15 apr 2014
Head of the ICRC mission in Gaza Christian Cardon
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Monday warned of a collapse of humanitarian services in the Gaza Strip due to eight years of Israeli blockade. Head of the ICRC mission in Gaza Christian Cardon said the tightening restrictions imposed on the movement of goods and individuals from and into the Gaza Strip "are ringing a bell".
He warned that the Israeli measures and the ongoing Egyptian closure of the Rafah border crossing point with Gaza "are worrying and will influence the humanitarian situation in the territory".
The Gaza Strip, an impoverished and densely populated coastal enclave ruled by Hamas, has been under a tight Israeli blockade after Hamas won the election in 2006. Free movement of goods, products and individuals is restricted.
Egypt has kept the Rafah border crossing closed after the deposition of the elected president Mohamed Morsi in early July last year, and opened it temporarily for humanitarian cases.
Egypt has also destroyed thousands of tunnels dug by the Palestinians to escape the Israeli blockade, which has badly affected people's daily life in Gaza.
"The lack of all materials, mainly construction materials and fuels, in addition to the lack of goods and high prices, I think thus will certainly affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," Cardon said.
ALRAY contributed to this
Source: BS
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Monday warned of a collapse of humanitarian services in the Gaza Strip due to eight years of Israeli blockade. Head of the ICRC mission in Gaza Christian Cardon said the tightening restrictions imposed on the movement of goods and individuals from and into the Gaza Strip "are ringing a bell".
He warned that the Israeli measures and the ongoing Egyptian closure of the Rafah border crossing point with Gaza "are worrying and will influence the humanitarian situation in the territory".
The Gaza Strip, an impoverished and densely populated coastal enclave ruled by Hamas, has been under a tight Israeli blockade after Hamas won the election in 2006. Free movement of goods, products and individuals is restricted.
Egypt has kept the Rafah border crossing closed after the deposition of the elected president Mohamed Morsi in early July last year, and opened it temporarily for humanitarian cases.
Egypt has also destroyed thousands of tunnels dug by the Palestinians to escape the Israeli blockade, which has badly affected people's daily life in Gaza.
"The lack of all materials, mainly construction materials and fuels, in addition to the lack of goods and high prices, I think thus will certainly affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," Cardon said.
ALRAY contributed to this
Source: BS
14 apr 2014
The flags of the 22 Arab countries flutter outside the hotel that will host the 24th summit of the Arab League on 25 March 2013 in the Qatari capital Doha
“Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation,” Gibran Khalil Gibran
Arab integration is not a new idea. It has been adopted as an official goal, attempted and abandoned at different times since the 1950s. Some types of integration succeeded while many others did not, the casualties of wavering political will and unclear plans.
Failure has deterred further attempts. Some believe that, just as external and internal obstacles thwarted integration in the past they would do so again. Advocates of integration, however, argue that the region is enviably placed for close cooperation, with a common language and culture, a shared history and geographical proximity. No other regional grouping in the world started from such promising beginnings.
This report starts with the latter argument and goes on to make a case for integration as a prerequisite for human development and renaissance in the region. The extraordinary wave of civil revolts across the region has made comprehensive integration both more urgent and more feasible. These liberating rebellions shook republics and monarchies from the Atlantic to the Gulf. They unified the Arab political space with their common call for justice, equality, economic opportunities and freedom. But their hopes and expectations are on a scale that no single Arab country by itself can satisfy. Only through integration can the Arab countries initiate a renaissance equal to such sweeping demands. This historic change, and the popular movements behind it, provide an unprecedented impetus for integration, and a powerful assurance that, this time, the Arabs will see that the process is sustained and completed.
Why integration?
Around the world, even the greatest powers have seen fit to become part of larger entities in order to manage globalisation and the fierce competition it brings. Meanwhile, Arab countries — fragmented and divided — try to face individually external pressures, domestic challenges and emerging risks in a world more interconnected and complex than ever before.
Comprehensive integration as advocated in this report is an altogether larger idea than conventional integration, and one greater than the sum of its parts. It is not just about linking political systems; it is about reinventing those systems in a free area of Arab citizenship to address real challenges to stability and peace by guaranteeing every Arab justice, equality, human rights and autonomy in all the Arab countries.
While comprehensive integration builds on expanded intraregional flows of goods, services and capital, it does not stop with the enhancement of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area. Rather, it is about directing the significant material benefits of enhanced trade towards sustainable human development so that millions more Arabs may lead fulfilling, decent lives in a more environmentally secure future that is free from poverty, unemployment and violation. This integration draws on Arab cultural identity and strengthens it by embracing diversity, pluralism, enlightened religion and the exchange of continuously developing knowledge.
The Arab region has missed out on the benefits that even a minimum level of integration could bestow on human development and national security. Fragmentation has caused the region’s development efforts to falter in the past, and may do so again in the future. Integration offers a serious process of cooperation that would free the Arab people from fear and want, and restore the region to its rightful place in the world.
An integrated region is not closed to the world. In fact, Arab integration seeks to consolidate relations with other regional groups and bring together the best achievements of its own history with those of other civilisations through mutual learning and enrichment.
Comprehensive integration therefore goes well beyond economic integration to include all components of human civilisation as defined by the Arab sociologist Ibn Khaldun: the economy and governance provide its material basis while culture and education make up its moral dimension. This broader scope defines the concept adopted in this report. While economic integration remains its mainstay, the concept looks beyond the narrow scope of trade liberalisation to new foundations for production and diversification, new knowledge-based economies and new patterns of cooperation for developing integrated human, technological and productive capacities in the Arab region.
“Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation,” Gibran Khalil Gibran
Arab integration is not a new idea. It has been adopted as an official goal, attempted and abandoned at different times since the 1950s. Some types of integration succeeded while many others did not, the casualties of wavering political will and unclear plans.
Failure has deterred further attempts. Some believe that, just as external and internal obstacles thwarted integration in the past they would do so again. Advocates of integration, however, argue that the region is enviably placed for close cooperation, with a common language and culture, a shared history and geographical proximity. No other regional grouping in the world started from such promising beginnings.
This report starts with the latter argument and goes on to make a case for integration as a prerequisite for human development and renaissance in the region. The extraordinary wave of civil revolts across the region has made comprehensive integration both more urgent and more feasible. These liberating rebellions shook republics and monarchies from the Atlantic to the Gulf. They unified the Arab political space with their common call for justice, equality, economic opportunities and freedom. But their hopes and expectations are on a scale that no single Arab country by itself can satisfy. Only through integration can the Arab countries initiate a renaissance equal to such sweeping demands. This historic change, and the popular movements behind it, provide an unprecedented impetus for integration, and a powerful assurance that, this time, the Arabs will see that the process is sustained and completed.
Why integration?
Around the world, even the greatest powers have seen fit to become part of larger entities in order to manage globalisation and the fierce competition it brings. Meanwhile, Arab countries — fragmented and divided — try to face individually external pressures, domestic challenges and emerging risks in a world more interconnected and complex than ever before.
Comprehensive integration as advocated in this report is an altogether larger idea than conventional integration, and one greater than the sum of its parts. It is not just about linking political systems; it is about reinventing those systems in a free area of Arab citizenship to address real challenges to stability and peace by guaranteeing every Arab justice, equality, human rights and autonomy in all the Arab countries.
While comprehensive integration builds on expanded intraregional flows of goods, services and capital, it does not stop with the enhancement of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area. Rather, it is about directing the significant material benefits of enhanced trade towards sustainable human development so that millions more Arabs may lead fulfilling, decent lives in a more environmentally secure future that is free from poverty, unemployment and violation. This integration draws on Arab cultural identity and strengthens it by embracing diversity, pluralism, enlightened religion and the exchange of continuously developing knowledge.
The Arab region has missed out on the benefits that even a minimum level of integration could bestow on human development and national security. Fragmentation has caused the region’s development efforts to falter in the past, and may do so again in the future. Integration offers a serious process of cooperation that would free the Arab people from fear and want, and restore the region to its rightful place in the world.
An integrated region is not closed to the world. In fact, Arab integration seeks to consolidate relations with other regional groups and bring together the best achievements of its own history with those of other civilisations through mutual learning and enrichment.
Comprehensive integration therefore goes well beyond economic integration to include all components of human civilisation as defined by the Arab sociologist Ibn Khaldun: the economy and governance provide its material basis while culture and education make up its moral dimension. This broader scope defines the concept adopted in this report. While economic integration remains its mainstay, the concept looks beyond the narrow scope of trade liberalisation to new foundations for production and diversification, new knowledge-based economies and new patterns of cooperation for developing integrated human, technological and productive capacities in the Arab region.
Arab League secretary general, Nabil Al Arabi, and Egypt Foreign Affairs minister Nabil Fahmi head a meeting of the Arab League with Arab countries Foreign ministers on Syria on September 2013 at the body’s Cairo headquarters
Shortcomings in joint Arab action
For over half a century, the Arab region has witnessed repeated attempts at joint action. Initially ambitious, these attempts soon descended into narrow economic experiments that fell far short of their original inspiration, the dream of Arab unity. Moreover, even economic cooperation became limited to trade facilitation between under-productive economies, and was chiefly directed at capital mobility, which often aims for quick and easy gains. The path to a common Arab labour market was strewn with obstacles which prevented the implementation of existing agreements. These treaties became mere declarations of principles with little or no effect. Arab industrial integration shrank to a few joint ventures, which barely tapped the potential of comprehensive integration.
In the absence of political will, Arab regional bodies have made little headway with economic and cultural integration. Consequently, important opportunities have slipped through their hands, such as the establishment of a regional system to support knowledge acquisition and production. The neglect of educational quality and scientific research and technological development goes against the first premise of renaissance, namely, the re-birth of intellectual, cultural and scientific creativity.
Post-independence Arab countries adopted policies that divided the common Arab space and suppressed Arab history, actively extending the destructive legacy of their former colonial masters. In many countries, efforts to legitimise new nation-states undermined the common Arabic culture, language and memory in a bid to erase a proud history. As a result, the opportunities to lay the foundations of a common education for Arab youth were lost.
But the common heritage, language and history of the Arab people are irrepressible forces. They survived their repudiation by modernizing nation-states just as they resisted elimination by colonial powers. They live on in the minds, hearts and memory of the Arab peoples who do not submit to artificial borders and barriers, and they have rebounded from official denial and suppression.
Peoples precede Governments
Not surprisingly, then, Arab popular integration has surpassed official Arab cooperation. Popular solidarity across the region has created new channels of communication and interaction, opening up the spontaneous potential of human integration outside official frameworks, and sometimes in spite of them.
Arab popular cooperation thrives on the diversity of the Arab region, a vibrant feature of its civilisation. Identity is only enriched through diversity which has been celebrated for centuries in a region that was, for a long time, the crossroads of the world.
