Month: November 2015

“. . . we fill the streets with demonstrations and the jails with pride . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

[Note: Today’s photos do not specifically relate to news stories except to show situations of the Palestinian people that lead to resistance actions.]

IMG_3009 - Copy
Street scene in Shufat Refugee Camp, a squalid over-populated neighborhood closed in by the Apartheid Wall, where there are virtually no city services such as policing, traffic control, or street cleaning, but where the tax rates are the highest in the nation. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ 2 Israelis convicted for 2014 killing of Muhammad Abu Khdeir
❷ Israeli forces shoot, injure 3 Palestinians near Ramallah
❸ Settler who attacked leftist rabbi: ‘If I kill one it’ll be over’
❹ Israeli court orders Silwan family to demolish two apartments
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  MOST  REPRESSIVE  LAW  IS  ABOUT  TO  GET  WORSE
❻ Poetry by Tawfiq Zayyad (1970)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
2  ISRAELIS  CONVICTED  FOR  2014  KILLING  OF  MUHAMMAD  ABU  KHDEIR
Nov. 30, 2015
[Note: This killing incited some of the violence that led to 2014 Gaza devastation.]
BETHLEHEM ―Israel’s Jerusalem District Court on Monday convicted two Israelis for the murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir last summer, with a third suspect [Yousef ben David] who admitted to the killing escaping conviction on the grounds of his mental health.
[. . . . .]
The two Israeli youths found guilty will be sentenced on Jan. 13, according to the AFP news agency, while another hearing for Ben David was set for Dec. 20.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  INJURE  3  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  RAMALLAH
Nov. 30, 2015
RAMALLAH ― Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians during clashes east of Ramallah late Sunday, locals told Ma’an.
____Witnesses said that Israeli forces raided the village of Silwad after youths hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at settler vehicles driving in the area.
More . . . 

IMG_2866
Scaffolding in place to repair damage done inside Al Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, by Jewish Extremists. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 4, 2015)

❸ + 972 MAGAZINE
SETTLER  WHO  ATTACKED  LEFTIST  RABBI:  ‘IF  I  KILL  ONE  IT’LL  BE  OVER’
Natasha Roth
Nov. 27, 2015
The Jewish extremist accused of attacking Rabbis for Human Rights president Arik Ascherman last month was charged in court two weeks ago with causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife and ammunition. The youth, 17 years old, is suspected of assaulting Ascherman near the settlement of Itamar as the rabbi was assisting Palestinians with their olive harvest.
[. . . . .]
“If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal,” he said. “We need to deter them. They need to be made fearful. They need to receive a blow.”
More . . .
❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  COURT  ORDERS  SILWAN  FAMILY  TO  DEMOLISH  TWO  APARTMENTS
Nov. 29, 2015
JERUSALEM ―An Israeli court on Sunday issued a demolition order for two apartments in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, claiming they had been built without the necessary permits.
___The Siyam family, which owns the apartments, said they were built 21 years ago, and over the course of years they have spent 600,000 shekels ($154,000) in fines to Israeli authorities, in addition to fees paid trying to obtain a construction license.
More . . .
Related . . . PICTURES:  ADMINISTRATIVE  DEMOLITION  ORDERS  TO  RESIDENTIAL  HOUSES  IN  SILWAN
Related . . . MONITOR:  PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  DEAD  IN  CLASHES  IN  SILWAN
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
ISRAEL’S  MOST  REPRESSIVE  LAW  IS  ABOUT  TO  GET  WORSE
Amjad Iraqi
Nov. 29, 2015
In June 1951, member of Knesset and future Prime Minister Menachem Begin participated in a meeting of the Knesset’s Constitutional, Law, and Justice Committee on whether Israel should adopt administrative detentions as a legitimate security practice.
[. . . . .]
Despite Begin’s criticisms in the forum, the Knesset decided to keep the Emergency Regulations as a part of Israel’s legal system. . . .
[. . . . .]
Two weeks ago, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon invoked the Emergency Regulations to outlaw the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Rather than conducting transparent investigations, hearings, and collection of evidence as required by various Israeli laws . . .
More . . . 

(Below is the complete poem, parts of which are posted in various places online with the title “Here we shall stay.” The poem is elegant in itself, but it is particularly moving to realize how little has changed since it was written in 1970.)

“WE  SHALL  REMAIN,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD  – 1970

It is a thousand times easier
For you to pass an elephant through the needle’s eye
To catch fried fish in the Milky Way
To plow the sea
To teach the alligator speech, a thousand times easier
Than smothering with you oppression
The spark of an idea
Of forcing us to deviate
A single step
From our chosen march.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain in Lydda, Ramlah, and Galilee.

Here upon your chests
We shall remain
Like the glass and the cactus
In your throats
A fiery whirlwind
In your eyes.

Here we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We wash dishes in the hotels
And serve drinks to the masters.
We mop the floors in the dark kitchens
To extract a piece of bread
From your blue teeth
For the little ones.

Here, we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We starve,
Go naked,
Sing songs
And fill the streets
With demonstrations
And the jails with pride.
We breed rebellions
One after another.
Like twenty impossibles we remain
In Lydda, Ramlah, Galilee.

Here, we shall remain.
You may drink the sea;
We shall guard the shade
Of the olive tree and the fig,
Planting ideas
Like the yeast in the dough.
The coldness of ice is in our nerves
And a burning hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock
To quench our thirst
And if we starve
We eat the dirt
And never depart
Or grudge our blood.

Here―we have a past
―a present
―and a future.
Our roots are entrenched
Deep in the earth.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain.
Let the oppressor review his account
Before the turn of the wheel.
For every action there is a reaction:
Read what is written in the Book.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain―in Lydda, in Ramlah
And Galilee.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE.  Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.
Available from Amazon.
About Tawfiq Zayyad 

IMG_3220
Hebron family prepares to climb into back window of their home, of which the Israeli Occupation Force has welded shut the front door because it is on a street where ILLEGAL JEWISH SETTLERS live. Taken from the roof of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee headquarters. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015)

See information about the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee in The Guardian.

NOVEMBER 29TH: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

Harold KnightLeave a comment
IMG_3126
One of the 100 testimonies from the Bethlehem Wall “Museum” (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 6, 2015)

(About the Bethlehem Wall “Museum”)

❶ NOVEMBER  29TH:  INTERNATIONAL  DAY  OF  SOLIDARITY  WITH  THE  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE
❷ Israeli settlers storm Palestinian activist center in Hebron
❸ Palestinian man shot dead after alleged attack in East Jerusalem
❹ Scenes from the funeral of Khalid Mahmoud al-Jawabreh, 19
❺ Opinion/Analysis: NOBODY  IS  COMING  TO  END  THE  OCCUPATION
❻ Poetry by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ NOVEMBER  29TH:  INTERNATIONAL  DAY  OF  SOLIDARITY  WITH  THE  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
Nov. 29, 2015
Today is the annual International day of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
___Thirty years after the UN partition plan of Palestine, the General Assembly passed a new resolution proclaiming an annual observation, on November 29th, to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
___According to the United Nations (UN), this date “was chosen because of its meaning and significance to the Palestinian people… Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being.”
More . . .
Related . . . IS  INTERNATIONAL  PALESTINE  SOLIDARITY  JUST  A  SYMBOLIC  GESTURE? (La nueva Televisión del Sur)
Related . . . U.N. Proclamation
Related . . . From the Electronic Intifada
Related . . . From the Huffington Post

