Tag: Marwan Makhoul

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

Harold KnightLeave a comment

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 )

 

“. . . Am I lacking something? . . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinian Munir Shindi drives a replica of 1927 Mercedes Gazelle that he built from scratch, on a street in Gaza City
Munir Shindi drives a replica of a 1927 Mercedes Gazelle that he built from scratch, in Gaza City, June 19, 2016. (Photo:REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)

❶ Army Kidnaps Two Palestinian Teenagers In Bethlehem

  • background from Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ How education reform could curb Palestinian unemployment

  • background from Foreign Affairs

❸ Gaza mechanic turns heads in handmade classic car
❹ Opinion/Analysis:  THE  TERROR  OF  THE  CHILDREN
❺ POETRY by Marwan Makhoul
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ARMY  KIDNAPS  TWO  PALESTINIAN  TEENAGERS  IN  BETHLEHEM
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
July 11, 2016
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, the ‘Aida refugee camp, searched several homes and kidnapped two teenagers from their homes. The soldiers also assaulted and injured a Palestinian from Jenin.
___Local sources said the army surrounded Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem, before several military vehicles invaded it, and the soldiers stormed and violently searched many homes, and kidnapped two teenagers.
___The two kidnapped teenagers have been identified as Mohammad Khaled al-Kurdi, 17, and Sayyed Mohammad al-Jabiri, 17.     MORE . . .

from  Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture
To appreciate the constraints of the operation of law and the legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in general and the West Bank in particular, it is important to understand the jurisdictional and sovereign limitations and duality of laws that exist, given the present and past political contexts and the historic legal heritage that have prevailed for centuries. . . .
[. . . .]  Israel’s control over movement within the OPT (West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) and family reunification matters has led to issues concerning marriages, children living with both parents and receipt of health care and/or education. If a resident of the West Bank marries abroad, the spouse is denied entry and so are the children, resulting in divorce, separation or emigration abroad. These policies are carried out through the application of military decrees, amended over time to increase the restrictions and limitations.
___These amendments have converted thousands of West Bank residents into “offenders” and “violators” of the military orders.

  • Husseini, Hiba. “Legal Duality In The Occupied West Bank.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 21.3 (2016): 22-30.
The Wider Image: Child labour in Gaza
Palestinian Mohamoud Yazji, a 16-year-old apprentice mechanic, at a garage in Gaza City, March 17, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)

❷ HOW  EDUCATION  REFORM  COULD  CURB  PALESTINIAN  UNEMPLOYMENT
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Ahmad Melhem
July 8, 2016
Come September, Palestinian schools will begin emphasizing vocational and technical training as part of the government’s vision to reform the educational system and alleviate unemployment.
___The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor formed the Supreme Council for Vocational and Technical Education on Jan. 5. The council is tasked with promoting and supporting professional and technical specializations to meet the demands of the labor market.       MORE . . . 

from Foreign Affairs
Arabs remain deeply segregated from Israel’s Jewish population: 90 percent of Arabs live in almost exclusively Arab towns and villages, and with just a few exceptions, Arab and Jewish children attend separate schools.
[. . . .]  when it comes to government support in such areas as the allocation of land for new construction, financing for cultural institutions, and educational funding, Arabs suffer from ongoing discrimination, despite some recent progress. Arabs make up around 21 percent of Israel’s population, but according to the Mossawa Center, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for Israel’s Arab citizens, Arab communities receive only seven percent of government funds for public transportation and only three percent of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport’s budget is allocated for Arab cultural institutions; Arab schools are also significantly underresourced. (Toward the end of 2015, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development program for Israel’s Arab community, worth up to $4 billion, that will increase funding for housing, education, infrastructure, transportation, and women’s employment. Although the plan represents a step in the right direction, the exact amount of funding that will be allocated to each of these areas remains unclear, as does the process by which its implementation will be monitored.)

  • Ghanem, As’ad. “Israel’s Second-Class Citizens.” Foreign Affairs 95.4 (2016): 37-42.

