Dagelijks archief: 3 mei 2012

Compilation of the Quran

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How the Quran was recorded and preserved

The Quran

The words of the Quran were collected as they were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, committed to memory by the early Muslims, and recorded in writing by scribes.

Under Supervision of the Prophet Muhammad

As the Quran was being revealed, the Prophet Muhammad made special arrangements to ensure that it was written down. Although the Prophet Muhammad himself could neither read nor write, he dictated the verses orally and instructed scribes to mark down the revelation on whatever materials were available: tree branches, stones, leather, and bones. The scribes would then read their writing back to the Prophet, who would check it for mistakes. With each new verse that was revealed, the Prophet Muhammad also dictated its placement within the growing body of text.When the Prophet Muhammad died, the Quran has been fully written down. It was not in book form, however. It was recorded on different parchments and materials, held in the possession of the Companions of the Prophet.

Under Supervision of Caliph Abu Bakr

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the entire Quran continued to be remembered in the hearts of the early Muslims. Hundreds of the early Companions of the Prophet had memorized the entire revelation, and Muslims daily recited large portions of the text from memory. Many of the early Muslims also had personal written copies of the Quran recorded on various materials.Ten years after the Hijrah (632 C.E.), many of these scribes and early Muslim devotees were killed in the Battle of Yamama. While the community mourned the loss of their comrades, they also began to worry about the long-term preservation of the Holy Quran. Recognizing that the words of Allah needed to be collected in one place and preserved, the Caliph Abu Bakrordered all people who had written pages of the Quran to compile them in one place. The project was organized and supervised by one of the Prophet Muhammad’s key scribes, Zayd bin Thabit.

The process of compiling the Quran from these various written pages was done in four steps:

  1. Zayd bin Thabit verified each verse with his own memory.
  2. Umar ibn Al-Khattab verified each verse. Both men had memorized the entire Quran.
  3. Two reliable witnesses had to testify that the verses were written in the presence of the Prophet Muhammad.
  4. The verified written verses were collated with those from the collections of other Companions.

This method of cross-checking and verifying from more than one source was undertaken with the utmost care. The purpose was to prepare an organized document which the entire community could verify, endorse, and use as a resource when needed.This complete text of the Quran was kept in the possession of Abu Bakr, and then passed on to the next Caliph, Umar ibn Al-Khattab. After his death, they were given to his daughter Hafsah(who was also a widow of the Prophet Muhammad).

Under Supervision of Caliph Uthman bin Affan

As Islam began to spread throughout the Arabian peninsula, more and more people entered the fold of Islam from as far away as Persia and Byzantine. Many of these new Muslims were not native Arabic speakers, or they spoke a slightly different Arabic pronunciation from the tribes in Makkah and Madinah. People began to dispute about which pronunciations were most correct. Caliph Uthman bin Affan took charge of ensuring that the recitation of the Quran is of a standard pronunciation.The first step was to borrow the original, compiled copy of the Quran from Hafsah. A committee of early Muslim scribes was tasked with making transcripts of the original copy, and ensuring the sequence of the chapters (surahs). When these perfect copies had been completed, Uthman bin Affan ordered all remaining transcripts to be destroyed, so that all copies of the Quran were uniform in script.

All Qurans available in the world today are exactly identical to the Uthmani version, which was completed less than twenty years after the death of Prophet Muhammad.

Later, some minor improvements were made in the Arabic script (adding dots and diacritical marks), to make it easier for non-Arabs to read. However, the text of the Quran has remained the same.

(islam.about.com / 03.05.2012)

Tunisian aid convoy arrives in Gaza

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A Tunisian aid convoy arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night GAZA CITY
A Tunisian aid convoy arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night, organizers said.
The “Al-Bahsaer,” or good news, convoy was carrying three doctors, three law makers and a number of businessmen from the North African country.

It also brought medicine and medical equipment for Gaza hospitals, a statement said.

“We came here today to greet the Palestinian people, the widowed, the children, the prisoners, families of martyrs and to express our love and support for the Palestinian people,” organizer Muhammad Bin Ali said.

