Category: Arrests Palestinians Jerusalem

“. . . It’s fine to have an undustful death . . .” (Mourid al-Barghouti)

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WASHINGTON POST, Jan. 17, 2016: The parents of Mohanad Halabi, who killed two Israelis and wounded two more in October, walk through the debris of their home in the West Bank village of Surda after it was demolished by the Israeli army. The 19-year-old was shot dead by police at the scene. (Abbas Momani/ Agence France‑Presse /Getty Images).
WASHINGTON POST, Jan. 17, 2016: The parents of Mohanad Halabi, who killed two Israelis and wounded two more in October, walk through the debris of their home in the West Bank village of Surda after it was demolished by the Israeli army. The 19-year-old was shot dead by police at the scene. (Abbas Momani/ Agence France‑Presse /Getty Images).

❶ THIS  UPRISING  IS  ABOUT  MORE  THAN  KNIVES
❷ Jerusalem municipality carries out demolition of 2 Palestinian homes
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ) Israeli forces demolish 4 Bedouin homes, leaving 22 homeless
❸ Undercover forces shoot Palestinian, detain 19 in West Bank raids
❹ Academic boycott of Israel takes off in Italy
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘AN  ARAB  IS  AN  ARAB’
❻ Poetry by Mourid al-Barghouti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
THIS  UPRISING  IS  ABOUT  MORE  THAN  KNIVES
Budour Youssef Hassan
Jan. 29, 2016
When the “intifada of the knives” set off in October last year, Western reporters flooded in to Jerusalem to cover the new “escalation” . . . .
___Inevitably, the journalists left once a massive crackdown significantly reduced the number of deadly attacks against Israelis in the city. It is an all too familiar pattern for Palestinians, who know by now that it’s only “escalation” when there are dead or wounded Israelis. Deaths, injuries, arrests and home demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by Israel are deemed . . . too routine to be considered newsworthy.   More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JERUSALEM  MUNICIPALITY  CARRIES  OUT  DEMOLITION  OF  2  PALESTINIAN  HOMES
Feb. 2, 2016
Israeli forces on Tuesday morning demolished two Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem reportedly built without proper permits from the Jerusalem municipality, locals said.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that large numbers of Israeli soldiers and police officers raided the village of Sur Bahir, surrounding a home in the Wadi Abu al-Hummus area of the village and closing off nearby roads before carrying out its demolition.    More . . .
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ)  MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  4  BEDOUIN  HOMES,  LEAVING  22  HOMELESS
Feb. 1, 2016
Israeli forces demolished four corrugated iron Bedouin homes in the occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Monday, leaving 22 people homeless, locals said.
___The four homes were located in the Ein Ayub area between the villages of Ras Karkar and Deir Ammar, northwest of Ramallah city.
___Locals said Israeli military vehicles stormed the area from a bypass road near the homes leading to illegal Israeli settlements. . . .
___Locals added that Israeli forces did not give the families enough time to evacuate their belongings before they destroyed the dwellings.   More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UNDERCOVER  FORCES  SHOOT  PALESTINIAN,  DETAIN  19  IN  WEST  BANK  RAIDS
Feb. 2, 2016
Undercover Israeli forces shot and injured a young Palestinian man and detained 19 throughout the occupied West Bank during predawn military raids on Tuesday.
___ . . . a squad of six undercover Israeli officers stormed a mobile phone shop in the village of Qabalan near Nablus and confiscated a desktop computer and a tablet.
___During the raid, the forces shot a Palestinian identified as Yousif Shahrour in the foot before detaining him and two others . . . .    More . . .

The prototype of the Oblijet supersonic drone lifts off on its maiden flight under the gaze of ITS TECHNION UNIVERSITY DEVELOPERS. (Photo: REUTERS)
The prototype of the Oblijet supersonic drone lifts off on its maiden flight under the gaze of ITS TECHNION UNIVERSITY DEVELOPERS. (Photo: REUTERS)

❹ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ACADEMIC  BOYCOTT  OF  ISRAEL  TAKES  OFF  IN  ITALY
Stephanie Westbrook, Rome
Jan. 31 2016
There have been major breakthroughs in Italy for the campaign to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
___More than 200 academics from 50 Italian universities have signed a call for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions until Israel complies with international law.
___This is the first time a significant number of Italian academics have taken a public stand in support of the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).    More . . .
Related . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
‘AN  ARAB  IS  AN  ARAB’
Jonathan Ofir
Jan. 31, 2016
“An Arab is an Arab,” said my close acquaintance. . . .
___The sentence might seem neutral at first. And yet it holds a myriad of insinuations, prejudice and ideological supremacy which deserves to be analysed in historical perspective. . . .
___For Israel to be the state of all Jews worldwide, it must reserve their supposedly “ethnic” privilege under a “nationality” which is separate to the citizenship definition. Not doing so would imply that Israel is the state of its citizens. But it is not. It is self declared as the state of the Jews – the Jewish State.     More . . .

