Tag: Zaatara Checkpoint

“. . . they bring panic and terror they are utterly not-to-be-trusted . . .” (Yousef Al-Mahmoud)

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A Palestinian woman stands next to a house sprayed with graffiti reading in Hebrew: "revenge" and "hello from the prisoners of Zion", in the village of Beitillu, near Ramallah
A Palestinian woman stands next to a house sprayed with graffiti reading in Hebrew: “revenge” and “hello from the prisoners of Zion” in the village of Beitillu on December 22, 2015. (Photo: Shadi Hatem/APA Images)

(“So you dehumanise them and once you dehumanise a group of people there is no turning back. You dehumanise them just so you can say “no” at a checkpoint. But the next time you’re in a situation where you have to push them, it’ll be easy enough for you to push them. And then, when you have to shoot them, it’ll be easy enough for you to shoot them. After a few months, you lose all touch with humanity.”)

❶ ‘It’s okay to be racist in Israel’ (Interview with Sahar Vardi)
❷ Israeli settlers block off Nablus-area road

Background: “West Bank Settlers’ Terrorizing of Palestinians to Deter Israeli Government Law Enforcement.” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law.

. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Palestinian Lands Set Ablaze, Contaminated with Sewage by Extremist Yitzhar Settlers
❸ Undercover Israeli soldiers shoot dead Palestinian in Hebron
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) Army Injures Two Palestinians Near Ramallah, Abducts One Near Jenin
❹ POETRY by Yousef Al-Mahmoud
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❶ ‘IT’S  OKAY  TO  BE  RACIST  IN  ISRAEL’  (INTERVIEW  WITH  SAHAR  VARDI)    
Al Jazeera English  
Zena al-Tahhan
June 29, 2017.  Occupied East Jerusalem – This year, Israel’s 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories entered its 51st year.
___In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Israeli army is responsible for controlling the lives of more than three million Palestinians through hundreds of checkpoints, raids of villages and homes, trial of civilians in military courts, demolition of homes, suppression of protests, and the killing and injuring of civilians, to name a few.
___To sustain the occupation industry, Israel makes it mandatory by law for Israeli citizens . . . to enter the military at 18 . . .
___Yet, there are Israeli citizens who refuse to serve in the military for several reasons, including opposition to the army’s policies in the Palestinian territories it occupies.
___Sahar Vardi, 27, is one of such refusers . . .   MORE . . .
❷ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  BLOCK  OFF  NABLUS-AREA  ROAD  
Ma’an News Agency 
June 29, 2017.   Hundreds of Israeli settlers reportedly blocked a road in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian media reported.
___According to official Palestinian news agency Wafa, between 500 and 600 Israelis escorted by Israeli army and police forces gathered on the main road linking the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Ramallah near the Zaatara military checkpoint in the Nablus district early on Thursday, blocking traffic in the area.
[. . . .]  While details about the incident remained unclear, the Zaatara checkpoint is located near at least half a dozen Israeli settlements, built in contravention of international law.
___One of these settlements, Yitzhar, is particularly known for its extremist residents who are notorious for carrying out attacks against Palestinians, as well as Israeli forces.   MORE . . .

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Zaatara checkpoint with separate lanes for settlers (left lane, yellow-plated cars) and non-Jews. (Photo by Anna Baltzer)

(Note: While this article was written six years ago, it reports the history of settler violence, and its discussion of the “gradual scale of escalation” has occurred.)