The convoy will stay for five days and participants will visit local NGOs to learn about the situation in the Gaza Strip. The group will also lay the foundation stone for a new hospital to be named after the Tunisian capital.

(www.maannews.net / 03.05.2012)

A salute to Palestinian journalists

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US envoy Daniel Rubinstein speaks at the US Consulate in Jerusalem’s annual  Independence Day reception
On World Press Freedom Day we celebrate the principles of press freedom and remember those who have fought to preserve them.

We also pay tribute to courageous and responsible journalists worldwide and the contributions they make each day to promote the development of civil societies and democracies across the globe.

In the past year, the world again witnessed the importance of a free press. Throughout the Middle East and North Africa, journalists, bloggers, and filmmakers chronicled the protests sweeping the region, while some citizens armed with nothing but cell phones risked their lives to upload the truth — by text, tweet, and pixel.

A free press is essential to an empowered citizenry, government accountability and responsible economic development. I think President Barack Obama said it best: “The more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes”.

The US is committed to preserving the Internet and other connective technologies as platforms where people can freely interact, collaborate, and debate issues that are important to them.

As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in December 2011, “When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled, and people constrained in their choices, the internet is diminished for all of us.”

In the United States we take great pride in press freedom, but our history is replete with struggles to advance these rights.

It was not long ago that the US government and The New York Times were embroiled in a court case over the release of the Vietnam-era Pentagon papers. And there are ongoing cases today pitting the public’s right to know against the need to protect national security information.

Even today, Americans continue to vigorously debate how to balance freedom of the press and freedom of expression with other societal obligations.

At the same time, we cannot lose sight of certain universal principles. As Albert Camus once said, “A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.”

It is for this reason that the US has been honest with its friends when we believe these principles are not being upheld. Last week, we made clear our concern regarding some recent actions by the Palestinian Authority.

We are similarly candid with the Israeli government regarding issues related to freedom of the press.

And each year, in our annual report on human rights, we document the many restrictions on journalists in Gaza at the hands of Hamas.

As Secretary Clinton said, journalists safeguard freedoms “by exposing abuses of power, challenging assumptions, and providing constructive outlets for new ideas and for dissent.”

To journalists, I salute you today on the important role you play, through your responsible and accurate reporting, in strengthening the institutions of a future Palestinian state.

We know you face many challenges in doing your jobs. But, I urge you not to give up hope and to continue your tireless efforts to promote press freedom in your communities, the Palestinian territories and around the world.

(www.maannews.net / 03.05.2012)

20 Palestinians hurt at prisoner demo near Ramallah

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Protesters march towards Ofer prison near Ramallah on May 2, after a protest in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners.
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Twenty Palestinians were injured Wednesday by rubber bullets during clashes with Israeli forces near the Ofer detention center, a Ma’an correspondent said.

A student demonstration set out from Birzeit University toward Ofer to express solidarity with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike for 16 days.

The students marched with Palestinian flags before arriving at the site, where Israeli forces were waiting. Forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets toward the demonstrators.

Journalists also came under fire during the demonstration, the correspondent said.

The students faced off against the forces with rocks and empty bottles, striking an Israeli soldier. The Ma’an correspondent described the clashes as unusually violent.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said two Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers were lightly injured during a “violent and illegal riot” in which 250 demonstrators took part.

Prisoners groups estimate 2,000 detainees are now refusing food in a bid to improve their conditions.

The Palestinian Authority prisoners minister, meanwhile, urged Pope Benedict to intervene on behalf of the detainees, after doctors warned that a hunger-striker faced risk of imminent death.

Issa Qaraqe said “Israel’s treatment (of Palestinian prisoners) violates all monotheistic and divine religions, depriving them of their fundamental rights which all international laws and human rights principles”.

Ten detainees who started refusing food in the last two months have been transferred to hospital in a serious health condition, Palestinian Prisoners Society head Qadura Fares said.

Two hunger-strikers — Bilal Diab, 27, from Jenin, and Thaer Halahla, 33, from Hebron — are in a precarious condition after 64 days without food, a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said.

