Tag: Judaization

“. . . these are not equal sides, occupier and occupied / We teach life, Sir . . . “ (Rafeef Ziadah)

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Israeli Occupation Forces tower separating Palestinian homes from illegal settlement in Hebron (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 7, 2015)

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|    IN  VIDEO  –  DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIAN  STUDENTS  SHOT,  INJURED  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
Israeli forces shot and injured several Palestinian students, while dozens of others suffered from tear-gas inhalation, on Sunday, as Israeli forces attacked them in the Tuqu village, in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem.    ___Local sources confirmed that Israeli forces raided the Tuqu high school and fired tear-gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets towards Palestinian students. of Bethlehem.    ___Local sources confirmed that Israeli forces raided the Tuqu high school and fired tear-gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets towards Palestinian students.    [. . . .] Israeli forces forced the students and staff members to evacuate the premises, resulting in taking control of the high school and shutting it down.    Sources added that that Israeli forces sealed off the two main entrances to the Tuqu village.     More . . .
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  FORCES  ATTACK,  INJURE  DOZENS  OF  PALESTINIAN  STUDENTS  IN  HEBRON
. . . . Related  ISRAEL  BANS  RENOVATIONS  OF  PALESTINIAN  KINDERGARTEN  IN  HEBRON
. . . . Related  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  TRY  TO  STEAL  PLAYGROUND  EQUIPMENT  IN  BEIT  TA’MIR  TOWN
|    HEBRON  IS  BRAVING  A  STORM  OF  JUDAISATION   The ongoing and intense settlement activity in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron confirms Israel’s deliberate policy to empty it of its Arab inhabitants and Judaise it. The Palestinian city remains the second most targeted area for illegal Jewish settlements after Jerusalem. The first settlement activity in the West Bank was the establishment of the Kfar Etzion kibbutz in the strategic area bordering Hebron.    ___. . . Israel’s plans for the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron are no less dangerous than its Judaisation plans for Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Over the years, the Israeli settlers have turned a major section of the mosque into a synagogue.   [. . . .]  the Israeli government announced recently a new settlement plan targeting the heart of Hebron in order to link the settlements built across the city by means of new illegal blocs.    More . . .
. . . . Related EXTREMIST  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ATTACK  PALESTINIAN  WORKERS  [HEBRON]
. . . . Related SETTLERS  BAN  ENTRY  OF  TRUCKLOADS  TO  GAZA
|    GREENBLATT:  NEITHER  SIDE  WILL  LIKE  THE  US  “DEAL  OF  THE  CENTURY”
US White House Envoy [Special Representative for International Negotiations] Jason Greenblatt, said in a closed meeting, that the US administration will soon be presenting President Trump’s peace plan in the Middle East that “neither side will like.”    ___According to Israel’s Channel 10, the meeting was held in London, and organized by the UK Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers, in which Greenblatt said that the plan would be a permanent deal instead of temporary agreements, adding that “there will be a need to compromise.”    More . . .

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|    PALESTINIAN  EDUCATION  MUST  MOVE  AWAY  FROM  THE  IMPOSED  HUMANITARIAN  AGENDA
Ramona Wadi
As the media hype over Khan Al-Ahmar fades away, mainstream narratives have yet to find another sensationalist violation to exploit . . .   the fate of the Bedouin community it houses will be forgotten . . .  Khan Al-Ahmar’s much-publicized school, built of tires and clay, will also fade into oblivion with the rest of the village and its inhabitants.    [. . . .] a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report dated April 2018 stated that 44 Palestinian schools are risking full or partial demolitions.   [. . . .]  For Israel, the targeting of Palestinian education is a political act designed to reduce drastically any chances of Palestinian emancipation, let alone resistance. Palestinians have a long history of utilizing education to provide the foundations for their legitimate anti-colonial struggle. Yet the incessant deprivation is increasingly contributing to a scenario where education is classified as a right from a western, and therefore, acceptable, perspective. Hence, the humanitarian focus on Palestinians being deprived of an uninterrupted right to education is dissociated from the particular needs of Palestinians who are living the realities of Israel’s colonial violence.    More . . .

