Tag: Palestinian refugees

“. . . Our roots are entrenched / Deep in the earth . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

IMG_3349 - CopySt. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Beit Jala in Bethlehem Governate.
Priest greets parishioner after service.
Photo: Harold Knight, Sun. Nov. 8, 2015.

SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .

|   MYTHS  AND  FANTASIES  ABOUT  THE  PALESTINIAN  REFUGEES  AND  THE  UNITED  NATIONS     Andrew Whitley, former senior UNRWA official      The decision of the Trump Administration to halt all funding for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for 5.4 million Palestinian refugees, and its attempts to redefine who qualifies as a “refugee” in this context, marks another egregious example of Washington’s disregard for international norms and humanitarian law in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.    ___The ultimate fate of those refugees who fled their homes or were forcibly expelled in the war that led to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 – and of their descendants, now into third and fourth generations – has long been one of the most contentious issues in the conflict.    ___The “right to return” is seen by Palestinians and their supporters worldwide as a matter of natural and historic justice. After all, this is exactly the same right as all other refugees – for whom UNRWA’s sister agency, UNHCR, is their guardian – enjoy.    More . . .
|   MAYOR  OF  BETHLEHEM:  NETANYAHU’S  STATEMENT  ON  BETHLEHEM  AND  PALESTINIAN  CHRISTIANS  IS  ANOTHER  ISRAELI  ATTEMPT  AT  DISTORTING  REALITY  OF  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION     Mayor of Bethlehem, advocate Anton Salman said in response to Sunday’s statements by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Bethlehem and the situation of Palestinian Christians, that such statement ‘is another Israeli attempt at distorting the reality of the Israeli occupation and particularly the effects that Israeli policies have had on the Palestinian Christian community since 1948’.    ___“If Mr. Netanyahu was concerned about the situation of Palestinian Christians, particularly in the Bethlehem area, he would return the 22,000 dunums of Bethlehem land illegally annexed to Israel for expansion of colonial settlements. He would dismantle the annexation wall that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem for the first time in 2000 years of Christianity and would stop imposing restrictions to Palestinian movement, including the thousand of Palestinian Christians living in exile and whose return is impossible due to the Israeli control over the Palestinian population registry,” said the mayor in a statement issued by the Bethlehem municipality.    More . . .
. . . . Related  New  Israeli  Laws  Enhance  Creeping  Annexation  Policy
|   ISRAEL  CONTINUES  AIRSTRIKES  OVER  GAZA    An Israeli warplane carried out an airstrike, on Tuesday, targeting a group of Palestinians east of Beit Hanoun in the southern besieged Gaza Strip.    ___A Ma’an reporter said that an Israeli warplane fired one missile towards a group of Palestinian youths in northern Gaza; no injuries were reported.    ___The Israeli army said that a warplane targeted a group of Palestinians who were launching incendiary kites into southern Israel.    ___Meanwhile, locals reported that Israeli military bulldozers entered dozens of meters into south of Gaza City, razed and leveled lands.    More . . .
. . . . Related   Israeli  Navy,  Soldiers,  Injure  19  Palestinians  In  Northern  Gaza

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .

|   WATCH:  ISRAELIS  AND  PALESTINIANS  MEET  FACE  TO  FACE  AT  GAZA  FENCE
For a few short minutes last week, a group of Israeli activists managed to have a face-to-face conversation with Palestinian activists in Gaza, albeit through a militarized fence.    ___On Wednesday of last week, for the first time since the Great Return March began in March, a small group of Israeli activists approached the fence to speak with Palestinian demonstrators, standing just meters from them on the other side.    ___The Palestinians who approached the fence had been taking part in a cultural event near the village of Khuza’a in one of the nearby tent encampments, which was established as part of the Great Return March.    ___The rare meeting lasted only a few minutes, until Israeli soldiers arrived and ordered the Israelis to leave the area.    More . . .
|   PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  IN  ISRAEL  FOR  33  YEARS  WARNED  OF  PUNISHMENT  IF  HE  PUBLISHES  BOOK     A Palestinian prisoner who served 33 years out of a 39-year prison sentence in Israeli jails for resisting the Israeli occupation was warned by the prison administration of severe punishment if he publishes a book he wrote in prison, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said on Tuesday.    ___It said Walid Dakka, a Palestinian from inside Israel, who previously was severely punished after publishing a book in Arabic called “The story of the secret of oil”, was told that he would be put in isolation if he goes ahead and publishes another book.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“WE  SHALL  REMAIN,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD  – 1970
It is a thousand times easier
For you to pass an elephant through the needle’s eye
To catch fried fish in the Milky Way
To plow the sea
To teach the alligator speech, a thousand times easier
Than smothering with you oppression
The spark of an idea
Of forcing us to deviate
A single step
From our chosen march.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain in Lydda, Ramlah, and Galilee.

