Category: Six-Day War, 1967

“. . . Justice screams loudly protecting Western lands but grows silent when it visits us . . .” (Abu Salma)

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❶ Israel plans expanding illegal West Bank settlement
. . . . . ― (ᴀ) Official report: Israeli government encourages killing Palestinians
❷ Historical document reveals possible collusion with Israeli occupation pre-Six Day War
❸ How the Palestinian leadership came to accept the Partition Plan

  • Background: “The ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’ as a Result of Politics of a Transition.” Arab Studies Quarterly.

❹ France [expresses desire] to recognize Palestine as part of European Union
❺ POETRY by Abu Salma
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  PLANS  EXPANDING  ILLEGAL  WEST  BANK  SETTLEMENT
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Dec. 3, 2017 ― Israeli occupation authorities are planning to set up new large settlement on the western borders of the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
___According to Quds Press, the Israeli news website 0404 revealed that a special committee was assigned by the Israeli interior ministry six months ago to prepare for this plan.
___The committee offered its recommendation, noting that the committee recommended bringing a number of settlements together to create a large settlement applicable for expansion.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴀ)  OFFICIAL  REPORT:  ISRAELI  GOVERNMENT  ENCOURAGES  KILLING  PALESTINIANS 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 3, 2017 ― The Palestinian national office for the defense of land and resistance of settlement accused Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman with inciting settlers to kill Palestinians. The office also charged the Israeli government of confiscating Palestinian lands.
___In a weekly report on Saturday, the office referred to Lieberman’s remarks in which he praised the Jewish settler who cold-bloodedly murdered martyr Mahmoud Odeh last Thursday near Qusra town to the south of Nablus.     MORE . . .
[Lieberman said, “The use of a weapon for self-defense is a moral value that is defended by every democracy.  My thanks and recognition to the armed escort who saved the hikers from a clear and present danger to their lives.”]
❷ HISTORICAL  DOCUMENT  REVEALS  POSSIBLE  COLLUSION  WITH  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  PRE-SIX  DAY  WAR 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO  
Dec. 1, 2017 ― A historical letter sent from the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to the then US President, Lyndon B Johnson, in 1966 reveals the monarch’s possible collusion with the US over Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. Published by Al Motamar net news website, it has been described as “dangerous” by former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has long promised to reveal the contents of the document.
___“King Faisal’s letter to US President Lyndon Johnson said that the Egyptian forces would not withdraw from Yemen unless Israel moved to occupy Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank,” explained Saleh. The Head of the General People’s Congress urged the current Yemeni president and the rest of the Arab countries participating in the Saudi-led coalition, especially Egypt, to withdraw immediately from the alliance fighting in Yemen. “The events in Saudi Arabia, the blockade on Qatar, and the Sudanese President’s visit to Russia are all a part of the changing equations [in the Middle East],” he claimed.   MORE . . .
❸ HOW  THE  PALESTINIAN  LEADERSHIP  CAME  TO  ACCEPT  THE  PARTITION  PLAN 
+972 Magazine Blog 
Jerome M. Segal
Dec. 1, 2017 ― A few days ago, Israel and its supporters worldwide marked the 70th Anniversary of the 1947 Partition Resolution, which was passed by the UN and called for the division of Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.
___Why did the Palestinians say “no” to partition? The answer is simple. They believed that it was unjust, that all of the land was rightfully theirs, and, more to the point, they believed they did not have to accept it. Everyone knew that war was imminent, and the Palestinian could not imagine that 600,000 Jews could withstand the overwhelming power of the Arab armies.
___But in their celebrations, the commemorators missed a different anniversary. It occurred, largely unnoticed, two weeks earlier: the 29th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, proclaimed by the PLO on November 15, 1988.   MORE . . .

