Category: DCIP

“Israelis cannot generally understand that hurting a national minority under their control . . . will damage the very essence of Israel’s social fabric . . .” (Meir Margalit)

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United Nations Human Rights Day,   December 10, 2016  

Stand up for someone’s rights today!    

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

230 Palestinian children still kept in Israeli jails
A Palestinian child being brutally detained by Israeli occupation forces, Apr. 5, 2014 (Al-Alam News Network file photo)

❶ . European missions criticize Israel’s administrative detention policy against Palestinians

  • Background:  “Seeking A True Human Rights Agenda.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ . Israeli forces detain Palestinian youth allegedly crossing Gaza border with weapons

❸ . Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)
Stop Israeli Military Detention―SIGN THE PETITION

❹ . Video and pictures: Preventing the body of a Jerusalemite woman from being buried in Al-Rahmeh Gate Cemetery…and arresting two of her grandchildren
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ . EUROPEAN  MISSIONS  CRITICIZE  ISRAEL’S  ADMINISTRATIVE  DETENTION  POLICY  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 10, 2016
The European Union (EU) Representative, the EU Heads of Mission and the Heads of Mission of Switzerland and Norway in Jerusalem and Ramallah Friday expressed concern regarding Israel’s excessive use of administrative detention against Palestinians.     ___“The Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah reiterate their longstanding concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge,” they said in a statement.     More . . .

  • Margalit, Meir. “Seeking A True Human Rights Agenda.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 16.2 (2010): 1-6.  ARTICLE.

[. . . .]  Indeed, one difficulty in explaining why people must respect human rights lies in its being not a question of a “need” but of a “value” . . . . Decisions based on values are unconnected to physical and material needs. They are tenuous and, in times of crisis, are the first to vanish. This rule is true of countries with a deeprooted democratic tradition, such as the United States and the United Kingdom after the 9/11 attacks. It is even truer of Israeli society where, since 1967, values have been eroding constantly. Israeli society has developed a mechanism for repressing values that clash with what takes place in the territories . . . The process of denial, which is necessary to preserve the collective mental health, leads to the total disregard of decisions based on values or the debate on questions of human rights.
[. . . .] Because the human rights discourse is identified with the left wing, it has a strong impact on the attitude of alienation that much of Israeli society experiences. In the public imagination, people working for human rights are perceived to be chiefly concerned about Arabs, or homosexuals, or “haters of Israel,” if not worse. . . . Every human rights activist encounters the defiant question, “Why don’t you worry about Jews instead of worrying about Arabs?” — a question with an inherent assumption that concern for human rights undermines Israel’s position. As a result, most of the public shuns the subject.
[. . . .]  Israelis cannot generally understand that hurting a national minority under their control leads to a downhill path which, sooner or later, will damage the very essence of Israel’s social fabric. Perhaps this is because most Israelis were born into a society where their basic human rights were assured and are unaware of the fragility and ease with which they can dissipate and lead a country into dark, undesirable situations. Most Israelis are conformist.   [. . . .]

❷ . ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  PALESTINIAN  YOUTH  ALLEGEDLY  CROSSING  GAZA  BORDER  WITH  WEAPONS  
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 9, 2016
Israeli forces Friday at dawn detained a Palestinian youth after allegedly “illegally” crossing the border barriers in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.     ___Several Israeli news outlets claimed that the Palestinian youth was carrying a knife and a grenade when he was detained and taken to interrogation.
___Separately, Israeli forces reportedly detained a Palestinian youth after approaching the Ofer military camp west of Ramallah City in the central occupied West Bank on Thursday.
___Israeli media reported that the youth was “suspicious” which “called for detaining and transferring him for interrogation.”      More . . .

❸ .  STOP  ISRAELI  MILITARY  DETENTION
 Defense For Children International Palestine (DCIP)
Sign the petition
Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes around 700 children in military courts each year.
___Three out of every four of these children endure some form of physical violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers or officers following arrest. In 97 percent of the cases, children are interrogated without legal counsel and without their parents.
SIGN THE PETITION HERE.

