Month: March 2016

“. . . my right to bear fruit . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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“The top 10 most amazing trees in Israel.” (Photo: Yaakov Shkolnik, March 13, 2013)
“The top 10 most amazing trees in Israel.” Black mulberry tree on Mount Meron, Upper Galilee. See notes below. (Photo: Yaakov Shkolnik, March 13, 2013)

❶ Lifting Restrictions and Promoting Better Regulation to Unleash Potential of Digital Economy in Palestine
❷ The Slow Progress of Rebuilding Gaza
❸ Israel’s killing of Hadeel Hashlamoun, 18, is cited as possible ‘gross human rights violation’ by group of Congresspeople
❹ Israeli court rejects Palestinian role in Hebron ‘execution’ autopsy
. . . . . ❹ ― (ᴀ) Israeli Forces Destroy House of Palestinian Killed after Alleged Stabbing Attack in Hebron
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  TRAGIC  RESILIENCE  OF  ISRAEL’S  UNRECOGNIZED  ARAB  VILLAGES
❻ Poetry by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ LIFTING  RESTRICTIONS  AND  PROMOTING  BETTER  REGULATION  TO  UNLEASH  POTENTIAL  OF  DIGITAL ECONOMY  IN  PALESTINE
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 31, 2016
A new World Bank report estimates the Palestinian mobile sector revenue losses at more than US$1 billion in the last three years. The Palestinian Authority’s fiscal losses for the same period are as high as US$184 million, counting non-collected VAT alone, up to 3.0% of the GDP.
___The report, MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, highlights how the Palestinian telecom sector is suffering from several constraints, claiming heavy toll on the economy, the consumer, and the Palestinian Authority.      MORE . . . 

❷ THE  SLOW  PROGRESS  OF  REBUILDING  GAZA
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
Courtesy of The Danish Representative Office in Ramallah
April, 2016
The 51-day armed conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2014 left Gaza with damaged or destroyed roads, water supply, hospitals, and many buildings and other infrastructure. This made it difficult for the local population to build a normal life after the ceasefire in August 2014. With many public and private structures affected, the reconstruction of Gaza required a considerable amount of prioritising.   MORE . . . 

❸ ISRAEL’S  KILLING  OF  HADEEL  HASHLAMOUN,  18,  IS  CITED  AS  POSSIBLE  ‘GROSS  HUMAN  RIGHTS  VIOLATION’  BY  GROUP  OF  CONGRESSPEOPLE
MONDOWEISS
Philip Weiss
March 30, 2016
Update: The Netanyahu government has responded angrily to the congressional letter, and Sen. Patrick Leahy has defended it. See below.
The horrifying killing of 18-year-old Hadeel al-Hashlamoun at an Israeli checkpoint in occupied Hebron last September has at last become a public issue in the U.S. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has called on the State Department to determine whether the killing, and several other Israeli “extrajudicial killings,” violated the Leahy law against military assistance to gross human rights violators. The letter to John Kerry cites Egypt along with Israel, and is signed by ten members of Congress along with Leahy. They include Raul Grijalva, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Chellie Pingree, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Sam Farr, Jim McGovern, Jim McDermott, and Andre Carson.     MORE . . .

❹ ISRAELI  COURT  REJECTS  PALESTINIAN  ROLE  IN  HEBRON  ‘EXECUTION’  AUTOPSY
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 31, 2016
Israel’s top court on Thursday refused an appeal to allow a Palestinian doctor to participate in the autopsy of Abdul-Fattah al-Sharif, a Palestinian who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while he lay wounded on the ground in Hebron last week.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❹ ―(ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  DESTROY  HOUSE  OF  PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  ALLEGED  STABBING  ATTACK  IN  HEBRON
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
Israeli forces early Thursday destroyed the interior walls of the family house of a Palestinian killed about five months ago following an alleged stabbing attack in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, said security sources.
___Israeli forces stormed the Hebron neighborhood of Jabal al-Sharif and cordoned off the family house of Ehab Miswada.
___The army gave the Miswada family 10 minutes only to leave their house. . .   MORE . . .

Saleh Abu Saleh, stands between homes in the unrecognized village of Ramiya. New luxury apartments in the Israeli city of Karmiel, just a few hundred meters away, are visible in the background. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Saleh Abu Saleh, stands between homes in the unrecognized village of Ramiya. New luxury apartments in the Israeli city of Karmiel, just a few hundred meters away, are visible in the background. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  TRAGIC  RESILIENCE  OF  ISRAEL’S  UNRECOGNIZED  ARAB  VILLAGES
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Amjad Iraqi
March 30, 2016
Abu Saleh, a 73-year-old farmer, speaks with a raspy but strong voice as he points to his crops. “Everything you see around you is food grown from my own land. These carrots, this zucchini, these olives…they are all part of my survival.” . . .  “Now they want to tear down my home and remove me from my livelihood. They want to rip my heart from my land – just to put the heart of someone else.”
___Abu Saleh is a resident of Ramiya, an Arab community of 50 families nestled within the Jewish city of Karmiel in northern Israel. MORE . . .

“PASSING  REMARK,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD

When they ran over her,
the mulberry tree said:
“Do what you wish, but remember
my right to bear fruit
will never die.”

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. Available from Barnes and Noble.
About Tawfiq Zayyad. 

ABOUT  THE  PALESTINIAN  MULBERRY  TREE
[From the Bible] Sycamine tree is mentioned only in Luke 17:6.  It is rendered by Luther “mulberry tree” which is most probably the correct rendering. It is found of two species, the black mulberry (Morus nigra) and the white mulberry (Mourea), which are common in Palestine. The silk-worm feeds on their leaves. The rearing of them is one of the chief industries of the peasantry of Lebanon and of other parts of the land. It is of the order of the fig-tree.