Nir, Ori. “WEST  BANK  SETTLERS’  TERRORIZING  OF  PALESTINIANS  TO  DETER  ISRAELI  GOVERNMENT  LAW  ENFORCEMENT.” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, vol. 44, no. 1/2, June 2011, pp. 277-289.
[. . . .] “Price Tag”. . .  is a set of violent tactics employed by national-religious Israeli settlers in the West Bank to deter Israeli law enforcement authorities from removing illegally-built structures from West Bank settlements. The tactics employed include attacks on Palestinians and their property, as well as attacks on Israeli military and police officers . . . . their ultimate goal is to deter Israeli leaders from implementing a possible future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that entails removing Israeli settlements from the West Bank.
___. . . a strategy that started as a reaction to a sense of powerlessness and ineptness morphed from an unpopular form of high-profile, anti-government resistance into a popular—and very effective—low-intensity anti-Palestinian terrorism campaign.
[. . . .] The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the West Bank has documented a total of 1,451 settlers’ attacks on Palestinians and their property since January 2006: physical attacks on Palestinians, attacks on vehicles, houses, schools and mosques, uprooting of trees, torching of fields, and more . . .
[. . . .] There are several reasons for Price Tag’s being a form of low-intensity terrorism:  Maintaining a high level of Israeli popular support: Extreme violence might alienate the Israeli public. . . .    Avoiding accountability: Israel’s “Judea and Samaria” police district, responsible for law enforcement in the settlements, is understaffed and under-equipped. . .  Most Price Tag incidents do not end up with indictments. . . .    Allowing room for escalation: Cumulative deterrence, the impact that the settlers are hoping to achieve through their Price Tag campaign, is best accomplished on a gradual scale of escalation.   FULL ARTICLE . . .

. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) PALESTINIAN  LANDS  SET  ABLAZE,  CONTAMINATED  WITH  SEWAGE  BY  EXTREMIST  YITZHAR  SETTLERS   
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC 
June 29, 2017.   Israeli settlers reportedly started a fire near the Palestinian village of Burin. in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus, on Wednesday afternoon.
___According to an Israeli army spokesperson, suspects coming from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar approached Burin on Wednesday afternoon, igniting a fire on lands near the village before fleeing the scene.
___The spokesperson added, according to Ma’an News Agency, that while the fire was extinguished by Israeli forces, no detentions were carried out at the scene, and the case was transferred to Israeli police.   MORE . . . 
❸ UNDERCOVER  ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  SHOOT  DEAD  PALESTINIAN  IN  HEBRON      Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA   
June 29, 2017.   Undercover Israeli soldiers from the special units shot and killed late Wednesday a Palestinian in Hebron, according to Palestinian medical sources.
___Medics at Alia Hospital in Hebron said Iyad Gheith, 22, was shot dead in the upper part of the body.
___While Palestinians did not have any more details, Israeli reports said the unit was searching for weapons in Hebron when it came under fire.   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) ARMY  INJURES  TWO  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  RAMALLAH,  ABDUCTS  ONE  NEAR  JENIN 
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
June 29, 2017.   Israeli soldiers invaded, earlier Thursday, the village of Bil’in, west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and clashed with local youths, wounding two with rubber-coated steel bullets, and causing dozens of residents to suffer the severe effects of teargas inhalation. The soldiers also abducted a Palestinian man near Jenin.
__Abdullah Abu Rahma, the media coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Annexation Wall and Colonies in Bil’in, said the soldiers fired many gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets.   MORE . . .

“ENEMY,”   BY   YOUSEF   AL-MAHMOUD
They come from all the ends of the earth to sit among us
they come from the ends of the winds
they bring sickness and a hissing like snakes
they come from the ends of the snows
they come smelling of death
they come with blood-dipping knives
they bring panic and terror
they are utterly not-to-be-trusted
they are utterly murderous
they are proud of their murders, they are drinkers of blood
proud of tooth and nail
even more proud of guns and treachery
they come to burn the love in our hearts
and turn it to torture and bitterness
they bring sorrow, terror, sickness. . .
How have they come to sit among us?
—Translated by DM Black

Yousef Al-Mahmoud is a prominent broadcaster and poet, and former head of the Ministry of Culture in his native Jenin.
From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY. Ed. by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving. (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014)
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“. . . [UN Human Rights Council] condemns summary and extrajudicial executions. . . death penalty without regard for the ICCPR’s safeguards.. . .” (Ilia Maria Siatitsa)

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execution
Slain Palestinian youth Jihad Hussein Harb, 19, from Qalqiliya, Dec. 8, 2016 (Photo: Ma’an News Agency)

❶ . Palestinian youth killed by Israeli forces after alleged attempted stabbing near Nablus
❷ . Israel blocks Gaza women from breast cancer treatment

