By Zeina Azzam
A recent article about Palestinian schoolteachers up for a global teaching award showed a photograph of one of their classrooms: the teacher and all the children in this West Bank school were wearing their coats and jackets inside. This is perhaps because many of these schools are not heated well, if at all, making the harsh winter cold a constant reality, both indoors and outdoors.
In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 07- 13 January 2016, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that Israeli forces continued to use excessive force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Nine Palestinian civilians, including two children, were killed, and one armed resistance fighter was killed by Israeli troops.
A new bill to be introduced in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, next week would permit the cancellation of a person’s permanent residency on grounds of “disloyalty” to Israel. Last October, the prime minister’s office announced that the government had decided to revoke the residency of “terrorists,” a policy that would almost exclusively affect Palestinians living under military occupation in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian artist, curator, and poet Ashraf Fayadh, 35, has been sentenced to death by beheading. Saudi Arabian authorities have declared his crime as “apostasy,” or abandoning one’s religion—in this case, renouncing Islam. Several other charges were also leveled against Fayadh, including allegedly photographing women and storing their pictures on his phone, a violation of the country’s Anti-Cyber Crime Law. He pleaded his innocence to all the charges.
My family and I were saddened on Thursday morning to learn of the death of Alan Rickman – too sad to write our feelings at the time. Alan, of course, is famous as an actor and director, both on stage and in film. But we first came to know him when, with Katharine Viner (now editor-in-chief of the Guardian), he edited our daughter Rachel’s writing into the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. The care Alan took for our family, his courage to take on this particular project and, most of all, the respect he showed for Rachel and her writing, impress me still as truly extraordinary.
The United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination points out with alarm that Israel maintains two separate educational systems for its citizens — one for Jewish children and another for the children of the Palestinian minority — a structure that reinforces the profound segregation of Israeli society in everything from matters of citizenship and marriage to housing rights.
Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – Each year, tens of thousands of Christians make their way to the historic city of Bethlehem for Christmas. Believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the city’s Christmas mass is broadcast around the world. Tourists, diplomats and journalists flock to the church annually to see the nativity scene. But Bethlehem has not been immune to the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis that have escalated over the past few months. Clashes on the streets of Bethlehem often last for hours, well into the night, as Palestinians hurl rocks and Israelis respond with tear gas and bullets.
Airbnb, it has come to our attention, enables anyone to rent rooms and vacation homes in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Anyone who is not of Palestinian descent, of course. Without exception, the listings, some which appear to be luxurious cottages and others that are caravans sitting on barren hilltops, make no mention of the fact that they are in settlements on occupied land. Almost all claim to be in Israel, despite the fact that they lie beyond the country’s borders.
In this book, Salaita combines personal reflection and political critique to provide a thorough analysis of his controversial termination. He situates his case at the intersection of important issues that affect both higher education and social justice activism.
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