Category: Operation Protective Edge

“. . . the day is impudent and selfish. . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Gaza4
Palestinian children at the Great Return March, near  Gaza City, April 10, 2018. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY 
|  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENT  EXPANSION  UNDERWAY  AT  COST  OF  A  NORTHERN  WEST  BANK  VILLAGE
The Israeli army razed land in Dhar al-Maleh village, southwest of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, in order to expand an illegal Jewish settlement, the village’s head of council Ahmad Khatib said on Tuesday.    ___He told WAFA that bulldozers started to work on 120 dunums of the village land and in the process destroyed a paved road as the military was working on expanding the illegal settlement of Shaked, built on expropriated village land.     More . . .
~~  Israel  plans  new  settlement  units  in  Bethlehem    More . . .
~~  Israeli  settlements  threaten  to  engulf  West  Bank  communities    More . . .
|  QATAR  DEAL  EXPECTED  TO  BOOST  PALESTINIAN  TRADE
Qatar and Palestine are working to boost their bilateral trade, taking steps that one expert says will double their exchange over five years.    ___The Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Palestine Trade Center (PalTrade) to increase partnership efforts between the two countries. During a Dec. 12 meeting in Doha that was also attended by Palestinian Ambassador to Qatar Amir Ghannam as well as Qatari and Palestinian businesspeople, the two sides agreed to allow nine Palestinian food and agriculture companies to export their products to the Qatari market.    More . . .
~~  Palestinian  Poverty  Level  Almost  Double  Israel  Average    More . . .
|   EIGHT  PALESTINIANS  KIDNAPPED  BY  IOF  IN  W.  BANK
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Tuesday kidnapped at least eight Palestinian citizens during campaigns in the West Bank.    ___The Israeli army claimed in a statement that its forces arrested eight wanted Palestinians overnight in the West Bank.    ___According to local sources, the IOF kidnapped a number of citizens in Beit Ummar town. . .    More . . .
~~  Israeli  navy  kidnaps  two  fishermen  in  Gaza  waters    More . . .
~~  Israeli  army  opens  fire  at  Palestinians  south  of  besieged  Gaza    More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION
|  THE  GRASSROOTS  MOVEMENTS  IN  ISRAEL-PALESTINE  THAT  WON  2018
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
+972 Magazine’s story of the year for 2018 is the protest movements that managed to beat the odds by forcing governments to revisit and even change their policies. The story of African refugees stopping their deportation from Israel, and Gazans using popular protests to make sure the world doesn’t forget about them.   ___The global rise of nationalist and right-wing governments has not been particularly good for progressive movements over the past year. But two grassroots movements in Israel and Palestine, respectively, managed to push back against oppressive policies and, at least temporarily, achieve real victories on the ground. These stories are not only impressive, against-the-odds wins — they are also a reminder that the work of organizers and activists on the ground does stand a chance facing down governments, armies, and immensely powerful economic interests.   More . . .
|  THE  UN’S  VISION  OF  ‘PEACE’  FOR  PALESTINE  EXCLUDES  ORDINARY  PALESTINIANS
Ramona Wadi
The UN is now adamant that the Palestinian Authority should return to govern the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge, this hypothesis was raised by the US and has seldom been questioned, ostensibly due to other pressing factors such as delivering the necessary humanitarian aid to displaced and injured Palestinians in the besieged enclave.    ___Since the Palestinian cause has become fragmented into separate issues to prevent national unity, the PA — through decisions taken by its leader Mahmoud Abbas — has slowly imposed its own sanctions on Gaza, bizarrely in the name of unity. Ths facade was dropped swiftly, though, to reveal the real reason for the sanctions; the Fatah-led PA wants to force Hamas to relinquish its political power in the enclave. Hamas, remember, won the last Palestinian elections in 2006, but has never been allowed to govern both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.     More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY

Excerpt from “MIDNIGHT,”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI

The new day does not ask your permission to enter,
it does not ask if you are ready to receive it.
The day is impudent and selfish,
it insists on arriving every day.
You hear dawn climbing the stairs
before it breaks into your house,
the same way you hear them coming to arrest you
before they break down the door,
before you rub your eyes,
before you’re asked to have a cup of coffee
with the hyena
with the gold tooth
and heavy makeup.

As for the birds,
don’t they know that this is not the time for singing?
Here they are, singing
as usual,
twittering melodies you do not understand.
May be they echo the refrain:
nothing equals
one more hour with you.

From: Barghouti, Mourid. MIDNIGHT  AND  OTHER  POEMS. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.

“. . . what else can the light of heaven be . . .” (Reja-e Busailah)

Harold Knight1 Comment

Lydda_mosque_ii

Lydda (birthplace of Reja-e Busailah) mosque
after Operation Danny, July 1948
(Photo: Palmach archive Yiftach 3rd Battalion vol. 2 album).