Here upon your chests
We shall remain
Like the glass and the cactus
In your throats
A fiery whirlwind
In your eyes.

Here we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We wash dishes in the hotels
And serve drinks to the masters.
We mop the floors in the dark kitchens
To extract a piece of bread
From your blue teeth
For the little ones.

Here, we shall remain
A wall on your chests.
We starve,
Go naked,
Sing songs
And fill the streets
With demonstrations
And the jails with pride.
We breed rebellions
One after another.
Like twenty impossibles we remain
In Lydda, Ramlah, Galilee.

Here, we shall remain.
You may drink the sea;
We shall guard the shade
Of the olive tree and the fig,
Planting ideas
Like the yeast in the dough.
The coldness of ice is in our nerves
And a burning hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock
To quench our thirst
And if we starve
We eat the dirt
And never depart
Or grudge our blood.

Here―we have a past
―a present
―and a future.
Our roots are entrenched
Deep in the earth.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain.
Let the oppressor review his account
Before the turn of the wheel.
For every action there is a reaction:
Read what is written in the Book.
Like twenty impossibles
We shall remain―in Lydda, in Ramlah
And Galilee.

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.

“. . . But I, a human, a refugee, Oh land of my homeland . . .” (Salem Jubran)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
A boy holding his belongings in the besieged Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus. Thousands have reportedly fled the camp, after Isis invaded it. (Rame Alsayed/Reuters)
A boy holding his belongings in the besieged Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus. Thousands have reportedly fled the camp, after Isis invaded it. (Rame Alsayed/Reuters)

❶ Opinion/Analysis: Israel tries to reap cheap PR from Syrian refugee tragedy
❷ Heads of Churches in Jerusalem denounce Israeli attacks on mosques
❸ Rafah farmers watch in horror as Egypt floods Gaza tunnels
❹ Israeli police holding 4 Palestinian youths over driver’s death
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Is Bibi using J’lem violence as an excuse to target all Arabs?
❻ Poetry by Salem Jubran

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

❶ Opinion/Analysis
THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAEL  TRIES  TO  REAP  CHEAP  PR FROM  SYRIAN  REFUGEE  TRAGEDY
Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
Sept. 11, 2015
Israel is striving to reap cheap public relations from the heart-rending crisis surrounding Syrian refugees fleeing death and destruction in their country.
____Israeli officials and media have been claiming that the erection by Hungary of a barbed wire fence on part of its borders to prevent refugees from entering that country is a vindication of Israel’s policy of building “the separation wall” in the West Bank.
More . . .

❷ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
HEADS  OF  CHURCHES  IN  JERUSALEM  DENOUNCE  ISRAELI  ATTACKS  ON  MOSQUES
Sept. 22, 2015
The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem on Monday have released statement expressing serious concerns regarding recent violent development on Haram al Sharif.

“We condemn all threats of change to historical (Status Quo) situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Haram Asharif) and its courtyard, all buildings, and in the city of Jerusalem. Any threat to its continuity and integrity could easily lead to unpredictable consequences which would be most unwelcome in the present delicate political climate.” statement said.

More . . .

❸ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
RAFAH  FARMERS  WATCH  IN  HORROR  AS  EGYPT  FLOODS  GAZA  TUNNELS
Mohammed Othman
Sept. 25, 2015
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The Egyptian army has been pumping large volumes of Mediterranean Sea waters since Sept. 17 into the buffer zone that it began building two years ago, along 14 kilometers of the Palestinian-Egyptian border. The move is the latest attempt to destroy the tunnels dug by Palestinians under the city of Rafah over the years of the Israeli blockade.
____The operation is causing concern for the Rafah border area inhabitants, who say that it will affect their lives there. Farmer Nayef Abu Shallouf, who owns three acres of land less than 300 meters from the Egyptian border, said all the salt water will leave his land briny and destroy his crops. He told Al-Monitor, “In addition to damaging the soil, sinkholes will appear wherever tunnels were dug, with collapses occurring sooner or later.”
More . . .

❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  POLICE  HOLDING  4  PALESTINIAN  YOUTHS  OVER  DRIVER’S  DEATH
Sept. 26, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli police said Saturday that they were holding four Palestinians aged 16-19 who they accuse of causing an Israeli driver’s death by throwing stones at his car earlier this month.
____Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said the four Palestinians, from the East Jerusalem village of Sur Baher, were detained on suspicion of “carrying out the attack over the Jewish new year.”
____Rosenfeld said: “They admitted carrying out the attack. They planned it ahead of time.” [. . . . .]
____Israeli police have said they believe the Israeli driver, 64-year-old Alexander Levlovich, lost control of his car after a stone was thrown at it on Sept. 13, during the Jewish new year holiday.
____They have so far released no evidence, and shortly after the accident took place the Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court issued a gag order on details of the incident.
More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
IS  BIBI  USING  J’LEM  VIOLENCE  AS  AN  EXCUSE  TO  TARGET  ALL  ARABS?
John Brown and Michal Rotem
Sept. 27, 2015
Netanyahu is trying to expand the open-fire regulations so that they target Arabs inside Israel. The outcome? Only more bloodshed. . . .
____Government representatives compete with one another over who will offer up the firmest way to deal with these youth in order to “do away with this phenomenon.” Of course none of them offers dealing with neglected East Jerusalem, the discrimination, the home demolitions. . . or the fact that there is no framework to take care of children and teenagers after school is over. It is strange that not a single politician has offered to shoot settlers when they throw stones following the demolition of their illegal structures in the West Bank. The opposite is true: they are granted hundreds of new housing units.
More . . .

