Jordan

Journalist Hiba Abu Taha freed after year-long imprisonment under Jordan’s controversial Cybercrime Law

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha.

Despite international pressure to free Hiba, Jordanian authorities held her for her full sentence in a “huge setback for press freedoms.

Jordanian authorities released journalist Hiba Abu Taha on Thursday, February 13, upon completing her prison sentence.

In June, 2024, Hiba was sentenced to one year in prison for violating Jordan’s controversial Cybercrime Law by allegedly “spreading false news, slandering, insulting or defaming a governmental authority or an official body,” and “inciting discord and strife among members of society, targeting community peace, and inciting violence.”

One of those charges was reportedly imposed on Abu Taha for an article she wrote, in which she criticized Jordan’s interception of Iranian drones and rockets launched against Israel in April, 2024. 

Meanwhile, she faced the other charge for writing an investigative report, exposing Jordanian companies, which were transporting goods to Israel through the Jordanian territory during Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza. 

The imprisonment of Abu Taha and the enactment of the Cybercrime Law were widely criticized by international human rights and press freedom organizations. These organizations described Hiba’s imprisonment as a “huge setback for press freedom” in Jordan. They labelled the Cybercrime Law “draconian.”

In October 2024, an online campaign titled “We stand in solidarity with Hiba Abu Taha” was also launched by 24 media platforms, including Peoples Dispatch. However, the Jordanian authorities ignored the widespread opposition from organizations and grassroots campaigns, and continued Hiba’s incarceration until the last day of her prison sentence.

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingJournalist Hiba Abu Taha freed after year-long imprisonment under Jordan’s controversial Cybercrime Law

Trump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/04/trump-netanyahu-gaza

President in effect endorses ethnic cleansing of territory before hosting meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump has said Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and neighbouring countries.

Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt – something both countries have firmly rejected.

Trump claimed Palestinians would “love to leave Gaza”, telling reporters: “I would think that they would be thrilled.”

After 16 months of devastating war with Israel, Trump said Gaza was “a pure demolition site”.

“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza. Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative… If they had an alternative, they’d much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that’s safe,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/04/trump-netanyahu-gaza

Continue ReadingTrump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza

‘This is Ethnic Cleansing’: Trump’s Idea for Jordan and Egypt to Take Gazans Triggers Outrage

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A picture painted on the rubble of houses by a Palestinian artist who returned home after the cease-fire and hostage-prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud Bassam/Anadolu via Getty Images)

After Trump floated a plan to “clean out” Gaza, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “the idea of helping [Gazans] find other places to start new, better lives is a great idea.”

Speaking to reporters Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would like to see most of the population of war-torn Gaza be relocated to Jordan and Egypt, a plan that a number of observers said was tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Trump made the remarks the same day that he lifted a Biden-era hold on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

“I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said, according to the Financial Times. “You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Gaza’s population was 2.2 million in 2023.

“‘Clean out’ is barely even a euphemism. This is ethnic cleansing, call it what it is,” wrote Assal Rad, the author of a book on modern Iran, on X, reacting to an Associated Press article about Trump’s comments.

The independent reporter Talia Jane wrote: “What’s it called when you clean out an ethnic group from a region.”

“He’s just openly endorsing/encouraging ethnic cleansing,” wrote the journalist Mehdi Hasan on Saturday. Others chimed in with similar remarks.

Trump’s comments were made nearly a week after a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, halting 15 months of war that was triggered by a Hamas deadly attack on Israel in October, 2023 and which left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, according to local health officials.

Homes, shelter, and infrastructure has also been largely decimated in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military campaign there. Trump said that Gaza is “literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change,” per CNN.

“What the occupation has failed to achieve through its criminal bombardment and genocide in Gaza will not be implemented through political pressures,” said independent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, according to CNN. “The conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank.”

Trump also told reporters that he had already discussed the idea to relocate Gazans with King Abdullah of Jordan on Saturday. He said he planned to bring up the plan during a Sunday phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah A-Sisi.

Trump’s proposal would be a departure from the United States’ official position of forging a negotiated “two state solution” for Israel and Palestine, although some say that the United States’ policies towards the region, including the nearly unqualified support for Israel during its campaign in Gaza, have undercut that goal.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich endorsed Trump’s remarks, according to CNN, saying “the idea of helping [Gazans] find other places to start new, better lives is a great idea.”

