A member of the Swetti family checks the faucet, East Jerusalem, March 15, 2014. The family of nine, living in the Ras Shehada neighborhood, has been going several days without running water (Photo: Activestills)

3 month without regular running water

In early March 2014 Hagihon, Jerusalem’s water utility company, stopped the regular supply of running water to several neighborhoods in north-east Jerusalem, namely: Shu’fat Refugee Camp, Ras Khamis, Ras Sh’hadeh and Dahiyat a-Salam (literally: Neighborhood of Peace), which have all been isolated from the rest of Jerusalem by the Separation Barrier. Some homes in these…

A Palestinian held water and salt, the symbol of the hunger-strike during a demonstration in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian administrative prisoners, Nablus, West Bank, May 26, 2014 (Photo Activestills)

Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations deliver a letter supporting hunger strikers

Dear United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, We, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the undersigned human rights organizations, request your immediate intervention on behalf of the approximately 125 Palestinian detainees and prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prisons. The hunger strike commenced on 24 April 2014 when approximately 90 detainees…

Young communists activists, dressed as Israeli soldiers hold Hadash chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh as they take part in an performance during an event against the plan to recruit to the Israeli army Arab-Palestinians, in the city of Haifa May 17, 2014 (Photo: Activestills)

Haifa: Anti-enlistment performance art

On May 17, Israeli soldiers invaded the streets of Haifa’s German Colony neighborhood, beating Palestinian protesters with batons and lining them up blindfolded along the now blood-splattered sidewalks. The scenes of violence in northern Israel’s largest city, however, were not the result of a fresh government crackdown on Palestinian activism or a new surge of…

Adam Verete (Photo: Channel 2)

Teacher who almost lost job for leftist views gets fired

High school teacher Adam Verete, who was accused by a 12th-grade student earlier this year of “brainwashing” students to adopt extreme left-wing and anti-Zionist views, was informed Sunday that the school would not employ him in the coming year — due to “budget cuts.” In last January, Verete was pressured by the ORT educational network to…

A Palestinian worker makes fishing hooks by hand to sell to other fishermen in Gaza port (Photo: Activestills

Unemployment in Gaza: highest since 2009

Seven months after the Israeli Ministry of Defense imposed new restrictions on the sale of construction materials to the Gaza Strip – adding to the near total halt in tunnel activity by the Egyptian military last summer – Gaza’s unemployment rate spikes to 40.8%. According to figures published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics,…

Woodside exit from Leviathan gas field “disappointing” local neo-liberals

Despite the Israeli neo-liberal governmental disappointment surrounding Woodside Petroleum’s decision to abandon the Leviathan gas field partnership Israeli energy analysts are confident in the developers’ ability to move forward, particularly with regional pipeline options. Following a memorandum of understanding with the Leviathan partners in February, the Australian hydrocarbon firm had been expected to take on…