CMEP Weekly Bulletin: Al Jazeera Reporter's Family Meets Blinken to Demand Justice in Her Killing
A look at new neighborhoods, ongoing calls for investigations, and more news in this week’s bulletin.
CMEP’s Bulletin is a weekly round-up of news from the Middle East and represents an array of perspectives on the issues we cover. CMEP does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed in the articles, and they do not speak on CMEP’s behalf.
Image: A picture of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israeli raid in Jenin, is displayed at the Al-Jazeera headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, May 11, 2022. (Reuters/Imad Creidi/File Photo)
Al Jazeera reporter's family meets Blinken to demand justice in her killing
Reuters
“The family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday (July 26) to demand justice for the killing of the Al Jazeera reporter during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a regular news briefing that Blinken was meeting the family at the department and would reiterate the need for accountability.”
Image: Workers take a break before European Union officials visit the construction site for the Givat Hamatos neighborhood in East Jerusalem, November 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Jerusalem panel advances new Jewish neighborhood that would bisect Palestinian areas
Times of Israel
“A Jerusalem municipal body on Monday (July 25) advanced a controversial plan for a new Jewish neighborhood that would break up contiguity between Palestinian areas of the city, which advocates of a two-state solution argue is critical for the framework to be viable. The plan to build 1,4000 housing units in an area known as the Lower Aqueduct, northwest of Bethlehem, was advanced by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee through an earlier planning stage known as deposit.”
Image: Palestinian lawyers demonstrate in front of the Prime Minister's Office in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, on July 25, 2022, to reportedly protest the Palestinian President establishing laws by decree which they consider a violation of the independence of the judiciary. (Abbas Momani/AFP)
Hundreds of Palestinian lawyers hold rare protest against Abbas’s ‘rule by decree’ Times of Israel
“Hundreds of Palestinian lawyers held a rare street protest Monday (July 25) against what they described as the Palestinian Authority’s ‘rule by decree,’ condemning PA President Mahmoud Abbas for governing without a parliament. The Palestinian Legislative Council — created under the Oslo Peace Accords with Israel — has been inactive since 2007, meaning Abbas has led without a functioning parliament for nearly all of his tenure as president. But a new leadership at the Palestinian Bar Association has sought to pressure the PA.”
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Accountability Matters: Advocate for Palestinian Children & Families: A virtual Advocacy Summit this August. Join CMEP for a series of virtual events this August including a webinar, advocacy training, and virtual meetings with your elected officials. Accountability Matters will focus on the importance of Human Rights, specifically via the support of HR 2590: Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act introduced by Congresswoman Betty McCollum.
Action Alert: Contact Your Senators Now: Ask Them to Cosponsor the Yemen War Powers Resolution The seven-year Saudi-led war and blockade in Yemen have resulted in what the United Nations has described as one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. Congress must hold the Biden Administration and Saudi Arabia accountable and bring an immediate end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
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Image: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Joe Biden give a statement, in Bethlehem in the West Bank July 15, 2022. (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)
Abbas describes Biden visit as ‘big zero’ for Palestinians - report Jerusalem Post
“US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to the region was a ‘big zero’ and did not achieve anything for the Palestinians, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have told his confidants in Ramallah. Palestinian sources quoted Abbas as saying that he was ‘surprised’ that he was unable to obtain from Biden a single sentence that could be presented as progress in the political process with Israel, according to the Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar. After Abbas and Biden met in Bethlehem on July 15, Biden assured the PA president that his commitment to the two-state solution had not changed.”
Image: Samira Zoughaib Akiki, Chair of Al Atayeb Cooperative, holding a basket of fresh apple marmalade. (UNDP Lebanon)
Women working together, to survive Lebanon’s economic crisis UN News
“Al Atayeb (The Delicacies), a Lebanese women-led cooperative based in Kfardebian town, north of Beirut, specializes in producing Lebanese local and traditional food, such as citrus marmalade, fruit jam, fruit paste, and the famous Lebanese Makdous (Pickled eggplants in oil). The 13 women who make up the cooperative each receive a share of the profits, as well as a salary, earned from their work preparing and processing the food. The local farmers who sell their crops also benefit.”
Image: A mother holds her injured daughter at a hospital on July 24 after the shelling of a residential neighborhood in Yemen's third-largest city of Taiz. The shelling, which killed a boy, occurred as U.N. officials are trying to extend a four-month truce in Yemen. (Ahmad Al-Basha/AFP/Getty Images)
Biden hailed Yemen truce in Saudi visit, but war is far from over Washington Post
“President Biden hailed his visit to Saudi Arabia last week, pushing back against criticism of his smiling sit-downs with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other autocrats while citing progress toward ending the Persian Gulf kingdom’s war in Yemen. The president described success in securing a Saudi commitment to extending a nearly four-month U.N.-mediated truce — a deal that has yielded the longest pause in fighting since a Saudi-led military coalition entered the conflict in 2015 — as one example of what he called ‘active, principled American leadership’ in the Middle East.”
CMEP's Bulletin is a weekly round-up of news from the Middle East and represents an array of perspectives on the issues we cover. CMEP does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed in the articles, and they do not speak on CMEP's behalf.
