Category: Kafr Qaddam

“. . . My friend / You cannot ask me to leave . . .” (Fouzi el-Asmar)

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SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|    TENSIONS  EASE  IN  GAZA,  ALLOWING  MONEY  AND  FUEL  TO  ROLL  IN
For months, Israel has tried to quell Gaza’s border protests through force. Now Israel is taking a different approach, easing a blockade and allowing millions of dollars in aid to flow into Gaza, the impoverished enclave controlled by Hamas, its bitter foe.    ___The aim of the change, in a plan mediated by Egypt and with money supplied by Qatar, is to provide much-needed relief for Gaza, restore calm on the Israeli side of the border and avert another war.    ___The clashes along Gaza’s border have caused misery on both sides: At least 170 Palestinians have been killed, and thousands of acres of Israeli farmland have been torched.    ___But the change in Israel’s approach presents risks for leaders on both sides, pressures that could doom even this limited warming of relations.    More . . .
|    QATARI  CASH  CAN’T  STOP  ISRAELI  BULLETS
One Palestinian was killed during the 33rd consecutive Friday of mass protests along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip.    [. . . .] Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza . . . said his faction was reaching “understandings” with Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations to lift the blockade.    [. . . .] Qatari officials brought in $15 million in cash to Gaza in recent days, disbursing it to some 30,000 civil servants hired by Hamas since 2007 whose salaries hadn’t been paid in months. The money will also be used to create 10,000 jobs in Gaza, where unemployment is currently nearly 55 percent – believed to be among the highest rates in the world, if not the highest.    ___The Qatari funding is the first installation of a total of $90 million pledged by the Gulf country for Gaza to be paid over the following six months.    More . . .
|    ISRAEL’S  NEW  DECISION  TO  BAN  DEALING  WITH  LARGE  CASH  A  NEW  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  PALESTINIAN  ECONOMY    In few weeks, the Israeli decision barring dealing with large cash in commercial transactions that exceed 11,000 Israeli shekels ($3000) will get into force, which may have big and immediate repercussions on the Palestinian economy.    [. . . .] The Israeli decision prohibits dealing with cash in commercial transactions. . .  replacing it with electronic means of payment . . .   [. . . .] With the weakness of modern means of payment in Palestine, in light of large daily transactions in Israeli currency, there is fear of large inflow of shekel into the Palestinian market, which already suffers from a large surplus of this currency.    More . . .
|    PALESTINIANS  CONDEMN  HOLLYWOOD  STARS’  FUNDRAISER  FOR  ISRAELI  ARMY
Palestinian people condemned several Hollywood starts who celebrated and raised millions of dollars to fund the Israeli army last week.    ___The Middle East Eye London-based news outlet reported that the gala was organized on November 1st, by Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, adding that Hollywood stars such as  Ashton  Kutcher,  Gerard  Butler  and  Andy  Garcia attended and celebrated the event.    [. . . .] The event was met with condemnation in Palestine and by Palestinians on social media.    ___One of the organizers of  “The Great March of Return,“  which takes place every Friday at the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, Ahmad Abu Artema, told Middle East Eye that “The Israeli army will use these funds to buy more bullets and more bombs, only to kill more civilians.”    More . . .
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  FORCES  INJURE  AT  LEAST  37  PALESTINIANS  AT  EASTERN  GAZA  BORDERS
. . . . Related  PALESTINIAN  SUCCUMBS  TO  WOUNDS  SUSTAINED  IN  GAZA  PROTESTS
. . . . Related  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  INJURED  IN  KAFR  QADDUM  MARCH