[Note: this article provides contemporaneous background for the events Segal explains in his article.]
Schulz, Helena Lindholm.
“THE  ‘AL-AQSA  INTIFADA’  AS  A  RESULT  OF  POLITICS  OF  A  TRANSITION.” 
Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4, Fall2002, p. 21.
[. . . .] Perhaps the most substantial representation of Palestinian national identity is to ‘struggle,’ which serves as the action or the strategy through which to transcend and refute the denial, humiliation and dispossession which have served as core experiences informing Palestinian identity. . . .  Struggle through the resistance and revolution, which followed upon the 1967 war, nurtured a revolutionary political culture, promoting values related to a romanticizing discourse on heroic fights and militarism.
[. . . .] However, in the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, the future ‘independent’ state was defined as ‘democratic,’ based on constitutionalism, parliamentarianism and respect for civil rights. Democracy has thus not been absent from the political discourse of the PLO. . . .
[. . . .]  Both the PLO Charter of 1964/1968 and the Declaration of Independence of 1988 circle around the notion of ‘struggle’:
“___And in generation after generation, the Palestinian Arab people gave of itself unsparingly in the valiant battle for liberation and homeland. For what has been the unbroken chain of our people’s rebellions but the heroic embodiment of our will for national independence? And so the people was sustained in the struggle to stay and to prevail.”
[. . . .] The battle between elites led to different conclusions regarding the implementation of democracy as a form of governance. In abstract terms, even Arafat loyalists . . . .  adhered to democracy as the principle of governance in the long run. However, in their view the lack of sovereignty and the continuous negotiations with Israel were of overall importance and the political system had to direct itself towards securing control over land and solving the conflict with Israel. There was a need for the Authority to centralize power in order to deliver effectively in the form of tangible results of the peace process.  SOURCE . . .

❹ FRANCE  [EXPRESSES  DESIRE]  TO  RECOGNIZE  PALESTINE  AS  PART  OF  EUROPEAN  UNION
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 3, 2017 ― Ambassador of Palestine to France  Al-Harfi Sunday said the French government has expressed desire to recognize Palestine, but as part of the European Union.
___He told WAFA in a phone call that France wants to recognize a state of Palestine, but with other European countries taking part, because it will safeguard the peace process.   MORE . . .
SITUATION:  FRENCH  PARLIAMENT  VOTES  TO  RECOGNIZE  PALESTINIAN  STATE,  The Times of Israel,  Dec. 2, 2014 

“MY  COUNTRY  ON  PARTITION  DAY,”  BY  ABU  SALMA
My country! Live in safety, an Arab country,
may the jewel of your tradition keep smiling
Though they’ve partitioned your radiant heart
our honor denies partition.
We’ve woven your wedding clothes with red thread
dyed from our own blood.
We’ve raised banners on the Mountain of Fire***
marching toward our inevitable destiny!
History marches behind our footsteps
honor sings around us.

Rise, friend, see how many people
drag their chains of dented steel.
Behold the serpents slithering endlessly among them!
They’ve prohibited oppression among themselves
but for us they legalized all prohibitions!
They proclaim, “Trading with slaves is unlawful”
but isn’t the trading of free people more of a crime?
In the West man’s rights are preserved,
but the man in the East is stoned to death.
Justice screams loudly protecting Western lands
but grows silent when it visits us!
Maybe justice changes colors and shapes!
Live embers scorch our lips
so listen to our hearts speaking,
call on free men in every land
to raise the flag of justice where we stand.
――Translated by Sharif Elmusa and Naomi Shihab Nye
***The City of Nablus was called the “Mountain of Fire” because it was the seat of rebellion against the British Mandate and its Zionist policies.

Abu Salma (Abdelkarim Al-Karmi) was born in 1907 in Haifa. He studied law and worked in Haifa until April 1948 when the Israelis occupied the city. He then moved to Akka. Shortly after he moved from Akka to Damascus. Abu Salma kept the keys to his house and office in Haifa hoping to return. Abu Salma was awarded The Lotas International Reward for Literature in 1978 by The Association of Asian and African Writers. He was also given the title “The Olive of Palestine.” Abu Salma died in 1980.
From  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

“. . . Polished by our children’s blood And by the shame of ruins . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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Samia Khoury, at lunch in East Jerusalem, November 5, 2015 (Photo: Harold Knight)

