| | CMEP Weekly Bulletin: US Condemns Israeli Minister Ben Gvir's 'Inflammatory' Palestinian Comments A look at the Israeli Eritrean uprising, US pressure on Saudi Arabia, 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: Mr Ben Gvir said he had deliberately been misquoted. (Reuters) | | | US condemns Israeli minister Ben Gvir's 'inflammatory' Palestinian comments BBC “The US has condemned Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir for claiming his rights in the occupied West Bank are more important than those of Palestinians. The State Department said it strongly condemned the ‘inflammatory comments’ and ‘all racist rhetoric’... ‘My right, my wife's, my children's, to roam the roads of Judea and Samaria are more important than the right of movement of the Arabs,’ said Mr Ben Gvir, using a biblical term for the West Bank.” | | | | | |  | Image: Tamir Pardo, former head of the Mossad intelligence agency, photographed in Herzliya, Israel, on 6 September. (Ariel Schalit/AP) | | | Israel imposing apartheid on Palestinians, says former Mossad chief The Guardian “A former head of the Mossad intelligence agency has said Israel is imposing a form of apartheid on the Palestinians, joining a growing number of prominent Israelis to compare the occupation of the West Bank to South Africa’s defunct system of racial oppression… ‘There is an apartheid state here,’ he said. ‘In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state.’” | | | | | |  | Image: Armed men stand, as people attend a funeral of a Palestinian who was killed in an Israeli raid, near Tubas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 1, 2023. (Reuters/Raneen Sawafta) | | | Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in West Bank Reuters “Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Friday (Sep 1) after clashes broke during a raid on a house of a suspected gunman, Palestinian officials said… The Israeli military said there was an exchange of fire with gunmen during the operation and its forces hit one of those who was firing. However, local witnesses said the dead man had not been involved in the clashes but was in a nearby field when he was hit by a bullet.” | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Armenia at War: the Survival of the Church in the Oldest Christian State Join us beginning September 20th for this mini-course about Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This three-week course will address several issues. The first week will focus on the sustainability of the church in the oldest Christian state, the history of the Armenian genocide, and the ongoing struggle to protect the Christian heritage and presence in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ancient Armenia. The second week will discuss the political dynamics in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The third session will be a prayer gathering, including Christian ministries in Armenia, and the opportunity to pray together for an end to the ongoing war and the sustainability of the church in the region. | | | | |  | Join Churches for Middle East Peace and Just Vision on September 21 for a virtual screening of the film Boycott, with a discussion to follow. Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. | | | | | | | | | | | | Support CMEP: CMEP supporters are key to the essential work we do to advocate for just U.S. policy in the Middle East - make an impact today with a one-time donation! | | | | | | | | | |  | Image: A police car damaged by rioting Eritrean asylum seekers at a protest against the regime in Tel Aviv, September 2, 2023 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90) | | | Over 150 hurt in hours-long Tel Aviv chaos between rival Eritrean migrant groups, cops
Times of Israel “Over 150 people were reported injured in Tel Aviv Saturday (Sep. 2), including some 15 seriously, as asylum seekers from Eritrea protesting against their government clashed with supporters of the regime, and as both groups clashed with police trying to impose order.” | | | | | |  | Image: Saudi soldiers stand guard behind a sandbag barricade at the border with Yemen in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on April 20, 2015. (Hasan Jamali/AP) | | | U.S. presses Saudi Arabia on reported migrant massacres Washington Post “The Biden administration is pressing Saudi Arabia to identify which elements of its security forces are alleged to have slaughtered migrants along the kingdom’s border with Yemen, a step that would mark an advance toward determining responsibility for the reported abuses and help the United States establish if it has provided weapons or training to those units.” | | | | | | US-backed fighters push ahead in their offensive in east Syria against tribespeople AP News “U.S.-backed fighters brought in reinforcements into eastern Syria and pushed ahead in their offensive Saturday (Sep 2) against local tribespeople, saying that hundreds of pro-government gunmen have joined the worst battles in the region in years. The clashes that broke out Monday (Aug 28) after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces detained a former ally who headed an Arab-led faction in the region have left more than 50 people dead and dozens wounded.” | | | | | |  | Image: Demonstrators rally to demand the reopening of a blockaded road linking the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia and to decry crisis conditions in the region, in Stepanakert on July 25, 2023. (Photo: Ani Balayan/AFP via Getty Images) | | | ‘Wake Up’: Congressman Warns of ‘Genocide,’ ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Against Christians in Armenia Daily Signal “Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on his colleagues Wednesday (Sep 6) to recognize that 120,000 Armenian Christians living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing extinction. ‘Delay is denial,’ Smith, who chaired the emergency congressional hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. ‘The Biden Administration must say immediately that this is genocide—and stop it.’” | | | | | | | | | | 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. | | | | Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
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