Apartheid wall Bethlehem
The Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek (facing) of Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in East Jerusalem, with Dr. Robert Ashmore, Professor Emeritus, Marquette University, at the Wall “Museum” in Bethlehem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 6, 2015)

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  STORM  PALESTINIAN  ACTIVIST  CENTER  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 28, 2015
HEBRON ― Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the headquarters of the Youth Against Settlements activist group in central Hebron on Saturday and demanded its closure.
___Issa Amro, the head of the activist group, told Ma’an the settlers were led by the notorious settler Baruch Marzel into the building, which is known as Beit Sumoud, meaning house of steadfastness.
___Amro said the settlers had placed tables and chairs in the center’s garden, and were demanding that soldiers prevent any of the Youth Against Settlements staff and volunteers from approaching it.
___The building lies in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of central Hebron, and borders one of the city’s illegal Israeli settlements.
More . . .
Related . . . ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  PALESTINIAN  FAMILY  IN  THEIR  HOME  FOR  26  HOURS  &  WREAK  HAVOC  ON  YAS  CENTER (November 9, 2015)
Related . . . ANNOUNCING  7TH  ANNUAL  OPEN  SHUHADA  ST  CAMPAIGN  (22-28/02/2016)
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  MAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTACK  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM
Nov. 29, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man on Sunday after the man allegedly stabbed and injured an Israeli police officer near the Damascus gate in occupied East Jerusalem, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
___Micky Rosenfeld said the alleged attacker was a 38-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus district of the northern occupied West Bank, while local sources identified the man as Baseem Abdul-Rahman Mustafa Salah.
___The Israeli police officer who was injured during the attack is reportedly in light to moderate condition,
More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
SCENES  FROM  THE  FUNERAL  OF  KHALID  MAHMOUD  AL-JAWABREH,  19
Anne Paq
Nov. 28, 2015
More . . .

Lifta - depopulated Palestinian Village
The Palestinian Village of Lifta, one of the few remaining villages depopulated during the Nakba, 1948. Jerusalem. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
NOBODY  IS  COMING  TO  END  THE  OCCUPATION
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Nov. 29, 2015
In meetings between top-ranking Israeli and American officials over the past few weeks, the United States reportedly demanded that Benjamin Netanyahu outline steps he is willing to take to ensure the window for a two-state solution doesn’t slam shut. Netanyahu’s answer has more or less been: nothing.
___Asked to make goodwill or humanitarian gestures to the Palestinians to keep a two-state vision alive, Netanyahu reportedly conditioned any step on the United States endorsing Israel’s “right” to build settlements in the occupied West Bank. “Umm, no,” Washington replied for a plethora of obvious reasons.
More . . .

“SURVIVORS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH

They were here for a year at our doorstep,
sleepless with their brown flesh-and-blood complexions,
knocking against our ribs to make us see them.
At the end of the night they depart.
They circle around the city seven times
like the revolving sun,
like a reverberating echo.
They kill the silence with their flutes
and light and birds hover around them
as they swim in the shadows
of tall wheat spikes and white stags.
As night falls the wind shakes the streets
and the darkness breathes out crazed spears among trees
jostling toward the window and balconies.
We heard the hooves of their horses,
so we hid in the corners,
under beds, between ribs.
We hid like a storm among branches.
Their olives will eventually grow tired. . . . we said:
It might snow . . .
soldiers might come by this evening and immediately kill them,
or like a sun’s fading wish they might grow tired
and kill themselves.
Night falls once more . . . the wind blows.
We hold our breath and retreat.
Boundless fear binds our hands . . . and our beating hearts.
The most recent among us said . . . Let us all rise up and ask them:
You who have been sleepless at our doorstep for a year and two nights:
What do you want?
Storms of corpses rushed to the corners.
The smell of death rose from the roofs of mirrors,
from the colors of the eyes.
Let us all rise . . . the most recent among us said.
And when we reached the door, they shouted at us:
But . . . O dead ones . . . don’t open the door!

From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN  INSIDE:  SELECTED  POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.

Shufat Refugee Camp, Jerusalem
Houses in the Shufat Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jerusalem: one of the places the descendants of Palestinians who left villages such as Lifta still live. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

“. . . a certain hope, the hope to live . . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
highway
Highway 60, bisecting Palestine from Jerusalem, through Beit Jala, to Hebron as seen from Beit Jala (Photo: Harold Knight, November 8, 2015)

❶ Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the oPt (19 – 25 November 2015)
❷ Palestinian killed after injuring 6 Israeli soldiers in car attack
❸ Jews, Arabs march on Israeli checkpoint to demand an end to occupation
❹ Dogs supplied to Israeli military by The Netherlands involved in abuses
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
❻ Poetry by Marwan Makhoul
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PCHR  (PALESTINIAN  CENTRE  FOR  HUMAN  RIGHTS)  REPORT  ON  ISRAELI  HUMAN  RIGHTS  VIOLATIONS  IN  THE  OPT (19 – 25  NOVEMBER  2015)
Nov. 28, 2015
Israeli forces have continued to commit crimes, inflicting civilian casualties. They have also continued to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians participating in peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were youngsters. Occupied East Jerusalem witnessed similar attacks. During the reporting period, Israeli forces and settlers killed 8 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank, while 2 other civilians, including a child, succumbed to their injuries. Moreover, 121 Palestinian civilians, including 29 children, 2 young women and 2 journalists, were wounded. Thirty of whom, including 5 children and a journalist, were wounded in the Gaza Strip and the others were wounded in the West Bank. Concerning the nature of injuries, 100 civilians were hit with live bullets and 21 ones were hit with rubber bullets.
More . . .
Related . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  INJURING  6  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  IN  CAR  ATTACK
Nov. 27, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian suspect was shot and killed on Friday after a vehicle attack in Beit Ummar which left six Israeli soldiers injured, Israel’s army and locals said.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that six Israeli soldiers were injured in a “car ramming” in Beit Ummar north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, with the Palestinian suspect shot and killed.
___The area was closed off following the attack, Israeli police said.
___Locals identified the victim as Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19.
___Four soldiers were moderately injured and two suffered light injuries. Israeli media later reported five total injuries, four moderate and one light.
More . . .
❸ +972 MAGAZINE
JEWS,  ARABS  MARCH  ON  ISRAELI  CHECKPOINT  TO  DEMAND  AN  END  TO  OCCUPATION
Haggai Matar
Nov. 28, 2015
Some 300 Israelis and Palestinians marched on the Israeli army’s “tunnels checkpoint” south of Jerusalem Friday to demonstrate against the occupation, against the ongoing violence, and in support of two states.
___The demonstrators gathered on Route 60, the southern West Bank’s main north-south artery that connects Jerusalem, Beit Jala, the Gush Etzion settlements, and Hebron. For an hour, the demonstrators marched north along the side of the road to drums while chanting political slogans. Israeli and Palestinian drivers passing the protest along Route 60 couldn’t miss the long procession. . . .
More . . .

