“On May 22, at 2 P.M., the lectures and the audience arrived at hall 715 in the university. The doors were locked. In the corridor stood the university’s chief of security forces and ten of his henchmen, all armed with pistols and walkie-talkies. I was pushed into a side room by the chief and his lieutenant and handed a personal letter from the president, Yehuda Hayut. This was done in front of my wife and my colleagues, who watched helplessly as the macabre scene unfolded. Outside the corridor, my wife heard two other lieutenants of the chief informing the president over their walkie-talkies, ‘We caught him!’ They also said to each other, ‘High time! They should do the same to all the leftist lectures in the university!’” Dr. Ilan Pappe, a professor at Haifa University, prevents a chilling account in clinical detail of heavy-handed repression of academic speech at his university. Read more about The President, the Dean, and the Historiography of 1948 Palestine 

Nick Pretzlik, now in Jenin, reports on local responses to the Road Map, noting that Palestinians “have suffered too much and too long to accept a plan which permits the apartheid walls and electrified fences to remain, a plan which leaves settler roads and key settlements in place, and allows Palestinian water resources, airspace and borders to remain under Israeli control. Even if the current generation can accept that, I doubt that their children will.” Read more about Peace is a long way off 

“I follow the lines carefully with my finger on the screen. Mus’ab Jaber was shot dead. Do you ever become accustomed to this, as if it is normal? Why should you? It is not normal. It is excessive, but it never makes it normal. I don’t have the forbearance of many of my Arab friends. When I cried out, my Internet folk brought me a glass of water. That wouldn’t change the news, but I appreciated the care.” Regular EI contributor Annie Higgins remembers one Palestinian boy from Jenin. Read more about The last time I saw Mus'ab 

“The relocation policy of shifting the Bedouin population into official settlements has the added benefit of creating a cheap source of labour for the Jewish economy. Life for the Bedouins is made as difficult as possible in order to pressure them into making that move. With the help of the legal ‘hocus pocus’ involved with the 1965 Planning and Construction Law, Unrecognised Villages became ‘de-legalised’ — existing buildings were unable to obtain permits and those which already possessed them, schools for example, had them rescinded. Whole communities became illegal.” Nick Pretzlik details the vast array of injustices committed against Bedouin citizens of Israel since 1948. Read more about We reap what we sow 

“Private Jessica Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. Ms. Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a U.S. citizen, she believed she had a special responsibility to defend Palestinians against U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to Israel. In letters home, she described how fresh water was being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, and how death was more normal than life.” Naomi Klein examines the different fates of two young American women who went to war zones in the Middle East, and wonders what it says about the US that one is viewed as a hero while the other is not. Read more about Why two women went to war: Private Lynch and Rachel Corrie 

‘Security, security, security’ is the motto of the Middle East road map. Human rights are the missing guest at the diplomatic table. Miranda Sissons is the author of a number of Human Rights Watch reports on Israel and the Occupied Territories. She was arrested by Israel on May 9. Read more about No peace without human rights