|  GAZA  “LABORATORY”  BOOSTS  PROFITS  OF  ISRAEL’S  WAR  INDUSTRY    . . . the largest homeland security industry in the world [,] Israel’s arms industry is twice the size of its US counterpart in exports per capita.   [. . . .] Guy Keren. . . CEO of an Israeli homeland security firm called iHLS.  [. . . .] explained how the Gaza Strip affords Israel – and iHLS – a competitive advantage over other countries.     [. . . .] “Because we are checking our systems live,” he said. “We are in a war situation all the time.“    [. . . .] Keren isn’t the first to make this connection. Gaza is widely perceived as a human Petri dish – to improve killing capacity and cultivate pacification methods    [. . . .] Roei Elkabetz, a brigadier general in the Israeli army, addressed a 2012 convention of specialists in border control technology in El Paso, Texas. [He said ] “We have learned lots from Gaza. It’s a great laboratory.”
. . . . Related  US  Border  Protection  Gets  Technological  Enhancement
. . . . Related   WHO:  Israeli  restrictions  major  obstacle  to  health  access  for  Gazans

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

| GAZA:  ISRAELI  NAVAL  FORCES  AGAIN  REDUCE  ALLOWED  AREA  FOR  FISHING      Israeli naval forces on Saturday arrested 2 fishermen and wounded one of them as part of the Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen and preventing them from freely sailing and accessing the fish breeding areas.  Yesterday afternoon, The Israeli forces declared that they reduced the area allowed for fishing in the Gaza Sea to 6 nautical miles, deteriorating the economic and living conditions of the fishermen . . .   [. . . .] This is part of the Israeli policy to impose restrictions on fishermen and target their livelihoods.    . . . PCHR stressed that the decision to reduce the area allowed for fishing violates the right to work recognized by Article (6) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [Israel ratified on Oct. 1, 1991].    More . . .
|  ISRAEL  CLOSES  ROADS,  ENTRANCES  TO  VILLAGES  IN  SALFIT  DISTRICT    Israeli forces set up military checkpoints and closed several roads to Palestinian traffic, on Sunday, in the northern occupied West Bank district of Salfit, after a shooting attack, in which two Israeli settlers were killed, while the third was severely injured, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel.    ___. . . forces closed several roads and the entrances of the Palestinian villages of Bidia, Qarawat Bani Hassan, Sarta, and Mesaha, banning the entry and exit of local residents.    ___. . .  Israeli forces set up military checkpoints and closed a number of entrances to the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya.   More . . .
. . . . Related  Israel  persists  in  expanding  settlement  on  annexed  land  in  Deir  Ballut  [SALFIT DISTRICT]
|  LIEBERMAN  SCOLDS  EU  DIPLOMATS  FOR  CONDEMNING  KHAN  AHMAR  DEMOLITION    Israel’s war minister Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter to eight European ambassadors in Israel slamming them for a joint statement signed by their countries in which they criticized the Israeli government’s plan to demolish a Palestinian Bedouin village.   ___The ambassadors from Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland and Britain reportedly received a letter from Lieberman last week calling their joint statement on the demolition of the Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar “absurd” [responding] to a joint statement by the eight countries last week in which they called “upon the Israeli authorities to reconsider their decision to demolish Khan al-Ahmar.”     More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“TALES  OF  A  CITY  BY  THE  SEA,”  BY  SAMAH  SABAWI

The landscape constantly changes
Only the sea remains the same
Salty…Fluid…Mysterious…Moody
A consistent presence amid the chaos
Its whooshing waves whisper tales
Of occupiers that have come and gone
Crusaders, tyrants and warlords
Riding on their horses
Riding on their Tanks
Riding on their F16 fighter jets
Always riding through
Leaving their footprints
And part of their history
Leaving their artifacts and ruins
Leaving fire and debris
Always leaving…
Only the sea remains
A cure for the trail of broken lives left behind
A landmark untouched by human greed and destruction
Oblivious to war occupation and aggression
Defiant to the rules of man
It embraces the shores of a battered city
It makes a mockery
Of those who try to break its spirit
Those who think they can contain
Its one and a half million beating hearts
It laughs in the face
Of that big iron wall
There is no limit to the sea’s audacity
It breaks the siege every day,
One defiant wave at a time
Connecting Gaza to the rest of the world
And connecting the world with the Shati refugee camp
If you stood with your back to Gaza facing the sea
You can imagine you are some place else
Beirut, Barcelona, Alexandria or Santorini
You can dream of the promise of what lays
Beyond the horizon
Countries, continents the whole world is out there
If only you could ride the sea
If only your body was bullet proof
If only your boat was made of steel
If only your dream was real
The landscape will change once more
|Only the sea will remain the same
Its whooshing waves will whisper new tales
Of occupiers that have come and gone

  – From “Poetry,  Palestine  and  the  Language  of  Resistance  –  An  interview  with  Samah  Sabawi”