exile

A toy amid the rubble of the author's destroyed home, December 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

A year ago, an Israeli airstrike buried me alive. I’m still clawing my way out

I’m grateful I survived the attack on my home. But surviving isn’t the same as living, and the faces of those who didn’t make it haunt every corner of my mind.

By Mohammed R. Mhawish December 10, 2024

Salah Hammouri speaks to the press and supporters at Paris Charles de Galle Airport, France, after having been exiled by Israel, December 18, 2022. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Exile of Palestinian lawyer reignites struggle over France’s Israel policy

Israel's expulsion of Salah Hammouri has energized France's Palestine solidarity movement — but backlash is spurring antisemitism smears.

By Deborah Leter December 29, 2022

Palestinian men try to pass through the Qalandiya checkpoint on the last Friday of Ramadan, September 3, 2010. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Fortress Israel and the quiet dignity of Palestinian resistance

Peter Beinart’s interrogation at Ben Gurion Airport made headlines not because of his clout as a public intellectual, but thanks to the quiet dignity of Palestinian children, women and men who have endured Fortress Israel for years. I first lost my father in the heat of a Jericho summer, 20 years ago this week. He disappeared, or so it…

By Samer Badawi August 21, 2018

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Daoud Al-Ghoul, shown near properties taken over by Israel settlers in Jerusalem's Old City. (photo: Activestills.org)

Three Palestinian activists exiled from Jerusalem for five months

Without explanation, three Jerusalemite Palestinians are given five-month bans from the city of their birth and residence. One is banned from the West Bank as well. Text and photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org In early December, three Jerusalem-born Palestinians received orders from Israeli authorities banning them from the city for a period of five months.…

By Activestills December 15, 2014

Berlin, by Mati Shemoelof

At the exiled Iranian Parliament in Berlin

At the exiled Iranian parliament we convened at Café Kotti in Berlin, I look around at my new friends and ask myself: how can civilians destroy the walls the politicians have built with such a lack of imagination, courage, vision and basic human love? It’s not a theoretical question. We’re talking about our lives. By…

By Haokets June 21, 2014

In spite of everything there is yet hope for this country - if we choose there to be

A Mideast alternative to Israel: A response to Yuval Ben-Ami

Yuval Ben-Ami is thinking of leaving Israel for a saner life somewhere in Europe. Though I know the feeling he talks about and sympathize with it deeply – my choice, time and time again, is to stay right here, at home. I can even justify it. Of course, I totally agree with Yuval. It’s a…

By Haggai Matar May 16, 2012

A homage to David Grossman, to mark his new novel

I’d like to step away from the relentless discussion of Grossman’s activism and to explain why he hold such a tremendous place for me and many more as an author – and what his last novel to appear in English tells of this country’s future. David Grossman has a new book coming out today in…

By Dimi Reider June 15, 2011