Category: Silwan

“. . . For centuries I did not turn visitors Away from my door. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Israeli army arresting Palestinian youth for stone throwing. (File photo: Middle East Monitor. Oct. 22, 2015)
Israeli army arresting Palestinian youth for stone throwing. (File photo: Middle East Monitor. Oct. 22, 2015)

❶ Israeli occupation arrested 647 Palestinians in March
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israel Detains Young Palestinian in Jerusalem, Sunday’s Arrests Hit 11
❷ Israeli forces shoot, injure 13-year-old Palestinian in Jerusalem
❸ Israel bans call to prayer in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque 51 times in March
❹ Decision to extend Gaza fishing zone to 9 miles takes effect
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  SOURCE  OF  PALESTINIAN  INCITEMENT
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  ARRESTED  647  PALESTINIANS  IN  MARCH
Days of Palestine
April 2, 2016
More than 400 Palestinian children inside Israeli jails, including 24 under administrative detention.
Israeli occupation arrested on March 647 Palestinian citizens from occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, report issued by Palestinian NGOs said.
___The report, which was issued by four Palestinian NGOs, said that the 647 arrests included 128 children and 16 women.
___It also said that the largest number of arrests was in the occupied Jerusalem and the least in the Gaza Strip.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) ISRAEL  DETAINS  YOUNG  PALESTINIAN  IN  JERUSALEM,  SUNDAY’S  ARRESTS  HIT  11
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 3, 2016
Israeli forces Sunday detained a young Palestinian in Jerusalem, as well as summoned three others from Bethlehem for interrogation.
___This brings the total number of Palestinian detained since early Sunday to 11.       MORE . . .

❷ ISRAELI FORCES SHOOT, INJURE 13-YEAR-OLD PALESTINIAN IN JERUSALEM
Ma’an News Agency
April 2, 2016
Israeli forces shot a Palestinian teen in the back of the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet while he was walking to school in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday morning, his family told Ma’an.
___Yasin Abu Mayyala said his son Hatim, 13, was taken from the Ras al-Amoud area in Silwan where he was shot to Hadassah Hospital in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem, where medics said he suffered from a deep wound that required stitches.      MORE . . . 

❸ ISRAEL  BANS  CALL  TO  PRAYER  IN  HEBRON’S  IBRAHIMI  MOSQUE  51  TIMES  IN  MARCH
Ma’an News Agency
April 2, 2016
Israeli authorities banned Palestinian mosque employees from playing the Muslim call to prayer through the speakers of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron 51 times in March, the Palestinian Ministry of Endowment said on Saturday.
___Minister of Endowment Sheikh Youssef Ideis slammed the restrictions as attempts by the Israeli occupation to give the impression that the mosque is Jewish property.      MORE . . . 

❹ DECISION  TO  EXTEND  GAZA  FISHING  ZONE  TO  9  MILES  TAKES  EFFECT
Ma’an News Agency
April 3, 2016
An Israeli decision to extend the fishing zone off some parts of the Gaza Strip coast to nine nautical miles took effect early Sunday morning, the Palestinian civil administration said.
___Official sources told Ma’an that as of 2 a.m Sunday, Palestinian fishermen would be able to sail for nine nautical miles from Wadi Gaza southward. The fishing zone, the source added, would remain within six nautical miles north of Wadi Gaza.      MORE . . .

ibrahimi-mosque-maan
Israeli soldiers block entrance ro Hebron’s Ibrihimi Mosque, Sept. 29, 2015. (Photo: Nidiya Fitriyah)

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  SOURCE  OF  PALESTINIAN  INCITEMENT
+ 972 Magazine
Rami Younis
April 2, 2016
The controversy over the Hebron shooter is the gift that keeps on giving.
___. . .  the star of last week’s show will not be charged with murder. . . municipalities will not hesitate to spend taxpayer money on organizing events in support of anyone who shoots a wounded Arab in the head. . . . Israelis . . .  put the spotlight — as well as part of the blame — on the victim, Abed al-Fatah Sharif, who was also incited by the “other side” . . . .
___Yes, there is incitement . . .  the proof is the hundreds of Palestinians who have been killed since October of last year. If only they would have listened to the Israelis and stopped the incitement, we would go back to the coexistence that was always here, even if it was disrupted here and there (by the Arabs, of course).
MORE . . .    
RELATED . . . THE  ONLY  WAY  TO  ENSURE  PALESTINIAN  LIVES  MATTER

“IN  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM  (1970)

For centuries
I did not hate
But now
I am forced to raise my untiring spear
In the face of the dragon,
To draw a sword of fire
In the face of Baal
To become Elijah in the twentieth century.

For centuries
I did not apostate
But now
I strike at the gods in my heart
The gods that sold my people
In the twentieth century.

For centuries
I did not turn visitors
Away from my door
Then one morning I opened my eyes
To find my food stolen
My wife strangled
And my child’s back a field of wounds.
I recognized my treacherous guests.
I planted mines and daggers at my door
And I swore by the traces of the knife
That none of these guests shall enter my house
In the twentieth century.

For centuries
I was only a poet
In the bands of the Sufis
But now
I am an erupting volcano
In the twentieth century.
――Translated by Naseer Aruri

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

 

“. . . Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home . . .” (‘Abd al-Latif ‘Aql)

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A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahmad Gharabli)
A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahmad Gharabli)

❶ Foreign Ministry Seeks UN Resolution to Freeze Settlement Construction
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Breaking news: Ratifying the settlement project “Kedem” in Silwan
❷ Israel Detains 23 Palestinians during West Bank Raids
❸ UN: Israel’s execution of wounded Palestinian gruesome, unjust
❹ UN passes 4 Palestinian-backed resolutions in landmark victory
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHY  NETANYAHU  IS  SO  THREATENED  BY  BREAKING  THE  SILENCE
❻ Poetry by ‘Abd al-Latif ‘Aql
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ FOREIGN  MINISTRY  SEEKS  UN  RESOLUTION  TO  FREEZE  SETTLEMENT  CONSTRUCTION
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 24, 2016
Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to seek a United Nations resolution to force Israel to halt its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
___The Ministry, in a statement Thursday, called upon world countries to support Palestinian and Arab efforts aiming to hold an international peace conference on Palestine.
___The statement came in response to Israel’s approval of a controversial plan pushed by the settler organization ‘Elad’, which aims to construct settlement units in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.      MORE . . . 

Developer’s rendering of Kedem project (Photo: Altahrir, News of Islam, Muslims, Arab Spring and special Palestine)
Developer’s rendering of Kedem project (Photo: Altahrir, News of Islam, Muslims, Arab Spring and special Palestine)

. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) BREAKING  NEWS:  RATIFYING  THE  SETTLEMENT  PROJECT  “KEDEM”  IN  SILWAN
WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
March 23, 2016
The District Council for Planning and Building ratified on Wednesday night the project of Elad settlement organization known as “Kedem project- City of David- Old City of Jerusalem” which is intended to be established at the entrance of Wadi Hilweh in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . .

