Between 2014 and 2020, Tel Aviv-based photographer and artist Iris Hassid followed the daily life of four young Palestinian women, citizens of Israel, who are part of a recent surge of young Arab women attending Tel Aviv University
Category Archives: Israel
Issa Amro’s plight highlights Israel’s intolerance of even nonviolent protest | Raja Shehadeh
The Hebron-based activist spurned violence in his campaign against illegal settlements in the West Bank but still faces jail
The conviction of a longtime proponent of nonviolence from the beleaguered city of Hebron reveals Israel’s intolerance of any Palestinian resistance to its settlements, violent or nonviolent.
On 6 January, Issa Amro, a UN-recognised human rights defender, and the founder and coordinator of Youth Against Settlements, a Hebron-based group, was convicted in an Israeli military court near Ramallah on six counts. He was first put on trial in 2016 on 18 charges dating back to 2010, including incitement, insulting a soldier and participating in a march without a permit. He had been taking part in a peaceful protest calling for the reopening of Shuhada Street, the former commercial centre of Hebron. The delay in bringing him to trial was probably due to his high profile and support from human right groups in Israel and around the world.
Continue reading...Remnants of mosque from earliest decades of Islam found in Israel
Archaeologists say foundations excavated in Tiberias are of a mosque built in about AD670
Archaeologists in Israel say they have discovered the remnants of an early mosque believed to date to the earliest decades of Islam during an excavation in the northern city of Tiberias.
The foundations of the mosque, excavated just south of the Sea of Galilee by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, point to its construction roughly a generation after the death of the prophet Muhammad, making it one of the earliest Muslim houses of worship to be studied by archaeologists.
Continue reading...Malka Leifer lands in Melbourne to face child sexual abuse charges after extradition from Israel
The attorney general says her arrival ‘finally concludes the long-running process to see Ms Leifer returned to Australia’
Alleged child abuser Malka Leifer has landed back in Australia and is expected to face a Melbourne court after being extradited from Israel.
Leifer arrived at Melbourne airport about 9pm on Wednesday following a decade-long effort by accusers to have her brought back from the country she moved to in 2008 amid child abuse accusations.
Continue reading...Israeli minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz convicted of corruption
Tycoon sentenced to five years in prison for bribing officials and forging documents to gain mining rights in Guinea
The Israeli diamond and minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz has been convicted of corrupting foreign agents and forging documents by a Geneva court, in a trial over an attempt to reap lavish iron ore resources in Guinea.
Steinmetz, considered by some to be Israel’s richest man, was sentenced to five years in prison but had faced a maximum of 10 years in the case.
Continue reading...Israel’s ibex make the most of lockdown – in pictures
Nubian ibex have been roaming the empty streets of Mitzpe Ramon as Israel’s coronavirus lockdown extends to the end of the month
Continue reading...Single Covid vaccine dose in Israel ‘less effective than we thought’
Surge in infections dampens optimism over country’s advanced immunisation programme
Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.
In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.
Continue reading...Deadliest Israeli airstrikes on Syria in years kill 57, say observers
Raids on arms depots and military positions kill Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters, says Observatory for Human Rights
Israeli airstrikes on east Syria killed 57 regime forces and allied Iran-backed fighters in the deadliest such strikes since the start of the conflict, a war monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The overnight raids against arms depots and military positions killed at least 14 Syrian regime forces, 16 Iraqi militia fighters and 11 Afghan members of the pro-Iran Fatimid Brigade, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Continue reading...Israel is a non-democratic apartheid regime, says rights group
Embassy spokesperson rejects ‘false claims’ in report that alleges policies perpetuate supremacy of Jews over Palestinians
Israel is not a democracy but an “apartheid regime” that enforces Jewish supremacy over all the land it controls, a leading domestic rights group has alleged in a position paper bound to provoke fierce controversy.
“One organising principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians,” said B’Tselem, an organisation that documents human rights violations.
Continue reading...Covid vaccinations: slow start around world brings dose of reality
Burst of optimism over approvals has been followed by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors
The global introduction of newly approved coronavirus vaccines has been marked by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors as it has become clear that many governments will miss their targets for mass inoculation.
The burst of optimism that arrived with approvals of new vaccines – encouraged by unrealistic expectations raised by politicians – is colliding with the reality of the challenge of vaccinating a large part of the world’s population.
Continue reading...The world in 2021 – how global politics will change this year
Donald Trump’s departure will alter the face of geopolitics. The climate crisis and Covid response will affect all nations – while others face very particular challenges. Observer correspondents examine the 12 months ahead
A potent mix of hope and fear accompanies the start of 2021 in most of the world. Scientists have created several vaccines for a disease that didn’t even have a name this time last year. But many countries, including the UK and the US, are still stumbling through the deadliest period of the pandemic.
The shadow of Covid will not begin to lift, even in richer countries, for months. Britain was the first to approve a vaccine and has secured extensive supplies, yet Boris Johnson’s suggestion that life might be returning to normal by Easter is widely seen as optimistic. Other countries, particularly in the south, face a long wait to get vaccines, and help paying for them. The rebuilding of economies shattered by Covid everywhere will be slow; even countries that managed to contain it have taken a hit, from Vietnam to New Zealand.
