mahmoud darwish

Palestinian activists around a bonfire in Ein Hijleh protest village, in the Jordan Valley, West Bank January 31, 2014.

Ceding the Palestinian narrative to … Palestinians

Marcello Di Cintio’s book, ‘Pay No Heed to the Rockets,’ ends up revealing something discomforting about us: our notions of Palestinian life may have little to do with how Palestinians experience themselves. Pay No Heed to the Rockets,” Marcello Di Cintio, Counterpoint, 2018. Marcello Di Cintio’s Pay No Heed to the Rockets borrows its title…

By Samer Badawi September 6, 2018

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev walks behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset during the opening of the winter session, Jerusalem, October 31, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Why is the Israeli Right so terrified of cultural expression?

The Right holds near total power in Israel, so why is it so afraid of poetry and theater productions? Should a stranger come upon the public discussions happening in Israel over the past few years, he or she would be under the impression that the country is a global cultural powerhouse. From Al-Midan Theater, Jaffa’s Arab Hebrew Theater,…

By Orly Noy September 26, 2017

A Palestinian woman and children pass the slogan "Gas the Arabs! JDL" spray-painted on an exterior wall of the Cordoba School near Shuhada Street, Hebron, October 22, 2012. "JDL" stands for Jewish Defense League, an extremist group founded by Meir Kahane and designated as a terrorist group by the FBI. On February 25, 1994, JDL charter member Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslims at Hebron's Al-Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs), killing 29 worshippers and injuring 125. Afterwards, the JDL designated him "a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism." (photo by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Unpacking anti-Arab racism in Israel

A new law aiming to silence the Muslim call to prayer is just one manifestation of efforts to erase Palestinian culture and identity. But language and heritage aren’t so easy to disappear. There is a building on Michelangelo Street in Jaffa, near where I used to live, which for a while featured the sentiment “We have no other country” graffitied…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland February 15, 2017

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Leader of the Joint List, Ayman Odeh, leads the weekly party meeting at the Knesset, Jerusalem, October 12, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Why Israel’s Arab statesman boycotted Peres’ funeral

By refusing to attend the funeral, leader of the Joint List Odeh was protesting the myth of Shimon Peres, who enjoyed the global brand of peacemaker after Oslo, but walked away when things didn’t exactly work out. The death of a towering statesman is an occasion for an outpouring of oratory about his or her meaning in…

By Dahlia Scheindlin October 1, 2016

A classroom in Arab a-Ramadin's children's school. (Tatyana Gitlits/Combatants for Peace)

The stark difference between Israeli and Arab schools on the same side of the separation barrier

Just five minutes from Kfar Saba, under full Israeli control, children from the village Arab a-Ramadin will attend a school made of clay, without electricity, and most certainly without computers. All my years as a teacher and administrator couldn’t have prepared me for this place. By Eitan Kalinski As I stood in front of a structure…

By +972 Magazine August 28, 2016

Prime Minister Netanyahu making a recorded public address. (YouTube) screenshot)

No Bibi, Palestinians succeed despite Israel — not because of it

By urging Israel’s Palestinians to take a more active role in civil society, Netanyahu erases an entire history that existed in this land before Zionism. It is not entirely clear what drove Prime Minister Netanyahu to use this moment and release a video directed at Israel’s Arab citizens. It clocks in at just over three minutes, and…

By Orly Noy July 26, 2016

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah use virtual reality goggles at an event in Jaffa, July 21, 2016. (Yair Sagi/Pool)

The Israeli Right still hasn’t internalized that Palestinians exist

Arabs are more present than ever in the Israeli public sphere, but attempts to marginalize them are growing at an even faster pace. A new law aimed at pushing Arab representatives out of the political system could wind up changing the rules of the game — in the worst possible way. The Knesset this week…

By Noam Sheizaf July 21, 2016

Amal Murkus.

The Palestinian-Israeli singer challenging everyone’s misconceptions

Call her a traitor, call her a normalizer — Palestinian-Israeli singer Amal Murkus has heard it all. Now as she gets ready to release her brilliant new album, the avowed Marxist and feminist is speaking out against the racism of the Israeli mainstream as well as Palestinian attempts to silence her. When I came home…

By Orly Noy December 25, 2015

Yossi Sarid at a Sheikh Jarrah solidarity protest, January 22, 2010. (Photo by Lisa Goldman)

Yossi Sarid: Conservative innovator of the Israeli Left

One of the first Israeli politicians to champion the two-state solution, Yossi Sarid was also one of the last vestiges of the Israeli Left’s old guard. He will be remembered warmly for never turning away a person in need, but also for his contentious attitudes toward religious and Mizrahi Jews. For better or worse, there…

By Dimi Reider December 9, 2015

'Dear Darwish' by Morani Kornberg-Weiss

‘Dear Darwish’: A poetically and politically brave book

Israeli-American poet Morani Kornberg-Weiss breaks with conventional poetics and mainstream politics. But who, exactly, is Dear Darwish for? Dear Darwish, Morani Kornberg-Weiss’s first collection of poetry, opens with a prose poem that that doubles as an indictment of Israeli society. Cleverly disguised as a letter, it is addressed to the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat September 3, 2014

A protester holding a poster with Nelson Mandela's portrait, during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, December 7, 2013. The demonstration marked four years to the Popular Struggle in Nabi Saleh, while commemorating the killing of Mustafa Tamimi and Rushdi Tamimi by Israeli army forces, and twenty six years since the first Intifada.

Will there be peace if Palestinians lay down their arms?

The world expects millions of people in Gaza and the West Bank to happily and quietly live under occupation. While laying down arms is a positive step towards peace, it is not enough to end this conflict. Written with Dr. Marc Gopin In the past few weeks the pro-Israel pundits have been recycling an argument…

By Aziz Abu Sarah July 30, 2014

Tamara Masri, the author, against a mural she painted on the separation wall

Hands Not Bombs: From the cave of your invented neighbors

“Dare to look for the handprints, dare to acknowledge the humanity of an invented people.” A Palestinian-American student, writer and activist takes a journey of discovery, in an essay inspired by the culture and literature of liberation, an ancient symbol, and a prehistoric cranium. By Tamara Masri Skulls of early man flashed across the screen. Dr.…

By +972 Magazine January 16, 2012

The “Israel fetish”: singling out Jews & Israelis for hate & love

I was recently in New York City and decided to visit the Jewish Heritage Museum in Battery Park (a Holocaust museum), as I had never been there, though I have been to a fair share of Holocaust museums in the world. As I entered the beginning of the permanent exhibit, I overheard a guide talking…

By Mairav Zonszein March 15, 2011