The photo above. (Note the absence of any mention of Palestine.)
Shkolnik swears this tree bears the most tasty fruit in the world. “It was planted by Rabbi Yisrael Beck in the early 19th century. Among other things, Rabbi Beck had a printing house in Safed and managed to get some land in Mount Meron, and was maybe the first modern Jewish farmer in Israel. You can enjoy this tree’s fantastic fruit in the summertime — it’s in a nature reserve, but it’s okay to pick the fruit.”
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LAND DAY, MARCH 30 “. . . there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune. . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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1-IMG_3725
Palestinian Land between Jericho and Jerusalem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 14, 2015)

❶ Israeli Army Quells Rally Marking LAND DAY [see note below]
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israeli Authorities Control Over 85 Percent of Historical Palestine, Says Statistics Bureau
❷ Is Israel reviving this 50-year-old land plan?
❸ Israeli Forces Storm House of Palestinian who Captured Hebron Killing Footage
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US congressmen seek investigation of Israel’s ‘extrajudicial killings’
❹ New Prison Bill for Minors Targets Palestinian Children
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  DUALITY  OF  ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION,  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD
❻ Poetry by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  ARMY  QUELLS  RALLY  MARKING  LAND  DAY  [see note below]
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli armed forces Wednesday violently quelled a peaceful rally organized in commemoration of Land Day.
___. . .  a rally that took off from Jenin city to plant trees in an area situated between Silat al-Dhahr and Barqa, two towns in the West Bank districts of Jenin and Nablus, respectively, on the occasion of Land Day, was violently suppressed by Israeli forces.    MORE . . . 
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES  CONTROL  OVER  85  PERCENT  OF  HISTORICAL  PALESTINE,  SAYS  STATISTICS  BUREAU
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
On the occasion of Land Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that, ‘Israeli occupation authorities laid hand over more than 85% of the total area of historical land of Palestine, which totals about 27,000 km2.
___Every year, the Palestinian people mark the confiscation of 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, AlMuthalth and Al-Naqab on 30 March 1976. . . .      MORE . . .

❷ IS  ISRAEL  REVIVING  THIS  50-YEAR-OLD  LAND  PLAN?
AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
March 29, 2016
In a March 18 statement, the Land Defense Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reintroduced to political discussion terminology no longer often heard. In the statement, the PLO accused right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu of reviving the Allon Plan. . . .
___The Allon Plan . . .  proposed that Israel relinquish the main Palestinian population centers in the West Bank to Jordan while retaining land along the Jordan River under Israeli military control. . . .      MORE . . . 

1-allon plan
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon (L) meets with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (C) and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir before dinner at the prime minister’s residence, Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 1974. (photo by Facebook/The Prime Minister of Israel)

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  HOUSE  OF  PALESTINIAN  WHO  CAPTURED  HEBRON  KILLING  FOOTAGE
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli forces overnight stormed the family house of Palestinian human rights worker who captured a video footage of an Israeli soldier killing a Palestinian in the Hebron neighborhood of Tal Rumeida.
___Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh said that forces stormed his house in the H2 block of Hebron’s city center, where they inspected identity cards and passports of Palestinian and international activists . . . .
___Abu Shamsiyyeh, a human rights volunteer with Israeli group B’Tselem, captured a video footage of the moment an Israeli soldier stepped forward and shot in the head at point-blank range . . . a Palestinian who had already been shot and left motionless on the ground.       MORE . . .   
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US  CONGRESSMEN  SEEK  INVESTIGATION  OF  ISRAEL’S  ‘EXTRAJUDICIAL  KILLINGS’  
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 30, 2016
US Senator Patrick Leahy . . .  called on the US to investigate the possibility of “gross violations of human rights” by Israel’s and Egypt’s security forces, including “extrajudicial killings.”
___Leahy. . .  made the request in a joint letter sent to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Feb. 17, suggesting that if the reports of rights violations should be proven, US military assistance should be cut off.     MORE . . .
MORE (American coverage) . . .

❹ NEW  PRISON  BILL  FOR  MINORS  TARGETS  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
Chloe Benoist
March 30, 2016
The Israeli Knesset, on Tuesday, approved the first reading of a bill which would allow Israeli courts to hand down prison sentences to minors under the age of 14 — legislation critics say is targeted at Palestinian children.      MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE DUALITY OF ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION, AT HOME AND ABROAD
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Tomer Persico
March 29, 2016
Slowly but surely, the process of shedding democratic characteristics in favor of ‘ethnocratic’ ones is becoming clearer and clearer for all to see.      MORE . . .

“OASIS,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

Behind this dune we have an oasis. Leave me alone.
Leave me to rinse myself off in a bit
of its mirage. I’m tired of running after myself
to catch myself before I die.
Take―old friends and my companions―my body,
the shadow of it body’s shadow,
and hold it for a while, so I can reach my time in time.
Behind this dune we have an oasis.
Sustain your longing with dates and water,
without despair.
Listen with me to the songs of the girls
beneath the palms, but do not follow
the voice of my silence.
We have, friends, the right to die as we desire.
But there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune.
And we have the right to make the stranger
a stranger’s friend, and we have an oasis―
and a bit of rest in the house
of the loved one who left us.
He will come from behind this dune.

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER   THAN   WATER.   NEW   AND   SELECTED   POEMS.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008. Available from
Samih al-Qasim Obituary, August 20, 2014

LAND  DAY  (ARABIC: يوم الأرض‎, YOM AL-ARD),  MARCH  30, is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. Scholarship on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recognizes Land Day as a pivotal event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab citizens to the Israeli state and body politic.

“. . . Before I was swallowed by the prison dark . . .” (Khalil Hawi)

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The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished on Tuesday morning a private playground. (Photo: Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan)
The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished on Tuesday morning a private playground. (Photo: Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan)

❶ Five Detainees Begin Hunger Strike in Israeli Jails
❷ Israeli Forces Detain Seven Palestinians from West Bank
❸ PICTURES: The occupation forces demolish a playground and a room and sweep an agricultural land in Silwan
. . . . . ❸―(ᴀ) Israeli forces level Palestinian playground in ongoing Silwan demolitions
❹ Jordan Valley village at risk of ‘forcible transfer,’ warns UN
❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  HOW  IMPUNITY  DEFINES  ISRAEL  AND  VICTIMIZES  PALESTINIANS
❻ Poetry by Khalil Hawi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ FIVE  DETAINEES  BEGIN  HUNGER  STRIKE  IN  ISRAELI  JAILS
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA  
March 29, 2016
Four Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails have entered into a hunger strike in protest of being detained without a charge or trial, while a fifth started a hunger strike in protest of being held in solitary confinement, according to the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission.
___Kareem Ajwa, an attorney with the Commission, said the four detainees . . .  recently entered a hunger strike in protest of being held under administrative detention, without a charge or trial.       MORE . . .  

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  SEVEN  PALESTINIANS  FROM  WEST  BANK
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 29, 2016
Israeli forces Tuesday detained seven Palestinians during predawn raids into Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Bethlehem districts, said the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS). . . .
___Two Palestinian minors were detained during a predawn raid into Beit Liqya town, southwest of Ramallah city.      MORE . . .

❸ PICTURES:  THE  OCCUPATION  FORCES  DEMOLISH  A  PLAYGROUND  AND  A  ROOM  AND  SWEEP  AN  AGRICULTURAL  LAND  IN  SILWAN
WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished on Tuesday morning a private playground, a room and several walls in the neighborhood of Abbasyeh in Silwan.
___Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that joint crews of occupation municipality, Nature and Parks authority and Special Forces raided the neighborhood of Abbasyeh in Silwan and surrounded a land owned by Khaled Al-Zeer which was turned into a playground few months ago by placing toys for children such as a swing, a slide and other toys.      MORE . . .

