Category: Palestinian Bedouins

“. . . they come to burn the love in our hearts . . .” (Yousef al-Mahmoud)

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Maale Adumim settlement, part of “E1 Corridor” threatening Khan al-Ahmar (Photo: Palestine Information Center, October 28, 2017)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|   KHAN  AL-AHMAR  FLOODED  WITH  WASTEWATER  FOR  2ND  TIME    Israeli settlers stormed the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, on Monday, and flooded the area with wastewater for a second time.    __Locals said that Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Adummim stormed the village and flooded Khan al-Ahmar with wastewater, causing serious environmental and health hazard for residents.   ___Sources added that the wastewater from the Kfar Adummim settlement flooded large areas of the village, as Israeli settlers attempt to assist the Israeli government force the residents to leave the area.    More . . .
. . . . . . . Resource: What  is  the  E1  area,  and  why  is  it  so  important?
. . . . Related   Israeli  soldiers,  settlers  uproot  trees  in  East  Jerusalem  neighborhood
|   ISRAELI  [HEBRON]  SETTLEMENT  PLANS  ‘DECLARATION  OF  NEW  WAR  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS’          The Palestinian government slammed, on Monday, the Israeli government’s approval of 22 million shekels ($6.1 million) in government funding to expand an illegal Israeli settlement inside the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron.   ___The Palestinian government’s spokesperson, Youssef al-Mahmoud, said in a statement that the approval is a “literal translation of the occupation’s plans that is based on what became known as the ‘Deal of the Century.'”   ___He called it expansion of an Israeli settlement in the center of Hebron City is “a declaration of a new war against the Palestinian people, a blatant targeting of their existence, and an attack on international laws and resolutions.”   More . . .
|   EURO-MED  RIGHTS  GROUP  CALLS  FOR  PRESSURE  ON  ISRAEL  TO  END  TARGETING  PALESTINIAN  DEMONSTRATORS      The Geneva-based  EURO-MEDITERRANEAN  HUMAN  RIGHTS  MONITOR  (Euro-Med)  Monday said that Israeli forces caused injuries to one in every 100 Palestinians as Gaza protests conclude 200 days and called on the international community to exert serious pressure on Israel to end  its targeting of Palestinian demonstrators.   ___“The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor calls on the international community to exert serious pressure to put an end to the targeting of Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip and to protect their right to peaceful assembly,” said Euro-Med in a statement.   ___It also called on “all parties concerned to exert pressure on Israel to lift its blockade affecting every aspect of Gaza’s largely civilian population.”   More . . .
|   AFTER  A  DAY  OF  PROTEST,  ISRAELI  ARMY  BACKS  DOWN  ON  DECISION  TO  CLOSE  WEST  BANK  SCHOOL     After a day of protest against an Israeli army order to close al-Lubban/al-Sawiyeh school in the north of the West Bank, the Israeli army backed down on its decision on Monday and allowed the school to reopen, according to Nablus Governor Akram Rajoub.    ___He told WAFA that the protest by the families and officials earlier today against the closure order seem to have forced the army to back down on its earlier decision.    More . . .
. . . . Related  Palestinians  arrested,  homes  ransacked  in  dawn  sweep  by  Israel  army
. . . . Related  Israeli  forces  arrest  Khan  Ahmar  activists

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|   A  PALESTINIAN  BEDOUIN  VILLAGE  BRACES  FOR  FORCIBLE  TRANSFER  AS  ISRAEL  SEEKS  TO  SPLIT  THE  WEST  BANK  IN  HALF    RAYYAH HAS LIVED in Khan al-Ahmar all of her 47 years. . .  Her family and neighbors, members of a Bedouin community known as the Jahalin, found refuge on this scorched patch of rocks and dust in the 1950s, after they were expelled from the land they had inhabited for generations, in the Negev desert, following the establishment of the Israeli state. The land Khan al-Ahmar stands on was under Jordanian control when the Jahalin arrived. Today, this smatter of tin roofs and tarps sits on the side of a highway in the occupied West Bank, surrounded by a fast-growing ring of Israeli settlements . . .    ___The village, which is home to less than 200 people and where the only building with walls is a school made of mud and old tires, has become the latest front line in a conflict over land that for decades has determined the fates of Palestinians . . .    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“ENEMY,”  BY  YOUSEF  AL-MAHMOUD
They come from all the ends of the earth to sit among us
they come from the ends of the winds
they bring sickness and a hissing like snakes
they come from the ends of the snows
they come smelling of death
they come with blood-dipping knives
they bring panic and terror
they are utterly not-to-be-trusted
they are utterly murderous
they are proud of their murders, they are drinkers of blood
proud of tooth and nail
even more proud of guns and treachery
they come to burn the love in our hearts
and turn it to torture and bitterness
they bring sorrow, terror, sickness. . .
How have they come to sit among us?
—Translated by DM Black

Yousef Al-Mahmoud is a prominent broadcaster and poet, and former head of the Ministry of Culture in his native Jenin.
From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Barnes and Noble.

