46% of Israeli teens: Revoke Arabs’ rights Ynet 31 Mar — Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s Youth Study reveals Israel’s teens think greatest threat to state is Jewish-Arab conflict, believe less in democratic values. As for who they trust most – IDF gets 93% … About 60% of Jewish youths prefer “strong leadership” to rule of law […]
My intention was to write a general response to the criticisms of my essays on this site. However, I will limit myself—enough is enough—to responding to David Samel’s “Zionism’s History, Real and Imagined.” This may be my swan song to Mondoweiss. Samel considers me to be too sensitive to criticism, but far too much of […]
Bahrain steps up arrests of activists -opposition DUBAI, March 31 (Reuters) – Bahrain has stepped up arrests of cyber activists and Shi’ites, with more than 300 detained and dozens missing since it launched a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the opposition said on Thursday. Earlier this month, the Gulf Arab island’s Sunni rulers imposed martial law […]
The following was published as a comment under David Samel’s post yesterday and we thought it merited its own post to keep the conversation moving: The one point I take issue with is the inaccurate but very common dualistic description of outcomes as future events: a single state or two states. This seems to presume […]
Israel is a country rift with multiple overlapping narratives. They drift into each other, defy one another and wrestle for the unachievable title of ultimate truth. And although there is no such thing, it appears as if the current Israeli government is working hard to officially establish one authoritative story as part of the ongoing […]
A friend writes: Did you two see Benjamin Netanyahu’s Youtube interview posted yesterday? He claims again and again that Israel fully provides equal rights for Arabs in Israel. I wrote down the claim: “There’s only one country in the heart of the Middle East that has no tremors, no protests. That’s Israel. Because we’re the […]
Yesterday we posted a Land Day reflection from Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, and Max Blumenthal referenced his book A Doctor in Galilee: The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel in his Land Day post as well. Dr. Kanaaneh has been kind enough to allow us to republish an excerpt from his book describing his […]
The Land Day memorial in Sakhnin. (Photo: ifpbphotos) The headline in Haaretz announced: “Police gearing up for possible Land Day trouble.” I called my village body and asked him what to make of that. Toufiq agreed that it foreboded ill. Thirty-five years have taught us all how to avoid violent confrontations between large numbers of […]
“The complete evacuation of the country from its other inhabitants and handing it over to the Jewish people is the answer.” –Jewish National Fund director Yosef Weitz, March 20, 1941 “The Jewish National Fund is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners – Jewish people everywhere.” –Jewish National Fund mission statement […]
Following is an excerpt from an interesting post by Noam Sheizaf over at +972. Read the entire piece here. When I was a kid, I loved Danni Din stories. Their hero was wonder-kid Danni Din, which became the worlds’ only invisible person after mistakenly drinking a strange liquid left on the window by the reckless […]
Jerry Slater’s magnum opus on the history, present and future of Zionism has led to a large volume and variety of debate. He offers a lengthy defense of the creation and existence of a Jewish State despite recognizing the inherent injustice forced upon the indigenous Palestinian population. He concedes that this unfairness, which has taken […]
The following announcement was sent out by the Israeli activists behind the “return to sender” campaign working to end US support for Israel: We will join the Palestinians in calling for a No-Fly Zone Over Palestine Together we will call upon the world: Ban Israeli planes from bombarding the besieged Gaza Together we will demand: […]
The West Bank village Nil’in recognizes Land Day, and as per usual is met with tear gas. Land Day: What it means and why it’s important / Yousef Munayyer Today, March 30th, marks Land Day or Youm Al Ard in Arabic. Perhaps more than May 15th, when the Nakba is often marked, or June 5th, […]
Rebels claim Gaddafi laid mines around Sirte This video, posted on Facebook on March 30 by group that calls itself the “Intifada of February 17, 2011,” claims to show rebels discovering and holding landmines on the approach to Sirte. The description, translated from Arabic, says: “Battalions of Gaddafi laid the mines in the path of […]
(All Photos: Yousef M. Aljamal) On Monday, March 28th The Center for Political and Development Studies in Gaza organized a ceremony to honor the winners of “The Mondo Awards” for their creative writing in English. “The Center held this celebration as an initiative to pay more attention to the young talented writers, encouraging them to […]
And more news from Today in Palestine:
You didn’t know how American politics works? Well Jonathan Tobin explains it, at Commentary on Obama vs Bibi: The Next Showdown, which outlines a two-state ultimatum, and a hint to powerful Jewish Democrats: But the real question is not whether the Israeli will ably put forward a coherent and reasonable position affirming his nation’s desire […]
And more news from the Arab uprisings:
OR Books has recently released a unique and timely, to say the least, book on the recent Egyptian revoltion. Tweets from Tahrir covers the recent uprising using the tweets of the activists and people who witnessed it firsthand. In many cases this is same reporting the we relied on here to help cover the breaking […]
Struck smiles as he is convicted of kidnapping and assault. Photo from Ynet This post originally appeared on Notes From A Medinah If a 15-year-old African-American minor was abducted by a 28 year white man – after the man chased the youth down in an open field in an ATV; if the man had stripped […]
In early March, I attended an Independent Jewish Voices event in London with Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy. Those who follow Levy’s articles in Haaretz – a collection of which have been published in his 2010 book, The Punishment of Gaza – will be familiar with the central theme of his presentation: Israeli society’s indifference to […]
Video from the “Bomb Shelter Museum” organizers. I attended the bomb shelter installation Monday afternoon in Washington Square Park and had some lengthy talks with a number of Israel-supporters and, though definitely frustrating, those conversations were by and large calm and non-combative. The single most repeated statement I heard from the young Zionists was: “Israel has shown […]
Israel’s ‘citizenship loyalty’ bill was passed into law late on Monday 28 March, as reported at the Jerusalem Post, and elsewhere. A look at the paper’s news items on the bill shows that JPost is rather keen on using the term traitors, without irony: “A bill that will make it easier to strip convicted spies, […]
Mubarak tried this for years with the Muslim Brotherhood. And everyone in Gaza will tell you that Hamas is just part of the political landscape. Intolerance, from Haaretz: