Tag: Palestinian Land Day

“. . . we are trying very hard to lead a normal life. . .” (Samia Nasir Khoury)

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Runners pass the separation wall during the Right to Movement Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on April 1, 2016 in Bethlehem, West Bank. Thousands of runners, both professional and amateur come from across the globe to participate in the Right to Movement Marathon. April 01, 2016| (Photo: Getty Images; Credit: Darrian Traynor)
Runners pass the separation wall during the Right to Movement Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on April 1, 2016 in Bethlehem, West Bank. Thousands of runners, both professional and amateur come from across the globe to participate in the Right to Movement Marathon.
April 01, 2016| (Photo: Getty Images; Credit: Darrian Traynor)

❶ Thousands join Palestine marathon to affirm right to movement
❷ Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2016 (“Danstory” April 11–26)
❸ Palestinian rights group submits Israeli war crimes report to ICC
❹ Why Land Day Still Matters
. . . . . ❹― (ᴀ) (VIDEOS) Thousands March on 40th Land Day to Protest Decades of Land Grabs
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ECONOMIC  POLICIES  ENTRENCH  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
❻ From a letter by Samia Nasir Khoury
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THOUSANDS  JOIN  PALESTINE  MARATHON  TO  AFFIRM  RIGHT  TO  MOVEMENT
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
April 1, 2016
Thousands of Palestinians and foreigners took to the streets on Friday to take part in the fourth annual marathon hosted by the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, aimed at highlighting the severe movement restrictions Palestinians face under Israel’s military occupation.
___First conceived in 2013 under the theme “RIGHT TO MOVEMENT,” the marathon was applauded by the UN and other humanitarian bodies as a reminder of the “many barriers to freedom of movement faced by Palestinians every day,” although Israel condemned it as a “cynical” use of sport.      MORE . . .  

❷ RAMALLAH  CONTEMPORARY  DANCE  FESTIVAL  2016  (“DANSTORY”  APRIL 11–26)
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
April, 2016
Courtesy of Sareyyet Ramallah
In confrontation with the death, destruction, and exile witnessed by the world today and in the midst of the Palestinian current popular uprising against the Israeli occupation, a military occupation that has been stripping Palestinians of the simplest of human rights for the last 68 years, the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2016 presents its 11th edition under the theme “Danstory,” underscoring the passion of Palestinians for joyfulness and their tight grip on hopefulness and life.      MORE . . .

1-Sareyyet-Ramallah-1-558x1024❸ PALESTINIAN  RIGHTS  GROUP  SUBMITS  ISRAELI  WAR  CRIMES  REPORT  TO  ICC
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 31, 2016
In ongoing efforts to hold Israel accountable for gross violations of international law, Palestinian legal rights group Badil has published key findings on alleged war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war that the group submitted to the International Criminal Court earlier this month.
___The report documents in detail the accounts of Palestinian victims of Israel’s large-scale military offensive . . . .
___In the report, NO SAFE PLACE, Badil focused in particular on Israel’s mass forced displacement of some half-a-million Palestinians at the height of hostilities, around 28 percent of Gaza’s population.      MORE . . . 

❹ WHY  LAND  DAY  STILL  MATTERS
HAARETZ NEWSPAPER IN ISRAEL
Sam Bahour and Fida Jiryis Mar 30, 2012
Today, with no resolution in sight to the historic injustices inflicted upon them, Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere use this day to remember and redouble their efforts for emancipation.      MORE . . .
. . . . . ❹― (ᴀ) (VIDEOS)  THOUSANDS  MARCH  ON  40TH  LAND  DAY  TO  PROTEST  DECADES  OF  LAND  GRABS
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
Mar 30 2016
Thousands of Palestinians across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory marched Wednesday to commemorate the 40th Land Day, protesting decades of Israeli land grabs.      MORE . . .

❺ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   ECONOMIC  POLICIES  ENTRENCH  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
Nassar Ibrahim
March 20, 2016
The Palestinian economy has not been independent in centuries. Like the economies of other Arab countries, the Palestinian economy was subject to foreign control and looting for four centuries under Ottoman rule. Next, British colonial rule lorded over Palestine, until the Nakba uprooted Palestinians from their land in 1948. Following Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Israeli colonial powers took control of the Palestinian economy. . . .  Israeli management of the Palestinian economy has created deep structural disparities in Palestinian society.  MORE . . .  

