Eighteen-month-old Palestinian toddler Ali Saad Dawabsh died while four family members were wounded in a fire at their homes in the West Bank. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY PLO: ISRAEL GOVERNMENT ‘FULLY RESPONSIBLE’ FOR TODDLER’S DEATH
July 31, 2015
BETHLEHEM — The PLO holds the Israeli government “fully responsible” for the death of a toddler in an arson attack carried out Friday by suspected Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, an official said.
____”We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the brutal assassination of the toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha,” PLO official Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
[. . . .]
Israeli settlers smashed the windows of two homes in the Palestinian village of Duma near Nablus before throwing flammable liquids and Molotov cocktails inside, a local resident told Ma’an.
____Ali Saad Dawabsha, one-and-a-half years old, was trapped inside the house and died shortly after sustaining serious burns. . . . (More. . .)
❷ From ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
Based on report from Amnesty International BLACK FRIDAY IN GAZA
Robyn Connelly-Webster
July 29, 2015
Israeli troops committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during and after ‘Black Friday’ on 1 August in last year’s Gaza war, according to a report released Wednesday by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture.
____In Rafah between the 1st and 4th of August 2014, Israeli forces killed at least 135 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, in their search for captured Israeli soldier, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. A ceasefire had been called shortly before his capture on 1 August, leading many Palestinian civilians to believe it was safe to return to their homes. The intense attacks subsequently faced by local residents were unexpected and likened by one eyewitness to ‘a machine making mincemeat out of people without mercy’. (More. . .)
❸ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER ISRAELI POLICE LOCK GATES OF MUSLIMS’ AL-AQSA MOSQUE
July 31, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM ― The Israeli police on early Friday morning closed all the gates of Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque in an attempt to tighten noose around Muslims’ neck.
____The Israeli occupation police claimed they have opted for the decision after they were updated on the intents of Arab youths to instigate “disorder” during prayer times.
____Observers said the move comes as part of Israeli endeavors to mobilize military reinforcement in anticipation of escalating tension.
____Violent confrontations are very likely to flare up following Friday prayers after Israeli fanatics burned a Palestinian child to death. (More. . .)
The devastation in Rafah during the conflict. (Photo – Reuters)
❹ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA. ISRAELI FORCES HALT CONSTRUCTION OF WATER WELL IN NORTHERN JORDAN VALLEY VILLAGE
July 30, 2015
NORTHERN JORDAN VALLEY, (WAFA) – Israeli forces Thursday morning ordered halting the construction of a water well in Kardala, a village in the northern Jordan Valley near the city of Tubas, said a municipal source.
____Mayor of al-Maleh ‘Aref Daraghmeh . . . . added this was the second time he received a stop construction order for this well in particular, purportedly for being constructed without proper license. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER ISRAEL’S DESIGNS TO NEUTRALIZE PALESTINIAN DEMOGRAPHIC ADVANTAGE
Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
July 15, 2015
Israeli leaders and strategists readily admit that the Palestinian demographic growth in mandatory Palestine (between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean) constitutes an existential long-term peril for Israel and Zionism.
____It is widely believed that within this proscribed geographical area (mandatory Palestine), Palestinian population is either equal or will soon be equal to the Jewish population. (More. . .) Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and current affairs political commentator living in occupied Palestine.
“DUSK,” BY ABDEL RAHIM AL-SHEIKH there is a bird, alone. . .alone and measuring the may sun with the beating of his wings, more eager than the east, he grooms, speeds past, clips the mountain crest, a feather harp, known to lovers by his eyelashes, his fierce dance, his acrobat desire, on raffia rope, his two black feet, and all is fleeting but him, the camera shutter, the full rainbow. . . a world without end or sorrow, and he is not the night warden, does not tell each morning of the night returning at sunset, as the night will always return, and the feather harp. . . a lover out of a luck and a luck out of love, a meeting point, a river, a fire, a brink of all things, again and again and again, his feints and flits are far from tender. . . he settles on her breast, as round as the world, holding in his butterflies, a blanket for the grieving, his partner in sleep, and his dreams are aches which march onward, and there are no maps for the crossing, and she warns him: that child, your sea, is taking off his shoes, is leaning on the mountains of the moon, a strait where paths break, a quenching blue, a clouded pearl. . . oh his fire! oh his flute! oh the changing world. . . and who executes the final turn!
Abdel Rahim al-Sheikh from Jerusalem, teaches philosophy, history, and creative writing at Bir Zeit University and the Qattan Centre in Ramallah, and is the author of many literary and academic books.
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.
Kardala village in the northern Jordan Valley near the city of Tubas
Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Haim Saban, the biggest giver on the Democratic side, saying that she will be speaking out publicly against BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign aimed at Israel, and will work “across party lines” to oppose it. –
❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI FORCES DEMOLISH WEDDING HALL AND WORKSHOPS NORTH OF JERUSALEM
July 29, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished a wedding hall and several other structures belonging to a Palestinian resident in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem.
____Israeli bulldozers were reported to have stormed the neighborhood under Israeli army escort and demolished the “al-Khayma” wedding hall belonging to Akram Abu Shalbak.
____They then gave Abu Shalbak an hour to empty a printing shop, a carpentry workshop, and a yard used for selling construction material that also held a small gas station.
____ Abu Shalbak told Ma’an that all the structures were demolished when the hour was up. (More. . .)
❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA PALESTINIAN ATTACKED, DETAINED FOR WISHING AN ISRAELI SOLDIER A GOOD DAY
July 29, 2015
RAMALLAH (WAFA) – A Palestinian youth was assaulted by an Israeli soldier as he was crossing Jabara police station to cross into Hebron, for simply wishing the soldier a ‘good day’, Wednesday reported the Palestinian detainees and ex-detainees affairs committee.
____The committee reported on Naser Jaber, 22, saying after he got his identity card checked by an Israeli soldier at the police station in order to allow him to cross into Hebron, Jaber wished the soldier a ‘good day’, when the soldier stopped him immediately, asking him, ‘Am I your friend to wish me a good day?’ The soldier then smacked Jaber on his chin and on the back of his head with his riffle, causing him serious cuts and fractures in his chin and jaw, as well as an intensive internal bleeding in his head.
____Jaber was then detained and left to bleed for two hours before transferring him to hospital for treatment. He was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, where he received medical care . . . .
____Jaber told the committee that he has not been provided with any additional treatment despite of his bad condition following the assault . . . . (More. . .)
❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAEL PM APPROVES 300 SETTLER HOMES IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday approved the “immediate” construction of 300 settler homes in the occupied West Bank as his government came under pressure from right-wing Jewish groups.
____”After consultations in the prime minister’s office, the immediate construction of 300 homes in Beit El has been authorized,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, adding that planning for another 504 homes in annexed East Jerusalem had also been approved. (More. . .)
