Tag: Jenin

“. . . the walls arising from silent rocks. . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

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holy land 1 046Palestinian home demolished by Israeli Occupation Forces, Silwan neighborhood,
East Jerusalem. Demolitions have continued for decades.
(Photo: Harold Knight,  ‎JULY  ‎12,  ‎2006)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . . .
|    ISRAEL  COMMENCES  DEMOLITIONS  EAST  OF  JERUSALEM
Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian-owned residential building, on Thursday morning, in the al-Zaayim village, east of Jerusalem.     [. . . .] Israeli soldiers prevented residents, locals and reporters from approaching the area. . .  the demolition was carried out under the pretext that the structure was built without the difficult-to-obtain Israeli permit.    ___Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally.    More . . .
. . . . Related  ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  PALESTINIAN  RESIDENTIAL  BUILDING  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM
. . . . Related  ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  PART  OF  PALESTINIAN  CEMETERY  IN  JENIN
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  BULLDOZERS  RAZE  LANDS  IN  SOUTHERN  GAZA
. . . . Related  ARMY  DEMOLISHES  MEMORIAL  FOR  PALESTINIAN  KILLED  BY  SOLDIERS
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  MILITARY  DESTROYS  TEACHING  FACILITY  AT  JORDAN  VALLEY  SCHOOL [KHIRBET IBZEIK]
|    REPORT:  IOF  CONTINUE  SYSTEMATIC  CRIMES  IN  THE  OCCUPIED  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORY
Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against unarmed civilians and peaceful protesters in the Gaza Strip

  • A civilian succumbed to wounds he sustained during his participation in the Return and Breaking Siege protests.
  • 77 civilians, including 12 children, a woman, a journalist and 3 paramedics, were wounded; 4 of them sustained serious wounds.
  • Israeli forces continued to open fire at the border areas in the Gaza Strip . . .   More . . .

|    BELGIUM  TO  UPGRADE  PALESTINIAN  DIPLOMATIC  REPRESENTATION  IN  BRUSSELS
Belgium has decided to upgrade the diplomatic status of the Palestinian representative office in Brussels, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday.    ___This was announced following a meeting between Foreign Minister Riyad Malki and his Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders and Minister of Cooperation and Development Alexander De Croo in Brussels.    ___The two sides signed a joint declaration following their ministerial dialogue in which they affirmed their desire to develop bilateral relations in several fields . . .  More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|    THIS  IS  HOW  ISRAEL  WAS  ESTABLISHED  ON  FALSEHOOD  AND  AGGRESSION   A hundred and one year has passed since the notorious Balfour Declaration. A declaration made to those who do not deserve by those who do not own, initiating the first stage of suffering of the Palestinian people over the last 101 years of displacement, torture, and massacres, which resulted in the martyrdom of thousands of them.    ___The infamous Declaration, under which, the future of an entire people was destroyed, for the benefit of a handful of Jews gathered from the corners of the globe to build a state called Israel on the ruins of Palestine and the ruins of its children and women, including the victims of Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatila, Kufur Kassem, as well as the bloody massacres committed against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.    ___THE  TEXT  OF  THE  DECLARATION . . .  More . . .
|   NORMALIZING  EXTERNAL  NARRATIVES  IN  PALESTINE’S  SPACES  FOR  EDUCATION   In collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Education,  the  EU  launched  a  competition  across  schools  in Gaza and the occupied West Bank called “Know Europe”. The aim, according to EU Deputy Representative Tomas Niklasson, is “to introduce ourselves again to students of Palestine: introduce our values, culture, history, and identity” and affirm the bloc’s purported commitment to supporting Palestinians.    ___THIS  EDUCATIONAL  ENDEAVOR  IS  TANTAMOUNT  TO  FORCING  GRATITUDE for symbolic recognition, decades after colonial conquest and entrenchment. Yet the reasoning behind the competition, according to the press release, is that “the European Union has a lot in common with Palestine and the region”. PALESTINIANS  KNOW  THERE  IS  NO  COMPARISON, yet this misconception is now being normalized through education, despite the obvious differences between a bloc of countries and Palestine’s disappearance.        More  .  .  .

POEM    FOR    THE    DAY.  .  .  .   

“THE  WINDOWS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH
Windows are a first step into the world,
a song on a spacious cloud,
a departure, a rose,
the braids of the moon falling over hills,
a heartbeat in the darkenss of the night
that travels in chains
and in men.
They are a threshold for the prayers
of our lonely neighbor,
an oasis for lovers
and children, the tempting fruit
in baskets, the seagull in the heart
bent down in sleep, the wisdom of the walls
arising from silent rocks and moving
toward mountaintops.

–From From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN INSIDE: SELECTED POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Barnes and Noble.

“. . . Prison did not turn him into a desert . . .” (Ahmed Dahbour)

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❶ PSCC: Smear campaign targeting popular struggle activists

  • Background: “Conceptualising and Theorising Antisemitism and Racism: The Structural Context of Israel-Palestine.” Journal of Holy Land & Palestine Studies.

❷ Israeli forces suppress Friday rallies over Jerusalem recognition
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces detain former Palestinian prisoner during raid on Hebron-area town
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Israeli forces open fire at fishermen, detain 2 in northern Gaza
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) Israeli forces detain four Palestinians from West Bank
❸ Israeli interrogation tactics lead to false confessions, Israeli court says
❹ POETRY by Ahmed  Dahbour
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PSCC:  SMEAR  CAMPAIGN  TARGETING  POPULAR  STRUGGLE  ACTIVISTS        Palestine News Network – PNN   
Dec. 29, 2017 ― The Israeli occupation has been escalating its systematic intimidation of Palestinians since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on the 6th of December 2017, The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said in  a statement.
___Since Trump’s statement, 15 Palestinians were killed, including disabled Gaza activist Ibrahim Abu Thoria. Moreover, Israeli Forces continue to escalate their wave of arrests.
___As of Wednesday morning, the coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, Munther Amira, 48, has been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces while participating in a demonstration at the northern entrance of Bethlehem city.
___Munther is currently facing charges of incitement and he is still under investigation. However, Munther is not the the only case. In the last few days, more than 8 activists have been arrested from Aida Refugee camp, and another 6 from the village of Bilin.   MORE . . .  

