Palestine

For First Time, UN Commemorates Palestinian Nakba

Rashid Khalidi discusses the history of Palestinian displacement and the struggle to have the Palestinian side of the Arab-Israeli conflict recognized. 

Israel and Palestine Have a Way Forward. Will They Choose It?

by Alon Ben-Meir

It is time for Israel and the Palestinians to face the bittersweet truth and accept certain realities on the ground that neither side can change short of a calamity. These inescapable realities will frame the contours of a peace agreement in the context of an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation.  

I Resigned from the Carter Center over "Apartheid" Charge; I was Wrong

by Steve Berman

American supporters of Israel have blamed the former president as a messenger about the consequences of the occupation; it's time to consider the message. 

Will the Right Wing Israeli Government Break American Jews' Relationship with Israel?

Shaul Magid, Distinguished Fellow of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth, argues that the new government's agenda will force American Jews to recognize that Israel has become an illiberal country, while historian Hasia Diner says it has long been so. 

Youth Failed by Their Leaders: How the Palestinians Lost Their Way

by Alon Ben-Meir

Four generations of Palestinian leadership have failed their youth through intransigence and a failure to distinguish between Israel and the occupation. 

How Israel Lost its Way

by Alon Ben-Meir

After Israel has raised several generations as warriors and occupiers, has the nation lost sight of the toll on its own youth and the consequences for peace? 

Is a Third Intifada Imminent?

by Daniel Byman

The second intifada, between 2000 and 2005, ended not with negotiated peace but with an overwhelming application of force by Israel on Gaza and the West Bank. As Israeli politics tilts rightward and abandons the idea of a negotiated settlement, it is unclear what will prevent a new escalation of violence. 

Eric Alterman on the Shifting Debate over Israel-Palestine in America

The writer discusses his conclusions about the evolution of the debate among American Jews about the nature of their relationship to Israel and the moral status of American policy. 

Will the US Build an Embassy on Palestinian Land in Jerusalem?

by Rashid Khalidi

As the new ultra-right wing Israeli government prepares to escalate the dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the United States should not allow the siting of its embassy to give cover to this project. 

Can Religious Zionists Reject the Religious Zionist Party?

by Gil Troy

Can religious Zionism survive being hijacked by a party of anti-democratic and anti-humanist zealots? One historian of Zionism says he's not on board with the Israeli far right.  

From Torch to Tunis to El Alamein: Events 80 Years Ago Made the Modern Middle East

by Robert Satloff

80 years ago Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, opened a second front against Nazi Germany. Today, it has proven equally important for establishing models for America's relationship to the Middle East. 

Ken Burns's Holocaust History Has a Palestine Problem

by Rafael Medoff and Monty Noam Penkower

Although there was no sovereign government in Palestine between 1933 and 1945, British authorities there admitted a quarter million Jewish refugees. The filmmaker's focus on "sovereign" countries' record admitting refugees burnishes the Roosevelt administration's record. 

Walter Russell Mead's Contrary View of the Roots of the US-Israel Alliance

In Mead's account, American Christians, with an affinity for viewing the Old Testament as part of the nation's heritage, not the machinations of modern Jewish organizations, brought American policy to support a Jewish state. 

Does Israel's Right Cultivate a Permanent Enemy to Justify a Permanent Occupation?

by Alon Ben-Meir

The vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians have been born since the occupation began. The current Israeli government seems content to exploit violent outbreaks like those of recent weeks to ensure that no one seriously imagines alternatives.

When University Marketing Suppresses Academic Freedom

by Silke-Maria Weineck

For 31 years, the University of Michigan has sponsored an academic freedom lecture named for three professors suspended for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. This year, its marketing team did everything it could to conceal the identity of the lecturer: a lawyer who fights the silencing of pro-Palestinian activists.

Hunger Strikes are Powerful Stands Against Injustice

by Nayan Shah

The hunger strike is a potent tool of resistance when the balance of formal power is highly unequal. 

Israeli Documentary Works to Break Silence over 1948 Israeli-Arab Violence

Director Alon Schwartz examines the events in the town of Tantura, where an Israeli militia is alleged to have killed 200 Arab residents. Oral history interviews with surviving members of the militia are key, but controversial, pieces of evidence.

Haaretz Editorial: Israel Must Acknowledge War Crimes in 1948 Fight for Independence

"It is time to acknowledge the truth, and first to publish the report by the first attorney general, Yaakov-Shimshon Shapira, on the massacres of the dark autumn of 1948... and to hold a penetrating public discussion of their implications today."

How Christian Archaeologists Fed Today's Strife in Jerusalem

by Andrew Lawler

The incursions of 19th century Christian archaeologists onto Jerusalem's historic acropolis created a sense of seige on the part of Palestinian Muslims, which is echoed today in ongoing conflict over the city's religious sites. 

Opinion: The Palestinian Political Class has Become a Heavy Burden on the People

Two observers of the Palestinian political scene argue that the leading factions of Hamas and Fatah are more motivated to maintain their own power than to support a growing, youth-led Palestinian movement for justice.