Tag: Al-Issawiyya Town

“. . . Alas! My sad and silent city . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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❶ Israeli municipality demolishes residential structure in al-Issawiya
❶ Israeli municipality demolishes building in Jerusalem despite pending permit application

  • Background: “Crows on the Cradles: Palestinian Mothers At a Frontline Vortex: Reflections on the Psychology of Occupation.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

❶ Two More EU-Funded Palestinian Schools under Threat of Destruction by Israeli Army
❶ 9 Palestinian homes demolished by IOF
❷ Elkin: Start planning for one million settlers in W. Bank & J’lem
❸ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  MUNICIPALITY  DEMOLISHES  RESIDENTIAL  STRUCTURE  IN  AL-ISSAWIYA 
Palestine News and Information Agency
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli municipality of Jerusalem on Wednesday demolished a residential structure in the neighborhood of al-Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli construction permit, according to local sources.
___The municipality demolished a residential structure, made of metals, that was installed by Omar Dari, a local citizen, who said he was forced to build without a permit in order to shelter his family, after he was unable to obtain a permit from the Israeli municipality.   MORE . . .
❶ ISRAELI  MUNICIPALITY  DEMOLISHES  BUILDING  IN  JERUSALEM  DESPITE  PENDING  PERMIT  APPLICATION
Palestine News and Information Agency
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished on Wednesday morning a two-storey building under construction in the neighborhood of al-Issawiya, in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local sources.
___Locals told WAFA that staff from the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem accompanied by an Israeli police escort raided the neighborhood and demolished the building, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli permit of construction.
___Mohammad Abu Rayala, a local rights activist, said the owners of the building had earlier received a notification to stop the construction of the building. He said though the owners stopped the construction upon notification and started the process of obtaining a construction permit, they were astonished that the building was demolished without a warning.    MORE . . .   ..

Roth, Judy, and Salwa Duaibis.
“CROWS  ON  THE  CRADLES:  PALESTINIAN  MOTHERS  AT  A  FRONTLINE  VORTEX:  REFLECTIONS  ON  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  OCCUPATION.”
International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.1 (2015): 5-20.
[. . . .] Last June marked 46 [49] years since the start of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. International law is clear that territory can never be acquired as a result of aggression, even if exercised in self-defense. That is why military occupations are meant to be temporary and cannot be legally maintained indefinitely. On the conclusion of the 1967 war, the Israeli authorities imposed military law in the occupied Palestinian territory which still remains in force in the west bank to this day. During this time, East Jerusalem has been annexed, in violation of international law; more than half a million Israelis now live in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and at least 750,000 men, women and children have been prosecuted in military courts and imprisoned. In other words, one in four Palestinian men have been through the military system at one point in their lives. . . .
___Women living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem face many, differing challenges, which include home demolitions . . .   But the issue that stands out above all other issues is that of the settlements built in clear violation of international law on Palestinian land. These settlements are not only illegal, but they are also at the epicenter of a host of human rights violations that occur on a daily basis and affect 2.5 million Palestinians.
[. . . .] Nur is a mother of extraordinary light . . .  Her home, slated for demolition, sits on a small path that Israeli soldiers use to move from one side of the neighborhood to the next. The path is right outside her door. She uses the word “Ro`ub”, absolute terror, to describe her children’s experience of the soldiers. Nur, herself, is worried that her nine-year-old son will be arrested soon. She hears how he talks about the Israeli soldiers and settlers, the revenge that he is brewing in response to their provocations. While she is pretty certain that she will lose him, she retains some hope for a different outcome – although she is unable to create a realistic alternative. Perhaps, none exist.
[. . . .]  Our psychoanalytic understanding of how militarism is inculcated, how rage incubates, and how societies sanction violence and racism is critical to defining a nuanced and sober stance from which to approach this relentless conflict that reverberates both near and far. Finding this stance that humanizes all players – victims, oppressors, and bystanders – and that can then better inform modes of action, prioritizing the urgency of Palestinian suffering, while holding accountable all who are complicit, is now more crucial than ever.    Source . . .

❶ TWO  MORE  EU-FUNDED  PALESTINIAN  SCHOOLS  UNDER  THREAT  OF  DESTRUCTION  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY 
Palestine Chronicle
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Two new Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank, funded by European governments, are under threat of destruction and seizure, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). An Israeli court has already ordered students not to attend class in one of them, the NGO says.
___Built over the last year with European funding, the schools in Wadi as-Seeq and Al Muntar serve Palestinian Bedouin communities who have long suffered neglect and discrimination at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities.
___Many of the families served by the schools have “already suffered destruction of their property over many years”, NRC states.    MORE . . .
❶  9  PALESTINIAN  HOMES  DEMOLISHED  BY  IOF   
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 15, 2017 ― The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Wednesday knocked down nine Palestinian homes in the West Bank governorate of Jericho.
The demolition was carried out under the pretext of unlicensed construction.  At the same time, the Israeli authorities seized a Palestinian agricultural vehicle in the northern Jordan Valley on claims that it was spotted inside a natural reserve.   MORE . . .   ..
❷ ELKIN:  START  PLANNING  FOR  ONE  MILLION  SETTLERS  IN  W.  BANK  &  J’LEM  
Al Hourriah Magazine (Freedom)
Nov. 15, 2017 ― Israeli Jerusalem affairs minister Ze’ev Elkin has urged his government to start planning for one million settlers in Area C of the West Bank and Jerusalem.     ___“This will happen; it is only a question of when,” Elkin said, adding that it could be anywhere between the next 10 to 20 years, depending on the pace of construction.     ___According to the Israeli central bureau of statistics, 400,000 settlers lived in West Bank settlements in 2016.     ___Using a word of Arabic slang, Elkin dismissed the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. “Halas (enough) with the story of two states. There is no other option but the state of Israel, certainly between the Jordan [River] to the sea there will be one state.”  MORE . . .

“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

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.

