Just Foreign Policy News
August 1, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
CPTer injured in Israeli settler attack on shepherds
On 27 July 2011, masked settlers from the Havat Ma’on outpost, armed with stones and an iron bar, harassed three Palestinian shepherds and attacked two international observers. The shepherds were out with their flocks on Palestinian land near Meshaha hill when the four masked settlers attacked them. They were able to get away, but the settlers then hit a CPTer in the head with an iron bar and destroyed his camera. He went to the hospital in Yatta and received eight stitches.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/827404
Al Jazeera English Launches In New York City
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/al-jazeera-english-launches-new-york-city_n_914359.html
Joseph Dana: Israel’s Reaction to Palestinian Nonviolence Threatens Israeli Democracy
The renewed momentum of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation since the fall of Mubarak has helped the struggle for human rights gain ascendance over U.S.-controlled diplomacy.
http://www.truth-out.org/palestinian-nonviolence-and-israels-reaction/1311859193
Americans for Peace Now: Israeli housing protests spotlight government priorities, including settlements
"Arab spring" – like protests in Israel have targeted the high cost of living. But as Americans for Peace Now notes, underlying the protests is government policy that prioritizes subsidizing Israeli settlements in the West Bank over helping Israelis who live inside the Green Line.
http://peacenow.org/entries/israeli_housing_protests_spotlight_govt_priorities_including_settlements
Afghanistan Study Group: See Where Key Leaders Stand On The Afghanistan War
ASG produces a graphic showing where various opinionators stand in the range from "escalate" to "total withdrawal."
http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/2011/08/01/afghanistan-study-group-info-graphic/
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Human rights groups said Afghan civilians are paying an increasingly high price for "reckless" coalition attacks, particularly aerial ones, the Independent reports. British military documents show that efforts to limit the death toll have been relegated to a "secondary consideration," the Independent says.
2) The U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, reported to Congress that Iraq is more dangerous now than it was a year ago, AP reports. Bowen accused the U.S. military of glossing over Iraq’s lack of security by comparing recent data to the height of the civil war.
3) Under the agreement on raising the debt ceiling, if a joint Congressional committee doesn’t agree on recommendations for cuts in spending, military spending would automatically be cut by $600 billion over the next ten years, the Washington Post reports. Some Republicans who oppose cuts to military spending are concerned that military spending could get "whacked," the Post says, but the President and Senator McCain believe that this mechanism wouldn’t actually be used.
4) On Saturday, a joint US-Iraq night raid killed a tribal elder and wounded two girls with shrapnel, the New York Times reports. The raid was likely to provide another rallying point for those opposed to a US troop presence beyond the end of the year, the Times says. The raid also underscores how a year after President Obama declared the official end of the "combat mission," US soldiers are still deeply engaged in fighting, the Times says. The elder’s son said his father was led away in handcuffs, raising troubling questions about the manner in which his father was killed, the Times notes.
5) Rebel fighters waged an eight-hour gunfight in Benghazi Sunday, against what their leaders called a "fifth column" of Qaddafi loyalists who had posed as a rebel brigade, adding to Western concerns about divisions in the rebels’ ranks, the New York Times reports. At the same time, leaders have taken an increasingly hostile and, some journalists said, threatening tone toward the news media, the Times says.
6) A new SIGAR audit found that a U.S. contractor in Iraq overbilled the Pentagon by at least $4.4 million for spare parts and equipment, including $900 for an electronic control switch valued at $7.05, Bloomberg reports. Based on the audit, the US should review all its contracts with the company in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total about $3.9 billion, Special Inspector General Bowen said.
Israel/Palestine
7) A huge protest movement in Israel over the cost of living is raising the question of challenging the government over its spending priorities, the New York Times reports. Twenty years ago, Prime Minister Rabin spoke of the need "to change the national order of priorities and the allocation of financial resources," cutting spending for settlements in the West Bank and redirecting resources to the towns in the Israeli Negev and Galilee. The left today hopes to revive itself with similar plans, the Times says.
8) Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in Kalandia refugee camp in the West Bank in a night raid early Monday, the New York Times reports. Witnesses and family members said the two were Ali Hassan Khalifeh, 26, a member of the Palestinian military intelligence force, and Moatassem Issa Adwan, 22, a student. Both were said to have been bystanders. The Times notes that the camp is in "Area A" – supposedly under Palestinian control, but subject to Israeli raids at night.
Bahrain
9) Tens of thousands marched outside Bahrain’s capital Manama, protesting against the results of a national dialogue they say has failed to bring real democratic reform, Al Jazeera reports. The proposed reforms grant more powers of scrutiny to the elected lower house of parliament but preserve the dominance of the upper house appointed by the royal elite. Protesters on Friday had hoped to stage a protest outside the US embassy, but were blocked by riot police.
Honduras
10) Honduras will support Palestine’s efforts to achieve recognition as member of the United Nations, writes Billy Peña in Honduras Weekly. This is good news not only for the Palestinians but also for Honduras, Peña argues, because on this issue, at least, Honduras is following the Latin American position, not taking dictation from the U.S.
Peru
11) UNDP says it plans to support the government of President Humala in its efforts to achieve social inclusion in the country, Living in Peru reports. A new agreement signed with Peru would provide a series of programs such as improving basic services, addressing the chronic malnutrition of children, improving the quality of education and promoting bilingual education for indigenous and rural communities.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghan civilians pay lethal price for new policy on air strikes
Reducing ‘collateral damage’ is seen as a ‘secondary consideration’ as the coalition prepares withdrawal
Brian Brady, The Independent, Sunday, 31 July 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-civilians-pay-lethal-price-for-new-policy-on-air-strikes-2329180.html
Civilians are bearing the brunt of the international forces’ onslaught against the Taliban as the coalition rushes to pacify Afghanistan before pulling out its troops, it was claimed last night.
Human rights groups warned that civilians are paying an increasingly high price for "reckless" coalition attacks, particularly aerial ones. The Ministry of Defence confirmed last week that five Afghan children were injured in an air strike carried out by a British Apache attack helicopter.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) has found that the rate of civilian casualties has reached a record high, with 1,462 killed in January to June this year. But, while the number of civilian victims of "pro-government action" fell, those who died as a result of coalition air attacks were 14 per cent higher than in the same period in 2010 – despite the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) issuing "tactical directives" designed to minimise risk to civilians.
Internal documents from the MoD’s steering group on combat identification, obtained by The Independent on Sunday, show that efforts to limit the death toll have been relegated to a "secondary consideration", behind work to reduce the number of troops killed by "friendly fire".
Around 100 Isaf troops have been killed or injured by "blue on blue" attacks by colleagues since 2001, and the rate of such casualties has declined over the decade.
However, official estimates suggest that thousands of Afghan civilians have died as a result of coalition action since 2001.
[…] Sahr Muhammedally, of Human Rights Watch, said: "In the past two years, Isaf has issued tactical directives to restrict practices that cause civilian casualties but, as the recent Unama report shows, air strikes were the leading cause for civilian casualties by Isaf in 2011. "Although 80 per cent of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2011 were caused by insurgents, Afghans are more outraged when Isaf causes collateral damage… because they expect Isaf to have the capacity to avoid such harm with their precision technology and promises of protection of the people."
Sam Zarifi, Asia Pacific director at Amnesty International, acknowledged that the number of civilians killed by coalition forces had fallen and that Isaf’s conduct had improved – "except in terms of air strikes". But he warned that civilian safety was likely to get worse as the deadline nears for security responsibilities to be handed over to Afghan forces.
Mr Zarifi said: "We are expecting a real deterioration in the situation for the people of Afghanistan. The military surge has been met by a surge from the Taliban and they see civilians as soft targets."
The MoD documents, obtained under Freedom of Information law, show that British military chiefs recognised a "strategic imperative" to cut the number of personnel killed or injured by their own side – especially as they faced cash shortages and fears that troops would not have the right identification equipment until 2018.
