The West Bank village of al-Tuwani, after nine years of actively fighting and lobbying, has been connected to the Palestinian electrical grid. The victory came after nearly a decade of non-responses, delays, requests for additional paperwork, confiscations and demolitions. Samuel Nichols writes from al-Tuwani, occupied West Bank. Read more about After long struggle, village on the grid 

AZZUN ATMA, occupied northern West Bank (IPS) - For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. “I tried to get a special visitor’s permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was refused,” says Sheikh, mother of seven children. “I have had no problems with the Israeli authorities, nor am I considered a security threat,” she added. Read more about Palestinians face movement restrictions during Ramadan 

Grassroots Palestinian boycott campaigns across the occupied West Bank to take Israeli settlement products off the shelves of local stores have made an impact on the Israeli settlement economy, to the unease of the Israeli government, noted the Israeli daily Haaretz this week. Read more about West Bank boycott campaign impacting settlement economy 

Palestinian youth premiered nine short films at public screenings in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip last week. Forty youths worked in small groups during two parallel three-week workshops conducted in the al-Aroub and Jabaliya refugee camps during the month of July. Palestinian and international trainers facilitated the workshops through the participatory media program Voices Beyond Walls, in partnership with local youth community organizations. Read more about Youth re-imagine life through short films  

JERUSALEM (IPS) - On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed. Unfazed, the Bedouin villagers immediately began rebuilding. Read more about Al-Araqib residents fear fourth demolition 

The 2010 summer in the disputed area of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India, has been marked by popular protests by Kashmiris and crackdowns by India’s military. The stream of violence has left more than fifty dead, mostly young protestors. The situation in Kashmir has some parallels with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even borrowing the term intifada to describe the uprising. But the connection is more than analogy. Jimmy Johnson analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about India employing Israeli oppression tactics in Kashmir 

Earlier this summer, Israel arrested Muhammad Abu Tir, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Hamas. Israel also ordered two other PLC members, Muhammad Totah and Ahmad Attoun and the Palestinian Authority’s former minister of Jerusalem affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh to leave their home town of Jerusalem. Rahela Mizrahi writes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Fighting expulsion and Western hypocrisy in Jerusalem  

Measures designed to benefit Jewish school-leavers applying for places in Israeli higher education at the cost of their Palestinian Arab counterparts have been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups. Read more about Arabs face increased discrimination at Tel Aviv University 

HIRBET DEIR, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Ramadan, with its extra expense (families and friends hosted every evening for the festive iftar meal that breaks the daily fast) and shorter working hours, is a time when most Palestinians especially struggle to make ends meet. Read more about Economic and political pressures at Ramadan