Sunday, 23 September 2012
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Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Israel threatens to demolish Bedouin school
West Bank, September 3, 2012
Dozens of children returned to school on
Sunday, taking part in an annual ritual that has taken on special
meaning in this Bedouin tent camp.
The makeshift school buildings, cobbled
together from mud and old tires, were built over the objections of
Israeli authorities who are now threatening to demolish the structures.
Israel says it won’t tear them down until alternate facilities are available.
“We’ll go to school until it’s
demolished,” said 10-year-old Islam Hussein as she dashed to the school
on a nearby hill, after hastily dressing in clothes her mother gave her.
She was faster than her brother, Mohammed, 6. Their mother Sara
playfully threw shoes at them as she told them not to be late.
Behind
them was their home: a series of huts of tin, plastic and wood, forming
a kitchen, sleeping room and animal pens. Nearby was the family’s camel
herd. Bedouins have lived in similar conditions for centuries,
sometimes preferring a nomadic life style to the offer of
government-built towns.
About 150,000 Palestinians, or 6 percent
of the total number in the West Bank, including those of Khan al-Ahmar,
live in the 60 percent of the territory that remains under full Israeli
control. This territory is also home to Jewish settlements, where
300,000 Israelis live.
Palestinians and their supporters say
Israel is trying to pressure them out by refusing to allow them to build
infrastructure. Israel has issued demolition orders against some 3,000
structures: homes, cisterns, solar-power generators and 18 schools,
including the Khan al-Ahmar Mixed Elementary School, according to U.N.
figures, but only a fraction have been carried out.
In the first half of this year, Israel destroyed 360 structures, the U.N. reported.
Israeli military spokesman Guy Inbar
said while there was a demolition order for the school and the entire
encampment, there is no intention of destroying it until an alternative
is found for the students. He said many of the community had willingly
relocated to a nearby Palestinian town.
Just as Israelis have built West Bank
settlements over the decades to cement their hold on the territory,
Palestinians see building up their communities as the way to keep their
land. Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their future state.
“We are fully intent on building facts
on the ground that are consistent with the inevitability of the
emergence of the fully independent sovereign state of Palestine,” said
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a visit to the school.
The Jahalin Bedouin clan used to send
their children to schools in the Palestinian town of Jericho, about 20
kilometers away. The Palestinian Authority-issued school bus didn’t
always turn up, said Eid Sweilam, a community activist.
The community decided to build its own
school, completing it in 2009 with help from Western aid groups and
Israeli volunteers, Sweilam said.
The Palestinian Authority supplies 11
teachers and staffers for the school’s 90 children, ranging from grade
one to seven. Mariam Abu Ghaziah, one of the teachers, said they hope to
keep adding grades.
Despite the shortcomings, the school is the best education that most will receive in this deeply conservative community.
Most parents are reluctant to send the
children, especially girls, outside the village to high school. It is
not proper for them to be outside for so long, said mother Sara Hussein,
35.
As a result, Hussein, the mother, who
cannot read, made her eldest daughter, Nour, 14, drop out of school
after sixth grade. If the school adds grades, she can return, but she
won’t be sent to Jericho, her mother said.
The teenager, with a stony face, watched
her siblings excitedly prepare for school as she shook a milk-filled
goat skin – an ancient method for making butter.
“I was really good at school,” she said. “I’d like to go back.”
Source: Alarabiya
Students at South African University Boycott Israel
By Elbarakah Tarik
Morocco world news
Agadir, September 3, 2012
Students from the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa say they are adopting an
academic and cultural boycott of Israel in solidarity with the
Palestinian people, AP reports.
A statement Monday says that the
school’s student representative council is calling for an immediate
investigation into any sort of academic, financial and cultural
relations with Israeli institutions.
Witwatersrand University became the
world’s first to impose an academic boycott on Israel after ending last
year its relationship with Ben-Gurion University.
South Africa’s government angered Israel
three months ago by issuing instructions that goods imported from
Israeli West Bank settlements not be labeled “product of Israel.”
Many South Africans associate the way
Israel treats Palestinians with their former apartheid regime’s abuse of
blacks which lasted from 1948 until the 1990’s.
