NEW FROM FMEP
Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and White Nationalism (New Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with analyst Ben Lorber about the definition of antisemitism today and how it compares to Islamophobia as well as the dynamics around finding common cause with white nationalists.
Abraham Discords — Normalization and Instability (New Occupied Thoughts episode)
FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Matt Duss and Zuri Linetsky about the destabilizing nature of the Abraham Accords; the evolution of the security dilemma and how integration may drive destabilization by fostering aggressive behavior; and whether the Abraham Accords undermined the reinstatement of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the Iran nuclear deal) by the Biden Administration.
FMEP Legislative Round-Up May 15, 2026 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. Letters; 3. Hearings & Markups; 4. Selected Members on the Record; 5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements And keep your eye out for Lara Friedman’s newest FMEP Legislative Round-Up on May 22, 2026
GLOBAL/REGION
Trump says Netanyahu will ‘do whatever I want’ on Iran after pair said to hold tense call (TOI 5/20/26)
“US President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will do “whatever I want” when it comes to a potential military strike on Iran, in remarks made a day after the pair reportedly held a tense call on the subject…Netanyahu is seen as supportive of resuming the war against Iran, as he has argued that war aims pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, along with its support for proxies, are still unmet.” See also New Iran peace proposal triggers tense Trump-Netanyahu call (Barak Ravid//Axios 5/20/26); ran revises proposal as Trump ramps up warnings (Al Monitor 5/18/26); Trump threatens ‘a big hit’ if Tehran does not make deal soon (The Guardian 5/19/26); US used more advanced interceptors defending Israel from Iran missiles than IDF did — report (TOI 5/21/26); Iran said recovering military abilities faster than expected, producing drones again (TOI 5/21/26);
Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill at least 19 as clashes with Hezbollah continue despite ceasefire (The Guardian 5/19/26)
“Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed at least 19 people, including four women and three children, Lebanon’s health ministry said, the latest in near-daily attacks from both sides that have not stopped despite a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire…The latest deaths came a day after the death toll in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah surpassed 3,000, and two days after the US-brokered truce that has been in place since 17 April, was extended for 45 days. Israel has since invaded southern Lebanon and bombarded its capital, Beirut, and other areas, saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. Hezbollah, both a militant group and a powerful political organisation in Lebanon, has resisted pressure to disarm, including by the Lebanese government. More than a million people have been displaced in Lebanon by the fighting, with some sheltering in tents along roads and the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut. Israel, meanwhile, has struggled to halt frequent Hezbollah drone attacks targeting its troops on Lebanese soil and northern Israeli border towns.” See also Lebanese Mourn Eight Members of One Family Killed in Israeli Strike (NYT 5/10/26); Israeli strikes kill six in southern Lebanon hours after extension of ceasefire (The Guardian 5/16/26); Shaky truce between Israel and Lebanon extended for 45 days, US says (The Guardian 5/15/26); How Hezbollah’s $300 drones are challenging Israeli military (The Guardian 5/12/26);
Early War Goal Was to Install Hard-Line Former President as Iran’s Leader (NYT 5/19/26)
“It turns out that the United States and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and very surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views. But the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it. Mr. Ahmadinejad was injured on the war’s first day by an Israeli strike at his home in Tehran that had been designed to free him from house arrest, the American officials and an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad said. He survived the strike, they said, but after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan. He has not been seen publicly since then and his current whereabouts and condition are unknown.” See also US and Israel ‘hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader’ (The Guardian 5/20/26); Iran Threatens to Strike Beyond the Middle East if the U.S. Resumes Attacks (NYT 5/20/26); Benjamin Netanyahu says he made secret trip to UAE at height of Iran war (The Guardian 5/13/26);
Israeli security minister stirs diplomatic outrage with flotilla activist abuse video (Guardian 5/20/26)
“Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has sparked a diplomatic crisis by publishing footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists who were detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid. Three activists were taken to hospital as result of Israeli violence, lawyers representing the group said. They were subsequently discharged. Dozens of others have suspected broken ribs, resulting in breathing problems. “The team reports systemic violations of due process, and widespread physical and psychological abuse by Israeli authorities,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement. There were “a large number of complaints of extreme violence”. Ben-Gvir’s video drew a rapid and furious response from countries whose citizens were onboard the boats, including the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in many cases from the top of government.” See also Israel deports foreign Gaza-bound flotilla activists after global outcry (The Guardian 5/21/26); Gaza Flotilla Activists Testify to Physical Abuse in Israeli Detention, Israeli Rights Group Says (Haaretz 5/21/26);
US puts pressure on Palestinian leaders to withdraw bid for UN vice-presidency role (The Guardian 5/20/26)
“The US has ordered its Jerusalem embassy to press the Palestinian leadership into dropping a bid for a senior position at the UN general assembly, anxious that the role could allow Palestinians to chair high-profile debates on the Middle East.” See also Aging Palestinian Leader Boosting His Son’s Political Rise, Officials Say (NYT 5/15/26);
‘Disposable’ operatives for hire are a new menace for western countries (The Guardian 5/18/26)
“When on Friday a 32-year-old Iraqi was brought before a court in New York to be charged with planning to attack Jewish community sites in the US, a curtain was suddenly lifted on a corner of a shadowy world. The detention of Mohammed Saad Baqer al-Saadi in Turkey last week revealed rare details of Iran’s efforts to use terrorism to sow discord among communities in Europe, the UK and the US – but also the outlines of an uncertain and threatening future. Al-Saadi is a senior commander of the Baghdad-based Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful militia with close links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He is accused of being connected to 18 separate attacks including firebombings of synagogues and community centres in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Among them also is the stabbing in Golders Green, which left two Jewish men badly injured last month.”
EU announces sanctions against violent Israeli settlers (The Guardian 5/11/26)
“The EU has agreed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, ending a years-long deadlock over the issue but still taking only a “baby step” according to one MEP…The full list of names has not been published following Monday’s agreement in principle but is understood not to include two extremist Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The pair were put under UK sanctions last June for their “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities”. The deadlock was broken after Hungary’s new pro-EU government lifted its veto on the sanctions, which had been blocked by the previous prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The EU would also sanction leading Hamas figures, Kallas said.”
Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State (Murtaza Hussain//Drop Site 5/14/26)
“A new set of leaked documents—provided to Drop Site by whistleblowers disturbed by the company’s operations in Israel—shows Cisco’s deep and growing collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence establishment in its regional wars and the genocide in Gaza…Cisco’s work with the Israeli government and military has been documented in public news reports and new business announcements in the country. But the internal documents—including presentations, purchase and revenue records, and schedules—shed light on the rapidly expanding list of services that Cisco has been providing directly to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and other branches of the security state over the past several years.” See also Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military (The Guardian 5/12/26); Demand soars for Israel’s weapons tech, even among countries claiming to boycott Jewish state (TOI 5/21/26);
Sally Rooney to publish Hebrew translation of novel with BDS-compliant publisher (Alice Speri//The Guardian 5/19/26)
“The Irish novelist Sally Rooney is releasing a Hebrew translation of her latest novel more than four years after she turned down a translation of an earlier novel, citing her support for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Rooney is publishing her bestselling 2024 novel, Intermezzo, through November Books, an independent Israeli publisher that supports Palestinian rights, with +972 Magazine and Local Call, two independent media outlets in Israel and Palestine.”
