The Egyptian Police State & the War Against Democracy

It is one of the strange ironies of life that the leaders of the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ feel so more comfortable with a strong dictator than the more anarchic situation in Lebanon.  When Hosni Mubarak was in danger of falling victim to the Spring Revolution in Egypt,  Shimon Peres, Israel’s President and Netanyahu, had kittens. 

As Ha’aretz of 24.11.11. reported ‘Netanyahu:Arab Spring Pushing Mideast Backward, Not Forward’  Netanyahu ‘blasted Israeli and world politicians who support the Arab Spring revolutions and accused the Arab world of "moving not forward, but backward.’    Even the Americans paid lip-service to the Egyptian revolution whilst doing their best to subvert it.  Netanyahu wasn’t even prepared to do that. 

The Ha’aretz report continued that ‘Netanyahu said. His forecast that the Arab Spring would turn into an "Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli and anti-democratic wave" turned out to be true, he said.’

working class faces repression

Democracy in the Arab world always means Islam and naturally it is anti-Western and therefore not something to be encouraged.  Unlike Netanyahu and his Cabinet of enlightened progressives, an Arab revolution would also be ‘anti-liberal’. 

The kind of state the United States loves - Egypt receives the largest US aid after Israel - all military of course

Who knows they might organise a beast parade, like that ultra-tolerant Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich whose party is in coalition with Netanyahu.  It was meant to be a parody of gays.

Indeed as is his wont, ‘Netanyahu also slammed Western leaders, and especially U.S. President Barak Obama, who had pushed Mubarak to resign from power. At the time this was happening Netanyahu said in closed talks that the American administration and many European leaders don't understand reality.’

Israel and Netanyahu will of course be pleased with the General Sisi, the Egyptian President, who runs an even more repressive regime than did Hosni Mubarak.

Repression in the Middle East will never attract Israeli criticism unless the regime concerned is hostile to Zionism or Israeli policy in any way.

Below is an article from the Egyptian Institute for Human Rights calling for the repeal of a law that effectively bans all demonstrations. 

President Must Repeal Unfair Protest Law and Immediately Release Thousands of Innocents

The undersigned organizations the prosecution and detention of tens of thousands of people for exercising their right to peaceful protest and assembly or for simply being in the area of such protests, in the wake of the adoption on November 24, 2013 of the law regulating public assemblies, processions, and peaceful demonstrations in public places, known as the protest law. The law was issued by Presidential Decree 107/2013 despite the widespread objections of rights groups, numerous political and public-interest forces, and six ministers, as well as a warning from the previous UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that the law could lead to serious violations of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

The undersigned organizations reiterate their demand for the repeal of the law and the immediate release of all persons detained or convicted under it. If the law remains in force when the incoming parliament is convened, we urge parliamentarians not to approve it, to annul all consequent prosecutions and sentences, and suspend enforcement of the law until a new law can be issued that complies with the provisions of the constitution, adheres to international standards, and responds to the recommendations of the National Council on Human Rights and rights groups, while putting the law up for social debate.

Interim President Adli Mansour issued the law in November 2013 over the objections of six ministers, among them the deputy prime minister for economic affairs and the foreign minister, who detailed the grounds of their objection on October 9. Confirming the fears of civil forces, the law has been used to criminalize all forms of peaceful assembly, including public demonstrations and meetings, and has legitimized the use of excessive force to disperse peaceful assemblies.

This law was the first of a raft of legislation that contravened the spirit and letter of the 2014 constitution. Current President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi has issued numerous such laws, including the law on terrorist entities, the counterterrorism law, and amendments to Article 78 of the Penal Code on foreign funding,. The Cairo Administrative Court agreed in June 2014 to refer a case challenging the constitutionality of the protest law to the Supreme Constitutional Court.

While the government justified the adoption of the protest law by pointing to the need to confront demonstrations by a particular political faction and restore stability to the Egyptian street, the situation in Egypt is now less stable than ever. Violent extremism is finding new supporters by the day, and prisons have become recruiting grounds for violent groups.

Joining a peaceful demonstration carries numerous risks, from the arbitrary killing to arrest and sentencing of up to five years in prison in some cases, or prolonged pretrial detention.

In contrast, with the exception of the killing of Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, security forces are not held accountable or prosecuted for the use of lethal force to disperse demonstrations; the few cases that were subject to investigation or trial ended with their acquittal. At the same time, the Supreme Constitutional Court has failed to take up constitutional appeals to decrees issued by the minister of interior that justify the murder of peaceful demonstrators.

