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Gaza could be the next Singapore – opinion

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Let’s face reality, Hamas is here to stay – now is the time to set the course to engage with Hamas and to provide the means for its moderation and pragmatism to increase.

The Jerusalem Post
URL: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-714946
By GERSHON BASKIN
Published: AUGUST 17, 2022 20:30

PALESTINIAN WORKERS return to the Gaza Strip through the Erez Crossing at the end of their work day in Israel at the Erez Industrial Zone, 2004.
(photo credit: SHARON PERRY/FLASH90)

In 1999 until September 2000, we were talking about Gaza becoming the next Singapore. Hard to imagine. Marriott International was planning to build a large five-star hotel on the beach in the north of Gaza. The Erez Industrial Zone was flourishing with Israeli and Palestinian-owned factories employing thousands of Gazans. Representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian ministries of Trade and Industry, together with representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian private sectors, were doing road shows together around the world, showcasing the newly planned Karni Industrial Zone on the border of Kibbutz Nahal Oz within Gaza.

Dr. Yehuda Paz from the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED) received the green light from his Kibbutz, Kissufim, to allocate land for the construction of a joint Israeli-Palestinian maternity hospital on the Gaza-Israel border under the title of “Birthing Together.”

In May 2000, I convened in the Palestine Hotel on Gaza City beach, a conference of more than 100 farmers and Ministry of Agriculture officials from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. We worked on a Protocol of Agricultural Cooperation, including the establishment of the first formal, government-supported Regional Commission for Cooperative Export Marketing between the four countries.

And then on September 28, 2000 opposition leader Ariel Sharon staged a visit, with hundreds of policemen and women protecting him, to the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa, and all hell broke out. Over the next years, the horror of the Second Intifada shook our lives with thousands killed and enormous damage to everyone’s lives and livelihood. In 2004 Yasser Arafat died, and Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005 to take over the Palestinian Authority. Soon after, Israel disengaged from Gaza.

Prime minister Ariel Sharon refused to cooperate and coordinate the disengagement with the Palestinian Authority or even with the international coordination body headed by former World Bank president James Wolfensohn. One year later, Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections on the ticket of taking credit for forcing Israel to leave Gaza. Gaza has not recovered since then, and the dream of Gaza as Singapore sunk in the sea of Gaza and has yet to return.

HAMAS SUPPORTERS hold a rally in the northern Gaza Strip, earlier this year. Israel and Egypt strengthened the position of Hamas as sovereign and a significant player in the Palestinian arena, say the writers. (credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)

But the book is still open and its pages are waiting to be written. Seventeen years have passed since Hamas took over Gaza. Fifteen years of an Israeli blockade and almost total global non-cooperation of the world with Hamas have destroyed the economy of Gaza.

Moving people and goods in and out of Gaza is so complex, bureaucratic and expensive. The lack of ability to depend on any kind of transparent and accountable corporate governance under Hamas makes international investment basically non-existent.

The Gaza population continues to grow at a rapid pace, as does unemployment. Hope is a rare commodity in Gaza. But a question remains open – did the non-participation of Hamas in Gaza’s last war perhaps open a door for change?

Steps Israel can take on its own
THERE DOESN’T need to be any Israeli-Hamas negotiations to radically change the situation in Gaza for the better. Israel holds enough of the keys on its own to make those changes. The best example is the 14,000 work permits for Gazans to work in Israel. That alone brings in at least NIS 80 million every month – much better than suitcases of cash from Qatar. It is reported that Israel will increase that number to 20,000 work permits. That is at least another NIS 35 million per month entering Gaza while relieving the strong need for working hands inside of Israel.

During the height of Gazan labor in Israel, before the Second Intifada, there were at least three times that number working in Israel, in addition to tens of factories and workshops producing goods with Israel partners. At the start of the Second Intifada, there were about one million pieces of textiles stuck in Gaza which were being sewn for Israeli designers and sold in Europe. There was a huge amount of cooperation in the field of agriculture, and Gaza supplied about 1/12 of Israel’s fresh produce.

