A July report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem finds that of more than 800 Palestinian youths under the age of 18 charged with throwing stones in the West Bank over a six-year period, only one was acquitted. From the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2010, at least 835 Palestinian minors were arrested and tried in military courts in the West Bank on charges of stone throwing. Thirty-four of them were aged 12-13, 255 were 14-15, 546 were 16-17. Only one of the 835 was acquitted; all the rest were found guilty.

Nery Jeremías Orellana, 26, the manager of Radio Joconguera in the town of Candelaria, in the western department of Lempira, was gunned down the morning of July 14, bringing the number of Honduran journalists killed since the start of the year to three. A total of 12 journalists have been killed in the past 18 months in Honduras without any of their murders being solved. "Orellana headed a commercial radio station that works with civil society organizations and belongs to an alternative network of community radio stations," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. "He was also a member of the Broad Front of Popular Resistance (FARP), an opposition movement. All this means that he was [the] kind of journalist who was liable to be a target for violence."

The movement Sheikh Jarah Solidarity organized a high-profile march in Jerusalem July 15 to demand an independent Palestine in the 1967 borders. More than 3,000 people—Jews, Muslim, and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians—showed up and marched for three hours in the piercing sun, drumming and chanting: "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies," "Say no to fascism," and "From Bilin to Jerusalem, Palestine will be free." Tens of Palestinian flags were waved on the route which passed alongside the walls of the Old City.

The Israeli government is under heat now also from citizens who are normally indifferent to its immoral conduct. After a successful boycott of cottage cheese that forced the producer to put down the prices, hundreds of Israelis are now taking to the streets in protest of lack of affordable housing, building a tent town on Tel Aviv's fashionable Rothschild Boulevard. Rents in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and most other large cities are so high that even people with average salaries cannot afford them. For example, a three-room apartment in central Tel Aviv is around 7,000 NIS (about $2,000). The average salary in Israel is 8,698 NIS, and minimum wage in Israel is 4,100 NIS.

The People's Defense Front in Víctor Fajardo province of Peru's central Andean region of Ayacucho, on July 12 announced a one-week deadline for the Southern Peru Copper Corporation to halt its exploration activities in the area before local campesinos launch an indefinite civil strike, or paro. The Front's president, Rubén Usccata Saccatoma, said the company's operations pose a threat to mountain lakes that provide water to five communities in the province, and said there would be no negotiation on its demand. Southern Peru Copper began explorations on the local Cerro Chinchinga, Hualla district, in February. On July 5, the Front led a 24-hour "preventative" paro as a warning for the company to quit the zone. (Enlace Nacional, July 15; La Republica, July 13; El Muki blog, Peru, July 7)

Some 180 hectares (450 acres) of rainforest in the Amazon were defoliated using a potent mix of herbicides dropped by airplane, reports IBAMA, Brazil's environmental law enforcement agency. The affected area, which is south of the city of Canutama and near the Mapinguari Jacareúba/Katawixi indigenous reservation in Rondônia state, was first detected by Brazil's deforestation monitoring system. A subsequent helicopter overflight last month by IBAMA revealed thousands of trees largely stripped of their vegetation. Authorities later found nearly four tons of chemicals—2,4 - D AMINE 72, U46BR, Garlon 480, and mineral oil—along trans-Amazon highway 174. The herbicides would have been enough to defoliate roughly 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of forest, presumably to be cleared for cattle ranching or agriculture.

A 54-year-old resident of Santa Ana, Calif. suspected of taking part in the Guatemalan army's December 1982 massacre of at least 162 villagers was deported to that country July 12, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced. Pedro Pimentel Rios was arrested last July by ICE agents for allegedly participating in the massacre at Las Dos Erres, in the northern jungle department of Petén. The bodies of 162 people, including children, have been recovered at Dos Erres, but another 100 people are unaccounted for, so the death toll from the massacre could be much higher. Rios was among 20 members of an elite Guatemalan army unit, the Kaibiles, accused in the massacre.

International solidarity actions will be held July 16 with a protest at Bilbao's city hall to stop the imminent eviction and demolition of the Kukutza III Gaztetxea community center to make way for a housing development. The Kukutza III Gaztetxea community center has been squatted by local Basque youth and activists for 13 years, housing numerous artists and hosting such musicians as Manu Chao and Fermin Muguruza. Although the property had long been effectively abandoned, the owners now plan to demolish the building for what the community center calls "speculative interests." The Bilbao city government has turned down proposals to buy the property to save the community center. Kukutza III Gaztetxea urges supporters to "organize solidarity demonstrations in your towns and cities." (Kukutza III Gaztetxea, Le Journal du Pays Basque, Urruña/Urrugne, July 15; El Correo, Bilbao, July 14)