❶ 3rd day of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza after Hamas accused of firing mortar rounds
❷ Palestine Museum of Natural History: Nature and People prosper
❸ Why some Palestinians aren’t optimistic about Israel’s decision to ease residency restrictions
❹ Israeli academic elite’s complicity in oppression
❺ Opinion/Analysis: FIGHT  ANTI-PALESTINIANISM  AS  WE  WOULD  ANTI-SEMITISM
❻ POETRY by Ibrahim Nasrallah
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❶ 3RD  DAY  OF  ISRAELI  AIRSTRIKES  IN  GAZA  AFTER  HAMAS  ACCUSED  OF  FIRING  MORTAR  ROUNDS
Ma’an News Agency
May 6, 2016
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip continued Friday morning for the third consecutive day, with the Israeli army accusing Hamas of launching mortar rounds near the border area.
___Witnesses told Ma’an Israeli warplanes targeted open areas east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported.
___At dawn, Israeli forces also fired three shells at eastern Rafah, with no injuries reported, witnesses said.      MORE . . .

❷ PALESTINE  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY:  NATURE  AND  PEOPLE  PROSPER
Mazin Qumsiyeh
May 4, 2016
Using largely volunteer efforts and local donations, Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and its Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) of Bethlehem University have a mission focused on research, education, and conservation of our natural world, culture and heritage and use knowledge to promote responsible empowered human interactions with all components of our environment. Our motto is RESPECT (first for ourselves, then others, then the environment).       VIDEO . . .

❸ WHY  SOME  PALESTINIANS  AREN’T  OPTIMISTIC  ABOUT  ISRAEL’S  DECISION  TO  EASE  RESIDENCY  RESTRICTIONS
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Iyad Qatrawi
April 29, 2016
Israel will issue identification cards indicating permanent residency status to 2,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem and the West Bank who meet certain criteria. The cards will allow Palestinian families to reunite, some for the first time in 13 years.
___ However, there are complications, many involving the Israeli Nationality Law of 2003, which is still in effect. The law prevents family reunification when one spouse is a resident of an Israeli city and the other is a Palestinian from the West Bank or Jerusalem and can only visit by obtaining temporary Israeli permits.     MORE . . .  

❹ ISRAELI  ACADEMIC  ELITE’S  COMPLICITY  IN  OPPRESSION
Alternative Information Center – AIC
Ofer Neiman
May 2016
Professor Nati Linial, from the computer science department of Hebrew University, recently received the prestigious Rothschild Prize. In his award ceremony speech at the Knesset, Linial chose to speak about fascism, rather than scientific topics. The choice to engage with political reality is commendable, but the speaker’s disregard of more fundamental political topics is worthy of a critical review.
___Fascism . . . threatens the wellbeing of many good people. It is most appropriate to speak of this in the Knesset. It is doubtful, however, that fascism is the fundamental driving force . . . .  The State of Israel relies on a central, government-controlled military force to attain its political goals. For nearly seventy years, these goals have been determined on the basis of fundamentally racist positions . . . .      MORE . . . 

❺ Opinion/Analysis: FIGHT  ANTI-PALESTINIANISM  AS  WE  WOULD  ANTI-SEMITISM
+972 Blog
Jeremiah Haber
April 16, 2016
By “anti-Palestinianism” I understand prejudice against Palestinian Arabs based on perceived negative qualities of Palestinian cultural or natural identity. Views such as “Palestinian Arab culture is a culture of death and martyrdom,” “Palestinian Arabs hate Jews because of incitement,” “Palestinian labor is inferior” are examples of this prejudice. Attempts to justify these prejudices are inevitably based on selective data, generalization, and bias.
___ By “anti-Semitism,” I understand prejudice against Jews based on perceived negative qualities of Jewish cultural, natural, or religious identity.      MORE . . .

“TENTS,”  BY  IBRAHIM  NASRALLAH

There are tents of blood and terror
in the dust
pitched there to make a myth of the sky.
There are tents of wind in our blood
that take us everywhere though we appear motionless,
so the lime in the lore of the mejana
and a smell from the sea surround us.
The singer has multiplied in us.
The Imam has multiplied in us.
The broadcaster has multiplied in us.
Talk has multiplied in us.
Departure and the medallions of war multiply and
fragment our bodies with victory!
And we are still here,
fifty years old―steeped in killing―
and on our own.

From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN  INSIDE:  SELECTED  POEMS.  Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.
About Ibrahim Nasrallah