Tag: Rami Hamdallah

“. . . Do you remember your panic―at the reign of death . . .” (Samih al-Qasim)

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❶ Intelligence thwarts plans of land sale to Israel
❷ Premier briefs Norway’s foreign minister on latest political developments
❸ Impoverished Gaza’s economy on verge of total collapse

  • Background: “From Gaza to Warsaw : Mapping Multidirectional Memory.” Criticism.

❹ Opinion/Analysis: Haass and Kristof can’t cross the Zionist Rubicon
. . . . . ❹ ― (ᴀ) Israel is a Nazi-like state with a potent public relations machine
❺ POETRY by Samih al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ INTELLIGENCE  THWARTS  PLANS  OF  LAND  SALE  TO  ISRAEL
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Jan. 8, 2018 ― The Palestinian General Intelligence in Qalqilya, north of the occupied West Bank, said on Monday that it was able foil a plan to sell land to Israelis and to arrest those involved in the deal.
___It revealed on its website that four people, including a lawyer, were arrested after they were suspected of getting involved in attempts to sell land to Israelis, noting that the lands are located in Jerusalem, Qalqilya, Nablus, Tulkarm and inside Israel.
___One of those involved in the foiled sale who fled to Israel and a land broker from inside Israel worked together to pass the deal estimated to worth over $11 million.   MORE . . .  
❷ PREMIER  BRIEFS  NORWAY’S  FOREIGN  MINISTER  ON  LATEST  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENTS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA    
Jan. 8, 2018 ― Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met on Monday with the Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide in Ramallah and briefed her on the latest political developments in the area.
___Hamdallah informed Eriksen Søreide of the consequences of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and US threats to cut off UNRWA’s funding, in addition to Israeli violation against Palestinians.     MORE . . .  
❸  IMPOVERISHED  GAZA’S  ECONOMY  ON  VERGE  OF  TOTAL  COLLAPSE
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)      
By Ahmad Abu Amer
Jan. 7, 2018 ― Economists say the Gaza Strip’s economy has entered a  phase of total collapse  as the Israeli blockade continues into its 11th year and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank has failed to lift sanctions, despite what Gazans hailed as a promise of relief weeks ago.
___Gazans are strapped for cash and markets are suffering from an unprecedented recession. Last month, some economic experts called on Gazan citizens living abroad and businessmen to send money to their families in Gaza in the hope of improving the economy and stopping its collapse. Business-media organizations started an Arabic hashtag that translates into #Transferyourmoney.  Meanwhile, on Dec. 30, for the first time in many years, shops in the southern Gaza Strip closed to protest the poor economic conditions.
___According to a Dec. 31 Haaretz article, the number of trucks carrying merchandise into Gaza from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing declined during December, to around 530 per day from a peak of almost 1,000 in October 2015.    MORE . . . 

Rothberg, Michael. “FROM GAZA TO WARSAW : MAPPING MULTIDIRECTIONAL MEMORY.”
CRITICISM, vol. 53, no. 4, Fall2011, pp. 523-548.
[. . . .] The Warsaw Ghetto has always been a resonant symbol in public discourse and a multivalenced knot of memory. Established and then quickly sealed by the Nazis in the fall of 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto held approximately 400,000 Jews in a 1.3-square-mile area. Three features of the ghetto have shaped its memorial legacy: it was at once a place of almost absolute segregation and constriction, a way station from which hundreds of thousands of Jews were sent to extermination camps (primarily Treblinka), and a staging ground in 1943 for one of the twentieth century’s most heroic, if suicidal, resistance struggles. References to Warsaw draw selectively or inclusively on all of those characteristics of the ghetto and have anchored collective memories of many persuasions. . . .
[. . . .] Several opportunities are lost in discourses that equate the Warsaw Ghetto with Gaza and the Israeli occupation. Besides obfuscating the fate of certain victims of the Holocaust . . .  the reference to Warsaw obscures the conditions of Palestinian life and death in significant ways. Whereas the Holocaust framework taps into a ready channel of public discourse, its evocation discourages thinking through the novel forms of domination being developed in the occupation and blockade—forms that are distinct from industrialized genocide. The situation in Gaza is the result of forms of Israeli control not even feasible during the Nazi genocide, as well as overlapping and clashing modes of sovereignty that encompass intra-Palestinian conflicts, local powers Israel and Egypt, and the global structures of empire underwritten by the United States. Finally, the discourse of equation in Gaza–Warsaw analogies also imports a dangerous model of victimization into Palestinian politics. For, as a genocidal way-station, the Warsaw Ghetto ultimately offered no exit except the suicidal struggle that the resistance fighters waged in 1943. The situation in Gaza is dire but still allows forms of politics beyond suicide. As historian Mark LeVine writes, “If Gaza is today’s Warsaw, then Palestinians have no hope.” [. . . .]  SOURCE . . .   

❹ Opinion/Analysis: HAASS  AND  KRISTOF  CAN’T  CROSS  THE  ZIONIST  RUBICON 
Mondoweiss  
By Scott Roth and Phil Weiss
Jan. 7, 2018 ― David Halbfinger produced a fine piece of reporting for  the New York Times this weekend, an article addressing the death of the two-state solution and Palestinians’ recognition that they have begun a struggle for equal rights in one state. Why– there might even be a Palestinian prime minister one day.
___The article quotes Palestinian leaders who are giving thought to what a one-state future would look like. That outcome is “dominating the discussion,” says Mustafa Barghouti. While Saeb Erekat says Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital “was the death knell for the two-state solution.”
___Halbfinger speaks plainly about what a real democracy would look like between the river and the sea:  Palestinian supporters envision one state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews. Palestinians would have proportionate political power and, given demographic trends, would before long be a majority, spelling the end of the Zionist project.  MORE . . . 
.  .  .  .  .  ❹  ―  (ᴀ)  ISRAEL  IS  A  NAZI-LIKE  STATE  WITH  A  POTENT  PUBLIC  RELATIONS  MACHINE 
The Palestinian Information Center 
Khalid Amayreh
Jan. 7, 2018 ― I know it is still a taboo to call Israel a Nazi or Nazi-like state. However, an honest writer should always be guided by his or her moral conscience and never succumb to the tyranny of public opinion or prevailing media discourse. . . .
___I believe that we Palestinians who live under the yoke of Zionism here in Occupied Palestine know Israel better than anyone else. That is why we tend to reject with utter contempt lectures by condescending outsiders, irrespective of their intentions, on how we ought to relate to our tormentors and the choice of words we use in describing the killers of our children.
___I am not calling Israel a Nazi-or Nazi-like entity because I am convinced that Israel used the very same tools in effecting the Nakba that the Third Reich used in effecting the Holocaust against European Jewry. . .  No, Israel . . .  has not perpetrated a holocaust in the classical sense against my people.
___But Israel has been adopting Nazi-like policies against my people. . .  In Germany there was the Master race; here in Israel-Palestine we have “God’s chosen people versus the water carriers and wood-hewers!”  MORE . . .   

“BUCHENWALD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
Have you forgotten your shame at Buchenwald?
Do you remember your flames at Buchenwald?
Have you forgotten your love in the lexicon
of silence? Do you remember your panic―
at the reign of death, in the nightmare of time―
that the whole world
would become a Buchenwald?
Whether you’ve forgotten or not,
the dead’s images linger
among the wreaths of flowers,
and from the dismembered corpses
a hand emerges,
a nail in the palm and tattoo on the wrist―
a sign for the planet.
Do you remember? Or not?
Buchenwald― whether or not you’ve forgotten,
the images of the murdered
remain among the wreaths of flowers . . .

From Al-Qasim, Samih. SADDER  THAN  WATER.  New  and  Selected  Poems.  Trans. Nazih Kasis and Adina Hoffman. Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2008.   Available from Amazon
Samih Al-Qasim Obituary, August 20, 2014.

