Tag: Jerusalem Old City

“. . . Descendants of Ole Abe! My voice has become hoarse . . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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triplets
Gazan names triplets ‘Quds’, ‘Assima’ and ‘Falisteen’ which means Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. (Photo: MEMO, Dec. 22, 2017)

❶ Christian leaders say there can never be peace without Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian in Gaza names triplets Jerusalem, Capital and Palestine

  • Background: “Mobile Cartographies and Mobilized Ideologies: The Visual Management of Jerusalem.”  Antipode.

❷ 2 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces during protests along Gaza border
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian Dies From Wounds Suffered A Week Earlier In Gaza
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Israeli forces detain elderly man for owning two air, plastic guns
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Free at last:  a UN without US diplomatic blackmail
❹ POETRY by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ CHRISTIAN  LEADERS  SAY  THERE  CAN  NEVER  BE  PEACE  WITHOUT  JERUSALEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 23, 2017    Christian leaders stressed on Saturday the centrality of Jerusalem to all three monotheistic religions, denouncing the United States for declaring it capital of Israel.
[. . . .] “Those who want peace in Jerusalem should know that power will not bring peace,” said former Latin Patriarch Michel Sabah. “Peace starts with Jerusalem. Power cannot impose unjust peace.”
[. . . .] Attallah Hanna, a Greek Orthodox archbishop, said that the Christians reject the US declaration on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. . . .   Hanna vowed to protect the Christian property in Palestine, “and this way we will defeat (US President Donald) Trump’s project that aims to abolish the Palestinian cause and not only the issue of Jerusalem.”
___Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church said the Christian leaders wrote Trump before he announced his decision on Jerusalem on December 6 urging him not to take any action that would prejudice the status of Jerusalem . . .
___He said that “there cannot be peace in the Middle East without peace in Jerusalem. It is time that our people gain their legitimate right in a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”   MORE . . .  
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  PALESTINIAN  IN  GAZA  NAMES  TRIPLETS  JERUSALEM,  CAPITAL  AND  PALESTINE 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 22, 2017 ― A Palestinian from the besieged Gaza Strip’s southern village of Khan Yunis has named his three newborn triplets “Quds”, “Asima” and “Filisteen” – meaning “Jerusalem”, “Capital” and “Palestine” in Arabic – in protest against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
___Nidal Al-Siqli, 30, told the Anadolu Agency that he chose the names “to emphasise Jerusalem’s Palestinian, Arab and Muslim character”.   MORE . . . 

Hercbergs, Dana and Chaim Noy.
“MOBILE  CARTOGRAPHIES  AND  MOBILIZED  IDEOLOGIES  THE  VISUAL  MANAGEMENT  OF  JERUSALEM.”
ANTIPODE. Vol. 47 no. 4, Sep2015, pp. 942-962.
[. . . .] As the focus of religious and political yearnings throughout the ages, Jerusalem has been an object of changing depictions and gazes. The visual representation of the Old City —where the holy places of the Jewish prayer site of the Western Wall (“Wailing Wall”) and the Muslim Noble Sanctuary (Haram ash-Sharif, including al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock) are adjacently located—is central to today’s political struggles between Israel and the Palestinians.
___In this article we are interested in illustrating a particular turning point that . . . concerns a shift in the spatial and visual regimes of, and perspectives in, Jerusalem; namely from portraying the city for decades via a number of sites, most prominently the dual Western Wall/Dome of the Rock image—to promoting an exclusively Jewish-Israeli city . . .
[. . . .] Recent neoliberal policies augment and dovetail practices of urban ethnocracy in Jerusalem, amplifying social and economic divisions through further processes of spatial separation that are occurring in West Bank settlements and in other Israeli towns . . .  affluent gated urban communities have been cropping in Jerusalem since the 1990s . . .   These developments present a departure from the government-subsidized settlements built since 1967 on confiscated Palestinian land in and around Jerusalem, and a move towards a government–private sector partnership associated with neoliberal regimes and exclusionary forms of development . . . directed respectively at wealthy, diaspora Jewish visitors and/or buyers of properties in Jerusalem. . .
[. . . .]  What we have in this case is a twofold movement consisting of the denial of the Palestinian presence and history of Jerusalem, coupled with appropriation of its architectural, artistic and cultural motifs . . .  A surprising contradiction appears in relation to the traditional Jewish longing for Jerusalem: the contemporary Jewish viewer is still viewing the Old City from the pre-1967 position. This distance strikes us as a final warning against short-sighted attempts to actualize divine plan, the utopia-in-the now of ethnocratic urban planning.   FULL ARTICLE . . . 

❷  2  PALESTINIANS  SHOT  DEAD  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  DURING  PROTESTS  ALONG  GAZA  BORDER
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 22, 2017 ― Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip during clashes along the border fence with Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
___The first Palestinian was identified as 24-year-old Zakariya al-Kafarne, who was killed after being shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces during clashes in eastern Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
[. . . .] Protesters had marched following Friday prayers and protested near the border fence in response to calls from Palestinian factions for a third “Friday of Rage” in protest of US President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this month recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  PALESTINIAN  DIES  FROM  WOUNDS  SUFFERED  A  WEEK  EARLIER  IN  GAZA 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC    
Dec. 23, 2017 ― The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that a Palestinian man died, Saturday, from wounds he suffered a week earlier, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
___The Ministry said the young man, Sharif al-‘Abed Shalashel, 28, suffered a serious injury after the soldiers shot him with live fire, and remained in a critical condition until he succumbed to his wounds.
___He was injured on the same day when the soldiers killed four Palestinians, and wounded at least 367 others, in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  ELDERLY  MAN  FOR  OWNING  TWO  AIR,  PLASTIC  GUNS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Dec. 23, 2017 ― December 22, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Friday detained a 67-year-old Palestinian man from the village of Ya’bad, in Jenin district, for owning an air gun and another gun made of plastic belonging to his grandchild.
___The Detainees Affairs Commission said Mahmoud Hamdan, 67, was detained by Israeli army after a military raid into his home.
___Israeli forces wreaked havoc into Hamdan’s home, destroying its contents and furniture, before detaining him and his son Hadi, 30.     MORE . . . 
❸ Opinion/Analysis: FREE  AT  LAST:  A  UN  WITHOUT  US  DIPLOMATIC  BLACKMAIL 
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO   
Dr Daud Abdullah     ..
Dec. 22, 2017 ― Not for the first time, the free world has stood up for truth and justice in Palestine. The General Assembly’s vote against President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem was a victory for the rule of law over the law of the jungle. It now leaves both the US and Israel isolated, disgraced and humiliated.
___Washington’s threat to cut aid to countries that voted not to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an insult to the UN and a vicious assault on the sovereign rights of its members. In their customary delusional manner, Israelis believed the US threat was enough to force compliance. They were mistaken; people around the world are simply tired of their arrogance and unethical conduct.
___As it stands, Trump’s threat is consistent with a long-standing policy of US blackmail and intimidation exerted within the UN to further Israel’s illegal claims. It was no different from the threats issued to impoverished nations to extract the controversial UN Partition Resolution 181 in 1947.
[. . . .] Where does this crushing defeat leave Israel and its mercurial Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu? For sure, Israel will become more isolated among the community of nations. Instead of countries moving their embassies to Jerusalem many will now consider severing or curtailing diplomatic contact with the Zionist state. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has taken the lead by adopting a resolution at its national conference to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office.   MORE . . .  

