By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Yesterday, both liberal anti-Morsi protesters and Islamic pro-Morsi supporters  took to the streets in Egypt to demonstrate. The Morsi opponents were protesting against what they perceived as Morsi’s consolidation of power and implementation of Sharia law. The Morsi supporters were demonstrating against violence caused by protests and the need for Sharia law. Predictably, violence broke out.

The anti-Morsi faction congregated outside El-Quba, one of the presidential palaces. They called the rally, “Checkmate Friday,” as if they had cornered the king. The protesters view Morsi as a dictator who has failed to actualize the purposes of the revolution which put him in his position.

National Salvation Front, the main opposition group to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, was not involved in this protest. They sought to distance themselves from the protest after coming under criticism that they have been inciting street violence.

As nightfall covered the protest, violence eventually ensued. “Troublemakers” threw rocks and petrol bombs, and security forces answered back with tear gas and water cannons.

Away from the main rally, in the industrial town of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, protesters set fire to a local government building. Additionally, in Alexandria, protesters who tried to force their way into a police station were met by security force violence.

Thousands of pro-Morsi demonstrators also met in Cairo to show  their support for President Morsi and to denounce the violence that has occurred as a result of anti-Morsi protests. This demonstration was dubbed the “Together Against Violence” rally and was organized by the ultraconservative Salafi Islamist group Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya. Ironically, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya led an armed revolt against the state in the 1990s, but has since denounced violence.

Since the anniversary of the ousting of Mubarak in January, at least sixty people have died as a result of demonstration violence. The pro-Morsi group is calling for an end to this unrest so that Egypt can gain some semblance of stability, such that tourists will not fear the Egyptian political climate and jumpstart its economy. Instead, the protesters just want the whole country to embrace Sharia law.

Mohammed al-Sagheer, a Muslim cleric in the crowd declared that, “the person who came [to power] through ballot boxes will not leave by firebombs.”

Others held banners which read, “No to Violence. Yes to Sharia.”

The demonstrators chanted, “Islam is coming, the Koran is our constitution,” as they marched to the central rally point of Cairo University.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Pro-Morsi Protesters Rally in Cairo – 15 February 2013

Examiner – Morsi Supporters Hold Rally in Cairo – 15 February 2013

Jerusalem Post – Egypt Islamists Rally Against Violence, for Sharia – 15 February 2013

Reuters – Islamists Rally for Egypt’s Mursi in Cairo – 15 February 2013

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) just released its annual assessment on how press freedom is being treated throughout the world; and, the results were not pretty. The report details both the censorship of information, as well as the treatment of individual reporters. A new edition to the report included a “risk list” of ten places where press freedoms were particularly bad in 2012. Three such countries, Syria, Turkey, and Iran, are located in the Middle East.

This past year was not the safest of years to be a journalist. Globally, the number of journalists who were imprisoned in 2012 reached an all time high. Two hundred and thirty two journalists were reportedly detained, which is an increase of fifty three for the year before.

Seventy journalists had died while actively reporting in the past year which is a forty-three percent increase from 2011. CPJ’s research has came up with the harrowing figure that over the past two decades, one journalist is killed while working, once every eight days. These figures only include the known dead. There are at least thirty-five more journalists who are currently missing.

At this moment, Syria is the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. In the past year, at least twenty-eight journalist have been killed, while another two are missing.

While not as many journalists have been killed in Turkey; in no other place have more journalists been imprisoned. Forty-nine journalists were jailed in 2012. Turkey’s government utilizes laws which restrict the press’ freedom of speech, in order to curtail dissent.

Only four less journalists were imprisoned in Iran, however, the likelihood of their mistreatment during detention was far greater than anywhere else. Reporters and editors faced torture, solitary confinement, and deprivation of medical care. Those who were formally detained generally were arrested under some anti-state charge.

CPJ deputy director Robert Mahoney stated that, “when journalists are silenced, whether through violence or laws, we all stand to lose because perpetrators are able to obscure misdeeds, silence dissent, and disempower citizens.”

He added, “the battle to control information is an assault on public accountability that cannot go unchallenged. Governments must prosecute perpetrators and stop those seeking to incapacitate public oversight by blunting critical and probing reporting.”

Not only does limitation on freedom of speech violate international human rights law in its own regard, but the continuance of these attacks on the press serve to continue the existence of impunity in the Middle East.

The CPJ has been releasing its annual report since 1990.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Journalism Under Attack Across the Globe Imperils Press Freedom – 14 February 2013

Huffington Post – CPJ Attacks on the Press Report: Number of Journalists Imprisoned, Killed Spiked in 2012 – 14 February 2013

Washington Post – Glance at Attacks on the Press – 14 February 2013

CPJ – Attacks on the Press: Journalism on the Front Lines in 2012

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

MANAMA, Bahrain — A teenager was killed on Thursday morning while participating in a protest that took place in the village of Daih.  The protest itself took place during the second anniversary of the demonstrations for democratic reforms.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry confirmed via Twitter that a person had died, but offered no further details beyond this.  The Interior Ministry tweet stated that “Operations Room received call from SMC [Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country’s largest hospital] reportain an injured individual pronounced dead.”  Al Wefaq,Bahrain’s largest opposition group, said in a report that the deceased teenager was 16 year old Hussain al-Jaziri, and that he was killed by shotgun fire at close range.  Al Wefaq’s report stated that al-Jaziri sustained a serious injury to his stomach.”