Today, there are several hundred Gazan hi-techies working for a few Israeli companies. There are several hi-tech startups and training centers in Gaza that could be a basis for more cooperation. There are rumors that Israel is considering the reconstruction and reopening of the Erez Industrial Zone.

I would strongly recommend that this time they design it on the model that I helped to develop in the 1990s, where it would truly be a cross-border industrial zone with entrances and exits on both sides. Israelis would enter and exit on the Israeli side; Gazans would enter and exit on the Gazan side.

It would be a security bubble with no weapons allowed inside, and private security companies providing security outside of the bubble. Those would obviously have to be recognized and authorized by the governmental authorities on both sides. That is the job of the sovereign; in Israel it is the Israeli government and in Gaza it is Hamas.

The more practical and pragmatic steps that can be taken without negotiations or direct contact for now, the stronger will be the interests on both sides not to disrupt the progress made. I do advise, as I have done for many years, that Israel and Hamas enter into direct secret back-channel talks first to resolve the issue of the four Israelis held captive in Gaza (two soldiers’ bodies and two living Israeli civilians) but to do that within the context of addressing a long-term ceasefire, easing the siege until it is gone, resolving the urgent needs for electricity and water in Gaza, and facilitating the possibilities for investment in Gaza.

I strongly encourage the regional partners – Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and others – to convene a conference with the participation of Hamas and Israel to make a plan for the security and economic development of Gaza. Let’s face reality, Hamas is here to stay – now is the time to set the course to engage with Hamas and to provide the means for its moderation and pragmatism to increase.

And lastly, with the engagement of the regional partners, elections for Palestine’s government – legislative council and president – should be conducted as soon as possible with an assurance from Hamas that it will accept the results regardless of the outcome, and a promise to Hamas that the regional states will also accept the outcome regardless of the results.

The writer, a political and social entrepreneur, has dedicated his life to Israel, and to peace between Israel and its neighbors. He is now directing The Holy Land Bond.

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Sadrist Iraqis Opposing Iran Expand Protests To Dissolve Parliament

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8/14/2022

URL: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202208146046
By Iran International

Following a call by Iraq’s influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to extend the scope of protest rallies, several government offices in Baghdad were besieged by his supporters on Sunday.

Thousands of al-Sadr’s followers prayed outside parliament on Friday in a show of support for the populist leader, who has given a “final ultimatum” to Iran-backed Shiite groups and called on the judiciary to dissolve parliament by the end of next week. The judiciary has said it does not have the authority to do so.
Supporters of rival Iraqi factions have been on the streets of Baghdad since Friday to call for a new government, with supporters of Sadr — who seeks to curb the influence of the Islamic Republic in Iraqi politics — demanding early elections and his Iran-backed opponents saying the results of last October’s poll should be honored.
While supporters of the Sadrist movement have occupied the fortified Green Zone, which houses parliament, government buildings and foreign embassies, the proponents of the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties close to Tehran – have held a rally in one of Baghdad’s streets.
The protests in the green zone are a show of force by the firebrand cleric whose party won the highest number of seats in the October 2021 elections but withdrew after failing to form a government with Sunni and Kurdish allies in Iraq’s hectic power-sharing system. Iran-backed parties have dominated many state institutions for years.
Last Friday, August 5, thousands of protesters from Iraq’s southern provinces entered Baghdad’s Green Zone again, chanting slogans against Iran’s interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.

