Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East
April Guest Writer
News from Africa
'You are heroes,' Egyptian judge tells killers of January 25 protesters before acquitting them
VIDEO
An Egyptian judge offered apologies to officers accused of shooting protesters to death during the January 25 revolution.
Egypt: More than 20,000 detainees to start 'uprising'
For the first time since the July 3 coup, thousands of Egyptian prisoners announced they would join an "uprising" against the politicization of justice in post-coup Egypt.
Egyptian minister of transitional justice slams the January 25 revolution
The Egyptian military-appointed minister of transitional justice slammed the January 25 revolution as "a phenomenon" that fragmented the state and spread "double-citizenship".
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News from the Middle East
Syrian regime attacks Homs with lethal gas several times during this week
Syrian activists have accused the regime of dropping lethal explosive barrels on the most condensed residential areas in the northern countryside of Hama.
Iraqi MP warns of potential massacre in Diyala
Head of human rights committee in the Iraqi parliament, Salim al-Jibouri, warned on Friday that a new massacre could be committed by the official Iraqi "militias" in Al-Mokhaisa village in the Governorate of Diyala.
Senior Lebanese politicians: Assad is suffering from paranoia
The leader of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt said that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is suffering from paranoia and Syria is heading to "complete disintegration."
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News from Europe and Russia
Activists in London demand justice for Palestinian prisoners
IMAGES
International activists staged protests in London and other major cities around the world on what is known as Palestinian Prisoners' Day, which this year fell on Thursday, to express solidarity with Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.
New EU restrictions on Egyptian agricultural exports
The EU Commission in Brussels has issued a new decision to double check the Egyptian agricultural exports to countries within the EU.
Morocco sentences British paedophile to 20 years in prison
A Moroccan Criminal Court sentenced on Tuesday a British man to 20 years in prison on charges of attempting to kidnap and rape three minors, a judicial source reported.
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband: The basis of the success of negotiations is the recognition of a Palestinian state
The basis for the success of the negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis depends on Israeli recognition of a viable independent Palestinian state, living side by side with the State of Israel, the leader of the British Labour Party and opposition Ed Miliband said.
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News from Asia, the Americas, & International Organisations
US concerned by the 'dire and tragic' situation in Homs
In her daily press briefing, the spokeswoman of the US State Department Jennifer Psaki said that the United States "is deeply concerned by the dire and tragic situation in Homs, the latest instance in which the Assad regime is brutalizing its own population."
New campaign seeks to suspend Israel's FIFA membership
American and Arab sports activists in the United States have launched the Red Card Israeli Racism campaign calling for Israel to be expelled from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) on the grounds of Israel's repeated violations of Palestinian athletes' rig...
US should save Egypt from a looming solvency crisis, think tank
A report by the Council on Foreign Relations suggested that Egypt is close to experiencing an economic deadlock and that the US must intervene to rescue Egypt from impending insolvency.
Carter says Israel possesses more than 300 nuclear warheads
Israel possesses more than 300 nuclear warheads, former US President Jimmy Carter told MSNBC last week.
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Latest In-Depth Articles
Israel, settler violence and calculated differentiation
Settler-colonial violence has rarely prompted any condemnation from Israel and its institutions. Regularly dismissed as isolated incidents despite the constant phenomenon and its deleterious effects upon Palestinians, settler violence is sanctioned by the Zionist state. Its perpetrators are regaled with impunity for upholding the historical violence that facilitated the establishment of the settler-colonial state.
Do Arab states really engage with human rights?
With growing demands for "bread, freedom and social justice" across the Arab Spring countries, many have started to question the status of human rights in the region and, more specifically, whether Arab states actually have any engagement with them in any meaningful way. Brutal clamp-downs and massacres by state security services have been accompanied by international support for regime changes, from the likes of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others.
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MEMO Commentary & Analysis
The EU and Middle East democracy
Is there any difference between the forthcoming presidential elections in Egypt and Syria? The Europe Union apparently believes that there is. While the EU has dismissed the Syrian process as a "parody of democracy", the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, conveyed an entirely different outlook on the election in Egy...
DEBATE by Ben White
From ethnic cleansing to return: a peace process worthy of the name
This week marks the 66th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Miska, a Palestinian village whose roughly 1,000-strong population was expelled in April 1948 by Haganah forces. Located around 10 miles from Qalqilya, Miska boasted 100-200 houses, an elementary school for boys, and a mosque.
INQUIRY by Asa Winstanley
Palestinian Prisoners' Day remains central
Thursday here in Palestine was Prisoners' Day, and demonstrations of solidarity were held across the West Bank and Gaza . The annual event calls for the release of Palestinian political prisoners from Israel's jails, and freedom from its kangaroo court system of military injustice.