“. . . silence my argument with chains . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold Knight2 Comments

❶ Poland to equip the Palestinian rapid intervention team
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) Ireland describes Israeli settlement expansion as provocative

Background: “Apartheid in the Holy Land: Theological Reflections on the Israel And/Or Palestine Situation from a South African Perspective.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies

❷ How Israel engages in ‘water apartheid’
❸ Israeli forces detain 66 Palestinians, majority teenagers, in overnight raids
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) Joint report reveals that 431 Palestinians were arrested in September 2017
❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ POLAND  TO  EQUIP  THE  PALESTINIAN  RAPID  INTERVENTION  TEAM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Oct, 23, 2017 ― The Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA) signed on Monday a cooperation agreement with the Polish representative to Palestine in which the latter will contribute to equipping PICA’s team for rapid intervention [“first responders”].
___PICA director Imad Zuhairi signed the agreement with the Polish representative to Palestine, Aleksandra Bukowska, who welcomed it and considered it the beginning of growing cooperation between Poland and Palestine that would later include various sectors.   MORE . . .
. . . . ❶― (ᴀ)  IRELAND  DESCRIBES  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENT  EXPANSION  AS  PROVOCATIVE 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Oct. 23, 2017 ― Ireland condemned last week Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories describing them as provocative.
___“I condemn decisions this week by the Israeli authorities approving the construction of thousands of housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” said Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney.
___“This week’s announcements include construction in areas such as Hebron, which are far from the 1967 border, and which could never be included in any possible agreed land swap between the parties. The relentless expansion of settlements, especially in such sensitive areas, break up the land area on which a Palestinian state is to be established.’   MORE . . .
❷ HOW  ISRAEL  ENGAGES  IN  ‘WATER  APARTHEID’  
Days of Palestine
Mersiha Gadzo
Oct. 22, 2017 ― World Health Organisation says that an illegal Israeli settler in West Bank consumes three times more water than a legal Palestinian resident.
___Jordan Valley, Occupied West Bank – Water is not scarce in the Jordan Valley, known as the traditional “breadbasket of Palestine” – yet Palestinian farmers struggle to survive, with little water to nourish their crops. They say the amount of water that Israeli authorities allocate to them has been decreasing daily since the Second Intifada.
___Meanwhile, neighbouring settlements consume copious amounts of water. They grow produce, such as bananas, requiring large amounts of water, which is mostly pumped from wells in the occupied West Bank, and they export a rich variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices to Europe and the United States.
___In the village of Ein al-Beida, barbed wire divides a field in two.
___On one side are rows of orange trees covered in lush green leaves, grown by Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement; on the other is barren land allocated for Palestinians, where nothing grows except stiff stalks of yellow grass, long dried out due to  the lack of water.   MORE . . . 

Pillay, Jerry.
“Apartheid in the Holy Land: Theological Reflections on the Israel And/Or Palestine Situation from a South African Perspective.”
Hervormde Teologiese Studies, vol. 72, no. 4, Oct. 2016, pp. 1-9.
[Jerry Pillay, Department of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.]
The word ‘apartheid’ comes from an Afrikaans word meaning ‘apartness’ or ‘separateness’. . .  it is actually an official policy of racial segregation, involving political, legal and economic discrimination against ‘non-white’ people. It is a policy or practice of separating or segregating groups. This policy separated white and non-white people in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. . . During the 19th century. . . [t]his became the paradigm for the foundation of the Israeli state which exists up to this day with great cost to human rights and lives. The Palestinians continue to fight for their independence in the face of Israel’s continuation to take Palestinian land. Hence, the analogy between Israel and apartheid1 entails a comparison between Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and South Africa’s treatment of non-white people during its apartheid era. . .
[. . . .] Justice is a very significant theological theme in the context of the Israel-Palestine situation – as much as it was, and still is, in the South African context.
[. . . .] An investigation into the meaning of justice (tsedeq and tsedaqah) in the Old Testament shows that, in the context of creation, it has wider meaning. Justice for Israel, like all its neighbours in the ancient Near East, manifests itself in the right and harmonious order of creation. In order to understand the peculiar nature of ancient Near Eastern conceptions of justice, it is important to realise that creation does not primarily refer to the origin of the world at the beginning but to a process by which cosmos, order, replaces chaos, not only in nature but in society as well. Creation therefore encompasses two realms, which for us are usually quite distinct: the realm of nature and the realm of society.   MORE . . .

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  66  PALESTINIANS,  MAJORITY  TEENAGERS,  IN  OVERNIGHT  RAIDS  
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 23, 2017― Israeli detained at least 66 Palestinians during overnight raids Monday in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.
[. . . .] According to United Nations documentation, Israeli forces conducted 121 search and arrest operations across the West Bank and arrested 205 Palestinians, including nine children, between September 26 and October 9.
[. . . .] Israeli police forces raided the neighborhood of al-Issawiya overnight and detained 51 Palestinians after searching dozens of homes in the area.
[. . . .] Lawyer of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affair Muhammad Mahmoud, who visited detainees at different detention centers, said that he followed up on the cases of 27 of the detainees, who he said were all teenagers between the ages of 15 to 18.   MORE . . .  
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) JOINT  REPORT  REVEALS  THAT  431  PALESTINIANS  WERE  ARRESTED  IN  SEPTEMBER  2017 
Addameer  Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Oct. 8, 2017 ― A joint, monthly report released by Adameer, The Prisoner’s Club, and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has revealed that 431 Palestinians were arrested by the occupation forces in the month of September 2017.
___Of these 431, 98 were children, 11 were women, and 3 were journalists.
___133 were arrested from Jerusalem governate, 60 from the Hebron governate, 45 from the Nablus governate, 40 from the Ramallah governate, 38 from Jenin governate, 28 from Bethlehem governate, 15 from Tubas governate, 10 from Salfeet governate, 9 from Tulkaram governate, 7 from Jericho governate, and 6 from Gaza.      MORE . . .

