Palestine recalls Bahrain envoy, denounces latest deal as 'another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause'.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner travelled to Bahrain as part of his Middle East tour earlier in September [Bahrain News Agency/Handout via Reuters]

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Bahrain has joined the United Arab Emirates in agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, in a US-brokered deal that Palestinian leaders denounced as "another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause".

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, announced the deal on Twitter on Friday after he spoke by phone to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"This is truly a historic day," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, saying he believed other countries would follow suit.

"It's unthinkable that this could happen and so fast."

Joint Statement of the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the State of Israel pic.twitter.com/xMquRkGtpM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020

In a joint statement, the United States, Bahrain and Israel said "opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region".

A month ago, the UAE agreed to normalise ties with Israel under a US-brokered deal scheduled to be signed at a White House ceremony on Tuesday hosted by Trump, who is seeking re-election on November 3.

The ceremony is due to be attended by Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The joint statement said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani will join that ceremony and sign an "historic Declaration of Peace" with Netanyahu.

Like the UAE agreement, Friday's Bahrain-Israel deal will normalise diplomatic, commercial, security and other relations between the two countries. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, had already dropped a ban on Israeli flights using its airspace.

Friday's joint statement only made passing mention of the Palestinians, who fear the moves by Bahrain and the UAE will weaken a longstanding pan-Arab position that calls for Israeli withdrawal from already illegally occupied territory and acceptance of Palestinian statehood in return for normal relations with Arab countries.

The statement said Bahrain, Israel and the US will continue efforts "to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realise their full potential".

'Grave harm'

Netanyahu welcomed the agreement and thanked Trump.

"It took us 26 years between the second peace agreement with an Arab country and the third, but only 29 days between the third and the fourth, and there will be more," he said, referring to the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the more recent agreements.

For its part, Bahrain said it supports a "fair and comprehensive" peace in the Middle East, according to BNA state news agency. That peace should be based on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the report said, quoting King Hamad.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, hailed the agreements as "the culmination of four years of great work" by the Trump administration.

Speaking to reporters in a call from the White House soon after Friday's announcement, Kushner said the UAE and Bahrain agreements "will help reduce tension in the Muslim world and allow people to separate the Palestinian issue from their own national interests and from their foreign policy, which should be focused on their domestic priorities".

The Palestinian leadership, however, condemned the agreement as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and recalled the Palestinian ambassador to Bahrain for consultations.

Palestinians have protested against Arab states normalising ties with Israel [File: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]

In a statement, the Palestinian Authority said it "rejects this step taken by the Kingdom of Bahrain and calls on it to immediately retreat from it due to the great harm it causes to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people and joint Arab action".

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, called the normalisation "another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause". And in Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Bahrain's decision to normalise relations with Israel "represents a grave harm to the Palestinian cause, and it supports the occupation".

'A purely Saudi decision'

Khalil Jahshan, executive director at the Arab Center of Washington, said Saudi acquiescence was key to Bahrain's decision.

"It is a purely Saudi decision. In the absence of the ability, due to internal constraints, by the leadership in Saudi Arabia to respond positively to Trump, they gave him Bahrain on a silver platter."

Bahrain, a small island state, is home to the US Navy's regional headquarters. Saudi Arabia in 2011 sent troops to Bahrain to help quell an uprising and, alongside Kuwait and the UAE, in 2018 offered Bahrain a $10bn economic bailout.

Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, agreed, saying Palestinian officials believe the Bahrain and the UAE deals would not have happened "without regional backing".

"The fear among the Palestinians is that these deals are a green light for more Arab states to normalise with Israel," she said. "And many Palestinians say that for years they saw the US as Israel's lawyer or partner and now they see it as Israel's agent. That's because Trump is the one announcing these normalisation deals."

Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued staunchly pro-Israel policies, including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ordering the PLO to shutter its Washington, DC, office and recognising Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

The US president and his advisers have championed a so-called "deal of the century" proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and they have courted Arab Gulf states to try to drum up support for that initiative.

Bahrain, for example, hosted a US-led conference in June 2019 to unveil the economic side of the proposal, and Emirati and Saudi leaders voiced support at the time for any economic agreement that would benefit Palestinians. Palestinian leaders boycotted that summit, however, saying the Trump administration was not an honest broker in any future negotiations with Israel.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said while the deals between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE are not high on the list of priorities for most US voters, a large portion of Trump's supporters are Evangelical Christians who favour his pro-Israel positions.

Halkett said Trump is trying to show them before the November 3 contest that he can get the "deal of the century" done in his second term.

