Palestinian Flag Raised at UNESCO for First Time
Local Editor – moqawama.com

The Palestinian flag was raised at the headquarters of the Unites National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the first time.
Attending the event held in Paris on Tuesday, Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbass stated that joining the UNESCO has been an important step for Palestinians.

After the ceremony, Abbass held a press conference in which he referred to the ongoing “Israeli” settlement activities, stressing that “Israeli” has to “stop its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.”

Moreover, Abbass indicated that peace is a right to be spread everywhere, especially in the Gaza Strip and within all the occupied territories.

Since Palestine submitted its bid for full membership at the UN Security Council last September, the UNESCO was the first UN agency to welcome the Palestinians to join. …source

Special forum on “Justice for Murdered and Disappeared Journalists”
9 December 2011 – Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders and its partner organization, the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), have decided to wage a joint campaign against the violence and impunity that Mexican journalists have been suffering for the past decade.

To this end, they are organizing a forum on “Justice for Murdered and Disappeared Journalists” in Mexico City on 10 December. The venue is opposite the memorial to Francisco Zarco, a famous journalist, politician and member of the 1857 constituent assembly.

Reporters Without Borders and CEPET would like to thank all those who have already confirmed their intention to attend. They include leading journalists, politicians and civil society representatives, relatives of journalists who have been murdered, and Alan García, the delegate of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico. Reporters Without Borders will be represented by the head of its Americas Desk, Benoît Hervieu.

The two partner organizations would also like to thank the cartoonist Rafael “Rapé” Pineda for his support. Pineda is one of the cartoonists contributing to the “¡Basta de Sangre!” – “No + sangre” campaign which Reporters Without Borders has been relaying on its website all year.

In the past decade, Mexico has come to rank not far behind Pakistan as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. The overwhelming majority of the 80 murders of journalists since 2000 have gone unpunished. Another 14 journalists have disappeared since 2003. The situation has deteriorated even more since the start of a federal offensive against drug trafficking after President Felipe Calderón’s installation in December 2006, from which the toll stands at 50,000 dead. …more

Mexico: New murder of person linked to the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity
Trinidad de la Cruz (@MPJD) – SIPAZ

On 7 December 2011 was found the body of Trinidad de la Cuz, leader of the community of Xayakalan, Michoacán, following his kidnapping the previous day by a group of armed men who took him while he was being accompanied by members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD). Since 6 December, a commission of 12 persons from the MPJD had found themselves in the zone to participate in a community assembly in Santa María Ostula.

It should be remembered that Santa María Ostula has been besieged by paramilitary groups since 2009, when the communards retook close to 1300 hectares that had been seized from them by “small property-owners” in La Placita, Michoacán. The community has organized its own “communal police,” asserting its right to exercise its own forms of justice and self-defense. This situation has resulted in the death of 27 persons and the disappearance of five others. On 7 October, Pedro Leyva was also murdered, just before participating in the second dialogue between the MPJD and President Felipe Calderón.

The MPJD has announced that it will suspend a series of actions it had planned during these days to call attention to the high level of vulnerability experienced by human-rights defenders. …source

Debates: ‘No confidence’ in Bahrain reform plan
13 December, 2011 – Shia Post

Nabeel Rajab, Christopher Davidson, Tim Sebastian, Abdulla Alderazi and Khaled al-Maeena participate in the debate on Bahrain’s future, held at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar for the first time.

The willingness and capability of the Bahraini authorities to implement reforms in the kingdom came under the spotlight at the Doha Debates last night, where 78% of the audience voted in favour of the motion that: ‘This house has no confidence in Bahrain’s promises to reform.’
Chairman of the debates, Tim Sebastian introduced the discussion by referring to the recent report commissioned by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa into the violence and alleged torture which took place in Bahrain earlier this year, describing it as “chilling reading,” but reminding the audience that this report represents an unprecedented step for a monarch in admitting that mistakes had been made and serious offences committed.

First to speak for the motion was human rights activist and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, who passionately expressed his belief that the current regime must be changed if any reform is to take place in Bahrain.

“How can we trust a government which has been there for 42 years to make any reforms?” he asked incredulously, arguing that member of the ruling family have such control over the country that any meaningful dialogue or reform process is impossible while the current regime remains intact.

He suggested the King Hamad made a calculated choice to commission his own inquiry into the violence rather than allowing a UN inquiry to investigate, allowing him to distance himself from accepting responsibility for events.

