Emad Burnat is the Palestinian director of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “5 Broken Cameras.” He is the first Palestinian to be nominated for an Academy Award. He traveled to the United States this week because the Academy Awards ceremony is this weekend. It is common for nominees to be in attendance. But on Tuesday night, US [...]

A documentary the filmmakers describe as a “deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance” in a West Bank village threatened by Israeli settlements, which is short-listed for an Academy Award, is streaming now for free through January 6. Alive Mind Cinema has posted it on their website. The film consists almost entirely of footage shot [...]

(update below) United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. There was no signed agreement. The ceasefire is essentially “quiet in exchange for quiet,” as one Israeli diplomatic source put it. In the announcement, Clinton reiterated the US’s position that “all rocket attacks must [...]

UPDATE – 6:30 PM EST Israel refused to accept the terms proposed by Hamas and Egypt. Israel is now accusing Egypt of wanting Hamas gains. The bombing of Gaza is intensifying again with huge explosions being reported every few minutes. Journalists are being targeted. Women and children are dying. An IDF soldier was hit by [...]

United States State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland has indicated the Obama administration considers Egypt critical to any effort to broker some kind of a truce or ceasefire agreement that would de-escalate violence between Israel and Hamas. However, New York Times journalist David D. Kirkpatrick doubts Egypt’s commitment to Israel and Hamas halting violence. Kirkpatrick summarized: [...]

Early Sunday, as widely reported, Israeli warplanes launched air strikes, which hit two complexes with media offices. The strikes wounded ten journalists or media persons. One person, Khader al-Zahhar, a cameraman for Al-Quds TV, had to have his leg amputated and suffered shrapnel wounds. The first complex attacked around 2 am was the Al-Shawa Wa [...]

While it is unlikely that the escalating violence in Gaza will be placed into proper context by United States media, who report on it in the context of Israel’s blockade and occupation of Palestinian land, it is also just as unlikely that there will be any meaningful coverage on how Israel justifies bombing civilian infrastructure [...]

Seventy-five thousand reservists in Israel have been called up for whatever Israel has planned for Gaza. It already has been bombarding it for three days and has asserted to the world that it must continue to respond to rocket attacks from Hamas because Israel cannot tolerate such terrorism. Yet, when one examines the collective punishment [...]

The above comes from VisualizingPalestine.org. The site creators say it uses “creative visuals to describe a factual rights-based narrative of Palestine/Israel.” In this case, we have a brilliant graphic showing past heroes for social justice who have gone on hunger strike and what happens to the human body as they carry out a strike. Khader [...]

(update below) A Palestinian who was detained without charge under an Israeli administrative detention order has ended a hunger strike he has been engaged in for sixty-six days. Khader Adnan reached a deal with Israeli authorities for his release. Under the proposed deal, Adnan will be released on April 17, three weeks before his administrative [...]