Tag: Military Court Watch

“. . . I’m old enough, almost four, I’ve seen enough . . .” (Hanan Ashrawi)

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❶ IOF arrests seven Jerusalemite minors
CONTEXT: Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli settler attacks Palestinian child in Hebron
CONTEXT: Space to play: West Bank refugee camps are facing a crisis of safety and square feet
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) A life worth living?

  • Background: “The Right to Home: Domicide as a Violation of Child and Family Rights in the Context of Political Violence.” Children & Society

❷ Palestinian demolishes own home in Jerusalem to avoid Israeli fines
❸ POETRY by Hanan Ashrawi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ IOF  ARRESTS  SEVEN  JERUSALEMITE  MINORS
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Nov. 12, 2017 ― Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Sunday morning, five Jerusalemite minors after storming their houses in the town of Silwan, south of Al Aqsa Mosque.
___The IOF arrested from Silwan. Abdulrahman Shweky, 14, Qosay Zaiton 13, Imran Mansour ,15, Mehdi Mansour, 12, and Khaled Mayala, 20, and were transferred to investigate at Maskobeya police station in the occupied Jerusalem, confirmed the lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud.
___Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the intelligence and occupation forces stormed Silwan neighborhoods and arrested five children after storming their houses.   MORE . . .
CONTEXT:    MILITARY  COURT  WATCH  (MONITORING  THE  TREATMENT  OF  CHILDREN  IN  DETENTION).   Briefing Note, October 2017 ― This Briefing Note reviews developments in the Israeli military detention system for children and covers the period up to October 2017.
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  SETTLER  ATTACKS  PALESTINIAN  CHILD  IN  HEBRON 
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency 
Nov. 12, 2017 ― Ahmed Hadeeb, 15, was injured by bruises on Saturday after an Israeli settler beat and injured him in the center of Hebron.
__According to local sources, the settler hit Habeed with the butt of his rifle; he was injured and then transferred to the hospital.   MORE . . .
CONTEXT:  SPACE  TO  PLAY:  WEST  BANK  REFUGEE  CAMPS  ARE  FACING  A  CRISIS  OF  SAFETY  AND  SQUARE  FEET 
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)       
Oct. 5, 2017   ― [. . . .] Overcrowding and fifty years of Israeli military occupation, as well as the now-frequent Palestinian security forces’ raids, have negatively impacted the available spaces for play. When schools let out for the summer, children spend their time between camp spaces that are either too cramped or too dangerous for play [. . . .]
. . . . . ― (ᴃ) A  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING?
The Electronic Intifada      
Hamza Abu Eltarabesh
Nov. 9, 2017 ― Young people in Gaza are finding few prospects for a better life.
___On Tuesday, 29 August, Mohannad Younis swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills and ended his life.
___He was only 22 and seemed to have much going for him. A budding author, he had recently completed a series of short stories and just put the finishing touches on a stage play – Escape.   MORE . . .

Akesson, Bree, et al.
“THE  RIGHT  TO  HOME:  DOMICIDE  AS  A  VIOLATION  OF  CHILD  AND  FAMILY  RIGHTS  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  POLITICAL  VIOLENCE.”
Children & Society, vol. 30, no. 5, Sept. 2016, pp. 369-383.
[. . . .] The term domicide was coined by Porteous and Smith to describe the ‘deliberate destruction of home against the will of the home dweller’.
[. . . .] Home is a symbolic place that often embodies togetherness, individual and family growth, accomplishments, memories, and deeply personal and familial connections with land and territory. Scholars have pointed out how places of origin, such as the home, are closely connected to cultural practices, symbolic meanings, memories and rituals that shape individual identity.
[. . . .] One study examining the effects of home demolitions on Palestinian children . . .   compared to children of similar demographics living in the same location, found that children who had their homes intentionally destroyed fared significantly worse on a range of mental health indicators including withdrawal, somatic complaints, depression, anxiety, social difficulties, higher rates of delusional, obsessive compulsive and psychotic thoughts, attention difficulties, delinquency, and violent behaviour. Not surprisingly, the study found that children’s mental health was closely tied to their caregivers’ mental and physical health. Similarly, [a] case study of home demolitions for children in Palestine found that children who were forced from their homes reported feeling anxious, sad and angry after experiencing repeated displacement. Losing their homes and becoming refugees within their own neighbourhoods was reported as the most painful incident that had happened to them and ultimately an experience of ‘living in the hyphen’.   FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ PALESTINIAN  DEMOLISHES  OWN  HOME  IN  JERUSALEM  TO  AVOID  ISRAELI  FINES    
Ma’an News Agency  
Nov. 12, 2017 ― A Palestinian from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was forced to destroy his own home on Saturday in order to avoid incurring a demolition fee from Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, which was set to carry out the demolition.
___According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, Abd al-Ghani Dweik, a resident of the al-Bustan area of Silwan, said that the Israeli municipality issued a demolition order against his house, along with a demolition fee of 80,000 shekels ($22,741).
___Four people were residing in the home, which was built two years ago.
___A spokesman of a Silwan-based committee formed to fight demolitions, Fakhri Abu Diab, previously told Ma’an that all 100 residential structures in the al-Bustan area are slated for demolition, and that the 1,570 residents of the area have exhausted all legal options.   MORE . . .

“FROM  THE  DIARY  OF  AN  ALMOST-FOUR-YEAR-OLD,”  BY  HANAN  ASHRAWI
Tomorrow, the bandages
will come off. I wonder
will I see half an orange,
half an apple, half my
mother’s face
with my one remaining eye?
I did not see the bullet
but felt its pain
exploding in my head.
His image did not
vanish, the soldier
with a big gun, unsteady
hands, and a look in
his eyes
I could not understand.

