ANKARA: A US statement saying that its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to “promote our strong stance on religious freedom” during his visit to Istanbul next week has drawn the ire of Ankara.
Pompeo’s visit is part of his planned tour of seven nations, including countries in the Middle East and the Gulf. During his time in Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday, the top diplomat is scheduled to meet the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, but no Turkish officials.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry criticized the US statement “as extremely inappropriate.”
“It would be more advisable for the United States to look in the mirror first and to show the necessary sensitivity to human rights violations such as racism, Islamophobia and hate crimes in its own country,” the ministry said in its own statement.
Pompeo is expected to run for the senate, and support from the Greek Orthodox community and evangelicals would be a boost to his hopes of election in Kansas.
“Religious freedom, more specifically issues facing Christians around the world, is a shared concern among many Republicans — especially influential evangelical and diaspora communities,” Ziya Meral, senior associate fellow at RUSI (Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies), told Arab News.
The tension surrounding Pompeo’s visit is just the tip of the iceberg, however. The incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden, who will assume office in less than three months, will also pressure Ankara over religious freedom in Turkey — an issue that has been in the spotlight recently following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to convert Istanbul’s Haghia Sophia into a mosque in July, which drew accusations that he was attempting to erase the cultural heritage of Orthodox Christians in the city. Turkey is also under increasing pressure to reopen the Greek Orthodox theological school shut down in 1971.
Biden is expected to be a staunch supporter of religious freedom globally, including the rights of Greek Orthodox followers. Under former President Barack Obama, Biden became the only sitting vice president to visit the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which he did twice.
Turkey drew further criticism late in October when it opened the former monastery of Christ the Savior in Chora, an ancient Christian basilica, for Islamic prayer services, compromising the building’s architectural and historical value. That decision was taken following a presidential decree claiming that the use of the building as a museum was illegal.
According to Meral, there is non-partisan anger at Turkey over a long list of issues from the reconversion of Hagia Sophia to the prolonged detainment of an American pastor and the termination of residency permits for foreign Christian church workers living in Turkey.
“Geopolitical issues from Greece to Armenia to northeastern Syria have now melted into the usual narratives of ‘us versus Islamists,’ which continues to politicize the issue of religious freedom beyond the actual concerns of religious minorities,” Meral said.
While Meral expects the Biden administration to continue to raise these issues with Turkey, he said it “won’t pursue a similar agenda on religious-freedom issues abroad (to the one) we saw Trump and Pompeo pursuing.”
In June, the US Department of State published its 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom. It criticized Turkey for limiting the rights of non-Muslim religious minorities, especially Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Greek Orthodox Christians.
“The government continued to restrict efforts of minority religious groups to train their clergy,” the report also noted.
Dr. Mine Yildirim, head of the Freedom of Belief Initiative and the Eurasia Civil Society Program at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, said Turkey’s long-standing key challenges in the area of freedom of religion or belief require fundamental changes.
“Some of the central legal issues include the lack of legal personality of religious or belief communities, the status of places of worship, and the glaring inequality related to the public funding of the Presidency of Religious Affairs and those individuals and communities that do not receive services from this institution,” she told Arab News.
“Most of these issues have been the subject of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights. However, those judgments have not been effectively implemented. All states can hold each other accountable on account of their ratifications of international human rights instruments,” Yildirim added.
Experts underline that religious freedom is and will remain a foreign-policy priority for the US under the Biden administration.
Yildirim believes that, while multilateral initiatives are important, states should focus more on strengthening international human rights control mechanisms in order to contribute to the protection of human rights, including freedom of religion or belief.
Anna Maria Beylunioglu Atli, a lecturer at MEF University in Istanbul, meanwhile, suggested that external pressure from the West can only go so far, and that real domestic change will only happen if there is a shift in mindset among policy makers in Ankara.
“Otherwise, we will only see cosmetic changes in religious freedom,” she told Arab News. “There has been serious regression in this area since 2013, and there has been no significant improvement so far.”
US criticism of religious freedom in Turkey stirs debate
https://arab.news/ztj4b
US criticism of religious freedom in Turkey stirs debate
- Pompeo is scheduled to meet the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, but no Turkish officials
- He is expected to run for the senate, and support from the Greek Orthodox community and evangelicals would be a boost to his hopes of election
Lebanon’s first responders caught in the line of Israel-Hezbollah fire
- Israeli military claims Iran-backed Lebanese militia is using ambulances to transport arms and fighters
- Rights group says civil defense workers, even if affiliated with Hezbollah, are protected under laws of war
In the latest deadly incident, at least 13 people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike that hit the main civil defense center in the eastern Baalbek area, according to Lebanon’s General Directorate of Civil Defense.
