Tag: Gilad Erdan

“. . . And gagging on disaster, My sad city choked. . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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SPECIAL    POSTING:    ISRAEL’S  DESTRUCTION  OF  SOCIETAL  INFRASTRUCTURE  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM

(Articles generally in chronological order. The first of several such single-subject postings.)

ISRAEL  BANS  ACTIVITIES  IN  JERUSALEM  CONNECTED  TO  PALESTINIAN  AUTHORITY  GOVERNMENT.
National Public Radio (NPR)
Heard on All Things Considered, January 19, 2018.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:   President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the capital Israel, but that doesn’t change Palestinian aspirations for a capital in part of the city. One thing that could strengthen these Palestinian claims would be national political institutions. NPR’s Daniel Estrin looks at how Israel has worked for decades to limit those institutions, whether they’re offices for leadership or even performances in theaters.   DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: This used to be the Palestinian headquarters in Jerusalem – an old, stone mansion called the Orient House. Foreign diplomats were received here. The Palestinian flag used to fly. But Israel closed it in 2001 during a wave of Palestinian bombings. Israeli authorities deliver a new closure order every six months. It’s on the door for everyone to see.   More . . .

ISRAEL SHUTS DOWN PALESTINIAN INSTITUTIONS IN EAST JERUSALEM.
Asharq Al-Awsat.
February 3,2018.
The Israeli authorities decided on Friday to shut down a number of Palestinian institutions operating in the occupied city of East Jerusalem.   ___Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan extended the order against a number of Palestinian institutions, including the Orient House, in East Jerusalem due to their affiliation to the Palestinian Authority.   ___The Israeli decision anticipated an expected decision from the PA to announce the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian State.   ___Israeli sources said on Friday that Erdan’s order does not only involve political institutions, but also include a number of vital civil institutions, the East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce, the Supreme Council for the Arab Tourism Industry, the Center for Palestinian Studies, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, and the Office for Social and Statistical Studies.
More . . .    Related . . .

PLO  CHIEF  DENOUNCES  CLOSURE  OF  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTION  IN  JERUSALEM.
Ma’an News Agency.
March 14, 2017.
Israeli authorities sealed off and shut down the Mapping and Geographic Information Systems Department of the Arab Studies Society in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, with police detaining the center’s director, Khalil Tufakji, during the raid.
___PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat denounced the closure and “the illegal detention” of Tufakji, describing the man as “a distinguished scholar from Jerusalem.”
___Erekat said in a written statement that Israeli forces also seized the documents, computers, and equipment from the office.
More . . .

ANGER  AFTER  ISRAEL  SHUTS  DOWN  PALESTINIAN  UNIVERSITIES  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM.
The New Arab.
July 15, 2018.
Anger has spurred over Israel shutting down two Palestinian education facilities in occupied East Jerusalem, as Israeli plans to annex the territory continue.
___Israel closed down Hind al-Husseini College and Al-Quds University’s College of Art – both of which are located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood – until further notice after banning an academic conference taking place and detaining 15 participants.
___The conference was due to take place on Saturday at al-Quds University’s College of Arts.
___The two-day conference was organised by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf and Heritage Reservation Society and was supposed to discuss the status of Muslim endowment and property, as well as the protection of Islamic and Christian heritage in the occupied city.
___The move was also condemned by the president of the Arab American University, Ali Abu Zuhri, who said Israel was taking exceptional measures to disrupt the Palestinian education system, according to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA.
More . . .   Related . . .

OPINION:    DESTROYING    PALESTINIAN    UNIVERSITIES.
Haaretz.
Daphna Golan.
July 26, 2018.
As Israeli students are finishing their final exams, Palestinian students in the occupied territories don’t know whether their institutions will be opening for the coming academic year or if their lecturers will continue to teach, as dozens of lecturers with European and American citizenship are being expelled.
___Around half the foreign lecturers at Palestinian universities started receiving letters last November, saying their requests to have their residency visas extended had been refused because they’ve been “living in the area for more than five years.”
More . . .

EARLIER  REPORTS . . .

HOW  ISRAEL  IS  TARGETING  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTIONS.
AL JAZEERA.
Ylenia Gostoli.
May 20, 2017.
[. . . .] According to the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, more than 30 Palestinian institutions and organisations have been shut down in the city since the 2001 closure of Orient House. Six-month closure orders have been continuously renewed ever since, in defiance of recommendations made in the 2003 Road Map drawn up by the Middle East Quartet as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
___”Targeting NGOs is targeting the presence of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. NGOs are the main body providing services, because according to Oslo [the interim accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians in 1993 and 1995], the Palestinian Authority is not allowed to be in Jerusalem,” Zakaria Odeh, executive director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera. “All policies, including house demolitions and residency revocations, have the goal to alter the demographic structure of Jerusalem as a whole.”
More . . .

ISRAEL  HAS  CLOSED  120  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTIONS  IN  JERUSALEM  SINCE  1967.
Middle East Monitor.
February 17, 2014.
A Palestinian human rights organisation has revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have closed more than 120 Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem since it completed its occupation of the city in 1967. Around 88 were closed down completely, while the others had to transfer their operations from occupied Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank.
___In a press statement, the Almakdasi Foundation said that the Israeli authorities have now closed-down the Islamic Club and Salwan Charity Foundation for a period of 30 days under the pretext of them receiving funding from Hamas and conducting activities on its behalf. This is despite the fact that both foundations have appropriate licences and Salwan presented evidence to prove its independence.
___The Almakdasi statement said, “These closures, along with all the others last year and every year since 1967, are part of Israel’s policy since the occupation began. The Israeli occupation authorities are trying to obliterate Palestinian identity and institutions.” The first to go was the Arab Jerusalem Municipality which was closed by the Israelis in 1967.
More . . .

“MY  SAD  CITY,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967)

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

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

From  BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND:  PALESTINE  ISRAEL  POETS  RESPOND  TO  THE  STRUGGLE.  Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from B&N.

“. . . my aim was to declare that the day . . .” (Ahmad Dahbour)

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SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY

[Note: “See also” indicates a related story rather than additions to the linked story.]

ISRAELI  SETTLERS  RAID,  VANDALIZE  PROPERTY  IN  NABLUS
A group of Israeli settlers raided a number of Palestinian homes and vandalized vehicles, on Thursday, in the Urif village in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus.   ___Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that Israeli settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar stormed the Urif village and raided several Palestinian homes in the eastern part of the village.   More. . .  See also. . .
ISRAELI  FORCES  TO  DEMOLISH  PALESTINIAN  HOUSE  SOUTH  OF  BETHLEHEM    Israeli forces Wednesday delivered a demolition order for a Palestinian house in al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem, said a local activist.   ___Hassan Breijah, Coordinator of Anti-Wall and Settlement Committee, said that Israeli forces raided the town and handed Sameeh Ahmad Salah an order to demolish his house. . . under the pretense of unlicensed building. . . . in the southern section of the town, known as Khirbet ‘Alya. . .    ___He pointed out that the planned demolition is connected with an Israeli plan to construct a settler-only bypass road that would serve as a northern entrance to Efrat settlement.   More. . .
ISRAEL  ALLOWS  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS  OF  SETTLERS  TO  CARRY  GUNS      Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan stated that Israel has eased the criteria for the obtainment of personal gun permits, Israel Hayom reported.   ___The move is expected to lead to hundreds of thousands of Israelis applying for a license.   ___The law is for new license applicants and holders of existing licenses, according to the sources.   More. . .
ONE  OF  PALESTINE’S  MOST  POPULAR  JOURNALISTS  IS  IN  JAIL  FOR  INCITEMENT
Oren Ziv
Ali Dar Ali was arrested for two posts he published on Facebook. But the prosecution and the judge are far more concerned with his large following than the content of the posts.    ___Israeli forces arrested Ali Dar Ali, one of the most renowned Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, at his home near Ramallah last week, for incitement to violence. . . .   ___Ali, who has been working for Palestinian television since 2007, is known for broadcasting live from demonstrations in the occupied territories, where he routinely documents clashes between young Palestinians and the army, as well as IDF raids on villages. Often times, he is the only journalist that covers these events as they unfold, and thus is able to document daily life under occupation from up close.   More. . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION

EMBATTLED  TRUMP  STARTLES  ISRAEL  BY  DEMANDING  ‘HIGHER  PRICE’  FOR  HIS  DELUSIONAL  ACHIEVEMENTS  ON  JERUSALEM  The president’s claim that the future of the city was off the table is a mix of balderdash and poppycock wrapped in pure rubbish
Chemi Shalev
Donald Trump starred in the main headlines in Israel on Wednesday morning, just as he did in the United States, but for completely different reasons. Americans were reeling. . .   Israelis, on the other hand, were more flabbergasted by a few sentences that Trump uttered, intentionally or inadvertently, in his campaign-style rally in West Virginia.   ___The term that grabbed people was “higher price.” Israel would have to pay a “higher price,” Trump said, in return for his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. It’s the Palestinians’ turn, he said in his typical third-grade lingo, “to get something good.”   More. . .

