Category: Al-Khalil Province

“They’ve grown to become trees plunging deep roots. . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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SELECTED NEWS OF THE DAY

Israeli army detains three youths from villages near Ramallah, seizes surveillance cameras

WAFA
August 24, 2019
The Israeli army detained early this morning three Palestinian youths from villages near Ramallah and seized street surveillance cameras in these villages, according to local sources. . . .
· · · · The sources said the soldiers seized tapes from the street surveillance cameras installed by shop and homeowners in these villages.
· · · · The arrests and seizure of the cameras are believed related to the Israeli army investigation into the explosion from yesterday near the village of Ein Arik that killed one Israeli settler and injured two others.   More . . . .   

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian citizens in West Bank cities

Groups of Israeli settlers on Friday rioted and attacked Palestinian citizens in al-Khalil and Nablus districts in the West Bank.
· · · Local sources reported that hordes of Israeli settlers gathered near Road 60 east of al-Khalil City and hurled rocks at Palestinian vehicles. More . . . .

In one East Jerusalem neighborhood, summer vacation has become a war zone

For children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, summer vacation means dodging rubber bullets and watching their fathers and brothers arrested and humiliated every day.
+972 Magazine
August 22, 2019
At the entrance to Issawiya in East Jerusalem, eight children are laughing as they chase one another in circles. I take out a camera and a few of them begin to gather around me. The oldest of the group is 13 years old, and tells me that they are playing “Jews and Arabs.” Do you know it? She asks. There are two teams: the Jews shoot at the Arabs and the Arabs throw rocks. The game ends when one of the teams wins.
I look on as they play but cannot really seem to make out the rules. It’s a bit like tag, only that instead of tagging one another, they pretend chase, detain, and shoot each other. The children’s home is just across the road. . . .   More . . . .

OPINION and BACKGROUND

The Future of the Two-State Solution and the Alternatives — A View from Gaza

Palestine-Israel Journal
Vol. 24 No. 1, 2019
By Husam Dajni
. . . . This article will address the following questions: What are the indicators of the erosion of the two-state solution? What are the chances the Palestinian leadership and the international community can keep this solution viable? What are possible alternatives to the two-state solution? And what is Hamas’s vision for the two-state solution and its alternatives, given the new reality?  More . . . .
(The Palestine-Israel Journal is a non-profit organization, founded in 1994 by Ziad AbuZayyad and Victor Cygielman, two prominent Palestinian and Israeli journalists, and was established concurrently with the first phases of the Oslo peace process to encourage dialogue between civil societies on both sides and broaden the base of support for the peace process.)

The East Jerusalem Municipality (Amanat al-Quds): History and Horizons

This Week In Palestine
Issue: 256, Aug 2019
By Walid Salem
The Jerusalem municipality was established by the Ottomans in 1863. At that time, it was composed of five members: three Muslims, one Christian, and one Jew. The British Mandatory Period began in 1917. . . . The Israeli occupying authorities dissolved this council on June 21, 1967, and began to enforce Israeli law in East Jerusalem whilst extending the responsibilities of the Israeli municipality to include East Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the 1963 elected city council continued operating and still represents East Jerusalem in Arab, Islamic, and international federations of capitals and cities today. . . .
· · · During President Mahmoud Abbas’s term, an amended Law No. 10 of 2005 was passed regarding the election of local authorities. Article 69 of the law stipulates that “members of the Municipal Council shall be selected in accordance with the Law of the Municipality of the Capital (Amanat al-Quds Law).”
· · · In January 2012, President Mahmoud Abbas issued a second decree appointing a new municipality for Jerusalem.    More . . . .
(In December 1998, Turbo Design put out the first issue of an English-language magazine called This Week in Palestine (TWiP). Twenty-one years later, the magazine is now considered to be a major Palestinian success story and, unfortunately, remains the only English-language magazine in Palestine. TWiP essentially promotes and documents Palestine. . . .)

POEM OF THE DAY

“SONG  OF  BECOMING,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

They’re only boys
who used to frolic and play
launching rainbowed kites
on the western wind,
their blue-and-green kites
whistling, leaping,
trading easy laughter and jokes
dueling with branches, pretending to be
great heroes in history.

Suddenly now they’ve grown,
grown more than the years of a normal life,
merged with secret and passionate words,
carried love’s messages like the Bible or the Quran,
to be read in whispers.
They’ve grown to become trees
plunging deep roots into the earth,
stretching high towards the sun.
Now their voices are ones that reject,
that knock down and build anew.
Anger smouldering on the fringes of a blocked horizon,
invading classrooms, streets, city quarters,
centering on squares,
facing sullen tanks with streams of stones.

Now they shake the gallows of dawn
assailing the night and its flood.
They’ve grown more than the years of a life
to become the worshipped and the worshippers.

When their torn limbs merged with the stuff of our earth
they became legends,
they grew into vaulting bridges,
they grew and grew, becoming
larger than all poetry.
――Translated by Naomi Shihab Nye

From ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN PALESTINIAN LITERATURE. Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

 

“. . . Our land, my friend, is no barren land. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Israeli bulldozers from Leshem settlement razing Palestinian agricultural and grazing lands in Deir Ballut town. (Photo: The Palestinian Information Center, May 11, 2017)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|    ISRAELI  BULLDOZERS  RAZE  PALESTINIAN  LANDS  IN  TULKAREM
Israeli bulldozers razed lands and uprooted olive trees in Palestinian lands adjacent to the Israeli illegal settlement of Avnei Hefetz in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem, on Thursday morning.    ___The Avnei Hefetz settlement was built on Palestinian-owned lands of the villages and towns of Shufa, Kafr al-Labad and Kafa.    More . . .
. . . . Related  IOF  DEMOLISH  TWO  RESIDENTIAL  ROOMS  NEAR  HEBRON
. . . . Related  ISRAEL  CONFISCATES  PALESTINIAN-OWNED  TRACTORS  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  ARMY  ORDERS  TO  STOP  CONSTRUCTION  ON  HOUSE,  THREE  BARRACKS NEAR  SALFIT
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  FORCES  WREAK  HAVOC  ON  PALESTINIAN  [vendor]  STALLS  IN  AL-KHALI
. . . . Related  IOF  KIDNAPS  SEVERAL  PALESTINIANS  FROM  W.  BANK  HOMES
|   WEEKLY  REPORT  ON  ISRAELI  HUMAN  RIGHTS  VIOLATIONS  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORY  (25  –  31  OCTOBER  2018)
The  Palestinian  Centre  for  Human  Rights  (PCHR) 

  • Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against unarmed civilians and peaceful protestors in the Gaza Strip
  • Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip and launched 77 missiles.
  • Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian and wounded 16 others, including a child, journalist, and 2 paramedics in the West Bank.    More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|   ISRAEL  EVADES  DEMANDS  TO  END  THE  GAZA  PROTESTS  AND  REACH  A  TRUCE
Israeli occupation is only buying time through its talks with the mediators who want to sort out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel needs only to go ahead in its colonial projects.    More . . .
. . . . Background  ISRAEL  DECIDES  AGAINST  TOPPLING  HAMAS  IN  GAZA,  SEEKS  TO  WEAKEN  IT
. . . . Background  ABBAS  TO  MEET  WITH  EGYPTIAN  PRESIDENT  IN  SHARM  EL-SHEIKH
|    ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  MARRING  THE  JOY  OF  THE  OLIVE  SEASON
Abu Basem stands hopelessly rubbing his hands, as he touches the rest of his olive trees in a valley north of Salfit, looking right and left, and recalling memories when joy was all over his house with the start of the olive harvest, which now turned into tears and pain.   ___This is the story of farmer Ahmad Eshtayeh, 80 years old from the city of Salfit, who inspects the rest of his olive field north of Salfit behind the apartheid wall, which swallowed 90% of Salfit’s land, leaving too little for him to cultivate.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“CONCERNING  HOPES,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a baker in Algeria
To sing with a fighter.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a shepherd in Yemen
To sing for resurrection.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a waiter in Havana
To sing the victories of the oppressed.
Don’t tell me:
I wish I were a young porter in Aswan
To sing for the rocks.
The Nile will never flow into the Volga,
Nor will the Congo or the Jordan flow into the Euphrates.
Each river has its own springs,
Its own course and its own life.
Our land, my friend, is no barren land.
Each land gives birth in due time,
And each fighter will see the dawn.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.  Available from Abe Books.

“. . . Even her dreams are besieged . . .” (Samih Faraj)

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Members of delegation from Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem,
in Hebron’s al-Shuhada Street with gates closing the street and
Israeli soldier in guard tower above. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

UN  APPOINTS  NEW  CHAIR  OF  COMMISSION  ON  VIOLATIONS  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS
The President of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) . . .  announced the appointment of Santiago Canton of Argentina to serve as a member and chairperson of the Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.   Canton . . .  will replace David Michael Crane of the United States who recently stepped down as a member of the three-person Commission.   ___The Commissioners have been mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the blockaded Gaza Strip. . .    More . . .

SPAIN  READY  TO  RECOGNIZE  PALESTINIAN  STATE
Spain has become the latest country to voice its readiness to recognize the State of Palestine and that it will promote a European Union (EU) move to recognize Palestine as an independent state.   ___Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, spoke at a conference of EU leaders in Austria, saying that the Spanish government will promote an EU move to recognize Palestine.   ___Borrell said that “if the EU is not able to reach a unanimous decision, then each to their own.”   More . . .
Related . . . MEMBERS  OF  EU  PARLIAMENT  CALL  ON  EU  TO  RECOGNIZE  PALESTINE

ISRAELI  FORCES  SEVERELY  ASSAULT,  DETAIN  HEBRON  RESIDENTS    Israeli forces raided a Palestinian home, on Wednesday night, the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, and assaulted its residents.   ___Locals said that Israeli forces raided the home of Palestinian, Ghaleb Abu Sbeih, in the Old City of HEBRON and thoroughly searched it, damaging most of his furniture and personal belongings.  ___Israeli forces assaulted two Palestinians, Shaher and Ibrahim Abu Sbeih, during the raid. . .   More . . .
Related . . . ISRAELI  FORCES  INJURE  DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIAN  STUDENTS  IN  HEBRON

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

HEBRON:  6  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS,  95  PHYSICAL  OBSTACLES,  2200  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  TO  PRIVILEGE  850  ILLEGAL  SETTLERS.
For centuries, Al-Khalil (Hebron) has been considered a holy city, primarily because of the Ibrahimi Mosque/The Tomb of the Patriarchs, which followers of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity consider a sacred site of pilgrimage. Today, Al-Khalil is an openly segregated city. The daily lives of its 215,000 Palestinian residents are severely disrupted to privilege just 850 hard-line Israeli settlers, enabled by hundreds of heavily armed Israeli soldiers. More . . .   Join  Visualizing Palestine . . .
Related . . .  OCCUPATION  CAPTURED  09/18:  PHOTOS  OF  PALESTINIAN  LIFE  AND  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  IN  THE  WEST  BANK  CITY  OF  HEBRON
Related . . .  PALESTINIAN  POLICE  PAY  FIRST-EVER  SYMBOLIC  VISIT  TO  HEBRON’S  OLD  CITY

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

ECUMENICAL  ACCOMPANIERS  PROGRAM  IN  PALESTINE  AND  ISRAEL  (EAPPI)    The World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was created in 2002 by the WCC. . .    1,800 ecumenical accompaniers (EAs) have worked to create conditions for a just peace.   EAPPI advocates for justice and peace based on non-violence and a non-partisan approach. . . To insure adherence to these vital principles at a local level in Israel and Palestine, a Local Reference Group (LRG) with representatives from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, is appointed . . .     More . . .   Donate . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“A WOMAN,” BY SAMIH FARAJ

Take one step towards the old house
And another down the stairs to the home
Where a woman sits in the early evening light:
Light, the radiance of a dove, shining;
Or light like the light from a shrine.
No one knows where she has come from –
Through which quarter or distant land she passed.
What shadow the light cast when she’d gone.
No one knows the flood she passed through –
The risks she took, the daily deluge.
No one can measure the vast sea she crossed,
The hazards she held in her small hands.
An ordinary woman: one step at a time, one step
On the land lacking, on the barren soil; one step
On the time passing; one step on the clock ticking.
Except for something in her now rising, hot, scolding,
Even her dreams are besieged, it seems; yet
In the middle of a siege it’s still possible to dream.
A dream of the old house, and her first step.
—Translated by Jackie Kay

Samih Faraj is a teacher in Deheishe Refugee Camp and a lecturer at HEBRON and Bethlehem Universities. He has been editor-in-chief of several journals, including VOICE OF THE NATION.
Poem from A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014).

