Category: Jerusalem Heritage

“. . . Descendants of Ole Abe! My voice has become hoarse . . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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triplets
Gazan names triplets ‘Quds’, ‘Assima’ and ‘Falisteen’ which means Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. (Photo: MEMO, Dec. 22, 2017)

❶ Christian leaders say there can never be peace without Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian in Gaza names triplets Jerusalem, Capital and Palestine

  • Background: “Mobile Cartographies and Mobilized Ideologies: The Visual Management of Jerusalem.”  Antipode.

❷ 2 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces during protests along Gaza border
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian Dies From Wounds Suffered A Week Earlier In Gaza
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Israeli forces detain elderly man for owning two air, plastic guns
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Free at last:  a UN without US diplomatic blackmail
❹ POETRY by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ CHRISTIAN  LEADERS  SAY  THERE  CAN  NEVER  BE  PEACE  WITHOUT  JERUSALEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 23, 2017    Christian leaders stressed on Saturday the centrality of Jerusalem to all three monotheistic religions, denouncing the United States for declaring it capital of Israel.
[. . . .] “Those who want peace in Jerusalem should know that power will not bring peace,” said former Latin Patriarch Michel Sabah. “Peace starts with Jerusalem. Power cannot impose unjust peace.”
[. . . .] Attallah Hanna, a Greek Orthodox archbishop, said that the Christians reject the US declaration on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. . . .   Hanna vowed to protect the Christian property in Palestine, “and this way we will defeat (US President Donald) Trump’s project that aims to abolish the Palestinian cause and not only the issue of Jerusalem.”
___Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church said the Christian leaders wrote Trump before he announced his decision on Jerusalem on December 6 urging him not to take any action that would prejudice the status of Jerusalem . . .
___He said that “there cannot be peace in the Middle East without peace in Jerusalem. It is time that our people gain their legitimate right in a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”   MORE . . .  
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  PALESTINIAN  IN  GAZA  NAMES  TRIPLETS  JERUSALEM,  CAPITAL  AND  PALESTINE 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 22, 2017 ― A Palestinian from the besieged Gaza Strip’s southern village of Khan Yunis has named his three newborn triplets “Quds”, “Asima” and “Filisteen” – meaning “Jerusalem”, “Capital” and “Palestine” in Arabic – in protest against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
___Nidal Al-Siqli, 30, told the Anadolu Agency that he chose the names “to emphasise Jerusalem’s Palestinian, Arab and Muslim character”.   MORE . . . 

Hercbergs, Dana and Chaim Noy.
“MOBILE  CARTOGRAPHIES  AND  MOBILIZED  IDEOLOGIES  THE  VISUAL  MANAGEMENT  OF  JERUSALEM.”
ANTIPODE. Vol. 47 no. 4, Sep2015, pp. 942-962.
[. . . .] As the focus of religious and political yearnings throughout the ages, Jerusalem has been an object of changing depictions and gazes. The visual representation of the Old City —where the holy places of the Jewish prayer site of the Western Wall (“Wailing Wall”) and the Muslim Noble Sanctuary (Haram ash-Sharif, including al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock) are adjacently located—is central to today’s political struggles between Israel and the Palestinians.
___In this article we are interested in illustrating a particular turning point that . . . concerns a shift in the spatial and visual regimes of, and perspectives in, Jerusalem; namely from portraying the city for decades via a number of sites, most prominently the dual Western Wall/Dome of the Rock image—to promoting an exclusively Jewish-Israeli city . . .
[. . . .] Recent neoliberal policies augment and dovetail practices of urban ethnocracy in Jerusalem, amplifying social and economic divisions through further processes of spatial separation that are occurring in West Bank settlements and in other Israeli towns . . .  affluent gated urban communities have been cropping in Jerusalem since the 1990s . . .   These developments present a departure from the government-subsidized settlements built since 1967 on confiscated Palestinian land in and around Jerusalem, and a move towards a government–private sector partnership associated with neoliberal regimes and exclusionary forms of development . . . directed respectively at wealthy, diaspora Jewish visitors and/or buyers of properties in Jerusalem. . .
[. . . .]  What we have in this case is a twofold movement consisting of the denial of the Palestinian presence and history of Jerusalem, coupled with appropriation of its architectural, artistic and cultural motifs . . .  A surprising contradiction appears in relation to the traditional Jewish longing for Jerusalem: the contemporary Jewish viewer is still viewing the Old City from the pre-1967 position. This distance strikes us as a final warning against short-sighted attempts to actualize divine plan, the utopia-in-the now of ethnocratic urban planning.   FULL ARTICLE . . . 

