❶ +972 MAGAZINE
THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF NIGHT RAIDS ON PALESTINIAN FAMILIES
Salwa Duaibis
August 31, 2015
IDF night raids, an everyday occurrence in the occupied territories, ensure that Palestinians cannot feels safe in the one place where safety should be assured.
____Over the years, the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) has collected testimonies from Palestinian women in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza on a whole range of issues. However there is one issue, above all others, that stands out due to the frequency with which it occurs and the devastating impact it has on women, their children and entire communities: night raids conducted by the Israeli military into Palestinian villages and homes, which have been taking place on a nightly basis in the occupied territories for the past 48 years.
____In a sample of 100 instances of night raids conducted since 2014, the one common thread mentioned by the women who provided testimonies to WCLAC was a sense of terror.
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❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN 12 PALESTINIANS ACROSS WEST BANK
HEBRON ―Israeli forces detained at least 12 Palestinians in predawn raids across the occupied West Bank Tuesday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
____The Israeli army said that they detained three Palestinians in Nablus district, six in Bethlehem, and three in Jericho, all for “suspected illegal activity.”
____However, Palestinian security officials reported further detentions in Jenin, where violent clashes broke out during an Israeli detention raid targeting a senior Hamas official.
____The officials told Ma’an that Israeli forces detained Majdi Abu al-Hija, his brother Alaa, his son, and other family members during the raid. Israeli forces subsequently demolished their family home.
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❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI FORCES SEAL MAIN ROADS IN EAST JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOOD
September 1, 2015
JERUSALEM ― A number of Palestinian students in the al-Tur neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem were prevented from reaching their schools on Monday after Israeli forces completely closed the village’s main street with concrete blocks, locals told Ma’an.
____Khalid Odah Abu Sbitan, a member in the parents committee in al-Tur schools, said that traffic was unable to travel along the main road and on Suliman al-Farisi street, making it difficult for children to reach three of the village’s schools.
____He said that students aged 4-12 faced particular difficulty reaching their schools because of the blocks, and the parents committee had to organize the students so they could find a route avoiding them.
____Abu Sbitan said that Suliman al-Farisi Street is the main and only entrance for two schools, Jabal al-Zayton and al-Mahaba wal-Eman kindergarten school, as well as a village mosque, known as Suliman al Farisi, the village cemetery, and Jabal al-Zaytoon club.
[. . . .]
____The closures prevent the movement of residents and hinder crucial services including ambulances and school buses.
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❹ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ARMY DEMOLISHES A HOME IN JENIN
September 1, 2015
Israeli soldiers demolished, on Tuesday at dawn, the home of former political prisoner Majdi Raja Abu al-Haija, and kidnapped him, in the al-Hadaf area, in the Jenin refugee camp. The soldiers earlier kidnapped his son, his mother and his brother.
____Eyewitnesses said army bulldozers leveled the home, its surrounding walls, and caused damage to various nearby homes and structures, before withdrawing from the area.
____The demolition of the Palestinian properties is part of a larger invasion in which the soldiers fired missiles into two homes, causing excessive damage and completely burning them, and also demolished walls surrounding several homes.
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❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
NO ONE IS PUT ON TRIAL WHEN A PALESTINIAN FAMILY IS BURNED ALIVE
August 31, 2015
John Brown and Noam Rotem
August 2012. A Molotov cocktail is thrown at a cab, burning an entire Palestinian family. They miraculously survive. Nearby the police find a red bag with a plastic bottle full of gasoline, white latex gloves, and a black lighter with DNA belonging to a Jewish minor from the BAT AYIN SETTLEMENT.
____Despite the evidence, not a single person was ever put on trial for this act of terror, a fact that undoubtedly allows these attacks to continue taking place, the last of which led to the burning alive of 18-month old Ali Dawabshe, his father Sa’ad’s death, and life-threatening wounds for his brother and mother, Ahmed and Riham. “We will do everything to catch those responsible and bring them to justice,” promised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But nothing happened.
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“DREAMS ON A MATTRESS OF THORNS,” BY FOUZI EL-ASMAR
Oh my homeland
The whisper of the leaves in the breeze
Robs me of my sleep.
The darkness of the dawn
And the glance of my beautiful sister
Searching for our songs
Robs me of my sleep.

Lovebirds returning to their nest
At sunset
Kissing their nestlings
Rejoicing
Rob me of my sleep.

The silence of the night
Robs me of my sleep
Oh my country.

Sleep does not bless my eyelids
For there are nails in my eyes
Covered with the rust of many days
And the blast of drums in my eyes
Beaten by the arms of hatred.

El-Asmar, Fouzi. THE WIND-DRIVEN REED AND OTHER POEMS. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1979.
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About Fouzi El-Asmar