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Exclusive: Islamic Jihad angry with Egypt ‘betrayal’ ahead of Gaza raids

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MEE can reveal Palestinian group has ‘considerable anger’ towards Egyptian intelligence service over role played by Cairo in the hours before Israel bombed Gaza
 

Fighters with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement parade with their weapons in the streets of Gaza City during a rally on 29 May 2021 (AFP)

By 
David Hearst

Published date: 11 August 2022  – Middleeasteye.net

   

Four hours before Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip on Friday, Egyptian mediators told the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement that Israel was not looking for an escalation, and would respond “positively” to a request to release two PIJ members from prison. An Israeli cabinet meeting to be held on the Sunday would announce this as a breakthrough in negotiations, the movement was reportedly told.
The assurances were conveyed to a senior member of the PIJ’s political bureau by Egyptian mediator Brigadier Ahmed Abdul Khaliq at noon on Friday local time, four hours and twenty minutes before the first Israeli air strike struck the Gaza Strip, sources close to the PIJ told Middle East Eye.
In the first detailed account of the negotiations that preceded Israel’s latest offensive on Gaza, MEE can reveal there is now “considerable anger” towards Egyptian intelligence services from the PIJ over the role played by Cairo in the hours before Israel launched its most recent bombing campaign.

‘A dangerous message’: How the West is enabling Israel’s orgy of violence against Palestinians

“[The PIJ] believe they have been betrayed by the Egyptians and that they were part of the game – to make them feel relaxed and secure just before the air strikes took place,” a senior Palestinian source close to the PIJ told MEE.
“There is a lot of anger and tension within Islamic Jihad because of the role of [the] Egyptian mediation, because they consider the Egyptians gave them misleading information and hints just before the air strikes. As a result of this information, the Islamic Jihad relaxed and was unprepared for the air strikes.”
Sources close to the PIJ told MEE that Abdul Khaliq incorrectly told Khaled al-Batsh, a senior member of the PIJ’s political bureau, that there had been a “breakthrough” in indirect negotiations.
Israeli intelligence agents reportedly passed the following message to the PIJ through Egyptian intelligence: “We want to end this escalation. Give us until Sunday and we are pushing them [Israel’s political leaders] to agree.”
What triggered the unrest?
Tensions escalated early last week when Israeli forces arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a senior PIJ commander, in the occupied West Bank.
Saadi was arrested following an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin, during which a Palestinian teenager was killed.
“When the Sheikh [Saadi] was arrested, there was some discussion in Gaza over whether to retaliate. The way he was arrested was humiliating, so that generated some anger. Immediately [the] Egyptians tried to calm the situation,” one source with knowledge of the negotiations told MEE.
“The man doing that was the brigadier. He conveyed messages that the Shin Bet [Israel’s internal intelligence agency] was not interested in escalation.”
According to one source close to the PIJ, the movement asked Egyptian intelligence, and later obtained, filmed assurances of Saadi’s physical wellbeing.
“This was taken as a good sign,” the PIJ source said.
The PIJ then demanded the release of both Saadi and PIJ prisoner Khalil Awawdah, who has refused food for more than 150 days in a bid to draw attention to his detention by Israel without trial or charge.
Egyptian intelligence had told the PIJ that Shin Bet was “dealing positively” with the requests, and that they were very keen to ease tensions. They also said they were pushing the Israeli cabinet for the release of the two men.
Qatar’s role platformed
But on Friday, Abdul Khaliq – who runs Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate unit, which is in charge of negotiations between Gaza-based Palestinian factions and Israeli intelligence, and who routinely chairs delegations from Hamas and the PIJ in Cairo – told Batsh of a breakthrough, which would be announced at the usual Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Then, just four hours later, Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip, killing Taiseer al-Jabari, the commander of the northern division of al-Quds Brigades (Saraya al-Quds), the military wing of the PIJ, along with at least nine others, including a five-year-old girl.

 

 