❷ ISRAEL  DETAINS  23  PALESTINIANS  DURING  WEST  BANK  RAIDS
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 24, 2016
At least 23 Palestinians, including a minor girl, were Thursday detained by Israeli forces. . . .
___PPS said Israeli forces stormed the village of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and detained 14-year-old Salwa Hayyan. . . . In Jerusalem, Israeli police detained seven Palestinians . . . Meanwhile in Ramallah district . . . In the northern West Bank, city of Nablus . . .   MORE . . .

❸ UN:  ISRAEL’S  EXECUTION  OF  WOUNDED  PALESTINIAN  GRUESOME,  UNJUST
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 25, 2016
A UN official on Friday condemned in the strongest terms the brutal “extrajudicial execution” of a wounded Palestinian by an Israeli soldier that was captured on camera in Hebron the day before.
___Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said he strongly condemned the apparent “extrajudicial execution” of the Palestinian, who was shot in the head at point-blank . . . .
___”This was a gruesome, immoral, and unjust act that can only fuel more violence and escalate an already volatile situation,” Mladenov said.      MORE . . .
RELATED VIDEO . . . .

❹ UN  PASSES  4  PALESTINIAN- BACKED  RESOLUTIONS  IN  LANDMARK  VICTORY
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 24, 2016
In a landmark victory for the Palestinian leadership, the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday passed four resolutions relating to the occupied Palestinian territory, one of which will draw up a “blacklist” of companies who do business in illegal Israeli settlements.
___The PLO Negotiations Affairs Department said that in addition to the resolution regarding settlements — which passed 32 to 0 — a resolution was adopted recognizing the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.   MORE . . .  

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  WHY  NETANYAHU  IS  SO  THREATENED  BY  “BREAKING THE SILENCE”
+972 BLOG
Dotan Greenvald
March 21, 2016
Breaking the Silence has classified information in its possession. The information is so confidential that its publication could pose a genuine threat. I hope you are sitting down, because I am about to disclose that information. Just don’t tell me later on that I went first and told the gentiles or anti-Semitic foreign governments. You are hearing it firsthand from me, a silence breaker: Israel is a country that controls the lives of millions of Palestinians with no rights, and its elected officials are doing one hell of a job of keeping it from you.    MORE . . . 

(Palestinian poets frequently use the image of “lover” for Palestine.)

“LOVE  PALESTINIAN-STYLE,”  BY  ‘ABD AL-LATIF ‘AQL

In times of drought you are my figs and olives,
Your barrenness is my fragrant gown.

Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home,
I love you alive, I love you in death.
When hungry, I feed on thyme.

I feel your hair against my face and I pine,
My weary face turns red.

I am born in the palms of your hands, and embryo,
I grow and grow, and I reach maturity.

I drink the meaning of my life from your gaze,
Then my being is awakened and is intoxicated.

I journey across frontiers, you are my suitcase,
You are my forged passport.

I boast that I can smuggle your eyes
Across borders;
I boast and boast and pride surges within me.

And when soldiers confiscate you,
Even before hashish,
And gouge the pupils of my eyes,

I feel I have been cleansed of the shame;
I have become purer
And more immaculate.

When they fear what may be under my armpits,
They confine me in small cells
I sign your name
At the end of police reports.

And when I am led all alone
To be whipped and humiliated,
And lashed at every police station,
I feel we’re lovers, who died from ecstasy,
A dark-skinned man and his woman.

You become me and I become you―
Luscious figs and shelled almonds.
And when soldiers smash my head
And force me to sip the cold of prison
To forget you―I love you even more.

‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql was born in 1942 in Deir Istiya, a village near Nablus. His family was exiled in 1948, and he lived in Amman and studied in Damasus and the U.S. where earned a PhD in social psychology. He worked as a school teacher in the West Bank for many years. He has published many volumes of poetry. His two plays incurred the wrath of the Israelis, and were forced to end performance at Bir Zeit University.
FROM: Parmenter, Barbara McKean. GIVING  VOICE  TO  STONES :  PLACE  AND  IDENTITY  IN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 1994.  The Database of Arabic Literature in Western Research (DAL). OxLit Literary Publication and Documentation

“. . . we fill the streets with demonstrations and the jails with pride . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

[Note: Today’s photos do not specifically relate to news stories except to show situations of the Palestinian people that lead to resistance actions.]

IMG_3009 - Copy
Street scene in Shufat Refugee Camp, a squalid over-populated neighborhood closed in by the Apartheid Wall, where there are virtually no city services such as policing, traffic control, or street cleaning, but where the tax rates are the highest in the nation. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ 2 Israelis convicted for 2014 killing of Muhammad Abu Khdeir
❷ Israeli forces shoot, injure 3 Palestinians near Ramallah
❸ Settler who attacked leftist rabbi: ‘If I kill one it’ll be over’
❹ Israeli court orders Silwan family to demolish two apartments
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  MOST  REPRESSIVE  LAW  IS  ABOUT  TO  GET  WORSE
❻ Poetry by Tawfiq Zayyad (1970)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
2  ISRAELIS  CONVICTED  FOR  2014  KILLING  OF  MUHAMMAD  ABU  KHDEIR
Nov. 30, 2015
[Note: This killing incited some of the violence that led to 2014 Gaza devastation.]
BETHLEHEM ―Israel’s Jerusalem District Court on Monday convicted two Israelis for the murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir last summer, with a third suspect [Yousef ben David] who admitted to the killing escaping conviction on the grounds of his mental health.
[. . . . .]
The two Israeli youths found guilty will be sentenced on Jan. 13, according to the AFP news agency, while another hearing for Ben David was set for Dec. 20.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  INJURE  3  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  RAMALLAH
Nov. 30, 2015
RAMALLAH ― Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians during clashes east of Ramallah late Sunday, locals told Ma’an.
____Witnesses said that Israeli forces raided the village of Silwad after youths hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at settler vehicles driving in the area.
More . . . 

