❶ Egypt condemns Israeli settlement building as ‘killing the hopes of Palestinians’

• background from Transactions Of The Institute Of British Geographers

❷ EU : Israel’s decision to build in settlements threatens the viability of the two-state solution
❸ Netanyahu Rejects American And European Condemnations Of New Settlements’ Plan
❹ From European Journal Of International Law: “Apartheid, International Law, And The Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
❺ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
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❶ EGYPT  CONDEMNS  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENT  BUILDING  AS  ‘KILLING  THE  HOPES  OF  PALESTINIANS’
Ma’an News Agency
July 7, 201
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Thursday the Israeli government’s decision to build hundreds of housing units in illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
___The ministry slammed Israel’s continuous building of settlements in occupied Palestinian territory — in contravention of international law — and obstruction of the peace process.
___The Egyptian government urged the Israeli government to “cancel the decision and put an end to the policy of escalation, which kills the hopes of Palestinians.”   MORE . . .

From Transactions Of The Institute Of British Geographers
Whether looking at the ‘security’ or at the ‘socio-cultural’ definitions of gated communities as they appear in the geographic and sociological literature, it is difficult to think of a more explicit example of a community featuring social cohesion based on shared values on the one hand, and self-isolation with the help of fences and a stress on the ‘security of the community’ on the other.
[. . . .] . . . the West Bank is not just an aggregate of 124 ‘legal’ gated communities and a similar number of ‘illegal outposts’, but rather a single, contiguous gated community gating, in turn, Palestinian ‘islands’ within it. This assertion might sound puzzling: the sum total of built-up areas in the settlements amounts to less than 2 per cent of the West Bank’s territory; the settlers’ number (including East Jerusalem) amount to less than 15 per cent of the West Bank’s population; and the total area occupied directly by the settlement complex. . .  amounts to circa 42 per cent of the West Bank’s territory. These figures seem to make it difficult to claim that the settlements constitute a single, contiguous, gated and gating community.
[. . . .]  Establishing a chain of small settlements situated at strategic distances from each other – sufficiently close to enable connection on the one hand, but sufficiently far apart to enable efficient dispersion on the other – is an efficient way of seizing large areas in a short time and with relatively few resources.
[. . . .] . . . settlements had not been built with a premeditated intention of restricting Palestinian movement, but mainly in order to restrict Palestinian construction and to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian entity . . . .

• Handel, Ariel. “Gated/Gating Community: The Settlement Complex In The West Bank.” Transactions Of The Institute Of British Geographers 39.4 (2014): 504-517.  SOURCE.  

❷ EU:  ISRAEL’S  DECISION  TO  BUILD  IN  SETTLEMENTS  THREATENS  THE  VIABILITY  OF  THE  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION
Palestine News Network – PNN
July 6, 2016
In a statement send  by an EU Spokesperson on Israel’s announcement of new settlement units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank the  EU said its threatens the viability of the two-state solution.
___He added that :” Israel’s decision on Sunday to advance several hundred new settlement units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank threatens the viability of the two-state solution and calls into question Israel’s commitment to a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians.       MORE . . .   

❸ NETANYAHU  REJECTS  AMERICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  CONDEMNATIONS  OF  NEW  SETTLEMENTS’  PLAN
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
July 7, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected American and European ‘condemnations’ of a new plan to build hundreds of colonialist units, in illegal Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.
___In a press conference with the Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, on Wednesday, Netanyahu claimed that what is preventing peace in the region “is not the settlements,” but what he called the “ongoing incitement against Israel.”               MORE . . . 

❹ “APARTHEID,  INTERNATIONAL  LAW,  AND  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORY.” 
European Journal Of International Law
John Dugard and John Reynolds.

[NOTE: this article is a point by point examination of the situation in the Occupied Territories of Palestine in light of the International Convention on Apartheid.]

[. . . .] Article 2 of the Apartheid Convention provides the most detailed list of practices that are discrete human rights violations in themselves, but that may further amount to acts of apartheid when committed in a systematic fashion for the purpose of maintaining domination by one racial group over another:
(a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person:
(i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups;
(ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups;
(b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part;
(c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country.
[. . . .]
Article 2(f) of the Apartheid Convention relates to the persecution of organizations and persons who oppose a prevailing system of apartheid. Persecution in this context entails the deprivation of fundamental rights and freedoms. While law condones the deprivation of rights in some cases in defense of state security, regimes of racial domination are typically exemplified by illegitimate acts of repression that go beyond what can be justified by reference to national security. Cases of extra-judicial killings, torture, and mass imprisonment of Palestinians . . . fall into the latter category, as do restrictions of freedom of expression and association within the meaning of Article 2(c). The systematic targeting
of Palestinian political leaders, community activists, and human rights defenders can be understood as persecution . . . .  Dugard, John, and John Reynolds. “Apartheid, International Law, And The Occupied Palestinian Territory.” European Journal Of International Law 24.3 (2013): 867-913.     COMPLETE ARTICLE.

“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 gaging 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 ISREL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from B&N.
Obituary for Fadwa Tuqan, 2003.