Dive into the archives.
- Case Closed?
Israel was very quick to close the case on allegations of “serious misconduct” during its recent massacre in Gaza. Earlier this month, several Israeli soldiers revealed the permissive atmosphere towards killing Palestinian civilians during Israel’s invasion. Among other shocking revelations, one soldier recounted the intentional shooting of an unarmed woman and her two children. Commenting [...]
- The Occupation Continues
Two Palestinian students claimed that they were severely beaten on Saturday by Border Guard officers manning a checkpoint situated between the West Bank city of Jericho and Jerusalem. (more…)
- Slaughtering People Tends to Have That Effect
‘It seems that it will be difficult to measure damage these statements incurred on IDF’s image in Israel and world,’ says head military prosecutor. (more…)
- Punishing the Victims
It is hard to think of another place in the world where life is ruled by such cruel absurdities. Hamas, Israel and Fatah are all playing with the lives and well-being of these patients, including 57 children from Gaza who need to complete complex, expensive treatments at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Their health is now [...]
- The Only BMW Shop In Gaza
Nasser Al ‘Amoudi, with his biker’s jacket and sunglasses, embodies the essence of a car enthusiast. For years he has been the proud owner of the only BMW spare parts shop in the Gaza Strip. People would travel from every corner to purchase second hand parts from his shop. Now Nasser’s workshop and garage, which [...]
- Keep It Up
21% of Israeli exporters have been directly affected by the boycott movement since the beginning of 2009. So reports today (29 March) The Marker, a Hebrew-language economic newspaper. This number is based on a poll of 90 Israeli exporters in fields such as high tech, metals, construction materials, chemistry, textile and foods. The poll was [...]
- The Palestinian Experience
Israeli police dressed in Palestinian garb who have gone under cover to catch violent Jewish settlers got a taste of what Palestinians routinely confront as Jewish settlers attacked undercover officers thinking they were Arabs, Israeli press reported. Six Jewish settlers who mistook under cover Israeli cops for Palestinians attacked them Thursday, throwing stones and damaging [...]
- The Jordanian Clowns
The Jordanian royal family’s dog was secretly rushed to Israel for treatment in the midst of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday. Relations between the royal palace in Amman and the Beit Dagan veterinary hospital have been good for many years now. The Israeli medical team’s expertise has served Jordan a number [...]
- This is Zionism
Discriminatory and unfair division of the shared water sources creates a chronic water shortage in the West Bank. Average per capita daily water consumption of Palestinians in the West Bank is two-thirds of the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. Due to the shortage, many Palestinians have to buy water from tankers at three [...]
- Letter to the Editor: NYT, 1948
Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of [...]
- What Border?
Olmert used a similar justification – border violations – for launching last December’s ruthless war on Hamas in Gaza, except that in this case the casus belli was not quite so legitimate: Olmert hadn’t carried out his promised withdrawal from the other part of the Palestinian Territories. There are no internationally recognized borders between Palestine [...]
- Juan Cole on Obama’s Domino Theory
[Obama's] latter-day domino theory of al-Qaida takeovers in South Asia is just as implausible as its earlier iteration in Southeast Asia (ask Thailand or the Philippines). Most of the allegations are not true or are vastly exaggerated. There are very few al-Qaida fighters based in Afghanistan proper. What is being called the “Taliban” is mostly [...]
- Israeli War Crimes
When Israeli soldiers expelled Abir Hijeh, her five children and their neighbors from homes in a Gaza war zone, she said they warned her in broken Arabic: Go south or you might get shot. The group went the wrong way and came under fire from Israeli soldiers. Hijeh was wounded and her 2-year-old daughter was [...]