As the air strikes rained down on Gaza for a second day, Khaled Mansour, a PIJ leader in southern Gaza, was targeted and killed in an Israeli air strike. Mansour had been a delegate at PIJ talks in Cairo.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had arrested at least 19 members of the PIJ in the occupied West Bank. The targeted air strikes and string of arrests have ruptured relations between the PIJ and Egyptian intelligence, with Ziad al-Nakhalah, the head of the PIJ, refusing to take calls from Egyptian intelligence, sources close to the PIJ told MEE.
The two sides had been previously very close, with the PIJ having mediated between Egyptian intelligence and Hamas.
The anger towards the Egyptians was made evident earlier this week when Nakhalah spoke at a press conference in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Nakhalah praised the support he had received from Iran, Iraq and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, but notably failed to mention the role Egypt had played. He also thanked the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera media network for its rolling coverage of the assault on Gaza.
Egyptian reportedly protested, telling the PIJ they could not understand why Doha’s role had been praised and Cairo’s efforts to de-escalate tensions were overlooked.
Risk of more violence
Following a ceasefire brokered on Sunday by Egypt – with help from the United Nations and Qatar – the PIJ conveyed through Egyptian intelligence that they would stop rocket attacks following Israel’s reported pledge to release Saadi and Awawdah.
However, this was shattered when Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz ruled out Saadi’s release.
“Saadi was justifiably arrested and I’m not familiar with a promise to release terrorists,” Gantz told Israel’s Channel 12 news.
“I don’t want to simply promise they won’t be released. We don’t hold people in prison for nothing.”
In an attempt to mend ties with the the PIJ following Israel’s offensive, Egypt has promised to send “a large delegation” to Israel to secure Awawdah’s release.
The PIJ meanwhile is threatening to restart military action. “The PIJ is threatening to go back to escalation if there is no progress,” the source close to the PIJ told MEE.
MEE asked the Egyptian embassy in London and the Israeli military for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.

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Iran ‘to accept’ EU proposal on nuclear deal following Qatari mediation: sources

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Fatemeh Salari
August 15, 2022
Doha News
URL: https://dohanews.co/iran-to-accept-eu-proposal-on-nuclear-deal-following-qatari-mediation-sources/

Source: Iran Foreign Ministry via Twitter

Iran will deliver its final response regarding the 2015 nuclear deal by midnight, Tehran time.
Iran has allegedly stepped towards accepting a European Union proposal through Qatari mediation, with an agreement soon to be signed, according to Iran-based sources.
The EU proposal was submitted to the parliament last week the source, Iranian journalist Saeed Azimi said, though he noted relevant authorities are not yet entirely pleased with it.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian allegedly said that just like any other deal, the text cannot be entirely in Iran’s favour. He also noted the views of thee seven countries involved in the deal were included in the text.
According to the source, the Islamic Republic is expected to share its final response at midnight, Tehran time. The Iranian foreign minister also announced Tehran would deliver its final proposal on a possible deal in Vienna by midnight.
Indirect talks between Iran and the United States initially began in April 2021 in Vienna with the participation of the p4+1, namely the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia plus Germany.
“I’m expecting a yes,” the Tehran Times journalist shared on Twitter. “The rest,” he added, as the foreign minister said is based on the feedback of the United States.
“Crucial days are ahead,” noted the source, adding that an extraordinary meeting was allegedly held on Monday, chaired by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in order to review the EU proposal.
The source further stressed that the Iranian foreign minister made no remarks about “safeguards being an obstacle to the deal.”
“All he said about obstacles was regarding economic guarantees.”
Tehran has always maintained that obtaining a lasting guarantee of Iran’s full economic benefit from the agreement could yield fruitful negotiations.
“We are at the beginning of the end of the talks,” Amirabdollahian allegedly said, as reported by the source, Saeed Azimi, on Twitter.