Bachir Khodr, the regional governor, was quoted by BBC News as saying that the facility belonged to the Lebanese government and that among the victims was the city’s civil defense chief
In a post on X, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said the “EU strongly condemns” the loss of life and that the pattern of attack “mirrors appalling trends in other conflicts, from Syria to Ukraine or Sudan.”
As of Oct. 31, 2024, Israeli military strikes had killed at least 173 emergency workers, injured 277 others, and damaged 243 medical vehicles and 55 hospitals, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
Humanitarian organizations and rights groups have joined the ministry in condemning attacks on first responders, their facilities, and ambulances.
“The killing of first responders in south Lebanon is a heartbreaking violation, not just of international law, but of basic humanity,” Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.
The media office of the Lebanese Civil Defense earlier shared with Arab News a list documenting 13 personnel and volunteers killed in Israeli strikes while performing their duties. The document, received on Nov. 13, detailed the victims’ names, positions and place of death.
Six of the deaths occurred in the southern governorate of Nabatieh, which has come under regular bombardment since mid-September, while six others occurred in the town of Dardaghia, east of Tyre, and one in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
An Israeli strike directly hit the civil defense center in Dardaghia on Oct. 9, leaving it “completely destroyed” and killing five of its staff, according to the organization’s media office.
The document provided by the Lebanese Civil Defense also listed 70 personnel and volunteers injured in Israeli attacks while carrying out their duties. Injuries ranged in severity and included burns, head trauma, and inhalation of toxic fumes.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry condemned “the continued targeting of emergency medical teams by occupation forces,” calling on the international community “to put an end to this series of ongoing war crimes.”
The statement came after an airstrike on an ambulance in Zefta, a town in Nabatieh, reportedly killed a paramedic and injured two others on the morning of Oct. 31. According to the ministry, the vehicle belonged to the Al-Risala Emergency Medical Association.
“These are people who willingly risk their lives to help others, driven by a duty to save lives, often under extreme conditions. To see them become targets is devastating,” MedGlobal’s Baban said, referring to the first responders.
She said such attacks “undermine the very core of humanitarian work,” stressing that “medics are meant to be neutral, protected under international law.”
Indeed, Article 18 of the First Geneva Convention, Articles 16(1) and 17(1) of Protocol I, and Article 10(1) of Protocol II prohibit harming or punishing anyone performing medical activities, regardless of the person benefiting from them.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Oct. 30 that it had documented three direct Israeli attacks on “medical personnel, transports, and facilities” in Lebanon, which it said constituted “apparent war crimes.”
The three reported attacks involved a civil defense center in central Beirut on Oct. 3, as well as an ambulance and a hospital in southern Lebanon on Oct. 4, which killed 14 paramedics.
In a statement on Oct. 11, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said the conflict had killed more than 100 medics and emergency workers across Lebanon within the past year.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said at least “27 attacks targeted ambulances used by first responders” since early October last year.
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian ally. Israel retaliated, sparking a year-long exchange of fire along the shared Israel-Lebanon border.
However, this tit-for-tat suddenly escalated in September, with Israel mounting a wave of air and ground attacks against Hezbollah’s communications network, weapons caches, and leadership, eliminating the group’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.
Residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs have not been spared, nor have villages in south Lebanon, including Ayta Al-Shab, Ramyeh, Kfar Kila, and Mhaybib, according to an analysis of satellite data by The Washington Post.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced from southern and eastern Lebanon, according to UN figures. As of Oct. 12, more than 283,000 of them — most of them Syrian nationals — had crossed the border into war-torn Syria.
Since the conflict began, at least 3,189 people — more than 770 of them women and children — have been killed, while some 14,078 others have been wounded, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
In Israel, 72 people have been killed by Hezbollah attacks, including 30 soldiers, according to the prime minister’s office. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
The Israeli military has not denied targeting ambulances in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold that has become a battleground between Israeli forces and Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups. On Oct. 12, it even threatened to target medical vehicles.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, said: “Hezbollah operatives are using ambulances to transport fighters and arms.”
