Month: November 2017

“. . . Whole governments relaxed in your jaw line . . .” (Naomi Shihab Nye)

Harold Knight1 Comment

❶ Palestine, China sign agreement on free trade

  • Background: “Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.” Cornell International Law Journal

❷ Saudi Arabia pledges full support to Palestinian people
❸ Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian farmer in Nablus
❹ POETRY by Naomi Shihab Nye
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❶ PALESTINE,  CHINA  SIGN  AGREEMENT  ON  FREE  TRADE 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Nov. 30, 2017 ― Palestine and China signed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding on free trade between the two countries, during a ceremony at the Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah.
___Minister of National Economy, Abeer Odeh, and deputy Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen, signed the memorandum of understanding on free trade in the presence of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and China’s ambassador to Palestine, Chen Xingzhong.   MORE . . .   ..

Miller, Zinaida.
“Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.”
Cornell International Law Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, Spring2014, pp. 331-415.
[. . . .] The sense that international organizations and actors could and should involve themselves in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction opened space for multilateral mediation as well as for direct international involvement in the structure and implementation of the Oslo regime. From the outset of the Accords, it was clear that only extraordinary financial and institutional support from foreign donors and international organizations could sustain the peace process: by October 1993, donors had already pledged billions in aid. By 2003, the World Bank remarked that donor disbursement to the West Bank and Gaza remains the highest sustained rate of per capita disbursements to an aid recipient in the world since the Second World War.” At the beginning of the Oslo process, funds were intended to bolster the peace process by building confidence that it would improve Palestinians’ lives by providing a “peace dividend,” supporting Palestinian economic development as a method for achieving autonomy and, eventually, independence. Neither peace nor independence materialized, however, and two decades later, international support aimed simply to maintain the status quo and prevent the collapse of the Authority rather than contribute to progressive change.
[. . . .] Events on the ground constantly affect the permutations of international assistance. Failed talks, concerns over corruption, Israeli settlement building, and Palestinian violence have all affected the provision of aid and the relationships between internationals and local elites. International contributions to the governance regime are partially contingent upon politics and immediate events, but they are simultaneously shaped by the experiences and expertise of those delivering aid. Over the decades of integral international assistance, ideas about the necessity of institutions, the links between development and peace, and the provision of international assistance in humanitarian catastrophes influenced donors and aid organizations. In addition, these ideas affect the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—who today serve as co-governors of territory and population—and the parameters of Palestinian resistance.    FULL ARTICLE.

❷ SAUDI  ARABIA  PLEDGES  FULL  SUPPORT  TO  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
Nov. 30, 2017 ― Manal Radwan, Saudi Arabia’s delegate at the United Nations, pledged on Thursday during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the situation in the Near East and on the “question of Palestine” that her country will continue to support the Palestinian people in their cause for self-determination and statehood.
___Radwan reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s support “for the Palestinian people in their historic struggle for the realization of their inalienable rights, foremost of which is the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian State on all the Palestinian land occupied since 1967.”
___She condemned Israel, the occupying power, for its violations against the Palestinians people, including the killing of innocent civilians, illegal settlement construction and expansion, the theft of Palestinian land and the demolition of thousands of homes since the Palestinian exodus (Nakba) in 1948.  MORE . . .
❸ ISRAELI SETTLERS SHOT DEAD A PALESTINIAN FARMER IN NABLUS   
Palestine News Network – PNN    
Nov. 30, 2017 ― A Palestinian farmer was shot dead by Israeli settlers while he was working in his land near the village of Qusra, south of Nablus in the West Bank.
___Israeli settlers reportedly opened fire at Mahmoud Zaal Odeh, in his forties, injuring him seriously. He was announced dead a few minutes later.
___This is not the first time a Palestinian is killed by illegal Israeli settlers. On May 18, an Israeli settler shot and killed a 23-year-old Palestinian during a protest in Huwwata, to the south of Nablus.
___In 2016 alone, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 107 settler attacks on Palestinians. . .    MORE . . .   ..

“HELLO, PALESTINE,” BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
In the hours after you died,
all the pain went out of your face.
Whole governments relaxed
in your jaw line.
How long had you been away
from the place you loved best?
Every minute was too much.
Each year’s bundle of horror stories:
more trees chapped,
homes demolished,
people gone crazy.
You’d turn your face
away from the screen.
At the end you spoke
to your own blood
filtering through a machine:
We’ll get there again, friend.
When you died, your long frustration
zipped its case closed.
Everyone in a body is chosen
for trouble and bliss.
At least nothing got amputated, I said,
and the nurses looked quizzical.
Well, if only you had seen his country.

From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISRAEL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE.  Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.   Available from Barnes and Noble.

“. . . fill prisons with dignity . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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❶ Israeli forces order Jordan Valley farmers off their land
. . . . . ―❶ (ᴀ) Hamdallah: Israeli plans to forcibly transfer Bedouins in E1 ‘cross a red line’

  • Background: “Dignity Takings and Dispossession in Israel.” Law & Social Inquiry 

❷ Jordan’s King: Just solution of the Palestinian cause brings regional stability
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  The national Bureau: a new Nakbah may take place if Israel forces Bedouin communities to leave their lands
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
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❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  ORDER  JORDAN  VALLEY  FARMERS  OFF  THEIR  LAND       
Ma’an News Agency  
Nov. 29, 2017 ― Israeli forces on Wednesday morning reportedly forced Palestinian farmers off lands they were working on in the Jordan Valley area of the Tubas district in the northern occupied West Bank, according to official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned WAFA news agency.
___WAFA reported that Israeli forces ordered a group of Palestinian farmers near the village of Sakout to stop working and leave the lands immediately.
___While it remained unclear why the farmers were suddenly ordered off their land, the Jordan Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C — under full Israeli military control.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ―❶ (ᴀ) HAMDALLAH:  ISRAELI  PLANS  TO  FORCIBLY  TRANSFER  BEDOUINS  IN  E1  ‘CROSS  A  RED  LINE’
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 28, 2017 ― Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah released a statement on Monday expressing the government’s solidarity with the hundreds of Palestinian Bedouins in the community of Jabal al-Baba at risk of forcible displacement by the Israeli government.
___Earlier this month, Israeli forces distributed evacuation notices to all 300 Palestinian residents of the village in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem, saying the residents had eight days to move to a “relocation site” designated for them by Israeli authorities.
___The village is populated by some 55 Bedouin families who have inhabited the area for 65 years — after being forced out of their original lands in 1948 when Israel was created — and face constant threat of being expelled from their homes.
___“As the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, let me say clearly: we stand with our Palestinian citizens in Jabal al Baba, as well as with all of the other Palestinian communities across the West Bank that Israel seeks to displace in order to build illegal settlements in their place,” Hamdallah said.    MORE . . .     ..

