On January 18th, the Israeli army raided the Aida refugee camp firing dozens of tear gas rounds onto the rooftop of the Lajee Center, a community organization that houses a kindergarten, a hydroponics garden, library, and more.

Hubert Murray reports from Cambridge, Massachusetts where Scientists for Palestine held their third international conference, this year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Another conclusion from witnessing this sophisticated and productive exchange of ideas is that despite the politically-imposed privations endured by Palestinian scientists (and of course the population as a whole) there is a corresponding ingenuity at prevailing against the odds,” Murray writes.

It is planting season in Palestine. For the last few weeks Shatha al-Azzeh and her colleagues in the Environmental Unit at the Lajee Center in Aida refugee camp outside of Bethlehem have been working with young people from the camp to set up new rooftop planters.