❶ from MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ABU KHDEIR’S NAME REMOVED FROM TERROR VICTIMS’ LIST
April 22, 2015
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities removed Muhammad Abu Khdeir’s name from an Israeli list of terror victims following demands by his family.
___Abu Khdeir’s father told Ma’an that the family called the Israeli National Insurance Institute on Tuesday demanding that Muhammad’s name be removed from the list located in Mount Herzl. They later received a call from the institute telling them that his name was removed from the list.
___Muhammad, 16, was burned to death in July 2014 by Jewish Israelis in a suspected revenge attack for the murders of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. . .
___Muhammad’s family said that Israel only added his name to “improve its image to the world” after the gruesome murder which shocked residents of occupied East Jerusalem.
(More. . .)
(Background. . .)

❷ from PALESTINE NEWS AND INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA
ISRAELI FORCES DETAIN SIX PALESTINIANS FROM JENIN VILLAGE
April 22, 2015
Israeli forces Wednesday detained five Palestinians from Tura village to the southwest of Jenin, said local security sources.
___Forces stormed the village where they proceeded to detain five locals after breaking into and ransacking their families’ houses. The detainees were identified as Mu‘taz Qabha, 22, ‘Abdullah Sami, 23, Ayham Fayez, 22, Muhammad Subhi, 26, and ‘Abdullah Ahmad, 23.
(More. . .)

❸ from INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
PALESTINIAN KIDNAPPED IN AL-AQSA MOSQUE; ISRAELI EXTREMISTS STORM MOSQUE COMPOUND
April 22, 2015
As dozens of Israeli extremists stormed the yards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied Jerusalem, chanting and raising Israeli flags, and trying to raise the flags on the mosque, Israeli soldiers kidnapped a young Palestinian man.
Media sources said the soldiers kidnapped Omar Odeh, from Qalansawe, in the Southern Triangle Area.
___Odeh was beaten and cuffed, before being moved to an Israeli police station in Jerusalem’s Old City.
___The abduction took place after scores of Israeli fanatics stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, through the al-Magharba gate, on Wednesday morning, and conducted provocative tours under heavy police and army protection.
___Several fanatic groups called for massive marches into the mosque compound, Wednesday and Thursday to mark “Israel’s Memorial Day.”
(More. . .)
(A simplistic explanation of the importance of Al-Aqsa)
(A different understanding of the importance of Al-Aqsa)

❹ from MONDOWEISS (Scholarly article)
TERRORISM AND THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT: AN ARGUMENT
Jerome Slater
April 21, 2015
As I wrote in my blog of March 18, “Israeli Terrorism: Does Evidence Matter?” I have been unable to place the long article on which the blog was based in any professional journal. I have decided to end that quest, and instead publish the full version here, for whatever interest it may hold for scholars, journalists, and interested general audiences. . .
___My central argument is that contrary to the standard mythology, especially in Israel, Israeli terrorism has been significantly worse than that of the Palestinians. A refutation of this mythology is important for a number of reasons. First, of course, ascertaining historical truth is important for its own sake. Second, the truth might make Israelis less blind to their own behavior and therefore less intransigent in seeking a compromise settlement of their conflict with the Palestinians
(More. . .)

❺ from +972 (Opinion)
WHY I’M THINKING OF LEAVING ISRAEL
By Somow Younis
April 22, 2015
I don’t feel a sense of belonging in the place where I was born. I want to live in a place where my right to vote is not seen as a threat to the regime, where my ethnicity doesn’t hold me back and where my language is not a barrier. One day I will leave, but it won’t be by choice.
. . . So far in my adult life I’ve searched for a sense of belonging by attempting to rule places out: in my childhood village of Arara, in Haifa, in Tel Aviv, and most recently, in Jerusalem. One feeling has followed me to all of those places — being foreign. The sense of foreignness penetrates and permeates inside of me and I fight it in my daily battle for survival. What does it mean to feel like you belong?
. . . I sigh and I ponder. One can’t speak about the Nakba in the past tense. It is ongoing and continues. There it is, I’m done. Lightyears separate reality and my dreams of being recognized as an ethnic majority in a state that defines itself first and foremost as a nation-state, dreams of being granted full cultural autonomy, of realizing even the simplest dreams, without obstacles and limitations.
Somow Younis is a lawyer and social activist.
(More. . .)
Also by Somow Younis

“LAST OF THE CENTURY,” BY YOUSEF ABU LOZ

Knowing my country is far
I pack my cases and fly
always checking over my shoulder
to see if I am shadowed, always
looking around: paranoid

I hasten my wings, oh
wait for me, my country, I am lost
in the century. I swoon and swoop
with the invaders’ hot breath
on my neck and even though
I rush past a decade of years
they still beat me to her.

I’ve become older, I know my life
is behind me. Where I cannot fly.

Translated by Ryan Van Winkle

Yousef Abu Loz’s collection Fatima Goes to the field early received the Arab Writers Union Award. Born in Jordan, he has worked in education and culture across the Arab world.

From A BIRD IS NOT A STONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PALESTINIAN POETRY (Glasgow: Freight Books, 2014) –available from Amazon.com.