+972 Magazine

+972 Magazine is a left-wing news and opinion webzine established in August 2010 by a group of four Israeli writers in Tel Aviv.[1] Noam Sheizaf, a co-founder and the +972 chief 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 the 972 international dialing code, which is shared by Israel and Palestine.[3] The articles are written mostly in English to reach an international audience.

History, goals, management structure

+972 was 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 Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.[1] Sarah Wildman, writing in The 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 to The 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 to 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 the West 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 in The 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]

Funding

The magazine is largely financed by reader contributions.[1] In addition, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a German think-tank affiliated with the German Green Party, provided 6,000 euros in first-year funding in 2010.[1][4][5] It continues to provide some funds. According to The Nation, the Social Justice Fund at the New Israel Fund granted +972 $10,000 in the first year, and made a one-year grant of $60,000 in early 2012.[3]

Readers

The website's staff asserts 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 readers are Israeli.[6] Israeli leftists Akiva Eldar and Merav Michaeli told The Nation that Israelis have never heard of +972, Michaeli describing it as simply "not relevant" to Israeli politics.[3]

Criticism

According to The Nation, writers for the left-wing newspaper Haaretz and left-wing Israeli intellectuals have criticized the new web magazine.[3]

The pro-Israel organization NGO Monitor criticized +972 as being antisemitic for applying the apartheid analogy regarding Israel's treatment of Palestinians.[4]

Noam 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."[7] 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 the New 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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Leibovitz, Liel (19 January 2012). "Wake-up Call". Tablet. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Young, Hip, and Progressive: Online Magazine +972 Celebrates its First Anniversary". Palestine News Network. 6 June 2011. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sarah Wildman (15 February 2012). "Israel's New Left Goes Online". The Nation.
  4. 1 2 Benjamin Weinthal (25 January 2012). "NGO Monitor slams funding of '+972' blog". The Jerusalem Post.
  5. ↑ "Nine-Seven-Two (+972) Magazine". NGO Monitor. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  6. ↑ Liel Leibovitz (January 19, 2012). "Wake-Up Call: The leftist Israeli magazine +972 wants to sound the alarm on a Jewish state it believes is destroying itself". Tablet.
  7. ↑ Noam Sheizaf (January 26, 2012). "Right-wing group, Jerusalem Post launch public attack on +972". +972.
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