“. . . Do you sanction what’s being done In your names . . .” (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

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❶ Jerusalem: Israel planning park to connect two settlements

  • Background: “UN Security Council Resolution 2334: An Important Lease on Life for the Two-State Solution.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) IOF closes off al-Khalil thoroughfares with checkpoints
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Qareqea: Israel’s intent to seize our tax money “financial piracy”
❷ Dozens of Palestinians were wounded during clashes with IOF on Friday of anger
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Trump’s Palestine deal is a real estate transaction
❹ POETRY by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ JERUSALEM:  ISRAEL  PLANNING  PARK  TO  CONNECT  TWO  SETTLEMENTS
Palestine News Network – PNN
Feb. 8, 2018 ― The Hebrew daily, Haaretz newspaper on Thursday has unveiled an Israeli plan to build a park in the Mount of Olives overlooking Old Jerusalem, which will link two settlement outposts to the Jewish side of  Jerusalem.
___According to Haaretz, the park will be located on the western slopes of the Mount of Olives, and will link the settlement neighborhoods of “Beit Orot” and “Beit Hohchen.”     MORE . . . 

Liel, Alon. “UN  SECURITY  COUNCIL  RESOLUTION  2334:  AN  IMPORTANT  LEASE  ON  LIFE  FOR  THE  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION.”
PALESTINE-ISRAEL  JOURNAL  OF  POLITICS,  ECONOMICS  &  CULTURE, vol. 22, no. 2/3, July 2017, pp. 78-84.   Dr. Alon Liel served from 2000 to 2001 as the director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
[. . . .] At a time when support for a two-state solution was rapidly disappearing, the international community provided emergency aid in the form of Resolution 2334 [Dec. 23, 2016]. The resolution demands that Israel cease illegal settlement activity, focus on the two-state solution . . .   The UNSC resolution makes a clear distinction between the area of the sovereign State of Israel and the area of the territories occupied in 1967. . .   This distinction between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) touches upon the holy of holies of the current Israeli government; senior ministers call the occupied West Bank “the heart of the land,” and the settlers are the political elite in Israel today.
[. . . .] Beyond touching the sensitive settlements nerve, the reason for the Israeli anger is very clear. Most of the Knesset members of the ruling coalition . . .  do not support the two-state solution. . . .
[. . . .] Precisely because of the tremendous anger that it raised, UNSC Resolution 2334 also became an important life-saver for the Israeli opposition that supports the two-state solution. This opposition . . .  is practically not felt in the political/parliamentary discourse in Israel.
[. . . .] Now President Trump is preparing, at least according to his declarations, to “broker a deal” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the most important statement he made in connection with the conflict has already caused real damage. In the joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he said: “I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the one that both parties like.” With this possibly unplanned off-the-cuff remark, the president shook up the one foundation for agreement that has accompanied the peace process for the last 20 years (1994-2014). [. . . .] This is where we are today. Within Israel and Palestine, the two-state idea is disappearing from the horizon; the world via Resolution 2334 is trying to revive and breathe new life into the peace camp on both sides; and President Trump is trying to undermine the UN itself and destroy the lifesaver. . . .  Resolution 2334, therefore, is much more than just a resolution about the fate of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The resolution has become a symbol of the global struggle between facts and “alternative facts,” between sanity and magic tricks, between international diplomatic continuity and the dangerous breaking of rules.    FULL ARTICLE . . . 

.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  IOF  CLOSES  OFF  AL-KHALIL  THOROUGHFARES  WITH  CHECKPOINTS
The Palestinian Information Center
Feb. 9, 2018 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Thursday evening set up a series of military checkpoints at the main entrances to Halhul town, north of al-Khalil province, in the southern West Bank.
___Reporting from al-Khalil, a PIC news correspondent said the IOF cracked down on Palestinians at a military checkpoint pitched in al-Hawawer area, north of Halhul. Palestinian civilians have been made to endure exhaustive inspection.     MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴃ)  QAREQEA:  ISRAEL’S  INTENT  TO  SEIZE  OUR  TAX  MONEY  “FINANCIAL  PIRACY”
The Palestinian Information Center
Feb. 9, 2018 ― The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs has strongly denounced Israel’s intent to enact a new law confiscating Palestinian tax revenues to prevent the Palestinian Authority from using them to support families of prisoners, martyrs and wounded citizens.
___In a press release on Thursday, head of the commission Issa Qaraqea accused the Israeli government of practicing financial extortion and pressure on the Palestinian people through its racist legislation. . . .     MORE . . .  
❷ DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIANS  WERE  WOUNDED  DURING  CLASHES  WITH  IOF  ON  FRIDAY  OF  ANGER
Palestine News Network – PNN
Feb. 9, 2018 ― Dozens of Palestinians were wounded today Friday during clashes with IOF on Friday of anger in which began in several areas and Palestinian cities after Friday none prayers.
___The confrontations took place in several Palestinian cities, including Ramallah and its villages, Bethlehem northern entrance, Bab al-Zawiya area in Hebron, Qalqilya and Nablus in addition to Gaza Strip borders.     MORE . . . 
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  TRUMP’S  PALESTINE  DEAL  IS  A  REAL  ESTATE  TRANSACTION
Al Jazeera English
By Bill Law
Feb. 9, 2018 ― As President Donald Trump continues to bluster and tweet his way through a chaotic presidency, the Middle East is simmering dangerously close to a boiling point. Wars in Yemen and Syria are still burning hard . . .   Once again, all but forgotten are the Palestinians.
[. . . .] Trump threatens to cut off US aid because the Palestinians refused to meet his Vice President Mike Pence after the president had provocatively named Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. . . .
[. . . .] The peace proposal that Trump likes best – and that his son-in-law and special Middle East adviser Jared Kushner is reportedly pursuing together with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – looks remarkably like a real estate transaction. Unsurprising, given that the 36-year-old Kushner has no previous experience in diplomacy, but an awful lot of it in wheeling and dealing in the high-stakes world of New York property ventures.      MORE . . .  