Shaw, Martin.
“CONCEPTUALISING  AND  THEORISING  ANTISEMITISM  AND  RACISM:  THE  STRUCTURAL  CONTEXT  OF  ISRAEL-PALESTINE.”
JOURNAL OF HOLY LAND & PALESTINE STUDIES, vol. 14, no. 2, Nov. 2015, pp. 149-164.
[. . . .] From its beginnings, Zionism shared common European assumptions about the inferiority of non-European peoples, and often portrayed Palestinian Arabs in classically racist terms . . .  the project of colonisation set up a structural conflict, in which . . .  racism was fostered. After 1948, this was reinforced by the process of dispossessing Palestinians, and the continuing conflict which this set up. While Palestinians inside Israel became citizens, they were manifestly second-class, since they were not members of the ‘Jewish nation’ to whom the state belonged. Palestinians outside Israel were perceived as more dangerous for Israel, with their responses to dispossession seen as a source of violent threats. In this context, the potential for racism could be said to have become structural for Israeli Jews . . .
___On the Palestinian side, too, a structural potential for racist characterisations of Jews was created. Israel had expelled or oppressed all Palestinians, in different ways, in the name of ‘the Jewish nation’. Nearly all Jews whom most Palestinians encountered were involved in and benefited from relations of oppression and exploitation towards them. The Jewish state encouraged a homogenous view of ‘Jews’ and ‘Israel’: it is not surprising that some Palestinians also identified the two, extending hostility from the state to Jews as such, even if many Palestinians and organised currents in Palestinian life have always recognised a distinction. This ‘subaltern’ anti-Jewish sentiment may be called ‘antisemitism’, and sometimes borrowed anti-Jewish stereotypes from classical repertoires, but its causes were the structural situation in which Palestinians found themselves.
[. . . .] . . . new manifestations of antisemitism in Europe are misunderstood if they are presented as separate not just from Israel’s violence in 2014, but from the wider pattern of racism which that violence stimulated. Yet no official or academic study of this antisemitism has simultaneously problematised the anti-Palestinian racism which has been produced in Israel, despite the fact that this has been on a much larger scale and has had much more serious consequences than the expressions of antisemitism in Europe. [. . . .] Even the most sophisticated academic attempts to assimilate antisemitism to the larger field of racism have raised only one side of the significance of Israel for racism, namely the ‘new antisemitism’ involved in some opposition to Israel. They have neglected the larger complex of racism of which contemporary antisemitism is a part . . .  an adequate conceptualisation of antisemitism as racism will lead us to examine the general field of racism in and surrounding the structural context of Israel- Palestine. Such an examination should explore the relationship between antisemitism in Europe . . .  and the more extensive and deepening anti-Palestinian racism in Israel-Palestine . . .  SOURCE . . . 

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  SUPPRESS  FRIDAY  RALLIES  OVER  JERUSALEM  RECOGNITION 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 29, 2017 ― Israeli forces Friday afternoon violently suppressed Palestinian rallies that continued to rock the occupied territories for the fourth consecutive Friday in protest of the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
___Israeli forces cracked down on several rallies in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, injuring three Palestinians.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  FORMER  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  DURING  RAID  ON  HEBRON-AREA  TOWN  
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 29, 2017 ― Israeli forces detained a former Palestinian prisoner and fired tear gas at locals during a raid early Friday morning into the Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the town early Friday morning and searched several homes in the town. . .   Soldiers allegedly ransacked homes and broke the glass of doors and windows during the raid.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  AT  FISHERMEN,  DETAIN  2  IN  NORTHERN  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 28, 2017 ― Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning.
___Locals said that Israeli naval ships chased down fishing boats off the coast of northern Gaza and opened fire at them. No injuries were reported.
___Israeli naval forces detained two fishermen . . .   the boats of the fishermen were confiscated.
___The Israeli army regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the border areas if they approach the so-called ‘buffer zone’, as the authorities have not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.   MORE . . .    ..
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴄ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  FROM  WEST  BANK  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 29, 2017 ― Israeli forces Friday detained four Palestinians in multiple predawn raids across the West Bank, said security sources and an activist . . . Faqqua village, northeast of Jenin . . .  Fandaqumiya village, northwest of Jenin . . . Qalqiliya city . . .  Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron.    MORE . . . 
❸ ISRAELI  INTERROGATION  TACTICS  LEAD  TO  FALSE  CONFESSIONS,  ISRAELI  COURT  SAYS  
Days of Palestine
Dec. 29, 2017 ―  An Israel judge ripped into the Shin Bet, an Israeli intelligence service, for its interrogation tactics, saying they could lead people to confess crimes they did not commit.
___The panel of Be’er Sheva District Court judges has issued the opinion blasting the security service as part of a ruling explaining their acquittal last month of Khalil Nimri, a Palestinian accused of terrorism.
___Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that the court found that Nimri, who had been charged with planning an attack on Eilat hotel, had confessed under interrogation to acts that it was doubtful that he committed.
___”The Shin Bet needs to take a good look at itself so that interrogation techniques, which do indeed sometimes uncover dangerous acts of terrorism, aren’t also liable to induce innocent people to admit to acts that they did not commit,” the judges wrote.    MORE . . .

“THE  PRISON,”  BY  AHMAD  DAHBUR 
(To Abu Faris. . . who has been there)

Prison teaches that the heart is a desert,
That light is a desert.
It curses the fire and the land of the commandos.
Prison teaches that water is a chameleon,
That the landscape is a snake,
That echo is treacherous, and the wind an enemy.
Prison teaches that the guide’s sight grows dim,
And that the homeland departs.
Prison is a black kingdom in the sand;
Prison is a sword guarding the eyelids;
Prison . . . not the homeland!
So how, my beloved homeland, will the beloved ones survive?

Here we are, no complaints and no regrets,
We never say: an aimless wandering!
Blood gushes forth from the depths of our love.
Prison assaults but does not hit the mark;
Our wounds hit back,
Reaching out like water . . . like the wilderness,
Promising the light with a new light.
From deep within us, signaling twice!
Our cub child,
And the fire of salvation.
We see it, yes we do.
We are not dreaming,
We almost step into his joyous landscape
We almost do.
This is the moment of travail in our difficult labor,
We hug the newborn―
He who springs from our very ecstasy,
Whose kicks we feel in our guts,
Who teaches the hungry what he knows
And declares in words well understood:
Revolution, revolution . . . till life.

The inmate has not lost his features in the sand,
Prison did not turn him into a desert.
From his hunger, water and vegetation sprang.
When silence wounds him,
He can break it with a sigh,
But he endures.
His testimony:
Near death, there were exhaustion and fatigue,
His executioner pressing him to promise
A word . . . a groan, or to divulge his secret,
But all in vain.
His countenance was radiating in the sand
Like an oasis,
For prison had not turned him into a desert.

About Ahmad Dahbur. And here.
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. 

“. . . At evening we sought refuge there watching out for the guns . . .” (Yousef Al-Mahmoud)

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❶ Israeli forces shoot, kill 2 young Palestinians during raid in Jenin refugee camp

Background: “Exiled at Home: Writing Return and the Palestinian Home.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

❷ Palestinian family served punitive demolition order by Israeli army
❸ Ashrawi tells “Know Thy Heritage” delegation Palestinians are united in national identity
❹ POETRY by Yousef Al-Mahmoud
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  KILL  2  YOUNG  PALESTINIANS  DURING  RAID  IN  JENIN  REFUGEE  CAMP           
Ma’an News Agency
July 12, 2017.   Israeli forces shot and killed two young Palestinians — one 17-year-old and one 20-year-old — and injured at least two others after a violent military raid into Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank erupted into clashes early Wednesday morning.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that during an “operation” in the camp, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at Israeli forces, and other locals threw Molotov cocktails, which prompted Israeli fires to open fire toward the “attackers.”
___No casualties were reported among the heavily armed and armored Israeli forces.
[. . . .] The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israeli forces for the deadly raid and accused the Israeli government of deliberately escalating the situation in the occupied territory to coincide with visits from US diplomats, in an attempt to disrupt the peace process.
___”The Israeli crime in Jenin was committed in line with a visit from US envoy Jason Greenblatt, who is conducting meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials to revive negotiations.” the ministry’s statement said, alleging the raid was committed as part of attempts by Israel’s right-wing government to impose their agenda on meetings with Greenblatt.
___The ministry said it held the Israeli government responsible for the “a hideous crime” in Jenin, for the continuous deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and for “obstructing American efforts for peace.”   MORE . . .