IN  RESPONSE  TO  TRUMP  STATEMENT :  EREKAT  SAYS  THERE  IS  NO  PRICE  FOR  JERUSALEM
Secretary of the Executive Committee for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Dr. Saeb Erekat, responded to US President Donald Trump and his National Security Advisor John Bolton statements about the removal of  Jerusalem from the negotiating table in the future by saying that there is no price for Jerusalem”.   ___Erekat added in his respons PNN received by Email that without East Jerusalem including Holy Haram, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, its old town and its walls as Palestaine capital there will be no meaning of Palestinian state”.   ___He added that Trump, Bolton and Netanyahu must understand that there will no peace without East Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders.   More. . .

ISRAELI  RESTRICTIONS  STRANGLE  GAZA’S  CANCER  PATIENTS
Ahmad Kabariti
For the fourth time in two months, Nevin Abu El-Jidian failed to cross the Erez checkpoint, which separates the Gaza Strip from Israel and the West Bank. Israeli authorities asked her to come back again with an updated radiograph of her breast cancer. “The officer told me I have to go back to Gaza and take an updated one.” But, even then, passage into Israel is not guaranteed, the officer told her.    ___[. . . .] According to testimony collected by the Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, officers at the Erez crossing often exploit vulnerable patients to obtain information, forcing them to inform on friends and family. Refusal to collaborate results in denying passage to these patients.   More. . . See also. . .

THE  LANGUAGE  OF  PALESTINIAN  FREEDOM
Steven Salaita
Ash Sarkar, of “I’m literally a communist” fame, recently set Palestine Twitter ablaze with an unusual pronouncement: “. . . I’m making a decision to try and speak of Palestinians’ right to protection and self-defence rather than resistance.”   ___ Reaction against this message was swift. . . Palestinian critics, many of whom patiently explained the importance of terms like “resistance.”  ___[. . . .] “Resistance” doesn’t simply denote obstinacy; it connotes political and economic self-realization. “Fighting” isn’t an irrational desire to inflict harm; it is a necessary survival mechanism.  The colony cannot maintain its endurance without antagonism.   More. . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS

SABEEL  ECUMENICAL  LIBERATION  THEOLOGY  CENTER  (JERUSALEM)
Fall Witness Visit: October 30th – November 7th
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center invites you to join us for 9 nights to experience the reality of life in today’s Holy Land. . .    ___Meet and reflect with Palestinian Christians and Muslims as well as with Jewish Israelis and internationals who partner with Sabeel in non-violent resistance against the violation of international and humanitarian law   More. . .
AUGUST  24TH  REPORT  FROM  THE  FRONTLINES:  USPCN’S  DELEGATION  TO  PALESTINE  (CHICAGO)
Attend this report back of the first USPCN delegation in eight years! Muhammad Sankari, Bassem Kawar, and Danya Zituni are the featured presenters.   More. . .

“OUR  COUNTRY,”  BY  AHMAD DAHBOUR
Who is it calls like this?
Who are you, Sir?
It was as if I had heard a voice that knew me, and perhaps for
you it was the same? Or am I mistaken? If I am, I ask your
forgiveness, Sir. For what reason do you think I would contrive
this dialogue? Believe me, I have no ulterior motive. But
let us assume I have faked this dialogue; my aim was to
declare that the day . . . Please listen, and don’t go away.
On our land exists a wall which we would like to have converted
into a room, only we weren’t granted building permission.
What can I say? Are these utensils sold in the market place?

Do you think that I am in the secret police? Then why are you
afraid of me? I’m only interested in words. So let it go if
I expressed myself badly. It is my country.
Don’t we have the right here to shake hands?
To form a friendship of sorts?
An adversary? A pal who forgives?
Or a passer-by who calls our name?
Don’t we have that right?
Isn’t it our country?
Did you hear a voice? Who is it that calls like this?
Who is it who calls our name?
—Trans. Lena Jayyusi and Jeremy Reed
—From Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature, Columbia University Press, 1992.

“. . . the bark of artillery came near to the flowers . . .” (Yousef Al-Mahmoud)

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❶ Israel closes Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) EU’s security committee discussed secret report on Israel, says official

  • Background: “State-Sponsored Vigilantism: Jewish Settlers’ Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Sociology.
    “. . . the Israeli state itself, assisted by its agents, works in collusion with the settlers, and maintains the structural preconditions for this provisional political activity. . .”

❷ UN report says at least 206 international companies tied to Israeli settlements
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Haley slams UN anti-settlement report: It is a “waste of time”
❸ Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers north of Hebron
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) ‘Construction terror’ Israel’s metaphor for Palestinian displacement
❹ POETRY by Yousef Al-Mahmoud
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  CLOSES  PALESTINIAN  INSTITUTIONS  IN  JERUSALEM
Al Hourriah Magazine (Freedom)
Feb. 3, 2018 — Israel Hayom newspaper on Friday said that the Israeli authorities have decided to close a number of Palestinian institutions in Occupied Jerusalem.
___According to the Hebrew newspaper, the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, on Thursday issued a decision to close the Palestine Chamber of Commerce, the Higher Council of Tourism, the Palestinian Center for Studies, the Palestinian Prisoner Society and the Office of Social Studies and Statistics.
___Erdan’s decision was based on an Israeli law issued in 1994 preventing the Palestinian Authority from opening offices or carrying out activities in “Israeli areas”. The same law grants the minister the authority to issue decisions prohibiting such activities.
___The paper said, quoting Erdan, that efforts will continue to impose Israeli sovereignty over every part of Jerusalem. . . following the US president Donald Trump’s recognition . . . .  MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  EU’S  SECURITY  COMMITTEE  DISCUSSED  SECRET  REPORT  ON  ISRAEL,  SAYS  OFFICIAL
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Feb. 3, 2018 ― The European Union’s (EU) Political and Security Committee (PSC) discussed in its session on Wednesday a secret report that strongly criticized Israel and its policies, Palestine’s ambassador to the EU, Abdul Rahim al-Farra, said on Saturday.
___He said in an interview with the official Palestine TV that the PSC, which is composed of ambassadors from the 28 EU member states, also discussed the situation in occupied East Jerusalem in particular and came out with recommendations that will be presented to the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council when it meets on February 25 and 26 in Brussels.
___He said the PSC recommended that the EU plays a primary and active role in the Middle East peace process in order to salvage the two-state solution.      MORE . . .

Gazit, Nir.
“STATE-SPONSORED  VIGILANTISM:  JEWISH  SETTLERS’  VIOLENCE  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORIES.”
SOCIOLOGY, vol. 49, no. 3, June 2015, pp. 438-454.
[. . . .] Civilian violence often disrupts government authority and undermines its exclusive sovereignty. However, it may also operate as an extra-juridical force that reproduces governmental power through unofficial channels. This dynamic is salient in situations of contested and fragmented sovereignty, when state power is discontinuous and lacks international and local legitimacy . . .  provisional violence by state forces and ordinary civilians becomes an important mechanism of political power and control.
[. . . .] These trends . . .  suggest a correlation between the two forms of Israeli violence – institutional military violence and non-institutional civilian violence. In times and places of low military presence and violence, unofficial civilian political mechanisms come into play. These reproduce Israeli dominance through direct violence or through initiating Palestinian hostility resulting in provisional active military involvement. The dialectical relationship between the two forms of violence is not trivial . . .  Hence, it is important to analyse the relationship between Israeli ground-level state agents and settlers, and consider how the two sides manage this tension.
[. . . .] . . . the ambiguity surrounding the formal status of the Israeli state in the OTP creates a governmental void. This void is filled, inter alia, by greater freedom of action of the settlers, who, in effect, act as informal agents of the state, behaving as vigilantes and taking the law into their own hands. The settlers’ violence contributes to the manifestation of Israeli rule in two significant ways. First, it brings Israeli dominance to areas with a scarce presence of military forces, generating ad hoc ‘effective control’ over Palestinian territory and population even in the absence of state officials. . .  While the state has limited direct influence over these domains, they undoubtedly contribute to the overall Israeli dominance in the region. The second and complementary mode of support these acts provide to the overall control system is when the Israeli security forces intervene and prevent the settlers from harassing the Palestinians. Such interventions paradoxically demonstrate and reproduce the Israeli power in the region – this time as protectors of the local civilian population. The elusive political and legal structural frameworks of the Israeli occupation are important factors of this phenomenon, generating the necessary ‘degrees of freedom’, so to speak, that allow, and even support, a proliferation of settlers’ violence against Palestinian civilians. In other words, the Israeli state itself, assisted by its agents, works in collusion with the settlers, and maintains the structural preconditions for this provisional political activity, even if it challenges its exclusive jurisdiction.     SOURCE . . .

