Concerns Mount as Tensions Rise among Muslim Brotherhood Leaders

Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in Egypt (AFP)
Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in Egypt (AFP)
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Concerns Mount as Tensions Rise among Muslim Brotherhood Leaders

Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in Egypt (AFP)
Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in Egypt (AFP)

Muslim Brotherhood youth are concerned over the organization's future after tensions rose between the leaders living abroad.

Conflicts increased within the organization after the acting General Guide in Egypt, Ibrahim Mounir, decided to dismiss the former Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein and several other leaders.

Mounir also referred the dismissed leader for investigation.

A researcher in fundamentalist movements in Egypt, Amr Abdel Moneim, said that the recent period had witnessed divisions between Mounir and Hussein's office, referred to as the "old office" and the "new office" of Mohammad Sharaf.

Abdel Moneim told Asharq Al-Awsat that controversy erupted in Turkey's office after Mounir's office dismissed Hussein's office and approved the new elections.

He explained that the administrative office in Turkey is important and receives financial aid of about $1,700,000 per month.

Abdel Moneim suggested that major disagreements erupted within the youth group after the young members abroad broke their silence and accused the leaders of both offices of creating chaos, failing the Shura council, disrupting administrative regulations for organizing, and siding with one group against another.



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.