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|   EGYPTIAN  SECURITY  DELEGATION  ARRIVES  IN  GAZA  STRIP  TO  ESTABLISH  THE  TRUCE
The Israeli Public Radio said, on Wednesday, that an Egyptian security delegation will arrive in the Gaza Strip on Thursday for talks aimed at stabilizing the ceasefire and discussing ways to improve the living conditions in the Gaza Strip.    ___The radio added that the delegation would be headed by the official of the Palestinian file in the intelligence service, Ahmed Abdelkhaliq, and expected that some Hamas leaders would go to Egypt in the next few days.    ___Egyptian mediation between the Palestinian Resistance and the Israeli occupation succeeded in reestablishing the cease-fire in Gaza after an unprecedented round of escalation that began on Sunday and lasted about 48 hours.     More . . .
|   ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  AT  PALESTINIAN  FARMERS
Israeli forces opened fire, on Friday, at Palestinian farmers working in their lands, east of the al-Qarrara town in the southern besieged Gaza Strip.    ___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces stationed at the Kissufim military site opened fire at Palestinian farmers for unknown reasons.    ___The farmers left their lands in fear for their lives. . .   More . . .
. . . . Related  SUFFOCATION  CASES  AMONG  PROTESTERS  NEAR  RAMALLAH  [RAS  KARKAR  VILLAGE]
. . . . Related  GAZA  FISHERMAN  SHOT,  KILLED  BY  ISRAELI  NAVY
|  UN  SPECIAL  RAPPORTEURS  GIVE  ISRAEL  60  DAYS  TO  RESPOND  TO  ‘DEEP  CONCERNS’  REGARDING  JEWISH  NATION-STATE  LAW
Following a special request for action issued by  ADALAH – THE  LEGAL  CENTER  FOR  ARAB  MINORITY  RIGHTS  IN  ISRAEL, four United Nations special rapporteurs have given Israel a 60-day deadline to respond to their grave concerns regarding the Jewish Nation-State Law, adopted by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on July 19.    ___The 60-day period began on November 2 when [the four UN officials] sent a communiqué to Israeli authorities expressing deep concerns regarding the impact of the new law.    ___In their letter, special rapporteurs expressed “deep concern” that Israeli Basic Law appears “to be discriminatory in nature and in practice against non-Jewish citizens” . . .   More . . .
. . . . Related  KUWAIT  TRANSFERS  $42  MILLION  TO  UNRWA
. . . . Related  WORLD  BANK  WILL  CONTINUE  TO  PROVIDE  BUDGET  SUPPORT  TO  PA
. . . . Related  DIRECTOR  OF  GENEVA  CENTER  CALLS  FOR  ENDORSEMENT  OF  2018  WORLD  CONFERENCE  DECLARATION
. . . . Related  CZECH  REPUBLIC  TO  CONTRIBUTE  OVER  €200,000  TO  UNRWA

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|   SUSTAINING  CYCLES  OF  ISRAELI  AGGRESSION  IN  GAZA 
Ramona Wadi
It is time, once again, for the hyphenated “Israel-Gaza” paradigm – an invention that suits mainstream narratives. As the media mulls the possibilities of another Israeli military aggression against Palestinians in Gaza . . .   since “Operation Protective Edge”, Israel regularly hinted at another, definite round of violence to eliminate Hamas . . .  inflicting a high percentage of collateral damage.    ___As speculation mounts amid reports of airstrikes and rocket fire; the latter enhanced through numbers that purposely render Israeli violence a purported retaliation, Israel is assured of an audience that is ready to absorb whatever trajectory it decides upon . . .    [. . . .] Yet, in terms of media depiction, there is already a premeditated slant . . .  Rocket fire is the subject of statistics while airstrikes imparted as an acceptable method of containment. The concept of involvement and, as a result, violence, is shifted upon Hamas, as opposed to the Israeli incursion in Gaza which the resistance had every right to disrupt.    More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .
|   AWARDS  SEASON  LAUNCHED  AT  MEMO’S  PALESTINIAN  LITERARY  EVENT
A packed audience hall gathered in London this evening [November 15, 2018] to listen to some of the  PALESTINE  BOOK  AWARD’S  shortlisted authors discuss their works ahead of the winners’ announcement tomorrow evening.    ___Tonight three of the shortlisted authors: Tareq Baconi, author of “Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance”; Maha Nassar, author of “Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World”; and  REJA-E  BUSAILAH,  author of “In the Land of My Birth: A Palestinian Boyhood”.    ___The evening was chaired by Victoria Brittain and Ibrahim Darwish, two trustees of the Palestine Book Awards. Brittain opened the evening by reflecting on how the Awards are now in their seventh year, adding that when the event started back in 2011 she could not have expected the level of support there has been from publishers, authors and the general public.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  HOLY  HEIGHTS”  BY  REJA-E  BUSAILAH 

  •                 for Haniya Suleiman Zarawneh, killed by the Israelis
    at the age of 25, near Jerusalem, January 4, 1988

The sun came out that day from the depth of winter
like the rare orphan of good luck —
what else can the light of heaven be
on a day rising from the dead of winter?

