Middle East

Palestinian hip-hop group DAM took the stage at the Ramallah Cultural Palace Saturday night in front of hundreds of fans. DAM, which means blood in both Hebrew and Arabic and is short for “Da Arabian MCs,”. The show meant to bring together artists from the West Bank in the spirit of a growing youth movement, said DAM member Suhell Nafar.

After six years of non-violent struggle against the Israeli separating wall by the people of Bil’in, the army has begun to dismantle a section of the West Bank Wall. In turn, the demonstrations continue to pressure for a new route which will not separate farmers from their land.

More details have emerged today about the Obama administration’s plan to wage a secret war inside Yemen. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as a major expansion of the United States counterterrorism efforts in Yemen, the CIA is preparing to launch a complete secret program to kill al-Qaeda militants in the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has scored a third consecutive election victory. In a victory speech, Erdogan pledged to work with opposition parties to rewrite Turkey’s constitution.
Soon after the Turkish election results were announced, a bomb exploded in southeast Turkey, injuring eleven people.

Thousands of people took part in a march in central Tel Aviv in support of a Palestinian state. The protest was held under the banner “Israel says yes to a Palestinian state.” World without wars and without violence marched with them in support of active nonviolence as the only methodology than can truly resolve conflicts.

In his latest article for “The New Yorker” magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says that the United States might attack Iran based on distorted estimates of Iran’s nuclear and military threat — just like it did some years ago when it started the war against Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq.

About 1 million people gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and across Egypt May 27 for a “Friday of Anger” that showed that revolution against dictator Mubarak and his regime has reached a new stage.
27M demonstrations were called by left organizations in defiance of military rulers, as well as Muslim Brotherhood and liberal groups that were part of the mass protests in February

Though hardly in a position to amend the situation, UN is profoundly concerned about grave human rights violations in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, as governments crack down on unrelenting protestors demanding political overhaul and participation. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights says that many opposition leaders and activists have been targeted across the country.

Here we publish an open letter to the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, that was distributed to some press agencies from the signer: Hajar Mahfoodh, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed Ali Almahfoodh, the chairman of Amal Islamic Society in Bahrein, who was recently detained and send to unknown destination.

Bahraini government must end its relentless crackdown on human rights, Amnesty International said after the country’s parliament voted to extend a repressive state of emergency amid continued arrests of dissidents.
“The Bahraini authorities must stop detaining anyone who opposes them and release protesters who have been locked up for peacefully demanding reform,” said Luther.