JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Arts in the West Bank

By Uriel Heilman · June 2, 2009

With its news pages scrutinizing the U.S.-Israeli rift over Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank, The New York Times’ art pages examine Palestinian arts in the disputed territory.

0 Comments | Share This | arts, West Bank

Dream on, Moshe

By Uriel Heilman · May 5, 2009

A former Israeli defense minister wishes Egypt and Jordan would absorb the Palestinians. Dream on, writes JTA Managing Editor Uriel Heilman.

5 Comments | Share This | Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Moshe Arens, West Bank

Palestinians moving to Israel

By Uriel Heilman · December 10, 2008

Concerned about getting cut off from their livelihoods in Israel, some Palestinians are leaving their West Bank homes to resettle west of Israel’s West Bank security fence, inside Israel proper.

5 Comments | Share This | Israel, West Bank

Evacuation in Hebron

By Uriel Heilman · December 4, 2008

The settlers are fooling themselves if they think their campaign to hold onto the West Bank will be determined by force. Rather, the fate of the West Bank will be determined by politics and public opinion. By those measures, today’s showdown in Hebron cannot have helped, writes JTA Managing Editor Uriel Heilman.

2 Comments | Share This | Hebron, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Settlements, West Bank

The mockery of Migron

By Uriel Heilman · November 28, 2008

Some time ago, the Israeli government pledged it would dismantle illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank.

2 Comments | Share This | West Bank

Good news from Hebron

By Uriel Heilman · November 26, 2008

Just days after Jewish settlers in Hebron defaced Muslim gravestones with Stars of David—borrowing a page from neo-Nazi thugs in Europe—The New York Times finds some good news in Hebron: Israeli and Palestinian security forces are cooperating in the volatile city to bring down crime and intra-Palestinian violence, and ward off confrontations between Arabs and Jewish extremists.

1 Comment | Share This | Hebron, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, West Bank

Showdown in Hebron?

By Uriel Heilman · October 29, 2008

The new Palestinian security forces deployed in the West Bank cities of Nablus (Shechem) and Jenin may have helped bring law and order to those cities – and given the Israelis greater confidence that Palestinian security is up to the task – but it’s going to be a lot harder in Hebron, where the new security forced must contend with opposition from Hamas and challenges by extremist Jews, reports Time magazine.

When Palestinian security forces moved into the lawless West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, all they had to worry about were the armed criminal gangs who had been shaking down shopkeepers and stealing cars — it didn’t take long to wrest control from the thugs. But Hebron, where 600 Palestinian forces rolled up over the weekend in shiny new white pick-up trucks, is far more dangerous, because it is a stronghold of Hamas and also the base of an extremist Jewish settler community. The Islamists see the new paramilitary unit as a U.S.- and Israeli-built proxy force to be used against them; while the settlers see the Palestinian security men as “terrorists in uniform,” and are threatening an armed showdown.

If this Ha’aretz report is any indication, however, the P.A. forces are doing their job pressuring Hamas:

The tunnel near Hebron uncovered about two weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority was used by Hamas as a firing range and for other weapons training, according to PA security officials.

The discovery of the tunnel is indicative of the kind of pressure the PA security forces are putting on the military wing of Hamas.

0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians, West Bank

Palestinian Marranos?

By Ami Eden · October 29, 2008

Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land may be intertwined, but with the level of intermingling and overlapping suggested in this news item about Palestinian Marranos, it’s getting ridiculous:

Four Palestinians from the Hebron Hills contacted a group of rabbis on Tuesday and claimed to be the descendents of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam.

2 Comments | Share This | Conversion, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion, West Bank