SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
Day 6: Ramallah. There are checkpoints within 5km of each other around Ramallah, home of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.
Along the encircling serpentine wall there are huge paintings of PLO leader Yasser Arafat and jailed intifada leader Marwan Barghouti.
Palestinians do not have permission to leave Ramallah without “valid” permits. At the Kalandia checkpoint, we see Palestinians having to get off their bus to show their permits and ID cards, some carrying their heavy bags and suitcases rejoining the bus on the other side.
No problems for us, though. Our minibus is stopped and a very young armed blond soldier gets on, looks at the group, asks where we have come from and lets us pass.
For those who lived in Yanoun, its disappearance is not just a local tragedy, but a stark symbol of escalating violence, displacement and impunity across the occupied West Bank, says JANE HARRIES
Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER



