As the sun set on a clear evening in Gaza City, Suleiman Baraka was setting up his telescope on the rooftop of the French Cultural Center as two dozen visitors waited anxiously to gaze into the stars. It was a rare occasion to break away — at least momentarily — from the siege on the ground in the Gaza Strip. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Bereaved Gaza astronomer opens up the heavens 

A student group at Columbia called Campus Media Watch, backed by the pro-Israeli media monitor the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), recently violated university regulations while urging students to “report” on allegedly biased utterances by Massad and other professors, according to faculty members and students. Jared Malsin reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Pro-Israel group monitoring, intimidating Columbia faculty 

Former World Bank president and Middle East Quartet envoy James D. Wolfensohn is an investor in an Israeli company that is developing transport infrastructure for Jewish-only settlements built in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law, an investigation by The Electronic Intifada reveals. Read more about Quartet ex-envoy's investment helps Israel greenwash settlements 

BEIT UMMAR, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Residents of this Palestinian village refuse to buy the idea that the flood of raw sewage from the adjacent Israeli settlement of Kfar Etzion, that destroyed vineyards and contaminated their drinking water, was an accident. Read more about Villages contaminated by settlement sewage 

On 16 April, approximately 100 Palestinian villagers and internationals walked towards the construction site of Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank village of al-Walaja, four kilometers northwest of Bethlehem. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy al-Walaja homes 

Amidst the crater-filled roads, crumbling art deco houses, Jewish-Israeli filled hummus joints and flashing blue lights of passing cop cars, Palestinian citizens of Israel are struggling to grasp onto the last neighborhood of Jaffa to remain a Palestinian majority — Ajami. Carmelle Wolfson reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Palestinians resist threat of eviction in Jaffa 

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel al-Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent. Read more about Israel winning its war on goats 

To preserve my sense of purpose, and keep the Palestine struggle from becoming a lifeless abstraction, I need periodically to recharge my moral batteries by reconnecting with the actual people living under occupation and by witnessing firsthand the unfolding tragedy. From each trip I invariably carry away a handful of stark images that I fix in my mind’s eye to dispel the occasional hesitations about staying the course. When the memories begin to fade I know it is time to return. Norman Finkelstein writes in this excerpt from his new book, This time we went too far Read more about Gaza's calm determination