If I can see him so clearly
with my eyes closed,
it could be that inside our heads
we each have one spare set
of eyes
to make up for the ones we lose.

Next month, on my birthday,
I’ll have a brand new glass eye,
maybe things will look round
and fat in the middle —
I’ve gazed through all my marbles,
they made the world look strange.

I hear a nine-month-old
has also lost an eye,
I wonder if my soldier
shot her too—a soldier
looking for little girls who
look him in the eye—
I’m old enough, almost four,
I’ve seen enough of life,
but she’s just a baby
who didn’t know any better.

Interview with Hanan Ashrawi
From ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.

 

“. . . until they became children whose innocence was violated . . .” (Dareen Tatour)

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Mourners at the funeral of Murad Abu Ghazi, 12, al-Aroub Refugee camp, shot by Israeli soldier, March 18, 2017. (Photo: Haaretz)

❶ Teenage girl shot by Israeli forces in Meto Dovan dies

  • Background: Excessive Use of Force by the Israeli Army: A Case Study

❷ Israel releases injured 17-year-old Palestinian girl
❸ Briefing Note, May 2017 – Military Court Watch: monitoring the treatment of children in detention
❹ Why Israel can’t defeat a Palestinian poet
❺ POETRY by Dareen Tatour

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ TEENAGE  GIRL  SHOT  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  IN  METO  DOVAN  DIES
Al Jazeera English 
June 2, 2017
A Palestinian teenage girl who was shot by Israeli forces on Thursday after an alleged stabbing attack outside a Jewish-only settlement in the occupied West Bank has died, a hospital official said on Friday.
___A spokesperson for the Hadera-based Hillel Yaffe medical centre, where 15-year-old Nouf Iqab Abd el-Jabber Enfeat was being treated, told Al Jazeera that the teen “was critically injured when she came in and she died from her wounds this morning”.     ___The incident took place at the entrance of the Meto Dovan settlement in the northern occupied West Bank. A soldier was “lightly injured”. . . .
[. . . . ] at least nine Palestinian children, including Enfeat, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in 2017.      MORE . . . 

BACKGROUND:   EXCESSIVE  USE  OF  FORCE  BY  THE  ISRAELI  ARMY:  A  CASE  STUDY
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Right
Amaya al-Orzza and Lisa Aue
April, 2017
Introduction: In the last months of 2015, protests over ongoing violations of Palestinians’ fundamental rights were met with a sharp increase in the illegal use of force and collective punishment by Israel throughout Mandate Palestine. Between 1 October and 31 December, 138 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and thousands were injured. By the end of March 2016, the number of Palestinians killed was 200, and by 1 October 2016 it was 232. . . . another kind of suppression of Palestinian resistance began to take place throughout the West Bank in the form of increased use of live ammunition during army raids and clashes.
___The number of live ammunition injuries in the period of January-September 2016 was over 60 percent higher than the same period in 2015.
[. . . .]   This case study aims to analyze the recent increase in the use of live ammunition and its correlation to a wider policy of suppression of resistance . . . .    REPORT . . .

❷ ISRAEL  RELEASES  INJURED  17-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  GIRL       
Ma’an News Agency  
June 2, 2017
Israeli authorities released on Thursday injured Palestinian teen Taqwa Bassam Hammad, 17, who was shot and detained by Israeli forces last month near the village of Silwad, in eastern Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.     [. . . .]
___The teenage girl was detained on May 23 after she was shot by Israeli forces near Silwad. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear, though unconfirmed reports said that the girl was shot because she was throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.
___Locals at the time said the girl was shot in the lower extremities and that Israeli troops prevented a Palestinian ambulance from accessing the Hammad to treat her.
[. . . .]  ___Meanwhile, according to Ma’an documentation, 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of 2017, nine of whom were minors.    MORE . . . .   BACKGROUND . . . .  

original-10141-1461603810-9
Dima al-Wawi, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl, was released from an Israeli prison on March 25, 2016, after spending two months behind bars (Photo: Nasser Shiyoukhi / AP)

❸ BRIEFING  NOTE – MAY  2017
Military Court Watch: monitoring the treatment of children in detention   
In March 2013, UNICEF published a report – Children in Israeli Military Detention – which found that: “The ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the [Israeli] military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing”. The report concluded by making 38 recommendations.       ___In response to these findings the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it would “study the conclusions and work to implement them through on-going cooperation with UNICEF”. The purpose of this note is to review progress made in implementing the UNICEF recommendations and to consider recent developments in the military detention system.         MORE . . .
❹ WHY  ISRAEL  CAN’T  DEFEAT  A  PALESTINIAN  POET 
The Electronic Intifada 
Budour Youssef Hassan
May 29, 2017   Dareen Tatour felt sad as she watched this year’s “march of return” on television.
___The poet had wanted to attend the event in memory of Palestinian villages that Israel has tried to erase from history. Being under house arrest prevented her from doing so.
___“I have been taking part in the march of return for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I am gutted that I could not attend for the past two years.”     MORE . . . .

