Category: Issa Qaraqe

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

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❶ Jerusalem: Israel planning park to connect two settlements

  • Background: “UN Security Council Resolution 2334: An Important Lease on Life for the Two-State Solution.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) IOF closes off al-Khalil thoroughfares with checkpoints
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Qareqea: Israel’s intent to seize our tax money “financial piracy”
❷ Dozens of Palestinians were wounded during clashes with IOF on Friday of anger
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Trump’s Palestine deal is a real estate transaction
❹ POETRY by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
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❶ JERUSALEM:  ISRAEL  PLANNING  PARK  TO  CONNECT  TWO  SETTLEMENTS
Palestine News Network – PNN
Feb. 8, 2018 ― The Hebrew daily, Haaretz newspaper on Thursday has unveiled an Israeli plan to build a park in the Mount of Olives overlooking Old Jerusalem, which will link two settlement outposts to the Jewish side of  Jerusalem.
___According to Haaretz, the park will be located on the western slopes of the Mount of Olives, and will link the settlement neighborhoods of “Beit Orot” and “Beit Hohchen.”     MORE . . . 

Liel, Alon. “UN  SECURITY  COUNCIL  RESOLUTION  2334:  AN  IMPORTANT  LEASE  ON  LIFE  FOR  THE  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION.”
PALESTINE-ISRAEL  JOURNAL  OF  POLITICS,  ECONOMICS  &  CULTURE, vol. 22, no. 2/3, July 2017, pp. 78-84.   Dr. Alon Liel served from 2000 to 2001 as the director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
[. . . .] At a time when support for a two-state solution was rapidly disappearing, the international community provided emergency aid in the form of Resolution 2334 [Dec. 23, 2016]. The resolution demands that Israel cease illegal settlement activity, focus on the two-state solution . . .   The UNSC resolution makes a clear distinction between the area of the sovereign State of Israel and the area of the territories occupied in 1967. . .   This distinction between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) touches upon the holy of holies of the current Israeli government; senior ministers call the occupied West Bank “the heart of the land,” and the settlers are the political elite in Israel today.
[. . . .] Beyond touching the sensitive settlements nerve, the reason for the Israeli anger is very clear. Most of the Knesset members of the ruling coalition . . .  do not support the two-state solution. . . .
[. . . .] Precisely because of the tremendous anger that it raised, UNSC Resolution 2334 also became an important life-saver for the Israeli opposition that supports the two-state solution. This opposition . . .  is practically not felt in the political/parliamentary discourse in Israel.
[. . . .] Now President Trump is preparing, at least according to his declarations, to “broker a deal” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the most important statement he made in connection with the conflict has already caused real damage. In the joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he said: “I am looking at two states or one state, and I like the one that both parties like.” With this possibly unplanned off-the-cuff remark, the president shook up the one foundation for agreement that has accompanied the peace process for the last 20 years (1994-2014). [. . . .] This is where we are today. Within Israel and Palestine, the two-state idea is disappearing from the horizon; the world via Resolution 2334 is trying to revive and breathe new life into the peace camp on both sides; and President Trump is trying to undermine the UN itself and destroy the lifesaver. . . .  Resolution 2334, therefore, is much more than just a resolution about the fate of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The resolution has become a symbol of the global struggle between facts and “alternative facts,” between sanity and magic tricks, between international diplomatic continuity and the dangerous breaking of rules.    FULL ARTICLE . . . 

