❶ Opinion/Analysis: The face of Palestinian women’s defiance is a 16-year-old girl

• Background: “Transnational Feminist Solidarity in Times of Crisis.” International Feminist Journal of Politics

❷ US ambassador to Israel demands halt of using the word ‘Occupation’
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Arab Parliament called on to block Israel’s bid for Security Council seat
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Guatemalans not happy with decision to move embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
❸ Israeli Knesset to vote on ‘death penalty’ for Palestinians
❹ Pictures- Arrests…demolition…and confiscating goods in the village of Silwan
❺ POETRY by Dareen Tatour
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❶ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  FACE  OF  PALESTINIAN  WOMEN’S  DEFIANCE  IS  A  16-YEAR-OLD  GIRL
The Palestinian Information Center 
By Nada Elia
Dec. 26, 2017 ―   Ahed Tamimi has been protecting her ancestral land since she was a tender nine years old.
___Photos of the 16-year-old in pigtails, sometimes in a Minnie Mouse T-shirt, mostly with a keffiyeh around her shoulders, started circulating a few years ago, as she and the rest of her family held weekly protests against their dispossession.
[. . . .] Gender matters. What is unusual about Ahed and her family is the visibility, by Western standards, of the “empowerment” of Palestinian women. This is not to suggest that a veiled woman is not empowered – rather Ahed’s iconic status holds up a mirror to Western myopia, which frequently fails to see beyond a headscarf.
___If Ahed wore a hijab, and let’s be honest, if she were not an attractive, blue-eyed, blonde young girl, she would not have become the favourite of millions of Western liberals who cannot quite reconcile themselves to the full validity of a hijabi woman’s struggle.
___The young Ahed Tamimi, as well as her mother, Nariman, and her cousin Nour, are the irrefutable proof that Palestinian women and children do not need to be saved from Arab patriarchy, or Islamic fundamentalism, but from the Israeli military, as it carries out their dispossession, displacement and violation of their human rights.  MORE . . . 

Sharoni, Simona, et al.
“TRANSNATIONAL  FEMINIST  SOLIDARITY  IN  TIMES  OF  CRISIS.”
INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS, vol. 17, no. 4, Dec. 2015, pp. 654-670.
[. . . .] Sharoni: For years, feminists in the Global North have failed to understand why Palestinian women insist on linking their struggles for gender equality to national liberation. As a result, Palestinian women have been at the receiving end of well-intentioned but misguided initiatives, which have disregarded their agency, needs and resilience, and have focused on a narrow understanding of “women’s issues” and critiques of patriarchy and nationalism. Missing from the feminist response to the crisis in Palestine has been recognition of its root causes, namely Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, its violation of Palestinian rights and its apartheid-like policies toward the Palestinian people.
[. . . .] NADJE AL-ALI: It is far easier to conceptualize – and even to teach – transnational feminist politics and solidarity, but it is tricky to put it into practice. Theoretically, most feminists would agree that we need to think about gendered inequalities in an intersectional manner, identifying and challenging the specific configurations of power and inequalities that circumscribe women’s and men’s lives. In practice, however, certain power relations – patriarchy, capitalism, racism, heteronormativity – might be better understood and more widely acknowledged than others. Yet, colonialism, imperialism and Zionism are also key configurations of power that intersect to severely impact upon Palestinian women’s lives. It is our responsibility as transnational feminists to challenge simplistic and flawed explanations that would peg “Muslim culture” as the key determinant of Palestinian women’s experiences of oppression. We need to listen to Palestinian women’s rights activists and feminist academics. At the same time, I would argue that gender equality for Israeli Jewish women is also impossible without a challenge to Israel’s settler colonial structures and policies.   SOURCE . . . 

