❶ Israeli border police ‘volunteer’ sentenced to 7 months for 2013 killing of Palestinian

• Background article from International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies    

❷ Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Majid Bakr killed and six more fishermen seized by Israeli occupation naval forces
❸ Palestinians injured in Nakba day clashes with Israeli forces near Ramallah
❹ POETRY by Jehan Bseiso
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI BORDER POLICE ‘VOLUNTEER’ SENTENCED TO 7 MONTHS FOR 2013 KILLING OF PALESTINIAN      
Ma’an News Agency       
May 15, 2017
An Israeli court in the city of Kfar Saba, south of Haifa in northern Israel, sentenced a “volunteer” of the Israeli border police to seven months in prison for killing a Palestinian worker in 2013.     ___Israeli news website Ynet reported that the “volunteer,” David Arik Bibi Rubi, 43, agreed to a plea bargain with the prosecution, which will also include an additional four months of probation following his release from prison.
___Rubi shot and killed 23-year-old Antar Aqra, from the Nablus-area village of Qabalan, for not having an Israeli-issued work permit during “a joint police operation to identify and arrest illegal Palestinian workers,” according to Ynet.     MORE . . .  

Note: This excerpt is longer than usual, and the article is a somewhat technical discussion. However, the gist of the article should be discernable here.

Cohen, Shuki J. “BREAKABLE  AND  UNBREAKABLE  SILENCES:  IMPLICIT  DEHUMANIZATION  AND  ANTI-ARAB  PREJUDICE  IN  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS’  NARRATIVES  CONCERNING  PALESTINIAN  WOMEN.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 245-277.
(Cohen is Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.)
[. . . .]
[This study] was done in order to examine the dehumanization of Palestinians by the Israeli military in the (relative) absence of realistic concerns for their safety . . . .  consistent with this study’s contention that dehumanization of Palestinians by Israelis is a borderline level defense-mechanism that is activated independently of the realistic level of threat that they pose can be seen in two common IDF practices in the occupied territories, namely “Confirmation of Killing” (“Vidu Hariga” – whereby soldiers are required to riddle the body of a fallen Palestinian in bullets to ensure that they won’t pose any further threat) . . . .  and the destruction of property, which is often justified on grounds of security even when the potential threat from the property is most likely imaginary . . . . The ambiguous utility of such practices is intimately linked to the borderline-level vagueness in the boundaries between realistic and imaginary (or projected) appraisal of the imminent danger that lifeless bodies, pickle jars and the like might pose. . . . these boundaries in the sense of reality shift in tandem with the anxiety level of the situation, which in turn . . .   is a complex interplay of individual, communal and politically-motivated induced anxieties.
[. . . .]
Examination of the most frequent themes and words that were distinctly. . . suggests that one of the most prominent components of the complex psychodynamic conflict surrounding their dehumanization is the communication barrier between Israelis and Palestinians . . . . Testimony suggests that the ability to communicate with the Palestinian chipped at the dehumanization defense mechanism and led to an emotional flooding that loomed large over the narrator’s conscience for a long time.
[. . . .]
[I]t would also seem a simplistic mistake to view the soldiers’ pervasive dehumanization of the Palestinian civilians as a uniquely individual characteristic . . . . Rather, the role of the Israeli government and army in maintaining a matrix of power in which dehumanization seems to be the . . .  mechanism of defense (against real and/or manufactured threats . . .) should be routinely incorporated into the psychodynamic understanding of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on its individual, communal and national determinants . . . . ARTICLE SOURCE

❷ PALESTINIAN  FISHERMAN  MOHAMMED  MAJID  BAKR  KILLED  AND  SIX  MORE  FISHERMEN  SEIZED  BY  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  NAVAL  FORCES
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
May 15, 2017
Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Majid Bakr, 28, was killed by Israeli occupation naval forces this morning, Monday, 15 May as he fished in his family boat when it was attacked by naval forces besieging the Gaza Strip. He was shot in the chest and died hours later in the Israeli Barzillai hospital.
___Mohammed Majid Bakr was a Palestinian refugee from the Shati refugee camp from a large fishing family in Gaza.. . . [three others] were seized by occupation naval forces and taken to an unknown location, while their fishing boats were confiscated.
___Israeli gunboats also attacked more fishers in the northern Gaza strip on Monday morning, 15 May, firing on fishing boats and the fishery of Amin Abu Warda, seizing three more Palestinian fishers . . .  within three nautical miles from the Gaza shore.       MORE . . .

❸ PALESTINIANS  INJURED  IN  NAKBA  DAY  CLASHES  WITH  ISRAELI  FORCES  NEAR  RAMALLAH   
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 15, 2017
Seven Palestinians were injured Monday during clashes with Israeli forces at Beit El military checkpoint, on the northern entrance to Ramallah, according to local sources.
___WAFA correspondent said soldiers attacked a march commemorating the 69th anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe, the Nakba.
___The march started from Ramallah following a rally in the city center marking the Nakba.
___When it reached the Beit El checkpoint, soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at them, injuring at least seven people.     MORE . . .

“RE: CEMETERIES  IN  PALESTINIAN  CAMPS  SHORT  ON  SPACE/DAILY STAR/16.05.12,” **  BY  JEHAN  BSEISO

And so, the cemeteries are full –
In Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Gaza.
We will soon bury Palestinians above ground.
Nowhere to live and now,
No quiet place to die, with dignity.
Raise high the beams – carpenters, death architects.
Soon your wall will reach the sky.

** An actual news headline

From: I  REMEMBER  MY  NAME.  Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud, Jehan Bseiso. Edited by Vacy Vlazna.  European Union, Novum Publishing Co. Uk., 2016.  Available from Amazon. 

Born in Los Angeles of a Palestinian mother, Jehan Bseiso grew up in Jordan and has been active in Palestinian rights issues. Since 2008 she has worked for Doctors Without Borders in several countries in the Mideast.