Palestinian identity

Baladna youth activists. (Maria Zreiq)

The Palestinian group building power through youth

Baladna head Nidaa Nassar explains how the Haifa-based NGO is raising a generation of Palestinians to overcome their fragmentation and erasure.

By Vera Sajrawi June 21, 2023

Posters and murals supporting the Palestinian struggle in the neighborhood of Neukölln in Berlin, Germany, July 21, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

How Palestine became a ‘forbidden word’ in German high schools

From textbooks to trips, Germany's education system is aggressively pushing a pro-Israel narrative hostile to any Palestinian dissent in the classroom.

By Hebh Jamal December 5, 2022

A still from the film "Let It Be Morning," directed by Eran Kolirin, based on the book by Sayed Kashua. (Courtesy of Dori Media/Les Films Du Poisson)

The dilemma of Palestinian representation in Israeli cinema

The cast of Israel's Oscars pick, ‘Let It Be Morning,’ open up about the conflict of sharing a Palestinian story in a country that erases their identity.

By Natalie Alz October 21, 2021

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Palestinian citizens of Israel participated at the main march commemorating Land Day in the village of Deir Hanna, northern Israel, on March 30, 2015. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

WATCH: The Arab youth mainstreaming Palestinian identity in Israel

Today, many young Arab citizens of Israel are no longer afraid of being proud of their Palestinian identity. Yet there is a general sense that the establishment is trying to prevent them from defining their own identity. What happens when Arabs who take pride in their people want to ‘make it’ into the mainstream? The third and final part in a series on Palestinian…

By Rami Younis January 25, 2017

Palestinian citizens take part in a general strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, in the northern town of Sakhnin, on October 13, 2015. (photo: Omar Sameer)

WATCH: Why Arab youth increasingly identify as Palestinian

What makes young Arabs who live in Israel define themselves as Palestinians? How do Israel’s divide-and-conquer policies make it difficult for Palestinian citizens to formulate a unified identity? Part two of Rami Younis and Israel Social TV’s inside look at the changes taking place among Palestinians inside Israel. Watch part one here. Read more: WATCH: ‘Israeli Arab’ or Palestinian? A…

By Rami Younis January 11, 2017

WATCH: ‘Israeli Arab’ or Palestinian?

One in five Israeli citizens are Arab — Muslim, Christian, Druze, Bedouin. A 2014 +972 Magazine poll found that the percentage of Arab citizens of Israel who identify as Palestinian has risen dramatically in recent years. Rami Younis and Israel Social TV explore the changing Palestinian identity politics inside Israel. Stay tuned for the next episodes…

By Rami Younis January 6, 2017

Israelis take part in the annual pride parade in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

No room for Palestinians at Tel Aviv Pride Parade

Until the Israeli LGBTQ community truly begins caring about Palestinian oppression, Palestinian queers will have to keep checking our identity at the door. Fady Khoury (translated by Tal Haran) This past March I took part in a panel as part of Washington D.C.’s Independent Film Festival, where Jake Weisfeld’s new documentary, “Oriented,” was screened. The film, which…

By +972 Magazine June 2, 2016

A road sign for the Israeli settlement of Susya has had the Arabic defaced with spray paint, West Bank, April 6, 2011. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

How Israel erases Arabic from the public landscape

The Israeli government has begun omitting the Arabic name for Jerusalem from its street signs, erasing not only the language from the Israeli consciousness, but Palestinian identity itself. By Umar Al-Ghubari Driving towards Jerusalem on Highway 1, you may notice a relatively new phenomenon taking place on the road signs directing you to the city. Readers…

By Haokets November 22, 2015

Screenshot from the film "Oriented"

Film review: ‘We are Palestine, we’re here and we are queer’

Unlike previous films made about gay Palestinians in Israel, ‘Oriented’ is not about Jewish saviors trying to protect Palestinians from political or social repercussions. Three men in their mid-twenties are gathered at a Tel Aviv apartment, preparing to go out to a dance party at a popular Jaffa bar called Anna Loulou. Speaking in Arabic…

By Lisa Goldman November 7, 2015

Raam-Taal MK Ahmad Tibi (L) and Balad MK Jamal Zahalka (Photo by Activestills.org)

+972 poll: Joint Arab list would raise voter participation

The three Arab lists in the Knesset are expected to run together in response to a raised election threshold. Asked about self-identity, the majority consider themselves Arab, but a growing and significant minority call themselves Palestinian. Nearly 70 percent of Arabs citizens of Israel intend to vote if the three existing Arab parties run on…

By Dahlia Scheindlin December 24, 2014

A Palestinian child sitting in front of a section of the Separation Wall in the refugee camp of Shuafat, East Jerusalem, December 27, 2011. (Photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

‘My best friend was Jewish’: A young East Jerusalemite speaks

I teach writing at a Palestinian university in the West Bank. Several of my students have been gracious enough to share their experiences with +972, albeit anonymously. This is the final installment in the four-part series. With the other pieces, I’ve let the student speak first, only adding my comments at the end. But this…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat June 17, 2014

Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrate against the Prawer-Begin Plan, BeerSheva, May 12, 2013 (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Unafraid: The new generation of Palestinian activists in Israel

For decades, Palestinian citizens of Israel lived in fear of the internal security services. But the new generation of political activists are simply not that impressed by Shin Bet intimidation anymore. By Ala Hlehel / ‘The Hottest Place in Hell‘ (Translated from Hebrew by Dimi Reider) When I was in my second year of university…

By +972 Magazine April 23, 2014

Palestinians march through the streets of Bethlehem to commemorate the Nakba, May 14, 2013. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Remembering the Nakba means understanding this is a shared land

What’s the importance of acknowledging the Nakba? Remembering it is the only way for both Jews and Palestinians to understand that this land is shared. It’s the only way of preventing the system from duplicating the same injustices over and over again. By Muhammad Jabali A friend and I visited Ramallah last Saturday. It was a…

By +972 Magazine May 15, 2013