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘This is Ethnic Cleansing’: Trump’s Idea for Jordan and Egypt to Take Gazans Triggers Outrage

Deadly heat waves in Mecca and Greece underscore climate crisis

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https://www.axios.com/2024/06/17/heat-waves-greece-mecca-saudi-arabia-climate-crisis

As the U.S. faces another potentially record heat wave this week, the Middle East and Europe’s Mediterranean have endured extreme temperatures that have proven deadly.

The big picture: Multiple heat-related deaths have been reported in Greece during the country’s earliest heat wave on record and Jordan’s official news agency said Sunday “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” in the searing heat while on the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Tourists outside the Acropolis during high temperatures in Athens, Greece, on June 12, when authorities announced the closure of the ancient site for five hours due to soaring temperatures that also shut schools. Photo: Hilary Swift/Bloomberg via Getty Images
  • The heat waves sweeping these regions this month have been made “at least five times more likely” because of human-caused climate change, per new Climate Central analysis.

Context: Climate Central’s analysis is based on the group’s Climate Shift Index (CSI), which compares observed or forecast temperatures with simulations of the same weather conditions minus excess atmospheric greenhouse gases, per Alex Fitzpatrick.

  • The idea is to compare real-world conditions with what might have been the case had human-caused climate change been absent.
  • Saudi Arabia had a CSI of 5, meaning that human-caused climate change made a given daily average temperature five times more likely as of Monday morning. Greece, which has endured two weeks of extreme heat, had a CSI of 5 last week and 2 on Monday. Parts of Turkey had a CSI of 5.

Between the lines: Greece has been among the worst-affected European countries for extreme weather caused by the climate crisis in recent months, enduring an intense heat wave, severe wildfires and heavy rains flooding the country’s streets last year.

  • A joint report by UN and European Union agencies found in April that Europe’s temperatures are rising about twice as fast the global average due to human-caused climate change — making it the fastest-warming continent on Earth.

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Continues at https://www.axios.com/2024/06/17/heat-waves-greece-mecca-saudi-arabia-climate-crisis

Continue ReadingDeadly heat waves in Mecca and Greece underscore climate crisis

Protesters across Arab countries call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

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Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Protesters gather in Amman in Jordan demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Photo: Al Mayadeen

People took to the streets in a number of countries across West Asia and North Africa after the UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire. However, Israel refused to heed the call and continued its attacks on Gaza on Tuesday

Large-scale protests broke out in different parts of West Asia and North Africa on Monday, March 25 in support of Palestine with people chanting slogans against the Israeli war in Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire. People took to the streets in a number of countries in the aftermath of the UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire.

Jordanian security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse protesters who tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman. Thousands of these protestors chanted slogans in solidarity with the people in Gaza and in support of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Many of them carried Palestinian flags which they hoisted in nearby buildings.

Similar protests took place in other parts of the country. A day before, Jordanian forces had prevented a large group of people from marching to the Israeli embassy.

Protests were also organized in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and Cairo in Egypt as well on Monday where hundreds gathered to chant slogans in support of Palestine and demand an immediate ceasefire.

Hundreds also gathered in Tangiers in Morocco to demonstrate against the continued Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Protests were also organized in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem and in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Hundreds of Palestinians, defying Israeli dictates and ongoing attacks, took to the streets in the morning to call for a ceasefire.

The protests followed the UNSC resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The resolution was adopted after the US, which had blocked three similar previous resolutions, decided to abstain. All the other members of the Security Council supported the resolution.

The resolution called for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan and for working towards a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages. It was welcomed by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas and most of the countries in the region.

Hamas reiterated its demand for a permanent ceasefire that would lead to the complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of all Palestinians displaced due to the war over five months.

Nearly the entire population of Gaza, around 2.3 million, has been displaced due to the Israeli war which has killed more than 32,000 and wounded close to 74,000 Palestinians.

The Iranian foreign ministry welcomed the UNSC resolution, calling it a positive step and demanded its immediate implementation. It also demanded the lifting of all blockades on the supply of aid to Gaza and the opening of all border crossings to the besieged territory and immediate resumption of reconstruction.

Israel has however rejected the resolution. It carried out fresh attacks on Gaza on Tuesday, killing dozens of Palestinians.

The resolution accepted by the Security Council is binding on all members of the UN. However, only a fresh vote in the Security Council can decide the future course of action in case one particular party chooses not to implement it.

Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingProtesters across Arab countries call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza