arab spring

Remains of the Berlin Wall. October 26, 2012. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)

How Berlin became the ‘capital city of Arab exile’

The Arab sociologist Amro Ali has illuminated Germany’s capital city as the center of an intellectual and artistic renaissance, fueled by Arab exiles from the authoritarian crackdowns that followed the 2011 uprisings. By Mati Shemoelof Berlin has become a magnet for political exiles from the Middle East in the years since the failed 2011 uprisings…

By +972 Magazine October 17, 2019

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu (right) during a Mimouna celebration. (photo: Activestills.org)

What Israel can learn from Morocco’s multiculturalism

Since it gained independence in 1956, Morocco’s national identity has transformed from a homogenous Arab one to multicultural. Israel could stand to learn a lesson or two. By Einat Levi Two weeks ago, the Knesset passed the controversial Jewish Nation-State Law. Sixty-two members of Israel’s parliament voted in favor, 55 opposed, and two abstained. Several…

By +972 Magazine August 10, 2018

Israeli police fire tear gas at protesting Palestinian youths in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, October 6, 2015. (Flash90)

Why the whole region is looking at Palestine’s youth

Young Palestinians play an important role in the future of the region, and as their anger rises, so do the chances of renewed uprisings in the Arab world. By Ronit Marzan Approximately 1.4 million young people between the ages of 15-29 live in the West Bank and Gaza today, making up 30 percent of the…

By +972 Magazine March 29, 2017

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Tariq Al-Bab, Aleppo, 2013. (Basma/Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Downstairs, from heavenly Aleppo

Aleppo, your stories will come back to my ears, like a child who sits on his grandmother’s knees. By Mati Shemoelof Aleppo, I, Matityaho Ibn Shifra, your old daughter, a grandson of your Arab-Jews, mourn the erasure of your city of poetry, Aleppo, how did they forget to save your libraries? Aleppo, was it not…

By +972 Magazine February 18, 2017

Muslim worthshippers seen next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, November 7, 2016. (Sebi Berens/Flash90)

Dear Trump administration: Don’t mess with Jerusalem

Moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could ignite a spark that would set the entire region aflame. It’s just not worth it. By James J. Zogby In just a matter of days, President-elect Donald Trump will have to decide on whether or not to make good on his promise to move the U.S.…

By +972 Magazine January 16, 2017

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech on the second day of the seventh Fatah Congress, November 30, 2016, Ramallah. (Flash90)

Palestinians deserve more than Mahmoud Abbas

At the Fatah Congress this week, Abbas’s followers seem to have affirmed a choice Oslo’s signatories made more than two decades ago: that livelihoods matter more than liberation. Palestinians deserve an alternative to this status quo. In Hisham Sharabi’s 1988 book, Neopatriarchy, the late Palestinian intellectual posits “a theory of distorted change in the Arab…

By Samer Badawi December 1, 2016

File photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking out over the Egyptian border. (Ariel Jerozolimski/POOL/FLASH90)

What is Israel’s place in the Middle East?

It’s time for Israel to recognize that it can coexist with its neighbors without fear or feelings of superiority. Academia can lead the way. By Assaf David The perception of Israel as a foreign entity in the Middle East, hence a fortress under threat, is shared by all major purveyors of knowledge and discourse in the…

By +972 Magazine September 6, 2016

Juliano Mer Khamis. (Photo: Vera Reider)

100 percent human: Five years without Juliano Mer-Khamis

In a small cafe in Berlin, I found myself surrounded by Palestinian refugees from Yarmouk who knew and loved my friend Juliano — a man who was 100 percent Palestinian and 100 percent Jewish. By Udi Aloni When I landed in Berlin on April 4th, I realized that it was the first time since the…

By +972 Magazine April 11, 2016

Yemenite Jews walking to a ‘reception camp’ near Aden, 1949. (Photo by Kluger Zoltan/Israel National Archive)

It is time to rebuild ties between Mizrahim and the Arab world

Five years after Mizrahi Israelis offered their solidarity to the young men and women of the Arab Spring, it is time to say it loud and clear: real peace will come once we recognize the deep cultural and religious ties between Jews and Muslims of the region. By Almog Behar Five years ago in April…

By Haokets March 1, 2016

Celebrations in Tahrir Square after Omar Suleiman's statement concerning Hosni Mubarak's resignation. (photo: Jonathan Rashad/CC BY 2.0)

Between democracy and ISIS: Five years since the Arab Spring

Five years after they toppled the tyrants of the Arab world, the youth of the revolutions find themselves caught between the hammer of unemployment and the anvil of ISIS. By Houda Mzioudet TUNIS — When Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, few thought it would spark what…

By +972 Magazine February 16, 2016

Protests in Lebanon demanding that the government resume trash collection in Beirut, August 29, 2015. (Joelle Hatem /CC 2.0) Demonstrators have also begun to demand an end to the sectarian nature of their government.

Five years on: Why the Arab Spring is here to stay — and win

Despite highly destructive counter-revolutionary forces like a-Sisi in Egypt and ISIL in Iraq and Syria, there are grassroots movements across the region demanding governments that serve the people — all of the people. By Yoav Haifawi* On Friday, August 28, 2015, demonstrators in southern and central Iraq (those parts of the country not under “Islamic…

By +972 Magazine September 16, 2015

Illustrative photo of a militant (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Syria: The moral imperative to act

Some left-wing writers and spokespeople look to Syria and see Vietnam. They are terribly wrong. The moral and historic duty of any progressive person is to stand by the Syrian people’s struggle for freedom and help them topple the genocidal Assad regime. By Assaf Adiv (translated from Hebrew by Ann Lavi) The U.S.-Russian Geneva agreement on…

By +972 Magazine September 21, 2013

The Cairo massacre and winner-takes-all politics

In one of the more insightful comments on the Egyptian military coup, The New Yorker’s George Packer wrote back in July on the political culture of “winner takes all” that dominates the country in the post-Mubarak era. Islamists and secular-minded Egyptians regard one another as obstacles to power, not as legitimate players in a complex…

By Noam Sheizaf August 14, 2013