Israeli government

A Palestinian mother mourns over the body of her 15-year-old daughter Raghad Abu Amra at Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, April 3, 2025. (Doaa Albaz/Activestills)

Israel no longer hides its genocidal aims in Gaza. Will the world keep looking away?

Since Trump's return, Israel has dropped all pretenses of self-defense. But even as it evades accountability, it has cemented its legacy as a global pariah.

By Omar H. Rahman June 3, 2025

A volunteer at a pepper harvest in Moshav Hamra, an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, November 9, 2023. (Dor Pazuelo/Flash90)

Pick peppers, patrol for Palestinians: The ‘New Guardians’ of Israeli agriculture

With major government funding, Hashomer Hachadash sends volunteers to cement Jewish control of open farmland — on both sides of the Green Line.

By Georgia Gee September 16, 2024

Israeli settlers, including one wearing a Hashomer Yosh T-shirt, block a main road around the Palestinian city of Nablus, occupied West Bank, April 10, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

What is Hashomer Yosh, the latest settler group hit with U.S. sanctions?

The government-backed organization, which brings volunteers to Israeli farming outposts, is a major driver of violent land theft in the West Bank.

By Georgia Gee August 30, 2024

Latest

A film is screened at Muristan Square in Jerusalem's Old City as part of the Jerusalem Film Festival, July 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Can Israeli documentary film survive as a haven for criticism of the occupation?

For years, left-wing filmmakers have resisted the right’s attempts at delegitimization. But political pressure may soon dry up their funding.

By Noam Sheizaf January 15, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, January 11, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Israeli right is the minority — the left need only realize it

It’s time for the Jewish left to understand that by aligning its struggle with the Palestinians, it can be part of a majority against occupation and apartheid.

By Meron Rapoport January 12, 2023

Members of the new Knesset. Top row left to right: Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Yariv Levin, Zvika Fogel, Ofir Sofer; middle row left to right: Moshe Solomon, Avi Maoz, Simcha Rothman, Danny Danon; bottom row left to right: Yisrael Katz, Miki Zohar, Almog Cohen, Amichai Eliyahu. (Flash90)

You’ve heard of Bibi and Ben Gvir. Now meet the rest of the new government

Members of Netanyahu's coalition are coming with a plethora of radical agendas, from neutering the Supreme Court to 'deleting' parts of Gaza.

By Nate Orbach December 29, 2022

Benjamin Netanyahu gives a victory speech on election night, March 18, 2015. (Photo: +972 Magazine)

What now, Bibi? — Early election takeaways

Netanyahu picked a fight with a sitting U.S. president and declared there will never be a Palestinian State. It might have helped him squeeze out another election victory, but where is Israel heading? The Likud and Labor (The Zionist Camp) are tied with 27 seats, but Benjamin Netanyahu has way more paths to bring together…

By Noam Sheizaf March 18, 2015

Amir Peretz, Tzipi Livni and Amram Mitzna [right] (photo: Yotam Ronen / Activestills.org)

Livni’s number two: We should leave the government now

MK Mitzna adds that he hopes the departure of his party from the coalition will lead to its downfall. Amram Mitzna, former head of Labor party and currently number two in Tzipi Livni’s Tnuah party, called on his fellow party members to leave Netanyahu’s government due to the prime minister’s lack of commitment to…

By Noam Sheizaf June 7, 2014

Binyamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid (Photo: IsraeliinUSA/CC BY 2.0, Activestills.org)

Bibi and Lapid: Rise of the metrosexuals

Netanyahu used to be in a class by himself as a vainly handsome Israeli political leader obsessed with his appearance. Now he’s got company, and competition. Oh God — Netanyahu and Lapid in the same cabinet meetings. I don’t know if so much preening, posing and mugging can be contained in one room without the…

By Larry Derfner March 12, 2013

Inconvenient truths. Netanyahu speaking to the Jewish Agency. (Photo: Jewish Agency for Israel, cc by-nd 2.0)

Women’s exclusion comes from the top

Behind the rhetorical condemnations of women’s exclusion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz are at least partially responsible for women’s exclusion. Discrimination and marginalization of women in the public sphere has been fermenting for years as a direct result of Israeli policies – or lack thereof. By Gil Gan Mor Israel’s political…

By +972 Magazine January 2, 2012

This government WANTS Hamas for its “partner”

Mahmoud Abbas’ popularity in the West is a headache for Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s no wonder he’d rather do business with Hamas If I were Bibi Netanyahu, that’s what I’d want. I’d say to myself: “Mahmoud Abbas is a pain in the neck, he’s popular with the West, he makes Israel look bad – he cooperates…

By Larry Derfner October 24, 2011