Have I been blacklisted? What will happen when we are separated from the rest of the group? After fumbling through my bags on the terminal floor to find the gifts going into Gaza, I am flabbergasted, and a bit panicky. I am sent back to the desk to pick up a piece of paper so I can disembark on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. I feel nervous. I leave the desk and then return, thinking that the soldiers have not given me back my passport. They say they can’t find it, and after a cold sweat, I discover it in my shirt pocket, right where it belongs! Part of the art of living in this part of the world is being appropriately paranoid, without being excessively so. We all miss the mark at times. That goes for Israelis, Palestinians, and also human rights activists. Read more about WasPR Delegation Diary 6: Stuck at Eretz Crossing, Having Coffee with Kareem 

Today is my mother’s birthday. She called my cellphone as my dear friend Areej and I were walking in the late afternoon shadow of the brand-new Apartheid Wall and “terminal” seperating Bethlehem from the rest of the goddamn world. To prove that i was there, i held the phone up to the wall and slapped it as hard as i could. The “terminal,” as it is being called, is a cattle-catch maze of turnstyles and x-ray machines, all enclosed in an enormous building of wire and steel and sniper weapons with crosshairs tuned like a fiddle. This is on the “Jerusalem” side of the wall, which one is able to access only after papers are shuffled, cars are inspected, and people are humiliated and intimidated, or perhaps beaten and arrested and tortured. Read more about Suffocation in isolated Bethlehem 

The Israeli military is using dogs as a reconnaissance tool in its actions against Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. The dogs’ actions are controlled remotely through sophisticated technology; commands are issued by way of a radio transmitter. This evokes much fear and deepens the alienation of Palestinians. The way Israel is using dogs is yet another dehumanising step, taking place under the “cover” of war. The dogs follow the orders of their military masters. In no way should the international community permit the Israeli government to escape its responsibility for these barbaric practices in enforcing its brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories. Read more about Dogs - Reconnaissance tool of the Israeli occupation 

Let’s face it. So far, Palestinian PR and communications were not entirely successful. Just ask any person in the streets of Amsterdam, London or New York what he or she knows and thinks of Palestinians and Palestine. Palestinians who have never travelled outside Palestine will be shocked. On the other hand, almost every visitor to Palestine will start crying after three or four days. Based on these thoughts, The Palo Dutch Concept Factory is looking for creative talents. The Palo Dutch Concept Factory, boarded by some very good and well known Dutch PR professional, is founded by Dutch columnist Justus van Oel. In February 2005 he visited Palestine. He has been deeply moved by what he saw and became motivated to contribute to advocate for Palestine. Read more about Modern Activism: Palo Dutch Concept Factory 

The streets of Ramallah had a festive atmosphere last weekend as people bustled about the main commercial drag buying goods for this week’s four-day holiday Eid al-Adha. Campaign banners fluttered in the main square, and music blasted from political parties’ offices as official campaigning had just begun for the much-anticipated legislative elections to be held at the end of the month. However, conversation hushed in one corner shop in Ramallah’s old city when there was a televised update from Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, where Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been lying in a medically induced coma that will most likely be the end of his political career, should he survive. Read more about To Palestinians, Sharon was a man of war, not peace 

More and more, comparisons are being made between the living conditions of Palestinian Bedouins and those in the townships and informal settlements of apartheid South Africa. Human rights advocates Adri Nieuwhof and Bangani Ngeleza visited unrecognised villages in the Nakab (Negev). They travelled from Haifa in the North to the villages in the South of Israel. Near Tulkarem they noted how the Wall looked quite friendly from the Israeli side. There is a slope of earth planted with shrubs and flowers from the roadside up to the Wall. It covers the ugly high concrete Wall from the eyes of travellers on the Israeli highway. Read more about "This is our land, we are not going to move" 

Nestled in the golden hills surrounding Nablus in the West Bank, the little town of Till is home to 3,000 people. Like many population centres in this conflict-prone area, children’s access to safe-play and recreational facilities has been virtually non-existent…until recently. Just a few months ago, UNICEF helped create Till’s first-ever safe-play area for children. “For me, there’s a big difference between before the playground was built and after,” says nine-year-old Majdi Ramadan, a 4th grade student who lives in Till with his family. “I used to play in the streets, but we were always interrupted when people walked by. It was dangerous, too, with all the cars; one of my friends got hurt. Now I’m no longer afraid of the cars, I can just play.” Read more about Safe-play havens for Palestinian children living in conflict zones 

Amal leads the morning parade at Shatie Elementary School. Dressed in her brown uniform and beret she is at the fore as, behind her, a thousand Gazan schoolchildren line up neatly in rows, clapping and chanting. After the parade she is in charge of ensuring they all file back quickly into their classrooms. This daily ritual is representative of the kind of order school brings to the lives of children living in Gaza. Amal is eleven years old; her parents, like those of many other children at Shatie, which caters solely for refugee children, are impoverished and unemployed. The camps in which Amal and most other students live are crowded, amongst the most densely populated places on earth, with many families having nine or ten children. Read more about More than just school 

Under a traditional leadership, with a stagnated political environment of internal hegemony and external military occupation, elections have been used over the years to entrench the already entrenched polity. Add to this the multi-pronged foreign interventions into Palestinian society � politically, economically, and socially � and elections have become watered down to the point where they are no longer enough of a force to turn the pages of history. Our future can only be shaped by our own hands. Are we ready, not only to turn the page, but to rip out and then rewrite the last chapter of the chronicle that has imprisoned us in occupation like never before?! Read more about Turning the page, again 

As stipulated by the 1997 Hebron Protocol, Hebron is divided into the H1 and H2 areas. The H2 segment is where the Jewish settlers live amongst the Palestinian population, and it is currently the segment of the city under curfew. Agoraphobia, the fear of leaving one’s home, is common amongst the Palestinian residents of H2. There they are surrounded by six settlements within the center of the city. The Palestinians in H2 become isolated within enclaves and are faced with daily harassment and violence. They become isolated from city services as well, and this is where Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent come in. Read more about WaSPR Delegation Diary 5: Living In Isolation and Under Siege in Hebron and Bethlehem