❶ Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Program and the Displacement of Palestinian Bedouins
❷ US State Department Human Rights Report (2015)
❸ Army Kidnaps A Palestinian Teen, Attacks A Man, North Of Hebron
❹ Al-Maliki: “We Are Ongoing With Preparations to Head to Security Council”
❺ Opinion/Analysis: DOES ISRAEL HAVE JUSTIFICATION TO ENTER WEST BANK’S AREA A?
❻ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM AND THE DISPLACEMENT OF PALESTINIAN BEDOUINS
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
Fahwad Al-Khadoumi
April 7, 2016
Lance Bartholomeusz, Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank condemned Israel’s latest round of large scale demolitions of homes in the Palestinian Bedouin refugee community Um al-Khair . . .  Israel uses parts of the Negev desert for testing weapons with nuclear material . . . from its not-IAEA monitored Dimona nuclear facility.
___The director of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine’s Israeli-occupied West Bank issued a press release, stressing that the UNRWA condemns the latest round of demolitions of Bedouin’s homes in Um al-Khair, in the South Hebron Hills.  MORE . . . 

❷ US STATE DEPARTMENT HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT (2015)
Military Court Watch
April 15, 2016
On 14 April the US State Department released its annual global report on human rights for 2015. The report includes sections on Israel/Palestine and as in previous years, the State Department has considered the treatment of minors detained by the Israeli military and prosecuted in military courts.
___After referring to UNICEF’s 2013 report – Children in Israeli Military Detention . . .  the State Department noted that reports of mistreatment continued in 2015.      MORE . . .

❸ ARMY KIDNAPS A PALESTINIAN TEEN, ATTACKS A MAN, NORTH OF HEBRON
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
April 14, 2016
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday evening, Beit Ummar town . . .  kidnapped one Palestinian and assaulted another, causing various cuts and bruises.
___Coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Hebron, Mohammad Awad, said the soldiers stopped Khalil Odah al-‘Allami, 16, at a military roadblock near the main entrance of the town, before kidnapping him.       MORE . . .
RELATED . . . Israeli Police Detain 2 Palestinian Boys in Jerusalem  
RELATED . . . UPDATE: Israeli Forces Shoot, Kill Palestinian after Alleged Attack Attempt

❹ AL-MALIKI: “WE ARE ONGOING WITH PREPARATIONS TO HEAD TO SECURITY COUNCIL”
International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
April 15, 2016
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, stated Thursday that the Palestinian leadership is conducting all needed preparations to send Israel’s settlements file to the United Nations Security Council.
___His statements came after Israeli media agencies claimed that the Palestinian leadership intends to retract it decision to submit a proposal to the Security Council in response to Israel’s ongoing and escalating colonialist activities in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.      MORE . . . 

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  DOES  ISRAEL  HAVE  JUSTIFICATION  TO  ENTER  WEST  BANK’S  AREA  A?
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Adnan Abu Amer
April 14, 2016
The outbreak of the latest intifada in October, accompanied by the intensification of Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets, which resulted in the death of 33 Israelis and the injury of over 250 others, provided the Israeli army with an excuse to further encroach on the West Bank under the pretext of a hot pursuit of Palestinian fugitives. . . .
___The Oslo II Accord of 1995 divided the West Bank (5,844 square kilometers, or 2,256 square miles) between Palestinians and Israelis into three areas. Area A, where the majority of the Palestinian population is concentrated, is under the Palestinian Authority (PA) full civil and security control and its surface area represents 18% of the total land area of the West Bank.      MORE . . .  

During the first weeks after the June 1967 war, foreign papers and radio stations slanted news in a way that gloated over the misfortune, as if the end of the Arab people had been decided by this relapse. From this situation the following poem was born.

“THE  DELUGE  AND  THE  TREE,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN

When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge
of dark evil
onto the good green land
‘They’ gloated. The western skies
reverberated with joyous accounts:
“The tree has fallen!
The great trunk is smashed! The hurricane
leaves no life in the Tree!”

Had the Tree really fallen?
Never! Not with our red streams flowing forever,
not while the wine of our torn limbs
feeds the thirst roots,
Arab roots alive
tunneling deep, deep, into the land!

When the Tree rises up, the branches
shall flourish green and fresh in the sun
the laughter of the Tree shall leaf
beneath the sun and birds shall return
Undoubtedly, the birds shall return.
The birds shall return.
―Translated by Naomi Shihab Nye

ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.
About Fadwa Tuqan 
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