IMG_2866
Scaffolding in place to repair damage done inside Al Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, by Jewish Extremists. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 4, 2015)

❸ + 972 MAGAZINE
SETTLER  WHO  ATTACKED  LEFTIST  RABBI:  ‘IF  I  KILL  ONE  IT’LL  BE  OVER’
Natasha Roth
Nov. 27, 2015
The Jewish extremist accused of attacking Rabbis for Human Rights president Arik Ascherman last month was charged in court two weeks ago with causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife and ammunition. The youth, 17 years old, is suspected of assaulting Ascherman near the settlement of Itamar as the rabbi was assisting Palestinians with their olive harvest.
[. . . . .]
“If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal,” he said. “We need to deter them. They need to be made fearful. They need to receive a blow.”
More . . .
❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  COURT  ORDERS  SILWAN  FAMILY  TO  DEMOLISH  TWO  APARTMENTS
Nov. 29, 2015
JERUSALEM ―An Israeli court on Sunday issued a demolition order for two apartments in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, claiming they had been built without the necessary permits.
___The Siyam family, which owns the apartments, said they were built 21 years ago, and over the course of years they have spent 600,000 shekels ($154,000) in fines to Israeli authorities, in addition to fees paid trying to obtain a construction license.
More . . .
Related . . . PICTURES:  ADMINISTRATIVE  DEMOLITION  ORDERS  TO  RESIDENTIAL  HOUSES  IN  SILWAN
Related . . . MONITOR:  PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  DEAD  IN  CLASHES  IN  SILWAN
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
ISRAEL’S  MOST  REPRESSIVE  LAW  IS  ABOUT  TO  GET  WORSE
Amjad Iraqi
Nov. 29, 2015
In June 1951, member of Knesset and future Prime Minister Menachem Begin participated in a meeting of the Knesset’s Constitutional, Law, and Justice Committee on whether Israel should adopt administrative detentions as a legitimate security practice.
[. . . . .]
Despite Begin’s criticisms in the forum, the Knesset decided to keep the Emergency Regulations as a part of Israel’s legal system. . . .
[. . . . .]
Two weeks ago, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon invoked the Emergency Regulations to outlaw the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Rather than conducting transparent investigations, hearings, and collection of evidence as required by various Israeli laws . . .
More . . . 

(Below is the complete poem, parts of which are posted in various places online with the title “Here we shall stay.” The poem is elegant in itself, but it is particularly moving to realize how little has changed since it was written in 1970.)

“WE  SHALL  REMAIN,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD  – 1970

It is a thousand times easier
For you to pass an elephant through the needle’s eye
To catch fried fish in the Milky Way
To plow the sea
To teach the alligator speech, a thousand times easier
Than smothering with you oppression
The spark of an idea
Of forcing us to deviate
A single step
From our chosen march.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain in Lydda, Ramlah, and Galilee.

Here upon your chests
We shall remain
Like the glass and the cactus
In your throats
A fiery whirlwind
In your eyes.

Here we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We wash dishes in the hotels
And serve drinks to the masters.
We mop the floors in the dark kitchens
To extract a piece of bread
From your blue teeth
For the little ones.

Here, we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We starve,
Go naked,
Sing songs
And fill the streets
With demonstrations
And the jails with pride.
We breed rebellions
One after another.
Like twenty impossibles we remain
In Lydda, Ramlah, Galilee.

Here, we shall remain.
You may drink the sea;
We shall guard the shade
Of the olive tree and the fig,
Planting ideas
Like the yeast in the dough.
The coldness of ice is in our nerves
And a burning hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock
To quench our thirst
And if we starve
We eat the dirt
And never depart
Or grudge our blood.

Here―we have a past
―a present
―and a future.
Our roots are entrenched
Deep in the earth.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain.
Let the oppressor review his account
Before the turn of the wheel.
For every action there is a reaction:
Read what is written in the Book.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain―in Lydda, in Ramlah
And Galilee.

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 Tawfiq Zayyad 

IMG_3220
Hebron family prepares to climb into back window of their home, of which the Israeli Occupation Force has welded shut the front door because it is on a street where ILLEGAL JEWISH SETTLERS live. Taken from the roof of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee headquarters. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015)

See information about the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee in The Guardian.

“. . . It is my right to behold the sun . . .” (Fouzi El-Asmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
The Gaza Music School is the only institution in the territory dedicated to the study of the art. Photo: Mousa Tawfiq. https://electronicintifada.net/content/making-music-under-siege/14946
“. . . to water the vineyards with music. . .” The Gaza Music School is the only institution in the territory dedicated to the study of the art. Photo: Mousa Tawfiq. https://electronicintifada.net/content/making-music-under-siege/14946

❶ 68 Palestinians, Including 13 Children and A Pregnant Woman, Killed This Month; 921 Wounded
❷ Israelis only understand force — and it makes them angrier, polls show
❸ 2 Palestinians shot at Nablus checkpoint after alleged attack
❹ Group: Israeli settlers lock family out of their home in Silwan
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The Palestinians Are Living in a Tragedy of Eternal Struggle
❻ Poetry by Fouzi el-Asmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
68  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  13  CHILDREN  AND  A  PREGNANT  WOMAN,  KILLED  THIS  MONTH;  921  WOUNDED
October 30, 2015
The Health Minister has reported that 68 Palestinians have been killed, and 921 Palestinians have been shot and injured with live Israeli army rounds, since the beginning of this month, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while 855 were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, and 208 suffered fractures and bruises after being assaulted and beaten by soldiers and fanatic settlers.
More . . .
Related . . .
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
ISRAELIS  ONLY  UNDERSTAND  FORCE —  AND  IT  MAKES  THEM  ANGRIER,  POLLS  SHOW
New polls find that a majority of Jewish Israelis support the ‘voluntary transfer’ of West Bank Palestinians, a majority want to strip East Jerusalem Palestinians of Israeli residency.
Dahlia Scheindlin
Oct. 29, 2015
The latest crisis of violence has become a successful campaign of terror: Israelis are profoundly shaken. Many have reverted to the Second Intifada mentality of personal risk calculations based on self-selected danger factors and fingers in the wind.
More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
2  PALESTINIANS  SHOT  AT  NABLUS  CHECKPOINT  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTACK
Oct. 30, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Two Palestinians were shot in the Nablus district on Friday after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli border policeman, Israel’s army said.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said two Palestinians tried to stab an Israeli border policeman at the Tappuah, or Zatara, military checkpoint south of Nablus.
____Both alleged attackers were shot, he added.
More . . .
❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GROUP:  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  LOCK  FAMILY  OUT  OF  THEIR  HOME  IN  SILWAN
Oct. 29, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Thursday prevented a Palestinian family from entering their home in the Batan al-Hawa area of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, a local organization said.
____Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that Israeli settlers who live in the area prevented Rania Abu Nab and her four children, aged 4 to 14-years-old, from entering the home, before Israeli police arrived at the scene reportedly in support of the settlers [. . . . .].
____Abu Nab said she had left her home to meet with UNRWA employees, who were prevented from visiting her at home by Israeli settlers in the area.
____When Abu Nab tried to come home, the main gate of the compound where her home is was reportedly locked and the Israeli settlers did not allow her back into the house. She added that they did not provide any reason and mockingly told her “keep having meetings and interviews.”
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  PALESTINIANS  ARE  LIVING  IN  A  TRAGEDY  OF  ETERNAL  STRUGGLE
Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Oct 28 2015
The third explosion in the Palestinian struggle for freedom from occupation finally came in October of this year, sparked by the Israeli minister of defense banning the Palestinian Murabitun from entering Al-Aqsa mosque, either for tutorials or maintenance and protection roles, something they have been doing for decades. The Israeli action spread like wildfire across the West Bank and Gaza, as though the Palestinians were shaking off the decades of accumulated humiliation under the occupation.
____The future of the Arab –populated Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa mosque is located was decided by Israel as soon as the guns fell silent after the 1967 war and Israel was triumphant and drunk with a heady sense of power. On 18 June of 1967, the government of Israel annexed East Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and extended the Israeli laws to it. This action was supported by all Israeli political and civil society factions, secular and religious, and across party lines.
More . . .