“. . . in old age you have been crowned with humiliation . . .” (Tawfiq Sayigh)

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❶ [Palestinian] Presidential spokesman: White House statements incorrect and rejected
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Rajoub: The President’s [ABBAS] speech at the Islamic Summit establishes for a national strategy

  • Background: “Israel or Occupation?.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ Israeli navy opens fire at Gaza fishermen
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Israeli settlers break into Solomon’s Pools site in Bethlehem
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ)  Israel raids Birzeit University at dawn
❸ Opinion/Analysis: Did Trump’s Jerusalem decision revive support for Palestine?
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Sayigh
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PRESIDENTIAL  SPOKESMAN:  WHITE  HOUSE  STATEMENTS  INCORRECT  AND  REJECTED
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 14, 2017 ― Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina Thursday said the Palestinian leadership rejects and deems incorrect the latest White House statement saying President Mahmoud Abbas’ rhetoric prevents peace.
___He said, “These statements are entirely wrong, since President Abbas always reiterates that he is committed to a just peace on the basis of international legitimacy, Security Council resolutions and world’s recognition of the State of Palestine as an observer in the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, based on the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital.”
___Abu Rudeina added that this was confirmed by the Arab peace initiative, and on these bases the Palestinian leadership has been involved in the Oslo accords based on the two-state solution, including resolutions 242 and 338. The previous US administrations have engaged in negotiations based on these rules.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  RAJOUB:  THE  PRESIDENT’S  [ABBAS]  SPEECH  AT  THE  ISLAMIC  SUMMIT  ESTABLISHES  FOR  A  NATIONAL  STRATEGY
Palestine News Network – PNN 
Dec. 15, 2017 ― Fatah Central Committee’s secretary general Jibril Rajoub, described the speech by President Mahmoud Abbas at the Islamic summit as bold and establishes for a national strategy, pointing out that the president’s decision to form a committee to formulate a steadfast resistance strategy in Jerusalem aims at people, land, holy places, dignity of citizens and their ability to remain steadfast and resist.
___Rajoub stressed that all Palestinians must realize the strategy to build full national partnerships that keep Palestine on the agenda of the world, pointing out that the president’s speech at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation reflects the greatness of the Palestinian people and expresses their ambitions and aspirations.  MORE . . .

(NOTE: Apparently Mr. Bahour was mistaken.)

Bahour, Sam.
“ISRAEL  OR  OCCUPATION?.” 
PALESTINE-ISRAEL  JOURNAL  OF  POLITICS,  ECONOMICS  &  CULTURE, vol. 22, no. 2/3, July 2017, pp. 15-17.
[. . . .] Today’s Palestinian leadership is waging an uphill battle to achieve some form of appropriate reconciliation of the historical injustices done to Palestine and its people. Palestinians went to Madrid, Oslo and Camp David and put on the table the greatest concession ever voluntarily made by an indigenous people: to relinquish 78% of their ancestral homeland so the Jews of the world could fulfill their own dream of a homeland. In return . . . Palestinians received instead [ ] a package of Israeli aggression like never before: collective punishment, imprisonment, political assassinations, uprooting of trees, burning of schools, maiming of children, economic blockades, tanks, helicopter gunships, F-16s and much more. Today’s highly sophisticated military occupation . . .   suffocates and humiliates each and every Palestinian, day in and day out, in hopes that each individual and family will ultimately decide to leave voluntarily or turn to violence.
[. . . .]  It took the Palestinians, as victims of a prolonged 20th century colonization project, 45 years to absorb the fact that they had become objects in a history that was not theirs — and thus, to accept Israel’s political existence. If today or tomorrow all hope is lost, if Israel finally yields fully to its illegal settlers and Jewish extremists and remains bent on the obliteration of Palestinian national identity, no one ought to be surprised if it takes Palestinians perhaps 45 hours to reinstate a political platform anchored by their legitimate collective memory – call it “One State” or what you will. If 21st-century diplomacy and politics fail to serve justice and restore Palestinian dignity, however fractured by all that has occurred, the Palestinian collective memory can be expected to make its presence felt again, to provide at least the comfort of justice as a vision, as an oral tradition. Israel knows this, and none of its leaders dare to unilaterally rip up the Oslo peace agreements, not even hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. THE  PUBLIC  AND  DIPLOMATIC  LEADERSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  KNOWS  THIS  EVEN BETTER  AND  DOES  NOT  DARE  TO  DISREGARD  THESE  AGREEMENTS,  NO  MATTER  HOW SHATTERED  THE  STATUS  OF  THEIR  IMPLEMENTATION,  AND  NO  MATTER  HOW  UNSCHOOLED THE  CURRENT  U.S.  ADMINISTRATION  MAY  BE  ON  THE  ISSUES.      SOURCE . . .

❷ ISRAELI  NAVY  OPENS  FIRE  AT  GAZA  FISHERMEN 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 15, 2017 ― Israeli naval boats Friday opened fire at fishermen’s boats while sailing in the Gaza waters; offshore Beit Lahia town to the north of the Gaza Strip, said sources.
___Fishermen were forced to return back to shore for fear of being detained, injured, or killed. No injuries were reported among the fishermen.
___Israeli navy and troops routinely open fire on fishermen sailing within the six-nautical-miles zone and farmlands along the border, flagrantly violating the ceasefire deal that was reached in August 2014.
___The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to Palestinian fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  SETTLERS  BREAK  INTO  SOLOMON’S  POOLS  SITE  IN  BETHLEHEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 15, 2017 ― Israeli settlers Friday broke into Solomon’s Pools archaeological site, south of Bethlehem, and performed religious rituals there, said security sources.
___At least 40 settlers broke into the site under tight protection by Israeli forces, and carried out talmudic rituals there.
___Earlier in February, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah stressed in a cabinet meeting that was held at the site in defiance to repeated attempts by Israeli settlers to take over it that the pools, ancient water reservoirs located south of Bethlehem, are an Islamic waqf (trust) and considered as an archaeological reserve since 1929.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)    ISRAEL  RAIDS  BIRZEIT  UNIVERSITY  AT  DAWN  
Days of Palestine
Dec. 14, 2017 ― Israeli occupation forces raided on Thursday at dawn Birzeit University in occupied West Bank, ransacked campuses and student union offices.
___A statement released by the university said: “A large number of heavily armed Israeli forces stormed Birzeit’s campus at dawn, raiding the headquarters of the student council in Sheikh Rashid bin Said al-Maktoum Building, Kamal Nasir Hall and the Faculty of Science.”
___The statement added: “The Israeli occupation forces ransacked the campuses and the different offices they raided and damaged much of the furniture.”   MORE . . .
❸ Opinion/Analysis: DID  TRUMP’S  JERUSALEM  DECISION  REVIVE  SUPPORT  FOR  PALESTINE?
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse) 
Daoud Kuttab
Dec. 14, 2017 ― Without knowing or planning it, the decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has resulted in renewed interest in Palestine and brought back to the top of the agenda the question of Jerusalem.
___George Irani, a social science professor at the American University of Kuwait, told Al-Monitor that Trump’s decision helped bring the world to Palestine’s side. “With his foolish decision, Trump has rallied the global community with Palestinians.”
[. . . .] Botrus Mansour, a Palestinian lawyer and citizen of Israel, told Al-Monitor that through his declaration, Trump “did put the Palestinian issue in the news again”. . .  However, Mansour, who is the director of the Nazareth Baptist School, questioned whether Palestinians can use this to their advantage. “The question is whether Palestinians will be able to leverage this opportunity, which I doubt, in light of the current political balance of power in the region.”
___Dozens of protests took place in Jordan when Deputy Prime Minister Mamdouh al-Abadi said Dec. 7 that people should go out in the streets to demonstrate, and the Jordanian parliament took the unusual step of revisiting agreements with Israel that had been untouchable before.     [. . . .] The unexpected nature of this “gift” from Washington has been reflected in many ways. Local, regional and international demonstrations have taken place, and emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have been held.  MORE . . .

“A  NATIONAL  HYMN,”  BY  TAWFIQ  SAYIGH
Is it true that you were young,
And that your wavy hips
Caused seduction among young men?
And that fashion magazines
Devoted their numbers to your dresses?
I do not believe.
Is it true that you turned your husband into a leader and he led
And built you hanging gardens,
O my country?

Is it true that he who sang you with burning love
Sang you with high esteem,
Is it true that you led the horses,
That your sons rode to them in distant pastures
And that they did not open their mouths to nibble
But opened them to emit a neigh like hymns of the minarets?
I do not believe
I do not believe, O my country.

