Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 05, 2010

Freedom for women increases in Arab world, decreases in PA territories

Despite continuing resistance from religious and cultural elites, women in the Middle East and North Africa have made modest progress in achieving certain rights over the past five years. While women in the region suffer from greater inequality than do women elsewhere, they now enjoy more economic opportunity, fewer barriers to education, and expanded ability to participate in the political process than they did five years ago. These are the conclusions of Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance, a new study released today by Freedom House.

“These findings remind us of the complexities of women’s status in the Middle East,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. “There are more women entrepreneurs, more women doctors, more women Ph.Ds, and more women in universities, than ever before. However, substantial roadblocks remain for women pursuing careers. For instance, women in Saudi Arabia are allowed to earn law degrees, but not to appear in court on behalf of their clients.” She continued, “and these same women are still subject to abuse at home, lack child guardianship rights, and are legally compelled to be ‘obedient’ to their husbands.”

According to the study, 15 out of the 18 countries in the region recorded some gains in women’s rights over the past five years. Kuwait, Algeria and Jordan saw the most significant progress while Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian Territories—countries enduring internal conflict and the rise of religious extremism—are the only countries to record overall decline.

The Palestinian Arab author of the Palestinian Territories report, of course, blames Israel for much of the decline in the scores since 2004. Some of her "facts" about Israel are complete fiction. For example:

The increased number of checkpoints over the last five years and the construction of a West Bank separation wall,[4] which is over 50 percent complete, have worsened social and economic conditions for all Palestinians. In particular, women now experience further separation from their families, farmlands, water resources, schools, and hospitals. When the wall is completed, it will stand eight to nine meters tall and stretch more than 700 kilometers, adversely affecting the lives of an estimated one-third of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.[5]

I don't have specific numbers (and neither does she), but I would wager that the number of checkpoints has decreased in the past five years, not increased.

There is no doubt that the economic conditions of West Bank Palestinian Arabs have become much better in the past five years, so she is lying there.

Her "source" for the claim that the wall will be 8 to 9 meters high across all 700 kilometers, B'tselem, says no such thing, and in fact most of the barrier is a fence, not a wall. Indeed, B'Tselem calls it a "separation barrier," not a wall.

Even worse, her quote from B'Tselem that one-third of the PalArabs are adversely affected by the barrier is an outright lie. Her link shows that B'Tselem generously counts about 11% of the PalArabs as being affected, not 33%, and up to half of them are questionable (counting communities that are "partially surrounded" by the fence, where it is unclear that it affects their lives at all.)

She does blame Hamas for much of the decrease in women's freedom in the territories, however, and also mentions honor killings and the legal protection for those crimes.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

[The] Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of a fighter during a what a statement called a "jihad mission" near Deir Al-Balah overnight.

The young man, identified as Nabhan Kamal Abu M’eiliq, 22, was killed while on a mission for the brigades. The statement provided no details as to the nature of his death or the purpose of the mission.

Hamas' website notes the death, asking Allah to embrace him in Paradise. Somehow, I don't think Allah will be taking Hamas up on that request.

This is at least the eighth internal terrorist death this year, and there is evidence that some of them might not have been accidents, but the results of infighting.

Report: Hamas invades Red Crescent hospital

Palestine Press Agency reports that Gaza government forces broke into the headquarters of the Palestine Red Crescent Hospital and expelled its staff and doctors. The Hamas forces also took hospital files.

Even though that news outlet is very anti-Hamas, most of its stories end up checking out. Since stories like these are not reported by the Gaza-based press due to fear of Hamas, the only place to read about egregious Hamas abuses like this is the Palestine Press Agency. (Ma'an will only cover it when PCHR or some other organization publicly complains about Hamas abuses; they then have cover to publish the story in the context of the third party accusation. )

Hamas losing control in Gaza?

