Tag: Beit Jala

“. . . You may take the last strip of my land. . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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SELECTED NEWS OF THE DAY

Anticipating Netanyahu’s visit, Israeli forces close down Hebron’s Old City

WAFA
September 4, 2019
Israeli forces today morning closed down Palestinian stores and ordered Palestinian students vacate their schools in Hebron’s Old City in anticipation of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Jamal Sa’afin, an activist with the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, confirmed that Israeli forces tightened restrictions in Hebron’s old city, closing Palestinian stores along the area from al-Salaymeh to Tel Rumeida besides to Wadi al-Husayn and Jaber neighborhoods.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ He added that soldier ordered Palestinian students out of their schools in the old city, including Qurtuba School purportedly in preparation for the visit.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Netanyahu is set to deliver a speech at the Ibrahimi Mosque, which Jews refer to as the Cave of the Patriarchs, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1919 al-Buraq Uprising. The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops.  More . . . . 

  • Netanyahu’s ‘visit’ to Hebron will not change its fact as an Arab Palestinian city
    WAFA
    By Bilal Ghaith
    September 03, 2019
    Palestinian activists called for receiving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hebron on Wednesday night with black flags on homes near the Ibrahimi mosque as observers, politicians and historians dismissed all allegations regarding the “visit” describing it as a provocation.
    ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ According to Maarive newspaper, Netanyahu will take part in a ritual in the Jewish settlement in the city on the steps of the Ibrahimi Mosque where the Palestinians were massacred in 1994 that left dozens dead at the hands of an extremist named Baruch Goldstein. An official ceremony will be held at the site to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1929 al-Buraq uprising. These rituals will be held in the presence of Netanyahu, government ministers and Likud Knesset members, on his first official visit to Hebron in 13 years.   More . . . .

Palestinian refugee students must not be incidental to humanitarian endeavours

Al-Hourriah
Ramona Wadi
September 4, 2019
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Despite financial setbacks caused by political agendas and misconduct allegations, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) ensured that its schools opened on time for the new academic year. Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl described education as central to UNRWA’s mandate, yet the agency is not past attaching importance to symbolism and, despite its work, normalise the violence inherent in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ The opening of the new school year in Silwan, for example, publicised due to renovation works carried out during the summer recess, was lauded by Krähenbühl. “This return to school is also a symbol of preserving normalcy and a safe learning environment,” he remarked.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ The safe learning environment rhetoric, favoured by international organisations, is replete with discrepancies, and can have severe repercussions. A joint statement published by UNICEF in January 2019 focuses on the impact of Israeli state and settler colonial violence as regards access to education and safety for Palestinian students. If there is still need for UN statements to remind us that children “should never be the target of violence and must not be exposed to any form of violence,” it stands to reason that Israel is not facing any deterrent to its destabilisation of Palestinian education.  More . . . .

West Bank village courts tourists with eggplant, stone terraces

Al-Monitor (Palestinian Pulse)
Ahmad Abu Amer
September 3, 2019
Locally grown eggplants have earned a significant place in the Palestinian cuisine, heritage and economy and is celebrated every summer in Battir, a historical village in the West Bank, 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) west of Bethlehem. Light purple, large or small but always fragrant, eggplants make up an essential part of the Palestinian kitchen from makdous, a pickled stuffed eggplant dish, to maqluba, a traditional dish with chicken, rice and eggplant.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ The annual Battir Eggplant Festival, which took place on Aug. 17-19, is not just an occasion to celebrate the popular crop; it highlights just how this historical village — known for its 4,000 years of terraced cultivation of vines and olives — has suffered, first by plans of an Israeli separation barrier that could have been built right across the historical terraces, then under the restriction of movement and nearby Israeli settlers.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Battir, located on the Green Line, won the 2011 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes. The site was recognized for aesthetic and symbolic value . . . .   In June 2014, the village was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger. The UN cultural body described the village as “a major Palestinian cultural landscape,” due to its complex and unique irrigation system.  More . . . .

Israel Confiscates Palestinian Lands To Expand Illegal Colonies In Bethlehem 

IMEMC News
September 4, 2019
The Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank, issued three orders for the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands in Beit Jala city, Teqoua’ and Rashayda towns, in Bethlehem governorate, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Hasan Breijiyya, the coordinator of the Wall and Colonization Commission in Bethlehem, said the first Israeli order targets Palestinian lands in Basin 2 of the al-Makhrour area Beit Jala, west of Bethlehem, and are owned by residents from Beit Jala and al-Khader.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Breijiyya added that Israel wants to confiscate lands in that area to expand colonialist bypass road #60, linking between occupied Jerusalem and Gush Etzion colony, south of Bethlehem, which effectively means annexing hundreds of Dunams of Palestinian agricultural lands.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ The second order targets lands in the Rashayda village, east of Bethlehem, and aims at expanding Maali Amos illegal colony.  More . . . .

POEM OF THE DAY

“ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

I may―if you wish―lose my livelihood
I may sell my shirt and bed.
I may work as a stone cutter,
A street sweeper, a porter.
I may clean your stores
Or rummage your garbage for food.
I may lie down hungry,
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.

You may take the last strip of my land,
Feed my youth to prison cells.
You may plunder my heritage.
|You may burn my books, my poems,
Or feed my flesh to the dogs.
You may spread a web of terror
On the roofs of my village.
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.

You may put out the light in my eyes
You may deprive me of my mother’s kisses.
You may curse my father, my people.
You may distort my history.
You may deprive my children of a smile
And of life’s necessities.
You may fool my friends with a borrowed face.
You may build walls of hatred around me.
You may glue my eyes to humiliations,
O enemy of the sun,
But
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.
O enemy of the sun
The decorations are raised at the port,
The ejaculations fill the air,
A glow in the hearts,
And in the horizon
A sail is seen
Challenging the wind
And the depths.
It is Ulysses
Returning home
From the sea of loss

It is the return of the sun,
Of my exiled ones
And for her sake, and his
I swear
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist.
Resist―and resist.

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.

 

 

“. . . Amid the ruins of a collapsing world . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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SELECTED NEWS OF THE DAY

EU says demolition of Palestinian property in occupied West Bank threat to two-state solution

WAFA
September 3, 2019
The European Union (EU) Representative and Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah denounced yesterday Israel’s demolition of Palestinian property in Area C of the occupied West Bank as a threat to the two-state solution.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ A statement by the local EU missions referred to the August 26 demolition of a Palestinian family’s home and restaurant near Bethlehem. . . .
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ “These demolitions, together with settlement construction for Israelis in the area, exacerbate threats to the viability of the two-state solution and further undermine prospects for a lasting peace,” said the EU statement.  More . . . .