In a post on the social media platform X on Oct. 12, he warned that “action will be taken (by the Israeli military) against any vehicle carrying armed men, regardless of its type.”
Prior to Adraee’s statement, on Oct. 3, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that Israel had struck a civil defense center in central Beirut belonging to the Islamic Health Committee, which is affiliated with Hezbollah.
The following day, the BBC reported that an Islamic Health Committee ambulance was struck near the entrance of Marjayoun Hospital in southern Lebanon, killing seven paramedics and forcing the facility to close.
Human Rights Watch said in its Oct. 30 statement that “membership or affiliation with Hezbollah, or other political movements with armed wings, is not a sufficient basis for determining an individual to be a lawful military target.”
“Medical personnel affiliated with Hezbollah, including those assigned to civil defense organizations, are protected under the laws of war,” the rights monitor added.
It called on the Israeli military to “immediately halt unlawful attacks on medical workers and health care facilities,” urging Israel’s allies to “suspend the transfer of arms to Israel given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses.”
MedGlobal’s Baban said the targeting of first responders in Lebanon “leaves communities even more vulnerable, depriving families and neighborhoods of essential care and support at a time when they need it most.”
“Every attack on medical staff not only steals lives but shakes the hope and resilience of those they serve,” she said. “We must continue to demand respect and safety for all who work to heal and protect in these conflict zones.”
Last Israelis in bombed out Metula hope for Lebanon ceasefire to rebuild lives
- Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry
- A senior US official said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing
METULA, Israel: When darkness descends on Metula, Tamira Lang, one of the Israeli border town’s last remaining residents, switches off her house lights to avoid detection by Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose fighters sit a few kilometers away.
Lang, who is part of the town’s small rapid response security force made up of local volunteers, has already been wounded by shrapnel from a projectile and had to put out a fire in her next door neighbor’s home caused by a salvo.
“We live in darkness. If they (Hezbollah) see light, I have no house,” she said, surveying damage to nearby homes that overlook the nearby Lebanese border.
Metula saw most of its population of some 2,200 people leave in early October last year after Hezbollah launched rocket attacks against Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Palestinians after Islamist group Hamas launched a devastating raid on Israel, prompting Israel’s war in Gaza.
The US has led a renewed push in recent days to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah while Israeli forces have stepped up their offensive seeking to ensure that over 60,000 evacuated Israelis can return to their homes in the north.
A senior US official said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing. Sirens went off in Metula on Tuesday.
Parts of Metula, which was founded in 1896, have been destroyed with many houses smashed up by mortars or missiles fired from Lebanese villages that surround it, Reuters found on a visit this week to the town, which currently remains a closed military zone.
The periodic sound of artillery from Israeli batteries firing into Lebanon and a burning smell from bombed homes are constant reminders of the day-to-day reality for those who remain in Metula.
“You don’t hear the sound of birds anymore,” Lang said. “The silence can also be deafening,” she said.
Hezbollah has fired over 16,000 missiles at Israel, while massive Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have left 1 million Lebanese uprooted from their homes.
For Liat Cohen-Raviv, a Metula resident currently living in the northern Israeli town of Rosh Pina after being evacuated, people will need assurances before they move back.
“In order for me to come back, I need to know, first of all, that it’s safe, that I’m protected,” she said, noting past agreements had collapsed.
Cohen-Raviv said Israelis in the north were nervous after Israel released details last month which it said showed Hezbollah had dug tunnels under the border, with the aim of launching attacks into Israeli territory.
This has led to fears of a follow up to the Oct. 7 Hamas’ attacks in Israel that killed some 1,200 people, with 101 hostages still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.
A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters last month the tunnels detected by Israel were built for its Radwan special forces units to one day enter the Galilee region of northern Israel.
“Today, more than ever, you can’t allow this to be a weak border,” Cohen-Raviv said.
“Metula will need at least a year just to recover in terms of infrastructure,” she added.
A survey published by Israeli think tank INSS in early November found 80 percent of those polled – comprising Jews and Arabs living in Israel – said the current security situation does not allow the majority of residents to return to northern towns.
Ruslan Bachinsky, who was born in Ukraine, is also part of Metula’s security detail. His pregnant wife has been evacuated. He says Israel’s operations have meant Hezbollah is firing less at the town.
