Category: Palestine

“. . . In the rubble I rummage for light and new poetry . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Art-8bisCanaanite teacher from a school at the archaeological site Tell Balata
near Nablus asks for his salary in a letter dated to around 1400 BC
(Photo, This Week In Palestine, October 2018)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|  EMBRACING  THE  RIGHT  TO  EDUCATION:  A  STORY  OF  HOPE,  DETERMINATION,  AND  SUCCESS
It all started 25 years ago when Mr. Heikki Kokkala, a senior education specialist from Finland, and the late Mr. Khalil Mahshi, then director general of external relations at the Ministry of Education in Palestine, met at a UNESCO conference on education.   . . .  work had already started on developing the first-ever unified national curriculum which would replace the Jordanian and Egyptian curricula used in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively.    [. . . .] the Finnish government was looking for ways to support the newly established Palestinian Authority and decided to direct its support to the education sector.   ___Thus, Mr. Kokkala and Mr. Mahshi, with their many colleagues, began to design the first cooperation project between Finland and Palestine.   More . . .
|  SPREAD  THE  WORD:  PALESTINE  HAS  ONE  OF  THE  WORLD’S  HIGHEST  LITERACY  RATES
Palestine ranks among countries with the world’s highest literacy rates, with only 3.3 percent of Palestinians aged 15 and over in the West Bank and Gaza Strip unable to read, according to a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics report released on [September 6, 2018].    ___The report . . .  shows that the illiteracy rate in Palestine has fallen by 10 percent over the past decade. This leaves Palestine with one of the lowest rates of illiteracy in the world . . .     [. . . .] The figures come despite the difficulties faced by thousands of Palestinian students to reach their schools in the West Bank, including having to cross Israeli military checkpoints or the separation wall that disconnects their hometowns from where they attend school.   More . . .

Dar al-Kalima 2017 graduation. Photo by Ben Gray / ELCJHL
Dar al-Kalima 2017 graduation. (Photo by Ben Gray / ELCJHL)

|  ISRAEL  TO  REMOVE  UNRWA  TO  ‘END  LIE  OF  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEE  PROBLEM’
Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, announced on Thursday that he plans to remove the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees from occupied East Jerusalem, which he accused of “operating illegally and promoting incitement against Israel.”  ___Following the announcement on Thursday, the Jerusalem Municipality confirmed that UN schools, which serve about 1,800 students enrolled, would be closed .   ___[. . . .] He claimed that these schools, clinics and sports centers were “illegal” and “operate without an Israeli license.”  . . . the decision . . . was triggered after the United States administration decided to end all funding to UNRWA.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|  ANCIENT  SCHOOLS  IN  PALESTINE
Early forms of writing emerged gradually from pictorial representations of nature and human activities, [. . .  including] early alphabets (such as the Proto-Canaanite script, Phoenician consonantal alphabet and Greek alphabet that also indicated vowels). The invention of writing necessitated the obvious need to learn it, and human history consequently witnessed the advent of a new profession: teaching. Palestine and Mesopotamia were among the early showplaces of this emerging skill . . .   ___Early sources include . . . a Canaanite teacher from a school at the archeological site Tell Balata near Nablus asks for his salary in a letter dated to around 1400 BC . . .     More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

|  JERUSALEM:  WHAT  MAKES  FOR  PEACE?  Bright Stars of Bethlehem
Conference in Houston, Texas, on October 11.    Part of the week-long Room for Hope festival.
|  DAR  AL-KALIMA  UNIVERSITY.  BRIGHT  STARS  OF  BETHLEHEM  GROWS  HOPE  AND  HELPS  BUILD  A  FUTURE  FOR  COLLEGE  STUDENTS  IN  PALESTINE. 
In a country with limited natural resources, Palestine’s human resources are its most valuable capital. Dar Al-Kalima University, through a comprehensive system of human resource development that reflects Palestine’s emerging needs, equips its students with vital skills for the 21st century job market. Bright Stars of Bethlehem envisions that most of the country’s future artists, musicians, actors, journalists, IT professionals, film-makers and the leaders of tomorrow are alumni of the University.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“THE  ROSES  AND  THE  DICTIONARY,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH

Be that as it may,
I must . . .
The poet must have a new toast
And new anthems.
Traversing a tunnel of incense
And pepper and ancient summer,
I carry the key to legends and ruined monuments of slaves.
I see history an old man
Tossing dice and gathering the stars.

Be that as it may,
I must refuse death
Even though my legends die.
In the rubble I rummage for light and new poetry.
Did you realize before today, my love,
That a letter in the dictionary is dull?
How do they live, all these words?
How do they grow? How do they spread?
We still water them with the tears of memories
And metaphors and sugar.

Be that as it may,
I must reject roses that spring
From a dictionary or a diwan.
Roses grow on the arms of a peasant, on the fists of a laborer,
Roses grow over the wounds of a warrior,
And on the face of a rock.

From: THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY.  Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982.  ―Available from Palestine Online Store.