protest-marching
Anti-occupation protesters march along the side of Route 60 in the West Bank, November 27, 2015. (Photo: Mustafa Bader/Activestills.org)

❹ MILITARY COURT WATCH
DOGS  SUPPLIED  TO  ISRAELI  MILITARY  BY  THE  NETHERLANDS  INVOLVED  IN  ABUSES
Oct. 29, 2015 – A recent article published in the Dutch media indicates that the Dutch Government has been approving export licenses for the supply of service dogs to the Israeli military for use in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This has raised concerns in The Netherlands due to evidence indicating that the service dogs are used to attack Palestinian civilians, including minors, and frequently accompany military units when they conduct intimidating raids on Palestinian homes in the middle of the night.
___The granting of export licenses for service dogs is controversial due to an EU ruling supposed to prevent the issuing of export licenses for the shipment of “strategic goods”, such as pistols and camouflage paint, to Israel.
More . . .
Related . . . ISRAEL  USING  DUTCH  DOGS  TO  TERRORIZE  PALESTINIANS (Nov. 27, 2015)
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
Jeremy Salt
Nov. 25, 2015
Sometimes it must be such fun to be an Israeli undercover agent especially if you like amateur theatricals and perhaps thought of an acting career but were not quite good enough and had to settle for something less.
[ . . . . . ]
You find the young man you want, Azzam al Shelaldeh, in hospital for surgery after being shot by a settler, and you pull him out of his bed. You shoot his unarmed cousin Abndullah dead as he comes out of the bathroom. . . . You leave the dead man on the floor of the ward in a pool of his own blood. You don’t care that the CCTV cameras are filming everything. . . . you want people to see that you are capable of doing anything, anywhere and anytime.
More . . .

“HELLO  BEIT  HANOUN,”  BY  MARWAN  MAKHOUL

Hello!
Beit Hanoun?
I heard on the news
that an artisan baker has come
to distribute bread
on the back of fresh artillery,
and I also heard
that one of his loaves feeds
at least twenty children
and is so warm it burns, and solid
like a randomly targeted shell.
They said
the children woke up early that day
not to go to school
but to the local youth club
opposite the town’s playground
that in summer is big enough for two massacres
and a certain hope, the hope to live.
I also heard
that when they were on their way
they made light of their wounds
and poured blood on the corners
till blood took the colour of the streets
and feelings.
When I saw what I saw on the screen
I thought I was dreaming
or the TV was dreaming the impossible made real.
I never imagined, Beit Hanoun,
that you’d mean anything to me
what with all the fun I’m having
like being busy with friends discussing
whether wine in the bottle
ferments or not.
I never knew you’d mean anything to me,
even something small
something small, Beit Hanoun.
Hello . . . ?
Hello . . . ?
Beit Hanoun?
Can you hear me?
I think the phone’s not working
or is perhaps asleep,
it is very late after all.
Never mind, let it go.
I’ve nothing better to do
than catch up with my brothers shading themselves
by the axed trunk of Arab solidarity.
Goodbye, Beit Hanoun.
Goodbye.

THE MASSACRE AT BEIT HANOUN (Nov. 8, 2006)
From Banipal: Magazine  of  Modern  Arab  Literature  45 (Winter 2012). WWW.banipal.co.uk
Marwan Makhoul was born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother in 1979 in the village of Boquai’a in the Upper Galilee region of Palestine. He currently lives in the village of Maalot Tarshiha. Marwan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Mustaqbal College and now works as a civil engineer and is the director of a construction company. His first book of poetry was published in 2007 in both Beirut and Baghdad by Al-Jamal Publishers.

hospital
Israeli forces shot Abdullah al-Shalaldeh multiple times in the process of arresting his cousin Azzam at a Hebron hospital. An elite Israeli military force that operates undercover stormed the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and shot dead a 27-year-old Palestinian, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. (Photo: Al Jazeera, Nov. 12, 2015)

“. . . and his dreams are aches which march onward. . .” (Abdel Rahim al-Sheikh)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
bethlehem
Nighttime in Bethlehem. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ Stores Demolished near Bethlehem, Settlers Close Major Junction
❷ Palestinian shot dead after alleged vehicle attack east of Jerusalem
❸ Soldiers Kill a Palestinian Teen in Hebron
❹ Israel to Coordinate With Google, YouTube, To Censor Palestinian Videos of Conflict
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Maariv: Google Will Censor Videos Inciting Palestinian Violence
❻ Poetry by Abdel Rahim al-Sheikh
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
STORES  DEMOLISHED  NEAR  BETHLEHEM,  SETTLERS  CLOSE  MAJOR  JUNCTION
Nov. 26, 2015
The Israeli army, Thursday, demolished two commercial structures and seized some of their contents in the village of Hosan, west of Bethlehem, according to local sources.
___Hassan Hamamreh, mayor of Hosan, told WAFA that an Israeli army force, accompanied by bulldozers, broke into the village and demolished two commercial structures belonging to Ishaq Shousha and Bajes Oudeh, two local Palestinians, citing unpermitted construction as a pretext for the demolition.
___The two structures are used as stores to sell construction related material and scrap.
___The Israeli military also seized heavy machinery and other equipment available in both stores, including a bagger, forklift trucks and motor homes.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  VEHICLE  ATTACK  EAST  OF  JERUSALEM
Nov. 27, 2015
BETHLEHEM ― A Palestinian man was shot dead on Friday after allegedly running over two Israeli soldiers in a vehicle attack east of Jerusalem, locals and Israel’s army said.
___The Israeli military said there was a “car ramming attack” at a bus station east of Jerusalem, near the Kfar Adumim settlement, which left two soldiers injured.
___Israeli police said that an Israeli settler who was in the area shot dead the Palestinian suspect following the incident.
More . . .
Related . . . PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  INJURING  6  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  IN  CAR  ATTACK  (Nov. 27, 2015)

alarroub
The al Arroub refugee camp (Photo: Anne Paq, ActiveStills.org)

❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
SOLDIERS  KILL  A  PALESTINIAN  TEEN  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 27, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Thursday evening, a young Palestinian man, after the army invaded the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.
___Medical sources said the slain Palestinian has been identified as Khaled Mohammad Jawabra, 19 years of age. He was shot with several rounds of live ammunition, targeting the upper parts of his body.
[ . . . . ]
Jawabra’s death brings the number of Palestinians, shot dead by Israeli fire, since October first to 102, including 22 children and four women . . . .
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ISRAEL  TO  COORDINATE  WITH  GOOGLE,  YOUTUBE,  TO  CENSOR  PALESTINIAN  VIDEOS  OF  CONFLICT
Nov. 27, 2015
The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Member of Knesset Tzipi Hotovely, held meetings this week with representatives of YouTube and Google, to find ways of cooperating to censor Palestinian videos from occupied Palestine, videos she dubbed as “inciting violence and terrorism.”
___Israeli daily Maariv said Hotovely will be working with Google and YouTube officials in a joint mechanism that will be in charge of “monitoring and preventing” any publication of materials deemed by Tel Aviv to be “inflammatory.”
___Hotovely announced in a Hebrew-only press release that she met with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Google’s Director of Public Policy, Jennifer Oztzistzki, at Google’s Silicon Valley Offices.
More . . . 
Related . . . ISRAELI  JOURNALISTS  SLAM  NETANYAHU  OVER  CLOSURE  OF  ARABIC  MEDIA  OUTLETS  (Nov. 26, 2015)
❺ Opinion/Analysis
(Note: I include this not knowing anything about the author except what he has said online; you, the reader here, will have to evaluate it)
TIKUN OLAM-תיקון עולם
MAARIV:  GOOGLE  WILL  CENSOR  VIDEOS  INCITING  PALESTINIAN  VIOLENCE
Richard Silverstein
Nov. 26, 2015
Bibi Netanyahu has been blaming U.S. internet companies like Facebook for the current Palestinian uprising. I’ve taken to calling it the “Facebook Intifada.” Now there’s a new Silicon Valley target.
___Today, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, who’s devoutly wished to see Israel rebuild the Holy Temple (thereby destroying the Haram al Sharif), announced (in Hebrew, English here) that she’d met with YouTube’s CEO and Google’s director of public policy at its Silicon Valley campus. During this meeting, according to a Maariv article, Hotovely schooled the executives about the ways in which pro-Palestine propaganda infects the internet and incites impressionable young Palestinian children to knife innocent victims.
___What struck me about the article was the conclusion, in which Hotovely says that Google agreed to create a formal mechanism enabling formal coöperation between the foreign ministry and the company regarding the issue of incitement as played out in YouTube’s video content. In other words, she implied that Google would collaborate with Israel on identifying and removing videos that “incited” violence against Israel.
More . . .

“DUSK,”  BY  ABDEL  RAHIM  AL-SHEIKH
there is a bird, alone. . .alone and measuring the may sun with
the beating of his wings,
more eager than the east, he grooms, speeds past, clips the mountain
crest, a feather harp,
known to lovers by his eyelashes, his fierce dance, his acrobat desire, on
raffia rope, his two black feet,
and all is fleeting but him, the camera shutter, the full rainbow. . .
a world without end or sorrow,
and he is not the night warden, does not tell each morning of the night
returning at sunset,
as the night will always return, and the feather harp. . . a lover out of
a luck and a luck out of love,
a meeting point, a river, a fire, a brink of all things, again and again
and again,
his feints and flits are far from tender. . . he settles on her breast,
as round as the world,
holding in his butterflies, a blanket for the grieving, his partner in sleep,
and his dreams are aches which march onward, and there are no
maps for the crossing, and she warns him:
that child, your sea, is taking off his shoes, is leaning on the
mountains of the moon,
a strait where paths break, a quenching blue, a clouded pearl. . .
oh his fire! oh his flute!
oh the changing world. . .
and who executes the final turn!

Abdel Rahim al-Sheikh from Jerusalem, teaches philosophy, history, and creative writing at Bir Zeit University and the Qattan Centre in Ramallah, and is the author of many literary and academic books.
From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.

Clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian citizens in Bethlehem, Sunday, after the village of Hosan was taken over by hundreds of Israeli soldiers and turned into a military zone. Nov 9, 2015.

“. . . your children will play again and fathers and sons will meet . . .” (Nizar Qabbani)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
terrorists
PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS: Palestinian Bedouin Children near Jericho. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 9, 2015)

❶ Knesset bill to jail minors on terror charges passes 1st vote
❷ Palestinian killed at Nablus checkpoint after alleged attack
❸ Israel to build “smart fence” around al-Khalil
❹ Analysis: More guns will not make Israelis any safer
❺ Opinion: ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
❻ Poetry by Nizar Qabbani
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
KNESSET  BILL  TO  JAIL  MINORS  ON  TERROR  CHARGES  PASSES  1ST  VOTE
Nov. 25, 2015
BETHLEHEM ― The Israeli parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow Palestinian minors under 14 who are facing terrorism charges to be sentenced to time in prison, a Knesset press release said.
___The bill was approved in a preliminary vote with 64 in favor of the bill and 22 against.
___If the bill becomes law, children under 14 would reportedly be placed in a children’s home until they turn 14, after which the child would be transferred to a mainstream security prison.
More . . .
Related . . . HEAD  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS’  CLUB  CONDEMNS  CHILD  INCARCERATION  BILL (Nov. 26 2015)
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AT  NABLUS  CHECKPOINT  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTACK
Nov. 26, 2015
NABLUS ― Israeli forces on Thursday shot and killed a Palestinian at the Zaatara (Tappuah) military checkpoint south of Nablus after he reportedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier, Israeli police said.
___Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said in a statement that a taxi stopped suddenly at the checkpoint and a passenger exited the vehicle, attempting to stab an Israeli soldier.
___Israeli forces on site shot the man several times before he was pronounced dead, and began chasing the taxi that brought the man to the checkpoint, al-Samri said.
___Earlier Thursday, a 21-year-old Palestinian, Yahya Yusri Taha, was killed by Israeli soldiers when clashes broke out during a search and arrest raid in the town of Qatanna.
More . . .
Related . . . PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  IN  CLASHES  2  WEEKS  AGO  DIES  FROM  WOUNDS (Nov. 25, 2015)
Related . . . PALESTINIAN  SHOT  AFTER  STABBING  ISRAELI  SOLDIER  DIES  FROM  INJURIES  (Nov. 25, 2015)
❸ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAEL  TO  BUILD  “SMART  FENCE”  AROUND  AL-KHALIL
Nov. 26, 2015
NAZARETH― Israeli war minister Moshe Ya’alon declared on Wednesday evening intention to construct a smart fence, separating the West Bank city of al-Khalil and the Lakhish Regional Council.
___Ya’alon’s remarks came in response to a motion filed by Likud MK Mickey Zohar to prevent Palestinian resistance operations.
___The fence constitutes of a well-equipped electric panel with smart cameras.
More . . . 

zzzz gun
Israeli shows a tear gas gun he just bought at a gun shop in Jerusalem on October 15, 2015. Arms shop’s owners report a rise in demand for weapons and other self-defense gear as violence continues around Jerusalem. (Photo: Active Stills/Yotam Ronen)

❹ Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE BLOG
MORE  GUNS  WILL  NOT  MAKE  ISRAELIS  ANY  SAFER
Tanya Rubinstein
Nov. 25, 2015
These days, and actually most of the time, violence in the streets is making headlines on a near-daily basis. The dangers of citizens arming themselves, of the growing militarization of our society, and the way these two intersect to create more violence — especially toward women — can hardly be found in our newspapers.
___ Israeli society’s sense of security greatly stems from both developing our weapons industry and the massive arming of the IDF. This is our answer to every threat, whether real or imagined. . . . This is a society in which weapons — both the private and public sphere — are completely normal.
More . . .
❺ Opinion
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
Jeremy Salt
Nov 25 2015
Sometimes it must be such fun to be an Israeli undercover agent especially if you like amateur theatricals and perhaps thought of an acting career but were not quite good enough and had to settle for something less. You get drama and excitement without the element of danger to yourself. You can dress up as an ‘Arab’ and storm into ‘Arab’ homes on the West Bank to terrorize families and shoot dead teenagers. You have to put up with sobbing mothers and screaming children, but so what, they are all terrorists or will grow up to be one. You can storm into a hospital to kidnap and kill.
More . . .

