Israeli Politics Decoded: a talk by David Sheen
In the Knesset, who is left-wing? Who is right-wing? Are these terms even useful? Investigative journalist, David Sheen, gave a series of lectures for an international audience; he threw out the traditional breakdown of Israeli politics in favor of a new alignment...
No Other Land Wins Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Chronicles Destruction of Palestinian Community The 2024 Documentary, No Other Land, won the United States’s highest film award for a documentary feature, netting an Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature. The film’s path from...
Ha’aretz: Israel’s Oldest Daily and Its Role in Investigative Journalism
Originally based in Jerusalem (now in Tel Aviv), the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz (meaning "the land" or "the country”), is the oldest and longest-running daily newspaper in the country of Israel. Founded before Israel was a sovereign nation, it is the 3rd largest...
Britain, Palestine, and the Weight of History
The Britain Palestine Project: Origins, Advocacy, and the Contested Legacy of the Balfour Declaration What Is the Britain Palestine Project? The Britain Palestine Project (BPP) — known as the Balfour Project from its founding in 2017 until 2025 — is a Scottish...
Jews Step Forward: A Confessional Documentary
The Moral Voices of Bravery “I could not work to make sure that Black people in Mississippi had the right to vote and then turn around and be supportive of a state where every citizen does not have equal rights before the law.” – Dorothy Zellner Jews Step Forward is a...
Jews Say No
From Local Activism to a Global Rallying Cry In the shadow of Operation Cast Lead, the three-week war in Gaza in late 2008–2009, a group of Jewish peace activists came together to say to the Israeli Government “No. Not in our name.” Specifically, they have called for...
Anti-Boycott Laws in 35+ States Impinge on Free Speech
Historic Right to Economic Protest Under Threat Boycotts were one of the most popular and effective tools used by American colonists to organize a successful movement for independence. Coordinated economic protests also played a key role in ending apartheid rule in...
Unapologetic Support for All, Including Palestinian Families
Younger Jews Embrace Solidarity with Palestinian Families Younger Jews are increasingly speaking out against Israel and for Palestinian families’ human rights. In doing so, they are adhering to lessons Jewish values teach every generation – to stand with oppressed...
Jewish Israel Opposition Grows Louder
Jews Around the World Speak Out Against Israel’s Actions Jews around the world are voicing opposition to Israel and the country's aggressive military tactics. Journalists, activists, political staffers, and even retired IDF generals are calling out the dehumanization...
Perceptions of the Palestinian Death Toll
Israel has killed more than 45,000 Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations. An estimated 10,000 more Palestinian men, women, and children remain buried under rubble. A study by The Lancet estimated four...
A South African View
The Afrikaans word “apartheid”, which translates to “separateness”, entered the realm of international law in response to racist regimes in South Africa. Apartheid refers to an institutionalized system of segregation based on race. The 1973 United Nations...
Qaqun: A Vibrant Village Destroyed
Qaqun was a Palestinian village once located near the city of Tulkarm in the West Bank. It is surrounded by natural wonders like Mount Nablus and the Sharon Plain and had once been inhabited by mostly Palestinian families. The village of Qaqun, along with hundreds of...
Palestinian Widows in the Gaza War
Palestinian widows are surviving against terrible odds: their homes and towns are the battlegrounds of war, while they lose family members, neighbors, and friends to Israeli bombings. Many Palestinian women are enduring the additional burden of losing their husbands,...
Israelis Demanding Peace
On October 18, 2023, Israelis Against Apartheid released an open letter calling for an “immediate end” to “the ongoing massive Israeli military assault on the people of Gaza.” With 1,800 Israeli signatures and counting, the letter makes it clear that many Israelis...
Peter Beinart: Jewish Voice on Liberal Zionism
Peter Beinart, Jewish-American Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism, who works as a columnist, political commentator, journalist, and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. Beinart has authored several books, including...
The Building of Canada Park
A national park in the occupied West Bank has become an epicenter of conflict due to its complicated history. Canada Park was built upon the remains of several depopulated Palestinian villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In 1948, more than 400 villages and 11...
Destruction in the Gaza Strip
Since October 2023, nearly 2 million Palestinian people have been displaced within the Gaza strip, many of whom had their homes destroyed by airstrikes from Israel. One video shows the scale of devastation in just one neighborhood in northern Gaza. The video was taken...
