27 May 2019 NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

Egypt: Serious Abuses, War Crimes in North Sinai
Human Rights Watch, 28 May 2019

Egyptian military and police forces in the Sinai Peninsula are committing serious and widespread abuses against civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Some of these abuses, part of an ongoing campaign against members of the local ISIS affiliate, the Sinai Province group, amount to war crimes.

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Thousands march on Tel Aviv to protest Netanyahu immunity law
The Nation, 26 May 2019

Tens of thousands of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution while in office. The rally, which was named Stopping the Immunity Law — A Defensive Shield for Democracy, was the largest mass gathering since the social justice protests of 2011 that opposed the rising cost of living, according to organisers.

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Lebanon denies forcing Syrian refugees back home
AlJazeera, 25 May 2019

 At least sixteen deportees say they were pressured into signing forms saying they voluntarily agreed to return home. Lebanese security officials on Saturday denied allegations by human rights groups that they have forced Syrian refugees to sign documents saying they agreed to return to their home country.

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Iraq's Christians 'close to extinction'
BBC News, 23 May 2019

 The Archbishop of Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, has accused Britain's Christian leaders of failing to do enough in defence of the vanishing Christian community in Iraq. In an impassioned address in London, the Rt Rev Bashar Warda said Iraq's Christians now faced extinction after 1,400 years of persecution. 

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