Palestinians pray beside a grave in a Muslim cemetery just outside Jerusalem's Old City
Mourners at the Muslim cemetery of Bab Al-Rahma outside the Eastern Wall of Jerusalem. Burial in the area began in the 8th century. (Photo: International Business Times, Nov. 3, 2016)

❹ .  VIDEO  AND  PICTURES:  PREVENTING  THE  BODY  OF  A  JERUSALEMITE  WOMAN  FROM  BEING  BURIED  IN  AL-RAHMEH  GATE  CEMETERY…AND  ARRESTING  TWO  OF  HER  GRANDCHILDREN  
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan     
Dec. 5, 2016
The occupation authorities prevented on Monday afternoon the family of the deceased Khadijeh Abu Al-Doleh from being buried in Al-Rahmeh Gate Cemetery that is adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque under the pretext of confiscating the land in favor of the Nature and Parks authority.
___Special Forces surrounded the cemetery on Monday afternoon. When the funeral arrived, they prevented the participants from entering the cemetery and informed them that the location of her grave is confiscated and she can’t be buried there.  More . . . 

“. . . I am accused of words, my pen the instrument. . . .” (Dareen Tatour)

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dareen
Dareen Tatour, who remains under house arrest, reads from one of her notebooks of poems [Nigel Wilson/Al Jazeera]
❶ Report: Israel detaining Palestinian minors without charge over Facebook posts
. . . ❶― (a) Dareen Tatour, Palestinian poet imprisoned by Israel for social media posts, shares her story

  • Background: “Did Facebook intentionally block profiles of Palestinian journalists?” Christian Science Monitor.

❷ Israeli court extends detention of Palestinian football team board member over photo
❸ Israeli PM slams B’Tselem recent statement to UN on settlements
❹ ‘When the media doesn’t talk to Arabs, coverage of them is negative’
❺ POETRY by Dareen Tatour
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ REPORT: ISRAEL DETAINING PALESTINIAN MINORS WITHOUT CHARGE OVER FACEBOOK POSTS
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016
At least five Palestinian minors have been imprisoned by Israel without being charged in recent months, after sharing social media posts that Israeli authorities alleged amounted to “incitement” to commit violence, according to a report released Monday by rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
___Among them was a 17-year-old identified as Ahmad H., who told DCIP that he was interrogated twice in the first week of August for one and three hours, during which time he had neither a parent present nor access to legal counsel.       More . . .  
. . . ❶― (a) DAREEN TATOUR, PALESTINIAN POET IMPRISONED BY ISRAEL FOR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS, SHARES HER STORY
Salon
Ben Norton
Aug. 10, 2016
Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested because of her posts on social media.
___In October, police raided her home in the middle of the night. They handcuffed Tatour, a 35-year-old poet, and took her away.
___“You look like a terrorist,” an interrogator told her. The Israeli government accused Tatour of inciting violence with her poetry and Facebook posts.       More . . .  

  • Amanda Hoover. “Did Facebook intentionally block profiles of Palestinian journalists?” Christian Science Monitor 26 Sept. 2016: N.PAG.   Full article.

[. . . .] The latest complaints came from four editors at the Shebab News Agency and three executives at Quds News Network, Al Jazeera reported. Quds has about 3.7 million Facebook followers, and has a reputation for being affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group and Shehab has about 4.2 million followers and is regarded by Palestinians as being linked with Hamas, a militant group that denies Israel’s right to exist. Both publications, which have several million likes on Facebook each, cover daily news in the occupied West Bank region.
___”[Sharek-Quds News Agency] does not publish anything that violates Facebook standards or that could annoy governments,” Nisreen al-Khatib, a translator and journalist at the Quds News Network, told Al Jazeera. “But still, we are targeted.”
___Since the complaint, Facebook has reinstated several of the accounts, claiming that their censorship was accidental.
___”The pages were removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate,” a Facebook spokesperson tells The Christian Science Monitor in a statement. “Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We’re very sorry about this mistake.”
___Two weeks ago, Israeli officials announced an agreement with Facebook that would allow the two entities to combat online incitement in tandem. The agreement came after multiple requests from Israel that the company find a way to monitor the content on its platform and remove any likely to incite violence.
___In the past, Israeli officials have reported anti-Israel bias on Facebook, as The Christian Science Monitor reported:
___In December, the Tel Aviv-based Israel Law Center conducted an experiment in which it created two Facebook pages: “Stop Palestinians” and “Stop Israel.” Similar content was posted on both pages, including political cartoons with the respective captions “Death to all the Jews” and “Death to all the Arabs.”It then reported both pages to see if either would be removed. The anti-Palestinian page was shut down the same day it was reported, but the anti-Israel page was not.
___During the four months leading up to the agreement with Israel, Facebook had already agreed to remove 95 percent of the 158 posts Israeli officials flagged, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said.   [. . . .]

