Resistance will continue .. #palestine #Jerusalem @SanduKanKanack: image via ibrahem_km @ibrahem_km, 7 November 2014
In Jerusalem, and I mean within the ancient walls,
I walk from one epoch to another without a memory
to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing
the history of the holy . . . ascending to heaven
and returning less discouraged and melancholy, because love
and peace are holy and are coming to town.
I was walking down a slope and thinking to myself: How
do the narrators disagree over what light said about a stone?
Is it from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up?
I walk in my sleep. I stare in my sleep. I see
no one behind me. I see no one ahead of me.
All this light is for me. I walk. I become lighter. I fly
then I become another. Transfigured. Words
sprout like grass from Isaiah’s messenger
mouth: “If you don’t believe you won’t believe.”
I walk as if I were another. And my wound a white
biblical rose. And my hands like two doves
on the cross hovering and carrying the earth.
I don’t walk, I fly, I become another,
transfigured. No place and no time. So who am I?
I am no I in ascension’s presence. But I
think to myself: Alone, the prophet Mohammad
spoke classical Arabic. “And then what?”
Then what? A woman soldier shouted:
Is that you again? Didn’t I kill you?
I said: You killed me . . . and I forgot, like you, to die.
I walk from one epoch to another without a memory
to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing
the history of the holy . . . ascending to heaven
and returning less discouraged and melancholy, because love
and peace are holy and are coming to town.
I was walking down a slope and thinking to myself: How
do the narrators disagree over what light said about a stone?
Is it from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up?
I walk in my sleep. I stare in my sleep. I see
no one behind me. I see no one ahead of me.
All this light is for me. I walk. I become lighter. I fly
then I become another. Transfigured. Words
sprout like grass from Isaiah’s messenger
mouth: “If you don’t believe you won’t believe.”
I walk as if I were another. And my wound a white
biblical rose. And my hands like two doves
on the cross hovering and carrying the earth.
I don’t walk, I fly, I become another,
transfigured. No place and no time. So who am I?
I am no I in ascension’s presence. But I
think to myself: Alone, the prophet Mohammad
spoke classical Arabic. “And then what?”
Then what? A woman soldier shouted:
Is that you again? Didn’t I kill you?
I said: You killed me . . . and I forgot, like you, to die.
Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): In Jerusalem, 2004, translated by Fady Joudah
[Israeli police detain a Palestinian youth following clashes after Friday prayers in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz] Undercover IDF kidnap and detain Palestinian children in #Jerusalem. #Palestine. Scum of the earth: photo by Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters via F. @Palestinianism, 9 November 2014
New restrictions on access to Al-Aqsa Mosque #Aqsa #AqsaUnderAttack: image via DAILY SABAH Breaking @DSBreaking, 7 November 2014
[Israeli police detain a Palestinian youth following clashes after Friday prayers in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz] Undercover IDF kidnap and detain Palestinian children in #Jerusalem. #Palestine. Scum of the earth: photo by Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters via F. @Palestinianism, 9 November 2014
Still they have courage faith and standing against evil forces. #AqsaUnderAttack #HandsOffAlAqsa: image via Aamir Hayat @wajdnali100, 6 November 2014
Men under 35yo in the alleyways of the Old City not allowed into Al Aqsa for prayer: image via Alexander Marquardt @MarquardtA, 7 November 2014
Israel 'pushing for religious warfare', Palestinian minister says #Jerusalem: image via Malika Bilal @mmbilal, 7 November 2014
New restrictions on access to Al-Aqsa Mosque #Aqsa #AqsaUnderAttack: image via DAILY SABAH Breaking @DSBreaking, 7 November 2014
A Palestinian makes a hole in the separation wall in #Jerusalem 1 day the whole wall will come down #AlAqsaUnderAttack: image via handsoffAlaqsa #BDS @azadzman, 8 November 2014
Masjid al-Aqsa completely closed down by Israel and no Palestinians are allowed in! #AqsaUnderAttack #FreePalestine: image via Ibrahim Ellily @hima_madrid92, 31 October 2014