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera And Sarah Ihmoud. “Exiled at Home: Writing Return and the Palestinian Home.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 2, Spring2014, pp. 377-397.
The homespace and the homeland are critical places of being and becoming. Homing works as a powerful force that gives voice, spreads love, and maintains continuities. . . .
[. . . .]   Handal’s ongoing process of this web documentary exposes the reality of the absurd post-1948 political situation in West Jerusalem where expropriated Palestinian houses are being sold on Israeli real-estate agents’ websites. The realisation of this absurd political reality was the persuasive point for Handal’s engagement in this issue:
The idea for the work grew from an encounter I made in the early 1990s. During a trip to NYC, I met a Palestinian refugee and he showed me a real estate advertisement that featured upscale residential properties in West Jerusalem. At first glance, there was nothing particularly special about this ad, but the absurd political reality around it became evident after he explained to me that this was in fact his family’s expropriated home that was now on sale for an Israeli international clientele. I was a teenager at the time and the story had an enduring impact on me – beneath the glossy surface of the ad was a cruel reality. [From Karmah Elmusa, Alexandra Handal Combines Palestinian History and Art in Web Documentary].
[. . . .]  The concept of homeland and the limitations of the Green Line are obvious in Alexandra Handal’s practice. Born in 1975 into a Palestinian family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Handal is influenced by the 1948 Palestinian depopulation from West Jerusalem and the ongoing Palestinian occupation by Israel.
[. . . .] The desire to document the socio-political events of her homeland is obvious in Handal’s work. In the artist’s statement for No Parking without Permission, Jerusalem, Handal describes her longing to explore the occupied areas:
I wanted to go see first-hand what had become of those neighbourhoods whose stories had shaped my image of the city. So I decided to undertake a number of walks there. Although walking through a city would almost anywhere in the world be seen as a mundane activity, for a Palestinian drifting in Jerusalem is politicised and loaded with emotional ramifications. Through numerous walks, I explored these areas by looking through all sorts of barriers, fences, gates and bushes in an attempt to remove the distance and be/come closer to the spaces that Palestinians were torn apart from in 1948. These drifts culminated into a series of photos, each image – a visual testimony of my yearning. [Author’s Communication with Alexandra Handal, 2015]       SOURCE . . .

❷ PALESTINIAN  FAMILY  SERVED  PUNITIVE  DEMOLITION  ORDER  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY      
Ma’an News Agency        
July 12, 2017.   The Israeli army delivered a punitive demolition order to a Palestinian family in the village of Deir Abu Meshaal in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah in a predawn military raid Wednesday, in the wake of a deadly attack in front of Jerusalem’s Old City last month in which three Palestinians assailants were shot dead and an Israeli border police officer was killed.
___Last week, the Israeli army already delivered demolition warrants for the homes belonging to the families of two of the slain Palestinians, and for unknown reasons, the third family was not notified that their house would be demolished until Wednesday’s raid.   MORE . . .
❸ ASHRAWI  TELLS  “KNOW  THY  HERITAGE”  DELEGATION  PALESTINIANS  ARE  UNITED  IN  NATIONAL  IDENTITY
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
July 12, 2017.    Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi, who serves on the Know Thy Heritage (KTH) Advisory Board, Wednesday told the 2017 KTH delegation visiting Ramallah that as Palestinians living in exile, Palestinians are united by their national identity and historical roots in Palestine.
___Ashrawi, who met the participants who represent four continents and seven countries at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah, reminded them of the importance of reconnecting to Palestine and returning to their homeland to maintain a sense of belonging and to defy Israeli violations and unlawful policies on the ground.
___Ashrawi concluded her presentation on the escalation of Israel’s continued breach of international law by taking questions on the internal division, the importance of the BDS movement, American efforts to revitalize the “peace process,” and the role of Palestinians politicians working in the Israeli Knesset.   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 Barnes and Noble

 

“. . . When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the occupation corrupts, most of us understood . . .” (Yael Patir)

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❶ Israeli forces shoot, injure 2 Palestinian in Jenin-area clashes
❷ Israeli forces shoot towards Palestinian crew trying to repair Gaza electricity lines
❸ Israeli Navy Opens Fire On Fishing Boats In Gaza Waters
. . . ❸― (a) Israeli Soldiers Open Fire On A Number Of Homes, Lands And Workers, In Southern Gaza

  • Background:  “Who Is Afraid Of Peace?” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI FORCES SHOOT, INJURE 2 PALESTINIAN IN JENIN-AREA CLASHES
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016
Israeli forces reportedly shot and injured two young Palestinians in the village of Qabatiya in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin on Sunday, after an Israeli army raid into the town provoked clashes between locals and Israeli soldiers.
___State-run Palestinians news agency Wafa reported that 18-year-old Ahmad Hamamdeh and 21-year-old Amjad Kemail were shot by Israeli forces, and that Kemail, despite his injuries, was then detained and taken into custody.
___The clashes occurred after Israeli forces reportedly raided and searched a number of commercial shops in Qabatiya, breaking down their front doors, according to Wafa.     More . . .     
❷ ISRAELI FORCES SHOOT TOWARDS PALESTINIAN CREW TRYING TO REPAIR GAZA ELECTRICITY LINES
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016      Israeli forces fired gunshots at Gaza electricity company technicians on Monday morning in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses told Ma’an.
___According to eyewitnesses, the technicians were doing maintenance work on electricity lines in the eastern suburbs of the town of Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, when Israeli troops fired at them. No injuries were reported.     More . . .   
❸ ISRAELI NAVY OPENS FIRE ON FISHING BOATS IN GAZA WATERS
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
October 17, 2016       Israeli Navy ships opened fire, on Monday morning, targeting a number of fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters, in the northern part of improvised Gaza Strip.
___Eyewitnesses said navy fired many live rounds at the boats, and used water cannons, forcing the fisher back to shore.
___They added that the attack took place less than four nautical miles from the Gaza shore.
___At least 70.000 Palestinians depend on fishing as their only source of livelihood in the Gaza Strip, but the navy continuously attacks the fishers, preventing them from providing for their families.      More . . .   
. . . ❸― (A) ISRAELI SOLDIERS OPEN FIRE ON A NUMBER OF HOMES, LANDS AND WORKERS, IN SOUTHERN GAZA
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
October 17, 2016        Israeli soldiers, stationed at military towers across the border fence, fired several live rounds, on Monday morning, targeting a number of homes and agricultural lands, and maintenance workers, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
___The WAFA Palestinian News Agency has reported that the soldiers fired dozens of live rounds into agricultural lands, and a number of homes, east of Khuza’a town, east of Khan Younis.        More . . .   

