links for 2009-05-07

In Nu'man, one of the villages the UN says is "living in limbo", the situation is particularly dire. The village is surrounded on three sides by Israel's West Bank barrier and on another by the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. The village entrance is blocked by an Israeli checkpoint to anyone other than Nu'man residents. Permits are not given for new homes in the village, and the younger generation is being forced out. Israel annexed Nu'man to Jerusalem after the 1967 war, but never gave its people Jerusalem residency. "It's a tragedy," said Ibrahim Darawi, 61, a Nu'man resident, who teaches geography at al-Quds University. "The old will die and the young will leave."

We are beginning to see some thoughtful takes on the financial crisis that has engulfed the world – this is surely one of them