Tensions Pervade Jerusalem in the Midst of Easter, Passover

Tensions Pervade Jerusalem in the Midst of Easter, Passover

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – As the religious calendars of Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestants, and Jews converge this week, tensions are rife throughout the holy city of Jerusalem. Thousands of pilgrims from Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the rest of the world have converged on this city to celebrate their holidays, though with a sense of unease permeating the celebrations.

A major source of the tension is the restrictions on Palestinian travel to and through Jerusalem. Israel “closes” Jerusalem to Palestinians during Jewish holidays. This year, the six days of Passover coincide with the celebration of Easter, which, this year, falls on the same Sunday for both Greek Orthodox and for Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians. As part of a protest on Palm Sunday, March 28, hundreds of Palestinians marched the five to ten miles from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Israeli checkpoint at Jerusalem, where several protestors were arrested for allegedly crossing into Israel illegally. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while Palestinians seek to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Usually, Palestinian Christians have an easier time gaining permits into Jerusalem during Christian holidays than do Palestinian Muslims during Muslim holidays, but there have been several incidents of violence in and around Jerusalem in recent weeks because of Israeli plans to build settlements in the predominantly and traditionally Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Palestinian Christians who applied for permits to enter Jerusalem during the Easter holiday were told they would not be allowed in. As of March 31, Israeli officials had announced that only international Christians would be allowed to enter Jerusalem.

Some Middle East observers have characterized the recent tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as a “cold Intifada,” referring to the two Palestinian uprisings that began in 1989 and 2001. Professor Yitzhak Reiter explains the significance of sites like Jerusalem in such conflicts:

“Holy places have become the symbol of the conflict,” said Reiter. “Ever space where someone can find some holy connection becomes part of the conflict.”

Reiter believes the low-scale violence of the “cold Intifada” will persist because Palestinians believe that the Israelis want to “Judaize” the Arab portions of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and that any proclaimed confidence-building measures by Israel are meant only to appease the United States.

For more information, please see:

World Magazine – O Jerusalem – 10 April 2010

The National – Christians Angry at Jerusalem Lockdown as Easter Clashes with Passover – 4 April 2010

SperoNews – Israeli Raid in Gaza Injures Three Children as Jerusalem Prepares for Easter – 3 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Palestinian Christians to be Barred from Jerusalem Old City – 31 March 2010

Egypt Cracks Down on Gaza Border Smuggling

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

AL-ARISH, Egypt – Egyptian border guards have been taking an increasingly hard line with migrants attempting to cross into the Palestinian Territories and Israel through the Egypt-Gaza border. On March 31, Human Rights Watch reported than Egyptian border guards had killed three migrants attempting to cross, bringing the total of migrants killed by Egyptian forces since the beginning of 2010 to twelve.

In its statement, Human Rights Watch added that many more migrants had been arrested and detained by the Egyptians. Most of the migrants are from southern Ethiopia or Sudan, many escaping the war-torn region of Darfur. After the migrants are detained by Egyptian authorities, most are sent back to their home regions, where they may be subject to further fighting or torture. This appears to be in violation of the United Nations’s international agreement on refugees.

“Egyptian guards have made the Sinai border a death zone for migrants trying to flee the country,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa Director for Human Rights Watch. “What’s more, the Egyptian government has not investigated even a single case of the sixty-nine killings of migrants by border guards since 2007.”

The Egyptian Coast Guard has also been active along the Gaza border in recent days. Three Palestinian fishermen from Gaza were arrested by the Egyptian Coast Guard on March 20, for allegedly trying to illegally enter into Egyptian territorial waters. The fishermen claimed they were having engine trouble and drifted into Egyptian waters. In similar incidents, Palestinian fishermen have been fined 1000 Egyptian pounds ($150 US) before being released back to Gaza.