- John Mearsheimer on Israeli Demographics
Greater Israel cannot be a democratic state, because there will soon be — if there aren’t already — more Palestinians between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea than there are Israeli Jews. So, if you give each person one vote, Israel becomes Palestine. (more…)
- Saeb Erakat on Netanyahu
Rather than ending the occupation, Netanyahu has proposed an “economic peace” that would seek to normalize and better manage it. Instead of a viable Palestinian state, his vision extends no further than a series of disconnected cantons with limited self-rule. (more…)
- Obama’s Lies
Despite President Barack Obama’s statement at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina Feb. 27 that he had “chosen a timeline that will remove our combat brigades over the next 18 months,” a number of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs), which have been the basic U.S. Army combat unit in Iraq for six years, will remain in Iraq after [...]
- Israeli Jihad
The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel. “This rabbi comes to us and says the fight is [...]
- Zionist Moral Relativism: We Only Killed 295 Civilians
The tally says 295 civilians lost their lives — about a third of the figure of 926 reported by Gaza’s Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (www.pchrgaza.org), which published a full list of names earlier this month. (more…)
- Australian Academics Call For Boycott of Israel
We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to [...]
- Obama’s Inheritance
The US withdrawal from Iraq is under way. Some troops are preparing to go home and others have pulled back from outposts to bases. But the planned pullback of American soldiers from all Iraqi cities by the end of June will probably not be fully met. (more…)
- How American Tax Breaks Subsidize Illegal Settlements
Hebron is another controversial area where settlements have received substantial tax-exempt gifts from America. According to IRS records, the Hebron Fund donated $860,637 in 2005 and $967,954 in 2006 for “social and educational well-being”; the fund’s online mission statement makes clear this is for Israeli settlers inside the city. The Hebron settlement of Kiryat Arba [...]
- Dirty Money
Young Israelis who refused to serve in army, spent most of their short service in military prison, decide to donate their IDF salaries towards rebuilding of Gaza. (more…)
- Funding Apartheid
A Jewish outpost in the West Bank, illegal under Israeli law, appears to benefiting from state funding, the BBC has uncovered. (more…)
- Kris Petersen: Waiting To Enter Gaza
If there is a single act that characterizes the plight of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation, it is waiting: waiting in lines to pass through the hundreds of checkpoints scattered across the West Bank, waiting for Israel to issue an identification card, waiting for permission to travel to the next village or out of [...]
- Netanyahu, Man of Peace?
I don’t know if anyone caught this, but even as Benjamin Netanyahu was pledging his support for the continuation of peace talks and declaring Israel a “partner for peace”, he reached a secret agreement with neo-fascist Avigdor Lieberman to expand the Israeli super-settlement of Ma’ale Adumim by 3,000 housing units.
- Israeli War Crimes
I just flew into Brussels last night after my aborted attempt at getting into Gaza – and today the online community is all abuzz about Israeli war crimes, thanks to a report just published by the U.S. organization, Human Rights Watch. According to the report: Israel “deliberately and recklessly” fired white phosphorus shells in densely [...]
- Israel is Sick
The Israeli military was quick to point out that, ‘This type of humour is unbecoming and should be condemned.’ This isn’t very convincing when you consider the graffiti left by Israeli soldiers who recently occupied houses across the northern Gaza Strip: ‘Death will find you … soon’ scrawled on the bedroom wall of Majeda Abu [...]
- This is Zionism
Reservists marked their last night stationed in the southern Hebron Hills by damaging confiscated Palestinian vehicles, their replacements told Haaretz on Monday. The reserve battalion in question was stationed at a small base near the Shekef settlement, and spent three weeks in the south Hebron Hills. They were responsible primarily for patrolling the green line. [...]
- Define Terrorism
Denmark’s justice minister, Brian Mikkelsen, said: “Terrorism is defined in relation to a legitimate state which builds on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. Part of the evaluation is also whether an act is targeted at, among others, an occupation power.” The prosecution in the case has argued that the defining factor [...]
- Respectable Fascism
The ultra-nationalist Jewish marchers had two immediate purposes: to commemorate 20 years since their late leader Rabbi Meir Kahane raised a flag on the same spot (a year later Kahane was shot and killed in New York by an Islamic activist), and to demonstrate support for practical policies espoused by his heirs. One of them [...]
