One of the initiatives is Sadaka Reut, and this is what they say about their program:

With the majority of Palestinian and Jewish youth physically segregated from one another (in separate communities and schools) and fears, racism and prejudice the result, we look to build alternative models for interaction between the two groups. The ‘Building a Culture of Peace’ program seeks to create a space in which both Palestinian and Jewish youth may feel equal, respected and recognized as individuals and as national collectives.

The members of their program have also been participating in the One Minute Video Project, where they learn about video activism during a one-week workshop. Here are some of the results, and you can see the rest by clicking through to their site:

Arab:

AM/FM:

Few Love Singing:

Another initiative is the Windows for Peace project, which started back in 1991 as an effort to produce a bilingual and bicultural magazine for youth as a way for them to connect and learn about the conflict, promote equality and empower youth. However, it hasn't been easy, as they explain on their site:

It is no simple task for Israeli and Palestinian youth to overcome the vast amount of misinformation and stereotypes they are taught about one another. The limited availability for interaction, a result of living in mostly segregated communities and exacerbated by the ongoing violent political conflict, perpetuates the historical fears, prejudice, and hatred that divide the two peoples. Windows is therefore dedicated to fostering large scale change in the way Israeli and Palestinian youth see themselves, “the other” and the conflict. Participants in Windows programs go through experiences that promote conflict transformation among both peoples, towards a peaceful reality with which both sides can live. We believe that a just and lasting peace must be based on democratic values, human rights, and mutual knowledge and acceptance of “the other.”

They are also working on a new initiative called Through the Lens, where 15 to 17 year old youth who “graduate” from the magazine continue developing skills to create short films, news pieces and other video productions to further “productive, peace-building dialogue and positive interaction”.

Here is a video where the participants of Windows speak about their experience in the group and how they have dealt with the challenges it represents to get out of their comfort zone and speak about difficult topics such as the conflict between Israel and Palestine:

As the children in the video state in so many words: they may have a hard time dealing with many of the opinions and perceptions other children express, but having the space to discuss issues in a safe and secure manner helps them understand the world they live in with a possibility to interact, learn and share with other children and youth and even change these perceptions.

As bloggers around the world geared up for October 15 to write about climate change and the environment, the Israeli blogosphere focused on a different date. This year, environmental organizations, activists, and perhaps bloggers as well, will mark October 24 as a day of climate change protest across the Middle East.

Events are being organized under the auspices of Friends of the Earth Middle East and 350.org. Activists in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria are all expected to participate. 350.org provides lists of regional protests, including one for Israel, while the Green Prophet blog supplies an additional list for all known Middle Eastern activity.

The name “350″ sources from the idea that:

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.

Our current count is 387.

Blog Action Day

A number of Israeli blogs have chosen to use Blog Action Day to bring the issue of climate change to the forefront, advocating for continued attention to the issue beyond the designated day.

JGooders promotes the Jewish Climate Change Campaign, urging readers to get involved with Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM), which begins on the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, starting October 19. JSAM, JGooders explains, will be commemorated by social action events in Jewish communities throughout the world.

While communities and environmental activists seek to raise awareness in the global community, what better way to get their ideas across than through images, videos in particular?

Alison Avigayil Ramer of Your Virtual Community Organizer posts “Top 10 Climate Change Videos for Change.org's Blog Action Day.” Among these is a video called “Flat,” by Israeli filmmaker Nitsana Bellehesen, which portrays the world in 2050. The video shows boys and their fathers visiting an exhibit dedicated to the female breast– which no longer exists due to the cancer induced by environmental and atmospheric toxins.

At one point, a boy points to a photograph in the gallery and says, “Look at that one. That baby is eating her breast.” The father responds, “Well, that's actually how babies used to be fed.”

While viewing of this powerful film is highly recommended, you should be warned that there is explicit nudity.

Ramer encountered the film, which was shown at the Breast Fest 2009: A Film Festival that Targets Breast Cancer, at the hub for social entrepreneurs where she works in Tel Aviv. She writes:

Web video can be an extremely effective way to raise consciousness about a sustainable business or cause. Video is a great interlude to all the text online and is relatively inexpensive to make, share and watch. The moving images and music can captivate an audience and convey thousands of words in just a few minutes. Especially today, now that we have numerous ways to share video on social networks and blogs, video has great potential to become viral and carry your business, non-profit organization or cause to thousands or even millions of viewers.

Note that while thinking about climate change can be disturbing, that feeling of discontent should lead to action, not apathy. At Judaism and the Environment in the Talmud, Carmi Wisemon, executive director of Sviva Israel, a prominent environmental organization, writes about the role of reflection in Jewish practice.

Israel and the Jewish world have just celebrated the holiday of Sukkot, in which they build huts where they eat meals with their families, spend quiet meditative time, and sometimes even sleep under the stars. Like Shabbat (the Sabbath), as well as many other Jewish holidays, Sukkot provides the opportunity to cease all action and think about our place in the universe.

Wisemon writes:

So this Sukkot [holiday], as we relax in our sukkot [huts], and admire the natural splendor of our lulavs and etrogs, think about the deeper meaning of the holiday. We can all do our bit to prevent climate change, and that includes a 2,000 year-old tradition of praying for rain to fall– neither too little nor too much– in Israel, but also in the Philippines, Indonesia and even Atlanta.

On my own blog, The New Jew, which focuses on philanthropy and social innovation, I published a post on “Caring About the Environment, Jewishly.” There I share a speech by environmental activists who urge us to think about how the practices of traditional Judaism connect us to the natural world.

Shabbat– is an ecological treasure! A day to rest from shopping, manufacturing, driving!

Kashrut (keeping Kosher)– the idea that what we eat matters, that it’s upon us to minimize suffering of animals! We need to update this to take responsibility for the full impacts of what we eat, the stuff we buy, and what we put into landfills. We vote with our dollars and with our forks for the full story of our food and our stuff.

Brachot (the blessings over our food)- invite mindfulness of where our food comes from. To bless food we have to figure out whether it grew from the ground or a tree; from there it’s a short step to thinking of how it was raised, whether the people involved in getting it to us were paid a fair wage, whether its story helped or hurt our environment.

In keeping with the natural theme, Elisha at O'Sprinkles profers beauty through photography and reminds us what our fight is really about: growth and renewal in the natural world.

As you finish up October 15th, urge yourself to use Blog Action Day as part of a continuum. How can you reduce your carbon footprint, improve the way you use natural resources, and reassess your consumption patterns?

The Jewish Climate Campaign leaves you with some suggestions.

Non-Jewish readers will note that Rosh HaShana is the Jewish New Year, while Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement: a fast day 10 days after Rosh HaShana.

Rock of the Galilee writes about the special time of year between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.

