Israeli forces prevent Palestinians from reaching their land in the occupied West Bank village of Idhna, where Israeli settlers had burned their crops, May 5, 2026. (Mosab Shawer/Activestills)

‘There are no dreams here’: How Israel’s outgoing gov’t remade the West Bank

Expanded land seizures, military restrictions, mass displacement, and over 100 new Jewish settlements have transformed an already fragmented territory — and the very fabric of Palestinian life.
By Shatha Yaish, Oren Ziv and Basel Adra
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Hatikva Market in Tel Aviv as part of the Likud party’s election campaign, October 22, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer

While Netanyahu’s bloc adds more extremists to its ranks, his opponents are impeding their path to power by refusing to work with Arab parties.
By Ben Reiff
Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, surrounded by MK Ahmad Tibi and Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem for a hearing on the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify candidates and parties from running in the upcoming Knesset elections, October 1, 2026. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s election won’t change the renewed reality of political apartheid

Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification sends a clear message: Jewish-majority state institutions now determine who represents Palestinian citizens.
By Areej Sabbagh-Khoury
Election campaign billboards featuring Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot and Likud party chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside opposition leaders, displayed on a road in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, October 17, 2026. (Sharon Leibel/Flash90)

Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy

The more hawkish the opposition leader is, the harder it is to explain what alternative he offers — and he’s not the first to make that mistake.
By Amos Brison
Leena Dallasheh (courtesy)
PODCAST

What’s at stake for Palestinian citizens in Israel’s election?

Leena Dallasheh discusses the echoes of military rule in today’s crackdown on Palestinian dissent, and the struggle for a more substantive form of citizenship.
By +972 Magazine
Latest
An Israeli Policeman prepares to fire a sponge-tipped bullet during a Nakba Day demonstration in East Jerusalem, May 15, 2013. (Haim Schwarczenberg)
Playing with fire: IDF to use new weapon on West Bank protests
A new type of sponge-tipped bullet introduced in East Jerusalem last summer has broken arms, fractured faces, destroyed eyesight and killed a teenager. Now a similar projectile is slated for use against Palestinians in the West Bank. Following the introduction last summer of a new type of sponge-tipped bullet into the Israel Police’s arsenal, the…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth May 22, 2015
Yom LeYom, the Shas party's weekly paper, airbrushes the three female ministers out of the government portrait.
Ultra-Orthodox paper photoshops women out of gov’t portrait
Yom-LeYom, the official weekly of the Shas party, published the traditional group portrait of the cabinet and the president this morning — with one notable amendment: Ministers Miri Regev (Culture), Ayelet Shaked (Justice) and Gila Gamliel (Immigrant Absorption and, you guessed it, Gender Equality) were all airbrushed out. Here is the original: And here is…
By Dimi Reider May 21, 2015
A Palestinian youth cover his face to avoid tear gas, during clashes of Palestinian youth with Israeli border police at a checkpoint between Shuafat refugee camp and Jerusalem, November 7, 2014. Clashes broke after a Palestinian man drove a car into a crowd, killing a policeman and injuring 13 people in Jerusalem on November 5. (photo: Activestills.org)
Jerusalem Police shoot 10-year-old Palestinian boy in the eye
Over the past several months, Jerusalem Police has been stepping up its use of a new weapon: black-tipped sponge bullets.  Israeli Police wounded a 10-year-old Palestinian child in the eye Thursday afternoon while dispersing protesters near the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, according to Arabic media outlets in East Jerusalem. The boy, who was most…
By Haggai Matar May 21, 2015
Palestinian refugees from Syria fleeing the horrors of war on a boat originally headed to Italy.
Lifelong refugees: Palestinian boat people search for a new home
After escaping the horrors of the Syrian Civil War by boat, a group of Palestinian refugees washed up on the shores of Greece. Now they are wandering the streets of Athens without food or shelter. After four days at sea, with no food or fuel, 175 Palestinian refugees were rescued by the Greek navy. After…
By Samah Salaime May 21, 2015
Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
Suspending bus segregation won’t solve a thing
The bus segregation plan is but one policy in a massive system of occupation, which is growing not only geographically but also institutionally, politically and conceptually.  On Tuesday night the plan to segregate Palestinians and Israelis on buses in the West Bank was put into effect, reported Haaretz. On Wednesday morning the Prime Minister decided to suspend…
By Dahlia Scheindlin May 20, 2015
Palestinian laborers at the Sha’ar Ephraim checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel, December 22, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Segregation in Israel does not begin or end on buses
Whether or not the plan is scrapped, the fact is that Israel is a country where senior ministers propose and implement segregation — and keep their jobs. There is something disturbingly disingenuous about the 12 hours of furor that erupted over the segregation — and subsequent “desegregation” — of a handful of Israeli bus lines…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man May 20, 2015
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)
A dark tale from Netanyahu Nation
Assassinations, lies and conspiracy theories.  If you want to know about the right-wing culture that rules Israel today, the following isn’t a bad illustration. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday that Netanyahu’s pick for director-general of the Communications Ministry, Shlomo Filber, wrote an article in the settler publication Nekuda after the Rabin assassination blaming the Shin Bet…
By Larry Derfner May 20, 2015
A Palestinian farmer stands beside an agricultural gate in the separation fence near Falamya village (Gate number 914), West Bank, May 17, 2015. Ahmad al-Bazz / Activestills.org
PHOTOS: When Israel decides to cut Palestinian farmers off from their land
The Israeli army decided last week to close the main gateway Palestinian farmers from four villages use to access their lands — which Israel cut them off from with the separation fence. After a protest the army re-opened the gate, but the incident shows how Israel controls every aspect of Palestinian life. Photos and Text:…
By Activestills May 19, 2015
Saleh and Muhammad Qawarik
License to Kill: Why did the IDF shoot the Qawarik cousins 29 times?
Saleh and Muhammad head out to their agricultural land. A settler stops them and calls the army. Four soldiers arrive. One of them empties his magazine into the two. Three other soldiers claim they didn’t see anything. The IDF says that the cousins attacked the soldier, then retracts the claim. No one is brought to…
By +972 Magazine May 19, 2015
Labor party leader Isaac Herzog at campaign headquarters on election night, March 17, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Isaac Herzog, leader of the non-opposition
Many people are describing opposition leader Isaac Herzog’s maiden speech in the 20th Knesset as the speech that could have won him the election. But is he offering an alternative that’s any better than Netanyahu? Mabrouk on you, the new government تشوفو على وجهها الخير – may it bring only good things. That’s how we,…
By Samah Salaime May 18, 2015
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  1. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  2. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  3. Israel's election won't change the renewed reality of political apartheid
  4. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  5. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  3. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  4. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  5. Why Smotrich still defines the horizon of Israeli politics
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