IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Early in the morning on March 30, my 7-year-old son, Ali, saw me preparing to leave the house. This was unusual for our Friday routine. “Where are you going, Dad?” “To the border. To participate in the Great Return March.”
on April 28, 2018
Israel’s killing of 18 Palestinian protesters in Gaza last Friday was entirely predictable. It was also entirely avoidable. The victims were taking part in the annual Land Day march commemorating the 1976 killing of six Palestinians who were protesting Israel’s confiscation of thousands of acres of their land.
on April 4, 2018
Videos
Israeli bombs. Israeli drones. Israeli-imposed power cuts. And no way to leave. Everyday life in Gaza is shaped by Israeli policy, which has turned the coastal enclave into a maximum security prison where the inmates are fathers, mothers and children whose only crime is being born in Gaza.
on July 19, 2017
I talked to my family in Gaza earlier this week and asked them: "How do you sleep at night when you don't have electricity?" The temperature at night there doesn't go below 74 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity is high. My 12-year-old sister answered: "We don’t." She explained that even if they try to sleep, open all the windows, drink a lot of water - still, they can’t breathe.
on July 16, 2017
Fact Sheets
The immediate cause of the current crisis in Gaza is the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority’s efforts to pressure its rival Hamas and to curry favor with the Trump administration. However, the appalling conditions that the nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are forced to endure are ultimately the result of 50 years of Israeli military rule over the tiny coastal enclave and a cruel and illegal siege and naval blockade.
on June 19, 2017
Fact Sheets
Since militarily occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, during the June 1967 War, Israel has destroyed more than 48,000 Palestinian homes and other structures, imprisoned more than 800,000 Palestinians using a military court system that human rights organizations have condemned, and built approximately 125 official settlements on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.
on May 31, 2017
Photo Essays
One year ago, my mother came to my house for a visit. She was late. We sat together on a mattress. She opened her cigarette pack, took out two cigarettes, and we smoked together. It was hot that day. She told me that she just returned from the doctor.
on November 29, 2016
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
Videos
Two years after Israel's attack on Gaza, Palestinian families remain living in shipping containers designed as temporary shelter. Yousef Najjar and his family are still displaced after Israel destroyed his village of Khuza'a.
on July 13, 2016