“Israel is attempting to punish the Palestinian people, skin them alive, and enshrine penal legislation that is designed to crush the Palestinian people under the veil of law.”

❶ Qaraqe: ‘Israel may be able to take our money, but it cannot take our dignity’
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israel Closes Banks Accounts as Means of Displacing Palestinians in Jerusalem

Background: “’Gate of the Sun’: Applying Human Rights Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in Light of Non-Violent Resistance and Normalization.”

❷ Human rights council calls upon international community to ensure Israel’s cooperation with UN missions
❸ Book Review:  Kingdom of Olives and Ash – Writers Confront the Occupation
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
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❶ QARAQE:  ‘ISRAEL  MAY  BE  ABLE  TO  TAKE  OUR  MONEY,  BUT  IT  CANNOT  TAKE  OUR  DIGNITY’   
Ma’an News Agency 
Issa Qaraqe
June 24, 2017.   It seems that Israel, having completed its racist colonization project, has begun to arrange the daily lives of the Palestinian people along a path of destruction — the destruction of the Palestinian national identity and of the Palestinian liberation project.
___The Israeli ministerial committee’s recent ratification of a draft law, which would allow Palestinian tax funds to be withheld under the pretext that they are used to fund subsidies for the families of detainees, martyrs, and the wounded, is more horrifying and immoral than war itself.
___Israel is attempting to punish the Palestinian people, skin them alive, and enshrine penal legislation that is designed to crush the Palestinian people under the veil of law.      ___The Israeli, American, and European objective through this blackmail and pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not financial. It is an attempt to classify the entire Palestinian national identity as terrorism and a crime.        MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAEL  CLOSES  BANKS  ACCOUNTS  AS  MEANS  OF  DISPLACING  PALESTINIANS  IN  JERUSALEM    
Palestine Chronicle
June 24, 2017.  Israel is closing the bank accounts of Arab institutions in Jerusalem in an effort to displace Jerusalemites and force them out of the city, the Palestinian Department of Jerusalem Affairs has said.
___In a press release, the organisation said the Israeli occupation’s moves against social, cultural, educational, relief, housing, legal or engineering institutions were political and go hand in hand with the Israeli policy of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians in order to Judaize the city by force.     MORE . . .           RELATED . . .

Greenblatt, Keren. “’GATE  OF  THE  SUN’:  APPLYING  HUMAN  RIGHTS  LAW  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORIES  IN  LIGHT  OF  NON-VIOLENT  RESISTANCE  AND  NORMALIZATION.” Journal of International Human Rights, vol. 12, no. 2, Spring2014, pp. 152-190.      International humanitarian law and human rights law are complementary systems, both of which aim to protect the lives, dignity, and health of human beings. Humanitarian law is designed to apply in times of emergency (particularly in times of armed conflict). Human rights law always applies . . . . none of the provisions of humanitarian law can be suspended in emergency, since it only applies in those times. Humanitarian law focuses on military actions; human rights law focuses on the obligations of governments toward individuals in their jurisdictions. . . .
[. . . .] The contemporary, inclusive definition revolves around the most fundamental pillar of the law of occupation: occupation does not accord the occupant title to the territory. In other words, it temporarily severs the link between sovereignty and effective control. . . .  In accordance with the temporal element, the occupant serves as a trustee of the sovereign for the duration of the occupation, in a manner that protects civil life.
[. . . .] Nevertheless, human rights law offers a specific, structured methodology with which to scrutinize any violation or restriction that the occupant justifies with national security needs. Specifically, where restrictions on human rights take place, the state must meet tests of necessity, proportionality, and legitimate aims; a prescription by law; and non-discrimination.        FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ HUMAN  RIGHTS  COUNCIL  CALLS  UPON  INTERNATIONAL  COMMUNITY  TO  ENSURE  ISRAEL’S  COOPERATION  WITH  UN  MISSIONS
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
June 24, 2017.   The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) Saturday called upon international community to ensure Israel’s cooperation with UN missions.    ___PHROC in a press release . . . called upon the international community to take effective measures aimed at ensuring Israel’s cooperation with mechanisms of the United Nations (UN), including its missions.
___PHROC condemned the continued prevention of entry for the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
___The council reported that current mandate holder Mr. S. Michael Lynk, was appointed in 2016, and has not received any responses from the Israeli government for his requests to conduct official visits.
[. . . .] Under the Charter of the United Nations, Israel is obliged to allow the UN, including mandate holders, to access to its territory as “may be necessary for the exercise of its functions and the fulfillment of its purposes.        MORE . . .     

❸ BOOK  REVIEW:   KINGDOM  OF  OLIVES  AND  ASH –  WRITERS  CONFRONT  THE  OCCUPATION  
Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
June 21, 2017.   In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, renowned novelists and essayists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence – an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there – and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground.
[. . . .] The book includes contributions from Colum McCann, Jacqueline Woodson, Colm Toibin, Geraldine Brooks, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru, Raja Shehadeh, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Assaf Gavron . . .
___Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain a unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcast nightly on the news, along with a deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the true human toll of the occupation.       MORE . . .        AVAILABLE BARNES AND NOBLE

“I  CLASP  YOUR  HANDS,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I kiss the dust under your shoe
And say: I’ll lay down my life for you,
Grant you the gift of eyesight in my eyes.
The warm love in my heart I give to you,
For the tragedy I live
Is but my share in your larger tragedy.

I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I never stooped in my country
Nor will I ever be humbled.
Orphaned, naked and barefoot
I confronted my oppressors,
Carrying my blood in my palms.
I have never lowered my flags,
And have always tended the grass over my ancestors’ graves.
I call upon you, and clasp your hands!

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.
Tawfik Zayyad (Tawfiq Ziad) was a Palestinian poet, writer, scholar and politician. He was born in Nazareth in 1929 and died on July 5, 1994.   (More. . .)