Literature and the arts have done more to unite Arabs than any official plan of integration. Poems, novels and short stories speak across borders to the shared experiences, hopes and tragedies of the Arab people, weaving a seamless cultural fabric from communities of feeling. Music, the language of emotion, continues to bring Arabs together wherever they may be, as the universal appeal of singers such as Um Kulthoom and Fairouz demonstrates. Artistic creations in one country are understood and appreciated by the people of another, thanks to cultural television programmes, publications and the reach of the Internet. Popular cultural integration in the region is a fact, made possible by a shared language and history. Its triumph is to have shaped a living Arab identity, an achievement no Arab country can claim.
Arab satellite television has greatly helped to diffuse this shared culture. By creating a common Arab space far richer than the closed ecology of Arab official media, it has broken a stifling monopoly over communications. Satellite television has familiarized regional audiences with one another’s customs and traditions, popularized vernacular dialects and created a simplified Arabic language that reaches greater numbers of people, drawing them closer together. It enables Arabs from Oman to Morocco to watch the same event together and to join in regional dialogues and debates. More recently satellite television closely followed, and partly enabled, the rise of Arab civil protests, which earned it the hostility of regimes. Although not entirely free of sponsor interests, it remains a force for Arab convergence as independent as the popular culture it helps to spread.
Undeterred by official opposition, popular integration appears in many forms. Despite host country restrictions, the Arab workforce in the Gulf countries, with its diverse customs and experiences, is by its nature, a sign of social and cultural convergence in the Arabian Peninsula. Across countries, civil society groups engaged in defending human rights, and especially women’s rights; they joined hands to press their cause notwithstanding stiff obstacles to the right to organise.
By far the most astonishing display of popular solidarity in modern Arab history has been the wave of civil uprisings during the so-called Arab Spring. It may be too soon to predict the final outcome of this historic development, but its main implications for the region are clear: Arab popular grievances and aspirations can no longer be ignored. The crowds that toppled autocrats spoke from a common experience of humiliation and deprivation. The extraordinary synergy that they developed among themselves was their powerful answer to decades of Arab disunity. Their demands for justice, equality and dignity, which echoed across the region, unified the Arab political space and represent a broad-based aspiration for a different regional order.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
Shortcomings in joint Arab action
For over half a century, the Arab region has witnessed repeated attempts at joint action. Initially ambitious, these attempts soon descended into narrow economic experiments that fell far short of their original inspiration, the dream of Arab unity. Moreover, even economic cooperation became limited to trade facilitation between under-productive economies, and was chiefly directed at capital mobility, which often aims for quick and easy gains. The path to a common Arab labour market was strewn with obstacles which prevented the implementation of existing agreements. These treaties became mere declarations of principles with little or no effect. Arab industrial integration shrank to a few joint ventures, which barely tapped the potential of comprehensive integration.
In the absence of political will, Arab regional bodies have made little headway with economic and cultural integration. Consequently, important opportunities have slipped through their hands, such as the establishment of a regional system to support knowledge acquisition and production. The neglect of educational quality and scientific research and technological development goes against the first premise of renaissance, namely, the re-birth of intellectual, cultural and scientific creativity.
Post-independence Arab countries adopted policies that divided the common Arab space and suppressed Arab history, actively extending the destructive legacy of their former colonial masters. In many countries, efforts to legitimise new nation-states undermined the common Arabic culture, language and memory in a bid to erase a proud history. As a result, the opportunities to lay the foundations of a common education for Arab youth were lost.
But the common heritage, language and history of the Arab people are irrepressible forces. They survived their repudiation by modernizing nation-states just as they resisted elimination by colonial powers. They live on in the minds, hearts and memory of the Arab peoples who do not submit to artificial borders and barriers, and they have rebounded from official denial and suppression.
Peoples precede Governments
Not surprisingly, then, Arab popular integration has surpassed official Arab cooperation. Popular solidarity across the region has created new channels of communication and interaction, opening up the spontaneous potential of human integration outside official frameworks, and sometimes in spite of them.
Arab popular cooperation thrives on the diversity of the Arab region, a vibrant feature of its civilisation. Identity is only enriched through diversity which has been celebrated for centuries in a region that was, for a long time, the crossroads of the world.
Literature and the arts have done more to unite Arabs than any official plan of integration. Poems, novels and short stories speak across borders to the shared experiences, hopes and tragedies of the Arab people, weaving a seamless cultural fabric from communities of feeling. Music, the language of emotion, continues to bring Arabs together wherever they may be, as the universal appeal of singers such as Um Kulthoom and Fairouz demonstrates. Artistic creations in one country are understood and appreciated by the people of another, thanks to cultural television programmes, publications and the reach of the Internet. Popular cultural integration in the region is a fact, made possible by a shared language and history. Its triumph is to have shaped a living Arab identity, an achievement no Arab country can claim.
Arab satellite television has greatly helped to diffuse this shared culture. By creating a common Arab space far richer than the closed ecology of Arab official media, it has broken a stifling monopoly over communications. Satellite television has familiarized regional audiences with one another’s customs and traditions, popularized vernacular dialects and created a simplified Arabic language that reaches greater numbers of people, drawing them closer together. It enables Arabs from Oman to Morocco to watch the same event together and to join in regional dialogues and debates. More recently satellite television closely followed, and partly enabled, the rise of Arab civil protests, which earned it the hostility of regimes. Although not entirely free of sponsor interests, it remains a force for Arab convergence as independent as the popular culture it helps to spread.
Undeterred by official opposition, popular integration appears in many forms. Despite host country restrictions, the Arab workforce in the Gulf countries, with its diverse customs and experiences, is by its nature, a sign of social and cultural convergence in the Arabian Peninsula. Across countries, civil society groups engaged in defending human rights, and especially women’s rights; they joined hands to press their cause notwithstanding stiff obstacles to the right to organise.
By far the most astonishing display of popular solidarity in modern Arab history has been the wave of civil uprisings during the so-called Arab Spring. It may be too soon to predict the final outcome of this historic development, but its main implications for the region are clear: Arab popular grievances and aspirations can no longer be ignored. The crowds that toppled autocrats spoke from a common experience of humiliation and deprivation. The extraordinary synergy that they developed among themselves was their powerful answer to decades of Arab disunity. Their demands for justice, equality and dignity, which echoed across the region, unified the Arab political space and represent a broad-based aspiration for a different regional order.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
DNE publishes the second part of ESCWA’s Arab Integration Report: A 21st century development imperative.
A compound crisis of fragmentation
In the second decade of the millennium, the Arab order is in the throes of a compound crisis of fragmentation. Its divided political systems do not enable Arabs to stand tall in the world or face threats within the region from a position of strength. Its economies can no longer meet its material needs individually; its cultural system is too divided to fulfill its moral needs; and its educational systems are unable to prepare knowledgeable, creative and productive minds to build its future. The effects of these accumulated crises have sent the Arab people into the streets and squares of Arab cities and towns to make their voices heard. If not addressed comprehensively, this compound crisis will leave a legacy of injustice to future generations who had no hand in causing it.
Weak Arab cooperation has produced a regional system incapable of defending Arab interests, development or the sovereignty of Arab countries. This has created major challenges to the security of citizens and the freedom of nations. The failure of Arab countries to adopt unified positions has made them acutely vulnerable to foreign interference.
Palestine is still under Israeli occupation that is based on settlement-building and substitution, in flagrant violation of international charters and resolutions. Israel’s violation is not limited to direct occupation of Arab land and its repeated attacks on neighbouring countries. It consists of policies that threaten the security of Arab citizens across the region. These policies have led to civil wars, such as that in Lebanon, in an attempt to divide the region into sectarian mini-states. By pushing for an exclusive Jewish state, Israel propagates the concept of religious or ethnic purity of states, a concept that inflicted on humanity the worst crimes of the last century. This concept undermines human development based on equal rights for all citizens, and non-discrimination against any person on the basis of religion or ethnicity. Furthermore, the Israeli nuclear arsenal is a growing threat to the security of the region as a whole. Israel is the only country that has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Arab capitals, and has taken preparatory measures to that end.
Poor Arab cooperation has also undermined the region’s independence. Many Arab countries now host major foreign military bases or are under the sway of foreign powers in other respects. Their subservience entrenches dependency and threatens national security.
A direct result of deteriorating Arab national security is the worsening problem of refugees and forcibly displaced persons. More than 53% of the world’s refugees come from the Arab region, which is home to less than 5% of the world’s population. These numbers are alarming. Yet, they fail to reflect the magnitude of the misery of these people, who are mostly women and children.
The absence of Arab integration, along with inadequate economic policies stifled development. Achievements fell short of their official goals. Rampant corruption, unemployment, poverty and social injustice became commonplace in many cases.
Perhaps the most serious threat to Arab cohesion in recent years is cultural distortion. It has created sectarian and ethnic feuds that threaten to tear Arab societies apart. External aggression, domestic policy failures and a cultural crisis that distorts the concepts of jihad and ijtihad have led to the emergence of extremist groups.
These groups adopt radical and exclusionary doctrines based on narrow readings of scripture. Their intolerance restricts public rights and freedoms, especially for women and non-Muslims, while their rhetoric fuels sedition, subverting the unity of the region. The damage these intransigent groups cause does not end at their bully pulpits. Some have resorted to violence against Arab Christians and followers of other Islamic sects, taking their license to kill from radical fatwas. Stoked by fanatics, the fire of division in the Arab region has spread along sectarian and confessional lines.
The Arab popular revolts: bridge to integration or additional barrier?
The Arab popular revolts that arced across the region in 2010-2011 led to unprecedented changes that took the world by surprise. Contrary to theories of Arab exceptionalism, Arabs had shown themselves capable of joining the world’s so-called “third wave” of democratisation, which had long seemed destined to pass them by. In the first year of transition, hopes for sweeping change were high; but as the rebellions morphed into violence and infighting in some countries, and democratic reforms faltered in others, initial optimism began to wane. All the Arab countries in transition to democracy were hit by economic crises, for which they were not prepared. These setbacks affected incomes, employment, food prices and general growth, prompting disappointed protesters to return to the streets where they were often joined by supporters of the old guard. The impression that the tide of revolution had ebbed began to spread, and counter-revolutionary elements took the opportunity to announce its end.
There is, however, a difference between failure and incompletion. The forces of change may have found themselves temporarily stalled by events; but that does not mean they have been deterred. By its nature, democratic transition is accompanied by multiple constraints and pressures, frequently encountering setbacks. Economic conditions almost always deteriorated in times of revolution, as world experience shows. For example, countries of Central and Eastern Europe lost more than a quarter of their cumulative gross domestic product during their transitional phase before rebounding and recovering growth.
Revolutions, by nature, are a departure from the status quo. Their initial stages often involve dismantling corrupt and resistant old orders, and establishing new structures to fulfill the aims of the people. But this task of demolition and reconstruction is neither easy nor quick. The initial stages of transition have high price tags and few immediate gains. But people can bear these costs with extraordinary resilience when they can see that the potential gains of transition far exceed its price.
