AMMAN: It is a rare thing — a success story in Jerusalem — and it has been achieved through an unusual combination of factors, both political and economic, and the intervention of a Christian leader.
The success story being celebrated is the announcement that Israel is to backtrack on plans for a draft law and suspend attempts to seize bank accounts for churches. But what led to this extraordinary event?
On Tuesday — following three days of protest — Israel backtracked from tax plans and draft property legislation.
The city’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial, closed for three days in protest, reopened the following day.
Church leaders had gambled and taken the rare decision to close the ancient holy site, a favorite among tourists and pilgrims as a protest.
With the busy Easter holiday approaching, extra pressure was placed on Israel to re-evaluate and suspend the moves.
After a statement on Tuesday from the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy agreed that the church would reopen on Wednesday morning.
Hanan Ashrawi, PLO executive committee member, believes that the battle between the Churches and Israel was forced on the churches.
“Both US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have directly contributed to such an assault on the heart of Christianity in the place where it was born.
“Their illegal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US Embassy to the occupied city have rendered them complicit in such an outrageous move.”
The Church, wanting to fight to show its credentials as an authentic part of the Palestinian social fiber, had little choice but to take a strong stand against Israel’s actions.
The rare decision by the leaders of three churches — Orthodox, Catholic and Armenians — to shut the church was only taken in despair at the chances of reaching an agreement with the Israelis.
The bank seizure plan aimed to extract about $150 million (SR562.5 million) of what the Jerusalem municipality considers back taxes.
The Church cited an agreement signed in the nineteenth century, which has been honored by Turks, Britain and the Jordanians, which stipulates how church properties and endowments should be dealt with by ruling powers.
Botrus Mansour, general director of the Baptist School in Nazareth, told Arab News that the Church leaders took a risk in their decision to shut the church doors.
Last year 33,000 students of Christian schools went on strike because of lack of public funds — even so that did not change anything.
But not so this time around — images of the closed Church of Holy Sepulchre that were beamed around the world proved too powerful.
The closure of one of the most important churches in Christianity also meant that the three million tourists who visit Israel and Jerusalem each year would not get the chance to see inside the church.
A joint decision by Church leaders is rare. Differences among Christians in Jerusalem date back centuries. When the Muslim Caliph Omar came to the city he gave the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the respected Nusseibeh Muslim family.
But perhaps the most important reason why the church leaders succeeded in securing an agreement was due to problems faced by Theophilus III, the head of the Orthodox Church.
Khaled Abu Arafeh, a former Palestinian minister of Jerusalem affairs during the short-lived Ismael Haniyeh government in 2007, told Arab News that the Orthodox patriarch wanted to improve his image among Palestinians. Palestinian Christians had called for his resignation over property deals made with Israelis.
“Theophilus III wanted to clean up his record with Palestinians, and so he incited the leaders of the other Churches to make the drastic move.
“Palestinian Christians accuse the Greek Orthodox church leader of selling church property to the Israelis.
“Mansour agrees with Abu Arafeh that the internal problems of the Orthodox Church played a big role in his lead role in taking the drastic decision to close Christianity’s most holy places.”
But Mansour believes that in the end the deciding factor was the sight of people praying outside the church.
“When two billion Christians around the world saw the image caused by Israel’s decision, the Netanyahu government had little recourse but to back away,” he told Arab News.
A Jerusalem success story: How Christian churches succeeded where politician failed
A Jerusalem success story: How Christian churches succeeded where politician failed
‘If Lebanon doesn’t hurry up and get in line, everyone around them will,’ Tom Barrack tells Arab News
- US ambassador to Turkiye, special envoy for Syria said central to Lebanon's recovery would be the disarming Hezbollah’s military wing
NEW YORK: US special envoy Tom Barrack has warned that Lebanon risks falling further behind in regional realignments if it fails to act swiftly on political and security reforms, particularly regarding Hezbollah.
Speaking to Arab News, Barrack said: “If Lebanon doesn’t hurry up and get in line, everyone around them will.”
He said central to Lebanon's recovery would be the disarming Hezbollah’s military wing, which Washington classifies as a terrorist organization.
He also emphasized growing American impatience with the country’s political inertia and its inability to address mounting economic and institutional collapse.
While Barrack acknowledged the group’s dual role in Lebanese politics, he stressed that disarmament must be a Lebanese-led effort involving both the government and Hezbollah’s political leadership.
“The process has to start with the Council of Ministers,” he said. “Hezbollah the political party has to agree to that.”
Barrack revealed that the US has facilitated indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, despite legal barriers, and said empowering the Lebanese Armed Forces would be key to a peaceful disarmament process, adding: “We’re not going to do it in a civil war.”
While praising Beirut’s recent response to a disarmament proposal as “spectacular,” Barrack criticized Lebanon’s political culture as one of “deny, detour and deflect,” warning that without reform, the system risks extinction.
“They’re satisfied with the status quo—until they’re not,” he said.