❷ ISRAELI COURT EXTENDS DETENTION OF PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL TEAM BOARD MEMBER OVER PHOTO
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016        An Israeli magistrate’s court extended the detention of a Palestinian man who serves on the administrative board of an occupied East Jerusalem football team on Sunday evening, after Israeli officials accused him of publicly supporting “terrorism.”       ___Lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud of prisoners’ rights group Addameer told Ma’an on Sunday evening that a Jerusalem court had extended to Wednesday the remand of Maher Abu Sneina, an administrative member of the Palestinian Hilal al-Quds football team.       More . . .   

football-001
Fans of the Scottish Celtic Football Club waved Palestinian flags during game against the Israeli Hapoel Beersheba club on Wed, Aug. 16, 2016. (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❸ ISRAELI PM SLAMS B’TSELEM RECENT STATEMENT TO UN ON SETTLEMENTS
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Oct. 18, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on Saturday, accusing it joining the “chorus of slander” against Israel.       ___Netanyahu’s position came after the human rights NGO participated in informal UN Security Council session on Friday in which its representative slammed Israeli settlements in the West Bank, calling them obstacles to peace.       More . . .     
❹ ‘WHEN THE MEDIA DOESN’T TALK TO ARABS, COVERAGE OF THEM IS NEGATIVE’
+972 Magazine from The Seventh Eye*
Oren Persico
Oct. 16, 2016

* The Seventh Eye is Israel’s only independent media watchdog, since 1996.

The participation of Arab interviewees in Israeli news items relating to Arab society in the country has a  correlation on the content and tone of the reporting, new research published by Israeli NGO Sikkuy last month has concluded. (Full disclosure: The Seventh Eye partnered with Sikkuy for its ‘Representation Index’ project.)
___The research project, conducted by Edan Ring along with the Ifat Group, examined news coverage of Arab citizens of Israel in the Hebrew-language media during October 2015, a month in which a serious escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict took place, including almost daily attacks against Jewish Israelis.        More . . .  

“A Poet Behind Bars,” By Dareen Tatour
Translated by Tariq al Haydar

In prison, I met people
too numerous to count:
Killer and criminal,
thief and liar,
the honest and those who disbelieve,
the lost and confused,
the wretched and the hungry.
Then, the sick of my homeland,
born out of pain,
refused to go along with injustice
until they became children whose innocence was violated.
The world’s compulsion left them stunned.
They grew older.
No, their sadness grew,
strengthening with repression,
like roses in salted soil.
They embraced love without fear,
and were condemned for declaring,
“We love the land endlessly,”
oblivious to their deeds…
So their love freed them.
See, prison is for lovers.
I interrogated my soul
during moments of doubt and distraction:
“What of your crime?”
Its meaning escapes me now.
I said the thing and
revealed my thoughts;
I wrote about the current injustice,
wishes in ink,
a poem I wrote…
The charge has worn my body,
from my toes to the top of my head,
for I am a poet in prison,
a poet in the land of art.
I am accused of words,
my pen the instrument.
Ink— blood of the heart— bears witness
and reads the charges.
Listen, my destiny, my life,
to what the judge said:
A poem stands accused,
my poem morphs into a crime.
In the land of freedom,
the artist’s fate is prison.
—Written on: November 2, 2015,  Jelemeh Prison

 

 

“. . . I have nightmares. Sometimes I dream that the police are in my house coming to take me . . .” (Muslim Odeh, 12 years old)

