Israeli Social Justice Movement

An activist from the Lo Nechmadim/Lo Nechmadot movement leads a crowd of social justice protesters on Tel Aviv's Ayalon Highway, July 15, 2012. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The Mizrahi left at a crossroads

On the verge of closure, a magazine that served as the ideological home of Israel’s Mizrahi left lives another day. But what do its financial woes reveal about the movement’s struggle in Israeli society?

By Ben Reiff December 16, 2021

Israelis protesting in Tel Aviv in demand social justice, summer 2011. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

How the social protests in Israel broke down national borders

While trying to plan a new life abroad following the failure of the 2011 social protests, Regev Contes uncovers a family secret that radically alters his Israeli Jewish identity. By Mati Shemoelof Regev Contes’ new documentary film, “Goodbye Adolf,” which recently aired on Israel’s Channel 1, is full of courage and honesty. (Warning: this article includes…

By +972 Magazine December 15, 2016

J14 protesters burn government reports which weren't implemented, Tel Aviv, July 7th 2012 (photo: activestills.org)

A failed revolution: Why Israel’s next social protest will be a violent one

The next social protest will be violent because the demand will no longer be for change but for a revolution – and revolutions are violent by nature. Two years after Israel’s social protests, poverty is only increasing, a small number of people control the economy and politicians are still ignoring the grievances of those who…

By +972 Magazine December 18, 2013

Latest

Tel Aviv to Lake Wobegon: ‘Wined and dined’ in the lion’s den

It was only two years ago that I was on the streets protesting corporate capitalism, and here I am being hosted by one of the most powerful organizations in the world (photos: Ami Kaufman) “Life is full of twists and turns” has to be one of the more cliché things one can say, but that’s pretty…

By Ami Kaufman August 18, 2013

Israeli riot policemen arrest a protester as a few hundred Bedouin accompanied by activists from other parts of the country demonstrate against the Prawer Plan on July 15, 2013, Beer Sheva, Israel. Israeli police arrested 14 protesters during the demo. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Anti-Prawer protests sweep the country: A week in photos – July 11-17

This week: Protests sweep the region to protest the Prawer Plan that would displace Bedouin citizens of Israel, social justice activists mark two years since the J14 protests, Americans react to the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, and Palestinians enter Jerusalem in the first week of Ramadan. …

By Activestills July 18, 2013

Demonstrators holding anti-Capitalist and anti-occupation signs (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

Marking two years since J14, thousands demonstrate, block Tel Aviv roads

About 4,000 demonstrators gather in central Tel Aviv o commemorate two years since the first tent was erected on Rothschild Boulevard. on July 14, 2011, launching the largest struggle for social justice in Israeli history – aka, the Israeli Summer or J14. The thousands of demonstrators for social justice marched from Rothschild Boulevard and Habima…

By Haggai Matar July 14, 2013

The Governor of the Bank of Israel and former Chief Economist World Bank Stanley Fischer surrounded by protesters as they walk out of a cultural event in Tel Aviv, May 25 2013 (photo: Ilai Ben Amar)

PHOTO: Bank of Israel governor Fischer is caught in social protest

This is one of the best images the Israeli social protest has produced: the Governor of the Bank of Israel and former chief economist at the World Bank Stanley Fischer walking out of a cultural event in central Tel Aviv, surrounded by protesters who happened to be gathering at a nearby square when they spotted…

By Noam Sheizaf May 27, 2013

Police arrest an ultra-Orthodox man at a mass demonstration against plans to draft haredim into the Israeli army. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Tens of thousands protest plan to draft ultra-Orthodox into Israeli army

As top rabbis declare that attempts to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the army constitute a ‘religious war,’ masses turned out for an anti-draft rally in Jerusalem. Violent confrontations broke out between a few demonstrators and police. Thirteen were injured and 10 arrested. Around 30,000 ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) demonstrators, many more than anticipated, showed up for a…

By Haggai Matar May 17, 2013

Palestinian activists confront Israeli soldiers during a march on Road 60, the main North-South route through the West Bank, in a Nakba Day protest, May 15, 2013. The Nakba, literally, the "catastrophe", names the massive deportation of more then 700,000 Palestinian, made refugees and driven out of what became the State of Israel in 1948. (Photo by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Breaking down walls to remembering the Nakba: A week in photos – May 9-15

This week: Remembering Nakba Day on both sides of the Green Line, demonstrations against the occupation, settlements and the separation wall, social justice protests in Israel, Women of the Wall, solidarity with asylum seekers after police raids and a wall comes down in Lod.

By Activestills May 17, 2013

Thousands on the streets of Tel Aviv last night (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

Masses demonstrate against austerity measures in Israel

Over 12,000 Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities to protest against proposed tax hikes and spending cuts in the state’s new budget. But will the latest iteration of Israel’s social justice protest movement continue? The anger in the streets Saturday may be an indication that the movement will continue and…

By Haggai Matar May 12, 2013

Public housing activists and other social activists protesting in front of the house of the new finance minister, Yair Lapid. April 6 2013 (photo: Yotam Ronen / Activestills)

Can Israel’s social justice protest movement make a comeback?

Will Israeli masses return to the streets for social justice? After nearly a month of weekly protests outside the house of Yair Lapid, the new finance minister – numbering about 400 people each and organized by post-#J14 groups for public housing – a much bigger demonstration is planned for Saturday night with more than 10,000…

By Haggai Matar May 10, 2013

Public housing activists and other social activists protesting in front of the house of the new finance minister, Yair Lapid. April 6 2013 (photo: Yotam Ronen / Activestills)

Activists hold first protest against Israeli Finance Minister Lapid

Roughly 200 demonstrators gathered last night (Saturday) in front of new Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s north Tel Aviv home in protest of planned cuts to social services and benefits. The protesters demanded that the finance minister cover budget deficits by taxing the highest-earning Israelis, rather than cutting benefits to the poor and unemployed, as Lapid hinted he would do. The…

By Noam Sheizaf April 6, 2013

Israeli social protest activists in the summer of 2011 hold a banner emblazoned with the Arabic word "erhal" - leave. Below, the line in Hebrew reads, "Egypt is here." (credit: Oren Ziv/Activestills)

Views on the Arab revolutions from within Israeli society

In February 2011, when it was clear Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year authoritarian rule over Egypt would not survive the popular uprising that had begun on January 25, the Israeli media’s reporting was characterized primarily by a combination of confusion and unease about the big issue that concerns the country above all others – security. On the…

By Lisa Goldman March 20, 2013