This month, we are shining FMEP’s spotlight on +972 Magazine, a groundbreaking media platform that brings vital information, nuance and often overlooked voices and perspectives to the forefront of its coverage of developments in and related to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. [For previous partner/grantee spotlights, see here.]
Below you can read about +972 Magazine and listen to our podcast with +972 Magazine’s Executive Director Haggai Matar. If you are as impressed and inspired by +972 Magazine as we are – and are moved to want to join FMEP in supporting +972 Magazine’s work – there are links at the bottom of the page that enable you to do so. You can also learn more about FMEP’s grant philosophy and the amazing organizations that FMEP supports here. And of course, feel free to share all of these resources with friends, family, and colleagues who may be interested!
+972 Magazine: A Ground-Breaking & Principled Media Platform
Established in 2010, +972 Magazine is an independent, online, not-for-profit media platform operating from within Israel-Palestine, owned and run by Israeli and Palestinians living and working in Israel-Palestine. Along with its Hebrew-language companion site, Local Call (co-published by Just Vision, another FMEP grantee) +972 Magazine has become a leading source for journalism — in-depth reporting and analysis — that provides a critically important alternative to mainstream Israeli news outlets. +972 Magazine provides a vital corrective to the way other outlets tend to approach the complex realities of Israel-Palestine.
While mainstream media traditionally offers an exclusively Israeli point-of-view, defined in a narrow, military-security perspective, +972 Magazine’s journalists work from a different journalistic and analytic framework.
+972 Magazine produces substantive, original, and timely on-the-ground investigation and reporting grounded in the centrality of democracy, human rights, and justice. +972’s approach prioritizes the experiences and perspectives of communities which are often ignored in mainstream news, including Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Palestinian citizens of Israel, including especially overlooked groups like Israel’s Bedouin Palestinian citizens . +972 Magazine’s coverage challenges and expands the public debate around issues of occupation and illiberalism in Israel.
For more about +972 Magazine, listen to Lara Friedman’s interview with +972 Magazine’s Executive Director Haggai Matar:
+972 Magazine’s groundbreaking coverage of events has proven to have significant influence on how mainstream news outlets cover events in Israel. For example, +972 Magazine’s journalists were the first to engage the organizers and protestors leading the Great March of Return, a movement that emerged in Gaza to protest Israeli policies and advocate for the right of return of Palestinian refugees. While mainstream Israeli outlets focused on the Israeli government’s security analysis of events, +972 Magazine brought into the national consciousness stories that humanized Palestinian protesters, allowed them to explain their motivations, and shed light on their perception of ongoing events (including large numbers of Palestinians killed and injured by the Israeli military’s response). +972 Magazine’s coverage of the events – and the attention it earned domestically and internationally – prompted larger outlets to start covering a broader range of stories related to the protests.
In 2019, +972 Magazine launched a podcast series, providing a platform for in-depth conversations about major news items, inspiring stories, and larger policy debates happening within Israeli society. True to +972 Magazine’s mission, the podcast highlights voices and experiences from often marginalized communities, and approaches its coverage from a framework dedicated to exposing the power imbalance between Israel and the Palestinians. Some examples:
- “Deciding the fate of Palestinians — without Palestinians”
- “Suffering in Gaza isn’t a humanitarian issue, it’s an Israeli political decision”
- “The Palestinian musician shattering taboos”
- “Does Kahanism expose what Israel tries to hide?”
Learn more about +972 Magazine & follow its work:
Website: https://972mag.com/ (English); https://mekomit.co.il/ (Hebrew)
Podcast: https://www.972mag.com/topic/podcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/972magazine
Twitter: @972mag
Subscribe: Click here to sign up to receive +972’s Weekly Newsletter
Click here to join FMEP in supporting the work of +972 Magazine, by making a charitable contribution today.