❷ UN  REPORT  SAYS  AT  LEAST  206  INTERNATIONAL  COMPANIES  TIED  TO  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS
Ma’an News Agency
Feb. 1, 2018 ― The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report on Wednesday identifying 206 companies from around the world that are doing business linked to Israeli settlements, which are built in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.
___The long-delayed report was initially intended to include the names of companies, but reportedly after intense pressure from the US and Israel, the published report included only the number of companies from each country, rather than naming them.
___”Businesses play a central role in furthering the establishment, maintenance and expansion of Israeli settlements,” the UN report said.    MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  HALEY  SLAMS  UN  ANTI-SETTLEMENT  REPORT:  IT  IS  A  “WASTE  OF  TIME”
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Feb. 1, 2018 ― US Ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday slammed a UN report on 206 companies tied to Israeli settlements as “a waste of time and resources” that showed an “anti-Israeli obsession.”
___The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights released the report that did not name the companies but could pave the way to a “blacklist” of businesses that Israeli officials fear would be targeted for an international boycott.
___“This whole issue is outside the bounds of the High Commissioner for Human Rights office’s mandate and is a waste of time and resources,” Haley said.   MORE . . . 
❸ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ATTACK  PALESTINIAN  FARMERS  NORTH  OF HEBRON
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Feb. 3, 2018 ― Israeli settlers attacked on Saturday Palestinian farmers in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to Yousef Abu Maria, a local activist.
___He told WAFA that a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Karmi Tsur and settlement security guards threw rocks at farmers, cursed them and prevented them from cultivating their land. The settlement is built on seized Palestinian land that belong to Beit Ummar and other area villages.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❸  ―  (ᴀ)  ‘CONSTRUCTION  TERROR’  ISRAEL’S  METAPHOR  FOR  PALESTINIAN  DISPLACEMENT
The Palestinian Information Center
Feb. 1, 2018 ― Israel’s construction of its politics on contrasting levels which echo its colonial agenda knows no limits. Now that the international community is largely reluctant to do more than refer to previous statements of colonial expansion as illegal, Israel is more explicit in promoting its state and settler narratives in its appropriation of land ownership.
___A news report published on Monday in Haaretz quotes Jewish Home Party MK Moti Yogev: “Our goal is to protect state lands, consistent with decisions by the state not letting their status be determined by construction terror guided by the Palestinian Authority with the intervention of international elements such as the European Union.” He also suggested legal recourse against Palestinians opposing demolition orders.
___This is not the first time that such rhetoric has been used. In April 2016 a press release titled “Re-evaluate state’s handling of EU-funded construction in Area C” described Palestinian dwellings in similar terms, accusing the EU of financing “construction and infrastructure terror”.     MORE . . . 

“ABOVE  THE  CARNATIONS,”  BY  YOUSEF  AL-MAHMOUD
Her house is above the carnations
on the path to the wind-swept hills. . .
At evening we sought refuge there
watching out for the guns and the aeroplanes.

The crack of bullets followed our coffee
and smashed into our conversation.
The crack of bullets and the bark of artillery
came near to the flowers inside the windows
came near to the warmth and the water jug
debris clattered down the outside stairway
and fell towards the marble pavement.

Her house is above the carnations
there we were in it
we had sought refuge there
and so we moved to where the Jewish soldiers could no longer see us.

—Translated by DM Black
—Yousef Al-Mahmoud is a prominent broadcaster and poet, and former head of the Ministry of Culture in his native Jenin.
—From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.

“. . . and the pulse blossoms into a flower . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

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❶ Video: Masar Ibrahim al Khalil launches the Thru-Hike program

  • Background: “A study of the late antique and early medieval pottery of Palestinian sites.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly.

❷ 15 new Israeli police centers to be established in Jerusalem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israel to delay demolition of Susiya due to diplomatic pressure
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Israeli arrests of Palestinians
❸ “A century on from Balfour, I challenge Britain to finally do the right thing” – Hanan Ashrawi
❹ POETRY by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
(Note: The first two items are the beginning of a series of news items and articles about tourism and archaeology in Palestine.)

❶ VIDEO:  MASAR  IBRAHIM  AL KHALIL  LAUNCHES  THE  THRU-HIKE  PROGRAM 
Palestine News Network – PNN      Nov. 5, 2017 ― Masar Ibrahim Al-Khalil launched a new hiking trip which includes introducing the participants to Palestinian nature and environment, as well as many historical sites.
___The participants have the chance to visit houses of Palestinian families and learn about their life and culture through this journey which began on Saturday and continues for twenty-one days from the north to the West Bank.
___Executive Director of Masar Ibrahim, George Rishmawi, said the hike started in the Rummaneh village in Jenin, north of the West Bank within the program of walking non-stop known known as the Thru-HIKE. It includes a walking for 330 kilometers to the village of Beit Marsam in Hebron in the south of the West Bank, where participants will pass in about fifty-three villages and cities.   MORE . . .       YOUTUBE

Lopez, Jose Carvajal.  REPORT:  “A  STUDY  OF  THE  LATE  ANTIQUE  AND  EARLY  MEDIEVAL  POTTERY  OF  PALESTINIAN  SITES.”
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, vol. 144, no. 2, July 2012, pp. 134-139.    This project was conceived as a way of establishing links between production centres at the two extremes of the Mediterranean during the period of the Islamic expansion. Additionally, my knowledge of the early Islamic pottery of Spain (7th to 11th centuries CE) could be tested against the productions of the Levant, specifically that of Palestine, where many of the Arab settlers of the West (supposedly those who transmitted the basics of Islamic culture) had their roots.
___The project did not assume a straightforward relationship of between the pottery of a homeland (the Levant) and that of a colony (al-Andalus). There is no doubt that a sense of the centrality of Arabia and the Levant is paramount all over the Islamic culture, but this centrality is more a shared topological conception that binds together all the people and lands of Islam rather than an essentially political and economic core-periphery relation. In Gosden’s proposed model of colonialism, this relationship should be understood in between the middle ground and the shared cultural milieu (Gosden 2005, 30–33). Research in Spain shows that only a minority of Arabs chose to settle in al-Andalus in comparison with a larger influx of Berbers from North Africa and a considerable native pre-conquest population (Chalmeta 1994). However, there was a marked cultural change towards an Islamic society after the conquest of al-Andalus and the Arab influence must have played an important role in this (without dismissing other influences as well). A way to study this may be the comparison of material culture from areas with a documented strong Arab settlement with that from well-contextualised assemblages in the Levant.    SOURCE . . .

