Soldiers use wind-up as shoot-to-kill excuse

Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Friday 24th April at night, a young Palestinian named Ali Sa‘id Abu Ghannam, 16 years of age, near the Zaim military roadblock, east of occupied Jerusalem. The Palestinian News & Info Agency WAFA has reported that the soldiers stopped the Palestinian, who was walking with a young woman from his family, and started provoking the two, before the soldiers uttered vulgar words towards the young woman. The incident caused the young man to engage in a scuffle with the soldiers before one of them shot him dead. The army is alleging the Palestinian “attempted to stab a soldier," and was shot  dead while trying to flee the scene. The Israeli army refused to hand the body of the slain Palestinian to the Red Crescent ambulance that arrived on the scene, and took it to an unknown destination. 
A straightforward case, perhaps: Israeli soldiers insult a Palestinian woman; her male companion springs to her defence and the soldiers kill him. But the Israeli police alleged the young Palestinian arrived at the roadblock “and started running towards the soldiers while carrying a butcher knife.” Ynet News quoted a police statement alleging that one of the soldiers managed to hold the Palestinian, “but he continued to run towards the soldiers,” and they shot him dead. The Israeli story is the one the BBC carried.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71348

What cease-fire?

During the present 'cease-fire' between the occupying forces and the Gazan authority Hamas, it's business as usual for Zionism. Attacks on Gaza itself continue. In Jerusalem, more illegal colonies have been built since Palestine's winning of observer status at the UN, while one non-Jewish family was forced to demolish its own home. Daily attacks on fishermen. Mosques destroyed. violence and delays, often fatal, at checkpoints.

Delivering art in Palestine

Palestinian artists have been invited to show their work in Jordan. This means an interminable journey through checkpoints and over the Bridge.  For details, see: Palestinian artists invited to present their work across the bridge that both connects and separates them from Jordan Since the second Intifada, Atarot Airport between Jerusalem and Ramallah has been closed and the Israeli authorities have prohibited Palestinians from using Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. This leaves the King Hussein Bridge as the only international exit from the occupied West Bank for Palestinians ... Sadly, crossing back over to the occupied Palestinian territories is a luxury reserved for people with Palestinian identity documents. Yet another deterrent to undertaking the journey across the Jordan is the effort it actually takes to cross the bridge. It should only take about two hours to get to the other side, but lengthy delays are routine. Repeated passport and baggage checks and seemingly endless orders to get into and out of buses are inevitable. In the summer, the heat and flies make the journey very unpleasant.
The growing distance between Palestinians living on either side of the river, an issue exacerbated by what happens on the bridge, is the issue that a new curatorial project, "The River has two Banks", will address. The idea behind the project is to bring two communities together who share history and culture, but have been divided by political circumstances.http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/culture/4202-

Source: Today in Palestine!

Freedom of movement: small concession from Israel

 Israel agrees to register 216 Gazans in West Bank
  http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501345
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 4 July-- Israel has agreed to register 216 Palestinians
originally from the Gaza Strip as residents of the West Bank, a Palestinian
Authority liaison department said  on Wednesday. The Civil Affairs department,
tasked with coordinating the population registry with Israel, released the
names  http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501326  of
Palestinians who will now be able to reside in the West Bank without fear
of detention. It said the department would continue efforts to change the
residency status of all Palestinians from Gaza who are living in the West
Bank. Palestinians living in the West Bank whose registered address is in
the Gaza Strip have been detained by Israel as "illegal aliens." ... Israel
received an estimated 120,000 change of address applications that it did
not process between 2000 and 2005, according to Human Rights Watch. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=501345

London under invasion?

If London - the UK - were under invasion and permanent curfew like, say, Palestine or Afghanistan, this is how it would be. And this film answers the puzzle for so many who are unable to understand why 'those foreigners' hate the Peace-keepers so much.

And on the same theme, here's action/street theatre by Columbia University students in NYC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_StjwC9ry8