❶ From ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
JERUSALEM: 150 ARRESTED, 3 HOMES DEMOLISHED
July 5, 2015
150 Palestinians in Jerusalem were arrested by Israel in the month of June, according to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.
____Of those arrested, 60 were minors (under the age of 18) and six were under the age of 12. . .
____Three Palestinian homes were demolished by Israel in the month of June. The homes – two homes under construction in Silwan and one home on East Jerusalem’s main Salah Eddin Street – were demolished on 2 June under the pretext of construction without permits. . . .
(More. . .)
❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAEL TO DEMOLISH PALESTINIAN-OWNED STRUCTURES IN NORTHERN JORDAN VALLEY
July 15, 2015
Israeli authorities Wednesday ordered to stop the construction work on several Palestinian residents’ structures in the northern Jordan Valley as a prelude to demolish them, according to a local official.
____Head of Wadi Maleh village council, Aref Daraghmeh informed WAFA that military jeeps of the so called Israeli civil administration stormed the northern Jordan Valley area and handed out several demolition notices for several structures belonging to a local resident.
(More. . .)
❸ From +972 MAGAZINE
WATCH: POLICE SHOOT PALESTINIAN MAN IN FACE WITH SPONGE-TIPPED BULLET
Natasha Roth
July 13, 2015
A Palestinian man in his 40s lost his right eye after Israeli security forces shot him with a sponge-tipped bullet on Sunday.
____Nafaz Damiri, of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, happened to be in the city’s Shuafat Refugee Camp when clashes broke out between Israeli police and Palestinian youth.
____CCTV footage shows Damiri, a bystander, running into a market to seek cover. . .
(More. . . including video)
❹ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN TEN PALESTINIANS FROM WEST BANK DISTRICTS
July15, 2015
Israeli army detained overnight six Palestinians from across the West Bank, whereas Israeli police assaulted and arrested four family members during an arrest and search operation in East Jerusalem, said security sources.
____Israeli police raided early morning the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ath-Thuri, in search of Amjad Idreis, 20, provoking clashes with local residents.
(More. . .)
❺ Opinion
From MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
ONE INCIDENT, TWO NARRATIVES
Jessica Purkiss
July 14, 2015
It was early Friday morning on the 3rd July and senior Israeli military officer Colonel Israel Shomer was driving in the West Bank city of al-Ram. . . when his vehicle was hit by a stone thrown by Palestinian youths and the windscreen was shattered. Shomer exited the jeep and proceeded to shoot 17- year old Mohammed Sami al-Kasbeh.
____Both the Israeli military and the Palestinian eye- witnesses agree to the above record of events. But after this, their narratives diverge.
(More. . .)
“HAMZA,” BY FADWA TUQAN
Hamza was just an ordinary man
like others in my hometown
who work only with their hands for bread.
When I met him the other day,
this land was wearing a cloak of mourning
in windless silence. And I felt defeated.
But Hamza-the-ordinary said:
‘My sister, our land has a throbbing heart,
it doesn’t cease to beat, and it endures
the unendurable. It keeps the secrets
of hills and wombs. This land sprouting
with spikes and palms is also the land
that gives birth to a freedom-fighter.
This land, my sister, is a woman.’Days rolled by. I saw Hamza nowhere.
Yet I felt the belly of the land
was heaving in pain.
Hamza — sixty-five — weighs
heavy like a rock on his own back.
‘Burn, burn his house,’
a command screamed,
‘and tie his son in a cell.’
The military ruler of our town later explained:
it was necessary for law and order,
that is, for love and peace!
Armed soldiers gheraoed his house:
the serpent’s coil came full circle.
The bang at the door was but an order —
‘evacuate, damn it!’
And generous as they were with time, they could say:
‘in an hour, yes!’Hamza opened the window.
Face to face with the sun blazing outside,
he cried: ‘in this house my children
and I will live and die
for Palestine.’
Hamza’s voice echoed clean
across the bleeding silence of the town.
An hour later, impeccably,
the house came crumbling down,
the rooms were blown to pieces in the sky,
and the bricks and the stones all burst forth,
burying dreams and memories of a lifetime
of labor, tears, and some happy moments.
Yesterday I saw Hamza
walking down a street in our town —
Hamza the ordinary man as he always was:
always secure in his determination.
Palestine InSight 