Zionist Left

An Israeli soldier walks past a wall of photographs of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, March 10, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Netanyahu isn’t the only one interested in prolonging the war

A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to the Zionist left, have differing motivations for turning the war into the new normal.

By Menachem Klein April 9, 2024

A convention of the Israeli Communist Party (Rakah), Tel Aviv, December 15, 1976. (National Library of Israel/Dan Hadani Archive/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection)

A century after its founding, the Israeli Communist Party is at a crossroads

For 100 years, Maki has been the leading force for Jewish-Palestinian equality in Israeli politics, yet it has failed to unite Arab and Jewish workers into a viable movement. Was it doomed from the start?

By Joel Beinin July 28, 2023

Bezalel Smotrich, February 6, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The danger of treating Smotrich as an anomaly

By marking one Israeli politician as unacceptable, U.S. Jews are sidestepping the need to reckon with the wider system that enables his genocidal views.

By Edo Konrad March 9, 2023

Latest

Israeli activists hold a protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, September 23, 2021. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

How this government will turn its Jewish critics into dissidents

The transformation of Israeli leftists into dissidents is a reminder that no one is safe from the attempts to turn the 'wrong kind' of Jews into enemies.

By Edo Konrad December 16, 2022

Dana Mills, the interim executive director of Peace Now. (Oren Ziv)

Peace Now is taking direct action against settler outposts. Can it succeed?

The anti-occupation group is pushing the Zionist left to adopt more disruptive tactics, says interim head Dana Mills. But are there limits to its approach?

By Oren Ziv and Meron Rapoport August 16, 2022

A Palestinian woman climbs the fence separating Israel from Gaza, during the 27th "Great March of Return" Friday protest, Gaza Strip, September 28, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills)

The siege is only a symptom

To confront Israel’s violence against Palestinians, progressive Jews in Israel and around the world must reckon with the ideology that lies at its root.

By Ben Reiff August 11, 2022

View of the Jewish settler outpost of Mitzpe Kramim occupied West Bank, August 29, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Everyone is in on the plunder of Palestinian land

The retroactive legalization of a settler outpost exposes the complicity of the entire Zionist spectrum in the dispossession of Palestinians.

By Orly Noy August 2, 2022

Minister of Health and head of the left wing Meretz party Nitzan Horowitz leads a Meretz faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 13, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Meretz abandons its last core value

The Israeli left argued that ousting Netanyahu would open the space to fight the occupation. A vote on an apartheid law shows the opposite has happened.

By Meron Rapoport June 14, 2022

Left-wing Israeli activists gather for a photo in front of a bulldozer ahead of a protest organized by Peace Now against the Homesh outpost, May 28, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s peace camp is taking up bulldozers to fight the occupation

A demo against a settler outpost shows how Israeli activists are increasingly adopting radical direct action following the anti-Netanyahu protests.

By Oren Ziv and Haggai Matar June 1, 2022

Israeli soldiers salute during the national anthem at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Western Wall, in Jerusalem's Old City, May 10, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

How an army refusal letter became the last stand of the Zionist left

Two decades ago, hundreds of Israeli reservists caused a national sensation for refusing to serve in the occupied territories. But what remains of their legacy?

By Noam Sheizaf March 29, 2022

Israelis mark the 26th Memorial Day for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, October 18, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Good riddance to Rabin Square

The closure of Rabin Square presents an opportunity for the Zionist left to let go of its former leader’s legacy and embrace a politics of decolonization.

By Ben Reiff November 3, 2021

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sits with Labor Party head Merav Michaeli in the plenum hall of the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 2, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Jewish parties ‘compromise’ against Palestinians and call it democracy

Negotiations over a settlement outpost and a racist law show that Zionist parties of all stripes will find common ground to deny Palestinian rights.

By Orly Noy July 1, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left), Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (right), Israeli Presdint Reuven Rivlin (center) and other Israeli ministers pose for a group photo of the newly sworn in Israeli government, President's Residence, Jerusalem, June 14, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Why Israel’s new government brings grim news and rare hope

Two stories reveal that while the Bennett-Lapid government will remain bad on all things occupation, its fractured coalition could help undermine parts of its racist agenda.

By Haggai Matar June 30, 2021