  • Jerusalem’s Israeli municipality demolishes Palestinian house in the occupied  city  WAFA September 03, 2019
    The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem demolished today a Palestinian-owned house in al-Tur neighborhood of the occupied city under the pretext it was built without a permit, according to the house owner Mohammad Abu al-Hawa.  More . . . .
  • Israel forces Palestinian family to demolish their home
    The Palestinian Information Center
    September 3, 2019
    The Israeli authorities on Sunday forced a Palestinian family in ‘Ara village in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories to demolish their own home.  More. . . .
  • Pictures- A Jerusalemite self-demolishes his commercial facility in Silwan
    Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
    September 1, 2019   More . . . .
  • Israeli settlers set up caravan on confiscated Palestinian land
    The Palestinian Information Center
    September 3, 2019
    Israeli settlers on Tuesday morning erected a caravan on a newly seized Palestinian land in Beit Jala town, west of Bethlehem.
    ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Local sources said that the four-dunum land, owned by the Palestinian citizen Saba Skandar, was seized by the Israeli authorities on Monday without prior notice.  More . . . .

PODCAST: Has international law failed Palestinians?

+972 Magazine
Noura Erakat, Palestinian legal scholar
August 30, 2019
Israel has been able to leverage international law to its advantage much better than the Palestinians, says Noura Erakat, Palestinian legal scholar, human rights activist and author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, on the latest episode of The +972 Podcast.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Erakat proposes understanding it as another tool used to promote a political agenda.  More . . . .

POEM OF THE DAY

“THE  LAST  KNOCK,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

Will you not open this door for me?
My hand is exhausted from knocking at Your door.
I have come to Your vastness to beg
Some tranquility and peace of mind
But Your door is closed in my face,
Drowned in silence.
Lord of the house,
The door was open here,
A refuge for all burdened with grief.
The door was open here,
And the green olive tree rose high
Embracing the house.
The oil lamp kindling without fire,
Guiding the steps of one walking at night,
Relieving those crushed by the burden of Earth,
Flooding them with satisfaction and ease.
Do you hear me, O Lord of the house,
After my loss in the deserts;
Away from You I have returned to You
But Your door is closed
In my face, drowned in silence.
Your house is shrouded
With the dust of death.
You are here. Open, then, the door.
Do not veil Your face.
See my orphanhood, my loss,
Amid the ruins of a collapsing world,
The grief of the world on my shoulders
And terrors of a tyrant destiny
To be undone.

From: A Lover From Palestine and Other Poems: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970. Available.

You have stolen my ancestors’ vineyards and the land I once plowed . . . (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Selected News of the Day

Palestinian events banned in East Jerusalem

Al-Monitor — Palestine Pulse
Ahmad Melhem
August 25, 2019
Israeli forces in East Jerusalem prevented a lecture on the Israeli demolition of Jerusalemite homes from being delivered Aug. 17 at the Burj Luqluq Social Center Society. The lecture had been organized by Burj Luqluq in cooperation with the Palestinian Bar Association.
· · · The same forces stopped a ceremony from being held Aug. 6 in honor of the late athlete Ahmad Adilah at The East Jerusalem YMCA because the ceremony was sponsored by the Palestinian Authority. They also prevented a memorial service for the Palestinian writer Subhi Ghosheh from taking place Aug. 5 at the Yabous Cultural Center. They stormed the center and assaulted participants. Four randomly selected participants were summoned by the Israeli intelligence for interrogation at the Al-Maskobiyya Interrogation Center in Jerusalem.
· · · These actions come from Minister of Internal Security Gilad Ardan’s Aug. 5 order to extend the closure of Palestinian institutions in the city and prohibit any cultural or political activities held by Palestinian organizations. The decision deems such events terror activities that violate Israeli sovereignty and laws in the city.   More . . . .

Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (08– 21 August 2019)

Palestinian Center for Human Rights
August 22, 2019
●   2 Palestinians killed, including a child, under the pretext of carrying out stab and run-over attacks in the West Bank
●   Great March of Return in Eastern Gaza Strip: 85 civilians injured, including 25 children and 6 women.
●   West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 73 civilians injured, including a Korean activist.
●   86 civilians, including 4 children and a woman, arrested during 189 incursions into the West Bank.   More . . . .

Israeli forces demolish Bethlehem-district house, restaurant

WAFA
August 26, 2019 – Israeli forces today demolished a  house and a restaurant in Beit Jala city, located to the west of the West Bank city of Bethlehem . . . . Hasan Breijeh,  a local anti-settlement and wall activist, told WAFA that a bulldozer arrived in Wadi al-Makhrour, a valley that stretches between Battir village and Beit Jala city, protected by Israeli soldiers.
· · · Israeli soldiers sealed off the area and surrounded the house and restaurant before the heavy machinery demolished them purportedly for lacking rarely-granted Israeli building permits. . . .
· · · Wadi al-Makhrour is a popular hiking spot for Palestinians. It is best enjoyed during the late afternoon in the summer when the sun is about to set.
· · · According to the online portal for Palestinian tourism, http://www.visitpalestine.ps, the area encompasses both natural and agricultural landscapes and is well known for its ancient terraces and stone towers called qusur, built of neatly placed rocks that used to serve as storage rooms for various crops planted in the wadi.  More . . . .

I’m Palestinian. Like Rashida Tlaib, I Am Barred From Seeing My Family.

Rep. Tlaib’s experience is familiar to many Palestinians.
Adalah Justice Project
By Sandra Tamari
August 20, 2019
Israel’s treatment of U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has made Israel’s complete control over Palestinian lives clear. Rep. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American with family in the occupied West Bank, was forced to make a choice between her right to visit her grandmother and her right to political speech against Israeli oppression. She ultimately chose the collective over the personal: She refused Israel’s demeaning conditions that would have granted her a “humanitarian” exception to enter Palestine, so long as she refrained from advocating for a boycott of Israel during her visit. Rep. Tlaib explained in a press conference in Minneapolis on August 19, “My grandmother said it beautifully when she said I am her dream manifested. I am her free bird, so why would I come back and be caged?”
· · · Rep. Tlaib’s experience is familiar to many Palestinians, including myself. I, too, was barred from seeing my family in Palestine because of my advocacy for freedom and justice for Palestinians. In May 2012, I traveled to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to participate in an interfaith delegation and to attend my cousin’s wedding in Ramallah. I presented my U.S. passport to Israeli authorities. At least five Israeli interrogators asked for the names of my father and grandfather; the names likely sounded too “Arab” for the interrogators, who asked me numerous questions about where my father was born. I was taken aside and questioned at least five times.   More . . . .