Editor-at-large of Saudi-based Arab News, Khaled al-Maeena was first to speak against the motion, expressing his opinion that the actions of young people throughout the Arab world have made reform an inevitability for Bahrain and other countries in the region.

He said Bahraini authorities will have to reform if they wish to remain in power, describing the issue as one of survival as opposed to a choice.

“The events were extremely sad and should never have happened,” he said, adding “the focus of the world is now on the Arab world and no longer can leaders afford to ignore these people.”

“Young people will not take the nonsense they took before,” he added.

Next to speak for the motion was Christopher Davidson from the University of Durham, an expert and author of numerous books about politics in the region. Davidson referred to the measures being taken by the king as “papering over cracks,” claiming that the ruler has been taking face-saving measures for the past 10 years to ensure that he remains in power. …more

Who Does Bahrain Pay to Make It Look Good? – Human-rights abusing country employs D.C. lobbyists in surprising ways
united re:Public – 12 December, 2011

Bahrain has used DC lobby firms to improve its image during Arab Spring protests. Credit: Wikipedia

The Arab Spring has been good business for lobby shops in Washington. Despotic regimes have long sought to improve their reputations abroad, especially in the United States.

Bahrain, like many of its neighbors in the Middle East, has seen its share of demonstrations where security forces have been brutally violent toward protesters. But, as Ken Silverstein reports in Salon, that’s not always the story you’ll read when you Google “Bahrain.”

…to judge from Tom Squitieri — the self-described “stargazer, Award winning reporter, communications crafter” who has tweeted and blogged about events in Bahrain for Huffington Post and the Foreign Policy Association — demonstrators are largely to blame for the violence.

Squitieri states in his blog posts that he “works with the Bahrain government on media awareness and press freedom,” which is an odd way of describing work that amounts to propaganda…Nor does he mention anywhere that he is an employee of Qorvis Communications, a Washington firm that is registered to lobby for the government of Bahrain.

Silverstein notes that foreign governments, especially those with bad reputations, have started “meta-lobbying” using tactics that advance their interests through other means such as:

making contributions to think tanks and universities; arranging for allegedly independent pro-democracy groups to shill for their bogus elections, funding bilateral business associations that focus on trade issues while advocating, directly or indirectly, for enhanced political ties; and influencing the media and public opinion by hiring American opinion-makers to mouth their talking points.

It’s not just Bahrain. Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, for example, paid the Monitor Group of Cambridge, Mass. $250,000 each month to burnish his image. They employed people like historian Francis Fukuyama, scholar Bernard Lewis, neoconservative Richard Perle, and Harvard professor Joseph Nye to advocate on the Libyan regime’s behalf. …more

Did America help stifle the Arab Spring?
From Bahrain to Morocco, the Pentagon worked to prop up oppressive regimes
By Nick Turse – Dec 13, 2011 – TomDispatch

As the Arab Spring blossomed and President Obama hesitated about whether to speak out in favor of protesters seeking democratic change in the Greater Middle East, the Pentagon acted decisively. It forged ever deeper ties with some of the most repressive regimes in the region, building up military bases and brokering weapons sales and transfers to despots from Bahrain to Yemen.

As state security forces across the region cracked down on democratic dissent, the Pentagon also repeatedly dispatched American troops on training missions to allied militaries there. During more than 40 such operations with names like Eager Lion and Friendship Two that sometimes lasted for weeks or months at a time, they taught Middle Eastern security forces the finer points of counterinsurgency, small unit tactics, intelligence gathering and information operations — skills crucial to defeating popular uprisings.

These recurrent joint-training exercises, seldom reported in the media and rarely mentioned outside the military, constitute the core of an elaborate, longstanding system that binds the Pentagon to the militaries of repressive regimes across the Middle East. Although the Pentagon shrouds these exercises in secrecy, refusing to answer basic questions about their scale, scope, or cost, an investigation by TomDispatch reveals the outlines of a region-wide training program whose ambitions are large and wholly at odds with Washington’s professed aims of supporting democratic reforms in the Greater Middle East.

Lions, Marines and Moroccans — Oh My!

On May 19th, President Obama finally addressed the Arab Spring in earnest. He was unambiguous about standing with the protesters and against repressive governments, asserting that “America’s interests are not hostile to people’s hopes; they’re essential to them.”

Four days earlier, the very demonstrators the president sided with had marched in Temara, Morocco. They were heading for a facility suspected of housing a secret government interrogation facility to press for political reforms. It was then that the kingdom’s security forces attacked.

