Friday, August 14, 2020

WARNING: RUSSIA MAY SEND "LITTLE GREEN MEN" TO BELARUS 





Aug 14, 2020 - Press ISW
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By George Barros
Key Takeaway: Russia may send irregular forces into Belarus to quash growing protests against Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko. A senior Kremlin media official’s August 14 statement supporting such a move is a significant inflection in Moscow’s characterization of the protests in Belarus. It could be part of a new Russian information campaign to shape conditions for a Russian-backed intervention into Belarus under the pretext of restoring order. A Russian intervention in Belarus that resulted in the stationing of Russian ground forces in the country would dramatically increase the threat to NATO’s ability to protect the Baltic States and mark another advance in Putin’s efforts to regain Russian suzerainty over the former Soviet Union.
Tripwire. The editor-in-chief of Russian media outlet RT, Margarita Simonyan, called for “polite men” to “put things in order” in Belarus on Twitter on August 14.[1] The Kremlin uses “polite men” as a euphemism for the Russian military forces in unmarked uniforms (alternatively known as “little green men”) deployed to occupy Crimea in 2014.[2] RT is one of the Kremlin’s primary information outlets. Simonyan is therefore unlikely to have tweeted an implied call for Russian military forces to deploy to Belarus without Kremlin approval.
Pattern. Simonyan’s August 14 statement is a significant inflection in Kremlin media’s characterization of the protests in Belarus and could be the start of a new Russian information campaign to shape conditions for a Russian-backed intervention into Belarus on the pretext of restoring order. Well-organized protesters are contesting Belarus’ August 9 presidential results following Lukashenko’s declaration of an overwhelming victory.[3] Russian media and Kremlin-linked outlets had been responding neutrally and slightly sympathetically toward protests in Belarus as of August 13. Izvestia then reported that the protests in Belarus are “profoundly” peaceful and that Belarusian riot police are tired.[4]Argumetny i Fakty reported that there were almost no violent confrontations with Belarusian police.[5]Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that protest violence dropped on August 13 and that Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko should change his strategy because the people will “not relent and go home.”[6]Moskovsky Komsomolets stated not supporting the protesters’ demands is supporting dictatorship and that Russian election observers in Belarus were “accomplices” to Lukashenko’s regime.[7] The call for Russian intervention to “restore order” is thus a major change in tone.
Assessment. The Kremlin will intervene in Belarus under the pretext of restoring order if it perceives that protests might weaken Lukashenko enough to put his continued control at risk. Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to prevent a pro-democratic revolution in Belarus similar to the 2014 Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine. The consolidation of a pro-democratic revolution in Belarus would be a major setback in the Kremlin’s campaign to regain dominant influence over the former Soviet Union. The Kremlin likely seeks to avoid having to intervene in Belarus but will do so if Lukashenko appears likely to lose control over his security services. This is possible. Early indicators indicate show some members of the security services throwing away their uniforms.[8]
The Kremlin has the capability to launch a hybrid operation against Belarus and already has irregular elements present inside the country. Belarusian security forces arrested 33 Russians from the Kremlin-backed private military company (PMC) “Wagner Group” on July 29, claiming they were sent by the Kremlin to instigate protests.[9] Ukrainian officials confirmed on July 31 that 28 of the 33 alleged Wagner personnel fought with Russian-backed proxies in Donbas.[10] Lukashenko fired his entire cabinet in June 2020 likely because he perceived Russian subversion in his government in the run-up to the elections.[11] The Kremlin will likely send additional irregular assets into Belarus as protests continue to intensify in the build-up to the Belarusian opposition’s planned march in Minsk on August 16.[12]
Implications. A successful Russian intervention in Belarus would increase the Kremlin’s strategic projection capabilities against NATO and Ukraine. Russia’s total freedom of movement in Belarus would enhance Russian forces’ ability to threaten the Suwalki Gap to geographically isolate NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia from the rest of the alliance.[13] Russia’s total freedom of movement in Belarus would also open new avenues of attack for the Kremlin to employ against Ukraine. Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is only 95 kilometers from the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, and Ukraine’s defense posture is unprepared for a threat from its northern border.[14] Even if Lukashenko reconsolidates control without Kremlin intervention, the protests will have weakened Lukashenko, decreasing his leverage to hedge against the Kremlin’s campaign to regain control over Belarus.[15] The Kremlin’s influence in Belarus will likely increase in either event.
Indicators. A Kremlin intervention is very likely if protests compel Lukashenko to abdicate. Russian intervention is also likely if Lukashenko asks the Kremlin for help in restoring order, if it appears that Lukashenko is losing control of the situation and/or his security forces, or if the dynamics of the protests appear to follow a pattern similar to those of the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine. Russian intervention may be less likely if Russian and Kremlin-linked media characterizations of the protests remain neutral or sympathetic, but a shift to Russian media describing the protesters as unruly, lawless, or violent would indicate a Kremlin intervention is more likely. Snap Russian force movements or exercises in the Western Military District would indicate a Russian intervention is likely. A notable shift in protest organization, such as the consolidation of centralized protest leadership, would indicate an increased likelihood of a Russian intervention.
[9] “Belarus Arrested 33 Russian Mercenaries Outside of Minsk Today. Here’s What we Know, So Far,” Meduza, July 29, 2020, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/07/29/belarus-arrested-33-russian-merc....
[10] [”The Office of the Prosecutor General Informed the Competent Authorities of Belarus of their Intentions to Demand the Extradition of the Participants in the Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine Detained on its Territory,”] The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, July 31, 2020, https://www.gp.gov(.)ua/ua/news?_m=publications&_c=view&_t=rec&id=277950&fbclid=IwAR0A8kZujVpnYsocgevF-2w1_M0xcfGL3Dr-f7JCYtwkOlQomdEdwx00xEg.
[14] Ukraine’s armed forces have built up Ukraine’s defenses against Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine.