“JERUSALEM,”  BY  NIZAR  QABBANI

Oh Jerusalem, the luminous city of prophets
The shortest path between earth and sky

Oh Jerusalem, the citadel of laws
A beautiful child with fingers charred
and downcast eyes
You are the shady oasis passed by the Prophet
Your streets are melancholy
Your minarets are mourning
You, the young maiden dressed in black
Who rings the bells in the Nativity
On Saturday morning?
Who brings toys for the children
On Christmas eve?
The city of sorrow
A huge tear trembling on your eyelid
Who will halt the aggression
On you, the pearl of religions?
Who will wash your bloody walls?
Who will safeguard the Bible?
Who will rescue the Quran?
Who will save Christ?
Who will save man?
Oh Jerusalem my town
Oh Jerusalem my love
Tomorrow the lemon trees will blossom
And the olive trees will rejoice
Your eyes will dance
The migrant pigeons will return
To your sacred roofs
And your children will play again
And fathers and sons will meet
On your rosy hills
My city, city of peace and olives.
—Translated by Sharif Elmusa and Naomi Shihab Nye

From  BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO STAND:  PALESTINE  ISRAEL  POETS  RESPOND  TO  THE  STRUGGLE.  Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) was a Syrian diplomat and poet revered by Arabs for his sensual and romantic verse. A man of his times and of all times, he is by far the most popular contemporary poet in the Arab world.
MORE  PALESTINIAN  TERRORISTS:  Sixth Graders at the Rawdat El-Zuhur School in East Jerusalem singing a revolutionary anthem. (Video, Harold Knight, Nov. 3, 2015)

“. . . we have lost the most beautiful thing among us . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
allami
Yousef Ahmad Mahmoud al-‘Allami – Beit Ummar Facebook Page. (Photo published: INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER, Nov. 25, 2015)

❶ Army Kidnaps 34 Palestinians in the West Bank
❶―A ―Soldiers Assault and Kidnap a Child, Eight Years of Age, In Hebron
❷ Illegal settlements aren’t rogue, they’re government policy
❸ Why won’t Israel allow autopsy on youth killed by police?
❹ Analysis: Part 1: Palestinian youth revolt – Any role for political parties?
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Identifying the wrong culprit for terrorism
❻ Poetry by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  34  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Nov. 25, 2015
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, overnight and on Wednesday morning, 34 Palestinians, including many children, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
___ In Hebron, the soldiers kidnapped ten Palestinians, including five children, in the city and nearby towns.
___Three Palestinians, identified as Mohammad Yasser Masalma, Hamdi Qassem Masalma, 18, Qussai Hani Masalma, and Qussai Ghazi Shallash, 20, were kidnapped from their homes in Doura town, west of Hebron.
More . . .
   ❶―A ―Related . . . SOLDIERS  ASSAULT  AND  KIDNAP  A  CHILD,  EIGHT  YEARS  OF  AGE,  IN  HEBRON
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS  AREN’T  ROGUE,  THEY’RE  GOVERNMENT  POLICY
Adam Aloni
Nov. 24, 2015
Consecutive Israeli governments have fabricated a sophisticated system designed to lend a guise of legality to the seizure of land in the West Bank.
More . . . 

soldiers-settlement
Israeli soldiers stand in front of the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, which was partially built on expropriated land belonging to the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, West Bank, September 26, 2014. Number (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

❸ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
WHY  WON’T  ISRAEL  ALLOW  AUTOPSY  ON  YOUTH KILLED  BY  POLICE?
Alia Al Ghussain
A refusal by the Israeli police to allow an autopsy on a young Palestinian killed by its officers indicates a cover-up.
___On 17 October, Mutaz Uweisat was killed by the police in Armon Hanatziv, an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
___Israeli police have alleged that the 16-year-old boy tried to stab a border guard.
___Palestinian human rights groups are calling for an investigation of the officer implicated in the killing.
[ . . . . . ]
___ Amnesty has documented a number of instances in which Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli forces when they did not present any imminent threat to life, and says the slayings amount to extrajudicial executions.
Nov. 24, 2015
More . . .
❹ Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK
PART  1:  PALESTINIAN  YOUTH  REVOLT  –  ANY  ROLE  FOR  POLITICAL  PARTIES?
Nov. 24, 2015
Jamal Juma’
(The following is the first segment of a five-part publication at Al-Shabaka.)
For nearly two months, Palestinians have waited for the political parties to shoulder their role in leading and guiding the uprising. Clearly, they are neither able nor willing to do so. There are several reasons for their inaction.
[ . . . . . ]
There are several factors in favor of creating a space for a new national or local leadership. Even if it subsides, the current uprising has raised the question the current leadership’s eligibility and has legitimized the search for alternatives. It has also united the Palestinian people inside the Green Line, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. Ironically, the political forces are the ones who remain divided.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS [Dallas, Texas, USA]
IDENTIFYING  THE  WRONG  CULPRIT  FOR  TERRORISM
Sahar Aziz
Nov. 24, 2015
Each time persons claiming to be Muslim commit a terrorist attack in the West, the same two questions arise: 1) Why aren’t Muslims condemning terrorism; and 2) Why aren’t Muslims challenging extremist Islamic interpretations to stop terrorism conducted in its name rather than repeating that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.
[. . . . . ]
To be sure, Al Qaeda and its progeny, Islamic State, employ Islamic rhetoric to legitimize their political agendas. They pick and choose verses in the Quran and Hadiths to justify an apocalyptic ideology rooted in a clash-of-civilizations worldview.
[ . . . . . ]
So before Americans and Europeans condescendingly demand Muslims get their religious house in order, they should get their own political house in order. A good start is demanding their governments’ foreign policies stop propping up dictators.
More . . .

FROM  “THE  HOURS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH

The hour of the despot
It will brush away what remains of dust
to see us more clearly
and laugh like a content wolf
when it sees that we have lost
the most beautiful thing among us.

The hour of nightmare
I creep toward absence
carrying the tired earth on my shoulders.
But my blood stirs
and I wake from sleep like a stone
with a bitter body
and veins of wood.

The hour of arrest
Usually, a solitary gazelle prepares songs for its young
and at dawn lullabies the question’s wound.
But suddenly they cross the streets―in great numbers―
and a woman asks:
What are you doing with those guns?
Have they come to arrest the mountains?

The hour of execution
Silently, soldiers go round in the barracks
and famished dogs rush out.
There are the monotonous sounds of footsteps
in chains and in darkness.
Silently, a knotted rope swings
in a rush of bullets and death.

