❶ 647 Palestinians Held in Administrative Detention since October 2015
❷ Israel to Demolish Home of Three Jerusalemite Prisoners
❸ Israeli settlers escalate their attacks against Palestinians
❹ Israel imposes “general closure” on Palestinian territory for Israeli Independence Day
❺ Opinion/Analysis: MOST  ISRAELI  JEWS  THINK  THERE’S  NO  OCCUPATION.  SO  WHAT  IS  IT?
❻ POETRY by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ 647  PALESTINIANS  HELD  IN  ADMINISTRATIVE  DETENTION  SINCE  OCTOBER  2015
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 12, 2016
Israeli forces placed 647 Palestinians in administrative detention without trial or charge since October 2015, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) on Thursday.
___PPS said the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention has reached about 750 for the first time since 2008.
___It added Israeli military courts have issued 1,144 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the first of October 2015.      MORE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  TO  DEMOLISH  HOME  OF  THREE  JERUSALEMITE  PRISONERS
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 12, 2016
The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem on Thursday handed a notice to the family of three Palestinian prisoners informing them that their home will be demolished, under the pretext of construction without a permit.
___Um Tareq al-Issawi, the mother of Samer, Shereen and Medhat al-Issawi – three prisoners in Israeli jails, told WAFA that she has received a notice from the Israeli municipality regarding their intention to demolish their house, for being constructed without an Israeli permit [. . . .]
She said such a decision aims at “breaking the steadfastness” of her three imprisoned sons.      MORE . . . 

❸ ISRAELI  SETTLERS  ESCALATE  THEIR  ATTACKS  AGAINST  PALESTINIANS
The Palestinian Information Center
May 12, 2016
Israeli settlers stepped up overnight their attacks against Palestinians and their properties as they were celebrating their Jewish holidays.
___In al-Khalil, a group of settlers stoned late yesterday several Palestinian homes in the Old City.
___The settlers threw stones and empty bottles at a number of local homes after they performed Talmudic rituals at the Ibrahimi Mosque, the PIC reporter affirmed.   MORE . . .

❹ ISRAEL  IMPOSES  “GENERAL  CLOSURE” ON  PALESTINIAN  TERRITORY  FOR ISRAELI  INDEPENDENCE  DAY
Ma’an News Agency
May 11, 2016
Israeli authorities declared a “general closure” on Gaza and the occupied West Bank since midnight on Tuesday and continuing until midnight on Thursday, as Israel celebrates its Memorial and Independence Day [. . . .]
___Crossings into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza are only being permitted in humanitarian cases. However, a representative of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has requested approval for Palestinians in need of serious medical assistance. . . .
___An Israeli army spokesperson said the closure was implemented following an army “security assessment” and added that the closure restrictions included the passage of products and the movement of people into Israel and its illegal settlements.
MORE . . .    you will have to copy and paste Ma’an News Agency into your browser; it is no longer possible to link it directly for their security reasons.

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  MOST  ISRAELI  JEWS  THINK  THERE’S  NO  OCCUPATION.  SO  WHAT  IS  IT?
+972 Magazine Blog
Natasha Roth
May 11, 2016
A recent poll finds that 72 percent of Jewish Israelis believe Israel’s control over the Palestinian territories does not constitute occupation. So what do you call military rule over a captive population that didn’t vote for the army to be there?      MORE . . .  

“IN  THE  DESERTS  OF  EXILE,”  BY  JABRA  IBRAHIM  JABRA
Spring after spring, in the deserts of exile,
What are we doing with our love,
When our eyes are full of frost and dust?

Our Palestine, green land of ours;
Its flowers as if embroidered of women’s gowns;
March adorns its hills
With the jewel-like peony and narcissus;
April bursts open in its plains
With flowers and bride-like blossoms;
May is our rustic song
Which we sing at noon, in the blue shadows,
Among the olive trees in our valleys,
And in the ripeness of the fields we wait for the promise of July
And the joyous dance amidst the harvest.

O land of ours where our childhood passed
Like dreams in the shade of the orange grove,
Among the almond trees in the valleys―
Remember us now wandering
Among the thorns of the desert,
Wandering in rocky mountains;
Remember us now
In the tumult of cities beyond deserts and seas;
Remember us with our eyes full of dust
That never clears in our ceaseless wandering.
They crushed the flowers on the hills around us,
Destroyed the houses over our heads,
Scattered our torn remains
Then unfolded the desert before us,
With valleys writhing in hunger
And blue shadows
Scattered into red thorns
Bent over corpses left as prey for falcon and crow.

Is it from your hills that the angels sang to the shepherds
Of peace on earth and goodwill among men?
Only death laughed when it saw
Among the entrails of beasts
The ribs of men,
And through the guffaw of bullets
It went dancing a joyous dance
On the heads of weeping women.
Our land is an emerald,
But in the deserts of exile,
Spring after spring,
Only the dust hisses in our face.
What then, what are we doing with our love,
When our eyes and our mouth are full of frost and dust?

From THE  PALESTINIAN  WEDDING:  A  BILINGUAL  ANTHOLOGY  OF  CONTEMPORARY  PALESTINIAN  RESISTANCE  POETRY. Ed. and Trans. A. M. Elmessiri. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982.
Available from Palestine Online Store.
About Jabra Ibrahim Jabra