❶ Islamic Christian Committee: Israel Planning Jerusalem Entrance Project to Obliterate Muslim Christian Spirit

• Background:  Journal Of Islamic Studies

❷ Urgent Intervention Needed to Prevent Permanent Damage to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron’s Old City
❸ Lieberman to Launch Online Channel Directed at Palestinians
❹ POETRY by Fouzi El Asmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISLAMIC CHRISTIAN COMMITTEE: ISRAEL PLANNING JERUSALEM ENTRANCE PROJECT TO OBLITERATE MUSLIM CHRISTIAN SPIRIT
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
August 19, 2016
The Islamic Christian Committee to Defend Jerusalem and Holy Sites warned, on Thursday, against an Israeli project called the “New Face of Modern Jerusalem,” which targets the main western entrance of the city.
___The committee said, in a press release, that the plan aims to give Jerusalem a Jewish character, obliterate its Arab Muslim and Christian identity, deface its history and create a new face that doesn’t relate to the original Arab Jerusalem.
___Secretary General of the Committee Hanna Isaa said, according to WAFA correspondence, that the plan is proposed on around 720,000 meter square of land and would cost 1.4 billion shekels ($370 million USD).      MORE . . .

• Rosmer, Tilde. “Resisting ‘Israelization’: The Islamic Movement In Israel And The Realization Of Islamization, Palestinization And Arabization.” Journal Of Islamic Studies 23.3 (2012): 325-358.  SOURCE. . .  

[. . . .]  Islamic Movement activists continuously structure their activism with the intention of preserving and reinforcing the Palestinian and Muslim identity of Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel, despite their presence in what is now a Jewish state. Interviewees were aware of the balancing act this predicament necessitates and were willing to discuss it openly.
[. . . .] The process of Israelization can be viewed from two perspectives. Measures taken by the state towards its Palestinian citizens intended to weaken their Palestinian identity and strengthen their identity as acquiescent, Hebrew-speaking ‘Israeli Arabs’, enforced through controlling their education and economic and political opportunities. Israelization is also an effect of the expected influences on Palestinian citizens’ identity, culture and lifestyle derived from living and working in Israel and the resulting exposure to, and to a degree participation in, Hebrew and Israeli media and mainstream culture.
[. . . .] In common with other Islamic movements in the region, the Islamic Movement in Israel shares the approach of Islamization from below through its network of local institutions and mosques and through the emphasis it places on da’wa. The main difference between this Movement and other regional movements is due to its political context in Israel. This context has produced the paradoxical predicament wherein Palestinian citizens are able to establish and run their Islamic Movement openly and lawfully, including enjoying representation in the Knesset, as long as their activism is not perceived to threaten the Zionist identity or national goals of the state. However, members and supporters of the Islamic Movement are discriminated against as non-Jewish citizens of the Jewish state and particularly as members of an indigenous national group with which Israel remains in conflict.
[. . . .] . . . the interrelated processes of Islamization, Palestinization and Arabization are responses to the processes of Israelization, which refers to the adjustments of identity and life-style and to limitations in political and social activism in accordance with their minority status.
[. . . .] . . .  the activism of the Islamic Movement in Israel focuses on creating local institutions that provide services the State does not provide for this constituency and promoting its Muslim, Palestinian and Arab identity. Both the goals articulated by the Islamic Movement in Israel’s leaders and its activism portray a pragmatic appreciation of the limitations of their context while simultaneously struggling to cater to the social, spiritual and communal needs of the Palestinian citizens of the Jewish State.

❷ URGENT INTERVENTION NEEDED TO PREVENT PERMANENT DAMAGE TO THE IBRAHIMI MOSQUE IN HEBRON’S OLD CITY
Palestine News Network – PNN
Aug. 19,2016
For more than one month the Israeli Government and Occupation Authorities have planned and have worked on installing a new permanent checkpoint structure and other permanent buildings on the historic grounds of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City. Their plans (as seen below) reveal vast damage will be done to the historic grounds of this cultural heritage site. The Israeli plans include remove stones from the Mosque’s site which is more than 2000 years old. These plans will permanently damage the historical Ibrahimi mosque and the aesthetic fabric of the area.    MORE . . .  

❸ LIEBERMAN TO LAUNCH ONLINE CHANNEL DIRECTED AT PALESTINIANS
Palestine Chronicle
Aug 18 2016
Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, announced during a meeting with military reporters at the headquarters of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv yesterday, a plan to launch a 10-million shekel online channel directed at Palestinians in the West Bank.
___Lieberman said the plan would include “treating Palestinians who are ready to co-exist with Israeli settlers in the West Bank well, and imposing restrictions on those who do not.”    More . . .  

“I  AM  THE  SON  OF  THE  LAND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  ASMAR
You may take my hands
and lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me.

You bereaved me
from the light
and I marched
You robbed me
of the bread
and I ate.
You plundered the land
from me
and I ploughed.

I am the son of the land
and for that
I find goodness in this earth
anywhere I happen to be:
The ants of this land
feed me
The branches of this land
foster me
The eagles of this land
will shield my open revolt

Yes
You may take my hands
And lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me
But here I will stand tall
And here I shall remain
until the very end. (April, 1970) 

From: El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON. Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
Available from Amazon
About Fouzi El Asmar