News Highlights:
- Aug 3rd – three Palestinians killed by two Israeli missiles in southern Gaza and Reuters cameraman also wounded.
- July 30st – Israeli soldiers open fire on a funeral in Khan Younis, killing a 12 year-old boy.
- Palestinian Education Ministry reports that many schools have been crippled in the past year due to curfews and lack of freedom of movement; Nablus and Hebron particularly hard hit, where some schools have been turned into army bases.
- United Nations report says two million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza living in poverty and 42% of families are destitute.
- Palestinian NGOs warn of disaster at the Rafah border crossing, which Israel has completely sealed off.
- Leaders of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US vote to join the divestment campaign against Israel.
Feature:
An Eyewitness Palestine, featuring two “Dispatches from the Homeland” by Mike Odetalla, a Palestinian-American journalist and activist currently in Palestine. He detailed the daily despair that takes place at the many Israeli checkpoints around the West Bank, and especially the effect on Palestinian children.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a letter published by the Guardian newspaper from Jocelyn Hurndall, the mother of the British student murdered by Israeli soldiers.