And she had risen before the sun that day
and like her mother and grandmother before her
she washed by hand and wrung by hand
the linen for spouse and child,

and like mother and grandmother
she walked up the wooden ladder
with the pail onto the roof
into the shadow of the Holy Heights —
so clear was the sky
it almost recalled the sight and the scent of the sea down west.

Faithfully she hung her labors on the rope
article by article
that the good sun might dry them for her,
she clasped each with a wooden pin
as safeguard against the prankish wind —

it was no senseless nature that did it when she was done
just about to come down for other chores,
it was no fiendish Nazi,
it was one of the Chosen
selected her heart for his anointed lead
so that limp went the spring in the covenant
which joined soul and limb —

and the good sun shines
and the sheets and the skirts and the nightgowns
and the small socks
and the outfit for the wooden doll
they toss in the wind
and smell like linen hand-washed and sun-dried
they swing lighthearted on the rope
waiting for mother to collect them

Reja-e Busailah has been blind since infancy. At age 7, he and his family were forced marched by Zionist forces from their home in Lydda into exile. He was educated in Cairo and earned a PhD in English from New York University. He is the author of a collection of poetry, “We Are Human,” (1985). He taught at Indiana University for 30 years and is now retired. He recently published his memoir “In the Land of My Birth: A Palestinian Boyhood.”

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.

“. . . and the hell you trust does not exclude making shrines . . .” (Yousef El-Qedra)

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shifa-hospital
Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza (Photo: BBC)

❶ Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian in Gaza Strip, injure 8 others
❷ Help ‘We Are Not Numbers’ break the isolation of Gaza
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) ICRC: Still no news on Palestinians missing since 2014 Gaza war

  • Background: “The Vicious Cycle of Building and Destroying: The 2014 War on Gaza.” Mediterranean Politics

❸ Mushtaha: Gaza’s Hospitals Lack 30% of Laboratory Materials
❹ POETRY by Yousef El-Qedra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  KILL  PALESTINIAN  IN  GAZA  STRIP,  INJURE  8  OTHERS      
Ma’an News Agency
June 9, 2017      Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian and injured at least six others in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday after clashes broke out near the border between northern Gaza and Israel, while Israeli forces also injured two more Palestinians with live ammunition during clashes in central Gaza.
___Clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinians to the east of Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, when Israeli forces killed Aed Khamis Jumaa, 35, after shooting him in the head with live ammunition, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
___Six other Palestinians were also injured with live ammunition fired by Israeli forces and were rushed to Gaza’s Indonesian hospital to receive medical care, the ministry added.    MORE . . .

1593714504
Smoke and fire from the explosion of an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (Photo: Haaretz/AP)

❷ HELP  ‘WE  ARE  NOT  NUMBERS’  BREAK  THE  ISOLATION  OF  GAZA
Mondoweiss
Pam Bailey
June 5, 2017    Today is the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of what now is called the Palestinian territories. This shameful milestone is being marked with a plethora of pundit commentary about Trump’s potential role, the continuing division among the Palestinian leadership and—in the background—the ever-expanding Israeli settlements. But in addition to almost no mention of Gaza, there are two basic, alarming truths that are missing: 1) Despite the defiant face they typically show the world, a collective depression is becoming so pervasive in Gaza that the spirit of resistance is struggling to survive, and 2) it’s not war and the threat of it that should bring us out onto the streets but the daily structural violence.            MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) ICRC:  STILL  NO  NEWS  ON  PALESTINIANS  MISSING  SINCE  2014  GAZA  WAR
Ma’an News Agency 
June 10, 2017    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has not received any answers from Israel regarding Palestinians who have been missing since the Israeli offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014, a Gaza-based spokeswoman for the group said on Saturday.
___The 51-day offensive in 2014 left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead, including at least 1,462 civilians, a third of whom were children, according to the United Nations. Human rights groups reported that numerous Palestinians went missing during the war. Some were later found, either alive or dead, although the fate of 19 others has remained unknown.
___Spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza Suhair Zakkout said in a statement that the ICRC had made efforts since 2014 to try and find the location of the missing Palestinians; however, the organization has not received any responses from Israel.        MORE . . .  