“. . . I have sworn. . . I will not accept you occupied . . .” (Yusuf Hamdan)

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Fully armed with automatic weapons these Israeli young men are allowed to walk
local streets near Palestinian homes where local children play in the street.
(Photo: Christian Peacemaker Teams, Oct. 1, 2018)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

| ISRAELI  SETTLERS  SEIZE  HISTORICAL  BUILDING  IN  JERUSALEM
Israeli settlers took over a historical Palestinian building in the Aqbat Darwish neighborhood of Jerusalem’s Old City, in the central occupied West Bank, early Thursday morning.    ___. . . residents of the neighborhood were shocked by Israeli settler seizing the building in the early morning hours of Thursday.    ___Israeli settlers reportedly moved into the building, belonging to the Judeh family; the building was used as a clinic.    ___On Wednesday, Israeli settlement group Elad had taken over a Palestinian-owned property in the Silwan neighborhood of the city.  ___There are an upwards of 300,000 Israeli settlers residing in East Jerusalem, with at least 500 living in Silwan among a population of 45,000 Palestinians.   More . . .
| IN  PHOTOS:  KHAN  AL-AHMAR  PREPARES  FOR  DEMOLITION  AFTER  DECADE-LONG  BATTLE  TO  REMAIN
A tiny Palestinian Bedouin town located in the West Bank hills outside of Jerusalem is bracing for an impending eviction to make way for plans to expand an Israeli settlement. The case reached its endpoint on Monday when the deadline ordered by Israel’s high court expired on the community of Khan al-Ahmar to vacate and demolish their own homes and an elementary school.    More . . .

KA-918-7-768x513cPhotographer Thomas Dallal documented demolition preparations in Khan al-Ahmar throughout the month of September. (Photo: Mondoweiss, October 2, 2018)

| ISRAELI  FORCES  KILL  15-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN,  INJURE  DOZENS  IN  GAZA
A 15-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed, while dozens of others were injured, on Wednesday evening, after Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian protesters near the Erez crossing (Beit Hanoun) between Israel and the northern besieged Gaza Strip.    ___. . .  15-year-old Ahmad Samir Abu Habel was shot in the head by Israeli forces as he participated in protests near the Erez crossing in northern Gaza.   ___Medical sources confirmed that 24 Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli forces . . .      More . . .
| AS  OLIVE  HARVEST  SEASON  BEGINS  IN  WEST  BANK,  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  STEAL  PALESTINIAN  CROPS
As Palestinians embark on picking their olives, considered one of the main income-generating seasons for thousands of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler were seen on Thursday stealing their olive crops.    ___According to Yehya Qadoos, head of Burin village council, settlers sneaked to land belonging to farmers in the village and stole their olive crops.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

| PALESTINE  UNDER  OCCUPATION:  ONE  VILLAGE’S  RESISTANCE:  VIDEO  . . .
| US,  IN  ITS  BLIND  SUPPORT  FOR  ISRAEL,  DISPLAYS  DISDAIN  OF  INTERNATIONAL  LAW,  SAYS  FOREIGN  MINISTRY
The US Administration’s announcement of its intention to withdraw from the Additional Protocol to the Vienna Convention reaffirms the administration’s disdain towards international law and the rules-based international order, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.    ___“This administration is willfully disrupting and undermining the international order because of its blind support to Israel’s illegal colonial policies, thus advancing this hostile agenda at the expense of global cooperation . . .”     ___The Ministry said that “the State of Palestine has exercised its right to defend itself through legal means by resorting to the International Court of Justice on the issue of the illegal US embassy move to our capital, Jerusalem. This step was based on the compulsory jurisdiction of Court, as stipulated in Article I of the Additional Protocol.”    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“TO  JERUSALEM,”  BY  YUSUF  HAMDAN
You came to me, chained,
Carried forcibly.
You came
Flowing, like the tears of a wounded heart.
And yet, I will not meet you.
Forgive me,
For today, you are occupied!

Have you indeed come to me?
In my passion, I prayed often
Without a “Rock,”
And when I found no water,
I simulated the ritual ablution;
And when you finally came to me, I vowed:
I will not accept you occupied!

I want you to be a Kaaba for the people of the earth,
A spacious house,
Without guards;
I love you . . . a voice from a minaret,
The sound of horns
Mingled with church bells.
I love you, a jasmine in the open air,
But I have sworn, yes I have,
I will not accept you occupied!

From: THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY.  Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982.    Available from Palestine Online Store. 
___Yusuf Hamdan was born in 1942 in the Triangle area of Palestine. He lived in Haifa in the early ‘60s and taught in a nearby Arabic school. He published his poems in al-Jadid, al-Ittihad, and al-Ghad, and lost his teaching position because of his poetry. In 1970 he left Israel for the US, where he presently lives and works.