NOTICES  FROM  ORGANIZATIONS. . . .
|    UNRWA  –  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEES  NEED  YOUR  SOLIDARITY  AND  SUPPORT  NOW  MORE  THAN  EVER  BEFORE.   #DignityIsPriceless Campaign. Donate now.

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“WE  TEACH  LIFE,  SIR”,  LONDON,  12.11.11, BY  RAFEEF  ZIADAH 

“. . . I’m unfamiliar with settlements. Are some of those people good? . . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

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❶ European conference on settlement declares Israel ‘apartheid regime’

  • Background: “Spatial Changes in Palestine: From Colonial Project to an Apartheid System.” African & Asian Studies.

❷ Israel encourages settlers to move to Jordan Valley settlements
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Netanyahu is redefining ethnic cleansing not pursuing genuine peace
❹ POETRY by Marwan Makhoul
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ EUROPEAN  CONFERENCE  ON  SETTLEMENT  DECLARES  ISRAEL  ‘APARTHEID  REGIME’ 
Days of Palestine
Nov. 11, 2017 ― Representatives from 24 European countries, including parliamentarians, legal experts, journalists and activists, met in Brussels, have declared Israel of establishing an “apartheid regime” in the West Bank.
___In a press release, the recommendations of the first European conference on Israeli settlement activity were named the Brussels Declaration, and included the following:
1. Israel, the occupying power of the Palestinian territories since 1967 continues its policy of confiscating and judaising Palestinian land and building settlements over it. These settlements have turned, with the passage of time, into an incubator for settler’s “terrorist organisations” such as HiiltopYouth, Paying the Price and Revenge.
2. With this premeditated policy of settlement expansion, it is, therefore, inappropriate to talk about dismantling political or security settlements, but rather, see this movement as a structure colonial policy that was able to colonize a large part of the West Bank not less than 60 percent of its size. This policy has, in fact, established an Apartheid regime, which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 . . .        MORE . . .

