❶ IOF rolls into O. Jerusalem, attacks Palestinians
. . . ❶―(ᴀ) Israel removes all Arab workers from Gush Etzion settlement
❷ Palestinian shot dead near Nablus after alleged attempted attack
❸ Israeli settlement security guards detain Palestinian shepherd
❹ Israeli Soldiers Kidnap 32 Palestinians in the West Bank
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHY IT’S SCARIER THIS TIME AROUND
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THE PALESTINIAN INFORMATION CENTER
IOF  ROLLS  INTO  O. JERUSALEM,  ATTACKS  PALESTINIANS
Jan. 18, 2016
A number of Palestinians choked on teargas on Sunday evening in a round of clashes that flared up shortly after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rolled into Occupied Jerusalem and cracked down on the Palestinian civilians.
___A PIC news correspondent said the IOF stormed Jerusalem’s eastern village of al-Issawiya and raked through its residential neighborhoods amid a heavy discharge of teargas canisters on the Palestinian protesters and civilian homes.   More . . .
. . . ❶―(ᴀ) PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
ISRAEL  REMOVES  ALL  ARAB  WORKERS  FROM  GUSH  ETZION  SETTLEMENT
Jan. 18, 2016
Etzion Brigade Commander Colonel Roman Gofman on Monday issued an order to remove immediately all Arab workers from the Gush Etzion settlement, including from stores and businesses, The Jewish Press said.   More. . . .
Related. . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  NEAR  NABLUS  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTEMPTED  ATTACK
Jan. 17, 2016
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man on Sunday following an alleged attempted stabbing attack in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, an Israeli army spokesperson said.
___The spokesperson said the “assailant” was shot and killed after attempting to attack and stab Israeli soldiers “securing the area,” adding that no Israelis were injured during the incident. . . .  Related . . .
___On Friday, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians during clashes along the border near al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medical sources said at the time.  More . . .
Related . . .  ISRAELI FORCES KILL 10 PALESTINIANS, WOUND 21, IN THE PAST WEEK

❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  SETTLEMENT  SECURITY  GUARDS  DETAIN  PALESTINIAN  SHEPHERD
Jan. 17, 2016
Israeli civilian security guards from the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, detained a Palestinian shepherd on Sunday morning, locals said. . . .
___He was leading a herd of sheep near the settlement’s fence on a hilly area on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Artas with his cousin when he was detained, relatives told Ma’an. . . . Efrat security guards arrived in a vehicle, handcuffed Ziyada and took him to an unknown location.
___There are more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law.  More . . .
❹ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  KIDNAP  32  PALESTINIANS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Jan. 18, 2016
Israeli soldiers have kidnapped overnight, and on Monday morning, 32 Palestinians in various invasions and extensive military searches of homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported.  More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 MAGAZINE
WHY  IT’S  SCARIER  THIS  TIME  AROUND
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
Jan. 17, 2016
There is nothing particularly new about the wave of attacks against human rights and the anti-occupation Left in Israel taking place recently. There is nothing new about the increasingly hostile political atmosphere. Not at all. And yet something feels far worse, and scarier, this time around. . . .
___Firstly, there is nobody to stand in the way of this wave of political, legal and legislative attacks against those fighting to end the occupation or ensure equal rights for Jews and Palestinians. . . .
___Secondly, as Israel’s right-wing government becomes more unapologetic and cockier about the occupation, the prospects of real international pressure appear more and more real.  More . . .

[Note: Mahmoud Darwish wrote this poem in 1964 when he was 22 years old. He was imprisoned for it―his first imprisonment. The poem became rallying words for the Palestinians. Note, it was written before the 1967 War and before the First and Second Intifadas and remains germane in today’s Palestine.]

“IDENTITY  CARD,”  BY MAHMOUD  DARWISH  (1964)

Write down:
I am an Arab
my I.D. number, 50,000
my children, eight
and the ninth due next summer
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab.
I work with my struggling friends in a quarry
and my children are eight.
I chip a loaf of bread for them,
clothes and notebooks
from the rocks.
I will not beg for a handout at your
door nor humble myself
on your threshold
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab,
a name with no friendly diminutive.
A patient man, in a country
brimming with anger.
My roots have gripped this soil
since time began,
before the opening of ages
before the cypress and the olive,
before the grasses flourished.
My father came from a line of plowmen,
and my grandfather was a peasant
who taught me about the sun’s glory
before teaching me to read.
My home is a watchman’s shack
made of reeds and sticks―
Does my condition anger you?

There is no gentle name,
write down:
Arab.
The colour of my hair, jet black―
eyes, brown―
trademarks, a headband over a keffiyeh
and a hand whose touch grates
rough as a rock.
My address is a weaponless village
with nameless streets.
All its men are in the field and quarry
―Does that anger you?

Write down:
Arab.
You have stolen my ancestors’ vineyards
and the land I once ploughed
with my children
leaving my grandchildren nothing but rocks.
Will your government take those too,
as the rumour goes?

Write down, then
at the top of Page One:
I do not hate
and do not steal
but starve me, and I will eat
my assailant’s flesh.
Beware of my hunger
and of my anger.

About Mahmoud Darwish
From WHEN  THE  WORDS  BURN:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY:  1945-1987.  Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant Books, 1988.
Film biography of Mahmoud Darwish, Hot Docs Film Festival, Toronto, 2014