Lillian Rosengarten, one of the seven elderly Jews who tried to reach Gaza in the Jewish boat to Gaza, is aghast at what some Jews can do to other Jews and enraged at how Israelis use caricatures and religious nationalism to render Palestinians sub-human.

Despite the fear of Gazans that ‘nobody stands with us’, word and picture of the damage caused by Operation Cast Lead and its repercussions have spread far. Here we post an Open Letter by trade unions and NGOs in Gaza, and more personal accounts from the PCHR.

There are electric lifts, railways, petrol pipe-lines and little red tape.. Israel’s siege of Gaza, an act of reprisal, was intended to bring bring the people to their knees and destroy support for Hamas. Gazan ingenuity and Hamas flexibility have produced the opposite result.

On the third anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s deady onslaught on Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights publishes a series of stories about some of those killed, maimed, bereavd. Here we post the first two.

Our blogger from Gaza describes life without electricity – so no lights, heating, cooking, computers – but wondrous clementines and a good pair of wool socks

Second, Sir Robert Atkins’ report of his visit to Gaza. He deplores the effects, specified, of the siege and the quiescence of the west and thinks Hamas more far-sighted than Fatah. The first item is the Jewish Chronicle’s take on this report. (PS it is a Jewish, not Israeli, diaspora whose responsibility is in question).

Jonathan Chadwick, who has been involved in Az Theatre’s ten year project ‘Gaza Drama’, marvels at the resilience, resourcefulness and recycling of people in Gaza, decries the prevalent deafness and damaged bodies of the children and notes the growing wealth of Gaza’s elite

Hamas security police have arrested two journalists and broken up Palconnect, a Palestinian social media conference due to take place in Gaza December 4 – 6. (1 and 2) There is not the publiciry outside the Arab media that there was when a British journalist was detained for a month last year (3 and 4)

John Dugard, author of ‘Human Rights and the South African Legal Order’ and former Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, will give evidence in Cape Town on what defines apartheid and whether the practices of the Israeli state fit the definition. For background to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, http://jfjfp.com/?p=26270

In the most comprehensive of the commentaries on the prisoner swap, Uri Avnery looks at what this moment in Israeli politics – where government, armed forces and public were united against the right wing, settlers and ultra-religious – could mean for acceptance of Palestinian statehood, though the deal was Netanyahu’s attempt to scupper it

Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband observes the stunted children, overcrowded schools, power cuts and wrecked buildings in Gaza, and deplores the irrationality of the inertia of all political agencies

Outside Israel and its circle of defenders, the Palmer report into the killing of nine Turks on the Mavi Marmara has been greeted by universal disbelief and criticism. Jeremy Salt of Bilkent University, Ankara, gives a particularly lucid account of the report’s blind spots and asssumptions

No political authority in Israel or Gaza has held to account any agent of the war crimes detailed in the Goldstone report. Now three international human rights NGOs have joined with three Palestinian rights NGOs to call on the UN Security Council to refer the crimes committed by both sides to the International Criminal Court

One of a slew of Wikileaks about Israel reveals that not only does the IDF use drones to kill militants – and many civilian bystanders – but it has kept the US Ambassador to Israel well-informed of their tactics

Treated as outlaws under Mubarak, the Bedouin of the Sinai have acted as entrepreneurial smugglers for the Gazans, shifting anything from a tiger to fuel – but not suicide bombers. With Al Qaeda trying to recruit them, reports Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, only Egypt can bring them in from the wilderness.

Although there is no firm evidence that the rocket attacks on Israel on 18th August came from Gaza, the IOF has responded with deadly airstrikes, continuing after the cease-fire. Personal (Al Jazeera vox pop 1, Eva Bartlett 2, ) and Gazan legal centre (PCHR, 3, Al Mezan Center, 4) accounts testify to the damage

The dependence of Israel on Mubarak’s control is evident as Netanyahu’s government looks for ways to master the unruly peoples of Sinai and Gaza and the military regime in Egypt has, for the first time, to take into account popular Arab feeling. Adam Shatz in his LRB blog, first, and then Issandr El Amrani of The Arabist assess the change of power relationships

Uncertainty seems to mark the stance of Netanyahu’s government towards the attacks of 18 August despite loud words and air strikes on Gaza. With weak Palestinian leadership and fanatics in the Knesset, the men of violence will dominate, argues Richard Lightbown, unless protesting Israeli civilians press the case for change

Since the Egyptian revolution, there has been pressure to increase the price of the supply of gas to Israel, or to stop it altogether. Dina Ezzat looks at why the governments of the two countries are intent on maintaining the supply amidst the border conflicts

If Israel’s control of Gaza were about preventing ‘terror’, why block the work of fishermen and farmers and prevent the export of goods from Gaza asks Ben White? Only blocking Israel’s policies of colonialism and apartheid will free Palestinians to be economically and politically productive