zionism

Thousands of Jewish wave the Israeli flags as they celebrate Jerusalem Day in Damascus Gate on their way to the Western Wall. Jerusalem Day celebrations, May 13, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The biggest loser in this election: Liberal Zionism

Israelis consistently vote against the idea of a Jewish and democratic Israel alongside a Palestinian state. It is now impossible to see how that could ever be realized. On Sunday Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, met with President Reuven Rivlin to announce his party’s noteworthy decision to endorse Benny Gantz, chairman of…

By Mairav Zonszein September 26, 2019

Meretz Chairman Nitzan Horowitz (right), Former Israeli Prime Minister and leader of Israel Democratic Party Ehud Barak (center) and Israeli MK Stav Shaffir seen during a Democratic Union election event in Tel Aviv, July 30, 2019. (Photo by Flash90)

Israel’s Ashkenazi elites won’t let Mizrahim lead the left

More than 70 years after Israel was founded, the old Ashkenazi guard of the Israeli left is still doing everything in its power to prevent Mizrahim and other oppressed groups from taking the reins. By Lev Grinberg Give or take a few seats, it seems things will remain much as they were following Election Day on…

By +972 Magazine September 16, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a welcome ceremony in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 23, 2017. (Flash90)

PODCAST: Has international law failed Palestinians?

Palestinian legal scholar Noura Erakat proposes a different, inclusive vision that guarantees justice and dignity for all oppressed groups in Israel and Palestine. Listen here: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify Israel has been able to leverage international law to its advantage much better than the Palestinians, says Noura Erakat, Palestinian legal scholar, human rights activist and author of Justice…

By +972 Magazine August 30, 2019

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Mizrahi activists protest outside Finance Minister Yair Lapid's house, north Tel Aviv. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

PODCAST: Could Mizrahim find their most natural allies in Palestinians?

Jewish Israelis with roots in Arab and Muslim countries have faced systemic discrimination for decades. As Jewish political parties court their votes, +972 writer and Local Call editor Orly Noy has a different idea. Listen here: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify It is no secret that for decades, the Zionist left discriminated against Mizrahim, or Jews with roots…

By +972 Magazine August 16, 2019

A soldier guards the roadside checkpoint outside Srinagar International Airport in Jammu and Kashmir, India, January 2009. (Jrapczak/CC BY-SA 3.0)

What’s happening in Kashmir looks a lot like Israel’s rule over Palestine

By revoking autonomy from Kashmir, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking a page straight out of the Israeli playbook. By Abdulla Moaswes The last few weeks have seen a sharp escalation in tensions in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the territory’s long-standing autonomy, putting it on lockdown and plunging the region into…

By +972 Magazine August 12, 2019

Palestinians in the city of Ramle surrender to Israeli forces during 1948 war. (Eldad David/GPO)

How I learned to stop worrying and acknowledge the Nakba

For more than seven decades, Israelis haven’t been able to come to terms with the consequences of the Nakba. To do so, they’ll have to confront the hard truths about 1948, and shed their moral superiority. By Michal Talya The first time I ever heard a testimony about the Nakba was nearly two decades ago from…

By +972 Magazine August 8, 2019

David Ben Gurion seen in the Knesset, February 11, 1961. (Fritz Cohen/GPO)

When Zionism imagined Jewish nationalism without supremacy

In his recent book, Dr. Dmitry Shumsky shows that, contrary to popular belief, the forefathers of Zionism did not envision a state based on Jewish supremacy. And yet Zionism, he says, inevitably involves the oppression of Palestinians. By Meron Rapoport No one was surprised when the authors of the Jewish Nation-State Law decided to write, in its opening clauses, that “The…

By +972 Magazine July 21, 2019

Israeli security forces guard as Jewish Israelis tour the Palestinian side of the old city market in the West Bank city of Hebron, June 15, 2019. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Confederation can’t answer the most important issue in Israel-Palestine

Any framework that comes to replace the two-state solution must aspire toward decolonization, and accept that Zionism and full civic equality are irreconcilable. Changes on the ground over the past decade have allowed Israel to consolidate its rule between the river and the sea. While the final nail in the two-state coffin was hammered long…

By Henriette Chacar July 2, 2019

Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during in the West Bank city of Hebron, February 9, 2018. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

The price Mizrahim pay for serving in the Israeli army

Mizrahim are forced to carry out the dirty work of the occupation, coming face to face with their Palestinian subjects in the West Bank. It doesn’t have to be this way. It is hard to know for sure what kind of considerations are at the heart of the growing crisis between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…

By Orly Noy May 29, 2019

American Jewish activists protest outside the Birthright offices in New York, April 5, 2019. (GIli Getz)

In these dark times, young American Jews are a ray of hope

The recent campaigns taking aim at Birthright and the American political establishment are more than symbolic — they are sowing the seeds of a powerful resistance movement against Israel’s occupation. By Oren Kroll-Zeldin Passover is a celebration of freedom, justice, and liberation. In Hebrew it is referred to as zman heruteynu, the season of our freedom.…

By +972 Magazine April 24, 2019

An illustrative photo of a Passover seder. (Flash90)

A guide to an anti-capitalist, non-Zionist Passover

A hilarious new radical Passover Haggadah by the London-based Jewdas collective provides Jews across the diaspora the opportunity to hold their own alternative seder. By Michal Zweig and Aaron Kaiser-Chen A Jewdas Haggadah (Pluto Press, 2019) Fraught with Ashkenormativity, punctuation and spelling irregularity, and all-around anarchy, the Jewdas Haggadah has arrived this Passover, just as Jews around the world are…

By +972 Magazine April 23, 2019

International activists confront an Israeli skunk canon during a protest in Bil'in, West Bank. (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

Jewish-Arab alliances are our best shot against segregation

Israel is already a binational state based on ethnic segregation. The struggle to turn it into an inclusive one must be fought by Jews and Palestinians — together. A response to Rami Younis and Orly Noy. In their article, “Let’s stop talking about a false ‘Jewish-Arab partnership,’” +972 writers Orly Noy and Rami Younis criticize calls for…

By Noam Sheizaf April 17, 2019

Supporters of Labor and Tzipi Livni’s ‘Zionist Camp’ at a rally calling to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, March 7, 2015. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Why the Zionist left died this week

Stuck in a Zionist paradigm, Israel’s mainstream left-wing parties are unable to put forth a vision of equality and inclusion for all in Israel-Palestine. Tuesday’s election results were obvious to anyone paying attention. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and rival Benny Gantz’s Blue and White won the same number of Knesset seats, Gantz has already conceded to…

By Edo Konrad April 10, 2019