A Girl Scout Troop in Missouri recently broke away from the organization after it made legal threats against the group. For the Girl Scout's “Agents of Change” capstone project, a St. Louis county troop decided to make and sell bracelets to raise money for children in Gaza. The Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri said the move was “political" and instructed them to shut down the fundraiser. The children in this particular troop were inspired by other troops that raised money for war victims in Ukrai...
Mar 14, 2024•13 min•Ep. 69
Last month, Frank Barat spoke with Noura Erakat on our new YouTube show, Witnessing Palestine. As we recorded that program, Gaza had been under Israeli bombardment from the air, land, and sea for 70 days. At that time, 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza were known to have been killed by the Israeli military. Today, that number is over 28,000. More than 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been wounded. The Israeli military continues to invade Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank. Violent attack...
Feb 20, 2024•37 min•Ep. 68
In this episode, Mondoweiss’s Yumna Patel speaks with Palestinian lawyer and political analyst Diana Buttu about the genocide in Gaza and the role social media is playing in how it unfolds. Israeli soldiers on the ground in Gaza are undermining Israel’s carefully crafted public image as a victim through their social media posts, which show them joking, laughing, and committing what many legal observers believe are war crimes. This second Nakba is being live-streamed in real-time, and Yumna and D...
Jan 16, 2024•47 min•Ep. 67
In this episode Mondoweiss’s Culture Editor Mohammed El-Kurd speaks with journalist and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers Ahmad Al-Naouq. Despite having 21 members of his family murdered by Israel in the past few months, Al-Naouq has been on the forefront of advocating for Palestinian liberation. In this conversation they talk about the complicity of mainstream media in the genocide Israel is committing against Palestinians in Gaza. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical, indepe...
Jan 05, 2024•33 min•Ep. 66
In this episode, we have two interviews with our U.S. Correspondent, Michael Arria. First, Michael talks to Ryan Grim, Washington D.C. Bureau chief for The Intercept. Ryan has a new book out titled, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.” In it, he reports on the fight between the squad of progressive Democrats first elected to Congress in 2018 and Israel lobby organizations AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel. Later, we’ll hear from a student organizer at Columbia Universi...
Dec 21, 2023•36 min•Ep. 65
The so-called "humanitarian pause" in Israel's assault on Gaza ended just days ago, and already nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed. The Israeli military released a map dividing Gaza into over 2,000 small sections. They say they will notify Palestinians in each of these sections when they plan to bomb or invade it so that the Palestinians can move to a different section. People have compared this to the Hunger Games or similar dystopian stories. As a result, Palestinians in Gaza continue ...
Dec 07, 2023•47 min•Ep. 64
Israeli bombs continue to rain down on the Palestinian residents of Gaza. As of this recording, over 9,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, a figure that includes over 3,700 children. Multiple experts on international law and the history of genocide have said that Israel’s actions do indeed amount to genocide. In this episode of the podcast, we’re going to hear a program staged by the Palestine Festival of Literature on November 1, titled: But We Must Speak: On Palestine and the Mandates ...
Nov 08, 2023•2 hr•Ep. 63
The impact of the Israeli occupation of Palestine extends far beyond the disputed borders of the region. Israeli companies – many with close ties to the government and military – export weapons and surveillance technology across the globe. Palestinians and their communities serve as test subjects, where potential clients can witness the impact of Israeli technology in an urban warfare setting. Award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein details this dynamic in his book "The Palestine Laboratory:...
Sep 26, 2023•25 min•Ep. 62
Earlier this summer, we announced that Mohammed El-Kurd, the Palestinian poet, journalist, and activist, was joining our staff as the Culture Editor. This is the first podcast episode Mohammed has produced for us, and we're excited to share it with you. He is joined by the playwright Raeda Taha. – – – 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 me...
Sep 11, 2023•33 min•Ep. 61
Today we’re excited to share an episode from the Latitude Adjustment Podcast looking at the role Christian Zionism plays in continuing persecution of Palestinians. Eric Maddox completed his graduate research in Conflict Transformation from Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank, collecting oral histories from the 1948 War. He is the founder and director of the Palestine Podcast Academy, and the host of Latitude Adjustment Podcast. He interviewed Rev. Dr. Don Wagner, a friend of Mondowei...
