Tag: Ban Ki-moon

“. . . stateless people could see . . . that the abstract nakedness of being nothing but human was their greatest danger. . .” (Hannah Arendt*)

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rafah
Children in the Rafah Camp, one of the eight Palestine refugee camps in the densely populated Gaza strip. Circa 1955. (Photo: UNRWA by M. Nasr)

❶ Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers, bird hunters, and fishermen in Gaza

  • Background: “The Palestinian Refugee Camps: The Promise Of ‘Ruin’ And ‘Loss’.” Rethinking History

❷ Why is Israel tightening the Gaza blockade?
❸ UNRWA Condemns Killing of Four Palestine Refugees, calls for Full Humanitarian Access to Khan Eshieh Refugee Camp in Syria

  • Background: “Refugees And Social Theory: From The Politics Of “Bare Life” To Refugees As Political Subjects.” Acta Academica

*Hannah Arendt, “The Perplexities of the Right of Man” (1951)

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIAN  FARMERS,  BIRD  HUNTERS,  AND  FISHERMEN  IN  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency     
Oct. 22, 2016
Israeli forces Saturday morning opened live fire at Palestinian farmers, bird hunters, and fishermen in the eastern and northern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli forces deployed at the eastern border near the neighborhood of al-Shujaiyeh opened live fire at Palestinian farmers and bird hunters, forcing them to flee the area.
___Meanwhile, Israeli naval forces opened live fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Beit Lahiya north of the Gaza Strip early in the morning.      More . . .

  • Abreek-Zubiedat, Fatina. “The Palestinian Refugee Camps: The Promise Of ‘Ruin’ And ‘Loss’.” Rethinking History 19.1 (2015): 72-94.   Source.

According to the political theorist Hannah Arendt, a ‘refugee’ is a ‘stateless’ or ‘non-citizen’ person who threatens the nation-state system. Consequently, countries have acknowledged the need for a solution to the refugee problem, whose status is considered temporary, with two possible options: return to the homeland or country of origin, or naturalization in the host country. Historically, both solutions have failed. Arendt views the refugee camp as a ‘final solution’ involving the incarceration of refugees after denying their citizenship. Only then do they become homo sacer in the sense implied by ancient Roman law: destined to die, with their life defined as ‘bare’.
[. . . .]
___ The Palestinian Arab residents who were uprooted, forced out, or compelled to flee from their homes became ‘stateless,’ as Arendt defines it, even before becoming refugees. According to Azoulay . . .  the Arab residents of Palestine should be acknowledged not solely as refugees but as ‘non-governed,’ in a way to link their expulsion from their homeland to the regime responsible to their state within the framework of the new diplomatic, military, and political map of the UN: ‘The U.N. Partition Plan from November 29, 1947 was a crucial moment in the founding of the enterprise of destruction responsible for turning vast sections of Palestine into ruin’.

❷ WHY  IS  ISRAEL  TIGHTENING  THE  GAZA  BLOCKADE?    
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO 
October 21, 2016
Let us begin with the facts: Israeli authorities have, over the course of the last year, tightened the long-standing blockade of the Gaza Strip.      ___Even before these more recent restrictions, the Israeli blockade – an illegal policy of collective punishment in the words of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – was continuing to severely harm the lives of Gaza’s two million residents, furthering the enclave’s de-development.      ___In April of this year, the UN was clear that the most urgent step required for the reconstruction of Gaza remained “the removal of [Israeli] restrictions on the import of building materials, towards a full lifting of the blockade.” Instead, things have gone backwards.       More . . .    

camp
Destruction inside Khan Eshieh camp for Palestine refugees, located south of the Syrian capital, Damascus. (Photo: IRIN, 2015)

❸ UNRWA  CONDEMNS  KILLING  OF  FOUR  PALESTINE  REFUGEES,  CALLS  FOR  FULL  HUMANITARIAN  ACCESS  TO  KHAN  ESHIEH  REFUGEE  CAMP  IN  SYRIA     
Gaza.Scoop.ps – Real Time News From Gaza
Oct. 21, 2016
Four Palestine refugees were killed on the night of 18 October as they attempted to leave the Khan Eshieh Palestine refugee camp, south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, to which access has been highly restricted. Nofeh Mohammed Jarad, who was in her 60’s, her daughter Ibaa Saeed al-Nader, 22, their driver and a one-year old baby were all killed when their vehicle was shelled around 10 p.m. The mother of the baby, a Syrian citizen, also died in the incident.
___UNRWA condemns this attack and the killing and wounding of all civilians including Palestine refugees. It calls on those responsible to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and demands that the parties to the conflict do their utmost to protect civilian life in accordance with international law.  More . . .   Related . . .   

