Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East

"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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Author: Louisa B. Waugh
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: The Westbourne Press
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-908906-20-5

Book Review by Amelia Smith

It's hard to imagine anybody living a normal life in Gaza. Frequently labeled the world's largest open-air prison, the Strip makes an appearance fleetingly on news reports around the time Israel launches military operations on the population there. From TV sets thousands of miles away this tiny area of land has been reduced to an image of violence, chaos and destruction. So what then do the people look like? Do they dance and sing with their friends? Do they sit and drink coffee and talk about love, films and music?

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An Israeli Magistrate Court on Monday extended the detention of chief guard of al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Najeh Bkeerat, for the second time.

The court said that more time is needed to investigate Bkeerat on the grounds of allegations that he belongs to the Palestinian Islamic movement, Hamas.

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South Africa's Ambassador to Israel, Ismail Coovadia, has rejected a 'gift' from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The 'gift' came in the form of a certificate [click to view] indicating that 18 trees be planted in honour of the South African Ambassador and came with the backing of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The move by Coovadia is set to add to the already tense relations between Pretoria and Tel Aviv. In a hard hitting letter, Coovadia explains the reasoning for his actions:

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PICTURES

Long queues of vehicles are lining the streets in front of gas stations up and down the Gaza Strip in the latest gasoline crisis to have hit the Sector as a result of an increasing security crackdown over the underground tunnel system with Egypt.

Cheese factory owner, Abu-Haroun, who recently imported a shipment of raw material through the tunnels, said he has faced several difficulties in receiving the materials. He also said that he might be obliged to suspend production if other raw materials do not arrive in the next two days.

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The Jerusalem District Court has sentenced four former Israeli soldiers to only four months of community service after they were indicted for abusing a disabled Palestinian detainee in 2009, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that the indictment was filed against the former soldiers when a video documenting the incident was submitted to the Internal Affairs Division at the Israeli Justice Ministry. The footage helped investigators from the human rights group B'Tselem track down the victim, whose identity was not known up until that point.

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