Poem of the Day

“IDENTITY  CARD,”  BY MAHMOUD  DARWISH  (1964)

Write down:
I am an Arab
my I.D. number, 50,000
my children, eight
and the ninth due next summer
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab.
I work with my struggling friends in a quarry
and my children are eight.
I chip a loaf of bread for them,
clothes and notebooks
from the rocks.
I will not beg for a handout at your
door nor humble myself
on your threshold
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab,
a name with no friendly diminutive.
A patient man, in a country
brimming with anger.
My roots have gripped this soil
since time began,
before the opening of ages
before the cypress and the olive,
before the grasses flourished.
My father came from a line of plowmen,
and my grandfather was a peasant
who taught me about the sun’s glory
before teaching me to read.
My home is a watchman’s shack
made of reeds and sticks―
Does my condition anger you?

There is no gentle name,
write down:
Arab.
The colour of my hair, jet black―
eyes, brown―
trademarks, a headband over a keffiyeh
and a hand whose touch grates
rough as a rock.
My address is a weaponless village
with nameless streets.
All its men are in the field and quarry
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab.
You have stolen my ancestors’ vineyards
and the land I once ploughed
with my children
leaving my grandchildren nothing but rocks.
Will your government take those too,
as the rumour goes?

Write down, then
at the top of Page One:
I do not hate
and do not steal
but starve me, and I will eat
my assailant’s flesh.
Beware of my hunger
and of my anger.

From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988.

“. . . I have recognized my griefs . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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IMG_3384 - Copy - Copy
Settler (ONLY) road between Jerusalem and Gilo Settlement at Beit Jala. (Photo: H. Knight, Nov. 8, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

PALESTINIAN  KILLED,  DOZENS  INJURED  IN  GAZA
A Palestinian was killed and dozens others were injured by Israeli live ammunition during protests at the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday.   ___The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that one Palestinian, identified as Karim Muhammad Kallab, 25, was shot and killed by Israeli live bullets in eastern Gaza City.   [. . . .] Israeli forces ired tear-gas bombs and live bullets at protesters.   More . . .
Related . . . Palestinian Ministry of Health: Kallab’s death raises the number of Palestinians  killed  to  184;  some  20,472  injuries  have been recorded since March 30.

ISRAEL  TO  BUILD  610  SETTLEMENT  UNITS  IN  O.  JERUSALEM,  RAMALLAH
Israel approved on Thursday plans to construct 610 illegal settlement units in occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah, Hebrew media sources revealed.    ___According to the sources, Israeli forces started today levelling Palestinian-owned lands located near Beit Ell settlement northeast of Ramallah as a prelude to construct 300 settlement units.   ___Israeli authorities also approved plans for the construction of 310 other settlement units in occupied Jerusalem.   More . . .

ISRAELI  ARMY  RESUMES  CONSTRUCTION  OF  ROAD  FOR  EFRAT  SETTLERS
The Israeli occupation army’s civil administration on Thursday resumed the construction of a road for Jewish settlers leading to the illegal settlement of Efrat, south of Bethlehem.   ___According to a local official, a crew from the civil administration escorted by soldiers stormed Khilat al-Nahla area in southern Bethlehem and used bulldozers to build a bypass leading to Efrat settlement.   More . . .
Related . . .  IOF  TRIES  TO  PREVENT  SALFIT  MUNICIPALITY  FROM  DRILLING  WELL 

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

WHEN  AN  ISRAELI  SETTLER  IS  KILLED,  EVERYONE  NOTICES
Jonathan Ofir
On Sunday, the Israeli settler Ari Fuld was stabbed by a Palestinian child of 17, Khalil Jabarin. . .   ___This piece could have been about . . .   the six Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli forces a couple of days later . . .    ___Who wants to hear about the deaths of Muhammad Zaghloul al-Khatib al-Rimawi, Muhammad Yousif Alayan, Muhammad Ahmad Abu Naji, Ahmad Muhammad Muhsin Omar, Naji Jamil Abu Assi and Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi? Nah, Ari Fuld, that’s the news.   [. . . .] Israeli hasbarists exploit this one death for more hasbara; when they admonish us for being insensitive. . . they obviously would not even note the deaths of those killed under that self-righteous Zionist zeal – that makes me angry, and I have to push back.   More . . .

PALESTINE:  DIARY  OF  AN  UNRWA  KID
Ramzy Baroud
Maintaining one’s dignity while living a dismal existence in a refugee camp is not an easy feat. My parents fought hard to spare us the daily humiliations that come with living in Nuseirat – Gaza’s largest refugee camp. But when I turned six, and joined the UNRWA-run Nuseirat Elementary School for Boys, there was no escape.   ___Not only was I a refugee on official United Nations papers, but in practice as well, just like all my peers.   ___To be a Palestinian refugee means living perpetually in limbo – unable to reclaim what has been lost, the beloved homeland, and unable to fashion an alternative future and a life of freedom, justice and dignity.   More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

AMERICAN  FRIENDS  SERVICE  COMMITTEE:
What  Does  Justice  Look  Like?  Moving  Towards  a  Just  Peace  in  Palestine  and  Israel,  Dec 14-16, 2018
Join the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker Palestine Israel Network (QPIN), and Pendle Hill for a weekend of exploring what it will take to realize a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel.  AFSC and Quakers have been engaging in Palestine for over a century and working for peace with justice since 1948. After decades without change, we want to open up a conversation about what is needed for a just future.

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“TO  THE  READER,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH
Black tulips in my heart,
flames on my lips:
from which forest did you come to me,
all you crosses of anger?
I have recognized my griefs
and embraced wandering and hunger.
Anger lives in my hands,
anger lives in my mouth
and in the blood of my arteries swims anger.

O reader,
don’t expect whispers from me,
or words of ecstasy;
this is my suffering!
A foolish blow in the sand
and another in the clouds.
Anger is all I am –
anger, the tinder
of fire. 

– –   From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988.  

“. . . In the middle of a siege it’s still possible to dream . . .” (Samih Faraj)

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me-cremisan-001
The Apartheid Wall at Cremisan with Palestinian olive trees beyond and new construction in foreground. Israelis-only bypass road to illegal settlement above (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 8, 2015.)