The anti-Hamas Palestinian Press Agency is reproducing a letter, allegedly from al-Qassam Brigades leader Ahmed Jabari to Khaled Meshal, Hamas' "political" leader in Damascus. The letter details the security chaos in the Gaza Strip and indicates that Hamas may be losing its grip on power. The implication is that some of the recent "work accidents" might have actually been murders of Hamas members.

I cannot auto-translate the letter itself because it is not in text format; if anyone out there knows Arabic and wants to give it a shot, please do so. Page 2 does seem to list specific events that would prove the point, though.

Hamas' newest law: No male hairdressers for women

Palestine Today reports that Hamas is now preventing men from working as hairdressers for women in Gaza.

Police confirmed that the decision, posted on its website, was made "in accordance with the instructions of the Minister of Interior and National Security (in the Gaza government) Fathi Hammad.

The police stressed that it "will pursue anyone who violates this resolution and expose himself to accountability and legal accountability."

Several women's hairdressing salons in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to bombings in recent months.

Remember the good old days when Hamas was recently elected and its leaders strenuously denied that they would force Islamic rule on everyone in Gaza?

A mysterious assassination in Dubai - and no one cared

From the New York Times last April:

Sulim B. Yamadayev was a former general in Chechnya and foe of the republic's Kremlin-backed president. He was killed in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai on March 30, 2009, in what appeared to be an assassination, the police said. He was 36.

The attack evoked others on Chechens, in Russia and abroad, who ran afoul of President Ramzan A. Kadyrov. The Kremlin has invested Mr. Kadyrov with almost unchecked authority in a bid to return stability to Chechnya after nearly a decade of bloody war and political turmoil. With Moscow's blessing, Mr. Kadyrov has created a personality cult and imposed his own interpretation of Islamic morality in Chechnya, whose population is predominately Muslim.

AFP adds:

The killer fired three bullets from a gold-plated gun at the victim's chest as Sulim Yamadayev climbed from his car in the private car park beneath his luxury residence in Dubai.
Yamadayev was the decorated commander of a famed Chechen battalion, loyal to Moscow. His brother had been gunned down in Moscow just months earlier. And the Yamadayev clan were sworn foes of Chechnya's strongman leader.
The March 28 murder was the latest apparent contract-killing in an extraordinary trail of blood leading from Chechnya that already stretched to Istanbul, Moscow and Vienna. And now the bustling emirate.
Yamadayev was the fifth person to be murdered in recent months seen as an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed president of Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region of Russia's southern fringe that fought two wars with Moscow.

So an outside non-Arab power, known for assassinations, was suspected of carrying out a brutal assassination of a pretty famous public figure in Dubai. Yet there were no political repercussions, no public calls for sanctions, no daily circuses of press conferences, no talk about how the killers entered the country and if they used faked passports - nothing.

Wonder why?

(h/t LBS)

Al-Arabiya Sports leaves out a small fact

Al Arabiya mentions that the Egyptian football (soccer) team will be playing "Palestine"'s Olympic team in a friendly match at the end of the month, in the Faisal Al husseini Stadium in Ram, near Jerusalem.

The Egyptians are stressing that they are not going to go through Israel to get to the match and are not getting any Israeli visas. They want to help the morale of the Palestinian Arabs and make them feel less isolated.

The article mentions that this is the first meeting between the two teams since a match in Jerusalem in 1934, in a World Cup qualifying match, where Egypt beat Palestine 4-1.

Here is the Palestine Post account of that game. It seems that it wasn't in Jerusalem, but in Tel Aviv, at the stadium used by the Hapoel Zionist team. Could it be that the players in that earlier game were - gasp - Jewish?

In fact, it appears that there were other games between the Egyptians and the Zionists in the 1930s. In this game later that year, the Alexandria team lost to Hapoel (note the names of the players at the end of the article, click to enlarge:)

And Hapoel met the Egyptian team in 1935 as well, as this article says that Egyptian football is what gave the impetus for Zionist teams to grow and compete. This article seems to imply that it these are the same teams that played in 1934:

There was even an earlier game, in 1933:

So, indeed, Egypt did play Palestine before in football. But the Palestine that they played has nothing to do with the "Palestine" team that they plan to meet later this month.

Now, why would Al Arabiya try to imply that Egypt played an Arab Palestinian team in 1934?

Dubai police chief: "We could infiltrate the Mossad"

The latest interview with the clown known as Lt. Gen Dahi Khalfan (Tamim) muddies the waters even more, as he attempts to portray an illusion of competence. Even so, he seems to disprove some of the rumors that have been bandied about by Arabs about the case:

Dubai police did not know in the beginning the identity of the victim as his identity papers did not include his last name and he was not one of Hamas's publically known faces, the police chief said.

Arab sources had earlier indicated that Mabhouh traveled to Dubai with a passport under his own name, and implied that this was how the (presumed) Mossad knew where he was.

"Had we known who he was, we would not have allowed him in to Dubai," he told Al Arabiya. "We do allow officials from Hamas’ political office, but not members involved in secretive work."

This is too funny.

Regarding how the details of the crime were unraveled, Khalfan denied reports that the perpetrators left evidence that made it easy to do so and that they intended to deliver a certain message through leaving traces.

"On the contrary, the murderers tried their best to mislead us. They left the hotel room neat and tidy to give the impression that it was a natural death."

In fact, he added, the Dubai police was about to declare it a natural death as the identity of the victim had not been known yet and there was no criminal suspicion.

"Things started to change when a Palestinian man who knows Mabhouh tried contacting him in Dubai several times and failed. After learning of his death, he called his family in Gaza and told them that he was murdered."

It was then that officials from Hamas contacted the Dubai police and informed them that the victim was a leader in the Islamic resistance organization.

"Revealing the victim's identity gave the case a whole new turn and an autopsy was immediately made."

The autopsy, Khalfan explained, revealed the Mabhouh was strangled after being injected with a drug that causes paralysis.

"Israeli media said he was subjected to electric shocks and this is not true."

Actually, it was Mabhouh's brother that made that claim.

"If Hamas has information, then let them look for the man who leaked information to Israel about Mabhouh's movements."

Mabhouh was betrayed from within, stressed Khalfan.

"Someone from inside Hamas and who was close to him leaked information about his whereabouts to the Israel."

As for a Palestinian man detained in Dubai for alleged links to the case, Khalfan refused to give information about his political affiliation.

"I personally do not care whether he is from Hamas or Fatah, but the U.A.E. is not a battlefield for warring factions."

Here's another example where Khalfan, basking in his newfound fame, is making stuff up so he can confidently claim that the case is closed.

But the person who ranted against Jews in Arabic leaves his best whopper for last:

Khalfan stressed that the Dubai Police possesses an "astounding" data base and that they have the ability to infiltrate of the office of the Mossad director, if necessary.

If the Dubai police are so good at espionage, maybe we should be pointing an accusing finger at them! Maybe Khalfan is responsible for the hit himself!

I just don't understand how such a world-class detective organization wouldn't notice a Hamas leader in their midst.

How Israel-bashers win at York U.

From the National Post (h/t Callie):

Next week, York University will once again open its halls and classrooms to "Israel Apartheid Week," so-called. This year as every year, militants and activists will use the taxpayer-funded facilities of York to vilify the Jewish state.

Well, that's free speech, isn't? Everybody gets to express his or her point of view, no matter how obnoxious, right?

No, not right. Not at York. At York, speech is free -- better than free, subsidized-- for anti-Israel haters. But for those who would defend Israel, York sets very different rules.

In advance of York's annual hate-Israel week, the campus group Christians United for Israel applied to use university space to host a program of pro-Israel speakers.

The university replied that this program could only proceed on certain conditions.

It insisted on heavy security, including both campus and Toronto police -- all of those costs to be paid by the program organizers. The organizers would also have to provide an advance list of all program attendees and advance summaries of all the speeches. No advertising for the program would be permitted -- not on the York campus, not on any of the other campuses participating by remote video.