“. . . his wounds Proclaim his testament of love and suffering . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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Mitzpe_KramimOn Tuesday, 3 July 2018, the State . . .  informed the court that
it agreed that the land [Mitzpe Kramim] , which is privately
owned by Palestinians, would be transferred to the settlers
who invaded it.  (Photo: Peace Now, July 7, 2018)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .Israel

MOH:  93  PALESTINIANS  INJURED  DURING  GAZA  PROTEST 
Almost 100 Palestinians suffered injuries at the northern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Monday, as protesters participated in the naval march setting off from the Gaza seaport against the nearly 12-year Israeli siege.    ___The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 93 Palestinians were injured, including 37 injured by Israeli live ammunition.    ___Israeli forces opened fire directly targeting medical crews and ambulances that attempted to reach the area to provide aid to those injured.    More . . .
. . . Related  In video – Israeli forces assault, injure Jerusalemite youths
. . . Related  Israeli forces injure Palestinians in Hebron clashes
. . . Related  Israeli forces attack West Bank protests against Israel’s Nation-State Law, injuries reported
. . . Related  ADALAH:  ‘ISRAELI  SNIPERS  CONTINUE  TO  TARGET  UNARMED  PALESTINIANS’
IOF  KIDNAPS  21  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK  CAMPAIGNS
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Tuesday arrested 21 Palestinians during large-scale campaigns in the West Bank.   ___The Israeli occupation army said in a statement that 21 “wanted” Palestinians were arrested on Tuesday for being involved in popular resistance activities against Israeli targets.   ___The IOF at daybreak carried out raid and search campaigns against Palestinian houses in Tulkarem, Occupied Jerusalem, al-Khalil, and Jenin.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

IT  IS  NOT  UP  TO  THE  UN  TO  DETERMINE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  AND  NARRATIVES       
The Great Return March protests in the Gaza Strip have provided the foundations for Palestinians from which they can articulate their demands, away from the political bickering, opportunism and exploitation which has rendered the people dependent solely on their own determination to survive.    [. . . .] Two recent statements by UN officials testify to the international community’s refusal to recognise the latter.       ___The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (OCHA) has diluted the ongoing Palestinian protests to a reflection over “increasing frustration over worsening conditions of daily life . . .      ___To mark the International Day of Non-Violence, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the implementation of Gandhi’s non-violent approach. “At the United Nations,” he explained, “a world free of violence – and the resolution of differences through non-violent means – is at the core of our work.”    ___Both UN statements are replete with omissions.   More . . .
. . . Related  Israel’s Stranglehold on Area C: Development as Resistance
REPORT:  WIDE  COOPERATION  BETWEEN  ISRAELI  JUDICIAL  SYSTEM  AND  BANKS  IN  FAVOR  OF  SETTLEMENTS 
The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement said that the Israeli army [is] involved in the crime of forging the Palestinian documents which prove their ownership of the land, but also confiscate and allocate those lands for settlement purposes. The Jerusalem District Court issued a ruling last month alleging that the Mitzpeh Kramim outpost northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank was built on settler land.    ___The occupation authorities claimed before the court at the time that they had handed over the land to the “Settlement Brigade” by mistake. . .  The court decided at the time not to continue construction work in the settlement outpost, but the Supreme Court’s decision did not prevent the “the Brigade” from continuing settlement activities, and providing banks with documentation to enable settlers to obtain housing loans.   More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“THE  MAN  WHO  VISITED  DEATH,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Leave the martyr shrouded in his garments,
Lay him at the foot of the mountain: for it knows his sorrow.
Do not bury him, while his wounds
Proclaim his testament of love and suffering.
Do you hear?

Let him take leave of his friends,
A bleeding eagle among the rocks.
Lay him in the sun; his face caressed
By the winds, redolent with the fragrance of the land of his youth.

Do not close his eyes; a final
Red glimmer still shines in them.
His call reverberates in the golden valleys:
“You who fear death, I fear it not;
Take me to my home
To rest my cheek upon its threshold,
To kiss the doorknob,
Take me to my vineyard, I would die, with the pangs of my love in my heart,
If my eyes do not feast once more on the sight of its soil. 

From THE PALESTINIAN WEDDING: A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.

“. . .They work tanks, but we know stones . . .” (Mohammed Al-Kurd)

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Poet Mohammed El-Kurd. (Photo by Dave Leins, from Middle East Eye)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

| 70%  OF  JERUSALEMITES’  SHOPS  WERE  CLOSED  DUE  TO  ACCUMULATED  ISRAELI  TAXES
Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights Ziad Hamouri said that the occupation authorities continue to impose taxes and accumulating debt to the owners, for the goal of displacing them from their city,  adding that  it has already damaged 70% of shops and real estate in Jerusalem.    ___Over 250 shops were closed in the Old City of Jerusalem because of Israeli taxes on Jerusalem property, as well as the siege, closures and tax evasion of Jerusalemites, Hamouri told Voice of Palestine radio on Sunday.    More . . .
Related . . .   Jerusalem:  25  years  after  Oslo  –  A  UN  perspective
Related . . .   World  Bank:  Cash-Strapped  Gaza  And  An  Economy  In  Collapse  Put  Palestinian  Needs  At  Risk
Related . . .   Israel  confiscates  children’s  clothes  heading  to  Gaza
| ISRAELI  FANATICS  GO  ON  A  RAMPAGE  IN  PALESTINIAN  AREAS  IN  JERUSALEM
Israeli fanatics went on a rampage late Sunday early Monday in Palestinian areas inside and outside Jerusalem’s Old City as they marked the end of the Jewish Succot holiday, according to local Palestinian sources.    ___They said the extremist Israeli went on a hate rampage in Musrara neighborhood, just outside Damascus Gate, one of the main gates to the Old City, resulting in injury to five Palestinians.    ___The extremists assaulted Palestinians inside the Old City as well, smashed parked Palestinian cars and damaged shops as they marched inside the narrow Old City streets in all Palestinian areas.    ___Israeli police forces, which were present in large numbers, did not stop the extremist vigilantes but instead fired stun grenades at the Palestinians who tried to defend themselves, their homes and their property.    More . . .
Related . . .   Hordes  of  Israeli  settlers  break  into  al-Aqsa  Mosque
Related . . .   Turkey  condemns  Israel’s  use  of  excessive  force  against  Gaza  civilians
Related . . .   Palestinian  injured,  seven  arrested  in  West  Bank  campaigns

