❶ Palestinians bring US attention to plight of threatened village
❷ Israel notifies Salfit farmers of plans to remove 140 olive trees
❸ West Bank wall threatens Palestine’s flora, fauna
❹ Photo exhibit challenges Zionism’s most popular myth
❺ Analysis: New Report Documents How Israel Keeps Palestinians off Third of West Bank Land
❻ Poetry by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

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

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❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIANS  BRING  US  ATTENTION  TO  PLIGHT  OF  THREATENED  VILLAGE
Sept. 29, 2015
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Six Palestinians came to Washington to secure support against Israeli plans to raze their tiny West Bank village of Susiya, and at the last minute FOUND ASSISTANCE FROM US SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN.
____The hamlet, which has been torn down before and mainly consists of tents and makeshift structures for homes, is among a number of communities threatened with demolition by the Israeli army and has become a symbol of the occupation of the West Bank.
____For Susiya’s proponents, any gesture or public recognition, regardless of how small, by an elected member of the US Congress is a boost they can use as leverage in pressuring Israel’s authorities.
____The US State Department warned this summer that demolition of the village would be “harmful and provocative.” Since then the army has been deliberating the issue, and a deadline has been set for Oct. 13.
More . . .

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  NOTIFIES  SALFIT  FARMERS  OF  PLANS  TO  REMOVE  140  OLIVE  TREES
Sept. 28, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities on Monday delivered notices to Palestinian farmers informing them of plans to remove 140 olive trees from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in Salfit district in the occupied West Bank, the farmers told Ma’an.
____They said that the trees are located in the al-Safar area of the town, which Israeli officials consider a nature reserve.
More . . .

❸ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
WEST  BANK  WALL  THREATENS  PALESTINE’S  FLORA,  FAUNA
Ahmad Melhem
Sept. 27, 2015
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The West Bank barrier project has been condemned by many for its crushing effects on the Palestinian people. Now steps are underway to document its devastation of nature and wildlife as well. The Palestinian Environment Quality Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture plan to prepare and present to the United Nations a comprehensive study on the direct consequences of the wall and its long-term hazardous effects on the environment.
More . . .

❹ +972 BLOG
PHOTO  EXHIBIT  CHALLENGES  ZIONISM’S  MOST  POPULAR  MYTH
Tom Pessah
Sept. 27, 2015
Using haunting aerial photographs of the Negev Desert, American artist Fazal Sheikh challenges the notion that the desert was an unpopulated land before Zionism made it bloom.
More . . .

❺ Analysis:
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
NEW  REPORT  DOCUMENTS  HOW  ISRAEL  KEEPS  PALESTINIANS  OFF  THIRD  OF  WEST  BANK  LAND
Sept. 29 2015
Around a third of the entire West Bank is closed to Palestinians as Israeli military zones, according to a new report.
___“Walled Garden – Declaration of Closed Areas in the West Bank” is published by Israeli non-profit NGO Kerem Navot, and authored by long-time activist and settlements monitor Dror Etkes.
___The report, now available here on Middle East Monitor, reveals the ways in which the Israeli authorities have designated more than 1.7 million dunams as closed military zones.
(Link to full report included.)
More . . .

“THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  WELL,”  BY  JABRA  IBRAHIM  JABRA

[During the massacre of Deir Yassin, the enemy flung the bodies of its victim in the village well.]

Mouth of the well,
Where the hands of playful young maidens
Met in friendship, pouring
Spring water into the jugs,
Amidst merriment and song.
Was it suddenly to become an opening to nothingness,
That opening of a grave, stuffed with young maidens
And bleeding pregnant women,
Their blood mixed with gunpowder?
Did the clusters of grapes around it shrivel up and dry?
Was the wheat scorched, and did the oilskins
Spill their contents on the scattered stones,
And was Jesus crucified there once more?
The mouth of the well will be our second Golgotha.
From its bloodied opening will pour forth
Black lava, smoldering and sizzling,
Mixed with the flesh of young women and pregnant women.
To destroy
Those who sowed death
And fed the eagles of our land.
Then, from its sacred and abundant fertility,
Life will flow, surely it will flow
Into all our villages anew.

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982.
Available from Palestine Online Store.
About Jabra Ibrahim Jabra