In May, 2021, fighting broke out between Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza and the Israeli military. Three hundred Palestinian residents of Gaza were killed, including 66 children, and thousands more were injured. The United Nation’s Human Rights Council set up a Commission of Inquiry to identify the “root causes'' of the violence. On June 7th of this year the Commission presented its first report to the UN Human Rights Council. Unlike past UN commissions of inquiry on violence between Israe...
Jul 25, 2022•39 min•Ep. 39
Last week U.S. President Joe Biden met with senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a whirlwind trip through the Middle East. Biden had several top-level goals for this trip. He wanted to deepen connections between the U.S. and Israeli militaries, continue the so-called “normalization” efforts between the Israeli government and regional Arab states, and convince the Saudi Arabian government to increase oil production in order to lower global prices and offset the economic impact of Russia’s wa...
Jul 18, 2022•32 min•Ep. 38
Last month a US court of appeals upheld an Arkansas law that prohibits state contractors from boycotting Israel. The 9-1 decision reversed a previous ruling that determined the law was unconstitutional. Despite the fact that over 30 states have adopted similar laws, it was the first full federal appeals court ruling on the subject. The decision was written by Judge Jonathan Kobes, a Trump appointee the American Bar Association rated as unqualified when he was nominated. The Arkansas story dates ...
Jul 14, 2022•19 min•Ep. 37
In this episode I talk to Nooran Alhamdan, a recent Masters graduate of Georgetown University about the action she and other graduates took to confront Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, over U.S. support for Israel. The audio in this episode is a bit choppy, so thanks for your patience. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate Articles and Links...
May 31, 2022•39 min•Ep. 36
In this episode we’re excited to share an interview with Michael Lynk, the 7th Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Michael’s term in that role just ended and he spoke to scientist, author and activist David Kattenburg about the state of things in Palestine and reflections on his service. Before we get to that interview, we wanted to let you know about a new video report produced by our Palestine N...
May 03, 2022•47 min•Ep. 35
In this episode we’re going to hear a program organized by the Adalah Justice Project and the American Friends Service Committee earlier this month, marking the Land Day anniversary and the beginning of Ramadan. The first Land Day in Palestine took place on March 30, 1976, when Palestinians organized large demonstrations and a nation-wide strike against Israel's plan to seize Palestinian land to build Jewish-only settlements. They were met with brutal Israeli repression and the massacre of six P...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 34
In this episode Mondoweiss’s US correspondent Michael Arria updates us on some key stories he is tracking in his weekly politics newsletter The Shift. After that Michael speaks to Zoha Khalili, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal about the organization's 2021 year-in-review report. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate Articles and Links mentioned in th...
Mar 31, 2022•41 min•Ep. 33
In this episode we have a conversation with Phil Weiss and Yakov Hirsch about the cultural sources of pro-Israel movements in American politics. For several years now Hirsch has examined what he calls "hasbara culture" -- the ways that a discourse of Jewish victimhood has conquered Jewish, Israeli, and even American political culture. Hirsch explains how this “hasbara culture” worldview has been propagated by Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians, by anti-antisemitism organizations li...
Mar 11, 2022•52 min•Ep. 32
In this episode, Mondoweiss Executive Editor Adam Horowitz speaks to Lana Tatour about the recent report from Amnesty International declaring that Israel practices apartheid in order to oppress and dominate Palestinians. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate Articles and Links mentioned in the show Amnesty report: The limits of the apartheid framework ,...
Feb 22, 2022•44 min•Ep. 31
Terry Rogers is a retired community health nurse in New York who has long been active in solidarity with Palestine. Phil Weiss spoke to her last month about the political and moral challenges involved when privileged American activists engage in these movements. Though it is essential that more Americans learn about Palestine — and educate other Americans about what they’ve seen – the goal of the movement is for Palestinians to speak for themselves about their persecution and not rely on America...
