The Israeli government has indicated that it will press ahead with a plan to enlarge the Jewish prayer plaza at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, despite warnings that the move risks triggering a third intifada. Israeli officials rejected this week a Jerusalem court’s proposal to shelve the plan after the judge accepted that the plaza’s expansion would violate the “status quo” arrangement covering the Old City’s holy places. Jonathan Cook reports from Jerusalem. Read more about Israel's latest provocation at al-Aqsa
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Many Israelis like to believe, and the cliche is repeated regularly in Israel, that their army is the “most moral army in the world.” However, following the Gaza war which left 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, some Israelis have begun to question this. Furthermore, the fatal shooting of four Palestinian teenagers in the course of 24 hours over the weekend has forced the Israeli military to investigate the incident amidst contradictory statements issued by the soldiers involved. Read more about Israeli army forced to investigate weekend's killings
During the past three days, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the West Bank and struck targets in the Gaza Strip. The bodies of two West Bank victims were examined by a doctor who told the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights that the victims’ wounds indicate that they were shot from a close range. Read more about Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in West Bank, bomb Gaza tunnels
The Zakai and Tarabin families should be a picture of happy coexistence across the ethnic divide, a model for others to emulate in Israel. But Natalie and Weisman Zakai say the past three years — since the Jewish couple offered to rent their home to Bedouin friends, Ahmed and Khalas Tarabin — have been a living hell. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about House rental in Israel: Arabs need not apply
QALANDIA, occupied West Bank (IPS) - On Tuesday tens of hundreds of Palestinians of all political persuasions took to the streets, alleys and sidewalks as widespread rioting and protests spread across occupied East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank, Gaza and into Israel proper. Read more about Palestinian anger fills the streets
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Nahla (not her real name), aged 30, from Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, said she was physically and mentally abused for more than ten years by her husband before being granted a divorce three months ago. Fear and cultural factors prevented her from seeking help from women’s organizations. Read more about Why violence against Palestinian women is widespread
Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem (IPS) - Three thousand heavily armed Israeli security service forces locked down large parts of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as battalions of police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters in the occupied eastern part of the city. Nearly 40 Palestinians were wounded and treated at nearby hospitals, as 25 were arrested during intense clashes. Read more about Israeli raids targeting children
JERSUSALEM (IPS) - Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50. Outside the walled Old City, where the al-Aqsa mosque is situated, and in several West Bank villages, clashes were reported. Read more about Israel's actions on the ground proving difficult to spin
Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family was to put the Israeli government in the dock today. A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa was due to be presented with evidence that 23-year-old Corrie was killed unlawfully as she stood in the path of the bulldozer, trying to prevent it from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Rachel Corrie's family takes Israel to court
BRUSSELS (IPS) - For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza. More than 30 applications to leave the Strip had previously been turned down by the Israeli authorities and it was not until German diplomats made representations on his behalf that he was finally allowed to visit Europe. Read more about Interview with Gaza rights defender: "Siege began in 1967"
