You, our readers, voted with your clicks. The following is a list of the most popular articles we published this past year.
By +972 Magazine Staff
25. Photo exhibit challenges Zionism’s most popular myth
Using haunting aerial photographs of the Negev Desert, American artist Fazal Sheikh challenges the notion that the desert was an unpopulated, desolate land before the Zionists made it bloom. Read more here.
24. The untold story of Israeli military exports to South Sudan
Since South Sudan’s independence, Israel has continuously sold it weapons, military training, homeland security and surveillance technology. The only problem? That aid is being used to commit war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. Read the full article here.
23. It’s time for a one-state solution
Is there any use convincing the Jewish public to support the two-state solution when over 500,000 settlers live beyond the Green Line? Yonatan Amir says granting full equality to all between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is the only way forward.
22. Israel still holds all the cards
The relative quiet on the ground in recent years, enforced by the Palestinian Authority on Israel’s behalf, has led Israelis to believe they can enjoy peace and prosperity without ending the occupation. But everything has a price, Noam Sheizaf writes.
21. Palestinian baby burned to death in West Bank arson attack
Palestinians and Israelis woke up on the morning of July 31 to discover that unknown assailants had firebombed a home in the West Bank village of Duma, killing three members of the Dawabshe family, including 18-month-old Ali.
20. Next head of ‘Civil Administration’: Palestinians are sub-human
“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human;” “A Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual.” And this is coming from the guy in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs. Read more here.
19. Meet the Israelis protesting against Christmas
Notorious racist organization Lehava staged a protest outside the Jerusalem YMCA’s tree-decorating ceremony, against “forced conversion,” and demanding that Christians “go back to Europe.” Orly Noy writes about Jerusalem’s fastest-growing fascist movement.
18. Jerusalem, in context
The current violence in Jerusalem has a political history and context. Attempts by pundits to attribute the violence to some kind of Palestinian pathology is a recipe for making things worse. Noam Sheizaf clears a few things up.
17. Israel preventing Gaza woman from attending her own wedding
According to the Israeli army, Palestinians from Gaza can attend a relative’s wedding — just not their own. Read the full story here.
16. Palestinian hip hop group tackles patriarchy in new video
The most acclaimed hip hop group in the Middle East adds a female member and releases a new video that challenges Palestinian society. Rami Younis writes on the forces pushing for change from within.
15. Do Israelis have any idea how bad it is in Gaza?
Nearly two million Gazans are living in a state of poverty and shortages, with few options of leaving and even fewer options for work. Haggai Matar wonders whether Israelis even know any of this.
14. Israeli hotels warn Jewish guests that Arabs will also be there
Trying to book a hotel in Israel during the High Holidays? Worry not: some hotels will extend the courtesy of making sure you know that Arabs will also be vacationing there. Read more here.
13. Report details IDF ‘double tap’ bombings that hit first responders in Gaza
Using human shields, attacking medical teams and hospitals, shooting at civilians waving white flags. A report released earlier this year documented shocking testimonies of victims from Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man brings you the details.
12. The man behind the BDS movement
As the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement grows, its co-founder, Omar Barghouti, has become a target for Israeli demonization. +972’s Rami Younis sat down with Barghouti for a rare discussion about BDS’s goals, its recent successes, and increasingly frequent accusations that the boycott movement constitutes anti-Semitism.
11. When people can’t believe their eyes, it’s usually ideology
In October we published a video of undercover Israeli soldiers restraining a Palestinian stone thrower and shooting him point blank in the leg. We were astonished by the number of people who looked at the evidence and refused to believe what they saw, even after the army confirmed what had happened. Lisa Goldman responds to the nonbelievers.
10. New Jewish network launches worldwide initiative against occupation
A new international network of Jewish groups and individuals committed to justice in Palestine call for an end to the killing and an end the occupation. Spanning 16 countries — from Brazil, to Australia, to Switzerland and South Africa — the group calls for a “global Jewish voice to challenge Israel’s destructive policies, in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.” Read Mairav Zonszein’s report.
9. The real reason Bibi wants French Jews to move to Israel
Following the attacks on Paris’ Hyper Cacher supermarket, Israeli Prime Minister called on France’s Jews to move to Israel en masse, thereby promoting a worldview in which there is no national conflict, no occupation and no Palestinian people. Orly Noy warns against Bibi’s dangerous manipulations.
8. Paris victim Yoav Hattab died a Tunisian patriot
After it was revealed that Jewish Tunisian citizen Yoav Hattab was one of the three people murdered in the Parisian kosher supermarket this past January, young Tunisians took to social media extol the tolerant atmosphere between Jews and Muslims in their home country. Read more here.
7. When a soldier trying to arrest a minor becomes the victim
After a viral video emerged of a soldier violently attempting to arrest a Palestinian boy, the Israeli press went ahead and presented the official army version, omitting all accounts of the villagers who saw it all go down. Read more here.
6. The most anti-Semitic Israeli cartoon ever made?
A wealthy European named Herr Stürmer tosses shiny Euro coins to a hook-nosed character referred to only as “ze Jew.” Sounds like anti-Semitic propaganda? Here’s the thing: this video was produced by Israeli settlers. Dimi Reider is as shocked as you are.
5. ISIS executes three asylum seekers deported by Israel
A gruesome video released by the Islamic State in April showed at least three Eritrean asylum seekers who lived in Israel and were deported being executed by militants in Libya. “It is difficult to believe that these things happen, even to people you don’t know. But when it happens to someone you do know, a relative who was promised a better life when he leaves, and this is what happens in the end — it’s unbelievable,” a relative of one of the murdered said. Haggai Matar reports.
4. 50,000 Israelis show up at the wrong protest
This past March, some 50,000 people showed up at a rally demanding change: a change in government, a change in attitude toward the Palestinian issue, a change in the state’s approach to social issues. Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man imagines what would happen if only they marched on the Qalandia checkpoint demanding an end to the occupation.
3. Jewish extremist tries to stab ‘rabbi for human rights’
A right-wing Jewish extremist attempted to stab president of Rabbis for Human Rights, Arik Asherman, during an olive harvest coordinated with the Israeli army. The attacker, who was later arrested, told Israel’s Channel 10: “If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal.”
2. WATCH: Israeli undercover agents shoot unarmed youth at point blank range
A video released Wednesday onto several social media accounts and published by several news outlets shows Israeli plainclothes undercover officers apparently shooting an unarmed Palestinian youth in the leg at point blank range, while other undercover officers hold him down. Read more here.
1. Israeli memes mock Netanyahu’s Hitler revisionism
Netanyahu (re)made history this year by claiming that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was actually the one responsible for convincing Hitler to exterminate European Jewry. Israelis and Palestinians decided he was not getting off easy. Check out our favorite memes here.
