Category: Palestinian Reguees

“. . . But I, a human, a refugee, Oh land of my homeland . . .” (Salem Jubran)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
A boy holding his belongings in the besieged Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus. Thousands have reportedly fled the camp, after Isis invaded it. (Rame Alsayed/Reuters)
A boy holding his belongings in the besieged Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus. Thousands have reportedly fled the camp, after Isis invaded it. (Rame Alsayed/Reuters)

❶ Opinion/Analysis: Israel tries to reap cheap PR from Syrian refugee tragedy
❷ Heads of Churches in Jerusalem denounce Israeli attacks on mosques
❸ Rafah farmers watch in horror as Egypt floods Gaza tunnels
❹ Israeli police holding 4 Palestinian youths over driver’s death
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Is Bibi using J’lem violence as an excuse to target all Arabs?
❻ Poetry by Salem Jubran

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

❶ Opinion/Analysis
THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAEL  TRIES  TO  REAP  CHEAP  PR FROM  SYRIAN  REFUGEE  TRAGEDY
Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
Sept. 11, 2015
Israel is striving to reap cheap public relations from the heart-rending crisis surrounding Syrian refugees fleeing death and destruction in their country.
____Israeli officials and media have been claiming that the erection by Hungary of a barbed wire fence on part of its borders to prevent refugees from entering that country is a vindication of Israel’s policy of building “the separation wall” in the West Bank.
More . . .

❷ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
HEADS  OF  CHURCHES  IN  JERUSALEM  DENOUNCE  ISRAELI  ATTACKS  ON  MOSQUES
Sept. 22, 2015
The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem on Monday have released statement expressing serious concerns regarding recent violent development on Haram al Sharif.

“We condemn all threats of change to historical (Status Quo) situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Haram Asharif) and its courtyard, all buildings, and in the city of Jerusalem. Any threat to its continuity and integrity could easily lead to unpredictable consequences which would be most unwelcome in the present delicate political climate.” statement said.

More . . .

❸ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
RAFAH  FARMERS  WATCH  IN  HORROR  AS  EGYPT  FLOODS  GAZA  TUNNELS
Mohammed Othman
Sept. 25, 2015
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The Egyptian army has been pumping large volumes of Mediterranean Sea waters since Sept. 17 into the buffer zone that it began building two years ago, along 14 kilometers of the Palestinian-Egyptian border. The move is the latest attempt to destroy the tunnels dug by Palestinians under the city of Rafah over the years of the Israeli blockade.
____The operation is causing concern for the Rafah border area inhabitants, who say that it will affect their lives there. Farmer Nayef Abu Shallouf, who owns three acres of land less than 300 meters from the Egyptian border, said all the salt water will leave his land briny and destroy his crops. He told Al-Monitor, “In addition to damaging the soil, sinkholes will appear wherever tunnels were dug, with collapses occurring sooner or later.”
More . . .

❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  POLICE  HOLDING  4  PALESTINIAN  YOUTHS  OVER  DRIVER’S  DEATH
Sept. 26, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli police said Saturday that they were holding four Palestinians aged 16-19 who they accuse of causing an Israeli driver’s death by throwing stones at his car earlier this month.
____Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said the four Palestinians, from the East Jerusalem village of Sur Baher, were detained on suspicion of “carrying out the attack over the Jewish new year.”
____Rosenfeld said: “They admitted carrying out the attack. They planned it ahead of time.” [. . . . .]
____Israeli police have said they believe the Israeli driver, 64-year-old Alexander Levlovich, lost control of his car after a stone was thrown at it on Sept. 13, during the Jewish new year holiday.
____They have so far released no evidence, and shortly after the accident took place the Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court issued a gag order on details of the incident.
More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
IS  BIBI  USING  J’LEM  VIOLENCE  AS  AN  EXCUSE  TO  TARGET  ALL  ARABS?
John Brown and Michal Rotem
Sept. 27, 2015
Netanyahu is trying to expand the open-fire regulations so that they target Arabs inside Israel. The outcome? Only more bloodshed. . . .
____Government representatives compete with one another over who will offer up the firmest way to deal with these youth in order to “do away with this phenomenon.” Of course none of them offers dealing with neglected East Jerusalem, the discrimination, the home demolitions. . . or the fact that there is no framework to take care of children and teenagers after school is over. It is strange that not a single politician has offered to shoot settlers when they throw stones following the demolition of their illegal structures in the West Bank. The opposite is true: they are granted hundreds of new housing units.
More . . .