❸ GAZA  MECHANIC  TURNS  HEADS  IN  HANDMADE  CLASSIC  CAR
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Mohammed Othman
July 8, 2016
The spirit of challenge and love of classic cars pushed Palestinian Munir Shindi, who lives in the neighborhood of al-Tuffah, east of Gaza City, to spend a year and a half in his small workshop manufacturing a replica of the 1927 Mercedes Gazelle.
___ Shindi, who now works as an auto mechanic in his own workshop, only completed middle school. He arrived in the Gaza Strip from the United Arab Emirates a year and seven months ago after spending 13 years there working in a mechanic shop in Abu Dhabi, where he became a specialist in repairing classic cars.
___He explained, “I decided to import some accessories from the United States so as to build an exact replica of the original model. Israel banned the entry of car parts into Gaza, and any parts I would import from the United States to Gaza would probably be confiscated. This is why I ordered the parts through a friend in the UAE and we had to resort to trickery to bring in these parts using Gazans arriving to the Gaza Strip to bring them in one by one. I waited more than six months to have all of the parts I needed to build my Gazelle.”     MORE . . .

❹ Opinion/Analysis: THE  TERROR  OF  THE  CHILDREN
Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
Mario Vargas Llosa, El Pais
[. . . .]
Did you know that in 2012 not one settler in the West Bank was killed? Do you also know that the average number of crimes committed against settlers in the past five years was as low as 4.8 a year? The Occupied Territories are safer, in fact, for settlers than the streets of New York, Mexico or Bogotá are for their inhabitants. Taking into account that there are 370,000 settlers in the West Bank (half a million with east Jerusalem) compared to 2,700,000 Palestinians, we are talking about one of the least violent corners of the world, despite the gunfights, demolitions, terrorism and protests that we hear about in the news.
___The only way to achieve such a low crime rate is by coldly and methodically imposing a strategy. Israel’s involves the systematic intimidation and psychological destabilization of children and teenagers between the ages of 12 to 17.
___This is done by “demonstrating the ubiquitous presence” of the Israeli Defense Forces, “the cauterization of the conscience” and “simulated operations disturbing the peace”. In other words, generating panic to prevent terror.       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 )

“. . . a certain hope, the hope to live . . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
highway
Highway 60, bisecting Palestine from Jerusalem, through Beit Jala, to Hebron as seen from Beit Jala (Photo: Harold Knight, November 8, 2015)

❶ Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the oPt (19 – 25 November 2015)
❷ Palestinian killed after injuring 6 Israeli soldiers in car attack
❸ Jews, Arabs march on Israeli checkpoint to demand an end to occupation
❹ Dogs supplied to Israeli military by The Netherlands involved in abuses
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
❻ Poetry by Marwan Makhoul
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PCHR  (PALESTINIAN  CENTRE  FOR  HUMAN  RIGHTS)  REPORT  ON  ISRAELI  HUMAN  RIGHTS  VIOLATIONS  IN  THE  OPT (19 – 25  NOVEMBER  2015)
Nov. 28, 2015
Israeli forces have continued to commit crimes, inflicting civilian casualties. They have also continued to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians participating in peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were youngsters. Occupied East Jerusalem witnessed similar attacks. During the reporting period, Israeli forces and settlers killed 8 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank, while 2 other civilians, including a child, succumbed to their injuries. Moreover, 121 Palestinian civilians, including 29 children, 2 young women and 2 journalists, were wounded. Thirty of whom, including 5 children and a journalist, were wounded in the Gaza Strip and the others were wounded in the West Bank. Concerning the nature of injuries, 100 civilians were hit with live bullets and 21 ones were hit with rubber bullets.
More . . .
Related . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AFTER  INJURING  6  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  IN  CAR  ATTACK
Nov. 27, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian suspect was shot and killed on Friday after a vehicle attack in Beit Ummar which left six Israeli soldiers injured, Israel’s army and locals said.
___An Israeli army spokesperson said that six Israeli soldiers were injured in a “car ramming” in Beit Ummar north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, with the Palestinian suspect shot and killed.
___The area was closed off following the attack, Israeli police said.
___Locals identified the victim as Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19.
___Four soldiers were moderately injured and two suffered light injuries. Israeli media later reported five total injuries, four moderate and one light.
More . . .
❸ +972 MAGAZINE
JEWS,  ARABS  MARCH  ON  ISRAELI  CHECKPOINT  TO  DEMAND  AN  END  TO  OCCUPATION
Haggai Matar
Nov. 28, 2015
Some 300 Israelis and Palestinians marched on the Israeli army’s “tunnels checkpoint” south of Jerusalem Friday to demonstrate against the occupation, against the ongoing violence, and in support of two states.
___The demonstrators gathered on Route 60, the southern West Bank’s main north-south artery that connects Jerusalem, Beit Jala, the Gush Etzion settlements, and Hebron. For an hour, the demonstrators marched north along the side of the road to drums while chanting political slogans. Israeli and Palestinian drivers passing the protest along Route 60 couldn’t miss the long procession. . . .
More . . .

