Category: East Jerusalem home evictions

“. . . No longer am I some firm-rooted tree . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

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Residential street in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter with homes taken by Israelis. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

| PALESTINE  FILES  LAWSUIT  AGAINST  US  AT  THE  INTERNATIONAL  COURT  OF  JUSTICE
The State of Palestine has filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body of the United Nations, for violating international law by moving its embassy in Israel to the occupied city of Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday.     ___Malki added in a statement that the case was based on Palestine’s membership in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries, specifically the Optional Protocol concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.     More . . .

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Commercial street in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 4, 2015)

| 7  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  2  CHILDREN,  KILLED  IN  GAZA  PROTESTS 
Seven Palestinians, including two children, were shot and killed by Israeli forces during protests across the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday afternoon.   ___The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 7 Palestinians were killed identifying them as 14-year-old boy Muhammad Nayif al-Hum . . . 12-year-old Nasser Azmi Musbeh, and Muhammad Ali Anshashi, 18, both shot and killed in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip . . .  Spokesperson of the ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, confirmed that some 506 Palestinians were injured during protests, 90 of whom were injured with live bullets, including 3 critical cases.   ___Thirty-five children were among the injuries, in addition to four paramedics and three journalists.    More . . .
Related . . .   Gaza  is  the  Israeli  arms  industry’s  testing  ground
Related . . .   World  Bank:  Gaza  economy  in  ‘free  fall’
| MINISTERIAL  MEETING  ON  UNRWA  RAISES  REMARKABLE  US$122  MILLION
On 27 September, the Foreign Ministers of Jordan, Sweden, Turkey, Japan and Germany, as well as the High Representative and Vice-President of the European Union, hosted a Ministerial Meeting in New York, with the aim of mobilising financial and political support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).   ___The Ministerial Meeting raised a remarkable US$122 million, with Kuwait, the European Union, Germany, Norway, France, Belgium and Ireland announcing additional funding commitments. This meeting represented a crucial step in the efforts to overcome the Agency’s remaining shortfall of US$186 million and sustain UNRWA operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

| WHAT  WAS  WRONG  WITH  BOTH  UN  SPEECHES?
Samia Khoury
On Thursday,  September 27, 2018, both the Palestinian President Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the United Nations  General Assembly.  ___Every time I listen to speeches like those, I keep hoping against hope that something new or fresh might come up to uplift our morale and truly give us reason to look forward to better days.  Of course it was necessary for president Abbas to draw the attention of the assembly that the USA has not been  an honest broker to the peace process, because they turned a blind eye to the violations of Israel to all the agreements signed with Israel.  He  announced that the Palestinians are not willing to continue  committing themselves to agreements that Israel has not kept. . .   ___On the other hand, Mr. Netanyahu’s  main  emphasis,  before responding to some of the points that  Mr. Abbas referred to, was on Iran.   More . . .
| AL-AQSA  INTIFADA:  THE  REVOLUTION  IS  STILL  GOING  ON  18  YEARS  LATER  
These days coincide with the anniversary of the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, which marked a turning point in the Palestinian cause, changing many equations.    [. . . .] The spark of the intifada broke out 18 years ago, after the Israeli war criminal, the leader of the Likud Party at the time, Ariel Sharon, along with Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and tried to desecrate its yards and its symbolic place through their provocative actions.   ___The Palestinian people faced this provocation with courage with their bare chests, providing examples of sacrifice and dignity, as they always did to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause as a whole.     More . . .
| ISRAEL’S  RETREAT  FROM  DEMOCRACY  CREATING  WIDENING  DIVISION  WITH  AMERICAN  JEWS
Allan C. Brownfeld
Israel’s steady retreat from democracy, as dramatically manifested by the Knesset passing in July a new nation-state law—and its 51-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem—is widening the division between American Jews and the self-proclaimed “Jewish state.”   ___An opinion poll published in Israel in June shows a growing gap between Israelis and American Jews. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey found that 77 percent of Israelis approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations, while only 34 percent of American Jews did. Eighty-five percent of Israelis supported the decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, upending decades of U.S. foreign policy and an international consensus that the city’s status should be decided through peace negotiations. Only 47 percent of American Jews supported the move.    ___The poll also found that 59 percent of American Jews favor the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, compared to only 44 percent of Israelis. The two communities also differ sharply on matters of religion and state, particularly on the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over religious affairs in Israel.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“EXHAUSTION  OVERTOOK  ME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I’ve suffered from fatigue since an early age,
And my body crumpled in the presence of sickness.
Probably, my body also fell apart.
No longer am I some firm-rooted tree,
branches mingling with the clear blue sky.
Maybe I have never been that way.
Every cell in my body was shaken.
You saw so many thorny questions grown into my skin.
You saw that my eyes hurt with tears,
and I couldn’t tell from which cascade those tears fell.

