Yahav Zohar / March 2026 Last Friday and Saturday, at the new moon, Muslims celebrated the Eid al Fitr holiday. Traditionally, in Palestine this is a time to visit relatives, share meals and exchange gifts, but for many in the West Bank celebrations were marred by the threat of Iranian missiles and escalating settler violence. […]
Yahav Zohar / March 2026 Sitting at my desk in Jerusalem, looking at the lovely spring outside, occasionally the windowpane shakes in its frame. High above interceptor missiles are exploding, trying to stop an Iranian missile heading toward Tel Aviv. Once every few hours the interceptions are particularly close and a siren goes off and […]
Yahav Zohar / March 2026 Israelis whose work is not considered “vital” were mostly at home for the first days of this war. Like the first days of the pandemic, it was a good time to tend one’s home and garden, clean out drawers and closets, and catch up on correspondence. By now, day 11, […]
by Jocelyn Qassis , March 2026 Honouring the Women of Palestine and the Middle East on International Women’s Day In Palestine, the story of the land cannot be told without the women who have carried it across generations. They are the farmers who rise before sunrise to tend ancient olive groves. They are the teachers […]
As missiles, drones, rockets, ballistics, and counter-ballistics collide in the skies above us, we stand united against this war of aggression. Like all those living in the region or observing it with any attention, members of the Green Olive Collective know that bombing is not the way democracy, stability, justice, or collective freedom are built. […]
by Jocelyn Qassis , March 2026 From Escalation to Entrenchment In the months following October 7, 2023, mobility across the West Bank tightened in ways that were immediately visible yet historically familiar. Entrances to Palestinian towns were sealed with earth mounds and metal gates. Flying checkpoints appeared without warning along major transport corridors linking northern […]
by Jocelyn Qassis , March 2026 “When they burned the hives, it wasn’t just honey we lost.” At sunrise in the hills south of Hebron, a beekeeper lifts the lid of a wooden hive. The air is sharp with thyme. Bees rise and settle in a controlled hum. Inside, order prevails: wax foundations, carefully formed […]
by Jocelyn Qassis – February 2026 – They did not leave all at once. They left slowly, until nothing was left. In conflicts shaped by headlines, numbers often blur into abstraction. Yet sometimes statistics point to something far more concrete: land that is no longer accessible, homes that no longer stand, and communities that no […]
A Reality Beyond the Headlines At 5:30 in the morning, the bulldozers arrive before the sun. In parts of the occupied West Bank — from the rural hills of Masafer Yatta to the divided streets of the old city of Hebron — families wake not to alarm clocks, but to demolition orders and military patrols. […]
As we move into 2026, we do so with clarity rather than illusion. The past year was marked by escalating state violence, intensifying settler attacks, forced displacement, and deepening political fragmentation. For many human rights defenders, 2025 was a year of growing isolation. But it was also a year defined by presence. In a moment […]
The Dust of Our Ancestors The ground trembles before the machine arrives. For Abed, a boy whose life has been measured by the rhythms of the seasons and the endurance of stone, the sound is the roar of a monster. He stands frozen on the rocky soil of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills […]
Between Celebration, Memory, and the Unfinished Search for Peace • By Fred Schlomka • A City Reawakens After Silence It has been three years since Christmas was last celebrated in Bethlehem due to the horrific events of October 7th and the Gaza apocalypse. The contrast between this year’s celebration and last year is striking. The […]