Kedar, Alexandre (Sandy).
“DIGNITY  TAKINGS  AND  DISPOSSESSION  IN  ISRAEL.”
LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, vol. 41, no. 4, Fall2016, pp. 866-887.
[. . . .] Dignity takings occur when the state confiscates more than property; such takings simultaneously deny the dispossessed their dignity. Dignity presumes that human beings are of equal value, and entails a respect for each person’s autonomy. As such, dignity takings deny these core values. . . .
___Dignity taking entails five major elements: (1) “A state directly or indirectly” takes property. (2) “Destroys or confiscates property.” Such dignity takings are often effectuated through brutal and unilateral state force. . .  Atuahene emphasizes the function of property as personhood. Accordingly, when persons are displaced from their homes and properties, they suffer great emotional harm. . . . (3) “From owners or occupiers”. (4) “Whom it deems to be sub persons.” This includes dehumanization, “the failure to recognize an individual or group’s humanness”. It can also occur via infantilization, which is the “restriction of an individual or group’s autonomy based on the failure to recognize and respect their full capacity to reason” or treating them as if they were minors. (5) “Without paying just compensation or without a legitimate public purpose”. Atuahene clarifies that “just compensation” is not sufficient. If the landholder cannot reject the compensation offered and remain on the property, and the taking was not the result of a “legitimate public purpose” but part of a “larger strategy to dehumanize or infantilize” a specific group . . . this qualifies as a dignity taking.
[. . . .] To conclude, the concept of dignity takings, with some qualifications, adaptations, and transformations, can serve as an effective tool in analyzing the dispossession of Palestinians land in and by Israel. The concept highlights not only the material loss and harm done by these takings, but simultaneously the ways in which they inflicted devastating blows to the dignity and humanity of the dispossessed. Finally, the recognition that a certain taking or type of taking such as the Land Acquisition Law and Negev Bedouin cases constitute dignity taking should guide us in devising restitution processes that would restore not only the pecuniary value of the land, but also the taken dignity. Such restoration should recognize both past wrongs and present interests and impediments, while striving to design a healing future.   SOURCE . . .

❷ JORDAN’S  KING:  JUST  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  CAUSE  BRINGS  REGIONAL  STABILITY 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Nov. 29, 2017 ― King of Jordan Abdullah II said on Tuesday evening that reaching a just and permanent solution of the Palestinian cause will lead to achieving security and stability in the entire region.
___King Abdullah, during a meeting in Washington with U.S. senators, called for reviving peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis based on a two-state solution and the resolutions of international community, leading to the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and living side by side with Israel.   MORE . . .   ..
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU:  A  NEW  NAKBAH  MAY  TAKE  PLACE  IF  ISRAEL  FORCES  BEDOUIN  COMMUNITIES  TO  LEAVE  THEIR  LANDS    Palestine News Network – PNN 
Nov. 29, 2017 ― The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements released the weekly report on settlements named Israel’s plans Ethnic Cleansing The Bedouin Communities Surrounding Jerusalem in which they wrote:
___“The deadline given by the occupation authorities to the citizens of the Jabal Al-Baba in the Eizariya town, Jerusalem, to leave their land, properties and homes ended last week.  Thus, a new Nakbah (catastrophe) may take place should they succeed in implementing the plan, which means besieging the city of Jerusalem as a whole, and completely isolating it from its Palestinian surroundings.
___The Judaization, racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing policy that carried out by the occupation government against the Palestinian citizens in the East Jerusalem i.e. the Bedouin communities in Jabal-Baba, Arab-Jahalin and Abu-Nawar community to evacuate them requires the world countries. . . to intervene. . . ”  MORE . . .

“HERE  WE  SHALL  STAY,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,
we shall remain
like a wall upon your chest,
and in your throat
like a shard of glass,
a cactus thorn,
and in your eyes
a sandstorm.

We shall remain
a wall upon your chest,
clean dishes in your restaurants,
serve drinks in your bars,
sweep the floors of your kitchens
to snatch a bite for our children
from your blue fangs.

Here we shall stay,
sing our songs,
take to the angry streets,
fill prisons with dignity.
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,
we shall remain,
guard the shade of the fig
and olive trees,
ferment rebellion in our children
as yeast in the dough.

—translated by Sharif Elmusa and Charles Doria
From poemhunter.com
Tawfiq Zyyad (7 May 1929 – 5 July 1994) was a Palestinian politician well known for his “poetry of protest”. Born in the Galilee, Zyyad studied literature in USSR. He was elected mayor of Nazareth, a victory that “surprised and alarmed” Israelis. Elected to the Knesset 1973, Zyyad was active in pressuring the Israeli government to change its policies towards Palestinians both in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. A report he co-authored. . .  (More . . .)

 

“. . . blindfold me But here I will stand tall . . .” (Fouzi el Asmar)

Harold Knight1 Comment

❶ Israel demolishes 2 Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem
❷ Hamas and Fatah meet in Cairo to continue reconciliation talks

  • Background: “Indispensible but Elusive: Palestinian National Reunification.” Middle East Policy.

❸ Israel arrests 19 Palestinians including 6 Fatah activists taken for interrogation
❹ Save the Children: rights of Palestinian children being eroded in West Bank
❺ POETRY by Fouzi el Asmar
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❶ ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  2  PALESTINIAN  HOMES  IN  OCCUPIED  EAST  JERUSALEM    
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 22, 2017 ― Israeli forces reportedly demolished two Palestinian homes on Wednesday in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local sources.
___Locals told Ma’an that staff from Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, under the protection of police forces, raided the neighborhoods of al-Issawiya and Shufat and demolished two homes, under the pretext that they were built without difficult-to-obtain Israeli building permits.
___Israeli forces first demolished the home of Sharif Muhsein in al-Issawiya, which according to local activist Muhammad Abu al-Hummus, was still under construction. The demolition reportedly caused damages to the house next door.   MORE . . .
❷  HAMAS  AND  FATAH  MEET  IN  CAIRO  TO  CONTINUE  RECONCILIATION  TALKS
Ma’an News Agency 
Nov. 21, 2017 ― Palestinian political factions are set to meet on Tuesday in Cairo, Egypt, in the newest round of national reconciliation talks, following the reconciliation agreement signed by feuding factions Hamas and Fatah in October.
___Official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency reported that the “national dialogue” is to last for three days, and will review what has been achieved so far from the October agreement, and review elements from the failed 2011 agreement.  MORE . . .

(Note: While this article is four years old and is about the previous agreements which failed, it offers valuable information for understanding the current work toward reconciliation between the two entities. We will continue with more articles written in the intervening years.)