The performance and practices of security forces in Egypt has not changed. The same violations and crimes are committed with every peaceful assembly and demonstration. On January 24, 2015, human rights defender Shaimaa al-Sabbagh was shot and killed by security forces as they dispersed a peaceful protest march calling for bread, freedom, and social justice and carrying flowers to commemorate the martyrs of the January revolution. The next day, security forces used lethal force against demonstrators in various locations in Cairo and Alexandria, leaving dozens of protestors and ordinary citizens dead or injured.

Under the law hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested for failing to obtain demonstration permits from the competent security bodies. The law requires organizers of assemblies to meet several unreasonable, impractical conditions while giving the Ministry of Interior the right to object to any “notice” of an impending demonstration on vague grounds, such as information that it may threaten security or peace. In practice, this means that individuals’ exercise of the right of peaceful assembly is subject to a system of prior permit, which contravenes Articles 73 of the constitution and Article 10 of the constitutional declaration of July 8, 2013, in force when the protest law was issued.

Despite sentencing hundreds to prison for demonstrating, the Egyptian judiciary has not seriously examined the repeated police allegations that typically accompany arrests for demonstrating without a permit, including assembly, blocking public roads, and assaulting security personnel, accepting such allegations as fact even in the absence of credible evidence. In contrast, it has taken no action on complaints by defendants in demonstration cases alleging that they and their families have faced grave physical assaults by security personnel, despite legal documentation of these assaults, even voluntary witnesses are sometimes treated as suspects and referred to investigation and trial.

Most recently, security forces arrested 13 demonstrators on November 19 for participating in demonstrations to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Mohammed Mahmoud events. The prosecution charged the demonstrators with demonstrating without giving notice, assembly, and blocking roads. Although a judge with the Qasr al-Nil court ordered the defendants released on bail, the Public Prosecution contested the order. The Qasr al-Nil Appellate Misdemeanor Court, convened in chambers on November 23, subsequently ruled for the prosecution, after which the defendants were remanded for 15 days.

The confiscation of the right of expression and peaceful assembly through liberty-depriving penalties was and remains part of a systematic plan to shut down the public sphere. The incoming parliament must be aware of the consequences of enforcing unconstitutional laws and violating fundamental rights and liberties and how these laws have a negative effect on Egypt’s stability.

The undersigned organizations therefore call on the following:

1. The president must repeal the protest law or use his constitutional powers of pardon to immediately pardon persons convicted for exercising their right to peaceful assemble and demonstration.
2. The parliament must not approve the protest law. It should hold debates on the rules necessary to guarantee the right of peaceful assembly as is consistent with the constitution and international standards while involving human rights organizations in these debates.

Signatory organizations

1. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
2. Alhaqanya Center for Law and Legal profession
3. Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies
4. Appropriate Communications Techniques for Development
5. Arab Network for Human Rights Information
6. Arab Penal Reform Organization
7. Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression
8. Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance
9. Egyptian Commission for rights and freedoms
10. El-Nadeem Centre for the rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture
11. Masryoon Against Religious Discrimination
12. National group for human rights and law
13. The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights
14. The Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies
15. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
16. The New Woman Foundation

Germany’s Racist Green MP Volker Beck Calls for the Repression of Palestinian supporters

Die Grunen - Germany's Greens spearhead the Zionist Attack on BDS in Germany

Calling Green Parties in Britain & Internationally to Dissociate Themselves from Germany's Green Party

You might expect a Green Party, of all parties, to extend a hand of solidarity to the oppressed.  If Green politics means anything it must mean opposition to racism ethno-nationalism and systematic discrimination and genocide.  But when it comes to Germany’s Green Party, it would appear that it’s a case of Green Imperialists ‘R US.

The rot set in in 2002 when the German government, which was a Green-SPD coalition, with Joshka Fischer of Die Grunen as Foreign Minister, sent German troops into a war, the Afghanistan War, for the first time since World War 2.

The label may read Green but the reality is racist 

But Volker Beck of Die Grunen has really outdone any of this.  Knowing full well that the Palestinians are living in an Apartheid state and Volker Beck is no fool, he nonetheless accuses supporters of BDS of ‘anti-Semitism’.

Volker Beck describes Al Quds day as hateful as hundreds of Berliners take to the streets in support of the Palestinians

Even worse, this rat of a green, tries to get the German state to employ the full    panoply of its powers.  He is asking the State to begin employing repressive and coercive measures against those who are  trying to build solidarity with an oppressed people.  If what is happening to the Palestinians were to happen to the Jews in Germany then Beck would be the first to cry anti-Semitism.  Or would he?  Given that anti-Semitism and Zionism are the opposite sides of the same coin one suspects that Volker Beck would turn a blind eye to native racism.