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|    JERUSALEM  CHURCHES  ACHIEVE  NEW  VICTORY  AGAINST  ISRAEL  GOVERNMENT  (VIDEO) 
The Council of Jerusalem Churches has achieved a new victory against the Israeli government, with an “unprecedented number of US churches condemn[ing] Israeli attempts to confiscate church lands,” a Council statement – a copy of which was sent to MEMO – said on Friday.     ___The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, who heads the Council of Jerusalem Churches has toured the USA and EU countries to lobby against an Israeli law – known as the “Properties Bill” – which was recently advanced in the Knesset to target church property.    More . . .
|    ‘LIVING  STONES’  OF  AL  AHLI  ARAB  HOSPITAL  BUILD  A  MINISTRY  OF  HEALING,  WITNESS  IN  GAZA
By  Mary  Frances  Schjonberg,  Posted  Mar.  27,  2018
(Note: reposted to show the people of the US continue relationship with Gazans despite the actions of the US government)
Healing comes in many forms, and Al Ahli Arab Hospital’s medical ministry . . .  provide[s] the people of the Gaza Strip with an example of the love of Christ in action.    ___That example is set in an area whose Christian population is dwindling. Suhaila Tarazi, the hospital’s director general, estimates there are no more than 900 Christians among Gaza’s 2 million residents. Ten years ago, the number of Christians stood at 3,000 and the total population was around 1.5 million.    ___Tarazi told Bishop Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, United States. . . that the remaining Christians are “the living stones” of Gaza, and so too are institutions like Al Ahli Arab Hospital, which is one of more than 30 social service ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.   More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“TO  A  JEWISH  FRIEND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL-ASMAR
Don’t ask me
the impossible
Don’t’ ask me
to hunt stars,
walk to the sun.
Don’t ask me
to empty the sea
to erase the day’s light
I am nothing but a man.

Don’t ask me
to abandon my eyes, my love,
the memory of my childhood.

I was raised
under an olive tree,
I ate the figs
of my orchard
drank wine from
the sloping vineyards
Tasted Cactus fruit
in the valleys
more, more.

The nightingale has sung
in my ears
The free winds of fields and cities
always tickled me
My friend
You cannot ask me
to leave my own country.  (March 1971)

El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON.  Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.  Available from Abe Books.

 

“. . . to locate Palestinians within multiple spaces of dispossession and oppression, imprisonment and separation continually remade . . .” (Annie Pfingst)

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bilin
Israeli forces disperse weekly march against Israeli occupation in Bilin, Nov. 25, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ . Funerals held for slain Palestinians draw large crowds, spark clashes in Beit Ummar

  • Background: “Militarised Violence In The Service Of State-Imposed Emergencies Over Palestine And Kenya.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

❷ . Israeli forces shoot tear gas, rubber bullets at protesters in Kafr Qaddum
❸ . Israeli forces suppress weekly Bilin march, dozens suffer tear gas inhalation
❹ . Opinion/Analysis:  Legacies of State Violence and Black-Palestinian Solidarity
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ . FUNERALS  HELD  FOR  SLAIN  PALESTINIANS  DRAW  LARGE  CROWDS,  SPARK  CLASHES  IN  BEIT  UMMAR     
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 17, 2016       After Israel returned on Friday the bodies of seven Palestinians that were killed by Israeli forces in recent months, funerals held in their hometowns across the occupied West Bank drew large crowds, with clashes erupting in Beit Ummar during the Saturday morning funeral for 15-year-year old Khalid Bahr.
[. . . .]  Israeli forces killed the 15-year-old boy on Oct. 20 in the village, when Israeli authorities claimed a soldier shot Khalid for throwing rocks at Israeli forces. An internal Israeli army investigation later revealed that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not at risk when Khalid was killed.
___Following Khalid’s funeral, clashes erupted between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces at the entrance of Beit Ummar.     More . . .  

  • Pfingst, Annie. “Militarised Violence In The Service Of State-Imposed Emergencies Over Palestine And Kenya.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 6.3 (2014): 6-37.   ARTICLE.