“I  DEFY,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Talk about exile―I defy
silence my argument with chains
and a foolish prison cell
I defy

Turn plague and sadness against me
I remained defying
cut my wrist
with my bloody chest I defy
cut my leg
I mount the wound and walk
and with my violence I defy
with my forehead I defy
and with my teeth
and the teeth of songs―I defy

and kill me―I defy
I kill death
and come to you a defying God

All that I own of my father’s and grandfather’
inheritance is to defy!

All that I understand from the
wind and the secrets of erased villages
and the songs of springs
on dying grass
a concealed sob
the roots of the tree
memorize it for me
a sob: To defy

All the eyes of children living within me
in bloody exile
All that I live of my absent country
in name and deed
a scream bruising me―to defy!

My anger drips oil and honey
my pain bears almonds, flouts and roses
so jail my piece of bread
I defy

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 home space is saturated with individual and collective cultural and political meanings . . .” (Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
img_2983
Homes of Palestinian village of Lifta, abandoned in the Nakba, 1948 (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 2015)

❶ . Israeli forces threaten East Jerusalem home with demolition
. . . ❶― (a) Israeli forces shoot Palestinian activist with rubber-coated steel bullet for taking photos

  • Background:  “Exiled At Home: Writing Return And The Palestinian Home.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly.

❷ . Israeli Soldiers Assault A Palestinian Woman After Invading Her Home In Hebron
❸ . Israeli forces take over Palestinian home in Hebron
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ . ISRAELI  FORCES  THREATEN  EAST  JERUSALEM  HOME  WITH  DEMOLITION   
Ma’an News Agency    
Dec. 13, 2016       Israeli Jerusalem Municipality crews on Monday evening raided the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Issawiya and delivered a demolition notice to a Palestinian family, local sources said.
___Iyad Mahmoud told Ma’an that municipality crews, accompanied by armed Israeli forces, broke into his four-story family building and delivered a demolition notice for the top two floors of the building.
___According to Iyad, it wasn’t the first time municipality inspectors have threatened the family with demolition.      More . . .  
. . . ❶― (A) ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT  PALESTINIAN  ACTIVIST  WITH  RUBBER-COATED  STEEL  BULLET  FOR  TAKING  PHOTOS   
Ma’an News Agency     
Dec. 13, 2016      Israeli forces on Monday evening shot a Palestinian activist in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet during a raid in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Issawiya while he was attempting to take photos and video footage in the neighborhood, according to a local committee.
___Members of a local follow-up committee in al-Issawiya told Ma’an that committee member Muhammad Abu al-Hummus was “documenting Israeli violations and provocations” when . . . [a soldier] shot a rubber-coated steel bullet at Abu al-Hummus from an approximate distance of 25 meters, hitting him in the leg.
___Prior to the shooting, Israeli forces and police officers had stormed the town and deployed in its alleys “in a provocative manner”. . .       More . . .

  • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera, and Sarah Ihmoud. “Exiled At Home: Writing Return And The Palestinian Home.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 37.2 (2014): 377-397.   ARTICLE.

In occupied East Jerusalem . . . and throughout historical Palestine, the Palestinian home space is under constant attack. Whether through military invasions of the home space during child arrest, evictions from and theft of homes of Palestinian families by settlers orchestrated by the settler colonial regime, home demolitions, revocations of IDs, construction of the apartheid wall, or a myriad of other means, Zionist attacks on the Palestinian home space are  Inseparable from attacks on the homeland.
[. . . .]  The ongoing militarization, invasion, and destruction of the Palestinian home space are understood as a central aspect of the Zionist project’s erasure of Palestinian history and memory, but also the dislocation of Palestinian familial and communal life. . . .Space is imbued with cultural meaning, and cultural practices are lived in the spatialized locations of the everyday. The Palestinian home space is saturated with individual and collective, cultural and political meanings. As Fatma Kassem notes, for Palestinians, home is “the one place where history and memory are transmitted, thereby preserving the continuity of cultural and national identity.” As such, Israeli settler colonialism’s destruction of the Palestinian home space as an element of inscribing geopolitical, biopolitical, and necropolitical power on everyday life is strategic in disrupting the geographies of Palestinian social relations and the formation of cultural and political identities.
[. . . .]  The ruins of my unfinished family house in Turmos ‘Ayya, the painful realization of losing a home I never knew I could have possessed in Palestine, haunt me to this day. They point to the wide-ranging effects of settler colonial violence on the Palestinian diaspora. My ability to have a childhood and a future in Palestine, a Palestinian identity based in the homeland, was uprooted even before my birth, and replaced by the settlers in Shiloh who set fire to my family’s foundations, while they claim a secure, protected, home space and identity on my ancestors’ land. Yet, coming to terms with these ruins, both physical and psychological, has also been a healing process. They inspire my desire to rebuild a home space in Palestine, to learn the stories of my people, to keep on returning, and as a politically engaged anthropologist, to tell my stories and to write against terror.

❷ . ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ASSAULT  A  PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  AFTER  INVADING  HER  HOME  IN  HEBRON    
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC    
Dec. 12, 2016       Many Israeli soldiers invaded, on Sunday at night, a Palestinian home in Shiokh town, northeast of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and assaulted an elderly woman while violently searching and ransacking her home.
___Journalist Ahmad Halayqa said several army vehicles invaded Shiokh, before the soldiers broke into the home of Hajj Ahmad Ali ‘Ayayda, and violently searched and ransacked the property, causing excessive damage.
___Halayqa added that the soldiers also used military dogs during the search, and repeatedly assaulted ‘Ayayda’s wife, especially in her chest, after she objected to their violent invasion and ransacking of her home.       More . . .  

img_3220-copy-001
Hebron woman preparing to climb ladder into the back window of her home because the Israelis have permanently blocked access to her front door to make the street “settlers only” (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 2015)

❸ . ISRAELI  FORCES  TAKE  OVER  PALESTINIAN  HOME  IN  HEBRON   
Ma’an News Agency     
Dec. 13, 2016        Israeli forces took over a home in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron Monday evening and turned it into a military barrack, after confining the family into a single room in the house, local sources said.
___In a phone call to Ma’an, owner of the home Munthir al-Junaydi told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided his house, which is located in the Numrah area of Hebron, and turned into a military post.
___He said Israeli soldiers arrived at their house at 6 p.m., and have since had them corralled inside one room and prevented them from leaving.
___It is also not uncommon for Israeli forces to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes for the use of military posts, or lock residents inside their own homes while conducting military operations.     More . . .