FROM  A  LETTER  TO  A  SWEDISH  FRIEND,  2001,  BY  SAMIA  NASIR  KHOURY.

Although we are trying very hard to lead a normal life, you can imagine how difficult this when everything around us is so abnormal. It is not easy for you, as a young person and in a country like Sweden, to envisage what occupation means. It does not only mean the deprivation of a nation’s freedom, but also the deprivation of one’s personal freedom. . . . I hope you will always be grateful for what you have and which many young people take for granted, never realizing how precious freedom, democracy, and water are. (July 31, 2001. Letter to a Swedish friend.)
[Note: the last sentence refers to a poignant description of the Israeli restriction on resources for Palestinians.]

Khoury, Samia Nasir. REFLECTIONS  FROM  PALESTINE:  A  JOURNEY  OF  HOPE.  A  MEMOIR.  Nicosia, Cyprus: Rimal Publications, 2014 (117).
About Samia Khoury.
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LAND DAY, MARCH 30 “. . . there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune. . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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1-IMG_3725
Palestinian Land between Jericho and Jerusalem (Photo: Harold Knight, Nov. 14, 2015)

❶ Israeli Army Quells Rally Marking LAND DAY [see note below]
. . . . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israeli Authorities Control Over 85 Percent of Historical Palestine, Says Statistics Bureau
❷ Is Israel reviving this 50-year-old land plan?
❸ Israeli Forces Storm House of Palestinian who Captured Hebron Killing Footage
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US congressmen seek investigation of Israel’s ‘extrajudicial killings’
❹ New Prison Bill for Minors Targets Palestinian Children
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE  DUALITY  OF  ISRAEL’S  OCCUPATION,  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD
❻ Poetry by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  ARMY  QUELLS  RALLY  MARKING  LAND  DAY  [see note below]
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli armed forces Wednesday violently quelled a peaceful rally organized in commemoration of Land Day.
___. . .  a rally that took off from Jenin city to plant trees in an area situated between Silat al-Dhahr and Barqa, two towns in the West Bank districts of Jenin and Nablus, respectively, on the occasion of Land Day, was violently suppressed by Israeli forces.    MORE . . . 
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  AUTHORITIES  CONTROL  OVER  85  PERCENT  OF  HISTORICAL  PALESTINE,  SAYS  STATISTICS  BUREAU
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
On the occasion of Land Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that, ‘Israeli occupation authorities laid hand over more than 85% of the total area of historical land of Palestine, which totals about 27,000 km2.
___Every year, the Palestinian people mark the confiscation of 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, AlMuthalth and Al-Naqab on 30 March 1976. . . .      MORE . . .

❷ IS  ISRAEL  REVIVING  THIS  50-YEAR-OLD  LAND  PLAN?
AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
March 29, 2016
In a March 18 statement, the Land Defense Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reintroduced to political discussion terminology no longer often heard. In the statement, the PLO accused right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu of reviving the Allon Plan. . . .
___The Allon Plan . . .  proposed that Israel relinquish the main Palestinian population centers in the West Bank to Jordan while retaining land along the Jordan River under Israeli military control. . . .      MORE . . . 

1-allon plan
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon (L) meets with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (C) and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir before dinner at the prime minister’s residence, Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 1974. (photo by Facebook/The Prime Minister of Israel)

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  STORM  HOUSE  OF  PALESTINIAN  WHO  CAPTURED  HEBRON  KILLING  FOOTAGE
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 30, 2016
Israeli forces overnight stormed the family house of Palestinian human rights worker who captured a video footage of an Israeli soldier killing a Palestinian in the Hebron neighborhood of Tal Rumeida.
___Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh said that forces stormed his house in the H2 block of Hebron’s city center, where they inspected identity cards and passports of Palestinian and international activists . . . .
___Abu Shamsiyyeh, a human rights volunteer with Israeli group B’Tselem, captured a video footage of the moment an Israeli soldier stepped forward and shot in the head at point-blank range . . . a Palestinian who had already been shot and left motionless on the ground.       MORE . . .   
. . . . . ❸― (ᴀ) US  CONGRESSMEN  SEEK  INVESTIGATION  OF  ISRAEL’S  ‘EXTRAJUDICIAL  KILLINGS’  
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 30, 2016
US Senator Patrick Leahy . . .  called on the US to investigate the possibility of “gross violations of human rights” by Israel’s and Egypt’s security forces, including “extrajudicial killings.”
___Leahy. . .  made the request in a joint letter sent to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Feb. 17, suggesting that if the reports of rights violations should be proven, US military assistance should be cut off.     MORE . . .
MORE (American coverage) . . .

