identity

Ultra-Orthodox Jews look out over the Western Wall and the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, December 17, 2015. (Esther Rubyan/Flash90)

UNESCO’s mistake on Jerusalem

The resolution was yet another shallow attack on identity elements, the same type I reject every time Israel does it to Palestinians. It was also a setback to the kind of UN action that could actually move the bar in a region that desperately needs it. UNESCO has made a startlingly bad move in voting…

By Dahlia Scheindlin October 15, 2016

Performers prepare for celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the city's liberation. (photo: Osnat Ita Skoblinski)

Neither Russian nor Israeli: Lessons from a journey to the homeland

After years of denying her Russian identity, Osnat Ita Skoblinski finally made peace with the cultural world of her friends and family. However, she never expected her first trip back ‘home’ to bring out feelings of hate and revulsion. By Osnat Ita Skoblinski My parents, who immigrated to Israel in the 70s, refused to have a…

By Cafe Gibraltar March 16, 2014

A Palestinian photographer standing during a minute of silence commemorating the Nakba, as part of a ceremony that was held by Palestinian and Israeli students in the entrance to the Tel Aviv University, May 13, 2013. A right wing demonstration was held against the ceremony, as the protesters were shouting slogans against the participants, under police surveillance. (Photo by: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

What it means to be a Palestinian immersed in Israeli society

Towibah Mjdoob is researching how some Palestinians live within entirely Jewish surroundings, how the conflict between the two nations comes into play in their day-to-day lives. But very quickly, Mjdoob realizes that she has become the subject of her own research. By Towibah Mjdoob A nearby voice says to me: “Good morning Hagit.” I had just…

By +972 Magazine July 15, 2013

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Left to right: My grandmother, Becky Mamron (who was called Rubio at the time), with Farid al Atrash and her sister, Leoni. Alexandria, sometime in the mid-late 1930s.

I Don’t Know Arabic, but I do. And yet don’t

Watching an Arabic movie every Friday throughout my childhood. Nearly 30 years would pass before I discover that my grandmother and Farid al-Atrash were friends. I have no idea, it goes under my radar. And yet they are there, the words. By Tamar Kaplansky (Translated from Hebrew by Orna Meir-Stacey) I don’t know Arabic. My…

By Haokets April 7, 2013

I am an Arab Jew

A Lebanese band’s concert in Jordan offered this Arab Jew from Haifa a new take on her identity and one of the of the key premises of the Arab-Jewish conflict. By Lihi Yona Last Tuesday, I returned from Amman. I went to see a concert given by the Lebanese band Mashrou3 Leila in the only…

By +972 Magazine September 17, 2011