A wave of mass demonstrations against a government plan to limit judicial independence swept across Israel starting January 2023. The protests have taken place in cities across Israel for weeks in response to widespread public anger about the government’s contentious proposal to reduce the influence of the judiciary. The issue has divided Israeli society, led to fears for the future of the country’s democracy and prompted warnings of political violence and even civil war.

For the first time in ten years, I returned to photograph at The Hostel for Holocaust Survivors at Sha'ar Menashe Psychiatric Hospital. At the time, the world had marked sixty-five years for the liberation of Auschwitz, and now seventy-five. I met Efraim Kruzel, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor, sitting in a large iron bed opposite the front door, staring at a point in the distance. He had the exact same look on his face, and he was sitting in the same spot he had been sitting ten years before. Only the small wheelchair that had been replaced by the large iron bed, and a few wrinkles added to his soft face, could attest to all the years gone by. But for Kruzel, time stands still. And it stopped long ago, seventy-five years ago. Nowadays, the hostel at Sha`ar Menashe is home to dozens of Holocaust survivors. And over the years it has been one for many more. Those who spent most of their lives in psychiatric institutions, and some who became somewhat involved in society until their mental health deteriorated, and they found themselves in need of hospitalization. Whoever arrives here will remain for the rest of his life. Most of those photographed ten years ago are no longer alive, just as all Holocaust survivors in the world, whose numbers are declining from year to year. Including Hungarian-born Arieh Bleir who reminded me so much of my beloved grandfather, the gentle and pleasant Julia Vodna, and many others. Most of them were buried in the cemetery just across the hospital fence. New tenants continue to arrive at the hostel at a slow pace. And the pace is declining. Such are Israel Hershko, 94, born in Romania, who came with his wife when she needed hospitalization and remained after her death, and Israel Shiner, born in Ukraine, who immigrated to Israel in 1989, and Golda Schwartz, born in Romania. Surrounded by dedicated volunteers and therapists who try to fill their last years with joy, in a place where loneliness, sadness and silence are always present, they struggle day after day as they awaken from nightmares, hear voices, disconnect and reconnect to reality, sink into depression and rise from it. They cling to rituals and routines, wait at the entrance to the dining room waiting for it to open, sit in fixed places in front of the TV and in the dining room, and return every item to its place. These days, when anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are spreading in the world, the importance of documenting Holocaust survivors, especially those who survived but never survived physically, but not mentally, and are still living the war traumas, is growing in importance. They symbolize all Holocaust survivors who carry with them severe mental scars throughout their lives. This documentary spans over two points in time with over a decade's difference. In a decade, there may not remain anyone to photograph ...

Early elections for the twentieth Knesset will be held in Israel on 17 March 2015. This gallery includes pictures from various campaign events.

Operation Protective Edge is an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, launched on 8 July 2014. The operation follows an escalation between Israel and Hamas.

Portraits of Holocaust Survivors. Most of the images in this series were taken as part of the project "Nitzolim 2014" (Survivors 2014), in which some 20 Israeli photographers participated. The project was exhibited in Amiad Gallery, Tel-Aviv on April 2014.

Shaar Menashe Mental Health Center for Holocaust survivors in Pardes Hanna, Israel, managed by the Israeli Association for Public Health, is a home for about 70 Holocaust survivors. Most of them, who were children during the Holocaust, lost many or all of their family members. Along the years they emigrated to Israel, tried to integrate into the Israeli society and build their new lives but they were driven insane by their childhood experiences, and instead, they ended up in mental institutions. Sixty Five years afer the end of WWII, they are still living the horror. Most of the patients at Shaar Menashe, never established a family and throughout the years, they moved from one mental institution to another. For decades they lived at the edge of Israeli society without any capability of living a normal life. Because of their age, many of them need nursing treatment. They live the horror and inferno as if it happened yesterday, hearing voices, suffering from nightmares, confusing illusions and reality. They spend most of the day staring into the distance, hardly speaking and sometimes mumbling while sucking a single cigarette every hour. The number of Holocaust survivors at Shahar Menashe mental hospital declines each year. Each one of them carries his life story and is a living testimony of the horrors he has experienced. They did survive but their lives actually stopped, 65 years ago, living the memories of their life as they were before the Second World War, combined with illusions and nightmares, traveling between illusions and reality. There are estimated 230,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today. It is estimated that about 10 percent of them need mental treatment. Most of them don't get it. The story of the Holocaust survivors at Shaar Menashe mental hospital is the story of many other Holocaust survivors. Even those who managed to integrate into society and build new lives carry deep mental scars which can never be healed.