❶ Palestinians mourn final Cremisan Valley olive harvest

  • Background: “Bethlehem’s Wall.” America

❷ Zionist Settlers Assault 3 Palestinian Farmers in West Bank
❸ Extremist settlers reap profits from occupied Jerusalem sites
❹ POETRY by Samih Faraj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINIANS  MOURN  FINAL  CREMISAN  VALLEY  OLIVE  HARVEST  
Al Jazeera English
Extension of Israel’s separation wall will soon cut Palestinians off from the valley’s distinctive olive groves.  
Sheren Khalel
Nov. 4, 2016
The rocky terraces of the Cremisan Valley are mostly overgrown and wild these days, as local landowners say they have lost all hope of keeping control over the more than 300 hectares of olive trees and orchards along the sloping mount, confiscated by the Israeli government earlier this year.
___”I haven’t been here at all this year. Look how the weeds have grown over, and trash from the street has piled up,” Ricardo Jaweejat said, motioning towards the vast olive grove that has belonged to his family for generations.
___”What’s the point? When we learned the Israelis were taking the land, I avoided doing anything with it. It’s a little bit dangerous to be here now.”
___Beit Jala olives are known by Palestinians around the world for producing the finest olive oil, and the oil from the city’s Cremisan Valley is considered to be the best of Beit Jala, a district of the Bethlehem municipality in the southern occupied West Bank. This year is expected to be the last chance to harvest olives from the valley, which will soon be blocked off by an extension of Israel’s separation wall.  More . . .

  • Ivereigh, Austen. “Bethlehem’s Wall.” America 199.5 (2008): 15-17.  Full Article 

The Salesians who make wine at the Cremisan estate, located on the terraced hillsides to the west of Bethlehem, live in the path of the wall. They cannot stop its expansion; they have a settlement behind them, far into the West Bank, and the wall is designed to ensure that the settlements are included within the Israeli border—when that is finally agreed upon. The Vatican has added its voice to the international condemnation, but until Israel implements the 2001 Fundamental Agreement with the Holy See, the juridical status of the Catholic Church is at best fragile and its power to negotiate limited. Israel has agreed to a Vatican request not to divide church lands that lie beneath the path of the wall, so when the wall is extended later this year, Cremisan will be cut off from Bethlehem—depriving the town of one of its oldest and popular landmarks—and from the Palestinian workers on whom the winery depends. “We are negotiating to allow the workers to come each day through the wall,” says Father Luciano, an elderly Italian Salesian at Cremisan. “But everything is very uncertain. It is a great weight on us.”
[. . . . ]  The wall is strangling Bethlehem and its Christian population. It will come down only when Christian public opinion in the United States awakens to that fact and issues an S.O.S. for the birth town of Christianity, putting pressure on Washington to enforce international law.
___But that means dispelling some deeply held myths. A 2006 Zogby opinion poll commissioned by the campaign organization Open Bethlehem found that only 15 percent of Americans know that Bethlehem is a Palestinian town with a mixed Christian-Muslim Arab population in the occupied West Bank. Bethlehemites, when asked why Christians are leaving, point to the wall and speak about the land confiscations; yet most Americans believe Christians are being pushed out by “radical Muslims.” Most Americans simply do not realize that the wall is responsible for the destruction of the town’s Christian population; instead, they accept Israel’s argument that the wall was built to protect Israel from terrorist attacks, not to consolidate the illegal settlements and land annexations.

❷ ZIONIST  SETTLERS  ASSAULT  3  PALESTINIAN  FARMERS  IN  WEST  BANK
Middle East News 17
Nov. 5, 2016
Three Palestinians were wounded, one critically, after being attacked by Israeli settlers on Saturday in the village of al-Janiya in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah.
___According to locals, Israeli settlers assaulted and threw rocks at members of the Abu Fekheideh family while they were picking olives on their land in the al-Batha area of the village, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Talmon.
___Jaber Barakat Abu Fekheideh was critically injured in the head, while his brother Hassan and cousin Muhammad were reported as mildly wounded.  More . . .

olive-injuries
Jaber Barakat Abu Fekheideh being treated for critical wounds in a Ramallah hospital after being attacked by Israeli settlers, Nov. 5, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❸ EXTREMIST  SETTLERS  REAP  PROFITS  FROM  OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM  SITES    Electronic Intifada  
Charlotte Silver
Nov. 3, 2016
Israel’s state comptroller has sharply criticized three government agencies for outsourcing the management of major archaeological excavations and sites in Jerusalem to Elad, a private organization that settles Jews in the militarily occupied eastern part of the city in violation of international law.
___The report says the Israel Antiquities Authority has not supervised Elad’s archaeological work, nor has the Israel Nature and Parks Authority supervised Elad’s management of the so-called City of David, a settlement containing an archaeological museum catering to tourists.
___The City of David settlement is located in the middle of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, and Elad asserts it is the ancient biblical City of King David mentioned in the second book of Samuel.    More . . .

“A WOMAN,” BY SAMIH FARAJ

Take one step towards the old house
And another down the stairs to the home
Where a woman sits in the early evening light:
Light, the radiance of a dove, shining;
Or light like the light from a shrine.
No one knows where she has come from –
Through which quarter or distant land she passed.
What shadow the light cast when she’d gone.
No one knows the flood she passed through –
The risks she took, the daily deluge.
No one can measure the vast sea she crossed,
The hazards she held in her small hands.
An ordinary woman: one step at a time, one step
On the land lacking, on the barren soil; one step
On the time passing; one step on the clock ticking.
Except for something in her now rising, hot, scolding,
Even her dreams are besieged, it seems; yet
In the middle of a siege it’s still possible to dream.
A dream of the old house, and her first step.
—Translated by Jackie Kay

Samih Faraj is a teacher in Deheishe Refugee Camp in Bethlehem and a lecturer at Hebron and Bethlehem Universities. He has been editor-in-chief of several journals, including VOICE OF THE NATION.
About education in Deheishe Refugee Camp.
Poem from A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.

“. . . and watched Jerusalem bury her children . . .” (Aminah Kazak)

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Sit in protesting Israeli closure of Hebron’s Old City. (Photo: Youth Against Settlements)

❶ Palestinian shot dead during clashes in Bethlehem
❷ Group: Majority of Jerusalem Palestinians detained in 2015 were minors
❸ Israel to Fence Thousands of Dunams near Nablus, To Build Six Military Towers
. . . ❸― (ᴀ) Military Levels Private Lands for New Military Tower
❹ Palestinians stage sit-in to protest increased Israeli military control over Hebron
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THERE  IS  NO  ‘DAY  AFTER’  NETANYAHU
❻ Poetry by Aminah Kazak
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  DURING  CLASHES  IN  BETHLEHEM
Jan. 12, 2016
Israeli forces shot and killed a young Palestinian man during clashes in Beit Jala west of Bethlehem on Tuesday afternoon, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
___The ministry said the young man, initially identified as 21-year-old Srour Ahmad Abu Srour from Aida refugee camp to Bethlehem’s north, was shot in his chest with a live round in clashes that broke out when Israeli forces raided al-Sahl street in Beit Jala.  More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GROUP:  MAJORITY  OF  JERUSALEM  PALESTINIANS  DETAINED  IN  2015  WERE  MINORS
Jan. 10, 2016
Israeli forces detained more than 1,900 Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem in 2015, the majority of whom were minors, a prisoners’ rights group said on Sunday.
___A spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies, Riyad al-Ashqar, said in a statement that around two-thirds of those detained from the occupied city were minors, 65 of whom were put under house arrest.   More . . .
❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ISRAEL  TO  FENCE  THOUSANDS  OF  DUNAMS  NEAR  NABLUS,  TO  BUILD  SIX  MILITARY  TOWERS
Jan.12, 2016
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of Israeli Settlements’ file in the Palestinian Authority, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, has reported that Israel informed the Palestinian Authority of its intention to build six military towers, and to fence thousands of Dunams of Palestinian lands, in Nablus.    More . . .