Throughout the villages of Bahrain, clashes occurred after several hundred demonstrators, mostly comprised of Shi’ite youths, blocked the roads to Manama and hurled stones and firebombs towards police forces.  Protesters reported that teargas was used in several locations.  Three photojournalists were arrested while reporting in Daih.

The current clashes are the most violent in recent months and have the potential to mar talks that were initiated last Sunday between mostly Shi’ite Muslim opposition groups and the Sunni dominated government in an effort to end the political deadlock that has dominated Bahraini politics.

The Chief of Public Security, Major-General Tariq Hassan al-Hassan, issued a statement reporting that “[t]he worst clashes occurred in Daih where around 300 people at around 8 am attacked the security men stationed there to protect the area,” he said.  Al-Hassan also mentioned in his reports that Police forces in Daih had to take action since they “had come under attack from rioters with rocks, steel rods, and Molotov cocktails. Warning shots were fired but failed to disperse the advancing crowd who continued their attack. Officers discharged birdshot to defend themselves.”

Al-Hassan said that he initiated an investigation, and intends to quiz several members of the unit involved in the incident.  Al-Hassan also pleaded to demonstrators to not use al-Jaziri’s death as means to commit more violence.  “I urge all citizens not to heed the calls to exploit this death to undermine public order and cause further loss of life and property,” he said.

Al Wefaq says that the death of al-Jaziri “exacerbated emotions” for demonstrators throughout the country who participated in protests.  It has called for a massive demonstration to take part on Friday morning, requesting everyone to take part.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — ‘Teenager Killed’ in Bahrain Protest — 14 February 2013

BBC News — Teenager Killed in Bahrain Anniversary Protests — 14 February 2013

Gulf News — Teenager Killed as Clashes Erupt in Bahrain — 14 February 2013

Reuters — Teen Killed in Protests on Bahrain Revolt Anniversary — 14 February 2013

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel — Last Monday Israeli police arrested 10 women for wearing tallits (prayer shawls), at the Western Wall, one of Israel’s holiest sites. In Orthodox Judaism, wearing a tallit at the Wall is a custom traditionally reserved for men.

The women, all members of an activist group called the Women of the Wall (WOTW), whose mission is to promote gender equality in religious practice.  WOTW visited the Western Wall to pray for the Jewish new month of Adar at a monthly service which featured veterans who fought at the Western Wall during the Six Day War of 1967.  Among the arrested women were WOTW founder Anat Hoffman, Lion Nevo, an 8 month pregnant rabbinical student, and Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of the comedian Sarah Silverman, and her 17 year old daughter Hallel Abramowitz. The ladies linked arms and sang songs as they were escorted to a police station.  Some women were released after they were questioned for three hours by police, however those who did not agree to a conditional release will have to attend a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Monday.

“They (police) said ‘take off your prayer shawls’, and we said ‘no,'” said Silverman.  Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the women were violating a “regulation set by the High Court” a decade ago, which was enacted to uphold Orthodox rules at the site for the sake of avoiding tensions between worshippers.  Silverman said that the regulation amounted to “spitting on the Sinai,” the site in the Bible where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments.  “All Jews are in a covenant with God, regardless of gender,” she said.  Sarah Silverman commended her sister through her Facebook page, saying that she was “SO proud” of her sister and niece for their act of “civil disobedience.”

The police were criticized for the arrests.  “It’s unacceptable that the police are stopping women from wearing a tallitot, it’s like Iran. I can’t believe they are stopping people from praying in one certain way or another, said Llon Bartov, a veteran who fought in the Six Day War. “This is just attrition,” said WOTW Founder Hoffman.  ” They want the group to become frightened.”

The women who were detained claimed that they were amongst hundreds of supporters who came to pray at the Wall.  Dozens of men who supported their cause were also present.  Some of them had even smuggled prayer shawls which they passed over the gender barrier “like contraband goods.”  After their arrest, WOTW moved its Torah reading to the police station where their fellow members were being held.

For further information please see:

Al Jazeera — Israel Detains Women Over Prayer Shawls — 11 February 2013

The Jerusalem Post — 10 Women Arrested at Kotel for Wearing Tallitot — 11 February 2013

Russia Today — Shawl Male Rule: Israeli Police Detain Ten Women Over ‘Improper Attire’ at Holy Site — 11 February 2013

The Times of Israel — 10 Women with Prayer Shawls Arrested at Western Wall — 11 February 2013