Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 38-41

Issues in the News

Compiled by Delinda C. Hanley

ARABIAN PENINSULA

Price of Oil Is Up:

The price of crude oil rose to a 19-month high of nearly $20 a barrel on July 6 as a result of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) adherence to promised production cuts. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other major producing countries are maintaining their output reductions to trim supply by more than 7 percent. Crude oil for August delivery rose to $19.78 a barrel, the highest price since November 1997.

Arabs Refuse to Sit With Israelis:

Arab delegates at June 28 United Nations meetings to discuss the Y2K computer problem refused to sit down with Israelis, according to Washington Jewish Week. Delegates from 170 countries met in two days of sessions to seek to avoid problems associated with the millennium computer bug.

Saudi Women Want Entertainment:

The Madinah Festival and similar annual celebrations in Abha and Jeddah attract thousands of Saudis to cultural and entertainment programs. But women are able to attend only a few special programs at these festivals. Jeddah’s Arab News and the Khaleej Times of Dubai recently suggested allocating special areas in the stadiums from which women can watch the festivities. Another possible solution is closed-circuit TVs like those used by Saudi universities to enable female university students to attend lectures. As it stands now, the newspapers report, many women sit in their cars watching fireworks above stadium walls and trying to hear the voices of singers inside.

Saudis Embrace Internet Technology:

Although Saudi Arabia entered Cyberspace a little later than many countries, there has been striking progress in a short time. Dr. Fahad Al-Hoymani, in charge of the World Wide Web at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, told the Saudi Gazette there will be more than 100,000 Internet users in Saudi Arabia by the year 2000. There are already 25 active Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the Kingdom.

Saudis Face Copycat Shootings:

A Saudi Arabian teenager opened fire on classmates and a teacher at a school near Riyadh May 19 and within the week, on May 24, a drunken student stormed into a high school in the central Saudi province of Al Zulfi. No one was killed in either incident. School shootings are very rare in Saudi Arabia, where the crime rate is low, and guns are illegal but not hard to obtain. The Khaleej Times suggests these acts are reminiscent of the April massacre at Columbine high school in Boulder, Colorado and copycat shootings across the U.S. and Canada.

Pope Plans Middle East Tour:

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz, deputy prime minister and commander of the National Guard, discussed Jerusalem with Pope John Paul II during a May 25 meeting. The crown prince urged the pope to use his influence to alleviate problems faced by Arab Christians and Muslims trying to live and worship in the holy city.

In July the pope announced his intention to make a pilgrimage to religious sites in the Middle East as part of the year 2000 celebrations to mark the start of Christianity’s third millennium. In Iraq he plans to visit the site of Ur, the ancient Sumerian city where the Bible says Abraham was born; in Egypt Mount Sinai, and in Israel/Palestine Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Responding to pressure to cancel the Iraq visit, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, “In Iraq the Holy Father will be following in the footsteps of Abraham, not the footsteps of Saddam Hussain.”

Bahrain, Egypt Want Arab Summit:

The emir of Bahrain, Shaikh Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a joint statement June 21 calling for an urgent Arab summit to discuss differences over policy toward Israel following the election of Prime Minister Ehud Barak. A comprehensive summit would set the stage for a new phase of Arab unity, the Arab News of Jeddah reports. Egypt and Bahrain also called for the implementation of U.N. resolutions which guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people, and stepping up the peace process in Lebanon and Syria, as well as ending the sanctions on Iraq.

Bahrain Frees Prisoners:

Bahrain’s government released 41 prisoners June 8 and 40 more on June 12, as part of a general amnesty for 361 prisoners announced on June 6, the final day of the three-month official mourning period for the late Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who ruled Bahrain for 38 years. His son and successor, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, ordered the amnesty as a goodwill gesture. Shi’i opposition leader Shaikh Abdul-Ameer al-Jamri, jailed since January 1996 on charges of spying and inciting unrest, has not been released, and it was unclear whether he would be among the inmates freed.

Kuwait Campaign Mixed Internet With Tradition:

Kuwait held parliamentary elections July 3 with some 288 candidates vying for 50 seats in the National Assembly. Jobs, housing and women’s rights were the key campaign issues. Candidates reached out to voters via the Internet by setting up Web sites and chat rooms to discuss their positions. Politicians also used the more traditional method of feeding roasted camel meat and rice or five-star hotel buffets to constituents in campaign tents. The total electorate in this small Gulf nation is only 113,000, since women, members of the military and police, and immigrant guest workers are not allowed to vote. However, the new parliament may approve a decree giving women the right to vote in the next election in 2003.