However, the steering group also found that "the avoidance of collateral damage, or neutracide, is a secondary consideration", and that "the primary focus would remain improving operational effectiveness, while reducing the risk of fratricide (first) and neutracide (firmly second)".
[…]
2) US review finds Iraq deadlier now than a year ago
Lara Jakes, Associated Press, Sat, Jul 30, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/us-review-finds-iraq-deadlier-now-ago-041043021.html
Baghdad – Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday.
The findings come during what U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. called "a summer of uncertainty" in Baghdad over whether American forces will stay past a year-end withdrawal deadline and continue military aid for the unstable nation.
"Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Bowen concluded in his 172-page quarterly report to Congress and the Obama administration on progress – and setbacks – in Iraq. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago."
The report cited the deaths of 15 U.S. soldiers in June, the bloodiest month for the U.S. military in Iraq in two years. Nearly all of them were killed in attacks by Shiite militias bent on forcing out American troops on schedule.
It also noted an increase in rockets launched against the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where government offices and foreign embassies are located, as well as constant assassination attempts against Iraqi political leaders, security forces and judges.
[…] Bowen accused the U.S. military of glossing over Iraq’s instability, noting a statement in late May by the U.S. military that described Iraq’s security trends as "very, very positive" – but only when compared to 2007, when the country was on the brink of civil war. In contrast, Bowen talked of "the very real fragility" of national security in Iraq today.
[…]
3) The debt deal and defense spending
Jason Ukman, Washington Post, 09:51 AM ET, 08/01/2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/the-debt-deal-and-defense-spending/2011/08/01/gIQAaiWJnI_blog.html
The fine print in the deal to raise the debt limit scares the daylights out of defense hawks – and even some middle-of-the-roaders on Pentagon spending – and not without reason.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work: Assuming passage of the first round of spending cuts, a joint bipartisan committee will set to work on recommendations for a second round, negotiating for about four months before reporting back. If the committee reaches agreement, great. If it doesn’t, a "trigger" mechanism kicks in.
And that trigger mechanism would force automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion to agency budgets over the next decade, split half and half between domestic programs and defense.
To put that $600 billion in perspective, it’s worth noting that the federal government was already looking at reducing projected spending on national security by about $400 billion over the next 12 years. That has prompted the Pentagon to initiate a "comprehensive review" of its spending and, in doing so, to confront huge questions about how to trim costs while recalibrating the military’s ambitions.
[…] There are some defense experts who don’t see the situation as quite that bleak. Even if it would mean a reduction in personnel, that reduction would come as the war in Afghanistan winds down. And spending reductions overall would represent a much smaller percentage decline then the Pentagon undertook at the end of the Cold War.
"It’s not like it would be whacking America’s defense budget to the bone," Gordon Adams, who oversaw national-security budgets for the Clinton White House, told The Post this month, when the Pentagon was already bracing itself for cuts exceeding $400 billion.
The hope among many at the Defense Department – and on Capitol Hill – is that the joint bipartisan committee can strike a deal that spreads around the pain just enough to win agreement, and that the Pentagon won’t end up bearing an outsized burden.
That’s the White House’s hope, too. The president "has not called for and would not support these kinds of cuts in defense spending," press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.
For now, however, there’s at least some fear that the Pentagon might get whacked. "I am very concerned about the defense spending side of it. I wouldn’t have put that in there," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told CBS’s "Early Show," adding that he "probably will have to swallow hard" before voting for the measure to raise the debt ceiling.
That said, McCain, like the White House, is hoping for compromise. "I also believe that it won’t come to that, in that I believe that this select committee, they’ll come up with some pretty good and viable solutions," he said. "I’m convinced."
[…]
4) In Iraqi Village, a Raid Sows Distrust of Americans
Tim Arango and Duraid Adnan, New York Times, August 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html
Al Rufait, Iraq – The American and Iraqi soldiers came to this village of grape farmers and tribal traditions in the dark in search of a suspected insurgent, and left in the morning sunlight.