It was only the second visit to the hunger-strikers since they began refusing food on Feb. 29, after a legal petition was filed to gain access to the detainees, the prisoners group Addameer said.

Israeli prison authorities also banned the hunger-strikers’ lawyer, Jamal Khatib, and relatives of Diab from visiting the jail on Monday, the group said.

“Bilal’s life-threatening condition includes sharp weight loss, concern for peripheral nerve damage, extremely low pulse (39 beats per minute) and blood pressure, severe dehydration, and possible internal bleeding,” the doctor told Addameer.

Both detainees are unable to stand and suffer an acute decrease in muscle tone, the doctor said. Their appeal to Israel’s High Court to end their detention without charge will be heard on Thursday, Khatib said.

Awaiting response

Representatives of the prisoners in jail said Israeli prison authorities pledged to respond soon to the hunger-strikers’ demands — including stopping administrative detention, solitary confinement, and a family visit ban for Gaza prisoners.

Fatah prisoners delegate Karim Younis said Israeli prisons chief Aharon Franco pledged a response to all demands in the coming days.

Jailed lawmaker Jamal al-Tirawi said that the prison’s intelligence director who met with prisoner representatives in Megiddo jail pledged to reply by May 12.

Meanwhile, 50 Palestinians in Gaza announced they were joining the hunger-strike to support the prisoners, Waed prisoners society said.

Spokesman Abdullah Qindeel said freed prisoners and various faction members joined the strike, wearing black and holding a vigil in a tent at the Square of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City.

(maannews.net / 03.05.2012)

Report: Abbas seeks Arafat documents in Tunisia

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TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that the archive of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be handed over to his care, Israeli media reported Thursday.

Israel’s Ynet news service reported that the documents, currently in Tunisia, contain information on planned attacks and funding sources of as well as negotiations with Israel.

According to the report, Abbas filed an official request with the Tunisian government to have the documents transferred over to him. Other reports say he wants an electronic copy.

Arafat had previously refused to transfer the documents due to security concerns, Ynet said.

(www.maannews.net / 03.05.2012)

Media en moslims: ‘vrouwenhaters’ in plaats van discriminatie

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Het is moeilijk om mainstreammedia wakker te schudden voor het gevaar van racisme en islamofobie. Vormen van uitsluiting in ‘moslimlanden’ ver weg lijken belangrijker dan discriminatie van moslims in eigen land. Waar blijft de stem van politieke vertegenwoordigers van etnisch-culturele minderheden?

Hebben we een Belgische Breivik nodig of een nieuwe Hans Van Themsche zodat media ernstiger worden over racisme en islamofobie? Er lijkt een consensus te zijn die deze sentimenten van haat minimaliseert, zolang er geen bloed wordt vergoten. In dit licht bekijk ik drie zaken: de berichtgeving over het rapport van Amnesty International, het ‘nieuws’ over de Marokkaanse premier Benkiran die vrouwen zou haten en de uitspraken van Leuvens burgemeester Louis Tobback over discriminatie in zijn stad.

Het is langer duidelijk dat de meeste media structurele vormen van discriminatie van etnisch-culturele minderheden behandelen als een detail, en dat politici hierover overwegend stil blijven. Misschien omdat de gevolgen niet altijd makkelijk te duiden zijn met voorbeelden.

Nochtans verzamelt het rapport van Amnesty International een reeks voorvallen, die de impact tonen van maatregelen die etnisch-culturele minderheden en in dit geval moslims, uitsluiten. Misschien is dan het probleem dat de media het niet de moeite waard vinden om die voorbeelden te benoemen, omdat het daarbij soms gaat om ‘legale’ discriminatie. Maar ook dan is er geen excuus, want de taak van de (kwaliteits)media is net om de maatschappij kritisch te bekijken en overheden en andere maatschappelijke actoren te controleren. Dat laatste betekent dus ook kritisch kijken naar wetten en maatregelen die mensenrechten schenden, in plaats van ze over te slaan omdat ze legaal zijn.