These are radically different and much harsher terms than anything required from the hate-Israel program. The hate-Israel program is not required to pay for its own security. It is free to advertise. Its speakers are not pre-screened by the university.

The pro-Israel event, scheduled for this past Monday, Feb. 22, was cancelled when the organizers declined to comply with the terms. A university spokesman told the Jewish Tribune that it insisted on the more stringent requirements on pro-Israel groups "due to the participation of individuals who they claim invite the animus of anti-Israel campus agitators."

The logic is impressively brazen: Since the anti-Israel people might use violence, the speech of the pro-Israel people must be limited. On the other hand, since the pro-Israel people do not use violence, the speech of the anti-Israel people can proceed without restraint.

Read the whole thing.

Gaza "mud houses" and UNRWA bias

UNRWA is doing something useful in Gaza, but it can't resist politicizing it.

Hassan al-Err is the head of a family of seven who are preparing to move into a mud house built by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA has resorted to building with mud because other building materials are not available.

The two-bedroom house in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, is an improvement on the tent in which the 67-year-old Hassan had been living with his family - next to the rubble of their former home. The family’s home was one of 4,036 houses in Gaza which were totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair last year in Israel’s 23-day military operation.

Since then, rebuilding has been almost impossible because Israel does not allow construction materials such as cement and steel into the Strip, saying they could be used for military purposes.

“I can’t forget how hard the past year has been for me and my family living in a tent in the cold winter and the hot summer,” Hassan explains. “Of course a mud house is much better than a tent, although it’s not a real solution because I can’t build another flat on top of it for my two married sons who live in a rented house in Jabalia town.”

UNRWA hopes to build around 120 mud brick houses for dozens of homeless families in the next few months in the Strip. Each house costs about US$10,000 and takes three months to build.

While not a long-term solution for homeless families, the mud houses offer better conditions than tents or partially destroyed buildings. They also provide employment for people UNRWA is training to make mud bricks and homes.

International donors pledged US$4.5 billion in aid for the Palestinian Authority, much of it specifically for Gaza, at a conference in Egypt in March 2009, but little has made its way to the Strip because of the continuing blockade and bitter Palestinian divisions between political parties Hamas and Fatah.

First of all, the last paragraph is an out-and-out lie. The majority of the PA budget is spent in Gaza, and Hamas' budget is considerable as well.

However, when reading this article, do you get the impression that these "mud houses" are miserable, temporary shelters that will disintegrate inthe first rainstorm and only marginally better than tents?

Check out what they look like, from the IRIN website:

The caption says that the houses can be used for more than 100 years with minimal maintenance! Why would UNRWA write that they are not a long-term solution?

The fact that one cannot build a two or three-story house out of mud bricks does not mean that the houses are not usable - in fact, they appear to be more durable than most houses constructed in the US, which are often made out of wood.

UNRWA, which is to be commended for this program, still can't resist reporting it with an anti-Israel spin. The house in the photo looks more than just utilitarian - it is a beautiful house, and many Westerners would love to live in such a building.

The Judge Ito of Dubai

Even though Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim hasn't revealed any substantive evidence in days concerning the Mabhouh hit, he still gets daily headlines.

While the world media still ignores his anti-semitism, he is still being quoted daily as if he had anything new to say. For example, from The National:

Gen Tamim described the methods used by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service suspected in the killing, as “primitive”.

“The majority of those working in Mossad are still stuck in a 1970s mentality,” he said, making reference to “basic disguises”.

Apparently, Tamim has succumbed to Judge Ito disease, where the constant presence of cameras and reporters makes one believe that he is far more important than he really is and that his statements are wiser than they really are.

He will also be the last to know that he has turned into a worldwide punch-line.

UK fatwa against terrorism looks pretty good so far

From the Independent:

British imams must do more to condemn terrorism without any "ifs or buts" and should pronounce suicide bombers as "unbelievers" who are destined for hell, a leading Islamic scholar declared yesterday.

