Feature Archives

Ayman T. Quader, writes: "every time, she tries to understand what happened to her, she asks herself: what was my fault?, what’s going to happen to me in my tent? Ilham, a 30 years old mother of 6, lives in Al-atatra district ,in the northern part of the Gaza strip. The Israeli war (in 2006) had a huge impact on her, it destroyed her house, her parent’s house and killed her brother."

Michael Steinberg writes about August 11th: "Protesters gathered at 5 p.m. in front of the Honduran Consulate to protest the coup that removed elected President Manual Zelaya, and called for an end to repression in Honduras and the return of Zelaya to office. Zelaya was seized at gunpoint in his pajamas during the early hours of June 28 and forced onto a plane that flew him to Costa Rica. Honduran General Romeo Vasquez, who ordered this action, is a two time graduate of the notorious School of the Americas..."

On August 18th, the Israeli Ministry of Defense informed American activist Tristan Anderson’s family and legal counsel that it considers his shooting during a nonviolent protest in the West Bank village of Nil’in, which left him critically injured, an “act of war,” absolving the soldiers responsible from any liability under Israeli law. Anderson was shot directly in the forehead with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli forces on March 13th, 2009, suffering several condensed fractures and necessitating several life-saving surgeries.

Over the weekend the weekly demonstrations against the apartheid wall in Palestine continued. In Balin, some 20 Israelis and 50 internationals joined Palestinians and marched to the annexation wall. In Ni'ilin protesters marched towards the fence and dispersed along the route of the separation fence and expressed loudly their protest - each in their own preferred way. In Al-Mas'ara dozens of Palestinian protesters were joined by a groups of around 80 internationals and Israeli activists. A candlelight vigil in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was also held to protest against the eviction of two Palestinian families.

Jen Marlowe writes: "I heard the jangle of ankle and wrist cuffs before I saw them. The detainees (five Israeli, four Palestinian and four international) were being led into a small court room. One woman had a black eye. They had been arrested the night before at a demonstration against the eviction of the Hannoun and al-Ghawe families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. At 5:00 Sunday morning, the families were removed from their homes by Israeli police, leaving 53 people homeless — 20 of them children."

At around 3 a.m. on Monday, August 3, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting two Palestinian children and five Palestinian adults, including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.

In an open letter to Amnesty International, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) states: "In May, PACBI called on singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen to heed the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity with Israel’s violations of international law by cancelling his planned September concert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza earlier this year. Sadly, Amnesty International USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen in dealing with Israel on the basis of business as usual."