US Congress members denounce Israeli restrictions on academic freedom in Palestine

Jamaal Bowman, a representative from New York, sent a letter, co-signed by 11 of his Democratic colleagues, to the secretaries of state, homeland security, and education calling for an inquiry into the restrictive new rules. (bowman.house.gov)
Short Url
Updated 04 June 2022
Follow

US Congress members denounce Israeli restrictions on academic freedom in Palestine

  • 12 Democrats called for an inquiry into new rules limiting numbers of American academics and students at Palestinian universities in the Occupied Territories
  • In a letter sent to the secretaries of state, homeland security and education they pointed out that there are no similar restrictions placed on Israeli universities

WASHINGTON: A dozen members of the US Congress have asked the Biden administration to look into recently introduced Israeli rules that limit the numbers of American academics and students who can teach or study at Palestinian universities in the Occupied Territories.

Jamaal Bowman, a representative from New York, sent a letter, co-signed by 11 of his Democratic colleagues, to the secretaries of state, homeland security, and education calling for an inquiry into the restrictive new rules. They were announced by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which functions as the de-facto Israeli military government in the Occupied Territories.

The Congress members said in their letter: “According to the recent COGAT announcement, a limit of only 100 foreign academics and 150 foreign students will be allowed to teach or study at Palestinian universities.”

They said the new rules will “severely restrict the ability of American academics and students to teach and study at Palestinian universities” in the Occupied Territories, “while no similar restrictions apply to American academics and students seeking to teach and study at Israeli universities, nor to Israeli academics and students seeking to teach and study in the United States.”

In addition, they noted that the Israeli government “will only grant visas to professors and students for approved fields of teaching and study and limit the amount of time professors and students can spend at Palestinian universities.”

They said: “We find the policies outlined by the COGAT to formalize discriminatory treatment of Palestinian Americans and other citizens.”

These new rules are due to take effect in July, the members of congress noted, and they asked Biden administration officials to reveal how many Americans seeking to study or teach at Palestinian universities have been denied entry to Israel and on what basis?

They also asked the State Department to clarify its position on the new procedures, which “would have the effect of limiting academic freedom of American citizens seeking to study and/or teach at Palestinian universities.” They set a deadline of June 10 for a response.

The other members of Congress who co-signed the letter include Rep. Betty McCollum and Rep. Ilhan Omar, both from Minnesota, Rep. Marie Newman, a progressive from Illinois who has been a vocal advocate for the rights of Palestinians, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American from Michigan.

Chris Habiby, the legislative and policy coordinator for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the Arab News that the new COGAT rules “simply formalize the practices that Arab Americans, and in particular Palestinian Americans, have been experiencing for decades.”

He added: “The ADC appreciates the courage of shown by Congressman Bowman and 11 other House Democrats in calling out Israeli discrimination against Palestinians.”

Israel has asked the Department of Homeland Security, which polices entry into the US, to include Israeli citizens visiting America in the US Visa Waiver Program. Objections to this center on allegations of Israeli discrimination against American citizens of Palestinian or Arab descent who are subjected to intrusive searches and often denied entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Visa Waiver Program includes statutory requirements that must be met before any country is considered for inclusion. One key requirement is “reciprocity,” which means that American citizens visiting a country that is a member of the program must be treated the same way as a citizen of that country who is visiting the US.

The letter from the members of Congress points out that according to the US State Department: “Some US citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage (including Palestinian Americans) have experienced significant difficulties and unequal and occasionally hostile treatment at Israel’s borders and checkpoints.”

Habiby urged US authorities to put pressure on Israel to prevent the new rules taking effect.

“The Biden administration must take concrete steps to ensure that the Israeli government does not implement this ordinance,” he said.


Philippine Senate launching probe of Duterte’s ICC arrest

Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Philippine Senate launching probe of Duterte’s ICC arrest

  • The probe was initiated by Senator Imee Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
  • Rodrigo Duterte was arrested at Manila airport on March 11 and flown to the Netherlands just hours later