protest-marching
Anti-occupation protesters march along the side of Route 60 in the West Bank, November 27, 2015. (Photo: Mustafa Bader/Activestills.org)

❹ MILITARY COURT WATCH
DOGS  SUPPLIED  TO  ISRAELI  MILITARY  BY  THE  NETHERLANDS  INVOLVED  IN  ABUSES
Oct. 29, 2015 – A recent article published in the Dutch media indicates that the Dutch Government has been approving export licenses for the supply of service dogs to the Israeli military for use in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This has raised concerns in The Netherlands due to evidence indicating that the service dogs are used to attack Palestinian civilians, including minors, and frequently accompany military units when they conduct intimidating raids on Palestinian homes in the middle of the night.
___The granting of export licenses for service dogs is controversial due to an EU ruling supposed to prevent the issuing of export licenses for the shipment of “strategic goods”, such as pistols and camouflage paint, to Israel.
More . . .
Related . . . ISRAEL  USING  DUTCH  DOGS  TO  TERRORIZE  PALESTINIANS (Nov. 27, 2015)
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
Jeremy Salt
Nov. 25, 2015
Sometimes it must be such fun to be an Israeli undercover agent especially if you like amateur theatricals and perhaps thought of an acting career but were not quite good enough and had to settle for something less.
[ . . . . . ]
You find the young man you want, Azzam al Shelaldeh, in hospital for surgery after being shot by a settler, and you pull him out of his bed. You shoot his unarmed cousin Abndullah dead as he comes out of the bathroom. . . . You leave the dead man on the floor of the ward in a pool of his own blood. You don’t care that the CCTV cameras are filming everything. . . . you want people to see that you are capable of doing anything, anywhere and anytime.
More . . .

“HELLO  BEIT  HANOUN,”  BY  MARWAN  MAKHOUL

Hello!
Beit Hanoun?
I heard on the news
that an artisan baker has come
to distribute bread
on the back of fresh artillery,
and I also heard
that one of his loaves feeds
at least twenty children
and is so warm it burns, and solid
like a randomly targeted shell.
They said
the children woke up early that day
not to go to school
but to the local youth club
opposite the town’s playground
that in summer is big enough for two massacres
and a certain hope, the hope to live.
I also heard
that when they were on their way
they made light of their wounds
and poured blood on the corners
till blood took the colour of the streets
and feelings.
When I saw what I saw on the screen
I thought I was dreaming
or the TV was dreaming the impossible made real.
I never imagined, Beit Hanoun,
that you’d mean anything to me
what with all the fun I’m having
like being busy with friends discussing
whether wine in the bottle
ferments or not.
I never knew you’d mean anything to me,
even something small
something small, Beit Hanoun.
Hello . . . ?
Hello . . . ?
Beit Hanoun?
Can you hear me?
I think the phone’s not working
or is perhaps asleep,
it is very late after all.
Never mind, let it go.
I’ve nothing better to do
than catch up with my brothers shading themselves
by the axed trunk of Arab solidarity.
Goodbye, Beit Hanoun.
Goodbye.

THE MASSACRE AT BEIT HANOUN (Nov. 8, 2006)
From Banipal: Magazine  of  Modern  Arab  Literature  45 (Winter 2012). WWW.banipal.co.uk
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 and now works as a civil engineer and is the director of a construction company. His first book of poetry was published in 2007 in both Beirut and Baghdad by Al-Jamal Publishers.

hospital
Israeli forces shot Abdullah al-Shalaldeh multiple times in the process of arresting his cousin Azzam at a Hebron hospital. An elite Israeli military force that operates undercover stormed the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and shot dead a 27-year-old Palestinian, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. (Photo: Al Jazeera, Nov. 12, 2015)

“. . . My country is the rape victim I will marry. . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Children flying kites in Susiya, August 12, 2015. From: Susiya Forever Community, Facebook.
Children flying kites in Susiya, August 12, 2015. From: Susiya Forever Community, Facebook.

❶ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  AT  MEMORIAL  FOR  SLAIN  INFANT  IN  SUSIYA
August, 15, 2015
HEBRON ― Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian and foreign activists on Friday during a memorial in the village of Susiya south of Hebron for 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha who was killed in an arson attack by Israeli settlers on July 30, a spokesperson from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee told Ma’an.
____No injuries were reported.
____During the memorial, activists and local children were flying kites above a nearby illegal Israeli settlement when Israeli soldiers in the area responded with opening fire at the kite flyers. . . .
____Organizers said the memorial signified that the arson attack on the 18-month-old was just one piece of a series of crimes committed by the state of Israel and Israeli settlers across the Palestine territory.
More. . .

