autonomy

Hundreds of Catalan independence supporters rally against a visit by King Felipe VI to Girona, Catalonia, June 26, 2014. (Ariet/CC BY-NC 2.0)

No, Catalonia isn’t Palestine

Some in Israel are drawing parallels between the Catalonian demand for national self-determination and Palestinian independence. The two situations are nothing alike. The referendum over Catalonian secession underway in Spain is turning into a serious political crisis, which threatens to become a European crisis that could dwarf even Brexit. The European Union has succeeded at tampering…

By Noam Sheizaf October 1, 2017

A sign marks the entrance to Birobidjan. (Photo by Yakov Rabkin)

A land without a people?: A visit to Russia’s Jewish autonomous region

A visit to Birobidzhan, where Jewish autonomy hasn’t exactly worked out — and yet, the sign for Lenin Street is still written in Yiddish and public monuments commemorate Sholem Aleichem. By Yakov Rabkin Last summer, after three months of teaching in Japan, I decided to return home to Montreal via Birobidzhan, in Russia’s Far East. The Jewish Autonomous…

By +972 Magazine December 15, 2014

Sign warning of immigrants near the U.S.-Mexican Border. (Photo by Shutterstock.com)

Netanyahu’s xenophobia: Bad in America, bad in Israel

We know what he thinks of Arabs. Read what he thinks of Mexican-Americans. Of all the reasons Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu puts forth for why Israel needs a “Jewish nation-state” law, the most bizarre one is this: “There are those – including those who deny our national rights – who would like to establish autonomy…

By Larry Derfner November 27, 2014

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