❶ Muslim optometrist shot on way to pray at TEXAS MOSQUE, reports say
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli forces demolish 2 Palestinian homes in Qalandiya, injure 4 with live fire
❷ Israeli government approves 800 new colonial settlement housing units
. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Settlers of Brokhin settlement level Palestinians’ lands in Salfit
- Background from Sociology
❸ Opinion/Analysis: (VIDEO) CORNEL WEST VS. ROBERT WEXLER ON ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
. . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) As occupation enters its 50th year, draft Democratic platform won’t say the word
❺ POETRY by Mahmoud Darwish
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❶ MUSLIM OPTOMETRIST SHOT ON WAY TO PRAY AT TEXAS MOSQUE, REPORTS SAY
Middle East Eye
July 3, 2016
A Muslim optometrist on his way to pray at a Houston, Texas, mosque was ambushed by three people and shot twice outside a nearby apartment complex, reports said.
___Mohammed Imaduddin, a spokesman for the nearby Madrasah Islamiah mosque, said Dr Arslan Tajammul was on his way to 5:30am morning prayers when he was approached by three people on foot, according to KTRK, an ABC television affiliate. . . .
___One of the suspects pulled a gun and shot Tajammul, who made it to the front entrance of the mosque, where he collapsed. . . MORE . . .
. . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ISRAELI FORCES DEMOLISH 2 PALESTINIAN HOMES IN QALANDIYA, INJURE 4 WITH LIVE FIRE
Ma’an News Agency
July 4, 2016
Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian homes overnight Sunday in the Qalandiya refugee camp, displacing at least six Palestinian refugees and sparking clashes in the densely populated West Bank camp which left four Palestinians injured by Israeli fire.
___The punitive demolition was carried out against the Assaf and Abu Habsa families as punishment for stab attacks carried out by two young members of the families last year. MORE . . .
❷ ISRAELI GOVERNMENT APPROVES 800 NEW COLONIAL SETTLEMENT HOUSING UNITS
July 4, 2016
On Sunday the Israeli Cabinet approved the expansion of several Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, adding an additional 800 new units to the existing thousands of units constructed in Jewish-only settlements in direct contravention of international law.
___Israeli officials say that the approval of 800 new housing units is meant to somehow ‘balance’ the implementation of a court ruling that 600 construction permits be approved for Palestinian families in Beit Safafa. MORE . . .
. . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) SETTLERS OF BROKHIN SETTLEMENT LEVEL PALESTINIANS’ LANDS IN SALFIT
The Palestinian Information Center
Settlers on Sunday leveled Palestinian lands to expand Brokhin settlement which is established by force over lands of the Palestinian towns of Broqin, Bediya and Sarta west of Salfit. Researcher Khaled Maali told the PIC reporter that the expansion works have been going on in 24 settlements established over 18 locations in Salfit governorate. MORE . .
From Sociology
The proliferation of such [settler] violence over the past decade – especially given the decline in Israeli military violence in the West Bank – raises intriguing questions: What are the social and political forces that determine these violent assaults, which contradict official Israeli policy? Given their illegality and their challenge to Israel’s formal authority in the OPT, what can explain the lack of response of Israeli officials, who neither forbid nor prevent most of the attacks?
___These questions have theoretical implications beyond this case study. Situations of vigilantism and state collusion, in which state forces collaborate with paramilitaries and violent civilian forces, are not restricted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite public and official concern about the increase of incidents of civilian violence and vigilantism worldwide, few attempts have been made to conceptualize and theorize this phenome- non from a social-political perspective. Studies on vigilantism approach the subject almost exclusively from a criminological perspective, ignoring the actual social and structural forces that shape this phenomenon, and neglect its political significance.
- Gazit, Nir. “State-Sponsored Vigilantism: Jewish Settlers’ Violence In The Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Sociology 49.3 (2015): 438-454. SOURCE.
❸ Opinion/Analysis: (VIDEO) CORNEL WEST VS. ROBERT WEXLER ON ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 30, 2016
[Note: Debate before the Platform Committee of the U.S. Democratic National Party] MORE . . .
. . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) As occupation enters its 50th year, draft Democratic platform won’t say the word
Mondoweiss
Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz
July 2, 2016
[. . . .]
How much do Democratic progressives care about Palestine? is the question. The party leaders want to say that Palestinian solidarity is a marginal fringe, and hint-hint, it’s anti-Semitic. And meantime, Israel and the U.S. share “common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism.” That is simply a lie. MORE . . .
“IDENTITY CARD,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH (1964)
Write down!
I am an Arab
And my identity card number is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth will come after a summer
Will you be angry?Write down!
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks.
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?Write down!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grewMy father descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house is like a watchman’s hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title!Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks…
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!Therefore!
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper’s flesh will be my food
Beware…
Beware…
Of my hunger
And my anger!
Palestine InSight 