“IT’S  ALSO  FINE,”  BY  MOURID  AL-BARGHOUTI
It’s also fine to die in our beds
on a clean pillow
and among our friends.

It’s fine to die, once,
our hands crossed on our chests
empty and pale
with no scratches, no chains, no banners,
and no petitions.

It’s fine to have an undustful death,
no holes in our shirts,
and no evidence in our ribs.

It’s fine to die
with a white pillow, not the pavement, under our cheeks,
our hands resting in those of our loved ones
surrounded by desperate doctors and nurses,
with nothing left but a graceful farewell,
paying no attention to history,
leaving this world as it is,
hoping that, someday, someone else
will change it.
–From PEOPLE  IN  THEIR  NIGHTS, 1999

Online: Contemporary Palestinian Poetry
Mourid al-Barghouti was born in 1944 in the village of Deir Ghassaneh near Ramallah, and lived most of his life in exile. He has a BA in English literature from Cairo University. He worked as a teacher in Kuwait and Cairo, in Budapest as PLO representative and in Cairo as a radio journalist with “Palestine Radio”. He has published 13 collections of poetry, and his collected works. He won the AUC 1997 Naguib Mahfouz Literature Prize for his autobiographical novel Ra’aytu Ramallah (I Saw Ramallah), and in 2000 the Palestine Award for Poetry. He lives in Cairo.   On Facebook
On Wikipedia

“. . . we have lost the most beautiful thing among us . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
allami
Yousef Ahmad Mahmoud al-‘Allami – Beit Ummar Facebook Page. (Photo published: INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER, Nov. 25, 2015)

❶ Army Kidnaps 34 Palestinians in the West Bank
❶―A ―Soldiers Assault and Kidnap a Child, Eight Years of Age, In Hebron
❷ Illegal settlements aren’t rogue, they’re government policy
❸ Why won’t Israel allow autopsy on youth killed by police?
❹ Analysis: Part 1: Palestinian youth revolt – Any role for political parties?
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Identifying the wrong culprit for terrorism
❻ Poetry by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  34  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Nov. 25, 2015
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, overnight and on Wednesday morning, 34 Palestinians, including many children, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
___ In Hebron, the soldiers kidnapped ten Palestinians, including five children, in the city and nearby towns.
___Three Palestinians, identified as Mohammad Yasser Masalma, Hamdi Qassem Masalma, 18, Qussai Hani Masalma, and Qussai Ghazi Shallash, 20, were kidnapped from their homes in Doura town, west of Hebron.
More . . .
   ❶―A ―Related . . . SOLDIERS  ASSAULT  AND  KIDNAP  A  CHILD,  EIGHT  YEARS  OF  AGE,  IN  HEBRON
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS  AREN’T  ROGUE,  THEY’RE  GOVERNMENT  POLICY
Adam Aloni
Nov. 24, 2015
Consecutive Israeli governments have fabricated a sophisticated system designed to lend a guise of legality to the seizure of land in the West Bank.
More . . . 

soldiers-settlement
Israeli soldiers stand in front of the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, which was partially built on expropriated land belonging to the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, West Bank, September 26, 2014. Number (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

