person:omar al-abed

Israel Palestine
Music, children’s choirs and camels in the desert

Three years ago in Gaza, between July 21 and July 28, Israel killed (it is forbidden say murdered) 37 Palestinian children under the age of 7
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.804201

1. My friend B. lives in Kobar. Somehow, during the four years of her young son’s life she has managed to protect him from the not-for-children narrations about the army and death, the occupation, shooting and guns. She and her husband have created an island around him, with children’s books and games, and made sure that the television, with its horrible sights, wouldn’t be turned on in his vicinity.
Last week reality forced itself on them. Every day the army bulldozers came, made the barriers at the entrance to the village higher and wider, and deepened the wound they dug in the asphalt. Every day the residents swept aside the earth at the edges of the barriers so that their cars could pass. And when my friend passed by there in her car, with her son next to her, he wondered and asked who had made those high piles of earth. Al jish, the army, she replied. He at first thought she had said the jag (the hen) and was very confused. And then she had to tell him what the army is, whose army it is, and why they’re against everyone large and small.
Comment 1: If until now B. was able to protect her son from the violent lexicon created by the Settlements Defense Forces, that says something about the relative quiet in the village of Kobar (despite pinpoint raids to detain residents). But almost a week of nighttime raids, with dozens of soldiers deploying among the houses, beating residents, firing stun grenades and tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, reminded them that the relative quiet is deceptive.
Comment 2: The Shin Bet security services and the Israel Defense Forces were the subjects of exaggerated praise this week. Their stand concerning the metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount did in fact prove that they understand the overall picture. In other words, the collective revenge campaign that they carried out last week in Kobar did not stem from a lack of understanding or knowledge that the harassment of the entire village and the persecution of all its residents would only give rise to more anger, even among those who are opposed to the attack in the West Bank settlement of Halamish or have reservations about it. This collective revenge is not a case of shooting from the hip. It’s part of the plan. Part of the logic of control. You escalate, you incite, you detain more young people, you scare more children to create more reasons for preventive activities and oppression, and to maintain the apparatus.
2. T., a sweet boy of 11, joined me during my visits to several of the families in Kobar whose homes the army had invaded. In a short lull between their testimonies he said: “He proved himself a man, Omar al-Abed” (who killed three members of the Salomon family in Halamish). I asked T.: “So do you mean to say that all of you, all the rest of the Palestinians, aren’t men?” T. was somewhat confused. “No, of course that’s not what I mean,” he said.

Israeli forces near the site of the attack in the West Bank settlement of Halamish and assailant Omar al-Abed, July 21, 2017.
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Comment: The words expressing understanding of al-Abed’s motives shouldn’t allow us to forget two facts: Relative to the intensity and duration of the injustice in which they live, very few Palestinians have chosen or are choosing al-Abed’s path. On the other hand, tens of thousands of Israelis (correct me if necessary, maybe actually hundreds of thousands?) were and are directly involved in the killing (we are forbidden to call it murder) of Palestinians; not to mention all the other things we inflict on them.
3. Noor, Malak, Miar and Dareen sing in the Amwaj choir. They’re about 12 years old. We met in the most unexpected place: the desert. A procession of camels was marching towards the sunset. The plucking of the strings in Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and the strains of the piccolo from Ravel’s Bolero wafted above the row of plastic chairs placed on the sand.
The Amwaj (Waves) choir in Bethlehem and the Ramallah Orchestra, founded by the Al Kamandjati Conservatory, are offering a series of concerts for the general public, conducted by Diego Masson. The concert, which was supposed to take place on Friday in Dar Al Tifl (The Child’s Home) in Jerusalem, was canceled because of the circumstances. Ramzi Abu Radwan, founder of Al Kamandjati and a native of the Al-Amari refugee camp, immediately phoned Abu Ismail.
Abu Ismail heads the Bedouin Hospitality and Desert Excursions agency for those touring the desert, east of his village Arab al-Rashayida, south of Bethlehem. He immediately said, “Of course, play here.” The next day. The Kamandjati sound and lighting technicians worked all day on installing the systems and making sure they functioned. Girls from the Bedouin village, ages 3 to 12, sat fascinated on the plastic chairs and blended in with the aural and visual miracle taking place before their eyes. On Sunday the concert took place as planned in the Bethlehem Convention Palace. And on Monday, it will be held in the Ramallah Municipal Theater.

