❶ Israeli forces shoot, kill 2 armed Palestinians near Damascus Gate
❷ Israeli forces shoot, injure 28 Palestinians during Ramallah-area clashes
❸ Palestinian teen shot dead after alleged stabbing attempt near Bethlehem
❹ Israeli forces shoot five Palestinian children [yesterday 6 dead, total]
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE WILD BEAST OF ISRAELI RACISM
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) PM: INTERNATIONAL FORCES NEEDED TO PROTECT PALESTINIAN LIVES
❻ Poetry by Fawaz Turki
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT,  KILL  2  ARMED  PALESTINIANS  NEAR  DAMASCUS  GATE
Feb. 15, 2016
Two Palestinians armed with guns were shot dead Sunday by Israeli forces near Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli police said . . . .
___Police forces opened fire on and killed the young man when he pulled an automatic weapon from the bag and directed it at forces, the spokesperson said. A second Palestinian was then shot dead by police after he opened fire in their direction . . . .
___No Israelis were injured during the incident.
___The incident was the third deadly shooting by Israeli forces during alleged Palestinian attacks on Sunday, leaving five Palestinians killed.    More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  FORCES SHOOT,  INJURE  28  PALESTINIANS  DURING  RAMALLAH-AREA  CLASHES
Feb. 15, 2016
At least 28 Palestinians were shot and injured with live bullets and rubber-coated steel rounds during clashes in Ramallah’s al-Amari refugee camp on Monday, local sources told Ma’an.
___Locals said clashes erupted when Israeli forces entered the camp, surrounding a home.
___It was unclear if the home was slated for demolition or a raid, but locals said Palestinian youth in the area “tried to defend” the home, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, who responded with live and rubber-coated steel bullets, as well as tear gas.    More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  TEEN  SHOT  DEAD  AFTER  ALLEGED  STABBING  ATTEMPT  NEAR  BETHLEHEM
Feb. 14, 2016
___Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian on Sunday after the teen allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint north of Bethlehem, official Palestinian sources said.
___The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the teen as as Naim Ahmad Yousif Safi from the town of al-Ubediya, just east of Bethlehem.
___Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld initially told Ma’an that a young Palestinian man approached the Mazmoria checkpoint near the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa and took out a knife.    More . . .

❹ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
ISRAELI  FORCES  SHOOT  FIVE  PALESTINIAN  CHILDREN
Yesterday, Israeli forces shot five Palestinian children and killed four; the sole surviving child is hospitalized and in critical condition . . . .
___Late Sunday night, two more Palestinians were killed. Israeli forces shot two Palestinian men near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, bringing the total number of Palestinian lives lost yesterday to six. . . . .
___Israeli forces have killed over 170 Palestinians since October 2015. Suspected attacks by Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis since October 2015.     More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEMO)
THE  WILD  BEAST  OF  ISRAELI  RACISM
Asa Winstanley
Feb. 13, 2016
This week the prime minister of Israel slandered Arabs in disgustingly racist terms. This was nothing new for the man who, during the last election, warned the Israeli people that “the Arabs” were turning out to vote “in droves”. But the terminology he used was a notable new low, even for him.
___Touring a new border fence between part of present-day Israel and Jordan, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts.     More . . .
. . . . . ❺―(ᴀ) PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
PM:  INTERNATIONAL  FORCES  NEEDED  TO  PROTECT  PALESTINIAN  LIVES
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah on Monday reiterated the urgent need for international forces to protect Palestinian lives in the West Bank and Gaza to a visiting British Parliamentary delegation.    More . . .

“THE  SEED  KEEPERS,”  BY  FAWAZ  TURKI
A recital

Burn our land
burn our dream
pour acid onto our songs
cover with sawdust
the blood of our massacred people
muffle with your technology
the screams of our imprisoned patriots,
destroy,
destroy
our grass and soil
raze to the ground
every farm and every village
our ancestors had built,
destroy every city and every town
every tree and every home
every book and every law,
flatten with your bombs
every valley,
erase with your edicts
our past
our literature
our metaphor,
denude the forests
and the earth
till no insect
no word
can find a place to hide.
Do that and more,
I do not fear your tyranny.
I guard one seed
of a tree
my forefathers have saved
that I shall plant again
in my homeland.

Fawaz Turki (b. 1940) was born in Haifa, Palestine. He is a poet and the author of prose accounts of his life as a Palestinian in exile. He has published several books in English. He was writer-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo, and a frequent speaker at conferences on the Middle East.    About Fawaz Turki
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.