  • Williams, Christian. “Refugees And Social Theory: From The Politics Of “Bare Life” To Refugees As Political Subjects.” Acta Academica 46.4 (2014): 117-131.   Full article.

Since the mid-twentieth century, nation-states and international organisations have developed an integrated system for governing people displaced from their countries of origin by social upheavals occurring there. This system became standardised in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War when the Allied powers created a constellation of refugee camps, government bureaucracies and legal/moral norms aimed at managing the throngs of people whom the war had displaced in Europe. Among the incipient norms was refugee law, part of the broader field of human rights law emerging at this historical moment. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) not only compelled nation-states to intervene in the affairs of other sovereign countries committing genocide, but also to grant people “asylum from persecution”. . . . this “right” to asylum . . . became the human rights framework for addressing mass. . .  “refugee problem” across much of the post-colonial world.
___At the centre of this framework and problem stands “the refugee”. With great consistency, human rights law and other bodies of knowledge have presented “the refugee” as a kind of victim – one who has been expelled from a national and natural “home”. It follows that refugees’ problems may be solved through proper management of the international system, including nation-states, United Nations (UN) bodies, humanitarian agencies and the sites where refugees live that they administer . . . .
[. . . .] as early as 1948, Hannah Arendt argued that refugees, the very people whom the then new UDHR ought to protect, are people without rights, because they have been excluded from a nation-state. Without a sovereign government, through which to claim their rights, refugees are rendered “nothing but human.” More recently, Giorgio Agamben captured widespread scholarly attention for drawing connections between “the concentration camp” and “the refugee camp”, both of which are inhabited by people who have been subjected to “biopolitics”, a politics that excludes them from active participation in a political community and reduces them to “bare life” (Agamben G [1998] Homo sacer: sovereign power and bare life).

“. . . burning the ashes which coat our shining future . . .” (Mu’in Bseiso)

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1-open fire
Palestinian farmers targeted by Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis, Gaza, May 29, 2016 (Photo: ParsToday)

❶ UN Chief: Closure of Gaza Suffocates Its People, Stifles Economy, Impedes Reconstruction

  • From Security Studies.

❷ Israeli Soldiers Open Fire On Gaza Farmers; Navy Fires On Fishing Boats
❸ Palestinian FM welcomes Israeli-Turkish reconciliation ahead of aid delivery to Gaza

  • From International Security.

❹ POETRY by Mu’in Bseiso
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ UN  CHIEF:  CLOSURE  OF  GAZA  SUFFOCATES  ITS  PEOPLE,  STIFLES  ECONOMY,  IMPEDES  RECONSTRUCTION
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
June 28, 2016
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday arrived at Gaza city through Erez (Beit Hanoun) crossing, starting his trip to the besieged coastal enclave by delivering a speech to UN staff, said UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson.
___Ban visited the UNRWA-run al-Zaytoun girls’ primary school where he addressed staff and students, condemning the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip that “suffocates its people, stifles its economy, and impedes reconstruction.”
___Pledging to work for improving their future, Ban addressed the students stating: “As the UN was with me 60 years ago, I will always be with you and work for your better future.”      MORE . . .   

From Security Studies. “Revenge In International Politics.”
We consider revenge to be a form of negative reciprocity. However, distinct from a retaliator motivated by efforts to stop a harmful practice/act or deter a harmful actor from repeating an injury, a revengeful retaliator mainly seeks emotional satisfaction at the suffering of another or derives pleasure from such suffering . . . .  seeking such satisfaction leads revengers to use excessive force, to harm innocents, and to employ far more violence than was used against them originally. . . .
___International Relations theorists increasingly recognize that emotions are important in international politics. But many of the works in the developing IR literature on emotions are only engaged in agenda-setting aspects . . . This paper . . .  theorizes a specific emotionally based practice: revenge. Before discussing revenge and its determinants in international politics, however, we must first ask whether states, the prime object of analysis in IR theory, can have emotions. From a strict materialist point of view, states are abstract corporate actors, and as such, they cannot feel. Only individuals possess the capacity to have emotions, one may argue. . . .
[. . . .]
As opposed to the purpose of other forms of retaliation, in which actors look for material compensation for the losses they suffered or want to stop or deter further harm of this kind, the principle goal of revenge is to inflict suffering. . . . The important point here is that the aim is to cause suffering . . . because the infliction of suffering on the harm-doer arouses strong feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in the revenger. Revengers want their targets to suffer not only physically, but also—if not mainly—emotionally.  LÖWENHEIM, ODED, and GADI HEIMANN. “Revenge In International Politics.” Security Studies 17.4 (2008): 685-724.  SOURCE.

