Israeli parliament reinstates law barring naturalisation of Palestinian spouses

The law passed in a 45-15 vote

From left, Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The prime minister's hawkish Yamina party allied with right-wing factions in the opposition to pass the legislation. AP

The National
Mar 10, 2022

Israeli politicians reinstated a law barring Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip from obtaining citizenship via marriage to Israeli citizens.

The law will deny naturalisation to Arabs from the Palestinian territories married to Israeli citizens, forcing thousands of Palestinian families to make the impossible choice of either emigrating or living apart.

Dozens of politicians in the 120-seat chamber did not cast their votes on the divisive legislation that was passed on Thursday.

The bill passed into law in a 45-15 vote.

Known as the “citizenship law”, it reinstates a ban that was first enacted in 2003 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

The legislation had been renewed continuously until last July, when Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's newly sworn-in coalition did not unite around it after failing to gain the support of the opposition.

Mr Bennett's hawkish Yamina party allied with right-wing factions in the opposition to pass the legislation, ignoring the protests of more liberal parties inside and outside government.

Proponents say the bill helps to ensure Israel's security and maintain its “Jewish character”.

Some Knesset members said it was intended to prevent a gradual right of return for Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes or fled during the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.

Under the terms of the citizenship law, which will be valid for a one-year period, Palestinian spouses of Israelis can obtain two-year residence permits, which can be revoked on security grounds.

The restored legislation will have an outsize effect on Israel's 20 per cent Arab minority, who share language, family and cultural ties with Palestinians in the territories Israel has occupied since 1967.

“The combination of forces between the coalition and the opposition led to an important result for the security of the state and its fortification as a Jewish state,” said Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, the driving force behind the bill and a member of Mr Bennett's party.

Abdallah Haj Mohamad, head of Jalud village's council, stands in front of the Jewish settlement of Shvut Rachel during a tour organised by Palestinian authorities to show the development of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, on March 16, 2017. All photos: AFP

Bezalel Smotrich of the nationalist Religious Zionism bloc said the law was “a correct and good outline”.

Politician Gaby Lasky from the dovish Meretz party called the law “a black spot on the book of laws in Israel” and wrote on Twitter that “Meretz, as a whole, voted against racism”.

Mansour Abbas, the head of the Raam Islamist party, also opposed the legislation.

Several rights groups have announced that they will challenge the law in Israel's Supreme Court.

“The justices will now have to decide whether, when faced with the law's explicit language, they will continue to allow this racist law to be protected under the eternal pretext of temporality,” said the Adalah advocacy group.

“It comes off as more xenophobic or racist [than other laws] because it is not only giving extra rights and privileges to Jewish people, but also preventing certain basic rights only from the Arab population,” said Reut Shaer, a lawyer with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.

The law also bars the union of Israeli citizens or residents and spouses from “enemy states”, such as Lebanon, Syria and Iran. However, it mostly affects Palestinian women and children, said Ms Shaer.

It is a form of “collective punishment” because it infringes on the rights of an entire population based on the racist assumption that they are all prone to terrorism, she said.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war.
Updated: March 10, 2022, 10:52 PM

BARBAROUS MURDER MOST FOUL
Saudi Arabia kills 81 people in mass execution


Saudi Arabia flag is shown. File photo by Gil C/Shutterstock

March 12 (UPI) -- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Saturday mass executed 81 people.

The execution of 81 people in a single day is believed to be the biggest mass execution in the history of the country, surpassing a mass execution in 1980 when 63 people were convicted and beheaded for seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, Deutsche Welle reported.

The executions on Saturday were carried out based on sentences of capital punishment for convictions of terrorism and capital crimes, Saudi's Ministry of Interior announced in the country's state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Among the crimes committed that the ministry announced were the murder of "innocent men, women and children" and aligning with terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Houthis, targeting Saudi residents.

RELATED U.N. imposes arms embargo on Houthis, labels group as terrorists

The ministry also announced that the individual crimes included targeting government personnel, the killing and maiming of law enforcement officers, planting bombs that targeted their vehicles and the smuggling of arms and bombs into the country. Other charges included kidnapping, torture and rape.