“A  POET  BEHIND  BARS,”  BY  DAREEN  TATOUR
Translated by Tariq al Haydar

In prison, I met people
too numerous to count:
Killer and criminal,
thief and liar,
the honest and those who disbelieve,
the lost and confused,
the wretched and the hungry.
Then, the sick of my homeland,
born out of pain,
refused to go along with injustice
until they became children whose innocence was violated.
The world’s compulsion left them stunned.
They grew older.
No, their sadness grew,
strengthening with repression,
like roses in salted soil.
They embraced love without fear,
and were condemned for declaring,
“We love the land endlessly,”
oblivious to their deeds…
So their love freed them.
See, prison is for lovers.
I interrogated my soul
during moments of doubt and distraction:
“What of your crime?”
Its meaning escapes me now.
I said the thing and
revealed my thoughts;
I wrote about the current injustice,
wishes in ink,
a poem I wrote…
The charge has worn my body,
from my toes to the top of my head,
for I am a poet in prison,
a poet in the land of art.
I am accused of words,
my pen the instrument.
Ink— blood of the heart— bears witness
and reads the charges.
Listen, my destiny, my life,
to what the judge said:
A poem stands accused,
my poem morphs into a crime.
In the land of freedom,
the artist’s fate is prison.
—Written on: November 2, 2015
—Jelemeh Prison: The day I received the indictment

“. . . I have nightmares. Sometimes I dream that the police are in my house coming to take me . . .” (Muslim Odeh, 12 years old)

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funeral
Funeral of 13-year-old Ahmad Sharaka at Jalazone Refugee Camp, West Bank, Oct. 12, 2015 (Photo: Still from Youtube)

❶ 20 Palestinians injured, 1 critically, after Israeli forces violently disperse march

  • Background:  “Childhood: A Universalist Perspective For How Israel Is Using Child Arrest And Detention To Further Its Colonial Settler Project.” International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies

❷ IOF arrests six Jerusalemites
❸ Military Court Watch (monitoring the treatment of children in detention)
❹ Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)
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❶ 20  PALESTINIANS  INJURED,  1  CRITICALLY,  AFTER  ISRAELI  FORCES  VIOLENTLY  DISPERSE  MARCH
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 15, 2016
Some 20 Palestinians were injured Saturday evening — one critically with a live bullet to the head — during clashes at the main entrance to the al-Jalazun refugee camp in northern Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, following a march commemorating the FIRST  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  KILLING  OF  13-YEAR-OLD  AHMAD  SHARAKA, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces last year during clashes.     ___Palestinian youth threw rocks, Molotov cocktails, and empty bottles at Israeli soldiers who attempted to disperse the demonstration by firing live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas canisters at the dozens of participants in the march, before Israeli soldiers eventually retreated to the illegal Israeli Beit El settlement.        More . . .       Background . . .

  • Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. “Childhood: A Universalist Perspective For How Israel Is Using Child Arrest And Detention To Further Its Colonial Settler Project.” International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 12.3 (2015): 223-244.   Source . . .  

As defined by the World Health Organization, child maltreatment, which is sometimes referred to as child abuse and neglect, includes all forms of physical and emotional ill treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity.
[. . . .]
Muslim Odeh was first arrested at age nine. Now 12 years old, Odeh has been imprisoned 10 times over the course of three years. Odeh’s arrest scenarios violate a number of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) stipulations and recommendations made by UNICEF, including arrest during early morning hours (Recommendation 3i), blindfolding (Recommendation 4iii; Recommendation 4v), and hours of interrogation without parental or legal supervision or knowledge of charges (Article 37c; Article 37d). Odeh also recalls being beaten to the point where he vomited. The aftermath of his arrests reveal that Odeh suffered not only physical pain, but also psychological trauma: “I have nightmares. Sometimes I dream that the police are in my house coming to take me, but then I wake up to see that I’m not in prison but in my house.” Odeh’s reaction to his ordeals – the apprehension he now feels when sleeping in his own bed, for example – illustrates the extent to which Israeli state violence invades even the most intimate everyday sphere. Odeh’s case shows that within Israel’s established state framework, United Nations Conventions are overridden and disregarded with impunity. International and human rights law fails to apply to the state apparatus or moral consciousness. Instead, children such as Odeh are rendered “non-children” who fail to qualify for basic human protection.
[. . . .]     Israel is the only known country in the world to try children in juvenile military courts. Despite the nomenclature, the juvenile military court uses the same facilities and court staff as the adult military court. The extra-judicial military court established solely for trying children negates Israel’s responsibility, not just to the UNCRC, but also the Geneva and Hague Conventions. This juvenile military court is rife with injustice and discriminatory practices. For example, children are not accompanied by a lawyer or parent during their interrogations, and are often unaware of the allegations that have been made against them.
[. . . .]    . . . institutionalized violence embedded in Israel’s settler colonial project has come to accept the stealing of childhood – the criminalization and suffering of children – as unavoidable and “normal.” As the earlier evidence makes abundantly clear, Palestinian children are becoming, with greater frequency and more intense efforts, the major targets of Israel’s eliminatory state violence. Israel employs a number of tactics – discriminatory arrests, home demolitions, forced evictions, brutal interrogations, torture within prison systems, inequitable practices in the juvenile military court – that traumatize Palestinian children. These efforts to marginalize and terrorize Palestinian children, sometimes before they are even born, highlight the security regime’s designation of such children as a threat to the state. Palestinian children comprise approximately 50 percent of the entire Palestinian population and are therefore an important factor in the future and success of the Israeli Zionist project. Thus, the maltreatment of Palestinian children plays an important role in propagating the structure of Israeli settler colonialism.

❷ IOF  ARRESTS  SIX  JERUSALEMITES
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Oct. 16, 2016
Israeli occupation authorities arrested Sunday at dawn six Jerusalemites after raiding their houses in Silwan and Old City in occupied Jerusalem.
___The head of the committee of Jerusalemite detainees’ families, Amjad Abu Asab said that the IOF ARRESTED  TWO  YOUTHS  AND  THREE  MINORS  FROM  SILWAN.
___It also arrested a 50-old man after raiding his house in the Old City. The IOF took all of them to al-Muskubīya interrogation center.      More . . .    

❸ MILITARY  COURT  WATCH  (MONITORING  THE  TREATMENT  OF  CHILDREN  IN  DETENTION)
Briefing Note – October 2016
[. . . .]    According to the most recent IPS data, 414  CHILDREN  (12-17 YEARS)  WERE  HELD  IN  MILITARY  DETENTION  AT  THE  END  OF  APRIL  2016. This represents a 91 per cent increase compared with the monthly average for 2015. The latest data includes 12 girls; three children under 14 years; and 13 children held without charge or trial in administrative detention.       More . . .    

