Stray Bullets: Protests And Unrest From Tel Aviv To The Ivory Coast

Ctrl.Alt.Shift writer Richard Lemmer scopes across the week’s headlines from around the world: protests in Tel Aviv, student sets himself on fire in Tunisia, Russian opposition leader arrested and unrest grows in Ivory Coast...

Protest Outside US Ambassador’s House In Tel Aviv

11 activists have been arrested after protesting outside the house of James Cunningham [1], the US Ambassador to Israel (2 January 2011). More than 25 activists were protesting the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah [2], a 36-year-old Palestinian woman, who died in the early hours of Saturday (1 January 2011) after inhaling tear gas during a protest against the separation barrier in the village of Bil’in in the West Bank.

Hundreds of activists also protested outside the Israel Defence Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv. Eight were arrested.

Abu Rahma’s brother Bassam was killed in 2009 [3] during a demonstration in Bil’in, and a second brother, Ashraf, was shot several years ago during a demonstration against the separation barrier near the village of Na’alin. Abu Rahma had reportedly been attending the weekly protests at Bil’in for the past five years.
 

Unrest In Tunisia

Protesters in the Tunisian capital of Tunis have been attacked by police [4], after several weeks of unrest (27 December 2010). Protests began after Mohamed Bouazizi [5], a struggling graduate, set himself on fire in protest [6] after the police confiscated his fruit and vegetable stall in the central town of Sidi Bouzid (19 December 2010).

The recent protest in Tunis saw hundreds of activists [7] singing the Tunisian National Anthem and chanting the slogans “We need work” and “Stop the corruption,” before violence broke out between the police and the crowd.  

One young woman at the protest told Reuters [6]: “Our demand is employment… we are here to support the youth of Sidi Bouzid and demand work.”

Official surveys report that unemployment is at 14% [8], but it is believed that unemployment is as high as 25% for young Tunisians.  

View a Sidi Bouzid protests map [9].
Read more on The Moor Next Door [10].

Video of the Tunisian protests:

Unrest Feared In Ivory Coast

The UN is expecting more than 30,000 refugees to flee the Ivory Coast as fears regarding a civil war in the country continue to grow. More than 18,000 refugees are believed to have crossed the border into Liberia [11] during the last month.

Youssoufou Bamba, Ivory Coast’s newly appointed ambassador to the UN, has warned that the country is “on the brink of genocide [12]”. Ivory Coast’s current President, Laurent Gbagbo, is refusing to step down despite his rival, Alassane Ouattara, being internationally accepted as the presidential election winner.

Gbagbo has already begun to censor the media [13] - at least 10 foreign journalists have been arrested in the past month, and troops loyal to the President have shot at French television crews.  

Read more on The Telegraph website [14].
Watch a video on Sky News Australia [15].
 

Russian Opposition Leader Arrested

Boris Nemtsov [16], a former Deputy Prime Minister and opposition leader in Russia, has been sentenced to 15 days in jail [17] after taking part in a protest on New Year’s Eve. More than 120 activists were arrested [18] at protests to assert the right to freedom of assembly, held in Moscow and St Petersburg.

The protests, part of the Strategy 31 Campaign, take place monthly on the 31st day of the month and highlight Article 31 of the Russian constitution, which protects the right to freedom of assembly. An estimated 1,500 activists took part in the protest in Moscow. 

Words: Richard Lemmer
Photo: Flickr user Oren Ziv/Activestills.org [19]