For the past six months, people in the Jenin district have been struggling under curfews and closures with varying degrees of strictness. Today, like yesterday and the day before, was one of the stricter days. Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders report from nearby Zababdeh. Read more about Cross the Line 

In Namsawi, an area of Khan Younis refugee camp directly in the line of Israeli fire, displaced families live in buildings with holes the size of Volkswagen bugs. Apache missle fire and tank shelling have destroyed many areas of the camp made up of soccer fields and cement apartment buildings. There are children playing in the sandy dirt who scatter when shots are fired. Half the population is under 15. Kristen Ess reports from Gaza. Read more about Israel's daily destruction of Gaza 

The new US “road map” to peace in the Middle East presented by US Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns is nothing but a placebo for the Palestinians and the world community amidst war talk and sabre-rattling in Washington, DC. The new plan is not an adequate response to Palestinian and international demands that Israel immediately end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Sam Bahour and Israeli Michael Dahan weigh in. Read more about Another road map to nowhere 

At 30 mph, cars seem as if they are speeding on the dusty road of Qarrara, a village just south of Abu Ali checkpoint and a few minutes north of Khan Younis, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The checkpoint is open now. F-16s are rumbling overhead on their way to terrorize Rafah. Israeli soldiers are shooting in nearby Mawasi. Kristen Ess writes from Qarrara, Occupied Gaza. Read more about Misery in Mawasi 

A little more than a year ago, Brooklyn-reared Palestinian American Suheir Hammad was just an obscure writer and occasional college student putting in work on the New York poetry circuit and taking to the streets for a variety of political causes. Then terrorists attacked her city. The 28-year-old responded the only way she knew how: She jotted down a poem, “First Writing Since.” Amid the ocean of print inspired by That Day, perhaps no other collection of words has so succinctly articulated the strange confluence of being both Muslim and American in that moment in history. Natalie Hopkinson writes in the Washington Post. Read more about Out of the Ashes, Drops of Meaning: The Poetic Success of Suheir Hammad 

Issam Nashashibi Two prominent African American members of Congress lost their primary bids for re-election in 2002. Their defeats were widely attributed to the influence of AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, which was angered by positions they had taken in support of Palestinian human rights. Issam Nashashibi, in this contribution to EI, writes that while the US and Arab press continue to mythologize AIPAC’s power and invincibility, the lobby’s influence is often exaggerated. This, he argues, means that there are good prospects for Arab Americans to play a bigger role in shaping debate and policy in US politics. Read more about AIPAC's power is often overrated 

Last week, armed Israeli policemen burst into the East Jerusalem YMCA offices and arrested Haytham Hammouri, a YMCA staff member. He was handcuffed and taken into police custody. No charges were made, and he was kept incommunicado for three days. Finally, he was able to see a lawyer, taken in front of an Israeli court, and sentenced to six months “administrative detention” in an Israeli prison. No charges were made against him, and there has been no trial. Haytham joins more than 12,000 Palestinians in a similar situation, and he may be the only Palestinian resident of Jerusalem held under this arbitrary pretext. To find out what you can do to help, read on. Read more about Protest Arbitrary Imprisonment 

Najeeb Shaheen in NY, September 2002. Photo by Nigel Parry. Najeeb Shaheen builds, repairs and plays the oud in two bands. Shaheen’s father was a professor of music and a master oud player, and his grandfather was a musician and a church cantor. His brother, Simon Shaheen, is known as one of the oud’s most accomplished adherents, and played on Sting’s song ‘Desert Rose’. Najeeb learned his craftsman’s skills from a one-time Israeli citizen who now builds violins for a living in Manhattan. “Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree. Most often we disagree,” said Segal. “But we are like brothers, bonded by music, and so it has become a joke as well. If I tell him to move from one seat to another, he will turn to me and say, ‘What? You stole my land and now you want my chair as well?’ ” Ayaz Nanji profiles Najeeb in Newsday. Read more about Just Call Him the 'Oud' Man of Music 

Imagine losing a loved one suddenly and violently, and having to constrain yourself and not express any sadness or anger. It must be hard. Now imagine witnessing the murder of your own mother and finding yourself so contrained. You cannot do anything about it, you cannot find answers, and you have to save your own life. Amer Abdelhadi writes from Nablus about the plight of the family of Shaden Abu Hijleh. Read more about The funeral of Shaden Abu Hijleh 

On October 3rd, there was another hearing in the Tel Aviv trial of Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian politician and a leader of the Fatah organisation. The Israeli government carefully stage managed the event, allowing a right wing group innocently named “Organization of Terror Victims” access to disrupt the hearing while denying access to holders of the Israeli government press card. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery writes about the experience. Read more about What a Show! 

One of the features of prolonged Israeli sieges is that everyone, no matter what their line of work or social status, will have to deal with the interruption to their life posed by closures, checkpoints, and cope with days and weeks spent trapped in the confines of their town or, in the case of curfews, the walls of their home. Samia Halileh and Rita Giacaman, who work for the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, have documented the Institute’s process of “accommodating exceptional circumstances”. The following report is a glimpse into the dangers and frustrations of trying to carry on an academic life during wartime. Read more about Distance Learning: An educational survival strategy in war-like conditions at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University (part 2 of 2)