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Britain's Supreme Court gets something very right
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Citizenship involves not just rights but also duties
Melanie Phillips
Shamima Begum
More than a few jaws dropped when Britain’s Supreme Court ruled a few days ago that the “Isis bride” Shamima Begum should not be allowed to return to Britain to fight the government’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship.
In 2015, when Begum was 15 years old, she and two other east London schoolgirls left Britain to join Islamic State in Syria. In February 2019, she was discovered heavily pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp. Her baby subsequently died of pneumonia and Begum said her two other children had previously died too.
That year, the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, stripped her of her British citizenship on national security grounds — which have never been fully disclosed. He argued that she also held Bangladeshi nationality so she wouldn’t be left stateless. The government refused to allow her to return to the UK to fight that decision.
Last July, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum should be allowed to return because she could not effectively appeal against the decision while living in a camp in northern Syria. The Home Office appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that allowing her to return “would create significant national security risks”. Last week, the court agreed.
Could it really be that the Supreme Court justices had actually done the obviously sensible thing and decided that the security of the country was an overriding priority in a human rights case? It could be, and was.
Those of us who have long despaired of the way the unchallengeable “human rights” orthodoxy has undermined core values and captured swathes of the judiciary to carry this agenda forward raised our weary eyes at this ruling and blinked in disbelief.
What had happened? Had the Supremes put their finger up to test the cultural wind and decided to tack to the real centre ground?
Although the judgment was unanimous, the most likely explanation is that the court has a new president, Lord Reed, whose views are said to be “conservative”— ie intellectually rigorous, ideology-free and evidence-based.
The ruling that Lord Reed delivered, in which he excoriated the findings of the Appeal Court judges as being wholly mistaken, was a robust statement of the priorities which should properly be established in this case. There was no “right" to fight a deprivation of British citizenship within Britain. On the contrary, he said:
There is much more to this story at Melanie Phillips
Several people injured in suspected terrorist stabbing attack in Sweden
3 Mar, 2021 18:23
FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images / Michael Campanella
At least eight people have been injured in what Swedish police are treating as a possible terrorist attack. Officers shot and wounded the suspected attacker, who police describe as a man in his 20s.
Police were called to central Vetlanda after receiving reports just before 3pm local time that several people had been attacked with a knife. Officers later confirmed eight people had been injured to varying degrees, some seriously.
While initially being investigated as attempted murder, the incident is now being described as a “possible terrorist crime,” though it's unclear what the motives may have been for the incident.
The alleged perpetrator has been transported to the hospital and is being treated for his injuries. The man has not yet been questioned by police, but is being monitored at the hospital.
The Swedish Transport Administration has suspended running trains in the area.
Police have said the situation is under control and they do not believe any other perpetrators were involved in the incident.
In a statement, police said that an investigation has also been launched into their response to the incident and, as a result of that inquiry, will not comment further at this time as to why officers opened fire on the suspect.
Could it be because he was stabbing people? Just a guess, you know, I'm no expert, but...
Chechen cleric rebukes locals for providing ‘occult services’ as Russian region continues crackdown on ‘swindlers’ & ‘charlatans’
3 Mar, 2021 15:23
A theologian in Russia’s Muslim-majority region of Chechnya has reprimanded three women after local law enforcement detained them for occultism, a charge which has become more common in the area in recent years.
"The work to identify sorcerers, healers, and other charlatans continues to bear fruit," the report said. "More fraudsters have been identified thanks to the work of Khusain Mezhidov, commander of the South Battalion, employees of the Kurchaloevsky District Police Department, and the clergy."
According to the report, the four arrested locals claimed that they could perform magic to improve their client's luck in personal relationships.
"The conversation with the theologian and the law-enforcement officers helped the women to see for themselves that they had committed a grave sin," the news report continues. "Despite all the educational activities, there are still those who believe in the power of witches."
On the Instagram post itself, the channel explained that witches are not real, and that those who seek their help are victims of "swindlers" and "charlatans" who should instead seek help from Allah and Islamic scholars.
According to local news site Kavkazsky Uzel, prosecutions for occultism have been on the rise since July 2019. A search of its website reveals at least seven incidents in February alone, mainly involving elderly women. In November 2019, a report on North Caucasus news site Obzor reported that one detained "healer" even had local officials as part of her clientele.
At the time, TV channel ‘Grozny’ ran a story with the sarcastic headline: "Clairvoyant Malika Datsaeva could not even foresee her own future."
Kurchaloy, Chechnya
Covid jabs meant for health workers ended up in the arms of Palestinian VIPs and footballers, officials admit
3 Mar, 2021 14:28
A health worker measures the temperature of a girl in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on March 3, 2021. © SAID KHATIB / AFP
Senior Palestinian politicians, their bodyguards and the national football team received Covid jabs meant for healthcare workers, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said. It also gave the Jordanian royal court another 200 doses.
In all, the PA admitted on Tuesday it gave some 10 percent of 12,000 Covid vaccines to a coterie of government ministers, members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive members, security personnel and soccer players as well as fulfilling a request from Amman for doses.
But it said the other 90 percent went to health workers treating Covid-19 patients in intensive care units and emergency departments and to other health ministry workers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has long faced accusations of nepotism and cronyism, and the diversion of the vaccines has been criticized by groups who are pushing for greater transparency and fighting corruption in the territories administered by the Authority.
Giving priority to personal interests at the expense of the public good would lead to greater “instability and turmoil,” said AMAN, a network pushing for transparency.
The health ministry said the PA officials who received the diverted doses were “in direct contact with the president and the prime minister” and the football team was vaccinated because the players needed vaccination certificates to be able to travel to play in an international game.
PA officials did not detail which type of Covid-19 vaccines were diverted to the officials.
In a December poll, 86 percent of Palestinians surveyed said they viewed PA institutions as corrupt.
The World Health Organization has expressed concern about the vaccine inequity between the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, which is leading one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns. To date, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, home to a combined 5.2 million Palestinians, have received donations of about 34,700 vaccine doses from Israel and Russia, as well as 20,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Gaza.
On Monday, the PA started vaccinations of health workers in the occupied West Bank after receiving 2,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine from Israel, and they have promised delivery of another 3,000 vaccines.
On Sunday Israel confirmed that it will administer Covid-19 vaccinations to Palestinians in the West Bank who have permits to work in Jewish settlements in the occupied territory and inside Israel. The PA had reached an agreement with Israel for it to vaccinate 100,000 Palestinian laborers.
The PA is expecting some two million doses ordered from various manufacturers, in addition to doses from the UN-backed Covax programme, set up to help less-wealthy nations procure vaccines, beginning with an initial 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 37,440 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech.
In January, Palestine became the first country in the Middle East to register the Sputnik V vaccine and an initial delivery of 10,000 doses arrived there last month.
In the past year, Palestine has reported more than 55,000 cases of coronavirus and registered 553 deaths.
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