BEIRUT – An undetonated cluster bomb originally fired by Israel went off on Wednesday, August 12, injuring 13-year-old Abbas Awali and his 10-year-old brother Hussein as they were gathering wood.

A Cluster bomb

The date marked the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions that formally outlined international law on the protection of civilians, detainees, the wounded, and humanitarian workers in conflicts.
Israel gave U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon maps in May showing locations of over one million cluster bombs it dropped three summers ago. About 40 percent of the bomblets dropped during Israel’’s air campaign did not detonate on impact. Around 300 Lebanese civilians have been killed or maimed by cluster bombs according to the U.N. Mine Action Coordination CentER, many of them kids who mistook them for toys.

Human rights group criticizes Saudi Arabia

NEW YORK – The group Human Rights Watch said that Saudi Arabia has detained thousands of people as part of its anti-terrorism drive despite not charging them with any crimes, according to a report released on Monday, August 10.

The New York-based group also said the country even ignored court rulings ordering prisoners’ releases. A similar report was also released by Amnesty International in July 2009. HRW’s report said that of the 9,000 people detained since 2003, 2,000 to 4,000 were still detained, and few have been charged or had access to lawyers even though Saudi laws limit detention without trial to six months.

Mass weddings popular in Yemen

SANA’A – A mass wedding of 2,000 couples took place in Sana’a, Yemen last week thanks to funds from the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz.

The marriages are held in large part to lighten the financial burdens on the country’s growing number of poor citizens. The cost of the weddings has also risen, especially in big cities where the less affluent try to imitate the wealthier citizens.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world as about 35 percent of its 23 million people are living in poverty and the unemployment rate is 35 percent.

It also ranks 153rd out of 177 countries on the U.N.’s Human Development Report in 2007.

Egypt bans genetically modified foods

CAIRO – Responding to what has become a hot issue in the agricultural world, Egypt plans to only import and export crops that are certified as not genetically modified.

GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are crops such as corn and soybeans that have been modified for resistance to pesticides, insects, and weed killers by combining DNA molecules from different sources to create novel genes in new organisms.

Food safety in Egypt has been hotly debated after Russian wheat imports were rejected over quality concerns. Genetically modified wheat is not available but Egypt plans to ban products such as corn, soy, and sugar beets. Many scientists have questioned the effects GMO’s may have on human health and ecosystems and have stressed a need for more studies before crops become widespread, because distinguishing GMO’s from non-GMO’s is difficult.

Electricity shortages problematic in Syria

DAMASCUS – More rolling blackouts are expected in the coming years in Syria due to a lack of power production capabilities in the country.

The shortage is expected to grow in the coming years as well. The problem is blamed on the subsidizing of electricity, meaning that more power production equals more money lost, and on foreign contracts delayed by bankruptcy and operational issues. Some also believe that U.S. sanctions began by George W. Bush and renewed by Barack Obama on the country for allegedly supporting terrorism are also to blame.

Population growth and increasing urbanization are also blamed for the problems. Residents in Damascus and surrounding areas have been told to get used to going without electricity for two hours in the morning and two hours at night.

Israel blocks visits to territories

By Will Youmans

Over the past few months, Israeli border officials policing entry into the West Bank have been using a new visa stamp on travel documents. The stamp is being issued at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. The stamp now reads “Palestinian Authority only.” The new 3-month tourism visa is causing alarm among Palestinian-Americans, many of whom travel there to see their families each summer.

This stamp appears to prevent travelers to the West Bank from heading to areas currently not under Palestinian Authority control. Currently, most of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is not under the PA’s domain. It will also ban travelers from entering Israel proper, further separating the occupied territory.

Amira Hass of the newspaper Haaretz put this move in the context of Israel efforts to put up “more obstacles for foreign nationals who enter the country if they have family, work, business or academic ties in the West Bank.” She wrote that the most affected individuals will be “citizens of countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel, mainly Western countries.”

Prior to this move, the entry visa into the West Bank would not ban travelers from also visiting Israeli cities such as Nazareth, Haifa or Tel Aviv.

The wording of the new stamp’s text is ambiguous in regards to the division of the West Bank into areas A, B, and C.

Toufic Haddad, a blogger, pointed out that “Israel exercises full control over 59 percent of the West Bank – areas known as Area C.

“It further exercises security control over an additional 24 percent of the West Bank (Area B) with the Palestinian Authority [PA] in control of civil affairs there.

“The only area which the PA nominally controls in full, and which a holder of this stamp is thus presumably eligible to travel to, is Area A. The latter comprises the remaining 17 percent of the West Bank.”

Area A itself is split into different islands of territories. It would impossible for anyone traveling under this restriction to move between different parts of Area A.

Israeli officials have been warning tourists flying through Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport that if they want to travel to the West Bank in the future, they should go via the Allenby Bridge. This combined with the new stamp represents a greater separation between Israel and the Occupied Territories, but one that disadvantages non-Israelis. Israelis who live in settlements and their Jewish relatives will be able to travel in through Israeli-only bypass roads and not face similar restrictions.

Haddad writes that Israel took the decision unilaterally and without the consent of the Palestinian Authority. Israel is demonstrating its control but is also recognizing the Palestinian Authority as “a Bantustan-like state, that is yet to be declared officially.”

Palestinians who have residency and citizenship elsewhere are afraid such a measure will preclude them from traveling within their homeland. “Some of us who have some family inside and some family outside of the Palestinian Authority area will not be able to visit both on the same trip,” said Mohammad Al-Saafin, a British-Palestinian. “That’s ridiculous,” he added.