Democratic transition in Arab countries has proven more difficult than in Eastern Europe or other regions of the world. Arab transitions are not only taking place amid the worst global recession in decades, which has created sharp spikes in the price of imported food and other commodities and depressed overseas remittances; they are also beset by hostile and influential forces in the region with vested interests in restoring the status quo. This is quite unlike the situation faced by democratic transformations in Europe, for example.
Eastern European countries in transition received substantial material support and political encouragement from their neighbours, eventually joining them in an economic union. Arab countries, however, are mostly going it alone in a regional context suspicious of Arab democracy and a global context uneasy about its implications for foreign strategic interests. When these countries stumble, many applaud; and when they succeed, their opponents wait for the next economic crisis or security threat to stoke popular discontent and turn people against their new leaders.
Seeing new leaderships struggle to navigate in difficult waters may give the impression that the tide has gone out on them, and that a return to tyranny is possible. However, this notion confuses a temporary phase of transition, often fraught with crises and passing victories for opponents, with an inexorable historical transformation. Such transformations are seldom linear; but one or two steps back do not signal a new trajectory or different goals. Democracy in the Arab countries will encounter obstacles and pitfalls, as was the case everywhere else in the world, but there is little doubt that it will ultimately prevail. The Arab uprisings broke once and for all the shackles of tyranny and fear that had bound the Arab people to autocrats. It is no longer possible to re-subject the Arab public to oppression. That public, especially its younger cohort, has flexed its muscles, tasted freedom and demonstrated the power of active civil resistance in the face of injustice. It will not brook a counter-revolution on its watch.
There is a direct and strong link between the Arab revolts and Arab integration. That historic wave of change portends a shift towards democratic political systems built with broad popular participation in political and economic decision-making. This, in itself, constitutes an opportunity to revive Arab integration and increase its scope and effectiveness, leading to a renaissance in those countries, and perhaps in the entire Arab world. This can be achieved if good democratic governance is complemented with broad and deep social reform. Representative political leaderships that express people’s goals and interests would be the first to understand that economic and cultural integration complement national economic development and popular welfare. In fact, democratic establishments would likely seek to develop more advanced and comprehensive forms of Arab integration transcending narrow economics in order to reap benefits for all citizens.
Economic integration paves the way for comprehensive integration
The benefits of comprehensive integration are not quantifiable. However, those of economic integration are, and can be identified through econometric simulations. Using the best available models, this report presents standard quantitative estimates of the consequences on the economies of Arab countries of keeping current modalities of integration, which are limited to trade liberalisation and the establishment of an Arab customs union. It then runs different scenarios for enhancing economic integration by other means and compares their results with the estimated consequences of the status quo. The proposed scenarios include such small steps as achieving free movement of labour, at least partially, and eliminating some of the non-tariff obstacles to Arab intraregional trade.
The analysis shows that the expected returns on completing trade liberalisation and establishing an Arab customs union by 2015 are modest at best. In other words, the status quo is not the best scenario. This is not because trade liberalisation is irrelevant, but because customs tariffs are no longer the only obstacle to Arab intraregional trade. The biggest obstacles to the movement of goods between Arab countries are behind-the-border hurdles such as non-tariff barriers and the high cost of transport.
The analysis concludes that no significant increase in gross domestic product and income would result from trade liberalisation unless Arab States eliminated all restrictions and protectionist measures in parallel with the lifting of customs tariffs. Moreover, the analysis indicates that even a slight liberalization of non-tariff barriers would yield important benefits. For instance, reducing the cost of transport by 5% per annum, and replacing 20% of the future influx of expatriate workers in the Arab region with Arab workers, would double the rate of income rise compared to trade liberalization alone. It would also lower unemployment rates by more than 4% on average for all Arab countries. This increase in income and welfare may multiply if additional measures recommended in this report are taken, such as the liberalization of trade in services, and the development of regional value chains.
Remarkably, the evidence shows that such measures would deliver significant benefits for all Arab countries, both rich and poor, a conclusion that dispels the notion that Arab integration would help the least developed countries at the expense of the most affluent ones.
As examples, the United Arab Emirates is one of the countries that would benefit most from increased income, Saudi Arabia, from gains in human welfare, and Tunisia, from increased job opportunities and hence lower unemployment rates.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
A compound crisis of fragmentation
In the second decade of the millennium, the Arab order is in the throes of a compound crisis of fragmentation. Its divided political systems do not enable Arabs to stand tall in the world or face threats within the region from a position of strength. Its economies can no longer meet its material needs individually; its cultural system is too divided to fulfill its moral needs; and its educational systems are unable to prepare knowledgeable, creative and productive minds to build its future. The effects of these accumulated crises have sent the Arab people into the streets and squares of Arab cities and towns to make their voices heard. If not addressed comprehensively, this compound crisis will leave a legacy of injustice to future generations who had no hand in causing it.
Weak Arab cooperation has produced a regional system incapable of defending Arab interests, development or the sovereignty of Arab countries. This has created major challenges to the security of citizens and the freedom of nations. The failure of Arab countries to adopt unified positions has made them acutely vulnerable to foreign interference.
A compound crisis of fragmentation
In the second decade of the millennium, the Arab order is in the throes of a compound crisis of fragmentation. Its divided political systems do not enable Arabs to stand tall in the world or face threats within the region from a position of strength. Its economies can no longer meet its material needs individually; its cultural system is too divided to fulfill its moral needs; and its educational systems are unable to prepare knowledgeable, creative and productive minds to build its future. The effects of these accumulated crises have sent the Arab people into the streets and squares of Arab cities and towns to make their voices heard. If not addressed comprehensively, this compound crisis will leave a legacy of injustice to future generations who had no hand in causing it.
Weak Arab cooperation has produced a regional system incapable of defending Arab interests, development or the sovereignty of Arab countries. This has created major challenges to the security of citizens and the freedom of nations. The failure of Arab countries to adopt unified positions has made them acutely vulnerable to foreign interference.
Palestine is still under Israeli occupation that is based on settlement-building and substitution, in flagrant violation of international charters and resolutions. Israel’s violation is not limited to direct occupation of Arab land and its repeated attacks on neighbouring countries. It consists of policies that threaten the security of Arab citizens across the region. These policies have led to civil wars, such as that in Lebanon, in an attempt to divide the region into sectarian mini-states. By pushing for an exclusive Jewish state, Israel propagates the concept of religious or ethnic purity of states, a concept that inflicted on humanity the worst crimes of the last century. This concept undermines human development based on equal rights for all citizens, and non-discrimination against any person on the basis of religion or ethnicity. Furthermore, the Israeli nuclear arsenal is a growing threat to the security of the region as a whole. Israel is the only country that has threatened to use nuclear weapons against Arab capitals, and has taken preparatory measures to that end.
Poor Arab cooperation has also undermined the region’s independence. Many Arab countries now host major foreign military bases or are under the sway of foreign powers in other respects. Their subservience entrenches dependency and threatens national security.
A direct result of deteriorating Arab national security is the worsening problem of refugees and forcibly displaced persons. More than 53% of the world’s refugees come from the Arab region, which is home to less than 5% of the world’s population. These numbers are alarming. Yet, they fail to reflect the magnitude of the misery of these people, who are mostly women and children.
The absence of Arab integration, along with inadequate economic policies stifled development. Achievements fell short of their official goals. Rampant corruption, unemployment, poverty and social injustice became commonplace in many cases.
Perhaps the most serious threat to Arab cohesion in recent years is cultural distortion. It has created sectarian and ethnic feuds that threaten to tear Arab societies apart. External aggression, domestic policy failures and a cultural crisis that distorts the concepts of jihad and ijtihad have led to the emergence of extremist groups.
These groups adopt radical and exclusionary doctrines based on narrow readings of scripture. Their intolerance restricts public rights and freedoms, especially for women and non-Muslims, while their rhetoric fuels sedition, subverting the unity of the region. The damage these intransigent groups cause does not end at their bully pulpits. Some have resorted to violence against Arab Christians and followers of other Islamic sects, taking their license to kill from radical fatwas. Stoked by fanatics, the fire of division in the Arab region has spread along sectarian and confessional lines.
The Arab popular revolts: bridge to integration or additional barrier?
The Arab popular revolts that arced across the region in 2010-2011 led to unprecedented changes that took the world by surprise. Contrary to theories of Arab exceptionalism, Arabs had shown themselves capable of joining the world’s so-called “third wave” of democratisation, which had long seemed destined to pass them by. In the first year of transition, hopes for sweeping change were high; but as the rebellions morphed into violence and infighting in some countries, and democratic reforms faltered in others, initial optimism began to wane. All the Arab countries in transition to democracy were hit by economic crises, for which they were not prepared. These setbacks affected incomes, employment, food prices and general growth, prompting disappointed protesters to return to the streets where they were often joined by supporters of the old guard. The impression that the tide of revolution had ebbed began to spread, and counter-revolutionary elements took the opportunity to announce its end.
There is, however, a difference between failure and incompletion. The forces of change may have found themselves temporarily stalled by events; but that does not mean they have been deterred. By its nature, democratic transition is accompanied by multiple constraints and pressures, frequently encountering setbacks. Economic conditions almost always deteriorated in times of revolution, as world experience shows. For example, countries of Central and Eastern Europe lost more than a quarter of their cumulative gross domestic product during their transitional phase before rebounding and recovering growth.
Revolutions, by nature, are a departure from the status quo. Their initial stages often involve dismantling corrupt and resistant old orders, and establishing new structures to fulfill the aims of the people. But this task of demolition and reconstruction is neither easy nor quick. The initial stages of transition have high price tags and few immediate gains. But people can bear these costs with extraordinary resilience when they can see that the potential gains of transition far exceed its price.
Democratic transition in Arab countries has proven more difficult than in Eastern Europe or other regions of the world. Arab transitions are not only taking place amid the worst global recession in decades, which has created sharp spikes in the price of imported food and other commodities and depressed overseas remittances; they are also beset by hostile and influential forces in the region with vested interests in restoring the status quo. This is quite unlike the situation faced by democratic transformations in Europe, for example.
Eastern European countries in transition received substantial material support and political encouragement from their neighbours, eventually joining them in an economic union. Arab countries, however, are mostly going it alone in a regional context suspicious of Arab democracy and a global context uneasy about its implications for foreign strategic interests. When these countries stumble, many applaud; and when they succeed, their opponents wait for the next economic crisis or security threat to stoke popular discontent and turn people against their new leaders.