“The American side has recently shown verbal flexibility in two issues, but this should be written [in the text]. It is important that the issue of guarantees is dealt with by the US with a realistic approach,” the foreign minister reportedly said.
Upon being asked if he was briefed about the EU draft before it was presented, Russia’s chief representative at the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter Monday: “I am not aware of ‘the EU draft’. The text on the table was elaborated by all participants in the Vienna Talks. The EU introduced on August 8 just a few amendments to it,” adding that Moscow will not be an impediment in the fate of JCPOA’s revival.
A Friday report by state news agency, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), quoted a senior Iranian diplomat as saying an EU proposal to revive the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “can be acceptable if it provides assurances” on Tehran’s key demands.
The EU said last week it had put forward a “final” text following four days of indirect talks between the US and Iranian officials in Vienna.
No more amendments could be made to the text, which has been under intense negotiation for 15 months, a senior EU official said, according to reports. He added that a final decision from the parties is expected within a “very, very few weeks.”
The unidentified Iranian diplomat was quoted by IRNA as saying the Islamic Republic was assessing the proposal. “Proposals by the EU can be acceptable if they provide Tehran with assurance on the issues of safeguards, sanctions and guarantees,” the diplomat said.
Tehran has always maintained the position that any agreement to revive the nuclear deal should result in the entire removal of the sanctions in a verifiable order. It also required official guarantee by Washington to ensure that no other US administration would abandon the nuclear accord.
The US unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 under the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran. In addition, Washington reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The US has said it is “ready to quickly reach an agreement” to salvage the accord on the basis of the EU proposals, reports said.
The Russian envoy to the talks added on Sunday that sanctions against Iran can be lifted soon.
Iranian officials had said they would reveal their “additional views and considerations” to the EU, which facilitates the talks, after consultations in Tehran.
Nasser Kanaani, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said on Monday during a press conference that the progress has not fully met the legal demands of Tehran and a “consensus” is nearby regarding the talks in Vienna on the condition that Tehran’s “red lines are observed and its main interests are being met.”
Amirabdollahian said on Monday that Washington has “agreed” to two of Tehran’s demands on the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, IRNA reported.
Iran’s negotiating team abstained from providing a “countdown on the conclusion of the talks, because the government decided not to link the livelihood of the Iranian people to the talks,” the foreign minister said.
The top Iranian diplomat on Saturday expressed: “History ought to have taught the US that language of threat against Iran and Iranians achieves nothing.”
“Futile attempts at deflection won’t allow the US to evade responsibility for the thousands of Iranian and other victims of its involvement in terrorist crimes in our region.”
Qatari authorities have yet to comment on the matter, however Doha recently held two days of talks in a bid to revive stalled negotiations.

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Azerbaijanis in UK appeal to country’s Parliament regarding attack on Azerbaijani embassy

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6 August 2022 18:00 (UTC+04:00) – AZERNEWS.AZ

By Trend
The Coordination Council of Azerbaijanis in the UK appealed to the Parliament and Home Secretary Priti Patel regarding the religious extremists’ attack on the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Trend reports.
The appeal emphasized that Azerbaijan has always been against any kind of extremism, and the Azerbaijani community in the UK strongly condemns the attack on the Azerbaijani embassy, ​​located in one of the central streets of London. Moreover, such an act of vandalism flagrantly infringes upon the requirements of international law, as well as the Vienna Convention, and constitutes aggression against the state attributes and Azerbaijan’s territory.
“This incident will further strengthen the unity of our people in the fight against radical religious ideology,” said the appeal.
According to the Council, the provocative behavior revealed a security gap that the host country had to envisage in accordance with international legal obligations.
“Azerbaijan is a secular state that opposes all kinds of religious extremism. The attack coincided with the period of future development of Azerbaijan–EU relations in the oil and gas sector and the achievement of a decisive stage in the peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan brokered by the EU, which is likely to aim to damage developing ties between the UK and Azerbaijan,” the appeal outlined.
Azerbaijanis living in the UK demanded the soonest expulsion of religious radicals from the country in order to restore political and diplomatic stability.

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Tunisia: Drop all charges against journalist Salah Attia

