CAIRO: A leading international human rights group has slammed what it called routine repression shown by Middle East governments during recent protests against Israel s offensive on the Gaza Strip. Security forces beat and arrested demonstrators as they tried to voice their opposition, a new report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch said. While Arab and Iranian leaders condemned Israel s three-week military operations, their governments denied their citizens the right to do the same, said the report, released Wednesday. It also criticized Israel and the Palestinian Authority which runs the West Bank for banning protests over Gaza. The Mideast saw daily rallies against the offensive that Israel said meant to rout out Gaza s Hamas rulers and the militant group s rockets which have targeted southern Israeli towns for years. The offensive, which ended with a truce on Sunday, killed 1,284 Palestinians - 894 of them civilians, including 280 children or teenagers - according to a Palestinian rights group in the coastal strip. The death toll and scale of the destruction in Gaza provoked international outrage, but in Israel, the war was widely seen as a legitimate response to Hamas attacks. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, 10 of them soldiers. In some cases, the demonstrations turned violent with police firing tear gas and arresting protesters. In Egypt, dozens of opposition Muslim Brotherhood were detained in connection with pro-Gaza rallies. Peaceful demonstrations are an essential element of democratic societies and the basic right of every citizen, said HRW Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson. The report said that rights to peaceful assembly and free expression are severely curtailed in much of the Middle East, and specifically mentioned Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Egypt, it said, has for 27 years been under emergency law, which allows the authorities to prohibit demonstrations. Saudi Arabia bans any political demonstrations while Jordan routinely denies permission to protesters critical of its foreign policy. It is as absurd as it is illegal to officially oppose death and destruction in Gaza, but to beat, ban, and arrest persons who try to peacefully protest it, said Whitson. -AP
