discrimination in Israel

Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jewish Israeli activists protest against the Jewish Nation-State law in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv on August 11, 2018 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90).

‘When the constitution becomes racist, it’s difficult to define what racism is’

One year ago, Israel passed a constitutional amendment declaring that Israel belongs only to its Jewish citizens. The head of Israel’s premier Palestinian rights group discusses what has changed in Israeli courts, but also overseas. ‘The debate soon will be whether Israel is apartheid.’ In the year since the Israeli parliament passed the Jewish Nation-State Law,…

By Henriette Chacar July 26, 2019

Illustrative photo of Israeli children preparing for the first day of kindergarten in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Jerusalem orders kindergartens not to let ‘minorities’ visit

The municipality’s security department sends instructions to kindergartens in the city ordering that foreigners and ‘minorities,’ a euphemism for Arabs, not be allowed onto their grounds. Anti-racism group demands the city retract the orders. Public kindergartens in Jerusalem were ordered by the city’s Emergency and Security Division not to allow “foreigners” and “minorities” into educational…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 18, 2019

Israeli troops check the ID of a Palestinian woman and her child at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, May 18, 2018. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

A new framework for viewing Israel’s regime in the West Bank

The existing frameworks we have for addressing Israel’s rule over the Palestinians are flawed and becoming less relevant. Comparing it to other regimes that share one of its prominent characteristics, institutionalized discrimination, can create space for new ideas. By Yariv Mohar In the 51 years since Israel seized control of the West Bank and Gaza,…

By +972 Magazine January 31, 2019

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Tens of thousands of protesters joined the Druze community in rejecting the Jewish Nation-State Law at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on August 5, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Tens of thousands of Druze protest for equality in Tel Aviv

Demonstrators filled Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the Jewish Nation-State Law and demand full equality. Will that be enough to pressure Netanyahu to backtrack? By Meron Rapoport Could it be that the “Israeli state” was born in Tel Aviv’s central square Saturday night? Perhaps it’s a bit early to say, but if…

By +972 Magazine August 5, 2018

Palestinian women cross the Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem to attend the first Friday of Ramadan prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 12, 2013. (photo: Activestills.org)

I don’t need a law to remind me of my inequality

I do not need the Jewish Nation-State Law to remind me that I am not equal to my Jewish friends. And yet, I was born here, I grew up here, this is my homeland. I have no intention of going anywhere. By Yasmeen Abu Fraiha Write it down, I am an Arab woman Born to this land…

By +972 Magazine July 24, 2018

A Jewish Israeli man holding an Israeli flag confronts a Palestinian woman holding a kaffiyeh on the sidelines of the ultra-nationalist "Jerusalem Day" march, May 13, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A state that belongs to only some of its citizens

According to the proposed ‘Jewish Nation-State Law,’ Israel does not belong to Israeli citizens, more than 20 percent of whom are not Jewish. Instead, it is the state of the Jewish people, roughly half of whom are not even Israeli. There is a form on the Israeli Interior Ministry’s website, where one can order duplicate…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man July 13, 2018

An El Al pilot hangs out the window of one of the carrier's planes. (Illustrative photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Boycotting these Israeli companies won’t get you on any blacklists

Israelis from across the political spectrum are calling to boycott of two major companies for discriminatory practices against women and Ethiopians. But what about that one boycott Israelis will simply not abide? Israelis, despite their vociferous claims to the contrary, do not fear the power of boycott. In fact, for many Israelis, boycotting companies that profit off discrimination…

By Edo Konrad June 26, 2018

Right-wing demonstrators protest in front of a demonstration against the Israeli attack on Gaza, in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. Right-wing activists protested nearby and attacked left-wing activists during and after the protest. One left-wing activists was hospitalized with a head injury. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

When racism and segregation are perceived as ‘legitimate rights’

Protests against Arab families moving into Jewish cities are a reminder that until everyone is free to choose where they want to live, the Israeli regime will remain segregationist and racist at its core. By Suhad Bishara Jewish residents of the northern Israeli city of Afula protested last week against the sale of a home…

By Haokets June 21, 2018

A Bedouin woman from the unrecognized village of Al-Araqib sits in front of an Israeli police van. Israel has demolished al-Araqib over 100 times. (Illustrative photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The most radical thing you can say in Israel

The Knesset won’t even allow this law to be discussed, let alone voted on, because it proposes making Israel a ‘state of all its citizens.’ Why is that so threatening? The presidium of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, decided on Monday that a proposed law seeking to define Israel as “a state of all its citizens”…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 5, 2018

Illustrative photo of a man reading "Israel Hayom," the Sheldon Adelson-funded newspaper (Moshe Shai/FLASH90).

An end to ‘apartheid polls’ in Israeli media?

Jews-only polls on matters relevant to the entire Israeli public and polls that present Jews-only polls as representing the views of the entire Israeli public constitute discrimination against the country’s Arab population, Israeli Press Council’s Ethics Court rules. By Oren Persico Excluding Israel’s Arab population from public opinion polls on matters of politics and policy…

By The Seventh Eye May 30, 2018

Israeli border policemen stop and check Palestinians going out of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya, on October 15, 2015. Israel set up checkpoints in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem and mobilised hundreds of soldiers as a collective punishment after recent attacks by Palestinians. (Activestills.org)

Jerusalem by the numbers: Poverty, demolitions, and exile

As nationalist Israelis celebrate the ‘unification’ of the city, when Israeli troops occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, a look at the data shows a far bleaker picture of life for Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents. The following is a collection of facts, figures, and statistics about Jerusalem compiled and published on the occasion of “Jerusalem Day.” Nationalist Israelis…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man May 13, 2018

Mitzpe Ramon development town, southern Israel, 1957. Immigrants from North Africa and Romania were sent by the state to live in the Negev-area community. (GPO)

Anti-Mizrahi discrimination was official Israeli policy

The Israeli government has kept documents detailing systematic racism against Jews from the Middle East and North Africa sealed for 70 years. This week the Knesset rejected a proposal to open the state archives. To correct the historical injustice, the public needs to know the truth. By Mossi Raz In nearly every conversation about the arrival and…

By +972 Magazine November 26, 2017

Palestinians laborers wait to pass through an Israeli military checkpoint leading from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, February 8, 2017. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Want to end Israel’s military regime? Stop calling it an ‘occupation’

Israel’s control over the West Bank has long ago morphed into a regime based on ethnic discrimination and segregation. Let’s start calling it like it is. By Yariv Mohar Recently we have been seeing the resurgence of a right-wing discourse that opposes both the annexationist far-right and the left. Instead of supporting far-reaching solutions, these rightists…

By +972 Magazine February 22, 2017