“I was afraid you’d gone to Rafah”, I say to Ahmad over the wires to Gaza City. More families in Rafah lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers this past week and a young man died for objecting to the zillionth incursion onto his land. I worried that Ahmad had gone to investigate. His extended family lives there. “No one is going anywhere”, Ahmad responds cynically. “It’s Yom Kippur”. Read more about Days of Darkness, Days of Awe: Yom Kippur in Palestine
‘I want to go to school and play with my friends. We cannot get our of our homes. We cannot buy books. We cannot play. The summer holiday is finished and we spent it all locked up in our homes under Israeli curfew’, writes 10-years old Nabih, who is a seventh grade student. Read more about Nablus: 'Get the soldiers out of my town, I want to live too'
The police and Concordia University left us no choice in how we confronted Benjamin Netanyahu, writes social justice activist Jaggi Singh. Read more about Day of broken glass
All taxi drivers were laughing at me, when I asked about Balata refugee camp. How could I know that Israeli bulldozers destroyed the street that connects the eastern part of the city with the western part. It is impossible to reach Balata by car. Read more about Nablus: 'Can you go to Balata?'
‘Does anyone listen? Is there anyone who cares?’ reads an appeal of Laith. He wants to go to school. Laith is 9 years old and lives in Nablus. Like all residents of Nablus, Laith is in prison, not behind bars, but under collective house arrest, curfew. Together with his friends, he made an appeal to the world. Read more about Nablus: 'I want to go to school'
During my stay in the West Bank, it was rare for me to come across a Palestinian man who had not been arrested or detained at some point. As a volunteer with the Red Crescent, I learned of the frequency with which the Israeli military soldiers harassed and threatened the ambulance drivers. Read more about Letter to Jerusalem
Two little girls, Manar and Sabine are showing us around blocks O and J of Rafah refugee camp, the site of Israel’s largest home demolition operation since the start of the uprising in September 2000. “What’s your name?”, I asked a little guy walking around the rubble of demolished homes in Rafah’s refugee camp. “I am Mahmoud,” he said. The boy, perhaps 10-years-old, looks disturbed. Read more about Leveling Gaza
When we reached Kalandia, four Israeli soldiers on each side of the checkpoint were facing in the direction of the entrance, blocking anyone who dared even to go near. We heard shots at the end of the checkpoint, the direction of Ramallah, as Israeli soldiers shot at Palestinian cars that were approaching the checkpoint to see whether they could get through. Read more about Moving across checkpoints