“A  REFUGEE,”  BY  SALEM  JUBRAN
The sun crosses the frontier
the soldiers bullets it does not fear
and the nightingale sings
at midday in Tulkarm
and east supper in peace
with Jewish birds in the kibbutz
. . . a stray donkey feeds on the line
without a bullet in the spine
But I; a human, refugee
Oh land of my Homeland
my eyes and yours
are ever separate by a wall.

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

A Palestinian is carried after being wounded in clashes with Border Police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, September 13, 2015. (photo: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh/Activestills.org)
A Palestinian is carried after being wounded in clashes with Border Police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, September 13, 2015. (photo: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

“. . . whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

❶ Netanyahu Asks Attorney General to Authorize Sniper Fire against Stone-throwers
❷ Artist of the Month: Ibrahim Jawabrah: Searching through Childhood
❸ Rights group: More than 1,991 Palestinian children killed since 2000
❹ The Fires of Religious War Rage over Al-Aqsa
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Gazan refugees denied rights in Jordan for over 45 years
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

❶ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAEL  AUTHORIZES  SNIPERS  FIRE  AGAINST  ROCK-THROWERS
Sept. 16, 2015
Israel has approved the use of sniper rifles against stone throwers in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reports on Thursday morning. Netanyahu asked the Attorney General to authorize sniper to target the stone throwers as part of his declared “war” on stone throwers in Jerusalem.
More . . .
Related . . .
Related . . . 

❷ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
ARTIST  OF  THE  MONTH:  IBRAHIM  JAWABRAH:  SEARCHING  THROUGH  CHILDHOOD
Mohammad Al Amiri
September, 2015
Born in 1985, Ibrahim Jawabrah is still searching for the child in himself. As he was following his passion for art, he explored the depth of his inner self and found himself in the area of his childhood, which gave his art a special trait and flavor. He discovered a new language with which to argue with himself and clarify many issues about art that would fulfill his vision and respond to his passion and emotions.
____Jawabrah chose the path to heal his pain. His mission in art is purely humanitarian.
More . . .

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
RIGHTS  GROUP:  MORE  THAN  1,991  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  KILLED  SINCE  2000
Sept. 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 1,991 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and extremists since 2000, according to figures released by an international rights group Thursday.
____Ongoing settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank are wedging Palestinian children and their families against “expanding and often violent Israeli settler communities,” Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCIP) research reported.
____Such expansion is increasingly placing Palestinian children in a “hyper-militarized environment,” where they are facing higher frequencies of disproportionate violence . . .
More . . .

Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)
Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)

❹ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  FIRES  OF  RELIGIOUS  WAR  RAGE  OVER  AL-AQSA
Dr. Yousef Rezqa
Sep 16 2015
Israeli media sources have recently published the following statement: “Netanyahu’s government . . . decision to divide Al-Aqsa mosque in two phases: the first phase is to limit the presence of Palestinians by targeting and arresting religious scholars and students. . . The second phase will include the enforcement of daily hours where Jews can enter Al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinians will be forbidden to enter Al-Aqsa mosque during this time. The same regulations have been previously applied to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.”
____If we are to abide by the Netanyahu government’s policy, we will find ourselves in the midst of a new fait accompli that deprives Muslims of their basic right to worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque at any hour of the day.
More . . .
Related . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZAN  REFUGEES  DENIED  RIGHTS  IN  JORDAN  FOR  OVER  45  YEARS
Aaron Magid
(Aaron Magid is an Amman-based journalist. He graduated from Harvard University with a masters in Middle Eastern studies.)
Sept. 17, 2015
JERASH REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (Ma’an) — Born in Jordan, 27-year-old Muhammad’s life hardly resembles a typical Jordanian’s. Lacking any political or civil rights . . . because his parents fled to Jordan from Gaza following the 1967 War.
____“Compared to other Jordanian citizens, I am nothing,” explained Muhammad . . . Approximately 140,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza live in a similar limbo as Muhammad in Jordan: denied most rights and often forced into a life of harsh poverty.
____Nearly 2.1 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 350,000 Palestinians fled to Jordan . . . The Nationality Law of 1954 provided Palestinian residents of the West Bank with full Jordanian citizenship after King Abdullah I annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950. However, when the new wave of Palestinian refugees arrived in Jordan escaping from Gaza in the 1967 War, Amman treated them differently than their West Bank countrymen, refusing to provide them with Jordanian nationality or civil rights.
More . . .