From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN  INSIDE:  SELECTED  POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.
About Ibrahim Nasrallah.

palestine-parade_2949175k
Youths parade through Gaza City in solidarity with Palestinians locked up in Israeli prisons. (Picture: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty)

“. . . Sorrow crawled naked in my city . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
zzzold city
A Palestinian woman passing through gates erected by Israeli police in Jerusalem’s Old City on Oct. 4, 2015. (MaanImages/Emily Mulder)

❶ Old problems in Jerusalem’s Old City
❷ WATCH: How the far-right glorifies killing of Palestinians
❸ Arrests…extensions of arrests…prison sentence…and releases [in Jerusalem]
❹ Palestinian Rights Organisations Deliver Submission to ICC
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  Jerusalem:  A  city  governed  by  fear
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
OLD  PROBLEMS  IN  JERUSALEM’S  OLD  CITY
Nov. 24, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Faten Ghosheh, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother of five, stands on the roof of her partially demolished home in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Al-Aqsa Mosque visible behind her.
___She recalls the moment five years ago when Israeli forces arrived at 5 a.m. to tear down the two rooms and bathroom that her husband had built with their life savings of 700,000 shekels ($180,000).
___To avoid the fine that the Jerusalem municipality would charge for the demolition, the Ghoshehs called on the men in their family to come and tear down the walls.
More . . .
Related . . . US  FOREIGN  POLICY  FAILURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  EAST
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
WATCH:  HOW  THE  FAR-RIGHT  GLORIFIES  KILLING  OF  PALESTINIANS
Mairav Zonszein
Nov. 24, 2015
Benzi Gopstein, the head of Lehava, posted a video on his Facebook page Monday glorifying the killing of Palestinians. Lehava is a popular Jewish supremacist group dedicated to preventing Arab-Jewish relations . . . .
___The video itself is CCTV footage of an incident in Jerusalem on Monday in which two Palestinian girls, 14 and 16, stabbed an elderly Palestinian man with scissors (presumably mistaking him for a Jewish Israeli) before they were shot several times, and even after they lay still on the ground. One was killed, the other is in critical condition.
___Crappy electronic music was added to the CCTV footage with synthesized lyrics: “She just wants to stab, put a bullet in her head.” Gopstein shared it on Facebook . . . .
More . . .

search
Israeli soldiers stop, search, question lone Palestinian young man at Damascus Gate for no apparent reason as one of our group looks on. (Photo Nov. 4, 2015, Harold knight)

❸ WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
ARRESTS… EXTENSIONS  OF  ARRESTS… PRISON SENTENCE… AND  RELEASES
The occupation forces arrested on Monday 6 Jerusalemites and extended the arrest of several others.
___Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that the occupation forces arrested on Monday the 16-year old Abdullah Maswadeh, 15-year old Mohammad Khaled Al-Qaq and the child Amir Al-Bibi from the neighborhood of Al-Shayah, and Obada Dandis and Louai Dandis from the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud in Silwan, and Mohammad Zakaria Abu Khdeir from Shu’fat north of Jerusalem.
___The Israeli police called the Jerusalemite activist and member of follow-up committee in the village of Esawyeh, Mohammad Abu Hummos, for interrogation for two hours on charges of incitement.
Nov. 24, 2015
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN  RIGHTS  ORGANISATIONS  DELIVER  SUBMISSION  TO  ICC
Nov. 23, 2015
Today, in a historic moment in Palestinian pursuit of accountability, four Palestinian human rights organisations delivered a confidential communication to Madam Prosecutor Bensouda of the International Criminal Court on behalf of themselves and Palestinian victims of Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge”. The communication, which was submitted by Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Aldameer and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute, contains information on crimes jointly documented during Israel’s 2014 offensive against the Gaza Strip.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JERUSALEM:  A  CITY  GOVERNED  BY  FEAR
Oct. 27, 2015
More . . .
Related . . . FEAR  AND  LOATHING  IN  JERUSALEM

“MY SAD CITY,” BY FADWA TUQAN
(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967)

The day we saw death and betrayal,
The tide ebbed,
The windows of the sky closed,
And the city held its breath.
The day the waves were vanquished, the day
The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face,
Hope turned to ashes,
And gagging on disaster,
My sad city choked.

Gone were the children and the songs,
There was no shadow, no echo.
Sorrow crawled naked in my city,
With bloodied footsteps,
Silence reigned in the city,
Silence like crouching mountains,
Mysterious like the night, tragic silence,
Burdened,
Weighed down with death and defeat.
Alas! My sad and silent city.
Can it be true that in the season of harvest,
Grain and fruit have turned to ashes?
Alas! That this should be the fruit of all the journeying!
―Translated by A.M. Elmesseri

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.
Obituary of Fadwa Tuqan

jaffa gate
Ubiquitous Israeli military presence, lurking in shops at the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. (Photo Nov. 4, 2015, Harold Knight)

“. . . When my people’s tragedy Has turned to farce in others’ eyes . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
sysyia sky
Afternoon sky over Sousia Bedouin Village, South Hebron Hills (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015).

❶ Palestinian Girl Shot Dead after Alleged Attack near Jerusalem Market
❷ New Jewish settlements planned ‘on top of’ Bedouin villages
❸ Providing settler terrorism with a tailwind
❹ 3 Palestinians & 1 Israeli Killed Sunday; 94 Palestinians Killed since 10/1 (List)
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Why Netanyahu used the Paris attacks to erroneously depict the latest ‘Intifada’ as a religious and ideological war
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  GIRL  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTACK  NEAR  JERUSALEM  MARKET
Nov. 23, 2015
More . . .
SETTLER  RUNS  OVER,  SHOOTS  AND KILLS  16-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  GIRL  IN  NABLUS
Nov. 22, 2015
More . . .
156  PALESTINIANS  SHOT  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  IN  WEST  BANK,  GAZA CLASHES [On Friday, Nov. 20]
Nov. 20, 2015
More . . . 
SETTLER  SHOOTS  DEAD  2ND  PALESTINIAN  FOLLOWING  ALLEGED  ATTACK  ATTEMPT
Nov. 22, 2015
More . . .
SETTLERS  ATTACK  PALESTINIAN  HOMES  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 22, 2015
More . . .
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
NEW  JEWISH  SETTLEMENTS  PLANNED  ‘ON  TOP  OF’  BEDOUIN  VILLAGES
Natasha Roth
Nov. 23, 2015
The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan for five new Jewish settlements to be built in the Negev (Naqab) in the south of Israel. The plan, which was submitted by Housing Minister Yoav Galant of Kulanu, threatens to displace thousands of Bedouin from their homes.
___Two of the settlements are due to be built where Bedouin villages already exist, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). The new town of Daya is to be established on top of the unrecognized village of Katamat, which would displace its 1,500 Bedouin residents. Neve Gurion, meanwhile, is meant to be built on part of the land of the recognized village of Be’er Hadaj, home to 6,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel.
More . . . 

bedouin
A man from the Zanoun family sits on the ruins of his house in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na’am a few hours after it was demolished by Israeli authorities, Negev, May 18, 2014. Wadi Al-Na’am is the largest unrecognized village in Israel, with about 13,000 inhabitants, most of whom are internally displaced from elsewhere in Israel. The village is not connected to electricity. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

