Send us a text Historian Rashid Khalidi discusses the Israel-Hamas war in the context of the past century of Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinian resistance. The current war has seen Israel push Palestinians in Gaza from the north to the south and is another step in a process of ethnic cleansing and depopulation long pursued by Zionist forces and the Israeli state, with the support first of Great Britain and later the United States. This episode repeats one aired 6 weeks ago...
Jan 02, 2024•29 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text After over 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Josh Paul recently resigned from the State Department. In this role he was responsible for U.S. defense diplomacy, security assistance, and arms transfers. He joined the show this week to discuss the pipeline of US weapons being sent to Israel. While the letter of the law has perhaps been followed regarding these arms transfers, Josh argues that its spirit has not. Congress is failing to perform...
Dec 23, 2023•29 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Three experts on the Holocaust discuss the uses and abuses of Holocaust memory in the context of current events in Israel/Palestine and the war in Gaza. They note that since Oct. 7 the Holocaust has been invoked by Israeli leaders with accompanying calls for mass violence against Palestinians and a war in Gaza that has now killed close to 20,000 people. The conversation was convened in November by Jewish Currents magazine and the Diaspora Alliance. The historians are Omer Bartov, ...
Dec 16, 2023•29 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Professor Barry Trachtenberg, the Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History at Wake Forest University, talks about turmoil on college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war, critical concerns about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, why the Holocaust is not a justification for oppression, and why he thinks arguments for Jewish exceptionalism are flawed and not in Jews’ best interests....
Dec 08, 2023•29 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Tala Nasir, lawyer at Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association sheds light on the issue of the Palestinian political prisoners. Addameer, the Arabic word for conscience, is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. In the first half of our interview, we talked about the Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel as a part of the recently-negotiated deal between...
Dec 01, 2023•28 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Khaled Elgindy, director of the program on Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the Middle East Institute, discusses mounting violence in the West Bank, the crack-down on free speech inside Israel, the ongoing war and looming prospect of starvation in Gaza and a shambolic U.S. policy, characterized as a run-away train with no brakes and no destination.
Nov 24, 2023•29 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Historian Rashid Khalidi discusses the current Israel-Hamas war in the context of the past century of Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinian resistance. The current war has seen Israel push Palestinians in Gaza from the north to the south and is another step in a process of ethnic cleansing and depopulation long pursued by Zionist forces and the state of Israel, supported first by Great Britain and then by the United States. An advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the 199...
Nov 17, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text In his 2011 book Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820-2001, Professor Ussama Makdisi of University California Berkeley wrote, “No matter how one turns the kaleidoscope of US-Arab relations, one always returns, or is returned to, the picture of Palestine.” In his book Makdisi highlights several historical pivot points to chart the trajectory of the two-hundred-year-long relationship between the Arab world and United States, one that has been fraught with...
Nov 10, 2023•34 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University discusses the longue durée of the progressive Zionist colonization of the Holy Land. He highlights the current siege-like situation in the ghetto of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, before going on to discuss the numerous Israeli assaults in the West Bank and their context in international law. He notes the deleterious effects on Palestine's environment of colonization before turning his attention to Israel's attempt to st...
Nov 03, 2023•29 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Film-maker Maurice Jacobsen speaks about efforts he and long-time colleagues in Gaza have been making to document the war as best they can with "We All Live in Gaza: The War Chronicles," short videos posted on the Internet. Journalist Yousef Al-Jamal talks about the recent book he contributed to, "Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire," his growing up in Gaza, the 16-year siege imposed by Israel and the Israel-Hamas war now devastating Gaza....
Oct 27, 2023•35 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967, Michael Lynk discusses international law as it applies to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas as well as Hamas' ongoing missile strikes on Israel violate international law. So too does Israel's indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its tightening siege. Lynk addresses the dire humanitaria...
Oct 20, 2023•28 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab-American Institute, discusses Arab-Americans' outrage at the Biden administration's announcement Sept. 27th that it is accepting Israel into the U.S. visa waiver program, a program which allows citizens from select countries to travel to the United States without a visa. Arab-American, Palestinian-American and U.S. Muslim civil rights groups say Israel doesn't meet the United States' own established criteria for admiss...
Oct 06, 2023•29 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel joined Understanding Israel Palestine to share about his journey from his childhood in Palestine to becoming a pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA and then Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, the highest elected position in the church. In the latter half our discussion, we turned our attention towards interfaith dialogue on the conflict, the theology operating in the Holy Land, and Rev. Abu-Akel's view of the current...
Sep 29, 2023•29 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Eyal Hareuveni of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem discusses how and why Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank face a chronic shortage of water. He is the author of a new study by B'Tselem called "Parched: Israel's Policy of Water Deprivation in the West Bank," which examines Israel's discriminatory use of water to control the Palestinian population under military occupation. Though Israel is a water super-power, producing twice as much...
Sep 11, 2023•28 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Yousef Munayyer, Senior Fellow and head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C., discusses the complexity of Israel's internal fissures, changing battlefield dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians, and the increasing turn to armed resistance among Palestinians.
