{"id":36798,"date":"2014-11-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/36798\/this-week-in-the-middle-east-november-1-2014"},"modified":"2023-05-08T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T09:04:56","slug":"this-week-in-the-middle-east-november-1-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/36798\/this-week-in-the-middle-east-november-1-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the Middle East: November 1, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"You’re busy, we get it. No sweat. Here’s what you missed in the news across the region this week.

Over 850 People Hanged in Iran in Last 15 Months<\/b><\/big><\/big>

(Image via Annahar<\/a>)

If you live in Iran and were thinking of donating to an international charity, think again. Last time someone did that, he got hanged for “funding the west”. A UN official recently shared his concerns about Iran’s dramatic increase in death sentences, saying that it’s a clear deterioration of human rights in Iran. Ahmad Shahid, a UN official responsible of looking over human rights in Iran, talked about a man being hanged for donating money to a western charity, 35 jailed for being journalists, and 300 others jailed for practicing their religion.

Read more here.<\/a>

Border Control Catches Drug Smuggling Operation<\/b><\/big><\/big>

(Image via The Guardian<\/a>)

The Lebanese border control foiled a mission to smuggle captagon pills to the Gulf. A reported 9.25 million pills were seized before being smuggled through the port inside wood cutting equipment. Security forces are now working on tracing them back to the manufacturers.

Read more here.<\/a>

Elderly Sukleen Worker Assaulted in Dekweneh<\/b><\/big><\/big>

(Image via Facebook<\/a>)

Just look at this face. Imagine yourself witnessing the physical assault, the humiliation and cutting of this poor man’s face. Just the thought of it makes me clench a fist. What was his crime? This worker was cleaning in front of an apartment building in Dekweneh and a man from the building was upset because he said the doorman is the only person who can clean in front of it. I’ll quote Anastacia El Hajj, the woman whom without no one would have known about this incident…

“This morning while I was on my way to work, a man was hysterically yelling at a Sukleen worker on the side of the road in Dekwene (Slaf) demanding him to kneel. The Sukleen worker was around 20 years his senior. The man (animal) had his hand on the worker\u2019s shoulder forcing him to the ground, shouting: \u2018kneel, kneel\u2019 and verbally insulting him in the worst ways. He grabbed a pocket knife and slit the old worker\u2019s cheek. Someone had to do something other than spectate. When I got out of the car to try and stop this brutality, a woman watching from the balcony looked down at me and said: \u201cleave him, these foreigners are all over our country, and they deserve it.\u201d The swallowed tears in this old man\u2019s eyes just stab right in the heart. I am still sick to my stomach, disgusted by the injustice of it all, knowing that this incident will go no further than a Facebook post.”<\/i>

Read more here.<\/a>

NDU Students Elections Canceled<\/b><\/big><\/big>