"He's acting as if this is a framework that will bring about that so-called 'deal of the century'," Halkett said, despite the fact that "the president and his administration's representatives are not even talking to the Palestinians right now".

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Source=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/israel-bahrain-agree-establish-full-diplomatic-ties-200911171014685.html

October 12, 2019

Source: Washington Post

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, left, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed disembark from an airplane upon arrival at Juba International Airport in South Sudan before meeting with South Sudan’s president for tripartite talks on regional affairs on March 4. (Akuot Chol/AFP/Getty Images) By Adam Taylor October 11 at 2:14 PM

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, with the committee that decides the awards singling out his efforts to achieve peace with neighboring country Eritrea.

But notably, the prize was not awarded to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Abiy’s partner in the talks.

Instead, Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen simply acknowledged that “peace does not arise from the actions of one party alone” and said that they hope the “peace agreement will help to bring about positive change for the entire populations of Ethiopia and Eritrea.”

In some years, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to multiple parties for their work trying to end a conflict. In 1994, for example, the prize was awarded to Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But the decision to award the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize only to Ethiopia’s Abiy was hardly surprising. Eritrea’s Isaias leads one of the most repressive military dictatorships in the world; his government has been compared to North Korea and accused of possible crimes against humanity.

And even though he reached an agreement with Abiy in Eritrea’s capital last year to end the conflict between the two nations, in practice the agreement remains largely unimplemented, and there have been little visible benefits for Eritreans.

“I think there was a lot of hope in Eritrea,” said Laetitia Bader, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But very quickly, Eritreans saw that things were not changing on the ground.”

Vanessa Tsehaye, an Eritrean activist based in London, noted, “I’d say it has brought no positive developments for the Eritrean people, because the lived reality is the same more than a year after the peace deal.”

The conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia stretches back decades. After European powers left occupied Eritrea in 1951, landlocked Ethiopia claimed the land of its coastal neighbor, eventually resulting in a civil war that started in 1961 and lasted three decades.

In 1991, Eritrean forces helped overthrow the communist-led government in Ethiopia, and two years later, Eritreans voted for independence.

However, the two nations did not reach an agreement on the border between them, and in 1998, small-scale border incidents around the town of Badme grew into a full-fledged conflict. It’s estimated that almost 100,000 people died, and after it ended, Ethiopian troops had control of Badme and other disputed areas.

As part of a peace agreement brokered in Algiers, in 2000, a commission cited colonial-era documents to rule that the land around Badme was part of Eritrea. But Ethiopia did not agree to the arbitrated border, and the two sides remained in a standoff.

Their relationship was dubbed “no war, no peace,” which meant that diplomatic, trade and transport ties were severed, and the countries remained on a war footing, clashing repeatedly and supporting rival rebel groups.

Abiy, a former intelligence officer who had taken part in the operations to drive Eritreans out of Badme, took office as Ethiopia’s prime minister in April 2018 and almost immediately began changes in the country, which had long been ruled by authoritarian governments.

On June 5, 2018, Abiy made a key pledge to accept the peace agreement with Eritrea and withdraw Ethiopian troops from occupied territory. Within weeks, Isaias responded by saying that both nations yearned for peace.

Just a month after Abiy’s announcement on July 8, the Ethiopian leader touched down at the airport in Eritrea’s capital Asmara, where he was greeted by Isaias. The leaders embraced and later announced they would reopen embassies, allow direct communications and restore transport links.

“Love is greater than modern weapons like tanks and missiles,” Abiy said. “Love can win hearts, and we have seen a great deal of it today here in Asmara.”

Despite the signs of goodwill, critics say not much has changed between the two nations. Among the Eritrean diaspora, many voiced disapproval for the Nobel Peace Prize focusing on the agreement with Eritrea when so little had changed in practice.

“I didn’t know one could win a peace award without achieving peace!” Selam Kidane, a London-based activist wrote on Twitter.

Border crossings between Ethiopia and Eritrea were opened last year, but Eritrea soon closed the border again. Analysts suspect that Eritrea, which has virtually complete control over its citizens, is delaying because of fears about wider reform.

Isaias, a former freedom fighter, has led the country since 1993, and his government has left no room for opposition. In 2015, the United Nations released the results of a year-long investigation into human rights in the country, finding “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” including extrajudicial killing, torture and forced labor.

Bader said that there was little evidence that there had been any positive change to some of the most restrictive elements, such as the arbitrary arrest of people for perceived political crimes, or the indefinite national service that sees many Eritreans permanently conscripted to the military.