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Israeli military post overlooking Nablus. (Photo: Marcy Newman, 15/08/2008)

. . . ❸― (ᴀ) MILITARY  LEVELS  PRIVATE  LANDS  FOR  NEW  MILITARY  TOWER
Jan. 10, 2016
Israeli forces have been leveling private Palestinian land south of the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, in preparation to build a military tower in the area, residents said.
___A resident of the village of Tuqu, Issa Froukh, told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli excavators have leveled 2.5 dunams (0.6 acres) of land since Wednesday, covering the area with cement.   More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
PALESTINIANS  STAGE  SIT-IN  TO  PROTEST  INCREASED  ISRAELI  MILITARY  CONTROL  OVER  HEBRON
Jan. 12, 2016
Local activists continued a sit-in on Saturday outside of an Israeli military checkpoint set up on Hebron’s al-Shuhada street in protest of the military’s total closure of the area. Al-Shuhada street, as well as the Tel Rumeida area of the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, was designated a closed military zone by the Israeli army in November following increased violence in the area.
___The order was renewed earlier this month and bans all entry to the areas, apart from Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents. Palestinian residents were forced to register in order to gain access to their homes.   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
THERE  IS  NO  ‘DAY  AFTER’  NETANYAHU
Edo Konrad
Jan. 11, 2016
Short of allowing Palestinians to establish an independent state, there is nothing Netanyahu won’t do to ensure his political survival.
Liberal Israeli columnist and Channel 10′s top political commentator Raviv Drucker published a piece in Haaretz Sunday, in which he waxes optimistic about the “day after Netanyahu” and who could possibly take over and bring the Israeli Right back to its proper, “sane” place . . . .
___The power vacuum in Israeli politics has been generally attributed to the collapse of the Israeli left in recent years. The lack of a political alternative to right-wing rule certainly plays a role, but as The Times of Israel’s senior political correspondent Haviv Rettig Gur recently wrote, the Netanyahu premiership is “fast becoming the most centralized and powerful Israeli administration in generations, possibly since the indispensable ‘Old Man,’ Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion.”   More . . .

“MY  LAST  DAY  WITH  AISHA,”  BY  AMINAH  KAZAK  (b. 1960)

All I can remember now are the words we didn’t speak
The winds tossed them high into the night sky
And the moon sat counting the stars
You had so much to say, but the silence deafened us
We sat, stilled by the pain
and watched Jerusalem bury her children.

I laid my hand on the small grave and let fall a single tear
Small as it was we both noticed it
I wrapped the sparrow’s broken wings and bloodied
head in my Muslim scarf,
and turned it to face Mecca
As the call of the muezzin broke on the shore of Jerusalem’s grief.

Unlike the sparrow now silent and still
you had never been free to return
in that night’s dark loneliness
You laid your aching body upon the horizon
letting your love of Palestine ignite the sky.

All I remember are the words we didn’t speak
The winds tossed them high into the heaven
and the moon sat counting the stars.

“Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, Kazak now [1992] lives in Canberra, Australia. She studied in New Zealand and has a B.A. in political science. Her interests include painting, calligraphy, music, and languages.”
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE. Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

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Israeli military towers are in the center of the West Bank city of Hebron because of the illegal settlements that have been built there. (Photo: Patrick Youngblood, July 23, 2014)

“. . . I shall tell the world. . . Of the fire that consumed . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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dawabshafamilypnn
The Dawabsha Family, Murdered by Jewish Settler radicalized terrorists

❶ YA’ALON: NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO TRY DOUMA TERRORISTS
❷ BBC forced to admit it misled over Palestine
❸ Soldiers Kidnap Four Palestinians in Hebron; Army Kidnaps Four Palestinians in Ramallah, One in Beit Jala
❹ Obama’s ISIS czar says we can’t defeat extremism without resolving Palestinian issue
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL GETS A RAISE DESPITE INSULTS TO OBAMA, 50 YEARS OF VIOLENCE TO PALESTINIANS
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC News
YA’ALON:  NOT  ENOUGH  EVIDENCE  TO  TRY  DOUMA  TERRORISTS
December 15, 2015
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, on Tuesday said that the terrorists who burned the home of the Dawabsha family, killing a baby and his parents, were identified, except that the court evidence against them is “not enough.”
___Ya’alon, speaking to army radio, admitted that the attack was “CLEARLY  A  JEWISH  TERROR  ATTACK”  which “he is ashamed of,” adding that “Israel does not have enough evidence against the defendants to keep them detained or prosecute them.”
More . . .

ya'alon
Moshe Ya’Alon Israeli Minister of Defense (Photo: Jerusalem Post)

