Students for Justice in Palestine at University of Maryland

what a great project! - From Haaretz Fourteen-year-old Jum’a Ismail lives 50 km from the Mediterranean but had never seen the sea. The Palestinian youth had never set eyes on an Israeli civilian or an airport. Juma’a’s horizons expanded this summer, when he left Jalazoun refugee camp in the West Bank with “Birthright Replugged” on a trip taking Palestinian children to Israel to visit the villages of their ancestors. “It’s an attempt to get out, while they still can,” said the program’s creator, Dunya Alwan. Once Palestinian children turn 15, they must carry Israeli-issued West Bank identity cards and are no longer able to travel through Israeli checkpoints without special permits. “Birthright Replugged” is partially funded by the Carter Center’s Peace Program, founded by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. It takes groups of 20 Palestinian children into Israel twice yearly. Alwan, an Iraqi-American from a Jewish-Muslim family, calls her work a counterweight to “Birthright”, the pr...

Absolutely beautiful story! From ElectronicIntifada - - Eman Mohammed writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 17 August 2009 Newlyweds Rana and Mahmoud al-Zourby at their home in the Gaza Strip. (Eman Mohammed) They say that all is fair in love and war. In Gaza, love and war have come together in a bittersweet union. Rana, 26, like many women around the world, dreamed of walking down the aisle in a white dress and veil. But her marriage to Mahmoud is extraordinary in many ways as life is these days in Gaza. On the rehearsal morning about a week before their planned wedding, Mahmoud, 21, got dressed with the help of his younger brother, then sat smiling in the corner as he waited for Rana to come visit to write out invitation cards. Before Israel's winter invasion of Gaza, it was easy for Mahmoud to recognize Rana from the mere...

Great News!! from PACBI - - PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (PACBI) & NEW YORK CAMPAIGN FOR THE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (NYCBI) Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen’s Israel Concert Fund Media Contacts: pacbi@pacbi.org , inf o@boycottisraelnyc.org New York , NY , August 18 – Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert‘s proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boyc...

great op-ed by Ramzi Kysia of the FreeGaza movement / article from ElectronicIntifada A year ago, 44 ordinary people from 17 different countries sailed to Gaza in two small wooden boats. We did what our governments would not do -- we broke through the Israeli siege. During the last year the Free Gaza Movement has organized seven more voyages, successfully arriving to Gaza on five separate occasions. Regardless of Israeli threats and intimidation, Free Gaza volunteers will continue sailing unarmed boats to Gaza. Ours remain the only international ships to reach the Gaza Strip in more than 42 years. By directly challenging the Israeli military with our small boats, we have concretely demonstrated that this siege has nothing whatsoever to do with security and is simply an illegal act of collective punishment. But the siege of Gaza cannot be separated from the crisis of checkpoints and home demolitions in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, nor from the oppression of Palestinian citi...

From Counterpunch By HELENA COBBAN I've never met Dov Yermiya, a Jewish Israeli peace activist who is now 94 years old. But I read of course the book he published in 1983 in which he wrote with anguish about the torture and other gross mistreatment of civilians he witnessed directly during Israel's invasion of Lebanon the year before. I have it in my hand now. I just learned, from an open letter published by Uri Avnery, that Yermiya, recently renounced the ideology and practice of Zionism with these stirring words: “I, a 95 year old Sabra (native born Israeli Jew), who has plowed its fields, planted trees, built a house and fathered sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, and also shed his blood in the battle for the founding of the State of Israel, “Declare herewith that I renounce my belief in the Zionism which has failed, that I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions, that I shall not sing anymore its nationalist...