This has been a crazy busy week between rosh hashana and yom kippur, I did two selichos [forgivness] tours, one in Tsfat with the boys… and then to Jerusalem the next evening with the girls. We also built our sukkah, which we got from our friends…

Today started at 4:30AM. That's not as early as it sounds because we changed our clocks last night, so it only felt like 5:30AM… Last night I had decided that I was going to go down to the nachal (stream) for an early dip in the mikvah (ritual bath).

Religious Jews, both men and women, traditionally purify themselves in the mikveh prior to the holy days.

At the Ingathered blog, Leah writes that there are two motivations for asking for forgiveness from G-D: fear of retribution and love of the divine. She explains that:

Though both types of teshuva [asking for forgiveness] are accepted, the first voids the sin and clears the scoreboard, while the second places the repentant at an advantage by turning his sins into virtues.

Over at Aliyah! Step by Step, Yael muses over the more practical aspects of preparing for the holiday:

Every year I am taken by surprised at this stockpiling mentality. It is like people are getting ready to descend into bunkers for the next 6 weeks or something rather than the stores simply being closed for 24 hours. The woman ahead of me kept sending her reluctant kids off to collect additional items, “Dudi, go back and get 4 more yogurts.”

On Yom Kippur, A Soldier’s Mother asks readers to remember the soldiers who protect the nation, referencing—as many Israeli bloggers did—the renewed threat of a nuclear Iran, following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Our sons and daughters guard our borders, protected by a God who has promised us this land again and again. A God who has seen us brought home after more than 2,000 years to a land that was always ours, and always will be. The greatness of that covenant makes a mockery of Ahmadinejad and Iran. They are nothing, their missiles a joke compared to the Might of Israel.

(Click here for the full text of Ahmadinejad’s address to the United Nations on September 24th, 2009.)

At South Jerusalem, Gershom Gorenberg contemplates the ways in which Jewish ritual is shaped based on its relationships with the Diaspora communities from whence they were influences.

In subtle, indirect ways, it seems, our sense of divine mercy is shaped in part by the amount of human warmth we’ve met.

He writes that on a trip to Bangkok during Yom Kippur, he and his wife were able to visit a synagogue of Mizrachi Jews—Jews who come from Arab communities in the Middle East—and was taken aback at the different way in which they prayed, compared to Jews from European communities. He remembers:

It was our first time spending that long day of prayer and fasting with Mizrahi Jews. We were used to the mournful melodies of Ashkenazim on the edge of bursting into tears. In Bangkok, standing before heavily judgment, the Jews rocked. “Hatanu lefanekha, rahem aleinu” – “We have sinned before you, have mercy on us,” they belted out, as if no thought could be happier.

Jameel at the Muqata enacts the ritual of asking for forgiveness by doing so of his blog readers:

I would like to ask forgiveness:
- if I didn't answer your email
- if I forgot to link to your blog/add you to my blogroll
- if I neglected to write a post about something requested.
- if I wrote anything factually incorrect on the blog over this past year.

I have tried extremely hard to only post factual updates, complete with sources and hyperlinks and have tried to correct any story or post that I found to be inaccurate.

At eJewishPhilanthropy, Gail Hyman shares a related list (excerpted):

I wonder how many of these transgressions of communications we all share.
- Failure to get all the facts right.
- Failure to actively listen as an essential part of communicating.
- Failure to be open to hearing others’ opinions and points of view.
- Failure to recognize that there are many – not one – valid perspectives on a subject.
- Failure to speak out on matters that require your voice.
- Failure to communicate more often with those who need and deserve your attention.

Returning to the Muqata, Jameel also shares an interesting way that his community is commemorating Yom Kippur:

Our settlement is participating yet again in the “Biyachad” (Together) community prayer service, in which secular and religious Jews come together in prayer on Yom Kippur. It takes place in a local school, not in an official synagogue — yet in neutral ground so that no one feels “out of place.”

A community praying together, with ALL sectors represented is truly special. On this day of solemn holiness, the Jewish people put aside their difference, politics, and quibbles — and beseech G-d's forgiveness.

Over at Jerusalem Diaries and Jewlicious, bloggers Judy Lash Balint and Rabbi Yonah write about the ritual practice of kapparot. Kapparot entails a chicken (or other symbolic object) being swung around the head three times. Practitioners believe that the sin is transferred to the object and then, in the process of swinging, released from both the person and the object.

In her post, “Approaching the Big Day,” Lash Balint takes us through the steps of preparing for the holy days, starting with kapparot:

In a parking lot near Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda market, dozens of live chickens are whirled above the heads of men, women and children while a pronouncement is made declaring: “This is my substitute, my vicarious offering, my atonement: This chicken will meet its fate while I will proceed to a good, long life of peace.” …The chickens are then donated to the needy or redeemed with money that goes to the poor.

She continues:

In the streets later in the day, men hurry along with towels to the nearest mikveh (ritual bath). Many have already started building their sukkot (booths) in readiness for Sukkot, the one-week festival that starts the week after Yom Kippur. Sukkot structures of all kinds have sprung up on balconies, street corners and in front of cafes. The final decorations and theschach covering will be added right after the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Lash Balint adds that newspapers predict that an estimated 71% of Israel Jews between 18 and 35 years old will fast this year on Yom Kippur.

At Jewlicious, Rabbi Yonah asks readers what object they are using for kapparot this year. Here were his results:

- Money (40%)
- Chicken (25%)
- Not doing Kaparos (25%)
- Vegetable (10%)
- Fish (0%)

Chaviva of Kvetching Editor reflects about her search for G-D among the prayers and practice. In a post entitled, “When I Call, Will You Answer?” she recalls her feelings about religion as she was struggling for answers at this time last year.

The one thing I always detested about “religion” was that it lacked rhyme or reason. Things were done because “that's just what we do.” You go to church on Sunday because that's what a good Christian does. You daven [pray] three times a day, because that's what a good Jew does…

The WHY gets lost in translation. That's also what drew me so much to Judaism…. It is enlightening and brilliant the amount of discussion and argument that goes into Jewish thought.

On a far more mundane note, Dion Nissenbaum of Checkpoint Jerusalem provides readers with a rabbinic rundown of whether or not Jews should wear Crocs on Yom Kippur. After reviewing the various opinions, the conclusion seems to be:

An ultra-Orthodox rabbi has determined that the ugly plastic clog doesn't provide the appropriate level of suffering for the Jewish holy day of atonement.

Jews are forbidden from wearing leather on this day, making Crocs, which are constructed of plastic, a popular alternative.

Steve of Israel Seen leaves us with a blessing of his own:

Bless all of you Jews and Non Jews a like in the celebration of life knowing full well that there are people all over the world that still suffer from oppression, poverty and lack of opportunity. Until all of us are free there will always be a piece of us that is a bit torn in the pain of the suffering.

