Tag: Qabatiya Village

“. . . Why the time with amputated legs . . .” (Fadwa Tuqan)

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457175C - Copy
Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, 29, Palestinian activist, disabled by Israelis, 2008; murdered by Israelis, 2017. Photo Ma’an News Agency.

❶ Thousands march in funeral of disabled Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in Gaza
. . . . . ― (ᴀ) 29-year-old Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces laid to rest in Anata

  • Background: “Intimidation, Reassurance, and Invisibility: Israeli Security Agents in the Old City of Jerusalem.” Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology.

❷ Civilians arrested, cash stolen by Israeli army in West Bank sweep
. . . . . ― (ᴀ) Blindfolded Palestinian boy surrounded by Israeli soldiers may spend 20 years in prison
. . . . . ― (ᴃ) Israel to demolish Abu al-Nawwar hamlet’s only school
❸ Erdogan says Turkey will open embassy in East Jerusalem
❹ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THOUSANDS  MARCH  IN  FUNERAL  OF  DISABLED  PALESTINIAN  KILLED  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  IN  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency 
Dec. 16, 2017 ― Thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip marched on Saturday in the funeral of slain Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, 29, who was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces on Friday during clashes along the border with Israel.
___Abu Thurayya was a well-known Palestinian activists, famously known for consistently protesting the Israeli occupation, despite losing both his leds in an Israeli airstrike in 2008. After he was disabled by Israeli in 2008, Abu Thurayya worked washing cars in Gaza to support hi 11-member family.    MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴀ)  29-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  LAID  TO  REST  IN  ANATA 
Ma’an News Agency   
Dec. 16, 2017 ― Hundreds of Palestinians marched on Saturday in the funeral of 29-year-old Bassel Mustafa Ibrahim, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Friday during clashes in his hometown of Anata, a village in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem.
___Ibrahim was shot in the chest during clashes that had erupted following protests against US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.    MORE . . . 

Grassiani, Erella and Lior Volinz.
“INTIMIDATION,  REASSURANCE,  AND  INVISIBILITY:  ISRAELI  SECURITY  AGENTS  IN  THE  OLD  CITY  OF  JERUSALEM.” 
Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, vol. 2016, no. 75, Summer2016, pp. 14-30.
[. . . .] Analyzing Jerusalem as a colonial city (and Israel as a settler colonial state for that matter) and thus acknowledging the asymmetrical power relations between Israeli Jews and Palestinians and the context of the oppression, exploitation, and dispossession of the latter by the Israeli state has two distinct goals. First, it embeds policing strategies within a power structure that is not found in a noncolonial setting. Policing and the provisions of (security) services to citizens and noncitizens beget inherently different connotations within a colonial or settler colonial context. . . .  Second, by positioning the policing practices within the wider settler colonial enterprise of the Israeli state, we can understand these practices within their underlying and often hidden political context.
[. . . .] Within policing literature [this is called] the strategy deterrence policing, where the police tries to deter criminals from carrying out illegal activities . . .  something else is happening here: the police is not trying to deter criminals but local civilians who can be guilty only of living within the Old City. The strategy thus points much more to a performance of intimidation . . .  a national strategy whose objective is to make daily life as difficult as possible in the hope people will leave the Old City to the Jewish minority. Such Judaization in Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, is part and parcel of the settler-colonial character of the Israeli state.
[. . . .] . . .  in the Old City of Jerusalem these policing strategies look like and shape the urban landscape. By using such strategies within the space of the Old City, these security agents (re)establish their power over the Palestinian population and legitimize their presence. Their (in)visibility confirms the occupation as a given; Palestinians are controlled, the settlers are kept in place and reassured, the tourist can continue to enjoy the space without worry.    SOURCE . . . 

❷ CIVILIANS  ARRESTED,  CASH  STOLEN  BY  ISRAELI  ARMY  IN  WEST  BANK  SWEEP 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 17, 2017 ― A number of Palestinians were kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) while others have had their homes ransacked in abduction sweeps rocking the West Bank at daybreak Sunday.
___The occupation army claimed responsibility for the abduction of five Palestinians at predawn time on allegations of involvement in anti-occupation protests.
___The Israeli forces also stole 1,800 Jordanian Dinars from the home of the Palestinian prisoner Mohamed Zakarna in Jenin’s southern town of Qabatiya on claims that they were funneled to anti-occupation parties.   MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴀ)  BLINDFOLDED  PALESTINIAN  BOY  SURROUNDED  BY  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  MAY  SPEND  20  YEARS  IN  PRISON   
Days of Palestine
Dec. 17, 2017 ― The Palestinian boy at centre of powerful photograph in which he has been blindfolded and surrounded by 22 Israeli soldiers marching him to prison is to face charges over throwing stones.
___Sixteen-year-old Fawzi al-Junaidi was photographed on 7 December during protests in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise the Palestinian city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
___Wearing ripped jeans, the boy is shown being propelled forward by soldiers in full protective gear who have hold of both of his arms. Israeli stipulates that a Palestinian boy charged with throwing stones faces 20-year-prison-term.    MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ―  (ᴃ)  ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  ABU  AL-NAWWAR  HAMLET’S  ONLY  SCHOOL 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 17, 2017 ― The Israeli army’s civil administration last Tuesday, December 12, delivered a demolition order against the only school in the Bedouin community of Abu al-Nawwar, east of Occupied Jerusalem.     ___Spokesman for the Jerusalem Bedouin communities Abu Imad al-Jahhalin told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that employees from the civil administration escorted by soldiers stormed Abu al-Nawwar hamlet and put up a demolition order giving the residents 72 hours before they come again to remove the school structures.     MORE . . . 
❸ ERDOGAN  SAYS  TURKEY  WILL  OPEN  EMBASSY  IN  EAST  JERUSALEM            The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 17, 2017 ― Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognise it as the capital of Palestine.
___“God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,” Erdogan said in a speech, maintaining his fierce criticism of the United States’ decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.    MORE . . . 

“EYTAN  IN  THE  STEEL  TRAP,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
Under the tree, branching out, spreading and growing … growing
In savage rhythms,
Under the “star”, as it builds before his very eyes
Walls of bloody dreams,
Forming a trap, held tightly together with the thread of steel,
Trapping him within, denying him movement
Eytan, the child, the human being, opens his eyes
And asks,
Why the trap and the walls?
Why the time with amputated legs, clad in khaki and death,
Enveloped in smoke rising from flames and from sorrows?

If only the “star” could tell the truth,
If only it could.
But alas!
Alas, the “star”!