❷ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  OPEN  FIRE  ON  GAZA  FARMERS;  NAVY  FIRES  ON  FISHING  BOATS
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 27, 2016
Israeli soldiers, stationed on military towers across the border fence, opened fire, on Monday morning, into Palestinian agricultural lands across the border fence, in the Gaza Strip, while navy ships fired live rounds targeting fishing boats northwest of Gaza city.
___The WAFA Palestinian News Agency has reported that the soldiers fired many live rounds into Palestinian agricultural lands, east of Gaza city, forcing the farmers to leave. The attack caused no casualties.      MORE . . .   

1-fish fire
Israeli forces patrolling off Gazan coast (Photo: Ma’an News Agency, April 24, 2016)

❸ PALESTINIAN  FM  WELCOMES  ISRAELI-TURKISH  RECONCILIATION  AHEAD  OF  AID  DELIVERY  TO  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency
June 27, 2016
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomed the normalization of relations between Israel and Turkey that was announced early Monday afternoon, while voicing the importance of involving the Palestinian government in all matters concerning the Palestinian people.
___Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told Ma’an on Monday in Ramallah that the Palestinian government would not intervene in the terms of the agreement or in Turkish affairs. However, he insisted that the terms of the agreement directly related to Palestinians, and the Gaza Strip in particular, involve the Palestinian government.
___The agreement, which included Israel’s approval of Turkish aid to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip, was welcomed by the Palestinian government, “as long as it’s not conditional,” al-Maliki said.      MORE . . .
RELATED. . .    DESPITE  TURKISH  POSTURING,  DETENTE  WITH  ISRAEL  WON’T  CHANGE  THE  GAZA  BLOCKADE  

From International Security. “Just War Moral Philosophy and the 2008-09 Israeli Campaign in Gaza.”
In 1923 Zeev Jabotinsky, a Russian-born journalist, soldier, and early leader of right-wing Zionism, published “The Iron Wall.” In it, Jabotinsky laid out the rationale for Jewish colonization and attacks against Palestinian civilians, concluding that “Zionist colonization . . . must be carried out in defiance of the will of the native population . . . under the protection of an iron wall of Jewish bayonets which the native population cannot break through.” The iron wall strategy has served as the core of Zionist/Israeli policies toward the Arab world ever since Jabotinsky’s article was published. In the article, Jabotinsky did not elaborate on the military strategies . . . history reveal[s] that attacks on Arab civilians resisting Jewish expansion in Palestine are a centralcomponent of the strategy.
[. . . .]
In [a New Republic article Moshe Halbertal] claims that the “death ratios” in Gaza prove that Israel did intentionally attack civilians. . . . This argument has been cited by many supporters of Israel, but it is a non sequitur: neither the Goldstone Commission nor anyone else accused Israel of killing as many civilians as it could. Rather, the charge was that for reasons of revenge, punishment, or deterrence, Israel intended to inflict substantial civilian destruction—a war crime against which the argument that Israel could have killed a lot more is not a defense.
[. . . .]
From the outset, a central component of the iron wall strategy has been to directly attack civilians, or their institutions, or both—partly as revenge or punishment for Arab attacks on Israelis, but more fundamentally for the purposes of what the Israelis see as “deterrence.” The premise is that the more the pain, the greater the likelihood that the Arab peoples will . . .  end their conflict with Israel. Slater, Jerome. “Just War Moral Philosophy and the 2008-09 Israeli Campaign in Gaza.” International Security 37.2 (2012): 44-80.

(Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso (1926 – January 23, 1984), born in Gaza, was a Palestinian poet who lived in Egypt)

“FOOTSETPS,”  BY  MU’IN  BSEISO

Brother! If they should sharpen the sword on my neck,
I would not kneel, even if their whips lashed
my bloodied mouth
If dawn is so close to coming
I shall not retreat.
I will rise from the land that feeds our furious storm!