“A  REFUGEE,”  BY  SALEM  JUBRAN
The sun crosses the frontier
the soldiers bullets it does not fear
and the nightingale sings
at midday in Tulkarm
and east supper in peace
with Jewish birds in the kibbutz
. . . a stray donkey feeds on the line
without a bullet in the spine
But I; a human, refugee
Oh land of my Homeland
my eyes and yours
are ever separate by a wall.

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. 
About Salem Jubran

A Palestinian is carried after being wounded in clashes with Border Police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, September 13, 2015. (photo: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh/Activestills.org)
A Palestinian is carried after being wounded in clashes with Border Police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, September 13, 2015. (photo: Faiz Abu-Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

“. . . whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)
The main components of Ibrahim Jawabrah’s artistic works are the tiny wooden or metal cars made of wires and wheels, the patterns of the traditional Palestinian dress and the fabrics used in Palestinian villages. (Photo, This Week in Palestine)

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

❶ Netanyahu Asks Attorney General to Authorize Sniper Fire against Stone-throwers
❷ Artist of the Month: Ibrahim Jawabrah: Searching through Childhood
❸ Rights group: More than 1,991 Palestinian children killed since 2000
❹ The Fires of Religious War Rage over Al-Aqsa
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Gazan refugees denied rights in Jordan for over 45 years
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

❶ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAEL  AUTHORIZES  SNIPERS  FIRE  AGAINST  ROCK-THROWERS
Sept. 16, 2015
Israel has approved the use of sniper rifles against stone throwers in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reports on Thursday morning. Netanyahu asked the Attorney General to authorize sniper to target the stone throwers as part of his declared “war” on stone throwers in Jerusalem.
More . . .
Related . . .
Related . . . 

❷ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
ARTIST  OF  THE  MONTH:  IBRAHIM  JAWABRAH:  SEARCHING  THROUGH  CHILDHOOD
Mohammad Al Amiri
September, 2015
Born in 1985, Ibrahim Jawabrah is still searching for the child in himself. As he was following his passion for art, he explored the depth of his inner self and found himself in the area of his childhood, which gave his art a special trait and flavor. He discovered a new language with which to argue with himself and clarify many issues about art that would fulfill his vision and respond to his passion and emotions.
____Jawabrah chose the path to heal his pain. His mission in art is purely humanitarian.
More . . .

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
RIGHTS  GROUP:  MORE  THAN  1,991  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN  KILLED  SINCE  2000
Sept. 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 1,991 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and extremists since 2000, according to figures released by an international rights group Thursday.
____Ongoing settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank are wedging Palestinian children and their families against “expanding and often violent Israeli settler communities,” Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCIP) research reported.
____Such expansion is increasingly placing Palestinian children in a “hyper-militarized environment,” where they are facing higher frequencies of disproportionate violence . . .
More . . .

Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)
Palestinian children look at the rubble of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli military strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex, File)

❹ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  FIRES  OF  RELIGIOUS  WAR  RAGE  OVER  AL-AQSA
Dr. Yousef Rezqa
Sep 16 2015
Israeli media sources have recently published the following statement: “Netanyahu’s government . . . decision to divide Al-Aqsa mosque in two phases: the first phase is to limit the presence of Palestinians by targeting and arresting religious scholars and students. . . The second phase will include the enforcement of daily hours where Jews can enter Al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinians will be forbidden to enter Al-Aqsa mosque during this time. The same regulations have been previously applied to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.”
____If we are to abide by the Netanyahu government’s policy, we will find ourselves in the midst of a new fait accompli that deprives Muslims of their basic right to worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque at any hour of the day.
More . . .
Related . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
GAZAN  REFUGEES  DENIED  RIGHTS  IN  JORDAN  FOR  OVER  45  YEARS
Aaron Magid
(Aaron Magid is an Amman-based journalist. He graduated from Harvard University with a masters in Middle Eastern studies.)
Sept. 17, 2015
JERASH REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (Ma’an) — Born in Jordan, 27-year-old Muhammad’s life hardly resembles a typical Jordanian’s. Lacking any political or civil rights . . . because his parents fled to Jordan from Gaza following the 1967 War.
____“Compared to other Jordanian citizens, I am nothing,” explained Muhammad . . . Approximately 140,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza live in a similar limbo as Muhammad in Jordan: denied most rights and often forced into a life of harsh poverty.
____Nearly 2.1 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 350,000 Palestinians fled to Jordan . . . The Nationality Law of 1954 provided Palestinian residents of the West Bank with full Jordanian citizenship after King Abdullah I annexed the West Bank on April 24, 1950. However, when the new wave of Palestinian refugees arrived in Jordan escaping from Gaza in the 1967 War, Amman treated them differently than their West Bank countrymen, refusing to provide them with Jordanian nationality or civil rights.
More . . .

