❶ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

Our son died confronting occupation, teen’s family insist

Budour Youssef Hassan
July 6, 2015
A large picture of Yasser and Samer al-Kasbeh covers the wall of the living room at their family’s home in Qalandiya refugee camp . . .
____Yasser was just 11 years old when he was killed by Israeli occupation forces on 16 December 2001, and Samer was just 15 when he was killed — fewer than 40 days later — on 25 January 2002.
____That was at the peak of the second intifada and Muhammad al-Kasbeh, their youngest brother, was just 3 years old at the time.
[. . . .]
____Not even the watchful eyes of a protective family, though, could have saved Muhammad when the bullet of Yisrael Shomer, commander of Israel’s Binyamin Brigade, ended his life last Friday.
(More. . .)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI MINISTER TO DECIDE ON DEPORTATION OF PALESTINIAN MPS
July 7, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli Minister of the Interior was given 30 days by the Supreme Court on Monday to reach a final decision on the possible deportation from East Jerusalem of three Palestinian lawmakers and a former Palestinian Authority Jerusalem affairs minister.
____Monday’s hearing was a follow-up to another hearing in the same court on May 5, 2015 that discussed the possibility of revoking the Jerusalem residency rights of Muhammad Abu Teir, Ahmad Attun, Muhammad Tutah and Khalid Abu Arafeh [who] formerly served as the PA’s minister of Jerusalem affairs . . . .
____All four live in occupied East Jerusalem.
(More. . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN 10 PALESTINIANS ACROSS THE WEST BANK
July 7, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces carried out multiple detention raids across the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, arresting 10 Palestinian men, local sources and the Israeli army told Ma’an.
____In Al-Shuyukh village northeast of Hebron Israeli forces ransacked several homes and arrested Abdul-Kareem Muhammed Halaika.
____Israeli soldiers also ransacked a number of homes in Bethlehem city belonging to the Awwad and Saada families, and arrested Issa Nader Sarhan.
(More. . .)

❹ From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
ISRAEL VIOLATES RELIGIOUS SITES 184 TIMES IN TWO MONTHS
July 6, 2015
Israel’s occupation forces have violated religious sites in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem on 184 occasions in the past two months, the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs has revealed.
____In a report issued on Sunday, the ministry said that in May and June alone Al-Aqsa Mosque was subject to more than 80 attacks and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron almost 100 violations. The latter includes the banning of the call to prayer, while one of the main gates leading to Al-Aqsa, Bab Al-Yusufiyah, has been closed.
[. . . .]
____”Facts on the ground indicate that the occupation and settlers are trying to empty Al-Aqsa Mosque of its people. . .
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
PALESTINIANS SHOULD SEEK AN ALTERNATIVE SALVATION STRATEGY
Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
June 28, 2015
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation group, is rightly rejecting Palestinian Authority (PA) dictates regarding efforts to form a Palestinian government.
____We all know that the main raison d’être of the PA is to serve the so-called security interests of the Israeli occupation regime. Otherwise, the PA is completely redundant as far as the Palestinian people are concerned.
____Having utterly failed to make any tangible achievements for the Palestinian people, the PA is trying now to woo Hamas to join a “government of national unity”
(More . . .)
Khalid Amayreh (b. 1957 Hebron) is a Palestinian journalist based in Dura, near Hebron. . . Amayreh is barred from leaving the West Bank . . . by the Israeli military occupation authorities. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group [reports] harassment of Amayreh by both Israel and Palestinian authorities.

“GIVE BIRTH TO ME AGAIN THAT I MAY KNOW,” BY MAHMUD DARWISH

Give birth to me again. Give birth to me again that I may know
. . in which land I will die, in which land I will come to life again.
Peace be unto you as you light the morning fire, peace be unto you,
. . peace be unto you.
Isn’t it time for me to give you some presents, to return to you?
Is your hair still longer than our years, longer than the trees of clouds
. . stretching the sky to you so they can live?
Give birth to me again so I can drink the homeland’s milk from you and
. . remain a little boy in your arms, remain a little boy
For ever. I have seen many things, mother, I have seen. Give birth to
. . me again, so you can hold me in your hands.
When you feel love for me, do you still sing and cry about nothing?
. . Mother, I have lost my hands
On the waist of a woman of mirage. I embrace sand, I embrace a
. . shadow. Can I come back to you/to myself?
Your mother has a mother, the fig tree in the garden has clouds.
. . Don’t leave me alone, a fugitive. I want your hands
To carry my heart. I long for the bread of your voice, mother!
. . I long for everything. I long for myself…I long for you.

From: Adonis; Mahmud Darwish; Samih al-Qasim. VICTIMS OF A MAP: A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF ARABIC POETRY. Trans. Abdullah al-Udhari. London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.
Biographical sketch of Mahmoud Darwish.