“. . .Stop for a moment and listen to him saying: ‘No!’. . .” (Muin Bseiso)

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

Palestinians hold their national flag as they ride boats during a rally to show support for activists on the Freedom Flotilla III at the seaport of Gaza City on 24 June 2015. The activists failed to reach Gaza, with three boats turning back and the fourth taken over by the Israelis. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images.

❶ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ISRAELIS OVERTAKE, BOARD SIEGE [OF GAZA] BREAKING VESSEL
June 29, 2015
According to Haaretz, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound boat Marianne late Sunday night, in what the military said was a short operation, free of any casualties . . .
____ . . . the Marianne of Gothenburg, was boarded by the Israeli navy and was being escorted to an Israeli port.
____The Swedish boat, which on Sunday afternoon was 150 nautical miles from the Gaza Coast, is carrying 20 activists, among them MK Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List) and former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki.
(More. . .)
(Additional “mainstream” media coverage)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL LARGEST STATE USER OF EXPLOSIVE WEAPONS IN 2014 DUE TO GAZA WAR
Charlie Hoyle
June 26, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel was the single largest user of explosive weapons among international states in 2014 as a result of its war on Gaza, a London-based NGO said this week . . .
____In a report entitled ‘Explosive States: Monitoring explosive violence in 2014,’ Action on Armed Violence said that Gaza . . . saw one of the highest number of global casualties from explosive weapons as a result of Israel’s use of military force during Operation Protective Edge.
(More. . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ANTI-PALESTINIAN GRAFFITI FOUND IN JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOOD
June 30, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Suspected Jewish extremists spray-painted racist graffiti in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli police said.
____Luba al-Samri, spokeswoman for Arabic-language media, told Ma’an that “Arab blood is a public property,” “Kill Arabs,” and other racist phrases were sprayed on a wall in Hebrew.
(More. . .)

❹ From +972 BLOG
A VICIOUS CYCLE OF LAWLESSNESS IN THE WEST BANK
Eyal Hareuveni
June 30, 2015
For nearly 50 years the Israeli army has been treating settler violence against Palestinians as a decree of fate . . . the army has dealt with the phenomenon without actually dealing with it.
____International law, however, is quite clear that the occupying power . . . has an obligation to preserve the rule of law and public order in those territories. . . the Israeli High Court has even emphasized that it is a basic and fundamental obligation — but the IDF paid no heed.
(More. . .)

Settlers throw stones at Palestinians as IDF soldiers stand by in the West Bank village of Asira al Qibliya. April 30, 2013 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❺ Opinion
From +972 BLOG
THE ONLY REAL DANGER OF GAZA FLOTILLAS
Itamar Sha’altiel
June 29, 2015
Activists on the Freedom Flotilla must understand that . . . Putting the spotlight on humanitarian supplies allows Israel to divert attention from the worst parts of the blockade.
____The truth is that after five years it’s getting a little old. Israeli naval commandos once again take over a boat to Gaza, and again, it happens without any fuss. The Israeli defense minister once again claims that there is no blockade on Gaza, and once again the prime minister tells the activists they should be sailing to Syria.
____There is, of course, clearly a blockade on Gaza. It requires massive quantities of unabashed gall to claim otherwise. Israel forbids the entry and departure of boats to and from Gaza . . . it decides what building materials can be imported to Gaza and for which projects . . . and it restricts the entry and exit of people in and out of the Strip . . . let’s be honest — it’s a blockade, clear and simple.
(More. . .)

“NO!” BY MUIN BSEISO

His wounds said: “No!”
His chains said: “No!”
And the turtledove which shielded his wound with her feather
Said: “No!”
“No!” for those who sold and bought
Gaza’s silver anklet.
They sold the bullets and bought a goose.

Quaking goose!
Stop for a moment.
And listen to him
Saying: “No!”
Pity him; he did not die under neon lights,
Between the candlestick and the moon.
Pity him; there was no formal announcement
or a dumb funeral.
No moaning poem nor song.
Stones!
Let me compose, if only one line of verse,
That I may recite it to all the men with long and false beards.

Stop quaking for a moment
And listen to him saying: “No!”
Like the solid fence of a house in Gaza.
Every day, he gets killed one thousand times,
Quaking goose!

From: A Lover from Palestine and Other Poems: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.

Muin Bseiso (1926 – January 23, 1984) was a Palestinian poet who lived in Egypt . . . He finished his primary and secondary education in Gaza in 1948. He started publishing his work in the Jaffa-based magazin Al-Hurriya (“Liberty”), where he published his first poems in 1946. In 1948, he enrolled in the American University in Cairo and subsequently graduated in 1952. On January 27, 1952 he published his first work titled Al-Ma’raka (“The Battle”). Imprisoned in Egyptian jails twice: 1955 to 1957 and 1959 to 1963. He died London in 1984.

“. . . Sorrow of a field that carries the remains of the dead and olive trees. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

June 29, 2015June 30, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in the March of Return, in the lands of the destroyed village of Hadatha, near Tiberias, April 23, 2015. (photo: Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

❶ From +972 MAGAZINE
THE DAY THEY STRIP ME OF MY CITIZENSHIP
Samah Salaime
June 28, 2015
When the deputy interior minister demands Palestinian citizens renounce our citizenship, he only exposes the true nature of the Israeli state. After all, without us there is no ‘only democracy in the Middle East.’
____We, the rowdy Arabs who live in the democratic state of the Jewish people, formally apologize for disrupting a Knesset plenum on the Citizenship Law, which denies status in Israel to Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens. So what if the discussion was about our future, our place in society, our fate—we have no right to state our opinions.
(More. . .)

