Feature Archives

On October the 29th, the Biometric Databases Bill passed its first call in the Israeli parliament. The bill requires all Israeli citizens to submit finger prints and facial photos to the Israeli government or face up to one year in jail. The database can be used freely by the Israeli secret police and military without the approval of a court.

On Tuesday, December 9th, anti-apartheid and human-right activists gathered to protest an AIPAC benefit at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco.

On November 27th, Darlene Wallach, a San Jose, California resident, was deported from Israel, departing Tel Aviv for New York on an El Al flight. She had been arrested, along with two other human rights observers and 15 Palestinians, by Israeli authorities while on a fishing boat in Gaza waters on November 18th.

On November 13th, three Arab students, two female and one male, were attacked by members of the Zionist Freedom Alliance. The incident happened at the University of California Berkeley campus at a concert organized by ZFA. The three activists were targeted after they displayed Palestinian flags as a silent protest in response to derogatory remarks against Arabs by some of the performers at the event.

On November 18th, US citizen and activist Darlene Wallach, along with a British citizen and an Italian, was detained with 15 Palestinian fisherman by the Israeli Navy. The group was fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah. The US and European citizens, who are human rights observers, were kidnapped with the Palestinians by the Israeli Navy, despite the fact that they were clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994.

On November 2, Hebrew University student Ali Bahar was detained for three hours after refusing to shake hands with Israeli president Shimon Peres. Upon approaching Bahar, the student refused to shake Peres' hand and stated "I will not shake hands with murderer of kids." Immediately following the encounter, Bahar was detained by university security personnel and his student ID was confiscated.

On October 17th, seven years ago, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine assassinated Rehavam Zeevi, the Israeli minister of tourism. The assassination was carried out in response to Israel’s killing of Palestinian leaders, among them Abu Ali Mostafa, the head of the PFLP. Zeevi was the head of the Moledet Party that was advocating the expulsion of all Palestinians from occupied Palestine to Arab nations.