Welcome to +972’s Sunday Recap! 

Two years after October 7, Palestine has become a graveyard of failed strategies, Muhammad Shehada argued on the anniversary of the attacks. Even if Trump’s plan manages to end the Gaza war, Palestinians will face a deep, enduring void: of language, hope, and politics that proved futile in the face of genocide.

Local Call reporter Oren Ziv uncovered how a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda videos, part of a months-long investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call together with the research collective Viewfinder, the Swiss network SRF, and the Scottish outlet The Ferret. An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations, used to justify Gaza strikes and amplified by international outlets, discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

For Palestinians in Israel, self-censorship has long been a survival mechanism, Thawra Abukhdeir wrote, where silence has become a condition of citizenship. Encountering solidarity abroad, she realized that freedom of expression is physical — something you feel in your pulse, your posture, the way your chest expands when you realize you don’t have to measure every word.

And on the latest episode of the +972 Podcast, Ghousoon Bisharat and Shatha Yaish spoke with Zayne Abudaka, co-founder and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Progress in Ramallah, who leads the Institute’s efforts to collect and analyze Palestinian public opinion in the West Bank and Gaza. Among other issues, Abudaka discussed how Palestinians understand liberation and hope today, beyond the narrow language of statehood.

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