Israel’s growing demographic problem is not because of Palestinians, but of Israeli Arabs, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

Netanyahu: Israel’s Arabs are the real demographic threat
By Gideon Alon and Aluf Benn 18 December, 2003 – HAARETZ

Israel’s growing demographic problem is not because of Palestinians, but of Israeli Arabs, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference on security, Netanyahu said Israel had already freed itself from control of almost all Palestinian Arabs. He said he could not foresee a future in which “any sane Israeli” could try to make Palestinians either Israeli citizens or “enslaved subjects.” The Palestinians would under all circumstances rule themselves and administer their own affairs, he said.

“If there is a demographic problem, and there is, it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens,” he said. The Declaration of Independence said Israel should be a Jewish and democratic state, but to ensure the Jewish character was not engulfed by demography, it was necessary to ensure a Jewish majority, he said.

If Israel’s Arabs become well integrated and reach 35-40 percent of the population, there will no longer be a Jewish state but a bi-national one, he said. If Arabs remain at 20 percent but relations are tense and violent, this will also harm the state’s democratic fabric. “Therefore a policy is needed that will balance the two.”

The economy is the single most important factor that will lead to Jews immigrating to Israel, he said. “I go mad when I see that because of low taxation in Moscow, there is now a capital flow there. If we want Jews to come here, we need a flourishing and dynamic economy. If we want Israeli Arabs to integrate, we need a flourishing and dynamic economy.”

He said it was necessary to improve education standards, especially for Arab citizens. Netanyahu said that the “separation fence” would also help to prevent a “demographic spillover” of Palestinians from the territories.

Reactions to the speech were not slow in coming from Arab Knesset members and others. “Netnayahu’s demographic time bomb is a stink bomb and a racist one,” said Ahmed Tibi (Hadash). “The day is not far off when Netnayahu and his followers will set up roadblocks at the entrance to Arab villages to tie Arab women’s tubes and spray them with anti-spermicide.”

Azmi Bishara, of Balad (National Democratic Alliance) said: “Describing the original residents of this land as a demographic problem would be considered racism in any normal, or even abnormal, country.”

Makhoul Issam Makhoul (Hadash) said: “A leader who considers 20 percent of the population of Israel to be a demographic threat and treats them as an existential problem, is himself a racist threat to democracy, sanity, and the rule of law – and he should be disposed of immediately for the good of both peoples.”

Talab a-Sana (United Arab List) said: “How would Netanyahu react if someone in the West or the U.S. said that the reproduction rate of Haredi Jews was a demographic problem? Netnayahu has double standards.”

Labor whip Dalia Itzik described Netanyahu as “a serial pyromaniac.” She said: “He has already lit the flames between rich and poor, and now he is trying to do the same between Jews and Arabs.” …more

Austrian daily: King Hamad’s relatives torture Bahraini revolutionaries
ABNA – 22 May, 2012

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – An Austrian daily quoted Bahraini revolutionary poetess Ayat Al-Ghermezi in its Monday edition as saying relatives of Bahraini King Hamad were among the torturers of arrested protesters in her country.

Ms. Ghermezi who is in Vienna, in an interview with Courier daily seriously criticized the inhumane behavior observed against Bahraini revolutionaries in prisons of Ale-Khalifa clan.

The daily wrote: This twenty-year old Arab poetess has been among the renowned political activists during her country’s more than a year long revolution. She has therefore been tortured and kept in solitary cell.

The Courier reporter has asked Ayat, “You have been reciting your poems for the Bahraini demonstrators for more than a year. What experience do you have respectively?”

The young revolutionary Bahraini lady replied, “After reciting my poems for the demonstrators and getting home my family members suggested that I had better move to a relative’s home and begin living in hiding. On March 20th, 2011 a large number of police forces invaded our home, beat up my brother black and blue, and threatened my entire family members that they would kill everyone, beginning with my four brothers. They also warned that they would come back to find Ayat, but next time they would not be as nice as this time! My father finally gave up and summoned me home where they were.”

She added, “They arrested me and their harsh behavior began right inside the vehicle in which I was being carried to prison. I was imprisoned in Manama. Getting beaten up was in my daily schedule. I was never even permitted to sit down, or to lie down on the floor. At nights I had to lean against a wall when I was dead tired. I was forced to swallow my food portion which was extremely polluted and I was beaten up more severely if I refused to eat, and their argument was: if you want to die you had better die outside this prison.”

