❶ Settlers Set Up Tents near Jenin
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ) Israeli forces escort settlers into Area A village
❷Palestinians forced to close shops in Hebron for Israeli Passover visits
❸Israeli forces open fire on fishermen, level land in Gaza
❹ Israel arrests Palestinian journalist en route to int’l conference
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL’S  CONTINUED  PURSUITS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
❻ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
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❶  SETTLERS  SET  UP  TENTS  NEAR  JENIN
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
April 26, 2016
Dozens of Israeli settlers on Tuesday broke into an abandoned military base to the south of Jenin, where they erected tents, according to local sources.
___Witnesses told WAFA that dozens of settlers accompanied by a military escort broke into Dothan, an abandoned military base to the south of Jenin, and set up tents, performed rituals, and chanted racist slogans against Arabs.
___To be noted, Israeli settlers and settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal in international law.      MORE . . .  
. . . . . ❶― (ᴀ)  ISRAELI  FORCES  ESCORT  SETTLERS  INTO  AREA  A  VILLAGE
Ma’an News Agency
April 26, 2016
Israeli settlers were escorted by armed military forces into the Palestinian village of al-Karmil in the southern occupied West Bank district of Yatta on Tuesday to visit a local park in direct violation of peace agreements, locals said.
___Head of Yatta’s city council Mousa Makhamrah told Ma’an that dozens of Israelis arrived from nearby illegal settlements to perform religious rituals at an ancient pool in the area.
___Al-Karmil’s park is located under full Palestinian jurisdiction in Area A, and Makhamrah warned that Israeli entrance into the area marked a grave breach of Palestinian sovereignty.      MORE . . .

❷ PALESTINIANS  FORCED  TO  CLOSE  SHOPS  IN  HEBRON  FOR  ISRAELI  PASSOVER  VISITS
Ma’an News Agency
April 26, 2016
Palestinian shop owners were forced to close their storefronts in Hebron Tuesday as Israeli politicians called for the annexation of the occupied city during visits by thousands of right-wingers for Passover.
___Hebron local and prominent activist Issa Amro told Ma’an that Israeli forces instructed shopkeepers in both the H1 and H2 areas of Hebron to remain closed.
___Amro said forcing shops to close in H1 — the area of the city under jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority — the Israeli authorities were supporting right-wing Israelis aiming to push Palestinian locals from the city.       MORE . . .  

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  OPEN  FIRE  ON  FISHERMEN,  LEVEL  LAND  IN  GAZA
Ma’an News Agency
April 26, 2016
Israeli forces on Tuesday opened fire on Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip as military forces leveled Palestinian land on the borderline with Israel, locals said.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli naval forces fired live ammunition at fishermen working off the coast of al-Zahra area of central Gaza. No injuries were reported.
___In the eastern area of the besieged enclave, locals said Israeli bulldozers entered Palestinian land near al-Shujaiyya and leveled the area.      MORE . . .  

❹ ISRAEL  ARRESTS  PALESTINIAN  JOURNALIST  EN ROUTE  TO  INT’L  CONFERENCE
Mondoweiss
By Haggai Matar
April 25, 2016
Israel arrested a Palestinian journalist on Saturday while he was trying to leave the West Bank en route to Sarajevo for a meeting of the European Federation of Journalists.
___Omar Nazzal, a Ramallah-based independent journalist and a member of the board of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, was arrested before crossing Allenby Bridge into Jordan and has since been detained on “security charges,” Israel claimed.     MORE . . .

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  ISRAEL’S  CONTINUED  PURSUITS  IN  THE  WEST  BANK
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
April 25, 2016
Palestinians and Israelis are experiencing a conflict over the Israeli army’s “pursuit” of wanted Palestinians in Area A. Meanwhile, Palestinian security agencies are asking Israelis to hand over security information in order for them to arrest and pursue wanted Palestinians themselves, but Israel is refusing and demands to do it itself. The PA is not afraid that it will lose what is left of its status and sovereignty over the West Bank.
___The Israeli army took advantage of the outbreak of the intifada since October 2015 and the expansion of the parameters of the Palestinian attacks against Israelis, causing the death of 33 Israelis and the wounding of over 250 others, to violate all areas of the West Bank under the pretext of the pursuit of wanted Palestinians. They did not distinguish between Areas A, B, and C.        MORE . . .   

“JOSEPH,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM

For you my Beloved
I cut tents with my own skin,
And at the encampment of sorrow
Water the rose nurseries
With tears of blood.

If the wind blows,
I question it.
And should it return,
I ask it to carry my greetings
And eagerly address it,
Even if it does not answer.

Peace be with you, my Beloved,
My Brethren, my Neighbours and my Friends,
Peace.
How fare you in the seasons of heat and cold?
How fare the children
And our dead comrades?
Have they, on the other side of the fence,
Got used to the long night and its silence?
How is our father Jacob?
Does he still, my heart, lean upon his sorrows,
One hand always on his cheek
Because of the long silence of grief,
And the other sunk deep in the shirt of blood?
O my Beloved, my Beloved,
Should the wind, out of tenderness, visit me,
And choose to be my messenger,
It shall stop by the tent of our father, Jacob,
And say that I, after kissing
His hands from the distance,
Bring him the glad tidings
Of the return of our beloved Joseph.
For it is written:
God and man
Are to meet on earth.

From: A  LOVER  FROM  PALESTINE  AND  OTHER  POEMS:  AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  PALESTINIAN  POETRY. Ed. Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri. Washington, DC: Free Palestine Press, 1970.      Available from Amazon.
About Samih Al-Qasim