Ten Years On, Bahrain Paralysed By Legacy Of Arab Spring By Sarah Stewart
02/12/21 AT 8:57 AM
With a popular, reform-minded crown prince newly installed as prime minister, and a decade passed since the Arab Spring, Bahrain should be well placed to cast off the painful legacy of its uprising.
The Pearl monument in downtown Manama the centre of the protests before they were crushed with the help of Saudi forces has long since been razed. But the nation s wounds remain raw and there is still no room for dissent.
The 2011 uprising, inspired by revolutions sweeping the region, ended in a bloody crackdown against the mainly Shiite demonstrators who had demanded an elected government, threatening the Sunni monarchy s grip on power.
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel s US correspondent based in New York
Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Joe Biden after their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (AP/Bernat Armangue)
Less than a week before the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree ordering parliamentary and presidential elections to be held later this year.
It was widely interpreted as a gesture to the new US administration, which would likely have an easier time engaging with a Palestinian leadership that has more legitimacy at home after a decade and a half without an election.
Saudi Woman Activist Freed After Nearly 3 Years In Jail, Family Says By Anuj Chopra
02/10/21 AT 8:04 PM
Saudi authorities on Wednesday released prominent women s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul after nearly three years in detention, her family said, as the kingdom comes under renewed US pressure over its human rights record.
Hathloul, 31, was arrested in May 2018 with about a dozen other women activists just weeks before the historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female drivers, a reform they had long campaigned for, triggering a torrent of international criticism.
The release of the activist, who is still under probation and is barred from leaving Saudi Arabia, sparked euphoria among her siblings who had launched a vigorous campaign overseas for her freedom in a major embarrassment for the kingdom s rulers.
Saudi officials are working to overhaul the country’s unpredictable judicial system by the end of this year, partly to encourage investors long deterred by the perceived arbitrariness of the kingdom’s courts.
How the ADL’s Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work
This report will appear in our Spring 2021 issue. Subscribe now to get a copy in your mailbox.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, a handful of senior Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members and executives in New York and Washington, DC joined a conference call to discuss a sensitive topic: the organization’s position on what would come to be known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. The bill would amend federal civil rights law to employ a controversial definition of antisemitism, which included “delegitimiz[ing]” Israel, blaming Israel for “all . . . political tensions,” and, in the case of international organizations, “focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations.” Those guilty of antisemitism under this definition could be investigated by the Department of Education for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.