❶ THE  ISRAELI  GHETTO
❷ Israeli settlers escorted by army raid village in Salfit district
❸ Japan donates $220,000 for Gaza water, health projects
❹ IOF kidnap 11 Palestinians including children across West Bank
❺ Opinion/Analysis: WHAT  DID  THEY  TEACH  MY  SON  AT  THE  ETZEL  MUSEUM?
❻ Poetry by Fouzi el-Azmar
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❶ ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER
THE  ISRAELI  GHETTO
Hani Habib
Feb. 28, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to construct walls . . . “In the state of Israel as I see it, there’ll be a fence around all of it. We’re surrounded by predators and we need to protect ourselves,” Netanyahu said at the construction site of the upcoming wall . . . .
___The vast majority of Jews somehow fail to connect the situation of Gazans, and all other Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, to their own history of resistance and survival under occupation. This elision has created a twisted drama where Palestinians are sentenced to a Jewish fate.      More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ESCORTED  BY  ARMY  RAID  VILLAGE  IN  SALFIT  DISTRICT
Feb. 27, 2016
A group of Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli military forces raided the village of Yasuf in the northern West Bank district of Salfit on Saturday. . . .
___Israeli forces fired live bullets, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at youths and several farmers who were in their fields nearby.
___Three quarters of Yasuf’s lands are located in Area C — under full Israeli military and administrative control . . . . over the years, some 602 dunams (148.7 acres) of Yasuf land have been seized to establish settlement housing. . . . including Ariel, the fourth largest settlement in the West Bank.     More . . .
❸ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
JAPAN  DONATES  $220,000  FOR  GAZA  WATER,  HEALTH  PROJECTS
Feb. 28, 2016
Japan signed two grants on Sunday to fund projects in the Gaza Strip worth almost $220,000 combined, the Representative Office of Japan to the Palestinian Authority said in a statement. . . .
___ [Takeshi Okubo, the Japanese representative to the PA] emphasized Japan’s “firm commitment to enhancing the human security of Palestinians,” the statement said, adding that Japan supported “socio-economic developmental projects that will lead to the empowerment of the Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip.”      More . . .
❹ PALESTINE NEWS NETWORK
IOF  KIDNAP  11  PALESTINIANS  INCLUDING  CHILDREN  ACROSS  WEST  BANK
Feb. 29, 2016
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Sunday overnight have kidnapped 11 Palestinian youths across the occupied West Bank, including two children in Jerusalem.
___Two of those who were kidnapped have been shot and injured after IOF ambushed their car. . . .
___ IOF also kidnapped two children aged under 15 years in Al-Issawiyya town in East Jerusalem.      More . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis
+972 BLOG
WHAT  DID  THEY  TEACH  MY  SON  AT  THE  ETZEL  MUSEUM?
Akin Ajayi
Feb. 28, 2016
I’m still not quite sure what my son learned on a class trip to the Etzel Museum. I, on the other hand, learned quite a few things — most importantly, that there’s no monopoly on the lack of compassion in Israel’s body politic . . . .
___ The one thing – possibly the only thing – I’ve learned in over a decade living is Israel is that it is very easy for contested assertions to become immutable fact. It’s a weird form of groupthink: something to do, I suppose, with Israel’s impossibly fragmented social structure, most of us living in impregnable ideological silos defined by politics, religion, social class and mutual distrust.      More . . .

“I  AM  THE  SON  OF  THE  LAND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  ASMAR
You may take my hands
and lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me.

You bereaved me
from the light
and I marched
You robbed me
of the bread
and I ate.
You plundered the land
from me
and I ploughed.

I am the son of the land
and for that
I find goodness in this earth
anywhere I happen to be:
The ants of this land
feed me
The branches of this land
foster me
The eagles of this land
will shield my open revolt

Yes
You may take my hands
And lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me
But here I will stand tall
And here I shall remain
until the very end. (April, 1970)

From: El Azmar, Fouzi. POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON.  Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.
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