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funeral
Funeral of 13-year-old Ahmad Sharaka at Jalazone Refugee Camp, West Bank, Oct. 12, 2015 (Photo: Still from Youtube)

❶ 20 Palestinians injured, 1 critically, after Israeli forces violently disperse march

  • 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 IOF arrests six Jerusalemites
❸ Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
❹ Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)
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❶ 20  PALESTINIANS  INJURED,  1  CRITICALLY,  AFTER  ISRAELI  FORCES  VIOLENTLY  DISPERSE  MARCH
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 15, 2016
Some 20 Palestinians were injured Saturday evening — one critically with a live bullet to the head — during clashes at the main entrance to the al-Jalazun refugee camp in northern Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, following a march commemorating the FIRST  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  KILLING  OF  13-YEAR-OLD  AHMAD  SHARAKA, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces last year during clashes.     ___Palestinian youth threw rocks, Molotov cocktails, and empty bottles at Israeli soldiers who attempted to disperse the demonstration by firing live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas canisters at the dozens of participants in the march, before Israeli soldiers eventually retreated to the illegal Israeli Beit El settlement.        More . . .       Background . . .

  • 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 12.3 (2015): 223-244.   Source . . .  

As defined by the World Health Organization, child maltreatment, which is sometimes referred to as child abuse and neglect, includes all forms of physical and emotional ill treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity.
[. . . .]
Muslim Odeh was first arrested at age nine. Now 12 years old, Odeh has been imprisoned 10 times over the course of three years. Odeh’s arrest scenarios violate a number of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) stipulations and recommendations made by UNICEF, including arrest during early morning hours (Recommendation 3i), blindfolding (Recommendation 4iii; Recommendation 4v), and hours of interrogation without parental or legal supervision or knowledge of charges (Article 37c; Article 37d). Odeh also recalls being beaten to the point where he vomited. The aftermath of his arrests reveal that Odeh suffered not only physical pain, but also psychological trauma: “I have nightmares. Sometimes I dream that the police are in my house coming to take me, but then I wake up to see that I’m not in prison but in my house.” Odeh’s reaction to his ordeals – the apprehension he now feels when sleeping in his own bed, for example – illustrates the extent to which Israeli state violence invades even the most intimate everyday sphere. Odeh’s case shows that within Israel’s established state framework, United Nations Conventions are overridden and disregarded with impunity. International and human rights law fails to apply to the state apparatus or moral consciousness. Instead, children such as Odeh are rendered “non-children” who fail to qualify for basic human protection.
[. . . .]     Israel is the only known country in the world to try children in juvenile military courts. Despite the nomenclature, the juvenile military court uses the same facilities and court staff as the adult military court. The extra-judicial military court established solely for trying children negates Israel’s responsibility, not just to the UNCRC, but also the Geneva and Hague Conventions. This juvenile military court is rife with injustice and discriminatory practices. For example, children are not accompanied by a lawyer or parent during their interrogations, and are often unaware of the allegations that have been made against them.
[. . . .]    . . . institutionalized violence embedded in Israel’s settler colonial project has come to accept the stealing of childhood – the criminalization and suffering of children – as unavoidable and “normal.” As the earlier evidence makes abundantly clear, Palestinian children are becoming, with greater frequency and more intense efforts, the major targets of Israel’s eliminatory state violence. Israel employs a number of tactics – discriminatory arrests, home demolitions, forced evictions, brutal interrogations, torture within prison systems, inequitable practices in the juvenile military court – that traumatize Palestinian children. These efforts to marginalize and terrorize Palestinian children, sometimes before they are even born, highlight the security regime’s designation of such children as a threat to the state. Palestinian children comprise approximately 50 percent of the entire Palestinian population and are therefore an important factor in the future and success of the Israeli Zionist project. Thus, the maltreatment of Palestinian children plays an important role in propagating the structure of Israeli settler colonialism.

