❶ From MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI KNESSET TO ADDRESS SHELVED PLAN TO RELOCATE NEGEV BEDOUINS
July 11, 2015
BEERSHEBA (Ma’an) – Bedouin residents of the Negev are gearing up to take last minute measures as the Israeli Knesset is slated Sunday to discuss a plan to forcibly relocate tens-of-thousands of Bedouin Palestinians.
____The Prawer Plan was approved by the Israeli government in 2011 but shelved in 2013 amid widespread protest among Palestinians within Israel and international condemnation.
(More. . .)

❷ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
INJURIES REPORTED AS SOLDIERS ATTACK NABI SALEH PROTEST
July 10, 2015
Palestinian medical sources have reported, Friday, that many residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, after Israeli soldiers assaulted the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and settlements, in Nabi Saleh village. . .
____The Popular Resistance Committee in Nabi Saleh has reported that the protesters marched towards Palestinian orchards, illegally confiscated by the army, and isolated behind the wall. . .
____The soldiers fired rounds of live ammunition, gas bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets; scores of residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
(More. . .)

❸ From THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
WHEN THE OTHER ISN’T PERCEIVED AS HUMAN EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
By Tamar Fleishman – Qalandiya
July 2, 2015
The ambulance was detained for about six hours and in it was a resident of Gaza, who had been discharged from a hospital in Nablus after undergoing heart surgery.
____For six hours the ambulance had waited on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint for someone to solve the bureaucratic mess. But apparently no one thought it to be an urgent matter. No one on the other side of the rifle or of the computer or of the phone thought that letting a person suffer like that for six hours was terrible.
(More. . .)

❹ From INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER (IMEMC)
ISRAEL OFFICIALLY SIGNS ORDER BARRING “PALESTINE 1948” TV
July 10, 2015
Israeli Police spokeswomen Luba Samri said, Thursday, that Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has signed an official order shutting down the “Palestine 1948 TV,” and barring all of its activities in the country.
____Erdan said “Israel will not allow anybody to harm its sovereignty, or to grant the Palestinian Authority any foothold in the country.”
____He alleged that the TV station never obtained any proper authorization to operate in Israel, and said “Palestine 1948” began broadcasting, a month ago, from Nazareth.
(More. . .)

❺ Opinion
From +972 BLOG
IMPRISONED FOR INCITEMENT ON FACEBOOK? ONLY IF YOU’RE ARAB
July 10, 2015
John Brown* and Noam Rotem
Racist and inciting Facebook statuses by Israeli Jews have become commonplace on the Internet. Yet not a single Israeli has ever been sent to prison for publishing a status on social media.
____We do not live in a state where people are equal before the law. This is a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Internet, on the other hand, has maintained a kind of facade where freedom and equality are set in stone. But no more. This week, 23-year-old Uday Biyumi from Jerusalem was sentenced to 17 months in prison for publishing Facebook posts “systematically and widely.”
____The sentence is not something out of the ordinary. . .
(More. . .)

*John Brown is the pseudonym of an Israeli academic and blogger. Noam Rotem is an Israeli activist, high-tech executive and author of the blog o139.org, subtitled “Godwin doesn’t live here anymore.” This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call.

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“THE UGLIEST OF WORDS,” BY SAMIH AL-QASIM

What should I do with the narcissus?
The apricot?
The crowns of rugged trees?
What should I do with the finest
of my wildflowers? What?
What should I do with the strongest, fiercest,
and cruelest wild flowers and thorns?
What should I do with the strongest
of English words?
Foreigner?
The fiercest of French traits:
Etrangé?
The cruelest of German blows:
Ausländer?
The ugliest of Hebrew terms:
Oivim.
The most horrible sound in Arabic:
Kuffar.
What should I do with my pain
over my ignorance of Sanskrit
and Esperanza?
My fondness for wildflowers
runs deep.
What should I do
with the fence of fire
and with my being caught―
between the ugliest and the finest?
What should I do?
What?
What should I do?

From Al-Qasim, Samih. Sadder than Water: New & Selected Poems. Nazih Kassis, Trans. (Jerusalem: Ibis Editions, 2006.)
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About Samih Al-Qasim