What was the most inspiring, informative, motivating article you read on The Electronic Intifada in 2009? Take a look at some of our highlights. Thousands of people read EI every day in almost every country around the world, finding the information they can’t get elsewhere. In its annual appeal, EI asks its readers for the financial support that will enable us to continue our groundbreaking, fearless and independent reporting on Palestine in 2010 Read more about EI reader appeal: Your support makes our work on Palestine possible 

As if the siege of Gaza were not already bad enough, Israel and Egypt are working even harder to tighten the prison which holds Gaza’s 1.5 million people. Egypt is building a steel wall along its 10-kilometer-long border with the Gaza Strip, according to recent media reports. This wall apparently extends not only above ground, but deep into the ground in an attempt to prevent Palestinians digging the tunnels that have become a lifeline for the territory. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Steel walls cannot contain the struggle for freedom 

The United Nations agency Palestine refugees (UNRWA) faces a severe deficit that could lead to cuts of essential services to more than 4.7 million Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. According to UNRWA, the agency’s 2009 funds are already exhausted and it faces a shortfall of US $140 million for 2010. Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Palestine refugees face service cuts due to UNRWA financial crisis 

United States President Barack Obama has just accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. His nomination had been controversial, not least because he is continuing and escalating two illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also because it was awarded to him at the beginning of his term, before he has proven a genuine willingness to promote peace. The glaring contradiction between US President Barack Obama’s words and actions are nowhere else more obvious than in his dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Sayed Dhansay comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Winning prize for peace while advocating war 

Last month, the second-largest Dutch pension fund PFZW joined an already impressive group of investors that have divested from Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel is the target of an international boycott campaign by Palestine solidarity activists because of its involvement in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about More investors abandoning Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel 

Israel started a preemptive campaign against a EU statement on the Middle East session even before it was formally presented for discussion by EU ministers this week on whether to adopt it. Israeli spokesmen expressed outrage at what they saw as an EU effort to “divide” Jerusalem, and claimed that the European position would “harm the peace process,” as if it is only Israel that has been carefully protecting it from the harmful moves of others. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Another EU policy statement will not stop Israel's colonization 

From my perspective as the head of the agency mandated to assist and protect Palestine refugees, it is particularly vexing that the prevailing approach fails — or refuses — to accord the refugee issue the attention it deserves. Over 60 years, dispossession has faded from the focus of peace efforts. The heart of where peace should begin is absent from the international agenda, pushed aside as one of the “final status” issues, one which belongs to a later stage of the negotiation process. Karen AbuZayd comments. Read more about Refocus the debate on the dispossession