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 60
Today we have two interviews from our US correspondent, Michael Arria. First he speaks with Josh Ruebner about the shifting politics around U.S. aid to Israel, and later, he checks in with the victim of an anti-Palestinian smear campaign at Florida State University. We begin with U.S. aid to Israel. The fight in Congress continues to build over the billions of dollars we send to Israel every year. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is the latest to call for conditioning US aid to Israel, joining ...
Aug 11, 2023•34 min•Ep. 59
Mondoweiss was founded by Phil Weiss, a career journalist, while he was on staff at The New York Observer . In 2006 a wealthy young man named Jared Kushner bought the Observer. After tolerating Phil’s writing on Israel for a brief period, Phil was forced out by Kushner, but he was allowed to keep his blog. Phil is a magnanimous guy and he credits Kushner with freeing him from the world of mainstream journalism to pursue his interest in Israel and the fascination with it that much of American Jew...
Jul 16, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 58
Israel’s military invasion of the Jenin Refugee Camp, dubbed “Operation Home and Garden” came to an end late Tuesday night. It left at least 12 Palestinians dead, and one Israeli soldier. Israel has, predictably, declared the operation a success. They say 120 Palestinians were arrested and weapons caches were destroyed, including bomb making materials. The Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, said: “in the last two days we interrupted the weapon production process, seized thousands of bombs, ...
Jul 07, 2023•38 min•Ep. 57
Alice Rothchild is doctor, writer, filmmaker and activist who has spent decades in key social justice movements. She is the author of three books, Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience was released in 2007, On the Brink: Israel and Palestine on the Eve of the 2014 Gaza Invasion, came in 2014, and Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine, was published in 2017. This year Cune Press will publish her first young adult novel, Finding Me...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 56
The Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem encompasses several key sites central to Islam, including the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have ascended to heaven, where he spoke to God. The compound sits on the Temple Mount, where the ancient Hebrew temple once stood. Today we have a conversation with our Palestine news team about the events surrounding Al Aqsa during Ramadan this year. As readers of our site and listeners to this podc...
Apr 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 55
Protests continue in Israel. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked back his government’s push to overhaul the Israeli judicial system, but did not abandon the effort. Instead, the government will take it up again in a few months when the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, returns from its spring recess. As part of the agreement to delay the legislation, a new national guard force will be created under the control of the National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Dr. Yara Hawari, se...
Apr 01, 2023•19 min•Ep. 54
In February, Students for Justice in Palestine held their 12th annual conference in Los Angeles for a weekend of critical discussion, movement building, and political education. Michael Arria spoke with a member of the group's steering committee about the themes of the conference, the state of Palestine activism on U.S. campuses, and the victories of 2022. After that, we’ll hear about the Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta, and the links between the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange ...
Mar 25, 2023•43 min•Ep. 53
We have two interviews in this episode. First, I’ll talk to Mondoweiss’s Palestine News Director, Yumna Patel, about her new video report published today titled On The Brink: Jenin’s rising resistance. Then we’ll hear from Ahmad Abuznaid, the executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, about their legal battle with the Jewish National Fund. First, to the Jenin refugee camp. On January 26 the Israeli army conducted a deadly invasion into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied We...
Mar 05, 2023•36 min•Ep. 52
Last year Tony Greenstein published a book that was the culmination of many years of research, titled “Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponization of Memory in the Service of State and Nation”. The book examines in great detail the Holocaust mythology that Israel promotes and deploys in a strategic manner to neutralize and smear intellectual and political criticisms of its human rights violations. Greenstein has long pedigree. He has been an anti-Zionist in Britain for more than 40 years. He...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 51
In this 50th episode of the Mondoweiss Podcast, our founder and senior editor Phil Weiss speaks to Matthew Teller about his new book, Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City . The book mixes travel writing and history with the savage politics of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in a city loved by people all over the world. Teller is a British journalist who worked for years in the Middle East. His reports have appeared in the BBC, the Times of London, The Guardian and many ...