A Palestinian family takes a selfie on a beach of the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv during Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, July 19, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
❹ Analysis
From MONDOWEISS ANNIVERSARIES: WHO COUNTS?
Alice Rothchild
July 28, 2015
An early July letter from Hillary Clinton to Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban reveals her intentions to “defend Israel at every turn” and to ignore Israel’s serious human rights violations raised by the United Nations. . . . Calling Israel “a vibrant democracy” and equating critical discourse on Zionism and Israeli policy with anti-Semitism, she does a grave disservice to the growing international awareness of the massive Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the crushing siege of Gaza.
____As a guest of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, I traveled to the region in March with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility to listen to the voices of and work with physicians, mental health clinicians, UN and human rights workers, teachers, students, youth groups, artists, and ordinary people. . . .
____I listened to psychiatrists discuss the 51 days of intense fear and insecurity and the challenges of caring for traumatized patients when the clinicians themselves had lost homes, family members, and were equally traumatized.
[. . . .]
____Historical memory is a contradictory process, churning the narratives of the powerful against the realities of those who have suffered the most and are often left voiceless. Now, at the first anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, we are facing a crisis of memory. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE) TRAVEL PERMITS AIM TO MANAGE, NOT SOLVE, PALESTINE-ISRAEL CONFLICT
Daoud Kuttab
July 27, 2015
When Saja Attaiya traveled on July 19 from the Palestinian village of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah, to the Mediterranean Sea, it only took her 30 minutes to get there. Previously, her attempts to visit Jaffa and Tel Aviv had been met with restrictions and checkpoints, as Israel has rarely given travel permits to Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Israel since 2000, especially to young Palestinians.
____ This year, travel restrictions were eased for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, thus allowing Attaiya, 21, and thousands of Palestinians to cross into Israel and spend time at the beach. . . .
[. . . .]
Freedom to travel is a basic right that is taken for granted in most parts of the world, and after decades of travel restrictions on Palestinians, a worrisome situation has emerged, whereby Israel is making small gestures to the Palestinians, thereby ignoring the important decisions that could end the occupation. It appears that Israel has decided to manage the conflict with the Palestinians rather than solve it.
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian a columnist for Palestine Pulse. He is a former Ferris Professor of journalism at Princeton University and is currently the director-general of Community Media Network, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing independent media in the Arab region. http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestinians-visit-beach-israel-travel-permits.html
CAPTION:
Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Haim Saban, the biggest giver on the Democratic side, saying that she will be speaking out publicly against BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign aimed at Israel, and will work “across party lines” to oppose it. –
“THE WANDERING REED,” BY FOUZI EL-ASMAR
Of what benefit is it, if man were to gain the whole world
But lose the green almond in his father’s orchard?
Of what benefit is it, if man
Were to drink coffee in Paris
But none in his mother’s house?
Of what benefit is it, if man were to tour the whole world
But lose the flowers on the hills of his native land?
He gains nothing but deadly silence
Within the hearts of the living.
You look through the mirror of lands not your own
And see your exiled face;
You recognize your face
Despite the deadly dust of travel
From Jaffa, to Lydda, to Haifa,
Through the Mediterranean to exile;
You recognize your face
And try to deny that face!
Your worship your own face
Even though exile has obliterated its features;
The hangman of the twentieth century assumes the countenance
Of the eternal face!
You close your eyes
To worship your face in the darkness of this century.
You deny . . . you worship,
You deny . . . you worship,
And the God of truth cries to your face:
“He who denies his face
Is renounced by all the birds of paradise in this universe,
And those whom silence has turned mute
Will never be heard by the roses of the field
He who kills the nightingale of his dreams
Will be buried in the forgotten graveyard of the living.”
You open your eyes
And see the face of your country in the mirror of exile.
The deadly silence in the hearts of the living
Strips away the skin of your face;
It cuts and dries your flesh,
Then hangs what remains on poles
Under the forgotten sun of the West.
From THE PALSESTINIAN WEDDING: A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store. Remembering Fouzi El-Asmar.
Israeli forces demolish wedding hall – Ma’an Images
Palestinian actors perform a theater production at the Holst Cultural Center in Gaza City, May 19, 2015. (photo by Palestinian Artists Association)
❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI FORCES DEMOLISH 4 STORES IN SILWAN IN EAST JERUSALEM
July 28, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli military bulldozers on Tuesday demolished four stores belonging to Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, locals said.
[. . . .]
____Khalil al-Abbasi told Ma’an that Israeli troops raided his two stores in the Ayn al-Lawza area inside Silwan, ransacking them and throwing the goods out before demolishing them. . . .
____Separately, Iyad al-Abbasi said that Israeli troops ransacked and demolished stores and two rooms belonging to him in the Ayn al-Foka area of Silwan. . . .
____Silwan is one of many Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem that is seeing an influx of Israeli settlers at the cost of demolition of Palestinian homes and eviction of Palestinian families. (More. . .) (More. . .)
❷ From AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE) GAZAN SOCIETY COMES TOGETHER ON STAGE
Asmaa al-Ghoul
July 27, 2015
GAZA CITY — “You are innocent, O Rabih. You are innocent, O Rabih,” the crowd shouted at Rabih, a character in his 20s who for an hour and a half on stage at the Holst Cultural Center in Gaza City represented the Arab citizen, who faces injustice on the street, at work, at home and in prison. “Rabih al-Arabi” (“Arab Spring”), the play directed by Issam Shaheen, may have had some poorly staged scenes, but they were all rich in symbolism. The young Rabih (Spring in Arabic), played by Majed Antar, represents the Arab Spring, which security services and ruling Arab regimes seek to crush.
____ A cast of more than 20 actors appeared in scenes set in a prison, house, psychiatric clinic and religious hospice. They all played their parts to perfection, greatly entertaining the audience, some in tragic roles and others with great comedy. (More. . .)
Bulldozed in Silwan
❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI WARDENS ASSAULT PFLP LEADER IN ONGOING PRISON CRACKDOWN
July 28, 2015
RAMALLAH — The Israeli Prison Service on Tuesday morning assaulted the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine amid an ongoing crackdown on Palestinian detainees inside Nafha prison, a Palestinian minister said.
____Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe said in a statement that the Israeli Prison Service assaulted Ahmed Saadat, PFLP’s secretary-general, who is serving multiple life sentences in Nafha prison in the Negev in southern Israel.
[. . . .]
____He said that Israeli wardens use all means of aggression against Palestinian detainees including torture, beatings, and humiliation. (More. . .)
❹ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN 11 PALESTINIANS, INCLUDING SIX CHILDREN, FROM JERUSALEM, HEBRON
July 28, 2015
Israeli forces detained early Tuesday 11 Palestinians, including six children, from the East Jerusalem town of al-‘Issawiya, Hebron’s refugee camp of al-Fawwar and Bethlehem, said security sources and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC).
