JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a senior cabinet member with a criminal record on Sunday, complying with a Supreme Court ruling even as he pursues contested judicial reforms that would curb its powers.
Pledging to find “every legal means” of keeping Aryeh Deri in public office in future, Netanyahu told him during a weekly cabinet session he was being removed from the interior and health ministries, according to an official transcript.
A Deri confidant, Barak Seri, told Army Radio earlier on Sunday that the portfolios would be kept by other members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Shas as it remains in the coalition.
The Supreme Court last week ordered Netanyahu to dismiss Deri, citing his 2022 plea-bargain conviction for tax fraud.
That ruling stoked a stormy debate in Israel — accompanied by nationwide protests — over reform proposals that Netanyahu says will restore balance between the branches of government but that critics say will undermine judicial independence.
A poll in Israel Hayom newspaper found 35 percent support for Netanyahu’s bid to shake up the system for bench appointments, with 45 percent of respondents opposed. There was just 26 percent support for his government’s bid to enable parliament, with a one-vote majority, to override some Supreme Court decisions.
In his cabinet statement, Netanyahu described the Deri ruling as “regrettable” and “indifferent to the public will.”
Settler outpost
The less than month-old religious-nationalist coalition creaked elsewhere as a far-right partner boycotted the cabinet session in protest at the demolition on Friday of a small settler outpost that had been erected in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, ordered the outpost to be razed as it had no building permit — over the objections of the Religious Zionist party, which had sought to delay the decision.
The incident pitted Galant against Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, who wields some cabinet responsibilities for West Bank settlements under a coalition deal with Netanyahu.
A group of settlers tried on Sunday to rebuild the outpost but they were blocked by Israeli security forces. Seven people were detained, said a border police spokesman.
“This (settlements) is a capstone issue for our participation in the government,” National Missions Minister Orit Strock of Religious Zionism told Israel’s Kan radio. She declined to elaborate on what steps the party might take next.
In solidarity with Religious Zionism, fellow far-right coalition party Jewish Power said it would demand that Israel implement a long-delayed evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar, a Bedouin Palestinian encampment in a key West Bank area near Jerusalem.
World powers have urged Israel not to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar, worrying about another potential blow to efforts to negotiate the creation of Palestinian state alongside Israel. Most countries deem Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal.
Israel PM Netanyahu fires minister in compliance with Supreme Court order
https://arab.news/bn4q9
Israel PM Netanyahu fires minister in compliance with Supreme Court order
- The Supreme Court last week ordered Netanyahu to dismiss Deri, citing his 2022 plea-bargain conviction for tax fraud
- World powers have urged Israel not to demolish Khan Al-Ahmar, worrying about another potential blow to efforts to negotiate the creation of Palestinian state alongside Israel
Sahara celebrates desert cultures at Chad festival
- Amdjarass, which is home to several nomadic peoples, is located in far northeast of Chad, a vast, sparsely populated region renowned for its dramatic rock formations and desert landscapes
AMDJARASS, Chad: In the heart of the Sahara, where the routes to Sudan and Libya cross, the Chadian city of Amdjarass has been transformed this week into an open-air celebration of desert culture.
Until Friday, Amdjarass hosts dance troupes, musicians, traditional storytellers, craftspeople, cooks and nomadic camel drivers from across the vast region.
Niger, the guest of honor at the sixth Amdjarass International Festival of Saharan Cultures (FICSA), hailed the event as a way to foster peace in a region beset by conflict and climate change.
“In a world rife with tensions, crises and misunderstandings, culture remains a space for encounter and dialogue, enabling us to understand and respect each other and build together,” Niger’s crafts and tourism minister Aghaichata Guichene Atta told the opening ceremony on Saturday.
“Our countries have everything to gain by joining forces to make culture a tool for peace, development and employment,” she said, to cheers from the crowd.
Atta highlighted the role of Saharan women in keeping desert cultures alive down the centuries.
In a shapeshifting region where traditions are seldom archived on paper, the women “carry the living memory of Saharan societies through their songs, their stories, their hands that weave, shape, cook and educate.”
Amdjarass, which is home to several nomadic peoples, is located in far northeast of Chad, a vast, sparsely populated region renowned for its dramatic rock formations and desert landscapes.
The once dusty village, now a grid-shaped city, derives its name from “djarass,” the Arabic word for bell, in reference to a strange white rock that rings in the wind and was once used to warn locals of raids by rival tribes.
- Spark interest in the desert -
Local Issak Bassam, 27, said he was delighted the festival had returned to his hometown after a break of seven years due to the covid pandemic, the change of president in 2021 and organizational problems.
“I haven’t got the money to travel so this festival is a way for me to meet people from different horizons and celebrate Saharan culture in all its diversity,” he told AFP.
Amdjarass was the stronghold of late president Idriss Deby Itno, who hailed from the area and ruled Chad for 30 years until he was killed during clashes with rebels and his son was handed the reins of power.
For current Prime Minister Allah Maye Halina and festival founder Issouf Elli Moussami, FICSA is not just an excuse for a week-long outdoor party.
It is also a lever for encouraging tourism into an area far off the beaten track.
Guitarist Omar “Bombino” Moctar from Niger, who played his blend of Tuareg blues-rock to a crowd gathered under the desert stars, said he hoped the festival would spark the world’s interest in a region about which it knows little.
“Through my music, I want to share happiness with all the peoples of the desert, bring them together and explain to the whole world the dangers we face,” he said.