You saw clouds that appeared in the minds of my poems
heading back in disappointment toward the river;
the river reverted to its headwaters of first longing.
The sea is too salty. Meanwhile my thirst surprised me
by coming at the wrong time. My thirst was stubborn,
and I am not stubborn with anyone, except myself.

Suddenly, I wanted the world to turn into a desert
without a sun above it. Without memories of the trees
or the river or the distraught young women.
I want myself to be a dead body
smoking a rotten cigarette, watching the emptiness.
I want myself to be a line inside a neglected book,
a line upon which the dust eats and drinks.
—Trans. 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.  

“. . . And gagging on disaster, My sad city choked. . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

SPECIAL    POSTING:    ISRAEL’S  DESTRUCTION  OF  SOCIETAL  INFRASTRUCTURE  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM

(Articles generally in chronological order. The first of several such single-subject postings.)

ISRAEL  BANS  ACTIVITIES  IN  JERUSALEM  CONNECTED  TO  PALESTINIAN  AUTHORITY  GOVERNMENT.
National Public Radio (NPR)
Heard on All Things Considered, January 19, 2018.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:   President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the capital Israel, but that doesn’t change Palestinian aspirations for a capital in part of the city. One thing that could strengthen these Palestinian claims would be national political institutions. NPR’s Daniel Estrin looks at how Israel has worked for decades to limit those institutions, whether they’re offices for leadership or even performances in theaters.   DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: This used to be the Palestinian headquarters in Jerusalem – an old, stone mansion called the Orient House. Foreign diplomats were received here. The Palestinian flag used to fly. But Israel closed it in 2001 during a wave of Palestinian bombings. Israeli authorities deliver a new closure order every six months. It’s on the door for everyone to see.   More . . .

ISRAEL SHUTS DOWN PALESTINIAN INSTITUTIONS IN EAST JERUSALEM.
Asharq Al-Awsat.
February 3,2018.
The Israeli authorities decided on Friday to shut down a number of Palestinian institutions operating in the occupied city of East Jerusalem.   ___Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan extended the order against a number of Palestinian institutions, including the Orient House, in East Jerusalem due to their affiliation to the Palestinian Authority.   ___The Israeli decision anticipated an expected decision from the PA to announce the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian State.   ___Israeli sources said on Friday that Erdan’s order does not only involve political institutions, but also include a number of vital civil institutions, the East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce, the Supreme Council for the Arab Tourism Industry, the Center for Palestinian Studies, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, and the Office for Social and Statistical Studies.
More . . .    Related . . .

PLO  CHIEF  DENOUNCES  CLOSURE  OF  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTION  IN  JERUSALEM.
Ma’an News Agency.
March 14, 2017.
Israeli authorities sealed off and shut down the Mapping and Geographic Information Systems Department of the Arab Studies Society in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, with police detaining the center’s director, Khalil Tufakji, during the raid.
___PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat denounced the closure and “the illegal detention” of Tufakji, describing the man as “a distinguished scholar from Jerusalem.”
___Erekat said in a written statement that Israeli forces also seized the documents, computers, and equipment from the office.
More . . .

ANGER  AFTER  ISRAEL  SHUTS  DOWN  PALESTINIAN  UNIVERSITIES  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM.
The New Arab.
July 15, 2018.
Anger has spurred over Israel shutting down two Palestinian education facilities in occupied East Jerusalem, as Israeli plans to annex the territory continue.
___Israel closed down Hind al-Husseini College and Al-Quds University’s College of Art – both of which are located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood – until further notice after banning an academic conference taking place and detaining 15 participants.
___The conference was due to take place on Saturday at al-Quds University’s College of Arts.
___The two-day conference was organised by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf and Heritage Reservation Society and was supposed to discuss the status of Muslim endowment and property, as well as the protection of Islamic and Christian heritage in the occupied city.
___The move was also condemned by the president of the Arab American University, Ali Abu Zuhri, who said Israel was taking exceptional measures to disrupt the Palestinian education system, according to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA.
More . . .   Related . . .

