Amjad Iraqi

Amjad Iraqi is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, currently based in Haifa. He is an advocacy coordinator at Adalah, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, and a contributing editor at +972 Magazine. The views expressed here are his own.

Recent Articles

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an 'emergency' Likud rally in Tel Aviv, November 17, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

By labeling Arabs an ‘existential threat,’ Bibi invokes a terrifying history of ethnic violence

The prime minister organized an emergency Likud gathering Sunday night, in which he accused Israel’s Arab citizens of supporting terror and wanting to destroy the State of Israel. We know how this kind of thing can end. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a bitter struggle to prevent his challenger from establishing a government with support from the Arab-led Joint List party, has…

By Amjad Iraqi, Cafe Gibraltar and Dimi Reider November 18, 2019

Why Hamas is staying out of Israel’s fight with Islamic Jihad

Israeli security and political coordination with Hamas has served mutual interests for many years. Now Hamas is hoping to stay out of the current fighting in order to potentially expand its political power in the West Bank.

By Ami Kaufman and Amjad Iraqi November 13, 2019

Batya Ungar-Sargon speaking at a conference on racism and anti-Semitism at Bard College.

Reckless charges of anti-Semitism endanger Palestinians

The baseless claims made by The Forward’s Batya Ungar-Sargon at Bard College last week feed the dysfunction of the American debate on Israel-Palestine, making it more difficult for Palestinians and their allies to advocate for their rights. In a strange public controversy last week, Batya Ungar-Sargon, the Opinion Editor at The Forward, published a column claiming that…

By Amjad Iraqi October 16, 2019

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz seen with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony held in honour of incoming IDF chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot (not seen) at a ceremony held in Eizenkot's honour at the PM's office in Jerusalem, on February 16, 2015. Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90 *** Local Caption *** ??? ?????? ?????? ??????

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In Israel, ‘politics as usual’ means escalating Palestinian oppression

Three trends from Israel’s do-over election demonstrate that the more Israeli politics stay the same, the more dangerous its policies become. There are many moments in Israeli-Palestinian history where landmark developments seem to change nothing and everything at the same time. Israel’s September election is one of them. While featuring many familiar and predictable patterns, the latest…

By Amjad Iraqi October 4, 2019

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a picture of Vladimir Jabotinsky, Jerusalem, May 12, 2002. (Flash90)

Likud vs Likud: How Revisionist Zionism conquered Israeli politics

Israel’s elections have been billed as a clash of the titans between Netanyahu and Gantz. But no matter who wins, the real victory goes to Vladimir Jabotinsky, the grandfather of the Likud. In what should be regarded as a historic photograph taken last Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Likud party, and Benny…

By Amjad Iraqi September 26, 2019

Simon KAPWEPWE (standing), Foreign Minister of Zambia, addressing the Seminar on Apartheid, Racial Discrimination and Colonialism. 4/Aug/1967 (UN Photo)

Unlike South Africa, the world is giving Israel a pass on apartheid

A UN Security Council resolution rejecting South Africa’s 1983 constitution shows that there is precedent and necessity to act against Israel’s Nation-State Law. In a referendum on November 2, 1983, White voters in apartheid South Africa approved a new constitution to restructure their political system. In addition to consolidating executive power with the presidency, a tricameral parliament…

By Amjad Iraqi July 26, 2019

Illustrative photo of Palestinian refugees fleeing during the Nakba.

Don’t wait for Israeli archives to prove what Palestinians already know

Israeli authorities are deliberately concealing historical documents to undermine evidence of the state’s dark and violent origins. And the world is still falling for it. The village of Safsaf (“willow” in Arabic) appears on page 490 of the newest edition of Walid Khalidi’s All That Remains, a seminal book that catalogues 418 Palestinian communities that were…

By Amjad Iraqi July 7, 2019

Michelle Alexander speaks at the Miller Center Forum, December 3, 2010. (Miller Center/CC BY 2.0)

For Michelle Alexander’s critics, Palestinians don’t deserve civil rights

The uproar by Jewish establishment figures over Alexander’s New York Times essay in support of Palestinian rights echoes the reactions of white Americans to the Civil Rights Movement decades ago. Michelle Alexander’s powerful New York Times essay on Saturday (“Time to Break the Silence on Palestine”), ahead of the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was…

By Amjad Iraqi January 23, 2019

Activists march in Boston, Mass. on October 25, 2014, calling for an end to police racial profiling and violence. The protest came in the wake of events in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black man. (Activestills.org)

A masterclass in Palestine solidarity

By using his platform to elevate marginalized Palestinian views onto the global stage, Marc Lamont Hill’s UN speech challenged the unequal parameters of permissible thought on the conflict. Watching Marc Lamont Hill’s speech at the United Nations on Wednesday was like a breath of fresh air. Unlike the mundane and repetitive remarks made by aging…

By Amjad Iraqi November 30, 2018

Palestinian youth hold a Palestinian flag outside the Aqsa Mosque in the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound, East Jerusalem. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘This is how you change the status quo’: Rethinking the Palestinian boycott of Jerusalem elections

Aziz Abu Sarah withdrew his historic bid for Jerusalem mayor after Israeli and Palestinian pressures, but he hopes his short campaign ‘provokes’ new ideas on how to build stronger, younger Palestinian political activism in the city. Less than a month after declaring his candidacy to become the first Palestinian mayor of Jerusalem, Aziz Abu Sarah…

By Amjad Iraqi September 28, 2018