GAZA
Inside Israel’s High-Tech Campaign to Kill or Capture Every Oct. 7 Attacker (WSJ 5/20/26)
“The men were crossed off a list of thousands of names kept by an Israeli task force created for one job – to kill or capture all who planned or joined in the Oct. 7 attack, said current and former Israeli officials. Hundreds have been struck from the list, in one of the most personal and highly technical targeting campaigns in the history of warfare. The campaign continues amid the demands of the war with Iran and a cease-fire agreement in Gaza. No participant is deemed too insignificant – down to the man who drove a tractor through a border fence that day…The campaign spans the rank-and-file to Hamas’s top leaders…Security forces mark men for death without trial if they find at least two pieces of evidence showing they took part in crimes during the Oct. 7 attacks, according to current and former Israeli security officials. Agents from military intelligence and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, pore over militants’ videos posted on social media, those officials said. Agents run the images through facial recognition programs to sift for names, the officials said, and comb through intercepted phone calls. They view location data from cell tower logs and interrogate Gazan detainees to uncover who did what.” See also Hamas’s Top Leader in Gaza Is Killed in Israeli Strike (NYT 5/15/26);
‘The door to the future of Gaza is still closed’: Trump’s reconstruction promises stall (The Guardian 5/20/26)
“Gaza is in a grim limbo more than seven months after Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire deal: no reconstruction is under way, the so-called Board of Peace is struggling with funding and Palestinian technocrats chosen to run the strip are sidelined in Egypt…Several countries that initially pledged funds to the Board of Peace (BoP) are now reluctant to pay, after months of stalled diplomacy and no progress on the ground, according to five people familiar with the organisation. “Nobody with money and resources wants to work with the Board of Peace,” said a third person familiar with the group’s efforts, who, like others critical of the initiative, asked to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Lump on the conflict with Iran, and the people with deep pockets now have an excuse not to pay.” Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat tasked with delivering the US president’s vision as “high representative” for Gaza admitted last week that Palestinians in Gaza had been let down by the world.” See also U.S. wants to start implementing Gaza plan in areas outside Hamas control (Axios 5/13/26); The Gaza Peace Plan Has Gone Nowhere (Isaac Chotiner//New Yorker 5/19/26); Board of Peace envoy urges UNSC ‘to use every means at its disposal’ to disarm Hamas (TOI 5/21/26);
‘As doctors, we are effectively blinded’: Inside Gaza’s MRI crisis (Jinin Rummaneh//+972 Magazine 5/14/26)
“Over the course of the genocide, over 1,500 medical staff have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and hundreds of others arrested and held in Israeli prisons. But another, quieter form of destruction has made Gazan hospitals incapable of treating many of their patients: there are still no functioning MRI machines in the Strip, crucial tools for diagnosing hundreds of diseases, from cancers to strokes and epilepsy.” See also With No Equipment Allowed Into Gaza, Palestinians Are Digging With Their Hands to Retrieve the Dead (Drop Site 5/15/26); ‘It fails under testing, but it’s what we have’: ban forces Palestinians to make their own cement from rubble (The Guardian 5/18/26);
Israel’s death penalty drive enters next stage with Oct. 7 military tribunal (Sari Bashi//+972 Magazine 5/21/26)
“Last week, the Israeli Knesset continued its campaign to resurrect the death penalty in Israeli courts — for Palestinians only. On May 11, lawmakers from across the Zionist political spectrum joined forces to pass a bill creating a special military court, whose purpose will be to try those accused of participating in the October 7 attacks in southern Israel and the ensuing hostage-taking. Under the new law, military-appointed judges will be authorized to sentence defendants to death by hanging, and to deviate from procedural protections and evidentiary rules in order to expedite the trials, some of which may be broadcast to the public. In short, the law’s passage threatens to fast-track show trials and lead to executions of potentially hundreds of Palestinian defendants, based on confessions extracted through torture that runs rampant in Israeli detention.” See also Israeli MPs back special tribunal with death penalty powers for alleged 7 October attackers (The Guardian 5/12/26)
RIVER TO THE SEA
The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians (Nicholas Kristof//NYT 5/11/26)
“And yet in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards. There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes. But in recent years they have built a security apparatus where sexual violence has become, as a United Nations report put it last year, one of Israel’s “standard operating procedures” and “a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians…It’s impossible to know how common sexual assaults against Palestinians are. My reporting for this article is based on conversations with 14 men and women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. I also spoke to family members, investigators, officials and others…Save the Children commissioned a survey last year of children ages 12 to 17 who had been in Israeli detention; more than half reported witnessing or experiencing sexual violence. Save the Children said that the true figure was probably higher because stigma left some unwilling to acknowledge what had happened to them. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a respected American organization, surveyed 59 Palestinian journalists who had been released by Israeli authorities after the Oct. 7 attacks. Three percent said they had been raped, and 29 percent said they had endured other forms of sexual violence.” See also Your Questions About Nicholas Kristof’s Column on Palestinians and Sexual Assault (NYT 5/21/26); Israel’s Netanyahu suing New York Times over column on Palestinian rape (Al Monitor 5/14/26); The backlash to revelations of sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners aims to raise the cost of speaking out (Yuli Novak//The Guardian 5/14/26);
