The Widening Gap

IN ANY list of Israel’s 100 most important women, Ilana Dayan would occupy a prominent position. Dayan (no relation to the late general with the eye patch) is the host of one of the most prestigious television programs. While Israeli TV in general is slowly sinking into a morass of stupid “reality” entertainment, her program, … Read more

Occupation refuser

Tair Kaminer, 19,Said what manyFail to understand:“There is no securityUnder occupation!”She is nowIn military prisonFor refusing to serveThe occupation. Published in Haaretz, 15/01/16

Fear of Assimilation

THE ISRAELI Ministry of Education has struck a book from students’ reading lists.Big deal. Happens every day in Russia, China and Iran. But this was not a revolutionary work by a fire-eating rebel. It is a gentle novel by an appreciated female author, Dorit Rabinyan. Her cardinal sin was the plot: a love story between … Read more

A Bribery Case

WHEN THE State of Israel was founded, the new foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, did something that seemed quite natural. He sold his private apartment. In his new function, he was accorded an official residence. A modest one, needless to say. Sharett thought that it was unseemly for a public official to retain a private apartment … Read more

And who gets stigmatized?

In a country whichGets annual billionsFrom a foreign government,Where settlers are financedBy anonymous donors,And a casino tycoon publishesA paper for the Prime Minister -Human Rights activistsAre stigmatizedAs foreign agents! Published in Ha’aretz, 01/01/16

Imagined Nations

TWO WEEKS ago, Benedict Anderson died. Or, as we say in Hebrew, “went to his world”. Anderson, an Irishman born in China, educated in England, fluent in several South Asian languages, had a large influence on my intellectual world. I owe a lot to his most important book, “Imagined Communities”. EACH OF us has a … Read more

There was a warning

In 1967,Yeshayahu LeibovitzWarned:If the occupationLasts long,Repression wouldTurn not onlyAgainst Arabs.In 2015,Even detainees ofThe extreme rightExperience thisThe hard way. Haaretz, 25.12.2015

A Lonely Lawyer

BY NOW EVERY ISRAELI has seen the TV clip several times – showing a 14-year old Arab girl being shot dead near the central market of Jewish Jerusalem. The story is well known: two sisters, 14 and 16 years old, have decided to attack Israelis. The clip, taken by a security camera, shows one of … Read more

Success

Breaking the silenceWas the purpose ofReservists criticizingThe role they hadIn the occupation army.The panic reactionBy government ministersProves their success. Tomorrow, Sat. 7:30 PM, outside the Likud Partyheadquarters on 38 King George St., Tel Aviv, wewill join a vigil to protest the government offensiveagainst peace and human rights activists. Published in Haaretz, 18.12.15