Civil Rights Movement

Michelle Alexander speaks at the Miller Center Forum, December 3, 2010. (Miller Center/CC BY 2.0)

For Michelle Alexander’s critics, Palestinians don’t deserve civil rights

The uproar by Jewish establishment figures over Alexander’s New York Times essay in support of Palestinian rights echoes the reactions of white Americans to the Civil Rights Movement decades ago. Michelle Alexander’s powerful New York Times essay on Saturday (“Time to Break the Silence on Palestine”), ahead of the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was…

By Amjad Iraqi January 23, 2019

Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), President Donald Trump delivers his Joint Address to Congress at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Tuesday February 28, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

In Trump’s America, the rabbinic voice is needed more than ever

President Trump’s comments regarding the Charlottesville violence revealed the yawning moral vacuum in the White House. Now is the time for rabbis to work tirelessly to bring peace, unity, and justice to all people in the United States. By Itamar Haritan Salem Pearce, a rabbinical student and senior organizer with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human…

By +972 Magazine August 23, 2017

A Palestinian man rests during a protest in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border, which the Israeli army has declared a no-go zone for Palestinians, October 30, 2015. (Ezz Zanoun/Activestills.org)

Nobody is coming to end the occupation

The Americans are disengaging from the conflict, the EU won’t go beyond half-measures, and the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of implosion. So what happens next? In meetings between top-ranking Israeli and American officials over the past few weeks, the United States reportedly demanded that Benjamin Netanyahu outline steps he is willing to take…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man November 29, 2015

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A Bedouin woman looks over her the ruins of her home after Israeli forces demolished the Negev village of Al Araqib, September 12, 2010. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

What Palestinian citizens of Israel can learn from the civil rights movement

Despite recent improvement in the economic situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel, many remain suspicious of the Israeli government and its motives. Palestinians must look back at the legacy of the black American struggle for equality, drawing on lessons that they can use to further their own cause. By Robert Cherry Thanks to Israeli government…

By +972 Magazine November 6, 2013

Palestinian workers board a new segregated bus line at the Eyal checkpoint, March 4, 2012.

Palestinian-only buses serve to incentivize segregation

Neither Palestinians nor Israelis should be fooled into believing that separated bus lines are part of an overall policy that benefits Palestinian workers. The announcement that Israel’s Ministry of Transportation would begin a “Palestinian-only” bus service from the Eyal checkpoint in the West Bank might appear to be a harmless policy. Indeed, many Palestinians working…

By Amjad Iraqi March 6, 2013

Reframing non-violent resistance: An act of moral piracy

When we allow non-violence to be distorted as illegitimate, we fail to uphold our most cherished principles. It is not a strange phenomenon for morality to be the object of contestation. Competing groups often battle for the moral high ground when presenting their case to the outside world in a customary appeal for support. Far…

By Omar H. Rahman January 10, 2012