- Victims of Zionism
Witness reports taken by HRW describe the killing of a bank manager, his wife and two of their children in their car during white phosphorus shelling in the Tel-el-Hawa area of Gaza City on 15 January. According to a Palestinian journalist, Fathi Sabbah, whose own building in the area came under attack, when ambulances came [...]
- Lieberman is No Aberration
I can’t stand how the Israeli left is attempting to explain Avigdor Lieberman as an aberration – an extreme case of neo-fascism in Israeli politics – when Lieberman is simply the product of widespread Israeli bigotry. Neve Gordon, a generally brave and incisive voice in the Israeli peace camp (one of the few remaining), provides [...]
- Center-Right?
To form the kind of center-right government Mr. Netanyahu says he would like to administer, he needs the Kadima party as a moderating force. (more…) Netanyahu’s version of “center-right” (and the Christian Science Monitor‘s apparently) is not bombing Palestinians into submission, but rather increasing land expropriation and settlement expansion. Oh, and not requiring Israeli Arab [...]
- No Celebrations For Mubarak
“Celebration for what?” he said people would wonder. “Killing Palestinians? For Lieberman and Netanyahu?” (more…)
- Ethical Asymmetry
“You have more freedom to express support for Israeli war crimes than to speak about the Palestinian civilian victims in the war on Gaza,” As’ad Abu Khalil, professor of political science at California State University, told AlArabiya.net. “There is a general climate that is very sympathetic and solidly dogmatic in favor of Zionism then it [...]
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Call me cynical, but this kind of story makes me wonder if Israeli children will be performing for survivors of al-Nakba any time soon.
- When Puppets Don’t Deliver
History tells us that Washington is quite willing to look the other way when it comes to corruption as long as the crooks under their control do its bidding. Indeed, the very presence of US forces and money is part of the dynamic which encourages such corruption. Apparently, Mr. Karzai is no longer considered to [...]
- Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem
Under international law the whole area of East Jerusalem seized by the IDF in 1967 is still–like the rest of the West Bank–judged to be “occupied territory.” Under the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel is therefore prohibited from either implanting its own population as settlers into East Jerusalem or in any other way materially changing the [...]
- Zionism Imploding
Jewish tourists who spend more than 180 days in Israel, even without violating the terms of their tourist visas, are being increasingly harassed by border patrol officials, detained at the crossings and, in some cases, deported to their port of origin or forced to make aliya against their will, according to a Tel Aviv law [...]
- Because He Wasn’t Brown
Of some 120 criminal investigations brought against security force members since the beginning of the intifada, there had only been one conviction – against the Arab-Israeli soldier who shot British peace activist Tom Hurndall dead in Gaza. (more…)
- This is Zionism
“Palestinian laborers are forbidden to walk around the community of Har Adar in the Jerusalem corridor. They are allowed to work, but cannot simply roam the area. This is the local council’s policy.” (more…)
- Bit By Bit, Zionism Is Backfiring
Contrary to the views of the likely incoming right-wing government of Israel, most U.S. Jews favour peace negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that would include Hamas, according to a new poll released here Tuesday by the year-old, pro-peace Jewish lobby group, J Street. (more…)
- Spike In Zionist Thuggery
Since the beginning of Operation “Cast Lead” at the end of 2008, there has been a sharp rise in reports of violence perpetrated by security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank. During this nearly three-month period, B’Tselem documented 24 cases in which police officers and soldiers beat Palestinians, using rifle butts, clubs and other [...]
- The Most Moral Army in the World
“800 terrorists and 300 civilians, who we did not want to harm, were killed in the last operation,” Galant said. “This ratio of almost a quarter [of the individuals] uninvolved [in the fighting] is an achievement unmatched in the history of this kind of combat,” he added. (more…) Israel includes police officers in this tally [...]
- Palestinian Animal Farm
In scene one of the play, Farmer Jones assassinates the animals’ leader. In scene two, the animals – a few horses, a donkey, a crow, a chicken and some pigs – rally around a revolutionary sow named Snowball, who leads an uprising against their oppressive master. “Intifada!” the animals scream, using the Arabic word for [...]
