‘Tis the season for a winter wonderland at weekly demonstrations, shepherds tending their flocks visited by an unheavenly host, ‘no room at the inn’ for African immigrants, five hunger strikers, and a partridge in a pear tree.
A Palestinian girl dressed as Santa Claus marches during the weekly protest against the occupation in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, December 21, 2012. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
Demonstrators walk inside a cloud of tear gas shot by the Israeli army during the weekly protest against the wall and the occupation in the West Bank village of Bil’in, December 21, 2012. (photo by: Guest photographer Hamde Abu Rahma/ Activestills.org)
An Israeli activist hands out clothes as African homeless immigrants wait in line to receive a hot meal provided by the “Levinsky Soup” organization, in Levinsky Park in south Tel Aviv, December 20, 2012. The Tel Aviv municipality and NGOs set up two tents as temporary shelters for the winter for homeless immigrants in the park. (photo: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
Handcuffed African immigrants sit in a bus after they were arrested by the immigration authority in South Tel Aviv, December 22, 2012. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
A photographer snaps a photo of a youth as he throws stones during the weekly protest against the occupation in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, December 21, 2012. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
Palestinian solidarity activists collect stones to clear the rubble the demolished mosque in the West Bank village of Al-Mufaqara, south of Hebron, December 21, 2012. Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists joined the residents of the village for a solidarity action after the mosque of the village was demolished two weeks ago by Israeli authorities. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
Israeli soldiers block the way to a herd of sheep while their local Palestinian shepherd tries to go out with them near the West Bank village of Al-Mufaqara, south of Hebron, December 21, 2012. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)
Palestinians demonstrate in the West Bank city of Nablus in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners still on hunger strike in Israel prisons: Ayman Sharawna (173 days), Samer Issawi (142 days) and another three prisoners, December 20, 2012. (photo by: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
Palestinians demonstrate in the West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarm in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, December 22, 2012. (photo by: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
Palestinians demonstrate in the West Bank city of Tulkarm in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners still on hunger strike in Israel prisons, December 20, 2012. (photo by: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
A Palestinian woman tries to avoid a road, flooded with sewage from a nearby settlement, in the West Bank village of Kafr Thulth near Qalqilya, December 25, 2012. Locals said that the sewage water has come from the Wadi Qana settlements, especially the Ma’ale Shomron settlement, for four years. (photo by: Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is the leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.