“THE  WAY,” BY  FOUZI  E-ASMAR
I shall not despair:
Whether my way leads to a jail,
Under the sun
Or in exile
I shall not despair.

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

From: El-Asmar, Fouzi. THE  WIND-DRIVEN  REED  AND  OTHER  POEMS.  Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1979.
Available from Amazon.
About Fouzi el-Asmar

Video: For the second consecutive day, storming into Al-Maqased hospital looking for the medical file of a detained child October 30, 2015 Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Silwan http://silwanic.net/?p=64660
Video: For the second consecutive day, storming into Al-Maqased hospital looking for the medical file of a detained child
October 30, 2015
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
http://silwanic.net/?p=64660

“. . . They arrested him – imprisoned him in the trunk of the jalopy . . .” (Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Soldiers at AL JALAMA CHECKPOINT pursuing Palestinian youth (PCHR photo). See ❷ below. Background from 2013 showing the causes of the current increase in violence are cumulative: http://www.imemc.org/article/65051
Soldiers at AL JALAMA CHECKPOINT pursuing Palestinian youth (PCHR photo). See ❷ below.
Background from 2013 showing the causes of the current increase in violence are cumulative:
http://www.imemc.org/article/65051

❶ Analysis: Has Netanyahu’s revisionism ended the use of the Holocaust as enabler of Israeli injustice toward Palestinians?
❷ Palestinian shot dead after alleged Jenin attack, no injuries reported
❸ Palestinian injured in Gaza demo last week dies from injuries
❹ Army Kidnaps Eleven Palestinians, Including Two Children in Jerusalem
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ANOTHER MISUNDERSTOOD PALESTINIAN UPRISING
❻ Poetry by Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MONDOWEISS
HAS  NETANYAHU’S  REVISIONISM  ENDED  THE  USE  OF  THE  HOLOCAUST  AS  ENABLER  OF  ISRAELI  INJUSTICE  TOWARD  PALESTINIANS?
Marc H. Ellis
(Marc H. Ellis is retired Director and Professor of Jewish Studies at Baylor University and author of  Burning Children: A Jewish View of the War in Gaza.)
AS  NETANYAHU’S  HOLOCAUST  REVISIONISM  continues to find its way around the world, Jewish memory is besmirched. . . . Buried in the outrage, though, is a deeper issue: Is Netanyahu’s use of the Holocaust to further incite his political constituency against Palestinians what we should focus on? Or is it the fact that many of those who condemn Netanyahu for his Holocaust blunder are also enablers of the destruction of Palestine?
____The almost panicked desire to separate the real culprit of the Holocaust, Hitler, rather than an irrelevant side-kick, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, is telling. It is also too easy. Separating the two, while important, is a distraction from the real and ongoing culprit in the suffering of Palestinians – the correct, substantial, highly prestigious, well-funded, real history of the Holocaust.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  JENIN  ATTACK,  NO  INJURIES  REPORTED
Oct. 24, 2015
JENIN (Ma’an) — A Palestinian youth was shot dead Saturday near al-Jalama military checkpoint north of Jenin in the occupied West Bank after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli security guard, eyewitnesses and the Israeli army said.
____Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that “there were no stabbing attempts” at the time that Israeli forces opened fire at a 16-year-old Palestinian at the crossing.
____The forces then dragged the injured youth inside of the checkpoint preventing Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances from reaching him for treatment, eyewitnesses added.
____The youth has not yet been identified.
More . . .
   Related . . . PEACE  ACTIVIST  RABBI  ARIK  ASCHERMAN  ATTACKED  BY  KNIFE-WIELDING  SETTLER  IN  WEST  BANK
Related . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  INJURED  IN  GAZA  DEMO  LAST WEEK  DIES  FROM  INJURIES
Oct. 23, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A Palestinian succumbed to his injuries on Friday evening after being shot in the head by Israeli forces during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip last week, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said.
____Ashraf al-Qidra identified the man as Yahya Karira, 20, from al-Tuffah neighborhood. He told Ma’an that Karira was shot when clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Nahal Oz in the eastern Gaza Strip.
____Karira is the 16th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the month. Fourteen have been shot with live ammunition during clashes, and a two-year-old and her pregnant mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTE
ARMY  KIDNAPS  ELEVEN  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  TWO  CHILDREN  IN  JERUSALEM
Oct. 24, 2015
Israeli soldiers have kidnapped, late on Friday at night and on Saturday at dawn, eleven Palestinians, including two children, in different parts of occupied Jerusalem.
____The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) said the soldiers invaded the al-‘Eesawiyya town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, searched several homes and kidnapped Wajdi Mahmoud, Daoud Yousef Atiyya, Abed Dari and Mohammad Ali Nasser.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ANOTHER  MISUNDERSTOOD  PALESTINIAN  UPRISING
Mohamed El Mokhtar
Oct. 23, 2015
When the Palestinians demand a withdrawal from the 1967 borders, the Israeli response is No because those borders are purportedly “indefensible”. When they ask for a bi-national state, the response is, also, negative because that would be the end of Israel as a “Jewish state”. When they insist that occupied East Jerusalem be the capital of their future state, they are reminded that the status of Al-Quds is non-negotiable for Jerusalem is the “undivided, eternal capital of the Jewish people”. And the Right of Return is not even up for grabs [. . . . .]
____When Palestinian political movements and civil society engage in non-violent protest, they are met with tear gas and military barricades. Those who launched the BDS movement are labeled “Jew-haters” and their supporters worldwide accused of functioning as a “band of anti-Semites and hypocrites”. Confined in their enclaves, cut off the outside world, surrounded by Jewish settlements, Palestinians are supposed to acquiesce to their fate and suffer in silence.
____The sporadic flares of violence, born out of frustration and despair, are systematically decontextualized and misunderstood. They are depicted as a resumption of violence as though the occupation was not in and of itself a form of violence.
More . . .

“A  TRAFFIC  LIGHT,”  BY  MU’IN  TAWFIQ  BSEISO  (Mueen  Bessissio) ―(1979)

Red light, stop
Green light, go
Red green stop go
.
Red light, red light
Where is the green light…?
A pregnant woman in a jalopy
gave birth in a jalopy
The child grew up, fell in love, and was married in the jalopy
He fathered children, read the world’s magazines and newspapers in the jalopy
They arrested him – imprisoned him in the trunk of the jalopy
He enlisted and was killed under the windows of the jalopy
They buried him beneath the wheels of the jalopy
And the jalopy was still in the street
awaiting the green light
awaiting the yellow
.
Red light, stop
Green light, go
Red light
and green light.
――Trans. John Mikhail Asfour.