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Our History

Dr. Kimberly Kagan founded ISW in May 2007, as U.S. forces undertook a daring new counterinsurgency strategy to reverse the grim security situation on the ground in Iraq . Frustrated with the prevailing lack of accurate information documenting developments on the ground in Iraq and the detrimental effect of biased reporting on policymakers, Dr. Kagan established ISW to provide real-time, independent, and open-source analysis of ongoing military operations and insurgent attacks in Iraq. General Jack Keane (U.S. Army, Ret.), the Chairman of ISW’s board, also played a central role in developing the intellectual foundation for this change of strategy in Iraq, and supported the formation of the Institute in 2007.
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UPDATES BELARUS"Tribunal!": Riot police lower shields as crowd approaches gov't quarters in Minsk 

14 August 2020

The rally is peaceful, reports say, adding that activists praise the move by troops guarding the government building. REUTERS 

Thousands of protesters in the Belarusian capital Minsk have partially blocked the avenue on Victory Square and are now heading toward the city's Independence Square, a number of Telegram channels report. 
REUTERS
REUTERS A 3,000-strong crowd of Minsk Tractor Plant workers has been joined by another 5,000 people, reports via Telegram say. 

According to Protests in the World channel, the joint opposition headquarters chief Maria Kolesnikova is also attending the rally. At about 17:30 local time, protesters approached the government building, chanting: "Conversation!", "Government must be held responsible", and "Tribunal". The crowd stopped some 100 meters from the main entrance, chanting "We stand for peace!" 

REUTERS

 Riot police who are guarding the government building have reportedly lowered their shields, immediately winning praise and hugs. 

Belarus protests: developments On August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. The country's Central Election Commission announced the final election results. In particular, 80.1% of voters supported incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, 10.1% voted for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 1.67% for Anna Kanopatskaya, 1.2% for Andrey Dmitriev, and 1.14% for Sergei Cherechnya. Some 4.59% voted against all candidates.
REUTERS

On the evening of August 9, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets to take part in spontaneous rallies, which was followed by clashes with law enforcement. The police in Minsk used water cannons, tear gas, stun grenades, and fired rubber bullets in a crackdown on protests. 
REUTERS
Belarus' Ministry of Internal Affairs announced about 3,000 protesters were detained on the night of August 10, more than 2,000 people – on the night of August 11, and more than 1,000 – on the third night of the protests across the country. 
REUTERS

 One of the protesters had died, the ministry confirmed. As of today, August 14, there were reports about two deaths among protesters. The UN has condemned violence and violation of human rights, a number of countries have called on Minsk to stop the atrocities. 
REUTERS



Belarus' largest march of freedom scheduled for Sunday

Similar events will be held in other towns and cities in that country. 
14 August 2020 WORLD


Protests in Belarus began on Aug 9 / REUTERS
REUTERS  

Protests in Belarus began on Aug 9 / 2020

 Protesters in Belarus announced the largest march of freedom in their country's history. 

The event will take place in Minsk and is scheduled to begin at 14:00 local time on Sunday, August 16, according to an announcement on the Belarusian opposition's NEXTA Live channel on Telegram. 

The march will start from Independence Avenue, participants will walk along the central streets and squares. Similar events will be held in other towns and cities in that country. 

 "Sunday is the day of the largest, exceptionally peaceful march in the history of Belarus; we will march along the streets and avenues of our cities, with smiles and dignity. We will go out with families, communities, work collectives. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who at this turning point was on the side of the people. Let us remember all those who have suffered in the struggle for freedom," the announcement said. 

 Earlier, the leader of the united opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, called on mayors of the cities and towns to become the organizers of the protests on August 15 and August 16 and to stop bloodshed during peaceful rallies.

  Belarus protests: Developments On August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. The country's Central Election Commission announced the final election results. In particular, 80.1% of voters supported incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, 10.1% voted for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 1.67% for Anna Kanopatskaya, 1.2% for Andrey Dmitriev, and 1.14% for Sergei Cherechnya. Some 4.59% voted against all candidates.

 On the evening of August 9, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets to take part in spontaneous rallies, which was followed by clashes with law enforcement. The police in Minsk used water cannons, tear gas, stun grenades, and fired rubber bullets in a crackdown on protests. 

 Belarus' Ministry of Internal Affairs announced about 3,000 protesters were detained on the night of August 10, more than 2,000 people on the night of August 11, and more than 1,000 on the third night of the protests in different towns and cities across the country. 

 The ministry confirmed one of the protesters had died. As of today, there were reports about two deaths among protesters. The UN has condemned the violence and violation of human rights in Belarus, a number of countries have called on Minsk to stop the atrocities. 
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THE GUARDIAN Belarus

'It's like a war': beatings and indiscriminate arrests as armed men roam streets of Minsk

Residents tell how the crackdown on peaceful protests against the Belarus election results has turned a city into a conflict zone
Molly Blackall

Fri 14 Aug 2020
 
Defiant demonstrators in Minsk hold aloft the Pahonia flag, a patriotic emblem of Belarus, as they protest against police violence. Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty

Twenty-three-year-old Danya* was sitting with her brother and his wife in Minsk’s Independence Square on Monday, when men dressed in black forced them into a van.

The trio were wearing white ribbons, symbols of resistance to the re-election of Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, which has been widely condemned as fraudulent. The official election results, released the day before and disputed by protesters, showed that Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes, while .his opposition challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, received only 9.9%.

The men forced the group to remove their ribbons, and told them that if they appeared on the square again, they would be immediately jailed.

“When they took us, I did not understand why, and of course I was scared,” she told the Guardian via a communication app. “They kept us for about 20 minutes, then they let us go, but my brother said ‘Belarus lives’, and he was captured again and taken away. Later he called, and told me to come to a bus stop. The men were there, and they took my phone, started looking through the photos, and told me I was voting for the wrong person.”

Earlier in the week, the country’s internet was switched off, a move activists said was aimed at silencing them and preventing them from organising. Hundreds of people using VPN and messaging apps got in touch with the Guardian in response to a callout for their experiences.


Police and protesters clash in Minsk, Belarus – in pictures

“I want people to know the truth,” Danya said. “We are scared to go out and we need any help.”

According to Minsk residents, thousands of people are still in custody, having been arrested while peacefully protesting against the election result. Many say the detainees are being tortured, with 20 or even 50 people being held in cells designed for just four. Others have said the detainees were being denied food.

Official figures showed 6,000 people had been held as of Wednesday morning, but reporters on the scene suggested this had increased to around 7,000 overnight.

