Jewish Voice for Peace produced this very basic primer to the conflict and the occupation. It's one of the best I've seen. If the video player doesn't work, click here.

Bus lines created exclusively for Palestinians is another step in the fortification of the de facto system of segregation imposed by the Israeli government between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.  Thousands of Palestinians travel from the West Bank to work in Israel every day using Israeli public transportation. The buses are overcrowded. At times there are tensions and confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli settlers can't stand the sight of Palestinians anyway. So why not create a separate bus line for them? This is the logic behind a new proposal being considered by the Ministry of Transportation:  Additional bus lines exclusively…

While Israelis are breathing a sigh of relief that quiet has mostly been restored (for the time being), and life can supposedly just go back to normal, with Gaza out of sight and out of mind, the other elephant in the room - the West Bank and East Jerusalem - is all but quiet. This morning (Sunday) a "price tag" attack was identified on a car in Shuafat, a Palestinian refugee camp in East Jerusalem, which is located inside the city's municipal borders (and thus under total Israeli jurisdiction). The car has the word "Gaza" graffitied on it, as pictured here in…

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, provides "assistance, protection and advocacy for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory, pending a solution to their plight." The UN agency is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from the global body's member states.  UNRWA's chief, Filippo Grandi, says the international community and donors must continue in their commitment to Palestinians and, in particular, to the people of Gaza. WATCH: ROEE RUTTENBERG INTERVIEW'S UNRWA CHIEF FILIPPO GRANDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=075hbClA65I&feature=youtu.be

From the death of 12-year-old Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa, whose killing from Israeli gunfire helped ignite the latest escalation, to demonstrations demanding an end to the violence, Activestills presents a week in its Gaza coverage.                                

Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni can win the January 22 election.  If there is one loser in the U.S. election outside the U.S., it is Benjamin Netanyahu - and all of Israel knows it. No one is fooled by his denials that he backed Romney and opposed Obama as demonstratively as he possibly could. The widespread conviction, now that Obama has won four more years in the White House, is that Bibi has endangered Israel's relationship with America in a way that is unprecedented in its recklessness. No Israeli prime minister ever took sides in a U.S. presidential election like…

Tel Aviv University's spokesperson refuses to explain why its archaeologists will work with Elad, an organization notorious for its pursuit of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. Haaretz reported on Thursday that Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology plans to start digging in al-Bustan, located in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, in cooperation with Elad, a private right-wing organization notorious for using the "City of David" National Park to further expand Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. While a Tel Aviv University spokesperson told me they will be "cooperating strictly with the Israel Antiquities Authority," it is a well-known fact…

Despite the onslaught of discriminatory legislation and racist declarations by public leaders, empirical data suggests that the government of Israel is closing the gaps between its Jewish and Arab citizens in many fields. The refusal to recognize those changes is dangerous and counter-productive. By Ron Gerlitz and Batya Kallus The policies of the current government and Knesset in relation to Arab citizens include statements that are divisive, discriminatory and dangerous. The provocations against the Arab leadership and members of Knesset are ongoing, and are strengthened by extremist elements of the government. However, all of the harsh declarations and actions by government ministers have not…

A new Human Rights Watch report details severe human rights violations in the criminal justice system of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, including arbitrary detention and torture. Several cases detail executions based on confessions obtained through torture. Prisoners are often refused access to a lawyer, abusive security officials are said to enjoy impunity, and families of prisoners often don't know of their relatives' whereabouts. The 43-page report includes testimonies from victims, families, representative of the criminal justice system, and Palestinian human rights organizations.  Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza (Human Rights Watch) Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting…

The Arabs are backward and Muslims want to destroy the world. And then there was that diagram. Comedian Amer Zahr breaks down Netanyahu's UN speech. By Amer Zahr This week, Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations. As a Palestinian, I tuned in. It’s my duty. Plus, I say the guy’s name at least 3-4 times a day (I won't tell you how), so the least I could do was to listen to his speech. He started innocently enough, referring to how Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, their…

A second-term President Obama wouldn't be beholden only to himself, but to the Democratic Party, which is scared stiff of taking on Israel.  I would love to share the hope that if Obama wins on November 6 - and at this point, going by the polls, it would take satanic intervention for Romney to beat him - he would "teach Bibi a lesson," and, more importantly, make good on his horribly failed promise to do everything in his power to forge the two-state solution. But I don't see it. After talking tough at the start of his presidency and getting…

Palestinians in the West Bank often face an internal clash between identity, ideology, politics and reality. In truth, they live in a place where making any decision in life is a dilemma. A few weeks ago, on a tour I was leading through the Old City of Jerusalem, I stopped next to a souvenir shop with a t-shirt display outside. I wanted to explain certain cultural and political things that were printed on these shirts. On one of the shirts was the famous cartoon figure "Handala," created by Naji al-Ali, the most well known Palestinian cartoonist. Al-Ali was assassinated due…

Controversy erupted after local Arab residents complained that the Salut Wine and Beer Festival would be held on the grounds of a mosque-turned-museum. The public outcry from the festival-goers reveals both a fear of the 're-Islamification of Be'er Sheva,' as well as a liberal approach that takes for granted the ways in which the state religion affects the daily lives of its non-Jewish citizens. By Nasser Rego There has been some brouhaha about Arabs whining about wine. The sixth annual Salut Wine and Beer Festival was scheduled to take place in Be'er Sheva on September 5-6. Attendees were promised a smorgasbord of…