  • Background: “Human Rights In Armed Conflict: Ten Years Of Affirmative State Practice Within United Nations Resolutions.” Journal Of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

❸ . West Bank village turned into a ‘prison’ in the wake of arson accusations
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❶ . PALESTINIAN  YOUTH  KILLED  BY  ISRAELI  FORCES  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTEMPTED  STABBING  NEAR  NABLUS 
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 8, 2016
A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli border police forces on Thursday morning in the northern occupied West Bank after he allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack.
___Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that an 18-year-old Palestinian attempted to stab an Israeli border police officer at the Zaatara junction south of the city of Nablus, prompting Israeli forces to shoot at him, killing him instantly.     ___Al-Samri made no mention of any Israelis being injured.        More . . .  

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Gaza women with breast cancer, conference, ” Call For Help” for treatment, Oct. 10, 2016. (Photo: Press House Palestine) http://www.palbas.org/en/news/2016/10/11/782.html

❷ . ISRAEL  BLOCKS  GAZA  WOMEN  FROM  BREAST  CANCER  TREATMENT     
The Electronic Intifada   
Sarah Algherbawi
Dec. 5, 2016
Khuloud Abu Qamar spoke quietly but her words still shocked. “Israel is killing me slowly,” she said. “And it is killing my children, too.”
___After undergoing surgery for breast cancer last year, Abu Qamar requires further treatment which she has not been able to receive in Gaza. She has asked Israel for permission to travel. Her applications have so far been rejected. Aged 40, she has six children, the youngest of whom is still a baby.
___Her plight is shared by many others in Gaza. Estimates from the local health ministry indicate that several hundred women with breast cancer have been obstructed from traveling by Israel so far this year.      More . . .

  • Siatitsa, Ilia Maria, and Maia Titberidze. “Human Rights In Armed Conflict: Ten Years Of Affirmative State Practice Within United Nations Resolutions.” Journal Of International Humanitarian Legal Studies 3.2 (2013): 233-262.   SOURCE. 

[. . . .] p. 238   There are a number of country-specific and thematic resolutions adopted Human Rights Council (HRC), and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which, as presented below, point to a general understanding that HRL (Human Rights Law) does apply in armed conflict . . . the title of resolution 12/5 of the HRC (Human Rights Council) speaks for itself: ‘Protection of the human rights of civilians in armed conflict’. (HRC Res. 12/5, 1 October 2009.)
[. . . .] p. 253 The prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is found in both IHL (International Humanitarian Law) and HRL. The prohibition is absolute in all circumstances . . . Thematic resolutions on the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are adopted annually within the framework of the General Assembly, HRC, and CHR. Despite being thematic, these resolutions contain specific references affirming that the rights referred to are equally applicable in times of armed conflict . . . Most of these directives are taken from human rights instruments.
[. . . .] p. 254    The importance of the right to life is constantly repeated and reaffirmed in a number of resolutions. The right to life is mentioned in the context of indiscriminate attacks affecting civilians by emphasizing the fundamental value of the right to life and calling on relevant parties to abide by their obligations in this respect. The HRC has stressed that the right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. It repeatedly condemns attacks against the civilian population . . . The HRC also condemns summary and extrajudicial executions. The HRC has, moreover, condemned the use of the death penalty without regard for the ICCPR’s safeguards.
___In this context, targeted attacks against civilians have repeatedly been condemned by the SC as violating both branches of law. The relevant bodies tend to employ HRL terms regarding the question of targeted killings and extrajudicial executions that have been condemned by all UN bodies on several occasions. Furthermore, the CHR has invoked the obligation to take measures to prevent loss of life in all circumstances. In sum, the right to life represents an important component of the majority of the conflict-related resolutions.
___The right to a fair trial contains the right of every person to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal established by law. Various bodies, among others the GA, have affirmed this right.  [. . . .]

