Category: Israeli sniper fire

“. . . . The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets . . .” (Farrah Sarafa)

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Police and some 1,200 protesters clash during a rally against the government’s plan to resettle some 30,000 Bedouin residents of the Negev, in the southern Israeli town of Hura, earlier this month (Photo credit: David Buimovitch/Flash90)

❶ Palestinian woman shot dead after alleged car attack at Gush Etzion
❷ Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians near Gaza border
❸ PHOTOS: Arabs and Jews protest planned expulsion of 1,200 Bedouin
❹ BDS win: UNICEF in Jordan ends G4S contract
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY — FOR JEWS ALONE
❻ Poetry by Farrah Sarafa
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❶ PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  CAR  ATTACK  AT  GUSH  ETZION
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces shot dead a 34-year-old Palestinian woman on Friday morning after she allegedly rammed her car into an Israeli soldier stationed at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern occupied West Bank.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that after the woman hit the soldier with her car, Israeli forces “responded to the imminent threat” by shooting and killing her.     MORE . . .
❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  GAZA  BORDER
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian workers east of Gaza City on Friday morning, with no injuries reported, locals told Ma’an.
___Heavy gunfire was heard as Israeli soldiers stationed in military towers along the Gazan border opened fire on workers and bird hunters.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that the Palestinians left the area fearing for their safety. Medical sources said that no injuries were reported.      MORE . . .

bedouin children
Bedouin children take part in a demonstration outside the Be’er Sheva District Court against the planned demolition of Umm al-Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel’s Negev Desert, March 3, 2016. (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❸ PHOTOS:  ARABS  AND  JEWS  PROTEST  PLANNED  EXPULSION  OF  1,200  BEDOUIN
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Yael Marom, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
3 Mar. 2016
Over 300 demonstrators marched outside the Be’er Sheva District Court Thursday against the planned demolition of two unrecognized Bedouin villages, Umm al-Hiran and Atir, in Israel’s Negev Desert. Two villages are slated to be replaced by a Jewish-only community and a Jewish National Fund forest, respectively
___The protesters, Arabs and Jews, accompanied by members of Knesset from the Joint List and Meretz’s Issawi Freij, chanted “We will not move from Atir and Umm al-Hiran,” and “the Negev belongs to all of us — Jews and Arabs.”      MORE . . .
❹ BDS  WIN:  UNICEF  IN  JORDAN  ENDS  G4S  CONTRACT
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan has ended its contract with G4S following a campaign by BDS activists in the country and across the world over the company’s role in Israel’s detention and torture of Palestinian political prisoners and other Israeli human rights violations.
___Guman Mussa, the Arab World campaigns coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, welcomed the move.  MORE . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  RIGHT  TO  OWN  PROPERTY  — FOR  JEWS  ALONE
+972 BLOG
From YESH DIN, by Yossi Gurvitz
4 Mar. 2016
The government never authorized the wholesale annexation of the West Bank. That’s why it’s doing it behind everyone’s backs. . . .
[. . . . ]
The Israeli government never authorized . . . unofficial policy of annexation – one that does not grant equal rights to those being annexed, while at the same time depriving them of the legal defenses they are entitled to as protected persons, since, allegedly, there is no occupation.      MORE . . . 

“LET  THE  LAND  CHOOSE,”  BY  FARRAH  SARAFA

Who do you think the Holy Land
Would choose: Palestine or Israel?

Do you expect the birthplace of 3
Religions to ever really be peaceful?

I mean—Jesus was a saint,
Tortured and crucified by men with gold.

Do we celebrate Pilot’s cursed victory
Or the sacrifices made by a saint,

A hero, who rises from the dead?
His Resurrection marked by Easter eggs,

Reproduction. Do miracles
Require modernity or tradition

To appear? Chemicals or nature?
Mind or heart? Bulldozing olive trees,

Whose oil sustained families, diet
And economy, Israel is yet to produce

A decent olive oil. Its blood somehow
Curdles with the juice of branches needed

To extract an extra virgin olive.
The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets,

Nightclubs, Capitalism, Snobbery-
(Ignorance is bliss)—but the roots

The veins reaching into mountains’
Throats seem to not be cooperating.

Why is that? Ask Jesus, the rebel,
Who’d say: First get to love Palestine.

About Farrah Sarafa
In 2006 she wrote: “My mother was born in Palestine, my father in Iraq; they married in Egypt twenty five years ago and had me here in the States. I am a pure, product of occupation and war, therefore, confused by my American upbringing. The war has been eating me up more than ever and poetry is my primary response. . .”
From Warpoetry.co.uk
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“. . . 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.
More . . .
Related . . .

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.
More . . .

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)