This week on Crossing The Line: Lawmakers made their annual pilgrimage to the the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference to show their unyielding support of Israel. US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama claim to both want a change in policy from the Bush Administration, but how will this apply to foreign policy, and more specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Noted author and professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Naseer Aruri, speaks with host Naji Ali about the importance of AIPAC in the US presidential elections.

Also this week, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens by the day, residents of the world’s most densely populated area are suffering from a lack of fuel, food, water and medical supplies while Israeli politicians talk of another full-scale invasion into the coastal region. Crossing The Line contributing producer and investigative journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman speaks to Ali from the Gaza Strip.

And as always, Crossing the Line begins with “This week in Palestine,” a service provided by The International Middle East Media Center.

• Listen Now [MP3 - 17.6 MB, 44:00 min]

Crossing the Line is a weekly podcast dedicated to giving voice to the voiceless in occupied Palestine. Through investigative news, arts, eyewitness accounts, and music, Crossing the Line does its best to present the lives of people on the ground.

Crossing the Line’s host, Naji Ali, is an independent journalist currently living in San Francisco. Ali’s South African roots and desire for social change are the reason for his strong solidarity with the Palestinian people. In 1990 Ali was arrested in South Africa where he was detained and tortured for nearly two years by the South African secret police. Ali also lived and worked in the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.