❷ US  AMBASSADOR  TO  ISRAEL  DEMANDS  HALT  OF  USING  THE  WORD  ‘OCCUPATION’     
Palestine News Network – PNN  
Dec. 27, 2017 ― US ambassador to Israel David Friedman urged the State Department to stop using the word “occupation” when referencing Israel’s presence in the West Bank specifically in official documents, The Times of Israel said on Tuesday.
___According to Israel Radio, Friedman suggested the diplomats use alternative terms for “Israeli-occupied territories” proposing they instead refer to it as the “West Bank”, considered a more neutral term by the ambassador, according to The Forward.
___The State Department refused this call, reported Kan public broadcaster, but agreed that the issue will be discussed in the future.
___Friedman has previously expressed his skepticism in the two state solution, and said that Israeli expansion in the West Bank will continue, stating that Israel is “only occupying two percent of the West Bank.”      MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  ARAB  PARLIAMENT  CALLED  ON  TO  BLOCK  ISRAEL’S  BID  FOR  SECURITY  COUNCIL  SEAT 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
Dec. 27, 2017 ― The Palestine Committee in the Arab Parliament meeting in Cairo completed on Wednesday a draft proposal to block Israel’s bid for a Security Council seat in 2019-2020 term that will be submitted to a general meeting of the Arab Parliament scheduled for Thursday to adopt it.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  GUATEMALANS  NOT  HAPPY  WITH  DECISION  TO  MOVE  EMBASSY  IN  ISRAEL  TO  JERUSALEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
Dec. 27, 2017 ― Guatemalans reacted with anger and concern over their president’s decision to move his country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. . . .
[. . . .] Guatemala is the main exporter of cardamom pods that are used with coffee to Arab and Islamic countries with more than $300 million dollars of exports a year. When former President Ramiro J Leon Carpio (1993-1996) made a similar decision . . .  he was forced to quickly rescind that decision when Arab and Islamic countries closed their doors to the Guatemalan market.
___Former vice president of Guatemala, Eduardo Stein (2004-2008), warned of the negative consequences of the decision by [President Jimmy] Morales, who is facing impeachment on corruption charges.   MORE . . .  
❸ ISRAELI  KNESSET  TO  VOTE  ON  ‘DEATH  PENALTY’  FOR  PALESTINIANS      
Palestine News Network – PNN
Dec. 27, 2017 ― The Israeli parliament is set to vote on a draft bill that would impose the death penalty on Palestinians “involved in operations against Israeli targets”, the country’s defense minister said Monday.
___Speaking to an Israeli TV channel, Avigdor Lieberman said voting to advance legislation targeting convicted Palestinians of attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers would take place Wednesday.
___“The U.S. also has such legislation. Thus, it’s appropriate for Israel to follow such a powerful democratic system in the world,” Lieberman said.      MORE . . .
❹ PICTURES: ARRESTS…DEMOLITION…AND  CONFISCATING  GOODS  IN  THE  VILLAGE  OF  SILWAN 
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan   
Dec. 26, 2017    On Tuesday morning, the occupation forces executed a series of arrests and raided multiple houses and commercial establishments in the village of Silwan in Jerusalem.
___Wadi Hilweh Information Center explained that the occupation forces along with intelligence personnel raided the neighborhoods of Silwan in the early morning hours and were deployed in the streets before storming into houses and arresting several youths and young men.
___The locals of Silwan explained to Wadi Hilweh Information center that the forces deliberately searched and tampered the contents of their houses while executing arrests.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❹  ―  (ᴀ)  STUDY:  AIDA  REFUGEE  CAMP  IN  BETHLEHEM  IS  THE  MOST  AREA  EXPOSED  TO  TEARGAS  IN  THE  WORLD 
Palestine News Network – PNN   
Dec. 27, 2017 ― The Center for Human Rights of the University of California at Berkeley recently showed that Israeli security forces carried out the use of tear gas “widely” and “frequently” and “indiscriminately” against Palestinian refugees in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
[. . . .] Aida refugee camp, occupied West Bank – A Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank – may be the most exposed place to tear gas in the world, according to the author of a new study.
[. . . .] “We found that the constant and unpredictable use of tear gas in Palestine refugee camps has a devastating effect on the mental and physical health of residents,” said the report’s co-author, Dr Rohini Haar, a researcher at the UC Berkeley centre and a doctor with Physicians for Human Rights.    MORE . . .  

“I  WILL  NOT  LEAVE,”  BY  DAREEN  TATOUR
They signed on my behalf
And turned me into
A file, forgotten
Like cigarette butts.
Homesickness tore me apart
And in my own country I ended up
An immigrant.
I abandoned those pens
To weep over the sorrows
Of the inkwells
They abandoned my cause and my dream
At the cemetery gates
And that person who’s waiting
Laments his luck
As life passes.
Besiege me,
Kill me, blow me up,
Assassinate me, imprison me.
When it comes to my country,
There’s no backing down.
―― Translated by Jonathan Wright

Interview with Dareen Tatour
From  Pierre Joris blog