❸ +972 MAGAZINE
PROVIDING  SETTLER  TERRORISM  WITH  A  TAILWIND
Yossi Gurvitz
Nov. 21, 2015
The case of the Givat Ze’ev synagogue combines almost all of the ills of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Last week we witnessed a new low, when the High Court of Justice dealt with a request that has sadly become all-too-common: to rescind, through postponement, its own verdict. This was a cowardly and audacious request by the police, to which the court acceded. How did we get here?
___Let’s begin with the legal picture. On July 31st, 2014 the High Court ruled that an illegally-built synagogue in Givat Ze’ev is to be demolished, as it was built on private Palestinian land belonging to Rabah Abdallatif. In plain words: Israeli civilians stole and built a synagogue on it.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
3  PALESTINIANS  &  1  ISRAELI  KILLED  SUNDAY;  94  PALESTINIANS  KILLED  SINCE  10/1  (LIST)
Nov. 23, 2015
Three Palestinians, including a 16-year old girl, were shot and killed by Israelis on Sunday. All three were accused of ‘having a knife’, but in two of the three killings, eyewitnesses contradicted the Israeli military’s account that the person killed ‘had a knife’
___In the latest numbers on injuries, from this past Friday, November 20th, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that more than 10,000 Palestinians were injured since October 1st, including at least 1458 who were shot with live army fire, and 1070 shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.
___The Ministry also said that 300 Palestinians suffered fractures and bruises after being assaulted by Israeli soldiers and paramilitary settlers in the West Bank, in addition to 26 Palestinians who suffered burns due to Israeli gas bombs and concussion grenades, while 6400 Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
WHY  NETANYAHU  USED  THE  PARIS  ATTACKS  TO  ERRONEOUSLY  DEPICT  THE  LATEST  ‘INTIFADA’  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  AND  IDEOLOGICAL  WAR
Megan Hanna
Nov. 23, 2015
The sirens had barely stopped wailing before commentators started exploiting the terror attacks in Paris on Friday 13th November, twisting the horrific event to serve a range of varying political agendas. A coordinated group of gunmen associated with ISIS carried out separate attacks in the French capital, leading to the deaths of at least 129 people. While most of the world mourned in respectful grief, an opportunistic few used the event to begin speaking about issues as varied as climate change, anti-immigration and unrest in the Middle East.
___Given his tendency for making tenuous connections between Israel’s plight and disparate foreign events, it’s no surprise that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first to climb up on France’s bloodied bandwagon to make hasty links between Paris and present-day Israel.
More . . .

“A  HOMELAND,”  BY  SAMIH AL-QASIM

So what,
When in my homeland
The sparrow dies of starvation,
In exile, without a shroud,
While the earthworm is satiated,
Devouring God’s food!

So what,
When the yellow fields
Yield no more to their tillers
Than memories of weariness,
While their rich harvest pours
Into the granaries of the usurper!

So what,
If the cement has diverted
The ancient springs,
Causing them to forget their natural course,
When their owner calls,
They cry in his face: “Who are you?”

So what,
When the almond and the olive tree have turned to timber
Adorning tavern doorways,
And monuments
Whose nude loveliness beautifies halls and bars,
And is carried by tourists
To the farthest corners of the earth,
While nothing remains before my eyes
But dry leaves and tinder!

So what,
When my people’s tragedy
Has turned to farce in others’ eyes,
And my face is a poor bargain
That even the slave-trader gleefully disdains!

So what,
When in barren space the satellites spin,
And in the street walks a beggar, holding a hat,
And the song of autumn is heard!
Blow, East winds!
Our roots are still alive!

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.

susyia settlers
From Sousia Village looking across valley to encroaching Jewish settlement (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015)

 

“. . . who risks everything to capture the earth? . . .” (Zuhair Abu Shaib)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
highway
The settler-only road over the Apartheid Wall at the Cremisan Valley, where the wall is being doubled to enclose the city of Beit Jala. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 8, 2015.)

❶ Resource: Displaced in their own city
❷ Japan ‘deeply deplores’ East Jerusalem settlement plans
❸ Israeli forces close roads in southern West Bank
❹ Hamas to ‘distribute land’ among Gaza’s unpaid civil servants
❺ Opinion/Analysis: BANGING  YOUR  HEART  AGAINST  SOME  MAD  BUGGER’S  WALL
❻ Poetry by Zuhair Abu Shaib
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ +972 MAGAZINE
RESOURCE:  DISPLACED  IN  THEIR  OWN  CITY
A new report by Ir Amim reviews of various aspects of Israeli policy, from 1967 to the present day, that have created the current reality in which tens of thousands of Jerusalem residents have been sundered from the city since the establishment of the Separation Barrier and are virtually ignored by both the local and central governments.
___The findings of the report present a stark warning. The reality it describes constitutes a disaster for the Palestinians and will cause grave damage to the stability of life in Jerusalem, the foundations of Israeli society and to any future political resolution.
More . . .
Related . . . FACTS  ON  THE  GROUND:  THE ILLEGAL  EXPLOITATION  OF  NATURAL  RESOURCES  IN  PALESTINE
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JAPAN  ‘DEEPLY  DEPLORES’  EAST  JERUSALEM  SETTLEMENT  PLANS
Nov. 21, 2015
BETHLEHEM ― The Japanese government on Friday condemned a recent decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve 454 new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
___Japan’s foreign press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said in a statement that Japan “deeply deplores that, according to information, Israel has approved the construction of settlement for 454 units in East Jerusalem.”
___The statement noted that Japan had previously called on Israel to abandon the plans in 2013, along with other members of the international community, who said that they violated international law.
More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  CLOSE  ROADS  IN  SOUTHERN  WEST  BANK
Nov. 21, 2015
HEBRON ― Israeli forces on Saturday closed a number of roads near the southern West Bank village of Beit Ummar, a day after Israeli officials agreed upon strict security measures in the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
___Muhammad Awad, a spokesperson for Beit Ummar’s popular committee, told Ma’an that Israeli bulldozers had sealed a number of roads leading from the village to Route 60, which is the West Bank’s central road.
___Awad said the closures would delay the movement of residents entering and leaving the village. It was not clear how long the roads would remain sealed.
More . . . 

raod
IDF closes road. (Ma’an News Agency photo.)

❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
HAMAS  TO  ‘DISTRIBUTE  LAND’  AMONG  GAZA’S  UNPAID  CIVIL  SERVANTS
Nov. 21, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Gaza’s de facto leaders Hamas on Saturday announced plans to distribute land among civil servants hired after 2007 whose salaries the Palestinian Authority has refused to pay.
___Hamas’ finance minister Ziad al-Thatha made the announcement during a symposium in Gaza City, where he also said the employees would be exempted from unpaid electricity and municipal bills.
___He said that memorandums and protocols had already been signed between his ministry, municipal councils, and Gaza’s land authority, electricity company, and banks.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
BANGING  YOUR  HEART  AGAINST  SOME  MAD  BUGGER’S  WALL
Vacy Vlazna
Nov. 17, 2015
Mohammed, now 6, and Jihad, now 4, have missed their mother, Shireen’s happiness that has been shrouded by grief over the past year, missed their beloved father’s voice, laugh, smile, presence, his good night kiss on their cheeks, his arms that held them close and safe. Also missing is justice for the heinous lynching of their father, Yousef al-Rammouni, 32.
The killers . . . lurk behind the Zionist Wall of Impunity guarded by western governments. . . .
___The Impunity Wall is gargantuan, spanning from 1948 to this very minute, every added brick a mixture of each killer’s psychopathy and devoided humanity cemented with official delusions of the divine right to plunder and kill.
___Plunder and killing is a profitable Zionist industry.
More . . .
Related . . . LEADING  ANTHROPOLOGISTS  GROUP  OVERWHELMINGLY  PASSES  BDS  RESOLUTION  AT  DENVER  CONFERENCE

“NAME  OF  THE  SOIL,”  BY  ZUHAIR  ABU  SHAIB
what is its name?
what is the name of the soil
that falls from my withered body?
what is its name as it drifts and gathers
under my clothes
while, slowly, I build wall after wall?