John Mikhail Asfour, trans, and ed., When The Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987 (Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1988). Pp. 237.

Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso, a poet from Gaza who lost his homeland with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians after the foundation of an Israeli state, (born 1926, also spelled Mueen Bessissou or Bsayso) suffered the tragedy of his country. He was exiled to Egypt. His exile intensified both his nationalism and the universal dimension of his poetry, for he linked the Palestinian tragedy with the tragedies experienced by other nations.

A Palestinian is evacuated after being injured by a tear gas canister during clashes with Israeli forces near the Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Oct. 10, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo Mahmud Hams).
A Palestinian is evacuated after being injured by a tear gas canister during clashes with Israeli forces near the Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Oct. 10, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo Mahmud Hams).

“. . . We have reached the peak of our tragedy. . . “ (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold Knight1 Comment
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor press conference in Geneva. October 16,2015 (Euro-Med photo) See ❹ below.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor press conference in Geneva. October 16,2015 (Euro-Med photo) See ❹ below.

❶ Settlers forcibly evict Palestinian families from Silwan homes
❷ Elderly Palestinian woman dies after delay at Jerusalem checkpoint
❸ Army Kidnaps Twelve Palestinians, Including 4 Children, In Jerusalem
❹ ‘Caught on Camera:’ eight extrajudicial killings of Palestinians
❺ Opinion/Analysis: PALESTINIANS NEED HOPE, NOT CALM
❻ Poetry by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you for “following.”)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
SETTLERS  FORCIBLY  EVICT  PALESTINIAN  FAMILIES  FROM  SILWAN  HOMES
Oct. 19, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — At least nine Palestinians were left homeless on Monday after settlers escorted by Israeli security personnel forcibly evicted them from their homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
____The Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center said a large group of Israeli border police and officers escorted staff from the far-right Israeli Ateret Cohanim organization to the Batn al-Hawa area of the neighborhood.
____Israeli forces then surrounded two Palestinian houses belonging to the Abu Nab family before ransacking the property and evicting the families.
More . . . 
Related . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ELDERLY  PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  DIES  AFTER  DELAY  AT  JERUSALEM  CHECKPOINT
Oct. 19, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — An elderly Palestinian woman died late Sunday after being delayed from reaching a hospital by an Israeli checkpoint recently set-up in the al-Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
____Huda Muhammad Darwish, 65, and her family were delayed from reaching the hospital after she suffered breathing difficulties following clashes in which tear gas was fired in the neighborhood, a local committee said.
____Her family tried to rush her to hospital, but Israeli troops ignored that there was a sick person in the car and delayed them at the checkpoint.
____Huda was pronounced dead at the hospital, although the cause of death is unclear.
More . . .
❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  TWELVE  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  4  CHILDREN,  IN  JERUSALEM
Oct. 19, 2015
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic), in occupied Jerusalem, has reported that dozens of soldiers invaded, on Sunday evening and Monday at dawn, various towns and neighborhoods in the city, and kidnapped twelve Palestinians, including four children between the ages of 11 and 14.
More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
‘CAUGHT  ON  CAMERA:’  EIGHT  EXTRAJUDICIAL  KILLINGS  OF  PALESTINIANS
Annie Robbins
Oct. 18, 2015
A new report summarizing Israel’s Arbitrary Killings and its System of Structural Violence was released by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor at a press conference in Geneva on Friday. The release included the following video, “Caught on Camera: Israel’s extrajudicial killings,” illustrating the killings of Palestinian civilians involved in political protests during the last two weeks.
____The report follows Euro-Med Monitor‘s October 10th Call on International Community to halt Israel’s extrajudicial executions.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
PALESTINIANS  NEED  HOPE,  NOT  CALM
John V. Whitbeck
Oct. 18, 2015
Since the current upsurge of violence in Israel and occupied Palestine began, numerous foreign leaders, as well as the UN Security Council, have cited the urgent need to restore “calm”. It is not calm, a euphemism for Palestinian submission that is urgently needed but, rather, genuine and credible hope for freedom and some measure of justice.
____The Israeli government will not provide hope, and the Palestinian Authority cannot provide it.
More . . .

“ON  THE  TRUNK  OF  AN  OLIVE  TREE,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
Because I do not weave wool,
And daily am in danger of detention,
And my house is the object of police visits
To search and “to cleanse,”
Because I cannot buy paper,
I shall carve the record of my sufferings,
And all my secrets
On an olive tree
In the courtyard
Of my house.

I shall carve my story and the chapters of my tragedy,
I shall carve my sighs
On my grove and on the tombs of my dead;
I shall carve
All the bitterness I have tasted,
To be blotted out by some of the happiness to come

I shall carve the number of each deed
Of our usurped land
The location of my village and its boundaries.
The demolished houses of its peoples,
My uprooted trees,
And each crushed wild blossom.
And the names of those master torturers
Who rattled my nerves and caused my misery.
The names of all the prisons,
And every type of handcuff
That closed around my wrists,
The files of my jailers,
Every curse
Poured upon my head.
I shall carve:
Kafr Qasim, I shall not forget!
And I shall carve:
Deir Yassin, it’s rooted in my memory.
I shall carve:
We have reached the peak of our tragedy.
It has absorbed us and we have absorbed it,
But we have finally reached it.

I shall carve all that the sun tells me,
And what the moon whispers,
And what the skylark relates,
Near the well
Forsaken by lovers.

And to remember it all,
I shall continue to carve
All the chapters of my tragedy,
And all the stages of the disaster,
From beginning
To end,
On the olive tree
In the courtyard
Of the house.

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.
About Tafiq Zayyad. 

