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Wael Mahdi, Foreign Correspondent
The National, June 29. 2009
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, will remain men-only.
JEDDAH // The Saudi religious police force is embarking on a 20-year strategic plan to restructure and modernise, yet the plan fails to include women in the force, a demand that the Saudi parliament (Shoura Council) has recently pushed for.
The plan, which ensures the continued social role of the vice police in combating moral infringements, has ended a debate in parliament about merging the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, with the ministry of Islamic affairs.
The powerful religious police are not subject to any accountability by the Shoura Council or other government agencies and are part of the interior ministry.
The religious police’s unchecked power, and its harsh tactics with the public, prompted many members of the council to ask for its merger with the ministry of Islamic affairs, over which the council has oversight.
The Saudi government is supporting the long-term strategic plan, called Hisba , which means voluntarily fighting evil, that was launched this month by the deputy premier and minister of interior, Prince Naif.
Omaima al Jalahimah, a former conservative female consultant for the Shoura Council, wrote in her column in the Al Watan daily last week that although she approves of the plan as it is, she looks forward to seeing more women on its staff.
“I really wish to see fully capable female departments at the police supported by female security forces,” she wrote. However, many Saudis are sceptical that introducing women to the force would moderate its strict practices, and others believe that integration is impossible because it contradicts one of the major roles of the police – enforcing the segregation of the sexes.
Talal Bakri, the head of the social affairs and family committee at the Shoura Council, and who opposed the resolution to include women, asked the council members in one of last month’s sessions: “How can we hold the police accountable for the charges of mingling with females if they interact with their male colleagues?”
“Including female staff will add confusion to the organisation of the police and will conflict with its mission to segregate males from females,” said Mohammed al Zulfah, a former Shoura Council member.
Mr al Zulfah said the ministry of Islamic affairs and the religious police are male-dominated bodies similar to any other religious agency in the kingdom and thus cannot allow women to join their staff.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 30, 2009 - ח' תמוז תשס"ט at 9:27 am
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28/06/2009 11:46 BAKU, June 28 (AFP)
Israeli President Shimon Peres arrived in Baku on Sunday to begin a landmark visit to the former Soviet states of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan aimed at advancing strategic and economic ties.
During his four-day state visit to the two predominantly Muslim countries, Peres will hold talks with Azerbaijani and Kazakh leaders.
He also plans to address hundreds of representatives from Muslim and Arab countries at an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Peres’s office said.
Peres was greeted by an honour guard after touching down at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport, Azerbaijani state news agency Azertaj reported.
The 85-year-old president is travelling with a delegation of more than 60 representatives of Israeli government ministries and private companies seeking to tighten trade and economic ties with the two Caspian Sea states.
"The president’s visit is aimed at strengthening and expanding Israel’s strategic, diplomatic and economic ties with the two Muslim states that sit on the crossroads between Russia, China and Iran," his office said in a statement.
Israel and Azerbaijan share close economic ties, with trade turnover between the two countries reaching 180 million dollars (128 million euros) in the first quarter of 2009, the Israeli ambassador to Baku, Arthur Lenk, told local media before the visit.
Azerbaijani media reported that Israel, which imports 20 percent of its oil from Azerbaijan, will be seeking to boost energy cooperation during the visit.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Business and Commerce, Middle East Report, Recent Posts on June 28, 2009 - ו' תמוז תשס"ט at 10:05 am
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BY OFER BAVLY, Miami Herald, June 26, 2009
It seems that although the Israeli government and moderate Palestinians agree on the need to restart the peace process with a view to reaching a permanent resolution, there is serious disagreement on what the real obstacle to peace is. Many in Europe and in the United States view the Israeli settlements in the West Bank as the single greatest obstacle to peace. But historical perspective as well as the recent past show otherwise.
Arab violence toward Jews in the Holy Land began decades before the state of Israel was established. It had nothing to do with ”occupation” or with ‘’settlements,” and everything to do with preventing Jews from establishing their own state on their historical land.
