The Middle East

Lebanese Cabinet Allows Hezbollah to Keep Weapons

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon– On Wednesday, the Lebanese government endorsed Hezbollah’s right to keep its weapons cache to deter Israeli attacks.  This decision comes as the latest sign that Hezbollah has no intention of meeting a U.N. resolution calling for it to disarm.

Hezbollah is believed to have thousands of rockets and missiles hidden in bunkers and basements throughout Shi’ite Muslim areas throughout the country.  However, Hezbollah’s refusal to give up its weapons cache has created a great deal of division in the country as well as in Israel, which says it is in the process of preparing to deploy a defense system to shoot down rockets from Lebanon.

After Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, a United Nations resolution was passed which called on the armed militant group to disarm.  Despite that resolution, Hezbollah says it must retain its weapons to fight off any future Israeli threat and persistent violations of Lebanon’s airspace.  Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, recently said that his group had replenished its weapons stock since the 2006 war and now has more than 30,000 rockets at its disposal.  These rockets are believed to be capable of striking anywhere in Israel.

All thirty members of the Lebanese cabinet voted Wednesday to approve the policy statement that endorses Hezbollah’s right to keep its weapons.   The adopted policy statement, which lays out the government’s goals for the next four years, illustrates how the government is reluctant to take strong action against Hezbollah for fear of instigating a crisis.  Of course, as many analysts believe, Hezbollah has virtual veto power over the government and so any reservations of instigating a crisis may be unfounded.

Nonetheless, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri largely dismissed the policy statement, arguing that its lasting effect is to tackle economic woes, financial instability and public debt.  The statement, to be presented to Parliament next week for a vote of confidence, is seen as a key to tacking the deep divisions between Hariri’s coalition and Syrian and Iranian backed Hezbollah and its allies.

For more information, please see:

Kuwait Times- Lebanon Government Backs Hezbollah Arms Right– 3 December 2009

The Associated Press- Lebanese Cabinet Lets Hezbollah Keep Its Weapons– 2 December 2009

BBC News- Hezbollah Weapons Right Endorsed– 2 December 2009

November Death Toll Lowest Since Beginning of Iraq War

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The civilian death toll in Iraq dropped to its lowest level in November since the beginning the US-led invasion in 2003. At least eighty eight Iraqi civilians were killed during the month according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. This is the first month in which less than one hundred civilians were killed since the beginning of the conflict. Overall one hundred and twenty two Iraqis died in November. Twenty two police officers and twelve soldiers died in addition to the civilians who were killed.

The November total is a noticeable drop from October’s death toll in which a total of four hundred and ten individuals were killed throughout Iraq. A large number of these deaths came during a twin suicide bombing near government offices in Baghdad in which one hundred fifty people were killed. The previous lowest monthly death was in May 2009, when one hundred fifty five people were killed. Among those were one hundred twenty four civilians.

The current monthly totals for casualties in Iraq pale in comparison to those of 2006 and 2007. The period was marked by rampant sectarian violence. In January 2007 alone two thousand Iraqi people were killed.

The low death toll number comes at a time where senior Iraqi and United States officials predict a possible increase in violence leading up to the country’s parliamentary election. The top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, predicted last month that politically motivated violence would be used to undermine the Iraqi government and security forces prior to the election. General Odierno recently said, “we still have a small group of extremist elements that will do anything and everything to undermine Iraq’s progress and the people’s confidence in the government in Iraq.”

While the reports of the decreased death toll pleased senior Iraqi officials, they emphasized that the numbers still could be improved upon. Ali Mussawi, an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki commented that, “we’re delighted with the decrease in the number of victims of terrorism, but we will only be happy when we eliminate all threats.” Mussawi also called on civilians and security forces to “remain vigilant because the enemy is waiting.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Iraq Monthly Death Toll Lowest Since US Invasion – 1 December 2009

CNN – Iraq’s Civilian Death Toll in November is Lowest Since War Began – 1 December 2009

Associated Press – Iraq Reports Drop in Civilian Deaths in November – 30 November 2009

Reuters – Iraqi Civilian Deaths Drop to Lowest Level of War – 30 November 2009

Thousands of Palestinians Lost Residency Rights in East Jerusalem

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – The Israeli Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem of their residency rights during 2008, according to official state records released on December 3. The total was twenty-one times higher than the average number during the past forty years, and the highest total since the beginning of the Israeli rule over East Jerusalem.

 

The Interior Ministry said the drastic increase was due to an investigation into the legal status of thousands of East Jerusalem residents during March and April 2008. The Ministry said that most of those whose permits were revoked were no longer in Israel; ninety-nine were minors under the age of eighteen.

 

Israel began its rule over predominantly-Palestinian East Jerusalem after the 1967 War. During the first forty years of Israeli occupation, from 1967 to 2007, the Interior Ministry deprived a total of 8,558 Palestinians of their residency permits. Of all the Palestinians who lost their residency rights in the past forty-two years, 35% lost theirs in 2008.

