Hatem Abu Ziadeh, head of the workers’ committee at Zarfati Garage, along with his wife and young daughter, was assaulted on Saturday March 30 by a group of about 30 armed settlers at his family olive grove. Abu Ziadeh…
Category: Human Rights
Stop hunting humans in Syria!
“Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent” (George Steiner) Statement of opinion, Da’am Workers Party, February 26, 2018 The horrors of recent days in East Ghouta in Syria, evident in the corpses of men, women and children, have…
Israel’s Africa Problem
All photos by activestills.org ISRAEL likes to indulge in the illusion that it is part of Western Europe or one of the United States. Its border with Egypt, however, serves as a reminder concerning its location: in the Middle East, adjoining…
Daniel Friedmann versus the High Court of Israel
WHEN EHUD OLMERT became Prime Minister of Israel, he appointed his good friend Haim Ramon to head the Justice Department. Ramon had a number of achievements behind him. In 1994, as chairperson of the Histadrut (the General Federation of Labor),…
The Loophole
Torture in Israel TWO RECENT REPORTS by human rights organizations open a small window into the torture chambers of Israel. Eight years have passed since the High Court made its historic decision forbidding torture, and now it is clear that…
Medical Closure
IN EARLY MAY, aid organizations warned that the Gaza Strip was on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. They claimed that the health and welfare system of the Palestinian Authority was collapsing. International aid funds had been frozen since the…
Racism in High Places
WHERE RACISM takes root, it must be identified. Blindness to it is a common but dangerous blight. Equally common are the ploys used to excuse it. The most recent decision of Israel’s High Court of Justice, approving the “Law of…
Watching IDF Checkpoints
“No one will be able to say, ‘I didn’t know.’” IMAGINE a cold concrete shed, sides open to the elements, divided into stalls by low walls, with metal turnstiles at either end. The cattle gather at one end, lowing and…
Gaza: A Decade of Disengagement
NOT a single Israeli has yet disengaged from the Gaza Strip, but disengagement has been underway for several years where Gazans are concerned, cutting them off from the world outside their prison-enclave. Strange to think, but until 1993 Gaza was…
Tali Fahima Crosses the Line
I first met Tali Fahima, a freedom fighter for some, for others a traitor, about a year ago. I was working as a journalist in a weekly Tel Aviv magazine. She was an anonymous 28-year old legal secretary from Jaffa. A…