The individuals who were executed were found guilty of "committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilian and law enforcement officers dead," the SPA reported.

Each individual was seen by 13 judges over three separate stages of trial and provided with an attorney, according to the SPA.

Still, a Britain-based campaign group advocating for justice and human rights, Reprieve, condemned the mass execution.

"The world should know by now that when Mohammed Bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow," Reprieve said in a series of tweets condemning the mass execution on Saturday.

"Just last week the Crown Prince told journalists he plans to modernize Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country's history," Reprieve continued. "There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for everyone of them following this brutal display of impunity."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia "soon, to beg for Saudi oil to replace Russian gas," Reprieve added.

"We cannot show our revulsion for Putin's atrocities by rewarding those of the Crown Prince," Repreive said. "Johnson must speak up and condemn these killings."

Time to Stop Indulging Saudi Arabia’s Murderous Dictator

Mohammed bin Salman thinks he can push America around. He needs to be taught a lesson.

BY RYAN COOPER
MARCH 10, 2022

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP PHOTO
Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a G20 session with other heads of state in Buenos Aires, November 30, 2018.

The Biden administration is continuing its efforts to isolate the Putin regime. The decision to ban Russian oil and gas was so telegraphed that prices dropped after the news on Thursday. But the benchmark remains high, around $115 per barrel at the time of writing, leading the administration to press forward with negotiations to restart the Iran nuclear deal and even reach out to Venezuela. These efforts appear to be bearing fruit—negotiations are ongoing with Iran, and Venezuela released two American prisoners on Tuesday in a show of good faith.

Biden is also pushing to reframe zero-carbon energy as protecting national security. “To protect our economy over the long term, we need to become energy independent,” his comms team recently posted on Twitter. “It should motivate us to accelerate our transition to a clean energy future.”

However, the rest of his diplomatic push is not going so well. Biden has been personally trying to convince Saudi Arabia’s dictator Mohammed bin Salman and the leaders of the United Arab Emirates to increase oil production, so as to keep a lid on prices. On Tuesday, not only did they both decline to reconsider their previous agreement with Putin to restrict supply, they contemptuously refused to take a phone call from Biden—and did take one from Putin.

Now, the UAE has reportedly since reversed course, announcing that it supports an increase in production. But the Saudi regime has said no such thing. It’s time America stopped putting up with this ridiculous abuse.

More from Ryan Cooper

The apparent proximate cause of bin Salman’s annoyance is the fact that people keep criticizing him over the gruesome assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. In a recent (typically credulous) interview with The Atlantic, bin Salman insisted that he didn’t do it. “It hurt me and it hurt Saudi Arabia, from a feelings perspective,” he said.

This is almost certainly a crock. We have audio and visual evidence, provided by the Turkish government, of a team of Saudi assassins entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Khashoggi seemingly being cut to pieces while still alive. The CIA, which is not exactly known for its hostility to dictators, concluded that bin Salman ordered the assassination personally. We also know that like most dictators, bin Salman is hypersensitive to criticism and prone to violence, and Khashoggi was a famous critic and Saudi exile. Means, motive, opportunity, it’s all there.

It is just patently obvious that bin Salman thinks he can push around the American government however he wants. And it’s not hard to see why. The Saudi government has been dumping oceans of cash into the Washington, D.C., lobbying trough for decades, and firms from one side of K Street to the other, of all ideological stripes, have been eagerly gobbling it up.

Moreover, after bin Salman consolidated power in a ruthless palace coup in 2017, he went on a PR tour in the U.S., where he was met with jaw-dropping credulousness in a way that revealed our elites at their very worst. He was warmly embraced by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, among many other political and business leaders. The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius, and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg all gave him respectful interviews.

Bin Salman might be forgiven for thinking that the American foreign-policy and business elites are so preposterously corrupt and/or stupid that they can basically be “bought over the counter like so many pounds of cheese.” But undoubtedly one motive for so many of the liberals who bought into his dime-store reformer shtick was the desire to believe that there was some nobler purpose behind the Saudi-U.S. alliance beyond narrow self-interest.