  • Patir, Yael. “Who Is Afraid Of Peace?” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 18.4 (2013): 46-52.      Full article.  

Yael Patir, the Israeli director for J Street, is former coordinator of the Israeli Peace NGO Forum.

For a thirty-something-year-old Israeli, the experiences of the conflict since he or she became politically conscious are: great hope that quickly shifted to lack of trust . . . .  the Oslo process . . .  [that] means terror, rocket attacks and more exposure to an Arab world that hates and does not accept Israel.
___These developments, I will argue, left Israeli youth (those who grew up in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s) with a fear of peace, not because it is an unknown that holds uncertainty and possible deterioration — on the contrary, because they feel that they had a taste of it and were not happy with what they got.
[. . . .]
While leaders talk behind closed doors, actions on the ground, mainly settlements and violence, progressed and leaders’ rhetoric became more and more disconnected from reality. Israeli leaders played a decisive role in crafting the way the public understood the failed negotiations. Of the greatest magnitude is the idea that there is “no partner” for peace on the Palestinian side.
[. . . .]
It is hard to describe the effects that doing Israeli army service in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has on an individual . . . it is clear that the experience of my generation in the army is very different from that of the generations before us. Our fighting took place in populated areas among civilians and not in battlefields where soldiers face other soldiers. Since the early 1980s and mainly after the signing of the peace agreement with Egypt, Israel has been engaged more and more with what is called asymmetrical war . . .  While our parents fought existential wars, ours were civil wars. While our parents lay in trenches, we stood in checkpoints examining women and children. Under the occupation, combat soldiers today are required to perform duties that are more suitable to police officers; they are given missions to go into people’s houses in the middle of the night to perform arrests or take over the house; and they are sent to keep order during demonstrations, patrol neighborhoods or even escort kids to school. In the fight against terrorism they take part in targeted killing. . . . When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the occupation corrupts, most of us understood well what he was talking about.
[. . . .]
Israel today is like a boy who knows he must end his relationship with a girl but is afraid of the consequences of being left alone and perhaps without better options. It’s the moment when one needs a good friend to serve as a mirror and tell the boy the truth: “This relationship is not good for you. You can get out of it. I will help you overcome.”

“. . . brutal, degenerate war as a method of keeping the Palestinians in their place. . . .” (Martin Shaw)

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[Please note: Today’s post is in a format different from the normal here. It simply presents a selection of news items about individual Palestinians directly affected by the Israeli forces of occupation in the context of Israel’s new law cracking down on the most effective voice for the Palestinians.]  

HIZMA
Hizma Village lost more than 60% of its lands for the construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall, Dec. 7, 2007 (Photo: POICA/ARIJ)

❶ NEW  ISRAELI  CRACKDOWN  AIMS  TO  ROOT  OUT,  EXPEL  BDS  ACTIVISTS
The Electronic Intifada
Ali Abunimah
Aug. 8 2016
MORE . . .   
RELATED:  “THE   BOYCOTT,   DIVESTMENT,   SANCTIONS   (BDS)   MOVEMENT   WORKS  TO  END  INTERNATIONAL  SUPPORT  FOR ISRAEL’S  OPPRESSION  OF  PALESTINIANS

  • Shaw, Martin. “PALESTINE  IN  AN  INTERNATIONAL  HISTORICAL  PERSPECTIVE  ON  GENOCIDE.” Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal  9.1 (2010): 1-24.

Israel’s destruction of the larger part of Palestinian Arab society in 1948 was not exceptionally murderous (‘only’ a few thousand Arabs were massacred), nor was it complete (an Arab minority remained within the Israeli state). Yet it can be argued that the consequences for Israel and the region have been more severe than in many other cases. In part this is because the Palestinians mostly survived, including within Israel, and were able to develop a national movement, with support from the Arab world. Yet it is also because for Israel’s leaders, the national project was evidently incomplete. Subsequent phases of the conflict, although not marked by large-scale violent expulsions and induced flight as in 1948, have provided Israel with opportunities to extend its confiscation of Arab land and to continue piecemeal the displacement of population. Israel has of course used its security concerns as a rationale for settlement and complex geographical control, both designed to make Palestinian communities unviable and force individuals and families to move. These continuing policies can be seen as the ‘slow-motion’ extension and consolidation of the genocide of 1948.
[. . . .]
. . . the consequence of a society founded on genocide in these circumstances is a situation of more or less permanent war. So long as Israel does not come to terms with the genocide of 1948 and its enduring injustice, its leaders will continue to resort to brutal, degenerate war as a method of keeping the Palestinians in their place. A society thus founded cannot hope either for integrity or for security.     FULL ARTICLE

❷ ISRAEL  RELEASES  JERUSALEMITE  GIRL  AFTER  FIVE  MONTHS  IN  PRISON  FOR  KNIFE  POSSESSION
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .
❸ CHILD  DAWABSHEH  TRANSFERRED  TO  TEL HASHOMER  HOSPITAL
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .
❹ AFTER  7  MONTHS  UNDER  HOUSE  ARREST,  A  JERUSALEMITE  CHILD  TURNS  HIMSELF  IN  TO  SERVE  A  10-MONTH  PRISON  SENTENCE
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
Aug. 8, 2016
MORE. . .
❺ IOF  ARRESTS  12  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
The Palestinian Information Center
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .

ziad-abu-ein-death
An Israeli border guard grabs Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein during the demonstration in the village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah, during which Abu Ein died, on December 10, 2014 (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

❻ ISRAELI  POLICE  FINDS  NO  WRONGDOING  IN  DEATH  OF  PALESTINIAN  MINISTER  BEATEN  DURING  PROTEST
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 10, 2016
MORE . . .
❼ SHOT  IN  THE  HEAD  BY  THE  IDF?  YOUR  ENTRY  PERMIT  IS  NOW  REVOKED
+972 Blog
Aug. 6, 2016
MORE . . . 
❽ PPS: “ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  AND  INTERROGATORS  ASSAULT  THREE  PALESTINIAN  DETAINEES”
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .
❾ ARMY  ORDERS  A  PALESTINIAN  TO  LEAVE  HIS  HOME  TO  USE  IT  AS  A  MILITARY  POST
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .  
❿ JENIN:  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  DEMOLISH  A  BRICK  FACTORY,  CONFISCATE  ITS  EQUIPMENT
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Aug. 11, 2016
MORE . . .

  • Opinion/Analysis:  FACED  WITH  A  CHOICE  OF  PEACE  AND  BDS,  ISRAEL  CHOOSES  BDS
    Middle East Monitor (MEMO)
    Professor Kamel Hawwash

    [Professor Hawwash is a British Palestinian engineering academic based at the University of Birmingham.]