Continue reading...Joe Biden should end the US pretence over Israel’s ‘secret’ nuclear weapons | Desmond Tutu
The cover-up has to stop – and with it, the huge sums in aid for a country with oppressive policies towards Palestinians
- Desmond Tutu is a Nobel peace laureate and a former archbishop of Cape Town
Every recent US administration has performed a perverse ritual as it has come into office. All have agreed to undermine US law by signing secret letters stipulating they will not acknowledge something everyone knows: that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Part of the reason for this is to stop people focusing on Israel’s capacity to turn dozens of cities to dust. This failure to face up to the threat posed by Israel’s horrific arsenal gives its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sense of power and impunity, allowing Israel to dictate terms to others.
Continue reading...Mayor review – grappling with reality inside Ramallah city hall
Ramallah’s leader Musa Hadid navigates diplomatic stresses and day-to-day problems in this love letter to the West Bank
Musa Hadid is the popular Palestinian mayor of Ramallah in the West Bank, and this thoughtful, sympathetic documentary tracks his stressful day-to-day working life – shown suddenly getting a lot more stressful in 2017 when President Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Hadid feels strongly that this move emboldened Israel’s military to be more menacing in Ramallah, with soldiers marching into stores and demanding to see security camera footage on the grounds that there could be images of terrorists – and even doing the same at city hall.
The film lets you appreciate Hadid’s delicate and complex situation. He is often receiving high-profile international visitors and relishes the opportunity to show off the city he loves – the opening and closing sequences of this film, incidentally, almost feel like the introduction to Woody Allen’s Manhattan. One such VIP is Prince William, though some of Hadid’s colleagues are less than happy: “All the problems of our country come from Britain!” says one, referring to the 1923 Mandate.
Continue reading...Far-right Israeli football fans rebel over Beitar Jerusalem’s new Arab owner
Hardcore group threaten boycott and hold protest at training session after Abu Dhabi sheikh buys 50% stake in top team
An Israeli premier league football team whose most hardcore fans chant “Death to Arabs” faces a crisis of introspection following a landmark deal that saw the club part-sold to an unlikely new owner: an Arab sheikh.
Beitar Jerusalem – the only Israeli team never to have fielded an Arab player – has been grappling with the news that, as of this month, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, now owns 50% of the club.
Continue reading...Israeli jets strike Gaza after rockets fired across border
Israeli army says it targeted three Hamas sites in Palestinian territory, including a rocket-manufacturing facility
Israel has targeted a number of sites in Gaza after the army said Palestinian militants had fired rockets into the south of the country.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said Israeli aircraft had struck three Hamas targets including a rocket manufacturing facility, underground infrastructure and a military post.
Continue reading...Israel to hold fourth election in two years as political crisis grinds on
Failure of fractious coalition government to pass budget triggers snap election and plunges country into more political chaos
Israel has tumbled into a fourth round of elections within the space of two years after efforts to keep a fractious coalition government intact failed.
Beset by infighting and distrust, the government was unable to pass a budget by a midnight deadline on Tuesday (10pm GMT), triggering a snap election next March and lurching the country back into a protracted political crisis.
Continue reading...Revealed: how abusive texts led to discovery of hacking of Al Jazeera
Threatening messages led to monitoring of phone that unearthed evidence of cyber-attack against Qatar-based network
A series of abusive text messages sent to an Al Jazeera investigative programme were the first crumbs that eventually led to the discovery of an unprecedented hacking operation against dozens of staff from the Qatar-based media network, according to one of the journalists who was targeted.
Researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto claimed on Sunday that the UAE and Saudi Arabia used spyware sold by an Israeli private intelligence company to access the phones of at least 36 journalists, producers and executives from Al Jazeera, as well as that of a London-based reporter with the Al Araby network.
Continue reading...Multiple European countries ban travel from UK over new Covid strain
WHO tells members to redouble efforts to stop spread as Israel turns away UK passport holders
European countries have begun to close their doors to travellers from the UK after the discovery of a fast-spreading strain of Covid-19 in England.
As the World Health Organization called on its members in Europe to step up measures, countries including France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands announced bans on travel from the UK.
Continue reading...‘Trump is crazy’: Hezbollah sees threat in US president’s final days
Leaders fear Donald Trump and Israel will act against Iran and Hezbollah before Joe Biden’s arrival
For the past four years, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has fought a war in Syria, supported Iraqi forces and stage-managed the politics of its homeland, all the while trying to avoid facing off with Israel. Yet its exhausted leaders fear the last gasps of Donald Trump’s presidency could deliver threats that eclipse everything else.
In the organisation’s heartland, Hezbollah members are watching the clock – and the skies. Israeli jets have been streaking overhead for more than a month, and over the past few weeks the frequency of flights has sharply increased, as has security in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the nerve centre of the region’s most powerful militant group.
Continue reading...Trump’s flurry of dodgy deals will not bring the Middle East any peace
The outgoing US president has his eyes on a Saudi Arabia-Israel accord – no matter who gets hurt
Peace deals that entrench injustice, punish the weak and are propelled by greed, blackmail and weapons sales have precious little to do with peace – and are unlikely to endure. Yet the Middle East has witnessed a recent spate of such dodgy deals. All concern Israel and all were hastily cobbled together by the White House. As his curtailed presidency grinds to an unlamented close, Donald Trump appears engaged in a frantic foreign policy fire sale.
Peace is always a welcome prospect – but never at any price. Trump’s horse-trading on Israel’s behalf has made a cruel mockery of Palestinian rights. By agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, the UAE and Bahrain broke with the 2002 Arab peace plan that makes recognition conditional on the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state. The deal was sweetened with offers of advanced US weapons and money-spinning business and trade opportunities.
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