Feb 14, 2022•55 min•Ep. 30
The Trump administration's “Abraham Accords” were championed as historic peace agreements, despite the fact they actually normalized relations between authoritarian regimes and facilitated massive weapons deals. Mondoweiss’s US. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Beth Miller, Senior Government Affairs Manager at Jewish Voice for Peace Action about the impact of the agreements and recent congressional efforts to enhance them. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independen...
Feb 03, 2022•20 min
In this episode our U.S. correspondent Michael Arria speaks to Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American peace activist, human rights lawyer, and now candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan. Arraf launched her campaign to unseat an incumbent Republican. However, at the beginning of this year redistricting placed her in a race for an open seat. Last week, Michael asked Huwaida about growing up in Michigan, how she first became an international peace activist, and why she’s now tur...
Jan 26, 2022•36 min•Ep. 28
In October 2021, the Israeli government designated six Palestinian civil society organizations, “terrorist institutions”, claiming the groups had ties and were channeling money to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is a secular Marxist-Leninist, and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 and, like several other Palestinian political factions, is considered by Israel to be a “terrorist organization.” The Israeli designation aimed to criminalize the work of t...
Jan 19, 2022•35 min•Ep. 27
Happy New Year to all of our listeners, and welcome to the first Mondoweiss podcast episode of 2022. In November of last year a Palestinian Day of Solidarity was held in Philadelphia. At the event Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney delivered a proclamation in solidarity with the Palestinians. Our U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with one of the local organizers, Jude Husein. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related...
Jan 03, 2022•13 min•Ep. 26
In today's episode, Yumna Patel speaks with Palestinian farmers working to bring in their olive crop as the harvest season winds down. This is a shorter episode that captures their stories and some of the sounds of the olive harvest. We hope you enjoy this format. Please send me an email, or leave us a message through SparkPipe with your feedback. You can find those links in the show notes. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Isra...
Dec 02, 2021•10 min•Ep. 25
Striketober is upon us. Across the United States workers in multiple industries are striking, quitting their jobs, and engaging in solidarity actions demanding better working conditions. The movement for Palestinian liberation has long interacted with labor struggles around the world, and this moment is no different. Michael Arria has been tracking this interaction and recently spoke to organizers in the tech industry working to counter something called Project Nimbus. - - - - - Support our work...
Oct 29, 2021•23 min•Ep. 24
Today we have a conversation with Sam Bahour. Sam is a Palestinian-American businessman, born in Youngstown, Ohio, and now living in Ramallah, Palestine. He is currently an independent director at the Arab Islamic Bank, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, and an advisory board member of the Open Society Foundations’ Middle East and North America Office. He spoke to Mondoweiss founder and senior editor Phil Weiss. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critica...
Oct 19, 2021•56 min•Ep. 23
On Thursday of this past week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would give Israel an additional $1 billion dollars in military aid for its missile defense system known as the Iron Dome. Progressives in the House had earlier managed to strip the bill as an attachment to a must-pass government funding bill known as a continuing resolution. In response, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer put the legislation on the floor as a stand-alone bill without going through the normal co...
Sep 27, 2021•44 min•Ep. 22
Michael Arria and Dave Reed speak with Michael Bueckert, the Vice-President of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. The organization just published a voting guide ahead of the upcoming Canadian elections. He updated us on the politics of Palestine in the Great White North. - - - SUPPORT OUR WORK: Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate - - - SHOW NOTES: Follow Michae...
Sep 09, 2021•36 min•Ep. 21
Mondoweiss founder and senior editor Phil Weiss speaks to Khaled Elgindy about the first meeting between President Joe Biden and newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Earlier this year Bennett joined centrist politician Yair Lapid to build an unusual coalition of rightwing, centrist, and liberal political parties to topple Benjamin Netanyahu. This government marks the first time Palestinian Israeli political parties are included in a governing coalition. Bennett is a far-right ...
Sep 03, 2021•29 min•Ep. 20
Just a few years ago the idea of a pro-Palestine political advocacy group in Washington D.C. seemed ridiculous. But U.S. politics around Palestine are shifting and a number of these groups have sprung up recently. The latest grows out of the nonprofit American Muslims for Palestine who just launched their own affiliated 501c4 organization, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action. Earlier this week Mondoweiss' U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Dr. Osama Abuirshaid and Ayah Ziyadeh. Co...
