Tag: Beit Safafa

“. . . The lightning which strikes in the road/Provides the passer-by with light . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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Repairs being made to parts of Al Aqsa after Israeli extremists damaged windows and inside walls (Photo: Harold Knight, November 6, 2015)

❶ Thousands of Palestinians pray at Al-Aqsa on second Friday of Ramadan
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinian cars in Jerusalem neighborhood
❷ US Congress and Knesset celebrate ‘reunification’ of Jerusalem in joint event
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) In Jerusalem, “Religious War” Is Used to Cloak Colonialism
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) 50 Years of Israel’s Military Occupation of East Jerusalem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) Israel’s occupation was a plan fulfilled
❸ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim

  • Select bibliography: journal articles about the Occupation of Jerusalem

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THOUSANDS  OF  PALESTINIANS  PRAY  AT  AL-AQSA  ON  SECOND  FRIDAY  OF  RAMADAN
Ma’an News Agency      
June 9, 2017      Thousands of Palestinians headed to occupied East Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the second Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, in spite of Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement.
___Hundreds of members of Israeli police and military forces have been deployed across the Old City and its vicinity since early Friday morning Palestinian security services also deployed members near Israeli checkpoints leading to Jerusalem City.
___Palestinian residents of the West Bank are not allowed to access occupied East Jerusalem or Israel without an Israeli-issued permits.      MORE . . .

death to arabs
“Death to Arabs” in Hebrew painted on Palestinian cars in East Jerusalem (Photo: Group 194, June 5, 2017)

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  SETTLERS  VANDALIZE  PALESTINIAN  CARS  IN  JERUSALEM  NEIGHBORHOOD
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
June 9, 2017       Israeli Jewish settlers Friday overnight vandalized a number of Palestinian-owned cars in Beit Safafa neighborhood, south of East Jerusalem.
__WAFA correspondent reported the settlers slashed the tires of several Palestinian-owned cars and spray-painted racist anti-Arab graffiti on walls in the neighborhood.
___Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the East Bank, including East Jerusalem, but is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.   MORE . . .      
❷ US  CONGRESS  AND  KNESSET  CELEBRATE  ‘REUNIFICATION’  OF  JERUSALEM  IN  JOINT  EVENT 
Ma’an News Agency
June 8, 2017        In the latest event celebrating the “reunification” of Jerusalem in Israel, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the US Congress held a joint live broadcast event marking the  occasion on Wednesday, in which leaders from both countries celebrated their shared colonial histories and applauded Israel’s control over occupied East Jerusalem.
[. . . .]  Since 1967, Israel has stood accused of committing major violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including excessive and deadly use of violence; forced displacement; the blockade of the Gaza Strip; unjustified restrictions on movement; and the expansion of illegal settlements. MORE . . 
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) IN  JERUSALEM,  “RELIGIOUS  WAR”  IS  USED  TO  CLOAK  COLONIALISM
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
Nur Arafeh
February 3, 2015       The escalating clashes between Israeli settlers and Jerusalemite Palestinians are the harbingers of a major eruption with incalculable consequences. Immediately billed as a “religious war” by the media and Israeli right wingers, they are in fact the outcome of longstanding Israeli plans to Judaize the city and empty it of its Palestinian inhabitants. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Nur Arafeh analyzes the major changes that Israel has illegally imposed on Jerusalem and addresses the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)/Palestinian Authority’s (PA) effective abandonment of the population to fend for itself.         MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ)  50  YEARS  OF  ISRAEL’S  MILITARY  OCCUPATION  OF  EAST  JERUSALEM 
This Week In Palestine 
June, 2017      Israeli settler-colonial policies in occupied East Jerusalem extend from three central strategies: The first creates a Jewish majority in the city through establishing “Jewish only” settlements; the second pursues the same goal by reducing the Palestinian population through policies that either forcefully evict Palestinians from Jerusalem or impede their growth and development as a community; the third isolates East Jerusalem and divides the West Bank into two parts. A policy of spatial colonial segregation reduces the visibility, if not the demographic ratio, of the Palestinian presence in their city.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION  WAS  A  PLAN  FULFILLED     
The Electronic Intifada
Ilan Pappe
June 6, 2017     [. . . .] Just recently, I finished writing a book about this period, The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories.
___Through the work on this book, I realized that the Israeli manipulation of Jewish fear in 1967 was even more cynical than it was in 1948, when the Jewish leadership genuinely could not foresee the results of its decision to ethnically cleanse Palestine.  ___The cabinet meetings reveal a group of politicians and generals, who ever since 1948 looked for a way of rectifying what they deemed was the gravest mistake of the otherwise triumphant “war of independence”: the decision not to occupy the West Bank.   MORE . . .

