Election day in Israel, and I’m back covering it for @MiddleEastEye!!!
@MiddleEastEye These pictures are everywhere, as Netanyahu tries to capitalise on his mate Trump. But the far right are warning that the so-called 'deal of the century' isn't going far enough. middleeasteye.net/news/israels-f…
“We are only being told part of the truth. The good before the elections, the bad after,” Ayelet Shaked said on Friday
Israel's Labor party was the dominant force in politics for the country's formative decades. Now pollsters are predicting it could drop out of parliament all together middleeasteye.net/news/future-or…
Amir Peretz has been trying to move the party in a new, social democratic direction. “What Peretz is doing is important and brave, but the challenge might be bigger than himself,” an analyst told me.
Not voting
In Jerusalem’s Haredi Mea Shearim neighbourhood there are no polling stations. But there are these banners reading: “NO participation in the impure election for this Knesset”
Shai runs a gift shop. “I don’t see myself as part of this country. We have our own life here”
Israelis have the day off on polling day, so naturally they flock to the beaches of Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Last time, Netanyahu turned up urging people to get off the sand and into the polling stations. I haven’t seen him yet
Bat-Shachar, 20, is from a settlement in the West Bank and voting for Ayelet Shaked. “She supports the settlements and the religious people”
There are suggestions that, despite calls for a boycott, the Palestinian turnout is rather high. Yesterday me and @lubnamasarwa spoke to Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Galilee on why they may or may not vote #israelelections2019middleeasteye.net/news/racism-an…
My first piece from Libya is on Tarhuna, where I saw evidence of war crimes on an industrial scale middleeasteye.net/big-story/liby…
Around 80 bodies have been pulled from eight mass graves in Tarhuna, and 106 others were found in the local hospital’s morgue since the LNA retreated in June. It’s thought around 300 more people are missing.
Though it’s been weeks since the LNA and the Kaniyat who ruled Tarhuna left, gruesome remnants remain. Shot up cars, abandoned belongings of people disappeared, knots of hair in the mud.
There was a hell of a lot coming out of that UN report on Khashoggi's murder yesterday. Here's a thread of MEE's coverage of the highlights, starting with @davidahearst's news piece shar.es/a0xdKF via @MiddleEastEye
The report was around 100 pages long, but luckily we had @daniaakkad to scour through it to find some key points, such as @AgnesCallamard suggesting the CIA could have done more to protect Khashoggi shar.es/a0xdOF via @MiddleEastEye
Middle East Eye has been one of several publications handed bits from the Turkish audio of the murder, but yesterday the UN report revealed new details. I plotted @AgnesCallamard's narrative here: shar.es/a0xdRz via @MiddleEastEye