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A near-capacity crowd packed House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn June 17 to hear speakers from the MV Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza that was boarded by Israeli commandos May 31. Nine passengers were killed and dozens wounded in the raid. Counterdemonstrator at June 17 Gaza Freedom Flotilla event, Photo [...] read more »

Hedy Epstein (second row, third from left) with other hunger strikers on the steps of the Journalists Syndicate building in Cairo January 1. CAIRO, January 1–85-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein ended her hunger strike today. She had begun the fast to protest the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow the Gaza Freedom March to cross the border [...] read more »

By Ellen Davidson French GFM participants were buoyed by support from other internationals Dec. 29 CAIRO, December 29–Some 200 French delegates to the Gaza Freedom March (GFM) remain camped outside their own embassy here, surrounded by two lines of Egyptian police. They are attempting to get help from their government in their efforts to go to Gaza [...] read more »

GFM participants at the bus depot where they were supposed to be leaving from December 28. CAIRO–At 7 am today, about 100 Gaza Freedom March (GFM) delegates met near the bus station from which the marchers were originally planning to set off today for Gaza. No one was actually going anywhere, because the Egyptian authorities had [...] read more »

CAIRO–The French delegates to the Gaza Freedom March (GFM) spent the night in front of their embassy here, pressuring their ambassador to support them in negotiations with the Egyptian government, which has so far refused permission for marchers to enter Gaza. As of 7 pm this evening, the site was locked down by the Egyptian [...] read more »

  By Ellen Davidson ANATA, East Jerusalem, August 16—The seventh annual Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) rebuilding camp has come to an end. It’s difficult to imagine going back to our relatively cushy lives — taking showers that gush hot water instead of the unsteady trickle we have become used to, sleeping in rooms with fewer [...] read more »

  By Ellen Davidson ANATA, East Jerusalem, August 6—Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter from the Jerusalem Post. She had contacted Jeff Halper, the founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), about the organization’s seventh annual summer house-rebuilding camp, in which I am participating. He invited her to come out to the camp and [...] read more »

  By Ellen Davidson ANATA, East Jerusalem, August 9—What happens when some 60-plus well-intentioned international activists swarm into the hills south of Hebron? It stirs up some hornets is what. Participants in the seventh annual summer rebuilding camp here, sponsored by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) took two days off from reconstructing demolished houses here in [...] read more »

By Ellen Davidson ANATA, East Jerusalem, August 3—The day I arrived here a right-wing extremist walked into Open House, a lesbian and gay center in Tel Aviv, and pulled out a gun, killing three and injuring 15. The next morning, at 5 a.m., Palestinian occupants of two houses in Jerusalem were evicted and [...] read more »

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It was not just in the courtroom that the plight of the Guantánamo prisoners was brought out. Throughout the week, as we moved around the courthouse and its environs in our bright orange jumpsuits and t-shirts, we were a highly visible symbol of the ongoing shame that is Guantánamo prison camp. read more »

I was with 13 other women in a cell about two-thirds the size of my kitchen with a small bench along one wall. Some lucky ones had gotten a sandwich during the 20 hours of custody. Three women in my cell were vomiting from dehydration. read more »

Israeli Jews call the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 a “war of liberation.” Palestinians call it the Naqba — the Catastrophe. read more »

Israel is frequently cited as “the only democracy in the Middle East.” The 1.2 million Palestinians living inside Israel’s borders, would beg to differ. read more »

The entire northern region of the West Bank, with a population of a million people, is served by two government hospitals one surgical and one medical. They were built in 1905 and have not been renovated or augmented since. There are also several private hospitals, but most people cannot afford to pay their fees. read more »

From 2001 to 2003, Shaul says, the IDF imposed full curfew for 377 days and partial curfew for more than 500 days. Children couldn’t attend school and people couldn’t go to work, buy groceries or get medical care. This crackdown decimated Hebron’s economy. More than 1,400 shops have gone out of business, on top of 480 that were closed because of lack of access due to checkpoints and street closings. The narrow alleys of Hebron’s old city, which once housed a crowded marketplace, are roofed with wire mesh to protect pedestrians from the debris thrown down by settlers living in the buildings above. Garbage, bricks and large chunks of concrete are among the objects trapped overhead. Some things breach the barrier, for example filthy water and metal rods, one of which penetrated the skull of a Palestinian, causing permanent brain damage. No one was ever questioned or arrested in that case. read more »

The disability rights movement suffered a mighty loss June 16 when Frieda Zames, an activist, author and singer, died in her sleep. She was a mainstay of Disabled in Action, a civil rights organization founded in 1970, serving as president more than once and as vice president for legislative affairs at the time of her [...] read more »