SELECTED NEWS OF THE DAY

EU says demolition of Palestinian property in occupied West Bank threat to two-state solution

WAFA
September 3, 2019
The European Union (EU) Representative and Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah denounced yesterday Israel’s demolition of Palestinian property in Area C of the occupied West Bank as a threat to the two-state solution.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ A statement by the local EU missions referred to the August 26 demolition of a Palestinian family’s home and restaurant near Bethlehem. . . .
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ “These demolitions, together with settlement construction for Israelis in the area, exacerbate threats to the viability of the two-state solution and further undermine prospects for a lasting peace,” said the EU statement.  More . . . .

• Jerusalem’s Israeli municipality demolishes Palestinian house in the occupied  city  WAFA September 03, 2019
  The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem demolished today a Palestinian-owned house in al-Tur neighborhood of the occupied city under the pretext it was built without a permit, according to the house owner Mohammad Abu al-Hawa.  More . . . .
• Israel forces Palestinian family to demolish their home
  The Palestinian Information Center
  September 3, 2019
  The Israeli authorities on Sunday forced a Palestinian family in ‘Ara village in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories to demolish their own home.  More. . . .
• Pictures- A Jerusalemite self-demolishes his commercial facility in Silwan
  Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
  September 1, 2019   More . . . .
• Israeli settlers set up caravan on confiscated Palestinian land
  The Palestinian Information Center
  September 3, 2019
  Israeli settlers on Tuesday morning erected a caravan on a newly seized Palestinian land in Beit Jala town, west of Bethlehem.
  ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Local sources said that the four-dunum land, owned by the Palestinian citizen Saba Skandar, was seized by the Israeli authorities on Monday without prior notice.  More . . . .

PODCAST: Has international law failed Palestinians?

+972 Magazine
Noura Erakat, Palestinian legal scholar
August 30, 2019
Israel has been able to leverage international law to its advantage much better than the Palestinians, says Noura Erakat, Palestinian legal scholar, human rights activist and author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, on the latest episode of The +972 Podcast.
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Erakat proposes understanding it as another tool used to promote a political agenda.  More . . . .

POEM OF THE DAY

“THE  LAST  KNOCK,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

Will you not open this door for me?
My hand is exhausted from knocking at Your door.
I have come to Your vastness to beg
Some tranquility and peace of mind
But Your door is closed in my face,
Drowned in silence.
Lord of the house,
The door was open here,
A refuge for all burdened with grief.
The door was open here,
And the green olive tree rose high
Embracing the house.
The oil lamp kindling without fire,
Guiding the steps of one walking at night,
Relieving those crushed by the burden of Earth,
Flooding them with satisfaction and ease.
Do you hear me, O Lord of the house,
After my loss in the deserts;
Away from You I have returned to You
But Your door is closed
In my face, drowned in silence.
Your house is shrouded
With the dust of death.
You are here. Open, then, the door.
Do not veil Your face.
See my orphanhood, my loss,
Amid the ruins of a collapsing world,
The grief of the world on my shoulders
And terrors of a tyrant destiny
To be undone.

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.