❸ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
WHY  WON’T  ISRAEL  ALLOW  AUTOPSY  ON  YOUTH KILLED  BY  POLICE?
Alia Al Ghussain
A refusal by the Israeli police to allow an autopsy on a young Palestinian killed by its officers indicates a cover-up.
___On 17 October, Mutaz Uweisat was killed by the police in Armon Hanatziv, an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
___Israeli police have alleged that the 16-year-old boy tried to stab a border guard.
___Palestinian human rights groups are calling for an investigation of the officer implicated in the killing.
[ . . . . . ]
___ Amnesty has documented a number of instances in which Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli forces when they did not present any imminent threat to life, and says the slayings amount to extrajudicial executions.
Nov. 24, 2015
More . . .
❹ Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK
PART  1:  PALESTINIAN  YOUTH  REVOLT  –  ANY  ROLE  FOR  POLITICAL  PARTIES?
Nov. 24, 2015
Jamal Juma’
(The following is the first segment of a five-part publication at Al-Shabaka.)
For nearly two months, Palestinians have waited for the political parties to shoulder their role in leading and guiding the uprising. Clearly, they are neither able nor willing to do so. There are several reasons for their inaction.
[ . . . . . ]
There are several factors in favor of creating a space for a new national or local leadership. Even if it subsides, the current uprising has raised the question the current leadership’s eligibility and has legitimized the search for alternatives. It has also united the Palestinian people inside the Green Line, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. Ironically, the political forces are the ones who remain divided.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS [Dallas, Texas, USA]
IDENTIFYING  THE  WRONG  CULPRIT  FOR  TERRORISM
Sahar Aziz
Nov. 24, 2015
Each time persons claiming to be Muslim commit a terrorist attack in the West, the same two questions arise: 1) Why aren’t Muslims condemning terrorism; and 2) Why aren’t Muslims challenging extremist Islamic interpretations to stop terrorism conducted in its name rather than repeating that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.
[. . . . . ]
To be sure, Al Qaeda and its progeny, Islamic State, employ Islamic rhetoric to legitimize their political agendas. They pick and choose verses in the Quran and Hadiths to justify an apocalyptic ideology rooted in a clash-of-civilizations worldview.
[ . . . . . ]
So before Americans and Europeans condescendingly demand Muslims get their religious house in order, they should get their own political house in order. A good start is demanding their governments’ foreign policies stop propping up dictators.
More . . .

FROM  “THE  HOURS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH

The hour of the despot
It will brush away what remains of dust
to see us more clearly
and laugh like a content wolf
when it sees that we have lost
the most beautiful thing among us.

The hour of nightmare
I creep toward absence
carrying the tired earth on my shoulders.
But my blood stirs
and I wake from sleep like a stone
with a bitter body
and veins of wood.

The hour of arrest
Usually, a solitary gazelle prepares songs for its young
and at dawn lullabies the question’s wound.
But suddenly they cross the streets―in great numbers―
and a woman asks:
What are you doing with those guns?
Have they come to arrest the mountains?

The hour of execution
Silently, soldiers go round in the barracks
and famished dogs rush out.
There are the monotonous sounds of footsteps
in chains and in darkness.
Silently, a knotted rope swings
in a rush of bullets and death.

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

palestine-parade_2949175k
Youths parade through Gaza City in solidarity with Palestinians locked up in Israeli prisons. (Picture: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty)

“. . . when I am led all alone to be whipped and humiliated . . . at every police station. . .” (‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql)

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IMG_3057
Ofer Prison, Occupied Territories. Ofer Prison is run by the Israel Prison Service and used to be operated by the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Police Corps. It holds about 1,100 Palestinian prisoners both those under administrative detention and those who have been tried and sentenced. Among them are children. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ Nearly 400 Palestinian children held in Israeli jails
❷ UN submission: Unlawful transfer of protected persons
❸ Pollard Released After 30 Years in Prison
❹ Army Kidnaps Fifteen Palestinians in Hebron
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘It Has Become a Prison’: The ghettoization of Hebron
❻ Poetry by ‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
NEARLY  400  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  HELD  IN  ISRAELI  JAILS
Nov. 20, 2015
RAMALLAH ― A prisoners’ rights group said Friday that nearly 400 Palestinian children between the ages of 11 and 17 are currently being held in Israeli jails.
___The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement that 11 of those detained were being held without charge or trial under administration detention orders. . . .
___Some 700 children have been detained since the beginning of October — mainly in the Hebron and Jerusalem districts — many of whom were released under specific conditions including bail or house arrest, the society said.
More . . .
❷ MILITARY COURT WATCH
UN  SUBMISSION:  UNLAWFUL  TRANSFER  OF  PROTECTED  PERSONS
Nov. 12, 2015
MCW lodged a submission with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention relating to the unlawful transfer and detention of Palestinian minors from the West Bank to prisons located inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
___According to evidence provided by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) an average of 88 per cent of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank, including minors, are transferred and detained inside Israel. It is currently estimated that this affects between 7,000 to 8,000 Palestinians each year and is classified under international law as a war crime.
More . . .

