The Land Mark 
Samia Khoury - "No Street names or street numbers" is something that amazes foreign guests in our area. How does one tell the taxi driver to get anywhere? Well you almost have to write an essay as you describe the way; the first entrance after the supermarket, and then the left turn after the traffic light. No, do not take the first one; the second one, just before the check point. No, you do not pass the checkpoint. etc. etc. more

 Witness for the Defenseless 
Anna Baltzer in The Link - Every time I think I have understood the Israel/Palestine conflict, something will remind me how much more I have to learn. My first breakthrough came during a trip to southern Lebanon, where for the first time I heard a narrative about the state of Israel altogether different from the one I had learned growing up as a Jewish American. more

 Israel redraws the roadmap, building quietly and quickly 
Chris McGreal in the UK Guardian - At the northern edge of Jerusalem, on the main road to the Palestinian city of Ramallah, three towering concrete walls are converging around a rapidly built maze of cages, turnstiles and bomb-proof rooms. When construction at Qalandiya is completed in the coming weeks, the remaining gaps in the 8m (26ft)-high walls will close and those still permitted to travel between the two cities will be channelled through a warren of identity and security checks reminiscent of an international frontier. more

 UNCENSORED: Checkpoint Syndrome 
Liran Ron Furer - Checkpoint Syndrome created a bit of a stir when it was released in Israel in 2003. Major publishers refused it, bookstores declined to carry it, and the house that did publish it will not allow it to be translated into English. The book describes Furer’s experiences serving at checkpoints in Gaza from 1996-1999, during a “relatively quiet” period. In its crude language it depicts not only the brutal treatment that Palestinians suffered at the hands of Israeli forces, but also demonstrates how the occupation corrodes the occupiers, turning them from humans into depraved beings. more

 One Big Prison: New Report Warns Against Continued Strangulation of Gaza Strip after Disengagement 
B’Tselem - Israel has cut off the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world to such an extent that it is easier for Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank to visit relatives in prison than visit a relative in Gaza. This is one conclusion of the 100-page report that B’Tselem and HaMoked publish today. One Big Prison documents the ongoing violations of human rights and international law resulting from Israel’s restrictions on the movement of people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank, Israel, and the rest of the world. The report also warns against Israel’s attempt to avoid its responsibility toward residents of the Gaza Strip following disengagement. more

 Medical Treatment Abroad for Gaza Residents: closures and Access 
World Health Organization - Since 13th of December 2004, restriction of passage through Rafah and Erez crossing in Gaza strip has prevented most patients to reach health care facilities abroad, in order to receive specialized care not locally available. more

 The Election Labyrinth of East Jerusalem 
ISM - At approximately 2:30 PM on election day, former US President Jimmy Carter intervened with the Israeli government on behalf of 124,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who were not allowed to vote near their homes because of Israeli government restrictions. This belated intervention allowed Palestinian residents of the city who hold Jerusalem IDs and who had registered for the election to vote at any of the six Israeli post office polling stations in East Jerusalem. more

 New year, old story 
Gideon Levy in Haaretz - During operations last weekend in the Gaza Strip, the army demolished 14 Palestinian homes, injured 30 Palestinians and killed 10, including a mentally disabled youth. Ringing in 2005. more

 Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes 
Derek Summerfield in the British Medical Journal - Does the death of an Arab weigh the same as that of a US or Israeli citizen? The Israeli army, with utter impunity, has killed more unarmed Palestinian civilians since September 2000 than the number of people who died on September 11, 2001. In conducting 238 extrajudicial executions the army has also killed 186 bystanders (including 26 women and 39 children). Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest—the sniper’s wound. more

 Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock  
Chris McGreal in the UK Guardian - Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin. more

View footage of the incident

 Ethnic Cleansing and the Art of Camouflage 
Paul Larudee (ISM) in Palestine - If you want to fully understand the wall that Israel has built, I advise you to start at the beginning, where its first sections were erected nearly two years ago on land belonging to the villages of Pharaon and Irtah, on the edge of the city of Tulkarem. The living room of Fayez Odah in Irtah offers an excellent view of the 25-foot-high monolith, which has eaten 60% of his land. He and his wife Mona and five children are also in danger of being arrested or fired upon every time they try to farm the remaining 40%, because it is in the “security zone” next to the wall. The structure is even more imposing for being on a raised section of ground, with a sort of ditch in front of it. more

 ‘I punched an Arab in the face’ 
Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz - Staff Sergeant (res.) Liran Ron Furer cannot just routinely get on with his life anymore. He is haunted by images from his three years of military service in Gaza and the thought that this could be a syndrome afflicting everyone who serves at checkpoints gives him no respite. more

 ‘Speak Hebrew or shut up’ 
Etgar Keret in the UK Guardian - Israel’s official code of ethics says troops can only use force if threatened. But at a checkpoint near Nablus, Israeli author Etgar Keret witnessed another code of behaviour in operation... more

 Mabrook, Ala’a 
Dianne Roe (CPT) in Hebron, West Bank - In mid-July students all over Palestine get the results of the tawjihi, the final examination of their senior year. Celebrations abound for those who pass. Friends and family visit the successful graduates to say “Mabrook!” (Congratulations). Dianne Roe met Ala’a Al Ja’abari, one such graduate, last week and sends him this note of congratulations. more

 Living beside the checkpoints 
Amira Hass in Haaretz Daily - The soldiers at the Haware checkpoint at the southern entrance to Nablus shouted commands in Arabic: Rukh (walk), Wakf (stand), Iftah (open). Dozens of women, crowded between the rows of cement plates, waited about half an hour for their turn to be checked. The last thing that interested them was the bad pronunciation and the use of the masculine gender. The women were thinking about the taxis waiting on the southern side of the checkpoint, about 200 meters away, that would take them home. The men stood in a separate line. The men and women watched silently as the three soldiers stopped a young man between the cement plates. Two aimed their rifles at him as the third shackled his hands behind his back with white plastic bracelets. more