Bouris, Dimitris. “The Vicious Cycle of Building and Destroying: The 2014 War on Gaza.” Mediterranean Politics, vol. 20, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 111-117.
[. . . .] While Palestinians in the West Bank were given some hope that building their institutions would lead to the establishment of a state, the same was not the case with the Palestinians living under Hamas’ rule in Gaza. Since 2008 Gaza has witnessed three wars; Operation Cast Lead (December 2008–January 2009), Operation Pillar of Defence (November 2012) and more recently Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014). The reasons and proclaimed goals of all three wars were the same: on the one hand Israel wanted to ‘teach Hamas a lesson’ and to stop rocket fire into its territory. On the other hand, Hamas was seeking to achieve through violence what it could not obtain through negotiations – namely the lifting of Gaza’s blockade. The mistakes made by the international community were also the same: (a) exclusion of Hamas and local groups from the reconstruction process; (b) money and pledges for the reconstruction were channelled through the PA and an unelected government in the West Bank without any strong control and transparency mechanisms (due to the absence of a functioning PLC); (c) pouring vast amounts of money, hoping that by this they would cover their inability to stop the war before it started; (d) no meaningful pressure on Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza or willingness to hold Israel accountable for its destruction.      SOURCE . . .

❸ MUSHTAHA:  GAZA’S  HOSPITALS  LACK  30%  OF  LABORATORY  MATERIALS
The Palestine Chronicle
June 9, 2017      Director of the Department of Laboratories and Blood Banks in the General Administration of Gaza hospitals, Amid Mushtaha, said the Gaza hospitals suffer from a shortage of laboratory testing materials up to 30%, a percentage that is likely to increase.
___Mushtaha explained, “The large hospitals in particular suffer from a lack of sodium blood tests, which are conducted only for urgent cases in the vital sections such as intensive care, burns, surgeries, and nurseries.”
___He added that the crisis affected all laboratories and blood banks in hospitals . . .      MORE . . .

“ON  THE  MARGIN  OF  A  WHIRLWIND,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL-QEDRA    
(January 29, 2009**)
Resurrection is crawling . . .
The beginning is all about horses of cloud
circling God’s sky over Gaza City.
These clouds descend on the ancient shores of the people
while a woman of a volcano erupts
in song on the waterline of the lazy blue beach.
Windmills of butterflies are making the whole world
dance to the dream lost behind dieletric walls.
The wind embraces twilight on an igniting sea.
My cytoplasms formed from blood and misbegotten
human beings are arrayed on a rose-colored glass plate.
She alone holds the book of love and combs the trees’ hair.
Anxiety is sailing on the margin of a whirlwind
leading to a window inside the book.
The topic is war . . .

Resurrection is rising to its feet . . .
Horses of fire and steel kneaded the flesh of a youngster
fleeing Gaza.
His terrified brother stole his broken arm and planted it
under a tree,
whose tears bewail the destruction. This tree as the boy understands it
is a dedicated guard, whereas the cemetery is far away
and the hell you trust does not exclude making shrines.

Resurrection is scaling the ladders of dissonance,
enters the room of a young woman to burn an album;
the woman was hiding smiles for her children
who would emerge from hope and a love story
never completed.
For fire broke out inside her lover’s heart.
And he could not defeat two fires, so he surrendered to oblivion.
Except that he told how the fire coming from her window
merged with the fire coming from his balcony
where he was waiting for her.
—Trans. By Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin
(** The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, also known as the Gaza Massacre was a three-week armed conflict between Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Israel that began on December 27, 2008 and ended on January 18, 2009.)
About Yousef el-Qedra 
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 and Noble.

“. . . A skylark sings its morning song in Tulkarim . . .” (Salem Jubran)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
The local school of Palestinian Susya, founded last year, has opened its fifth year of activity this month. photo the villages group.
The local school of Palestinian Susya, founded last year, has opened its fifth year of activity this month. photo the villages group.

❶ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
SIX  MORE  PALESTINIANS  KIDNAPPED  IN  HEBRON,  ELEVEN  SINCE  DAWN
Thursday August 27, 2015
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, Thursday, six more Palestinians in the ath-Thaheriyya town, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and took them to a number of detention and interrogation facilities.
____Media sources in Hebron said dozens of soldiers invaded the town before breaking into, and violently searching, several homes, and kidnapped six Palestinians.
More. . .
Related. . .
Related. . .

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  RESTRICTIONS  AROUND  AL-AQSA  CONTINUE  FOR  4TH  DAY
Aug. 27, 2015
JERUSALEM ― A large number of Israeli forces remained on Thursday at all entry gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the fourth consecutive day, barring entry to many Palestinians, witnesses told Ma’an.
____The restrictions into the compound have been imposed in an alleged attempt to initiate a daily schedule for Jewish prayer during which Muslim worshipers will be denied access, locals said.
____Dozens of Palestinian women who were denied entry remained outside and were told that they would not be allowed access the mosque before 11 a.m. because entry from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. is for Jews only.
More. . .

❸ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  SEIZE  PALESTINIAN  BUILDING  IN  SILWAN
August 27, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM ― Israeli Ateret Cohanim Association took control over a Palestinian new building in Batn al-Hawa area in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem, claiming that it was bought from its owner Jamal Sarhan.
____The Jerusalemite monitoring group Wadi Hilweh Information Center clarified that more than 60 settlers stormed the neighborhood at 2:30 a.m. and took control over a building belonging to Jamal Sarhan under Israeli police protection.
____The settlers then fitted bars on the windows before they raised an Israeli flag on the rooftop.
More. . .

