Permits

From Gaza to Bethlehem: Celebrating Christmas under occupation

Photographer Samar Hazboun captures the subtle, intimate moments of Palestinians celebrating Christmas under siege and occupation, following three families from the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem in the West Bank.

By +972 Magazine December 27, 2018

Arab youth demonstrate against the demolition of 11 homes by Israeli authorities in the Arab town of Qalansuwa, central Israel, January 11, 2017. (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

Palestinian citizens go on strike to protest home demolitions

Hundreds of Palestinian citizens demonstrate across the country after Israeli authorities demolish 11 homes in the central Arab town of Qalansuwa. Photos by Keren Manor / Activestills.org Palestinian citizens of Israel called a one-day general strike on Wednesday to protest the demolition of 11 homes in the Arab town of Qalansuwa by Israeli authorities the previous…

By Orly Noy January 11, 2017

Palestinian women enter an Israeli military checkpoint on their way to Al-Aqsa Mosque for prayers on the first Friday of Ramadan, June 10, 2016. Men and women over the age of 45 were allowed to visit the mosque but Israeli authorities suspended some 83,000 entry permits issued for the Muslim holiday in response to a shooting attack in Tel Aviv. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Why Israel can’t kick its addiction to collective punishment

Israel’s revocation of permits and closure of Yatta this week reflect its need to keep the Palestinian issue at bay by controlling and threatening their people for every action of a few. A Palestinian family from Nablus was supposed to visit their relatives in an Arab town in Israel for Ramadan later this month. They…

By Amjad Iraqi June 11, 2016

Latest

Israeli police stand at a roadblock meant to stop vehicular traffic going in and out of the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of East Jerusalem, October 15, 2015. Following a spate of over a dozen stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, Israel blocked off and erected checkpoints at the entrances and exits of most Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Many of the checkpoints are meant to stop cars from entering or exiting the neighborhoods. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

How Palestinians can prevent a new permit regime in Jerusalem

The history of Israel’s permit regime in the West Bank should serve as a warning that even temporary closures on Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem can have in serious, long-term political consequences. By Yael Berda After a violent couple of weeks in Jerusalem, the Israeli government gave police discretion to impose a closure on certain East…

By +972 Magazine October 18, 2015

An Israeli soldier checks a Palestinian man’s documents at a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Hebron on June 17, 2014, as the hunt for three Israeli teenagers believed kidnapped by militants entered its fifth day. (Photo: Tess Scheflan/Activestills.org)

Israel responds to lone attacks with collective punishment

The Defense Ministry cancels travel permits for 500 Palestinians, and work permits for an entire West Bank village. Israeli authorities responded on Monday with collective punishment to two attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem that left one Israeli dead and two injured in recent days. The Defense Ministry canceled special travel permits for 500 West Bank Palestinians,…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland June 22, 2015

A Palestinian worker wait outside the Ni'lin checkpoint. In the background the settlement of Hashmonaim, West Bank, October 21, 2013. (Photo: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

The abnormal normality of the occupation and its ‘escalations’

To pretend as though the events of recent days are extraordinary is to ignore the context that led to this ‘flare-up’ and is disrespectful to the millions of Palestinians who wrestle with the occupation every day, in both the West Bank and in Gaza. It’s Wednesday. The death toll in Gaza is in the dozens…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat July 14, 2014

A Palestinian woman takes part in a demonstration against the Israeli army's permit regime, Bidu, West Bank, August 30, 2009. (Photo: Activestills.org)

A journey into the dark heart of Israel’s permit regime

Trapped between the separation barrier and the Green Line, Palestinians living in the ‘Seam Zone’ are forced to reckon with a Kafkaesque permit regime that appears designed to do one thing and one thing only: make them give up and leave. By Idan Landau, translated by Jordan Michaeli Israeli NGO Hamoked: Center for the…

By +972 Magazine October 7, 2013

Israel’s control over movement, reflected by a local artist

May Castelnuovo presents a visual representation of 101 things, at which we would rather not look. As the crow flies, the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is situated less than one kilometer from the separation wall. Indeed, the crow need not even fly from Israel’s most prestigious art school to the questionable concrete barrier; it…

By Yuval Ben-Ami June 21, 2013

In the annual Palm Sunday procession, Palestinian Christians carry signs naming their West Bank communities, all of which are cut off from Jerusalem by the Israeli separation barrier, requiring their residents to obtain special permits to enter, March 24, 2013. Such restrictions have dramatically reduced the number of Palestinians able to participate in religious traditions of any faith in Jerusalem.

PHOTOS: Palestinian Christians protest Israeli permit regime during Palm Sunday procession

During the annual Palm Sunday procession, Palestinian Christians protest permits delayed and denied during the Easter season. Photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org Whether during Ramadan or Easter, every year, Palestinians with West Bank IDs face challenges entering Jerusalem for religious worship. Despite claims by Israeli authorities of granting more permits and relaxing restrictions, each year…

By Activestills March 25, 2013

WATCH: Settler helps Palestinians acquire building permits

KHIRBET ZAKARIA, WEST BANK – A group of Jews from the Gush Etzion settlement bloc worked for more than half a year to get building permits for their neighbors in the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zakaria. Recently, they learned they had succeeded. Israeli authorities announced they will issue new permits for the village, the first…

By Roee Ruttenberg October 21, 2012