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Wednesday 24 June 2015

Faces in the sky (Mahmoud Darwish: I'm from there)

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Faces in the sky ... #clouds & #sky: image via Monica M. Singer @MonicaMSinger67, 26 June 2015
 
File:SI-Sky.JPG

Sky
: photo by Seth Ilys, 2004


Palestinians climbing the Israeli apartheid wall to pray the first Jummah of Ramadan at AlAqsa, Jerusalem. #Palestine
: image via صايل ‏  @Pxlestine, 19 June 2015


أنا من هناك. ولي ذكرياتٌ . ولدت كما تولد الناس. لي والدة
وبيتٌ كثير النوافذِ. لي إخوةٌ. أصدقاء. وسجنٌ بنافذة باردهْ.
ولي موجةٌ خطَِفتها النوارس. لي مشهدي الخاص. لي عُشْبةٌ زائدهْ
ولي قمرٌ في أقاصي الكلام، ورزقُ الطيور، وزيتونةٌ خالدهْ

مررتُ على الأرض قبل مرور السيوف على جسدٍ حوّلوه إلى مائدهْ.
أنا من هناك. أعيد السماء إلى أمها حين تبكي السماء على أمها،
وأبكي لتعرفني غيمةٌ عائدهْ.
تعلّمتُ كل كلام يليقُ بمحكمة الدم كي أكسر القاعدهْ
تعلّمتُ كل الكلام، وفككته كي أركب مفردةً واحدهْ
هي: الوطنُ...





On the first day of Ramadan a family in #Gaza break their fast amid the rubble of their destroyed home #Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2015



The next time you hear that "innocent" israeli civilians were targeted in occupied #Palestine, remember these images: image via Abbas Hamideh @Resistance49, 21 June 2015



Israeli army prevented Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa mosque so they climbed the wall and made it. #Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2016

I'm from 
there. 
I
have memories. Like
 
any other  
human 
I  
was born.
 
I come 
from 
there. And I go  
back
 
crying 
to return the sky 
to 
its mother,
 
when  
it cries 
for 
her.

I'm from there: Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008); primitivo English version: TC, 2009



On the first day of Ramadan a family in #Gaza break their fast amid the rubble of their destroyed home #Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2015


On the first day of Ramadan a family in #Gaza break their fast amid the rubble of their destroyed home #Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2015

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Mahmoud Darwish at University of Bethlehem: photo by Amer Somali, 2006
 
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Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): photo via Arabic Literature (in English), 9 August 2013

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Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): photo via Arabic Literature (in English), 9 August 2013

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Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): photo via Arabic Literature (in English), 9 August 2013

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Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): photo via Arabic Literature (in English), 9 August 2013


The next time you hear that "innocent" israeli civilians were targeted in occupied #Palestine, remember these images: image via Abbas Hamideh @Resistance49, 21 June 2015


The next time you hear that "innocent" israeli civilians were targeted in occupied #Palestine, remember these images: image via Abbas Hamideh @Resistance49, 21 June 2015


The next time you hear that "innocent" israeli civilians were targeted in occupied #Palestine, remember these images: image via Abbas Hamideh @Resistance49, 21 June 2015


Displaced Palestinian children peek from under the door of a shop where their family is taking shelter in Gaza City in July 2014: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 26 March 2015

UN officials accused of bowing to Israeli pressure over children's rights list: Source says officials backed away from recommending that IDF be added to list of children’s rights violators after phone calls from Israeli officials: Harriet Sherwood for The Guardian, 15 March 2015 (updated 26 March 2015)

Senior UN officials in Jerusalem have been accused of caving in to Israeli pressure to abandon moves to include the state’s armed forces on a UN list of serious violators of children’s rights.

UN officials backed away from recommending that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) be included on the list following telephone calls from senior Israeli officials. The Israelis allegedly warned of serious consequences if a meeting of UN agencies and NGOs based in Jerusalem to ratify the recommendation went ahead. Within hours, the meeting was cancelled.

“Top officials have buckled under political pressure,” said a UN source. “As a result, a clear message has been given that Israel will not be listed.”


image

The mother of one of the four Palestinian children from the Bakr family who were killed by Israeli military strikes on Wednesday grieves outside a morgue in Gaza City. Eight boys from the Bakr family had gone to the beach because their Gaza neighborhood had become a constant target of Israeli airstrikes
: photo by Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters. 16 July 2014

Organisations pressing for the IDF’s inclusion on the list since the war in Gaza last summer -– which left more than 500 children dead and more than 3,300 injured -– include Save the Children and War Child as well as at least a dozen Palestinian human rights organisations, the Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem and UN bodies such as the children’s agency Unicef.

“These organisations are in uproar over what has happened,” said the UN source.



The children keep #Gaza #Palestine alive. Lens: Khaled AbuHassira: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 21 June 2014

The IDF’s inclusion on the UN’s list of grave violators of children’s rights would place it alongside non-state armed forces such as Islamic State, Boko Haram and the Taliban. It would propel Israel further towards pariah status within international bodies and could lead to UN sanctions.