There isn’t. From its very start in the 1940s, the alliance has always rested upon a cynical deal, that America will provide diplomatic and military cover for a brutal, fossilized Saudi regime, so long as the monarchy enables America’s addiction to cheap oil. The only reason for America to tolerate the relationship is for moments like these, when the country needs the spigots turned on. But now, in this pinch, bin Salman is refusing to live up to his end of the bargain. America and the world are facing a gigantic oil supply crunch as a reaction to a totally unjustifiable war of aggression, and the Saudi dictator is thumbing his nose at us.

No self-respecting great power would tolerate this kind of behavior from a client state, and especially not one requiring so many grim compromises with its stated values. Saudi Arabia won’t cut America a break? Fine. Let’s withdraw all support for its endless quasi-genocidal war in Yemen, restart the Iran nuclear deal, and pull back American forces protecting its oil infrastructure, just for a start. If bin Salman doesn’t get the message, there are more pointed options that are easy to imagine. It’s a matter of basic national dignity.

Over the medium term, this whole wretched story further underlines the importance of the green transition away from fossil fuels. Cheap Saudi oil is against even a slightly enlightened conception of America’s national interest. Climate change, of course, poses a clear and present danger to American society and humanity as a whole. As much of that oil as possible should be kept in the ground.

Moreover, keeping gas prices low so Americans can drive around filth-spewing 6,000-pound SUVs and trucks means we reap a daily harvest of asthma diagnoses and grisly pedestrian deaths. A slower, more efficient, more walkable America would be both healthier and less reliant on the goodwill of murderous foreign dictators.

But even if you believe that middle-class commuters must be pacified in the name of political expediency, if at the moment of desperation the Saudis won’t deliver, it’s time to disentangle this ugly compromise.


RYAN COOPER is the Prospect’s managing editor, and author of ‘How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics.’ He was previously a national correspondent for The Week.

The Harriet Tubman mural that transcends time

Born enslaved roughly 200 years ago, Harriet Tubman became a legendary abolitionist in the US known for working on the Underground Railroad. Street artist Michael Rosato has immortalized the celebrated figure in art.

Michael Rosato's mural "Reflections on Pine" is centered around Tubman

Tubman Country. It's what inhabitants proudly call a stretch of land on the East Coast of the United States. Washington, DC, is just over two hours away by car, but traveling to visit the area invites a journey back in time.

The peaceful maritime region located in the state of Maryland once played a notorious role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In 1619, the first slave ship docked here carrying Africans who had been kidnapped in what is now Angola.

It is also here, on this segment of land surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, that Harriet Tubman was born, very likely in mid-March 1822, though no one knows for sure.

Born into slavery, Tubman later escaped north to freedom. She then became an abolitionist and one of the most famous participants in the Underground Railroad, a secret safe house network that helped enslaved African Americans travel north to freedom.

She led at least several dozen enslaved individuals to freedom — all at great risk to her own life. She also fought for women's suffrage and Black rights.

Rosato's murals are gigantic, as seen in this photo showing him hanging the portrait panel of Tubman

Tubman's legacy

Artist Michael Rosato is waiting at the entrance to Cambridge, a town in Maryland of 12,000 people. The artist, in his mid-50s, is known for his giant works of street art that often depict figures of American history.

Today, he is standing in front of his mural "Reflections on Pine" (pictured at the top of this article).

The colorful 11-by-48-foot (3-by-14.5-meter) mural shows Tubman as an old woman with a headwrap and coat, standing in a cornfield. Above her is a military plane while next to her are portrayals of Black artists, scientists and politicians, other heroes of history, all of whom emanate from her portrait. What immediately catches the eye is that the perspective seems shifted: We are not looking at Harriet; she is defining us as the viewer.

Tubman was one of those special individuals whose human spirit was greater than anything else, Rosato says: "And to do that took a lot of courage and a lot of faith and just a lot of fortitude."

The artist says he put Tubman at the center of his painting because she played such an important role for many African Americans. "[She] is the inspiration for many African Americans in the community. You know, 'When she could do it, then I can do it,'" he says.