❷ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
BBC  FORCED  TO  ADMIT  IT  MISLED  OVER  PALESTINE
Dec. 11, 2015
For the second time in just over six months, the BBC has been forced to admit that its flagship news and current affairs program — Today — has misled its audiences over the situation in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
___In a broadcast in October, veteran presenter John Humphrys and Middle East correspondent Kevin Connolly implied in a two-way conversation that all of those killed in that month’s violence were Israeli.
___In fact, at the date of broadcast, on 19 October, more than 40 of those killed were Palestinian and fewer than 10 Israeli.
More . . .
❸ IMEMC News
SOLDIERS  KIDNAP  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
Tuesday December 15, 2015
Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and several nearby towns, searched and ransacked many homes, and kidnapped four Palestinians, including a former political prisoner.
More . . .
Related. . . ARMY  KIDNAPS  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  IN  RAMALLAH,  ONE IN  BEIT  JALA
❹ MONDOWEISS
OBAMA’S  ISIS  CZAR  SAYS  WE  CAN’T  DEFEAT  EXTREMISM  WITHOUT  RESOLVING  PALESTINIAN  ISSUE
Philip Weiss
Dec. 14, 2015
President Obama’s new ISIS czar said yesterday that resolving the Israel Palestine conflict is necessary to defeating Islamist extremists.
___Rob Malley, senior advisor to Obama “for the Counter-ISIL Campaign in Iraq and Syria” and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said at a New York conference that the conflict enables ISIS in two ways. Extremists “refer constantly” to the situation of Palestinians. So they would lose a recruiting tool if the matter were resolved. And the failure to resolve the conflict makes it “very difficult” to get “the kind of open cooperation that we really need to get changes on the ground”–
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
ISRAEL  GETS  A  RAISE  DESPITE  INSULTS  TO  OBAMA,  50  YEARS  OF  VIOLENCE  TO  PALESTINIANS
Rachelle Marshall
January 2015
National pride and respect for international law are no match for political expediency when it comes to America’s “special relationship” with Israel. This was demonstrated again in November, when President Barack Obama and Congress agreed to consider $50 billion in military aid to Israel over the next 10 years—a hefty increase of $2 billion a year. The additional aid is intended as consolation to Israel for a nuclear agreement with Iran that makes Israel safer.
___As if this were not irrational enough, President Obama welcomed Netanyahu to the White House on Nov. 9 and again reassured him of America’s unwavering support. Republicans who are calling for cuts in domestic spending are promising even more money to Israel, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has pledged that if elected, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be her first guest at the White House.
More . . .

“JOB’S  DIARY,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
I shall tell the world.
I shall tell the world―tell them
Of the lamp they shattered in my home,
Of the axe that destroyed a lily,
Of the fire that consumed a braid

I shall tell them of the unmilked ewe-lamb
Of the morning coffee―left undrunk
Of the mother’s dough left unbaked
Of the mud roof where the grass grows now
I shall tell the world

Neglected daughter of my neighbor
I still have your doll―put away
I have it so come back
Come back
On the train of the East wind

And Hanna
I have forgotten your features
Yet, I ache to remember
In my heart I hear your footsteps
How beautiful we were―together
My neighbor’s daughter, Hanna and I

How beautiful together we were
So why have our eyes
Become focused in foreign land?
And our hands roped
To this curse?
I shall tell the world―tell them
I shall tell the world!

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

malley

Rob Malley, senior adviser at the White House on Middle East and counter-ISIL campaign (White House Photo)

 

 

“. . . a certain hope, the hope to live . . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
highway
Highway 60, bisecting Palestine from Jerusalem, through Beit Jala, to Hebron as seen from Beit Jala (Photo: Harold Knight, November 8, 2015)

❶ Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the oPt (19 – 25 November 2015)
❷ Palestinian killed after injuring 6 Israeli soldiers in car attack
❸ Jews, Arabs march on Israeli checkpoint to demand an end to occupation
❹ Dogs supplied to Israeli military by The Netherlands involved in abuses
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
❻ Poetry by Marwan Makhoul
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PCHR  (PALESTINIAN  CENTRE  FOR  HUMAN  RIGHTS)  REPORT  ON  ISRAELI  HUMAN  RIGHTS  VIOLATIONS  IN  THE  OPT (19 – 25  NOVEMBER  2015)
Nov. 28, 2015
Israeli forces have continued to commit crimes, inflicting civilian casualties. They have also continued to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians participating in peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were youngsters. Occupied East Jerusalem witnessed similar attacks. During the reporting period, Israeli forces and settlers killed 8 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank, while 2 other civilians, including a child, succumbed to their injuries. Moreover, 121 Palestinian civilians, including 29 children, 2 young women and 2 journalists, were wounded. Thirty of whom, including 5 children and a journalist, were wounded in the Gaza Strip and the others were wounded in the West Bank. Concerning the nature of injuries, 100 civilians were hit with live bullets and 21 ones were hit with rubber bullets.
More . . .
Related . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  INJURING  6  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  IN  CAR  ATTACK
Nov. 27, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian suspect was shot and killed on Friday after a vehicle attack in Beit Ummar which left six Israeli soldiers injured, Israel’s army and locals said.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that six Israeli soldiers were injured in a “car ramming” in Beit Ummar north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, with the Palestinian suspect shot and killed.
___The area was closed off following the attack, Israeli police said.
___Locals identified the victim as Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19.
___Four soldiers were moderately injured and two suffered light injuries. Israeli media later reported five total injuries, four moderate and one light.
More . . .
❸ +972 MAGAZINE
JEWS,  ARABS  MARCH  ON  ISRAELI  CHECKPOINT  TO  DEMAND  AN  END  TO  OCCUPATION
Haggai Matar
Nov. 28, 2015
Some 300 Israelis and Palestinians marched on the Israeli army’s “tunnels checkpoint” south of Jerusalem Friday to demonstrate against the occupation, against the ongoing violence, and in support of two states.
___The demonstrators gathered on Route 60, the southern West Bank’s main north-south artery that connects Jerusalem, Beit Jala, the Gush Etzion settlements, and Hebron. For an hour, the demonstrators marched north along the side of the road to drums while chanting political slogans. Israeli and Palestinian drivers passing the protest along Route 60 couldn’t miss the long procession. . . .
More . . .

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Anti-occupation protesters march along the side of Route 60 in the West Bank, November 27, 2015. (Photo: Mustafa Bader/Activestills.org)

❹ MILITARY COURT WATCH
DOGS  SUPPLIED  TO  ISRAELI  MILITARY  BY  THE  NETHERLANDS  INVOLVED  IN  ABUSES
Oct. 29, 2015 – A recent article published in the Dutch media indicates that the Dutch Government has been approving export licenses for the supply of service dogs to the Israeli military for use in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This has raised concerns in The Netherlands due to evidence indicating that the service dogs are used to attack Palestinian civilians, including minors, and frequently accompany military units when they conduct intimidating raids on Palestinian homes in the middle of the night.
___The granting of export licenses for service dogs is controversial due to an EU ruling supposed to prevent the issuing of export licenses for the shipment of “strategic goods”, such as pistols and camouflage paint, to Israel.
More . . .
Related . . . ISRAEL  USING  DUTCH  DOGS  TO  TERRORIZE  PALESTINIANS (Nov. 27, 2015)
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
Jeremy Salt
Nov. 25, 2015
Sometimes it must be such fun to be an Israeli undercover agent especially if you like amateur theatricals and perhaps thought of an acting career but were not quite good enough and had to settle for something less.
[ . . . . . ]
You find the young man you want, Azzam al Shelaldeh, in hospital for surgery after being shot by a settler, and you pull him out of his bed. You shoot his unarmed cousin Abndullah dead as he comes out of the bathroom. . . . You leave the dead man on the floor of the ward in a pool of his own blood. You don’t care that the CCTV cameras are filming everything. . . . you want people to see that you are capable of doing anything, anywhere and anytime.
More . . .

