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08 May 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy
Articles
Israeli ministers back proposed law demoting Arabic language
by The Guardian, 08 May 2017
Israeli ministers have approved the wording of a new law that would downgrade Arabic as an official language and which states that the right to self-determination in Israel “is unique to the Jewish people”, despite the country’s sizeable non-Jewish minority. The go-ahead for the nation state bill by the ministerial committee for legislation means it will now move forward to a vote by the country’s parliament. The bill has to pass several stages in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, for it to become law and could also be challenged in the courts. Critics say the law is discriminatory and could undermine Israel’s balance of being both a Jewish and democratic state by harming the rights of minorities. Hebrew and Arabic are both Israel’s national languages, but the bill states that Hebrew would be the lone national language, downgrading Arabic to “a special status in the state” whose “speakers have the right to language-accessible state services”. The legislation is designed to be enshrined in Israel’s basic law, regarded as the closest approximation in Israel to a constitution. The timing of the bill – after four years of deliberations – is significant, coming two weeks before a planned visit by Donald Trump in which the US president had hoped to breath life into a moribund peace process.
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Daesh mounts fierce resistance on new Mosul front
by Middle East Monitor, 07 May 2017
Iraqi forces faced stiff resistance from Daesh in northwest Mosul on Sunday after opening a new front against the militants there in a push to rout them from the city after seven months of fighting. Trapped in a steadily shrinking area of the city, the militants are fighting back with a barrage of suicide car bombs and snipers concealed amongst hundreds of thousands of civilians they are effectively holding hostage. Having gained a foothold in the northern Musherfa district last week, Iraqi forces are trying to push down into the handful of remaining districts held by Daesh in Mosul, including the Old City. The Iraqi military said on Saturday the Musherfa district had been fully retaken, but officers told Reuters on Sunday there was still fighting there and smoke could be seen rising over the area by a Reuters reporter in east Mosul. A colonel from the ninth armoured division, which is taking part in the offensive, said: "Fighting Daesh in Musherfa with a large number of families still locked in their houses is making the battle more complicated". The new push from the northwest began last week after other fronts in the city’s southern districts stalled around the Old City where the iconic mosque from which Daesh leader proclaimed a modern-day caliphate is located.
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Iran’s presidential candidates vow to uphold nuclear deal in televised debate
By The Washington Post, 05 May 2017
Each of Iran’s six presidential candidates committed Friday to uphold a nuclear deal with world powers should he win the May 19 election, a vote widely seen as a potential referendum on the accord’s benefits for average Iranians. The statements of support came during a debate that was broadcast live on Iranian state television, the second of three scheduled for the short campaign season. President Hassan Rouhani, whose government negotiated the deal in exchange for sanctions relief, is facing five challengers. His critics have blasted the agreement, whose signatories include the United States, saying it has failed to usher in economic prosperity. The moderate Rouhani sought to defend his signature achievement against such criticisms, saying that without it, “instead of producing 2 million barrels of oil a day, that number would be as low as 200,000 barrels a day.” And he challenged his opponents — including hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran’s conservative mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf — to clarify their positions on the issue. “The candidates today should tell people in a straightforward manner what they plan to do” about the agreement, Rouhani said. The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, limits Iran’s nuclear program but has lifted some of the harshest sanctions on the country’s economy. Oil exports have rebounded, and inflation has dropped to single digits. But unemployment remains high, and non-oil-sector growth is sluggish.
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Khan Sheikhoun attack survivors recall horror
by Al Jazeera, 05 May 2017
On April 4, a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province left 91 people dead and at least 557 wounded. Among the dead were at least 29 internally displaced Syrians, according to the Syrian civil defence group the White Helmets. Some of the victims were as young as nine months old. "Can you imagine waking up early in the morning and seeing your children, convulsing, foaming and unable to breathe," said Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American doctor, in an interview over the phone. "It [the gas] affects your breathing muscles. You are completely alert but unable to breathe in or out. That's why this is the worst type of death," explains Sahloul, who still remembers pictures of the first chemical attack on his home city of Homs in 2012. The Khan Sheikhoun attack was yet another bloody chapter of the conflict in which Syrian civilians have been targeted with barrel bombs, phosphorous bombs, cluster munitions, bunker busters, chlorine, mustard gas and nerve agents, all intended for maximum casualties. The Syrian American Medical Society, based in Washington DC, where Sahloul works, has documented at least 175 cases of chemical attacks since the beginning of the war in 2011. "Any monster who justifies that and any monster who defends the person who uses it [poisonous gas] doesn't deserve to be called a leader in this world," Sahloul says.
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