By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East  

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The tensions that have recently flared up in southern Lebanon have been to ease, according to a senior UN official.

On July 22, Michael Williams, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, met with the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Fawzi Salloukh. After the meeting, Williams said that the situation is calming down. Williams has also met with Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and leaders from Hezbollah, in an effort to assuage concerns regarding UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 36-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

“All… have assured me strongly that active efforts are under way to reduce the tension and restore stability to the area,” said Williams.

Since July 13, the town of Khirbet Silim in Southern Lebanon has been the center of unrest in the past week, when there was an explosion from an alleged Hezbollah arms cache in an abandoned building, reportedly injuring thirty people. As the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) investigated the blast on July 17, fourteen UN peacekeepers were injured as civilians threw rocks and damaged vehicles in protest of the investigation, alleging that UNIFIL had overstepped its operational mandate. On July 22, UNIFIL refused to respond to such allegations, but a spokesperson said UNIFIL was awaiting the official report on the incidents.

Special Coordinator Williams said that the July 17 incident was being investigated thoroughly by both UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces, “to avoid anything like this happening again.”

Southern Lebanon has been the hub of political instability in the country, with Syrian nationals, al-Qaeda agents, and Hezbollah militants all accused of stirring up hostility and attacking UN peacekeepers.

For more information, please see:

The Daily Star – UNIFIL Silent Over Reports of Breaching Mandate – 23 July 2009

UN News Center – Tensions in Southern Lebanon ‘Calming Down’ After Incidents– 22 July 2009

Al-Jazeera – Lebanon Army Arrests ‘Terror Cell’– 21 July 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East Desk

JERUSALEM, Israel– The news agency Ha’aretz broke the news on July 21 that Israeli leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had created a plan to swiftly evacuate twenty-three illegal outposts on the west bank.

The term “outpost” was initially defined in a report by lawyer Talia Sasson as a piece of land “lying a significant distance from an existing settlement and established with disregard to the law.” The government commissioned her study in 2005, in which 105 communities were identified as outposts. An estimated 8,000 settlers live at the outposts set to be evacuated.

No official date for the evacuation has been released, although the leaked information says that the evacuations will be very quick. Although the source of the information is anonymous, the report comes from the same reporter to whom former prime minister Ariel Sharon released plans to withdraw troops and settlers from the Gaza strip in 2005. Netanyahu’s officials have declined to comment on the plans, but soldiers executed a military exercise in preparation for riots and protests that are expected to occur with the evacuation. Moreover, the security administration designed the plan with Netanyahu’s knowledge and approval. This plan would comply with an agreement that was made with President George W. Bush to remove the outposts built after March 2001.

The last such evacuation attempt happened in 2006 with an outpost known as Amona. However, ultranationalist protesters flooded Amona, and violent protests broke out. More than 300 were injured in the struggle and Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, cited excessive violence and police brutality in the action. Furthermore, when three illegal structures at outposts in the West Bank were evacuated on July 21, and settlers torched Palestinian olive groves, threw stones at Palestinian Cars, and blocked roads. The displaced settlers have threatened a larger “price tag” for further evacuations.

The proposed evacuations will happen very quickly and simultaneously to minimize the chance of failure. It is hoped that violence will be significantly decreased if there is no time for protesters to travel to the evacuation. Additionally, with all of the evacuations occurring simultaneously and at an unannounced time, there will be no time for planning, so it will be difficult for protesters to gather in significant numbers at all of the locations.

There has been increasing pressure from the international community for the peace process to restart in Israel. Earlier in 2009, US President Barack Obama told Israel that the settlement expansion needed to stop in order for peace to occur, and other leaders are now supporting this message. Most recently Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko, and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon have issued statements encouraging Israel to halt further settlement expansion.

For more information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald – Plan to Evacuate Settler Outposts – 22 July 2009

Y-Net – UN Secretary General: Israel Must Halt Settlement Building – 22 July 2009

Christian Science Monitor – Is Israel Serious About Closing 23 Fringe Settlements? – 21 July 2009

Haaretz – Ex-envoy to US: Israel ‘totally committed’ to Razing Outposts – 21 July 2009

Jerusalem Post – Russia Calls on Israel to Halt Construction in East Jerusalem – 21 July 2009

The Washington Post – Israel to Evacuate all Outposts in a Day: Report – 21 July 2009

By Nykoel Dinardo
Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

United Nations – On July 14, an explosion in Southern Lebanon triggered a slew of accusations that Hezbollah has been and is still violating UN Resolution 1701 by gathering and storing arms.  Resolution 1701, which was signed in 2006, led to a halt in firing between Hezbollah and Israel following a 34 day armed conflict.  It imposed a strict embargo on weapons to Lebanese or foreign militias in Lebanon. 

According to Israeli military officials, the explosion in Lebanon was composed of “a new stock of short range missiles” and that those weapons were the property of Hezbollah.  Israeli Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi explained to journalists on July 15 that he believed the building also contained mortars, shells, rockets and other ammunition as well.  The explosion collapsed a two-story building on the outskirts of the village of Khirbet Silim, twelve miles from the Israeli border.  The cause of the explosion is still unclear.  No one was injured in the blast.  However, many residents in the area were panicked as the explosion took place on the third anniversary of the 2006 war. 