The Amwaj (Waves) choir and the Ramallah Orchestra perform in the desert south of Bethlehem, July 29, 2017.Amira Hass
4. The Amwaj choir includes 30 girls and boys from Hebron and 30 from the Bethlehem area, including villages and refugee camps. It began taking shape about three years ago. There are no auditions, all that’s required is a commitment to eight hours of study a week, and summer courses. At present there are 25 boys and 35 girls in the choir. The youngest singer is a 6-year-old girl.
5. Three years ago, between July 21 and July 28, we killed (we are forbidden to call it murdered) 37 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip between the ages of several months and 6 years. Next to the name of each toddler we killed (and who are included in the B’Tselem list of 546 children we killed in the 2014 onslaught), there is a dry notation: “Did not participate in the fighting.”
Comment. We no longer like to dirty our hands with blood. We’re experts at killing (we are forbidden to call it murdering) from a distance, with high-tech gadgets, at most with rifles and pistols. That way it’s not sickening. Not disgusting. Not horrifying.

A l’encontre » Jérusalem : Al-Aqsa unifie le combat des musulmans
Par Amira Hass
(Article publié dans le quotidien Haaretz, en date du 23 juillet 20017 ; traduit par Yves Jardin ; édition par A l’Encontre)
▻http://alencontre.org/moyenorient/israel/jerusalem-al-aqsa-unifie-le-combat-des-musulmans.html

https://seenthis.net/local/cache-vignettes/L300xH158/28410600jpg-afdc-66dad.jpg

Un jeune homme non religieux de la région de Ramallah a exprimé son étonnement sur la façon dont (la question de) Jérusalem était en train d’unifier l’ensemble du peuple palestinien, et a comparé Omar al-Abed, l’auteur de l’attaque à Halamish [Omar al-Abed, âgé de 19 ans, a tué les trois membres de la famille de Yossef Salomon 70 ans – soit Chaya Salomon, 46 ans, et le fils, Elad Salomon, 36 ans – dans la colonie d’Halamish, Cisjordanie occupée] vendredi soir [21 juillet], à Saladin [XIIe siècle, premier sultan d’Egypte et Syrie, premier dirigeant – « d’origine » kurde – de la dynastie ayyoubide qui a régné un siècle ; Saladin a gagné une bataille décisive à Hattîn, en 1187, près du lac dit de Tibériade, au nord-est de la Palestine, contre le Croisés, ce qui a permis la reconquête de Jérusalem presque un siècle après sa conquête par les Croisés en 1099].

Une comparaison idiote, tous en conviendraient. Néanmoins, le besoin de mentionner Saladin résume le ras-le-bol ressenti par les Palestiniens quant à ceux qu’ils considèrent comme les nouveaux Croisés.

Ce jeune homme ne peut pas aller à Jérusalem-Est ni dans la Vieille Ville, qui est à moins de 30 kilomètres (environ 18 milles) de chez lui, parce que, même en temps ordinaire Israël n’accorde pas d’autorisations d’entrée « comme ça » à des gens de son âge. Et peut-être fait-il partie de ceux qui estiment qu’il est humiliant d’avoir à demander une autorisation d’entrée dans une ville palestinienne. La dernière fois qu’il est allé (à Jérusalem) c’était quand il avait 13 ans – il y a presque 13 ans.

Et donc ce jeune Palestinien n’a pas entendu vendredi à Jérusalem quelques-uns des prédicateurs parler de leur nostalgie de Saladin. Parce que les Palestiniens s’en sont tenus à leur interdit d’entrer à Al-Aqsa en passant par les détecteurs de métaux israéliens, des soi-disant (« self-styled ») prédicateurs se sont adressés à des groupes de fidèles qui s’étaient rassemblés dans les rues de Jérusalem-Est et de la Vieille Ville, encerclés par des membres de la Police des Frontières les visant avec des fusils de précision à longue portée.

traduction en français de l’article original signalé ici : ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/617080

Week-end rouge à Jérusalem : ce n’est que lorsque le sang coule qu’Israël cède | Middle East Eye
– Gideon Levy | 24 juillet 2017
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinions/week-end-rouge-j-rusalem-ce-n-est-que-lorsque-le-sang-coule-qu-isra-l

http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/DisperseCrowd.AFP_.jpg

Six morts et plus de 300 blessés en une seule journée. Voilà le bilan sanglant de ce week-end suite au refus obstiné du gouvernement israélien d’enlever les détecteurs de métaux à l’entrée du Haram al-Sharif, dans Jérusalem-Est occupée.

