Oslo accords

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…

By +972 Resources November 12, 2019

Palestinians make their way through an Israeli checkpoint to attend the first Friday prayer of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem May 10, 2019. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

An election between annexationists and pro-occupation generals

Palestinians have no say over whether they will be ruled by messianic religious zealots or by generals who previously presided over the occupation. On September 17, Israelis will return to the polls for round two of an election cycle that failed to determine an outcome in April, this time hoping for a different result. While…

By Omar H. Rahman September 16, 2019

A Jewish man walks with his prayer shawl early in the morning on the hill overlooking Ofra in the Jewish settlement of Amona in the West Bank, December 18, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Resource: Choosing annexation over development

A new report compares and contrasts two of of Israel’s largest and most important settlement projects: development towns built before 1967 and the settlements in the occupied West Bank. Text by Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg There are many ways of calculating the “cost” of the occupation. Since 2008, the Adva Center, a leading Israeli progressive think tank that monitors social and economic…

By +972 Resources August 26, 2019

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Palestinian workers seen harvesting squash at a field near Moshav Masua, in the Jordan Valley, by the Israeli-Jordanian border. January 08, 2017. Photo by Yaniv Nadav/FLASH90

From heat waves to ‘eco-apartheid’: Climate change in Israel-Palestine

While Israel's nascent climate justice movement tries to get the public's attention, Palestinians under occupation remain the most vulnerable to the dangerous effects of climate change. Due to the existing power imbalance, however, working together to combat it seems next to impossible.

By +972 Magazine August 8, 2019

Palestinians wait for travel permits to cross into Egypt, for the first time since the Palestinian reconciliation deal, in the southern Gaza Strip on November 18, 2017. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The thousands of undocumented Gazans living in limbo

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza can't work, travel, or get health care. Between the Israeli-controlled population registry and the Fatah-Hamas rivalry, they see little hope for any kind of stable future.

By +972 Magazine November 8, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. president Bill Clinton, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House on September 13, 1993. (Vince Musi/The White House)

The Oslo era is finally over, but it only gets worse from here

In theory, the end of Oslo should be a welcome development. In practice, there is little to celebrate. There is something unsettling about the way the 25-year anniversary since the signing of the Oslo Accords is being marked — neither eulogy nor longing, and without anyone having any clue what lies ahead. There is one…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 14, 2018

An Israeli soldier checks women's IDs, Qalandiya checkpoint, West Bank, August 20, 2010. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

How one of Palestine’s preeminent journalists lost hope for peace

Nasser Laham, the editor-in-chief of Palestine’s biggest independent media outlet, used to be an ardent supporter Abbas and the peace process. But after decades of failed attempts, something inside him changed. Today he believes Palestinians must stop talking about peace. ‘We’ll wait a thousand years, the Israelis will be defeated. What’s the hurry?’ By Meron Rapoport…

By +972 Magazine July 8, 2018

Border police officers stands in front of Palestinians as they wait to cross from Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem to attend the Ramadan Friday Prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 26, 2013.

Beneath the illusion of a temporary occupation lies apartheid

By claiming that its control over Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is temporary, despite lasting longer than South African Apartheid by any measure, Israel is able to justify a regime that denies one group political and civil rights while privileging another. By Fady Khoury The so-called temporary nature of Israel’s control over the…

By +972 Magazine December 13, 2017

Border police officer stands in front of Palestinian as they wait to cross from Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem to attend the Ramadan Friday Prayer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 26, 2013. Photo by: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org

Israel’s problem isn’t Palestinian nationalism — it’s Palestinians themselves

Most of the circumstances that made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ripe for resolution — or at least made the peace process attractive to both parties — have all but disappeared over the past decade. Many Israelis were likely happy to read The New Yorker article titled “The End of This Road: The Decline of the Palestinian National Movement” earlier…

By Noam Sheizaf August 20, 2017

Palestinian and Israeli activists take part a protest against occupation, Route 60, between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem, July 7, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Why it’s still important to talk about peace

Israelis may want peace, but they want it on their terms: without Palestinian resistance to the occupation. By Raef Zreik The rhetoric of “peace” as a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict blurs the problem at hand: the Palestinians don’t want peace. Peace is viewed as the opposite of war, but the Palestinians are not in…

By Haokets July 30, 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara arrive in Hungary, July 17, 2017. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Calling Bibi’s bluff: Why Israel depends on a liberal, open Europe

Netanyahu can bash the EU all he wants. At the end of the day, the future and security of Israel depends on its political and economic ties with the EU, not vice versa. By Eitay Mack (translated from Hebrew by Ofer Neiman) Last Wednesday, the media leaked a recording of a private conversation between Netanyahu and…

By +972 Magazine July 25, 2017

Israeli activists clash with police officers during an operation to evacuate nine homes in the Jewish settlement of Ofra, in the West Bank, February 28, 2017. The Israeli Supreme Court ordered in 2015 to demolish nine homes which were allegedly built on private Palestinian land in Ofra. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The settlers’ goal is not the settlements

It is the total transformation of Israel. The settlements, the settlers, and the occupation are all entirely associated with one another in the Israeli consciousness. The Left and the Right agree on this, albeit with varying considerations: the Left wants to apportion blame for Israel’s continuing control over the West Bank, while the settlers want to…

By Noam Sheizaf June 8, 2017

A Palestinian child looks out over his village, Susiya, October 2016. (Gili Getz). The village is under threat of demolition to make way for a neighboring Jewish settlement, also called Susiya.

Living on borrowed time: Palestinian village fights for its existence

Threatened with their village’s destruction, Palestinians in Susiya live in a political and psychological limbo. While working, studying and trying to lead a normal life, the residents are also fighting to stop their home from disappearing. By Max Schindler When asked what her family will do if the army demolishes her village, Soraya, 16, hesitates: “We’ll…

By +972 Magazine December 14, 2016