Al-Jazeera Video: Syrian forces shell Damascus

"Activists in Syria's capital say government troops and armoured vehicles have entered central Damascus, and are shelling several neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile, Russia has said it would block moves at the UN Security Council to extend a UN monitoring mission in Syria if Western powers did not stop resorting to "blackmail" by threatening sanctions against Damascus."

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة -- التحرك الدولي بشأن سوريا بعد مجزرة التريمسة،

Armor heads for Damascus districts after heavy clashes

"(Reuters) - Clashes between rebels and government forces erupted for a second day in the Syrian capital on Monday, activists said, in some of the fiercest fighting to hit Damascus since the 17-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began.

Armored vehicles rolled into the southern district of Midan and snipers deployed on rooftops, residents said. Heavy machine gun fire could be heard in video uploaded by activists in the area.

"Security forces entered the neighborhood, there is a real war going on right now," a resident in Midan said....."

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Do you support continuation of political efforts concerning the Syrian crisis?

With over 400 responding so far, 80% said no.

Video: دمشق تدمير سيارة أمنية في حي الميدان 16/7/2012

"تدمير سيارة أمنية وقتل الشبيحة الموجودين فيها خلال الإشتباكات في حي الميدان المجاهد بين عصابات الأمن والشبيحة والمجاهدين الأحرار
"

Bashar al-Assad could face prosecution as Red Cross rules Syria is in civil war

Declaration signals that Geneva-based organisation regards all civilians and detainees as protected under international law

Martin Chulov in Beirut andJulian Borger
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 July 2012

"The International Committee of the Red Cross says Syria is now in a state of civil war, a definition it suggests could change the rules of engagement in the violence-ravaged country and help lay the ground for war crimes prosecutions.....

The ICRC ruling marks a significant moment in the Syrian uprising, which during the past year has changed from a series of anti-regime protests into a full-blown insurrection. It had previously said that localised states of civil war existed in Homs, Hama and Idlib. The ICRC is considered to be a guardian of the Geneva convention, which prescribes the rules of warfare. The declaration signals that the Geneva-based organisation regards all civilians and detainees as protected under international law....."

Egyptians pelt Clinton motorcade with tomatoes

"CAIRO (Reuters) - Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton's delegation in the port city of Alexandria.

A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles.

Protesters chanted: "Monica, Monica", a reference to Former President Bill Clinton's extra-marital affair. Some chanted: "leave, Clinton", Egyptian security officials said......"

فهمي شبانة: شخصيتان فلسطينيتان رفيعتان متورطتان في اغتيال عرفات

عــ48ـرب

"اتهم ضابط المخابرات الفلسطيني السابق، والعضو السابق في لجنة التحقيق الرسمية، فهمي شبانة، من وصفهم بالشخصيات الفلسطينية الرفيعة بمقتل الزعيم ياسر عرفات، مؤكدا أنه يقصد شخصيتين فلسطينيتين تحديدًا، الأولى شخصية أمنية رفيعة من قطاع غزة، والثانية شخصية سياسية غطت على الجريمة، وأن تلك الشخصيتين عملتا بتوجيهات اسرائيلية.

وادعى شبانه في المقابلة التي سيجري بثها كاملة مساء اليوم، ضمن برنامح "مجلة الشرق الأوسط"،على محطة "ريشت بيت" الإذاعية الناطقة بالعبرية، أن القيادة الفلسطينية تمتلك معلومات كثيرة جدا حول اغتيال أبو عمار، لكنها غير معنية بنشرها.
....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Photographer provides alternative account from Tremseh

A MUST WATCH VIDEO


"Syria has dismissed reports it carried out a massacre last week.

The foreign ministry concedes that the army killed 37 fighters in the Hama town. Jihad Makdissi, foreign ministry spokesman, maintains that the forces of Bashar al-Assad did not use tanks, artillery, or planes in what some called a "massacre" last week.

But a Spanish journalist is supporting an activist account that more than 200 people were killed.

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports."

Al-Jazeera Video: Syrian artist pays ultimate price

"Since the uprising began in Syria, people from all walks of life have taken up the fight on both sides. Artist Moheed Zuhori used pens, crayons and whatever he could find, to support the anti-government uprising. And as Will Jordan reports - he paid the ultimate price."

Syria: Palestinians and the Syrian Revolution

Written by Yazan Badran 

On 13-14 July, 2012  mass demonstrations erupted in the Palestinian Refugee Camp Yarmouk and Tadamon in Damascus. The Syrian regime's brutal response led to seven deaths on July 13. The next day their funeral processions brought an even larger protest out, where four more people were killed.

Palestine has been the single most influential player in Syria's political history since independence. Playing host to more than 500,000 Palestinian refugees who have almost exactly the same rights and privileges as Syrian citizens, Syria has both influenced and been influenced by their cause and their plight. In fact, Syria and the Arab World's first coup d'état in 1949 was a direct result of the catastrophic 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Syria's Baathist regime has based its entire legitimacy on its unwavering support to the Palestinians. But that role has always been more complex and divisive on the Palestinian side. The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat saw the late president, Hafez Assad, as co-opting their cause rather than supporting it. Those divisions sometimes turned very bloody like in the massacre of Tel al-Zaatar, or the Syrian-sponsored attacks on the Palestinian camps during the Lebanese Civil War, known as War of the Camps.

“There's a Palestinian soul in every revolutionary”, by@sha3eb3aref

The Syrian revolution has brought these divisions to the surface again, but with the added immediate concern about their own well being inside Syria itself. Prominent Palestinian writer and activist Ali Abunimah reflects that concern:

@AliAbinimah: I think Palestinians in Syria are vulnerable and I don't like the way “both sides” trying to use and recruit them.

Anaheed al-Hardan of Electronic Intifada, compiles an extensive report on Palestinians in Syria and their relationship with the revolution and the concerns that come with that. She concludes that:

What these latest rounds of events tell us is that the fictive boundaries between Palestinians in Syria and the unrest are just that, becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain.

As the situation on the ground continues to change, the fate of the Palestinians in the country, like the fate of Syrians and the country as a whole, remains uncertain. However, unlike their Syrian counterparts, Palestinians are refugees with nowhere to go in the event of the further deterioration of the turmoil in Syria.

The breakthrough in Palestinian involvement in Syria's revolution came in the aftermath of the Traymseh Massacre, when  mass demonstrations erupted in the Yarmouk and Tadamon refugee camps in Damascus on 13-14 July.

Palestinian demonstrations in the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus (Source)

But long before the Palestinians actually entered the fray on the ground, their support of the revolution was already being voiced. Palestinian activist Budour Hassan writes about the “Syrian Uprising Through Palestinian Eyes“:

Palestinians chanted “Yallah Irhal Ya Bashar” [Bashar, leave!] in Nazareth, Haifa, Jaffa, Baqa, Jerusalem, Bil’in and Nabi Saleh. Many of us will continue to do so since it’s our duty to stand on the side of those who sing for freedom, dance, and even make jokes through the horror visited by bullets and mortar shells. A victory for the brave Syrian people over Assad’s tyranny will be a triumph for every oppressed community in the world.

But other Palestinian writers have been less than pleased with the course taken by Syria's revolution and have seen it as a failure at best. Prominent Palestinian academic Joseph Massad writes:

Those who see the Syrian popular struggle for democracy as having already been hijacked by these imperial and pro-imperial forces inside and outside Syria understand that a continuation of the revolt will only bring about one outcome, and it is not a democratic one - namely, a US-imposed pliant and repressive regime à la Iraq and Libya. If this is what the Syrian demonstrators are struggling for, then they should continue their uprising; if this is not their goal, then they must face up to the very difficult conclusion that they have been effectively defeated, not by the horrifying repression of their own dictatorial regime which they have valiantly resisted, but rather by the international forces that are as committed as the Syrian regime itself to deny Syrians the democracy they so deserve.

While these debates rage between the Palestinians themselves, they will necessarily be influenced by the latest developments on the ground. Syria-Palestinians choice to enter the fray on the side of the revolution will yet again change the nature of Syria's relationship with the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Syria - Nawaf Fares: 'The Syrian regime is dead'

"He is one of the highest-profile defectors from the Syrian regime. Until a few days ago, Nawaf Fares was Bashar al-Assad's ambassador in Baghdad, Iraq's capital. He has been a very prominent figure in Damascus for years. After a career with the police, he served as governor in several Syrian provinces. He held senior Baath party posts since the time of the late president Hafez al-Assad. And finally he was appointed ambassador to Baghdad in 2008, which made him the first Syrian envoy to Iraq for nearly three decades. Fares, a Sunni who is said to have close ties to Syrian security, is the second senior diplomat to quit the embattled government since the beginning of the Syrian uprising. The first was Bassam Imadi, the Syrian ambassador to Sweden. Western diplomats have hailed recent defections as a sign that the al-Assad government is slowly beginning to crumble from within. So, why did Fares, once known as a confidant of the president, change sides? What is really going on inside the corridors of power in Damascus? And what does he make of the latest diplomatic moves as rival draft resolutions are exchanged at the UN - in the aftermath of yet another massacre which some say may have killed as many as 200 people? Inside Syria, with presenter James Bays, speaks exclusively to Nawaf Fares, the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq and one of the regime's high-profile defectors."