IMG_3055
The gate to Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
POLLARD  RELEASED  AFTER  30  YEARS  IN  PRISON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday, addressed American spy, Jonathan Pollard, who was released on parole after serving 30 years in prison, after handing over top-secret classified information to Israel.
___“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” the PM said in a video statement. “As someone who has raised his case among successive US presidents many times, I longed for this day,” Netanyahu continued.
___The former intelligence analyst for the US government was arrested in 1985, and pleaded guilty in 1987, to charges in violation of the Espionage Act.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  FIFTEEN  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Saturday at dawn, the southern West Bank district of Hebron, searched dozens of homes and kidnapped fifteen Palestinians.
___The soldiers invaded the Joret Bahlas area, north of Hebron city, and various neighborhoods before kidnapping the Palestinians.
___Local sources said the soldiers kidnapped Ismael Taiseer Bader, 44, Luay Faisal al-Hashlamoun, 30, Adel al-Eeda al-Herbawi, 48, Othman Sharif Tamimi, 18, Nader Hamed Natsha, Mohammad Ali al-Qawasma, and Ezzat Sha’ban al-Khatib, after violently storming their homes and searching them, in Hebron city.
___ The army also invaded Deir Samet village, southwest of Hebron, searched homes and kidnapped . . .
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
‘IT  HAS  BECOME  A  PRISON’:  THE  GHETTOIZATION  OF  HEBRON
Megan Hanna
Nov. 11, 2015
Hebron’s Old City, located in the “H2 area” under full Israeli military control, is subject to dramatic new restrictions introduced last week. Israeli soldiers seized several homes in the Tel Rumedia area and barred the residents from going in or out, declaring the area a military zone and banning access to non-residents, in a move that parallels security restrictions imposed recently upon areas of East Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of last month 22 Palestinians have been killed in Hebron, and nine in the Old City that has been the epicentre of escalating tensions.
___Even for the 50 families who live in Tel Rumeida, who had a mere few days to register their name and ID card to the Israeli authorities, the plans will severely restrict their freedom of movement, as they will have to undergo rigorous security searches every time they wish to leave or enter their homes.
___According to a resident of Tel Rumeida, “They told me I have the number 36 [on the list with who’s allowed to go in and out], it’s just like in prison. They try to make you a number, you’re not a person”.
More . . .

(Palestinian poets frequently use the image of “lover” for Palestine.)

“LOVE  PALESTINIAN-STYLE,”  BY  ‘ABD AL-LATIF ‘AQL

In times of drought you are my figs and olives,
Your barrenness is my fragrant gown.

Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home,
I love you alive, I love you in death.
When hungry, I feed on thyme.

I feel your hair against my face and I pine,
My weary face turns red.

I am born in the palms of your hands, and embryo,
I grow and grow, and I reach maturity.

I drink the meaning of my life from your gaze,
Then my being is awakened and is intoxicated.

I journey across frontiers, you are my suitcase,
You are my forged passport.

I boast that I can smuggle your eyes
Across borders;
I boast and boast and pride surges within me.

And when soldiers confiscate you,
Even before hashish,
And gouge the pupils of my eyes,

I feel I have been cleansed of the shame;
I have become purer
And more immaculate.

When they fear what may be under my armpits,
They confine me in small cells;
I sign your name
At the end of police reports.

And when I am led all alone
To be whipped and humiliated,
And lashed at every police station,
I feel we’re lovers, who died from ecstasy,
A dark-skinned man and his woman.

You become me and I become you―
Luscious figs and shelled almonds.
And when soldiers smash my head
And force me to sip the cold of prison
To forget you―I love you even more.

‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql was born in 1942 in Deir Istiya, a village near Nablus. His family was exiled in 1948, and he lived in Amman and studied in Damasus and the U.S. where earned a PhD in social psychology. He worked as a school teacher in the West Bank for many years. He has published many volumes of poetry. His two plays incurred the wrath of the Israelis, and were forced to end performance at Bir Zeit University.
___From: A  LOVER  FROM  PALESTINE  AND  OTHER  POEMS:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  PALESTINIAN  POETRY. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.
Available from Abe Books. 