Eytan, my child
You are the victim, drowning in lies,
And like Eytan, the harbor is sunk in a sea of lies,
Drowned by the bloated dream
With the head of a dragon
And a thousand arms.
Alas, alas!
If only you could remain the child, the human being!
But I shudder, and live in dread.
That you may grow up inside the trap,
In this time of amputated legs, clad in khaki,
In cruel death, in smoke and sorrow.

From Abdel-Malek, Kamal. THE  RHETORIC  OF  VIOLENCE:  ARAB-JEWISH  ENCOUNTERS  IN  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE  AND  FILM. MacMillan, 2005. Web.

 

“. . . these measures were in breach of the Fourth Convention . . .” (Tony Klug)

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detention
Administrative detention dates back to the pre-1948 British Mandate, when suspects were held without charge for up to six months. (File photo: Al Arabiya News, Jun. 06, 2012)

❶ Israeli forces detain younger brother of slain Palestinian policeman

  • Background. “A Never-Ending Occupation: The End Of Hope?” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture.

❷ Israeli forces detain 6 fishermen off Gaza coast, confiscate 2 boats
❸ Releasing a child after detaining and assaulting him…extending the arrest of another
. . . ❸― (a) Teenager detained in Hebron for alleged knife possession
❹ Israeli forces detain 14 Palestinians in West Bank raids
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❶ ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN YOUNGER BROTHER OF SLAIN PALESTINIAN POLICEMAN 
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 1, 2016
Israeli forces raided the Jenin-area town of Qabatiya in the northern occupied West Bank before dawn on Tuesday, where they detained the brother of the slain Palestinian police officer who committed a shooting attack that injured three Israelis on Monday.
___Ali Zakarna, spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jenin, told Ma’an that large numbers of Israeli troops stormed Qabatiya and ransacked the home of the Turkman family.
___After inspecting the house and questioning all family members, Israeli troops detained Muhannad Turkman, 22, whose brother Muhammad, 25, injured three Israeli soldiers after he opened fire on them at the Beit El checkpoint near the entrance of Ramallah on Monday afternoon.
___Zakarna added that dozens of young Palestinian men clashed with Israeli forces during the raid, and that forces “showered the town with tear gas and stun grenades.”  More . . . 

  • Klug, Tony. “A Never-Ending Occupation: The End Of Hope?.” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 21.3 (2016): 88-95.   Full article.

Occupations are meant to be temporary affairs, whereby the occupying power is effectively a custodian of the occupied territory until its final disposition is determined. When the occupation of the West Bank commenced in June 1967, almost no one seriously imagined it would still be extant half a century later. . . .
___With the recent breakdown of even the semblance of a peace process, the question today is whether the occupation will ever end, or if the future will be one of “permanent occupation” . . . .
[. . . .]  One of the principal provisions of the Fourth Convention, which regulates occupations, is that the penal laws of the occupied territory should remain in force. . . . However, a permitted exception to this provision on security grounds — provided the measures introduced did not abrogate the Convention’s other provisions gave rise to a parallel legal system in the West Bank.
[. . . .]    In August 1968, the Israeli military court in Nablus ruled that two legal systems operated in the territory, and that Israeli military law — concerned with defense and security — was not to be guided by Jordanian law, the jurisdiction of which was confined to civilian matters. In practice, military law was often to take precedence by designating the alleged offense a security matter.
[. . . .]    While Israel thus did not accept the applicability of the Fourth  Convention, its . . .   it has disregarded the provisions . . . that prohibit altering the legal status of an occupied territory’s inhabitants — to justify treating them differently from Israeli citizens.
[. . . .]  Israel’s immediate challenge on inheriting the West Bank was to quell any insurgency and restore order. . . .      Israeli military law took its authority from the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945, which did not pretend to follow the system of common law or apply the rules of natural justice. These regulations . . . .  permitted administrative detention, under which a suspect deemed to be a threat to public safety or order could, in effect, through successive extensions, be detained indefinitely following a perfunctory hearing before a military court.
___Other than preventive detention, these measures were in breach of the Fourth Convention. But Israel’s principal justification was, simply, that they were effective in quelling the mounting unrest that followed the inception of occupation.
[. . . .]  Sooner or later, Israel will have to face its moment of truth: Is it or is it not an occupation? If it maintains that its rule in the West Bank is not an occupation, Israel denies itself the only solid defense it has against the intensifying charge of apartheid. If it accepts it is an occupation, then it is way beyond time to bring it to an end. [. . . .] 

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  6  FISHERMEN  OFF  GAZA  COAST,  CONFISCATE  2  BOATS 
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 1, 2016
Israeli naval forces detained six Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, according to locals.
___Nizar Ayyash, head of the Palestinian Fishermen Union in Gaza told Ma’an that Israeli naval forces stopped two fishing boats off the coast near the northern town of Beit Lahiya, confiscated the boats, and detained the crews that were onboard.
[. . . . ]  It remained unclear for exactly what reason the boats were confiscated, and why the fishermen were detained.
___Most recently, Israeli authorities postponed on Monday a decision to expand the fishing zone off the northern Gaza coast from the current six nautical mile limit, to nine nautical miles for the duration of the month of November.        More . . . 

child-arrest
Israeli undercover police arrest a 10-year old Palestinian child on October 24, 2014. (Photo: Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu/Anadolu Agency)

❸ RELEASING A CHILD AFTER DETAINING AND ASSAULTING HIM…EXTENDING THE ARREST OF ANOTHER      
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
Oct. 30, 2016
The occupation police released on Sunday night 10-year old Adnan Jamal Amro and extended the arrest of 13-year old Mustafa Firas Abbasi until Monday on charges of throwing stones. Clashes also broke out in the village of Esawyeh after occupation forces raided the village and were deployed in its streets.    ___Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that the forces arrested Adnan Amro and Mustafa Abbasi from Silwan on suspicious of throwing stones.       More . . .
. . . ❸― (A)  TEENAGER  DETAINED  IN  HEBRON  FOR  ALLEGED  KNIFE  POSSESSION    Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Nov. 1, 2016
Israeli forces Tuesday detained a Palestinian teenager at a checkpoint near Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque for alleged knife possession, according to witnesses.
___They said soldiers manning a checkpoint outside the mosque stopped the teenager, identified as Badwan Abu Mayyala, 17, and arrested after they allegedly found a knife in her possession.
___The army claimed Abu Mayyala was planning to attack soldiers.      More . . .    

❹ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  14  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK  RAIDS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
Nov. 1, 2016
Israeli forces Tuesday detained 14 Palestinians, including a minor and an elderly, during overnight raids across the West Bank, said Palestine Prisoner’s society.      ___Israeli forces detained five Palestinians after storming and ransacking their homes across the southern West Bank district of Hebron.
___Among the detainees were a 14-year-old minor, handcuffed after being summoned to Etzion detention and interrogation center, and a 70-year-old elderly, who reportedly suffers from diabetes and heart problems.        More . . .   

