David Rotem

Three-year-old Firas Farhat lives with his brother, father and mother in a makeshift tent on a sidewalk outside Shifa Hospital. Their home in Gaza's Shejaiya neighborhood was destroyed by Israeli shelling. (photo: Samer Badawi)

How Israeli media obscures Palestinian humanity

Israeli media insists on portraying the West Bank as the Wild West and its Palestinian inhabitants as savage stone-throwers, all the while masking the reality of armed settlers and a trigger-happy military. By Talal Jabari If I were to describe a movie equivalent of the West Bank in words, it would be part way between…

By +972 Magazine August 31, 2014

Construction at the settlement of Beit El, February 05, 2013. (Photo: Ahmad Al Bazz/Activestills.org

How the Israeli gov’t rewards land thieves

In a closed conversation, the head of the Beit El Yeshiva exposes that he received millions of shekels from the State of Israel in compensation for his seminary’s violations of the law – with the quiet assistance of a senior Knesset member. By Yossi Gurvitz for Yesh Din Sometimes, it all comes out. A few months…

By +972 Magazine May 9, 2014

Palestinian construction workers in an Israeli settlement (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Protecting the secrets of Israel’s settlement enterprise

MK David Rotem unabashedly stopped a vote that would apply Israel’s freedom of information act to the World Zionist Organization’s (WZO) “Settlement Division,” an extra-governmental organization that receives 100 percent of its budget from the State of Israel and is responsible for much of the settlement building in the West Bank. Why would he do…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 3, 2014

Latest

January 28, 2013: Two caravans form a new Israeli settler outpost on land belonging to the Palestinian West Bank village of Jayyous. The caravans were put there last week and are already connected to the water lines of the nearby settlement of Zufit (photo: Activestills)

‘Israel must prosecute West Bank land thieves’

Settlement depends on deception, lies and theft. So why aren’t the police and prosecution doing everything in their power to put an end to it? By Yesh Din (written by Yossi Gurvitz) The story was supposed to be simple: Yoel Tzur, the CEO of the Company for the Development of the Yeshiva Town in Beit…

By +972 Magazine February 6, 2014

Ayalon prison facility, near the city of Ramla (photo: Activestills)

An Israeli citizen is being held in administrative detention

An IDF legal advisor lies to a Knesset oversight committee, says no administrative detention orders were issued against anyone in Israel. It turns out not only did Defense Minister Ya’alon sign one such order, he forbade the detained Israeli citizen from seeing a lawyer. By Noam Rotem (translated from Hebrew by Yossi Gurvitz) Two days…

By +972 Magazine February 4, 2014

Rightist MKs seek Knesset veto over Supreme Court

This is what an attempt at a fascist coup looks like – Likud MKs enraged by court petitions against the boycott bill are now pushing for legislation granting the Knesset a veto over Supreme Court appointments. Such a law would destroy the separation of powers in Israel – and although it’s likely to fail this…

By Dimi Reider July 13, 2011

Soon to be outlawed? A BDS rally in Melbourne (Photo: Takver)

Boycott bill: A way to persecute the Israeli left

Under the guise of a bill against boycotts, the Knesset is muzzling the anti-settlement left The Knesset’s Judicial Committee, led by MK David Rotem (Israel Beitenu) approved yesterday the “boycott bill” for its final reading. This likely means that the bill will imminently become a law. The former version of the bill (Hebrew) defined a…

By Yossi Gurvitz June 28, 2011

A Palestinian man and a girl in a refugee camp, 1948 (Photo via Wikimedia, license CC)

Israel’s Nakba Law: Is it time for civil disobedience?

The discourse around the Nakba law–which tries to stop public institutions from marking the Palestinian disaster, through funding cuts–feeds Israel’s persecution complex. Trying to legislate history out of existence means losing touch with reality Years ago, I commented to someone that after twenty years of occupation, Israel should not have been entirely surprised by the…

By Dahlia Scheindlin May 14, 2011

Tablet calling Israel “A Liberal’s Paradise” (!)

This is one of the most bizarre pieces I’ve seen this year. It comes from Tablet’s blog editor, Marc Tracy: Israel, A Liberal’s Paradise Are you a liberal upset over Tuesday’s results? Then have we got a country for you! Starting next week, non-Jewish or -affiliated same-sex couples will be able to enter into civil…

By Noam Sheizaf November 4, 2010

When ‘unsuitable’ becomes a synonym for ‘Arab’

The original version of this article contained a racist slur in both the headline and text. Following an editorial review, the headline has been changed and the expletive struck out from the body of the text.

By Ami Kaufman October 27, 2010