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Amnesty International
August 15, 2022
URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/tunisia-drop-all-charges-against-journalist-salah-attia/
The Tunisian authorities should immediately drop all charges against Salah Attia, a detained journalist who is on trial before a military court in connection with public remarks he made about President Kais Saied and the armed forces, Amnesty International said today. Attia’s next trial hearing is on 16 August.
Attia has now been detained for two months, and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty. He is among the latest in a series of high-profile critics, political opponents, and perceived enemies of the president whom authorities have targeted with investigation, prosecution, arbitrary travel bans, or arbitrary detention since Saied claimed sweeping emergency powers on 25 July 2021.
… no civilian should face trial before Tunisia’s military courts. This travesty of justice must stop.
Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa
“Tunisian authorities are perfectly free to dispute and counter what media report about them without arresting and prosecuting journalists. In any case, no civilian should face trial before Tunisia’s military courts. This travesty of justice must stop,” said Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“While President Saied has repeatedly vowed to uphold human rights  including freedom of expression, authorities’ persecution of Salah Attia sends a message to journalists that reporting on the president and state institutions may carry risks. Authorities must immediately release Salah Attia and drop the bogus charges against him.”
On 10 June, 2022 Attia, who is the owner and editor of Al Ray Al Jadid, a Tunis-based online newspaper, spoke as a guest on an Al Jazeera news show. During the broadcast, he said that President Saied had asked the army to close the offices of the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail, Tunisia’s largest labour union, but that the army had refused to do so and had informed the union. The union has denied this claim. Attia also said that the army had refused a request by Saied to place unspecified political leaders under house arrest.
On 11 June, police in Tunis arrested Attia. Two days later, the Military Court of First Instance opened an investigation against him in connection with the 10 June broadcast. A military judge ordered him placed in detention, where he has remained since.
Two days later, the court launched an investigation against Attia for inciting armed violence, “accusing a public official of illegal acts without proof,” “denigrating the army” and “harming or disturbing others through telecommunications networks.”
At the opening of Attia’s trial on 26 July, the judge dropped the charge of inciting armed violence, which mandates the death penalty, but maintained the other three charges, according to Attia’s lawyers. The three remaining charges all carry prison terms.
“Journalists should never have to fear reprisals from authorities for their reporting, no matter how critical, embarrassing, or otherwise displeasing for authorities that reporting might be,” said Amna Guellali.
Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both of which Tunisia has ratified, guarantee the right to freedom of expression, including – in the words of the ICCPR – the right to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds.” Any restrictions imposed on this right must be proportional, strictly necessary for a legitimate reason, and provided by law.
In addition, the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee has stated in its General Comment 34 that governments “should not prohibit criticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration.”
Defamation should always be treated as a civil, not criminal, offense, and those found guilty of defamation should not be punished with time in prison.
In a report published on 20 April 2010, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression called on governments to decriminalize defamation, and stated that “no criminal or civil action for defamation should be admissible in respect of a civil servant or the performance of his or her duties.”
Article 14 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to trial before a “competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.” Because Tunisia’s president has the final word on the appointment of judges and prosecutors in the military justice system, Tunisia’s military courts do not fulfil the requirement of independence under international human rights law.
Background
On 25 July 2021, President Saied suspended parliament, dismissed former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, and claimed sweeping emergency powers that he said were granted to him by the Constitution.
On 22 September 2021, Saied issued Presidential Decree 2021-117, which suspended most of Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution and granted him nearly unchecked powers to rule by decree. He also dissolved a temporary body tasked with vetting the constitutionality of laws, and barred anyone from overturning his decree-laws in court.
Since then, Saied has dissolved parliament and weakened or dismantled key institutional safeguards for human rights, including the independence of the judiciary. The number of civilians prosecuted in military courts has also increased sharply, including for “crimes” such as publicly criticizing the president.
Saied has also overseen that drafting, via an opaque process, of a new constitution that contains provisions threatening to human rights. The new constitution was approved by popular referendum on 25 July 2022.

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Tunisia: judges celebrate dismissal victory

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August 16, 2022
Middle East Monitor
URL: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220816-tunisia-judges-celebrate-dismissal-victory/

 
Judges and lawyers gather to protest President of Tunisia, Kais Saied’s decision to dissolve the Supreme Judicial Council in front of Palais de Justice in Tunis, Tunisia on February 10, 2022 [Yassine Gaidi / Anadolu Agency]

August 16, 2022 at 11:22 am

Members of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates and the Tunisian Association of Women Judges have celebrated the decision to stop the dismissal of a large number of their colleagues. According to Judge Hammadi Rahmani, around 600 judges took part in the celebratory event on Saturday evening.