❸ .  WEST  BANK  VILLAGE  TURNED  INTO  A  ‘PRISON’  IN  THE  WAKE  OF  ARSON  ACCUSATIONS 
Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 7, 2016
Dozens of Palestinians have been detained — including a number of children — and clashes have erupted daily in the occupied West Bank village of Deir Nidham since it was blockaded by the Israeli army three weeks ago, “turning the lives of 1,600 into a prison,” locals told Ma’an on Wednesday.
___Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah city, was placed under a military closure after a fire erupted just a few kilometers away in the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish, which is built on the lands of the village and on the lands of neighboring Nabi Saleh.
___Israeli authorities have said that investigations revealed the fire to be a case of arson, and launched a crippling blockade on Deir Nidham ever since.      More . . . 

“. . . it is arguably one of the major political mistakes of the twentieth century. . . .” (Tomis Kapitan)

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hebronshooting
Israeli soldier shoots tear gas into crowd of Palestinians, Hebron. March 31, 2013 (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

❶ Palestinian succumbs to wounds sustained in 2007 Israeli army raid

  • Background: “Violence And Self-Determination In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Peace & Change.

❷ Israeli forces kill Palestinian woman at Nablus checkpoint after alleged stabbing attempt
❸ Army Injures One Palestinian In Nablus, Invades Homes In Qaryout
❹ Committee: ‘Overwhelming majority’ of Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are ‘tortured’
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❶ PALESTINIAN  SUCCUMBS  TO  WOUNDS  SUSTAINED  IN  2007  ISRAELI  ARMY  RAID
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 20, 2016     A Palestinian man died on Thursday after suffering for nearly ten years of wounds sustained during an Israeli army raid.
___The Makassed hospital announced the death of Mahmoud Jawda, who had been treated at the occupied East Jerusalem medical center ever since he was shot multiple times by Israeli forces during a military raid in Ramallah in 2007.
___Jawda’s family requested that competent authorities to help transfer the Palestinian man’s body from Jerusalem to Ramallah for burial.
___While Israeli army regulations only permit the use of live fire on Palestinians when Israeli soldiers are considered to be in imminent danger, they often open fire on Palestinians indiscriminately as a “crowd control” tactic during military raids.   More . . .  

  • Kapitan, Tomis. “Violence And Self-Determination In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Peace & Change 36.4 (2011): 494-526.     SOURCE  

[. . . .]    By controlling movement between the areas governed by the Palestinian Authority, Israel was able to restrict the movement of goods—in violation of the Oslo accords—with the result that Palestinians’ freedom of movement, access to markets, and overall economy diminished significantly. . .  In effect, the Oslo Accords gave Palestinians in the territories limited control over their internal affairs while allowing the Israelis to consolidate their hold on the West Bank, expand their settlements, and stifle the Palestinian economy. . . .   It is significant that the Oslo Accords did not mention a right of self-determination for Palestinians.
[. . . .]   Aside from speculations about Israel’s ultimate intent, the net effect of the Zionist project has been to create a sovereign state for Israeli Jews while systematically denying the prerogative of self-determination to Palestinian Arabs. As predicted by Arabs, Jews, and British over ninety years ago, the process has been inseparable from frustration, anger, and violence.
[. . . .]   The continued violence is the product of a systematic denial of self-determination to the Palestinian people and the consequent violation of their human rights. While some see the creation of Israel as a political success story, it is arguably one of the major political mistakes of the twentieth century, for the decision to create a Jewish state in the Near East, against the will of the vast majority of people who live in that region, has not only fueled a six-decade-long conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs but has contributed to tensions between the Western and Islamic worlds that continue to threaten global stability.
[. . . .]   No state, institution, or law is legitimate unless it can be anchored within the consent of the people it governs. No solution to a political conflict within a territory is either just or secure unless it is responsive to the wishes of the legitimate residents of that territory.
[. . . .]   Israel is currently not a legitimate state. The reason is not because its establishment violated the principle of self-determination, nor because Israel is an ethnocracy. Instead, its current illegitimacy is based on its continued refusal to allow exercise of the right of self-determination by the legitimate residents of the territory it governs. To deny this conclusion is to deny either that the principle of self-determination places a constraint on state legitimacy or that Palestinians are legitimate residents of region under dispute.