In de politiek is het niet veel beter. Louis Tobback gaf een voorbeeld bij uitstek van hoe men niet moet omgaan met klachten over discriminatie. De Leuvense burgemeester (van de SP.A, de partij die zichzelf ooit promootte als verdediger van gelijke kansen) verklaart nog voordat het onderzoek werd afgerond met betrekking tot Hakim Benichou van het Minderhedenforum, die een klacht indiende wegens discriminatie aan de ingang van een café, gewoon een manier zocht om zijn campagne te kunnen voeren.

En ook in dit geval van discriminatie is de vreemde houding van de media opvallend. Journalist Lieve Verstraete vond het in een uitzending van Terzake op 3 april vanzelfsprekend om te beginnen over jongeren die ‘stoelen en glazen pakken om daarmee te gooien’. Ik interpreteer dat als volgt: als een vreemde/bruine/zwarte Belg een fout maakt, is het niet zo ongewoon dat andere vreemde/bruine/zwarte Belgen daarvoor boeten. Het is deze racistische logica, die ook sommige werkgeversgebruiken in hun argumenten wanneer ze een sollicitant weigeren op basis van afkomst, huidskleur of religie.

Gevolg van de manier waarop een journalist als Verstraete omgaat met deze problematiek, is dat minder mensen de VRT vertrouwen. Toen ik gebeld werd door het Minderhedenforum omdat de VRT een moslima zocht die ‘even kon vertellen over haar ervaringen met discriminatie’, heb ik geweigerd. Niet omdat ik nooit bereid ben om erover te vertellen. Wel omdat de VRT het vaak heeft verknald met dit soort gevoelige onderwerpen. En anders dan bij een werkgever die macht heeft ten opzichte van een sollicitant, is het hier het medium of de journalist die de controle heeft. Bij de VRT is het te riskant: wat je ook zegt, over de montage heb je niets te zeggen.

Door het probleem te negeren of het te behandelen door de fout te leggen bij de gediscrimineerde groep, verlies je niet alleen het vertrouwen van die groep, maar blijft ook het lijden onder een stigma afwezig in het nieuws.

Dat stigma wordt versterkt bij het derde onderwerp dat op een merkwaardige manier in de media kwam. De Standaard schreef namelijk dat de Marokkaanse premier Benkiran de Belgische minister Turtelboom negeerde tijdens een ontmoeting ‘omdat ze een vrouw is’. Dit gaat niet over discriminatie van etnisch-culturele minderheden in België en toch draagt dit bij aan een negatieve kijk op onze ‘eigen’ moslims.

Ten eerste is het raar dat ‘omdat ze een vrouw is’ neergepend werd als een feit. BijRTLinfo, de oorspronkelijke bron van het verhaal, noemt de journalist deze reden enkel als zijn veronderstelling. Daarnaast vermeldde De Standaard niet dat Benkiran volgens RTLinfo zijn excuses achteraf aanbood voor een uitspraak die hij als grap bedoelde. Maar de lezers van De Standaard onthouden: In Marokko is er een ‘islampartij’ die vrouwen haat. Dus hoeven moslims hier niet te klagen, want in hun ‘eigen’ landen discrimineren zij ook. Een kinderachtige en foutieve redenering die geuit wordt in reacties onder artikels en op Facebook, maar helaas wel één die meer en meer de norm lijkt te worden, mede gevoed door foutieve artikels.

Voor Brussels parlementslid Luckas Vander Taelen van Groen was dit bericht de ideale kans om ons nog eens te vertellen dat het eigen is aan moslims om vrouwen te haten, en dit zowel in Rabat als in Brussel. Zijn artikel wordt al ingeleid met ‘Dat er in België ook vrouwen minister kunnen worden, zinde de Marokkaanse premier niet echt’, waaruit blijkt dat Vander Taelen en De Standaard niet weten dat van alle regeringspartijen enkel de partij van Benkiran een vrouwelijke minister heeft.

Ironisch dat Benkiran in de Marokkaanse media onlangs een hype was, omdat hij de vrouw van de Amerikaanse ambassadeur op de wangen kuste. Maar politici volgen media, en dan krijg je persberichten van de N-VA over ‘een provocatie aan het adres van de Belgische regering’.

