Tag: International Criminal Court

“Here we shall stay.  A wall upon your breast . . .” Tawfiq Zayyad

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NEWS

PM calls on ICC to expedite investigation of Israeli war crimes

WAFA
February 15, 2020
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called today upon the International Criminal Court to expedite its litigation procedures, especially after the ICC’s chief prosecutor announced in December its desire to launch a full investigation into Israeli war crimes in occupied Palestine.
– – – During a meeting with ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on the sideline of the Munich Security Conference 2020, Shtayyeh said he rejects all attempts to politicize the work of the ICC . . .   More . . .

Israeli Authorities displace families in Jerusalem and West Bank after razing their homes

Days of Palestine
February 15, 2020
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Thursday forced a Palestinian citizen to demolish his own house in Jerusalem and demolished another one in the West Bank.
– – – According to local sources, the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem forced Iyad Shuwaiki to demolish his own home in al-Thuri neighborhood, south of the Aqsa Mosque, and displaced his family in order to build a school in its place.  More . . .

Israeli Authorities Builds Settler-only Road from Nablus to Jordan Valley

The Palestine Chronicle
February 14, 2020
Israeli occupation authorities have started the build of a new road that would link the illegal Jewish settlements of Eli and Shilo  – in the north of the occupied West Bank – with the Jordan Valley.
– – – Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, told Wafa news agency yesterday that the settler-only road is about eight kilometers long.
– – – The road would cross fertile agricultural lands in the Palestinian villages of Duma, Telfit, Qaryut, and Al-Mughair, south of Nablus, all the way to the village of Fasayil in the central Jordan Valley.  More . . .

BACKGROUND INFORMATION/ ACTION NOTICES

How the U.S. made Palestine the exception to the rules of peacemaking
Israel has only ever offered Palestinians two things over the past century — submission or devastation — and the Americans have always backed them.

+972 Magazine
By Amjad Iraqi
February 10, 2020
Palestinians knew well before U.S. President Donald Trump announced the “Deal of the Century” that his proposed “peace plan” would be a farce. Yet even the most cynical observers could not have predicted how bone-chilling the event would be. The racism of Trump’s remarks, the grin on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face, and the applause of the dignitaries in the room, may go down as one of the most harrowing political moments in Palestinian memory . . . . It was therefore a jarring experience to read Khaled Elgindy’s book Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump (Brookings Institution Press, 2019) as the “Deal of the Century” was being unveiled. Published in 2019, Elgindy’s book chronicles how the United States not only enabled this historical path, but actively designed its trajectory. Beginning with the Balfour Declaration and ending with Trump’s ascension, the book traces America’s century-long alignment with the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, which came at the direct expense of the Palestinian people.    More . . .

 Poem of the Day

“THE  IMPOSSIBLE,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD

It is much easier for you
To pass an elephant through a needle’s eye,
Or catch fried fish in a galaxy,
Plough the sea,
Force a crocodile to speak
Than to destroy by persecution
The shimmering glow of a belief,
Or check our march,
One single step.

As if we were a thousand prodigies
Spreading everywhere
In Lidda, in Ramallah, in the Galilee. . .
Here we shall stay,
A wall upon your breast,
And in your throat we shall stay,
A piece of glass, a cactus thorn,
And in your eyes,
A blazing fire.

Here we shall stay,
A wall upon your breast,
Cleaning dishes in taverns,
Filling cups for the masters,
Sweeping sooty kitchens
To snatch a bite from your blue fangs
For our children.

Here we shall stay.
A wall upon your breast,
Facing starvation,
Struggling with rags, defying,
Singing our songs,
Swarming the angry streets with our demonstrations,
Filling the dungeons with pride,
Rearing vengeance in new generations.
Like a thousand prodigies,
We roam along
In Lidda, in Ramallah, in the Galilee.

Here we shall stay,
Go then and jump into the lake.
We will guard even the shadow of our fig and olive trees,
And ferment our cause as yeast does dough.
Here we shall stay with steel-cold nerves,
And red hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock to quench our thirst
And lull starvation with dust,
But we shall not depart.
Here we shall spill our dearest blood,
Here we have a past,
A present,
A future.
Stay we will, like a thousand prodigies,
In Lidda, Ramallah, the Galilee.
Strike deep in the earth
Our living roots.

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 Google Books.

“. . . We go on dreaming oh, dream of ours . . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Palestinian-children-and-UNRWA-1
United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees 
(UNRWA) educates more than 500,000 Palestinian children in 711 schools.
(Photo: UNRWA website)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
| ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  14  PALESTINIANS  FROM  WEST  BANK
Israeli forces Thursday detained 14 Palestinians during multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) in a statement.    ___Israeli forces detained six people during several raids in the Ramallah-district villages of al-Mughayyir, Kafr Ni’ma and Saffa.    ___This came as Israeli military jeeps raided the An-Nahda Street in Ramallah, where soldiers ransacked a printing shop and seized its equipment and publicity materials. . .  Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained two Palestinians after breaking into their homes in Hebron city. . . Forces carried out two similar raids in Halhul town and al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, detaining three Palestinians. . .    More . . .
. . . . Related  Israeli  forces  set  up  iron  gate  at  entrance  of  Ramallah-district  village 
. . . . Related  Israeli  occupation  grabs  Palestinian  lands  to  expand  illegal  outpost
|  AL-MALKI  PRESENTS  COMPLAINT  TO  ICC  OVER  INVESTIGATION  IN  ISRAELI  WAR  CRIMES
Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Riyad al-Malki, presented a complaint, on Wednesday, to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, for procrastination in opening an investigation into Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people.    ___. . .  al-Malki expressed his disappointment, to Bensouda, with the initial study carried out by the prosecutor’s office on the situation in Palestine.    ___Al-Malki’s comments were made during a meeting with Bensouda on the sidelines of the 17th session of the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC. . . .    More . . .
. . . . Related  Attorney  General  elected  to  ICC  committee
. . . . Related  Jordan:  Aqsa  Mosque  cannot  be  divided  or  shared 
. . . . Related  Resheq:  Int’l  community  in  front  of  real  test  at  General  Assembly
. . . . Related  Irish  Senate  approves  bill  criminalizing  goods  made  in  settlements
|  GAZA  YOUTH  LAUNCH  CAMPAIGN  TO  HIGHLIGHT  GROWING  POLLUTION  CRISIS
Hundreds of Palestinian youth in the occupied Gaza Strip formed a human chain along the blockaded enclave’s only seaport yesterday to draw attention to the growing pollution crisis.    ___According to CGTN, the initiative – named “It will come back to you” – was “part of a campaign aimed at protecting the basin of the Gaza harbor from growing levels of pollution . . .”    [. . . . ] According to Hilles, Israel’s blockade is preventing Palestinians in Gaza from “building waste recycling plants to get rid of the accumulating waste pumped into the sea every day.”    More . . .
. . . . Related  The  Environment  and  Development  in  Palestine  Harmony  or  Discord? By Ramzi Sansur