OPINION:    DESTROYING    PALESTINIAN    UNIVERSITIES.
Haaretz.
Daphna Golan.
July 26, 2018.
As Israeli students are finishing their final exams, Palestinian students in the occupied territories don’t know whether their institutions will be opening for the coming academic year or if their lecturers will continue to teach, as dozens of lecturers with European and American citizenship are being expelled.
___Around half the foreign lecturers at Palestinian universities started receiving letters last November, saying their requests to have their residency visas extended had been refused because they’ve been “living in the area for more than five years.”
More . . .

EARLIER  REPORTS . . .

HOW  ISRAEL  IS  TARGETING  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTIONS.
AL JAZEERA.
Ylenia Gostoli.
May 20, 2017.
[. . . .] According to the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, more than 30 Palestinian institutions and organisations have been shut down in the city since the 2001 closure of Orient House. Six-month closure orders have been continuously renewed ever since, in defiance of recommendations made in the 2003 Road Map drawn up by the Middle East Quartet as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
___”Targeting NGOs is targeting the presence of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. NGOs are the main body providing services, because according to Oslo [the interim accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians in 1993 and 1995], the Palestinian Authority is not allowed to be in Jerusalem,” Zakaria Odeh, executive director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera. “All policies, including house demolitions and residency revocations, have the goal to alter the demographic structure of Jerusalem as a whole.”
More . . .

ISRAEL  HAS  CLOSED  120  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTIONS  IN  JERUSALEM  SINCE  1967.
Middle East Monitor.
February 17, 2014.
A Palestinian human rights organisation has revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have closed more than 120 Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem since it completed its occupation of the city in 1967. Around 88 were closed down completely, while the others had to transfer their operations from occupied Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank.
___In a press statement, the Almakdasi Foundation said that the Israeli authorities have now closed-down the Islamic Club and Salwan Charity Foundation for a period of 30 days under the pretext of them receiving funding from Hamas and conducting activities on its behalf. This is despite the fact that both foundations have appropriate licences and Salwan presented evidence to prove its independence.
___The Almakdasi statement said, “These closures, along with all the others last year and every year since 1967, are part of Israel’s policy since the occupation began. The Israeli occupation authorities are trying to obliterate Palestinian identity and institutions.” The first to go was the Arab Jerusalem Municipality which was closed by the Israelis in 1967.
More . . .

“MY  SAD  CITY,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967)

The day we saw death and betrayal,
The tide ebbed.
The windows of the sky closed,
And the city held its breath.
The day the waves were vanquished, the day
The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face,
Hope turned to ashes,
And gagging on disaster,
My sad city choked.

Gone were the children and the songs,
There was no shadow, no echo.
Sorrow crawled naked in my city,
With bloodied footsteps,
Silence reigned in the city,
Silence like crouching mountains,
Mysterious like the night, tragic silence,
Burdened,
Weighed down with death and defeat.
Alas! My sad and silent city.
Can it be true that in the season of harvest,
Grain and fruit have turned to ashes?
Alas! That this should be the fruit of all the journeying!
―Translated by A.M. Elmesseri

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 B&N.

“. . . Resist the colonialist’s onslaught . . .” (Dareen Tatour)

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❶ Israeli bulldozers demolish structures northeast occupied Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ‘It took them 10 minutes to destroy what I built in a lifetime’

  • Background: “The Geopolitics of Neighbourhood: Jerusalem’s Colonial Space Revisited.” Geopolitics.

❷ Saudi Arabia warns of ‘serious implications’ should US recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Turkey to cut ties with Israel if Jerusalem is recognized as capital of Israel
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) IAF [Jordan] rejects US intent to relocate embassy to Occupied Jerusalem
❸ Israeli forces storm Palestinian cities and arrest 10 Palestinians
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) How Israel is digitally policing Palestinian minds
❹ POETRY by Dareen Tatour

