the occupation

Report by British jurists reminds of the horrors of Israeli child detention

The report – which specifies at least six violations of the UN convention on children’s rights – spotlights the horrors Israelis have grown accustomed to. A report by a group of distinguished British jurists, published on Tuesday, reached the conclusion that Israel violates the Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), of which it…

By Yossi Gurvitz June 28, 2012

Thoughts on an attack by a Jewish mob

Two days ago, my girlfriend and I were attacked by a mob of proud Jews in south Tel Aviv. Still trying to understand why. I went to a demonstration led by MK Michael Ben-Ari two days ago (Tuesday), and was joined by my girlfriend, Galina. Ben-Ari, a Kahanist, was inciting the crowd against the African…

By Yossi Gurvitz May 24, 2012

Israeli Soldiers Guard Settlers at an Illegal Outpost near Hebron. Photo: Mairav Zonszein)

It’s time for an international force in the West Bank

Since the IDF cannot and will not protect Palestinians from settlers, it’s time to turn over the West Bank to an international force. An incident in the village of Asira Al-Qibiliya drew media attention on Saturday, since it was captured on B’Tselem’s cameras. A group of Yitzhar settlers tried to raid the village, set its…

By Yossi Gurvitz May 22, 2012

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Beinart analyzes the problems well, but is fifteen years too late (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

Too little, too late: On Peter Beinart’s ‘The Crisis of Zionism’

While Peter Beinart’s latest book is well worth reading, his solutions come far too late and are likely to achieve little. I’ve recently finished reading Peter Beinart’s controversial book, The Crisis of Zionism; admittedly I read it mostly to understand what the noise was all about. The book took heavy criticism, if by “criticism” you…

By Yossi Gurvitz April 11, 2012

A protester calls for 'Adnan's release, Tel Aviv (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

What the Adnan affair tells us about the occupation

The Khader Adnan hunger strike affair showed the true face of all of the Israelis involved in the occupation, from its enablers in the courts to the Israeli mob. Khader Adnan became a Palestinian national hero two days ago, and rightly so. He brought the Netanyahu government, as well as the Israeli apparatus of darkness…

By Yossi Gurvitz February 23, 2012

The Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel (Photo: Olly L, CC BY 2.0)

Defense Ministry weighs in on siege of Gaza, contradicting PM

The government decided to lift the civil siege of Gaza in 2010. The Ministry of Defense didn’t get the memo On June 9, 2011 MK Zahava Galon (Meretz) sent a query to Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Galon wanted to know why Israel prevented women from leaving the Gaza Strip to Tulkarm, where they were supposed to…

By Yossi Gurvitz January 25, 2012

The suppression of a popular uprising corrupts the military. IDF troops in Al Ma'asara, 2010. (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

With latest flotilla, IDF celebrates overcoming passive activists

The military tries to paint the blocking of two unarmed ships as a major military success – and highlights its own faults in the process Our brave troops have raided, at dawn, two unarmed ships, filled with dangerous and enthusiastic peace activists, and have managed to carry out the operation without casualties. The operation actually…

By Yossi Gurvitz November 6, 2011

The settlement of Har Homa. There's no way of evacuating it. (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

The two-state solution is no longer feasible: Time to decide

Binyamin Netanyahu fantasizes about 60 more years of occupation – and the Palestinians should demand equal citizenship in Israel If anyone wanted to know what Binyamin Netanyahu actually thinks about the peace process, he said it clearly himself last week: According to Netanyahu, the Palestinian appeal to the UN “will gridlock the negotiations for 60…

By Yossi Gurvitz September 19, 2011

A 14 year-old Palestinian child is arrested by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration in Beit Omar (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

In the West Bank, there is no justice, even for children

Hundreds of Palestinian minors were arrested for weeks and even months by Israel in the last five years. Those children – including 34 of them under the age of 14 – were tried in military courts. Only one was acquitted. A new report by human rights NGO B’tselem shed light on one of the occupation’s…

By Yossi Gurvitz July 19, 2011

The occupation testimonies: The brutalization of the IDF

How Giving teenagers power over the lives of other corrupts them – and the IDF “And my story is we and my story is that one time we grabbed a kid, not a big kid, a 10 or 12 year-old boy, something like that, we explained to him with the help of point with the…

By Yossi Gurvitz December 20, 2010