Modern Christmas Structure Sparks Protest in Brussels

Modern Christmas Structure Sparks Protest in Brussels

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – This year, an 82-foot abstract tree of lights was installed in Brussels to replace the traditional Christmas pine tree that is normally displayed on the Grand Place. Consequentially, the new structure sparked controversy and protest demanding respect for “values and traditions.”

The new Christmas structure in Brussels sparks criticism and protest. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)

Critics accuse officials of parting from traditional ways because of fear of offending non-Christians, especially Muslims.

Despite the criticism, the municipality defended the structure and said it wanted to “blend the modern and the traditional to show off the city’s annual winter fair.”

President of Brussels Tourism, Philippe Close, said, “Let’s be clear, there’ll be a Christmas tree and a nativity scene. Christmas traditions will be respected. The theme this year is “winter pleasures” at the huge Christmas market that has a worldwide reputation. We wanted to emphasize culture and modernity, so asked artists to reinvent the Christmas tree, which is actually a pagan symbol.”

However, Bianca Debaets, a city councilor from the Christian Democrat and Flemish party sparked the controversy when she claimed “the Socialist-run municipality was pandering to the sensitivities of non-Christians by scrapping the traditional tree.  “What next? Will Easter eggs be banned from the city because they make us think of Easter,” she asked.

Erik Maxwell, a Brussels citizen, offered his opinion, “We think the tree has been put up for cultural reasons. A tree is for Christmas and Christians but now there are a lot of Muslims here in Brussels. So to avoid discussions they have just replaced a tree with a couple of cubes! I am more traditional, I prefer the usual tree. That’s better for the Belgian people.”

In response to Bianca Debaets comments, Semsettin Ugurlu, chairman of the Belgian Muslim Executive, maintained that his organization did not harbor any issues with any kind of Christmas tree. He stated, “We know we are living in a country with a Christian culture, we take no offense over a traditional Christmas tree.”

The online protest has acquired over 11,000 signatures, and also triggered a Facebook page attacking the new feature.

For further information, please see:

EuroNews – Many are not fans of Brussels’ modern art Christmas tree – 11 December 2012

The Christian Post – Belgian Christians Protest Muslim-Friendly Tree of Lights – 10 December 2012

The New York Times – Christmas Tree Controversy Fires Multicultural Belgium – 1 December 2012

BBC News – Abstract Christmas tree sparks protests in Brussels – 30 November 2012

Morsi Grants Army Temporary Arrest Powers

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt — On Wednesday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi issued a new decree granting the military the power to arrest anyone for a temporary period, in what is seen as a response to protests regarding the recent constitutional decree.

Morsi’s decree grants the army the power to arrest any civilian temporarily. (Photo Courtesy of Al Bawaba)

Last Saturday, Morsi participated in a national dialogue and rescinded the constitutional decree issued last November which received criticism for its granting of executive powers.  Morsi issued a new constitutional decree, which will be the subject of a referendum scheduled to proceed on December 15 despite protests demanding its cancellation.

Morsi’s intention in granting arresting powers to the army was to ensure “the protection of vital installations in the country.”  The army will have the right to arrest civilians until the results of the constitutional referendum are announced.

Opponents fear that the decree is an indication that Egypt may move back into military rule, but Morsi said that the intention of the decree is to assist the police force which is considered to have weakened considerably since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak.  The decree itself  requests the military to coordinate with the police for the sake of keeping the peace until the referendum passes, stating that “[T]he armed forces must support the police service in complete cooperation in order to preserve security and protect vital state institutions for a temporary period…”

Mohamed Lofty from Amnesty International Egypt said that it is necessary to read the law in conjunction with the powers granted to the general prosecutor, which Lofty said, “allows detainees to be held for six months in an effort to “protect the revolution.”  Lofty believes that the crimes considered to harm the revolution “are broadly defined and therefore threaten the freedom of the media, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom of workers to strike.”  “Along with the new law for the military,” said Lofty, “it is a dangerous combination.”

Last Monday, the military increased their presence near the presidential palace,deploying tanks and building a concrete wall to seal off the palace, where a majority of the protesting has occurred.

