Global Voices Online

Jerusalemite offers tips for how to stay cool in the summer heat. They include: “If your skin is any lighter than the fuul on your hummus (not a scientific gauge), and you're going to be outside for awhile, put on some sunscreen. If your skin turns to bacon, you may run into trouble with some locals who have issues with that particular meat.”

Israeli human rights activist Joseph Dana reports on a visit to the southern Hebron Hills to accompany local Palestinian sheep herders to their lands near the illegal settlement of Maon - where they are frequently attacked by Israeli settlers.

Days after a boat carrying activists from the Free Gaza movement was stopped by the Israeli navy, many of the passengers are still being detained in jail in Tel Aviv. Natalie Abou Shakra in Gaza has spoken to Othman Abu Falah (Othman Beitary), a journalist with Al Jazeera television, who is amongst them.

The Villages Group blog reports that the sentencing of Ezra Nawi, an Israeli human rights activist in the South Hebron area convicted of trying to prevent home demolitions, has been postponed - and for a strange reason.

Aliza Hausman, better known by her blogging handle “La Jewminica” is the winner of a contest sponsored by the Jewlicious blog that asks readers to respond to the question: “Are you an American Jew or Jewish American?” (The complete responses can be read here.)

Rabbi Alysa Stanton was recently ordained as the first female African American rabbi. “The media frenzy around Alysa Stanton’s ordination has opened the possibility of improved coverage of Jews from a variety of ethnic backgrounds,” writes JVoices.

Frgdr posts a photo of an Israeli soldier carrying a rainbow flag symbolizing gay pride.

IzzyBee reflects on the joy of her urban garden. “In my Jerusalem patio… bougainvillea blooms in shades of magenta, crimson, and pale orange. We planted an olive tree, a cypress, a lime tree, jasmine, honeysuckle, red geraniums, climbing roses, morning glory, hydrangea, purple daisies, basil, mint, and lemon verbena. Everything thrives.”

Israeli Yitzhak Yazdanpana has just grown the world's largest cucumber, measuring in at three feet, 10 inches long, Good News from Israel reports. Readers are encouraged to post favorite cucumber recipes in the comments below.