Seeing new leaderships struggle to navigate in difficult waters may give the impression that the tide has gone out on them, and that a return to tyranny is possible. However, this notion confuses a temporary phase of transition, often fraught with crises and passing victories for opponents, with an inexorable historical transformation. Such transformations are seldom linear; but one or two steps back do not signal a new trajectory or different goals. Democracy in the Arab countries will encounter obstacles and pitfalls, as was the case everywhere else in the world, but there is little doubt that it will ultimately prevail. The Arab uprisings broke once and for all the shackles of tyranny and fear that had bound the Arab people to autocrats. It is no longer possible to re-subject the Arab public to oppression. That public, especially its younger cohort, has flexed its muscles, tasted freedom and demonstrated the power of active civil resistance in the face of injustice. It will not brook a counter-revolution on its watch.
There is a direct and strong link between the Arab revolts and Arab integration. That historic wave of change portends a shift towards democratic political systems built with broad popular participation in political and economic decision-making. This, in itself, constitutes an opportunity to revive Arab integration and increase its scope and effectiveness, leading to a renaissance in those countries, and perhaps in the entire Arab world. This can be achieved if good democratic governance is complemented with broad and deep social reform. Representative political leaderships that express people’s goals and interests would be the first to understand that economic and cultural integration complement national economic development and popular welfare. In fact, democratic establishments would likely seek to develop more advanced and comprehensive forms of Arab integration transcending narrow economics in order to reap benefits for all citizens.
Economic integration paves the way for comprehensive integration
The benefits of comprehensive integration are not quantifiable. However, those of economic integration are, and can be identified through econometric simulations. Using the best available models, this report presents standard quantitative estimates of the consequences on the economies of Arab countries of keeping current modalities of integration, which are limited to trade liberalisation and the establishment of an Arab customs union. It then runs different scenarios for enhancing economic integration by other means and compares their results with the estimated consequences of the status quo. The proposed scenarios include such small steps as achieving free movement of labour, at least partially, and eliminating some of the non-tariff obstacles to Arab intraregional trade.
The analysis shows that the expected returns on completing trade liberalisation and establishing an Arab customs union by 2015 are modest at best. In other words, the status quo is not the best scenario. This is not because trade liberalisation is irrelevant, but because customs tariffs are no longer the only obstacle to Arab intraregional trade. The biggest obstacles to the movement of goods between Arab countries are behind-the-border hurdles such as non-tariff barriers and the high cost of transport.
The analysis concludes that no significant increase in gross domestic product and income would result from trade liberalisation unless Arab States eliminated all restrictions and protectionist measures in parallel with the lifting of customs tariffs. Moreover, the analysis indicates that even a slight liberalization of non-tariff barriers would yield important benefits. For instance, reducing the cost of transport by 5% per annum, and replacing 20% of the future influx of expatriate workers in the Arab region with Arab workers, would double the rate of income rise compared to trade liberalization alone. It would also lower unemployment rates by more than 4% on average for all Arab countries. This increase in income and welfare may multiply if additional measures recommended in this report are taken, such as the liberalization of trade in services, and the development of regional value chains.
Remarkably, the evidence shows that such measures would deliver significant benefits for all Arab countries, both rich and poor, a conclusion that dispels the notion that Arab integration would help the least developed countries at the expense of the most affluent ones.
As examples, the United Arab Emirates is one of the countries that would benefit most from increased income, Saudi Arabia, from gains in human welfare, and Tunisia, from increased job opportunities and hence lower unemployment rates.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
A compound crisis of fragmentation
In the second decade of the millennium, the Arab order is in the throes of a compound crisis of fragmentation. Its divided political systems do not enable Arabs to stand tall in the world or face threats within the region from a position of strength. Its economies can no longer meet its material needs individually; its cultural system is too divided to fulfill its moral needs; and its educational systems are unable to prepare knowledgeable, creative and productive minds to build its future. The effects of these accumulated crises have sent the Arab people into the streets and squares of Arab cities and towns to make their voices heard. If not addressed comprehensively, this compound crisis will leave a legacy of injustice to future generations who had no hand in causing it.
Weak Arab cooperation has produced a regional system incapable of defending Arab interests, development or the sovereignty of Arab countries. This has created major challenges to the security of citizens and the freedom of nations. The failure of Arab countries to adopt unified positions has made them acutely vulnerable to foreign interference.
Arab leaders pose for a group photograph during the opening session of the Arab League Summit 2014
Obstacles to Arab integration
Arab countries have spent much ink on agreements intended to remove barriers to intraregional trade. Their goals – to promote Arab regional integration, achieve economic growth and address the challenges of poverty and unemployment – have not been met, and the hopes of the Arab people remain unfulfilled. Global powers have often contributed to the failure of Arab unity, from British opposition, to the 19th century renaissance project started by Muhammad Ali through the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement that chopped up the region into zones of British and French influence, up to present-day attempts to redraw the regional map around the Middle East and North Africa region.
Alternative regional cooperation structures such as the latter are not neutral. Western countries conclude bilateral agreements with individual Arab states, and then build a regional partnership between signatory states. In this way, they impose Israel on the regional order before it has complied with international resolutions calling for an end to its occupation of Arab lands and for the return of Palestinian refugees.
Ultimately, the responsibility for Arab integration lies squarely on Arab shoulders. The regional institutions erected to manage regional cooperation have not been able to overcome disputes and disagreements among countries, or the effects of wide variations in standards of living among them or the impact on regional cooperation of their different objectives for it. For a long time, unrepresentative Arab regimes that took their legitimacy from international powers and not from the people showed little interest in practical cooperation with one another. The backlog of deprivation and division left over from their misrule created obstacles to integration within countries, with fierce group competition for resources and power splintering nations into sub-national ethnic and sectarian identities. Class differences and the urban-rural divide also widened, undermining efforts at unity.
At the regional level, weak political will and loose implementation plans ensured that most cooperation treaties were short-lived. As a result, obstacles to trade, such as non-tariff barriers, still hinder economic integration, while the larger project of integration could face complex socioeconomic challenges.
Some analysts believe that an emerging cultural conflict threatens to develop along existing fault lines in Arab societies, posing thorny challenges for integration; this is the conflict between the advocates of absolute modernisation and the forces of despotic fundamentalism, a divide marked by extremism on both sides.
This conflict has polarised public debate and arises from a clash between two incompatible cultures that both fall outside the Arab mainstream. The first is a modern culture overshadowed by western historical particularities, which thus lacks universal dynamism because it remains tied to a colonial tradition of acculturation that long shaped elite mindsets. The second is an ancient culture dominated by eastern particularities, which thus also lacks universality because it remains mired in medieval attitudes that came to distort the tolerant values on which Islam is based. Arabs today are being dragged into a quarrel between two types of fundamentalism, secular and religious, each side of which offers only futile causes: a type of modernisation that denies core Muslim values and a form of traditionalism that denies human rights.
Integration, as defined in this report, presents a way beyond this sterile conflict, which has been fueled by inequality, poverty and the poor economic performance of nation-states –the same factors underlying the Arab civil revolts that called for dignity and freedom. Equality among all citizens without discrimination will transform differences into diversity that enriches the Arab world, ending the appeal of divisive ideologies. The process of revitalising mainstream Arab civilisation through broad-based human development and social justice will expose these feuds for what they are: narrow-minded distractions from the task of building a common Arab future. The foundation of this common future is the common heritage and history of the Arab people, and their commitment to values consistent with human rights.
Consequences of the status quo
This report examines two historical choices for development in the Arab world: the first is to maintain the status quo; the second is to reach for a brighter collective future. The current path entails division, oppression, regression, and violation. The alternative leads to comprehensive integration and human renaissance.
Division and inward-looking national policies impeded effective Arab convergence and integration, denied Arab countries economies of scale, and kept them from defending Arab interests in the world from a position of collective strength. On a regional map drawn up in imperial war rooms, through the divisive structures of colonialism, to the artificial borders consolidated by autocratic nation-states, division undercut any effort to secure the well-being of the Arab peoples. Disputes and rivalries between countries have at times erupted into bloody conflicts. All of this has left Arab countries unable to provide the most basic prerequisites for human development and human security, including knowledge, the twenty-first century standard of advancement and the fastest route to prosperity in a globalised world.
Arab countries, both the rich and the poor, will remain small and weak in the global arena if they continue to work individually. This becomes obvious when they are compared with the rising powers, giant conglomerates, and powerful regional blocs of the contemporary world.
Oppression under autocratic regimes curbed freedoms and rights. The equation of wealth with power opened societies to all forms of corruption. State oppression and restrictions on opposition groups and minorities in the name of national security eclipsed the principle of equal citizenship for all citizens, turning people from national to group loyalties. In the absence of democratic governance and civic frameworks for reconcilling differences, these loyalties have led to tribal conflicts, sectarian strife and infighting.
Regression in a dependent and under-productive political economy dominated by rent-seeking activities and weak production structures has sent the region into a spiral of low productivity, uncompetitive production, unemployment and poverty. This pattern makes Arab countries depend on the outside world for everything from food and aid to goods and knowledge, leaving them weak and vulnerable without their own means to provide decent lives and livelihoods for their citizens.
Violations in a region beset by foreign occupation, political interference and military intervention have eroded its security and set back its development. Infiltrated by outside influences, dotted with foreign military bases and outflanked in international organisations by larger powers, the Arab world has seldom had room to manoeuvre. Its weakness on the international stage invites such violation and is a direct result of division and regression.
Maintaining the status quo also means incurring the grave risks of water scarcity, aridity, climate change and environmental degradation without common adaptive strategies or transboundary cooperation to protect the regional commons.
The three freedom goals
In contrast to this first, destructive trajectory, the alternative, namely to move towards comprehensive Arab integration, has tremendous potential. It is, in fact, the only way to achieve the three “freedom goals” that would portend a human renaissance in the region.
The first freedom goal is to protect the rights and dignity and ensure the security of all Arab citizens irrespective of their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or sex. Security starts with the liberation of the Arab world from occupation and foreign influence. Dignity comes from the establishment of good governance to ensure justice and democracy under a new social contract that guarantees equal citizenship and human rights for all.
The second freedom goal is to liberate Arab production from its current weak, inefficient and uncompetitive pattern. This requires diversifying industrial structures into more flexible, more knowledge-based and more value-adding enterprises, capable of meeting the material needs of the Arab people by generating employment, income and better living standards. Strong and continually developing industries require effective integration across the chain of production if they are to compete effectively in international trade. This development strategy should be complemented by intercountry initiatives to reduce environmental and ecological stresses in the region.
The third freedom goal is to unshackle Arab culture from self-inflicted limits and conflicts and to restore its vigour and that of its language. To that end, the best characteristics of Arab-Islamic civilisation must be revived and enriched with the best achievements of human civilisation. This also entails enhancing and preserving the Arabic language, promoting diversity and boosting knowledge acquisition and production in order to make knowledge the driver of creativity in all aspects of society. Cultural advancement should be complemented with intellectual reform based on a critical approach. The aim is to break the doctrinal and institutional chains that have confined religious thought to the past and to liberate true Islam from rigid interpretations by restoring independent reason.