Smotrich says ICC prosecutor has requested warrant for his arrest; orders demolition of West Bank hamlet (TOI 5/19/26)
“Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday that the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court in The Hague has requested an arrest warrant be issued against him. “Yesterday, I was informed that the criminal prosecutor of the antisemitic court in The Hague submitted a request for a secret, international arrest warrant against me,” Smotrich said at a press conference he held to announce the development, and described the move as “a declaration of war.”…In what he said was a response to the move, Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry with authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank, announced at his press conference that he was ordering the demolition of the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin village east of Jerusalem, which the international community has long sought to protect from removal by Israel.” See also ICC Prosecutor Seeks Warrants for Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Other Israeli Officials (Haaretz 5/17/26); Strangle, Expel, Collapse: The Smotrich Doctrine for Bringing Down the Palestinian Authority (Amira Hass//Haaretz 5/18/26)
The Numbers Behind the ‘Sacred Work’ of Cleansing West Bank Palestinians for Future Jewish Villas (Amira Hass//Haaretz 5/20/26)
“5,375 – that’s the number of attacks Jewish Israeli civilians committed in the West Bank between the start of 2023 and just over a week ago. These are attacks that ended in dead and wounded Palestinians and/or thefts of sheep and damage to animals, plants, property and livelihood. They don’t include the times when these ambassadors of hatred and supremacy merely engaged in intimidation and provocation, without killing, stealing, torching homes, cutting down trees or trampling over fields…Nor does the data include the tens of thousands of official raids on Palestinian communities that the army carried out nightly throughout this period as part of its routine task to bolster our foreign rule and the expansion of settlements and to make Palestinians’ lives ever harder…Almost 6,000 Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes under pressure of the incessant attacks and harassment. Since January 2023, entire families have packed up their few portable belongings and left the areas where they grew up, places in which they invested their labor, their plans and their hopes. Around a third of them – almost 2,000 people, including 900 children – have been forced to leave in just the past four and a half months. A full 45 communities have been abandoned and dismantled entirely, including nine just since the start of this year…And all the numbers are rising.” See also Biological terrorism runs rampant in Masafer Yatta (Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini//Vashti Media 5/20/26); Is Anyone in the West Bank Settlement of Carmel Willing to Say ‘Enough’? (Michael Sfard//Haaretz 5/20/26); In the Palestinian Village Where a Man Was Buried Twice in a Day, Residents Are Still Stunned (Gideon Levy & Alex Levac//Haaretz 5/16/26); They Fled to Safety in Palestinian Territory, Then Settlers Attacked Again (NYT 5/16/26); ‘It’s like stealing’: Palestinian family’s seized property listed on Booking.com (The Guardian 5/14/26)
In first, Israel convicts Palestinian citizens for chanting slogans (Baker Zoubi//+972 Magazine 5/20/26)
“Over the past two and a half years, Palestinian citizens of Israel have seen their political and civic rights — already limited before October 7 — dramatically constricted. They have been arrested for social media posts, publicly humiliated by state officials, persecuted in their workplaces and universities for expressing political opinions, and held without charge in administrative detention. Long subjected to discrimination under Israeli law, Palestinians citizens witnessed the state take advantage of the Gaza war to pass 30 new bills entrenching apartheid and Jewish supremacy. Now, a new threshold has been crossed: For the first time, Palestinians inside Israel have been criminally convicted for chanting political slogans at a protest. On April 29, the Haifa Magistrate’s Court convicted 31-year-old activist Mohammad Taher Jabareen and 42-year-old attorney Ahmad Khalifa of “indirect incitement to terrorism” and “identification with a terrorist organization,” charges that carry a combined maximum sentence of eight years in prison…During the hearings, both the police and the state acknowledged that the slogans themselves contained no reference to Hamas or other banned organizations, an offense which is indeed illegal under Section 24 of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law. Nevertheless, the court adopted the prosecution’s interpretation of the slogans’ meaning, without specifying in its ruling which “terrorist organization” the alleged offense of “identification” supposedly referred to.”
