A Wikileaks gem that I came across after the final dump of all the cables this summer is all the more shiny in light of today’s vote to make Palestine a member state at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Read more about Wikileaks: Israel wanted to overcome diplomatic isolation at UNESCO 

Before this week’s decision by a British immigration court to refuse Sheikh Raed Salah’s appeal against deportation, I appeared on the Arabic satellite channel al-Hiwar. In conversation with Hanan Chehata (from MEMO), I give a general introduction and background to the case, for the channel’s English-language programme Jusoor (“Bridges”). Read more about My appearance on al-Hiwar channel, explaining the Raed Salah case 

  UPDATED: A leading Palestinian activist from Bil’in has become the village’s latest political prisoner. Ashraf Abu Rahmeh was kidnapped by Israeli occupation soldiers last week, and has now been indefinitely detained on the orders of an Israeli captain at Ofer prison. Read more about Now Israel indefinitely detains Palestinian activist whose siblings it killed 

French transportation multinational Alstom, which is involved in the illegal Jerusalem Light Rail project, loses a multi-billion-dollar contract due to the sustained pressure by BDS activists. Read more about BDS victory: French transportation giant Alstom loses $10 billion contract due to BDS pressure 

Finland’s Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has strongly criticized Israel’s practices against Palestinians and declared that “No apartheid state is justified or sustainable.” But will Finland take action to end its arms trade with Israel? Read more about Finland foreign minister condemns Israeli "apartheid" but will he act?  

A new video titled “A Message from Palestine” has surfaced on the internet and is being shared by many Palestinian youth who agree with its message. Read more about "A Message from Palestine" 

From the Cambridge Bin Veolia campaign: 58% of students vote to break contract with company implicated in Israeli human rights abuses Students at Cambridge have voted to call on the University to cut ties with a company implicated in Israeli human rights abuses. Read more about Cambridge students vote to break contract with Veolia 

In a new article made available today by the journal Jerusalem Quarterly, activist and The Electronic Intifada contributor Hannah Mermelstein discusses a lesser known part of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine — the attempted annihilation of the Palestinian nation through cultural theft and destruction. Read more about Israel's war on Palestinian culture 

Palestinian academics and Cambridge lecturers join call for boycott Students at Cambridge will start voting Friday in a referendum calling on the University to cut ties with a company implicated in Israeli human rights abuses. The referendum, scheduled for 21-24 October, calls on CUSU (Cambridge University Students Union) to campaign to have the University cut ties with Veolia, a company involved in infrastructure projects in Israeli settlements, and employed by the University on a waste disposal contract. Read more about Press Release: Cambridge students to begin vote on company with Israeli settlement ties 

Sharp disagreements have intensified among leading US pro-Israel groups on the best methods to suppress criticism and discussion of Israel’s apartheid, occupation, colonization and human rights abuses, or support for Palestinian rights, on US college campuses. The dispute centers on the use of US civil rights statutes to lodge complaints against universities, alleging that discussion of Israel amounts to an infringement of the civil rights of Jewish students who might be made “uncomfortable” by hearing such discussions. Read more about US Zionists sharply divided over how to censor Palestine speech on campus  

Earlier today, I was at the receiving end of aggressive police behavior during a protest against a company operating in an illegal Israeli settlement. Along with about 15 activists, I picketed a food fair in Brussels to highlight how SodaStream produces carbonation machines for making soft drinks at a factory in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli-controlled industrial zone in the West Bank. Read more about Police aggression at Brussels protest against Israeli firm 

Education served through school is never enough; it does not define a student’s character and personality. What defines a student is his/her level of awareness of the environment they live in, the knowledge they gain by reading, learning about, and exploring the world around them. That is what motivated us to organize Palestine’s first high school Model United Nations conference, PalMUN. Read more about Palestinian Model United Nations 

To provide a solid evidential backing to my reporting on the Raed Salah case, I am now able to share with you the following documents mentioned in court. They prove that the British government used fabricated anti-Semitism that Israelis had attributed to Palestinian political activist Raed Salah. Read more about Documents prove the UK used fabricated anti-Semitism to ban Raed Salah 

Hip Hop group DAM released a new track in support of the Palestinian prisoners actions for justice. Three foreign nationals participate in hunger strike in Gaza and activists in Greece told the Israeli ambassador to stop torture in Israeli jails. Read more about Hip-hop band DAM supports Palestinian prisoners' actions with new track 

What do the efforts to silence criticism of Israel and the attacks on Occupy Wall Street have in common? Read more about Silencing Occupy Wall Street and criticism of Israel through demonization  

In the de facto one state that exists between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, Israeli authorities are currently planning mass expulsions of around 60,000 Palestinians, specifically in order to free up more territory for Jewish settlement. Read more about Israel plans expulsion of some 60,000 Bedouin Palestinians 

In solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held under harsh conditions in Israel’s jails, a new twitter trend emerged today from Gaza. The trend is #TweepStrike and is an open invitation to everyone across the globe to go on a hunger strike on Wednesday Sept. 12th. Read more about #TweepStrike: A Call from Gaza to Support Palestinian Prisoners 

The UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has rejected a formal complaint by PLO “chief negotiator” Saeb Erekat that Al Jazeera English had treated him unfairly in its programs on the Palestine Papers, broadcast over four consecutive nights from 23-26 January. Read more about UK TV regulator rejects Saeb Erekat complaint of unfair coverage of Palestine Papers 

Nicolas Kristof, the venerable New York Times columnist and champion of foreign policy liberalism, wrote a pretty middling article a couple of days ago, called “Is Israel its Own Worst Enemy?” Kristof has a sort of Groundhog Day dynamic with the Palestine-Israel conflict; every once in a while, he wakes up and rattles off an anguished column, mourning the radicals on both sides that make “pe Read more about Dire Consequences for Backing the US State Department's Consensus on the Two State Solution 

My recent expose on how the British government colluded with the Community Security Trust (CST) to ban Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah from the country seems to have annoyed the CST. They replied today with a long and rather defensive, anonymous post on their blog. It is full of telling comments. To me it reeks of a guilty conscience. It begins with an admission… Read more about CST denies it acted "on behalf of Israel" in Salah plot 

I had to admit, it was hard to shift gears for the Alice Walker/Ali Abunimah talk yesterday. Just a few hours earlier, the Occupy Wall Street protests were hitting their apogee, where I’m told some 15 to 50 thousand people took to the streets in numbers so great that they swelled at the seams and burst into the streets at times, challenging the right of the city and police to control popular expression. Read more about Leaving the Shore: Reflections on a Night with Alice Walker, Ali Abunimah and Historic Occupy Wall Street Protests 

A complaint by a professor at Columbia University who co-founded the anti-Palestinian Zionist group “Scholars for Peace in the Middle East” has resulted in the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opening an investigation into the university. Read more about US launches "civil rights" probe at Columbia University as Zionist censorship, smears intensify  

The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) joins a growing coalition of civil rights and advocacy organizations in condemning the recent convictions of the Irvine 11, and say they are “concerned about the future of free speech within the UC system.” Read more about US academic and cultural BDS campaign condemns convictions of Irvine 11 

Thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip rallied in recent days in support of political prisoners who are protesting worsening conditions in Israeli detention. Thousands of prisoners are said to be taking part in the civil disobedience protests which began on 27 September. Read more about Action urged as Israel punishes dozens of hunger-striking political prisoners 

Owner of a tabloid that has attacked Palestinian leader Raed Salah, the British pornographer Richard Desmond used his charitable body to donate tens of thousands of pounds to the CST and other pro-Israel groups. Read more about Daily Express's porn baron owner donated thousands to anti-Palestinian group CST