Friday, August 25, 2023

08/25 Links Pt1: The 1936 Project; Sierra Leone to open embassy in Jerusalem; Will Iran be President Biden’s Afghanistan 2.0?

From Ian:

The 1936 Project
Review of 'Palestine 1936' by Oren Kessler by Michael M. Rosen

When did the Arab–Israeli conflict begin?
Over the decades, historians, politicians, and activists have posited numerous dates: There’s 1897, when Theodor Herzl, fresh off his publication of Der Judenstaat convened the First Zionist Congress; 1917, when Lord Balfour issued his famous declaration that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”; 1929, when Arab rioting convulsed Hebron, Jerusalem, and Safed; 1947, when the United Nations approved the Partition Plan; 1948, when Israel declared independence; and there’s 1967, when the Jewish state won a stunning victory in the Six-Day War and found itself in control of lands containing millions of Palestinians.

Each year saw milestones in Israel’s development and in the entrenchment of the conflict. But in Palestine 1936, Oren Kessler proposes a new and under-explored starting point for the conflict. In 1936, the Arab Revolt erupted, “Palestinian identity coalesced,” Arab extremists dominated pragmatists even as refugees began to trickle out of Palestine, Britain realized that “its two-decade Zionist experiment had proven too costly,” Zionists reluctantly understood the imperative of force, and Jewish terrorism first arose.

Countless histories have been published about Mandatory Palestine from the perspectives of the Jews, the Arabs, and the British. But Kessler, an American-born writer residing in Israel, rightly asserts that his book represents “the first full-length, deeply researched but general-interest history of the Great Revolt: of the uprising itself, its effect on Palestine’s Jewish and Arab nationalisms, the geopolitical moves it engendered, and its lasting legacies today.” Along the way, he vividly sketches the characters of several important but forgotten figures on all sides of the conflict.

To be sure, the roots of the conflict run deep, nourished by mutual distrust. By the 1920s, prominent figures such as Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, and Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, had already articulated ideologies that left little room for political or territorial compromise. And as Mandatory white papers, commissions of inquiry, and interconfessional bloodshed dominated the early 1930s, a satisfactory resolution to the growing crisis seemed unlikely.

But April 1936 saw an explosion of violence unparalleled in previous years. The trigger was the killing of Israel Hazan, an immigrant from Greece, by a group of masked Arabs near Nablus. His funeral in Tel Aviv nurtured fear and resentment, and soon a group of Jews were walking southward toward Arab-dominated Jaffa. Violence swift- ly escalated, leaving 16 Jews dead at the hands of Arabs and five Arabs at the hands of British police. The mufti then declared a general strike across all of Palestine, which both crippled the larger economy and spurred the Jewish community to accelerate its development of independent institutions, such as the newly inaugurated Tel Aviv port.
Sierra Leone to open embassy in Jerusalem
The West African nation of Sierra Leone will open an embassy in Jerusalem, becoming the latest country to move its diplomatic mission to the city, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.

The news came just over a week after Paraguay said it will be returning its embassy to Israel’s capital.

“We continue to put Jerusalem, our eternal capital, at the top of the State of Israel’s diplomatic agenda,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen after speaking with Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio.

“As part of efforts to strengthen the warm relationship between the two nations, his excellency President Julius Maada Bio expressed his readiness to establish an Embassy of Sierra Leone in Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel,” the Presidency of Sierra Leone posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The embassy is set to be the seventh in Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said, following Paraguay and a country in the Pacific islands that has not yet been named.

Four countries currently have their embassies in Israel’s capital: the United States, Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo.
Dutch supreme court: Israeli military immune from prosecution in Netherlands
The Dutch supreme court ruled on Friday that two Israeli former military commanders, including ex-defense minister Benny Gantz, are immune from civil prosecution in the Netherlands in a case brought over the deaths of six Palestinians in an Israeli air strike.

The ruling upheld a December 2021 Dutch appeals court finding that Gantz - a career soldier turned politician - and ex-air force commander Amir Eshel, as then-high-ranking Israeli officials carrying out government policy, could not be held liable in a Dutch civil case, "irrespective of the nature and seriousness of the conduct alleged against them."

The plaintiff, Ismail Ziada - a Dutch national of Palestinian origin - said he lost his mother, three of his brothers, his sister-in-law and his nephew in the attack, which took place in Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza in 2014 when Gantz was Israeli armed forces' commander-in-chief.

