This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post. Summertime, and the livin’ is easy in the coalfields — except from dust to dawn, when untold millions of pounds of explosives are detonated across 24 states in the nation, raining down silica and coal dust, contaminating wells and watersheds, sending boulders the size of bowling balls into [...] read more »

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Demonstration in support of the May Gaza Freedom Flotilla. PHOTO: ELLEN DAVIDSON Activists have launched a national campaign to send a U.S. boat to Gaza that will sail with a flotilla of ships from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa, and parts of the Middle East this fall. Participants hope to break through the three-year Israeli [...] read more »

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for a “kiss and make up” session at the White House tomorrow, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a new list of items that will be banned from entering the Gaza Strip. The decision comes after weeks of international pressure following the Israeli raid on a Gaza aid [...] read more »

Photo by Ellen Davidson For the second straight day, hundreds of New Yorkers filled the streets of Midtown Manhattan June 1, denouncing the Israeli naval attack on a ship carrying civilians and humanitarian aid that was trying to break the siege of the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli raid on the “Freedom Flotilla” killed at least 9 [...] read more »

SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNALIST ABOARD FLOTILLA IS FOUND ALIVE Jun 1 (GIN) – A South African journalist who joined the flotilla bringing material aid to war-torn Gaza has been found. Magboeba Davids said she lost track of her daughter, Gadijah, age 25, after the flotilla of 6 boats came under attack by Israeli defense forces and nearly all [...] read more »

“Art,” Thomas Merton once said, “enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Merton’s quote captures the pleasantly transformative qualities of creating and viewing artwork. Yet, for many New Yorkers, the thought of experiencing art through a trip to the museum is simply out of reach. [...] read more »

A New York City coalition of more than 80 anti-hunger, food justice and child welfare organizations have come together to push for increased funding for the Child Nutrition Act — a bill that funds a range of nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC ). read more »

On Tahrir Square in Cairo New Year's Eve. Photo by Ellen Davidson CAIRO, January 3–Taking advantage of the publicity generated by its attempt to reach Gaza, the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow it to do so, and its protests in Cairo, the Gaza Freedom March (GFM) concluded with plans to intensify its work when marchers return [...] 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 »