❹ Source for continuing coverage:
DEFENSE  FOR  CHILDREN  INTERNATIONAL  PALESTINE  (DCIP)  

“. . . To put me in prison, as they did, is a very easy thing . . .” (Rashid Hussein)

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prison
Blindfolded Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facility. 46 Palestinians at Etzion Prison on hunger strike to protest mistreatment. Mar. 4, 2016 (File Photo: PressTV)

❶ Palestinian prisoners declare 3-day hunger strike after death of fellow detainee
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ)  Samidoun demands accountability for Israeli medical neglect in the death of Palestinian prisoner Yasser Hamdouna

  • Background from Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

❷ Detainees Committee: “Israeli Soldiers Kidnapped 1000 Children This Year”
. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ)  Pilot programme to limit night arrests – update
❸ POETRY by Rashid Hussein
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❶ PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS  DECLARE  3-DAY  HUNGER  STRIKE  AFTER  DEATH  OF  FELLOW  DETAINEE      
Ma’an News Agency
Sept. 25, 2016
Palestinian prisoners held by Israel announced a three-day hunger strike in protest and mourning after a fellow detainee died in Israeli custody on Sunday morning following a fatal stroke.
___Residents of the occupied West Bank village of Yaabad in the Jenin district, said that Yasser Thiyab Hamduna, a 41-year-old Palestinian from the village, died of a stroke on Sunday in the Israeli prison of Ramon.
___Israel Prison Service (IPS) spokesman Assaf Librati confirmed to Ma’an that a Palestinian prisoner held in Ramon had had a “heart attack or stroke,” and was pronounced dead by medics at around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.
___Local sources in Yaabad said that Hamduna, who was serving a 14-year prison sentence, had been suffering from a number of health issues, including shortness of breath, heart problems, and ear pains.       MORE . . . 
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) SAMIDOUN  DEMANDS  ACCOUNTABILITY  FOR  ISRAELI  MEDICAL  NEGLECT  IN  THE  DEATH  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  YASSER  HAMDOUNA  
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network    
Sept. 25, 2016
Palestinian prisoner Yasser Diab Hamdouna, 41, died on Sunday morning, 25 September, in Israeli Ramon prison
[. . . .]  Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns the ongoing medical neglect and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli occupation prisons and demands the immediate release of the sick prisoners in Israeli jails.
[. . . .]  Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network affirms the responsibility of the Israeli occupation state for the medical neglect, mistreatment and death of Yasser Hamdouna and dozens of fellow Palestinian prisoners . . .  and demand international accountability for the death of Hamdouna and the ongoing threats to Palestinian prisoners’ lives due to medical neglect.     MORE . . .  

  • OMAR, SA’ED. “Food Is Not Our Issue”: Reflections On Hunger Striking.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 37.2 (2014): 556-559.    FULL ARTICLE.  

It’s impossible to ignore the smell of meat when you are dying from hunger.
___But food is not our issue. We don’t live to eat. We eat to live. If your life is without dignity, you don’t need life. That’s how we look at things in prison.
___Even in prison, you are home. Being restricted from entering Palestine is our greatest fear, to be deported or prevented from going home. The Prison Administration offered to deport us, to Jordan, to Syria, anywhere we wanted. They offered us freedom if we would leave Palestine. But we preferred jail to freedom outside of Palestine.
___This is the life we live here. We have a government that doesn’t support its own people. It just chases its political and economic projects.
___And a few people who fight every day for their freedom.
___And over our heads, Occupation.

❷ DETAINEES  COMMITTEE:  “ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  KIDNAPPED  1000  CHILDREN  THIS  YEAR” 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC   
September 25, 2016
The Palestinian Detainees Committee reported Saturday that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped at least 1000 children, between the ages of 11 and 18, since the beginning of this year. Testimonies from six detained children are included in this report.
___In a press release, the committee said that the numbers showed an %80 increase when compared to the number of child abducted in the same period of 2015.
___It stated that some of the kidnapped children have been imprisoned under arbitrary Administrative Detention orders, without charges or trial, while many others were sent to court, faced high fines and even were sentenced to actual prison terms.       MORE . . .   

arrest6alray
On International Children’s Day, Israel Kidnaps 400 Palestinian Children. Nov. 22, 2015 (Photo: IMEMC News)

. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) PILOT  PROGRAMME  TO  LIMIT  NIGHT  ARRESTS – UPDATE
Military Court Watch
Sept. 22, 2016
Following widespread criticism of the use of night raids to arrest children in the West Bank, the military authorities announced in February 2014, the introduction of a pilot programme to issue written summonses in lieu of night arrests.
___The programme commenced operation in the Nablus and Hebron districts but was temporarily suspended in or about September 2014 due to “increased violence”. At the time of the suspension the military authorities stated that they did not keep any statistics during the initial operation of the programme making any official assessment impossible.
[. . . .]  During the course of 2016 there appears to have been a sharp decrease in the use of summonses which are currently being issued in just 2 per cent of cases documented by MCW. Meanwhile, the practice of arresting children at night is currently unchanged and remains at 2013 levels.     MORE . . . 

“JAIL  AND  CHILDREN,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN
Don’t be sad, Darling!
To put me in prison, as they did, is a very easy thing!
But what can they do about the sun
Shining outside and torturing new rebels?

I should like to be romantic and say to you:
If my being in jail
Did nothing more than bring you to visit me
And cry in my arms ―
Then my arrest was not in vain.

But I’m not feeling romantic right now!
(How can one be romantic with the bedbugs
having such a feast?)
I’m just scratching away, and writing to you,
And asking myself this banal question:
If I and others don’t go to prison,
How will the prison guard
Feed his children?