Not because you have become old:
For there is dignity in gray hair
And wrinkles have an effect unequaled by soft skin.
Not because you have become secluded:
If only when limelights receded from you
You sponsored institutions,
Opened orphanages or collected donations.
No, my country:
For then I would have loved you
And sung for a beauty that gradually changes but does not die,
And I would have visited you
And would have done so in awe.

But in old age you have been crowned with humiliation
And you brushed off the memory of your husband and of youth
As if they were dust on your soiled body.
You have castrated your sons
And I saw them droop their heads for your memory;
You wallowed with this and that person of immoral character
(How would I believe what is said about your past
O my country
I who saw your house and its dim lights?)
If lovers turn away from you
You have been prostituting your daughters
O my country
O my country.

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 Tawfiq Sayigh

“. . . Whole governments relaxed in your jaw line . . .” (Naomi Shihab Nye)

Harold Knight1 Comment

❶ Palestine, China sign agreement on free trade

  • Background: “Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.” Cornell International Law Journal

❷ Saudi Arabia pledges full support to Palestinian people
❸ Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian farmer in Nablus
❹ POETRY by Naomi Shihab Nye
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINE,  CHINA  SIGN  AGREEMENT  ON  FREE  TRADE 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Nov. 30, 2017 ― Palestine and China signed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding on free trade between the two countries, during a ceremony at the Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah.
___Minister of National Economy, Abeer Odeh, and deputy Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wang Shouwen, signed the memorandum of understanding on free trade in the presence of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and China’s ambassador to Palestine, Chen Xingzhong.   MORE . . .   ..

Miller, Zinaida.
“Perils of Parity: Palestine’s Permanent Transition.”
Cornell International Law Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, Spring2014, pp. 331-415.
[. . . .] The sense that international organizations and actors could and should involve themselves in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction opened space for multilateral mediation as well as for direct international involvement in the structure and implementation of the Oslo regime. From the outset of the Accords, it was clear that only extraordinary financial and institutional support from foreign donors and international organizations could sustain the peace process: by October 1993, donors had already pledged billions in aid. By 2003, the World Bank remarked that donor disbursement to the West Bank and Gaza remains the highest sustained rate of per capita disbursements to an aid recipient in the world since the Second World War.” At the beginning of the Oslo process, funds were intended to bolster the peace process by building confidence that it would improve Palestinians’ lives by providing a “peace dividend,” supporting Palestinian economic development as a method for achieving autonomy and, eventually, independence. Neither peace nor independence materialized, however, and two decades later, international support aimed simply to maintain the status quo and prevent the collapse of the Authority rather than contribute to progressive change.
[. . . .] Events on the ground constantly affect the permutations of international assistance. Failed talks, concerns over corruption, Israeli settlement building, and Palestinian violence have all affected the provision of aid and the relationships between internationals and local elites. International contributions to the governance regime are partially contingent upon politics and immediate events, but they are simultaneously shaped by the experiences and expertise of those delivering aid. Over the decades of integral international assistance, ideas about the necessity of institutions, the links between development and peace, and the provision of international assistance in humanitarian catastrophes influenced donors and aid organizations. In addition, these ideas affect the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—who today serve as co-governors of territory and population—and the parameters of Palestinian resistance.    FULL ARTICLE.

❷ SAUDI  ARABIA  PLEDGES  FULL  SUPPORT  TO  PALESTINIAN  PEOPLE  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA  
Nov. 30, 2017 ― Manal Radwan, Saudi Arabia’s delegate at the United Nations, pledged on Thursday during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the situation in the Near East and on the “question of Palestine” that her country will continue to support the Palestinian people in their cause for self-determination and statehood.
___Radwan reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s support “for the Palestinian people in their historic struggle for the realization of their inalienable rights, foremost of which is the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian State on all the Palestinian land occupied since 1967.”
___She condemned Israel, the occupying power, for its violations against the Palestinians people, including the killing of innocent civilians, illegal settlement construction and expansion, the theft of Palestinian land and the demolition of thousands of homes since the Palestinian exodus (Nakba) in 1948.  MORE . . .
❸ ISRAELI SETTLERS SHOT DEAD A PALESTINIAN FARMER IN NABLUS   
Palestine News Network – PNN    
Nov. 30, 2017 ― A Palestinian farmer was shot dead by Israeli settlers while he was working in his land near the village of Qusra, south of Nablus in the West Bank.
___Israeli settlers reportedly opened fire at Mahmoud Zaal Odeh, in his forties, injuring him seriously. He was announced dead a few minutes later.
___This is not the first time a Palestinian is killed by illegal Israeli settlers. On May 18, an Israeli settler shot and killed a 23-year-old Palestinian during a protest in Huwwata, to the south of Nablus.
___In 2016 alone, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented 107 settler attacks on Palestinians. . .    MORE . . .   ..

“HELLO, PALESTINE,” BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
In the hours after you died,
all the pain went out of your face.
Whole governments relaxed
in your jaw line.
How long had you been away
from the place you loved best?
Every minute was too much.
Each year’s bundle of horror stories:
more trees chapped,
homes demolished,
people gone crazy.
You’d turn your face
away from the screen.
At the end you spoke
to your own blood
filtering through a machine:
We’ll get there again, friend.
When you died, your long frustration
zipped its case closed.
Everyone in a body is chosen
for trouble and bliss.
At least nothing got amputated, I said,
and the nurses looked quizzical.
Well, if only you had seen his country.

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

“. . . fill prisons with dignity . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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❶ Israeli forces order Jordan Valley farmers off their land
. . . . . ―❶ (ᴀ) Hamdallah: Israeli plans to forcibly transfer Bedouins in E1 ‘cross a red line’

  • Background: “Dignity Takings and Dispossession in Israel.” Law & Social Inquiry 

❷ Jordan’s King: Just solution of the Palestinian cause brings regional stability
❸ Opinion/Analysis:  The national Bureau: a new Nakbah may take place if Israel forces Bedouin communities to leave their lands
❹ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  FORCES  ORDER  JORDAN  VALLEY  FARMERS  OFF  THEIR  LAND       
Ma’an News Agency  
Nov. 29, 2017 ― Israeli forces on Wednesday morning reportedly forced Palestinian farmers off lands they were working on in the Jordan Valley area of the Tubas district in the northern occupied West Bank, according to official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned WAFA news agency.
___WAFA reported that Israeli forces ordered a group of Palestinian farmers near the village of Sakout to stop working and leave the lands immediately.
___While it remained unclear why the farmers were suddenly ordered off their land, the Jordan Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C — under full Israeli military control.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ―❶ (ᴀ) HAMDALLAH:  ISRAELI  PLANS  TO  FORCIBLY  TRANSFER  BEDOUINS  IN  E1  ‘CROSS  A  RED  LINE’
Ma’an News Agency
Nov. 28, 2017 ― Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah released a statement on Monday expressing the government’s solidarity with the hundreds of Palestinian Bedouins in the community of Jabal al-Baba at risk of forcible displacement by the Israeli government.
___Earlier this month, Israeli forces distributed evacuation notices to all 300 Palestinian residents of the village in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem, saying the residents had eight days to move to a “relocation site” designated for them by Israeli authorities.
___The village is populated by some 55 Bedouin families who have inhabited the area for 65 years — after being forced out of their original lands in 1948 when Israel was created — and face constant threat of being expelled from their homes.
___“As the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, let me say clearly: we stand with our Palestinian citizens in Jabal al Baba, as well as with all of the other Palestinian communities across the West Bank that Israel seeks to displace in order to build illegal settlements in their place,” Hamdallah said.    MORE . . .     ..