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  BULLDOZERS  DEMOLISH  STRUCTURES  NORTHEAST  OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM 
The Palestinian Information Center
December 5, 2017 ― Israeli heavy bulldozers razed on Tuesday morning a number of Palestinian facilities under construction in Shufat refugee camp northeast of Occupied Jerusalem at the pretext of lacking construction permit.
___The spokesman of Fatah Movement in Shufat refugee camp, Thaer Fasfous, said that Israeli forces, in large numbers and escorted by four bulldozers, raided the refugee camp in the early morning, besieged an under-construction building and started knocking it down, according to Quds Press.  MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  ‘IT  TOOK  THEM  10  MINUTES  TO  DESTROY  WHAT  I  BUILT  IN  A  LIFETIME’   
+972 Magazine
Orly Noy
December 4, 2017 ― The path to the Rajbi family home in East Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood, or what was their home until two weeks ago, is difficult to find, even with the help of navigation apps such as Waze. After driving off the main road, the half-paved alleyways blend into one another in a maze of dirt tracks. Three of them bear the exact same name. After a few attempts to find the house, Samir, brother of Issam Rajbi whose former home we are looking for, comes to our rescue. In East Jerusalem, this is not an especially effective milestone; the dirt mounds and remains of demolished homes are pile up on the way, every few hundred meters.   MORE . . .

Yacobi, Haim and Wendy Pullan.
“THE  GEOPOLITICS  OF  NEIGHBOURHOOD:  JERUSALEM’S  COLONIAL  SPACE  REVISITED.”
Geopolitics, vol. 19, no. 3, Jul-Sep2014, pp. 514-539.
[. . . .] . . . significant spatial turning point in Israel’s geopolitical conditions started after June 1967 when Israel occupied East Jerusalem . . .  the Israeli government unilaterally annexed all of East Jerusalem, expanded the municipal boundaries on Palestinian territory, and applied Israeli law to all of the city . . .  beyond Israeli rhetoric representing Jerusalem as a unified city, the planning policies have contributed to the paradigm of a colonial city. Both state and city pursue . . .  Judaisation: the expansion of Jewish political, territorial, demographic, and economic control to all parts of the city. This has been explicitly manifested by Israeli leaders, including David Ben Gurion, whose revealing words were uttered a few days after the end of the 1967 war:

“Jews should be brought to East Jerusalem at any cost. Thousands of
Jews should settle soon. Jews will agree to settle in East Jerusalem,
even in shacks. We should not wait for the construction of proper
neighbourhoods. The most important thing is that there will be there Jews.”

Israel has used its military might and economic power to relocate borders and boundaries, grant and deny rights and resources, shift populations, and reshape the occupied territories for the purpose of ensuring Jewish control. In the case of East Jerusalem, two complementary strategies have been implemented by Israel; the massive construction of an outer ring of Jewish neighbourhoods . . .  and the containment of Palestinian development, implemented through housing demolition, the limited issuing of building permits. . .  and the prevention of immigration to the city. . . .  Palestinians have become isolated in their own neighbourhoods, cut off from each other as well as from Israelis.
[. . . .] Ideally, the urban sphere, in its density and diversity, could serve as a space that is “open to flows of people”. Such a liberal perspective relies heavily on the belief that the city has the potential for the production of an “enabling space” that might disrupt the existing hierarchies and boundaries of ethnic and class structures. Yet . . .  such a view is only partial in the context of Jerusalem, which is divided not only along the Jewish/Arab partition but also according to other ethnic divisions that stem from the nature of the Israeli settler society . . . .    SOURCE . . .

