Category: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

“. . . The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
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Israeli bulldozers enter Khan al-Ahmar in advance of demolition. (Photo: Al Jazeera, Oct. 16, 2018)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|   PALESTINE  CINEMA  DAYS  PROMOTES  RESILIENCE  THROUGH  CINEMA          This year’s Palestine Cinema Days is focused on promoting Palestinian films and stories in the face of increasing pressure on Palestine and its people wherever they may be.    ___From the United States moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to cutting financial funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Palestinians have greatly suffered for seven decades since the start of the Israeli occupation.    ___Palestine Cinema Days brings to the Palestinian audience important stories of suffering, resilience and the human condition shared by us all.    ___The festival will open on October 17th with the screening of The Tower at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, with more than 60 films from Palestinian, Arab and international filmmakers.    More . . .
. . . . Related  What  it  takes  to  organize  a  film  screening  in  Gaza
|   AGREEMENT  SIGNED  FOR  BUILDING  LARGEST  INDUSTRIAL  CITY  IN  WEST  BANK     The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority, represented by the Minister of Economy Abeer Odeh, signed on Tuesday the concession agreement for the development and operation of a multi-sector industrial area in Tarqumiya, in the south of the West Bank, a PIF statement said on Wednesday.    ___The Tarqumiya industrial city project is expected to be the largest among industrial cities and is planned to utilize a total area of 1542 dunums of lands in Tarqumiya and Beit Olla in the Hebron Governorate,  the largest part of which is located in areas designated as Area C, that is under full Israeli control. Cost is also estimated at about $160 million.    More . . .
|   ICC  PROSECUTOR  WARNS:  DEMOLISHING  KHAN  AL-AHMAR  A  ‘WAR  CRIME‘
Prosecutor of the International  Criminal  Court  Fatou Bensouda issued a stern warning to Israel officials on Wednesday, saying she will not “hesitate to take any appropriate action” should they demolish the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly transfer its residents.     ___Bensouda’s warning comes as Israeli authorities ramp up their attempts to destroy the village and remove its residents, who have lived in Khan al-Ahmar for over 40 years.     ___The ICC prosecutor also expressed concern about the continued violence at the Gaza-Israel border, several hours after a rocket fired from the Strip struck a home in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva. In response, the Israeli Air Force struck 20 targets it said belonged to Hamas.   More . . .
. . . . Related  Everything  you  need  to  know  about  Khan  al-Ahmar

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|   THE  US  MAINSTREAM  MEDIA  IS  IGNORING  THE  ISRAEL-SAUDI  ARABIA  DE  FACTO  ALLIANCE      Over the past week or so, Saudi Arabia has gotten more U.S. mainstream media coverage than at any time in decades. But conspicuously missing has been any reporting on the kingdom’s growing friendship with Israel — a de facto alliance that may help explain why Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman thought he could get away with ordering the murder of the dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.    ___Madawi Al-Rasheed is a Saudi Arabian woman professor, presently at King’s College London, who has written or edited more than 13 books on her home nation. Particularly valuable is her recently edited (2018) collection about the kingdom’s new leadership, entitled Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia.     ___In that book, she is clear about the growing Saudi rapprochement with Israel. She writes that the Crown Prince “has continued to clandestinely cooperate with Israel on security and economic matters”. . .   More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

|   International Solidarity Movement:  ISRAELI  AND  INTERNATIONAL  ACTIVISTS  JOIN  GAZAN  PROTESTERS  IN  THE  GREAT  RETURN  MARCH       On the morning of October 10, 2018, ten activists from around the world delivered messages of support to the Great March of Return in the Eastern Gaza Strip via Skype, as a part of a ‘virtual rally’ entitled “Words Over Walls.”     ___The speakers hailed from countries as diverse as the US, UK, Brazil, South Africa and Norway. They included authors Mike Peled, Denny Cormier, Robert Martin, Mike Farah, and Peter Cohen and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Kristin Foss. Participants expressed their solidarity with the Marchers, their tactics and their goals. Musician and composer Mike Farah then sang an original song about the Palestinian’s Right of Return.     ___“All people of conscience, all people who have a heart, regardless of nationality or religion, must stand with the brave people of Gaza and support their demand to be free and to return to their land and homes in Palestine. The siege on Gaza must be broken and the prison walls that surround Gaza must come down. Palestine must be free,” said author Mike Peled.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“I  HAVE  NO  HOME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
――Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

――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 University of Washington Press.