Kedar, Alexandre (Sandy).
“DIGNITY  TAKINGS  AND  DISPOSSESSION  IN  ISRAEL.”
LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, vol. 41, no. 4, Fall2016, pp. 866-887.
[. . . .] Dignity takings occur when the state confiscates more than property; such takings simultaneously deny the dispossessed their dignity. Dignity presumes that human beings are of equal value, and entails a respect for each person’s autonomy. As such, dignity takings deny these core values. . . .
___Dignity taking entails five major elements: (1) “A state directly or indirectly” takes property. (2) “Destroys or confiscates property.” Such dignity takings are often effectuated through brutal and unilateral state force. . .  Atuahene emphasizes the function of property as personhood. Accordingly, when persons are displaced from their homes and properties, they suffer great emotional harm. . . . (3) “From owners or occupiers”. (4) “Whom it deems to be sub persons.” This includes dehumanization, “the failure to recognize an individual or group’s humanness”. It can also occur via infantilization, which is the “restriction of an individual or group’s autonomy based on the failure to recognize and respect their full capacity to reason” or treating them as if they were minors. (5) “Without paying just compensation or without a legitimate public purpose”. Atuahene clarifies that “just compensation” is not sufficient. If the landholder cannot reject the compensation offered and remain on the property, and the taking was not the result of a “legitimate public purpose” but part of a “larger strategy to dehumanize or infantilize” a specific group . . . this qualifies as a dignity taking.
[. . . .] To conclude, the concept of dignity takings, with some qualifications, adaptations, and transformations, can serve as an effective tool in analyzing the dispossession of Palestinians land in and by Israel. The concept highlights not only the material loss and harm done by these takings, but simultaneously the ways in which they inflicted devastating blows to the dignity and humanity of the dispossessed. Finally, the recognition that a certain taking or type of taking such as the Land Acquisition Law and Negev Bedouin cases constitute dignity taking should guide us in devising restitution processes that would restore not only the pecuniary value of the land, but also the taken dignity. Such restoration should recognize both past wrongs and present interests and impediments, while striving to design a healing future.   SOURCE . . .

❷ JORDAN’S  KING:  JUST  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  CAUSE  BRINGS  REGIONAL  STABILITY 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Nov. 29, 2017 ― King of Jordan Abdullah II said on Tuesday evening that reaching a just and permanent solution of the Palestinian cause will lead to achieving security and stability in the entire region.
___King Abdullah, during a meeting in Washington with U.S. senators, called for reviving peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis based on a two-state solution and the resolutions of international community, leading to the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and living side by side with Israel.   MORE . . .   ..
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:   THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU:  A  NEW  NAKBAH  MAY  TAKE  PLACE  IF  ISRAEL  FORCES  BEDOUIN  COMMUNITIES  TO  LEAVE  THEIR  LANDS    Palestine News Network – PNN 
Nov. 29, 2017 ― The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements released the weekly report on settlements named Israel’s plans Ethnic Cleansing The Bedouin Communities Surrounding Jerusalem in which they wrote:
___“The deadline given by the occupation authorities to the citizens of the Jabal Al-Baba in the Eizariya town, Jerusalem, to leave their land, properties and homes ended last week.  Thus, a new Nakbah (catastrophe) may take place should they succeed in implementing the plan, which means besieging the city of Jerusalem as a whole, and completely isolating it from its Palestinian surroundings.
___The Judaization, racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing policy that carried out by the occupation government against the Palestinian citizens in the East Jerusalem i.e. the Bedouin communities in Jabal-Baba, Arab-Jahalin and Abu-Nawar community to evacuate them requires the world countries. . . to intervene. . . ”  MORE . . .

“HERE  WE  SHALL  STAY,”  BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,
we shall remain
like a wall upon your chest,
and in your throat
like a shard of glass,
a cactus thorn,
and in your eyes
a sandstorm.

We shall remain
a wall upon your chest,
clean dishes in your restaurants,
serve drinks in your bars,
sweep the floors of your kitchens
to snatch a bite for our children
from your blue fangs.

Here we shall stay,
sing our songs,
take to the angry streets,
fill prisons with dignity.
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,
we shall remain,
guard the shade of the fig
and olive trees,
ferment rebellion in our children
as yeast in the dough.

—translated by Sharif Elmusa and Charles Doria
From poemhunter.com
Tawfiq Zyyad (7 May 1929 – 5 July 1994) was a Palestinian politician well known for his “poetry of protest”. Born in the Galilee, Zyyad studied literature in USSR. He was elected mayor of Nazareth, a victory that “surprised and alarmed” Israelis. Elected to the Knesset 1973, Zyyad was active in pressuring the Israeli government to change its policies towards Palestinians both in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. A report he co-authored. . .  (More . . .)

 

“. . . Time has grown up on its own without me . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

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❶ Palestine hosts an international meeting for first time

  • Background: “The International Community’s Role in Israeli History.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

❷ Why Israel shelved the ‘Greater Jerusalem Law’
❸ President Abbas meets Saudi crown prince
❹ POETRY by Yousef El Qedra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PALESTINE HOSTS AN INTERNATIONAL MEETING FOR FIRST TIME
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
Nov. 8, 2017 ― For the first time, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics hosted on Tuesday the meeting of the members of the United Nations High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
___Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said during the meeting, “Palestine is suffering from the exceptional conditions resulting from the continuation of the Israeli occupation. Facing this challenge, we are determined to achieve sustainable development by investing in the talents and capabilities of our people, especially our youth, who constitute almost half of the Palestinian society.”
___“This meeting reflects our determination to fully realize the goals of the 2030 agenda and to implement it fully. I truly commend your great efforts for achieving the sustainable development. Palestine hosted this meeting to reaffirm our commitment toward achieving the sustainable development goals,” Hamdallah added.   MORE . . .   ..

Schenker, Hillel.
“The International Community’s Role in Israeli History.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 20, no. 2/3, Jan. 2015, pp. 101-106.
The fact that after over 20 years of fruitless negotiations the Palestinians have chosen an internationalization strategy to try to achieve national independence is considered by the current Israeli government and its supporters to be illegitimate “unilateral action” that bypasses the need for bilateral negotiations with Israel to resolve the conflict. What those opponents of internationalization are conveniently forgetting is the major role that internationalization has played in Israeli history.
___ To put it simply, just as the Palestinian national liberation movement, represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), is now seeking help from the international community and its institutions to achieve its goals, the Jewish national liberation movement, represented by the World Zionist Organization (WZO), also sought help from the international community and its institutions to help achieve statehood.        [. . . .] So here we are today. The Palestinians have retroactively accepted UNGA Resolution 181 and included that acceptance in their Declaration of Independence of 1988. And the neighboring Arab states, via the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, have also accepted the principles of the Partition Plan, citing UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338 — “land for peace.”
___Since serious bilateral negotiations between the government of Israel under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the PLO under Abbas do not seem to be in the cards, the only nonviolent way forward is via internationalization, a strategy which in the final analysis is not only based on the lessons of Israeli history, but also in the best interests of both Israel and the Palestinians.   FULL ARTICLE . . .    …

❷ WHY  ISRAEL  SHELVED  THE  ‘GREATER  JERUSALEM  LAW’ 
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 8, 2017 ― The postponing of an Israeli Knesset bill that would have annexed major illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank to the Jerusalem municipality is the result of behind-the-scenes US and, possibly, European pressure. But the story of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem law” does not end there.
___Israel wants to maintain an absolute demographic Jewish majority in Jerusalem, including in occupied and illegally annexed Palestinian East Jerusalem. There is enough support in the Knesset and among the public to ensure that coveted Jewish dominance. But the political balances, and possible drawbacks, are just too delicate and great for Israel to get exactly what it wants, even if there is a clear consensus among Israeli Jewish politicians and the public to permanently change the status of the city.   MORE . . .
❸ PRESIDENT  ABBAS  MEETS  SAUDI  CROWN  PRINCE 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 8, 2017 ― President Mahmoud Abbas met in Riyadh on Wednesday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
___The President briefed the Crown Prince on the latest developments in the Palestinian issue and US efforts to move the peace process forward as well as the developments in the Palestinian reconciliation.
___The two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to develop them. They agreed to continue consultations on issues of concern to both countries.   MORE . . .   ..

