Palestinians survey the destruction following an Israeli air strike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, November 14, 2019. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

On the Gaza fence, a call for stability — not vengeance

The latest round of deadly violence in Gaza has already taken the lives of at least 34 Palestinians, including eight children. Meanwhile, in Israel’s southern towns, residents want stability — not more war. Israelis in the southern towns of Sderot, Ashdod, and Ashkelon are no longer interested in vengeance. Perhaps it’s their weariness and desperation, or…
By Oren Ziv
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Palestinians evacuate the wounded from Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on November 12, 2019. Earlier in the day an Israeli air strike killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad field commander Baha Abu Al-Atta. (Fadi Fahd/Flash90)

To save himself, Netanyahu is going to war with Gaza

Even as Israel becomes chronically unable to form a government, the ‘Gaza consensus’ — the endless pounding of the strip into oblivion — persists. It could tip the scales in Netanyahu’s favor. There is no military solution in Gaza. But Israel’s leaders, who are too much at loggerheads to sit in a government together, are somehow able to agree…
By Edo Konrad
Rowaida Abu Eid tries Palestine VR, an app that offers virtual tours of six regions in the West Bank and Gaza. (Screenshot of a a PIPD video)

New VR app circumvents Israel’s travel bans, takes viewers across Palestine

Palestine VR offers virtual tours across six regions in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing viewers to ‘see the reality on the ground’ themselves. By Jaclynn Ashly Israel’s separation wall snakes around Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp in the West Bank. Solidarity graffiti is spray-painted all over the concrete slabs. Black water tanks, some of which are…
By +972 Magazine
Israeli soldiers violently drag Rabbi Arik Ascherman while he and a group of activists attempt to repair an access road for a cluster of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills on May 3, 2019. (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

In the Hebron Hills, the settlers are the lords and the IDF does their bidding

A new booklet by Breaking the Silence compiles dozens of accounts by former Israeli combat soldiers who served in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank.  Text by Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg In 2012, two Israeli residents of Mitzpe Yair, an unauthorized settlement in the Hebron Hills, spontaneously attacked an elderly, unarmed Palestinian man, beating him so…
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Why Hamas is staying out of Israel’s fight with Islamic Jihad

Why Hamas is staying out of Israel’s fight with Islamic Jihad

Israeli security and political coordination with Hamas has served mutual interests for many years. Now Hamas is hoping to stay out of the current fighting in order to potentially expand its political power in the West Bank.
Daily police violence is the new norm in Issawiya — with no end in sight

Daily police violence is the new norm in Issawiya — with no end in sight

For the past six months, Israeli police have subjected Issawiya’s residents to daily raids, arrests and beatings, alongside constant drone surveillance. No one seems to know the goal of the operation – including the police. In the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, Monday evening looked like this: Border Police and riot police jeeps roving constantly;…
By Oren Ziv
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Two settlers, one of them carrying a gun, stand near a mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron, April 1, 2001. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

What if Israel had decided to expel the settlers of Hebron?

After Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians in the Cave of the Patriarchs, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin could have taken action against the settlers of Hebron. Instead he put the Palestinians of the city under closure. The consequences of that decision reverberate until today. By Amiram Goldblum Following the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre on Feb. 25, 1994,…
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From margins to mainstream: How Israel-Palestine jumped to the heart of U.S. politics

The last time there was a wide-open Democratic Party primary, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama clashed on everything from the Iraq War to health care to race. Everything, that is, except for Israel. Criticism of Israel during the 2007-2008 race was limited to fringe candidates. In a 2007 NPR debate, Mike Gravel, the gadfly former…
By Activestills
America’s long history of tolerating Israel’s illegal expansion

America’s long history of tolerating Israeli expansion

The United States has never treated Israeli settlements as illegal, with expansion moving ahead with little resistance from Washington. Still, Pompeo’s recent declaration will likely become the new normal.
By Dimi Reider
Mourners attend the funeral of seven members of the Abu Malhous family killed by an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral, Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, November 14, 2019. (Hassan Jedi/Flash90)

With Gaza behind him, Netanyahu puts Israel’s Palestinians in the crosshairs

With corruption indictments closing in, Netanyahu hopes his scorched earth campaign against Palestinians, whether in Gaza or in Israel, will give Israelis the sense that they live in a state of emergency and cannot afford change. By the time last week’s fighting was over, sparked by Israel’s assassination of Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata in Gaza, over than 30…
Palestinian students at Salem School in Nablus, West Bank wear eye patches in solidarity with journalist Moath Amarnih, who was wounded and lost sight in one eye during clashes with the Israeli army in the village of Surif. November 18, 2019. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Partially blinded by an Israeli bullet, Palestinian journalist turns into icon

Palestinian journalists and students join a broad campaign to highlight the dangers faced by West Bank and Gaza reporters in the field, who are regularly targeted by Israeli security forces with little fear of punishment.
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Israel cannot hide the occupation by silencing (or killing) Palestinian journalists

The global solidarity campaign following the blinding of a Palestinian photographer by Israeli security forces is a reminder that try it might, Israel won’t be able to stop Palestinian journalists from telling the story of the occupation. By Omri Najad Last Friday, Palestinian photographer Moath Amarnih headed out to document a protest by the residents of Surif…
By Haokets
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an 'emergency' Likud rally in Tel Aviv, November 17, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

By labeling Arabs an ‘existential threat,’ Bibi invokes a terrifying history of ethnic violence

