Welcome to +972’s Sunday Recap! 

On Monday, the Israeli army dropped a 500lb bomb on Al-Baqa Cafe, a beloved seaside cafe in western Gaza City that offered a rare respite for journalists and residents. Ruwaida Amer spoke to Palestinians who expressed sorrow and disbelief over the airstrike, and remembered the dozens killed — including a prominent photojournalist, a visual artist, and the cafe’s owner.

Orly Noy wrote about the ongoing effort in the Israeli Knesset to impeach Palestinian MK Ayman Odeh, whose offense was expressing joy that both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners were realized at the beginning of the January ceasefire. The move, she argued (originally published in Local Call), sends a message to Palestinian citizens that voting is futile.

Last weekend, after rap duo Bob Vylan led the Glastonbury music festival crowd in a chorus of “Death, death to the IDF,” the incident was almost universally decried as a carnival of antisemitism. But for Em Hilton, it isn’t festival chant that makes British Jews less safe, but rather UK’s escalating repression of Palestinian solidarity as ‘antisemitic,’ all while British leaders turn a blind eye to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Dikla Taylor-Sheiman interviewed Israeli archaeologist Rafi Greenberg to discuss new legislative efforts to impose Israeli civilian law over West Bank antiquities and advance annexation. This weaponization of archaeology should be seen as part of Israel’s colonial legacy, Greenberg argued, whose colleagues have largely remained silent about Gaza’s destruction.

Palestinian men deserve to be seen not as militants or shadows, but as whole people with fragile hearts and impossible burdens, A.J. wrote in a personal essay. And despite the intentional dehumanization of Palestinians and emasculation of Palestinian men, Gaza is birthing a new kind of masculinity — based not on militarism or stoicism but on moral clarity and dignity, even in starvation.

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We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine, as the Gaza war reaches extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the region. It has never been more vital for our journalists, led by Palestinians and Israelis, to report on and analyze what is happening on the ground and beyond, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. +972 Magazine is proof that an alternative is possible — and we need your support to increase our impact. Join us.