“Every time I visit Amman,” writes EI co-founder Ali Abunimah, “the US embassy here seems to have around it more high walls, concrete barricades and armored cars with menacing machine guns mounted atop.” Abunimah says this symbolizes the growing gulf between ordinary Jordanians and the US, even as Jordan’s government is seen as increasingly “pro-American.” He examines the growing opposition among Jordanians to US policies in Palestine and Iraq and explains why US policies actually help stifle full democracy in Jordan, rather than encouraging it. Read more about US policies in Iraq, Palestine, fuel Jordanians' discontent 

Arriving in al-Bea’neh the next day, I saw the old man whose home had been torn down beginning to replant new olive trees. Despite the beatings, there was this sense of optimism, regeneration and a sense of the community coming together to respond in a productive way. In the village council office, they discussed the brutal Israeli policy of home demolitions over Arabic coffee and Gauloise cigarettes before setting off on a 2,000 person demonstration with the residents. On the table were tear gas canisters used by the police the day before which were clearly marked that they had been manufactured in the United States. Read more about Anatomy of a Home Demolition 

This week, Senator Kerry sent Florida Congressman Robert Wexler to Israel on his behalf. Wexler, a member of the House International Relations Committee and a close ally of the pro-Israel lobby, has been asked by Kerry to formulate the Middle East policy for the Democratic Party platform. During his visit, Wexler is due to meet with Israeli officials, including prime minister Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres, and, bizarrely, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, but with not a single Palestinian. A June 25 press release from Kerry’s envoy expresses “unequivocal support” for Sharon’s policies. Read more about Embarrassing America 

As soon as he’s done saving New York, perhaps Spiderman can take his act to Palestine, where his uncanny ability to scale high walls will be welcomed by those imprisoned by the concrete barrier walls that enclose Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. After all, Spiderman’s connection to the Middle East is pretty close, considering that Palestinian-born cult-animator Ralph Bakshi, was executive producer of the animated Spiderman series in the late ’60s. Bakshi’s other claims to fame include animating America’s first X-rated animated film Fritz the Cat, directing The Rolling Stone’s video “The Harlem Shuffle,” and inspiring the Comic Book Guy character on the Simpsons. Read more about The Spiderman-Palestine Connection! 

It had been planned meticulously. The initiative came from the Al-Ram municipality — a huge demonstration including as many Israelis as could be convinced to come on the weekend before the Supreme Court’s decision over the fate of Al-Ram. But, from how it went it seems that somebody up there decided that it was not in their interest to have today an orderly demonstration of Palestinians together with Israelis. That, so short before the Supreme Court was to give its decision, it was much better to transform it into something in which “anything could happen.” Read more about Report of the June 26 Al-Ram demo against the Wall 

He was the last breakfast companion I was expecting. Separated from me by a rack of toast and a handful of marmalade sachets was Mordechai Vanunu, the man who 18 years ago revealed that Israel had amassed a secret stockpile of nuclear weapons. Breakfast at the St George’s pilgrim guest house in East Jerusalem is usually a sedate affair, but on this occasion both he and I were skating unintentionally but dangerously close to arrest by Israel’s security services. Occasional EI contributor Jonathan Cook explains why Israel — and the US and UK — remains afraid of Vanunu. Read more about Why Israel is still afraid of Mordechai Vanunu 

In February, press reports that cement imported from Egypt through Palestinian companies and ready-made concrete manufactured in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis were being used to build Israeli settlements and the apartheid wall provoked outrage among Palestinians. A commission of inquiry has now reported finding “compelling evidence and documents adequate for indicting those involved.” But Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah say that corruption within the Palestinian Authority has deep roots. Read more about Deep-rooted corruption in Palestine 

“People who have been [to the West Bank and Gaza Strip] always say it’s very difficult … to speak about it” to others who haven’t been there, says French director Samir Abdallah, creator of the film Writers on the Borders: A Journey to Palestine(s). Abdallah adds that his film “brings some proposal to this question of how to speak about it and show what’s happening in Palestine and … [informs how to] not only be a storyteller but an actor, in an active position” in striving for justice for the Palestinians. EI’s Maureen Clare Murphy caught up with Abdallah who was in Chicago for the North American premier of Writers on the Borders. Read more about Interview: "Writers on the Borders" director Samir Abdallah