[. . . .] Legal provisions based on racial separation/segregation . . .   continue to be applied by Israel over Palestine. Having detained and deported Arabs during the Arab uprising of the 1930s . . . .  on the 21st May 1948, [Israel] declared a state of emergency over Palestine, only days after the declaration of the establishment of the Israeli state on the lands, villages and cities lost to Palestinians through the war of 1948, al Nakba. The state of emergency – promulgated for the defence of the state, the maintenance of public order, supplies and essential services, and the suppression of mutiny, rebellion, or riot – has been renewed in the Israeli Knesset every year since 1948. In 2012 the Supreme Court [ruled that] that (Israel) ‘is not a normal country in that its existential threats have yet to be quelled.’
[. . . .]  The . . .  practices enabled through Emergency regulations are intensified forms of instrumentalised colonial governmentality and violence, part of the structure of settler colonialism – of settlement, dispossession, repression, expulsion and containment . . .  unquestioned by either the colonial administration or the settlement project. The state of emergency as an oppressive regime is characterised by surveillance, arrest and detention, screening, secret evidence and torture, and the workings of secret services and militarised violence – characteristics evident in Israeli daily practices over Palestine . . .
[. . . .]  The British Mandate over Palestine introduced land mapping, registration and appropriation; laws on citizenship and collective and individual rights; mapped state borders and movement; and constructed settlement practices and militarized landscapes of control. The assemblage of Israel over Palestine is always in flux, continuing to locate Palestinians within multiple spaces of dispossession and oppression, imprisonment and separation continually remade, constantly assembling spatial arrangements across fluid zones of militarized control. Spatial disintegration and fragmentation . . .   assemble landscapes of emergency and re-assemble multiple geographies of resistance. Every location becomes the site for the confrontation between the agency of resistance and the agents of sovereign power and control [. . . .]

❷ . ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT  TEAR  GAS,  RUBBER  BULLETS  AT  PROTESTERS  IN  KAFR  QADDUM
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 16, 2016       Israeli forces Friday suppressed a weekly march in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the occupied West Bank district of Qalqiliya, shooting rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at tens of Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli peace activists.
___Popular resistance coordinator Murad Shteiwi told Ma’an that Israeli forces attacked the protesters and fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the crowd, causing many to suffer tear gas inhalation.
___Shteiwi added that the protest was launched with wide participation of the village’s local residents and internationals, despite the cold weather and rain on Friday.  More . . .

kafr-qaddum-demo
People of Kafr Qaddum gathering for the weekly demonstration. Jun. 29, 2012. (Photo: T. Mayr)

❸ . ISRAELI  FORCES  SUPPRESS  WEEKLY  BILIN  MARCH,  DOZENS  SUFFER  TEAR  GAS  INHALATION 
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 16, 2016       Israeli forces Friday suppressed a weekly march in the village of Bilin in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, as dozens of demonstrators suffered tear gas inhalation and Israeli forces briefly held an Australian solidarity protester.      ___The march, which was organized by the popular committee against the separation wall, set off after Friday prayers, as protesters marched through the village, chanting slogans calling for Palestinians to support Jerusalem, urged for the immediate release of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Farah, and the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the illegal Amona settler outpost.       More . . .           Related . . .

❹ Opinion/Analysis:  LEGACIES  OF  STATE  VIOLENCE  AND  BLACK-PALESTINIAN  SOLIDARITY   
The Jerusalem Fund. 
Jada Bullen and Marie Helmy
Dec. 16, 2016   In the wake of Trump’s victory, the world waits with trepidation for what 2017 will bring to U.S. domestic and foreign policy. The future is uncertain for Palestinians and Black Americans, whose parallel struggles have become increasingly highlighted in the last few years.
___Four weeks into Israel’s attacks on Gaza in 2014, protesters in Ferguson held signs claiming solidarity with Palestine. In turn, Palestinians took to Twitter to advise Ferguson protesters on how to deal with tear gas, underscoring the similarities in their struggles. This past August, the Movement 4 Black Lives published a platform stance that calls for the U.S. to cut military expenditures in Israel and explicitly demands divestment from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such acts of solidarity have made vital inroads. But now with Trump at the helm, we have yet to see how this will deter the progress we have collectively made in altering the discourse.        More . . .

“. . . Kill Palestinians to get closer to God . . .” (Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu)

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rabbi
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Safed and a member of the council of the Chief Rabbinate (Photo: T.O.T. Private Consulting, December 27, 2013)

❶ ‘Kill Palestinians to get closer to God,’ Israeli rabbi says

  • background from Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies

❷ Israeli forces injure 15 Palestinians in Dura with live fire, rubber bullets
❸ Police allowed to shoot stone throwers: Botched redaction reveals rules of engagement

