Students and striking local government workers united to picket a London School of Economics (LSE) event in Starbucks on Kingsway, Holborn last week, in opposition to their support for the state of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The LSE Annual Fund and Alumni Relations departments had teamed up with Starbucks to offer an “afternoon of free coffee and cake tasting for Postgraduates,” in a clear attempt by the global coffee chain to undermine the role of the LSE Students’ Union as the primary supplier of refreshments on LSE’s campus. Read more about Palestine student society and striking workers picket Starbucks
Israeli forces shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy yesterday evening in the West Bank village of Nilin. Ahmed Mousa was shot in the head by live ammunition, according to eyewitnesses, as he was leaving an area that was being targeted with rubber-coated steel bullets by the Israeli military during a demonstration against the annexation wall built on the village land. Read more about Transcript: Israeli military kills 10-year-old in Nilin
BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Palestinian refugees stranded in two makeshift camps on the Syrian-Iraqi border may be able to go back to their homes in Iraq and offered protection by the Iraqi authorities, a senior Palestinian diplomat said on 28 July. The refugees had earlier turned down an offer to go to Sudan, citing security concerns. Read more about Palestinians stranded on border offered protection by Iraq authorities
Ten days after setting out from Edinburgh, and five days past their projected 15 July arrival, Scottish humanitarian Khalil al-Niss and his wife Linda Willis finally arrived in the afternoon of 20 July to the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border only to be denied entry to Gaza. Eva Bartlett reports from Egypt. Read more about Scottish couple barred from delivering medical supplies to Gaza
These days Rami Abdo’s duties include gardening, teaching and caring for his 10-year-old nephew. Abdo, a 30-year-old student from Gaza City, is still waiting along with hundreds of others to attend universities abroad since Israel has closed all of the Strip’s border crossings. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports. Read more about Gaza students still waiting and losing hope
It must be the smallest Israeli settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: just half a house. But Palestinian officials and Israeli human rights groups are concerned that it represents the first stage of a plan to eradicate the historical neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, cutting off one of the main routes by which Palestinians reach the Old City and its holy sites. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Palestinian family denied even half a house
UNITEDNATIONS (IPS) - In both the West Bank and Gaza, young people aged 15 to 24 are the most likely of any group to be unemployed, while the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line has reached an historic high of nearly 52 percent, according to a new report by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) issued Thursday. Read more about Poverty in Gaza hits "unprecedented" level
BIL’IN, West Bank (IPS) - A YouTube video showing a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian being fired on at close range by an Israeli soldier in the presence of a Lieutenant-Colonel, has made international and regional headlines. Ashraf Abu-Rahma was arrested, beaten up, forced to sit blindfolded and handcuffed and then deliberately shot on his foot from less than a meter away. Read more about Palestinian "Che" blindfolded and shot
JERUSALEM (IPS) - Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. These are the images that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama produced during a whirlwind 36-hour visit to Israel this week, and which he hopes will help dispel doubts about his candidacy amongst skeptical US Jewish voters. Read more about Obama campaigns in Israel
Aware of the dangers now facing hikers like me, I have, of late, been careful to restrict my walks to tracks which avoid any contact with the settlements. Two recent incidents I have experienced personally I believe illustrate what routine life is now like for us Palestinians in the occupied territories. Raja Shehadeh recounts for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Really living here