In the hours between, however, the operation went horribly wrong: the suspect eluded capture, but three men, including a tribal elder, were killed and five people were wounded, among them two young girls.
The next day, on Sunday morning, the villagers submitted to the grief rituals familiar to Iraqi life. Young men were erecting a tent for the three-day funeral that would begin later in the day. A mother displayed the bloodied garment her son, a local teacher, had been wearing when he was shot dead. Inside, a woman cried and wailed about her dead brother: "Why did you leave me?"
The men mostly wanted to get answers and to vent their anger against the Americans, even though the operation had been led by Iraqi security forces.
The raid and the deaths prompted outrage on Monday in Parliament and in the local press, and coincide with an ongoing debate about the future role of the United States military here. They are likely to provide another rallying point for those opposed to an American troop presence beyond the end of the year, when the military is required, under current agreements, to withdraw completely.
But they also underscore how nearly a year after President Obama declared the official end of the combat mission, American soldiers are still deeply engaged in the fighting on two fronts: against Sunni insurgents in the Sunni-dominated areas north of Baghdad like Salahuddin Province, where this village is located, and against Shiite militias in the south, which are responsible for a sharp increase in combat-related deaths of American soldiers.
It is a war fought largely beyond public scrutiny, and is visited upon small villages and urban neighborhoods almost nightly, when Iraqi and American Special Forces teams descend on homes in search of weapons and insurgents. Shots are rarely fired, yet sometimes, as happened early Saturday in this Sunni village just south of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, there are lethal consequences.
"The war is not over," said Sheik Youseff Ahmad, a leader of the Al Rufait tribe, which he said has farmed the land here for hundreds of years.
[…] Sheik Ahmad and his tribesmen condemned the operation, which the American military said was aimed at a suspected member of an insurgent group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and carried out with an Iraqi judicial warrant.
Predictably, in the fog-of-war aftermath of the raid, competing stories emerged. Sheik Ahmad had first said that some villagers opened fire when the raid began, thinking they were under attack by insurgents. The American military verified this, yet the next day residents said they had never fired weapons.
[…] When the raid began shortly after 1 a.m., villagers said 16 people, including many children, were sleeping on the roof – a common practice in Iraq to escape the heat and shortages of electricity to power air-conditioners – of the first house the American and Iraqi soldiers went to. The soldiers apparently took fire from the roof, and responded by tossing a grenade. "Immediately thereafter, the lethal fires ceased," wrote the American military spokesman.
The next day the roof was pockmarked from the impact of the grenade, and footprints in blood smeared the floor. Two young girls had been wounded by shrapnel, villagers said.
Villagers also said that when the operation was finished – about six hours after it began, they said – they discovered the body of their tribal elder, Sheik Hameed Hassan, who was in his mid-60s, blindfolded and handcuffed with his arms behind his back.
The sheik’s son, Majid Hameed, said he watched through a window as his father was handcuffed and led away from the house, an account that raises troubling questions about the manner in which his father was eventually killed.
[…] Convulsed by grief and anger, the villagers denounced the style of democracy left in the wake of America’s war. "This is the freedom they brought us?" said one man among a crowd outside the fallen sheik’s house.
[…] "We are going to sue the Americans for it," said Mr. Hassan. "We will follow them with the legal process and the courts."
5) Benghazi Clash Exposes Cracks In Rebel Ranks
David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, July 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/world/africa/01libya.html
Benghazi, Libya – Rebel fighters challenging the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waged an eight-hour gunfight here in their de facto capital on Sunday, against what their leaders called a "fifth column" of Qaddafi loyalists who had posed as a rebel brigade. It was the latest sign of discord and trickery in the rebel ranks to emerge in the four days since the killing of the rebels’ top military leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, a former Qaddafi confidant who had defected to their side.
The mysterious circumstances of his death have raised new questions about his own loyalties, and about the unity and discipline of the rebel troops. The rebel leaders’ response to the killing has produced a cascade of conflicting stories, hints of conflicts within the rebel government and signs that its leaders are deeply fearful of tribal animosities within their ranks, despite their efforts to portray Libya’s tribal rivalries as antiquated and obsolete.