“THE  UNKNOWN  CONTINENT,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
How do we reach you
Slums of Chicago?
How is the spark to reach you?
How is the fire to be born?
Skyscrapers!
Stacked huts!
Stretch your arms out of the darkness―
For the big banner
Spreads its warmth, its light
Forever
Into the depths of night
And the big banner is
Forever
A sail for the drowning.

How are the storms to reach you
Jazzband Club in New York?
The black man is hungry and fearful
The wolves of the KKK roam the forest
―the current overpowering
And the conscience of the statue shaken
And the heart of night.
The wind is frozen,
And the waves of the sea unmoving?
How is the message to reach you
Deaf Washington,
With the humming of the machine?
In Vietnam you slaughter
And you export
Cokes and medicine to the sad moon!
And you sweep over the blood of victims.
How is the message to reach you?

Descendants of Ole Abe!
My voice has become hoarse
And the wind
Has become tired of my shouts!
Descendants of Old Abe!
Shake the marble of history,
Rise to the sky,
Rise above the band of stupid maggis
And halt ―for
The earth grumbles
Rivers of blood.

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

“. . . Why the time with amputated legs . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, 29, Palestinian activist, disabled by Israelis, 2008; murdered by Israelis, 2017. Photo Ma’an News Agency.

❶ Thousands march in funeral of disabled Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in Gaza
. . . . . ― (ᴀ) 29-year-old Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces laid to rest in Anata

  • Background: “Intimidation, Reassurance, and Invisibility: Israeli Security Agents in the Old City of Jerusalem.” Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology.

❷ Civilians arrested, cash stolen by Israeli army in West Bank sweep
. . . . . ― (ᴀ) Blindfolded Palestinian boy surrounded by Israeli soldiers may spend 20 years in prison
. . . . . ― (ᴃ) Israel to demolish Abu al-Nawwar hamlet’s only school
❸ Erdogan says Turkey will open embassy in East Jerusalem
❹ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THOUSANDS  MARCH  IN  FUNERAL  OF  DISABLED  PALESTINIAN  KILLED  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  IN  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 16, 2017 ― Thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip marched on Saturday in the funeral of slain Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, 29, who was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces on Friday during clashes along the border with Israel.
___Abu Thurayya was a well-known Palestinian activists, famously known for consistently protesting the Israeli occupation, despite losing both his leds in an Israeli airstrike in 2008. After he was disabled by Israeli in 2008, Abu Thurayya worked washing cars in Gaza to support hi 11-member family.    MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴀ)  29-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  LAID  TO  REST  IN  ANATA 
Ma’an News Agency   
Dec. 16, 2017 ― Hundreds of Palestinians marched on Saturday in the funeral of 29-year-old Bassel Mustafa Ibrahim, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Friday during clashes in his hometown of Anata, a village in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem.
___Ibrahim was shot in the chest during clashes that had erupted following protests against US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.    MORE . . . 

Grassiani, Erella and Lior Volinz.
“INTIMIDATION,  REASSURANCE,  AND  INVISIBILITY:  ISRAELI  SECURITY  AGENTS  IN  THE  OLD  CITY  OF  JERUSALEM.” 
Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, vol. 2016, no. 75, Summer2016, pp. 14-30.
[. . . .] Analyzing Jerusalem as a colonial city (and Israel as a settler colonial state for that matter) and thus acknowledging the asymmetrical power relations between Israeli Jews and Palestinians and the context of the oppression, exploitation, and dispossession of the latter by the Israeli state has two distinct goals. First, it embeds policing strategies within a power structure that is not found in a noncolonial setting. Policing and the provisions of (security) services to citizens and noncitizens beget inherently different connotations within a colonial or settler colonial context. . . .  Second, by positioning the policing practices within the wider settler colonial enterprise of the Israeli state, we can understand these practices within their underlying and often hidden political context.
[. . . .] Within policing literature [this is called] the strategy deterrence policing, where the police tries to deter criminals from carrying out illegal activities . . .  something else is happening here: the police is not trying to deter criminals but local civilians who can be guilty only of living within the Old City. The strategy thus points much more to a performance of intimidation . . .  a national strategy whose objective is to make daily life as difficult as possible in the hope people will leave the Old City to the Jewish minority. Such Judaization in Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, is part and parcel of the settler-colonial character of the Israeli state.
[. . . .] . . .  in the Old City of Jerusalem these policing strategies look like and shape the urban landscape. By using such strategies within the space of the Old City, these security agents (re)establish their power over the Palestinian population and legitimize their presence. Their (in)visibility confirms the occupation as a given; Palestinians are controlled, the settlers are kept in place and reassured, the tourist can continue to enjoy the space without worry.    SOURCE . . . 