Finally, Jewish blogger Ima On (and Off) the Bima, writing in an entry entitled, “I Hope You Don’t Have an Easy Fast,” leaves us with this fervent wish:

I don't want my fast to be easy.I want my fast to be purposeful. I want my fast to be meaningful. I want my fast to remind me that people are starving in the world. I want my fast to remind me that my spiritual self has work to do. I want to feel the light-headedness that comes at the end of the day when I've been on my feet for almost 12 hours leading services and I want that moment to lift me up and help me feel a true connection to God.

So this year I'm not wishing anyone an easy fast. May your fast be full of all that you need it to be. May your fast be powerful and purposeful and meaningful.

Assaf Levanon writes in Hebrew:

Ever since the news article on the massacre in the LGBT center in Tel Aviv was published, social networks have been flooded with acts of solidarity towards the victims. Hundreds of users have changed their profile image on facebook and twitter to the pride flag with a black line or memorial candle. Ever since the shooting, Israeli online networks have been continuously discussing the topic, condemning those who deem responsible, particularly Knesset members from the Shas ultra-orthodox party.

During the minutes following the events, twitter users started to display their anger and frustration:
“I want a pride march in Jerusalem that will surround the Knesset and then enter. I want hostages!” - Riki Cohen
“This murder is unacceptable! Stonewall happened in New York 40 years ago! What if some of the injured just came out?” - Dafna Talmon
“My deep sorrow to the kids who need to explain to their parents how they reached the hospital…”

Throughout the night, Israeli users provided their opinions online, reacting to the television coverage:
“a request to the TV broadcasters: please wait with the mobile video until the technology gets better. Blurry and stuck, hurts the eye!” - Edna
“Is there a broadcaster who doesn't slightly pause before saying the words ‘homo-lesbian'?

Turns out that Ma'ariv's website NRG does not take part in any type of filtering. Users were horrified by some of the comments which showed up on the news site. One of the offending comments read: “Shooting indiscriminately at the public is dumb, because there's the chance that you murdered a person who is not gay.”
“What's happening on NRG is atrocious. It is important to respond to each and every homophobe,” - Tzvika Bashor reacted.

After the first updates on this event started coming through, Facebook and Twitter users began expressing their shock and disbelief towards the Israeli mainstream media coverage. “It is unbelievable. An hour after the LGBT community shooting, channel 2's reporter Yoav Even is interviewing Yaniv Vaitzman, and presenting him as ‘Ivri Lider's ex-boyfriend'. The blood has not dried, the murderer still free, the horror is still being processed, and the important information that we are getting from channel 2 is that here in front of us Ivri Lider's ex-boyfriend is being interviewed! Amazing how pure entertainment gossip, not connected at all to the shooting, gets mixed in this same report.” - Sagi Ben-Nun, Journalist, written on Facebook.

The image above has been used by for many Israeli Facebook and Twitter users for their profile.

And finally, here's the translation of part of Hani Zuvida's written reaction:

I turn to you all educators and parents, we are all part of the same cauldron. This is an intolerable situation. Seems like we have no social convention. Back to natural selection where the strong survive. No, I am not interested in a police state, but our lives and our children's lives are not to be abandoned. Educate your sons and daughters. But most of all start with yourselves. Respect others and do not project hate speech upon any social group. Be tolerant.

The advertisement produced by McCann Erickson advertising agency, was accepted as insensitive at best by many Israelis, becoming an icon of blindness to the occupation in the Israeli society. The Facebook group titled “I too get nausea from watching Cellcom's new ad” has 2,355 members to date and is growing daily.

Here is a sample of the main arguments voiced by many bloggers:

“After all, what do we all really want? Not to see beyond the separation fence. And then everything is indeed 'sababa': army service is fun and war is really a game in which the unseen Palestinians are little pawns one can move without paying a price in the real world. This ad is a perfect reflection of our reality: we see only the things that affect our side. The soldiers in the ad are not interested in meeting the people who live on the other side…..finally the ad exposes what the army generals tried to hide from us: on the other side of the fence there are no human beings at all. Looking above the fence (min 0:47) we see there's nothing on the other side – everything is empty and green!”

(Romi Izhaki)

“What where the guys in McCann Erickson thinking when they chose the separation wall to star in the new Cellcom ad? If they wanted to represent the vision of a new middle east, why hide the Palestinians behind a concrete wall and present the soldiers as ball snatchers who only care about their fun? The result is an ad with the sensitivity of sandpaper and what stings most is the fact it makes the situation we live in seem not only bearable but even fun.

(Lior Zalmanson)

“The new Cellcom ad may seem like a bad taste provocation, similar to the Benetton ads with the hungry children, but it's actually an attempt to associate the firm with mainstream Israeliness, hence, involving the army. .. In an academic paper following the peace meter by Herman and Yaar from 2001, the authors found Israel is torn in half between the people who support and object the Oslo agreement. However, both sides agree on one thing: weather there'll be a Palestinian state or not, the Palestinians should be totally separated from us. We are here and they are there. And maybe one day it'll be ‘achla” or at least fast internet connection between these sides.

The separation wall allows us to push the Palestinians beyond the horizon, beyond visibility. It allows us to shrink their existence and reduce our friction to occasional ball swapping, replacing the occupation goal with a goal conquest. Cellcom's ad is infuriating because for some audiences it creates the impression of a peace gesture, coexistence and acknowledgment of the other side's humanity, when in fact it isn't. Because there's no other side there and we don't really care about it. In fact the message of this ad is that the separation wall allows us to keep playing and have fun, and we all know who the party poopers are”.

(Mouli Bentman)

The criticism united both sides of the political spectrum as demonstrated on Yuval Adam's blog. Yuval writes:

“when I watched this ad I shivered. I've been there at the separation wall, I visited the other side. Even right wing voters admit the other side wants more than just a little fun. Regardless of political affinity, you cannot deny people on the other side are suffering. …this ad demonstrates cultural blindness and reality blindness. The heartless people who produced it are blind to the real meaning of this wall and to the people behind it. It seems the ones who built that wall succeeded in making us forget what's behind it, if we ever remembered.”

Miriam, comments on the same post:

“I belong to the opposite political spectrum but when I saw this ad I was shocked as well. First, it makes our soldiers look stupid, willing to throw everything away for a stupid ball. Second, I live not far away from the wall and can see it from my garden. I know Palestinian people in this area and I know how much they suffer. This wall is a matter of survival for both sides and it's not about entertainment. Our soldiers play free and on the other side they're trapped, invisible, meaning not human. Just a force that throws balls so we can enjoy, on their expense. I recommend the makers of this ad to get out of their air conditioned offices for one day and visit the wall so they will have a better understanding of reality”.

Others chose to voice their criticism through viral distribution of spoofs: the first spoof replaces the soccer game with the actual war the metaphor stands for, showing Israeli soldiers bombing Palestinians instead of throwing a ball and the Palestinians reacting in cries of mourning to the laughter of the soldiers.

