Last Friday we went on an alternative archaeological tour of the Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. The tours are run by Israeli archaeologists who feel that the archaeology done in the area often referred to as the City of David aren't done professionally. The Israeli Government and the settler organization El Ad use archaeological techniques ( Read more... )

Today's coverage of the protests, counter-protests and police response in Umm al-Fahm reminded me of a question that's been popping up in my head for the past couple of years. All of the articles I've seen refer to one set of protesters as "Israeli Jews" and the other set of protesters as "Israeli Arabs". On one side we have a religious grouping on ( Read more... )

I overhear a lot of discussion in the Palestinian human rights community about using the Afrikaans word apartheid to describe the Israeli government's (and the international community's) policy that the predominantly Jewish Israeli population should be separated from the Palestinian Arab population. The South African idea of apartheid (a word ( Read more... )

Qassam rockets aren't really a threat to life according to Aviad's uncle who we visited in south-western Israel a year and a half ago. Here he is standing next to a few that he's got in his office:

( Read more... )