“The government has often argued that it was the ‘no war, no peace’ situation with Ethiopia was what forced it to conscript its whole population,” Bader said.

Jeffrey Smith, the director of Vanguard Africa, said that he viewed the Nobel Prize as “encouraging Prime Minister Ahmed and the new regime in Ethiopia as much if not more than it is about the progress already made.”

But for activists such as Tsehaye, the peace deal had helped legitimize Isaias, the leader of an isolated and repressive nation of 5 million people on the world stage. The Eritrean leader had traveled with Abiy to foreign nations, and the United Nations lifted sanctions on Eritrea.

“Peace is always a good thing, it’s never something that we should be against,” Tsehaye said, “but we need to understand peace beyond its literal meaning of no war.”

Source=https://eritrea-focus.org/why-eritrea-didnt-win-a-nobel-for-its-peace-accord-when-ethiopia-did/

ርእሰ-ዓንቀጽ ሰዲህኤ

ካብቶም ለንቅነ ኣብ ማሕበራዊ መራኸብታት ብዛዕባ ኤርትራ ክዝረቡ ዝቐነዩ ግና ብናይ ህግዲፍ መርበብ 03 ዝተማህዙ ከይኮኑ፡ ዕቱብን ደቂቕን ምጽራይ ዘድልዮም ወረታት፡ “ኣብ ዓድታት ካርንሽም ብዙሓት ስድራቤታት ተኣሲሮም ናብ ዘይተፈልጠ ሕቡእ ኣብያተ-ማእሰርቲ ተወሲዶም፡ ጠዓመ መቐለ ዝተባህለ ቀራን ኢደ በይዛ ሰለያ ዲክታቶር ኢሳያስ ኣፈወርቂ ተቐይዱ፡ ኤቨን ዘካርያስ ዝበሃል ኣብ ኤርትራ ንብዙሓት ደም ዘንበዐ፡ ኣብ ኣዲስ ኣበባ ሓሊባይ ሎጅ ብዝብል ትካል ተኸዊሉ  ክንቀሳቐስ ዝጸንሐ ተቐንጺሉ፡ መራሕ መኪና ኣንበሳደር ኤርትራ ኣብ ኢትዮጵያ ኣብ መኪናኡ ተቐቲሉ…” ዝብሉ ካብቶም ብዙሓት ናይ ህውከት እምበር ናይ ቅሳነት ዘይኮኑ ንፋሳት እዮም። ልዕሊ ኩሉ ከኣ “ተሳተፍቲ መበል 34 ዙርያ ናብ ሳዋ ክወርዱ ጀሚሮም” ዝብል  ኣብ መድረኽ ዘሎ በዓል ቅነ ኤርትራዊ ወረ እዩ። እዚ ዘየሕጉስ ወረታት ንኤርትራዊ ሃዋህው ኣብ ዝበከለሉ፡ ኣብ ጐረቤትና ትግራይ ግና ብኣንጻሩ “ትግራይ ትመርጽ” ብዝብል ጭረሖ ናይ ጽንዓትን ዲሞክራስያዊ መሰልካ ምጥቃምን መኸተ፡ ኣብ ዓበይቲ ማዕከናት  ጸላዊ  ዜና ኣብ ዝኾነሉ ህሞት ምዃኑ፡ ደላይ ሰላምን ለውጥን ኤርትራዊ ብቕዱስ ቅንኢ ሓሪኑ ንዝያዳ መኸተ ክዕጠቕ ዝጽውዕ እዩ።

እዚ ኩነታት፡ እቶም ኣብ ሓደ ታሪኻዊ ኣጋጣሚ ኣንጻር ናይ ሓባር ጸላኢኦም ስርዓት ደርጊ ሓቢሮም ብምቅላስ ናይ ሓባር ዓወት ዘመዝገቡ ህዝብታት ኤርትራን ትግራይን ሎሚ  ዘለዉዎ ሃለዋት ከነነጻጽር ዘገድደና እዩ። ውጽኢት ምንጽጻርና  ናበይ ከም ዝመርሓና ከኣ ፍሉጥ እዩ።  ህዝቢ ኤርትራ ብመንጽር ፖለቲካዊ ኣተሃላልዋ  ህዝቢ ትግራይ ኣብ ኣዝዩ ዝኸፈአ ደልሃመት ከም ዘሎ ክንቅበሎ እንቕሰብ ሓቂ እዩ። ሎሚ ንሃለዋት ህዝቢ ኤርትራ ዝምልከት ዝውረ ሕማቕ እምበር፡ ጽቡቕ ዛዕባ የለን።

