Middle East Experience

Unfortunately, coronavirus does not allow us to celebrate this year as we generally would.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: World synagogues call on public to recite special Hanukkah COVID prayer

Rev. Warnock also said he opposes the BDS movement.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Ahead of Georgia Senate runoff, Rev. Warnock defends his record on Israel

Spearheaded by soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, '49 Flames' features poignant profiles and statements from prominent figures from around the sports world and beyond.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Chelsea launches exhibition about Jewish athletes and the Holocaust

An IDF Court on Wednesday confirmed a controversial plea deal which gave the IDF soldier who shot and killed an innocent Palestinian a lenient sentence of three months of community service.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: IDF gives lenient community service sentence for killing of Palestinian

Compared to the year before, some 268,000 new households - around 3% of the population - were pushed into poverty.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Thousands of Israelis pushed into poverty amid COVID-19 pandemic - report

The American University of Beirut (AUB) has changed the exchange rate at which it will accept tuition fees, translating to a 160 percent hike for students next semester. Other top universities are expected to follow suit soon.AUB will adopt the 3,900 Lebanese pounds to US dollar exchange rate set by the central bank’s new trading platform, according to AUB President Dr. Fadlo Khoury, a semi-official rate for withdrawing from USD accounts in commercial banks.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.This change in exchange rate makes Lebanon’s leading educational institutions accessible only to those with access to fresh dollars from abroad or to the country’s elite. Lebanon has been experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis predominantly caused by decades of enriched corruption and mismanagement.The country currently has other exchange rates. The official rate is still set 1,515 pounds to the dollar, and is used in some bank transactions and for importing subsidized commodities (wheat, gasoline, medical supplies). The so-called black-market rate averaged at 8,300 pounds to the dollar over the past week.“Lebanon is facing difficult historical challenges that have caused many of us to suffer, and we, along with higher education and other medical institutions, must find ways to go beyond this period to advance stronger in the future. We have seen more than 1,500 of our fellow employees leave the university as a result of layoffs,” Khoury said.Khoury said the decision was mainly related to the significant widening gap between tuition revenues that AUB receives in Lebanese pounds and the expenditures it pays in dollars.The exchange rate change would widely affect those who paid in Lebanese pounds, as the tuition would practically double.At the official rate, tuition for one-semester would approximately have cost around 18 million Lebanese pounds. When the new semi-official rate is applied in 2021, it will hike up to 46.8 million pounds per semester. Lebanon’s minimum wage is just 675,000 Lebanese pounds per month.The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia reported in August that over 55 percent of Lebanon’s population is now trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities, almost double last year’s rate which stood at 28 percent.Other institutions likely to followSources confirmed to Al Arabiya English that several other elite universities in Lebanon are likely to pursue a similar change in currency rate policy over the next week.The independent student front at the Lebanese American University (LAU) has issued a statement condemning AUB’s decision and warning their university administration from taking a similar step.“We have not heard any confirmation from our administration yet; however, we expect an announcement that is similar very soon. Know that the independent student front at LAU is planning to stand against such decisions, if taken, in all possible means. We will be updating you on any possible outcomes and planned movements. No students must remain silent. It is a right and a duty to stand against this aggression,” the statement read.Students reactThe “Change Starts Here” campaign and the Secular Club at AUB, which represent a vast majority of the university’s student body, issued statements condemning this decision.Read more: Lebanon’s independent student campaign secures major wins against traditional partiesThe Secular Club invited students from all universities for a mega-rally this upcoming Saturday to organize and plan the next steps “in their confrontation against all university administrations colluding to impose such measures on students.”“The AUB Secular Club expresses its utmost opposition to every step taken to make students pay the cost of the economic crisis. It’s also worth noting that the AUB administration has not been transparent about the process through which such a decision has been taken, especially to student representatives and the AUB community as a whole. We won’t back down until a student contract between university administrations & students is enforced. We won’t back down until all universities are reclaimed in the next coming months”, their statement added.The “Change Starts Here” campaign issued a similar statement emphasizing that the university has disregarded the various pleas made by their student representatives to prevent this decision from being made.“As an entity who firmly stands with the anti-dollarization movement present in our university, Change Starts Here does not and will not stand with the university administration’s decision. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that every AUB student and family can continue funding their academic years without the fear of being financially incapable of doing so,” Change Starts Here added.The “Chang Change Starts Here” campaign has begun working alongside other Lebanese universities facing the same threat toward their students’ educational accessibility to protest against this decision.“With our primary goal being to allow currently enrolled AUB students to continue paying the tuition fee in which they began their academic years. We urge you all to stand with us as we charge forward with our efforts to prevent next semester’s tuition fees from rising and will continue to update you all on new developments taking place along the way,” the statement added.Read more:Lebanon’s economy has plunged into a ‘deliberate depression’: World BankBad economy, Beirut blasts push doctors out of LebanonLebanon financial rescue plan may be ditched, $30B needed to rebuild economy: Sources
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: AUB students decry tuition doubling after exchange rate scrapped, others to follow

A United Nations analysis of photos of four anti-tank guided missiles in Libya found that one “had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh” missile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported to the Security Council.However, he said in his biannual report - submitted to the council late Monday - that the UN secretariat was “unable to ascertain if this anti-tank guided missile had been transferred to Libya” in violation of Security Council sanctions on Iran.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The 15-member council banned weapons exports by Iran in 2007. Under a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and key global powers, which is enshrined in a Security Council resolution, the arms restrictions were lifted in October this year.Israel accused Iran of violating sanctions and submitted photos of the anti-tank guided missiles in Libya to Guterres in May. Just weeks later, Iran wrote to Guterres and “categorically rejected” the Israeli claims as “totally baseless.”Israel said the photos surfaced in November 2019 and that the weapons were being used by militias linked to Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which has been fighting the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).“Based on the Secretariat’s analysis of the photographs provided, the Secretariat established that one of the four anti-tank guided missiles had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh, though no production date for this anti-tank guided missile was visible,” Guterres’ report said.“The Secretariat is unable to ascertain if this anti-tank guided missile had been transferred to Libya in a manner inconsistent with resolution 2231 (2015),” the report said.Guterres reports twice a year to the Security Council on the implementation of the 2015 resolution.Libya has also been subjected to a UN arms embargo since 2011. Independent UN experts report separately to the Security Council on the implementation of those measures.Guterres also told the council that - based on photographic analysis - 476,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, seized by Australian forces in June 2019 in international waters off the Gulf of Oman, did not appear to have been manufactured by Iran.Read more:Iran says it will sell more weapons than buy after UN arms embargo expirationWatch: Shipment of Iranian weapons, Farsi material intercepted en route to YemenIran’s missiles need to be addressed to curb Tehran's ambitions in region: Study
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Anti-tank missile in Libya looks like Iran-produced ‘Dehlavieh’ weapon: UN

The 98 people were in camps for Islamic State fighters and their families in Kurdish-run northeast Syria. Some other countries have also brought their citizens home from IS camps there, while others have refused.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Uzbekistan repatriates women and children linked to Islamic State in Syria

There have been several escalations between Egyptian forces and Islamist groups on the peninsula recently.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egyptian forces kill, arrest Islamist fighters in Sinai

The Harvard-trained doctor is reported to have been sentenced over tweeting his support for the 2011 Arab Spring protests and for obtaining US citizenship.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Saudi court hands Saudi-American doctor Walid al-Fitaihi 6-year sentence