❷ SAUDI  ARABIA  WARNS  OF  ‘SERIOUS  IMPLICATIONS’  SHOULD  US  RECOGNIZE  JERUSALEM  AS  ISRAEL’S  CAPITAL   
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
December 5, 2017 – Saudi Foreign Ministry Tuesday warned of serious implications should the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, according to the Saudi Press Agency, WAS.
___It quoted an official source at the Foreign Ministry expressing Saudi Arabia’s “grave and deep concern” over media reports that US President Donald Trump plans to make such recognition and relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
___The source added that Saudi Arabia “views the US step, if taken, to be in contradiction of the principle of not affecting final status negotiations, and contradicts international resolutions that emphasize the historical and firm rights of the Palestinian people regarding Jerusalem, which cannot be changed, nor can an attempt to impose a new reality upon it be made.”     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  TURKEY  TO  CUT  TIES  WITH  ISRAEL  IF  JERUSALEM  IS  RECOGNIZED  AS  CAPITAL  OF  ISRAEL  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
December 5, 2017 ― Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Tuesday to cut ties with Tel Aviv if the US administration recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
___Erdogan said in a press statement that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will hold a meeting in Istanbul to mobilize the Islamic world through important activities in case US President Donald Trump proceeds with this step.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  IAF  [Jordan]  REJECTS  US  INTENT  TO  RELOCATE  EMBASSY  TO  OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM 
The Palestinian Information Center 
December 5, 2017 ― Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) party has voiced its rejection of the US intent to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem and called on the Jordanian government to intervene to prevent such a step.    MORE . . .
❸  ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  PALESTINIAN  CITIES  AND  ARRESTS  10  PALESTINIANS  
Palestine News Network – PNN
December 5, 2017 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested 10 Palestinians from different West Bank areas at dawn and last night.
___According to local sources in Hebron, the occupation forces arrested a 22 years old Palestinian during an incursion of Deir Samt town west of Hebron.
___Israeli forces stormed five houses in Badras town, west of Ramallah. They also searched the village of Bani Zeid.  Israeli forces stormed a cafe in Beit Jala terrorizing people inside.         MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ― ❸ (ᴀ)  HOW  ISRAEL  IS  DIGITALLY  POLICING  PALESTINIAN  MINDS
Al Jazeera English  
Dalia Hatuqa
December 5, 2017 ― In recent years, Israeli authorities have been arresting and holding hundreds of Palestinians it accuses of fanning the flames of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel.
___This incitement, they say, comes in various forms: Facebook posts, media articles, even songs and poetry – and in recent months, all have landed their authors in jail.
[. . . .] This heightened digital policing has left one Palestinian citizen of Israel embroiled in a legal fiasco. Dareen Tatour, a 36-year-old poet, spent three months in jail and remains – more than two years in – under house arrest over a poem she posted on Facebook in 2015 about Palestinian resistance.      MORE . . .   ..    RELATED . . .

THE  POEM  FOR  WHICH  DAREEN  TATOUR  WAS  ARRESTED
Resist, My People, Resist Them
Resist, my people, resist them.
In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows
And carried the soul in my palm
For an Arab Palestine.
I will not succumb to the “peaceful solution,”
Never lower my flags
Until I evict them from my land.
I cast them aside for a coming time.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the settler’s robbery
And follow the caravan of martyrs.
Shred the disgraceful constitution
Which imposed degradation and humiliation
And deterred us from restoring justice.
They burned blameless children;
As for Hadil, they sniped her in public,
Killed her in broad daylight.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the colonialist’s onslaught.
Pay no mind to his agents among us
Who chain us with the peaceful illusion.
Do not fear doubtful tongues;
The truth in your heart is stronger,
As long as you resist in a land
That has lived through raids and victory
So Ali called from his grave:
Resist, my rebellious people.
Write me as prose on the agarwood;
My remains have you as a response.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist, my people, resist them.

― You can follow Dareen Tatour’s case on Facebook

And so the Trump/Friedman assault begins

Harold KnightLeave a comment

PLEASE NOTE: This blog will resume its coverage of news from Palestine shortly. However, today it is important to begin to make clear the drastic shift in American policy toward Israel that will take place on January 2o. Thank you.

Senators Threaten to Cut Worldwide Embassy Security If U.S. Doesn’t Move Its Israeli Embassy to Jerusalem

___In 1995, Congress passed a law requiring the federal government to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all campaigned on relocating the embassy and executing this law. But once in office, every one of them invoked a waiver in the law that allows them to hold off on the move if they deem it necessary to the national security interests of the United States to do so.       ___Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would be seen as a green light to some Israeli government officials, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who seek to make Jerusalem the undivided capital of the state of Israel. That, in turn, would preclude the Palestinians from establishing a state that includes East Jerusalem. Most international observers believe that this would render the two-state solution impossible and thus be damaging to peace.       More . . .
________________________________
Call to direct action for [American] readers

Act Now

PUSH BACK AGAINST ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS – ACT NOW TO STOP HOUSE/SENATE RESOLUTIONS
We need you to ACT NOW to push back against illegal Israeli settlements! Congress has spent its first two days in session trying to back away from decades of U.S. policy on illegal settlements.
___Yesterday, the House and the Senate introduced legislation that would object to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 “as an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.” H.R. 11 & the yet un-numbered Senate companion bill are unfounded and unwise criticisms of the Obama administration for abstaining from the UNSC resolution which condemned Israel for its settlements in the occupied West Bank.
___Contrary to what these bills (H.R. 11 & S.R. X) say, they do NOT aim to support the peace process. That was made even more clear when Rep. Peter King [R-NY-2] introduced an amendment that would DELETE any reference in the House bill to a two-state solution, which is a shocking abandonment of core U.S. policies. Simply put, these bills are about Congress trying to protect Israel from any criticism of illegal settlements.
More-including form for contacting members of Congress.
(Please forward to your American friends.)
__________________________________