IMG_3051
Employee parking, Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

 

“. . . and the two banks reiterate: MY LIBERTY . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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wedding
Palestinian demonstrators hold a mock wedding during a nonviolent demonstration in the West Bank village Al-Ma’asara. (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❶ Update: Israeli Forces Detain 44 Palestinians; Summon 15 Others from West Bank
❷ Israel Preventing Gaza Woman from Attending Her Own Wedding
❸ Israel orders demolition in Jordan Valley village
❹ Analysis: America’s Papers Brush Aside Israeli Brutality
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Outlawing the Islamic Movement is a gift to Palestinian citizens
Related: Kairos Palestine: “the religious status quo should be respected”
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
UPDATE:  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  44  PALESTINIANS;  SUMMON  15  OTHERS  FROM  WEST  BANK
Nov. 19, 2015
NABLUS (WAFA) ― Israeli forces detained overnight and Wednesday evening 44 Palestinians and summoned 15 others from West Bank districts, said the Palestine Prisoners’ Club (PPC) and security sources.
___Israeli forces detained 10 Palestinians from Nablus district, 10 others from Jerusalem district, eight others from Ramallah district, seven others from Bethlehem district, five others from Hebron district, three from Tulkarem district and another from Qalqilya district.
___Israeli intelligence officers summoned nine Palestinians from Nablus district and six others from Bethlehem district. . . .
More . . .
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
ISRAEL  PREVENTING  GAZA  WOMAN  FROM  ATTENDING  HER  OWN  WEDDING
Edo Konrad
Nov. 19, 2015
The Israeli army is denying a 23-year-old Palestinian woman from traveling through Israel to reach her own wedding ceremony in Jordan.
According to Israeli human rights group Gisha, the petitioner has been engaged to her fiancé — a Palestinian from Gaza with Spanish citizenship — for the past year and a half. Their wedding date has been delayed twice already due to fact that Israel will not let her leave the Gaza Strip, the second time after the couple had already sent out the invitations.
___The woman, as well as her future in-laws, have attempted to coordinate leaving from Gaza through Rafah Crossing to Egypt, but the crossing has been mostly closed for the past year and a half
More . . .
Related . . . FOR  THE  IDF,  MARRIAGE  ISN’T  A  ‘HUMANITARIAN  NEED’
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  ORDERS  DEMOLITION  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY  VILLAGE
Nov. 19, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities on Tuesday issued evacuation orders for makeshift housing structures and tents at the site of a previous housing demolition in the Jordan Valley, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a statement.
___In August, Israeli forces demolished 17 structures in Fasayil village, leaving 48 people homeless, including 31 minors, B’Tselem documented.
___Following the initial demolition, nearly all the families stayed in the area, setting up tents and other makeshift housing structures, with the assistance of humanitarian organizations.
More . . .

jordan valley
Israeli military forces have demolished 27 houses in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank over the last two weeks. Israel’s destruction of Palestinian property in the occupied Jordan Valley has particularly impacted women residents. (Photo: Anne Paq ActiveStills) https://electronicintifada.net/content/now-its-all-gone-women-cope-siege-jordan-valley/10105

❹ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
AMERICA’S  PAPERS  BRUSH  ASIDE  ISRAELI  BRUTALITY
Greg Shupak
Nov. 16, 2015
[. . . . . ]
Severely flawed editorials on the current uprising throughout Palestine have appeared in The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
___One shortcoming is that they foreground Israeli concerns and sideline those of Palestinians.
___For example, the Globe is worried that “the growing sense of hopelessness among Palestinian youth will continue to threaten Israel’s future.” The paper evidently does not regard the “hopelessness among Palestinian youth,” or the causes of that, as urgent problems in their own right.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+ 972 MAGAZINE
OUTLAWING  THE ISLAMIC  MOVEMENT  IS  A  GIFT  TO  PALESTINIAN  CITIZENS
Outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic Movement is yet another McCarthyist step by the Israeli state. But if anyone thinks this will bring an end to the movement, they are dead wrong.
Rami Younis
Nov. 17, 2015
Say what you will about the Jewish state, just don’t say that the only democracy on the planet never stops challenging us. On Monday night, Defense Minister Ya’alon signed an order outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. Following the decision, the police raided the offices of 17 non-profit organizations connected to the group, confiscated documents and equipment, froze bank accounts, and announced that it would interrogate its leaders, among them Sheikh Raed Salah.
More . . .
Related . . . KAIROS  PALESTINE:  “THE  RELIGIOUS  STATUS  QUO  SHOULD  BE  RESPECTED”
Oct. 4, 2015
Yusuf  Daher  of  Kairos  Palestine speaks about Israel’s recent attacks on the Al Aqsa Mosque and the need to respect the status quo both there and in Jerusalem.