It has become increasingly difficult to make a living as a fisherman in Gaza, as the Israeli blockade has shrunk the traditional fishing grounds to a mere few square miles off the Gaza coast. These once-abundant waters have become severely overfished as Gaza fishermen struggle to bring income and food to their families. Palestinian fishermen often come into conflict with both Israeli and Egyptian forces.

Finally, Egypt has recently bombed several of the smuggling tunnels going from Egypt into Gaza. While both Egypt and Israel claim that the tunnels are primarily used for transporting weapons, Gaza civilians also use the tunnels to obtain vital humanitarian supplies that cannot often pass through the Israeli blockade.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Egypt: Guards Kill 3 Migrants on Border with Israel – 31 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Egyptian Guards Close 5 Smuggling Tunnels – 25 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Gaza Fishermen Detained by Egypt Coast Guard – 21 March 2010

Possible Political Motives Behind Iran Executions

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TEHRAN, Iran – Amnesty International recently published a study with statistical information regarding nations retaining a form of capital punishment.  The late proliferation of judicial executions in Iran has invoked the apprehensions of numerous human rights groups, as it raises suspicions that the Iranian government is utilizing its capital punishment system as a mechanism by which it can quell political unrest and detractors of the state.

The temporal context of the surge in executions in Iran further suggests that the state has been using  judicial executions to serve political purposes.  Studies revealed a discernable rise in execution rates during last years tumultuous presidential elections.  The widely publicized riots subsequent to the unfavorable outcome of the elections, which reinstated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran, caused much disorder in Iranian city streets and created an opportunity for people to voice their often suppressed opinions.

However, the opportunity created by the disorder in the streets did not entail the freedom to do so without punishment.  Within the weeks beginning with the summer elections and ending with the actual inauguration of Ahmadinejad, it has been reported that approximately 112 individuals had been put to death.  The executions also seemed served as a deterrent for political activism.  Even if the executions did not actually eliminate enemies of the current regime,, they have the effect of conveying a morbid message to  individuals and organizations speaking against the state.

Including the spike in executions done during the weeks surrounding Iran’s June elections, Amnesty International has reported that the Iranian government killed 388 people in the year 2009.  Further studies demonstrate that the number of executions in Iran has multiplied nearly four-fold since Ahmadinejad became president five years ago.  The execution statistics, if correct, signify that Iran under the presidency Ahmadinejad has seen the most capital punishment since the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s.

The international community has taken significant steps to express its collective disdain towards the extensive use capital punishment.  Multilateral UN documents contain articles either restricting or moving for the elimination of the death penalty in signatory states.  Iran’s proliferation of judicial killing, and the purpose of these killings, signifies an abuse of power largely condemned and inhumane in its results.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty Int’l – Iran executions send chilling message – 30 March 2010

IOL News – Iran execution rates rising – 12 May 2008

Refworld – Execution date moved forward for Iranian young offender – 02 Febrary 2009

Human Traffickers in Mozambique

By Kylie M Tsudama

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MAPUTO, Mozambique – Seven people suspected of trafficking women from Mozambique to South Africa have been arrested.  They are part of a gang that specializes in trafficking women who are to become prostitutes.

On March 17,the police intercepted a young woman who was being transferred to two supposed buyers and arrested the three Mozambicans who were handing her over.  Four more gang members were arrested later in the day.

The police worked with reporters from Johannesburg, who infiltrated the organization by posing as people interested in buying Mozambican girls to be taken back to South Africa to work in the sex industry.  The Johannesburg media group, Media24, had one team member pose as a nightclub owner interested in purchasing Mozambican girls for his patrons.  He was taken to Maputo to meet four other traffickers in Mozambique, when he secretly recorded their conversations.

Media24 released tape recordings between their team and the traffickers.  The tapes reveal that the gang has been working in Mozambique since at least 2004 trafficking women to South Africa at a rate of thirty to forty women a month.  The trafficking gang is made up of 15 Mozambicans and several Chinese citizens, with the main trafficker being Nando Matsingi of Rosettenville, Johannesburg.