Kuwaiti Women to Fill Combat Posts:

Kuwaiti women will be allowed to fill combat positions in the military, the country’s defense minister said July 7. Kuwaiti women already serve in administrative positions in Kuwait’s 20,000-member armed forces. The nation has been rebuilding its military forces that were crushed in the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Oman Denies Role in Peace Talks:

Oman’s Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi has denied reports in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that he was involved in secret talks between Israel and Syria over the return of the Golan Heights, an Omani newspaper reported May 29. The Israeli paper claimed that Oman had produced a 15-point document for direct negotiations, but the Israelis refused to sign it.

Qatar Begins Work on Constitution:

Qatar’s emir, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, has set up a committee to draft the country’s first constitution. The 32-member committee, six of whom are from the ruling family, are to present their proposals within three years, the official news agency said. In November 1998 the emir said he was planning to create a constitution providing for an elected parliament. Qatar held its first municipal elections in March this year, with women allowed to participate.

Dubai To Ban Mobile Phones While Driving:

A quarter of all traffic accidents in Dubai are caused by people distracted by cell phones, the Arab News reports. To curb this trend, Dubai now issues on-the-spot fines of $54 for drivers caught using hand-held mobile phones while driving. Hands-free phones and headsets are not banned. About one in four people in the United Arab Emirates has a mobile phone.

FERTILE CRESCENT

Jordan Battles Economic Woes:

King Abdullah of Jordan has spent much of his time on the road winning the support of his people and world leaders since taking the reins of power on Feb. 7. He asked for and received debt rescheduling for his kingdom to improve Jordan’s ailing economy, with a jobless rate estimated at 25 percent. The worst drought in decades has hit vegetable, cereal, and fruit production, while an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease has hit livestock production. As a result of these serious difficulties, the new king has also sought and received emergency food aid pledges.

Pavarotti’s Voice Moves Beirut:

Famed Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s June 12 concert in Beirut, Lebanon’s Sports City stadium symbolized the country’s recovery from the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. Cheers and whistles greeted the Italian. Received with a warm welcome, Pavarotti thanked the sellout crowd of 20,000 people who, according to organizers, came from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.

Israeli Jets Target Lebanese Civilians:

Massive Israeli air raids hit key civilian infrastructures across Lebanon June 24, killing 9 Lebanese, including firefighters, wounding 60 people, destroying power plants and bridges, and plunging Beirut and other urban areas into darkness for a week. Nine years after its 15 years of civil war, Lebanon was finally rebuilding and reclaiming its tourism niche, even holding a “Miss Europe” competition at the Casino du Liban the day Israel attacked. In 1999 there have been 90 Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including 21 attacks on 11 villages in the five days between June 19 and 23 alone.

U.N. Demands Compensation for Israel’s Bombing of Qana:

The U.N. General Assembly approved a demand that Israel pay compensation of $1.2 million for the deliberate shelling of the U.N. compound at Qana in southern Lebanon that killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge there. The resolution passed by a vote of 74 to 42, with abstentions from all European countries.

Syria Eager To Make Peace:

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad is ready to resume negotiations with Israel suspended in 1996 now that a new Israeli leader is in place. Israel occupies two-thirds of Syria’s Golan region, nearly 800 square miles of agriculturally rich territory that Assad wants to reclaim before his rule ends. An Israeli-Syrian peace treaty is expected to produce an Israel-Lebanon treaty as well.

IRAN /IRAQ

Iranian Students Hold Pro-Democracy Protests:

Iranian pro-democracy activists have mobilized the most significant protest demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Students who had protested the banning of a liberal newspaper were attacked June 8 in their Tehran University dormitory. Thousands of students took to the streets of Tehran the next day and soon massive demonstrations spread to eight other cities. Riot police began cracking down July 12. Students say one student was killed, some are missing, 20 others were seriously injured, and a soldier and a cleric also were killed in the clashes. At least 1,400 people have been arrested. The protests highlighted the struggle between reformists led by President Mohammad Khatami in the clerical government, and the conservatives led by supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei, who control the police, judiciary and broadcast media.

Iraq Says U.N. Employee Planned Locust Plague:

Iraq accused a U.N. landmine removal specialist of burying several boxes of locust eggs near the town of Khanaqeen, 110 miles northeast of Baghdad, in order to unleash a plague of locusts to destroy Iraq’s already drought-stricken crops. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry ordered New Zealander Ian Broughton to leave Iraq July 9. Skeptical U.N. officials said they will carry out an investigation “out of respect for the Iraqi government.”