Brother! If the executioner should drag me to the slaughterhouse
before your eyes to make you kneel,
so you might beg him to relent,
I’d call again, Brother! Raise your proud head
and watch as they murder me!
Witness my executioner, sword dripping with my blood!
What shall expose the murderer, but our innocent bleeding?

At night their guns kidnapped him from his trench.
The hero was flung into the cells’ darkness
where, like a banner fluttering above chains, he stayed.
The chains became flaming torches,
burning the ashes which coat our shining future.
Now the hero lives, his footsteps ringing triumphantly
within the closed walls of every prison.
–Translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye

More about Bseiso at:
GAZA: RESISTANCE THROUGH POETRY
Foreign Policy Journal 
by Ramzy Baroud
June 17, 2016

“. . . I am both free and a slave amongst men . . .” (Kamal Nasser)

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1-Kamal Nasser

Kamal Nasser. Singing Wounds.
By Fares Mansour, Artist/Designer/Photographer 2011.
Publisher: Bir Zeit University. Published in Palestine.

❶ Israeli forces detain 14 Palestinians across occupied West Bank
❷ Israeli forces blockade Bethlehem-area village after nearby stabbing
❸ PMO: Israeli politicians escalate rhetoric to dehumanize Palestinians
❹ Analysis: The disappearing politics of occupation
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS  HAVE  CREATED  A  ‘STATE  WITHIN  A  STATE’
❻ Poetry by Kamal Nasser
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  14  PALESTINIANS  ACROSS  OCCUPIED  WEST  BANK
Feb. 11, 2016
Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank during raids on Thursday, locals and Israeli sources said.
___In the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin’s Qabatiya village, Israeli forces detained at least seven Palestinians during raids.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  BLOCKADE  BETHLEHEM-AREA  VILLAGE  AFTER  NEARBY  STABBING
Feb. 10, 2016
The Israeli army intensified its blockade on the village of Nahhalin west of Bethlehem on Wednesday morning, a day after an Israeli settler was wounded in a stabbing near the village.
___Locals told Ma’an via telephone that Israeli forces had sealed all Nahhalin’s roads, preventing residents from entering and leaving, including humanitarian cases.  More . . .
Related . . . ISRAELI  FORCES  SEAL  RAMALLAH-AREA  VILLAGE,  DEMOLISHED  STRUCTURES

blockade
The Israeli army intensified its blockade on the village of Nahhalin west of Bethlehem on Wednesday morning, a day after an Israeli settler was wounded in a stabbing near the village. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse /Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

❸ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PMO:  ISRAELI  POLITICIANS  ESCALATE  RHETORIC  TO  DEHUMANIZE  PALESTINIANS
Feb. 11, 2016
The Director of Strategic Communications and Media at the Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office, Jamal Dajani, on Thursday said that Israeli politicians have increased their rhetoric and incitement towards Palestinians.
___Dajani was referring to a recent statement by Likud lawmaker Anat Berko, who said that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people, since Arabic doesn’t have the consonant “P.”  More . . .
❹ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
THE  DISAPPEARING  POLITICS  OF  OCCUPATION
Hani Habib
Feb. 11, 2016
It seems that [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon wants his name to go down in history . . . .
___I didn’t expect Ki-moon’s statement on the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s occupation to affect people in the Jewish state so deeply. . . . Israeli politicians’ sense that his speech necessitated a sort of “review” of Israeli policy.
___The policy review takes place [against the backdrop of elections] which led to Netanyahu’s fourth government. The elections were not a political evolution or a coup – they were an ideological achievement. The elections created the most right-wing government in Israeli’s history.   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS  HAVE  CREATED  A  ‘STATE  WITHIN  A  STATE’
Natasha Roth
Feb. 10, 2016
A primetime investigative news program revealed to all of Israel last week widespread forgery in the purchase of Palestinian land by Jewish settlers. . . .
___ But this is about more than forgeries, fraud and hidden cameras. . . . This is about the strange reality that comes to rest on a country when a project of the scale and scope of Israel’s settlement enterprise is itself based on illegality.
___The illegality is not just in terms of international law . . . . the government employs a system whereby it is ‘unaware’ that state funds are being poured into outposts that even Israel considers illegal.    More . . .

