A new video series about 'design flaws' tackles the question of why the world is so irked by Israel's separation barrier. Surely it's not the fact that it cages in millions of people and annexes roughly 10 percent of the West Bank. No, it's just a matter of aesthetics. In a video clip published online this week by Kann, Israel's new public broadcast corporation, a young man wearing a hip polka-dot shirt and a fashionably scruffy beard explains the real problem with Israel's separation barrier — its aesthetics. The 90-second video opens with the young man walking bouncily along a dusty strip…

Encircled by the separation barrier, threatened with demolition orders, and deemed illegal aliens in their own homes, the residents of the Palestinian village of Walajeh are fighting for their lives. From the village of Walajeh, one can see much of Jerusalem. The round roof of Teddy Stadium, where the city’s soccer teams play. The towers of the Holyland luxury apartment complex, looming over the surrounding, low-slung buildings. The square, sandstone houses of the city’s southern neighborhoods. And from much of Jerusalem, one can see Walajeh. The deep green hills where the separation barrier — glinting razor wire and dull, grey concrete…

Israel's separation wall will surround the village on nearly all sides, which will separate its villagers from some 250 acres of agricultural land. Over 500 Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators marched Saturday to protest the construction of the separation wall and house demolitions in the West Bank village of Walaje, south of Jerusalem. The march started at the entrance to the nearby city of Beit Jala and proceeded along the road to Har Gilo settlement, with activists chanting against the occupation and in favor of a two-state solution. As the march got underway, Jews and Palestinians stood together forming a bridge with their hands…

Villagers temporarily stopped one round of demolitions earlier this month by blocking bulldozers from entering the village, but local activists expect the demolitions will eventually take place. Photos & text by: Ahmad Al-Bazz / Activestills.org Dozens of Palestinian residents of Walajeh, a Palestinian village nestled between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, demonstrated last Friday against the planned demolition of 14 structures by Israeli authorities. According to the demolition notices, the structures were built without the necessary permits. The villagers were first informed of the imminent demolitions on August 2, after which they declared they would resist any attempt to implement the orders.…

Palestinian farmers, along with Israeli and international activists, demonstrate in front of a military gate in the northern West Bank, calling to relax Israeli restrictions on access to their land. Photos and text by Ahmad Al-Bazz and Haidi Motola / Activestills.org Approximately 100 Palestinian farmers protested on Sunday morning in front of an Israeli military gate in the northern West Bank, calling on the army to ease restrictions on their daily journey through the gate, which separates them from their land. Joined by some 10 anti-occupation Israeli activists and several international human rights observers, the farmers refused to cross through Military Gate 623, part…

During the month of Ramadan, Palestinians were more freely able to pass between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Now it's back to the old rules of military occupation. Text by Ahmad al-Bazz / Activestills.org The final Friday of Ramadan was also the final day in which Israel temporarily "relaxed" its restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank. Throughout the past month, which Muslims mark as the holiest time of the year, Israel allowed women of all ages, men over 40, and children under 12 to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers without special entry permits. Palestinians were also granted permission…

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…