Ibish, Hussein.
“INDISPENSIBLE  BUT  ELUSIVE:  PALESTINIAN  NATIONAL  REUNIFICATION.”
MIDDLE EAST POLICY, vol. 21, no. 3, Fall2014, pp. 31-46.
[. . . .] Egypt has always regarded the Gaza border area and the Rafah crossing as more of a domestic and national-security issue than a foreign-policy challenge. . .  [but] Egypt moved to shut down smuggling tunnels, make it much harder for anything or anyone to pass between Egypt and Gaza, and close the crossing except for humanitarian purposes or other special exceptions. Gaza had never in its history been this cut off. The Egyptian blockade was, if anything, tighter than the Israeli blockade. And Egypt was in no way constrained, as Israel is, by the responsibilities accruing to the officially designated (by the UN Security Council) occupying power in Gaza.  Egypt’s lawful prerogatives are much more elastic [than srael’s]. Hamas soon found itself politically isolated, diplomatically squeezed and economically strangled at a whole new level, even considering that the blockade had existed since the 2007 split with the PA in the West Bank.
[. . . .] As Hamas was facing an unprecedented meltdown in Gaza during 2013-14, the Ramallah leadership was also in a severe, albeit less extreme, crisis of its own. Like Hamas, its leaders lacked a popular mandate. . . .  Its policy of negotiating with Israel had not produced any tangible benefits in years, but had occasioned significant frustration. Its controversial policy of security coordination with Israel helped to secure law and order and stability . . . was painted as simply providing calm for the occupier. The sense of patriotic duty and national purpose was being weakened . . .
[. . . .] The calculations of all parties regarding the unity agreement [2011] were reshaped by the hostilities in Gaza, the subject of an uneasy truce and uncertain negotiations. Indeed, the Hamas-Israel war appeared to breathe new life into an arrangement . . .
[. . . .]  Israel will have to change its implicit, and perhaps even explicit, position towards the unity agreement. It could well be argued that Israel has already done so, by signaling a willingness to go along with such an arrangement if it is coupled with a “demilitarization” regime . . .  If Israel does not adapt its policies towards the Ramallah leadership, it can virtually guarantee that Hamas will eventually and plausibly insist that the 2014 war with Israel constituted a “victory” for the Islamist organization and its policy of armed struggle. . .  If Israel does decide to adapt its policies in order to deny Hamas that opportunity, this will require a new approach to the PA and, if there is an explicit understanding on a lasting ceasefire or reconstruction, perhaps also to the Palestinian national-unity agreement.    SOURCE . . .    ..

❸ ISRAEL  ARRESTS  19  PALESTINIANS  INCLUDING  6  FATAH  ACTIVISTS  TAKEN  FOR  INTERROGATION    
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Nov. 20,2017 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a large-scale arrest campaign at dawn on Tuesday arresting 19 people most of them in Jerusalem and targeted girls and leaders from Jerusalem.
___The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said that the occupation arrested 13 Palestinians from Jerusalem.
___According to an attorney with the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Mufeed al-Haj, Israeli police is also interrogating six Fatah activists, including one woman, from East Jerusalem detained in earlier raids at their homes for their alleged activity in the occupied city.
___He said that the six detained include Hatem Abdul Qadder, one of the top Fatah officials . . . .   MORE . . .
❹ SAVE  THE  CHILDREN:  RIGHTS  OF  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  BEING  ERODED  IN  WEST  BANK   
Ma’an News Agency     Nov. 20, 2017 (Updated Nov. 21, 2017) ― On the anniversary of Universal Children’s Day, international NGO Save the Children released a statement highlighting ongoing the rights violations of Palestinian children in the occupied territory by Israel.
___Jennifer Moorehead, the country director of Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory called for greater protection of schools and children’s right to education, saying that “children’s most fundamental right to education is being eroded” in the territory.
___Moorehead highlighted the cases of 55 Palestinian schools in Area C, the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli civilian and security control, that are under threat of demolition by Israeli forces.
___“Distance, risky roads, the presence of settlers or of military checkpoints had presented insurmountable challenges for many children to reach the nearest schools,” Moorhead said.   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

“. . . Hello, good morning, we’re fine . . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

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❶ After PLO halts ties with US, Arab League steps in to salvage peace process

  • Background: “Edward Said and the Future of Palestine.” Raritan.

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian national council says closure of PLO office in US reward to Israel
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Abbas will send Majid Faraj to resolve the crisis with the US
❷ Hundreds cross Rafah as Egypt continues to open crossing for 3rd day
❸ Israeli Occupation prepares to demolish six buildings in Kafr Aqab
❹ POETRY by Mourid Barghouti
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❶ AFTER  PLO  HALTS  TIES  WITH  US,  ARAB  LEAGUE  STEPS  IN  TO  SALVAGE  PEACE  PROCESS 
Ma’an News Agency 
Nov. 20, 2017 ― The Arab League has reportedly approached the United States government regarding its recent decision to punitively shut down the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington D.C, over the Palestinian leadership’s efforts to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
___Official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency reported on Sunday, shortly after the US State Department announced its decision, that the Arab League — a regional organization of 22 Arab countries — announced that its Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit approached the US President Donald Trump’s administration over the closure.
___The league is reportedly attempting to do damage control and resume US-led peace negotiations following the PLO’s reaction to the closure, in which the group’s secretary general, Saeb Erekat, threatened to “put on hold all our communications with this American administration” if the US did in fact close the PLO Washington office.   MORE . . .

FALK, RICHARD. “EDWARD  SAID  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  PALESTINE.”
RARITAN,  vol. 34, no. 3, Winter2015, pp. 1-21.
[. . . .] . . . developments in and after 1967 permanently changed the strategic framework of the entire region and infused the Palestine national movement with a sobering epiphany along these lines: if liberation for the Palestinian people was to be achieved, it could only result from what might be called liberation-from-within, that is, on the basis of a Palestinian resistance movement rather than through reliance on warfare waged by neighboring Arab states. The Palestinian leadership for the first time fully realized that Palestinians must themselves become agents of their own liberation.
[. . . .] Said’s distress with the secular Palestinian leadership reached its climax after the Oslo Framework of Principles was made public in 1993 . . .  seen as a breakthrough at the time in most liberal circles as it acknowledged the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people with a status enabling direct negotiations for a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel within an anticipated time horizon of five years. In retrospect, the Oslo approach was deeply flawed in a number of respects . . .  ENTRUSTING THE UNITED STATES WITH THE ROLE OF “HONEST BROKER” ENSURED THE BIASING OF THE PROCESS; and there was no obligation for Israel to end the expansion of its unlawful settlements. Said prophetically interpreted the Oslo agreement as a humbling defeat for Palestinian diplomacy, a bigger setback than the 1967 War, and the fulfillment of his worst fears as to where the Palestinian movement was headed. . . . What particularly disturbed Said about the Oslo text was its complete failure to reference Palestinian rights, especially the inalienable right of Palestinian self-determination. Beyond this there was no explicit mention of Palestinian statehood. There was also no insistence that Israel suspend any further expansion of the flagrantly unlawful settlements and commit to their eventual dismantling. . .  Said renounced his advocacy of the 1988 conception of a just peace. Instead, he now proposed a single binational state as the correct principled solution for both peoples.    SOURCE . . .

. . . . ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  PALESTINIAN   NATIONAL   COUNCIL   SAYS   CLOSURE   OF   PLO  OFFICE   IN   US   REWARD   TO   ISRAEL  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Nov. 20, 2017 ― The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the parliament in exile, strongly rejected on Monday the US decision not to renew the permit for the operation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, saying this decision rewards Israel for its continued illegal settlement activities.
___PNC president, Salim Zanoon, said in a statement that the US decision is an attempt to pressure and blackmail the Palestinians against pursing Israel for its crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the International Criminal Court.
___He said this move conflicts with the US role as mediator and sponsor of efforts to revive the deadlocked Palestinian-Israeli peace process.   SOURCE . . .
. . . . . ❶  ―  (ᴃ)  ABBAS  WILL  SEND  MAJID  FARAJ  TO  RESOLVE  THE  CRISIS  WITH  THE  US    
Palestine News Network – PNN
Nov. 20, 2017 ― President Mahmoud Abbas will send the head of the General Intelligence Service, General Manger, Majid Faraj to the United States to resolve the escalating crisis with the US State Department following their decision to close the office of the Representative office of Palestine in Washington within 90 days, according to a senior diplomatic source.    MORE . . .
❷ HUNDREDS  CROSS  RAFAH  AS  EGYPT  CONTINUES  TO  OPEN  CROSSING  FOR  3RD  DAY 
Ma’an News Agency 
Nov. 20, 2017 ― Egyptian authorities continued to open the Rafah crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt on Monday for the third and final day, allowing humanitarian cases, students, and holders of Egyptian residency to pass through.
___Hundreds of Palestinians passed through the crossing over the past two days, as thousands more waited for a chance to travel via the crossing, which had been closed for more than 100 days before it was opened over the weekend.
___The crossing was reopened on Saturday for three days, under the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) control for the first time in 10 years.    MORE . . .
❸ ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  PREPARES  TO  DEMOLISH  SIX  BUILDINGS  IN  KAFR  AQAB
Palestine News Network – PNN
Nov. 20, 2017 ―  Israeli occupation forces with a group of engineers stormed Al-Matar Neighborhood in Kafr Aqab, north of occupied Jerusalem, and took measurements of six buildings in preparation for their demolition.
___Local sources said that the explosive engineers accompanied by Israeli police, surrounded six buildings threatened with demolition, took their measurements, and carried out a reconnaissance in the area before leaving the place.
___The residents were given eviction orders in September and then 10 days ago a decision by the Israeli High Court authorized the Israeli municipality to demolish the buildings within a month starting from mid-November to next month.    MORE . . .

“HOW ARE YOU?” BY MOURID BARGHOUTI
Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

From: Barghouti, Mourid. Midnight and other Poems. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.
Mourid Barghouti

“. . . I plant my dreams in the streets . . .” (Majid Abu Ghoush)

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❶ Erekat : we will put on hold all our communications with this American administration
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Arab league approaches US over PLO’s Washington office closure
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Dr. Ashrawi: U.S. is disqualifying itself as a peace broker in the region

  • Background: “The Concept of Palestine: The Conception of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period.” Journal of Holy Land & Palestine Studies.

❷ Israel to demolish residential structures near Hebron
❸ Dozens of Jewish settlers defile Aqsa Mosque
❹ POETRY by Majid Abu Ghoush

Special notice: Museum of the Palestinian People  (Please make a contribution. Thanks to a generous donor, any gift you make will be matched up to $25,000 by the end of November. This amount will count toward our 2018 budget of $168,000.)
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❶ EREKAT  :  WE  WILL  PUT  ON  HOLD  ALL  OUR  COMMUNICATIONS  WITH  THIS  AMERICAN  ADMINISTRATION       
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Nov. 19, 2017 ― Saeb Erekat , secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee, said that if the American administrations close PLO offices in Washington, D.C., we will put on hold all our communications with this American administration.”
___Erekat added that “the US State Department notified us with an official letter that they cannot certify the continuance opening of the PLO office in Washington D.C. due to the fact that we are pursuing and encouraging the ICC (International Criminal Court).”
___“This is very unfortunate and unacceptable. This is the pressure being exerted on this administration from the Netanyahu government.    MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ARAB  LEAGUE  APPROACHES  US  OVER  PLO’S  WASHINGTON  OFFICE  CLOSURE
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 19, 2017 ―The Arab League Sunday announced that its Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has approached the US administration after the latter announced it will close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) office in Washington.
___The league said in a press statement that Aboul Gheit and Minister of foreign affairs Riyad al-Malki met and discussed the latest developments on the ground and possible means to resume the peace process between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
___Al-Malki briefed Aboul Gheit on the official position of the Palestinian Authority regarding the closure of the PLO’s Washington office, saying it will harm the peace process and the role of the US as peace broker.
___Aboul Gheit’s spokesman said the league is working to maintain official communication channels between the Palestinian Authority and the US administration. . .   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) DR.  ASHRAWI:  U.S.  IS  DISQUALIFYING  ITSELF  AS  A  PEACE  BROKER  IN  THE  REGION    
Palestine News Network – PNN    
Nov. 19, 2017 ― In response to media inquiries concerning the U.S. administration’s refusal to extend the waiver of statutory restrictions on the General Delegation of the PLO to the United States in Washington D.C., PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned such a move and said:
___“Instead of holding Israel liable for its persistent violations of international law and conventions, the U.S. administration and Congress are threatening to punish the Palestinian people because of statements made by President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations and other leaders pertaining to ICC accountability for Israel and for its war crimes in Palestine.   MORE . . .

Masalha, Nur. “THE  CONCEPT  OF  PALESTINE:  THE  CONCEPTION  OF  PALESTINE  FROM  THE  LATE  BRONZE  AGE  TO  THE  MODERN  PERIOD.”
Journal  of  Holy  Land  &  Palestine  Studies, vol. 15, no. 2, Nov. 2016, pp. 143-202.
The celebrated English historian Edward Gibbon, writing in 1776, noted that ‘Phoenicia and Palestine will forever live in the [collective] memory of mankind’. . . Palestine is the collective watan (homeland) of the Palestinian people —the indigenous people of historic Palestine. The Palestinian people have a multi-religious and multicultural ancient heritage and a multi-layered identity deeply rooted in ancient history. Palestinians often speak of Biladuna Filastin: ‘Our Country, Palestine’ (colloquially: Bladna Falastin). The country of Palestine as a distinct political geography-with its own distinct and diverse traditions and a mélange of styles —is deeply rooted in the indigenous psyche and consciousness; the toponym (place-name) of Palestine is deeply rooted in the ancient past from the Late Bronze Age onwards. . . . For a millennium and a half of Classical Antiquity and Byzantine Christianity as well as under Islam in the Middle Ages the term Palestine also acquired official administrative status.
[. . . .] For over 1200 years the name Palestine was used most commonly, consistently and continuously throughout Classical Antiquity, from the highlight of classical Athenian civilisation . . . [until] the occupation of Palestine by the Muslim armies in 637 AD.
___To substitute the vague and semi-mythical term Cana’an for the real historical and official toponym Palaestina for a spectacular classical period lasting over one millennium would be tantamount to the elimination of the actual history of this important region . . . [and] eliminate the possibility of any real historical knowledge of one of the most important periods in the ancient history of the region, namely: early Christianity and Byzantine greater Palaestina. Greek-speaking Byzantine Christianity in Palestine began in the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306—337 AD) and lasted until the beginning of Islamic rule in Palestine in 637 AD.
[. . . .] Furthermore, when referring to the ancient history of this region modern European scholarship (and even early Zionist scholarly societies such as the ‘Jewish Palestine Exploration Society’, founded in 1914) universally and unanimously talk about ‘Palestine’, even when referring to Jewish history. [. . . .]  SOURCE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  RESIDENTIAL  STRUCTURES  NEAR  HEBRON 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 19, 2017 ― Israeli authorities notified Palestinians about a decision to demolish residential structures and animal barns in Masafer Yatta area, to the south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.
___Rateb Jabour, who monitors settlement activities in the area, said Israeli forces handed a written notice to locals informing them about their intention to demolish a number of residential structures and a barn used for raising livestock in Kherbet Shaab al-Butum, a village in Masafer Yatta area. The barn was built with funding from the European Union.   MORE . . .
❸ DOZENS  OF  JEWISH  SETTLERS  DEFILE  AQSA  MOSQUE  
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 19, 2017 ― Dozens of Jewish settlers broke into the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem on Sunday morning under Israeli security protection provided by special police forces.     ___The PIC reporter said that 86 settlers entered the holy Islamic site via the Maghareba Gate in six separate groups and roamed its plazas.     ___He added that 35 Israeli students toured the Aqsa Mosque compound along with guides, who explained to the students the history of the alleged Jewish Temple.     MORE . . .

