The Middle East

Palestinians Plan U.N. Statehood Bid

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Palestinian officials announced on November 15 that they would seek a United Nations resolution to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The proposed state would follow borders in place before the 1967 war between Israel and the Palestinians, and would include East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

 

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, held a press conference to accompany the announcement, and said that the Palestinian Authority had decided to take its case to the U.N. after negotiations surrounding talks between Israel and the Palestinians had stalled, primarily due to disagreements about Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

 

“Now is our defining moment,” Erekat said. “We went into this peace process in order to achieve a two-state solution…The endgame is to tell the Israelis that now the international community has recognized the two–state solution on the ’67 borders.”

 

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Israeli cabinet on the day after the Palestinian announcement that there was a strong possibility of a U.N. vote in favor of a Palestinian state, as many countries had previously expressed support for the Palestinians. Israel was created by a U.N. mandate after World War II.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference after the Palestinian announcement, rejecting the Palestinian action and saying that a unilateral action by the Palestinians would negate any terms of the 1998 Oslo Peace Accords and would destroy any goodwill between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

 

“There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and any unilateral path will only unravel the framework of agreements between us and will bring unilateral steps from Israel’s side,” said Netanyahu.

 

Middle East observers believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s options for moving forward are limited. Abbas announced a week before this most recent development that he would not seek reelection in a Palestinian national vote scheduled for 2010. Many experts have commented that Abbas was considerably weakened by Israel’s unwillingness to freeze all settlement construction in the West Bank.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinians Warned Over U.N. Move – 16 November 2009

 

Ha’aretz – U.S.: Best Way to Achieve a Viable Palestine is Talks – 16 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Erekat: World Should Stand Against Occupation – 16 November 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Israel Rejects Palestinian Statehood Bid Via the U.N. – 15 November 2009

 

New York Times – Palestinians Aim to Secure U.N. Support for State – 15 November 2009

240 Saudi Villages Evacuated Over Yemen Fighting

By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’DA, Yemen – Some 240 villages in Saudi Arabia have been evacuated due to an escalation of fighting in Northern Yemen. The United Nations has reported Friday that “fighting has now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed.”

Saudi Arabia, the world’s oil exporter, launched an offensive last week after Yemeni rebels seized Saudi territory along the mountainous border from which they said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to use to attack their positions.  A Saudi government advisor said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is using air power and artillery to enforce a six mile deep buffer zone inside Yemen to keep the Shi’ite rebels away from its southwestern border.

The fighting worsens an already bleak humanitarian situation in northern Yemen, where the United Nations now says 175,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. More than 15,000 are staying in al-Mazraq camp in Hajjah province, the population of which has doubled in the past month, according to the U.N. children’s agency. “Deaths have been recorded among children in the camp as malnutrition, already a chronic problem in Yemen, is reaching alarming levels.” Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

The U.N. refugee agency said that up to 900 people have been arriving every day at al-Mazraq which has exceeded its capacity. United Nations High Council on Refugees estimated its current population at 10,000. “The lastest sudden influx is adding more pressure on an already dire situation, and overcrowding in the camp is becoming a major concern.” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said.

For more information, please see:

Earth Times – UN: Saudi Villages Evacuated Over Yemen Fighting – 13 November 2009

VOA – More Civilians Flee War-Torn Yemen – 13 November 2009

Reuters – Saudi Villages Evacuated Due Yemen Violence – UNICEF

Two Young Activist Bloggers Jailed

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAKU, Azerbaijan– On Wednesday, November 11, the Sabail District Court of Baku convicted Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade of hooliganism and inflicting minor bodily harm, sentencing each of them to two and a half years in prison. Milli is a blogger for an online television site and a coordinator of exchange student alumni. Hajizade is a video blogger. They were charged in relation to an incident in July in which they say they were attacked.

The defendants allege that on July 8, they had been discussing their youth movement in a Baku restaurant when two strangers approached them, demanded that they stop discussing such matters, and attacked and injured them. That evening, Milli and Hajizade went to the police station, filed reports about the attack, and requested medical assistance.

Human Rights Watch contends that the restaurant fight was staged to provide grounds for a bogus case against the bloggers.  Human Rights Watch further asserts that the convictions come amid deteriorating media freedoms in Azerbaijan as journalists and media representatives have been harassed, threatened, or attacked for their professional activities.  According to Giorgi Gogia, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, “There is a longstanding pattern of Azerbaijani officials filing trumped-up charges against journalists to punish them for critical or satirical comment.”  And in the United States, State Department officials condemned the court decision, calling it “a step backwards for Azerbaijan’s progress towards democratic reform.”

