❶ Ministry: Killing of 4 teens a ‘dangerous escalation’ by Israel
. . ❶―(ᴀ) IOF declares Seir a closed military zone
❷ UK MPs speak out about Israeli detention of Palestinian children
❸ “How to Lie with Maps” in the Context of the Israeli Occupation
❹ Israeli forces demolish 5 Bedouin dwellings in E1 corridor
❺ Opinion/Analysis: [An eleven-year-old child] Resisting Oblivion in the New Year
❻ Poetry by Hanan Ashrawi
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❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
MINISTRY:  KILLING  OF  4  TEENS  A  ‘DANGEROUS  ESCALATION’  BY  ISRAEL
Jan. 8, 2016
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said the deaths of four Palestinian teens the day before marked a “dangerous escalation” in the current political situation.
___The ministry in a statement condemned the “continuous series of crimes and field executions by Netanyahu’s government against Palestinians,” referring to the killing of four Palestinians on Thursday as a “massacre.”
___“It is enough for an Israeli to shout ‘terrorist’ at a nearby Palestinian for them to be shot without first having to either confirm the claim or attempt to arrest them,” the ministry’s statement said. More . . . .
. . ❶―(ᴀ) PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
IOF  DECLARES  SEIR  A  CLOSED  MILITARY  ZONE
On Friday morning the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) closed all entrances leading to Seir town, north of Hebron, before declaring it a closed military zone.
___The four Palestinian youths killed on Thursday evening by the IOF after claims that they attempt to stab Israeli soldiers at the Gush Etzion junction were all from Seir city.  More. . . .
Related . . . .
❷ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
UK  MPS  SPEAK  OUT  ABOUT  ISRAELI  DETENTION  OF  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
Jehan Alfarra
Jan. 7, 2016
British parliament held a debate on the issue of child prisoners and detainees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the second time yesterday, following a debate on the issue in 2010.
___The debate was procured by Sarah Champion MP, who began by addressing the ill-treatment meted out to Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military as documented by two damning reports showing that Israel was in breach of its legal obligations . . . .
___In 2012, a delegation of nine UK lawyers led by the former British Attorney-General, Baroness Scotland, published an independent report funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Children in Military Custody, on the plight of Palestinian children arrested and detained by Israel.  More . . . .
❸ THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
“HOW  TO  LIE  WITH  MAPS”  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THE  ISRAELI  OCCUPATION
Ahmad El-Atrash
Jan. 2016
Since the early days of occupation, the Israeli authorities have used maps as a tool to dispossess Palestinians, establish de facto sovereignty over the occupied territory, and engineer a fabricated statehood. The socio-spatial consequences of map-making, as a form of authority-making, in present-day Palestine become “stubborn realities” that tend to perpetuate in a state of permanent temporariness due to Israel’s prolonged military occupation of territory. In this article, maps are best understood as discourses that create knowledge, particularly so in sensitive geo-political contexts such as the one in which we live.  More . . . .

❹ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  5  BEDOUIN  DWELLINGS  IN  E1  CORRIDOR
Jan. 6, 2016
Israeli forces on Wednesday morning demolished five dwellings housing Palestinian Bedouin families in the Abu Nuwwar community east of Jerusalem — part of the wider E1 corridor — leaving 25 people homeless.
___Dawood al-Jahalin, a spokesperson for the Abu Nuwwar Bedouin community, told Ma’an that Israeli military and police vehicles surrounded the area at around 8:30 a.m., before bulldozers demolished five dwellings and an agricultural structure.
___The families were not given any time to remove their belongings before the dwellings — made of steel, wood, and canvas — were torn down, he said.  More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
PALESTINE CHRONICLE
RESISTING  OBLIVION  IN  THE  NEW  YEAR
Mahmoud Zidan
Jan 6 2016
At the beginning of the New Year, I cannot help but remember Hadeel Rajabi, an eleven-year-old child. Do I need to say that she’s like all children at this age, full of a combination of innocence, ambition, stubbornness, and perhaps mischievousness? Yes, I do, as she’s a Palestinian . . . .
___On Wednesday the 18th of January last year, Hadeel was not given a gift nor was she expecting one. She wasn’t rewarded for being a high-achieving student, either. She was reminded that she’s a Palestinian, as she was summoned to the Qishla police station in the western part of the Old City of Jerusalem. . . .
___ . . . despite the injuries that an Israeli soldier has inflicted on her and that she still remembers. Etched in the mind of this child is immunity against oblivion. More . . . .

“FROM THE DIARY OF AN ALMOST-FOUR-YEAR-OLD,” BY HANAN ASHRAWI

Tomorrow, the bandages
will come off. I wonder
will I see half an orange,
half an apple, half my
mother’s face
with my one remaining eye?
I did not see the bullet
but felt its pain
exploding in my head.
His image did not
vanish, the soldier
with a big gun, unsteady
hands, and a look in
his eyes
I could not understand.

If I can see him so clearly
with my eyes closed,
it could be that inside our heads
we each have one spare set
of eyes
to make up for the ones we lose.

Next month, on my birthday,
I’ll have a brand new glass eye,
maybe things will look round
and fat in the middle —
I’ve gazed through all my marbles,
they made the world look strange.

I hear a nine-month-old
has also lost an eye,
I wonder if my soldier
shot her too—a soldier
looking for little girls who
look him in the eye—
I’m old enough, almost four,
I’ve seen enough of life,
but she’s just a baby
who didn’t know any better.

Interview with Hanan Ashrawi
From ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.