“RESISTANCE,”  MAJID  ABU  GHOUSH
I plant my poetry
in the streets,
in every quarter
and every alley,
a poem…resisting the conquerors!
I plant my fingers
in the streets,
in every hole,
in every flower pot:
a finger…resisting the conquerors!
I plant my blood
in the streets,
on every sidewalk,
on every roadsign:
a drop of blood…resisting the conquerors!
I plant my dreams
in the streets,
in the heads of passers-by:
an infant dream…resisting the conquerors!
I plant the names of my loved ones
in the streets,
on every tree, on every wall:
the name of a martyr resisting the conquerors!
I plant the colors of the flag
in the streets,
on every house,
and every window and door:
a color…resisting the conquerors!
I plant my children’s luggage
in the streets
at every roadblock,
at every checkpoint:
a suitcase…resisting the conquerors!
I plant my hands
in the streets,
on every corner:
a firm hand resisting the conquerors!

Majid Abu Ghoush (b. Amwas) is a prolific poet, a member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers, and a founding member of Poets Without Borders Palestine. Abu Ghoush reading one of his own poems.  See also. 
From: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Middle East Affairs
Special Programs, Commemorating the Intifada’s Tenth Year, April 10, 1998
Prof. Naseer Aruri

“. . . You may impose a nightmare of your terror . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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❶ Tayseer Khaled: The Declaration of Independence Still The Guiding Standard of Our National Struggle

  • Background: Palestinian Statehood: Trapped between Rhetoric and Realpolitik.” International & Comparative Law Quarterly

❷ FM Malki says Palestine will not accept blackmail on PLO mission in US
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) European medical delegation conducts surgeries in Gaza
❸ Opinion/Analysis: The international community should prioritize Palestine’s security
❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ TAYSEER  KHALED:  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  STILL  THE  GUIDING  STANDARD  OF  OUR  NATIONAL  STRUGGLE
Palestine News Network – PNN
Nov. 18, 2017 ― In commemorating the 29th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Head of the Palestinian Expatriate Affairs Department , Tayseer Khaled, said that the Declaration adopted by the Palestinian National Council at its 19th session held in Algiers on Nov. 1988, remains a compass for our national struggle as well as the right to self-determination, the right of return and the right to establish a Palestinian State on all the occupied Palestinian territories of the 1967 aggression, on top of which Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the people and State of Palestine.
___Adding, the Palestinian people’s rights as specified in the Declaration of Independence are inalienable and will not be a negotiating issue.
___The American administration shall not waste time in promoting solutions that deny these rights. . .  the administration intends to provide what it named an “Deal of the Century” [which] has nothing to do with the international legitimacy’s resolutions, and it will be rejected by the Palestinians, stressing the need to return to the Palestinian Central Council and the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s resolutions, and to rebuild the relationship with Israel being an occupying colonial and apartheid state.   MORE . . .

Eden, Paul.
“II.  PALESTINIAN  STATEHOOD:  TRAPPED  BETWEEN  RHETORIC  AND  REALPOLITIK.”
INTERNATIONAL  &  COMPARATIVE  LAW  QUARTERLY, vol. 62, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 225-239.
[. . . .] On 22 November 1974, UNGA Resolution 3237 (XXIX) granted the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) observer status in its capacity as a national liberation movement. Resolution 3237 included the right of the PLO ‘to participate as an observer in the sessions and the work of all international conferences convened under the auspices of other organs of the United Nations’. . . .  On 15 December 1988, the UNGA adopted Resolution 43/177 that acknowledged the proclamation of the State of Palestine by the Palestine National Council on 15 November 1988, affirmed the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their territory occupied since 1967, and decided that effective as of 15 November 1988, the designation of ‘Palestine’ should be used in place of the designation ‘Palestine Liberation Organization’ in the United Nations system. . .
[. . . .] On 7 July 1998, the UNGA adopted Resolution 52/250, conferring additional rights and privileges on Palestine regarding participation in the work of the UN that had previously been reserved for Member States. . .  [. . . .] One of the key problems with the assertion that the entity under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a State for the purposes of international law is the fact that both the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (‘DOP’) and the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (‘Interim Agreement’) clearly indicate that the Palestinian Authority lacks the capacity to conduct foreign relations.
[. . . .] There can be little doubt that the Palestinians have a right of self-determination but the powers currently possessed by the Palestinian Authority fall short of the independence necessary for Palestine (as currently constituted) to be regarded as a sovereign State. The fact that over two-thirds of the Member States of the United Nations currently recognize the existence of the State of Palestine is more indicative of a rhetorical commitment to the realization of Palestinian self-determination than anything else. As James Crawford notes, ‘[s]elf-determination, while it may and often does lead to statehood, is not the same thing as statehood.’ [. . . .]    FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ FM  MALKI  SAYS  PALESTINE  WILL  NOT  ACCEPT  BLACKMAIL  ON  PLO  MISSION  IN  US     
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 18, 2017 ― The Palestinian leadership will not accept any blackmail or pressure regarding the operation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation in Washington or negotiations, Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday.
___He told Voice of Palestine Radio that his US counterpart, Rex Tillerson, had not yet signed the memorandum that is issued every six months and which allows the PLO mission’s office in Washington to remain open despite the expiration of the previous memorandum two days ago.
___He said that the US Secretary of State signs this memorandum based on his conviction that the PLO has not done anything that would affect the situation that exists on the ground.
___Malki said that failure to sign the memorandum so far may be part of US measures aimed at pressuring the leadership or create confusion in relation to several political topics.   MORE . . .
RELATED . . .   ..  US  THREATENS  TO  CLOSE  PLO  OFFICE  IN  WASHINGTON
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) EUROPEAN  MEDICAL  DELEGATION  CONDUCTS  SURGERIES  IN  GAZA
The Palestinian Information Center 
Nov. 18, 2017 ― A delegation from the Palestinian Doctors Union in Europe, France branch, on Saturday performed a series of qualitative surgeries in a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
___The PIC reporter said that the medical crew conducted surgeries in al-Shifa, Nasser and Indonesian hospitals in Gaza in coordination with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
___Director of the Gaza office of the Palestinian Doctors Union, Dr. Ahmad Abu Nada, said that the delegation, composed of two doctors named Nizar Badran and Raouf Salati, participated in the seventh conference organized by the faculty of medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza under the title “Health Crisis and Disaster Management in the Gaza Strip”.   MORE . . .
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMUNITY  SHOULD  PRIORITIZE  PALESTINE’S  SECURITY 
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 17, 2017  The reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas increasingly resembles other political miscalculations which the international community still upholds as significant reference points . . . .
___Upon Hamas returning control of Gaza’s border crossings to the PA, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, issued a statement that is flawed on many counts. Not only does it marginalise Hamas’s major political role in Palestine . . .   by completely failing to mention the movement, but it also insinuates that the reconciliation agreement constitutes “positive momentum”. . . .
___“I take this opportunity,” said Mladenov, “to remind all factions in Gaza of the importance of maintaining security and ending militant activities that undermine peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis alike.” There was no mention of militant Israeli activities which underpin the occupation and siege of the coastal territory.
___According to Hamas, the UN official’s comments provided “cover for more Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”  [. . . .] there are elements missing from Hamas’s criticism which would shed more light upon the dismissive attitude of the international community towards Palestinians in Gaza.    MORE . . .