. . . . . ❸―(ᴀ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  LEVEL  PALESTINIAN  PLAYGROUND  IN  ONGOING  SILWAN  DEMOLITIONS
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 29, 2016
The Israeli authorities on Tuesday levelled a privately-owned playground and uprooted several trees in ongoing demolitions in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, locals said.      MORE . . . 

March 2, 2016. Israeli forces demolished most of Khirbet Tana, and conducted mass arrests. (Photo: Alternative Information Center―AIC)
March 2, 2016. Israeli forces demolished most of Khirbet Tana, and conducted mass arrests. (Photo: Alternative Information Center―AIC)

❹ JORDAN  VALLEY  VILLAGE  AT  RISK  OF  ‘FORCIBLE  TRANSFER,’  WARNS  UN
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 28, 2016
A UN official warned Monday that the village of Khirbet Tana in the Jordan Valley was at risk of “forcible transfer” after a wave of Israeli demolitions left more than a third of its residents homeless.
___”It’s hard to see how demolitions like the ones in Khirbet Tana are about anything other than pushing vulnerable Palestinians out of certain parts of the West Bank,” Robert Piper, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement.      MORE . . .  
BACKGROUND . . .

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  HOW  IMPUNITY  DEFINES  ISRAEL  AND  VICTIMIZES  PALESTINIANS
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
Ramzy Baroud
Mar 28 2016
Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif was killed. In the style typical of Israeli aggression . . .
___He lies on his back, his arms stretched across the road, and his head moving about. A soldier confers with his superior officer, before moving to “confirm the kill” . . . .
___The soldier walks to Abed . . . and, in full view of onlookers, shoots him in the head.
___The incident once more highlights a culture of impunity that exists in the Israeli army which is not a new phenomenon . . . .     MORE . . .
RELATED . . .

“THE  PRISONER,”  BY  KHALIL  HAWI

My fear is gone now: are my senses mad?
Have the echoes returned–is my head whirling?
Who has shaken the prison night from my chest,
And that nightmarish wall?
For an age the blind stovepipe hole has been clogged with dust.
But what is this?
Now it is split by daylight,
And an echo invites me to escape!
The sun through the opening, the children’s laughter,
Remnants of life in a wasted field
That knew my shadow, my toil,
My hand singing to the grain–
All invite me to escape.
Is that delirious echo back?
Is it the whirling in my head?
How often has that echo beguiled me,
How often have my nails
Combed and scraped the prison wall,
And split on the deceiving stones?
Close the prison door to daylight;
It was long ago
I dreamt of amnesty and escape
Before the seconds rusted in my heart,
Before there was an echo to compute them, before the feverish waiting,
Before I was swallowed by the prison dark,
Before the dust gnawed at my eyelids,
Before my cramped limbs dropped
Into dust and decay, the bones scattered
By mice-feet, to rot over the years.
–How can they draw together again, grow supple, and live,
Or dream of a return?
What return would death make to the feeble creature?
What visions die in the smoke of the cafe,
And what escape is there from one hiding place to the next?
The jailor’s foul tongue
Stirs poison in my wounds.
The desire of the phoenix has died in the ashes,
And she and the world conceal their mutual hatred;
How will she draw together again, grow supple, and live?
What nonsense does that insolent jailer mutter?
He has brought me amnesty for punishment
Now that my bones have been rotting for years.
Shall I leave them here and go my way,
Faceless, with hollow limbs,
A wind-whipped ghost
Disgraced by the sunlight
And the children’s laughter,
Dodging between the walls?
Close the prison door to daylight:
It was long ago
That I dreamt of amnesty and escape.    (1957)

About Khalil Hawi
Hawi was Lebanese, not Palestinian. However, “His suicide (June 6, 1982) in protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was perhaps his greatest metaphor, completing the circle of his life and his poetry. It is as if his end was the direct translation of the symbols of rebirth that he so often used in his poetry. His symbols had failed him, just like his nation had done. He was forced to become a symbol himself “to die for himself and everyone,” in the words of the Syrian critic, Muhammad Jamal Barout.”
From: WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Trans. and ed. by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1988.   (John Mikhail Asfour, Department of English, McGill University, Montreal)
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Today’s information, with anniversary citations from the first post on this site

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A Palestinian Bedouin near his dwelling that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers near the Jewish settlement of Karmel, near the West Bank city of Hebron (Photo: Reuters /Mussa Qawasma). From this blog’s first post, Feb. 10, 2015.
A Palestinian Bedouin near his dwelling that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers near the Jewish settlement of Karmel, near the West Bank city of Hebron (Photo: Reuters /Mussa Qawasma). From this blog’s first post, Feb. 10, 2015.

The first post on this blog. See explanation at the end of this posting.

❶ Israel to Demolish Houses of Three Slain Palestinians
❷ Israel Demolishes Home, Destroys Structures near Bethlehem
❸ Netanyahu calls criticisms of Israeli army ‘outrageous’ in wake of Hebron killing
❹ U.S. states, academies crackdown on BDS
. . . . . ❹―(ᴀ) UNHRC blacklists Israeli firms working in settlements
❺ [Israeli] Opinion/Analysis: UPDATED: FACT SHEET – SAMPLES OF RECENT INFLAMMATORY COMMENTS AND INCITEMENT BY ISRAELI OFFICIALS AND LEADERS
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  HOUSES  OF  THREE  SLAIN  PALESTINIANS
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 28, 2016
Israeli forces on Monday made preparations for the punitive demolition of the family houses of three Palestinians suspected of carrying out a fatal attack outside Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City in early February, families said.
___Israeli forces stormed and took measurements of the family houses of Ahmad Zakarneh, Muhammad Kamil and Najeh Abu al-Rub during a predawn raid into the Jenin town of Qabatiya as a prelude for punitive demolition.      MORE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  HOME,  DESTROYS  STRUCTURES  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 28, 2016
Israeli authorities Monday demolished and destroyed a home, a farm, electric wires, a water network, trees, and razed a tract of land at the northern entrance to Bethlehem, in southern West Bank, according to local sources.
___Khader Jarashi, owner of the demolished structures, told WAFA that some 50 Israeli military vehicles accompanied by bulldozers broke into the northern entrance of Bethlehem, before they demolished his own house, in addition to a poultry farm, a playground, electric wires and a water network.      MORE . . .