The prime minister organized an emergency Likud gathering Sunday night, in which he accused Israel’s Arab citizens of supporting terror and wanting to destroy the State of Israel. We know how this kind of thing can end. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a bitter struggle to prevent his challenger from establishing a government with support from the Arab-led Joint List party, has…
By Amjad Iraqi, Cafe Gibraltar and Dimi Reider
Palestinian demonstrators clash with Israeli Border officers during a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in Surif, occupied West Bank, November 15, 2019. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Palestinian journalist loses eye after Border Police open fire on West Bank protest

Photojournalist Moath Amarnih was struck by a bullet that likely hit the leg of a protester before ricocheting and hitting him in the head while covering a protest in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian journalist lost his eye after Israel Border Police officers opened fire at demonstrators in a village near Hebron in the occupied…
By Oren Ziv
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Palestinian students at Salem School in Nablus, West Bank wear eye patches in solidarity with journalist Moath Amarnih, who was wounded and lost sight in one eye during clashes with the Israeli army in the village of Surif. November 18, 2019. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
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Palestinian journalists and students join a broad campaign to highlight the dangers faced by West Bank and Gaza reporters in the field, who are regularly targeted by Israeli security forces with little fear of punishment.
August 12, 2020
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By Natasha Roth-Rowland, +972 Magazine, Edo Konrad and Haggai Matar November 21, 2019
An Israeli military police officer checks entry permits of Palestinians on a bus crossing the Allenby Bridge into Israel. (Moshe Milner/GPO)
What would Israelis do if Palestinians disappeared overnight?
In Ibtisam Azem’s ‘The Book of Disappearance,’ Israelis wake up one day to a country without any Palestinians. Azem speaks to +972 about how, with this sudden vanishing of ‘the enemy,’ she confronts some of the darkest chapters of Israel’s history. What would Israelis do if every Palestinian between the river and the sea disappeared at…
November 11, 2019
Ishaq Bar-Moshe in Iraq. (Courtesy of Bar Moshe's family)
The Mizrahi author whose book Mahmoud Abbas wants to distribute
Ishaq Bar-Moshe started writing books in Arabic two decades after he emigrated from Iraq to Israel. It was a radical choice, given that the language aroused deep antipathy in Israel  — but Bar-Moshe was undeterred. By Naomi Niddam A few weeks ago, a representative from the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Idit Shemer, an…
By +972 Magazine November 8, 2019
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks at the 2019 J Street National Conference, October 28, 2019. (Photo courtesy of J Street)
For J Street, holding Israel accountable is still a step too far
J Street’s 2019 conference heralded a new willingness to tie military aid to Israel to its human rights record. But the organization was quick to reaffirm a status quo of unconditional aid — despite ongoing abuses. What at first looked like a sea change on the horizon has turned out to be much less. One week…
By Joshua Leifer November 7, 2019
A Palestinian woman seen after after crossing the a fence that had been damaged by demonstrators during the protest near the Gaza-Israel border fence, Gaza Strip, September 28, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)
Israel killed 222 Gaza protestors since 2018. Only one soldier has been indicted
As Othman Hiles began climbing the Gaza fence, an Israeli soldier opened fire and killed the unarmed 14-year-old. The soldier’s sentence? Community service. By Eyal Sagiv Two women and a teenage boy stand close to the fence separating Gaza from Israel, waving Palestinian flags. Four other teenagers approach. One of them, 14-year-old Othman Hiles, is wearing a…
By +972 Magazine November 6, 2019
A Palestinian family sits in their destroyed home in the At-Tuffah district of Gaza City, which was heavily attacked during last Israeli offensive, September 21, 2014.
The unbearable heaviness of finding freedom outside Gaza
‘I have developed a strange belief that things might go wrong. I am afraid that I will be questioned or stopped. I am seriously unable to believe that I have the right to move.’ By Salsabeel H. Hamdan For a Palestinian, Gaza is a place from which escape is nearly impossible. Israel has, for the past…
By +972 Magazine November 5, 2019
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (Courtesy of Omar Shakir).
Supreme Court rules Israel can expel top Human Rights Watch director
Israel’s top court says Omar Shakir can be deported, escalating the government’s efforts to silence criticism of its policies. His case has been described as a watershed moment for human rights advocacy and free speech in Israel. Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the deportation of the Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch Omar Shakir…
By Henriette Chacar November 5, 2019
Activists from Israel demonstrate in solidarity with Jordanian-Palestinian prisoner Hiba al-Labadi outside Ofer Military Court in the West Bank, October 28, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Israel to release hunger-striking Jordanian national from admin detention
Heba Al-Labadi, a Jordanian national of Palestinian descent, has been on hunger strike for 41 days to protest her detention without indictment or trial. She was arrested by Israel while traveling from Jordan to a wedding in Jenin. Heba al-Labadi, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian descent, who has been on hunger strike for the past…
By Oren Ziv November 4, 2019
Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) upon her release from an Israeli prison, at a checkpoint near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, June 3, 2016. (Haytham Shtayeh/Flash90)
Israeli army arrests Palestinian feminist lawmaker, months after her release
Khalida Jarrar was last released from Israeli custody in February, where she was held for 20 months without charge or trial. By Jaclynn Ashly Dozens of Israeli soldiers arrested Khalida Jarrar, a prominent Palestinian left-wing lawmaker and activist, after raiding her home in central Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank overnight on Thursday. Suha Ghassan, Jarrar’s…
By +972 Magazine November 1, 2019
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  1. Israel deports top human rights worker
  2. How Israel-Palestine jumped to the heart of U.S. politics
  3. American Jews can fight white nationalism and the occupation at the same time
  4. Netanyahu to be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud
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