 “I HAVE NO HOME,” BY YOUSEF EL QEDRA
I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
――Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

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

“. . . For the tragedy I live Is but my share in your larger tragedy . . .” (Tawfiq Zayyad)

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❶ Israeli bill aimed at preventing Jerusalem’s division passes reading in Knesset

  • Background: “A National or Religious Conflict? The Dispute over the Temple Mount/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) PM Hamdallah to European diplomats: Stop Israel now
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) President Abbas discusses Israeli measures with Turkish counterpart
❷ Israeli soldiers shoot, kill Palestinian after alleged stabbing attempt, sparking clashes
❸ POETRY by Tawfiq Zayyad
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAELI  BILL  AIMED  AT  PREVENTING  JERUSALEM’S  DIVISION  PASSES  READING  IN  KNESSET
Ma’an News Agency 
July 19, 2017.   A bill aimed at preventing any future divisions of Jerusalem, by requiring a two-third majority in Israel’s parliament in order to do so, passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset on Wednesday.
___The bill, titled “Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel,” passed with 58 Members of Knesset (MKs) voting in favor, 48 voting against it, and one MK abstaining from the vote, according to a statement released by the Knesset.
___The bill aims to mend Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusalem to necessitate the approval of 80 of the 120 Knesset members to make any changes to the law, instead of the regular majority vote.
___According to the statement, the proposal explains that the bill has a “security purpose.”
___“Since the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon [in 2000] and the disengagement from the Gaza Strip [in 2005] proved that wherever Israel withdraws from, terrorist factors enter, threatening the security of citizens of Israel,” the bill reportedly states, insinuating that if Israel withdrew from occupied East Jerusalem, it would be taken over by “terrorist” factions.   MORE . . .   

Ma’oz, Moshe. “A  NATIONAL  OR  RELIGIOUS  CONFLICT?  THE  DISPUTE  OVER  THE  TEMPLE  MOUNT/AL-HARAM  AL-SHARIF  IN  JERUSALEM.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 20/21, no. 4/1, Dec. 2015, pp. 25-32.
Arabs and Jews, the children of Abraham, are becoming increasingly engaged in a religious war. The major focus of this conflict is the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif and East Jerusalem/al-Quds Al-Sharif. Amalgamated with nationalist and political components of the Arab-Israeli dispute, this religious war also derives from two opposed processes: growing Islamic Judeophobia in the Arab and Muslim world, on one hand; and accelerated Jewish Islamophobia in Israel and the Diaspora, on the other.
[. . . .] Moderate Israeli and Palestinian personalities — religious and secular — have been warning for years that the Jewish-Muslim conflict over the Temple Mount could trigger a worldwide religious war.
[. . . .] Despite these warnings, top Israeli and Palestinian leaders continue to perpetuate this phenomenon to score political gains. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, must politically ride his people’s anger and frustration regarding alleged Jewish intentions to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other right-wing Israeli leaders continue to use the Jewish sanctity of the Temple Mount to gamer public support.
___Netanyahu has also done very little to change the desire of Jewish citizens to rebuild the third Temple (approx. 40%), control and pray on the Temple Mount (approx. 65%), and keep a united Jerusalem under eternal Israeli sovereignty (80%). In fact, on Jerusalem Day, May 2014, Netanyahu proclaimed that “Jerusalem was unified 47 years ago. It will never be redivided: We will never divide our heart — the heart of the Nation. Jerusalem is also Mount Zion and Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount), the Western Wall — Israel’s eternal.” [. . . .]  SOURCE . . .

. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) PM  HAMDALLAH  TO  EUROPEAN  DIPLOMATS:  STOP  ISRAEL  NOW
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA      
July 20, 2017.   Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Thursday urged the European Union to take immediate action to pressure Israel to stop its violations against Palestinian rights and holy places.
___Hamdallah discussed during a meeting at  his Ramallah office with EU diplomats the recent developments in Jerusalem, particularly Israel’s measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the heightened settlement activities in and around Jerusalem.
___He warned of deterioration in the security situation if Israel persists in efforts to change the status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) PRESIDENT  ABBAS  DISCUSSES  ISRAELI  MEASURES  WITH  TURKISH  COUNTERPART    
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA      
July 20, 2017.   President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday discussed over phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the recent Israeli measures around flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
___Abbas and Erdoğan reportedly discussed the Israeli installation of metal detectors at the gates leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque, assaults against Muslim worshippers and the attempt to change the long-standing status quo at the mosque.
___Abbas called upon Erdoğan to help de-escalate tensions through asking the US administration to oblige Israel to retract its serious measures and also through his contacts with Israel.   MORE . . . 
❷ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  SHOOT,  KILL  PALESTINIAN  AFTER  ALLEGED  STABBING  ATTEMPT,  SPARKING  CLASHES
Ma’an News Agency
July 20, 2017.  Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in the southern occupied West Bank village of Tuqu on Thursday afternoon, sparking clashes in which at least one Palestinian was injured.
___An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a Palestinian attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at an Israeli military checkpoint near Tuqu, adding that “responding to the immediate threat,” soldiers shot and killed the man. They added that no Israelis were injured in the case.
___A Ma’an reporter present at the scene said that Israeli soldiers fired four shots towards the Palestinian near Tuqu’s school, while eyewitnesses said that an Israeli military vehicle then run over the man.   MORE . . .

“I  CLASP  YOUR  HANDS,” BY  TAWFIQ  ZAYYAD
I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I kiss the dust under your shoe
And say: I’ll lay down my life for you,
Grant you the gift of eyesight in my eyes.
The warm love in my heart I give to you,
For the tragedy I live
Is but my share in your larger tragedy.

I call upon you
And clasp your hands.
I never stooped in my country
Nor will I ever be humbled.
Orphaned, naked and barefoot
I confronted my oppressors,
Carrying my blood in my palms.
I have never lowered my flags,
And have always tended the grass over my ancestors’ graves.
I call upon you, and clasp your hands!

From THE PALSESTINIAN 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.
Tawfik Zayyad (Tawfiq Ziad) was a Palestinian poet, writer, scholar and politician. He was born in Nazareth in 1929 and died on July 5, 1994, in a dreadful car crash while on his way to meet Yasser Arafat in Jericho after the Oslo agreements. He participated in Palestinian political life in occupied Palestine, was elected mayor of Nazareth, and served as a member of the Israeli Knesset.     (More. . .)

“. . . In Israel, apartheid (separateness) is rather inbuilt into the very constitutional life of the state. . .” (Oren Ben-Dor)

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barak
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, “We’re both trying to kill the mosquito. . .” New York Times, May 21, 1996. (Photo: JP)

❶ PM Hamdallah: Israel is pushing for an apartheid state
. . . ❶― (ᴀ) Czech Republic clarifies position on status of Jerusalem
. . . ❶― (ᴃ) Foreign Ministry seeks UN Security Council action against Israeli settlements

  • Background from: Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal (Edinburgh University Press). “. . . responding to different existential stakes, South Africa could reform and stay South Africa. Israel cannot reform and stay Israel. . .”

❷ Israeli forces kill young Palestinian man, injure another in Shufat refugee camp
. . . ❷― (ᴀ) PPS: “Underage Detainee Assaulted By Soldiers, Strip-Searched”
. . . ❷― (ᴃ) Soldiers Injure Three Palestinians in Nablus

  • Background from Third World Quarterly.  “ . . . ‘The Arabs are not a nation but a mole that grew in the wilderness of the eternal desert. They are nothing but murderers’. . .”

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PM  HAMDALLAH:  ISRAEL  IS  PUSHING  FOR  AN  APARTHEID  STATE
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Sep. 5, 2016
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Monday told visiting Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that Israel, by stepping up settlement construction and expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories, is pushing toward a one-state solution and an apartheid system.
___The prime minister expressed his government’s commitment towards a two-state solution of Palestine and Israel. . . .
___Hamdallah also expressed appreciation for Australia’s constant support to the Palestinian education and health sectors.  MORE . . .

bishop
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday. Photo: GPO / Amos Ben Gershom via Twitter.