Barrack expressed cautious optimism about getting Hezbollah to disarm, saying: “I think this government is ready. We’re saying, you want our help? Here it is. We’re not going to dictate to you. If you don’t want it—no problem, we’ll go home.”
A friendly dance competition carries on an ancient Sahara festival tradition
- Sebeiba is a core tradition of the Tuareg people, native to the Sahara and parts of West Africa
- The festival is a proud tradition of the Tuareg in Djanet. Some call it the Sebeiba celebration, or the ‘war dance without bloodshed’ or ‘the dance of peace’
DJANET, Algeria: In one hand, the dancers hold swords symbolizing battle. In the other, a piece of cloth symbolizing peace. They dance a shuffling “step-step” to the beat of drums and chanting from the women encircling them, all adorned in their finest traditional garments and jewelry.
They’re performing the rituals of the 3,000-year-old annual Sebeiba festival of Djanet, a southeastern Algerian oasis town deep in the Sahara, just over 200 km from the Libyan border.
Sebeiba is a core tradition of the Tuareg people, native to the Sahara and parts of West Africa. The Tuareg are Muslim, and their native language is Tamasheq, though many speak some combination of French, Modern Standard Arabic, Algerian Arabic (Darija) and English.
The festival lasts 10 days, and ends with a daylong dance competition between two neighborhoods in Djanet — Zelouaz, or Tsagit, and El Mihan, or Taghorfit. The winner is decided by judges from a third neighborhood, Adjahil, by selecting the group with the most beautiful costumes, dances, jewelry, poetry and songs.
The Tuaregs in Djanet say there are two legends explaining the significance of Sebeiba, though oral traditions vary. The first says the festival was put on to celebrate peace and joy after Moses defeated the Pharaoh in the Exodus story.
“In commemoration of this great historical event, when God saved Moses and his people from the tyranny of the oppressive Pharaoh, the people of Djanet came out and celebrated through dance,” said Ahmed Benhaoued, a Tuareg guide at his family’s tourism agency, Admer Voyages. He has lived in Djanet all his life.
The second legend says the festival commemorates the resolution of a historic rivalry between Zelouaz and El-Mihan.
“The festival is a proud tradition of the Tuareg in Djanet,” Benhaoued said. “Some call it ‘the Sebeiba celebration,’ or ‘the war dance without bloodshed’ or ‘the dance of peace.’”
Today, Sebeiba is also a point of cultural pride. Recognized by UNESCO since 2014 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Sebeiba coincides with Ashoura, a day marking the 10th day of Muharram, or the first month of the Islamic year. Some in Djanet fast for up to three days before Sebeiba.
This year, Ashoura and Sebeiba fell on July 6, when temperatures in Djanet reached about 38 C. Still, more than 1,000 people gathered to watch Sebeiba at a sandy square marking the center point between the two neighborhoods, where the festival is held each year.
Each group starts at one end of the square — Zelouaz to the north and El-Mihan to the south.
The dancers are young men from the neighborhoods dressed in dark robes accented by bright yellow, red and blue accessories and tall, maroon hats called Tkoumbout adorned with silver jewelry.
The men’s dances and women’s chants have been passed down through generations. Children participate in the festivities by mimicking the older performers. Boys brandish miniature swords and scarves in their small hands and girls stand with the female drummers.
This year, El-Mihan won the dance competition. But Cheikh Hassani, director of Indigenous Institutional Dance of Sebeiba, emphasized that despite the naming of a winner, the festival remains a friendly celebration — meant above all to honor their ancestors in a spirit of unity.
“Sebeiba is not just a dance,” Hassani said. “People used to think you just come, you dance — no, it represents so much more. For the people of Djanet, it’s a sort of sacred day.”
While the most widely known part of Sebeiba is the dance competition on the last day, the nine days leading up to it are also full of celebration. Tuareg from Libya and from other cities in the Algerian Sahara come to gatherings each night, when the temperature has cooled, to watch the performers rehearse.
Hassani said the generational inheritance of the festival’s customs helps them keep the spirits of their ancestors alive.
“We can’t let it go,” he said. “This is our heritage, and today it’s become a heritage of all humanity, an international heritage.”
According to legend, Benhaoued said, there will be winds and storms if Sebeiba is not held.
“It is said that this actually happened once when the festival was not held, so a woman went out into the streets with her drum, beating it until the storm calmed down,” the Tuareg guide added.
About 50 foreign tourists joined the people of Djanet for the final dance competition, hailing mostly from European countries such as France, Poland and Germany. Several also came from the neighboring countries of Libya and Niger.
Djanet is one of many Algerian cities experiencing an increase in tourism over the past two years, thanks to government efforts to boost the number of foreign visitors, especially to scenic sites like the Sahara, which makes up 83 percent of the North African country’s surface area.
The government introduced a new visa-on-arrival program in January 2023 for all nonexempt foreign tourists traveling to the Sahara. Additionally, the national airline, Air Algerie, launched a flight between Paris and Djanet in December 2024 during the winter season, when tourists from across the world travel to Djanet for camping excursions deep into the Sahara.
