'The Occupation is anti-God, anti-Love and staggeringly, constantly violent.' Why I refuse to serve in the IDF. My name is Moriel Zachariah Rothman. I am 23 years old and live in Jerusalem. I lived for most of my life in the United States, but I was born in Jerusalem (and am Jewish) and have thus been an Israeli citizen since birth. As such, I am, like [most] other Israeli Jews, expected to serve in the IDF. I moved back to Jerusalem last year, and I recently received a draft notice from the IDF. After much thinking, wrestling and searching, and…

In Israel, a settler's pre-1948 property claim provides legal grounds for the takeover of private Palestinian land. The property deeds of scores of Palestinians are disregarded, because there is one set of laws for Jews and another for Palestinians. Separate and unequal. By Moriel Rothman Last month, as last minute wrangling over the Democratic Party platform offered Americans a front-row seat to the farce that often accompanies discourse about Jerusalem, events in the holy city reached their own new level of absurdity, though with far more serious and immediate consequences. Early on Sunday, September 2, Jewish settlers took over a single room…

Demonstrations against the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers, protests in Ramallah over the high cost of living, an anti-war candlelight vigil, and more. Activestills images tell the stories of the week.    

The Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh was raided last night (Sunday) by the IDF. Nabi Saleh, which has been conducting weekly nonviolent demonstrations since the end of 2009 against Israel's occupation and the encroaching settlement of Halamish, has been the target of repeated night raids over the last two years. In the video below, uploaded by Bilal Tamimi, you can hear the IDF shooting stun grenades into the village and see the flashes of light they give off. Towards the end of the video, you can clearly see the IDF jeeps parked in the village, some soldiers firing shots, and then they…

Joining other West Bank villages such as  Bil'in, Ni'ilin, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Beit Umar and Walajeh - where demonstrations have become part of daily life -  the residents of A-Dik invited Israeli activists to join them in first unarmed, popular, demonstration against the occupation held Friday "This is a non-violent demonstration!" the protestors cried out, their hands raised in the air. "Then don't take another step!" answered the soldiers, seconds before they hurled stun and tear gas grenades into the crowd – and stormed forward. The residents of A-Dik waited a long time before deciding to begin demonstrating in their…