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News from Jaffa / Yafo (especially Ajami / Adjami) seen through local eyes from a critical perspective. What happens in Jaffa is symbolic for what happens in the rest of the country and the area (Israel / Palestine and perhaps the Middle East).
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Recent Posts Tagged With 'justice'
Chasing humans on the garbage-mountain, oops, in the Jaffa "Midron" park
Lately i have been taking early morning and late evening walks and runs in our brand new "midron park", usually topped of by a serious work-out in the open air free gym and a water drinking pause at the very end of the deck, above the huge evening wa...
Cruelty Alley
The little girls are already forgetting today's drama, replaying it with twists and turns, and turning it into a fairy tale with a happy ending.Yet the other "little girl" L. is still severely traumatised and crying non stop, tears streaming from her...
Fighting for Jaffa, together
The settlers who wish to turn Jaffa into a Jewish only city, have in essence caused a complete coalition of many Jaffa organizations who prior to this threat never cooperated.The call was for a joint struggle of Palestinians and Jews against the sett...
How stupid can the thought police get?
The short answer? Very, very, very stupid.And dangerous.I'm relating of course to the "Naqbe" law, which, if passed, will forbid Israeli citizens to undertake public activities in commemoration of the Palestinian catastrophe, the Naqbe.Democracy incl...
So....is this what is it going to be like?
Quite obviously, even more right wing than before, the Israeli government to be.There will be even less liberty, less democracy. And they probably will not care very much to even make it look like a democracy.And a fair example is the arrest of Jaffa...
Gaza in the heart of Jaffa
Horses, border police, loads of other police and the usual police camera crew were there when some hundred people from Jaffa gathered today in the Gazan'z Park to protest the continued closure of the Gaza strip as well as have a memorial for Gaza's ...
Arabic? Nah... Arabs? Nah.... Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle East" after all
In the course of the first municipal council meeting of the newly elected Jaffa-Tel Aviv municipal council member and Jaffa resident, Omar Siksik, decided to address the council in Arabic. Arabic and Hebrew are both official languages of the State of...
"The Jaffa Heiress" - Court Results
Just back from court and i don't know what to say except that we left a little confused. We had hoped for justice, true justice, which ofcourse was naive. Instead we got out of court with a "pshara", a court approved compromise deal, in which the deb...
"The Jaffa Heiress" goes to court today!
Over a year ago i wrote about Intissar (not her real name), a young (at the time still a minor) woman from Jaffa, who was about to be arrested for debts she "inherited" from her father.Intissar's case has been taken up by the law clinic of Tel Aviv U...
Israel is such a lovely and true democracy....
Since last night several Jaffa activists (all of them Palestinians) have been taken into the Salameh Police Station where they were interrogated by the internal security services, the Shabak, who behaved in an insulting and threatening way (in some c...
Hate grafiti on Jaffa's "Sea Mosque"
Today the early morning prayer at Jaffa's "Sea Mosque" was different:Hate grafiti had been sprayed on the ancient doors, threatening the lives of Jaffa's Palestinian citizens and comparing the Prophet to a pig.Jaffa based Sheikh Ahmad Abou Agoua of...
The continuation of home demolitions in Jaffa
Yesterday evening i visited Fauzie Dake, whose home was partially demolished by the municipality that same day.It was cold and wet. The floor, noty much else remained, was muddy.The area smells bad. After the rains the area Fauzie lives in, is habitu...
Hate Graffiti in Jaffa
As we are nearing the municipal elections, hateful graffiti against Jaffa's Palestinian population has started sprouting up at different locations all around.From "Kahana was right" through "Death to the Arabs" and "F* Islam" to "Arabs Should not be ...
Preparing the party for whom?
Chinese construction workers are frantically running around, while Russian speaking carpenters are assembling the hardwood deck and fences surrounding the building. A huge tent has been erected and electricians prepare light fixtures outside. A goril...
