(Please take a moment to read the page “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
US  JUDGE  ORDERS  PALESTINIAN  DEPOSITS  OVER  ATTACKS
August 25, 2015
NEW YORK ―A US judge Monday ordered Palestinian authorities to post $10 million in cash or bond while they appeal a ruling to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to American victims of attacks.
____Judge George Daniels said the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization must also deposit $1 million every 30 days, pending appeal of the February verdict.
____A New York jury found the PA and PLO liable for six attacks in Jerusalem between 2002-2004, awarding American victims and their families damages that amounted to $655.5 million.
____Daniels said the judgment in favor of the plaintiffs would be entered in the next 60 days, but would be stayed pending appeal as long as the deposits were made with the clerk of the court.
____Two weeks ago, the Obama administration urged Daniels to “carefully consider” the PA’s precarious finances in deciding whether to impose a bond requirement.
____Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised “significant concerns” about what could happen if a bond “severely compromised the Palestinian Authority’s ability to operate as a governmental authority.”
More. . .

❷ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ARMY  DEMOLISHES  TWO  HOMES  IN  JERUSALEM
August 25, 2015
Several Israeli police and army vehicles invaded, on Tuesday morning, Jabal al-Mokabber village, in occupied East Jerusalem, and demolished two homes belonging to Mohammad Sa’id al-‘Abbassi and his brother Khaled.
____Mohammad told the Wadi Hilweh Information Center that he, and his brother, started the construction of their homes nearly 45 days ago, and were getting ready to inhabit them in the coming few days. The homes were supposed to house two families of nine members.
____Al-Abbassi said his home was 140 square/meters, and his brother’s property was 120 square/meters, and added that the family never received any demolition orders from the City Council.
More. . .
Related. . .

❸ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
SUSYA  STUDENTS:  SETTLERS  FOLLOW  US,  STEAL  OUR  BAGS  AND  RIP  OUR  BOOKS
August 25, 2015
With the beginning of the new school year in Palestine on Monday, the students of Susya village south Hebron hills revealed the struggles of going to school in light of continuous threats and settler attacks.
____On May 5 2015, The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled to allow the army to demolish the entire village of Susya located in area C (which makes up 60% of the West Bank and falls under Israeli military and civil control). The decision ruled to expel the residents, numbering around 340 men, women and children, to area A (which makes up 18% of the West Bank and falls under Palestinian authority).
[. . . .]
____Since then, the villagers have suffered continuous harassment by the settlers and Israeli military forces, and the little students are no exception to the rule.
More. . . 

❹ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
GAZA’S  HEALTH  MINISTRY  HOLDS  NATIONAL  UNITY  GOVERNMENT  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  CLOSURE  OF  HOSPITALS
August 25, 2015
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has announced that many hospitals and health institutions in the Gaza Strip have shut down as a result of lack of fuel, and that the Ministry holds the national unity government accountable for any harm that may befall their patients due to “the government’s lack of responsibility.”
____In a statement issued on 24 August, the ministry also revealed that it has halted heart surgery services in Gaza’s European Hospital and has limited its services in Al-Shefaa Hospital to emergency cases only; noting that each of the hospitals of Kamal Adwan, Gaza European, Al-Shefaa and Al-Rantisi are all threatened to stop offering services as a result of current fuel shortages meaning they are unable to continue their operations.
____The Ministry explained that such actions are a result of the worsening Gaza crisis and the government’s “lack of responsibility” towards the situation despite repeated appeals.
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI  REPRESSION  TRIGGERS  “LONE  WOLF”  OPERATIONS
Khalid Amayreh
August 12, 2015
Lone-wolf operations refer to retaliatory attacks by individuals having deep grievances resulting from overwhelming oppression.
____Such attacks are almost impossible to categorize or systematize, let alone forecast. It is very hard to predict when and where they will happen.
____This type of attacks occurs from time to time in occupied Palestine, especially when the level of Israeli repression of Palestinians reaches exceptionally high levels.
____The attacks usually assume several forms, including, inter alia, stabbing with a knife or a similar sharp tool, hitting with a metal object, running over soldiers or settlers using vehicles (vehicular attacks).
____Most Palestinians feel such attacks are inevitable if not legitimate due to overwhelming Israeli repression, which includes cold-blooded murder outside the law as well as hefty jail sentences disproportionate to violations committed.
More. . .
Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist and current affairs commentator living in Dura in the southern West Bank.

“BUCHENWALD,”  BY  SAMIH AL-QASIM
Have you forgotten your shame at Buchenwald?
Do you remember your flames at Buchenwald?
Have you forgotten your love in the lexicon
of silence? Do you remember your panic―
at the reign of death, in the nightmare of time―
that the whole world
would become a Buchenwald?
Whether you’ve forgotten or not,
the dead’s images linger
among the wreaths of flowers,
and from the dismembered corpses
a hand emerges,
a nail in the palm and tattoo on the wrist―
a sign for the planet.
Do you remember? Or not?
Buchenwald― whether or not you’ve forgotten,
the images of the murdered
remain among the wreaths of flowers . . .

From Al-Qasim, Samih.  SADDER  THAN  WATER.  New and Selected Poems. Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.
Available from Amazon
About Samih Al-Qasim. Obituary, August 20, 2014.