❷ 15  NEW  ISRAELI  POLICE  CENTERS  TO  BE  ESTABLISHED  IN  JERUSALEM
The Palestinian Information Center  
Nov. 4, 2017 ― Hebrew media sources on Saturday revealed further details about the Israeli decision to launch a special police unit in Occupied Jerusalem following the tension that broke out recently at al-Aqsa Mosque.
___They added that the plan also includes establishing 15 police centers and recruiting hundreds of new officers to work in the city.
___Speaking at a ceremony honoring Israeli officers last week, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Public Security Minister, announced that the job of this special unit, which will include more than 100 policemen, is to maintain “public order” at al-Aqsa Mosque.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) ISRAEL  TO  DELAY  DEMOLITION  OF  SUSYA  DUE  TO  DIPLOMATIC  PRESSURE
The Palestinian Information Center 
Nov. 4, 2017 ― Haaretz newspaper on Saturday reported that the Israeli authorities on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court for a two-week delay in announcing its position on Susya village despite the fact the Israel’s war minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has declared that there will be no more delays in the demolition decision.
___The paper said that the request was made after senior European and British diplomats pressured Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Lieberman not to demolish the village.    MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) INTERNATIONAL  MIDDLE  EAST  MEDIA  CENTER – IMEMC 
Nov. 5, 2017
Israeli Soldiers Abduct A Palestinian Near Jenin.
Army Abducts Three Palestinians in Hebron and Jerusalem, Injures Several Others.
Israeli Soldiers Abduct Seven Palestinians, Detain Schoolteachers, In West Bank, Detain Schoolteachers, In West Bank.
❸ “A  CENTURY  ON  FROM  BALFOUR,  I  CHALLENGE  BRITAIN  TO  FINALLY  DO  THE  RIGHT THING”  – HANAN ASHRAWI   
The Guardian
Nov. 2, 2017 ―
“Today we mark the centenary of the calamitous Balfour declaration. In 1917, with a few paragraphs and a stroke of his pen, the British foreign minister, Lord Balfour, unleashed historic forces that changed the fate of an entire people and a whole region. He committed a grave sin: promising the homeland of one people to another.
___A century on, every Palestinian is still plagued by the consequences of that decision – whether it is the refugees yearning to return, still clutching the keys to their homes, Palestinians suffering under an occupation that has lasted 50 years, Jerusalemites experiencing the fraudulent transformation of the character, demography, culture and landscape of their city before their eyes, or Palestinian citizens of Israel who are undergoing an intricate and cruel system of discrimination and exclusion in a country that claims to be democratic.
___A veneer of ‘religious conflict’ has been superimposed on what are political, legal, moral and human rights violations.
___The Balfour declaration was quintessentially a colonial decision emanating from the myth of the “white man’s burden”, the idea that “advanced nations” needed to administer the territories of “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves” – in the words of the covenant of the League of Nations – an inherently problematic and racist notion in itself.
___The land was neither Balfour’s nor Britain’s to give away, but, as is always the case with colonialism, a diktat made in a capital far away is meant to supersede the collective rights and aspirations of a people. . .”   MORE . . .

“OUR  SONGS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH
Who are these songs for?
When they break the silence of the night
spreading warmth and life over the snow,
when they fall on the jasmine and carry it to water,
when they pass by a dim window, secretly embracing a lover,
when they spread over the grass, wrapped in clouds?
Who are these songs for
when they free the flowers
and the hidden flame of passion in women,
when they come to you with their flowers,
when they come to me with their secrets,
when they embrace the sun or a bouquet of flowers
or anything abandoned on the road?
When they send a pulse into the ground
and the pulse blossoms into a flower
in the space between two deaths,
or in a cloud, or in fire?
Who are these songs for
when they laugh,
who are these songs for when they rise?
And who are these songs for
when they open the doors to our houses
and embrace us one by one,
returning us to our lore?
When they carry our bodies in weddings
and cushion us with a lovely homeland
and then pick the most delicious fruit
and the farthest star
and hide them from the eyes of soldiers
to carry them―like our mother―home to us?

From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN  INSIDE:  SELECTED  POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.
About Ibrahim Nazrallah.

“The Temple Mount is under Israeli sovereignty, period . . .” (Avi Dichter, Likud member of Israeli Knessett)

Harold Knight2 Comments

❶ Video: Israel attacks Jerusalem worshippers
❷ Netanyahu orders searching all worshipers entering al- Aqsa
❸ In alleged first, Jewish BDS activists prevented from boarding flight to Israel

  • Background: “No Space for Apartheid: Toward an Academic Boycott of Israel among Geographers.” Geographical Review

❹ POETRY by Al-Raheem Mahmoud (1913-1948)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ VIDEO:  ISRAEL  ATTACKS  JERUSALEM  WORSHIPPERS   
The Electronic Intifada
Maureen Clare Murphy
July 26, 2017.   Israeli occupation forces attacked Palestinian worshippers at the Lions Gate entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem on Tuesday night.
___The Palestinian Quds news outlet reported that Israeli forces fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters, wounding dozens, and prevented ambulances from reaching the area.
___Palestinian worshippers had continued to keep vigil outside the mosque compound on Tuesday. The Waqf religious trust that administers the site had called for continuation of a boycott as it evaluated the situation after Israel removed metal detectors the night before.
[. . . . ]  Meanwhile Avi Dichter, a senior Israeli lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud party who formerly headed the country’s secret police, told Israeli television that the government had decided “to turn the Temple Mount into a sterile area – with all that this entails,” employing the term Israel uses for the mosque compound.
___“The Temple Mount is under Israeli sovereignty, period,” he said.     MORE . . .
❷ NETANYAHU  ORDERS  SEARCHING  ALL  WORSHIPERS  ENTERING  AL- AQSA
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
July 26, 2017.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the police to search worshipers entering the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, a day after the removal of the electronic gates and replace it by smart cameras system, which will be completed within six months.
___According to the Walla website, the decision was taken following a telephone call between Netanyahu and Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, they agreed to search worshipers entering the Aqsa Mosque individually and through hand-held metal checks, because of  the security sensitivity of the location, according to the Israeli appeals.
___According to a poll made by Hebrew channel 2, 77% of the Israelis believes that the removal of the electronic gate is a retreat by the Israeli government, 17% does not think that it is a retreat, while just 6% has no idea.       MORE . . .
❸ IN  ALLEGED  FIRST,  JEWISH  BDS  ACTIVISTS  PREVENTED  FROM  BOARDING  FLIGHT  TO  ISRAEL  
Ma’an News Agency
July 25, 2017.  The Israeli government and its international supporters continued to crack down on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as five members of an American interfaith delegation to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory were prevented from boarding their flight from Washington D.C. to Tel Aviv on Monday.
___US-based organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) released a report saying five members of the delegation were denied entry to Israel, allegedly due to their activism with the BDS movement, which targets companies that act in compliance with Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
[. . . .] JVP identified the five members that were denied entry on the flight as JVP Deputy Director Rabbi Alissa Wise, Alana Krivo-Kaufman and Noah Habeeb, both members of JVP, Rick Ufford Chase of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and Shakeel Syed, a national board member with American Muslims for Palestine.     MORE . . .

Ross, Robert B. “NO  SPACE  FOR  APARTHEID:  TOWARD  AN  ACADEMIC  BOYCOTT  OF  ISRAEL  AMONG  GEOGRAPHERS.”
Geographical Review, vol. 106, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 276-282.
[. . . .]  Against this backdrop of inequality, bloodshed, and institutionalized racism, Palestinian civil society has called upon the international community to engage in boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in order to put political and economic pressure on Israel until Palestinians have their full slate of human rights.
[. . . .] Israeli universities have been deeply embedded in the Israeli state’s efforts to attack, invade, ethnically cleanse, and occupy Palestine And as Lisa Taraki writes, “[g]enerally, there have never been any protests by professional and academic associations of physicists, physicians, geographers, mathematicians, political scientists, architects, and others in Israel regarding the moral and professional implications of collaboration with the [Israeli] army.”
___Palestinian academics and intellectuals have therefore called upon the international community to boycott Israeli academic institutions as a key part of the broader BDS movement.
[. . . .] Collaboration and connections between academic institutions and militaries are not, of course, unique to Israel. Many universities in the United States, for example, receive research funding from the Pentagon . . .   The GI Bill enables former American soldiers to attend college free of charge. The prevalence of ties between universities and the military, in America and elsewhere, has led some opponents of the academic boycott of Israel to reply, “why are you not calling for a boycott of American universities? After all, the United States engages in gross human rights abuses too.” The difference is quite simple: the people oppressed by American policies are not calling for an academic boycott of American universities. But Palestinian civil society is calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. To boycott Israeli academic institutions is thus to respond to a call from Palestinian civil society. It is a principled act of solidarity.      SOURCE . . .

(The poem is a salute to Prince Saud Ibn ‘Abd al’Aziz when he visited the poet’s town, ‘Anabta, on August 14, 1935.)