Details of the lawsuit against Gantz
In the suit, Ziada sought unspecified damages against Gantz under Dutch universal jurisdiction rules, which allows countries to prosecute serious offenses committed elsewhere.

There is no further appeal possible against the supreme court's decision.


Israeli expansion of settlements is our best chance for Palestinian peace
THE LOGIC is really quite simple. For the past 30 years, ever since the signing of the disastrous 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinians have refused to reach a final deal with Israel, confident they have all the time in the world at their disposal.

They have repeatedly turned down one Israeli proposal after another, relying instead on the international community to press the Jewish state to make still more concessions.

That is a recipe for failure, which is exactly what it has produced thus far.

It might sound counterintuitive, but the most effective way of disabusing the Palestinians of the notion that time is on their side is by filling the landscape with more and more Jews.

Their leadership needs to realize that the longer they wait, the more territory they will “lose” as the Israeli presence in the areas is strengthened and reinforced.

Don’t get me wrong. I personally believe that Israel should expand the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria because of our divine-given right to these areas. And I do not want Israel to give up control over any part of our patrimony, nor do I believe the Palestinians are truly interested in peace with us.

But if there is to be any hope of putting an end to Palestinian terror, then its practitioners must be made to understand that for every attack they launch, the number of red-tile roofed Jewish homes filling the horizon outside their windows will only continue to grow.
The Palestinian leader who survived the death of Palestine
FOREIGN POLICY — Palestinian politician Hussein al-Sheikh strode into a fortified conference room in the towering Tel Aviv headquarters of Israel’s Defense Ministry in February 2022. Few Palestinians enter the inner sanctum of Israel’s military, but, as Sheikh recalled, he was greeted by the top army brass and the leadership of the secretive Shin Bet intelligence apparatus.

The tall, affable Sheikh — whose salt-and-pepper hair is slicked back with gel — serves as the Palestinian Authority’s main go-between with Israel in the occupied West Bank. He speaks fluent Hebrew, wears finely tailored suits, and urges cooperating, not clashing, with Israel. Once a teenage activist jailed by Israel, the Rolex-sporting, globe-trotting official now works behind the scenes to prevent the collapse of the PA, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli power brokers admire Sheikh as a pragmatic partner with an uncanny ability to find common ground. “He’s our man in Ramallah,” said one retired senior Israeli security official who requested anonymity due to an ongoing role in Israeli intelligence as a reservist. Many Palestinians, however, argue his approach has only reinforced the conflict’s status quo — a seemingly endless military occupation now in its sixth decade.

Sitting with Israel’s generals, Sheikh recounted an emotional visit with his grandmother to the ruins of their hometown of Deir Tarif in central Israel. She spotted a cluster of orange trees she had planted before she was uprooted and her village destroyed in the 1948 war. She embraced them and wept, he said.

With negotiations to end Israeli rule over the Palestinians long moribund, Sheikh told the generals that even he had found himself looking into the mirror, wondering whether he was making a mistake by continuing to cooperate with Israel. “If there’s no partner on the Israeli side who believes in peace and two states for two peoples, am I betraying my grandmother’s tears?” Sheikh told them. “Can you imagine what an ordinary Palestinian, living in a refugee camp, feels?”

Three decades after Israeli-Palestinian peace talks created the PA, many Palestinians no longer believe it will become an independent state. An increasingly right-wing Israel doesn’t intend to end its occupation anytime soon. The international community has checked out. And Palestinians remain divided between Abbas’s secular Fatah party, which controls the West Bank, and the Islamist Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.


Michael Oren: Israel must face its identity crisis to survive
Is Israel ignoring its existential problems? Has Israel swept its problems under the rug for the political needs of the here and now?

In this week’s episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin discusses the problems facing Israel as it heads towards its 100th birthday with historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren. He is the author of the new book 2048: The Rejuvenated State, a manifesto about how the Jewish state can deal with a long list of existential challenges including those brought to the fore by the divisions over judicial reform

They discuss
- Haredi non-participation in defense and the economy
- anarchy and lawlessness in the Negev
- Palestinian adversaries who don’t want peace, but aren't ready for statehood
- The need to elevate the concept of Jewish peoplehood and address a basic question: “Who are we?” and much more.