“. . . ‘The answer to the international battle over Jerusalem is to impose sovereignty over Ma’aleh Adumim’. . .” (Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
ma-ale-adumim-illegal-settlement2
Illegal Israeli settlement Maale Adumim (Photo: Helen Crump, Building Design Magazine May 25, 2007)

❶ Israeli forces demolish residential buildings in occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods

  • Background:  “Jerusalem In The Courts And On The Ground.” Florida Journal Of International Law

❷ Israeli forces shut down wedding hall in al-Eizariya (Bethany)
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  Israel increasingly defiant as the world loses interest in Palestine

  • Background: “Planning Apartheid And Human Rights In The Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  RESIDENTIAL  BUILDINGS  IN  OCCUPIED  EAST  JERUSALEM  NEIGHBORHOODS
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 8, 2016
Israeli authorities Tuesday morning demolished two residential buildings in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Wadi al-Jouz and al-Issawiya for building without Israeli-issued licenses.
___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces escorted two excavators to the Wadi al-Jouz neighborhood at 4 am. Israeli soldiers were also deployed throughout the alleys of the neighborhood, before surrounding a three-story building as Israeli excavators tore it down.
___According to locals, the building consisted of stores on the ground floor, apartments on the second, while the third floor was still under construction.
___Local sources highlighted that the stores on the first floor contained food supplies belonging to Palestinian families, adding that Israeli forces demolished the stores without allowing families to remove their supplies.        More . . .  

  • Halabi, Sam F. “Jerusalem In The Courts And On The Ground.” Florida Journal Of International Law 26.2 (2014): 223-270.  Full article.  

[. . . .] . . .by examining certain “interpretation catalysts”—presidential speeches from Clinton to Obama and the U.S. Government’s pleadings in its lawsuit with the Zivotofskys (and, by extension, Congress), it is possible to see a growing flexibility toward adopting a foreign policy position that accommodates a Palestinian self-determination movement that sounds more like civil rights in Israel rather than sovereignty under international law. [This] Article does not argue that there has been a fundamental abandonment of the two-state solution in U.S. foreign policy. Indeed, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have explicitly adopted it as their current platform in the predictable second-term push for Arab-Israeli peace. However, given the realities on the ground, firstly and most importantly with respect to Jerusalem, it is possible to see a U.S. acceptance that the time for the two-state solution may have already passed.

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  SHUT  DOWN  WEDDING  HALL  IN  AL-EIZARIYA  (Bethany)    Ma’an News Agency  
Nov. 7, 2016
Israeli forces shut down a wedding hall in the village al-Eizariya in the occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem, claiming that Palestinians  shoot  firearms in the air during wedding celebrations in the hall.
___Israeli security sources said in a statement, received by Ma’an, that Israeli forces closed the al-Awda wedding hall in order to prevent the “very dangerous phenomenon and bad tradition” of shooting in the air during weddings and special occasions.
___The statement added that the closure of the wedding hall came as part of the Israeli fight against unlicensed weapon ownership among Palestinians.      More . . .  

bethany
Overhead map of Bethany. Bethany is present-day West Bank city of al-Eizariya (meaning “Place of Lazarus”), site of the reputed Tomb of Lazarus, located about 1.5 miles to the east of Jerusalem on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. (From Pinterest, Danette Dailor; source, Jesus-story.net)

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL  INCREASINGLY  DEFIANT  AS  THE  WORLD  LOSES  INTEREST  IN  PALESTINE
+972 Magazine 
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Nov. 2, 2016
Israel’s leadership wants you to think it is worried about some bold move by President Barack Obama during his lame duck period . . .  After all, there’s a compelling argument to be made that it would be bad for Israel if Washington threw its support behind a UN Security Council resolution reaffirming that Israeli settlements are illegal, or one that codifies a framework for an eventual peace deal.
___An Israeli prime minister worried about international condemnation of his country’s illegal settlements probably wouldn’t declare that, “[t]here is no government that supports, or will support, settlement more than my government.”
___An Israeli government concerned with the world’s perception of its intransigence wouldn’t send the deputy foreign minister . . . . to demand the annexation of Israel’s third-largest settlement.
___Yet the Israeli government doesn’t seem to be worried at all.     “The answer to the international battle over Jerusalem is to impose sovereignty over Ma’aleh Adumim,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Monday.      More . . .  

  • Amar-Shiff, Netta. “Planning Apartheid And Human Rights In The Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 21.3 (2016): 65-68.   Source.  

For years the Israeli human rights community has been trying to defy Israeli demolitions of Palestinian houses and other structures in the West Bank. Their opposition is based on individual human rights arguments and international humanitarian law, focusing attention on the unlawful policies of the Israeli Civil Administration (1CA) in the West Bank and their devastating humanitarian consequences on the protected civilian Palestinian population. These included primarily the rights of Palestinians to property and adequate housing and other economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the obligation of the occupying power to ensure public order for the occupied population, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. While legal arguments mentioned the illegality of the settlements, they were cautious not to compare settlers and Palestinians.
[. . . .]   The use of the Apartheid paradigm in the context of the West Bank raises the obvious question of the basis for comparison between the Israelis and Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, especially considering the fact that settlements are illegal under the law of occupation and should not be there in the first place. While Apartheid presumes the equal citizenship status shared by blacks and whites in one state, South Africa, the national conflict in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian state seems to negate the use of the conceptual framework of Apartheid, which seems to unfairly marginalize the existence of the national conflict. But moving beyond the national conflict, the main problem in the comparison to the Apartheid framework is that although it is based on similarly applied practices of racial segregation and discrimination as the International Convention On the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid states, it does not emphasize what seems to be the main motivation behind the legal segregation and discrimination: the Israeli spatial expansionist interests to advance and reinforce the settlement project until the full conversion of the Israelis in the West Bank from settlers to indigenous peoples.  [. . . .]