  • background from Journal Of Community Psychology

❹ “We’ll never give up”
❺ POETRY by  Dalia Taha
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ‘KILL  PALESTINIANS  TO  GET  CLOSER  TO  GOD,’  ISRAELI  RABBI  SAYS
Days of Palestine
July 5, 2016
An Israeli Jewish rabbi described on Sunday the Palestinians as “monsters,” calling for slaughtering them to “get closer to God.”
___Chief Rabbi of Safed and Member of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate Council Shmuel Eliyahu said: “The Palestinians are monsters and killing them is a religious duty.”     MORE . . .

from Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies
. . . .  The restraint policy regarding inciting rabbis was sustained up until 2006. Then the Legal Advisor to the Government, Menachem Mazuz, ordered pressing charges against Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of the city of Safed.
[. . . .]  Eliyahu published statements on the internet site Moriah. . .  saying that the members of the Jewish terror underground that was operating during the 1980s and that had killed Arabs were “completely righteous.” He also said, “I don’t think they are lowly murderers. Heaven forbid! They have already paid their price to society.”
[. . . .]  Rabbi Eliyahu made a plea bargain with the state to avoid trial on incitement to racism charges, and promised to make a public announcement refuting a number of previous slanderous statements made against Israeli Arabs.
[. . . .] Rabbi Eliyahu had no reason to change his views. . . .  In 2008, Rabbi Eliyahu called on the government to carry out “state-sanctioned revenge” against Arabs in order to, in his words, “restore Israel’s deterrence.” . . . . Rabbi Eliyahu wrote: “It’s time to call the child by its name: Revenge, revenge, revenge. We mustn’t forget. We have to take horrible revenge . . .”
[. . . .] The Eliyahu saga continues at the time of this writing [2013]. In November of 2011, Legal Advisor to the Government Yehuda Weinstein ordered the opening of a criminal investigation against Rabbi Eliyahu as he continues with his racist and inflammatory diatribes against Arabs.

  • Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. “Religious, Hateful, And Racist Speech In Israel.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies 31.2 (2013): 95-117.    ARTICLE.

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  INJURE  15  PALESTINIANS  IN  DURA  WITH  LIVE  FIRE,  RUBBER  BULLETS
Ma’an New Agency
July 6, 2016
Five Palestinians were injured with live fire and ten others with rubber-coated steel bullets, while several more suffered from tear gas inhalation on Wednesday as Israeli forces raided the city of Dura after midnight in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron.
___Sources at the Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an that ambulances carried dozens of Palestinians to hospitals in the Hebron area who suffered from light to medium injuries, with one sustaining critical injuries.      MORE . . .   

1-Kafr Qaddum
Escalating violence at Friday Demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, 10th April 2015 (Photo: International Solidarity Movement)

❸ POLICE  ALLOWED  TO  SHOOT  STONE  THROWERS:  BOTCHED  REDACTION  REVEALS  RULES  OF  ENGAGEMENT
+972 Magazine
July 5, 2016
Israel Police revealed its live-fire rules of engagement Monday in response to a court petition filed by civil rights group Adalah. Parts of the document were redacted with a black marker, but was done so sloppily that large parts of the redaction is still readable.
___The Israel Police’s rules of engagement and escalation of force regulations, which were secret until Monday, were written and implemented last December, coinciding with increased violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The document dictates when a police officer can draw his or her weapon, when he or she can fire it, and in what manner.  MORE . . .

From Journal Of Community Psychology
This is a classic “limit situation.” As noted, there is resistance, and although this has in part been armed, it is overwhelmingly nonviolent. Most Palestinians have never handled a gun. The two intifadas (uprisings) used economic boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience as well as the more widely reported violent tactics. However, in certain areas there is a celebration of martyrs of the struggle that emphasizes military prowess, for example, with photomontages that add heavy calibre weapons to their photographs. At the same time there is a rich use of other imagery, for example, the keys that symbolize return, and the murals depicting villages from which people were expelled or fled. One consequence is the overwhelming definition of Palestinian identity in terms of the collective struggle. Although this has its valuable side, there is also a cost in terms of positive personal narratives. . .
[. . . .]   . . . there is no real boundary between political and community psychology. The political is ultimately about community and the community is itself political, both internally and in its external relations that are reflected in the social psychological life of its members. Community psychological praxis is different in different contexts, but is always concerned with questions of power, belonging, amelioration, and transformation.