____Israeli police raided al-‘Issawiya, a town to the north of East Jerusalem, where they detained six children after breaking into their families’ houses. . . . All detainees were taken to an interrogation and detention center in the city.
____Meanwhile in Hebron district, Israeli forces raided al-Fawwar refugee camp to the south of the city, where they proceeded to detain a Palestinian after breaking into and ransacking his house. . . .
____They also detained another Palestinian after breaking into and ransacking him house in Ash-Shuyukh town to the northeast of the city. (More. . .)
❺ A PERSONAL ACCOUNT ― Dr. George Khoury, a Palestinian who is now an American citizen wrote this account for his Facebook page on July 25. (Re-posted here in place of opinion piece and the usual work by a Palestinian poet.)
Professor Khoury has taught Arabic since his arrival to America in 1969. Prof Khoury has earned cum laude his B.A. and Master’s degrees at Seton Hall University and Montclair State in New Jersey. In addition to Arabic, Prof. Khoury has taught French and Spanish as well as Latin, and German in high schools and colleges. He taught Arabic from 1982-1983 in the Near Eastern Department at UC Berkeley, French and Arabic from 1998-2008 at San Mateo College, and initially French and Spanish and later on Arabic at Skyline College since 2002 where he is still currently employed.
After 20 years of not visiting or seeing Jerusalem and my homeland Palestine, I decided to go back, this time as an American citizen with an American passport which I gained in 1975. The trip was intended to be a religious pilgrimage with Father Bernard Poggie to visit my homeland and see friends and places I haven’t seen for so long. Once we arrived to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, they allowed Bernard to enter. For me, I was sent to the “green room” for questioning. The conversation that ensued is this:
The Shin Beth agent stated it very bluntly, “You are Palestinian. Your American passport is worthless. Do not try to deny the fact that you are a Palestinian.” I answered very bluntly as well, “I never denied my Palestinian identity. I am Palestinian from head to toe, my father is Palestinian, my mother is Palestinian, my brothers and sister is Palestinian. I hail from Rafidia-Nablus, my grandfather was an Orthodox priest and I can trace my Palestinian roots for the last 500 years.”
I made perfectly clear to them that I didn’t come as a Palestinian to visit the Holy Land but as an American citizen and you should honor this American passport like all other countries in the world. The security officer (who I believe to be a Shin Bet official) retorted with the utmost sarcasm and cynicism, “How do you want me to honor your American passport? Do you want me to kiss it, to hug it, or to worship it?” “Moreover,” he added, “You are rude and ill-mannered. How did you get to be so rude?” I answered, “I am neither rude nor ill-mannered I am just pointing to the facts. I always traveled on the strength of my American passport, I never held a Palestinian passport and never lived in Palestine under the Palestinian Authority.” His answer was, “You will be deported to Jordan and come the Allenby Bridge to continue your visit to the Holy Land.” (The Allenby bridge is the connection between Jordan in Israel. Palestinians can only enter the West Bank through this bridge because they are not allowed in through Israel proper.)
I agreed to my deportation to Jordan and he made me sign a deportation paper. A few minutes later the story changed and now he wants me deported to the Fiumicino Airport in Italy because that’s where I stopped before landing in Tel Aviv. I was stunned but agreed to it.
Dr’ George Khoury
The airport guards came and took me with a few other people amongst whom was a Palestinian lady with her daughter. They were both American citizens but Palestinian-born. The Israeli’s told the two of them that they would be deported back to the US but they would deported separately. They both broke down in tears and pleaded with them to at least allow them to be deported together but to no avail. They drove us about half an hour away from the airport and held us like criminals in a detention facility from Monday to Thursday morning. They locked us up, forbade me personally from keeping my IPhone, refused me to take a book with me to that filthy room and threw me there with a bunch of poor, hungry, and disoriented men from different national and ethnic backgrounds. That was July 20th and we were at the airport from 5pm to almost 1am Tuesday morning.
At that detention center we were given sandwiches whenever they remembered we were human beings who might get hungry after such an ordeal, and there were two young men, one Korean and the other Russian who were truly hungry. They could not speak one word of English. They knocked at the window asking the guards who were chatting and smoking in the backyard of the building to allow them some food. At the detention facility they were roughed up, verbally abused, and totally disrespected by young Zionist thugs who despite their young age must have already lost any trace of their humanity. We didn’t sleep a wink because they kept the bright neon lights on the entire time. I dared to ask one of them about his name because he spoke Arabic who was trying to ingratiate himself with us. I told him you know the names of all of us “What’s your name” dared I ask. He said, “George. My name is George.” The other guards remained totally anonymous, insulted us by using disrespectful and abusive language, and forbade us from speaking to one another from each others prison cells.
To make a long story short, I found out Thursday morning that from the start they intended to deport me neither to Jordan, nor to Italy, but back to San Francisco. Moreover, they stole my luggage with all the clothes in it and I was forced to remain in the same clothes from Sunday to Thursday. I say they stole my luggage because Father Poggi, who parted with me at the airport with the intention of meeting me in Jordan (as Israeli security officer had told us) saw my bag as he was leaving the airport, assuming I would pick it up on my way out. Little did we know how naive we were to believe that we are dealing with professional liars and thieves. I was lucky enough to have my handbag with me the entire time. My carry-on luggage contained my insulin. I am a diabetic and not having my insulin with me at all times would be fatal.
Thursday morning at the detention center I was picked up around 9:30 a.m. and taken straight to the run way to the airplane (not through the terminal) using movable stairs. The guard had my passport and three tickets to San Francisco, changing my itinerary from KLM to Alitalia-Delta to New York, with the strict instruction to the pilot and the crew not to give me back my passport until I boarded the plane from Italy to the USA.
This is, in gist, what happened to an American citizen who dared to travel to Israel with his American citizenship for a visit and whose only crime was the fact that I am Palestinian. Its stunning that I as an American citizen for the last 40 years and as a native son of Jerusalem, I was denied on both counts entry into my homeland for a visit, while Jews from around the world (including Peruvian Indians from the Andes), who have never stepped foot on that land, are welcomed with open arms and offered citizenship to Israel.
I’m back in San Francisco now. They took something that was supposed to be a vacation from my long work hours, a reconnection with my homeland and old friends, and made it a nightmare from hell. I was disrespected, demeaned and treated like I committed a crime. To add insult to injury, I called my travel agent to have him help me recover some money from the lost return ticket only to discover that the funds for my return ticket was already used to fund my deportation by the Israelis. I tell you my story so as to encourage people to visit more often Palestine and to challenge the thuggery of this racist, Zionist entity and do it here in the USA as well as in Israel. Without the US’s blind and unconditional financial and political support of the state of Israel, the occupation and all its tragedies against the Palestinians would not continue.