    August 10, 2016
    Israel’s recent decision to form a taskforce to target Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists for deportation is in stark contrast to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent claim that BDS had been defeated.
    [. . . .]
    ___How can calls for ending the illegal occupation, for equality for all citizens and the respect and promotion of the right of return for Palestinian refugees be a strategic threat?
    [. . . .]
    ___ US Secretary of State John Kerry . . . warned Israel . . .  it would face boycotts on steroids. Israel is now facing this because when it has been called on to choose between a just peace and BDS, it chooses BDS and then blames others for its self-inflicted delegitimisation strategy.      MORE . . .   

BDS FINAL LOGO_v5WEB_URL_side

LAND DAY, MARCH 30 “. . . there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune. . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-IMG_3725
Palestinian Land between Jericho and Jerusalem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 14, 2015)

❶ Israeli Army Quells Rally Marking LAND DAY [see note below]
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israeli Authorities Control Over 85 Percent of Historical Palestine, Says Statistics Bureau
❷ Is Israel reviving this 50-year-old land plan?
❸ Israeli Forces Storm House of Palestinian who Captured Hebron Killing Footage
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US congressmen seek investigation of Israel’s ‘extrajudicial killings’
❹ New Prison Bill for Minors Targets Palestinian Children
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  DUALITY  OF  ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION,  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD
❻ Poetry by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  ARMY  QUELLS  RALLY  MARKING  LAND  DAY  [see note below]
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli armed forces Wednesday violently quelled a peaceful rally organized in commemoration of Land Day.
___. . .  a rally that took off from Jenin city to plant trees in an area situated between Silat al-Dhahr and Barqa, two towns in the West Bank districts of Jenin and Nablus, respectively, on the occasion of Land Day, was violently suppressed by Israeli forces.    MORE . . . 
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES  CONTROL  OVER  85  PERCENT  OF  HISTORICAL  PALESTINE,  SAYS  STATISTICS  BUREAU
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
On the occasion of Land Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that, ‘Israeli occupation authorities laid hand over more than 85% of the total area of historical land of Palestine, which totals about 27,000 km2.
___Every year, the Palestinian people mark the confiscation of 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, AlMuthalth and Al-Naqab on 30 March 1976. . . .      MORE . . .

❷ IS  ISRAEL  REVIVING  THIS  50-YEAR-OLD  LAND  PLAN?
AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
March 29, 2016
In a March 18 statement, the Land Defense Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reintroduced to political discussion terminology no longer often heard. In the statement, the PLO accused right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu of reviving the Allon Plan. . . .
___The Allon Plan . . .  proposed that Israel relinquish the main Palestinian population centers in the West Bank to Jordan while retaining land along the Jordan River under Israeli military control. . . .      MORE . . . 

1-allon plan
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon (L) meets with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (C) and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir before dinner at the prime minister’s residence, Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 1974. (photo by Facebook/The Prime Minister of Israel)

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  HOUSE  OF  PALESTINIAN  WHO  CAPTURED  HEBRON  KILLING  FOOTAGE
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli forces overnight stormed the family house of Palestinian human rights worker who captured a video footage of an Israeli soldier killing a Palestinian in the Hebron neighborhood of Tal Rumeida.
___Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh said that forces stormed his house in the H2 block of Hebron’s city center, where they inspected identity cards and passports of Palestinian and international activists . . . .
___Abu Shamsiyyeh, a human rights volunteer with Israeli group B’Tselem, captured a video footage of the moment an Israeli soldier stepped forward and shot in the head at point-blank range . . . a Palestinian who had already been shot and left motionless on the ground.       MORE . . .   
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US  CONGRESSMEN  SEEK  INVESTIGATION  OF  ISRAEL’S  ‘EXTRAJUDICIAL  KILLINGS’  
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 30, 2016
US Senator Patrick Leahy . . .  called on the US to investigate the possibility of “gross violations of human rights” by Israel’s and Egypt’s security forces, including “extrajudicial killings.”
___Leahy. . .  made the request in a joint letter sent to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Feb. 17, suggesting that if the reports of rights violations should be proven, US military assistance should be cut off.     MORE . . .
MORE (American coverage) . . .

❹ NEW  PRISON  BILL  FOR  MINORS  TARGETS  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
Chloe Benoist
March 30, 2016
The Israeli Knesset, on Tuesday, approved the first reading of a bill which would allow Israeli courts to hand down prison sentences to minors under the age of 14 — legislation critics say is targeted at Palestinian children.      MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE DUALITY OF ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION, AT HOME AND ABROAD
+972 BLOG
Tomer Persico
March 29, 2016
Slowly but surely, the process of shedding democratic characteristics in favor of ‘ethnocratic’ ones is becoming clearer and clearer for all to see.      MORE . . .

“OASIS,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

Behind this dune we have an oasis. Leave me alone.
Leave me to rinse myself off in a bit
of its mirage. I’m tired of running after myself
to catch myself before I die.
Take―old friends and my companions―my body,
the shadow of it body’s shadow,
and hold it for a while, so I can reach my time in time.
Behind this dune we have an oasis.
Sustain your longing with dates and water,
without despair.
Listen with me to the songs of the girls
beneath the palms, but do not follow
the voice of my silence.
We have, friends, the right to die as we desire.
But there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune.
And we have the right to make the stranger
a stranger’s friend, and we have an oasis―
and a bit of rest in the house
of the loved one who left us.
He will come from behind this dune.

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

LAND  DAY  (ARABIC: يوم الأرض‎, YOM AL-ARD),  MARCH  30, is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. Scholarship on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recognizes Land Day as a pivotal event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab citizens to the Israeli state and body politic.

“. . . A night without light where our voices are lost . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
zzzzzmourners pray nablus
Hundreds mourn at funeral of youth whose body was returned to Nablus by Israel. (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ The forced transfer of Palestinian detainees — why it matters
❷ 8 detained in predawn arrest raids
❸ PA: Israel’s torture of Palestinian prisoner ‘unfathomable’
❹ Military Court Watch Briefing Watch, December 2015
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Israel’s cynical new strategy: Reframe Palestine debate as a religious battle, when it is really about civil rights
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ +972 MAGAZINE
THE  FORCED  TRANSFER  OF  PALESTINIAN  DETAINEES  — WHY  IT  MATTERS
Gerard Horton
Dec. 19, 2015
Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system should be held in facilities located in Palestine, as opposed to Israel, in accordance with international law, UNICEF recommended in its 2013 report, Children in Israeli Military Detention (2013). . . .
The articles of the Convention are accompanied by a commentary . . . [that] makes it clear that the prohibition against transferring protected persons from occupied territory, for whatever reason, stems from the experiences of the Second World War when mass transfers in Europe were commonplace. More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
8  DETAINED  IN  PREDAWN  ARREST  RAIDS
Dec. 20, 2015
JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday detained eight Palestinians in predawn arrest raids in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources and Israel’s army said. . . .
___Two Palestinian minors were also detained Saturday, according to the spokesperson.
___Around 6700 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, and well over 2000 have been detained since the beginning of October. More . . .