“COLLATERAL  SAVAGE,”  BY  LAHAB  ASSEF  AL-JUNDI
Survivors of The Holocaust please
Talk to me. Help me understand―
Do you sanction what’s being done
In your names?

I thought your spirits
grew more gentle
having lived through the unspeakable.

Bombs are not less lethal or evil―
Stop being so deathly afraid of the other.

A thousand eyes for an eye?
Children of the Holocaust
please do not lash out
as if you lost your sight.

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
Lahab Assef Al-Jundi was born of Palestinian refugee parents and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not long after graduation, he discovered his passion for writing. He published his first poetry collection, A Long Way, in 1985. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary publications, and many anthologies including Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Hayan Charara, and Between Heaven and Texas, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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 & Noble.

“. . . We have a brother in the dust . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

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❶ Israeli settlers attack northern West Bank school
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Scores of settlers and police forces defile Aqsa Mosque
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Settlers conduct land survey south of Nablus
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴄ) Rabbi: Israeli settlement incubates worst violence against Palestinians

  • Background: “Childhood: A Universalist Perspective for How Israel Is Using Child Arrest and Detention to Further Its Colonial Settler Project.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

❷ Two boys lose eyes to Israeli fire
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israeli occupation forces abduct 4 Palestinian children in Jenin
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Palestinian child abducted by 21 Israeli soldiers returns home
❸ POETRY by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ATTACK  NORTHERN  WEST  BANK  SCHOOL  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA    
Dec. 28, 2017 ― Jewish settlers attacked on Thursday students at the Burin High School in the northern West Bank district of Nablus prompting local residents to confront them and push them back, according to the school principal Ibrahim Omran.
___Israeli soldiers, who provided protection to the settlers who came from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the Palestinians causing several cases of suffocation from gas inhalation and rubber bullet injuries.
___Omran said the students were sitting for their mid-term exams when some 15 settlers attacked the school under army protection.     MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  SCORES  OF  SETTLERS  AND  POLICE  FORCES  DEFILE  AQSA  MOSQUE
The Palestinian Information Center
Dec. 28, 2017 ―  Dozens of Jewish settlers on Thursday morning desecrated the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards under tight police guard.
___According to local media sources, about 112 settlers entered the Mosque in groups through al-Maghariba Gate, while several police troops were deployed throughout the Mosque’s plateaus and among Palestinian worshipers.  MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❶―  (ᴃ)  SETTLERS  CONDUCT  LAND  SURVEY  SOUTH  OF  NABLUS
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 28, 2017 ―  A group of Jewish settlers escorted by soldiers on Wednesday surveyed a vast tract of land in an area between the towns of Duma and Qusra, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
___Local sources said that several settlers and soldiers were seen using maps in their land survey, expressing fears of Israeli intents to annex lands in their area for settlement projects.     MORE . . .  
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴄ)    RABBI:  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENT  INCUBATES  WORST  VIOLENCE  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS 
Days of Palestine 
Dec. 27, 2017 ―  Toxic environment of radical Israeli settlements incubates violence, while Israeli occupation forces has miserable record of bringing those who attack Palestinians to justice, Rabbi Arik Ascherman said. 
___In an opinion article published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Tuesday, Ascherman said he was attacked with a knife by a masked settler from the illegal settlement of Itmar in 2015 while he was leading Israeli occupation forces to a FIRE SET BY SETTLERS in a Palestinian olive grove.
___The attacker, Ascherman ironically said, was taken to court and then was sentenced, but to 150 hours of community service.   MORE . . .  

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera.
“Childhood: A Universalist Perspective for How Israel Is Using Child Arrest and Detention to Further Its Colonial Settler Project.”
International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 223-244.
[. . . .] . . . the general trend of settler colonialism is based on “a sustained institutional tendency to supplant the indigenous population” and a cultural logic of elimination that “reconciles a range of historical practices that might otherwise seem distinct” (Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism. p. 396). Furthermore, settler colonialism is located in programs of control, removal, and termination, and the invasion of the world of colonized people is a structure, not an event. Children who are maltreated in such a context suffer ongoing structural violence at the hands of the colonizer. . .  In the settler colonial project, settlers regard the new territory as theirs and conceive the birth and development of native children as contributing to a “demographic threat” that compromises their dominance over the territory. . .  demographic and social modes of control are  connected to structural preconditions that dispossess land and dominate movement and life. Controlling, subjugating, and abusing children enhances such dispossession.
[. . . .] Within this context, Palestinian children are viewed as security threats and therefore thrust outside of acceptable and established human rights framework and into a discriminatory structure of analysis. Mohammed Zine al-Majid, for example, was only four years old when an arrest warrant was issued in his name . . . Mohammed’s father recalled asking the armed officers who raided his home in search of his toddler son, “Are you sure you have an arrest warrant? A legal one?” . . .  Mohammed’s father could not believe that such a young boy could be considered a threat. Although the authorities left once they realized they had made mistake, the damage was already done.
___Legally, Mohammed was not treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention or the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child . . . Mohammed’s case calls for an analysis of how, in the context of the military occupation of the Palestinian territories, arrest warrants for children are considered “legal,”“acceptable,” and “normal,” and not seen as child abuse.    SOURCE . . . 