Darling! I would so like for us
To have a baby!
We spoke of it once,
But I don’t know if
We’ll ever be given the chance.
That is why, for the time being, I give myself
To thoughts about the babies of others
Including my enemies’ babies!
And because they cannot understand this simple feeling
They put me here in prison.   

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.  
Rashid Hussein (1936-1977) was born in Musmus, Palestine. He published his first collection in 1957 and established himself as a major Palestinian poet and orator. He participated in founding the Land Movement in 1959. He left in 1966 and lived in Syria and Lebanon and later in New York City where he died in February, 1977. He was buried a week later in Musmus. His funeral was attended by thousands of Palestinians. 

 

“. . . Tell the usurper of our land that childbirth is a force unknown to him . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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1-rubble-AFPGETTY
These kids built a see-saw out of the rubble and refused to have their childhood taken away. (Photo: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

❶ Follow up U.N. submission on night-raids – June 2016

  • Background from: Counselling Psychology Quarterly

❷ Israeli forces detain at least 10 Palestinians in overnight West Bank raids

  • Background from: Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

❸ Opinion/Analysis:  PALESTINE’S  FORGOTTEN  CHILDREN
❹ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ FOLLOW  UP  U.N.  SUBMISSION  ON  NIGHT-RAIDS  – JUNE  2016
The Women‘s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)
June 30, 2016
Today, WCLAC lodged a follow-up submission with the UN concerning the devastating impact that Israeli military night raids are having on Palestinian women and families in the West Bank. The latest submission includes 50 testimonies from women who have first-hand experience of a night raid between January and May 2016 . . . .
___According to research conducted by WCLAC, it is estimated that since June 1967, the Israeli military has conducted at least 66,000 night arrest raids on Palestinian homes, or an average of four night raids every night. This figure does not include the more common night raids in which no arrests are made or day-time incursions into Palestinian town and villages, which if included are estimated to bring the likely total number of raids to around 150,000 since 1967.
[. . . .]   The issue of military night raids on civilian centres of population was recently raised by the US Department of State in its most recent annual report on human rights.  MORE . . .

From: Counselling Psychology Quarterly
The consequences of military and political violence on children have been widely documented . . . Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, Traumatic Depression, somatization and so on. The disorders that affect Palestinian children are typical of daily exposure to relentless and extreme traumatic events. Experts in the field . . . . reported that in the year 2000, 42% OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SUFFERED FROM PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. . . .  In 1993 during the First Intifada, 232 children were killed . . . By the end of . . . the recent war in Gaza [2008] approximately 1100 children were reported killed . . .
___In such traumatized contexts, family relationships are put under huge pressure, since family members feel unable to cope with the hardships they have to face day after day. . . . Social support, emotional bonds with relatives and confidence in family resources are considered key to regulating resilience to traumatic stress . . . .
___ . . . [However] no satisfactory answer has yet been found to the clinical question of how to treat children traumatized by war.

  • Veronese, Guido, Marco Castiglioni, and Mahmud Said. “The Use Of Narrative-Experiential Instruments In Contexts Of Military Violence: The Case Of Palestinian Children In The West Bank.” Counselling Psychology Quarterly 23.4 (2010): 411-423.   SOURCE. 

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  AT  LEAST  10  PALESTINIANS  IN  OVERNIGHT  WEST  BANK  RAIDS
Ma’an News Agency
July 1, 2016
Israeli forces carried out search and detention raids across the occupied West Bank overnight Thursday detaining at least 10 Palestinians, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces detained four Palestinians from the village of Beni Naim . . . . An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed three detentions were made in Beni Naim, adding that they were detained under suspicions of being Hamas operatives . . . . ___In Hebron City, Israeli forces detained four Palestinians after raiding and searching their houses.      MORE . . .  

From: Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly
When I was little, I always thought that the stars were singing. I would lie in bed at night watching the sky from my window and see the stars twinkle and wink at me; I heard them singing especially for me. It took me years to realize (to my disappointment) that the singing actually was coming from crickets. Stars were dead things I was told, they do not sing, they don’t wink at you, they merely reflect light. Years later, as I lay in my bunk in prison trying to listen to the sounds of the night, the stars (which I couldn’t see from my cell window) were singing, it wasn’t my imagination, they really were singing. I felt that we, the stars and I, had found our secret bond again and we had both reclaimed our magic voice.

  • NIMR, SONIA. “Dreaming Of Never Land.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 37.2 (2014): 540-555.   ARTICLE.  (Special online edition)
1-child arrest
Children’s Day, 5th April 2012 (Photo: International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine)

❸ Opinion/Analysis: PALESTINE’S  FORGOTTEN  CHILDREN
Military Court Watch
(reprinted from openDemocracy.com)
Lord Norman Warner
June 3, 2016
Next year will mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration as well as the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. With no sign of an active peace process between the parties, here in Britain we have a historic responsibility to seriously challenge the Israeli government’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza. On a recent visit to the West Bank, I saw powerfully for myself the need for better legal protection for young Palestinians. Without this I fear that we will engender an entire lost generation of forgotten Palestinian children. . . .
___ Earlier this year I understood better [this reality] when I found myself sitting in disbelief whilst watching proceedings unfold in Ofer Israeli military court in the occupied West Bank.       MORE . . . 

“LABOR  PAINS,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

The wind blows the pollen in the night
through ruins of fields and homes.
Earth shivers with love,
with the pain of giving birth,
but the conqueror wants us to believe
stories of submission and surrender.

O Arab Aurora!
Tell the usurper of our land
that childbirth is a force unknown to him,
the pain of a mother’s body,
that the scarred land
inaugurates life
at the moment of dawn
when the rose of blood
blooms on the wound.

