CONTENTS

1. “Saudi detains dozens for ‘plotting to celebrate Christmas’” (Al-Akhbar, Dec. 27, 2012)
2. “Abbas aide: No plans to outlaw ‘honor killing’” (Ma’an news agency, Dec. 26, 2012)
3. “The Palestinian ‘holy Trinity’: Jesus, Arafat and Abbas” (PMW, Dec. 26, 2012)
4. “Why Arabs hate and kill Palestinians” (By Khaled Abu Toameh, Dec. 26, 2012)
5. “Hamas outlaws contact with Israeli media outlets” (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 26, 2012)

 

UNHAPPY CHRISTMAS

Saudi detains dozens for “plotting to celebrate Christmas”
Al-Akhbar
December 27, 2012

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-detains-dozens-plotting-celebrate-christmas

Saudi religious police stormed a house in the Saudi Arabian province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for “plotting to celebrate Christmas,” a statement from the police branch released Wednesday night said.

The raid is the latest in a string of religious crackdowns against residents perceived to threaten the country’s strict religious code.

The host of the alleged Christmas gathering is reported to be an Asian diplomat whose guests included 41 Christians, as well as two Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Muslims. The host and the two Muslims were said to be “severely intoxicated.”

The guests were said to have been referred to the “respective authorities.” It is unclear whether or not they have been released since.

The kingdom, which only recognizes Islamic faith and practice, has in the past banned public Christmas celebrations, but is ambiguous about festivities staged in private quarters.

Saudi religious police are known to detain residents of the kingdom at whim, citing loose interpretations of Sharia and public statements by hardline religious leaders to justify crackdowns.

Saudi Arabia’s head mufti Sheikh Abdel Aziz bin Abdullah had previously condemned “invitations to Christmas or wedding celebrations.”

A member of the Higher Council of Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohammed al-Othaimin recently prohibited sending holiday wishes to “heretics” on Christmas or other religious Christian holidays.

‘APOSTATE’ AT RISK OF EXECUTION

On Thursday, the Beirut-based Gulf Center for Human Rights reported that Saudi human rights defender Raef Badawi is at risk of execution on apostasy charges.

Badawi is co-founder and editor of the Liberal Saudi Network. When he first appeared before the district court in Jeddah, he was charged with “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and “going beyond the realm of obedience.” The Judge then referred the case to the higher Public Court on an apostasy charge, which carries the penalty of death.

The General Court in Jeddah proceeded with apostasy charges on December 22.

Badawi was arrested this June after the Liberal Saudi Network called for “a day of liberalism” in Saudi Arabia, which included a conference that was later canceled after a warning from authorities.

Earlier this week, controversial Saudi novelist and political analyst Turki al-Hamad was arrested for criticizing Islam and the royal family in a series of tweets.

Al-Hamad is an outspoken liberal who writes about sexuality issues, underground political movements and religious freedom. The offending tweets suggested that Islam be rectified in the same way that the Prophet Muhammad is said to have revised earlier Abrahamic religions.

 

ABBAS AIDE: NO PLANS TO OUTLAW ‘HONOR KILLING’

Abbas aide: No plans to outlaw ‘honor killing’
By Soraya Al-Ghussein and Hannah Patchett
Palestinian Ma’an news agency
December 26, 2012

www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=550792

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas has no plans to amend laws that reduce sentences for suspects who claim an “honor” defense for murdering women, his legal adviser says.

“Why change it? This would cause serious problems,” Hassan al-Ouri told Ma’an, adding that such a reform would “not benefit women.”

In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum penalties for “honor killing” in response to protests over the killing of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron.

The decision was announced in a phone call to a primetime show on state TV, drawing tears among crowds of mourners shown in a live link-up from the Ramallah studio to Baradiya’s hometown.

Abbas suspended Article 340, which offers a pardon for murder if the perpetrator committed the crime on finding his wife in bed with another man.

The reform was cosmetic: Article 340 had never been used in Palestinian courts since it was legislated in 1960.

“So why did we change the law? To garner public opinion,” al-Ouri said in an interview in the presidential compound in Ramallah.

“I, personally, was against the amendment because the crimes that happen in the street have no relevance to Article 340,” the legal adviser added.

Al-Ouri says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend family “honor.”

Articles 97 to 100 of the Jordanian Penal Code, in force in the West Bank, still offer reduced sentences for any act of battery or murder committed in a “state of rage.”

“The (law) only addresses 1 percent of the problem. What we need is a new culture,” al-Ouri said.

Other officials insist the penal code is the problem.

The law “privileges the killer,” Interior Ministry official Haitham Arrar told Ma’an.

“It encourages some people to commit crimes against women, which will go (as far as) killing them,” said Arrar, who heads the ministry’s democracy and human rights unit.

