Palestinians resume building Al-Bireh stadium under specter of halt

Maan News Agency, December 31, 2009 Construction on the Al-Bireh stadium resumed last week, a month after the Israeli forces shut-down the project. But Palestinian officials are not celebrating – the mood is tense, and the building feverish, as the fate of the stadium remains uncertain. Work on the stadium began in October 2008, after …

Meet the post-Zionist Zionists- Tom Mehager

Mondoweiss, December 31, 2009 This is the third installation in a seven-part series. See Mondoweiss for details. “It used to be that service wasn’t a question,” Tom Mehager, 32, says, explaining that he grew up in Gilo, a settlement just east of Jerusalem. “But then there was the moment.” It was a split-second decision in …

Meet the post-Zionist Zionists- Jesse Fox

Mondoweiss, December 29, 2009 This is the second installation in a seven-part series. See Mondoweiss for details. Urban planner and activist Jesse Fox is less encouraged by some of the changes he sees in Israel’s cities. He points to the growing rifts in Jerusalem as a dark harbinger for the country’s future, “The Arabs are …

Meet the post-Zionist Zionists- Sivan Fridman

Mondoweiss, December 28, 2009 This is the first installation in a seven-part series. See the above link for details. It was the avocadoes that made Sivan question things. The moshav she grew up on had three varieties—Haas, Fuerte, and HaNatoush. “HaNatoush,” Fridman repeats. “The abandoned.” As a child, she didn’t understand why avocadoes would bear …

Arabic slang is sababa in Hebrew

The National, December 26, 2009 Have a seat at a café in Tel Aviv, known as the “first Hebrew city,” and your waitress will welcome you with ahlan, a standard Arabic greeting. Place your order and she’ll say sababa—”cool” to Israelis; “urge for a lover” in literary Arabic. When your meal comes, you might enjoy …

UAE charity brings art to Palestinian children

The National, December 26, 2009 “Finish green!” a six-year-old Palestinian girl exclaims in English, dropping a pastel crayon onto the table and raising her open hands into the air. She reaches for blue and turns back to the paper before her. Volunteer Michael Cooper, 30, crouches next to her. Using his fingers, he teaches the …

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Jerusalem Post, December 25, 2009 Zara’s display of a Christmas tree sparked controversy and anger throughout Israel last week. Following complaints from the public, the Spain-based fashion chain changed their window decorations, removing symbols associated with the Christian holiday and, in some places, adding candlesticks to mark the local holiday. A post-chanukah stop at …

Exploited Thais in no man’s land

The National, December 19, 2009 Over two dozen Thai laborers have spent the last three weeks in the custody of Israeli authorities. But they are not under arrest. Following a complaint on their behalf from Kav LaOved, an Israeli NGO that advocates for foreign workers, immigration police freed the laborers from conditions that some critics …

Don’t give up the fight

The Jerusalem Post, December 18, 2009 Led by over one hundred NGOs, thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Friday to unite under the banner of human rights. The rally, organized by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day, centered on the theme “en …

A series of Jewish encounters

The Jerusalem Post, December 18, 2009 In the spirit of Jonathan Rosen’s The Talmud and the Internet, the Jewish Encounters Series marries subjects that readers might not expect to see between the covers of one book. “The series knits together different impulses,” Rosen, creator and editor, comments. A joint imprint of Nextbook and Schocken, Jewish …