❷ From AL-MONITOR, PALESTINE PULSE
SENSE OF BELONGING DRAWS PALESTINIANS TO WEST BANK
Aziza Nofal (Translator―Sahar Ghoussoub)
June 25, 2015
NABLUS, West Bank — On a Saturday in Nablus, people are lining in front of the al-Aqsa sweet shop. The place is packed . . . because of Palestinians visiting Nablus from Israel. . . .
____In the last four years, some 90,000 Palestinians from Israel have been crossing into the West Bank annually. . . .
____Areej Makroush, from the town of Kafr Kana in the Nazareth district, told Al-Monitor, “. . . In the West Bank, we have a sense of belonging and security. We don’t feel estranged, unlike shopping in Israeli cities. Here, signs and banners are in Arabic, and we are not obliged to speak Hebrew.”
(More . . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI FORCES CLOSE FARMERS MARKET NEAR NABLUS
June 14, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday closed a farmers market in the northern West Bank town of Beita claiming that Palestinian gunmen had fired shots at Israeli vehicles overnight Saturday on the main road near the town.
____A Ma’an reporter in Nablus said that a large number of Israeli soldiers arrived at the farmers market and sealed the main entrance. . . .
(More. . .)

❹ From ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
HOME DEMOLITION ORDERS IN HEBRON HILLS
June 23, 2015
Operation Dove
While the inhabitants of the Palestinian village of Susiya are still living under the threat of eviction, the Israeli authorities continue to enlarge the danger of demolitions in various villages of the South Hebron Hills area.
____ Israeli officials delivered demolition orders. . .
(More. . .)
Operation Dove
❺ Opinion
From WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS (WRMEA)
LAND DAY COMMEMORATION HONORS PEOPLE WHO WON’T BE SILENCED
Delinda C. Hanley
June-July, 2015
The General Delegation of the PLO to the U.S. and the American Federation of Ramallah Palestine teamed up to host a special dinner to commemorate Prisoners’ Day as well as the 39th Palestinian Land Day on April 17 at the Westin Hotel in Arlington, VA. Following the playing of the Palestinian National Anthem, Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat told the audience that Land Day honors the six Israeli Palestinians who were killed and hundreds who were injured and arrested as they peacefully protested Israeli plans to steal tens of thousands of acres of land in the Galilee.
____Turning to the dinner’s theme, “Your Silence Is Their Power,” Areikat decried efforts by U.S. colleges, mainstream media and community leaders.
(More. . .)

“TO MY GRANDFATHER,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH
Face of my grandfather! Cheerless prophet!
What grave sent you forth,
Wearing a vest the colour of a blood-stained rock,
And a cloak the colour of a ditch?
Face of my grandfather! Cheerless prophet!
Sorrow of a field that carries the remains of the dead and olive
. . .trees and old winds,
What grave sent you forth
To turn me into a lifeless statue?
Glory be to Allah. I haven’t sold an inch and never have I
. . .succumbed to oppression.
They danced and sang on your grave, yet sleep
For I am awake, awake I am till death.

From: A Lover From Palestine and Other Poems: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.

MAHMOUD DARWISH
Born: 13 March 1942, al-Birwa, British Mandate of Palestine
Died: 9 August 2008, Houston, Texas, United States
Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the USSR. He attended the University of Moscow for one year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel. In 1995, he received a permit to settle in Ramallah although he said he felt he was living in exile there, and did not consider the West Bank his “private homeland.”
l-Birwa was a Palestinian Arab village, mentioned by Arab geographers in the 11th century. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, al-Birwa was occupied by the Israel Defense Forces. The inhabitants fled to nearby villages or refugee camps in Lebanon. Kibbutzim were established on the lands of al-Birwa in 1949 and 1950.

“. . .the song veering from relevance to insanity. . .” (Majid Abu Ghoush)

June 28, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

(Beginning today, the last article posted will always be an opinion piece.)

Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 700,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel

❶ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ARMY KIDNAPS FOUR CHILDREN IN OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, TWO IN HEBRON
June 28, 2015
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, late on Saturday and on Sunday at dawn, at least four Palestinian children after the army invaded various neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem. Soldiers also kidnapped two children near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
____Media sources in Jerusalem said the soldiers invaded various neighborhoods in the occupied city, stormed and ransacked several homes, and kidnapped at least four children after assaulting them.
(More. . .)

❷ From PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ARAB LEAGUE CALLS FOR RELEASE OF PALESTINIAN DETAINEES HELD WITHOUT CHARGE
June 26, 2015
The regional organization, Arab League, has condemned acts of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners at Israeli jails, calling for the release of all inmates who have been held without charge, Press TV reports.
____The Arab body, consisting of 22 member states, said Wednesday that Israel should release all Palestinian detainees who have been held hostage for extended periods of time without being able to defend themselves, including Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan. . .
____The bloc further called on the international community to take effective measures to help secure the release of Adnan as well as a spokesman for the group.
(More. . .)

Egypt Hostst Arab League summit on March 28-29 — Egypt Hosts Arab League summit on March 28-29

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
LAWYER: NO DEAL BETWEEN ISRAELI AUTHORITIES AND KHADER ADNAN
June 27, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — No deal has been reached between the Israeli authorities and Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan who on Saturday entered his 54th day on hunger strike, his lawyer said.
____”(Israel) is seeking to end Adnan’s hunger strike in a way that avoids them a feeling of crushing defeat,” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society’s chief lawyer Jawad Bolous said at a press conference in Ramallah on Saturday.
____”On the other hand,” he added, “what Adnan seeks is very clear: either to be released or tried. . .
(More. . .)

