Month: July 2006

What did Materazzi tell Zidane?

One possibility, as reported by the AP:

The Paris-based anti-racism advocacy group SOS-Racism issued a statement Monday quoting “several very well informed sources from the world of football” as saying Materazzi called Zidane a “dirty terrorist.” It demanded that FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, investigate and take any appropriate action.

FIFA, which reviews all red cards at the World Cup, would not comment on the specifics.

“This is a disciplinary matter now. I can’t give any statements now,” FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said.

Materazzi, meanwhile, was quoted as denying the terrorist comment

“It is absolutely not true, I didn’t call him a terrorist, I don’t know anything about that,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Materazzi as saying when he arrived with his team at an Italian military airfield.

Lying mafiosi…

Update: The Times adds:

With many conflicting versions of events circling on the internet and in the world’s media, The Times enlisted the help of an expert lip reader, Jessica Rees, to determine the precise nature of the dialogue that caused Zidane to react in such a manner.

After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure, supporting the natural assumption that the Frenchman must have been grievously insulted.


Update 2: See below for SP’s comment on a Le Monde article that suggests Zidane’s sister may have been insulted, as well as his mother. These Italians know no boundaries… Also, check out this.

Sharqawi receives death threats in Tora

I have received troubling news from activist sources that Youth for Change detainee Mohamed el-Sharqawi has been subject to death threats in Tora prison, where he’s currently detained.

3alaa has posted on his blog some details about Sharqawi’s current ordeal.

Here’s an English translation:
Mohamed Sharqawi is subject to death threats from the police informer who supervises his prison cell at Mahkoum Tora Prison. Sharqawi has been banned from leaving his cell, unlike other prisoners. He was also told by a State Security informer in prison that “we can get rid of you by a dirty needle in the bathroom that will infect you with any lethal disease.� Sharqawi is increasingly coming under abusive treatment since the release of Kefaya detainees. He’s been separated from Karim el-Sha3er since they received another renewal of their detention.

Sharqawi said during a prison visit on 10 July, “I’ve been subjet to hassles from some criminals, motivated by the police officers. One of the criminals who sympathized with me was also punished, in a warning message to anyone who helps or sympathizes with me.�

Palestinian-Americans barred from entering Palestine

The ever-tightening noose:

Israel bars Palestinian Americans for first time since 1967

By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent

For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans.

Most of those refused entry are arriving from abroad, but have lived and worked for years in the West Bank.

. . .

The Interior Ministry and Civil Administration made no formal announcement about a policy change, leaving returnees to discover the situation when they reach the border crossings.

By various estimates, the ban has so far affected several thousand American and European nationals, whom Israel has kept from returning to their homes and jobs, or from visiting their families in the West Bank. This could potentially impact many more thousands who live in the territories – including university instructors and researchers, employees working in various vital development programs and business owners – as well as thousands of foreign citizens who pay annual visits to relatives there. The policy also applies to foreigners who are not Palestinian but are married to Palestinians, and to visiting academics.

Read the whole thing, and don’t miss the comments for the debate…

Update: Five Arab and Jewish members of a Belgian NGO, Artists Against the Wall, were refused entry yesterday.

Parliament endorses new press law

The NDP-controlled parliament has passed the govt’s new press law few minutes ago.

I still don’t have details. But it seems, due to pressure from journalists and activists, Mubarak “stepped in” to cancel the proposed article that imprisons journalists who criticize “government officials’ financial integrety.” It seems, however, the HUGE fine that was to accompany the imprisonment is still there in the new law.

I’m going out now, but will try to update the post later in the day.

UPDATE: Here’s a Reuters report on the new “tough press law.”
The law, even with Mubarak’s “last-minute intervention,” is abusive and horrible. With this new press law, and the Administrative Court’s ruling in favor of blocking blogs that “threaten national security”–one can expect The Arabist contributors to join Sharqawi soon in Tora inshallah…

ما تننسوش العيش والحلاوة

AUB’s John Waterbury in diplomats’ target?