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  KILL  PALESTINIAN  WOMAN  AT  NABLUS  CHECKPOINT  AFTER  ALLEGED  STABBING  ATTEMPT
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 19, 2016
Israeli forces Wednesday shot and killed a Palestinian woman at the Zaatara (Tappuah) military checkpoint south of the occupied West Bank district of Nablus after an alleged stabbing attempt on Israeli border police.      ___The slain woman has not yet been identified.     ___An Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that according to initial reports, a young Palestinian woman approached Israeli border guards stationed at the Tappuah junction, and after “ignoring their directives and their calls for her to stop,” pulled out a knife. Israeli forces then opened live fire on the young woman and “neutralized” her.       More . . .
❸ ARMY  INJURES  ONE  PALESTINIAN  IN  NABLUS,  INVADES  HOMES  IN  QARYOUT
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
October 20, 2016
Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Thursday at dawn, a young Palestinian man, during clashes that took place after dozens of soldiers and settlers invaded Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The army also invaded homes in Qaryout village, south of Nablus.
___Local sources said clashes took place near Qabr Yousef (Joseph Tomb) area, east of Nablus, after five Israeli buses, filled with settlers, and many Israeli army vehicles, invaded the area.
___They added that a young man, identified as Hamed Yahya Edrees, 23, from the Old Askar refugee camp, was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in his head, and was moved to the Rafidia governmental hospital.
___In addition, several army vehicles invaded Qaryout village, south of Nablus, before breaking into many homes and violently searching them.         More . . .
❹ COMMITTEE:  ‘OVERWHELMING  MAJORITY’  OF  PALESTINIAN  MINORS  IN  ISRAELI  CUSTODY  ARE  ‘TORTURED’
Ma’an News Agency
Oct. 18, 2016
The “overwhelming majority” of Palestinian minors held in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons have been tortured during their detention and interrogation, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said Tuesday, amid a marked increase in the incarceration and mistreatment of Palestinian children by Israel.
___Lawyer for the committee Luay Ukka said in a statement that, after a visit to Ofer prison, he had noticed that the number of juvenile prisoners there had noticeably increased over the past month.
___As of mid-October, he said, the number of Palestinian prisoners in Ofer under 18 years old reached 28, 14 of whom were under 14 years old.        More . . .   
Related . . .     PALESTINIAN  FAMILY  TO  SUE  IOF  FOR  BRUTALLY  ATTACKING  THEIR  SON

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Mahmoud Salem. Feb. 11, 2016 (Photo: The Palestinian Information Center)

“. . . your children will play again and fathers and sons will meet . . .” (Nizar Qabbani)

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terrorists
PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS: Palestinian Bedouin Children near Jericho. (Photo, Harold Knight, Nov. 9, 2015)

❶ Knesset bill to jail minors on terror charges passes 1st vote
❷ Palestinian killed at Nablus checkpoint after alleged attack
❸ Israel to build “smart fence” around al-Khalil
❹ Analysis: More guns will not make Israelis any safer
❺ Opinion: ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
❻ Poetry by Nizar Qabbani
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❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
KNESSET  BILL  TO  JAIL  MINORS  ON  TERROR  CHARGES  PASSES  1ST  VOTE
Nov. 25, 2015
BETHLEHEM ― The Israeli parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow Palestinian minors under 14 who are facing terrorism charges to be sentenced to time in prison, a Knesset press release said.
___The bill was approved in a preliminary vote with 64 in favor of the bill and 22 against.
___If the bill becomes law, children under 14 would reportedly be placed in a children’s home until they turn 14, after which the child would be transferred to a mainstream security prison.
More . . .
Related . . . HEAD  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONERS’  CLUB  CONDEMNS  CHILD  INCARCERATION  BILL (Nov. 26 2015)
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  KILLED  AT  NABLUS  CHECKPOINT  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTACK
Nov. 26, 2015
NABLUS ― Israeli forces on Thursday shot and killed a Palestinian at the Zaatara (Tappuah) military checkpoint south of Nablus after he reportedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier, Israeli police said.
___Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said in a statement that a taxi stopped suddenly at the checkpoint and a passenger exited the vehicle, attempting to stab an Israeli soldier.
___Israeli forces on site shot the man several times before he was pronounced dead, and began chasing the taxi that brought the man to the checkpoint, al-Samri said.
___Earlier Thursday, a 21-year-old Palestinian, Yahya Yusri Taha, was killed by Israeli soldiers when clashes broke out during a search and arrest raid in the town of Qatanna.
More . . .
Related . . . PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  IN  CLASHES  2  WEEKS  AGO  DIES  FROM  WOUNDS (Nov. 25, 2015)
Related . . . PALESTINIAN  SHOT  AFTER  STABBING  ISRAELI  SOLDIER  DIES  FROM  INJURIES  (Nov. 25, 2015)
❸ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
ISRAEL  TO  BUILD  “SMART  FENCE”  AROUND  AL-KHALIL
Nov. 26, 2015
NAZARETH― Israeli war minister Moshe Ya’alon declared on Wednesday evening intention to construct a smart fence, separating the West Bank city of al-Khalil and the Lakhish Regional Council.
___Ya’alon’s remarks came in response to a motion filed by Likud MK Mickey Zohar to prevent Palestinian resistance operations.
___The fence constitutes of a well-equipped electric panel with smart cameras.
More . . . 

