❶ THIS  UPRISING  IS  ABOUT  MORE  THAN  KNIVES
❷ Jerusalem municipality carries out demolition of 2 Palestinian homes
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ) Israeli forces demolish 4 Bedouin homes, leaving 22 homeless
❸ Undercover forces shoot Palestinian, detain 19 in West Bank raids
❹ Academic boycott of Israel takes off in Italy
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘AN  ARAB  IS  AN  ARAB’
❻ Poetry by Mourid al-Barghouti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
THIS  UPRISING  IS  ABOUT  MORE  THAN  KNIVES
Budour Youssef Hassan
Jan. 29, 2016
When the “intifada of the knives” set off in October last year, Western reporters flooded in to Jerusalem to cover the new “escalation” . . . .
___Inevitably, the journalists left once a massive crackdown significantly reduced the number of deadly attacks against Israelis in the city. It is an all too familiar pattern for Palestinians, who know by now that it’s only “escalation” when there are dead or wounded Israelis. Deaths, injuries, arrests and home demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by Israel are deemed . . . too routine to be considered newsworthy.   More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JERUSALEM  MUNICIPALITY  CARRIES  OUT  DEMOLITION  OF  2  PALESTINIAN  HOMES
Feb. 2, 2016
Israeli forces on Tuesday morning demolished two Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem reportedly built without proper permits from the Jerusalem municipality, locals said.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that large numbers of Israeli soldiers and police officers raided the village of Sur Bahir, surrounding a home in the Wadi Abu al-Hummus area of the village and closing off nearby roads before carrying out its demolition.    More . . .
. . . . . ❷―(ᴀ)  MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  4  BEDOUIN  HOMES,  LEAVING  22  HOMELESS
Feb. 1, 2016
Israeli forces demolished four corrugated iron Bedouin homes in the occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Monday, leaving 22 people homeless, locals said.
___The four homes were located in the Ein Ayub area between the villages of Ras Karkar and Deir Ammar, northwest of Ramallah city.
___Locals said Israeli military vehicles stormed the area from a bypass road near the homes leading to illegal Israeli settlements. . . .
___Locals added that Israeli forces did not give the families enough time to evacuate their belongings before they destroyed the dwellings.   More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
UNDERCOVER  FORCES  SHOOT  PALESTINIAN,  DETAIN  19  IN  WEST  BANK  RAIDS
Feb. 2, 2016
Undercover Israeli forces shot and injured a young Palestinian man and detained 19 throughout the occupied West Bank during predawn military raids on Tuesday.
___ . . . a squad of six undercover Israeli officers stormed a mobile phone shop in the village of Qabalan near Nablus and confiscated a desktop computer and a tablet.
___During the raid, the forces shot a Palestinian identified as Yousif Shahrour in the foot before detaining him and two others . . . .    More . . .

❹ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
ACADEMIC  BOYCOTT  OF  ISRAEL  TAKES  OFF  IN  ITALY
Stephanie Westbrook, Rome
Jan. 31 2016
There have been major breakthroughs in Italy for the campaign to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
___More than 200 academics from 50 Italian universities have signed a call for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions until Israel complies with international law.
___This is the first time a significant number of Italian academics have taken a public stand in support of the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).    More . . .
Related . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
MONDOWEISS
‘AN  ARAB  IS  AN  ARAB’
Jonathan Ofir
Jan. 31, 2016
“An Arab is an Arab,” said my close acquaintance. . . .
___The sentence might seem neutral at first. And yet it holds a myriad of insinuations, prejudice and ideological supremacy which deserves to be analysed in historical perspective. . . .
___For Israel to be the state of all Jews worldwide, it must reserve their supposedly “ethnic” privilege under a “nationality” which is separate to the citizenship definition. Not doing so would imply that Israel is the state of its citizens. But it is not. It is self declared as the state of the Jews – the Jewish State.     More . . .

“IT’S  ALSO  FINE,”  BY  MOURID  AL-BARGHOUTI
It’s also fine to die in our beds
on a clean pillow
and among our friends.

It’s fine to die, once,
our hands crossed on our chests
empty and pale
with no scratches, no chains, no banners,
and no petitions.

It’s fine to have an undustful death,
no holes in our shirts,
and no evidence in our ribs.

It’s fine to die
with a white pillow, not the pavement, under our cheeks,
our hands resting in those of our loved ones
surrounded by desperate doctors and nurses,
with nothing left but a graceful farewell,
paying no attention to history,
leaving this world as it is,
hoping that, someday, someone else
will change it.
–From PEOPLE  IN  THEIR  NIGHTS, 1999

Online: Contemporary Palestinian Poetry
Mourid al-Barghouti was born in 1944 in the village of Deir Ghassaneh near Ramallah, and lived most of his life in exile. He has a BA in English literature from Cairo University. He worked as a teacher in Kuwait and Cairo, in Budapest as PLO representative and in Cairo as a radio journalist with “Palestine Radio”. He has published 13 collections of poetry, and his collected works. He won the AUC 1997 Naguib Mahfouz Literature Prize for his autobiographical novel Ra’aytu Ramallah (I Saw Ramallah), and in 2000 the Palestine Award for Poetry. He lives in Cairo.   On Facebook
On Wikipedia