 

“. . . Son, be careful, hypocrisy has a whole cast of actors . . .” (Mai Sayigh)

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hasan-yousef
Sheikh Hassan Yousef (born in 1955, Ramallah) is one of the leaders of Hamas in the West Bank. He is not to be confused with his son Mosab Hassan Yousef who became an undercover agent for Israel and is now living under political asylum in the United States.

❶ 20 Palestinians detained in Jerusalem amid lockdown on West Bank, Gaza
. . . ❶ ― (a) Israeli forces detain eight Palestinians in West Bank
. . . ❶ ― (b) Israel issues 46 administrative detention orders against Palestinian detainees

  • Background: news articles regarding Hassan Yousef

❷ IOF storms Qabatia, clashes with Palestinians
. . . ❷ ― (a) Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinians near settlement, hitting one, Israeli media says
❸ POETRY by  Mai Sayigh
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ 20  PALESTINIANS  DETAINED  IN  JERUSALEM  AMID  LOCKDOWN  ON  WEST  BANK,  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 23, 2016
Israeli forces detained 20 Palestinians — including five minors — from across occupied East Jerusalem during predawn raids Sunday, amid a widespread crackdown on Palestinians in the city over the Jewish High Holiday season, as Israeli authorities also shut down crossings in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
___Local sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces, accompanied by a helicopter flying overhead, raided the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan, Issawiya, Jabal al-Mukabbir, and the Shufat refugee camp, where they ransacked several homes and detained 20 “youths.”     More . . .     
. . . ❶ ― (A) ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  EIGHT  PALESTINIANS  IN  WEST  BANK
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Oct. 23, 2016
Israeli forces detained 23 Palestinians during night and predawn raids across the West Bank districts, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
___Israeli soldiers detained an 18-year-old Palestinian from the Tulkarem area. They also detained another Palestinian in Qalqilia.
___A third Palestinian was detained in the Ramallah area, whereas five others were detained in Jenin.     ___PPS noted that 12 Palestinians, including a female, were detained by Israeli forces from across the West Bank in the past two days.     ___To be noted, 20 Palestinians were also detained by Israeli police in the Jerusalem area on Sunday.      More . . .
. . . ❶ ― (B) ISRAEL  ISSUES  46  ADMINISTRATIVE  DETENTION  ORDERS  AGAINST  PALESTINIAN  DETAINEES
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Oct. 23, 2016
Israeli authorities issued 46 administrative detention order against Palestinian detainees, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative council (PLC), Sunday said the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
___A PPS lawyer said forces renewed the administrative detention of PLC member, Hasan Yousif, for the third consecutive time. To be noted Yousif was sentenced several times to jail, amounting to 18 years in total, including actual sentences and under administrative detention, the last of which was on October, 20th, 2015.
___The lawyer noted that the detention orders, without charge or trial, included 13 new orders, whereas the rest received renewed sentences.     More . . .

[Note: actual researched writing about Hassan Yousef is difficult to find. A few random news items about him are here.]

Israel  releases  Palestinian  MP  Hassan  Yousef
Middle East Eye
June 25, 2015
Israel on Thursday released Hassan Yousef, a Hamas-affiliated member of Palestine’s parliament, the Islamist movement said.
___Yousef’s release comes a year after his arrest along with dozens of other Hamas leaders during a search campaign for three missing Israeli teenagers.   More . . .

Detained  Legislator  Facing  Deteriorating  Health  Condition
AL-Qassam Brigades – Palestine
Mar. 10, 2012
The family of Sheikh Hasan Yousef, an elected Palestinian Legislator of the Change and Reform Bloc of the Hamas movement, stated that Yousef is facing a deteriorating health condition in an Israeli prison.
___Yousef’s wife told the Media Department of the Change and Reform Bloc that her husband was moved to the Hadassah Israeli hospital in Jerusalem to determine the causes of the latest sharp deterioration in his health condition.     More. . .

(An Israeli view) Hassan  Yousef  is  not  the  problem,  and  Israel  knows  it 
The Times of Israel
Oct. 20, 2015
Every year or so a familiar ceremony take place. Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the top Hamas political leaders in the West Bank, is arrested by Israeli security forces and held for six months in administrative detention. Then he’s released and, after some time passes, rearrested.
___ The reason given this time for Monday’s arrest of Yousef is “incitement to violence.”
___Yousef’s incitement in the past few days consisted of warnings that if the Palestinian Authority continues to suppress the “intifada,” it will lead to an internal Palestinian clash.     More. . .

❷ IOF  STORMS  QABATIA,  CLASHES  WITH  PALESTINIANS
Alray-Palestinian Media Agency
Oct. 23, 201
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed on Sunday morning the town of Qabatia, south of Jenin, which led to the outbreak of confrontations between Palestinians and the IOF.     ___Witnesses said that dozens of Israeli soldiers raided the town from Janzour Street and stationed near Al-Ashab Gas Station, Barham sweets, AL Zakarna quarter and Alsabaana estate.     ___Palestinian citizens said that the IOF raided the house of Soliman Al-Khashani, put all the family members in one room, snipers spread at the house windows and monitored the movements of citizens from inside the house.     More . . .   

qatabiya
Palestinian youths clash with Israeli security forces in Qabatiya, near Jenin in the northern West Bank, on February 4, 2016. (Photo: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via The Times of Israel)

. . . ❷ ― (A) ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  OPEN  FIRE  ON  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  SETTLEMENT,  HITTING  ONE,  ISRAELI  MEDIA  SAYS
Ma’an News Agency    
Oct. 23, 2016
Israeli forces reportedly fired at three Palestinians, hitting one, with rubber-coated steel bullets on Saturday as they approached a fence surrounding the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, according to Hebrew-language news sites, however a spokesperson from the Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an they were not aware of the incident.     More . . .   

“FROM  BEIRUT  UNDER  SIEGE,”  by  Mai  Sayigh
Son!
This war breaks the heart
steals lives,
halts the stars in their orbits,
extinguishes day.
I beg you to remain a witness
to this siege.

Son!
Beirut, that fortress in the flames,
will not succumb to fire’s touch.
She lives like a cactus flower.
Pomegranate blossoms unfurl from her wounds,
and birds build new homes.