Police beat up handcuffed boys in Jaffa
A fight erupted between a few young boys from Jaffa's public "Shem HaGdolim" housing estate and a yeshiva student. The word on the street -which perhaps may be not correct- is that they plan to build a yeshiva right in front of a nearby mosque. To th...
Akko, for a change
Akko's old city was empty today. Some local kids, the occasional woman buying some vegetables for dinner. At the sea front a single fisherman. The harbour: empty. Trays of delicious and tempting nut-candy find no buyers.The restaurants: the owners of...
Naji Needs Your Help
Naji is 5 years old, almost 6. He lives in Jaffa, with his mother and sister.He should go to kindergarten, but the only kindergarten willing to accept him is located on the premises of the Asaf HaRofeh Hospital and demands an emergency unit nurse t...
Brother, can you spare me a dime?
So Lehrman Bro. fell and Merril Lynch did too. AIG is in major trouble, "but here all is well". Or so the varous commentors on radio tell me. Here? Nah, we're fine.Sure, ofcourse, and there is "nothing to worry about". Wild globalization. Israel's p...
Mum & 6 young kids from Jaffa, no eviction (yet)
S is married with 6 young children, all students or in (pre) kindergarden. Her kids are good students; one of her girls is about to begin an academic program for gifted kids, while still in high school.Yet all isn't rosy. S lost her social insurance ...
Apartheid in Jaffa's Municipal Pool
The "Neve Golan" municipal pool in Jaffa's "HaBaal ShemTov" street serves kids and adults from all over Jaffa. A simple swimming pool, nothing luxurious, with green lawns around and plenty of corners for kids to play in.Mothers and their children fr...
Municipal Generosity
Yediot Ahronot carries an interesting article today about affordable housing in Tel Aviv.The Tel Aviv Jaffa municipality will subsidize 2000 appartments for young couples in Tel Aviv, or so the title says.However, when you read the article, one start...
Shooting at Jaffa's "Shem HaGdolim" Housing Estate, No One Physically Hurt
Twelve year old M is very scared. His slightly older brother plays it cool, but i notice he is not comfortable. Looking around, watching his back. Their mother screams from the window, she wants them to come home, upstairs, now, right now. She asks m...
Andromeda round nr.... i lost the count
The Jaffa's Andromeda Compound's developers want to add more and even higher buildings and are actively demanding building permits to do so, as was declared during the local building council meeting this Wednesday at the Tel Aviv municipality (al...
Hanna Nadi and her 8 children - Continuing the fight
Some weeks ago Hanna and her 8 young children were kicked out of the small flat they lived in. After a few days in a neighbour's house, she squatted the flat she was evicted from, she had no other choice. It was either the streets or back to the old,...
Trying to tell the truth about the "liberation" of Jaffa
Some 20 - 30 demonstrators and at least 40-50 police men, including special forces (Yasam) and border police.In spite of the law, none of those last two groups wore name tags on their uniforms.At the etzel museum a small audience listens to a sound ...
Halamish's little bag of tricks
In Jaffa there are several public housing apartments boarded up instead of being in use by the 200+ approved families on the waiting list.To be approved for public housing, you need to be very poor (completely long term-dependent on social insurance ...
Back on the streets, mother and 8 children
We lost the fight and the family no longer has a home. A mother and 8 children are homeless. Halamish, the municipality, no one really cares very much.Right now i have very little to say....
No Eviction Yet - update on today's activities
The flat is tiny, windowless and stuffy in today's very hot weather. People are sitting all around, on the couches and on the floor; Activists, community leaders, caring neighbours, friends, everyone and of course the mother and her young children.Th...
Disease does not discriminate
Two months ago my friend Mariam, a young Palestinian women from the territories, needed urgent medical care.She does not have a visa to say in Israel and no medical insurance. So she went to the free clinic run by "Doctors for Human Rights" in the ar...
Land Day in Jaffa - Yom El Ard, YomHadama
Over one thousand people marched in Jaffa, against the ethnic cleansing carried out by big money in close cooperation with the public housing companies and the municipality. Representatives from all factions in Jaffa and beyond stood together, united...