❹ From +972 MAGAZINE ONLINE
A YEAR SINCE PROTESTS, DETAINED ASYLUM SEEKERS HINT AT NEW STRATEGY
Oren Ziv
June 27, 2015
[Introduction of one of the asylum seekers]. . . when hundreds of asylum seekers detainees in Holot decided to up and leave the detention facility and march toward the Egyptian border, demanding that they be allowed to leave Israel.
____They had lost hope of being recognized as refugees in Israel, they were unwilling to resign themselves to indefinite detention in the Israeli desert, and thought just maybe they could raise some international awareness. They hoped they could push the United Nations to address their refugee claims.
(More. . .)

❺ From PALESTINECHRONICLE
IS BDS REPLACING IRAN AS ISRAEL’S BLACKMAIL CARD?
Alan Hart
Opinion
Jun 27 2015
My headline question was provoked by an Uri Avnery article with the headline “BDS, the new enemy”. After noting that Netanyahu’s whole career has been based on fear mongering and in recent years his promotion of fear of a nuclear-armed Iran, Avnery wrote this:
“But Netanyahu saw with growing anxiety that the Iranian threat was losing its edge. The US, so it seems, is about to reach an agreement with Iran, which will prevent it from achieving the Bomb… What to do?
“Looking around, three letters popped up: BDS. . .
(More. . .)

“DETENTION,” BY MAJID ABU GHOUSH
In my mind
the sea is wider
bluer

In my mind the
sun is warmer
kinder

In my mind
the roads are longer
they flow like water

In my mind
passion is painful
a bonfire of moths

the moon, like your eyes
(night and magic as they die)
yearns for morning:

a moon weary of night
of too much crying
drunken song and poetry

a theater of landmines
fencing life from death
the song veering

from relevance to insanity
the Universe
from which

you are ready
to be plucked
as am I
―translated by Ellen McAteer

Majid Abu Ghoush (b. Amwas) is a prolific poet, a member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers, and a founding member of Poets Without Borders Palestine. (Reading one of his own poems.)
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available From Amazon.com.
The book’s blog.
A year ago, 1,000 African asylum seekers marched out of the Holot detention facility toward the Egyptian border, hoping to draw the world’s attention to their plight. Since then, thousands have been pressured to leave Israel. As protests appear ineffectual, two asylum seekers discuss what comes next. (Photo by Activestills.org)

“. . . Or is it his disappointment at the pathos of my tears. . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZA FLOTILLA SHIP ‘SABOTAGED’ DAYS BEFORE EXPECTED ARRIVAL
June 25, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — One of the ships taking part in a flotilla headed towards the Gaza Strip was sabotaged south of Crete, an activist aboard one of the ships said Thursday.
____Israeli-born Swedish activist Dror Feiler told Nazareth-based al-Shams radio that the ship had been sabotaged by professionals, and would have sunk if sailed at sea. . . .
____Feiler, who relinquished his Israeli citizenship after moving to Sweden, boarded the trawler Marianne of Gothenburg in Sweden with 18 other activists six weeks ago.
(More. . .)
(Background)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL RELEASES MP AFTER YEAR OF ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
June 25, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities released Palestinian parliament member Sheikh Hassan Youssef [Hassan Yusef], 60, on Thursday as he ended his administrative detention period that was extended three times while being held in prison.
____Youssef was detained in mid-June of 2014 during a detention campaign carried out by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank and held in the Ofer jail near Ramallah. . .
____He was one of hundreds of Palestinians to be detained by Israel during the campaign known as “Operation Brother’s Keeper. . . .
(More. . .)

Sheikh Hassan Youssef [Hassan Yusef], Member of Palestinian Parliament

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINE TO SUBMIT HUNDREDS OF DOCUMENTS TO ICC FOR 1ST TIME
June 25, 2015
Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki is scheduled to make the State of Palestine’s first submission to the International Criminal Court in the Hague on Thursday in pursuit of war crime charges against Israel. . . .
____“It will take the ICC a long time to take action, possibly 5-10 years as this is one out of a hundred steps,” Abu Zneid said.
____The PLO will continue to collate information and testimonies to later be submitted to the ICC as evidence of Israeli crimes.
(More. . .)
(Background)

❹ From MONDOWEISS
‘WE ARE DOING YOU PEOPLE A FAVOR BY ALLOWING YOU TO BE SEATED HERE,’ NETANYAHU DEPUTY TELLS PALESTINIANS IN KNESSET
Roland Nikles
June 25, 2015
[A short history of the Anti-Family-Reunification Law] . . . .
The Knesset once again renewed the law on June 15, 2015. . . .
____On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, the Knesset held a “debate” on a request by the Joint Arab list (13 MK’s headed by Ayman Odeh) to revoke the anti-family-unification provision in the Citizenship Law. The result was not pretty.
____From Haaretz: During the debate, Deputy Interior Minister Yaron Mazuz of Likud. . . . called on Arab lawmakers to return their Israeli identity cards. Addressing the Arab Joint List’s MK Haneen Zoabi, Mazuz said: “Mrs. [Haneen] Zoabi, you are the first who ought to return your ID. We are doing you people a favor by even allowing you to be seated here . . . .
(More. . . .)

