A bill pushed by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that critics say would codify Israeli discrimination against American travelers is still on the table. But Palestine solidarity activists and their allies are ramping up their campaign to thwart it. The bill in question is a reciprocal visa waiver program with Israel. But the legislative language would effectively give Israel the go-ahead to continue its practice of pointing to security concerns when it denies Palestinian- or Arab-Americans entry to the country. The U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation and a host of other groups are now making a concerted effort to make sure the proposal doesn't become the law of the land.  

Makhlouf's home sits on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Asira al-Qibliya, only 500 meters from the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Shalhevet Farm, an offshoot of the equally illegal settlement of Yitzhar. Makhlouf said that his house was attacked by Israeli settlers at least two times per week and has been vandalized more than 100 times. The windows on Makhlouf's two-story home all have bars on the outside to prevent them from shattering when settlers throw stones. 

Israeli forces on Saturday blocked a road between Ramallah and Deir Jarir with cement blocks, witnesses said. The road connects Deir Jarir and neighboring villages to Ramallah and Jericho. Locals said they will be forced to take a long and bumpy detour to Ramallah via Qalandia. The mayor of Deir Jarir, Imad Ulwei, condemned the road's closure as collective punishment in response to peaceful protests.

 

Settlers from Beit El on Saturday evening threw a Molotov cocktail toward Palestinian vehicles on the Ramallah-Nablus road and near al-Jalazun refugee camp north of Ramallah. The settlers threw Molotovs toward more than one Palestinian car, and even toward passers-by. A Palestinian car completely burned due to a Molotov cocktail. No injuries were recorded. The driver of the car was able to escape without incident.  

10 May 2013, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a "Statement on Academic Boycotts" which states, not for the first time, its "opposition to academic boycotts as a matter of principle." The statement was issued in response to two recent victories for the movement for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel: physicist Stephen Hawking's recent announcement that he would not attend a major conference in Israel, and the Association for Asian American Studies' (AAAS) adoption of a resolution at their national conference in April to endorse the academic boycott.  

This has been the Palestinian refugees' dilemma since 1948: watching groups of people from across the globe stroll through the misery of their camps and and then leave. Making their personal plight and stories available to writers and advocates is for them a way to induce change and action and to advance their moral cause around the world.
 

Three Palestinians were injured in clashes in Urif village south of Nablus, a local official said. Settler monitoring official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma'an that three people were injured with both live and rubber-coated steel bullets. They were taken to a nearby hospital. Dozens of settlers set fire to lands in the villages of Urif, Einabus, and Asira al-Qibliya south of Nablus.  

Prolonged federal investigations of Palestine solidarity activism on campuses are chilling students" constitutional rights to organize and speak out, a coalition of civil rights groups has charged in letters to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). The civil rights and advocacy groups are asking the federal government to take a number of steps to remedy what they say is the problem of investigations that are having a chilling effect on students' speech. The civil rights groups' statements request that the DOE take a number of steps to remedy the problems they bring up. Among the recommendations are that the DOE issue a letter stating that student political speech is protected under the First Amendment and that "advocacy for Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israeli government policies are not anti-Semitic.