“O  GOD,  NOW  I  KNOW,”  BY  KAMAL  NASSER  (1924 – 1973)

O God, why have you inspired me? To rejoice and to suffer?.
Why have you baptized me with vision? To laugh and to cry?
Why have you imbued me with ambition?
To elevate me and to humiliate me
Why?

I wish I were heartless, soulless, aimlessly living life, observing it from a far. Approaching eternity with a new heart, a new soul which affirms my wandering, subdues my passions and crucifies me in the void.

O God, why have you tempted me, awakened me, inflamed my passions and with sublimity infused me?

Why have you cleansed me, aroused me?
Why have you crowned me with hope, plunged me in greed and recklessness. Why?

How I long for silence, for stillness
I am lost, questioning
Who am I?
Numb my heart is, lifeless, my visions blind
I drift in the darkness of futility and despair.

O God why have you nourished me, starved me and appeased my hunger
Why have you deprived me, defiling and cleansing me?
Why have you defeated my purpose?
Enlightening me, then leading me astray
Why?

I am both free and a slave amongst men
I am a grave and cradle in the hands of fate
Miserable in what I need
Born of reality
Born of chains
Led by wounds, by the years
Who am I?
And life cries out at God
Embarrassing Him in His heaven
Lips screaming:
You, have given me life – created me.
And I ask the void
Why O God have you created me?

Storms of life roar within me
Paths are flooded with blood
Our days shake with pain and helplessness and beauty wanders away from my paradise.
Crucifying my homeland in the wilderness

Wounded are hope and dignity
In my waking hours, deprivation rose, shaking me, pulling me from the depths of darkness.
Guiding me to goodness, devotion, self-sacrifice and giving.
My eyes are opened – I find the way
The raging conflict rests in my heart
The wounds are cleansed with my tears
And in my eyes, You rise, O God
For I know why You have created me!
― Prose translation by Tania Tamari Nasir

Tania Tamari Nasir is Kamal Nasser’s cousin. Unpublished translation.
A family memory of Nasser written by another of his cousins, at page 35 in her memoir:
Khoury, Samia Nasir. REFLECTIONS FROM PALESTINE: A JOURNEY OF HOPE – A MEMOIR. Limassol, Cyprus: Rimal Publications, 2014.
About Kamal Nasser

“. . . a story of a people who were misled, who were thrown into the mazes of the years. . .” (Kamal Nasser)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-samir's facebook
Israeli soldier confronts QABATIYA “terrorist.”   هنا قباطيه ..الكف التي واجهت مخرز …الأهل الذين أقبلوا ولم يدبروا

❶ Palestinian MK sentenced for “disgracing a public servant”
❷ Israel lifts blockade of Qabatiya after three days
❸ 551 Palestinians arrested in January
❹ Palestinian Embassy Opens in Brazil
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The  Complex  Problematics  of  Palestinian  Representation
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) Also by Richard Falk: Israel shoots the messenger: An open letter to Ban Ki-Moon
❻ Poetry by Kamal Nasser
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
PALESTINIAN  MK  SENTENCED  FOR  “DISGRACING  A  PUBLIC  SERVANT”
Feb. 7, 2016
(Charges against MK Haneen Zoabi come as the Israeli PRIME MINISTER CONTEMPLATES HOW TO UNSEAT MEMBERS OF KNESSET critical of the Israeli occupation.)
Member of Knesset (MK) of the Joint List party, Haneen Zoabi, reached a plea bargain of six months of probation and a fine of NIS 3,000 at the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on Sunday for “disgracing a public servant” . . . .
___Zoabi was charged on Sunday with “disgracing a public servant,” based on the claim that Zoabi called an Israeli Arab police officer a “traitor” at a protest in Nazareth on July 6, 2014.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  LIFTS  BLOCKADE  OF  QABATIYA  AFTER  THREE  DAYS
Feb. 6, 2016
The Israeli army lifted on Saturday evening the siege on the village of Qabatiya, which has been blockaded for three days in a row after three residents of the town carried out a deadly attack in Jerusalem.
___The Palestinian Civil Affairs department in Jenin said on Saturday evening that Israeli forces has lifted the siege on the village of Qabatiya near Jenin.    More . . .
❸ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
551  PALESTINIANS  ARRESTED  IN  JANUARY
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Feb. 7, 2016
The following report was issued on 1 February 2016 by three prisoners’ organizations in Palestine: the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Committee. The Arabic original is available at Addameer’s website.
___In a joint report, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Committee reported that 551 Palestinians were arrested during the month of January 2016, including 131 children and six women and girls. There have now been over 3,500 arrests since October 2015 and the beginning of the popular upsurge.    More . . .