African Union troops take Miido town, 36 al-Shabaab members killed
September 02, 2012
African Union and Somali forces captured the town of Miido in an
overnight battle that began Friday evening (August 31st), killing 36
al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants, the African Union Mission in
Somalia (AMISOM) announced.
Miido is situated 16 kilometres south of Afmadow, which was recently secured by AMISOM troops.
"This was a brave and important operation conducted by the AMISOM forces in Lower Juba," said AMISOM force commander Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti. "Securing the strategic town of Miido will allow the local community to rebuild their lives free from the terror and tyranny imposed by al-Shabaab. I pay tribute to the bravery and commitment of all the soldiers involved in this operation."
During the operation, seven al‐Shabaab vehicles and logistic supplies were destroyed while other assorted weapons and ammunition were recovered, AMISOM said.
On Saturday, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said on Twitter that five KDF soldiers were missing in action, and three had been flown to Dobley for medical attention after sustaining injuries. After three of the missing were found on Sunday, Chirchir said on Twitter, "Bravo Special Forces and for your bravery hats off."
Al-Shabaab posted pictures of corpses on its Twitter account, saying they are the bodies of four KDF soldiers killed in combat.
Eyewitnesses in Kismayo said al-Shabaab brought the bodies to the port city during the night and called residents to come out and see them.
"We saw the bodies of four men in uniform put on show in Kismayo by al-Shabaab," local resident Hassan Abdi Mohamud told AFP by telephone. He claimed that two of the dead were Somali soldiers and two were Kenyan soldiers.
The bodies have not yet been identified, nor the number of casualties independently verified.
Somali and allied forces intend to capture Kismayo soon, military officials have said.
Miido is situated 16 kilometres south of Afmadow, which was recently secured by AMISOM troops.
"This was a brave and important operation conducted by the AMISOM forces in Lower Juba," said AMISOM force commander Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti. "Securing the strategic town of Miido will allow the local community to rebuild their lives free from the terror and tyranny imposed by al-Shabaab. I pay tribute to the bravery and commitment of all the soldiers involved in this operation."
During the operation, seven al‐Shabaab vehicles and logistic supplies were destroyed while other assorted weapons and ammunition were recovered, AMISOM said.
On Saturday, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said on Twitter that five KDF soldiers were missing in action, and three had been flown to Dobley for medical attention after sustaining injuries. After three of the missing were found on Sunday, Chirchir said on Twitter, "Bravo Special Forces and for your bravery hats off."
Al-Shabaab posted pictures of corpses on its Twitter account, saying they are the bodies of four KDF soldiers killed in combat.
Eyewitnesses in Kismayo said al-Shabaab brought the bodies to the port city during the night and called residents to come out and see them.
"We saw the bodies of four men in uniform put on show in Kismayo by al-Shabaab," local resident Hassan Abdi Mohamud told AFP by telephone. He claimed that two of the dead were Somali soldiers and two were Kenyan soldiers.
The bodies have not yet been identified, nor the number of casualties independently verified.
Somali and allied forces intend to capture Kismayo soon, military officials have said.
Waandishi wa habari wa Somalia wavumilia katika taaluma yao licha ya hatari
Na Mahmoud Mohamed, Mogadishu
Agosti 31, 2012
Mwandishi wa habari wa Mogadishu Abdifatah Ahmed amepokea vitisho ya
kifo mara kadhaa kutoka kwa wanamgambo katika miaka mitatu iliyopita.
-
Waandishi wa habari wa Somalia wakijipanga mbele ya makao makuu ya AMISOM, kusubiri kuandika juu ya sherehe za uapishaji wa wabunge wapya tarehe 20 Agosti. [Na Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi]
![Waandishi wa habari wa Somalia wakijipanga mbele ya makao makuu ya AMISOM, kusubiri kuandika juu ya sherehe za uapishaji wa wabunge wapya tarehe 20 Agosti. [Na Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi]](http://sabahionline.com/shared/images/2012/08/31/mogadishu-reporters-election.jpg)
"Hata kama tunakuwa walengwa wa watu wenye msimamo mkali, hatutatishika na vitisho kama hivyo vya uwoga," aliiambia Sabahi.
Ahmed alisema amechukua hatua kadhaa za tahadhari tangu alipoanza kupokea vitisho.
