SELECTED   NEWS   OF   THE   DAY. . .
|  GERMANY  ALLOCATES  €55  MILLION  TO  PALESTINIAN  DEVELOPMENT  PROJECTS
Germany allocated 55 million Euros to be dispersed to Palestinian development projects in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in 2019.    ___Klaus Kramer, the Head of Division in the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, told reporters in Ramallah that it was agreed, in coordination with various ministries in the Palestinian government, that the money will go to mainly three sectors: sustainable economic development, infrastructure such as water projects and local governance, including projects with municipalities.    ___While the funds in form of grants will go mainly to these three areas, which are government-run projects, other development projects in other fields will also get part of the money, such as projects carried out by civil society organizations.     More . . .    ..
. . . . Related  PEA rejects Israeli threats against renewable energy projects
. . . . Related  Israel plans to turn settlements in Salfit into one large city
. . . . Related  Israel demolishes Palestinian school in southern Hebron
. . . . Related  US envoy Greenblatt: ‘We stand with Israel’
. . . . Related  Is the Israeli military operation along the border with Lebanon for real?
|  ISRAELI  FORCES  DETAIN  23  PALESTINIANS  FROM  WEST  BANK         
Israeli forces Wednesday detained 23 Palestinians, including three former prisoners and a 14-year-old minor, during multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).    ___Israeli military jeeps raided Salfit city, where they detained two Palestinians. . .   ___Israeli forces also detained two other Palestinians in separate two raids into Iskaka and Qarawat Bani Hassan, east and west of Salfit city.    ___In Ramallah district, military jeeps raided Deir Nitham village, northwest of Ramallah, where soldiers detained three Palestinians. . . .   More . . .    ..
. . . .  Related  Over 2,000 Israelis break into 3rd holiest site in Islam in November
|  ISRAELI  COURT  RULES  AGAINST  GAZA  FATHER  WHO  LOST  3  DAUGHTERS  IN  2008  WAR
An Israeli court yesterday ruled against a Palestinian from Gaza whose three daughters were killed by the Israeli army during its 2008 war on the Strip, denying Israel’s responsibility for their deaths.    ___Izzeldin Abuelaish, a 63-year-old doctor from Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip, lost three daughters and a niece during Israel’s 2008-2009 war on the besieged enclave. His story was made famous after he discovered his children had been killed while speaking to an Israeli TV channel, with his suffering broadcast live across the country and later shared widely around the world.    More . . .
. . . . Related  MOFA demands ICC to try Israeli killers of Tulkarem martyr
. . . . Related  ‘Gender violence pushed Jewish, Palestinian women into a corner — together’

COMMENTARY    AND    OPINION. . . .
|  PROFESSIONAL  SOLIDARITY  WITH  PALESTINE:  A  MENTAL  HEALTH  IMPERATIVE
By Dr. Samah Jabr
In the field of medicine, we often speak of the social determinants of health. In Palestine, not only social, but political determinants of health have a grave impact on the well-being and mental health of our community. I am not just talking about the political blackmail through recent blatant cuts of the US administration of millions of US dollars from East Jerusalem hospitals and defunding UNRWA educational and health services, but also through the daily realities of dismal work opportunities, a vacuum of leadership, the threat of political detention haunting our youth, and the pervasive experiences of loss and grief. Centuries of political oppression has created a cascade of damage to collective identity and individuals’ personalities.    ___The ongoing siege of Gaza is only a single dramatization of how the political realities of occupation deliberately destroy the quality of life for Palestinians.    More . . .

POEM  FOR  THE  DAY. . . . 

“HOW  ARE  YOU?”  BY  MOURID  BARGHOUTI
Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

From: Barghouti, Mourid. Midnight and other Poems. Trans. By Radwa Ashour. Todmorden, Lancashire, UK: Arc Books, 2008. Available from B&N.