❷ CIVILIANS  ARRESTED,  CASH  STOLEN  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY  IN  WEST  BANK  SWEEP 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 17, 2017 ― A number of Palestinians were kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) while others have had their homes ransacked in abduction sweeps rocking the West Bank at daybreak Sunday.
___The occupation army claimed responsibility for the abduction of five Palestinians at predawn time on allegations of involvement in anti-occupation protests.
___The Israeli forces also stole 1,800 Jordanian Dinars from the home of the Palestinian prisoner Mohamed Zakarna in Jenin’s southern town of Qabatiya on claims that they were funneled to anti-occupation parties.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴀ)  BLINDFOLDED  PALESTINIAN  BOY  SURROUNDED  BY  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  MAY  SPEND  20  YEARS  IN  PRISON   
Days of Palestine
Dec. 17, 2017 ― The Palestinian boy at centre of powerful photograph in which he has been blindfolded and surrounded by 22 Israeli soldiers marching him to prison is to face charges over throwing stones.
___Sixteen-year-old Fawzi al-Junaidi was photographed on 7 December during protests in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise the Palestinian city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
___Wearing ripped jeans, the boy is shown being propelled forward by soldiers in full protective gear who have hold of both of his arms. Israeli stipulates that a Palestinian boy charged with throwing stones faces 20-year-prison-term.    MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴃ)  ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  ABU  AL-NAWWAR  HAMLET’S  ONLY  SCHOOL 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 17, 2017 ― The Israeli army’s civil administration last Tuesday, December 12, delivered a demolition order against the only school in the Bedouin community of Abu al-Nawwar, east of Occupied Jerusalem.     ___Spokesman for the Jerusalem Bedouin communities Abu Imad al-Jahhalin told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that employees from the civil administration escorted by soldiers stormed Abu al-Nawwar hamlet and put up a demolition order giving the residents 72 hours before they come again to remove the school structures.     MORE . . . 
❸ ERDOGAN  SAYS  TURKEY  WILL  OPEN  EMBASSY  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM            The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 17, 2017 ― Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognise it as the capital of Palestine.
___“God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,” Erdogan said in a speech, maintaining his fierce criticism of the United States’ decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.    MORE . . . 

“EYTAN  IN  THE  STEEL  TRAP,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
Under the tree, branching out, spreading and growing … growing
In savage rhythms,
Under the “star”, as it builds before his very eyes
Walls of bloody dreams,
Forming a trap, held tightly together with the thread of steel,
Trapping him within, denying him movement
Eytan, the child, the human being, opens his eyes
And asks,
Why the trap and the walls?
Why the time with amputated legs, clad in khaki and death,
Enveloped in smoke rising from flames and from sorrows?

If only the “star” could tell the truth,
If only it could.
But alas!
Alas, the “star”!

Eytan, my child
You are the victim, drowning in lies,
And like Eytan, the harbor is sunk in a sea of lies,
Drowned by the bloated dream
With the head of a dragon
And a thousand arms.
Alas, alas!
If only you could remain the child, the human being!
But I shudder, and live in dread.
That you may grow up inside the trap,
In this time of amputated legs, clad in khaki,
In cruel death, in smoke and sorrow.

From Abdel-Malek, Kamal. THE  RHETORIC  OF  VIOLENCE:  ARAB-JEWISH  ENCOUNTERS  IN  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE  AND  FILM. MacMillan, 2005. Web.

 

“. . . City of sorrows, a huge tear/trembling on your eyelid . . .” (Nizar Qabbani)

Harold Knight1 Comment
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Israeli flags flying from buildings taken over from Palestinians in the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 2015)

❶ Battle for Jerusalem taking a serious turn, says analyst
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Jerusalem Divided by Walls of Fear, Hatred, Experts Tell International Conference on Palestine Question
❷ PA calls on UN to intervene against latest Israeli plans to ‘Judaize’ East Jerusalem
Background: Cabinet Approves Building Cable Car To Western Wall
❸ Israel approves plan to teach Israeli curriculum in Palestinian schools
❹ March of the Zealots: a report from ‘Jerusalem Day’
. . . . .  ❹ ― (ᴀ) Triumphalist light show in Jerusalem weaponizes the city walls to celebrate 50th anniversary of Jewish conquest
❺ POETRY by Nizar Qabbani
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ BATTLE  FOR  JERUSALEM  TAKING  A  SERIOUS  TURN,  SAYS  ANALYST  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA       
May 30, 2017
The battle for control over East Jerusalem is taking a serious turn with Israeli plans to completely change its demographic character and culture, director of the Arab Studies Society’s Mapping Department Khalil Tafakji said on Tuesday.
___Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, Tafakji said Israel is forcing Palestinian schools to switch to the Israeli curriculum, wants to displace its Palestinians residents and plans to implement several projects in an effort to turn the city into a Jewish one.
___. . . Israel wants to secede two densely populated East Jerusalem neighborhoods – Shufat refugee camp and Kufr Aqab . . . in order to change the demographic character of the occupied city.
___Israel also plans to build a cable car that goes over the old city of Jerusalem that is expected to change its historic and cultural character.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ)  JERUSALEM  DIVIDED  BY  WALLS  OF  FEAR,  HATRED,  EXPERTS  TELL  INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE  ON  PALESTINE  QUESTION: Addressing Occupation’s Legal, Psychological Aspects
United Nations  General Assembly Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People: International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem   
May 3, 2016
The International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem, which opened in Dakar, Senegal, this morning, held its first plenary session in the afternoon, examining life in East Jerusalem under Israeli occupation.
___Daniel Seidemann, Lawyer and Founder of the Israeli non-governmental organization Terrestrial Jerusalem, said the city today was divided by walls of fear and hatred.  It was seeing a popular uprising unprecedented since 1967, due in large part to the “horrendous and savage” murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014.  The incident had conveyed the message that “in the eyes of official Israel, Israeli blood is blood, and its red; Palestinian blood is water”, he said, adding that Palestinian youth felt themselves adrift, while Israeli society was in a state of clinical denial about the occupation.          MORE. . . .
❷ PA  CALLS  ON  UN  TO  INTERVENE  AGAINST  LATEST  ISRAELI  PLANS  TO  ‘JUDAIZE’  EAST  JERUSALEM   
Ma’an News Agency 
May 29, 2017
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nation Security Council on Monday to uphold its responsibilities vis-a-vis international law and protect occupied East Jerusalem from the latest Israeli attempts to “Judaize” the city.
___The statement came a day after the Israeli security cabinet held a controversial meeting in tunnels located underneath the Old City of East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move which was never recognized by the international community.
___During the meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notably unveiled a 200 million-shekel ($56 million) plan to build a 1,400-meter long cable car linking western Jerusalem to the Western Wall in the Old City by 2021, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Monday.
___Such a project, which Netanyahu said would fall under the purview of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, would in effect limit tourists’ exposure to Palestinian-majority areas of East Jerusalem, and further use the industry as what critics have called a “tool” to enforce the perception of Jerusalem as a Jewish city.     MORE . . .
BACKGROUND: Cabinet Approves Building Cable Car To Western Wall. Times of Israel, May 28, 2017