Trois Palestiniens ont été tués lors de manifestations de rue et trois colons juifs ont été poignardés à mort dans la colonie de Halamish près de Ramallah, leur assaillant revendiquant d’avance que sa motivation pour le meurtre de colons était la situation à la mosquée al-Aqsa à Jérusalem-Est.

Certains pensaient qu’Israël cherchait l’escalade, mais Israël est simplement Israël : presque tout se produit en raison de la politique interne

« Ils profanent al-Aqsa et nous dormons. N’avez-vous pas honte ? Ils ont fermé la mosquée d’al-Aqsa et vous n’avez pas pris les armes. Il est honteux que nous restions sans réagir… Pourquoi ne déclarez-vous pas une guerre sainte ? », a déclaré Omar al-Abed (20 ans), originaire du village de Kubra – également la ville natale du leader palestinien emprisonné Marwan Barghouti – avant de partir tuer des colons samedi soir avec un couteau qu’il avait acheté avant.

Pour la première fois depuis des centaines d’années, cette mosquée, troisième lieu saint de l’islam, était vide la semaine dernière. La décision du gouvernement israélien de placer des détecteurs de métaux à l’entrée d’al-Aqsa, en réponse à l’attaque perpétrée quelques jours auparavant par trois citoyens palestiniens d’Israël qui ont abattu deux agents de police aux frontières druzes israéliens, a provoqué une vague de protestation chez les Palestiniens et dans tout le monde musulman d’ailleurs. Les Palestiniens sont résolus à ne pas pénétrer sur le site sacré tant que les détecteurs de métaux d’Israël restent en place.

#al_aqsa

Temple Mount crisis: Jerusalem unifies the Muslims through struggle - Palestinians
▻http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-1.802844
Although most Palestinians are not allowed to visit Al-Aqsa, this holy site is doing what the siege of Gaza and the expansion of the settlements could not: bringing them together

By Amira Hass | Jul. 23, 2017 | 12:55 PM |

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.802848.1500750590!/image/28410600.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/28410600.jpg

A secular young man from the Ramallah area expressed his astonishment at how Jerusalem was unifying the entire Palestinian people,, and compared the perpetrator of Friday night’s attack in Halamish, Omar al-Abed, to Saladin. A silly comparison, all would agree. Still, the need to bring up Saladin encapsulates all the fatigue among Palestinians about those they perceive as the new Crusaders.

That young man can’t go to East Jerusalem and the Old City, which is less than 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) from his home, because even in ordinary times Israel doesn’t give entry permits “just like that” for people his age. And perhaps he is among those who consider it humiliating to have to request an entry permit to a Palestinian city. The last time he visited was when he was 13 – some 13 years ago.

And so this young Palestinian did not hear a few of the preachers in Jerusalem on Friday talk about their longing for Saladin. Because the Palestinians stuck to their prohibition on entering Al-Aqsa through the Israeli metal detectors, self-styled preachers spoke to groups of worshippers who had gathered in the streets of East Jerusalem and the Old City, surrounded by Border Police personnel aiming their long rifles at them.

One of those preachers said that if not for the positions and actions of various regimes in the world in the past and present, the Jews would not have overcome the Palestinians. Then he paused and added, “If not for the Palestinian Authority, the collaborator, the Jews would not have the upper hand.” He also wondered: “Is it possible that in all the Muslim armies in the world today, not one can produce a Saladin?” And then he promised that the day would come when armies from Jakarta, Istanbul and Cairo will arrive to liberate Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.

Another preacher made similar statements to a tourist from Turkey before the sermon. The content and style recalled the Islamist-Salafist party Hizb El Tahrir: There is no preaching for an armed struggle against the Israeli occupier, but strong faith in a day when the Muslim world mobilizes and brings down the “Jewish Crusaders.”