Five year old Betty was born in a poor neighborhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At a very young age Betty was diagnosed to be suffering from a serious congenital heart defect which severely limited her most basic physical activities. Betty was facing a gloomy, short future as her physical condition would deteriorate unless treated. Heart surgery, widely available in Western countries, could save Betty's life but is not available in Ethiopia due to lack of facilities and knowledge. Betty is the only child of Yeshi, a house-keeper and Galana, a policeman. All Yeshi and Galana could do was to hope and dream that one day a miracle will happen and Betty will get the treatment that will save her life. Their prayers were answered by the Israeli based humanitarian organization, Save a Childs Heart ("SACH"). SACH funded the flights to Israel for Betty and her mother Yeshi together with five other Ethiopian children. SACH doctors, surgeons, nurses and volunteers performed the surgeries and cared for rehabilitation accommodation throughout the long months of their stay in Israel and cared for all their needs. There are estimated to be millions of children like Betty, in third world countries, who have no access to the life-saving treatment either because it is not locally available or because it is beyond their parents? financial means. They are all sharing the same dream, asking for the same miracle to happen. Since its establishment in 1995, SACH has saved the lives of nearly two thousand children from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sri-Lanka, China, Jordan, Iraq, Palestinian Authority and other countries. They were all suffering from severe heart defects and had no other hope. For all of them SACH was the last and only hope.

Since July 14, Israelis have flocked to Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-aviv to join the country's new social protest movement. In less than four weeks, it has grown from a handful of tents erected by students at the street's northern tip into the biggest show of civil discontent since the Lebanon war in the early 1980s.

Hefer Valley is a rural area located between the coastal Israeli city of Netanya and the Palestinian city of Tul-Karm. 26 years old Israeli Shmulik Botzer is the work manager of a large farm in Hefer Valley. Shmulik is struggling on a daily basis to save the farm from an economical breakdown. 40 years old Palestinian Nazar lives in Tul-Karm, the Palestinian Authority. He is the father of ten children. Nazar is working in Shmulik's farm, together with some other Palestinian workers. Nazar struggles to bring food for his ten children in times of endless curfews and rising poverty in Palestinian Authority In order to get from Tul-Karm to his work, Nazar has to pass through an Israeli military checkpoint. Nazar holds a working permit allowing him to work in Israel. Most of his Palestinian coworkers don't. The workers in the farm are staying in Israel without legal permission. Therefore they are going back home only once a week, bypassing the military checkpoints in various ways. During the time they are in Israel they are hosted in a large hangar in the farm. They are growing huge fields of wheat, sunflowers and chick-pea. Together they spend their days in the fields, doing intensive physical work. Out there in the fields they find relief from their daily worries and from the political reality. Out there in the fields they are free..

System Ali is a Hip-Hop ensemble of young Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, based in Jaffa, Israel. Their songs are in four languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English. In their texts they protest against Arab houses demolition in Jaffa and against discrimination that led to poverty and crime in their neighborhoods. The band was founded in 2006 in a bomb-shelter in Ajami neighborhood in the city of Jaffa. Its 11 members - M.Cs and musicians - bring to stage the rich, charged encounters and clashes between languages, musical styles, personal stories and inspirations - drawn from the every day realities in the city of Jaffa. These are the fuel of the band's creation and strength, establishing itself as the leading Hip-Hop crew of Jaffa and South Tel-Aviv

Gili Yaari Israel Photojournalist International Publications Dodho Magazine

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Israel-Gaza Conflict 2021

On 7 October 2023, an armed conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip after the latter launched a multi-pronged invasion of southern Israel. After clearing Hamas terrorists, the Israeli military retaliated by conducting an extensive aerial bombardment campaign on Gazan targets and followed up with a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed and over 230 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken hostage and brought into the Gaza Strip.