Katina*, a lawyer in Minsk working to support those arrested, said: “Lots of people are being captured. There are people who go out to throw out the trash, but because they don’t have their passports, are detained. We do not know where they are.
A photograph sent to the Guardian by a young Belarusian in the centre of Minsk, apparently showing police using ambulances to get close to protesters, whom they then detained. Photograph: Guardian Community


“People are released from prisons at four or five in the morning, and their belongings aren’t returned to them. The volunteers waiting for them can’t go near the prison or the site of the arrest, or they’ll be detained too.

“Yesterday, they started to stop cars and beat and arrest the drivers,” she added. “When they beat people they are doing it in front of others because they want to spread this fear around.”

Katina is helping set up a platform to connect lawyers, working pro bono, with those who have been detained. “For those lawyers, it’s a huge risk. Before, they were risking their licence, now they’re risking their lives,” she said.

Could a Belarus protest movement bring down Alexander Lukashenko?

Katina also said that those who opposed the election result had been fired en masse from their jobs. “Some people have been fired from police and prisons because they’ve refused to carry out orders, or for starting small initiatives [to help detainees]. Lots of teachers were fired because they refused to sign the protocol regarding election results,” she said.

“We don’t know how many, we think hundreds and thousands. It mainly started after the election, but it was happening before if people were showing support for independent candidates.”

According to accounts from those at the scene, protests have shrunk as police brutality mounts.

Katina said that on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, people “had hope and belief for future changes”, but this had dwindled. “It was so beautiful, and then they were scared to death,” she said.

One of those “angry and scared” by events is Anastasia*, who fled Minsk on Tuesday with her husband after her IT firm’s offices were evacuated following raids on nearby companies.

Colleagues encouraged her to delete all social media and browsing history, after reports that authorities would seize phones and use Facebook groups or the news sites people had been accessing as evidence to detain them.

Protests have unfurled around the couple’s city-centre apartment. “On Sunday night, after the election results were released, we saw a lot of people walking in crowds down the street. Just walking, that’s it, and cars were honking,” she said.

“Then we saw the cars of the special forces, cars I’ve never seen before in my life, with huge shields in front of them to disperse people, and then black cars without number plates came. We saw the doors open, and special forces started to come out of them, and chased the protesters down the street. One guy was chased and beaten, and then they took him into a car and left.”

People making a chain to protest against the election results near Metro Malinovka underground station in Minsk on Thursday. Photograph: Viktar/Guardian Community

In the reflection of her windows, Anastasia saw explosions, “like fireworks”, and heard shots. Like others who spoke to the Guardian, Anastasia said armed teams had been arriving in ambulances to get close to protesters without arising suspicion, before jumping out and arresting them.

“They just detain people, they don’t need a particular reason,” she said. “If they want to do it, they’re going to put you in prison. There is no law there anymore, the law doesn’t work.”

For hours on Thursday, Viktar*, who had been an independent observer in the elections, stood with hundreds of others in a chain snaking across the capital. He said activists linked arms in silent protest.

Viktar said he had seen the fraudulence of the election for himself: at some polling stations he and his team of observers had counted and photographed the number of voters, but when they checked their figures against official electoral commission data, hundreds of votes appeared to have been added.

He said ballots had also been seized by police and votes changed to those for Lukashenko. “There is nowhere to get for help to the people of Belarus,” he said. “People are simply intimidated, because at the moment, almost every family has someone repressed in one way or another: beaten, kidnapped, or has seen these atrocities live where they live.”

“I was on one protest on Wednesday where the policeman were shooting rubber bullets at people and throwing grenades. There was a lot of blood,” he said. “Almost everyone was in this area was beaten or escaped.”

At the IT firm where he works, three people in his department of 12 have been detained, and two are still in prison.

“It’s awful,” Viktar said. “It’s like a war.”

*Names have been changed
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LIBYA: NATO'S PRIVATIZED WAR
As rumours swirl of Yemenis fighting in Libya, mercenaries enlist to join the war

Yemen’s Popular Resistance in Taiz has been training new recruits, who suspect they are being sent to the Libyan conflict to help the GNA

Yemeni fighters from the Popular Resistance take part in a graduation ceremony in the city of Taiz, on 5 August 2019 (AFP)
By MEE correspondent in Sanaa Published date: 31 July 2020 

For days, rumours have been circulating that Yemeni mercenaries have left their own conflict for the one in Libya, joining an ever-growing international presence in the war-torn North African country.

Whether the rumours are true or not is difficult to establish, though four months ago one Yemeni militia, the Popular Resistance, began a recruitment drive, promising Yemenis military training but not disclosing the front they would be sent to.

Either way, for struggling Yemeni mercenaries looking to earn a decent wage amid war, economic collapse and the coronavirus pandemic, the location of the fight is neither here nor there.

New Popular Resistance recruits tell Middle East Eye they're happy to fight in someone else’s war - for the right price.
Rumours in the media

The Popular Resistance is a militia linked to Yemen's Islah party, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that has good relations with both Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Turkey.

Part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement, the party and the militia have enemies within the alliance battling on behalf of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's government - particularly groups allied with the United Arab Emirates, which is a major backer of eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar.

Recent reports by anti-Islah media in Yemen have accused the party of sending Yemenis to Turkey under the guise of receiving medical treatment, then transporting them to Libya. Turkey has sent arms, drones, advisers and Syrian mercenaries to Libya in support of Haftar's enemy, the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).



Criminals-turned-Saudi mercenaries terrorise Yemen's Taiz province
Read More »

Some news websites said military and intelligence sources have revealed that 200 mercenaries from Yemen have arrived in Libya to fight on behalf of the Tripoli-based GNA.

Other news reports said three Yemenis fighters were caught by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), and named the detainees.

Islah has a good relationship with Turkey, where many of its leaders are currently based after fleeing Yemen via Saudi Arabia in 2015. Pro-Islah TV channels are also based in Turkey.

Neither Islah nor Hadi's government have commented on the news about Yemeni mercenaries in Libya, and there has been no official confirmation that the party has sent fighters from Taiz and Marib provinces to Turkey.

Hundreds of wounded pro-Islah fighters have travelled in the last four years to receive medical treatment in Turkey. Media reports have alleged that some have claimed to be wounded, but were in fact mercenaries on their way to Libya.
Recruitment in schools

The founder of the Popular Resistance in Taiz, Sheikh Hamoud al-Mikhlafi, an Islahi, left Yemen in 2016 and has been based in Turkey since.