“But we know that something can happen in a minute ... there is danger all the time,” he said. “I think we (need) more time (to finish operations in Lebanon) ... Hezbollah is still next to Metula.”
“We are expecting a girl in four months and my wife doesn’t want to come back to Metula. So this is a problem. So unfortunately, it will take time.”
UN chief slams ‘systematic’ looting of Gaza humanitarian aid
- Aid distribution in Gaza is complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting
- On Monday, Gaza’s interior ministry said it had carried out a major operation targeting looters
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief on Tuesday denounced the “systematic” looting of humanitarian aid in Gaza, a day after the territory’s Hamas authorities said 20 people were killed in a security operation targeting such actions.
“Armed looting has become systematic and must end immediately. It is hindering life saving aid operations and further endangering the lives of our staff,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“However, the use of law enforcement operations must be lawful, necessary and proportionate.”
Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza in the early stages of the war last year, and the UN warned on November 9 that famine was looming in some areas due to a lack of aid.
Aid distribution in Gaza is complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting, as well as fighting in densely populated areas and the repeated displacement of much of the territory’s 2.4 million people.
Several humanitarian officials have told AFP on condition of anonymity that almost half the aid that enters Gaza is looted, especially basic supplies.
On Monday, Gaza’s interior ministry said it had carried out a major operation targeting looters.
“More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said the operation was “the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks.”
On Tuesday, the US-based Washington Post newspaper cited a UN memo as saying some of the gangs were receiving “passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israel Defense Forces.
Dujarric said he was unaware of the memo, but that the allegation was “fairly alarming” if true.
“The idea that the Israeli forces may be allowing looters or not doing enough to prevent it is frankly, fairly alarming, given the responsibilities of Israel as the occupying power to ensure that humanitarian aid is distributed safely,” he said.
Iraq to hold first nationwide census since 1987
- A census carried out in 1997 excluded the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which had been governed by Kurdish authorities since the 1991 Gulf War
BAGHDAD: Iraq will begin its first full national census in more than three decades on Wednesday, a pivotal moment as it looks to gather demographic data for future planning and development.
The census, the first full one since Saddam Hussein was President in 1987, aims to provide a comprehensive count of Iraq’s population, estimated to exceed 43 million people by the end of 2024, said Iraq’s planning ministry spokesperson Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi.
Attempts at conducting a national census were delayed by years of conflict, instability and disagreement among political factions, but with the country now in a period of stability, authorities hope the process will be completed successfully.
A census carried out in 1997 excluded the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which had been governed by Kurdish authorities since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.
The census was repeatedly postponed over worries it was being politicized. Ethnic groups in contested areas like the northern city of Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and a valuable part of Iraq’s oil fields, opposed it because it might reveal demographics that would undermine political ambitions.
“We have fears (of the census) not only in Kirkuk but all other disputed areas which are subjected to strong disagreements between various powers,” said Shwan Dawoodi, a Kurdish politician.
The data gathered will be used to guide decisions in areas such as infrastructure development, education, health care and social services, said Hindawi.
The census will feature only one question regarding religious affiliation — Muslim or Christian — and none about ethnic background or sectarian affiliation.
The Iraqi government has made extensive efforts to ensure the process, scheduled to take two days to complete, is as inclusive and accurate as possible, imposing a two-day curfew from midnight on Tuesday.
Preliminary results will be announced within 24 hours and final results released in two to three months.
US imposes sanctions on senior Hamas officials
- The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the group’s representatives abroad
- Among those targeted was Abd Al-Rahman Ismail abd Al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in Turkiye
WASHINGTON: The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas officials, the US Treasury Department said, in further action against the Palestinian militant group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of the Hamas military wing and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the group and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
“Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.
“Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account.”
Among those targeted was Abd Al-Rahman Ismail abd Al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in Turkiye, the Treasury said, accusing him of being involved in multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks.
Two other officials based in Turkiye, a member based in Gaza who has participated in Hamas’s engagements with Russia and a leader authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the group and who previously oversaw border crossings at Gaza were also among those targeted, according to the Treasury.
The US on Monday warned Turkiye against hosting Hamas leadership, saying Washington does not believe leaders of a terrorist organization should be living comfortably.
Asked about reports that some Hamas leaders had moved to Turkiye from Qatar, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not confirm the reports but said he was not in a position to dispute them. He said Washington will make clear to Turkiye’s government that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than two million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.
