arson

Ultra-Orthodox children look on as fire fighters try to extinguish a fire tha broke out near Ramat Beit Shemesh, outside of Jerusalem, September 20, 2016. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

Education Ministry still blaming Arab citizens for ‘arson intifada’

By now it is clear to all that the fires that erupted in Israel late last year were not the result of nationalistic arson. So why does the Education Ministry claim otherwise? By John Brown* This past November, Israel’s Education Ministry published a booklet on the fires that erupted in Israel late last year. The…

By +972 Magazine January 17, 2017

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands alongside Police Chief Roni Alsheikh (right) and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (left) in Zichron Ya'akov, northern Israel, November 23, 2016. (Emil Salman/Flash90)

One week later: Where is the evidence of an ‘arson intifada?’

The police has yet to declare a single wildfire an act of terrorism, the commissioner says arson is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and many cases of suspected terrorism turned out to be nothing more than negligence. This, of course, does not bother Israel’s leaders or media. Now that the rain has started pouring, bringing an end to…

By Haggai Matar December 2, 2016

A Palestinian human rights activist is led to the Jerusalem District Court in handcuffs following his arrest Tuesday morning, January 20, 2016. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

If you’re Palestinian in Israel, satire can land you in jail

Anas Abudaabes was arrested last week for publishing a satirical Facebook post criticizing Arabs who celebrated the wildfires raging across Israel. Three separate judges claimed he was inciting to violence. By John Brown* The Be’er Sheva District Court rejected an appeal on the detention of Bedouin journalist Anas Abudaabes on Sunday, after he was arrested last…

By +972 Magazine November 27, 2016

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Israeli firefighters extinguish a fire in Beit Meir, outside of Jerusalem, November 25, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Before the fires are out, Israeli politicians blame the Arabs

Security officials and counter-terrorism experts warn against calling wildfires terrorism, but Israeli politicians and some media have no such qualms. How do you reach a conclusion before the investigation is even started? By Yael Marom As tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, and as the flames were still burning across…

By +972 Magazine November 25, 2016

The Dawabshe grandfather stands in the charred home in which his family members were murdered by extremist Jewish settlers, Duma, West Bank, July 31, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

A year since the Duma murders: Navigating justice and pain

A year after losing his parents and baby brother, six-year-old Ahmad Dawabshe returns to Duma for the first time. At court hearings for the accused murderers, settler youths taunt the remaining family members. A journey through an unimaginably painful year. “I know you spent a lot of time with the Dawabshe family in the hospital,” said…

By Samah Salaime July 31, 2016

A firefighter stands in front of the charred door of B’Tselem’s offices in Jerusalem. (Photo: Fire Department Spokesperson)

Amid right-wing attacks, suspected arson at B’Tselem offices

Headquarters of Israel’s oldest human rights organization sustain heavy damage. Spokesperson says if fire turns out to be arson, ‘it must be seen in the context of the wave of government incitement and smear campaigns against Israel’s human rights groups, and B’Tselem in particular.’ A fire broke out at Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem’s offices…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 11, 2016

Illustrative photo of Israeli police arresting a right-wing activist wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Death to the terrorists’ in West Jerusalem. (Activestills.org)

An assault on civil rights in the name of equality

In response to ‘Jewish’ terrorism Israeli authorities are taking some of the worst tools used against Palestinians and applying them to everyone. Thus Israel-Palestine went from a place where half the population is denied basic rights to a place where anybody — Jew and Arab alike — can lose them at any time. The problem…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man August 3, 2015

Palestinians gather at the Dawabsheh family home in the West Bank village of Duma following an arson attack by Jewish terrorists, August 1, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘Why did they burn a baby alive? What did he do?’

Hours after the terrorist attack that took the life of Palestinian toddler Ali Saad Dawabshe, relatives and friends are still trying to make sense of what happened in the early hours of Friday morning. Text and photos by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org In the hours of the morning, the road leading from Nablus and the…

By Activestills July 31, 2015

Palestinians mourn the death of Palestinian baby Ali Saad Dawabshe who was killed by Israeli settlers in an overnight arson attack, Douma, West Bank, July 31, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Palestinian baby burned to death in West Bank arson attack

Photos by Ahmad Al-Bazz, Oren Ziv / Activestills.org A one-and-a-half year old Palestinian baby was burned to death Friday morning in the West Bank village of Duma in an attack on his family’s home allegedly by Israeli settlers. According to reports, two masked men arrived at two homes in Duma, near Nablus. They spray painted the words…

By Activestills July 31, 2015

A teacher inspects the damage in the aftermath of an arson attack that targeted first-grade classrooms at a bilingual Jewish-Arab school near the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Safafa, in southern Jerusalem, November 30, 2014. Anti-Arab slogans were scrawled on the walls in Hebrew reading: "Death to Arabs", and "There's no coexistence with cancer."

When setting fire to a bilingual school is no longer ‘racist’

The three teens who set fire to the Jerusalem bilingual school in November have one less thing to worry about: according to the state, their actions are no longer considered racist. Nearly five months after Jewish extremists set fire to first-grade classrooms in Jerusalem’s Max Rayne Hand in Hand school, the prosecution has reached a…

By Orly Noy April 18, 2015

Illustrative photo of a man being arrested. (Shutterstock.com)

‘Price tag’ settler argues in court that revenge isn’t a crime

You would think that sentencing a group of Israelis for setting fire to a Palestinian cafe is a positive development. But a closer look shows that the culture of minimizing the seriousness of price tag attacks is alive and strong. Were people’s lives and livelihoods not at stake, it would have been an almost sublime piece of…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland April 16, 2015

A burned first-grade classroom at Jerusalem’s bilingual school after it was the target of an arson attack, November 30, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

‘We will overcome’: Arson and mourning at Jerusalem’s bilingual school

The mixed Jewish-Arab school has been the target of racist attacks in the past, but for the parents, students and teachers of the ‘Hand in Hand’ school, this feels different. ‘This time, the fire was ignited inside our home.’ The timing couldn’t have been more “perfect”: while I was still at a demonstration against the…

By Orly Noy November 30, 2014

Palestinians survey the damage inside Aqraba's mosque, which was set on fire early Tuesday morning, October 14, 2014. (Photo by Rabbis for Human Rights)

West Bank mosque set ablaze in suspected settler attack

The olive harvest is historically a period when settler violence against Palestinians and their trees increase. The name of a local settlement from which two youths were arrested last week is spray painted onto the mosque’s wall. A West Bank mosque was set on fire and vandalized early Tuesday morning in what on the surface…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man October 14, 2014