Well, we started last year’s January newsletter on an encouraging note. “Let’s begin with the good news,” I wrote, “2014 will likely mark the beginning of the end of the Israeli Occupation.” I wrote that in the wake of the likely – and finally definite – end of Kerry’s ill-fated attempt to broker yet… Read more »
The essence of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is displacement. For the past century Zionism has worked diligently and systematically to turn Palestine into the Land of Israel. On the way it has aspired to appropriate all the country’s land and resources and, ultimately, to drive the remaining Palestinians out, or at least to confine… Read more »
Interview with Ruth Edmonds How have you got to the point in life that you’re at now – conducting tours, representing people in Palestine as an advocate? Ruth Edmonds (RE): Jeff Halper will say that I used to turn up at the office all the time so they gave me something to do! I… Read more »
By Jeff Halper Dramatic as they were for returning Netanyahu to power, the Israeli elections did not witness a major shift in political forces; in fact, the center-left (albeit Labor now pandering to the right by rebranding itself the “Zionist Camp”) did better than in the 2013 elections, while the right polled considerably less than… Read more »
As International Women’s day approaches, I reflect on a conversation I had with a striking woman of 80 years old. She is a Palestinian woman who has lived through the Nakba (‘catastrophe’) in 1948, losing her home, her history and heritage virtually overnight. Her vision now is to create a ‘Grandmothers Solidarity Group’ to challenge… Read more »
The Devilis Punchbowl Youth Hostel provided the perfect base for a walking and talking weekend focused on prospects for a just peace in Palestine, and also for the start of a speaking tour by Israeli peace activist Ruth Edmonds, Advocacy Officer of ICAHD in Jerusalem. In the nearby Thursley Village Hall on Saturday, 28th September,… Read more »
Award-winning Al Jazeera’s “Inside Story” series has broadcast an episode focussed on Palestinian home demolitions. Presenter Shiulie Ghosh talks to Jeff Halper, Director of ICAHD, Avi Bell, a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University and a specialist in international and property law, and Bill Van Esveld, an Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch,… Read more »
Palestinians search in the rubble of a destroyed house where eight members of the Al Haj family were killed in a strike early morning in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, July 10, 2014. (Photo: AP/Khalil Hamra) The Kerry initiative may have ended with a whimper instead of a bang, but its… Read more »
ICAHD’s Director Jeff Halper has written a press release – below – in response to the outcome of the appeal brought by Rabbis For Human Rights, ICAHD, JLAC, St. Yves and the Palestinian village of Ad-Dirat-Al-Rfaiiya requesting that planning authority be returned to Palestinians living in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank under… Read more »
ICAHD, in conjunction with other human rights organisations and together with the Palestinian village council of Ad-Dirat- Al-Rfaiiya, near Hebron in the West Bank, has submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court to remove the planning authority in Area C of the West Bank, including the authority to demolish Palestinian homes, out of the… Read more »