Students Across the U.S. and Europe Demand Justice in Palestine
More than 2,000 students have been arrested at their university and college campuses for protesting in support of Palestinian people’s right to life, freedom, and their homelands. After nearly 7 months since the start of the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza, students across...
Erased from Space and Consciousness: How Palestinian People Became Refugees
Research Reveals How Palestinian People Became Refugees How was it that Palestinian families became refugees? Noga Kadman’s book, Erased from Space and Consciousness: Israel and the Depopulated Palestinian Villages of 1948 (2015), answers this question with striking...
The Middle East Studies Association Releases a Statement on Palestine and Israel
The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America released a statement on Palestine and Israel shortly after the events of October 7, 2023. They condemn Israeli forces’ ongoing attack on the Gaza strip while acknowledging that Hamas...
Colonization of Palestine: Dispelling Myths about the 1948 Nakba
Doctor Writes Book: History of the Colonization of Palestine Two common statements used to justify the Nakba of 1948 – Palestine was a “Land without a People for a People without a Land” and “Zionists made the Desert Bloom” – are address and explained in Dr. Jamil A....
Arab-Israeli War of 1948: Hidden Documents Revealed
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli cabinet received testimonies of massacres perpetrated by Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers against Arabs during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. These attacks targeted unarmed men as well as elderly people and...
Israel Designates Six Organizations as Terrorist Groups
Jewish Voices Respond to Protect Human Rights Israel has declared six Palestinian organizations as terrorist groups. The groups include civil society associations, human rights institutions, and unions operating in the West Bank. Some religious leaders, politicians,...
Tal Mitnik, Ariel Davidov, and Ella Keidar
Three young Jews, Tal Mitnik, Ariel Davidov, and Ella Keidar, join the recent waves of conscientious objectors against Israel’s occupation of Palestine. For these youth, refusing their military service is the best way to get their voices heard as they call for justice...
Jewish Voices Calling for End to Violence Against Palestinians
Jewish people, communities, and organizations around the world are calling for an end to Israel’s violence against Palestinian people. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 26,000 Palestinian men, women, and children while displacing nearly 2 million...
Liberation Theology in the U.S. and in Israel-Palestine
Liberation theology is a Christian theological and social movement that prioritizes the liberation of the oppressed. Coined by Peruvian Roman Catholic priest and theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez in this 1968 lecture “Hacia una teología de la liberación” (“Towards a...
Why War? The Formation of Israel in Palestine
Since October 7, 2023, the world has watched the government of Israel drop more than 6,000 bombs and launch more than 7,000 missiles into the territory of Gaza, causing damage the equivalent of 2 nuclear bombs. The military operation is in retaliation to a Hamas-led...
A Burglary Motivated by Racism
Haaaretz journalists Gideon Levy and Alex Levac reported on a West Bank burglary case in 2020 in which a small Palestinian business was repeatedly burglarized by Jewish settlers. Was this burglary motivated by racism? Mohammed Mahmadi, 29, left his restaurant job in...
Jerusalem Christian Church Leaders Speak Up
In 2000, the heads of Jerusalem churches wrote a letter to the leaders at Camp David as they decided the status of Jerusalem. In 2017, these patriarchs once again wrote a letter, but this time it was directed to U.S. President Donald Trump. Jerusalem Christian church...
Antisemitism or Anti-Palestinian Racism at Temerty?
Controversy fell upon the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2022 as debate swirled between accusations of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism. A confidential letter—addressed to Acting Dean Patricia Houston and signed by 45 Faculty...
The Return of the Pogrom in Hawara
On February 26, 2023, more than 400 Jewish settlers terrorized the Palestinian village of Hawara in the Occupied West Bank. For hours, the settlers set buildings and cars on fire and threw stones at inhabitants and their homes. The Israeli police and military forces...
Christians Against Israeli Violence
Christians Against Israeli Violence: Churches Call to End U.S. Military Aid to Israel On March 10, 2023, ten U.S.-based Christian groups published a letter directed to President Biden and Congress calling on the end of U.S. military aid to Israel. The letter reads:...
Amnesty International Apartheid Report on Israel
Amnesty International (AI), the world’s largest human rights organization, released a report in 2022 titled “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity.” The report details AI’s investigation into Israel’s treatment...