His commanders on the ground in Taiz have in recent weeks been recruiting fighters left, right and centre, promising wealth but not revealing their destination. Schools across the southwestern province have been left empty by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Popular Resistance has commandeered them, turning them into training camps for new recruits.



The teen warlord who runs Yemen's second city with fear
Read More »

Yemeni mercenaries have long fought the Houthis on the border with Saudi Arabia, but though the money was good many have abandoned the fight and returned home disillusioned by the fierce battles and dirty politics.

Prior to his latest recruitment efforts, Mikhlafi called on returnees from the battles on the Saudi border to join his camps in the outskirts of Taiz and thousands signed up. Others struggling to get by away from the fighting have also been tempted.

“My shop went bankrupt and I don’t have any other source of income, so joining the fighting is the only choice for me,” said Walid, 38, an owner of a mobile accessories shop in Taiz city.

“Many of my friends joined the battles with Saudi Arabia but I didn’t like that because Saudi Arabia has been destroying Yemen.”

Walid told Middle East Eye he trusts Mikhlafi "as he himself was a fighter and works for the interest of Taiz’s residents".

“I closed my shop and joined the training for one month.”

Desperate for income, Walid said he is willing to fight anywhere with the Popular Resistance for money.

“The fighters on the internal fronts receive only 57,000 Yemeni rials ($76) per month, so I would not be happy to join them,” he said.

“There is information that some of us will go to fight in Libya, and that’s the best choice for me.”

Walid said news they will be sent to Libya is being spread among the recruits, and they had been promised $2,500 per month once in North Africa.


'There is information that some of us will go to fight in Libya and that’s the best choice for me'
-Walid, Popular Resistance recruit

“Almost all recruits in the school hope to travel to Libya but it seems that we won’t be as we have been waiting for around four months,” he added.

“We’re back home now and receive a salary, but we don’t know where we are going to fight.”

Walid said none of his fellow fighters have travelled to Turkey, and he hasn’t heard of anyone who had already participated in the fighting in Libya.

“Even wounded fighters couldn’t travel to Turkey in the past four months because of the coronavirus restrictions,” he said.

“I hope we can leave this country and earn some money that would help us to save our future.”

Turkish intervention

Meanwhile, there have been reports about a supposed covert Turkish presence in Yemen, with activities concentrated in Shabwa, Taiz and Socotra. Some Islah members have also called on Turkey to intervene to rid Yemen of the Saudi-led coalition.

Anees Mansour, former media adviser to the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh, has appeared in more than one video urging Turkey to intervene in Yemen.

“Yemen needs a Turkish intervention,” Mansour said in one of the videos, accusing the Saudi-led coalition of destroying his country.

Mansour also praised the Turkish-backed forces in Libya, who succeeded in pushing back Haftar’s yearlong offensive on Tripoli, saying that the entire Arab world was happy for their victory.



Libya conflict: Turkey is looking for a 'third way' in Sirte
Read More »

Like many other Islah leaders based in Turkey, Mansour supported the coalition when it intervened in Yemen in 2015 and fled to Saudi Arabia at the time. But today they are calling for a new intervention.

Abdulghani, a member of the Islah party based in Marib, said that while he was proud of Turkey and its achievements in Libya, he was against its involvement in Yemen.

“All Muslims should be proud of Turkey and [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan as he represents Islam in its best form, but we don’t need any more interventions in Yemen,” Abdulghani told MEE.

“We are suffering from Saudi, Emirati and Iranian interventions in Yemen, so we need to liberate it from all countries.”

He stressed that Mansour and other Islah members were only voicing their own opinions and that they didn't represent the party.

Abdulghani has also heard news about Yemeni fighters in Libya, but he did not believe it, saying that it was propaganda against Islah.

“It is true that some wounded fighters left Yemen to receive medical treatment in Turkey, but I don’t believe they joined the fighting in Libya,” he said.

“Yemen has enough fronts and Islah is not stupid enough to send fighters to Libya, seeing that this would create anger in Yemen against the party.”
Left with no choice

The severe economic fallout of the war, including high unemployment, has forced people to join the battles on a multitude of front lines, as it is the only available source of income for many.


'The majority of fighters don’t care about who controls Yemen and they only fight to earn money to provide for their families'
-Nehad Abdul-Jabbar, social expert

“[Becoming a] mercenary is a good choice for Yemenis, and it is a main source of income for many, so we see some fighting with Saudi Arabia, others with the United Arab Emirates, and we may see them fighting with any other country,” Nehad Abdul-Jabbar, a social expert, told MEE.

Abdul-Jabbar believes that the deterioration of the situation in Yemen has led needy people to join the fighting for the sake of money.

“The majority of fighters don’t care about who controls Yemen and they only fight to earn money to provide for their families,” she added.

“For these people, they can stop fighting as soon as they get a job.”

An estimated 80 percent of the population - 24 million people - require some form of humanitarian aid, including 14.3 million who are in acute need, according to UNOCHA.

“Unfortunately, money has become the fuel of the war, so this conflict will continue until the economic situation of Yemenis is better,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
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LIBYA; NATO'S OUTSOURCED WAR
UN 'dismayed' at journalist's 15-year prison term in eastern Libya

Local media say Ismail Abuzreiba was accused of contact with channels and agencies banned in Haftar-controlled territory

Authorities in eastern Libya have not specified the exact nature of the charges faced by Abuzreiba (Twitter)
By MEE and agencies Published date: 3 August 2020

The UN's mission in Libya has voiced "dismay" at the sentencing of a journalist to 15 years in prison, in the area controlled by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.

"UNSMIL is dismayed by the sentencing of the journalist Ismail Abuzreiba to 15 years imprisonment following a trial by a military tribunal in Benghazi," it said on Twitter on Saturday.



Give war a chance: Haftar’s forces rule out UN dialogue to end Libya conflictRead More »

"The detention and trial appear to violate Libya's laws as well as its international obligations on the right to a fair trial" and freedom of expression, it added.

The European Union's ambassador to Libya, Alan Bugeja, wrote on Twitter that he was "extremely concerned" by the sentence, which he said came after the journalist had been held in detention for two years or more.

