Palestinian Assault on Freedoms

[Gatestone Institute]() [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [RSS]( [Donate]( In this mailing: - Khaled Abu Toameh: [Palestinian Assault on Freedoms](#toc_item_9950) - Robbie Travers: [UK: Free Speech for Dictators Only](#toc_item_9951) - Burak Bekdil: [Turkey: Record-Breaking Purge in Academia](#toc_item_9949) - Shoshana Bryen: [The Arab-Israel Conflict: Back to the Future](#toc_item_9953) [] [Palestinian Assault on Freedoms]( by Khaled Abu Toameh • February 16, 2017 at 5:00 am - The Palestinians seem to be marching towards establishing a regime that is remarkably reminiscent of the despotic and corrupt Arab and Islamic governments. - By failing -- or, more accurately, refusing -- to hold the PA accountable for its crackdown on public freedoms, American and European taxpayers actively contribute to the emergence of another Arab dictatorship in the Middle East. - Palestinian professor Abdel Sattar Qassem, who teaches political science at An-Najah University in Nablus, is facing trial for "extending his tongue" against PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior PA officials. - Many Palestinians used to say that their dream is that one day they would have a free media and democracy like their neighbors in Israel. But thanks to the apathy of the international community, Palestinians have come to learn that if and when they ever have their own state, its role model will not be Israel or any Western democracy, but the regimes of repression that control the Arab and Muslim world. Professor Abdul Sattar Qassem (left) is facing trial for "extending his tongue" against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) and other senior PA officials. A novelist, a journalist and a university professor walk into a bar. Sounds like a joke, but it stops being funny when these three figures are the latest victims of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) crackdown on public freedoms, above all, freedom of expression. The crackdown is yet more proof of the violent intolerance that the Western-funded PA has long shown its critics. It is also a sad reminder that more than two decades after the foundation of the PA, Palestinians are as far from democracy as ever. In fact, the Palestinians seem to be marching in the opposite direction -- towards establishing a regime that is remarkably reminiscent of the despotic and corrupt Arab and Islamic governments. [Continue Reading Article]( [] [UK: Free Speech for Dictators Only]( by Robbie Travers • February 16, 2017 at 4:30 am - How come, then, that John Bercow did not think it advisable to oppose the Emir of Kuwait's visit due to its "sexism" and "immigration ban"? No, Bercow granted the Emir a speech in the Queen's Robing Room. - It is evidently acceptable to be a representative of some of the world's most repressive dictatorships, with policies far worse than President Trump's, and yet visit Parliament, but a democratically-elected leader in the free world and a key ally, who may hold some views with which Bercow disagrees, makes him unacceptable. - What is it that the people trying to keep Trump from speaking are afraid others might hear? UK Prime Minister Theresa May meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House, January 27, 2017. (Image source: UK Prime Minister's Office) When Theresa May announced, to the gathered press at the White House, an invitation for Donald Trump to make an official state visit to the United Kingdom, there were some in Britain who apparently oppose his views -- and, in a democratic and free society, express their opposition. There also were, however, concerns that these critics may have been acting hypocritically, as well as without considering due process. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow declared that he would not invite Trump to make a speech before Parliament due to the president's alleged "sexism" and "racism," and the British Parliament's opposition to those stances, as well as, further, due to Trump's temporary restrictions on immigration until better procedures for vetting applicants can be put in place . Bercow, however, never adhered to due process: he should first have consulted the Speaker of the House of Lords or the Lord Chamberlain. [Continue Reading Article]( [] [Turkey: Record-Breaking Purge in Academia]( by Burak Bekdil • February 16, 2017 at 4:00 am - Turkey suffered the largest decline in freedoms among 195 countries over the past year, according to Freedom House. - Erdogan's academic purge is 38 times bigger in size than the generals' after the 1980 military coup. - According to data compiled by Turkey Purge, PEN International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Stockholm Center for Freedom, 128,398 people have been sacked, while 91,658 are being detained. - Worse, neither the academics on the purge list nor their students were allowed to protest peacefully. Their attempted protest on February 10 at the School of Political Sciences in Ankara met a huge police force and was crushed. - You have all the freedoms you want -- so long as you are a pro-Erdogan Islamist. Professor Yuksel Taskin, who was recently purged from an Istanbul department of journalism, tweeted: "This is a pure political 'cleansing'. But my conscience is clear. Let my students know that I shall never, ever bow down!" (Image source: Hakan YÜCEL video screenshot) Nearly three centuries later -- and slightly revising the historian Shelby Foote's famous line -- "A Turkish university, these days, is a group of buildings around a small library, a mosque and classrooms cleansed of unwanted scholars." The "Great Turkish Purge" launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist, autocratic government in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July surprised many in its size. It should not have done. The failed putsch gave Erdogan's government a golden opportunity to advance his crackdown on dissent of every kind. No wonder Erdogan, on the night of the attempt, said: "This [coup attempt] is a gift of God". [Continue Reading Article]( [] [The Arab-Israel Conflict: Back to the Future]( by Shoshana Bryen • February 16, 2017 at 3:00 am - What is commonly called the "Palestinian-Israeli conflict" is, in fact, the "Arab-Israel conflict." - Jordan illegally annexed the West Bank in 1950, and from that time Palestinian nationalism has been deadly for the Kingdom. - "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror... to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts.... A Palestinian state will never be created by terror -- it will be built through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled attempts to preserve the status quo." — President George W. Bush, 2002. - "There's no way a deal can be made if they're not ready to acknowledge a very, very great and important country." — President Donald J. Trump, 2017. - The burden, then, is on the Arab states and the Palestinians. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address a press conference at the White House, February 15, 2017. (Image source: White House video screenshot) The optics, certainly, were fine. It was good to see an American president and an Israeli prime minister standing together on the podium with what appeared to be genuine good will. Most important, and promising for the future, perhaps, was how they dealt with the "two state solution" mantra. There was, for the first time in years, nuance in both the American and the Israeli position toward what has become a slogan without meaning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the possibility of two states with caveats he noted: [Continue Reading Article]( You are subscribed to this list as {EMAIL}. 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