. . . ❶― (ᴀ) CZECH  REPUBLIC  CLARIFIES  POSITION  ON  STATUS  OF  JERUSALEM
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Sep. 5, 2016
The foreign ministry of the Czech Republic Monday clarified its position on the status of Jerusalem.
___It said in a statement delivered to its Palestinian counterpart that “[w]ith reference to some media reports on the status of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs about the following:
___“The State of Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital. The status of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel is not internationally recognized. Based on the Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions, the Czech Republic, together with other EU Member States, considers Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, i.e. the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine. Tel Aviv is currently the seat of most foreign missions, including the Embassy of the Czech Republic.”      MORE . . .
. . . ❶― (ᴃ) FOREIGN MINISTRY SEEKS UN SECURITY COUNCIL ACTION AGAINST ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
Al-Hourriah
Sep. 5, 2016
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Sunday upon the United Nations Security Council to take immediate steps towards forcing Israel, the occupying power, to stop its settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
___The ministry called upon the UNSC to send a delegation to get information about what it described as “Israel’s theft and Judaization of Palestinian land”, including continuing settlement activities.     MORE . . .

  • From Ben-Dor, Oren. “The One-State as a Demand of International Law: Jus Cogens, Challenging Apartheid and the Legal Validity of Israel.” Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal (Edinburgh University Press) 12.2 (2013): 181-205.    SOURCE.

Why would one want to call Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, an apartheid state? Israel has no laws that explicitly limit the education and possibilities of its non-Jewish Arab citizens nor does it list certain professions they are forbidden to take up as was the case in South Africa.
___Looking at Israel you will see democratic elections and representation, occasional positive attempts at egalitarian investment in the country’s non-Jewish Arab sector, and some joint Jewish/non-Jewish-Arab ventures; and you will find a Supreme Court that prides itself on consistently upholding a Basic Law of Human (as opposed to Jewish) dignity and freedom.
___However, on closer look, apartheid in Israel is as constitutionally inbuilt as it was in South Africa and structurally limits, directly or indirectly, the ambit of possible egalitarian reforms. Central governmental investment turns out to be inherently biased in favour of the country’s Jewish population, and official property law regimes and land policies push towards the ‘Judaisation’ of the land, meaning the transfer to Jewish citizens or institutions of lands expropriated from non-Jewish Arab citizens and/or institutions while discouraging, or even actually forbidding, non-Jewish Arabs from taking up residence in Jewish areas.
[. . . .]
In Israel, apartheid (separateness) is rather inbuilt into the very constitutional life of the state, a sense of ‘separateness’ of Jews that has to be constantly rejuvenated and reinvented and reinforced by the state.
Because the Zionist ideological doctrine of ‘separateness’ led to the raison d’etre of the state, this separateness embodies a pathological denial that surrounds Israel’s apartheid, separateness which is disguised as ‘democratic’ practices. As such this denial is more entrenched in collective unconscious memory and thus more morally repugnant than the explicit apartheid of South Africa . . . . responding to different existential stakes, South Africa could reform and stay South Africa. Israel cannot reform and stay Israel.

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  KILL  YOUNG  PALESTINIAN  MAN,  INJURE  ANOTHER  IN  SHUFAT  REFUGEE  CAMP
Ma’an News Agency
Sept. 5, 2016
Israeli forces shot and killed a young Palestinian man in the Shufat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem in the early hours of Monday morning following a raid in the camp, according to locals and Israeli police
___Local sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces “showered” a Palestinian car with gunfire, killing Mustafa Nimir and injuring another young man whose identity and health condition remained unknown to witnesses.
___Israeli authorities claimed the driver — who they did not identify as either Nimir or the other person who was injured — attempted to run over Israeli police and border guard officers before they fired at the car.    MORE . . .
. . . ❷― (ᴀ) PPS:  “UNDERAGE  DETAINEE  ASSAULTED  BY  SOLDIERS,  STRIP-SEARCHED”
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Sep. 5, 2016
The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported, Monday, that a detained Palestinian teen has been subjected to repeated assaults during his abduction, and interrogation, including being strip-searched after the soldiers kidnapped him.
___The teen, Mazen Monther Ramadan, 17 years of age, was kidnapped from his home, in the central West Bank district of Ramallah, on August 22, 2016.
___A PPS lawyer managed to visit the teen in the al-Maskobiyya interrogation center. . . .    MORE . . .
. . . ❷― (ᴃ) SOLDIERS  INJURE  THREE  PALESTINIANS  IN  NABLUS
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
September 5, 2016
Palestinian medical sources have reported that Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Monday at dawn, three Palestinians in the Balata refugee camp, and Sebastia town, in the northern West Bank district of Nablus.
___The sources said one Palestinian, identified as Mohammad Riyadh Saheli, was shot with a live round, and suffered a moderate injury, in Balata refugee camp, in Nablus.
___Several army vehicles invaded the camp, and opened fire on Palestinian youths, who hurled stones and empty bottles on the advancing military vehicles.   MORE . . .

  • Peteet, Julie. “Words As Interventions: Naming In The Palestine – Israel Conflict.” Third World Quarterly 26.1 (2005): 153-172.   SOURCE.

The notion of ‘epistemic violence’ refers to the process by which colonial thought shaped colonial subjects as inherently different. Over the course of much of the previous century rhetoric and words were selectively deployed, repeated, insisted upon and entered mainstream language to construct Palestinians discursively as beyond the pale of humanity. The moral lexicon deployed by Israelis and the Western media has cast them as irrational, terrorist demons unsuited for membership in the human community . . . .
___From the first decades of the century, when Zionists first encountered Palestinians . . . words used to describe the Palestinians have displayed both consistency and change. This discursive construction of the violent and primitive Palestinian underpins and legitimises his/her continued displacement, political exclusion and occupation. In a broader context, representations of the colonised often fall into a binary opposition between ‘inherently violent or innately peaceful’. The paradox between an imputed lack of attachment to place and yet the apparent willingness to fight for it was resolved by classifying Palestinian violence as irrational, without just cause. . . . ‘a gang of robbers, murderers, and bandits’, thus obstructing an understanding of manifestations of Palestinian nationalism and their discontent with colonisation.
___Coupled with a violent nature, Palestinians have been classified zoomorphically. Avraham Stern, founder of the Stern Gang or Lehi, precursor to the Likud Party, said: ‘The Arabs are not a nation but a mole that grew in the wilderness of the eternal desert. They are nothing but murderers.’ . . . More recently, Labor Party leader Ehud Barak told a New York Times correspondent, ‘You know, we are still living in a jungle’, which he characterises as ‘the dark and backward old Middle East’. He explained  the difference between the two major political parties in Israel, the Labor and the Likud: “We’re both trying to kill the mosquito. . .But at the same time we’re trying to drain the swamp, while Likud is saying the swamp is ours and we’ll never give it up. . . .”

“. . . to demolish a man’s house is to tear his heart into little pieces . . . an extremely inhuman act . . .” (Irus Braverman)

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demolition
Demolitions in Umm al-Kheir on Aug. 8, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ Israel poised to raze Bedouin village so Jews can take land

Background from Law & Social Inquiry

. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces demolishes Palestinian structures across West Bank, assault locals
. . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) Israeli occupation demolishes restaurant, pottery workshop in Nablus, residencies in Hebron
. . . ❶ ― (ᴄ) Israeli forces demolish water pipelines under construction in northern West Bank
❷ Council: Palestinians in need of 30,000 housing units in Jerusalem
❸ POETRY by Yousef El Qedra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL  POISED  TO  RAZE  BEDOUIN  VILLAGE  SO  JEWS  CAN  TAKE  LAND
The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver
Aug. 8 2016
Israeli bulldozers are poised to raze the Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab (Negev) region in the south of the country.
___On 31 July, bulldozers began ploughing a trench around the village, encircling those homes Israel intends to demolish to make way for a Jewish community.
___The village lost its 13-year legal battle in May 2015, when a three-judge panel on Israel’s high court ruled that the government was authorized to demolish the village and displace its residents  [. . . .]
___Like about 40 other Bedouin villages home to 70,000 people in the Naqab, Umm al-Hiran is not recognized by Israeli authorities, leaving its 1,000 residents, who are Israeli citizens, without basic services or rights.     MORE . . .         RELATED. . .

