Oslo Accords

MK Simcha Rotman, Head of the Knesset's Constitution Committee, poses for a picture at the Knesset, Jerusalem, January 17, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Welcome to Simcha Rothman’s vengeful coup

Embodying the rage that drives the Israeli right’s judicial assault, the chair of the Knesset’s Law and Justice Committee is poised to bring his once-fringe ideas to fruition. And, he tells +972, he is just getting started.

By Nate Orbach March 9, 2023

Israeli soldiers, settlers and Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Israeli settlement building in Al-Thaalaba village, near Yatta, August 21, 2020. (Wissam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Why Israel’s goal of pacifying the Palestinians is failing

Israel relies on a counterinsurgency strategy of economic gestures and local policing to stabilize its rule. But growing resistance shows why it can't prevail.

By Nur Arafeh February 16, 2023

Young Orthodox Israelis wave flags during the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, May 15, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

The radicalizing rebellion of Israel’s Haredi youth

Once staunch anti-Zionists, Haredi parties have become ensconced in the Israeli right. Now, a generation of disenfranchised Haredi youth is defying its elders and seeking meaning in the most extreme forms of supremacism.

By Pnina Pfeuffer October 31, 2022

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Palestinians clash with PA security forces in Nablus, in the West Bank on September 20, 2022, following the arrest of Hamas members by Palestinian security forces. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Why Israel’s plan of subcontracting the occupation is failing

Rare confrontations in Nablus last week show how the Palestinian Authority, backed by a discordant Israeli policy, has lost legitimacy among its people.

By Omar H. Rahman September 27, 2022

Jenin governor Akram Rajoub in his office, West Bank, September 2022. (Yuval Abraham)

‘We built the Palestinian Authority with blood. We won’t give up on it’

As armed confrontations escalate in Jenin, Governor Akram Rajoub addresses criticisms of the PA's failures as a government under Israeli occupation.

By Yuval Abraham September 26, 2022

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas taking part in a prayer ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, in Ramallah, West Bank, July 6, 2015. (Flash90)

Abbas is signaling a successor. But will Palestinians accept him?

The nepotistic rise of Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA's key liaison with Israel, is emblematic of much that is wrong with the Palestinian leadership.

By Omar H. Rahman June 21, 2022

Israelis mark the 26th Memorial Day for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, October 18, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Good riddance to Rabin Square

The closure of Rabin Square presents an opportunity for the Zionist left to let go of its former leader’s legacy and embrace a politics of decolonization.

By Ben Reiff November 3, 2021

(L to R) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Jordanian King Hussein bin Talal at the White House after signing the Oslo II Agreements, Sept. 28, 1995. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

The colonial idea that built the Palestinian Authority

Israel tried for years to create a body that would control Palestinians on its behalf. It was the liberation movement's leaders that helped it succeed.

By Tariq Dana July 25, 2021

Palestinians protest the death of Palestinian human rights activist Nizar Banat who died after being arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 24, 2021. (Flash90)

The PA stumbled from one failure to another. Has its reckoning arrived?

The decades-long decline of the Fatah party has proven to Palestinians that the PA is an obstacle, not a vehicle, for their national liberation.

By Majeed Malhas July 13, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Likud Party election rally in Jerusalem, on February 26, 2020. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

The transformative legacy of Mr. Status Quo

Benjamin Netanyahu made everybody believe there could never be an alternative to the so-called 'status quo.' His departure should serve as a reminder that one always exists.

By Noam Sheizaf June 13, 2021

The Israeli and American flags screened on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City to mark one year since the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, May 14, 2019. (Aharon Krohn/Flash90)

‘Equality’ is finally breaching Washington’s debate on Israel-Palestine

A policy paper centering equal rights for both peoples marks a radical break from the Israel-centric discourse of mainstream U.S. think tanks.

By Mitchell Plitnick May 6, 2021

Saturday Night Live's Michael Che, February 20, 2021. (YouTube Screenshot)

Saturday Night Live tells the uncomfortable truth about Israel

Michael Che's joke about Israel's COVID-19 vaccination campaign pokes fun at a regime that does little to hide its supremacist policies.

By Edo Konrad February 22, 2021

Israeli troops fire tear gas at a protest calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, Jan. 13, 2018. (Flash90)

‘What did the world give us?’ A letter to President Biden from Nabi Saleh

I used to defend the two-state solution as the Palestinians' path to liberation. But after three decades of the Oslo Accords, 'peace' itself is yet to be born.

By Bassem Tamimi January 27, 2021