❹ NEW  PRISON  BILL  FOR  MINORS  TARGETS  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
Chloe Benoist
March 30, 2016
The Israeli Knesset, on Tuesday, approved the first reading of a bill which would allow Israeli courts to hand down prison sentences to minors under the age of 14 — legislation critics say is targeted at Palestinian children.      MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE DUALITY OF ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION, AT HOME AND ABROAD
+972 BLOG
Tomer Persico
March 29, 2016
Slowly but surely, the process of shedding democratic characteristics in favor of ‘ethnocratic’ ones is becoming clearer and clearer for all to see.      MORE . . .

“OASIS,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

Behind this dune we have an oasis. Leave me alone.
Leave me to rinse myself off in a bit
of its mirage. I’m tired of running after myself
to catch myself before I die.
Take―old friends and my companions―my body,
the shadow of it body’s shadow,
and hold it for a while, so I can reach my time in time.
Behind this dune we have an oasis.
Sustain your longing with dates and water,
without despair.
Listen with me to the songs of the girls
beneath the palms, but do not follow
the voice of my silence.
We have, friends, the right to die as we desire.
But there’s still some hope, behind that nearby dune.
And we have the right to make the stranger
a stranger’s friend, and we have an oasis―
and a bit of rest in the house
of the loved one who left us.
He will come from behind this dune.

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER   THAN   WATER.   NEW   AND   SELECTED   POEMS.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008. Available from
Samih al-Qasim Obituary, August 20, 2014

LAND  DAY  (ARABIC: يوم الأرض‎, YOM AL-ARD),  MARCH  30, is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for security and settlement purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. Scholarship on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recognizes Land Day as a pivotal event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab citizens to the Israeli state and body politic.

“. . . Sorrow of a field that carries the remains of the dead and olive trees. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

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Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in the March of Return, in the lands of the destroyed village of Hadatha, near Tiberias, April 23, 2015. (photo: Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in the March of Return, in the lands of the destroyed village of Hadatha, near Tiberias, April 23, 2015. (photo: Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

❶ From +972 MAGAZINE
THE DAY THEY STRIP ME OF MY CITIZENSHIP
Samah Salaime
June 28, 2015
When the deputy interior minister demands Palestinian citizens renounce our citizenship, he only exposes the true nature of the Israeli state. After all, without us there is no ‘only democracy in the Middle East.’
____We, the rowdy Arabs who live in the democratic state of the Jewish people, formally apologize for disrupting a Knesset plenum on the Citizenship Law, which denies status in Israel to Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens. So what if the discussion was about our future, our place in society, our fate—we have no right to state our opinions.
(More. . .)

❷ From AL-MONITOR, PALESTINE PULSE
SENSE OF BELONGING DRAWS PALESTINIANS TO WEST BANK
Aziza Nofal (Translator―Sahar Ghoussoub)
June 25, 2015
NABLUS, West Bank — On a Saturday in Nablus, people are lining in front of the al-Aqsa sweet shop. The place is packed . . . because of Palestinians visiting Nablus from Israel. . . .
____In the last four years, some 90,000 Palestinians from Israel have been crossing into the West Bank annually. . . .
____Areej Makroush, from the town of Kafr Kana in the Nazareth district, told Al-Monitor, “. . . In the West Bank, we have a sense of belonging and security. We don’t feel estranged, unlike shopping in Israeli cities. Here, signs and banners are in Arabic, and we are not obliged to speak Hebrew.”
(More . . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI FORCES CLOSE FARMERS MARKET NEAR NABLUS
June 14, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday closed a farmers market in the northern West Bank town of Beita claiming that Palestinian gunmen had fired shots at Israeli vehicles overnight Saturday on the main road near the town.
____A Ma’an reporter in Nablus said that a large number of Israeli soldiers arrived at the farmers market and sealed the main entrance. . . .
(More. . .)