An Israeli envoy looks back on 5 tumultuous and gratifying years in New York
Within the Israeli foreign service, the Consulate General of Israel in New York is often described as both the friendliest and the most consequential posting for an Israeli diplomat. As I conclude my tenure here, I am struck by just how accurate, yet limited, that description is. My service here, over the past five years, has turned out to be the most meaningful relationship a diplomat could possibly have with a local community. The feeling that resonates, repeatedly, is that we are a family. We have a shared history and a shared fate. We are working on a shared future and it is our duty to continue forging these important bonds.

Even before I arrived, I knew tackling record-high antisemitism was already at the top of our agenda. Nothing could have prepared me for that first October, mere months into my term, when Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue was stormed by an armed perpetrator. After what turned out to be the most lethal antisemitic attack in American history, many were reminded that Jew-hatred remains a murderous cancer.

American Jews were shaken by a torrent of attacks. After Pittsburgh came Jersey City, when four people died in an attack at a kosher store, then Monsey, when five Jews were stabbed by an intruder at a Hanukkah party. Then right here in the streets of New York, in May 2021, Jews were violently assaulted ostensibly because of a conflict that was taking place thousands of miles away in Israel. Antisemitic hate became a daily physical, verbal and online occurrence.

As representatives of the State of Israel to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Delaware, my colleagues and I expressed Israel’s unwavering and continuing support, especially in the darkest of hours. As the homeland of the Jewish people, reborn out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel has a historic and moral responsibility to stand by the Jewish people everywhere, especially in times of need. Our words quickly turned into actions following these tragedies. Scores of Israeli private citizens flew to Pittsburgh and other sites of tragic antisemitic attacks, to provide different types of support and begin the healing process. The Israel Trauma Coalition sent therapists and Dream Doctors sent medical clowns.
Outgoing NYC consul general on Israel's place for global Jewish family
Senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim sits down for a special interview with Israel's outgoing acting consul general to New York, Israel Nitzan


The Israel Guys: Republican Candidates Talk of Cutting US AID TO ISRAEL On Debate Stage
Last night Israel was discussed in the Republican primary debate. There was talk of cutting US aid to Israel, with some heated debate that followed. Who is pushing forth this idea? What would that look like for Israel? Joshua breaks it all down for you on the show today!


Netanyahu defends Ben-Gvir after US attacks 'racist rhetoric'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after the US condemned his statements that Jews had more rights to move around the West Bank than Arabs as “racist rhetoric.”

Netanyahu said that Ben-Gvir meant that Jews have a right to life. “Israel allows maximum freedom of movement in Judea and Samaria for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the prime minister said.

“Unfortunately, Palestinian terrorists take advantage of this freedom of movement to murder Israeli women, children and families by ambushing them at certain points on different routes. The most recent incident occurred when Bat-Sheva Nagari was murdered on Route 60 in Judea in front of her 6-year-old daughter.

“In order to prevent these heinous murders, Israel's security forces have implemented special security measures in these areas. This is what Ben-Gvir meant when he said the right to life precedes freedom of movement".

“Israel will continue its policy of maintaining security while affording freedom of movement for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Netanyahu said. US: We strongly condemn Ben-Gvir's racist rhetoric

A State Department spokesperson, however, stated, “We strongly condemn Minister Ben-Gvir’s inflammatory comments on the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank.

“We condemn all racist rhetoric; as such messages are particularly damaging when amplified by those in leadership positions and are incongruent with advancing respect for human rights for all,” the spokesperson stated.
Officials worry Ben-Gvir's spat with Bella Hadid 'gift for BDS'
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said that his comments inflicted major damage on Israel's public diplomacy efforts, and presented a gift for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

Since the interview, he has also engaged in an online spat with American model Bella Hadid. In a story on Instagram in which she quoted parts of his interview, she said his words underscored Israel's alleged racist policies.

"In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another's. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture, or pure hatred," she wrote in a story uploaded to her account, which has more than 60 million followers.

Ben-Gvir shot back on Friday, in a tweet attacking the pro-Palestinian advocate. "Good morning to Israel-hater Bella Hadid," he wrote. "I saw that you took an excerpt from my interview yesterday and sent it out to the world in the hope of making me look racist and unenlightened. I invite you to my hometown Kiryat Arba to see how we live our lives, how Jews who have never hurt a soul get murdered here, and to witness the threats me and wife and children get every day."