EXCERPTED  FROM  “THE  CHILDREN  OF  RAFAH,”  BY  SAMI  AL-QASIM  (1970)
To him who digs his path
in the wounds of millions
whose tanks crush the garden’s roses
To him who breaks at night the houses’ windows
who burns a field and a museum
and sings to the fire
who rips the hair of sad women
and bombs grape fields
who executes the nightingale of feasts in the square
whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows
The children of deep rooted ancestors tonight declare
the children of Rafah tonight declare:
We did not knit blankets from hair braids
we did not spit on the face of murdered women
after plucking the golden teeth
Why do take the candy
and give us bombs?
why make Arab children orphans?
And thanks?

Sadness turned us into men
we must fight

[. . . .]

At the corner of the street
at the outskirts of town
the children of long histories
were gathering books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
to build a barricade,
to block the path of darkness
and disturb the troops of hate
until peace washes their eyes
from the dust and hate of war!
And with books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
his idol gave the barricade a nervous silence
and his hand was ready with the ink pot―
And the day the security doors of the conquerors closed
he was among the arrested
the son of the man whose residence was unknown

Footnote:
His age nine years―

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

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

“. . . I never fought against God Why am I taught by pain. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold Knight1 Comment
Sani Sakakini (No13) is an instrumental part of Palestine’s rise in basketball. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Sani Sakakini (No13) is an instrumental part of Palestine’s rise in basketball. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images


(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you)

❶ Israeli forces storm Aqsa Mosque in third day of clashes
❷ IOF rolls into Palestinian refugee camp, attack civilians
❸ Personality of the Month: Sani Sakakini
❹ Defying Palestinian law, many still seek work in West Bank settlements
❺ Opinion/Analysis: How Obama Can Save the Two-State Solution before He Leaves Office

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  AQSA  MOSQUE  IN  THIRD  DAY  OF  CLASHES
Sept. 15, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound’s southern mosque on Tuesday sparking the third straight day of violent clashes at the third holiest site in Islam.
____Dozens of Palestinians were injured in the clashes, during which Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas canisters, and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian worshipers, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
____The director of the society’s office in Jerusalem, Amin Abu Ghazala, told Ma’an that 36 Palestinians had received treatment.
____He said that some of the Palestinians had suffered wounds and bruises after they were physically attacked, while others had suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, although he added that no one needed to be hospitalized.
More . . .
Related . . .
Related . . . 

Palestinian women demonstrate in an alley outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on September 14, 2015. (AFP/Thomas Coex)
Palestinian women demonstrate in an alley outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on September 14, 2015. (AFP/Thomas Coex)

❷ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
IOF  ROLLS  INTO  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEE  CAMP,  ATTACK  CIVILIANS
Sept. 15, 2015
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) ― A wave of violent clashes broke out Monday evening in the Aroub refugee camp, in northern al-Khalil, after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rolled into the area and attacked the Palestinian civilians with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets [. . . .]
The assault comes at a time when Palestinian national factions called for holding vigils across the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem in protest at Israeli attacks on Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque . . .
More . . .

❸ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
PERSONALITY  OF  THE  MONTH:  SANI  SAKAKINI
If you spent enough time at Ramallah’s Sirriyeh Club during the early 2000s, you may have spotted a tall young man named Sani Sakakini playing basketball . . . . through years of devotion, Sani Sakakini is now the first professional basketball player to hail from Palestine [. . . .]
____Sani currently plays for a team in Jiangsu, China. . . . IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, SANI WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE NBA SUMMER LEAGUE, a platform that many players have used to get into the NBA.
More. . .

