New settlement powers for Israeli extremist Smotrich cause outrage among Palestinians

New settlement powers for Israeli extremist Smotrich cause outrage among Palestinians
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Bezalel Smotrich. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 25 February 2023
Follow

New settlement powers for Israeli extremist Smotrich cause outrage among Palestinians

New settlement powers for Israeli extremist Smotrich cause outrage among Palestinians
  • A 14-point statement issued by the far-right politician included an assertion that ‘legislation on all civilian (settlement) matters will be brought into line with Israeli law’
  • Mustafa Barghouti, of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Arab News Israel is ‘annexing the West Bank and letting the settlers to do whatever they want against Palestinians’

RAMALLAH: Palestinians have expressed concern and outrage after a far-right Israeli cabinet minister was formally handed political responsibility for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which he has said he will use to bring their legal status into line with communities in Israel.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was given a supervisory role in the Defense Ministry in matters relating to settlers, as part of his coalition deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A 14-point statement issued by Smotrich, after he agreed on a division of responsibilities with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, included an assertion that “legislation on all civilian (settlement) matters will be brought into line with Israeli law.”

The agreement means Smotrich has the power to expand settlements, legalize outposts and demolish Palestinian homes.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “All settlement is illegal and any attempt by Israel to legalize or annex these settlements is rejected and is a violation of international resolutions.”

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Arab News: “Appointing Smotrich to this position, with these powers, means Israel annexing the West Bank and letting the settlers do whatever they want against Palestinians."

He said that Smotrich and another right-wing extremist politician, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, are now responsible for all the political mechanisms that affect the lives and property of Palestinians, including civil administration, internal security, settlement financing, control of Al-Aqsa Mosque, border guards, and Israeli prisons.

“This means declaring war on the Palestinians,” he added.

Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, told Arab News: “We have always said that Israel was annexing the West Bank, and now the official announcement of this annexation has come.”

More than 650,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and there are plans to increase the number to 1 million by 2030. Smotrich himself owns a house in the Kedumim settlement, east of Qalqilya. The Israeli settlements are concentrated in Area C, which constitutes about 60 percent of the West Bank.

Palestinians consider the settlements an existential threat because settlers often seize their land, livestock pastures and water resources by force. The spread of settlements along the length and breadth of the West Bank also undermines the 56-year dream of Palestinians for an independent and geographically contiguous state.

Palestinian political sources told Arab News that Israeli settlers, emboldened by Smotrich’s appointment, have escalated their attacks on Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Higher Planning Council approved the construction of 1,000 settlement units in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Bethlehem. On Friday, settlers uprooted 70 olive tree seedlings in Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem. They also destroyed agricultural infrastructure and uprooted fruit trees.

Also on Friday, Palestinians matching in protest against acts of terrorism by settlers were attacked by Israeli forces in the village of Ramon, east of Ramallah. One Palestinian was injured by a rubber bullet.

On the same day, settlers chased away Palestinian shepherds in an area east of Khirbet Al-Farisiya, in the northern Jordan Valley. Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights activist, said settlers attack shepherds almost on a daily basis and release their livestock onto agricultural land, causing significant damage and losses.

 


Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers
Updated 57 min 24 sec ago
Follow

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers

Israel leader vows no tolerance for attacks on believers
  • His remarks came a day after a video on social media showed ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground as pilgrims carried crosses.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed “zero tolerance” for attacks on believers, after a video showed Jewish worshippers spitting toward Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem’s Old City.
“I strongly condemn any attempt to inflict harm on worshippers, and we will take urgent steps against such actions,” said Netanyahu, whose coalition government including ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties is one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
“Offensive behavior toward worshippers is a desecration and is unacceptable. We will show zero tolerance toward any harm to worshippers,” he said without referring to any specific attack.
His remarks came a day after a video on social media showed ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground as pilgrims carried crosses along Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa — the route Christians believe Jesus walked before being crucified.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the video, which followed the publication of similar footage of Jews insulting or acting aggressively toward Christians in the Old City.
After capturing it in 1967, Israel annexed east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in a move never recognized by the international community.
The Old City remains at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as tensions between the world’s three major monotheistic faiths.
Last month the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that while attacks on Christians in the Old City were “not a new phenomenon,” they had been more frequent “in the recent period.”
Pizzaballa, who Pope Francis anointed as a cardinal on Saturday, said there were many reasons for the increase, including education.
“There are some movements, some rabbis also, who are inciting on this, or at least approving of this,” he said.
“We have not to forget the past relations between Jews and Christians were not simple, to be diplomatic, and all this creates this context,” he added.
The archbishop also said the frequency of “this phenomenon... is connected, temporarily at least, with this (Israeli) government.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, condemned in “the strongest terms the violence against believers in the Old City and all forms of violence.”
“We must do everything in our power to preserve the delicate fabric of the Old City,” he said, addressing “the leaders of all religions.”


Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president
Updated 04 October 2023
Follow

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president

TUNIS: Tunisia’s public prosecutor detained Abir Moussi, a prominent opponent of President Kais Saied, after she was arrested at the entrance to the presidential palace on Tuesday, lawyers said, the latest arrest targeting Saied’s political rivals.

“Moussi was detained for 48 hours in charges of processing personal data, obstructing the right to work, and assault intended to cause chaos,” lawyer Aroussi Zgir said.

Authorities were not immediately available to comment.

Police this year have detained more than 20 leading political figures, accusing some of plotting against state security. Saied has described those detained as “terrorists, traitors and criminals.”

An assistant of Moussi said in a video on Facebook that Moussi was “kidnapped” in front of the Carthage Palace.

Moussi leads the Free Constitutional Party and is a supporter of late president Zine El Abidine ben Ali who was toppled by mass protests in 2011.

In recent months, the party has organized protests against Saied. Moussi accuses Saied of ruling outside the law, and said that she is ready to make personal sacrifices to save Tunisia.

In front of the La Goulette police station, dozens of angry Moussi supporters protested, shouting slogans against Saied amid a heavy police contingent who cordoned off the building.

Earlier on Tuesday, Moussi said in a video that she went to the presidential reception office to file an appeal in local elections expected at the end of the year. She said that this step was necessary so that she could later file an appeal in the Administrative Court.

Saied, a retired law professor who was elected president in 2019, shut down the elected parliament in 2021 and moved to rule by decree, actions his opponents described as a coup. Saied has said he needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos, denying his actions were a coup.

On Friday, jailed opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, another critic of Saied, began a three-day hunger strike. Later five other prominent opposition figures also went on hunger strike in prison.


Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists
Updated 04 October 2023
Follow

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

Paramilitary shells kill 10 civilians in Khartoum: activists

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Paramilitary artillery that struck a mosque and other civilian buildings in the Sudanese capital killed 10 people on Tuesday, local activists said.
It is the latest incident in which multiple civilians have been killed in Khartoum during nearly six months of war between Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
A local resistance committee said “10 civilians were killed and 11 wounded in artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces in Al-Samrab neighborhood,” across the Blue Nile river to the north of central Khartoum.
The committee is one of many groups that used to organize pro-democracy protests and now provide assistance during the war.
“Some shells fell on a mosque, a health center, and citizens’ homes,” the committee said by telephone to AFP in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
On September 12 a medical source told AFP that “17 civilians were killed” by paramilitaries in northern Khartoum, where witnesses reported RSF shelling.
Those deaths came two days after at least 51 people were killed and dozens wounded in air strikes on a southern Khartoum market, according to United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk.
The worst of the violence has been concentrated in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, but North Kordofan — a crossroads between the capital and Darfur — has also seen fighting.
Nearly 7,500 people have been killed in Sudan since the conflict broke out on April 15, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.
Battles have displaced almost 4.3 million people within Sudan, in addition to around 1.2 million more who have fled across borders, UN figures show.


Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion
Updated 03 October 2023
Follow

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion

Leap into future: Qatar begins construction on mega gas field expansion
  • Qatar is set to raise its output of LNG by 60 percent or more to 126 million tons a year by 2027

RAS LAFFAN, Qatar: Qatar’s state-owned energy giant began construction Tuesday on a project to expand production from the world’s biggest natural gas field through an export terminal on the country’s northeast coast.