Israeli Report Alleges ‘Systematic’ Hamas Sexual Violence During Oct. 7 Attack, Gaza Captivity (Haaretz 5/12/26)
“A report published Tuesday by an Israeli civil investigation committee found that sexual and gender-based violence committed by Hamas and its collaborators during the October 7 attack was “systematic, widespread and integral” to both the assault itself and its aftermath…According to the report, the recurring nature of the violence showed that the acts were not “isolated acts of brutality, but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath.” It says that sexual and gender-based violence formed “a central component of the October 7th attack and of hostages’ captivity,” and was used to intimidate, punish and terrorize victims, families and communities.”
Israel approves new defense complex at former UNRWA East Jerusalem headquarters (TOI 5/17/26)
“The government approves plans to establish a new IDF museum, enlistment office and an office for the defense minister at the site of UNRWA’s former headquarters near Ammunition Hill in East Jerusalem…Defense Minister Israel Katz says the move is “a decision of sovereignty, Zionism and security,” arguing there is “nothing more symbolic or just” than establishing defense institutions “on the ruins of the UNRWA compound,” which he accuses of being tied to Hamas terror activity.” See also Israeli nationalists chant ‘death to Arabs’ in violent Jerusalem Day march (The Guardian 5/14/26); Palestinians forced to demolish own homes to make way for Israeli theme park (Guardian 5/16/26); Backed by North American Dollars, A Yeshiva Could Push Palestinians Out of Sheikh Jarrah (Charlotte Ritz-Jack//Jewish Currents 5/19/26); At Jerusalem’s Flag March, Ben Gvir’s Israel was on full display (+972 Magazine 5/15/26);
U.S. SCENE
Thomas Massie Loses His Seat in a Win for Trump — and AIPAC (The Intercept 5/19/26)
“AIPAC’s super political action committee and two other groups backed by pro-Israel donors poured more than $15.8 million into the race either opposing Massie or supporting his opponent, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, according to Federal Election Commission reports released through Tuesday. That blizzard of cash may not have been as important for Republican primary voters as Trump’s hatred of Massie. Still, it helped make the 4th Congressional District race the most expensive House primary in history, with overall spending reaching $32 million, topping the 2024 New York Democratic primary in which AIPAC’s super PAC aided Westchester County Executive George Latimer in ousting then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Massie had framed the race in terms that led to accusations of antisemitism, calling it “a referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress.” He denied the charge and repeated similar language in his concession speech Tuesday night. “For 14 years, those S.O.B.s in Washington tried to buy my vote,” Massie said. “Why did the race get so expensive? Because they decided to buy the seat.”’ See also Pennsylvania Results: Chris Rabb to Join the Squad in Congress as Bob Brooks Tries to Flip Key Seat (The Intercept 5/19/26); Who’s Spending in Your Congressional Election? We Tracked the Front Groups Fueling the 2026 Midterms. (The Intercept 5/18/26);
Israel, Gaza Absent From Long-awaited DNC Report on 2024 Presidential Election (Haaretz 5/21/26)
“The Democratic National Committee released a long-awaited internal “autopsy” into the results of the 2024 presidential election – a report that did not include a single mention of Israel, Gaza or the Palestinians, despite speculation that such issues led to both Kamala Harris’ defeat and the failure to release the report.”
A Test Run for the Anti-AIPAC Super PAC (Alex Kane//Jewish Currents 5/14/26)
“In the Democratic primary for an open Congressional seat in central New Jersey, a deep-pocketed super PAC focused on Middle East politics is in the midst of dumping $2 million on its favored candidate. Sounds like AIPAC. But in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, it’s a pro-Palestine super PAC called American Priorities that has spent around $700,000 in the past month on TV advertisements extolling the candidacy of Adam Hamawy, a surgeon and US army veteran running on a platform of ending all US aid and weapons sales to Israel. The 30-second TV ad paid for by the super PAC highlights the candidate’s military service in Iraq—and his medical work in Gaza. American Priorities plans to spend another $1.3 million before the June 2nd Democratic primary in the ultra-blue district. It’s a test case for whether the left can lift the AIPAC playbook for themselves, pouring money into packed Democratic congressional primaries to elect their own candidate.”