"I call on the authorities to immediately release him, ensure the respect of his fundamental rights and of freedom of expression," Bugeja said.

Authorities in eastern Libya have not specified the exact nature of the charges faced by Abuzreiba but, according to local media, he was accused of contact with channels and agencies banned in that part of the country.
Danger zone

Haftar launched an offensive on the capital Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), in April last year.

Troops loyal to the GNA in May pushed Haftar's forces back from the southern outskirts of the capital, before repelling them in early June 2020 as far as Sirte, a northern coastal city that is a gateway between Libya's east and west.

The fighting over the last year or so has killed hundreds, including many civilians, AFP reported.

It has also heightened the dangers faced by journalists, who have increasingly been harassed and threatened, leading most to leave the country.

Libya ranks 164 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders (RSF)'s World Press Freedom Index for 2020.
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BACKGROUNDER
Arab rulers and Israel's leaders: A long and secret history of cooperation

The regimes of the Arab world have always put their own interests ahead of the Palestinian people

Joseph Massad 18 February 2020


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been actively seeking closer relations and alliances with Arab rulers (Illustration by Mohamad Elaasar]

In the last month, Israeli leaders have been actively seeking closer relations and alliances with Arab countries, including the Gulf states, Morocco and Sudan.

These are states that, we are told, have finally seen the light and realised that Israel, unlike Iran, is their friend not their enemy.

This is presented as some major change of heart on the part of Arab regimes, which had apparently always shunned relations with Israel in the interest of defending the Palestinians.

This was always a fiction. Most of the 20th century's Arab leaders and ruling families maintained cordial relations with Israel and, before it, the Zionist movement.

False narrative

This false narrative of resistance has been presented by Arab regimes as well as Israelis. It's been put about by pro-Israeli Arab intellectuals, who claim that these regimes unfairly spurned Israel or even went to war with it at the behest of the Palestinians, rather than in their own national and regime interests.

This line of thinking concludes with the assertion that now, finally, is the time that Arab governments put their own interests ahead of the Palestinians, as if they had ever prioritised Palestinian interests before.

The largest number of Arab leaders and ruling families have had cordial relations with Israel and, before it, the Zionist movement, throughout the twentieth century

This was most recently expressed by the Sudanese military commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda two weeks ago. It was hardly the first such meeting between Sudanese officials and Israel.

Secret overtures had taken place as early as the 1950s, when Sudan was still ruled by the British and Egyptians and the Umma party sought to gain Israeli support for Sudanese independence.

Following independence, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Khalil and Golda Meir, Israel's fourth prime minister, held a clandestine meeting in Paris in 1957.

In the 1980s, Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiri met with the Israelis and facilitated the Israeli transport of Ethiopian Jews to Israel to become colonial settlers in the land of the Palestinians.
Jordan's King Hussein stands with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington in 1994 (AFP)

More recently, in January 2016 and with Omar al-Bashir still in charge, foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour sought to lift the US economic sanctions on Sudan by offering to open formal diplomatic ties with Israel. When questioned about his recent meeting with Netanyahu and the normalisation of relations, Burhan’s response was that relations with Israel are based on Sudan’s “security and national interests”, which come first.

The history of Sudan’s leaders' connections with Israel is hardly unique. Indeed, Arab cooperation with the Zionist movement goes back to the dawn of the arrival of Zionist officials in Palestine.

Cordial relations

It was on 3 January 1919, two weeks before the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference, that Emir Faisal Ibn al-Hussein, then of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz and later the king of Iraq, signed an agreement with the President of the World Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann. Faisal consented to the creation of a Jewish colonial majority in Palestine, in exchange for becoming the king of a large and independent Arab kingdom in all of Syria.


The justification that Hussein used for his secret contacts with the Israelis was the preservation of his throne, conflated as Jordan’s “national” interest, in the face of Nasser’s pressure

While Faisal was denied his Syrian throne by the French colonial takeover, the agreement, which the Zionists used at the Paris Peace Conference to claim that their colonial-settler plans for Palestine had the agreement of Arab leaders, came to naught.

Not to be outdone by his brother, Emir Abdullah of Transjordan embarked on a lifelong relationship of cooperation with the Zionists, in the hope that they would allow him to be king of Palestine and Transjordan, within which they could realise their goals under his kingship. This cooperation led to his assassination in 1951.

His grandson, King Hussein of Jordan, authorised the first secret meetings between one of his army generals and the Israelis in 1960 in Jerusalem. By 1963, he himself was meeting with Israelis secretly at his doctor's office in London. By the mid-1970s his covert meetings with Israeli leaders would take place regularly inside Israel.

Hussein’s long friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (who had personally expelled the Palestinian population of the city of Lydda in 1948, and initiated the break-their-bones policies against West Bank and Gaza Palestinians in 1987) was evident during Rabin’s funeral in 1994.
King of Morocco Mohamed VI (L) chats with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres (R) as President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika (C) looks on, 11 March, 2005 (AFP)

The justification that Hussein used for his secret contacts with the Israelis was the preservation of his throne, conflated as Jordan’s "national" interest, in the face ofEgyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s pressure and later that of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. 

Zionist alliances
Aside from the Hashemite princes and kings, the Maronite Church of Lebanon, as well as right-wing fascist Maronite leaders like the Phalangists, allied themselves with Zionists from the mid-1940s. This alliance continues to the present, in the interest of setting up a sectarian Christian republic in Lebanon, modelled after the Jewish settler-colony.

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By the early 1950s it would be Tunisian nationalists of the Neo Destour party who met with Israeli representatives at the United Nations to help them obtain independence from the French, eliding Israel’s colonial-settler nature. Tunisia's authoritarian leader Habib Bourguiba would maintain these friendly relations with Israel until the end of his rule in 1987.

In the 1960s, Israel would support Saudi Arabia’s efforts in maintaining the rule of the imamate in Yemen against the republicans – the Israelis airlifted weapons and money to the Yemeni monarchists, which were well-received.

The warmest relations in North Africa would be between Israel and the late King Hassan II of Morocco.

While Israeli leaders met with Moroccan officials in the late 1950s, warm relations had to wait till King Hassan assumed the throne. From 1960 onwards the Israelis, through secret agreements with Morocco, airlifted Moroccan Jews to become colonial settlers in the land of the Palestinians.

