Haifa Last year, on the same day the forest fires began ravaging the Carmel region of northern Israel, the Haifa municipality erected a Christmas tree sculpture comprised of over 5,000 recycled water bottles in honor of the Christian holiday. The tree, designed…
Israel
Looking for Christmas in the Holy Land
Gaza Last week, The Guardian told the story of the Qubrsi brothers — two of approximately 1,400 Christians residing in Gaza today. Brothers Karam and Peter are currently the only members of their family still in Gaza. Their sisters Rani…
The Day the Buses Stood Still
Israel needs America – financially, diplomatically, and militarily. It’s a fact. So when U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton makes an observation, even about a relatively minor point of domestic policy, Israelis tend to sit up and listen. That is…
The Libel Law: a threat to Israeli democracy?
by Joshua Friedlander “Democracy Under Attack” screamed the webpage of Ha’aretz – a popular, left-leaning Israeli broadsheet last week. The event prompting the headline was a proposed alteration to the wording of the Libel Law, submitted this month to the Knesset…
Bil’in Celebrates “Friday of Loyalty to the Martyrs”
For the past six years, villagers and international activists have convened in the village of Bil’in to protest the presence of Israel’s security barrier. The inhabitants of Bil’in, which lies just west of Ramallah and about ofur kilometers east of…
Split Syria: Assad, the Arab League, & the Jewish State
by Adam J. Deutsch Over the last eight months, nonviolent protests have erupted across Syria; while the central regions including Homs and Hama have been particular hotbeds of revolution for organized youth, protesters have also gathered in the suburbs of…
I Am a Militant Man: a poem by Joshua Melamed
I am a militant man, because I have been conditioned to be a militant man. I never asked to have the urge to wield a weapon, to want to delve into battle, to gallop terribly against my fellow man. I…
Palestinian ‘freedom riders’: the protest we’ve been waiting for?
Israeli police have detained six Palestinians dubbed West Bank Freedom Riders who boarded a Jerusalem-bound bus used by Jewish settlers. The activists say they drew inspiration from 1960s US civil rights demonstrators who campaigned under the same name against segregated…
Obituary: Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1943-2011)
By Joshua Friedlander The passing of elderly rabbis is a fairly regular, if unhappy, event in Jerusalem; but few of them as wide a ripple across the Jewish world as that of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, rosh yeshiva (dean) of…
Occupy Boston Occupies Israeli Consulate
It appears that the Occupy Movement has made yet another addition to its extensive list of grievances. This one addresses the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. Although such sentiments have been expressed earlier in the Occupy demonstrations, this…