Seven years after publishing a feature on Israeli settlers who support equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, it's time to revisit the idea. There is nothing the Israel Right loves more than adopting the criticism of its rivals on the Left in order to justify its rule. Strangely, this criticism has turned into a main aspect of the language settlers use when describing their "coexistence" with the Palestinians in the occupied territories. [tmwinpost] Their argument goes as such: while Tel Aviv is a bubble where rich, liberal Jews love Arabs in theory only, in the West Bank we truly see the Palestinians as…

Twos hundred Israelis march against the eviction of the Shamanseh family from their home in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Passersby throw eggs, while settlers attack them with pepper spray. By Yael Marom Over 200 Israelis marched from central Jerusalem to the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Friday to protest the eviction of a Palestinian family from their homes. The demonstrators marched on West Jerusalem's thoroughfare until they crossed over into the Palestinian neighborhood, where they were met by dozens of local Palestinian protesters. [tmwinpost] The march comes less than a week after Israeli security forces evicted the Shamanseh family from their home,…

After an eight-year lull in evictions, Israeli authorities kick out the Shamanseh family from their home in Sheikh Jarrah. They had been living in the neighborhood for over 50 years. By Yael Marom Israeli security forces evicted a Palestinian family from their home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Tuesday morning, the first such eviction in eight years, allowing Israeli settlers to take over the property. [tmwinpost] Large police forces arrived at the Shamanseh family home at 6.a.m., along with a large truck to carry their belongings, following days of police visits to help prepare for the eviction. Three settlers swiftly entered the…

A closer look at Jerusalem's new construction plans are a testament to the fact that Israel cannot continue lording over hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without infringing on their basic rights. By Aviv Tatarsky After a considerably long lull, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat have rebooted their plan to build beyond the Green Line in the city. These days, the government is working to build 2,000 housing units in East Jerusalem — and that's only the beginning. Israeli building in the territories occupied in 1967 is usually tied to Israel's attempt to thwart all attempts to make East…

For five decades, the High Court has legitimized nearly every aspect of the occupation. It may take time, but one day the settlers will thank the court for 50 years of Israeli rule over the West Bank. We should be enraged at the Israeli Right's attempt to ban left-wing NGOs from filing High Court petitions on behalf of Palestinians. There is no doubt that the motivation behind the initiative is to allow the occupation to continue undisturbed. There is no doubt that there are Palestinians who benefit from these petitions, just as there are women, residents of Israel's periphery, and other oppressed groups who have…

How Israeli authorities avoid their duty to indict settlers who build illegally on other people's land. By Yossi Gurvitz/Yesh Din In August 2009, the residents of Kfar Aqeb, a Palestinian village near Ramallah, noticed 12 illegal structures being built on their land near the settlement of Kochav Ya’akov. The residents urgently petitioned the High Court of Justice, assisted by Yesh Din, demanding the court order an immediate halt to the construction. What happened next is a microcosm of the behavior of the law enforcement apparatus in the occupied Palestinian territories. [tmwinpost] The IDF's Civil Administration issued work stoppage orders on…

Settler organization Ateret Cohanim has been gradually kicking out every single member of the Kirsh family from their homes since 2010. By Yael Marom Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family from their home in Jerusalem's Old City earlier this week, at the height of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The nine-member Kirsh family, which includes children and a pregnant woman, has been living in the same home since the 1930s. [tmwinpost] Their home was transferred over to Ateret Cohanim — a settler organization known for taking over Palestinian assets in the Old City and turning them over to Jewish families…

Ever since he filmed an Israeli soldier executing a Palestinian man in Hebron, Emad Abu Shamsiya has been subject to violent threats. Things became so bad his family had to leave their home. So why do the police refuse to help? By John Brown* Ever since a video showing Israeli soldier Elor Azaria executing an immobilized Palestinian attacker in Hebron was published, Emad Abu Shamsiya, the man who captured the incident on video, has been subject to threats against his life by right-wing activists and settlers. The latter even threw stones at his home, according to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, where Abu Shamsiya…

Video shows Border Police officer taking away eight-year-old Anwar Burqan's bicycle and throwing it into the nearby bushes. An Israeli Border Police officer was caught confiscating a bicycle from an eight-year-old Palestinian girl in the West Bank city of Hebron last week. In a video shot by B'Tselem volunteer Raed Abu Ramileh and published Tuesday afternoon, the officer appears to seize Anwar Burqan's bike as she rides along a chain-link fence on al-Ibrahimi Street, before throwing it into the bushes. [tmwinpost] In September 2012, Israeli security forces put up a the fence along al-Ibrahimi Street, adjacent to the Cave of the Patriarchs, leaving the…

The fact that this year's Jerusalem Day did not include violence and racist chants against Palestinians signals a change of strategy in winning the hearts and minds of average Israelis. The main lesson I learned from Jerusalem Days past was to wear comfortable walking shoes. Or preferably running shoes, since I previously learned that there is no way to know what causes police on horseback to charge into and disperse Palestinian crowds out of the enclosures put up around Damascus Gate, into which they were corralled in the first place. [tmwinpost] Without a doubt Jerusalem Day is the most tense…

Days after an Israeli settler murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in 1992, the Israeli army put the city of Hebron on lockdown, closing off some of its main thoroughfare — Shuhada Street — to Palestinian traffic. Twenty-two years later, some parts of Hebron are still off limits to its Palestinian residents. Every year, Palestinian and Israeli activists demonstrate to commemorate the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, and call on the Israeli army to open Shuhada Street.  For more on Hebron's Shuhada Street: WATCH: Hebron's Shuhada Street: Authorized entry only PHOTOS: Israeli police arrest 12 left-wing activists at Hebron demo Prisoners in our own…

Without recognizing how deep-seated the trauma of ordinary Israelis really is, the Israeli peace camp will continue to be seen as elitist and disconnected. By Yakir Englander (translated by Dr. Henry R. Carse) My political opinions are aligned with Israel’s Left, but I was not born that way. Even today my personal Israeli narrative is far from typically liberal. I grew up in a modern ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the city of Bnei Brak, and although I am sociologically far from that context today, many of the core values that still influence me stem from the Hasidic tradition. When I was…

From audacious fraud and forgery to military seizures for ‘security needs’ and the ‘public good’ to dusting off antiquated Ottoman laws, the Israeli settlement enterprise has no shortage of tools for taking over Palestinian land in the West Bank. By Dror Etkes On February 9, 2004, Abdelatif Hassan Samarin, a resident of the West Bank village of Burqa, just a few miles east of Ramallah, woke up before dawn. After his morning prayers, Samarin drank two cups of sweet tea with mint, meant to combat the morning chill of winter, packed some clothing into a suitcase that his son —…