❷  2  PALESTINIANS  SHOT  DEAD  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  DURING  PROTESTS  ALONG  GAZA  BORDER
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 22, 2017 ― Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip during clashes along the border fence with Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
___The first Palestinian was identified as 24-year-old Zakariya al-Kafarne, who was killed after being shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces during clashes in eastern Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
[. . . .] Protesters had marched following Friday prayers and protested near the border fence in response to calls from Palestinian factions for a third “Friday of Rage” in protest of US President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this month recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  PALESTINIAN  DIES  FROM  WOUNDS  SUFFERED  A  WEEK  EARLIER  IN  GAZA 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC    
Dec. 23, 2017 ― The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that a Palestinian man died, Saturday, from wounds he suffered a week earlier, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
___The Ministry said the young man, Sharif al-‘Abed Shalashel, 28, suffered a serious injury after the soldiers shot him with live fire, and remained in a critical condition until he succumbed to his wounds.
___He was injured on the same day when the soldiers killed four Palestinians, and wounded at least 367 others, in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  ELDERLY  MAN  FOR  OWNING  TWO  AIR,  PLASTIC  GUNS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Dec. 23, 2017 ― December 22, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Friday detained a 67-year-old Palestinian man from the village of Ya’bad, in Jenin district, for owning an air gun and another gun made of plastic belonging to his grandchild.
___The Detainees Affairs Commission said Mahmoud Hamdan, 67, was detained by Israeli army after a military raid into his home.
___Israeli forces wreaked havoc into Hamdan’s home, destroying its contents and furniture, before detaining him and his son Hadi, 30.     MORE . . . 
❸ Opinion/Analysis: FREE  AT  LAST:  A  UN  WITHOUT  US  DIPLOMATIC  BLACKMAIL 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO   
Dr Daud Abdullah     ..
Dec. 22, 2017 ― Not for the first time, the free world has stood up for truth and justice in Palestine. The General Assembly’s vote against President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem was a victory for the rule of law over the law of the jungle. It now leaves both the US and Israel isolated, disgraced and humiliated.
___Washington’s threat to cut aid to countries that voted not to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an insult to the UN and a vicious assault on the sovereign rights of its members. In their customary delusional manner, Israelis believed the US threat was enough to force compliance. They were mistaken; people around the world are simply tired of their arrogance and unethical conduct.
___As it stands, Trump’s threat is consistent with a long-standing policy of US blackmail and intimidation exerted within the UN to further Israel’s illegal claims. It was no different from the threats issued to impoverished nations to extract the controversial UN Partition Resolution 181 in 1947.
[. . . .] Where does this crushing defeat leave Israel and its mercurial Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu? For sure, Israel will become more isolated among the community of nations. Instead of countries moving their embassies to Jerusalem many will now consider severing or curtailing diplomatic contact with the Zionist state. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has taken the lead by adopting a resolution at its national conference to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office.   MORE . . .  

“THE  UNKNOWN  CONTINENT,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
How do we reach you
Slums of Chicago?
How is the spark to reach you?
How is the fire to be born?
Skyscrapers!
Stacked huts!
Stretch your arms out of the darkness―
For the big banner
Spreads its warmth, its light
Forever
Into the depths of night
And the big banner is
Forever
A sail for the drowning.

How are the storms to reach you
Jazzband Club in New York?
The black man is hungry and fearful
The wolves of the KKK roam the forest
―the current overpowering
And the conscience of the statue shaken
And the heart of night.
The wind is frozen,
And the waves of the sea unmoving?
How is the message to reach you
Deaf Washington,
With the humming of the machine?
In Vietnam you slaughter
And you export
Cokes and medicine to the sad moon!
And you sweep over the blood of victims.
How is the message to reach you?