The Moroccan connection

By 1963, Moroccan minister Mohamed Oufkir had concluded an arrangement with the Israelis to train Moroccan intelligence agents. Israel also helped Morocco track its opposition leaders, including Mehdi Ben Barka, who was captured and killed by Moroccan intelligence in 1965. Indeed, Yitzhak Rabin was invited by King Hassan to visit Morocco secretly in 1976.

By 1986, there were no more reasons for secrecy, and Shimon Peres visited Morocco with much public fanfare. In 1994, Morocco and Israel officially exchanged liaison offices.

In 2018, Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly at the UN with Morocco’s foreign minister for talks. In the last few weeks, the Israelis offered the Moroccans their help in securing US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for Morocco’s formal normalisation of relations with Israel and endorsement of Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century".
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) during a meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on 11 May, 2009 (AFP)

As for the great love affair between the Egyptian political and commercial classes with Israel, it has been a public affair since the late 1970s.

Since 1991, we have seen Israeli leaders, officials and athletes visit most Gulf countries openly, including Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and secretly Saudi Arabia, never mind the opening of liaison or trade offices in these countries.
Public enemy number one

Arab relations with Israel, whether hostile or friendly, were never governed by the interests of the Palestinian people, but rather by their own regime interests, which they often misidentify as “national” interests.

Israel-Sudan: Is Abdel Fattah al-Burhan evolving into a Sudanese Sisi?Read More »

Only the latter part of the history of their love for Israel has coincided since 1991 with the Madrid Peace Conference and the Oslo Accords, which transformed the Palestinian national leadership and the PLO into an agency of the Israeli military occupation; this is testament to Israel’s ceaseless efforts to co-opt Arab political, business, and intellectual elites.

It is also testament of how co-optable these elites are and have always been.

While Israel has been mostly successful in its task as far as the political and business elites are concerned, it has failed miserably to co-opt the Arab intellectual class, except for those amongst them on the payroll of Gulf regimes and Western-funded NGOs. Even less has it gained any popularity among the Arab masses, for whom national interests and the colonisation of Palestinian lands, unlike for the Arab regimes, are not separable at all, and for whom Israel remains the major enemy of all Arabs.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Joseph Massad

Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of many books and academic and journalistic articles. His books include Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan, Desiring Arabs, The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, and most recently Islam in Liberalism. His books and articles have been translated to a dozen languages.
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BACKGROUNDER 
Israel's annexation plan is the Nakba revisitedIn its current formulation, Israel knows only one direction: to deepen its domination over a people whose land it has stolen and continues to steal
David Hearst
15 May 2020

Israeli soldiers walk as Palestinian demonstrators gather on a hilltop during a protest against Israeli settlements in the town of Beita in the Israeli occupied West Bank on 2 March (Reuters)


Anniversaries commemorate past events. And you could be forgiven for thinking that an event which happened 72 years ago is indeed in the past.

This is true of most anniversaries, except when it comes to the Nakba, the "disaster, catastrophe or cataclysm" that marks the partition of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 and the creation of Israel.

The Nakba is not a past event. The dispossession of lands, homes and the creation of refugees have continued almost without pause since. It is not something that happened to your great grandparents.

It happens or could happen to you any time in your life.
A recurring disaster

To Palestinians, the Nakba is a recurring disaster. At least 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in 1948. A further 280,000 to 325,000 fled their homes in territories captured by Israel in 1967.

Since then, Israel has devised subtler means of trying to force the Palestinians from their homes. One such tool was residency revocations. Between the start of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and the end of 2016, Israel revoked the status of at least 14,595 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.

A further 140,000 residents of East Jerusalem have been "silently transferred" from the city, when the construction of the separation wall started in 2002, blocking access to the rest of the city. Almost 300,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem hold permanent residence issued by the Israeli interior ministry.


Two areas were cut off from the city although they lie within its municipal boundaries: Kafr ‘Aqab to the north and Shu’fat Refugee Camp to the northeast.

The residents of neighbourhoods in these areas pay municipal and other taxes, but neither the Jerusalem municipality nor government agencies enter this territory or consider it their responsibility.

Consequently, these parts of East Jerusalem have become a no man's land: the city fails to provide basic municipal services such as waste removal, road maintenance and education, and there is a shortage of classrooms and daycare facilities.

The water and sewage systems fail to meet the population's needs, yet the authorities do nothing to repair them. To get to the rest of the city, residents have to run the daily gauntlet of the checkpoints.

Another tool of expropriation is the application of the Absentee Property Law, which, when passed in 1950, was intended as the basis for the transfer of Palestinian property to the State of Israel.

Its use was generally avoided in East Jerusalem until the construction of the wall. Six years later, it was used to expropriate "absentee land" from the Palestinian residents of Beit Sahour for the construction of 1,000 housing units in Har Homa, in South Jerusalem. But generally its purpose is to provide a mechanism for "creeping expropriation".
A Nakba in real time

The centrepiece of Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu's election campaign and the central legislative purpose of the current Israeli unity government would constitute another chapter of dispossession for Palestinians in 2020. Those are the plans to annex one third - or at worst two thirds - of the West Bank.
The Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem is seen behind the Israeli separation wall on 29 January (Reuters)

Three scenarios are currently under consideration: the maximalist plan to annex the Jordan Valley and all of what the Oslo Accords referred to as Area C. This is about 61 percent of the territory of the West Bank which is administered directly by Israel and is home to 300,000 Palestinians.


Most Palestinians see annexation as the climax of the Zionist project to establish a Jewish majority state

The second scenario is to annex the Jordan Valley alone. According to Israeli and Palestinian surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018, there were 8,100 settlers and 53,000 Palestinians living on this land. Israel split this land into two entities: the Jordan Valley and the Megillot-Dead Sea regional council.

The third scenario is to annex the settlements around Jerusalem, the so-called E1 area, which includes Gush Etsion and Maale Adumin. In both cases Palestinians who live in the villages around these settlements are threatened with expulsion or transfer. There are 2,600 Palestinians who live in the village of Walaja and parts of Beit Jala who would be affected by the annexation of Gush Etsion, as well as 2,000-3,000 Bedouins living in 11 communities around Maale Adumin, such as Khan al-Ahmar.