Rosato in his studio in Cambridge, Maryland

Capturing a vibrant Black community

Tubman's legacy contributed to an active Black civil rights movement in Cambridge.

The streets where the Black community lived were once a lively collection of stores, cafes and schools, but things changed after the riots and confrontations with police that occurred in the 1960s.

The mural recalls the vibrant times of the past. "When you look at that mural, there are a lot of things happening in it. That tells the story of a community," Rosato explains, adding that Tubman was the basis of that community.

Rosato's large-scale works in public spaces have generated discussion and received great acclaim. "I thought in designing this, you have to incorporate things that the community, both sides, white and Black, can identify with."
Reaching out, transcending time

Another mural by Rosato, "Take My Hand," shows Tubman by a river. She appears to be stepping over a wall and out of the painting as she extends her right hand to viewers, open and ready to take someone's hand in hers. A photo of a girl symbolically reaching out to the larger-than-life Tubman went viral on social media in 2019.

Rosato's mural "Take My Hand" shows a young Tubman reaching out to the viewer

At that time, a repressed anger was changing the United States, Rosato says. "The Black community was getting tired of the police shooting[s], they were getting tired of this pent-up acceptance of how they've been treated." All of a sudden, it wasn't just about the painting but also about the young child Tubman touches. For Rosato, this was poetic, and it was moving.

"Young girl, present day, touching the hand of a woman from 200 years ago," Rosato says. "That poetry is, I think, what spoke and what really got people, because [it] allowed them to be that little girl and to be this woman, offering a hand."

Only a few photos of Tubman exist. She is always looking seriously into the camera. This is also the case in the best-known black-and-white picture from 1895, taken when she was 73. While Rosato did use the historical image as a model, he chose to paint the slave emancipator in "Take my hand" at the age of 30. He wanted to show a young, rebellious Harriet and saw it as connected to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The mural not only depicts Tubman, but also shows the landscape where she had lived when she was enslaved — the place where she had to toil as the "property" of a white plantation owner and received whippings as a 6-year-old.

When you look at the mural, you're looking into the past, Rosato says. You can see the vegetation and the water. "And she is transcending time, in a way, because she is offering her hand to us the viewer in the present," he says.

At about 14 feet (4 meters) tall, and with hands measuring 3 feet, Tubman is monumental in size. "It's big — it's imposing, it's not life size, it's larger than life!" Rosato says. "So you are engaging with this larger-than-life woman who is reaching through this wall and part of her foot is painted trompe l'oeil, tricking the eye, to look like it's coming out and into your space."

Rosato's mural centers on African American abolitionist and reformer couple Frederick and Anna Douglass

Amending historic wrongs

Connecting the past and present also has to do with belated efforts to amend historic wrongs and reparations that many governments in the US, from the local to the state to the federal levels, have struggled to make.

Tubman not only helped enslaved people to freedom; she fought in the Civil War against the Southern slave-owning states, scouting out Confederate positions, and she also served as a nurse.

Despite her services, she was denied a pension. It was not until she was in old age, shortly before her death in 1913, that she finally received a monthly pension for her nursing work. She lived to be 91.

This article was originally written in German

Nigerian women protest gender inequality

Nigerian women have been out on the streets protesting after lawmakers rejected constitutional changes that would have promoted gender equality.

 

Ninety-five percent of ritual killing victims are women – Project Alert
By Olaitan Ganiu On Mar 13, 2022


Ninety-five percent victims of ritual killings in Nigeria are women and children.

This is according to the Programme Officer of Project Alert, a non-governmental women’s rights organisation, Nnsini Udonta.

Speaking mid-week on the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD), which the organisation marked with a violence-free awareness walk in Agege Market and environs in Lagos, Nsini said the rising incidents of ritual killing in Nigeria has continued to threaten the lives of women as well as the girl-child, even as gender-based violence remained a constant threat to all women.

Making specific reference to the case of Oluwabamise Ayanwole, suspected to have been murdered for ritual purposes, Udonta said, ”All these ritual killings have been targeted at women. In fact, 95 per cent of victims are women. We are using this opportunity to say ‘no’ to ritual killings, no to domestic violence, no to rape, child sexual abuse and other forms of abuse.”