“I need symbols . . . like the Twin Towers in New York,” General Gershon Hacohen. (AP photo)
❶ From MONDOWEISS ISRAELI GENERAL LIKENS ATTACK ON GAZA TOWERS TO 9/11 ATTACK, AS ‘SYMBOL’
Dan Cohen
July 27, 2015
An Israeli general likened Israel’s bombing of three landmark towers in the Gaza Strip last year to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. . . Major General (ret.) Gershon Hacohen said:
“I need symbols, I’m talking about symbols. It is no simple matter. Because if I destroyed three towers in Gaza towards the end of Operation Protective Edge, and inflicted not only pain in the economic sense but also a symbol, and like the Twin Towers in New York were a symbol, what is significant is not only the physics but the significance of the matter.”
____. . . Israeli warplanes [bombed] Zafer Four tower, the Italian Compound, the Basha tower, and a four-story mall in Rafah. The mass destruction left hundreds of families homeless and struck a heavy blow to Gaza’s already crippled economy. These attacks were carried out when the ceasefire was imminent. (More . . .)
❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA ISRAELI ARMY KILLS PALESTINIAN YOUTH IN COLD BLOOD OUTSIDE JERUSALEM
July 27, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot and killed in cold blood a Palestinian youngster during a raid before dawn Monday on Qalandia refugee camp . . . .
____Sources said an Israeli army force broke into the camp in the early morning hours and raided the house of Mohammad Abu Latifa, 20 . . . The soldiers. . . attempted to detain Abu Latifa and shot at his legs when he reportedly attempted to flee the premises, causing him serious injuries before he died of his wounds hours later.
____However, family sources [said] the Israeli soldiers shot him in the legs before they tied his hands with electric wires and detained him alive. Hours later, the family said, their son was handed over a dead body to the Red Cross. . . . (More)
❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ARAB LEAGUE MINISTERS TO MEET AFTER AQSA CLASHES
July 27, 2015
Cairo (AFP) ― Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo early next month to discuss clashes involving Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
____Sunday’s incident saw Israeli police enter the mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, as they clashed with Palestinians angered by Jews’ access to the compound on an annual day of Jewish mourning.
____Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that foreign ministers from 15 Arab states will meet on August 5 to discuss what he called the “dangerous development” in Jerusalem. (More. . .) (More. . .) (Background)
Arab League Ministers, 2012. EPA Photo – KHALED ELFIQI
❹ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER CHILD AMONG 4 PALESTINIANS KIDNAPPED BY IOF FROM AL-KHALIL
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Monday kidnapped four Palestinian citizens from the southern West Bank province of al-Khalil.
____According to local sources, large IOF patrols rolled into al-Khalil city at the crack of dawn and . . . they kidnapped the youngsters Rami Farouk al-Awiwi and Baha Abu Shkheidam. Both were dragged to an unidentified destination shortly afterwards.
____The IOF also raided al-Khalil’s northern town of Surif, nabbed the Palestinian citizen Haj Omar Ghneimat, and transferred him to an unknown location after they confiscated an agricultural tractor of his own.
____Sources based in Beit Ummar village, in northern al-Khalil, said the campaign culminated in the abduction of the 16-year-old minor Hamza Abu Hashem. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From +972 MAGAZINE NO, JESUS WOULD NOT BE A SETTLER — HE’D PRACTICE SOLIDARITY
Ryan Rodrick Beiler
July 27, 2015
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren has been saying a lot of obnoxious things lately. His recent book angered Jewish-American journalists . . . and he may have crossed the line from belligerence to blasphemy with his latest remarks. While preaching to the choir of the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus, Oren took the name of Jesus in vain, using it to defend the settler enterprise.
____“Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist would today be considered Jewish settlers in Bethlehem,” said Oren, according to The Jerusalem Post.
[. . . .]
____ [Is Oren] really ignorant of what makes a settler a settler? According to international legal consensus, shared by virtually every other nation except Israel, all settlements are illegal.
____This is what makes settlements illegal. It’s not because they’re Jewish. It’s because they’re colonies built on occupied land outside of the state of Israel. (More. . .)
“HE WHISPERED BEFORE HE TOOK HIS FINAL BREATHS,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
Don’t honor me with a monument
and song!
Of all the sad songs,
I prefer my mother’s sadness.
Do not pay your last respects
with laurel and a royal display!
Of all the tender wreaths
I prefer my mother’s palm.
Don’t glorify me by giving my name
to a city square
or a street and public garden!
I’d rather a grapevine be planted
(in my name)
and grow into a vineyard and farm!
Do not preserve my memory
by giving a speech each year in my honor!
I’d rather a fine machine
pounding away in a factory
speak in my name.
Tell my mother―
tell her what you plant in my name,
tell the factory’s machine
that I loved life, from the bottom of my heart,
and therefore took my final breaths
at peace and happy.
From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER THAN WATER. New and Selected Poems. Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008. Available from Amazon
Samih Al-QasimObituary, August 20, 2014
BETHLEHEM, mural adorns the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem. ActiveStills photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler.
Susiya Protest Image By Bassam Shweiki Hebron Defense Committee
❶ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC) ISRAEL AFFIRMS PALESTINIAN OWNERSHIP OF SUSIYA VILLAGE, BUT CONTINUES WITH DEMOLITION PLAN
The Israeli daily Haaretz has reported that a document released by the Civil Administration Office of the Defense Ministry affirms that Susiya village, in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, is built on private Palestinian property.
____But in spite of this admission, the Israeli military has stated that they will continue with a plan to demolish the village, and forcibly relocate the Palestinian families who live there.
____The Jabour and Nawaja families, based in Susiya for hundreds of years, have in their possession ownership documents of their land that date back to the Ottoman empire of the late 1800s. (More. . .)
❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI FORCES, RIGHT-WINGERS STORM AQSA MOSQUE COMPOUND
July 26, 2015
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces broke into Al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday morning firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Muslim worshipers as they cleared way for right-wing Jews who were visiting the compound to mark a Jewish fast day, witnesses said.
____Dozens of Palestinian worshipers were reportedly hit with rubber-coated bullets and suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while Israeli police officers were reported to have attacked worshipers with pepper spray, rods and rifle butts.
____At least three Palestinians were reportedly detained. (More. . .)
(Ma’an Images) Israeli forces broke into Al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday
❸From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA ISRAEL ARRESTS FIVE YOUNG PALESTINIANS IN WEST BANK
July 26, 2015
BETHLHEM, (WAFA) – Israeli forces Sunday arrested five Palestinians, including four between the ages of 17 and 19, from the West Bank, while clashes erupted between forces and Palestinians to the east of Ramallah, according to local and security sources. . . . forces arrested two young Palestinians from the village of Husan to the west of Bethlehem after raiding and searching their families’ homes.
[. . . .]