Opposition groups remain unfazed, and have called for protests against the referendum to continue on Tuesday.  In an interview with the BBC, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa  said that the opposition’s goal was to not topple Morsi, but to let him know their demands for a better constitution.  “The National Salvation Front announces its total rejection to the referendum and will not legitimize this referendum which will definitely lead to more strife,” said Same Ashour on behalf of the coalition of Opposition Parties.

For further information, please see:

Al Bawaba — Morsi’s Military Might Grants Egypt’s Army Power to Arrest Protesters — 10 December 2012

BBC News — Egypt Crisis: Morsi Gives Army Arrest Powers Before Vote — 10 December 2012

The Daily News Egypt — Army Officers can Temporarily Arrest Civilians — 10 December 2012

Foreign Policy — Morsi Gives the Egyptian Army the Authority to Make Arrests — 10 December 2012

The Statesman — Morsi Gives Army ‘Police Powers’ Ahead of Referendum — 10 December 2012

Syrian Revolution Digest: Sunday, 9 December 2012

Recipe for Disaster!

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 9, 2012 

A policy of hoping for the best and preparing for nothing seems to be the modus operandi now for many western governments with regard to the ongoing crisis in Syria. At a time when credible security reports proliferate regarding the potential use of chemical weapons by the regime, this is nothing short of a recipe for disaster, in a region that may not be able to handle a new one.

Today’s Death Toll: 116 (including 4 women and 10 children)

41 in Damascus and suburbs, 32 in Aleppo (including 20 burned near the Air Force Intelligence branch), 22 in Idlib (including 7 members of a single family), 8 in Homs, 8 in Daraa, and 5 in Deir Ezzor

Points of Random Shelling: 257

Clashes: 97

The most significant clashes took place in Damascus and suburbs. Rebels struck Port Said checkpoint in Qadam and a defense factory in Sayeda Zainab. In Hama, they struck the northern checkpoint at Shayzar Palace. In Aleppo, rebels stormed the 111th Brigade (LCC).

 

News

Syrian rebels get new leadership in bid to unite, increase coordination

Report: Syrian Army seals off Damascus following attacks on the capital

Syria opposition military council by next week: top official

Syria activists: Nine state judges, prosecutors defect to opposition

Romania withdraws ambassador from Syria because of war

Syria’s civil war spills into Lebanon again, 4 killed in gun battles

Ya’alon: No sign Syria may use WMDs against Israel

Israeli Ambassador: Syria Transfer of WMD to Militants Would Be ‘Game Changer’

U.S. and Russia still back Syria settlement: UN envoy

Russia arms Syria with powerful ballistic missiles

Prince Harry Could Be Sent To Syria

Illness forces Clinton to briefly delay trip to meeting on Syria

Arwa Damon reports on the misery of daily life in Aleppo, Syria.

Syria in Ruins – A Reuters Slideshow

 

Special Reports

McManus: A call to arms for Syria’s rebels
It’s not about them; it’s about us — and the influence we’ll have when they win.

In Syria, marriage as defiance
Mohammad Jumbaz and Ayat Al-Qassab got married in Syria despite the violence around them.

Syria: Rebel Prisoners On Their Religious War
Sky’s Tim Marshall gains rare access to a prison where he finds evidence that international jihadists are operating in Syria.

As Syria war widens, a divided Lebanon struggles to remain neutral
… the passions unleashed by what is happening next door are proving harder and harder for Lebanon to contain, adding to concerns that it, too, could become enmeshed in the bloodshed.

Syria’s civil war could approach a turning point
The outskirts of Damascus have become a battleground, with some of the fiercest fighting the city has seen yet. Syrian rebels say they’re closing in on the capital, street by street.

Fighting Drives an Old Sense of Peace From Damascus
… the rumble of distant artillery echoes through the city, and its residents are afraid to leave their neighborhoods. Cocooned behind rows of concrete blocks that close off routes to the center, they huddle in fear of a prolonged battle that could bring destruction and division to a place where secular and religious Syrians from many sects — Sunni, Shiite, Alawite, Christian and others — have long lived peacefully.

Sham II: New fighting machine of Syria rebels
The fully-enclosed vehicle made from light steel is about four meters in length and two meters across, mounted with a 7.62 mm machine gun controlled from inside the cabin. The vehicle has five cameras: three at the front, one in the back and another attached to the gun. The crew inside the cabin are fully protected, with the driver maneuvering the vehicle by watching a screen which displays video from the cameras.

