Yahel Gazit / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
‘In Protest’: The Women Leading the Resistance Against Israel’s Authoritarian Turn
On Oct. 27, Israelis go to the polls in the first national election since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It is also the first since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the end of 2022 and launched an assault on Israeli democracy, beginning with a plan to strip the courts of their independence.
For the feminist movement that revolted against Netanyahu’s government, the vote comes after three years of pressure to choose between opposing the state and standing with the nation.
One of the Israeli feminist movement’s most visible leaders is now on the ballot. Moran Zer Katzenstein founded Bonot Alternativa (Women Building an Alternative), the group behind the red-cloaked Handmaids marches that became a defining image of the 2023 protests.
This spring she joined Yair Golan’s Democrats party, and in July she won the 12th spot on its slate. In Protest, a short documentary by Paula Kweskin and Carli Fogel (available to stream on YouTube), shows how she got there.
-
Voting Is Underway. Here’s How to Find Your Polling Place, Check Your Ballot and Get Help
-
This Midterm Season, Five States Are Voting on Anti-Trans Ballot Measures
-
The Ripple Effect: How Abortion Bans Threaten the Entire Healthcare Ecosystem
-
Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot in Four States in 2026
-
Before You Head to the Polls, Know Your Rights and Save These Phone Numbers
Get the Ms. Weekly News Digest:
Sign Up
Listen, Rate, Review and subscribe on:
Vivek Ramaswamy Weaponized Childhood Rape as a Political Talking Point. Women Across The Country Are Responding. (with Moira Donegan)
In this episode, we’re looking at the upcoming midterm elections, the role of women playing in national politics, and the attacks on the women who are running for office. In Ohio, we recently saw an example of this—an unreasonably cruel and debasing attack ad from gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, directed at his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, who has said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather who was charged with rape and fled the state. The ad includes her estranged mother, claiming that Acton lied about the traumatic events in her childhood.
What do attacks like these say about our current political climate, and how will they influence voters? How is our cultural climate around gender impacting the midterms? Moira Donegan joins Dr. Michele Goodwin to unpack these important questions, just one week out from the election.
This podcast and many more can be found in Ms. Studios or at your favorite podcast aggregator.
-
Get the magazine and join the community
Become a Member -
Support Ms.
Donate
Feminist Daily Newswire
Feminist Majority Foundation
- Making Women’s History Part of the Curriculum
- Domestic Violence and Femicide in Afghanistan: Women Are Denied Protection and Justice
- Texas Mother Sues Anti-Abortion Extremists Under Law Targeting Abortion Pills
- Election Day is Not the Only Day to Vote
- Beyond Indigenous Peoples Day: The Fight to Protect Indigenous Communities
From the Magazine:
Get Ms.’s award-winning feminist reporting delivered directly to your mailbox!
-
Survivors Describe How Epstein Used Their Modeling Dreams to Abuse Them
Jeffrey Epstein “used the modeling industry as a lever to try to get girls into his orbit,” says survivor Lisa Phillips.
Phillips describes how Epstein operated: He asked about her career, about how often she talked to her father (she told him not often), and he specifically wanted to know about her goals as a model. She told him her “big dream” was to work for Ford Models. He told her that she and the other model had to stay over on the island, then assaulted her later that night.
Months later, she says, he called to say he had arranged a meeting with his “great friend” Katie Ford, the CEO of Ford Models. Phillips met with Ford and became a model for the agency.
“Models were being sent to every charity event, every modeling party,” she says, “everything organized through Katie Ford and agents. … It was always us younger girls and older men. We [felt] our bodies weren’t ours and we would just have to put up with it to keep [our] career.”
Part 1 of The Pipeline to Predators, a four-part Ms. investigation into the modeling industry’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and survivors’ fight for accountability.
The Ripple Effect: How Abortion Bans Threaten the Entire Healthcare Ecosystem
In her new book Side Effects: How Abortion Bans Impact Everyone’s Health, journalist Alice Miranda Ollstein shows that abortion bans aren’t just restricting reproductive care—they’re disrupting cancer treatments, chronic disease medications, fertility services and lifesaving medical research.
“… Legal restrictions on reproductive healthcare ripple outwards, compromising the health and safety of all patients.”
“… We are seeing a broader access crisis: Doctors are leaving restrictive states because they feel they can no longer practice medicine ethically or legally …”
“In emergency care, misoprostol is vital for stopping postpartum hemorrhage. … Now, strict controlled-substance storage rules force providers to retrieve it from locked rooms down the hall or in another building.”
