racism in israel

Right-wing Lehava activists shout slogans as they protest outside the wedding hall where Mahmoud Mansour, a Palestinian Israeli, and Morel Malcha, a Jewish Israeli, got married on August 17, 2014 in Rishon Letzion. Police arrested at least 7 right wing protesters, out of over 300 who were protesting against the wedding. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘Our Boys’ exposes the Mizrahi-Palestinian fault line

‘Our Boys’ shows that Mizrahi racism has transformed into a real and deadly threat. As the younger generation of Mizrahim, we must accept accountability for and develop a new understanding of Mizrahi-Palestinian relations. By Moran Habaz As someone who grew up in Jerusalem and experienced its bloodied streets as a teenager during the Second Intifada, HBO’s “Our Boys” shook…

By Haokets October 11, 2019

Right wing activists attend a ceremony honoring the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in Jerusalem on November 17, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Otzma Yehudit is out. Does that mean Israelis reject Kahanism?

While the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party failed to pass the electoral threshold, the latest national elections in Israel saw the normalization of Kahane’s particular brand of overt racism. Twenty-one years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane stared into the camera during an election ad for his Kach party and told viewers, “[the Arabs of Israel] want to kill…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland September 19, 2019

Israeli police surround an Ethiopian Israeli woman at a protest following the police killing of a young black man a few days earlier, Jerusalem, July 15, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

How ‘cultural racism’ helps Israelis rationalize inequality, discrimination

‘Cultural racism’ blames minorities for their inequality by suggesting that their low social position is due to a lack of effort or failure to adjust to a Western way of life. But active and institutional racism is the real culprit. By Rachel Shenhav-Goldberg It has been 35 years since Ethiopians immigrated to Israel, after leaving…

By +972 Magazine July 29, 2019

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Illustrative photo of Arab students. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

‘To ask an Arab student to internalize this is a way of humiliating him’

Israel requires all high school students who want to travel abroad on school-sponsored trips to pass an online course that promotes far-right and often racist ideas about Palestinians. One Arab school in northern Israel has had enough of it. Before a high school student in Israel can participate in a school-sponsored trip overseas they must…

By Henriette Chacar July 14, 2019

Mahmoud Katusa, seen after his relese from Israeli prison, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 25, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Once there’s no Palestinian suspect, the media loses interest

The media played a key role in turning a Palestinian man into the top suspect in a recent child rape case. But ever since charges against him were dropped, the press seems to have lost interest in the case. By Uzi Benziman If you Google the recent rape case of a seven-year-old ultra-Orthodox girl in an ultra-Orthodox settlement in…

By The Seventh Eye July 11, 2019

Israeli police remove an Ethiopian-Israeli from a demonstration on Ayalon Highway following the police shooting of Solomon Tekah, July 2, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Ethiopians have an opportunity at solidarity with Palestinians. Will they take it?

Solomon Tekah was shot and killed by an Israeli police officer because he was black. As a Palestinian I know exactly what that feels like. By Ashraf Ghandour For over a week I have watched Ethiopian Israelis conduct a loud and righteous struggle against the systematic racism that has held them down for 35 years.…

By +972 Magazine July 9, 2019

Police arrest a demonstrator taking part a protest attended by thousands of Israeli-Ethiopians against police violence and racism, Tel Aviv. May 3, 2015. (Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

In Israel just as NY, racial profiling harms more than just victims of police killings

The judge who oversaw New York City’s stop and frisk case for nearly a decade responds to the shooting of an unarmed black man in northern Israel. By Shira Scheindlin I have been reading, with a troubling sense of déjà vu, about the police shooting of Solomon Tekah, an unarmed Ethiopian-Israeli man, in Haifa last week. As the judge…

By +972 Magazine July 7, 2019

An Ethiopian Israeli woman confronts police officers during a protest by the Ethiopian community against police brutality, following the killing of Solomon Tekah, July 3, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘They’re killing our brothers’: Why Ethiopians shut down Israel for a day

They’re angry at the media, have lost faith in the establishment, and know that just like other Ethiopian Israelis before them, they too may pay a price for the color of their skin. The demonstrators who protested in Tel Aviv yesterday were not ‘anarchists’ — they were frightened young women and men who want to show they haven’t lost their…

By +972 Magazine July 3, 2019

Activists hold a mock separation wall during a protest against the occupation on the West Bank's main Jerusalem-Hebron highway in full view of Israeli settlers, Beit Jala, West Bank, February 5, 2016. (Activestills)

To give up on Jewish-Arab partnership is to give up hope

Most of the people in this land are victims of the Netanyahu government. Partnership between them is the only way to fight its various forms of oppression — including the occupation. By Nisreen Shehada and Alon-Lee Green It’s so easy for those in positions of privilege to criticize any action taken by people doing work…

By +972 Magazine April 23, 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

Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel at a protest against the Jewish Nation-State Law in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, August 11, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Poll: Jews, Arabs much less divided than Israeli politics lets on

A ‘Local Call’ poll shows a broad range of areas where Jews and Arabs see the benefits of cooperation. But that doesn’t mean Jewish Israelis are ready to let Arabs hold positions of power, namely joining the government. The surprising bit: most Arabs would support their parties joining an Israeli government. Judging from the current…

By Dahlia Scheindlin April 3, 2019

Members of the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party Bentzi Gopstein (left) Michael Ben Ari (center) and Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir (right) seen in Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem, March 12, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Israel’s fascist sideshow takes center stage

For the first time in over 30 years, a proper Kahanist party could be entering the Knesset. But is the rise of a party that advocates for Jewish supremacy, theocracy, and ‘total war’ as unprecedented as the outcry has suggested? The last week has been an eventful one in the annals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dalliances with the…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland February 24, 2019

Thousands of Ethiopian Israelis and their supporters marched against police violence in Tel Aviv on Jan. 30, 2018, weeks following the fatal police shooting of Yehuda Biadga. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘To be Ethiopian in Israel is to be constantly struggling for something’

The shooting of Yehuda Biadga reignited tensions between Israel’s Ethiopian community and police, who have long been accused of using a heavy hand against the country’s minorities. ‘Police brutality is a result of racism against black people in this country,’ Ziva Mekonen-Degu says. For the third time in as many years, thousands of Ethiopian citizens…

By Edo Konrad February 1, 2019