❷ IOF  ARRESTS  SIX  JERUSALEMITES
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Oct. 16, 2016
Israeli occupation authorities arrested Sunday at dawn six Jerusalemites after raiding their houses in Silwan and Old City in occupied Jerusalem.
___The head of the committee of Jerusalemite detainees’ families, Amjad Abu Asab said that the IOF ARRESTED  TWO  YOUTHS  AND  THREE  MINORS  FROM  SILWAN.
___It also arrested a 50-old man after raiding his house in the Old City. The IOF took all of them to al-Muskubīya interrogation center.      More . . .    

❸ MILITARY  COURT  WATCH  (MONITORING  THE  TREATMENT  OF  CHILDREN  IN  DETENTION)
Briefing Note – October 2016
[. . . .]    According to the most recent IPS data, 414  CHILDREN  (12-17 YEARS)  WERE  HELD  IN  MILITARY  DETENTION  AT  THE  END  OF  APRIL  2016. This represents a 91 per cent increase compared with the monthly average for 2015. The latest data includes 12 girls; three children under 14 years; and 13 children held without charge or trial in administrative detention.       More . . .    

❹ Source for continuing coverage:
DEFENSE  FOR  CHILDREN  INTERNATIONAL  PALESTINE  (DCIP)  

“. . . Whenever a child’s voice goes silent . . .” (Maya Abu Al-Hayyat)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
proststhesis
AL Jaad 6 years old at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City. He lost his right leg when an Israeli tank shell hit his home 2014. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/Getty Images)

❶ Five days, four children shot dead

  • Background from Third World Quarterly

❷ Israeli soldiers attack the weekly protest in Kufur Qaddoum
❸ ANALYSIS: Israel left me with half a body
❹ POETRY by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶  FIVE  DAYS,  FOUR  CHILDREN  SHOT  DEAD
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)
Sep. 22, 2016
Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian children in Hebron, during the most concentrated period of deadly violence in the West Bank since June.
___In separate incidents between September 16 and September 20, four Palestinian teenagers were fatally shot by Israeli soldiers in Hebron. Seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in less than a week, marking the highest concentration of Palestinian deaths since June, when three Palestinians were killed in under 48 hours, according to Ma’an News Agency. Earlier this month, another child, Abdul-Rahman Dabbagh, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in Gaza.
___“International law requires that intentional lethal force is only used when lesser means would be insufficient to apprehend a suspect,” said Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer at DCIP. “Recent evidence suggests that Israeli forces are implementing a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, yet systemic impunity is normal and accountability extremely rare.”     MORE . . . 

  • Dossa, Shiraz. “Auschwitz’s Finale: Racism and Holocausts.” Third World Quarterly 33.9 (2012): 1575-1593.   SOURCE.

It was clear to [Hannah] Arendt that Israel was crafting a new ‘regime of truth’. . . who can say ‘what counts as true’. This rhetoric has become a real presence in the West. It has metastasised into a global truth and it controls much of the narrative on Muslims. Western foreign policy is substantially based on this ‘truth’. . .  The disdain for Palestinians flows from it as well. Any opposition to it is labelled anti-Semitic (as in hating Jews); resistance in Occupied Palestine is quelled by F16s and military invasions. The West sells this as stability and peace. To reject it is to rebuff human rights, freedom and democracy.
___. . . . Hating Arabs is normal and calling Palestinians the new Nazis obligatory. Loving Israel is a sign of tolerance, opposing its policies is ‘terrorism’. So is being Muslim, since Islam is deemed violent by nature. Critics of the Jewish/Israel lobby are branded ‘hateful’. Arendt understood that the Zionist settlers in Palestine had pioneered this logic: ‘they did not even to stop to think of the very existence of Arabs’. . .
[. . . .]
The ‘uniqueness’ of the Holocaust flows from Ashkenazi pride in their racial superiority. Its corollary is not denied but defended: non-Jews count for very little, which can be traced back to the Old Testament thesis on the acceptability of the Canaanite genocide because Yahweh willed it . . .  It is evident that the chosen Jew–unchosen non-Jew divide has been globalised. It is even accepted by many ‘Third world’ elites . . . who endorse the US–Israeli agenda without demurral. Its legitimacy, its ‘truth’ has long been settled.
[. . . .]
It comes as no surprise that the self-described ‘Jewish state’ occupies Palestinian land, terrorises its inhabitants, builds illegal settlements, and violates international law. It is the proudly ‘Jewish state’ which slays Arabs in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank at will. It is Western Jews who invoke the Old Testament and Western civilisation to defend invasion and occupation. Yet Jews routinely, 67 years after the Holocaust, still claim to be victims. In 2008 Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned that ‘The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies . . . they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust’.  (Ynet News, ‘Israeli minister warns Palestinians of ‘‘holocaust’”, Reuters, 29 February 2008.)