From The Hypertexts   
About Fadwa Tuqan

PALESTINE PRISONERS’ DAY. “. . . what of the chains chafing my wrists. . .” (Fouzi El-Azmar)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinian prisoner in chains (Photo: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network)
Palestinian prisoner in chains (Photo: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network)

❶ Report: 7,896 PALESTINIANS inside Israeli jails
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Report: “Israeli Army Kidnapped and Imprisoned 1.000.000 Palestinians Since 1967”
❷ Premier Urges Int’l Community to Protect Rights of Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails
❸ Take Action for Palestinian Prisoner’s Day
❹ Report: “509 JERUSALEMITE Palestinians, including 15 Women and 10 Children, Imprisoned by Israel”
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ON  PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS’  DAY,  ANTI-PRISON,  LABOR,  ACADEMIC  DELEGATION  TAKES  STAND  AGAINST  ISRAELI  STATE  VIOLENCE,  AFFIRMS  SOLIDARITY  WITH  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE
❻ POETRY by Fouzi El-Azmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ REPORT:  7,896  PALESTINIANS  INSIDE  ISRAELI  JAILS
Days of Palestine
MILITARY COURT WATCH
April 16, 2016
MCW reported Israeli Prison Service (IPS)’s statistics showing that there were 6,204 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip held as “security prisoners” in Israeli detention facilities by the end of last month.
___It said that this number included 438 children.
___Regarding children, the MCW said that there was an 8 per cent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 94 per cent compared with 2015.
___These figures include seven children held under administrative detention. A further 1,692 Palestinians were held as “criminal prisoners” including 15 children.       MORE . . .

. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) REPORT:  “ISRAELI  ARMY  KIDNAPPED  AND  IMPRISONED  1.000.000  PALESTINIANS  SINCE  1967”
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
April 17, 2016
The Palestinian Detainees’ Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) have reported that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped around 1.000.000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of women and children, since occupying the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967. Two detainees died in 2015 due to being denied access to specialized medical treatment.
___In their joint report marking April 17, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the Detainees’ Committee and the PPS said the Israeli army has kidnapped, since the beginning of “Al-Aqsa Intifada,” in late September 2000, until this day, more than 90.000 Palestinians, including 11.000 children, 1.300 women and girls, and 65 elected legislators and government ministers.       MORE . . .

❷ PREMIER  URGES  INT’L  COMMUNITY  TO  PROTECT  RIGHTS  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS  IN  ISRAELI  JAILS
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 17, 2016
On the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged the international community to protect the human rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, especially the children who are subject to psychological and physical harm, said a statement issued on Sunday by the Premier’s office.
___”Israel’s policies of detention and imprisonment violate all international legal standards, and  are intended to obstruct the daily lives of Palestinians, in order to oppress an entire population,” the Prime Minister added.      MORE . . .

Twelve Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in protest of administrative detention, jail conditions. (Photo: Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Jan.18, 2016)
Twelve Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in protest of administrative detention, jail conditions.
(Photo: Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Jan.18, 2016)

❸ TAKE  ACTION  FOR  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER’S  DAY
Alternative Information Center – AIC
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
April 14, 2016
As Palestinians prepare to mark Prisoners’ Day on April 17, a day to be in solidarity with thousands of Palestinian political prisoners by demanding their freedom from Israeli jails, the US Campaign to End the Occupation launched a new website G4S Facts highlighting the various injustices perpetrated by G4S, the world’s largest private security company, in the United States, Palestine, and beyond.     MORE . . .  

❹ REPORT:  “509  JERUSALEMITE  PALESTINIANS,  INCLUDING  15  WOMEN  AND  10  CHILDREN,  IMPRISONED  BY  ISRAEL” 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC 
April 17, 2016
The Jerusalem Detainees’ Parents Committee has reported, Sunday, that as the Palestinians mark the Prisoners Day on April 17, at least 509 Jerusalemite Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel, among them are 10 women, and 18 children.
___The committee provided the following information regarding Jerusalemite political prisoners, held by Israel.

    10 children under the age of 14.

118 children, above the age of 14, and below the age of 18.

MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis: ON  PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS’  DAY,  ANTI-PRISON,  LABOR,  ACADEMIC  DELEGATION  TAKES  STAND  AGAINST  ISRAELI  STATE  VIOLENCE,  AFFIRMS  SOLIDARITY  WITH  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
April 16, 2016
Recently returned from a ten-day trip to the Israeli-colonized Palestine, a US delegation of anti-prison, labor, and scholar-activists has issued the following statement to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day 2016.  The delegation included three former US-held political prisoners, and a formerly incarcerated activist, two former Black Panther Party members, university professors, prison abolition organizers, and trade unionists. . . .
___In recognition of International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners, the US Anti-Prison, Labor, and Academic Delegation is demanding freedom for the 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners currently held in Israeli jails and all those fighting for justice everywhere, including political prisoners in U.S. prisons.      MORE . . .

(Blogger’s note: This poem was written 45 years ago. Its timeliness today cannot be disputed.)

“TWENTY  COMRADES,”  BY  FOUZI  EL ASMAR

Beloved, you ask me
Of life in this prison, this cell
what of the chains
chafing my wrists
what of my food and drink
and the comrades of my cell?

Beloved, let me tell you:
Our clouds are indeed heavy
But our being here
is a smile of spring,
The shock of thunder
in autumn, after drought.
We are not defeated
Like our jailers.

Life in this prison, this cell
is a palm tree impregnated
at the dawn.
My chains are the round
echo of a muezzin,
Their clank is the ringing
of my people’s bells.

Beloved, you ask me
of the meaning of my food
Here beloved
we grow like the wild flowers.

