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In this mailing:
- Bassam Tawil: The Palestinian
Jihad Against Peace
- Uzay Bulut: Turkey:
Imprisoning Dissidents while Bidding for EU Membership
by Bassam Tawil • January 28,
2019 at 5:00 am
- According to US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an upcoming US-sponsored
global summit to discuss the Middle East and Iran will
"bring together dozens of countries from all around the
world, from Asia, from Africa, from Western Hemisphere
countries, Europe too, the Middle East of course."
- The Palestinian
strategy is now based on inciting Arabs against their leaders.
This is the message that Abbas and his officials are sending
to the Arabs: "You need to join us in our campaign to
stop our leaders from making peace with Israel. You must condemn
any leader who seeks normalization with Israel as a
traitor."
- Other senior
Palestinian officials have gone further by warning the Arab
countries that any form of normalization with Israel would be
considered an act of treason
- It now remains to be
seen whether the Arab countries will surrender to the latest
campaign of Palestinian incitement and intimidation.
As part of
the "anti-normalization" campaign, Palestinian leaders
are putting pressure on Arab countries to boycott a US-sponsored
global summit to discuss the Middle East and Iran. According to US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (center), the summit will "bring
together dozens of countries from all around the world, from Asia,
from Africa, from Western Hemisphere countries, Europe too, the
Middle East of course." (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Palestinian leaders have recently stepped up their
efforts to stop Arab countries from normalizing their relations --
or even signing peace agreements -- with Israel.
The campaign comes against a backdrop of reports
about the warming of relations between Israel and some Arab
countries, including a recent visit to Oman by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The specter of peace between the Arab countries and
Israel has become a nightmare for Palestinian leaders. Instead of
worrying about building a better future -- which the Palestinians
desperately need -- Palestinian leaders are feverishly working to
thwart any attempt to bring the Arab countries closer to Israel.
As part of the "anti-normalization"
campaign, the Palestinian leaders in the West Bank are now putting
pressure on the Arab countries to boycott a US-sponsored global
summit to discuss the Middle East and Iran, which is scheduled for
next month in Poland.
by Uzay Bulut • January 28, 2019
at 4:00 am
- Erdogan did not hide
the fact that his statements promising "freedom of faith,
freedom of thought and freedom of opinion" were part of
his "preparations for the 2019 local elections." The
Turkish president did, however, hide the fact that his words
were completely false.
- On December 19,
Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, president of the Human Rights
Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), was sentenced to two and a half
years in prison for being one of 2,212 signatories to an
"Academics for Peace" petition in 2016. The petition
called on the Turkish government to cease its violence against
the Kurds in southeastern Turkey. Fincancı is one of 429
academics who, as of December 19, have stood on trial since
December 5.
- Erdoğan was not
telling the truth when he declared that everyone in Turkey
would enjoy "freedom of faith, freedom of thought and
freedom of opinion." In fact, Turkish jails and prisons
are so packed with people imprisoned for expressing their
beliefs, that the government just announced it will be
building 228 more prisons over the next five years to
accommodate the overflow.
- Simultaneously,
Turkey is stepping up its decades-long bid to become a member
of the European Union. As part of this bid, Turkish Justice
Minister Abdulhamit Gul announced on December 11 that he would
be unveiling a new strategy for judicial reform. Under no
circumstances should the EU allow itself to be duped by such a
transparently deceptive and deceitful move.
On
December 19, Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, president of the Human
Rights Foundation of Turkey, was sentenced to two and a half years
in prison for being one of 2,212 signatories to an "Academics
for Peace" petition, which called on the Turkish government to
cease its violence against the Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
Pictured: Fincancı receives the Physicians for Human Rights award
in New York City on April 18, 2017. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty
Images for Physicians for Human Rights)
At a rally in Ankara over the summer, held by the
women's branch of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced:
"From now on, there will be no fight for
freedom of faith, freedom of thought and freedom of opinion.
Everyone will be free in their own faith [and] be free to live
accordingly. [Everyone will be at liberty to] say whatever he [or
she] believes in."
Erdogan did not hide the fact that his statements at
the August gathering were part of his "preparations for the
2019 local elections," scheduled for March 31. The Turkish
president did, however, hide the fact that his words were
completely false. To illustrate, let us review some of the
human-rights abuses in Erdoğan's Turkey that took place in one
month, December 2018, alone.
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