LEBANON: Nahr el Bared residents, supporters rally ahead of key ruling on reconstruction

Several hundred people rallied in downtown Beirut on Monday in a show of solidarity with the displaced residents of Nahr el Bared, the Palestinian refugee camp that was  destroyed in spring 2007 when fighting broke out between Fatah Al-Islam militants and the Lebanese Army.

The demonstration was staged days before a key court ruling that could put a halt to reconstruction, leaving some 30,000 people in temporary UN housing or squeezed into the outskirts of the camp indefinitely.

Monday's rally saw young activists from Beirut chant and clap alongside displaced camp residents of all ages, many of whom wore caps and T-shirts emblazoned with the name of one of the 37 different community organizations that organized the protest under the umbrella of the Nahr el Bared Advocacy Committee.

EGYPT: Cleric calls for 'Friday of anger' against Al Aqsa violations

The head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, is urging Egyptians to turn this Friday into a nationwide day of anger against the "Israeli practices at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem."

The Qatar-based cleric flew to Egypt from Doha on Monday to deliver a speech at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, where he condemned the Arab governments' silence towards the "violation of Al Aqsa's holiness" by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.

Tensions erupted in the area known as Al Haram Al Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews last week when a group of non-Muslims entered the compound, which is the third holiest venue in Islam and the most important in Judaism.

While Israeli authorities said that the group was composed of French tourists, Palestinians believed that they were Israeli extremists entering the mosque in celebration of the Jewish Sukkot festival. Further confrontations took place Sunday as tens of Palestinians entered the mosque overnight amid rumors that larger numbers of Israelis will be allowed to enter the mosque, before Israeli forces shut down the holy site.

GAZA: Has Hamas unofficially imposed Islamic dress code on students?

Educators in the Gaza Strip have begun enforcing an unofficial decree by the Hamas leadership requiring high school girls to wear Islamic dress, despite Hamas Education Minister Muhammad Asqoul denying such a policy as recently as two days ago, Arab news outlets reported.

"Palestinian society is committed by nature and does not need decrees to force it to be so," Asqoul said, according to a front-page report by Qays Safadi in the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar (Arabic link). Asqoul went on to describe the media furor surrounding the decision as a "tempest in a teapot."

But, as Safadi points out, Asqoul's comments directly contradict the signs posted outside schools informing girls that this year they are required to wear dark blue robes, a white headscarf and black or white shoes.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Google launches local search engine

Google, one of the top search engines in the world, launched a local Arabic search engine for the Palestinian territorities Thursday, which will enable Palestinians to access more relevant data based on their searches, the Lebanese daily The Daily Star reported Friday.

Localized searches will also enable more effective targeted advertising via Google's AdWords software, which places ads using search terms and location based on IP address.

GAZA: Short film takes on rape, a taboo subject in Palestinian enclave

Basma Abualila, a journalist and filmmaker living in Gaza, recently caused a stir in the strip with her short film on rape in Gaza. In her 10-minute film, “ A Call at Night," based on a real-life incident, a young woman shares her story of how she was raped by her boyfriend and then forced to marry her rapist out of fear when she got pregnant. 

 
 

 

“He said he needed to talk to me but said we couldn’t talk while standing in the street because everyone was watching us. So he asked me to get into his car to talk. I get into the car and he puts something over my face,” the woman tells Abualila in a telephone conversation in the film. 

What then happens is unclear. The woman remembers nothing after getting into the car with the man. She wakes up hours later in an apartment with her clothes torn off and a terrible headache. Her boyfriend is in the room, looking at her from a distance. She believes she has been drugged. 

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IRAN: For Obama, the road to Tehran leads through Jerusalem

Barely noted in the reports about Monday's meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a revealing exchange toward the end of the question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters.

The president was asked whether he agreed with Netanyahu's view that dismantling Iran's nuclear program and getting it stop supporting militant groups in the Levant was the first step toward a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Obama said while the charged atmosphere in the Middle East makes it tough for Israel to negotiate with its rivals, he viewed the situation the other way around. 

Read the little-cited quotes below:

IRAN: Watching carefully as Israel's Netanyahu meets Obama

Although Iran wouldn't admit to being too concerned, it is carefully watching today's developments in Washington, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Obama in an effort to persuade him that confronting Iran, not resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, should be the first item on his Middle East agenda.

Netanyahu's visit has been noted on television news broadcasts. The conservative daily newspaper Javan alleged Sunday that Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to report on "the cooperation of some moderate Arab leaders with Israel to confront Iran."

The conservatives who dominate Iran's political establishment abhor Israel's attempts to reach out to Arab leaders. 

The sentiment is the result of a complicated, decades-long game of power politics among the Middle East's major players. 

ISRAEL: 1,000 days of captivity for Shalit

Hundreds of people came to Jerusalem on Saturday evening to mark the 1,000th day since Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. In recent weeks, his family had joined the protest tent already manned for months by volunteers and sat up the block from the residence of the prime minister, a constant reminder to Ehud Olmert of his unfinished business as he finishes his term.

Olmert's final push to secure a deal with Hamas for Shalit's freedom in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners fell through, amid a bitter public debate in Israel over the price of such an exchange. As mediators and negotiators shuttled back and forth between Cairo, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in an attempt to reach agreement in the last few days of the incumbent government, time -- often a liquid concept in the region -- was pressing.

LEBANON: Mughniyah's shadow over Israel

Hours after the shooting of two Israeli policemen on Sunday near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an obscure militant organization called Martyr Imad Mugniyah’s Group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Speculation runs high about this group. Is this just a small group of zealous Palestinians trying to win prestige by associating itself with the enigmatic military commander of Hezbollah killed in a bomb attack in Damascus last February? Is Hezbollah seeking revenge for his killing?

The Lebanese Shiite militant group has accused Israel of assassinating Mughniyah, who was sought by several secret service agencies for his alleged involvement in infamous attacks in various parts of the globe in the 1980s and 1990s.

Hezbollah repeatedly vowed to avenge the killing of Mughniyah.