U.N. OKs Food Distribution in Iraq

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has approved Iraq’s six-month plan to distribute goods from the U.N. oil-for-food program, but stressed that food and medicine remain a priority for Baghdad. Iraq submitted the distribution proposal last week, suggesting that just over $3 billion from U.N.-supervised oil exports be used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies, including $300 million for oil industry spare parts. Baghdad is allowed to export $5.26 billion in oil every six months, but has only managed to export around $3 billion over the past year because of low oil prices and reduced production capability. Iraq is allowed to use funds from oil sales to rebuild its infrastructure, and to purchase oil production spare parts.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israel Releases Palestinian Held For Six Years on Secret Evidence:

Israel’s Supreme Court agreed on July 18 to the release of Palestinian detainee Osama Barham, 35, imprisoned for almost six years without trial. He was arrested in 1993 for membership in the militant Islamic Jihad group. The charges and evidence against him have been kept classified for security reasons, giving him no way to counter them. Israel argues that the use of administrative detention, which allows holding prisoners without trial for easily renewable six-month periods, is justified in cases where Israel’s security is threatened.

Palestinians Protest Water Shortage:

Hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators burned tires and chanted “We need water” during a protest July 17 over the water shortage in the West Bank. Protesters who blocked the road leading to the Deheishe refugee camp with flaming tires said they blamed Israel, and not the Palestinian Authority that controls their area, for the acute water shortage. Mohammed Jamal, 29, who has had no water in his home for two months and has been buying water on the black market, said, “There is no peace without water. This will be the next war for us.” Israel controls 80 percent of the aquifers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say Israel provides each Palestinian with 2.6 gallons of water a day, one-fifth the established international minimum, and less than a third of the amount allocated to the average Israeli. Nearly 140 Palestinian communities have no running water.

Second Coming Web Site Is Ready:

An evangelical Christian group is placing a camera at the eastern gate of Jerusalem’s Old City to photograph the Christian Messiah’s entrance into the city at the beginning of the next millennium. The group hopes the “Messiah-cam,” established by Daystar International Ministry, will broadcast Jesus’ Second Coming on its Web site, Washington Jewish Week reports.

Israeli Court Convicts McDonald’s:

An Israeli court in Haifa has convicted McDonald’s and Omri Padan, who owns more than 35 McDonald’s franchises in Israel, of employing teenagers on the Jewish Sabbath, company officials said July 7. Jewish law forbids work, the operation of electrical appliances and the exchange of money on the Sabbath, but the state permits some businesses to employ Jewish adults on that day under certain circumstances. Padan had argued that the “racist and anachronistic” law should be changed. “We hope that preventing religious coercion will be one of the priorities of the new government,” Padan said in a statement.

As a matter of principle, McDonald’s will not open a franchise in the occupied territories or in any Israeli settlements. On the other hand, Burger King has recently opened a franchise in the Jewish-only Ma’ale Adumim settlement.

Israel’s “Big Time” Teen Violence:

In Israel two teenagers were murdered by their peers in separate incidents in Upper Nazareth and Jerusalem the same week in June. Troubled by gang violence and a recent World Health Organization study that revealed that Israeli youths are among the most violent in the world, Israel’s police commissioner told the Jewish Week of New York teen violence in Israel was reaching crisis proportions. Israeli psychologist and head of the Ministry of Education’s school-counseling services Norman Enteen said, “Israel has one of the highest percentages of kids—49 percent—who said they feel angry and nervous when they go to school.” He attributed the problem partly to Israel’s long-standing “siege mentality.” Art therapist Tracy Amar explained that school violence exists in Israel “big-time. It’s much worse than in the States,” she said. “Israel is an extremely aggressive society,” with children exposed to violent abuse at home which they then mirror in school.

House Demolitions Alarm Israelis:

Palestinian officials estimate about 6,000 structures lack permits in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, which has a population of 193,000 Palestinians. Danny Seidemann of the Israeli watchdog group Ir Shalem, which advocates equitable development for Arabs and Jews in the city, said 66 house demolition orders were issued in East Jerusalem since the start of 1999, compared to 58 in 1998. While Palestinians can’t get a building permit, the city has given the go-ahead for the construction of 132 apartments for Jews in the heart of Ras al-Amoud, a neighborhood of 11,000 Palestinians. The four-acre plot for the Jewish homes is owned by Florida millionaire Irving Moskowitz.

Israel Cancels Residency Permits:

From January to May, Israel’s Interior Ministry deprived 117 Palestinians of Jerusalem residency, canceling their right to enter the country, attend Israeli schools, or receive health or social services, Israel’s Ha’aretz reported June 16. According to ministry statistics 788 residence cards were revoked in 1998, 606 in 1997, and 689 in 1996, measures which led to the “silent deportation” of more than 8,000 people. Around 200,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and more than 170,000 Jewish Israelis have settled into government-backed housing projects since 1967. President Ezer Weizman recently called on all Diaspora Jews to move to Israel, comparing present times to 1948 and saying that, had more Jews come to fight for the state then, its borders now would be different.