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Describing this year’s IWD theme of ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow #BreakTheBias,’ as apt, Udonta said the barrier of inequality in the country has continued to hinder women’s progress.

“Nigerian Women are ready to take key positions in the country but we are not given the chance. As we speak, many women have gone to the National Assembly in Abuja to protest the rejection of some bills seeking gender equality.

“That is part of the reasons we chose marketplace to carry traders along in demanding our rights from the government. And because in the market, we have fathers, mothers, perpetrators and also have survivors and we have victims to pass our message out to them.”

A male coordinator of Project Alert’s Sexual and Gender-based Violence Surveillance Ream for Ifako-Ijaiye zone, Adebo Adedayo, noted that collective effort is required to end violence against women across the world.

“Gender-based violence is a global phenomenon and it is very endemic. It has rendered a lot of women incapable, weak, in a physical condition that has negatively affected their position, aspiration, goals in society.

India: Why are female community health workers on strike?

Community medical workers, who are the backbone of India's health care system, have been on strike, demanding better recognition of their work, increased wages and improved working conditions.

Opinion: Raif Badawi is free, but world must speak out for other jailed journalists

Blogger Raif Badawi has been released from Saudi prison after completing his sentence. But ongoing restrictions on his freedom and a crackdown on free press means the world can't afford to be silent, says Justin Shilad.

Governments around the world should raise their voices on behalf of all imprisoned journalists, says Justin Shilad

After nearly a decade behind bars, Saudi authorities have finally released Raif Badawi from prison. Badawi, a blogger who used his writings and online forums to advocate for secularism and liberal values, was arrested in June 2012 and sentenced a year later to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He endured 50 lashes as part of his sentence, but global pressure may have saved him from even more.

While Badawi was in prison, Saudi Arabia witnessed two seemingly contradictory trends. Under the de facto reign of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has turned into one of the top jailers of journalists worldwide and an epicenter of surveillance and spyware technology. The crown prince himself has gained notoriety in 2018 for likely ordering the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post.

Yet at the same time, the crown prince escaped any direct penalty from the US government and the international community, and the world has accepted Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman as an increasingly important actor on the global stage.
Badawi reflected changing views on religion, liberalism

But Badawi's arrest and sentencing came years before bin Salman's ascent to power, and his writing is an example of how independent journalism continues in one of the world's most censored states.

Badawi started an online discussion forum in 2006 where Saudis could discuss politics and religion. By 2008, he had already been detained at least once, yet he continued to develop the forum until it became the Free Saudi Liberals network, with thousands of registered users. Over the next few years, he continued to help run the forum while publishing columns advocating secularism and liberalism in local and regional outlets.

Ensaf Haidar, Badawi's wife, has consistently called for her husband's release

Badawi's writing and work moderating the forums reflected Saudis' changing views on the role of religion and liberalism in Saudi society — a dynamic that Saudi authorities have alternately denied and attempted to take credit for.

A Saudi court responded to Badawi's writings by sentencing him to seven years in prison and 600 lashes — a sentence that was increased on appeal in May 2014 to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes, a fine of 1 million Saudi riyal ($267,000/€244,000) and a 10-year travel ban after his prison sentence. Saudi authorities publicly lashed Badawi 50 times in January 2015, but repeatedly postponed the remaining sessions, ostensibly out of concern for his health.

Saudi government sensitive to criticism

But the international outcry after the first round of lashes suggests Saudi authorities are indeed concerned about worldwide public opinion and their global standing. After Khashoggi's murder, the Saudi government responded with ferocity when Canada's Foreign Ministry criticized the arrest of Badawi's sister, Samar Badawi, in 2019.

If the Saudi government's expulsion of the Canadian ambassador in response was meant as a warning to other countries who would criticize the country's rights record, it should also indicate how sensitive they are to criticism.