“. . . . The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets . . .” (Farrah Sarafa)

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F131130DB05-e1386823884429-635x357
Police and some 1,200 protesters clash during a rally against the government’s plan to resettle some 30,000 Bedouin residents of the Negev, in the southern Israeli town of Hura, earlier this month (Photo credit: David Buimovitch/Flash90)

❶ Palestinian woman shot dead after alleged car attack at Gush Etzion
❷ Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians near Gaza border
❸ PHOTOS: Arabs and Jews protest planned expulsion of 1,200 Bedouin
❹ BDS win: UNICEF in Jordan ends G4S contract
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY — FOR JEWS ALONE
❻ Poetry by Farrah Sarafa
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  CAR  ATTACK  AT  GUSH  ETZION
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces shot dead a 34-year-old Palestinian woman on Friday morning after she allegedly rammed her car into an Israeli soldier stationed at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern occupied West Bank.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that after the woman hit the soldier with her car, Israeli forces “responded to the imminent threat” by shooting and killing her.     MORE . . .
❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  GAZA  BORDER
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian workers east of Gaza City on Friday morning, with no injuries reported, locals told Ma’an.
___Heavy gunfire was heard as Israeli soldiers stationed in military towers along the Gazan border opened fire on workers and bird hunters.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that the Palestinians left the area fearing for their safety. Medical sources said that no injuries were reported.      MORE . . .

bedouin children
Bedouin children take part in a demonstration outside the Be’er Sheva District Court against the planned demolition of Umm al-Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel’s Negev Desert, March 3, 2016. (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

❸ PHOTOS:  ARABS  AND  JEWS  PROTEST  PLANNED  EXPULSION  OF  1,200  BEDOUIN
+972 MAGAZINE
Yael Marom, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
3 Mar. 2016
Over 300 demonstrators marched outside the Be’er Sheva District Court Thursday against the planned demolition of two unrecognized Bedouin villages, Umm al-Hiran and Atir, in Israel’s Negev Desert. Two villages are slated to be replaced by a Jewish-only community and a Jewish National Fund forest, respectively
___The protesters, Arabs and Jews, accompanied by members of Knesset from the Joint List and Meretz’s Issawi Freij, chanted “We will not move from Atir and Umm al-Hiran,” and “the Negev belongs to all of us — Jews and Arabs.”      MORE . . .
❹ BDS  WIN:  UNICEF  IN  JORDAN  ENDS  G4S  CONTRACT
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan has ended its contract with G4S following a campaign by BDS activists in the country and across the world over the company’s role in Israel’s detention and torture of Palestinian political prisoners and other Israeli human rights violations.
___Guman Mussa, the Arab World campaigns coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, welcomed the move.  MORE . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  RIGHT  TO  OWN  PROPERTY  — FOR  JEWS  ALONE
+972 BLOG
From YESH DIN, by Yossi Gurvitz
4 Mar. 2016
The government never authorized the wholesale annexation of the West Bank. That’s why it’s doing it behind everyone’s backs. . . .
[. . . . ]
The Israeli government never authorized . . . unofficial policy of annexation – one that does not grant equal rights to those being annexed, while at the same time depriving them of the legal defenses they are entitled to as protected persons, since, allegedly, there is no occupation.      MORE . . . 

“LET  THE  LAND  CHOOSE,”  BY  FARRAH  SARAFA

Who do you think the Holy Land
Would choose: Palestine or Israel?

Do you expect the birthplace of 3
Religions to ever really be peaceful?

I mean—Jesus was a saint,
Tortured and crucified by men with gold.

Do we celebrate Pilot’s cursed victory
Or the sacrifices made by a saint,

A hero, who rises from the dead?
His Resurrection marked by Easter eggs,

Reproduction. Do miracles
Require modernity or tradition

To appear? Chemicals or nature?
Mind or heart? Bulldozing olive trees,

Whose oil sustained families, diet
And economy, Israel is yet to produce

A decent olive oil. Its blood somehow
Curdles with the juice of branches needed

To extract an extra virgin olive.
The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets,

Nightclubs, Capitalism, Snobbery-
(Ignorance is bliss)—but the roots

The veins reaching into mountains’
Throats seem to not be cooperating.