From: Braverman, Irus. “Powers Of Illegality: House Demolitions And Resistance In East Jerusalem.” Law & Social Inquiry 32.2 (2007): 333-372

. . . . while Foucault’s analysis [of the spectacle of a public execution in DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH, 1979] depicts brutality as inflicted upon the human body, in the demolition instance this brutality is imposed upon the nonhuman body of the house. Significant as it may seem, this distinction between human and nonhuman bodies is rendered irrelevant by most of the Palestinian informants. The Palestinian community planner, for example, claimed that “a person whose house has been demolished, I don’t see any difference between him and a person whose only child is killed,” and a Palestinian defense lawyer told me: “to demolish a man’s house is to tear his heart into little pieces . . . the demolition is an . . . extremely inhuman act.”
___Clearly, most Palestinian informants not only themselves relate to their house as interchangeable with their body but also believe that Israel relates to it in a similar way. Accordingly, this is how a Palestinian Jerusalemite that has worked as a planner in the Jerusalem municipality for over thirty years described the situation: “they twist our hand behind our back until they hear a cry of pain: [then] the municipal officials smile with pleasure, and twist our hand even tighter in order to produce a louder cry. They take pleasure in the Palestinian pain more than in anything else.”
___But while the identification of the Palestinian body with the body of her house may establish one cause for its demolition, another explanation is also possible. Such an alternative explanation is provided by a Jewish Israeli defense lawyer who has been representing Palestinians from East Jerusalem for over twenty years. The lawyer suggests that the official Israeli discourse regards the Palestinians as “airplanes that are not even detected by the Israeli radar,” namely as invisible to Israeli administrators. Rather than choosing between these two seemingly conflicting interpretations, it is important to see their simultaneous existence: while the first interpretation embodies the Palestinian in this space by rendering her body opaque, the second interpretation disembodies her, making for a transparent Palestinian body.
___Instead of undermining each other, the bifurcated dialectic between these two bodily interpretations provides for their reciprocal reinforcement.

. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISHES  PALESTINIAN  STRUCTURES  ACROSS  WEST  BANK,  ASSAULT  LOCALS
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 9, 2016
Israeli authorities carried out multiple demolitions across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday morning, including residential structures funded by the European Union, in the midst of an unprecedented campaign targeting Palestinian homes, business, and agricultural structures under the pretext of lacking building permits which are nearly impossible to obtain.
___The demolitions — which included two business in Sabastiya, five homes in Umm al-Kheir, and two homes in al-Jiftlik — were immediately denounced by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in a statement released on Tuesday.
___“Israel is relentlessly destroying Palestinians’ homes and livelihoods in order to make way for more illegal settlements,” Hamdallah said.     MORE . . .

demolitions 2
Demolitions in Umm al-Kheir on Aug. 8, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

. . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) ISRAELI  OCCUPATION  DEMOLISHES  RESTAURANT,  POTTERY  WORKSHOP  IN  NABLUS,  RESIDENCES  IN  HEBRON
Alray Palestine Media Agency
Aug. 9, 2016
The Israeli occupation forces demolished on Tuesday a restaurant and a pottery workshop in the village of Sebastia, north of Nablus, as well as residential structures in the village of Um al-Kheir near Hebron, local sources reported.
___Mayor of Sebastia municipality said that Israeli forces broke into the village and demolished a restaurant and a pottery workshop, both owned by two local Palestinian villagers, under the pretext of construction without permission.     MORE . . .
. . . ❶ ― (ᴄ) ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  WATER  PIPELINES  UNDER  CONSTRUCTION  IN  NORTHERN  WEST  BANK
Ma’an News Agency
Aug. 8, 2016
Israeli forces reportedly destroyed large portions of a water pipeline under construction in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tubas on Monday.
___Arif Daraghmah, the head of the village council in the Jordan Valley and neighboring Bedouin communities, told Ma’an that Israeli forces accompanied by military vehicles and two bulldozers began the demolition process early on Monday morning on the pipeline, which he said targeted a pipeline funded by NGO Action Against Hunger that had been under construction for the past four months in order to provide water to residents of the area.
___Daraghmah added that the Israeli forces completely destroyed the four-kilometer water pipeline between the town of Tubas and the village of Yarza, and also destroyed and seized large parts of the nine-kilometer pipeline connecting Yarza to the village of al-Malih.
___He said Israeli forces were carrying out these demolitions in order to pressure Palestinian residents into leaving the area.     MORE . . .

demolitions 3
Demolitions in Umm al-Kheir on Aug. 8, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❷ COUNCIL:  PALESTINIANS  IN  NEED  OF  30,000  HOUSING  UNITS  IN  JERUSALEM
Al-Hourriah
Aug. 8, 2016
Jerusalem will be in need of 30,000 housing units, the Palestinian Housing Council said Monday.
___The council’s technical director in the occupied West Bank, Zuheir Ali, said, at a workshop held in al-Bireh under the title “Housing in Occupied Jerusalem: Facts and Challenges,” that the Palestinians have been facing difficulties in constructing new homes on at least 13% of east Jerusalem lands.
___Ali added that Israeli restrictive measures resulted in a sharp housing crisis and that Occupied Jerusalem is in need of 30,000 housing units, to the tune of around three billion dollars, until 2020.     MORE . . .  

“I  HAVE  NO  HOME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA

I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
―Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

Yousef El Qedra is a young poet and playwright living in Gaza. He has his BA degree in Arabic Literature from Azhar University, Gaza. Since 2006 he has worked as a project coordinator of theater and youth groups for the Cultural Free Thought Association in Gaza City. He has written several books and plays and published four volumes of poetry, translated into French and Spanish.
From BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND:  PALESTINE  ISRAEL  POETS  RESPOND  TO  THE  STRUGGLE.  Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost
Horse Press, 2012. Available from Amazon. demolitions 4

Demolitions in Umm al-Kheir on Aug. 8, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)



“. . . There’s enough room for both of us in the field . . .” (Samih Al-Qasim)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
gaza_water
A boy drinks from emergency water supplies being distributed by the UN in Gaza. (Photo by crazy_inventor Oct. 02, 2014)

❶ PM: Israel’s suspension of West Bank water supplies ‘inhumane and outrageous’
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) EU: 95% of water in Gaza ‘unfit for human use’
❷ WATCH: What life looks like in an unrecognized Bedouin village
❸ Turkish Electric Company to be established in Gaza
❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ PM:  ISRAEL’S  SUSPENSION  OF  WEST  BANK  WATER  SUPPLIES  ‘INHUMANE  AND  OUTRAGEOUS’
Ma’an News Agency
June 16, 2016
The Palestinian Prime Minister’s office on Thursday slammed Israel’s decision to cut off water supplies for tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this week as “inhumane and outrageous.”
___Rami Hamdallah issued a statement in response to the move by Israel’s national water company Mekorot, which saw water supplies suspended in the municipality of Jenin, several villages in Nablus, as well as the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages.
___“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service,” Hamdallah said. “Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place.”       MORE . . .  
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) EU:  95%  OF  WATER  IN  GAZA  ‘UNFIT  FOR  HUMAN  USE’      MORE . . .  

(Dr Yousef Abu Safieh is a former Palestinian minister for the Environment and chairman of the Environment Quality Authority of Palestine)

Have you  heard  of a  report  that said  by  2020  there  will  be  no  clean water left in Gaza?  If you made a report like this for the West Bank, what would its conclusions be? That report was done by the United Nations.  It shows that by the year 2020 the Gazan people will not have enough water to sustain the life of about 2.5 million inhabitants. But the water situation in the West Bank is different. There, renewable water is enough to sustain the life of all the Palestinian people for the next one hundred years [. . . .]
___I recall the letter sent to Lloyd George, the British prime minister in 1919, after the First World War, by Chaim Weizmann, requesting the extension of the British mandate over Palestine by an extra 40km   north of the Galilee Panhandle into Lebanon, so as to include the Litani and Wazzani rivers. His reasoning was that to create a homeland for the Israelis and implement the Balfour Declaration, they needed three things: land, water and energy. This would therefore increase the available water resources, and electricity, too, is generated by the power of the waterfalls [. . . .]

  • Abu Zayyad, Ziad. “How The Occupation Affects Palestinian Natural Resources. An Interview with Dr. Yousef Abu Safieh ” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 19/20.4/1 (2014): 140-150. SOURCE.  

