land theft

President Donald Trump. (Jette Carr/Department of Homeland Security)

Trump and Netanyahu are allies in a losing battle

Both the American and Israeli governments reek of paranoia, fear, and desperation. The struggle against them must begin with the knowledge that we are opposing a desperate and fearful group. By all accounts, the new administration in the U.S., and the veteran one in Israel should be relaxing and enjoying the heights of power they have attained.…

By Roi Maor February 9, 2017

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian man following a house raid in the West Bank city of Hebron September 20, 2016. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

A ‘wave of violence’ that never actually ends

When the Israeli media talks about the latest ‘wave of violence,’ it leaves out the five unarmed Palestinians who were shot to death by soldiers and police officers in the past few months. The newspaper headlines over the past few days leave no room for doubt regarding what has been happening here lately. “Terror returns,”…

By Haggai Matar September 20, 2016

File photo of masked Israeli settlers threatening Palestinians while soldiers look on. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Settler violence aims to dispossess, and it works

When A saw Israeli civilians approach, he did the sensible thing and fled. This is what quiet terrorism looks like. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz A. is a resident of the village Faratha in the West Bank. He declined to have his name published, as he has become a regular target for attacks…

By +972 Magazine May 31, 2016

Latest

Mobile homes and fruit trees represent the expanding edges of the Israeli settlement of Ma'on, which is taking land from the South Hebron Hills village of Al Tuwani, West Bank, April 2, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

This is how settlers take over Palestinian land

From audacious fraud and forgery to military seizures for ‘security needs’ and the ‘public good’ to dusting off antiquated Ottoman laws, the Israeli settlement enterprise has no shortage of tools for taking over Palestinian land in the West Bank. By Dror Etkes On February 9, 2004, Abdelatif Hassan Samarin, a resident of the West Bank…

By +972 Magazine January 8, 2016

A resident of Bil'in protests with a poster of Ziad Abu Ein, who died during an unarmed demonstration last year. (photo: Haggai Matar)

The Palestinian village that refuses to give up on popular struggle

Even after 11 years of struggle, the residents of Bil’in refuse to forget about the land that was taken from them. The year was 2006. The village Bil’in near Ramallah had already marked over a year of weekly protests against the separation barrier that cuts them off from their land. One day, during a hearing…

By Haggai Matar December 12, 2015

"Wall". A small family's hut in Qalqilia where the wall goes through (Hamde Abu Rahma, from the book)

How American high school students taught me about the occupation

Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky has been showing her latest movie, ‘On the Side of the Road” — a documentary on how Israelis view the Nakba — around the world for nearly a year. What happened after she screened her film for a class of American high school students took her by surprise. By Lia Tarachansky The…

By +972 Magazine June 6, 2015

A Palestinian farmer stands beside an agricultural gate in the separation fence near Falamya village (Gate number 914), West Bank, May 17, 2015. Ahmad al-Bazz / Activestills.org

PHOTOS: When Israel decides to cut Palestinian farmers off from their land

The Israeli army decided last week to close the main gateway Palestinian farmers from four villages use to access their lands — which Israel cut them off from with the separation fence. After a protest the army re-opened the gate, but the incident shows how Israel controls every aspect of Palestinian life. Photos and Text:…

By Activestills May 19, 2015

Stock photo of a worker climbing a cellular antenna tower. (Shutterstock.com)

‘Israeli cellular companies paid to squat on Palestinian land’

The companies never even received permits to build antenna towers in the illegal West Bank settlement outpost of Migron, are now asking the courts to let them stay even after the settlement itself was demolished, Walla reports. Israel’s three major cellular companies, including the franchisee of Orange, paid rent to Israeli settlers who illegally established…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 14, 2015

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz at the Defense Ministry. (photo: Haim Zach / GPO)

How Bibi is turning the defense budget into a settler slush fund

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon will transfer NIS 70 million from the defense budget to compensate the Ulpana Hill lawbreakers. How will the common soldier interpret the command’s will? By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz Israel’s Channel 10 exposed earlier this week another layer in the unending saga of Ulpana Hill: Prime…

By +972 Magazine January 9, 2015

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses released Palestinian prisoners at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 31, 2013. (Activestills.org)

Palestine’s ICC bid is only as threatening as Israel makes it

Instead of reviling Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court as an effort to delegitimize and isolate it, Israel would be better off focusing inward. By Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man One of the more ironic aspects of Israeli opposition to Palestinian accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is its deep involvement in…

By +972 Magazine January 2, 2015

Why the IDF cannot be trusted to investigate itself

The occupation is violence: costly to the occupied, cheap for the occupiers. Only a credible, independent and effective inquiry into IDF actions can begin to make that violence costly to its perpetrators. By Hagai El-Ad (translated by Keren T Rubinstein) Recently it was announced that the IDF had already begun looking into 99 incidents that took…

By +972 Magazine October 11, 2014

A Palestinian child in Gaza on the third day of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. (Activestills.org)

Why are there are no white flags in Gaza?

Israel may think that bombing – and killing – innocents is a viable strategy. But there is a better option: to actually understand what has been driving Palestinian resistance for all these decades. Point out the barbarity of Israel’s ongoing attacks against Gaza – as of this writing, more than 80 killed, a quarter of…

By Samer Badawi July 10, 2014

Construction at the settlement of Beit El, February 05, 2013. (Photo: Ahmad Al Bazz/Activestills.org

How the Israeli gov’t rewards land thieves

In a closed conversation, the head of the Beit El Yeshiva exposes that he received millions of shekels from the State of Israel in compensation for his seminary’s violations of the law – with the quiet assistance of a senior Knesset member. By Yossi Gurvitz for Yesh Din Sometimes, it all comes out. A few months…

By +972 Magazine May 9, 2014