Geruchten zijn hier belangrijker dan de feiten. Zeker als die geruchten het eigen gelijk bevestigen, terwijl de feiten over discriminatie van moslims aantonen dat België, en naar uitbreiding heel West-Europa, een crisis ondergaat die niet enkel draait rond een tekort in het overheidsbudget, maar ‘een desintegratie van humane waarden’ aantoont, zoals Amnesty International haar rapport inleidt.

Voor hun emancipatie hoeven etnisch-culturele minderheden er niet op te rekenen dat de meeste mainstreammedia tot inkeer komen. En de betere media met een kleiner bereik zoals DeWereldMorgen.be, MO* en StampMedia gaan, vrees ik, het grote verschil niet kunnen maken. Althans niet op korte termijn.

Een van de manieren om het gevaar van racisme en islamofobie toch op de politieke agenda te krijgen, is door de druk op te voeren op mensen die een migratieachtergrond hebben en die mede dankzij stemmen vanuit gemeenschappen van niet-Vlaamse origine plaatsnemen in de parlementen en gemeenteraden. Maar hier blijkt het schoentje te knellen, zoals blijkt uit de Twittertimeline van Yamila Idrissi, parlementslid voor SP.A. Daar zat de afgelopen dagen geen bericht met blijk van verontwaardiging over het rapport van Amnesty International. Wel een Twitterbericht over haar onvrede met de Marokkaanse premier die minister Turtelboom negeerde ‘omdat ze een vrouw is’. Met als hashtag ‘vrouwenrechten’.

Tenzij ik een reactie van haar heb ik gemist in de krant of op een online nieuwssite of in een openbare Facebooknotitie, uit Idrissi dus minder of geen verontwaardiging over de schending van vrouwenrechten van de Belgische moslima’s. En ook Nadia Sminate van de (N-VA) is bezig over Turtelboom en niet over het rapport van Amnesty International wanneer ze bezorgd is over ‘het signaal naar Marokkaanse vrouwen in België’.

Soms klaagden politici als Ikrame Kastit (Groen) en Norah Karrouche (SP.A) discriminatie publiekelijk aan. Maar nu blijven ‘allochtone’ politici opvallend stil. Een heel verschil met het medialawaai van de holebi’s in de politiek toen twee mannen in Leuven aangevallen werden omwille van hun seksuele geaardheid. Daarom dat veel moslims het gevoel krijgen dat diegenen die gezien worden als hun politieke vertegenwoordigers zich niet bekommeren om hun sociale en economische achtergestelde situatie. Zeker niet als Zuhal Demirci (N-VA) discriminatie net wil verergeren door te pleiten om de hoofddoek ook voor medewerkers van parlementsleden te verbieden.

Geen politicus, ook niet één met een moslimachtergrond, die van het rapport van Amnesty International gebruikmaakte om discriminatie van moslims, en specifiek gesluierde moslima’s, aan te klagen. Ook geen oproep om over partijgrenzen heen samen te werken in een poging om deze uitsluiting uit de weg te ruimen, zodat moslimvrouwen eindelijk de ruimte krijgen waarin ze zich kunnen concentreren op andere problemen.

We kunnen nog lang klagen over media die serieuze vormen van racisme en islamofobie en hun impact niet belangrijk vinden – maar vreemd genoeg wel de flauwe grappen van Ben Crabbé opvallend vonden. Het is misschien productiever als moslims en alle andere etnisch-culturele minderheden zich richten op het terrein van de (‘allochtone’) politici. Youssef Aouriaghel vraagt zich terecht af waarom racismebestrijding geen prioriteit is.

Over twee jaar zijn er Vlaamse en federale verkiezingen. In oktober 2012 zijn er gemeenteraadsverkiezingen. In verkiezingscampagnes worden beloftes gedaan. Denken die politici misschien dat niemand van hun potentiële kiezers nu al in de gaten houdt wat er met hun stem gebeurt?