____Meanwhile, forces intensified their military presence across several neighborhoods and towns in the Hebron district, where they arrested three Palestinians from the towns of Yatta and Halhoul. . . .
____Forces further stormed the town of Beit Owa to the west of Hebron and searched several homes, However, no arrests were reported. (More. . .)
❹ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA ISRAEL EXPLOITS SYRIAN CHAOS TO PLAN LOOTING OF GOLAN OIL
Paul Fallon
July 21, 2015
According to Geoff Rochwarger, CEO of Afek, energy independence is the new Zionism.
____The Afek oil and gas exploration company has almost completed its second drilling test in the Golan Heights, a part of Syria which Israel has occupied since 1967 and annexed in violation of international law.
____The test is part of a three-year program to see if hydrocarbons in the area could lead to oil or gas for Israel.
[. . . .]
____Israel is now taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to look for precious resources to extract from the occupied Golan Heights. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From MONDOWEISS IT’S TIME FOR AMERICAN JEWS TO RECOGNIZE THEY HAVE BEEN DUPED
Avigail Abarbanel
July 25, 2015
Two stories came to my attention this morning. . . . The second story, by Raphael Ahren in the Times of Israel is about the apparent decline in support for Israel among American Jews . . . .
____As a long-time activist for Palestinian rights and an anti-Zionist, I should have been pleased to read that American Jews increasingly question their knee-jerk support for Israel. But instead, I felt a familiar frustration. Jewish American support for Israel has always been vital for Israel and not just for economic reasons. . . . Israel also relies on Jewish American support for its feelings of legitimacy. As long as American Jews support Israel ‘right or wrong’, Israel feels justified in its existence and in everything it does.
____I believe Israeli Jews feel in the depth of their bones that Israel’s existence the way it is, is illegitimate.
[. . . .]
____American Jews either do not know or refuse to acknowledge that Israel is a settler colonial project. If they knew or if they acknowledge it, would it make a difference to their opinion? (More. . .)
“THE DELUGE AND THE TREE,” BY FADWA TUQAN
When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge
of dark evil
onto the good green land
‘they’ gloated. The western skies
reverberated with joyous accounts:
‘The Tree has fallen !
The great trunk is smashed! The hurricane leaves no life in the Tree!’
Had the Tree really fallen?
Never! Not with our red streams flowing forever,
not while the wine of our thorn limbs
fed the thirsty roots,
Arab roots alive
tunneling deep, deep, into the land!
When the Tree rises up, the branches
shall flourish green and fresh in the sun
the laughter of the Tree shall leaf
beneath the sun
and birds shall return
Undoubtedly, the birds shall return.
The birds shall return.
Fadwa Tuqan (born 1917 in Nablus – died 2003), was well known for her representations of resistance to Israeli occupation in contemporary Arab poetry.
Tuqan’s poetry is known for her distinctive chronicling of the suffering of her people. Born to the wealthy Palestinian Tuqan family known for their accomplishments in many fields, she received schooling until age 13 when she was forced to quit school at a young age due to illness. One of her brothers, Ibrahim Tuqan, known as the Poet of Palestine, took responsibility of educating her. She attended Oxford University, where she studied English and literature.
Fadwa Tuqan’s eldest brother is Ahmad Toukan, former Prime Minister of Jordan.
Tuqan eventually published eight poetry collections, which were translated into many languages and enjoy renown throughout the Arab World.
Israeli soldiers patrol near the occupied Syrian town of Majdal al-Shams in the Golan Heights in 2011. Oren Ziv ActiveStills
Israeli occupation forces arrest child leaving Al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning of June 3
❶ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA JEWISH SETTLERS SEVERELY ASSAULT PALESTINIAN CHILD NEAR GATE OF AL-AQSA MOSQUE
July 25, 2015
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Jewish settlers Saturday severely assaulted a Palestinian child near one of the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem.
____. . . extremist Israeli settlers assaulted the child, who was not identified, near al-Ghawanma Gate, prompting a group of Palestinians to intervene and save him. Settlers eventually managed to flee the scene.
____This came as Jewish settlers performed Talmudic rituals in front of King Faisal Gate and al-Qattanin Gate . . . . The performance of these rituals by Jewish settlers came following calls made by right-wing Jewish organizations, which urged settlers to storm the holy site to mark the ‘destruction of the Temple’. (More. . .)
❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SUFFER INCREASING LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ABUSE BY ISRAELI FORCES, SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION
July 25, 2015
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2015 suffered increasing levels of physical violence, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) research.
____Data compiled by DCIP since January 2015 shows that “86 percent of Palestinian children experienced some form of physical violence during their arrest or interrogation, a 10 percent increase from 2014.”
____“[U]nlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by a parent . . . during interrogation. . . . Ill treatment of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic. . . .” (More. . .) (More. . .)PALESTINIAN CHILD FACES 10 YEARS IN ISRAELI JAIL
Israeli occupation police assault Palestinian guard at Al Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday morning
❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI FORCES ‘AMBUSH’ DEMONSTRATORS, INJURING 2 WITH LIVE FIRE
July 24, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Two Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli forces Friday during a weekly demonstration in the occupied West Bank town of Nabi Saleh, witnesses said.
____Israeli forces had reportedly set an “ambush” near the path where demonstrators planned to walk, opening live fire as the marchers headed towards land confiscated by the neighboring Halamish settlement.
[. . . .]
____The injured demonstrators were taken to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment.
____Israeli soldiers attempted to prevent the ambulance carrying those injured from leaving the scene for a short period of time, witnesses added. (More. . .)
❹ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY HAMAS ARMED WING GIVES 25,000 GAZANS COMBAT TRAINING
July 25, 2015
GAZA CITY (AFP) — The military wing of Hamas opened its Gaza summer camp on Saturday, aimed at providing basic combat training for 25,000 Palestinians in the embattled coastal enclave.
____Hamas. . . is reportedly engaged in indirect contacts with Israel to try to reach a long-term truce. . . .
____”The goal of these military training camps is to train the vanguard for liberation — spiritually, intellectually and physically — to be ready and able to play its role in liberation,” said a statement by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. (More. . .)
❺ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER ISRAEL TO EXPAND MA’ALE HA-ZEITIM SETTLEMENT IN EAST J’LEM
July 25, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Thursday started to bulldoze Palestinian plots of land in Ras al-Amoud neighborhood east of the Old City of Jerusalem as a prelude to annexing them to Ma’ale ha-Zeitim settlement. (More. . .)
“TENTS,” BY IBRAHIM NASRALLAH
There are tents of blood and terror
in the dust
pitched there to make a myth of the sky.
There are tents of wind in our blood
that take us everywhere though we appear motionless,
so the lime in the lore of the mejana
and a smell from the sea surround us.
The singer has multiplied in us.
The Imam has multiplied in us.
The broadcaster has multiplied in us.