A free and flourishing Arab renaissance in the sense implied by these goals is not to be confused with a romantic return to a golden age. Nor is it in any way associated with Arabism based on race or ethnic origin. Renaissance is an act of historical creativity aimed at reshaping the human components of the Arab-Islamic civilisation inspired by its own principles, and enriching it with the best achievements of other societies. Renaissance loosens the dead grip of regression and repression on the spiritual and material lives of Arabs, and it can only be achieved in the presence of five key elements: the independent will of free people; creative cognisance that achieves the conditions necessary for an independent regional entity; real rather than delusional capacity; continuous renewal achieved through permanent dialogue between all segments of the people; and autonomy that will be achieved when a comprehensive union, whose members converge around its mission, is established in history. This implies the convergence of all Arab countries into a free Arab citizenship area where all Arab citizens enjoy equal citizenship rights.
Arab integration, as set out in this report, would mean the progressive and voluntary unification of the people in the region into an independent entity capable of achieving human development and competing effectively with other regional groups. The road to that destination would be marked out by successive forms of regional integration, which would pave the way. It would undoubtedly be built on the ruins of the current path, which has left the Arab people disillusioned, alienated, and angry. Completing that historic shift will enable Arabs to say, with assurance and pride, that they have regained their rightful place in the world, and know how to hold it; that no task of development is too great for a community of empowered regional citizens; and that future generations will be all the stronger for inheriting Arab unity.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
Obstacles to Arab integration
Arab countries have spent much ink on agreements intended to remove barriers to intraregional trade. Their goals – to promote Arab regional integration, achieve economic growth and address the challenges of poverty and unemployment – have not been met, and the hopes of the Arab people remain unfulfilled. Global powers have often contributed to the failure of Arab unity, from British opposition, to the 19th century renaissance project started by Muhammad Ali through the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement that chopped up the region into zones of British and French influence, up to present-day attempts to redraw the regional map around the Middle East and North Africa region.
Alternative regional cooperation structures such as the latter are not neutral. Western countries conclude bilateral agreements with individual Arab states, and then build a regional partnership between signatory states. In this way, they impose Israel on the regional order before it has complied with international resolutions calling for an end to its occupation of Arab lands and for the return of Palestinian refugees.
Ultimately, the responsibility for Arab integration lies squarely on Arab shoulders. The regional institutions erected to manage regional cooperation have not been able to overcome disputes and disagreements among countries, or the effects of wide variations in standards of living among them or the impact on regional cooperation of their different objectives for it. For a long time, unrepresentative Arab regimes that took their legitimacy from international powers and not from the people showed little interest in practical cooperation with one another. The backlog of deprivation and division left over from their misrule created obstacles to integration within countries, with fierce group competition for resources and power splintering nations into sub-national ethnic and sectarian identities. Class differences and the urban-rural divide also widened, undermining efforts at unity.
At the regional level, weak political will and loose implementation plans ensured that most cooperation treaties were short-lived. As a result, obstacles to trade, such as non-tariff barriers, still hinder economic integration, while the larger project of integration could face complex socioeconomic challenges.
Some analysts believe that an emerging cultural conflict threatens to develop along existing fault lines in Arab societies, posing thorny challenges for integration; this is the conflict between the advocates of absolute modernisation and the forces of despotic fundamentalism, a divide marked by extremism on both sides.
This conflict has polarised public debate and arises from a clash between two incompatible cultures that both fall outside the Arab mainstream. The first is a modern culture overshadowed by western historical particularities, which thus lacks universal dynamism because it remains tied to a colonial tradition of acculturation that long shaped elite mindsets. The second is an ancient culture dominated by eastern particularities, which thus also lacks universality because it remains mired in medieval attitudes that came to distort the tolerant values on which Islam is based. Arabs today are being dragged into a quarrel between two types of fundamentalism, secular and religious, each side of which offers only futile causes: a type of modernisation that denies core Muslim values and a form of traditionalism that denies human rights.
Integration, as defined in this report, presents a way beyond this sterile conflict, which has been fueled by inequality, poverty and the poor economic performance of nation-states –the same factors underlying the Arab civil revolts that called for dignity and freedom. Equality among all citizens without discrimination will transform differences into diversity that enriches the Arab world, ending the appeal of divisive ideologies. The process of revitalising mainstream Arab civilisation through broad-based human development and social justice will expose these feuds for what they are: narrow-minded distractions from the task of building a common Arab future. The foundation of this common future is the common heritage and history of the Arab people, and their commitment to values consistent with human rights.
Consequences of the status quo
This report examines two historical choices for development in the Arab world: the first is to maintain the status quo; the second is to reach for a brighter collective future. The current path entails division, oppression, regression, and violation. The alternative leads to comprehensive integration and human renaissance.
Division and inward-looking national policies impeded effective Arab convergence and integration, denied Arab countries economies of scale, and kept them from defending Arab interests in the world from a position of collective strength. On a regional map drawn up in imperial war rooms, through the divisive structures of colonialism, to the artificial borders consolidated by autocratic nation-states, division undercut any effort to secure the well-being of the Arab peoples. Disputes and rivalries between countries have at times erupted into bloody conflicts. All of this has left Arab countries unable to provide the most basic prerequisites for human development and human security, including knowledge, the twenty-first century standard of advancement and the fastest route to prosperity in a globalised world.
Arab countries, both the rich and the poor, will remain small and weak in the global arena if they continue to work individually. This becomes obvious when they are compared with the rising powers, giant conglomerates, and powerful regional blocs of the contemporary world.
Oppression under autocratic regimes curbed freedoms and rights. The equation of wealth with power opened societies to all forms of corruption. State oppression and restrictions on opposition groups and minorities in the name of national security eclipsed the principle of equal citizenship for all citizens, turning people from national to group loyalties. In the absence of democratic governance and civic frameworks for reconcilling differences, these loyalties have led to tribal conflicts, sectarian strife and infighting.
Regression in a dependent and under-productive political economy dominated by rent-seeking activities and weak production structures has sent the region into a spiral of low productivity, uncompetitive production, unemployment and poverty. This pattern makes Arab countries depend on the outside world for everything from food and aid to goods and knowledge, leaving them weak and vulnerable without their own means to provide decent lives and livelihoods for their citizens.
Violations in a region beset by foreign occupation, political interference and military intervention have eroded its security and set back its development. Infiltrated by outside influences, dotted with foreign military bases and outflanked in international organisations by larger powers, the Arab world has seldom had room to manoeuvre. Its weakness on the international stage invites such violation and is a direct result of division and regression.
Maintaining the status quo also means incurring the grave risks of water scarcity, aridity, climate change and environmental degradation without common adaptive strategies or transboundary cooperation to protect the regional commons.
The three freedom goals
In contrast to this first, destructive trajectory, the alternative, namely to move towards comprehensive Arab integration, has tremendous potential. It is, in fact, the only way to achieve the three “freedom goals” that would portend a human renaissance in the region.
The first freedom goal is to protect the rights and dignity and ensure the security of all Arab citizens irrespective of their nationality, religion, ethnicity, or sex. Security starts with the liberation of the Arab world from occupation and foreign influence. Dignity comes from the establishment of good governance to ensure justice and democracy under a new social contract that guarantees equal citizenship and human rights for all.
The second freedom goal is to liberate Arab production from its current weak, inefficient and uncompetitive pattern. This requires diversifying industrial structures into more flexible, more knowledge-based and more value-adding enterprises, capable of meeting the material needs of the Arab people by generating employment, income and better living standards. Strong and continually developing industries require effective integration across the chain of production if they are to compete effectively in international trade. This development strategy should be complemented by intercountry initiatives to reduce environmental and ecological stresses in the region.
The third freedom goal is to unshackle Arab culture from self-inflicted limits and conflicts and to restore its vigour and that of its language. To that end, the best characteristics of Arab-Islamic civilisation must be revived and enriched with the best achievements of human civilisation. This also entails enhancing and preserving the Arabic language, promoting diversity and boosting knowledge acquisition and production in order to make knowledge the driver of creativity in all aspects of society. Cultural advancement should be complemented with intellectual reform based on a critical approach. The aim is to break the doctrinal and institutional chains that have confined religious thought to the past and to liberate true Islam from rigid interpretations by restoring independent reason.
A free and flourishing Arab renaissance in the sense implied by these goals is not to be confused with a romantic return to a golden age. Nor is it in any way associated with Arabism based on race or ethnic origin. Renaissance is an act of historical creativity aimed at reshaping the human components of the Arab-Islamic civilisation inspired by its own principles, and enriching it with the best achievements of other societies. Renaissance loosens the dead grip of regression and repression on the spiritual and material lives of Arabs, and it can only be achieved in the presence of five key elements: the independent will of free people; creative cognisance that achieves the conditions necessary for an independent regional entity; real rather than delusional capacity; continuous renewal achieved through permanent dialogue between all segments of the people; and autonomy that will be achieved when a comprehensive union, whose members converge around its mission, is established in history. This implies the convergence of all Arab countries into a free Arab citizenship area where all Arab citizens enjoy equal citizenship rights.
Arab integration, as set out in this report, would mean the progressive and voluntary unification of the people in the region into an independent entity capable of achieving human development and competing effectively with other regional groups. The road to that destination would be marked out by successive forms of regional integration, which would pave the way. It would undoubtedly be built on the ruins of the current path, which has left the Arab people disillusioned, alienated, and angry. Completing that historic shift will enable Arabs to say, with assurance and pride, that they have regained their rightful place in the world, and know how to hold it; that no task of development is too great for a community of empowered regional citizens; and that future generations will be all the stronger for inheriting Arab unity.
This report is the result of combined efforts in research, analysis and review led by Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. An advisory board of Arab thinkers contributed to setting its methodological framework and enriched its material with their valuable inputs. Arab experts participated in drafting the report, and ESCWA staff assisted in providing substantive research, statistics and economic models, as well as in the coordination and support.
13 apr 2014
British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the publication of the report in a speech at the Foreign Ministry
The human rights situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory has continued to be a source of serious concern, a human rights and democracy report on the Palestinian territories in 2013 has shown.
According to the report, the British government's concerns centre on the continuation of Israel's violations of international law, human rights and international humanitarian law, as part of its occupation of Palestinian land.
The report said: "There has been an escalation in settlement expansion; a rise in the death toll of Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank; and an increase in the demolition of Palestinian property, with no real progress in easing Israeli restrictions."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the publication of the report in a speech at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. The dossier sets out the steps taken to promote and protect human rights in 2013.
The report pointed out that the British government is also concerned about human rights violations in parts of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, especially those under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It pointed to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a result of the continued imposition of restrictions on the movement of goods and people and the closure by Egypt of the illegal smuggling tunnels.
Britain's priorities in 2013, the publication explained, included broad international action, led by the United States, for the resumption of negotiations, as well as applying pressure on Israel to cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Universal Periodic Review.
