Footage that emerged on Thursday morning, March 23, of a police officer violently confronting a Palestinian truck driver in occupied East Jerusalem has led to accusations of police brutality, including condemnations from law enforcement authorities. In the video recording that went viral on social media, a police officer and truck driver, 50-year-old Mazen Shwiki, are…
A conference to raise the awareness of and battle against racism in Israel was held on Tuesday, March 21, in the Knesset and was attended by MKs, officials from the education system, the police and NGOs. The gathering was organized by the head of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality,…
The Knesset gave final approval on Tuesday, March 21, to legislation extending paid maternity leave by one week. As a result, women who have or will give birth after January 1, 2017 are now entitled to 15 weeks of paid leave. However, parents may optionally choose to take one week of leave together, instead of…
The Knesset voted into law on Monday, March 20, a bill restricting non-profit organizations which seek to promote political agendas during election campaigns. Forty-one lawmakers voted in favor, while 27 opposed the bill. Far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated the legislation, after the extensive campaign waged by the American-based V15 organization to oust him from…
Hundreds of workers of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) held protests on Sunday, March 19, in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv against the electronic media entity’s pending closure. In Jerusalem, demonstrators protested possible layoffs from the public broadcasting entity that would ensue with the controversial establishment of the new Israel Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) which would…
Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces following a funeral procession held Saturday, March 18, for 16-year-old Murad Yusif Abu Ghazi in the al-Arrub refugee camp north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank. Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral which was held a day after the boy was shot dead by the…
The Police Internal Investigation Unit (“Machash”) within Israel’s Ministry of Justice re-enacted on Wednesday evening, March 15, the events that led up to the shooting death of Yaqoub Abu al-Qee’an by Israeli police during a January 18 demolition raid in the Arab-Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev. In the raid a police officer…
Workers of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) briefly interrupted Channel 1’s flagship news program on Monday night, March 13, in a preview of labor actions planned to take place in protest against the imminent closure of the ailing public broadcasting network which is to be replaced by a new, state-run media conglomerate. An image of…
The government is dragging its feet in advancing a national program to significantly decrease domestic violence. The ministerial committee for domestic violence has repeatedly put off authorizing the program, which it received four months ago. During these months, three women have been murdered, ostensibly by their husbands or partners. In response to the government’s inaction,…
About 200 demonstrators from Arab communities throughout Israel held a protest against home demolitions outside the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem on Tuesday, March 14, as legislators in the nearby Knesset discussed a draft of the proposed “Kaminitz bill” that would increase penalties for and tighten enforcement against “illegal construction.” The Committee of the Heads…
Hadash lawmakers slammed the country’s racist minister of defense, Avigdor Liberman, for calling for an “arrangement” by which many of the country’s Arab citizens would be given Palestinian instead of Israeli citizenship in a future peace deal. Joint List head MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash), one of several lawmakers named by Liberman in a missive the…
Thousands of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel took to the streets on Saturday, March 11, to protest a bill being advanced in the Knesset, which seeks to impose limits on the Muslim call to prayer throughout Israel and in occupied East Jerusalem. According to Al-Ittihad, the daily newspaper o the Communist Party of Israel, some 3,000…
Far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to form a governing coalition if elections were held today, according to a Channel 2 poll released on Friday, March 10. If national elections were held today, the ruling Likud party led by Netanyahu could find it very difficult to form a coalition and might even…
According to a new report published by B’Tselem last week, Israel refuses to compensate Palestinians for damages caused by its security forces. From September 2000 – when the second Intifada broke out – through February 2017, Israeli security forces killed 4,868 Palestinians who were not taking part in hostilities. More than a third of them…
The Knesset passed a bill into law on Monday, March 6, barring supporters of a boycott on Israel from entering the country. The legislation, sponsored by right-wing and centrist coalition lawmakers, prevents foreign nationals who have publicly called for a boycott of Israel or the settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or who work on…
