By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEL AVIV, Israel — Reports indicate Israel is preparing for massive demonstrations, riots, and shootings by the Palestinians in late September, when the United Nations (UN) is expected to vote on Palestinian statehood.

There is no concrete evidence of any such plans by Israel’s Palestinian population to start any such violent uprisings, but this has not stopped speculation from Israel that such actions are coming.

Israel has maintained the position that it only wants peace, but in the last few weeks, since it became clear of the Palestinian’s intentions to seek statehood from the UN, there have been signs that it is preparing for an uprising.  Importing horses from Belgium, amassing tear gas, and organizing militias with trained dogs in the West Bank settlements have been the Israeli response to the Palestinian’s decision to take matters up with the UN.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far right foreign minister has said that the Palestinians were preparing for “bloodshed the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”

Leaked Israeli Defense Force documents reveal expectations that what will start as peaceful protests will become “mass disorder.” They say protests may include “marches towards mass junctions, Israeli communities, and education centres; efforts at damaging symbols of [Israeli] government.  Also there may be more extreme cases like shooting from within the demonstrations or even terrorist incidents.  In all scenarios, there is readiness to deal with incidents near the fences and the borders of the state of Israel.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Palestinians are not preparing for war with Israel, but are instead trying to move forward towards their freedom with the multilateral assistance of the UN.  “We don’t want to delegitimize Israel.  We want to legitimize ourselves,” he said.

Abbas has called for peaceful demonstrations in September to coincide with the Palestinian’s petition for statehood.  “I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us,” he told the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s central committee.

Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now, an Israeli organization that monitors settlement activity, has expressed concerns about the IDF’s handling of peaceful protests.  “We hope the army is making clear that non-violent protest is legitimate and no settlers should use any violence against unarmed demonstrators.”

The Palestinian leadership is expected to present their petition for admission to the UN during the general assembly meeting that is currently ongoing.   Membership to the UN requires Security Council approval, which the U.S. is expected to veto.

It is thus expected that the Palestinians will request an enhanced “non-member state” status, which needs a two-thirds majority in the general assembly.  They expect to have a majority by the time of the vote.

For more information, please see:

AFP — UN braces for Palestinian member state bid — 22 Sept. 2011

ABC News — Palestinian Statehood Bid Draws Thousands to West Bank Rally — 21 Sept. 2011

Salon — Defending Jim Crow in Palestine — 21 Sept. 2011

The Guardian — Israeli military arms settlers in preparation for Palestinian protests — 30 Aug. 2011

Ma’an News Agency  — Israel police ‘import horses’ to confront protesters — 10 Aug. 2011

Haaretz — Israel Police prep for riots when UN mulls Palestinian independence — 14 June 2011

By Adom M. Cooper
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANAA, Yemen–A ceasefire procured by Yemen’s vice president and Western diplomats has gone into effect in the capital of Sanaa, ending three deadly days of violence. Security forces backing Alu Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen, have fired upon a crowd of protesters in Sanaa, killing as many as 25 individuals while leaving hundreds of others wounded on Sunday 18 September. Some tens of thousands of protesters calling for the conclusion of Saleh’s 33-year reign poured into the streets of the Yemeni capital several days after protesters descended upon Yemen’s main university.

The ceasefire was put into effect at 1600 local time on Tuesday September 20, although witness still reported sparse gunfire among an otherwise relatively calm change in the status quo. Envoys from the UN and Gulf Cooperation arrived on Monday September 19 to attempt to get a deal done to end the bloodshed. Roughly 24 hours later, they were successful.

Early on Tuesday September 20, heavy shelling and machine gun fire shook Sanaa. At least 26 individuals were killed and several others were injured, according to witnesses and various medical personnel. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s deputy head of delegation in Yemen, Valerie Petitpierre, shared these words concerning the continued bloodshed.

“ICRC called on Yemeni authorities, pro-democracy protesters and others involved in the violence to spare lives after scores were killed in the past 72 hours alone.”

The violence on Sunday September 18 began as the anti-government demonstrators marched down Agriculture Street, which is located on the eastern edge of a long-running sit-in protest, protected by Maj. General al-Ahmar of the opposition. The protesters said that they were attacked as they moved past the area controlled by the army’s First Armored Division, led by al-Ahmar.

The security forces reportedly used heavy-caliber machines guns and other weapons to punish the protesters for their peaceful demonstration. Sakher al-Oldany, a 20-year-old protester, said the protesters moved beyond the area protected by the First Armored Division, hoping to “escalate the rebellion against the government.”

Mohammad al Qadhi, a Yemeni journalist, said the government was using snipers to target and fire upon demonstrators from the rooftops.