Jerusalem. Access at Muslim religious site denied as part of the continuing escalation of the occupation forces against Palestinians: image via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 3 November 2014
Jerusalem. Occupation gangs prevent Muslims entering Al-Agsa Mosque today while keeping the site open to settlers: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 2 November 2014
Desecration of holy site by Zionist settlers guarded by occupation gangs today: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 3 November 2014
Israeli forces re-open Al-Aqsa grounds to Zionist settlers: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 4 November 2014
For the first time the occupation army enters the Aqsa Mosque, the most serious violation so far: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 4 November 2014
Israeli forces attack determined worshipers in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 4 November 2014
Jerusalemites burning settlers' car: images via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 4 November 2014
''All Muslims are a part of one body''. When it comes to these things, we must make our voice heard!: image via Mustafa Yaleze @uAmsterdam66, 5 November 2014
Don't say "There is nothing to do." Pray for KUDUS! Pray for all of us!! #AqsaUnderAttack #AKSAcigneniyorSUSMA: image via Gülsümm @gulsumkr, 5 November 2014, 5 November 2014
Aqsa occupied Ummah under the Qur'an Qur'anic feet deep sleep wake up anymore @AqsaUnderAttack #AksalcinHareketeGec: image via #Güllü @Memleketim_36, 5 November 2014
@QudsN From #Shuafat camp in #Jerusalem...#
Occupation gangs storm charity hospital before kidnapping wounded young man: image via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 8 November 2014
Occupation gangs storm charity hospital before kidnapping wounded young man: image via Palinfo @PalinfoAr, 8 November 2014
Mahmoud Darwish reads: A Jérusalem (with French subtitles)
ReplyDeleteA woman soldier shouted:
ReplyDeleteIs that you again? Didn’t I kill you?
I said: You killed me . . . and I forgot, like you, to die.
Beautiful words of resistance.
Bibi's acts like a prepubescent sociopath. The greatest threat to the state of Israel isn't Hamas; it's himself.
For me the gist of the post can be seen in photos #11 and #12, in the physical attitudes of the two women near the red chair, as the rubbernecking tourist settlers, who are deployed (permitted?) there within the grounds of the Muslim holy site solely as part of a punitive strategy meant to humiliate and subdue the subjugated, are herded past under police protection.
ReplyDeleteThe one woman with the beige headscarf looks on openly, in evident rage and disgust.
The woman who in the next shot is seen to occupy the red chair, on the other hand, simply refuses to look upon the desecration.
That would seem the ultimate defence of the defenceless -- turning away.
No one outside the Arab world has any real respect for these people, whose culture, religion, way of life, history and simple presence on the planet have become a nagging annoyance to business as usual, and so, while their prayers and slingshots may assert their continuing existence, the powers that be -- the powers that would extirpate them -- are of another order entirely, and mean to get that business done.
A couple of useful excerpts from an interview by Rania Khalek of The Electronic Intifada with Zalameh, an ibnformed resident of the Shuafat neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. The piece appeared in EI on 2 November 2014.
ReplyDelete__
RK: You mentioned that this is not because of the Jerusalem driver who hit the pedestrians last week. So that was basically a pretext for what’s happening now?
Z: Yes. This definitely was not a result. The Jerusalem accident, maybe it was a culmination and expression of Palestinian protests. For weeks I was actually tweeting there has been all sorts of Palestinian nonviolent protests that are happening in Jerusalem, the tensions are high, but not a single headline in the media, no one is really paying attention. Really for the first time that actually people paid attention was when this accident happened here in Jerusalem.
So that was not really the precursor to anything. The repression was happening with the Jewish High Holidays and Israel used the holidays to advance an attack on the al-Aqsa mosque.
