Ashkenazim

Mizrahi activists protest outside Finance Minister Yair Lapid's house, north Tel Aviv. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

PODCAST: Could Mizrahim find their most natural allies in Palestinians?

Jewish Israelis with roots in Arab and Muslim countries have faced systemic discrimination for decades. As Jewish political parties court their votes, +972 writer and Local Call editor Orly Noy has a different idea. Listen here: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify It is no secret that for decades, the Zionist left discriminated against Mizrahim, or Jews with roots…

By +972 Magazine August 16, 2019

Jewish immigrants from Yemen at a camp near Rosh Ha’ayin. (Photo: GPO)

The color of racism: What many get wrong about race relations in Israel

Protests against an Arab family moving into an all-Jewish neighborhood in northern Israel have sparked worldwide condemnation and accusations of ‘white supremacy.’ But understanding the ways Jewish supremacy and white supremacy work in Israel is the first step toward dismantling them. By Lihi Yona Over the past few weeks, protests have rocked the northern Israeli city of…

By +972 Magazine June 24, 2018

Shakshuka. (Rafram Chaddad)

Jewish food tells the story of immigrants, not of Israeli nationalism

Jewish food has always been a way to demonstrate how Jewish immigrants and refugees mixed and integrated into different societies. So how did it all of a sudden become ‘Israeli?’ By Rafram Chaddad Tablet Magazine released last week a list of “the most Jewish foods,” in which editors Gabriella Gershenson and Alana Newhouse invite “us,” the…

By +972 Magazine March 9, 2018

Latest

The Kadoori, Hamias, and Ashram families sit near an improvised Shabat dinner table set near their demolished houses in Givat Amal neighbourhood, Tel Aviv, Israel, September 19, 2014. Two days passed since the third eviction of families in the neighbourhood which left 20 residents homeless without proper compensation or alternative housing solution. By: Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org

The Mizrahi communities destroyed by Israel

Since its founding, Israel has systematically erased hundreds of Palestinian villages from the map. But Palestinians were never the only victims. This is the story of the Mizrahi communities erased before and after Israel’s founding. By Eitan Bronstein Aparicio It is well known that since the early days of Zionist immigration to Palestine, the Israeli establishment and…

By +972 Magazine December 28, 2017

Jewish nationalist activists from anti-miscegenation group Lehava protest in Rishon Lezion, August 17, 2014. (Activestills.org)

Palestinians are the glue that holds Ashkenazim and Mizrahim together

Sixty-nine years after the founding of the state, the hatred between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim is the greatest threat to Israeli society. Instead of properly dealing with it, all our energy is spent on sowing a collective hatred toward Palestinians. By Iris Hefets Whenever “the occupation” is mentioned, someone will invariably ask about difference between Ariel University,…

By +972 Magazine June 11, 2017

An Israeli military police officer checks IDs at the checkpoint at the entrance to Shuafat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem, December 22, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The cops at the checkpoint always remind me which side I’m on

Until I learned Hebrew, I saw Jews as frightening, scary, armed people who expelled us from our land in 1967, now working on finishing us off. Does that surprise you? By Suleiman Maswadeh My name is Suleiman, I am 22 years old and I was born in Jerusalem’s Old City. Despite the fact that it…

By +972 Magazine February 13, 2017

Minister of Culture Miri Regev in the Israeli Knesset on January 27, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

I love Miri Regev

I have never met Miri Regev, but it feels like I have known her my entire life. I grew up, like her, in a place where we were constantly reminded that some people are worth less than others. By Alon Mizrahi I don’t know Culture Minister Miri Regev. I have never met her. But I have been surrounded…

By +972 Magazine October 2, 2016

Israeli Minister of Culture Miri Regev seen during the opening night of the Jerusalem Film Festival, near the Old City of Jerusalem, July 9, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The minister of culture who knows nothing about democracy

Long before she walked out on a performance honoring Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Israel’s Culture Minister Miri Regev was using hateful, divide-and-conquer rhetoric against the country’s minority groups. Miri Regev, Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport, caused an uproar at last week’s Ophir Awards, the annual red carpet ceremony for the Israeli film industry. First she ostentatiously…

By Lisa Goldman September 27, 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

Israel’s liberal paper whitewashes the disappearance of Yemenite children

In the 1950s thousands of babies, children of mostly Yemenite immigrants to lsrael, were allegedly taken away from their parents and given up for adoption to Ashkenazi families. Now an investigative report by Haaretz reveals dozens of Ashkenazi children also disappeared, arguing that the crime was not racially motivated. On Friday morning, Haaretz readers woke up to…

By Orly Noy August 13, 2016

Culture Minister Miri Regev reacts at the Knesset assembly hall during a question period with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 18, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Israel’s culture minister is no friend of cultural equality

Culture Minister Miri Regev may be right in wanting to change the unbalanced distribution of Israel’s resources, but she’s going about it all wrong. By Yossi Dahan Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev is right to speak about the need for “social justice” in Israel, and she is correct when she says that the distribution of…

By Haokets August 9, 2016

Photo of Yemenite children who were taken from their parents and disappeared.

The state must come clean about the fate of the Yemenite children

Between 1948 and 1952, thousands of Yemenite babies, children of immigrants to the newly-founded State of Israel were reportedly taken from their parents by Israel’s nascent medical establishment and disappeared. Now it is time for the state to come clean about what really happened. By Tom Mehager In all our innocence we believed that if…

By Haokets June 26, 2016

Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire's control over Palestine.

Before Zionism: The shared life of Jews and Palestinians

Before the advent of Zionism and Arab nationalism, Jews and Palestinians lived in peace in the holy land. Menachem Klein’s new book maps out an oft-forgotten history of Israel/Palestine, and offers some guidance on how we may go back to that time. By Noam Rotem Menachem Klein’s book, Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in…

By +972 Magazine April 4, 2016