Life & Culture

Life and Culture in Israel and Palestine

Remains of the Berlin Wall. October 26, 2012. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)

How Berlin became the ‘capital city of Arab exile’

The Arab sociologist Amro Ali has illuminated Germany’s capital city as the center of an intellectual and artistic renaissance, fueled by Arab exiles from the authoritarian crackdowns that followed the 2011 uprisings. By Mati Shemoelof Berlin has become a magnet for political exiles from the Middle East in the years since the failed 2011 uprisings…

By +972 Magazine October 17, 2019

A section of the separation wall in Bethlehem, West Bank, February 16, 2013. (hjl/(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Re-imagining a future by examining the past: Novels of love in Palestine

A trilogy of novels set in Palestine raises critical questions about the tension between identity and the desire to live. By Salsabeel Hamdan The Palace of Angels, Mohammed Massoud Morsi, Wild Dingo Press, 2019. In The Palace of Angels, his trilogy of novels set in Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora, Australian-Egyptian novelist Mohammed Massoud Morsi places his…

By +972 Magazine September 27, 2019

On Easter Monday in the displaced Palestinian village of Iqrit, residents dance around the town's church, April 21, 2014. (Activestills.org)

Palestinians are holding weddings, baptisms, burials in villages destroyed by Israel

Third-generation survivors of the Nakba are returning to the churches in the villages Israel destroyed in 1948 to hold religious ceremonies. By Suha Arraf Just over two weeks ago, Khaled Bisharat, son of famed journalist and author Odeh Bisharat, was married in a church in the village of Ma’alul. It was a wedding like any other, apart…

By +972 Magazine July 30, 2019

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Members of Sol Band (Left to Right) singer Rahaf Shamaly, oud player Said Fadel, and lead singer Hamada Naserallah. (Hind Khoudary)

‘To sing is not a right in the Gaza Strip’

With mounting social and political restrictions under Hamas rule, musicians are struggling to develop their music careers in the strip. Many seek to leave in search of opportunities elsewhere. By Hind Khoudary GAZA CITY — Abed Nasser, the owner of Cedar restaurant in Gaza City, broke the news to his customers in a Facebook post:…

By +972 Magazine June 6, 2019

An illustrative photo of a Passover seder. (Flash90)

A guide to an anti-capitalist, non-Zionist Passover

A hilarious new radical Passover Haggadah by the London-based Jewdas collective provides Jews across the diaspora the opportunity to hold their own alternative seder. By Michal Zweig and Aaron Kaiser-Chen A Jewdas Haggadah (Pluto Press, 2019) Fraught with Ashkenormativity, punctuation and spelling irregularity, and all-around anarchy, the Jewdas Haggadah has arrived this Passover, just as Jews around the world are…

By +972 Magazine April 23, 2019

A still from Nur Abu Jnayeh's documentary 'Visit.'

Women filmmakers shine at Palestine’s first student film fest

The first Bethlehem Student Film Festival included a strong showing from Palestinian women from both sides of the Green Line, with films tackling patriarchy, gender stereotypes, and the occupation. By Suha Arraf The Bethlehem Student Film Festival kicked off last week, showcasing 74 student films from all over the world, including France, Algeria, Egypt, China,…

By +972 Magazine April 16, 2019

A full house at the premiere of Naila and the Uprising at the Red Crescent Cinema Hall in the Gaza Strip, September 2018. (Shareef Sarhan)

What it takes to organize a film screening in Gaza

Getting an entry permit from the Israeli army, securing permission to screen the film from Hamas, and how to prepare for inevitable power cuts are only some of the hurdles. Imagine what it takes to coordinate humanitarian aid. By Jen Marlowe We had been talking about organizing the Gaza premiere of Naila and the Uprising for months, but…

By +972 Magazine October 15, 2018

A Palestinian woman seen after after crossing the a fence that had been damaged by demonstrators during the protest near the Gaza-Israel border fence, Gaza Strip, September 28, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)

‘We all live under one undemocratic system, so we must struggle together’

In a letter from prison, Israeli conscientious objector Hillel Garmi responds to Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the leaders of Gaza’s Great Return March. ‘Although we will not agree on everything, I discovered a vision for justice in your writing.’ Read Abu Artema’s open letter here. By Hillel Garmi Ahmed, I am writing to you from…

By +972 Magazine October 2, 2018

Black Lives Matter activists organize a die-in action outside Memorial Church in Harvard University on December 7, 2014 in Cambridge, Mass. (Tess Scheflan/Activestills.org)

From Palestine to Ferguson: Reflections on shared grief and liberation

Formerly incarcerated women of color perform the story of a Palestinian teen killed by Israeli police in October 2000. The act of Black-Palestine solidarity highlights shared trauma, but also concrete ways toward liberation. By Jen Marlowe and Je Naé Taylor On October 2, 2000, Aseel Asleh, a 17-year old Palestinian citizen of Israel, was shot…

By +972 Magazine October 1, 2018

The Israeli separation wall surrounds the East Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, April 9, 2011. (Activestills.org)

We told ourselves we weren’t settlers. We were something different

In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, we didn’t think of ourselves as settlers, despite the fact that we lived beyond the Green Line and our neighbors were Palestinian. By Ofer Matan The first Arab who stepped into our home was Sabah. The first time we met, Sabah washed his hands in our kitchen sink…

By +972 Magazine October 1, 2018

Women Behind the Wall is a podcast which explores what life is like for Christian Palestinian women living under occupation.

This Palestinian Life: Uncovering the stories of women behind the wall

A podcast highlighting stories of Christian Palestinian women aims to inform new audiences on how occupation impacts their personal lives. A mother in the West Bank struggling to explain to her child, on reaching a checkpoint, that no, they have not yet arrived at the zoo. A grandmother in Beit Sahour who wishes to join…

By Henriette Chacar August 29, 2018

Israeli Jews visit the Temple Mount compound, site of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem Old City, during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, October 8, 2017. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

Tisha B’Av and the mainstreaming of the Temple discourse

The further Israel moves from a solution to the conflict, the more it finds itself in need of the symbols of the religious right. As long as liberal Israelis do not fully renounce the sanctification of blood and land, they will be unable to present a real alternative. By Yudith Oppenheimer I have not adhered to…

By +972 Magazine July 22, 2018

A scene from Joshua Sobol's play, 'The Last Act.' (Paul Marotta/Israeli Stage)

Can a play about the occupation find a home with American Jews?

Famed Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol couldn’t get Israeli theaters to produce his latest play, ‘The Last Act.’ So he took it to Boston, where American Jewish audiences are finding it no less difficult to digest. Sobol and Israeli-American director Guy Ben-Aharon discuss the backlash, the clampdown on criticism of Israel, and whether an American audience is more willing…

By +972 Magazine June 11, 2018