From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)

❹ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
GAZA:  1,000  CHILDREN  SUSTAINED  PERMANENT  DISABILITIES  OF  LAST  YEAR’S  AGGRESSION
August 27, 2015
More than 1,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip sustained permanent disabilities during last year’s 51-day Israeli military onslaught, according to Defense for Children International (DCI), an NGO devoted to children’s rights.
____In a report entitled “Operation Protective Edge: A war waged on Gaza’s Children”, released on Tuesday, DCI’s Palestine unit said last year’s Israeli offensive had led to the injury of more than 11,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 permanently disabled by the violence.
____The children’s rights organization also noted that, a full year after the Israeli assault, thousands of victims — including a number of children — continued to suffer from their injuries and the attendant psychological trauma.
More. . . http://english.pnn.ps/2015/08/27/gaza-1000-children-sustained-permanent-disabilities-of-last-years-aggression/
Related. . .

❺ Opinion
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINE:  WHAT  IF  YOUR  SCHOOL  IS  DEMOLISHED  TOMORROW?
August 27, 2015
Fadwa Baroud
(Fadwa Baroud is the Information and Communication Assistant for The European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) in Jerusalem.)

On July 12, 2015, Israel announced that it would seek to carry out demolition orders of structures in the Palestinian village of Susiya in what is known as Area C, an area that covers 60 percent of the West Bank, under Israeli control, including the tiny school that consists of four classrooms, three toilets and a kitchen. Before the school was built in 2010, the original classrooms were made of tents that were destroyed by a heavy storm.
____The school and kindergarten are among the 170 structures in Susiya that face demolition orders. Other structures include 32 residential tents, 26 animal shelters, 20 water cisterns, 20 latrines and two health clinics. The demolition orders can be implemented at any time.
____Israel says the structures can be demolished because they were built without permits and are illegal. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Israel has rejected more than 90 percent of building permit applications. That means most Palestinians must choose between building without a permit or not building at all.
More. . .

“THE  EXILE,”  BY  SALEM  JUBRAN
The sun seeps through barbed borders
Unheeded by the watchful squads,
And
A skylark sings its morning song in Tulkarim.
As evening comes
It sups and sleeps
Peacefully
With the birds of the kibbutzim.
A lost donkey strolls
Across the barbed borders;
It grazes peacefully,
Unheeded by the watchful squads.
But as for me, your ousted son,
My native land,
Between my eyes and your skies
Walls of the border stand.

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 Tulkarim

Al-Aqsa Jerusalem Friday prayers blocked fourth day. CNN madcameraman photo.

Al-Aqsa Jerusalem Friday prayers blocked fourth day. CNN madcameraman photo.

“. . . See my orphanhood, my loss, Amid the ruins of a collapsing world. . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Olive tree, Burqin, north Palestine July 6, 2015. Photo by Bryony Dunne
Olive tree, Burqin, north Palestine July 6, 2015. Photo by Bryony Dunne

❶ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  PREVENTS  GAZA  FOOTBALL  TEAM  FROM  ENTERING  WEST  BANK
Aug. 7, 2015
GAZA CITY―Israeli authorities on Friday prevented Gaza’s Ittihad al-Shujaiyeh football team from leaving the besieged enclave to face West Bank rivals Ahli al-Khalil in the second leg of a cup game, a spokesperson for the club said.
____The Gaza-based team was scheduled to leave the coastal territory together with Hebron’s Ahli al-Khalil after having played an historic game a day earlier at the Yarmouk stadium.
____But four of the players and three of the team’s staff were refused travel permits, spokesperson Alaa Shamali said. . . .
____The second leg of the cup game, scheduled for Sunday, has now been postponed and the next 24 hours will prove crucial as to whether talks with FIFA can lift Israel’s travel restrictions.
More . . .
Background. . . WEST  BANK  FOOTBALL  TEAM  PLAYS  HISTORIC  GAZA  MATCH.

❷ From: THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ONE  YEAR  AFTER  SHELLING  GAZA’S  HOSPITALS,  ISRAEL  STARVES  THEM  OF  POWER
Isra Saleh el-Namey
August 7, 2015
Nabeel Muhammad’s job would be demanding under any circumstances. He is a nurse working with seriously ill patients. The difficulties that he faces have been multiplied by a power crisis in the Gaza Strip. . . .
____The problems besetting this hospital illustrate how it has been under constant attack by one means or another for many years. In July 2014, it was shelled during Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 51-day bombardment of Gaza. The power cuts that imperil the provision of basic services across Gaza have occurred repeatedly since Israel bombed the Strip’s only power plant in 2006. . . .
____The crisis has been especially acute since Egypt closed tunnels between it and Gaza in 2013. Those tunnels were used to smuggle fuel on which the people of Gaza depended. . . .
____Emad Saleem, a doctor at the European Hospital in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, said that everyday activities like checking heart rates, blood pressure and body temperatures can be a major ordeal.
More. . .

