law of return

Participants in the Open Hillel Conference, Harvard University. (photo: Gili Getz)

Israel passes ‘dissenter ban’ barring entry to boycott advocates

It’s impossible to predict how and against whom the new law will be applied, but the message it sends is clear: if your politics don’t toe the Israeli government line, you won’t be allowed in. Even if your opposition is entirely non-violent. As Donald Trump signed a revised travel ban against nationals of six Muslim countries…

By Mairav Zonszein March 7, 2017

File photo of Donald Trump (Albert H. Teich / Shutterstock.com)

Trump is no more racist than mainstream Israeli policy

Israeli politicians are joining the global pushback against Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim racism. But guess what other country bans Muslim immigration? Just days after Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump announced that he will be visiting Israel by the end of December, the billionaire populist called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United…

By Mairav Zonszein December 9, 2015

Border police officers stand in front of Palestinians as they wait to cross from Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem to attend the second Friday Ramadan prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 26, 2013. (Photo: Activestills.org)

When will Israel stop seeing Palestinians as a ‘demographic threat?’

Israel’s political and social outlook, rooted in its desire to be a ‘Jewish state,’ makes it impossible to view the Palestinians as anything but an existential problem, even those it accepts as citizens. By Amjad Iraqi Last week, Haaretz’s Ofer Aderet reported about the auctioning of a letter written by Israel’s first prime minister, David…

By Amjad Iraqi May 31, 2015

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African Asylum seekers march out of the Holot ‘open prison,’ where they were being held, and march along the highway from Beer Sheva in southern Israel on their way to Jerusalem, December 16, 2013. (Photo: Activestills.org)

The origins and politics of Israel’s refugee debate

An in-depth look at the historical and political developments that shaped Israel’s current African asylum-seeker crisis — and one way to resolve it that meets Israel’s own needs while doing right by those who most need its protection. African asylum seekers in Israel have brought their struggle into the limelight in recent weeks. Through acts…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 28, 2014

Tourists riding camels in Israel [illustrative] (photo: flickr / idovermani CC BY 2.0)

Countering single-narrative academic tours of Israel

A number of programs bring international professors to Israel, shaping the way they teach their students about the country and conflict. What’s missing is a Palestinian narrative. But can any alternative program match the all-expenses-paid tours and luxurious accommodations offered by the hasbara-centric Israel programs? By Olga Gershenson In the last few years, a new discipline…

By +972 Magazine January 30, 2013

Cabinet Secretary Zvi_Hauser (Photo: Odedee (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]/Wikimedia Commons)

Well-timed absentee voting bill – a blow to Israeli democracy

By Issa Edward Boursheh In late March, before elections were announced, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser revived an earlier effort to grant Israeli citizens abroad the right to vote. The argument in support of such a bill is that it could increase the level of overall voter participation. But there is every reason to believe that…

By +972 Magazine May 5, 2012

Can one be a liberal and a Zionist without being a liberal Zionist?

An alternative understanding of Zionism sees no contradiction between liberalism and Zionism, and makes possible various political arrangements, which do not place the national aspirations of Jews ahead of those of Palestinians. By Jerry Haber Can one be a liberal (or: progressive) and a Zionist? The debate has been going on for some time now,…

By +972 Magazine November 30, 2011

Streisand’s cousin can’t make ‘aliyah’ due to Facebook postings

What would Yentl have done? Dale Streisand, the cousin of you-know-who, wants to make aliyah – but can’t. Even Bashevis Singer couldn’t have thought this one up (mostly because he died long before Facebook was invented). Haaretz reports today on its front page that Barbra Streisand’s cousin, Dale, will not be allowed to make aliyah.…

By Ami Kaufman February 3, 2011

Has Aliyah from North American peaked- or is it stalling? (Jerry Haber)

The following was originally posted on The Magnes Zionist. Here’s something that caught my eye. In today’s Haaretz there was an article about the “sharp rise” in aliyah since last calendar year (the calendar in question is the Jewish one), in fact, 18%. This is the second year in a row that there was such a rise.…

By +972 Magazine September 5, 2010