Palestinian identity

A section of the separation wall in Bethlehem, West Bank, February 16, 2013. (hjl/(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Re-imagining a future by examining the past: Novels of love in Palestine

A trilogy of novels set in Palestine raises critical questions about the tension between identity and the desire to live. By Salsabeel Hamdan The Palace of Angels, Mohammed Massoud Morsi, Wild Dingo Press, 2019. In The Palace of Angels, his trilogy of novels set in Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora, Australian-Egyptian novelist Mohammed Massoud Morsi places his…

By +972 Magazine September 27, 2019

Ahmad Badawi Mustafa Ayoub with his family. (Courtesy of Samer Badawi)

In my Palestinian grandfather’s story, I find reasons to endure

Like all refugees, Ahmad Badawi Mustafa Ayoub left the world unmoored, his memories rent from the land that made them. But his story, like Palestine’s itself, will matter well beyond the next negotiation. No empire, no flag, or sovereign can change that. The Government of Palestine’s Directorate of Education, from its Samaria branch in Nablus, informed Ahmad…

By Samer Badawi November 11, 2018

Palestinians try to climb over the separation wall at the Qalandyia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on their way to attend the last Friday prayers in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque during Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Friday, July 1, 2016. (Photo by Flash90)

The changing relationship between Palestinians on either side of the wall

Despite physical separation and internal divisions, Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line are once again talking about the future of their struggle, and the role that Palestinian citizens of Israel can play. Out of sight from most of the Israeli public, yet under the close watch of the government, an internal debate has been raging within…

By Rami Younis July 15, 2018

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The Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland. Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. (Isaac Harari/Flash90)

Between Poland’s Holocaust revisionism and Israel’s Nakba denial

Poland’s attempt to scrub clean its role in the murder of European Jewry is, at its core, no different from Israel’s attempt to erase the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians in 1948. By Haneen Zoabi The responses coming from Israel to the new Polish law, which forbids discussing war crimes committed by the Polish people…

By +972 Magazine January 28, 2018

Laila Abdel Meguid Tafesh, 78, from Rafah refugee camp, holds up a key from her house in Jaffa, May 15, 2009. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Yes, the right of return is feasible. Here’s how

Seventy years after the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it is time to undo the injustice and to enable whoever desires to return as equal citizens to do so, while respecting the rights and identities of all who live in Israel-Palestine. By Tom Pessah (translated by Yoni Molad) For millions of Palestinians worldwide, the right…

By Haokets November 7, 2017

Lebanese-American actress Leila Buck performs Noura Erekat's 'Visiting Palestine,' at the seventh annual DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. (Chase Carter)

Women rule the stage at DC’s Palestinian film and arts festival

For the first time in its seven-year run, the annual DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival brings live performances to the stage, highlighting the role of women in storytelling. By Christa Blackmon In an age of increased reliance on digital media, and when diaspora identities are being formed through the lenses of cameras, live oral performances remain a vital tool…

By +972 Magazine October 31, 2017

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev walks behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset during the opening of the winter session, Jerusalem, October 31, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Why is the Israeli Right so terrified of cultural expression?

The Right holds near total power in Israel, so why is it so afraid of poetry and theater productions? Should a stranger come upon the public discussions happening in Israel over the past few years, he or she would be under the impression that the country is a global cultural powerhouse. From Al-Midan Theater, Jaffa’s Arab Hebrew Theater,…

By Orly Noy September 26, 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

Palestinian citizens of Israel participated at the main march commemorating Land Day in the village of Deir Hanna, northern Israel, on March 30, 2015. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

WATCH: The Arab youth mainstreaming Palestinian identity in Israel

Today, many young Arab citizens of Israel are no longer afraid of being proud of their Palestinian identity. Yet there is a general sense that the establishment is trying to prevent them from defining their own identity. What happens when Arabs who take pride in their people want to ‘make it’ into the mainstream? The third and final part in a series on Palestinian…

By Rami Younis January 25, 2017

Palestinian citizens take part in a general strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, in the northern town of Sakhnin, on October 13, 2015. (photo: Omar Sameer)

WATCH: Why Arab youth increasingly identify as Palestinian

What makes young Arabs who live in Israel define themselves as Palestinians? How do Israel’s divide-and-conquer policies make it difficult for Palestinian citizens to formulate a unified identity? Part two of Rami Younis and Israel Social TV’s inside look at the changes taking place among Palestinians inside Israel. Watch part one here. Read more: WATCH: ‘Israeli Arab’ or Palestinian? A…

By Rami Younis January 11, 2017

WATCH: ‘Israeli Arab’ or Palestinian?

One in five Israeli citizens are Arab — Muslim, Christian, Druze, Bedouin. A 2014 +972 Magazine poll found that the percentage of Arab citizens of Israel who identify as Palestinian has risen dramatically in recent years. Rami Younis and Israel Social TV explore the changing Palestinian identity politics inside Israel. Stay tuned for the next episodes…

By Rami Younis January 6, 2017

Israelis take part in the annual pride parade in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

No room for Palestinians at Tel Aviv Pride Parade

Until the Israeli LGBTQ community truly begins caring about Palestinian oppression, Palestinian queers will have to keep checking our identity at the door. Fady Khoury (translated by Tal Haran) This past March I took part in a panel as part of Washington D.C.’s Independent Film Festival, where Jake Weisfeld’s new documentary, “Oriented,” was screened. The film, which…

By +972 Magazine June 2, 2016

A road sign for the Israeli settlement of Susya has had the Arabic defaced with spray paint, West Bank, April 6, 2011. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

How Israel erases Arabic from the public landscape

The Israeli government has begun omitting the Arabic name for Jerusalem from its street signs, erasing not only the language from the Israeli consciousness, but Palestinian identity itself. By Umar Al-Ghubari Driving towards Jerusalem on Highway 1, you may notice a relatively new phenomenon taking place on the road signs directing you to the city. Readers…

By Haokets November 22, 2015