+972 Magazine - Independent commentary and news from Israel & Palestine

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO)

For Palestinian rights movement, Biden poses a familiar quandary

Palestine advocates in the United States have no hope in Joe Biden changing his pro-Israel views, yet feel they have no choice but to pressure him to do so.

PHOTOS: Gaza makes the most of Ramadan under lockdown

With large gatherings prohibited and mosques closed, the strip’s residents are doing everything they can to feel the spirit of the holiday.

By Mohammed Zaanoun

Israelis watch a Supreme Court session on petitions filed against the proposed government, outside the Knesset, Jerusalem, April 3, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High Court didn’t stop Bibi. It won’t stop annexation either

Now that the High Court has given Netanyahu the green light to advance annexation, opponents need to find new ways to resist.

By Meron Rapoport

Denis Goldberg and Nelson Mandela. (Courtesy of Debbie Yazbek)

A lesson in fighting apartheid from a Jewish South African dissident

Denis Goldberg reminded Palestinians that the world has seen their kind of oppression before — and that it can be beaten.

Israelis protest gender-based violence following the killing of a 50-year-old woman by her husband, Bat Yam, May 4, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90)

REPORT

The coronavirus crisis is a ‘pressure cooker’ for domestic violence

Directives to shelter at home may be flattening one curve, but they have led to a spike in domestic and gender-based violence, and the Israeli government is yet to offer timely solutions.

By Henriette Chacar

Latest

Egyptians seen on a public bus in Cairo during the coronavirus pandemic, April 6, 2020. (Mohamed Hozyen)

‘I want to be seen’: Coronavirus lockdown stories from across the Middle East

With a computer, Zoom, and a list of questions, I spoke to young people across the region about how their lives are being affected by COVID-19.

By Yuval Abraham May 6, 2020

Israeli security forces clash with Palestinian demonstrators protesting President Trump's Middle East peace plan, near a settlement Beqa'ot, Jordan Valley, West Bank, February 29, 2020. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

What will happen to Palestinian land the day after annexation?

The exact shape that annexation will take is still unknown. One thing is certain: Israel will use it to facilitate the theft of Palestinian land across the West Bank.

By Ziv Stahl May 3, 2020

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the King David hotel in Jerusalem on February 25, 2014. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Israel doesn’t need ‘advice’ against annexation — it needs consequences

Half a century of occupation is ample time for powerful states like Germany to learn that rhetoric without action simply reinforces Israeli impunity.

By Hagai El-Ad April 30, 2020

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, April 19, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Welcome to the era of Coronialism

Under the guise of 'emergency,' states are using COVID-19 to consolidate power, prop up the neoliberal order, and clamp down on the disenfranchised. If we fail to struggle for a new order, regressive forces will recolonize society, notably in Israel-Palestine.

By Oren Yiftachel April 30, 2020

Tamarza, a single mother (31) and her children Lydia (10), Hazravi (6) and Nabad (4). Left: Zahab (30), single mother, and her daughter, Jerusalem (6). Both have been in the country for about 10 years. Tamarza worked in a food factory before the crisis and is not currently working. Zahab was unemployed before the crisis. (Oren Ziv)

Portrait of a crisis: Asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv facing coronavirus

The spread of COVID-19 has left asylum seekers in Israel out of work, crammed into uninhabitable apartments with exorbitant rents, and desperate for government assistance.

By Oren Ziv April 30, 2020

A Palestinian woman picks olives outside Bethlehem, West Bank, October 6, 2011. (Doron Horowitz/Flash90)

The olive trees that tell the story of Palestinian dispossession

The Palestinians of Saffuriya were expelled by force and barred from returning during 1948, leaving behind them ancient olive trees that today are tended to by Israeli Jews.

By Meron Rapoport April 28, 2020

Illustrative photo of Palestinian women standing in line as they try to pass through Qalandiya checkpoint, which separates the West Bank city of Ramallah from Jerusalem. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Palestinians are facing coronavirus inside a lion’s den

Trapped with a depleted health sector, Palestinians are forced to depend on an occupier that is simultaneously thwarting their ability to care for themselves.

By Mariam Barghouti April 27, 2020

Yacoub Rabi. (Nitzan Lotem)

Jewish terrorists killed his wife. Now he has a message for the world

Aisha Rabi was killed by settlers in the West Bank two years ago. Her husband Yacoub will commemorate her as part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony.

By Orly Noy April 27, 2020

Launching the 2019 Labour Party General Election campaign (Jeremy Corbyn/Flickr)

Labour Party infighting exploited British Jews. How do we rebuild?

A leaked dossier reveals how Labour factions hindered the party's antisemitism responses in order to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. British Jews must revive partnerships with marginalized groups to end this manipulation.

By Em Hilton and Yael Shafritz April 26, 2020

Israeli border police wear face masks as protection from the coronavirus as they stand guard in the Muslim quarters in Jerusalem's Old City. March 15, 2020. (Yossi Zamiri/Flash90)

Coronavirus gives Israel the perfect cover to tighten its grip over Palestinians

Israel is taking advantage of the world's distraction during the pandemic to push for annexation, deeper surveillance, and more control over Palestinians.

By Robert Swift April 26, 2020