There has been mounting demand for Qatari gas as European consumer nations have scrambled to replace lost Russian deliveries since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale war on Ukraine early last year.

The emir presided over a glitzy ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the North Field expansion at Ras Laffan, QatarEnergy’s onshore gas processing base 80 km north of Doha.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the project “falls within our strategy toward strengthening Qatar’s position as a global producer of liquefied natural gas.”

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi called the project a “leap toward our country’s leadership in the field of energy.”

By increasing production at the field, which extends under the Gulf into Iranian territory, Qatar is set to raise its output of LNG by 60 percent or more to 126 million tons a year by 2027.

LNG from the expansion is expected to start coming on line in 2026.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but it has also been increasingly sought by European countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year.

Chairman of France’s TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne told reporters the North Field Expansion was a “huge project,” coming as demand for LNG from Europe increases.

“We need more supply. That’s clear. Still the market is fragile,” Pouyanne said. “This project is a major one and will give some relief to this market,” he added.

Total signed a $1.5 billion deal with QatarEnergy in September last year giving it a 9.3 percent stake in Qatar’s North Field South project, the second phase of the field’s expansion.

In June 2022, the French energy giant became the first partner in the first phase of the expansion, North Field East, investing more than $2 billion for a 25 percent share.

In June, Doha announced a 27-year deal to supply 4 million tons of gas a year to the China National Petroleum Corporation. The agreement matches the terms of a 2022 deal with China’s Sinopec that was the longest ever seen in the industry.

Britain’s Shell, Italy’s ENI and US giants ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have also signed deals to partner in the expansion.

Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Qatar Energy estimates the North Field holds about 10 percent of the world’s known natural gas reserves.


Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group
Updated 03 October 2023
Follow

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group

Teen girl in coma after Iran metro assault: rights group
  • The teenager, named as Armita Garawand, had been badly injured in a run-in on the Tehran metro with female morality police officers
  • This has already been denied by the Iranian authorities who say that the girl “fainted” due to low blood pressure

PARIS: An Iranian girl aged 16 has been left in a coma and is being treated in hospital under heavy security after an assault on the Tehran subway, a rights group said on Tuesday.
The Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw said the teenager, named as Armita Garawand, had been badly injured in a run-in on the Tehran metro with female morality police officers.
This has already been denied by the Iranian authorities who say that the girl “fainted” due to low blood pressure and that there was no involvement of the security forces.
Iranian authorities remain on high alert for any upsurge of social tension just over a year after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rules for women.
Her death sparked several months of protests that rattled Iran’s clerical leadership and only dwindled in the face of a crackdown that according to activists has seen thousands arrested and hundreds killed.
Hengaw said that Garawand was left with severe injuries after being apprehended by agents of the so-called morality police at the Shohada metro station in Tehran on Sunday.
It said she was being treated under tight security at Tehran’s Fajr hospital and “there are currently no visits allowed for the victim, not even from her family.”
Though a resident of Tehran, Garawand hails from the city of Kermanshah in Kurdish-populated western Iran, Hengaw said.
Maryam Lotfi, a journalist from the Shargh daily newspaper, sought in the aftermath of the incident to visit the hospital but was immediately detained. She was subsequently released, it added.
The case has become the subject of intense discussion on social media, with a purported video of the incident said by some to show the teen, with friends and apparently unveiled, being pushed into the metro by female police agents.
Masood Dorosti, managing director of the Tehran subway system, denied there was “any verbal or physical conflict” between the student and “passengers or metro executives.”
“Some rumors about a confrontation with metro agents... are not true and CCTV footage refutes this claim,” Dorosti told state news agency IRNA.
The IranWire news site, based outside Iran, cited a source as saying she had sustained a “head injury” after being pushed by the officers.
A year after Amini’s death, Iranian authorities have launched a renewed push to crack down on women defying the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women, including the mandatory hijab.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said women and girls “face increased violence, arbitrary arrests and heightened discrimination after the Islamic Republic re-activated its forced-veiling police patrols.”