❹ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
DEFYING  PALESTINIAN  LAW,  MANY  STILL  SEEK  WORK  IN  WEST  BANK  SETTLEMENTS
Ahmad Melhem
Sept. 14, 2015
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Moussa Alayla, 48, had been working for almost 20 years in agriculture in Israeli settlements in the West Bank before he decided to capitalize on the experience he had gained and establish in 2002 his own company [. . . .]
Anas Mohammed, 25, graduated from one of the colleges in Ramallah two years ago and has been working for five months in the Ariel settlement as a construction worker. He told Al-Monitor that he had to accept work in the settlement because of a lack of job opportunities in the West Bank. [. . . .]
President Mahmoud Abbas issued decree law no. 4 in 2010. . . . The law bans and criminalizes any trade of Israeli settlements’ goods and products, and prohibits Palestinians from working in the settlements.
More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
TPM CAFE: OPINION
HOW  OBAMA  CAN  SAVE  THE  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION  BEFORE  HE  LEAVES  OFFICE
Sam Bahour
September 14, 2015
President Obama promised that as soon as the Iran nuclear deal is closed he will refocus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Given this shift of focus is now in sight, Obama should grant U.S. recognition of Palestine as an independent state, albeit a militarily occupied one. Such an elementary step is long overdue and may be the sole act that saves the two-state solution.
____Palestine will never be a complete nation state if required to negotiate its statehood with its military occupier Israel. Without the immediate altering of the dynamics of the conflict, extremism is almost guaranteed to begin pouring into the Palestinian community and Israel. Any further deterioration of the situation on the ground could lead a future Republican president to send U.S. boots to protect Israel. That would be a colossal mistake.
More . . . 
Sam Bahour serves as a policy adviser to Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, and Chairman of Palestinians for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy. He blogs at ePalestine.com.

The following poem was written in response to the so-called “Six-Day War,” June 5-10, 1967.

From “JOB’S DIARY,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM
As Usual

As usual
It is provocative today.
The toll of dead rises in Haiphong,
In Aden they killed six children.
In Israel― mourning.
They commemorate the victory
Over Nazism,
The memory of human slaughter.
The army chief of staff
threatens Syria.

7/5/67

Nothing new.

12/5/67

All the reports declare:
I never fought against God
Why am I taught by pain―?
Well!

Hear me
Whisper into the image:
Job’s curse arise
Arise
Job’s curse. . . revolt
And listen to my cry:
Job
Do not submit to agony
resist the pain!
Note:
To the readers
The remaining notes of Job’s diary are drowned in “red ink”―it is impossible to read―please excuse.

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.keywords=an+enemy+of+the+sun+palestinian
About Samih Al-Qasim

Israeli military invasion of Al Aroub refugee camp / Incursion de l'armée israelienne au camp de Al Aroub, 24.05.2013. ActiveStills Images.
Israeli military invasion of Al Aroub refugee camp / Incursion de l’armée israelienne au camp de Al Aroub, 24.05.2013. ActiveStills Images.

“. . . standard-issue developing-world cement block structures. . .” (Rabbi Rachel Barenblat)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
200 Couples wed in Gaza
200 Couples wed in Gaza

Contents:

  • 400 Palestinians marry in mass wedding in Gaza
  • Leshem settlers take over Deir Sim’an Roman castle in Salfit
  • Israel seizes thousand dunum of land for settlement expansion in Hebron
  • Israeli forces detain twelve, summon two from West Bank
  • The operational logic behind terrorizing Palestinians
  • Poem by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

❶ from MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
400 PALESTINIANS MARRY IN MASS WEDDING IN GAZA
April 11, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Two hundred Palestinian couples were married in a mass wedding in Gaza City on Saturday, seeing the ceremony through despite poor weather.
__A mother of one of the grooms, Rami Abu Amro, said it was a wonderful ceremony that couldn’t be stopped even by the rainy weather. She said that her son will now be able to have his own independent life and family despite difficult conditions in the coastal enclave.
__Newlyweds Mohammad and Fatima Baraka said they were exuberant to be married in such a traditional and well-organized setting.
(More. . .)
Account from Emirates News Agency

❷ from PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
LESHEM SETTLERS TAKE OVER DEIR SIM’AN ROMAN CASTLE IN SALFIT
12 April 2015
Israeli settlers from Leshem colonial settlement west Salfit today have taken over the historical village, Deir Sim’an, on the lands of Kafr Deek and Rafat.
__Deir Siman castle dates back to the Roman Era and counts as a very important Palestinian landmark. It is located a few kilometers west Kafr Deek village. It has been controlled and isolated by Israeli occupation forces, which now dominate more than 1,000 dunums in the area.
__Eyewitnesses said that Israeli settlers are using bulldozers and working around the clock on making roads to the castle, in addition to erecting walls around the village.
(More. . .)