እታ ኣብ ሓደ ታሪኻዊ ኣጋጣሚ ምእንቲ ሃገርን ህዝብን ዝብጀዉ ሓርበኛታት ብምምልማልን ምዕጣቕን ጽቡቕ ዝና ዝነበራ መደበር ታዕሊም ሩባ ሳዋ፡ ሎሚ ብሰንኪ ህግዲፍ ምስሊ ኤርትራውነት ዝድውን ዘይሰብኣውን ዘይዲሞክራስያውን ስርሒታት ዝፍጸመላ ገሃነም ኮይና ስለ ዘላ፡ ሳዋ ኣማን ብኣማን ክልተ ግዜ ተራእያ። ካብዚ ኣበሳዚ ወጺኣ ራህዋ ትርእየሉ ግዜ ከመጸላ  ከኣ ትጽበ ኣላ። እተን ገበን ጉጅለ ህግዲፍ ብዝለዓለ ደረጃ ዝፍጸመለን ዘይተዓደላ ቦታታት ኤርትራ፡ ዕራዒሮ፡ ናኹራ፡ እምባትካላ፡ ዓዲ ኣበይቶ፡ ምዕጢር፡ ዊዓ………ወዘተ እንዳበልካ እንተ ዘርዚርካየን ብዙሓት እየን።  ሳዋ ግና ናይ ወለዶታት ምትኽኻእ ኣብ ሓደጋ ዘእትወት ስለዝኾነት ዝገደደ እዩ። ምኽንያቱ እዛ ዘይኢዳ ዝረኸበት ሳዋ፡ ኤርትራዊ መንእሰይ ካብ ኩሉ መሰላት  ዝሕየረላ፡ ዝምድና ተመሃራይን ወለዱን ዝብተኸላ፡ ኤርትራዊ ባህላውን ሃይማኖታውን ክብርታት ዝበላሸወላ፡ ንጸቢብ ኣፍራሲ ህግዲፋዊ ጉጅለ ዘገልግል ጸይቂ ባህሊ ዝህንደሰላ፡ መንእሰያትን ትሕቲ ዕድመን ደቂ ኣንስትዮ ካብ ኤርትራዊ ባህሊ ወጻኢ ናይ ዝኾኑ ኣርሒቖም ዘይርእዩ ኣረመንየ ጉግማጉግ ዓለምቲ መጻወትን ከደምትን ዝኾነላ፡ መንእሰይ ተማሂሩን ሓዳር መስሪቱን ትውልዳዊ ሃገር ናይ ምቕጻል ሓላፍነቱ ከይፍጽም ዝዝረዓላን ኩሉ ጸልማት ምስ ኮኖ ናብ ስደት ዝነቕለላን ማእከል ገበን ኮይና ኣላ።

እዚ “ደቂ ሃገር ኢና” ብዝብሉ ኤርትራዊ ስነ-ምግባር ዝቐበጾም፡ ዘይወግሕ ዝመስሎም፡ ንድሕሪት እምበር ንቕድሚት ዘማዕዱ ቀልቢ ዝረሓቖምን ብግዝያዊ ጽሩራ ዝሰኸሩን ወገናት ኣብ ሳዋ ዝፍጸም ዘሎ ገበን፡ ሓደ መርኣያ ካብ ገበናት ጉጅለ ህግዲፍ እምበር፡ ንኹሉ ኣብ መዝነት ዘሎ ዝውክል ኣይኮነን ዝብል እምነት ኣለና። ኣብ ዝተፈላለዩ ኩርነዓት ሃገርና፡ ንዓሰርተታት ዓመታት እሱራት ተዓጽየሙለን ዘለዋ ኣብያተ-ማእሰርቲ፡ ነናተን ክብደት ገበን ኣለወን። ኣብ ሳዋ ዝፍጸም ዘይሰብኣዊ ገበናት ዘሕድሮ ሻቕሎት ኣብ ኤርትራዊ ክሊ ጥራይ ዝድረት ዘይኮነ፡ ሕብረተሰብ ዓለም እውን ህግዲፍ ካብ ከምዚ ዓይነት ኣብዚ ንርከበሉ መዋእል ከጋጥም ኢልካ ዘይትጽበዮ ባርነት ንክቑጠብ በብግዜኡ መጸዋዕታ ዘቕርበሉ ብሰንክቲ  ኣብ ሳዋ ዝትግበር ዘሎ “ደረት ግዜን ኣገልግሎትን ዘየብሉ” ግዱድ ዕስክርና እዩ። እዚ ኣብ ሳዋ ዝፍጸም ገበን ኣብ ቀልቢ ብዙሓት ኣገደስቲ ሳባትን ዘይመንግስታዊ ትካላትን ቆላሕታ ዝረኸበሉ ቀንዲ  ምኽንያት፡  ኤርትራውያን ኣብ ኩሉ ዝተሰደድሉ ኩርነዓት ዓለም፡ ጠንቂ ስደቶም እቲ ካብ ሳዋ ዝነቅል  “ደረት ዘየብሉን ኣገዳድን ዕስክርና” ምዃኑ ስለ ዝገልጹ እዩ።