Son!
Fire baptizes our awakening!
I would not object if one day soon
you wake up to find my martyred face
on a poster.
But in the darkness of the grave I shall wait
for a new red bullet from your gun
to reunite us.
I won’t forgive you if you dally
or throw your hands up to fate.
Son, be careful,
hypocrisy has a whole cast of actors,
as do compromise and caution.
But you are meant for danger,
winds and rains
smearing the sky with spring
and martyrs.
Then the moon shall rise
over our savage night
Son, beware!

War gobbles the heart,
rips life from my hands,
halts the stars in their orbits,
extinguishes day.
I urge you to resist, to remain witness.
I urge you to join your brothers
and resist the siege.
Son, please!
–Translated by Lena Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye

Mai Sayigh was born in 1940 in Gaza. She graduated from the University of Cairo. In 1971 she was elected President of the Union of Palestinian Women. She has published three volumes of poetry and an account of the 1982 Israeli siege of Beirut.
From: ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN PALESTINIAN LITERATURE. Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.
More poetry by Mai Sayigh in THE POETRY OF ARAB WOMEN: A contemporary anthology. 2001. Handal, Nathalie, editor. Interlink Books USA.

“. . . When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the occupation corrupts, most of us understood . . .” (Yael Patir)

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❶ Israeli forces shoot, injure 2 Palestinian in Jenin-area clashes
❷ Israeli forces shoot towards Palestinian crew trying to repair Gaza electricity lines
❸ Israeli Navy Opens Fire On Fishing Boats In Gaza Waters
. . . ❸― (a) Israeli Soldiers Open Fire On A Number Of Homes, Lands And Workers, In Southern Gaza

  • Background:  “Who Is Afraid Of Peace?” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI FORCES SHOOT, INJURE 2 PALESTINIAN IN JENIN-AREA CLASHES
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016
Israeli forces reportedly shot and injured two young Palestinians in the village of Qabatiya in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin on Sunday, after an Israeli army raid into the town provoked clashes between locals and Israeli soldiers.
___State-run Palestinians news agency Wafa reported that 18-year-old Ahmad Hamamdeh and 21-year-old Amjad Kemail were shot by Israeli forces, and that Kemail, despite his injuries, was then detained and taken into custody.
___The clashes occurred after Israeli forces reportedly raided and searched a number of commercial shops in Qabatiya, breaking down their front doors, according to Wafa.     More . . .     
❷ ISRAELI FORCES SHOOT TOWARDS PALESTINIAN CREW TRYING TO REPAIR GAZA ELECTRICITY LINES
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 17, 2016      Israeli forces fired gunshots at Gaza electricity company technicians on Monday morning in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses told Ma’an.
___According to eyewitnesses, the technicians were doing maintenance work on electricity lines in the eastern suburbs of the town of Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, when Israeli troops fired at them. No injuries were reported.     More . . .   
❸ ISRAELI NAVY OPENS FIRE ON FISHING BOATS IN GAZA WATERS
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
October 17, 2016       Israeli Navy ships opened fire, on Monday morning, targeting a number of fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters, in the northern part of improvised Gaza Strip.
___Eyewitnesses said navy fired many live rounds at the boats, and used water cannons, forcing the fisher back to shore.
___They added that the attack took place less than four nautical miles from the Gaza shore.
___At least 70.000 Palestinians depend on fishing as their only source of livelihood in the Gaza Strip, but the navy continuously attacks the fishers, preventing them from providing for their families.      More . . .   
. . . ❸― (A) ISRAELI SOLDIERS OPEN FIRE ON A NUMBER OF HOMES, LANDS AND WORKERS, IN SOUTHERN GAZA
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
October 17, 2016        Israeli soldiers, stationed at military towers across the border fence, fired several live rounds, on Monday morning, targeting a number of homes and agricultural lands, and maintenance workers, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
___The WAFA Palestinian News Agency has reported that the soldiers fired dozens of live rounds into agricultural lands, and a number of homes, east of Khuza’a town, east of Khan Younis.        More . . .   

  • Patir, Yael. “Who Is Afraid Of Peace?” Palestine-Israel Journal Of Politics, Economics & Culture 18.4 (2013): 46-52.      Full article.  

Yael Patir, the Israeli director for J Street, is former coordinator of the Israeli Peace NGO Forum.

For a thirty-something-year-old Israeli, the experiences of the conflict since he or she became politically conscious are: great hope that quickly shifted to lack of trust . . . .  the Oslo process . . .  [that] means terror, rocket attacks and more exposure to an Arab world that hates and does not accept Israel.
___These developments, I will argue, left Israeli youth (those who grew up in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s) with a fear of peace, not because it is an unknown that holds uncertainty and possible deterioration — on the contrary, because they feel that they had a taste of it and were not happy with what they got.
[. . . .]
While leaders talk behind closed doors, actions on the ground, mainly settlements and violence, progressed and leaders’ rhetoric became more and more disconnected from reality. Israeli leaders played a decisive role in crafting the way the public understood the failed negotiations. Of the greatest magnitude is the idea that there is “no partner” for peace on the Palestinian side.
[. . . .]
It is hard to describe the effects that doing Israeli army service in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has on an individual . . . it is clear that the experience of my generation in the army is very different from that of the generations before us. Our fighting took place in populated areas among civilians and not in battlefields where soldiers face other soldiers. Since the early 1980s and mainly after the signing of the peace agreement with Egypt, Israel has been engaged more and more with what is called asymmetrical war . . .  While our parents fought existential wars, ours were civil wars. While our parents lay in trenches, we stood in checkpoints examining women and children. Under the occupation, combat soldiers today are required to perform duties that are more suitable to police officers; they are given missions to go into people’s houses in the middle of the night to perform arrests or take over the house; and they are sent to keep order during demonstrations, patrol neighborhoods or even escort kids to school. In the fight against terrorism they take part in targeted killing. . . . When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the occupation corrupts, most of us understood well what he was talking about.
[. . . .]
Israel today is like a boy who knows he must end his relationship with a girl but is afraid of the consequences of being left alone and perhaps without better options. It’s the moment when one needs a good friend to serve as a mirror and tell the boy the truth: “This relationship is not good for you. You can get out of it. I will help you overcome.”

