Zionist Left

Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh virtually joins a Central Elections Committee hearing on a request to disqualify him from the upcoming elections, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, September 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Palestinian MKs in Israel have long faced election bans. This time is different

From Ben Gvir to the Democrats, Israeli politicians have called to disqualify the Balad party chair — and the Supreme Court may no longer serve as a backstop.

By Samah Watad September 30, 2026

The People's Peace Summit in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2026. (Ofer Amram, Sal Productions)

The Israeli left is speaking only to itself

Another peace conference at a time of genocide and ethnic cleansing exposes this shrinking movement’s inability to influence our reality.

By Samah Watad May 8, 2026

Police officers arrest a demonstrator at a rally against Israel's war with Iran, at Habima Square, Tel Aviv, March 28, 2026. (Flash90)

Israeli police are violently suppressing our growing anti-war protests

As dissent over the Iran war spreads to the political center, demonstrators face crackdowns while opposition lawmakers are still nowhere to be seen.

By Iddo Elam April 1, 2026

Latest

Democrats head Yair Golan, National Unity head Benny Gantz, Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, and Yisrael Beyteinu party Avigdor Liberman hold a joint press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s opposition is plotting a return to power. But it remains its own worst enemy

Despite a strong showing in the polls, Israel’s center-left camp is still in denial about its only trump card: joining forces with Palestinian-led parties.

By Joshua Leifer September 15, 2025

Destroyed homes in the Israeli city of Rishon LeZion, central Israel, after a ballistic missile fired from Iran hit the area, June 14, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s greatest threat isn’t Iran or Hamas, but its own hubris

A people whose entire existence depends solely on military might is destined to end up in the darkest corners of destruction, and ultimately, in defeat.

By Orly Noy June 15, 2025

Israelis and Palestinians rally for an end to the war in Gaza, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, April 24, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

What is the role of Israelis in the Palestinian liberation movement?

The history of anti-colonial organizing shows there is room for joint struggle — but only if the partnership aims to promote true equality and justice.

By Fadi Shabita April 25, 2025

An Israeli soldier walks past a wall of photographs of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, March 10, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Netanyahu isn’t the only one interested in prolonging the war

A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to the Zionist left, have differing motivations for turning the war into the new normal.

By Menachem Klein April 9, 2024

A convention of the Israeli Communist Party (then known as Rakah), in Tel Aviv, December 15, 1976. (National Library of Israel/Dan Hadani Archive/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection)

A century after its founding, the Israeli Communist Party is at a crossroads

For 100 years, Maki has been the leading force for Jewish-Palestinian equality in Israeli politics, yet it has failed to unite Arab and Jewish workers into a viable movement. Was it doomed from the start?

By Joel Beinin July 28, 2023

Bezalel Smotrich, February 6, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The danger of treating Smotrich as an anomaly

By marking one Israeli politician as unacceptable, U.S. Jews are sidestepping the need to reckon with the wider system that enables his genocidal views.

By Edo Konrad March 9, 2023

Israeli activists hold a protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, September 23, 2021. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

How this government will turn its Jewish critics into dissidents

The transformation of Israeli leftists into dissidents is a reminder that no one is safe from the attempts to turn the 'wrong kind' of Jews into enemies.

By Edo Konrad December 16, 2022

Dana Mills, the interim executive director of Peace Now. (Oren Ziv)

Peace Now is taking direct action against settler outposts. Can it succeed?

The anti-occupation group is pushing the Zionist left to adopt more disruptive tactics, says interim head Dana Mills. But are there limits to its approach?

By Oren Ziv and Meron Rapoport August 16, 2022

A Palestinian woman climbs the fence separating Israel from Gaza, during the 27th "Great March of Return" Friday protest, Gaza Strip, September 28, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills)

The siege is only a symptom

To confront Israel’s violence against Palestinians, progressive Jews in Israel and around the world must reckon with the ideology that lies at its root.

By Ben Reiff August 11, 2022

View of the Jewish settler outpost of Mitzpe Kramim occupied West Bank, August 29, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Everyone is in on the plunder of Palestinian land

The retroactive legalization of a settler outpost exposes the complicity of the entire Zionist spectrum in the dispossession of Palestinians.

By Orly Noy August 2, 2022