Gilad Erdan

A float marking the launch of Act.IL, a pro-Israel app, New York, June 4, 2017. (Screenshot: Act.IL YouTube)

Mission failed: How Israel’s anti-BDS app went belly-up

Canadian academic and activist Michael Bueckert spent years tracking Israel’s online ‘troll army.’ From the sinister to the cringeworthy, he tells all to +972.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland April 25, 2022

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan speaks at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference, at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem, November 21, 2018.
(Miriam Alster /Flash90)

Jerusalem Post took government money to publish anti-BDS special

The Strategic Affairs Ministry's funding of a Jerusalem Post supplement is part of a government-led campaign targeting the Palestinian rights movement.

By Itamar Benzaquen and The Seventh Eye October 4, 2020

The funeral of Yacoub Abu Al-Qi'an in Umm al-Hiran, January 24, 2017. (Activesitlls.org)

The killing of a Bedouin man is a weapon in Netanyahu’s war for survival

Netanyahu is using the wrongful police shooting of Yacoub Abu al-Qi'an as a cudgel to attack the authorities charging him with corruption.

By Edo Konrad September 9, 2020

Latest

Gilad Erdan, then Minister of Strategic Affairs, speaks during an international press conference, Bnei Brak, February 3, 2019. (Flash90)

Israeli ministry paying for anti-BDS propaganda in major news outlets

The Strategic Affairs Ministry, which is leading the international campaign against BDS, is buying space in mainstream Israeli newspapers to promote its messages under the guise of published articles.

By Itamar Benzaquen and The Seventh Eye January 14, 2020

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (Courtesy of Omar Shakir).

PODCAST: Israel wants to deport this human rights defender

On the latest episode of The +972 Podcast, Human Right Watch’s Omar Shakir talks about Israel’s case against him, which he believes is a watershed moment for democracy and free speech in Israel. Listen here: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify For more than a year now, Israel has been trying to deport the Israel and Palestine Director…

By +972 Magazine June 28, 2019

Lara Alqasem, who was denied entry into Israel over her alleged support for BDS, is seen in the Tel Aviv District Court during a hearing on her appeal, October 11, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Judge orders Palestinian-American student to remain in Israeli custody

According to the state, it is enough that Lara Alqasem clicked ‘attending’ on pro-Palestinian Facebook events to prove she is pro-BDS. By Edo Konrad and Oren Ziv A Tel Aviv District Court ordered Lara Alqasem, the 22-year-old Palestinian American who was denied entry into Israel due to her political views and has been held by Israeli…

By Edo Konrad October 11, 2018

Jewish settlers train firing at pictures of terrorists at the Gush Etzion shooting range on July 18, 2012. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Israel’s new gun reforms will end in blood

Over the past few years, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has been gradually making it easier for average Israelis to obtain gun licenses. But instead of increasing security, it will only put more people, especially women, at risk. By Rela Mazali Israel’s newspapers have recently reported that tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of previously ineligible…

By +972 Magazine August 28, 2018

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Chief of Police Roni Alsheikh attend a ceremony for Israeli police at the Police National College, Bet Shemesh, September 22, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Challenging Israel’s secret information warfare campaign

Israel’s government is outsourcing ‘mass consciousness activities’ to private organizations, unaccountable to the public. A legal challenge in the High Court aims to stop it. By Itamar Benzaquen Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs is carrying out a global propaganda campaign on behalf of the Israeli government that violates human rights and is acting without authority to do…

By The Seventh Eye May 2, 2018

Thousands hold a funeral for Yacoub Abu al-Qi'an in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran. Abu al-Qi'an was shot dead by police as security forces demolished homes in the village, January 24, 2017. (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

State closes case on officers who killed Bedouin man in Umm al-Hiran

State attorney rules the police who shot and killed Yacob al-Qi’an in January 2017 did not commit a crime, says no conclusive evidence incident was a terror attack. By +972 Magazine Staff Israel’s State Attorney Shai Nitzan ruled Tuesday that the police officers who shot to death Yaqub Musa Abu al-Qi’an in the unrecognized Bedouin…

By +972 Magazine May 1, 2018

Natalie Portman at the premiere of "The Seventh Fire," Haus der Berliner Festspiele, February 7, 2015. (Siebbi/CC BY-SA 3.0)

The real danger of Natalie Portman

Israeli leaders are relentlessly hammering home the idea that the kind of political dissent displayed by Natalie Portman is foreign. And dissenters, by definition, are not real Israelis. When Natalie Portman announced that she would not attend the lucrative Genesis Prize ceremony because she opposes Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was to present the prize to…

By Dahlia Scheindlin April 24, 2018

African asylum seekers jailed in the Holot detention center protest behind the prison's fence, February 17, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

In lead-up to mass deportation, Israel closes Holot detention facility

For the past four years, asylum seekers and their supporters have demanded that the Holot detention center be shut down. Now it’s finally happening, but not at all how they envisioned. The Israeli government shut down the Holot detention facility, the open-air, desert detention facility built for African asylum seekers, on Wednesday after four years…

By Joshua Leifer March 15, 2018

Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen seen in the Knesset. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Knesset bars Arab MK from JVP-sponsored trip to U.S.

MK Yousef Jabareen was supposed to travel across the United States for a series of lectures on the political reality in Israel. The Knesset decided to put the kibosh on the trip — because it is sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace. The Knesset has forbidden an Arab member of Knesset from traveling to the…

By Edo Konrad March 14, 2018

Human rights defender and computer networking pioneer Anriette Esterhuysen speaks at 7amleh's Palestine Digital Activism Forum, Ramallah, West Bank, January 18, 2018. (Courtesy of 7amleh)

Social media giants feel the heat at Palestinian digital conference

At the Palestine Digital Activism Forum, representatives from both Google and Facebook faced a crowd that demanded to know why the two companies cooperate with Israel’s attempts at silencing Palestinians. Not long after the Arab Spring began, social media companies rushed to embrace the popular narrative that their platforms had the potential to change societies and reform…

By Joshua Leifer January 18, 2018