kqaddoum06172016-e1466204070505
Many Injured As Israeli Soldiers Attack The Weekly Protest In Kufur Qaddoum, Jun. 18, 2016 (Photo: IMEMC News)

❷ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  THE  WEEKLY  PROTEST  IN  KUFUR  QADDOUM
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
September 24, 2016
Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, many local and international activists, holding the weekly protest in Kufur Qaddoum village, in the northern West Bank district of Qalqilia, causing scores to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
___The protesters marched from the center of the village raising Palestinian flags and carrying posters of the detainees who ended their hunger strikes after reaching agreements for their release after extended strikes.
___The Popular Committee in Kufur Qaddoum said scores of locals, and international activists, suffered the effects of teargas inhalation, after the soldiers assaulted the protest.       MORE . . .  

qaddoum
Israeli Soldiers Attack The Weekly Protest In Kufur Qaddoum, Mar. 27, 2015 (Photo: IMEMC News)

❸ ANALYSIS:  ISRAEL  LEFT  ME  WITH  HALF  A BODY 
The Electronic Intifada
Sarah Algherbawi
Sep. 20, 2016
Manar al-Shenbari has vague recollections of what happened on 24 July 2014. She was taking shelter at the UNRWA Beit Hanoun Elementary School in the Gaza Strip when the Israeli military shelled it. Manar’s mother, sister and two brothers were among the 11 people killed at the UN-funded school.
___“There were bodies on the ground, people screaming,” she said. “And lots of blood on my body. Those are the only things I can remember from that day. It was like a nightmare. I lost consciousness and woke up in hospital.”
___Manar – now aged 17 – lost both of her legs in the attack and required emergency treatment. She was transferred to Jordan for surgery. When she returned to Gaza, she found everyday life extremely difficult.     MORE . . .  

“CHILDREN,” BY MAYA ABU AL-HAYYAT
Whenever a child’s hand comes out of a collapsed building
I check the hands of my three children
I count the digits of their hands and feet
I check the number of teeth
and the hairs of their eyebrows

Whenever a child’s voice goes silent in Camp Al Yarmouk

I turn up the volume on the TV
and the songs on the radio
I pinch my three children on their sides
to keep them moving and feel they’re alive

Whenever a heart is devoured by fear
on Qalandia checkpoint
I open my mouth and start to eat
Comfort myself with salty treats
Bock out the sparks of the eyes that cry everywhere
―translated by Graham Fulton

Maya Abu Al-Hayyat is a prize-winning author of novels, poetry, and short stories. Born in Lebanon, she has a degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Najah University in Nablus, the largest Palestinian university, and lives in Ramallah.
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available From Amazon.com.
Maya Abu Al-Hayyat reading one of her poems

 

“. . . whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

❶ Netanyahu Asks Attorney General to Authorize Sniper Fire against Stone-throwers
❷ Artist of the Month: Ibrahim Jawabrah: Searching through Childhood
❸ Rights group: More than 1,991 Palestinian children killed since 2000
❹ The Fires of Religious War Rage over Al-Aqsa
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Gazan refugees denied rights in Jordan for over 45 years
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

❶ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAEL  AUTHORIZES  SNIPERS  FIRE  AGAINST  ROCK-THROWERS
Sept. 16, 2015
Israel has approved the use of sniper rifles against stone throwers in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reports on Thursday morning. Netanyahu asked the Attorney General to authorize sniper to target the stone throwers as part of his declared “war” on stone throwers in Jerusalem.
More . . .
Related . . .
Related . . . 