Talk has multiplied in us.
Departure and the medallions of war multiply and
fragment our bodies with victory!
And we are still here,
fifty years old―steeped in killing―
and on our own.
From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN INSIDE: SELECTED POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon. Ibrahim Nasrallah (born 1954 in Amman, Jordan, in Wihdat refugee camp) is a Jordanian-Palestinian poet, novelist, professor, painter and photographer. He studied at the UNRWA Teacher Training College in Amman. He taught in Saudi Arabia and worked as a journalist, 1978 ― 1996. Nasrallah then returned to Jordan and worked at Dostur, Afaq and Hasad newspapers. He is in charge of cultural activities at Darat-al-Funun in Amman. He has published 14 books of poetry, 13 novels and two children’s books. In 2009 his novel The Time of White Horses was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Biography from “Poem Hunter.com.”
Ma’ale ha-Zeitim Jewish settlement on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, inside the Arab neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud
Mohammed Alawna, 21, Jenin, announced dead after he was shot by Israeli occupation forces
❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAELI FORCES WOUND 8 AT FUNERAL OF 53-YEAR-OLD KILLED THURSDAY
July 23, 2015
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces injured eight Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar Thursday as clashes erupted after the funeral of Falah Abu Maria, who was shot dead in his home at dawn during an Israeli arrest raid, witnesses said.
____Spokesman for a popular committee in the Hebron-area town, Mohammad Ayyad Awad, said that Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at funeral attendees.
____The mourners received light to medium injuries, and three were transferred to hospitals in Hebron for treatment, he said. (More. . .) (Background) ISRAELI FORCES KILL 53-YEAR-OLD PALESTINIAN NEAR HEBRON, INJURE SONS. July 23, 2015. (More. . .) PALESTINIAN FACTIONS DECRY STRING OF KILLINGS BY ISRAELI FORCES (More. . .) MARTYR ABU MARIA, SUMMED UP THE SUFFERING OF HIS PEOPLE
❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA ISRAEL ARRESTS 20 PALESTINIANS IN WEST BANK, JERUSALEM
July 24, 2015
HEBRON, July 23, 2015 (WAFA) – At least 20 Palestinians were arrested on Thursday by the Israeli army during predawn and night raids across the West Bank districts and in Jerusalem, according to local and security sources.
____In Hebron district, Israeli forces stormed the town of Dahiriya at night and arrested three Palestinians, identified as Khalil Jabarin, 30, Mujahed Jabarin, 45, and Ayesh Awaysah, 42.
____Israeli soldiers also raided the village of al-Majd, west of Hebron, and arrested Majed Amr, a local Palestinian, and his two sons, Amjad and Ashraf. (More. . .)
❸ From PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK (PNN) YOUTH DIES OF WOUNDS AFTER SHOT BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS
July 22, 2015
Mohammed Alawna, 21, this morning was announced dead after he was shot by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) during clashes in Burqin village near Jenin.
____According to security sources, Mohammed was shot in the chest. He was rushed to the Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital for treatment, underwent surgery, and was later announced dead of his wounds. (More. . .)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Falah Abu Maria, 53, who was shot dead by Israeli forces
❹ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY ISRAEL ADVANCES 1,065 SETTLEMENT HOUSING UNITS
July 24, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s Civil Administration advanced plans for the development of 1,065 housing units in eight different settlements throughout occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a settlement watchdog announced Thursday.
____The civil administration — Israel’s governing body for the occupied West Bank — approved 15 plans for various planning stages in the settlements at hand, Peace Now said.
____Approved plans included legalizing 228 already existing housing units that have been completed in settlements, as well as 541 new housing units yet to be constructed. (More. . .)
❺ From +972 MAGAZINE COURT DENIES EQUAL RIGHTS TO PALESTINIAN WORKERS IN ISRAELI INDUSTRIAL ZONE
Haggai Matar
July 23, 2015
Israel’s National Labor Court rejected an appeal by Palestinian workers from the Nitzanei Shalom Industrial Zone this past Sunday, ruling that they will continue to be subject to the Jordanian labor laws of 1967, rather than Israeli laws.
____The three appellants — Abdel Hamid Yahiye, Ahmed Shayib and Mujhad Harsha — sued their former employers in Tel Aviv’s Regional Labor Court in 2010 after they were fired for demanding retroactive payment from their employer. (More. . .)
❻ Opinion
From JADALIYYA (ARAB STUDIES INSTITUTE) PLANNING UNDER OCCUPATION: ELASTIC GEOGRAPHIES AND ‘AREA C’
Lamya Hussain
July 16, 2015
In recent years there has been growing concern about Israel’s planning regime and its operations across the West Bank. In particular, organizations have expressed their apprehension towards the growing number of demolitions, eviction orders, and restrictions in Area C. According to the 1995 Oslo Accords, Area C of the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) amounts to an estimated sixty-two percent of the West Bank. It is rich in land and water, and critical to the sustainable long-term development of a future viable Palestinian state. Israeli restrictions on planning and development in Area C have created systemic poverty and instability across local Palestinian communities, undermining developmental possibilities. Additionally, Israel has tightened its military control of Area C of late, and increased restrictions on the delivery of international aid and humanitarian assistance. This process has produced new threats for an already vulnerable population, and brings into question both the legitimacy and responsibility of Israel as an occupying power. (More. . .)
“I CLASP YOUR HANDS,” BY TAWFIQ ZAYYAD
I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I kiss the dust under your shoe
And say: I’ll lay down my life for you,
Grant you the gift of eyesight in my eyes.
The warm love in my heart I give to you,
For the tragedy I live
Is but mu share in your larger tragedy.
I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I never stooped in my country
Nor will I ever be humbled.
Orphaned, naked and barefoot
I confronted my oppressors,
Carrying my blood in my palms.
I have never lowered my flags,
And have always tended the grass over my ancestors’ graves.
I call upon you, and clasp your hands!
From THE PALSESTINIAN WEDDING: A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store. Tawfik Zayyad (Tawfiq Ziad) was a Palestinian poet, writer, scholar and politician. He was born in Nazareth in 1929 and died on July 5, 1994 in a dreadful car crash while on his way to meet Yasser Arafat in Jericho after the Oslo agreements. He participated in Palestinian political life in occupied Palestine, was elected mayor of Nazareth, and served as a member of the Israeli Knesset. (More. . .)
A view of the Beit El settlement with Ramallah in the background. Photo by Michael Omer-Man.
Gaza student from the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) End of Year Washington, DC program June 2015, established by Congress, October, 2002. (See link after ❸)
❶ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA. ISRAEL RAZES LAND IN HEBRON, ORDERS SOCCER FIELD CONSTRUCTION IN BETHLEHEM TO STOP
July 22, 2015
HEBRON ―Israeli forces Wednesday bulldozed around 20-dunums of Palestinian-owned agricultural land in the town of Beit Ola . . . and ordered ending the construction of a soccer field to the west of Bethlehem.