“MY  LIBERTY,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
My liberty―my liberty―my liberty,
a sound I repeat
with angry lips
under the exchange of fire
and flames
I run after it
despite my chains
and follow its tracks
despite the night
and struggle ardently
for my liberty
My liberty
My liberty

And the Holy River
and Bridge repeat:
my liberty
and the two banks reiterate:
my liberty
and the raging wind and thunder,
tornadoes and rain
echo the sound:
my liberty

I shall carve its name
while I resist
on the land
by the walls
and the doors
in the Temple of the Virgin
in the altar
and the fields,
on every hill
and every valley
and every curve
and road
in prison
in the torture rooms
and on the gallows
Despite the chains
and the house demolition.
I shall carve its name
until I see it again
extending to my Homeland
and flourish
and flourish
until every inch of the land is covered
until every door is opened
by red liberty.
And the night vanishes
and the day breaks
My liberty―my liberty―my liberty

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.
Fadwa Tuqan 

islamic lovement
Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, during a large protest and a general strike, in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, in the northern town of Sakhnin, on October 13, 2015. Palestinians call for a Day of Rage following restrictions on Al Aqsa and recent violent attacks of both Israelis and Palestinians. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

 

“. . . My chains are the round echo of a muezzin . . .” (Fouzi El-Asmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

islamic movement
The Islamic Movement rejected the Israeli accusation, saying their group only provides Muslims with social and civic services [Reuters]
❶ Israel outlaws Islamic Movement’s northern branch
❷ Israeli forces detain 18 across West Bank, seize money, weapons
❸ Qatar launches initiative to ease power crisis in Gaza
❹ Israel to Approve Construction of 436 Settler Units in Jerusalem
❺ Opinion/Analysis: On Zionism and Racism: Time to Rekindle UN Spark
❻ Poetry by Fouzi El-Asmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  OUTLAWS  ISLAMIC  MOVEMENT’S  NORTHERN  BRANCH
Nov. 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s security cabinet on Monday outlawed the Islamic Movement’s northern branch in Israel in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was a bid to end “dangerous incitement.”
___A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the declaration would allow Israel to imprison anyone who acts on the movement’s behalf and also to seize any property belonging to the organization.
___Within hours, Israeli forces had detained at least one senior member of the movement and stormed offices of news organizations affiliated to it in the northern Israeli town of Umm Fahm.
___The Islamic Movement’s northern branch, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, has been a vocal critic of Israeli activity at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem — the third holiest site in Islam.
More . . .
Related . . . HAMAS:  BANNING  THE  ISLAMIC  MOVEMENT  IS  AN  ISRAELI  RACIST  MEASURE
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  18  ACROSS  WEST  BANK,  SEIZE  MONEY,  WEAPONS
Nov. 17, 2015
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained at least 18 Palestinians and confiscated money and weapons in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank overnight Monday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
___Hani Rawajba, a resident of Rujeib village in Nablus district, told Ma’an that Israeli forces stormed his home at around 1 a.m. and detained his son, Muhammad, 18, and seized three weapons, two gold rings, and 8,000 shekels ($2,042).
___Israeli soldiers also reportedly raided the home of a local journalist in Rujeib, Ameed Dwikat, and searched his home searching for weapons, but left after they did not find anything.
More . . .
Related . . .
Related . . . UN  SUBMISSION:  UNLAWFUL  TRANSFER  OF  PROTECTED PERSONS
❸ AL-MONITOR: THE PULSE OF THE MIDDLE EAST
QATAR  LAUNCHES  INITIATIVE  TO  EASE  POWER  CRISIS  IN  GAZA
Adnan Abu Amer
Nov. 16, 2015
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been suffering from electricity outages since June 28, 2006, when Israel shelled the only electrical power plant in Gaza, in retaliation of the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas.
[ . . . . . ]
During a press conference in Gaza on Sept. 10, Mohammed al-Emadi, Qatari ambassador to Gaza and chairman of the National Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, said that the committee discussed with Israel the supply of natural gas to Gaza; Israelis expressed their initial consent to this proposal. He added that the Quartet has appointed a special consultant for the project of building a gas pipeline to the Gaza power plant.
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Ramat-Shlomo-a-Jewish-set-009
Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem where Israel intends to build an extra 1,500 homes. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