Why is that? Ask Jesus, the rebel,
Who’d say: First get to love Palestine.

About Farrah Sarafa
In 2006 she wrote: “My mother was born in Palestine, my father in Iraq; they married in Egypt twenty five years ago and had me here in the States. I am a pure, product of occupation and war, therefore, confused by my American upbringing. The war has been eating me up more than ever and poetry is my primary response. . .”
From Warpoetry.co.uk
 BDS FINAL LOGO_v5WEB_URL_side

“. . . what’s the use of a harmonica in hell? . . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-bedouins
A Bedouin family stands near their tents and sheep pens. (Image by West Bank-based photojournalist Mohammad Alhaj.)

❶ Told to leave, determined to stay: Bedouins of the Jordan Valley
❷ Palestinian village [Qabatiya] sealed for 2nd day after deadly attack
Related . . . Reprisal operation in Qabatiya
❸ Israel demolishes 9 Palestinian structures in Jordan Valley
❹ Dozens Injured As Israeli Soldiers Attack Weekly Protest in Bil’in
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Israeli military reportedly seeks to censor private Facebook pages commenting on national security
❻ Poetry by Mourid Barghouti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
TOLD  TO  LEAVE,  DETERMINED  TO  STAY:  BEDOUINS  OF  THE  JORDAN  VALLEY
Mohammad Alhaj
Feb. 2 2016
On the sparsely populated northern stretch of the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley live tens of Bedouin families.
___Neglected by both the Palestinian Authority and harassed by the Israeli military, these families have to survive without running water or electricity.
___Any water wells dug by the families themselves will likely be destroyed by Israel, which maintains strict control over water resources in the occupied West Bank. Israel does not issue building permits for more permanent structures. Any attempt to build such structures will likely end in demolition.     More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  VILLAGE  [Qabatiya]  SEALED  FOR  2ND  DAY  AFTER  DEADLY  ATTACK
Feb. 5, 2016
Israeli forces on Friday continued to seal the occupied West Bank village of Qabatiya, the hometown of three Palestinians who were shot dead after carrying out an attack that left an Israeli officer dead in Jerusalem earlier this week.
___The Jenin-district village has been closed since late Wednesday, hours after the attack took place.
___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces closed the Khirbat al-Wahid road Friday with bulldozers, cutting off the last opening for movement in and out of the village.  More . . .
Related . . . REPRISAL   OPERATION   IN   QABATIYA .  (Alternative Information Center ―AIC)

1-qabatya
Palestinians run for cover during clashes with Israeli occupation troops in the occupied West Bank village of Qabatya near Jenin, February 4, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  9  PALESTINIAN  STRUCTURES  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY
Feb. 5, 2016
Israeli forces on Thursday demolished five homes and four other Palestinian-owned structures in the Jordan Valley town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank.
___A spokesperson for Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Ma’an that Israel’s Civil Administration as well as security forces demolished the structures because they were built illegally “without necessary permits”. . . .
___ Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley — nearly all of which lies under complete Israeli control in Area C — are particularly vulnerable and have for decades faced pressure from Israeli authorities to leave the area.    More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
DOZENS  INJURED  AS ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  WEEKLY  PROTEST  IN  BIL’IN
Feb. 05, 2016
Israeli soldiers used excessive force, Friday, against the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and colonies, in Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
___The protest started following noon prayers, when locals, along with Israeli and international peace activists, marched from the center of the village towards the villagers orchards, in the western part of the village.
___The protesters carried Palestinian flags, and pictures of hunger striking detainee Mohammad al-Qeeq — who is in a near-death situation — demanding his release, and the release of all political prisoners.    More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
ISRAELI  MILITARY  REPORTEDLY  SEEKS  TO  CENSOR  PRIVATE  FACEBOOK  PAGES  COMMENTING  ON  NATIONAL  SECURITY
Oren Parsiko
Trans. Jonathan Ofir
Feb. 4, 2016
Change of approach in the military censorship; No more monitoring of Facebook texts following their publication: from now on account holders are required to pass on to the censorship any text regarding the security establishment; Blogger Yossi Gurvitz: I will not comply with the decree, I will apply to the court system.    More . . .

