The Only Democracy? » Entries tagged with "East Jerusalem"
New Sheikh Jarrah Video from Just Vision
Just Vision, the folks I interned for last spring, are out with, “Home Front is a new series of four video portraits chronicling the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.” It documents different Israelis and Palestinians involved in the Sheikh Jarrah movement, including a Palestinian teenager whose family who was evicted. TOD’s own Amir Terkel worked on the film. It is a wonderful primer on the … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Guardian series of videos by East Jerusalemites
If, like me, you are disgusted by the minstrelry of Tom MacMaster pretending he was a queer Syrian woman here’s a good antidote. The Guardian has published a series of videos made by Palestinians and Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem who were given cameras by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem and documented their lives. H/t to +972 Magazine for bringing this too my attention. Five of the six videos below, the final one with Israeli … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Report from Sheikh Jarrah’s 65th weekly demo
By David Shulman February 11, 2011 Sheikh Jarrah It took the Planning Committee of the Jerusalem City Council less than fifteen minutes to approve plans for the next wave of evictions in Sheikh Jarrah. We knew it was coming. Six large Palestinian families—some fifty souls– are to be expelled from their homes, the houses will be demolished, and thirteen apartment units will then be built for Israeli settlers. We know the families, we know the neighborhood, and we know the meaning and intention of this move, a further step in the ethnic cleansing the government is intent on carrying through in Sheikh Jarrah. They probably feel that this moment, with all eyes focused on Egypt, is a good time to act. Some 90,000 housing units for Jews have been built … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
East Jerusalem update: 1 Palestinian organizer drops his appeal, another arrested
By Jesse Bacon Adnan Gheith, whose plight we mentioned earlier, dropped his appeal with the Israeli Supreme Court and will be expelled for four months from East Jerusalem. Ha’aretz reporter Mairav Zonszein linked to that of Jonathan Pollak refusing to plead for mercy in his own case. While it is a travesty that he will have to leave, I am happy he is able to do it on his terms, which should make us all reflect … Read entire article »
Filed under: Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs
Wave of Israeli demolitions culminates in destroying a mosque: UPDATED with petition
Here is an al Jazeera video of Israel pulling down a mosque in the Jordan Valley village of Khirbat Yarza, Tubas, yesterday morning (deep inside the West Bank). Over 60% of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank is under “Israeli control”, though in practise, all of the Palestinian territories are. But in this case, it means, Palestinians cannot build … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
TODAY: Day of Solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah!
Today has been declared a Day of Solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah, and activists from all over Israel will protest the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in this East Jerusalem neighborhood. What’s happening in Sheikh Jarrah is just one example of the harmful Israeli policy of building settlements in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhoods located in close proximity to the Old City – a policy which is making it harder and harder to imagine how Jerusalem could ever be divided into the capital of two nations, a necessary component of almost every single proposed plan for peace. Israeli activists will hold vigils and protests today in the cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Wadi Ara, Beer-Sheva, Kfar Yasif, Gan Shmuel Junction, Tira, Taybe, Raanana, West Jerusalem, and of course, Sheikh … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Sheikh Jarrah, July 9, 2010
By David Shulman I’ve been thinking about truth. About what the word means, and how we know what it means. This comes in the wake of yesterday’s demonstration, with its by now habitual rituals unfolding in their remorseless, bitter order—the hopeful beginning, the drumming and slogans, the dispossessed Palestinians standing beside us as we chant, the rapid, volatile crescendo, the eventual police attack, and the arrests. Sarah, a young woman of astonishing courage and clarity, was … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Guarnieri: “Israel’s ‘Street Apartheid'”
By Jesse Bacon The excellent journalist Mya Guarnieri has a piece for Al Jazeera in which she focuses on the everyday inequality of street conditions in East Jerusalem. The difference can be as simple as a street light. Al Jazeera found that stoplights that lead to Jewish settlements and neighborhoods stay green for an average of a minute and a half. In Palestinian areas, it’s 20 seconds. One light in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem is … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Jerusalem City Government Muzzles a Tour
by Rebecca Kirzner Sometimes it’s just too easy. I mean, really. Sometimes, the total idiocy of your political enemy just makes it so much easier to promote your ideas. This week, the Jerusalem Municipality requested that Ir Amim, a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization, remove its study tours of East Jerusalem from the events listing on the municipality website. Ir Amim is an Israeli non-profit organization which promotes a politically sustainable future for Jerusalem, and a Jerusalem which respects … Read entire article »
Filed under: Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs
Biden’s “Insulted,” What About Palestinians?
By Jesse Bacon The United States and Israel are having a lovers’ quarrel, between grotesquely overprivileged and dysfunctional lovers at that. The decision of Israel to announce new construction in Occupied East Jerusalem during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden was met with disbelief and rueful humor. For most of us who are critical of US policy, the gesture was mere truth in advertising about the nature of the relationship between the United States and Israel. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discrimination
Interactive Video
“You have a choice! Israeli Anti-Militarists Speak”
Four Israelis—Dorothy Naor, Sergeiy Sander and Eli Fabrikant, and Ofer Golani—talking about their personal histories, political views and activism in 132 short films.