Al-Rimmawi, Hussein.
“SPATIAL  CHANGES  IN  PALESTINE:  FROM  COLONIAL  PROJECT  TO  AN  APARTHEID  SYSTEM.”
African & Asian Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, Nov. 2009, pp. 375-412.
[. . . .] After the 1967 war, Israel began to strip Palestinian land from its Palestinian owners . . . . settlements penetrated deeply inside the occupied land like spears, with the purpose of dividing the Palestinian land in the West Bank into three main Bantustans, north, and central and south.
___At present, Israel continues to construct its Apartheid Wall which would guarantee that the confiscated land be on the Israeli side of the border . . .  The Wall is planned and implemented in a way which results in residential and territorial discrimination. Palestinian workers may be allowed to work in Israel but will not be allowed to reside in the same place . . . .
___Palestinian cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, is being destroyed by Israeli bulldozers. The Apartheid Wall is destroying archeological sites, shrines, monuments and historical buildings. The establishment of this wall is represented by ‘spatial and socio-side’. The Wall also has a significant impact on Palestinian wild life and biodiversity. For example, heavy equipment destroys plant coverage and degrades the soil. Flora and fauna are endangered and some species will disappear.
[. . . .] The whole Zionist plan evolved through different phases which reflected itself on the space through the settlements, the creation of the State of Israel, the evolution of Israel to become an occupying power in Arab lands and the present apartheid system. Through the acquisition of territory and the building of the Annexation Wall, Israel aims at eliminating the possibility of Palestine as a viable political entity. Palestinians cannot fully exercise their human rights, including their freedom of expression, travel from one place to another, and different laws are applied to them than those used for Israeli settlers. At present, they are prisoners inside their own cities, villages, and refugee camps. . .  It seems that Israelis are not capable of transferring the soul of settlement movement into a real and consolidated state.   SOURCE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  ENCOURAGES  SETTLERS  TO  MOVE  TO  JORDAN  VALLEY  SETTLEMENTS       
The Palestinian Information Center 
Nov. 11, 2017 ― The National Office for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement on Saturday said that the Israeli government is planning to double the number of Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley area.
___The Office explained in its weekly report that the Israeli government plans to launch a marketing campaign aimed at encouraging settlers to move to the Jordan Valley, adding that it also has vowed to transfer funds to the settlement councils that host the newcomers. Preference will be given to the settlements that set fewer conditions to host settlers.
___Hebrew media sources have unveiled a plan presented by the Israeli Housing Minister, Yoav Galant, to strengthen the Jewish presence in the Jordan Valley, one-quarter of the West Bank.   MORE . . .
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  NETANYAHU  IS REDEFINING  ETHNIC  CLEANSING  NOT  PURSUING  GENUINE  PEACE   
The Palestinian Information Center
Kamel Hawwash    [ Kamel Hawwash is Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at Birmingham University, and Immediate Past President of the European Society for Engineering Education.]  
Nov. 11, 2017 ― Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not known for missing an opportunity to push peace further into the distant future. [. . . .] Netanyahu took to the air to absolve Israel of any fault for the lack of progress towards peace. Israel is in a difficult neighbourhood and therefore its security needs are such that meeting these is almost incompatible with a Palestinian state.
___In an interview . . .  he trotted out the usual talking points. Israel, he said, “stands out as a beacon of democracy, a beacon of self-restraint in a sea of trouble”. As for the Israeli army, “there is no more moral army in the world,” he said. The settlements “are an issue but I don’t think they are the issue”. Instead he believes the issue “is the 100-year-old refusal of the Palestinian leadership to recognise a Jewish state in any boundary”.  Netanyahu took issue with Marr regarding the settlements, saying “the idea that Jews cannot live in Judea [the West Bank] is crazy”. When challenged that it is Palestinian territory, which the UN says is a flagrant violation of international law, he said that it is “disputed territory”.  MORE . . .

“IDENTITY,” BY MARWAN MAKHOUL
I’m unfamiliar with refugee camps.
Is that the ultimate in giving up?
Or are they tents I’ve been told are white
with guy ropes at the corners to hold them up
that hold me up?

I’m unfamiliar with tear gas.
Is it a weapon whose used bears the radiance of defeat?
Or is it his disappointment at the pathos of my tears
when I cry

I’m unfamiliar with settlements.
Are some of those people good?
Sure, completely. Like I walk
on my hands,
and the sand sings?

I’m unfamiliar with my mother too.
Is she the one who suckled me?
Or is she the one bereft, standing in my doorway,
or a window on belonging?

I’m unfamiliar with UNRWA.
Is it a shipment I once chanced upon?
Or did I direct its driver
when he asked the way to Rafah?

I’m unfamiliar with the “cause”.
Is it a fiancée searching in the rubble
for her finger to put the ring on?
Or is half the whole of a fifth?

I’m unfamiliar with the truth.
Am I lacking something?
Or does my blood course within me
but not as my nerves would wish?

Personally, I’m unfamiliar with myself.
Am I the one now in my body?
Or am I that one I wrote about
the day I became my neighbor?
―Translated by Raphael Cohen   

From BANIPAL: MAGAZINE OF MODERN ARAB LITERATURE 45  Winter 2012.
Marwan Makhoul was born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother in 1979 in the village of Boquai’a in the Upper Galilee region of Palestine. He currently lives in the village of Maalot Tarshiha. Marwan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Mustaqbal College. His first book of poetry was published in 2007 in both Beirut and Baghdad by Al-Jamal Publishers. That same year a second edition of the book was published in Haifa by Maktabat Kul Shai’ Publishers. In 2009 he won the prize of best playwright in The Acre Theatre Festival for his first play. (An interview with Marwan Makhoul )

 

“. . . if we starve /We eat the dirt /And never depart . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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“1948 Palestine War – Al Nakba” Refugee camp (Photo: Palestinian Culture and Society)

❶ Lieberman: Not a single Palestinian refugee will return to their lands in Israel

Background:  “Halper on Judaization, De-Arabization in Israel/Palestine.”

