❶ Extending the duration of detaining 4 Jerusalemite children inside internal rehabilitation institutions
❷ Israeli Court Convicts Primary Suspect in Abu-Khdeir Murder
❸ PA losing $285 million a year under arrangements with Israel
❹ Palestine to send medics, aid to Ecuador after deadly earthquake
❺ Opinion/Analysis: POETIC  INJUSTICE:  PALESTINIAN  POET  ARRESTED  OVER  FACEBOOK  POST
❻ POETRY by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ EXTENDING  THE  DURATION  OF  DETAINING  4  JERUSALEMITE  CHILDREN  INSIDE  INTERNAL  REHABILITATION  INSTITUTIONS
Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan
April 18, 2016
The District Court judges decided to extend the duration of detaining 4 Jerusalemites children inside internal rehabilitation institutions [. . . .]
___The internal institutions are “rehabilitation institutions” run by the social affairs. Detaining children in such institutions is based on recommendations by the public prosecution and intelligence service; they are considered an alternative to the occupation prisons.      MORE . . .  

❷ ISRAELI  COURT  CONVICTS  PRIMARY  SUSPECT  IN  ABU-KHDEIR  MURDER
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 19, 2016
The primary suspect in the murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was convicted of murder on Tuesday, after an Israeli court in Jerusalem rejected an insanity plea presented by the defendant [. . . .]
___Abu Khdeir’s family demanded that not only Ben-David be sentenced to life imprisonment, but that also HIS FAMILY HOME BE PUNITIVELY DEMOLISHED [emphasis added], in parallel with the Israel’s policy of punitive demolition of family houses of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks . . .  MORE . . .   HISTORY . . .

❸ PA  LOSING  $285  MILLION  A  YEAR  UNDER  ARRANGEMENTS  WITH  ISRAEL
Ma’an News Agency
April 18, 2016
The Palestinian Authority is losing up to $285 million a year under its current economic arrangements with Israel, the World Bank said on Monday [. . . .]
___It found that the current revenue sharing arrangements as outlined by the Paris Protocol — through which Israel collects VAT, import taxes and other revenues on behalf of the PA — “have not been systematically implemented.”     MORE . . .

❹ PALESTINE  TO  SEND  MEDICS,  AID  TO  ECUADOR  AFTER  DEADLY  EARTHQUAKE
Ma’an News Agency
April 17, 2016
A Palestinian medical team will leave the occupied West Bank on Monday to help victims of a deadly earthquake in Ecuador, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said [. . . .]
___Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said a team of 15 Palestinian emergency and disaster medics would leave for Ecuador on Monday.
___Al-Maliki added that Palestine and Ecuador have always shared a strong bond and been supportive of one another.     MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  POETIC  INJUSTICE:  PALESTINIAN  POET  ARRESTED  OVER  FACEBOOK  POST
+972 Blog
Yoav Haifawi
April 17, 2016
Poet and activist Dareen Tatour has been charged with incitement to violence based on a poem she posted on Facebook. Its translation by a policeman whose sole competence as a translator is his ‘love for the Arabic language,’ was enough to convince the court to extend her remand and keep her under house arrest. MORE . . .   

“OF  POETRY,”  BY  MAHMOUD  DARWISH

I

Yesterday, we sang to a star behind a cloud
and bathed in our tears.
Yesterday, we bickered with the vine trees and the moon
with the nights, and fate,
and made love to women.
The hour struck, Khayyam drank on
and under the rhythm of his drugged songs
we remained poor as ever.
Poets, friends
we are in a new world!
What has passed is dead, and whoever writes a poem
in the days of the atom and the wind
creates prophets.

II

Our poems are without colour,
voiceless and tasteless.
If poetry  does not carry a lantern from house to house,
if the poor to not know what it ‘means’
we had better discard it!
It is better that we seek immortal silence

III

I would that these poems were
the chisel in the labourer’s hand,
the bomb in the extremist’s―

I would that these words
were the plough between a peasant’s hands,
a shirt, a door, or a key!
Someone has said,
If my poems please those who love me
and anger my enemies
then I am a poet. . .
But a for me―

(1964)

From WHEN THE WORDS BURN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN ARABIC POETRY: 1945-1987.
Translated and edited by John Mikhail Asfour. Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada. Cormorant BBooks, 1988.