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|  ADALAH:  15  YEARS  SINCE  THE  OR  COMMISSION  RESULTS,  ISRAEL  STILL  USING  SNIPERS  TO  DISPERSE  CROWDS
Eighteen years since the October 2000 Israeli police murder of 13 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Israel and the findings of the  Or  Commission  of  Inquiry  in 2003 into the murders which concluded that:  “It should be unequivocally clear that live fire, including by snipers, is not a means for the police to disperse crowds,” the Israeli military continues killing unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters with snipers . . .   Just this past Friday . . .  troops killed seven people, including two boys ages 11 and 14, and wounded another 257 in Gaza, including 163 shot with live ammunition.    ___Adalah demanded in a statement marking 18 years for the murder of the 13 Palestinians in Israel that Israel immediately halts the shooting of civilian protesters with live ammunition.   More . . .
|  PCBS:  5%  OF  PALESTINIAN  POPULATION  ARE  ELDERLY      On the occasion of the World Elderly day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) released a report, on Sunday, that the Palestinian society is considered a young society, where the percentage of young people is high and the percentage of the elderly is relatively low.   ___PCBS confirmed that in 2017, the number of the elderly aged 60 and above reached 233,269 persons (5.0%), with 152,443 persons (5.4%) in the West Bank and 80,826 persons (4.3%) in the Gaza Strip.   ___PCBS said that even though, the percentage of the elderly in Palestine will increase during the coming years, their percentage will stay relatively low . . .   More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“THIS  IS  WHY  WE  DANCE,”  BY  MOHAMMED  EL-KURD
Mohammed El-Kurd is a 20-year-old from East Jerusalem, now living and studying in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
HE READS HIS POEM.

“. . . No longer am I some firm-rooted tree . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

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IMG_2918 - Copy
Residential street in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter with homes taken by Israelis. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

| PALESTINE  FILES  LAWSUIT  AGAINST  US  AT  THE  INTERNATIONAL  COURT  OF  JUSTICE
The State of Palestine has filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body of the United Nations, for violating international law by moving its embassy in Israel to the occupied city of Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday.     ___Malki added in a statement that the case was based on Palestine’s membership in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries, specifically the Optional Protocol concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.     More . . .

IMG_2957 - Copy
Commercial street in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 4, 2015)

| 7  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  2  CHILDREN,  KILLED  IN  GAZA  PROTESTS 
Seven Palestinians, including two children, were shot and killed by Israeli forces during protests across the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday afternoon.   ___The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 7 Palestinians were killed identifying them as 14-year-old boy Muhammad Nayif al-Hum . . . 12-year-old Nasser Azmi Musbeh, and Muhammad Ali Anshashi, 18, both shot and killed in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip . . .  Spokesperson of the ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, confirmed that some 506 Palestinians were injured during protests, 90 of whom were injured with live bullets, including 3 critical cases.   ___Thirty-five children were among the injuries, in addition to four paramedics and three journalists.    More . . .
Related . . .   Gaza  is  the  Israeli  arms  industry’s  testing  ground
Related . . .   World  Bank:  Gaza  economy  in  ‘free  fall’
| MINISTERIAL  MEETING  ON  UNRWA  RAISES  REMARKABLE  US$122  MILLION
On 27 September, the Foreign Ministers of Jordan, Sweden, Turkey, Japan and Germany, as well as the High Representative and Vice-President of the European Union, hosted a Ministerial Meeting in New York, with the aim of mobilising financial and political support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).   ___The Ministerial Meeting raised a remarkable US$122 million, with Kuwait, the European Union, Germany, Norway, France, Belgium and Ireland announcing additional funding commitments. This meeting represented a crucial step in the efforts to overcome the Agency’s remaining shortfall of US$186 million and sustain UNRWA operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