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Village of Lifta, Jerusalem. Depopulated in 1948, with Israeli developments on every side (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❸ ISRAEL  APPROVES  PLAN  TO  TEACH  ISRAELI  CURRICULUM  IN  PALESTINIAN  SCHOOLS 
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency      
May 29, 2017
Israeli cabinet approved Sunday a plan to expand  teaching Israeli curriculum in Palestinian schools in east Jerusalem for the next five years.
___The plan stated to increase the classes of first grade that will be taught the Israeli curriculum and increase the number of those eligible for the Israeli Bagrut certificate parallel to the Palestinian Tawjihi certificate.       MORE . . .
❹ MARCH  OF  THE  ZEALOTS:  A  REPORT  FROM  ‘JERUSALEM  DAY’   
Mondoweiss
David Kattenburg
May 27, 2017
Ecstatic Zionists celebrating the 50th anniversary of Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem, this past Wednesday, were greeted by equally passionate Jewish-American and Israeli protesters intent on blocking the zealots’ march through the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s old city, into the heart of the Arab quarter.
___The annual March of the Flags — commemorating the unification of east and west Jerusalem in the wake of the June 1967 war — is customarily accompanied by tribal chanting and acts of hooliganism, as young Israelis parade through the old city’s narrow alleyways chanting rousing slogans such as “Death to Arabs.” Israeli police ensure in advance that Palestinian shops are shuttered tight — a process referred to as ‘sterilization’. Hard to imagine a sensible shopkeeper doing otherwise.     MORE. . . .
. . . . .  ❹ ― (ᴀ) TRIUMPHALIST  LIGHT  SHOW  IN  JERUSALEM  WEAPONIZES  THE  CITY  WALLS  TO  CELEBRATE  50TH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  JEWISH  CONQUEST
Mondoweiss
Philip Weiss
May 26, 2017
Back in the States, I wondered whether the commemorations of the Six Day War in Israel would be marked by reflection and even expressions of misgivings, after 50 years of occupation, but when I got out here I saw how mistaken I was. They’re triumphalist!
___Below is a video I took of part of the light show/concert celebrating the conquest of Jerusalem on May 21, near Jaffa Gate outside the Old City. This segment was a dramatization of the history of Jerusalem, and about 30 seconds in, it announces “1967” on the wall, and then– well see for yourself! It seemed to me like they were weaponizing the Old City walls. A lot of smoke and guns and destruction, and rumbling tumbling stones. As for the music, well it’s like that old saying, justice is to military justice as music is to military music.  MORE. . . .

“JERUSALEM,”  BY  NIZAR  QABBANI

Oh Jerusalem, luminous city of prophets
The shortest path between heaven and earth!

Jerusalem, you of the myriad minarets,
become a beautiful little girl with burned fingers.
City of the Virgin, your eyes are sad.
Shady oasis where the Prophet passed,
the stones of your streets grow sad,
the towers of mosques downcast.
City swathed in black, who’ll ring the bells
at the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday mornings?
Who will carry toys to children on Christmas Eve?
City of sorrows, a huge tear
trembling on your eyelid,
who’ll save the Bible?
Who’ll save the Qur’an?
Who will save Christ?
Who will save man?

Jerusalem, beloved city of mine,
tomorrow your lemon trees will bloom,
your green stalks and branches rise up joyful,
and your eyes will laugh. Migrant pigeons
will return to your holy roofs
and children will go back to playing.
Parents and children will meet
on your shining streets,
my city, city of olives and peace.
—Translated by Sharif Elmusa and Naomi Shihab Nye

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.
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) was a Syrian diplomat and poet revered by Arabs for his sensual and romantic verse. A man of his times and of all times, he is by far the most popular contemporary poet in the Arab world.

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Naim Ateek, Palestinian Christian theologian, leading a group through Arab East Jerusalem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 2015)

“. . . hear my child’s approaching footsteps at the threshold of your soul . . .” (Rashid Hussein)

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Palestinians boys sit on the rubble of their family home. It was one of three houses destroyed by Israeli occupation forces in Qabatiya village in the occupied West Bank on 4 April, as part of a policy of punishing relatives of Palestinians accused of attacks. (Photo: APA Images/Nedal Eshtayah)
Palestinians boys sit on the rubble of their family home, destroyed by Israeli forces in Qabatiya village in the occupied West Bank on 4 April, punishing relatives of Palestinians accused of attacks. (Photo: APA Images/Nedal Eshtayah)

❶ UNRWA condemns Israel’s large scale home demolitions in the West Bank
❷ PA drafts new UN resolution against Israel’s illegal settlements
❸ The occupation burns 47 olive seedlings carrying the names and pictures of Jerusalemite Martyrs
❹ Struggle for Jerusalem takes on new form
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
❻ POETRY by Rashid Hussein
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ UNRWA  CONDEMNS  ISRAEL’S  LARGE  SCALE  HOME  DEMOLITIONS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 7, 2016
UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] condemned Thursday’s large scale home demolitions by the Israeli Authorities in the Bedouin refugee community of Um al Khayr in the South Hebron Hills. . .  31 Palestine refugees, including 16 children, were made homeless as a result to the demolitions.
___It confirmed that the affected community has endured several rounds of demolitions and often faced harassment from the nearby illegal settlement of Karmel.     MORE . . .  

❷ PA  DRAFTS  NEW  UN  RESOLUTION  AGAINST  ISRAEL’S  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS
Ma’an News Agency
April 8, 2016
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to present a draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements to the UN Security Council in two weeks in a move likely to spark fury among Israel’s supporters.
___The resolution will be the first to directly condemn Israeli settlements as illegal under international law since the United States vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, the official said.     MORE . . . 

Palestinian children play near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahman Gharabl, File)
Palestinian children play near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahman Gharabl, File)

❸ THE  OCCUPATION  BURNS  47  OLIVE  SEEDLINGS  CARRYING  THE  NAMES  AND  PICTURES  OF  JERUSALEMITE  MARTYRS
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
April 5, 2016
The occupation police and Intelligence removed and burned on Tuesday olive seedlings carrying the names of Jerusalemite Martyrs. The seedlings were planted in the village of Silwan on the anniversary of Earth Day.      MORE . . .

❹ STRUGGLE  FOR  JERUSALEM  TAKES  ON  NEW  FORM
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Daoud Kuttab
April 7, 2016
Israel’s constant attempts to turn the city of Jerusalem into an exclusively Jewish city have taken an unusual turn with an attempt to politicize tourism.
___A map of the Old City of Jerusalem issued by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in March attempts to reinforce this twisted narrative by trying to deny the physical reality of Jerusalem. . . .
___Of the 57 sites on the map, only one Muslim site and five Christian sites are identified. . . . no less than 25 of the Jewish sites named such buildings — along with synagogues and yeshivas — that have never been heard of, even by experienced tour guides.”     MORE . . .  