Furthermore, it aimed to focus on the treatment of Palestinian detainees, including children, in Israeli prisons; the expansion of Israeli settlement building; incitement of violence; expulsion and forcible transfer of Palestinian communities; promoting a ceasefire in Gaza and easing of Israeli restrictions.
The report pointed out that there had been some positive progress, where peace talks were resumed and Israel began to cooperate with the Universal Periodic Review and a ceasefire remained in force to a large extent. There have also been improvements regarding the treatment of detained children. The report emphasised that in 2014 the UK will continue to support the move undertaken by the US to reach a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It pointed out that it would continue to seek improvements in the treatment of Palestinian detainees, especially children; insisting on the need to stop demolitions and the expulsion of Palestinian property and encouraging the prosecution of Israeli settlers who resort to violence.
Source: Memo
The human rights situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory has continued to be a source of serious concern, a human rights and democracy report on the Palestinian territories in 2013 has shown.
According to the report, the British government's concerns centre on the continuation of Israel's violations of international law, human rights and international humanitarian law, as part of its occupation of Palestinian land.
The report said: "There has been an escalation in settlement expansion; a rise in the death toll of Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank; and an increase in the demolition of Palestinian property, with no real progress in easing Israeli restrictions."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the publication of the report in a speech at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. The dossier sets out the steps taken to promote and protect human rights in 2013.
The report pointed out that the British government is also concerned about human rights violations in parts of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, especially those under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It pointed to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a result of the continued imposition of restrictions on the movement of goods and people and the closure by Egypt of the illegal smuggling tunnels.
Britain's priorities in 2013, the publication explained, included broad international action, led by the United States, for the resumption of negotiations, as well as applying pressure on Israel to cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Universal Periodic Review.
Furthermore, it aimed to focus on the treatment of Palestinian detainees, including children, in Israeli prisons; the expansion of Israeli settlement building; incitement of violence; expulsion and forcible transfer of Palestinian communities; promoting a ceasefire in Gaza and easing of Israeli restrictions.
The report pointed out that there had been some positive progress, where peace talks were resumed and Israel began to cooperate with the Universal Periodic Review and a ceasefire remained in force to a large extent. There have also been improvements regarding the treatment of detained children. The report emphasised that in 2014 the UK will continue to support the move undertaken by the US to reach a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It pointed out that it would continue to seek improvements in the treatment of Palestinian detainees, especially children; insisting on the need to stop demolitions and the expulsion of Palestinian property and encouraging the prosecution of Israeli settlers who resort to violence.
Source: Memo
11 apr 2014
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) based in Gaza published its weekly report on Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in the period between April 3 and April 9, 2014, revealing that the army carried out 62 invasions in the West Bank, and 3 limited invasions into the Gaza Strip.
As part of its systematic policies and violations, the army continued to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, including the excessive use of force against nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements, organized by local Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists.
The army also used excessive force against nonviolent protesters close to the border fence between the eastern part of the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The PCHR said the army kidnapped 22 Palestinians in these invasions and attacks, and carried out nine air strikes targeting Palestinian communities, and a number of training sites used by the resistance, in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The air strikes in Gaza led to the destruction of three workshops (blacksmith, plumping, and aluminum) in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, in addition to damaging 7 civilian cars, 21 houses, a warehouse and a water well.
The PCHR added that the army continued to open fire at different parts of the coastal region, and at Palestinian fishermen and their boats on the Gaza shore and in Palestinian territorial waters.
The army confiscated boats, fishing nets, and repeatedly opened fire at fishermen and their boats.
Israel also continued its illegitimate blockade on the coastal region, for the seventh year, and continues to enforce sanctions on the civilian population as part of its collective punishment policy violating all international laws.
In the West Bank, the army continued to use excessive force against nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements, leading to 12 injuries, including two children and a cameraman in the central West Bank district of Ramallah.
The ongoing Israeli attacks against various communities led to the injury of two civilians, including one child in the northern and southern parts of the West Bank.
Soldiers carried out at least 62 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, three limited invasion into the Gaza Strip, and kidnapped 22 Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank.
In Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, soldiers stole NIS 150.000 and 200 grams of gold, from a house of a Palestinian west of the city.
The army continued to install roadblocks in different parts of the occupied West Bank, causing delays and significant traffic jams, and kidnapped several Palestinians, including a child.
Main Violations Carried Out In The West Bank
Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 14 Palestinian civilians, including three children and a cameraman in the occupied West Bank.
Attacks targeting nonviolent protests against the Wall and Settlements
On April 4, soldiers shot and injured twelve Palestinian civilians, including two children and a cameraman, after the army assaulted two nonviolent protests near the Ofer Israeli prison, southwest of Ramallah, and at the western entrance of Silwad town, northeast of Ramallah.
Ten of the wounded, including the children and cameraman, were shot near the Ofer prison, while dozens suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, and many were injured after the soldiers physically assaulted them causing various cuts and bruises.
In Bil’in village, near Ramallah, Mohammad Basman Yassin, was shot by live round and shrapnel to his liver, right kidney, chest and nose.
He suffered serious injuries and was moved to the Intensive Care Unit at a medical center in Ramallah; he is the cameraman of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in.
Five more Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated metal bullets, and many others have been treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Two more Palestinians were shot and injured after the soldiers attacked a nonviolent protest on the road linking tween Silwad and Yabroud, close to Road #60, in the Ramallah district.
One of the wounded was shot by four rounds; one in the back and three in his left leg, and the second Palestinian was shot by a live round in his left leg.
The military violations targeted all nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements in different parts of the occupied West Bank, leading to dozens of injuries, including Israeli and international peace activists, some of the protesters were assaulted and beaten by the soldiers.
A 17-year old Palestinian was shot by a gas bomb in the face, when the soldiers invaded the Aida refugee camp, in Bethlehem, while several Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian was shot and injured after he hurled a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli military vehicle invading Huwwara town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Area “C” in the occupied West Bank, under Israeli military control, continues to be subject to large campaigns targeting the Palestinians and their lands, in an attempt to remove them and replace them with Israeli settlements and military camps.
One of the areas that are most impacted by these violations is occupied East Jerusalem, and all nearby Palestinian communities.
In occupied Jerusalem, soldiers demolished three houses that belong to Bedouin families, east of the occupied city.
Israel settlers also continued their escalation and attacks, and uprooted 650 grape saplings in the al-Khader village, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem.
The settlers also smashed a car of a Palestinian journalist, close to the Beit El settlement, north of Ramallah.
“These attacks are carried out while Israel continues its incitement against the Palestinians, thus indirectly encouraging the settlers to continue their violations, and providing them with protection instead of stopping them,” the PCHR said.
It added that Israel continues to ignore complaints filed by the Palestinians against the settlers who attack them, their homes and lands, and that such crimes are committed amidst idleness from the International Community and Arab countries.
Violations In The Gaza Strip
The Israeli Air Force carried out nine air strikes and two incidents where the army opened fire on the Palestinians across the border.
The Navy also carried out seven attacks against fishing boats in Gaza waters.
The Israeli Air Force carried out nine strikes against civilians and training sites for Palestinian armed groups in the coastal region.
Israeli ground forces carried out four attacks by firing across the border into Palestinian communities, while the Israeli navy carried out nine attacks against fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters
The air force bombarded Gaza five times during the reported period;
Three missiles were fired into a blacksmith workshop in Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip; the attack led to excessive property damage, and destroyed two GMC trucks belonging to the owner of the workshop.
The attack also led to property damage in a nearby workshop, and two homes.
The Israeli Air Force also fired two missiles into a training camp used by fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, south of Gaza city.
It also fired three missiles into a car repair and paint shop facility in Jabalia town, causing excessive damage, and destroying five cars. Fires also broke out extending to a nearby aluminum workshop.
Two missiles were fired into a training camp for the National Security Forces, south of Gaza City.
An infant and his uncle were injured when the Israeli air force fired missiles into a home and farmlands in central Gaza.
The two were sleeping in the family home when the army bombarded it; the shelling also shattered doors and windows of twenty nearby homes.
The army repeatedly fired missiles and shells into farmlands in different parts of the coastal region, causing excessive damage, including damage to a storage room for citrus fruits, a shed, and a water well used to provide irrigation to 2.5 kilometers of agricultural lands, and led to power blackouts in large areas of northern Gaza.
Missiles were also fired into empty hothouses, near Khan Younis; the same area was targeted again ten minutes later.
Soldiers, stationed at the Erez terminal, near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, opened fire at Palestinian workers collecting stones and scrap metal in what once stood as the Industrial Area that was previously bombarded and destroyed by Israel.
A link to the full PCHR report in English will be added once the PCHR publishes the English version of its Weekly Report.
As part of its systematic policies and violations, the army continued to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, including the excessive use of force against nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements, organized by local Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists.
The army also used excessive force against nonviolent protesters close to the border fence between the eastern part of the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The PCHR said the army kidnapped 22 Palestinians in these invasions and attacks, and carried out nine air strikes targeting Palestinian communities, and a number of training sites used by the resistance, in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The air strikes in Gaza led to the destruction of three workshops (blacksmith, plumping, and aluminum) in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, in addition to damaging 7 civilian cars, 21 houses, a warehouse and a water well.
The PCHR added that the army continued to open fire at different parts of the coastal region, and at Palestinian fishermen and their boats on the Gaza shore and in Palestinian territorial waters.
The army confiscated boats, fishing nets, and repeatedly opened fire at fishermen and their boats.
Israel also continued its illegitimate blockade on the coastal region, for the seventh year, and continues to enforce sanctions on the civilian population as part of its collective punishment policy violating all international laws.
In the West Bank, the army continued to use excessive force against nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements, leading to 12 injuries, including two children and a cameraman in the central West Bank district of Ramallah.
The ongoing Israeli attacks against various communities led to the injury of two civilians, including one child in the northern and southern parts of the West Bank.
Soldiers carried out at least 62 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, three limited invasion into the Gaza Strip, and kidnapped 22 Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank.
In Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, soldiers stole NIS 150.000 and 200 grams of gold, from a house of a Palestinian west of the city.
The army continued to install roadblocks in different parts of the occupied West Bank, causing delays and significant traffic jams, and kidnapped several Palestinians, including a child.
Main Violations Carried Out In The West Bank
Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 14 Palestinian civilians, including three children and a cameraman in the occupied West Bank.
Attacks targeting nonviolent protests against the Wall and Settlements
On April 4, soldiers shot and injured twelve Palestinian civilians, including two children and a cameraman, after the army assaulted two nonviolent protests near the Ofer Israeli prison, southwest of Ramallah, and at the western entrance of Silwad town, northeast of Ramallah.
Ten of the wounded, including the children and cameraman, were shot near the Ofer prison, while dozens suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, and many were injured after the soldiers physically assaulted them causing various cuts and bruises.