MANILA: The Philippine Senate said Monday it will conduct a formal probe of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and swift handover last week to the International Criminal Court, which is to try him for alleged crimes against humanity.
The 79-year-old, the first Asian former head of state charged by the ICC, stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups have said killed thousands.
The probe was initiated by Senator Imee Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos but a close friend of Duterte’s eldest daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.
The two families have had a spectacular falling out since Marcos teamed with Duterte to win an election landslide in 2022. The latter has since been impeached on charges that include an alleged assassination plot against the president.
“As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I am calling for an urgent investigation into the arrest of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, an issue that has deeply divided the nation,” Imee Marcos said in a statement Monday.
“It is imperative to establish whether due process was followed and to ensure that his legal rights were not just upheld but protected,” she said, adding: “Our sovereignty and legal processes must remain paramount.”
Duterte was arrested at Manila airport on March 11 after a brief trip to Hong Kong and flown to the Netherlands just hours later where he was turned over to the ICC.
The Senate has set a public hearing for Thursday and invited top police and other government officials to give evidence.
Imee Marcos has tracked a course largely independent from her brother on many issues, though she is running for re-election under the administration’s ticket in the May 12 midterm elections.
Hours after Duterte’s arrest, Imee Marcos warned at a news conference that it could “only lead to trouble.”
Separately, a veteran international lawyer with ICC experience has been tapped to join the former president’s defense team.
Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli national, has previously represented clients at The Hague including former Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and Aisha Qaddafi, daughter of the deceased Libyan dictator.
“The president (has) already appointed Nicholas Kaufman as his lawyer,” Vice President Duterte confirmed at a press briefing outside the Hague, according to a transcript made public Sunday by her office.
“We had a meeting with him yesterday, and then we will have a meeting in person when he arrives this weekend,” she told reporters after her father’s Friday appearance.
In an email to AFP, Kaufman said he was “honored to have been asked to assist former President Duterte in composing his defense team in which my future role is yet to be precisely determined.”
“Indeed, I look forward to denouncing the State-sponsored abduction of the former President to a case in The Hague devoid of jurisdiction.”


Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer

Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer

  • Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as politically motivated

Tbilisi: A Georgian court on Monday sentenced ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to four and a half years behind bars for illegally crossing the border, bringing the pro-Western politician’s total sentence to 12.5 years.
Saakashvili, 57, was sentenced in absentia in 2018 to six years in prison for abuse of office and, last week, he received a nine-year sentence for misspending public funds.
He began serving the term in 2021, when he returned to the country from exile.
On Monday, Saakashvili was sentenced to “four years and six months in prison for illegally crossing Georgia’s border” when he covertly returned from exile in Ukraine, lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili told AFP.
“Taking into account the combination of sentences, Mikheil Saakashvili’s overall prison term is set at 12 years and six months,” said Judge Mikheil Jinjolia.
Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as politically motivated.
He is being held in a civilian hospital, where he was transferred in 2022 after staging a 50-day hunger strike to protest over his detention.
The European Parliament has called for his immediate release, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Saakashvili, a Ukrainian national since 2019, be transferred to Kyiv.
Zelensky — who appointed Saakashvili as his top adviser to oversee reforms — accused Russia of “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities.”
The European Union and the United States have urged Georgia to ensure that Saakashvili is provided medical treatment and that his rights are protected.
Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a “political prisoner,” while Amnesty International has called his treatment an “apparent political revenge.”


Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails

Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails

  • A record influx of foreign tourists to Japan has sparked alarm about overcrowding on the nation’s highest mountain
  • Thanks in part to the new restrictions, the number of climbers who tackled Mount Fuji declined to 204,316 last year, from 221,322 in 2023

TOKYO: Hikers attempting any of Mount Fuji’s four main trails will be charged an entry fee of 4,000 yen ($27) from this summer, after local authorities passed a bill on Monday.
A record influx of foreign tourists to Japan has sparked alarm about overcrowding on the nation’s highest mountain, a once-peaceful pilgrimage site.
Last year, Yamanashi region – home to Mount Fuji – introduced a 2,000 yen ($14) entry fee plus an optional donation for the active volcano’s most popular hiking route, the Yoshida Trail.
A cap on daily entries and online reservations were also brought in on that trail by officials concerned about safety and environmental damage on Fuji’s majestic slopes.
The Yoshida Trail fee will be doubled for this year’s July-September climbing season, while neighboring Shizuoka region passed a bill on Monday to also charge 4,000 yen for its three trails, which were previously free.
Thanks in part to the new restrictions, the number of climbers who tackled Mount Fuji declined to 204,316 last year, from 221,322 in 2023, environment ministry data shows.
Although climber numbers continue to be eclipsed by pre-pandemic levels, “200,000 hikers is still huge,” Natsuko Sodeyama, a Shizuoka prefecture official, told AFP.
“There is no other mountain in Japan that attracts that many people in the span of just over two months. So some restrictions are necessary to ensure their safety.”
Mount Fuji is covered in snow for most of the year, but during the summer hiking season many trudge up its steep, rocky slopes through the night to see the sunrise.
The symmetrical mountain has been immortalized in countless artworks, including Hokusai’s “Great Wave.” It last erupted around 300 years ago.


Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

  • The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of premier Sheikh Hasina
  • Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit

DHAKA: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighboring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.
The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after a student-led uprising.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.
That has prompted the caretaker government helmed by Yunus to seek greater ties with Beijing, New Delhi’s chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.
“Bangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights,” Yunus’s media secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday in a briefing on next week’s visit.
“They will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries.”
Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.
He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.
“Bangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavor,” Alam said.
Diplomatic talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.
China has acted as mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned.
Interim Bangladeshi foreign minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January in what was his first official trip abroad.
China’s ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing “firmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”


Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

  • The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured
  • People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning

KOCANI, North Macedonia: After North Macedonia’s deadliest tragedy in recent memory, with dozens dying in a nightclub inferno, the Balkan nation is struggling to grapple with so many young lives lost while trying to hold those responsible to account and prevent another calamity.
The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday in the eastern town of Kocani leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked escape toward the building’s single exit.
People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning.
“We are all in shock, and I am shocked myself: as a mother, as a person, as a president,” North Macedonia’s President Gordana Davkova Siljanovska said in an address to the nation Sunday night.
“I still cannot believe that the terrible tragedy in Kocani is a reality. I do not know with what words to express my condolences to the parents and loved ones of the deceased,” she said. “No one responsible should escape the law, justice and punishment! Let us not allow anyone to endanger the lives of innocent people anymore.”
The fire that shook the nation of 2 million – where close-knit extended family bonds made the disaster personal to many – was the latest in a slew of deadly nightclub fires around the world.
Allegation of bribery surrounding nightclub
Authorities say they are investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the nightclub that was crammed with young revelers and at double capacity. And North Macedonia’s government ordered a sweeping three-day inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country, starting Monday.
The country was in mourning as people watched harrowing scenes in the town of 25,000 people, where rescuers for hours carried out their grim task of removing the charred bodies of clubgoers. The fire caused the roof of the single-story building to partially collapse, revealing the charred remains of wooden beams and debris.
Anxious parents gathered outside hospitals in Kocani and capital Skopje, some 115 kilometers (72 miles) west, eager for updates about the injured. Many of the most seriously injured were receiving treatment in Greece and other neighboring countries.
Waiting outside the hospital in Kocani, Dragi Stojanov was among those who received the dreaded news that his 21-year-old son Tomce had perished.
“He was my only child. I don’t need my life anymore. ... 150 families have been devastated,” he told reporters. “Children burnt beyond recognition. There are corpses, just corpses inside (the club). ... And the bosses (of organized crime), just putting money into their pockets.”
The death toll may rise further
Flags around the country have been lowered to half-staff, and the death toll may rise further, with 20 of the injured in critical condition, Health Minister Arben Taravari said Sunday.
Although the investigation into the fire’s cause is ongoing, videos showed sparkling pyrotechnics on the stage hitting Club Pulse’s ceiling and igniting the blaze as a band played.
“We even tried to get out through the bathroom, only to find bars (on the windows),” 19-year-old Marija Taseva told The Associated Press. “I somehow managed to get out. I fell down the stairs and they ran over me, trampled me. ... I barely stayed alive and could hardly breathe.” She suffered an injury to her face.
Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski said 15 people had been detained for questioning after a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper license. He said the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.
“We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case,” he told reporters without elaborating.
Condolences poured in from leaders around Europe as well as from the office of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for a month for double pneumonia.
“I have had many difficult moments and challenges in my life but today is by far the most difficult day of my life,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in a televised address. “My heart is breaking, and I have no strength to speak today. I am broken and my spirit is broken.”
Late Sunday, Kocani’s residents held a candlelight vigil in support for mourning families, waiting in long lines to light church candles.
Beti Delovska, an economist from Skopje, said North Macedonia has never experienced a tragedy like this, with dozens of young people vanishing in minutes. And she noted that many young people with bright futures had already left the nation, in search of opportunities elsewhere.
“(North) Macedonia is on its death bed,” Delovska, 64, said. “We have no more credible institutions, the health system is completely dismantled, education is poor, judiciary is partisan and corrupted to the bone … I do believe now that only God can save (North) Macedonia.”