 | |
| Editor-in-chief | Ghousoon Bisharat |
|---|---|
| Format | Web-based |
| Founded | 2010 (2010) |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | English |
| Website | 972mag |
+972 Magazine is a news and opiniononline magazine, established in August 2010 by acollective of four Israeli writers inTel Aviv.[1] Noam Sheizaf, a co-founder and the+972chief executive officer, said they wanted to express a new and "mostly young voice which would take part in the international debate regarding Israel and Palestine".[2] They named the website in reference to the972international dialing code, which is shared byIsrael and by some of the population in thePalestinian territories.[3] The articles are written primarily in English to reach an international audience.
+972was founded in August 2010 by Lisa Goldman, Ami Kaufman, Dimi Reider, and Noam Sheizaf, four working journalists in Tel Aviv who met and decided to create a shared internet platform; they already each had blogs and shared progressive views, including opposition to theIsraeli occupation ofPalestinian territories.[1]Sarah Wildman, writing inThe Nation, described+972 as
Born in the summer of 2010 as an umbrella outfit for a group of (mostly) pre-existing blogs. ... The site is now an online home for more than a dozen writers, a mix of Israelis, binational American- and Canadian-Israelis, and two Palestinians, all of whom occupy, if you'll forgive the term, space on the spectrum of the left.[3]
By January 2012, about 15 journalists were affiliated with+972, and most wrote in English for a largely American audience.[1]
+972 has a horizontal, collaborative organizational structure.[1] Proposed new members are "voted on by the group and can be rejected".[3] The collaborative hires and fires the editor, who does not have authority to hire or fire members.[1]
The website has an "unorthodox journalistic ethos: All the website's bloggers have complete freedom to write whenever and whatever they want".[1] According toThe Nation, editors do not make assignments:
There is no hierarchy. Two rotating editors [recently changed to one editor] copy-edit and do a light legal sweep on each story. ... If they see something that needs to be changed for legal reasons, they'll notify the writer before making the change.[3]
According toLiel Leibovitz, "the magazine's reported pieces ... adhere to sound journalistic practices of news gathering and unbiased reporting." Its commentary and essays, like its members, are dedicated "to promoting a progressive worldview of Israeli politics, advocating an end to the Israeli occupation of theWest Bank, and protecting human and civil rights in Israel and Palestine"; they "support specific causes and are aimed at social and political change".[1] Sarah Wildman, writing inThe Nation in early 2012, says the magazine is "purposefully, uniformly progressive".[3]
According to Leibovitz,+972 reporters are well-positioned to report from the West Bank. Several members of the cooperative are "frequent participants in joint Israeli-Palestinian demonstrations behind the Green Line", and work closely with "the activists who coordinate such protests".[1]
In 2016,+972 was sued by Sawsan Khalife, its former chief executive officer, alleging that her dismissal was racially motivated.[4] In its statement of defense,+972 denied the allegation, claiming Khalife was dismissed due to ever increasing dissatisfaction in her professional conduct.[5] The parties settled their dispute in Tel Aviv Regional Labour Court, agreeing that the Court will award Khalife between 2.5 and 7 salaries worth of compensation as well as other benefits, while also agreeing that each side will withdraw its claims.[6][7] The Court awarded Khalife 39,000New Israeli Shekels.[8]
The magazine is largely financed by reader contributions.[1] In addition, theHeinrich Böll Foundation, a German think-tank affiliated with the GermanGreen Party, provided 6,000 euros in first-year funding in 2010.[1][9][10] It continues to provide some funds. According toThe Nation, the Social Justice Fund at theNew Israel Fund granted+972 $10,000 in the first year, and made a one-year grant of $60,000 in early 2012.[3]
Between 2018 and 2021,+972 and its partner,Local Call, received $450,000 from the Open Society Foundation.[11]
The website's staff state that the vast majority of+972's readers live outside Israel, with about 40% in the United States and 20% in the Palestinian territories.[3] According to CEO Noam Sheizaf, about 20% of its readership are Israeli.[1] Israeli left-wing politiciansAkiva Eldar andMerav Michaeli toldThe Nation that Israelis were mostly unaware of the existence of+972, with Michaeli describing it as simply "not relevant" to Israeli politics.[3]
In 2012, according toThe Nation, writers for the left-wing newspaperHaaretz and left-wing Israeli intellectuals believed that the new web magazine fills an important gap in Israeli media reporting, primarily focusing on settlements and human rights abuses against Palestinians.[3] Some of these supporters, such asGershom Gorenberg, also expressed skepticism that +972 primarily reports human rights abuses committed by Israelis but not Palestinians, but were "reluctant to criticize the site or its writers" despite these reservations.
The same year, Israel's right-wingNGO Monitor accused+972 of beingantisemitic for applying theapartheid analogy regarding Israel's treatment of Palestinians.[9]
In response, Sheizaf said: "The attack on+972 is being carried out in the standard way NGO Monitor,Im Tirzu and similar organizations work these days: Not by debating the content of our reports and commentary pieces, but by trying to delegitimize and silence us."[12] In February 2012, Sheizaf said "Jewish American liberals are not on our side. [Most Americans] will only support my liberalism to a certain degree. When I fight for the right of an Arab woman to become a doctor, you will stand by and donate to theNew Israel Fund. But if I say 'Jerusalem is an apartheid city,' which it is—Jerusalem is the worst place in the world in terms of citizenship laws—American liberals get goosebumps."[3]
Local Call (Hebrew:שִׂיחָה מְקוֹמִית,romanized: Sikha Mekomit) is a Hebrew-language news site co-founded and co-published by Just Vision and 972 Advancement of Citizen Journalism (which also publishes +972 Magazine).[13] It states that it is committed to democracy, peace, equality, social justice, transparency, freedom of information and resisting the Israeli occupation. SeveralLocal Call and +972 Magazine writers publish on both platforms.[14]
In 2016,Local Call ran an exclusive on a Jerusalem cinema complex that refused to work with cab drivers of Palestinian ethnicity, a story picked up by leading newscaster Channel 2. The site also published the “License to Kill” series, which examined cases in which IDF soldiers shot and killed Palestinians without a clear provocation, without consequences for the soldiers, a type of incident that usually goes unreported in Hebrew-language mainstream media.[15]