❷ Ehud Barak says a Palestinian state would be ‘non-viable’
❷ ― (ᴀ) Surviving trace of Muslims’ rootedness in Jerusalem
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Why Israelis must disrupt the occupation
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ LIEBERMAN:  NOT  A  SINGLE  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEE  WILL  RETURN  TO  THEIR  LANDS  IN  ISRAEL 
Ma’an News Agency       
June 23, 2017.   During a speech at Israel’s Herzliya conference, aimed at discussing the country’s national policies, ultraright Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected the possibility of Palestinian refugees from historic Palestine, which Israel was built on, being able to return to their lands within the 1967 borders, a right that is upheld by United Nations Resolution 194.
___“We will not agree to the return of a single refugee to within the ‘67 borders,” Lieberman reportedly said.
___The right of return for Palestinian refugees is a central demand among Palestinians and their leadership.  [. . . .] According to Israeli media, Lieberman also said that an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict would “not solve the problems – it will make them worse,” and noted that Israel should first “reach a regional agreement with moderate Sunni states, and then an agreement with the Palestinians.”   MORE . . .
RELATED: Israeli minister: no Palestinian state in West Bank   Days of Palestine  June 13, 2017
RELATED: Netanyahu vows to build settlement all over Palestine  Days of Palestine      June 7, 2017

Adas, Jane. “HALPER  ON  JUDAIZATION,  DE-ARABIZATION  IN  ISRAEL/PALESTINE.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 35, no. 4, Jun/Jul2016, pp. 67-68.
[. . . .] Halper described Zionism as “a century-long campaign to turn Palestine into Israel.” At its center is Judaization, a term Halper acknowledged sounds anti-Semitic, but is one the Israeli government officially uses. The result has been the deliberate fragmentation of the Palestinian people . . . . Add to that “Israel’s long campaign of assassinating or imprisoning any Palestinian leadership,” and the result, Halper said, is that Palestinians have no effective leadership, nor any mechanism to get together and plan.
___”De-Arabization” of the land, Halper continued, has by now succeeded. East Jerusalem now has more Jews than Palestinians. Within Israel, planning and zoning laws confine the 20 percent of the population who are “Israeli Arabs” (never, he noted “Israeli Palestinians”) to 3.5 percent of the land. Gaza is caged. Palestinians in “Judea and Samaria” are restricted to Areas A and B, less than 40 percent of the West Bank. There is no longer any detachable contiguous territory, meaning the two-state solution is dead.      FULL ARTICLE . . .    

