Inside the Israeli Crackdown on Speech

Plus: the limits of free will; the novelist who inspired Elena Ferrante; and saying goodbye to D.C.’s pandas. View in browser | Update your preferences Wednesday, November 8, 2023 In today’s newsletter, the dangers of dissent, and then: • The limits of free will • The novelist who inspired Elena Ferrante • Rescuing lost puffins in Iceland Inside the Israeli Crackdown on Speech Since the October 7th attack, Palestinians and peace activists in Israel have increasingly been targeted by employers, universities, government authorities, and right-wing mobs. Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker In an urgent new piece of reporting, Masha Gessen explores the many ways in which civilian life in Israel has been frozen in place during the past month. Universities have postponed the start of classes; courts are hearing fewer cases. But perhaps the greatest example of the society-wide chilling has come in the form of a lockdown on free speech and expression that has targeted Palestinian and Israeli citizens voicing dissenting views on the war with Hamas. This has come in the form of arrests, interrogations, job losses and suspensions, and public doxings that have led to violence. Israeli peace activists, Gessen writes, have been “targeted by right-wing mobs with what appears to be the tacit approval of the government.” Palestinians, meanwhile, “experience the full force of the government’s repressive apparatus.” As a lawyer currently representing dozens of Israeli Arabs who have lost their jobs or been suspended from universities argues, “The general public alleges that it is hurt, and they don’t want anyone to express other feelings.” Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » In the News Photograph by Joseph Scheller / Columbus Dispatch / USA Today Network / Reuters Voters in Ohio approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that would establish the right to an abortion along with protections for other reproductive decisions. The initiative, which passed handily, succeeded on the ballot thanks to an earlier vote, this summer, which shot down an attempt by the legislature to block it by raising the threshold for changing the state constitution by popular vote. As Peter Slevin wrote at the time, “The result showed anew the mobilizing power of abortion rights, especially when paired with a message that the bans favored by many Republican-dominated legislatures are an affront to personal liberty.” That appeared true once again on Tuesday in Ohio, and in next-door Kentucky, where the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, won reëlection after running a campaign that warned against Republican encroachment upon reproductive rights. From the News Desk Daily Comment How Would a Humanitarian Pause Work in Gaza? The vague, technocratic term was apparently chosen to avoid “ceasefire.” By Steve Coll Daily Comment Women Played an Unprecedented Role at the Pope’s Synod. Will It Make Any Difference? What was clear going in was that the event could have been a capstone to Francis’s first decade as Pope. By Paul Elie Editor’s Pick Books How Can Determinists Believe in Free Will? Some people think that we can’t be held responsible for what we do, given that our actions are the inevitable consequence of the laws of nature. They’re only half right. By Nikhil Krishnan Culture Dept. Under Review The Novelist Who Inspired Elena Ferrante In the almost eight hundred pages that make up “Lies and Sorcery,” Elsa Morante wrote about women’s lives without apology or fear of ugliness. By Jess Bergman The Theatre Coping Mechanisms in “Sabbath’s Theater” and “I Need That” John Turturro plays the sex-obsessed Mickey Sabbath in a stage adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, and on Broadway Danny DeVito portrays a hoarder. By Vinson Cunningham Photo Booth These Photos Are “Pure Fiction” Talia Chetrit’s heady and eclectic body of work pokes holes in our expectations of what an image can reveal or hide. By Chris Wiley Screening Room The New Yorker Documentary Preparing to Fly in “Puffling” In this meditative short film, teen-agers in Iceland make it their mission to rescue lost puffins. “I have no idea what would happen if we did not rescue them,” one of the young people says. “But I think they would just die.” Film by Jessica Bishopp Text by Chloe Xiang Fun & Games Dept. Crossword A Lightly Challenging Puzzle Bunny phone and belly jeans, for two: eleven letters. By Wyna Liu Daily Cartoon Wednesday, November 8th By Paul Noth P.S. The giant pandas Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, and their three-year-old offspring Xiao Qi Ji, left the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, in Washington, today. They departed in giant FedEx crates to board a flight to China, where they will reside at the Shenshuping Panda Base, northwest of Chengdu. In a funny and fascinating story from 2013, David Owen explained why it was so difficult to get Tian Tian and Mei Xiang to mate. (All of Mei Xiang’s pregnancies have been achieved via artificial insemination.) “Some pandas know how to have sex, and some don’t,” an expert at the zoo explained, before diagnosing this particular pair as “reproductively incompetent.” 🐼 Today’s newsletter was written by Ian Crouch. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. 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