The Angry Arab reports that US diplomats are trying to punish American University in Beirut’s John Waterbury for having awarded a honorary degree to Robert Fisk:

I hear that John Waterbury, the president of American University of Beirut, is in big trouble with the US government. Apparently, the US embassy in Lebanon is most displeased that Robert Fisk was awarded an honorary doctorate from AUB. In his speech, Fisk gave a scathing indictment of US foreign policy. That did not sit well with the embassy, which is lobbying Washington, I am told, to punish Waterbury. They found a technical irregularity in one of the advertised posters, and will be using that to discredit Waterbury.

Waterbury is an important American academic who’s written many great books on, among others, Egypt and Morocco. If this turns into something, be ready to support him and defend academic freedom. After all, I don’t like another recipient of the same honor (Nasser Kharafi of the eponymous Kuwaiti mega-corporation), but don’t think Waterbury should be punished for it!

Hundreds march against new press law

I arrived in Tahrir Sq 10:50am. Today, as 25 newspapers went on strike, the Press Syndicate and other political groups had called for a demo in front of the People’s Assembly (Egyptian parliament) to protest the government’s press law which, if passed today as expected, is to imprison journalists who “slander� government officials and their financial corruption, as well as “presidents of friendly countries� (for example Bush, Olmert, Blair et al)! Continue reading Hundreds march against new press law

“Obedience is starting to evaporate”

An American prof’s impression of what is happening in Cairo now. Please read:
Darkness on the Edge of Cairo
by John William Salevurakis
Every day I walk from my fashionable neighborhood to the university and pass a pair of very kind, white-uniformed police officers. They stand in their almost blindingly clean attire, only a block from my crumbling apartment building, smoking Egypt’s cheapest Cleopatra cigarettes and directing traffic. “Ya Pasha!” they shout, “Habibi!” This is my daily greeting as I pass and kiss each of them on both cheeks. Since I came here from Utah nearly two years ago, I have been “a ruler” and their “dearest one” nearly every day. I don’t smoke but they commonly offer me a cigarette so I will take the time to uneasily chat in my pidgin Arabic. We talk about mundane things like the summer heat or when I’ll again be visiting America or Europe. In Cairo, the mundane is really of immense value as a symbol. It is a social ritual, it seems, representing calm and a certain degree of material prosperity, a sign that one can afford to be concerned about such things pertaining to one’s self and others. With regularity, however, the calm is now broken on the edges of Cairo, and the darkness, fueled jointly by domestic and foreign powers, is creeping in from the edges of town. Everybody’s got a secret, it seems.
On May 25th, Karim Al-Shaer and Mohammed Al-Sharkawy were arrested at a local protest and taken to the Kasr El Nil police station near my apartment. They were beaten and tortured, and Al-Sharkawy was sexually abused, and then turned over to State Security Forces, at which point their long-term futures became even more uncertain. The two were then allegedly denied medical care and remanded to the Tora Prison for a minimum of 15 days under Egypt’s widely criticized yet strikingly familiar “Emergency Laws” which have been in place, almost without interruption, for the last 38 years. A second protest on June 2nd (Correction: actually it was June 1st) saw the detainment of three Egyptians and an L.A. Times reporter who also had his camera smashed by police in front of the Kasr El Nil station. It was loudly and repeatedly noted by security: “There’s no permit for a protest today for the demonstrators. There is no permit for the coverage by reporters!” Historically, no one has asked any questions when faced with statements such as these . . . but that obedience is starting to evaporate. Continue reading “Obedience is starting to evaporate”

26 newspapers to go on strike tomorrow

The number of independent and opposition publications that will go on strike tomorrow, in protest of the new press law the Egyptian regime has proposed, has risen to 26.
A national boycott of state-owned publications has been called for by activists, who are to demonstrate in front of the parliament 11am tomorrow.

Correction: There’s confusion around the number of strikers. While the statement says 26, other media reports say 25. I’m gonna confirm the number as soon as I can. Sorry about that…