“HELLO  BEIT  HANOUN,”  BY  MARWAN  MAKHOUL

Hello!
Beit Hanoun?
I heard on the news
that an artisan baker has come
to distribute bread
on the back of fresh artillery,
and I also heard
that one of his loaves feeds
at least twenty children
and is so warm it burns, and solid
like a randomly targeted shell.
They said
the children woke up early that day
not to go to school
but to the local youth club
opposite the town’s playground
that in summer is big enough for two massacres
and a certain hope, the hope to live.
I also heard
that when they were on their way
they made light of their wounds
and poured blood on the corners
till blood took the colour of the streets
and feelings.
When I saw what I saw on the screen
I thought I was dreaming
or the TV was dreaming the impossible made real.
I never imagined, Beit Hanoun,
that you’d mean anything to me
what with all the fun I’m having
like being busy with friends discussing
whether wine in the bottle
ferments or not.
I never knew you’d mean anything to me,
even something small
something small, Beit Hanoun.
Hello . . . ?
Hello . . . ?
Beit Hanoun?
Can you hear me?
I think the phone’s not working
or is perhaps asleep,
it is very late after all.
Never mind, let it go.
I’ve nothing better to do
than catch up with my brothers shading themselves
by the axed trunk of Arab solidarity.
Goodbye, Beit Hanoun.
Goodbye.

THE MASSACRE AT BEIT HANOUN (Nov. 8, 2006)
From Banipal: Magazine  of  Modern  Arab  Literature  45 (Winter 2012). WWW.banipal.co.uk
Marwan Makhoul was born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother in 1979 in the village of Boquai’a in the Upper Galilee region of Palestine. He currently lives in the village of Maalot Tarshiha. Marwan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Mustaqbal College and now works as a civil engineer and is the director of a construction company. His first book of poetry was published in 2007 in both Beirut and Baghdad by Al-Jamal Publishers.

hospital
Israeli forces shot Abdullah al-Shalaldeh multiple times in the process of arresting his cousin Azzam at a Hebron hospital. An elite Israeli military force that operates undercover stormed the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and shot dead a 27-year-old Palestinian, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. (Photo: Al Jazeera, Nov. 12, 2015)

“. . . ‘No!’ for those who sold and bought Gaza’s silver anklet. . .” (Mueen Bessissou)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Nada Mumer waits to travel to Egypt to meet her husband. The sleeping boy is her ill son. (Photo, Isra Saleh El-Namy)
Nada Mumer waits to travel to Egypt to meet her husband. The sleeping boy is her ill son. (Photo, Isra Saleh El-Namy)

❶ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ABBAS  RESIGNS  AS  HEAD  OF  PLO  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE
Aug. 22, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas resigned as head of the PLO Executive Committee Saturday and several others are set to step down, according to local sources.
____Tayseer Qubaa, deputy Palestinian parliament speaker, said that the the Executive Committee will hold a meeting Saturday night in order to set a date for the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to discuss plans for filling the upcoming political vacuum.
____Qubaa said: “As of now, there are six resigning members: President Mahmoud Abbas, Hanan Ashrawi, Ahmad Majdalani, Saeb Erekat, Ghassan al-Shakaa, and Mahmoud Ismae.”
____Palestinian official Wassel Abu Yussef later said that more than half of the 18-member committee had also stepped down.
____”The resignation of the president of the executive committee Mahmud Abbas and more than half of its members has created a legal vacuum, and therefore the Palestine National Council has been asked to meet in one month to elect a new executive committee,” Yussef told AFP.
More. . .

❷ From: MONDOWEISS
PALESTINIANS  STRUGGLE  TO  LEAVE  GAZA  AS  EGYPT  OPENS  RAFAH  CROSSING  FOR  FOUR  DAYS
Isra Saleh El-Namy
August 21, 2015
Fatigue and stress was apparent on the face of Nada Mumer. Nine months pregnant, Mumer waited for the officer to call the names of people who will be allowed to ride a bus to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in Gaza.
[. . . .]
The departure gallery at the Rafah crossing was full of people with their suitcases, waiting for their turn to leave as Egypt announced a four-day window the crossing will be open. . .
____Palestinian officials were relieved by the Egyptian decision to open the Rafah crossing, which had been closed for more than two months, aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
____During this time, many people, including patients seeking advanced medical treatment abroad and students who want to complete their education in universities outside Gaza, found themselves trapped inside what is known as the “world’s biggest open air prison.”
More. . .

❸ From: INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT (ISM)
EXTREME  RIGHT-WING  ZIONISTS  WITH  THE KAHANE  GROUP  ATTACK  PALESTINIANS  AND  INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS  IN  HEBRON
ISM al-Khalil Team, Hebron
August 20, 2015
A group of twenty-five extreme Jewish Zionists from France attacked three international activists in front of the shops near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, H2 area this afternoon.
____When the activists encountered the group of extremists, the extremist started to clap their hands and sing songs while they approached the activists. The activists pulled out their cameras to record what was happening and the extremists responded by threatening the activists in Hebrew, attacking the cameras, pushing and spitting on the activists. . . The military occupation forces did not much to prevent the violence. Instead of holding the extremists accountable for their actions, the army encouraged them to walk away and formed a line to prevent the activists from walking the direction they had intended to and were directed to go another way.
More. . .

Hebron extremists proudly held the infamous yellow flag of Kahane group. ISM Photo.
Hebron extremists proudly held the infamous yellow flag of Kahane group. ISM Photo.

❹ From: INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
CHRISTIAN  PRIESTS,  PALESTINIANS,  HOLD  PRAYERS  ON  BULLDOZED  LANDS
August 23, 2015
Dozens of Palestinians, headed by several Christians priests, conducted prayers on Palestinian lands that have been destroyed and uprooted by Israeli soldiers, in Beit Jala city, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem.
____Head of the Beit Jala City Council Nicola Khamis said the priests, the locals and various international human rights and Palestine solidarity activists gathered on the lands, carrying Palestinian flags, and signs condemning the ongoing and escalating Israeli violations and land theft.
More . . .

