The latest attack on record has been a jail sentence pronounced on Monday from a court in Casablanca against Said Laâjal, a journalist in Al Massa'e, a widely read daily newspaper, and his publisher Rachid Nini, a popular columnist. Both journalists have been accused of “publication of false information” in connection with an article on a case of drug trafficking. Nini has declared that he won't be appealing the verdict (source: AFP). Bloggers have been reflecting on the case and the state of affairs.

eatbees, an American novelist, photographer and blogger who lives in Morocco has his suspicions about the real motivation of the prosecutors. He writes:

This is the criminalization of journalism, pure and simple. Reporters sometimes make mistakes and report things that turn out to be false. There are ways to handle that, but sending the journalists to jail is not one of them. I have the strong suspicion that Nini and Laâjal were prosecuted, not because of the facts of the case, but because they embarrassed someone important. Or maybe this was just a convenient way to go after Nini, who as publisher of Morocco’s most widely read newspaper and author of Morocco’s most widely read opinion column, is becoming a power center in his own right.

If Nini follows through on his commitment not to appeal, and goes to prison, it will be an act of courage and of civil disobedience. It will make him a martyr for press freedom in the eyes of millions of Moroccans. Good luck with that, Moroccan state.

It is worth mentioning that the journalist is already under a heavy fine for libel, threatening to bankrupt the whole publication, as blogger Ibn Kafka wrote recently [Fr], referring to a letter alleged to be written by Nini, pleading for a royal pardon:

Rachid Nini vit légitimement fort bien de cette florissante entreprise de presse (dans le contexte ravagé de la presse marocaine)…
[Il] aurait adressé une supplique au Roi […] dans laquelle il demande l’absolution des pêchés – en clair, la grâce pour son journal. Rien ne permet de garantir cette information, qui en soi n’est pas infâmante.

Rachid Nini has raised controversy recently when he publicly disavowed one of his journalists who showed support for colleagues who were being harrassed and prosecuted by the government. Larbi, who is blogging on Comme une bouteille jetée à la mer!, argues [Fr] this doesn't make Nini worthy of a jail sentence nor should the journalist be considered a hero. He writes:

[H]eureusement que tout le monde n’a pas la même conception de la liberté d’expression et liberté de la presse que celle de Monsieur Nini. La place des journalistes n’est pas la prison mais dans leurs rédactions. Cela vaut pour tous les journalistes. Cela vaut pour Monsieur Nini . Et encore plus pour le journaliste Saïd Laâjal. La place de Rachid Nini et de Saïd Laâjal n’est pas la prison mais dans leur rédaction. Je suis bien entendu solidaire avec Rachid Nini et Saïd Laâjal. Parce que la peine de prison ferme qui leur est infligée est injuste au vu de ce qui leur est reproché. Et parce que même Monsieur Nini a a droit à ce qu’il a toujours dénié aux autres : exercer son métier de journaliste et s’exprimer librement, sans intimidations et sans procès arbitraires débouchant sur des peines infamantes.

An opinion shared by Naoufel who explains [Ar] that Press freedom should apply to everyone, even to Mr Nini. He writes:

هو بالنسبة لي شخص وقح .. انتهازي و متملق، يكتب ضد أي شيء إلا الملك..يحاكم الحكومة و الشعب و زملائه في الصحافة لكنه لا يتجرأ أن يقترب من مربع القصر رغم أن اصغر طفل في المملكة التي لم تعد شريفة يعرف أن أصغر قرار لا يمر دون دراية الملك..كتب ضد من كانوا زملائه[…]
الآن..هل نتضامن معه؟
لا خيار آخر

People may be too embarrassed to openly talk about it, but everyone does it, toilet or not. World Toilet Day helps people celebrate the importance of sanitation and raise awareness for the 2.5 billion people who don't have access to toilets and proper sanitation. This video by the nonprofit WaterAid highlights the luxury of having a toilet.

Celebrating your can may seem silly, but not having one can not only lead to embarrassment, lack of dignity and safety issues, but also preventable diseases and even death. When people don't have toilets, they're forced to relieve themselves in open streets, fields, or back alleys. The result? The contamination of drinking water and food sources, which leads to a slew of health risks. Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year. Even countries with abundant toilets have to deal with problems ranging from unhygienic public toilets to waterway-destroying sewage disposal.