____ [. . . .] a large Israeli force accompanied by three bulldozers stormed an area in the town and razed around 10 dunums of land planted with olive trees. The land belongs to Farid al-Amlah. . . .
____The land was razed under the pretext of being located in ‘state land’ and as a prelude to take over it from its original owners.
____Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities ordered to stop the construction work on a soccer field in the village of Wadi Fukin to the west of Bethlehem. (More. . .)
❷ From MONDOWEISS PHOTO ESSAY: A VISIT TO BETHLEHEM’S MARTYR CEMETERY
Rebecca George
July 21, 2015
Salah Abu Laban remembers sitting down for an Iftar meal when he was a teenager, and hearing his cousin’s name called over the mosque’s loudspeaker. . . in December 2000, there was a heavy Israeli military presence near the main cemetery on the other side of town, and it was too dangerous to carry Abed’s body there. So a man near Dheishe Refugee Camp donated a piece of land, and the Martyr’s cemetery outside Dheishe was born.
____For some Muslims around the world, the first morning of Eid Al-Fitr is a time to visit the graves of deceased relatives and loved ones. In Palestine, this means visiting the graves of those who have been martyred during the conflict with Israel. . . [many in] the Martyr’s Cemetery . . . (More. . .)
Caption: A view of Wadi Fukin as seen from the Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit (front), near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sept. 10, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
❸ From AL-MONITOR: PALESTINE PULSE ENGLISH STUDY AN ESCAPE FOR GAZANS
Rasha Abou Jalal
July 20, 2015
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — More and more young Gazans are determined to master the English language — the key, they say, to getting jobs, studying abroad and conveying the Palestinians’ suffering to the world.
____Huda Droll, an American teacher at Amideast in Gaza [said], “There is a remarkable and constant rise in demand for English learning among Palestinians, in an effort to get a scholarship to study abroad, get a job or to discuss with the people of the world the atrocities committed by Israel against them.” (More. . .) (Related―YES PROGRAM)
❹ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA. ISRAEL DETAINS SEVEN PALESTINIANS, SHOOTS YOUTH DURING PREDAWN RAIDS
July 22, 2015
JENINE ― Israeli forces detained overnight seven Palestinians, including a journalist and a disabled man, and shot and injured a youth during predawn raids into various West Bank districts. . . .
____Israeli forces raided early Wednesday Burqin village to the west of Jenin. . .
____Forces shot and injured a local with a live bullet in the chest during the clashes. The man was identified as Muhammad ‘Alawna, 21, who was admitted into a local hospital for surgery on his chest. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From PALESTINE CHRONICLE ISRAEL’S ENDLESS MISERY FOR GAZA IS NO POLICY AT ALL
Jonathan Cook
July 22, 2015
For those trying to read developments between Israel and Gaza over the past weeks, the picture has been unusually puzzling.
____A month ago European diplomats and Palestinian officials in the West Bank suggested that Israel and Hamas were taking “baby steps”. . .
____Then earlier this month, as an attack blamed on the extremists of Islamic State (ISIS) killed dozens in Sinai, an Israeli general accused Hamas of supplying the weapons. . .
____A short time later, a group of Israeli army commanders urged the easing of the near-decade blockade of Gaza as a way to end Hamas’ isolation.
[. . . .]
____The uncertainty reflects Israel’s increasingly convoluted efforts to “manage” Gaza faced with the fallout from its series of attacks on the enclave beginning in late 2008 with Operation Cast Lead and culminating in last year’s Protective Edge. (More. . .)
.
. “IF ONLY,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
My homeland, an earring dangling
from the ear of the earth;
my homeland . . . a woman
whose thighs are opened by the western wind;
my homeland, the oars of the boat;
my homeland, the absent son:
Will you one day rouse what is in me?
Will you become . . . an ordinary country?
From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER THAN WATER. New and Selected Poems. Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008. AboutSamih Al-Qasim; Obituary, August 20, 2014 AboutIbis Editions. Available from Amazon.
Dheishe Refugee Camp Martyr’s Cemetery. Iyad Al-Dibbis brings his son to visit the grave of his father. Salamah Ibrahim Al-Dibbis was killed in Aida Refugee Camp during the Second Intifada. (Photo: Rebecca George)
El-Funoun Dance Troupe performs the production “Images Remembered,” June 21, 2009. (photo by El-Funoun)
❶ From AL MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE) THE PALESTINIAN DANCER WHO WAS LOCKED AWAY
Ahmad Melhem
July 19, 2015
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Lina Khattab is a journalism student at Birzeit University and a dancer in the El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. Her release from an Israeli prison June 11 represented an important transitional phase of her life . . . .
____The Israeli military arrested Khattab, 18, on Dec. 13. After appearing in court 11 times, she was sentenced to prison for six months and a fine of $1,500 on Feb. 16.
____Yet, prison did not break Khattab’s spirit. During her imprisonment, she learned Hebrew and silk bead embroidery from other prisoners. She has pieces of her work displayed in her living room. In return, she taught her fellow prisoners some dabke moves.
____Khattab said she was arrested and was severely beaten and abused near Ofer prison, west of Ramallah. (More. . .) (Background)
❷ From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM) HAMAS DENIES TAKING PART IN SAUDI-LED COALITION
20 July 2015
Palestinian Islamist Movement Hamas has officially denied claims by Iranian news agency Fars that it agreed to take part in the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi coup in Yemen. . . .
____Hamas official spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said: “What was published by Fars news agency regarding Saudi-Hamas agreement . . . to take part in Decisive Storm was mere lies.”
[. . . .]
____Abu-Zuhri stressed that “. . . Hamas never thinks about sending its fighters abroad.” (More. . .)
❸ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC) PALESTINIAN KIDNAPPED, MANY SUFFER EFFECTS OF TEARGAS INHALATION, NEAR HEBRON
July 20, 2015
Several Palestinians suffered the effects of teargas inhalation, earlier on Monday, during clashes that took place after Israeli soldiers invaded Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Soldiers also searched homes, kidnapped one Palestinian.
____The soldiers also invaded a home, belonging to resident Suleiman Ali Mohammad Abu Ayyash, before searching and ransacking his property.
____In addition, soldiers . . . kidnapped one Palestinian identified as Salah al-‘Allami, 28 years of age. (More. . .) (Related)
IDF soldiers invade home belonging to Beit Ummar resident Suleiman Ali Mohammad Abu Ayyash. Still Image From Palestine TV Video Report
❹ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY 2 MAIN ISRAELI POWER GRIDS PROVIDING ELECTRICITY TO GAZA DOWN FOR DAYS
July 20, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A technical error in Israel cut off two main power grids responsible for supplying Gaza with electricity over the weekend. The down lines provide 25 percent (30 megawatts) of the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza.
