Students for Justice in Palestine at University of Maryland

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8390717.stm?ad=1 Jerusalem residency losses rise Israel stripped a record number of Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an Israeli rights group has said. Some 4,570 people had their residency rights removed, more than a third of the total number since Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinians fear an attempt to reduce their presence in Jerusalem, which both they and Israel claim as their capital. Israel says most of those stripped of their rights were living abroad. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship after Israel occupied the area in 1967 and later annexed it. Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty, and were instead given residency. But, according to the Israeli rights organisation Hamoked, if these Palestinians live abroad for seven years, or gain citizenship or residency elsewhere, they lose their Israe...

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...

"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....