“. . . hear my child’s approaching footsteps at the threshold of your soul . . .” (Rashid Hussein)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
Palestinians boys sit on the rubble of their family home. It was one of three houses destroyed by Israeli occupation forces in Qabatiya village in the occupied West Bank on 4 April, as part of a policy of punishing relatives of Palestinians accused of attacks. (Photo: APA Images/Nedal Eshtayah)
Palestinians boys sit on the rubble of their family home, destroyed by Israeli forces in Qabatiya village in the occupied West Bank on 4 April, punishing relatives of Palestinians accused of attacks. (Photo: APA Images/Nedal Eshtayah)

❶ UNRWA condemns Israel’s large scale home demolitions in the West Bank
❷ PA drafts new UN resolution against Israel’s illegal settlements
❸ The occupation burns 47 olive seedlings carrying the names and pictures of Jerusalemite Martyrs
❹ Struggle for Jerusalem takes on new form
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
❻ POETRY by Rashid Hussein
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ UNRWA  CONDEMNS  ISRAEL’S  LARGE  SCALE  HOME  DEMOLITIONS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 7, 2016
UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] condemned Thursday’s large scale home demolitions by the Israeli Authorities in the Bedouin refugee community of Um al Khayr in the South Hebron Hills. . .  31 Palestine refugees, including 16 children, were made homeless as a result to the demolitions.
___It confirmed that the affected community has endured several rounds of demolitions and often faced harassment from the nearby illegal settlement of Karmel.     MORE . . .  

❷ PA  DRAFTS  NEW  UN  RESOLUTION  AGAINST  ISRAEL’S  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS
Ma’an News Agency
April 8, 2016
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to present a draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements to the UN Security Council in two weeks in a move likely to spark fury among Israel’s supporters.
___The resolution will be the first to directly condemn Israeli settlements as illegal under international law since the United States vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, the official said.     MORE . . . 

Palestinian children play near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahman Gharabl, File)
Palestinian children play near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse/Ahman Gharabl, File)

❸ THE  OCCUPATION  BURNS  47  OLIVE  SEEDLINGS  CARRYING  THE  NAMES  AND  PICTURES  OF  JERUSALEMITE  MARTYRS
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
April 5, 2016
The occupation police and Intelligence removed and burned on Tuesday olive seedlings carrying the names of Jerusalemite Martyrs. The seedlings were planted in the village of Silwan on the anniversary of Earth Day.      MORE . . .

❹ STRUGGLE  FOR  JERUSALEM  TAKES  ON  NEW  FORM
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Daoud Kuttab
April 7, 2016
Israel’s constant attempts to turn the city of Jerusalem into an exclusively Jewish city have taken an unusual turn with an attempt to politicize tourism.
___A map of the Old City of Jerusalem issued by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in March attempts to reinforce this twisted narrative by trying to deny the physical reality of Jerusalem. . . .
___Of the 57 sites on the map, only one Muslim site and five Christian sites are identified. . . . no less than 25 of the Jewish sites named such buildings — along with synagogues and yeshivas — that have never been heard of, even by experienced tour guides.”     MORE . . .  

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver
April 7, 2016
Less than two weeks after Israel’s high court lifted an injunction on punitive house demolitions, Israeli bulldozers arrived in Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning and razed three homes.
___The houses belonged to the relatives of the young men accused of an attack at Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem in early February that left an Israeli border police officer dead.
___All three youths were shot to death at the scene of the incident.
___By the end of Monday, 20 people were left homeless in Qabatiya.      MORE . . .

“TO  A  CLOUD,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN

I am the land,
I am the land . . . do not deny me rain,
I am all that remains of it,
If you plant my brow with trees
And turn my poetry into vineyards
And wheat
And roses
That you may know me.
So let the rain pour down.

I, cloud of my life, am the hills of Galilee,
I am the bosom of Haifa
And the forehead of Jaffa.
So do not whisper: it is impossible.
Can you not hear my child’s approaching footsteps
At the threshold of your soul?
Can you not see the veins of my brow
Striving to kiss your lips?

Waiting for you, my poetry turned to earth,
Has become fields,
Has turned into wheat
And trees.
I am all that remains of our earth,
I am all that remains of what you love,
So pour . . . pour with bounty.
Pour down the rain.

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.  
About Rashid Hussein

Today’s information, with anniversary citations from the first post on this site

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A Palestinian Bedouin near his dwelling that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers near the Jewish settlement of Karmel, near the West Bank city of Hebron (Photo: Reuters /Mussa Qawasma). From this blog’s first post, Feb. 10, 2015.
A Palestinian Bedouin near his dwelling that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers near the Jewish settlement of Karmel, near the West Bank city of Hebron (Photo: Reuters /Mussa Qawasma). From this blog’s first post, Feb. 10, 2015.

The first post on this blog. See explanation at the end of this posting.

❶ Israel to Demolish Houses of Three Slain Palestinians
❷ Israel Demolishes Home, Destroys Structures near Bethlehem
❸ Netanyahu calls criticisms of Israeli army ‘outrageous’ in wake of Hebron killing
❹ U.S. states, academies crackdown on BDS
. . . . . ❹―(ᴀ) UNHRC blacklists Israeli firms working in settlements
❺ [Israeli] Opinion/Analysis: UPDATED: FACT SHEET – SAMPLES OF RECENT INFLAMMATORY COMMENTS AND INCITEMENT BY ISRAELI OFFICIALS AND LEADERS
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  HOUSES  OF  THREE  SLAIN  PALESTINIANS
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 28, 2016
Israeli forces on Monday made preparations for the punitive demolition of the family houses of three Palestinians suspected of carrying out a fatal attack outside Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City in early February, families said.
___Israeli forces stormed and took measurements of the family houses of Ahmad Zakarneh, Muhammad Kamil and Najeh Abu al-Rub during a predawn raid into the Jenin town of Qabatiya as a prelude for punitive demolition.      MORE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  HOME,  DESTROYS  STRUCTURES  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
March 28, 2016
Israeli authorities Monday demolished and destroyed a home, a farm, electric wires, a water network, trees, and razed a tract of land at the northern entrance to Bethlehem, in southern West Bank, according to local sources.
___Khader Jarashi, owner of the demolished structures, told WAFA that some 50 Israeli military vehicles accompanied by bulldozers broke into the northern entrance of Bethlehem, before they demolished his own house, in addition to a poultry farm, a playground, electric wires and a water network.      MORE . . .