Vanilla, blogging on Let's Look At It This Way from Singapore, says that people should care about toilets:

“I know this is a crappy topic to most people. It is unfortunate that it is a ‘taboo' topic to talk about openly and many people remain ignorant about the scale of the problem. I fail to understand how this can be an unimportant topic when, on an average, we visit the toilet 2500 times a year, or 6-8 times a day. In our life time, we would have spent 3 years in the toilet.”

Organized by the nonprofit The World Toilet Organization, World Toilet Day is being celebrated globally with various events. To further increase awareness, WaterAid announced the launch of its new ToiletFinder UK App for iPhone users this week. The free app helps Brits find the nearest public toilet while reminding them how lucky they are to have clean and safe toilets. The largest event today, called The Big Squat, asks people to stop and squat for one minute in a public place to raise awareness. These photos show people squatting globally, including this one of preschoolers in Singapore:

A blog from Brunei, the world according to panyaluru …, also shows appreciation for the toilet by putting it into perspective:

“Imagine if we are walking along in the row of shops in Kiulap or Gadong. Suddenly the tummy grumbles, just like the worst ribut you can think off. No rest bite. Grumble and grumble. Rumblings. The light is on amber and ready to turn green. But no toilets in sight. Not a single public toilet in the rows of shops…Add to that no water, no tissue, nothing! That could be the worst day of your life, your worst nightmare, ever worse than the nightmares those kids have in the Nightmare on Elm Street Movies. On this day, let’s show our appreciation to our toilets.”

Despite its serious side, many people have used humor to celebrate World Toilet Day. In the U.K., the blog London City Drains features a 10-question toilet quiz, while in this video high school teacher Matt Cheplic sings about the day.

Some bloggers point out that toilets alone may not be the answer. Sandhya, blogging on Maradhi Manni in India, says many men don't use available toilets:

“In a city like Chennai, where the climate is hot nearly 10 months of the year, I see men urinating on the roadside all the time. When women can control and go home and relieve themselves, why can't men do so, I don't know. So, first of all people should be fined heavily for doing this crime (yes, it is crime) on the spot. I have seen them doing this on the wall of the public toilets! In Srirangam, I saw them urinating on the compound wall of the temple even though every street surrounding the temple had toilets, which were clean, but pay toilets!”

While lack of sanitation impacts everyone, the taboo around toilets can disproportionately affect women. In some countries, modesty forces women do their business in fields before sunrise or to hold it until after the sun sets, leading to health and safety concerns. Joanne Sprague, blogging on Overturning Boulders in India, observes that women are absent from the morning toilet run in Chennai, while in Ethiopia the blog AN ADVENTURE IN ADDIS notices a similar situation:

“I’ve heard so often about the lack of toilet facilities for women or lack of toilets in general; that teenage girls in the countryside get up at 4 am to go out in the dark to do their business so they don’t get bullied by the boys at school or stop going to school altogether. Men just pee anywhere, cigarette in hand and there’s an assumption that women don’t need to, if they are thought about at all….I want to see a huge billboard in Amharic saying ‘Girls go too’ with a picture of Barbie sitting on a toilet.”

To celebrate World Toilet Day, blogger Jonathan Stray, takes readers on an international tour of toilets he's visited, from Thailand and the U.K. to West Africa and Oman, concluding:

“We in the west with our flush toilets and toilet paper and sparkling shower stalls are the exception; the rest of the world thinks a bathroom is a wet, smelly place, when they have a bathroom at all. A good toilet means you probably have a very good quality of life, so enjoy yours. Happy World Toilet Day!”

Photo of Tiled Toilet by nedrichards on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Bombardment in Khan Yunis and Rafah: Now

Shortly afterward, he elaborated:

Blogger Political Theatrics has detailed the incident, stating:

The Israel Air Force struck smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border late Wednesday night, a day after Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the western Negev.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office reported that the IAF planes also attacked a nearby structure believed to have served as a weapons facility near the Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Palestinian sources said three people were hurt in the attack, which they claimed also targeted a military training compound.