Israel Officially Begins Annexing the West Bank
In February 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government transferred civil authorities over the West Bank from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to a new minister within the Ministry of Defense. According to Foreign Affairs, “[t]his administrative change...
Barcelona Suspended Institutional Ties with Israel
In February 2023, the mayor of Barcelona, Spain announced that the city temporarily suspended all institutional ties with Israel. Barcelona equally froze its 25-year-old twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau wrote a letter to...
Anti-BDS Law: Arkansas’ Pro-Israel Law Prevents Jewish Doctor from Getting Paid
Dr. Steven Feldman, curator of the www.PromisedLandMuseum.org, is an academic dermatologist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and one of the foremost experts on patients’ adherence to treatment. He gave an invited lecture to the Dermatology Department at the...
Israeli Air Force Pilot Refuses to Commit War Crimes
Yonotan Shapira is a Former Captain of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) who has since become an outspoken activist and supporter of the call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Shapira served in the IAF for 11 years as an officer in the Black Hawk...
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez: Critical or Anti-Semitic?
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made headlines over numerous issues since being elected in 2018. One of the most controversial stances of this progressive representative has been her perspective on Israel-Palestine. The executive director of...
Columbia University Students Pass Israel Boycott Referendum
The Pursuit of Justice The Columbia College undergraduate student body voted in 2020 to recommend that Columbia University should “divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians...
Rabbinical Students Call on American Jews to Hold Israel Accountable
"An Untenable and Dangerous Reality" Dozens of American rabbinical and cantorial students wrote a public letter in 2021 calling on the Jewish American community to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses. The letter begins: “Blood is flowing in the streets...
Theology in the Vineyard
Theology in the Vineyard is a blog for Roman Catholics who have been marginalized by the Church. It began with a meeting on a vineyard in eastern Ontario in 2005, inspired by the Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium (1964), which invited congregants to express their own...
Jewish Voices
The Promised Land Museum highlights Jewish perspectives about the Palestinian experience. Here we have collected profiles of Jewish voices to show the diversity of Jewish thought on Israel and Palestine. These thinkers ground their political philosophy in an...
New Gallup Poll: Increased American Sympathy for Palestinians
On March 16, 2023, Gallup published the results of a poll that measured American sympathy for Palestinians, Israelis, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. For the first time, more Democrats (49% versus 38%) sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis....
Journalist Gideon Levy: The Most Controversial Reporter in Israel
Gideon Levy is one of the most famous and controversial journalists in Israel. The Independent has described him as both “the most hated man in Israel” and the “most heroic.” Levy, in turn, describes Israelis as living in a “bubble”—unaware of their government’s...
Israel Deadly Racism?: Killing Unarmed Black and Palestinian Civilians
Israeli Journalist Etan Nechin: A double standard for recognizing racism? Anti-Black and Anti-Palestinian Racism in the U.S. and Israel In a 2020 op-ed for Forward, Israeli journalist Etan Nechin asked the question “Why do Jews recognize the racism of George Floyd’s...
Where Is the Palestinian Mandela?
Many interested in Israel-Palestine have asked the question: “Where is the Palestinian Mandela?” But Nelson Mandela’s grandson Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela has argued that this question emerges from a distortion of his grandfather’s legacy. Who Was Nelson Mandela?...
Palestine Open Maps
Palestine Open Maps (POM) is a platform that uses mapping technologies in collaboration with researchers to showcase visual stories of the geographical transformation of historic Palestine over the last 70+ years. The project combines 1940s British Mandate of...
“There’s Already Only One State from the River to the Sea”
Dr. Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Arnold Center for Israel Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina wrote an article for Haaretz titled “Liberal Zionists, Face the Facts: There’s Already Only One State From the...
Erasing Historic Palestine: The Holy Land: Making the Desert Bloom
Israel was founded on the idea that 20th century Jewish settlers arrived in the Holy Land and, through hard work, transformed its empty swamps into fertile gardens. Early Zionist thinker Israel Zangwill wrote in 1901: “Palestine is a country without a people; the Jews...
Benjamin Moser Travels to Hebron: “The Worst Place in the World”
Benjamin Moser is a world-renown writer: he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his book Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for his latest book Sontag: Her Life and Work. He’s also a Jewish...
