
❶ The Nakba at 68: A catastrophe born of discrimination and impunity
. . . . . ❶― (A) [May 14] Marking Al-Nakba 68: Events around the World for Palestinian Return
. . . . . ❶― (B) Nakba Commemoration Day – [Beginning] May 13, 2016
❷ How Israel helps settler groups grab Palestinian land
❸ Israeli police arrest 10 Israelis for assaulting Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City
❹ Q&A: Bibi gave ‘death kiss’ to two-state solution, says ex-Knesset speaker
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE MIDDLE EAST TRAGEDY: THE BIG POWERS LEGACY
❻ POETRY by Ibrahim Nasrallah
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❶ THE NAKBA AT 68: A CATASTROPHE BORN OF DISCRIMINATION AND IMPUNITY
Palestine News Network
May 12, 2016
As Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (approximately 66% of Palestinian population worldwide) enter the 69th year of forced displacement from, and within, their ancestral homeland, Israel continues to create intolerable living conditions which further swell the number of displaced Palestinians. This ongoing Nakba (‘CATASTROPHE’) is perpetuated through Israel’s denial of the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return, the right to self-determination . . . . MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶― (A) [May 14] MARKING AL-NAKBA 68: EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD FOR PALESTINIAN RETURN
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
May 8, 2016
Events and actions are being organized around the world to mark the 68th anniversary of the Nakba, the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and lands in order to create a Zionist settler-colonial state on the land of Palestine. These events both remember over 68 years of Palestinian struggle, steadfastness, and resistance, but also support the ongoing struggle for Palestinian refugees’ return and the liberation of Palestine. MORE . . .
. . . . . ❶― (B) NAKBA COMMEMORATION DAY – [Beginning] MAY 13, 2016
The Jerusalem Fund
May 13, 2016
Please join us for a day-long series of events on Friday, May 13, at the Palestine Center where we will be hosting a range of interactive events, readings of poetry and original stories, film screenings, and olive oil tastings as we commemorate the Nakba together. In addition, we’ll be hosting a commemorative webpage that will be online May 13 – May 15. MORE . . .
❷ HOW ISRAEL HELPS SETTLER GROUPS GRAB PALESTINIAN LAND
The Electronic Intifada
Charlotte Silver
May 12, 2016
Last November, Muhammad Abu Ta’ah arrived at his property in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem only to find it had been fenced off by contractors.
___On the three-dunum plot of land, construction had begun on a four-story, 70-office building that would make up the new headquarters for the private settler group Amana.
___The property had once been part of an expansive 4,000 dunums (nearly 1,000 acres) of land which Israel expropriated in 1968 . . . .
___Much of this land had been owned by the Abu Ta’ah family [. . . .]
___But now it belongs to Amana, the development arm of the Gush Emunim settlement movement . . . . MORE . . .

❸ ISRAELI POLICE ARREST 10 ISRAELIS FOR ASSAULTING PALESTINIANS IN JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY
Ma’an News Agency
May 13, 2016
Israeli border police arrested 10 right-wing Israelis Thursday evening after they assaulted Palestinian residents of Jerusalem at the Damascus Gate entrance to occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that a group of Israeli extremists physically assaulted Palestinian youths and hurled verbal abuse at them, while repeating slogans calling for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque. MORE . . .
❹ Q&A: BIBI GAVE ‘DEATH KISS’ TO TWO-STATE SOLUTION, SAYS EX-KNESSET SPEAKER
Palestine News Network
Rori Donaghy
May 11, 2016
On Wednesday evening, 12 torches were lit on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Israeli celebrations for the 68th anniversary of their country’s establishment in 1948. . . . Middle East Eye sat down with Avraham Burg [Speaker of the Knesset, 1999–2003] in the pristine white building of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem [. . . .]
___The two-state solution died the day Bibi Netanyahu adopted it. Up until then, it had a chance. The minute he gave the Bar Ilan speech, it was a death kiss to the two-state solution. It’s not a product on the supermarket shelf that has no expiration date – it expired. MORE . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis: THE MIDDLE EAST TRAGEDY: THE BIG POWERS LEGACY
The Palestine Chronicle
May 12 2016
Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Arab people today are not only oppressed and marginalized, they are considered dangerous and disposable by their own tyrant rulers and the world’s community.
___From Palestine to Iraq, from Syria to Yemen, and from Egypt to Libya, the Middle East Arab civilians, individuals, families, and communities, who are not involved in hostilities, are being massacred, starved, humiliated and forced to seek safety in neighboring countries and beyond. . . . These are mostly victims of systematic, planned and deliberate attacks carried out by governments, theirs and foreign, and armed groups with different identities and ideologies.
___The international community and its organizations have abandoned their responsibilities to act, stop the carnage and protect people caught up in armed conflicts today because the ‘big powers’ created the conflicts and they control the global order. . . MORE . . .
“RENOVATION,” BY IBRAHIM NASRALLAH
He renovates a tin window
to open it for the morning birds.
And renovates some stars that have burned out
in the streets, and a woman massacred in the neighborhood.
He renovates a memory demolished like a wall,
a bird’s scattered ashes,
light reflected off a blade in the dark,
a woman lost in a spacious bed
and a bellow.
He renovates a friend’s face as the sea breaks over it
and the singer who no longer resembles his songs,
the wind when it sleeps forgetting the immensity of an orbit,
the taste of words in conversation,
the taste of air and fruit
and two legs that have never carried a planet
while destruction prevails.
He renovates a womb, subdues horses
and poems that beg for livelihood in the shade
before slipping into a chicken coop or blowing by
like a steaming train.
He renovates pillars, neighs,
guns covered with moss from waiting.
He renovates a promise, roots, clouds,
and in the end he is slain alone like a lighthouse.
From Nasrallah, Ibrahim. RAIN INSIDE: SELECTED POEMS. Trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2009. Available from Amazon.
About Ibrahim Nasrallah