❶ Witnesses: Israeli forces ransack home of slain Palestinian, threaten to detain 10-month-old girl

• Background from Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. “. . . In summary, regardless of the terms used, intergenerational trauma in occupied Palestine needs to be understood as a consequence of historic and collective trauma and loss . . . .”

❷ Back-to-school in Tel Rumeida, a closed military zone

• Background from Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma.  “. . .children in occupied Palestine experience trauma embedded within the fabric of daily life. . . . ongoing acts of racism, discrimination and daily harassments.” 

❸ 18-year-old daughter of Palestinian prisoner hugs her father for the first time ever
❹ POETRY by Ramzy Baroud
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❶ WITNESSES:  ISRAELI  FORCES  RANSACK  HOME  OF  SLAIN  PALESTINIAN,  THREATEN  TO  DETAIN  10-MONTH-OLD  GIRL 
Ma’an News Agency 
Sep. 4, 2016
Israeli troops stormed the town of Sair in the Hebron district of the southern occupied West Bank early Sunday morning, where they ransacked the home of a slain Palestinian and reportedly threatened to detain the deceased man’s 10-month-old daughter.  ___According to witnesses, Israeli troops raided the home of the family of Fadi Faroukh, who was shot and killed on Nov. 1, 2015 in the eastern Hebron village of Beit Einun after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier.
___Fadi’s brother Saed told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers “destroyed the interior of the house” before they “threatened to detain Fadi’s 10-month-old daughter.”
___After ransacking the home and threatening the family, Saed said the soldiers hung a written warning on the front door, addressing the family as well as all residents of Sair.  ___“In the wake of destructive attacks coming from your area against civilians, the Israeli defense forces and the Israeli security forces will operate with increased effort against terrorists and against anyone involved in such activity,” the warning read.       MORE . . .

• Barron, Ian, and Ghassan Abdallah. “Intergenerational Trauma In The Occupied Palestinian Territories: Effect On Children And Promotion Of Healing.” Journal Of Child & Adolescent Trauma 8.2 (2015): 103-110.  SOURCE.    (The article is available through any library with EBSCO data bases).

Ongoing trauma within any community impacts at a variety of levels, e.g., historical trauma narratives, cultural beliefs about oppression, political and military aggression, the extent of mental illness in the community and the undermining of trust within social contexts [are] the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next. . . .  Mass trauma [is] trauma that occurs as a result of a frightening, threatening event that is experienced by a large number of people simultaneously The ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza . . . [go] beyond the focus of single events to recognize these more pervasive aspects of trauma over time [and are] collective complex trauma inflicted on a group of people who share a specific group identity or. . .  It is the legacy of numerous traumatic events a community experiences over generations and encompasses the psychological and social responses to such events.
[. . . .]
In summary, regardless of the terms used, intergenerational trauma in occupied Palestine needs to be understood as a consequence of historic and collective trauma and loss, occurring within an extended period of subjugation and impacting at child, family and community levels. . . .

❷ BACK-TO-SCHOOL  IN  TEL  RUMEIDA,  A  CLOSED  MILITARY  ZONE  
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)    
Aug. 30, 2016
Palestinian children in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, located in the southern part of the West Bank, returned to school on August 28 with no end to the Israeli-enforced military closure of their neighborhood in sight.
___Despite rays of hope last May, when the military order closing the area lapsed, Tel Rumeida neighborhood has remained functionally closed to non-residents since November 1, 2015. Residents must register in order to enter via checkpoint. Each is assigned an individual number, separate from their standard-issued ID. Closed military zones pose staffing problems for schools and risks for children, who are forced to live in constant proximity to armed Israeli soldiers.
___“Each child should have the chance to succeed at school,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program Director at Defense for Children International – Palestine. “Before children in Tel Rumeida even reach their school, their academic potential is threatened by Israeli military installments restricting their movements, and by Israeli settlers who often target them.”      MORE . . .

• Barron, Ian, and Ghassan Abdallah. “Intergenerational Trauma In The Occupied Palestinian Territories: Effect On Children And Promotion Of Healing.”

___ In addition to traumatic loss from war events . . .  children in occupied Palestine experience trauma embedded within the fabric of daily life. Set within the Colonial Trauma Response . . .  [these are] . . . . ongoing acts of racism, discrimination and daily harassments. While acts of micro-aggression can appear small, the impact on those receiving such acts may be significant, e.g. anxiety and fear. Micro-aggressions can be chronic in nature and involve subtle rather than overt acts of violence. . . . Within occupied Palestine, children walking to school, can experience the micro-aggression of derogatory comments from groups of youths. These can experienced as intimidating, especially when these have on occasion led to overt violence. Another micro-aggression could be to hear a political discourse from Israel and other international countries denying the existence of Palestine. In this regard, it is argued, children can become disenfranchised, on a day to day basis, from national identity. The experience of daily, weekly, or monthly discrimination is significant for intergenerational trauma, in that both can lead to increased cumulative physical and mental health difficulties.
___The impact on children of daily life humiliations, violence, traumatic loss, and traumatized parents fails to be captured by the concept of post-traumatic stress. . . .  Developmental trauma . . . includes multiple exposure to a range of interpersonal trauma, e.g. experiencing and/or witnessing physical, sexual, emotional abuse, betrayal, abandonment and neglect. The impact of developmental trauma is pervasive and often predictable covering a wide range of functioning. These experiences engender (i) intense affects such as rage, betrayal, fear, resignation, defeat and shame and (ii) efforts to ward off the recurrence of those emotions, including the avoidance of experiences that precipitate them or engaging in behaviors that convey a subjective sense of control in the face of potential threats. . . .
 [. . . .]    As well as traumatic events shaping identity, political and military messages may also impact children’s sense of self. For example, what are children to think of themselves when Israeli military identify children as terrorists or when they experience the world’s inaction to the plight of Palestinian families? Even in the Arab, world messages are mixed, e.g., the “dirty Arabs.”

❸ 18-YEAR-OLD  DAUGHTER  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  HUGS  HER  FATHER  FOR  THE  FIRST  TIME  EVER
Ma’an News Agency  
Aug. 28, 2016
The 18-year-old daughter of a Palestinian prisoner serving a life sentence in Israeli prison was able to hug her father for the first time in her life on Sunday, according to Sawt al-Asra (Voice of the Prisoners) radio.
___Yara al-Sharabati, the daughter of 49-year-old Palestinian prisoner Ayman al-Sharabati from occupied East Jerusalem, was recently granted permission to visit her father after being banned from visits for the past three years.
___The teenager, who had reportedly only ever seen her father through a barrier, was allowed to embrace him for the first time in her life, as he was detained before she was born.      MORE . . .

“LULLABY,”  BY  RAMZY  BAROUD
I’ll etch your name
on a secret star
we’ll both go there
on frightful nights

when Mother Earth
runs out of room
for you and me

I’ll hold you tight
and sing you songs
of a distant land
beyond the stars

and watch you grow
between my heart
and the highest high

I’ll draw your face
on a single seed
and hold your palm
to face the sun

when you’re awake
and call out my name
don’t moan or cry

I’ll return
to raise your hand
at a shooting star
and with for you

another day
another sun
another world

where Palestine
is a mountain top
of soil and air
and a purple sky

For (Miriam), a refugee child from Palestine

Ramzy Baroud’s Website.
From: I  REMEMBER  MY  NAME:  Poetry  by  Samah  Sabawi,  Ramzy  Baroud,  Jehan  Bseiso. Vacy Vlanzna, ed. London: Novum Publishing, 2016. Available from Barnes and Noble.