❺ From MONDOWEISS
OREN PUSHED RANDOM HOUSE TO HURRY HIS BOOK SO AMERICAN JEWS WILL ‘INTERCEDE’ TO STOP IRAN DEAL AND SAVE MILLIONS OF JEWS
Philip Weiss
June 22, 2015
Michael Oren said he put “immense pressure” on Random House to publish his new book, Ally, this month, so he could mobilize American Jews against the coming Iranian deal, and they would intercede as they had failed to do in response to the Nazi threat in the 1930s.
____Speaking at the 92nd Y last night, Oren said he resigned as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. in October 2013 and then set out to write his book in a hurry for a “political reason” . . . . [Oren said] “Israel is at a . . . fateful juncture . . . [because] a major French initiative in the Security Council that will have very profound implications for Israeli security.”
____He was referring to a French proposal to require the creation of a Palestinian state within a year and a half.
(More. . .)

“IDENTITY,” BY MARWAN MAKHOUL

I’m unfamiliar with refugee camps.
Is that the ultimate in giving up?
Or are they tents I’ve been told are white
with guy ropes at the corners to hold them up
that hold me up?

I’m unfamiliar with tear gas.
Is it a weapon whose used bears the radiance of defeat?
Or is it his disappointment at the pathos of my tears
when I cry?

I’m unfamiliar with settlements.
Are some of those people good?
Sure, completely. Like I walk
on my hands,
and the sand sings?

I’m unfamiliar with my mother too.
Is she the one who suckled me?
Or is she the one bereft, standing in my doorway,
or a window on belonging?

I’m unfamiliar with UNRWA.
Is it a shipment I once chanced upon?
Or did I direct its driver
when he asked the way to Rafah?

I’m unfamiliar with the “cause”.
Is it a fiancée searching in the rubble
for her finger to put the ring on?
Or is half the whole of a fifth?

I’m unfamiliar with the truth.
Am I lacking something?
Or does my blood course within me
but not as my nerves would wish?

Personally, I’m unfamiliar with myself.
Am I the one now in my body?
Or am I that one I wrote about
the day I became my neighbor?
―Translated by Raphael Cohen

Marwan Makhoul was born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother in 1979 in the village of Boquai’a in the Upper Galilee region of Palestine. He currently lives in the village of Maalot Tarshiha. Marwan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Mustaqbal College. His first book of poetry was published in 2007 in both Beirut and Baghdad by Al-Jamal Publishers. That same year a second edition of the book was published in Haifa by Maktabat Kul Shai’ Publishers. In 2009 he won the prize of best playwright in The Acre Theatre Festival for his first play.
(An interview with Marwan Makhoul )

“. . . Whenever a child goes silent in Al Yarmouk Camp. . .” (Maya Abu Al-Hayyat)

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PLO: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES IN SYRIA FACE IMMINENT THREAT FROM FIGHTING
June 25, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Some 150,000 Palestinian refugees in four camps on the outskirts of Damascus face severe threats due to ongoing fighting in the Syrian conflict, a PLO official said Thursday. . . .
____The majority of Palestinians in those camps are originally from Yarmouk refugee camp, which has been on the front-line of the Syrian conflict and severely affected by fighting.
(More. . .)

❷ From ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
US CONGRESS MEMBERS DEMAND END TO ISRAEL’S “CRUEL” ABUSES OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
Ali Abunimah
June 24, 2015
In rare defiance of the stifling pro-Israel consensus in the US capital, members of Congress are calling on the Obama administration to push Israel to end its systematic abuses of Palestinian children.
____Congresswoman Betty McCollum released a letter on Tuesday co-signed by 18 other members of the House of Representatives urging Secretary of State John Kerry to “prioritize the human rights of Palestinian children living in the Occupied West Bank in the bilateral relationship with the Government of Israel.”
(More. . .)

❸ From KINDERUSA
THE INHUMANITY OF YARMOUK
Dalell Mohmed
April 15, 2015
“Yarmouk is a place which has descended even further into unimaginable levels of inhumanity.”– United Nations Relief Works Agency spokesperson Chris Gunness
____Formed in 1957 for Palestinians who fled across the border after the creation of Israel in 1948, Yarmouk quickly became home to the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria. Located 8 kilometers from the center of Damascus, it is 2.1 square kilometers in size.
(More. . .)

Palestinian residents of Yarmouk waiting for food

❹ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
UNRWA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO FUND GAZA CHILDREN EDUCATION
June 25, 2015
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) launched a global Ramadan campaign to raise funds to support the education of thousands of Palestinian refugee children in UNRWA schools in the besieged Gaza Strip.
(More. . .)

❺ From MONDOWEISS
WHAT I LEARNED CROSSING THE QALANDIA CHECKPOINT
Léa Georgeson Caparros
June 23, 2015
The turnstile jams.
____It rattles uselessly as I try to move forward again. I start getting nervous. I manage to manoeuvre out of the gate and back into the holding cage. My companions are still being held at the previous turnstile from which I’m separated by a metal detector. I dare not go back for fear of breaking some unspoken rule.
____There is no indication anywhere of what to do other than your lack of alternatives. You are simply herded through cages and turnstiles like cattle. . . .
(More. . .)

“CHILDREN,” BY MAYA ABU AL-HAYYAT
Whenever I see an image of a child’s hands
sticking out of the rubble of a collapsed building
I check the hands of my three children
I count the fingers of their hands, the toes on their feet,
I check the numbers of teeth in their mouths, every
last hair in each finely-marked wee eyebrow.