“I  MAY  LOSE  MY  DAILY  BREAD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
I may lose my daily bread, if you wish
I may hawk my clothes and bed
I may become a stonecutter, or a porter
Or a street sweeper
I may search in animal dung for food
I may collapse, naked and starved
Enemy of light
I will not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.
You may rob me of the last span of my land
You may ditch my youth in prison holes
Steel what my grandfather left me behind:
Some furniture or clothes and jars,
You may burn my poems and books
You may feed your dog on my flesh
You may impose a nightmare of your terror
On my village
Enemy of light
I shall not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.

“Poems of Resistance: 7 Poems for Palestine.” SCOOP  WORLD  INDEPENDENT  NEWS. January 2011. Web. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1101/S00522/poems-of-resistance-7-poems-for-palestine.htm
About Samih Al-Qasim

 

“. . . He renovates a memory demolished like a wall . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

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❶ Israel to Displace Entire Palestinian Communities near Occupied Jerusalem

  • Background: “Bedouins’ Politics of Place and Memory: A Case of Unrecognised Villages in The Negev.” Nomadic Peoples

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Settlements watchdog warns of accelerated Israeli land seizures
❷ Israel orders Muslim worshipers to pay $37,000 after destroying mosque
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israel-Funded App Destroys Al-Aqsa Mosque, Builds Temple in Its Place
❸ Israeli soldiers invade many villages near Jenin, abduct one Palestinian
❹ POETRY by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  TO  DISPLACE  ENTIRE  PALESTINIAN  COMMUNITIES  NEAR  OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Nov. 17, 2017 ― Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to displace and remove dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families living in their communities around occupied East Jerusalem, after deeming their dwellings as “illegal,” to replace them with colonists.     ___His decision was made after meeting with representatives of the so-called “Jerusalem Belt Forum,” which is actively involved in displacing the Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli colonist settlers, in direct violation of International Law.     MORE . . .

  • Hall, Bogumila. “Bedouins’ Politics of Place and Memory: A Case of Unrecognised Villages in The Negev.” Nomadic Peoples 18.2 (2014): 147-164.   Source.
    (Note: This article presents the history of the Bedouin presence in Israel. A longer than usual excerpt is printed at the bottom of this posting.)

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) SETTLEMENTS  WATCHDOG  WARNS  OF  ACCELERATED  ISRAELI  LAND  SEIZURES  
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO  
Nov. 17, 2017 ― Peace Now has slammed a recently issued legal opinion by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit permitting the confiscation of private Palestinian land for the benefit of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), warning it could accelerate land seizures.
___Mandelblit’s legal opinion was published in the context of Haresha, a settlement outpost near Ramallah, whose residents and supporters are seeking the retroactive legalisation of an access road.
___All Israeli settlements, whether state-sanctioned or unauthorised outposts, are illegal under international law, and are considered to form part of an inherently discriminatory regime.
___According to a statement by the settlements watchdog, “confiscating the land would constitute a severe violation of international humanitarian law and of the Palestinians’ right to own property”.  MORE . . .
❷ ISRAEL  ORDERS  MUSLIM  WORSHIPERS  TO  PAY  $37,000  AFTER  DESTROYING  MOSQUE 
Days of Palestine
Nov. 16, 2017 ― Israeli occupation authorities ordered Muslim worshipers to pay NIS130,000 ($37,000) seven years after destroying their mosque in Rahat, south of Israel.
___Be’er Sheva Magistrate’s Court ruled that the founders and operators of the mosque would pay the fine as a compensation for the state of Israel.
___The lawsuit was filed by the Southern District Public Prosecutor’s Office against eight residents of Rahat, who were members of the mosque committee, and demanded compensation of NIS459,500 ($130,000).   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ)  ISRAEL-FUNDED  APP  DESTROYS  AL-AQSA  MOSQUE,  BUILDS  TEMPLE  IN  ITS  PLACE 
Palestine Chronicle  
Nov. 16, 2017 ―  An Israeli tourist exhibit has launched an app which allows visitors to Jerusalem to virtually destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque and replace it with a Jewish temple, furthering the government’s stated commitment to dismantle the Muslim holy site.
___The smartphone app is part of a government funded exhibition entitled “The Western Wall Experience”. When the app is pointed towards the mosque compound, it makes the Dome of the Rock disappear and replaces it with  a Jewish temple.   MORE . . .
❸ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  INVADE  MANY  VILLAGES  NEAR  JENIN,  ABDUCT  ONE  PALESTINIAN  
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC 
Nov. 17, 2017 ―   Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, earlier Friday, several Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank governorate of Jenin, installed roadblocks and searched cars, and abducted a young man.     ___Media sources said the soldiers abducted Jihad Faisal Bazzour, 28, from Burqa town, west of Jenin, after stopping him at Barta’a military roadblock, while heading for work.   MORE . . .

“RENOVATION,” BY IBRAHIM NASRALLAH
He renovates a tin window
to open it for the morning birds.
And renovates some stars that have burned out
in the streets, and a woman massacred in the neighborhood.
He renovates a memory demolished like a wall,
a bird’s scattered ashes,
light reflected off a blade in the dark,
a woman lost in a spacious bed
and a bellow.
He renovates a friend’s face as the sea breaks over it
and the singer who no longer resembles his songs,
the wind when it sleeps forgetting the immensity of an orbit,
the taste of words in conversation,
the taste of air and fruit
and two legs that have never carried a planet
while destruction prevails.
He renovates a womb, subdues horses
and poems that beg for livelihood in the shade
before slipping into a chicken coop or blowing by
like a steaming train.
He renovates pillars, neighs,
guns covered with moss from waiting.
He renovates a promise, roots, clouds,
and in the end he is slain alone like a lighthouse.