BACKGROUND ON SETTLEMENT
from +972
IN THE WEST BANK, A NEW SETTLEMENT IS BORN
By Noam Sheizaf
August 26, 2013
Settlers are celebrating ‘the first official settlement in 20 years.’ Housing Minister: ‘There are no two states, and there won’t be two states.’
__The regional council for Jewish settlements in the northern part of the West Bank (Samaria) celebrated on Sunday the construction of a new settlement called Leshem, located in the western part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
__According to a report in Maariv, 72 families have moved into their homes in Leshem, and 70 more are expected to do so in the coming year. The plan is to build around 400 more housing units.
Israel has committed – both in the Oslo Accords and to the Bush administration – not to construct new settlements. . .
(More. . .)

Ancient Roman Castle at Deir Sim'ian - historic Palestinian landmark
Ancient Roman Castle at Deir Sim’ian – historic Palestinian landmark

❸ from PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAEL SEIZES THOUSAND DUNUM OF LAND FOR SETTLEMENT EXPANSION IN HEBRON
April 8, 2015
HEBRON– Israeli forces Wednesday took over a thousand dunums [about 250 acres] of Palestinian-owned land located between the towns of Beit Ummar and Beit Fajjar in the Hebron district for the benefit of settlement expansion, according to a local activist.
__Anti-settlement activists in Beit Ummar, Yousif Abu Maryya, informed WAFA that Israeli forces along with settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of ‘Migdal Oz’, placed a 2,600-meter-long fence around one thousand dunums belonging to Palestinian farmers in the area to expand the aforementioned settlement.
(More. . .)

❹ from PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN TWELVE, SUMMON TWO FROM WEST BANK
February 9, 2015
JERUSALEM – Israeli forces Monday detained twelve Palestinians, including three minors and an official, and summoned two others from various West Bank districts, said security sources and an attorney.
__Israeli police detained five Palestinians, including two minors, from al-Tur neighborhood overlooking the Old City and took them to an interrogation and detention center, said the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) attorney Muhammad Mahmoud.
__Mahmoud identified the detainees as Jamal al-Za‘tari, 16, Ibrahim Abu Jum‘a, 17, Musa, 18, and Muhammad Abu al-Hawwa, 18, as well as Muhammad Abu Ghannam, 18.
(More . . .)

BACKGROUND ON ISRAELI POLICY
from +972
THE OPERATIONAL LOGIC BEHIND TERRORIZING PALESTINIANS
By Yossi Gurvitz for Yesh Din
April 10, 2015
Four Israeli soldiers carry out a routine procedure of ‘showing presence’ by throwing a smoke grenade into a Palestinian home. Its real purpose? Terrorizing innocent people.
__The incident in question, given the daily routine of the occupation, is relatively minor. On December 3rd, 2007, Adnan Abu Haniyeh, a resident of the West Bank village Yanoun, woke up from the sound of an explosion. Something blew up, the windows of his house were shattered and the house was filled with smoke. His little girl screamed in terror, and for a time the family feared that her hearing was permanently damaged. The walls of the house were covered with soot. Abu Haniyeh then heard the sound of a military Hummer.
__The rest of the incident will be described according to the investigative files of the Military Police Criminal Investigations Division (MPCID).
(More. . .) 

“FIRST VISIT TO THE CAMP D’HAISHA, BETHLEHEM,” by RABBI RACHEL BARENBLAT

There are no canvas tents.
The buildings don’t look
so bad, standard-issue
developing-world
cement block structures

until I try to imagine
eleven thousand people
in one square kilometer,
one in every minyan
an angry alumnus

of the Israeli jails.
What do I know
about settlers or rock-throwers,
one-state, two-state
impossibilities.

But our grandparents
didn’t escape the ghettos
of Europe’s worst era
only to create new ones
for somebody else.

When we depart
I’m saddened, troubled
but perfectly able
to order a cold beer
and make conversation.

The sorrow and the fury
dormant overnight
explode the next day.
Even Shabbat can’t soothe
my lacerated heart.

Rachel Barenblat was ordained a rabbi in January 2011 through the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. She hold the MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her first full-length collection of poetry, 70 Faces: Torah poems, was published in 2011. She lives with her husband and son in Western Massachusetts. She serves as the rabbi for Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA

Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, 2012
Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, 2012

Historic photo of Dheisheh Refugee Camp (1952) from approximately the same vantage point. “. . . standard-issue developing-world cement block structures. . .”
1952_web