[. . . .]
____The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company said it is attempting to cooperate with the Palestinian Power Authority to repair the broken grids, but said THE ISRAELI ARMY IS OBSTRUCTING THESE EFFORTS and allegedly preventing the Israeli electricity corporation from fixing the grids on the grounds of security concerns. (More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From MONDOWEISS THE ISRAELI ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO DERAIL THE ACADEMIC BOYCOTT
Isaiah Silver
July 16, 2015
On 11 June 2015, the Israeli Anthropological Association passed a resolution . . . calling for an end to the occupation, while simultaneously opposing the call for academic boycotts of Israeli academic institutions. . . both the timing and content of the statement raise serious questions about the sincerity of the organization’s newfound commitment to ending human rights abuses.
____The fact that the IAA’s long-overdue recognition of Palestinians’ basic human rights is sutured to a condemnation of academic boycotts immediately raises red flags. The IAA . . . should be able to recognize the basic human rights of Palestinians. This recognition should not be coupled, conditioned, or predicated on what Israelis view as acceptable actions in pursuit of recognition. (More. . .)
“INTIFADA,” BY PETER BOULLATA
the land of Palestine shook
until the very stones loosened
and were gathered up by you
as other children, innocent, have picked flowers
your rocks blossomed blood-red
against a conspiracy of years
of having your every breath, heartbeat observed constrained
until you could not breath, every gasp a battle
the way you suffocate under a veil
of teargas, chambers of death
your own homes, streets, gardens
you said you have had enough
and started an earthquake
drawing down a shower of hailstones
against a sinful nation
the occupation officers have hit a stone, been struck
by the steadfast hardness
of a people willing
to die on their feet
rather than live on their knees
you love your lives enough
to struggle
against the constraints
bound, as you have been
all your lives
you are loosening the bonds now
casting off what has kept you down
you are bound for glory
shaking, shaking until you are free
Reverend Peter Boullata is ministerof the Unitarian Universalist First Parish Church in Lexington, Massachusetts. His father is the well-known Palestinian-Canadian academic Issa J. Boullata. (More. . .)
August 22, 2014. A Palestinian man reacts as a fire burns the only power plant supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip. Israeli shells struck the plant. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Father Ramiz Baker, with Muntaser [left] and Sayid [right] (Photo, The Middle East Monitor)❶ From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ISRAEL APPROVES 800 NEW SETTLEMENT UNITS IN BETHLEHEM
July 15, 2015
Israeli Public Prosecution has revealed an Israeli settlement plan consisting of 800 new settlement units in Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah reported yesterday.
____The plan was approved by the Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Ori Ariel, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous government at the end of last year. (More. . .)
❷ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC) ISRAELI EXTREMISTS UPROOT VEGETABLE CROPS IN BETHLEHEM
July 19, 2015
Several fanatic Israeli settlers invaded, on Saturday evening, Palestinian farmlands in the town of al-Khader, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and uprooted hundreds of tomato and cauliflower plants and seedlings, in addition to destroying an entire field planted with Okra.
____Ahmad Salah, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in al-Khader, said the Israeli extremists came from the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, built on stolen Palestinian lands. (More. . .) (Background) (Background)
Israeli settlers uprooted hundreds of olive trees from the lands of al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem, March 20, 2013 (Photo flotillahyves.com).
❸ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER ISRAELI VANDALS ATTACK PALESTINIANS IN AL-KHALIL
July 19, 2015
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– A horde of Israeli extremist settlers, residing in the illegal Ma’un settlement, attacked on Saturday Palestinian passers-by and shepherds in al-Khalil’s town of Yatta, in the southern West Bank.
____ . . . the Israeli settlers, ESCORTED BY ARMY OFFICERS, attacked shepherds and unarmed citizens. (More . . .)
❹ From AL-MONITOR: THE PULSE OF THE MIDDLE EAST WEST BANK COMMUNITY WELCOMES KHADER ADNAN HOME FROM ISRAELI PRISON
Aziza Nofal
July 17, 2015
JENIN, West Bank — Cries of joy were heard at the home of administrative detainee Sheikh Khader Adnan after he was released and carried on the shoulders of supporters into his town of Arraba, near Jenin . . . .
____After his release July 12, Adnan stepped out to the rostrum in front of his house and addressed hundreds of people who came from the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem to welcome him. He said Israel made a mistake by detaining him and has paid a high price. (More. . .)
❺ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY PALESTINIAN YOUTHS STUCK AT CAIRO AIRPORT
July 18, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Several Palestinian youths from the Gaza Strip heading to Saudi Arabia and European countries have been stuck at the Cairo International Airport for a month.
_____Three young men and two young women were reportedly taken by Egyptian authorities from the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to the airport where they were prevented from travelling due to expired residency permits for their destination countries. (More. . .)
❻ OPINION From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONE YEAR ON FROM THE ISRAELI OFFENSIVE, GAZA’S CHILDREN ARE UNABLE TO FORGET
Motasem A Dalloul
July 16, 2015
During the 51-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip . . . a group of Palestinian children fled to the beach to escape from the harsh and extensive bombing of houses, hospitals, healthcare centres and playgrounds; they went there to play football.
____They thought that the beach, an open area, was a safe place because it has never been used by the Palestinian resistance. Although the seven of them arrived on the beach safely, minutes later, four had been killed and three were wounded after being targeted by shells apparently fired from an Israeli warship. (More. . .)
“WITHOUT A PASSPORT,” BY RASHID HUSSEIN (1936-1977)
I was born without a passport
I grew up
and saw my country
become prisons
without a passport
So I raised a country
a sun
and wheat
in every house
I tended to the trees therein
I learned how to write poetry
to make the people of my village happy
without a passport
I learned that he whose land is stolen
does not like the rain
If he were ever to return to it, he will
without a passport
But I am tired of minds
that have become hotels
for wishes that never give birth
except with a passport
Without a passport
I came to you
and revolted against you
so slaughter me
perhaps I will then feel that I am dying
without a passport
From Rashid Hussein, Al-A`mal al-Shi`riyya (al-Taybe: Markaz Ihya’ al-Turath al-`Arabi, 1990), Translated by Sinan Antoon.
Rashid Hussein (1936-1977) was born in Musmus, Palestine. He published his first collection in 1957 and established himself as a major Palestinian poet and orator. He was the first celebrity poet to appear on the Arab-Israeli stage; other poets called him “the star“. He showed them it was possible to write about “human things“ – bread, hunger, anger. (More. . .)
(Another poem by Rashid Hussein)
![Caption: Father Ramiz Baker, with Muntaser [left] and Sayid [right] (Photo, The Middle East Monitor)](https://palestineinsight.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/father-ramiz-with-muntaser-left-and-sayid-right.jpg)
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