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
Israel youth walk in Jerusalem's old city, as they take part in the flags march, to celebrate 48 years for the occupation of East Jerusalem May 17, 2015.
PHOTOS: Jerusalem Day brings tensions in divided city to the fore
The traditional ‘march of the flags’ on Jerusalem Day, marking the ‘reunification’ of the city under Israeli sovereignty, has more to do with domination over Palestinians than celebration. Photos and video by Oren Ziv, Keren Manor, Faiz Abu-Rmeleh, Tess Schaflan, Yotam Ronen / Activestills.org Text by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man Jerusalem Day is billed as a…
By Activestills May 18, 2015
High Court Justice Noam Sohlberg (Photo: Justice Ministry)
For one Palestinian village: A judge, settler and demolisher
The High Court justice who gave the army a green light to expel an entire Palestinian village just happens to live in a nearby settlement, one of many that thrives on their dispossession. By Dror Etkes The Israeli army’s Civil Administration has issued 70 demolition orders in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut,…
By +972 Magazine May 18, 2015
ACRI infographic on Jerusalem, 2015
Infographic: East Jerusalem by the numbers, 2015
Ahead of Jerusalem Day 2015, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) released a factsheet detailing the disparities between the city’s Jewish and Palestinian residents and the systemic discrimination in East Jerusalem. The following infographic accompanies the report. Read more here.
By +972 Resources May 17, 2015
A man walks toward the checkpoint at the entrance of Shuafat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem, December 27, 2011 (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)
For Jerusalem’s Palestinians, a city of poverty and division
More than one quarter of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents live behind the concrete separation barrier; Israel has revoked the residency of over 14,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites since ‘reunifying’ the city in 1967, including 107 last year alone. Three-quarters of East Jerusalem’s 300,200 Palestinian residents live below the poverty line, including 83.9 percent of children, according to a…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth May 17, 2015
An Israeli soldiers is seen jumping along concrete blocks as Israeli authorities install a new section of the separation wall surrounding the Shuafat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem, December 3, 2014. (Activestills.org)
The real roots of violence in Jerusalem
Prior to the outbreak of violence in Jerusalem last summer, some believed a new trend of 'Israelization' within Palestinian society in East Jerusalem offered a 'solution' for securing Israeli dominance in the city. But true equality carries a cost Israelis are not necessarily ready to pay.
By +972 Magazine May 17, 2015
Palestinian photojournalist Nidal Ashtiyeh displays his gas mask at his home in the village of Salem, West Bank, May 16, 2015. A rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops at a Nakba Day protest near Nablus struck the glass of his mask, which shattered and wounded his eye. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)
IDF shoots Palestinian journalist with rubber bullet in latest assault
Nidal Eshtayeh says he was standing away from protesters when Israeli troops shot a rubber-coated steel bullet at his eye. Two IDF officers were recently convicted for assaulting Israeli and Palestinian journalists. Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian photojournalist in the eye with a rubber-coated steel bullet on Saturday. Nidal Eshtayeh, a photographer for Chinese news…
By Haggai Matar May 16, 2015
An IDF post inside a Palestinian home (photo: breaking the silence)
Why is Matti Friedman so mad at Breaking the Silence?
A former AP reporter who crusades against the international media’s alleged anti-Israel bias takes aim at the Israeli NGO of veteran soldiers in an article that is long on … well, length. But short on substance.  By Mairav Zonszein and Lisa Goldman Earlier this month, the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence released a report about…
By Mairav Zonszein May 16, 2015
Screenshot of an 'Eretz Nehederet' skit on the Nakba.
Shhhh, the Nakba made it to prime time
Israel’s top satire program takes on the Nakba. Sometimes humor can succeed in places where activism or advocacy fall short. The tortured road of the Nakba towards a legitimate place in the Israeli historical memory has some unexpected twists. Eitan Bronstein Aparicio and Dr. Eléonore Merza Bronstein recently explained that at first, it was mainly Palestinians…
By Dahlia Scheindlin May 16, 2015
In 2015, memory of Nakba has inched closer to Israeli mainstream
Two Nakba-themed events were organized by groups you’d least expect, suggesting that the legacy of the Palestinian catastrophe has ventured beyond Palestinian and leftist circles. By Eitan Bronstein Aparicio and Dr. Eléonore Merza Bronstein   Until a few years ago, inside Israel Nakba Day was marked primarily on Independence Day. It was a family and community…
By +972 Magazine May 15, 2015
Prime Minister Netanyahu at the first Knesset session following the 2015 elections (photo: Haim Tzach, Government Press Office)
What to expect from Netanyahu’s fourth government
The new government, which could  survive longer than most observers expect, intends to resume the implementation of the Prawer Plan, aimed to force the Bedouin Palestinian population in the “unrecognized villages” into a narrow territory.  Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth government was sworn in in the nick of time. Due to last-minute controversies over cabinet positions, President Reuven Rivlin…
By Noam Sheizaf May 15, 2015
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  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
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