  • Burton, Mark. “Community Psychology Under Colonial Occupation: The Case Of Palestine.” Journal Of Community Psychology 43.1 (2015): 119-123.  SOURCE.

❹ “WE’LL NEVER GIVE UP”
The Electronic Intifada
Patricia de Blas
1 July 2016
“We love our land and we will fight.”
___So reads a mural painted on a wall in Kafr Qaddum, a Palestinian village in the northern occupied West Bank.
___The slogan, adorned with butterflies in the color of the Palestinian flag flying over a barbed wire fence, is the backdrop to the regular demonstrations against the Israeli occupation held in the village since July 2011.
___For five years now, villagers have protested every week, demanding access to the main road leading to the city of Nablus and other nearby towns.
___The Israeli military closed that road in 2003 during the height of the second intifada under the pretext of providing security to the approximately 4,000 settlers living in nearby Kedumim.     MORE . . . 

“FACE,” BY DALIA TAHA
A sky fell into
the braid
of the little girl who was killed.
Her face
is a wind in the shadows
of the garden,
blowing without colour
or blushing
when the air rushes through.

As if she knew,
when the jackals emerged
from her shadow and the river widened
in the disappointment
of whiteness.

As if she knew, when the sparrows
ate her eyes
and the sidewalk walked
in her blood.

The woman treads on dead
jasmine, searching
the minutes
for her hand.
She hides half her face,
and the air is filled with
the fingers of nothingness.

She pokes a hole in the poem
so the sidewalks can
wander into it.

The little girl’s hand withers and her blood
slumbers in
the lake.
When God passed over
her name,
she buried her hands in the heights of the jasmine
and covered her nakedness
with the corpses of the invaders.
―Translated by Allison Blecker

From Banipal 45: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature. Winter 2012. WWW.banipal.co.uk
Dalia Taha is a Palestinian poet and playwright. She was born in Berlin 1986 but grew up in Ramallah-Palestine. Her first play “Keffiyeh/Made in China” was produced by the Flemish Royal Theater [and] was premiered in Brussels in 2012, then brought to Palestine where it toured 7 Palestinian cities across the west bank.  (More. . .)
An Interview with Dalia Taha

“. . . gradually absolving itself of its duty to act within international law . . .” (Yesh Din)

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1-repression
Israeli forces repressing march in Kafr Qaddum. (Photo: Ma’an Photos, Feb. 26, 2016)

❶ Dozens wounded as Israeli forces repress weekly Palestinian marches
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israeli forces assault, detain human rights lawyer in Hebron
❷ IOF confiscates Bedouin [school] tents east of Jerusalem [again]
❸ Why donor countries are giving less to the Palestinians
❹ Racial segregation as a constant policy in Israel
❺ Opinion/Analysis: SHHHHHHHHH,  WE’RE  ANNEXING
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
DOZENS  WOUNDED  AS  ISRAELI  FORCES  REPRESS  WEEKLY  PALESTINIAN  MARCHES
Feb. 26, 2016
Dozens of Palestinians were wounded across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday as Israeli forces repressed weekly demonstrations against the ongoing military occupation.     More . . . 
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  ASSAULT,  DETAIN  HUMAN  RIGHTS  LAWYER  IN  HEBRON
Feb. 26, 201
Israeli forces on Friday detained a director for the Independent Commission for Human Rights during a peaceful protest marking the 22nd anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre.
___The ICHR said in a statement that Israeli forces assaulted then detained Farid al-Atrash, a lawyer, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
___The organization called the violence used against al-Atrash “a crime.”    More . . .
❷ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
IOF  CONFISCATES  BEDOUIN  [school]  TENTS  EAST  OF  JERUSALEM  [again]
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided Friday afternoon Abu Nawar Bedouin hamlet, east of Jerusalem, and confiscated two tents used for teaching children of Bedouins in the area. The representative of Abu Nawar hamlet, Abu Imad Jahalin, told Quds Press that the occupation troops confiscated two tents which were used as classrooms for Palestinian students of the region, to replace the caravans which were confiscated by the IOF earlier on Sunday.     More . . .