Descendants of Ole Abe!
My voice has become hoarse
And the wind
Has become tired of my shouts!
Descendants of Old Abe!
Shake the marble of history,
Rise to the sky,
Rise above the band of stupid maggis
And halt ―for
The earth grumbles
Rivers of blood.

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

“. . . merely one expression of the twin processes of ethnic cleansing and Judaization . . .” (Jeff Halper)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
demolition-002
Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian family’s home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Aug.1, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ Israel compels Jerusalemite to demolish his home

  • Background:  “The Policy Of House Demolitions In East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done And To What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ Israeli forces deliver demolition order to occupied East Jerusalem home
❸ Spain joins US in condemning Israel’s expansion of Gilo settlement
❹ Opinion/Analysis:  Israel’s barbarism policy of Judaizing Jerusalem
. . . ❹― (a) Jerusalem simmering over ‘Judaisation’ plan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  COMPELS  JERUSALEMITE  TO  DEMOLISH  HIS  HOME   
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA        
Nov. 13, 2016
Israeli occupation authorities on Sunday forced a Palestinian to demolish two homes of his own in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir, under the pretext of being built without an Israeli-issued permit.
___Mohammad al-Jaabis, owner of the two homes, said Israeli authorities compelled him to demolish his two homes for being “illegally” constructed. He said he has incurred some $91,000 in losses for construction costs and lawyers’ fees.       More . . .  

  • Halper, Jeff. “The Policy Of House Demolitions In East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done And To What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 17.1/2 (2011): 74-82.   Source.  

Israel’s policy . . .  of systematically demolishing Palestinian homes, urban neighborhoods and entire towns and villages goes back to 1948 and continues with a vengeance up to this moment, both within Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The motivation is obvious: It is merely one expression of the twin processes of ethnic cleansing and Judaization, both of those, in turn, being consequences of defining Israel as a “Jewish state” and taking the steps necessary to make it so. The house demolition policy represents the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: denying the Palestinian people the right to remain in the Land of Israel, either as a national collective or as individuals, and their displacement by Jews.
___ Even if Israel cannot force the emigration of all the Palestinians, the effect of these twin processes is evident. . .  the very first act of the occupation was that of home demolition, carried out during the 1967 war, even before the fighting had ended. On June 11 . . .  West Jerusalem mayor Teddy KoUek ordered the destruction of the Arab Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City, situated at the entrance to the Western Wall.
[. . . .]   Since Palestinian residents of Jerusalem cannot acquire permits to build on the 89% of East Jerusalem that they own, some 25,000 housing units are currently lacking in the Palestinian sector. . . . the shortage is artificial and induced, a way to force Palestinians out of the city.
___ Refusal to issue building permits confines Palestinians to small patches of East Jerusalem. In order to give teeth to its hostile zoning practices, the Jerusalem municipality, together with the Ministry of Interior, demolishes “illegal” Palestinian houses. . .  Thus, despite an induced shortage of 25,000 units, the municipality grants only 150-350 permits a year for Arab housing and demolishes 50-100 homes a year. Twenty-two thousand Palestinian housing units have been declared “illegal”; some 15,000 demolition orders are outstanding. According to the Jerusalem municipality itself, 2,000 Palestinian houses have been demolished in East Jerusalem since 1967, none in Israeli West Jerusalem.    [. . . .]

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DELIVER  DEMOLITION  ORDER  TO  OCCUPIED  EAST  JERUSALEM  HOME
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 12, 2016
Israeli forces raided the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Saturday, where they delivered a demolition notice to the home of a local resident.
___Local activist Jamal Amr told Ma’an that armed Israeli forces . . . gave him a summons notice to meet with the municipality as well as a demolition order on his home.
___Amr said that the house was built in 1954, and was legally licensed in 1993 after receiving a “renovating license” from the municipality.
___It remained unclear for what reason Amr was given a demolition order.     More . . .        Related . . .

gilo-001
Picture from the West Bank village of Walajah, near the Bethlehem, shows the Israeli settlement of Gilo, Feb, 6, 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

❸ SPAIN  JOINS  US  IN  CONDEMNING  ISRAEL’S  EXPANSION  OF  GILO  SETTLEMENT 
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 12, 2016
The government of Spain released a statement on Friday joining the United States in condemning Israel’s recent approval of the construction of 181 new housing units in the illegal Gilo settlement in the occupied West Bank.     
[. . . .]    The statement reiterated Spain’s disapproval of Israel’s settlement expansions, and “like the rest of the international community, it considers Israeli settlements on Palestinian Occupied Territories to be illegal under international law.”     More . . .