“IT  OCCURRED  ON  THE  FIFTH  OF  JUNE,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

The reader may or may not recall
What we said in village halls

The reader may or may not recall
But we said it repeatedly
In precise and sound words

The lightning which strikes in the road
Provides the passer-by with light
Despite the burns

The reader may or may not remember
But so that everyone will know
I repeat!

We are in the Fifth
Of the month of June
We’re born anew.

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     

Selected Bibliography

Abuzayyad, Ziad. “The “Unification” of Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, Mar. 2007, pp. 56-59.  SOURCE . . .

Adas, Jane. “Israel’s ‘Master Plan’ for Judaization of Palestine Continues Apace.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb2016, pp. 30-31.     SOURCE . . .

Alkhalili, Noura, et al. “Shifting Realities: Dislocating Palestinian Jerusalemites from the Capital to the Edge.” International Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 14, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp. 257-267.  SOURCE . . .

Grassiani, Erella and Lior Volinz. “Intimidation, Reassurance, and Invisibility Israeli Security Agents in the Old City of Jerusalem.” Focaal, vol. 2016, no. 75, Summer2016, pp. 14-30.  SOURCE . . .      

Halper, Jeff. “The Policy of House Demolitions in East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done and to What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 17, no. 1/2, Mar. 2011, pp. 74-82.   SOURCE . . .

Ophir, Adi. “On the Structural Role and Coming End of ‘The Occupation’.” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, Fall2016, pp. 688-693.  SOURCE . . .

Rivera-Pagán, Luis N. “Reading the Hebrew Bible in Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” Ecumenical Review, vol. 68, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 36-61.  SOURCE . . .

Schejtman, Mario. “Meretz Jerusalem Views about the Future of the City.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 28-31.   SOURCE . . .

Thawaba, Salem A. “Jerusalem Walls: Transforming and Segregating Urban Fabric.” African & Asian Studies, vol. 10, no. 2/3, May 2011, pp. 121-142.  SOURCE . . .

Yacobi, Haim. “From ‘Ethnocracity’ to Urban Apartheid: The Changing Urban Geopolitics of Jerusalem\Al-Quds.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 8, no. 3, July 2016, pp. 100-114.  SOURCE . . .

“. . . He’s wearing a white t-shirt with red and green writing that says, ‘There is no such thing as Palestine’. . .” (Liz Rose)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-Jaffa_Gate_and_Tower_of_David
Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem

❶ ‘Waiting is the worst part’: Families of slain Palestinians withheld by Israel continue their fight

  • Background from Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly.

❷ Israeli settlers destroy vine trees, uproot plants south of Bethlehem

  • Background from Against The Current

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  O  JERUSALEM —  PLEASE  FORGET  ME 
❺ POETRY by Muin Bseiso
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ‘WAITING  IS  THE  WORST  PART’:  FAMILIES  OF  SLAIN  PALESTINIANS  WITHHELD  BY  ISRAEL  CONTINUE  THEIR  FIGHT
Ma’an News Agency
Jaclynn Ashly
July 5, 2016
“We are hopeful,” Muhammad Elayyan said, as a few dozen Palestinians trickled into the quiet halls of Israel’s Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Monday. “These days, we have to see the glass as half full. We must stay hopeful.”
___Elayyan is the father of one of seven slain Palestinians whose bodies are currently locked inside refrigerators in Israel’s mortuary in Jaffa, withheld from their grieving families since they were killed by Israeli forces after carrying out or allegedly carrying out attacks on Israelis.      MORE . . .  

From Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

[NOTE: the account of the difficulties encountered in launching in the West Bank of a special edition of Biography, “Life in Occupied Palestine” last year.]