“WITHOUT  MERCY,”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI

There is a sweet music,
but its sweetness fails to console you.
This is what the days have taught you:
in every long war
there is a soldier, with a distracted face and ordinary teeth,
who sits outside his tent
holding his bright-sounding harmonica
which he has carefully protected from the dust and blood,
and like a bird
uninvolved in the conflict,
he sings to himself
a love song
that does not lie.

For a moment,
he feels embarrassed at what the moonlight might think:
what’s the use of a harmonica in hell?

A shadow approaches,
then more shadows.
His fellow soldiers, one after the other,
join him in his song.
The singer takes the whole regiment with him
to Romeo’s balcony,
and from there,
without thinking,
without mercy,
without doubt,
they will resume the killing!

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

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A flock of doves flies over a Bedouin tent destroyed by the Israeli military. (Image by West Bank-based photojournalist Mohammad Alhaj.)

 

“. . . the moon is trudging there downcast and weary as the UNRWA. . .” (Rashid Hussein)

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(Please take a moment to read the page “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

Morning lineup at UNRWA school in Gaza. (UN Photo-Shareef Sarhan. November 27, 2013.)
Morning lineup at UNRWA school in Gaza. (UN Photo-Shareef Sarhan. November 27, 2013.)

❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UNRWA  STAFF  IN  GAZA  ANNOUNCE  STRIKE  ON  1ST  DAY OF  SCHOOL  YEAR
Aug. 24, 2015
GAZA CITY ―Around 225,000 Gazan schoolchildren were forced to return home on Monday after local staff at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza went on strike on the first day of the new school year.
____The strike comes amid a financial crisis in the agency that earlier threatened to delay the start of the school year.
[. . . .]
____The union met with UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl on Sunday and said the “atmosphere wasn’t positive.”
[. . . .]
____For Palestinian refugees, the start of the school year came as a relief after UNRWA warned for weeks that it would have to delay the school year if it was unable to cover a $101 million deficit.
____The UN agency was only able to announce on Wednesday that the year would go ahead as scheduled, after it secured just short of $80 million in contributions against its deficit.
More. . .
Related. . . UNRWA  COMMISSIONER  GENERAL  FREEZES  CONTROVERSIAL  ‘UNPAID  LEAVE’
Related. . . ‘WE  CAN’T  HAVE  ANOTHER  YEAR  LIKE  THIS’:  UNRWA  COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

❷ From: AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
AFTER  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  LEFT,  THESE  GAZANS  PLANTED  MORE  THAN  EGGPLANTS
Hana Salah
August 23, 2015
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — A vast agricultural area in southern Gaza was dubbed by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in 2007 as Muhararat, or liberated lands. This term designates the settlements that were vacated by Israel in August 2005 and turned into Palestinian properties after 38 years. Ever since, the Palestinian government has been using these lands for cultivation, housing projects and resorts.
____When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan in 2003, the withdrawal in 2005 was warmly welcomed in the Gaza Strip. Nineteen settlements and settlement outposts distributed in the south and north were evacuated, and checkpoints were abolished. . .
____In 2006, the Palestinian government announced the formation of the General Administration of National Muhararat, tasked with managing, protecting, investing and supervising the Muhararat while reaping profits from them.
More. . .
Hana Salah is a Palestinian financial journalist based in Gaza. She previously worked with Palestinian newspapers and Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency.

The supervisor of citrus and potato cultivation in Muhararat areas inspects a crop, Gaza Strip, Aug. 12, 2015. (photo by Hana Salah)
The supervisor of citrus and potato cultivation in Muhararat areas inspects a crop, Gaza Strip, Aug. 12, 2015. (Photo by Hana Salah)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  BEGINS  CONSTRUCTION  ON  RUINS  OF  NEGEV  BEDOUIN  VILLAGE
August 23, 2015
BEERSHEBA ― Israeli excavators on Sunday morning began work on infrastructure for two Jewish-only settlements in the former Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert in southern Israel, locals said.
____Locals told Ma’an that excavators and bulldozers were building a new road under heavy protection of Israeli forces.
____In November 2013, the Israeli government approved a decision to demolish the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran and passed plans to create two Jewish settlements, Hiran and Kassif, in the area.
More. . .

