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

“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
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
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 . . . 

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 . . . 

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 . . .

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)

Opinion/Analysis:  THE  TRAGIC  RESILIENCE  OF  ISRAEL’S  UNRECOGNIZED  ARAB  VILLAGES
+972 MAGAZINE
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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