Our Palestine launches were held without physical copies of the special issue, which did not make it through on time. In part this was the result of run-of-the-mill production delays. Another reason owed to the difficulty and expense of getting the books into Palestine [. . . .]
___As anyone at all familiar with Palestine will know, these stories [of the restrictions on the entry of books into Palestine] are commonplace. Taken together, they cannot be dismissed as a consulate worker’s idiosyncratic malice or as a postal employee’s juvenile pranks. The systemic allowance for these individually aimed and invasive acts, especially when combined with their affective excess, provide clues about how Israel maintains its practices of land theft and ethnic cleansing. Certainly, these instances of mail tampering are more “benign” than the terrorizing actions of Israeli soldiers who admit to shooting Palestinians for fun and even take photos while doing so, or the “price tag” attacks Jewish Israelis commit against their Palestinian neighbors (most recently, the “revenge” killing of baby Ali Sa‘ed Dawabshe, burned alive when settlers gas-bombed his home), which they sometimes share on Facebook. Nonetheless, along with accounts of such war and hate crimes, these mail-related micro-aggressions provide insights into the affective structures that sustain individuals’ support for the Zionist project and anti-Palestinian violence that is part and parcel of it.

  • Franklin, Cynthia G. “The Afterlife Of The Text: Launching ‘Life In Occupied Palestine.’” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 38.3 (2015): 395-424. SOURCE.
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Palestinians inspect their destroyed olive trees at the village of Qaryout near Nablus, October 19, 2013 (Photo: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

❷ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  DESTROY  VINE  TREES,  UPROOT  PLANTS  SOUTH  OF  BETHLEHEM
Palestine News Network – PNN
July 5, 2016
A group of Israeli settlers on Monday destroyed grapevines, a shed and uprooted plants, belonging to a Palestinian farmer in Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, central West Bank.
___Ahmad Salah, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in al-Khader, said the assailants broke the main gate leading to the Palestinian land, uprooted grapevine shrubs and cut their arbors, IMEMC reported.     MORE . . .  

From Against The Current
Roots of Dehumanization
Anwar’s [Anwar Za’aneen of Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, killed August 8, 2014] story is but one among thousands that we will never hear. His name is one on the never ending list of the daily dead, a list that began long before the latest assault and that will continue long after it. His death means nothing to the killers who fire their missiles from above or blast them from gunboats stationed in the Mediterranean.
__Anwar’s life has no value because his people have been systematically dehumanized over the decades of ignorance and prejudice from a complacent West. His status as a refugee was long ago dismissed by the settlers of a colonial state impervious to the suffering of any other people. For many, he does not exist because “there are no Palestinians” according to former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and countless others.
___If we knew the stories, recognized the names, or saw the faces of all the women and men, children and elderly lying frozen in the morgues or waiting for burial by grieving and stunned families; by mothers hysterical with pain from the loss of their babies and preschoolers, school children and youth maturing into adulthood in such a difficult land, perhaps people living in the countries responsible for these outrages would finally wake up and demand a halt to this butchery.

  • Loewenstein, Jennifer. “Will Israel “Finish The Job”? Death In The Eagle’s Shadow.” Against The Current 29.4 (2014): 11-13.  THE ARTICLE.
    RELATED. “Israel’s Genocidal Killing Machine.” thepeoplesvoice.org  

❸ Opinion/Analysis: O JERUSALEM — PLEASE FORGET ME
Mondoweiss
Liz Rose
July 4, 2016
It’s 25 years since I was a student at Hebrew University and I’ve just arrived to do some research on how West Jerusalem has changed.  I’ve come with my husband, Kyle, who has never been here.  He’ll be with me for a week and then I’ll stay another week on my own to work.  My last two visits here were organized as Palestinian solidarity trips all over the West Bank; I haven’t seen West Jerusalem in years.  A friend tells me I must show my husband Tel-Aviv and West Jerusalem as I research the changes, “so he can see the apartheid society they have made for themselves.”
[. . . .]
When I’m on Jaffa Road once again, after exiting Mamilla Mall and walking a bit, a young man approaches me.  He’s holding a map of Jerusalem.  He’s wearing a white t-shirt with red and green writing that says, “There is no such thing as Palestine.”    MORE . . .  

“NO!”  BY  MUIN  BSEISO

His wounds said: “No!”
His chains said: “No!”
And the turtledove which shielded his wound with her feather
Said: “No!”
“No!” for those who sold and bought
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 nor 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.

Muin Bseiso (1926 – January 23, 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 magazin Al-Hurriya (“Liberty”), where he published his first poems in 1946. In 1948, he enrolled in the American University in Cairo and subsequently graduated in 1952. On January 27, 1952 he published his first work titled Al-Ma’raka (“The Battle”). Imprisoned in Egyptian jails twice: 1955 to 1957 and 1959 to 1963. He died London in 1984.