❹ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAEL  TO  APPROVE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  436  SETTLER  UNITS  IN JERUSALEM
Nov. 17, 2015
The Israeli government is planning to issue tenders for the construction of 436 new housing units in the Jewish settlement of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem, according to Israeli daily Jerusalem Post.
___It said the municipality also wants to advance plans for the construction of 1,000 new housing units in the said settlement.
___In November 9, Israel’s planning committee for construction in the West Bank approved the construction of about 2,200 new housing units in Ma’aleh Michmash settlement complex, east of Ramallah, in addition to a plan to erect two settlement outposts in the area.
___The Israeli daily Haaretz said the move was to preempt legal action by Palestinians and rights groups to evacuate the sites.
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❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ON  ZIONISM  AND  RACISM:  TIME  TO  REKINDLE  UN  SPARK
Eric Walberg
Nov. 16 2015
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently held a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the squashing of UN resolution 3379, equating Zionism with racism. It was passed in 1975 by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions). The festive event this year was attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry and head of the Israeli Labor Party and Zionist Union Isaac Herzog, son of Chaim Herzog, president of Israel from 1983 to 1993, and star of the 1975 UN session.
___The 1975 vote took place approximately one year after resolution 3237 granted the PLO “observer status” . . . .
___It was revoked in December 1991 by UN resolution 46/86. At the commemoration this year, Ban Ki-moon recalled Chaim Herzog’s words in 1975, “I appeal to the community of nations to always act to uphold the principles of the United Nations Charter to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors.” Such nice platitudes coming from the Israeli ambassador—community, principles, tolerance, peace . . .
Nov 16 2015
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“TWENTY  COMRADES,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  ASMAR
Beloved, you ask me
Of life in this prison, this cell
what of the chains
chafing my wrists
what of my food and drink
and the comrades of my cell?

Beloved, let me tell you:
Our clouds are indeed heavy
But our being here
is a smile of spring,
The shock of thunder
in autumn, after draught.
We are not defeated
Like our jailers.

Life in this prison, this cell
is a palm tree impregnated
at the dawn.
My chains are the round
echo of a muezzin,
Their clank is the ringing
of my people’s bells.

Beloved, you as me
of the meaning of my food
Here beloved
we grow like the wild flowers.

And what of
my comrades in this cell? You ask
They are the twenty candles
lighting the darkness of this cell
The twenty songs
shaking the walls of this cell
The twenty revolutions
that will eternalize this cell
And we, beloved
we shall not be stopped. (June, 1970)

Available from Amazon
About Fouzi El-Asmar

power plant
Israel’s military hit a vital fuel tank at the Gaza Strip’s only power plant just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country should prepare for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave. (Photo: Daily Mail, 29 July 2014)

“. . . hear my child’s approaching footsteps at the threshold of your soul? . . . ” (Rashid Hussein)

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Young Palestinian protesters demonstrate against Israeli forces at Qalandia checkpoint, October 6, 2015. (Photo: Allison Deger)
Young Palestinian protesters demonstrate against Israeli forces at Qalandia checkpoint, October 6, 2015. (Photo: Allison Deger)