What would happen to Palestinians who live on land that Israel has annexed?

In theory they could be offered residency, as was the case when East Jerusalem was annexed. In practice, residency will only be offered to a very select few. Israel will not want to solve one problem by creating another.

Most of the Palestinian population of the areas annexed would be transferred to the nearest big city, as happened with the Bedouins in the Negev and East Jerusalemites who find themselves in areas cut off from the rest of the city.
The generals' warning

These plans have generated expressions of horror amongst Israel's security establishment, which has grown used to being listened to, but which now wields less influence over policymaking than it once did.

This is not because the former generals hold any moral objection to expropriation of Palestinian land or because they think Palestinians have a legal right to it. No, their objections are based on how annexation could imperil Israel's security.


The former generals' objections are based on how annexation could imperil Israel’s security

A fascinating resume of their thinking is provided by an open-source document published anonymously by the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) in Herzliya. They state that annexation would destabilise the eastern border of Israel, which is "characterised by great stability, a quiet and a very low level of terror," and that it would cause a "deep jolt" to Israel's relationship with Jordan.

"To the Hashemite regime, annexation is synonymous with the idea of the alternative Palestinian homeland, namely, the destruction of the Hashemite kingdom in favor of a Palestinian state.

"For Jordan, such a move is a material breach of the peace agreement between the two countries. Under these circumstances, Jordan could violate the peace agreement. Alongside this, there may be a strategic threat to its internal stability, due to possible unrest among the Palestinians in combination with the severe economic hardship Jordan is facing," the IPS document says.

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That would only be the start of Jordan's problems with annexation. Even a minimalist option of annexing E1 - the area around Jerusalem - would sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, endangering Jordan's custodianship of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

Annexation would also lead to the "gradual disintegration" of the Palestinian Authority, the IPS claims.

Again, there is no love lost here. What concerns the Israeli analysts is the burden that would be placed on the army. "The effectiveness of security cooperation with Israel will deteriorate and weaken, and who will replace it? IDF! Forcing many forces to deal with riots and order violations and the maintenance of the Palestinian system."



The security establishment goes on to say that annexation could trigger another intifada, strengthening the idea of a one-state solution "which is already acquiring a growing grip in the Palestinian arena".

The Saudi factor

In the wider Arab world, the paper notes that Israel would forfeit many of the allies it believes it has made in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman and intensify the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign internationally.

Mohammed bin Salman's regime has been trying to soften Saudi hostility to Israel in the media and particularly television drama

Saudi Arabia's role in dousing the flames of Arab reaction to Netanyahu's annexation plan was specifically mentioned in Israeli security circles recently. The Saudi support for any form of annexation was deemed crucial.

True to form, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's regime has been trying to soften Saudi hostility to Israel in the media and particularly television drama. A drama called Exit 7 produced by Saudi Arabia's MBC TV recently contained a scene of two actors arguing about normalisation with Israel.

"Saudi Arabia did not gain anything when it supported Palestinians, and must now establish relations with Israel... The real enemy is the one who curses you, denies your sacrifices and support, and curses you day and night more than the Israelis," one character says.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Collage/AFP)

The scene produced a backlash on social media and eventually a fulsome statement of support for the Palestinian cause by the Emirati foreign minister.



هذا القمع إللّي حاصل في دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي لكل رأي ضد التطبيع مع العدو الصهيوني لن تحصد منه إلاّ المُر . حتى مجرد المناقشه ولو ( أونلاين ) لا يستطيع التنظيم الصحراوي في الخليج تحمّله . والله إن هذا أخطر من كورونا .— د. عبدالله النفيسي (@DrAlnefisi) May 11, 2020

Translation: This oppression taking place in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] muzzling any opinion against normalisation with the Zionist enemy can only reap a bitter harvest. They cannot tolerate debate (even if it is online), by God, this is more dangerous than coronavirus.

The attempt demonstrated the limits of Saudi state mind control, which will be weakened still further by the drop in the price of oil and the advent of austerity across the Arab world.

The future Saudi king will no longer be able to buy his way out of trouble.



The Committee

It is worth repeating again that the motive for enumerating the destabilising effects of annexation is not some inherent disquiet at the loss of property or rights. The security establishment's central concern stems from the possibility that Israel's existing borders could be imperilled by overreach.


This is the first time I can remember that a US ambassador and a major US financier make more zealous settlers than a Likud prime minister himself

For similar reasons, a number of Israeli journalists have forecast that annexation will never happen.

They could be right. Pragmatism could win the day. Or they could be underestimating the part that nationalist religious fundamentalism plays in the calculations of Netanyahu, David Friedman, the US ambassador, and the US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the three engineers of the current policy.

While the US role as "an honest broker" in the conflict has long been exposed as a sham, this is the first time I can remember that a US ambassador and a major US financier make more zealous settlers than a Likud prime minister himself.

Friedman is chairman of the joint US-Israel committee on settlement annexation, which will determine the borders of post-annexation Israel. This committee is meaningless in international terms, as it has no representation of any other party to the conflict, let alone the Palestinians whose leaders have boycotted the process.
Palestinian citizens of Israel marking the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe" (Reuters)

Two separate sources from the joint committee have told Middle East Eye that it is leaning towards a once and for all expansion of Israel in the West Bank, and not an incremental one. One source said that it will go for the whole of Area C - in other words the maximalist option.

Again they could be wrong. Both say the annexation that is chosen will tailor itself to the contours of Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century," which reduces the current 22 percent of historic Palestine down to a group of bantustans scattered around Greater Israel.
The climax

The Nakba, 72 years old today, continues to live and breathe venom. The Nakba is not just about original refugees but their descendants - today some five million of them qualify for the services of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).

Trump's decision to stop funding UNWRA, and Israel's insistence that only the original survivors of 1948 should be recognised, has sparked an international campaign in which Palestinians sign a declaration refusing to relinquish their right of return.

Palestinians have only one option left: Stay and fightRead More »

"My right of return to my homeland is an inalienable, individual and collective right guaranteed by international law. Palestinian refugees will never yield to the 'alternative homeland' projects. Any initiative that strikes at the intrinsic foundations of the right of return and negates it is illegitimate and null, and does not represent me in any possible manner," the declaration says.