.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  IOF  CLOSES  OFF  AL-KHALIL  THOROUGHFARES  WITH  CHECKPOINTS
The Palestinian Information Center
Feb. 9, 2018 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Thursday evening set up a series of military checkpoints at the main entrances to Halhul town, north of al-Khalil province, in the southern West Bank.
___Reporting from al-Khalil, a PIC news correspondent said the IOF cracked down on Palestinians at a military checkpoint pitched in al-Hawawer area, north of Halhul. Palestinian civilians have been made to endure exhaustive inspection.     MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴃ)  QAREQEA:  ISRAEL’S  INTENT  TO  SEIZE  OUR  TAX  MONEY  “FINANCIAL  PIRACY”
The Palestinian Information Center
Feb. 9, 2018 ― The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs has strongly denounced Israel’s intent to enact a new law confiscating Palestinian tax revenues to prevent the Palestinian Authority from using them to support families of prisoners, martyrs and wounded citizens.
___In a press release on Thursday, head of the commission Issa Qaraqea accused the Israeli government of practicing financial extortion and pressure on the Palestinian people through its racist legislation. . . .     MORE . . .  
❷ DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIANS  WERE  WOUNDED  DURING  CLASHES  WITH  IOF  ON  FRIDAY  OF  ANGER
Palestine News Network – PNN
Feb. 9, 2018 ― Dozens of Palestinians were wounded today Friday during clashes with IOF on Friday of anger in which began in several areas and Palestinian cities after Friday none prayers.
___The confrontations took place in several Palestinian cities, including Ramallah and its villages, Bethlehem northern entrance, Bab al-Zawiya area in Hebron, Qalqilya and Nablus in addition to Gaza Strip borders.     MORE . . . 
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  TRUMP’S  PALESTINE  DEAL  IS  A  REAL  ESTATE  TRANSACTION
Al Jazeera English
By Bill Law
Feb. 9, 2018 ― As President Donald Trump continues to bluster and tweet his way through a chaotic presidency, the Middle East is simmering dangerously close to a boiling point. Wars in Yemen and Syria are still burning hard . . .   Once again, all but forgotten are the Palestinians.
[. . . .] Trump threatens to cut off US aid because the Palestinians refused to meet his Vice President Mike Pence after the president had provocatively named Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. . . .
[. . . .] The peace proposal that Trump likes best – and that his son-in-law and special Middle East adviser Jared Kushner is reportedly pursuing together with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – looks remarkably like a real estate transaction. Unsurprising, given that the 36-year-old Kushner has no previous experience in diplomacy, but an awful lot of it in wheeling and dealing in the high-stakes world of New York property ventures.      MORE . . .  

“COLLATERAL  SAVAGE,”  BY  LAHAB  ASSEF  AL-JUNDI
Survivors of The Holocaust please
Talk to me. Help me understand―
Do you sanction what’s being done
In your names?

I thought your spirits
grew more gentle
having lived through the unspeakable.

Bombs are not less lethal or evil―
Stop being so deathly afraid of the other.

A thousand eyes for an eye?
Children of the Holocaust
please do not lash out
as if you lost your sight.

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
Lahab Assef Al-Jundi was born of Palestinian refugee parents and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not long after graduation, he discovered his passion for writing. He published his first poetry collection, A Long Way, in 1985. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary publications, and many anthologies including Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Hayan Charara, and Between Heaven and Texas, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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

“. . . the tragedy I live Is but my share in your larger tragedy. . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

“Israel is attempting to punish the Palestinian people, skin them alive, and enshrine penal legislation that is designed to crush the Palestinian people under the veil of law.”

Dahiat al-Barid branch
The National Bank has opened the first branch of a Palestinian bank Dahiyat al-Barid, which is isolated from northeast Jerusalem by the separation wall. (Photo: Jerusalem Post, May 7, 2017)

❶ Qaraqe: ‘Israel may be able to take our money, but it cannot take our dignity’
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israel Closes Banks Accounts as Means of Displacing Palestinians in Jerusalem

Background: “’Gate of the Sun’: Applying Human Rights Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in Light of Non-Violent Resistance and Normalization.”

❷ Human rights council calls upon international community to ensure Israel’s cooperation with UN missions
❸ Book Review:  Kingdom of Olives and Ash – Writers Confront the Occupation
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ QARAQE:  ‘ISRAEL  MAY  BE  ABLE  TO  TAKE  OUR  MONEY,  BUT  IT  CANNOT  TAKE  OUR  DIGNITY’   
Ma’an News Agency 
Issa Qaraqe
June 24, 2017.   It seems that Israel, having completed its racist colonization project, has begun to arrange the daily lives of the Palestinian people along a path of destruction — the destruction of the Palestinian national identity and of the Palestinian liberation project.
___The Israeli ministerial committee’s recent ratification of a draft law, which would allow Palestinian tax funds to be withheld under the pretext that they are used to fund subsidies for the families of detainees, martyrs, and the wounded, is more horrifying and immoral than war itself.
___Israel is attempting to punish the Palestinian people, skin them alive, and enshrine penal legislation that is designed to crush the Palestinian people under the veil of law.      ___The Israeli, American, and European objective through this blackmail and pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not financial. It is an attempt to classify the entire Palestinian national identity as terrorism and a crime.        MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAEL  CLOSES  BANKS  ACCOUNTS  AS  MEANS  OF  DISPLACING  PALESTINIANS  IN  JERUSALEM    
Palestine Chronicle
June 24, 2017.  Israel is closing the bank accounts of Arab institutions in Jerusalem in an effort to displace Jerusalemites and force them out of the city, the Palestinian Department of Jerusalem Affairs has said.
___In a press release, the organisation said the Israeli occupation’s moves against social, cultural, educational, relief, housing, legal or engineering institutions were political and go hand in hand with the Israeli policy of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians in order to Judaize the city by force.     MORE . . .           RELATED . . .

