October 2000

An Ethiopian Israeli woman confronts police officers during a protest by the Ethiopian community against police brutality, following the killing of Solomon Tekah, July 3, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘They’re killing our brothers’: Why Ethiopians shut down Israel for a day

They’re angry at the media, have lost faith in the establishment, and know that just like other Ethiopian Israelis before them, they too may pay a price for the color of their skin. The demonstrators who protested in Tel Aviv yesterday were not ‘anarchists’ — they were frightened young women and men who want to show they haven’t lost their…

By +972 Magazine July 3, 2019

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

Palestinians try to climb over the separation wall at the Qalandyia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on their way to attend the last Friday prayers in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque during Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Friday, July 1, 2016. (Photo by Flash90)

The changing relationship between Palestinians on either side of the wall

Despite physical separation and internal divisions, Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line are once again talking about the future of their struggle, and the role that Palestinian citizens of Israel can play. Out of sight from most of the Israeli public, yet under the close watch of the government, an internal debate has been raging within…

By Rami Younis July 15, 2018

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Family of Cpt. Ziv Daos mourn during his funeral in Holon Cemetery, March 18, 2018. Daos was killed vehicle-ramming attack near the West Bank settlement Mevo Dotan. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

In Israel of 2018, bereavement is a ‘lifetime achievement’

Israel awarded its most prestigious prize to Miriam Peretz, whose two sons were killed in combat in Lebanon and Gaza. Here are three Palestinians who lost their children, but won’t likely be recognized for their grief. By Orly Noy In the days of the Iran-Iraq War, before Iran sent out young — and often very young…

By Orly Noy March 19, 2018

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

Israeli police arrests a Palestinian protester at a demonstration for the release of hunger striker Mohammad Allan, outside of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

For Israeli police, every Palestinian is guilty until proven innocent

Like many Palestinian citizens before him, Israeli police insist on holding Maysam Abu Alqian responsible for the beating he took in broad daylight. The beating of 19-year-old Maysam Abu Alqian by plainclothes Border Police officers in central Tel Aviv on Sunday was depressingly familiar, both in the incident itself and its aftermath. Alqian, a Bedouin…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland May 23, 2016

Amel Khalil and Gamze Ceylan as Nardeen and Jamila in 'There Is A Field.'

Blurring the lines between Palestine and Baltimore

A new play tells the story of Aseel Asleh, one of the 13 Palestinians killed by police inside Israel at the start of the Second Intifada. Playwright Jen Marlowe is bringing it to black colleges in the U.S. in the hopes of connecting two struggles. Before his death, Palestinian teenager Aseel Asleh dedicated himself to…

By Noa Yachot April 3, 2016

An Israeli soldier aims a rifle loaded with rubber-coated steel bullets during clashes in Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, November 29, 2013. This day's clashes followed several days of confrontations after the killing of three Palestinian militants by Israeli forces in Yatta. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

The only way to ensure Palestinian lives matter

The IDF’s decision not to charge Abed Fatah al-Sharif’s killer with murder should not surprise anybody — it is entirely consistent with the impunity Israeli security personnel have enjoyed for decades when it comes to killing Palestinians. The Israeli army’s Military Advocate General on Thursday announced that it will not seek murder charges against a…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 31, 2016

Police arrest an Arab protester during a demonstration in Nazareth against the Gaza war. (photo: Activestills.org)

How police can earn the trust of Arab society in Israel

For the past 15 years, the police have made efforts to work alongside Arab society. But as violence rises, they are once again being regarded as a quasi-military force more interested in state security than in reducing crime. By Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu During a weekly cabinet meeting in mid-January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that…

By +972 Magazine February 18, 2016

Israeli border police shoot tear gas at an anti-war protest organized by Palestinian citizens of Israel, Nazareth. At least 10 were arrested. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘When the police aren’t your protectors, there is no safety’

Palestinian citizens of Israel share the same fear of violence as Jews in recent weeks. But many of them don’t find security or comfort in Israel’s police forces, who seem to think that Palestinian citizens should accept that their rights and dignity must be compromised in order to make Jewish citizens feel safer. “We are…

By Amjad Iraqi October 19, 2015

Israeli Border Police officers aim assault rifles toward Arab demonstrators in northern Israel during October 2000. (Courtesy of Adalah)

Palestinian citizens will always be enemies in a Jewish state

The Or Commission’s report on the October 2000 events was a symbolic indictment of Israel’s ‘enemy doctrine’ toward its Palestinian citizens. But Israel has not absorbed the lessons of the report, because demands for equality remain anathema to the state’s raison d’être. Twelve years ago, in its report on the events of October 2000, the Or…

By Amjad Iraqi October 7, 2015

An Arab youth lies bloodied on the ground after being shot by Israeli Border Police. (photo courtesy of Adalah)

They weren’t born to be martyrs, they were born to live

Fifteen years after Israeli police murdered 13 unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel, the sister of one of those young men asks whether the dominant national symbolism of martyrdom must trump the humanitarian aims and face of Palestinian liberation. By Siwar Hasan-Aslih If you ask Palestinians who lived through the the events of October 2000 what…

By +972 Magazine October 6, 2015

A demonstration in northern Israel during the events of October 2000. (Courtesy of Adalah)

October 2000: How to get Israelis to empathize with Arabs

A former editor of Israel’s flagship weekend television news program reflects on the challenge of presenting the October 2000 events — when Israeli police killed 13 unarmed Arab protesters — in a way Jewish Israelis might empathize with the pain of the country’s Palestinian population. By Anat Saragusti It was an intense meeting in a…

By +972 Magazine October 6, 2015