At the same time, leaders have taken an increasingly hostile and, some journalists said, threatening tone toward the news media.
The developments come at a time when many foreign governments, including the United States, are recognizing the rebels’ governing council as the legitimate government of Libya, with the possibility of turning over to the rebels millions of dollars in frozen Qaddafi government assets.
The gunfight in the city began on Sunday just after midnight and lasted until about 8 a.m. Neighbors hid in their homes as assault rifles, revolvers and rocket-propelled grenades rang out, badly damaging homes and cars around the license plate factory where the so-called fifth column group, numbering several dozen people, was holed up.
In one house that was opened to reporters, the trail of a wounded fighter’s blood led down the stairs from a blast hole made by a grenade. But reporters were not allowed in the factory.
At a news conference on Sunday, rebel leaders said that three of their own fighters had died and eight were wounded in besieging and ultimately capturing the fighters in the factory. Of the fighters in the factory, they said, four died and at least 12 were wounded.
Rebel leaders said they had undertaken the assault in part because of a new drive to bring quasi-independent armed brigades around the city under the direct authority of the rebel military and security forces. It has been five months since the Libyan conflict broke out, and nearly as long since the rebels first talked of establishing a unified command. But the killing of General Younes focused new attention on the disorder among their brigades.
[…] Since Friday, rebel officials have been bluntly warning reporters that they could face legal action over what they write, and they have singled out certain journalists whose reports they called inaccurate and divisive, though they did not offer specifics.
Asked why the rebel government was not more open about its investigation of the general’s death, Mr. Bani replied by questioning the motives of journalists.
"We don’t know if anybody here is a fifth column," he said of the reporters at a news conference. "It is very difficult to determine who is with you and who is against you in a time of conflict, because you don’t necessarily have to hold a weapon. With a word or a rumor they can cause a lot of deaths."
6) Dubai Company Billed U.S. $900 for $7.05 Iraq Electric Switch, Audit Says
David Lerman and Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg, Jul 30, 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-30/dubai-firm-overbilled-pentagon-900-for-7-switch-bowen-says.html
A U.S. contractor in Iraq overbilled the Pentagon by at least $4.4 million for spare parts and equipment, including $900 for an electronic control switch valued at $7.05, according to a new audit.
Based on the questionable costs identified in a $300 million contract with Dubai-based Anham LLC, the U.S. should review all its contracts with the company in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total about $3.9 billion, said Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen.
"The audit found weak oversight in multiple areas that left the government vulnerable to improper overcharges," Bowen wrote in the forward to his 30th quarterly report, released today. The contract in question was funded with a combination of money earmarked for Iraqi Security Forces and Army operations and maintenance funds.
Among the "egregious examples of overbilling" by Anham were $4,500 for a circuit breaker valued at $183.30, $3,000 for a $94.47 circuit breaker and $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41.
[…] Bowen’s latest tally of Iraq spending shows that six months before the remaining 46,000 U.S. combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq, the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, since the Iraq war began, had executed 34,728 contracting actions or grants totaling $35.9 billion.
The special inspector general, created to serve as a watchdog over U.S. reconstruction aid in Iraq, questioned almost 39 percent, or $4.4 million, of the $11.4 million in contract costs it reviewed.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
7) Israelis Feel Tug of Protests, Reviving the Left’s Spirits
Ethan Bronner, New York Times, July 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/world/middleeast/01israel.html
Jerusalem – For years Israelis told themselves they had to suppress major domestic difficulties to deal first with their existential challenge. Security needs required collective sacrifice.
So as the quality of education declined and wages stagnated, as apartment prices rose and wealth grew concentrated in fewer hands, little political pressure arose. The real threats, it was widely asserted, remained those from Iran, radical Islam and Palestinian violence. Little else mattered.