Israel Rebuffs Argentine Jewry:

The Jewish community in Argentina urgently appealed to Israel’s Jewish Agency for Israel (which receives $180 million a year in donations from American Jewish charities) for financial help when two banks that had sustained community activities collapsed in October 1998. After the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and the 1994 community center bombing, the banking crisis was the last straw for the 208,000-member Argentine Jewish community. New York’s weekly Forward recently learned that in addition to denying aid, “the Israelis responded in writing by disparaging—some might say insulting—the leadership of the Argentine community.”

El Al Faces Discrimination Charges:

Two lawsuits filed in July charge that Israel’s El Al Airline discriminates against one in six Israelis, and this impinges on their basic right to travel without hindrance. Every time an Israeli Arab boards an El Al plane, he or she is singled out, and often subjected to full body searches and other intrusive security checks. “Security” is given as an excuse that has institutionalized racist treatment and has little to do with real threats. Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court agreed, ruling that “The vacuous phrase ‘security considerations’ is not a magic word that shuts every mouth.” It awarded an Arab couple $4,000 for mental anguish and damages after they were forced by El Al to abandon their baggage at Nice, France when El Al staff told the couple that Nice lacked the necessary security check to clear their luggage. The court said the luggage was left behind because the two are Arab.

In another suit, Jabour Jabour is suing El Al, which has 3,000 employees, not one of whom is Arab, for rejecting his three applications to become a flight attendant. “The security claim is part of the discrimination, the racism and suspicion and fear they have of Arabs,” Jabour says. His lawyer vowed, “We will fight this so that this state will stop being the state of the Jews only.”

Housing Figures for Jews and Palestinians:

In his last days in office Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu authorized the construction of 1,800 homes for Jews in the West Bank near Neve Yaacov north of Jerusalem, and 1,000 new units for Jews were approved in Ariel, in the northern West Bank near Tel Aviv. Israel’s Peace Now group announced there were 6,608 housing units under construction in the West Bank and Gaza in 1998, jumping 105 percent, while at the same time 3,714 housing units lie empty in the occupied territories. According to Separate and Unequal published in May 1999, Israel has used a “ruthless” quota system to prevent Arabs from building legally in East Jerusalem with the purpose of limiting the Arab population to 28.8 percent, which was the percentage of Arab residents in June 1967.

NORTH AFRICA

Algerian Rebels Given Amnesty:

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who came to power in April’s one-candidate election, promised amnesty to the Islamic Salvation Army, one of several rebel groups, when its leader, Madani Mezrag, renounced its armed struggle in a statement read on state-run television June 6. The group’s move is seen as an effort to distance itself from the Armed Islamic Group, which is blamed for the killing of thousands of Algerian civilians. According to Bouteflika, in the seven-year conflict between Muslim rebels and the government 100,000 people have been killed and an additional one million have lost homes or family members or been wounded.

Egyptian Temple Moving to New Site:

Egypt will move a 2,600-year-old Pharaonic temple to a new location to protect it from the ravages of rising ground water, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced. The temple of Hibis in the al-Khargah oasis 310 miles south of Cairo will be moved to a new site 500 yards away in a $5.8 million, two-and-a-half-year project. It will be the largest project of its kind in Egypt since the temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel was dismantled and re-erected on higher ground in 1968 to protect it from flooding by the creation of Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High Dam on the Nile.

Donkey Helps Find Mummies:

When a donkey slipped into a hole in the roof of a tomb complex near Bahariya Oasis, 400 kms southwest of Cairo in the Western Desert, it prompted the discovery of 105 Greco-Roman era mummies, Egypt’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reported June 12. A treasure trove of fourth century BC funerary accessories also was found in an area where up to 10,000 more mummies could be buried.

Libyan Leader Travels Abroad:

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, on his first trip abroad since U.N. sanctions against Libya were lifted, visited Zambia to discuss a peace deal between rebel forces backed by Uganda and Rwanda and Congo President Laurent Kabila’s forces backed by Angola and Namibia. Next Qaddafi visited South Africa’s retiring President Nelson Mandela, who was instrumental in convincing the leader to surrender the two Libyans suspected in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of a Pan Am jet for a trial scheduled to start on Feb. 4, 2000 in the Netherlands. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk said in order for Libya to remove all sanctions it must renounce support for all forms of terrorism, cooperate with the investigation and the trial, and pay compensation to the families of the victims of the bombing.