From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN  INSIDE:  SELECTED  POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.
About Ibrahim Nasrallah

  • From: Hall, Bogumila. “Bedouins’ Politics of Place and Memory: A Case of Unrecognised Villages in The Negev.”
    [. . . .] during the latter stages of British rule, there were between 60,000 and 90,000 Bedouins in the Negev region, occupying 98 per cent of the Negev lands, only 11,000 remained after the creation of Israel. Some of the Bedouins fled . . . while others were expelled to Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. This was followed by the policy of further displacements of the Bedouin community . . .  Using martial law, Israel relocated the Bedouin to a restricted area, in the north-eastern part of Negev, called ‘Siyag’ (whose literal translation refers to fence) . . . which they were not allowed to leave without official permission. The policy did not aim to settle the Bedouins, as they had already been sedentarised, but rather to remove them from their lands and concentrate the maximum number of people on the smallest possible space. This led to the situation in which the Bedouins were concentrated on ten per cent of the land they used to occupy, and kept under control and military rule until 1966.  [. . . .] In the mid-1960s, by the end of the military rule, the policy of land expropriation was followed by a new strategy. In 1965 the ‘Planning and Building Law’ . . .  denied the existence of Bedouin villages and defined them as agricultural territories, which meant that the villages were to be omitted from all master plans and no building permits could be granted. As a result, any construction on Bedouin land was by definition illegal . . .  The same law also provided for the demolition of unlicensed buildings and deemed necessary the confiscation of land if it was needed for public purposes. The consequences of the ‘Planning and Building Law’ were therefore twofold: firstly, by not recognising the Bedouin villages it condemned their inhabitants to marginalisation; secondly it transformed the dwellers of these grey zones into ‘lawbreakers’, ‘trespassers’ and ‘squatters on the state lands’. . .  the only way for Bedouins to escape this ‘illegality’ was to leave their ancestors’ land. In 1969, Israel enacted the Land Rights Settlement Ordinance, which declared that ‘lands, which at the time of the enactment of this law were classified as mawat, will be registered in the name of the State’. . .      ___Rendering historical Bedouin villages illegal and turning their land into state property was accompanied by a policy of transferring the rural community to government townships, where ‘they would modernise, develop new habits, and become accustomed to life in permanent houses’.  [. . . .] Since Bedouin localities do not exist, according to official records, the Bedouins are denied building permits and all basic services, such as electricity, running water, public transportation and sewage systems. According to Nūra, one of the female activists from al-Sirra, this systematic exclusion can be compared to a ‘slow execution of the villages and their residents.’ Yet, the Bedouins refuse to leave these spaces of denial and instead, relying on their own efforts and creativity, domesticate the landscape of unrecognised villages and transform them into self-governed entities with their own institutions and rules. [. . . .]

 

“. . . You plundered the land from me . . .” (Fouzi El Azmar)

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❶ EU to hold further talks on deployment of mission at Rafah crossing
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ARIJ Daily Report

  • Background: “Review Power of Israel’s High Court of Justice with Regard to the Settlement Legalization Law.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ Israel demolishes Palestinian Bedouin village for 121st time
❸ IOF moves checkpoint to expropriate Palestinian lands
❹ POETRY by Fouzi El Azmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ EU  TO  HOLD  FURTHER  TALKS  ON  DEPLOYMENT  OF  MISSION  AT  RAFAH  CROSSING  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
BRUSSELS, Nov. 16, 2017 ― The European Union (EU) said on Wednesday that it will be holding further talks with the various parties on the deployment of its mission at Rafah crossing with Egypt.
___An EU spokesperson said that in continuing its support for Palestinian reconciliation, the EU is deploying a high level mission this week “to discuss with key interlocutors on the ground the political and security conditions and the expectations of the relevant parties in view of a possible redeployment of the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) at Rafah, including possible EU financial assistance.”
___Following the agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas in Cairo on 12 October and in the run-up to a meeting of all Palestinian factions in Cairo on 21 November, “the European Union is continuing its support to current efforts to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under one single and legitimate Palestinian Authority,” said the spokesperson. MORE . . .   ..
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ARIJ  DAILY  REPORT
Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem 
Nov. 13, 2017 ― Throughout the years of occupation of the Palestinian territory, Israel has engaged in excessive and disproportionate violations of every existing humanitarian code and routinely employed its efforts to undermine any real action towards a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians. These violations are considered unlawful and breach of human rights and civilized laws including the right to Self-Determination, the right to freedom of movement, the right to work, the right to medical treatment, the right to education, the right to an adequate standard of living and access to holy places.
___(THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of ARIJ & LRC and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.)    MORE . . .

Raday, Frances. “REVIEW  POWER  OF  ISRAEL’S  HIGH  COURT  OF  JUSTICE  WITH  REGARD  TO  THE  SETTLEMENT  LEGALIZATION  LAW.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 22, no. 2/3, July 2017, pp. 64-69.  (Frances Raday is a professor emerita in Labor Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.)
The Settlement Legalization Law, passed by the Knesset on Feb. 6, 2017 by a vote of 60 to 52, constitutes an ominous moment in our history. Although in the context of international humanitarian law, it may be merely another step in a continuum of Israel’s illegal settlement policy, it is nevertheless a highly significant step. It shifts the nature of the violation . . .   to the confiscation of property of protected persons, which cannot be justified under military necessity. It indicates that the Jewish population’s long-term claims to the territory are to be preferred to those of the Palestinians, solely on grounds of nationality . . .
___This goes a considerable way towards undermining the claim that the Israeli occupation does not constitute apartheid under the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which defines apartheid as “inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity … committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”
___In the context of Israeli constitutional law, the Settlement Legalization Law is a move to de jure dispossession of individual Palestinian property in violation of the Israeli High Court’s injunctions. Since its decisions in 1978 and 1979 . . .   the Court has held that settlements, whether on private or public land, cannot be considered permanent, nor can the land be permanently confiscated, only temporarily requisitioned. Settlements on private land are illegal. . . .     SOURCE . . .   …

❷ ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  PALESTINIAN  BEDOUIN  VILLAGE  FOR  121ST  TIME   Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 16, 2017 ― Israeli  authorities on Thursday morning demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert in southern Israel for the 121st time, leaving all the families in the village homeless, according to locals.
___Residents of the al-Araqib have rebuilt the village 120 times after each demolition, the latest of which was October 25th.
___An Israeli court ruled in August that six residents of al-Araqib must pay 262,000 shekels (more than $72,000) for previous demolition costs, in addition to 100,000 shekels ($27,693) to cover the costs of the state’s lawyer. It was only the latest payment in which the village has had to compensate Israel for its routine demolitions in the village.  [. . . .] Right groups say that the demolition of unrecognized Bedouin villages is a central Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous Palestinian population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish Israeli communities.   MORE . . .
❸ IOF  MOVES  CHECKPOINT  TO  EXPROPRIATE  PALESTINIAN  LANDS   
Alray-Palestinian MediaAgency
Nov. 16, 2017 ― Israeli occupation authorities announced Wednesday moving the military checkpoint of Ain Ya’al that located on the road that connected the occupied Jerusalem and Jelo settlement, enabling Israeli authorities to expropriate Palestinian lands.  According to Haaretz paper, the Israeli District Planning and Building Committee informed the Palestinian residence of Wallageh village that they will move the checkpoint, noting that the area of Ain al-Hennyah will move to Israeli administration.
__Wallageh village is located under the Israeli administration but it is totally isolated by the Israeli separation wall, which also separate the village from its farms.     [. . . .] Israeli occupation authorities announced the residence of Wallageh village that the checkpoint will be moved 2.5 kilometers into the Palestinian lands, which means that Palestinian who do not hold the blue ID will not be able to reach their farms in Ain al-Hennyah.   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 