❶ 50 years of occupation will not kill hope for a free Palestine
❷ 50 years of occupation: still refugees. Stand with Palestine refugees
❸ Israeli settlers take over Palestinian lands in Salfit, erect illegal outpost

  • BACKGROUND from Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ 50  YEARS  OF  OCCUPATION  WILL  NOT  KILL  HOPE  FOR  A  FREE  PALESTINE    
openDemocracy
Samia Khoury
June 5, 2017
On its 40th day, the mass hunger strike by Palestinian political prisoners was suspended after an agreement was reached to allow two visits per month.
___The strike was hailed as a small victory and highlights the dire conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The demands throughout the strike have been within the minimum rights of political prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
[. . . .] I am just wondering what was it that moved Israel to respond to their demands, especially that the international community did not take any action.
[. . . .] In the meantime the Palestinians are commemorating fifty years of a brutal military occupation. With the Oslo agreement in 1993 we were all made to believe that the occupation will soon be over and that peace was around the corner. But after more than twenty years of futile negotiations we realised that this is not a normal occupation that was going to end by a UN resolution. It is in reality a settler colonial regime with an ongoing process of dispossession.
[. . . .] After 50 years, it is not easy to maintain hope and not to despair especially when we watch new realities on the ground . . .   But when I visit Rawdat El-Zuhur, the school which I served for many years and look at the bright shining eyes of the children, or when I hear my young grandson practicing his trumpet in the late afternoon I am determined that we cannot lose hope for the sake of those children.   MORE . . .
❷ 50  YEARS  OF  OCCUPATION:  STILL  REFUGEES.  STAND  WITH  PALESTINE  REFUGEES  
UNRWA USA
Received as email on June 5, 2017
This week marks a devastating anniversary for Palestinians: 50 years of the occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
___In 1967, UNRWA had already been providing services to Palestine refugees displaced by the Nakba for 17 years. The Naksa — the new wave of displacement caused by the June 1967 war and subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — warranted the establishment of 10 new refugee camps, and UNRWA expanding its services to newly displaced Palestinians in need. Refugees still live in these camps today.
___Thank you for being one of the tens of thousands of concerned and compassionate supporters in the United States who stand with Palestine refugees. Please support our mission through your generous giving.       RESPOND . . .

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Israeli forces preventing Palestinians from performing Friday prayers on May 5, 2017, in Deir Istiya near an agricultural road that was closed by Israeli forces last year, preventing Palestinians from accessing their lands (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❸ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  TAKE  OVER  PALESTINIAN  LANDS  IN  SALFIT,  ERECT  ILLEGAL  OUTPOST        
Ma’an News Agency      
June 7, 2017
A group of settlers from Israel’s illegal Nufim settlement erected an outpost on Tuesday on Palestinian lands in the Khirbet Shihada area in the eastern outskirts of the village of Deir Istiya in the occupied West Bank district of Salfit.
___Local activist Nathmi Salman told Ma’an that the settlers erected 13 tents and a number of wooden caravans on Palestinian land owned by residents of Deir Istiya.
___Salman added that a road equipped with electricity and lights was previously built to connect Nufim to the Palestinian lands where the outpost was then constructed.
___Palestinian farmers in Deir Istiya said that they were also threatened from going near the area by an armed Israeli settler.    MORE . . .  

Handel, Ariel. “Gated/Gating Community: The Settlement Complex in the West Bank.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 39, no. 4, Oct. 2014, pp. 504-517.
The claim that the settlements in the West Bank are gated communities might seem trivial. . .  From 1996 onward, Palestinians have been prohibited from entering settlement premises for any purpose other than work, and workers have been subjected to tight surveillance. Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, security procedures have been further tightened and the fences significantly reinforced.
[. . . .] the settlement layout in the West Bank is not just an aggregate of 124 ‘legal’ gated communities and a similar number of ‘illegal outposts’, but rather a single, contiguous gated community gating, in turn, Palestinian ‘islands’ within it.
[. . . .] In this way, gated communities completely alter the physical space. They split the city into two layers, one connected and the other fragmented; one in movement and the other frozen. The highways that traverse the city to connect the gated communities to each other are extremely hazardous and exact a heavy toll of victims. Thus, even though an official prohibition against crossing them does not necessarily exist, these roads have created highly efficient demarcation lines.
[. . . .]  The settlements have been dispersed over the area by calculated design. . .   based on the settlers’ plans and backed by the state’s apparatuses and its military power . . . .
[. . . .]  The complex of gated communities, based as it is on the network of roads that connect small settlements, has the effect of blocking Palestinian movement and creating a ‘gating from within’ in which the minority gates the majority by help of state regulations and power . . . .  in a situation of perceived danger, movement itself becomes a problem, [and the politics] of mobility turns into a zero-sum game. Thus . . . under a real or perceived threat of crime, terror or other elements of ‘social danger’, [have enhanced] the connectivity of the people of means, while at the same time bolstering their corridors’ exclusionarity . . .  thereby reducing the rest of the population’s public space and freedom of movement.