When the prayer was over, only a few joined the call warning Jews that “the army of Mohammed would return” – but no one protested the characterization of the PA as a “collaborator.” Anyway, its activities are forbidden in Jerusalem. Israel pushed out the PLO (to which the PA is theoretically subservient) from every unifying, cultural, social or economic role it had until the year 2000. A vacuum like that can only be filled with religious entities and spokesmen who will give meaning to a life full of suffering. The consistent position of the PLO and the PA that this is not a religious conflict and that Israel should not be allowed to turn it into one doesn’t sound particularly convincing in Jerusalem.

Since most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank can’t go to Jerusalem, the city – and particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque – are for them abstract sites, a “concept” or a picture on the wall; not a reality to be experienced. But this abstract place, Al-Aqsa, is doing what the siege of Gaza and its 2 million prisoners, the expansion of the settlements and the confiscation of water tanks and solar panels from communities in Area C, are not doing: It is unifying them. The anti-colonial discourse, which is essentially national, political and secular, is channeled to Facebook posts, to scholarly articles that do not reach the general public and to hollow slogans mouthed by leaders, the shelf-life of whose leadership and mandate has long since expired.

In other words, the national discourse and the veteran national leadership are no longer considered relevant today. While Al-Aqsa, in contrast, manages to create mass popular opposition to the foreign Israeli ruler – and that sparks the imagination and inspiration of masses of others who cannot go to Jerusalem. Not only nonreligious people came to places of worship in Jerusalem on Friday to be with their people. A number of Palestinian Christians also joined the groups of Muslim worshippers and prayed in their way, facing Al-Aqsa and Mecca.

Of course, this is first and foremost the strength of religious belief. The deeper the faith, the greater the insult to its sacred elements. The fact that Al-Aqsa is a pan-Islamic site is an empowering element. But not only that: Jerusalem has the highest concentration of Palestinians who rub elbows with the foreign Israeli ruler, with everything this entails in terms of the trampling on their rights and humiliating them. They don’t need “symbolic sites” of the occupation, like military checkpoints, to recall the occupation or express their rage. And the Al-Aqsa plaza, for its part, is where the largest number of Jerusalemites can gather together in one place to feel like a collective. And when this right to congregate is taken away from them, they protest as one – which also reminds the rest of the Palestinians that the entire public is one, suffering the same foreign rule.

But that same unified public can no longer express its oneness in mass actions. It is closed and cut off in ostensibly sovereign enclaves, and split into social classes with ever-widening social, economic and emotional gaps. Its road to the symbolic sites of the occupation, which surround every enclave, is blocked by the Palestinian security forces as well as by adaptation to life in the enclave.

This is the political and factual foundation for the continued presence of lone-wolf attackers, without reference to the outcome of their actions: First of all, the intolerable continuation of the occupation; then the inspiration of Al-Aqsa as a place that unifies, religiously and socially; the disappointing, weakened and weak leadership; and a willingness to die that is a mixture of faith in Paradise and despair at life.

en français : ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/617928

At least 2 Israelis killed in settlement stabbing attack, assailant shot
July 21, 2017 11:28 P.M. (Updated : July 21, 2017 11:28 P.M.)
►http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=778261

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — At least two Israelis were killed in a stabbing attack in the illegal Israeli settlement of Neve Zuf in the central occupied West Bank on Friday night, the Israeli army said.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that an assailant entered a home in the settlement, also known as Halamish, and stabbed four Israelis.

They added that two of the Israelis succumbed to their wounds, while the two others were hospitalized.

The assailant was shot, the spokesperson said, although at of 11:15 p.m., they could not state whether the attacker was dead or not.

However, Israeli news outlets reported that three Israelis — a man and a woman in their sixties, and a man in his forties — had been killed, while another woman was being treated.

The deadly attack took place after three Palestinians were killed by Israelis during violent clashes on Friday.

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Deux Israéliens tués à coups de couteau dans une colonie de Cisjordanie
AFP / 21 juillet 2017 22h55
▻https://www.romandie.com/news/Deux-Israeliens-tues-a-coups-de-couteau-dans-une-colonie-de-Cisjordanie/817139.rom

Un assaillant a pénétré vendredi dans une colonie de Cisjordanie occupée où il a tué deux civils israéliens à coups de couteau et en a blessé deux autres, a indiqué l’armée dans un communiqué.

L’attaquant s’est infiltré dans une maison de la colonie de Neve Tsuf, au nord-ouest de Ramallah, précise l’armée sans donner davantage de détails sur l’identité de l’assaillant.