Israeli police's failure to stop the murder of two young Bedouin sisters highlights the arbitrariness of citizenship and discrimination for Palestinians under occupation - regardless of whether they are citizens. Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls found dead in an unrecognized Bedouin village in southern Israel last Tuesday, is not an Israeli citizen. In a more perfect world, her citizenship status wouldn't matter, considering she is in an abusive relationship and her daughters' lives were in imminent danger. But the Israel Police were well aware of her citizenship status when she went to alert them of her concerns for…

Anyone who’s been to a checkpoint or a protest in the West Bank knows how arbitrary military rule can be. For the activist on the ground, some specific knowledge of the occupation’s byzantine legal framework can make a real difference. By Raghad Jaraisy Youtube is rife with videos of daily life in the West Bank – home demolitions, violent suppression of protests, unchecked settler violence, arbitrary arrests, etc.  But this video, from the organization Ta'ayush, is a little different. If other videos play out like action films, this one is more of a drama. No fisticuffs, no bulldozers, no tear gas or rubber bullets.…

This letter is to you. You know who you are, but I can’t say your names. You don’t want to say what you think in public, in the United States of America, home of free speech. You are an American Jew, you are liberal, you believe in universal equality, minority, human and civil rights. You support those principles with your voices, your money and definitely your vote - except when it comes to Israel. After two weeks in America visiting family (particularly, my new nephew) and friends, two observations struck me powerfully. First, the understanding that Israel is committing terrible…

The newest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – settler-led physical violence and destruction of both Palestinian and Israeli targets, within and beyond the Green Line – has turned regular conflict patterns of political divisions upside-down. Confusion and irony reign. Settler-led violence isn’t new: attacks on Palestinian civilians has been a regular feature of life in the “Wild East” for years, just as there have been Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in the West Bank. But something seems different now. Attacks on mosques, cemeteries and property of Palestinians has accelerated in recent months. A brazen attack on an IDF camp in…

By Eitan Grossman 'Only Free Men Can Negotiate' - Nelson Mandela   This Friday (July 15, 2011), thousands of Palestinians and Israelis will march together in Jerusalem to express their support for international recognition of the unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence. Thousands of Palestinians and Israelis will take part in a historic march organized by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement and the popular committees of East Jerusalem. Marchers will set out from Jaffa Gate and walk along the border between the two parts of the city. The march will culminate in a rally in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood that symbolizes…

As New York legalizes gay marriage, Israel looks more and more like a theocracy The senate of the state of New York legalized civil marriages between gay couples tonight. New York, where the fight for gay rights began, is the sixth state in the US which affirms the rights of gay people to marry. South Africa passed a similar bill two years ago, and a large number of countries recognize a union – not a full marriage – between gay couples. Israel claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East, one which particularly gay-friendly. Thia is is a…

By Louis Frankenthaler Occupression. No, it is not a spelling mistake. Rather it is an attempt to get past the all too frequent rhetorical discussions that go nowhere. The Occupation, more than 43 years in the making of a grotesque state of oppressive violations of human rights and humanitarian law needs reconceptualization. Occupation points to a legal structure that is governed by a regime of protection for those under military control. Israel has and continues to violate every principle of military occupation and with impunity. The point that we have reached is one of irreparable destruction of any resemblance that…

The following is my English translation of Yossi Gurvitz’s latest post about the Shabak, the interrogation process, and the dying Israeli legal system. Haaretz has just published an article about the trials cited by Yossi here. (Joseph Dana) Small Jail Cell, Lonely, and Freezing I asked myself a couple of days ago about the working  methods of the Jewish units in the Shabak according to Haim Pearlman story. The Shabak arrested him and did not allow him to meet with a lawyer. The reason, briefly, why the Shabak did not allow him access to a lawyer was because he was between the ages…