“ON  THE  FIFTH  OF  JUNE,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
On the fifth,
Of June last
We returned to death its diplomatic bags
On the fifth
Of June last
We stripped the western winds
Of its ornamentation
Polished by our children’s blood
And by the shame of ruins
On the fifth
Of June last
The dead ascended to the United Nations
To partake in the emergency meeting
On the fifth
Of June last
We viewed the whole face of the globe
On the fifth
Of June last
The Arab oil wells continued flowing
In the midst of Arab lands
Towards the soil of western winds
On the fifth
Of June last

I do not weep!
I do not smile!

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
unwra

“. . . usurped the right of peaceful men who did not sin . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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image5
Palestinian refugees of the Six-Day War fleeing the West Bank across the Allenby Bridge between Jericho and Jordan (Photo: UNRWA archive, 1967)

Understanding the Six Day War

❶ TRACKING  THE  TRENDS  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  CAUSE  SINCE  1967:  LOOKING  BACK
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network      
Nadia Hijab, Mouin Rabbani
June 6, 2017
On the eve of June 5, 1967, the Palestinians were dispersed among Israel, the Jordanian-ruled West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip administered by Egypt, and refugee communities in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and beyond. Their aspirations for salvation and self-determination were pinned to Arab leaders’ pledges to “liberate Palestine” . . . .
___The Six-Day War, which resulted in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, brought dramatic changes to the geography of the conflict. It also produced a sea change in the Palestinian body politic. In a sharp break with previous decades, Palestinians became the masters of their own destiny rather than spectators to regional and international decisions affecting their lives and determining their fate.       MORE . . . 
❷ SIX-DAY  WAR –  50  YEARS  LATER
1A – WAMU 88.5   
Joshua Johnson, Host
Jun 05 2017
If the ongoing conflict in the Middle East confuses you, then the Six Day War 50 years ago is a good place to start to gain an understanding. During this conflict, Israel came to occupy East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip defeating the armed forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.       ___Why is the Six Day War so important and why does it still impact relations in the region today?       AUDIO . . .
❸  CHALLENGES  TO  INTERNATIONAL  HUMANITARIAN  LAW:  ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION  POLICY
Peter Maurer
International Review of the Red Cross, vol. 94, no. 888, Dec. 2012, pp. 1503-1510.
[. . . .] without respecting the basic tenets of international humanitarian law (IHL) in these testing times, it is most unlikely that the various communities will find their way toward reconciliation or be prepared to share the burden of a just peace after decades of conflict. Considering that the customary core of that law is older than the state- based system itself, the specific nature and extraordinary significance of IHL in today’s armed conflicts provide a legitimacy beyond the current international system. Far from being outdated, humanitarian law is very much a contemporary and future-oriented body of law.
___ While respect for IHL is a crucial element of the protection of victims    of armed conflict, and ultimately of fostering stability in such contexts, a critical analysis of the policies underpinning the status quo in conflict-affected states is also indispensable.
___Turning secifically to the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the particular challenges facing humanitarian action there cannot be tackled without an honest look at certain Israeli policies that have become key features of the occupation.
___Israel has exercised ‘actual authority’1 over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for almost half a century, making its presence in these areas one of the longest sustained military occupations in modern history. . . .       MORE . . .  
❹ Opinion/Analysis:  WHAT  IS  ANTISEMITISM?      
Counterpunch  
Michael Neumann
June 4, 2002
[. . . .] Israel is building a racial state, not a religious one. Like my parents, I have always been an atheist. I am entitled by the biology of my birth to Israeli citizenship; you, perhaps, are the most fervent believer in Judaism, but are not. Palestinians are being squeezed and killed for me, not for you. They are to be forced into Jordan, to perish in a civil war. So no, shooting Palestinian civilians is not like shooting Vietnamese or Chechen civilians. The Palestinians aren’t ‘collateral damage’ in a war against well-armed communist or separatist forces. They are being shot because Israel thinks all Palestinians should vanish or die, so people with one Jewish grandparent can build subdivisions on the rubble of their homes. This is not the bloody mistake of a blundering superpower but an emerging evil, the deliberate strategy of a state conceived in and dedicated to an increasingly vicious ethnic nationalism.     MORE . . . 

