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11 Dec 2017- NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy
Articles
In Erdoğan’s twisted Turkey, academics asking for peace are accused of terrorism
By The Guardian, 11 Dec 2017
ast week the trials began in Istanbul of those who signed the Academics for Peace petition in January 2016. A total of 148 trials are scheduled through to May 2018, with new trials expected to be announced in the near future. Each focuses on a single individual, but the indictment is the same for all of them. If they are found guilty, each signatory faces a prison sentence of up to seven-and-a-half years. In the petition, entitled “We will not be a party to this crime”, more than 2,000 signatories sought a negotiated solution to the military conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).
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Saudi offers Abu Dis as future capital of Palestine
by MEMO, 11 Dec 2017
A Saudi proposal for a peace initiative between Israelis and Palestinians offers the village of Abu Dis as the future capital of Palestine instead of East Jerusalem, stirring widespread anger. Activists have released a new hashtag under the name “Jerusalem is our capital” in response to the Saudi proposal. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman made the proposal during Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ visit to Riyadh last month.
The spectacle of Palestine
by Aljazeera, 11 Dec 2017
Damascus Gate on Friday was awash with journalists, poised at the ready with their cameras, eager to capture the first of the clashes Palestinians, many of whom had come out of noon prayers from Al Aqsa, congregated to protest the US's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Their anger and frustration at Drumpf's declaration, which breaks from the international norm - a refusal to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the city - stems from the fact that Jerusalem occupies an important place in the hearts and minds of Palestinians the world over.
UN urges immediate evacuation of 137 Syrian children
By Al Jazeera, 10 Dec 2017
The UN children's agency has called for the immediate evacuation of scores of sick Syrian children from a besieged rebel-held enclave on the outskirts of Damascus, amid continued violence. Five children in Eastern Ghouta have reportedly died, while 137 others require immediate medical assistance, UNICEF said in a statement on Sunday.