The IDF report also indicated that strike was carried out in response to a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, and which landed in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, in the Western Negev.

[Editor's note: The aforementioned blogger was actually quoting from this Haaretz article; our sincere apologies for the error.]

UPDATE (8:06 EST): The BBC has confirmed the attacks, and Palestinian officials claim no casualties.

Twitter user pakinamamer is hoping for more answers. She asks:

Photo of Aminatou Haidar by saharauiak

Aminatou Haidar is a leading activist for independence of the Western Sahara (from Morocco).  Born in 1967, she was “disappeared” by Moroccan authorities for her activism at age twenty, only to reemerge three years later.  In 2005, Haidar was arrested for her participation in a protest and sentenced to seven months in prison for “inciting violent protest activities.”  Amnesty International deemed her a prisoner of conscience, questioning the fairness of her trial and those of 6 others.  Since her release, she has been honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and most recently awarded the Civil Courage Prize in New York, all for her work defending human rights in the Western Sahara.

Regardless of the accolades given to her, Haidar lived - until recently - in Morocco with great fear of being arrested; that is until Friday, November 13 when, upon returning to Laayoune (a city in the Western Sahara region), she was arrested and subsequently deported.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, authorities took issue with her writing “Western Sahara” on her customs forms.  According to Moroccan officials, Haidar renounced and “willingly signed away” her Moroccan citizenship.  She was then sent to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, and later granted Spanish residency on humanitarian grounds, according to Spanish news organization ABC.

Pro-independence blog Sandblast reminds readers that Haidar is not the only dissident persecuted for her cause, stating:

Since October 6, fifteen well-known human rights defenders from Western Sahara have been arrested, detained and interrogated. Seven of them, known as the Casablanca 7 are being tried in a military court for acts of treason after visiting their relatives in the Saharawi refugee camps in SW Algeria. These Saharawis have been targeted for speaking out against the repression of the Moroccan occupation in their homeland and advocating their self-determination rights as recognized by the UN charter and over a 100 UN resolutions. In August, the Moroccan authorities prevented six Saharawi youths from traveling to the UK to participate in the Oxford-based programme Talk Together, which promote dialogue between youth in areas of conflict.

Spanish blogger Bilbaobilonia, referencing a recent speech in which Moroccan King Mohammed VI stated that anyone supporting the Sahara's independence is a traitor, expressed support [es] of Haidar:

Ya lo dijo el rey Mohamed VI en su discurso conmemorativo de la Marcha Verde: en Marruecos sólo se puede ser patriota o traidor.  Claro que, si alguien se toma la molestia de examinar las raquíticas libertades que promueve la dinastía alauí o la persecución a la que somete a la disidencia saharaui , es fácil llegar a la conclusión de que en Marruecos, la traición es la forma más noble de patriotismo.

Blogger One Hump or Two expresses surprise at the fact that Moroccan authorities would go after someone so well-connected:

This shows Moroccan police will go after any Sahrawi who supports a referendum, even those with international connections and support. Haidar's awards (most recently the Civil Courage Prize) weresupposed to place her outside these dangers by showing the Moroccan government the world is watching them.

Sahara Occidental continues to post media roundups on Aminatou Haidar's case.

The Houthi rebels, named after Hussein Badreddin al Houthi, are Zaidi Shia who have been fighting the government of Yemen since June 2004, seeking greater autonomy in the north of the country where the Zaidis are a majority. Clashes between the rebels and Saudi Arabia began on November 4, with the rebels claiming they were responding to strikes by the Yemeni military from Saudi territory, and Saudi Arabia saying it was responding to incursions by the Yemeni rebels. The current conflict has affected civilians on both sides of the border, with casualties as well as large-scale displacement. Some commentators argue that this is just the most recent in a series of surrogate conflicts between Saudi Arabia (encouraged by the Yemeni government to fund anti-Zaidi Salafi groups) and Iran (accused of directly supporting the Houthi rebels), and the fear is that it may escalate into a greater regional confrontation.