Whenever a child goes silent in Al Yarmouk Camp
I turn up the volume on the TV, the songs on the radio,
I pinch my three children
to make them cry and squirm with life.

Whenever my sore heart gets hungry at Qalandia checkpoint
I comfort-eat, I
emotionally over-eat, craving excessive salt
as if I could then somehow say: enough, block out
the salt spark of the tears everyone around me is crying.
―Translated by Liz Lochhead

Maya Abu Al-Hayyat is a prize-winning author of novels, poetry, and short stories. Born in Lebanon, she has a degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Najah University in Nablus, the largest Palestinian university, and lives in Ramallah.
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available From Amazon.com.
Maya Abu Al-Hayyat reading one of her poems
About Qalandia checkpoint

“. . . I stumbled across Solitude in my house. . .” (Yousef Abdul-Aziz)

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

(See “NEW: Calendar” above for listing of events of interest.)

Dr. Basel Ghattas, Member of Knesset, Israel (Timesofisrael)

❶ From MA’AN NEWS ANGENCY
MK GHATTAS: THE FLOTILLA IS PEACEFUL, LET THEM REMOVE MY IMMUNITY
June 24, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Arab MK Basel Ghattas said this week that threats by fellow Israeli lawmakers to remove his parliamentary immunity will not affect his decision to take part in the Freedom Flotilla III.
____The Israeli Knesset Committee reportedly voted in favor Tuesday of stripping Ghattas. . . of his immunity from prosecution for joining the protest flotilla.
____The Flotilla is the third of its kind to attempt to access the Gaza Strip by sea since 2010 . . .
(More. . .)
(More. . .)

❷ From PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE DRONE EATS WITH ME: DIARIES FROM A CITY UNDER FIRE
Vacy Vlazna
Jun 23 2015

“We prepare the suhoor. We all sit around five dishes: white cheese, hummus, orange jam, yellow cheese, and olives. Darkness eats with us. Fear and anxiety eat with us. The unknown eats with us. The F16 eats with us. The drone, and its operator somewhere out in Israel, eat with us.”

____I read The Drone Eats With Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire by Atef Abu Saif in almost one sitting . . . . These beautifully written searing diaries recounting each of the horrific 51 days of Israel’s monstrous war on the people of Gaza sweeps the reader into Atef’s anguished experience. . . simultaneously personal and collective.
(More. . .)

❸ From PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
SONIC YOUTH FRONTMAN THURSTON MOORE CANCELS CONCERT IN ISRAEL IN SUPPORT OF BDS
June 24, 2015
Thurston Moore, founding member of the 90’s rock band Sonic Youth, has confirmed his support for the cultural boycott of Israel, following the cancellation of his performance in Tel Aviv earlier this year . . .
____The renowned singer-songwriter and guitarist made the remarks in an article written by British-Palestinian musician Samir Eskanda, and published this week by online music magazine The Quietus. The piece, ‘I’m One Of 1000 UK Artists Boycotting Israel. Here’s Why’, makes the case for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). . . .
(More. . .)

“. . . I eventually arrived at the personal conclusion that to perform with my band in Israel was in direct conflict to my values.” (Photo: Chris Owyoung)

❹ From PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAELI AUTHORITIES HALT VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT
June 24, 2015
Israeli authorities yesterday handed down an order to Menizel village council, near Hebron city, to halt all building work on pipes and water tanks feeding water into the village.
____Coordinator of Popular Resistence Committee, Rateb al-Jabour, told the official agency that the Israeli authorities presented . . . a notice of an order to halt the development of water pipes and tanks around the village.
(More. . .)

❺ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI GOV’T SEEKS TO SEIZE PALESTINIAN LANDS NEAR BETHLEHEM
The Israeli government has submitted anew a request to the high court to officially take over private Palestinian lands in order to legalize an unauthorized settlement outpost near Bethlehem, according to Peace Now.
____The request was again in response to a Peace Now petition to demolish 17 settlers’ homes, which were built on Palestinian-owned lots in the illegal settlement of Derech Ha’avot near Bethlehem. . . is located within the illegal settlement block of Gush Etzion, which is now home for more than 54,000 Jewish settlers
(More. . .)

“THE BOOK OF DOUBT,” BY JOUSEF ABDUL-AZIZ
Tonight
I stumbled across Solitude in my house.
Not only wearing my best shirt
and drinking my coffee
but also
smoking my tobacco
it was thrashing about the pages
of what looked like my manuscript.
It sat in my chair like a queen
and from its hands
rose an enchanted fog. . .
Still cloaked in my dreams I stood close by
trembling like a branch of the night
raining down bitter
questions:
What is woman?
In which storm
may my heart play?
Where did I bury the fire?!
As though I were a ring on its finger
it didn’t give me much thought.
Unfazed by my stiff shadow at the door
Solitude went on
with a sneer
scrambling pages
tearing them out of the manuscript.
I saw myself cast out to blind lands
and I hollered;
I saw before me a sphere of water
rising up in the wind
and above, a cracked moon,
and slain butterflies
strewn around me.
I’m sure
you will wrap up this farce! I yelled.
Solitude glanced at me with its two eyes of a gazelle—
my own eyes.
And it handed me
the book of doubt—it was my own book.
— Translated by Juana Acock

— From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.
— Yousef Abdul-Aziz was born in Jerusalem and studied in Amman and Beirut. He is a teacher, a committee member of the online journal Awraq, and recipient of literary awards, including the (Jordanian) Arar prize.

