Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East

My role as the movement's leader is to preserve its balance and unity, and ensure the maintenance of its moderate and centrist characteristics

Marking the 32nd anniversary of the establishment of Al-Nahda movement, Sheikh Rashid Al-Ghannouchi sat down with us for a comprehensive interview in which he addressed the meaning of this anniversary, Al-Nahda's internal affairs, the bloody events in Jebel Chaanbi, the most prominent matters linked to the democratic transition, and the prospects of the upcoming stage of Tunisia's transition to democracy. The following is the interview transcript.

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The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has cut off aid to Palestinian activists in a bid to boost peace efforts being promoted by US Secretary of State John Kerry, a senior Israeli military commander has claimed. The cuts are aimed at activists carrying out protests against Israeli settlements and military aggression in the occupied West Bank. Such protests, the activists say, highlight the PA's security cooperation with the Israeli occupation.

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The commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Hugo Delort-Laval, has blamed Israel for breaching the ceasefire between the two countries on more occasions than its northern neighbour, Israel Radio said on Wednesday. General Delort-Labal was speaking to students at Tel Aviv University when he made his remarks.

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Jewish settlers have damaged a number of cars in a Palestinian village to the west of Jerusalem and scrawled racist graffiti on houses. The tyres of 28 vehicles were slashed in the attack.

The residents of Abu-Gosh woke up to find the damaged cars and graffiti such as "Death to Arabs, Arabs Out" and "Price Tag". The village is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements.

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Israel has amended the path of its "apartheid" Separation Wall near the West Bank village of Rantis in order to include an area where it is believed oil may be discovered. The exploration is taking place on land on the Palestinian side of the so-called "Green" 1949 armistice line.

Of course, geology does not follow man-made borders, so international conventions leave some no-man's land between neighbouring countries. "Based on this rule, Israel is definitely stealing oil and gas which, by right, belongs to the Palestinians," local sources said.

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"It's better to die as a Fidaï than a man of the people," says Med El Hadi Benadouda on his life as one of the mujahideen soldiers whose goal it was to free Algeria from over a century of French imperialism and repression.

His family knew little about his life as a veteran before his great-nephew Damien Ounouri found a newspaper from 1962 revealing why he was in prison and wanted by police. At the age of 19 El Hadi moved to France and joined the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (FLN) to "weaken the military potential of the enemy and keep their armies out of Algeria." It was a clandestine group designed to "punish traitors" and "fight oppression."

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A Palestinian mother was arrested on Tuesday when she went to Israel's Hasharon Prison to visit her 16 year old son. Shadad Al-Awar's mother was detained in the waiting room of the prison on the pretext that she had forgotten to remove her mobile phone from her pocket, said the head of the Committee for Jerusalemite Detainees, Amjad Abu Asab.

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A senior Muslim Brotherhood official in Syria has warned that the Geneva conference aims to "extract concessions" from the rebels and "legitimise the Assad regime".

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The United States has announced a donation of $123 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The UN agency said on Tuesday that the US donation "will enable UNRWA to continue its work serving a population of some five million registered Palestine refugees in the region." This brings the total US contribution to UNRWA in 2013 to $244.5 million.

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