| WHAT  WAS  WRONG  WITH  BOTH  UN  SPEECHES?
Samia Khoury
On Thursday,  September 27, 2018, both the Palestinian President Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the United Nations  General Assembly.  ___Every time I listen to speeches like those, I keep hoping against hope that something new or fresh might come up to uplift our morale and truly give us reason to look forward to better days.  Of course it was necessary for president Abbas to draw the attention of the assembly that the USA has not been  an honest broker to the peace process, because they turned a blind eye to the violations of Israel to all the agreements signed with Israel.  He  announced that the Palestinians are not willing to continue  committing themselves to agreements that Israel has not kept. . .   ___On the other hand, Mr. Netanyahu’s  main  emphasis,  before responding to some of the points that  Mr. Abbas referred to, was on Iran.   More . . .
| AL-AQSA  INTIFADA:  THE  REVOLUTION  IS  STILL  GOING  ON  18  YEARS  LATER  
These days coincide with the anniversary of the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, which marked a turning point in the Palestinian cause, changing many equations.    [. . . .] The spark of the intifada broke out 18 years ago, after the Israeli war criminal, the leader of the Likud Party at the time, Ariel Sharon, along with Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and tried to desecrate its yards and its symbolic place through their provocative actions.   ___The Palestinian people faced this provocation with courage with their bare chests, providing examples of sacrifice and dignity, as they always did to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause as a whole.     More . . .
| ISRAEL’S  RETREAT  FROM  DEMOCRACY  CREATING  WIDENING  DIVISION  WITH  AMERICAN  JEWS
Allan C. Brownfeld
Israel’s steady retreat from democracy, as dramatically manifested by the Knesset passing in July a new nation-state law—and its 51-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem—is widening the division between American Jews and the self-proclaimed “Jewish state.”   ___An opinion poll published in Israel in June shows a growing gap between Israelis and American Jews. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey found that 77 percent of Israelis approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations, while only 34 percent of American Jews did. Eighty-five percent of Israelis supported the decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, upending decades of U.S. foreign policy and an international consensus that the city’s status should be decided through peace negotiations. Only 47 percent of American Jews supported the move.    ___The poll also found that 59 percent of American Jews favor the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, compared to only 44 percent of Israelis. The two communities also differ sharply on matters of religion and state, particularly on the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over religious affairs in Israel.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“EXHAUSTION  OVERTOOK  ME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I’ve suffered from fatigue since an early age,
And my body crumpled in the presence of sickness.
Probably, my body also fell apart.
No longer am I some firm-rooted tree,
branches mingling with the clear blue sky.
Maybe I have never been that way.
Every cell in my body was shaken.
You saw so many thorny questions grown into my skin.
You saw that my eyes hurt with tears,
and I couldn’t tell from which cascade those tears fell.

You saw clouds that appeared in the minds of my poems
heading back in disappointment toward the river;
the river reverted to its headwaters of first longing.
The sea is too salty. Meanwhile my thirst surprised me
by coming at the wrong time. My thirst was stubborn,
and I am not stubborn with anyone, except myself.

Suddenly, I wanted the world to turn into a desert
without a sun above it. Without memories of the trees
or the river or the distraught young women.
I want myself to be a dead body
smoking a rotten cigarette, watching the emptiness.
I want myself to be a line inside a neglected book,
a line upon which the dust eats and drinks.
—Trans. Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

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.  

“. . . A thousand eyes for an eye? . . .” (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

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img0567_cropped_778_518
Children of Bedouin community of Khan al Ahmar. (Photo: Medical Aid for Palestinians, March 3, 2017.)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|  UNRWA  RECEIVES  $118  MILLION  IN  AID  FOR  PALESTINE  REFUGEES
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has received $118 million from a number of countries to help in upholding its essential services.    ___UNRWA’s spokesman Sami Mashasha said a meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in support of the UNRWA, under the sponsorship of Turkey, Japan, Sweden, Jordan and the European Union, culminated in pledges for allocating further essential funding to the UNRWA.   More . . .
Related . . .    EU proposes additional €40 million for UNRWA to keep schools and health clinics open
|  ABBAS  UNANIMOUSLY  NAMED  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  GROUP  OF  77  AND  CHINA
The Group of 77 and China meeting in New York on Thursday . . .  unanimously named Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as chairman, replacing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the current chairman.   ___The representatives of 134 countries, representing 80% of the world’s population, named the State of Palestine as chairman of the Group of 77 and China during the 42nd meeting of the group’s foreign ministers . . .   ___The State of Palestine, while presiding over the group of 134 countries, will . . .  negotiate with the other partners and member states of the organization on all the developmental, humanitarian and legal issues on the agenda of the United Nations 2019.  More . . .
|  ISRAEL  SEALS  OFF,  DECLARES  KHAN  AL-AHMAR  CLOSED  MILITARY  ZONE   Israeli forces declared the Khan al-Ahmar village, east of occupied Jerusalem in the central West bank, on Friday, a closed military zone.   ___A Ma’an reporter said that Israeli forces closed all roads leading to Khan al-Ahmar, preventing Palestinians and journalists from entering the village.   ___Israeli forces closed the iron gate at the entrance of the village, early Friday morning.   More . . .
Related . . . EU Exerts Effort to Halt Demolition of Khan Al-Ahmar
Related . . . Despite Israeli restrictions, Palestinians perform prayer in Khan al-Ahmar
|  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  SAVAGELY  ASSAULT  [DISABLED]  JERUSALEMITE
He was not protected by his injury nor his crutch. The young Jerusalemite Amir Abu Laban, 28 years old, was hospitalized in the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem, after he was cruelly beaten by Israeli soldiers at the King Hussein Bridge crossing at the Jordanian-Palestinian border a few days ago.   [. . . .] The crime of the young Abu Laban was that he said to the occupation soldiers that he has special needs, and that he cannot be examined through X-rays which has a negative impact on his health, due to the existence of platinum in his body because of his disability, yet the soldiers violently assaulted him.   More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|  ISRAEL’S  STRANGLEHOLD  ON  AREA  C:  DEVELOPMENT  AS  RESISTANCE
Ahmad El-Atrash
Israel’s efforts to tighten its grip on the West Bank have been unprecedented since the current Israeli cabinet formed in 2015. . . . Five decades of Israeli occupation – particularly since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 – have allowed Israel to continue its colonization of Palestinian land while rendering Palestinian development truncated, distorted, and even mythological.    [. . . .]  Israel has developed [Area C] in particular for its own purposes, namely through the construction of settlements and military infrastructure.   ___In the face of Israel’s policy of expansion in the West Bank, Palestinians view their own development as a means of resistance.    More . . .
|  WHAT  NETANYAHU’S  IDEA  OF  PEACE  LOOKS  LIKE 
Haggai Matar
U.S. President Donald Trump said that he favors two states as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Wednesday.   ___ In response to Trump’s comments, which signaled a change from his previous stance, according to which he would back whichever solution Israelis and Palestinians support, Netanyahu told “. . . . I am willing for the Palestinians to have the authority to rule themselves without the capability to harm us.” Israel, said Netanyahu, will not “relinquish security control west of the Jordan.”   More. . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