zzzzpredawn raid
Israeli forces detaining Palestinians in predawn arrest raids in the occupied West Bank. (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PA:  ISRAEL’S  TORTURE  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  ‘UNFATHOMABLE’
Dec. 7, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority’s department of prisoners’ affairs on Monday alleged that Israeli forces tortured a Palestinian prisoner charged with attempting to stab an Israeli soldier.
___Legal affairs director Louay Akka said Palestinian prisoner Wasim Marouf was covered with 28 cigarette burns on his hands, chest and back. 
___”I don’t know the nature of the directives or training [the Israeli guards] must have received to become this brutal,” Akka said. More . . .
❹ MILITARY COURT WATCH (MONITORING THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN DETENTION)
MILITARY  COURT  WATCH  BRIEFING  WATCH
This Briefing Note reviews developments in the Israeli military detention system for children and covers the period September to December 2015.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK (Reprinted From Salon)
ISRAEL’S  CYNICAL  NEW  STRATEGY:  REFRAME  PALESTINE  DEBATE  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  BATTLE,  WHEN  IT  IS  REALLY  ABOUT  CIVIL  RIGHTS
Nadia Hijab and Alaa Tartir
Dec. 7, 2015
With the focus on Syria, in part due to ISIS and in part to the massive refugee crisis, the threats to world peace because of the Israeli occupation of Palestine have been put on the back burner. Indeed, the U.S. administration has seemingly washed its hands of its efforts to broker peace. . . .
___Yet there is a dire need to end the Israeli occupation, because Israel’s actions could rapidly and suddenly escalate the situation beyond the occupied territory to encompass Israel itself. . . . Israel moved to ban the northern branch of the Islamic Movement — despite the objections of its own intelligence chief Yoram Cohen, who had said there was no evidence to link it to terror. . .
___By so doing, Israel amplified Palestinian fears since the clashes began at the Noble Sanctuary compound in East Jerusalem two months ago, that it is seeking to reframe the conflict as a religious war instead of what it really is: A Palestinian struggle for civil and political rights . . . . More . . .

TWO  POEMS  FROM  “BEHIND  THE  BARS,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN  (1970)
“A salute to our sons and daughters, the fighters that
have been swallowed up by Israeli prisons.”

2. From “Hiba’s” Diary
My mother’s phantom hovers here
her forehead shines in my eyes
like the light of stars
She might be thinking of me now,
dreaming

(Before my arrest
I drew letters on a book
new and old
I painted roses
reared with blood
and my mother was near me
blessing my painting)

I see her
on her face silence and loneliness now
and in the house
silence and loneliness
My book case there on the book shelf
and my school’s uniform on the hanger
I see her hand extending
removing the dust from it
I follow my mother’s steps
and listen to her thoughts
yearn to hug her and the face of the day

3. From the Diary of “―”
(There in Israel, our prisoners
whom we know nothing about.)

From the ravine pours silent angry darkness
and night spreads its large sails here
the light of the stars and the dawn
cannot sneak in
A night without light
where our voices are lost
and the echo dies
and time cannot move

Time has lost its shoes here
it stood still
turning around the axis of stillness and boredom
confusing days and seasons
Is it the season for planting?
Is it the season for harvest?
Is it―who can say?
No news and the jailer stands, his face a stone
his eye a stone
robbing from us the sun, robbing the moon

About Fadwa Tuqan
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.

zzzzal aqsa
Al Aqsa. A rare view inside for non-Muslims. The mosque is a key component in the Israeli attempt to make the Palestinian situation a “religious” war. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 4, 2015)

“. . . we pass from our blood to our blood and never arrive . . . “ (Zuhair Abu Shayib)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
In the foreground is the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher. Behind it on the hilltop is the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. (Photo: Yoav Galai). See Number ❸ below.
In the foreground is the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher. Behind it on the hilltop is the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. (Photo: Yoav Galai). See Number ❸ below.

❶ 8-month-old baby dies from tear gas inhalation near Bethlehem
❷ Locals: Settlers prevent Palestinian farmers from olive harvest
❸ You may not see it, but Jerusalem is being torn apart
❹ Palestinian Teen Killed By Israeli Army Fire Near Jenin
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Our Youth, Our Gold
❻ Poetry by Zuhair Abu Shayib
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
8-MONTH-OLD  BABY  DIES  FROM  TEAR  GAS  INHALATION  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
Oct. 30, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An eight-month-old Palestinian baby died Friday from tear gas inhalation in Beit Fajjar village south of Bethlehem during clashes in the area, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
____The ministry said in a statement that Ramadan Mohammad Faisal Thawabta died after inhaling tear gas when clashes erupted nearby between Palestinians and Israeli military forces.
More . . .
Related . . . ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  TELL  PALESTINIANS:  ‘WE  WILL  GAS  YOU  UNTIL  YOU  DIE’
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
LOCALS:  SETTLERS  PREVENT  PALESTINIAN  FARMERS  FROM  OLIVE  HARVEST
Oct. 31, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Saturday prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their olive fields on the outskirts of Burin village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, locals said.
____Local sources told Ma’an that dozens of settlers blocked entrance of farmers to their land while Israeli soldiers stopped two busses carrying volunteers en route to assist Palestinians in the olive harvest.
____The busses were stopped on the main road between Nablus and the illegal settlement Yitzhar [. . . . .].
____Locals added that Israeli settlers also stole olives and farming equipment from Palestinians in the Bab Sanna area of Burin, which is completely surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements to the north and west.
More . . .
❸ +972 MAGAZINE
YOU  MAY  NOT  SEE  IT,  BUT  JERUSALEM  IS  BEING  TORN  APART
Yoav Galai
Redrawing the map of Jerusalem will not lock out potential attackers. Instead, it will only spark the sort of reaction one could expect following the wholesale nullification of rights from a significant number of Palestinians.
Oct. 31 2015
With so much being written about the volatility of the status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a bigger picture of a deeply divided city breaking apart is becoming lost. On Sunday, Israel’s Channel 2 reported that the government is considering revoking the residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem who live beyond the separation barrier. Though this would potentially remove tens of thousands of Palestinians from the city, such a move is only possible today due to a series of actions taken by municipal and state authorities over years.
More . . .
Related . . . FEAR  AND  LOATHING  IN  JERUSALEM
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN  TEEN  KILLED  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY  FIRE  NEAR  JENIN
Oct. 31, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot and killed, earlier Saturday, a Palestinian teenager in the al-Jalama Israeli military roadblock, north of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
____Eyewitnesses said the soldiers fired several rounds of live ammunition on the child, inflicting several serious gunshot injuries, causing him to die of his wounds later.
____The Red Crescent Society in Jenin said the soldiers prevented its medics from reaching the seriously wounded teen, and left him to bleed, before dragging his body behind the main gate of the military terminal.
More . . .

From Today In Palestine. Photo by Dareen Tatour.
From Today In Palestine. Photo by Dareen Tatour.

