Nine families are made homeless in a series of demolitions in East Jerusalem. The pace of demolitions so far in 2017 outstrips that in 2016, currently the worst year on record. By Aviv Tatarsky Israeli forces conducted a wave of demolitions in East Jerusalem on Thursday, destroying four homes in al-Walaja, one house and four apartments in a-Tur, one apartment in Sur Baher and three garages in Issawiya. Nine families lost their homes as a result. [tmwinpost] It was an especially difficult day, but one in keeping with an ongoing phenomenon over the past two years. Israel has significantly stepped…

A New York Times op-ed argues that Israel is not the South African apartheid its author sat in jail to expose. But to make his case, Benjamin Pogrund ignores the heart of what occupation really is. In an impassioned New York Times op ed, Benjamin Pogrund lays down the best possible arguments for why Israel is not an apartheid state. He brings out the full arsenal: his personal experience as a South African. His knowledge as a reporter who investigated and exposed the horrors of the system. He even paid the enormous price of jail time. It’s hard to top that level of…

Israeli and Palestinian women commemorated International Women's Day last week by destroying a mockup separation wall in the West Bank city of Beit Jala. The event, put on by the Bereaved Families Forum, included a vigil in memory of those who have lost their lives in the conflict. Among the speakers were Suha Abu Khdeir, the mother of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and burned alive by three Israelis in July 2014.

Every room overlooks the West Bank separation wall, the lobby features a Greek statue choking on teargas, and faux-security cameras dot the corridors. Welcome to "The Walled Off Hotel," the new Bethlehem-based project from British street artist and enfant terrible Banksy. BETHLEHEM — It takes an unusual hotel proprietor to advertise their establishment as “the hotel with the worst view in the world.” But then Bansky, the British street artist renowned for his satirical and political graffiti, isn’t your average hotelier. With his name already well-established in Israel-Palestine thanks to his famous creations on the West Bank separation wall and…

For decades, Jews and Palestinians alike would wander through the abandoned village of al-Walaja, encountering ghosts of the past, and facing the intimacy of a stranger’s home. By Natasha Dudinski A spring walk in Nahal Refaim. Blue sky, cheerful sun, red anemones, white almond trees, and the rocky green Jerusalem hills. It is the most beautiful part of the year, filled with hopes for something new; groups of weekend hikers dot the valley’s trails. I follow my own unbeaten path, zigzagging between the present and the past. [tmwinpost] The three stone houses along the road are there regardless of the season.…

Perhaps finally learning the value of nonviolence from the villagers, the Israeli army did not disperse the weekly protest on Friday. Youth manage to pry open gate in the wall. Some 300 people — Palestinians, Israelis and internationals — took part in a protest march Friday from the West Bank village of Bil’in to Israel’s separation barrier, built on the village’s land, to mark 12 years of continuous popular struggle against the wall, Israel’s settlements, and its military occupation of Palestine. Unlike nearly every other Friday over the past 12 years, no soldiers came to break up the protest, an anomaly…

Americans and Israelis need to resist not only border walls, but also the sentiments and systems that make them possible. By Nadia Naser-Najjab In promising to build a new wall along the American border with Mexico, U.S. President Donald Trump has openly sought to mine the deep racism and chauvinism that runs through parts of American society. Although it has been justified in practical terms, the wall has a particular symbolic significance: it renders a country increasingly unsure of itself and its place in the world, shaken as much by its own contradictions as by an external threat. [tmwinpost] Given that…

Donald Trump's proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was a cornerstone of his presidential campaign. But Israel's separation wall is a lesson in why such a project is dangerous, ineffective — and morally wrong. By Abby C. Wheatley and Oren Kroll-Zeldin Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump made constant reference to the 50-foot tall concrete wall he plans to build on the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s plan is divisive, further polarizing an already fractured American public. And yet there seems to be little public awareness that nearly 700 miles of fencing already exists, or that…

Israeli forces who turned up to demolish a home in the West Bank village of Budrus were met with an unexpected obstacle: dozens of Palestinian women protecting the house with their bodies. The women of Budrus, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, sent a powerful message on Wednesday when they physically blocked Israeli forces from carrying out a home demolition. Video of the incident, shot by photojournalist Issam Rimawi, shows dozens of Palestinian women standing on the porch and roof of the home, as Israeli army jeeps and Border Police officers idle out front. To the side stands a…

Roughly 100 people march on a checkpoint in Bethlehem to protest the occupation and mark Christmas. Israeli forces respond by pepper-spraying and teargassing the demonstrators. Text by Oren Ziv. Photos by Oren Ziv, Keren Manor and Shahaf Polakow Around 100 members of the Palestinian Popular Committees marched towards one of Bethlehem's main checkpoints on Friday to protest the occupation. The demonstration was also held to mark Christmas, with some of the protesters dressed as Santa Claus. Private security forces on the scene, who were not expecting the demonstration, pepper-sprayed the protesters. Border Police officers arrived a few minutes later and started pushing…

A new poll shows that most Israelis and Palestinians support the idea of two states, but reject the practicalities of it. But there is a way out of this mess. By Michal Haramati A recently published opinion poll sought to answer our region's million-dollar question: is the two-state solution still relevant? Unlike many others, the poll was carried out simultaneously by the Israel Democracy Institute and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and included largely similar questions for both sides. The results are eye-opening. [tmwinpost] In keeping with previous polls, while the two-state solution is still preferred by…

The West Bank village of Hizma, surrounded entirely by the separation wall, is the victim of daily harassment by the army and the police. That hasn't stopped the residents from opening their homes and businesses to Israeli Jews — even the settlers who live next door. Text and photos by Tamar Flesichman For the 7,000 residents of the West Bank village of Hizma, life has become an endless routine of harassment by the Israeli authorities. Land expropriation, home demolition orders, the total disconnect from East Jerusalem, the checkpoint that serves mainly settlers and forbids the owners of the land from crossing, and the constant…

As Israel approaches the 50th anniversary of its decisive victory in the Six Day War, it is evident that subsequent policies have retroactively transformed a war of self-defense into a platform for messianic expansionism that over time is undermining Israel’s very existence. By Daniel Seidemann Last weekend was the 49th anniversary of Jerusalem’s “reunification.” This anniversary comes in the context of a popular uprising in the city unlike any since 1967. Although “Jerusalem-the-eternal-undivided-capital-of-Israel” was never more than a hollow myth, 49 years post-“unification” the city is physically divided by walls of mutual fear and hatred, buttressed by violence and mistrust, as never before. [tmwinpost]…