Join Naomi Klein, Neve Gordon, Noam Chomsky and thousands of others and tell Israel not to jail Ezra Nawi , one of Israel’s most courageous human rights activists. His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region. Nawi, a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent, is a threat to the settlers and the Israeli government because he has brought international attention to efforts to illegally remove Palestinians from the Hebron region. Ezra Nawi will be sentenced August 16th. We will bring thousands of signatures of support to the court house. Send the email below and be counted! The New York Times has taken notice and written this profile of Nawi and his activism . (Watch the remarkable video of Nawi trying to stop the home demolition and his subsequent arrest.) http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9462/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27357

Human Rights Watch called on Israel on Thursday to investigate seven incidents in which it said Israeli troops shot and killed Palestinian civilians who were flying white flags during the war in the Gaza Strip in January. Expressing disappointment with Israel's response so far to a range of allegations of war crimes made by international bodies, the New York-based lobby group said governments should press for prosecutions under international law if Israel and its enemies in Gaza's Islamist authorities did not act themselves. "These casualties comprise a small fraction of the Palestinian civilians wounded and killed," Human Rights Watch said. "But they stand out because, in each case, the victims were standing, walking or in slowly moving vehicles with other unarmed civilians, and were trying to convey their non-combatant status by waving a white flag." "All available evidence indicates that Israeli forces were in control of the areas in question, no fig...

New Report - "Red Lines Crossed: Destruction of Gaza''s Infrastructure" The report describes how Israel deliberately brought Gaza's humanitarian infrastructure to the brink of collapse in advance of Operation Cast Lead via its policy of closure and limitations on the entrance of inputs for the water, sewage and electricity systems. From Gisha : an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.

Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign 14 August 2009 For Immediate Release: Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign on Friday, 14 August 2009 at one PM. Bil’in residents along with Israeli and international supporters will attempt to march to the village land beyond the Apartheid Wall. At 2 AM on the 10 August 2009, Israeli forces raided the home of a jailed member of the Bil’in popular committee, Mohammad Khatib. The heavily armed solders, their faces daubed with black paint, entered and “searched” the home now occupied by Mohammad’s wife, Lamya, and their small children. The soldiers then ordered Lamya to take them to the house of Khatib’s elderly father, Abdel Karim. Lamya repeatedly refused to cooperate. The soldiers proceeded to raid Mohammad’s father’s home and summoned him to appear for interrogation with the Israeli secret service (...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8186522.stm As the US increases the pressure to get Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks, the Obama administration has asked Israel to help improve Palestinians' quality of life. But a former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody. Some human rights groups also support the claims, saying that, at times, brutal abuse of Palestinian children is widespread. Israel says it has to root out teenagers who pose a terrorist threat.

Gaza's cars barely running Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 3 August 2009 Even though six months have passed since Israel's brutal three-week bombardment of Gaza, Saleh, like many other Palestinians, has not been able to repair the damage. "I can't replace the windows and doors in my house; they were broken during the war. For the most part you can't find them in Gaza, and if they've been brought in through the tunnels then they're far too expensive."Facing the debt of an unpaid car part, needed insurance, and daily expenses, the driver is considering other ways of making money. "Maybe I'll have to sell my wife's only jewelry to pay the bills. Maybe I'll have to sell our refrigerator and television. That might bring 700 shekels [less than $200]." From Electronic Intifada - - - so who exactly suffers the most from this occupation? is it hamas? no. fatah? no. it is all the innocent Palestinian civilians who have limited acces...

Gazans have limited access to proper medical supplies because of an Israel-led blockade on the Hamas-controlled region, and equipment now in use is often broken or outdated, the World Health Organization said Thursday. While some medicines are allowed in for humanitarian reasons, importing spare parts or new medical devices into Gaza is limited, a WHO official said. Also, the UN agency said, well-meant donations are not helping. "The main issue here about the blockade is that it undermines the supply system as a whole," Mahmoud Daher, the head of WHO's office in Gaza, told a news conference in Jerusalem. During Israel's punishing three-week offensive in Gaza in December and January, aimed at stopping daily rocket attacks, two health care facilities were destroyed and others damaged, but the WHO said health care has since returned to prewar levels. More than 1,100 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded during the Israeli operation. From Haaretz - - How does pre...

"Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families in east Jerusalem on Sunday, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department. Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees. U.N. staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said. Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally. Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years." Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused. "Now our future is in the streets," she said....