“THE  AQSA  MOSQUE,”  BY  ‘ABD  AL-RAHEEM  MAHMOUD  (1913-1948)
Honorable Prince! Before you stands a poet
whose heart harbors bitter complaint.
Have you come to visit the Aqsa mosque
or to bid it farewell before its loss?
This land, this holy land, is being sold to all intruders
and stabbed by its own people!
And tomorrow looms over us, nearer and nearer!
Nothing shall remain for us but our streaming tears,
our deep regrets.

Oh, Prince, shout, shout! Your voice
might shake people awake!
Ask the guards of the Aqsa: are they all agreed to struggle
as one body and mind?
Ask the guards of the Aqsa: can a covenant with God
be offered to someone, then lost?
Forgive the complaint, but a grieving heart needs to complain
to the Prince, even if it makes him weep.
(This poem gained great fame later on because of its prophetic words about the imminent loss of Palestine.)

About ‘Abd al-Raheem Mahmoud
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

 

“. . . My anger drips oil and honey /my pain bears almonds . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

❶ Israeli authorities demolish Palestinian-owned building in East Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli minister calls for punitive demolition of Jerusalem attackers’ homes

  • Background: “Dangerous Narratives: Politics, Lies and Ghost Stories.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.   

❷ Army Abducts Twelve Palestinians In The West Bank
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  The story behind the Jerusalem attack: How Trump and Netanyahu pushed the Palestinians into a corner
❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES DEMOLISH PALESTINIAN-OWNED BUILDING IN EAST JERUSALEM     
Ma’an News Agency
July 17, 2017.   Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian-owned building on Monday morning in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Zaayyem, according to witnesses.
___Bulldozers escorted by Israeli police forces and employees of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality razed the home to the ground for lack of a building permit.
[. . . .] Construction licenses are very expensive and difficult to obtain for Palestinians, notably in the Jerusalem area, in a bid by Israeli authorities to force Palestinians out and change the demographic balance of the city.
[. . . .] Thirty-three percent of all Palestinian homes in the occupied city lack Israeli-issued building permits, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement, the United Nations reported in 2012.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  MINISTER  CALLS  FOR  PUNITIVE  DEMOLITION  OF  JERUSALEM  ATTACKERS’  HOMES 
Ma’an News Agency    
July 16, 2017.   As an Israeli minister called for the demolition of the homes of three Palestinian citizens of Israel who were killed on Friday while carrying out a deadly attack in occupied East Jerusalem, rights group Adalah called for an investigation into the police’s killing of the alleged assailants.
___. . . Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan called on Sunday for the Israeli government to consider demolishing the homes of Muhammad Hamid Abd al-Latif Jabarin, 19, Muhammad Ahmad Mufdal Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabarin, 29, the three men who shot and killed two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City, before being shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
___The Jabarins are all residents of the Palestinian-majority town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel. The two slain police officers, Hail Stawi and Kamil Shinan, were also Palestinian citizens of Israel from the Druze minority community, which is subjected to mandatory military services, unlike Muslim citizens of Israel.   MORE . . .   

Katz, Louise. “DANGEROUS  NARRATIVES:  POLITICS,  LIES  AND  GHOST  STORIES.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal,
vol. 3, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 20-41.
[. . . .] While Israel’s secular Ashkenazi-dominated culture sidelines certain pietistic Jewish citizens . . .  limits placed on Palestinian citizenship place this cultural group, far more than any other, outside the social mainstream: Israel recognises only Jewish nationality, thus Muslim Arabs are citizens without being nationals.
___ [. . . .] Antony Lowenstein argues that Israel, ‘an insecure nation demanding obedience to an ideology’ continuing to ignore ‘the legitimate rights of the Arab population’ results in both Palestinians and leftist Jews being ‘loathed … smeared and isolated’. Isolation through lack of recognition, according to Bourdieu, cuts one off from ‘access to a socially recognised social being … to humanity’. Palestinians are simultaneously a part, yet apart from the mainstream: a real, yet not real, ghostly presence. Only acknowledgement of social validity will ensure full ‘reality’: the ‘ghosts’ can then manifest themselves as human.
[. . . .] To construct Palestinians and Israelis as one-dimensional heroes and villains . . .  overlooks . . .  the ancient and complex narratival palimspsest that is Israel/Palestine. Nevertheless, the Israeli response to the layered images and stories of which the nation is composed has been largely one of denial of both Israeli culpability and the complexities of the relationship between adversaries. . . . At this point it would not be hard to introduce the spectre of the so-called ‘self-hating’ Jew, which reeks of indulgent guilt; but I would argue that there is less self-hatred at work than despair. Paul McGeough has it that Israel is losing the ‘contest for control of the narrative’, but more than a matter of losing a propaganda fight for the moral high-ground – which is about appearances rather than substance – Israel is failing as a narrative enterprise on an even more profound level. The populace, both Jewish and Palestinian, need true stories to be told, not romances, mysteries or fabrications: indeed, the consequences of unreal or exclusivist narratives have resulted in the creation of a new kind of ghost [. . . .]      FULL TEXT . . .  

❷ ARMY  ABDUCTS  TWELVE  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK  
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
July 17, 2017.
Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight and on Monday, at least twelve Palestinians, including a father and his son, from their homes, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported.
___The Tulkarem office of the PPS, in the northern part of the West Bank, said the soldiers searched several homes in Anabta town, and abducted three Palestinians [. . . .] In Qalqilia governorate, in the northern part of the West Bank [. . . .] In Nablus governorate, also in northern West Bank [. . . .] In Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank [. . . .] In Ramallah, in central West Bank, the soldiers abducted [. . . .] In Jerusalem, the soldiers abducted [. . . .] Soldiers also abducted a woman, identified as ‘Aida Abu Tayeh, 61, while visiting her two sons, Bassel and Yousef, who are imprisoned by Israel in Galboa’ prison.   MORE . . .
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  STORY  BEHIND  THE  JERUSALEM  ATTACK:  HOW  TRUMP  AND  NETANYAHU  PUSHED  THE  PALESTINIANS  INTO  A  CORNER  
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Ramzy Baroud
July 17, 2017.  Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in Occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of 4 months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of ‘trying to hit an Israeli soldier’.      [. . . .] Last April, the Israeli government announced plans to build 15,000 new housing units in Occupied Jerusalem, contrary to international law. The international community recognizes East Jerusalem as a Palestinian city. The United States, too, accepts international consensus on Jerusalem, and attempts by the US Congress to challenge the White House on this understanding have all failed. That is, until Donald Trump came to power.
[. . . .] Prior to his inauguration in January, Trump had promised to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The announcement was welcomed by Israeli rightwing politicians and extremists alike.   MORE . . . 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970.   Available from Amazon.
About Samih Al-Qasim.

“. . . The silence is so loud that our hearts bleed . . .” (Samia Khoury)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
solidrity strikers
Palestinian women hold portraits of loved ones in Israeli prison during a protest in support of hunger-striking prisoners in the West Bank city of Nablus on May 4, 2017. (Photo: Ayman Ameen, APA images)

❶ Hunger Strike Continues For The 34th Day

  •  Personal Reflection – Samia Khoury

❷ On 34th day of hunger strike, prisoners transferred to Israeli civilian hospital
❸ Background issues: Treatment of hunger strikers raises concern amongst rights organizations
❹ Starving with their sons
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  Editorial Negotiate With the Palestinian Hunger Strikers
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ HUNGER  STRIKE  CONTINUES  FOR  THE  34TH  DAY 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC 
May 20, 2017
Around 1600 Palestinian political prisoners, held by Israel, continue the hunger strike for the 34th consecutive day, determined to achieve their demands, while Israel continues to refuse to hold serious talks, and instead, is trying to divide them, in addition to punishing many by forcing them into solitary confinement, and repeatedly transferring many to different prisons.
___The Media Committee of the Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported that the “Freedom and Dignity” strike is going through one of the most serious and sensitive stages, and that the detainees are determined to continue until achieving their demands.
___It said that the Israeli government has appointed the head of the Shabak, and the Prison Authority, to do whatever is possible to end the hunger strike before U.S. President Donald Trump visits the region, “even if this means adhering to most of the detainees’ demands.”   MORE . . .