❷ EHUD  BARAK  SAYS  A  PALESTINIAN  STATE  WOULD  BE  ‘NON-VIABLE’       Mondoweiss
Philip Weiss
June 23, 2017.   Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says it is urgent to establish a Palestinian state– but he assured an Israeli audience that that state will be “non-viable.”
___Barak, a Labor leader who has challenged the current Prime Minister from the left, was speaking to the Herzliya conference, in remarks published yesterday. He said Israel’s future is in jeopardy because the world sees that Netanyahu is not sincere about a two-state solution. He went on:
___No one in the world . . . understands how come the government of Israel sees in a Palestinian state which is demilitarized– almost completely not viable, surrounded by the Israeli forces . . .  how can this non-viable state, which is surrounded, be an existential threat on Israel?… Existential threat on Israel? This sounds like either fabricated or visionary or completely crazy planning.       MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) SURVIVING  TRACE  OF  MUSLIMS’  ROOTEDNESS  IN  JERUSALEM
The Palestinian Information Center
June 21, 2017.   Overseeing the southern corner of holy al-Aqsa Mosque—Muslims’ 3rd holiest site—the Islamic Museum stands as a repository of a historical legacy that has survived for hundreds of years in Occupied Jerusalem.
___“The museum was established by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1923. It is a repository of artifacts that reflects the prolific nature of Jerusalem’s archaeological legacy” director of the Islamic Museum, Arafat Amr, told PIC.   MORE . . . 
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  WHY  ISRAELIS  MUST  DISRUPT  THE  OCCUPATION
The Electronic Intifada   
Miko Peled
June 12, 2017.   One of the most disturbing aspects about the reality in Palestine is its normalcy.     ___It has become normal to see Palestinians shot and killed, even children.  [. . . .] No one likes to be arrested, particularly when it involves a night or two in jail, sharing a smoke-filled room with no ventilation and no company save cockroaches and two-bit criminals who hate activists even more than they hate Arabs.      ___If we are to play a role in the overthrow of injustice, and if we are to one day see an end to the oppression of more than half of the people with whom we live, then we must use our privilege and act to end the normalcy and the oppression.   MORE . . .

“WE  SHALL  REMAIN,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD  – 1970

It is a thousand times easier
For you to pass an elephant through the needle’s eye
To catch fried fish in the Milky Way
To plow the sea
To teach the alligator speech, a thousand times easier
Than smothering with you oppression
The spark of an idea
Of forcing us to deviate
A single step
From our chosen march.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain in Lydda, Ramlah, and Galilee.

Here upon your chests
We shall remain
Like the glass and the cactus
In your throats
A fiery whirlwind
In your eyes.

Here we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We wash dishes in the hotels
And serve drinks to the masters.
We mop the floors in the dark kitchens
To extract a piece of bread
From your blue teeth
For the little ones.

Here, we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We starve,
Go naked,
Sing songs
And fill the streets
With demonstrations
And the jails with pride.
We breed rebellions
One after another.
Like twenty impossibles we remain
In Lydda, Ramlah, Galilee.

Here, we shall remain.
You may drink the sea;
We shall guard the shade
Of the olive tree and the fig,
Planting ideas
Like the yeast in the dough.
The coldness of ice is in our nerves
And a burning hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock
To quench our thirst
And if we starve
We eat the dirt
And never depart
Or grudge our blood.

Here―we have a past
―a present
―and a future.
Our roots are entrenched
Deep in the earth.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain.
Let the oppressor review his account
Before the turn of the wheel.
For every action there is a reaction:
Read what is written in the Book.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain―in Lydda, in Ramlah
And Galilee.

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 Tawfiq Zayyad

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“. . . The lightning which strikes in the road/Provides the passer-by with light . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
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Repairs being made to parts of Al Aqsa after Israeli extremists damaged windows and inside walls (Photo: Harold Knight, November 6, 2015)

❶ Thousands of Palestinians pray at Al-Aqsa on second Friday of Ramadan
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinian cars in Jerusalem neighborhood
❷ US Congress and Knesset celebrate ‘reunification’ of Jerusalem in joint event
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) In Jerusalem, “Religious War” Is Used to Cloak Colonialism
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) 50 Years of Israel’s Military Occupation of East Jerusalem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) Israel’s occupation was a plan fulfilled
❸ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim

  • Select bibliography: journal articles about the Occupation of Jerusalem

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THOUSANDS  OF  PALESTINIANS  PRAY  AT  AL-AQSA  ON  SECOND  FRIDAY  OF  RAMADAN
Ma’an News Agency      
June 9, 2017      Thousands of Palestinians headed to occupied East Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the second Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, in spite of Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement.
___Hundreds of members of Israeli police and military forces have been deployed across the Old City and its vicinity since early Friday morning Palestinian security services also deployed members near Israeli checkpoints leading to Jerusalem City.
___Palestinian residents of the West Bank are not allowed to access occupied East Jerusalem or Israel without an Israeli-issued permits.      MORE . . .

