❶ Analysis: The missing data on the Palestinian revolt
❷ More Than One Third of Syria’s Palestinians Have Been Displaced
❸ Military Court Watch Newsletter – January 2016: Detention figures
❹ The Ottoman legacy in Palestine
❺ Opinion/Analysis: COPING  WITH  INSECURITY
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ)  THE  SECURITY  FORCES  OPERATING  IN  PALESTINE:  AN  OVERVIEW
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ Analysis
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
THE  MISSING  DATA  ON  THE  PALESTINIAN  REVOLT
Ben White
Feb. 5, 2016
On Wednesday, Palestinian youths . . . attacked Israeli Border Police officers outside Damascus Gate, in Occupied East Jerusalem, killing one and wounding another. The three assailants were killed on the spot.
___With nearly daily bloodshed, most news agencies have been using ‘copy and paste’-style paragraphs to provide context for . . . .
___ . . . they all share some troubling similarities, evidence of how – even unthinkingly – coverage of an anti-colonial revolt is being distorted by a narrative that is shaped and promoted by the Israeli government and its allies.
___Israel’s assertions about Palestinian assailants are repeated . . . despite the fact that in many cases, the circumstances in which Palestinians have been killed are disputed. . . .
___Israeli forces’ use of lethal violence to suppress anti-occupation protests is barely mentioned.    More . . .
❷ PALESTINE CHRONICLE
MORE  THAN  ONE  THIRD  OF  SYRIA’S  PALESTINIANS  HAVE  BEEN  DISPLACED
Feb 5 2016
More than one third of the 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been displaced by the ongoing conflict, a new report has revealed.
___The Action Group for Palestinian Refugees in Syria said the refugees were displaced after their camps were either subjected to air raids or caught up in clashes.
___The semi-annual report said that more than 71,200 Palestinian refugees have reached Europe after Syria’s neighbouring countries prevented them from entering their lands formally.    More . . .

❸ MILITARY COURT WATCH
NEWSLETTER  –  JANUARY  2016:  DETENTION  FIGURES
According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 December 2015, there were 6,066 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in Israeli detention facilities including 422 children. In the case of children there was a 4 per cent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 15 per cent compared with 2014.    More . . . 
❹ AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE) 
THE  OTTOMAN  LEGACY  IN  PALESTINE
Aziza Nofal, Trans. Pascale Menassa
Feb. 4, 2016
In 1901, to commemorate the 25th year of enthronement of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the Ottoman Empire, the sultan gifted 30 clock towers to the regions under the Ottoman state’s control. Palestine received seven of these, including the clock tower at the entrance to the Old City in Nablus, north of the West Bank.
___The clock tower stands today as one of the most important touristic and historical sites in the city. It still functions, and it is the central landmark of Nablus.   More . . . 
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
COPING  WITH  INSECURITY
Salwa Duaibis
Feb. 1, 2016
I always look forward with apprehension to accompanying visiting delegations to Ofer military court, where they can witness injustice in “concentrated doses.” The visits are always stark reminders of what life is like for ordinary Palestinian men, women, and children who live in the shadow of settlements, along bypass roads, or behind the wall. This time . . . [I had] to calm down my sister a bit as she kept expressing her “fear” of witnessing mothers in distress. . . I myself could not put my finger on what exactly it was that made me believe there was no reason for her to worry.    More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE
THE  SECURITY  FORCES  OPERATING  IN  PALESTINE:  AN  OVERVIEW
TWIP Collective
Feb. 1, 2016
Security has been a cornerstone of the Oslo Accords, and . . . all peace plans, and the ongoing public discourse . . . . But the term carries different meanings . . . Palestinians view the security sector as a main element in the process of state-building and seek a full-fledged functional system that can protect them against Israeli incursion and form the basis of sovereignty. Israel wants a Palestinian security sector that is strong enough to carry out the policing required in order to secure Israel’s safety.    More . . .

Two Poems by SAMIH AL-QASIM

“THE  CLOCK  ON  THE  WALL”
My city collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
Our neighborhood collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The street collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The square collapse
The clock was still on the wall
The house collapsed
The clock was still on the wall
The wall collapsed
The clock
Ticked on

“THE  WILL  OF  A  MAN  DYING  IN  EXILE”
Light the fire so I can see in the mirror of the flames
The courtyard, the bridge
And the golden meadows.
Light the fire so I can see my tears
On the night of the massacre
So I can see your sister’s corpse
Whose heart is a bird ripped by foreign tongues,
By foreign winds.
Light the fires so I can see your sister’s corpse,
So I can see jasmine
As a shroud,
The moon
As an incense burner
On the night of the massacre.
Light the fire so I can see myself dying
My suffering is your only inheritance
My suffering before the jasmine turns
Into a witness
The moon
Into a witness
Light the fire so I can see
Light the fi. . .

(Written after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the Israeli occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories, al-Qasim refers to the plight exiled Palestinians who lost hope of returning to their homeland.)

About Samih Al-Qasim
From: Adonis, Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim.  VICTIMS  OF  A  M AP:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  ARABIC  POETRY.  London: Saqi Books, 2008. Available from Amazon.