Mar
13
2016
By Daoud Kuttab
A substantial survey carried out in Israel, East Jerusalem and among Jewish settlers in the West Bank has shown that Arabs — Muslim, Christian and Druze — are much more religious than Israeli Jews.
 Two-thirds of
Israeli Arabs surveyed by the Pew Research Center said religion is very important in their lives, compared with just 30% of Jews. Israeli Muslims (68%), Christians (57%) and Druze (49%) all are more likely than Jews to say religion is very important to them, the survey concluded.
The survey further noted that Muslims in Israel are the most religiously observant of the four major religious groups. “A majority (61%) of Muslims say they pray daily, compared with 34% of Christians, 26% of Druze and 21% of Jews. And while 25% of Druze, 27% of Jews and 38% of Christians say they attend religious services at least weekly, roughly half of Israeli Muslims (49%) report that they go to a mosque on at least a weekly basis.â€
Pew found that only 15% of adult Muslims in Israel do not fast during Ramadan.
However, Alan Cooperman, director of Religion Research at Pew, told Al-Monitor that overall Arabs in Israel are less religious than in nearby Arab countries. He said, “While 59% of Lebanese Muslims are religious, the share of Muslims in Jordan is 85%, and the same in the Palestinian territories — while 82% of Iraqis say they are religious.†Continue Reading »
Mar
13
2016
By Daoud Kuttab
Attempts by the Palestinian Authority to arrest Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Najat Abu Bakr for statements she made alleging corruption by a government minister have ignited a discussion about defamation being a crime and calls for its decriminalization.
 Majed Arruri, a media rights expert from Ramallah, told Al-Monitor, “Defamation in both its written [libel] or spoken forms [slander] is a tangible issue that doesn’t require [criminal] investigation and, therefore, there is no need to hold someone in jail awaiting the results of an investigation.†He believes Palestinian legislation needs to be enacted to eliminate imprisonment in cases involving defamation.
Arruri said that by criminalizing defamation, instead of classifying it as a civil matter, the Palestinian government is not using pretrial detention for the purpose of investigating unknown components of a case, but is instead using it as punishment. “Imprisoning journalists or others for what they have said becomes a restriction on their freedom of expression, therefore resulting in self-censorship,†he noted. Continue Reading »
