The first torrential downpour of an approaching winter has already soaked the Gaza Strip, compounding the misery of thousands of Palestinians who scrambled to patch homes wrecked by the summer war with Israel. While Palestinian officials rejoiced at $5.4 billion pledged at an international aid conference last week toward reconstruction and shoring up their budget, many in Gaza fear that, as was the case after past wars with Israel, not all the money will materialise.
No one disputes the need is urgent: the United Nations says 18,000 dwellings were destroyed or damaged in 50 days of Israeli attacks, and 108,000 people are homeless in a long impoverished, isolated territory. The flow of building material and other aid will largely depend on whether the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) that exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank extends its writ to Gaza, now run by the Hamas.
PRO-PALESTINE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN JOHANNESBURG
Over 60 activists protesting against major retail store Woolworths were arrested in Johannesburg on 25 October for reportedly demonstrating without permission. “Over 60 ‘Boycott Woolworths’ activists, including minors, were arrested and detained at the Hillbrow Police Station in Johannesburg,” Kwara Kekana, the spokeswoman for the South African chapter of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign, said in a statement.
She added that the arrests came after activists carried out a successful and peaceful boycott Woolworths flash mob at the retailer’s branch in Killarney Mall in Johannesburg. Activists from several groups, including BDS, have been calling for a nationwide boycott of Woolworths’ stores.
UN CHIEF REBUKES ISRAEL OVER EAST JERUSALEM LAND GRAB
Israel’s “illegal” settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem is threatening the prospects of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.N. secretary-general said on 21 October. “International law is clear: Settlement activity is illegal. It runs totally counter to the pursuit of a two-state solution. I urge the Israeli government to reverse these activities,” Ban Ki-moon said while briefing the U.N. Security Council on the situation in the Middle East.
He said that Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem are among the underlying causes of the conflict and that there is no hope for long-term stability without addressing it.
MORSI FAMILY, BROTHERHOOD CONDEMN SINAI ATTACK
The official spokesperson for the family of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its Freedom and Justice Party on 25 October mourned in three separate statements the death of 30 Egyptian troops in an attack on a military site in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula a day earlier. In a message on his Facebook page, Osama Mohamed Morsi described the attack against the Egyptian troops as a “horrible crime”. He said what he called the “coup authorities” were responsible for the death of the troops.
The Muslim Brotherhood movement, meanwhile, described the attack as a “massacre,” offering its condolences to the families of the victims. The movement too said it held the authorities and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi responsible for the death of the troops. It rejected calls for evacuating the residents of the Sinai Peninsula, saying these residents had always been the “first line of defence” for the north-eastern peninsula.
REFERRING 60 EGYPTIAN JUDGES TO DISCIPLINARY BOARD ‘NULL AND VOID’
In a statement on 20 October, the anti-coup “Independence of the Judiciary Front” of Egypt condemned the referral of 60 exemplary judges, symbols of defence of the independence of the judiciary in Egypt, to the Disciplinary Board after they declared legal and constitutional perspectives and defended the independence of the judiciary.
“These decisions are null and void. They are part and parcel of the ongoing clearly-political settling of accounts, totally unrelated to justice. They are further evidence of the double standards of junta justice that ignores all official complaints from judges against Zind and his collaborators,” said the statement.
U.S. WEAPONS AIRDROP ON KOBANI WAS WRONG: ERDOGAN
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on 22 October said it was wrong of the United States to air drop military supplies to Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian border town of Kobani, as some weapons were seized by ISIL militants besieging it. The Pentagon said the vast majority of the U.S. supplies dropped on Sunday had reached the Kurdish fighters despite an online video showing ISIL fighters with a bundle.
“What was done here on this subject turned out to be wrong. Why did it turn out wrong? Because some of the weapons they dropped from those C130s were seized by ISIL (ISIL),” Erdogan told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.
IRAN SUPREME LEADER BLAMES WEST FOR ISIL RISE
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 21 October blamed Western powers for the rise of ISIL (IS) insurgents in Iraq and Syria and said they had no business tampering with the region’s geopolitics. Iran and the United States have been arch-foes for decades but now share a strategic interest in reversing the territorial gains of IS that threaten to remake the Middle East map.
“(The) current imbroglio is the outcome of irresponsible acts in Syria by alien powers along with certain regional countries,” Khamenei said, according to a statement read on state television. He praised Iraq for “refusing to allow its soil to be used” against Assad, which Tehran has shored up against rebels bent on toppling him with the support of Western and Gulf Arab foes.
BOSNIA COMMEMORATES OCTOBER 1992 MASSACRE
The Serbian massacre of 16 Bosnians on 22 October, 1992 in Visegrad was commemorated at a sombre ceremony on 22 October. Relatives of the victims laid a foundation stone of a monument to honour the dead, and also laid wreaths and flowers on the Lim River that flows through Montenegro, Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On 22 October 1992, 16 Bosnians who were travelling in a bus from Priboy to Sjeverin village were taken hostage by a Serbian armed unit, called “Avengers.” The hostages were taken to Visegrad city, which was then under the control of Bosnian Serbs, where they were brutally tortured before being shot dead. Chief Imam of the Islamic Association Council Priboy Enes Svraka said in a speech that the relatives of the victims had endured 22 years of pain and sadness. Svraka said all Bosnians stood in solidarity with the families of the victims.
UK MUSLIMS CRITICISE PM’S CHARITY COMMISSION PROPOSALS
Muslim rights groups in the U.K. have responded with anger to new proposals announced by Prime Minister David Cameron to give extra powers to the country’s charities regulatory body. The government on 22 October announced that it was proposing giving the Charity Commission, the regulatory body for British charities, more powers to be able to freeze charity bank accounts and suspend or remove trustees.
The proposals included banning people with convictions from being a charity trustee, disqualifying a person from being a charity trustee if the commission finds them “unfit,” shutting down charities which are under investigation and issuing official warnings for less serious cases.
UN GRANTS OBSERVER STATUS TO D-8
The United Nations has granted observer status to the Developing-Eight, or D-8, Organisation for Economic Cooperation during the ongoing 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, the Pakistani foreign ministry announced on 25 October. According to the ministry’s statement, released on its official website, the initiative was started by their government.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN and Additional Secretary, Masood Khan, made a presentation last month on the organisation of the UN to gain support for observer status of the D-8. The 9th Summit will be held in Turkey in December 2014. Countries participating in the summit will plan to adopt a Post-2014 Action Plan, focused on implementation of projects and agreements.