❶ UNRWA condemns Israel’s large scale home demolitions in the West Bank
❷ PA drafts new UN resolution against Israel’s illegal settlements
❸ The occupation burns 47 olive seedlings carrying the names and pictures of Jerusalemite Martyrs
❹ Struggle for Jerusalem takes on new form
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
❻ POETRY by Rashid Hussein
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❶ UNRWA  CONDEMNS  ISRAEL’S  LARGE  SCALE  HOME  DEMOLITIONS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 7, 2016
UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] condemned Thursday’s large scale home demolitions by the Israeli Authorities in the Bedouin refugee community of Um al Khayr in the South Hebron Hills. . .  31 Palestine refugees, including 16 children, were made homeless as a result to the demolitions.
___It confirmed that the affected community has endured several rounds of demolitions and often faced harassment from the nearby illegal settlement of Karmel.     MORE . . .  

❷ PA  DRAFTS  NEW  UN  RESOLUTION  AGAINST  ISRAEL’S  ILLEGAL  SETTLEMENTS
Ma’an News Agency
April 8, 2016
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to present a draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements to the UN Security Council in two weeks in a move likely to spark fury among Israel’s supporters.
___The resolution will be the first to directly condemn Israeli settlements as illegal under international law since the United States vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, the official said.     MORE . . . 

❸ THE  OCCUPATION  BURNS  47  OLIVE  SEEDLINGS  CARRYING  THE  NAMES  AND  PICTURES  OF  JERUSALEMITE  MARTYRS
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
April 5, 2016
The occupation police and Intelligence removed and burned on Tuesday olive seedlings carrying the names of Jerusalemite Martyrs. The seedlings were planted in the village of Silwan on the anniversary of Earth Day.      MORE . . .

❹ STRUGGLE  FOR  JERUSALEM  TAKES  ON  NEW  FORM
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Daoud Kuttab
April 7, 2016
Israel’s constant attempts to turn the city of Jerusalem into an exclusively Jewish city have taken an unusual turn with an attempt to politicize tourism.
___A map of the Old City of Jerusalem issued by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in March attempts to reinforce this twisted narrative by trying to deny the physical reality of Jerusalem. . . .
___Of the 57 sites on the map, only one Muslim site and five Christian sites are identified. . . . no less than 25 of the Jewish sites named such buildings — along with synagogues and yeshivas — that have never been heard of, even by experienced tour guides.”     MORE . . .  

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL  AIMS  TO  “SAVE  SOULS”  BY  MAKING  PALESTINIANS  HOMELESS
The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver
April 7, 2016
Less than two weeks after Israel’s high court lifted an injunction on punitive house demolitions, Israeli bulldozers arrived in Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning and razed three homes.
___The houses belonged to the relatives of the young men accused of an attack at Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem in early February that left an Israeli border police officer dead.
___All three youths were shot to death at the scene of the incident.
___By the end of Monday, 20 people were left homeless in Qabatiya.      MORE . . .

“TO  A  CLOUD,”  BY  RASHID  HUSSEIN

I am the land,
I am the land . . . do not deny me rain,
I am all that remains of it,
If you plant my brow with trees
And turn my poetry into vineyards
And wheat
And roses
That you may know me.
So let the rain pour down.

I, cloud of my life, am the hills of Galilee,
I am the bosom of Haifa
And the forehead of Jaffa.
So do not whisper: it is impossible.
Can you not hear my child’s approaching footsteps
At the threshold of your soul?
Can you not see the veins of my brow
Striving to kiss your lips?

Waiting for you, my poetry turned to earth,
Has become fields,
Has turned into wheat
And trees.
I am all that remains of our earth,
I am all that remains of what you love,
So pour . . . pour with bounty.
Pour down the rain.

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982. Available from Palestine Online Store.  
About Rashid Hussein