Last Thursday, two Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. While one of the Palestinians died instantly, the other person was injured and 'neutralized', only to be later shot in the head. (Still from viral video, published by MEMO)
Last Thursday, two Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. While one of the Palestinians died instantly, the other person was injured and ‘neutralized’, only to be later shot in the head. (Still from viral video, published by MEMO)

❸ NETANYAHU  CALLS  CRITICISMS  OF  ISRAELI  ARMY  ‘OUTRAGEOUS’  IN  WAKE  OF  HEBRON  KILLING
MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 27, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted on Sunday to the shooting of a wounded Palestinian at point-blank range in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron earlier this week, stating that any questioning of the Israeli army’s moral integrity was “outrageous and unacceptable.”
___. . .  Netanyahu commented in the wake of the killing of Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, on Thursday, which sparked widespread outrage after footage by Israeli rights group B’Tselem showed an Israeli soldier shooting al-Sharif in the head while the young Palestinian was lying wounded on the ground. . . .
___“. . . .  The soldiers of the IDF, our children, maintain high ethical values while courageously fighting against bloodthirsty murderers under difficult operational conditions,” Netanyahu said.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . . ISRAELI  SETTLERS  THREATEN  PALESTINIAN  WHO  FILMED  HEBRON  ‘EXECUTION’

❹ U.S. STATES,  ACADEMIES  CRACKDOWN  ON  BDS
ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER
March 28, 2016
On March 18th the Illinois Investment Policy Board blacklisted 11 companies from doing business with the state for allegedly boycotting Israel.
___. . . .  Now, Illinois is the first state to actually form a list of companies barred from working with the state’s government due to their alleged boycott of Israel. . . .
___Palestine Legal has identified 21 states in the United States with legislation to punish or suppress the BDS movement.    MORE . . .
. . . . . ❹ ―(ᴀ) UNHRC  BLACKLISTS  ISRAELI  FIRMS  WORKING  IN  SETTLEMENTS
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
March 26, 2016
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has voted on Thursday to establish a database of Israeli companies working in settlements in order to blacklist them.
___According to news reports, this measure was one of four Palestinian Authority (PA) proposals approved by the council.
___Efforts to establish the database was fiercely opposed by Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.     MORE . . .

❺ [Israeli] Opinion/Analysis:  UPDATED:  FACT  SHEET –  SAMPLES  OF  RECENT  INFLAMMATORY  COMMENTS  AND  INCITEMENT  BY  ISRAELI  OFFICIALS  AND  LEADERS
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE & INFORMATION. PLO
MARCH 28, 2016
. . . .  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (December 2015) : “There is a difference between Arab terror and Jewish terror.”     MORE . . . 

(Note: this was the poem in the first post in this blog.)

    “I BELONG THERE,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH

I didn’t apologize to the well when I passed the well,
I borrowed from the ancient pine tree a cloud
and squeezed it like an orange, then waited for a gazelle
white and legendary. And I ordered my heart to be patient:
Be neutral as if you were not of me! Right here
the kind shepherds stood on air and evolved
their flutes, then persuaded the mountain quail toward
the snare. And right here I saddled a horse for flying toward
my planets, then flew. And right here the priestess
told me: Beware of the asphalt road and the cars
and walk upon your exhalation. Right here
I slackened my shadow and waited, I picked the tiniest
rock and stayed up late. I broke the myth and I broke.
And I circled the well until I flew from myself
to what isn’t of it. A deep voice shouted at me:
This grave isn’t your grave. So I apologized.
I read verses from the wise holy book, and said
to the unknown one in the well: Salaam upon you the day
you were killed in the land of peace, and the day you rise
from the darkness of the well alive!

From UNFORTUNATELY,  IT  WAS  PARADISE by Mahmoud Darwish. Trans. by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché. Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 2003. Available from Amazon. 
One of the best biographical sketches of MAHMOUD DARWISH available.   
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
I missed the ANNIVERSARY of the first post on this blog. I DID NOT REALIZE IT HAD BEEN A YEAR―13 MONTHS NOW. I was startled to see that post included a report on RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS and its open letter to Benyamin Netanyahu asking for cessation of Palestinian home demolitions, startled because nothing―nothing―seems to have changed in that year. My link was to the article in the RUSSIAN TIMES, which I no longer use, giving in to negative feedback I received. It was, however, a reprint of the INDEPENDENT article here:

HUNDREDS OF RABBIS FROM AROUND THE WORLD CALL ON ISRAEL TO HALT DEMOLITION OF PALESTINIAN HOMES; RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS HAS SUBMITTED AN OPEN LETTER TO BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK.
Lizzie Dearden
Feb. 7, 2015
More than 400 rabbis from Israel, Britain and around the world have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes.
___Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) has submitted an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister claiming his stance is not in line with “international law and Jewish tradition”.
MORE . . .

“. . . I am both free and a slave amongst men . . .” (Kamal Nasser)

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1-Kamal Nasser

Kamal Nasser. Singing Wounds.
By Fares Mansour, Artist/Designer/Photographer 2011.
Publisher: Bir Zeit University. Published in Palestine.

❶ Israeli forces detain 14 Palestinians across occupied West Bank
❷ Israeli forces blockade Bethlehem-area village after nearby stabbing
❸ PMO: Israeli politicians escalate rhetoric to dehumanize Palestinians
❹ Analysis: The disappearing politics of occupation
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS  HAVE  CREATED  A  ‘STATE  WITHIN  A  STATE’
❻ Poetry by Kamal Nasser
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  14  PALESTINIANS  ACROSS  OCCUPIED  WEST  BANK
Feb. 11, 2016
Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank during raids on Thursday, locals and Israeli sources said.
___In the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin’s Qabatiya village, Israeli forces detained at least seven Palestinians during raids.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  BLOCKADE  BETHLEHEM-AREA  VILLAGE  AFTER  NEARBY  STABBING
Feb. 10, 2016
The Israeli army intensified its blockade on the village of Nahhalin west of Bethlehem on Wednesday morning, a day after an Israeli settler was wounded in a stabbing near the village.
___Locals told Ma’an via telephone that Israeli forces had sealed all Nahhalin’s roads, preventing residents from entering and leaving, including humanitarian cases.  More . . .
Related . . . ISRAELI  FORCES  SEAL  RAMALLAH-AREA  VILLAGE,  DEMOLISHED  STRUCTURES

blockade
The Israeli army intensified its blockade on the village of Nahhalin west of Bethlehem on Wednesday morning, a day after an Israeli settler was wounded in a stabbing near the village. (Photo: Agence France‑Presse /Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

❸ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PMO:  ISRAELI  POLITICIANS  ESCALATE  RHETORIC  TO  DEHUMANIZE  PALESTINIANS
Feb. 11, 2016
The Director of Strategic Communications and Media at the Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office, Jamal Dajani, on Thursday said that Israeli politicians have increased their rhetoric and incitement towards Palestinians.
___Dajani was referring to a recent statement by Likud lawmaker Anat Berko, who said that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people, since Arabic doesn’t have the consonant “P.”  More . . .
❹ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
THE  DISAPPEARING  POLITICS  OF  OCCUPATION
Hani Habib
Feb. 11, 2016
It seems that [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon wants his name to go down in history . . . .
___I didn’t expect Ki-moon’s statement on the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s occupation to affect people in the Jewish state so deeply. . . . Israeli politicians’ sense that his speech necessitated a sort of “review” of Israeli policy.
___The policy review takes place [against the backdrop of elections] which led to Netanyahu’s fourth government. The elections were not a political evolution or a coup – they were an ideological achievement. The elections created the most right-wing government in Israeli’s history.   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS  HAVE  CREATED  A  ‘STATE  WITHIN  A  STATE’
Natasha Roth
Feb. 10, 2016
A primetime investigative news program revealed to all of Israel last week widespread forgery in the purchase of Palestinian land by Jewish settlers. . . .
___ But this is about more than forgeries, fraud and hidden cameras. . . . This is about the strange reality that comes to rest on a country when a project of the scale and scope of Israel’s settlement enterprise is itself based on illegality.
___The illegality is not just in terms of international law . . . . the government employs a system whereby it is ‘unaware’ that state funds are being poured into outposts that even Israel considers illegal.    More . . .