Aug 26, 2021•40 min•Ep. 19
Pitasanna Shanmugathas recently graduated with a Master of Global Affairs degree from the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Earlier this year he spoke with Dr. Lex Takkenberg and Francesca Albanese, authors of the book “Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, now in its second edition. In this conversation they discuss the origins of the Palestinian refugee crisis, its role within international law, and whether Israel's actions constitute apartheid. The...
Aug 17, 2021•54 min•Ep. 18
In this episode we have a conversation with Wesam Sharaf, an advocate with the Civil and Political Rights Unit at Adalah — The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. In May Palestinian citizens of Israel participated in massive protests and boycotts as part of the “Unity Uprisings”. Many Palestinians described these protests as the largest display of unity between the West Bank, Gaza, and '48 Palestine in years. Mondoweiss Palestine Correspondent Yumna Patel talks with Wesam about life...
Jun 22, 2021•36 min•Ep. 17
As events in Palestine continue to develop we're bringing you this special episode in collaboration with the Groundings podcast and friend-of-the-site Devyn Springer. Devyn is a cultural worker, community organizer, and independent researcher. They are a member of the Walter Rodney Foundation, and host of the Groundings podcast. They've written and worked with several media outlets, including Mondoweiss, and produced documentaries such Parchman Prison: Pain & Protest. Today, Devyn and their ...
May 17, 2021•39 min•Ep. 16
Last Friday, as the holy month of Ramadan came to a close, Israeli forces stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Mondoweiss’ Palestine correspondent, Yumna Patel reported that: “The height of the violence took place inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers had gathered inside the Mosque and the surrounding courtyard for evening prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan. Video footage from the scene shows people in prayer when armed Israeli fo...
May 14, 2021•56 min•Ep. 15
On university and college campuses across the United States and Canada, student activists are organizing for Palestinian liberation under the banner of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP. As the student-led movement has grown dramatically over the last 20 years, so has anti-Palestinian pushback from Zionist groups and their allies. Organizations like Canary Mission , StopAntiSemitism.org , and other similar rightwing groups have focused a lot of their attention on the student activists of...
Apr 30, 2021•33 min•Ep. 14
Earlier this year, Mondoweiss contributing writer Sarah Doyal reviewed the new book, Except For Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics , from authors Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick. Sarah wrote: “Delving into the phenomenon long-named in leftist circles as [quote] “Progressive Except for Palestine” [end quote], Hill and Plitnick meticulously deconstruct progressives’ neglect of the Palestinian cause. They explain the ways in which the singular exception of Palestine from demands f...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 13
This episode is all about elections. On March 23rd Israel held its fourth national election in two years. And starting in May Palestinians in the occupied territory will be holding their first elections in 15 years. Both elections will serve as a referendum on the current leaders, and both will give us insight into what the future may hold, both for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and, perhaps, Palestinians world-wide. First, Mondoweiss founder and senior editor Phil Weiss talks wit...
Mar 25, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 12
Zaina Arafat joined Mondoweiss Associate Editor Allison Deger to discuss her new novel, YOU EXIST TOO MUCH. This program was part of the Mondoweiss Book Club, a go-at-your-own-pace program that explores new and contemporary Palestinian fiction. Join for free at https://mondoweiss.net/bookclub/ . Support Mondoweiss with a tax-deductible donation. Links: – Read an exclusive excerpt of Zaina's novel at our website: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/02/book-club-zaina-arafats-outstanding-debut-novel-you-e...
Mar 11, 2021•53 min•Ep. 11
Ahmad Abuznaid was recently named the Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights . In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012, Ahmad co-founded the Dream Defenders. He has interned at the International Criminal Court, presented before the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee and was the Director of the National Network for Arab American Communities. Michael Arria and Dave Reed spoke to him about the future of the Palestine solidarity movement, challenges to expanding BDS ...
Feb 26, 2021•41 min•Ep. 10