Aug 13, 2023•29 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text A day after Israel's passage of a highly contested bill to curb the power of the Supreme Court, Mickey Gitzin, director of the New Israel Fund, a non-profit in Jerusale that works to advance liberal democracy in Israel, and Nivine Sandouka, a Palestinian who heads the NGO Our Rights in Jerusalem, discuss its significance, the dangers of the far-right government, the contradictions in the Israeli protest movement and some new openings for progress they see emerging. Gili Getz,...
Jul 31, 2023•29 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Jehad Abusalim is executive director of the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development and author of a recent article in "The New Arab" that looks at Gaza 16 years after Israel imposed its ongoing siege. He discusses Gaza today amid new concerns raised in the wake of the Israeli attack on Jenin in July that Israel may begin treating the West Bank as it does Gaza, subjecting it to increased closures and aerial bombardment. Abusalim notes that the international...
Jul 17, 2023•29 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Human rights advocate Samer Daoudi and international human rights attorney Jonathan Kuttab discuss the recent demolition of the Jubbet adh-Dhib village school by the Israeli army on May 7, 2023. The demolition of the school is emblematic of a larger strategy to deny Palestinians access to education and, accordingly, the ability to even live in area C, argues Samer Daoudi. Jonathan Kuttab contends that the demolition of the school is in keeping with the goal of preventing the Pales...
Jul 17, 2023•29 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2001-2005, retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson talks frankly about the "special relationship" between the United States and Israel. Fear and intimidation lead the United States to ignore or condone human rights violations by Israel, even when U.S. lives are involved. Wilkerson discusses the parallels between the killing of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie 20 years ago by an Israeli soldier and Al Jazeera journal...
May 29, 2023•28 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text May 15 marks the 75th aniversaryof the Nakba, the Arabic word for “catastrophe” when 3/4 of the indigenous population of Palestine lost their homeland in the establishment of the state of Israel. Commemorations of the anniversary are taking place across the United States, including in Kansas City where Palestinian- Americans and their friends will gather Saturday, May 20, at 6 p.m. at the Islamc Center of Greater Kansas City both to recognize the Nakba and to celebrate the surviva...
May 17, 2023•29 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text The Rev. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, says Jerusalem’s status as a city that is home to two peoples and sacred to three faiths has never been more endangered in the modern era than it is today. Recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, she discusses the Israeli government’s intentional erosion of the historic status quo that has governed Jews, Christians and Muslims’ access to the holy sites in Jerusalem and the dramatic rise in a...
Apr 28, 2023•29 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Stephen M. Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, talks about the Israel lobby in the United States and the negative effect unconditional support for Israel has had on U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast and on Israel itself. Walt is the author, along with John Mearsheimer, of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Published in 2007, the book was controversial when it first came out but many of its arguments are now widely accepted. Walt discusses the ...
Apr 17, 2023•29 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Political scientist Norman Finkelstein discusses the massive protests taking place in Israel, describing them not as a battle for democracy but as a culture war not unlike the tensions seen in U.S. society. He discusses the role and record of Israel's high court, U.S. Jews' shifting relationship with Israel, the role of the pro-Israel lobby. A prolific scholar who has spent his life examining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Finkelstein says the word "democracy&quo...
Mar 31, 2023•29 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Acclaimed writer and poet Naomi Shihab Nye discusses her poetry, her experiences as the daughter of a Palestinian refugee, her many trips of witness to Israel and Palestine, her thoughts on the current tensions there.
Mar 18, 2023•29 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Ori Nir, vice-president of public affairs for the liberal Zionist peace group, Americans for Peace Now, talks about tensions within the U.S. Jewish community over Israel. An Israeli journalist for 24 years, Nir says the frenzy of legislation coming out of the new right-wing government in Israel reflects how the anti-democratic nature of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine is now seeping into Israel, with right-wing extremists seeking to permanently entrench the Occupation and make...
Mar 05, 2023•28 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Writer, anthropologist and activist Jeff Halper, chair of the Israeli Committee Against House Demlitions, discusses current conditions in Israel/Palestine -- the Israeli campaign against the last vestiges of resistance to the Judaization of Palestine, the dire choices facing Palestinians today, the acceptance of apartheid Israel by the international community, the massive protests by Jewish Israelis seeking to preserve democracy for Jews while ignoring the apartheid nature of the ...
Feb 22, 2023•28 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Richard Falk, international law expert and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, discusses the significance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent assertion that Israel possesses exclusive right to all of the Land of Israel. In addition to brazenly defying international law, the assertion repudiates the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian struggle that has been pro...
Jan 27, 2023•29 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Omar Barghouti, iconic leader of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, disccusses the aims of the BDS campaign against Israeli apartheid and how it differs from the indiscriminate sanctions the West is applying to Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Barghouti discusses the hypocrisy in the West's response to Russia and its response to Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and says the racism of the West is on full...
Jan 09, 2023•29 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Dov Waxman, professor of political science and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies at UCLA, assesses the likely consequnces of the far-right coalition government taking shape following the November elections in Israel. Waxman discusses how and why the right has grown steadily in Israel over the last 30 years and what policies the new far-right government will pursue....
Nov 26, 2022•29 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast 