“I talked to one of the protesters. He told me shots were fired on chests, legs, and other parts of the body.”

Witnesses reported that forces loyal to Saleh as well as armed civilians opened fire on protesters who left Change Square. The protesters had setup camp in Change Square since earlier this year in February, demanding regime change and marched towards the center of the city.

More than 100,000 protesters gathered on Sunday 18 September around the state TV building and government offices in Sanaa. Freelance journalist Tom Finn reported that he was able to count at least 16 bodies piled up in a mosque, most of them bearing headshot wounds.

“Most of them are under 22. I saw one that was 16 years old. There are three hospitals in Sanaa filled to the brim with the injured. One doctor said he expects the death toll will rise over 50 by tomorrow morning.”

The march was the first in several months since demonstrators had gathered outside a portion of the capital controlled by Maj. Gen. Mohsin al-Ahmar. al-Ahmar is widely recognized as the second most powerful person in the country after President Saleh and he has sided with the opposition.

al-Ahmar said that his fighters chose not to return fire after they were shelled by the Republican Guard. He cited that he did not want to give President Saleh any excuse not to sign a deal to transfer power.

The crackdown on the protesters come as Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s vice-president, will sign a Gulf Arab initiative to arrange for a transfer of power in Yemen “within a week,” according to a high-level Saudi official. Requesting anonymity, the high-level Saudi official shared these words.

“Within a week, the vice president will sign the Gulf Initiative in the name of the president.”

Last week, President Saleh authorized his vice-president to negotiate a transfer of power with the opposition contingents. The Gulf Arab Initiative was proposed by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and sets the path for a peaceful removal of Saleh from power, a position he has held since 1978.  Saleh fled the country approximately three months ago for Saudi Arabia, where he had been recovering from a June assault on his presidential compound.

On Saturday 17 September, thousands of protesters crashed onto the main university in Sanaa, preventing the first day of school and called for the end of Saleh’s reign. The protesters shut the doors of administrative buildings and tore down images of Saleh in the dean’s offices.  As many as six students were injured during the protests, while many others enthusiastically chanted for change.

“No studying, no teaching until the president goes.”

In other areas around Sanaa, at least 20 other schools were kept closed to students on Saturday 17 September. According to Fata Mutahar, principal of Ayesha School in Sanaa and an official with the Education Ministry, government gunmen and troops whom have defected to the opposition are using many educational buildings as outposts.

“Schools are for learning, not to serve as barracks.”

It is clear that the protests and demands for Saleh’s ouster are taking their toll on Yemen’s population, especially its youth. Until a peaceful and substantive removal of Saleh from power, the youth of Yemen should expect continued denial of their education. While many of the youth may only be able to understand that their education is the only thing at risk due to the status quo, the opposition struggles for every aspect of life.

They struggle to ensure that the future leaders of Yemen will one day read about the revolution in a history book, knowing that they were affected in many more ways than just school closings.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera-‘Ceasefire’ halts third day of Sanaa violence-20 September 2011

BBC-Yemen unrest: ‘Ceasefire’ halts fighting in Sanaa-20 September 2011

CNN-Dozens killed as international pressure mounts in Yemen-19 September 2011

Al-Jazeera-Many protesters shot dead in Yemen-18 September 2011

The Guardian-Yemeni protesters ‘fired on by troops’-18 September 2011

NYT-Yemeni Forces Open Fire, Killing at Least 15 Protesters-18 September 2011

Reuters-At least 25 killed in anti-Saleh march in Yemen-18 September 2011

BBC-Yemen unrest: Protesters wounded in Taiz-15 September 2011

CNN-Yemeni troops wound 12 protesters-15 September 2011

By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

UNITED NATIONS – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas created the potential for chaos within the United Nations Monday, announcing that he would submit a membership application to the Security Council after addressing the General Assembly on Friday.  The move comes as what Abbas considers a last-ditch effort to achieve recognition as a separate state.  Negotiations with Israel have ground to a halt, and efforts to restart them have failed.

Since 2002, a group of diplomats from the United States, Russia, the UN, and the European Union, known as the Quartet, have been attempting to guide negotiations between Israel and the representatives of the Palestinian people.  The last attempts at negotiation broke down a year ago when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on illegal settlement building on occupied Palestinian land.  Israel insists that before negotiations can resume, any new resolutions would have to include a requirement that it be recognized as a “Jewish state.”

Netanyahu, who plans to address the General Assembly prior to the application’s submission, considered Abbas’s decision unilateral in nature.  He still appeared willing to resume negotiations.

