Widespread protests have accompanied Yasser Arafat’s appointment of his nephew Musa Arafat as the new head of the Palestinian General Security Service. Thousands of people demonstrated in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night against the appointment while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of al-Fateh, described Musa Arafat as a “symbol” of the PA’s corruption. The appointment deepened the rift between Arafat’s generation, which led the Palestinian struggle from exile for decades, and young Palestinians who struggled against the Israeli occupation and who accuse the old guard of corruption and monopolizing power. Read more about What's wrong with the PA? 

Last Friday, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s wall through the West Bank is a violation of international law, I stood with other Palestinian women in the olive groves of the village of Az Zawiya, protesting the destruction of our land. Throughout the West Bank, thousands of Palestinian women are peacefully protesting against the wall that the Israeli government claims aims to protect its citizens against terrorism. Palestinian women are deeply rooted in their land, and work hard to support our families. Women suffer greatly when families lose their land, often the primary source of income. We raise olive trees as if they are our children. When we lose them, we grieve deeply. Fatima Khaldi writes from Az Zawiya in the Salfit region. Read more about Women Against the Wall 

I am a farmer in Jayyous, a small village near the Palestinian city of Qalqilya and three miles from the 1967 border with Israel. For generations, Jayyous farmers have worked our fields on the outskirts of town each day, and returned to our homes each night. Before the Wall, we could pay Palestinian workers to help work our land. Now non-land owners cannot pass through the gate, so we cannot get the help we need and many farm workers have lost their jobs. A lot of good land is now left uncultivated and many farmers have had to abandon their land altogether. Read more about Before and After the Wall in Jayyous 

In Budrus, our strategies in our struggle against the Apartheid Wall are peaceful. We only confront the bulldozers that are uprooting the trees planted by our ancestors - trees that help us to feed our children. Although olive trees won’t make us rich, we won’t go hungry as long as we have them. The Palestinian people have tried large-scale peaceful civil resistance against the Israeli occupation at various times since 1967. Each time, non-violence was crushed by Israeli government-sponsored violence. When non-violence failed to bring freedom and independence, some people turned to violent struggle. Budrus resident Ayed Morrar explains where it’s all at. Read more about The Peaceful Fall of Israel's Wall 

The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s “Separation Wall” illegal and has called on Israel to dismantle the wall. Nineteen days ago I came to Israel to protest that wall and to bear witness to its devastating effects on the Palestinian population. Instead I was detained by Israel police upon arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport and have since been held in immigration detention awaiting deportation. I have been labeled a threat to “security,” and the judge has called my camera a weapon. It seems to me the only threat I pose to Israel is a public relations one. Read more about Fighting Israel's Wall 

With the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion regarding the consequences of the Apartheid Wall, the legality of this enterprise has been much discussed in almost all circles related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. On the Zionist side, aside from the usual canard about the “anti-Semitism” of the United Nations and the like, many commentaries have pointed to the recent Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) ruling about the wall and declared, in so many words, that this is the only legal ruling that matters. John Sigler notes that if one actually reads the HCJ decision, it in fact makes a very strong case against the Wall in general though its ruling only regarded only one small 40 km stretch of the Wall. Read more about The Israeli High Court of Justice and the Apartheid Wall 

The International Court of Justice has determined that the present route of Israel’s West Bank Barrier is a serious and egregious violation of international law. In an interview given last weekend, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon contested the applicability of international law. Such a system was appropriate for the conditions of World War II, he declared, but not for the present war on terror. Apparently, as Ya’alon envisions it, in this war the armed forces are bound only by their own law. Indeed, a battle is being waged in the world today over the status of international law. Tanya Reinhart comments. Read more about From the Hague to Mas'ha 

“On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated… Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating.” Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel’s impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC), “the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas.” James Brooks reports. Read more about Dispersing Demonstrations--Or Chemical Warfare?