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
| TWO  DECADES  OF  RESILIENCE,  ADDED  TO  THE  PREVIOUS  FIVE  DECADES
By: Sam Bahour
In 1976, a report on Palestine declared, “The Palestinian people today face problems of formidable proportions.” That was the understatement of the century! Here we are, about to enter 2019, facing a daunting reality and an even more daunting future. One could say, The Palestinian people face problems of formidable proportions every day.    ___In the nitty-gritty of the here and now in Palestine, one is consumed by what seems to be a never-ending series of challenges brought about by our military occupier, Israel, and to a lesser degree, our governing body, the Palestinian government.   [. . . .] All analysis aside, I can guarantee you this: Palestinians will not collectively vanish. We are here to stay, forever.    More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .
| UNRWAUSA – The United States government has said no to helping Palestine refugees. But we won’t.     .. Due to the United States government’s recent decision to cut all funding to UNRWA, the Agency faces an unprecedented funding crisis.   ___It’s going to take all of us standing together to fund UNRWA’s work so the Agency can continue serving Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.    ___Our common humanity depends on it.   ..  Donate . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“WE  FEAR  FOR  A  DREAM,”  by  MAHMOUD  DARWISH

We fear for a dream: don’t believe our butterflies.
Believe our sacrifices if you like, believe the compass of a horse, our
. . . need for the north.
We have raised the beaks of our souls to you. Give us a grain of
. . . wheat, our dream. Give it, give it to us.
We have offered you the shores since our coming to the earth born of
. . . an idea or of the adultery of two waves on a rock in the sand.
Nothing. Nothing. We float on a foot of air. The air breaks up within
. . . ourselves.
We know you have abandoned us, built for us prisons and called them
. . . the paradise of oranges.
We go on dreaming. Oh, desired dream. We steal our days from those
. . . extolled by our myths.
We fear for you, we’re afraid of you. We are exposed together, you
. . . shouldn’t believe our wives’ patience.
They will weave two dresses, then sell the bones of the loved ones to
. . . buy a glass of milk for our children.
We fear for a dream, from him, from ourselves. We go on dreaming
. . . oh, dream of ours. Don’t believe our butterflies!

– – – From VICTIMS  OF  A  MAP:  A  Bilingual  Anthology  of  Arabic  Poetry.
Trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari. London: Saqi Books, 1984 & 2005.

“. . . The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland. . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

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SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|  GERMANY  ALLOCATES  €55  MILLION  TO  PALESTINIAN  DEVELOPMENT  PROJECTS
Germany allocated 55 million Euros to be dispersed to Palestinian development projects in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in 2019.    ___Klaus Kramer, the Head of Division in the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, told reporters in Ramallah that it was agreed, in coordination with various ministries in the Palestinian government, that the money will go to mainly three sectors: sustainable economic development, infrastructure such as water projects and local governance, including projects with municipalities.    ___While the funds in form of grants will go mainly to these three areas, which are government-run projects, other development projects in other fields will also get part of the money, such as projects carried out by civil society organizations.     More . . .    ..
. . . . Related  PEA rejects Israeli threats against renewable energy projects
. . . . Related  Israel plans to turn settlements in Salfit into one large city
. . . . Related  Israel demolishes Palestinian school in southern Hebron
. . . . Related  US envoy Greenblatt: ‘We stand with Israel’
. . . . Related  Is the Israeli military operation along the border with Lebanon for real?
|  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  23  PALESTINIANS  FROM  WEST  BANK         
Israeli forces Wednesday detained 23 Palestinians, including three former prisoners and a 14-year-old minor, during multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).    ___Israeli military jeeps raided Salfit city, where they detained two Palestinians. . .   ___Israeli forces also detained two other Palestinians in separate two raids into Iskaka and Qarawat Bani Hassan, east and west of Salfit city.    ___In Ramallah district, military jeeps raided Deir Nitham village, northwest of Ramallah, where soldiers detained three Palestinians. . . .   More . . .    ..
. . . .  Related  Over 2,000 Israelis break into 3rd holiest site in Islam in November
|  ISRAELI  COURT  RULES  AGAINST  GAZA  FATHER  WHO  LOST  3  DAUGHTERS  IN  2008  WAR
An Israeli court yesterday ruled against a Palestinian from Gaza whose three daughters were killed by the Israeli army during its 2008 war on the Strip, denying Israel’s responsibility for their deaths.    ___Izzeldin Abuelaish, a 63-year-old doctor from Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip, lost three daughters and a niece during Israel’s 2008-2009 war on the besieged enclave. His story was made famous after he discovered his children had been killed while speaking to an Israeli TV channel, with his suffering broadcast live across the country and later shared widely around the world.    More . . .
. . . . Related  MOFA demands ICC to try Israeli killers of Tulkarem martyr
. . . . Related  ‘Gender violence pushed Jewish, Palestinian women into a corner — together’

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|  PROFESSIONAL  SOLIDARITY  WITH  PALESTINE:  A  MENTAL  HEALTH  IMPERATIVE
By Dr. Samah Jabr
In the field of medicine, we often speak of the social determinants of health. In Palestine, not only social, but political determinants of health have a grave impact on the well-being and mental health of our community. I am not just talking about the political blackmail through recent blatant cuts of the US administration of millions of US dollars from East Jerusalem hospitals and defunding UNRWA educational and health services, but also through the daily realities of dismal work opportunities, a vacuum of leadership, the threat of political detention haunting our youth, and the pervasive experiences of loss and grief. Centuries of political oppression has created a cascade of damage to collective identity and individuals’ personalities.    ___The ongoing siege of Gaza is only a single dramatization of how the political realities of occupation deliberately destroy the quality of life for Palestinians.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“HOW  ARE  YOU?”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI
Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

From: Barghouti, Mourid. Midnight and other Poems. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.

