israel/palestine

Media Fail to Note Christian Zionist Operative Who Organized Congressional Visit to West Bank

Ben Lorber — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 04:05:16 EDT

Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, the third-highest ranking US official, visited the Israeli settlement of Ariel, deep in the occupied West Bank, to pledge support for full Israeli annexation of the occupied territories. Johnson visited Ariel along with 15 US…

Israel Beats American Labor Organizer Chris Smalls (and Only Chris Smalls) in Latest Attempt to Keep Starving Gaza

Mary Rambaran-Olm — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 03:46:19 EDT

Christian Smalls, a Black labor organizer who took on Amazon and won, just risked his life trying to bring aid to Gaza. He was not met with headlines but with fists. https://youtu.be/cS9ppIkPJJI Smalls joined the Freedom Flotilla on the Handala…

Bad Muslim, Good Candidate? Mamdani’s Campaign Disrupts ‘Electability’ of Islamophobia

Megan Goodwin — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 04:56:51 EDT

Against all odds and the will of billionaires and establishment Democrats, Zohran Mamdani is the 2025 Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. The New York Times (about which the less said the better) reported that only one out…

For Times Such as These: Sacred Time and Radical Community Building in the Diaspora

Shane Burley — Fri, 23 May 2025 01:52:16 EDT

While Jewish history is so often recounted as a linear pathway — usually pointing toward and ending with the creation of the State of Israel — it’s easy to forget that it’s a tradition of cycles. The Torah is read…

What The Roman Catholic Church needs is a wholesale reset, not a new Pope

Mary Hunt — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:35:59 EDT

The death of Pope Francis, after a very public diminishment, closes a signal chapter in Catholic history with absolutely no certainty about who or what comes next. Rather than reflexively corralling the cardinals into a Conclave to elect his successor…

Once Again the ADL Antisemitism Audit Overreaches — Including an Embarrassing Failure to Recognize a Jewish Ritual

Ben Lorber — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 07:24:05 EDT

This week, the ADL released its annual audit of antisemitic incidents. Predictably, the organization repeated its familiar mantra that the Palestine solidarity movement was the chief culprit behind a precipitous, record-shattering rise in antisemitic incidents in 2024. While it’s encouraging…

Francis, the Roman Catholic Church's First Latin American Pope, Leaves Behind a Complicated Legacy

Megan Goodwin — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 03:47:49 EDT

As you probably know by now, Pope Francis has died. (Mere hours after meeting with—how is this real life—US Vice President James Donald Bowman, aka James David Hamel, who prefers to be called JD Vance .) We’ll be offering more…

Why Did Trump Just Tell Reporters that Chuck Schumer 'Is Not Jewish Anymore,' That He 'Has Become a Palestinian'?

Ben Lorber — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 05:17:15 EDT

At a press conference today responding to a question about the possibility of Democratic support for the Republican-written spending bill, Trump said of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer : Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I am concerned. He…

Peter Beinart's 'Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza' Expertly Dismantles Pro-Israel Propaganda — But Does it Adequately Reckon with the Genocide?

Brant Rosen — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 02:58:58 EST

The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. Responding to the current moment, Beinart has written nothing short of a spiritual manifesto for the future of…

Trump's EO to 'Combat Antisemitism' Wields Jewish Safety as a Weapon to Crush Palestine Solidarity

Ben Lorber — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 02:45:19 EST

Last week, Trump released an executive order pledging to combat antisemitism by ordering a draconian crackdown on Palestine solidarity protests. That same day, reporters leaked a memo from an agency within Pete Hegseth ’s Department of Defense ordering personnel to…

Trump's Fervent Christian Zionists Poised to Lead the Military — And US-Israel Relations

Ben Lorber — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 04:57:06 EST

With Trump’s second presidency, Christian Zionism may be returning to the White House stronger than ever before. His recent nomination of Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense mean that militant, hardline Christian…

The ADL is Correct that Antisemitism is Rising — But the Main (and Most Dangerous) Source Isn't the Left, It's Always Been the Right

Shane Burley — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 06:50:39 EST

When the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Antisemitism Audit was released in April, its claim of a 140% rise in antisemitic incidents in 2023 seemed like old news. Following the October 7th Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, news reports…

Is 'Western Self-Hatred' the Problem in the Gaza War Protest Movement?

