❶ ISRAEL  ON  A  RAMPAGE  OF  DESTRUCTION  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Israeli Forces Demolish Rainwater Harvesting Well near Hebron Camp
❷ Israeli forces cause fire in Ramallah money exchange office during dawn raid
❸ Goldman Sachs is funding Hebron settlers
❹ Erekat: Escalation of Israeli settlement construction a ‘war crime’
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  DANGEROUS  NEW  TRANSFER  TACTIC  IN  JERUSALEM
❻ POETRY by Izziddin al-Manasra
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❶ ISRAEL  ON  A  RAMPAGE  OF  DESTRUCTION  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
Times Warp
April 12, 2016
Israeli bulldozers are tearing up Palestinian structures at a rapid pace this year, destroying more than 500 houses and other buildings and displacing more than 650 men, women and children in three short months. The demolition spree is outpacing last year’s rate by more than three to one, and monitoring groups are raising the alarm.      MORE . . .  
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  DEMOLISH  RAINWATER  HARVESTING  WELL  NEAR  HEBRON  CAMP
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 14, 2016
Israeli forces Thursday demolished a rainwater harvesting well near al-Arrub refugee camp, north of Hebron city, in the southern West Bank, said a local activist.
___ . . . bulldozers escorted by Israeli forces and so-called Civil Administration officers stormed Abu Suda locality, opposite to Biet al-Braka church compound, north of the camp, and demolished a Palestinian-owned rainwater harvesting well.
___The well-owner was identified as Saleh Nimer from the refugee camp.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . . 

❷ ISRAELI  FORCES  CAUSE  FIRE  IN  RAMALLAH  MONEY  EXCHANGE  OFFICE  DURING  DAWN  RAID
Ma’an News Agency
April 14, 2016
Israeli forces raided a money exchange office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah at dawn on Thursday, causing a fire in the building.
___Witnesses said that Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades in the al-Ajouli currency exchange service, causing a fire which spread inside the building.      MORE . . .
RELATED . . .     ISRAELI  FORCES  STEAL  MONEY  FROM  PAL  EXCHANGE  OFFICE

❸ GOLDMAN  SACHS  IS  FUNDING  HEBRON  SETTLERS
Mondoweiss
Phil Weiss and Annie Robbins
April 13, 2016
For years American taxpayers have been bankrolling Jewish-only illegal settlements in the West Bank with hundreds of millions of dollars funneled through tax-exempt non-profit organizations . . .    One of the organizations which is a frequent recipient of these donations is the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund which supports Hebron’s settler community.
___Haaretz reports that Goldman Sachs has a “clear pattern” of giving to Israeli rightwing groups through their Charitable Gift Fund, including the notorious Jewish zealots in Hebron.     MORE . . .   

❹ EREKAT:  ESCALATION  OF  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENT  CONSTRUCTION  A  ‘WAR  CRIME’
Ma’an News Agency
April 13, 2016
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat denounced on Wednesday recent Israeli plans to expand illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, calling it a “war crime.”
___“The continued Israeli colonization of Palestine is a war crime under international law,” Erekat said in a statement. “This is an official policy of the Government of Israel that continues to entrench Israel’s colonial occupation and destroy the prospects of two independent states . . . .       MORE . . .

RELATED . . .   DR.  ASHRAWI  DENOUNCES  ISRAEL’S  DECISION  TO  BUILD  HUNDREDS  OF  COLONIALIST  UNITS   

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL’S  DANGEROUS  NEW  TRANSFER  TACTIC  IN  JERUSALEM
Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network
Munir Nuseibah
April 12, 2016
Israel is adept at creating new Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons . . . . Today, it is using the recent violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) to introduce a dangerous new twist to its long-standing residency revocation policy to force Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.
___This new concept –”breach of allegiance” to the state of Israel – is now being used to revoke the residency of Palestinian Jerusalemites, in addition to possible demolition  of  their  family  homes.       MORE . . .  

“AT  NIGHT,”  BY  IZZIDDIN  AL-DIN  AL-MANASRA

At night I come to you,
at night I tempt you,
and your memory wounds me.
I weep for you
traveling toward your vineyards in my dream,
towards your mountain paths.
I slide onto your sandy roads like a snake,
leaving my traces before I die.

At night I speak, bringing the sea
to the mountain, reconciling thorns with lilies
and night guards
with people awaiting seaborne barbarians
or desert strangers, coming from oils wells, coming.
I yearn for you at night but green cities do not merge
with cities of flame; you never leave your exile
and I never enter it.
How can I reconcile our exiles with the
cities of green? Those cities we love.
Hanged with the noose by the blue guards.
Guarded by rubies, oil, and gold.
―Translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye

IZZ  AL-DIN  AL-MANASRA was born in Hebron in 1946. He has been the Director of cultural programs in Jordanian radio, editor of Palestinian Affairs magazine, and worked as a professor of comparative literature in Constantine University in Algeria. He has been the Secretary general of the Arab Contemporary Literary Society since 1984. He has published many volumes of poetry.   MORE . . .
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.