PERSONAL  REFLECTION
Reflections from Palestine: A Journey of Hope
SAMIA  KHOURY
May 20, 2017
Dear Friends: How would you feel if your son or daughter went on a hunger strike demanding justice for more than a month, and nobody bothered to call you or check on you and your beloved one? The silence is so loud that our hearts bleed with those mothers who are gathering daily in various areas including the Red Cross offices in the Palestinian Territories. Yet there is no reaction or action from the Israeli authorities or the international community to respond to their demands for basic rights as political prisoners, in accordance to the Geneva Convention. So many of those political prisoners have been under administrative detention without any charge or trial.      MORE . . . .

❷ ON  34TH  DAY  OF  HUNGER  STRIKE,  PRISONERS  TRANSFERRED  TO  ISRAELI  CIVILIAN  HOSPITAL
Ma’an News Agency  
May 20, 2017
As some 1,300 Palestinian prisoners entered the 34th day of a mass hunger strike on Saturday, a group of prisoners were transferred to an Israeli civilian hospital after refusing water and falling into a critical health condition, while Palestinian prisoners have remained united against the strike’s leadership.
___The Israel Prison Service (IPS) transferred a group of Palestinian hunger strikers to Israel’s Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon city in southern Israel, after the prisoners gradually stopped drinking water and their health conditions reached a critical stage, according to the committee formed to support the hunger strikers.
[. . . .]   According to reports, up until this point, Palestinian hunger strikers have been transferred to prison field hospitals — sites which many fear will be used to force feed the hunger strikers en masse.    MORE . . .
❸ BACKGROUND  ISSUES:   TREATMENT  OF  HUNGER  STRIKERS  RAISES  CONCERN  AMONGST  RIGHTS  ORGANIZATIONS        
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association 
May 8, 2017
On April 17, 2017, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike in protest against their severe conditions of incarceration and other violations of their human rights. Their demands comply with international human rights and humanitarian law . . . . Nevertheless, since the declaration of the strike, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has taken various punitive actions against the hunger-strikers, including placing prisoners in solitary confinement and preventing them from meeting with lawyers. . . . These measures stand in direct contradiction of the 2016 Concluding Observations of the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), which has called on Israel to “guarantee that persons deprived of liberty who engage in hunger strikes are never subjected to ill-treatment or punished for engaging in a hunger strike” (para. 27).  The hunger strikers’ demands cover a wide range of issues, including . . . . MORE . . .

2017_5_4-Palestinians-in-London-launch-001
Palestinians in London launch a solidarity hunger strike and protest outside House of Parliament in London, UK. (Photo: May 4, 2017, Middle East Monitor)

❹  STARVING WITH  THEIR  SONS     
The Electronic Intifada
Maram Humaid
May 19,2017
Latifa al-Naji Abu Humaid’s family are worried about her health. They are trying to convince the 70-year-old that she should start eating again. But Latifa is determined to continue refusing food in solidarity with her sons who are undertaking a hunger strike behind Israeli bars.
___“I cannot eat while my sons are starving,” said Latifa, who lives in al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, a city in the occupied West Bank. “If they end the hunger strike, I will too.”
___Four of Latifa’s sons have been in prison since 2002. All affiliated to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the Fatah organization, they have been convicted of various charges and sentenced to multiple life sentences for their roles in planning and helping carry out suicide bombings and other armed operations.
___The four have joined the mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners.  MORE . . . 
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  NEGOTIATE  WITH  THE  PALESTINIAN  HUNGER STRIKERS       Is it really in Israel’s interest to descend into a third intifada instead of listening to the prisoners? 
Haaretz Editorial  
May 21, 2017
Despite a lack of interest among Israelis, the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners entered its 35th day on Sunday. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan hasn’t tried to resolve the strike through negotiations with the prisoners over their demands. Instead he has tried to break the strikers and end the action by force.
___Erdan has been threatening to force-feed the strikers. He has stuck by this approach even though the Israel Medical Association has said it will refuse to carry out force-feeding. Erdan is even willing to bring in doctors from abroad for this purpose. . . .
___Such efforts have failed. Now it appears that the nonviolent protests have spread beyond the prison walls to the Palestinian street, but violently. If the government doesn’t quickly come to its senses and find a way to deal with the strike, hundreds of prisoners could die. About 850 prisoners are currently striking and their health continues to decline.
___Force-feeding is an indecent practice that violates medical ethics. Some people view it as torture in every respect.      MORE . . .

“. . . The truth in your heart is stronger, As long as you resist . . .” (Dareen Tatour)

Harold Knight1 Comment
1-f14bd0e26bad48b9b5be3f8a210d2770_18
The P48 endeavour came at a difficult time, marked by high tensions and a fracture between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas (Photo after first shutdown in 2015: Zeidan Mahmoud/Al Jazeera)

❶ Israeli occupation shuts down Arab 48 TV
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Dozens protest for release of Palestinian poet under house arrest

  • From Washington Report On Middle East Affairs

❷ UN experts urge Israeli Knesset not to adopt pending legislation that could target critical NGOs

  • From Space & Polity

❸ Opinion/Analysis: FREEDOM  OF  EXPRESSION  AND  SOCIAL  MEDIA  IN  PALESTINE
❹ POETRY by Dareen Tatour
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  SHUTS  DOWN  ARAB  48  TV
Days of Palestine
Jun 25, 2016
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan decided on Thursday to ban for six month Arab 48 TV which operates in Israel [in Nazareth].
___Erdan decided to shut down the TV channel, which changed its name after a previous ban, over claims that the TV undermines Israeli sovereignty.   [See Article 19.2 of the ICPPR]
___In July 2015, the minister ordered the Palestine 48 channel to stop operating for six months, arguing the television station was not authorised for broadcasting in Israel. The station subsequently changed its name to Musawa Channel.     MORE . . . 

From: Washington Report On Middle East Affairs 
Of course, Israeli censorship has long been a part of Palestinian reality. One recalls Prime Minister Golda Meir’s 1971 edict erasing Palestine and the Green Line from all maps produced in Israel, or Israeli occupation forces ordering the removal of Palestinian political symbols–flags, posters and more. Israeli authorities censored coverage of the first and second Palestinians intifadas, meticulously reviewing Arabic publications for “security”-related material, and enforced its ban on critical reporting with arrests, beatings and the confiscation of press cards. According to Reporters Without Borders, Israeli soldiers have shot at least nine Palestinian journalists, including reporters for the Associated Press, Agence France Presse (AFP) and Al Ayyam newspaper.
___According to HRW, blame for the wholesale destruction of freedom of the press and of expression in Palestine originates with political protection and funding by the United States and the European Union of Israeli and Palestinian security forces. This bias, moreover, ensures that the abuses continue. In its report, HRW calls upon the enabling nations to cease providing aid to all agencies, regardless of affiliation, implicated in serious violations of human rights and to publicly criticize abuses committed by West Bank and Gaza security forces.
___Without such intercession by the international community, Israel, Hamas and Fatah will continue restricting freedom of expression, abusing journalists, closing media offices, confiscating equipment, preventing the distribution of newspapers, and assaulting journalists during demonstrations–all of which serve to prevent information from reaching those directly affected, it also renders the entire world ignorant of facts–facts which in time will lead to a peaceful resolution of the longest running conflict in the Middle East.  Omer, Mohammed. “Casualty Of War: Censuring Truth In Palestine.” Washington Report On Middle East Affairs 27.8 (2008): 19-41.    SOURCE.

. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) DOZENS  PROTEST  FOR  RELEASE  OF  PALESTINIAN  POET  UNDER  HOUSE  ARREST
+972 Blog
By Yael Marom
June 26, 2016
Dozens of Palestinians and Israelis demonstrated at Jaffa’s Clock Tower Square on Saturday evening to call for the release of Palestinian poet, Dareen Tatour, who has been held under house arrest for the past five months.___ Tatour, 33, from the Arab village Al-Reineh near Nazereth, was arrested by Israeli police on October 10, 2015 because of a poem she had posted to Facebook. . . .  She was charged with incitement to violence and identifying with a terrorist organization — all because of her poem.     MORE . . .       SEE ALSO . . .   