The Bahraini revolutionary added, “I was kept in a solitary cell all alone. I was there without ever being taken to a court, and therefore I knew I must be there temporarily. Although no one had ever asked me a single question the prison keepers were always swearing at me, using very indecent words. They said that I was a blot against the reputation of my country, because I was a Shi’a. They forced me to belittle myself and my other family members along with them using very shameful literature. On the eighth day they took me to a room as they had blindfolded me. The piece of cloth with which they had shut my eyes slipped down for a few seconds and I saw the woman who was beating me. She was one of the close relatives of King Hamad. Her name is Noor al-Khalifa. She is a close relative of the king’s wife. In that room she tortured me for a long period using electric shock till I lost conscience.”

Ayat Al-Ghermezi added, “In the prison they threatened that they would severe my tongue. They hit me severely on the head using a long and wide wooden object and many of them used to spit in my mouth.”

She said, “In June, 2011 I was finally taken to a court and sentenced to a year behind the bars, but a month later due to the pressure of the world public opinion and the insistence of the Bahraini protesters I was freed and put under house arrest. I was told to forget all I had seen and heard and threatened that otherwise they would come back and take me to the same hell! …more

Iran’s Majlis discusses possible restoration of Iranian sovereignty over Bahrain
22 May, 2012 – Iran Daily Brief

Due to the increasingly serious statements made regarding the Bahrain-Saudi union by the ruling minority in that country, Iranian efforts in official bodies have begun to work to rescind the 1970 decision to separate Bahrain from Iran (following a referendum conducted in Bahrain after the end of British rule). The Majlis Committee on Foreign Affairs discussed this issue. Member of the Majlis Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy Mohammad Karim Abadi reported a proposal to conduct a referendum to rejoin Bahrain to Iran. According to Abadi, Bahrain currently has independence but if a referendum were to be conducted on this matter and Bahrain joins Saudi Arabia, the Bahraini people would prefer rejoining its primary homeland, Iran, and no where else.
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Secret Clinics Tend to Bahrain’s Wounded
By KAREEM FAHIM – 21 May, 2012

MANAMA, Bahrain — Three young men were slumped on a living room mat, groaning with pain from nuggets of birdshot lodged in a cheek, a forehead and under the lid of an eye.

Dr. Ghassan Dhaif, 46, and his wife, Dr. Zahra al-Samar, were jailed last year for treating protesters. “They’ve destroyed the health services in the whole country,” Dr. Dhaif said.

Bahrain’s nightly protests had exacted their reliable toll.

Friends dragged the men away from the clashes and the riot police, to a safe house nearby. Soon, it was time to go, but not to a hospital: the police were there, too. “No one goes to the hospital,” one protester said.

Instead, the men traveled to one of dozens of houses that are scattered throughout this island nation, where a secret and growing network of caregivers — doctors, first-aid medics or people with no medical experience at all — wait daily for the casualties from the protests. The houses are not really field hospitals, but rather sitting rooms, often equipped with nothing more than bandages and gauze.

For the injured protesters, the houses have replaced the country’s largest public hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, which has been a crucial site in the conflict between Bahrain’s ruling monarchy and its opponents since the beginning of a popular uprising in February 2011. Activists say that because of a heavy security presence at the hospital, protesters — or people fearful of being associated with Bahrain’s opposition — have been afraid to venture there for more than a year. That reluctance, officials and activists say, may be responsible for several deaths.

Last spring, the hospital became a symbol of the state’s repression, as the government arrested — and in some cases tortured — protesters, doctors and nurses for their involvement with the uprising. As its problems persist, Salmaniya has come to represent Bahrain’s dangerous impasse, marked by a growing rift between the country’s Shiite majority, which has long complained of official discrimination, and the Sunni political elite.

The authorities continue to prosecute Shiite doctors who worked at the hospital on charges including plotting to overthrow the government. Some of the doctors say their arrests represented a purge of Shiites, allowing the government to replace them with Sunni loyalists.

A report released Monday by Physicians for Human Rights says some of the current problems at Salmaniya stem from the conduct of security forces in the hospital and at its gates. People interviewed by the group said guards stopped arriving cars and questioned the passengers. They asked what village they were from, a way of telling whether someone was Shiite or Sunni.

People with physical injuries, including those possibly related to the impact of tear-gas canisters, are brought inside for additional interrogation. The report said that the hospital’s chief executive, Dr. Waleed Khalifa al-Manea, had urged the Interior Ministry, which oversees security at Salmaniya, to stop the practice. …more

Bahrain passes new law on freedom of speech
22 May, 2012 – Trade Arabia

Bahrain’s Shura Council has approved an amendment to the Penal Code that will allow people to exercise freedom of expression and speech in line with the Constitution and the National Action Charter, without any repercussions.

It means that members of the public will be free to voice an opinion, as long as it does not directly threaten or insult others.

The Shura Council last week postponed a vote on the amendment, based on complaints that it was unclear.

It approved the legislation yesterday after Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa said it was in line with international freedom of expression conventions.