“. . . collectively bear witness and advocate for these mothers’ most basic human rights: to raise their children safely . . .” (Roth and Duaibis)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
arrest
Israeli occupation soldiers illegally arresting a Palestinian child, October 27, 2015 (Photo: Al-Jazeerah)

❶ Israeli military court extends detention of 7 Palestinian minors from Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp

  • Background: “Crows on the Cradles: Palestinian Mothers at a Frontline Vortex: Reflections on the Psychology of Occupation.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

❷ PCHR Weekly Report: One Palestinian killed, 7 wounded, including 4 children, by Israeli troops this week
. . . ❷ ― (a) Israeli forces kidnap 29 Palestinians including children
. . . ❷ ― (b) Israeli forces kill child with flare in Gaza

  • Background: “Collusion as a Defense against Guilt: Further Notes on the West’s Relationship with Israel and the Palestinians.” International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
❶ ISRAELI  MILITARY  COURT  EXTENDS  DETENTION  OF  7  PALESTINIAN  MINORS  FROM  BETHLEHEM’S  AIDA  REFUGEE  CAMP  
Ma’an News Agency     
Oct. 6, 2016
An Israeli military court Thursday extended the detention of seven Palestinian minors, aged between 16 and 17 years old, from Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank for “endangering the lives of Jewish worshippers” after reportedly throwing Molotov cocktails near Rachel’s Tomb at the northern entrance of Bethlehem.
___Three of the minors were detained on Wednesday, following confessions from four minors detained in the previous week, according to Israeli sources.
___Israeli sources also claimed that all seven minors confessed to throwing the Molotov cocktails and reportedly told Israeli authorities they learned how to make the cocktails from online videos, while admitting to buying the materials from shops before gathering every Friday near Rachel’s Tomb to throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli settlers.      More . . .  

  • Roth, Judy, and Salwa Duaibis. “Crows On The Cradles: Palestinian Mothers At A Frontline Vortex: Reflections On The Psychology Of Occupation.” International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.1 (2015): 5-20.  Source . . .

[. . . .] This is the terrible predicament we are sharing in the hopes that we might create concentric circles of witnessing, near and remote, that can collectively bear witness and advocate for these mothers’ most basic human rights: to raise their children safely and competently and to educate their children in a setting that can help them think. There is much that psychoanalysts might contribute to these challenges of bearing witness and igniting activism, that is, to engaging mentalizing communities that can hear, hold, and contain the trauma inflicted by such injustices . . . .

❷ PCHR  WEEKLY  REPORT:  ONE  PALESTINIAN  KILLED,  7  WOUNDED,  INCLUDING  4  CHILDREN,  BY  ISRAELI  TROOPS  THIS  WEEK 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Oct. 7, 2016
In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 29 September- 05 October 2016, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that Israeli forces continued to use excessive force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. A Palestinian civilian was killed at Qalandia checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem. 7 civilians, including 4 children, were wounded in the Gaza Strip.
___In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed, on 30 September 2016, Nasib Abu Maizer (28), from Kufor Aqeb village, north of occupied Jerusalem. The aforementioned person was killed when Israeli forces stationed at Qalandia military checkpoint, north of the city, opened fire at him, due to which he sustained 5 bullet wounds throughout his body. He was left bleeding for over an hour as the Israeli forces denied medical crews from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) access to the scene until he died. Israel forces then kept his corpse. They claimed that Abu Maizer had stabbed a soldier and caused him moderate wounds.     More . . .

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A Palestinian teenager arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces following clashes outside of the Old City of Jerusalem on July 24, 2014. (Photo: AFP – Ahmad Gharabli)

. . . ❷ ― (a) ISRAELI  FORCES  KIDNAP  29  PALESTINIANS  INCLUDING  CHILDREN    Days of Palestine  
Oct. 6, 2016
Israeli occupation forces kidnapped on Thursday night 29 Palestinian citizens in occupied West Bank and holy city of Jerusalem.
___Palestinian sources said that the Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Issawiyeh and Al-Tur neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and broke into Palestinian homes.
___The Israeli occupation forces broke external doors of some of the Palestinian houses and annoyed the Palestinian civilians.
___According to the Palestinian Prisoner Committee (PPC), the Israeli occupation forces kidnapped 14 Palestinians, including children, noting the ages of the kidnapped Palestinians ranged between 12 and 21 years old.
___Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces raided several cities and neighbourhoods across the occupied West Bank and broke into Palestinian homes.      More . . .   
. . . ❷ ― (b) ISRAELI  FORCES  KILL  CHILD  WITH  FLARE  IN  GAZA
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)      
Oct. 04, 2016
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenage boy with a flare during a protest east of al-Bureij refugee camp near Gaza’s border fence last month.
___Abdel-Rahman al-Dabbagh, 15, was struck in the forehead above his left eye around 7 p.m. on September 9 with an illumination flare cartridge that ignited, setting him on fire and killing him. Israeli forces fired live ammunition, tear gas canisters, and flares at protesters gathered at the border fence from approximately 2:30 p.m. until sunset, Mohammad I., an eyewitness, told Defense for Children International – Palestine. Abdel-Rahman and other Palestinian youth threw stones toward Israeli forces on the other side of the border fence, as well as some unexploded tear gas canisters previously fired by Israeli forces at the protestors.
___”Israeli forces routinely misuse ‘less-lethal’ weapons and projectiles to directly target Palestinian children, killing and injuring them with impunity,” said Ayed Eqtaish, DCIP’s Accountability Program director. “Rampant disregard for international law combined with no accountability ensures the situation will continue to deteriorate for Palestinian children.”     More . . .  
Related . . .  For every Israeli kid killed 15.8 Palestinian kids have been killed
Related . . .    2,145 Palestinian children and 134 Israeli children have been killed since September 29, 2000.