As Syria’s rebels close in, Assad has three options
The most likely option, however, and one that appears already to be under way, is for the regime and the core of the army and security forces to retreat to the Alawite-populated mountains on the Mediterranean coast. Diplomatic sources say that there are unconfirmed reports that the regime is planning to register all Sunnis who live in the coastal cities of Tartous, Banias, and Latakia which could potentially form part of an Alawite-dominated enclave. The coastal cities are predominantly Sunni-populated while the mountain hinterland is mainly Alawite.

Syrian Rebels Tied to Al Qaeda Play Key Role in War
Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters. The group is a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi insurgents say, which has contributed veteran fighters and weapons.

Report: Syrian gov’t divided on use of WMDs
Assad’s security and intelligence chiefs believe the rebels’ convergence on the capital provides a unique “opportunity to exterminate them,” the source said. The Iraqi Sadrist leader said the Syrian regime’s political military and security factions have become more desperate as rebel forces converge on Damascus, and therefore the regime won’t hesitate to use “any weapon” against the opposition, Al-Seyassah reported.

Watching Syria’s descent
Better to hold out in an enclave, the minority ruling sect will conclude, than risk annihilation at the hands of vengeful Sunnis. Better to be a spoiler in an anarchic Syria, figures Shiite Iran, than to see a strategic ally flip over to the opposing Sunni bloc. If Syria’s war takes this most likely of courses, how will the United States and its allies protect their interests? Officials seem to have no plan, other than to hope that the scenarios they are thinking about won’t happen.

How the U.S. Can Save Syria
Newsweek experts weigh in on what the U.S. must do to stop the bloodshed.

Regime/opposition: throwing the dice for Syria’s future
… the de-throning of Assad doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the battle, but it will mark the start of a long weary road to weed out corruption. In a future Syria, the presence of mutual interests between those who fancy themselves as opposition leaders and regime remnants will threaten our dream of truly attaining democracy and equality.

 

Syria Deeply

EXCLUSIVE: US Trains Rebel Brigades to Secure Chemical Weapons

What’s Happening in Damascus

The Bride Price of Syria’s Refugees

Interview: Yassin Al Haj Saleh

This clip circulating making the round on the internet is troubling indeed, for it seems to come as part of ongoing preparations by the regime for covering up a potential recourse to chemical weapons.

The clip shows an alleged Jihadi scientist mixing up chemicals to create toxic fumes that kill two laboratory rabbits. The Jihadist, then, threatened to do the same to the Nusairis, the Jihadi derogatory name for Alawiteshttp://youtu.be/WNYSD6wNz3k

While western governments and foreign reporters may not buy the lie, the main audience here is, as always, the regime’s supporters who needs these crimes to be committed without having to feel guilty, and what better way for them than to believe that the crimes have actually been perpetrated by the enemies themselves as part of the ongoing conspiracy? This is what’s been happening all along in fact. Most massacres have been blamed by regime supporters on Jihadi infiltrators, and occasionally, some members of the western media has been taken in by that, as we have seen in the case of the Houla Massacre.

This video might also be aimed at Russians who could use it. FM Lavrov’s recent statements on this matter might signal a willingness to blame the militants:

“According to our information, and this information we pass to our US colleagues, and European colleagues, [the Syrian] government does not have such intentions and cannot have, because this is all very serious… True danger from Syrian chemical weapons is if militants acquire them.”

And so the Great Game continues.

 

Video Highlights

Sfeira, Aleppo: is this evidence of use of chemical weapons, or are these “simple” burnshttp://youtu.be/SN5Zo7ggHNc

A barrel bomb causes a fire that locals have difficulty extinguishing, as water and soil keep boilinghttp://youtu.be/K3emnVCMZwc

9 judges from Idlib Province announce their defection http://youtu.be/qB7yyXa7IOA

Dr. Eyad Qunaibi, an Islamist Jordanian preacher, addresses his followers to try to explain the implications of having Jabhat Al-Nusra declared as a terrorist group. This move, he says, means that working for the establishment of an Islamic state is a terrorist project in itself for the U.S. and the international community http://youtu.be/bk4CvVrsiZ0Secular elements are all considered agents of the West, and he denounces the establishment of the National Coalition http://youtu.be/iFLSZ0Cs2j4  Even though, Dr. Qunaibi is Jordanian, his views represent those of the domestic, regional and international backers of Al-Nusra. Attempts to isolate Al-Nusra will be portrayed as part of the ongoing war on Islam. At this stage in the conflict, this message will resonate among certain segments of the population on the home front, as well as among expatriate and refugee communities.