KinderUSA:  DR.  MADS  GILBERT:  A  RETURN  VISIT  TO  GAZA,  October 21, 2018 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm. Angelika Film Center, Plano, Texas. Information and REGISTRATION.

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

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

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

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

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

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.

“. . . Do you remember your panic―at the reign of death? . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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As a guest at Al-Aqsa, November 5, 2015. Photo: by Harold Knight.

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

WHO:  10  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  4  CHILDREN,  WERE  KILLED  BY  ISRAELIS  IN  GAZA  IN  2  WEEKS 
The latest figures provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) indicate that during the demonstrations between 10th and 22nd September, 10 Palestinians including four children were killed and 1,193 were injured by the Israeli forces, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a special situation report on Gaza published on Thursday. Most of the killings and injuries occurred during protests as part of the March of Return on the Gaza border with Israel.    ___Out of the total 1,193 injured, 690 patients required transfer to the MoH hospitals or NGO clinics, including 127 children and 37 females. Of the hospitalized injured, 19 cases were critically life threatening, 275 moderate, 386 mild . . .  More . . .

OVER  500  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  STORM  AL-AQSA  ON  4TH  DAY  OF  SUKKOT
Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, on Thursday, through the Moroccan Gate on the fourth day of their Jewish holiday of Sukkot.   ___The Islamic Endowment Department (Waqf) confirmed that 509 Israeli settlers stormed the compound via the Moroccan Gate that was opened at 7 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. and the numbers are expected to increase throughout the day.   ___Israeli forces and police were deployed across the compound, by the Moroccans Gate and by the Chain Gate, in addition to Israeli police being deployed by the doors of the mosque and into the streets leading up to the compound in the Old City.   More . . .
Related . . .Fanatic  Israeli  settlers  perform  provocative  rituals  in  Samou
Related . . .Israeli  forces  injure  20  Palestinians  as  settlers  visit  Joseph’s  Tomb     

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

EREKAT:  WHAT  TRUMP  SAID  IS  A  REWARD  FOR    AGGRESSORS  FOR  THEIR  CRIMES
PLO Executive Committee Secretary Dr. Saeb Erekat  said in  his response to President Trump’s Speech at the UNGA today that President Trump has confirmed that his administration has closed the doors to peace and cannot play a role in peacemaking by stating that his decision to move his embassy to Israel to Jerusalem, in violation of Security Council resolution 478, was a “recognition of reality”. Rather, what his administration did, and continues to do, is to reward and incentivize violations of international law, colonization, war crimes, and apartheid.    ___His rejection of the International Criminal Court is a rejection of international law. It should be noted that Israel, the occupying power, did not implement any of the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions Erekat said.   More . . .
Related . . .Officials  address  Palestine  at  UNGA

“PREVENTING  PALESTINE”:  A  MUST  READ  HISTORY  OF  FAILED  PEACE-MAKING
James J. Zogby
Seth Anziska’s “Preventing Palestine: A Political History From Camp David to Oslo” is a deeply insightful and profoundly disturbing book that traces the tortuous path of Middle East peace-making during the past four decades. It was quite painful to read.     ___Having been a close observer and sometimes participant in many of the developments that have unfolded since the end of the 1973 War, Anziska opened old wounds while shedding new light on the painful events and acts of betrayal that have shaped recent Palestinian history.     ___Through all of the twists and turns of this period, the brutal wars and the diplomatic initiatives, the one constant that emerges is the Israeli determined refusal to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood and the self-serving acquiesce to their intransigence by successive American administrations and key Arab leaders.  More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .   