I love Gaza: image via صايل ‏  @Pxlestine, 23 June 2015

Although Jerusalem-based officials cancelled the meeting -– and subsequently decided not to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list -– the UN complained to Israel over the intimidation of its staff. Susana Malcorra -– a high-ranking official in the New York office of the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon -– raised the issue in a private letter to Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor. The UN in New York said it could not comment on leaked documents.

The telephone calls were made to June Kunugi, Unicef’s special representative to Palestine and Israel, on 12 February, the night before a meeting to decide whether to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list. One call was from a senior figure in Cogat, the Israeli government body that coordinates between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority and the international community; the other was made by an official in Israel’s foreign ministry.



The children keep #Gaza #Palestine alive. Lens: Khaled AbuHassira: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 21 June 2014

According to UN and NGO sources, Kunugi was advised to cancel the meeting or face serious consequences. However, Israeli sources described the telephone conversations as friendly and courteous attempts to persuade Kunugi to delay the working group’s decision on its recommendation regarding the IDF until Israel had been allowed to present its case on the issue.

At 8.54am the next morning, an email was sent on behalf of James Rawley, a senior official with UNSCO (the office of the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process) who had called the meeting, to participants. It said: “Please be informed that today’s meeting scheduled at 13:00hrs has been postponed. Sincere apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused.”

A joint statement to the Guardian from Kunugi and Rawley said the “strictly confidential process” of determining inclusion on the list was still ongoing and was the “prerogative of the UN secretary general, and it rests with him alone”. The UN in Jerusalem was unable to comment on the process, it added, but the submission from Jerusalem to New York was “based on verified facts, not influenced by any member state or other entity”.



Palestinian girls walk past the rubble of a heavily damaged building in Shejaiya, which was destroyed during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants last year. Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in 2014 than in any other year since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in 1967, according to a UN report
: photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via The Guardian, 18 April 2015

Unicef has called a fresh meeting to update UN and NGO officials in Jerusalem on Thursday.

The decision on which state and non-state armed forces are to be included on the list will be taken by UN chiefs in New York next month. However, according to the UN source, “a political decision has already been taken not to include Israel”.
There is ample evidence … Israel’s armed forces have committed acts that amount to … grave violations against children
-- Defence for Children International (Palestine)
A separate source told the Guardian: “The UN caved to Israel’s political pressure and took a highly contentious step to shelter Israel from accountability.”



The children keep #Gaza #Palestine alive. Lens: Khaled AbuHassira: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 21 June 2014

The list of violators of children’s rights is contained in the annex of the annual report of the secretary general on children and armed conflict. A “monitoring and reporting mechanism”, established by a UN security council resolution, supplies information on grave violations of children’s rights, such as killing and maiming, recruitment of minors into armed forces, attacks on schools, rape, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access to children. The secretary general is required to list armed forces or armed groups responsible for such actions.



Relatives of Palestinians killed by the Israeli strike at a UN school mourn outside a hospital morgue in the northern Gaza Strip: photo by Mohammed Salem / Reuters, 24 July 2014

Following last summer’s seven-week war in Gaza, a number of UN agencies and NGOs met to consider whether to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list. According to insiders, participants “agreed there is a strong and credible case to recommend listing”.

A 13-page internal Unicef paper seen by the Guardian examined the case for the IDF to be listed on the basis of its actions in last summer’s war in Gaza, including the killing and injuring of children, and “targeted and indiscriminate” attacks on schools and hospitals. 



The children keep #Gaza #Palestine alive. Lens: Khaled AbuHassira: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 21 June 2014

Several of the working group’s participants wrote to the UN secretary general to urge the inclusion of the IDF on the list. A letter sent in December by Defence for Children International (Palestine) said: “There is ample evidence to demonstrate that Israel’s armed forces have committed acts that amount to the grave violations against children during armed conflict, as defined by UN security council resolutions, including killing or maiming children and attacks against schools and hospitals.”

The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs and Cogat declined to answer specific questions about the phone calls to Kunugi, but said in a joint statement: “Israel has a good working relationship with Unicef and the United Nations in general. Israel has no desire to get into a slanging match with anti-Israel elements nor to submit to their intimidations.”



Less than an hour ago, Palestinian boy run over by Israeli illegal settler in Alkhalil...#Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 21 June 2015


Israeli settler runs over Palestinian child in Hebron shortly before ...  #WestBank #Palestine: image via Said Shoaib - Gaza @saidshouib, 21 June 2015


Freedom to our prisoners written on one of AlQuds streets. Pray for them in this blessed #Ramadan. #Palestine: image via Abbas Sarsour @iFalasteen, 23 June 2015
 

 The beauty of Ramadan atmosphere in AlQuds. #Ramadan_in_AlQuds_is_Different #Ramadan #Palestine #FreePalestine: image via Abbas Sarsour @iFalasteen, 23 June 2015
 

Palestinians climbing the Israeli apartheid wall to pray the first Jummah of Ramadan at AlAqsa, Jerusalem. #Palestine: image via صايل ‏  @Pxlestine, 19 June 2015
 