❹ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   ISRAEL’S  BARBARISM  POLICY  OF  JUDAIZING  JERUSALEM      
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency  
Oct. 27, 2016
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) has pursued policies of killing, arresting and displacing against Palestinian people in Jerusalem.
___Over many years, the IOF has been destroying the Jerusalemite houses for the simple reason that they do not have permits.
___The Jerusalemite have to choose between two options: either they have to demolish their own homes with their own hands, in order to avoid punishment from Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, or the IOF will demolish them and make the Jerusalemite pay high fines plus demolition costs.
___“The Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished my home which was a shelter for 35 members,” the Jerusalemite Issa Jaavrah said while he was standing upon the rubble of his home, noting that the family got homeless.
___“This is our destiny. However, we will withstand on our land and we will build a new home in spite of the all IOF’s strict procedures which aim at expelling us from our own home.”
___”Our . . .  memories and dreams are demolished with the home,” the Jerusalemite aged Fatima Jaavrah gloomily said.     More . . .
  . . . ❹― (A) JERUSALEM  SIMMERING  OVER  ‘JUDAISATION’  PLAN  
Aljazeera
Dalia Hatuqa and Gregg Carlstrom
Oct. 13, 2014
An influx of ideological settlers into East Jerusalem threatens to put an end to the two state solution.
[. . . .]  “The objective, yes, it’s to strengthen the Jewish presence in all areas of East Jerusalem,” said Aryeh King, a member of the Jerusalem city council and right-wing activist who founded an organisation devoted to settling Jews in East Jerusalem. “This way we can stop, or at least delay, Bibi’s idea of dividing the city, and wait for the right political leadership that won’t think about this.”      More . . . 

“. . . Blame me not if I’m a little late . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Arabic Mosaic on Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. (Photo from Palestine Image Bank)
Arabic Mosaic on Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. (Photo from Palestine Image Bank)

❶ Palestinian injured as settlers open fire south of Bethlehem
❷ Israeli vandals torch olive trees, damage 200 vehicles in Nablus
❸ Ashrawi: “Netanyahu’s Speech, a Smokescreen, Cloud Concealing Lies and Manipulation”
❹ Jerusalem’s Palestinian Identity and Intangible Heritage
❺ Opinion/Analysis: In Jerusalem, “Religious War” Claims Cloak Old-Fashioned Colonialism
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  INJURED  AS  SETTLERS  OPEN  FIRE  SOUTH  OF  BETHLEHEM
Oct. 2, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian man was injured on Friday as Jewish settlers opened fire at a major crossroads in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem, Palestinian medics said.
____Walid Khalid Qawwar, 35, from Aida refugee camp was moderately injured after being hit by shrapnel when settlers opened fire in the area.
____Dozens of settlers had gathered at the intersection near a cluster of illegal Israeli settlements south of Bethlehem, witnesses said.
____An Israeli army spokesperson said she was looking into the incident.
More . . .
Background . . . HUNDREDS  OF  ISRAELI  FORCES  SEARCH  NABLUS  AREA  AFTER  SETTLER  SHOOTING.
Oct. 2, 2015

❷ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI  VANDALS  TORCH  OLIVE  TREES,  DAMAGE  200  VEHICLES  IN  NABLUS
Oct. 2, 2015
NABLUS, (PIC)– Israeli settlers intensified Friday their attacks and violations against Palestinian citizens and properties in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in the wake of yesterday’s shooting attack in which an Israeli officer and his wife were shot dead.
___A group of settlers torched on Friday morning Palestinian-owned olive trees near Burin town south of the city, eyewitnesses affirmed.
___In a similar attack, Israeli vandals stoned the Palestinian vehicles passing near al-Laban village located between Nablus and Ramallah.
More . . . 