And what of
my comrades
in this cell? You ask
They are the twenty candles
lighting the darkness of this cell
The twenty songs
shaking the walls of this cell
The twenty revolutions
that will eternalize this cell
And we, beloved
we shall not be stopped.  (June, 1970)

About Fouzi El Asmar.
El Asmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON. Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
Available from Amazon.
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“. . . The street collapsed The clock was still on the wall . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Manara_clocktower
Ottoman Clock Tower, Nablus (Photo by Tiamat). See #4 below.

❶ Analysis: The missing data on the Palestinian revolt
❷ More Than One Third of Syria’s Palestinians Have Been Displaced
❸ Military Court Watch Newsletter – January 2016: Detention figures
❹ The Ottoman legacy in Palestine
❺ Opinion/Analysis: COPING  WITH  INSECURITY
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ)  THE  SECURITY  FORCES  OPERATING  IN  PALESTINE:  AN  OVERVIEW
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ Analysis
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
THE  MISSING  DATA  ON  THE  PALESTINIAN  REVOLT
Ben White
Feb. 5, 2016
On Wednesday, Palestinian youths . . . attacked Israeli Border Police officers outside Damascus Gate, in Occupied East Jerusalem, killing one and wounding another. The three assailants were killed on the spot.
___With nearly daily bloodshed, most news agencies have been using ‘copy and paste’-style paragraphs to provide context for . . . .
___ . . . they all share some troubling similarities, evidence of how – even unthinkingly – coverage of an anti-colonial revolt is being distorted by a narrative that is shaped and promoted by the Israeli government and its allies.
___Israel’s assertions about Palestinian assailants are repeated . . . despite the fact that in many cases, the circumstances in which Palestinians have been killed are disputed. . . .
___Israeli forces’ use of lethal violence to suppress anti-occupation protests is barely mentioned.    More . . .
❷ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
MORE  THAN  ONE  THIRD  OF  SYRIA’S  PALESTINIANS  HAVE  BEEN  DISPLACED
Feb 5 2016
More than one third of the 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been displaced by the ongoing conflict, a new report has revealed.
___The Action Group for Palestinian Refugees in Syria said the refugees were displaced after their camps were either subjected to air raids or caught up in clashes.
___The semi-annual report said that more than 71,200 Palestinian refugees have reached Europe after Syria’s neighbouring countries prevented them from entering their lands formally.    More . . .

yarmouk_aid_unrwa
Refugees waiting to be allowed to proceed across the front line in Yarmouk to join queue at the distribution area. (UNRWA/file)

❸ MILITARY COURT WATCH
NEWSLETTER  –  JANUARY  2016:  DETENTION  FIGURES
According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 December 2015, there were 6,066 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in Israeli detention facilities including 422 children. In the case of children there was a 4 per cent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 15 per cent compared with 2014.    More . . . 
❹ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE) 
THE  OTTOMAN  LEGACY  IN  PALESTINE
Aziza Nofal, Trans. Pascale Menassa
Feb. 4, 2016
In 1901, to commemorate the 25th year of enthronement of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the Ottoman Empire, the sultan gifted 30 clock towers to the regions under the Ottoman state’s control. Palestine received seven of these, including the clock tower at the entrance to the Old City in Nablus, north of the West Bank.
___The clock tower stands today as one of the most important touristic and historical sites in the city. It still functions, and it is the central landmark of Nablus.   More . . . 
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
COPING  WITH  INSECURITY
Salwa Duaibis
Feb. 1, 2016
I always look forward with apprehension to accompanying visiting delegations to Ofer military court, where they can witness injustice in “concentrated doses.” The visits are always stark reminders of what life is like for ordinary Palestinian men, women, and children who live in the shadow of settlements, along bypass roads, or behind the wall. This time . . . [I had] to calm down my sister a bit as she kept expressing her “fear” of witnessing mothers in distress. . . I myself could not put my finger on what exactly it was that made me believe there was no reason for her to worry.    More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
THE  SECURITY  FORCES  OPERATING  IN  PALESTINE:  AN  OVERVIEW
TWIP Collective
Feb. 1, 2016
Security has been a cornerstone of the Oslo Accords, and . . . all peace plans, and the ongoing public discourse . . . . But the term carries different meanings . . . Palestinians view the security sector as a main element in the process of state-building and seek a full-fledged functional system that can protect them against Israeli incursion and form the basis of sovereignty. Israel wants a Palestinian security sector that is strong enough to carry out the policing required in order to secure Israel’s safety.    More . . .

Two Poems by SAMIH AL-QASIM

“THE  CLOCK  ON  THE  WALL”
My city collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
Our neighborhood collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The street collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The square collapse
The clock was still on the wall
The house collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The wall collapsed
The clock
Ticked on

“THE  WILL  OF  A  MAN  DYING  IN  EXILE”
Light the fire so I can see in the mirror of the flames
The courtyard, the bridge
And the golden meadows.
Light the fire so I can see my tears
On the night of the massacre
So I can see your sister’s corpse
Whose heart is a bird ripped by foreign tongues,
By foreign winds.
Light the fires so I can see your sister’s corpse,
So I can see jasmine
As a shroud,
The moon
As an incense burner
On the night of the massacre.
Light the fire so I can see myself dying
My suffering is your only inheritance
My suffering before the jasmine turns
Into a witness
The moon
Into a witness
Light the fire so I can see
Light the fi. . .

(Written after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the Israeli occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories, al-Qasim refers to the plight exiled Palestinians who lost hope of returning to their homeland.)

About Samih Al-Qasim
From: Adonis, Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim.  VICTIMS  OF  A  M AP:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  ARABIC  POETRY.  London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.

