At 3am on September 12th, the last Israeli soldier left Gaza and, at the same minute, crowds of Palestinian left their homes in the towns and villages of Gaza from north to south and vice versa, and towards the Israeli settlements. Curious, excited, and sensing the taste of freedom they have been denied for the last 38 years, the Gaza roads were jammed with cars, carts, and people. Read more about Gaza and the children who did not visit the sea for 5 years 

Yesterday, I joined thousands of Palestinians who streamed across the once impermeable and deadly wall that divided this battered border town into two, to visit family and friends they had not seen in decades, to shop, or simply to see Egypt for the first time. It was yet another journey into the surreal. There I was, after all, standing in the Dead Zone known as Philadelphi corridor by Israelis, the killing field by Palestinians, the very location where Israeli tanks once nested awaiting orders to pound this refugee camp, their tracks still imprinted in the sand, the Palestinian homes they destroyed spread out like carcasses in the background. The once deadly frontline of the Israeli army had become a porous free-for-all. Read more about Across the killing field 

After 38 years and 67 days, they were finally gone. They being the Israeli soldiers and settlers of course, that for so long made our lives miserable here in Gaza. I went to tour the vacated colonies-as a journalist, but also as an ordinary Palestinian. Like thousands of other Palestinians, I was simply curious, and, in the end, giddy, awe-struck, and in absolute disbelief. I got up early, wasting no time after the last of the soldiers left to take a peak at what lay beyond the once fortified colonies, that although only metres away, for Palestinians, may as well have been on a different planet. Read more about They were finally gone 

Despite the hot weather in Gaza, thousands of Palestinian citizens poured Monday into the evacuated colonies at the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. Elderly, youth, children, fishermen, farmers and family members were keen to have a historical look at the three settlements of Duggit, Eli Sinai and Nissanit. Fishermen pushed their boats into the sea, while hobbyists installed their fishhooks at the shore. Parents toured among the rubble of Duggit while teenagers were planting Palestinian and other different colored flags on the telegraph poles of the destroyed electric network. Sami Abu Salem writes from Gaza. Read more about Children of Gaza happy for "Bigger Prison" 

In my experience, the transition from the West Bank to Israel has never been pleasant. It is the act of voluntarily leaving a society where nearly everyone is outgoing and hospitable, then entering one where most people are paranoid, judgmental and usually armed. I was therefore grateful to notice that my driver extended the former qualities, as he pointed to the Palestinian villages we passed along the fringe of the West Bank. “Shoof!” (“Look!”) Beit Hanina hone (“here”),”? he said, pointing to the West, “Ou (“and”) Beit Hanina hunak (“there”),” now pointing to the East. Still smiling, he motioned ahead naming villages we would pass along the way, “Biddu, Beit A’nan, Beit Leqia ou Bil’in”. Read more about Reflections: Leaving Las Vegas, I mean, Israel, but actually Palestine 

An interview with Samah Idriss, co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel and editor-in-chief of al-Adab, a Lebanese arts and culture magazine based in Beirut. This interview was conducted in August 2005 in Beirut Lebanon and addresses various issues relating to the present day politics of Lebanon, while providing regional context to the major political changes taking place in Lebanon…. “The late Rafik al-Hariri had excellent relations with some Syrian elites, both politically and financially. Hariri rarely uttered a word against their interference in Lebanese public life, and their political and economic corruption in the country.” Read more about Interview with Samah Idriss: Lebanon: Assassinations, Elections and Palestine 

“Palestinians observed Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with a mix of contradictory emotions. Paramount, perhaps, was relief. Nearly 9,000 Israeli settlers, who had occupied a third of the land there while confining 1. 3 million Palestinians to the rest, were finally gone.” However, argues George E. Bisharat, “the Israeli design for permanent colonization of lands reserved by the international community for a Palestinian state is a formula for decades of conflict and violence.” Read more about In the wake of the Gaza disengagement, enforce a ban on settlements 

For 12-year-old Sahl, riding a bicycle to school is a dream come true. Sahl lives in Aba’a which is a small picturesque village near Jenin. The vast majority of the 400 or so residents are kids below the age of 18. Ordinarily, the drive to Aba’a from Jenin would take less than five minutes. However, villagers avoiding the Israeli checkpoints have to travel more than 35 km. Poverty is pervasive in a community where most families depend on farming. Aba’a is surrounded by two small Israeli settlements – Jannim and Kaddim – among the hundreds that dot the West Bank. During the past years, the villagers at Aba’a have not had any problems with the nearby settlements. Read more about Happy to be going back to school 

In an exclusive interview with The Electronic Intifada, former and last elected mayor of Nablus, Bassam Shaka, stated that the Palestinian Authority has tried to coordinate the disengagement with Israel without results. Shaka has been a critic of the Oslo agreements, arguing they divided the Palestinian struggle for national independence into separate issues, thus dividing Palestinians and distracting attention from the national and human dimensions: “The Oslo agreements have left both sides disputing over the occupied territory and have given the security of Israel central importance. The construction of the Wall, along with other problems facing the Palestinians, will lead to the disintegration of the Palestinian cause as a national issue”. Read more about The Absence of National Unity: An Interview with Bassam Shaka 

Israel has issued orders to seize Palestinian-owned land to link a main Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank to Jerusalem, officials say, a step that could isolate Palestinians from Jerusalem. An Israeli government spokesman on Wednesday said orders were issued to seize four Palestinian-owned tracts of land around Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, last Thursday, Reuters reported. The planned Maale Adumim section of the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank has raised alarm in Washington because of Israel’s stated intention to build homes in Maale Adumim joining it to Jerusalem, 8km away. By looping in the enclave, Israel would effectively seal Palestinians off from east Jerusalem, which they want as their capital. Read more about Israel orders Palestinian land seized