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Palestinians in the village of Burin were just sitting down to end their daily Ramadan fast when they noticed smoke rising on the outskirts of the eastern part of the village. As the evening unfolded they were forced to watch as the night sky lit up their village with orange flames and clouds of smoke. By the time the settlers and soldiers retreated, and the residents were able to put out the fires, the damage had already been done. “That land was planted with hundreds of olive trees, many of them were more than 70 years old,” Walid Saeed, 70, a local farmer in Burin, tells Mondoweiss. “There is no way to describe how we feel in Burin after what happened. This land, these trees, they are our whole lives, our heart and soul. They mean everything to us.”

Palestinian artists Dana Jhish, 19, adds the final touches to a mural painting calling on people to vote during the upcoming elections (legislative in May and presidential in July), on a street in Gaza City, on March 24, 2021. (Photo: Photo by Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

Gaza’s youngest voters hope Palestinian elections will move forward, amid reports saying the vote will be delayed due to disarray within the ruling Fatah party and a dispute with Israel around Jerusalem. “We are waiting for the elections to happen and want the local and international community to respect the results, to refute the argument of not having a unified Palestinian government,” Hind Judah tells Mondoweiss. The current division, she said, prevents “establishing the Palestinian state.”

Palestinian candidates from several electoral lists demonstrated in Ramallah against the possible cancellation of elections, April 28, 2021. The sign here reads, "There is no substitute for the elections." (Photo: Ibrahim Attaia/APA Images)

The prospect of holding long awaited legislative elections in Palestine is quickly slipping away, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is expected to announce that the elections, which have been 15 years in the making, will be delayed. The move comes as internal rifts continue to grow within Abbas’ Fatah party, with multiple contenders challenging the official slate presented by Abbas and his inner circle.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) during hearing on the Department of Agriculture Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2020 at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019. (USDA photo by Preston Keres)

By opposing and prohibiting funding to many of the Israeli policies of military occupation that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people, and by increasing the transparency around US weapons flows to Israel, Representative Betty McCollum’s latest bill is the boldest effort ever by Congress to ensure that the United States is no longer complicit in Israel’s denial of freedom to five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Nasr Nawaja’a in Israeli detention in January 2016 (Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills via B'Tselem)

B’Tselem researcher Nasr Nawaja’a tells Mondoweiss that intimidation from Israeli settlers and the Shin Bet has increased since a video he recorded showing the arrest of Palestinian children made international headlines. In fact, just a few days after the video of the boys’ detention was published, Nawaja’a says he was summoned for interrogation by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, and was warned to “not make any more trouble for the army.”

(Image: Palestinian Feminist Collective)

The Palestinian Feminist Collective’s open letter asking allies to adopt Palestinian liberation as a critical feminist issue has set off debates within feminist and Palestinian liberation movements. Nada Elia writes that some of the debate is understandable considering mainstream Western feminism’s disregard for the plight of the Palestinian people, but ultimately the call is about affirming, yet again, that one cannot be a feminist while supporting gendered violence, settler-colonialism, indigenous dispossession, and apartheid.

Workers unload boxes of the Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, donated from the United Arab Emirates at the Rafah crossing with Egypt on February 21, 2021. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

Palestinians will kick off their national vaccination campaign Sunday, offering long-awaited jabs to the general public for the first time following the arrival of does from the GAVI Alliance and COVAX, a vaccine-sharing program. Allison Deger unpacks the supply chain that brings the essential vaccines across the globe, and through Israeli checkpoints, into the arms of Palestinians.