He went on to double down on his earlier comments for restricting Arab movement, saying, "So yes, my right, my wife's, my children's, to roam the roads of Judea and Samaria and to make it back home safely – that is more important than the right of terrorists who throw rocks and murder us. I am not apologizing and not retracting what I said. I will repeat this 1,000 times. The People of Israel live."


Israeli Arab teenager indicted for joining Islamic State, planning terror attack
A 19-year-old Arab Israeli was indicted for joining the Islamic State organization, officials said Friday.

According to the State Prosecutor’s Office, Hamzeh Abu Zeila, from Rahat, was arrested last month. Following a joint investigation by the police and the Shin Bet, he was indicted for conspiracy to commit a crime, being a member of and recruiting for a terrorist organization, and contacting a foreign agent.

The Bedouin teenager is also accused of trying to recruit others into IS.

Abu Zeila reportedly began watching online content related to IS last year and then swore allegiance to the organization. He then reached out through TikTok to members of the organization abroad who encouraged him to carry out a terror attack against Jews in Israel.

The Bedouin teenager then began praising IS to people around him, and his cousin encouraged him to attack Jews.

IS has recruited members in Israel over the past year. In December, a terrorist responsible for a bombing in Jerusalem was found to be connected to IS; in November, an Israeli Arab teenager was indicted for joining IS and attempting to make a bomb on the organization’s behalf; in October, six men were arrested on for alleged IS ties and for planning to attack a Muslim school in Nazareth.

Last August, three Arab Israelis were arrested for attempting to join the group in Nigeria.

Following a series of terrorist attacks in the beginning of 2022, 43 people in northern Israel were arrested on suspicion of being connected to IS.
IDF: Troops nab 2 Palestinians trying to infiltrate from Gaza with hand grenades
Two Palestinians were detained by Israel Defense Force soldiers while attempting to infiltrate into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, the military said.

The IDF said the suspects were unarmed when they were detained, but troops later found two fragmentation hand grenades nearby that the pair had brought into the area.

The military said soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras spotted the pair entering the IDF’s buffer zone in the southern part of the Gaza border, and attempting to cross the security barrier.

Troops dispatched to the scene arrested the pair and handed them over to the Shin Bet security agency for further questioning.

“After scanning the area of ​​the incident, two fragmentation grenades brought by the suspects were found,” the IDF said.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip frequently attempt to illegally enter Israeli territory, often with hopes of fleeing the beleaguered enclave. Often they are caught before managing to cross Israel’s high-tech series of fences and walls guarding the frontier with Gaza, both above and below ground.

Earlier this week, hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip rioted along the Israeli border.

A spokesperson for the IDF told The Times of Israel on Monday that the rioters hurled a number of explosive devices, and several attempted to break through the security barrier.
Lebanon: Israeli spy network arrested at Beirut airport - report
An Israeli spy network was arrested at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in the Lebanese capital, local media reported citing comments made by Elias al-Baysari, the acting director-general of Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security.

According to the reports, two suspects were arrested at the airport as they were attempting to escape the country.

Baysari's comments reportedly came in a statement celebrating 78 years since the establishment of the directorate.

Israeli spy rings abroad
Iran and its proxies often claim to have detained spies, either Israeli or working for the Mossad.


Three policemen, several Palestinians lightly injured in clashes near Temple Mount
Three police officers and several Palestinians were lightly injured on Friday as clashes broke out at the entrance to the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem ahead of Muslim Friday prayers at the site, police and Palestinian media reports said.

According to a police statement, Palestinians began throwing rocks at police and Border Police by the Old City’s Lions’ Gate after a man undergoing a security check refused to cooperate.

One of the policemen fired a warning shot because he felt he was in danger, the statement said. The officer was later taken to the hospital as a result of injuries to his head and shoulder.

Police sent reinforcements to the area who were searching for the suspects. The man who initially refused to cooperate was arrested at the scene, police said.

Police said they used force and “other means” to disperse the Palestinians.

Palestinian media reported that several worshippers were lightly wounded in the clashes, including one person with a fractured foot who was hit by a stun grenade.

Palestinian officials said some 50,000 people attended Friday prayers.

In a separate incident, police said that they had arrested an Israeli man who was acting suspiciously in the Old City. After carrying out a search on him, he was found to be carrying a knife.


