Naomi Zeveloff

A Mirage of Hope for Israelis and Palestinians

NAOMI ZEVELOFF covers religion, politics, and conflict, and is the former Middle East correspondent of the Forward. 

In March, as coronavirus began to spread through Israel and the Palestinian Territories, I went to Jerusalem’s Old City to cover a story for Public Radio International’s The World about how people of faith were coping with restrictions on holy sites. On a timeworn stone path, I met Fathi Jabari, a Palestinian shopkeeper. He told me that he was struck by the fact that the virus makes no distinctions between people—Muslims, Christians, or Jews. “This coronavirus makes the world as a small village.”

It was an oddly hopeful message, in what was an oddly hopeful time. Among Israelis and Palestinians, I sensed a quiet acknowledgment that—at least when it comes to health—their fate is tied together. Israeli doctors trained with Palestinian ones, and some leaders even talked about cooperation.

As Israel has lifted its coronavirus lockdown, that talk has sadly diminished. Israel is pushing to annex large parts of the West Bank, where Palestinians want a state. Violence is percolating again. Recently, the Israeli army killed a Palestinian man who tried to run over Israeli soldiers in his car. The next day, Israeli police shot an unarmed autistic Palestinian man—an echo of the George Floyd killing—not far from Jabari’s store. Jabari had been right: the coronavirus turned the world into a small village. But it wasn’t enough to keep the village from fraying apart. 

Now. Next.

The articles in this special section:

The Ethos of Rural Life Is Everyone’s Ethos Now

Rabbi Rachel Isaacs

In the years to come, more of us will be growing our own potatoes.

Link Food Supplies to Public Health

Marion Nestle

How do we get political will? Advocate! Vote! Start now!

I Want Us to View Art Through a New Lens

Jillian Steinhauer

To be clear, I miss art. I miss being moved and confronted and stretched by artists and their work. But I don’t really miss the apparatus that surrounds it.

White Allies Need to Step Up. Now.

Yavilah McCoy

As the CEO of a majority Jewish women of color led organization, I continue to learn how essential our work to expand racial equity in the world around us is to our very survival.

We’re Going to Witness a Surge in the Current Health Inequality

Marion Danis

Life lessons from the mythological Lilith. Betty Friedan on her feminine mystique & being Jewish. Those thorny Jewish women's organizations.

Abortion for Anyone Who Needs It

Steph Black

Telemedicine options for many kinds of healthcare have spiked. Yet this has not been true for abortion.

Global Tzedakah: Save for a Rainy Day? This Is a Downpour!

Ruth Messinger

The Jewish community must take a lead in looking at all the systemic inequities that are being laid bare by the pandemic

Reproductive Justice Instead of “Jewish Continuity.”

Michal Raucher

What would it mean to think about a Jewish future that does not revolve around Jewish women having Jewish babies?

Camp, Even When It’s Not Summer

Elana Rebitzer

 The non-summer months could be filled with much more camp content in years to come. 

Comedy? You Bet!

Laura Beatrix Newmark

Life lessons from the mythological Lilith. Betty Friedan on her feminine mystique & being Jewish. Those thorny Jewish women's organizations.

Labor Activism Has New Momentum

Amelia Dornbush

Life lessons from the mythological Lilith. Betty Friedan on her feminine mystique & being Jewish. Those thorny Jewish women's organizations.

Relative Privilege in a World of Suffering

Yael Schonbrun

Life lessons from the mythological Lilith. Betty Friedan on her feminine mystique & being Jewish. Those thorny Jewish women's organizations.

A Mirage of Hope for Israelis and Palestinians

Naomi Zeveloff

Life lessons from the mythological Lilith. Betty Friedan on her feminine mystique & being Jewish. Those thorny Jewish women's organizations.