In Bil’in village, near Ramallah, Mohammad Basman Yassin, was shot by live round and shrapnel to his liver, right kidney, chest and nose.
He suffered serious injuries and was moved to the Intensive Care Unit at a medical center in Ramallah; he is the cameraman of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in.
Five more Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated metal bullets, and many others have been treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Two more Palestinians were shot and injured after the soldiers attacked a nonviolent protest on the road linking tween Silwad and Yabroud, close to Road #60, in the Ramallah district.
One of the wounded was shot by four rounds; one in the back and three in his left leg, and the second Palestinian was shot by a live round in his left leg.
The military violations targeted all nonviolent protests against the Wall and settlements in different parts of the occupied West Bank, leading to dozens of injuries, including Israeli and international peace activists, some of the protesters were assaulted and beaten by the soldiers.
A 17-year old Palestinian was shot by a gas bomb in the face, when the soldiers invaded the Aida refugee camp, in Bethlehem, while several Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian was shot and injured after he hurled a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli military vehicle invading Huwwara town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Area “C” in the occupied West Bank, under Israeli military control, continues to be subject to large campaigns targeting the Palestinians and their lands, in an attempt to remove them and replace them with Israeli settlements and military camps.
One of the areas that are most impacted by these violations is occupied East Jerusalem, and all nearby Palestinian communities.
In occupied Jerusalem, soldiers demolished three houses that belong to Bedouin families, east of the occupied city.
Israel settlers also continued their escalation and attacks, and uprooted 650 grape saplings in the al-Khader village, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem.
The settlers also smashed a car of a Palestinian journalist, close to the Beit El settlement, north of Ramallah.
“These attacks are carried out while Israel continues its incitement against the Palestinians, thus indirectly encouraging the settlers to continue their violations, and providing them with protection instead of stopping them,” the PCHR said.
It added that Israel continues to ignore complaints filed by the Palestinians against the settlers who attack them, their homes and lands, and that such crimes are committed amidst idleness from the International Community and Arab countries.
Violations In The Gaza Strip
The Israeli Air Force carried out nine air strikes and two incidents where the army opened fire on the Palestinians across the border.
The Navy also carried out seven attacks against fishing boats in Gaza waters.
The Israeli Air Force carried out nine strikes against civilians and training sites for Palestinian armed groups in the coastal region.
Israeli ground forces carried out four attacks by firing across the border into Palestinian communities, while the Israeli navy carried out nine attacks against fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters
The air force bombarded Gaza five times during the reported period;
Three missiles were fired into a blacksmith workshop in Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip; the attack led to excessive property damage, and destroyed two GMC trucks belonging to the owner of the workshop.
The attack also led to property damage in a nearby workshop, and two homes.
The Israeli Air Force also fired two missiles into a training camp used by fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, south of Gaza city.
It also fired three missiles into a car repair and paint shop facility in Jabalia town, causing excessive damage, and destroying five cars. Fires also broke out extending to a nearby aluminum workshop.
Two missiles were fired into a training camp for the National Security Forces, south of Gaza City.
An infant and his uncle were injured when the Israeli air force fired missiles into a home and farmlands in central Gaza.
The two were sleeping in the family home when the army bombarded it; the shelling also shattered doors and windows of twenty nearby homes.
The army repeatedly fired missiles and shells into farmlands in different parts of the coastal region, causing excessive damage, including damage to a storage room for citrus fruits, a shed, and a water well used to provide irrigation to 2.5 kilometers of agricultural lands, and led to power blackouts in large areas of northern Gaza.
Missiles were also fired into empty hothouses, near Khan Younis; the same area was targeted again ten minutes later.
Soldiers, stationed at the Erez terminal, near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, opened fire at Palestinian workers collecting stones and scrap metal in what once stood as the Industrial Area that was previously bombarded and destroyed by Israel.
A link to the full PCHR report in English will be added once the PCHR publishes the English version of its Weekly Report.
10 apr 2014
Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, sent identical letters to the UN Secretary General, President of the UN Security Council and President of the UN General Assembly briefing them on the escalating Israeli dangerous violations in East Jerusalem.
NEW YORK, April 10, 2014 (WAFA) In his letter, Mansour stated that Israel’s illegal procedures, by state officials, settlers or extremists, against the Palestinian people, their land and their holy sites, destabilize the situation and pose religious sensitivities at a time the United States, the Arab League and the Quartet Committee are exerting efforts to salvage the floundering peace talks.
Mansour referred to the nonstop Israel settlers’ raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as well as the restrictions imposed by police on Palestinian worshipers’ entry to the mosque yards.
He said the imminent Israeli draft law to allow Jewish settlers to perform rituals inside the mosque campus is not only provocative to the already exacerbating political atmosphere, but is also a disregard to the sensible status of the mosque, which is still under the Jordanian custody.
Furthermore, Mansour said these illegal procedures by Israel in al-Aqsa Mosque requires serious and prompt attention by the international community and the UN Security Council to restore peace and security.
In reference to the nonstop settlement construction, Mansour said settlements undermine peace talks and the two-state solution within the 1967 borders.
He finally called upon the international community to take immediate actions to pressure Israel to put an end to its grave infringement to the international law, including the humanitarian law.
M.N./T.R.
NEW YORK, April 10, 2014 (WAFA) In his letter, Mansour stated that Israel’s illegal procedures, by state officials, settlers or extremists, against the Palestinian people, their land and their holy sites, destabilize the situation and pose religious sensitivities at a time the United States, the Arab League and the Quartet Committee are exerting efforts to salvage the floundering peace talks.
Mansour referred to the nonstop Israel settlers’ raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as well as the restrictions imposed by police on Palestinian worshipers’ entry to the mosque yards.
He said the imminent Israeli draft law to allow Jewish settlers to perform rituals inside the mosque campus is not only provocative to the already exacerbating political atmosphere, but is also a disregard to the sensible status of the mosque, which is still under the Jordanian custody.
Furthermore, Mansour said these illegal procedures by Israel in al-Aqsa Mosque requires serious and prompt attention by the international community and the UN Security Council to restore peace and security.
In reference to the nonstop settlement construction, Mansour said settlements undermine peace talks and the two-state solution within the 1967 borders.
He finally called upon the international community to take immediate actions to pressure Israel to put an end to its grave infringement to the international law, including the humanitarian law.
M.N./T.R.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague launched Thursday the Human Rights and Democracy Report 2013 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Thursday said a press release issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. “The human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) continued to be of serious concern in 2013, with the trends of 2012 largely unchanged,” stated the report in the section devoted to Israel and the OPTs as an area of concern.
The report added: “The UK principal concerns related to continued violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by Israel in the context of its occupation of the OPTs. We also continued to have concerns about breaches of human rights in Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled parts of the West Bank and, particularly, under de facto Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated as a result of continued restrictions on movement of goods and people, combined with Egyptian closures of illegal smuggling tunnels.”
The report also stated: “Our priorities for 2013 included a large-scale international push, under US leadership, to restart final status negotiations, lobbying Israel to re-engage with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, as well as a focus on: the treatment of Palestinian detainees, including children, in Israeli prisons; settlement expansion, incitement to violence, evictions and forced transfer of Palestinian communities; consolidation of the ceasefire in Gaza; and an easing of Israeli restrictions.”
It added: “There has been some positive progress: peace talks resumed; Israel re-engaged with the UNHRC and UPR; the ceasefire in Gaza has largely held; and there has been some improvement on child detainees. However, there have been surges in settlement expansion; increases in the number of West Bank Palestinians and Israelis killed; an increase in demolitions of Palestinian property; and no real progress on easing of Israeli restrictions.”
“In 2014, the UK will continue to support the US-led push for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will also continue to seek improvements in the treatment of Palestinian detainees, notably children, press for the cessation of demolitions and evictions, and encourage prosecutions of violent Israeli settlers.”
“In addition, we will continue to lobby against the excessive use of force by the Israel ‘Defense’ Forces, and for the easing of Israeli restrictions on movement and access. We will encourage improvement in the PA’s public accountability with respect to investigations and action taken in response to allegations of human rights abuses, and concrete progress on preventing violence against women” added the report.
The report added: “The UK principal concerns related to continued violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by Israel in the context of its occupation of the OPTs. We also continued to have concerns about breaches of human rights in Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled parts of the West Bank and, particularly, under de facto Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated as a result of continued restrictions on movement of goods and people, combined with Egyptian closures of illegal smuggling tunnels.”
The report also stated: “Our priorities for 2013 included a large-scale international push, under US leadership, to restart final status negotiations, lobbying Israel to re-engage with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, as well as a focus on: the treatment of Palestinian detainees, including children, in Israeli prisons; settlement expansion, incitement to violence, evictions and forced transfer of Palestinian communities; consolidation of the ceasefire in Gaza; and an easing of Israeli restrictions.”
It added: “There has been some positive progress: peace talks resumed; Israel re-engaged with the UNHRC and UPR; the ceasefire in Gaza has largely held; and there has been some improvement on child detainees. However, there have been surges in settlement expansion; increases in the number of West Bank Palestinians and Israelis killed; an increase in demolitions of Palestinian property; and no real progress on easing of Israeli restrictions.”
“In 2014, the UK will continue to support the US-led push for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will also continue to seek improvements in the treatment of Palestinian detainees, notably children, press for the cessation of demolitions and evictions, and encourage prosecutions of violent Israeli settlers.”
“In addition, we will continue to lobby against the excessive use of force by the Israel ‘Defense’ Forces, and for the easing of Israeli restrictions on movement and access. We will encourage improvement in the PA’s public accountability with respect to investigations and action taken in response to allegations of human rights abuses, and concrete progress on preventing violence against women” added the report.
There has been no significant improvement of media freedoms in Palestine during March 2014, on the contrary, March witnessed a rise in violations against journalists during their coverage of the numerous events that took place in various parts of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, where the occupation attempts to prevent in different ways to block the reality of their violations against Palestinian citizens, their homes, their land, and their trees.
The intensification of the occupation forces for violations and targeting of Palestinian journalists in dangerous manners by throwing stun grenades and rubber bullets at them was also accompanied with Israeli settlers' life threatening violence against four Palestinian journalists.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has also monitored an increasing number and a variety of Palestinian violations against journalists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which part of it is due to the Palestinian Internal stress, which reflected negatively on media freedoms.
Israeli Violations:
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacked a large group of journalists in March, where on Sunday 23rd March 2014 they targeted Iyad Hamad (55years old) Associated Press Photographer, while he was covering the clashes erupted between young Palestinians and the IOF in Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem City. On Tuesday 11th March 2014, Sinan Abu Mezr (41 years old) Reuters' photographer was injured by an IOF rubber Bullet in his chest, while he was covering a demonstration that set out from the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem to condemn the martyrdom of Palestinian citizens in the West Bank. The IOF also attacked a group of journalists during their coverage of a demonstration in the city of Jerusalem to commemorate Earth Day on Saturday 29th March 2014.
