Israel Matzav

'Death to the al-Saud clan'

It seems that Egypt and Syria aren't the only countries where there is a popular uprising against the current rulers. This video was made in Qatif, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. More background about it below the fold, but it looks like there were an awful lot of people there.

Let's go to the videotape.



According to MEMRI, the demonstration was in response to the recent shooting of two local Shiites by police. The House of Saud is Sunni.

Qatif is in the oil-rich eastern part of Saudi Arabia, where much of the population is Shia. Talk about religious overtones. Here's an update from Thursday morning.

A number of security checkpoints and vehicles had come increasingly under fire since Monday in the Saudi Arabia's Al-Qatif region by assailants motivated by foreign orders, an official source from the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the source as saying that the security forces handled the situation with self restraint as much as possible, adding that two citizens were killed and six others, including a woman and two security officers, were injured.

The source said that during the funeral of one of the victims, there were several incidents of fire exchange which resulted in the deaths of two and injuries of three citizens.

...

According to the statement, the aim of the riot makers is to serve the goals of their associates from other countries in an attempt to drag citizens and security forces into confrontation, warning that all who date violate laws and regulations shall ''face consequences'', and that security forces at their designated posts are fully authorized to deal with any situation that arises in the manner they deem fitting to stop these criminal acts.

The ministry included the statement an appeal to the residents of Al-Qatif to stand up to trouble makers to spare innocent lives and bystanders.

All who date? Something tells me that's a mistranslation.

I wonder if the video was made at the funeral and whether we will soon see a video of people being shot. Could it happen in Saudi Arabia?

Labels: Saudi regime change, Shiites v. Sunnis

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:53 PM