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Israeli shows a tear gas gun he just bought at a gun shop in Jerusalem on October 15, 2015. Arms shop’s owners report a rise in demand for weapons and other self-defense gear as violence continues around Jerusalem. (Photo: Active Stills/Yotam Ronen)

❹ Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE BLOG
MORE  GUNS  WILL  NOT  MAKE  ISRAELIS  ANY  SAFER
Tanya Rubinstein
Nov. 25, 2015
These days, and actually most of the time, violence in the streets is making headlines on a near-daily basis. The dangers of citizens arming themselves, of the growing militarization of our society, and the way these two intersect to create more violence — especially toward women — can hardly be found in our newspapers.
___ Israeli society’s sense of security greatly stems from both developing our weapons industry and the massive arming of the IDF. This is our answer to every threat, whether real or imagined. . . . This is a society in which weapons — both the private and public sphere — are completely normal.
More . . .
❺ Opinion
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
ISRAEL’S  OPEN  SEASON  ON  ‘ARABS’
Jeremy Salt
Nov 25 2015
Sometimes it must be such fun to be an Israeli undercover agent especially if you like amateur theatricals and perhaps thought of an acting career but were not quite good enough and had to settle for something less. You get drama and excitement without the element of danger to yourself. You can dress up as an ‘Arab’ and storm into ‘Arab’ homes on the West Bank to terrorize families and shoot dead teenagers. You have to put up with sobbing mothers and screaming children, but so what, they are all terrorists or will grow up to be one. You can storm into a hospital to kidnap and kill.
More . . .

“JERUSALEM,”  BY  NIZAR  QABBANI

Oh Jerusalem, the luminous city of prophets
The shortest path between earth and sky

Oh Jerusalem, the citadel of laws
A beautiful child with fingers charred
and downcast eyes
You are the shady oasis passed by the Prophet
Your streets are melancholy
Your minarets are mourning
You, the young maiden dressed in black
Who rings the bells in the Nativity
On Saturday morning?
Who brings toys for the children
On Christmas eve?
The city of sorrow
A huge tear trembling on your eyelid
Who will halt the aggression
On you, the pearl of religions?
Who will wash your bloody walls?
Who will safeguard the Bible?
Who will rescue the Quran?
Who will save Christ?
Who will save man?
Oh Jerusalem my town
Oh Jerusalem my love
Tomorrow the lemon trees will blossom
And the olive trees will rejoice
Your eyes will dance
The migrant pigeons will return
To your sacred roofs
And your children will play again
And fathers and sons will meet
On your rosy hills
My city, city of peace and olives.
—Translated by Sharif Elmusa and Naomi Shihab Nye

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.
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) was a Syrian diplomat and poet revered by Arabs for his sensual and romantic verse. A man of his times and of all times, he is by far the most popular contemporary poet in the Arab world.
MORE  PALESTINIAN  TERRORISTS:  Sixth Graders at the Rawdat El-Zuhur School in East Jerusalem singing a revolutionary anthem. (Video, Harold Knight, Nov. 3, 2015)