The World Bank approved this week a grant of US$7.8 million to the Palestinian Authority to deal with the impending public health, safety, and environmental hazards stemming from the lack of proper treatment of wastewater in North Gaza. The North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment project is the fourth in a series of water and sanitation projects supported by the World Bank Trust Fund for Gaza and West Bank since 1993. Although 64 percent of the wastewater is collected in Gaza, most of it is not properly treated, contributing significantly to contamination of the coastal aquifer and seashore, including beaches. Read more about World Bank supports water and sanitation project in Gaza 

If East Jerusalem had an unofficial mayor, it would be nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu. When the church bell rings at noon at the Anglican cathedral of St. George’s in East Jerusalem not far from Damascus Gate in the Old City, chances are it’s Mordechai Vanunu ringing the bell. From that vantage point, he looks down on the Jerusalem court house where he was originally sentenced to eighteen years in prison for divulging Israel’s nuclear secrets. Am Johal reports on Vanunu’s experience since prison. Read more about The Vanunu Epilogue 

The government says it is an extremeley difficult task. Those illegal hilltop outposts are just so impossible to remove. Each time IDF tries they are met with such violent resistance from settlers, as one may have seen it on evening news. Even if they are an obstacle to peace, required for the removal under the Road Map and other agreements, and even at the cost of international criticism, those outposts are left to grow, further unabling a viable peace. “If the government says can’t do it, why don’t I show it’s easy and possible?” Dror Etkes, Coordinator for the Settlement Watch Project at Peace Now thinks outloud, “I will pick up a trailer from an outpost and dump it in front of the Ministry of Defense, to make my point.” Shirabe Yamada reports. Read more about "Dismantlement 101: Introduction to removing an outpost" 

Some of the claims herein are shocking. I honestly hope that the interview - originally conducted in Hebrew - will impel people to action and that the commanders responsible for such abuses will be held to account. It is worth remembering that the soldier’s unit was ‘exemplary’ in that it was considered to be one that had relatively good discipline compared to other fighting units in the IDF. The interview is thus testimony to the real nature of a military force that is often portrayed as ‘the most moral army in the world.’ After reading this interview, it is hard to understand how such a mythology can be sustained within the Israeli body-politic and in the mainstream of US public opinion. Read more about Interview: What the IDF is doing in Nablus 

In telling the story of his son’s imprisonment, Mohammad Samarah reflects on an irony that seems to him sad and inspirational at the same time. His youngest son, Mu’aath (27), is being held at an Israeli prison called Jalbou’. It’s a new prison north of Jenin in the Jalboun hills built to replace an older prison by the same name that was located in the Palestinian village of Shatta. The irony, Mohammad Samarah explains, lies in the fact that his family comes from a village in Jalboun called Noores. The Israelis have wiped out this Palestinian village, but overlooking its ruins, there is now an Israeli “settlement” tauntingly echoing what used to be by calling itself Nooret. Read more about Prisoner Stories: Mua'ath Mohammad Samarah 

The Israeli Ministry of the Interior has decided that I may not speak to the media. This attempt to silence me is not new; deportation and imprisonment for political reasons are the highest form of censorship. In this particular case the attempt to cut off my voice is part of a long term Israeli state attack on three vital narratives. The first is composed of international activists who act against the occupation. The second is that of the peace movement and refusniks, who take direct action against the occupation by refusing to serve in it and the third is that of the Palestinian people and the daily terror that they face. Read more about British journalist banned from speaking with the media 

Palestinian singer Ammar looks an introvert person. On the Lebanese Future station, where he is a finalist in the Idol-like competition “Superstar”, he sings his almost classical Arab songs in a beautiful melodramatic voice. He remains serious while he laughs. Surrounded by glitter and fashionable show presentators and a screaming teenager audience, he looks out of place. Asked by a jury member why he is so reserved and sad, he replies that he cannot sing gaily when his people in Palestine face so many difficulties, and he mentions the people dying at checkpoints. Art is resistance for him. Toine van Teeffelen reports from occupied Bethlehem. Read more about Wings of Freedom