❶ Leaders of Belgium’s parliament nominate Marwan Barghouti for Nobel Peace Prize
. . ❶ ― (ᴀ) ― April 17, 2014. Deputy President of South Africa signs Robben Island Declaration calling for the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi & All Palestinian political prisoners
❷ 28 Palestinian young women arrested over Facebook
❸ Israeli forces detain Palestinian teens, fire tear gas at Ramallah-area schools
❹ Israeli soldiers detain Palestinian lawmaker in overnight raid
❺ Opinion/Analysis: LIBERMAN’S  NEW  JOB:  CONTROL  OVER  FOUR  MILLION  PALESTINIANS
. . ❺― (ᴀ)  Liberman’s 10-point security program
❻ POETRY by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
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❶ LEADERS  OF  BELGIUM’S  PARLIAMENT  NOMINATE  MARWAN  BARGHOUTI  FOR  NOBEL  PEACE  PRIZE
Ma’an News Agency
May 18, 2016
Leading members of Belgium’s parliament from across the national political spectrum nominated Marwan Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday, referring to the imprisoned parliament member as the “Palestinian Mandela” and a symbol of peace in Palestine.
___“Peace requires the freedom of Marwan Barghouti and all of the political prisoners, and more generally the freedom of the Palestinian people living for decades under occupation,” the nomination letter sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated.
___“By granting the Nobel Peace Prize to someone who embodies the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, but also their aspiration to achieve peace. . . .”    MORE . . .   (Copy and paste)
. . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Deputy  President  of  South  Africa  signs  Robben Island Declaration  calling  for  the  freedom  of  Marwan  Barghouthi  &  All  Palestinian  political  prisoners
Media Review Network
April 17, 2014      MORE . . . 

❷ 28  PALESTINIAN  YOUNG  WOMEN  ARRESTED  OVER  FACEBOOK
The Palestinian Information Center
May 19, 2016
The Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) arrested 28 young women over Facebook posts since the outbreak of Jerusalem Intifada last October, the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies revealed Thursday.
___The rights center stated that Israeli forces notably escalated arrests against Palestinian women over the past seven months under flimsy pretexts [. . . .]
___Israeli authorities invented since the outbreak of Jerusalem Intifada a new charge against Palestinian women. 28 Palestinian young women were arrested for “incitement” in social media. At least six of them are still held behind Israeli bars, while eight others were held in administrative detention.       MORE . . .   

❸ ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  PALESTINIAN  TEENS,  FIRE  TEAR  GAS  AT  RAMALLAH-AREA  SCHOOLS
Ma’an News Agency
May 18, 2016
Israeli soldiers stormed the central occupied West Bank town of Beituniya on Wednesday morning, detaining two teenagers and firing tear gas at nearby schools.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli troops questioned several young men in the streets of the town west of Ramallah before detaining two teenagers.
___Israeli forces also fired tear gas towards schools in Beituniya, causing dozens of schoolchildren to choke, witnesses added.      MORE . . .      (Copy and paste)

❹ ISRAELI  SOLDIERS  DETAIN  PALESTINIAN  LAWMAKER  IN  OVERNIGHT  RAID
+972 Blog
Noam Rotem
May 18, 2016
Israeli forces arrested Palestinian parliamentarian Abed al-Jaber Fuqaha in his home in the al-Masyoun neighborhood of Ramallah during an overnight raid Monday. According to members of Fuqaha’s family, soldiers burst into their home in the early hours of the morning, beat and took him into custody [. . . .]
___Fuqaha is the seventh Palestinian legislator in Israeli custody. . . .     MORE . . .  

❺ Opinion/Analysis:  LIBERMAN’S  NEW  JOB:  CONTROL  OVER  FOUR  MILLION  PALESTINIANS
+972 Blog
Noam Sheizaf
May 19, 2016
Avigdor Liberman’s appointment as defense minister is, in my eyes, one of Netanyahu’s most surprising moves . . . . Netanyahu is a careful politician that does not like big egos surrounding him, and Liberman is Liberman — a person who deliberately chooses to be unexpected and undisciplined — even when it doesn’t serve his interests — and who spews hawkish remarks in spades.
___Liberman promised to take down Hamas and execute terrorists — and all this before we blow up Egypt’s Aswan Dam, as he once famously suggested. . . . Liberman has too many promises to fill, and an electorate that runs the gamut from traditional right-wingers to Kahanists. This is disturbing.      MORE . . .
. . ❺― (ᴀ) LIBERMAN’S  10-POINT  SECURITY  PROGRAM
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)
Mazal Mualem
February 29, 2016
“Instead of fighting against terrorism, this government is paying protection money to terrorists. It’s happening right now” [. . . .]
___At a speech [Liberman] introduced his own “10-point program” to stop the wave of terror. After calling for the reinstitution of Israel’s targeted assassination strategy of wanted terrorists, his second point was to stop the transfer of all funds to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.     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 of our valley
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 shattered 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?

About Jabra Ibrahim Jabra.  
From AN  ANTHOLOGY  OF  MODERN  ARABIC  POETRY, selected, edited and translated by Mounah Khouri and Hamid Algar.  Online here.