“. . . The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

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12a5e63c766e45fdbf63dad4c913b527_18
Israeli bulldozers enter Khan al-Ahmar in advance of demolition. (Photo: Al Jazeera, Oct. 16, 2018)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|   PALESTINE  CINEMA  DAYS  PROMOTES  RESILIENCE  THROUGH  CINEMA          This year’s Palestine Cinema Days is focused on promoting Palestinian films and stories in the face of increasing pressure on Palestine and its people wherever they may be.    ___From the United States moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to cutting financial funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Palestinians have greatly suffered for seven decades since the start of the Israeli occupation.    ___Palestine Cinema Days brings to the Palestinian audience important stories of suffering, resilience and the human condition shared by us all.    ___The festival will open on October 17th with the screening of The Tower at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, with more than 60 films from Palestinian, Arab and international filmmakers.    More . . .
. . . . Related  What  it  takes  to  organize  a  film  screening  in  Gaza
|   AGREEMENT  SIGNED  FOR  BUILDING  LARGEST  INDUSTRIAL  CITY  IN  WEST  BANK     The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority, represented by the Minister of Economy Abeer Odeh, signed on Tuesday the concession agreement for the development and operation of a multi-sector industrial area in Tarqumiya, in the south of the West Bank, a PIF statement said on Wednesday.    ___The Tarqumiya industrial city project is expected to be the largest among industrial cities and is planned to utilize a total area of 1542 dunums of lands in Tarqumiya and Beit Olla in the Hebron Governorate,  the largest part of which is located in areas designated as Area C, that is under full Israeli control. Cost is also estimated at about $160 million.    More . . .
|   ICC  PROSECUTOR  WARNS:  DEMOLISHING  KHAN  AL-AHMAR  A  ‘WAR  CRIME‘
Prosecutor of the International  Criminal  Court  Fatou Bensouda issued a stern warning to Israel officials on Wednesday, saying she will not “hesitate to take any appropriate action” should they demolish the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly transfer its residents.     ___Bensouda’s warning comes as Israeli authorities ramp up their attempts to destroy the village and remove its residents, who have lived in Khan al-Ahmar for over 40 years.     ___The ICC prosecutor also expressed concern about the continued violence at the Gaza-Israel border, several hours after a rocket fired from the Strip struck a home in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva. In response, the Israeli Air Force struck 20 targets it said belonged to Hamas.   More . . .
. . . . Related  Everything  you  need  to  know  about  Khan  al-Ahmar

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|   THE  US  MAINSTREAM  MEDIA  IS  IGNORING  THE  ISRAEL-SAUDI  ARABIA  DE  FACTO  ALLIANCE      Over the past week or so, Saudi Arabia has gotten more U.S. mainstream media coverage than at any time in decades. But conspicuously missing has been any reporting on the kingdom’s growing friendship with Israel — a de facto alliance that may help explain why Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman thought he could get away with ordering the murder of the dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.    ___Madawi Al-Rasheed is a Saudi Arabian woman professor, presently at King’s College London, who has written or edited more than 13 books on her home nation. Particularly valuable is her recently edited (2018) collection about the kingdom’s new leadership, entitled Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia.     ___In that book, she is clear about the growing Saudi rapprochement with Israel. She writes that the Crown Prince “has continued to clandestinely cooperate with Israel on security and economic matters”. . .   More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .

|   International Solidarity Movement:  ISRAELI  AND  INTERNATIONAL  ACTIVISTS  JOIN  GAZAN  PROTESTERS  IN  THE  GREAT  RETURN  MARCH       On the morning of October 10, 2018, ten activists from around the world delivered messages of support to the Great March of Return in the Eastern Gaza Strip via Skype, as a part of a ‘virtual rally’ entitled “Words Over Walls.”     ___The speakers hailed from countries as diverse as the US, UK, Brazil, South Africa and Norway. They included authors Mike Peled, Denny Cormier, Robert Martin, Mike Farah, and Peter Cohen and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Kristin Foss. Participants expressed their solidarity with the Marchers, their tactics and their goals. Musician and composer Mike Farah then sang an original song about the Palestinian’s Right of Return.     ___“All people of conscience, all people who have a heart, regardless of nationality or religion, must stand with the brave people of Gaza and support their demand to be free and to return to their land and homes in Palestine. The siege on Gaza must be broken and the prison walls that surround Gaza must come down. Palestine must be free,” said author Mike Peled.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“I  HAVE  NO  HOME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
――Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

――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 University of Washington Press.

“. . . Do you remember your panic―at the reign of death? . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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IMG_2862 - Copy
As a guest at Al-Aqsa, November 5, 2015. Photo: by Harold Knight.

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

WHO:  10  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  4  CHILDREN,  WERE  KILLED  BY  ISRAELIS  IN  GAZA  IN  2  WEEKS 
The latest figures provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) indicate that during the demonstrations between 10th and 22nd September, 10 Palestinians including four children were killed and 1,193 were injured by the Israeli forces, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a special situation report on Gaza published on Thursday. Most of the killings and injuries occurred during protests as part of the March of Return on the Gaza border with Israel.    ___Out of the total 1,193 injured, 690 patients required transfer to the MoH hospitals or NGO clinics, including 127 children and 37 females. Of the hospitalized injured, 19 cases were critically life threatening, 275 moderate, 386 mild . . .  More . . .

OVER  500  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  STORM  AL-AQSA  ON  4TH  DAY  OF  SUKKOT
Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, on Thursday, through the Moroccan Gate on the fourth day of their Jewish holiday of Sukkot.   ___The Islamic Endowment Department (Waqf) confirmed that 509 Israeli settlers stormed the compound via the Moroccan Gate that was opened at 7 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. and the numbers are expected to increase throughout the day.   ___Israeli forces and police were deployed across the compound, by the Moroccans Gate and by the Chain Gate, in addition to Israeli police being deployed by the doors of the mosque and into the streets leading up to the compound in the Old City.   More . . .
Related . . .Fanatic  Israeli  settlers  perform  provocative  rituals  in  Samou
Related . . .Israeli  forces  injure  20  Palestinians  as  settlers  visit  Joseph’s  Tomb     

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

EREKAT:  WHAT  TRUMP  SAID  IS  A  REWARD  FOR    AGGRESSORS  FOR  THEIR  CRIMES
PLO Executive Committee Secretary Dr. Saeb Erekat  said in  his response to President Trump’s Speech at the UNGA today that President Trump has confirmed that his administration has closed the doors to peace and cannot play a role in peacemaking by stating that his decision to move his embassy to Israel to Jerusalem, in violation of Security Council resolution 478, was a “recognition of reality”. Rather, what his administration did, and continues to do, is to reward and incentivize violations of international law, colonization, war crimes, and apartheid.    ___His rejection of the International Criminal Court is a rejection of international law. It should be noted that Israel, the occupying power, did not implement any of the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions Erekat said.   More . . .
Related . . .Officials  address  Palestine  at  UNGA

“PREVENTING  PALESTINE”:  A  MUST  READ  HISTORY  OF  FAILED  PEACE-MAKING
James J. Zogby
Seth Anziska’s “Preventing Palestine: A Political History From Camp David to Oslo” is a deeply insightful and profoundly disturbing book that traces the tortuous path of Middle East peace-making during the past four decades. It was quite painful to read.     ___Having been a close observer and sometimes participant in many of the developments that have unfolded since the end of the 1973 War, Anziska opened old wounds while shedding new light on the painful events and acts of betrayal that have shaped recent Palestinian history.     ___Through all of the twists and turns of this period, the brutal wars and the diplomatic initiatives, the one constant that emerges is the Israeli determined refusal to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood and the self-serving acquiesce to their intransigence by successive American administrations and key Arab leaders.  More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .   

