Yemeni boys 'raped by Saudi-backed militiamen' inside mosque

Children as young as eight have been raped in a besieged city in war-hit Yemen, Amnesty International said on Monday, with Saudi-backed militiamen among the suspected perpetrators.

Three boys were raped and a fourth was sexually assaulted in the southwestern city of Taiz, Amnesty said, noting it had documented evidence of the sexual attacks that took place in the city controlled by pro-government forces and surrounded by Yemeni rebels.

The families of the four boys, aged eight to 16, told Amnesty their sons had been assaulted over the past eight months, including at a mosque, but authorities in the area had not been responsive.

All four families reported the assaults to the Criminal Investigations Unit in Taiz, Amnesty said. No legal measures had been taken.

"Rape and sexual assault committed in the context of an armed conflict are war crimes," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.

"Commanders who fail to stop such heinous acts can themselves be responsible for war crimes."

The mother of an eight-year-old boy told Amnesty her son had been raped at least twice in 2018 at a mosque, each time by two men including the son of an Islah-affiliated imam.

Al-Islah is a Saudi-backed Yemeni Islamist party.

Medical reports reviewed by Amnesty showed the boy suffered impaired mobility and concussions as a result of assault.

The father of a 13-year-old boy reported his son had been raped by the same two men at the same mosque.

Another boy, who reported being raped in December, told Amnesty he had been assaulted at gunpoint by an "Islahi-aligned militiaman".

"He was unable to sit afterwards or go to the bathroom for three days," the mother of the 16-year-old said.

"He just sat there staring into space."

Other unreported cases are likely, Amnesty said, as families are often too afraid of militias, which have flourished in the chaos of war, to come forward.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/3/11/yemeni-boys-raped-by-saudi-backed-militiamen-inside-mosque

Critics Say Anti-Semitism Bill Infringes On 1st Amendment By Banning Criticism Of Israel

Critics of a Florida House bill that aims to crack down on anti-Semitism say the legislation is too narrow because it fails to address other forms of xenophobia and hate crimes, and that it violates the First Amendment by criminalizing legitimate criticisms of the State of Israel.

HB 741, which would specify that the term “religion” include anti-Semitism for purposes of the hate crime statute, among other things, passed unanimously in the Criminal Justice Subcommittee Tuesday morning.

The bill is sponsored by Representatives Randy Fine (R-Brevard County), who is Jewish, and Michael Caruso (R-Delray Beach). The cosponsors are Representatives Jason Fischer (R-Jacksonville), Chip LaMarca (R-Lighthouse Point) and Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers).

Rep. Fine told members of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee that he filed the bill in response to a recent uptick in anti-Semitism. “As we have seen in recent weeks, unfortunately, anti-Semitism is alive and well in this country,” he said. “You can see it in the mainstreaming of certain language that’s been used in Washington D.C.”

“I'm not Jewish, but I stand here with Fine because it doesn't take being Jewish to know what's right and wrong,” Rep. Caruso added. “Anti-Semitism is a genocidal hatred that led to the death of over six million Jews, and it didn't end with the Holocaust.”

Fine said the bill, with an amendment introduced Tuesday morning, will do three main things: “The first thing that the bill will do is it will take the federal definition of anti-Semitism, the most widespread used definition of anti-Semitism in the world, and make it the Florida definition of anti-Semitism. The second thing the bill does is it requires all K-20 public institutions treat anti-Semitism in the same way that they treat racism on their college campuses, identifying the intersectionality of racism and anti-Semitism. And then the last thing that it does is it says that as it comes to our educational policy, you can't discriminate on religion of any kind as it relates to our public educational institutions.”

The bill also cites what it calls “examples of anti-Semitism related to Israel,” which includes “blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions” and “focusing peace or human rights investigations only on Israel.”

https://news.wjct.org/post/critics-say-anti-semitism-bill-infringes-1st-amendment-banning-criticism-israel

AIPAC annual conference to feature Israeli settler leader discussing the future of the West Bank

For the first time in AIPAC’s history, the lobby group has invited a senior leader of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to speak at its annual convention in Washington, D.C. this month.

According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, AIPAC invited Oded Ravevi, Mayor of the illegal Efrat settlement and the Yesha Council’s foreign envoy, to take part in a panel discussion on “the future of Judea and Samaria.”

“AIPAC has finally realized that they cannot ignore half-a-million people living in Judea and Samaria, who are becoming more and more attractive to the audience of AIPAC,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Revivi as saying.

AIPAC has traditionally refrained from establishing, or publicizing, official ties with the settlement movement, in efforts to maintain its image as an organization “committed to the two-state solution.”

Ravevi’s invitation to speak at AIPAC is largely being regarded as an official “warming of ties” between the lobby and the settler movement — a relationship that has long existed under wraps.

For years the Yesha Council has hosted several US delegations and AIPAC-led congressional trips in the occupied West Bank over the past few years, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“In many instances, the guests, among them members of Congress, met with Revivi, who garnered praise for his appearances and became a sought-after speaker,” Israel Hayom said of the trips hosted by the Yesha Council.