The settlement organization, Ateerat Cohanim, seized two houses in the area of Batn Al-Hawa in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday morning. (Photo: Silwan, Jerusalem SILWANIC)
The settlement organization, Ateerat Cohanim, seized two houses in the area of Batn Al-Hawa in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday morning. (Photo: Silwan, Jerusalem SILWANIC)

“. . . A shameful scar―in the face of the executioner over there. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
If it were not so outrageous and tyrannical, it would be comical. Palestinian young person being arrested by Israeli forces for alleged stone throwing. Three to one, and the one is a child. (APF file photo)
If it were not so outrageous and tyrannical, it would be comical. Palestinian young person being arrested by Israeli forces for alleged stone throwing. Three to one, and the one is a child. (APF file photo)

❶ PLO: Israel’s new live fire law ‘dehumanizes a whole nation’
❷ Nablus police chief, 3-year-old daughter injured by Israeli fire
❸ Three Injured by Army Fire near Bethlehem, Soldiers Attack Journalists In Nablus
❹ On the first day of Al-Adha Eid…arresting 13 Jerusalemites
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The questions nobody is asking about Hebron shooting
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish

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

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PLO:  ISRAEL’S  NEW  LIVE  FIRE  LAW  ‘DEHUMANIZES  A  WHOLE  NATION’
Sept. 26, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The PLO Secretary General on Saturday said that new Israeli regulations authorizing forces to use live ammunition in occupied East Jerusalem expand the level under which the lives of Palestinians can be directly targeted.
____Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday broadened the rules whereby stone-throwers can be targeted with live fire, allowing Israeli forces to open fire when they determine that the life of a third party is under threat.
____Arguing that the new law gifts Israeli soldiers with wide discretion for determining circumstances of threat, Saeb Erekat described the measures as “a mere pretext to justify the escalating Israeli crimes against the people of Palestine.”
____”The Israeli government continues to incite against Palestinian lives, with a culture of hate that dehumanizes a whole nation,” Erekat said.
More . . .
Background . . .
Related . . .

Three-year-old Maram Abed al-Latif al-Qaddumi was shot in the head by Israeli forces with a rubber bullet in the occupied West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum. (MaanImages/Murad Ishteiwi)
Three-year-old Maram Abed al-Latif al-Qaddumi was shot in the head by Israeli forces with a rubber bullet in the occupied West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum. (MaanImages/Murad Ishteiwi)

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
NABLUS  POLICE  CHIEF,  3-YEAR-OLD  DAUGHTER  INJURED  BY  ISRAELI  FIRE
Sept. 25, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — The chief of police in the Nablus district and his three-year-old daughter were injured after being shot by Israeli forces with rubber-coated bullets on Friday during a raid in the village of Kafr Qaddum in Qalqiliya.
____A Fatah leader in Kafr Qaddum, Murad Ishteiwi, told Ma’an that Israeli forces directly shot at three-year-old Maram Abed al-Latif al-Qaddumi, injuring her with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the head while she was standing on a balcony in her home.
____Isheiwi added that when her father, Colonel Abd al-Latif al-Qaddumi, attempted to aid her and take her to the hospital in his car, Israeli forces opened fire, injuring him in the head.
More . . . 

❸ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
THREE  INJURED  BY  ARMY  FIRE  NEAR  BETHLEHEM,  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  JOURNALISTS  IN  NABLUS
Sept. 26, 2015
Palestinian medical sources have reported, on Friday evening, that three Palestinians were injured by live Israeli army fire in Teqoua’ town, east of Bethlehem. . . . The army also attacked, and wounded, two journalists near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
____Head of the Teqoua’ Local Council, Taiseer Abu Mfarreh, told the WAFA News agency that three young men were shot in their thighs, during clashes that took place with the soldiers after the several Israeli military vehicles invaded Khalil al-Wazeer area, in the center of the town. [. . . . .]
Cameraman Abbas al-Momani said that, as he and his team reached the main entrance of Beit Forik, the soldiers assaulted them, and smashed their equipment. He added that the soldiers also attacked, and injured, a foreign journalist . . .
More . . .

❹ WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
ON  THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  AL-ADHA  EID…ARRESTING  13  JERUSALEMITES
Friday, September 25, 2015
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) — The occupation forces arrested on Thursday early morning (first day of Al-Adha Eid) 8 Jerusalemites from the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud in Silwan and handed another a call for interrogation.
____Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that the occupation forces raided the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud and arrested . . .
____The locals explained to the center that the occupation forces fired a sound grenades and rubber bullets while raiding the courtyard of a house to hand the interrogation calls.
____Amjad Abu Asab, head of Jerusalemites detainees and prisoners families committee, explained that the forces also arrested 4 Jerusalemites from the village of Sur Baher.
More . . .

Israeli policemen patrol a street in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber following clashes in Jerusalem, Sept. 18, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Israeli policemen patrol a street in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber following clashes in Jerusalem, Sept. 18, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
THE  QUESTIONS  NOBODY  IS  ASKING  ABOUT  HEBRON  SHOOTING
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Sept. 24, 2015
Could Israeli soldiers have arrested, instead of killed a young knife-yielding woman in Hebron? And what will happen to those soldiers if it turns out they shot when they didn’t need to?
____A young Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Hebron Tuesday morning, hours before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
____As usual, there are — at least — two conflicting narratives. There are also a number of details everyone agrees on.
More . . .
Another American Jewish opinion piece, from MONDOWEISS:
AMNESTY:  KILLING  OF  HADEEL  AL-HASHLAMOUN  WAS  ‘EXTRAJUDICIAL  EXECUTION’
By Ben Norton

“A  DIALOGUE  WITH  A  MAN  WHO  HATES  ME,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Rome was burnt, O crazy man
Rome is more durable than Nero
Rome will not grasp your poems
She can recite them by heart
Rome will slice your strings
My tunes arise from my heart
Your voice echoes a miserable past
My voice echoes a rocket rage
Your path is long
I shall not tire
Yehuda** sold you
I shall not be crucified
My ancestors were cremated in Auschwitz
My heart is with them
Pull out the wires from my skin
And the wounds of yesterday?
A shameful scar―in the face of the executioner over there
What do you carry in your head
A little wheat
What’s in your chest?
A picture of a wound
Your face reflects a rancor color
My face reflects the color of the earth
Then convert your sword into plowshare
You did not leave me land to plow
You criminal!
I did not steal―did not kill―didn’t oppress
You Arab! You are a dog!
O man, may God cure your soul
Why don’t you try the taste of love
Why don’t you make way for the sun!!

** The Israeli town of Or Yehuda was established in 1950 on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian villages of Saqiya and Kfar ‘Ana. Jews from Iraq and North Africa settled there.

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.
Mahmoud Darwish Obituary

Assault rifles versus rocks. (AFP/File)
Assault rifles versus rocks. (AFP/File)

“. . . Descendants of Old Abe! Shake the marble of history. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

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

Caption: A growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon are joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians making the perilous journey to survival in Europe. (AFP/Samar Hazboun)
Caption: A growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon are joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians making the perilous journey to survival in Europe. (AFP/Samar Hazboun)

❶ UN votes in favor of raising Palestinian flag at headquarters
❷ In Silwan, Jewish settlers plant their flag among Palestinians
❸ Palestinian Refugees Joining Exodus from Syria
❹ Madama Villagers Foil Infiltration Attack By Israeli Extremists
❺ Opinion/Analysis: A guide to the worst refugee crisis since WWII
❻ Poem by Samih Al-Qasim

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UN  VOTES  IN  FAVOR  OF  RAISING  PALESTINIAN  FLAG  AT  HEADQUARTERS
Sept. 11, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations General Assembly voted late Thursday in favor of raising the Palestinian flag at its headquarters in New York by an overwhelming majority, in a symbolic diplomatic victory in the PLO’s campaign for statehood.
____A resolution was adopted by member states with 119 in favor, eight voting against — including Israel and the United States — and 45 abstentions.
____President Mahmoud Abbas hailed the decision, adding that the struggle will continue until the flag is raised over the “eternal” Palestinian capital of Jerusalem.
More. . .
Related. . . [Note: the NYT published this on page A4, the Associated Press story, not its own.]