“O  GOD,  NOW  I  KNOW,”  BY  KAMAL  NASSER  (1924 – 1973)

O God, why have you inspired me? To rejoice and to suffer?.
Why have you baptized me with vision? To laugh and to cry?
Why have you imbued me with ambition?
To elevate me and to humiliate me
Why?

I wish I were heartless, soulless, aimlessly living life, observing it from a far. Approaching eternity with a new heart, a new soul which affirms my wandering, subdues my passions and crucifies me in the void.

O God, why have you tempted me, awakened me, inflamed my passions and with sublimity infused me?

Why have you cleansed me, aroused me?
Why have you crowned me with hope, plunged me in greed and recklessness. Why?

How I long for silence, for stillness
I am lost, questioning
Who am I?
Numb my heart is, lifeless, my visions blind
I drift in the darkness of futility and despair.

O God why have you nourished me, starved me and appeased my hunger
Why have you deprived me, defiling and cleansing me?
Why have you defeated my purpose?
Enlightening me, then leading me astray
Why?

I am both free and a slave amongst men
I am a grave and cradle in the hands of fate
Miserable in what I need
Born of reality
Born of chains
Led by wounds, by the years
Who am I?
And life cries out at God
Embarrassing Him in His heaven
Lips screaming:
You, have given me life – created me.
And I ask the void
Why O God have you created me?

Storms of life roar within me
Paths are flooded with blood
Our days shake with pain and helplessness and beauty wanders away from my paradise.
Crucifying my homeland in the wilderness

Wounded are hope and dignity
In my waking hours, deprivation rose, shaking me, pulling me from the depths of darkness.
Guiding me to goodness, devotion, self-sacrifice and giving.
My eyes are opened – I find the way
The raging conflict rests in my heart
The wounds are cleansed with my tears
And in my eyes, You rise, O God
For I know why You have created me!
― Prose translation by Tania Tamari Nasir

Tania Tamari Nasir is Kamal Nasser’s cousin. Unpublished translation.
A family memory of Nasser written by another of his cousins, at page 35 in her memoir:
Khoury, Samia Nasir. REFLECTIONS FROM PALESTINE: A JOURNEY OF HOPE – A MEMOIR. Limassol, Cyprus: Rimal Publications, 2014.
About Kamal Nasser

“. . . a story of a people who were misled, who were thrown into the mazes of the years. . .” (Kamal Nasser)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-samir's facebook
Israeli soldier confronts QABATIYA “terrorist.”   هنا قباطيه ..الكف التي واجهت مخرز …الأهل الذين أقبلوا ولم يدبروا

❶ Palestinian MK sentenced for “disgracing a public servant”
❷ Israel lifts blockade of Qabatiya after three days
❸ 551 Palestinians arrested in January
❹ Palestinian Embassy Opens in Brazil
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The  Complex  Problematics  of  Palestinian  Representation
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) Also by Richard Falk: Israel shoots the messenger: An open letter to Ban Ki-Moon
❻ Poetry by Kamal Nasser
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
PALESTINIAN  MK  SENTENCED  FOR  “DISGRACING  A  PUBLIC  SERVANT”
Feb. 7, 2016
(Charges against MK Haneen Zoabi come as the Israeli PRIME MINISTER CONTEMPLATES HOW TO UNSEAT MEMBERS OF KNESSET critical of the Israeli occupation.)
Member of Knesset (MK) of the Joint List party, Haneen Zoabi, reached a plea bargain of six months of probation and a fine of NIS 3,000 at the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on Sunday for “disgracing a public servant” . . . .
___Zoabi was charged on Sunday with “disgracing a public servant,” based on the claim that Zoabi called an Israeli Arab police officer a “traitor” at a protest in Nazareth on July 6, 2014.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  LIFTS  BLOCKADE  OF  QABATIYA  AFTER  THREE  DAYS
Feb. 6, 2016
The Israeli army lifted on Saturday evening the siege on the village of Qabatiya, which has been blockaded for three days in a row after three residents of the town carried out a deadly attack in Jerusalem.
___The Palestinian Civil Affairs department in Jenin said on Saturday evening that Israeli forces has lifted the siege on the village of Qabatiya near Jenin.    More . . .
❸ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
551  PALESTINIANS  ARRESTED  IN  JANUARY
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Feb. 7, 2016
The following report was issued on 1 February 2016 by three prisoners’ organizations in Palestine: the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Committee. The Arabic original is available at Addameer’s website.
___In a joint report, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Committee reported that 551 Palestinians were arrested during the month of January 2016, including 131 children and six women and girls. There have now been over 3,500 arrests since October 2015 and the beginning of the popular upsurge.    More . . .

ambassador
Palestinian Ambassador to Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben (Photo: Cia Jornalística J.C. Jarros)

❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN  EMBASSY  OPENS  IN  BRAZIL
Feb. 6, 2016
The Palestinian Authority has inaugurated its first diplomatic mission in the Western Hemisphere, in Brazil, as diplomatic tensions escalate between Israel and the South American state.
___Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben led the opening ceremony in the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia. . . .
___“This is the conclusion of a dream of mine that was also a dream of colleagues that came before me in this mission in the last four decades,” Alzeben said.     More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
THE  COMPLEX  PROBLEMATICS  OF  PALESTINIAN  REPRESENTATION
Richard Falk
Feb 3 2016
While serving as UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, especially in my early years between 2008 and 2010, I fully expected to encounter defamatory opposition from Israel and ultra-Zionist, but what surprised me at the time were various efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to undermine my role at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. . . . .  I was puzzled at first, and then began to wonder whether the Palestinian people were being adequately represented on the global stage.
___This issue of representation has been rendered acute partly due to Israeli policies of fragmenting the Palestinian people, and then complaining that they have no partner with whom to make peace.     More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) Also by Richard Falk
MIDDLE EAST EYE
ISRAEL  SHOOTS  THE  MESSENGER:  AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  BAN  KI-MOON
Feb. 6, 2016
___. . . .  Not since Richard Goldstone chaired the group that released the report detailing apparent Israeli war crimes during its massive attack on Gaza at the end of 2008 have Israel’s big political guns responded with such unwarranted fury . . . .
Netanyahu has the audacity to claim that your acknowledgement that it is not unnatural for the Palestinians oppressed for half century to resist and resort to extremism is tantamount to the encouragement of terrorism, what he described as giving a “tailwind to terrorism.”    More . . .  