“When the Palestinian Authority abandons these futile and unilateral measures at the U.N., it will find Israel to be a genuine partner for direct peace negotiations,” he said.  “I call on the PA chair to open direct negotiations in New York, that will continue in Jerusalem and Ramallah.”

Abbas was also agreeable to meeting in New York, but not to resume negotiations. “I am ready to meet any Israeli official at any time he wants, but to meet only for meeting, I think it’s useless,” he told Fox News.

Both the United States and Israel oppose granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations because they believe only negotiation could reach a true solution. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that Palestine has secured six or seven affirmative votes from the Security Council.  For the membership vote to succeed, Palestine needs an affirmative vote from nine out of the 15 members of the Security Council, and no veto from a permanent member.  The United States, a permanent member, has vowed to use its veto power should the need arise, but doing so would paint the U.S. as the country that single-handedly ended Palestine’s efforts.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an envoy of the Quartet, attempted to frame the issue while speaking with reporters on Sunday.

“The Palestinians are here at the UN now, so the question is … can people find a way that enables the Palestinians to take a significant step forward to statehood at the same time as not ending up in a situation where the UN replaces negotiations?”

The answer seems murky.  Blair told ABC that the Quartet was trying to put together a document to serve as framework for future negotiations and persuade Abbas not to make his application.  To Palestinian official Nabil Shaath, the document had minimal value.  He told journalists that when he saw the proposal, “I gulped. This was the statement that was supposed to persuade President Abbas not to go? Mr. Blair doesn’t sound like a neutral interlocutor. He sounds like an Israeli diplomat sometimes.”

Any further negotiation seems unlikely at this point, but a successful Security Council vote, even with a U.S. veto, will have symbolic value to the Palestinian cause by giving legitimacy to the organization’s leadership.  Abbas seemed optimistic and referred to a speech made by U.S. President Barack Obama last year in which Obama said he hoped for Palestine to become a member of the U.N. in 2011.

During his interview, he spoke directly to the U.S. President.  “You promised me a state by September 2011,” Abbas said.  “I hope you will deliver.”

For more information, please see:

Ha’artetz — ‘Palestinians need just two more Security Council votes in bid for statehood’ — 20 September 2011

Jerusalem Post — No compromise on ‘Jewish’ state, say Israeli officials — 20 September 2011

Ma’an News Agency — Abbas ‘willing to meet Netanyahu’ — 20 September 2011

BBC — Israel offers talks with Palestine over UN bid — 19 September 2011

Jerusalem Post — Quartet meets in New York to avert Palestinian UN crisis — 19 September 2011

New York Times — Diplomats Scramble as Palestinians Plan to Apply for U.N. Membership on Friday — 19 September 2011

New York Times — Palestinians See U.N. Bid as Their Most Viable Option — 17 September 2011

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen — Security forces under the control of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, have opened fire on protesters in Sana’a.  Estimates put the devastation at 26 dead and hundreds injured.

Protesters, numbering in the tens of thousands, had taken to the streets of the capital to call for an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule.  Government snipers fired upon protesters from the rooftops, and security force officers and armed civilians shot protesters with anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons as they left Change Square, the place many protesters have camped since they begin protesting for a regime change in February.  Witnesses also reported the usage of water cannons and tear gas.

Earlier in the day, government troops opened fire into the Al-Hasaba district of Sana’a, home to important opposition leadership.  The opposition did not return fire, noting that they did not want to give Saleh any excuse to not sign a deal to transfer power.

Sunday’s violent hostilities come as Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s vice president, will, within a week, sign a Gulf Arab initiative to arrange for a transfer of power.  A high-level Saudi official, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed this to reporters saying “the vice president will sign the Gulf Initiative in the name of the president.”

Last week news broke that Saleh had authorized Hadi to negotiate a power transfer with the opposition.  Saleh left Yemen three months ago for Saudi Arabia to recover from a June 3 attack against his compound.

Some members of the opposition believe that Saleh’s authorization of the power transfer negotiations to Hadi is just the latest in a series of delays to prevent any real change.  The uneasiness has resulted in a new swell of protests in recent days.  These larger protests have been met with greater numbers of security forces and armed regime members.

Saleh has been facing protests over charges of nepotism and corruption since January. The rejuvenated protests are merely a continuation.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters stormed the main university in Sana’a, preventing the first day of school.  At least six students were injured in the storming of the university.

Many Yemeni schools have served as focal points for the opposition.  At least 20 schools were kept closed on Saturday because many of them had served as outposts by government defectors.

“Schools are for learning, not to serve as barracks,” said Fatma Mutahar, principal of Ayesha school and an official with the Education Ministry.  Mutahar has attempted to negotiate with the defectors to leave her school, but so far those negotiations have failed.