❹ From ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
HOME DEMOLITION ORDERS IN HEBRON HILLS
June 23, 2015
Operation Dove
While the inhabitants of the Palestinian village of Susiya are still living under the threat of eviction, the Israeli authorities continue to enlarge the danger of demolitions in various villages of the South Hebron Hills area.
____ Israeli officials delivered demolition orders. . .
(More. . .)
Operation Dove
land day poster❺ Opinion
From WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS (WRMEA)
LAND DAY COMMEMORATION HONORS PEOPLE WHO WON’T BE SILENCED
Delinda C. Hanley
June-July, 2015
The General Delegation of the PLO to the U.S. and the American Federation of Ramallah Palestine teamed up to host a special dinner to commemorate Prisoners’ Day as well as the 39th Palestinian Land Day on April 17 at the Westin Hotel in Arlington, VA. Following the playing of the Palestinian National Anthem, Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat told the audience that Land Day honors the six Israeli Palestinians who were killed and hundreds who were injured and arrested as they peacefully protested Israeli plans to steal tens of thousands of acres of land in the Galilee.
____Turning to the dinner’s theme, “Your Silence Is Their Power,” Areikat decried efforts by U.S. colleges, mainstream media and community leaders.
(More. . .)

“TO MY GRANDFATHER,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH
Face of my grandfather! Cheerless prophet!
What grave sent you forth,
Wearing a vest the colour of a blood-stained rock,
And a cloak the colour of a ditch?
Face of my grandfather! Cheerless prophet!
Sorrow of a field that carries the remains of the dead and olive
. . .trees and old winds,
What grave sent you forth
To turn me into a lifeless statue?
Glory be to Allah. I haven’t sold an inch and never have I
. . .succumbed to oppression.
They danced and sang on your grave, yet sleep
For I am awake, awake I am till death.

From: A Lover From Palestine and Other Poems: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.

MAHMOUD DARWISH
Born: 13 March 1942, al-Birwa, British Mandate of Palestine
Died: 9 August 2008, Houston, Texas, United States
Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the USSR. He attended the University of Moscow for one year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel. In 1995, he received a permit to settle in Ramallah although he said he felt he was living in exile there, and did not consider the West Bank his “private homeland.”
l-Birwa was a Palestinian Arab village, mentioned by Arab geographers in the 11th century. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, al-Birwa was occupied by the Israel Defense Forces. The inhabitants fled to nearby villages or refugee camps in Lebanon. Kibbutzim were established on the lands of al-Birwa in 1949 and 1950.

MAHMOUD DARWISH (1942-2008)
MAHMOUD DARWISH (1942-2008)

“. . . to forget the word ‘future,’ or to erase it completely from your vocabulary. . .” (Somaya El Sousi)

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Church goers before the troops arrived
Unruly (dangerous?) Church goers before the troops arrived

from INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ISRAELI SOLDIERS RAID PALM SUNDAY CELEBRATION IN BEIT JALA
by IMEMC News & Agencies
Monday March 30, 2015
Palm Sunday celebrations in Beit Jala were brought to an abrupt end, on Sunday, when Israeli troops raided the majority-Christian town near Bethlehem and began threatening locals. Palestinian policemen on duty near the celebrations were threatened by Israeli soldiers with arrest during the raid, which took place in the middle of the day as Sunday mass was coming to an end in local churches, Ma’an News Agency reports.

The town of Beit Jala is subject to regular incursions by Israeli forces, even though the large majority of its population live in Areas A, subject to full Palestinian civil and military control under the Oslo Accords. Palm Sunday is celebrated this year on March 29 according to the Gregorian calendar, which is recognized for religious purposes by most Western Christian denominations in Palestine. Orthodox Christians, meanwhile, use the Julian calendar and will be celebrating Palm Sunday on April 5.

The raid raises fears of a repeat of last Easter, when Israeli restrictions on Christian worship during the holiday prevented thousands of Christian Palestinians from traveling to Jerusalem and led to chaotic scenes in the city itself.
(More. . . .)

From B’TSELEM
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION DEMOLISHES 4 HOMES IN KHALLET MAKHUL, NORTHERN JORDAN VALLEY, 18 MONTHS AFTER DEMOLISHING ALL STRUCTURES IN COMMUNITY
25 Mar 2015
At 6:30 A.M. on 18 March 2015, representatives of the Civil Administration arrived with a military escort at the shepherding community of Khallet Makhul in the northern Jordan Valley. Civil Administration bulldozers demolished four residential tents belonging to four of the community’s nine families. They also demolished 4 kitchens, 12 livestock enclosures and a tent used by one of the families to produce cheese. The very same day, the families erected tents they received from aid organizations to serve as substitute housing. The next evening, a military patrol arrived at the community. Once more, they demolished the tent of one of the families.
(More. . .)

