❶ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
NETANYAHU ORDERS NEW PALESTINIAN TV SHUT, P.A PLANS TO APPEAL DECISION
June 18, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as the Communication Minister, has instructed the head of the Communications Ministry, to begin shutting down a new Palestinian TV station, funded by the Palestinian Authority, in Israel.
____The official launch of the new TV was scheduled for today, Thursday, and all official preparations were concluded Wednesday for the historic launch of the new Palestine 48 TV Station. . . .
Al-Hasan said the Netanyahu decision to shut down the new TV station was illegal, and that the TV Channel will pursue all legal means to counter the move. . . .
____Netanyahu gave the order to Director General Shlomo Filber, just a few hours after a press conference was held during the inauguration of the Palestine 48 Arabic-language Channel. . . .
____Netanyahu’s main argument was that the new TV “receives funding from the Palestinian Authority, which is considered a foreign entity in Israel”.
(More. . .)

❷ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
HAMAS REJECTS UNILATERAL DISSOLUTION OF PALESTINIAN UNITY GOVT
June 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Hamas rejected any unilateral dissolution of the Palestinian unity government on Wednesday, hours before Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was expected to meet President Mahmoud Abbas to present his government’s resignation and discuss the formation of a new government.
____The rejection comes as senior Fatah officials reported Tuesday night that Abbas announced during a Fatah council meeting that the government would be dissolved and entirely reformed.
____”Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
(More. . .)

❸ From +972 MAGAZINE
OCCUPATION IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT IT
Israel’s Foreign Ministry is going after Israeli human rights and anti-occupation activists overseas. Doing so will only make things worse for Israel.
Ilan Baruch
June 16, 2015
It’s been less than a month since Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely instructed Israeli embassies abroad to explain to the nations of the world that the land of Israel is ours in its entirety. Global hostility toward Israel, she insisted, does not stem from the occupation or settlements.
____Now, we have learned that she instructed the Israeli embassy in Switzerland to attempt to cancel a “Breaking the Silence” exhibition in Zurich. The exhibition presents soldiers’ testimonies on their experiences during their military service regarding the daily reality in the occupied territories.
(More. . .)

❹ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
TWO INJURED IN NABLUS, TWO KIDNAPPED IN BETA NEARBY TOWN
June 18, 2015
Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Thursday at dawn, two Palestinians in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and kidnapped two brothers in an invasion into Beta town, south of the city.
____Media sources in Nablus said several military vehicles, a number of settlers’ buses, and a military bulldozer, invaded the Eastern Area in Nablus, leading to clashes with local Palestinian youths.
____Medical sources said resident Eyad Ma’in Kalbouna, 23, was shot with a live round in his left leg, while Mohammad Ghassan Hashshash, 24, from the Balata refugee camp, was shot with two live rounds in the chest and thigh.
(More. . .)

❺ From PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: ISRAEL DENIES RIGHT TO MEDICAL TREATMENT IN GAZA
June 16, 2015
A report compiled by the organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said that during 2014 Israel refused half of the applications made by residents to leave Gaza for medical treatment. Two of those who talked to PHR about the refusal of their applications died during the year.
____“The results point to the abuse of the Palestinian population”.
____The report revealed PHR’s findings that approximately half (47.5%) of the applications for permits to leave Gaza were denied by the Israeli border control. . . . in many cases applicants were seeking potentially life-saving treatment.
____PHR found that during the year, 246 requests from ill Palestinians were denied or postponed by Israeli authorities. All applicants had obtained the appropriate travel documents and knew of the obligation to pay medical fees
(More. . .)

“JERUSALEM,” BY AFTAB YUSUF SHAIKH
If this city were a woman,
She must have earned a bad name by now,
For the number of swords unsheathed,
For the cauldrons of blood shed,
For the haunting silence that rings in wombs,
For the innocent childhoods weeded,

But, No!
This is a city, and a holy one!
Holy for whom? The ones who heap
unholiness on it.

O children of Abraham!
You are not pagans or witches,
You must remember very sharply,
That the shedding of blood cleanses nothing,
And nothing cleanses the shedding of blood,

Man remembers the Promises of God,
But very casually forgets
The Promise God took from him.

About Aftab Yusuf Shaikh
http://aftabyusufshaikh.weebly.com/
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.