“. . . . The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets . . .” (Farrah Sarafa)

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Police and some 1,200 protesters clash during a rally against the government’s plan to resettle some 30,000 Bedouin residents of the Negev, in the southern Israeli town of Hura, earlier this month (Photo credit: David Buimovitch/Flash90)

❶ Palestinian woman shot dead after alleged car attack at Gush Etzion
❷ Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians near Gaza border
❸ PHOTOS: Arabs and Jews protest planned expulsion of 1,200 Bedouin
❹ BDS win: UNICEF in Jordan ends G4S contract
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY — FOR JEWS ALONE
❻ Poetry by Farrah Sarafa
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PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  CAR  ATTACK  AT  GUSH  ETZION
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces shot dead a 34-year-old Palestinian woman on Friday morning after she allegedly rammed her car into an Israeli soldier stationed at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern occupied West Bank.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that after the woman hit the soldier with her car, Israeli forces “responded to the imminent threat” by shooting and killing her.     MORE . . .
ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  GAZA  BORDER
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
4 Mar. 2016
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian workers east of Gaza City on Friday morning, with no injuries reported, locals told Ma’an.
___Heavy gunfire was heard as Israeli soldiers stationed in military towers along the Gazan border opened fire on workers and bird hunters.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that the Palestinians left the area fearing for their safety. Medical sources said that no injuries were reported.      MORE . . .

bedouin children
Bedouin children take part in a demonstration outside the Be’er Sheva District Court against the planned demolition of Umm al-Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel’s Negev Desert, March 3, 2016. (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS:  ARABS  AND  JEWS  PROTEST  PLANNED  EXPULSION  OF  1,200  BEDOUIN
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Yael Marom, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
3 Mar. 2016
Over 300 demonstrators marched outside the Be’er Sheva District Court Thursday against the planned demolition of two unrecognized Bedouin villages, Umm al-Hiran and Atir, in Israel’s Negev Desert. Two villages are slated to be replaced by a Jewish-only community and a Jewish National Fund forest, respectively
___The protesters, Arabs and Jews, accompanied by members of Knesset from the Joint List and Meretz’s Issawi Freij, chanted “We will not move from Atir and Umm al-Hiran,” and “the Negev belongs to all of us — Jews and Arabs.”      MORE . . .
BDS  WIN:  UNICEF  IN  JORDAN  ENDS  G4S  CONTRACT
PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan has ended its contract with G4S following a campaign by BDS activists in the country and across the world over the company’s role in Israel’s detention and torture of Palestinian political prisoners and other Israeli human rights violations.
___Guman Mussa, the Arab World campaigns coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, welcomed the move.  MORE . . .
Opinion/Analysis: THE  RIGHT  TO  OWN  PROPERTY  — FOR  JEWS  ALONE
+972 BLOG
From YESH DIN, by Yossi Gurvitz
4 Mar. 2016
The government never authorized the wholesale annexation of the West Bank. That’s why it’s doing it behind everyone’s backs. . . .
[. . . . ]
The Israeli government never authorized . . . unofficial policy of annexation – one that does not grant equal rights to those being annexed, while at the same time depriving them of the legal defenses they are entitled to as protected persons, since, allegedly, there is no occupation.      MORE . . . 

“LET  THE  LAND  CHOOSE,”  BY  FARRAH  SARAFA

Who do you think the Holy Land
Would choose: Palestine or Israel?

Do you expect the birthplace of 3
Religions to ever really be peaceful?

I mean—Jesus was a saint,
Tortured and crucified by men with gold.

Do we celebrate Pilot’s cursed victory
Or the sacrifices made by a saint,

A hero, who rises from the dead?
His Resurrection marked by Easter eggs,

Reproduction. Do miracles
Require modernity or tradition

To appear? Chemicals or nature?
Mind or heart? Bulldozing olive trees,

Whose oil sustained families, diet
And economy, Israel is yet to produce

A decent olive oil. Its blood somehow
Curdles with the juice of branches needed

To extract an extra virgin olive.
The Holy Land seemingly chooses bullets,

Nightclubs, Capitalism, Snobbery-
(Ignorance is bliss)—but the roots

The veins reaching into mountains’
Throats seem to not be cooperating.

Why is that? Ask Jesus, the rebel,
Who’d say: First get to love Palestine.

