So much for innocuous Israeli products: Ahava Beauty Products promises “beauty secrets from the Dead Sea” but the real secret is that its products come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the Occupied Territory, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. The company’s appropriation of materials from the Dead Sea is, according…
Showing all posts tagged settlements
Is settler violence not news?
Another week and more settler violence against Palestinian farmers in the West Bank. The Western media is typically absent from the scene. Activst blogger and journalist Joseph Dana continues his weekly eyewitnesses reports from the ground: 1 August 2009 South West Bank Ta’ayush joined the Christian Peacemaker Team to help accompany children to school near…
Hi, I’m a settler and I love my illegal house
I visited the illegal, West Bank settlement of Ofra in July. Now, via Haaretz, a settler’s view of her colony: An Unsettling Dispute from Ben Fractenberg on Vimeo.
Get one-state on the table, says Israeli blogger
Promised Land is one of Israel’s finest English-language blogs. I met its author Noam Sheizaf today in Tel Aviv, a 35 year man with a deep love for Israel (and Tel Aviv) and interesting ideas about the conflict. He was dismissive of most Diaspora Jewry, people with little or no idea what is actually happening…
The NYTs on myth and reality in Palestine
Thomas Friedman writes in today’s New York Times that Israel needs to stop building settlements. The rest of his column repeats the now-accepted, yet false myth, that Israel withdraw from Gaza and only received rockets in return. In fact, when you blockade a territory after a democratic election, you better expect some fireworks: For years,…
One more nail in the coffin of a mixed Jerusalem
A few weeks ago I reported on the slated removal of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem. Today, after the horrific killings in Tel Aviv last night at a gay venue, the Israelis took advantage of a distracted media and finally moved in: Police on Sunday morning evacuated two Palestinian families from homes in…
Settlers continue on their merry way
I was given the following flyer a few nights ago in Jerusalem during a pro-settler rally: This coming Saturday night, join hundreds, if not thousands, of hardline supporters of the “settlement” movement who will camp out on a hilltop near “Kfar Tapuach” in the Shomrom to take part in a unique, all-night music festival that…
The Israelis need to be told over and over again
Following the recent article in the New York Times by Haaretz writer Aluf Benn – essentially arguing that US pressure on Israel just isn’t fair, no, not at all! – a letter writer responds in today’s paper: Aluf Benn states that “as far as most Israelis are concerned, Mr. Obama has made a mistake in…
Helping settle the colonies in the open
Israel-American Mairav Zonszein, activist and writer, exposes the nefarious activities of the US group Nefesh B’Nefesh (which means “Soul in Soul” in Hebrew) in the Nation magazine: In the years since its first plane landed, NBN has brought 20,000 immigrants to Israel from North America and Britain. Of those 20,000, NBN PR and communications manager…
What some radical Jews need to hear
After the New York Times editorialised about the Middle East peace process and essentially repeated Obama administration talking points, the Los Angeles Times, while equally believing in the impossible two-state solution, challenges the Zionist spokespeople who claim Obama is anti-Israel: Evenhandedness usually is considered to be a positive attribute in diplomacy, but when it comes…