ambassador
Palestinian Ambassador to Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben (Photo: Cia Jornalística J.C. Jarros)

❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN  EMBASSY  OPENS  IN  BRAZIL
Feb. 6, 2016
The Palestinian Authority has inaugurated its first diplomatic mission in the Western Hemisphere, in Brazil, as diplomatic tensions escalate between Israel and the South American state.
___Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben led the opening ceremony in the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia. . . .
___“This is the conclusion of a dream of mine that was also a dream of colleagues that came before me in this mission in the last four decades,” Alzeben said.     More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  COMPLEX  PROBLEMATICS  OF  PALESTINIAN  REPRESENTATION
Richard Falk
Feb 3 2016
While serving as UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, especially in my early years between 2008 and 2010, I fully expected to encounter defamatory opposition from Israel and ultra-Zionist, but what surprised me at the time were various efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to undermine my role at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. . . . .  I was puzzled at first, and then began to wonder whether the Palestinian people were being adequately represented on the global stage.
___This issue of representation has been rendered acute partly due to Israeli policies of fragmenting the Palestinian people, and then complaining that they have no partner with whom to make peace.     More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) Also by Richard Falk
MIDDLE EAST EYE
ISRAEL  SHOOTS  THE  MESSENGER:  AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  BAN  KI-MOON
Feb. 6, 2016
___. . . .  Not since Richard Goldstone chaired the group that released the report detailing apparent Israeli war crimes during its massive attack on Gaza at the end of 2008 have Israel’s big political guns responded with such unwarranted fury . . . .
Netanyahu has the audacity to claim that your acknowledgement that it is not unnatural for the Palestinians oppressed for half century to resist and resort to extremism is tantamount to the encouragement of terrorism, what he described as giving a “tailwind to terrorism.”    More . . .  

“THE  STORY,”  BY  KAMAL  NASSER
I will tell you a story …
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story inspired by hunger and embellished by dark nights of terror.
It is the story of my country, a handful of refugees.
Every twenty of them have a pound of flour between them
and a few promises of relief … gifts and parcels.
It is the story of the suffering ones
who stood waiting in line ten years,
in hunger,
in tears and agony,
in hardship and yearning.
It is a story of a people who were misled,
who were thrown into the mazes of the years.
And yet they stood defiant,
disrobed yet united
as they trudged from the light to their tents:
the revolution of return
into the world of darkness.
― Trans. Michael R. Burch

Kamal Nasser was a much-admired Palestinian poet, who due to his renowned integrity was known as “The Conscience.” Kamal Nasser was a Palestinian Christian who was murdered by an Israeli death squad in 1973. One of the members of the death squad was Ehud Barak, who ruled as Israel’s tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. . . .

Nasser was the PLO’s most prominent Christian and he enjoyed “great appeal” in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq “both as a distinguished poet and likeable personality.” He was the “conscience of the Palestinian revolution,” according to Nazih Abul-Nidal, who worked with him on the magazine Filastin al-Thawra.
From THE HYPERTEXTS. (The site’s index.)

“. . . Her face is a wind in the shadows . . .” (Dalia Taha)