From: Space & Polity
This politics of trauma underscores the significance of aesthetics in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. . . .  this paper understands aesthetics not as the philosophy of art or beauty, but as “a relation between what people do, what they see, what they hear and what they know” . . . . this paper examines the role of beauty in disrupting the discourse of trauma that dominates humanitarian aid projects targeting Palestinian children . . .  In so doing, this research takes aesthetics beyond its traditional focus on visual arts and representation, and towards the role of aesthetics in reproducing everyday life.
[. . . .]
In thinking about affective political communities, J. Thompson suggests that the ‘affect of beauty’ provides an attractive alternative to the ‘aesthetics of injury’. While pain, he argues, “reduces the person to the boundary of her or his body,” beauty, in contrast, opens the body to an “intimate politics of sharing,” as the sensual generosity of beauty provokes an “affective impulse towards engagement with others.” This urge to share beauty with others serves as a modest “universal claim to some form of good.” . . .  Since beauty inspires an engagement with others in defining what is good, which in many contexts will involve a “comparison with circumstances that are experienced as unjust,” beauty is not a distraction from injustice but “can be part of its critique.” For this reason, beauty takes on added significance in situations of violence. More than a mere coping mechanism, beauty contrasts with and draws attention to injustice, pointing towards other more hopeful futures. . . . Marshall, David Jones. “‘All The Beautiful Things’: Trauma, Aesthetics And The Politics Of Palestinian Childhood.” Space & Polity 17.1 (2013): 53-73.    SOURCE.

❷ UN  EXPERTS  URGE  ISRAELI  KNESSET  NOT  TO  ADOPT  PENDING  LEGISLATION  THAT  COULD  TARGET  CRITICAL  NGOS
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
Press Release
June 25, 2016
Three United Nations human rights experts today urged Israeli lawmakers not to approve the so called ‘NGO transparency bill’ that would, in effect, target non-governmental organizations that are critical of government policy. The experts expressed grave concern that the legislation would chill the speech of human rights NGOs by subjecting them to harsh penalties for violations and delegitimizing them publicly.
[. . . .]
___“The promotion of transparency is indeed desirable and legitimate,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye. “However, the pending legislation has the evident intent of targeting human rights and civil rights organization . . .”
___ The UN human rights experts urged members of the Knesset to withdraw the proposed legislation and uphold its international obligation to safeguard the broad and expansive right to freedom of expression guaranteed to everyone under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.     MORE . . .

1-2349077637
Dareen Tatour in Nazareth District Court on May 8, 2016. (Photo: Haaretz/Rami Shllush)

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  FREEDOM  OF  EXPRESSION  AND  SOCIAL  MEDIA  IN  PALESTINE
The Palestine-Israel Journal Politics, Economics, and Culture
By Ziad Khalil AbuZayyad
The greatest challenge that Palestinians face while trying to use social media as a tool for freedom of expression is the change in Israeli policy toward those who dare to express themselves on Facebook or Twitter. Recently Facebook posts have been used as grounds for possible imprisonment when used to express political opinions. Israel has sent dozens of Palestinians to jail for several months, asserting that they expressed extreme points of view on Facebook. Internationally, the discourse has always been that freedom of expression should be maintained on the Internet and that regulations should not allow digital expression to be used as a pretext to hunt down political activists.
[. . . .]
Palestinian activists clearly need to be given support and training that will help them face the political challenges presented by the censure of digital expression. Since we are talking about a conflict, the international Internet community must understand that it is dangerous to allow Israeli policies to prevent Palestinians from expressing their opinions freely and to sentence them to prison simply because they expressed their opinions in the digital world.      MORE . . .    

THE  POET  TARIQ  AL HAYDAR  TRANSLATES  TATOUR’S  POEM  INTO  ENGLISH:

Resist, My People, Resist Them
Resist, my people, resist them.
In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows
And carried the soul in my palm
For an Arab Palestine.
I will not succumb to the “peaceful solution,”
Never lower my flags
Until I evict them from my land.
I cast them aside for a coming time.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the settler’s robbery
And follow the caravan of martyrs.
Shred the disgraceful constitution
Which imposed degradation and humiliation
And deterred us from restoring justice.
They burned blameless children;
As for Hadil, they sniped her in public,
Killed her in broad daylight.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the colonialist’s onslaught.
Pay no mind to his agents among us
Who chain us with the peaceful illusion.
Do not fear doubtful tongues;
The truth in your heart is stronger,
As long as you resist in a land
That has lived through raids and victory
So Ali called from his grave:
Resist, my rebellious people.
Write me as prose on the agarwood;
My remains have you as a response.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist, my people, resist them.

You can follow her case on Facebook

 

“. . . is it my country or the source of my exile? . . .” (Zuhair Abu Shaib)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-Omar Barghouti-001
Israel imposes travel ban on BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti (Photo: Electronic Intifada, Intal/Flickr, May 10, 2016)

❶ Many Injured As Israeli Soldiers Attack The Weekly Protest In Kufur Qaddoum
❷ Senior Israeli minister: Make BDS activists in Israel ‘pay a price’
. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner, endorses academic and cultural boycott of Israel
❸ Opinion/Analysis: BDS:  DISCUSSING  DIFFICULT  ISSUES  IN  A  FAST-GROWING  MOVEMENT.  INTERVIEW  WITH  OMAR  BARGHOUTI
❹ POETRY by Zuhair Abu Shaib
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MANY  INJURED  AS  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  THE  WEEKLY  PROTEST  IN  KUFUR  QADDOUM
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 18, 2016
Israeli soldiers attacked, on Friday, the weekly protest in Kufur Qaddoum town, in the northern West Bank district of Qalqilia, and fired gas bombs at the protesters and homes, causing scores of residents to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
___Media coordinator of the Popular Committee in Kufur Qaddoum Morad Eshteiwy said several military vehicles invaded the town from various directions, before the soldiers stormed homes.     MORE . . .

❷ SENIOR  ISRAELI  MINISTER:  MAKE  BDS  ACTIVISTS  IN  ISRAEL  ‘PAY  A  PRICE’
+972 Magazine
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
June 16, 2016
Israeli Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Information Minister Gilad Erdan says that BDS advocates inside Israel must be made to pay a price and that he is working to create legislation that would do just that.
___“The message has to be that it’s not worth being a BDS activist,” the minister said at a panel on BDS at the Herzliya Conference on Thursday. “Anybody who works to delegitimize Israel, to bring an end to the Zionist enterprise, they should know that there will be a price.”       MORE . . .         RELATED.
. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) VIET  THANH  NGUYEN,  2016  PULITZER  PRIZE  WINNER,  ENDORSES  ACADEMIC  AND  CULTURAL  BOYCOTT  OF  ISRAEL     MORE. . .

IMAGINE MY SURPRISE. For decades I have passively endured ritualistic sneering about the irrelevance of nerdy scholars in ivory towers . . . . Then, on December 16, 2013, the membership of . . . the American Studies Association (ASA), ratified a convention resolution to participate in an “academic boycott” of Israeli universities to bring to light discrimination against Palestinians. Starting with headlines in the New York Times and Washington and Washington Post the ASA decree became the vote heard round the world. . . .
[. . . .] Raging tantrums over the boycott haven’t been confined to the Right, either. Michael Kazin, a specialist on U.S. radicalism and editor of Dissent, decried the ASA proposal as “idiotic” . . . while the Chair of American Studies at Brandeis University . . .  ranted on the History News Network that the ASA “has completely gone off its rocker” with its “boneheaded boycott.”
[. . . .] What readers of the mainstream press may gain from the calibrated verbal assaults of the anti-ASA scholars . . .  is a lesson in how not to read texts; their “interpretations” of the ASA position provide repeated demonstrations of the use of language to obscure inconvenient truths from oneself as well as others.

  • Wald, Alan. “In Defense Of The ASA.” AGAINST  THE  CURRENT 39.1 (2014): 7-14.  Alan M. Wald is the H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan.      ARTICLE.

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  BDS:  DISCUSSING  DIFFICULT  ISSUES  IN  A  FAST-GROWING  MOVEMENT.  INTERVIEW  WITH  WITH  OMAR  BARGHOUTI
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
June 14, 2016
Israel’s attacks on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and other human rights defenders living under occupation, such as Al Haq staff, have dominated the headlines in recent weeks, including the direct threats made by leading Israeli officials against BDS activists and in particular against the movement’s co-founder Omar Barghouti.
___Beyond the headlines, the work goes on [. . . .]
___Barghouti: “BDS of course recognizes that there are other strategies and approaches; we’re just saying that we chose to focus on the rights, not the solutions, because for any political solution – determined by the majority of Palestinians everywhere – to be just, comprehensive and sustainable it must accommodate our rights under international law. Moreover, to be effective you need to have something close to a Palestinian consensus, and to achieve that we had to stick to the most principled and strategic lowest common denominator, to the most significant and least controversial goals of the Palestinian people that hardly anyone can object to: Ending the 1967 occupation, ending the system of apartheid, and fulfilling the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties from which they were ethnically cleansed during and since the Nakba. And we adhere to these rights strictly.”      MORE . . . 