Trump’s Pick for Israel Ambassador Is No Diplomat

THE ATLANTIC
David A. Graham
Dec. 16, 2016
David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer, believes Israel can annex and settle in the West Bank, wants to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and called a liberal American Jewish group “worse than kapos.”
___There was a time when Donald Trump’s statements on Israel rattled hardliners who were concerned he would be too friendly to Palestinians. In February, when Joe Scarborough asked him who was to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Republican candidate replied, “I don’t want to get into it for a different reason, Joe, because if I do win, there has to be a certain amount of surprise, unpredictability. Let me be sort of a neutral guy, let’s see what—I’m going to give it a shot. It would be so great.”     ___Those days are long gone, a fact made clear by President-elect Trump’s decision to appoint David Friedman, an extreme hard-liner on the right, as his ambassador to Israel. Friedman, like many of Trump’s picks for Cabinet jobs, does not have any directly relevant experience, and the two men previously worked together when Friedman, a bankruptcy attorney, represented him in past bankruptcy proceedings.
___But Friedman advised Trump on Israel policy during the campaign and has left behind a long trail of statements indicating his views, including equating liberal Americans Jews to “kapos” who assisted Nazis in ghettos; labeling President Barack Obama an anti-Semite; and suggesting Israel should annex the West Bank.    More . . .

 

 

“. . . 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

“. . . The gift you tried to give me. I’ve found it. it’s been with me all along. Jerusalem . . .” (Seema V. Atalla)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Eviatar Slonim, the happy terrorist (or extremist?)
Eviatar Slonim, the happy terrorist (or extremist?)

❶ From: PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI  POLICE  ORDERS  TWO  JERUSALEMITE  FAMILIES  OUT  OF  THEIR  HOMES
August 5, 2015
JERUSALEM – Israeli police Wednesday asked two East Jerusalem Palestinian families to leave their homes, under the pretext of absentee ownership, according to WAFA correspondent.
____Israeli police ordered Sabri Abu-Nab and Abdullah Abu-Nab . . . and their families to leave their homes before August 11, because the two properties are “absentee”.
____Jewish settler organizations, claim the two homes are located on the site of an abandoned Jewish synagogue.
____Abdullah Abu-Nab . . . said settler groups had no proof of ownership of the two homes, which have been inhabited by the Abu-Nab family for hundreds of years, even before the establishment of Israel.
____Zuhair Rajabi, a pro-Jerusalemites activist and advocate, said . . . lawyers will travel to Turkey to obtain paperwork from the Ottoman era that proves the Abu-Nab’s ownership of the two homes.
(More . . .)

❷ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  3  PALESTINIANS  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM
August 5, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Israeli forces detained three Palestinians after raiding their homes in the neighborhood of al-Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem, locals said.
____Muhammad Abu al-Hummus, a member of a local monitoring team, said that Israeli forces detained two brothers, identified as Allan and Anan Obeid, in addition to Ayob Bahaa Obeid.
____Abu al-Hummus said that clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinians during the detention raid.
(More. . .)

❸ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  ARRESTS  SECOND  SUSPECTED  JEWISH  EXTREMIST
August 4, 2015
JERUSALEM (AFP) — A second suspected Jewish extremist was arrested Tuesday in Israel following the firebombing of a Palestinian home that burned a baby alive, the Shin Bet internal security force said.
____Israel on Monday arrested Meir Ettinger, whose grandfather Meir Kahane founded the racist anti-Palestinian Kach group, and a court prolonged his detention until the weekend on suspicion of “nationalist crimes”.
____”A second individual, Eviatar Slonim, was arrested for belonging to an extremist organisation,” a Shin Bet spokeswoman told AFP, without providing details on any charges against him.
____Israeli television reported that the office of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein had given permission for authorities to place three suspected Jewish extremists in “administrative detention”.
(More. . .)

