• Losing faith

    The Caravan, February 1, 2012 When I put my silver digital recorder on the table, Kidane Isaac, an Eritrean refugee, eyes it and shifts in his chair. He angles his broken straw fedora downwards, tipping the rim lower, as though to cover his face. The hat, which has a black band and a hole in the …

  • Into an unsettled new year: settler violence rising in the West Bank

    Inter Press Service, January 22, 2012 An elderly Palestinian woman spent last week on hunger strike to protest violent attacks by Israeli settlers. Hana Abu Heikel went on the hunger strike on behalf of her family after settlers burned the family car during the previous weekend. Since Israeli settlers moved into the houses surrounding the …

  • Language becomes a political weapon in Israel

    Al Jazeera English, September 1, 2011 Inter Press Service, September 1, 2011 Speaking to the US congress in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu boasted that his country is a beacon of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, that it is the only place where Arabs “enjoy real democratic rights”. It’s true that …

  • Israel’s tent protests symptom of larger identity crisis

    Foreign Policy, August 19, 2011 The media has been quick to depict the Israeli tent protests as a middle class movement. But there are other groups taking part: Palestinians, low-income Jewish Israelis, migrant workers, and African refugees. While all of these groups face a number of serious problems—as does Israel’s middle class—one was living outdoors …