Last Thursday, two Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. While one of the Palestinians died instantly, the other person was injured and 'neutralized', only to be later shot in the head. (Still from viral video, published by MEMO)
Last Thursday, two Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. While one of the Palestinians died instantly, the other person was injured and ‘neutralized’, only to be later shot in the head. (Still from viral video, published by MEMO)

❸ NETANYAHU  CALLS  CRITICISMS  OF  ISRAELI  ARMY  ‘OUTRAGEOUS’  IN  WAKE  OF  HEBRON  KILLING
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 27, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted on Sunday to the shooting of a wounded Palestinian at point-blank range in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron earlier this week, stating that any questioning of the Israeli army’s moral integrity was “outrageous and unacceptable.”
___. . .  Netanyahu commented in the wake of the killing of Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, on Thursday, which sparked widespread outrage after footage by Israeli rights group B’Tselem showed an Israeli soldier shooting al-Sharif in the head while the young Palestinian was lying wounded on the ground. . . .
___“. . . .  The soldiers of the IDF, our children, maintain high ethical values while courageously fighting against bloodthirsty murderers under difficult operational conditions,” Netanyahu said.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . . ISRAELI  SETTLERS  THREATEN  PALESTINIAN  WHO  FILMED  HEBRON  ‘EXECUTION’

❹ U.S. STATES,  ACADEMIES  CRACKDOWN  ON  BDS
ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER
March 28, 2016
On March 18th the Illinois Investment Policy Board blacklisted 11 companies from doing business with the state for allegedly boycotting Israel.
___. . . .  Now, Illinois is the first state to actually form a list of companies barred from working with the state’s government due to their alleged boycott of Israel. . . .
___Palestine Legal has identified 21 states in the United States with legislation to punish or suppress the BDS movement.    MORE . . .
. . . . . ❹ ―(ᴀ) UNHRC  BLACKLISTS  ISRAELI  FIRMS  WORKING  IN  SETTLEMENTS
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
March 26, 2016
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has voted on Thursday to establish a database of Israeli companies working in settlements in order to blacklist them.
___According to news reports, this measure was one of four Palestinian Authority (PA) proposals approved by the council.
___Efforts to establish the database was fiercely opposed by Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.     MORE . . .

❺ [Israeli] Opinion/Analysis:  UPDATED:  FACT  SHEET –  SAMPLES  OF  RECENT  INFLAMMATORY  COMMENTS  AND  INCITEMENT  BY  ISRAELI  OFFICIALS  AND  LEADERS
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE & INFORMATION. PLO
MARCH 28, 2016
. . . .  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (December 2015) : “There is a difference between Arab terror and Jewish terror.”     MORE . . . 

(Note: this was the poem in the first post in this blog.)

    “I BELONG THERE,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH

I didn’t apologize to the well when I passed the well,
I borrowed from the ancient pine tree a cloud
and squeezed it like an orange, then waited for a gazelle
white and legendary. And I ordered my heart to be patient:
Be neutral as if you were not of me! Right here
the kind shepherds stood on air and evolved
their flutes, then persuaded the mountain quail toward
the snare. And right here I saddled a horse for flying toward
my planets, then flew. And right here the priestess
told me: Beware of the asphalt road and the cars
and walk upon your exhalation. Right here
I slackened my shadow and waited, I picked the tiniest
rock and stayed up late. I broke the myth and I broke.
And I circled the well until I flew from myself
to what isn’t of it. A deep voice shouted at me:
This grave isn’t your grave. So I apologized.
I read verses from the wise holy book, and said
to the unknown one in the well: Salaam upon you the day
you were killed in the land of peace, and the day you rise
from the darkness of the well alive!

From UNFORTUNATELY,  IT  WAS  PARADISE by Mahmoud Darwish. Trans. by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché. Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 2003. Available from Amazon. 
One of the best biographical sketches of MAHMOUD DARWISH available.   
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
I missed the ANNIVERSARY of the first post on this blog. I DID NOT REALIZE IT HAD BEEN A YEAR―13 MONTHS NOW. I was startled to see that post included a report on RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS and its open letter to Benyamin Netanyahu asking for cessation of Palestinian home demolitions, startled because nothing―nothing―seems to have changed in that year. My link was to the article in the RUSSIAN TIMES, which I no longer use, giving in to negative feedback I received. It was, however, a reprint of the INDEPENDENT article here:

HUNDREDS OF RABBIS FROM AROUND THE WORLD CALL ON ISRAEL TO HALT DEMOLITION OF PALESTINIAN HOMES; RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS HAS SUBMITTED AN OPEN LETTER TO BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK.
Lizzie Dearden
Feb. 7, 2015
More than 400 rabbis from Israel, Britain and around the world have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes.
___Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) has submitted an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister claiming his stance is not in line with “international law and Jewish tradition”.
MORE . . .

“. . . Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home . . .” (‘Abd al-Latif ‘Aql)

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A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahmad Gharabli)
A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahmad Gharabli)

❶ Foreign Ministry Seeks UN Resolution to Freeze Settlement Construction
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Breaking news: Ratifying the settlement project “Kedem” in Silwan
❷ Israel Detains 23 Palestinians during West Bank Raids
❸ UN: Israel’s execution of wounded Palestinian gruesome, unjust
❹ UN passes 4 Palestinian-backed resolutions in landmark victory
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHY  NETANYAHU  IS  SO  THREATENED  BY  BREAKING  THE  SILENCE
❻ Poetry by ‘Abd al-Latif ‘Aql
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ FOREIGN  MINISTRY  SEEKS  UN  RESOLUTION  TO  FREEZE  SETTLEMENT  CONSTRUCTION
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 24, 2016
Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to seek a United Nations resolution to force Israel to halt its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
___The Ministry, in a statement Thursday, called upon world countries to support Palestinian and Arab efforts aiming to hold an international peace conference on Palestine.
___The statement came in response to Israel’s approval of a controversial plan pushed by the settler organization ‘Elad’, which aims to construct settlement units in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.      MORE . . . 

Developer’s rendering of Kedem project (Photo: Altahrir, News of Islam, Muslims, Arab Spring and special Palestine)
Developer’s rendering of Kedem project (Photo: Altahrir, News of Islam, Muslims, Arab Spring and special Palestine)

. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) BREAKING  NEWS:  RATIFYING  THE  SETTLEMENT  PROJECT  “KEDEM”  IN  SILWAN
WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
March 23, 2016
The District Council for Planning and Building ratified on Wednesday night the project of Elad settlement organization known as “Kedem project- City of David- Old City of Jerusalem” which is intended to be established at the entrance of Wadi Hilweh in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . .

❷ ISRAEL  DETAINS  23  PALESTINIANS  DURING  WEST  BANK  RAIDS
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 24, 2016
At least 23 Palestinians, including a minor girl, were Thursday detained by Israeli forces. . . .
___PPS said Israeli forces stormed the village of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and detained 14-year-old Salwa Hayyan. . . . In Jerusalem, Israeli police detained seven Palestinians . . . Meanwhile in Ramallah district . . . In the northern West Bank, city of Nablus . . .   MORE . . .