❷ TWO  BOYS  LOSE  EYES  TO  ISRAELI  FIRE 
The Electronic Intifada     
Maureen Clare Murphy
Dec. 28, 2017 ―  With Israel’s crackdown on protests over Jerusalem has come a spike in violations of Palestinian children’s rights.
___Since 6 December, when President Donald Trump announced that the US recognized the city as Israel’s capital and pledged to move the country’s embassy there, Palestinian children have been among the hundreds injured and arrested by Israeli forces.
___Several children have suffered potentially irreversible head injuries, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.
___Two have lost eyes.
___Two boys were hit in the face with tear gas canisters fired by Israeli soldiers from a watchtower near Erez checkpoint during an 11 December protest at the Gaza-Israel boundary.   MORE . . .    ..
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  FORCES  ABDUCT  4  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  IN  JENIN    
Days of Palestine     
Dec. 27, 2017 ―  Israeli occupation forces abducted on Wednesday evening four Palestinian children from Kafr Dan Neighbourhood in West Bank city of Jenin.
___Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli occupation forces raided a Palestinian farm in the area, attacked the farmers and abducted the four children.
___The eyewitnesses identified the four children as Hamza Sabah, Mohamed Salah, Mustafa Mer’e and Ahmed Salah.
___All of them were taken by a military jeep to the Israeli military camp in the area referred to by mass media as Salem Military Camp.    MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)    PALESTINIAN  CHILD  ABDUCTED  BY  21  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  RETURNS  HOME
Days of Palestine
Dec. 28, 2017 ― The 16-year-old Palestinian teen, Fawzi al-Juneidi, who was recently arrested by Israeli soldiers, returned to his family late Wednesday.
___The boy was abducted on December 7 in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil after being dragged on the ground and blindfolded by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers.
___A photo of the blindfolded youth quickly became a symbol of ongoing Palestinian protests sparked by US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.    MORE . . .    ..

“BROTHER,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH
I have a brother in the dust
who has been waiting thirty years for his toys.
How did we not wait for him, he will ask us.
How did age take us by surprise?
How did we grow up?
And how is it, just like that, we’ve never invited him to join us?
Not once did we invite him
into our games in the mirror, in our dreams,
just like that!
One of our games is:
We have a brother in the dust.
When winter comes he waves with the grass.
He beguiles us with intense whiteness―that’s his habit―
then dwells close to our father, over there, inside mother.

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

“. . . These times are not such as they imagine . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Israel to displace 23 Bedouin families east of J’lem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israel completes building Apartheid Wall in Al-Khalil

  • Background: . “Jerusalem: A Shattered City of Peace.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ Israeli forces detain Jerusalemite lawmaker, 2 months after release from prison
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Demographic hysteria leaves Jerusalemites by the wayside
❹ POETRY by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  TO  DISPLACE  23  BEDOUIN  FAMILIES  EAST  OF  J’LEM      
The Palestinian Information Center  
Aug. 4, 2017.   The Israeli occupation army has threatened to demolish the homes of 23 Palestinian families in the Bedouin al-Fahidat neighborhood, east of Anata town in Occupied Jerusalem, within a few days.
___According to a local resident, the Israeli army’s civil administration notified the families of its intention to raze all their homes and structures, and gave them three days to evacuate their area, which it said would be used for military purposes.
___The families, half of them children, were deliberately given until Saturday to object to the demolition notice so as to prevent them from finding a sufficient time to prepare and file a complaint, especially during the weekend when official institutions are closed.  MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAEL  COMPLETES  BUILDING  APARTHEID  WALL  IN AL-KHALIL    
Days of Palestine
August 3. 2017.   Israeli occupation completed building of 26-mile part of its Apartheid Wall in South Hills of West Bank city of Al-Khalil, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
___The 20-feet high concrete wall with barbed wires and cameras was erected between the Tarquimiya crossing and the illegal Israeli settlement of Meitar.
___In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that this Apartheid Wall is illegal because it is built on the basis racial discrimination.     MORE . . .

AbuZayyad, Nisreen. “JERUSALEM: A SHATTERED CITY OF PEACE.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 38-44.    [. . . .] . . . Yet, Jerusalem is not a city one can escape from, especially not the Palestinians. Jerusalem is where their heart and soul is, and not only because of its religious sites – is it where their national identity rose.
___Most of the time, the urge to escape this city is caused by feelings of frustration and by not being able to deal emotionally with what this city has become. The current reality is a daily nightmare to those who were born in Jerusalem and consider it their home. Every day Palestinians are witnessing a part of their soul being shattered and stolen by the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, as what they identify with as their home and identity is being stolen and claimed by the Israelis. This daily uprooting is being covered over and washed away with the burdens of survival, in areas such as housing, employment and residency IDs. Some Palestinians in the city are so consumed with their daily burdens that they are incapable of noticing this daily uprooting. They adapt and adjust themselves to new circumstances imposed by the occupation.
___In East Jerusalem, which has been under continuous attack since its occupation in 1967, Israeli governments have used every legislation and policy to deprive the Palestinians of their natural growth, development or livelihood, making their lives so difficult, miserable and inhuman, to force them to leave. Thus, it is not a coincidence that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are burdened with social and economic problems, which many of us view as an instrument used to destroy Palestinian society and identity there.
[. . . .] Given these circumstances, Middle East Publications – PIJ and Ir Amim decided to carry out a project, supported by IFAZivik, that focuses specifically on the younger generation in Jerusalem who are the key to the future. Each organization is focusing on its concerns and priorities from their own institutional perspective. Middle East Publications — PIJ is working on the priorities of younger Palestinian Jerusalemites in East Jerusalem, while Ir Amim is working on issues which concern the young Israeli Jerusalemites, within the overall objective of finding a just and peaceful solution for the future of the city.   The program includes training programs and political seminars to empower young Palestinian Jerusalemites to advocate their rights and to understand the Israeli occupation system that they work and live within.  FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  JERUSALEMITE  LAWMAKER,  2  MONTHS  AFTER  RELEASE  FROM  PRISON 
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 4, 2017.   Israeli forces re-detained Palestinian Jerusalemite lawmaker Muhammad Abu Tair, 66, two months after he was released from Israeli custody after serving a 17 month prison sentence.
___Local sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces detained Abu Tair from his home in the West Bank town of Kafr Aqab — where he has resided since Israel deported him from occupied East Jerusalem in 2010.
___Abu Tair, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from the Change and Reform Bloc of the Hamas movement representing Jerusalem, was detained on Jan. 28, 2016 from his home and released on May 30, 2017.    MORE . . .
❸ Opinion/Analysis: DEMOGRAPHIC  HYSTERIA  LEAVES  JERUSALEMITES  BY  THE  WAYSIDE
+972 Blog 
By Efrat Cohen-Bar
August 3, 2017.   As far back as the 1970s, the Israeli government set a goal to maintain a Jewish majority of at least 70 percent in its “united” capital of Jerusalem. The goal was set more or less in accordance with the size of the various populations that lived within the new expanded municipal boundaries of the city, established at the end of the war in 1967. Thus, from the first days of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, every effort was made to achieve this demographic dominance.
____Since then, for the past 50 years, urban planning in Jerusalem has been used as a tool in the service of maintaining demographic levels. On the one hand that planning restricts the development of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods, all while promoting building in Israeli neighborhoods and settlements beyond the Green Line.
___Despite all this, the State of Israel has failed to achieve its vaunted demographic goals in Jerusalem. Israeli Jews make up only 60 percent of the city’s population today. Whenever Israel’s control over Jerusalem is compromised the country goes into a hysteric state. So it should be no surprise that we are now seeing a number of new initiatives to alter the city’s boundaries meant to ensure Israeli demographic dominance.     MORE . . .