- When Netanyahu Looks Like a Dove
The man who is set to become Israel’s chief diplomat is known for many things, but not his talent for diplomacy. Words like compromise or consideration have been absent from his vocabulary so far. When then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed releasing 350 Palestinian prisoners in 2003, Lieberman uttered one of his notorious sentences: “It [...]
- This is Zionism
The Israeli police were following the orders of Israel’s Public Security Minister Avi Dichter to use whatever force was necessary to prevent the Palestinian Authority (PA) from celebrating “Jerusalem as the capital of Arabic culture for 2009.” The tough crackdown, on what on the surface appeared to be a harmless and fun cultural event, underlines [...]
- Sitting at Ben-Gurion
Man I hate this airport… the security is a farce. After ritualistically informing me that some evil Palestinian may have placed a bomb in my bags, they emptied everything and I was strip searched (not completely, but pants off). It took two hours to get through and they personally escort me to my check-in booth [...]
- Kris is En Route
…from Tel Aviv to Athens and then on to Brussels… too much layover… See you in Belgium.
- Zionist Colonization
Israel will not demolish nine houses in a West Bank settlement in spite of a court order to do so, because they were inhabited months ago and are within the confines of the Ofra settlement. (more…)
- Obama’s Cues on the Middle East
Former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator Martin Indyk is leading discussions between Israeli and Palestinian advisors and officials at a three-day, off-record Brookings event that got underway last night. Among those said to be attending are longtime Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. (more…)
- Arab Unrulies
“The goal of the march is to make it clear to a group of unrulies in the Arab sector who is the owner of State of Israel,” said Itamar Ben Gvir, a former Kach Party activist and one of the organizers of the demonstration. (more…) Ben Gvir, an aid to radical MK Baruch Marzel, is [...]
- Global Executions Double in 2008
In 2008, at least 2,390 people were known to have been executed in 25 countries and at least 8,864 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries around the world. As in previous years, the five countries with the highest number of executions in 2008 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States [...]
- Meanwhile in Hebron…
An officer who fought in the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza and was slated to receive a citation for his performance was arrested recently on suspicion of assaulting a Palestinian girl in the Hebron area, Ynet has learned. (more…)
- What Provocation?
“The State of Israel is the Jewish people’s state. We are here to voice our truth and not to create provocations.” (more…) How could marching into a predominantly Israeli Arab town waving flags and demanding “loyalty to the State” be a provocation? That’s just silly…
- This is Zionism
Medics and ambulance drivers said they were targeted when they tried to tend to the wounded. Sixteen of them were killed. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza’s 27 hospitals and 44 clinics were damaged by Israeli bombs. Two clinics were destroyed. In one incident, paramedics were fired on by a [...]
- When Puppets Need Supervision
The US and its European allies are preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned. (more…)
- Condoleezza Rice Redux
Earlier this month, newspapers here in Cairo carried front-page photographs of Clinton being kissed by Israeli President Shimon Peres during her visit to Jerusalem. Arabs saw in that a clear message. Ditto what she said – and did not say – about Gaza, Israeli settlements, Hamas, and human rights in Egypt. Many Arabs fear it’s [...]
- Tearing Itself Apart
Israel can erect walls to seal out the Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza. It can fire missiles at terrorist suspects. It can bomb government buildings in Gaza. It can bulldoze Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but if in widening numbers Israeli Jews hold fast to the idea that [...]
- Standards of the IDF
‘My impression is that IDF behaved ethically and morally. If there were incidents, they were limited,’ says Gabi Ashkenazi in his first response to soldiers’ testimonies on wrong doings in Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. (more…) Limited? 960 of 1,434 dead?
