the left

Left-wing Israelis stage a pro-peace demonstration. (File photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Ending the occupation is in the interest of Israelis, too

The occupation is disastrous first and foremost for Palestinians, but it is also disastrous for the Jewish people in Israel. Left-wing politics cannot be based solely on solidarity with the Other. By Uri Weltmann There are left-wing voices in Israel who believe that the very foundation of Israeliness has become inextricably intertwined with the country’s occupation of…

By +972 Magazine November 7, 2016

File photo of Israeli anti-occupation activists protesting in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. (Maya Levin/Flash90)

The crisis of Israel’s anti-occupation Left

Israelis emigrating — or considering emigration — for political reasons are inadvertently adopting the spirit of the boycott movement in the sense that they, too, have given up on the idea of change coming from within. Everywhere I turn these days, many of my peers have left Israel, are leaving Israel, are planning to leave, or are…

By Mairav Zonszein October 8, 2016

Labor chairman Isaac Herzog (Photo by Activestills.org)

We need a center-left political alternative in Israel

This is not a time for ideological purity. There is an overriding goal and that is ending the Occupation. By Jeremiah Haber Since the election of Ehud Barak as prime minister in 1999, if not earlier, there has been no center-left in Israel. Of course, there has been something referred to as “center-left” but that…

By +972 Magazine January 25, 2016

Latest

A public reading of Breaking the Silence testimonies in Tel Aviv to mark 10 years since the organization was founded, June 6, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The Israeli Left’s challenge: Defeating ideology with facts

Left-wing and anti-occupation groups in Israel are finally hitting back, but the task seems Sisyphean: how do you win over people who don’t even acknowledge the same sets of facts. Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a cynical ad in Haaretz Tuesday, in which the veteran watchdog group invited right-wingers on a tour of the West Bank’s…

By Mairav Zonszein January 19, 2016

The anti-occupation protest proceeds along Route 60 in the West Bank, November 27, 2015. (Mustafa Bader/Activestills.org)

Why Palestinians aren’t standing up for Israeli leftists

The Israeli Left with which most Palestinians are familiar speaks the same language as the Right — of segregation and safeguarding a racist regime. The ‘other Left’ needs to develop a new discourse, and we should all hope it succeeds. The Left in Israel has been subject to what appears to be a serious and…

By Sawsan Khalife' January 18, 2016

Ezra Nawi during a solidarity visit to the southern West Bank village of Susiya, October 29, 2009. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

I, too, was undercover when I met Ezra Nawi. Here’s what I saw

I have plenty of criticism for Ezra Nawi. I also have lots of love for him. Part of being a leftist is using language that transcends black and white. By Mijal Simonet Corech The radio is on; it’s always on. We’re cooking. Suddenly, I hear the words, “a left-wing activist was arrested at the airport.” My…

By +972 Magazine January 12, 2016

The right-wing organization, ‘Ad Kan,’ sent its employees to infiltrate human rights organizations and record their every move with hidden cameras. The man on the left is the ‘infiltrator,’ Ezra Nawi is on the right. (Screenshot)

How respectable journalists are joining attacks on Israel’s Left

The country’s top investigative news program airs a hidden-camera sting operation carried out by a shady right-wing organization, and fails to ask the tough questions and give the necessary context. Uvda, Israel’s most prominent investigative television news program, dedicated its 600th episode on Thursday to joining the massive-and-growing campaign against the Israeli Left and human rights NGOs…

By Haggai Matar January 9, 2016

A campaign billboard for Netanyahu’s Likud switches to a billboard for Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Camp. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The silent majority of complacency: Israel’s right-wing voters

They’re not overtly racist, violent or angry. They’re not worried by the prospect of another intifada or war. They’re not singing about the economy, but they’re not crying either. More than anything, they see no alternative to Netanyahu. They’re the right-wing mainstream.

By Larry Derfner March 14, 2015

BDS t-shirt (photo: Flickr / :::mediActivista:::)

Why is the Western left so obsessed with Israel?

It ain’t anti-Semitism. There’s no question – the evil perpetrated by Bashar Assad on the Syrians for the last year and a half makes the evils of the occupation during this time seem mild. So why does the Western left still seem so much more preoccupied with Israel, not to say obsessed, than it is with Syria? Or with Congo, or with Sudan, or with Afghanistan, or…

By Larry Derfner July 27, 2012

Hitchens was unfairly castigated by the Left for supporting Iraq war

His heart was in the right place; too bad he didn’t see that the Bush administration’s wasn’t. And too bad the Left couldn’t tell the difference. I think Christopher Hitchens was wrong to support the U.S. war in Iraq (interesting that his life ended a day after the war did), but his reasons for supporting it were all good, and it would be nice…

By Larry Derfner December 17, 2011

Tel Aviv sees largest leftwing demonstration in years

Thousands march to protest Knesset’s decision to probe human rights organizations Tel Aviv – More than 10,000 people marched this evening in protest of recent anti-democratic and racist initiatives by the Israeli government. The march, which started in front of the Likud HQ in King George Street and ended at the Tel Aviv Museum Square,…

By Noam Sheizaf January 15, 2011