 

Yotam Ben-Hillel, an attorney with Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, said that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are treated the same as legal immigrants to Israel and are not entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return. Residents can easily lose their status, and once a Palestinian has lost his or her residency status, it can be extremely difficult or impossible to return to Jerusalem for any reason, even for a family visit.

 

“The list may include students who went for a few years to study in another country, and can no longer return to their homes,” said Ben-Hillel.

 

Those who had their residency permits revoked may not be associated with any other nation, so the individuals may now by stateless.

 

Palestinians have attacked the Interior Ministry’s actions, saying it undermines the feasibility of the Palestinian plan to have East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also excluded East Jerusalem from the recent freeze in settlement construction.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Financial Times – Israel Strips Thousands of Palestinians of Jerusalem Residency – 3 December 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Israel Stripped Thousands of Jerusalem Arabs of Residency in 2008 – 2 December 2009

 

Jordan Times – Israel Strips More Palestinians of Their Palestinian Status – 2 December 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Thousands in East Jerusalem Lost Residency Rights – 2 December 2009

Iran Plans Construction of Ten New Nuclear Plants

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – On November 29 the Iranian government began making arrangements for the construction of ten new uranium enrichment plants. The government ordered the country’s nuclear agency to begin work on five sites with five more to be located within the next two months. The announcement comes two days after the country was rebuked by the United Nations for covering up a uranium enrichment plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, voted twenty five to three with seven abstentions to condemn Iran’s nuclear program. The resolution called for the Islamic Republic to cease their enrichment of uranium and resolve any remaining questions about its nuclear activities. Additionally, the resolution reads that Iran must open its facilities to further inspection and to provide assurances that it is not operating any secret nuclear research sites.

Iran’s decision to build ten new plants sparked controversy throughout the Western world. The White House released a statement saying that this action was “yet another serious violation of Iran’s clear obligations.” Great Britain’s government reacted similarly, announcing that news of Iran’s actions was “a matter of serious concern” and was possibly a “deliberate breach of five UN security council resolutions.” Iran, however, claims that their actions are peaceful and allowed under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

According to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if Iran builds ten additional nuclear plants the country would have enough uranium to produce twenty thousand megawatts of electricity within six years. However, Iran’s capability of accomplishing such a goal has come into question. According to Gary Sick, a professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University, given the pace of production and installation of working centrifuges in Iran, the process would both be extremely costly and take approximately twenty to thirty years to complete.

While Sick doubts that Iran has the capabilities to build ten new plants, Ahmadinejad insists that this goal can be accomplished if the new facilities incorporate new, more efficient centrifuges that Iran has not yet employed. The Iranian President insists that “new high-capacity centrifuges have been designed by the Islamic Republic of Iran that can carry out the task in fewer numbers.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN Rebuke ‘Forced’ New Iran Plans – 30 November 2009

Los Angeles Times – Iran Plans 10 More Large Nuclear Plants – 30 November 2009

BBC – Iran ‘Planning 10 New Uranium Enrichment Sites’ – 29 November 2009

Guardian – Iran Defies United Nations With Plans For 10 New Nuclear Plants – 29 November 2009

Gaza Fishermen Shelled by Israeli Navy

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

AL SHUDANIYYA, Gaza – The Israeli navy reportedly shelled several Palestinian fishing boats near the Gaza coast, according a report by the International Middle East Media Center on November 29. No injuries were reported.

 

An Israeli army spokesperson said that the boats had “violated security boundaries off the coast of the Gaza Strip… out of the permitted fishing zone.”

 

This incident was the latest in a series between the Israeli navy and Palestinian fishermen. Earlier in November, one Palestinian fisherman was moderately injured after being shot in the stomach by Israeli naval officers while fishing off of the Gaza city of Rafah.

 

The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords set a Palestinian fishing range of nearly twenty nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Since 1993, however, the Israeli navy has reduced the allowable fishing zone to three nautical miles. After the shooting near Rafah in November, Israel told CNN that it has made the zone smaller as a security precaution, in an effort to cut down on weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, as well as to prevent attacks by Hamas from sea. Since the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas last winter, the Israeli navy has imposed a formal blockade on the region.  The Gaza Strip lies along the Mediterranean Sea, and is approximately twice the size of the United States capital, Washington D.C.

 

The restricted zone poses serious problems for the nearly 3,500 Palestinian fishermen forced to stay within an area of seventy-five square miles. The Israeli blockade has made it difficult for Gaza fishermen to repair their nets and equipment. Additionally, it is often difficult for fisherman to tell whether they are in the shifting boundaries.

 

The fishing zone is severely overfished, and the small daily catches contribute to the persistent economic depression in the Gaza Strip.

 

“Once we risked going a little further as there were no fish,” said one fishing captain. “We tried to cross the border a little but the Israeli navy came and started shooting at us… we had to leave the area.”

 

For more information, please see:

 

Press TV – Israeli Navy Shells Palestinian Fishing Boats – 30 November 2009

 

International Middle East Media Center – Israeli Navy Shells Palestinian Fishing Boats – 29 November 2009

 

CNN – Fishermen Trawl Under Israeli Navy Scrutiny – 10 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Ministry: Gaza Fisherman Shot by Israeli Navy – 4 November 2009