BRIGHT  STARS  OF  BETHLEHEM:  “Room  for  Hope,”  (Dallas,  Austin,  Houston,  Texas,  USA),  Oct.  5-7,  2018.    It’s finally here! Bright Stars is coming to Texas for a multi-city festival of Palestinian culture.  After postponing last year’s festival due to Hurricane Harvey, we are thrilled to be in Texas this fall.   Information . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . .

“BUCHENWALD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Have you forgotten your shame at Buchenwald?
Do you remember your flames at Buchenwald?
Have you forgotten your love in the lexicon
of silence? Do you remember your panic―
at the reign of death, in the nightmare of time―
that the whole world
would become a Buchenwald?
Whether you’ve forgotten or not,
the dead’s images linger
among the wreaths of flowers,
and from the dismembered corpses
a hand emerges,
a nail in the palm and tattoo on the wrist―
a sign for the planet.
Do you remember? Or not?
Buchenwald― whether or not you’ve forgotten,
the images of the murdered
remain among the wreaths of flowers . . .

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER  THAN  WATER.  New  and  Selected  Poems.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.

 

“. . . a black city despising strangers . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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REACTIONS  TO  TRUMP’S  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  DECEMBER  6,  2017
❶ UN Security Council called for urgent meeting on Jerusalem
❷ Trump’s move on Jerusalem: Is this the end of US diplomacy in the Middle East?
❸ Trump just ‘pushed the two-state solution over the cliff’
❹ LIVE: Palestinians continue protests against Trump decision
❺ British prime minister says US decision on Jerusalem ‘unhelpful’ for peace
❻ World Council of Churches concerned over US move on Jerusalem

  • Background: “Future Scenarios for the Old City of Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

OF  ANCILLARY  INTEREST 
❶ In article on Jerusalem, New York Times falsifies history of 1948, 1967
❷ Jared Kushner Omitted Leading a Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements
❸ ICC ‘Made Significant Progress’ in Prosecuting Israel For War Crimes
Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

  • FURTHER  READING  ON  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  U.S.  (a list of additional recent publications)

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ UN  SECURITY  COUNCIL  CALLED  FOR  URGENT  MEETING  ON  JERUSALEM
 Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― Eight members of the 15-member United Nations Security Council called for an urgent meeting for the council to discuss US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, according to media reports.
___The two permanent Security Council members, Britain and France, along with Sweden, Italy, Egypt, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Senegal have called for the urgent meeting, which is expected to be held on Friday.     MORE . . .
❷ TRUMP’S  MOVE  ON  JERUSALEM:  IS  THIS  THE  END  OF  US  DIPLOMACY  IN  THE  MIDDLE  EAST?
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 7, 2017 ― Finally, US President Donald Trump pulled the plug.
___The so-called peace process, two-state solution, “land-for-peace formula” and all the other tired clichés have been long dead and decomposing. But Trump’s announcement yesterday to officially recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel has also laid to rest the illusion that the US was ever keen on achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours.
___What is left to be said by those who have placed the Palestinian national project of liberation on hold for nearly three decades, waiting for the US to fulfill its self-designated role of an “honest peace broker”?
___The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a “day of rage” in response to Trump’s announcement. Way to deflect attention from the real crisis at hand: the fact that the PA has miserably failed by leasing the fate of Palestine to Washington, and, by extension to Israel as well.   MORE . . .
❸ TRUMP  JUST  ‘PUSHED  THE  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION  OVER  THE  CLIFF’
Mondoweiss Editors
Dec. 6, 2017 ― Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and getting architects busy on designing the new U.S. embassy represents a special new challenge for supporters of the two-state solution. While Trump gave lip service to such an outcome, his moves are such a rebuke to Palestinians and their Arab neighbors that they have destroyed any credibility the U.S. claimed to have as a broker and made it impossible for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with the United States– even mainstream analysts said on the cable news networks today.
___The move is meant to “appease” big donors such as Sheldon Adelson as well as evangelical Christians, Marc Ginsberg, a former ambassador to Morocco, said angrily on MSNBC. Trump, he said, “pushed the two state solution over the cliff.” And put “a knife in the back of the Palestinian leadership.”  MORE . . .
❹ LIVE:  PALESTINIANS  CONTINUE  PROTESTS  AGAINST  TRUMP  DECISION
Palestine News Network – PNN
Dec. 7, 2017 ―  Following Trump’s decision to move the American embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, Palestinians all over the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem carried out protests at contact points, while Israeli Occupation Forces responded with teargas and sound grenades.
___Palestinians took the streets of Bethlehem at the 300 military checkpoint, where hundreds carried out a protest and clashes broke out (VIDEO).   MORE . . .
❺ BRITISH  PRIME  MINISTER  SAYS  US  DECISION  ON  JERUSALEM  ‘UNHELPFUL’  FOR  PEACE
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement late Wednesday that she views the decision by the United States President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as unhelpful to peacemaking in the region.
___“We disagree with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement. We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it,” May said in a press statement.     MORE . . .
❻ WORLD  COUNCIL  OF  CHURCHES  CONCERNED  OVER  US  MOVE  ON  JERUSALEM
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed grave concern on Wednesday over US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.     ___“Such a step breaks with the longstanding international consensus, and almost seven decades of established American policy, that the status of Jerusalem remains to be settled,” stated Tveit. “It also pre-empts a negotiated resolution of this most difficult issue in any final peace agreement, which must be achieved between Israelis and Palestinians themselves.”     MORE . . .

Nasrallah, Rami.
“FUTURE  SCENARIOS  FOR  THE  OLD  CITY  OF  JERUSALEM.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 49-56.
[. . . .] The current Israeli approach to encroachment and domination of the Old City and its “Holy Basin” surroundings differs from the manner in which they have dealt with East Jerusalem neighborhoods outside the ancient walls. There they sought to consolidate certain neighborhoods and to divide others on demographic grounds in order to capitalize on the Clintonian principle: “Where there are Israelis belongs to Israel; where there are Palestinians belongs to the Palestinians.” In contrast, in the Old City the Israelis have had an unprecedented interest in centralization. They seek to make the ancient center the heart of the Israeli state and the Jewish people. This goal has been positioned by numerous Israeli governments, including the current administration, as beyond compromise. However, in order to move forward from this stalemate and the inherent risks of the worst case scenario, it is necessary to seek new ideas that draw concessions horn both parties. Of the many scenarios reviewed in this chapter, the one that proffers the greatest progress embraces Israeli and Palestinian cooperation and integration under an international regime.   COMPLETE ARTICLE . . .

