❶ Israeli forces demolish 12 homes in Qalandiya village, assault homeowners
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces demolish 4 structures in East Jerusalem’s Issawiya

• background from Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal

❷ Uncovering the Lost Palestinian Villages Underneath Glitzy Tel Aviv
❸ Palestinian Orchestra spreads positive message with music
❹ POETRY by Yousef El Qedra
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❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  12  HOMES  IN  QALANDIYA  VILLAGE,  ASSAULT  HOMEOWNERS
Ma’an News Agency
July 26, 2016
Under the escort of Israeli forces, bulldozers entered the village of Qalandiya on the outskirts of the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem late Monday evening, where they demolished 12 homes, according to locals.
___Israeli authorities destroyed the homes, which had previously been issued demolition notices, claiming they were too close to Israel’s separation wall and that they lacked the proper Israeli-issued licenses. . . .
___Israeli soldiers reportedly fired rubber-coated steel bullets, sponge bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at locals, and assaulted residents of the homes before the demolitions.      MORE . . .   
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  4  STRUCTURES  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM’S  ISSAWIYA
Ma’an News Agency
July 26, 2016
MORE . . .      RELATED . . .  

From Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal
There is a very strong argument that Zionist Israel has committed, and continues to commit, genocide against Palestine and the Palestinians in terms of Lemkin’s famous passage . . .
Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain, or upon the territory alone, after removal of the population and the colonization of the area by the oppressor’s own nationals.   (Lemkin, R. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: laws of occupation, analysis of government, proposals for redress. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944.)
[. . . .]
Whilst the daily living reality for a Palestinian citizen of Israel inevitably differs from a Palestinian living in the West Bank, Gaza or the diaspora, the underlying techniques employed by the Israeli government are the same.. . . .  The intention of these policies was clearly stated by ARIEL SHARON IN AN INTERVIEW IN 1988:
_‘YOU DON’T SIMPLY BUNDLE PEOPLE ON TO TRUCKS AND DRIVE THEM AWAY. . . I PREFER TO ADVOCATE A POSITIVE POLICY. . . TO CREATE, IN EFFECT, A CONDITION THAT IN A POSITIVE WAY WILL INDUCE PEOPLE TO LEAVE.’
. . .  it is apparent to Palestinians in different contexts experiencing discriminatory policies intended to drive them away from their land that the ‘Nakba’ of 1948 did not end in that era and is an ongoing process.

• Rashed, Haifa, Damien Short, and John Docker. “Nakba Memoricide: Genocide Studies And The Zionist/Israeli Genocide Of Palestine.” Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal 13.1 (2014): 1-23.    FULL ARTICLE.

❷ UNCOVERING  THE  LOST  PALESTINIAN  VILLAGES  UNDERNEATH  GLITZY  TEL  AVIV
The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)
Mira Sucharov
July 19, 2016
Tel Aviv residents are often described as living in a “bubble,” because of their relative distance from the epicenter of conflict and occupation, and because, at least compared to Jerusalem, the zeitgeist of the city tends toward liberalism and open-mindedness.
___But despite all the talk about Tel Aviv’s insulated status, this “first Hebrew city” is very politically saturated — if you look underneath it. I’m thinking of the eight Palestinian villages whose traces, post-1948, are just barely visible beneath the bustling urban center that this place has become. What remains of these villages, whose remnants were absorbed by Tel Aviv’s municipality as the city expanded after the war, and what remains to be done?     MORE . . .  

❸ PALESTINIAN  ORCHESTRA  SPREADS  POSITIVE  MESSAGE  WITH  MUSIC
Days of Palestine
July 25, 2016
Glasgow -A group of Palestinian young orchestrates are trying to travel around the world to spread a positive message about Palestinian with their orchestra.
___It is lunchtime on a sunny day in the Scottish city of Glasgow, and the general director of The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music is making a thoughtful observation about the aims of its Palestine Youth Orchestra (PYO).
___Suddenly, a ping-pong ball bounces across the table. Suhail Khoury barely bats an eyelid.
___“Having an orchestra can tell people that young Palestinians are like anyone else, despite their situation,” he says. “They like to play music, they like to have fun.”    MORE . . .    –   VIDEO . . . (Music begins 9:45)

“I  HAVE  NO  HOME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
―Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

Yousef El Qedra is a young poet and playwright living in Gaza. He has his BA degree in Arabic Literature from Azhar University, Gaza. Since 2006 he has worked as a project coordinator of theater and youth groups for the Cultural Free Thought Association in Gaza City. He has written several books and plays and published four volumes of poetry, translated into French and Spanish.
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 Amazon.