❶ Israel imposes new restrictions on Al-Aqsa as anticipation of widespread clashes grows

• Background: “Changing Trends in Palestinian Political Activism: The Second Intifada, the Wall Protests, and the Human Rights Turn.” Geopolitics (Note: While this article is specifically about the change in resistance from the First Intifada to the Second Intifada, it offers much insight into the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian resistance in general.)

❷ 25-year-old Palestinian succumbs to wounds days after being shot in head by Israeli forces
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces install iron gate at an entrance of Bethlehem-area town
❸ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
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❶ ISRAEL  IMPOSES  NEW  RESTRICTIONS  ON  AL-AQSA  AS  ANTICIPATION  OF  WIDESPREAD  CLASHES  GROWS  
Ma’an News Agency 
July 28, 2017.   Hours after thousands of Palestinians entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, after a near two-week long boycott of Israeli security measures imposed at the site, Israeli forces imposed a new series of sweeping restrictions on the compound Friday morning.
___Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that only men above the age of 50 would be allowed into the compound, while no restrictions would be placed on women.
___Hebrew-language media reported that the restrictions were ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
___Israeli forces remained heavily deployed across the compound and inside the Old City of Jerusalem, as well as in “seam zones” across the occupied West Bank in anticipation of heavy clashes following Friday prayers.     MORE . . .

Mall Dibiasi, Caroline. “CHANGING  TRENDS  IN  PALESTINIAN  POLITICAL  ACTIVISM:  THE  SECOND  INTIFADA,  THE  WALL  PROTESTS,  AND  THE  HUMAN  RIGHTS  TURN.” Geopolitics, vol. 20, no. 3, Jul-Sep2015, pp. 669-695.   What is often overlooked in the assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the instances of non-violent protest by Palestinians.4 In fact, it is striking that forms of non-violent protest have persisted and been re-invented despite the disproportionate use of violence by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians, decades of discrimination and the denial of basic rights, and a general deterioration of the Palestinian situation in economic, social as well as political terms.
[. . . .]  One of the central structural features that drove the transformation of political activism during the Al-Aqsa intifada is the division of Palestinian territory into different zones of control, a legacy of Israeli military plans for phased re-deployment over the Oslo period.61 Because complete military withdrawal never occurred, a complex system of control now divides the West Bank into different zones of governance. Its inhabitants are subject to different regulations and experience very disparate levels of services and provision for personal security. These zones are not contiguous areas but are mapped out like a jigsaw puzzle on West Bank territory.
[. . . .] . . . if Israel continues to refuse to negotiate with the Palestinians on a viable Palestinian state, the Palestinian national movement might ask for full democracy. The convergence of a focus on individual human rights, a demand for democracy, and the decreasing significance of national-level politics in Palestinian political activism may challenge the still dominant concept of Israel as a Jewish state. Alternatively, it may further undermine its validity as a democratic state in the Middle East.   SOURCE . . . 

❷ 25-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  SUCCUMBS  TO  WOUNDS  DAYS  AFTER  BEING  SHOT  IN  HEAD  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES 
Ma’an News Agency  
25-year-old Muhammad Kanaan succumbed to his wounds Thursday night, days after he was shot in the head by Israeli forces during clashes in his hometown of Hizma in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
___Kanaan had been in the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah in critical condition since he was shot on Monday.
___According to Ma’an documentation, Kanaan was the fifth Palestinian to have been shot and killed by Israelis in the past two weeks, all during clashes with Israeli forces that had erupted across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in response to Israeli security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the violent repression of a near two-week long Palestinian civil disobedience campaign.     MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  INSTALL  IRON  GATE  AT  AN  ENTRANCE  OF  BETHLEHEM-AREA  TOWN 
Ma’an News Agency  
July 27, 2017.   Israeli forces installed an iron gate at an entrance of the village of Janata on Thursday, southeast of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank.
___Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces installed a large iron gate at the eastern entrance of Janata, without providing and reason for the measure.
___Local activists said that the installation of the gate “aims to restrict the life of Palestinians by closing the gate at any time Israel wants to.”     MORE . . .

“ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
I may―if you wish―lose my livelihood
I may sell my shirt and bed.
I may work as a stone cutter,
A street sweeper, a porter.
I may clean your stores
Or rummage your garbage for food.
I may lie down hungry,
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.

You may take the last strip of my land,
Feed my youth to prison cells.
You may plunder my heritage.
You may burn my books, my poems,
Or feed my flesh to the dogs.
You may spread a web of terror
On the roofs of my village.
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.

You may put out the light in my eyes
You may deprive me of my mother’s kisses.
You may curse my father, my people.
You may distort my history.
You may deprive my children of a smile
And of life’s necessities.
You may fool my friends with a borrowed face.
You may build walls of hatred around me.
You may glue my eyes to humiliations,
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.
O enemy of the sun
The decorations are raised at the port,
The ejaculations fill the air,
A glow in the hearts,
And in the horizon
A sail is seen
Challenging the wind
And the depths.
It is Ulysses
Returning home
From the sea of loss

It is the return of the sun,
Of my exiled ones
And for her sake, and his
I swear
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.
Resist―and resist.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.
Available from ABE BOOKS.
About Samih Al-Qasim