OF  ANCILLARY  INTEREST
❶ IN  ARTICLE  ON  JERUSALEM,  NEW  YORK  TIMES  FALSIFIES  HISTORY  OF  1948,  1967 
The Electronic Intifada
Michael F. Brown
Dec. 6, 2017 ― A New York Times article published Tuesday about the history of Jerusalem maintains, “It is perhaps fitting that President Trump appears to have chosen this week to announce that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
___The writers, Sewell Chan, Irit Pazner Garshowitz, Mona Boshnaq and Gaia Tripoli, base this outlook on the fact that in “December 1917 – 100 years ago this month – the British general Edmund Allenby seized control of Jerusalem from its Ottoman Turkish defenders.”
___President Donald Trump likely knows little to nothing of this history. He was not thinking about the past century, but about continuing his disruptive track record and enmity toward Muslims.
___The authors then make clear their own tenuous grasp of the region’s history.     ___They write: “The Arabs rejected the partition plan, and a day after Israel proclaimed its independence in 1948, the Arab countries attacked the new state. They were defeated. Amid violence by militias and mobs on both sides, huge numbers of Jews and Arabs were displaced.”     MORE . . .
❷ JARED  KUSHNER  OMITTED  LEADING  A  FOUNDATION  FUNDING  ILLEGAL  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS 
Palestine Chronicle
Dec. 5 2017 ― Researchers from American Bridge and Newsweek have revealed Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser failed to mention to the Office of Government Ethics, during his March filings, that he was the co-director of the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation from 2006 and 2015, which was responsible for funding settlements that were deemed as illegal according to the international law.
___“The first son-in-law has repeatedly amended his financial records since his initial filing in March, along with three separate revisions to his security clearance application. Despite correcting his financial history on multiple occasions, he has yet to include his role as co-director to the family foundation,” Newsweek reported.     MORE . . .
❸ ICC  ‘MADE  SIGNIFICANT  PROGRESS’  IN  PROSECUTING  ISRAEL  FOR  WAR  CRIMES
Palestine Chronicle
Dec. 5 2017 ― The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that it has “made significant progress in its assessment” to determine “whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation” into war crimes committed by Israel.
___Yesterday’s announcement by the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, means that The Hague office will press ahead with its preliminary examination, which was launched nearly three years ago in January 2015.
___A preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation under the principals of the Rome Statute.   MORE . . .

“STORY  OF  A  CITY,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
There was a blue city
that dreamt of foreigners wandering
around and spending their money
day after day.

But it became a black city
despising strangers
with their rifles’ muzzles
making the rounds of its cafés …

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER  THAN  WATER.  NEW  AND  SELECTED  POEMS.   Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.
Available from Barnes and Noble
Samih Al-Qasim obituary, August 20, 2014.

ADDITIONAL  READINGS:

“Trump Is Making a Huge Mistake on Jerusalem”
Dec. 7, 2017
NEW YORK TIMES
Hanan Ashrawi
“last straw”
Dec. 7, 2017
POPULAR  RESISTANCE  BLOG
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem University
“A View From Israel on Trump’s Dangerous Gambit – with Gordon Levy”
Dec. 6, 2017
BACKGROUND BRIEFING
with Ian Masters
“Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israeli Capital, Says Final Borders Up to Israel, Palestinians”
Dec. 7, 2017
HAARETZ
Noa Landau, Amir Tibon and Reuters
“Corpus Separatum?”
Dec. 6, 2017
PALESTINE SQUARE by the Institute for Palestine Studies
Mouin Rabbani
“Trump’s Error on Jerusalem Is a Disaster for the Arab World… and the US Too”
Dec. 6, 2017
PALESTINE SQUARE by the Institute for Palestine Studies
Rashid Khalidi

“. . . trauma and stress which can erupt in the anxious randomness of Israeli military excursions . . .” (Rima Najjar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
al-quds-the-one
Al Quds University students protest Oct. 14, 2015, to draw attention of visiting Indian President to Israeli killing of students. (Photo: Stanly Johny/The Hindu)

❶ Palestinian gunman shot dead after 2 killed, several injured in Jerusalem attack
❷ 52 Palestinians injured during clashes with Israeli forces near al-Quds University

  • Background: “Life In Abu Dis Continues Quietly.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

❸ Israel knocks down civilian structures in Jordan Valley
❹ Letters to UN officials on critical situation of Palestinian territories
. . . ❹ ― (a) Hamas calls ICC visit ‘pointless’ for skipping Gaza
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINIAN  GUNMAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  2  KILLED,  SEVERAL  INJURED  IN  JERUSALEM  ATTACK
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 9, 2016
At least six people were shot and injured in a drive-by shooting near the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Sunday morning. The gunman was shot and killed by Israeli police at the scene, while two of the injured later succumbed to their wounds.
___The shooting attack comes a day after the gunman told Ma’an that he intended to turn himself in to serve a prison sentence, after he was charged with assaulting an Israeli police officer in 2013.
___Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said in an initial statement that shots were fired near the Israeli police headquarters in Jerusalem, and that Israeli police responded to the scene and shot the “terrorist” after a brief pursuit.     More . . .    
❷  52  PALESTINIANS  INJURED  DURING  CLASHES  WITH  ISRAELI  FORCES  NEAR  AL-QUDS  UNIVERSITY
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 8, 2016
Israeli forces injured more than 50 Palestinians during clashes Sunday evening outside al-Quds University in the village of Abu Dis in the occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem.
___The ambulance service of the Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an that their medics treated 52 people who were either hit by rubber-coated steel bullets or suffered from severe tear gas inhalation.
___One victim was evacuated to the hospital after sustaining a fracture in the hand from a rubber-coated bullet.
___Al-Quds University Spokesperson Muhammad Abu al-Zeit told Ma’an that although the clashes took place outside the campus, some tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets fired by Israeli forces landed inside the university grounds.   More . . .  

  • Najjar, Rima. “Life In Abu Dis Continues Quietly.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 37.2 (2014): 606-663.   Full article . . . 