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funeral
Dozens of Palestinians from Yatta attended the funeral of 13-year-old Ruqqaya Abu Eid in the cemetery of the village of al-Karmel east of Yatta. (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ UN’s Ban: Violent response to Israeli occupation ‘human nature’
❷ Scores attend funeral of slain Palestinian girl
❸ Israel bars 3 sisters from visiting father due to Islamic dress
❹ Palestinian PM: The Israeli deputy FM uses fiction to whitewash Occupation
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHEN DO ISRAELIS CARE ABOUT DEAD PALESTINIANS
❻ Poetry by Dalia Taha
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UN’S  BAN:  VIOLENT  RESPONSE  TO  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  ‘HUMAN  NATURE’
Jan. 26, 2016
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday lent his voice to mounting international criticism of key Israeli policies and said it was “human nature” for Palestinians to react violently to Israel’s nearly 50-year military occupation.
___Speaking at the UN Security Council’s Middle East debate, Ban said the new year had begun as 2015 ended — “with unacceptable levels of violence and a polarized public discourse across the spectrum in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.”  More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
SCORES  ATTEND  FUNERAL  OF  SLAIN  PALESTINIAN  GIRL
Jan. 24, 201
Dozens of Palestinians from Yatta attended the funeral of 13-year-old Ruqqaya Abu Eid in the cemetery of the village of al-Karmel east of Yatta.
___Ruqayya Eid Abu Eid, originally from the city of Yatta south of Hebron, was shot dead on Saturday by an Israeli security guard after allegedly trying to stab him near the illegal settlement of Anatot.    More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  BARS  3  SISTERS  FROM  VISITING  FATHER  DUE  TO  ISLAMIC  DRESS
Jan. 25, 2016
Israeli authorities on Monday barred three Palestinian sisters from visiting their father in Israeli prison because of their conservative Islamic dress, a spokesperson with the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies . . . said Israeli authorities would not allow the three sisters [to visit] their father, Yahya Shredah, 43, in Ramon Israeli prison because the three women were wearing the “al-niqab”. . .
___The three women were initially barred from visiting their father last year. . . .
___. . . Israeli forces also recently insulted other family members coming to visit Yahya with curse words, and made the male family members agree to a strip search before allowing visitation. . . . Yahya is serving a 22-year sentence.     More . . .

moon
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo)

❹ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PALESTINIAN  PM:  THE  ISRAELI  DEPUTY  FM  USES  FICTION  TO  WHITEWASH  OCCUPATION
Jan. 26, 2016
In response to an op-ed written for The Wall Street Journal by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely accusing Palestinians of utilizing foreign aid to support terrorism, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said, “Israel’s Deputy FM is using fiction to whitewash Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and the crimes committed by Israeli Colonial Settlers” . . . .
___Hamdallah said that the latest attacks on the Palestinian government by Hotovely and others in the Israeli government “represent an act of desperation. . . .”   More . . .
The Wall Street Journal editorial
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
WHEN  DO  ISRAELIS  CARE  ABOUT  DEAD  PALESTINIANS
Orly Noy
Jan. 26, 2016
It seems that Israelis only pay attention to Palestinian lives when a left-wing activist is accused of sending Palestinians to their death.    More . . . 

“FACE,”  BY  DALIA  TAHA
A sky fell into
the braid
of the little girl who was killed.
Her face
is a wind in the shadows
of the garden,
blowing without colour
or blushing
when the air rushes through.

As if she knew,
when the jackals emerged
from her shadow and the river widened
in the disappointment
of whiteness.

As if she knew, when the sparrows
ate her eyes
and the sidewalk walked
in her blood.

The woman treads on dead
jasmine, searching
the minutes
for her hand.
She hides half her face,
and the air is filled with
the fingers of nothingness.

She pokes a hole in the poem
so the sidewalks can
wander into it.

The little girl’s hand withers and her blood
slumbers in
the lake.
When God passed over
her name,
she buried her hands in the heights of the jasmine
and covered her nakedness
with the corpses of the invaders.
―Translated by Allison Blecker

From Banipal  45:  Magazine  of  Modern  Arab  Literature. Winter 2012. WWW.banipal.co.uk
Dalia Taha is a Palestinian poet and playwright. She was born in Berlin 1986 but grew up in Ramallah-Palestine. Her first play “Keffiyeh/Made in China” was produced by the Flemish Royal Theater [and] was premiered in Brussels in 2012, then brought to Palestine where it toured 7 Palestinian cities across the west bank.    More . . .
An Interview with Dalia Taha

“. . . Bound his hands to the rock of the dead and said: Murderer!. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold Knight1 Comment
A Palestinian youth reacts during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Hebron on October 4, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo)
A Palestinian youth reacts during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Hebron on October 4, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo)