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver
April 7, 2016
Less than two weeks after Israel’s high court lifted an injunction on punitive house demolitions, Israeli bulldozers arrived in Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning and razed three homes.
___The houses belonged to the relatives of the young men accused of an attack at Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem in early February that left an Israeli border police officer dead.
___All three youths were shot to death at the scene of the incident.
___By the end of Monday, 20 people were left homeless in Qabatiya.      MORE . . .

“TO  A  CLOUD,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN

I am the land,
I am the land . . . do not deny me rain,
I am all that remains of it,
If you plant my brow with trees
And turn my poetry into vineyards
And wheat
And roses
That you may know me.
So let the rain pour down.

I, cloud of my life, am the hills of Galilee,
I am the bosom of Haifa
And the forehead of Jaffa.
So do not whisper: it is impossible.
Can you not hear my child’s approaching footsteps
At the threshold of your soul?
Can you not see the veins of my brow
Striving to kiss your lips?

Waiting for you, my poetry turned to earth,
Has become fields,
Has turned into wheat
And trees.
I am all that remains of our earth,
I am all that remains of what you love,
So pour . . . pour with bounty.
Pour down the rain.

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.  
About Rashid Hussein

“. . . the very air is confiscated, so why don’t you leave? . . .” (Taha Muhammad ‘Ali, 1992)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
return march
Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in the ‘March of Return’, on the land belonging to the destroyed village of Hadatha, near Tiberius, April 23, 2015. (Photo: Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

❶ Jerusalem families in legal battle to stay in Old City homes
. . . . ❶― (ᴀ) WATCH: Internally displaced Palestinians plan their return
❷ Palestinian killed in day’s 2nd alleged attack on Israeli forces
❸ Why Israel has silenced the 1948 story of Nazareth’s survival
❹ Analysis: Palestinian citizens in Israel: A fast-shrinking civic space
❺ Opinion/Analysis: “HOW  TO  LIE  WITH  MAPS”  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THE  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
❻ Poetry by Taha Muhammad ‘Ali
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JERUSALEM  FAMILIES  IN  LEGAL  BATTLE  TO  STAY  IN  OLD  CITY  HOMES
Jan. 13, 2016
For the past few weeks, four Palestinian families living in Jerusalem’s Old City have faced the threat of immediate eviction from their homes.
___The Hashima, Kastero, Seidawi, and Maswada families, who live in the Old City’s Aqbat al-Khalidiya quarter, told Ma’an that they were handed eviction notices in December when an Israeli court ruled that their homes originally belonged to a Jewish organization.
___Hayil Sandouka, a Palestinian who has long worked on the restoration of Palestinian buildings in the Old City, told Ma’an that the building previously belonged to the Diskin Orphan Fund of Israel, founded in 1881.   More . . .
. . . . ❶― (ᴀ) +972 MAGAZINE
Watch:  INTERNALLY  DISPLACED  PALESTINIANS  PLAN  THEIR  RETURN
More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  IN  DAY’S  2ND  ALLEGED  ATTACK  ON  ISRAELI  FORCES
Jan. 14, 2016
A Palestinian was shot and killed on Thursday after a stabbing attack at an Israeli military checkpoint north of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus . . . .
___An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a stab attack took place on forces stationed at the checkpoint. Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on the assailant in response, killing him on site. . . .
___The attack took place at a flying checkpoint set up by Israeli forces nearby the Palestinian village of Asira ash-Shamaliya, hometown of the alleged attacker who was identified by locals as Haitham Mahmoud Abd al-Jalil, 31.   More . . .

1-IMG_3626
Sunrise over Nazareth (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 8, 2015)

❸ MONDOWEISS
WHY  ISRAEL  HAS  SILENCED  THE  1948  STORY  OF  NAZARETH’S  SURVIVAL
Jonathan Cook
Jan. 12, 2016
A rarely told story of the 1948 war that founded Israel concerns Nazareth’s survival. It is the only Palestinian city in what is today Israel that was not ethnically cleansed during the year-long fighting . . . .
___Nazareth was not only an anomaly; it was a mistake. It was supposed to be cleared of its Palestinian population, just like those other Palestinian cities now in Israel. Much to Israel’s regret, it has become an unofficial capital for Israel’s 1.6 million Palestinian citizens, a fifth of the Israeli population.
___The reason for Nazareth’s survival are the actions of one individual. Ben Dunkelman, a Canadian Jew who was the commander of the Israeli army’s Seventh Armoured Brigade, disobeyed orders . . .    More . . .
❹ Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK
PALESTINIAN  CITIZENS  IN  ISRAEL:  A  FAST-SHRINKING  CIVIC  SPACE
Nadim Nashif, Raya Naamneh
Jan. 13, 2016
Israel still portrays itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Yet in practice, as its Palestinian citizens can attest, it functions as a Jewish ethnocracy, leaving small margins of freedom for its Palestinian citizens that have been steadily shrinking in the past few years. Now the Israeli state has come under the complete control of the far right wing, which sees no need even for such limited margins of freedom. This is evident in the wave of discriminatory legislation and the use of the Emergency Regulations against established non-governmental organizations (NGOs) an movements such as the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.    More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
“HOW  TO LIE  WITH  MAPS”  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THE  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
Ahmad El-Atrash
Jan. 2016
Since the early days of occupation, the Israeli authorities have used maps as a tool to dispossess Palestinians, establish de facto sovereignty over the occupied territory, and engineer a fabricated statehood. The socio-spatial consequences of map-making, as a form of authority-making, in present-day Palestine become “stubborn realities” that tend to perpetuate in a state of permanent temporariness due to Israel’s prolonged military occupation of territory. In this article, maps are best understood as discourses that create knowledge.  More . . . 