❺ Opinion/Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
OUR  YOUTH,  OUR  GOLD
Riyam Kafri AbuLaban
November 2015
Young and strong, with a stone in one hand and a bullet in the neck is the image du jour right? Young, with a school-book bag on his back, running home after the end of the school day, shot, left to bleed; his hands reach out in front of him hoping someone will help him up, a strangled call for mama comes out and the video ends. A mother buries her seventeen-year old, another her thirteen-year old, and another her twenty-something son, the bookworm with the contagious smile. All these murdered young souls, and more, have been our daily dose of the reality we live in. Our children, the hope for a better future, are moving targets with trigger-happy Israeli occupation forces aiming and shooting to kill.
More . . .

“PROBABILITIES,”  BY  ZUHAIR  ABU  SHAYIB
From
what source of light
does the day occur?
Does the earth propitiate itself
and the seas catch fire?
By what light
Do we shell roads until daybreak?
and the sound is bearable
and the morning, like bullets, is bearable.
Stop, you tall handsome one
we pass from
our blood to our blood
and never arrive
and take flight to our blood
and the siege pursues us.
The wound in our suitcases
Bears our features
While it is carried by the sea.
And death is bearable
and silence is bearable
and the morning, like bullets, is bearable.

From ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi.Trans. May Jayyusi and Jeremy Reed. New York: Columbia University Press (August 15, 1994).
About Zuhair Abu Shayib

Israel's separation wall pictured from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, extended from the place of the photo above. (Charlie Hoyle/File)
Israel’s separation wall pictured from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, extended from the place of the photo above. (Charlie Hoyle/File)

“. . . They arrested him – imprisoned him in the trunk of the jalopy . . .” (Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Soldiers at AL JALAMA CHECKPOINT pursuing Palestinian youth (PCHR photo). See ❷ below. Background from 2013 showing the causes of the current increase in violence are cumulative: http://www.imemc.org/article/65051
Soldiers at AL JALAMA CHECKPOINT pursuing Palestinian youth (PCHR photo). See ❷ below.
Background from 2013 showing the causes of the current increase in violence are cumulative:
http://www.imemc.org/article/65051

❶ Analysis: Has Netanyahu’s revisionism ended the use of the Holocaust as enabler of Israeli injustice toward Palestinians?
❷ Palestinian shot dead after alleged Jenin attack, no injuries reported
❸ Palestinian injured in Gaza demo last week dies from injuries
❹ Army Kidnaps Eleven Palestinians, Including Two Children in Jerusalem
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ANOTHER MISUNDERSTOOD PALESTINIAN UPRISING
❻ Poetry by Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MONDOWEISS
HAS  NETANYAHU’S  REVISIONISM  ENDED  THE  USE  OF  THE  HOLOCAUST  AS  ENABLER  OF  ISRAELI  INJUSTICE  TOWARD  PALESTINIANS?
Marc H. Ellis
(Marc H. Ellis is retired Director and Professor of Jewish Studies at Baylor University and author of  Burning Children: A Jewish View of the War in Gaza.)
AS  NETANYAHU’S  HOLOCAUST  REVISIONISM  continues to find its way around the world, Jewish memory is besmirched. . . . Buried in the outrage, though, is a deeper issue: Is Netanyahu’s use of the Holocaust to further incite his political constituency against Palestinians what we should focus on? Or is it the fact that many of those who condemn Netanyahu for his Holocaust blunder are also enablers of the destruction of Palestine?
____The almost panicked desire to separate the real culprit of the Holocaust, Hitler, rather than an irrelevant side-kick, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, is telling. It is also too easy. Separating the two, while important, is a distraction from the real and ongoing culprit in the suffering of Palestinians – the correct, substantial, highly prestigious, well-funded, real history of the Holocaust.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  JENIN  ATTACK,  NO  INJURIES  REPORTED
Oct. 24, 2015
JENIN (Ma’an) — A Palestinian youth was shot dead Saturday near al-Jalama military checkpoint north of Jenin in the occupied West Bank after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli security guard, eyewitnesses and the Israeli army said.
____Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that “there were no stabbing attempts” at the time that Israeli forces opened fire at a 16-year-old Palestinian at the crossing.
____The forces then dragged the injured youth inside of the checkpoint preventing Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances from reaching him for treatment, eyewitnesses added.
____The youth has not yet been identified.
More . . .
   Related . . . PEACE  ACTIVIST  RABBI  ARIK  ASCHERMAN  ATTACKED  BY  KNIFE-WIELDING  SETTLER  IN  WEST  BANK
Related . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  INJURED  IN  GAZA  DEMO  LAST WEEK  DIES  FROM  INJURIES
Oct. 23, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A Palestinian succumbed to his injuries on Friday evening after being shot in the head by Israeli forces during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip last week, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said.
____Ashraf al-Qidra identified the man as Yahya Karira, 20, from al-Tuffah neighborhood. He told Ma’an that Karira was shot when clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Nahal Oz in the eastern Gaza Strip.
____Karira is the 16th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the month. Fourteen have been shot with live ammunition during clashes, and a two-year-old and her pregnant mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTE
ARMY  KIDNAPS  ELEVEN  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  TWO  CHILDREN  IN  JERUSALEM
Oct. 24, 2015
Israeli soldiers have kidnapped, late on Friday at night and on Saturday at dawn, eleven Palestinians, including two children, in different parts of occupied Jerusalem.
____The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) said the soldiers invaded the al-‘Eesawiyya town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, searched several homes and kidnapped Wajdi Mahmoud, Daoud Yousef Atiyya, Abed Dari and Mohammad Ali Nasser.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ANOTHER  MISUNDERSTOOD  PALESTINIAN  UPRISING
Mohamed El Mokhtar
Oct. 23, 2015
When the Palestinians demand a withdrawal from the 1967 borders, the Israeli response is No because those borders are purportedly “indefensible”. When they ask for a bi-national state, the response is, also, negative because that would be the end of Israel as a “Jewish state”. When they insist that occupied East Jerusalem be the capital of their future state, they are reminded that the status of Al-Quds is non-negotiable for Jerusalem is the “undivided, eternal capital of the Jewish people”. And the Right of Return is not even up for grabs [. . . . .]
____When Palestinian political movements and civil society engage in non-violent protest, they are met with tear gas and military barricades. Those who launched the BDS movement are labeled “Jew-haters” and their supporters worldwide accused of functioning as a “band of anti-Semites and hypocrites”. Confined in their enclaves, cut off the outside world, surrounded by Jewish settlements, Palestinians are supposed to acquiesce to their fate and suffer in silence.
____The sporadic flares of violence, born out of frustration and despair, are systematically decontextualized and misunderstood. They are depicted as a resumption of violence as though the occupation was not in and of itself a form of violence.
More . . .

“A  TRAFFIC  LIGHT,”  BY  MU’IN  TAWFIQ  BSEISO  (Mueen  Bessissio) ―(1979)

Red light, stop
Green light, go
Red green stop go
.
Red light, red light
Where is the green light…?
A pregnant woman in a jalopy
gave birth in a jalopy
The child grew up, fell in love, and was married in the jalopy
He fathered children, read the world’s magazines and newspapers in the jalopy
They arrested him – imprisoned him in the trunk of the jalopy
He enlisted and was killed under the windows of the jalopy
They buried him beneath the wheels of the jalopy
And the jalopy was still in the street
awaiting the green light
awaiting the yellow
.
Red light, stop
Green light, go
Red light
and green light.
――Trans. John Mikhail Asfour.

John Mikhail Asfour, trans, and ed., When The Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987 (Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1988). Pp. 237.

Mu’in Tawfiq Bseiso, a poet from Gaza who lost his homeland with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians after the foundation of an Israeli state, (born 1926, also spelled Mueen Bessissou or Bsayso) suffered the tragedy of his country. He was exiled to Egypt. His exile intensified both his nationalism and the universal dimension of his poetry, for he linked the Palestinian tragedy with the tragedies experienced by other nations.

A Palestinian is evacuated after being injured by a tear gas canister during clashes with Israeli forces near the Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Oct. 10, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo Mahmud Hams).
A Palestinian is evacuated after being injured by a tear gas canister during clashes with Israeli forces near the Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Oct. 10, 2015. (Agence France‑Presse/Photo Mahmud Hams).

“. . . I would ask if she’s angry . . .” (Rochelle Mass)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinians stand near a burning barricade during clashes with Israeli security forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, Oct. 4, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Palestinians stand near a burning barricade during clashes with Israeli security forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, Oct. 4, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

❶ 200 Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village with firebombs
❷ Israeli court refuses appeal, will go ahead with Hebron demolition
❸ Jerusalem’s intifada takes its toll
❹ Israeli soldiers Attack Jenin Secondary School with Tear Gas
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Palestinians Want 1967 Lands Under UN Protection
❻ Poetry by Rochelle Mass
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(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you for “following.”)
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❶ MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
200  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ATTACK  PALESTINIAN  VILLAGE  WITH  FIREBOMBS
Oct. 18, 2015
HEBRON ― More than 200 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Wad al-Haseen and Wad al-Nasara near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba overnight in the eastern Hebron district of the occupied southern West Bank, locals and medics said.
____During the attack, Israeli settlers threw stones and firebombs at Palestinian homes and injured at least three people, two of which were minors, while Israeli forces later shot and injured one Palestinian with live fire.
____An Israeli army spokesperson said she did not have reports of any injuries with live fire.
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  COURT  REFUSES  APPEAL,  WILL  GO  AHEAD  WITH  HEBRON  DEMOLITION
Oct. 18, 2015
HEBRON ― An Israeli court this week refused a family’s appeal to stop the demolition order on their home in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, the family told Ma’an.
____After failing to establish an appeal, Israeli forces will go forward with the demolition order on the family home of Palestinian prisoner Maher Hamdi al-Hashlmoun, 31, the family said.
____In a phone call with the Mujhat al-Quds institution, a Palestinian prisoners advocacy group, al-Hashlmoun’s wife said that “refusing the appeal means that the Israeli excavators can demolish the house at any moment and without a prior warning.”
More . . .
❸ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
JERUSALEM’S  INTIFADA  TAKES  ITS  TOLL
Daoud Kuttab
Oct. 16, 2015
Despite the sense of pride Palestinians have been expressing as they break the fear barrier and stump one of the world’s most powerful armies, Jerusalem’s intifada is taking its toll on the Palestinians of the holy city.
____The trigger-happy Israeli soldiers, settlers and citizens encouraged by their government to carry weapons have created fear and terror among the 350,000 Palestinians who make East Jerusalem their home.
____A resident of the Old City expressed this fear. In a post on his Facebook page Oct. 12, Ahmad Buderi said that Palestinians in the Old City want international protection, especially from armed settlers. “Any mistake can easily lead to the end of your life using the cover of self-defense. All it takes is for the settler to say ‘mikhablim’ [Hebrew for terrorists], and you can easily be the target of bullets coming at you from all directions.”
More . . .
❹ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  JENIN  SECONDARY  SCHOOL  WITH  TEAR  GAS
Oct. 18, 2015
JENIN– Israeli forces Sunday fired tired gas canisters and stun grenades inside a boys’ secondary school in Jenin while students were still inside, while groups of settlers attempted to storm Yabod town to the west of Jenin.
____Witnesses informed WAFA that Israeli soldiers stationed adjacent to the separation wall, built illegally on land belonging to Palestinians, fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades inside al-Tayba Secondary School to the west of Jenin.
____Earlier Sunday, Dozens of university students suffocated as Israeli forces Sunday raided the campus of Palestine Technical University- Kadoorie to the west of Tulkarem city, while firing a hail of tear gas canisters toward students.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIANS  WANT  1967  LANDS  UNDER  UN  PROTECTION
Samer B. Jaber
Oct. 11, 2015
We, a group of professional and trade union figures, intellectuals, and political activists, appeal to the Palestinian leadership within the Palestine Liberation Organization and outside of it, to call on the United Nation and the permanent members of the Security Council to put the Palestine territory occupied by Israel in 1967 under the international protection of the United Nations.
____This call is coming after two decades of negotiations between the leadership of the PLO and successive Israeli occupation governments. These negotiations have not been able to achieve the rights of the Palestinian people to return to the homes from which they were displaced and to self-determination. The goal of this initiative is to provide an exit strategy from the arrangement in which the balance of power is tipped entirely in favor of the occupying state, thereby giving it the opportunity to impose its policy of fait accompli.
More . . .

“FROM MY KITCHEN WINDOW,” BY ROCHELLE MASS
I often think there’s a woman on the hill
over there, who looks out her kitchen window
in my direction
as she prepares dinner for her family.

Perhaps that woman has watched our village grow
Perhaps
she’s seen it spread over the Gilboa
new homes built for young families
children playing in the yard.

I watch Jenin stretch so wide
I have to turn my head
each way
to see the full size of it.

Perhaps that woman is picking olives, as I am
soaking them in large bins then
slicing lemons, adding coarse salt
tossing in bay leaves, peppercorns and

sharp red peppers to get the right flavor. Perhaps
she helps her husband as I help mine
take their crop to the local press, return
with gallons of oil.

I watch evening stagger over Jenin as
I soap my dishes
see lights splash
over the city.

I wonder if that woman
is looking my way ―
I would ask if she’s angry
if she’s afraid.

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 Barnes&Noble.
ROCHELLE MASS, Canadian born, with her husband and two young daughters, moved to Israel in l973, lived on a kibbutz in the Jezreel Valley for almost 25 years, and now lives in a settlement crawling up the Gilboa Mountain, overlooking that valley. She is a translator and editor (Kibbutz Trends, bi-annual of cultural/political issues). She has published two poetry collections.
Blogger’s note: My reading of Mass’s poetry is that she is a dedicated Israeli. However, she does not advocate violence and has some real sense of the horror of the life she represents.

Jenin. (Photo: Palden Jenkins. paldywan.blogspot.co.uk.)
Jenin. (Photo: Palden Jenkins. paldywan.blogspot.co.uk.)