❷ From: MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  LAWYERS  ORGANIZE  SIT-IN  RALLY  IN  SUPPORT  OF  ALLAN
August, 15, 2015
RAMALLAH ― The President of the Palestinian Bar Association said in a statement Sunday that several members of the association’s general assembly, as well as other Palestinian citizens of Israel will meet for a sit-in in front of Barzilai Medical Center in southern Israel, where Palestinian hunger striker Muhammad Allan is being treated.
____Allan, a Palestinian lawyer who fell into a coma on Friday, has been on an open-ended hunger strike for over two months against his administrative detention. . . .
____Allan has been held under administrative detention status since November.
____Palestinian bar president Hussien Shabana said that Allan’s cause is a fair and just cause and must be made a priority for all Palestinian lawyers, AS WELL AS EVERY FREE PERSON IN THE WORLD.
More. . .

❸ From: ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
HOW  GLOBAL  REAL  ESTATE  GIANT  RE/MAX  PROFITS  FROM  STOLEN  PALESTINIAN  LAND
Ben Norton
August 12, 2015
Agents working for the US-headquartered real estate giant RE/MAX are promoting themselves as specialists in property built in Israel’s settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
____The Colorado-based corporation which says it operates in nearly 100 countries was identified as responsible by a 2013 United Nations’ probe for how its Israeli franchises sell houses and apartments in the occupied West Bank.
[. . . .]
____Despite that criticism, many RE/MAX representatives are continuing to handle such property. . .
____[Shlomo Benzaquen, a RE/MAX agent] particularly recommends Kokhav Yaakov, Tel Zion and Adam (also known as Geva Binyamin) as “communities” which “offer tremendous value to young families and investors looking for high returns.”
____In fact, all of these “communities” are Israeli settlements inside the West Bank and are illegal under international law.
More. . .

❹ Analysis
From: THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
PALESTINE:  ONE  STATE  FOR  ALL  OR  A  FINAL  ZIONIST  ETHNIC  CLEANSING?
Alan Hart
Aug 14 2015
____The headline over a recent article in The Times of Israel by the paper’s Middle East analyst, Avi Issacharoff, was The end of the two-state solution. And the strapline (secondary headline) underneath that was a quote from the body of his article. “It’s time to say it out loud: The Israeli right has won – a temporary, pyrrhic victory that has set Israel on the path to becoming a Muslim-majority state.”
____Issacharoff’s opening thoughts were the following.
“Conditions are now such that an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank has already become impossible.
“And here it must be said: The watershed line seems to have been crossed. The two-state solution is no more.
“No Palestinian state will exist here beside the State of Israel.”
[. . . .]
____In reality the two-state solution was never on from the moment the UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 on 22 November 1967.
More. . .

UN Security Council passes Resolution 242 on 22 November 1967.
UN Security Council passes Resolution 242 on 22 November 1967.

❺ Opinion
From: MONDOWEISS
MEETING  JIMMY  CARTER
Marc H. Ellis
August 15, 2015
The news of President Carter’s illness has political pundits preparing his obituary. Since I have encountered President Carter on numerous occasions, my reaction is personal. My first encounter was most memorable.
____It was 1988, at the height of the Palestinian Uprising. The venue was a conference, “Theology, Politics and Peace,” that the Carter Center co-sponsored with Emory University in Atlanta. As with most conferences, the papers delivered at the conference were, for the most part, theoretical. With the Uprising in the air, however, I was determined to highlight the brutal repression the Israeli government was meting out to Palestinians struggling for freedom.
More. . .
Related. . . CARTER  SAYS  ISRAEL  KILLED  TWO-STATE  SOLUTION

“DAILY  POEMS,”  BY  MARWAN  MAKHOUL
The homeland having fallen down a well
and after sixty years, it’s up to us
to raise the rope a little, then let it fall again,
for only thus will hope learn patience.
***
There are things I don’t understand,
not being an Israeli
and not being entirely Palestinian.
***
My country is the rape victim
I will marry.
***
My grandfather told me: Palestine is an irregular verb in the past.
My father said: No, it’s in the present tense.
I say, and a plane has just landed nearby: My grandfather’s right
and my father too.