❸ UN:  ISRAEL’S  EXECUTION  OF  WOUNDED  PALESTINIAN  GRUESOME,  UNJUST
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 25, 2016
A UN official on Friday condemned in the strongest terms the brutal “extrajudicial execution” of a wounded Palestinian by an Israeli soldier that was captured on camera in Hebron the day before.
___Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said he strongly condemned the apparent “extrajudicial execution” of the Palestinian, who was shot in the head at point-blank . . . .
___”This was a gruesome, immoral, and unjust act that can only fuel more violence and escalate an already volatile situation,” Mladenov said.      MORE . . .
RELATED VIDEO . . . .

❹ UN  PASSES  4  PALESTINIAN- BACKED  RESOLUTIONS  IN  LANDMARK  VICTORY
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 24, 2016
In a landmark victory for the Palestinian leadership, the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday passed four resolutions relating to the occupied Palestinian territory, one of which will draw up a “blacklist” of companies who do business in illegal Israeli settlements.
___The PLO Negotiations Affairs Department said that in addition to the resolution regarding settlements — which passed 32 to 0 — a resolution was adopted recognizing the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.   MORE . . .  

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  WHY  NETANYAHU  IS  SO  THREATENED  BY  “BREAKING THE SILENCE”
+972 BLOG
Dotan Greenvald
March 21, 2016
Breaking the Silence has classified information in its possession. The information is so confidential that its publication could pose a genuine threat. I hope you are sitting down, because I am about to disclose that information. Just don’t tell me later on that I went first and told the gentiles or anti-Semitic foreign governments. You are hearing it firsthand from me, a silence breaker: Israel is a country that controls the lives of millions of Palestinians with no rights, and its elected officials are doing one hell of a job of keeping it from you.    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: Parmenter, Barbara McKean. GIVING  VOICE  TO  STONES :  PLACE  AND  IDENTITY  IN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 1994.  The Database of Arabic Literature in Western Research (DAL). OxLit Literary Publication and Documentation

“. . . the bed of her elder son, made for the final time and empty. . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
HEBRON: Israeli settler Itamar Ben Gvir (right), dressed as a Palestinian prisoner, marches in a parade celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim on Shuhada Street, heavily guarded by Israeli police and military forces, Hebron, West Bank, February 24, 2013. (Photo: ActiveStills, file)
HEBRON: Israeli settler Itamar Ben Gvir (right), dressed as a Palestinian prisoner, marches in a parade celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim on Shuhada Street, heavily guarded by Israeli police and military forces, Hebron, West Bank, February 24, 2013. (Photo: ActiveStills, file)

❶ Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Two Palestinians in Hebron
❷ Israeli forces level large swathe of land, demolish shack near Hebron
❸ Israelis converge on West Bank [Hebron] holy sites in ‘provocative’ visits
❹ On World Water Day, Palestinians in West Bank refugee camps struggle with scarce resource
❺ Opinion/Analysis: DABKA,  NOT  TANGO:  THE  PALESTINIAN  ISSUE  IS  ON  HOLD
❻ Poetry by Mourid Barghouti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT  DEAD  TWO  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
24 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces Thursday morning shot dead two Palestinians in Tal Rumeida neighborhood in the center of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, said the Health Ministry. . . .
___Israeli media reported that the two men were killed after they allegedly stabbed and wounded a soldier at a checkpoint by the neighborhood.      MORE . . . 

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  LEVEL  LARGE  SWATHE  OF  LAND,  DEMOLISH  SHACK  NEAR  HEBRON
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 23, 2016
Israeli forces on Tuesday leveled 40 dunams (9.88 acres) of land west of Hebron and demolished a tin shack in the Masafer Yatta area in the southern occupied West Bank, locals said.
___Village spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Tumazi told Ma’an that Israeli troops leveled the lands in the Suba area of the village of Idhna in order to illegaly annex it to a nearby Israeli settlement.      MORE . . .  

❸ ISRAELIS  CONVERGE  ON  WEST  BANK  [HEBRON]  HOLY  SITES  IN  ‘PROVOCATIVE’  VISITS
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
23 Mar. 2016
Hundreds of Israelis, including large numbers of settlers, converged on religious sites across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday morning ahead of the Jewish holiday of Purim, in visits Palestinians condemned as “provocative.”
___In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli settlers as well as other right-wing Israelis held celebrations in the Old City’s Ibrahimi Mosque. . . . used the mosque’s loudspeakers “to sing racist songs that call for the expulsion of ‘Arabs’ from Hebron.”      MORE . . .

Israeli demolition in Khirbet Jenbeh on March 22, 2016. (Photo Credit: B'Tselem/Nasser Nawaj'a, File)
Israeli demolition in Khirbet Jenbeh on March 22, 2016. (Photo Credit: B’Tselem/Nasser Nawaj’a, File)

❹ ON  WORLD  WATER  DAY,  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK  REFUGEE  CAMPS  STRUGGLE  WITH  SCARCE  RESOURCES
MONDOWEISS
Abed Al Qaisi and Sheren Khalel
22 Mar. 2016
As the world celebrates World Water Day this week, Palestinians in refugee camps across the occupied West Bank are preparing for the summer, when water becomes scarce.
___While the World Health Organization recommends 100 liters of water per person per day, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank use less than 73 liters, with those in refugee camps using even less. In Israel, residents use an average of 183 liters per person, per day.   MORE . . . 

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  DABKA,  NOT  TANGO:  THE  PALESTINIAN  ISSUE  IS  ON  HOLD
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
Yasser Ali
23 Mar. 2016
The Palestinian issue is experiencing paralysis due a number of international, regional, local and personal reasons, all of which have pushed it into a negative status quo. It is no longer moved or activated by major events, such as the Jerusalem Intifada, and no longer has any historical figures, like Yasser Arafat, who can break the mold dramatically, one way or the other.
___. . . .  the process must be like the Palestinian dabka, which needs every participant’s efforts to be made in a unified line, standing shoulder to shoulder for the overall good of everyone involved.       MORE . . .

