David Ben Gurion

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reading Israel's Declaration of Independence in Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948. (Zoltan Kluger/GPO)

Why Israeli efforts to write a constitution always fail

Resurrected by the protest movement, the idea of a constitution has been pursued throughout Israel's history. But opposition to equality foils its fruition.

By Dahlia Scheindlin April 4, 2023

Bezalel Smotrich, February 6, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The danger of treating Smotrich as an anomaly

By marking one Israeli politician as unacceptable, U.S. Jews are sidestepping the need to reckon with the wider system that enables his genocidal views.

By Edo Konrad March 9, 2023

Thousands of Israeli protesters rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government in Tel Aviv, February 11, 2023. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

The settler-colonial origins of Israel’s constitutional crisis

The government’s assault on the judiciary is driven by the same urge as the state’s founders: to protect their power to privilege Jews over Palestinians.

By Yousef Munayyer February 24, 2023

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Hundreds of members of the Arab Liberation Army attend the funeral of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni at the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, April 8, 1948. (GPO)

Who fought in 1948?

A new book uncovers letters by Jewish and Arab fighters from the 1948 war, highlighting the personal lives of those who fought to establish Israel and those who tried to defend Palestine.

By Tom Pessah September 22, 2021

Members of Kibbutz Amir working in the Papyrus thicket of the Hula Swamps, June 30, 1940. (Kluger Zoltan/GPO)

Why does the JNF still exist?

The forefathers of Zionism never hid their desire to use the Jewish National Fund to dispossess Palestinians. On its 120th anniversary, now is the time to abolish it.

By Yaara Benger Alaluf July 8, 2021

Rabbi Meir Kahane. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Are voters about to send Kahanists back to the Knesset?

If the polls are accurate, more than 140,000 voters will vote the Kahanists back into the Knesset in next week’s election. Yet the desire for a pure Jewish state long ago moved from the margins of Israeli society to the mainstream. By Ron Cahlili One week before Israel’s national election, nearly every major poll shows the Kahanist party Otzma…

By +972 Magazine September 11, 2019

David Ben Gurion seen in the Knesset, February 11, 1961. (Fritz Cohen/GPO)

When Zionism imagined Jewish nationalism without supremacy

In his recent book, Dr. Dmitry Shumsky shows that, contrary to popular belief, the forefathers of Zionism did not envision a state based on Jewish supremacy. And yet Zionism, he says, inevitably involves the oppression of Palestinians. By Meron Rapoport No one was surprised when the authors of the Jewish Nation-State Law decided to write, in its opening clauses, that “The…

By +972 Magazine July 21, 2019

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to Trump departure to Rome at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on May 23, 2017. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Trump cannot simply erase the Palestinian right of return

The American president’s decision to defund the Palestinian refugee agency is an attempt to accomplish something Israeli leaders have been trying for the better part of a century. By James Zogby First, the Trump Administration “took Jerusalem off the table.” Now, in an especially dangerous display of recklessness, it has announced its intention to do…

By +972 Magazine September 5, 2018

Palestinian and Israeli peace activists march in central Jerusalem on October 17, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Why the Israeli Left can’t reconcile with the most Zionist law

For seven decades, those on the Zionist Left have been reluctant to grapple with Israel’s history of discrimination against its Palestinian minority. With the Jewish Nation-State Law, they have no choice — and that’s what really hurts. By Meron Rapoport It is difficult, if not impossible, to find Palestinians who support Israel’s new Jewish Nation-State Law.…

By +972 Magazine August 2, 2018

An Israeli soldier stands guard at the Qalandia checkpoint on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah as Palestinian muslim worshippers wait to cross the checkpoint to head to Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City to attend the first Friday prayers of Ramadan. July 4, 2014. (Miriam Alster/ Flash90)

Forget negotiations, Israelis and Palestinians need an intervention

When both sides aren’t ready to make concessions, when one side gets to decide who sits at the table and who sits in jail, negotiations are bound to fail. It is time for the international community to mediate. By Mossi Raz A man is standing in a dangerous place, beside him is a wall, and…

By +972 Magazine May 27, 2017

Palestinians participate in a rally marking the 69th anniversary of the Nakba, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 15, 2017. (Flash90)

Israel is still unable to deal with the catastrophe of 1948

The fact that Israel is unable to swallow or get rid of the territories it occupied in 1967, makes it far more difficult for the state to recognize the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians during the 1948 War. By Oren Barak Why does the State of Israel, which just celebrated 69 years of independence, struggle to deal with…

By +972 Magazine May 16, 2017

Israeli soldiers in battle with the Arab village of Sassa in the upper Galilee, October 1, 1948. (GPO)

Using education to normalize horrific acts of violence

This is how the Israeli education system makes it possible for generation after generation of Israelis to accept the most brutal forms of state violence. By Gil Gertel October provides Israelis a number of opportunities for self examination, one of which happened just a week ago, on October 14. On that night in 1953, 600 Israeli soldiers — half…

By +972 Magazine October 23, 2016

Screenshot from Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs hasbara video.

For Israelis, Palestinian refugees are a constant, lurking threat

A new government public relations clip shows Israeli Jews as the perpetual victims of history. But once upon a time Israeli leaders were able to consider the pain of others, too. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to out-do itself on Thursday when it released its latest hasbara (state-sponsored PR) video of Jews as…

By Edo Konrad October 7, 2016