Jan 30, 2023•55 min•Ep. 50
Last month the U.S. held its midterm elections. A "red wave" never materialized as many predicted, but Republicans did take control of the House. Our U.S. correspondent Michael Arria caught up with author and Georgetown University adjunct professor Josh Ruebner to talk about how Israel factored into the races and what we should expect from the new congress on Palestine. Ruebner is the author of Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State? and Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestini...
Dec 14, 2022•21 min•Ep. 49
Mondoweiss has been covering the “No Tech for Apartheid” movement for over a year now. In October 2021 hundreds of workers at Google and Amazon published an open letter in The Guardian condemning Project Nimbus, a billion dollar contract between the two tech companies and the Israeli government. The deal helps provide cloud services to the Israeli Defense Forces. The letter reads: “We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Pale...
Nov 30, 2022•48 min•Ep. 48
Our fall fundraising campaign is underway and generous supporters have agreed to match your donations . Mondoweiss is a reader and listener-funded non-profit news publication. This gives us the independence to report on events in Palestine accurately and comprehensively because we answer to you, our readers and listeners. In the past 3 years we’ve invested pretty heavily to grow our team of reporters and contributors. We now have 4 full-time staff in Palestine, 5 full-time staff in the U.S., and...
Oct 12, 2022•54 min•Ep. 47
Stefan Christoff is an organizer with Musicians For Palestine. Hundreds of musicians from around the world signed on to their first statement of support for Palestinian freedom in 2021. Today, the group is announcing 700 new signers and releasing a second statement It reads, in part, “As musicians we can contribute to breaking the wall of silence and protest these great injustices taking place against the Palestinian people…We believe that now, more than ever, is the time to respect the Palestin...
Sep 27, 2022•32 min•Ep. 46
Dorothy Zellner was 22 years old when she joined the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, in Atlanta Georgia. She recruited student volunteers for the Freedom Summer Project in 1964 and helped design the logo for the Black Panthers, in 1966. Dorothy has been active in feminist movements and the Palestine solidarity movement for many years. Phil Weiss, founder and senior editor of Mondoweiss spoke to Dorothy recently. This wide ranging conversation covers the threat of...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 45
On August 18th of this year, the Israeli military raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations. They ransacked the offices, stole files and other property, and sealed the doors in an attempt to prevent them from operating. Twenty-five United Nations’ “Independent Experts” issued a declaration on August 24th condemning “Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society.” The declaration continued, “These actions amount to severe suppression of human rights defen...
Sep 14, 2022•36 min•Ep. 44
On August 5th, Israel launched a three day operation in the besieged Gaza Strip. They dubbed it “Operation Breaking Dawn”. Israel’s acting Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, promote the operation as a preemptive strike to quash what he said were concrete threats by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza. Over the course of three days 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children. According to our documentation, while many PIJ members and affiliates were indeed targeted, the majority of tho...
Aug 31, 2022•33 min•Ep. 43
Earlier this month Israel launched airstrikes across Gaza. In our last episode, Mondoweiss ’ Palestine-based staff talked about the historical and political context of this attack. Our Gaza Correspondent, Tareq Hajjaj , spoke movingly about what he experienced first hand during the assault. Listen to it here. This week we’re excited to share an episode of the North Untapped podcast , hosted by Alex Cosh, a Canadian journalist and managing editor of The Maple . North Untapped is a weekly show abo...
Aug 19, 2022•42 min•Ep. 42
Last Friday, August 5, 2022, the Israeli military launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. In response, hundreds of rockets were fired from Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance group. Most of these were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems. The few that managed to make it through caused relatively minor damage to a few cars and buildings. In contrast, 48 Palestinians died from the three days of Israeli air bombardment. This included 17 children. One of the first Palestinians...
Aug 11, 2022•38 min•Ep. 41
We are about halfway through the primary election season in the United States. This cycle has seen an explosive growth in spending from political action committees tied to pro-Israel lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. In this episode Michael Arria and I speak with Beth Miller from JVP Action and campaign consultant Peter Feld about how this direct campaign engagement from Israel lobby groups is affecting elections. But first, I asked Michael to update us...
Aug 05, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 40