18 Mar 2019 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

This is not yet a second Arab Spring — but sparks are beginning to fly
The Washington Post, 17 Mar 2019

The images of mass protests in Arab capitals, where demonstrators are demanding that corrupt and ageing rulers step down, may look anachronistic. Wasn’t the Arab Spring a few years ago? And didn’t it end with coups and civil wars that restored the old autocratic status quo? Well, yes and no.

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Congress members, activists slam Saudi human rights record
Al Jazeera, 14 Mar 2019

Members of the US Congress, activists and families of detainees have slammed Saudi Arabia's human rights record while urging the United States government to take action. The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year and the ongoing detention of rights activists were the main issues on the table at the press conference organised by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Washington on Thursday. Accusing the Saudi government of submitting dissidents to torture, harassment and smear campaigns, Amy Hawthorne, deputy director for research at Washington-based NGO Project on Middle East Democracy, stressed the need for the US to take a strong stand in defence of human rights.

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Algeria: Procrastinating Tactics Will Not Fool Protesters
The North Africa Post, 13 Mar 2019

It is clear that the ailing and embattled president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has not been able to deflate mass demonstrations or convince angry protesters demanding his departure, change, inclusive growth and democracy. After weeks of popular protests, Mr. Bouteflika, 82, announced on Monday that he would not run for a fifth term and postponed elections scheduled for April 18th to allow for consultation on reforms “for a new generation”, promising to leave “a new republic”. Algerians reacted with a mixture of relief and anger at Bouteflika’s surprising political decisions, announced upon his return to his country of 41 million after spending two weeks in a Swiss hospital. He said he would not seek re-election but would remain in charge while a revised constitution is drafted.

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Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East? Netanyahu’s comments have shattered that illusion
The Independent , 12 Mar 2019

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in the headlines on Sunday, after declaring on social media that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”. The Likud leader later doubled down, telling his cabinet that Israel is “the nation state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people”. Netanyahu’s comments are the latest grim episode in an election season that will see Israelis going to the polls on 9 April. Just last month, the prime minister helped engineer an election merger that could see far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) enter the Knesset. That latter piece of realpolitik, in particular, prompted outrage from a number of Israeli politicians, analysts and even US-based groups better known for their Israel advocacy.

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