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

Harold KnightLeave a comment

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.

“. . . My friends: The Nile will not pour into the Volga . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Istanbul summit rejects US decision over Jerusalem, considers it null
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Abbas: Palestinians will no longer accept US role in peace process

  • Background: “Israel and the Arab Gulf States: From Tacit Cooperation to Reconciliation?” Israel Affairs.

❷ Journalist, human rights activist injured as Palestinians continue anti-Trump protests
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Child critically injured by soldiers remains in a coma, says group
❸ WHO Report: 45% of Gaza patients did not receive travel permits from Israel
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) Israeli authorities demolish house in 1948 occupied Palestine
❹ Opinion/Analysis: What next after Bin Salman has ordered Abbas to surrender to Israel?
❺ POETRY by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISTANBUL  SUMMIT  REJECTS  US  DECISION  OVER  JERUSALEM,  CONSIDERS  IT  NULL  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 13, 2017 ― The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Wednesday rejected and condemned the illegal and irresponsible unilateral decision made by the President of the United States of America Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital Israel and move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
___In the final communiqué issued by the Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference, world leaders considered the US decision null and void and considered it an attack on the historical, legal, natural and national rights of the Palestinian people, as well as a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts, a prelude to extremism and terrorism, and a threat to international peace and security.
___They reaffirmed the centrality of the Cause of Palestine and Al-Quds Ash-Sharif to the Muslim nation and renewed principled support for the Palestinian people in their pursuit to attain their inalienable national rights, including their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent and sovereign Palestinian State on the borders of 4 June 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital. (The official text of the final announcement follows).    MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  ABBAS:  PALESTINIANS  WILL  NO  LONGER  ACCEPT  US  ROLE  IN  PEACE  PROCESS    
Palestine News Network – PNN    
Dec. 13, 2017 ― The Palestinian president on Wednesday said that the Palestinians will no longer accept any role for the United States in the Middle East peace process following President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
___Abbas, speaking at the The Istanbul gathering of heads of state and top officials from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, had called Trump’s decision “a war crime” that threatened world peace, calling on the United Nations to take charge of the peace process and create a new mechanism, arguing that Washington is no longer “fit” for the task.
___The Palestinians are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas said, but after Trump’s seismic shift on Jerusalem, Washington is not accepted as a fair negotiator, the AP reported.   MORE . . .

(Note: this article is two years old and, of course, is not exactly germane to recent developments. However, it is a detailed background history of the relationship among Israel, the Gulf States, and the United States that is useful today.)

Guzansky, Yoel.
“ISRAEL  AND  THE  ARAB  GULF  STATES:  FROM  TACIT  COOPERATION  TO  RECONCILIATION?”
ISRAEL AFFAIRS, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 131-147.  [. . . .] Some senior officials even dared to hint publicly that such cooperation could in fact take place and that both countries’ interests have become surprisingly overlapping. In a speech focusing on the Iranian nuclear issue at the opening session of the Israeli parliament in October 2013, Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, a growing understanding is taking root in the Arab world, and it is not always said softly. This understanding, that Israel is not the enemy of Arabs and that we have a united front on many issues, might advance new possibilities in our region.”
___No Gulf official publicly admitted to having such a united front with the Jewish state, but a Saudi prince and an influential businessman, Alwaleed bin Talal, admitted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that, ‘For the first time, Saudi Arabian and Israeli interests are almost parallel’. Another report on an Iranian news agency claimed that the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan met with high-ranking Israeli officials in Geneva to discuss ways to promote mutual interests such as ‘containing Iran, and side-lining the Muslim Brotherhood’.
[. . . .] The basic approach of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman towards Israel is in constant need of balancing between the concern for their status and position in the Arab world, their hostile public opinions towards Israel and fundamental religious establishments and their strategic needs; and more recently between the need to show support to the Palestinians but to maintain tacit relationship with Israel vis-a`-vis their main rival, Iran.
[. . . .] However, the region’s evolving geopolitical landscape and Washington’s Middle East policy can provide a strategic opportunity to Israeli–GCC relations. Multiple factors like the tense relations with new regimes, skepticism from old ones, increased multilateral action, little effort put thus far into the peace process, withdrawal from Iraq and, soon, Afghanistan, the increasing likelihood of US independence from Middle Eastern oil, and public statements regarding a shift toward Asia suggest that America’s influence and interest in the region is diminishing. To some, it is evident that the Middle East is no longer at the top of US priority list. Iran’s continuous progress toward a nuclear weapon, the erosion of US influence in Iraq, the difficulty in influencing events in Syria, the Arab monarchies’ doubts concerning the reliability of the US, questions regarding the future of US relations with Egypt, and even the cooling of relations with Israel have indicated to some that the US is increasingly hard pressed to advance its policy in the region. To others, these are signs of a superpower in retreat.  [. . . .] SOURCE . . .    ..

