Israel

An advertisement for Ichilov Hospital's Lis Maternity and Women's Hospital. (Screenshot)

Ad for Israeli maternity ward portrays fetus as future soldier

Militarism begins at conception? An ad for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals depicts a fetus wearing a military beret and saluting. An advertisement for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals, published in the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon this past week, has been making the rounds on social media. The…

By Mairav Zonszein May 23, 2018

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (Courtesy of Omar Shakir).

Human Rights Watch sues Israel in first challenge to anti-boycott travel ban

This is the first application of the 2017 amendment to Israel’s entry law in which a foreign national already living and working in Israel has had their work permit revoked for alleged support for BDS. Human Rights Watch and its Israel and Palestine director, U.S. citizen Omar Shakir, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Israeli government following the Interior Ministry’s decision…

By Mairav Zonszein May 16, 2018

Medics evacuate a Palestinian protester who was shot by Israeli snipers during protests inside the Gaza Strip, May 14, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

We are all accomplices to Israel’s massacre in Gaza

There has been no outrage. We all let this happen. But it is not too late to speak out. As of writing this, 52 Palestinian unarmed protesters in Gaza have been shot dead by Israeli snipers on Monday, and 2,238 have been wounded, over 1,000 by live ammunition, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Among those killed…

By Mairav Zonszein May 14, 2018

Latest

An El Al plane is seen through a barbed wire fence at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Israel denies entry to four American civil rights leaders

The delegation is in Israel and the West Bank to learn about the human rights situation on the ground. Three of the four deported already received their visas, but were taken back in. Four members of an American human rights delegation to Israel and the West Bank, were detained at Ben Gurion Airport, denied entry, and…

By Mairav Zonszein May 3, 2018

Demolition of Al Arakib as children watch (Activestills)

Police arrest three minors in Bedouin village as expulsion efforts continue

Police arrest three children in ‘unrecognized’ village of Al-Araqib, as the Jewish National Fund continues its forestation project on village land. Two children, 12 and 13, were arrested in the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Araqib in Israel’s south on Monday, as the Jewish National Fund (JNF) entered the village accompanied by police forces to resume cultivating land for a…

By Mairav Zonszein July 19, 2016

Israeli soldiers working on a computer. (IDF Spokesperson)

IDF spending millions on ‘advertorial’ content in Israeli media

The IDF has spent NIS 28 million on advertising in various media outlets, despite claims to the contrary. By Itamar Bazz The Israel Defense Forces purchased advertorial content in media outlets, according to an investigation by The Seventh Eye. In an interview to radio station “Kol Ha’ayin” last year, IDF Spokesperson Moti Almoz said the…

By The Seventh Eye May 22, 2016

An armed security guard shoots a Palestinian teenager after she attempted to stab passersby, Jerusalem, November 24, 2015. (screenshot: CCTV)

For most Israelis, Palestinian lives don’t matter

A 24-year-old Palestinian and her teenage brother were shot and killed by Israeli troops after allegedly trying to stab Border Police officers. The police’s version of the events doesn’t add up, but nobody in Israel, including the media, feels the need to ask questions. The facts are still unclear, in fact very unclear: the exact…

By Mairav Zonszein April 30, 2016

Illustrative photo of Israelis taking a shooting class in a Jerusalem gun shop, October 15, 2015. A number of Israeli leaders have called on citizens to arm themselves in response to a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks, and the owner of this shop reported an increase in demand for personal weapons. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The only valid parallel between America’s gun problem and Israel

Both countries have a sickness, an addiction of the collective. When something shatters our ceiling of horrible things, you want to think we’ve hit rock bottom. The only shred of hope after a mass shooting is that the slaughter of innocents will finally stun people into seeing how America has gone mad on guns. Maybe…

By Dahlia Scheindlin December 8, 2015

Police arrest a protester at a demonstration by Israelis of Ethiopian descent against police in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, May 3, 2015. (Activestills.org)

Beyond racism: What’s keeping Ethiopian-Israelis down?

Racism is a severe problem for the community — and the country — but that doesn’t fully explain the difficulties faced by Ethiopian-Israelis. To the extent that they were protesting against face-to-face racism from “white” Israelis, the thousands of Ethiopian Israelis who raised hell in Tel Aviv Sunday night had more than a legitimate gripe.…

By Larry Derfner May 4, 2015

A baby is delivered at the Israeli army’s field hospital in Nepal, April 29, 2015. (Photo by IDF Spokesperson)

Israelis’ surrogate mothers in Nepal are no laughing matter

The precarious situation of surrogate mothers in Nepal carrying babies for Israelis, as well as the ethical questions surrounding surrogacy in the developing world, should be treated with the utmost seriousness. But what does Israel’s interior minister do? He laughs at them. Saturday’s horrific earthquake in Nepal has dominated the news here in Israel, not only…

By Mairav Zonszein April 30, 2015

African asylum seekers walking towards the March For Freedom camp, Negev Desert, June 28, 2014. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Uganda denies agreement with Israel on asylum seekers

The Ugandan government officially denies claims it has signed an agreement with Israel, whereby it would absorb forcefully deported Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers. The Israeli government has resisted calls to divulge the details of the agreements it had allegedly signed with ‘third countries.’ Government officials in Uganda deny there is any agreement with Israel…

By Mairav Zonszein April 29, 2015

U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at their joint press conference in Jerusalem (photo: Koby Gidon / Government Press Office)

America’s choice on Iran: Obama’s peace or Netanyahu’s war

If Bibi, the Israel lobby and the GOP stymie this historic nuclear deal, it will be very bad for Israel, America and America’s Jews. Anybody who thinks Obama has won, that Israel and the Israel lobby and the Republicans are just going to concede the Iran nuclear deal without a fight, could not be more…

By Larry Derfner April 5, 2015

Secretaries Kerry, Moniz Jot Down Notes Before P5+1 Strategic Session About Ongoing Iranian Nuclear Negotiations in Switzerland, March 30, 2015. (State Dept. photo)

The Iranian nuclear threat and other phantoms

The ‘framework agreement’ announced Thursday night in Lausanne is a lot better than no agreement. But an approach to Iran involving no sanctions and no hysteria would have been best of all. NOTE: This post has been changed to reflect the author’s happy surprise that the framework agreement was not the dud he thought it…

By Larry Derfner April 2, 2015