death to arabs
“Death to Arabs” in Hebrew painted on Palestinian cars in East Jerusalem (Photo: Group 194, June 5, 2017)

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  SETTLERS  VANDALIZE  PALESTINIAN  CARS  IN  JERUSALEM  NEIGHBORHOOD
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
June 9, 2017       Israeli Jewish settlers Friday overnight vandalized a number of Palestinian-owned cars in Beit Safafa neighborhood, south of East Jerusalem.
__WAFA correspondent reported the settlers slashed the tires of several Palestinian-owned cars and spray-painted racist anti-Arab graffiti on walls in the neighborhood.
___Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the East Bank, including East Jerusalem, but is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.   MORE . . .      
❷ US  CONGRESS  AND  KNESSET  CELEBRATE  ‘REUNIFICATION’  OF  JERUSALEM  IN  JOINT  EVENT 
Ma’an News Agency
June 8, 2017        In the latest event celebrating the “reunification” of Jerusalem in Israel, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the US Congress held a joint live broadcast event marking the  occasion on Wednesday, in which leaders from both countries celebrated their shared colonial histories and applauded Israel’s control over occupied East Jerusalem.
[. . . .]  Since 1967, Israel has stood accused of committing major violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including excessive and deadly use of violence; forced displacement; the blockade of the Gaza Strip; unjustified restrictions on movement; and the expansion of illegal settlements. MORE . . 
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) IN  JERUSALEM,  “RELIGIOUS  WAR”  IS  USED  TO  CLOAK  COLONIALISM
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
Nur Arafeh
February 3, 2015       The escalating clashes between Israeli settlers and Jerusalemite Palestinians are the harbingers of a major eruption with incalculable consequences. Immediately billed as a “religious war” by the media and Israeli right wingers, they are in fact the outcome of longstanding Israeli plans to Judaize the city and empty it of its Palestinian inhabitants. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Nur Arafeh analyzes the major changes that Israel has illegally imposed on Jerusalem and addresses the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)/Palestinian Authority’s (PA) effective abandonment of the population to fend for itself.         MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ)  50  YEARS  OF  ISRAEL’S  MILITARY  OCCUPATION  OF  EAST  JERUSALEM 
This Week In Palestine 
June, 2017      Israeli settler-colonial policies in occupied East Jerusalem extend from three central strategies: The first creates a Jewish majority in the city through establishing “Jewish only” settlements; the second pursues the same goal by reducing the Palestinian population through policies that either forcefully evict Palestinians from Jerusalem or impede their growth and development as a community; the third isolates East Jerusalem and divides the West Bank into two parts. A policy of spatial colonial segregation reduces the visibility, if not the demographic ratio, of the Palestinian presence in their city.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴄ) ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION  WAS  A  PLAN  FULFILLED     
The Electronic Intifada
Ilan Pappe
June 6, 2017     [. . . .] Just recently, I finished writing a book about this period, The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories.
___Through the work on this book, I realized that the Israeli manipulation of Jewish fear in 1967 was even more cynical than it was in 1948, when the Jewish leadership genuinely could not foresee the results of its decision to ethnically cleanse Palestine.  ___The cabinet meetings reveal a group of politicians and generals, who ever since 1948 looked for a way of rectifying what they deemed was the gravest mistake of the otherwise triumphant “war of independence”: the decision not to occupy the West Bank.   MORE . . .

“IT  OCCURRED  ON  THE  FIFTH  OF  JUNE,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

The reader may or may not recall
What we said in village halls

The reader may or may not recall
But we said it repeatedly
In precise and sound words

The lightning which strikes in the road
Provides the passer-by with light
Despite the burns

The reader may or may not remember
But so that everyone will know
I repeat!

We are in the Fifth
Of the month of June
We’re born anew.

