Selected News of the Day

Israel to demolish over 20 Palestinian structures north of Jerusalem

(WAFA)
August 21, 2019
Israeli forces and staff of the so-called Israeli Municipality of West Jerusalem today ordered the demolition of over 20 Palestinian structures in al-Matar neighborhood, north of Jerusalem.
· · · · Security sources confirmed that Israeli forces and municipality staff stormed Al-Matar neighborhood, opposite to Qalandiya refugee camp, where they handed demolition orders for over 20 Palestinian structures purportedly for being built without licenses.
· · · · Meanwhile, Israeli police escorted a bulldozer to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, where heavy machinery demolished a house. The demolished structure belonged to the Rajabi family.  More. . . .

Settlers attack Palestinian farmers, fence off land near Ramallah

(WAFA)
August 20, 2019
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in the town of Um Safa to the north of Ramallah, and placed barbed wire on land located in area ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the West Bank as a prelude to seize it, said a local official.
· · · · Head of Um Safa village council told WAFA settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish attacked farmers near Um Safa village and released their cows into residents’ land, destroying the crops.
· · · · Settlers further fenced off a land exceeding 150 dunums in area with barbed wires, in an apparent prelude to take over the land.   More. . . .

Israel pushing Palestinians to leave Gaza

(Electronic Intifada)
Maureen Clare Murphy
19 August 2019
Israel is actively encouraging and ready to facilitate mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, according to a senior government official.
· · · · “Israel is ready to carry the costs of helping Gazans emigrate,” and would potentially use air force bases in Israel for that purpose, The Times of Israel reported on Monday. The unnamed official, in Kyiv as part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s delegation to Ukraine, added that more than 35,000 Palestinians left the coastal enclave last year.
· · · · Two million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a punishing Israeli economic blockade for 12 years and repeated military offensives. . . .   Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee from lands inside what is now Israel. That government forbids them from exercising their right to return as enshrined in international law because they are not Jews. . . .    No European or Middle Eastern country has agreed to participate in the scheme, according to the publication. The official did not say whether any other governments are cooperating.    More. . . .

70th Great March of Return: 66 Civilians Injured by Israeli forces, including  20 Children, 3 Women and a Volunteer Paramedic

(Palestinian Center for Human Rights)
August 16, 2019
On the 70th Great March of Return, 66 Palestinian civilians were injured due to the Israeli military’s continued use of excessive force against peaceful protests along the Gaza Strip’s eastern border. At least 20 children, 3 women and a volunteer paramedic were among those injured this Friday, 16 August 2019. Twenty-nine civilians were shot with live bullets; 2 of them were deemed in a critical medical condition. . . .
· · · · To this date, PCHR documented 208 killings by Israel since the outbreak of the protests on 30 March 2018, including 44 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics, and 2 journalists. Additionally, 13,463 were wounded, including 2,797 children, 415 women, 222 paramedics and 210 journalists, noting that many had sustained multiple wounds on multiple occasions.  Among those wounded, PCHR documented cases where 196 persons have become with disabilities, including 28 children and 5 women: 149 amputees; 21 paralyzed, 26 blind or deaf and 9 sexually disabled.  More. . . .

Poem of the Day

“GAZA, 2009” — JEHAN BSEISO

No matter white flag.

No matter medicine.
No matter civilian.

No matter international community.

No matter your international waters.

No matter your sanctions, no matter your rhetoric and foreign policy.

Only 62 years status quo
Everyday, everyday Nakba,
Subsidized settlements,

Even more walls-

Children on the ICRC bus, visiting their Baba’s in your prisons―
Matter.

Food and medicine rotting at every border―
Matter
From the shadows, the silent majority watch water go on fire.

From I  REMEMBER  MY  NAME, ed. Vacy Vlanza. London: Novum Publishing, 2016.