EXCERPTED  FROM  “THE  CHILDREN  OF  RAFAH,”  BY  SAMI  AL-QASIM  (1970)
To him who digs his path
in the wounds of millions
whose tanks crush the garden’s roses
To him who breaks at night the houses’ windows
who burns a field and a museum
and sings to the fire
who rips the hair of sad women
and bombs grape fields
who executes the nightingale of feasts in the square
whose planes bombard children’s dreams who breaks rainbows
The children of deep rooted ancestors tonight declare
the children of Rafah tonight declare:
We did not knit blankets from hair braids
we did not spit on the face of murdered women
after plucking the golden teeth
Why do take the candy
and give us bombs?
why make Arab children orphans?
And thanks?

Sadness turned us into men
we must fight

[. . . .]

At the corner of the street
at the outskirts of town
the children of long histories
were gathering books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
to build a barricade,
to block the path of darkness
and disturb the troops of hate
until peace washes their eyes
from the dust and hate of war!
And with books, wood, and orphanage
frames and tent pegs
his idol gave the barricade a nervous silence
and his hand was ready with the ink pot―
And the day the security doors of the conquerors closed
he was among the arrested
the son of the man whose residence was unknown

Footnote:
His age nine years―

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.
About Samih Al-Qasim

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian during clashes between protesters and police after authorities limited access for Muslim worshipers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 26, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

“. . . We will guard even the shadow of our fig and olive trees. . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

House demolition in A-Tur, East Jerusalem, June 2009. A Day after the municipality of Jerusalem announced it’d stop demolishing homes in East Jerusalem, Abu-Jumaa’s house in A-Tur was demolished (Photo: Activestills)
House demolition in A-Tur, East Jerusalem, June 2009. A Day after the municipality of Jerusalem announced it’d stop demolishing homes in East Jerusalem, Abu-Jumaa’s house in A-Tur was demolished (Photo: Activestills)

❶ Israel is pulling the West Bank out from under Palestinian feet
❷ Israeli Troops Seize Home of PA Police Chief
❸ Ashrawi: “Israel is in the business of creating refugees, not providing them with a safe haven.”
❹ Netanyahu: EU plan to label settlement goods ‘unjust’
❺ “The right of return; a forgotten issue,” by Dr. Ghada Karmi **
❻ “The Impossible,” poetry by Tawfiq Zayyad

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

❶ +972 MAGAZINE
ISRAEL  IS  PULLING  THE  WEST  BANK  OUT  FROM  UNDER  PALESTINIAN  FEET
Natasha Roth
Sept. 11, 2015
Israel has issued over 14,000 demolition orders against Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank since 1988, according to a new report released by the UN’s humanitarian agency. Nearly 3,000 demolitions have been carried out in that time, leaving more than 11,000 orders outstanding that affect over 17,000 structures.
____OCHA-oPt, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, derived its report from figures released earlier this year by the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank.
More. . .
Related. . . 
Related. . .

❷ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ISRAELI  TROOPS  SEIZE  HOME  OF  PA  POLICE  CHIEF
Sept. 11, 2015
Israeli military forces, on Friday, raided the house of Palestinian Authority police chief in Nablus, Abd al-Latif al-Qaddumi, and turned his home into a military outpost after evicting his wife and children.
____PA police spokesperson Luay Irzeiqat told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli forces raided the home in Kafr Qaddum village and locked al-Qaddumi’s family in one room before declaring the property a military outpost.
Shortly afterward, Israeli forces expelled the family from the home and took it over.
More. . .

Weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Kafr Qaddums Village. Photo, International Solidarity Movement.
Weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Kafr Qaddums Village. Photo, International Solidarity Movement.

❸ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ASHRAWI:  “ISRAEL  IS  IN  THE  BUSINESS  OF  CREATING  REFUGEES,  NOT  PROVIDING  THEM  WITH  A  SAFE  HAVEN.”
Sept. 8, 2015
In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu’s rejection of accepting any refugees in Israel, PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said:
“Israel is in the business of creating refugees and ethnic cleansing; it bears a moral responsibility for the plight of the Palestinian refugees and the grave injustices of the past.”
____According to the PNN, Ashrawi called on all members of the international community, in particular the United Nations, to support efforts to bring the Palestinian refugees to Palestine. “Israel should not be allowed to prevent us from welcoming the refugees to their rightful homeland,” Ashrawi added.
____These comments were made in a meeting Dr. Ashrawi had with United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov at the PLO Headquarters.
More. . . 

