violence

Foreign and Israeli journalists stand on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip in the city of Sderot, southern Israel, October 19, 2023. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

How the news cycle misses the predominant violence in Israel-Palestine

The uneventful nature of structural violence renders it unfit for media coverage compared to kinetic violence. But the two are inextricably linked.

By Alexei Sisulu Abrahams February 2, 2024

Israeli forces search for the attacker around the scene of a shooting at a bar on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, April 7, 2022. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

Israel’s false promise of security

Those devising punishments for Palestinians after attacks in Israeli cities offer nothing but a violent ritual in which despair and rage are the order of the day.

By Edo Konrad April 10, 2022

Palestinian mourners carry the body of 30-year-old Mahmoud al-Masri who died yesterday during clashes with Israeli security forces on the Israeli-Gaza border, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 9, 2017. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

In Gaza, Israel is shooting fish in a barrel

A man with no legs, shot in the head, is the perfectly harrowing metaphor for life in Gaza, and for Palestinians on a whole. Helpless, Static. Stunted. Embed from Getty Images Israeli soldiers shot in the head and killed Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, 29, a man with no legs, who was holding a Palestinian flag near the Gaza border…

By Mairav Zonszein December 16, 2017

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Police crime scene investigators at the scene of a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, June 8, 2016. (Israel Police Spokesperson)

Violence is the strongest imperative to keep fighting for peace

With no peace process on the horizon, the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv this week is a reminder that we don’t have the luxury of giving up on a future in which Palestinians and Israelis alike can feel secure in their own homes, streets and cafes. Almost six years ago, Hillary Clinton was getting ready…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 9, 2016

Israeli soldiers inspect a vehicle at the Enav checkpoint separating the West Bank Palestinian cities of Nablus and Tulkarem, January 11, 2016. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

Public opinion roundup: Is Palestinian support for violence falling?

A vast majority of Palestinians polled in recent surveys say they or their families have seen a negative economic impact from the latest wave of violence. And while most Palestinians feel deeply alienated from their leaders in both Fatah and Hamas, a strong majority remain committed to the democratic process. Dahlia Scheindlin follows up her…

By Dahlia Scheindlin February 21, 2016

Israeli army soldiers take part in the search operation for three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, on June 17, 2014 in the West Bank town of Hebron. [File photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

There’s no such thing as a moral army

The furor surrounding Breaking the Silence and the reflexive defense of the IDF both miss the fundamental point that any institution with violence at its core is inherently ethically compromised, and ultimately, an army is trained to fight. A raw nerve has been touched in Israel over the last few weeks. Far right-wing group Im…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland December 24, 2015

A medic wheels away an Israeli security guard who was stabbed by two Palestinian boys at a tramway station in the settlement neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed East Jerusalem on November 10, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

Violence sparks medical ethics fight in Israel

The medical establishment in Israel has come under fierce attack for abiding by the fundamental ethic of treating the most seriously wounded first — no matter who they are and what they have done. With the current escalation in violence throughout Israel-Palestine showing no signs of abating, the issue of medical ethics has found itself at…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland December 17, 2015

Donald Trump waves during a campaign rally in Los Angeles, September 15, 2015. (Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com)

Trump is coming: How much damage can he do in the Holy Land?

Israel’s prime minister defies staffers and lawmakers, pledging to host the Republican presidential contender. Trump, the Islamophobe, says he plans to visit what might be the most religiously sensitive site on earth. Just how worried should we be? While local leaders in the United States are declaring Donald Trump persona non grata, Israeli Prime Minister…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man December 9, 2015

Screenshot of CCTV footage showing a man shooting a Palestinian teenage girl who stabbed an elderly Palestinian man in Jerusalem, November 23, 2015.

WATCH: How the far-right glorifies killing of Palestinians

The leader of a popular Jewish supremacist group circulates a new video that puts CCTV footage of stabbing attack to bouncy electronic music and violent, disturbing lyrics. Benzi Gopstein, the head of Lehava, posted a video on his Facebook page Monday glorifying the killing of Palestinians. Lehava is a popular Jewish supremacist group dedicated to preventing Arab-Jewish relations,…

By Mairav Zonszein November 24, 2015

IDF soldiers walk through Hebron. (photo: Activestills)

The only way to end the violence in Hebron

They tell us that terror and violence must be met with force, and if that doesn’t work — then even more force. But the military occupation of Hebron has not achieved security for either its Jewish or Palestinian residents. By Yehuda Shaul Over the past few weeks we have not only borne witness to a…

By +972 Magazine November 2, 2015

A Palestinian ambulance evacuates wounded protesters during clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli army forces at the Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus, West Bank, October 12, 2015. (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

It’s in times of violence we need most to talk about peace

Both Israelis and Palestinians need to start thinking far beyond what their leaders are offering them. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas will never make peace. They will never succeed at stopping the violence, and they will never see eye to eye on anything other than the incompatibility of their respective visions. Don’t get me wrong:…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man October 22, 2015

Palestinians run from tear gas and gunfire during a protest near the Gaza border, east of Al Bureij refugee camp, October 16, 2015. The Israeli army killed at least two people during the protest. (Ezz Zanoun/Activestills.org)

Israelis and Palestinians are living in different worlds

There is something about the way that Israelis and Palestinians are discussing the violent events of recent weeks that suggests a new, particularly worrying dissonance between the two societies. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always included a full-fledged war of narratives. From biblical and historical land claims, to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, to…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man October 19, 2015

Palestinian youths hold Molotov cocktails on as they sit not he sidelines of clashes taking place in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, October 4, 2015. (Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Activestills.org)

Israel still holds all the cards

The relative quiet on the ground in recent years, enforced by the Palestinian Authority on Israel’s behalf, led Israelis to believe they can enjoy peace and prosperity without ending the occupation. Thirteen years passed between the First Intifada, which broke out in December 1987, and the start of the second in October 2000. Both intifadas…

By Noam Sheizaf October 9, 2015