About Farrah Sarafa
In 2006 she wrote: “My mother was born in Palestine, my father in Iraq; they married in Egypt twenty five years ago and had me here in the States. I am a pure, product of occupation and war, therefore, confused by my American upbringing. The war has been eating me up more than ever and poetry is my primary response. . .”
From Warpoetry.co.uk
BDS FINAL LOGO_v5WEB_URL_side

“. . . What should I do with my pain . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

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Men walk past destroyed buildings in Yarmouk refugee camp in April of 2015 (AFP/ Youssef Karwashan, File)

❶ Aid convoys reach besieged Palestinian refugees in Syria
❷ Israeli naval forces launch rockets near central Gaza, ground troops level land
❸ UN delegation visits Gaza Strip to evaluate reconstruction
❹ The ethnic cleansing of the Knesset
. . . . . ❹―(ᴀ) Arab Knesset members punished for helping their constituency
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘GOOD LABOR – BAD LIKUD’: DISPELLING THE MYTH OF ‘DEMOCRACY’ WITHIN ISRAEL’S POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
AID  CONVOYS  REACH  BESIEGED  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEES  IN  SYRIA
Feb. 17, 2016
UN aid workers gained access to Palestinian refugees in the Damascus area for the first time in over seven months following approval by the Syrian government to open a limited number of besieged areas across the war-torn country.
___Chris Gunness, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) told Ma’an that workers were able to deliver aid to besieged and hard-to-reach communities in the Damascus area for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday. More . . .
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  NAVAL  FORCES  LAUNCH  ROCKETS  NEAR  CENTRAL  GAZA,  GROUND  TROOPS  LEVEL  LAND
Feb. 18, 2016
Israeli naval forces shot rockets at the central Gaza coast overnight Thursday, locals said, adding that Israeli ground troops entered southern Gaza and leveled land near the border.
___Israeli naval forces reportedly fired rockets near al-Zahra city in the central Gaza strip. No injuries were reported.
___In southern Gaza, Israeli ground troops reportedly entered about 10 meters into the Gaza Strip near al-Qarara village and leveled land along the border, locals said.   More . . .
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UN  DELEGATION  VISITS  GAZA  STRIP  TO  EVALUATE  RECONSTRUCTION
Feb. 17, 2016
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, applauding the reconstruction effort in the Strip.
___Nikolay Mladenov said his delegation “found tangible progress in rebuilding some of the destroyed houses there” pointing out that the UN continues to support the reconstruction.   More . . .

1-knessett
Disregarding the voters who elected them, Israeli politicians work to decisively deem Palestinian MKs unfit for ‘democracy.’

ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
THE  ETHNIC  CLEANSING  OF  THE  KNESSET
Hani Habib
Feb. 17, 2016
On February 8th, the Knesset Ethics Committee suspended three Joint List Members of Knesset (MK) for several months. The committee suspended the MKs for visiting Palestinian families that were mourning a relative killed by Israeli forces but had yet to receive their bodies for burial from the Israeli authorities.
___The MKs’ visit with the families of killed Palestinians prompted . . . the racist and provocative decision to suspend them – a decision that expresses a high degree of fascism. More . . .
. . . . . ❹―(ᴀ)  ARAB  KNESSET  MEMBERS  PUNISHED  FOR  HELPING  THEIR  CONSTITUENCY    More . . .
Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
‘GOOD  LABOR –  BAD  LIKUD’:  DISPELLING  THE  MYTH  OF  ‘DEMOCRACY’  WITHIN  ISRAEL’S  POLITICAL  ESTABLISHMENT
Ramzy Baroud
Feb. 16, 2016
The Israeli ‘Right’, as demonstrated by a scary coalition of rightwing nationalists, ultranationalists and religious zealots, deserves all the bad press it has garnered since its formation last May.
___But none of this should come as a shock, as the ‘Right’ in Israel has never been anything but a coalition of demagogues that catered to the lowest common denominator in society. As unlikable as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, he is, in fact, a fair representation of the worst that Israel has to offer, which, over the years, has morphed to represent mainstream thinking.    More. . . .

“THE  UGLIEST  OF  WORDS,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

What should I do with the narcissus?
The apricot?
The crowns of rugged trees?
What should I do with the finest
of my wildflowers? What?
What should I do with the strongest, fiercest,
and cruelest wild flowers and thorns?
What should I do with the strongest
of English words?
Foreigner?
The fiercest of French traits:
Etrangé?
The cruelest of German blows:
Ausländer?
The ugliest of Hebrew terms:
Oivim.
The most horrible sound in Arabic:
Kuffar.
What should I do with my pain
over my ignorance of Sanskrit
and Esperanza?
My fondness for wildflowers
runs deep.
What should I do
with the fence of fire
and with my being caught―
between the ugliest and the finest?
What should I do?
What?
What should I do?

From Al-Qasim, Samih. Sadder  than  Water:  New  &  Selected  Poems. Nazih Kassis, Trans. (Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2006.)
Available from Amazon
About Samih Al-Qasim