If Americans appreciated the scale of human rights abuses committed by Israeli colonists in the occupied territories, they would condemn the journalists who keep them in the dark, a US peace activist says. Kim Lamberty, a member of the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), has told Aljazeera.net on Tuesday that a cruel and criminal practice is largely going unreported: settlers are routinely attacking children on their way to school. And Lamberty should know. Unable to walk since a vicious attack on 29 September by Jewish colonists, she says physical assaults on schoolchildren and the volunteers who escort them have all increased in the past two weeks. Read more about Of settler crimes and media silence
Muhammad Juma was still trying to make sense of what had just happened. Incensed as he was, he sat sipping a cup of mint tea next to a caged, limping coyote and a bouncy kangaroo. Spread out in the field in front of him was an array of rotting carcasses, with the imposing stench that only death imparts. Two gazelles lay facing each other, the look of fear frozen on their faces. Besides the carcasses, the only indication that a zoo once occupied this empty field was a rusty welcome sign that had fallen to the ground. Everything else had been brutally ploughed over with military tanks and bulldozers. Read more about Rafah counts cost of Israeli onslaught
As home to the earliest known human settlements and the world’s holiest cities, historical Palestine is literally a treasure chest of antiquities. Remnants of Canaanite temples and towns, Byzantine mosaics and monasteries and Mamluk and Ottoman mosques all stand witness to the region’s long and colourful past. Many of the most important archaeological and historical sites are located in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. But years of conflict have left Palestinian antiquities in a sad state and in many cases out of Palestinian control. Al Jazeera reports how archaeology in the occupied territories has become a political matter. Read more about Palestine's neglected treasure trove