Hasna Ankal is journaliste bij het jongerenpersagentschap StampMedia

(www.knack.be / 03.05.2012)

Israel gets fourth German submarine

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Thursday received its fourth German-made submarine capable of launching nuclear warheads, expanding a fleet that experts say could be used in an attack on Iran.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the submarine would increase Israel’s capabilities and strength “in the face of the growing regional challenges.”

The Dolphin-type military submarine is one of six Israel has ordered from Germany, which subsidizes the submarines. Each submarine costs half a billion dollars. The sub was presented to Israeli officials in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday and is expected to arrive in Israel in 2013, following final tests.

Israel is already in possession of three other German-made Dolphin-class submarines capable of carrying nuclear-tipped missiles. However, there is no evidence that Israel has armed them with such weapons and the country has never confirmed reports that it possesses a nuclear arsenal.

Israel believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons and has hinted that it is ready to strike Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from making an atomic bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran and the international community are to resume negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program later this month in Baghdad. Israel has welcomed the diplomatic effort but refuses to rule out the use of force, saying often that all options remain on the table. Military experts say the Dolphins could be deployed to the Gulf as part of an Israeli strike on Iran.

The sale of the submarines sparked criticism from German Nobel-winning author Guenter Grass, who in a recent poem blasted Israel’s alleged nuclear program. Alluding to the sale, Grass said the submarines were capable of firing “all-destroying” nuclear missiles into Iran.

Since Germany and Israel established diplomatic ties in 1965, Germany has become perhaps Israel’s strongest ally in Europe.

(www.timesunion.com / 03.05.2012)

Syria students killed in Aleppo campus attack

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Activists say four students killed and 200 arrested when security forces raid university after anti-government protests.
Syrian security forces and students armed with knives have attacked a protest march at Aleppo University, killing at least four people who were protesting against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, activists have said.

Several others were wounded during the pre-dawn raid early on Thursday, with activists saying that as many as 200 demonstrators were arrested.

Thaer al-Ahmed, a local activist, said that security forces and armed government supporters fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the students at Aleppo University after entering the students’ residences late on Wednesday night.

 

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said security forces swept through dormitories at the university after anti-government protests were held on campus.

“The government launched a huge arrest campaign on the university and four students were killed when students began to protest what was happening,” Amin said.

According to Amin, the violence in Aleppo was “very significant” because the city had so far not been marked by the mass anti-government protests that have erupted across the country over the past year.

“Aleppo is a city that has so far not joined the revolution,” our correspondent added.

XXX

Video posted on the Internet showed students chanting against four decades of Assad family rule but being drowned out by gunfire.

Activists also posted images of a dead student, his shirt drenched in blood, and what they said was a burning dormitory.

Raids and intermittent gunfire continued for about five hours through early Thursday, students said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based opposition group, reported that 28 students had been wounded in the clashes, three of them critically.

The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), activist umbrella group, also confirmed the raid.

“Regime forces demanded through loudspeakers that the dorms be evacuated, then began detaining the students,” the LCC said in a statement.

The Syrian government offered no comment on the clashes.

The deadly incident has prompted the University of Aleppo to announce on its website that it was suspending classes until after final exams on May 13.

Small protests were held in several other universities on Thursday, including in Deir Ezzor, Damascus and Deraa, activists said.

The exiled opposition Syrian National Council called for a nationwide campus strike in solidarity with the Aleppo students.

‘Calming effect’

Major General Robert Mood, the head of the UN monitoring mission in the country, meanwhile, said that the observers’ mission in the country was having “a calming effect”.

Violence was reported on Thursday, however, from the flashpoint town of Homs. The Reuters news agency reported that continuous gunfire could be heard in the Khalidiyeh neighbourhood, and that there was the occasional sound of a shell exploding.

Monitors have been permanently present in Homs for several days.

Explosions also hit the Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib, and security forces killed at least one woman there on Thursday, the SOHR said. Several people were also arrested in the town.

Clashes were also reported from the central city of Palmyra.

The SOHR said that ten people, including an army defector and a soldier, were killed in violence on Thursday.