In Gaza Strip, the IOF attacked Ayman Alsayfe (36 years old) Alkitab TV cameraman, while he was covering a peaceful demonstration near the border to commemorate Earth Day on Thursday 27th March 2014.
On Friday 7th March 2014 in the afternoon, near the settlement of Beit Eil, north of Ramallah, a group of Israeli settlers attacked three photojournalists; Abbas Momani – Photographer at France Press agency, Maath Misha'al – photgrapher at Anatolia Agency, and freelance photographer Abdul Karim Mesetif . On Sunday 16th March 2014, a group of settlers attacked Palestine Today TV correspondent Fida Nasser, attacked by settlers and the IOF detained her after the incident that occurred when she was preparing a report about the effects on Palestinian citizens by Jewish holidays in the city of Hebron, near the entrance of Martyrs Street.
On Sunday 23rd March 2014, the IOF detained 6 Palestinian journalists in different locations in the West Bank North near Nablus and South near Bethlehem, while exercising their profession. They are: Dubai TV correspondent Mohamed Assayed, Associated Press cameraman Mohamed Hassan and the producer Rami Abdu, French Agency photographer Mousa Alshaer, Alquds Dot Com photographer Abd-Alrahman Younis, and an American photographer "name unknown".
The IOF also detained Al Roaya TV crew (Ahmed Barahma "25 years old"- correspondent and Mohamed Shousha "30years old"- cameraman), when they were on their way to film "Bab Alkarama" village near Jericho", on Saturday 29th March 2014.
On Monday 2nd March 2014, the IOF prevented Alquds Net correspondent Diala Jwehan from covering a protest against closing Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem City. And they prevented Ma'an TV cameraman Jalal Hamied, and the photographers Abd-Alrahman Younis and Mousa Alshaer on Tuesday 18th March 2014, from covering a military Jeep rollover in Tekoa area near Beit Sahour city. On Monday 24th March 2014, the IOF prevent Shihab News Agency correspondent Amer Abu Arafa from covering and forced him to delete any footage, while he was covering the IOF raiding of Hebron City near Alansar Mosque.
Palestinian Violations:
MADA center also monitored a number of Palestinian violations in March. In the West Bank a member of security forces pushed and threatened Faten Alwan- Alhura channel correspondent while she was covering a women's protest in front of the Palestinian Authority Headquarters "Almoqata'a" in Ramallah demanding amendments on the Penal code and the personal status for women law, on 6th March 2014.
On 29th March 2014, members of the security in civilian clothes attacked Watan TV crew (correspondent Ahmad Melhem, "29year old", and cameraman Ahmed Zaki "24 years old") after they covered the sermon for Altahrir Party at Jamal Abdel Nasser mosque in the city of Al-bereh- Ramallah. And On Thursday 6th March, the Ministry of Palestinian Women's Affairs withheld the honoring of Nahed Abu Taima "a journalist and Informative" because of her criticism of the government, parties and institutions for not protecting women in Palestine on her Facebook page.
A complaint was submitted by the Minister of Finance Mr. Shukri Bshara against Jaffar Sadaqa, a journalist who wrote a report about the Ministry, especially that his report tackled the accountability of the ministry and the formation of an Investigation commission by the WAFA news agency that he prepared the report for, to interrogate him.
In the Gaza Strip, the Police in Gaza summoned Ayman Mustafa Ala'loul (42 years old) the correspondent at Alforat Iraqi TV, and the confiscation of his personal identification card on Monday 24th March 2014, after his report that criticized Hamas' festival to honor martyrs in Saraya Square on 23rd March 2014. And On Monday 31st March 2013, the Hamas General Intelligence services in the Gaza Strip prevented the Press House Foundation from holding a celebration to honor the journalists working at the network of Palestinian journalists at Hotel Adam.
Conclusion and recommendation:
March was difficult and hard for Palestinian journalists, many were wounded by Israeli occupation bullets, and they were subjected to serious attacks by Israeli settlers, which calls for concerted international efforts to protect Palestinian journalists and put an end to their Impunity, especially after the adoption of United Nations the decision to provide necessary and required protection for journalists when they are covering protests and peaceful marches on 28th March 2014, in addition to the UN previous resolutions and international conventions that guarantee freedom of expression.
The Palestinian authorities concerned, Must put an end to the Increasing Palestinian violations against journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and they need to hold those responsible accountable, and respect freedom of opinion and expression.
MADA welcomes the signing by President Mahmoud Abbas on the accession document to the 15 organizations, treaty, and international agreement, and we consider it an important step on the road to devote human rights in Palestine, and to compel the Israeli occupation authorities to abide by these conventions and treaties that guarantee human rights, especially freedom of expression.
MADA also welcomes WAFA news agency Chairman Board of Directors Riad Al-Hassan "confirmation of his commitment to public freedoms and the commitment of the agency to no limits for freedoms in accordance with the recommendations of President Mahmoud Abbas", which came after the case of journalist Jafar Sadaqa.
The intensification of the occupation forces for violations and targeting of Palestinian journalists in dangerous manners by throwing stun grenades and rubber bullets at them was also accompanied with Israeli settlers' life threatening violence against four Palestinian journalists.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has also monitored an increasing number and a variety of Palestinian violations against journalists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which part of it is due to the Palestinian Internal stress, which reflected negatively on media freedoms.
Israeli Violations:
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacked a large group of journalists in March, where on Sunday 23rd March 2014 they targeted Iyad Hamad (55years old) Associated Press Photographer, while he was covering the clashes erupted between young Palestinians and the IOF in Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem City. On Tuesday 11th March 2014, Sinan Abu Mezr (41 years old) Reuters' photographer was injured by an IOF rubber Bullet in his chest, while he was covering a demonstration that set out from the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem to condemn the martyrdom of Palestinian citizens in the West Bank. The IOF also attacked a group of journalists during their coverage of a demonstration in the city of Jerusalem to commemorate Earth Day on Saturday 29th March 2014.
In Gaza Strip, the IOF attacked Ayman Alsayfe (36 years old) Alkitab TV cameraman, while he was covering a peaceful demonstration near the border to commemorate Earth Day on Thursday 27th March 2014.
On Friday 7th March 2014 in the afternoon, near the settlement of Beit Eil, north of Ramallah, a group of Israeli settlers attacked three photojournalists; Abbas Momani – Photographer at France Press agency, Maath Misha'al – photgrapher at Anatolia Agency, and freelance photographer Abdul Karim Mesetif . On Sunday 16th March 2014, a group of settlers attacked Palestine Today TV correspondent Fida Nasser, attacked by settlers and the IOF detained her after the incident that occurred when she was preparing a report about the effects on Palestinian citizens by Jewish holidays in the city of Hebron, near the entrance of Martyrs Street.
On Sunday 23rd March 2014, the IOF detained 6 Palestinian journalists in different locations in the West Bank North near Nablus and South near Bethlehem, while exercising their profession. They are: Dubai TV correspondent Mohamed Assayed, Associated Press cameraman Mohamed Hassan and the producer Rami Abdu, French Agency photographer Mousa Alshaer, Alquds Dot Com photographer Abd-Alrahman Younis, and an American photographer "name unknown".
The IOF also detained Al Roaya TV crew (Ahmed Barahma "25 years old"- correspondent and Mohamed Shousha "30years old"- cameraman), when they were on their way to film "Bab Alkarama" village near Jericho", on Saturday 29th March 2014.
On Monday 2nd March 2014, the IOF prevented Alquds Net correspondent Diala Jwehan from covering a protest against closing Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem City. And they prevented Ma'an TV cameraman Jalal Hamied, and the photographers Abd-Alrahman Younis and Mousa Alshaer on Tuesday 18th March 2014, from covering a military Jeep rollover in Tekoa area near Beit Sahour city. On Monday 24th March 2014, the IOF prevent Shihab News Agency correspondent Amer Abu Arafa from covering and forced him to delete any footage, while he was covering the IOF raiding of Hebron City near Alansar Mosque.
Palestinian Violations:
MADA center also monitored a number of Palestinian violations in March. In the West Bank a member of security forces pushed and threatened Faten Alwan- Alhura channel correspondent while she was covering a women's protest in front of the Palestinian Authority Headquarters "Almoqata'a" in Ramallah demanding amendments on the Penal code and the personal status for women law, on 6th March 2014.
On 29th March 2014, members of the security in civilian clothes attacked Watan TV crew (correspondent Ahmad Melhem, "29year old", and cameraman Ahmed Zaki "24 years old") after they covered the sermon for Altahrir Party at Jamal Abdel Nasser mosque in the city of Al-bereh- Ramallah. And On Thursday 6th March, the Ministry of Palestinian Women's Affairs withheld the honoring of Nahed Abu Taima "a journalist and Informative" because of her criticism of the government, parties and institutions for not protecting women in Palestine on her Facebook page.
A complaint was submitted by the Minister of Finance Mr. Shukri Bshara against Jaffar Sadaqa, a journalist who wrote a report about the Ministry, especially that his report tackled the accountability of the ministry and the formation of an Investigation commission by the WAFA news agency that he prepared the report for, to interrogate him.
In the Gaza Strip, the Police in Gaza summoned Ayman Mustafa Ala'loul (42 years old) the correspondent at Alforat Iraqi TV, and the confiscation of his personal identification card on Monday 24th March 2014, after his report that criticized Hamas' festival to honor martyrs in Saraya Square on 23rd March 2014. And On Monday 31st March 2013, the Hamas General Intelligence services in the Gaza Strip prevented the Press House Foundation from holding a celebration to honor the journalists working at the network of Palestinian journalists at Hotel Adam.
Conclusion and recommendation:
March was difficult and hard for Palestinian journalists, many were wounded by Israeli occupation bullets, and they were subjected to serious attacks by Israeli settlers, which calls for concerted international efforts to protect Palestinian journalists and put an end to their Impunity, especially after the adoption of United Nations the decision to provide necessary and required protection for journalists when they are covering protests and peaceful marches on 28th March 2014, in addition to the UN previous resolutions and international conventions that guarantee freedom of expression.
The Palestinian authorities concerned, Must put an end to the Increasing Palestinian violations against journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and they need to hold those responsible accountable, and respect freedom of opinion and expression.
MADA welcomes the signing by President Mahmoud Abbas on the accession document to the 15 organizations, treaty, and international agreement, and we consider it an important step on the road to devote human rights in Palestine, and to compel the Israeli occupation authorities to abide by these conventions and treaties that guarantee human rights, especially freedom of expression.
MADA also welcomes WAFA news agency Chairman Board of Directors Riad Al-Hassan "confirmation of his commitment to public freedoms and the commitment of the agency to no limits for freedoms in accordance with the recommendations of President Mahmoud Abbas", which came after the case of journalist Jafar Sadaqa.