What we can learn from the weird orders served to several leftist activists on Sunday. On police intimidation and the sham of 'the only democracy in the Middle East.' At least 11 leftist activists were surprised on Sunday morning when they were woken up by cops. The cops, all plainclothes and in groups of three, knocked on their doors between 6 and 7 in the morning, and handed them what they claimed to be administrative restraining orders, signed by the commanding general, prohibiting them from entering four villages in the occupied West Bank: Bil'in, Qaddum, Ni'lin and Nabi Saleh. Activist…

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…

Over 30,000 people are expected to attend the opening concert of Madonna's world tour "MDNA" tonight (Thursday) in Israel. The concert is being billed as a "peace concert" and costs more than NIS 15 million to produce. One of Madonna's dancers, a Palestinian named Ali Ramadani already made headlines after tweeting about his visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque: “At the amazing Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. I don’t want to say it’s in Israel, but Palestine, strength and honor.” A few Israeli newspapers are already reporting it as a "controversy." Madonna invited a variety of progressive and left-wing groups to come to…

Mustafa Tamimi, Palestinian resident of the village of Nabi Saleh was killed last weekend, when he was shot in the head by a tear gas grenade. Anarchist activist Ben Ronen bids farewell to his good friend. By Ben Ronen | Translated to English by Judith Ronen First memory “Ola is somewhere, I don’t know, Saddam is in Jordan, back soon, Louai is up there with all the shebaab (youths), Oudai – you know where he is……..in a fortnight he will be released from prison and will return to the village, and Ziad is at a wedding in Ramallah.” “And where is…