BRIGHT  STARS  OF  BETHLEHEM:  “Room  for  Hope,”  (Dallas,  Austin,  Houston,  Texas,  USA),  Oct.  5-7,  2018.    It’s finally here! Bright Stars is coming to Texas for a multi-city festival of Palestinian culture.  After postponing last year’s festival due to Hurricane Harvey, we are thrilled to be in Texas this fall.   Information . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“BUCHENWALD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Have you forgotten your shame at Buchenwald?
Do you remember your flames at Buchenwald?
Have you forgotten your love in the lexicon
of silence? Do you remember your panic―
at the reign of death, in the nightmare of time―
that the whole world
would become a Buchenwald?
Whether you’ve forgotten or not,
the dead’s images linger
among the wreaths of flowers,
and from the dismembered corpses
a hand emerges,
a nail in the palm and tattoo on the wrist―
a sign for the planet.
Do you remember? Or not?
Buchenwald― whether or not you’ve forgotten,
the images of the murdered
remain among the wreaths of flowers . . .

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER  THAN  WATER.  New  and  Selected  Poems.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.

 

“. . . an impossible burden weighs down . . .” (Majid Abu Ghoush)

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Shot with a live round in the head, east of Gaza city, Emad Daoud Eshteiwi, 21. Sept. 24, 2018. (Photo: IMEMCNews.)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

REPORT:  SETTLEMENT  ACTIVITIES  ESCALATED,  PARTICULARLY  IN  JERUSALEM  AND  JORDAN  VALLEY 
In his weekly report on Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, the National Office for the Defending Land and Resisting Settlements (NBPRS) reported, that  Israel’s settlement activities cover all the West Bank governorates encouraged by the US, and the absence of the international accountability. The Netanyahu government continues its grave violations of international law that amount to war crimes through demolishing and displacing the Palestinians, and at the same time legitimizing settlement outposts and confiscating Palestinian land the last of which a plan no 3/515, which aims to expand the settlement of Tina by building 135 new settlement units on 260 dunums of the lands of the Dahiriya town.    More . . .

ISRAEL  IMPOSES  8  DAY  CLOSURE  ON  WEST  BANK,  GAZA
The Israeli authorities declared an 8-day closure on the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip starting late Sunday until next Monday, the first of October, for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.    ___The Israeli army spokesperson confirmed that the closure will be lifted off the West Bank on Monday, September 24th night but would be imposed again on Thursday night until October 1st.    ___Crossings with the Gaza Strip would remain closed until October 1st.    ___This is the third closure imposed on the West Bank and Gaza in the month of September. . .     More . . .

ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  KILL  A  PALESTINIAN  IN  GAZA
The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that Israeli soldiers killed, on Sunday evening, a young Palestinian man, and injured at least 20 others, including one medic, along the eastern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.    ___Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said the soldiers shot Emad Daoud Eshteiwi, 21, with a live round in the head, east of Gaza city, and moderately injured a medic in the leg.    ___He added that the soldiers also shot twenty Palestinians with live rounds . . .    More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

ABBAS  ARRIVES  IN  NEW  YORK  FOR  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  MEETING
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived Sunday to New York, in the United States, to participate in the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, amidst calls from pro-Israel lobbying organizations that the U.S. should deny Abbas entry into the US.    ___President Abbas will be delivering a speech this coming Thursday, and also intends to hold many meetings with world leaders and international delegations participating in the General Assembly sessions.    ___He is accompanied by the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amro, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki . . .    More . . .
Related . . .    Premier  to  tell  AHLC  meeting  ending  Israeli  occupation  answer  to  economic  growth
Related . . .    Italian  motorcycle  rally  in  solidarity  with  Palestinians
Related . . .    Japan  funds  project  for  additional  classrooms  in  Salfit  village
Related . . .    Jordan  takes  steps  to  support  Jerusalem’s  Palestinians

EXPLOITING  GAZA  TOPS  THE  UN’S  HUMANITARIAN  AGENDA 
What would prompt the UN to assert, without reservations or calculated statements, that Gaza has collapsed in terms of humanitarian necessities? So far, the international organization has relied on projecting extended time frames; the result being that Gaza was forced into a currently irreversible situation while the UN saves face, or believes it does, by stepping in at its designated intervals.    ___On Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory announced through a press release that it was releasing $1 million “to prevent the collapse of life-saving services in the Gaza Strip”.    [. . . .] The funding crisis exacerbates the humanitarian situation because the political intent is to maintain the continuation of violating human rights. In its previous warning of the impending collapse in services, there is no mention of Israel.    More . . .
Related . . .   LACK  OF  MEDICATIONS  THREATENS  LIVES  OF  425  KIDNEY  PATIENTS  [GAZA]

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS . . . 

THE  PALESTINIAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  EMPOWERMENT  AND  LOCAL  DEVELOPMENT-REFORM     REFORM strives for a society where everyone has the capacity to participate effectively, individual and collective rights are respected, and pluralism is ensured in an independent Palestinian state.   Donate . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

OCCUPATION,”  BY  MAJID  ABU  GHOUSH
Occupied Ramallah 17/11/06

Strange days cast dour shadows
Dusk. The fragrance of death
on a windowsill.
In the lingering heat
an impossible burden weighs
down on eyelids and chest;
the throat aches, the spine throbs.