ተመኩሮ ሳዋ ድሕሪ ናጽነት፡ ህግዲፍ ኣብ ልዕሊ መንእሰያትና ገበን ዝፈጸመሉ ጥራይ ዘይኮነ፡ ኣብ መወዳእታ መላኺ ኣተሓሳስባኡ ዝቕበረሉ ነቑጣ ክኸውን እዩ። ህግዲፍ ነቲ ዘይተርፍ  ስዕረቱ ንዘይምቕባል እዩ፡  ነቲ ሳዋ ዝመበቆሉ ግዱድን ደረት ዘየብሉን ወተሃደራዊ ፖሊሲኡ  ጠጠው ንከብል ዝቐርቦ ምሕጽንታ ዘይቅበሎ። ዝተፈላለዩ ኤርትራዊ ሓልዮት ዘንቀሎም ወገናት፡ ብቐንዱ ከኣ ባይቶ ሰብኣውን ዲሞክራስያውን መሰል ሕቡራት ሃገራት፡ ብተደጋጋሚ ከቐርብሉ ንዝጸንሑ ምሕጽንታታት’ውን፡ ዘይርትዓውን ዘይወድዓውን ትምክሕታዊ ምስምሳት ብምቕራብ ክነጽጎ ጸኒሑ። ሳዋ ኩሉቲ ሎሚ ኣብኣ ዝፍጸም ዘሎ ሰብኣውን ዲሞክራስያውን ግህሰታት ኣወጊድካ፡ ሃገር ኣብ ምክልኻልን ምህናጽን ዝነጥፍ፡ ክብሪ ህዝቢ ዘቐድም ብሕጋዊ ትካል ዝመሓደር ብቑዕ ዓቕሚ ኣብ ምፍጣር ዘትከለ ኣገባብ ጥራይ መንእሰይ ዝምልመለላ እንተትኸውን፥ ዓለም ኣይመኻዓበታን። ሰልፊ ዲሞክራሲ ህዝቢ ኤርትራ’ውን ነዚ ኣብ ግምት ብምእታው፡ ኣብ ፖለቲካዊ መደብ ዕዮና፡ “ ሃገራዊ ኣገልግሎት ብቅዋም ዝጸደቐ ናይ ግዜ ገደብ ዝህልዎ ዜጋታት ኣብ ውትህድርና ጥራይ ዘይኮነ ኣብ ዘዝመረጽዎ ዓይነት ሞያ ኣገልግሎት ዝህቡሉ ትካል ክኸውን ከምዝግባእ ይኣምን።” ብዝብል ዝሰፈረ ዓንቀጽ ኣለና።

ህዝቢ ኤርትራ ንመደባት ሳዋ ካብቲ ዝተበገሰሉ ጀሚሩ “ይኹን” ኢሉ ብዘይስኽፍታ ኣይተቐበሎን። ውጽኢት መስርሕ ፕሮጀክት ሳዋ ምስተራእየ እውን ክትቃወሞ እምበር፡ ክትድግፎ ዘተባብዕን ዘብህግን ኣይነበረን። ምዃን እኳ ኣብ ግዜ ህግዲፍ ዝንጸግ እምበር ተቐባልነት ዝረክብ ፍጻመ የለን።  ብፍላይ ኣብዚ ህዝብና ብምኽንያት ኮሮና ቫይረስ መተካእታ ኣብ ዘየብሉ ተዓጽዩ፡ ኣደዳ ጥምየትን ጽምእን ዝኾነሉ ዘሎ እዋን፡ መንእሰያት ኣገዲድካ ናብ ሳዋ ምውሳድ ምስቲ እዋናውነቱ “ሳዋ፡ መዓስ እዩኸ ክርህዋ?” ንዝብል ሕቶ  ጽባሕ ዘይኮነ “ሎሚ” ዝብል መልሲ ክረክብ ዝግበኦ’ዩ።