Welcome to +972’s new website!

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to introduce +972’s new and improved website.

+972 Magazine has been around for two years now. We started as a small group blog operated by several volunteers; today, we are a group of more than 20 writers and editors, covering news and developments in the region on a daily basis.

The new version of +972 Magazine is suited to meet the changing needs of the site and the expectations of our growing readership. The new site will look much better on your mobile or tablet devices. It will also include some new features, among them a more sophisticated commenting system, prominent videos on the homepage, an attractive group blog format, and a nifty little feature called “What We’re Reading” on the right side of the site, which allows you to see what our bloggers are presently reading from around the web.

You will find all our bloggers on the left side of the homepage along with a couple of new channels we are very happy to introduce. The first is a photojournalism channel, operated by the talented Activestills collective. Activestills photographers place special emphasis on covering protests and grassroots activism; their new channel will feature photo essays and the week’s best images, among other things.

We are also pleased to introduce the +972 Resource channel, which will showcase reports, maps and other collections of valuable data, collected mostly – but not exclusively – by civil society organizations. We hope these resources will provide much-needed background to better understand the daily reality of the region, with special attention to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (Check out, for example this report by B’Tselem on so-called “State Lands” in the West Bank, an issue that has been in the news due to recent Israeli Supreme Court rulings.)

We want to take this opportunity to thank all our readers – those who have commented, shared our content on social networks, wrote us emails or simply visited the site. A special thanks to all those who have donated to this project. +972 is a small operation, based mostly on volunteers who are motivated by a desire to share their knowledge and experiences with readers, in the hopes of helping make this a better place. The costs of maintaining the site are constantly on the rise, and without the ongoing support of our readers, this project won’t be able to survive. If you’d like, you can donate at any time by clicking on the link in the top right corner of the site. If you haven’t already, we would also like to invite you to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

This makeover was made possible due to a grant by the Social Justice Fund (USA). We would also like to thank the Moriah Fund and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, whose grants have enabled us to provide editing services for the site throughout this year.

We invite you all to share your comments on the new look, or any other thoughts you have, by writing to us at info@972mag.com

Noam Sheizaf and the +972 Team

UPDATE: Several readers have reported problems and bugs in the comments section. We believe they will be solved in the coming days. Thanks for your feedback!