RK: That’s depressing and disturbing to use religious holidays to do that. With the al-Aqsa mosque, these provocations have been taking place for weeks and I’ve seen you tweeting about how no one’s paying attention to these protests that are taking place and people were being brutalized and tear gassed. I’m a little bit confused about what Israel is saying they want to do with al-Aqsa. They want to partition it? What’s happening with Israel’s plans and what’s the significance of that with the al-Aqsa mosque?
Z: The intermediate step that is clearly being developed, and this started in 2013 in the High Holidays last year, for the very first time is an attempt to partition.
You’ve seen Israel doing this already in the case of Hebron, which also has a mosque belonging to Palestinians. They used the pretext of the massacre that Baruch Goldstein committed in [1994] to go ahead and partition the mosque, which now is de facto partitioned. They want to apply the Hebron model to Jerusalem and do the same. But the Israelis have done so in a progressive way.
Since 1967 the status quo has been that the mosque will remain as a mosque. Slowly though they are undermining their own commitment and there will even be a Knesset [Israeli parliament] bill to challenge the status quo in relation to al-Aqsa and they have sponsored these incursions of violent settlers into al-Aqsa on a daily basis with armed guard and obviously Palestinians do protest that and they heavily repress and arrest. The intermediate plan really is that.
In the long-term what I foresee is what Israel is doing is weakening Palestinian presence in Jerusalem through house demolitions, ID card revocations, banishment and expulsions from the city. Every year hundreds are prohibited from entering the city even though their families are from here, they were born here, Israel revokes their IDs, and gradually Judaizing Jerusalem to the point that whatever they will do to al-Aqsa and the Old City will be met with little resistance because Palestinians' presence here is becoming weaker and weaker.
If you look at the amount of resistance to equivalent acts of Israel now just ten years ago or just during the second intifada when Sharon visited al-Aqsa Palestinians were stronger at the time in Jerusalem, they could mount a more credible resistance. So [Israel’s] strategy is really gradual.
So now they’re going for partition and maybe later, they already have the plans for the Temple. I’m not even being conspiratorial here. This is something that enjoys broad endorsement.
[continues:]
ReplyDeleteRK: You’re talking about how religious fanatics want to tear down the mosque and rebuild a temple there, right?
Z: Yes, but I wouldn’t call them religious fanatics because this is an idea within the mainstream of Israeli society. It just hasn’t been implemented because the right political opportunity hasn’t taken place. But we know from experience in other cases of Israel, whenever there is a right moment, they will do it. We never imagined there would be a blockade of Gaza. Today we have it.
But it’s becoming mainstream and those people who are leading the movement are in the Knesset. One of them is [deputy speaker] Moshe Feiglin from the Knesset. Those are people who enjoy broad support in Israeli society.
RK: In terms of what’s happening on the ground now, there is an effort to push back. So people are throwing fireworks back at police, at least in some cases. And they’re throwing rocks. They’re throwing whatever they can. I want to get your take on some people who like to finger-wag at any kind of throwing of rocks, they call it violence, any sort of property destruction mounted by the people who are being oppressed. How do you respond to those kinds of people?
Z: If you look at the extent of Israeli policies in Jerusalem, which are well-documented and amount to ethnic cleansing and apartheid, you would see that the crime are those Israeli policies. And what you see the youth reacting to whatever little they have, it’s a reaction to that bigger injustice. The context of Jerusalem, which is often missing within the media reports, is really really important.
It’s to understand that Israel admittedly, within Israeli-Jerusalem municipality plans they say they want to maintain “the demographic balance” in Jerusalem, which means they want a Jewish majority in Jerusalem of at least seventy percent, which means erasing Palestinians from the city. This is really a struggle for survival. And when you’re struggling for survival in the city, in your capital, you would use whatever little you have. But compared to what Israel is doing as the oppressor, I think that’s the crucial context that is often missing in these baseless accusations. And because Israel is not being held to account for its actions, it obviously feels emboldened to continue doing so.