Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A ‘Local Call’ poll shows a broad range of areas where Jews and Arabs see the benefits of cooperation. But that doesn’t mean Jewish Israelis are ready to let Arabs hold positions of power, namely joining the government. The surprising bit: most Arabs would support their parties joining an Israeli government.

April 9, 2019, is the date set for elections to State of Israel’s 21st Knesset. These elections are important and challenging from many aspects, but this article will focus mainly on the perspective of the Arab minority within the Israeli citizenry. This group constitutes approximately one fifth of the state’s citizens and approximately 16.5% of eligible voters.

Israel’s prime minister is fighting hard to weaken the most important moderate force in his country. Which is why he’s going to be a big problem for the next U.S. president. 

In the past few weeks Israelis and Palestinians are facing increased violence. What are the reasons behind this new round of escalation? Have a look at the short movie from our latest discussion.  

Those convinced that Israel should not have been created in the first place, are entitled to their opinion. They must come clean about seeking a post-Israel endgame. An essay by Prof. Dan Rabinowitz

Dr. Sarai Aharoni discusses the exceptional status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which is one of the longstanding issues on the UN agenda) as one of the intriguing puzzles of current global feminist politics. Could it be that the situation of Palestinian women and girls under Israeli occupation is the most extreme breach of the Beijing Platform of Action? (From the HBS Gunda-Werner-Institute)

Over 200,000 people with no legal status live in Israel today. There are another 4 million in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All of these people are directly affected by Israeli elections but they have not right to vote. This is what they have to say — about the Right and the Left, the ‘demographic threat,’ peace, war, democracy and dictatorship (+972 Magazine).  

The ‘Zionist Camp’ needs the Arab parties in order to form a government. Its decision to vote for disqualifying Zoabi makes that support less and less likely (+972 Magazine).

Stav Shafir, the youngest Member of Knesset, scored a major political achievement last week, coming in second at the Labor Party primary elections. While many newly elected MKs tend to fade into the back rows of the opposition, Shafir, elected at age 27, has shined. (History Central) The following Interview does not formally represent an official endorsement or view of The Heinrich Böll Foundation Israel.

Security makes a comeback in peace. If the generals avoid mistakes of the past and put action behind words, they could have an impact.

For those on the left, simply beginning an operation without definite political objectives, and the terrible price paid for that decision with the lives of civilians and soldiers on both sides, was bad enough, particularly when accompanied by the loss of a window of opportunity for an Israeli peace initiative with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel must have mechanisms to guarantee its security and to ensure that Gaza will not rearm itself for the next war.

The most recent round of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has paused. Each side has experienced the period in a profoundly different way, and future policies that may even deepen the animosity. Read some of the main observations, questions, and speculations from our partners at +972 magazine.  

The Israeli branch of HBS, with its headquarters in Berlin and its self-definition as “an intellectually open, civic organization”, is currently running a series of events under the title “Jerusalem Talks”. The aim of these events is to foster discussion about different perspectives on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and their relationship with Europe, especially Germany. This particular event – the second in the series – took the role of the media during war time as its primary focus. This article was first published on the blog of the Palestine-Israel Journal website  

“We can only imagine how government ministers would give official statements saying that instead of investing in war, investments will be made to promote joint ventures of social welfare, education, environment and many more”. Heinrich Boell Foundation’s partner Itach Maaki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice has been working to promote such a vision for the past years.  Adv. Anat Thon Ashkenazi analyses how UNSCR 1325 on Women Peace and Security is relevant to the current situation in Palestine and Israel. 

+972 Magazine (972mag.com) is a blog-based web magazine that is jointly owned and operated by a group of journalists, analysts and bloggers, based primarily in Israel and Palestine. Their goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and analysis of events in the region. After 3 years of operation, +972 Magazine has emerged as one of the most important English-language platform for progressive writing from Israel/Palestine. The Heinrich Boell Foundation has partnered with +972 Magazine ever since its inception, in support of freedom of though and speech in Israel. Following is an article first published in +972mag.

On June 20, 2013, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Israel, the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue held the conference 20 Years since the Oslo Accords - Success and/or Failure?. In advance of a comprehensive publication of contributions, we are pleased to present this analysis by Dr. Ephraim Lavie on the early foundation of obstacles in the Oslo negotiation process.

In the aftermath of the 1948 war, a significant number of Arab-Palestinians found themselves within the borders of the newly established State of Israel.  They are a homeland minority within a State whose declared identity they do not share and, while they hold Israeli citizenship, they hold a distinct national identity.