❶ HEBRON TEEN LAID TO REST AS WITNESS REFUTES ISRAELI ACCOUNT OF KILLING
❷ Israel imposes lockdown on East Jerusalem neighborhoods
❸ Palestine: Sports for Life (PS4L)
❹ Al-Aqsa Stormed by Settlers Wearing Priestly Garments
❺ The dark narrative of Israel’s Rhodesia fantasy
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

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❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
HEBRON  TEEN  LAID  TO  REST  AS  WITNESS  REFUTES  ISRAELI  ACCOUNT  OF  KILLING
Sept. 23, 2015
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of 18-year-old Hadeel al-Hashlamon on Wednesday, a day after the teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in Hebron, as a key eyewitness refuted claims she had attempted to stab Israeli soldiers. [. . . .]
____The 18-year-old was shot at a checkpoint at the entrance of Hebron’s central al-Shuhada street, after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier, according to the Israeli army’s official account.
____No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, and Israeli authorities presented no evidence of the alleged stabbing attempt.
More . . .
Related (New York Times) . . .
Related . . .

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  IMPOSES  LOCKDOWN  ON  EAST  JERUSALEM  NEIGHBORHOODS
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities closed the main entrances to East Jerusalem neighborhoods with cement blocks on Wednesday, preventing Palestinians from preparing for the Eid al-Adha holiday, locals said.
____Locals told Ma’an that Israeli authorities closed the three main entrances of the Sur Bahir neighborhood, as well as three main entrances leading into the neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir . . . . with many residents reporting they are unable to . . . prepare for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Wednesday evening. [. . . .]
____The closures come as Israeli authorities continued to impose restrictions on Palestinians attempting to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound [. . . .]
____Sources said that 37 right-wing Israelis raided and toured the holy site Wednesday morning under the protection of armed Israeli police, adding that dozens of Palestinians were able to enter and pray in Aqsa by noon.
More . . . 

❸ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
PALESTINE:  SPORTS  FOR  LIFE  (PS4L)
Tamara Awartani
Sept. 2015
When we speak about sports, we realize that it means different things to different people. . . . another perspective on sports: Sports for Development.
____Palestine: Sports for Life (PS4L) is one of the first organizations to apply the sports-for-development concept in Palestine. PS4L has developed the capacity of its youth staff and empowered them to be able to lead classes and activities using sports as a tool to reach out to youth, children, and women in order to teach them life skills.
PS4L staff developed a curriculum and applied sports-for-development principles in the implementation of two week-long youth vocational guidance summer camps that took place in August in Al-Aroub and Fara’a refugee camps. . .
More. . . 

❹ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
AL-AQSA  STORMED  BY  SETTLERS  WEARING  PRIESTLY  GARMENTS
Sept. 24, 2015
Protected by heavily-guarded police officers, dozens of extremist settlers wearing priestly garments forced their way into the mosque compound via al-Maghariba (Moroccan) Gate to mark the Jewish feast of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
____According to WAFA correspondence, settlers reportedly attempted to perform Talmudic (Jewish) prayers, however their attempts were foiled by the Mosque guards.
____This came as Israeli police deployed large reinforcements across Jerusalem ahead of Jewish feast and shut if off from the West Bank, making the city a military barrack.
More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE (BLOG)
THE  DARK  NARRATIVE  OF  ISRAEL’S  RHODESIA  FANTASY
Seth J. Frantzman
Sept. 24, 2015
The Rhodesia fantasy sees an Israel that can be controlled by a very small elite, what they refer to as a ‘villa in the jungle.’ At the heart of the delusion is an imagined community of ‘founders’ and an imagined majority status for what was always a minority.
More . . .

“THE  WILL  OF  A  MAN  DYING  IN  EXILE,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Light the fire so I can see in the mirror of the flames
The courtyard, the bridge
And the golden meadows.
Light the fires so I can see my tears
On the night of the massacre,
So I can see your sister’s corpse
Whose heart is a bird ripped by foreign tongues,
By foreign winds.
Light the fire so I can see your sister’s corpse,
So I can see jasmine
As a shroud,
The moon
As an incense burner
On the night of the massacre.
Light the fire so I can see myself dying.
My suffering is your only inheritance,
My suffering before the jasmine turns
Into a witness,
The moon
Into a witness.
Light the fires so I can see
Light the fi. . .

From Adonis, Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim. VICTIMS  OF  A  MAP:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  ARABIC  POETRY.  London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.
About Samih Al-qasim