MEMRI: At IUMS-Sponsored Seminar In Turkey Featuring Grand Mufti Of Libya Sadiq Al-Ghariani And 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi: Jihad In Palestine Is A Personal Religious Duty For Every Muslim
On August 18, 2023, the Turkey-based International Organization to Support the Prophet of Islam organized[1] a seminar sponsored by the Qatar-based and funded International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). The event featured notable figures including the Grand Mufti of Libya, Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ghariani, IUMS Secretary General 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi, Sudanese Islamist cleric Abd Al-Hay Yousif, and others. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss the role of scholars in defending Islamic sanctities and safeguarding the constants of Islam.

In his speech, Sheikh Al-Ghariani criticized Muslim scholars with differing perspectives from his own and accused them of withholding knowledge from Muslims while aligning with oppressive governments. Al-Ghariani further asserted that waging jihad in Palestine is a personal religious obligation for all believers and encouraged Muslims who are unable to participate physically in person to contribute through financial jihad, by donating to support the resistance in Palestine.

Other participants, such as Sheikh 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi and Hamas-connected Dr. Nawaf Al-Takruri, the President of the Scholars Association of Palestine, underscored the importance of providing financial support for the resistance. They even suggested that the IUMS should engage in fundraising efforts by reaching out to both affluent and economically-challenged Muslims to collect funds and forward them to the resistance groups.

This report will outline the main points presented during the seminar, along with the arguments and proposals put forth by the participating speakers.

In the opening of the seminar, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Saghir, the President of the International Organization to Support the Prophet of Islam and a member of the Board of Trustees of the IUMS, described the gathering as a "special scholarly seminar" inspired by the arrival of Sheikh Al-Ghariani to Turkey. According to Al-Saghir, IUMS Secretary General 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi proposed the idea of organizing a seminar under the sponsorship of the IUMS to "reassert the duty of scholars towards Muslim sanctities, whether it's the Quran, the Prophet, or Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially considering that the assaults against them are ongoing, rampant, and recurrent."

Before presenting Al-Ghariani, Al-Saghir praised him for his continued support of the resistance in Palestine and the Afghan Taliban, as well as for boycotting any country that disrespects Muslim sanctities. He then asked him why only a few countries, such as Libya, Oman, and Egypt, have issued fatwas urging Muslims to boycott nations that disrespect Islamic sanctities, and why there was not a unified fatwa from all the fatwa houses around the world.


Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Will Iran be President Biden’s Afghanistan 2.0?
It is brutally clear that the Biden team has learned nothing from the catastrophe in Afghanistan and the immediate and long-range consequences of not projecting US strength – including moral strength.

Tragically, it looks as if the Administration that presented human rights as its hallmark promise, will have overseen two of the most catastrophic global failures in human rights this century: the abandonment of women in Afghanistan and in Iran.

And it isn’t only Iranian women and young people who are paying the price and are increasingly in harm’s way. It’s about Americans, too.

The US government – after secret negotiations – agreed earlier this month to pay $6 billion ($1.2 billion dollars each) for the five American hostages transferred from Evin prison to house arrest. Everyone knows how the Iranian regime will use the money.

Like the billions president Barack Obama forked over to the regime in 2013, not a dime will go to improve the lot of the Iranian people. It will be diverted to fund terrorism and promote fanaticism around the world. In the past, the regime has only used these types of funds to engage in massive, sanctions-busting schemes.

Forget the spinmeisters in DC, the average American knows exactly what this payoff means. The Department of State’s price-per-American is now $1.2 billion dollars. Tyrants, terrorists, and dictators have taken note. It is less safe to be an American in the world, today.

Of course, our hearts break for the families of any innocent hostage, and we celebrate and pray for their safe return home.

But paying isn’t the only way to win their freedom. Say what you want about the previous and flawed administration, but there’s one fact worth remembering: Many imprisoned Americans were brought home, from Andrew Brunson to Xiyue Wang, without the US unloading forklifts of cash. We need to return to a policy when America made the cost of keeping Americans imprisoned unsustainable. In 2023, we need the president of the United States, acting on behalf of all Americans, to change course.