Tunisia Gets $215 Million in Loans:

The African Development Bank has given Tunisia three loans totaling $215 million to finance rural electrification as well as road and rail transport. These agreements, signed June 10, are the latest with the bank that has helped Tunisia implement about 50 projects, mainly in the area of infrastructure development, since the ADB was set up in the early 1960s. The loan of $63 million will help finance electrification of 1,000 rural communities and supply energy to 45,000 households and 320 pumping stations for irrigation.

CENTRAL ASIA

Ocalan Sentenced to Death:

Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was found guilty of treason, separatism and murder for his leadership of a 14-year armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey that cost the lives of 29,000 people. Despite Ocalan’s call for his Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to abandon its struggle against Turkey, he was sentenced to death on June 29. A court of appeals, the parliament and the president all must also approve the death penalty.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

NATO Peacekeepers at a Glance:

The Balkans peacekeeping mission includes 50,000 soldiers from the following countries: Britain: 12,000 troops, including the force commander, Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson. They are deployed in Pristina, and the central Drenica region, a mountainous area that was a stronghold of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. Norwegians will also be in this zone; United States: 7,000 Marines and U.S. Army troops are in southeastern Kosovo near the Macedonian border, with headquarters in Gnjilane, in an area that was relatively quiet for most of the Kosovo conflict; France: 7,000 troops are deployed in the strategic northern sector, an area of recent fighting between Serb and KLA forces, with headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica. They are assisted by 1,200 United Arab Emirates soldiers; Italy: 5,000 troops in western Kosovo with headquarters in Pec, the scene of some of the most horrendous ethnic purges of the Kosovo conflict; Germany: 8,500 troops in the southwestern city of Prizren; Russia is prepared to send up to 10,000 troops to be divided among the existing zones.

Israeli Volunteers Fought Alongside Serbs:

About 40 Israeli men fought alongside Serb forces against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported June 10. The Israeli volunteers included some veterans of fighting on the Soviet side in Afghanistan and the Russian side in Chechnya. One man identified as Valery expressed sympathy for “the Christian Slavs’ fight against the Muslims who are trying to take over Europe.”

Superman Battling Kosovo Mines:

Comic book hero Superman warns Kosovar refugees about the dangers of land mines, unexploded ordnance, and booby traps in 500,000 “Deadly Legacy” comic books recently distributed to Albanians returning to their homes. With 20 to 30 reports per day from people in western Kosovo who have spotted land mines, and an hour required to clear 20 meters of road, mine-clearing resources are heavily stretched.

THE SUBCONTINENT AND FAR EAST

U.S. Orders Afghanistan Sanctions:

By executive order, the U.S. imposed sanctions against the Taliban religious militia that rules Afghanistan as a result of its reputed protection of alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden. President Clinton’s order freezes all Taliban assets in the U.S. and bars the import of Afghanistani products to the U.S. and the export of U.S. goods and services (with an exception for food and other humanitarian supplies) to the Taliban. A State Department official said the sanctions are “not aimed at the people of Afghanistan.”

Brunei Welcomes Tourists:

The year 2001 has been designated “Visit Brunei Year,” Royal Brunei Airlines executive director Sheikh Jamaluddin told Khaleej Times reporters. Jamaluddin, who also is the former director of industrial promotion and tourism for the kingdom of Brunei Darussalam, said that Brunei could learn from Dubai’s tourism successes. Brunei hosts the Southeast Asian Games in August and the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) next year. A 72-hour visa will be available to foreign tourists at the airport provided they hold confirmed hotel bookings.

Kashmir Tea Party Turns Deadly:

Indian troops in the mountains of northern Kashmir were lured into an ambush July 2, the Arab News reports, when they were invited for tea and snacks in a wireless radio message they thought was from another Indian regiment. The invitation turned out to be from Kashmiri independence fighters, who shot six soldiers at point-blank range and injured several others.

India Receives Loans and Buys Arms:

The World Bank announced two loans June 16 totaling $326 million to help India fight the AIDs epidemic and improve water management in the Shivalik region of the Himalayan foothills. India simultaneously put the finishing touches on a $12 million deal to purchase 30,000 rounds of 160 mm mortar ammunition from Israel to replenish stocks used in its conflict with Pakistan in Kashmir.

Pakistan Unearths ‘Oldest’ Writings:

Archeologists discovered inscriptions on pottery in Harappa, southern Pakistan, home of the Indus Valley civilization which flourished 5,000 years ago, that they say may pre-date all known writing. The plantlike, trident-shaped inscriptions have shapes and symbols similar to those of the Indus script.