Video: كتروا الطبّالين ـ سميح شقير

Cartoons of the Syrian Cartoonist Ali Ferzat

The Butcher of Damascus and the Tremseh Massacre, by Emad Hajjaj

Brotherhood Wins, Military Prevails

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

"CAIRO, Jul 15 2012 (IPS) - The first major confrontation between Egypt’s new Islamist president and its quasi-ruling military council – fought over the issue of legislative authority – appears to have been won by the latter.

“The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies may have swept last year’s parliamentary polls, but lawmaking power remains in the hands of the military,” Magdi Sherif, political analyst and head of the Guardians of the Revolution Party established in the wake of last year’s Tahrir Square uprising, told IPS. “And recent developments have drawn Egypt’s judiciary into the conflict.”.....

“The recent constitutional court rulings only confirm that Egypt’s judiciary, like most other state institutions, remains full of Mubarak loyalists with counter-revolutionary agendas,” Mohamed Aweida, leading member of the as-yet-unlicensed Arab Unity Party told IPS from the square.

“The idea that these court rulings are being used to achieve political ends has a lot to support it,” Sherif, too, conceded. “This includes the uncanny timing of its initial verdict dissolving parliament, issued only days before last month’s presidential runoff.

“What’s more, the constitutional court took only 45 days to arrive at a ruling, when decisions on major constitutional issues usually take years,” Sherif added. He went on to note that two similar Mubarak-era HCC rulings – both regarding the constitutionality of parliament – had taken five and two years, respectively, to decide."

Syria troops targeted opposition fighters in Tremseh, says UN

Observer mission says government forces specifically aimed to take out fighting-age males from anti-Assad groups

Martin Chulov in Beirut
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 July 2012

"....Residents said they fled their homes and as regime forces entered and said some of them were hunted down in nearby crop fields. "We don't understand why they attacked us," said a local woman, Umm Khaled. "We haven't brought harm to the region. All we've done here is hold demonstrations.

"I swear that we don't have any terrorists, Salafists, or anyone from the outside here. People have been terrified ever since [regime forces] came to the village in January and killed 40 of us. This time they stole from our homes, they robbed jewellery from women. All of this because we support the revolution?"

A second Tremseh resident, who wanted to be known only as Mohammed, said: "The bombardment started at 5.30am and ended at 2pm. The incursion started at midday from the north of the village. Shabiha and regime military men entered the village and occupied the roofs of high buildings and shot at anything moving.

"They shot many civilians in the head and then burned the bodies. They handcuffed civilians and then shot them in the head. They burned shops and houses with families inside. After what happened, the FSA [Free Syrian Army] members tried to get inside the village to help with burying the martyrs and tending to the wounded but they couldn't.

"The criminals took many martyrs' bodies and wounded civilians with them and there are many missing people and burnt dead bodies with no way to identify them."......"

Egypt: President Morsy Should End Military Trials of Civilians

Pardon the Thousands, Including Children, Convicted in Such Trials

Human Rights Watch
July 15, 2012

"(New York) – In one of the first real tests of the powers of the civilian president since the military “handover to civilian authority,” President Mohamed Morsy should pardon all those convicted by military courts. He should also order an immediate end to military trials of civilians and refer those against whom there is sound evidence of criminal activity to trial before civilian courts. On July 13, 2012, the committee that Morsy established to review cases of civilians sentenced by military courts recommended that the president pardon all of them.

According to the latest statistics given to committee members by the military, 2,165 civilians remain imprisoned after trials before military tribunals since January 28, 2011. In 2011, military courts tried over 12,000civilians, convicting at least 9,000, including hundreds of political activists, but most of the cases related to ordinary criminal activity. Military prosecutors have interrogated and detained at least 54 children from March 2011 to date, and have sentenced children with up to 15 years, Human Rights Watch research has found.

“International law is crystal clear on this – no civilian, regardless of the crime, should be tried by a military court. It doesn’t take a committee to confirm that,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “President Morsy should take the principled human rights stance and pardon all civilians convicted by military tribunals.”......"

جريمة بحق الثورة

By Azmi Bishara
12 يوليو 2012

"لا يجوز باي حال من الأحوال أن يمر القادة السياسيون والميدانيون مرور الكرام على جرائم يرتكبها اي كان باسم قضية عادلة، أو أن يصمتوا على تجاوزات جنائية وغير أخلاقية من نوع تعذيب وقتل أسرى وتقليد مخابرات الأنظمة في العنف اللفظي والجسدي وبثها على ال"يو تيوب" باسم معاناة الناس والضحايا. فمن فعل ذلك لم يعد ضحية، بل وارتكب جريمتين: ألاولى بحق ضحيته، والثانية بحق الضحايا الذين يدعي أنه ينتقم باسمهم وبحق القضية العادلة التي أساء لها.

