There is hardly anything that Israel or its lobbies can do today to quell the healthy growth of BDS in the US and around the world. A movement that dwells in citizens' consciences, that is rooted in an oppressed people's heritage of struggle for justice, and that is inspired by the rich and diverse legacies of Mandela, Tutu and King cannot be defeated or co-opted. Our South Africa moment has arrived. 

A few weeks ago, I covered the confiscation of land from two Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Expropriating from Al- Isawiyah and Al-Tur, the land was re-zoned by the Jerusalem municipality for a nature reserve, which would inhibit the Jerusalem resident Palestinians from use. A legal rights group filed a petition this week to stop construction of the nature park, and the court issued an injunction. However, the environmental ministry is violating the order, already demolishing road access between the two villages. 

In 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, ruled that the wall Israel built across Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank was illegal and was aimed at confiscating more land. Frustrated by the inaction of governments, 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, including labor unions, student groups, and cultural and social organizations, came together to issue the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel in 2005. Modeled explicitly on the tactics used to help end apartheid in South Africa, Palestinians urge that Israel be sanctioned until it respects Palestinian rights and international law in three specific ways: an end to the occupation of all Palestinian lands seized by Israel in 1967; full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and full respect for the rights of Palestinian refugees. 

A remarkable film about the "legal" system in the Israeli Occupied Territories. A devastating look at how law and especially the Israeli Supreme Court has been employed for 40 years to legitimize the illegitimate, the cruel and the immoral. Amazingly the judges themselves are the confessors--although often they are unaware. When you get a chance--see this film. You will see the Supreme Court for what it is--worse than a rubber stamp, a key part of the machinery of repression. 

PLO official Hanan Ashrawi said Wednesday that peace talks with Israel are 'futile' as long as it continues its illegal policies against Palestinians. "With the escalation of settlement activities in and around Jerusalem, the arbitrary arrests of Palestinian representatives and lawmakers, continued annexation of Palestinian land and natural resources, and the eviction and deportation of Palestinians, Israel is thwarting all efforts to resume talks and to honor its obligations under international humanitarian law," the PLO official said during a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday. 

An Israeli military court has ordered the speaker of the Palestinian legislative body to be jailed for six months without trial after he was arrested at a checkpoint last week. Aziz Dweik, a member of Hamas and a senior elected politician, was imprisoned "without charge or legal justification", a statement from his office said. It claimed Israel was attempting to thwart moves towards reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. 

The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night. This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for days or even weeks. 

An elderly Palestinian woman spent last week on hunger strike to protest violent attacks by Israeli settlers. Hana Abu Heikel went on the hunger strike on behalf of her family after settlers burned the family car during the previous weekend. Since Israeli settlers moved into the houses surrounding the Abu Heikel family home in Hebron in 1984, the Abu Heikels have seen eight cars burned. Six vehicles were also smashed by settlers.