“. . . Alas! My sad and silent city . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Israeli municipality demolishes residential structure in al-Issawiya
❶ Israeli municipality demolishes building in Jerusalem despite pending permit application

  • Background: “Crows on the Cradles: Palestinian Mothers At a Frontline Vortex: Reflections on the Psychology of Occupation.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

❶ Two More EU-Funded Palestinian Schools under Threat of Destruction by Israeli Army
❶ 9 Palestinian homes demolished by IOF
❷ Elkin: Start planning for one million settlers in W. Bank & J’lem
❸ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
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❶ ISRAELI  MUNICIPALITY  DEMOLISHES  RESIDENTIAL  STRUCTURE  IN  AL-ISSAWIYA 
Palestine News and Information Agency
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli municipality of Jerusalem on Wednesday demolished a residential structure in the neighborhood of al-Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli construction permit, according to local sources.
___The municipality demolished a residential structure, made of metals, that was installed by Omar Dari, a local citizen, who said he was forced to build without a permit in order to shelter his family, after he was unable to obtain a permit from the Israeli municipality.   MORE . . .
❶ ISRAELI  MUNICIPALITY  DEMOLISHES  BUILDING  IN  JERUSALEM  DESPITE  PENDING  PERMIT  APPLICATION
Palestine News and Information Agency
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished on Wednesday morning a two-storey building under construction in the neighborhood of al-Issawiya, in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local sources.
___Locals told WAFA that staff from the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem accompanied by an Israeli police escort raided the neighborhood and demolished the building, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli permit of construction.
___Mohammad Abu Rayala, a local rights activist, said the owners of the building had earlier received a notification to stop the construction of the building. He said though the owners stopped the construction upon notification and started the process of obtaining a construction permit, they were astonished that the building was demolished without a warning.    MORE . . .   ..

Roth, Judy, and Salwa Duaibis.
“CROWS  ON  THE  CRADLES:  PALESTINIAN  MOTHERS  AT  A  FRONTLINE  VORTEX:  REFLECTIONS  ON  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  OCCUPATION.”
International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.1 (2015): 5-20.
[. . . .] Last June marked 46 [49] years since the start of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. International law is clear that territory can never be acquired as a result of aggression, even if exercised in self-defense. That is why military occupations are meant to be temporary and cannot be legally maintained indefinitely. On the conclusion of the 1967 war, the Israeli authorities imposed military law in the occupied Palestinian territory which still remains in force in the west bank to this day. During this time, East Jerusalem has been annexed, in violation of international law; more than half a million Israelis now live in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and at least 750,000 men, women and children have been prosecuted in military courts and imprisoned. In other words, one in four Palestinian men have been through the military system at one point in their lives. . . .
___Women living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem face many, differing challenges, which include home demolitions . . .   But the issue that stands out above all other issues is that of the settlements built in clear violation of international law on Palestinian land. These settlements are not only illegal, but they are also at the epicenter of a host of human rights violations that occur on a daily basis and affect 2.5 million Palestinians.
[. . . .] Nur is a mother of extraordinary light . . .  Her home, slated for demolition, sits on a small path that Israeli soldiers use to move from one side of the neighborhood to the next. The path is right outside her door. She uses the word “Ro`ub”, absolute terror, to describe her children’s experience of the soldiers. Nur, herself, is worried that her nine-year-old son will be arrested soon. She hears how he talks about the Israeli soldiers and settlers, the revenge that he is brewing in response to their provocations. While she is pretty certain that she will lose him, she retains some hope for a different outcome – although she is unable to create a realistic alternative. Perhaps, none exist.
[. . . .]  Our psychoanalytic understanding of how militarism is inculcated, how rage incubates, and how societies sanction violence and racism is critical to defining a nuanced and sober stance from which to approach this relentless conflict that reverberates both near and far. Finding this stance that humanizes all players – victims, oppressors, and bystanders – and that can then better inform modes of action, prioritizing the urgency of Palestinian suffering, while holding accountable all who are complicit, is now more crucial than ever.    Source . . .

❶ TWO  MORE  EU-FUNDED  PALESTINIAN  SCHOOLS  UNDER  THREAT  OF  DESTRUCTION  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY 
Palestine Chronicle
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Two new Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank, funded by European governments, are under threat of destruction and seizure, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). An Israeli court has already ordered students not to attend class in one of them, the NGO says.
___Built over the last year with European funding, the schools in Wadi as-Seeq and Al Muntar serve Palestinian Bedouin communities who have long suffered neglect and discrimination at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities.
___Many of the families served by the schools have “already suffered destruction of their property over many years”, NRC states.    MORE . . .
❶  9  PALESTINIAN  HOMES  DEMOLISHED  BY  IOF   
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 15, 2017 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Wednesday knocked down nine Palestinian homes in the West Bank governorate of Jericho.
The demolition was carried out under the pretext of unlicensed construction.  At the same time, the Israeli authorities seized a Palestinian agricultural vehicle in the northern Jordan Valley on claims that it was spotted inside a natural reserve.   MORE . . .   ..
❷ ELKIN:  START  PLANNING  FOR  ONE  MILLION  SETTLERS  IN  W.  BANK  &  J’LEM  
Al Hourriah Magazine (Freedom)
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli Jerusalem affairs minister Ze’ev Elkin has urged his government to start planning for one million settlers in Area C of the West Bank and Jerusalem.     ___“This will happen; it is only a question of when,” Elkin said, adding that it could be anywhere between the next 10 to 20 years, depending on the pace of construction.     ___According to the Israeli central bureau of statistics, 400,000 settlers lived in West Bank settlements in 2016.     ___Using a word of Arabic slang, Elkin dismissed the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. “Halas (enough) with the story of two states. There is no other option but the state of Israel, certainly between the Jordan [River] to the sea there will be one state.”  MORE . . .

“MY SAD CITY,” BY FADWA TUQAN
(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967)
The day we saw death and betrayal,
The tide ebbed.
The windows of the sky closed,
And the city held its breath.
The day the waves were vanquished, the day
The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face,
Hope turned to ashes,
And gagging on disaster,
My sad city choked.

Gone were the children and the songs,
There was no shadow, no echo.
Sorrow crawled naked in my city,
With bloodied footsteps,
Silence reigned in the city,
Silence like crouching mountains,
Mysterious like the night, tragic silence,
Burdened,
Weighed down with death and defeat.
Alas! My sad and silent city.
Can it be true that in the season of harvest,
Grain and fruit have turned to ashes?
Alas! That this should be the fruit of all the journeying!
―Translated by A.M. Elmesseri

From BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND: PALESTINE ISRAEL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from B&N.
Obituary for Fadwa Tuqan, 2003.