A critical view from +972 Magazine

Dear reader,

I hope this finds you well. After 11 days of war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire. For the people of Gaza and the Israeli south, this could mean much-needed relief after having carried the brunt of the terrible violence.

It has been a tough few weeks for us — and for many of you, I am sure. In the coming days, we’ll have much more to say about the meaning of the ceasefire and what the future might hold. But in the meantime, I wanted to write to let you know how +972 Magazine has been navigating this moment.

Not too far from my home in Tel Aviv, Jaffa now feels a bit like a military state after long days of terrible violence between Jews and Palestinians. Police are everywhere, stopping cars, firing stun grenades, and enforcing an unofficial curfew. The tension is unlike anything I’ve experienced here before.

Of the so-called “mixed cities” in Israel, Lydd, about 20 minutes away, has seen some of the most sustained and visible violence. We just published a deeply reported piece by Oren Ziv, who was able to trace the evolution of the clashes and the history of tensions between Palestinians and ultra-nationalist Jews moving to the city in recent years. Last week, we published another piece by Oren that exposed how the police were actively colluding with West Bank settlers in the city.

Protests by Palestinians inside Israel have been growing as part of a wider, inspiring movement of revival of Palestinian popular resistance. My colleague Amjad Iraqi perfectly captures what’s so powerful about this pivotal moment in Palestinian unity, which was again on display this week in a historic Palestinian general strike (which +972 staff joined). These are critical developments for understanding what is happening inside Israel.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve used our platform to center the voices of people suffering unimaginable horrors in Gaza. Alongside our Hebrew-language partner site Local Call, which is published jointly with Just Vision, we have been the only Israel-based media outlet regularly publishing stories from the strip, where civilians are sending goodbye messages to their loved ones. Israelis have almost no other way of hearing from Palestinians, as they’re not featured on mainstream media. When they are, they often come under attack — as was the case with our very own Rami Younis, who did an incredible job withstanding a hostile interview on Israeli television. (You can watch the interview with English translation here.)

This has been my first time experiencing war as a father, and my fear for the safety and for the future of my two-year-old son is unbearable. But I know we are actually hardly at risk. Here in Tel Aviv, we haven’t heard any sirens since Friday, while they have been going off non-stop in the south of the country. And I know that is nothing when compared to the Palestinians of Gaza, who have literally no protection from incoming Israeli missiles that have killed more than 200 people, including more than 60 children.

But I continue to find cause for hope – whether in the steady protests of Israelis and Palestinians against injustice and war and the non-violent popular struggle spreading through the Palestinian community.

And there is more and more of an audience for the work we have been doing for years to change the conversation. Our recent coverage has been making waves, with numerous media outlets hosting our reporters and editors. Rami was also on NPR and Democracy Now. Other members of the team have appeared on Al-Jazeera and BBC in Persian. And many more media collaborations are coming up.

It has been a painful time, but we’re focused on staying true to our main principles: offering the full context for events and a critical perspective, giving a platform to marginalized voices, and striving to shift the discourse in mainstream and social media.

It is because of our readers that we’ve been able to help change the global conversation on this place over the last 10 years. If you’d like to join the effort, you can do so by becoming a member of +972. Your support has never been more critical.

All the best,
Haggai