A Palestinian patient at the dialysis department al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the northern Gaza Strip July 29, 2015. Photo by Ashraf Amra
A Palestinian patient at the dialysis department al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the northern Gaza Strip July 29, 2015. Photo by Ashraf Amra

❸ From: JADALIYYA (ARAB STUDIES INSTITUTE)
SNAPSHOT:  PALESTINIAN  OLIVE  TREES
Bryony Dunne and Elle Kurancid
July 31, 2015
Olive tree felling is a longtime strategy of Israel’s occupation regime in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1967, an estimated 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli authorities and settlers.
____In February 2015, Irish-born filmmaker and photographer Bryony Dunne traveled across the West Bank and encountered evidentiary support for such activity (in tree stumps and civilian stories). Over the course of one week, she moved through Israeli checkpoints, and around Israeli settlements and military bases, while heading north to the Palestinian city of Jenin, staying with five Palestinian families along the way. These families earn their livelihood farming either olives or almonds as members of Canaan Fair Trade, a cooperative that supports approximately 1,700 small farmers throughout the occupied West Bank in the sale of produce to international markets. . .
More. . .

❹ From: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
ISRAELI  “TEMPLE”  ORGANISATIONS  CALL  FOR  MARCH  INTO  AL-AQSA  MOSQUE
August 7, 2015
Israeli “Temple” organisations have called for an Israeli flag march on Sunday to Al-Aqsa mosque.
____The organisations of the Temple Mount Faithful and Students for the Temple said the march will reach Al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates at 8:00 am carrying Israeli flags.
More. . .
Background. . .  THE  BATTLE  FOR  AL-AQSA:  ‘THIS  IS  NOT  ABOUT  PRAYER’ 

❺ Opinion
From: +972 MAGAZINE
POLITICAL  DEATH  NOTICES  MOURN  PALESTINIAN  BABY,  ISRAELI  TEEN
Mairav Zonszein
August 7, 2015
It has been a week since Palestinian infant Ali Dawabshe was burned alive when his West Bank home was set on fire by Jewish Israelis, and five days since 16-year old Israeli Shira Banki — who was stabbed at the Jerusalem Pride Parade — died of her wounds.
____Dawabshe’s parents are still in critical condition in an Israeli hospital, while their house is still in ashes . . . . on the streets of West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, death notices in Hebrew and English have been plastered in recent days to mark the two murders.
____Mourning notices are a common practice in Israel to notify of a death in the community. But these notices, initiated, composed and hung by writer Ilana Sichel and artist Romy Achituv, not only mourn the deaths of these two minors — they also call on Jews in Israel to assume a collective, moral responsibility for them.
More. . .

“THE  LAST  KNOCK,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
Will you not open this door for me?
My hand is exhausted from knocking at Your door.
I have come to Your vastness to beg
Some tranquility and peace of mind
But Your door is closed in my face,
Drowned in silence.
Lord of the house,
The door was open here,
A refuge for all burdened with grief.
The door was open here,
And the green olive tree rose high
Embracing the house.
The oil lamb kindling without fire,
Guiding steps of one walking at night,
Relieving those crushed by the burden of Earth,
Flooding them with satisfaction and ease.
Do you hear me, O Lord of the house,
After my loss in the deserts;
Away from You I have returned to You
But Your door is closed
In my face, drowned in silence.
Your house is shrouded
With the dust of death.
You are here. Open, then, the door.
Do not veil Your face.
See my orphanhood, my loss,
Amid the ruins of a collapsing world,
The grief of the world on my shoulders
And terrors of a tyrant destiny
To be undone.

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.
Fadwa Tuqan obituary.

Death notices for Ali Dawabshe and Shira Banki (Photo by Sara Holcman)
Death notices for Ali Dawabshe and Shira Banki (Photo by Sara Holcman)

“. . .Do not pay your last respects with laurel and a royal display. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
“I need symbols . . . like the Twin Towers in New York,” General Gershon Hacohen. (AP photo)
“I need symbols . . . like the Twin Towers in New York,” General Gershon Hacohen. (AP photo)

❶ From MONDOWEISS
ISRAELI GENERAL LIKENS ATTACK ON GAZA TOWERS TO 9/11 ATTACK, AS ‘SYMBOL’
Dan Cohen
July 27, 2015
An Israeli general likened Israel’s bombing of three landmark towers in the Gaza Strip last year to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. . . Major General (ret.) Gershon Hacohen said:

“I need symbols, I’m talking about symbols. It is no simple matter. Because if I destroyed three towers in Gaza towards the end of Operation Protective Edge, and inflicted not only pain in the economic sense but also a symbol, and like the Twin Towers in New York were a symbol, what is significant is not only the physics but the significance of the matter.”