Currently studying in the United States, Saudi blogger Khaled Al Ateeq is worried about the calls being made by some Saudi religious scholars, who are viewing this conflict purely in religious terms. He writes:

Khaled concludes by saying:

Here is a collection of “green” movement paintings created by Soheil Tavakoli, an Iranian artist based in the United States:

Hamed Pourabedin created another piece of art on his Facebook page: Oxygen for Iran

As Iranian protesters prepare for  yet another demonstration on December 4, the Day of University Students (16th of Azar), they have created dozens of posters.

“On green 16th of Azar, we get our Iran back”

Also see previous Global Voices stories:

Iran: Art for Protest's Sake
Iran: Protest Movement Inspires Art

A tweet from Egyptian embee demonstrated the fanaticism of some fans:

Some reports claim that tickets are now entirely sold out!  At the same time, Egyptian NoraYounis expressed disbelief at the unifying power of football for Egyptians:

Egyptian NohaAtef's tweet, on the other hand, showed the uplifting properties of football:

In many instances, the football matched unearthed national rivalries.  Algerians and Egyptians went head to head on Twitter as the game was taking place.  Egyptian Sandmonkey quipped:

Algerian-American themoornextdoor fought back, joking:

Finally, Algerian reemba reminded us that it ain't over till it's over:

Bikya Misr, wrote about the case:

After nearly four and a half months, the Marwa el-Sherbini saga has come to a conclusion of sorts after a German court sentenced the man who stabbed the “veiled martyr” 17 times inside the court in July to life in prison without possibility of early release. Egyptians, Arabs and Germans alike have welcomed the verdict and hope Europe and the Middle East can begin to heal the wounds of the killing and move “toward a better future.”

Hicham Maged wrote about how glad he is for the ruling, and that he has real trust in the German justice system:

The judge was aware about various tricks from the killer's defence team and here I quote the words according to this article: “ He killed … not out of fear but out of revenge. He consciously exploited her innocence and defencelessness. ” I agree with this and do not forget that he also tried to kill her husband.
I am glad that the courtroom where betrayal took place has been washed up physically and morally by applying justice. Consequently, my trust in the German justice system was needless to mention because this crime was shocking for all of us not only Germans. For that matter, only today Marwa and her unborn baby can rest in peace after compensating from the killer.

Zeinobia was happy with the verdict, and she also wrote in response to those who believed that it is a political verdict, and that the German court ruled in favour of Marwa in order to please the Egyptians, and Arabs:

Now I want to say something, some racists “and they are not few in the world now”, will say that this is a political verdict ; the court had to take to win the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world and to save the German interests is the Islamic world.
Well with my all respect I said it before and will say it again; do not think of Marwa as a Muslim woman; think of her as a Pregnant woman and a mother who was brutally stabbed 18 times in front of her little boy. He killed two souls, innocent souls because of blind hate and racism. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life for taking the life of innocent souls and take the life of a mother from her child

Aam Mina on the other hand wrote a post, making fun of those who believe in conspiracy theories and were expecting the Germans to rule in favour of the murderer:

He then wrote about many the lessons we are supposed to learn from this incident:

Finally, Hicham Maged wrote:

What happened to Marwa should be a ‘wake-up’ call that make people work for achieving this both by criticising extreme actions taken against people because of their faith or race and understanding our differences and this simply means to quite stereotyping from whoever against whoever.

Nawara Negm sympathizes with him:

Hassan El Helali thinks he is psychotic:

Wael Nawara wants to remind everyone that:

In late June 2007, Mr. Hasan stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

“It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims,” he said in the presentation.

US-based Lebanese Dr Asa'ad Abu Khalil - The Angry Arab - quotes a newspaper report which says:

““When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal,” said Victor Benjamin II, 30, a former member of the Army. “But when a Muslim does it, they call it jihad.”

And Egyptian SandMonkey has tried to avoid writing about this because:

Anything I think of will sound contrived anyway. I mean, the [shooter] was Arab, Muslim and Palestinian to boot. What’s there to say? It’s an isolated incident? It might never happen again? This doesn’t mean that everybody in the military who is Arab or Muslim will act this way? For real? Do I need to say this? What is there to say?

I can only think of two things actually: 1) My deepest condolences to the families of the victims , and 2) in the name of every Arab or Muslim that will now get screwed over because of your actions: I hope you never enjoy a single day of peace in this life or any next one!