Raif Badawi may be free, but Saudi authorities continue to impose a travel ban on him and others, subjecting him to another unbearable decade of separation from his family. Meanwhile, the Saudi government continues to enjoy the military support of the US and EU member states, even as other journalists languish in prison in deplorable circumstances. The international condemnation that followed the first round of Badawi's lashings has subsided, as Saudi authorities' violations against journalists multiplied.

Need for continued international pressure

The international community must keep the pressure on Saudi authorities to release all other detained journalists, stop imposing onerous restrictions on those who have been released from jail, end their regime of censorship and surveillance and meaningfully pursue justice for Khashoggi's murder. As horrifying as it was for Badawi to have to endure 50 lashes, there's reason to believe that international pressure kept him from a grimmer fate.

Badawi's release from prison should not signal a return to business as usual with the kingdom — instead, it should be a reminder of the stakes of silence, and the need for continued international pressure.

Over the past three years, the ongoing imprisonment of Saudi journalists and lack of accountability for Khashoggi's murder has drawn an uncomfortable silence from the international community. With Badawi out of jail, governments around the world should raise their voices once again on behalf of all other imprisoned journalists. If he wasn't afraid to speak out, then countries that claim to value free expression shouldn't be afraid to either.

Justin Shilad is a senior researcher on Middle East and North Africa at the Committee to Protect Journalists.


VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS 'IN THE HEART OF EUROPE'
Amsterdam in shock
Tuesday evening in the middle of the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Well-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries leaves a television studio and is shot by unknown assailants. Various indications point to an organized crime syndicate being behind the attack. Two men were taken into custody several hours after the shooting.
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At a press conference held at a secret location in Kyiv on Saturday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said people around the world are taking to the streets because they want their governments to do more for his country. He said the world cannot afford to abandon Ukraine, warning: "What's happening here is what will happen in Europe tomorrow."   

The lonely envoy: Moscow's man at the UN finds himself on the defensive

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has followed Moscow's line at emergency meetings of the UN Security Council since Russia's attack on Ukraine. 

PHOTO: EPA-EFE

UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES (AFP) - It was the middle of an emergency session of the UN Security Council, late on the evening of Feb 23, and Mr Vassily Nebenzia looked shaken - his face pale, his shoulders sagging.

Russia, the country he represents at the United Nations, had just invaded Ukraine, sending shock waves around the world that continue to reverberate today.

At nearly 60, Mr Nebenzia - a bald man, massively built, who wears thin-framed glasses and often fiddles with his watch - was chairing the Security Council.

It was a shocking first for the UN: The man presiding over the august body dedicated to defending global peace was also the representative of a nuclear power now waging war against a democracy.

Did he know, when he opened the session and sat listening as his colleagues delivered impassioned pleas for Moscow to pull back the armed forces surrounding much of Ukraine - that they had already invaded?

More generally, does he believe the words in the speeches he reads?

"I don't know, but I believe not," one UN official told Agence France-Presse, speaking on grounds of anonymity.

Several ambassadors said they shared that impression.

Several UN ambassadors think Mr Nebenzia does not believe the statements he reads from Moscow. PHOTO: AFP

Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya regularly asks Mr Nebenzia if he is actually in touch with Moscow.

British envoy Barbara Woodward, a specialist in Russian and Chinese affairs, reminded Mr Nebenzia that the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: "Man is given not only one life, but also one conscience."

She said: "I know that you've spoken under instructions today, but I ask you to report faithfully back to Moscow what you have heard today - the urgency of this Council's calls for peace."

Mr Nebenzia did not respond to an AFP request for an interview.

He has, in resigned tones, followed his government's line at emergency meetings of the council since war broke out, and further sessions are expected this week.

Under the exasperated eyes of his foreign colleagues, he has read speeches denying media reports of the destruction of civilian sites.

In impromptu replies, he has on occasion used the word "war" - a word banned by Moscow in regard to Ukraine. But each time, he has been careful to note that the word was first used by his boss, Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov.

"The Russian system has never been as centralised," said one Western ambassador, speaking anonymously.

