❶ Why Israel wants these Bedouins to pay for their village’s demolition
❷ Why Palestinians mark Prisoners’ Day
❸ Presidential Spokesperson: Israeli Government Plunges Whole Region into Violence, Chaos
❹ Netanyahu: Occupied Golan Heights to ‘forever remain in Israel’s hands’
. . . . . ❹― (ᴀ) Israeli cabinet meeting in Golan ‘irresponsible provocation’: Syria envoy
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘NY  TIMES’  PUBLISHES  OP-ED  WRITER’S  BLATANT  FALSEHOOD  ABOUT  PALESTINIANS  WITHOUT  BLINKING  AN  EYE
❻ POETRY by Ali al-Khalili
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ WHY  ISRAEL  WANTS  THESE  BEDOUINS  TO  PAY  FOR  THEIR  VILLAGE’S  DEMOLITION
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Ahmad Melhem
April 17, 2016
The Bedouin al-Araqib village (status unrecognized by Israel) in the Negev (Naqab) region is facing an ongoing demolition campaign that started on the morning of June 27, 2010, when the whole village was flattened to the ground. Since then, demolition work has been recurring each time the inhabitants set up new tents, with Israel claiming lack of permits. The latest incident took place April 5 and was the 96th to date. [. . . .]
___The Araqib case is merely another example of the unrecognized villages in the Negev region (75 villages). Israel is planning to relocate the people in order to establish Jewish communities. This is part of the Prawer Plan presented by Ehud Prawer, the former Israeli head of policy planning in the prime minister’s office, in 2011.      MORE . . .   
HISTORY . . .  

❷ WHY  PALESTINIANS  MARK  PRISONERS’  DAY
+972 Blog
Noam Rotem
April 17, 2016
More than 7,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of minors, are currently in Israeli prisons. Honoring prisoners and ‘freedom fighters’ isn’t just a Palestinian tradition, however. Israelis do it, too.     MORE . . .

[Please note the correlation among the following three news stories.]

❸ PRESIDENTIAL  SPOKESPERSON:  ISRAELI  GOVERNMENT  PLUNGES  WHOLE  REGION  INTO  VIOLENCE,  CHAOS  
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 18, 2016
Presidential Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh Sunday stated that the Israeli government is plunging the whole region into endless violence and chaos.
___Speaking to Palestine TV from Moscow, Abu Rudenieh stated that uncommon and clear political positions would be taken within the next few days or weeks with regards to the Question of Palestine, which stands at a serious crossroads.      MORE . . .

❹ NETANYAHU:  OCCUPIED  GOLAN  HEIGHTS  TO  ‘FOREVER  REMAIN  IN  ISRAEL’S  HANDS’
Ma’an News Agency
April 17, 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the Golan Heights would “forever remain in Israel’s hands,” during a CONTROVERSIAL CABINET MEETING HELD IN THE ANNEXED TERRITORY [emphasis added] on Sunday.
___Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it, in a move never recognized by the international community.
___Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Friday that Israeli officials had decided to hold a meeting in the area as a gesture of defiance, as world leaders work on drafting an agreement to end the five-year civil war in Syria which calls on Israel to hand back the annexed Golan to Syria.      MORE . . . 

. . . . . ❹― (ᴀ) ISRAELI CABINET MEETING IN GOLAN ‘IRRESPONSIBLE PROVOCATION’: SYRIA ENVOY
Middle East Eye
April 18, 2016
Syria’s envoy to the UN on Monday denounced an unprecedented Israeli cabinet meeting held in the Golan Heights on Sunday as “provocative”.      MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ‘NY  TIMES’  PUBLISHES  OP-ED  WRITER’S  BLATANT  FALSEHOOD  ABOUT  PALESTINIANS  WITHOUT  BLINKING  AN  EYE
Mondoweiss
David Samel
April 16, 2016
The recent wide-ranging debate on Zionism appearing in the New York Times was a welcome sign, no doubt.  While it’s long overdue, the movement to a more open . . .  discussion on whether the Jewish State is a good or bad thing is no longer taboo in mainstream media . . . .
___Oddly, though, a blatant falsehood appearing in one of the five op-eds shows how colossal ignorance has unfortunate staying power.      MORE . . . 

From  DIALECTICS  OF  THE  HOMELAND  (1976),  by  Ali  al-Khalili

Beyond the rainy cloud, the rose, the pagan dream
are remnants of the old pledge.
The lovers are no more the lovers
And the murderers are similarly transposed.
O homeland, drowning in mystic symbols and in blood,
Lost homeland!
Teach us to exist in the age of lost things
Teach us to unlock barred doors
To fertilize a barren land
Discover in you the cloud and the rose
Illuminate the tired masses.
Homeland of lost things,
Teach us to conceive trees and children,
When the promised sun and the promised wind
Are concealed or revealed
Teach us that the murderers are visible in you
And the murdered invisible.

Ali Al-Khalibi was born in Nablus in 1943. He graduated from Arab University of Beirut. He is novelist, short story writer, critic, poet, and literary historian. He died in 2011.
ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Available from Columbia University Press.