Germany's racist Green  MP

The question is why this bigot has not been criticised by either fellow Greens or other Green parties internationally.  If the whole of the German Green Party is now compromised and beyond salvation then we would expect Green parties in other parts of Europe, including Britain, to speak up.

The racist Green who accuses anti-Zionist Jews of 'anti-Semitism'

Volker Beck was responsible for the removal of Jewish and Israeli anti-Zionists Max Blumenthall and  David Sheen from the Bundestag earlier this year on the false grounds of anti-Semitism.

The irony is that the German conservatives, the CDU rejected Volker Beck’s suggestion that BDS was anti-Semitic (see below).

So we have the position that Beck is to the right of the Christian Democrats on the question of Palestine!

Tony Greenstein

Enjoying a joke at the expense of the oppressed

 German lawmaker outraged: 'BDS aims essentially against Jewish Israelis and is therefore anti-Semitic'

http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/63723-150309-germany-says-bds-is-not-anti-semitic

Germany has rejected a definition of anti-Semitism that labels the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) as anti-Semitic, the Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

Responding to a legislative questionnaire released Thursday by leading Green Party MP Volker Beck, the Merkel administration wrote that “there does not exist a general academic definition” of anti-Semitism.

Beck, who heads the German- Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag, sharply criticized the Merkel administration: “Here the federal government has cowered,” he said. “There is no doubt of the anti-Semitic motivation within the spectrum of the BDS campaign. BDS aims essentially against Jewish Israelis and is therefore anti-Semitic. Whoever aggressively boycotts Israeli goods and people, should also be viewed as anti-Semitic by the federal government.”

The German government said it defined anti-Semitism, as “political, social, racist and religious” hostility toward Jews.

Add caption

Volker Beck's questions whose purpose was to begin the repression of Palestine solidarity supporters

Volker Beck’s Questions to the Government and the Responses

google translation: 

29. Does  the federal government  classify the so-called BDS campaign against Israel (BDS - Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions) as anti-Semitic?

If so, why? If not, why not?

a) How many followers and supporters does this campaign have in Germany according to the knowledge of the Federal Government ?

b) Is the BDS campaign or its supporters according to the the knowledge of the Federal Government under observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution?

The questions 29, 29a and 29b are answered together.

The Federal Government has no knowledge of the activities listed above of the

campaign, which is allowed under § 3 BVerfSchG observation by the BfV.

The Federal Government has not got any evidence concerning the findings in terms of the question.

The BfV has no knowledge of the observation of the campaign by a State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

BfV = Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

When Settlers are Killed – Israel’s Military/Police State Goes on Offensive – When Palestinian Dawabshe family is burnt alive nothing is done

At the end of August settlers, who were seen running off in the direction of the nearest settlement in Duma, set alight to the house of the Dawabshe family in Duma village.  Out of the four family members, just one – an infant – is till alive.  The parents and another child are dead.  Fires were lit at the entrance to the building to make sure that the family couldn’t escape.

What has been the response of the Israeli authorities?  Despite promises to detain and arrest the culprits, absolutely nothing.  Indeed theonly raids they carried out were on other family members of the Dawabshe’s.  

Moshe Yalon has admitted that the Israeli police, Shin Bet, know who is responsible.  He told a group of young Likud activists that he was ‘protecting sources’ and thus they couldn’t be arrested. 

Contrast this with those who killed the 2 settlers.  Hundreds of troops are sent to smash up Palestinian villages, shoot, beat and arrest any and everyone.  Houses are demolished and the full panapoly of Israeli state terrorism is employed.  But when it came to the Dawabshe family none of this happened.  There were no raids on the settlements.  There were no house demolitions.  No searches, no nothing.  After all Palestinian life is cheap.

True Netanyahu visited a hospital and made a few PR speeches about how much they condemn the attack on the Dawabshe family.  And then?  Nothing.

This is the reality of the Apartheid state of Israel.  Because the West Bank is a part of Israel today.   There is no Green Line, on Israeli maps it doesn’t exist.  It only appears outside Israel to ward off accusations that Israel is ruling in perpetuity over nearly 4 million Palestinians who have no democratic rights whatsoever.

It should be added that Israel’s accomplice is the Palestinian Authority.  It acts as Israel’s security contractor.  It does the dirty work and is rewarded with American and European aid.  It perpetuates the idea of a 2 State solution when no such solution is possible today, not that it ever was.  Its complicity in ‘the peace process’ helps maintain the Zionist camouflage that the present situation is a temporary one whereas the obvious truth is that it is   permanent.

Tony Greenstein

Palestinian protesters stand amid blazes of fire during clashes in the West Bank village of Burin on October 3, 2015.AFP

 Palestinians report more than 100 wounded after violent clashes erupt in West Bank 

Less than a day after deadly attack in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel Defense Forces carry out numerous arrest operations.