Islamist Rebels affiliated with Islamic Front for the Liberation of Syria, succeed in controlling the Air-Defense Base 608 in Aleppo, coming into possession of few surface-to-air missiles known as Volga or SAM 2http://youtu.be/uHdSHl4r3XE

An explosive barrel dropped over the town of Daraya, Damascus, fails to explode. It looks different from previous examples http://youtu.be/v1e_YY06zsY

The battles in and around Harasta and the Eastern Ghoutah Region, Damascus, continuehttp://youtu.be/gthJ64tmiuM  , http://youtu.be/SQVdCleECq8

Rebels in Utaya, Damascus, take control of a mobile missile launcher http://youtu.be/ONK3ZvJMzGY

MiGs pound the neighborhood of Deir Baalbah in Homs http://youtu.be/0rRSI3ETvQE , http://youtu.be/BRhMaxvxjQ8Indeed, the battles in and around Homs are resuming their earlier intensity, perhaps as part of the preparation for a fallback position should Damascus fall into rebel hands. Jobar http://youtu.be/zBin6bsYSpo

ICTJ In Focus December 2012 Issue 26

ICTJ In Focus December 2010 Issue #26

Ethiopian Women Allegedly Coerced to Take Oral Contraception

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Ethiopian women who have immigrated to Israel are allegedly being subjected to coerced long-term birth control. The contraceptive, Depo Provera, is given by injection and must be given every three months. Many doctors consider this method to be a last resort since the drug is known to have many uncomfortable side effects including severe headaches and abdominal pains.

Ethiopian women arrive in Israel along with their children. (Photo Courtesy of The Times of Israel)

These women, known as Falash Mura, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia just eight years ago told an Israeli Educational Television reporter that they were forced to receive these injections as a condition to allowing their immigration. The women also claimed that representatives from the Israeli Joint Distribution Committee as well as the Health Ministry coerced them by telling that raising large families in Israel is quite difficult. They also, allegedly said that if these women have too many children, it would be hard for them (the women) to find work to support them and that many landlords would refuse to rent apartments or homes to such large families.

The Falash Mura women further claimed that they were told that they must take certain vaccinations if they desired to continue to receive medical care from the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and continue with their plans to immigrate. One of these women told the television show Vacuum that she had been receiving the injections for over four years without being warned by doctors that the medicine may be dangerous for those taking it.

In the past ten years 50,000 Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel. In this time frame, the birthrate of this group has dropped by 50 percent.

In investigating these claims, a hidden camera was installed in an Israeli health clinic. The video revealed an Ethiopian woman being advised by a nurse that the injection is given only to Ethiopian women. The nurse was recorded saying, “It’s given primarily to Ethiopian women, because they forget, they don’t understand, and it’s hard to explain to them so it’s best that they receive a shot once every three months…basically they don’t understand anything.”

The government and Israeli authorities denied all of these allegations. David Yaso, the director of the Immigration Ministry’s Ethiopian Department noted that no women were ever told that they were forbidden to have large families in Israel. He also said that none of them were coerced into taking contraceptive shots against their will.

Professor Daniel Seidman, the chairman of the Israel Society for Contraception and Sexual Health, offered two explanations for the drop in the Ethiopian birth rate. He said that either the women are not better educated and are looking to have careers and not quite as many children, or they now recognize that with limited finances, they cannot afford to have very large families.

A member of the ADC also noted that “the medical team does not intervene directly or indirectly with economic aid and the Joint is not involved” in these types of procedures.

 

For further information, please see:

FailedMessiah.com – Forced Sterilizations? Ethiopian Women Claim the JDC and the Israel Health Ministry Forced Them to Take Sterilization Shots – 9 December 2012

Haaretz – Why is the Birth Rate in Israel’s Ethiopian Community Declining? – 9 December 2012

The Times of Israel – Ethiopian Women Claim Israel Forced Them to Use Birth Control Before Letting Them Immigrate – 9 December 2012

Topix.com – Israel Subjecting Ethiopian Women to Long Term Birth Control – 7 January 2010