Rose petals all tarnished with foul dust
from the poisoned world.
Black limousines sail past, flying
the skull and crossbones.
The grave yawns open early,
nightmares never leave.
Death squads. Detention camps.

Somewhere, an oud
pronounces its sad chords.
The invaders smile; tap their feet.
―Translated by John Glenday

Majid Abu Ghoush is prolific poet and novelist, a member of the secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers, and a founding member of Poets Without Borders, Palestine.
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY.  Ed. by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving. (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014).

“. . . I have recognized my griefs . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Settler (ONLY) road between Jerusalem and Gilo Settlement at Beit Jala. (Photo: H. Knight, Nov. 8, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

PALESTINIAN  KILLED,  DOZENS  INJURED  IN  GAZA
A Palestinian was killed and dozens others were injured by Israeli live ammunition during protests at the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday.   ___The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that one Palestinian, identified as Karim Muhammad Kallab, 25, was shot and killed by Israeli live bullets in eastern Gaza City.   [. . . .] Israeli forces ired tear-gas bombs and live bullets at protesters.   More . . .
Related . . . Palestinian Ministry of Health: Kallab’s death raises the number of Palestinians  killed  to  184;  some  20,472  injuries  have been recorded since March 30.

ISRAEL  TO  BUILD  610  SETTLEMENT  UNITS  IN  O.  JERUSALEM,  RAMALLAH
Israel approved on Thursday plans to construct 610 illegal settlement units in occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah, Hebrew media sources revealed.    ___According to the sources, Israeli forces started today levelling Palestinian-owned lands located near Beit Ell settlement northeast of Ramallah as a prelude to construct 300 settlement units.   ___Israeli authorities also approved plans for the construction of 310 other settlement units in occupied Jerusalem.   More . . .

ISRAELI  ARMY  RESUMES  CONSTRUCTION  OF  ROAD  FOR  EFRAT  SETTLERS
The Israeli occupation army’s civil administration on Thursday resumed the construction of a road for Jewish settlers leading to the illegal settlement of Efrat, south of Bethlehem.   ___According to a local official, a crew from the civil administration escorted by soldiers stormed Khilat al-Nahla area in southern Bethlehem and used bulldozers to build a bypass leading to Efrat settlement.   More . . .
Related . . .  IOF  TRIES  TO  PREVENT  SALFIT  MUNICIPALITY  FROM  DRILLING  WELL 

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

WHEN  AN  ISRAELI  SETTLER  IS  KILLED,  EVERYONE  NOTICES
Jonathan Ofir
On Sunday, the Israeli settler Ari Fuld was stabbed by a Palestinian child of 17, Khalil Jabarin. . .   ___This piece could have been about . . .   the six Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli forces a couple of days later . . .    ___Who wants to hear about the deaths of Muhammad Zaghloul al-Khatib al-Rimawi, Muhammad Yousif Alayan, Muhammad Ahmad Abu Naji, Ahmad Muhammad Muhsin Omar, Naji Jamil Abu Assi and Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi? Nah, Ari Fuld, that’s the news.   [. . . .] Israeli hasbarists exploit this one death for more hasbara; when they admonish us for being insensitive. . . they obviously would not even note the deaths of those killed under that self-righteous Zionist zeal – that makes me angry, and I have to push back.   More . . .

PALESTINE:  DIARY  OF  AN  UNRWA  KID
Ramzy Baroud
Maintaining one’s dignity while living a dismal existence in a refugee camp is not an easy feat. My parents fought hard to spare us the daily humiliations that come with living in Nuseirat – Gaza’s largest refugee camp. But when I turned six, and joined the UNRWA-run Nuseirat Elementary School for Boys, there was no escape.   ___Not only was I a refugee on official United Nations papers, but in practice as well, just like all my peers.   ___To be a Palestinian refugee means living perpetually in limbo – unable to reclaim what has been lost, the beloved homeland, and unable to fashion an alternative future and a life of freedom, justice and dignity.   More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

AMERICAN  FRIENDS  SERVICE  COMMITTEE:
What  Does  Justice  Look  Like?  Moving  Towards  a  Just  Peace  in  Palestine  and  Israel,  Dec 14-16, 2018
Join the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker Palestine Israel Network (QPIN), and Pendle Hill for a weekend of exploring what it will take to realize a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel.  AFSC and Quakers have been engaging in Palestine for over a century and working for peace with justice since 1948. After decades without change, we want to open up a conversation about what is needed for a just future.

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“TO  THE  READER,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Black tulips in my heart,
flames on my lips:
from which forest did you come to me,
all you crosses of anger?
I have recognized my griefs
and embraced wandering and hunger.
Anger lives in my hands,
anger lives in my mouth
and in the blood of my arteries swims anger.

O reader,
don’t expect whispers from me,
or words of ecstasy;
this is my suffering!
A foolish blow in the sand
and another in the clouds.
Anger is all I am –
anger, the tinder
of fire. 

– –   From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988.