While the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against apartheid Israel continues to grow, its opponents continue to resort to the same old canards in trying to defend Israel. Sami Hermez comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Debunking pro-Israeli arguments against boycott 

Clashes between the main Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah date back to the late 1980s when Hamas was officially founded and the early 1990s when Fatah took control of the Palestinian Authority, newly established under the 1993 Oslo accords. Raja Abdulhaq comments. Read more about Will Fatah choose reconciliation or collaboration? 

Leading up to the recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development tourism committee conference in Jerusalem, there was conjecture on how the member countries in attendance would handle Israel’s tourism policies regarding the occupied territories. Read more about OECD and Israel's "tourist" colonization of Syria's Golan 

“Khosh amadid” quickly became the new catchphrase for many Lebanese when thousands of signs reading “welcome” in Farsi went up in areas around the country. The occasion was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit to the country last week. Matthew Cassel comments for the Electronic Intifada. Read more about Ahmedinejad in Lebanon: shifting regional power balance 

Negotiations between two unequal parties cannot succeed. Success in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations requires a reasonable balance of power, clear terms of reference and abstention of both sides from imposing unilateral facts on the ground. None of that existed in the talks that were re-initiated in September. Mustafa Barghouthi comments. Read more about The international community's final test 

In all likelihood, I will be one of the very first non-Jews expected to swear loyalty to Israel as an ideology rather than as a state. Until now, naturalizing residents, like the country’s soldiers, pledged an oath to Israel and its laws. That is the situation in most countries. But soon, if the Israeli parliament passes a bill being advanced by the government, aspiring citizens will instead be required to uphold the Zionist majority’s presumption that Israel is a “Jewish and democratic state.” Read more about Forced to take the apartheid oath 

The upcoming OECD tourism summit in Jerusalem will test its member countries’ commitment to international law. Sam Bahour and Charles Shamas comment. Read more about Will the OECD stand up to Israel? 

Rather than investing wasted energy in doomed talks, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators appear to be adopting the same alternative strategy: cutting a deal directly with Washington that circumvents the other party. Jonathan Cook analyzes. Read more about Israel's other "peace" plan: arm-twisting Obama 

Last month, Professor John Dugard, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, chaired a meeting on universal Jurisdiction in the Hague. Adri Nieuwhof interviewed Dugard about means of bringing Israel to account for its human rights violations, particularly the legal mechanism of universal jurisdiction. Read more about Towards accountability: John Dugard interviewed