“AWAITING  THE  RETURN,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH

The hovels of my loved ones stand on the sand ―
I, with the rain, stay awake.
I am the son of Ulysses, who awaited the mail from the North;
A sailor called him, but he would not go.
He anchored the boats and took to the highest mountains:
O rock on which my father prayed to shelter a rebel,
I will not sell you for precious pearls.
I will not depart;
Surely
I will not.

The voices of my loved ones cleave the wind, scale the ramparts:
Wait for us, Mother, at the door we will return.
These times are not such as they imagine.
The wind blows as the sailor wills,
And the ship overpowers the tide.
What have you cooked for us, Mother, for we will return?
They have looted the oil jars, Mother, and the flour sacks.
So bring us grain from the fields!
Bring in greens,
We are hungry.

The footsteps of my loved ones are like the moaning of a rock split by an iron hand;
I and the rain are sleepless.
In vain, I gaze through space;
I will remain atop the rock . . . under the rock . . . steadfast.

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.
Mahmoud Darwish.

“. . . Lay him at the foot of the mountain: for it knows his sorrow . . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Prosecutor calls for Palestinian boy to receive 12-year sentence over alleged stabbing
❷ On Palestinian Journalists’ Day, 24 reporters imprisoned by Israel hold hunger strike
. . . ❷― (ᴀ) Israel committed 489 violations against Palestinian Journalists
❸ Israeli army ravages nature reserve in al-Khalil

  • Background from Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

❹ Israeli Soldiers Invade Bedouin Community Near Jerusalem
❺ Poetry by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PROSECUTOR  CALLS  FOR  PALESTINIAN  BOY  TO  RECEIVE  12-YEAR  SENTENCE  OVER  ALLEGED  STABBING
Ma’an News Agency
Sept. 26, 2016
An Israeli court in Jerusalem postponed on Sunday the sentencing of a 14-year-old Palestinian Ahmad Salih Manasra, as the prosecution called for the boy to spend 12 years in prison for allegedly stabbing and wounding two Israelis in a settlement in October.     ___Manasra, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, was found guilty in May of carrying out a stabbing attack on Oct. 12, 2015 in the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem, injuring two Israelis ages 13 and 21.
___Manasra’s cousin, 15-year-old Hassan Manasra, was shot dead at the scene of the attack. His body was withheld by Israeli authorities for seven months, finally returned to his family for burial in May after they rejected an earlier transfer due to his body being handed over completely frozen.     MORE . . .     
Interrogation video of Ahmad Salih Manasra

❷ ON  PALESTINIAN  JOURNALISTS  DAY,  24  REPORTERS  IMPRISONED  BY  ISRAEL  HOLD  HUNGER  STRIKE
Ma’an News Agency
Sept. 26, 2016
Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel went on a one-day hunger strike on Monday to mark the Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalists, as 24 of them remained behind bars.
___The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that 24 Palestinian journalists were currently held in Israeli prisons.
___The longest serving Palestinian journalist, according to PPS, is Mahmoud Issa Moussa who has been serving a life sentence since 1993.     MORE . . .   
. . . ❷― (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  COMMITTED  489  VIOLATIONS  AGAINST  PALESTINIAN  JOURNALISTS
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Sept. 26, 2016
On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalist , Israeli occupation forces arrested 79 journalists and shot 130 others, Commission of Supporting Palestinian Journalists reported.
___The commission reported that the Israeli violations against Palestinian journalists and cameramen have raised dramatically since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Habba – uprising.     ___Last October recorded the highest number of Israeli violations against Palestinian media staffs in the West Bank, Gaza and occupied Jerusalem.    MORE . . . 
❸ ISRAELI  ARMY  RAVAGES  NATURE  RESERVE  IN  AL-KHALIL  
The Palestinian Information Center
Sept. 25, 2016
An Israeli army patrol stormed on Sunday a nature reserve in the southern occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil and its soldiers razed cultivated land lots.
___Coordinator for the national anti-settlement committee in southern al-Khalil, Rateb al-Jabour, said the Israeli occupation army broke into the al-Daqiqa nature reserve in Yatta, removed barbed wire surrounding the area, and leveled vast land tracts covering an area of over 100 dunums.
___According to al-Jabour, the Israeli forces threatened to devastate the reserve upon three earlier occasions on claims of surpassing the border fence.
___He added that the nature reserve was built some eight years ago with the help of foreign charities and is planted with 5,000 unfruitful trees. The reserve also includes eight wells for amassing rainwater.      MORE . . .       

  • Power, Susan, and Elisabeth Koek. “Israel’s Cash Cow: Natural Resources In The Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 19/20.4/1 (2014): 88-96.  SOURCE.   