Shaikh Khalid explained that freedom of expression did not give people the right to commit criminal acts or harm others.

He also stressed that social context and Bahraini culture must be taken into account when deciding if someone had overstepped the mark.

‘If someone is holding a banner demanding something, we can’t punish him,’ he explained.

‘But if he is naked then that’s not freedom of expression. The judge will have to also assess related circumstances to decide whether to punish someone or free them.’

Shura Council public utilities and environment affairs committee vice-chairman Faoud Al Haji said the new legislation struck the right balance. …more

Deal with Iran reached on probe: U.N. nuclear chief
22 May, 2012 – By George Jahn – Associated Press

VIENNA: Despite some remaining differences, a deal has been reached with Iran that will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart a long-stalled probe into suspicions that Tehran has secretly worked on developing nuclear arms, the U.N. nuclear chief said Tuesday.

The news from International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, who returned from Tehran on Tuesday, comes just a day before Iran and six world powers meet in Baghdad for negotiations and could present a significant turning point in the heated dispute over Iran’s nuclear intentions. The six nations hope the talks will result in an agreement by the Islamic Republic to stop enriching uranium to a higher level that could be turned quickly into the fissile core of nuclear arms.

Iran denies it seeks nuclear arms and says its reactors are only for power and medical applications.

By compromising on the IAEA probe, Iranian negotiators in Baghdad could argue that the onus was now on the other side to show some flexibility and temper its demands. Although Amano’s trip and the talks in Baghdad are formally separate, Iran hopes progress with the IAEA can boost its chances Wednesday in pressing the U.S. and Europe to roll back sanctions that have hit Iran’s critical oil exports and blacklisted the country from international banking networks.

It was unclear, though, how far the results achieved by Amano would serve that purpose, with him returning without the two sides signing the deal, despite his upbeat comments.

After talks in Tehran between Amano and chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, “the decision was made… to reach agreement” on the mechanics of giving the IAEA access to sites, scientists and documents it seeks to restart its probe,” Amano told reporters at Vienna airport after his one-day trip to Tehran.

Amano said differences existed on “some details,” without elaborating but added that Jalili had assured him that these “will not be an obstacle to reach agreement.” He spoke of “an almost clean text” that will be signed soon, although he could not say when.

Western diplomats are skeptical of Iran’s willingness to open past and present activities to full perusal, believing it would only reveal what they suspect and Tehran denies – that the Islamic Republic has researched and developed components of a nuclear weapons program. They say that Tehran’s readiness to honor any agreement it has signed is the true test of its willingness to cooperate
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Bahrain hunger striker attends retrial in wheelchair
May 22, 2012 – The Daily Star – Reuters

DUBAI: Jailed Bahraini activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to court in a wheelchair on Tuesday when the retrial resumed of 13 men imprisoned over protests that rocked the island last year, activists said.

A military court convicted the men last year of using violence in protests led by majority Shi’ite Muslims in an effort to topple the Sunni monarchy.

Bahrain’s highest appeals court ordered a retrial last month for 21 protest leaders, ruling that they should be retried in a civilian court. Seven of them were convicted in absentia and are abroad or in hiding, and one, Horr al-Sumaikh, was released by the appeals court.

The court did not order the release of the remaining 13 or cancel their convictions, despite calls by international rights groups for their unconditional release. Eight of them were serving life sentences.

“He (Khawaja) showed up in court in a wheelchair today. He and the other men were expected to speak about torture so it (the session) may take time,” Mohammed al-Maskati of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights told Reuters by phone from Manama.

The trial began on May 8 but was adjourned because Khawaja and another defendant were too ill to attend.

The 13 men on trial are believed to be among hundreds cited in a report prepared by an international rights investigation in November as having suffered torture in detention, often to extract confessions.

Khadija Almousawi, Khawaja’s wife, wrote on her Twitter account “Hadi has just entered the court room in a wheelchair … I hear now my Hadi is talking about his torture and arrest and what he went through.”

Western governments and the United Nations secretary-general have called for a quick resolution of the case of Khawaja, who also holds Danish nationality.

A separate court adjourned a hearing in the case of Khawaja’s daughter, Zainab, arrested a month ago for trying to stage a protest in the capital Manama during the Formula One Grand Prix race in Bahrain.

Sayed Yousif Almuhafda, a member of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), said Zainab’s case was adjourned to May 27, after calling on witnesses to come forward to testify.

Bahrain, led by the Sunni Al Khalifa family, has been in turmoil since mainly Shi’ite pro-democracy protests erupted last year. The protests were crushed in March 2011 with help from fellow Sunni-led Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.

Violence in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has intensified in recent months, and protesters clash daily with riot police.
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