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…
Tag: separation
The Wall and the Sweatshops
Palestinian Workers in Abu Dis near Jerusalem SINCE MAY 2006, the 75,000 people of Abu Dis and other Arab villages near Jerusalem have been cut off from the city by the separation wall. Until then there were still openings here…
In Dixieland
IT WOULD APPEAR that the IDF Commander for the Central Region, headquartered at Bethel in the West Bank, wanted to come up with a creative gesture to aid us in remembering the late Rosa Parks. On December 1, 1955, Parks…
Curiosity as a Key to Change
WHAT HAPPENS to the sun after it sets? How many stars are there? How are mountains formed? These were the kinds of questions asked by both children and camp leaders during the joint Hanitzotz Publishing House and WAC summer camp…
Two Courts and a Wall
TO be a judge, you sometimes need to be a good acrobat. You must be able to walk a tightrope between the law on one hand and, on the other, the inclinations of the heart or political exigencies or a…
Confrontations and Conversations in Bil’in
LEGEND has it that the name Bil’in comes from the Arabic bila-ein, “no spring.” For indeed, this West Bank village lacks a water source of its own. On the other hand, the village is flooded with currents of another kind: the…
The Retreat of Israeli Colonialism
On June 10-12, 2005, the Organization for Democratic Action conducted a seminar on the Rise and Decline of Empires. Ten lectures provided a basis for discussion among forty participants. The lectures focused on the differences and similarities among the Roman,…
Breaking Walls
BREAKING WALLS, a documentary written and directed by Jonathan Ben Efrat, opens with a scene of deceptive tranquility. In the early morning hush, Mus’ab Salameh prepares himself for the day’s work, kisses his sleeping child and steps into the pre-dawn…
Wrong Side of the Wall
NIGHT unfurls its starry veil over the olive groves of Um al-Fahm, an Israeli Arab city. Beneath the trees sleep 2000 laborers from the West Bank who do not have permits to work in Israel. Most hail from villages near…