Words fly at Non-Aligned Movement summit

On Wednesday, Al-Alam reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Tehran to take part in the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, despite outcry from the United States and from Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran taking over NAM leadership. However, Ban went on later in the week to sharply condemn Iran's denial of the Holocaust during WWII, as well as Israel's right to exist, in a speech at the summit.

Ban's comments were part of a number of verbal attacks at the meeting, which was heavily covered by Mosaic's broadcasters. BBC Arabic reported that the Syrian delegation left the summit's conference hall when Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi criticized the Syrian government during his speech, in which he affirmed his country's "full solidarity" with those seeking freedom and justice in Syria. Additionally, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Western countries of fabricating crises around the world, and of monopolizing the UN Security Council.

Trouble brews for a shaky Yemen in transition

New protests have broken out in the Yemeni capital Sanaa to denounce the deteriorating security situation in the country, and to demand the dismissal of relatives of deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh from their military positions. Al Jazeera reported that this comes after an assassination attempt targeted Yassin Saeed Noman, the most prominent leader of the Joint Meeting Parties opposition coalition.

In addition, Press TV reported another US drone strike in Yemen killed at least eight people in Hadhramaut Province, the second such attack in the region this week. Dubai TV reported the killing of three al-Qaeda members in an air raid in the Khashamir area of the Qatan district, but the source did not specify the origin of the plane that carried out the raid.

Yemen has been experiencing difficulty in restructuring the country's government after the fall of former president Saleh. Earlier this week, members of the Southern Movement in Yemen refused to participate in the national dialogue conference scheduled for the end of the year. They demand the south's secession from the north, which would mean a return to the country's pre-unification division.

More leaders express stance on Syrian Civil War

As the Syrian army's shelling intensified all across Syria this week, Press TV reported that President Bashar al-Assad sat down for an interview with Syrian channel Al-Dunya, saying more time is needed to end the insurgency in his country and that a buffer zone, the idea being championed by "hostile countries" and "Syria's enemies," is unrealistic.

Meanwhile, some leaders expressed their stance on the Syrian war during the NAM summit, most notably Egypt's President Morsi, Iran's President Ahmadinejad, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who opposed any kind of military intervention, as well as criticized the ongoing flow of weapons to insurgents. The head of Russia's army also rejected media reports this week that Moscow was winding down its military presence in Syria, saying that it is not in the process of evacuating its naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus, which it has leased since Soviet times.

Image: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks to Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi (R) after his speech during the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, August 30, 2012. REUTERS/Majid Asgaripour/Mehr News Agency

David, I agree with you it is a shame that such laws are being implemented in Israel. I share in your outrage. Consecutive Israeli governments have long been annexing Palestinian lands since 1948 and annexing Palestinian culture (i.e. Israeli hummus?) as well as re-writing  history. This is all part of Al Nakba of 1948 (The Catastrophe in Arabic), which Palestinians remember. Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes for settlement building, razing graveyards, agricultural lands and historical sites. This, in addition to incursions, house invasions, assassinations and bombings, etc. Death and destruction on both sides, committed by both sides. All smaller Nakbas that are ultimately connected to Al Nakba. With this latest move, Israel attempts to further erase Palestinian identity in the country by not allowing the Palestinians to commemorate their own history as they see it.  I am comforted by the fact that Palestinians everywhere will never forget their history or their past. Many of them still hold the key to their homes, which have been either destroyed or taken over.  They dream of the day when they or their children will return to their homeland.

This is an Al Jazeera report that tells the story of the Nakba very well.  

Israel cabinet decided to pass a legal initiative that would give a 3 year prison sentence to anyone who treats the Nakba of 1948 as a special event. This is an outrageous idea: it is the sum of the hopes of the Israeli Nationalists that the Palestinian minority in Israel will somehow disappear. It expresses a total denial of Palestinian history.

This compliments the denial of the Holocaust, which Israel has fought for the last 60 years. Denial of your history means that either you are an inventor of gas ovens, or you are just a victim of your own victimization complex. Denial of the right to express your mourning over events that happened to your family and many other people is a cruel and unusual punishment.

This is such a debasing ministerial call that Israelis of all walks of life should be ashamed of. It takes away the right of Jews to fight against Holocaust denial. The Turks have tried it against the Armenian minority: no mention was allowed of any massacre of Armenians by Turks. Of course the ban collapsed, and the Turks look worse for it. This is a bankruptcy of any moral standing by the present Israeli cabinet, and will make it easier for all the enemies of Israel to justify that another war as the only way. If your existence and history is denied, what do you have to lose?

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