Israel

Press freedom in Israel: Democracy in the age of self-censorship [Eng]
+972 Magazine, May 2013
More worrying than the institutional and legal instruments that at once enable censorship and do not safeguard press freedom but do enjoy public support, is the multiple forms of self-censorship that are deeply ingrained in the journalistic practices and conventions of Israeli media.

Israel: An Exhibition by  Syrian Online Activists [Ger]
Hyperland, March 2013
With civil war in Syria entering its third year, a group of Syrian online activists has been engaged in artistic protest.  At first inexperienced with digital graphic design, the elaborate political images they have produced have gone viral on the web, and in turn also in the streets, gaining them international acclaim. Now, their artwork is on display in an academic institute in Israel, formally considered an enemy state.

Medical Help for Palestinians Still A Challenge [Eng]
Swissinfo, November 2009
While political divisions refuse to heal, Israeli and Palestinian medical relief groups are trying to overcome numerous hurdles through evolving cooperation.

Bury the Bridge [Eng]
IPS, March 2009
If all goes to plan, passengers will not get to see the beautiful Yitla Stream, or what is left of it, on the train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Construction plans at present include a 144-metre bridge over the mini- canyon in the Jerusalem Hills known as the Yitla Stream. Local people and environmentalists want instead a tunnel link under the Stream in order to keep the habitat intact.

Green Group Resists Oil Exploration [Eng]
IPS, March 2009
A group of Israeli environmentalists is campaigning to prevent oil exploration inside a nature reserve by the Dead Sea. Construction of the drilling facility was approved by the Nature and Parks Authority in the late 1990s. It was only a few years later, in 2003, that the Judean Desert was formally designated as a nature reserve, including the plot of land of the planned drilling site.

Darfur Refugees Flee to ‘Enemy State’ Israel [Ger]
Die Welt and Welt Online, November 2007
.pdf version
Adam is an 18-year-old refugee who currently studies in a boarding school in Haifa, Israel. To get there, he went through a two-years-long journey from his small village in Darfur, through Khartoum, Cairo and Jerusalem. He is also the person behind the establishment of an association of Darfur refugees in Israel. Interweaved with Adam’s personal story is the current status of Darfur refugees in Israel. A humanitarian plea on its doorstep, the country that itself had been founded in the aftermath of a genocide has been struggling to address the sudden flow of migrants. Coming from a country considered by Israel as enemy state, most of them have been greeted with long prison detentions.

The Stones of the Wall shall Cry Out [Heb]
Ha’ir and Achbar Ha’ir Online, August 2006
Yossef Lougasi lives in a small apartment in Jaffa with his wife and 385 mosaic portraits of Jewish and Israeli personas, all created by him. Lougassi, born in 1948, emigrated to Israel with 12 family members from Morocco when he was six years old. His unique drawing skills were first discovered when he was asked to draw a picture for his parole officer after he had been caught stealing for his family. The mosaics came later, inspired by ancient mosaics he had seen. He started off by using pieces of a broken kitchen plate, and still today the materials he uses are all leftovers from domestic renovations that he finds on the street. In his view, his art also acts as a protest against state authorities that refused his enrollment to the army due to the fact he hadn’t completed elementary school. For this reason he couldn’t find a job later on. But despite his anger, Lougasi sticks to his art. “Instead of complaining about our country, I decided to create the mosaic portraits of those who had fired me from work,” he says.

Landslide [Heb]
Tzomet HaSharon, June 2006
.pdf version
Cliff landslides along Herzliya’s beaches are a threat bathers, as well as to the archaeological site of Apollonia. A number of conservation options have been brought up, all require considerable funding, but also cannot guarantee a permanent solution.

Ein Bokek: Another Nature Reserve to Charge Entrance Fees [Heb]
Ynet, March 2006
“Ein Bokek Project”, initiated by the Israeli Nature Reserves and National Parks Authority, seeks to make the already popular desert spring into a tourist attraction with entrance fees. This investigation revealed serious faults within the process: construction works without permits, public hearings ignored, and general contempt of the law.

Tales from the Pond [Heb]
Tzomet HaSharon, February 2006
.pdf version
Herzliya municipality’s plans promise a wide open public park, the largest of its kind in the region. However, the land on which it is supposed to be established has become disputed. In exchange for their consent to the park plan, private land owners demand a number of residential skyscrapers to be built on part of it. The municipality persistently objects, offering compensation instead. As part of this tug of war, the municipality offers public tours and events in a bid to showcase the natural beauty of the unique marshes that have been there since decades, but at the same time ignores the fact that, once the park is there, this endangered habitat would actually disappear.

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