❶ 96 Palestinians shot by Israeli military in Friday demos
❷ Palestinian dies after being shot in chest during Friday clashes
❸ WATCH! Activists disrupt Jerusalem Quartet
❹ Why my books are not published in Israel (Susan Abulhawa)
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The long road to Bethlehem, Part Four (A Four-Part Personal Memory)
❻ Poetry by Ibtisam Barakat
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
96  PALESTINIANS  SHOT  BY  ISRAELI  MILITARY  IN  FRIDAY  DEMOS
Dec. 18, 2015
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Friday shot and injured at least 78 Palestinians, two critically, when clashes broke out across the occupied Palestinian territory. . . .
___The Palestinian Red Crescent told Ma’an that nine Palestinians were also injured Friday. . . near the northern entrance of Bethlehem. . . .
___In the Gaza Strip, a 20-year-old Palestinian was shot dead, 31 were injured by live fire and 12 by rubber-coated steel bullets . . . .  More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  DIES  AFTER  BEING  SHOT  IN  CHEST  DURING  FRIDAY  CLASHES
Dec. 19, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — A Palestinian man succumbed to his wounds on Friday hours after he was shot and critically injured during clashes with Israeli forces in the village of Sinjil north of Ramallah.
___Israeli soldiers shot Nashaat Asfour, 33, in the chest with an explosive bullet. . . .
___Friday’s deaths brought the total number of Palestinians killed. . . since Oct. 1 to 126. . . .  More . . .

❸ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
WATCH!  ACTIVISTS  DISRUPT  JERUSALEM  QUARTET
Dec. 17, 2015
The Jerusalem Quartet, an Israeli string quartet that has toured around the world and received numerous awards, recently performed in Lisbon, Portugal. . . . BDS activists disrupted the concert . . . calling for a boycott of Israel.
___Activists cite the quartet’s decision to name itself after Jerusalem and its members’ service in the Israeli military as “Distinguished Musicians” as clear evidence of the artists’ complicity in representing and branding Israel. . . .  More . . .
❹ MONDOWEISS
WHY  MY  BOOKS  ARE  NOT  PUBLISHED  IN I SRAEL
Susan Abulhawa
Dec. 16, 2015
Over a year ago, in June 2014, I was offered a contract by an Israeli publishing house for both Mornings in Jenin and The Blue Between Sky and Water. As a firm supporter of both the economic and cultural boycotts of Israel, I refused. . . . rather than write an essay, I’ll just share the full correspondence here. My decision and reasons for it are evident.  More . . .
Related, by Susan Abulhawa. . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis – A Four-Part Personal Memory
+972 MAGAZINE
THE  LONG  ROAD  TO  BETHLEHEM,  PART  FOUR
Mya Guarnieri
Dec. 19, 2015
After taking a job at a Palestinian university in the West Bank, Jewish journalist Mya Guarnieri feels that the center of her life is increasingly on the ‘other side’ of the Green Line. Israeli soldiers give her a hard time for being a Jew in ‘enemy territory’ and it becomes more and more difficult to live in Israeli society.  More . . .
Part One. . . 

“PALESTINE,”  BY  IBTISAM  BARAKAT

At the checkout register,
at an office-supplies store,
I am getting ready to
buy the world –
The globe that is. . .
Fifty dollars the man says,
one hundred and ninety-five countries,
all for fifty dollars!
I am thinking –
That means twenty five cents a country!
Can I give you all the money I have,
and you throw in Palestine?
Where do you want it? he asks.

Wherever there are
Palestinians.

From Poem Hunter.com
Ibtisam Barakat is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and educator. She was born in Beit Hanina, near Jerusalem. Barakat received her Bachelor’s degree from Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. In 1986, she moved to New York City, where she interned with The Nation magazine. She earned a Master’s degree from the University of Missouri. Her childhood memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, about growing up under Israeli occupation following the 1967 Six-Day War, was published in 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.