Underneath and adjacent to the lands inhabited by Israelis and Palestinians, natural fresh water from the Jordan River and the Mountain and Costal Aquifers flows abundantly.20 However, at present, the water sector in Israel and the OPT “is characterised by highly asymmetrical overexploitation of damageable shared water resources, exhaustion of long-term storage, deterioration of the water quality and increasing levels of demand driven by high population growth and accompanied by decreasing per capita supplies.” Palestinians residing in the occupied territory face an impending water crisis in the region. Many do not have sufficient access to clean and safe water to their meet daily needs, while residents in Israel proper and in Israel’s illegal settlements have ample water available, enough even for intensive farm irrigation.
___Israel’s desire to secure uninterrupted access to, and exercise exclusive control over, the region’s major surface and groundwater resources dates back to the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel strategically occupied lands rich in natural water resources. Immediately after the war, Israel prioritized maintaining access to and control over the water resources by declaring all water resources subject to Israeli military control through a series of military orders, which are still in place today. These efforts were clearly aimed at consolidating control over the Palestinian share of the water resources as it integrated the West Bank water system into the Israeli system. The integration was completed in 1982 when then-Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon transferred ownership over all West Bank water supply systems to Mekorot for the symbolic price of 1 NIS (approximately $0.25). By making use of its military power, Israel laid the foundations for a system of water governance that remains in place today and is characterised by discrimination in allocation of water resources, and, more broadly, by Israel’s unlawful exercise of sovereign rights over all the water resources of the OPT.

❹ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  INVADE  BEDOUIN  COMMUNITY  NEAR  JERUSALEM
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Sept. 26, 2016
Israeli soldiers and officials of the “Civil Administration Office” invaded, Sunday, the Abu Nowwar Bedouin committee in the al-Ezarriya town, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and took pictures of a room that was added to the local elementary school.
___Daoud Jahalin, the spokesperson of Abu Nowwar community, said the soldiers surrounded the local school, and photographed a recently added room, an issue that raises fears the army intends to demolish it, especially since most demolition orders are issued by the Civil Administration of the Israeli army, in the occupied West Bank.
___Jahalin added that dozens of soldiers also invaded Abu Nowwar community on Saturday, and conducted various provocative acts.      MORE . . .    

“THE  MAN  WHO  VISITED  DEATH,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

Leave the martyr shrouded in his garments,
Lay him at the foot of the mountain: for it knows his sorrow.
Do not bury him, while his wounds
Proclaim his testament of love and suffering.
Do you hear?

Let him take leave of his friends,
A bleeding eagle among the rocks.
Lay him in the sun; his face caressed
By the winds, redolent with the fragrance of the land of his youth.

Do not close his eyes; a final
Red glimmer still shines in them.
His call reverberates in the golden valleys:
“You who fear death, I fear it not;
Take me to my home
To rest my cheek upon its threshold,
To kiss the doorknob,
Take me to my vineyard, I would die, with the pangs of my love in my heart,
If my eyes do not feast once more on the sight of its soil.

Samih al-Qasim 
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.

 

“. . . In the tumult of cities beyond deserts and seas . . .” (Jabra Ibrahim Jabra)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-isreali
Hundreds of settlers closed all roads leading to the evacuated settlements of Sanur and Homesh north of occupied West Bank and performed Talmudic rituals in the area, May 12, 2016. (Photo: Alternative Information Center)

❶ 647 Palestinians Held in Administrative Detention since October 2015
❷ Israel to Demolish Home of Three Jerusalemite Prisoners
❸ Israeli settlers escalate their attacks against Palestinians
❹ Israel imposes “general closure” on Palestinian territory for Israeli Independence Day
❺ Opinion/Analysis: MOST  ISRAELI  JEWS  THINK  THERE’S  NO  OCCUPATION.  SO  WHAT  IS  IT?
❻ POETRY by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ 647  PALESTINIANS  HELD  IN  ADMINISTRATIVE  DETENTION  SINCE  OCTOBER  2015
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 12, 2016
Israeli forces placed 647 Palestinians in administrative detention without trial or charge since October 2015, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) on Thursday.
___PPS said the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention has reached about 750 for the first time since 2008.
___It added Israeli military courts have issued 1,144 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the first of October 2015.      MORE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  HOME  OF  THREE  JERUSALEMITE  PRISONERS
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 12, 2016
The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem on Thursday handed a notice to the family of three Palestinian prisoners informing them that their home will be demolished, under the pretext of construction without a permit.
___Um Tareq al-Issawi, the mother of Samer, Shereen and Medhat al-Issawi – three prisoners in Israeli jails, told WAFA that she has received a notice from the Israeli municipality regarding their intention to demolish their house, for being constructed without an Israeli permit [. . . .]
She said such a decision aims at “breaking the steadfastness” of her three imprisoned sons.      MORE . . . 

home demolition
The file photo shows Israeli bulldozers demolishing a Palestinian home in Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds. (Photo: PressTV. Feb. 14, 2015)

❸ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ESCALATE  THEIR  ATTACKS  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS
The Palestinian Information Center
May 12, 2016
Israeli settlers stepped up overnight their attacks against Palestinians and their properties as they were celebrating their Jewish holidays.
___In al-Khalil, a group of settlers stoned late yesterday several Palestinian homes in the Old City.
___The settlers threw stones and empty bottles at a number of local homes after they performed Talmudic rituals at the Ibrahimi Mosque, the PIC reporter affirmed.   MORE . . .

❹ ISRAEL  IMPOSES  “GENERAL  CLOSURE” ON  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORY  FOR ISRAELI  INDEPENDENCE  DAY
Ma’an News Agency
May 11, 2016
Israeli authorities declared a “general closure” on Gaza and the occupied West Bank since midnight on Tuesday and continuing until midnight on Thursday, as Israel celebrates its Memorial and Independence Day [. . . .]
___Crossings into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza are only being permitted in humanitarian cases. However, a representative of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has requested approval for Palestinians in need of serious medical assistance. . . .
___An Israeli army spokesperson said the closure was implemented following an army “security assessment” and added that the closure restrictions included the passage of products and the movement of people into Israel and its illegal settlements.
MORE . . .    you will have to copy and paste Ma’an News Agency into your browser; it is no longer possible to link it directly for their security reasons.

