MANAMA: A broadcast by Bahrain’s official news agency on Tuesday said Qatar was behind the “tragic events” of 2011, which saw an upsurge in protests by the Arabian Gulf island-state’s Shiite majority.
Investigations by Bahraini experts found that “the reason behind the first demonstration was Qatari,” according to the TV report.
“Day after day, the secrets of the Qatari conspiracy are being revealed regarding the tragic events of 2011 in Bahrain ... in order to achieve the goal of the Qatari regime. Chaos, destruction, conspiracies and schemes were carried out by the Qatari regime as cheap shots against Bahrain. Bahrain handled this firmly and with wisdom, unlike the Qatari regime,” according to the report.
The report added: “Qatar launched the first spark that triggered chaos and subversion in Bahrain, by using social media for sedition through a comprehensive scheme that used the financial, logistical and media support for violence and terrorism acts in Bahrain. The roots of this conspiracy go back to Jan. 26, 2011, one day after the beginning of demonstrations in Egypt in the context of the so-called Arab Spring.
The first spark of the civil strife was launched in Bahrain, when an account called ‘Good News Informer’ published on the online site bahrainonline.org an invitation to fix a day, claiming to agree on Feb. 14, and carried on to the following phase of determining the
place in the context of a clearly defined scheme.”
Bahrain: Qatar was behind ‘tragic’ 2011 protests
Bahrain: Qatar was behind ‘tragic’ 2011 protests
Palestinian NGO condemns Israeli act of ‘revenge’ after prisoner abuse video
- A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military priso
RAMALLAH: A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face-down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al?Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far?right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps — it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hard-line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride — arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them — the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners.”
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