Matsingi claims to have police contacts who make sure transportation goes smoothly.  “Friendly policemen” help him smuggle the women across the South Africa-Mozambique border every week.

“I do this very often,” said Matsingi.  “I took three girls last week.  One was Chinese and the other two were Mozambicans.”

Two other traffickers told Media24 that Mozambican girls were available “at any time” but that the trafficking ring went as far as China and Chinese girls were also being sent to South Africa.  The girls from China come to Maputo on cargo ships before being sold.

The women are sold for about $670 each.

The women are as young as 16-years-old.  They happily pose for pictures when buyers come to see them.  They believe that they are being sent to South Africa to work in hotels and restaurants as waiters.  Instead, when they arrive they are forced to become prostitutes.  If they resist they are raped and beaten into submission.

On March 30, a Maputo judge released the seven traffickers.  A Mozambican police spokesman said he did not know why the judge released them.  However, their release does not mean that the case against them is dropped.  The public prosecutor’s office can still press charges against the men but in order to detain them there must e a serious risk that they will flee the country.

Jurist Abdul Carimo, chair of the South African Network against Trafficking and Abuse of Children (SANTAC), said that Mozambique has laws that deal with human trafficking.

“The law passed in 2008 is in accordance with United Nations conventions against trafficking,” he said.  “It protects whistle-blowers and witnesses.  It guarantees anonymity to whistle-blowers.  It penalizes those who help the traffickers.  It protects the victims and does not depend on them making a complaint first.”

When asked about why the law isn’t being used, Carimo responded, “You’ll have to ask the police that.”

He added, “The general problem in Mozambique is not any lack of laws.  It’s lack of implementation.  It’s not because of any lack of legislation that the police don’t act.”

For more information, please see:

AllAfrica – Judge Releases Traffickers in Women – 30 March 2010

AllAfrica – Network of Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010

AP – 7 Suspected Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010

Fox News – 7 Suspected Human Traffickers Exposed – 26 March 2010

Turkey Looks for a Solution with Cyprus

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

NICOSIA, Cyprus– As U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived on the island of Cyprus late Sunday afternoon he had a message for both the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots.  Mr. Ban stated that “a solution is in reach.  The future is in your hands.”

Cyprus has been split into a Greek and a Turkish sector since 1974, when troops from Turkey landed in the north of the island in response to a coup by Greek nationalists.  Almost a decade later, the Turkish population in the north declared itself independent, but the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or KKTC, is recognized only by Ankara.

When all is said and done, the fate of the peace talks is as important to Turkey as it is to the Cypriots themselves.  That is because an agreement on the island would remove one of the biggest obstacles for Turkey’s bid to become a member of the EU.  That bid for membership is currently being blocked due to the Turkish government’s refusal to recognize the Greek Cypriot republic, which is an EU member.

Furthermore, productive peace talks may enable Turkey to boost its attempts to become a regional superpower with very little, if any, problems in its relations with regional neighbors.  At the same time, however, the Turkish government is treading carefully.  They must be careful to ensure that they are not neglecting national interests at the expense of a solution regarding Cyprus.

Dimitris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot President, has been involved in unification talks under U.N. supervision with Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot leader, since 2008.  Last week, Talat said much progress has been made on the delicate question of sharing power between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority, but no deal has been struck as of yet.  Moreover, many difficult issues such as property and security are still on the table.

Said Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, “We are trying to get this thing solved within the year.”  He also noted that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called him last week to determine whether Turkey was willing to undertake a joint effort to reach a solution.  Erdogan said that Turkey was willing to talk “without preconditions.”

For more information, please see:

Tehran Times- U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon says Cyprus Solution Possible– 2 February 2010

The National- Turkey’s Eye is on Cyprus Peace– 1 February 2010

New York Times- U.N. Chief Offers Support for Cyprus Peace Talks– 1 February 2010