Israeli army prevented Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa mosque so they climbed the wall and made it. #Palestine
: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2016



Picture of a Palestinian young man when he entered al-Aqsa mosque for the first time. #Palestine #Jerusalem
: image via Palestine Social @Palestine Social, 22 June 2015
 

Israeli army prevented Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa mosque so they climbed the wall and made it. #Palestine: image via Mohammed Matter @AbuYazan_Gaza, 19 June 2016
 

It's a long day of fasting I'm just going to sit here and relax. #Ramadan. #Palestine: image via Abbas Sarsour @iFalasteen, 20 June 2015
 

"I Come From There..." Courage in the Face of Cowardice. That's #Palestinianism #Palestine: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 21 June 2014


Jerusalem. A Palestinian youth uses a satellite dish as a shield during clashes with Israeli security forces in the At-Tur neighbourhood, after Israeli police shot dead a knife-wielding Palestinian who attempted to stab colleagues at a checkpoint
: photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via the Guardian, 26 March 2015


Israeli soldier aims his weapon at stone-throwing #Palestinian girl during a protest in #KfarQaddum #Nablus #AA [photo by Ahmed Talat]
: image via Anadplu Images @anadoluimages, 12 June 2015


Embedded image permalink

#KfarQaddum #LastStand #respect #SettlementsAreIllegal #Israel #BDS #HumanRights #BoycottIsrael #PalestinianState #UN: image via AJ. @ajwildlife, 20 March 2015


Intifada at its best: 1 Palestinian throwing rocks X at least 5 IDF armed forces. #KfarQaddum
: image via Kety Shapazian @KetyBrazil, 6 April 2012

 A Palestinian protester throws tires into a fire during clashes with Israeli security forces following a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on June 19, 2015.

A Palestinian protester throws tyres into a fire during clashes with Israeli security forces following a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on Friday: photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via FT Photo Diary, 19 June 2015


Tonight's sunset from Nationals Park @ABC7News @nbcwashington @usa9 @fox5newsdc: image via Chris Duncan @AD4G, 23 June 2015

View from NYC #Sunset #Sky: image via Zaddy @MissZindzi, 23 June 2015

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

love at first sight with Darwish!

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore said...

Darwish was a tall and noble man, who when he read his poems to an audience, in measured mellifluous Arabic, filled with inner rhymes although in free-verse phrases, became their hearts and tears flowed from their eyes. I read versions the translator and I had done a few years before he died, and the Arab audience held onto every word. The place of poetry in their lives, compared to American's cultural grasp, well, it's day and night. A Palestinian Muslim once collared me, having learned I write poetry, and said, "We don't like our poets." I said, "Oh, why not?" (He was an older man...). "Because, when terrible things happen to us, we get together and listen to poetry, weep, and go home, when we should be resisting!"

Munir Akash, a Syrian poet and editor, and translator of his poems, including among the first books in English, who'd known Darwish for many years, from his pop-star poet youth to his mature years, said that Darwish met Greek great, Nicolas Kazanzakis, who wrote the Modern illiad, and Kazazakis told Darwish he was really an epic poet. And that changed his style from more direct political poems to the gorgeously textured, resonant, and vast meditations of his later work, that always seem to spring from anguished nostalgia, and a lament for a vanished but never hopeless world. His deep lyricism seems to have saved him...

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore said...

ALL THE DEAD CHILDREN

Angels are learning new tricks to entertain all the
dead children
just bringing them to a quiet place used to be enough
blue panels sonorous as cool winds rising to
infinite heights and
luminous rivers tasting of fresh milk and
passionflower honey

But now they are more restless and want something
lively such as fabulous displays and real
stellar extravaganzas to shut out the memories

All the wingéd horses have been brought in
and every banner from every battle ever waged
transformed into aurora borealis brightness is
planted on either side of the great arena which is
actually nowhere you can put your finger on and may be as
big as a sparkle or light years across

The angels begin conventionally enough and since they’re
anti-gravitational they are capable of some
pretty amazing feats their specialty being a
spinning array of a few billion shimmering their wings and

turning slowly at first in a
cone that goes up through so many dimensions the
children have to stop counting with
each dimension demarcated by another
color no one on earth’s spectrum has
ever seen before

Then the cone begins
turning faster and faster and shoots higher and higher
finally sweeping their astonished souls wide-eyed into a
vortex so swift they barely notice that they’re
arcing across fields of unearthly green and seas of
unoceanic turquoise

Each shroud has been made into a tent filled with
fabulous fruits and unidentifiable edibles of
uttermost succulence

Each soul has been given the Ultimate Glimpse
and the Accurate Portrayal
the Perfect Sustenance and the Infinite Intensity

Each time they clap their hands a new
universe appears
more fabulous than the last

And when they tire of such delights
William Blake reads to them from his new work
and Mozart comes in and plays them a tune
on a million pianos

4/11/2003 (from Psalms for the Brokenhearted)