Mood, speaking in Homs on Thursday, said that observer mission was growing at a steady pace, with a total of 50 monitors in the country which would be doubled within weeks.

“We have reinforced our permanent teams in Hama and Deraa with an extra two monitors in each city,” he said from the al-Safir hotel in Homs, where six monitors are based permanently.

Around 300 monitors will be deployed by the end of May.

Earlier on Thursday, during a visit to Hama, Mood said Syrian government forces had been working in line with a tentative peace plan.

“There have been steps taken by the government forces on the ground that indicate a better willingness to live up to the commitments made in the agreement,” he said, giving no details.

Residents of Hama said the situation was normal there in the daytime, but perilous at night.

“The situation is calm during the day but scary at night,” said Maher Gergous, a 53-year-old resident of the Bab al-Quba district in Hama. “Masked gunmen … roam the streets. There are kidnappings on public roads. You will not see anyone [on the streets] after six.”

Increasing militarisation

A ceasefire brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, has led to a reduction in daily violence, mostly in cities where the monitors have been deployed permanently.

Syria’s uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful demonstrations inspired by a wave of Arab revolts against long-ruling autocratic leaders, but it has become increasingly militarised in response to a violent government crackdown.

The UN says more than 9,000 people have died in the crackdown, while the Syrian government says it has lost at least 2,600 of its forces to “foreign-backed terrorists”.

The SOHR says more than 600 people, including government troops and members of the armed opposition, have died since the truce went into effect.

(www.aljazeera.com / 03.05.2012)

Palestinian Resistance Shifts to Hunger Strikes

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Khader Adnan, left, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, had been on hunger strike for 66 days before his release from an Israeli prison last month.

KHARAS, West Bank — The newest heroes of the Palestinian cause are not burly young men hurling stones or wielding automatic weapons. They are gaunt adults, wrists in chains, starving themselves inside Israeli prisons.

Each day since April 17, scores of Palestinian prisoners have joined ahunger strike that officials say now counts more than 1,500 participants. And on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of detainees said that if Israel did not yield to their demands for improved prison conditions, the remaining 3,200 would soon join in.

The two longest-striking prisoners, who have gone without food for 66 days, appeared in wheelchairs before Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday morning, pleading for their release from what is known here as administrative detention — incarceration without formal charges. One of them, Bilal Diab, 27, fainted during the hearing.

“I am a man who loves life, and I want to live in dignity,” the other man, Thaer Halahleh, 33, testified, according to an advocacy group that had a supporter in the courtroom. “No human can accept being in jail for one hour without any charge or reason.”

As the strike has swelled, the prisoners’ names and faces have been plastered on protest tents in villages throughout the West Bank. With the peace process stalled and internal Palestinian politics adrift, many analysts here see nonviolent resistance as a critical tactic for the Palestinian national movement, and the hunger strike as a potential catalyst to bring an Arab Spring-style uprising to the West Bank.

While the revolutions around the region have helped elevate support for the Palestinian cause, they have also undermined the leadership it has long relied on, and until now the streets here have largely remained quiet.

Prisoners play a crucial emotional and political role in Palestinian culture. Virtually every family has been touched by incarceration, experts say, and there is a visceral sense of allegiance to people viewed as suffering for the broader community’s rights. The prisoners are highly organized, and influential even on the outside.

On Thursday in Ramallah, 300 women marched to Al Manara Square, chanting, “Yes for hunger strike, no to submission” and “Down with the olive branch, long live the rifle.” By late afternoon, hundreds of protesters carrying Palestinian flags had gathered outside Ramle Prison, where many of the strikers are held, with scuffles breaking out between the police and demonstrators. Several people were arrested.

“There’s a real transformation in the way the prisoners are working — this time, people are willing to die,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a recent interview. “Look, the Palestinians may be quiet for a while, but they may erupt. There’s a sinking-in of the idea that nonviolent resistance gets results.”

This week, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, promised to take the prisoners’ case to the United Nations. Khader Habib, the leader of Islamic Jihad, warned that “the martyrdom of Bilal Diab or Thaer Halahleh or any other prisoner will put an end to the calm, and the occupation will be held responsible for the consequences.”