Russian diplomats "are excellent professionals, but they are not in a position to interact with power. They are simply there to execute government dictates, whether involved in preparing them or not - and usually not".
Two things at once

At the UN, Mr Nebenzia is known for his deep mastery of the issues. His career has taken him to Bangkok and Geneva, with a speciality in international organisations. He is fluent in the arcana of multilateral manoeuvring and uses his deep understanding of procedure to his country's benefit.

Mr Nebenzia is known for his mastery of issues, with a speciality in international organisations. PHOTO: AFP

Outside the sometimes theatrical jousting in the hallowed halls of the Security Council, his relations with colleagues are cordial and polite - and have remained so since the invasion, according to several sources.

The ambassador is a man of culture with a sense of humour.

"I can do two things at the same time," he told AFP with a smile, after displaying the surprising ability to deliver a speech in Russian while listening to its English translation simultaneously on his headphones.

Russians are trained in this multitasking, his aides say, which allows them to ensure that their addresses are rendered as precisely as possible in the language in which most will hear them - and to correct any errors on the spot, diplomats say.

At diplomatic receptions, Mr Nebenzia shows a convivial side. His favourite cocktail? "Half vodka, half champagne," he once told two French journalists.

Married and father of a son, the ambassador likes to take off on weekends on his European motorbike - a solitary hobby that goes well with the newly solitary status thrust on him by the Ukraine crisis.

But he is never far from the drama these days.

On Feb 28, during a news conference marking the end of his month leading Russia's rotating presidency of the Security Council, he abruptly interrupted the proceedings to answer his cellphone.

After listening for a moment without speaking, he hung up and announced - adopting a tone of victimhood - that the United States was expelling 12 members of his diplomatic mission.

Sources in Washington have said the 12 are spies - with no connection to the war.

Diplomats later told AFP that the 12 are members of the military.

Colombians vote for Congress, short-list presidential contenders

Héctor Velasco
Thu, 10 March 2022

Colombians will vote to renew their 296-member Congress 

(AFP/Raul ARBOLEDA)


Polls show Gustavo Petro in the lead ahead of the first round of presidential voting in Colombia on May 29

 (AFP/Luis ROBAYO)


French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt was captured by the FARC guerrilla group in 2002 while campaigning for the presidency, and was rescued in a military operation six-and-a-half years later, in 2008 

(AFP/DANIEL MUNOZ)

A couple walks past a banner with information on the election in Bogota

 (AFP/Juan BARRETO)

Colombians vote Sunday to draw up a shortlist of presidential candidates for elections in May while also electing the 296 members of its Congress.

Nearly 39 million of Colombia's 50 million inhabitants are eligible to vote in a complex but critical election that comes with the president and legislature both at rock-bottom levels of public opinion.

In a country with a history of political violence and voter turnout traditionally below 50 percent, outgoing President Ivan Duque has promised safety "guarantees" for the non-compulsory vote.


On one part of the ballot, voters will determine the composition of the Senate and House of Representatives, currently in the hands of right-wing parties.

But all eyes will really be on the outcome of the presidential primary -- called inter-party "consultations" -- happening alongside the legislative vote.

In a country that has always been ruled by the political right, polls show that former guerrilla, ex-Bogota mayor and senator Gustavo Petro, 61, stands a real chance of becoming Colombia's first-ever leftist leader.

Also in the running is former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who said in January she would vie to represent centrist parties as an alternative to both the ruling right and Petro.

The process must yield three presidential contenders from 15 candidates vying to represent groups of politically-aligned parties -- one each for the left, right and center.

Three others have already been chosen by their respective groupings.

Six finalists will face off in a first round of presidential elections on May 29, which will be followed by a runoff on June 19 if no one wins am outright majority.

- First leftist president? -

Petro enjoys polled support of about 45 percent -- more than any other candidate in a country traditionally distrustful of the left.

That distrust is widely associated with the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other rebel groups that fought the government in a near six-decade civil conflict.

"When the government is unpopular, there is alternation and the opposition wins, but in Colombia, this is new: the left has never really been in a position to win an election," said analyst Yann Basset of the Rosario University in Bogota.

In 2018, Petro lost the presidential race to Duque, who is leaving office as his country's most unpopular president in history following a year marked by social unrest and a violent police crackdown that drew international condemnation.