Abbas fears ‘conservative forces’

The Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since 2007, when Hamas and Fatah split, but women’s rights expert Soraida Hussein dismisses arguments that reforms must wait until parliament reconvenes.

“For us, for women, all this is irrelevant,” said Hussein, general director of the Women’s Technical Affairs Committee, an umbrella group of women’s organizations. “Until now, our lives -- in law and in practice -- are seen as less than men’s.”

The president should issue a decree that “anybody killing anyone else will be sentenced to the highest sentence possible, whether it is a woman or a boy,” says Hussein.

“The minute the law is changed and applied, the minute people will think twice,” she says. “It’s simple and it’s not done.”

Hussein suggests Abbas is hesitant to pass legal reforms because “he is not ready yet to confront conservative forces.”

In 2009, Abbas ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, but al-Ouri, the legal adviser, says it will only be implemented “so long as it doesn’t contravene Islamic code.”

“Look, we are for total equality but if there is a basic tenet of Islamic code that we would be forced to change under CEDAW, then people would revolt and brand us as non-believers,” al-Ouri said.

‘DRESSING UP HONOR’

Lax laws encourage murder suspects to claim “honor” in their defense, officials and women’s rights activists say.

“Because the penalty is one or two months, they consider killing her and dress it up as honor,” Minister of Women’s Affairs Rahiba Diab told Ma’an.

Khawla al-Azraq, who runs a women’s counseling center in Bethlehem, notes that femicide is a global issue but “now in Palestine, they call this honor killing.”

“Sometimes these girls are abused by someone in the family and they need to cover this (up) and they kill her; sometimes because they need her money,” she says. “These are the real reasons for killing.”

“In Palestine, this is the gap, that until now we don’t have our own legislation that really can protect women.”

The Independent Commission of Human Rights says 13 women have been killed this year, but the real figure is likely to be higher.

“There has been historically a problem of documentation,” says Hussein, the women’s rights expert. The cause of suspicious deaths of women was often recorded as “fate,” which could refer to forced “suicides” or being pushed from a building, she explained.

Despite repeated requests since September, the Ministry of Interior did not provide Ma’an with the official number of women whose deaths were recorded as “fate” in 2012.

 

(Itamar Marcus is a longtime subscriber to this list.)

THE PALESTINIAN “HOLY TRINITY”: JESUS, ARAFAT AND ABBAS

The Palestinian “holy Trinity”: Jesus, Arafat and Abbas
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin
Dec. 26, 2012

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8250

The Palestinian leadership’s falsification of history by presenting Jesus as an ancient Palestinian increased in regularity as Christmas approached this year. In the last month alone, the PA media has transmitted six additional PA misrepresentations of Jesus as a Palestinian, including:

* The Governor of Ramallah: “We all have the right to be proud that Jesus is a Palestinian”
* PA historian: “In the final analysis, Jesus is a Palestinian”
* The PA Mufti: “Jesus is a Palestinian par excellence”

Palestinian Media Watch reported that the PA Mufti used the same expression already three years ago.

In addition, there is an attempt to connect Jesus to the Palestinian leaders themselves. Senior PA leader Jibril Rajoub said: “The greatest Palestinian in history since Jesus is Yasser Arafat,” and an editorial in the PA official daily referred to Arafat, Jesus and Abbas as the Palestinian “holy Trinity”:

“Jesus is a Palestinian; the self-sacrificing Yasser Arafat is a Palestinian; Mahmoud Abbas, the messenger of peace on earth, is a Palestinian. How great is this nation of the holy Trinity!” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2012]

PMW has documented the ongoing PA historical revision, which falsely connects the current Palestinian-Arab population to a fabricated ancient Palestinian-Arab nation. Although there is no record of any Palestinian-Arab history and no people ever identified as being part of a Palestinian-Arab nation until very recently, the PA claims they are an ancient Palestinian people in an attempt to compete with Israel’s well-documented Jewish history in the land.

While Christian tradition and the historical writings of the period portray Jesus as a Jew living in the land of Judea/Israel, the PA consistently tells its people that they are the ones connected to Jesus. This is not only a distortion of Jesus’ personal history as reported in Christian writings, it is also an anachronism. The Romans changed the name of Judea/Israel to “Palestine” in order to punish the Jewish nation after its unsuccessful rebellion a full 136 years after the birth of Jesus.