The second spoof attempts to insert the missing face of the Palestinian side, representing the Palestinian as a gagged man that regardless of the fact his hands and legs are tied, he kicks back the ball as if he's being forced to.

Such visuals would be considered anti-Israeli if they weren't edited and distributed by Israelis. Cellcom has asked both YouTube and Flix, a Hebrew video sharing website, to take off the videos on account of copyright infringement, but many Israelis re uploaded and shared them on Facebook over the last week. The videos were also re uploaded to YouTube and currently can be watched via the provided links.

Other people fail to see what’s so wrong about this ad, as Moti Shushan writes on the wall of the Facebook protest group:

“I actually like the ad. The only thing sad about it is that it was made by a commercial company and not the ministry of education. The ad is so wonderful and innocent, it shows you there can be a ball instead a bullet between the two sides and it's an attempt to dream beyond our reality. The only thing that makes me noxious is that this beautiful situation is so surreal we can only imagine it in an advert”.

Yariv Oppenheimer writes in defense of the Ad on Ynet opinion section:

“The immediate message of this ad is that behind the fence there are people who also want to live a normal life, thus breaking the stereotype of the Palestinian people as filled with hate and violence and want to destroy us. It is rare to present them as partners for a ball game, as good neighbors. Their invisibility only reminds us that behind the fence children families and dreams were forgotten. In addition, IDF soldiers are portrayed as normative people who might enjoy a human encounter with “the enemy”. The ad portrays an ideal of humanism and respect expected from our soldiers in their daily engagements with Palestinians. The ad might change a bit the perception so rooted in us that every Palestinian is a potential enemy….it's a brave attempt to represent on screen the longing we have for peace, on prime time and by a commercial firm no less”.

Indeed, Cellcom may have had good intentions by creating this ad, since as Walla!news discovered, the football game idea was inspired by an older Israeli ad made for OneVoice's peace campaign visioning to host the 2018 world cup in Israel-Palestine. In addition, blogger Yoav Einhar pointed out that the graffiti on the separation wall in the ad, was drawn by graffiti artist Banksy, who sympathized with Palestinian suffering. The real graffiti was drawn on the Palestinian side of the fence in Abu Dis and can be seen in Einhar's post.

Many angry customers got formal responses from Cellcom that were posted on blog comments and on the Facebook group protesting against the ad:

“Our intention was to show that we are all human beings that want to enjoy life in every situation and that fun connects between people….The message of this campaign was that human communication exists in every situation. We got many positive and supportive feedbacks too. There was no intention to be cynical, to hurt anybody or to take any political stand”.

Ideal or not, Palestinians from Bil'iin demonstrated this week that we’re still far from the fun atmosphere of the ad. Their attempt to play football with real Israeli soldiers by the fence, resulted in a small uprising and some tear gas, as documented in this raw footage, using Cellcom's ad music, which can be watched here.

Why have you chosen to use the name Ibn Ezra?

I am a student of Jewish philosophy and as such I have come into contact with the 11th Spanish Jewish philosopher Avraham ibn Ezra. Ibn Ezra was a Bible commentator and wrote extensively about co-existence between Jews and Arabs in Muslim Spain. When I was thinking about a title for the website it felt like a natural fit. It is also a meaningful play on words, as ibn Ezra literally means “son of Ezra,” as if we who are involved in direct action are all sons of the prominent activist Ezra Nawi, a long time member of Ta'ayush and a guru of the Israeli and Palestinian left whom I wanted to include on the website in a meaningful way.

Joseph Dana documenting new construction at an outpost near the Israeli settlement of Susya in the southern West Bank.

Could you tell us something about Ta‎’ayush? How did you first get involved?

From its earliest days, Ta'ayush has produced action only, neither manifestos nor ideological debates. The group that consolidated wanted to reverse the usual scale of priorities: after realizing that declarations do not always stand the test of ‘moments of truth’, action was chosen as the way to demonstrate a refusal to accept the repetition of incursions, and to be present where things took place. Direct, non-violent action was the path chosen, as well as decision-making by consensus. Ta'ayush formulated a position paper by the end of December 2000, but its fine-points took up too much time and energy. It was decided to put off this task, and gain the participation of everyone who identified with the actions that were planned to express clear positions. Protest by actual doing, by outspoken negation of the separation between Arabs and Jews in Israel in every realm of life, and of the Occupation itself, of starvation, closure, movement limitations and military incursions that Israel practices in the Occupied Territories.

As an Israeli-American concerned with the conflict and firmly against the occupation I was drawn to Ta'ayush because of the inclusion of voices and viewpoints. I feel that most of the organizations and groups on the ground are deeply mired in rigid ideological viewpoints. Ta'ayush, while clearly against the occupation, does not make solid claims on ideology or long term goals. Instead we focus on direct action week after week. Furthermore, as an Israeli Jew, I think that it is important to work with fellow Israelis that want to break down barriers between Palestinians and Israelis, as opposed to simply fueling anti-Israeli rhetoric like other anti-occupation groups tend to do.

While you are clearly working to support Palestinians in resisting the actions of Israeli settlers, the military and the police, your videos seem to focus on the experience of the activists themselves, rather than that of the Palestinians. Is this because the videos are aimed at an Israeli audience?

Often times the interaction that we experience is between us and the settlers and soldiers. Understandably, Palestinians tend to hover behind us during these interactions because they live by a very different system of laws than we do. Meaning, an Israeli can be detained and by law will see a judge within 24 hours while a Palestinians can sit in jail for up to three days before seeing a judge. So they generally prefer to leave the interactions with the soldiers/settlers to the Israeli activists.

There is an aspect of showing the interaction vis a vis the rule of law between Israelis and soldiers/settlers to the Israeli general public and the American Jewish community (the website is in English specifically because my main audience is the United States public). I want to stress the image that Israelis that choose to work with Palestinians against the occupation lose some of their rights as citizens and efficiently start to experience a slice of the reality of law that Palestinians have to live with. I want to cover our reaction to this phenomenon and show it to Jewish communities throughout the world.

Do you feel that anti-occupation activism has increased or decreased in Israel in recent years? How are Israeli activists generally perceived? Is there mainstream Israeli media coverage of the activism taking place?

Israel has moved far to the right over the past ten years as Israeli society has largely accepted the status quo of occupation and the lack of a Palestinian partner for peace. “Leftwing” governments' consistent role in the settlement project since 1967 and the recent war in Gaza has exposed the weakness of traditional left parties like Labor and Meretz. As a result of these trends, I feel like the Israeli left has died. In its place, a new left has begun to take shape. A left that is interested in direct action against the occupation and is highly critical of the Israeli army and security establishment.