Significantly it was launched in Jordan, another sign that feelings are running high there.

The Israeli security assessment that a two-state solution is dead in the minds of the majority of Palestinians is surely correct. Most Palestinians see annexation as the climax of the Zionist project to establish a Jewish majority state, and confirmation of their belief that the only way this conflict will end is in its dissolution.

But by the same token, the annexation plans under discussion should be proof to the international community, if one were needed, that far from being a country living in fear, and under permanent attack from irrational and violent rejectionists, Israel is a state which cannot share the land with Palestinians, let alone tolerate Palestinian self-determination in an independent state.

In its current formulation, Israel knows only one direction: to deepen its domination over a people whose land it has stolen and continues to steal.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

David Hearst is the editor in chief of Middle East Eye. He left The Guardian as its chief foreign leader writer. In a career spanning 29 years, he covered the Brighton bomb, the miner's strike, the loyalist backlash in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in Northern Ireland, the first conflicts in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in Slovenia and Croatia, the end of the Soviet Union, Chechnya, and the bushfire wars that accompanied it. He charted Boris Yeltsin's moral and physical decline and the conditions which created the rise of Putin. After Ireland, he was appointed Europe correspondent for Guardian Europe, then joined the Moscow bureau in 1992, before becoming bureau chief in 1994. He left Russia in 1997 to join the foreign desk, became European editor and then associate foreign editor. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he worked as education correspondent.
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BACKGROUNDER
In Palestine, a growing sense of alienation pervades society

Samah Jabr
13 March 2019
The international consensus is moving towards new laws criminalising non-violent opposition to Zionism as ‘anti-semitism’

A Palestinian protester wears a mask painted in the colours of the national flag in Gaza on 22 February (AFP)

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The current world offers countless examples of alienation, but this phenomenon is perhaps especially commonplace in Palestine.

I recently observed a prestigious professional meeting, in which a well-regarded woman dared to defend her opinion with technical data and logic against the meeting’s "boss" and the massive wall of silence his presence evoked - the boss being not a technical person himself, but someone with political power.

Trying to discredit her remarks, the boss said: "This is Abu Antar talking!" He was referring to a male character within the Arab media. Abu Antar is a popular, muscular and defiant gangster. The comment by the boss can be understood as meaning it is not "womanly" to be defiant and protest.

The woman responded: "Only someone unsure of his own masculinity would need to utter such a comment."
The need to belong

Those present - including a number of women appointed merely to appease the project donor’s gender policy, and who fill the role of Amen-sayers to whatever the boss happens to utter - promptly sighed in collective disapproval at the woman’s shrewd reply.

In my discipline of psychiatry, the need to belong is placed high on Maslow’s hierarchy. Group identity is viewed by psychologist Erik Erikson as a crucial psychosocial developmental stage, without which people feel alienated.

Alienation has been assumed to be the root cause of mass shootings in the US, a motivator for people to follow the Islamic State, and a driver of risky migration practices.


Recent events have accelerated and generalised Palestinians’ sense of alienation from the traditionally supportive Arab-Muslim community

The phenomenon of alienation represents an intersection of the personal and the collective, the psychological and the sociological. It includes feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness and self-estrangement.

Alienation can be generated by design: in Palestine, pervasive political helplessness and economic misery alienates many from one another. "I rarely see my children," noted a labourer at an Israeli border checkpoint. "By the time I return home, they are already in bed getting their rest for school the next morning."

Palestinians are alienated from their land and from international consciousness. Forgotten is United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which identified Zionism as a form of racism. Instead, the international consensus is moving towards new laws criminalising non-violent opposition to Zionism as “anti-semitism”.
Reframing enemies and friends

Recent events have accelerated and generalised Palestinians’ sense of alienation from the traditionally supportive Arab-Muslim community.

The latest Warsaw conference on Middle East "peace", attended by Arab leaders and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, reframed enemies and friends, resulting in the Gulf states crowning Israel as a leader in their fight against Iran and ignoring the occupation of Palestine.

US policy in the Middle East is based on efforts to normalise relations between Israel and the Arab world, fuelled by the rise of Arab leaders who are shamelessly willing to sacrifice the Palestinian cause, while the Arab people are exhausted in revolutionary struggles against their leaders.

All of these developments are changing norms and further isolating Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Sultan Qaboos in Oman (Handout)

Rapid growth in the relationship between Israel and Arab governments, especially in the Gulf, has been manifested through official visits by senior Israeli officials to Arab countries, such as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Oman last November. There has also been an expansion of informal meetings and a flurry of economic activity between Arab and Israeli companies.

All of this is accompanied by the artificial support of electronic flies on social media, aiming to create a false public opinion in support of normalisation in Arab society - an accelerated process of spiritual and symbolic degradation.

In reality, this transformation is limited to the leaders and political elites in the Arab world. Ordinary citizens and public opinion steadfastly oppose normalisation with Israel.

Grassroots movements on the Arab street, and their aspirations to be freed from regime control, reveal the degree to which public opinion has been falsified.
Backing oppressive regimes

Israel is the enemy of the Arab people wherever they may be, backing their oppressive regimes, monitoring their activists and aiding the process of human rights violations. For example, an Israeli company specialising in cyber-espionage reportedly negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal with Saudi Arabia for technology that could be used to hack dissidents’ mobile phones.

The Palestinian leadership, which allows for security coordination with Israel, has paved the way for the normalisation between Israel and Arab regimes. This disappointment is exacerbated by the widespread polarisation, corruption and nepotism practised by Palestinian leaders and institutions.

The missing element from GCC normalisation with Israel: The Palestinians
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Yet, there are still examples of resistance to this alienation.

A photo recently emerged of Hebron’s police chief helping to change a flat tyre on an Israeli military jeep, sparking widespread rage among Palestinians and eventually leading to the chief’s suspension.

These are difficult times, indeed. The alienated are many and silent. But we shall hold on; we will not disappear.

We shall speak about the ills of alienation. Sometimes this will cause further pain, and sometimes it will expose the collaborators - but this is what it takes to walk the road of freedom, for our minds and for our homeland.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Samah Jabr

Samah Jabr is a Jerusalemite psychiatrist and psychotherapist who cares about the wellbeing of her community – beyond issues of mental illness
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