 The Nightmare Comes True 
Uri Avnery in CounterPunch - I thought it was terrible. I was wrong. It is far, far worse!—These words sum up my feelings at that moment. I was standing on a hill overlooking the infamous Kalandia checkpoint. more

 UNRWA Suspends Emergency Food Aid in Gaza 
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today stopped distributing emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, or approximately half of the refugees receiving UNRWA food aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, following restrictions introduced by Israeli authorities at the sole commercial crossing through which the Agency is able to bring in humanitarian assistance. Stocks of rice, flour, cooking oil and other essential foodstuffs that UNRWA provides to refugees reduced to poverty, or otherwise affected by a humanitarian crisis now in its 42nd month, have been fully depleted. more

 Those who are defeated by violence will become obsessed by it
Maia Williams (CPT), Azariyya, West Bank - For more than half of each week, I live in Azariyya, a West Bank town a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem. I leave from Azariyya to Jerusalem by walking up a steep path, passing taxis and vans constipating the road. Then I arrive at the slabs of rock, standing vertically, one next to the other, and stare at the soldiers dressed in green cloth and jaunty hats posturing with their guns, joking with one another, sitting in their jeeps to avoid the hot noon day sun, and yelling at the Palestinian taxi drivers as the taxi drivers yell at the passersby to fill their vehicles. This is the place where the wall touches me and I touch the wall. more

 Child Unable to Pass Through the Apartheid Wall Dies 
Mohamed Hashem, a two year old child from the village of Ras Atieh south of Qalqiliya died Sunday, February 8, 2004 as his family, imprisoned behind the Apartheid Wall, was not able to reach emergency medical attention. Early Sunday morning the child began feeling sick and quickly developed a high fever. The parents brought the child to the local doctor in Habla who determined that the boy should to be taken to the hospital immediately. more

 The Way to School
Andrew (ISM) Jenin, Palestine - I am standing about 10 meters from the settler road (Israeli only) and roadblock that divides the western part of the village of Abaa and the city of Jenin from the eastern part of the village. Ahead of us on the far side of the road looms the grey concrete of an Israeli army tower. The tower dominates the area where the Palestinian road to eastern Abaa becomes subsumed by the settler road and a series of trenches, concrete and razor wire obstacles. more

 No Exit
Israeli journalist Uri Blau in Harper’s Magazine - Uri Blau: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “territories”?
Roi [nineteen, paratrooper, serving in Hebron for the past six months]: The first thing that comes to my mind is children throwing Molotov cocktails. Basically, you should shoot them in the legs and you don’t.
Tzvi [twenty, serving in the Gaza Strip]: My first memory is of security patrol. You see unbelievable things there: people sitting under the bulldozers, begging us not to demolish their houses. There’s a guy who lives in a tent where his house stood once, and now this tent is on ground that has been annexed by the settlement. But there are stories much worse than this. Real pogroms. Angry settlers coming out with sticks and pitchforks and burning down houses. Just like that. more

Palestinian Life Totally on Hold While Israel Feasts
Palestine Monitor - In an unprecedented announcement the Israeli Central Command Major General issued an order prohibiting all Palestinian vehicular traffic in the North West Bank for the next four days. more

Where have all the flowers gone?
Kate Raphael (IWPS) - I could not fathom, what might have prompted the army to even expend this much time and money on such a tiny infraction of their rules. But it is the occupation. It doesn’t have to be logical; it functions mainly because it is arbitrary. If things were done by the book, people would perhaps be able to adjust to the rules. It is not knowing when or if your illegal flower shed will be demolished... This in turn makes them feel that maybe they cannot live here any more, that they should find somewhere else to go, and that of course is what it is all for in the end. more

 Birth and Death at the Checkpoint
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz - Rula was in the last stages of labor. Daoud says the soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn’t let them through, so his wife hid behind a concrete block and gave birth on the ground. A few minutes later, the baby girl died. more

 Palestinians run ‘popular schools’ to get around Israeli curfew 
Mohammed Daraghmeh - The children of the Al Qasr neighborhood dodge Israeli military patrols on the way to class in a cramped dorm room. They sit on chairs brought from home or crouch on mattresses. Their teachers have no textbooks, only a blackboard. The “popular school” in Al Qasr is one of several that have sprung up in mosques, empty factories and apartments in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, since Israel first imposed a round-the-clock curfew June 21 to prevent Palestinian militants from attacking Israeli civilians. more

Feeling Palestinian
Kate Raphael (IWPS) - I have had guns pointed straight at me, even touching my chest like that. The big difference was only that this time, unlikely as it seems, they thought I was Palestinian. That simple fact put my life in danger in a way that I don’t think it ever was, even when I walked up to tanks in Gaza, even when I was standing in front of armored personnel carriers in Bethlehem, or walking into an occupied house in my village. If I had been a Palestinian, would I be sitting here writing this now? Would I be in prison, or dead or in a hospital? I don’t know. more

Being a Target
Alison Weir (Independent Journey to Palestine, prior to founding If Americans Knew) - I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but I was sort of shot at yesterday. I say “sort of” because I don’t think the Israeli soldiers in their tower were trying to hit me, or the people with me... if that had been their purpose I have no doubt that they would have. There is massive evidence here that their aim is quite good. I think they were simply asserting their power. And I think they were trying to intimidate me, as a foreigner, into leaving the area. more