____. . . Israeli warplanes [bombed] Zafer Four tower, the Italian Compound, the Basha tower, and a four-story mall in Rafah. The mass destruction left hundreds of families homeless and struck a heavy blow to Gaza’s already crippled economy. These attacks were carried out when the ceasefire was imminent.
(More . . .)

❷ From PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI ARMY KILLS PALESTINIAN YOUTH IN COLD BLOOD OUTSIDE JERUSALEM
July 27, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot and killed in cold blood a Palestinian youngster during a raid before dawn Monday on Qalandia refugee camp . . . .
____Sources said an Israeli army force broke into the camp in the early morning hours and raided the house of Mohammad Abu Latifa, 20 . . . The soldiers. . . attempted to detain Abu Latifa and shot at his legs when he reportedly attempted to flee the premises, causing him serious injuries before he died of his wounds hours later.
____However, family sources [said] the Israeli soldiers shot him in the legs before they tied his hands with electric wires and detained him alive. Hours later, the family said, their son was handed over a dead body to the Red Cross. . . .
(More)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ARAB LEAGUE MINISTERS TO MEET AFTER AQSA CLASHES
July 27, 2015
Cairo (AFP) ― Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo early next month to discuss clashes involving Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
____Sunday’s incident saw Israeli police enter the mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, as they clashed with Palestinians angered by Jews’ access to the compound on an annual day of Jewish mourning.
____Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that foreign ministers from 15 Arab states will meet on August 5 to discuss what he called the “dangerous development” in Jerusalem.
(More. . .)
(More. . .)
(Background)

Arab League Ministers, 2012. EPA Photo - KHALED ELFIQI
Arab League Ministers, 2012. EPA Photo – KHALED ELFIQI

❹ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
CHILD AMONG 4 PALESTINIANS KIDNAPPED BY IOF FROM AL-KHALIL
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Monday kidnapped four Palestinian citizens from the southern West Bank province of al-Khalil.
____According to local sources, large IOF patrols rolled into al-Khalil city at the crack of dawn and . . . they kidnapped the youngsters Rami Farouk al-Awiwi and Baha Abu Shkheidam. Both were dragged to an unidentified destination shortly afterwards.
____The IOF also raided al-Khalil’s northern town of Surif, nabbed the Palestinian citizen Haj Omar Ghneimat, and transferred him to an unknown location after they confiscated an agricultural tractor of his own.
____Sources based in Beit Ummar village, in northern al-Khalil, said the campaign culminated in the abduction of the 16-year-old minor Hamza Abu Hashem.
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From +972 MAGAZINE
NO, JESUS WOULD NOT BE A SETTLER — HE’D PRACTICE SOLIDARITY
Ryan Rodrick Beiler
July 27, 2015
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren has been saying a lot of obnoxious things lately. His recent book angered Jewish-American journalists . . . and he may have crossed the line from belligerence to blasphemy with his latest remarks. While preaching to the choir of the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus, Oren took the name of Jesus in vain, using it to defend the settler enterprise.
____“Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist would today be considered Jewish settlers in Bethlehem,” said Oren, according to The Jerusalem Post.
[. . . .]
____ [Is Oren] really ignorant of what makes a settler a settler? According to international legal consensus, shared by virtually every other nation except Israel, all settlements are illegal.
____This is what makes settlements illegal. It’s not because they’re Jewish. It’s because they’re colonies built on occupied land outside of the state of Israel.
(More. . .)

“HE WHISPERED BEFORE HE TOOK HIS FINAL BREATHS,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
Don’t honor me with a monument
and song!
Of all the sad songs,
I prefer my mother’s sadness.

Do not pay your last respects
with laurel and a royal display!
Of all the tender wreaths
I prefer my mother’s palm.

Don’t glorify me by giving my name
to a city square
or a street and public garden!
I’d rather a grapevine be planted
(in my name)
and grow into a vineyard and farm!

Do not preserve my memory
by giving a speech each year in my honor!
I’d rather a fine machine
pounding away in a factory
speak in my name.

Tell my mother―
tell her what you plant in my name,
tell the factory’s machine
that I loved life, from the bottom of my heart,
and therefore took my final breaths
at peace and happy.

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER THAN WATER. New and Selected Poems. Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.
Available from Amazon
Samih Al-Qasim Obituary, August 20, 2014

BETHLEHEM, mural adorns the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem. ActiveStills photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler.
BETHLEHEM, mural adorns the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem. ActiveStills photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler.

“. . .Stop for a moment and listen to him saying: ‘No!’. . .” (Muin Bseiso)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinians hold their national flag as they ride boats during a rally to show support for activists on the Freedom Flotilla III at the seaport of Gaza City on 24 June 2015. The activists failed to reach Gaza, with three boats turning back and the fourth taken over by the Israelis. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images.
Palestinians hold their national flag as they ride boats during a rally to show support for activists on the Freedom Flotilla III at the seaport of Gaza City on 24 June 2015. The activists failed to reach Gaza, with three boats turning back and the fourth taken over by the Israelis. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images.