Activists aboard a flotilla of boats are set to sail for Gaza in a fresh bid to break Israel's blockade of the territory, five years after a similar attempt ended in a deadly raid by Israeli soldiers. — Activists aboard a flotilla of boats are **set to sail for Gaza** in a fresh bid to break Israel’s blockade of the territory, five years after a similar attempt ended in a deadly raid by Israeli soldiers.

“. . . the stranger wakens in his exile, his homeland. . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

June 23, 2015 Harold Knight1 Comment

(See heading “NEW: Calendar” above for listing of events of interest.)

Palestinian women barred by Israeli authroties from prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

❶ From ALMONITOR
GAZA DOCTORS FIND JOBS IN GERMAN CLINICS
Hazem Balousha Posted June 17, 2015
TranslatorPascale Menassa
June 17, 2015
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In one of the rooms of the Goethe Institute in Gaza City, 13 students attend a German-language class. Five of them are doctors seeking to study and work in Germany due to the tough economic and political situation in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control for eight years.
____According to figures published by several sources, some doctors employed in Gaza are looking for work in German hospitals. Germany has been offering extensive incentives for doctors from outside the European Union for years.
(More. . .)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS ANGENCY
ISRAELI POLICE ISSUE 15-DAY AQSA MOSQUE BAN FOR 6 PALESTINIAN WOMEN
June 23, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli police on Monday banned six Palestinian women from visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for 15 days, a lawyer for the women said.
____Ramzi Kteilat, from Jerusalem based rights group Qudsuna, told Ma’an that the women were arrested earlier in the day and taken to Qishla police station near Jaffa Gate.
(More. . .)

❸ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
SOLDIERS KIDNAP FOUR PALESTINIANS IN BETHLEHEM
Tuesday June 23, 2015
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, four young Palestinian men in the ‘Aida refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and handed three from Bethlehem, military warrants for interrogation.
____ Local sources in the camp said the soldiers stormed and searched several homes, and kidnapped. . .
(More. . .)
http://www.imemc.org/article/72023

❹ From MA’AN NEWS ANGENCY
ISRAEL RENEWS JERUSALEM BAN ON ISLAMIC MOVEMENT HEAD
June 23, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities on Tuesday extended an order banning the head of the Islamic Movement from entering Jerusalem.
. . .
____The prominent Islamic cleric called the ruling “unjust,” while the Islamic Movement said that entering Jerusalem is Salah’s legitimate right and he will exercise it “whenever he sees appropriate.”
(More. . .)

Still from the film Censored Voices shows a former Israeli solider listening back to an interview, censored by the military after the 1967 war. (Noise Film PR)

❺ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
NEW EVIDENCE FROM 1967 WAR REVEALS ISRAELI ATROCITIES
Ilan Pappe
June 23, 2015

“In the operation we had to cleanse the inhabitants. This uprooting of a villager, rooted in his village and turning him into a refugee, by simply expelling him, and not one, two or three of them but a real eviction. And when you see a whole village is led like lambs to the slaughter without any resistance you understand what is the Holocaust.” — An Israeli soldier’s testimony in the documentary Censored Voices, directed by Mor Loushi (2015)

In the wake of the June 1967 war, the Israeli author Amos Oz, then a reserve soldier in the Israeli army, together with a friend collated interviews with Israeli soldiers who participated in the war and asked them about the emotions the fighting triggered in them. The interviews were published as a book titled Conversations with Soldiers, more popularly referred at the time by my generation as the ”shooting and crying” book.
____The military censor (a function that still exists today, held recently by the present minister of culture, Miri Regev), erased 70 percent of the evidence since he claimed it would have harmed Israel’s international image.
____This month an industrious Israeli filmmaker, Mor Loushi, is showing her new documentary based on most of this erased material.
(More. . .)

“HOW ARE YOU?” BY MOURID BARGHOUTI
Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

From: Barghouti, Mourid. Midnight and other Poems. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.
Murīd al-Barghūti (born July 8, 1944, in Deir Ghassana, near Ramallah, on the West Bank) is a Palestinian poet and writer. While Barghouti was studying at the University of Cairo in 1967, the 6-Day War broke out, and he was unable to return to the West Bank until 1996. He was expelled from Egypt in 1977 and was exiled in Budapest separated from his wife, the Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour. They have been together in the West Bank since they were allowed to return together in 1996. Their son, Tamim Al Barghouti, born in Egypt in 1977, is himself an important Palestinian poet.
Other poems by Mourid Barghouti here, and here.

A growing library of works by Palestinian and Palestinian-American poets.

A special post (for Fathers Day in the United States)

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

A letter from John F. Kennedy to his father after a visit to Palestine in 1939.

Whatever one thinks or believes about the situation in Palestine, or what one hopes for the Palestinian people, one will find this letter amazing in its grasp of the details of the pre-1948 Palestinian situation.

One could only hope (probably without any justification) that our leaders would think this clearly.

The letter is long and detailed. Whether or not the history is correct in all points, I do not know. But what I do know is that it is thoughtful and an obvious attempt to understand –perhaps the last such attempt by anyone who was (or was to become) President of the United States.

The letter.

“. . . what terror drove them out of their homes? . . . (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

June 20, 2015June 20, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

Palestinian Nozha neighborhood in Jaffa.