On several occasions this past year, Israeli armored vehicles were deployed to supervise operations close to the apartheid/annexation wall across the street from the main gate of Al-Quds  University—operations  such  as  demolishing  a  home,  or  constructing an even higher barrier between Abu Dis and the township land bordering  on  East  Jerusalem  that  the  wall  annexes,  or  checking  AQU  student IDs to find and detain students on their lists. Whenever this happens, word spreads quickly among the youth of the town and whoever happens to be within a stone’s throw from the Israeli armored vehicles throws stones at them;  others  collect  and  break  up  larger  chunks  for  throwing,  piling  them  up in strategic places. A few AQU students join in, to the chagrin of campus security, and that unleashes a barrage of tear gas, sound bombs, and bullets from the Israeli side, whose soldiers are in full protective regalia. They shoot into the campus, on one occasion deliberately aiming at and shattering the glass  doors  of  a  campus  building,  on  another,  walking  right  into  campus,  guns  pointed  ahead  of  them,  turning  this  way  and  that,  in  a  show  of  blustering  intimidation.
___Whenever  I  post  images  from  these  events,  I  am  invariably  asked  by  some  readers  to  explain  the  reason  for  the  activities of the Israeli forces on the scene. This gives me an opportunity to point out, as I have done when I posted a picture album of such an incident taking place, photographed from the window of a class I was in the middle of teaching, that it is the soldiers or Israeli police that provoke the children’s reactions. I called the album, “Class, Interrupted.”
___Vacy Vlazna (Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters in Sydney, Australia) expresses this latter viewpoint in a comment she sent me that is worth quoting at length here, as it captures my intention in posting these images [https://www.facebook.com/rima.najjar.merriman]:
___”Abu Dis, strangled by the illegal and obscene Apartheid/Annexation
Wall, is a microcosm of all Palestinian villages where beneath the seeming
normality of work, school, shopping, play, is trauma and stress which can
erupt in the anxious randomness of Israeli military excursions recorded by
Rima’s little camera and the posters of detainees seized at night from their
family bed or the martyrs extrajudicially murdered, displayed in the streets
and at the university. Every single person in Abu Dis is soul-wounded by
Israel’s brutal occupation. Even the land. The beautiful vista of the Jordan
Valley beyond the village is scarred by illegal Israeli colonies and the
Wall that mock centuries of Palestinian symbiosis with their land.”

❸ ISRAEL  KNOCKS  DOWN  CIVILIAN  STRUCTURES  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY    
The Palestinian Information Center 
Oct. 9, 2016
The Israeli occupation army on early Sunday morning knocked down Palestinian civilian structures in the occupied northern Jordan Valley.
___Activist Mootaz Besharat, in charge of the settlement file in the Jordan Valley, said a flock of ten Israeli military patrols and four army jeeps rolled into al-Ras al-Ahmar area and imposed a tight security cordon before they carried out large-scale demolitions.      ___A chain of residential barracks and others for raising livestock, along with a water line used by over eight Palestinian families, were destroyed in the process.       More . . .  

1276413714
The Israeli Occupaton Army delivered a number of eviction notices to residents of Al Ras Al Ahmar on June 6, 2010 (Photo: The Land Research Center)

❹ LETTERS  TO  UN  OFFICIALS  ON  CRITICAL  SITUATION  OF  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORIES
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency    
Oct. 9, 2016
The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour has sent three identical letters to both the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (Russian Federation) and also to President of the UN General Assembly on the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, as the ongoing practices of Israel against the Palestinian people.
___The letters included Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, especially the confiscation of Palestinian land and the settlement campaign in all parts of the occupied State of Palestine, including Jerusalem, which increases the fragility of the critical situation and undermine the possibility of achieving the two-state solution.       More . . .  
. . . ❹ ― (a)  HAMAS  CALLS  ICC  VISIT  ‘POINTLESS’  FOR  SKIPPING  GAZA    
The New Arab     
Oct. 9, 2016
Hamas have called a visit by the International Criminal Court “pointless” after the delegation skipped besieged Gaza.
___The ICC group toured Israel and the West Bank on Saturday and Sunday – the first visit to the occupied Palestinian territory since the 2014 Gaza War.
___At the request of the Palestinians, the Office of the Prosecutor opened an initial probe into alleged war crimes by both sides during the 51-day conflict.
___”It is regrettable that the ICC delegation yielded to the demands of the Israeli occupation to exclude the Gaza Strip from the delegation’s schedule, despite the fact that the Gaza Strip was the main site of Israeli crimes in 2014,” a statement released on the movement’s website said.       More . . .

“. . . I had no address. I am a man in transit . . .” (Rashid Hussein)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
khuzaa
Palestinian women walk past a mosque and water tower damaged by Israeli air strikes and shelling in KHUZAA near ABU RIDA GATE in the southern Gaza Strip. Aug. 3, 2014. (Photo: The Irish Times)

❶ Israel surveys vast tract of land southeast of J’lem to declare it state land

  • Background: “Settlements and Ethnic Cleansing In the Jordan Valley.”

❷ Israeli forces level lands in southern Gaza Strip

  • Background: “Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.”

❸ Palestinian human rights groups ‘gravely concerned’ over ongoing death threats to staff
❹ POETRY by Rashid Hussein
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  SURVEYS  VAST  TRACT  OF  LAND  SOUTHEAST  OF  J’LEM  TO  DECLARE  IT  STATE  LAND
The Palestinian Information Center
Aug. 15, 2016
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has embarked recently on conducting a land survey between the settlement of Efrat (southeast Jerusalem) and the area to its east with the intention of annexing it and declaring it state land, according to a report published by Haaretz newspaper on Sunday.
___Efrat is in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the southern West Bank, and the area to its east is called Givat Eitam.    MORE . . .  

  • Tofakji, Khalil. “Settlements And Ethnic Cleansing In The Jordan Valley.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 21.3 (2016): 81-87.

[. . . .] The Israeli government utilized two main methods in order to construct and expand its settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).The first method involved setting legal and bureaucratic procedures enabling the government to confiscate lands. By using the following justifications: seizure for military purposes, declaration of state lands, seizure of absentee property, confiscation for public needs, and initial registration, Israel has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them. The second method is by evicting Palestinians from these lands, with the declared objective of controlling maximum land with a minimum number of Palestinian Arabs. The Israeli daily Haaretz on 21 May 2014 revealed in a report the methods the IDF uses to remove the Palestinians from Area C, and quoted Israeli army officer col. Einav Shalev as saying the Israeli army practices daily confinement, harassment and attacks on Palestinians through the sabotage of their crops and lands, as well as preventing them from obtaining building licenses, water and electricity. These “tools” are used to place pressure on and eventually force the Palestinian inhabitants of these areas to leave their houses and lands. Shalev added that the army also increased its military training in the Jordan Valley in an attempt to force the Palestinians to leave the land.
___These methods are viewed by Palestinians as systematic ethnic cleansing policy and have also been also implemented in the Jordan Valley.
[. . . .] With security considerations no longer being the primary motivation, the continued expansion into and occupation of the West Bank is a strategic move for Israel serving its economic interests. Through the restrictions on movement of people and goods, Israel is able to control the Palestinian economy and constrain growth to limited designated areas, or via immigration into neighboring countries. These methods, combined with the Bahrain Canal Project linking the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, which would primarily benefit the Israelis, the continued demolition of Palestinian homes, and the eviction of Bedouins, aim at attaining the undeclared goal of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the OPT.    SOURCE.

efrat
Illustrative photo of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, December 17, 2014 (Photo: Times of Israel/Miriam Alster/Flash90)

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  LEVEL  LANDS  IN  SOUTHERN  GAZA  STRIP
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 15, 2016
Israeli military vehicles staged a limited incursion across the borderline of the besieged Gaza Strip to level land on Monday morning, locals said.
___Locals told Ma’an that six Israeli military vehicles crossed the Abu Rida gate at the border east of the town of Khuzaa in the southern Gaza Strip and leveled Palestinian land in the area.
___Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone” which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence.    MORE . . .  