But so far, the solidarity demonstrations have been small. About 30 people gathered on Tuesday at the Beituniya checkpoint outside Ofer Prison, chanting for 15 minutes before dispersing into two hours of clashes with Israeli soldiers and border police officers that left several injured.

“It’s obvious that people don’t care,” said Rizek Fadayel, who stood in Clock Square in Ramallah earlier on Tuesday, holding a Palestinian flag and a framed photograph of his hunger-striking son, Rami, as a May Day band blared by.

“If your hand is in the fire, it’s not like your hand is in the water,” Mr. Fadayel, 65, said to explain the difference between those directly connected to the prisoners and those not. “I want to raise their voices and achieve their goals. If this situation will continue, we’ll be heading to a third intifada.”

Hunger striking by Palestinian prisoners is not a new tactic. According to the Palestine Solidarity Project, the tactic was first used in the Nablus prison in 1968 and has been repeated at least 15 times since, with three men dying over the years. Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said that in 2004 virtually all of the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons took part in a two-week strike, and that the most ever was 11,000 prisoners, in 1992.

But social media have spread the siren this time, first on Khader Adnan, a member of Islamic Jihad who was released last month from administrative detention after a 66-day fast that left him in grave condition. Attention then shifted to Hana Shalabi, a female prisoner deported to Gaza after a 43-day strike, and is now focused on Mr. Halahleh and Mr. Diab, who also are members of Islamic Jihad, a radical and militant Palestinian faction.

In court on Thursday, after Mr. Diab fainted and Mr. Halahleh testified, the judge took a break to review their secret files, then returned without issuing a ruling, promising one soon, according to people who were in the courtroom.

Mr. Fares of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said the goals of the current strike were to remove some of the restrictions that were imposed on prisoners before the release of a captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, including isolation, limits on family visits and denial of access to university classes. Sivan Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Prison Service, said that a team was working to address the requests and would meet again with the prisoners’ leaders within a few days.

For most of the days since Mr. Halahleh stopped eating on Feb. 29, his relatives, neighbors and friends have kept vigil at his home here in a remote part of the Hebron hills from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., many of them also going without food in sympathy.

The men sit on white plastic chairs outside, spilling from a makeshift structure of black burlap and green two-by-fours, topped with Islamic Jihad flags and a banner with Mr. Halahleh’s portrait and a picture of a shackled wrist. Inside the white stone house — where family members say the son was arrested at 1:30 a.m. on June 27, 2010, by soldiers who came with dogs — women crowd on cushions on the floor, their heads covered byhijabs and their bare feet by blankets, praying and talking and pleading with the television in the corner for any speck of news.

“I am sitting with the women, but I am not here — my heart and feeling is with him,” Thaer Halahleh’s mother, Fatmeh, 58, said in an interview Tuesday night. “Sixty-five days. After two hours we feel that we want to eat. What about 65 days? We calculate the seconds.

“I am very afraid, but at the same time I am very proud,” she added. “I wish every Palestinian woman had a Thaer.”

Shireen Halahleh, 29, a physics teacher from Jordan, said that she married Mr. Halahleh in July 2009, and that he soon stopped political activity. He was arrested two weeks before the birth of their 22-month-old daughter, Lamar, who has seen her father only six times and goes to bed each night with his picture.

“He is a strong man; if he took a decision, he will do it,” Ms. Halahleh said.

“He does not represent himself,” she added. “He represents all of the Palestinian people.”

International aid workers and Israeli peace advocates are among those who have made the pilgrimage to the tent in recent days, family members said. On Tuesday night, Mr. Halahleh’s father, Aziz Mahmoud Halahleh, fingered a strand of orange and yellow plastic beads as he shared the details he had learned earlier in Ramallah.

“This is the last weapon,” the elder Mr. Halahleh said of the strike. “If any of the prisoners will lose their life, Israel or the Palestinian Authority could not stop the Palestinian people.”

(www.nytimes.com / 03.05.2012)