- Human Shield
Israel Defense Forces soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a group of UN human rights experts said Monday. (more…)
- The Gaza Solidarity Circus
But Code Pink did not break the siege: they arrived in Gaza through the back door (ie via Rafah instead of the Israeli crossing at Erez) and their visit here will make no difference to Israel’s siege of Gaza, which is going as strong as ever. Gaza needs activists who are prepared to come and [...]
- Obama’s “Pressure”
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the United States and the European Union that Israel will lift restrictions on food items, such as pasta and cheese, entering Hamas-ruled Gaza, diplomats said on Monday. (more…) This is about as far as Obama is willing to pressure Israel. The level of discourse about the siege on [...]
- Zionism = Racism
Anti-Arab verbal and physical attacks inside Israel have spiked in the wake of elections held earlier this year in which right-wing parties made major gains, a human rights group said on Sunday. The Mossawa Centre for the Rights of Arab Citizens in Israel has documented 250 incidents of aggression against Arab Israelis since the start [...]
- This is Zionism
A Hadera elementary school has been accused of racial discrimination, for its singling out of a number of students of Ethiopian origin, all born in Israel, for extra Hebrew lessons. (more…)
- The Answer to Climate Change
More cars – at a cheaper price.
- Israeli Racism
The demonstrators said pressure should be put on Hamas to release Shalit by worsening the conditions of the almost 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. (more…) Just imagine if these people put all this effort towards demanding an end to the occupation.
- We Americans
“We Americans,” he said in reference to this far-off war. Then he quickly caught himself and added, almost sheepishly, “and NATO.” (more…)
- Who Created the Taliban?
Again, Gorbachev sees the turn of events as the U.S.’s just deserts. “Who created the Taliban? Saudi Arabia financed it with the political support of the United States,” he said, sipping tea with lemon and honey. (more…)
- Obama’s Quagmire
Why, in fact, were such simple projects never implemented? The answer proved to be surprising, and it helps, in part, to explain the dismal fate of the Bush administration’s version of Afghan “reconstruction.” Virtually none of the $5.4 billion in taxpayer money that USAID has disbursed in this country since late 2001 has been invested [...]
- Yet Israeli Apartheid Continues
Report: Israel dropped from new Durban II draft
- The Brave Work of “Breaking the Silence”
An investigation by a group of former Israeli soldiers has uncovered new evidence of the military’s conduct during the assault on Gaza two months ago. According to the group Breaking the Silence, the witness statements of the 15 soldiers who have come forward to describe their concerns over Operation Cast Lead appear to corroborate claims [...]
- At War With the Palestinian People
The answer of the Ministry of Justice lawyers let the cat out of the bag. It asserts, for the first time, in unequivocal language: “The state of Israel is at war with the Palestinian people, people against people, collective against collective.” (more…)
- Attacking Ambulances
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR) said Israel attacked 34 medical care facilities and prevented Palestinian medical teams from reaching the wounded during the offensive in December and January. (more…)
- When Puppets Don’t Deliver
“Karzai is not delivering. If we are going to support his government, it has to be run properly to ensure the levels of corruption decrease, not increase. The levels of corruption are frightening.” (more…)
- Victims of Zionism
“Palestinian medical sources reported on Sunday morning that two children were killed after unexploded ordnance, dropped by the Israeli army during the Gaza war, exploded near them in Gaza City.” (more…)
- Zionism Defined
“Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue,” was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a [...]
- I Wonder Why That Could Be…
Most fundamentally, we see a growing assault on both the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel. (more…) A state built on oppression and the racist vision of a mono-ethnic state has no legitimacy. As more and more people realize this, it becomes clearer that Zionism is a failed ideology.
- Not Welcome in Britain
London will not push through changes in legislation that permits the arrest of Israel Defense Forces officers visiting Britain on war crimes, as previously promised, Jerusalem has learned. (more…)
- Zionist Defecation
There are two toilets on every floor, but the soldiers urinated and defecated everywhere else in the building, in several rooms of which they had lived for about a month. They did their business on the floors, in emptied flowerpots, even in drawers they had pulled out of desks. They defecated into plastic bags, and [...]
