An elderly Palestinian woman grabbed my hand and held it over her chest. “Feel my heartbeat,” she said. “We are really afraid of the settlers.” Only half an hour before she took my hand, a group of 20 settlers from Maon settlement entered the village of Juwwiya and shot at her and her family as they grazed their sheep. Joy Ellison writes from the occupied West Bank. Read more about Tony Blair and the full measure of justice 

CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptian authorities announced earlier this month the discovery of a Hizballah “cell” allegedly planning to carry out violent operations in Egypt. Although Hizballah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah insists the group was only tasked to assist the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, the government has used the episode to launch a blistering media campaign against the Lebanese Shia resistance group. Read more about Egypt's dubious claims spark row with Hizballah  

In the Sadiyya neighborhood inside the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City is the Jaber family home. There, three members of the Jaber family, as well as the Karaki family, have lived with their parents, and later spouses and children, since the 1930s. Six years ago Israeli police came to the house and told Nasser Jaber that his house no longer belonged to his family. Marcy Newman writes from occupied Jerusalem. Read more about Ethnic cleansing, one home at a time 

“My dear Palestinian brothers and sisters, I have come to your land and I have recognized shades of my own.” These are the first 20 words of an open letter written by Farid Esack, a South African scholar and political activist known for his role in the struggle against apartheid. The total length of his letter is 1,998 carefully chosen words in which he argues that the situation in Palestine is worse than it ever was in South Africa under apartheid rule. The Electronic Intifada co-founder Arjan El Fassed comments. Read more about The writing on the wall spells "freedom" 

BEIRUT (IRIN) - Eighty Ethiopian women have been in Tripoli Women’s Prison in north Lebanon for over a year, accused of not having a passport, which was either taken from them when they started as domestic workers or which they never had in the first place. Most were arrested on the street after running away from their employers — usually because of abuses ranging from forced confinement and starvation to physical harm and rape. Read more about Fair deal for domestic workers? 

AL-ARISH, Egypt (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of tons of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt’s North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Israel’s 22-day assault. Read more about Aid rots outside Gaza 

By the time we arrived in Sur Bahir, a Palestinian village near Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on the afternoon of 7 April, it was calm. At 6am, some 2,000 Israeli border police and special forces and other personnel descended on the village to demolish a wing of a house that belonged to the family of a Palestinian construction worker who allegedly went on a rampage while operating a bulldozer last July. Marian Houk reports. Read more about Punitive house demolitions as "deterrence" 

Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of this Sea (2008) is the first full-length feature film by a Palestinian female director. Since its world premier at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, it has toured the world and is scheduled to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York at the end of the month. Maymanah Farhat reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Finding a sense of home in "Salt of this Sea" 

“For this is what the Palestinian does: we wait. For an answer to be given, for a question to be asked … for exile to a better place and for return to the only place that knows us …” Laila El-Haddad writes about her deportation from Egypt while attempting to go home to Gaza. Read more about The quintessential Palestinian experience 

The moment in which boycott of Israeli elections could become a serious and viable option is fast approaching, if the necessary preparations are made. Nonetheless, the boycott is not an end in itself and must not be used in the context of a feeling of resignation towards politics and the possibility of having an impact. Otherwise, it will be no more than another means of depriving the people of hope. Nimer Sultany comments. Read more about Should Palestinian citizens vote in Israel's parliamentary elections? 

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - John Ging, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, has urged Israel to ease aid flow restrictions that are having a devastating effect on the 1.5 million inhabitants. Ging says the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza at present is “wholly and totally inadequate. It’s having a very devastating impact on the physical circumstances and also the mindset of people on the ground,” Ging told IPS. Read more about Gaza needs more aid 

KHAN YOUNIS, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - “They’re always shooting at us. Every day they shoot at us,” says Alaa Samour, 19, pulling aside his shirt to show a scar on his shoulder. Samour said he was shot on 28 December last year by Israeli soldiers positioned along the border fence near New Abassan village, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. Read more about In Gaza, farming under fire 

The Palestinian people’s unique determination and resistance to Israel’s military occupation was most recently exhibited during the very successful and well-attended second national fair trade conference in Palestine, which coincided with the inauguration of the Palestinian Fair Trade Network. Gen Sander comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Creative resistance in fair trade conferencing 

During Israel’s three-week-long offensive on Gaza launched on 27 December, the Israeli army used internationally banned weapons according to foreign military and medical experts. Israel used American-made white phosphorus shells in populated areas across the Gaza Strip. Yousef Al-Helou reports from the Gaza Strip. Read more about White phosphorus not forgotten in Gaza 

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - An estimated 1,346 children were left without one or more of their parents as a result of the recent 22-day Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Islamic Relief in Gaza. An orphan is defined by Islamic Relief as a child under 18 who has lost the parent considered the head of the household, most often the father, according to Mahmoud Abudraz, a child welfare program manager, for Islamic Relief in Gaza. Read more about Aid groups work to care for Gaza orphans 

At a time when Western governments refrain from using their power to stop Israel’s ongoing violations of international law, many civil society organizations silently watch the moral corrosion of their governments. At the “Israel Review Conference” in Geneva this month and the Russell Tribunal slated for early 2010, however, civil society will use its power and call Israel to account. Adri Nieuwhof comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Civil society shows its moral strength 

When schools under the United Nations flag are targeted, when children are targeted, when a whole population is systematically deprived of food and water, sanitation and electricity, the various UN agencies affected should not be content with protest alone — they should live up to their responsibility by taking action. Rahela Mizrani comments. Read more about UNESCO should join cultural boycott