Condition Critical presents key blog posts and analytical essays that explore everyday life in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza up close. All these stories depict the critical conditions of the decades-old wounds of colonization and occupation in which the Palestinian people live.
From the windows of the grey, cube-shaped building that houses the US embassy in Tel Aviv, staff enjoy an undisturbed view out over the Mediterranean and a beach adorned in the summer with sunbeds and parasols.Most days the only evidence of activity is outside on the pavement: A queue of Israelis snake out of a side door, clutching their documents and watched over by Israeli soldiers as they wait expectantly for a US travel visa.
In this panel we look at the conditions of Israel’s hegemony to consider future prospects. Panelists analyze the continuing reality of Israeli military occupation and incursions into Gaza, illegal settlements, intensified domination of Jerusalem, and detentions of Palestinian children. Panelists include Dr. Thomas Abowd, Brad Parker, and Dr. Abdelhamid Siyam.
This panel examines the intersection of Israeli policies of occupation and containment which prevent Palestinian self-determination, with a focus on the experience for Palestinians of living under occupation in Jerusalem and Gaza and the ways Palestinians and their supporters are organizing politically, economically and culturally to protect their human rights and work towards a different future.
Panel I: Legacies of the British Mandate and the Changing U.S. Role in the Conflicts of the Middle East; Keynote Address: Ambassador Riyad Mansour; Panel II: Living with Israel’s Hegemony
Last week a controversy broke out in Israel over the segregation of Palestinian and Jewish mothers in Israeli hospitals. ‘Israel Radio… reported on Tuesday that various hospitals around the country have been separating Jewish and Arab women in the maternity ward.’
JERUSALEM —For centuries, the Damascus Gate has stood as the portal to the Old City of Jerusalem, opening onto a packed bazaar of souvenir shops, teahouses and falafel joints — and the holiest places for Jews, Christians and Muslims.The tourists and pilgrims still come, but for locals, the Damascus Gate is now a hot zone to be avoided, with squads of Israeli soldiers waiting in nearby buses and Palestinian teens frequently stopped, searched and sometimes led away.
The U.S. State Department on Friday condemned Israel’s decision to expand the boundary of an existing West Bank settlement bloc, saying it hinders attempts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Israel’s defense ministry in late December added a compound in the West Bank to the jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion regional council, near Jerusalem.
US Secretary of State John Kerry came back from his recent trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Nov. 24 empty-handed and, for the first time for this extreme optimist, completely disillusioned with the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He found Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even more rejectionist than before, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas weaker and more depressed. A senior US State Department official dealing with the Middle East described to Al-Monitor the current situation in very bleak terms.
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