I picture a sky full of clouds
I see it as I wish it to be

when night falls, I gulp my fill of springs
in darkness I lift my latch
to wise men

I ask my guests
who imprisoned the soul in rock?
who left prophets spread-eagled on doorsteps?

who risks everything to capture the earth?
a man who does not know his own shadow

what can I call this rug of soil?
is it my country or the source of my exile?
is it my miracle or my cross?

what is its name?

Zuhair Abu Shaib was born in Deir al-Ghusun, a town near the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank. and studied at Yarmouk University. He was a teacher and journalist in Yemen, and a book designer. He was also editor of the journal Awraq.
From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Barnes & Noble. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-bird-is-not-a-stone-sarah-irving/1120667363?ean=9781908754561
More . . . 

wall
The Apartheid Wall at Cremisan. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 8, 2015.)

 

“. . . when I am led all alone to be whipped and humiliated . . . at every police station. . .” (‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
IMG_3057
Ofer Prison, Occupied Territories. Ofer Prison is run by the Israel Prison Service and used to be operated by the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Police Corps. It holds about 1,100 Palestinian prisoners both those under administrative detention and those who have been tried and sentenced. Among them are children. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ Nearly 400 Palestinian children held in Israeli jails
❷ UN submission: Unlawful transfer of protected persons
❸ Pollard Released After 30 Years in Prison
❹ Army Kidnaps Fifteen Palestinians in Hebron
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘It Has Become a Prison’: The ghettoization of Hebron
❻ Poetry by ‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
NEARLY  400  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  HELD  IN  ISRAELI  JAILS
Nov. 20, 2015
RAMALLAH ― A prisoners’ rights group said Friday that nearly 400 Palestinian children between the ages of 11 and 17 are currently being held in Israeli jails.
___The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement that 11 of those detained were being held without charge or trial under administration detention orders. . . .
___Some 700 children have been detained since the beginning of October — mainly in the Hebron and Jerusalem districts — many of whom were released under specific conditions including bail or house arrest, the society said.
More . . .
❷ MILITARY COURT WATCH
UN  SUBMISSION:  UNLAWFUL  TRANSFER  OF  PROTECTED  PERSONS
Nov. 12, 2015
MCW lodged a submission with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention relating to the unlawful transfer and detention of Palestinian minors from the West Bank to prisons located inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
___According to evidence provided by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) an average of 88 per cent of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank, including minors, are transferred and detained inside Israel. It is currently estimated that this affects between 7,000 to 8,000 Palestinians each year and is classified under international law as a war crime.
More . . .

IMG_3055
The gate to Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
POLLARD  RELEASED  AFTER  30  YEARS  IN  PRISON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday, addressed American spy, Jonathan Pollard, who was released on parole after serving 30 years in prison, after handing over top-secret classified information to Israel.
___“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” the PM said in a video statement. “As someone who has raised his case among successive US presidents many times, I longed for this day,” Netanyahu continued.
___The former intelligence analyst for the US government was arrested in 1985, and pleaded guilty in 1987, to charges in violation of the Espionage Act.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  FIFTEEN  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Saturday at dawn, the southern West Bank district of Hebron, searched dozens of homes and kidnapped fifteen Palestinians.
___The soldiers invaded the Joret Bahlas area, north of Hebron city, and various neighborhoods before kidnapping the Palestinians.
___Local sources said the soldiers kidnapped Ismael Taiseer Bader, 44, Luay Faisal al-Hashlamoun, 30, Adel al-Eeda al-Herbawi, 48, Othman Sharif Tamimi, 18, Nader Hamed Natsha, Mohammad Ali al-Qawasma, and Ezzat Sha’ban al-Khatib, after violently storming their homes and searching them, in Hebron city.
___ The army also invaded Deir Samet village, southwest of Hebron, searched homes and kidnapped . . .
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
‘IT  HAS  BECOME  A  PRISON’:  THE  GHETTOIZATION  OF  HEBRON
Megan Hanna
Nov. 11, 2015
Hebron’s Old City, located in the “H2 area” under full Israeli military control, is subject to dramatic new restrictions introduced last week. Israeli soldiers seized several homes in the Tel Rumedia area and barred the residents from going in or out, declaring the area a military zone and banning access to non-residents, in a move that parallels security restrictions imposed recently upon areas of East Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of last month 22 Palestinians have been killed in Hebron, and nine in the Old City that has been the epicentre of escalating tensions.
___Even for the 50 families who live in Tel Rumeida, who had a mere few days to register their name and ID card to the Israeli authorities, the plans will severely restrict their freedom of movement, as they will have to undergo rigorous security searches every time they wish to leave or enter their homes.
___According to a resident of Tel Rumeida, “They told me I have the number 36 [on the list with who’s allowed to go in and out], it’s just like in prison. They try to make you a number, you’re not a person”.
More . . .

(Palestinian poets frequently use the image of “lover” for Palestine.)

“LOVE  PALESTINIAN-STYLE,”  BY  ‘ABD AL-LATIF ‘AQL

In times of drought you are my figs and olives,
Your barrenness is my fragrant gown.

Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home,
I love you alive, I love you in death.
When hungry, I feed on thyme.

I feel your hair against my face and I pine,
My weary face turns red.

I am born in the palms of your hands, and embryo,
I grow and grow, and I reach maturity.

I drink the meaning of my life from your gaze,
Then my being is awakened and is intoxicated.

I journey across frontiers, you are my suitcase,
You are my forged passport.

I boast that I can smuggle your eyes
Across borders;
I boast and boast and pride surges within me.

And when soldiers confiscate you,
Even before hashish,
And gouge the pupils of my eyes,

I feel I have been cleansed of the shame;
I have become purer
And more immaculate.

When they fear what may be under my armpits,
They confine me in small cells;
I sign your name
At the end of police reports.

And when I am led all alone
To be whipped and humiliated,
And lashed at every police station,
I feel we’re lovers, who died from ecstasy,
A dark-skinned man and his woman.

You become me and I become you―
Luscious figs and shelled almonds.
And when soldiers smash my head
And force me to sip the cold of prison
To forget you―I love you even more.

‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql was born in 1942 in Deir Istiya, a village near Nablus. His family was exiled in 1948, and he lived in Amman and studied in Damasus and the U.S. where earned a PhD in social psychology. He worked as a school teacher in the West Bank for many years. He has published many volumes of poetry. His two plays incurred the wrath of the Israelis, and were forced to end performance at Bir Zeit University.
___From: A  LOVER  FROM  PALESTINE  AND  OTHER  POEMS:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  PALESTINIAN  POETRY. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.
Available from Abe Books. 

IMG_3051
Employee parking, Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)