“The Sebeiba isn’t just something for the people of Djanet,” Hassani said. “We have the honor of preserving this heritage of humanity. That’s an honor for us.”
Child malnutrition doubles in battleground Sudan state
- Severe acute malnutrition rose by over 70 percent in neighboring North Kordofan state, by 174 percent in the capital Khartoum and nearly seven-fold in the central state of Al-Jazira
PORT SUDAN: The number of severely malnourished children in Sudan’s battleground state of North Darfur has doubled since last year, the UN children’s agency said on Friday.
Since April 2023, war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and driven over 14 million from their homes.
North Darfur state and its besieged capital El-Fasher have been particularly badly hit, with famine declared last year in three vast displacement camps outside the city
HIGHLIGHT
UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year.
In a statement on Friday, UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year.
“Children in Darfur are being starved by conflict and cut off from the very aid that could save them,” said UNICEF’s Sudan representative, Sheldon Yett.
Across the five Darfur states, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose by 46 percent in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2024.
The battle for El-Fasher — the last major city in Darfur still under army control — has intensified in recent months.
Hospitals have been hit by shelling, aid convoys attacked and access for humanitarian aid is now almost entirely blocked.
The UN said this week that nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher were suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11 percent with severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF also reported significant rises in malnutrition in other recent battlegrounds.
Severe acute malnutrition rose by over 70 percent in neighboring North Kordofan state, by 174 percent in the capital Khartoum and nearly seven-fold in the central state of Al-Jazira.
Khartoum and Al-Jazira were recaptured by the army earlier this year, but the country remains effectively split.
The army holds the east, north and center while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
UN chief condemns renewed Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes sinking of two Greek-owned vessels as ‘dangerous re-escalation in this critical waterway’
NEW YORK: Fresh attacks by Houthi militants on international shipping in the Red Sea are unacceptable and violate the freedom of navigation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.
The Yemeni group resumed attacks on ships this week when it seized and sank two vessels as they attempted to pass through the waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. Four seafarers are presumed dead and 11 others are still missing.
The attacks were the first carried out by the group on international shipping for more than six months. In response to Israel’s war on Gaza, the militants attacked more than 100 vessels between November 2023 and December 2024, often using missiles and drones.
The campaign forced shipping companies to reroute around Africa, adding significant time and costs to shipping goods between Asia and Europe.
Hopes that shipping through the waterway may be returning to normal were shattered last weekend when the Houthis attacked and sank the Magic Seas. All the crew were rescued.
Then on Monday, the group attacked the Eternity C before sinking it on Wednesday. Only 10 of the 25 aboard have been rescued. Both the ships flew Liberian flags and were operated by Greek companies.
Guterres “strongly condemned” the resumption of Houthi attacks on civilian vessels, his spokesman said.
“The sinking of both the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, along with the deaths of at least four crew members and injuries to others, is a dangerous re-escalation in this critical waterway,” he said.
The secretary-general called on the Houthis not to impede the ongoing search and rescue operations for the missing crew.
“Beyond being an unacceptable attack on the safety and security of seafarers, these acts also violated the freedom of navigation, caused a hazard to maritime transport and represent a serious risk of a significant environmental, economic and humanitarian damage to an already vulnerable coastal environment,” he said.
EU pressing Israel to improve Gaza humanitarian situation, top diplomat says
- EU’s diplomatic service presented 10 options for political action against Israel after it found “indications” Israel breached human rights obligations under pact
- Foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says the options were prepared in response to member states that want stronger pressure on Israel to rectify suffering of civilians in Gaza
KUALA LUMPUR: The European Union is seeking ways to put pressure on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, its top diplomat said, as member states weighed action against Israel over what they see as potential human rights violations.
The EU’s diplomatic service on Thursday presented 10 options for political action against Israel after saying it found “indications” last month that Israel breached human rights obligations under a pact governing its ties with the bloc.
In a document prepared for EU member countries and seen by Reuters, the options included major steps such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement — which includes trade relations — and lesser steps such as suspending technical projects.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday the options were prepared in response to member states that wanted stronger pressure on Israel to rectify the suffering of civilians in Gaza’s now 21-month-old war.
“Our aim is not to punish Israel in any way,” she said after meeting with Asian foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, amid growing global jitters arising from US President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive.
“Our aim is to really improve the situation on the ground (in Gaza), because the humanitarian situation is untenable.”
EU members have voiced concern over the large number of civilian casualties and mass displacement of Gaza’s inhabitants during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the enclave, and alarm about restrictions on access for humanitarian aid.
Kallas said on Thursday Israel had agreed to expand humanitarian access to Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs.
She also said negotiations with the US on a trade deal to avoid high tariffs threatened by Trump were ongoing, and stressed that the EU did not want to retaliate with counter-levies on US imports.
Trump has said the EU could receive a letter on tariff rates by Friday, throwing into question the progress of talks between Washington and the bloc on a potential trade deal.
“We have of course possibilities to react, but we don’t want to retaliate. We don’t want a trade war, actually,” Kallas said.