Rabbi Miriam Grossman on Changing Jewish Perspectives
Rabbi Miriam Grossman of the Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives congregation in Brooklyn, New York, is an educator and organizer who leads through Jewish ritual. She teaches that following a Jewish theology means protecting the human rights of all people, including...
Imagine What Life Is Like for Palestinian Children
What is life like for Palestinian children? On the wall of the girls’ school in the Palestinian West Bank village of Luban e-Sharqiyah, there is a drawing of a teacher and students. It reads “teach us arithmetic and not beatings,” in Arabic wordplay. Getting to...
A Land for All: Considering the Two-State Solution
In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children were forced from their homes as Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. The expelled population became stateless refugees and have not yet been...
Justice for Rachel Corrie: An American’s Fight and Death
American Rachel Corrie was an advocate for poor and underserved populations from an early age. In this video, we see Rachel as a fifth grader imploring for equal treatment for those around us as well as those in third-world countries. We also see images from the...
Israeli and Palestinian Women: Witnessing a Paradigm Shift
Shiri Ourian, Executive Director of American Friends of the Parents Circle Families Forum and friend of the Promised Land Museum, shared with us her powerful experience of witnessing Israeli and Palestinian women practice a role reversal activity with the Parents...
Seth Morrison: Being on the Side of Peace
Retired marketer Seth Morrison used to support and fund Zionist organizations. Now, he is an activist who boycotts them in support of the Palestinian right to return. As a liberal Jew from Long Island who grew up with a desire to help fix the world’s problems,...
An Imam Who Saved Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi-Occupied France
Remembering Muslims Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust Mohammad Mesli barely knew his father--he died in 1961 when Mohammad was only a young boy. But a few years ago, he found a suitcase filled with documentation of his father’s secret life as an...
Is the Israel Defense Forces a Moral Army?
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website describes its official doctrine of ethics, “The Spirit of the IDF,” as the army’s moral compass, which includes their three core values: The defense of the state, its citizens, and residents; Patriotism and loyalty to the state;...
Jewish Voices Profile: Stephen Zunes Against War
Leading Expert on U.S. Middle East Policy & Strategic Non-Violent Action Zunes Critiques U.S. Policy in Israel-Palestine As one of the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and strategic nonviolent action, Stephen Zunes has consistently argued...
What Happened to Shireen Abu Akleh?
The Tragic Killing of a Palestinian-American Journalist On the morning of May 11, 2022, American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh went to the occupied West Bank town of Jenin with other journalists to film an Israeli military raid. Without warning, Israeli forces shot her...
No Child Should Die Like This: A Boy Shot and Killed
Navigating War Crimes Through a Jewish Lens In December of 2020, a Palestinian boy was killed for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. He was only thirteen years old, and his name was Ali Ayman Abu-Alayya. The Jerusalem Post reported that Ali and four others were...
Inside Palestinian and Israeli Schools: A Roundtable Discussion of K-12 Curricula in the U.S., Palestinian, and Israeli Classrooms
A recent 2020 study at Tel Aviv University found that Palestine and Palestinians are not mentioned in Israeli school textbooks, rendering Palestinians invisible to them. Consequently, many Israeli children do not learn the history of Palestine, and they learn to view...
Arab Americans Support Palestinian Rights and Draw Attention to their Cause
In light of the attacks in Gaza starting May 9, 2021, thousands of Arab-Americans protested in the streets of Dearborn, Michigan, during the same month. The crowd protested in response to President Joe Biden visiting the city to tour a Ford Rouge Plant. The protesters...
Remembering Palestinian Rights Activist Tanya Reinhart and Her Legacy
Israeli linguist and Palestinian rights activist Tanya Reinhart passed away in 2007. In light of the 2021 U.S. protests calling for the support of Palestinian rights and the February 2022 rallies in support of Ukraine, Reinhart’s work is as timely as ever. Reinhart...
Are Palestinian Voices Being Represented in U.S. Media?
U.S. Media Coverage of Israel-Palestine Conflict Is Changing In a recent article in The Washington Post in May 2021, Eva Najjar, a UX designer currently based in Haifa but from the Palestinian village of Rama, wrote about the attacks in Gaza that started on May 9th....
