Mizrahim

Israeli teenagers sign their names onto a letter declaring their refusal to enlist in the army and serve a dictatorship in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories, Gimnasia Herzliya, Tel Aviv, September 3, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

A lesson on Israeli ‘democracy’ from an 18-year-old draft refuser

Previous generations of Israelis closed their eyes to the oppression of Palestinians, Mizrahim, and asylum seekers. Our generation can be different.

By Yahli Agai September 5, 2023

An elderly Jewish man seen in Kfar Shalem, 1969. (Boris Carmi /Meitar Collection / National Library of Israel / The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection)

From Salama to Kfar Shalem: How Mizrahim fit into the ongoing Nakba

The expulsion of Salama’s Palestinians, the settling of Mizrahi Jews in their place, and the eviction of those residents decades later reveals the mechanism by which Israel continues to erase Palestinian existence.

By Doron Yacov and Adi Golan Bikhnafo May 15, 2023

Reuven Abergel, co-founder of the Israeli Black Panthers, speaks to more than 10,000 African asylum seekers gathered in Levinsky Park in support of their struggle, south Tel Aviv, January 7, 2014. (Activestills.org)

An Israeli Black Panther’s call for true democracy

We did not get to taste one drop of the promises in the Declaration of Independence. Now we must gather all the oppressed groups we have ignored.

By Reuven Abergel May 8, 2023

Latest

Activists from the Mizrahi left group Shovrot Kirot and the Kan2Come collective block Tel Aviv's Ayalon Highway during the anti-government protests, March 26, 2023. (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

The dilemmas of the Mizrahi left in the Israeli protest movement

Prof. Smadar Lavie discusses the possibilities and contradictions of the Ashkenazi-dominated protests against the government, and traces the efforts of a small cohort of Mizrahi activists to make their voices heard.

By Shane Burley and Ben Lorber March 28, 2023

Right-wing activists protest the annual Pride parade, Jerusalem, August 2, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The far right always has a next target

The threat to Israel's LGBTQ community underlines how a state designed to eject a particular group from its midst will always look for new targets.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland January 21, 2023

An Israeli Border Police officer points his weapon at journalists and Palestinian paramedics during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters in north Ramallah, near the Beit El checkpoint, occupied West Bank, December 22, 2017. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

The rebellion of Israel’s second army

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi hands over to his successor a ‘policing army’ that is more autonomous, settler-led, and lethal than ever.

By Yagil Levy December 26, 2022

A display at Amram's exhibition on the Yemenite Children Affair in London. (Joanne Rosenthal)

‘Ragged rats’: London exhibit captures the racism that tore apart Mizrahi families

The new exhibition highlights the overlooked role of diaspora Zionist organizations in the kidnapping and adoption of Israel’s Yemenite children.

By Leeor Ohayon December 1, 2022

Far-right politician and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir visits Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, June 10, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The sheriff comes for his share of the colony’s spoils

Like Andrew Jackson in 19th century America, Ben Gvir represents a settler underclass demanding the full privileges derived from native dispossession.

By Avi-ram Tzoreff December 1, 2022

Yoni Battat in Jerusalem. (Emily Glick)

Piecing together the fragments of our Arab-Jewish identity

Siblings Yoni and Sivan Battat discuss how collaborating on the former's music album became a means of reconnecting with their Iraqi family and heritage, and of disentangling Mizrahiness from Israeliness.

By Yoni Battat and Sivan Battat November 17, 2022

Activists from the Shovrot Kirot movement stand in front of the ruins of the Givat Amal neighborhood in north Tel Aviv, and the luxury apartment blocks built in its place, April 11, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

The Mizrahi feminists shaking up Israel’s human rights scene

A new movement is bringing a fresh model to the struggle for the rights of Israeli society’s most invisible and marginalized groups. Can it succeed?

By Ben Reiff April 12, 2022

Noam Shuster-Eliassi. (Noam Shuster-Eliassi)

PODCAST: The Jewish comedian calling out apartheid in Arabic

From Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem and New York, Noam Shuster-Eliassi is using comedy to deliver home truths about injustice in Israel-Palestine.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland February 25, 2022

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

Avi Dabush who came in ninth at Meretz primaries after the release of the results in the primaries in Tel Aviv, February 14, 2019. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

This Israeli leftist wants his camp to break the Tel Aviv bubble

Activist and Meretz member Avi Dabush explains what the Israeli left gets wrong about towns like Sderot, their Mizrahim, and their views on Gaza.

By Noam Sheizaf November 30, 2021