Greenblatt, Keren. “’GATE  OF  THE  SUN’:  APPLYING  HUMAN  RIGHTS  LAW  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORIES  IN  LIGHT  OF  NON-VIOLENT  RESISTANCE  AND  NORMALIZATION.” Journal of International Human Rights, vol. 12, no. 2, Spring2014, pp. 152-190.      International humanitarian law and human rights law are complementary systems, both of which aim to protect the lives, dignity, and health of human beings. Humanitarian law is designed to apply in times of emergency (particularly in times of armed conflict). Human rights law always applies . . . . none of the provisions of humanitarian law can be suspended in emergency, since it only applies in those times. Humanitarian law focuses on military actions; human rights law focuses on the obligations of governments toward individuals in their jurisdictions. . . .
[. . . .] The contemporary, inclusive definition revolves around the most fundamental pillar of the law of occupation: occupation does not accord the occupant title to the territory. In other words, it temporarily severs the link between sovereignty and effective control. . . .  In accordance with the temporal element, the occupant serves as a trustee of the sovereign for the duration of the occupation, in a manner that protects civil life.
[. . . .] Nevertheless, human rights law offers a specific, structured methodology with which to scrutinize any violation or restriction that the occupant justifies with national security needs. Specifically, where restrictions on human rights take place, the state must meet tests of necessity, proportionality, and legitimate aims; a prescription by law; and non-discrimination.        FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ HUMAN  RIGHTS  COUNCIL  CALLS  UPON  INTERNATIONAL  COMMUNITY  TO  ENSURE  ISRAEL’S  COOPERATION  WITH  UN  MISSIONS
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
June 24, 2017.   The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) Saturday called upon international community to ensure Israel’s cooperation with UN missions.    ___PHROC in a press release . . . called upon the international community to take effective measures aimed at ensuring Israel’s cooperation with mechanisms of the United Nations (UN), including its missions.
___PHROC condemned the continued prevention of entry for the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
___The council reported that current mandate holder Mr. S. Michael Lynk, was appointed in 2016, and has not received any responses from the Israeli government for his requests to conduct official visits.
[. . . .] Under the Charter of the United Nations, Israel is obliged to allow the UN, including mandate holders, to access to its territory as “may be necessary for the exercise of its functions and the fulfillment of its purposes.        MORE . . .     

DSC_0008
The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council Board of Directors meeting, (Photo Opinion News, October 7, 2016)

❸ BOOK  REVIEW:   KINGDOM  OF  OLIVES  AND  ASH –  WRITERS  CONFRONT  THE  OCCUPATION  
Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
June 21, 2017.   In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, renowned novelists and essayists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence – an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there – and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground.
[. . . .] The book includes contributions from Colum McCann, Jacqueline Woodson, Colm Toibin, Geraldine Brooks, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru, Raja Shehadeh, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Assaf Gavron . . .
___Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain a unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcast nightly on the news, along with a deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the true human toll of the occupation.       MORE . . .        AVAILABLE BARNES AND NOBLE

“I  CLASP  YOUR  HANDS,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I kiss the dust under your shoe
And say: I’ll lay down my life for you,
Grant you the gift of eyesight in my eyes.
The warm love in my heart I give to you,
For the tragedy I live
Is but my share in your larger tragedy.

I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I never stooped in my country
Nor will I ever be humbled.
Orphaned, naked and barefoot
I confronted my oppressors,
Carrying my blood in my palms.
I have never lowered my flags,
And have always tended the grass over my ancestors’ graves.
I call upon you, and clasp your hands!

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.
Tawfik Zayyad (Tawfiq Ziad) was a Palestinian poet, writer, scholar and politician. He was born in Nazareth in 1929 and died on July 5, 1994.   (More. . .)