1-assault lawyer
Israeli forces assault then detain Farid al-Atrash, a lawyer, in Hebron. Independent Commission for Human Rights. (Photo: Ma’an Photos, Feb. 26, 2016)

❸ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
WHY  DONOR  COUNTRIES  ARE  GIVING  LESS  TO  THE  PALESTINIANS
Adnan Abu Amer
Feb. 24, 2016
When the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 pursuant to the 1993 Oslo Accord, the international community undertook to provide it with financial and economic support, amounting to $17 billion since its establishment until today. . . .
___ However, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah announced Feb. 16 that in 2015, the PA received half the usual aid pledged by donor countries. . . .
___A European diplomat visiting Gaza told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The EU may cease its financial aid to the PA in light of the worsening political situation between the Palestinians and Israelis and the lack of a negotiated political process between them.      More . . .
❹ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
RACIAL  SEGREGATION  AS  A  CONSTANT  POLICY  IN  ISRAEL
Majed Al-Sheikh
Feb. 26, 2016
During its most recent conference, the Israeli Labour Party revived some of the features of what it called the “Compromise Solution”, which it has been promoting since the 1990s . . . . The Labour Party revived these ideas in its decision to prevent a “one-state solution” and achieve its “two-state” vision by adopting what it called the “Separation Plan” . . . . hand over a number of areas in the West Bank and some neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, in addition to completing the construction of another separation wall around the settlement blocs in the West Bank.      More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 BLOG
SHHHHHHHHH,  WE’RE  ANNEXING
Feb. 26, 2016
Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz
Last week Yesh Din published its position paper, “From Occupation to Annexation,” which deals with the way the Israeli government is implementing the conclusions of the Levy Commission Report without any public debate or even an official government decision – an process in which is dragging Israel into de facto annexation of the West Bank, without granting the annexed people their rights.      More . . .

“THE  THUNDERBIRD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

It is bound to come,
To come with the sun;
Its face deformed by the dust of books.
It is bound to come,
After the wind has committed suicide in my voice,
Something whose wonders have no bounds;
Something called in the songs:
The thunderbird.
It is bound to come;
For we have reached it,
We have reached the summit of death.

―Translated by Dr. Mahmud Hassan of Alexandria University.

From: A  LOVER  FROM  PALESTINE  AND  OTHER  POEMS:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  PALESTINIAN  POETRY. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.   Available from Amazon.
About Samih Al-Qasim

“. . . my right to behold the sun To demolish the tent and banishment . . .” (Fouzi El Azmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Caption: A man kisses the forehead of Naser al-Deen Allan, the father of Mohammed Allan, following news from Allan's lawyer regarding the suspension of his detention, at the family home in the West Bank city of Nablus on August 19, 2015. (Agence France-Presse/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
A man kisses the forehead of Naser al-Deen Allan, the father of Mohammed Allan, following news from Allan’s lawyer regarding the suspension of his detention, at the family home in the West Bank city of Nablus on August 19, 2015. (Agence France-Presse/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

❶ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  DETAINED  BY  ISRAEL  ENDS  2-MONTH  HUNGER  STRIKE
Agence France-Presse
Aug. 20, 2015
ASHKELON, Israel ― Palestinian detainee Muhammad Allan ended a two-month hunger strike Thursday that had put his life at risk and sparked intense debate over his detention without trial by Israeli authorities, his lawyer said.
____”Muhammad Allan regained consciousness and is not on hunger strike,” Jamil al-Khatib told journalists of his 31-year-old client, after Israel’s top court late Wednesday temporarily lifted his detention without trial.
____Khatib spoke after visiting Allan in hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and said his health was improving, though he remained bedridden.
____He was receiving vitamins and minerals intravenously.
____”He is in a good health condition and can communicate with others,” Khatib said.
More. . .

❷ From: PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
EU  WELCOMES  UNRWA’S  REOPENING  OF  SCHOOL  YEAR
August 20, 2015
BRUSSELS, ― The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Wednesday declared that schools are set to re-open for Palestinian children and refugees in neighboring countries in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria in the coming weeks.
____In a joint press statement, the EU said this positive and encouraging news has been made possible because of the European Union’s support, as the largest donor to UNRWA, as well as the important contributions from other partners and donor countries.
[. . . .]
____With its Member States, the EU remains the largest donor to UNRWA. EU overall funding in 2014 accounted for almost 40% of the total support to UNRWA. Since the year 2000, the EU has provided over €1.6 billion in support of UNRWA’s work.
More . . . 
Related . . .

UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl visiting the Abu Tue’ma school in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on 14 September 2014, to celebrate the start of the new school year. Photo: UNRWA/Shareef Sarhan
UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl visiting the Abu Tue’ma school in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on 14 September 2014, to celebrate the start of the new school year. Photo: UNRWA/Shareef Sarhan

❸ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  2  CHILDREN  FROM  KAFR  QADDUM
August 20, 2015
QALQILIYA ― Israeli forces detained five Palestinians from the occupied West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum early Thursday, including two children, a local official said.
____Israeli forces raided the town early in the morning and detained three residents. The forces also delivered notices ordering two Palestinian children in the town to meet with Israeli police in the illegal Ariel settlement, coordinator of a local popular committee Murad Ishteiwi said.
____Abdullah Jamil and Subhi Mansour were then interrogated and detained by Israeli police for allegedly taking part in the town’s weekly march, Ishteiwi added.
[. . . .]
____Residents of Kafr Qaddum have carried out weekly demonstrations for four years, often calling for the reopening of a village entrance which has been closed 13 years and is the main route to the nearby city of Nablus, an economic stronghold in the area.
More. . .

❹ From: THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  THREATENS  DEMOLITION  OF  MOSQUE  IN  SILWAN
August 20, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM ― The Israeli municipal staff in Occupied Jerusalem notified on Thursday the demolition of the al-Qaaqaa Mosque, in Jerusalem’s town of Silwan, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
____Activist Fakhri Abu Diab said Israel has pursued a policy of arbitrary demolitions in an attempt to mar the life of Palestinian Jerusalemites and force them out of occupied Jerusalem so as to set the stage for settlement expansion particularly around the Old City and the holy al-Aqsa Mosque.
____He said demolitions make part of Israeli intents to Judaize the city and wipe out its typically Islamic character.
____Member of the Mosque’s supervision personnel, Sheikh Hani Abu Tayeh, said the Israeli municipal crews, escorted by police officers, ordered the evacuation of the holy site within no more than a week’s time.
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❺ Opinion
From: MONDOWEISS
END  OF  LOCKSTEP  US  JEWISH  SUPPORT  FOR  ISRAEL  IS  A  TRIUMPH  NOT  A  TRAGEDY
Philip Weiss
August 19, 2015
It’s all over but the shouting. Politico says that Republicans might not even have the 60 votes needed to get cloture and end a Democratic filibuster that would prevent passage of a disapproval bill of the Iran deal.
Indeed, the most pressing question at this point is whether they can even get the 60 votes in opposition that are needed to break a filibuster and get a disapproval resolution to Obama’s desk. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell himself has all but said overriding a veto isn’t going to happen as Congress prepares to vote on the deal when it returns from its month long recess in September.
____This is complete tea-leaf reading, but here are the last three quotes on Senator Cory Booker’s Facebook page. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough, says FDR. And Constant kindness can accomplish much, Schweitzer.
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From POLITCO . . .

“THE  WAY,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  AZMAR
I shall not despair;
Whether my way leads to a jail,
under the sun
or in exile
I shall not despair.

It is my right to behold the sun
To demolish the tent and banishment
To eat the fruit of the olive
To water the vineyards
with music
To sing of Love
in Jaffa, in Haifa
To sow the fertile land
with new seeds
It is my right.

Let my way
be the reaching of one hand to another
That a tower of dreams be built

This is my way
And if the last price to pay
is my sight
my life
I shall
but will not give up
my way.

From: El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON. Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
Available from Amazon
About Fouzi El Azmar

Caption: Italian group of women and Kafr Qaddum protesters asking for the opening of the Kafr Qaddum village road. Weekly demonstration, May 1, 2015. ISM photo.
Italian group of women and Kafr Qaddum protesters asking for the opening of the Kafr Qaddum village road. Weekly demonstration, May 1, 2015. ISM photo.