Palestinian citizens of Israel return to the village of Al-Ruways, which was destroyed by Zionist military forces during the Nakba.  Photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org The Israeli group Zochrot organizes many tours of Palestinian villages depopulated during the Nakba of 1948. What made this Saturday's tour of Al-Ruways particularly remarkable was the large number of displaced Palestinians and their descendants who made the event more of a return than a simple tour. Zochrot, whose name means "remembering" in Hebrew, aims to educate Israeli Jews about the history of the Nakba and the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees. Typically, they will…

The Arab League has called on Palestinian citizens of Israel to vote in Tuesday’s parliamentary elections. The unprecedented move by the multi-national Arab group, which in the past supported the Saudi Peace Initiative with Israel, comes as a voter turnout among the Palestinian citizens of Israel – roughly 20% of the Israeli population – is expected to drop yet again. A decade ago three-quarters of Arab-Israelis voted. In the last election, only half did. The majority voted for Arab parties, which are historically excluded – and their voices with it – from coalition-formed governments. Some Arabs end up voting for…

Thank God Fox News is around to remind us how absurd some conservatives can be. On Monday night's O'Reilly Factor, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's guests included a number of voices speaking about the Trayvon Martin case, in which last month a black teenager walking (presumably home) while carrying snacks one night in Florida was shot and killed by an armed community patrol officer.  The man who killed him - George Zimmerman - claims under the state's "Stand Your Ground" law that the act was committed in self-defense, even though a call to 911 reveals that Zimmerman followed a fleeing…

Israel sees its Arab citizens as a security threat, and their leaders are increasingly under attack. While cooperation and political participation once seemed feasible, systematic discrimination has led to an untenable situation. Balad's secretary general on missed opportunities and grim predictions. By Awad Abdelfattah  More and more voices among the 1.2 million Palestinians in Israel have been asking whether Israel is trying to redefine the rules of the game that have governed the relationship between the state and the Palestinians since 1948. In recent years, and especially since the outbreak of the second intifada in October 2000, Arab citizens have…

Every time you think Ehud Barak, our spineless minister of defense, cannot sink any lower, he comes out with a public statement that proves you wrong once again. In this particular case, we are talking about the Loyalty Oath bill. The prime minister has suddenly announced that during the upcoming cabinet meeting, on Sunday, he will bring to a vote the bill designed by Yaakov Ne’eman, Avigdor Liberman’s man in the justice ministry. This bill demands that every person acquiring Israeli citizenship pledge his allegiance to “the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” Did I say every…