The political right he represents is divided and weakened by the absence of popular former president Alvaro Uribe, who had to resign from the senate under a cloud of alleged bribery and witness tampering. It has no clear frontrunner.

For Betancourt, it is her second presidential run: she was abducted 20 years ago while campaigning and held captive in the jungle for more than six years.

Colombian presidents serve only one four-year term.

- Economy dominates -

Duque's successor faces a multitude of challenges, not least of which is a new cycle of murders and kidnappings as violence has surged despite a 2016 peace deal that disarmed the FARC and officially ended the civil war.

The new president will also contend with an economy hard hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

"What dominates the agenda today is how we will get out of the economic and social crisis," said Basset.

Congress, for its part, enters Sunday's election with an 86 percent disapproval rating, according to the Invamer polling agency, due to multiple corruption scandals.

Despite the peace pact, fighters of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) still battle dissidents of the disbanded FARC, paramilitary forces and drug cartels for territory, resources and smuggling routes.

Colombia is the world's largest cocaine exporter.

The right-wing government in Bogota accuses its populist socialist counterparts in Venezuela of supporting and providing refuge for far left guerrillas.

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Saudi women drive for extra cash as costs climb


Fahda Fahd picks up fares in the Saudi capital Riyadh from a ride-hailing app exclusively for women, as a way of earning extra cash amid rising living costs in the kingdom

 (AFP/Fayez Nureldine)

Haitham El-Tabei
Sat, March 12, 2022

Like other Saudi women, Fahda Fahd couldn't legally drive until 2018, but her lime-green Kia is now a route to extra cash as living costs rise in the conservative kingdom.

When she's not working full time at a healthcare call centre, the 54-year-old picks up fares in the capital Riyadh from a ride-hailing app exclusively for women.

Fahd said her family was supportive of her second job, on two conditions: no long trips or men as passengers.

"I decided to work as a taxi driver to earn extra income," said Fahd, wearing a black head covering and an anti-coronavirus face mask.

"My salary is not enough for my three children, and especially for my daughter who has special needs," she told AFP.

Sweeping social reforms, including lifting the infamous ban on women driving, have transformed life for many Saudis, but rising costs are increasingly problematic.

Fahd says her salary of 4,000 Saudi riyals ($1,066) a month from her regular job is not enough -- but driving brings in another 2,500 riyals.

She usually hits the road before her shift starts at 2 pm, sometimes accepting passengers on her way home at 10 pm, and says she appreciates the flexible hours.

"It has allowed me to help my retired husband pay monthly bills and for my children's school needs," she said, checking her phone for the latest fare.

- 'New chance at life' -

Costs are creeping up in Saudi Arabia, which is on a drive to reduce its economic reliance on oil and in July 2020 hiked value added tax to 15 percent.

Last December, transport costs were up 7.2 percent year-on-year, part of a 1.2 percent rise in consumer prices.

At the same time, millions of Saudi women are finding jobs as female employment gains acceptance in the deeply patriarchal society.

Women made up more than a third of the workforce last year for the first time, government figures showed.

They are among the Saudis now commonly seen serving customers in restaurants, cafes and shoe stores, filling jobs formerly done by foreigners as the government pursues its "Saudisation" plan for the economy.

Traditionally, Saudi women were forbidden from mixing with men outside their extended family.

Insaf, a 30-year-old mother of three, said she turned to driving after her husband died suddenly.

"He didn't leave us a fortune, so I had to work to support my children," she told AFP, preferring to use a pseudonym for privacy reasons.

"I am using my late husband's car to drive women and children in the neighbourhood to schools or shopping centres.

"My work as a driver has given me a new chance at life."

Since 2018, more than 200,000 women have obtained driving licences, with car sales rising five percent last year, according to media reports.

Egyptian passenger Aya Diab, 29, said she was "more comfortable dealing with women", and a Saudi customer who spoke on condition of anonymity expressed a similar sentiment.

"I feel like I'm with my sister," she said, sitting in the front seat next to Fahd as they drove off.

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