The following are recent examples of the PA’s misrepresentation of Jesus as a Palestinian:

Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub: “The greatest Palestinian in history since Jesus is Yasser Arafat.” [PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 29, 2011]

Official PA daily op-ed: “Jesus is a Palestinian; the self-sacrificing Yasser Arafat is a Palestinian; Mahmoud Abbas, the messenger of peace on earth, is a Palestinian. How great is this nation of the holy Trinity!” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2012]

Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories:

“The Palestinian nation is rooted in this land since the Canaanites and the Jebusites. The Arab presence - Christian and Islamic - on this land is uninterrupted. Jesus is a Palestinian par excellence.” [PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 30, 2012]

Governor of the Ramallah district Leila Ghannam: “The Palestinian pain is one and the joy is one. We all have the right to be proud that Jesus is a Palestinian and that Palestine is the birthplace of the religions...” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 24, 2012]

Palestinian historian Khalil Shoka: “The Christian religion started here [Bethlehem]... The entire world is focused on this city because of its important historical and traditional role... because in the final analysis, Jesus is a Palestinian.” [PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 16, 2012]

Official PA daily op-ed: “We can be proud, oh son of Mary, that you are the first Palestinian who redeemed” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.]

 

(Leading West Bank-based, Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh is a longtime subscriber to this list.)

800 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN SYRIA

Why Arabs hate and kill Palestinians
By Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone institute
December 26, 2012

The Arab League did not hold an emergency meeting to discuss what Palestinians describe as “massacres “ against the refugees in a Syrian camp, home to more than 50,000 people. Those who meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries should not be surprised when bombs start falling on their homes. Palestinians are not always innocent victims. They bring tragedy on themselves and then want to blame everyone else but themselves.

***

More than 800 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds others injured since the beginning of the crisis in Syria nearly two years ago.

In the past two weeks, thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus after Syrian jets bombed their homes, killing dozens of people.

More than 3000 refugees have fled to neighboring Lebanon, where some politicians and cabinet ministers are already calling for closing the border to stop the influx of Palestinians into their country.

The Arab world, meanwhile, has done nothing to help the Palestinians in Syria.

The Arab League did not hold an emergency meeting to discuss what Palestinians described as “massacres” against the refugees in Yarmouk, home to some 50,000 people.

This is not the first time that Palestinians living in Arab countries find themselves caught in conflicts between rival parties. Those who meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries should not be surprised when bombs start falling on their homes.

The Palestinians have a long history of involving themselves in the internal affairs of Arab countries and later complaining when they fall victim to violence. They complain they are being killed but not saying why they keep getting into trouble.

Palestinians are not always innocent victims. They bring tragedy on themselves and then want to blame everyone else but themselves.

In Syria, a Palestinian terrorist group called Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, which is headed by Ahmed Jibril, had been helping the Syrian regime in its attempts to suppress the opposition. Jibril’s terrorists are reported to have kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of anti-regime Syrians over the past two years.

The last time an Arab army bombed a Palestinian refugee camp was in Lebanon. In 2007, the Lebanese army destroyed most of the Nahr al-Bared camp after another terrorist group, Fatah al-Islam set up bases there and attacked army checkpoints, killing several soldiers.

In the 70s and 80s, Palestinians played a major role in the Lebanon civil war, which claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people.

The Palestinians also payed a price for meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq. After the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, thousands of Palestinians were forced out of Iraq for helping the dictator oppress his people for many years.

After the liberation of Kuwait more than 20 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from the tiny emirate and other Gulf countries. Their crime was that they had supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait -- a country that for many years had provided the PLO with billions of dollars in aid.

Jordan was the first Arab country to punish the Palestinians for meddling in its internal affairs. In 1970, the late King Hussein ordered his army to crush armed Palestinian organizations that had severely undermined his monarchy. The violence resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and ended with the expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon.

What happened in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the past few days shows that the Palestinians have not learned from their previous mistakes and are continuing to meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries. That is perhaps why the Arabs are reluctant to help the Palestinians overcome their financial hardships.

Arab League foreign ministers recently promised to provide the Palestinian Authority with $100m. per month to solve its financial crisis. But the Palestinians have not yet seen one dollar from the promised aid. And if they continue to meddle in the internal affairs of their Arab brothers, the only thing they will see is more bombs falling on their homes and thousands of people forced out of their refugee camps.

 

HAMAS OUTLAWS CONTACT WITH ISRAELI MEDIA OUTLETS

Hamas outlaws contact with Israeli media outlets
By Khaled Abu Toameh
The Jerusalem Post
December 26, 2012

The Hamas government on Tuesday banned Palestinians from dealing or working with Israeli media outlets.

The decision was announced following the weekly meeting of the Hamas government in Gaza City.

Hamas said it decided to ban dealing or working with “Zionist media outlets because they are hostile.”

Hamas warned Palestinian journalists and media employees from working with or helping their Israeli counterparts.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has not officially banned Palestinians from working with the Israeli media.

However, many PA officials and political figures refuse to talk to Israeli media organizations.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Journalists Syndicate recently banned its members from holding meetings with Israeli journalists as part of a campaign to combat “normalization” between the two sides.