While this group is still a minority, it is gaining strength and exposure, however the majority of Israel considers it to be radical and questionable. As a result, anti-occupation activists tend to be marginalized in the general public. But it should be noted that occupation monitoring organizations such as Peace Now, B'tselem, and Yesh Din garner respect in society and are recognized as important resources for information.

In terms of mainstream media coverage of our actions, most media outlets are happy to air footage or reports of settler violence. However, the media is still unwilling to air stories or footage of IDF violence directed toward Israeli peace activists. This is a line that simply has not been crossed in Israel yet, as the majority of the Israeli public is not yet willing to challenge the dominance of the IDF.

I have been working hard on using internet media to get out Ta'ayush experiences and it has been met with great success. My website has become a resource for on-the-ground videos and commentary about the reality of the occupation in the south West Bank. The live tweeter updates (@ibnezra) that I have been sending from the West Bank have found an important international audience that I hope will grow as the story of Israelis that resist the occupation must be told.

The Open University is the biggest Israeli university with 42,000 students nationwide and a staff of 1300 academic personnel. As traditional media abandoned this dispute after two weeks of strike, over 30 Israeli bloggers took it upon themselves to keep this struggle on the agenda and the discussion alive.

Keren Fite, PhD in English literature, writes on her blog:

“For 13 years I was led by the notion there is no choice: that the Open University has its unique economic constraints and it can only hire me when enough students register for my course.  Due to these constraints I often get notified about my course's opening only a week before the semester starts, and until than I am left wondering if I will have a salary for the next few months. Due to the same constraints I'm fired and re hired (or not) at the end of every semester.
But the university doesn't care about my constraints: I'm not entitled to call in sick or any other basic social rights for that matter, and when I was pregnant the university refused to renew my contract for the next semester.
At present, when I am on strike, the university doesn't respect my right to strike, to say no to these disgracing employment conditions. Since the beginning of the strike I've been getting threatening emails, demanding to know if I am striking de facto and later notifying me that they will not be paying my salary if I'm on strike. In other words, they know they are my main source of income and they're waiting for me to be hungry enough to break the strike.
Thus, the Open University that stands for making higher education accessible, denies me of the access to fair employment and the right to economical well being.”

Labyrinth, an Open University student writes on her blog:

“It is possible that my graduation will be postponed, that my grades will drop or that in a month from today I will not breathe under the pressure of catching up the missed lessons. But it is possible that my teachers will be able to breathe a bit between a lesson and an exam, because their salary will be a bit fairer. I might also be able to recommend my teachers to other students knowing that they have a steady job and will be there for sure the next semester. And it is also possible that the academic staff union will open the door for other strong and worthy unions in many private colleges that suffer the same consequences.
So maybe one day when I'll be in their place (yes, I'm considering this…) I will be happy i paid the price for this strike since I'll be paid back decently for my work”.

And Tomer Reznik adds on his blog:

“As I was wondering how I can write an interesting post about a struggle for the obvious (collective agreement, job security etc), it suddenly came to me: the fact that the academic staff has to fight for the obvious is the whole point here. The open university must meet their demands immediately and stop treating them as if they were temporary contractor workers!”

Limor64, a member of the academic staff of the Open University for 11 years, notes:

“We don't want to be the University's shock absorbers anymore. The Open University is a successful enterprise but its success is on the expense of its human resource.
We're not getting paid for 5 weeks now, the future of this semester is unclear but we look into the future hoping for a secure and rewarding workplace. Organized labor is so important nowadays on a global scale, since both employers and governments make the workers pay the price for the current economical crisis”.

In addition to these blogging efforts, various Facebook solidarity groups were created and Roy Chicky Arad, a journalist-blogger involved in counter-culture activity, has organized a guerilla poetry reading titled “the closed university” that was held on May 12^th in front of the private residence of the Open University's president.

In the past few days a new viral bloggers campaign emerged, promoting a boycott on AMPM drugstore chain, on account of severe right infringements of their workers, mostly of Jewish-Ethiopian ethnicity.

Blogger Sharon Gefen who initiated the boycott, writes:

“I ignored their overpricing or the fact that their increasing presence forces the closing of favorite family-owned drugstores, but workers rights infringements isn't' something I can live with. Say, if the cashier is a few minutes late to her shift, she pays a fine of 150nis. If she cannot make it to her shift she's fined with 450nis, which is more than double the money she earns for that shift. Enough is enough. I'd rather buy my cigarettes (and milk, and bread and tampons etc.) someplace else, so that everyone will feel ‘it's good to live in this city' as the AMPM slogan states, even if they are AMPM workers”.

Earlier this year, in the midst of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, it was announced that Mira Awad, a Palestinian-Israeli actress-singer, will perfom a duet with the Jewish-Israeli singer Achinoam Nini (known as “Noa”) in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. While the chosen song held a message about finding “another way”, condemnation rained down on the duo. The objection came from Arab artists who urged Mira to withdraw from the contest. In their message, they asked her not to represent the same state that kills other Palestinians. The radical left wing both within and beyond Israel was unequivocal: Awad should refuse to sing on such a blood-soaked stage.

The Eurovision song contest is one of the most viewed and televised events across the European continent. It has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programs in the world, bridging together countries that are part of the European Broadcasting Union (including some countries outside of continental Europe such as Israel, Lebanon and Tunisia). Although its nature is purely musical, the event can turn out to be a highly politicized night, with regards to participants and the voting choices that each country makes. In the past, Lebanon has pulled out of the contest because it refused to show the Israeli song entry on the Lebanese TV channel Tele-Liban. This put Lebanon in breach of the contest rules, stating that countries taking part must broadcast the entire event.

In a guest post on Binyamin Netanyahu's blog, Zalman Shoval writes:

I admit: I did not feel sorry that the movie Waltz for Bashir did not win the Oscar. I will also not shed a tear if Achinoam Nini reaches the last place in the Eurovision song contest. Both are examples of what's currently happening in our culture, trying to de-legitimize and vilify Israel for the world to see. The journalist who interviewed both singers is also not clean from guilt, as he wrote that the two are “trying to prove that even with the election results, Israel of 2009 still has people who seek peace…” - in other words, he thinks that the 70 per cent who supported this coalition are seeking war.
In any case, this is the message of the song the two artists are about to sing to the world. Nini (Noa) thinks that “the situation in Israel is a catastrophe”, she adds that she thinks many give their lives towards peace from both sides, but without being able to mention herself even one name from the Palestinian side whose done this.