“EXODUS,”  BY  TAHA  MUHAMMAD  `ALI  (1931-1911)

The street is empty
like the memory of a monk
and faces explode in the flames
like an acorn
and the dead crowd all the doorways
they crowd the horizon
and no vein can bleed
more than it has already bled
no scream can rise
higher than it has already risen
We will not leave!
The shields of light are breaking in the face of this siege
in the face of these ill-matched forces
From outside, everyone wants us to leave
But we will not leave!
Ivory white girls hide themselves
from the glare of captivity
and everyone outside wants us to leave
We will not leave!
The big guns rake the jujube trees
and destroy the dreams of the violets
they blunt hunger, but sharpen thirst
they parch lip and souls.
And everyone outside says:
“What are you waiting for? All warmth is denied,
the very air is confiscated,
so why don’t you leave?”
Masks fill the pulpits, the brothels and the places of ablution
Masks cross-eyed with surprise
do not believe what is obvious
and fall, astonished and writhing
like worms.

We will not leave!
Are we inside here merely to be outside?
Leaving is only for the masks, for pulpits and for conferences
It is only the siege within that should go outside
the siege which the Bedouins of the deserts have brought on us
the siege inflicted by brethren tasting of the sword
and the stink of crimson birds
We will not leave!
Those outside are closing the escape routes
and giving their blessings to the imposter
Praying, petitioning the Almighty God
for our deaths.

―translated by Lena Jayyusi and John Heath-Stubbs

About Taha Muhammad ‘Ali
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

How-to-Lie-with-Maps-2
An Israeli Official Map Showing the West Bank as part of Israel. (Source: Middle East Monitor, 25 November 2015.)

“. . . towards what remained of her home . . .” (Majid Abu Ghoush)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-home demo
Israeli police at the scene of a home demolition in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 (Israel Police)

❶ Israeli forces demolish homes of 2 Palestinian attackers in Jerusalem
❷ Settlers breach wall of Palestinian home in Jerusalem’s Old City
❸ Israeli settlers attack Palestinian home near Nablus
❹ Netanyahu targets Palestinians in Israel
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The road to hell is paved with ‘national security’
❻ Poetry by Majid Abu Ghoush
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  HOMES  OF  2  PALESTINIAN  ATTACKERS  IN  JERUSALEM
Jan. 4, 2016
Israeli forces on Monday demolished the family home of a Palestinian attacker killed in October and sealed off the home of another attacker’s family with cement, the families told Ma’an.
___The homes, in the Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood of East Jerusalem, belonged to relatives of Alaa Abu Jamal and Baha Elayyan who were both shot dead on Oct. 13 after carrying out separate attacks that left four Israelis dead.
___Israeli forces reportedly stormed the homes and ordered the families to evacuate them before they proceeded with the demolitions.   More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
SETTLERS  BREACH  WALL  OF  PALESTINIAN  HOME  IN  JERUSALEM’S  OLD  CITY
Jan. 4, 2016
Israeli settlers on Sunday made a number of breaches through the wall of a Palestinian home belonging to Noura Sub Laban in the Old City of Jerusalem, family members told Ma’an.
___Noura’s son, Ahmad Sub Laban, said the family was shocked to find at least six breaches through the wall, which borders a settler enclave that was established just two weeks ago.
___Ahmad said the family called Israeli police, who arrived on the scene and asked that the settlers repair the damage without bringing any formal procedures against them, despite the settlers admitting to breaching the wall.   More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ATTACK  PALESTINIAN  HOME  NEAR  NABLUS
Jan. 3, 2016
Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked a Palestinian home in the village of Beit Furik near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said.
___Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers threw stones at the home of Nihad Hanani before leaving behind a Molotov cocktail and a letter.
___Daghlas said that the settlers — believed to be from the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar — were chased by locals as they fled the scene after attacking the home. The attack is the most recent to be carried out by settlers in the occupied West Bank.   More . . .

1-benjamin_netanyahu_01
Netanyahu remained committed to invigorating incitement against Palestinian citizens of Israel at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. (Photo: Alternative News Agency)

❹ ALTERNATIVE NEWS AGENCY
NETANYAHU  TARGETS  PALESTINIANS  IN  ISRAEL
Sergio Yahni
Jan. 4, 2016
Following Friday’s attack in Tel Aviv, which Israeli police suspect was carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened Sunday’s cabinet meeting with a call for greater law enforcement in “the Arab sector.”
___On Friday, two people were shot dead and six others were wounded in a shooting at a crowded pub at 130 Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.
___The police have yet to officially refer to Friday’s shooting as a terrorist attack. . . .
___Nertanyahu visited the scene on Saturday and immediately treated the event as a terrorist attack.   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
INTIFADA PALESTINE
THE  ROAD  TO  HELL  IS  PAVED  WITH  ‘NATIONAL  SECURITY’
CJ Werleman (from Middle East Eye)
Jan. 3, 2016
If you wanted to trace the roots of any of the world’s evil, conflict and chaos, you could start where you first heard the words “national security”.
___In the name of “national security,” Germany invaded Poland, the Nazis cleansed the Jews . . . while Israel ethnically cleansed more than 500 Arab villages, annexed Palestinian land, and enclosed it with a “security barrier”.
___More recently, it is the god of “national security” that has not only given us the self-defeating “war on terror” but also Guantanamo Bay . . . . It is also under the guise of national security that the US homeland-security-industrial complex has boomed to more than $50 billion per year . . . .
___In the wake of the recent Paris and San Bernardino attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is turning the West’s fixation on Islamic State-inspired terrorism into an opportunity to expand both its apartheid laws and its militarisation of the West Bank.  More . . .

“RETURNING,”  BY  AMJID  ABU  GHOUSH

the woman was dragging her feet
and what remained of her children
towards what remained of her home
towards what remained
of the sea
towards what remained
of the heart
towards what remained of the heart

she raised her hand softly
wiped a tear which rolled down her cheek
and smiled when the beautiful one
she met on the way asked her:
why are you going back?

to water the jasmine tree
to shade the names of the martyrs

—translated by Magi Gibson

MAJID ABU GHOUSH was born in Amwas. He is a prolific poet, a member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and a founding member of Poets Without Borders Palestine.
From A  BIRD  IS  NOT  A  STONE:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  POETRY  (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.

“. . . 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
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you for “following.”)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
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.)

 

“. . . The reckless playfulness of childhood . . .” (Ibrahim Nasrallah)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Fassuta is an Arab town on the northwestern slopes of Mount Meron in the Northern District of Israel, south of the Lebanese border. In 2005, the population of Fassuta was 2,900. Photo Shiham Abu Ayoub (Shayoub). Photo by Shiham Abu Ayoub.) See no. 4 below.
Fassuta is an Arab town on the northwestern slopes of Mount Meron in the Northern District of Israel, south of the Lebanese border. In 2005, the population of Fassuta was 2,900. Photo Shiham Abu Ayoub (Shayoub). Photo by Shiham Abu Ayoub.) See no. 4 below.

