“I recently returned from the Holy Land after leading about 40 Presbyterians from Galilee to Jerusalem. This isn’t new territory for me. I’ve been in the country many times leading students, working at archaeology digs, speaking at conferences, and occasionally taking a church such as this. And this time what I saw and heard was worrying.” Author and Bible scholar Gary Burge comments on rising frustration amidst Israel’s policies that are destroying Palestinian communities and futures across the occupied West Bank. Read more about A third uprising? 

Zaher and Jihad are two boys living in Gaza. Every day they get up early and rush to Gaza City’s streets so that they might find something to sell to those walking or driving by. They are just two of a growing number of children who are forced to work to help feed their families as the Israeli-led blockade of the Gaza Strip continues to take its toll on every aspect of life. Rami Almeghari reports. Read more about As blockade bites deep, more Gaza children must work 

Having himself been such a key part of the failed peace process, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana recently made a seemingly bold proposal that the UN Security Council “mandate” a resolution of central issues in the Palestine/Israel conflict — borders, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements and security arrangements. What lies behind this surprise move? Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Using the UN to undermine Palestinian rights 

Rolling into Gaza I had a feeling of homecoming. There is a flavor to the ghetto. To the Bantustan. To the “rez.” Last March, poet and novelist Alice Walker traveled to the Gaza Strip just weeks after the 22-day Israeli assault. The Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple, now recounts the stories of people she met in Gaza, and offers a lyrical analysis that ties their struggle to what she and her community experienced in the segregated American South. Read more about "The best place one could be on Earth" 

I had expected to encounter difficulty from Egyptian and Israeli authorities upon attempting to enter Gaza. But neither had interfered. After traveling thousands of kilometers, and now literally standing a few hundred meters away from Gaza, the sad irony was that it was my own government that was preventing me from entering. I couldn’t understand why South Africa, which claims to be sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle, had adopted this policy. Sayed Dhansay comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Why is South Africa still helping apartheid Israel? 

A recent meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israel lobby leaders was designed to assuage American Jewish anxiety over US pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction. But rather than using American leverage to require Israel to comply with international law, the Obama administration is actually offering it more rewards at the expense of Palestinians and Arab states. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Obama's prizes for Israel are not "pressure" 

Breakdance, the hip hop dance style that began on the streets of New York City more than 30 years ago has become popular with youth all over the world, even breaking through the tight Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Breakdance breaks out in the Gaza Strip 

Palestine should not have problems attracting tourists, with its rich blend of history, religious significance, local culture, as well as the varied and breathtaking scenery. But of course, the political context of the Israeli occupation means that the vast majority of tourists in the “Holy Land” only see Palestinians through the window of a tour bus, as they dash in and out of Bethlehem for a couple of hours. Ben White reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about "Visit Palestine" says West Bank's growing alternative tourism industry 

When the Israeli navy seized the Spirit of Humanity and its 21 passengers on 30 June, did the commandos commit acts of piracy under international law? Civil rights attorney Radhika Sainath argues that the laws of piracy should not be selectively applied to poor Africans who hijack huge tankers belonging to rich corporations, but enforced against Israel as well. Read more about Is Israel guilty of piracy? 

While Israel has been buying yet more time with Washington in bickering over a paltry settlement freeze, it has been forging ahead with the process of creating two Palestinian territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, that, despite supposedly emerging from occupation, are in reality sinking ever deeper into chronic dependency on Israeli goodwill. This is creating a culture of absolute Israeli control and absolute Palestinian dependency, enforced by proxy Palestinian rulers acting as mini-dictatorships. Jonathan Cook comments. Read more about The victory of defeat 

Israel has never been short of pretexts for obstructing progress towards a Middle East peace settlement. But recent moves to push Arab and Muslim states to normalize ties with Israel as a reward for agreeing to freeze settlement construction will likely provide Israel with more opportunities for obstruction rather than incentives for cooperation. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Offering Israel new opportunities for obstruction 

Mahmoud Abu al-Anzain and his wife, Umm Naim, and their three children used to live in a two-room, cement-roofed house. It wasn’t a palace, but it was a home. The house was completely destroyed by Israeli army fire during last January’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Six months later, the family is among those still living in tents. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Six months later, no reconstruction in Gaza 

In a major policy speech on 25 June 2009, Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, tried to do what may be impossible: present the Islamist Palestinian resistance organization as a willing partner in a US-led peace process, while holding on to his movement’s political principles and base. This is the dilemma that every Palestinian leadership, and perhaps almost every liberation movement, has eventually had to confront. It is a choice, as political scientist Tamim Barghouti has pointed out, between recognition and legitimacy. Ali Abunimah analyzes. Read more about Hamas' choice: Recognition or resistance in the age of Obama 

“At 5:30 PM an Israeli shell landed on my brother’s house,” the father told visitors who had come to offer condolences for his daughter at the family’s home on Friday. The shell injured a nephew and Salim Abu Ayish rushed to render aid. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Hiyam, a Gaza teenager killed as she offered aid 

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - “They told us ‘go west or we will shoot you,’” says Ashraf Sadallah. “Initially, we refused, so they began shooting very close all around our boat.” At 6am on 16 June, Sadallah and his brother Abdel Hadi Sadallah, in their early twenties, went roughly 400 meters out to sea off the coast of Sudaniya in Gaza’s northwest. “We wanted to bring in nets we had left out the night before,” says Sadallah. Read more about Gaza's sea a "no-go zone" for fishermen 

The play Oh Well Never Mind Bye is set in the busy newsroom of an unnamed London-based newspaper — probably a right-wing tabloid — in the days before and after London police shot dead a Brazilian immigrant on an underground train. But in a genuinely brave piece of playwriting, Steven Lally has drawn on wider themes, including the “churnalism” that has turned much of the journalistic profession into a regurgitation of celebrity press releases, the way in which Palestine and related issues are reported in the mainstream media and the influence of the Zionist lobby on news coverage. Sarah Irving reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Newsroom politics dramatized in "Oh Well Never Mind Bye"