  • Kemp, Martin. “Collusion As A Defense Against Guilt: Further Notes On The West’s Relationship With Israel And The Palestinians.” International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.3 (2015): 192-222.   Source . . .

My suggestion is that part of the explanation lies in the way that the collective psyches of Israel and the West each engages the other in their attempts to deal with their burden of guilt. The West, as was described earlier, forever sensitive to the danger of being reminded of its own anti-Semitic history, seeks to ward of the painful guilt that would follow. This is a raw place, and one that can be easily picked at. To detract attention from this place, I think that Western countries have concurred with Israel’s definition of what an ally should be, and that essentially involves the West’s collusion and complicity in the dehumanization of the Palestinians. In this way, our shameful lack of response to one historical tragedy – the triumph of Fascism in Europe – is perpetuated in the failure of our moral, and political, response to another. The redefinition of the Holocaust from being considered a crime against humanity, perhaps at the furthest reach but still somewhere on a continuum of human behavior, to being thought of as a “singularity” out on its own as a crime against the Jewish people, makes its own contribution here.
___A particular twist comes about when the West gives up the capacity to question the claim that Israel stands in or substitutes itself for “the Jewish people”, or a Jewish “nation”. It becomes difficult for us to properly distinguish between Zionism, Jewish Israeli society, the Israeli State, and Jewish people more generally. So we become anxious that criticism of Israel might be confused with an anti-Semitism we are desperate to disown. In such a situation, it is no wonder that thought is paralyzed, our moral compass is overwhelmed, leaving the West submissive and inarticulate in the face of an Israel that proclaims its right to speak collectively as victim and survivor of the legacy of European anti-Semitism.
___Israel, meanwhile, is reassured that it has no need to feel guilty because the West endorses its assertion that it is the Palestinians who are the problem, and that they are responsible for the ongoing violence.

 

“. . . My country, you are seeds of hope . . .” (Abu Salma)

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1-Flagellation_google-001
Church of the Condemnation: Roman Catholic Church on Via Dolorosa. According to tradition, this was the site where Jesus took up his cross after being sentenced. http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Condemnation.html

❶ Knesset extends ‘racist’ emergency provision on Family Unification Law for 13th year

  • “Israel’s Palestinian Minority In The Two-State Solution: The Missing Dimension”

❷ The Minister of Internal Security agrees to release the detained bodies of Jerusalemite Martyrs and the police will decide where to bury them
❸ Israel to build 258 illegal settlement units in Jerusalem
. . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) Key Muslim and Christian Holy Sites Erased From “Old City” Map

  • “Israel: The New South Africa?”

❹ POETRY by Abu Salma
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ KNESSET  EXTENDS  ‘RACIST’  EMERGENCY  PROVISION  ON  FAMILY  UNIFICATION  LAW  FOR  13TH  YEAR
Ma’an News Agency
June 13, 2016
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset voted on Monday evening to re-extend Israel’s “Citizenship and Entry into Israel” provision, which prohibits Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip from automatically obtaining legal status in Israel or East Jerusalem through family unions.
___The law was passed 65 in favor, 14 against, according to press release published by the Knesset on Tuesday.        MORE . . . 

At present, there are approximately 1.3 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, comprising about 20 percent of Israel’s total population and about 12 percent of Palestinians worldwide.  This Palestinian population has been almost completely ignored by the international community. For decades, [in]international discussion . . . The Palestinian minority in Israel has received little, if any, attention [. . . .]
___A widespread and longstanding disregard for the Palestinian minority in Israel has been reflected in all of the accords, initiatives, conferences and summits aimed at achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace . . . . Not only has the Palestinian minority consistently been ignored; it has always been excluded from participating in the peace process itself. . . .  The reason for this omission lies in the prevailing view of the “Palestinian problem” as one primarily concerning Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and, secondarily, those in the Diaspora.
___This view, however, is too narrow. More than ever before, the “Palestinian problem” goes beyond the demand for statehood by Palestinians in the territories . . . the growing ethno-national conflict within Israel today between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs should be viewed as part of the larger conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
[. . . .]
___Only a . . . solution that also involves improving the status and rights of the Palestinian minority within Israel can really resolve the century-long conflict between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism.

  • Waxman, Dov. “Israel’s Palestinian Minority in the Two-State Solution: The Missing Dimension.” Middle East Policy 18.4 (2011): 68-82.   ARTICLE.

❷ THE  MINISTER  OF  INTERNAL  SECURITY  AGREES  TO  RELEASE  THE  DETAINED  BODIES  OF  JERUSALEMITE  MARTYRS
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
June 13, 2016
The Minister of Internal Security and public prosecution agreed to release the bodies of Palestinian bodies without setting any deadlines.
___Lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud explained that the public prosecution responded today to the appeal he had submitted to the Supreme Court saying that after the Minister of Internal Security and police discussed all the procedures that came with releasing Martyrs’ bodies, they agreed to release the bodies to their families on conditions. . . . Another condition was also added which gives the police the option to choose the Islamic cemetery where the bodies will be buried.      MORE . . .

al-issawiya
Al-Issawiya, where new illegal settlements will be built in occupied East Jerusalem, has come under restrictions. (Photo: Ma’an News Agency, Oct. 21, 20150)

❸ ISRAEL  TO  BUILD  258  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENT  UNITS  IN  JERUSALEM
The Palestinian Information Center
June 14, 2016
Reports have recently been released by Israeli pro-settlement groups on an Israeli plan to build 258 illegal settlement units in Occupied Jerusalem.
___These groups, one of which is affiliated with the Israeli army, said the planning committee in Occupied Jerusalem will discuss a scheme on Thursday June, 22 to build 258 settlement units on Palestinian lands in the villages of al-Issawiya, al-Tur, and Lefta.
___734 dunums of Palestinian lands have been confiscated by the Israeli occupation authorities to establish the projected Jewish settlement outpost.     MORE . . .
. . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) KEY  MUSLIM  AND  CHRISTIAN  HOLY  SITES  ERASED  FROM  “OLD  CITY”  MAP
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 13, 2016      MORE . . .