Throughout the controversy, the duo gave a stellar performance in the song contest and even reached the finals, which took place last night (May 16th):

isRealli posts an interview Noa gave to the Spanish paper La Razon. Noa, a known peace activist, highlights the importance of their song's message:

- This is the first time that an Israeli/Arabic combination will go to the Eurovision Song Contest. Is the music the best way to join a divided town?
Noa: Mira and I are very proud to be the first Arab-Jewish Israeli duo to go to Eurovision. We are also proud that upon our demand, the internal laws were changed and Arabic was allowed to be sung as a formal language representing Israel in the ESC. Our duo sheds light on the complexity of our situation here in the Middle East. Israel has a very large minority, almost 20 per cent, of Palestinians, Christian (like Mira) and Muslim, who are Israeli citizens. This sector is still fighting for full integration into Israeli society. This is separate from the Palestinians living in the occupied territories, who are fighting for their independence and the establishment of the state of Palestine. In addition, Israel is surrounded by Arab countries most of which do not recognize her right to exist. So you can see, the situation is complicated. Mira and I do not represent [Israel] to present reality, but what our nations can STRIVE for if we choose dialogue over violence. Our friendship is a symbol of how we CAN get along, based on respect and communication.
Art and music cannot solve the world’s problems, but we can help. And we MUST help. We must do our part in the GLOBAL effort for peace and reconciliation that must include EVERY human being and every organization, each playing his part.

- How was the announcement received in Israel? How have the levels of support been from the public since the song was chosen?
Noa: There were some people who objected to this duet for various reasons, but the large majority are VERY supportive and excited. I think for most people we are a symbol of hope. I have received amazing e-mails from all over the world, including Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria and Qatar! This always moves me so deeply and gives me strength to continue my road.

David Hirsh posts text from a Guardian article by Rachel Shabi, where she describes her feelings towards the duo after interviewing them:

Interviewing the two, I was struck by Mira Awad talking about staying friends and maintaining discussion with Noa despite their deep disagreements over aspects of the Gaza war. Sticking around for such conversations, when every part of you wants to walk away in disgust, is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of genuine peace work – and it deserves respect.

These two singers seem to be saying that, whatever the international community does or doesn't do about this conflict, Palestinians and Israelis are still going to have to find a way to live together. That's the draining, demoralising and largely invisible day-to-day work of conflict resolution. That's what they seem to want to use the Euro stage to state. And you could say it's a bit hippie and way too understated – but is it nonetheless worth broadcasting?

Israeli ambassador to Switzerland was recalled and returned to Jerusalem following the Swiss presidents' meeting with the Iranian leader. Shimon Peres said earlier in the day: “There is a limit to Switzerland's neutrality, and there is a border which must not be crossed. Everyone should realize that Iran is a country where people are lynched in the street for no good reason. It is the world center for terrorism and bloodshed.”

As the national holocaust memorial day unfolds, Israeli bloggers reflect and question the meaning of the day's events.

Bravejeworld describes the events at the conference:

Mahmoud Ahmedinajad proceeded to prove all the anti-Durban I protestors right this afternoon as he launched into a predictable tirade against Israel and the Jewish people. Contrary to the principles and claimed purpose of the UN backed conference, Iranian's president proved to the world how hypocritical he actually is as by standing directly opposed to everything the Western world holds dear. As a result, many world leaders walked out of the conference as he began his speech to the delight and pleasure of the many spectators and thus reducing the conference to the shambles many were hoping it would be.

Dr. Ori Amity affirms how the Palestinian problem is certainly not related to race, nor is genocide, as Ahmadinejad claims:

True, the Iranian president is a ridiculous character, but especially with this type of person, we cannot stay silent. And before everything, it is necessary to refer to his accusation of genocide. With the Israeli Laissez-faire mentality, and some failures found here and there, if there was a masterplan to kill all Palestinians, we all would have noticed it by now: gas chambers in the Erez checkpoint, firing squads and death marches from Hebron to Jenin - someone would have already noticed, no?

The claims (towards Israel) over racism are somewhat right, especially with regards to the 1970's immigration law, which provides immediate citizenship even to the children and grandchildren of Jews, and not only to the Jews themselves. This is exactly the difference between discrimination on the basis of race versus religion. And still, the president is not worried about this law, but about the Palestinian problem. There are many different types of problems here, but certainly not based on race.

An important lesson learned from the holocaust is - never become indifferent to another person's suffering - especially if you are the cause. The Palestinian suffering is a fact, and the abstention from finding a solution for many years is unjust for both sides. This serves as a constant reminder that not everything is good, and if we will not act to fix the situation, we might lose that which today seems as most obvious.

Adi Shternberg brings up the example of Europe pre-WWII relating to the danger of non-action:

Hitler came into political rule in a legitimate manner. He made his way to the top against all odds, and proved he had political and strategical capabilities. All this would not have happened if the European countries would have stood strong and shown military might while it was still possible. Nazi Germany was far from powerful in its first years. France, England, Poland and Russia could have stopped the Nazi snowball in its first years… before it became too late; before history was written in blood.

The mere fact of organizing a conference such as Durban II during the formal holocaust memorial day, shows the historical and generational blindness that this ancient European continent has. Europe was totally destroyed during the world war, and could have prevented this. Europe lets this terrible conference take place - the type of gathering that supports the dark forces of the world. Europe can still stop this. It is not too late.

Navka writes:

Must it be on this day? When we remember the atrocities that happened in the world - the murder of millions of people because of hate, with no good reason.
Durban II conference opened, where the honorary guests Ahmadinejad gives a racist speech against Israel.
We must not provide these terrible people with a stage where they can open their mouths this way…

Danny Zamir, the program founder, had invited combat soldiers and officers who graduated the program for a lengthy discussion of their experiences in Gaza. They spoke openly, but also with considerable frustration. The session transcript was published and quickly picked up by multiple media outlets.

Zamir: “I don't intend for us to evaluate the achievements and the diplomatic-political significance of Operation Cast Lead this evening, nor need we deal with the systemic military aspect [of it]. However, discussion is necessary because this was, all told, an exceptional war action in terms of the history of the IDF, which has set new limits for the army's ethical code and that of the State of Israel as a whole.

“This is an action that sowed massive destruction among civilians. It is not certain that it was possible do have done it differently, but ultimately we have emerged from this operation and are not facing real paralysis from the Qassams. It is very possible that we will repeat such an operation on a larger scale in the years to come, because the problem in the Gaza Strip is not simple and it is not at all certain that it has been solved. What we want this evening is to hear from the fighters.”

Amira Hass stresses the importance of these testimonials on the Democracy Now blog:

“the soldiers actually confirm what Palestinians have been telling for the past three months, and journalists who listen to Palestinians and believe Palestinians and know their work of taking affidavits and testimonies from Palestinians have done so during the last three months. This is the main importance.”

The chief army prosecutor, Brigadier General Avichai Mendelblit, announced the criminal investigation after the accounts became public. However, on March 30th he said he would not file charges, claiming crucial components of the soldiers' descriptions were based on hearsay. Mendelblit was quoted as saying: “the majority of the soldiers' descriptions were rumors, not told from personal knowledge”.