Dispelling Lies about Palestine
John Minto’s 2020 David Wakim Memorial Lecture The David Wakim Memorial Lecture, a Pax Christi event, took place in September 2020. Pax Christi International is a Catholic peace movement with 120 member organizations worldwide. Its goals are to support peace, respect...
Imprisoned for Refusing Israeli Military Conscription
Since 2003, Israeli photojournalist and founding member of photography collective Activestills, Oren Ziv, has documented social and political issues concerning Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. His reportage has mostly focused on popular protests...
A Voice of Reason in the Israel-Palestine Conflict
U.S. Representative Marc Pocan Visits the West Bank During his time in Congress, U.S. representative Marc Pocan has been vocal about the Israel-Palestine conflict. In June 2017, he was the only congressional sponsor of a briefing on Capitol Hill about “life for...
Promoting Interreligious Exchange in the Israel-Palestine Conflict
A Grassroots Organization with Both Israeli and Palestinian Members While vociferous organizations from one side of the Israel-Palestine conflict or the other may be highly visible, organizations that have members from both sides working together may be missed. Roots...
Dispelling Myths about Israel
Ten Myths about Israel: A Book Review "Historical disinformation, even of the most recent past, can do tremendous harm," Israeli historian and University of Exeter professor Ilan Pappé writes in his latest book, Ten Myths About Israel, published by Verso Books in...
Do West Bank Policies Amount to Apartheid in Israel?
Former Ambassadors Call It Like They See It Apartheid in Israel is controversial when it comes to contemporary discussions of the country. Apartheid is a system of rule that is inherently unequal and discriminatory anathema to a free and democratic society. Systematic...
Claims of Antisemitism at Duke University
A letter in a college newspaper discussed recent claims of antisemitism. Visit the Promised Land Museum to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Brennan Urges Biden to Pursue Two-State Solution for Israel-Palestine
What Does Brennan’s Letter to Biden Mean for Palestinian Statehood? It isn’t every day that a past director of the C.I.A personally writes a letter to the President. In Joe Brennan’s recent article in The New York Times, he asks Joe Biden to help facilitate...
Is Israel Committing War Crimes?
Who Can Be Trusted to Tell? Top Israeli Intellectuals Urge Human Rights Groups to Investigate War Crimes Last May, more than 180 Israeli scientists and intellectuals wrote a letter to the International Crime Court (ICC) urging it not to accept the state’s rejection of...
Gain a Better Understanding of Palestine with These Top Resources
Have you felt challenged when understanding Palestine and the history of occupation? Perhaps you don’t know where to look. In today’s world – with so much information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – it’s difficult to know where to start. So, where do...
The Reality of Palestine
Throughout history, Palestine was home to people of many religions including Christians, Muslims and Jews. They lived in peace. However, even though the first Zionist congress took place in 1897, the State of Israel was not declared until 1948. What is the...
Perspectives Magazine – Winter 2022
A balanced perspective of the Israel-Palestine conflict, focused on the Creation of State, current events, and an evolving view.
Gabor Maté and Justifying Violence
In his book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Dr.Gabor Maté writes that “no society can understand itself without looking at its shadow side.” Hungarian-Canadian physician Gabor Maté is a Holocaust survivor, addiction expert, speaker,...
Perspectives on the One State
Voices for Justice in Palestine (VJP) hosted a webinar entitled "Perspectives on the One State." Palestinian-American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer and American Jewish journalist Peter Beinart described their perspectives and responded to questions. See...
From Lebanon to Palestine
Dr. Rania Masri is a political activist, scholar and professor with decades of grassroots organizing experience. She teaches at the Lebanese American University. Dr. Masri spoke on October 24, 2020 at 2PM EDT. To see the recorded webinar, click here:...
Anna Baltzer, a Witness in Palestine
Anna Baltzer is a Jewish American who has been advocating for Palestinian rights since visiting the West Bank in 2005. She described her observations in a book Witness in Palestine: a Jewish Woman in the Occupied Territories and has toured the world presenting her...
Khirbet Khizeh and Israel’s National Identity
Khirbet Khizeh is a brief, fictional, 1949 novella by Israeli writer S. Yizhar about the violent expulsion of Palestinian villagers by the Israeli army. Considered a high point in Hebrew literature, it was published just months the author fought in the 1948...