In the space of two weeks, that conventional wisdom has softened with the rise of a huge protest movement over the cost of living and the sense that, despite soaring national wealth, the paycheck of the average Israeli does not cover family expenses. What started as a modest Facebook-driven protest by young people over housing prices has mushroomed into what many analysts suspect could be one of the more significant political developments here in years – and a possible opening for the defeated left.
On Saturday night, 150,000 people took to the streets across the country demanding "social justice," one of the biggest demonstrations in Israel’s history and its largest protest ever over social and economic issues.
[…] One of the most debated questions is whether the movement is creating an opening for the country’s battered and dormant political left to challenge [Netanyahu’s] leadership. Many think the answer is yes but only if it stays focused on social and economic issues and avoids the geopolitical and security ones where its views are in the minority.
Last week, the powerful Histadrut labor federation announced its strong support for the protests.
"The left has risen back to life," Shai Golden, deputy editor of the newspaper Maariv, said in a column on Sunday. "It hasn’t yet dared to let the words ‘occupation’ and ‘settlements’ cross its lips and to cite the social and economic price that they have cost Israel over the course of the past four decades." The new movement, he added, would be "the social left."
Two decades ago, when Yitzhak Rabin defeated Yitzhak Shamir for prime minister, ending 15 years of domination by the conservative Likud Party, Mr. Rabin spoke of the need "to change the national order of priorities and the allocation of financial resources." He largely froze settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza and said he was redirecting resources to the towns in the Israeli Negev and Galilee.
The left today hopes to revive itself with similar plans. The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, who is an independent with roots in Labor, said in an interview in Maariv on Sunday that the theme of the new movement is "social justice, meaning a change in priorities." He listed education, health care and affordable housing. He added of the Saturday night protest, "This was a landmark event. The norms that have been accepted in the past will not be in the future."
The left hopes that in the coming year or two it could sweep back to power through a focus on social issues and then, in the bargain, shift the country’s external policy. The left would heavily curtail settlement building in the West Bank and has shown greater willingness to yield territory to the Palestinians and to share Jerusalem in a two-state solution.
[…]
8) Israelis Kill 2 as West Bank Raid Goes Awry
Ethan Bronner, New York Times, August 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html
Kalandia, West Bank – Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in this refugee camp early Monday after raiding several houses and being set upon by stone-throwing Palestinians.
Witnesses and family members said the two were Ali Hassan Khalifeh, 26, a member of the Palestinian military intelligence force, and Moatassem Issa Adwan, 22, a student. Both were said to have been bystanders in the melee, which occurred around 3 a.m. as residents were preparing to eat and pray in advance of the day-long fast on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Israeli army said that its soldiers had gone into Kalandia for "routine arrests," that a "mass riot" had broken out and that the soldiers responded with riot control tactics followed by live fire. It said five soldiers were slightly injured but had no information on the Palestinian casualties. The army said it made three arrests.
Camp residents who gathered at midday at a mosque for the Palestinians’ funerals said the raid involved scores of Israeli troops. They said that people up early for Ramadan saw the troops and began throwing stones at them. Israeli reinforcements came in shooting, they said.
The Palestinian Authority issued an angry statement saying that "Israeli forces were raiding the camp’s houses, destroying personal property and beating up people of all ages." It added that on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel "sent a message of greetings to the Arab and Muslim world on the start of the holy month of Ramadan."
"His greetings," it continued, "were shortly followed by a deadly attack against Palestinians in the Kalandia refugee camp."
Bullet holes were evident on the outer walls of several houses in the Antar neighborhood of the camp, where the confrontations occurred.
One resident, Wajeh Ismael Al Khatib, said the soldiers raided his house in search of two of his grandsons. The boys were not there, he said, but they ended up arresting a third grandson, also named Wajeh, age 20, beating and handcuffing him before telling him to report for questioning in the morning.
Kalandia, near Ramallah, is part of the West Bank known as Area A, which is policed and secured during the day by Palestinian Authority forces. The Israeli military reserves the right to enter it at night. In a recent interview, a top Israeli military commander said his troops made about half a dozen nightly raids in Area A.