“This was an expression of their happiness for the return of their colleagues to their duties, their victory and lifting the injustice that was imposed on the most honest judges,” said Rahmani.
He confirmed that union members and human rights activists were among those taking part in the event. They included former parliamentarian and human rights defender Bushra Belhaj Hamida; representatives of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women; the head of the Association of Families of Martyrs and Wounded of the Revolution; former heads of the National Bar Association, including Chawki Tabib, Abderrazak Kilani and Amer al-Mahrazi; and other civil society organisations.
The event was described by Rahmani as “an evening for the free judiciary” over the “injustice of the authorities [and] their judiciary”.
Rahmani is one of the judges who were included in the decisions to dismiss many members of the judiciary, and was mentioned in the rulings of the Administrative Court to suspend their implementation.

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Tunisian leader to attend U.S. – Africa summit in Washington

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 North Africa Post
August 16, 2022 2:36 pm
URL: https://northafricapost.com/59891-tunisian-leader-to-attend-u-s-africa-summit-in-washington.html

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied is expected in December to attend the U.S. and Africa summit organized by the American President Joe Biden, the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. mission in Tunis has revealed.
Natasha Franceschi told Tunisia’s top diplomat Othmane Jerandi Monday that President Biden will extend an invitation to the Tunisian leader.
The summit is scheduled for December 13-15 and will discuss relations between Washington and The African continent and ways to counter China’s and Russia’s influence in Africa.
The announcement of the invitation comes amid tension between the two countries as Washington voices concern about democracy depreciation in the North African country which many in the world have considered the only success story of the Arab Spring.
President Saied bolstered his grip on power on July 25 this year through a referendum rejected by the vast majority of Tunisians. The referendum adopted a constitution that many believe will tighten his control of state apparatuses.
Saied, on July 25 last year, fired then Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, froze the parliament in a bid, he had said, to restore the country and fight corruption.
The U.S rejected the move and indicated that Washington will slash into two its military aid until democracy is restored.

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Saudi Arabia expected to revoke Hajj-related age limit regulation

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15th August 2022
Antara News
URL: https://en.antaranews.com/news/244577/saudi-arabia-expected-to-revoke-hajj-related-age-limit-regulation
 

Illustration of Hajj pilgrims. (ANTARA/HO-22/rst) Jakarta (ANTARA) – Director General of Hajj and Umrah at the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs Hilman Latief is optimistic of the Government of Saudi Arabia revoking the rules for limiting the age for Hajj for next year’s pilgrims.

“(It is) because we want to fulfill the expectations of the pilgrims. Currently, there are many pilgrims, who are restricted to perform Hajj, due to the age limit. Our Minister, Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, has conveyed this matter to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to review this matter,” Latief noted in a written statement received here Monday. 
He affirmed that the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 Hajj had resulted in the waiting list for pilgrims being doubled. The waiting list, which was originally 20 years, has now become 40 years, and the waiting list that was originally 30 years has extended to 60 years.
During the 2022 Hajj, the Saudi Arabian government imposed an age limit of 65 years due to which several pilgrims were unable to perform Hajj despite having entered the queue on time.
“Hopefully, Minister Qoumas’ visit to meet with the Saudi minister of Hajj and Umrah would bring disclosure,” Latief remarked.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Religious Affairs will start preparing for the implementation of the 2023 Hajj to mitigate the related costs. The cost of organizing the Hajj (BPIH) is in the range of Rp88 million to Rp102 million for this year.
“The implementation of Hajj in future also requires careful preparations. The cost for this year is quite high at Rp88 million to Rp102 million per person,” he affirmed.
He also expressed optimism that the cost for Masyair’s services (Arafah, Muzdalifah, and Mina) will be more proportional. For this year’s Hajj season, there is an additional Masyair fee of Rp22 million to Rp24 million per pilgrim for four days in Masyair in addition to the predetermined Hajj fee.
“Therefore, Indonesia, with the largest number of pilgrims, will take many steps, including arranging more rational financing from the Saudi Arabian government,” he said.

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