More than 60 schools in the southern city of Aden are serving as shelters for displaced peoples left homeless as a result of fighting between the opposition and government troops.

Despite government pressures the opposition plans to continue.  It has more protests planned for the following days and weeks.

Demonstrations on Sunday also took place in many other Yemeni cities including Taiz, Saada, and Damar.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Many protesters shot dead in Yemen — 18 Sept. 2011

The Guardian — Yemeni protesters ‘fired on by troops’ — 18 Sept. 2011

NPR — Yemeni Forces Open Fire on Protesters — 18 Sept. 2011

USA Today — Yemeni forces open fire on protesters, 12 killed — 18 Sept. 2011

By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

AMMAN, Jordan – About of Jordanians gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Amman to call for the embassy’s closing and the dissolution of Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel.  Prior to the event, thousands were expected to attend, and the possibility of violence led the Israeli ambassador to return home the day before.  Instead, the protesters were cordoned off by a large contingent of police officers who contained them to an area outside the Kaloti Mosque, located about a kilometer away from the embassy.

The rally comes on the heels of a similar protest outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt last Friday.  There, an estimated 3,000 protesters destroyed a wall surrounding the building and then broke into the embassy.  They ransacked several offices and threw papers with Hebrew writing out of windows into the streets below. 

Nothing of the sort happened in Amman, in spite of calls to do so.  One protest group, called “Million Man March to Close the Israeli Embassy in Jordan,” has more than 3,000 members on its Facebook page. The group’s motto is: “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land.”  Another group called for activists to mass at the Kaloti Mosque and head towards the Israeli embassy to break inside the compound and replace the Israeli flag with a Jordanian flag.

Participants were disappointed by the low turnout.  “It’s a shame for Jordan,” said Samer Abu Gosh, a dentist who, like many Jordanians, is of Palestinian descent. “I expected at least 10,000.” 

Jordan is one of two countries, the other being Egypt, that has signed a peace treaty with Israel.  According to the New York Times, the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a long-time Israeli ally, has led to a release of anti-Israeli feelings in the aftermath of the revolution.  Political activist Khaled Abdul Fattah opined that the leaders of the Amman protest were inspired by the actions of their Egyptian peers after the attacked the Israel embassy in Cairo

One of the potential reasons for this lack of results may be the present status of Palestinians.  Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has announced that he plans to seek a vote for recognition of a Palestinian state.  Despite this intention, which has left Israel in a delicate situation, its possibility is uncertain.  The protest in Amman called for a larger Palestine than what Abbas was seeking.

“We will not accept what Abbas is claiming,” said Rani Ayyash, a 23-year-old Jordanian of Palestinian descent.  He opined that the Palestinian leader had settled for “a fifth of the Palestinian land, a third of the people and a quarter of the authority.”

To make matters worse, WikiLeaks recently released diplomatic cables that implied a U.S. plan to turn Jordan into a Palestinian state.  About half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, which is part of the assumed rationale for the idea.  A minority of Israelis favor the plan, but it was part of the outcry at the rally.  “No to the alternative homeland and we are going to burn Israel,” participants, including the Islamic Movement, trade unions, and Pan-Arab groups, shouted.

The timing of protests on the issue may not be ideal, as evidenced by the lack of attendance.  To Hassan Deiraniyeh, who lives in the area near the site of the rally, the problem is the Islamist movement, which encourages the youth to join in protests, but does not take part itself.

“What I can see is a group of enthusiastic young people but where are the leaders of the Islamic movement? None of them is here,” he said.

Abdul Fattah also felt timing was off, feeling that there were more important areas to worry about.  “Maybe it is not the right time to raise demands related to the Palestinian issue. People want change in the domestic arena so far. That is a more attractive call,” he said.

But protests and rallies for domestic change have become less common.  King Abdullah II has made good on his recent promise for reform, reducing the need to bring attention to it.

For more information, please see:

CNN — Israeli ambassador returns to embassy in Jordan — 16 September 2011

Jordan Times — Hundreds rally near Israeli embassy — 16 September 2011

Al Jazeera — Israel evacuates embassy in Jordan — 15 September 2011

Al Jazzera — Jordanians protest against ties with Israel — 15 September 2011

Ammon — Update: Jordanian protest demand closing of Israeli Embassy — 15 September 2011

New York Times — Anti-Israel Rally in Jordan Also Exposes Arab Rifts — 15 September 2011

Petra — Protest organized in Amman against Israeli policies — 15 September 2011

Washington Post — In Jordan, low turnout for anti-Israel march — 15 September 2011