❶ Israeli forces shoot, kill teen in Jerusalem after 2nd alleged attack
❷ Israeli authorities issue 48-hour ban on Palestinian entry to Old City
❸ WATCH: Settlers hurl burning tires, boulders at Palestinians
❹ One Border, Two Worlds
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Searching for hope on days of unconscionable tragedy
❻ Poetry by Ibrahim Nasrallah
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  KILL  TEEN  IN  JERUSALEM  AFTER  2ND  ALLEGED  ATTACK
Oct. 4, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – Israeli police officers shot dead a Palestinian teen near the Damascus gate of Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday morning after he allegedly attempted to stab a 16-year-old Israeli boy, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
____An Israeli police spokesperson said Israeli forces “identified the suspect who still had knife in his hand, and Israeli forces then neutralized and shot” the man.
[. . . . .]
____Alloun is the second Palestinian to be shot dead after allegedly stabbing Israelis in the Jerusalem’s Old City in the past 24 hours. [. . . . .]
____However, Alloun’s father has denied claims that his son tried to stab anyone before he was shot dead in the street, citing a video of the incident that has been circulating the internet.
More . . . (including video of event)
Corresponding Israeli reporting . . .
Continuing . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES  ISSUE 48-HOUR BAN ON PALESTINIAN ENTRY TO OLD CITY
Oct. 4, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities have issued a 48 hour ban on Palestinians from entering the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem, following two stabbing attacks in which two Israelis were killed, and three injured at the site, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
____The two Palestinians who allegedly committed the stabbing attacks were shot dead on the scene during separate incidents, hours apart.
____Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an that the ban on Palestinians entering the Old City was put in place in order to “prevent any further incidents or attacks.”
More . . .
❸ + 972 MAGAZINE
WATCH:  SETTLERS  HURL  BURNING  TIRES,  BOULDERS  AT  PALESTINIANS
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Oct. 4, 2015
Hundreds of settlers launch dozens of attacks against Palestinians across the West Bank, in the wake of two Palestinian attacks that left four Israelis dead. Rights groups demand the army intervene to protect Palestinians from settler violence.
More . . .
More news . . .
❹ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
ONE  BORDER,  TWO  WORLDS
Fida Jiryis
Oct. 2015
I stand in the long line of cars waiting to leave Qalandia Checkpoint, my anger and frustration still boiling over, even after six years. I’ve never been able to get used to it, and I don’t think anyone does, really. We just grit our teeth and go through the motions.
[. . . . .]
____It’s one of the most depressing spaces I’ve ever had the misfortune to frequent. . . The road is battered, the passengers weary, the Israeli soldiers smug and insolent. We hope and pray that the line will move forward uneventfully and that the teenagers imprisoning us will see nothing wrong in our ID cards and let us through.
____I cross, and within a few minutes, the entire reality changes. About two kilometers is all it takes to be transported to a different world. Suddenly, dust and dirt are replaced by green and cleanliness.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+ 972 MAGAZINE
SEARCHING  FOR  HOPE  ON  DAYS  OF  UNCONSCIONABLE  TRAGEDY
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Oct. 4, 2015
The only thing that can stop the killing, that can turn desperate people from violence, that can stop the creation of new orphans, is hope. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere to be found.
____The most tragic part about the violence that strikes civilians in Israel and Palestine is that it is largely preventable. That is not to say that the victims are in any way to blame for their own murders — of course not. But political violence is a direct result of the political conflict, of the occupation, incitement on both sides, and an utter lack of vision being offered to both Israelis and Palestinians.
More . . .

“FUNERAL,” BY IBRAHIM NASRALLAH
He bequeathed his soul…to horses’ foreheads
His feet…to a dance that makes the earth want to
Be green
His voice…to the cockerels of morning
His little ensnaring toys… to the old men
His hands, with the cold dignity of wisdom, …to
The reckless playfulness of childhood
His heart…to a woman who stopped him in his
Tracks when she loved him
She said: don’t be domestic, like pots and; pans
And departed
And so
When we walked in his funeral procession
The coffin was empty

From PoemHunter.com. Web. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/funeral-31/
About Ibrahim Nasrallah 

Israeli soldiers accompany Israeli settlers as settlers carry out vigilante attacks against local Palestinians and their land in the West Bank village of Bur’in, October 3, 2015. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
Israeli soldiers accompany Israeli settlers as settlers carry out vigilante attacks against local Palestinians and their land in the West Bank village of Bur’in, October 3, 2015. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

“. . . Who has spoken out against death at every corner. . .” (Fouzi El-Asmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Shepherd in Salem village near Nablus, occupied West Bank, 10 October 2014. Photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz ActiveStills
Shepherd in Salem village near Nablus, occupied West Bank, 10 October 2014. Photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz ActiveStills

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
IN  NABI  SALEH,  AN  OCCUPIER’S  SENSE  OF  ENTITLEMENT
September 2, 2015
Reactions in Israel to the attempted arrest of a minor in Nabi Saleh have been fierce yet predictable. Wrapped up in outraged reactions to the treatment of the soldier himself, however, is Israel’s bruised sense of entitlement.
An Israeli soldier’s attempted arrest of a Palestinian minor in Nabi Saleh last Friday, and its prevention by the child’s family, have generated heated reactions in Israel. Responses have ranged from outrage at the soldier’s treatment to calls for increased and harsher powers for Israeli security forces . . . Only in a few isolated corners did the question arise of whether it is reasonable or decent for an armed soldier to chase and pin down an injured child. . . .
____ . . . Much was made of the fact that this was not the first time the Tamimi family has been in the news . . . . There seems to have been little consideration of the fact that what is caught on camera simply gives the barest hint as to what goes on behind closed doors, or that the video camera might be a legitimate non-violent weapon in the struggle against military occupation.
More. . .
Related. . . 