❺ Opinion
From: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
THE  ILLUSION  OF  A  RIFT  IN  THE  OBAMA – NETANYAHU  RELATIONSHIP
Dr Fayez Rasheed
August 21, 2015
Some of our Palestinian and Arab politicians and writers are counting on a desert mirage. They think it is water, but when they approach it, they find that it is something else.
____This mirage is the rift in the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama. Their evidence of this is weak, i.e. Netanyahu’s statements against Obama, especially after the signing of the Iranian nuclear agreement and what seemed to be Obama’s anger with Netanyahu after his speech in Congress, etc.
[. . . .]
____ The point is that the relationship between America’s presidents and any of Israel’s prime ministers is governed by the following rule: the US officials must comply with Israel’s interests, even if Israel’s leaders attack the leaders of their top strategic ally. In order to please their consciences, the American presidents will say some words about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after their presidential term is up or is on the verge of finishing.
More. . .

“NO!”  BY  MUEEN  BESSISSOU  (Mu’in  Bseiso)
His wounds said: “No!”
His chains said: “No!”
And the turtledove which shielded his sound with her feather
Said: “No!”
Gaza’s silver anklet.
They sold the bullets and bought a goose.

Quaking goose!
Stop for a moment.
And listen to him
Saying: “No!”
Pity him; he did not die under neon lights,
Between the candlestick and the moon.
Pity him; there was no formal announcement
. . . or a dumb funeral.
No moaning poem or song.
Stones!
Let me compose, if only one line of verse
That I may recite it to all the men with long and false beards.

Stop quaking for a moment
And listen to him saying: “No!”
Like the solid fence of a house in Gaza.
Every day, he gets killed one thousand times,
Quaking goose!

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

Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso (1926 –1984) was a Palestinian poet who lived in Egypt. . . He finished his primary and secondary education in Gaza in 1948. He started publishing his work in the Jaffa-based magazine Al-Hurriya where he published his first poems in 1946. . . he enrolled in the American University in Cairo and subsequently graduated in 1952. . . Imprisoned in Egyptian jails twice: 1955 to 1957 and 1959 to 1963. He died due to heart failure in London in 1984.
More. . .

ABBAS RESIGNS
ABBAS RESIGNS

“. . . you plundered the land from me and I ploughed. . .” (Fouzi El Asmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.(AFP/File Ahmad Gharabli)
East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.(AFP/File Ahmad Gharabli)

❶ From MA’AN NEWS SERVICE
ISRAEL  ISSUES  DEMOLITION  ORDER  FOR  MOSQUE  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM
August 22, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Israeli municipality officials delivered a demolition order Friday to the al-Qaaqaa Mosque, a house, and a studio apartment in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, local sources told Ma’an.
____Majdi al-Abbasi, from the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, said that Israeli municipality members delivered a demolition order to the al-Qaaqaa mosque in the Ein al-Luza area of the neighborhood.
____The mosque, built three years ago, is a 110 square meter space that serves 5,000 worshipers.
More. . .

❷ From MA’AN NEWS SERVICE
AID  GROUPS  DENOUNCE  ‘SURGE’  IN  ISRAELI  HOME  DEMOLITIONS  ON  WEST  BANK
August 22, 2015
JERUSALEM ―Aid groups Friday denounced Israeli demolitions of homes in the West Bank where the UN said 63 houses and other structures were destroyed this week alone, making 132 Palestinians homeless.
____In a joint statement, 31 international organizations including Oxfam and Amnesty International slammed the “surge” in demolitions and urged world leaders “to take urgent action” to put an end to it.
____According to the United Nations, the demolitions of at least 63 homes and basic structures come as Israel steps up the construction of homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied territory.
____They occurred in Area C, which is controlled by the Israeli authorities and where more than 60 percent of the West Bank lies.
____Citing UN figures, the aid groups said the demolitions made “132 people homeless, including 82 children, accounting for a quarter of the displacement from demolitions in 2015 and marking the highest number of people rendered homeless from demolitions in nearly three years”.
More. . .

Palestinians from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh as they stand on a house after it was demolished by Israeli bulldozers. (AFP/File Abbas Momani)
Palestinians from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh as they stand on a house after it was demolished by Israeli bulldozers. (AFP/File Abbas Momani)

❸ From: PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
UPDATE:  SETTLERS  ATTACK  FARMERS  IN  NABLUS,  ARMY  SEARCHES  HOMES  IN  HEBRON
August 22, 2015
NABLUS ―Israeli settlers Saturday attacked Palestinian farmers in the village of Qasra to the south of Nablus, whereas Israeli army raided and searched several Palestinian homes and set up military checkpoints in the Hebron district, according to a local activist.
____Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the West Bank, said that settlers attacked farmers, provoking the village locals and voluntarily guard committees – formed to protect locals against settlers’ attacks – who clashed with the settlers and managed to fend off the attack.
[. . . .]
____In many cases of settlers’ attacks against Palestinians, forces offer protection to settlers and turn a blind eye to attacks committed against locals.
____B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, estimated the settler population in the West Bank at around 531,000.
More. . .

❹ From: +972 MAGAZINE
WATCH:  DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIAN-OWNED  TREES  UPROOTED  TO BUILD  SEPARATION  WALL
Text and photos by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org
August 21, 2015
Dozens of Palestinian-owned olive trees uprooted to complete separation wall that will eventually fully encircle the Bethlehem area.
____The Israeli Defense Ministry renewed its efforts to build a section of the separation wall in the Bethlehem area this week, sending bulldozers and Border Policemen to uproot dozens of olive trees in Wadi Ahmed, on the outskirts of Beit Jala.
____The plan is to completely enclose Bethlehem and the surrounding villages — closing all entrances to the area — by the separation wall. Entire areas of the separation wall have yet be built, including in southern Jerusalem; they are slated for completion in the coming years.
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Related . . . ISRAELI  BULLDOZERS  ARE  BACK  IN  BEIT  JALA

❺ Opinion
From: THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
‘THE  IRANIAN  THREAT’:  WHO  IS  THE  GRAVEST  DANGER  TO  WORLD  PEACE?
Noam Chomsky
Aug 20 2015
Throughout the world there is great relief and optimism about the nuclear deal reached in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 nations, the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. Most of the world apparently shares the assessment of the U.S. Arms Control Association that “the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action establishes a strong and effective formula for blocking all of the pathways by which Iran could acquire material for nuclear weapons . . .”
____There are, however, striking exceptions to the general enthusiasm: the United States and its closest regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
[. . . .]
Opponents of the nuclear deal charge that it does not go far enough. . . .
____Israel, of course, is one of the three nuclear powers, along with India and Pakistan, whose weapons programs have been abetted by the United States and that refuse to sign the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
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“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.
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About Fouzi El Asmar 

Thursday, 20 August 2015. Israeli bulldozers in Beit Jala. Israeli uproots olive trees in Bethlehem. (Photo: Middle East Monitor.)
Thursday, 20 August 2015. Israeli bulldozers in Beit Jala. Israeli uproots olive trees in Bethlehem. (Photo: Middle East Monitor.)