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     

Selected Bibliography

Abuzayyad, Ziad. “The “Unification” of Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, Mar. 2007, pp. 56-59.  SOURCE . . .

Adas, Jane. “Israel’s ‘Master Plan’ for Judaization of Palestine Continues Apace.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan/Feb2016, pp. 30-31.     SOURCE . . .

Alkhalili, Noura, et al. “Shifting Realities: Dislocating Palestinian Jerusalemites from the Capital to the Edge.” International Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 14, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp. 257-267.  SOURCE . . .

Grassiani, Erella and Lior Volinz. “Intimidation, Reassurance, and Invisibility Israeli Security Agents in the Old City of Jerusalem.” Focaal, vol. 2016, no. 75, Summer2016, pp. 14-30.  SOURCE . . .      

Halper, Jeff. “The Policy of House Demolitions in East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done and to What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 17, no. 1/2, Mar. 2011, pp. 74-82.   SOURCE . . .

Ophir, Adi. “On the Structural Role and Coming End of ‘The Occupation’.” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, Fall2016, pp. 688-693.  SOURCE . . .

Rivera-Pagán, Luis N. “Reading the Hebrew Bible in Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” Ecumenical Review, vol. 68, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 36-61.  SOURCE . . .

Schejtman, Mario. “Meretz Jerusalem Views about the Future of the City.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 28-31.   SOURCE . . .

Thawaba, Salem A. “Jerusalem Walls: Transforming and Segregating Urban Fabric.” African & Asian Studies, vol. 10, no. 2/3, May 2011, pp. 121-142.  SOURCE . . .

Yacobi, Haim. “From ‘Ethnocracity’ to Urban Apartheid: The Changing Urban Geopolitics of Jerusalem\Al-Quds.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 8, no. 3, July 2016, pp. 100-114.  SOURCE . . .

“. . . merely one expression of the twin processes of ethnic cleansing and Judaization . . .” (Jeff Halper)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
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Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian family’s home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Aug.1, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ Israel compels Jerusalemite to demolish his home

  • Background:  “The Policy Of House Demolitions In East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done And To What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ Israeli forces deliver demolition order to occupied East Jerusalem home
❸ Spain joins US in condemning Israel’s expansion of Gilo settlement
❹ Opinion/Analysis:  Israel’s barbarism policy of Judaizing Jerusalem
. . . ❹― (a) Jerusalem simmering over ‘Judaisation’ plan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  COMPELS  JERUSALEMITE  TO  DEMOLISH  HIS  HOME   
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA        
Nov. 13, 2016
Israeli occupation authorities on Sunday forced a Palestinian to demolish two homes of his own in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir, under the pretext of being built without an Israeli-issued permit.
___Mohammad al-Jaabis, owner of the two homes, said Israeli authorities compelled him to demolish his two homes for being “illegally” constructed. He said he has incurred some $91,000 in losses for construction costs and lawyers’ fees.       More . . .  

  • Halper, Jeff. “The Policy Of House Demolitions In East Jerusalem: What It Is, How It Is Done And To What End.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 17.1/2 (2011): 74-82.   Source.  

