❶ 1 Palestinian killed, 1 injured after alleged attack in Beit Shemesh
❷ East Jerusalem is becoming a giant prison
❸ Israeli mistaken for Palestinian ‘attacker’ shot dead in Jerusalem
❹ Despite global disgust, Netanyahu doubles down on claim that Hitler got idea of Final Solution from a Palestinian
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Chaos in Jerusalem is a Warning of Things to Come
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
1 PALESTINIAN KILLED, 1 INJURED AFTER ALLEGED ATTACK IN BEIT SHEMESH
Oct. 22, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — One Palestinian was killed and one critically injured by Israeli police in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, on Thursday after an alleged stabbing attack, Israeli media and police said.
____An Israeli police spokesperson told Ma’an that two Palestinians attempted to board a children’s bus in the city but were blocked from entering, before stabbing an Israeli man in his twenties. Israeli police arrived on scene and shot the suspected attackers.
____The two men, along with the Israeli, were transferred to Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem.
____Israeli media reported that one of the suspected attackers was dead upon arrival to the hospital, the other left in critical condition. The Israeli man sustained moderate injuries in his upper body.
More . . .
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
EAST JERUSALEM IS BECOMING A GIANT PRISON
Yudith Oppenheimer
Oct. 21, 201
Let’s talk about life for a moment, about how we can live in this city. Let us set aside for now the differences of opinion on sovereignty and eternity and talk about this moment, in which we can still steer matters to their semi-sane course, and can still safeguard with the fragile, imperfect, problematic reality that we had here until a few days ago. It is difficult to believe, but we may yet miss this reality as a yearned-for island of near-normalcy that we have lost for some time.
____Let us make no mistake. Even if in a week, two weeks, a month, a year, the concrete barriers are removed that are now blocking the entrances and exits of the Palestinian neighborhoods . . . we will no longer be able to erase the stinging memory of the concrete barriers that we set up between us and them. The ones that have turned their home in the heart of the city into a series of shunned and isolated ghettos.
____These walls have already built unseen fences of hatred and will continue to exist in our midst as a malignant poison.
More . . .
Related . . . JERUSALEM BECOMING MINI-POLICE STATE AND GHOST CAPITAL
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI MISTAKEN FOR PALESTINIAN ‘ATTACKER’ SHOT DEAD IN JERUSALEM
Oct. 22, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and killed a Jewish man in central Jerusalem overnight Wednesday after mistaking him for a “Palestinian attacker,” Israeli police and media said.
____Israeli media said the man was shot after he attempted to grab a weapon from Israeli security forces after an argument. The man was identified as a Jewish-Israeli from his identity card.
____Other reports said a private security guard shot the man after an altercation as he was getting off a bus in the center of Jerusalem.
More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
DESPITE GLOBAL DISGUST, NETANYAHU DOUBLES DOWN ON CLAIM THAT HITLER GOT IDEA OF FINAL SOLUTION FROM A PALESTINIAN
News sites around the world today are talking about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion in a speech yesterday that Hitler didn’t want to kill the Jews, just expel them, till he was convinced to exterminate them by the Palestinian leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The criticism is so universal, and angry, that the remarks look to be a landmark in Netanyahu’s cynicism. . .
____Yet, in the face of the criticism Netanyahu is doubling down on his contention that Palestinians incited the holocaust. Here is what he said today before leaving to Berlin [. . . . .].
____Meanwhile, Germany says it has no idea what Netanyahu is talking about.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
CHAOS IN JERUSALEM IS A WARNING OF THINGS TO COME
Oct. 21, 2015
Among Palestinians and Israelis, the recent upsurge in violence has been variously described as the children’s, lone-wolf, Jerusalem and smartphone intifadas. Each describes a distinguishing feature of this round of clashes.
____The steady erosion of Fatah and Hamas’ authority during the post-Oslo years, as the Palestinian factions proved incapable of protecting their people from the structural violence of the occupation, has driven Palestine’s politically orphaned children to the streets, armed with stones.
____The growing hopelessness and sense of abandonment have led a few so-called “lone wolves” to vent their fury on Israelis with improvised weapons such as knives, screwdrivers and cars. These attacks have attracted the most publicity, becoming the equivalent of the second intifada’s suicide bomber. But they serve chiefly as a barometer of Palestinian despair.
More . . .
“CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN EAR OF CORN AND A JERUSALEM ROSE THORN,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
(Scene: a Field on the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean)EAR OF CORN: Don’t kill me before my time is up.
JERUSALEM ROSE THORN: To kill for nothing is my only professionEC: But your lovely flower
Is honey . . .
JRT: My unchecked desire
Is a road . . . its end is your deathEC: Live and die as you wish
With your sad flowers
And the gloom of your cursed desire
Live and die . . . but spare me
JRT: It’s our fate . . . I die so you may live
Or you die so I may liveEC: There’s enough room for both of us in the field
JRT: It’s our fate neighbor
It’s our fate
(Enter Fire and Fear jumps up)EC & JRT: Don’t kill us fire
We are young and pretty and we grew up together
Don’t kill us
Don’t ki . . .
(Ashes, EC & JRT on the horizon)
From by 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
