By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Three American hikers detained in Iran will be charged with espionage. Tehran’s general prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Doloatabadi confirmed the news on November 9. Doloatabadi also said that the investigation into the actions of the three would continue. Under Iranian law, the hikers face death if convicted of the espionage charge.

The three Americans, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shroud and Joshua Fattal, are thought to have crossed into Iranian territory while hiking in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The area is known to have a poorly marked border and their loved ones insist that this was an innocent mistake on the part of the three hikers.

The three hikers’ friends and families released a statement calling the spy allegations “entirely at odds with the people Shane, Sarah and Josh are and with anything that Iran can have learned about them since they were detained on July 31.” They  have urged the Iranian government to have compassion for the three and release them from custody.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented on the issue while in Berlin. She stated that there was “no evidence” for Iran to charge the hikers. Clinton urged the release of the hikers based on humanitarian grounds. After meeting with the family members of the three Americans, she explained that her “hear went out to all of them.” Clinton told the families that all options to getting the hikers back were being explored.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs argued that the three were innocent and that their release should come as quick as possible. As the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, Switzerland has done the job of directly appealing for the hikers’ release. A Swiss diplomat has twice been allowed to visit the Americans in prison.

The most recent meeting took place on October 29 at Evin Prison in Tehran. The Swiss diplomat was able to confirm to the State Department that the detained hikers were in good physical shape. A State Department official confirmed a report that the three seemed nervous and scared, but appeared to be in good psychological health.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Families of US Hikers in Iran Deny Espionage Charges – 9 November 2009

Al Jazeera – Iran Accuses Americans of Spying – 9 November 2009

BBC – US Trio ‘on Iran Spying Charge’ – 9 November 2009

CNN – Iran to Charge 3 American Hikers With Espionage, Says Prosecutor – 9 November 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

QALANDIYA, West Bank – Palestinian and foreign activists broke through the wall separating Israel and the West Bank, harkening back to the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago.

The group used a large truck to pull down a two-meter by six-meter section of the wall near the West Bank town of Qalandiya, near Ramallah. The crowd of fifty cheered as the section toppled, waived a Palestinian flag and burning tires on the Israeli side. Israeli police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd, and some Palestinians threw rocks at the police.

The separation barrier has been a hotly contested issue between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israelis claim the wall is necessary for national security, arguing it has effectively halted suicide bombers from coming into Israel. Palestinians, however, view the wall as a land grab; claiming that Israeli is effectively undermining any future of a functioning Palestinian state.

Israel began construction of the wall in 2000. The wall’s path does not hold to pre-1967 borders, but rather cuts into areas traditionally within the West Bank. Throughout the newly-formed border, the wall cuts through Palestinian towns and carves through Palestinian farmland to bring vital water resources under Israeli control. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the wall was illegal, and that it should be taken down because it crossed into occupied territory.

Aside from the breach in Qalandiya, there were other protests throughout the West Bank leading up to the Berlin Wall anniversary. Protestors in Bethlehem marked four years of their weekly march against the wall, as six villages in the metropolitan area are cut off from reasonable access to the city. The West Bank city of Na’alin also hosts a weekly march, and on November 6, masked protestors used a hydraulic car-jack to hoist another section of the wall out of place. The wall is constructed in the same inverted T-shape as was the Berlin Wall.

“Today we commemorate twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Abdullah Abu Rahma, the leader of the People’s Campaign to Fight the Wall. “This is the first step in a series of activities we will be holding in the coming days to express our firm attachment to our land and our rejection of this wall.”

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Palestinians Break Israel’s Wall – 9 November 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Palestinians Breach Separation Fence for Second Time in a Week – 9 November 2009

 

Huffington Post – Mr. Netanyahu, Tear Down This Wall – 9 November 2009

 

VOA News – W. Bank Palestinians Tear Down Segment of Barrier Wall – 9 November 2009

 

Palestinian News Network – Four Years of Demonstrating Against the Wall in Southern Bethlehem – 24 October 2009

By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Saudi Arabian forces have seized a strategic mountain straddling the border with Yemen and cleared it of Shi’ite rebels after five days of fighting that have left three Saudi soldiers dead, a Saudi defense official said Sunday.

In a dramatic escalation of the five-year conflict, Saudi forces began shelling and bombing rebel positions last week. Saudi Arabia entered the conflict after fears that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill into its country. Assistant Saudi Minister Khaled Bin Sultan said Sunday’s advance was a step toward sealing the Saudi border against the rebels. Saudi officials say their military has fought only in its own territory, focusing on rebel infiltrators, but Yemeni rebels, military officials and Arab diplomats say Saudi airstrikes have hit deep inside northern Yemen.

Rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdel-Salam denied that rebels had crossed the Saudi border, saying those detained were Yemeni migrants hoping to work in the much richer country. He continued saying, that “lies” about rebel infiltrators “reveal the failure of Yemeni government in confronting our forces, and that has pushed Yemeni regime to seek help from the Saudis.” Abdel-Salam also said rebel fighters shot down a Yemeni fighter jet on Sunday, and Yemeni and Saudi jets have carried out continuous strikes in the region, “damaging many villages and killing civilians.”

Yemeni officials claim that the jet crashed due to a technical error. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said that the military would not cease the offensive against the Huthis “until we bring this tyrannical, traitorous and mercenary group to an end.”

For more information please see:

AP – Saudis Take Mountain from Yemen Rebels – 8 November 2009

BBC – Saudis ‘Push Back Yemen Rebels’ – 8 November 2009

Al-Jazeera – Saudis ‘Retake Captured Territory’ – 8 November 2009