  • Miller, Zinaida. “Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.” Cornell International Law Journal 47.2 (2014): 331-415.

[. . . . ]  Rather than understanding the situation in terms of occupation—a framework that seeks to protect a vulnerable people from a militarily strong sovereign—the Oslo regime suggests two warring parties. In the process, Israeli, international, and even Palestinian discourse has gradually reduced or eliminated the use of the term ‘occupation’ while focusing on the achievement of ‘peace.’
___The Oslo regime has also affected Palestinian resistance. While the PLO in the past sought to end the occupation, current iterations have focused on the achievement of statehood. In the process, the goal of equality . . .  may at times be undermined by a process predicated on parity . . . . Relations of parity resulted in part from the Palestinian belief that mutual recognition or formal status would alter the terms of the conflict; in the end, however, the conception— and perception—of equivalence largely overtook the reality of asymmetry, making it harder rather than easier to address the structural inequality between the players. The focus of the international community (and the PLO) on establishing a state has oriented the Palestinian national movement away from earlier approaches rooted in rhetoric of emancipation and liberation.   [. . . . ]    No longer simply occupier and occupied, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been transformed into putative equals engaged in perpetual negotiation [. . . .]
___These changes came about in no small part because of the unexpectedly enduring presence of international actors. The Accords reassigned responsibility for the Palestinian population to the newly created Palestinian Authority while leaving control over territory largely in the hands of the Israeli government. With the nascent Authority severely lacking capacity, the arrangement was tenable only because of international support in the form of money and expertise [. . . . ]
___Over the course of the following two decades, international actors and organizations provided aid . . .  facilitated peacebuilding, development, and post-conflict reconstruction, and supported negotiations between the parties. International actors, however, brought more than money or institutional blueprints: their ideas about how to make peace and reconstruct territories after conflict reshaped the form and conceptualization of governance and peace in the Occupied Territories.  FULL ARTICLE.

❸ PALESTINIAN  HUMAN  RIGHTS  GROUPS  ‘GRAVELY  CONCERNED’  OVER  ONGOING  DEATH  THREATS  TO  STAFF
Al-Hourriah
Aug. 15, 2016
The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) said in a press release on Sunday that they were “gravely concerned” over an ongoing smear campaign and mounting threats by Israeli authorities and associated groups directed at employees of PHROC member organizations. ___The statement came after reports emerged that human rights lawyer Nada Kiswanson, who represents Palestinian NGO Al-Haq before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, had been receiving death threats since February, Dutch newspaper NRC reported on Wednesday. ___The report revealed the threats referred specifically to Kiswanson’s work with the ICC, rousing suspicions that Israeli security services may have been involved in the attack, according to the newspaper.    MORE . . .          RELATED . . .

“AN  ADDRESS,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN
―1―
Hairs as short as my life is
And a mouth as sensuous as my dreams
And fire is her voice
And so is the music
Yet she wants me to rest
On an easy chair
And keep my thoughts clean.

Oh my dear hunter!
What you ask is much more
Than all that I can give . . .
For the angels are dead,
And I am not with them.

―2―
A wine was her perfume
Generous was her bed
But her hopes were stronger,
And the strongest of all:
She wanted my address.
She asked: “Where lives the ‘Prince’?”
Then, I stood silenced
For I had no address.
I am a man in transit,
Twenty years in transit
A man who was even deprived
The right of having an address.

Rashid Hussein  
See also  
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.

 

“. . . Sorrow crawled naked in my city . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
zzzold city
A Palestinian woman passing through gates erected by Israeli police in Jerusalem’s Old City on Oct. 4, 2015. (MaanImages/Emily Mulder)

❶ Old problems in Jerusalem’s Old City
❷ WATCH: How the far-right glorifies killing of Palestinians
❸ Arrests…extensions of arrests…prison sentence…and releases [in Jerusalem]
❹ Palestinian Rights Organisations Deliver Submission to ICC
❺ Opinion/Analysis:  Jerusalem:  A  city  governed  by  fear
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
OLD  PROBLEMS  IN  JERUSALEM’S  OLD  CITY
Nov. 24, 2015
JERUSALEM ― Faten Ghosheh, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother of five, stands on the roof of her partially demolished home in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Al-Aqsa Mosque visible behind her.
___She recalls the moment five years ago when Israeli forces arrived at 5 a.m. to tear down the two rooms and bathroom that her husband had built with their life savings of 700,000 shekels ($180,000).
___To avoid the fine that the Jerusalem municipality would charge for the demolition, the Ghoshehs called on the men in their family to come and tear down the walls.
More . . .
Related . . . US  FOREIGN  POLICY  FAILURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  EAST
❷ +972 MAGAZINE
WATCH:  HOW  THE  FAR-RIGHT  GLORIFIES  KILLING  OF  PALESTINIANS
Mairav Zonszein
Nov. 24, 2015
Benzi Gopstein, the head of Lehava, posted a video on his Facebook page Monday glorifying the killing of Palestinians. Lehava is a popular Jewish supremacist group dedicated to preventing Arab-Jewish relations . . . .
___The video itself is CCTV footage of an incident in Jerusalem on Monday in which two Palestinian girls, 14 and 16, stabbed an elderly Palestinian man with scissors (presumably mistaking him for a Jewish Israeli) before they were shot several times, and even after they lay still on the ground. One was killed, the other is in critical condition.
___Crappy electronic music was added to the CCTV footage with synthesized lyrics: “She just wants to stab, put a bullet in her head.” Gopstein shared it on Facebook . . . .
More . . .

search
Israeli soldiers stop, search, question lone Palestinian young man at Damascus Gate for no apparent reason as one of our group looks on. (Photo Nov. 4, 2015, Harold knight)