❶ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
DISPLACEMENT SCHEMES TARGETING PALESTINIANS IN JAFFA (REPORT)
June 20, 2015
The Israeli Judaization and displacement schemes have escalated especially in Jaffa city, north of Occupied Palestine, as the Israeli Authorities approved new settlement schemes targeting the city which was occupied in 1948.
____The so-called Israel Lands Administration (ILA) . . . endorsed a huge . . . scheme which will be established on the ruins of the Palestinian homes and lands in Nozha neighborhood in Jaffa. . .
____ILA claims that the Palestinian residents who live in this area will be expelled under pretext that these lands are “state owned” and that the Palestinians are illegally living in them and they will be compensated if they agree to leave.
(More. . .)

❷ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
REPORT: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES TOPPED 36,000 IN EUROPE
June 19, 2015
LONDON, (PIC)– 36,450 Palestinian refugees fleeing war-torn Syria reached Europe between 2011 and June 2015, Action Group for Palestinian refugees in Syria said in a report issued Friday.
. . . .
____The 36,450 refugees arrived to Europe via the so-called “boats of death” risking their lives after being forced to flee their homes in Syria and to live again uncertain lives as refugees, the report said.
(More. . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
RAFAH CROSSING CLOSES AFTER WEEK OPEN
June 19, 2015
GAZA (Ma’an) — The Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing into and out of Gaza Friday after a week of being opened.
____The head of the department of crossings and borders in Gaza, Maher Abu Sabha, said that he is hopeful the crossing will be reopened again next week, adding that there remain 12,000 Palestinians registered to travel.
____On Friday, 450 people departed Gaza through the crossing and 88 others entered, while 10 were denied entry with no reasons specified.
. . . .
____In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have only rarely opened the Rafah crossing — Gaza’s only connection to the outside world.
(More. . .)

One of the larger refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, Dheisheh is home to some 15,000 people squeezed into one square kilometer.

❹ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ROOFTOP GARDENS GIVE REFUGEES ROOM TO BREATHE
June 9, 2015
In the narrow alleys of Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, Muaath Atef points to a rooftop. “There, that’s a nice bit of plastic,” he laughs. Behind that bit of plastic lies a garden set up by Karama, a volunteer community organization in the camp.
____Atef works with Karama, which runs after school activities and summer camps for local children. Three years ago, the group began setting up “micro-farms” on the rooftops of some 20 families in the camp.
____“There was a need and we tried to address it,” Yasser Al-Haj, Karama’s director, explains, adding that projects are chosen and implemented according to the demands of the community and not according to the whims of foreign funders.
(More. . .)

❺ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
REPORT: HAMAS MILITARY WING CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR FRIDAY SHOOTING
June 20, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly claimed responsibility for Friday’s West Bank shooting that left an Israeli man dead and another lightly injured.
____“One of the fighters ambushed a settler vehicle and shot at them from point-blank range after having observed the area continuously” . . . .
____The statement identified the “Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha Brigade” as the affiliated group directly behind Friday’s shooting, adding that “the operation was carried out days before the first anniversary of the martyrs Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha.”
(More. . .)

“ANY REFUGEES IN THE WORLD,” BY LAHAB ASSEF AL-JUNDI

what is the first thing that comes to mind
when you hear of refugees?
what terror drove them out of their homes?
are they getting help?
what is being done for their safe return?

are Palestinians any different from any other refugees?
is not their simple right
to return to the land they were driven from?

why are they being asked to settle
for money?
who designated the Palestinians as the chosen people
to carry the cross for a guilt-ridden West?
why do politicinas tell them
too much time has passed
when their grievance
is with people who went back after 2000 years?

between continued warfare and annihilation
coexistence beckons
as the only
honorable
demographic.

time for peace
now.

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi was born of Palestinian refugee parents and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not long after graduation, he discovered his passion for writing. He published his first poetry collection, A Long Way, in 1985. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary publications, and many anthologies including Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Hayan Charara, and Between Heaven and Texas, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISREL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from Barnes & Noble.

C A L E N D A R

• Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope, June 13-27
• Upcoming group delegations to Palestine/Israel
. . . o Interfaith Peace Builders Delegation
. . . o 2015 Sabeel Witness Visit

Palestinians raise Hamas flags at what remains of the house of Hussam Qawasmeh, accused by Israel of being part of the plot to kidnap three hitchhikers. (AFP/Hazem Bader, File)

“. . .the splendor of life is being born within the walls of my prison. . .” (Samīh al-Qāsim)

June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 Harold KnightLeave a comment

Khader Adnan and his children. He has been held in prison 10 times under administrative detention which allows Israel to detain people for periods of 6 months without the filing of charges or a trial.

❶ From PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
SERIOUS DETERIORATION IN KHADER ADNAN’S HEALTH CONDITION
June 18, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The health situation of the prisoner Khader Adnan has seriously deteriorated as he continues his hunger strike for 45 consecutive days protesting his administrative detention, rights group said.
____Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) Jawad Boulos said that Israeli officials asked him late Thursday to urgently come to Assaf Harofeh Hospital as Adana’s health situation has sharply deteriorated.
(More. . .)
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAEL ARRESTS 11 PALESTINIANS IN WEST BANK, ASSAULTS TODDLER, TWO ELDERS
June 16, 2015
Israeli forces Tuesday arrested nine Palestinians from across the West Bank and attacked a toddler, while Israeli police arrested two women and assaulted two elders in Jerusalem, according to local and security sources.
____Israeli forces stormed Jenin refugee camp, fired stun grenades, and arrested three youths after raiding and destroying the entire content of their families’ homes, including the main front doors. . . .
____Israeli forces also arrested an 18-year-old identified as Abd al-Hamid Hammad, after raiding several homes in the town of Silwad to the East of Ramallah.
____ . . . forces arrested Tawfiq Nazzal, 30, from Qalqilia after assaulting his family members, including his four-year-old child. The child was transferred to hospital for treatment.
(More . . .)