❹ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
NETANYAHU:  EU  PLAN  TO  LABEL  SETTLEMENT  GOODS  ‘UNJUST’
Sept. 11, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday attacked an EU resolution on labelling goods produced in the occupied Palestinian territories. . .
____[He said] “It is simply a distortion of justice and of logic and I think that it also hurts peace; it does not advance peace. THE  ROOT  OF  THE  CONFLICT  IS  NOT  THE  TERRITORIES,  AND  THE  ROOT  OF  THE  CONFLICT  IS  NOT  THE  SETTLEMENTS.”
[. . . .]
____The European parliament earlier voted in favour of a non-binding resolution to label all exports originating in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – territory taken by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
More. . .
Related. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
THE  RIGHT  OF  RETURN;  A  FORGOTTEN  ISSUE
Dr Ghada Karmi
Sept. 1 2015
No issue has been so much at the heart of the Palestine cause, or so resistant to resolution, as the right of return. Palestinians worldwide see it as the basis of their case. Enshrined in international law and historical precedent, it has acquired an almost sacred quality for Palestinians, an untouchable right that no one can dispute. . . .
____Yet, far from this fundamental plank of the Palestinian case being recognised as such and forming the core of any final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ignoring it has become the norm in political discourse. [. . . .]
____Watering down the right of return, and pandering to Israel, is not the way to solve the problem. Only solutions that can reconcile the right of Palestinian return with the existence of an Israeli Jewish community which, whether we like it or not, now exists and has acquired rights too, can succeed.
More . . .
** Ghada Karmi (born 1939) is a Palestinian doctor of medicine, author and academic. She writes on Palestinian issues in The Guardian, The Nation, and Journal of Palestine Studies. She is a fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Arab & Islamic studies at Exeter University.

“THE  IMPOSSIBLE,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
It is much easier for you
To pass an elephant through a needle’s eye,
Or catch fried fish in a galaxy,
Plough the sea,
Force a crocodile to speak
Than to destroy by persecution
The shimmering glow of a belief,
Or check our march,
One single step.

As if we were a thousand prodigies
Spreading everywhere
In Lidda, in Ramallah, in the Galilee. . .
Here we shall stay,
A wall upon your breast,
And in your throat we shall stay,
A piece of glass, a cactus thorn,
And in your eyes,
A blazing fire.

Here we shall stay,
A wall upon your breast,
Cleaning dishes in taverns,
Filling cups for the masters,
Sweeping sooty kitchens
To snatch a bite from your blue fangs
For our children.
Here we shall stay.
A wall upon your breast,
Facing starvation,
Struggling with rags, defying,
Singing our songs,
Swarming the angry streets with our demonstrations,
Filling the dungeons with pride,
Rearing vengeance in new generations.
Like a thousand prodigies,
We roam along
In Lidda, in Ramallah, in the Galilee.

Here we shall stay,
Go then and jump into the lake.
We will guard even the shadow of our fig and olive trees,
And ferment our cause as yeast does dough.
Here we shall stay with steel-cold nerves,
And red hell in our hearts.
We squeeze the rock to quench our thirst
And lull starvation with dust,
But we shall not depart.
Here we shall spill our dearest blood,
Here we have a past,
A present,
A future.
Stay we will, like a thousand prodigies,
In Lidda, Ramallah, the Galilee.
Strike deep in the earth
Our living roots.

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 Amazon.
About Tawfiq Zayyad

Palestinians fleeing their homes and villages, 1948.
Palestinians fleeing their homes and villages, 1948.

“. . . Descendants of Old Abe! Shake the marble of history. . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment

(Please read “Purpose” above. Thank you.)

Caption: A growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon are joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians making the perilous journey to survival in Europe. (AFP/Samar Hazboun)
Caption: A growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon are joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians making the perilous journey to survival in Europe. (AFP/Samar Hazboun)

❶ UN votes in favor of raising Palestinian flag at headquarters
❷ In Silwan, Jewish settlers plant their flag among Palestinians
❸ Palestinian Refugees Joining Exodus from Syria
❹ Madama Villagers Foil Infiltration Attack By Israeli Extremists
❺ Opinion/Analysis: A guide to the worst refugee crisis since WWII
❻ Poem by Samih Al-Qasim

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UN  VOTES  IN  FAVOR  OF  RAISING  PALESTINIAN  FLAG  AT  HEADQUARTERS
Sept. 11, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations General Assembly voted late Thursday in favor of raising the Palestinian flag at its headquarters in New York by an overwhelming majority, in a symbolic diplomatic victory in the PLO’s campaign for statehood.
____A resolution was adopted by member states with 119 in favor, eight voting against — including Israel and the United States — and 45 abstentions.
____President Mahmoud Abbas hailed the decision, adding that the struggle will continue until the flag is raised over the “eternal” Palestinian capital of Jerusalem.
More. . .
Related. . . [Note: the NYT published this on page A4, the Associated Press story, not its own.]

❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
IN  SILWAN,  JEWISH  SETTLERS  PLANT  THEIR  FLAG  AMONG  PALESTINIANS
Sept. 11, 2015
JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Abu Snineh family woke up at their home in East Jerusalem one morning to find Jewish settlers had moved into the building and Israeli flags were on the roof.
____Their Silwan neighborhood in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City has become a flash-point in the struggle between ideologically driven Israelis moving in and longtime Palestinian residents.
____”There are still areas where Jews want to go back,” said Daniel Luria, whose Ateret Cohanim activist organisation facilitates the purchase of homes by Jews from Israel and abroad.
____”That was our dream, not to live on the outskirts of Tel Aviv or Haifa. It’s to be close to the Temple Mount, where the kings and the prophets walked.”
More. . .

Caption: A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem's Old City. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
A general view of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood, a densely populated Palestinian area on a steep hillside flanking the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

❸ THE PALESTINE CHRONICLE
PALESTINIAN  REFUGEES  JOINING  EXODUS  FROM  SYRIA
Sep 10 2015
Palestinian pensioner Zahra Zahroura always imagined seeing out her days in her adopted Syrian hometown of Homs, sustained by the hope that being made a refugee once was enough for any lifetime.
____But as the war in Syria worsened the 84-year-old was forced to flee a second time, aiming for a new life in mainland Europe but making it only as far as Cyprus, lucky to be alive at all. [. . . .]
____“All the houses were rubble, everything was destroyed by the bombing.”
____Zahroura is one of a growing number of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon joining the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war on the perilous journey to survival in Europe.
More. . .
Related. . .

❹ INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
MADAMA  VILLAGERS  FOIL  INFILTRATION  ATTACK  BY  ISRAELI  EXTREMISTS
Sept. 11, 2015
A group young Palestinian men managed, earlier on Friday at dawn, to foil an attempt by a number of Israeli extremists to carry out an attack in Madama village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
____The WAFA News Agency has reported that the Palestinians noticed an unusual activity, shortly after 2 after midnight, when they saw a short, bearded armed man wearing a cap, monitoring some homes in the village, and alerted the families.
More. . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
A  GUIDE  TO  THE  WORST  REFUGEE  CRISIS  SINCE  WWII
Ben Norton
Sept. 9, 2015
The world is witnessing the largest refugee crisis since the horrors of World War II.
____Today there are close to 60 million war refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—“an all-time high as violence and persecution” around the world are on the rise.
____The Middle East, North Africa, and Western Asia are particularly hard hit. Millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen are fleeing violence and war in their countries.
____In all of 2014, approximately 219,000 people tried to cross the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe. In just the first eight months of 2015, over 300,000 refugees tried to cross the sea, according to the UNHCR. More than 2,500 died.
____Human rights organizations warn the Gulf states, Israel, Iran, and Russia—all of which have taken zero refugees—along with the US, Canada, and Europe—which have taken few—are not doing enough to provide refuge to the asylum-seekers.
More. . .

“THE  UNKNOWN  CONTINENT,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
How do we reach you
Slums of Chicago?
How is the spark to reach you?
How is the fire to be born?
Skyscrapers!
Stacked huts!
Stretch your arms out of the darkness―
For the big banner
Spreads its warmth, its light
Forever
Into the depths of night
And the big banner is
Forever
A sail for the drowning.

How are the storms to reach you
Jazzband Club in New York?
The black man is hungry and fearful
The wolves of the KKK roam the forest
―the current overpowering
And the conscience of the statue shaken
And the heart of night.
The wind is frozen,
And the waves of the sea unmoving?
How is the message to reach you
Deaf Washington,
With the humming of the machine?
In Vietnam you slaughter
And you export
Cokes and medicine to the sad moon!
And you sweep over the blood of victims.
How is the message to reach you?

Descendants of Ole Abe!
My voice has become hoarse
And the wind
Has become tired of my shouts!
Descendants of Old Abe!
Shake the marble of history,
Rise to the sky,
Rise above the band of stupid maggis
And halt ―for
The earth grumbles
Rivers of blood.