Israeli officials asked for an official UN investigation.  Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev asked the UN to take action and at least begin an investigation citing this incident, and two others, that she claims are “severe violations” of Resolution 1701.  The UN sent an envoy of soldiers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.  However, demonstrations at the site of the explosion turned violent when UN soldiers arrived.  Fourteen soldiers were injured and several UN vehicles were damages.

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams has spoken out since this incident calling for restraint.  Williams said that the UN needs to “lower the temperature, to try and address the issues and not see any escalation” of the situation.  In a statement to the press on July 20 explained that “clearly there were violations of 1701” and he has been meeting with several Lebanese officials to address the problem.  He called on both Lebanon and Israel to renew their commitment to the Resolution and exercise restraint during this period.

For more information, please see:

United Nations – Top UN Envoy Urges Restraint After Recent Incident in Southern Lebanon – 21 July 2009

Associated Press – Israel to Lebanon: Stop Border Violations – 20 July 2009

CNN – Lebanon: Crowd Attack U.N. Peacekeepers – 20 July 2009

AFP – Israel Demands Tougher UN Action Against Hezbollah Arms – 16 July 2009

New York Times – Israel Sees Evidence of Hezbollah’s Rearming in Explosion – 15 July 2009

Ynet – Explosion in Hezbollah Arms Cache Stirs Panic in South Lebanon – 14 July 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel– A bill that would deny government funding to state-supported groups that give monetary support to activity that is deemed “detrimental to the state” was passed through a ministerial committee on July 19. The bill was introduced by Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.

Many Palestinians fear that this bill will effectively limit their speech, because supporting “armed struggle or terrorist acts” against Israel or “rejecting Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people” are examples of activities that would qualify as “detrimental to the state.”

This bill is a diluted version of a bill that was abandoned in June, after it was deemed to stringent. The original bill was also introduced by Lieberman and the Yisrael Beitenu party. The first bill would have made it a crime to observe “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” on Israel’s Independence Day. Nakba is the Palestinian recognition of the creation of Israel. The holiday is designed to recognizethe “catastrophe” that Israel’s creation was for many Palestinian citizens.

The original bill would have also forced sixteen year-old Israelis and new citizens to take a loyalty oath in order to receive an ID card. The Loyalty oath required each citizen to pledge loyalty to the “State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state.”

The loyalty oath provision was removed from the newer version, and instead of an explicit banning of the celebration of Nakba, funding restrictions have been imposed. While much less harsh, many Arab citizens of Israel are still very offended by the withholding of government funds for what they see as free speech.

For more information please see,

AFP – Israel Committee Passes Softened Naqba Bill – 19 July 2009

Haaretz – Revised Bill Would Ban Funding Nakba Events – 19 July 2009

Jerusalem Post – ‘Softer’ Version of Nakba Bill to be Approved – 19 July 2009

Reuters- Bill Outlawing anti-Israel Protest Nears Approval– 19 July 2009

Impunity Watch – Israel ‘Loyalty Oath’ Bill Voted Down in Committee – 1 June 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JUBAISH, Iraq – Oil may be the most notoriously fought over commodity in the Middle East, but there is one resource that can surpass “black gold” in its necessity and ability to provoke conflict:  water.

As the Middle East is in the grip of a drought that has lasted over two years, Iraq’s Euphrates River, one of the boundaries of region known as the Cradle of Civilization, has begun to shrink.  But the drought is only one cause; water policies by Iraq’s neighboring countries have exasperated the crisis.  There are at least seven dams in the Euphrates’ headwaters in Turkey and Syria, and there are no water treaties between the three nations.  Turkey has recently agreed to increase water flow by 60 percent during July and August, which will cover about half of what is needed for Iraq’s famed Anbar rice crop.  This allotment, however, is not a permanent agreement; Turkey has also consistently refused to sign international agreements on water use, such as the 1997 UN Convention on the Law on Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

While Iraq’s government often blames Turkey and Syria, Turkish officials say that Iraq’s almost nonexistent water management policies are the real culprit, and that the current finger-pointing is election-year posturing.  Iraq’s canal and irrigation systems have been notoriously leaky for centuries, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty, local farmers scrape off white mounds of salt at the edges of drainage piles.

Iraq’s marsh Arabs are perhaps most at risk from the effects of a dwindling Euphrates.  The marshes at the meeting point of the Tigris and Euphrates was intentionally flooded in 2003 in an attempt to revive the dying culture, but many marsh Arabs believe that if their crops and livestock do not survive this year’s season, the few marsh Arabs who remain will be forced to leave their ancestral homes in search of more viable economic opportunities.

For more information, please see:

Today’s Zaman – Ankara Deflects Criticism From Iraq Over Water Usage – 17 July 2009

Foreign Policy – What Iraq Needs More Than Oil – 16 July 2009

New York Times – Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates Dwindles – 13 July 2009