Khallet Makhul - Israeli demolition equipment
Khallet Makhul – Israeli demolition equipment

from MONDOWEISS
PALESTINIANS MARK THE 39TH ANNIVERSARY OF LAND DAY
Allison Deger
March 30, 2015
Today, March 30th Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, marched for Land Day, Yom al-Arda in Arabic, which commemorates protest in the Galilee in 1976 where six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed.

The main marches today were held in the village of Sakhnin and Arrabe in the north of Israel, home to the first Land Day protests 39 years ago. Other demonstrations took place in the lower Galilee and in the Bedouin town of Rahat in the Negev desert. Unlike past years, no general strike was called. Businesses and schools stayed open although the Israeli outlet Ynet News reported 70% of school-aged Palestinian children inside Israel took the day off. “Sixty-seven years have passed since the establishment of Israel and there still is no equitable allocation of land,” said Joint List Knesset-elect member and current parliamentarian Ahmed Tibi in Rahat, reported the Jerusalem Post.
(More. . . .)

from COMMON DREAMS
WHEN BEING PRO-PALESTINIAN AND PRO-ISRAELI IS THE SAME THING: ON WHY I PAINTED PHYSICIAN, AUTHOR, AND PEACE ACTIVIST ALICE ROTHCHILD
By Robert Shetterly
March 31, 2015
Editor’s note: The artist’s essay that follows accompanies the ‘online unveiling’—exclusive to Common Dreams—of Shetterly’s latest painting in his “Americans Who Tell the Truth” portrait series, presenting citizens throughout U.S. history who have courageously engaged in the social, environmental, or economic issues of their time. This painting of Alice Rothschild—a physician, author, filmmaker, and peace activist—is his latest portrait of those who dedicated their lives to equality, freedom and justice. Posters of this portrait and others are now available at the artist’s website.
(More. . .)

“THE ART OF LIVING IN GAZA,” BY SOMAYA EL SOUSI
(A narrative prose-poem)
To live in a dreamless city, a city abundant in its discontents and completely forgotten about, a city whoever enters is lost and whoever leaves is destined for a new life, you must learn a great many survival skills. Then, as an individual, you can become harmonised with the paradigm that rules everything in it.

The first of these skills is the ability to interact with time. I don’t mean that time is important, to such a great extent, in this city. On the contrary: in Gaza there is a great surplus of time, which you must know how to use up, how to get rid of, in every possible way, as there are no important appointments binding you to your schedule, and no particularly sacred or respected times. Everything is possible at any time, and it’s up to you to kill time as you see fit. So you either remain a prisoner in your own home, workplace, or wherever it is that you know and that knows you, or you think of other ways to kill time. Whatever you do will lead you to the same result in the end: you will make it as far as your pillow, at night, with a sense of absolute futility. You will be unable to find anything to think of other than fleeing from your self, the self that asks itself constantly until when? And what will you do tomorrow? And how are you going to spend the rest of your life?

The second skill is to forget the word ‘future,’ or to erase it completely from your vocabulary, because it doesn’t mean anything when it comes up against the reality you inhabit. You cannot contemplate what you’ll do in an hour’s time, because there are so many changes which you have no say in and which happen at lightning speed; so you could fall prey to a stray bullet which comes at you in your house or in the street, a bullet no one knows the source of. Bullets are so plentiful these days and they roam around with such an unprecedented freedom that your life could end with absolute simplicity and you could become just another number, the latest addition to the list of casualties of random firearm use. . . . (More. . .)

Somaya El Sousi was born in Gaza City in 1974. She studied English language at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, and works as a researcher in the sociological division of the Palestinian Planning Centre. Four collections of her poetry have been published so far: The First Sip of the Sea’s Chest (1998), Doors (2003), Lonely Alone (2005), Idea, Void, White – in a joint collection with the poet Hala El Sharouf, published by Dar Al-Adab, Beirut, (2005) (More. . . )

Dr. Alice Rothschild, by Robert Shetterly
Dr. Alice Rothschild, by Robert Shetterly