The comments were made during a remarkable assault on the ideology of violent Islamist extremists by Pakistani-born Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri, a prominent theologian who launched a seminal fatwa in London yesterday condemning terrorism in all its forms.
The 59-year-old scholar, who has written more than 400 books on Islamic jurisprudence, told fellow Muslims: "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses of ifs and buts. The world needs an absolute, unconditional, unqualified and total condemnation of terrorism".

Although Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri's fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombing is not yet online, from what I can see so far it does look comprehensive. The table of contents and preface are online.

Many of the previous such fatwas I've seen took pains to make sure that Palestinian Arab terrorism would fall into its own category and would not only be permitted but obligatory. So far, I have not seen any indication that Qadri's fatwa has the same shortcomings.

The reaction from more radical sheikhs will be interesting, as this is being presented as being solidly based on Islamic sources, and their answers would have to do the same.

"Mabhouh celebrated by standing on victim's corpse"

From Gulf News:

The right-hand man of a Hamas leader assassinated in Dubai has confirmed Israeli claims that his boss supplied weapons to Palestinian fighters. Mohammed Nassar spoke to Hamas' Al Aqsa radio in Gaza from Damascus. A transcript was released on Tuesday.

Nassar was an aide to Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, who was assassinated January 19. Israel is widely suspected, but has not confirmed or denied involvement.

Al Mabhouh allegedly smuggled weapons from Iran to Gaza.
Nassar says Al Mabhouh "never stopped thinking about how to fight the occupation by supplying quality weapons to the Palestinian fighters."
The aide also describes how Al Mabhouh celebrated killing two Israeli soldiers in the mid-1980s by standing on one of the corpses.

"Netanyahu ready to go to Damascus"

The Arabic press is buzzing with two items about Israel and Syria.

The first is that Syria has said that it is willing to accept a gradual withdrawal of Israel from the Golan Heights. Ha'aretz had this story, quoting Gabrielle Rifkind of the Oxford Research Group who met with Syrian officials in December:

According to Rifkind, who met the minister along with a group of conflict resolution experts, Muallem suggested that Syria was prepared to consider a phased approach to the return of the Golan Heights.

"There could be stages of withdrawal, the timing of which could involve a form of normalization," he reportedly said. "Half of the Golan could lead to an end to enmity; three quarters of the Golan, to a special interest section in the U.S. embassy in Damascus: a full withdrawal would allow a Syrian embassy in Israel."

While this story did not get much play in the Western press it has been quoted extensively in the Arabic press.

Asharq al-Awsat called up Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu's office and asked him for a comment, and the reply was that Israel is "ready to meet with the Syrians immediately and without preconditions" and that Netanyahu is "ready to travel immediately to Damascus to meet Bashar al-Assad, or to invite him to Jerusalem, or to meet him in a third country for this purpose."

While this is really not a new position, there seems to be some excitement in the Arab press over the issue.

The Western press, meanwhile, finally noticed the apples being exported from Israel to Syria that I mentioned last week.

Report: PalArab kids "forced" to visit Holocaust monument in the Netherlands (updated)

Palestine Today, which is an Islamic Jihad newspaper based in Gaza, quotes a Hamas news site:

A dangerous precedent was set today when UNRWA forced Palestinian children to visit a monument in Amsterdam for the so-called Holocaust, Zionism, during a trip organized by the Agency to the Netherlands for outstanding students.

The sources said that the children refused this request, prompting officials on the trip to threaten the teachers accompanying the students with dismissal from their jobs unless they could persuade students to visit the site.

The sources added that this was a special request of an employee named "Hannah"; to implement a program of psychological support to put pressure on children and supervisors for the implementation of the visit to this site. Failing to do so, the organizers of the program instead gave a lecture on the so-called "Holocaust."

Whether the story is true or not, it shows exactly how terrible Palestinian Arabs think teaching their kids about the Holocaust would be.

Thinking of Jews as victims, or as human beings who could be felt sorry for? Absurd!

UPDATE: UNRWA is strongly denying the story.