Thirty years ago, I mounted the podium of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia to open the first ever political party debate on Palestinian rights.

This past week, The New York Times ran an article, "Israeli Airport Detention of Prominent US Jew Prompts Uproar", focusing on the airport harassment received by Peter Beinart, a prominent liberal writer and TV commentator.

Fifty years ago, when I was getting started in national politics, Ibrahim Abu Lughod, a friend and mentor, offered words of wisdom I never forgot.

Forty years ago this month, I left a tenured teaching position and moved to Washington, DC to run the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC). It was not easy doing Palestine work back then and Washington was an especially inhospitable city in which to pursue my new vocation.

Fifteen years ago, we were still in the early stages of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, "the war that would change everything".

This past week by a vote of 62 to 55, Israel's Knesset passed legislation called "Israel as a Nation-State of the Jewish People".

On Wednesday morning, I watched an amazing debate unfolding in the Irish Seanad (senate), as members spoke for and against a bill to prohibit the importation of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

Next week, the Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF) will release a comprehensive study on anti-Arab hate crimes in the US.

The Supreme Court decision upholding the Trump administration's infamous "Muslim ban" will have consequences far beyond its restriction on visas for nationals from the affected countries.Of the greatest concern is the validation it has given to the president's virulent anti-Musli