from PALESTINE INFORMATION CENTER
On the occasion of World Water Day
SETTLERS CONSUME SEVEN TIMES MORE WATER THAN NATIVE PALESTINIANS IN WB

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– A Palestinian statistical report clearly showed unfair distribution of shares of aquifers in the West Bank in comparison between the Israeli settlers and the Palestinian natives.

The report, issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on March 22, which marks the World Water Day, showed that the Israeli daily share per capita of water consumption reached seven times higher than the Palestinians.

Palestinian water resources are fully controlled by Israel, according to the provisions enshrined in the Oslo Accords. According to some estimates, Israel is using more than 85 percent of the water in the West Bank, covering around a quarter of its own needs.
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from INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
SETTLERS ATTACK PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN SOUTH HEBRON HILLS, INJURE 6-YEAR-OLD GIRL
by IMEMC News & Agencies
March 23, 2015

Masked Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Ma’on, south of Hebron, threw stones at Palestinian children and injured a six-year-old child, Saturday.

The child sustained a head injury and was taken to the nearest hospital for medical treatment, according to witnesses.

An Israeli army spokeswoman did not have any immediate information, but told Ma’an News Agency that she was looking into the incident.

The Hebron Defense Committee has reported that two masks settlers threw stones, on Saturday afternoon, at two children from Khirbet a-Tawil, southeast of Yatta town.

The Committee added that a child, identified as Sojoud ‘Awad, 6 years of age, was struck in the head, and one of her legs.

Settlers routinely carry out acts of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank but are rarely held accountable, as Israeli authorities are often complicit in the attacks on Palestinians, their property and their lands, according to Israeli human rights organization B’tselem.
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from THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
WEST PUNISHED PALESTINE WHEN IT VOTED FREELY; ENDORSES ISRAEL’S VOTE FOR OCCUPATION
By Ghada Ageel
March 23, 2015

The 2006 elections were an amazing demonstration of Palestinian democracy in its multi-coloured beauty. The people under occupation expressed their determination to resist Israel’s attempt to force them to surrender through its colonisation efforts, expansionist strategies and racism. And the people have kept their word. Even where there is occupation with its control over their lands, lives and destinies, there is still no surrender.

The elections were significant in that they owed nothing to American pressure and to the selective effort by the USA to promote only those democracies that fit its own agenda. Ironically, the elections were also a dramatic surprise for the EU. They had spent millions of dollars on the illusive peace project and had threatened to cut off the aid to Palestinians if the outcome was not in line with that project. Instead, the elections were a stunning testimony to the fact that Palestinian civil society is more vibrant than ever and can be mobilised into an organised political force. It also proved that Palestinian politics has its own effective dynamic that has little to do with pressure, bribery and blackmail from the outside but much to do with the political, social and economic demands of ordinary people in their atrocious situation. Although Palestinians had become poorer, more vulnerable, less secure and more targeted through the “peace process,” they rejected all pressure and reaffirmed their demand for freedom.

In response, they have been made to suffer the drastic consequences that followed.
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from MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL ‘BOYCOTTS’ UN RIGHTS COUNCIL SESSION ON GAZA WAR
March 22, 2015

GENEVA (AFP) — Israel’s representative was conspicuously missing when the UN Human Rights Council started a special session Monday on the situation in the Palestinian territories and the 2014 Gaza conflict.

“I note the representative of Israel is not present,” said council president Joachim Ruecher.

Israel provided no immediate explanation for their absence at the session dedicated overwhelmingly to discussion of its policies and alleged abuses, but a source close to the council said it clearly amounted to a boycott.

“We won’t comment on that,” a spokeswoman with the Israeli mission in Geneva told AFP.

The United States was also absent from Monday’s discussions.
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from THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
A KAIROS PERSPECTIVE OF TOURISM AND PILGRIMAGE: COME AND SEE
By Rifat Odeh Kassis
March 2015

When we created the Kairos Document (launched in December 2009), we at Kairos Palestine tried to reflect on what tourism and pilgrimage really mean to us. In our advocacy, we try to see and respond to both our reality and our rights. We address churches, tourists, and pilgrims of all faiths and ethnicities in hopes they will see the injustice happening in Palestine and walk and work in solidarity with us along the path to justice. Kairos Palestine believes in facilitating the “sight” of the many people who visit our land, whether they are tourists or pilgrims.

To be a tourist is to play an unusual role.

You arrive in a place you’ve never seen before and stay for some time. You explore. Perhaps you read a book that tells you where to go, or recruit a guide to take you there. You take pictures, you look and look, and what you see will be the only material you can use to make sense of where you are. Perhaps you realize that the information offered to you is, in itself, a purposeful narrative that will demand your acceptance and affirmation, often at the exclusion of other narratives.

Because of this, tourism is a heavily political business anywhere you go, whether or not the politics are advertised.
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Throughout his career, Rifat Odeh Kassis has been advocating for the effective application of international human rights and humanitarian law in Palestine through various professional and voluntary positions. He was the driving force and one of the co-authors of Kairos Palestine document and has been the general coordinator of the Kairos Palestine Movement since its inception. He has published two books: Palestine, A Bleeding Wound in the World’s Conscience and Kairos for Palestine.

“CONCERNING HOPES,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH

Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a baker in Algeria
To sing with a fighter.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a shepherd in Yemen
To sing for resurrection.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a waiter in Havana
To sing the victories of the oppressed.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a young porter in Aswan
To sing for the rocks.
The Nile will never flow into the Volga,
Nor will the Congo or the Jordan flow into the Euphrates.
Each river has its own springs,
Its own course and its own life.
Our land, my friend, is no barren land.
Each land gives birth in due time,
And each fighter will see the dawn.