“. . . 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)

“. . . when I am led all alone to be whipped and humiliated . . . at every police station. . .” (‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
IMG_3057
Ofer Prison, Occupied Territories. Ofer Prison is run by the Israel Prison Service and used to be operated by the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Police Corps. It holds about 1,100 Palestinian prisoners both those under administrative detention and those who have been tried and sentenced. Among them are children. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❶ Nearly 400 Palestinian children held in Israeli jails
❷ UN submission: Unlawful transfer of protected persons
❸ Pollard Released After 30 Years in Prison
❹ Army Kidnaps Fifteen Palestinians in Hebron
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘It Has Become a Prison’: The ghettoization of Hebron
❻ Poetry by ‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
NEARLY  400  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  HELD  IN  ISRAELI  JAILS
Nov. 20, 2015
RAMALLAH ― A prisoners’ rights group said Friday that nearly 400 Palestinian children between the ages of 11 and 17 are currently being held in Israeli jails.
___The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement that 11 of those detained were being held without charge or trial under administration detention orders. . . .
___Some 700 children have been detained since the beginning of October — mainly in the Hebron and Jerusalem districts — many of whom were released under specific conditions including bail or house arrest, the society said.
More . . .
❷ MILITARY COURT WATCH
UN  SUBMISSION:  UNLAWFUL  TRANSFER  OF  PROTECTED  PERSONS
Nov. 12, 2015
MCW lodged a submission with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention relating to the unlawful transfer and detention of Palestinian minors from the West Bank to prisons located inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
___According to evidence provided by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) an average of 88 per cent of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank, including minors, are transferred and detained inside Israel. It is currently estimated that this affects between 7,000 to 8,000 Palestinians each year and is classified under international law as a war crime.
More . . .

IMG_3055
The gate to Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)

❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
POLLARD  RELEASED  AFTER  30  YEARS  IN  PRISON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday, addressed American spy, Jonathan Pollard, who was released on parole after serving 30 years in prison, after handing over top-secret classified information to Israel.
___“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” the PM said in a video statement. “As someone who has raised his case among successive US presidents many times, I longed for this day,” Netanyahu continued.
___The former intelligence analyst for the US government was arrested in 1985, and pleaded guilty in 1987, to charges in violation of the Espionage Act.
More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ARMY  KIDNAPS  FIFTEEN  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
Nov. 21, 2015
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Saturday at dawn, the southern West Bank district of Hebron, searched dozens of homes and kidnapped fifteen Palestinians.
___The soldiers invaded the Joret Bahlas area, north of Hebron city, and various neighborhoods before kidnapping the Palestinians.
___Local sources said the soldiers kidnapped Ismael Taiseer Bader, 44, Luay Faisal al-Hashlamoun, 30, Adel al-Eeda al-Herbawi, 48, Othman Sharif Tamimi, 18, Nader Hamed Natsha, Mohammad Ali al-Qawasma, and Ezzat Sha’ban al-Khatib, after violently storming their homes and searching them, in Hebron city.
___ The army also invaded Deir Samet village, southwest of Hebron, searched homes and kidnapped . . .
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
‘IT  HAS  BECOME  A  PRISON’:  THE  GHETTOIZATION  OF  HEBRON
Megan Hanna
Nov. 11, 2015
Hebron’s Old City, located in the “H2 area” under full Israeli military control, is subject to dramatic new restrictions introduced last week. Israeli soldiers seized several homes in the Tel Rumedia area and barred the residents from going in or out, declaring the area a military zone and banning access to non-residents, in a move that parallels security restrictions imposed recently upon areas of East Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of last month 22 Palestinians have been killed in Hebron, and nine in the Old City that has been the epicentre of escalating tensions.
___Even for the 50 families who live in Tel Rumeida, who had a mere few days to register their name and ID card to the Israeli authorities, the plans will severely restrict their freedom of movement, as they will have to undergo rigorous security searches every time they wish to leave or enter their homes.
___According to a resident of Tel Rumeida, “They told me I have the number 36 [on the list with who’s allowed to go in and out], it’s just like in prison. They try to make you a number, you’re not a person”.
More . . .

(Palestinian poets frequently use the image of “lover” for Palestine.)

“LOVE  PALESTINIAN-STYLE,”  BY  ‘ABD AL-LATIF ‘AQL

In times of drought you are my figs and olives,
Your barrenness is my fragrant gown.

Of the rubble that was your eyes I erect my home,
I love you alive, I love you in death.
When hungry, I feed on thyme.

I feel your hair against my face and I pine,
My weary face turns red.

I am born in the palms of your hands, and embryo,
I grow and grow, and I reach maturity.

I drink the meaning of my life from your gaze,
Then my being is awakened and is intoxicated.

I journey across frontiers, you are my suitcase,
You are my forged passport.

I boast that I can smuggle your eyes
Across borders;
I boast and boast and pride surges within me.

And when soldiers confiscate you,
Even before hashish,
And gouge the pupils of my eyes,

I feel I have been cleansed of the shame;
I have become purer
And more immaculate.

When they fear what may be under my armpits,
They confine me in small cells;
I sign your name
At the end of police reports.

And when I am led all alone
To be whipped and humiliated,
And lashed at every police station,
I feel we’re lovers, who died from ecstasy,
A dark-skinned man and his woman.

You become me and I become you―
Luscious figs and shelled almonds.
And when soldiers smash my head
And force me to sip the cold of prison
To forget you―I love you even more.

‘Abd Al-Latif ‘Aql was born in 1942 in Deir Istiya, a village near Nablus. His family was exiled in 1948, and he lived in Amman and studied in Damasus and the U.S. where earned a PhD in social psychology. He worked as a school teacher in the West Bank for many years. He has published many volumes of poetry. His two plays incurred the wrath of the Israelis, and were forced to end performance at Bir Zeit University.
___From: A  LOVER  FROM  PALESTINE  AND  OTHER  POEMS:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  PALESTINIAN  POETRY. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.
Available from Abe Books. 

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Employee parking, Ofer Prison. (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 5, 2015)