After the 1948 War of Independence, Jordan occupied the West Bank, and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip for almost 20 years. Eastern Jerusalem was in Arab hands, ruled by the King of Jordan. And yet the Palestinians never rose against these Arab states, never demanded independence, never demanded to establish a capital in Jerusalem.
Acts of terror
In the 1950s and 1960s, Arab Fedayeen terrorists launched dozens of attacks against Israeli civilians. This was not a protest movement, nor was it a fight to ”liberate” any land. There were no settlements and no occupation. The terrorists simply wanted to kick the Jews out of the Middle East, refusing to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist. They used terrorism in an attempt to change that reality.
In 1964, three years before any Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Palestinians established the PLO, which began carrying out indiscriminate terror attacks against Israeli civilians. There was no occupation, no Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, no settlements. East Jerusalem was Arab. And yet, instead of building a peaceful state of their own alongside Israel, Arafat and his band of terrorists wanted to eliminate the Jewish state, which only occupied half of the land allotted to our two states by the United Nations.
Jordan, Egypt and the rest of the Arab world could have given the Palestinians their own homeland on the same land they demand today, not one inch less. They could have handed them Jerusalem as their capital on a silver platter.
Recent experience shows that whenever Israel made concessions to the Palestinians, those concessions were rewarded not with reciprocal concessions, but rather with more violence, terrorism and intransigence. After Israel pulled out of Lebanon, the Hezbollah terrorist organization continued launching missiles against us. Not a single Israeli soldier is on Lebanese soil, yet Hezbollah claims to be a ”resistance” movement. Resistance against what? Against Israel’s very existence.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 28, 2009 - ו' תמוז תשס"ט at 9:01 am
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by Rochel Sylvetsky, Arutz Sheva, 25 June 09
(Israelnationalnews.com) It was an Israel lover’s dream come true: A new way of generating renewable energy using concentrated solar radiation was created at the Weizmann Institute, developed in cooperation with the AORA solar technology company located in the development town of Yavne, brought to fruition by Torah observant investors from abroad and launched in Kibbutz Samar 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of Eilat.
Overseas guests, including dignitaries and businessmen from Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Chile and Australia, mingled with the smiling Israelis, including AORA chief executive officer Chaim Fried’s family from Har Bracha, government representatives and kibbutz members at the event on Wednesday.
Yehoshua Fried, founder of construction-management firm EDIG, of which AORA is a member, began his speech with the traditional blessing over something new and continued with a quote from the week’s Torah portion. He thanked American investor Meir Reiss and Canadian Director of Corporation and Consultant to Management, Zev Rosenzweig, who believed in his dream and made it into reality. Fried recalled how he pioneered in the field 15 years ago along with Chief Technology Officer Dr. Pinchas Doron, but had to abandon his plans until the need for clean, renewable solar power was recognized.
Rosenzweig spoke of the special feeling he and Reiss have, as committed Jews, in helping the Jewish State utilize its brain power, strengthening its economy, providing local jobs and benefiting the world in general. Udi Gat, Eilot Regional Council Chairman, expressed the hope that his region would become the “Sun Valley” of the clean energy world as California’s “Silicon Valley” is to the cyberworld. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on June 26, 2009 - ד' תמוז תשס"ט at 5:22 pm
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Although it’s not an opinion often heard within the context of public debate, there are some who argue that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be characterized by cooperation rather than separation. While the latter approach fits neatly within the conventional wisdom of the day, Prof. Ilan Juran, an Israeli scientist, makes a compelling case for a peaceful future based on the connection, not severance, of the two peoples who share land and resources.
Prof. Juran’s most recent case-in-point is a dramatic one. Governments have done nothing to stem the daily flow of untreated waste water draining into the Mediterranean Sea off the Palestinian Gaza Strip and re-entering the water system farther north at the Israeli town of Ashqelon. The resulting damage extends far beyond the coast line; it affects the local fishing industry and even the inland aquifers that provide both nations with their respective supplies of potable water. Juran’s approach, then, is predicated not only upon human emotion, but also on a pragmatic need driven by the forces of nature. “The ecosystem doesn’t stop for checkpoints,” he argues, “and such natural forces do not recognize international borders.”
Ashqelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, decries “60,000 untreated cubic meters of water entering] the Mediterranean waters every day.”
“The goal had been to create an institutional infrastructure for waste water treatment recycling and reuse in agricultural applications and infiltration,” adds Gaza Mayor Maged Abu Ramadan. The second part of the goal will be for the two governments to create joint maintenance and standards.
The two mayors met at a Moscow conference sponsored by the United Nations in 2005, where Juran challenged them to stop waiting for their governments to take action and accept upon themselves the responsibility to act on behalf of their constituents. With a boost from the UN Department of Information under the direction of Under-Secretary General Kiyo Akasaka, the Israeli and Palestinian Civil Society Initiative was born. Juran was given the chairmanship.
The immediate priority was to complete a project proposed several years earlier: to address the issue of water contamination caused by Gaza sewage. With the Israeli water company Mekorot, the Palestinian Water Authority, the mayors, the UN, and the local municipalities all on board under the umbrella of the Civil Society Initiative, it appeared that positive action was finally destined to happen. The urgency was vital: they believed, and still do, that if preventative action is not implemented today, “it will be hard to get clean water for the next generation.” But as is the case so often in the Middle East, the conflict flared and the latest round of violence caused the effort to be halted in its tracks.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 26, 2009 - ד' תמוז תשס"ט at 9:18 am
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Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 1990, annual Human Development Reports have explored challenges including poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, globalization, water scarcity and climate change.
Migration, both within and beyond borders, has become an increasingly prominent theme in domestic and international debates, and is the topic of the 2009 Human Development Report (HDR09). The starting point is that the global distribution of capabilities is extraordinarily unequal, and that this is a major driver for movement of people. Migration can expand their choices– in terms of incomes, accessing services and participation, for example — but the opportunities open to people vary from those who are best endowed to those with limited skills and assets. These underlying inequalities, which can be compounded by policy distortions, will be a theme of the report.
The report will investigate migration in the context of demographic changes and trends in both growth and inequality. It will also present more detailed and nuanced individual, family and village experiences, and explore less visible movements typically pursued by disadvantaged groups such as short term and seasonal migration. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Recent Posts on June 25, 2009 - ג' תמוז תשס"ט at 5:28 pm
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Israel is marking three years since Sgt Gilad Shalit, then aged 19, was seized by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid launched from Gaza.
Indirect talks on his release between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have so far been fruitless.
Hamas wants hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails, while Israel refuses to lift a blockade of Gaza until Sgt Shalit is released.
Human Rights Watch said his detention “may amount to torture”.
The international rights group said his captivity was “cruel and inhumane” and called on Hamas to allow him to communicate with his family and receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Israeli rights group B’tselem said Sgt Shalit was legally a hostage, and hostage taking was a violation of international humanitarian law.
Frustration
Sgt Shalit’s family say they have received signs of that he is alive in the past, but have had nothing in more than a year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that securing the safe return of Sgt Shalit is his personal responsibility.
However, the soldier’s family has expressed frustration at what they perceived as a lack of dedication to their cause by Israeli authorities.
Both Israel and Hamas have denied recent rumours that there would be a breakthrough in talks leading up to the anniversary, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Katya Adler reports from Jerusalem. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 25, 2009 - ג' תמוז תשס"ט at 10:00 am
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When Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel applied to immigrate to Israel as a Jew under the Law of Return last October, Israeli authorities delayed responding to his request for months.
Perhaps it was the priest’s white-band collar around his neck that had something to do with this.
Yet ultimately, Israel’s Interior Ministry did issue the 66-year-old Polish cleric, scholar and professor at Catholic University of Lublin a two-year residency visa. It was, it seems, an imperfect compromise with a priest who insists: “I am Jewish. And my mother and father were Jewish. I feel Jewish.”
Speaking through an interpreter during a phone interview, he said, “Going to Israel would be the return of the Jewish child who took the long way home.”
