Mary is called by a student from Gaza who since three years is unable to complete his final year at Bethlehem University due to the impossibility to travel out of Gaza. Her heart beat leaps after hearing the familiar voice of the student she knew so well. He tells her: “But we are better off than you, at least we have the sea here!” In Bethlehem the American actor Richard Gere watches some performances from Suzy’s students who had made some good drama plays based on their recently published Intifada diaries. Gere also visits a group of young children making drawings of the sea. The teacher tells Gere that the sand and the shells stuck on the drawings are really from the sea at Tel Aviv, a sea which the children cannot visit. Read more about View on the Sea 

After years of observing the media, one might conclude that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are Palestinian areas and the rest, including Jerusalem, is Israeli. For the untrained eye there seems to be nothing wrong with such image constructions. It is no wonder that viewers internationally do not know any better. However a more in-depth look tells us otherwise. Bisan Abou Gharbiyeh explains that a virtual reality is being created which is completely contradictory to the actual reality on the ground, in particular when it comes to Jerusalem and the status of its inhabitants. Read more about Jerusalem, Al Quds, Yerushalaym 

“No! These are my guests, and this is my house!” The admonition is delivered to Israeli soldiers attempting to stop a group of Palestinian women crossing the grounds of a monastery. The messenger is Father Claudio Ghilardi, a Passionist priest from Italy. His message is clear: at least as far as the monastery grounds are concerned, he will not permit the harassment of Palestinians by soldiers. The soldiers desist as long as Father Claudio is present. The Palestinians continue on their way, attempting to cross the monastery and reach Jerusalem on the other side. At least they were able to get this far, thanks to Father Claudio’s intervention. Read more about "These are my guests, and this is my house", Priest stands up to the Wall 

Observing Israel’s propaganda campaign to deflect the current international spotlight away from its brutal military operation in Rafah, I am struck by the sheer scale of the lie and the blatantly premeditated campaign to cloud the issue instead of dealing transparently with the obvious and undeniable abuses. Even the hapless United States administration — whose contentedly culturally-ignorant and amoral soldiers were violating the human rights of Joe and Jane Iraqi long before the abuse in Abu Ghraib came to light — has enough of a clue when finally caught red-handed to understand that the only way out of the mess was to begin a process of prosecuting those responsible. Read more about Letter from and to America 

It was just before midnight (Tuesday, May 18th.), when I tried to contact my friend Mohammad from the worst hit neighborhoods in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Earlier on, during the day, I made several attempts to contact my friend, but with no success. News from Rafah started to become extremely worrying about the high number of killed Palestinians at the Tel Al-Sultan area of Rafah. The Israeli army killed fourteen people in the morning of Tuesday alone. Journalist inside the area talked over the phone about injured people in the streets bleeding to death and calling for immediate help. But, Israeli snipers prevented ambulances and private cars from reaching the dead or injured by shooting at any one who came near those lying in the middle of the street. Read more about A phone call from under siege in Rafah 

“…the Apaches are shelling us right now, many many fragments and parts of injured people everywhere in the area. I wasn’t able to identify the body of my relative who was killed. They brought him to the hospital in parts and fragments. I can’t beleive how Hani arrived like this, can’t can’t really can’t — why did they shell him with a group of children — why? — I don’t know why, God why is this?!! ” Mohammed, a student and amateur reporter in Gaza, e-mailed this account of the attack on Rafah during Friday’s attack. Read more about "...the Apaches are shelling us right now" 

Our taxi wove through the narrow streets of Gaza, our driver giving us a brief tour of the horrors.  We saw the house of Sheikh Yassin and the point where he was executed.  Demolished Mosques, homes and businesses point the direction to the Zaytoun neighbourhood in south central Gaza City. The past few nights have been sleepless.  The Israeli forces have attacked from land, sea and air.  My home, close to the sea, echoed and shook with the pounding of the shelling on the nearby Beach Camp.  Further into the centre of Gaza the people of Zaytoun (which means ‘olive’) have been imprisoned in the scene of some of the most intense fighting since the Intifada began. Read more about Israel's revenge in Zaytoun, Gaza