❶ Protest called in Hebron as Israel withholds 11 Palestinians’ bodies
❷ Israeli Army Detains 46 Palestinians in West Bank, Jerusalem
❸ UN: Israel should not take unilateral steps in Jerusalem
❹ Personality of the Month: Albert Aghazarian
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Ramzy  Baroud:  Palestine  Remains  the  Core  Struggle  in  the  Middle  East
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PROTEST  CALLED  IN  HEBRON  AS  ISRAEL  WITHHOLDS  11  PALESTINIANS’  BODIES
Oct. 27, 2015
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Palestinians across the southern West Bank district of Hebron are set to rally on Tuesday in protest against Israel’s decision to withhold the bodies of 11 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces this month.
____Palestinian factions across Hebron called for the “rally of anger” to march from al-Haras mosque in Hebron’s city center to Ibn Rush Square.
____In a joint statement, Hebron’s factional leaders urged residents of Hebron district to join the rally in solidarity with the families of Hebron’s “martyrs.”
More . . .
❷ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI  ARMY  DETAINS  46  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK,  JERUSALEM
Oct. 27, 2015
Israeli forces late Monday and early Tuesday detained 46 Palestinians, including minors, from across the West Bank districts, including Jerusalem, bringing the total number of Palestinians detained since the beginning of violent unrest in October 1, 2015, to 1085, according to local and security sources.
____Forces detained nine Palestinians during a raid and search campaign conducted across the Hebron area.
____In Hebron city, army soldiers detained four Palestinians after raiding and wreaking havoc into their homes.
More . . .
❸ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
UN:  ISRAEL  SHOULD  NOT  TAKE  UNILATERAL  STEPS  IN  JERUSALEM
Oct. 27, 2015
Israel must refrain from taking any unilateral steps in Jerusalem; Anadolu Agency reported a UN spokesperson as saying yesterday.
____UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric’s comment came after Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to revoke the residencies of Palestinians living in the East Jerusalem side of the Separation Wall.
More . . . 
Related . . . ‘MOST-READ’  ARTICLE  AT  WASHINGTON  POST  CALLS  ISRAEL  ‘SAVAGE,  UNREPAIRABLE  SOCIETY’ 

Albert-Aghazarian
Albert-Aghazarian

❹ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
PERSONALITY  OF  THE  MONTH  ALBERT  AGHAZARIAN
[. . . . .] “But of course, Albert Aghazarian!” The mere utterance of his name usually precipitates numerous stories about Al-Ustaz, the teacher… the Old City’s walking encyclopedia who knows the history of Jerusalem up to its each and every stone.
____Albert Aghazarian may be known mostly as a historian, a teacher, and a storyteller, but if you were to ask him, he might say that he is first and foremost an interpreter, because everything in this life is up for interpretation. A fluent speaker of Arabic, English, French, Armenian, Hebrew, Turkish, and some Spanish, Albert would say that he only speaks “one language,” before he pauses and adds… “at a time.”
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
RAMZY  BAROUD:  PALESTINE  REMAINS THE  CORE  STRUGGLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  EAST
Oct 26 2015
[. . . . .]
Historically, chaos, whether that managed by or provoked in its entirety by Israel and its Zionist and neoconservative supporters, has largely served the objectives of successive Israeli governments. Whatever benefits Israel reaped from conflicts, tend to serve it in the short term only. In the long term, agitated conflicts often backfire.
____This has caused Israel an unsolvable dilemma: it is a state that engenders perpetual conflict, yet invariably seeks normalization, security and stability, all at the same time. In reality, however, the position that Israel managed to carve for itself is that of a warring, barbarous nation – a scenario that explains its rise, but also its inevitable downfall [. . . . .]
____So naturally, the Arab world cannot be ‘okay’ if Palestine is not ‘okay’.
More . . . 

“ABOUT  A  MAN,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
They gagged his mouth,
Bound his hands to the rock of the dead
And said: Murderer!
They took his food, clothes and banners,
Cast him into the condemned cell
And said: Thief!
They drove him away from every port,
Took his young sweetheart,
Then said: Refugee!

O you with bloodshot eyes and bloody hands,
Night is short-lived,
The detention room lasts not forever,
Nor yet the links of chains.
Nero died, Rome did not:
With her very eyes she fights.
And seeds from a withered ear
With wheat shall fill the valley.

From Poem Hunter. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-man/  Web. 26 Jun 2015.
A conversation with Mahmoud Darwish

CPT members escort children to school in Hebron. Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine supports Palestinian-led, non-violent, grassroots resistance to the Israeli occupation. By collaborating with local Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers and educating people in our home communities we strive to help create a space for justice and peace. (Photo: CPT)
CPT members escort children to school in Hebron. Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine supports Palestinian-led, non-violent, grassroots resistance to the Israeli occupation. By collaborating with local Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers and educating people in our home communities we strive to help create a space for justice and peace. (Photo: CPT)