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
IN  SILWAN,  JEWISH  SETTLERS  PLANT  THEIR  FLAG  AMONG  PALESTINIANS
Sept. 11, 2015
JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Abu Snineh family woke up at their home in East Jerusalem one morning to find Jewish settlers had moved into the building and Israeli flags were on the roof.
____Their Silwan neighborhood in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City has become a flash-point in the struggle between ideologically driven Israelis moving in and longtime Palestinian residents.
____”There are still areas where Jews want to go back,” said Daniel Luria, whose Ateret Cohanim activist organisation facilitates the purchase of homes by Jews from Israel and abroad.
____”That was our dream, not to live on the outskirts of Tel Aviv or Haifa. It’s to be close to the Temple Mount, where the kings and the prophets walked.”
More. . .

Caption: A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem's Old City. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

❸ THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
PALESTINIAN  REFUGEES  JOINING  EXODUS  FROM  SYRIA
Sep 10 2015
Palestinian pensioner Zahra Zahroura always imagined seeing out her days in her adopted Syrian hometown of Homs, sustained by the hope that being made a refugee once was enough for any lifetime.
____But as the war in Syria worsened the 84-year-old was forced to flee a second time, aiming for a new life in mainland Europe but making it only as far as Cyprus, lucky to be alive at all. [. . . .]
____“All the houses were rubble, everything was destroyed by the bombing.”
____Zahroura is one of a growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war on the perilous journey to survival in Europe.
More. . .
Related. . .

❹ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
MADAMA  VILLAGERS  FOIL  INFILTRATION  ATTACK  BY  ISRAELI  EXTREMISTS
Sept. 11, 2015
A group young Palestinian men managed, earlier on Friday at dawn, to foil an attempt by a number of Israeli extremists to carry out an attack in Madama village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
____The WAFA News Agency has reported that the Palestinians noticed an unusual activity, shortly after 2 after midnight, when they saw a short, bearded armed man wearing a cap, monitoring some homes in the village, and alerted the families.
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
A  GUIDE  TO  THE  WORST  REFUGEE  CRISIS  SINCE  WWII
Ben Norton
Sept. 9, 2015
The world is witnessing the largest refugee crisis since the horrors of World War II.
____Today there are close to 60 million war refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—“an all-time high as violence and persecution” around the world are on the rise.
____The Middle East, North Africa, and Western Asia are particularly hard hit. Millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen are fleeing violence and war in their countries.
____In all of 2014, approximately 219,000 people tried to cross the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe. In just the first eight months of 2015, over 300,000 refugees tried to cross the sea, according to the UNHCR. More than 2,500 died.
____Human rights organizations warn the Gulf states, Israel, Iran, and Russia—all of which have taken zero refugees—along with the US, Canada, and Europe—which have taken few—are not doing enough to provide refuge to the asylum-seekers.
More. . .

“THE  UNKNOWN  CONTINENT,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
How do we reach you
Slums of Chicago?
How is the spark to reach you?
How is the fire to be born?
Skyscrapers!
Stacked huts!
Stretch your arms out of the darkness―
For the big banner
Spreads its warmth, its light
Forever
Into the depths of night
And the big banner is
Forever
A sail for the drowning.

How are the storms to reach you
Jazzband Club in New York?
The black man is hungry and fearful
The wolves of the KKK roam the forest
―the current overpowering
And the conscience of the statue shaken
And the heart of night.
The wind is frozen,
And the waves of the sea unmoving?
How is the message to reach you
Deaf Washington,
With the humming of the machine?
In Vietnam you slaughter
And you export
Cokes and medicine to the sad moon!
And you sweep over the blood of victims.
How is the message to reach you?

Descendants of Ole Abe!
My voice has become hoarse
And the wind
Has become tired of my shouts!
Descendants of Old Abe!
Shake the marble of history,
Rise to the sky,
Rise above the band of stupid maggis
And halt ―for
The earth grumbles
Rivers of blood.

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

The Palestinian flag will be allowed to fly at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Photo justin tallis Agence France-Presse Getty Images
The Palestinian flag will be allowed to fly at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Photo justin tallis Agence France-Presse Getty Images

“. . . When the olive and almond Have become timber Decoration on the doorways of inns. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Israeli authorities erected a barbed wire fence around the cemetery. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Israeli authorities erected a barbed wire fence around the cemetery. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIANS  CLEAN  EAST  JERUSALEM  CEMETERY  FACING  CONFISCATION
Sep. 4, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Dozens of Palestinians in Jerusalem gathered to clean the Bab al-Rahma cemetery on Friday, in response to plans announced by Israeli authorities to seize parts of the cemetery for a national park trail, local sources told Ma’an.
____Islamic and national leaders in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and the committee for the preservation of Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem called for protests after the Israeli Nature Authority announced its plan to confiscate 40 percent of the cemetery’s area [. . . .]
____The head of the committee for the preservation of Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, told Ma’an that the part of the cemetery that was fenced off included grave-sites.
More. . .   
Related. . .
Related. . .

❷ +972 MAGAZINE
IN  FIVE-YEAR  HIGH,  ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  143  PALESTINIAN  STRUCTURES  IN  SINGLE  MONTH
Natasha Roth
Sep. 5, 2015
Israel demolished 143 Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the month of August, the highest such total in five years, according to statistics released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA-oPt). The wave of demolitions has displaced nearly 200 Palestinians, many of them children . . . .
____The five-year high for monthly demolitions was not the only notable statistic of the past month. The week of August 18-24 saw 42 Palestinian structures demolished, the highest weekly total in six months. On August 17, 78 Palestinians were displaced by demolitions — the highest daily total since October 2012. Between January 1 and August 31 this year, Israel demolished 403 Palestinian structures, an average of almost 1.7 demolitions per day.
More. . .

