With more restrictions placed on the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, and access to the Palestinian territory’s smuggling tunnels increasingly blocked, human rights groups say Gaza’s 1.6 million residents are unfairly being punished for the attack on an...
Tel Aviv ‘Race Riots’ Reveal Much About Israel
The "race riots" in Tel Aviv last week — a mass demonstration that turned into a pogrom against about 60,000 asylum seekers, an overwhelming majority of them from Eritrea, the rest mostly from Sudan (Darfur and South Sudan) and a few other African countries — gives a...
A Tipping Point for Israel
A tipping point is where physical momentum, inclined in one direction, reverses its course, stabilizes, and then begins to move the opposite way. Those of us who have been arguing for a sane United States foreign policy in the Middle East have well understood that the...
Thou Shalt Not Kill (Thyself)
After the founding of Israel, God appeared to David Ben-Gurion and told him: “You have created a state for my chosen people in my holy land. This merits a great reward. Tell me what you wish, and I will grant it.” Ben-Gurion answered: “Almighty God, I wish that every...
The Duke of Nablus
The name of Munib al-Masri has recently come up as a possible candidate for prime minister of a Palestinian national unity government. Not being a member of either Fatah or Hamas, he is acceptable to both. Al-Masri himself denies any such ambition. He says that he is...
Support Today’s Freedom Riders
Fifty years ago, Freedom Riders braved beatings and arson by supremacists intent on maintaining apartheid in the Jim Crow South. By challenging segregated transportation through nonviolent action, these African American and white activists set in motion a process that...
Everybody’s Son
The most sensible — I almost wrote “the only sensible” — sentence uttered this week sprang from the lips of a 5-year-old boy. After the prisoner swap, one of those smart-aleck TV reporters asked him: “Why did we release 1,027 Arabs for one Israeli soldier?” He...
Israeli Settlers Continue ‘Price-Tag’ Rampage
JERUSALEM — "On Saturday, we as a nation atoned for our sins. I as a Jew feel ashamed of myself. I'm asking for forgiveness," declared Ron Hulday, mayor of this mixed city, immediately at the closing of the Day of Atonement. As Jews fasted and prayed to amend for...
Israeli Video Games in Gaza
He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit. I can imagine his mother dressing him that morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I wonder if she’s...
Palestinian Prisoners Languish in Administrative Detention
RAMALLAH — "I’m sick with worry about my daughter. I’m afraid of what they are doing to her. She has done nothing to deserve this. If they have anything against her, why don’t they bring her to trial?" Yehiya Al Shalabi asked IPS rhetorically. Hana Al Shalabi, 27,...