❶ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
ISRAEL  UPS  JERUSALEM  REPRESSION
September 2, 2015
Israel has created the new position of “security coordinator” for Jerusalem’s Old City area, increasing repression of Palestinian residents in occupied East Jerusalem.
____The Jerusalem municipality established the new position of security coordinator for the occupied East Jerusalem Old City area, which includes the Old City itself and the surrounding Israeli settlements. Creation of this position is the initiative of municipal council member Arieh King, a right-wing activist for the Judaisation of Jerusalem and himself a settler residing in East Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.
____King, who holds the emergency and security file for Jerusalem’s municipal council, told the settler-affiliated news portal Arutz 7 that “the ultimate goal is to transform the Old City and its surroundings into a safer area.”
More. . .
Related. . .
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Increasing repression of Palestinian resistance in Jerusalem's Old City area. Photo Sergio Yahini, AIC
Increasing repression of Palestinian resistance in Jerusalem’s Old City area. Photo Sergio Yahini, AIC

❷ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
WOMAN  INJURED,  EIGHT  SHEPHERDS  KIDNAPPED  NEAR  NABLUS
September 02, 2015
Shepherd Injured, Eight Sheep Killed After Being Rammed With a Settler’s Car Near Hebron
____Israeli soldiers attacked and injured, Wednesday, an elderly Palestinian woman, and kidnapped eight shepherds and farmers, in Salem village, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
____Medical sources in Nablus said an elderly woman, identified as Mahfoutha Eshteyya, 75 years of age, attempted to defend her son as Israeli soldiers were trying to kidnap him, when they violently assaulted her. . . The woman . . . was moved to a local hospital in Nablus.
____The soldiers also attacked and kidnapped eight Palestinian shepherds in the area, and took them to a number of detention and interrogation centers
More. . .

❸ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
DETAINEE  DEVELOPS  PSYCHOLOGICAL,  NEUROLOGICAL  ISSUES  DUE  TO  8  YEARS  IN  SOLITARY  CONFINEMENT
September 2, 2015
The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported, Wednesday, that political prisoner Mohammad Jobran Khalil, 33, is suffering various psychological and neurological issues, resulting from being held in solitary confinement for the eight consecutive year.
____The Committee said that Jubran, from the central West Bank city of Ramallah, has also been denied family visits for the ninth consecutive month.
More. . .

❹ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
UN:  GAZA  COULD  BE  ‘UNINHABITABLE’  BY  2020
September 1, 2015
The Gaza Strip, ravaged by wars and nearly a decade of a grueling Israeli blockade, could become uninhabitable for residents within just five years, the United Nations development agency said Tuesday.
____“The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020,” the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) wrote in its annual report.
____Gaza, a tiny enclave of just 362 square kilometers (about 225 square miles) squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, counts one of the highest population densities in the world.
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“BECAUSE  I  AM  AN  ARAB,”  BY  FOUZI  EL-ASMAR
I sit in preventive detention.
The reason, see, is that I am an Arab.
An Arab who has refused to sell his soul
who has always striven, sir, for freedom.
An Arab who has protested at the suffering
of his people
Who has carried with him the hope
of a just peace
Who has spoken out against death
at every corner
Who has called for and has lived
a life of brotherhood.
That is why I sit in preventive detention
Because I carried on the struggle
And because I am an Arab.

El-Asmar, Fouzi. THE  WIND-DRIVEN  REED  AND  OTHER  POEMS. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1979.
Available from Amazon.
About Fouzi El-Asmar

Palestinian Manal Keferna, 30, cries as she holds dead chicks upon her return to the family house destroyed by Israeli strikes in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2014. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Palestinian Manal Keferna, 30, cries as she holds dead chicks upon her return to the family house destroyed by Israeli strikes in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2014. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis.

“. . . Her house is above the carnations . . . “ (Yousef Al-Mahmoud)

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Nora Sub Leban in her home in the Muslim Quarter of Old JerusalemNora Sub Laban in her home in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem

❶ from THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
LAST PALESTINIAN FAMILY IN JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOOD FEAR EVICTION AT ANY MOMENT
Sarah Levy
25 March 2015
A Palestinian family that has lived in Jerusalem’s Old City since 1953 is being forced out of their home by Israeli settlers backed by the state.
Since 9 February the Sub Laban family of eight have been twice subjected to eviction attempts by Israeli settlers and police. The family are expecting a third attempt to come at any time. . .
. . . Although the family have an appeal hearing before an Israeli district court to challenge the eviction on 31 May, the court has refused to give an order that would prohibit an eviction before that date. The constant fear of invasion and eviction by Israeli settlers, police — or both — has effectively put the family’s lives on hold.
(More. . .)
❷ from ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
SETTLERS TAKE OVER EAST JERUSALEM PROPERTY
Armed Israeli settlers Wednesday took over a Palestinian-owned property in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan
Protected by a large number of Israeli police, armed settlers broke into Silwan early Wednesday morning and occupied a building, which houses four apartments belonging to the al-Malhi-Faraj family. The settlers removed all furniture from the flats, changed the door locks and shuttered the windows closed.
. . . located in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan, flanking the southern wall of the al Aqsa mosque compound.
Israeli police cordoned the neighborhood off in advance, preventing Palestinian residents from approaching the property. A quarrel took place between Palestinians and the Israeli police, during which police physically assaulted and briefly detained Muhammad al-Malhi, 13.
(More. . .)
settlers_silwan
❸ from THE INDEPENDENT (UK online news)
ISRAELI SOLDIERS FILMED WAKING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT FOR QUESTIONING
Lizzie Dearden
March 28, 2015
Footage showing terrified Palestinian children being woken up by armed Israeli soldiers for questioning in the dead of the night has emerged. Boys as young as nine are shown being questioned about stone throwing and photographed by soldiers who dismiss their parents’ protests.
Volunteers from . . . the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, happened to be living in the flat block visited by troops in Hebron.
(More. . .)
❹ from PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI MILITARY ERECTS WATCHTOWER OVERLOOKING GIRLS’ SCHOOL IN HEBRON
March 31, 2015
The Israeli military forces Tuesday took over a Palestinian’s home, which is adjacent to a local elementary girls’ school in the old town of Hebron and erected a military watchtower overlooking the school’s yard.
. . . Israeli military forces deployed in the area and caused female students to panic and hampered their school day. . .
. . . Many Palestinian students must pass through Israeli military checkpoints just to get to school, and the military uses these checkpoints to harass and delay students.
(More. . .)
❺ from INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
SCHOOLCHILDREN INJURED NEAR BETHLEHEM
IMEMC & Agencies
March 31, 2015
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday morning, the Teqoua’ town, east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and fired gas bombs causing many schoolchildren to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Eyewitnesses said the children were walking to school when the soldiers stormed the village, especially since their schools are on the main road.
(More. . .)

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

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

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

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

albazz_spring12_smallfrom JADALIYYA
“Snapshot: Palestinian Spring”
Photo by Ahmad Al-Bazz