To help the people of Iran, to protect American citizens at home and abroad, to serve the cause of human dignity, the US must project its power, economic, military, and moral.
Today In Picks No, the U.S. Didn’t Overthrow a Democratic Government in Persia
Seventy years ago last Saturday, a popular uprising drove the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq out of office—four days after he had legally been dismissed from his position by the shah. In the West, the event has been remembered as an anti-democratic coup orchestrated by the CIA (whose station chief, Kermit Roosevelt, was all-too-eager to exaggerate his role) to subvert democracy in Persia. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went so far as to apologize for U.S. involvement in 2000. Shay Khatiri set the record straight in a 2020 essay:

It is true that Mosaddeq’s ascendance to the premiership, on April 28, 1951, was initially democratic. . . . As he was empowered to do, Mosaddeq [thereafter] dissolved the Iranian Senate. Later, he called for a referendum to dissolve the Majlis, or lower house, as well. He had been warned that the assembly would grant Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the right to replace him. He had made the same point previously in a letter to the shah.

Nevertheless, Mosaddeq went ahead. He believed that the shah did “not have the guts” to replace him. His initiative, under questionable voting circumstances, won with 99 percent of the vote. At that point, Mosaddeq began to rule by decree. The shah, however, did have the guts to replace him—and did so. On August 15, 1953, he issued orders removing Mosaddeq and appointing General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister. Nematollah Nassiri, an army colonel, brought a copy of the royal order to Mosaddeq.

Here is where the actual coup took place. Although the shah’s order was legal by his own admission, Mosaddeq refused it, and arrested Nassiri. He then encouraged an uprising by nationalists, Islamists, and Communists against the shah, who left Iran out of concern for his safety.

There followed a popular uprising in support of the Shah. It caught everybody, including the monarch and the U.S. government, by surprise. . . . Following these pro-shah demonstrations, the CIA reconsidered reinstating the monarch. State Department cables show that the U.S. clandestine operation mainly involved directing ongoing protests on the national radio.
Iran’s Latest Executions Bring 2023 Total to 474
Iran's judiciary has executed eight people over the past three days, according to human rights groups. The latest executions took place on Monday morning at Zahedan prison – where four prisoners were put to death for drug-related charges – the Haalvsh human rights website said.

The four individuals were identified as 29-year-old Abdul Samad Khadem, Aqoob Ejbari, a father of eight, Mohammad Anwar Barahui, and a fourth individual with the surname Qanbarzahi.

Two more prisoners were executed in the city at the weekend. They have been identified as Abdul Samad Shahouzahi and Mahmoud Rigi.

Meanwhile, multiple sources reported that on the morning of August 19, a man's death sentence for drug-related charges was carried out at Dezful prison.

This individual, not publicly identified, had been arrested for "possession and trafficking of 20 kilograms of crystal meth" and was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Dezful.

The HRANA human rights website also reported the execution of another prisoner on August 21. Abdulreza Qalavand, father of one, was executed in the Shiban prison of Ahvaz after serving a decade in prison for drug-related charges.

Furthermore, on August 20, HRANA reported the transfer of another prisoner, Mehdi Bameri, to solitary confinement ahead of his own death sentence. Bameri was sentenced to death in 2016 on a murder charge.

The executions come just days after the Iran Human Rights organization warned of an "unprecedented intensification of the execution process" in recent months.

The organization stated that 61 prisoners were executed in Iran in July, among them 11 Baluch, three Afghan, and others from various ethnicities and locations.


Seth Frantzman: Iran vs Taliban? Afghanistan's Islamic rulers detain Iranian journalist
Iran was determined “to pursue securing the release of a photojournalist in Afghanistan,” Iranian President’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Affairs Hassan Kazemi Qomi said earlier this week.

Reports state that Mohammad Hossein Velayati, an Iranian photojournalist working for the Tasnim News Agency, was arrested by the Taliban in Kabul when he was on the way out of Afghanistan.

Iran and Afghanistan have had tensions in the past. However, Iran has sought to mollify concerns about rising tensions because it doesn’t want problems on its eastern border. Iran has in the past backed the Shi’ite minority in Afghanistan and recruited them to fight in Syria as Iran’s proxies.

Iran also supported the US leaving Afghanistan. Iran plays a key and increasing role in Central Asia and has ties with India and Pakistan, countries that also have interests in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's significance to Iran
Iran sees Afghanistan as important for trade with China and also because it borders Iran’s north-south trade route. As such the Iranian agenda is not to let this affair grow but they do take seriously the detention of their journalist.

What is known about the Taliban apparently detaining or disappearing the Iranian journalist?

Velayati was snatched “without explanation,” Iranian regime media says. He was legally in Afghanistan and was leaving via an airport after 10 days in the country. “However, when he returned to the Kabul Airport, the Taliban detained him without explanation,” Tasnim said.




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