The bloggers maintain that they were arrested and convicted because of their online criticism of the authorities.  Isakhan Ashurov, the attorney for Adnan Hajizade, said his client was charged for political reasons and that he had not been involved in violence. Various civil society organizations in Azerbaijan have expressed anger at the sentences.

Milli and Hajizade, who have been in prison since July 8, plan to appeal the verdict, but in the meantime “The imprisonment of Milli and Hajizade sends a chilling message to bloggers and any sharp government critic in Azerbaijan,” Gogia said. “It reflects growing government hostility towards the freedom of expression.”

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch- Azerbaijan: Young Bloggers Jailed– 12 November 2009

BBC News- Azeri Bloggers Given Prison Terms– 11 November 2009

New York Times- Azerbaijan: Bloggers Convicted– 11 November 2009

Palestinian National Elections Most Likely Postponed

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – The Palestinian Central Election Commission has recommended that the national elections scheduled for January be delayed. The Commission said it has encountered problems in Gaza and in Jerusalem, and that elections would be “impossible.”

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had called for national parliamentary elections to be held on January 24. Abbas added that he would not seek reelection for the presidency. Abbas’s office issued a statement after the Central Election Commission’s announcement on November 12, saying that Abbas would issue a decision about elections “in light of this development” and after consulting with Palestinian law experts.

 

There has been turmoil in the Palestinian political arena since Abbas called for elections. Hamas, the rival party to Abbas’s Fatah Party and the governing party in Gaza, said it would not participate in the scheduled elections, nor allow any Gaza residents to vote. Problems worsened when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would not allow elections in East Jerusalem, even though the Oslo Peace Accords between the Israelis and Palestinians expressly stipulate that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are allowed to run in and vote in Palestinian elections.

 

The dispute over national elections is the latest in a series of power struggles between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007 after winning control of the Gaza legislature in 2006 elections. In October 2009, Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at a reconciliation agreement between the two parties stalled after Hamas and Fatah failed to reach agreement on key conditions. Spokesmen from both parties were quick to blame the other party for the delay of elections.

 

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst and director of the Palestinian government media center, was still hopeful for a compromise between the two parties. Khatib told the New York Times that the delay may provide an opportunity for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and that an election could be held within six months. The extra time may give the parties time to consider and sign the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement, which calls for national elections in June 2010.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinian Poll Delay Recommended – 13 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Hamas, Fatah Spar Over Elections Delay – 13 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Fatah Official: Palestinian Elections Likely to Be Delayed – 13 November 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Palestinian Election Body Urges Vote Delay, Reflecting Political Disarray – 12 November 2009

 

New York Times – Palestinian Officials Push for Delay in Elections – 12 November 2009

Palestinian National Elections Most Likely Postponed

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – The Palestinian Central Election Commission has recommended that the national elections scheduled for January be delayed. The Commission said it has encountered problems in Gaza and in Jerusalem, and that elections would be “impossible.”

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had called for national parliamentary elections to be held on January 24. Abbas added that he would not seek reelection for the presidency. Abbas’s office issued a statement after the Central Election Commission’s announcement on November 12, saying that Abbas would issue a decision about elections “in light of this development” and after consulting with Palestinian law experts.

 

There has been turmoil in the Palestinian political arena since Abbas called for elections. Hamas, the rival party to Abbas’s Fatah Party and the governing party in Gaza, said it would not participate in the scheduled elections, nor allow any Gaza residents to vote. Problems worsened when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would not allow elections in East Jerusalem, even though the Oslo Peace Accords between the Israelis and Palestinians expressly stipulate that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are allowed to run in and vote in Palestinian elections.

 

The dispute over national elections is the latest in a series of power struggles between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007 after winning control of the Gaza legislature in 2006 elections. In October 2009, Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at a reconciliation agreement between the two parties stalled after Hamas and Fatah failed to reach agreement on key conditions. Spokesmen from both parties were quick to blame the other party for the delay of elections.

 

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst and director of the Palestinian government media center, was still hopeful for a compromise between the two parties. Khatib told the New York Times that the delay may provide an opportunity for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and that an election could be held within six months. The extra time may give the parties time to consider and sign the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement, which calls for national elections in June 2010.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinian Poll Delay Recommended – 13 November 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Hamas, Fatah Spar Over Elections Delay – 13 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Fatah Official: Palestinian Elections Likely to Be Delayed – 13 November 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Palestinian Election Body Urges Vote Delay, Reflecting Political Disarray – 12 November 2009

 

New York Times – Palestinian Officials Push for Delay in Elections – 12 November 2009