❶ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ISRAELIS OVERTAKE, BOARD SIEGE [OF GAZA] BREAKING VESSEL
June 29, 2015
According to Haaretz, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound boat Marianne late Sunday night, in what the military said was a short operation, free of any casualties . . .
____ . . . the Marianne of Gothenburg, was boarded by the Israeli navy and was being escorted to an Israeli port.
____The Swedish boat, which on Sunday afternoon was 150 nautical miles from the Gaza Coast, is carrying 20 activists, among them MK Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List) and former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki.
(More. . .)
(Additional “mainstream” media coverage)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL LARGEST STATE USER OF EXPLOSIVE WEAPONS IN 2014 DUE TO GAZA WAR
Charlie Hoyle
June 26, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel was the single largest user of explosive weapons among international states in 2014 as a result of its war on Gaza, a London-based NGO said this week . . .
____In a report entitled ‘Explosive States: Monitoring explosive violence in 2014,’ Action on Armed Violence said that Gaza . . . saw one of the highest number of global casualties from explosive weapons as a result of Israel’s use of military force during Operation Protective Edge.
(More. . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ANTI-PALESTINIAN GRAFFITI FOUND IN JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOOD
June 30, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Suspected Jewish extremists spray-painted racist graffiti in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli police said.
____Luba al-Samri, spokeswoman for Arabic-language media, told Ma’an that “Arab blood is a public property,” “Kill Arabs,” and other racist phrases were sprayed on a wall in Hebrew.
(More. . .)

❹ From +972 BLOG
A VICIOUS CYCLE OF LAWLESSNESS IN THE WEST BANK
Eyal Hareuveni
June 30, 2015
For nearly 50 years the Israeli army has been treating settler violence against Palestinians as a decree of fate . . . the army has dealt with the phenomenon without actually dealing with it.
____International law, however, is quite clear that the occupying power . . . has an obligation to preserve the rule of law and public order in those territories. . . the Israeli High Court has even emphasized that it is a basic and fundamental obligation — but the IDF paid no heed.
(More. . .)

Settlers throw stones at Palestinians as IDF soldiers stand by in the West Bank village of Asira al Qibliya. April 30, 2013 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Settlers throw stones at Palestinians as IDF soldiers stand by in the West Bank village of Asira al Qibliya. April 30, 2013 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❺ Opinion
From +972 BLOG
THE ONLY REAL DANGER OF GAZA FLOTILLAS
Itamar Sha’altiel
June 29, 2015
Activists on the Freedom Flotilla must understand that . . . Putting the spotlight on humanitarian supplies allows Israel to divert attention from the worst parts of the blockade.
____The truth is that after five years it’s getting a little old. Israeli naval commandos once again take over a boat to Gaza, and again, it happens without any fuss. The Israeli defense minister once again claims that there is no blockade on Gaza, and once again the prime minister tells the activists they should be sailing to Syria.
____There is, of course, clearly a blockade on Gaza. It requires massive quantities of unabashed gall to claim otherwise. Israel forbids the entry and departure of boats to and from Gaza . . . it decides what building materials can be imported to Gaza and for which projects . . . and it restricts the entry and exit of people in and out of the Strip . . . let’s be honest — it’s a blockade, clear and simple.
(More. . .)

“NO!” BY MUIN BSEISO

His wounds said: “No!”
His chains said: “No!”
And the turtledove which shielded his wound with her feather
Said: “No!”
“No!” for those who sold and bought
Gaza’s silver anklet.
They sold the bullets and bought a goose.

Quaking goose!
Stop for a moment.
And listen to him
Saying: “No!”
Pity him; he did not die under neon lights,
Between the candlestick and the moon.
Pity him; there was no formal announcement
or a dumb funeral.
No moaning poem nor song.
Stones!
Let me compose, if only one line of verse,
That I may recite it to all the men with long and false beards.

Stop quaking for a moment
And listen to him saying: “No!”
Like the solid fence of a house in Gaza.
Every day, he gets killed one thousand times,
Quaking goose!

From: A Lover from Palestine and Other Poems: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.

Muin Bseiso (1926 – January 23, 1984) was a Palestinian poet who lived in Egypt . . . He finished his primary and secondary education in Gaza in 1948. He started publishing his work in the Jaffa-based magazin Al-Hurriya (“Liberty”), where he published his first poems in 1946. In 1948, he enrolled in the American University in Cairo and subsequently graduated in 1952. On January 27, 1952 he published his first work titled Al-Ma’raka (“The Battle”). Imprisoned in Egyptian jails twice: 1955 to 1957 and 1959 to 1963. He died London in 1984.

A child at home in Gaza
A child at home in Gaza