Galilee

A bartender pours a pint at Kamun Pub. (Steven Davidson)

One Galilee pub shows that ‘economic peace’ is not enough

At Samim Bishara’s Kamun Pub in the northern town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Arabs and Jews can sit alongside each other to drink beer and eat pizza. But even in what might appear to be an oasis of coexistence, fundamental inequality is inescapable. By Steven Davidson Tarshiha is technically one of the few mixed, Jewish-Arab villages in all…

By +972 Magazine June 4, 2018

Laila Abdel Meguid Tafesh, 78, from Rafah refugee camp, holds up a key from her house in Jaffa, May 15, 2009. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Yes, the right of return is feasible. Here’s how

Seventy years after the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it is time to undo the injustice and to enable whoever desires to return as equal citizens to do so, while respecting the rights and identities of all who live in Israel-Palestine. By Tom Pessah (translated by Yoni Molad) For millions of Palestinians worldwide, the right…

By Haokets November 7, 2017

Bedouins collect their belongings from the ruins of their demolished homes in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, January 18, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

For Arab citizens, ‘Jewish and democratic’ means demographic war

While much of the world justly focuses on land theft in the occupied territories, we must not forget that Israel uses the pretense of ‘Jewish and democratic’ to actively dispossess its own Arab citizens. Israeli citizens who may be feeling doubtful about the efficiency of their country’s institutions should take a hard look at the…

By Orly Noy August 22, 2017

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A Palestinian man takes part in the March of Return, Galilee, April 23, 2015. (Akron Drawshi/Activestills.org)

Thousands return to destroyed Palestinian villages in Israel

The March of Return, which coincides with Israeli Independence Day, calls for the right of return for Palestinians who were expelled from or fled the land in 1948. Approximately 10,000 people of all ages — mostly Palestinian citizens of Israel — took part in the 18th annual March of Return Thursday, on the land where the…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland April 24, 2015

Palestinian refugees seen in Yarmouk refugee camp, Damascus, Syria. (photo: Walla Masoud/UNRWA)

Finding my family in Yarmouk — then losing them again

Six decades after the Nakba forced us into different corners of the world, social networks allowed us to reconnect with our families and villages. In Yarmouk, I found the people I should have grown up around—the ones who looked like me and my immediate family. And then war broke out in Syria, Facebook went dark…

By Samah Salaime April 8, 2015

The home of the Palestinian Adgluni family is demolished by Israeli authorities, East Jerusalem, January 27, 2014. Israeli authorities claimed the house was built on lands that do not belong to the family. (Tali Mayer/Activestills.org)

Every day is Land Day, on both sides of the Green Line

The word ‘occupation’ evokes the West Bank, but the policies of land expropriation and Judaization were perfected inside Israel long before they were used on Palestinians in the occupied territories. In 2005, Amnon Raz-Karkotzkin, a professor of Jewish history at Ben-Gurion University known to his friends and associates simply as Nono, published a seminal article…

By Edo Konrad March 30, 2015

The Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries, chapter 7: Bus jammin’

Ironically, it’s a break from music-making and partner-searching that produces a first duet, and with a very special musician, too. Read the previous chapters of The Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries here. On the fifth morning of the tour, after having breakfast at the group’s Jerusalem hotel, I climbed aboard the bus and found that we had a…

By Yuval Ben-Ami February 6, 2015

The Beaten Path: The unholy hierarchies of Nazareth (part 4)

If the heart of Nazareth is sacred, its outskirts are very much the opposite. If anything, they provide a perfect example of a system that stubbornly preserves a hierarchy of communities: Arabs below, Jews on top. The third stop on the reconstructed tourist trail. There is a painting by an Italian master, the great Pierro della Francesca,…

By Yuval Ben-Ami October 27, 2014

The "unrecognized" Bedouin village of Atir, May 21, 2013. On May 16, hundreds of Israeli policemen surrounded the village completely and demolished 15 structures. Residents of the village have built temporary tents to replace their demolished homes. (Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Contradicting its own ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court legalizes segregated communities

The Israeli Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed various petitions against the Admissions Committees Law, which allows admissions committees in hundreds of communities in Israel to reject housing applicants based on their “social suitability.” March 8, 2000 marked a unique moment in Israeli history. In a major decision, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the town of Katzir, which was…

By Amjad Iraqi September 18, 2014

Children from Aida Refugee Camp carry keys symbolizing the right of return toward the Israeli separation wall during a Nakba commemoration event, Bethlehem, West Bank, May 14, 2014.

PHOTOS: Nakba commemorations from Gaza to the Galilee

Photos by: Ahmad Al-Bazz, Mustafa Bader, Keren Manor, Ryan Rodrick Beiler, Yotam Ronen, Omar Sameer, and Oren Ziv Palestinians from Nablus to the Gaza Strip Israel/Palestine marked Nakba Day, to commemorate the events of 1948. Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” is the term given to the forced displacement of some 750,000 Palestinian refugees from 500 communities by…

By Activestills May 16, 2014

Solar panels on one of the houses in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Sahali. (photo: Paul Karolyi)

Under siege: One Bedouin family’s struggle to live in Israel

In its refusal to make compromises on zoning restrictions for an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Galilee, Israel demonstrates that its preferred demographic balance is higher on the list of state priorities than the protection of the welfare of its citizens. By Paul Karolyi In the early 1950s, a Bedouin Arab named Atif Mohammad Sawa’ed…

By +972 Magazine December 14, 2012

Members of the Women's Platform demonstrate in Nazareth (photo: Wehbe Badarneh/ Arab Workers Union in Israel)

From factories to farms, labor union champions rights of Palestinians in Israel

‘There have been no institutions, no organizations for Palestinian workers within Israel to defend their rights.’ A young labor union is resisting exploitation and defending the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, with a focus on the rights of women workers. By Alon Aviram NAZARETH – Security cameras and a heavy metal door secure the…

By +972 Magazine November 3, 2012

Houses of the Bedouin family of Khawalid threatened to be demolished by the Israeli administration, October 27, 2012. The Israeli administration has issued demolition warrants for the family after announcing that their lands are bordering with an area planed to be a national park. (photo: SG/Activestills.org)

Photo essay: Galilee Bedouin face house demolitions

Houses of the Bedouin family of Khawalid threatened to be demolished by the Israeli administration, October 27, 2012. Seen in the distance, the houses of the Bedouin village of Khawalid, which was recognized as a permanent village in 1992. (photo: SG/Activestills.org) The little piece of land that the Khawaled family lives in is located…

By Activestills October 28, 2012