Arab News Blog

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: “Amos Oz: Arab Liberal Love for Israel.”

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“I arrived at the bridge, went through the routinized luggage and security screenings and headed for the passport window. The woman in the occupying army at the window asked me questions when it was my turn. She asked me what I was planning to do in “Israel,” a word and question that makes my blood boil given that I was clearly trying to enter Palestine. Although I have spent extended periods of time living in Palestine since the summer of 2005, this is the first time I did not say that I was doing research as my reason for entering. This question normally got all sorts of questions, too, but at least it did not implicate my friends, something I had been unwilling to do before now. When I first went to Palestine in 2005 I used names of colonists, because I would much rather to have them questioned, but since 2006 when I adopted a policy of anti-normalization I refuse to speak to or normalize with a single colonist other than the occupying soldiers I am forced to deal with at the border and at checkpoints. I had arranged beforehand with my friend to say that I would be staying with him since he lives in Jerusalem and I wanted to make sure that I did not get one of those new stamps that said I can only enter the West Bank (my real plan was to stay in Doha, but I did not want to give additional names of friends). I was also asked how long I would be staying, and even though I had only planned to come for the weekend, I said I was not sure because I wanted to avoid getting one of the increasingly frequent stamps that is only for one week. I was worried that it would have implications for longer visits in the future. In the past I have always been given the three-month visa at the bridge (I’ve never entered the airport in occupied Lydd). But there have been occasions in the past when I wanted to come just for a wedding, just for the weekend when I was still given a three-month visa.” (thanks Marcy)

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“Some Jordanian shopkeepers place posters at the doors of their shops reading “Sorry, we do not receive dogs & Israelis”, according to an Israeli army radio broadcast on Thursday.” (thanks Natalie)

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Okay, Journalism 101: who, what, when, where, why? An Arab News story with a headline that does what it should, grabbing the reader: “Saudi Writer Charged with Blasphemy.” Read the link first, then consider: a “Saudi writer” (unnamed) is facing a possible charge of blasphemy because “a number of people” (unnamed) have alleged that he “allegedly insult[ed] the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)” because he “allegedly described a Hadith of the Prophet [unspecified] as barbaric,” on Al-Hurra, the US-backed Arabic channel.

I suppose if I search Al-Hurra long enough I might figure out who he is, what he said, and what hadith is involved, but so far all I can Google up is the Arab News story. But would a Saudi writer really say something negative about the Prophet on an American channel? Was he critiquing a strong hadith or a weak hadith? Is he a “writer” with religious qualifications?

Beats me. Recently we’ve seen other evidence that some Saudi citizens seem to forget where they’re living, but a Saudi writer really ought to know the ground rules. If we ever hear more of this, which is far from guaranteed, it will be interesting to learn what the details are, because right now they aren’t obvious.

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In the absence of a Vice President, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif has been Egypt’s acting President in the absence of Husni Mubarak in Germany. Here’s a piece in The National noting that Nazif is getting low marks for his leadership during the absence.

No surprise there. Under Egypt’s strong Presidential system (which gives the President roughly the powers exercised by, say, Ramses II, and the Prime Minister little authority at all), the Prime Minister is just the top bureaucrat/technocrat. The notion that, as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, he can tell the Minister of Defense or Minister of the Interior what to do, would generate guffaws from most Egyptians, probably including Nazif himself. If critics are criticizing him for not saying enough about the death of the Sheikh al-Azhar, which is mentioned in the article, it’s doubtless because he hasn’t yet been told what he thinks on the matter. The next Sheikh al-Azhar will be chosen by Husni Mubarak or someone else in the senior elite, not Nazif.

While I’m on Egypt, though I’ve been cribbing a lot from The Arabist lately, he has posted a video essay on the Mubarak years which, while clearly partisan, has a lot of interesting historical video, and since he has posted embed codes, I’ll pass it on:

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WRAP: U.S. president postpones Asia trip to June ahead of cliffhanger vote on historic health pan overhaul.
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UPDATE 2: Anti-govt protesters plan to gridlock capital with traveling rally after rejecting talks by PM.
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Politico/ here

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