❸ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
WILL US CHURCHES HELP BRING DOWN ISRAEL’S PRISON WALLS?
Ryan Rodrick Beiler
June 18, 2015
Three churches will debate resolutions this month to divest from companies supporting the Israeli occupation. The Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ and Mennonite Church USA will each discuss Palestine during their conventions.
____The discussions are taking place amid strenuous efforts by the Zionist lobby to counter the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
____Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire and mega-donor to the Republican Party, recently hosted a conference in Las Vegas to raise a reported $50 million to put more “boots on the ground” in the “war” against BDS. . . .
____All of the resolutions in question cite the Kairos Palestine document, signed by some 3,000 Palestinian Christians, which calls for “boycott and disinvestment as tools of nonviolence for justice, peace and security for all.”
(More . . .)

❹ From AL MONITOR―PALESTINE PULSE
PALESTINIAN MEN FACE PRISON SENTENCES FOR FACEBOOK POSTS
Aziza Nofal
Posted June 9, 2015
The Jerusalemite family of Omar al-Shalabi did not expect the status updates he posted on his Facebook page to lead to his arrest . . . the family also believed he would be released and allowed to return home. On May 12, Shalabi was sentenced to nine months in prison.
____Shalabi’s brother Mohammed . . . told Al-Monitor that the ruling was unexpected given the apparent trivialness of the acts leading to the charges against him. . . He had been arrested Dec. 14 and charged with incitement based on postings to his Facebook page. The posts followed the kidnapping and murder of a young Palestinian man, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, by extremist settlers
(More. . .)

❺ From PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE IMPERATIVE OF PALESTINIAN LIBERATION
Atef Alshaer
(Lecturer in Arabic Language and Culture at the University of Westminster, educated at Birzeit University and the University of London, where he obtained his PhD.)
June 18, 2015
Before 1948, there was no country, nation-state, in historic Palestine called Israel. Israel founded itself by the conquest and exclusion of others, the Palestinians, the rightful owners of Palestine. . . Palestine as a name and reality that encompassed diverse ethnic populations living with each other is what that piece of land had been known for . . . not a western-supported colony, as Israel certainly is in origin. [Keith W.] Whitelam puts the record straight in his book, The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestine History, when he contends that, “viewed from the longer perspective, the history of ancient Israel is a moment in the vast expanse of Palestinian history”.
____The establishment of Israel is therefore an anomaly . . . Israel and its supporters, however, tend to make Israel so natural and normal a state as if it has had existed for thousands of years, and as if its present Jewish population is the direct ancestors of those who trod the same territory more than two thousand years ago. Nothing could be further from the truth.
(More. . .)

“LETTER FROM A PRISON CAMP,” BY SAMĪH AL-QĀSIM
Mother, it grieves me,
That because of me, throughout your night of agony,
You shed silent tears, anxiously awaiting the return
Of my beloved brothers from their chores;
That you are not able to eat
While my seat remains empty, and there is no talk or laughter.
How it pains me, Mother,
That tears rush to your eyes
When friends drop by to ask about me.
But I believe, Mother,
That the splendor of life
Is being born within the walls of my prison,
And I believe that the last of my visitors
Will not be an eyeless bat, coming to me by night.
Surely, the light of day will dawn,
And, dazzled by it, my jailer will be humbled.
He will fall to the ground . . . broken,
Shattered, burnt by daylight.

―Translated by A. M. Elmesseri

Samīh al-Qāsim (1939-2014) was a Palestinian Druze whose Arabic poetry is well known throughout the Arab World. His poetry is influenced by two primary periods of his life: Before and after the Six-Day War. He joined the Communist Hadash political party in 1967. Al- Qāsim has published several volumes and collections of poetry.
(More. . .)
(Poetry Hunter. . .)
From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISRAEL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.

C A L E N D A R
• Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope, June 13-27
• Upcoming group delegations to Palestine/Israel
. . .o Interfaith Peace Builders Delegation
. . .o 2015 Sabeel Witness Visit

(FILES) Photo taken on September 24, 2008 shows Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim reading a poem during a literary evening in Tunis. — Photo taken on September 24, 2008 shows Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim reading a poem during a literary evening in Tunis.

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Palestine InSight

PALESTINE news – PalestinianS LIVING UNDER OCCUPATION – PALESTINIAN POETRY – (every second day)

Month: June 2015

“. . .Stop for a moment and listen to him saying: ‘No!’. . .” (Muin Bseiso)

“. . . Sorrow of a field that carries the remains of the dead and olive trees. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

“. . .the song veering from relevance to insanity. . .” (Majid Abu Ghoush)

“. . . Or is it his disappointment at the pathos of my tears. . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

“. . . Whenever a child goes silent in Al Yarmouk Camp. . .” (Maya Abu Al-Hayyat)

“. . . I stumbled across Solitude in my house. . .” (Yousef Abdul-Aziz)

“. . . the stranger wakens in his exile, his homeland. . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

A special post (for Fathers Day in the United States)

“. . . what terror drove them out of their homes? . . . (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

“. . .the splendor of life is being born within the walls of my prison. . .” (Samīh al-Qāsim)

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