❶ Israel’s arrests of Palestinians ‘highest in years’

Background: “Multiple Legal Systems in the West Bank.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ 2 Palestinians, Israeli soldier injured during al-Duheisha refugee camp raid
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces detain 32 Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Israeli forces ban Palestinian citizens of Israel from entering Old City of Jerusalem
❸ “MADA” demands release of detained journalists in Palestinian prisons
❹ POETRY by  Ahmad Dahbur
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL’S  ARRESTS  OF  PALESTINIANS  ‘HIGHEST  IN  YEARS’
Al Jazeera English
Zena Tahhan
Aug. 9, 2017.   Israeli forces arrested some 1,268 Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories over the last two months, according to rights groups.
___Several non-governmental organisations, including the Ramallah-based Addameer prisoner rights group and al-Mezan rights centre in Gaza, released the figures in a joint press release published on Tuesday.
___In June, the arrest of 388 Palestinians from across the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, including 70 children and six women was documented.
___In July, Israeli forces proceeded to arrest an additional 880 Palestinians, including 144 children and 18 women.   MORE . . .

(Note: This article is an explanation of the evolution of the current system of laws and courts in the West Bank.)

Shehadeh, Raja.
“MULTIPLE  LEGAL  SYSTEMS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 3, Jan. 2016, pp. 6-15.
The concept of a ’’dual legal system” has a long history, stemming from the beginning of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank of the Jordan River in 1967. . .  Israel’s ultimate aim is the annexation of the West Bank without its Palestinian inhabitants. However, the unlikelihood and difficulty of a mass expulsion of Arabs has meant that an interim period, pending full de jure annexation, has necessitated the creation of a particular legal relationship with the territory. Among the legal problems that arise in this interim period are the following:

* How to apply Israeli law to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank while the area has not been annexed and is not under Israeli sovereignty. Related to this problem are the situations in which courts are to apply this law, which government departments are to execute it, and how to ensure that only the Jewish settlers will be subject to these laws, courts and government departments.

* How to avoid applying the Israeli legal system to the Palestinian inhabitants.

* How to reconcile this peculiar legal state of affairs with the requirements of international law.     FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ 2  PALESTINIANS,  ISRAELI  SOLDIER  INJURED  DURING  AL-DUHEISHA  REFUGEE  CAMP  RAID  
Ma’an News Agency 
Aug. 9, 2017.   Two Palestinians were shot and injured during a predawn raid on Wednesday by Israeli forces on the al-Duheisha refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
___Locals identified the two injured as Raed al-Salhi and Aziz Arafeh, adding that al-Salhi was critically injured while Arafeh was injured in the leg and in stable condition.
___The two were detained by Israeli forces and taken to the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.        MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  32  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK,  JERUSALEM
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
August 9, 2017.   Israeli forces detained overnight at least 32 Palestinians during raids across the occupied West Bank districts and East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said on Wednesday.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) ISRAELI  FORCES  BAN  PALESTINIAN  CITIZENS  OF  ISRAEL  FROM  ENTERING  OLD  CITY  OF  JERUSALEM 
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 9, 2017.   Israeli forces prevented dozens of Palestinian citizens of Israel from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon, claiming that they had been subjected to bans from “higher orders.”
___Sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces were deployed at the entrances to the Old City and Al-Aqsa ahead of the asr afternoon prayers, examining the IDs of people entering the Old City, and preventing Palestinians whose ID cards said they resided in Palestinian-majority towns in Israel from entering.
___Witnesses said that Israeli forces chased after some people who tried to pass through Damascus Gate into the Old City despite having been told they were not allowed in, and escorted them out.
___The witnesses added that Israeli forces had forced some buses carrying worshipers to leave Jerusalem.
___A worshiper from the town of Umm al-Fahm said that some eight buses coming from Palestinian-majority municipalities such as Umm al-Fahm, Mashhad, and Baqa al-Gharbiya had been stopped by Israeli security forces upon arriving at the Old City of Jerusalem.   MORE . . .
❸ “MADA”  DEMANDS  RELEASE  OF  DETAINED  JOURNALISTS  IN  PALESTINIAN  PRISONS    
Palestine News Network – PNN
Aug. 9, 2017.   The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the arrest campaign carried out by the security services in the West Bank last night against five journalists; MADA expresses its rejection of all justifications of attacks against media freedoms.
___The arrestment campaign included the following journalists: Ahmad Mohammad Halayka, Tareq Abu Zeyd, Quttaiba Saleh Qasem, Mamdouh Mahmoud Hamamreh and Amer Abdulhakim Abu Arafa.
___Moy’ad Hamamreh the brother of the journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh reported to MADA “at around19:00pm of (08/08/2017) and while my brother Mamdouh was in a shop right near his house in Husan village, a private car arrived (Scoda), with agents dressed in civil presented themselves as Palestinian intelligence agents, and asked Mamdouh to accompany them without presenting any official document or any arrest warrant, and they deported him to the headquarters of the Palestinian Intelligence in Bethlehem”.   MORE . . .

“THE  PRISON,”  BY  AHMAD  DAHBUR  (Ahmed  Dahbour)
(To Abu Faris. . . who has been there)

Prison teaches that the heart is a desert,
That light is a desert.
It curses the fire and the land of the commandos.
Prison teaches that water is a chameleon,
That the landscape is a snake,
That echo is treacherous, and the wind an enemy.
Prison teaches that the guide’s sight grows dim,
And that the homeland departs.
Prison is a black kingdom in the sand;
Prison is a sword guarding the eyelids;
Prison . . . not the homeland!
So how, my beloved homeland, will the beloved ones survive?

Here we are, no complaints and no regrets,
We never say: an aimless wandering!
Blood gushes forth from the depths of our love.
Prison assaults but does not hit the mark;
Our wounds hit back,
Reaching out like water . . . like the wilderness,
Promising the light with a new light.
From deep within us, signaling twice!
Our cub child,
And the fire of salvation.
We see it, yes we do.
We are not dreaming,
We almost step into his joyous landscape
We almost do.
This is the moment of travail in our difficult labor,
We hug the newborn―
He who springs from our very ecstasy,
Whose kicks we feel in our guts,
Who teaches the hungry what he knows
And declares in words well understood:
Revolution, revolution . . . till life.

The inmate has not lost his features in the sand,
Prison did not turn him into a desert.
From his hunger, water and vegetation sprang.
When silence wounds him,
He can break it with a sigh,
But he endures.
His testimony:
Near death, there were exhaustion and fatigue,
His executioner pressing him to promise
A word . . . a groan, or to divulge his secret,
But all in vain.
His countenance was radiating in the sand
Like an oasis,
For prison had not turned him into a desert.

About Ahmad Dahbur. And here.
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.