Mideast Week in Review - May 15 // FAI ONLINE

Israel —International controversy continues to swirl around the death of an Al Jazeera journalist killed in the West Bank last Wednesday. Politicians and celebrities across the world decried the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during a firefight between Israeli security forces and Palestinian gunmen in the restive Palestinian city of Jenin. Calls for an independent investigation into the incident grew, with some preemptively holding Israel responsible for Abu Akleh’s murder. Amateur cell phone footage taken near the scene was published to social media by Palestinian sources, showing some gunmen bragging that an Israeli soldier had been shot, although no IDF personnel were wounded in the exchange, implying that Abu Akleh may have been mistaken for an Israeli by Palestinian militants. Palestinian authorities have so far refused to surrender the bullet removed from the journalist’s body for a forensic analysis, meaning that the true cause of Abu Akleh’s death may never be known.

The situation continued to escalate on Friday, when a planned funeral procession for Abu Akleh in Jerusalem was diverted by Palestinian protesters. Mobile phone video was published to social media showing Israeli police striking some Palestinian men around Abu Akleh’s casket with batons as it was marched from the nearby hospital morgue to a church near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. Israeli police provided additional context for the video on social media Saturday, explaining that a procession route had been arranged between police and Abu Akleh’s family the day before, and that the body was to be transported by hearse, but that a “mob” of Palestinian protesters instead took possession of the casket against the will of the family of the slain journalist, taking it by foot along an unapproved route. When police approached the group, they were reportedly attacked with stones and other objects, leading to the incident around the casket. Despite the public statement, the additional pressure of international condemnations led the Israeli police commissioner and minister of public safety to announce an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, Israeli counter-terrorism operations continued in the West Bank last week, with Israeli security forces arresting at least nine suspects, including alleged conspirators in the Elad terrorist attack, which killed three Israeli men and seriously wounded four others on May 5th. An especially intense firefight in Jenin on Friday resulted in the death of a veteran Israeli Border Patrol officer, Noam Raz. The IDF officer in command of the operation described the event as “More than three hours [which] felt like a pressure cooker, the amount of gunfire aimed at us was indescribable, thousands of bullets….I have been in the army for more than 20 years and I have never seen anything like it."

Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly opposed Finland and Sweden’s candidacy in the NATO alliance this week, describing the two nations as “guesthouses for terrorist organizations.” The Nordic countries are a political and cultural hub of the Kurdish diaspora, hosting large populations of Kurdish immigrants and refugees.

Erdogan has sought to intimidate Kurds abroad and their host nations in the past, ordering some members of his security detail to attack a peaceful demonstration of Kurdish protesters in Washington, DC while visiting the United States in May, 2017.

Iran - Several days of widespread protests across the Islamic Republic resulted in the deaths of at least 4 demonstrators at the hands of regime security forces, and the arrest of over 20 more, as they took to the streets amidst spiking food prices. The Iranian regime announced major price hikes earlier last week, including a 300% increase in the price of cooking oil, chicken, eggs and milk. A combination of factors have led to the increases, including ongoing Western sanctions against the regime and a recent drought. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, a major global exporter of wheat, also impacted the price of grain products in Iran.

Chanting “Death to "[President] Raisi” and “Mullahs need to get the hell out of Iran,” demonstrations turned violent as some protestors burned cars and looted shops. Iranian security forces responded with tear gas and Internet blackouts. The ire of the Iranian public has turned against the regime several times in recent years in response to ongoing food and fuel shortages, as well as government corruption and mismanagement.

Meanwhile, the Iranian-Arminian leader of an underground church in the capital of Tehran was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a regime court, along with two other believers, after his arrest in 2020 for “organizing and running an Evangelical ‘Zionist’ home church with the intention to act against national security.” The high-profile sentencing comes as the Iranian regime continues to grapple with the fastest-growing house church movement in the world.

Iraqi Kurdistan - After arresting several Kurdish activists in Northwestern Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired artillery and launched at least four suicide drones across its border with Iraqi Kurdistan, targeting the Barbazin and Similian Heights areas of Erbil province. No resulting damage or casualties were immediately reported.

The Iranian regime has fought against insurgents in Iran’s Kurdish-majority northwestern region since 2016, after a network of Kurdish parties and their militias announced an alliance to seek autonomy from the Islamic Republic. The ongoing conflict has often spilled over the border into Iraqi Kurdistan, where the IRGC has targeted alleged bases of Iranian Kurdish separatists in Erbil province, similar to how the Turkish regime has pursued the Kurdish PKK militia in Duhok province.

Syrian Kurdistan - The Kurdish-led YPG militia, the backbone of the region’s Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), reported an intense barrage of coordinated artillery and airstrikes by the Turkish military across northern Syria on Friday. The operation targeted over 50 Kurdish-majority communities along a 280 kilometer stretch of the border, from Afrin to Kobane to Ain Issa.

The strikes come after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his intention to repatriate over one million Syrian civil war refugees residing in Turkey for almost a decade. A majority of the mostly-Arab refugees would be resettled in the traditional Kurdish territories along the border, including the Afrin region and the “buffer zone” created between Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayin by the Turkish operation “Peace Spring” in October 2019.

As the incidence of “wars and rumors of wars” continues to increase across the Middle East, we implore the Maranatha global family to join us in prayer for the opening of a “great, effectual door” for Good News in the region. We firmly believe that ongoing hostilities, upheaval, and chaos create opportunities for the message of the Prince of Peace.

Maranatha!