❸ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ASHRAWI:  “NETANYAHU’S  SPEECH,  A  SMOKESCREEN,  CLOUD  CONCEALING  LIES  AND  MANIPULATION”
Oct. 2, 2015
Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, stated Friday that the UN speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is deceptive, manipulative, and based on lies.
____In a press release, Dr. Ashrawi said Netanyahu’s attempts to present Israel as the victim, and casting the blame solely on the Palestinians, only shows his bankrupt social, moral, and legal policies.
More . . .

❹ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
JERUSALEM’S  PALESTINIAN  IDENTITY  AND  INTANGIBLE  HERITAGE
Ali Qleibo
Oct. 2015
(Dr. Ali Qleibo is an anthropologist, author, and artist. A specialist in the social history of Jerusalem and Palestinian peasant culture, he lectures at Al-Quds University.)
[. . . . . ]
Throughout time Al-Quds al-Sharif [Arabic for Jerusalem] has stood out as the Holy City. The stones of Jerusalem’s edifices are weighed down with religious symbolism. From any rooftop, when I turn my head around, I feel submerged by Christian and Muslim references that shape our identity.
____To Palestinians, the Jerusalemite is enigmatic, projecting an image that is inconsistent with his/her feelings. Cosmopolitan and at ease in the world at large, we nevertheless remain staunch conservatives at heart.
More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis:
JADALIYYA, THE ARAB STUDIES INSTITUTE
IN  JERUSALEM,  “RELIGIOUS  WAR”  CLAIMS  CLOAK  OLD-FASHIONED  COLONIALISM
by Nur Arafeh
Sep 23 2015
The escalating clashes between Israeli settlers and Jerusalemite Palestinians are the harbingers of a major eruption with incalculable consequences. Immediately billed as a “religious war” by the media and Israeli right wingers, they are in fact the outcome of longstanding Israeli plans to Judaize the city and empty it of its Palestinian inhabitants. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Nur Arafeh analyzes the major changes that Israel has illegally imposed on Jerusalem and addresses the Palestine Liberation Organization/Palestinian Authority’s effective abandonment of the population to fend for itself. She concludes with policy recommendations to the PLO/PA, Palestinian academics and analysts, and the international solidarity movement.
More . . .

“VICTIM  NO.  18,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Once the olive grove was green.
It was, and the sky
A grove of blue. It was my love.
What changed that evening?

At the bend in the track they stopped the lorry of workers.
So calm they were.
They turned us round towards the east. So calm they were.

Once my heart was a blue bird, O nest of my beloved.
The handkerchiefs I had of yours were all white. They were, my love.
What stained them that evening?
I do not understand at all, my love.

At the bend in the track they stopped the lorry of workers.
So calm they were.
They turned us round towards the east. So calm they were.

From me you’ll have evening,
Yours the shade and yours the light,
A wedding-ring and all you want,
And an orchard of trees, of olive and fig.
And as on every night I’ll come to you.
In the dream I’ll enter by the window and throw you jasmine.
Blame me not if I’m a little late:
They stopped me.
The olive grove was always green.
It was, my love.
Fifty victims
Turned it at sunset into
A crimson pond, Fifty victims.
Beloved, do not blame me.
They killed me. They killed me.
They killed me.

(Fifty Arab villagers, including many children and women, were stopped and machine gunned by Israeli soldiers at Kafr Qassem on October 29, 1956. More . . . )

Darwish, Mahmoud. THE  MUSIC  OF  HUMAN  FLESH. Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1980. Web. http://poetsfrompalestine.blogspot.com/2010/01/victim-number-18.html 

Israeli riot police keep position at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators following Friday prayers on March 8, 2013. Palestinians enraged by reports that an Israeli policeman mishandled a Koran battled riot officers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound with stones and petrol bombs, police and witnesses said. (Photo by Mahfouz Abu Turk)
Israeli riot police keep position at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators following Friday prayers on March 8, 2013. Palestinians enraged by reports that an Israeli policeman mishandled a Koran battled riot officers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound with stones and petrol bombs, police and witnesses said. (Photo by Mahfouz Abu Turk)