Israel’s policy . . .  of systematically demolishing Palestinian homes, urban neighborhoods and entire towns and villages goes back to 1948 and continues with a vengeance up to this moment, both within Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The motivation is obvious: It is merely one expression of the twin processes of ethnic cleansing and Judaization, both of those, in turn, being consequences of defining Israel as a “Jewish state” and taking the steps necessary to make it so. The house demolition policy represents the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: denying the Palestinian people the right to remain in the Land of Israel, either as a national collective or as individuals, and their displacement by Jews.
___ Even if Israel cannot force the emigration of all the Palestinians, the effect of these twin processes is evident. . .  the very first act of the occupation was that of home demolition, carried out during the 1967 war, even before the fighting had ended. On June 11 . . .  West Jerusalem mayor Teddy KoUek ordered the destruction of the Arab Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City, situated at the entrance to the Western Wall.
[. . . .]   Since Palestinian residents of Jerusalem cannot acquire permits to build on the 89% of East Jerusalem that they own, some 25,000 housing units are currently lacking in the Palestinian sector. . . . the shortage is artificial and induced, a way to force Palestinians out of the city.
___ Refusal to issue building permits confines Palestinians to small patches of East Jerusalem. In order to give teeth to its hostile zoning practices, the Jerusalem municipality, together with the Ministry of Interior, demolishes “illegal” Palestinian houses. . .  Thus, despite an induced shortage of 25,000 units, the municipality grants only 150-350 permits a year for Arab housing and demolishes 50-100 homes a year. Twenty-two thousand Palestinian housing units have been declared “illegal”; some 15,000 demolition orders are outstanding. According to the Jerusalem municipality itself, 2,000 Palestinian houses have been demolished in East Jerusalem since 1967, none in Israeli West Jerusalem.    [. . . .]

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DELIVER  DEMOLITION  ORDER  TO  OCCUPIED  EAST  JERUSALEM  HOME
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 12, 2016
Israeli forces raided the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Saturday, where they delivered a demolition notice to the home of a local resident.
___Local activist Jamal Amr told Ma’an that armed Israeli forces . . . gave him a summons notice to meet with the municipality as well as a demolition order on his home.
___Amr said that the house was built in 1954, and was legally licensed in 1993 after receiving a “renovating license” from the municipality.
___It remained unclear for what reason Amr was given a demolition order.     More . . .        Related . . .

gilo-001
Picture from the West Bank village of Walajah, near the Bethlehem, shows the Israeli settlement of Gilo, Feb, 6, 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

❸ SPAIN  JOINS  US  IN  CONDEMNING  ISRAEL’S  EXPANSION  OF  GILO  SETTLEMENT 
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 12, 2016
The government of Spain released a statement on Friday joining the United States in condemning Israel’s recent approval of the construction of 181 new housing units in the illegal Gilo settlement in the occupied West Bank.     
[. . . .]    The statement reiterated Spain’s disapproval of Israel’s settlement expansions, and “like the rest of the international community, it considers Israeli settlements on Palestinian Occupied Territories to be illegal under international law.”     More . . .

❹ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   ISRAEL’S  BARBARISM  POLICY  OF  JUDAIZING  JERUSALEM      
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency  
Oct. 27, 2016
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) has pursued policies of killing, arresting and displacing against Palestinian people in Jerusalem.
___Over many years, the IOF has been destroying the Jerusalemite houses for the simple reason that they do not have permits.
___The Jerusalemite have to choose between two options: either they have to demolish their own homes with their own hands, in order to avoid punishment from Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, or the IOF will demolish them and make the Jerusalemite pay high fines plus demolition costs.
___“The Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished my home which was a shelter for 35 members,” the Jerusalemite Issa Jaavrah said while he was standing upon the rubble of his home, noting that the family got homeless.
___“This is our destiny. However, we will withstand on our land and we will build a new home in spite of the all IOF’s strict procedures which aim at expelling us from our own home.”
___”Our . . .  memories and dreams are demolished with the home,” the Jerusalemite aged Fatima Jaavrah gloomily said.     More . . .
  . . . ❹― (A) JERUSALEM  SIMMERING  OVER  ‘JUDAISATION’  PLAN  
Aljazeera
Dalia Hatuqa and Gregg Carlstrom
Oct. 13, 2014
An influx of ideological settlers into East Jerusalem threatens to put an end to the two state solution.
[. . . .]  “The objective, yes, it’s to strengthen the Jewish presence in all areas of East Jerusalem,” said Aryeh King, a member of the Jerusalem city council and right-wing activist who founded an organisation devoted to settling Jews in East Jerusalem. “This way we can stop, or at least delay, Bibi’s idea of dividing the city, and wait for the right political leadership that won’t think about this.”      More . . .