Born in 1943 in Nazi-occupied Poland, Weksler-Waszkinel did not know that he was Jewish until he was 35 years old, 12 years after he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. Nor did he know that his birth parents, both ardent Zionists, were murdered by the Nazis after entrusting his care to a Polish Catholic family to save his life. It took him 14 years after he learned he was Jewish to find his real name and the names of his parents. “So in a way, it took me 14 years to be born,” the priest said.
“My mother’s dreams went up in the flames of Sobibor,” he explained, referring to the death camp in Poland where some 260,000 Jews were murdered.
Weksler-Waszkinel is not the only one who grapples with a dual identity. Mark Shraberman, chief archivist at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum and research institute, said in an interview in Jerusalem that he receives many letters from Poles who are discovering that they are of Jewish origin. “They find out the truth when one of their parents is dying,” Shraberman said. He added that he recently received a letter from another Polish priest in a small town who just found out that he is Jewish. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Middle East, Recent Posts on June 24, 2009 - ב' תמוז תשס"ט at 7:21 am
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Asharq Al-awsat, Monday 22 June 2009
By Abdullah Mustapha
Brussels, Asharq Al-Awsat- When I met Mahinur Ozdimer in one of the biggest shopping malls in Brussels just one day before the Belgium elections that took place on June 7, I noticed that she was the only female candidate wearing Hijab as the candidates handed out leaflets and met and spoke with voters.
I asked Mahinur “Aren’t you worried about the reaction you’ll get from Belgian voters because you wear Hijab?” Ozdemir, a Belgium citizen of a Turkish descent, answered, “I will not take off my Hijab for the elections or for parliament. I wore the Hijab when I was working for Schaerbeek Municipal Council and I will carry on wearing it even in parliament.”
Despite the pressure she is subjected to because she continues to wear the Hijab, Mahinur always says that “efficiency alone is what matters, not the Hijab.”
Mahinur is the first parliamentarian to wear Hijab, but there is a problem; Belgian law does not allow MPs to wear headscarves in parliament. The issue has begun to raise controversy among members of Arab and Muslim communities and amongst the Belgians themselves.
MP Suad Razzouk from Belgium’s Socialist Party said, “Ozdemir will face two options: resign if she does not take off the Hijab, or give up her seat in parliament.”
Ahmed Mohsen, a member of the Green Party, said “I will work towards changing the current status as the right-wing, liberals and socialist parties caused the banning of Hijab in 95 per cent of Belgian schools with only five schools allowing it.”
The Socialist Party’s MP Sofia Bouarfa said, “I am concerned about the future of every female candidate who wears Hijab and wants to run for parliament because that person will face major challenges and difficulties. She is supposed to represent all parts of Belgian society and it is only normal that not everybody will be considerate of the fact that wearing Hijab is a personal freedom.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education, Islam, Middle East, Recent Posts on June 23, 2009 - א' תמוז תשס"ט at 7:27 am
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By Daniel Ben-Tal, Israel 21C, June 21, 2009
Mount Iskander, the highest point in central Israel, offers a magnificent view. It’s a panorama that encompasses the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the West Bank on the other. To the north lies the verdant Jezre’el valley, and on a clear day you can even see the Hermon mountain.
Now five freshly painted sculptures sit atop the hill, the culmination of a unique coexistence program involving the Israel Museum and local students from Umm al-Fahm, a rapidly growing Arab-Israeli town of 50,000.
Over 200 teenagers from Umm el-Fahm, joined by students from the Israel Museum’s high school art matriculation program, put the finishing touches on the metal sculptures this month, each depicting a house and window inspired by Umm al-Fahm homes.
The schoolchildren painted reproductions by famous Israeli artists – Jews and Arabs – on both sides of the sculptures, creating a collaborative public art installation that reflects Arab-Jewish dialogue through cultural cooperation.
The “Open Window Dialogue” project’s success is seen as twofold: Arabs and Jews befriending both each other and art. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 22, 2009 - ל' סיון תשס"ט at 2:28 pm
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