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZA  COMMITTEE  DEMANDS  INTERNATIONAL  INTERVENTION  IN  BLOCKADE
Sep. 4, 2015
GAZA CITY ―A governmental body in Gaza responsible for monitoring the Israeli blockade on the Strip demanded international intervention on Friday following a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which said the territory could become uninhabitable by 2020.
____The head of the Governmental Committee for Breaking the Siege, Alaa al-Din al-Batta, demanded that the international community and rights organizations cooperate to facilitate economic growth in Gaza, lift the Israeli siege, and reintegrate the territory into the global economy in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
More. . .
gaza❹ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
ISRAEL  GRANTS  SETTLEMENTS  $170  MILLION
Sept. 4, 2015
According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, the Israeli government has recently decided to erase $24 million in debt owed by settlements in the West Bank and occupied Golan Heights. These debts have been accumulating since 2011. The government had also decided to erase settlement debts amounting to $146 million, which have accumulated from as far back as the 1970’s.
____These debts are owed to the World Zionist Organisation’s settlement division and were granted in the form of loans given to what it called “cooperative societies” in the West Bank.
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
DEMOLISHING  PALESTINIAN  STRUCTURES  IS  THE  NORM — NOT  THE  EXCEPTION
Natasha Roth
Aug. 19, 2015
Over August 17-18 Israeli authorities demolished around 40 Palestinian structures in the West Bank, displacing over 120 Palestinians. The demolitions were carried out during a record-breaking heat wave that has hit Israel-Palestine over the past week.
____Monday’s total of 22 demolitions — in the Ma’ale Adumim area of the West Bank — displaced 78 Palestinians (including 49 children), the highest such number in one day since October 2012. Tuesday saw 17 structures demolished in the village of Fasayil in the Jordan Valley, leaving 48 homeless, including 31 children. All the affected families belong to Bedouin communities found throughout the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley.
More. . .

“A  MOTHERLAND,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
What,
When in my country
Dies the swallow of starvation,
In exile and without a shroud,
While the earthworm is over-fed
On God’s food?

What,
When the yellow fields
Yield to their tillers
Nothing except their weary memories,
While their rich harvest pours
Into the granaries of their usurpers?

What,
When cement has chocked
The ancient springs
And caused them to forget
Their courses,
They cry in the face
Of their creator, “Who are you?”

What,
When the olive and almond
Have become timber
Decoration on the doorway of inns,
Idols,
Whose nudity charms halls and bars,
And souvenirs for tourists
To carry to the far corners of the world,
While nothing meets my eyes
But dry timber and yellow leaves.

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

Palestinians collect their belongings after their house was demolished by Israeli bulldozers in the Arab East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina on March 19, 2014.
Palestinians collect their belongings after their house was demolished by Israeli bulldozers in the Arab East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina on March 19, 2014.

“. . . and the jailor stands, his face a stone . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Tappuah Checkpoint, Nablus, West Bank, 19.02.2013. Photo by activestills
Tappuah Checkpoint, Nablus, West Bank, 19.02.2013. Photo by activestills

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  2ND  PA  SECURITY  OFFICER  IN  24  HOURS
September 3, 2015
RAMALLAH ―Israeli forces on Wednesday evening detained a Palestinian Authority security officer and his 10-year-old son at a military checkpoint in Nablus, the second incident of its kind in the past 24 hours.
____Muamin Qindah, a preventative security officer from a village near Ramallah, was stopped and searched at the Tappuah checkpoint before being taken into custody, his family said.
____His 10-year-old son, who was with him at the time, was detained for three hours before being released to relatives.
More . . . 

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN,  SUMMONS  PALESTINIANS  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM
September 3, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces early Thursday detained a Palestinian woman and issued summonses to two others after raiding their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, locals told Ma’an.
____Israeli special forces and intelligence officers raided the house of Ekram Ghazawi, 50, in the al-Thawri neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem and detained her before they transfer her to al-Qashla police station in the Old City of Jerusalem.
More. . .

A Palestinian woman shouts after being blocked by Israel security forces from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. October 13 2014. Photo credit AFP Ahmad Gharabli
A Palestinian woman shouts after being blocked by Israel security forces from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. October 13 2014. Photo credit AFP Ahmad Gharabli

❸ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ISRAELI  NIGHT  RAIDS  A  ROUTINE  TERROR  FOR  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
Maureen Clare Murphy
September 1, 2015
It’s a regular and terrifying scene in the occupied West Bank: heavily armed Israeli soldiers, often with large dogs, raid a Palestinian family’s home. They wake the children, arresting one or more of them.
____This is what happened to Hamza Muayyad Shukri Hammad, 15, when his home in Silwad, a village near Ramallah, was invaded at 2am on Sunday. . . .
____Soldiers raided Hamza’s room, ransacking it. They confiscated phones and smart devices from the home and a computer was deliberately smashed. . . .
____During a visit to Megiddo prison on Sunday, Hiba Masalha, a lawyer with the Palestinian Authority ministry for prisoner affairs, took the testimony of three teenagers who were beaten during their arrest and transfer to Israeli detention.
____Ahmad Ismail Abu Amr, 17, from a village near the West Bank city of Nablus, was beaten all over his body, blindfolded and cuffed by Israeli soldiers who used their weapons to strike him on his head and shoulders when they arrested him two months ago.
More. . .
Related. . .

❹ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  FOUR  PALESTINIANS,  SUMMON  TWO  FROM  JERUSALEM,  JENIN  DISTRICTS
September 3, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Israeli forces early Thursday detained four Palestinians and summoned two others from Jerusalem and Jenin districts, said security sources.
____Israeli Special Forces detained a young Palestinian man from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for protesting against groups of Jewish settlers who forced their way into the holy site. The detainee was identified as Samih al-Haddad.
____This came as Israeli police barred a number of ‘black-listed’ Palestinian women from entering the Mosque compound, while they allowed other women and female students’ entry into the holy site after withholding their identification cards upon entry via the old gates.
____Palestinian women who pray at the Mosque are denied access into the holy site five days a week. . .
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
NOAM  CHOMSKY:  ISRAELI  APARTHEID  ‘MUCH WORSE’  THAN  SOUTH  AFRICA
August 19, 2015
Famous American linguist Noam Chomsky has described the actions of the Israeli occupation in Palestine as “worse than South African apartheid”.
____“In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid,” Chomsky says, according to Days of Palestine. “To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by ‘apartheid’ you mean South African-style apartheid.
____“What is happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse. There is a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists needed the black population. That was their workforce…
____“The Israeli relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally different. They just do not want them. They want them out, or at least in prison.”
Entire Interview here

“FROM  THE  DIARY  OF  ‘____’,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
(There in Israel, our prisoners whom we know nothing about.)

From the ravine pours silent angry darkness
and night spreads its large sails here
the light of the stars and the dawn
cannot sneak in
A night without light
where our voices are lost
and the echo dies
and time cannot move.

Time has lost its shoes here
it stood still
turning around the axis of stillness and boredom
confusing days and the seasons
Is it the season for planting?
Is it the season for harvest?
It is―who can say? No news
and the jailor stands, his face a stone
his eye a stone
robbing from us the sun, robbing the moon

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 Fadwa Tuqan

An Israeli soldier detains a child in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar in 2012. Anne Paq,ActiveStills
An Israeli soldier detains a child in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar in 2012. Anne Paq,ActiveStills