❸ WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWAN
ARRESTS… EXTENSIONS  OF  ARRESTS… PRISON SENTENCE… AND  RELEASES
The occupation forces arrested on Monday 6 Jerusalemites and extended the arrest of several others.
___Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that the occupation forces arrested on Monday the 16-year old Abdullah Maswadeh, 15-year old Mohammad Khaled Al-Qaq and the child Amir Al-Bibi from the neighborhood of Al-Shayah, and Obada Dandis and Louai Dandis from the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud in Silwan, and Mohammad Zakaria Abu Khdeir from Shu’fat north of Jerusalem.
___The Israeli police called the Jerusalemite activist and member of follow-up committee in the village of Esawyeh, Mohammad Abu Hummos, for interrogation for two hours on charges of incitement.
Nov. 24, 2015
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN  RIGHTS  ORGANISATIONS  DELIVER  SUBMISSION  TO  ICC
Nov. 23, 2015
Today, in a historic moment in Palestinian pursuit of accountability, four Palestinian human rights organisations delivered a confidential communication to Madam Prosecutor Bensouda of the International Criminal Court on behalf of themselves and Palestinian victims of Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge”. The communication, which was submitted by Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Aldameer and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute, contains information on crimes jointly documented during Israel’s 2014 offensive against the Gaza Strip.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JERUSALEM:  A  CITY  GOVERNED  BY  FEAR
Oct. 27, 2015
More . . .
Related . . . FEAR  AND  LOATHING  IN  JERUSALEM

“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 THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.
Obituary of Fadwa Tuqan

jaffa gate
Ubiquitous Israeli military presence, lurking in shops at the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. (Photo Nov. 4, 2015, Harold Knight)

“. . . my country is the wave that froths and foams . . .” (Najwan Darwish)

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Caption: An Israeli court has issued an order to demolish Palestinian village Susya and relocate its residents. The village was built even before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. (Photo by Guy Butiva.)
An Israeli court has issued an order to demolish Palestinian village Susya and relocate its residents. The village was built even before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. (Photo by Guy Butiva.)

❶ From +972 MAGAZINE
U.S. WARNS ISRAEL AGAINST EVICTING PALESTINIANS FROM SUSYA
Mairav Zonszein
July 18, 2015
While the Iran nuclear deal captured most of the attention . . . . this week, the tiny rural Palestinian village of Susya also managed to get the U.S. State Department’s attention. . . .
____According to Susya resident Nasser Nawaj’ah, who is also a B’Tselem researcher, the Israeli army’s Civil Administration . . . . notified residents of its intention to demolish about half of the village’s structures. . . .
____U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday . . . “we strongly urge the Israeli authorities to refrain from carrying out any demolitions in the village. Demolition of this Palestinian village or of parts of it, and evictions of Palestinians from their homes would be harmful and provocative.”
(More. . .)

❷ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
TEEN KIDNAPPED AS SOLDIERS ATTACK NABI SALEH PROTEST
Saed Bannoura
July 18, 2015
Israeli soldiers attacked, on Friday, the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and settlements in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and kidnapped one teenager.
____Nabi Saleh television reported that the soldiers kidnapped Walid Dhifallah, 18 years of age, and took him to an unknown destination.
(More. . .)
(Further details)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ICC ORDERS PROSECUTOR TO RECONSIDER PROBING ISRAEL’S FLOTILLA RAID
July 17, 2015
THE HAGUE (AFP) — The International Criminal Court on Thursday ordered its chief prosecutor to review a decision not to probe Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, saying “errors were made.”
____Fatou Bensouda late last year dropped the investigation leading to potential prosecution into the incident in which 10 Turkish activists were killed by Israeli forces, saying the incident was “not of sufficient gravity.”
____The case was first filed by the Comoros, where the activists’ ship the Mavi Marmara was registered.
____The tiny Indian Ocean island state in January asked the Hague-based ICC’s judges to review Bensouda’s decision.
(More. . .)

Caption: A boat escorts Turkish ship Mavi Marmara with Israeli forces near Ashdod on May 31, 2010, after the Israeli navy raided a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza. (AFP/ Menahem Kahana, File)
A boat escorts Turkish ship Mavi Marmara with Israeli forces near Ashdod on May 31, 2010, after the Israeli navy raided a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza. (AFP/ Menahem Kahana, File)

❹ From JADALIYYA–ARAB STUDIES INSTITUTE.
PLANNING UNDER OCCUPATION: ELASTIC GEOGRAPHIES AND ‘AREA C’
Lamya Hussain
July 16, 2015
In recent years there has been growing concern about Israel’s planning regime and its operations across the West Bank . . . the growing number of demolitions, eviction orders, and restrictions in Area C. . .
____Since 2005, the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) has initiated a number of “special outline plans” for Palestinian villages in Area C. These plans . . . set in motion a series of home demolitions and other civil-military orders that forcibly displace the local population . . . in order to maintain Israeli hegemony in Area C.
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
KHADER ADNAN: A SYMBOL OF PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
Ghada Ageel
June 26, 2015
(Ghada Ageel is a visiting professor at the University of Alberta Political Science Department [Edmonton, Canada], an independent scholar, and active in the Faculty4Palestine – Alberta. Her article was published in the Middle East Eye website.)
The body of Khader Adnan is again on the line and the very life of this Palestinian political prisoner is in great danger. Adnan. . . . has drastically deteriorated with his refusal to undergo medical tests and to take certain vitamins offered to hunger strikers. [Note: Adnan has been released.]
____According to Addameer organisation, Adnan is among an estimated 426 political prisoners currently locked up in Israeli jails as administrative detainees. His hunger strike throws a spotlight on some 5,800 Palestinian freedom fighters . . . .
____The strike also casts light on Israel’s use of administrative detention as a way of cracking down on any attempt by Palestinians to speak out against the occupation and its unjust practices.
(More. . .)

“A GLIMPSE IN THE MIRROR,” BY NAJWAN DARWISH

Sometimes I glimpse in the mirror and see
the ideal I strive for
the gallant savior I wait for
I see a thread of beauty rippling
like a river of nobility
But instantly I tell myself:
Shut up and look away
narcissus surrounded by Zionists’ lies
walls and checkpoints rising all around you
Shut up
and avert your gaze
from your so-called beauty

“AWAKE,” BY NAJWAN DARWISH

Awake for longer than forever
and since before eternity
my waking is the wave that froths and foams

Awake in hymns and the mailmen’s passion
Awake in a house that will be destroyed
in a grave that machines will dig up:
my country is the wave that froths and foams

Awake so that the colonizers might leave
Awake so that people can sleep
“Everyone has to sleep sometime,” they say
I am awake
and ready to die

Najwan Darwish (b. 1978) is one of the foremost Arabic-language poets of his generation. Since publishing his first collection in 2000, Darwish’s poetry has been translated into ten languages. . . . While his poetry is at times political, it embodies a universal message, reminiscent of the great mystical poets like Rumi. From Jerusalem (Palestine) where he works and lives, Darwish has become a distinguished voice for his nation’s struggle . . . .
(More. . .)

Caption: Clouds of tear gas in Nabi Saleh. (International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh)
Clouds of tear gas in Nabi Saleh. (International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh)