Weekly Editorial – A Victory for Settler MachismoBy Niko Block
There was no shortage of anger and violence two days ago at the settler rally in Armon Hanatziv, as a crowd of over 500 ultra-zionists flocked together with the intention of bringing the house of last the yeshiva gunman to the ground. Parallels of religious and racist fanaticism were manifested once again as the crowd chanted “Death to the Arabs” in unison and a number of teenagers breached the police barriers to throw stones at the vacated house and smash up whatever cars were in the vicinity. more…
Weekly Report – February 26
Eleven Palestinians were killed and five were wounded in Gaza. Another Twenty-one were injured by the IDF in the West Bank. Five demonstrations protesting the siege of Gaza were held, one of which involved a human chain of 13,000 people on the 25th of February. more…
Article of the Week - A Minister of War
By Gideon Levy
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is a bitter disappointment. He was the first statesman who dared suggest brave, though lacking, solutions. Now, he has turned into the chief saboteur of any chance for a calm in the fighting, a cease-fire or diplomatic progress. more...
Report of the Week - Off the Map: Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel's Unrecognized Bedouin Villages
By Human Rights Watch
Tens of thousands of Palestinian Arab Bedouin, the indigenous inhabitants of the Negev region, live in informal shanty towns, or “unrecognized villages,” in the south of Israel. Discriminatory land and planning policies have made it virtually impossible for Bedouin to build legally where they live, and also exclude them from the state’s development plans for the region. The state implements forced evictions, home demolitions, and other punitive measures disproportionately against Bedouin as compared with actions taken regarding structures owned by Jewish Israelis that do not conform to planning law. more...