Extremist settlers spray racist slogans on walls of homes and shops in East Jerusalem (Photo from Al-Quds newspaper)
Extremist settlers spray racist slogans on walls of homes and shops in East Jerusalem (Photo from Al-Quds newspaper)

❹ From: PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  SPRAY  WALLS  WITH  ANTI-ARAB  SLOGANS,  EAST  JERUSALEM
August 5, 2015
Extremist Israeli settlers on Wednesday morning have sprayed hate slogans on walls of homes and shops near Damascus gate in East Jerusalem, calling for “Death of Arabs” . . . .
____For their part, Israeli occupation authorities claimed to have opened an investigation in the matter, but Jerusalem locals assured that these investigations are never taken seriously.
____They added that, if detained, the attackers are released under the claim that they have mental-issues. Despite the numerous attacks on Islamic and christian sanctuaries, none of the extremist Jewish settlers is held accountable for their crimes.
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From: +972 MAGAZINE
THE  SILENT  TRANSFER  OF  PALESTINIANS  FROM  JERUSALEM
Betty Herschman
August 4, 2015
There are many ways to test the notion of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. One could do a comparative analysis of how much the municipality invests in East and West Jerusalem — roughly 1:9. One could drive up the road that neatly divides the bougainvillea draped neighborhood/settlement of East Talpiot and Palestinian Jabal Mukaber, a model of a neighborhood excluded from the city planning process; or consider that Palestinians, nearly 40 percent of the population of the city, are second-class residents denied the right to vote in national elections. For absolute clarity, one need only look at the eight Jerusalem neighborhoods that are located squarely within the municipal borders…but relegated to the other side of the separation barrier.
____ Findings from Ir Amim’s comprehensive new report, “Displaced in their Own City,” reveal that at least 80,000 and possibly more than 100,000 Palestinians — between one-fourth to one-third of the entire Palestinian population of Jerusalem, linked to the city for generations by ties of family, livelihood, economics, identity, culture, and religion — now live in these abandoned enclaves. The area of Kufr Aqab and Semiramis as well as the Shuafat refugee camp, including the neighborhoods of Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh, and Dahiyat al-Salaam, are totally, indisputably divided from Jerusalem by a concrete wall and checkpoints, as well as the municipality’s near complete abdication of responsibility for providing basic services, safety oversight and law enforcement.
(More. . .)
(See *** below for related articles.)

“GIFT,” BY SEEMA V. ATALLA

One afternoon
you tried to give me Jerusalem.

Knobbly onion domes,
purple windows stained with God’s tears
carrot juice, cobblestones
your girlhood ringlets, sunny laugh
the very gates of the Old City
so faithfully embroidered

It was impossible ― too precious
the gift, too short the time
or so I thought then

You suffered, like Jerusalem
and left us

Now I think of your finger
the one that clutched a live wire
the day you nearly fell off the roof
the pinkie forever clenched, scarred
stunted
a lifetime that never healed.

Decades later, oceans away, I want to tell you:
I have it.
The gift you tried to give me. I’ve found it
it’s been with me all along.

Jerusalem like a blue bead embedded in my tongue
Jerusalem like a rock in the pit of my stomach
ring whose metal digs into my skin
ache under one drib, which never goes away

Jerusalem
the pain cross-stitched into my heart
with a needle that pierces both ways:
going in and coming out.

From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISREL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.  Available from Barnes & Noble

Palestinian-American Seema V. Atalla was born in New York, completed high school in Amman, Jordan, and now lives in Southern California where she teaches at Mt. San Antonio College. In 1992 she obtained an MA in Comparative Literature from UCLA. She is best-known for her translations of Arabic short stories and poems.
Poem first published in We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, edited by Kannal Boullata and Kathy Engel (Interlink Press, 2007).

***ARTICLES  RELATING  TO  ETHNIC  CLEANSING  OF  JERUSALEM.
http://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/chained-to-the-fence-inequality-in-east-jerusalem-37812/
http://socialistworker.org/2014/11/19/israel-tightens-the-noose
http://www.globalpost.com/article/6545247/2015/05/11/israels-court-allows-nationalistic-jewish-parade-march-through-jelms-arab
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/labyrinth-daytrip-jerusalem
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/east-jerusalem-family-latest-targets-of-settler-eviction-campaign
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/jerusalem-babylon/.premium-1.623685
http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.626327
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/11449-activists-call-for-global-action-to-demand-freedom-for-jerusalem-and-its-people

The separation wall surrounds a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem,
The separation wall surrounds a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem,