IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Seventy years ago, the world changed around my family. The establishment of the state of Israel represented self-determination for Jews, but a catastrophe — “nakba” in Arabic — for Palestinians. In the area around the Mediterranean city of Haifa, where my family has lived for six generations, only 2,000 Palestinians of a population of 70,000 remained.
on April 18, 2018
Fact Sheets
Using a variety of methods, Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian movement within and to and from the occupied territories. These policies cause serious hardships for millions of Palestinians, preventing them from getting to work, school, accessing medical care, visiting family and friends, and severely hampers the Palestinian economy.
on June 6, 2017
Videos
70% of Palestinians living in Gaza are refugees due to Israeli policies of mass expulsion. As they face debilitating conditions under Israeli occupation and siege, Israel denies them their internationally recognized right to return to their homes and land.
on November 4, 2016
A human rights NGO has accused Israel of forcing Palestinians to withstand “cruel and inhuman” conditions at its borders. The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, also known as B'Tselem, said even those with legitimate work permits were being made to wait for hours in extremely hot weather.
on June 27, 2016
Israeli authorities closed the streets of the southern occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir with large cement blocks on Friday, witnesses said. Locals told Ma’an Israeli police forces closed the street connecting the neighborhood to the Sur Baher neighborhood, a main road leading to Jabal al-Mukabbir.
on June 17, 2016
Israeli forces Thursday briefly held 100 Palestinian high school students for military security searches as they tried to leave the town of Yatta in the occupied West Bank to attend final exams, as the town remained sealed by Israeli forces following a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
on June 9, 2016
The freshly spray-painted signs in this hamlet outside Nablus are a symbol of the new normal in the West Bank, seven months into a scattershot wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis. With the Israeli military having shut down the main road, local teenagers put up signs to coax Palestinian drivers along circuitous routes to Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government, and Huwara, a neighboring village.
on April 13, 2016
Palestinians faced severe movement restrictions on Wednesday, as Israeli authorities shut down all movement through checkpoints in and out of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip ahead of the Jewish holiday of Purim. An Israeli army spokesperson said that beginning at 1 a.m. on Wednesday and lasting until midnight Saturday, the checkpoints would be closed to all Palestinians with the exception of humanitarian cases.
on March 23, 2016
The family wanted to bury him wrapped in the flag of his country, the United States, but the locals insisted he be laid to rest in the flag of his nation, Palestine. In the end, his body was wrapped in both flags: the American flag during the ceremony held by the family, the Palestinian flag in the mass funeral that followed. Both flags were lowered into the grave together with 16-year-old Mahmoud Shaalan.
on March 12, 2016