“My goodness, Israel - you certainly have learned your lesson well from the old apartheid South African government. Today marks 30 years since that infamous day in the township of Soweto when hundreds of thousands of students protested Bantu Education. The police waited for the marchers near a dusty intersection and unleashed hell on innocent children. Official reports claimed that 700 children died over the course of the year that the student uprisings occurred; more than likely, these were conservative estimates. Regardless of the numbers, a massacre occurred and the world barely took notice.” Christopher Brown draws some disturbing parallels. Read more about 30 years and the denials keep going 

As the daily death toll of Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israelis clearly indicates, Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is driven solely by violence and aggression. No other avenues (the non-violent kind) are open. Because of this, Israel is now escalating its practice of keeping internationals out of the West Bank and Gaza, the idea being that the presence of internationals puts a crimp in Israeli operations. When Palestinians protest on their own, the Israeli forces can and do use live ammunition against them. Read more about Keeping the international eyewitnesses out 

Imagine the following scenario. A Palestinian gunman boards a bus inside Israel and rides it to the city of Netanya. Close to the end of the line, he walks over to the driver, levels his automatic rifle against the man’s head and pumps him with bullets. He turns and empties the rest of the magazine — one of 14 in his backpack — into the passenger behind the driver and two young women sitting across the gangway. As bystanders in the street outside look on in horror, our gunman then reloads his weapon and sprays the bus with yet more fire, injuring 20 people. Read more about How Israel’s Jewish terrorist became a victim 

“While I lived in Palestine for three years, I had many conversations with both Israelis and Palestinians about the issue of torture. The conversations always varied and they never became dull. I heard from many Palestinians who had been tortured. I also heard from some Israelis and Palestinians who felt that certain forms of torture are useful. But every time I got into one of these conversations, I would think back to a certain time in my life that deeply affected my view on the subject.” Christopher Brown ponders Israel’s torture of Palestinians out of his own torture experiences at the hands of the apartheid government of South Africa. Read more about The case against torture: A personal account 

Hoda, age 12, with her brothers and sisters, running happily, giggling, racing to reach the beach, her dad and mum busy carrying the picnic basket. It is Friday and Hoda’s family, like other Palestinians, were trying to enjoy a little fun. Suddenly, the moment shattered. An Israeli gunship suddenly fired at random against the beach, while army tanks fired artillery shells and Apache helicopters crossed the sky. 40 civilians were injured, 10 killed. I watched Hoda on the local TV, shocked, yelling, shouting, crying, “ya baba ya baba!” (“Dad, Dad!”). Read more about Gaza: On the beach 

Over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Strip was the target of a deadly escalation in Israeli attacks. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed a number of war crimes in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of fourteen Palestinians and the injury of thirty-six others, including thirteen children. The most severe and inhumane of these crimes was the killing of seven members of the same family (father, mother and five children), who had been enjoying a day on the beach to the west of the town of Beit Lahya. Read more about 14 killed in Gaza in 24 hours