❷ WATCH:  WHAT  LIFE  LOOKS  LIKE  IN  AN  UNRECOGNIZED  BEDOUIN  VILLAGE
+972 Magazine
Social TV
June 14, 2016
Approximately 90,000 Bedouin live in “unrecognized villages” spread across Israel’s Negev Desert. Because the Israeli government refuses to recognize them, they receive no municipal services, such as connection to the electrical grid, water mains or trash pickup, and are constantly at risk of demolition. Maryam Tarabin, the head of Umm al-Hiran‘s Women’s Committee, speaks about the discrimination facing Israel’s Bedouin population on a daily basis.
___”I lived in the village for 60 years. Why don’t I have electricity? Why don’t I have roads?”       MORE . . .

[. . . .] Throughout the last century, water legislation in Palestine has reflected the political agenda of the governing regime. During the Ottoman Era water resources were considered private property, in the form of ground water wells, springs and the utility of surface water, and these regulations are still valid. Legislation during the British Mandate period can be divided into two levels, the regulation level (licensing, taxation), which was under the control of the high commissar, and the level of the local management, which included the allocation of water resources, distribution and pricing under municipal control. During the Jordanian period, water legislation was issued to improve domestic and agricultural sectors in the West Bank; in addition, governmental water institutions were established in order to control and sustain water resources.
___Finally, Israeli military orders since 1967 have aimed to control the allocation, development and use of water resources in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). These Israeli orders have been especially aimed at limiting the use of water for agricultural purposes in the OP. These orders have indirectly given Mekorot, the Israeli semi-governmental company, the right to explore, distribute and develop water resources in the OP solely for the advantage of Israel and the Jewish settlers. (Acknowledgment: This study was funded by the UNESCO/Water History project.)

  • Marei, Amer, Imad Abu-Kishk, and Huda Radaydeh. “Review Of Water Legislation from The Pre-British Mandate Period Through The Israeli Occupation.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture 19/20.4/1 (2014): 42-48.  ARTICLE.
palestine_water.jpg_1718483346
A Palestinian man from the West Bank pulls his donkey loaded with empty bottles and a jerrycan, as he makes his way to fill them with drinking water. (Photo: Reuters, June 15, 2016)

❸ TURKISH  ELECTRIC  COMPANY  TO  BE  ESTABLISHED  IN  GAZA
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 15, 2016
According to Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (Ynet), new agreements between Turkey and Israel included the allowance of Ankara, by Israel, to establish a new electricity company in the Gaza Strip.
___Ynet, on Tuesday morning, said that both parties have reached a new settlement in which Israel finally refrained from its request to expel Hamas from Turkey. The aim is to prevent Hamas from attacking Israel.
___Turkey also refrained from its demand to lift the siege completely after Israel agreed to allow the establishment of a new electricity company, and to supply the Gaza Strip with goods.      MORE . . .  

“CONVERSATION  BETWEEN  AN  EAR  OF  CORN  AND  A  JERUSALEM  ROSE  THORN,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
(Scene: a Field on the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean)

EAR OF CORN: Don’t kill me before my time is up.
JERUSALEM ROSE THORN: To kill for nothing is my only profession

EC: But your lovely flower
Is honey . . .
JRT: My unchecked desire
Is a road . . . its end is your death

EC: Live and die as you wish
With your sad flowers
And the gloom of your cursed desire
Live and die . . . but spare me
JRT: It’s our fate . . . I die so you may live
Or you die so I may live

EC: There’s enough room for both of us in the field
JRT: It’s our fate neighbor
It’s our fate
(Enter Fire and Fear jumps up)

EC & JRT: Don’t kill us fire
We are young and pretty and we grew up together
Don’t kill us
Don’t ki . . .
(Ashes, EC & JRT on the horizon)

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

 

“. . . cover with sawdust the blood of our massacred people . . .” (Fawaz Turki)

Harold KnightLeave a comment
1-funeral
Mourners carry the body of Haitham Saada, shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, during the boy’s funeral in Hebron on 6 February. (Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/APA images)

❶ Israeli forces shoot, kill 2 armed Palestinians near Damascus Gate
❷ Israeli forces shoot, injure 28 Palestinians during Ramallah-area clashes
❸ Palestinian teen shot dead after alleged stabbing attempt near Bethlehem
❹ Israeli forces shoot five Palestinian children [yesterday 6 dead, total]
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE WILD BEAST OF ISRAELI RACISM
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) PM: INTERNATIONAL FORCES NEEDED TO PROTECT PALESTINIAN LIVES
❻ Poetry by Fawaz Turki
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  KILL  2  ARMED  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  DAMASCUS  GATE
Feb. 15, 2016
Two Palestinians armed with guns were shot dead Sunday by Israeli forces near Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli police said . . . .
___Police forces opened fire on and killed the young man when he pulled an automatic weapon from the bag and directed it at forces, the spokesperson said. A second Palestinian was then shot dead by police after he opened fire in their direction . . . .
___No Israelis were injured during the incident.
___The incident was the third deadly shooting by Israeli forces during alleged Palestinian attacks on Sunday, leaving five Palestinians killed.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES SHOOT,  INJURE  28  PALESTINIANS  DURING  RAMALLAH-AREA  CLASHES
Feb. 15, 2016
At least 28 Palestinians were shot and injured with live bullets and rubber-coated steel rounds during clashes in Ramallah’s al-Amari refugee camp on Monday, local sources told Ma’an.
___Locals said clashes erupted when Israeli forces entered the camp, surrounding a home.
___It was unclear if the home was slated for demolition or a raid, but locals said Palestinian youth in the area “tried to defend” the home, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, who responded with live and rubber-coated steel bullets, as well as tear gas.    More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  STABBING  ATTEMPT  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
Feb. 14, 2016
___Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian on Sunday after the teen allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint north of Bethlehem, official Palestinian sources said.
___The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the teen as as Naim Ahmad Yousif Safi from the town of al-Ubediya, just east of Bethlehem.
___Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld initially told Ma’an that a young Palestinian man approached the Mazmoria checkpoint near the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa and took out a knife.    More . . .

shot
Israeli forces have killed over 170 Palestinians since October 2015. Suspected attacks by Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis since October 2015. A total of six teens killed yesterday, and one in critical condition in the hospital. (Photo: still from video on Alternative Information Center)

❹ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT  FIVE  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
Yesterday, Israeli forces shot five Palestinian children and killed four; the sole surviving child is hospitalized and in critical condition . . . .
___Late Sunday night, two more Palestinians were killed. Israeli forces shot two Palestinian men near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, bringing the total number of Palestinian lives lost yesterday to six. . . . .
___Israeli forces have killed over 170 Palestinians since October 2015. Suspected attacks by Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis since October 2015.     More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
THE  WILD  BEAST  OF  ISRAELI  RACISM
Asa Winstanley
Feb. 13, 2016
This week the prime minister of Israel slandered Arabs in disgustingly racist terms. This was nothing new for the man who, during the last election, warned the Israeli people that “the Arabs” were turning out to vote “in droves”. But the terminology he used was a notable new low, even for him.
___Touring a new border fence between part of present-day Israel and Jordan, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts.     More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PM:  INTERNATIONAL  FORCES  NEEDED  TO  PROTECT  PALESTINIAN  LIVES
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah on Monday reiterated the urgent need for international forces to protect Palestinian lives in the West Bank and Gaza to a visiting British Parliamentary delegation.    More . . .

“THE  SEED  KEEPERS,”  BY  FAWAZ  TURKI
A recital

Burn our land
burn our dream
pour acid onto our songs
cover with sawdust
the blood of our massacred people
muffle with your technology
the screams of our imprisoned patriots,
destroy,
destroy
our grass and soil
raze to the ground
every farm and every village
our ancestors had built,
destroy every city and every town
every tree and every home
every book and every law,
flatten with your bombs
every valley,
erase with your edicts
our past
our literature
our metaphor,
denude the forests
and the earth
till no insect
no word
can find a place to hide.
Do that and more,
I do not fear your tyranny.
I guard one seed
of a tree
my forefathers have saved
that I shall plant again
in my homeland.

Fawaz Turki (b. 1940) was born in Haifa, Palestine. He is a poet and the author of prose accounts of his life as a Palestinian in exile. He has published several books in English. He was writer-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo, and a frequent speaker at conferences on the Middle East.    About Fawaz Turki
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.