Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars. A disturbing Reuters report by Jill Serjeant. Read more about Hundreds of Muslim immigrants rounded up in California 

Earlier this year, 187 Israeli professors signed an “Urgent Warning” letter titled “The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity.” Today, 800 American professors have signed a similar document, warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing. EI’s Nigel Parry reports. Read more about 800 American professors sign document warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing 

Adla Abdel Jaber As-Sayyefi, 37 years old, went into labour at around 3am on the morning of December 10th. Her husband rushed to his parent’s house concerned because Adla was due to go hospital to have an operation as it was going to be a breech birth, but she went into labour too early. Patricia Smith tells the story. Read more about Israeli checkpoints result in death of two Palestinian babies 

A United Nations inquiry has found that, contrary to claims by the Israeli army, eight of the 10 Palestinians killed in a raid in the Gaza Strip were unarmed civilians. There was fury among Palestinians at the death toll and the timing of the raid on Bureij refugee camp early on Friday 6 December, during Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan and is one of the most important holidays in the Muslim year. Justin Huggler reports for The Independent. Read more about 8 Palestinians killed in Israel attack were unarmed civilians says UN inquiry 

On 3 December 2002, EI’s Ali Abunimah, historian Peter Novick, writer Emily Hauser and Rabbi Arnold Wolf met at the University of Chicago to consider the differences between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. EI presents the text of the opening remarks of the four panelists. Read more about Panel: Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitism? 

This was the third and final day of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday concluding Ramadan. I awoke at the home of a family where twin sons had been killed on separate occasions in the last two months. The rest of the children make the home boisterous. I heard the cries of Allahu Akbar, the funeral parade for a boy from the neighbouring village of Sili who had been killed the night before. Annie Higgins writes from Jenin Refugee Camp. Read more about A Day in the Life of Jenin Refugee Camp  

This summer, a little-known Manchester academic caused an international storm when she sacked two Israeli scholars from the editorial board of her journal. But was it an isolated freelance protest - or the first skirmish in a wider academic boycott? The Guardian’s Andy Beckett investigates. Read more about Is an academic boycott of Israel taking hold and spreading? 

This report was first published on 1 December 2002 and offers a devastating look at the effect of the Israeli occupation on one aspect of Palestinian civil life — school education — in one area, Ramallah. Read more about Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 2 of 2)