❹ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
HAMAS:  NO  JUSTIFICATION  FOR  THE  UNRWA’S  REDUCTION  OF  ITS  SERVICES
August 24, 2015
GAZA ―Hamas Department of Refugee Affairs Sunday called on the international community and UNRWA to continue offering aid to and protecting right of Palestinian refugees till their return to their homeland from which they were forcibly displaced in 1948.
____There is no justification for the reduction of UNRWA’s services provided to Palestinian refugees in its five fields of operations especially after its Commissioner-General declared UNRWA’s 2015 financial crisis is over, the statement said. . .
____The department also stressed its total rejection of reducing UNRWA’s health care services provided to Palestinian refugees.
[. . . .]
____The Department of Refugee Affairs also stressed the importance of using Palestinian Authority textbooks in UNRWA schools, as it helps save huge amounts of money and prevents any distortion to the Palestinian history and struggle.
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
From INSIGHT ON CONFLICT
BORN  &  BRED  WITHOUT  RIGHTS:  GAZA  STRIP  REFUGEES  IN  JORDAN
Dario Sabaghi
July 10 2015
2 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan but they are not all afforded the same legal status. Dario Sabaghi explains how those originating from the Gaze Strip are not considered citizens leaving them in a very precarious position.
[. . . .]
____Jerash Camp, also known locally as Gaza camp, was established in 1968 for 11,500 Palestine refugees who fled from the Gaza strip, as consequence of 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It is located not far from the Roman stone ruins of Jerash. Currently, it hosts about 28,000 registered refugees, who live in an area of 0.75 square kilometres. If you want to understand its overcrowding, you have to take in consideration that Gaza Camp is almost twice as large as Vatican City populated by 845 inhabitants.
More. . .

“TENT  #50  (SONG  OF  A  REFUGEE),”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN
Tent #50, on the left, is my new world,
Shared with me by my memories:
Memories as verdant as the eyes of spring.
Memories like the eyes of a woman weeping,
And memories the color of milk and love!

Two doors has my tent, two doors like two wounds
One leads to the other tents, wrinkle-browed
Like clouds no longer able to weep;
And the second ― a rent in the ceiling, leading
To the skies,
Revealing the stars
Like refugees scattered,
And like them, naked.

Also the moon is trudging there
Downcast and weary as the UNRWA,
Yellow as if it were the UNRWA
Under a load of yellow cheese for the refugees.

Tent #50, on the left, that is my present.
But it is too cramped to contain a future!
And ― “Forget!” they say, but how can I?

Teach the night to forget to bring
Dreams showing me my village
And teach the wind to forget to carry to me
The aroma of apricots in my fields!
And teach the sky, too, to forget to rain.

Only then, I may forget my country.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.
Available from Amazon.
Rashid Hussein (1936-1977) was born in Musmus, Palestine. He published his first collection in 1957 and established himself as a major Palestinian poet and orator. He participated in founding the Land Movement in 1959. He left in 1966 and lived in Syria and Lebanon and later in New York City where he died in February, 1977. He was buried a week later in Musmus. His funeral was attended by thousands of Palestinians.
More. . .

Jerash Camp, also known locally as Gaza camp, was established in 1968 for 11,500 Palestine refugees who fled from the Gaza strip. Photo Dario Sabaghi.
Jerash Camp, also known locally as Gaza camp, was established in 1968 for 11,500 Palestine refugees who fled from the Gaza strip. Photo Dario Sabaghi.

“. . . We have carried the weight of centuries Long enough. . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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Bedouin Village near illegal Israeli settlement scheduled for demolition. (Photo i24news)
Bedouin Village near illegal Israeli settlement scheduled for demolition. (Photo i24news)

❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL ISSUES MULTIPLE DEMOLITION ORDERS TO BEDOUINS NEAR JERUSALEM
July 9, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s Civil Administration on Thursday delivered dozens of eviction and stop-work orders to Palestinian Bedouins east of Jerusalem, a lawyer told Ma’an.
____Bassab Bahar, who chairs an East Jerusalem committee to protect Palestinian land, said Civil Administration officers accompanied by Israel’s military raided the Abu al-Nawwar dwellings, which house members of the al-Jahalin Bedouin community.
(More. . .)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
HUNDREDS PREVENTED FROM CROSSING TO JERUSALEM FOR FRIDAY PRAYERS
July 10, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces deployed at a main checkpoint in northern Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank prevented hundreds of Palestinians from crossing into Jerusalem Friday morning, due to recently enforced entry restrictions based on age.
____Israeli forces prevented women between the ages of 16 and 30 from crossing to Jerusalem without permits, as well as men from 30 to 50 years old.
____Children under 12 and men above 50 were allowed to enter without permits, in addition to women above 30.
____Men between the ages of 12 and 30 were reportedly barred entrance to Jerusalem.
(More. . .)

Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, occupied West Bank on July 10, 2015. (MaanImages/Mohammad Sbeih)
Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, occupied West Bank on July 10, 2015. (MaanImages/Mohammad Sbeih)

❸ From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
ISRAELI FACEBOOK USERS LAUNCH ‘DEATH TO ARABS’ CAMPAIGN
July 9, 2015
A number of Israeli activists have launched a racist campaign against Arabs on Facebook, calling it “Death to Arabs”, Quds Press reported on Wednesday.
____Quds Press said that the Israeli news website Walla had interviewed a number of the organisers, who added this phrase beside their names on Facebook.
____The Israeli website interviewed a 14-year-old Jewish Israeli named Ran. He said: “It is my full right to write whatever I want instead of my name on Facebook,” Ran told Walla. “I think it is time to disclose the truth,” he added, “all Arabs [in Israel] must not be here.”
(More. . .)
(Background. . .)

❹ From MONDOWEISS
REPORT FROM RAMALLAH: HOW PALESTINE IS TODAY
Francesca Borri
July 9, 2015
Amid the shrubs you glimpse something black. You glimpse a rifle barrel. And you get it. Out your taxi window you notice smoke on your right, but it’s not the typical clearing of undergrowth burning in a distant field. It’s tear gas. In the middle of the white cloud there are 13-year olds with slings and keffiyehs. Slim. Fast.
____No, this isn’t traffic, it’s clashes. But you are the only one who looks. Everyone else is in their car, headphones on, texting.
____“Step away!” your driver shouts—not to a soldier though, to a kid. Palestinians honk. They are running out of patience. Their horns are saying, “Let’s go, yalla. It’s late.”
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From AL-MONITOR PALESTINE PULSE
WILL ISRAEL INVADE WEST BANK?
Adnan Abu Amer
July 9, 2015
In November 2014, Amin Maqboul, the secretary-general of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, revealed that an official Israeli threat was made to the Palestinian Authority of a total invasion and military control of Ramallah.
____Tension escalated between both parties and relations seem to have reached a dead end following the announcement of the Israeli elections’ results in March, which resulted in the formation of the most extreme right-wing coalition in Israeli history, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
____Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf said March 10 that Israel had made a second threat to entirely occupy the West Bank again . . .
____The third Israeli threat was reported by Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper June 14, which quoted an anonymous source close to the Palestinian presidency stating that an anonymous high-ranking Israeli security official threatened to occupy the West Bank in 24 hours . . .
____Adnan Abu Amer is dean of the Faculty of Arts and head of the Press and Information Section at Al Ummah University Open Education as well as a lecturer there in the history of the Palestinian issue, national security, political science and Islamic civilization. He holds a doctorate in political history from Damascus University
(More. . .)

“PSALMS OF THE PALESTINIANS,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM

From here
From this purgatory
Of sorrow
In the Holy Land
The orphaned birds beseech
Mankind
From here
From Jenin
From Old Jerusalem
Alleluia.

Once
A Gaza tune of yearning
Played
Once
The sad refrain
Kindled tragedy
In refugee tents
Once
In Jerusalem
The little ones changed
We shall return
We shall return
Alleluia.

The birds nest on our roof
The sparrow flies
In the horizon
And in exile
Under the hot sun
In the wind
Hearts―eyes
Implored:
God of glory
Return us
Our trial
Has gone on too long!
Alleluia―Alleluia

And then it happened
The metallic eagles swept down
They did not bring the sons of Zion
To Zion
Not the remaining crowds
They did not bring
Pious psalms
To the wailing wall
God of Glory!
What did they bring?
Do not ask me
For in my voice a pagan flame
Burns
And listen O God of Glory
Listen to the outcry of a dispossessed people
We have been tested long enough
We have carried the weight of centuries
Long enough
―Why aren’t you convinced?―
Our days of trial have been too long
So
Return us―Return us
Alleluia―Alleluia―Alleluia.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY OF THE SUN: POETRY OF THE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970. Available from Amazon.

Obituary for Samih al-Qasim (August 20, 2014)

Tweeted by benwedeman @bencnn, July 1st [2014], ‘Mob on Jaffa Road, Jerusalem chanting “death to the Arabs.” (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)
Tweeted by benwedeman @bencnn, July 1st [2014], ‘Mob on Jaffa Road, Jerusalem chanting “death to the Arabs.” (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)