Feature Archives

On August 18th, the Israeli Ministry of Defense informed American activist Tristan Anderson’s family and legal counsel that it considers his shooting during a nonviolent protest in the West Bank village of Nil’in, which left him critically injured, an “act of war,” absolving the soldiers responsible from any liability under Israeli law. Anderson was shot directly in the forehead with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli forces on March 13th, 2009, suffering several condensed fractures and necessitating several life-saving surgeries.

Over the weekend the weekly demonstrations against the apartheid wall in Palestine continued. In Balin, some 20 Israelis and 50 internationals joined Palestinians and marched to the annexation wall. In Ni'ilin protesters marched towards the fence and dispersed along the route of the separation fence and expressed loudly their protest - each in their own preferred way. In Al-Mas'ara dozens of Palestinian protesters were joined by a groups of around 80 internationals and Israeli activists. A candlelight vigil in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was also held to protest against the eviction of two Palestinian families.

Jen Marlowe writes: "I heard the jangle of ankle and wrist cuffs before I saw them. The detainees (five Israeli, four Palestinian and four international) were being led into a small court room. One woman had a black eye. They had been arrested the night before at a demonstration against the eviction of the Hannoun and al-Ghawe families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. At 5:00 Sunday morning, the families were removed from their homes by Israeli police, leaving 53 people homeless — 20 of them children."

DS writes: "On Monday night, many people assembled to honor the youth killed and injured in Tel Aviv's LGBT Center. I was dreading this event, I needed to mourn – for the youth, and also for the sense of safety that I lost, years ago, when I first realized that my own LGBTQ youth center was unsafe space for me. I worried, that I wouldn’t be able to mourn, but would instead be distracted by anger and alienation at the Zionist rhetoric that accompany public Jewish events."

At around 3 a.m. on Monday, August 3, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting two Palestinian children and five Palestinian adults, including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.

In an open letter to Amnesty International, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) states: "In May, PACBI called on singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen to heed the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity with Israel’s violations of international law by cancelling his planned September concert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza earlier this year. Sadly, Amnesty International USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen in dealing with Israel on the basis of business as usual."

On Saturday, July 25, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will show Rachel, a documentary about Rachel Corrie, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. This film by Simone Bitton is a critical, in-depth look at the life and tragic death of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed in Gaza in 2003 by a Caterpillar bulldozer operated by the Israeli military. Rachel, working with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family's home.