In his blog, Ori Heitner claims that mainstream media totally missed Danny Zamir's message:

Danny provides a complex message, dealing with a complex reality. The argument was tempestuous, ranging between the two poles of simplicity and extremity.
My critique for Danny is that he did not take the necessary steps to remove those who leveraged his message to slander and hurt the IDF's image - first and foremost Ha'aretz newspaper.

He continues on to publish Zamir's reaction to the Israeli uproar against his claims:

The need to investigate IDF's failures in order to preserve its spirit and ethical code cannot be considered an action “against” IDF. On the contrary, it is an action that comes from a place of responsibility and partnership with the events happening in the military, which is composed of use all.

The claims that this exposure of our soldiers actions will fuel Israel haters, is wholly improper. Those who hate Israel do not need specific descriptions such as theres. However, I have no doubt that a naiive, western civilian who is mulling over Israel's image, will see the acknowledgment and reaction to our failures as evidence to a healthy and very much alive democratic society, dealing with its difficulties.

Danny ends his essay with a final sentence: “Enough critique, enough hatred and lies. Morality is a strength - not a weakness.”

A thorough explanation written by Danny Zamir himself, was recently published in the Jerusalem Post:

It was as if the media were altogether so eager to find reason to criticize the IDF that they pounced on one discussion by nine soldiers who met after returning from the battlefield to share their experiences and subjective feelings with each other, using that one episode to draw conclusions that felt more like an indictment. Dogma replaced balance and led to a dangerous misunderstanding of the depth and complexity of Israeli reality. The individual accounts were never intended to serve as a basis for broad generalizations and summary conclusions by the media; they were published internally, intended for program graduates and their parents as a tool to be used in the process of educating and guiding the next generation.
….
THE GUIDING principle that directs IDF combat soldiers, both in their planning and conduct in combat, encompasses a balance between two needs: to defend soldiers' lives and to minimize harm to the civilians behind whom terrorists try to hide. This is expressed in the tension between the necessity of opening fire when the soldiers' security and battle conditions require, even when there's a danger to civilians (providing advance warning to the extent possible), and the absolute obligation to hold fire and to act with due compassion toward civilians when it appears that they have no evil intent. In addition, basic respect toward civilians' belongings and their religious and spiritual property is part of this moral code.
…
IF IT'S possible to learn something from the real Israel - and not that which the media (including Israeli media) makes such efforts to portray - it would be from the uproar of emotions and the frank discussions that have taken place within Israeli society in the wake of the soldiers' accounts. It is out of their commitment to the moral code that the soldiers spoke and their accounts were submitted; purity of arms requires continuous examination of our actions and intentions.

Tal highlights the fact that as a moral society, Israel must make an effort to dig even into its own dark regions:

Lately we've heard the testimonials on inappropriate actions taken by soldiers. There's no need for me to repeat the claims which include unnecessary killing of men, women and children. If this is true, it is a severe and grave issue, so severe it shakes the whole system.

But first, we need to mention that ever since the testimonies were published, we've heard claims against the validity of their source - meaning: there is a stream of rumors on the soldiers actions. Human rights organizations have called out to create an international committee which would research the claims. They have mentioned that Palestinian testimonials from their research match these Israeli soldiers' claims.

So where is the truth? Usually the truth lies somewhere in between - and should not wait for anyone to research this for us - but we need to dive deeply into this issue.

This story can wander and disappear in a time when explosive headlines appear every week. This matter can be dealt with on an international level if we will not deal with it on a national level - and dealing nationally does NOT mean giving “discounts” or silencing soldiers. It means that the truth will come out from us and we will not need someone from the outside to come and tell us if our society is broken.

It is reasonable to assume that these testimonials, even if all true, describe the actions of specific military units who did not follow the correct interpretation of the IDF protocol - meaning: even if all are terrorists, shooting a young child

Assume that not all the army behaved in one specific way. Assume that the majority of soldiers did not commit a crime. Assume that those who did commit criminal acts, were doing so under the intensity of war (that which those of you who have never fought will find difficult to understand). But… even if 10 percent of our soldiers who took part in the operation incorrectly interpreted an order and caused excess killing, this issue will be investigated - will rise up and will be examined from soldier to soldier.

Being a moral society means digging into even our own dark regions.

In a blog essay, Herb Keinon writes about the loss of context with regards to people's reactions over the published testimonies:

Obviously, everyone abroad who wants to accuse Israel of war crimes in Gaza will jump at these stories; every anti-Israel NGO will disseminate them as further proof of our evil.

What is lacking is context.

First of all, this type of testimony is legendary in Israel - there is even a phrase to describe it: yorim ve'bochim (shoot and weep). The most famous book of this genre, Siach Lochamim, came out immediately after the Six Day War in 1967, and was translated into English a few years latter under the title The Seventh Day.

The testimonials from the Rabin preparatory course have a similar feel: soldiers talking about their war experiences - what they saw, what they heard, what they felt good about, what they didn't feel good about.

It is important to note that none of the testimony was about what the soldiers did themselves, but rather of what they heard or saw other soldiers do. It is also important that what was reported seems to fall within the realm of aberrations by individuals during war against a cruel enemy hiding behind civilians, not a systematic loss by the army of its moral compass.

The second piece of context is Danny Zamir, the head of the program, who had the soldiers‚ words transcribed and published. A story in Haaretz on Thursday said that in 1990 Zamir, then a parachute company commander in the reserves, was tried and sentenced to prison for refusing to guard a ceremony where “right-wingers” brought Torah scrolls to Joseph's tomb in Nablus.

Zamir, in an interview on Israel Radio on Thursday, said that the soldiers from Operation Cast Lead who spoke at the meeting reflected an atmosphere inside the army of “contempt for, and forcefulness against, the Palestinians.”

In his blog post Tal Galili highlights some of the web-comments (talkbacks) that were submitted in Hebrew after the ynet article covering the IDF soldiers claims that they were given immoral orders:

- the media has spun out of control
- why is this published?
- lies!!!!!! It is appalling to read such lies. The person who said this should present himself and not hide behind a fabricated name
- when will you understand that its either us or them
- why does this need to be published in the papers???!!!
- and their target is only civilians?!
- our sons got back home. That is the most important
- these are homes which had specific intelligence and were filled with terrorists
- I've never seen a country that shoots itself in its feet like Israel
- Leave the IDF already and let us do our work!!
- IDF is the most moral army in the world
- because the story of one soldier we all believe?
- war. This was not a stroll in the park. It's war.
- where is the censorship and the media's discretion

There are numerous voices in the Hebrew blogosphere coming out against Zamir and his students' testimonials. One of them is highlighted in this blog post:

Not only are these “testimonials” untruthful, but also show that the left (Israeli political left wing) is seeking to bash the IDF's image and take any form of evidence to create an image it has been drawing all these years - a messianic, extreme and murderous army. Zamir expresses this in his essay.