❷ JOURNALIST,  HUMAN  RIGHTS  ACTIVIST  INJURED  AS  PALESTINIANS  CONTINUE  ANTI-TRUMP  PROTESTS
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 13, 2017 ― Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces were renewed on Wednesday in several districts across the occupied West Bank as Palestinians continued to protest in rejection of the US President’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
___Clashes erupted between Palestinian youth and Israeli soldiers in several areas across the Hebron district in the southern West Bank.
___In Hebron city, Halhul, and Dura, clashes broke out after Israeli forces suppressed marches in the area.
[. . . .] Locals told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers targeted journalists with stun grenades, injuring photojournalist Abd al-Hafith al-Hashlamon in the foot. His injury was reported as moderate.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  CHILD  CRITICALLY  INJURED  BY  SOLDIERS  REMAINS  IN  A  COMA,  SAYS  GROUP 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 13, 2017 ― Hamid Masri, 14, who was shot and critically injured by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday after they suspected him of trying to attack them is in a coma at an Israeli hospital, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said on Wednesday.
___Soldiers opened fire at Masri near the West Bank city of Salfit and seriously wounded him.    MORE . . . 
❸ WHO  REPORT:  45%  OF  GAZA  PATIENTS  DID  NOT  RECEIVE  TRAVEL  PERMITS  FROM  ISRAEL  
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Dec. 13, 2017 ― The most recent report by the World Health Organizations (WHO) states that more than 45% of patients unsuccessful in obtaining security permits from Israeli authorities: Of 2,017 patient applications for a permit to exit Gaza through Erez checkpoint for hospital appointments in October 2017, 55% were approved; 2% were denied including three children and two elderly patients; and 43% were pending and lost their hospital appointments including 164 children and 82 elderly.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❸  ―  (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES  DEMOLISH  HOUSE  IN  1948  OCCUPIED  PALESTINE
The Palestinian Information Center
Dec. 13, 2017 ― Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday demolished a Palestinian house in Zemer town in the northern 1948 occupied Palestine.
___Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by a military force, broke into Zemer town and demolished a house under construction on a privately owned Palestinian land without prior notice for allegedly lacking the necessary legal licenses.
___Tension prevailed following the demolition operation as Zemer residents rallied to express their rejection of the Israeli practices aimed at uprooting them from their lands.   MORE . . .  
❹ Opinion/Analysis:  WHAT  NEXT  AFTER  BIN  SALMAN  HAS  ORDERED  ABBAS  TO  SURRENDER  TO  ISRAEL?  
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 13, 2017 ― Saudi Arabia and Israel represent a twin threat to the Arab world. Both states have long received the military and political backing of the world’s sole remaining superpower, the United States of America; the regimes of both states abuse human rights, have committed war crimes and discriminate against their own citizens. Both, however, are considered by American elites to be useful for the project of retaining US hegemony in the Middle East, albeit in different ways.
___Support for Israel is also considered to be a religious duty by the powerful sector of US politicians and voters hailing from the fundamentalist evangelical right. This tendency considers Christian Zionism to be a top priority – if not the number one priority – in US foreign policy.
___US support for the Saudi dictatorship is less religious in nature; it’s more about ensuring access for US companies to the region’s vast oil wealth.   MORE . . .

“ON  HOPE,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Do not tell me:
I wish to be a baker in Algeria
In order to sing with the revolutionaries
Do not tell me:
I wish to be a shepherd in the Yemen
To sing for the uprising of the age
Do not tell me:
I wish to be a waiter in Havana
To sing for the victory of the poor
Do not tell me:
I wish to be a stone carrier in Aswan
To sing for the rocks
My friends:
The Nile will not pour into the Volga
The Congo and Jordan Rivers
Will not serve the Euphrates
Each river has its own
Our land is not barren
Each land has its own rebirth
Each dawn has a date with revolution.

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 Amazon.
About Mahmoud Darwish.

“. . . Time has grown up on its own without me . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Palestine hosts an international meeting for first time

  • Background: “The International Community’s Role in Israeli History.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ Why Israel shelved the ‘Greater Jerusalem Law’
❸ President Abbas meets Saudi crown prince
❹ POETRY by Yousef El Qedra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINE HOSTS AN INTERNATIONAL MEETING FOR FIRST TIME
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Nov. 8, 2017 ― For the first time, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics hosted on Tuesday the meeting of the members of the United Nations High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
___Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said during the meeting, “Palestine is suffering from the exceptional conditions resulting from the continuation of the Israeli occupation. Facing this challenge, we are determined to achieve sustainable development by investing in the talents and capabilities of our people, especially our youth, who constitute almost half of the Palestinian society.”
___“This meeting reflects our determination to fully realize the goals of the 2030 agenda and to implement it fully. I truly commend your great efforts for achieving the sustainable development. Palestine hosted this meeting to reaffirm our commitment toward achieving the sustainable development goals,” Hamdallah added.   MORE . . .   ..

Schenker, Hillel.
“The International Community’s Role in Israeli History.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 20, no. 2/3, Jan. 2015, pp. 101-106.
The fact that after over 20 years of fruitless negotiations the Palestinians have chosen an internationalization strategy to try to achieve national independence is considered by the current Israeli government and its supporters to be illegitimate “unilateral action” that bypasses the need for bilateral negotiations with Israel to resolve the conflict. What those opponents of internationalization are conveniently forgetting is the major role that internationalization has played in Israeli history.
___ To put it simply, just as the Palestinian national liberation movement, represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), is now seeking help from the international community and its institutions to achieve its goals, the Jewish national liberation movement, represented by the World Zionist Organization (WZO), also sought help from the international community and its institutions to help achieve statehood.        [. . . .] So here we are today. The Palestinians have retroactively accepted UNGA Resolution 181 and included that acceptance in their Declaration of Independence of 1988. And the neighboring Arab states, via the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, have also accepted the principles of the Partition Plan, citing UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338 — “land for peace.”
___Since serious bilateral negotiations between the government of Israel under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the PLO under Abbas do not seem to be in the cards, the only nonviolent way forward is via internationalization, a strategy which in the final analysis is not only based on the lessons of Israeli history, but also in the best interests of both Israel and the Palestinians.   FULL ARTICLE . . .    …

❷ WHY  ISRAEL  SHELVED  THE  ‘GREATER  JERUSALEM  LAW’ 
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 8, 2017 ― The postponing of an Israeli Knesset bill that would have annexed major illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank to the Jerusalem municipality is the result of behind-the-scenes US and, possibly, European pressure. But the story of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem law” does not end there.
___Israel wants to maintain an absolute demographic Jewish majority in Jerusalem, including in occupied and illegally annexed Palestinian East Jerusalem. There is enough support in the Knesset and among the public to ensure that coveted Jewish dominance. But the political balances, and possible drawbacks, are just too delicate and great for Israel to get exactly what it wants, even if there is a clear consensus among Israeli Jewish politicians and the public to permanently change the status of the city.   MORE . . .
❸ PRESIDENT  ABBAS  MEETS  SAUDI  CROWN  PRINCE 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 8, 2017 ― President Mahmoud Abbas met in Riyadh on Wednesday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
___The President briefed the Crown Prince on the latest developments in the Palestinian issue and US efforts to move the peace process forward as well as the developments in the Palestinian reconciliation.
___The two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to develop them. They agreed to continue consultations on issues of concern to both countries.   MORE . . .   ..

 “I HAVE NO HOME,” BY YOUSEF EL QEDRA
I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
――Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

Yousef El Qedra
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 and Noble.