“NAME  OF  THE  SOIL,”  BY  ZUHAIR  ABU  SHAIB
what is its name?
what is the name of the soil
that falls from my withered body?
what is its name as it drifts and gathers
under my clothes
while, slowly, I build wall after wall?

I picture a sky full of clouds
I see it as I wish it to be

when night falls, I gulp my fill of springs
in darkness I lift my latch
to wise men

I ask my guests
who imprisoned the soul in rock?
who left prophets spread-eagled on doorsteps?

who risks everything to capture the earth?
a man who does not know his own shadow

what can I call this rug of soil?
is it my country or the source of my exile?
is it my miracle or my cross?

what is its name?

―Translated by Tom Pow

Zuhair Abu Shaib was born in Deir al-Ghusun, a town near the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank. and studied at Yarmouk University. He was a teacher and journalist in Yemen, and a book designer. He was also editor of the journal Awraq.
From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Barnes & Noble.

“. . . killed me once Then wore my face . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

PLEASE NOTE: The content of this blog has slightly changed. It presents fewer news items and gives more background for those items. This is in hopes of providing the reader (and the blogger) with deeper understanding of the issues that shape the news. Soon a means of linking to all of the articles will be provided. All can be found through an EBSCO search through any library with online databases.  Thank you. H.K.

Silwan, East Jerusalem, 28.03.2007
A group of Israeli settlers moved into an apartment building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on August 28, 2015. (Photo: Active Stills)

❶ Israeli minister orders suspension of return of Palestinian bodies
❷ Israeli Bulldozers Demolish Tin-Sheet Muslim Chapel in Jerusalem Neighborhood
❸ Occupied Jerusalem’s Silwan under attack
❹ Opinion/Analysis: GAINING  GROUND:  ISRAEL’S  PERMANENT  REPRESENTATION  AT  NATO
❺ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  MINISTER  ORDERS  SUSPENSION  OF  RETURN  OF  PALESTINIAN  BODIES
Ma’an News Agency
May 24, 2016
Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan announced on Tuesday that he had ordered Israeli police to suspend the return of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces [. . . .]
___Israel dramatically increased its policy of withholding bodies since the beginning of a wave of unrest across the occupied Palestinian territory since October, although it has scaled back on the policy in recent months.
___A joint statement released in early April by Addameer and the Israeli minority rights group Adalah condemned Israel’s practice of withholding bodies as “a severe violation of international humanitarian law as well as international human rights law, including violations of the right to dignity, freedom of religion, and the right to practice culture.”
MORE . . .

International Committee of the Red Cross
“Customary IHL – Rule 114.  Return of the Remains and personal Effects of the Dead”
Rule 114. Parties to the conflict must endeavour to facilitate the return of the remains of the deceased upon request of the party to which they belong or upon the request of their next of kin. They must return their personal effects to them.

Laucci, Cyril. “Customary International Humanitarian Law Study: Fundamental Guarantees.” Slovenian Law Review 6.1/2 (2009): 191-204.
___Rule 104: Respect for convictions and religious practices
Religious convictions and practices are protected by IHL treaties. [. . . .]
___Rule IO5: Respect for family life
Family life is protected under Articles 27 and 82 of Geneva Convention N and Articles 4(3) and 5(2)(a) of Additional Protocol II. [. . . .]

Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Israel’s Refusal to Return Bodies of Deceased Palestinians Violates International Law
12 December 2015
At the time of writing, Israel has the bodies of 41 killed Palestinians in its possession and is refusing to return them to their families. Rather than reducing conflict, this practice has created more tension with Palestinians, and sparked demonstrations and clashes.
___Israel’s refusal to return Palestinian bodies violates provisions of both international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
International Humanitarian Law
___Returning bodies of the deceased from a conflict is an obligation under customary international law  [. . . . ]
___Failing to return the bodies of the deceased is a violation, inter alia, of the right to dignity, freedom of religion, and the right to practice one’s culture.

❷ ISRAELI  BULLDOZERS  DEMOLISH  TIN-SHEET  MUSLIM  CHAPEL  IN  JERUSALEM  NEIGHBORHOOD
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 23, 2016
Israeli bulldozers Monday dawn demolished a Muslim chapel made of tin sheets in al-Musrara neighborhood opposite to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, said a local information center [. . . .]
___The chapel was set up by Palestinian traders and public bus drivers who needed a chapel where they can perform their prayers.
___Meanwhile, Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs Yusef Id’eis slammed the chapel demolition as an “aggression” and a “terrorist attack”.      MORE . . .

Matar, Ibrahim. “The Jewish Conquest of West and East Jerusalem: 1948 to the Present.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 17.1/2 (2011): 214-223.
Throughout its history Jerusalem was  a  united city. From the 7th  century  up  to  May  1948,  it was an Arab-Palestinian city with open access to the  faithful  of  the::  three  monotheistic religions.
___Jerusalem was a model of tolerance and coexistence, administered over the years by  a Palestinian  municipality  headed  mainly  by a Muslim mayor.
___The events of 1948 and 1967 changed this picture, when Jewish forces conquered Jerusalem: Its west, then eastern, parts came under sole Israeli control. As a consequence, the conquering forces engaged in uprooting and displacing the indigenous Christian and Muslim Palestinian population . . . .

Safieh, Afif. “On Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 17.1/2 (2011): 224-229.
There were several Palestinian residential neighborhoods [in Jerusalem] where middle-class Palestinians, civil servants, lawyers, engineers and doctors lived and worked. To name just a few: Qatamon , Upper and Lower Baq’a -before 1948 my family lived in Upper Baq’a -Talbiyeh , Mamillah, Shamma’a, Musrara, Abu-Tor, etc. The Palestinians left with only the key to their houses and one of the sad jokes among Palestinians is that their country was taken furnished. The late Professor Henry Cattan has analysed in great depth the “legalised theft” that followed, where all these real estate properties were declared “absentee property.”

1-silwan-kid
A Palestinian child plays next to the wall in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, February 21, 2016. (Activestills.org)

❸ OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM’S  SILWAN  UNDER  ATTACK
Alternative Information Center – AIC
Danielle Natan
Published: 25 May 2016
Israeli forces raided Palestinian homes and commercial stores in the Ein al-Lozeh area of Silwan on Monday afternoon. Israeli Border Patrol officers arrested two brothers and served a warrant for the arrest of a third man for alleged stone throwing [. . . .]
___In addition to targeting Palestinian family’s homes in Silwan, Israeli forces raided shops in the area [. . . .]
Monday’s raid of Silwan’s stores supports suspicions that Israel is escalating its efforts to undermine Silwan’s local businesses.      MORE . . .

Klein, Menachem. “The Shift — Israel’s New Goals in Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 17.1/2 (2011): 135-140.
. . . . A few conclusions can be drawn. First, neither the line of June 4, 1967, nor the Israeli annexation line of June 29, I 967, is relevant today from the Israeli point of view. On the ground they do not exist. Israel expands beyond them to create “Greater Jerusalem” along the line delineated by the wall and to impose it on the Palestinians.

❹ Opinion/Analysis: GAINING  GROUND:  ISRAEL’S  PERMANENT  REPRESENTATION  AT  NATO
The New Arab
May 18, 2016
Ramona Wadi
The news that Israel will now have a permanent representation at NATO headquarters is a prime example of how the colonial security rhetoric has been approved and endorsed at an international level.
­­­___Israel, which was previously a participant in the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue Programs, along with Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, can now look forward to more direct contributions to the alliance, as well as reaping its benefits.  MORE . . .

“HOW I BECAME AN ARTICLE,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM

They killed me once

Then wore my face many times.

From: Adonis, Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim. VICTIMS  OF  A  MAP:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  ARABIC  POETRY.  Trans. Abdullah al-Udhari. London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.