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.
About Samih Al-Qasim

The Palestinian flag will be allowed to fly at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Photo justin tallis Agence France-Presse Getty Images
The Palestinian flag will be allowed to fly at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Photo justin tallis Agence France-Presse Getty Images

“. . . We are a country of words. Speak speak. . .” (Mahmoud Darwish)

Harold Knight1 Comment
Yarmouk Refugees Waiting for Humanitarian Aid / UNRWA
Yarmouk Refugees Waiting for Humanitarian Aid / UNRWA

❶ From ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES IN SYRIA
Emma Flesche
July 9, 2015
After the Nakba of 1948, approximately 90,000 Palestinians became refugees in Syria. The United Nations . . . estimates this number [has become] close to 560,000. Most of these Palestinians lived in one of the 15 refugee camps in Syria, the largest of which was al-Yarmouk. . .
____With the outbreak of the current war in Syria, attacks on Palestinian refugee camps . . . . created a wave of secondary mass displacement of Palestinian refugees within Syria. . . . attack on the Yarmouk camp led to a mass displacement of refugees that reduced the size of the camp from 160,000 to about 30,000.
____UNRWA estimates that more than 70 percent of the Palestinian refugees in Syria are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance, and that more than 50 percent have been internally displaced as a result of the conflict.
(More. . .)

❷ From VOICE OF AMERICA NEWS
UN: 4 MILLION REFUGEES HAVE FLED SYRIA
Lisa Schlein
July 9, 2015
GENEVA— The U.N. refugee agency said the number of refugees fleeing conflict in Syria has topped 4 million, making Syria the world’s biggest refugee crisis in a generation.
____With no solution to the conflict in sight, the UNHCR said it expects the number of refugees to exceed 4.25 million by the end of the year.
____The U.N. refugee agency said this milestone comes barely 10 months after the 3 million refugee mark was reached.
(More. . .)

❸ Special Report
FROM KINDERUSA
THE INHUMANITY OF YARMOUK
Dalell Mohmed
April 16, 2015
Yarmouk is the largest refugee camp in Syria:
– As of April 2015, approximately 18,000 Palestinians remain trapped in Yarmouk, including 3,500 children
– People are living on just 400 calories a day–sometimes less with infants dying of malnourishment, mothers dying at child birth, and residents resorting to eating leaves and animal feed
– Residents have not had electricity since 2013 and with this, no running water.
KinderUSA is preparing emergency aid for Palestinian families from Yarmouk, but we need your support.
(More. . .)

caption: A photo from the Israel, Syrian border along the Golan Heights showing IDF soldiers conversing with Jabhat al Nusra fighters. By MintPress News Desk, May 4, 2015.
A photo from the Israel, Syrian border along the Golan Heights showing IDF soldiers conversing with Jabhat al Nusra fighters. By MintPress News Desk, May 4, 2015.

❹ From THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)
SYRIANS IN OCCUPIED GOLAN FURIOUS ABOUT ISRAEL’S ALLIANCE WITH AL-QAEDA
Asa Winstanley
June 30, 2015
Israel’s most unlikely alliance is that it currently engages in with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
____Despite a long history of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric, the main victims of al-Qaeda’s horrible sectarian attacks have been Muslims in the Arab world, along with western civilian and military targets. The movement has rarely targeted Israel. . . .
____But now, on the smaller sector of the Golan which is under Syrian control, the civil war rages. And. . . rebels forces in that area are dominated by al-Qaeda. Yet there has been cooperation between the Israeli military and the rebels. . . .
(More. . .)

❺ Background essay
From AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AND THE RIGHT OF RETURN
Updated 2015
Approximately 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and became refugees as a result of the 1948 war which led to the founding of Israel. None of these displaced persons were ever allowed to return to the homes or communities from which they were displaced and the Palestinian refugee population has continued to grow in the time that has passed since 1948. Today there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees scattered around the world. The reality of Palestinian forced displacement is at the core of the Palestinian experience and the Palestinian refugee issue is at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This paper provides background information on the history of the Palestinian refugee issue and the politics of the right of return.
(More. . .)

“WE TRAVEL LIKE OTHER PEOPLE,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH

We travel like other people, but we return to nowhere. As if traveling
Is the way of the clouds. We have buried our loved ones in the
. . darkness of the clouds, between the roots of the trees.
And we said to our wives; go on giving birth to people like us
. . for hundreds of years so we can complete this journey
To the hour of a country, to a meter of the impossible.
We travel in the carriages of the psalms, sleep in the tents of the
. . prophets and come out of the speech of the gypsies.
We measure space with a hoopoe’s beak or sing to while away the
. . distance and cleanse the light of the moon.
Your path is long so dream of seven women to bear this long path
On your shoulders. Shake for them palm trees so as to know their
. . names and who’ll be the mother of the boy of Galilee.
We have a country of words. Speak speak so we may know the end of
. . this travel.

From: Adonis; Mahmud Darwish; and Samih al-Qasim. VICTIMS OF A MAP: A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF ARABIC POETRY. Trans. Abdullah al-Udhari. London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.
Biographical sketch of Mahmoud Darwish.

A Palestinian relative salvages what he can from his family's belongings amid the rubble of the al-Akhras family home after it was hit by Israeli strike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014. Two people were wounded in the airstrike on the house according Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)
A Palestinian relative salvages what he can from his family’s belongings amid the rubble of the al-Akhras family home after it was hit by Israeli strike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014. Two people were wounded in the airstrike on the house according Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

“. . . what terror drove them out of their homes? . . . (Lahab Assef Al-Jundi)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinian Nozha neighborhood in Jaffa.
Palestinian Nozha neighborhood in Jaffa.

