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 their past behavior, vandals, presumably Jewish, …
Continue reading “Israeli Settlers Continue ‘Price-Tag’ Rampage”
The other day, the almighty General Security Service (Shabak, formerly Shin Bet) needed a new boss. It is a hugely important job, because no minister ever dares to contradict the advice of the Shabak chief in cabinet meetings. There was an obvious candidate, known only as J. But at the last moment, the settlers’ lobby …
Continue reading “Israel Becomes the Settler State”
AWARTA, West Bank – Food supplies are running low, ambulances have been detained for hours at checkpoints, and hundreds of young men have been held, interrogated, and beaten up, some requiring hospitalization, in the Palestinian village of Awarta in the northern West Bank. The village has been under continuous curfew for four days. “Please, please …
Continue reading “Palestinian Village Under Siege Following Settler Killings”
Rannie Amiri on Israel’s defense of settler attacks
Israeli police look to settlers to fill ranks First army, now police set for takeover By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth As U.S.-sponsored peace talks have stalled over the issue of settlements, Israel’s national police force has revealed that it is turning to the very same illegal communities in its first-ever drive to recruit officers from …
Continue reading “Israeli Police Look to Settlers to Fill Ranks”
A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is one of the leading ideologues of the extreme …
Continue reading “Israeli Settlers Step Up ‘Price-Tag’ Policy”
LUBBAN ASH SHARQIYA, West Bank – “There is immense anger as well as a feeling of vulnerability and fear when a place of sanctuary and holiness is subject to indiscriminate violence,” says Issa Hussein. “Despite living under a brutal military occupation and being subjected to regular attacks by Israeli settlers for decades, normally places of …
Continue reading “Israeli Settlers Step Up Attacks on Palestinian Mosques”
Last week in Tel Aviv, a judge imposed a $25,000 fine on three tenants who extended their balcony illegally by annexing 23 sq. meters (250 sq. ft.). Well, that’s not really a scoop. Illegal construction is a punishable offense everywhere, even if there are no immediate victims like in this case. Israel is a law-and-order …
Continue reading “From Two States to One”
Over the past few days, graffiti scrawled on walls around the mixed Jewish and Arab town of Jaffa in central Israel exclaims, "Settlers, keep out" and "Jaffa is not Hebron." Although Jaffa is only a stone’s throw from the bustling coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, Arab residents say their neighborhood has become the unlikely battleground …
Continue reading “Jews-Only Homes for Ajami”
Jerusalem’s mayor threatened last week to demolish 200 homes in Palestinian neighborhoods of the city in an act even he conceded would probably bring long-simmering tensions over housing in East Jerusalem to a boil. His uncompromising stance is the latest stage in a protracted legal battle over a single building towering above the jumble of …
Continue reading “High Price Tag for Settlers’ Eviction”