Elad

Tourists look at a view of the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, from the Mount of Olives observatory, January 28, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

What my daughter’s school trip taught me about anti-occupation activism

Our liberal Tel Aviv school wanted students to visit a project run by a settler group in occupied East Jerusalem. Here's what I learned from speaking up.

By David Zonsheine December 27, 2022

Israeli police officers deny Palestinians access to olive trees in Wadi Rababa, East Jerusalem, October 7, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Why are Israeli soldiers harvesting Palestinians’ olive groves?

Soldiers were seen picking the trees after receiving permission from a settler group. When Palestinians went to harvest the next day, police prevented them.

By Oren Ziv and Meron Rapoport October 19, 2022

Amal Sumarin, her sons, and their attorney arrive for a court hearing on the JNF-KKL appeal to evict them from their family home at the Jerusalem District Court on June 30, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

PODCAST: Will this Palestinian matriarch get to keep her Jerusalem home?

Amal Sumarin has been fighting Jewish settlement and a discriminatory legal system for years. An Israeli court may decide her family's fate next month.

By Unsettled March 30, 2021

Latest

Workers at the City of David archaeological site, near Jerusalem's Old City, on July 22, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

In East Jerusalem, the settler project is expanding underground

Elad's politicization of archaeology, most notably through the City of David park in East Jerusalem, erases Palestinians and their history.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland October 23, 2020

An Israeli flag over the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, seen from the Mount of Olives, December 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Exclusive: Documents reveal decades of close cooperation between JNF and Elad

The Jewish National Fund has allowed settlement group Elad to pursue legal actions on its behalf since the 1980s, an internal report reveals. The collaboration has led to the eviction of Palestinians while bolstering Jewish presence in East Jerusalem.

By Uri Blau October 19, 2020

A Jewish ultra-Orthodox man visits the mountain fortress of Herodium, near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, November 29, 2010. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Israel’s army of archaeological looters

Using archaeology to validate its claim to the land, Israel is displacing artifacts from the occupied West Bank and erasing Palestinian identity.

By Dima Srouji October 1, 2020

Israeli Border Police walk through the City of David settlement in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, March 28, 2007. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

How settler groups could use annexation to deepen Palestinian dispossession

For decades, settlers have used the Israeli legal system to take over Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. Activists fear those tactics may soon be used in the rest of the West Bank.

By Uri Agnon June 24, 2020

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (left) with White House Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt (center) and Senator Lindsey Graham seen during the opening ceremony of an the Pilgrimage Road at the City of David archaeological site in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, June 30, 2019. (Flash90)

Using archeology in the service of nationalism

The inauguration of a supposed ancient Jewish ‘Pilgrimage Road’ by Ambassador David Friedman and White House envoy Jason Greenblatt is a reminder that archeology is never as neutral as some would like to believe. By Chemi Shiff and Yonathan Mizrachi We tend to think of archeology as a neutral discipline. Archeologists dig up artifacts, date them, and try to build…

By +972 Magazine July 5, 2019

Elad Chairman David Be'eri meets with Silwan Mukhtar Abu Jamil in City of David, Jerusalem, April 22, 2010. (Abir Sultan/Flash 90)

A lifetime achievement award for normalizing settlements

David Be’eri won the state’s highest award for doing what decades ago would have seemed impossible: inspiring the Israeli people to identify with the settler enterprise. By Yonathan Mizrachi Following last week’s announcement that David Be’eri, the founder of the settler organization Elad, had won the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, some who closely monitor Israel’s…

By +972 Magazine March 20, 2017

Behind police barricades, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem hold a counter-protest against the nationalist display in their neighborhood, June 5, 2016. In years past physical and verbal violence against Palestinians was a central feature of the march. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israel’s extremist settlers are aiming for the mainstream

The fact that this year’s Jerusalem Day did not include violence and racist chants against Palestinians signals a change of strategy in winning the hearts and minds of average Israelis. The main lesson I learned from Jerusalem Days past was to wear comfortable walking shoes. Or preferably running shoes, since I previously learned that there…

By Orly Noy June 6, 2016

Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire's control over Palestine.

Before Zionism: The shared life of Jews and Palestinians

Before the advent of Zionism and Arab nationalism, Jews and Palestinians lived in peace in the holy land. Menachem Klein’s new book maps out an oft-forgotten history of Israel/Palestine, and offers some guidance on how we may go back to that time. By Noam Rotem Menachem Klein’s book, Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in…

By +972 Magazine April 4, 2016

Screenshot of Israelis taking over an empty home in Hebron.

WATCH: Ever wonder what a ‘settler takeover’ looks like?

Dozens of Israeli settlers with crowbars descend on two homes in the old city of Hebron. Israeli authorities remove them a day later. The phrase “settler takeover” is used fairly often by the international media to discuss a common occurrence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But rarely do the cameras actually capture just…

By Edo Konrad January 22, 2016

The Old City of Jerusalem, September 26, 2014. (Photo by Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

East Jerusalem streets given Hebrew names amid tensions

The city council pours oil on the fire by approving Hebrew street names in Palestinian neighborhoods as tensions run high. The move is part and parcel of efforts to ‘Judaize’ the eastern half of the city, which Palestine claims as its future capital. With all eyes on Jerusalem as tensions in the city continue to…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland September 21, 2015