“The deadly operation launched by Ariel Sharon this week in Rafah, the southernmost city of the crowded and occupied Gaza Strip, is picturesquely code-named ‘Operation Rainbow.’ Dressing up a murderous assault on unarmed civilians with an ancient symbol of glittering hope is obscene. One hue never present in any rainbow is black. But that’s the shade I’d like to focus on in this essay and call for action.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani suggests a simple symbolic protest to encourage thought, inspire discussion, and nurture solidarity in the face of escalating carnage in Gaza and Iraq. Read more about Black is for mourning, to say "we're not conforming," to war crimes in the Middle East 

“Crushed into the earth, her face torn and her head fractured, Rachel spoke her last words to her devastated friends: ‘I think my back is broken.’ Within the hour, Rachel Corrie, US citizen, aged 23, was dead, the victim of a murder committed in broad day light. With her killing, ISM activsts and all who share their humanitarian goals grounded in universal principles of justice and equality, had been been put on notice by the Israeli Defence Forces that their collective backbone could be broken.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani asks what Rachel Corrie’s life and death can tell us about achieving human rights and justice in the Middle East. Read more about One Year Later: Whose back is that strong? 

An obscene monument to the belief that “too much is never enough,” Israel’s monstrous Apartheid Wall is a visible indictment of the racist folly of forcibly separating people from each other and the places they love. The visual and moral affront of the Apartheid Wall prompted these observations, expressed through a subtle Japanese poetic form, the haiku. An ancient Japanese literary form, the haiku embodies the principle that “less is more” and delights in mixing categories and crossing boundaries through the magic of metaphor. Read more about Warsaw Ghetto Abu Dis: Five haikus on the Apartheid Wall 

“For all the revolutionary potential of Universal Jurisdiction in Belgium, very little changed for the better for the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs. In fact, Belgium’s decision to annul its progressive anti-atrocity legislation rendered the massacre survivors victims a second time over. Their attempts to realize justice in a Belgian court revealed not only the implicit political dimensions of Universal Jurisdiction, but also highlighted the fact that abstract, universal principles do not exist a priori. EI’s Laurie King-Irani concludes her discussion of lessons learned during a difficult year for international law in the Middle East. (Part II of II) Read more about 2003: A year of Israeli and US defiance of International Law (2/2) 

“A man in his sixties, with kind eyes and a ready smile, waits until I am comfortably situated before he approaches me, pulls up his shirt, and points to an area just to the left of his navel. ‘lammasini hon, sittnaa!’ he quietly requests, ‘Touch me here, Ma’am!’ His middle-aged daughters sit silently around me, their eyes focused on nothing in particular as I gingerly comply with their father’s request. Touching the damp flesh of his round white belly, I am shocked to feel the hard, spherical mass of a bullet trapped in his stomach muscles.” On the 21st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, EI’s Laurie King-Irani reflects on the search for international justice on a journey from Beirut to Brussels. Read more about 21 Septembers Ago