“HOW  ARE  YOU?”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI

Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

From: Barghouti, Mourid. MIDNIGHT  AND  OTHER  POEMS. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.
Mourid Barghouti (born July 8, 1944, in Deir Ghassana, near Ramallah, on the West Bank) is a Palestinian poet and writer. While Barghouti was studying at the University of Cairo in 1967, the 6-Day War broke out, and he was unable to return to the West Bank until 1996. He was expelled from Egypt in 1977 and was exiled in Budapest.
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“. . . earth is the hell prepared for refugees. . .” (Ashraf Fayadh)

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THE PALESTINIAN POET ASHRAF FAYADH, whose death sentence in Saudi Arabia was commuted to 8 years in prison after international pressure, has been a key figure in taking Saudi contemporary art to a global audience. (Photo: BBC, 14 January 2016)
THE PALESTINIAN POET ASHRAF FAYADH, whose death sentence in Saudi Arabia was commuted to 8 years in prison after international pressure, has been a key figure in taking Saudi contemporary art to a global audience. (Photo: BBC, 14 January 2016)

❶ Israeli Army Raids, Wreaks Havoc into Arab American University in Jenin
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Premier Condemns Israeli Raid on Arab American University in Jenin
❷ Jerusalem family rejects son’s [frozen] body after Israeli handover, another buried
❸ Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian shepherds, level land in Gaza
❹ ON  WORLD  POETRY  DAY,  GAZA  ACTIVISTS  HONOR  DETAINED  POET  ASHRAF  FAYADH
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  AMERICAN  JEWS  SHOULD  PROTEST  AIPAC,  NOT  TRUMP
❻ Poetry by Ashraf Fayadh
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  ARMY  RAIDS,  WREAKS  HAVOC  INTO  ARAB  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY  IN  JENIN
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
22 Mar. 2016
Large Israeli military forces Tuesday raided and wreaked havoc into the headquarters of the Arab American University in Jenin, said security and official sources.
___The university’s vice president of financial and administrative affairs, Faleh Abu Erra, informed WAFA large Israeli armed forces broke into the headquarters and buildings of the university during the predawn hours, after breaking down its doors.
___ Forces wreaked havoc into the headquarters and buildings, and seized computers, in addition to  files, banners and flags of student blocs.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) PREMIER  CONDEMNS  ISRAELI  RAID  ON  ARAB  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY  IN  JENIN
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
22 Mar. 2016
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Tuesday condemned Israel’s raid on the Arab American University, located in the West Bank Governorate of Jenin, said a statement issued by the premier’s office.
___”I reiterate our call for international protection; Israel should not be allowed to continue to act above the law.  The international community witnesses yet another violation of the sanctity of Palestinian educational institutions, and it should not remain silent.”  MORE . . .

ISRAEL AND FREEDOM OF EDUCATION: Israeli military forces on the campus of Palestine Technical Institute in Tulkarem, Dec. 10, 2015. (MaanImages/File)
ISRAEL AND FREEDOM OF EDUCATION: Israeli military forces on the campus of Palestine Technical Institute in Tulkarem, Dec. 10, 2015. (MaanImages/File)

❷ JERUSALEM  FAMILY  REJECTS  SON’S  [frozen] BODY  AFTER  ISRAELI  HANDOVER,  ANOTHER  BURIED
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 22, 2016
The Israeli authorities late Monday returned the bodies of two Jerusalemite Palestinians who were shot dead after allegedly carrying out attacks, one of which was rejected by family members.
___Witnesses said the Lions’ Gate area . . .  “looked like a military barracks” as Israeli forces heightened their presence for the return of the bodies of 15-year-old Hassan Khalid Manasra and Omar Skafi, 21.
___Outrage erupted when the family of 15-year-old Mansara found their son’s body frozen, in violation of a mutual agreement set up between the Israeli authorities and family members.      MORE . . .

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIAN  SHEPHERDS,  LEVEL  LAND  IN  GAZA
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 22, 2016
Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinian shepherds and several Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered the Palestinian side of the borderline between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Tuesday, locals said.
___Locals told Ma’an that soldiers fired live ammunition at a group of shepherds . . . .
___Northwest of Beit Lahiya in the north of the strip, witnesses said five large armored bulldozers leveled Palestinian lands near the border fence.
___Witnesses also said four bulldozers entered through the border fence from Kissufim military post onto Palestinian land east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.      MORE . . . 

❹ ON  WORLD  POETRY  DAY,  GAZA  ACTIVISTS  HONOR  DETAINED  POET  ASHRAF  FAYADH
MONDOWEISS
Haidar Eid
21 Mar. 2016
On the Occasion of World Poetry Day, Gaza-based human rights activists released an amateur video-clip in support of the Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, who has been detained in a Saudi prison since January 1, 2014, without access to a lawyer since then. He was initially sentenced to death for “apostasy” by a regional court in Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2015. Due to international pressure and campaigns the sentence has recently been reduced to 8 years imprisonment and 800 lashes!       MORE . . .

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  AMERICAN  JEWS  SHOULD  PROTEST  AIPAC,  NOT  TRUMP
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Mairav Zonszein
18 Mar. 2016
AIPAC has never cared about Israel’s disregard for civil and human rights. So why should it care about Trump’s?      MORE . . .

ASHRAF  FAYADH’S  “DISPUTED”  POEMS,  IN  ENGLISH  TRANSLATION

8
prophets have retired
so do not wait for yours to come to you

and for you,
for you the monitors bring their daily reports
and get their high salaries..

how important money is
for a life of dignity

9
my grandfather stands naked everyday,
without banishment, without divine creation..
I have already been resuscitated without a godly blow in my image.
I am the experience of hell on earth..

earth
is the hell prepared for refugees.

10
your mute blood will not speak up
as long as you pride yourself in death
as long as you keep announcing -secretly- that you have put your soul
at the hands of those who do not know much..

losing your soul will cost time,
much longer than what it takes to calm
your eyes that have cried tears of oil

Ashraf Fayadh’s “Disputed” Poems, in English Translation: From MONA KAREEM’S BLOG
Nov 23, 2015
Mona Kareem is a poet, translator, and journalist based in New York. She published two collections of [Arabic] poetry in 2002 and 2004.  Mona is a doctoral candidate in the Comparative Literature program at Binghamton University.
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“. . . A night without light where our voices are lost . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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A Palestinian man holds a placard in front of an Israeli soldier on December 27, 2014 on land near the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, during a protest. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse /Hazem Bader)
A Palestinian man holds a placard in front of an Israeli soldier on December 27, 2014 on land near the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, during a protest. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse /Hazem Bader)

❶ Israeli troops raid West Bank village day after funeral of slain Palestinians
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israeli forces raze prisoner’s brother’s construction site in Jerusalem
❷ Israel Razes Waqf-Owned Land near Jericho
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ) Explanatory note regarding the Islamic Waqf tradition
❸ Israel to confiscate 1,200 dunams of land in Nablus governorate
❹ US Congress blocks $159 million in aid to PA
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S LEGAL WARFARE ON BDS FOSTERS REPRESSION AND MCCARTHYISM ACROSS THE WORLD
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  TROOPS  RAID  WEST  BANK  VILLAGE  DAY  AFTER  FUNERAL  OF  SLAIN  PALESTINIANS
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
21 Mar. 2016
Israeli troops raided the village of Beit Fajjar east of Bethlehem early on Monday, storming several houses and detaining two Palestinians.
___The raid took place a day after the funerals of Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Kar Thawabta, 20, and Ali Jamal Muhammad Taqatqa, 19, who were killed by Israeli forces on Thursday . . .
___Local sources said that Israeli troops raided Thawabta’s house and detained his brother Muhammad, 24.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  RAZE  PRISONER’S  BROTHER’S  CONSTRUCTION  SITE  IN  JERUSALEM
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
21 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces demolished a building under construction in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday for not having a construction permit.
___Muna Jaabis told Ma’an that Israeli troops raided her house in the Jabal al-Mukkabir neighborhood of the Old City early Monday, and demolished the foundations of a building belonging to her brother Suhaib Jaabis.      MORE . . .