“THE  STORY,”  BY  KAMAL  NASSER
I will tell you a story …
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story inspired by hunger and embellished by dark nights of terror.
It is the story of my country, a handful of refugees.
Every twenty of them have a pound of flour between them
and a few promises of relief … gifts and parcels.
It is the story of the suffering ones
who stood waiting in line ten years,
in hunger,
in tears and agony,
in hardship and yearning.
It is a story of a people who were misled,
who were thrown into the mazes of the years.
And yet they stood defiant,
disrobed yet united
as they trudged from the light to their tents:
the revolution of return
into the world of darkness.
― Trans. Michael R. Burch

Kamal Nasser was a much-admired Palestinian poet, who due to his renowned integrity was known as “The Conscience.” Kamal Nasser was a Palestinian Christian who was murdered by an Israeli death squad in 1973. One of the members of the death squad was Ehud Barak, who ruled as Israel’s tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. . . .

Nasser was the PLO’s most prominent Christian and he enjoyed “great appeal” in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq “both as a distinguished poet and likeable personality.” He was the “conscience of the Palestinian revolution,” according to Nazih Abul-Nidal, who worked with him on the magazine Filastin al-Thawra.
From THE HYPERTEXTS. (The site’s index.)

“. . . what’s the use of a harmonica in hell? . . .” (Mourid Barghouti)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-bedouins
A Bedouin family stands near their tents and sheep pens. (Image by West Bank-based photojournalist Mohammad Alhaj.)

❶ Told to leave, determined to stay: Bedouins of the Jordan Valley
❷ Palestinian village [Qabatiya] sealed for 2nd day after deadly attack
Related . . . Reprisal operation in Qabatiya
❸ Israel demolishes 9 Palestinian structures in Jordan Valley
❹ Dozens Injured As Israeli Soldiers Attack Weekly Protest in Bil’in
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Israeli military reportedly seeks to censor private Facebook pages commenting on national security
❻ Poetry by Mourid Barghouti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
TOLD  TO  LEAVE,  DETERMINED  TO  STAY:  BEDOUINS  OF  THE  JORDAN  VALLEY
Mohammad Alhaj
Feb. 2 2016
On the sparsely populated northern stretch of the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley live tens of Bedouin families.
___Neglected by both the Palestinian Authority and harassed by the Israeli military, these families have to survive without running water or electricity.
___Any water wells dug by the families themselves will likely be destroyed by Israel, which maintains strict control over water resources in the occupied West Bank. Israel does not issue building permits for more permanent structures. Any attempt to build such structures will likely end in demolition.     More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  VILLAGE  [Qabatiya]  SEALED  FOR  2ND  DAY  AFTER  DEADLY  ATTACK
Feb. 5, 2016
Israeli forces on Friday continued to seal the occupied West Bank village of Qabatiya, the hometown of three Palestinians who were shot dead after carrying out an attack that left an Israeli officer dead in Jerusalem earlier this week.
___The Jenin-district village has been closed since late Wednesday, hours after the attack took place.
___Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces closed the Khirbat al-Wahid road Friday with bulldozers, cutting off the last opening for movement in and out of the village.  More . . .
Related . . . REPRISAL   OPERATION   IN   QABATIYA .  (Alternative Information Center ―AIC)

1-qabatya
Palestinians run for cover during clashes with Israeli occupation troops in the occupied West Bank village of Qabatya near Jenin, February 4, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  DEMOLISHES  9  PALESTINIAN  STRUCTURES  IN  JORDAN  VALLEY
Feb. 5, 2016
Israeli forces on Thursday demolished five homes and four other Palestinian-owned structures in the Jordan Valley town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank.
___A spokesperson for Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Ma’an that Israel’s Civil Administration as well as security forces demolished the structures because they were built illegally “without necessary permits”. . . .
___ Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley — nearly all of which lies under complete Israeli control in Area C — are particularly vulnerable and have for decades faced pressure from Israeli authorities to leave the area.    More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
DOZENS  INJURED  AS ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  ATTACK  WEEKLY  PROTEST  IN  BIL’IN
Feb. 05, 2016
Israeli soldiers used excessive force, Friday, against the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and colonies, in Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
___The protest started following noon prayers, when locals, along with Israeli and international peace activists, marched from the center of the village towards the villagers orchards, in the western part of the village.
___The protesters carried Palestinian flags, and pictures of hunger striking detainee Mohammad al-Qeeq — who is in a near-death situation — demanding his release, and the release of all political prisoners.    More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
ISRAELI  MILITARY  REPORTEDLY  SEEKS  TO  CENSOR  PRIVATE  FACEBOOK  PAGES  COMMENTING  ON  NATIONAL  SECURITY
Oren Parsiko
Trans. Jonathan Ofir
Feb. 4, 2016
Change of approach in the military censorship; No more monitoring of Facebook texts following their publication: from now on account holders are required to pass on to the censorship any text regarding the security establishment; Blogger Yossi Gurvitz: I will not comply with the decree, I will apply to the court system.    More . . .

“WITHOUT  MERCY,”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI

There is a sweet music,
but its sweetness fails to console you.
This is what the days have taught you:
in every long war
there is a soldier, with a distracted face and ordinary teeth,
who sits outside his tent
holding his bright-sounding harmonica
which he has carefully protected from the dust and blood,
and like a bird
uninvolved in the conflict,
he sings to himself
a love song
that does not lie.

For a moment,
he feels embarrassed at what the moonlight might think:
what’s the use of a harmonica in hell?

A shadow approaches,
then more shadows.
His fellow soldiers, one after the other,
join him in his song.
The singer takes the whole regiment with him
to Romeo’s balcony,
and from there,
without thinking,
without mercy,
without doubt,
they will resume the killing!

Mourid Barghouti.
From Barghouti, Mourid. MIDNIGHT  AND  OTHER  POEMS. Trans. Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire: Arc Publications, 2008. Available from B&N.

1-doves bedouins
A flock of doves flies over a Bedouin tent destroyed by the Israeli military. (Image by West Bank-based photojournalist Mohammad Alhaj.)