❶ The Martyrs are not for Bargaining

• Background: “Lack of Security for Palestinians.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ Palestinian ‘attacks’ Israeli officer after refusing stop-and-frisk search in Jerusalem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Lawyers boycott Israeli court over ‘humiliating’ search procedures
❸ UNESCO declares Hebron Old City as Palestinian heritage site
❹ Poetry by Samih al-Qasim
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❶ THE  MARTYRS  ARE  NOT  FOR  BARGAINING
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Group 194)    
Mohammad Al-Sahli
July 6, 2017.   “The American envoy wants to know the positions of the Palestinian and Israeli sides, toward the key issues of the negotiations.”
___With these sentences, the American Administration paved the way for the visit of Jason Greenblatt last week, where he met President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
[. . . .] . . . Greenblatt proposed on the PA leadership the importance of “developing” the role of the security services and raising the level of security coordination with Israel to reach a level of full cooperation.
[. . . .]  But the most dangerous of the American-Israeli attempts is the seek for doing a comprehensive “brainwashing” for the Palestinians, so that, they forget their sons heroic sacrifices in their long battles against the occupation. This was clear in Greenblatt’s request, to remove the names of the martyrs from the streets of Palestinian cities and towns, and to press to stop the salaries of families of martyrs and prisoners . . . MORE . . .

Elrahim, Amira Abd. “LACK OF SECURITY FOR PALESTINIANS.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 2, Nov. 2015, pp. 28-35.
[. . . .] Israelis have a government and weapons. They are protected by an army that stands behind them. Recently the Israeli government set up metal detectors at the entrances of the Old City of Jerusalem so that Palestinians aren’t allowed to go through with any metal objects, while Israeli settlers pass through with their guns!! The Israelis are asked to keep their weapons with them at all times!!! Could you think for yourself what do Palestinians have, who is there to protect them or care about their lost livelihoods. They are paralyzed and fed up with injustice, racism, the denial of rights practiced by the Israeli government and the ignorance of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians are the only people on this earth who are asked to guarantee the security of their occupier, while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims.
[. . . .]  Muhannad Halabi was bom in a wealthy family in al-Bireh, Ramallah [Died Oct. 3, 2015].   He was an active student who wanted to be a lawyer. . .  [On his Facebook page] He also had another photo of the Palestinian map covered in a kefiyye. Next to it he wrote: “The only wish which I have is to be buried in Palestine when I die, so that you could write on my grave he is no longer a refugee.” He also expressed his anger about happenings in al-Haram al-Sharif and about the Muslim women and elders who are provoked and humiliated each day. So he said: “What is happening to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and what is happening to the women there, to our mothers and sisters, I do not think our people should be subjugated to humiliation. The people will rise; no, they have actually risen.”   FULL ARTICLE . . . 

❷ PALESTINIAN  ‘ATTACKS’  ISRAELI  OFFICER  AFTER  REFUSING  STOP-AND-FRISK  SEARCH  IN  JERUSALEM  
Ma’an News Agency  
July 6, 2017.   A Palestinian in occupied East Jerusalem allegedly “attacked” an Israeli police officer near Damascus Gate on Thursday after refusing to allow Israeli forces to search him.
___Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said that Israeli forces stationed at Damascus Gate in the Old City had stopped a Palestinian and demanded to carry out a stop-and-frisk search.
___However, the Palestinian rejected to the search and “attacked” the Israeli border officer, causing the officer to sustain injuries that necessitated a trip to the hospital, according to al-Samri.
[. . . .] Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem have long expressed frustration over Israel’s frequent stop-and-frisk searches routinely carried out on Palestinian passersby, with Israeli forces especially targeting Palestinian teenagers and young men.   MORE . . .
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. . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) LAWYERS  BOYCOTT  ISRAELI  COURT  OVER  ‘HUMILIATING’  SEARCH  PROCEDURES   
Al Hourriah Magazine (Freedom)
July 6, 2017.   Lawyers representing Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel refused to appear in the Salem court in northern Israel on Monday, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said.
___The committee said that the lawyers were protesting the “humiliating” search procedures undertaken against them by the Israel Prison Service (IPS)   MORE . . .
❸ UNESCO  DECLARES  HEBRON  OLD  CITY  AS  PALESTINIAN  HERITAGE  SITE 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
July 7, 2017.   UNESCO has voted to recognise Hebron’s Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque as Palestinian heritage sites despite diplomatic pressures by the US and Israel to recruit the support of enough member states to vote against the move.
___In a secret ballot, 12 countries voted in favour of the move whilst three voted against it and six abstained.
___The resolution was brought forward by Jordan and included two main clauses: the first states that Hebron’s Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque are Palestinian heritage sites and should be registered as such in UNESCO’s World Heritage List; and the second asserts that the two sites are to be recognised as being in danger which would force UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to convene to discuss their case.   MORE . . .

“THE  MAN  WHO  VISITED  DEATH,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Leave the martyr shrouded in his garments,
Lay him at the foot of the mountain: for it knows his sorrow.
Do not bury him, while his wounds
Proclaim his testament of love and suffering.
Do you hear?

Let him take leave of his friends,
A bleeding eagle among the rocks.
Lay him in the sun; his face caressed
By the winds, redolent with the fragrance of the land of his youth.

Do not close his eyes; a final
Red glimmer still shines in them.
His call reverberates in the golden valleys:
“You who fear death, I fear it not;
Take me to my home
To rest my cheek upon its threshold,
To kiss the doorknob,
Take me to my vineyard, I would die, with the pangs of my love in my heart,
If my eyes do not feast once more on the sight of its soil.

Samih al-Qasim 
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.