Israeli soldiers throw a flash grenade during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, on October 31, 2015 (Agence France‑Presse Photo/Musa Al-Shaer)
Israeli soldiers throw a flash grenade during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, on October 31, 2015 (Agence France‑Presse Photo/Musa Al-Shaer)

❷ ISRAEL  RAZES  WAQF-OWNED  LAND  NEAR  JERICHO
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
21 Mar. 2016
Israeli troops on Monday embarked on razing an Islamic Waqf-owned land near Jericho in the West Bank, according to local sources.
___Moayad al-Helou, director of Jericho Islamic Waqf Department, said Israeli army broke into al-Musaqara, an outskirt of Jericho, and embarked on razing some 650 dunums of land owned by the Islamic Waqf Department.      MORE . . . 
. . . . . ❷― (ᴀ) EXPLANATORY  NOTE  REGARDING  THE  ISLAMIC  WAQF  TRADITION
A Waqf, or mortmain property, is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law, typically donating a building or plot of land or even cash for Muslim religious or charitable purposes. The donated assets may be held by a charitable trust. (Wikipedia)
MORE . . . 
MORE . . . 

❸ ISRAEL  TO  CONFISCATE  1,200  DUNAMS  OF  LAND  IN  NABLUS  GOVERNORATE
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
21 Mar. 2016
The Israeli civil administration on Monday has announced it would confiscate 1,200 dunams (296.5 acres) of land from Palestinian villages in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.
___Ghassan Dhaglas, a PA official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that Israeli authorities gave Palestinian residents of the villages of al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, al-Sawiya, and Qaryut an official notice to confiscate 1,200 dunams of land. MORE . . .

❹ US  CONGRESS  BLOCKS  $159  MILLION  IN  AID  TO  PA
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
20 Mar. 2016
Members of the United States Congress are delaying a payment of $159 million in aid allocated for the Palestinian Authority in effort to pressure the PA to relaunch negotiations with Israel, the PLO ambassador to Washington said Saturday.
___Maen Erekat confirmed earlier reports that the US Congress was blocking the payment at the request of House Republican Kay Granger, the Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, under the pretext that the PA supports “terrorism.”        MORE . . . 

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS: ISRAEL’S   LEGAL   WARFARE   ON   BDS   FOSTERS   REPRESSION   AND   MCCARTHYISM   ACROSS   THE   WORLD
MONDOWEISS
Palestinian BDS National Committee
18 Mar. 2016
The global movement supporting the Palestinian people’s right to freedom, justice and equality has taken impressive steps into the political mainstream in recent years. Efforts by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement . . . are more widely supported and impactful than ever before.
___Israel’s current government, its most racist ever, has dropped all pretences of “enlightenment” and “democracy”. This has helped to expose Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid to world public opinion . . .      MORE . . . 

From the Diary of “―”

  1. (There in Israel, our prisoners
    whom we know nothing about.)

From the ravine pours silent angry darkness
and night spreads its large sails here
the light of the stars and the dawn
cannot sneak in
A night without light
where our voices are lost
and the echo dies
and time cannot move

Time has lost its shoes here
it stood still
turning around the axis of stillness and boredom
confusing days and seasons
Is it the season for planting?
Is it the season for harvest?
Is it―who can say?
No news and the jailer stands, his face a stone
his eye a stone
robbing from us the sun, robbing the moon

About Fadwa Tuqan   
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.
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“. . . there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
2015: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala celebrated Palm Sunday with palms and flowers before joining the local Catholic Church for a procession through Beit Jala. (Photos: Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Website)
2015: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala celebrated Palm Sunday with palms and flowers before joining the local Catholic Church for a procession through Beit Jala. (Photos: Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Website)

❶ Unidentified assailants set fire to home of 2015 Duma arson witness
❷ 850 Gaza Christians receive permits to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem
❸ Shanti: Gaza suffers from a serious water crisis
❹ Japan Deplores Israel’s Decision to Expropriate Thousands of Dumuns in Jericho
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ECONOMIC POLICIES ENTRENCH ISRAELI OCCUPATION
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ UNIDENTIFIED  ASSAILANTS  SET  FIRE  TO  HOME  OF  2015  DUMA  ARSON  WITNESS
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
20 Mar. 2016
Unidentified assailants on Saturday night set fire to a house in the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank, targeting the only witness of an arson attack that killed a Palestinian family last year.
___.  . .  unidentified attackers threw Molotov cocktails at the house of Ibrahim Dawabsha at 2 a.m. and broke a window while he and his family were sleeping. . . .  Dawabsha was the only witness of the deadly arson attack carried out by extremist Israeli settlers on the home of Saad and Riham Dawabsha in the northern West Bank village on July 30 last year.      MORE . . .

❷ 850  GAZA  CHRISTIANS  RECEIVE  PERMITS  TO  CELEBRATE  EASTER  IN  JERUSALEM
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
19 Mar. 2016
Hundreds of Christian Palestinians from the Gaza Strip will travel to celebrate Easter in Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem after the Israeli authorities agreed to grant them permits, a Palestinian Authority official said Saturday.
___Muhammad al-Maqadma, a public information officer for the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs, told Ma’an that Israel had granted around 850 permits to Gaza Christians of different ages to travel to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.       MORE . . .
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❸ SHANTI:  GAZA  SUFFERS  FROM  A  SERIOUS  WATER CRISIS
THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
20 Mar. 2016
The water authority in Gaza has warned that the besieged enclave suffers from a severe water shortage in its coastal aquifer, which is the primary source for getting water.
___This came during “an interview with an official,” which was organized on Sunday by the government’s information office in Gaza City in the presence of a reporter from the Palestinian Information Center (PIC). Head of the water authority Yaser al-Shanti described the water situation in Gaza as very dangerous.      MORE . . . 

