Sikkuy

Rachel Beitarie, Executive Director of the left-wing Israeli NGO Zochrot, sits in front of the Jaffa Clock Tower. Around 95% of Jaffa's Palestinian population fled or were expelled during the Nakba. (Oren Ziv)

The Israeli left has broken the Nakba taboo. Will the right of return be next?

The past year has seen many left-wing Israeli groups looking beyond the occupation to confront the legacies of 1948, but they remain divided over redressing the exile of Palestinian refugees through return.

By Ben Reiff June 23, 2022

Palestinian citizens of Israel take part in a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, Haifa, Israel, May 22, 2017. (Maria Zreik/Activestills.org)

Why Israel is suddenly interested in its Palestinian citizens

Decades of discrimination have created profound gaps between Palestinian and Jewish citizens. Yet many Palestinians say they now see potential for advancing their interests.

By Samah Salaime September 20, 2021

Illustrative photo of an interview with a Palestinian citizen of Israel. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Public campaign to increase Arab voices in the media makes its mark

A project aimed at increasing Arab representation in the Israeli media has made rapid gains, using public pressure and hard data. By Edan Ring Regular followers of the news on Israeli television and radio are unlikely to have missed a significant change that has been taking place over the last few months. More and more Arab interviewees…

By +972 Magazine December 6, 2016

Latest

File photo of Israel’s Channel 1 evening news broadcast. (Anna Kaplan/Flash90)

‘When the media doesn’t talk to Arabs, coverage of them is negative’

New research finds a direct correlation between negative media coverage of Arab society in Israel and the exclusion of Arab voices and interviewees in that coverage. By Oren Persico The participation of Arab interviewees in Israeli news items relating to Arab society in the country has a correlation on the content and tone of the reporting, new…

By The Seventh Eye October 16, 2016

Only a Mizrahi leader, who carries the heritage of Jewish-Arab partnership, can save the Israeli left. (Tal Weintraub)

Why Morocco can be a model for Jewish-Arab partnership

Throughout much of my life, I have been engaged in attempts to improve Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. But a recent trip to Morocco, where Jews and Muslims lived in harmony for centuries, filled me with hope for my country. Life after the conflict: Act One. By Ron Gerlitz Yes we can. We can imagine good…

By +972 Magazine April 18, 2016

A damaged section of the wall separating Lod’s Palestinian neighborhood of Pardes Shanir and the Jewish town of Nir Tzvi, 2013. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Economic equality is an unconditional right

Right-wing ministers in Israel’s government are putting their own political interests over the economic and social needs of the country’s Arab citizens. By Rawnak Natour and Abed Kanaaneh Arab citizens of the State of Israel have suffered from discrimination by the establishment since the day the country declared independence in 1948, discrimination that is reflected…

By +972 Magazine February 4, 2016

Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrate against perceived changes to the status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sakhalin, northern Israel, October 13, 2015. (Omar Sameer/Activestills.org)

The Israeli media’s outsized influence on Jewish-Arab relations

Though every fifth Israeli citizen is Arab, most Jewish Israelis only know of them and their political thoughts and identity through the Israeli media, and only two polar opposite stereotypes are portrayed in the Hebrew media: the apolitical ‘good Arab’ and the terrorism-supporting ‘bad Arab.’ By Edan Ring Despite the fact that every fifth Israeli citizen…

By +972 Magazine November 16, 2015

Memorial for the Kafr Qasim Massacre, in Kafr Qasim. (Photo: Avishai Teicher)

48 human beings were massacred – and we have forgotten them

When a country accepts responsibility for such a significant event in its past, one might expect it to erect a monument to the victims, to sponsor the annual memorial ceremony and to honor the memory of those murdered rather than leave the matter to the families left behind, as if it were their problem alone.…

By +972 Magazine November 3, 2013

A Bedouin man whose home was demolished [illustrative photo] (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Land, my land: One issue that can be resolved

The time has come to allow ourselves to see this country not only as the battleground of a national struggle but as a shared homeland, which with painful concessions and tremendous confidence-building efforts on both sides, we can turn into a good place where our children will want to live. By Ron Gerlitz As Israel’s…

By +972 Magazine May 6, 2013

Tel Aviv Central Bus Station platform (Wikimedia/public domain)

Transportation in Israel: A paradise for Jews only

Although Israel’s Transportation Ministry has begun promoting green, sustainable transportation, a closer look at the government’s program reveals tremendous gaps between public transportation in the Jewish communities and the neighboring Arab communities. By Toby Cohen and Hagit Naali-Joseph Anyone for whom the quality of the environment and the future of the planet are top priorities is probably…

By +972 Magazine March 7, 2013

Balad Elections signs in Arabic (photo: Roee Ruttenberg)

Why Palestinian citizens don’t vote in Israeli elections

Israeli society’s neglect of the Arab community over the past 20 years has left many Arab citizens with feelings of antagonism or apathy towards the “only democracy in the Middle East.” By Thair Abu-Rass With the Knesset elections only a day away, speculation about the final outcome is at its peak. Most analysts agree that…

By +972 Magazine January 21, 2013

Social protest in Jaffa, 27 August, 2011 (Photo: Keren Manor/Activestills)

Arab social justice needs heard by the gov’t-what about J14?

The leaders of a civil society organization working for equality for the Palestinian citizens of Israel spoke on Tuesday before the Trachtenberg committee – the government-appointed panel charged with recommending steps to improve economic and social justice in Israel. The committee’s invitation to Ron Gerlitz and Dr. Mary Totry of Sikkuy, the Association for Civil…

By Dahlia Scheindlin August 30, 2011