Shaul Magid — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 04:31:02 EDT

Dedicated to Fred Moten, inspiration and friend. After listening to a 90-minute comprehensive webinar on campus protests and antisemitism, led by a prominent Hillel rabbi at an elite university, I was shocked that there was no mention of Israel’s war…

The Desire to Annihilate Gaza Wasn't Born on 10/7 — It's Part of a Long Tradition that Includes 19th Century Travel Writing

Adam Yaghi — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 12:49:54 EDT

Often referred to as an “open-air prison,” Gaza has been turned into, in the words of British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim , “an open-air graveyard.” This is the same Gaza that drew the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier thousands of…

The Antisemitism Awareness Act Just Passed by the House Would Actually Increase Anti-Jewish Violence

Nathan Leach — Tue, 07 May 2024 12:41:57 EDT

Should it gain Senate support, the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA) just passed by the House will, despite its name, lead to more anti-Jewish violence in the US, not less. Why? Because this bill, which among other things directs the Department…

'Do You Want Columbia to be Cursed by God?' — Alarming Exchanges in Congress and Beyond Highlight the Desperate Need for Religious Literacy

Chance Bonar — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:14:26 EDT

At the April 17 th House Education Committee hearing on Columbia University’s response to antisemitism on campus, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) questions Columbia President Minouche Shafik about her knowledge of the Bible. In a clip of the hearing below, Allen…

To One Early 20th Century Rabbi Skeptical of Zionism, Passover Isn’t Simply A Celebration Of Freedom — It’s Also A Warning

Shaul Magid — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 02:19:19 EDT

For Jews, Passover is a time of liberation. The Exodus story tells the tale of a slave population liberated by divine intervention. It’s a story of hope for many persecuted peoples, including the Black Church in America, inspiring African American…

What’s The Matter With Joe Biden? As Disgust Builds Over Calamity in Gaza the President Offers Only Toothless Criticism

Haroon Moghul — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 03:42:48 EDT

Lately I’ve been wondering if Joe Biden is an Islamophobe. I don’t use the word lightly: Ordinarily I prefer we seek out aspirations and commitments that might inspire us towards shared goals. But how else can I make sense of…

Innocent Until Proven Muslim — A Q&A with Dr. Maha Hilal

Habiba Farh — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:56:49 EDT

Religion Dispatches’s sibling publication, The Public Eye—a quarterly magazine for analysis and commentary on the U.S. and Global Right—is back! To celebrate The Public Eye’s return, Religion Dispatches will present a series of articles from the magazine’s Fall 2023/Winter 2024…

Meet the 'Bronze Age Zionists' — Far-Right Jews Embracing Fascism in the Wake of October 7

Ben Lorber — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 04:47:08 EST

The US online hard-right isn’t exactly known as the friendliest place for Jews. It’s the place where antisemitic conspiracies thrive and cries of ‘Jews will not replace us’ resound. It’s where the Pittsburgh and Poway synagogue shooters (and many more…

Why Antisemitism is an Insufficient (and Risky) Explanation for Hamas's October 7 Attack on Israel

Shane Burley — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 02:21:36 EST

Find all of RD’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here. — eds Amidst a recent layover, my phone pinged to indicate I’d been “mentioned” on Twitter, which is never a good sign. Right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo had tweeted a…

How 95% of Jewish Israelis Support a 'Plausible' Genocide

Zachary Foster — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 05:30:30 EST

The recent International Court of Justice ruling confirms what experts have been saying for months: Israel is plausibly carrying out a genocide in Gaza. That’s why the court ordered Israel to take “all measures in its power” to prevent acts…

Despite Conflation of Israel with Judaism, Anti-Zionism is More Kosher Than You Think

Seth Sanders — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 09:55:05 EST

Do Israel’s actions in Gaza —the bombing of hospitals, apartments, and entire towns; policies of forced starvation and orders for people to flee their homes — constitute genocide? Last week South Africa made that claim in the International Court of…

'Anti-Zionism = Antisemitism' isn't Just Wrong, It's the Problem

Shaul Magid — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 04:24:43 EST

Earlier this year, before Hamas’ attack and Israel’s siege of Gaza, and before the House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring it so, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the following: “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Full stop.” This phrase encapsulates precisely…

War Criminal Henry Kissinger, First Jewish Secretary of State, Had a Lengthy History of Antisemitism

Noah Berlatsky — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:31:44 EST

Henry Kissinger, war criminal, opponent of democracy, and architect of genocide, died this week. Depressingly, though not a surprise, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) rushed to praise him, tweeting that he was a “towering intellect… helped shape American foreign policy”—all of…