❶ The forced transfer of Palestinian detainees — why it matters
❷ 8 detained in predawn arrest raids
❸ PA: Israel’s torture of Palestinian prisoner ‘unfathomable’
❹ Military Court Watch Briefing Watch, December 2015
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Israel’s cynical new strategy: Reframe Palestine debate as a religious battle, when it is really about civil rights
❻ Poetry by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ +972 MAGAZINE
THE  FORCED  TRANSFER  OF  PALESTINIAN  DETAINEES  — WHY  IT  MATTERS
Gerard Horton
Dec. 19, 2015
Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system should be held in facilities located in Palestine, as opposed to Israel, in accordance with international law, UNICEF recommended in its 2013 report, Children in Israeli Military Detention (2013). . . .
The articles of the Convention are accompanied by a commentary . . . [that] makes it clear that the prohibition against transferring protected persons from occupied territory, for whatever reason, stems from the experiences of the Second World War when mass transfers in Europe were commonplace. More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
8  DETAINED  IN  PREDAWN  ARREST  RAIDS
Dec. 20, 2015
JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday detained eight Palestinians in predawn arrest raids in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources and Israel’s army said. . . .
___Two Palestinian minors were also detained Saturday, according to the spokesperson.
___Around 6700 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, and well over 2000 have been detained since the beginning of October. More . . .

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PA:  ISRAEL’S  TORTURE  OF  PALESTINIAN  PRISONER  ‘UNFATHOMABLE’
Dec. 7, 2015
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority’s department of prisoners’ affairs on Monday alleged that Israeli forces tortured a Palestinian prisoner charged with attempting to stab an Israeli soldier.
___Legal affairs director Louay Akka said Palestinian prisoner Wasim Marouf was covered with 28 cigarette burns on his hands, chest and back. 
___”I don’t know the nature of the directives or training [the Israeli guards] must have received to become this brutal,” Akka said. More . . .
❹ MILITARY COURT WATCH (MONITORING THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN DETENTION)
MILITARY  COURT  WATCH  BRIEFING  WATCH
This Briefing Note reviews developments in the Israeli military detention system for children and covers the period September to December 2015.
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK (Reprinted From Salon)
ISRAEL’S  CYNICAL  NEW  STRATEGY:  REFRAME  PALESTINE  DEBATE  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  BATTLE,  WHEN  IT  IS  REALLY  ABOUT  CIVIL  RIGHTS
Nadia Hijab and Alaa Tartir
Dec. 7, 2015
With the focus on Syria, in part due to ISIS and in part to the massive refugee crisis, the threats to world peace because of the Israeli occupation of Palestine have been put on the back burner. Indeed, the U.S. administration has seemingly washed its hands of its efforts to broker peace. . . .
___Yet there is a dire need to end the Israeli occupation, because Israel’s actions could rapidly and suddenly escalate the situation beyond the occupied territory to encompass Israel itself. . . . Israel moved to ban the northern branch of the Islamic Movement — despite the objections of its own intelligence chief Yoram Cohen, who had said there was no evidence to link it to terror. . .
___By so doing, Israel amplified Palestinian fears since the clashes began at the Noble Sanctuary compound in East Jerusalem two months ago, that it is seeking to reframe the conflict as a religious war instead of what it really is: A Palestinian struggle for civil and political rights . . . . More . . .

TWO  POEMS  FROM  “BEHIND  THE  BARS,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN  (1970)
“A salute to our sons and daughters, the fighters that
have been swallowed up by Israeli prisons.”

2. From “Hiba’s” Diary
My mother’s phantom hovers here
her forehead shines in my eyes
like the light of stars
She might be thinking of me now,
dreaming

(Before my arrest
I drew letters on a book
new and old
I painted roses
reared with blood
and my mother was near me
blessing my painting)

I see her
on her face silence and loneliness now
and in the house
silence and loneliness
My book case there on the book shelf
and my school’s uniform on the hanger
I see her hand extending
removing the dust from it
I follow my mother’s steps
and listen to her thoughts
yearn to hug her and the face of the day

3. From the Diary of “―”
(There in Israel, our prisoners
whom we know nothing about.)

From the ravine pours silent angry darkness
and night spreads its large sails here
the light of the stars and the dawn
cannot sneak in
A night without light
where our voices are lost
and the echo dies
and time cannot move

Time has lost its shoes here
it stood still
turning around the axis of stillness and boredom
confusing days and seasons
Is it the season for planting?
Is it the season for harvest?
Is it―who can say?
No news and the jailer stands, his face a stone
his eye a stone
robbing from us the sun, robbing the moon

About Fadwa Tuqan
From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY  OF  THE  SUN:  POETRY  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE.  Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970. Available from Amazon.