“He [Ravevi] believes that the success of some of the AIPAC delegations that visited Judea and Samaria helped sway the US group to bring him to Washington,” The Jerusalem Post said.

In response to criticisms following Ravevi’s invitation, AIPAC spokesman Marshall Whitman told the Times of Israel that the settler leader’s presence at the conference did not “mark a shift in their longstanding policy,” and that they remained committed to a two-state solution.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/conference-feature-discussing/

What is UK Lawyers for Israel’s relationship to the Israeli government?

The group UK Lawyers for Israel is one of the quietest yet most influential Israel lobby actors currently operating in Britain.

Since 2011, it has closely monitored the Palestine solidarity movement and worked to repress it, often with significant impact.

The ‘lawfare’ organisation has especially targeted organisations promoting the Palestinian-initiated Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) – from academics to students unions, architects to local councils – by lodging complaints with regulatory bodies and sending letters threatening legal action.

It has even obstructed the work of charities such as Medical Aid for Palestinians and War on Want, working in close collaboration with the US-based Lawfare Project to do so.

But where did UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) come from and who is behind it?

The UKLFI website describes the organisation as ‘a voluntary organisation of lawyers who support Israel using their legal skills’.

Companies House records that UKLFI was first registered in in October 2010, originally under the name ‘Action 4 Peace Limited’. In September 2016, UKLFI also registered as a charity which has a separate website but most of the same patrons.

These ‘eminent patrons’ include a host of pro-Israel British peers such as Lord Carlile, Baroness Deech, Lord Howard, Lord Pannick, Lady Cosgrove, Lord Trimble and Lord Young of Graffham.

The organisation’s registered address is that of Three Stone Chambers, where Jonathan Turner – UKLFI chief executive and one of its listed directors – works as a commercial barrister. Turner was previously head of the UK Zionist Federation’s legal division.

Other trustees include Harvey Rose and Alan Melkman, respectively a former chair and volunteer with the Zionist Federation; Adam Levin, also a registered trustee of the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society; and Helene Pines Richman, a Conservative Party councillor in Barnet.

Cementing these right wing credentials, Mark Lewis – a UKLFI director until he moved to Israel late last year – was also involved in the relaunch of Herut UK which espouses revisionist Zionist ideas like those of Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Most interestingly, UKLFI appears to have – at the very least – an informal working relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

For example, in January 2017 the group hosted a talk by the former director general of the MFA. But this relationship has been apparent since its very early days. In January 2013, it gave a platform to Arthur Lenk of the MFA’s legal division. As far back as June 2012, UKLFI co-hosted a two-day seminar with the MFA and the Israeli Embassy in London.

In fact, UKLFI’s connection to the MFA may go back right to the start. Curiously, there is a page on the official MFA website dated May 2011 dedicated solely to announcing the creation of UKLFI.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/lawyers-relationship-government/

Chief French Artillery Colonel in Syria Slams US for Cowardly Civilian-Killing Tactics, Prolonging the War vs ISIS

Faces punishment for saying US focus on limiting risks to own troops drove up price for civilians, allowed ISIS to survive longer, prolonged the war

A senior French officer faces punishment after publicly condemning the US-led coalition’s military tactics against Daesh in the east of Syria, accusing Washington of prolonging the conflict and disregarding a growing civilian death toll, the army said on Saturday.

Colonel Francois-Regis Legrier – who has been in charge of directing French artillery supporting Kurdish-led groups in Syria since October – said the coalition’s focus had been on limiting its own risks and this had greatly increased the death toll among civilians, as well as raised the level of destruction.

“Yes, the Battle of Hajin [near Syria’s eastern border with Iraq] was won, at least on the ground but by refusing ground engagement, we unnecessarily prolonged the conflict and thus contributed to increasing the number of casualties in the population,” Legrier wrote in an article in the National Defence Review.

France is one of the main allies in the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq, with its warplanes used to strike militant targets, its heavy-artillery backing Kurdish-led fighters and its special forces leading the ground assault.

“We have massively destroyed the infrastructure and given the population a disgusting image of what may be a Western-style liberation leaving behind the seeds of an imminent resurgence of a new adversary,” he said, in rare public criticism by a serving officer.

“We have in no way won the war because we lack a realistic and lasting policy and an adequate strategy,” Legrier said. “How many Hajins will it take to understand that we are on the wrong track?”

Legrier’s article has embarrassed French authorities just days before the coalition is expected to announce the defeat of the terror group; the article was removed from the review’s website on Saturday.

“A punishment is being considered,” French army spokesman Patrick Steiger confirmed to reporters.

Hajin was the last major towns held by Daesh militants and was the target of the final phase of “Operation Roundup” that started September, with heavy battlesalso centring on the Al-Shafah area near the Iraqi border. Six months on, a rapidly-diminishing few hundred militants have been battling on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River, hemmed in by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border and by Iranian-backed Shia militias on the other.

https://russia-insider.com/en/chief-french-artillery-colonel-syria-slams-us-cowardly-civilian-killing-tactics-prolonging-war-vs