Since being elected, President Trump has showered Netanyahu with a range of gifts, from the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem to the cessation of aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), and from recognition of Israel’s annexation…
Tag: settlements
The Real “Non-starter”: Obama and the Imposed Solution
At a private meeting with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu on March 25, US President Barack Obama asked for written responses to a series of American demands concerning construction in the West Bank settlements, including East Jerusalem. Since then, Israeli cabinet…
Gordian Knot
AMID PREPARATIONS FOR the Annapolis Conference, rumors abound that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is ready to divide Jerusalem along the lines of the Clinton parameters from the year 2000. This calls for division on a demographic basis. The Arab neighborhoods…
Bil’in: (Partial) Triumph in a Political Vacuum
While the Israeli Occupation hardens and the Fatah/Hamas split deepens, a remote little village near Ramallah has celebrated a victory. This is Bil’in. It went to the Israeli High Court and won a change in the route of the Separation…
The Late Shuhada Street, Hebron
IT’S A GHOST TOWN,” says a friend as we walk through deserted Shuhada Street, once a bustling thoroughfare of Hebron. The sun slides off the neat green metal bolted-shut storefronts and scalloped edges of the overhangs, highlighting the Hebrew graffiti:…
The Mutilation of the Olive Trees
With contributions by Orli Karinis of “Friends to the Villages,” an Israeli voluntary organization active in the Nablus area. The autumn of 2005 saw a poor olive harvest both locally and abroad. In the West Bank, however, that was the…
Settlements and Settlers in the Old City
SINCE the occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, Israeli governments have made persistent efforts to change the Arab character of East Jerusalem, eradicate all Palestinian signifiers, and engender a Jewish mass that will in turn create a new…
Poison in the Pastures of Tuwani
Aspring morning at the end of March. The drive from the checkpoint to Tuwani lasts a quarter hour. Broad grazing lands extend on both sides of the asphalt road. Ordinarily, the transition from bustling Tel Aviv to nature’s bosom would…