Another perspective against Zamir criticizes his hidden political leftist agenda.

The Australian Jewish News blog posted a long reaction against Danny Zamir:

Whatever the merits of his political opinions, Zamir has a history of using the military as a stage for expressing them.

Ha’aretz, too, is guilty of obfuscation in this case. The newspaper depicted its “scoop” as the revelation of an IDF cover-up, but did not provide any evidence for it.

The entire story is told in language meant to convey large number of soldiers. But the semantics are hiding a simple fact -– the vast majority of the soldiers in the transcripts did not actually testify to anything immoral.

The more Israelis study the story, the more the culprit turns out to be lax reporting on the part of Ha’aretz. The banner headlines about Israeli military brutality turn out to be third-hand testimony filtered through Danny Zamir. Long before the Zamir testimonies broke, I heard from some good friends in the paratroopers a nearly opposite story.

They described walking among booby-trapped buildings, fighting an enemy that survived only by fleeing deep into the civilian areas into which they knew the IDF troops would not follow.

If there is truth to the yet-unproven -– indeed, un-investigated -– allegations that IDF troops committed crimes in Gaza, the soldiers responsible must be tried and severely punished.

But if the testimony, which is far milder than the media circus surrounding it, turns out to be untrue, who will pay the price? The lazy Ha’aretz editors who drag an entire nation’s name through the mud on the strength of a second-hand rumour? The international media that not only didn’t fact check against Ha’aretz, but most of the time did not even tell the Ha’aretz story properly?

Whichever scenario turns out to be the truth, the testimonies have shed light in some dark places.

While writing this post, I've been trying to make sense of the multitude of perspectives around this highly disputed story. As many bloggers suggest, the truth seems to lie somewhere in-between the formal Hamas and IDF claims. Once again, we witness the implications of having fast-paced, worldwide media coverage, that can easily spin stories out of their original context; precisely how a closed door session between school colleagues turns into a world-wide news sensation. I will end the post here, but please feel free to add links and opinions to the comments section of this important story.

YNetNews reports:

According to eyewitness reports, the terrorist fled the scene after running wild and attacking passersby. Residents alerted the security forces to the scene. The mayor of Gush Etzion Regional Council said that Bat Ayin's local security watch squad shot at the terrorist who carried out the attack, but that the terrorist managed to get away.

“The terrorist came in with an axe and injured two boys from Bat Ayin,” said Mayor Shaul Goldstein… “It is clear that the terrorist came in with the intention of murdering and terrorizing. The only way he could have come in was through infiltration.

The Jewish Chronicle elaborates with further details from an eye witness account:

A local resident, named only as Avinoam, described how he seized the axe from the attacker’s hands but could not stop him escaping. He said the man chanted “I will kill, I will kill” while they grappled. “He had a longing for murder in his eyes, the struggle lasted several minutes,” he added.

The Jewish Chronicle explains that Shlomo Nativ's parents were among the founders of Bat Ayin, while Yair Gamliel's father is currently serving time in prison for planning a terror attack against a girls school in East Jerusalem in 2002. The Palestinian Telegraph notes that the name of the group that planned the attack was the Bat Ayin Militia. Insufficient information exists about the circumstances of the attack to posit whether Nativ and Gamliel were specifically targeted.

The Palestinian Telegraph also comments:

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, praised the attack. In a statement the group said it “congratulates this heroic attack that comes as a normal response to the Israeli assaults against Palestinians, to Netanyahu, and to threats to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

On Twitter and their blogs, Israelis were quick to respond.

Jameel of the Muquata is keeping a running timeline of the events as they unfold, from the time the attack was reported at 12:15 pm until 4:30 pm, shortly before the funeral. He includes the news that a Hezbollah rocket fell in northern Israel today, which is notable, but seemingly unrelated.

Israellycool's daily timeline notes:

4:02 pm: Today's terror victim Shlomo Nativ. May G-d avenge his blood.
4:57PM: Here is how the palestinian Ma’an News has reported today’s terror attack resulting in the murder of a 16-year-old boy and serious injuring of a 7-year-old: Israeli settler killed in apparent West Bank ax attack; Israeli forces overrun nearby villages
6:10PM: Here’s how CNN has reported today’s axe-attack murder of 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ and injuring of 13-year-old Yair Gamliel. [Large blank space] Yep. Nada. Zilch.

On Treppenwitz, guest author Zahava references the Passover seder in which Jews dip bitter herbs in salt water to remember the tears from “when we were slaves in Egypt.” She writes:

….there is at least one family who will not need the Seder salt water for dipping their bitter herb to symbolize the tears of our ancestors… I can taste my own bitter tears as I type. I can barely see the screen as my heart and soul cry out in pain and in anger. ברוך דיין אמת [Baruch dayan emet: Blessed is the one, true judge].

A family in a neighboring yishuv [community] will have the unbearable task of burying their 13-year old son sometime today… May Hashem [G-D] comfort this family. May He grant a full recovery to the 7-year old.

Ruti Mizrachi of Ki Yachol Nuchal! posts Shlomo Nativ's photo, as almost every blogger has done, and echoes:

Shlomo Nativ, Hy”d [Hashem Yikom Damo: G-D will avenge his blood]. Age 14. Dani is 14. Noam is 14. There are no words. If there were, “peace” would not be one of them.

In a post entitled, “Why I Love Being a Mother,” A Mother in Israel's Hannah Katsman's number one point is that motherhood creates instant bonds, but adds:

I can't let this post go by without mentioning the gruesome murder of an innocent child. Fear of terror attacks and the need for our sons to serve in the army give Israeli mothers an added dimension to bonding that I wish didn't exist.

A Soldier's Mom reflects that as her son is an officer who has a soldier in his unit from Bat Ayin, where the attack took place, it is practically a given that his soldier and the boys' families will know each other. In her comments section, three bloggers respond.

Ye'he Sh'mey Raba Mevorach, a mother of five, writes:

I was also kind of wondering what kind of person attacks two children with an axe. On the other hand, since they draft children of these ages into their fight, perhaps they don't see our children as … children.

RangersGirl responds:

Oh wow. How terribly sad. Murdering innocent children in this way (in any way)is not holy — its 100% evil. When things like that happen here in the US, it isn't terrorism, its just a crazy person who had become so filled up with evil and a horrible act was how it was ‘let out'.

And ProphetJoe concludes:

Here in America, we rarely call anything “terrorism”, but then again we don't have Canadian or Mexican extremists teaching their kids to wear suicide belts and kill Americans! Thoughts and prayers to those suffering…

A Palestinian terror group known as the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh have claimed credit for the incident. Mughniyeh, a senior member of Hezbollah, was killed by a car bomb in February. He is thought to be responsible for the murder or kidnappings of over 400 people.

More information will unfold in the course of the search for the missing murderer.