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

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  2  HOMES,  7  STORES  IN  AL-EIZARIYA
Aug. 26, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Wednesday morning demolished nine tin shacks, including two homes, in the town of al-Eizariya, east of Jerusalem, on land Israeli authorities have earmarked for construction of the separation wall, locals said.
____A popular resistance committee spokesperson, Hani Halabiya, told Ma’an that large numbers of Israeli troops escorted bulldozers and Israeli Civil Administration inspectors into the town.
____The bulldozers then demolished nine shacks without any prior warning, saying that they had been built without the necessary licenses, he said.
____Halabiya said that some of the structures belonged to Sami Abu Ghaliya, a local Fatah official representing Bedouin tribes on the outskirts of Jerusalem, while the others were being rented by Palestinians from Jerusalem, Hebron, al-Eizariya, and the Bedouin al-Jahalin tribe.
____Two of the structures served as homes and seven as commercial stores, including a grocery store, a car wash, and shops selling brassware and used furniture, Halabiya said.
More. . .

❷ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
ISRAELI  MINISTER  TO  BAN  PALESTINIAN  ORGANISATIONS  IN  AL-AQSA
August 25, 2015 ―Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said yesterday that he is seeking to outlaw two Palestinian-Arab groups “that strive to keep Jews off the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Mosque] in Jerusalem,” Israeli media reported.
____The two groups are mainly running Sharia Schools inside the mosque’s grounds and organising trips for Palestinians to visit the holy site, which is the third holiest site for about two billion Muslims around the world.
____AlkhaleejOnline reported Erdan . . . . accused the groups of destabilising the situation in the area around the mosque. According to the Israeli Radio, Erdan has received detailed security reports from the Israeli security services about the groups’ activities.
____Meanwhile, Deputy Islamic Movement leader Kamal Al-Khatib said: “This is an Israeli plan targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
More. . .

❸ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAELI  PRESIDENT  SAYS  GOVT  HAS  ‘RIGHT’  TO  BUILD  WEST  BANK  SETTLEMENTS
The Free Zone
August 25, 2015
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin says the country has the “right” to build settlements in the West Bank and it is “not a matter of political debate.” His comments are likely to cause controversy, with the EU and Palestine opposed to illegal Israeli development in the area.
____Although the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law, Rivlin believes that the “land of Israel” includes this territory.
____“I love the land of Israel with all my heart,” Rivlin said, AFP reported. “I have never and will never give up on this land. For me, our right to this land is not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism.”
More. . .

❹ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAEL  TO  UPROOT  TREES  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY  NATURE  RESERVE,  TO FORCE  FAMILIES  OUT  OF  HOMES  FOR  MILITARY  DRILLS
August 26, 2015
TUBAS ― Israeli forces Wednesday notified a nature reserve to the East of Tubas, in the northern Jordan Valley, of their intentions to uproot its forest trees, according to a local official.
____Motaz Bisharat, in charge of the Jordan Valley settlements file in the Palestinian Authority, said that forces notified ‘Enoun’ nature reserve, which occupies an area of 14 dunums, of their intentions to uproot the forest trees
[. . . . ]
____Aref Daraghmeh, head of al-Maleh local council, said an Israeli army force broke into the village in the morning and handed notices to 14 families ordering them to leave their homes from 6:00 AM until 12:00 PM on September 1, to conduct military drills in the area.
More. . .

❺ Opinion
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL  UNLEASHES  ITS  DIPLOMATIC  THUG  ON  THE  UN
Jonathan Cook, Nazareth
Aug 25 2015
The appointment by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of one of his most hawkish and outspoken rivals as Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations has prompted widespread consternation.
____As one Israeli analyst noted last week, Danny Danon’s appointment amounts to a “cruel joke” on the international community. The new envoy “lacks even the slightest level of finesse and subtlety required of a senior diplomat”.
____Last year Netanyahu sacked Danon as deputy defence minister, describing him as too “irresponsible” even by the standards of Israel’s usually anarchic politics. Danon had denounced the prime minister for “leftist feebleness” in his handling of Israel’s attack on Gaza last summer.
____Danon is a UN official’s worst nightmare. He is a vocal opponent of a two-state solution and has repeatedly called for the annexation of the West Bank.
More. . .

“TO  A  JEWISH  FRIEND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL-ASMAR
Don’t ask me
the impossible
Don’t’ ask me
to hunt starts,
walk to the sun.
Don’t ask me
to empty the sea
to erase the day’s light
I am nothing but a man.

Don’t ask me
to abandon my eyes, my love,
the memory of my childhood.

I was raised
under an olive tree,
I ate the figs
of my orchard
drank wine from
the sloping vineyards
Tasted Cactus fruit
in the valleys
more, more.

The nightingale has sung
in my ears
The free winds of fields and cities
always tickled me
My friend
You cannot ask me
to leave my own country.  (March 1971)

El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON. Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
Available from Amazon.
About Fouzi El Asmar.