❶ Clashes break out across West Bank after Netanyahu declares ‘an all-out war’
❷ 270 Jerusalemites arrested in 21 days
❸ Israeli violence, Palestinian resistance and Abbas’s pleas for foreign interference
❹ At a settler sit-in in Jerusalem, they speak in American accents about ‘our land’
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The Question of the Third Intifada
❻ Poetry by Rashid Hussein
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MONDOWEISS
CLASHES  BREAK  OUT  ACROSS  WEST  BANK  AFTER  NETANYAHU  DECLARES  ‘AN  ALL-OUT  WAR’
Allison Deger
Oct. 6, 2015
Scores of Palestinians were injured in clashes across the West Bank and more than 200 were arrested in Jerusalem, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he is “running an all-out war against Palestinian terrorism.”
____Palestinians protested today in a “day of rage,” after a string of Palestinian attacks on Israeli citizens in the past week and Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Jerusalem—including the demolition of two homes overnight Monday and the killings of three Palestinian youths in the preceding 24 hours.
[. . . . .]
____The march followed a funeral for Abdel-Rahman Abeidallah, 13, who was shot in the heart during a demonstration yesterday. Abeidallah was the third Palestinian killed by Israeli forces on Sunday and Monday.
____Before daybreak Israeli forces demolished the East Jerusalem homes of Ghassan Abu Jamal, 32, and Muhammed el-Ja’abis, 23, two Palestinians from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood who were implicated in the killings of Israelis in 2014.
More . . .
❷ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
270  JERUSALEMITES  ARRESTED  IN  21  DAYS
Oct. 7, 2015
The settler-affiliated media site Arutz 7 reported that just last night Israeli police arrested seven Palestinians throughout East Jerusalem, of whom four are children.
____Israeli authorities are employing heavy-handed tactics in an attempt to quell clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, clashes trigged last month by Israeli attempts to change the status quo in Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque.
More . . .
❸ MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
ISRAELI VIOLENCE, PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE AND ABBAS’S PLEAS FOR FOREIGN INTERFERENCE
Ramona Wadi
Oct. 6, 2015
Israeli settlers and soldiers have increased their use of violence in recent days following the murder of 19 year old student Hadil Hashlamoun last month. The latest extrajudicial killing by Israel, of Palestinian teenager Fadi Alloun, has once again demonstrated that, despite general outrage and notorious publicity, the world’s attention is constantly diverted in a manner that provides the Israeli aggressors with impunity.
____The rampant Israeli violence of these past few days, which has also included brutal beatings of Palestinian citizens and raids on houses in the West Bank, has shown clearly that Israel does not need a reason to commit atrocities; it is simply demonstrating and enforcing its perverse presence in occupied Palestinian territory.
More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
AT A SETTLER SIT-IN IN JERUSALEM, THEY SPEAK IN AMERICAN ACCENTS ABOUT ‘OUR LAND’
Sai Englert
Oct., 2015
This afternoon I went to the old city of Jerusalem.
____It is like a Ghost Town. Very few Palestinians in the streets, many shops are closed, and so are most entries to Al Aqsa. The passages that remain open are heavily policed, only those above 55 and tourists are allowed in. The streets are full of mobile check points. Each street corner is occupied by a crowd of ‘Police Officers’ (basically soldiers with a different uniform). Israeli Settlers (to use that tautology for lack of a better word) are all over the place, across all neighbourhoods, walking in small groups, armed, confident, jubilant. In the street where the two armed settlers were killed, in the Muslim Quarter, a large crowd of their accomplices were holding a sit in: guitars, songs, candles and flags, as well as signs in English and Hebrew calling for ‘revenge’, for ‘retaliation’, for ‘justice’. They laugh and chat, for the most part in perfect north American English accents – or terrible Hebrew -, about ‘their neighbourhood’, ‘their land’, ‘their houses’.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE QUESTION OF THE THIRD INTIFADA
Oraib Al-Rantawi
Oct. 6 2015
The issue of the moment is the question of an impending third intifada. Are the events taking place in Jerusalem and the West Bank heading towards another Palestinian uprising? What are the opportunities and the possibilities? What are the obstacles and the challenges? Who is working to prevent this from happening and who is working towards encouraging such an eventuality?
____The truth is that the Palestinian situation, especially in the occupied West Bank, has become more complicated and this reality has prevented us from finding any straightforward or easy answers; in any case and under any conditions it would be a mistake to underestimate the possibility of events unfolding where there will be a third intifada. There are many factors contributing to the outbreak of an uprising in the occupied territories and these are currently restrained by a low ceiling. The Palestinians have many reasons to break through this ceiling and head for the streets in protest.
____Israel has closed every window of hope for the Palestinian people; there are currently no portals leading to a brighter future.
More . . .

“TO  A  CLOUD,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN
I am the land,
I am the land . . . do not deny me rain,
I am all that remains of it,
If you plant my brow with trees
And turn my poetry into vineyards,
And wheat
And roses
That you may know me.
So let the rai pour down.

I, cloud of my life, am the hills of Galilee,
I am the bosom of Haifa
And the forehead of Jaffa.
So do not whisper: it is impossible.
Can you not hear my child’s approaching footsteps
At the threshold of your soul?
Can you not see the veins of my brow
Striving to kiss your lips?
Waiting for you, my poetry turned to earth,
Has become fields,
Has turned into wheat
And trees.
I am all that remains of our earth,
I am all that remains of what you love,
So pour . . . pour with bounty,
Pour down the rain.

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 Rashid Hussein

Palestinians in Qalandia march toward an Israeli checkpoint in a day of protests across the West Bank, October 6, 2015. (Photo: Allison Deger)
Palestinians in Qalandia march toward an Israeli checkpoint in a day of protests across the West Bank, October 6, 2015. (Photo: Allison Deger)