❶ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
DISPLACEMENT SCHEMES TARGETING PALESTINIANS IN JAFFA (REPORT)
June 20, 2015
The Israeli Judaization and displacement schemes have escalated especially in Jaffa city, north of Occupied Palestine, as the Israeli Authorities approved new settlement schemes targeting the city which was occupied in 1948.
____The so-called Israel Lands Administration (ILA) . . . endorsed a huge . . . scheme which will be established on the ruins of the Palestinian homes and lands in Nozha neighborhood in Jaffa. . .
____ILA claims that the Palestinian residents who live in this area will be expelled under pretext that these lands are “state owned” and that the Palestinians are illegally living in them and they will be compensated if they agree to leave.
(More. . .)

❷ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
REPORT: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES TOPPED 36,000 IN EUROPE
June 19, 2015
LONDON, (PIC)– 36,450 Palestinian refugees fleeing war-torn Syria reached Europe between 2011 and June 2015, Action Group for Palestinian refugees in Syria said in a report issued Friday.
. . . .
____The 36,450 refugees arrived to Europe via the so-called “boats of death” risking their lives after being forced to flee their homes in Syria and to live again uncertain lives as refugees, the report said.
(More. . .)

❸ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
RAFAH CROSSING CLOSES AFTER WEEK OPEN
June 19, 2015
GAZA (Ma’an) — The Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing into and out of Gaza Friday after a week of being opened.
____The head of the department of crossings and borders in Gaza, Maher Abu Sabha, said that he is hopeful the crossing will be reopened again next week, adding that there remain 12,000 Palestinians registered to travel.
____On Friday, 450 people departed Gaza through the crossing and 88 others entered, while 10 were denied entry with no reasons specified.
. . . .
____In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have only rarely opened the Rafah crossing — Gaza’s only connection to the outside world.
(More. . .)

One of the larger refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, Dheisheh is home to some 15,000 people squeezed into one square kilometer.
One of the larger refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, Dheisheh is home to some 15,000 people squeezed into one square kilometer.

❹ From THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ROOFTOP GARDENS GIVE REFUGEES ROOM TO BREATHE
June 9, 2015
In the narrow alleys of Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, Muaath Atef points to a rooftop. “There, that’s a nice bit of plastic,” he laughs. Behind that bit of plastic lies a garden set up by Karama, a volunteer community organization in the camp.
____Atef works with Karama, which runs after school activities and summer camps for local children. Three years ago, the group began setting up “micro-farms” on the rooftops of some 20 families in the camp.
____“There was a need and we tried to address it,” Yasser Al-Haj, Karama’s director, explains, adding that projects are chosen and implemented according to the demands of the community and not according to the whims of foreign funders.
(More. . .)

❺ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
REPORT: HAMAS MILITARY WING CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR FRIDAY SHOOTING
June 20, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly claimed responsibility for Friday’s West Bank shooting that left an Israeli man dead and another lightly injured.
____“One of the fighters ambushed a settler vehicle and shot at them from point-blank range after having observed the area continuously” . . . .
____The statement identified the “Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha Brigade” as the affiliated group directly behind Friday’s shooting, adding that “the operation was carried out days before the first anniversary of the martyrs Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha.”
(More. . .)

“ANY REFUGEES IN THE WORLD,” BY LAHAB ASSEF AL-JUNDI

what is the first thing that comes to mind
when you hear of refugees?
what terror drove them out of their homes?
are they getting help?
what is being done for their safe return?

are Palestinians any different from any other refugees?
is not their simple right
to return to the land they were driven from?

why are they being asked to settle
for money?
who designated the Palestinians as the chosen people
to carry the cross for a guilt-ridden West?
why do politicinas tell them
too much time has passed
when their grievance
is with people who went back after 2000 years?

between continued warfare and annihilation
coexistence beckons
as the only
honorable
demographic.

time for peace
now.

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi was born of Palestinian refugee parents and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not long after graduation, he discovered his passion for writing. He published his first poetry collection, A Long Way, in 1985. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary publications, and many anthologies including Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Hayan Charara, and Between Heaven and Texas, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISREL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from Barnes & Noble.

C A L E N D A R

• Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope, June 13-27
• Upcoming group delegations to Palestine/Israel
. . . o Interfaith Peace Builders Delegation
. . . o 2015 Sabeel Witness Visit

Palestinians raise Hamas flags at what remains of the house of Hussam Qawasmeh, accused by Israel of being part of the plot to kidnap three hitchhikers. (AFP/Hazem Bader, File)Palestinians raise Hamas flags at what remains of the house of Hussam Qawasmeh, accused by Israel of being part of the plot to kidnap three hitchhikers. (AFP/Hazem Bader, File)