in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli officials speaking in advance of the meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. envoy George Mitchell at the end of June. Ehud Barak refused to publically address the possibility of a temporary freeze ahead of his meeting, but said that the issue of settlements is merely one among many to be addressed in the peace process.

Members of the international community continue to call for a complete halt to settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On July 6, the executive arm of the European Union (EU) renewed its condemnation of Israeli settlements, saying that continued Israeli expansion is strangling the fledgling Palestinian economy, stunting Palestinian independence and forcing the Palestinian Authority to rely on foreign aid. In addition to the cost to Palestinians, the EU said that European taxpayers had paid approximately 280 million U.S. dollars so far this year in aid to the Palestinian Authority.

For more information, please see:

Ma’an News Agency – European Commission: Settlements Strangling Palestinian Economy– 6 July 2009

Ha’aretz – Barak: Progress in Talks with U.S. Over Settlements, But Still a Way to Go– 30 June 2009

New York Times – Israel Said to be Open to Settlement Freeze– 28 June 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt– Mounir Hanna Said Marzouk was a civil servant in Egypt, and wrote satyrical verses for his friends and colleagues. He had only been writing for two years. None of his writing had ever been published, and it was only after a colleague found his work offensive to the President that Marzouk was reported to the authorities.

Marzouk insists that his poems are not meant to be offensive to the president, they are meant only to reflect daily life in Egypt.  In spite of his intentions Marzouk was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds for his poems on June 27. This is the maximum penalty that exists for the crime of publicly insulting the president, which carries a penalty from 24 hours imprisonment to three years imprisonment.

The Arab Network for Human Rights is appealing his verdict, based on Marzouk’s lack of access to representation at his first trial. Marzouk and his family did not hire a lawyer, because none of his poems mention Mubarek by name. There are also many satirical poems available in Egypt and on the Internet by much more well-established poets than Marzouk.

Much of the attention came to Marzouk’s case after his brother wrote a clemency plea to the local newspapers for his brother. Although none of his brother’s verses were published in the paper, it brought his brother’s case international attention, and representation. The final verdict is expected to come down this Saturday, July 18.

For more information, please see:

Afrik – Egypt’s Dangerous Poetry: Civil Servant Imprisoned for Writing a Poem – 15 July 2009

AFP – Ode to Egypt President Lands Clerk in Jail – 14 July 2009

BBC – Egyptian Jailed for Insult Poem – 14 July 2009  

LA Times – Egypt: Poet Accused of Mubarek Awaits Final Verdict – 14 July 2009