❹ JAPAN  DEPLORES  ISRAEL’S  DECISION  TO  EXPROPRIATE  THOUSANDS  OF  DUMUNS  IN  JERICHO
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
20 Mar. 2016
The Government of Japan Sunday deplored the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate nearly 2,342 dunums near the West Bank district of Jericho, under the pretext of being classified as ‘state land’.
___“The announcement by the Government of Israel clearly contradicts the ongoing efforts by the international community toward a two-state solution,” said the statement . . . .      MORE . . .

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   ECONOMIC  POLICIES  ENTRENCH  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
Nassar Ibrahim
20 Mar. 2016
The Palestinian economy has not been independent in centuries. Like the economies of other Arab countries, the Palestinian economy was subject to foreign control and looting for four centuries under Ottoman rule. Next, British colonial rule lorded over Palestine, until the Nakba uprooted Palestinians from their land in 1948. Following Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Israeli colonial powers took control of the Palestinian economy. All of this made the already weak Palestinian economy an easy target for manipulation and destruction. Israeli management of the Palestinian economy has created deep structural disparities in Palestinian society.       MORE . . .

“OASIS,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

Behind this dune we have an oasis. Leave me alone.
Leave me to rinse myself off in a bit
of its mirage. I’m tired of running after myself
to catch myself before I die.
Take―old friends and my companions―my body,
the shadow of its body’s shadow,
and hold it for a while, so I can reach my time in time.
Behind this dune we have an oasis.
Sustain your longing with dates and water,
without despair.
Listen with me to the songs of the girls
beneath the palms, but do not follow
the voice of my silence.
We have, friends, the right to die as we desire.
But there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune.
And we have the right to make the stranger
a stranger’s friend, and we have an oasis―
and a bit of rest in the house
of the loved one who left us.
He will come from behind this dune.

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER  THAN  WATER.  NEW  AND  SELECTED  POEMS.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008. Available from Amazon
Samih al-Qasim Obituary, August 20, 2014
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“. . . the voice shouts in vain like the voice of all that came before death . . .” (Jabra Ibrahim Jabra)

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Palestinian man protecting himself from IOF attack. Photo from Bil'in village this Friday afternoon. (Photo credit: Mohammed Yasin)
Palestinian man protecting himself from IOF attack during weekly non-violent protest. Photo from Bil’in village this Friday afternoon. (Photo credit: Mohammed Yasin)

❶ Young Palestinian killed in Hebron after alleged stab attack
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Palestinian killed after alleged stab attempt at Gush Etzion
. . . . . ❶―(ᴃ) Israeli forces blockade Bethlehem-area town for 2nd day
❷ IOF attack weekly nonviolent protests in the occupied West Bank
❸ No to Normalisation
❹ Watchdog: Israeli press violations reached ‘new peak’ in 2015
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  UNRAVELING  ILLUSION  OF  PALESTINIAN  AUTONOMY
❻ Poetry by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `

On March 14, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon at AIPAC convention. (Photo: AIPAC)
On March 14, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon at AIPAC convention. (Photo: AIPAC)

❶ YOUNG  PALESTINIAN  KILLED  IN  HEBRON  AFTER  ALLEGED  STAB  ATTACK
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
19 Mar. 2016
A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli forces near an illegal settlement in the southern occupied West Bank on Saturday after he allegedly stabbed a soldier, Israeli security sources said.
___Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said Israeli border police at the Abu al-Rish checkpoint near the Kiryat Arba settlement on the outskirts of Hebron noticed a “suspicious” young Palestinian.      MORE . . .    
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  ALLEGED  STAB  ATTEMPT  AT  GUSH  ETZION 
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
18 Mar. 2016
A Palestinian man was shot dead after allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction, shortly after two Palestinians were detained on suspicions of planning an attack in the illegal Shaare Benjamin settlement.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶―(ᴃ) ISRAELI  FORCES  BLOCKADE  BETHLEHEM-AREA  TOWN  FOR  2ND  DAY
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
18 MAR. 2016
Israeli forces closed the entrances to the town of Beit Fajjar in the central occupied West Bank for the second day in a row on Friday, after two youths from the town were killed for allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack on an Israeli soldier.      MORE . . .

❷ IOF  ATTACK  WEEKLY  NONVIOLENT  PROTESTS  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  WEST  BANK
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
19 Mar. 2016
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Friday 18 March, attacked the weekly nonviolent protest against the apartheid Wall and the illegal Israeli settlements, in Bil’in village, west of Ramallah, Kufur Qaddoum town, northern of Qalqilia, as well as in Nil’in village, causing dozens to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation. Furthermore, the IOF tried to suppress a demonstration in Bethlehem.      MORE . . .

❸ NO  TO  NORMALISATION
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
18 Mar. 2016
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon admitted in his speech at the annual AIPAC conference, the largest Zionist lobby supporting Israel in the US, that the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi and the installation of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi was planned, in cooperation with generals in the Egyptian and Gulf armies and intelligence agencies. He also said that Israel’s interests will always be served by having military regimes in the Arab world, especially in Egypt.      MORE . . .  

❹ WATCHDOG:  ISRAELI  PRESS  VIOLATIONS  REACHED  ‘NEW  PEAK’  IN  2015     
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY  
18 March. 2016
A Palestinian press freedoms watchdog on Thursday said 2015 had seen an “unprecedented” increase in Israeli violations against Palestinian journalists across the occupied Palestinian territory.
___The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, recorded a total of 599 violations against media freedoms throughout the year. . . .       MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  UNRAVELING  ILLUSION  OF  PALESTINIAN  AUTONOMY
+972 MAGAZINE
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
18 Mar. 2016
Palestinians have been told for decades that limited autonomy in the West Bank is just a stop along the road to sovereignty. But more than 20 years after Oslo failed to bring usher in independence, the illusion is unraveling — and fast.      MORE . . .   

“BEYOND  GALILEE,”  BY  JABRA  IBRAHIM  JABRA

When I lived with Christ,
died with him and was resurrected
my voice was still shouting in the wilderness,
a voice unlike my own
burning with an unfamiliar fire.

Whose fire?
Give me shade and cold water,
and I will hang my memories on
a wall in some deserted room.
The crowd has scattered and the guests are gone;
the voice shouts in vain
like the voice of all that came before
death and Galilee.
On my lips are traces of honey
and hemlock.
Have I come after death to hear my voice
pulling me toward a long-deserted void?
Give me shade! And you, woman,
put a chunk of ice in your water.
The sun is burning. Life after death
is tiresome. And still my voice is drawn by the fire.
For whom? For whom
have I closed my eyes, while on my lips were
those traces of honey and hemlock?
(1962)

“As a Palestinian, Jabra has sought to express in his poetry the anger, bewilderment and alienation experienced by his countrymen, uprooted from their land and its traditions” (page 171). From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988.
About Jabra Ibrahim Jabra.
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