❶ [Palestinian] Youth raise 1 million shekel for victims of punitive home demolitions
❷ Israel launches airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
. . ❷– A – Gaza deserves an airport of its own, and this is how it can work
❸ 16-year-old Palestinian Shot after Alleged Stab Attempt in Hebron
❹ Israel Places 42 Palestinians in Jail without Trial, Charge
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Five  Palestinian  teens  blackmailed  into  accepting  15  years  prison  term  and  exorbitant  ‘fines’  for  a  crime  that  never  happened
❻ Poetry by Dan Almagor, Israeli Poet
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
YOUTH  RAISE  1  MILLION  SHEKEL  FOR  VICTIMS  OF  PUNITIVE  HOME  DEMOLITIONS
Dec. 14, 2015
Palestinian youth in Nablus have raised one million shekels ($259,000) in donations for Palestinian families whose homes were demolished following recent alleged and attempted attacks on Israelis, head of the fundraiser told Ma’an.
___Mazin al-Danbak said a local youth initiative in Nablus started to raise the money one week ago. The donations totaled 800,000 shekels ($207,300) in cash and 200,000 shekels ($51,800) in items like construction materials, land, furniture and electronics.   More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAEL  LAUNCHES  AIRSTRIKES  ON  THE  GAZA  STRIP
Dec. 14, 2015
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Israeli forces launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday, targeting a training site used by Hamas’ military wing, Gaza security sources and Israel’s army said.
___Gaza security sources said Israeli military helicopters launched two airstrikes before dawn, one in the al-Sudaniya neighborhood of northern Gaza City, and another in the central Gaza Strip.  More . . .
. . ❷-A GAZA DESERVES AN AIRPORT OF ITS OWN, AND THIS IS HOW IT CAN WORK.  Read.

❸ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
16-YEAR-OLD  PALESTINIAN  SHOT  AFTER  ALLEGED  STAB  ATTEMPT  IN  HEBRON
Dec 14 2015
Israeli forces shot and seriously injured a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after an alleged stabbing attempt, locals and the Israeli army said.
___An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that “a Palestinian armed with knife attempted to stab a pedestrian in Hebron, when forces on site responded to the threat and shot the assailant.”  More . . .
❹ PALESTINE NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY – WAFA.
ISRAEL  PLACES  42  PALESTINIANS  IN  JAIL  WITHOUT  TRIAL,  CHARGE
Dec. 14, 2015
RAMALLAH – Israeli authorities Monday issued administrative detention orders, without charge or trial, against 42 Palestinians, reported the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
___PPS said while 21 Palestinians received administrative detention orders for the first time, the remaining 21 detainees received renewed administrative orders.
___Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
___Israel routinely uses administrative detention against Palestinians. Statistics show that over the years, thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli custody as administrative detainees for extended periods of time.   More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
FIVE  PALESTINIAN  TEENS  BLACKMAILED  INTO  ACCEPTING  15  YEARS  PRISON  TERM  AND  EXORBITANT  ‘FINES’  FOR  A  CRIME  THAT  NEVER  HAPPENED
Dec. 13, 2015
It is with great sadness and anger that we hereby inform you of the outcome of the Hares Boys case: the five teenagers are being sentenced to 15 years in prison and are to pay a total of NIS 150,000 (~US $39,000 or €35,000) to the Israeli authorities. Failure to provide the exorbitant sum would, it is implied, result in more years of prison added to the boys’ sentences.
___Ali Shamlawi, Mohammed Kleib, Mohammed Suleiman, Ammar Souf, and Tamer Souf have been kept in prison for 2 years and 8 months and are now being sentenced for a crime that never happened.  More . . .
Related . . .

(This poem is the longest ever published here, but it must be read in full. The language at some points is condescending [“those people”], but in toto it is a moving statement.)

“WE  SHOOT  CHILDREN  TOO,  DON’T  WE,”  BY  DAN  ALMAGOR,  ISRAELI  POET
We shoot children too, don’t we?
Most of these people truly desire
to harvest their olive trees
as they have for hundreds of years
Most of these people truly desire
to raise their kids
not to throw stones
or Molotov cocktails;
but to study in peace,
to play in peace,
and raise a flag.
A flag,
their own flag.
And facing that flag, to cry
as we did, that night, then, excited as we were.
And we have no, have no, have no
right in the world to rob them of this desire,
This flag,
these tears. These tears which always,
always come after all the others.
Let us start preparing our defense.
We will need it soon enough:
those who actually did it
and those who still do.
All those who hushed it up
and those who still do.
And those who said nothing
and those who clucked their tongues, saying,
“Something must be done, really;
(but not tonight. I have a concert, a gala event,
a birthday! ).
Indeed, we’ll all get our summons one day
for the colonels’ trials.
The colonels’ trials are coming.
Their time will come, it must be so.
Their trials of the generals, the colonels,
and the division, the battalion,
and the platoon commanders.
There is no escaping it.
This is how history works.
What shall we say then?
What will the colonels, the captains, the corporals say?
What will they say-
of those terrible beatings,
the brutality,
of houses blown up.
And most of all, the humiliation.
That humiliation.
Of patients forced to wipe off the writing on the walls,
of old men forced to take down a flag
from an electric pole,
who were electrocuted, or fell
and broke their legs.
Of the old water carrier
whom soldiers ordered off his donkey
and rode on his back, just for fun.
We turned a deaf ear, we turned a deaf heart,
mean, arrogant, and dumb.
Who do we think we are?
Who gave us the right
To be so deaf, so dumb?
Ignoring the obvious:
They are as human as we are, as we are.
At least as we used to be.
only forty one years ago.
No less diligent, no less smart
as sensitive, as full of hope.
They love their wives and children
as we do, no less.
And our children now shoot theirs
with lead, plastic bullets, and gas.
The Palestinians’ state will come to pass.
It will.
Not a poet wrote this.
History will.
and seasons will come and seasons will go
and life goes on as we very well know:
weddings and birth and death all the same,
but just the shame of it. The shame.

Dan Almagor has been described as a “giant of Israeli popular culture.” He is an Israeli professor of Hebrew literature who is famous throughout Occupied Palestine as a lyricist and TV show host . . . his early work often celebrated “Israeli macho culture and military heroism.” He has become a stern critic of the deeply rooted racism in Israeli society, not only against Palestinians, but also against Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews. More. . .
Published in The Hypertexts. thehypertexts.com