"Baadhi ya hatua nilizochukua ni pamoja na kubadilisha kila mara njia
yangu wakati ninaposafiri baina ya nyumbani na pahali pa kazi, pamoja
na kubadilisha ratiba zangu za kila siku," alisema. Mara nyengine huamua
kusafiri na walinzi."
Kwa waandishi wa habari nchini Somalia, 2012 imekuwa mwaka wa damu.
"Katika muda wa miezi minane ya kwanza ya mwaka huu, waandishi wa
habari 9 wameuwawa na 20 wengine kujeruhiwa katika mikono ya watu wenye
silaha, na kuufanya mwaka huu kuwa mbaya na wa damu zaidi kwa waandishi
wa habari wa Somalia," alisema Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan, mkurugenzi wa
Nyumba ya Vyombo vya Habari Mogadishu, ambayo inashughulikia kukuza
amani na kulinda haki za waandishi wa habari.
Hivi karibuni zaidi, tarehe 12 Agosti, waandishi wa habari wa Somalia Yusuf Ali Osman na Mohamud Beneyste waliuliwa katika mikono ya watu wasiojulikana wenye silaha mjini Mogadishu.
Mohamed Ahmed, mwandishi wa habari mkongwe anayeishi Mogadishu na
kufanya kazi kama mhariri wa tovuti ya habari nchini Somalia, alisema
yeye pia amekuwa akitumiwa ujumbe za vitisho.
"Tangu mwaka 2009, nimepokea barua kadhaa na simu kutoka kwa watu
nisiowajua wanaodai ni kutoka kikundi chenye msimamo mkali cha
al-Shabaab na kutishia kuniua," aliiambia Sabahi. "Wanaweza kuniambia
eti mimi ni adui wa Uislamu na kwamba, Mungu akipenda, mujahidina
watanisaka na kunimaliza."
Ahmed alisema anaogopa kwa sababu wenzake wengi, ambao pia walikuwa wametishiwa, waliuwawa na watu wasiojulikana wenye silaha.
Hata hivyo, Ahmed alisema, "Sijawahi kufikiria kuiacha kazi yangu na
kuikimbia nchi yangu. Kama ningekuwa wa kuacha kazi yangu kwa sababu ya
vitisho vya kipuuzi kama hivyo, hii ingemaanisha kuwa wanamgambo
wamefanikiwa malengo yao na kuvinyamazisha vyombo vya habari."
Abdiaziz Biilo, mwandishi wa habari wa Mogadishu wa Press TV, alisema
kufanya kazi kama mwandishi wa habari nchini Somalia ni changamoto
kubwa sana.
"Kila asubuhi, unaondoka nyumbani kwako na kwenda kazini bila ya
kujua kama utarejea salama au la. Ni mazingira magumu sana na usalama
hauhakikishwi kwa wale wanaofanyakazi katika vyombo vya habari,"
aliambia Sabahi.
"Nimehudhuria mazishi ya waandishi wa habari wenzangu kadhaa ambao
walipigwa bunduki mjini Mogadishu na watu wasiojulikana. Kila siku huwa
ninajiuliza, " Nani atafuatia?"
"Waandishi wa habari wa Somalia wanauliwa kwa sababu ya taaluma yao,"
alisema. Licha ya hayo, hatutaacha kazi yetu kwa kuwaogopa wanamgambo
kwa sababu tunahisi tunawatumikia watu kwa kuwapatia habari na ukweli
uliopo nyuma ya kile kinachotokea nchini."
Mohamed Abdullahi, mwandishi wa habari wa kujitegemea anayeishi
Mogadishu, alisema, "Mashambulizi dhidi ya waandishi wa habari wa
Somalia daima hayatasita. Kuna vyombo vingi nyuma ya hili, lakini
kikundi cha al-Shabaab chenye mafungamano na al-Qaida ndicho ni tishio
kubwa la kwa waandishi wa habari."
"Al-Shabaab wanawachukulia waandishi wa habari kama maadui wao
nambari moja kwa sababu [waandishi wa habari] wanaeneza ukweli na
kufichua uhalifu wa kikatili unaofanywa dhidi ya raia na kikundi hiki
kila siku," alisema.
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