Israeli Border Police in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem

Israel Approves Construction of New Settlement Building in Silwan

Hours after Israel’s Jerusalem municipality cancelled plans to vote on approving construction of hundreds of new Israeli settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, Jerusalem’s city planning commission approved a plan to build a three-story building for Jewish settlers in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, in the heart of the occupied Palestinian village of Silwan, just south of…

34 Construction Workers Died in Workplace Accidents Last Year: Hadash Activists to Demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Economy

34 construction workers died in workplace accidents last year; this according to the official answer to the parliamentary query submitted by MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) following the alarming rise in work-related accidents in the field of construction. The reply, given to MK Khenin by Yariv Levin, the minister serving as a governmental…

Right-Wing Coalition Indifferent to Construction Accidents

Hadash MK Dov Khenin (Joint List) criticized the right-wing and neo-liberal governmental coalition during a meeting of the Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee devoted to construction accidents. According to MK Khenin, “The picture is terrible. There are more accidents, more fatal accidents, more injuries, and more irresponsibility. There is less information and less supervision. Some…

Rainwater overflowed the streets and houses of the al-Nafaq neighborhood during the last week’s heavy rains. As was also the case last year, rainwater flooded the neighborhood and residents were forced to leave their homes by swimming. The al-Nafaq neighborhood, Gaza City, November 27, 2014 (Photo: Activestills)

Gaza: Massive Shortage of Construction Materials

Gaza is currently plagued by a massive shortage of construction materials, making it the besieged enclave’s number one immediate problem. Estimates place the need at five million tons, mostly for restoring homes and basic infrastructure. However, between August 26 and November 20, only 62,928 tons of construction materials entered Gaza, just 1.2 percent of the…