[…] Last week, Israeli troops raided a well-known theater in Jenin, arresting two. Two weeks, ago a 21-year-old Palestinian man was killed in a raid on a refugee camp near the city of Nablus.
[…]
Bahrain
9) Protesters reject Bahrain dialogue results
Demonstrators from Gulf country’s Shia majority say monarchy-sponsored report does not meet expectations.
Al Jazeera, 29 Jul 2011 20:57
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011729182110531596.html
Tens of thousands have marched outside Bahrain’s capital Manama, protesting against the results of a national dialogue they say has failed to bring real democratic reform in the Gulf island kingdom.
Shouting "We want freedom" and waving Bahraini flags and banners that read "No to dialogue", protesters marched along Budaiya highway on Friday as helicopters from the security forces buzzed overhead.
Some began to shout "Down, down, Hamad" in the Friday march, which organisers entitled "The people are the source of authority".
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on Thursday approved parliamentary reforms submitted by a state-appointed body dialogue commission.
[…] The changes grant more powers of scrutiny to the elected lower house of parliament but preserve the dominance of the upper house appointed by the royal elite.
[…] Protesters on Friday had hoped to stage a protest outside the US embassy in Manama ahead of their evening march. But riot police set up several checkpoints to block entrance to the area.
Honduras
10) Honduras Breaks Tradition, Will Recognize Palestine
Billy Peña, Honduras Weekly, Saturday, 30 July 2011 20:16
http://hondurasweekly.com/honduras-breaks-tradition,-will-recognize-palestine-201107313908/
President Lobo has given us a huge surprise by stating that Honduras will support Palestine’s efforts to achieve recognition as member of the United Nations at the organization’s next General Assembly meeting.
Many of us may be overlooking the full significance of President Porfirio Lobo’s decision to extend diplomatic recognition to Palestine, whose people have always dreamt of being accepted as a free and independent nation. If the existence of Israel can be guaranteed, then Palestine should be treated equally. If this had been the case, we would have avoided a great deal of instability in the Middle East, terrorism around the world, and a long series of uprisings and wars involving the Israelis and Palestinians. The position of the United States government — one of the architects of the State of Israel — was never a just one. The US never gave much consideration to the fate of the Palestinian people, leaving them to wander in the desert.
Since Honduras has always fallen within the political orbit of the US, it has been natural that we would be on the side of Israel and against the Palestinians. However, President Lobo has given us a huge surprise by stating that Honduras will support Palestine’s efforts to achieve recognition as a member of the United Nations at the organization’s next General Assembly meeting. I was speechless when I heard the news, which I think is favorable not only to Palestine, but also to Honduras.
Finally, we are breaking with anachronistic shackles. Honduras has long been like a little chick following its mother hen — the US. It appears, though, that the times are quickly changing. The Honduran position will be made official when the General Assembly convenes in New York in September. The US government will no doubt be bowled over not only by Honduras’ major reversal of foreign policy, but also because the country has aligned itself with the stance adopted by the United Nations of South America (Unasur).
[…]
Peru
11) UN to support Peru with social inclusion programs
PeruthisWeek.com, August 1, 2011
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-248-UN-to-support-Peru-with-social-inclusion-programs-/
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has stated it plans to support the government of Peruvian President Ollanta Humala in its efforts to achieve social inclusion in the country.
UNDP representative in Lima, Rebeca Arias noted that the UNDP has scheduled a $465 million fund for cooperation with Peru during the next five years, a significant portion of that amount would be for social inclusion programs.
The new cooperation agreement signed with Peru for the 2012-2016 period, would provide a series of programs such as improving basic services, addressing the chronic malnutrition of children, improving the quality of education and promoting bilingual education for indigenous and rural communities.
According to an article in Andina, Arias noted that the new agreement with Peru includes five major areas: economic growth with social inclusion and respectable work, strengthening democratic governance and social protection and access to basic social services.
As well as programs focusing on environmental management, climate change, disaster management, and protection of cultural heritage.
[…]
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https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/blog/dailynews