After staging an intermittent hunger strike for some nine months, hunger striking Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi agreed to start eating again, pending the signing of a deal later in the day. The deal would see him released to his home in Jerusalem in eight months. Update (April 23, 4:10 p.m.): Issawi has signed the deal and ended his hunger strike, Maan reports. He is expected to be released in late December of this year. Palestinian hunger striking prisoner Samer Issawi has agreed to end his hunger strike, and will be released to his home Jerusalem in eight months' time, Reuters reported…

Members of Activestills posted a public street exhibition on the streets of West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv of photos that bring attention to Palestinian Prisoners Day. Photos by: Ahmad Al-Bazz, Shiraz Grinbaum, Keren Manor, Anne Paq, Ryan Rodrick Beiler, Yotam Ronen, and Oren Ziv The following text, in Hebrew, accompanied street exhibitions of the photos from this essay which were posted in public places in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the night before Palestinian Prisoners Day, April 17, 2013. Images of the street exhibitions, some of them later defaced, follow below: April 17 commemorates Palestinian Prisoners' Day. As of February 2013,…

This week: Solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, opposition to Yair Lapid, preserving Tel Aviv's beaches, resisting the occupation's obstacles, Tel Aviv's 'Slutwalk', and the targeting of a Palestinian photographer.                    

Physicians are extremely worried by the deteriorating medical condition of Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi, who has not put food in his mouth for more than half a year. Doctors are concerned by the state of Issawi's heart, which is weakening and losing rhythm, and are assessing that he might also be suffering from brain damage due to severe lack of minerals, in addition to partial failures of his lungs and kidneys. The Palestinian Prisoner's Club attorney, Jawad Boulus, who visited Issawi in the Kaplan Hospital in Petah Tikva this morning, told +972 that there is a growing risk of sudden…

West Bank clashes erupt after the death of a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, in which two more Palestinians are shot and killed by Israeli forces. Photos by: Ahmad Al-Bazz, Anne Paq, Yotam Ronen, and Oren Ziv Clashes erupted throughout the West Bank between Palestinians and the Israeli military on Thursday over the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, a long-term Palestinian prisoner who died of cancer this week while in Israeli custody. During those clashes two more Palestinians, 18-year-old Naji al-Balbisi and 17-year-old Amer Nassar, were killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces near the city of Tulkarem. Funerals…

This week: Protests shadow Obama's itinerary, a protest village in E1 is built and demolished, animal rights activists are scarred for life, and Palestinians march for water rights, prisoner solidarity, and to protest Israel's permit regime.                          

Mohammad Saba'aneh, an important Palestinian political cartoonist, has been in prison for about a month now. Friends and supporters suspect his detention is related to the growing protests on the issue of Palestinian prisoners and the international concern over hunger strikers, including a new resolution in the European Parliament. Mohammad Saba'aneh (30) was arrested on February 16 while returning from a work-related trip to Jordan. After taking part in an Amman conference of the Arab-American University in Jenin (a private institute that works in coordination with the PA's Ministry of Education and the California and Utah State Universities), where he works…

Threat of Palestinian Authority's collapse forces Netanyahu, who has humiliated Abbas and his people as often as possible, to try to placate them. At the beginning of this week, when Palestinian riots threatened to get out of hand, especially if one of the hunger-striking prisoners died, what did Netanyahu do? He gave in. He announced on Sunday he was giving the Palestinian Authority its customs taxes for January, which he'd held back to punish Mahmoud Abbas for winning recognition for Palestinian statehood at the UN last November. Palestinians throw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, PA security troops do…

Photos by: Anne Paq, Yotam Ronen, Oren Ziv, and Ryan Rodrick Beiler from the Activestills photo collective. Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral on Monday of Arafat Jaradat, 30, who died two days earlier in Israeli custody, while under interrogation by Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet. The funeral took place in his village of Sa'ir, near Hebron, in the West Bank. According to Palestinian officials, the autopsy showed bruising on his shoulder, chest and elbows, as well as fractures in two of his right ribs, all indications that he died from severe torture. A father of two children,…

Tensions are rising following the death of a Palestinian in Israeli prison and a settler attack on a Palestinian village, which took place despite the fact that IDF soldiers were on the scene. Indifference to the Palestinian issue and lack of progress on the ground are building up frustration and anger among Palestinians.  This weekend saw a series of confrontations between Palestinians, soldiers and settlers in the occupied territories. Hundreds of Palestinians confronted soldiers in Beitunia (near Ofer prison), in several places near Road 60, in Hebron and near the village of Qusra, where at least two people were reportedly shot by settlers from…

From Jenin to Gaza, Palestinians express solidarity with hunger-striking prisoners in Israeli detention. Also, Sudanese cultural celebrations, highways through Palestinian Jerusalem communities, Nabi Saleh's struggle, and pressure on an Israeli chocolatier.                        

Hundreds of Palestinian took part today in demonstrations in solidarity  with Palestinian prisoners, specifically those administrative detainees on hunger strike. Dozens were lightly wounded from tear gas inhalation, and several from live ammunition. The main protest today occurred outside Ofer Prison, just outside Ramallah, in support of Samer Issawi, who has not eaten since July 29, 2012, along with the rest of the Palestinians on hunger strike. Hundreds of Palestinians, including MK Ahmad Tibi, Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti and Islamic leader Sheikh Raed Salah gathered near Ofer at noon for a Friday prayer before marching toward the prison,some  confronting army…