Israeli human rights activists file an appeal to force the Israeli government to come clean on its so-called blacklists of foreign nationals who support the boycott movement. By Yael Marom A group of Israeli human rights activists filed an appeal to the Jerusalem District Court Thursday morning to try and force the Israeli government to reveal the so-called "blacklists" of foreign nationals, who are prevented entry into Israel due to their support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The Israeli activists, represented by Attorney Eitay Mack, filed the petition after the Population and Immigration Authority refused to provide them with the…

Israel's minister of strategic affairs is gathering intelligence and compiling blacklists on Israeli citizens who support the boycott movement. By Amnon Portugaly These days Gilad Erdan, Israel's minister of public security and strategic affairs, is promoting a new law that would exclude his ministry from governmental oversight. This is a step meant to help fight the BDS movement, while also granting legitimacy to gathering intelligence on Israeli citizens who are involved in the movement to boycott Israel. [tmwinpost] In June, Haaretz reported that the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which Erdan heads, would essentially be shielded from certain provisions in the Freedom of Information…

Perhaps through this scene, of Palestinians resorting to smuggling bodies out of a morgue to prevent indignity even after death, is it possible to show Israelis and the world what the occupation really means to Palestinians. Even atheist Palestinians like me are livid about Israel’s unilateral decision to install metal-detectors — and with them increased sovereignty — at the most explosive place in the world. Al-Aqsa Mosque is not only the religious symbol of Palestine, it is also a national symbol. And there is nothing which makes Israel seem more ridiculous than its media persuasion campaigns claiming that Palestinians are…

Israel's most widely-circulated newspaper outs Ariel Gold, just months after the Knesset passes law banning entry to anyone who encourages boycotting Israel.  By Yael Marom Under the headline "BDS activist tricks authorities, enters Israel against protocol," Israel Hayom, the country's most widely-circulated daily newspaper, published an article last Thursday that outed Jewish American activist Ariel Gold over her support for boycotting Israel. The article, written by Shimon Yaish and Yair Altman, provided a golden opportunity to make sure the interior minister was made aware of the situation, after the Knesset passed legislation earlier this year banning foreign nationals who support the boycott of the country from…

Four women have been murdered since the beginning of the week, but if you look at our leaders' Facebook pages, you'll notice they are spending all their time attacking Palestinians and leftists. Fourteen women have been murdered in Israel since the beginning of 2017, four of them in the past week alone. Had the murderers been Arab and the murdered Jewish, it is likely that we would have already been in a state of emergency. Televised cabinet meetings would deal with the "wave of terror," special forces would be spread out across the country, and politicians would compete with one another…

As long as police continue to see Palestinian citizens of Israel as 'the enemy,' the deadly shootings — and the ever-deepening crisis in relations — will continue. By Yael Marom, with Orly Noy An Israeli security guard shot and killed 28-year-old Mahmoud Mahmoud Salim Taha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, in Kafr Qasim on Monday night. Disturbances had broken out while police were arresting another resident of the town, and in the course of the clashes, a security guard at the police station opened fire on Taha. [tmwinpost] Below are three comments on the incident. Where else have protesters been shot and…

Trump's visit to Israel is just the latest thing to keep the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike — already largely ignored by the media — out of the headlines. By Tanya Rubinstein Donald Trump’s arrival in Israel on Monday filled social media with mockery and resentment, surrounding everything from ministers’ ridiculous statements and road closures to bizarre conversations and more. The media also had a field day with Likud MK Oren Hazan’s selfie with Trump, and with the politics of who’d get to shake hands with whom during the welcoming ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport. [tmwinpost] During the reception, Internal Security Minister…

An investigative team led by Forensic Architecture and Activestills proves, through a reenactment and visual analyses of footage of the incident, that the deaths of a Bedouin teacher and an Israeli policeman in Umm al-Hiran in January were not the result of a car-ramming attack. By Yael Marom The results of a police investigation into the January 18 events in Umm al-Hiran, during which — prior to a slate of home demolitions — a Bedouin man who was shot by police ran over and killed an Israeli policeman before succumbing to his wounds, have yet to be published. But it’s…

The Israeli public doesn't care about Palestinians on hunger strike, about conditions in prison, or what happens to a body after it is deprived of food for so long. Sometime in the '90s, "Popolitica," a popular political talk show in Israel, brought on a woman from Israel's geographical periphery who could not send her child to school because she could not afford it. "There is a law in this country that mandates all parents send their children to school!" she said angrily. Tommy Lapid, the late father of Yair Lapid, who sat on the panel, cut her off: "My dear, the money…

Palestinian activists and others have long faced actual travel bans, blacklists, and political persecution. Nevertheless, that some of the same methods are now being used against Israeli and American Jews is a worrying sign. One of the Israeli government's senior-most ministers said last year that Israeli BDS advocates must be made to pay a price for their political activism. A series of developments over the past month or so seems to demonstrate that he was completely serious, and that efforts to target nonviolent political dissidents are escalating to worrying levels. [tmwinpost] First came the law banning entry into Israel of…

MK Basel Ghattas will serve two years for smuggling cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners. That's a longer sentence than the one handed down to an Elor Azaria, who executed an incapacitated Palestinian.  Congratulations are in order to the attorney general and the Knesset for the latest Arab they managed be put up on the cross. Palestinian MK Basel Ghattas (Balad), who was accused of smuggling cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners, agreed to sign a plea bargain according to which he will admit to committing an act that could lead either directly or indirectly to acts of terrorism, resign from the Knesset,…

The slander and lies that accompanied the lethal shooting of a Bedouin teacher in Umm al-Hiran last month were nothing out of the ordinary. Walking it back won't be enough. In the end, it took a looming police internal affairs report for one of Israel's most senior government ministers to even consider walking back his insistent mislabeling of last month's double killing in Umm al-Hiran as a terrorist attack. For weeks, even as every single detail of the police's account of the incident withered in the face of witness testimony and video evidence, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan — along with the…

As injustices continue to mount up in the U.S. and Israel-Palestine, young activists are taking the fight to politicians and powerbrokers. By Yaser Abu Areesha David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, sat through questioning in a Senate confirmation hearing this week, as part of the process any nominee has to go through before their appointment is approved. He wasn’t expecting the surprise that Palestinian and Jewish political activists — all U.S. citizens — had prepared for him. Friedman’s responses were cut short throughout the hearing by young people who hurled accusations at him regarding his…