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive (The Guardian 5/14/26)
“Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in 10-month Unrwa operation…The significance of the Unrwa archives, much of which detailed Palestinians’ experiences as they fled or were forced from their homes during the wars that led to the foundation of Israel in 1948, was clear. “Their destruction would have been catastrophic … If there is ever a just and durable solution to this conflict, then this is the only evidence people can use to show there were once Palestinians living in a particular place,” said Roger Hearn, a senior Unrwa official who oversaw the operation…With almost 30m documents now digitised, Unrwa aims to be able to provide every Palestinian refugee with their family tree and all supporting documents, as well as to build maps showing patterns of displacement in 1948. The archives will also provide a better understanding of the much-disputed events around the expulsion and flight of about 750,000 Palestinians at that time.”
They Were Children During the Nakba. This Is What They Remember 78 Years Later (Nagham Zbeedat//Haaretz 5/19/26)
“When we were children, my grandfather would sit in his wooden rocking chair and tell us stories about surviving the Nakba. He was 10 years old in 1948, growing up in Ilut, a small Palestinian village near Nazareth. Some stories he repeated often – fleeing to Nazareth, hunger, fear, sleeping away from home. Other stories came out in fragments over the years: the arrest of the men in his family, the waiting, the bodies left behind. On July 16, 1948, soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion arrested his father, his uncle and several of the young men in the family. They were later shot and left on the ground. His mother buried her husband, her brother and her sons herself, using handfuls of soil to cover their bodies so stray dogs would not eat them…For Palestinians, the Nakba did not end in 1948. It continues through displacement, military occupation, siege, land confiscation, home demolitions, exile, imprisonment and killing across historic Palestine. Even as I collected testimonies for this project, Palestinians in Gaza were once again living through mass displacement, starvation and the destruction of entire communities. Many survivors interviewed for this project spoke about Gaza today as they shared their memories from 1948. Some cried recalling scenes they said resembled what they experienced as children. Again and again, the same sentence returned: “The Nakba is still ongoing.”’
Criminal Governance (Jewish Currents 5/15/26)
“Political scientist As’ad Ghanem argues that the rise of crime in Palestinian communities inside Israel is not a policy failure, but the result of decades of state efforts to weaken Palestinian collective life.”
Sally Rooney on a new Hebrew translation of Intermezzo: ‘The Israeli culture sector is complicit in apartheid’ (Sally Rooney and Samir Eskanda//The Guardian 5/19/26)
“The publisher November Books approached my agent with a proposal to translate one of my novels into Hebrew. Because the team at November is based in Israel, they were careful to explain how the publication would meet the requirements of the cultural boycott. For instance, November Books does not operate in illegal Israeli settlements, receives no state funding and explicitly recognises the international legal rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return. I also kept in touch with PACBI along the way to try to ensure that I was upholding both the letter and the spirit of the institutional boycott.”