❷ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
ARTIST  OF  THE  MONTH:  IBRAHIM  JAWABRAH:  SEARCHING  THROUGH  CHILDHOOD
Mohammad Al Amiri
September, 2015
Born in 1985, Ibrahim Jawabrah is still searching for the child in himself. As he was following his passion for art, he explored the depth of his inner self and found himself in the area of his childhood, which gave his art a special trait and flavor. He discovered a new language with which to argue with himself and clarify many issues about art that would fulfill his vision and respond to his passion and emotions.
____Jawabrah chose the path to heal his pain. His mission in art is purely humanitarian.
More . . .

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
RIGHTS  GROUP:  MORE  THAN  1,991  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  KILLED  SINCE  2000
Sept. 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 1,991 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and extremists since 2000, according to figures released by an international rights group Thursday.
____Ongoing settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank are wedging Palestinian children and their families against “expanding and often violent Israeli settler communities,” Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCIP) research reported.
____Such expansion is increasingly placing Palestinian children in a “hyper-militarized environment,” where they are facing higher frequencies of disproportionate violence . . .
More . . .

Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)
Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)

❹ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  FIRES  OF  RELIGIOUS  WAR  RAGE  OVER  AL-AQSA
Dr. Yousef Rezqa
Sep 16 2015
Israeli media sources have recently published the following statement: “Netanyahu’s government . . . decision to divide Al-Aqsa mosque in two phases: the first phase is to limit the presence of Palestinians by targeting and arresting religious scholars and students. . . The second phase will include the enforcement of daily hours where Jews can enter Al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinians will be forbidden to enter Al-Aqsa mosque during this time. The same regulations have been previously applied to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.”
____If we are to abide by the Netanyahu government’s policy, we will find ourselves in the midst of a new fait accompli that deprives Muslims of their basic right to worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque at any hour of the day.
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❺ Opinion/Analysis
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZAN  REFUGEES  DENIED  RIGHTS  IN  JORDAN  FOR  OVER  45  YEARS
Aaron Magid
(Aaron Magid is an Amman-based journalist. He graduated from Harvard University with a masters in Middle Eastern studies.)
Sept. 17, 2015
JERASH REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (Ma’an) — Born in Jordan, 27-year-old Muhammad’s life hardly resembles a typical Jordanian’s. Lacking any political or civil rights . . . because his parents fled to Jordan from Gaza following the 1967 War.
____“Compared to other Jordanian citizens, I am nothing,” explained Muhammad . . . Approximately 140,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza live in a similar limbo as Muhammad in Jordan: denied most rights and often forced into a life of harsh poverty.
____Nearly 2.1 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 350,000 Palestinians fled to Jordan . . . The Nationality Law of 1954 provided Palestinian residents of the West Bank with full Jordanian citizenship after King Abdullah I annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950. However, when the new wave of Palestinian refugees arrived in Jordan escaping from Gaza in the 1967 War, Amman treated them differently than their West Bank countrymen, refusing to provide them with Jordanian nationality or civil rights.
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EXCERPTED  FROM  “THE  CHILDREN  OF  RAFAH,”  BY  SAMI  AL-QASIM  (1970)
To him who digs his path
in the wounds of millions
whose tanks crush the garden’s roses
To him who breaks at night the houses’ windows
who burns a field and a museum
and sings to the fire
who rips the hair of sad women
and bombs grape fields
who executes the nightingale of feasts in the square
whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows
The children of deep rooted ancestors tonight declare
the children of Rafah tonight declare:
We did not knit blankets from hair braids
we did not spit on the face of murdered women
after plucking the golden teeth
Why do take the candy
and give us bombs?
why make Arab children orphans?
And thanks?

Sadness turned us into men
we must fight

[. . . .]

At the corner of the street
at the outskirts of town
the children of long histories
were gathering books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
to build a barricade,
to block the path of darkness
and disturb the troops of hate
until peace washes their eyes
from the dust and hate of war!
And with books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
his idol gave the barricade a nervous silence
and his hand was ready with the ink pot―
And the day the security doors of the conquerors closed
he was among the arrested
the son of the man whose residence was unknown

Footnote:
His age nine years―

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 Samih Al-Qasim

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)