وطبعا تسيء مثل هذه الممارسات للشرعية الأخلاقية للنظام القادم. فسوف يضطر الناس للكذب للتغطية عليه عند كتابة تاريخ الثورات. وهو ما حصل في العديد من الدول، وكان الثمن الثقافي والسياسي غاليا وسم لعناصر جنائية وانتهازية أن تتغلعل الى الصدارة. إن إدانة مثل هذا السلوكيات لا تمس بعدالة الثورة والقضية التي تمثلها بل تزيدها مصداقية، ولا تمس بشعبية القيادي الذي يدينها بل تزيده شعبية ومصداقية. وهذا أصلا هو الفرق بين القائد والسياسي. فالقائد لا يخشى قول الحقيقة لجمهوره. ولا تكفي الإدانة اللفظية بل يجب العمل بحزم على تنقية صفوف الثورات من مثل هذه الممارسات.
"

Syria massacre: Assad's forces 'shot anything moving'

The small town of Tremseh has suffered what may be the single worst atrocity of the Syrian uprising, say eyewitnesses

Martin Chulov in Beirut
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 14 July 2012

"Residents of the battered Syrian town of Tremseh have described being chased from their homes and hunted down by regime forces after seven hours of shelling during a major assault that left more than 150 people dead last Thursday.

The first observers to reach the devastated town on Saturday described widespread scenes of destruction, and many residents appeared to be too traumatised to talk about their ordeal. The massacre in the small farming community of 6,000 to the north-west of Hama is being described as the worst single atrocity of the Syrian uprising.

Two eyewitnesses from Tremseh who spoke to the Observer blamed regime forces and the pro-regime militia, the Shabiha, for the attack, which has seen many of its residents flee and left more than 100 people missing. "We don't understand why they attacked us," said a local woman, Umm Khaled. "We haven't brought harm to the region. All we've done here is hold demonstrations."

Khaled, who had lived in Tremseh – a Sunni Muslim enclave – all her life, said people trying to flee through nearby fields were shot dead as they ran. She claims some of the bodies were taken away by regime forces and that others were handcuffed, then summarily executed.....

In a recent report on Houla, the UN said it could not say who was responsible for the massacre, which killed 108 people, but implied that regime forces and their backers had played a role. The two Tremseh witnesses who spoke to the Observer claimed that some of their attackers came from the direction of Alawite villages, which they named as Safsafeyeh, Tal Sikeen and Falha. "Relations between us and the Alawite villages were always peaceful but some of the Shabiha did come from there," said Mohammed.

Umm Khaled said: "We had no problems with them for a long time, but now we fear them. We don't want to go near their villages."......"

Exclusive: Red Cross ruling raises questions of Syrian war crimes

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday Prayers in Houla near Homs July 13, 2012. Placard read,''Kofi Annan get out of Syria''.

"(Reuters) - The Red Cross now views fighting in Syria as an internal armed conflict - a civil war in layman's terms - crossing a threshold experts say can help lay the ground for future prosecutions for war crimes.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions setting down the rules of war, and as such is considered a reference in qualifying when violence has evolved into an armed conflict.

The independent humanitarian agency had previously classed the violence in Syria as localized civil wars between government forces and armed opposition groups in three flashpoints - Homs, Hama and Idlib.

But hostilities have spread to other areas, leading the Swiss-based agency to conclude the fighting meets its threshold for an internal armed conflict and to inform the warring parties of its analysis and their obligations under law.

"There is a non-international armed conflict in Syria. Not every place is affected, but it is not only limited to those three areas, it has spread to several other areas," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in response to a query.

"That does not mean that all areas throughout the country are affected by hostilities," he said.

The qualification means that people who order or commit attacks on civilians including murder, torture and rape, or use disproportionate force against civilian areas, can be charged with war crimes in violation of international humanitarian law......

"What matters is that international humanitarian law applies wherever hostilities between government forces and opposition groups are taking place across the country (Syria)," Hassan said. "This includes, but is not necessarily limited to Homs, Idlib and Hama."

Andrew Clapham, director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, said the ICRC assessment of the conflict, which he shared, was important.

"It means it is more likely that indiscriminate attacks causing excessive civilian loss, injury or damage would be a war crime and could be prosecuted as such," Clapham told Reuters.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a speech on June 26 that his country was in a state of war.

RULES OF WAR

The rules impose limits on how fighting may be conducted, so as to protect civilians and ex-combatants not taking part in the hostilities.

They require the humane treatment of all people in enemy hands and the duty to care for the wounded and sick. It also means parties to the internal conflict are entitled to attack military targets, but not civilians or civilian property......

In areas of Syria which are outside of the hostilities but also hit by violence linked to civilian demonstrations, international human rights law - which bans extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary arrests - continues to apply, according to the agency.

"In particular, measures taken against such demonstrations with the purpose of restoring order must respect international law and standards governing the use of force in law enforcement operations," Hassan said."