From BANIPAL: MAGAZINE OF MODERN ARAB LITERATURE 45 Winter, 2012. WWW.banipal.co.uk
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 and now works as a civil engineer and is the director of a construction company.
More. . .

US-based multinational RE/MAX is marketing properties in illegal Jews-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land such as Ariel, near Salfit in the West Bank. Keren Manor / ActiveStills.
US-based multinational RE/MAX is marketing properties in illegal Jews-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land such as Ariel, near Salfit in the West Bank. Keren Manor / ActiveStills.

“. . . Or is it his disappointment at the pathos of my tears. . .” (Marwan Makhoul)

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Freedom-Flotilla-3-to-sail-to-Gaza-next-summer❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZA FLOTILLA SHIP ‘SABOTAGED’ DAYS BEFORE EXPECTED ARRIVAL
June 25, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — One of the ships taking part in a flotilla headed towards the Gaza Strip was sabotaged south of Crete, an activist aboard one of the ships said Thursday.
____Israeli-born Swedish activist Dror Feiler told Nazareth-based al-Shams radio that the ship had been sabotaged by professionals, and would have sunk if sailed at sea. . . .
____Feiler, who relinquished his Israeli citizenship after moving to Sweden, boarded the trawler Marianne of Gothenburg in Sweden with 18 other activists six weeks ago.
(More. . .)
(Background)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL RELEASES MP AFTER YEAR OF ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
June 25, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities released Palestinian parliament member Sheikh Hassan Youssef [Hassan Yusef], 60, on Thursday as he ended his administrative detention period that was extended three times while being held in prison.
____Youssef was detained in mid-June of 2014 during a detention campaign carried out by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank and held in the Ofer jail near Ramallah. . .
____He was one of hundreds of Palestinians to be detained by Israel during the campaign known as “Operation Brother’s Keeper. . . .
(More. . .)

Sheikh Hassan Youssef [Hassan Yusef], Member of Palestinian Parliament
Sheikh Hassan Youssef [Hassan Yusef], Member of Palestinian Parliament
❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINE TO SUBMIT HUNDREDS OF DOCUMENTS TO ICC FOR 1ST TIME
June 25, 2015
Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki is scheduled to make the State of Palestine’s first submission to the International Criminal Court in the Hague on Thursday in pursuit of war crime charges against Israel. . . .
____“It will take the ICC a long time to take action, possibly 5-10 years as this is one out of a hundred steps,” Abu Zneid said.
____The PLO will continue to collate information and testimonies to later be submitted to the ICC as evidence of Israeli crimes.
(More. . .)
(Background)

❹ From MONDOWEISS
‘WE ARE DOING YOU PEOPLE A FAVOR BY ALLOWING YOU TO BE SEATED HERE,’ NETANYAHU DEPUTY TELLS PALESTINIANS IN KNESSET
Roland Nikles
June 25, 2015
[A short history of the Anti-Family-Reunification Law] . . . .
The Knesset once again renewed the law on June 15, 2015. . . .
____On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, the Knesset held a “debate” on a request by the Joint Arab list (13 MK’s headed by Ayman Odeh) to revoke the anti-family-unification provision in the Citizenship Law. The result was not pretty.
____From Haaretz: During the debate, Deputy Interior Minister Yaron Mazuz of Likud. . . . called on Arab lawmakers to return their Israeli identity cards. Addressing the Arab Joint List’s MK Haneen Zoabi, Mazuz said: “Mrs. [Haneen] Zoabi, you are the first who ought to return your ID. We are doing you people a favor by even allowing you to be seated here . . . .
(More. . . .)

❺ From MONDOWEISS
OREN PUSHED RANDOM HOUSE TO HURRY HIS BOOK SO AMERICAN JEWS WILL ‘INTERCEDE’ TO STOP IRAN DEAL AND SAVE MILLIONS OF JEWS
Philip Weiss
June 22, 2015
Michael Oren said he put “immense pressure” on Random House to publish his new book, Ally, this month, so he could mobilize American Jews against the coming Iranian deal, and they would intercede as they had failed to do in response to the Nazi threat in the 1930s.
____Speaking at the 92nd Y last night, Oren said he resigned as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. in October 2013 and then set out to write his book in a hurry for a “political reason” . . . . [Oren said] “Israel is at a . . . fateful juncture . . . [because] a major French initiative in the Security Council that will have very profound implications for Israeli security.”
____He was referring to a French proposal to require the creation of a Palestinian state within a year and a half.
(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    

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 )

Marwan Makhoul
Marwan Makhoul