We’re publishing Sally Rooney in Hebrew, in line with BDS. Here’s how and why (Haggai Matar//+972 Magazine 5/19/26)
“Next month, we will be publishing Rooney’s latest novel, “Intermezzo,” in Hebrew, in a way that honors the principles of the boycott and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian demand for freedom, equality, and justice…We wanted this project to bring the BDS guidelines into greater clarity, and to strengthen the movement at a time when it is both expanding exponentially and being subjected to considerable repression. It also offers an opportunity to rectify false impressions — often propagated in bad faith — that the Israeli public and others have formed about the boycott movement: that it is hostile, violent, and antisemitic…Now that we have shown it is possible, I hope other authors and publishers will be able to follow the same path, in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Personally, as an Israeli committed to justice and liberation for Palestinians and peace for all in this land, I believe we Israelis have a deep interest in seeing the non-violent tools of the Palestinian struggle, such as the BDS initiative, receive support and achieve real success. Israelis must listen to what international public figures who boycott — like Sally Rooney, Naomi Klein, J.M. Coetzee, Omar El-Akkad, and others — are telling us, and not simply dismiss them as antisemitic, as so many do. It is the role of Israelis, as the nation oppressing Palestinians for decades, to transform the growing international support for the boycott into meaningful action against genocide and apartheid, in order to guarantee a better, more just future for Palestinians and for ourselves.” See also Israeli Crowdfunder Removes Campaign for Sally Rooney Hebrew Translation Over West Bank Boycott Clause (Haaretz 5/21/26);
Reviving Gaza’s cultural scene from beneath the rubble (Ruwaida Amer//+972 Magazine 5/15/26)
“During the first two years of Israel’s genocidal war, nearly all of Gaza’s cultural centers and institutions were destroyed, and at least 150 of its leading cultural figures were killed. In recent months, despite the fragility of the so-called ceasefire, several initiatives have begun to emerge to revive the Strip’s once-thriving literary and arts scene. Among them is the Phoenix Library, which opened in late April after its founders raised more than $100,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to renovate a surviving building in central Gaza City. Founded by two friends, Omar Hamad and Ibrahim Al-Masri, Gaza’s newest library, aims to salvage what remains of the Strip’s literary life from beneath the rubble.”
A Future Beyond Israeli Genocide in Palestine (Sonia Boulos & Raz Segal//Jacboin 5/10/26)
“It is difficult to imagine a future in the region beyond this horrific reality without the Israeli state, supported by a large majority of its Jewish citizens, facing accountability. Accountability demands centering the experiences and knowledge of Palestinians confronting Israeli elimination, yet the Jewish supremacy and anti-Palestinian racism that fuel the genocide also drive the silencing of Palestinians and their activism to end it. The result is that mostly Jewish voices critical of Israel manage to gain attention through the cracks of this censorship and suppression, though they offer little in the way of thinking about accountability…Given this qualified recognition of the genocide in Gaza, marked by the absence of any call for legal accountability and a political vision capable of comprehensively addressing the ongoing harms of the Nakba, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the outrage expressed by Bartov and other liberals over what Israel has become is not, in fact, centered on Palestinians. Rather, it remains an effort to salvage Israel, within a Jewish supremacist framework, from what liberal Zionists, however they call themselves, view as a self‑destructive course.”
Even if You Call Israel a Democracy, It Is Still Apartheid (Yuli Novak//Haaretz 5/19/26)
“A political system that treats the preservation of one ethnonational group’s majority as a legitimate political goal is not a democracy. It is a system of demographic engineering, designed to maintain one group’s supremacy at the expense of another that is denied basic rights. Calling it “democracy” does not change what it is: apartheid…Continuing to promote a “clean” and “liberal” apartheid will not repair the destruction that we have inflicted on this land and its people. The first step in the struggle for change is to stop calling separation and supremacy “democracy” and to demand a future that begins by seeing human beings before anything else.”
‘How do you curate a genocide?’ (Oren Ziv//+972 Magazine 5/21/26)
“Marred by protests over Israel’s inclusion, the Venice Biennale is hosting an exhibit with 100 works of Palestinian embroidery based on harrowing images from Gaza. Curator Faisal Saleh discusses how it came to life.“
The Man Who Explains Israel to John Fetterman (New York Magazine 5/21/26)
“And then there’s Senator John Fetterman. While the rest of his party reluctantly retreats from an ironclad allyship, the Pennsylvania senator has promised to be the “last” Democrat standing with Israel. His political identity is increasingly defined by a blanket defense of the country…Behind the scenes, Fetterman is being encouraged and counseled by a little-known man in his late 30s named David “Dovi” Safier.” See also Netanyahu’s Popularity at Its Lowest Ever Among U.S. Jews, Poll Finds (Haaretz 5/21/26); Jewish Investors Network presses PayPal to provide payments in Palestine (ImpactAlpha 5/12/26)
A Palestinian photographer’s ‘search for what remained’ from 1948 (Yahel Gazit//+972 Magazine 5/12/26)
“When Nablus-based journalist Ahmad Al-Bazz received an Israeli travel permit, he rushed to visit nearly 200 villages depopulated in the Nakba. Five years later, his new book offers a powerful visual archive of erasure.”