By Amira Hass | Oct. 4, 2015 | 2:11 PM

Violent clashes broke out Sunday morning across the West Bank between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces.

Israel's military deployed hundreds of troops in the West Bank following a drive-by shooting that killed a Jewish settler couple [AP]

Palestinians report that since the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem's Old City, in which Nehemia Lavie and Aharon Benita were killed and two were wounded, in addition to a separate attack that left a 15-year-old teen wounded, more than 100 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire and teargas in clashes with the army. Palestinians also report attacks by settlers. Demonstrators are protesting the Israel Police ban on non-resident Palestinians from entering the Old City. 

Zionist settlers, illegal colonists coming from all over the world to steal and occupy Palestinian land, armed with a green light to shoot and kill ...

The confrontations broke out at the Atara checkpoint north of Bir Zeit, at the Bayt Furik checkpoint, at the Al-Arub refugee camp between Bethlehem and Hebron, the Jalazun refugee camp north of Ramallah, and Jerusalem's Old City and Isawiyya neighborhood. The police have blocked entrance into Isawiyya, the home of Fadi Alon, who was shot to death by the police after moderately wounding a 15-year-old in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood.

Palestinians cast doubts on the Israeli report that Alon tried to stab a Jew. Based on a video that was distributed, they report that a group of Jews attacked him and called on the police to shoot him without reason.

Israeli soldiers patrol a street during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank City of  Nablus on Saturday.
(Photo: Reuters)

Before dawn on Sunday, a large military force broke into the Jenin refugee camp and surrounded the home of Qays a-Sa'adi, a member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It remains unknown whether he was in the home when it was hit by a LAW missile and destroyed.

At least 18 Palestinians were wounded, some seriously, in clashes that erupted between the army and youths. Three were arrested. A special army force entered the Arab hospital and arrested one of the patients, Karm al-Masri, 23, hospital officials told the Ma'an news agency.

The youth was hospitalized two days ago because of a broken hand, according to the hospital. While dragging Masri through the building stairwell toward the outside, the soldiers broke hospital surveillance cameras, the hospital director reported.

Around 2 A.M., army forces entered the village of Surda, north of Ramallah, in which lives the family of the terrorist from Saturday night's Old City attack, 19-year-old Mohannad Hallabi. The troops entered from different directions, accompanied by gunfire. According to the report, Palestinian youths spread out in the village streets late in the evening to protect the Hallabi home.

The soldiers dispersed them with teargas, stun grenades and live fire. According to the report, armed Palestinians also shot at the soldiers, who arrived by foot and in military vehicles. The force entered the home, conducted a search, interrogated the father and confiscated some of the terrorist's effects. The family removed all the home's contents, expecting the army to demolish it, although it had yet to receive a demolition order.

A group of Palestinian youths danced Saturday night next to the house, praising Hallabi and his deed, while his parents stood on the side, shocked and mute.

There were clashes between Palestinian youths and soldiers next to the Jalazun refugee camp, northeast of Surda. Soldiers shot and damaged and Palestinian ambulance, according to a Palestinian report. Two volunteers accompanying the medical crew were wounded.

There were also clashes in the Hebron area. Palestinians reported that a firebomb was thrown at a military jeep in Halhul, and a homemade explosive device was thrown an army position in Bayt Umar. Soldiers fired teargas and sponge bullets at Palestinian demonstrators both there and in other Palestinian communities in the Hebron area.

Three days have passed since the murder of the Henkin couple, and Palestinians in the West Bank know they have to drive cautiously on main arteries. Some reported hearing warnings from Palestinian security representatives. Official Palestinian sources have been reporting attacks and provocations by settlers in villages and in the areas of Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah. 

Immediately after the Saturday night terror attack in Jerusalem, Israelis attacked Burin, south of Nablus, setting village fields and groves on fire, according to Palestinian reports. The Israelis reportedly descended from the settlements of Yizhar and Bracha.

Palestinian media also reported on Israeli citizens, most likely settlers, attacking and wounding a 65-year-old security guard in Yatta's Sheikh Park. Another group of Israelis damaged the car of a Palestinian doctor at Reef Junction, south of Hebron. Others attacked the Dana family home in Hebron, next to Kiryat Arba, and broke into the A-Salayma neighborhood.

The army on Sunday morning set up temporary checkpoints on roads across the West Bank, causing long delays for Palestinian drivers and passengers. According to a Voice of Palestine report, the road between North Ramallah and Nablus was closed during the morning hours because of gatherings of settlers on the roadside and clashes between Palestinian youths and soldiers.  Nablus on Saturday.
(Photo: Reuters)