The following is a letter that activists from the M-15 social protests movement in Spain wrote to their friends in J14 An open letter from the M15 movement in Spain to the J14 movement in Israel: You will only be free when you decide to be free. When we see the assemblies of Kiryat Shmona, we see the assemblies in Granada. When we talk about the tents in Haifa, we talk about the tents in Barcelona. When we see the crowds taking to the streets in Tel-Aviv, it's the crowds of Madrid who do it. Different names for the same movement…

A lot of nonsensical accusations are leveled at Israel's anarchist activists, a small group of citizens engaging in civil disobedience and nonviolent protest against the occupation. Most of them are lies. The fact is that the anarchists are the only group in Israel engaged in serious anti-occupation activism. This is a translation from Hebrew of my weekly column in Time Out Tel Aviv. It was written as a response to the labeling of J14 activists as "anarchists" by Israeli Knesset Members and journalists. You can read the original here. Thanks to Lisa Goldman for translating the piece. THE ISRAELI RIGHT has learned a…

By Noa Shaindlinger Yesterday (Tuesday June 26) was International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) organized an action in the public sphere to remind and demonstrate to Israelis that the state engages in daily acts of torture against Palestinian detainees. Despite a 1999 High Court ruling outlawing torture and forbidding the use of a number of methods of interrogation, and in violation of the International Convention against Torture (ICAT, of which Israeli is a signatory), a recent report reveals that 100% of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails suffer psychological, mental and physical…

This Friday, Israelis will stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Susya to oppose the Israeli authorities' plan to wipe out the entire village following demolition orders issued by the Civil Administration. A call to action. The Palestinian village of Susya in Area C of the southern West Bank is under threat of imminent destruction, following the June 7 interim injunction by the High Court of Justice to stop construction in the village, and subsequent Civil Administration orders for the 52 structures that comprise the village. The orders are based on the fact that Palestinians there are building illegally without permits -…

Palestinian, Israeli and international women activists dressed in traditional Palestinian garb attempted to walk down Shuhada street, Hebron's main commercial thoroughfare. After only a few minutes, they were stopped by soldiers, and seven people were arrested in total. By Noa Shaindlinger A group of Israeli and international female activists joined Palestinian women on Wednesday in a direct action in Hebron to protest the ongoing ban on Palestinian freedom of movement on Shuhada street. The street, which was once the lively commercial centre of Hebron, was closed off to Palestinian vehicular traffic after the 1994 massacre of 29 Muslims in the…

Israel has gone to great lengths to remove mention of the Nakba - the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 - from textbooks, public discourse, and the public space. But as state efforts to ban Nakba commemorations increase, so does interest in the issue, with more and more Israelis believing that dealing with the matter is a prerequisite to ending the conflict. This short clip surveys this year's particularly dramatic Nakba Day events. This video was produced by Israel Social TV, an independent media NGO working to promote social change, human rights, social justice and equality, and to mobilize its viewers towards activism.

The following speech was written for Tel Aviv’s most recent social justice protest this past Saturday. While the speech was ultimately not read aloud, it has been translated for +972 with permission from the author, Wafa Tiara. Good evening to all protesters, My name is Wafa Tiara from Kufr Qara, and I am an activist in the Workers Advice Center (WAC-Ma'an). I have come with my friends and colleagues, farmers, construction workers, truck drivers, contract workers in the Antiquities Authority and educational institutions, Palestinians who work in settlements, college lecturers, young people, Jews and Arabs – in order to say…

The preoccupation with Iran and migrants is calculated to deflect attention from the empty public purse, our shattered health system, the disintegrated education system and our pretend welfare system. The renewed protest movement will be different, but it is the only way to save democracy and save ourselves. The demonstrations on Saturday need to reignite the struggle for the future. I first published this call to action yesterday on Hebrew Website "Mako." It was translated into English by Sol Salbe. Danielle, a social studies coordinator in a high school in the north, told her students that large scale demonstrations are…

“Only after the first time I went to the occupied territories did I realize that I could never be a part of the army."  -Alon Gurman, 19, from Tel Aviv.  In March 2012, Alon Gurman and three other Israelis announced their decision to refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, forming the first collective refusal in recent years. Here is a short video telling the story of Noam Gur and Alon Gurman, who both came to the decision after joining demonstrations in the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinians opposing Israeli occupation and land theft.      This video…

A reflection on last night's protests against racism, with photos by Sasha Y. Kimel The demonstration following Wednesday night's race riots was the mellowest I've seen here in years. Several hundred of concerned Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and marched to symbols of the political system that produced the incitement: the Knesset in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the Likud party in Tel Aviv. No confrontations with police were reported. This should not be taken as a sign that liberal Israelis view the events as trivial. Many of my friends and myself were so shocked and depressed at Wednesday's…

Next month, the Palestinian non-violent resistance movement will take center stage at an art gallery in New Mexico. Mati Milstein, an Israeli photojournalist, has spent the last year documenting the activities of a group of women activists fighting the occupation. He discusses "Nesa'iyéh (a woman thing)," his exhibition of their struggle as depicted through his lens, in an interview with Noa Yachot.  How did you get involved in the project? I was in downtown Ramallah on March 15, 2011, photographing Palestinian demonstrations calling for unity between disparate political factions. I noticed that many of the protest leaders were, in fact,…

For the first time in years, a group of Palestinian women was able to reach the Nabi Saleh spring, which was taken over long ago by settlers. The women vowed to return, hoping to hold on to the spring. Every Friday for the past three years or so, Nabi Saleh residents, along with Israeli and international supporters, have been demonstrating against the theft of their lands by settlers from the nearby settlement of Halamish. At the focus of the struggle is the attempt to reach the Al-Kous spring, which was taken over by settlers in recent years. Week after week, demonstrators march…

In the air between Geneva and Tel Aviv, I spent some time talking to the international activists who joined the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign.  Activists who told this writer in the Geneva airport that they are traveling to Palestine cheered quietly and smiled as the plane took off. However, a number of those activists declined to be interviewed. Several who had said, in the airport, that they were part of the action became skittish and recanted, claiming that they were visiting Tel Aviv or that they didn’t speak English at all. Two men, aged 25 and 49, said that they…