Haredim

By Svante Lundgren, Lund University | – The Armenian quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City is facing its biggest crisis in a long time. A Jewish businessman with connections to the radical settler movement is poised to develop a quarter of the neighbourhood’s territory, with plans to build a luxury hotel. If this goes ahead, it […]

Haredim

Israel’s highest Court protects its Power to curb Government Extremism

The Conversation

By Naomi Schalit, The Conversation | – In the midst of Israel’s fierce war against Hamas in Gaza, the country’s highest court on New Year’s Day drew attention back to a previous conflict within the country. In a narrowly divided decision, the justices struck down a significant part of the contentious judicial reform passed in […]

Featured

Extreme Right Israeli Gov’t brands “Illegal” Supreme Court’s upholding of Judicial Review; Divisions Loom amid Gaza War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the midst of Israel’s brutal total war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its apparent failure to attain its basic war goals, the country’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling sure to throw the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Members of the government criticized the court for issuing […]

Featured

Taliban in Tel Aviv: Israel Joins Middle East in Clashing over Gender Segregation, Women’s rights in Public Sphere

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Haaretz reports that at public prayers for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, Ultra-Orthodox activists attempted to put up banners as separators to allow for the segregation of male and female worshipers. This action was seen as a provocation by liberal […]

Featured

Former Head of Israeli Mossad: Israel is an Apartheid State with the ‘KKK’ in Government and “Antisemitic” Policies toward Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tia Goldenberg at AP got the scoop. She landed an interview with the former head of Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, in which he unloaded on the Israeli system of Apartheid. She quotes him as saying, “There is an apartheid state here. In a territory where two people are judged under […]

Featured

Israelis Rally against Gov’t for 33rd Week, denouncing Branding Palestinian with Star of David and sending Women to back of Bus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – For the 33rd week in a row, thousands of demonstrators came out Saturday night in Israel to protest the attempt of the extremist Netanyahu government to neuter the Supreme Court. According to Bar Peleg and Adi Hashmonai at Haaretz, the demonstrators are also driven by other issues. Some worry about […]

Haredim

Israeli Reservists’ Revolt against Netanyahu’s assault on Courts imperils Cohesion of Military

Middle East Monitor

Dr Adnan Abu Amer AdnanAbuAmer2 ( Middle East Monitor ) – As protests continue against the judicial overhaul proposed by the Israeli government, the leadership of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fears an increase of discontent within its ranks as well as an increase in its lack of competence. The signs get worse every […]

Featured

Israel to deny Palestinian-Israelis Preparation for University, in Exact Parallel to Apartheid South Africa

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – White Power nationalism in South Africa during the Apartheid period from the 1940s until the early 1990s demanded that the 20% of the population that was white control the lives of the 68% of the population that was Black. (Actually, during this era the whites declined to only 13% by […]

Haredim

Israel’s Protests are about the Rise of the Israeli Ayatollahs, not Democracy

Ramzy Baroud

Dr Ramzy Baroud RamzyBaroud ( Middle East Monitor ) – At first glance, the statement may seem baffling. If Israel is a ‘Jewish State’ that serves as a ‘homeland’ for all Jewish people, everywhere, does it not follow that the ‘struggle’, at least from an Israeli viewpoint, is essentially a religious one? If only […]