Mairav Zonszein

Mairav Zonszein is a journalist and editor who writes about Israel-Palestine and its role in U.S. politics. Her publications include The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Intercept, VICE News, Foreign Policy and many more.

Recent Articles

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship at J Street's 2019 National Gala Dinner, October 28, 2019. (Photo courtesy of J Street)

J Street conference confronts America’s ‘blank check’ to Israel

By making U.S. aid to Israel the central theme of its 2019 conference, J Street is challenging bipartisan support for Israel ahead of 2020. Now that the organization is starting to talk the talk, will it walk the walk?

By Mairav Zonszein November 1, 2019

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

Illustrative photo of Birthright visitors lining up to race into the Dead Sea on July 10, 2015. The northern Dead Sea, including Kibbutz Kalia and Kibbutz Almog, are fully in the occupied West Bank. (Matt Hechter/Flash90)

Israeli settlements are a regular destination on Birthright trips

For years, Birthright has been taking participants into the occupied territories, usually without their knowledge or consent. ‘At the end of the day, we Israelis always have been less than truthful about where those lines and boundaries are for tourists,’ one former tour operator says. Before Zachary Popkin-Hall embarked on his Birthright Israel trip in…

By Mairav Zonszein July 16, 2019

Activists from the 'International Block', hold a BDS sign, during the annual May Day demonstration, Berlin, Germany, May 1, 2017. (Activestills.org)

In Germany, the anti-BDS zeitgeist has taken over

The growing attacks on the BDS movement in Germany, which led to the resignation of the director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum last week, are a dangerous sign that critics of Israeli policy should be afraid for their futures. It has been a month since the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, passed a symbolic, non-binding resolution designating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement…

By Mairav Zonszein June 20, 2019

A Likud party supporter wears a Donald Trump mask during a Likud election campaign event at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, April 7, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

There is no good vote in a paralyzed society

For years, Israelis have allowed values of equality, justice, and peace, to go by the wayside. Tuesday’s vote reflects not only the impotence and absence of a left, but just how paralyzed Israeli society is. In some ways, Tuesday’s election is predictable. Netanyahu and his right-wing camp are expected, according to most polls, to secure the 61-seat…

By Mairav Zonszein April 8, 2019

The Women's March organizers at the annual march on January 21 in Washington DC (left to right): Bob Bland, Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez. (Kisha Bari)

Women’s March Jewish outreach director: ‘Anti-Semitism can be unlearned’

In her first interview since calls began for the Women’s March leadership to resign amid allegations of anti-Semitism, Jewish director of communications Sophie Ellman-Golan speaks about confronting anti-Jewish prejudice within the movement, the attempts to delegitimize the organizers, and how the March is putting forth a more inclusive vision. After the mass shooting of 11 American…

By Mairav Zonszein January 29, 2019

File photo of an advertisement on a San Francisco public bus accusing the city of enforcing Sharia law, paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which received funding from the SF Jewish Federation. (Steve Rhodes/CC 2.0)

Not just Canary Mission: SF Jewish Federation bankrolls these hate groups

The Federation’s tax filings reveal a litany of radical-right and anti-Muslim groups that have received its support for years. The Federation says its review process has recently been strengthened but refuses to account for its funding of notorious Islamophobic hate groups. Following the revelation last week in The Forward that the San Francisco Jewish Federation gave…

By Mairav Zonszein October 10, 2018

Breaking the Silence staffer Frima (Murphie) Bubis is seen speaking with Israeli police after a settler child threw paint on her head during a tour in Hebron, July 16, 2018. (Mairav Zonszein)

Birthright walk-offs get a taste of settler violence in Hebron

Eight Birthright participants who walked off of their trip earlier this week to learn about the occupation were on a tour with Breaking the Silence when settlers began harassing them, culminating with paint thrown on their guide’s head. If the settlers of Hebron were trying to show a group of Birthright participants who had walked…

By Mairav Zonszein July 16, 2018

An advertisement for Ichilov Hospital's Lis Maternity and Women's Hospital. (Screenshot)

Ad for Israeli maternity ward portrays fetus as future soldier

Militarism begins at conception? An ad for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals depicts a fetus wearing a military beret and saluting. An advertisement for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals, published in the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon this past week, has been making the rounds on social media. The…

By Mairav Zonszein May 23, 2018

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (Courtesy of Omar Shakir).

Human Rights Watch sues Israel in first challenge to anti-boycott travel ban

This is the first application of the 2017 amendment to Israel’s entry law in which a foreign national already living and working in Israel has had their work permit revoked for alleged support for BDS. Human Rights Watch and its Israel and Palestine director, U.S. citizen Omar Shakir, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Israeli government following the Interior Ministry’s decision…

By Mairav Zonszein May 16, 2018