“AFTER  THE  JUNE  AGGRESSION,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
What did you hide
for to-morrow
You shed my blood
and dimmed the light
of my eyes
You silenced my pen
and usurped the right
of peaceful men
who did not sin

What did you hide
for to-morrow
you rent my flag
and opened wounds
in my skin
You stabbed my dreams
What did you hide?

We’re deeper than the sea
and taller than the stars
Our breath is long
longer than space

Which mother, I wonder
bequeathed you half the Canal
Which mother bequeathed you the Jordan Bank
the sand, petroleum, and the Heights
He who forcibly takes a right
must guard his own
When the balance shifts

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

“. . . the day The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
events-six-day-war-5-1061967-captures-arabs-abu-tor-district-east-BB5Y94-001
Six Day War, June 6, 1967, captured Palestinians, Abu Tor district, East Jerusalem (Alamy Stock Photo)

❶ 50 years: Israeli occupation longest in modern history
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) PLO: 50 years of Israeli occupation is a shame for the international system
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Palestine in Motion: Where does the story begin?
❷ Israeli forces destroy [char]coal factories in Yabad
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) IOF kidnap Palestinian youths in overnight raids
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Palestinian cars damaged in new price tag attack
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) Palestinian TV presenter injured by stun grenade during violent raid into Issawiya
❸ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `

Occupation

❶ 50  YEARS:  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  LONGEST  IN  MODERN  HISTORY   
Al Jazeera English 
Zena Tahhan
June 5, 2017
Palestinians are marking 50 years since the 1967 occupation of their remaining lands this week.  
Fifty years ago this week, the state of Israel shocked the world when it seized the remaining Palestinian territories . . .  as well as the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, in a matter of six days.
___In a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, known as the 1967 War, or the June War, Israel delivered what came to be known as the “Naksa”, meaning setback or defeat, to the armies of the neighbouring Arab countries, and to the Palestinians who lost all what remained of their homeland.
[. . . .]  In 1967, Israel absorbed the whole of historic Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the war, Israel had expelled another 430,000 Palestinians from their homes . . .
[. . . .]  Between June 25-27, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem and various parts of the West Bank, declaring them part of the state of Israel, in a move never recognised by the international community.
___The rest of the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, housing some 5.1 million Palestinians, remain under Israeli military control under the pretext of security.      MORE . . .   
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ)  PLO:  50  YEARS  OF  ISRAELI   OCCUPATION  IS  A  SHAME  FOR  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SYSTEM   
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA        
June 5, 2017
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Monday that 50 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land is a shame for the international system.
___Israel attacked Jordan, Egypt and Syria on June 5, 1967 occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.
___While Israel has returned the Sinai to Egypt following the signing of a peace agreement between them, it still holds on to the rest of the occupied territories in defiance of international resolutions that have called on it to withdraw from these territories.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) PALESTINE  IN  MOTION:  WHERE  DOES  THE  STORY  BEGIN? 
Al Jazeera English
June 5, 2017
Stories of loss, love, trauma, hope, and ultimately, of what it means to be Palestinian.   From exile to resistance: The day my life changed forever. The deeply personal and revealing stories of ordinary people who survived massacres, displacement and military occupation.   From Honduras to New Zealand: What does it mean to be a Palestinian today?  Young Palestinians across the world reflect on their identity, life under occupation, exile and future aspirations.      MORE . . .

LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DESTROY  [CHAR]COAL  FACTORIES  IN  YABAD 
Palestine News Network – PNN       
June 4, 2017
The Israeli occupation bulldozers on Sunday knocked down five coal factories in Jenin’s southwestern town of Yabad, leaving hundreds of Palestinians unemployed.
___The Israeli forces destroyed five factories to manufacture coal and seized hundreds of tons of wood, worth tens of thousands of shekels.
___According to local sources, Israeli military vehicles, escorted by a bulldozer, cordoned off Palestinian lands in Yabad and knocked down coal structures and equipment.   MORE . . .

Mideast-Israel-Palest_Horo-9
Palestinian laborers work at the site of a charcoal factory, in the West Bank town of Yabad, near Jenin. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ)  IOF  KIDNAP  PALESTINIAN  YOUTHS  IN  OVERNIGHT  RAIDS
Palestine News Network – PNN
June 5, 2017
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Monday kidnapped several Palestinian citizens from their homes in different areas of the West Bank and Jerusalem.
___Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the IOF stormed Asira ash-Shamaliya town, north of Nablus, and kidnapped two brothers after ransacking their family home.
[. . . .] Six other Palestinian young men were kidnapped from their homes in IOF raids in different areas of east Jerusalem . . .      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) PALESTINIAN  CARS  DAMAGED  IN  NEW  PRICE  TAG  ATTACK 
Al Hourriah Magazine (Freedom)
June 5, 2017
A number of Palestinian cars had their tires slashed and racist graffiti was painted on others in two different places in occupied Jerusalem on Monday morning.
___The incident is considered the most recent in a string of “Price Tag” attacks committed by right wing settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories.   [Note: In “Price tag” attacks settlers demonstrate to Palestinians the “price” of resistance]  MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ)  PALESTINIAN  TV  PRESENTER  INJURED  BY  STUN  GRENADE  DURING  VIOLENT  RAID  INTO  ISSAWIYA  
Ma’an News Agency        
June 5, 2017
A Palestinian woman was injured by shrapnel from a stun grenade after getting caught clashes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on Sunday night while she was filming for a local TV show.
___Local activist Muhammad Abu al-Hummus told Ma’an that Israeli forces stormed Issawiya minutes before Iftar time — when Muslims observing the holy month of Ramadan eat their first meal after a day of fasting — sparking clashes with local Palestinians in a number of areas in the neighborhood.
___Israeli border police officers indiscriminately fired live ammunition, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas canisters throughout the community, Abu al-Hummus said.
___Layali Eid, a reporter and TV presenter for local media outlet the al-Quds Educational TV channel, happened to be in the area interviewing locals about their experiences during Ramadan for a seasonal TV show.        MORE . . .         RELATED . . .

“MY SAD CITY,” BY FADWA TUQAN
(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967**)

The day we saw death and betrayal,
The tide ebbed.
The windows of the sky closed,
And the city held its breath.
The day the waves were vanquished, the day
The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face,
Hope turned to ashes,
And gagging on disaster,
My sad city choked.

Gone were the children and the songs,
There was no shadow, no echo.
Sorrow crawled naked in my city,
With bloodied footsteps,
Silence reigned in the city,
Silence like crouching mountains,
Mysterious like the night, tragic silence,
Burdened,
Weighed down with death and defeat.
Alas! My sad and silent city.
Can it be true that in the season of harvest,
Grain and fruit have turned to ashes?
Alas! That this should be the fruit of all the journeying!
―Translated by A.M. Elmesseri

** (While the military occupation of Jerusalem took place on June 6, the Israelis did not declare the actual annexation until June 27.)
From BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND:  PALESTINE  ISRAEL  POETS  RESPOND  TO  THE  STRUGGLE.  Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint, ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from B&N.
Obituary for Fadwa Tuqan, 2003.