“I was in a group of about 11 protesters, pursued by police in their cars,” Oussama el-Khlifi, a 23-year-old protester from the capital, Rabat, told Human Rights Watch (HRW). “They forced me to say, ‘Long live the king,’ and they hit me on my shoulder. When I didn’t fall, they clubbed me on the head and I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, I found myself at the hospital, with a broken nose and an injured shoulder.”

About a five-hour drive south, another gathering was taking place under far more hospitable circumstances. In the seaside city of Agadir, a ceremony marking a transfer of military command was underway. “We’re here to support… bilateral engagement with one of our most important allies in the region,” said Colonel John Caldwell of the U.S. Marine Corps at a gathering to mark the beginning of the second phase of African Lion, an annual joint-training exercise with Morocco’s armed forces. …more

Report: Bahrain king says Syria trains opposition
AP – December 12, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bahrain’s king is quoted by a British newspaper as saying some members of the opposition in Gulf kingdom are being trained by Syria.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was quoted by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper Tuesday that he has notified Syrian authorities of the allegation, but they deny involvement.

The king’s interview coincided with his visit to London on Monday to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy has previously accused Iran of involvement in widespread protests this year led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority. Syria is a longtime ally of Iran.
…source

Poor’s Plight in Beqaa: Burning Shoes to Keep Warm
By: Ossama al-Kadiry – Al Akhbar – December 13, 2011

Thirteen-year-old Samer stands embarrassed at the petrol station near the Anjar turnoff, in Lebanon’s Beqaa valley. In his hands, he carries a one and a half liter empty water bottle, hiding it behind his back.

Samer feels that poverty is something to be ashamed of, in a country where the poorer class is becoming larger by the day. Noticing the boy, a station employee takes the empty bottle and fills it with diesel. As Samer waits he prepares the 2,000 Lebanese lira (LL) (about US$1.33) to pay for it.

There are many people like Samer in the cold Beqaa area, which experiences a dramatic drop in temperature every winter. As their standard of living falls, residents use diesel for heating more and more sparingly, in amounts that are barely enough to last a few hours.

A tin of diesel is now over LL32,000 (about US$21), and smuggled Syrian diesel is still not making it to the market. Even the price of firewood is now being dragged up along with it on the weekly fuel market, gradually climbing up from LL200,000 (US$133) to LL300,000 (US$200) a ton.

Firewood has therefore become a profitable commodity.

Trading it is no longer just a spontaneous response by the people of the area to the rise in the price of diesel. The stockpiling of tons of apricot, cherry, almond, apple and grape firewood in the Central Beqaa has gone beyond the consumer needs of those with a limited income, those who also use wood burning stoves as an alternative to diesel ones.

These days, instead of paying US$250 for a wood burning stove, some have turned to blacksmiths to convert their diesel stoves. In turn, blacksmiths have found a new way to earn a living, charging LL50,000 (US$16.66) for each conversion.

Relying on electricity for heating has gradually become the worst option for winter in the Beqaa, not only because of its relatively high cost but also due to power rationing, leaving many homes in darkness for hours every day.

In trying to deal with the difficulties of finding sources of heating, people have resorted to alternatives which they find less than satisfactory. Some have been using old shoes as an alternative to firewood, while others have been creating a “hybrid” fuel of sorts. Old shoes are now collected in bags and sold in the popular markets.

“Our government really respects its citizens. It raises the price of everything to teach them to be creative!” says Aida Abdul Halim sarcastically.

Halim, from the Western Beqaa, is aware of the harmful effects burning shoes in her stove can have on her family’s health. But she says she has no alternative, because her husband’s monthly income barely reaches LL700,000 (US$466.66).

“A bag of old shoes costs LL7,000 (US$4.66) and lasts for two days. If we have to use diesel, we need 15,000 (US$10). Firewood is now only for the upper middle class,” she says.

Jamil Khaled, from Tinayel, is in a similar situation. But by widening the pipes of his diesel stove, he can fill it with used cooking oil. “Two barrels cost LL70,000 (US$46.66). I spent the whole summer collecting used oil from every restaurant that sells kebab. Then I mixed the two barrels with five tins of diesel,” he says.

Abu Ashraf al-Muhammad begins this year where he left off last year. He “provides for” his stove with sawdust mixed with used cooking oil, collecting it in paper bags. Because of the power harsh rationing his area is subjected to, Abu Ashraf no longer uses his electric heater, and because diesel for him is “like gold,” he has had to resort to this creative solution. …source