[. . . .] In reality, Palestinian citizens were discriminated against in all areas of public life since the early years of the young state, decades before Netanyahu’s government flooded the Knesset with racist bills.
___The 2010 report from Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority rights in Israel, identified over 30 laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in terms of citizenship issues, the right to political participation, land and housing rights, educational, cultural and language rights, religious rights, and during detention on security charges . . . .
___If we look at the Law of Return (1950) and the Citizenship Law (1952), both are fundamentally discriminatory and serve to bolster the Jewish nature of the state . . . two laws allow Jews to immigrate freely to Israel from any part of the world and to gain citizenship, but exclude Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes between 1947-52, denying them any internationally recognised legal rights.
___In 2003, the government in Tel Aviv enacted the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, publicly known as the ‘family unification law’. This law denies the right to Israeli residency or citizenship status to Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, even if they are married to citizens of Israel (Jewish or Arab).
___Since 1948, the state of Israel has passed a series of laws that allowed it to systematically confiscate and transfer Palestinian-owned land to the state . . . .  Today, Palestinian citizens, who constitute a fifth of Israel’s population, own only 3-3.5% of the land, compared to 48% under Palestinian ownership in 1948. This massive land confiscation and its transfer to Zionist organisations was executed through two laws from the early 1950s . . .     ARTICLE.

POETRY  BY  ABU  SALMA   (ABDELKARIM  AL-KARMI)

  “GLORY  LIES  IN  THE  EARTH  OF  JIHAD”

Rub your face in the dust, say: This is my land!
Each particle sings that it is holy,
Free hearts lie buried in it,
How can I not make it my bed?
Stand at the Yarmuk, and look. Do you see,
The procession of history, with hope at its head?
The dust-trails rising from beyond the hill,
On the plains, cavalry ranked in rows?
The songs of victory are heard even now,
The chants of love from every valley rise.
Or do you see the Yarmuk bathed in tears,
Hitting far, far beyond the hosts?
My country, you are seeds of hope,
Watered by the tears of my heart.
What has wounded you?
Speak! The ruses of your sons, or of your foes?
Do not say that this is dead ground,
For it embraces those who were truly alive.
Protect that generation in the womb of your earth,
For free blood still calls, and is heard.
—Source

 

 

“Survivors of The Holocaust please talk to me . . .” (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
jordan valley
Khillat Khader community where Israeli troops and tanks on  demolished ten structures including tents which are home to  four families made up of 20 people. (Photo: PNN)

❶ Restrictions on movement in Bab al-Majles in Jerusalem’s Old City place neighborhood in chokehold
❷ Mayor: Israeli forces assault entire family during al-Issawiya raid
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ) Update: “Army Kidnaps 27 Palestinians In The West Bank”
❸ Two Palestinians shot, critically injured by Israeli forces near Bethlehem
❹ IOF demolish facilities in the Jordan Valleys, leave 20 homeless
❺ Opinion/Analysis: BEYOND  SOUTH  AFRICA:  UNDERSTANDING  ISRAELI  APARTHEID
❻ Poetry by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ RESTRICTIONS  ON  MOVEMENT  IN  BAB AL-MAJLES  IN  JERUSALEM’S  OLD  CITY  PLACE  NEIGHBORHOOD  IN  CHOKEHOLD
B’TSELEM – THE ISRAELI INFORMATION CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Feb. 28 2016
The neighborhood of Bab al-Majles al-Islami, also known as Bab a-Nazer, is located in the very heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. It lies immediately to the east of al-Wad St., the main street which leads from Damascus Gate to the entrance to the Western Wall. . . . It is a historical area where, until recently, Old City residents led rich community and cultural lives.
___ Some 350 people live in Bab al- Majles, and the Islamic Waqf offices are located there. . . .
___These restrictions have effectively sealed off the neighborhood and severely harmed its residents, the businesses operating there . . . Residents do not know when they might be able to leave their homes or return to them.     More . . .

bab_al_majles6
Police checkpoint at the entrance to the neighborhood of Bab al-Majles al-Islami. (Photo by Yoav Gross, B’Tselem 23 Feb. 2016)

❷ MAYOR:  ISRAELI  FORCES  ASSAULT  ENTIRE  FAMILY  DURING  AL-ISSAWIYA  RAID
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
Feb. 29, 2016
Israeli forces physically assaulted an entire family in the occupied East Jerusalem village of al-Issawiya overnight Sunday after the family resisted during an arrest raid, the head of the village said.
___. . . Israeli forces stormed the home of Tareq and Tahreer Darwish with the intention of detaining the couple’s sons Yousef, 18, and Laith, 17.
___The two teens, along with their father, resisted the detention, and Israeli forces attacked the three, beating them.     More . . .
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ) UPDATE:  “ARMY  KIDNAPS  27  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK”
IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
Feb. 29, 2016
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers kidnapped, Monday, 27 Palestinians, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, during extensive military invasions and violent searches of homes.     More . . .
❸ TWO  PALESTINIANS  SHOT,  CRITICALLY  INJURED  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
Feb. 28, 2016
Two Palestinians were critically injured in clashes with the Israeli army south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, medical sources said.
___Palestinian Red Crescent spokeswoman Errab Foqoha told Ma’an that two Palestinians were shot in the chest during clashes . . . . Locals told Ma’an that the two were shot when clashes broke out after Israeli forces began raiding the village and firing haphazardly.
___One of the victims, they said, is a middle-aged dentist identified as Hisham Muhammad Atwan Sbeih, who was in his car parked in his front yard.     More . . .
❹ IOF  DEMOLISH  FACILITIES  IN  THE  JORDAN  VALLEYS,  LEAVE  20  HOMELESS
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Monday morning have demolished about ten facilities that include tents, barns and residential structures in the Khillat Khader community in Al-Farisiyya area east of Tubas district, northern Jordan valleys, under the pretext of “no building permit.”
___According to the head of the local council of al-Maleh area, Aaref Daraghmeh, Israeli troops and tanks on Monday morning have stormed the community and demolished ten structures including tents which are home to at least four families made up of 20 people.  More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  BEYOND  SOUTH  AFRICA:  UNDERSTANDING  ISRAELI  APARTHEID
THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK
by Samer Abdelnour on April 4, 2013
“Israeli Apartheid” is a commonly used term to describe the racial violence and segregation enshrined in Israel’s institutions. Though Israel’s most ardent supporters will continue to resist the rhetoric of apartheid, the reality of apartheid in Israel is unmistakable. . . .
___Apartheid is a complex system of racial violence, segregation, and dispossession. The roots of apartheid are colonial . . . Modern apartheid systems, like South Africa and Israel, evolved from historical practices of mobility restriction and internment. . . . Israel implements practices reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa.      More . . .

“COLLATERAL  SAVAGE,”  BY  LAHAB  ASSEF  AL-JUNDI

Survivors of The Holocaust please
Talk to me. Help me understand―
So you sanction what’s being done
In your names?

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

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

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

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
Lahab Assef Al-Jundi was born of Palestinian refugee parents and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not long after graduation, he discovered his passion for writing. He published his first poetry collection, A Long Way, in 1985. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary publications, and many anthologies including Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Hayan Charara, and Between Heaven and Texas, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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 Barnes & Noble.

“. . . You plundered the land from me and I ploughed . . .” (Fouzi el-Azmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-border
Israel-Egypt border (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

❶ THE  ISRAELI  GHETTO
❷ Israeli settlers escorted by army raid village in Salfit district
❸ Japan donates $220,000 for Gaza water, health projects
❹ IOF kidnap 11 Palestinians including children across West Bank
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHAT  DID  THEY  TEACH  MY  SON  AT  THE  ETZEL  MUSEUM?
❻ Poetry by Fouzi el-Azmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER
THE  ISRAELI  GHETTO
Hani Habib
Feb. 28, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to construct walls . . . “In the state of Israel as I see it, there’ll be a fence around all of it. We’re surrounded by predators and we need to protect ourselves,” Netanyahu said at the construction site of the upcoming wall . . . .
___The vast majority of Jews somehow fail to connect the situation of Gazans, and all other Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, to their own history of resistance and survival under occupation. This elision has created a twisted drama where Palestinians are sentenced to a Jewish fate.      More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ESCORTED  BY  ARMY  RAID  VILLAGE  IN  SALFIT  DISTRICT
Feb. 27, 2016
A group of Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli military forces raided the village of Yasuf in the northern West Bank district of Salfit on Saturday. . . .
___Israeli forces fired live bullets, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at youths and several farmers who were in their fields nearby.
___Three quarters of Yasuf’s lands are located in Area C — under full Israeli military and administrative control . . . . over the years, some 602 dunams (148.7 acres) of Yasuf land have been seized to establish settlement housing. . . . including Ariel, the fourth largest settlement in the West Bank.     More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JAPAN  DONATES  $220,000  FOR  GAZA  WATER,  HEALTH  PROJECTS
Feb. 28, 2016
Japan signed two grants on Sunday to fund projects in the Gaza Strip worth almost $220,000 combined, the Representative Office of Japan to the Palestinian Authority said in a statement. . . .
___ [Takeshi Okubo, the Japanese representative to the PA] emphasized Japan’s “firm commitment to enhancing the human security of Palestinians,” the statement said, adding that Japan supported “socio-economic developmental projects that will lead to the empowerment of the Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip.”      More . . .
❹ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
IOF  KIDNAP  11  PALESTINIANS  INCLUDING  CHILDREN  ACROSS  WEST  BANK
Feb. 29, 2016
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Sunday overnight have kidnapped 11 Palestinian youths across the occupied West Bank, including two children in Jerusalem.
___Two of those who were kidnapped have been shot and injured after IOF ambushed their car. . . .
___ IOF also kidnapped two children aged under 15 years in Al-Issawiyya town in East Jerusalem.      More . . .

irgun
Symbol of “The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel”, a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948.

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 BLOG
WHAT  DID  THEY  TEACH  MY  SON  AT  THE  ETZEL  MUSEUM?
Akin Ajayi
Feb. 28, 2016
I’m still not quite sure what my son learned on a class trip to the Etzel Museum. I, on the other hand, learned quite a few things — most importantly, that there’s no monopoly on the lack of compassion in Israel’s body politic . . . .
___ The one thing – possibly the only thing – I’ve learned in over a decade living is Israel is that it is very easy for contested assertions to become immutable fact. It’s a weird form of groupthink: something to do, I suppose, with Israel’s impossibly fragmented social structure, most of us living in impregnable ideological silos defined by politics, religion, social class and mutual distrust.      More . . .

“I  AM  THE  SON  OF  THE  LAND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  ASMAR
You may take my hands
and lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me.

You bereaved me
from the light
and I marched
You robbed me
of the bread
and I ate.
You plundered the land
from me
and I ploughed.

I am the son of the land
and for that
I find goodness in this earth
anywhere I happen to be:
The ants of this land
feed me
The branches of this land
foster me
The eagles of this land
will shield my open revolt

Yes
You may take my hands
And lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me
But here I will stand tall
And here I shall remain
until the very end. (April, 1970)

From: El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON.  Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
Available from Amazon
About Fouzi El Asmar