❶ Occupation authorities remove platforms, beams and metal paths from Al-Aqsa gates
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Waqf officials say Palestinian can return to al-Aqsa mosque

• Background: “Jerusalem: A Microcosm of Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ Amnesty International slams Israeli police for ‘terrifying’ hospital raids
❸ Army Abducts Eleven Palestinians In Tulkarem, Jenin And Bethlehem, Injure One In Qalqilia
❹ POETRY by Fouzi el-Asmar
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❶ OCCUPATION  AUTHORITIES  REMOVE  PLATFORMS,  BEAMS  AND  METAL  PATHS  FROM  AL-AQSA  GATES 
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan 
July 27, 2017.   The occupation authorities removed on Thursday early morning all metal paths and platforms placed on Al-Aqsa gates after the 14th of July incident.
___Witnesses said the forces also removed all the beams placed above the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
___The occupation authorities removed the beams and metal paths from the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque two days after removing the metal detectors.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) WAQF  OFFICIALS  SAY  PALESTINIAN  CAN  RETURN  TO AL-AQSA  MOSQUE  
Palestine News Network – PNN
July 27, 2017.  Muslim leaders of al-Aqsa Mosque compound Jerusalem have given their approval, after their technicians could confirm the removal of the security installations, for Palestinians to re-enter the site, Al-Jazeera reports.
___Officials of the Islamic Waqf authority, that administers the holy site, said on Thursday that Muslims can once again pray inside the mosque.
___The first prayer is expected to take place today at around 13:00 GMT.
___“We will be able to offer prayers inside the compound,” an elder Waqf official said.
___He further said “The Israeli occupation forces have been trying for decades to violate the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Now, you are living in the new era of victory. We totally appreciate the masses who have been gathering.”  MORE . . .

Ben-Meir, Alon. “JERUSALEM:  A  MICROCOSM  OF  ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN  COEXISTENCE.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 60-64.
The religious, demographic, physical, psychological and political realities facing the Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem today require that it remains an undivided city — yet a capital of two-states serving as a microcosm exemplifying Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians can uproot the other from the city. Jerusalem not only represents the largest urban concentration of Israelis and Palestinians coexisting alongside one another, but also the epicenter of the conflict that divides them.
___Now is the time for respected scholars and religious leaders to take the lead in beginning a concerted dialogue on the future of peaceful coexistence in Jerusalem, which respects the sanctity with which each side holds this sacred city.
[. . . .] The demographic reality in East and West Jerusalem makes a division of the city impossible. While Palestinian residents are largely concentrated in East Jerusalem and Jewish residents in West Jerusalem, they are interspersed throughout the city. In 2009, East Jerusalem’s population was over 42% Israeli Jews (193,000), who live in the new post-1967  neighborhoods, and 58% (273,000) Palestinians. In 2010, the number of Jews jumped by 3.5% and continues to grow.
___Today, 38% of all Israeli Jews live east of the so-called “seam line” that once divided Jerusalem prior to the 1967 War, though only about 3,000 Jews live in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. In addition to this demographic mix, Israel has deliberately developed the city in a concerted manner that has united the eastern and western neighborhoods. Various municipal services such as gas lines and electricity are shared across the city, and a light rail system that opened in 2011 runs through both Jewish and Palestinian neighborhoods. Israelis believe that such structural ties make a future division of the city irreversible. Indeed, today Palestinian leaders do not call for, nor do they expect, a physical division of the city, but rather for sovereignty over the eastern portion of the city as the capital of the Palestinian state. As such, any solution to Jerusalem must take into account that the city is physically united in every way, and it will have to remain so under any peace agreement between the two sides.
___Recognizing these realities, it is a foregone conclusion across the Israeli spectrum that Jerusalem cannot and will not be divided.  [. . . .]   SOURCE . . .

❷ AMNESTY  INTERNATIONAL  SLAMS  ISRAELI  POLICE  FOR  ‘TERRIFYING’  HOSPITAL  RAIDS  
Ma’an News Agency
July 26, 2017.   Human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israeli forces for multiple violent raids into an occupied East Jerusalem hospital, which has been struggling to treat hundreds of Palestinians who have been injured by Israeli forces in recent days in a brutal crackdown on demonstrations surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
___In the span of ten days, Israelis killed four Palestinian demonstrators and injured more than 1,000 others, in protests against new Israeli security measures put in place at the holy site following a deadly shooting there on July 14.
___Israeli forces stormed al-Makassed hospital at least twice over the past week in an attempt to detain the same protesters they had critically injured.     MORE . . .
❸ ARMY  ABDUCTS  ELEVEN  PALESTINIANS  IN  TULKAREM,  JENIN  AND  BETHLEHEM,  INJURE  ONE  IN  QALQILIA  
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC   
July 26, 2017.   Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, many Palestinian communities in the West Bank governorates of Tulkarem, Jenin and Bethlehem, stormed and ransacked many homes and abducted eleven Palestinians, in addition to wounding one in Qalqilia, and causing many others to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
___The Tulkarem office of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), in the northern part of the West Bank, said the soldiers invaded Atteel town, north of the city, broke into dozens of homes and interrogated many Palestinians, before abducting six.     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