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  MOST  ISRAELI  JEWS  THINK  THERE’S  NO  OCCUPATION.  SO  WHAT  IS  IT?
+972 Magazine Blog
Natasha Roth
May 11, 2016
A recent poll finds that 72 percent of Jewish Israelis believe Israel’s control over the Palestinian territories does not constitute occupation. So what do you call military rule over a captive population that didn’t vote for the army to be there?      MORE . . .  

“IN  THE  DESERTS  OF  EXILE,”  BY  JABRA  IBRAHIM  JABRA
Spring after spring, in the deserts of exile,
What are we doing with our love,
When our eyes are full of frost and dust?

Our Palestine, green land of ours;
Its flowers as if embroidered of women’s gowns;
March adorns its hills
With the jewel-like peony and narcissus;
April bursts open in its plains
With flowers and bride-like blossoms;
May is our rustic song
Which we sing at noon, in the blue shadows,
Among the olive trees in our valleys,
And in the ripeness of the fields we wait for the promise of July
And the joyous dance amidst the harvest.

O land of ours where our childhood passed
Like dreams in the shade of the orange grove,
Among the almond trees in the valleys―
Remember us now wandering
Among the thorns of the desert,
Wandering in rocky mountains;
Remember us now
In the tumult of cities beyond deserts and seas;
Remember us with our eyes full of dust
That never clears in our ceaseless wandering.
They crushed the flowers on the hills around us,
Destroyed the houses over our heads,
Scattered our torn remains
Then unfolded the desert before us,
With valleys writhing in hunger
And blue shadows
Scattered into red thorns
Bent over corpses left as prey for falcon and crow.

Is it from your hills that the angels sang to the shepherds
Of peace on earth and goodwill among men?
Only death laughed when it saw
Among the entrails of beasts
The ribs of men,
And through the guffaw of bullets
It went dancing a joyous dance
On the heads of weeping women.
Our land is an emerald,
But in the deserts of exile,
Spring after spring,
Only the dust hisses in our face.
What then, what are we doing with our love,
When our eyes and our mouth are full of frost and dust?

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.
About Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

 

“. . . I emerge from a wound opened by a shell in the heart of a wall . . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Israeli forces storm al-Quds University, seize documents
❷ Palestinian shot dead, 3 Israeli soldiers injured in shooting attack
❸ WHOSE  SECURITY?
❹ Israeli Occupation Force raids homes, arrests citizens in W. Bank
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  COST  OF  FREEDOM
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  AL-QUDS  UNIVERSITY,  SEIZE  DOCUMENTS
Jan. 29, 2016
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed Abu Dis’ al-Quds Open University early Friday and confiscated equipment and documents belonging to its student union, staff members told Ma’an.
___Hassan Dweik, the university’s deputy head, said that up to 300 soldiers stormed the campus, holding six security guards in a room and preventing them from leaving for two and a half hours.
___He said the soldiers raided the university’s Islamic studies department, as well as its student union offices after smashing their way through their doors.   More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD,  3  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  INJURED  IN  SHOOTING  ATTACK
Jan. 31, 2016
A Palestinian was shot dead after shooting and injuring three Israeli soldiers at an Israeli military checkpoint around the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, witnesses told Ma’an.
___Witnesses said a Palestinian vehicle approached the Israeli checkpoint and stopped for inspection. When an Israeli soldier approached the driver’s window, the driver opened fire, immediately shooting the soldier.    More . . .
❸ Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
WHOSE  SECURITY?
Gerard Horton
Representatives of the international community frequently describe a two-state solution as “a secure state of Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state.” This terminology has become so commonplace that it is easy to overlook the inherent imbalance these words contain – words that appear to assume that either Palestinians already have security, or that security for Palestinians is simply irrelevant – “viability” being sufficient . . . .
___A good place to start when considering the security dynamic is a report published by UNICEF in 2013 on children held in Israeli military detention.    More . . .
❹ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  FORCE  RAIDS  HOMES,  ARRESTS  CITIZENS  IN  W. BANK
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) carried out last night and at dawn Sunday arrests and raids on homes in some West Bank areas, mainly in al-Khalil province. Local sources in al-Khalil said that Israeli soldiers stormed and ransacked the house of Mahmoud al-Qawasmi, who works as a sports announcer at al-Khalil radio, before kidnapping him . . .
___The IOF also raided the house of ex-detainee Yusri al-Awiwi in al-Khalil . . . . Another house belonging to Fawwaz Qufaisheh was ransacked . . . .   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
THE  COST  OF  FREEDOM
Majed Bamya
Feb. 1, 2016
“Come on Majed, we do criticize Israeli behavior and ask for proportionate response and inquiries into allegations of misbehavior by Israeli soldiers and into settlers’ violence, but you know that when it comes to Israel’s right to security, our position will always be firm.”
___This is what a diplomat said to me as I was telling him about extra-judicial killings of Palestinians, these repeated filmed murders in the streets, and the collective punishment, including home demolitions and the massive arbitrary arrests. I had asked him why his country does not condemn such actions. . . .    More . . .

“DESCENT,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
I emerge in the rain
I emerge in the blue lightning
In the breeze, in the hurricane
I emerge from a wound opened by a shell
in the heart of a wall
I emerge from the unquenched thirst of the wells
I emerge from an arch solid
in the face of the wind
From an almond plant erect
in the face of the fire
I emerge from the governor’s signature
at the tail of a permit visa
From the shadow of the policeman’s billy club, I emerge
From a handkerchief that has only known tears
From the grass of the stolen land
From the hatred of burnt lips
From a spontaneous demonstration
From the throwing of bottles and stones
in the face of the blasting wind
I emerge from the anger of a friend
I have known in his hour of sorrow
From your skin . . . I emerge
From your fear . . . I emerge
In what god after today will you seek refuge?
(1969)

From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987. Trans. and ed. by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988. Available from Barnes and Noble.
About Samih Al-Qasim