Palestine Deep Dive

Mark Seddon is live with Diana Buttu and Omar Baddar for a Deep Dive illuminating the latest iteration of Israel's evermore extreme right wing government.  We'll be exploring the Netanyahu-led government's rhetoric and actions which have already included explicit calls for more land grabs across the West Bank and the expulsion of more Palestinians from their homes. We'll also be questioning the nature of the ongoing protests in Tel Aviv and what they reveal about the wider concern among the Israeli public, or lack of it, for the millions of Palestinians enduring Israel's ongoing occupation. Diana Buttu is a lawyer and analyst based in Haifa. Her commentaries have appeared in the NYT, Washington Post, Boston Globe, CNN and the Guardian among others. She is also a DAWN fellow.  Omar Baddar is a Palestinian-American political analyst. He previously served as communications director for the Institute for Middle East Understanding, deputy director of the Arab American Institute, a co-host and producer with Al Jazeera, and executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts. He holds a master’s degree in political science, with research focusing on U.S. policy toward Palestine and Israel, and his media appearances include MSNBC, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among many other outlets.

Mark Seddon speaks with Kenneth Stern: Is Free Speech on Israel Under Attack? Kenneth Stern is the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. He is an award-winning author and attorney, and was most recently executive director of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation. Before that he was director of the division on antisemitism and extremism at the American Jewish Committee, where he worked for 25 years. Mr. Stern was the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's “working definition” of antisemitism. In December 2019, Stern published a piece in the Guardian: "I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/13/antisemitism-executive-order-trump-chilling-effect

Palestine Deep Dive and the Foreign Press Association (New York) are live with the ‘the Godfather of Human Rights’ Kenneth Roth, for a DeepDive into Harvard’s reported decision to block him from taking up a fellowship over his organisation’s criticism of Israel’s human rights record. The Harvard Kennedy School has allegedly bowed to pressure, according to the Nation, during a period when major donors and prominent Jewish organisations were particularly unhappy that Human Rights Watch, which Roth directed from 1993-2022, has recently accused Israel of practising apartheid. According to Human Rights Watch’s 213 page report published in April 2021 illustrating the nature of Israel's apartheid, Israel systematically oppresses the Palestinian people both across the occupied Palestinian territory and within Israel itself. Join Mark Seddon and FPA President Ian Williams as we learn why Roth feels his senior fellowship position at Harvard has been blocked, and what challenges human rights campaigners are facing today over criticism of Israel.

Mark Seddon is live with Andrew Whitley, founder & executive director of Geo-Political Advisory Services (GPAS) & Chair of the Balfour Project. Andrew has had an expansive career first as a journalist for the BBC & Financial Times, before serving as the New York Director of UNRWA & then as Policy Director & interim Chief Executive of The Elders. Tune in for a DeepDive illuminating Britain's historic and ongoing role in the oppression of the Palestinian people, and hear what Andrew thinks Britain can and should be doing today to start to undo these injustices.

This podcast was produced on Monday 28th November. On Wednesday 30th November, Leah Tsemel, Hammouri's lawyer, was informed that Israel intends to deport Salah Hammouri, resident of occupied East Jerusalem, to France on Sunday 4th December. Mark Seddon, former speech writer for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon & Al Jazeera English’s first UN Correspondent, is live with two very special guests: Francesca Albanese – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 Leah Tsemel – Human Rights Lawyer and Legal Representative of Salah Hammouri

Receive the most important news & analysis on Palestine & Israel straight to your inbox! Sign up to our newsletter, Deep Dive Daily: https://bit.ly/3LrCUxE Mark Seddon is live with Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association, New York & Columnist for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'. They discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's lead in Israel's fifth election in four years with vote counting almost complete, setting him up to form what may be the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

Leaks, Lies & Spies: The Scandal the UK Media REFUSED to Touch. An Exclusive Conversation with the Makers of Al Jazeera's the Labour Files Since the mainstream media won’t do its job, we'll do it for them! Mark Seddon is conversation with makers of Al Jazeera's The Labour Files exclusively for Palestine Deep Dive. Richard Sanders is an award winning film director with over 25 years experience. He was Senior Producer on the Labour Files and made the second film, on antisemitism. Peter Oborne is an award winning journalist and author who features in the series. He is a former political commentator of the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. He now writes about politics for Open Democracy and Middle East Eye. He is the author of The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism.

We'll be taking a closer look at the challenges of protecting Palestinian heritage sites and antiquities under Israel’s occupation and will be illuminating Israel's attempts to appropriate the past, often in violation of international law according to archaeologists and UN officials, in order to deepen its control over the land. We're live with two very special guests: Dr Hamdan Taha reestablished the Palestinian Department of Antiquities in 1994, serving as its Director General (1995 – 2004). He was a professor in the Department of Archaeology at Birzeit University and also served as the Palestinian Deputy Minister of Tourism (2014) and as National Director of the World Heritage Program in Palestine (2002 – 2014). Dr Iman Saca is a Professor of anthropology specializing in community archeology, Chair of the Department of Sociology Anthropology and Criminal Justice at St. Xavier University - Chicago. As part of her research, Iman also worked on listing two important sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List; one in Palestine (Battir Land of Olives and Vines) the other in Qatar (al Zubarah Archaeological site).

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi & Mark Seddon on Labour, Palestinian rights & surviving the party's ruling National Executive Committee. Mark Seddon is live with Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, co-founder of Jewish Voice for Labour and newly elected member of the UK Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC). Naomi topped Jeremy Corbyn's list of recommended candidates for the recent NEC elections, despite Jeremy having been suspended himself from the Party in October 2020. Mark Seddon is also a former elected member of Labour's NEC where he attempted to persuade Tony Blair from within the Party that a war on Iraq would be disastrous, as well as costly and illegal.

Receive the most important news & analysis on Israel/Palestine straight to your inbox! Sign up to our newsletter, Deep Dive Daily: https://bit.ly/3LrCUxE Twitter: @pdeepdive Instagram: @pdeepdivegram 23rd June 2021: Currently working together on a new publication, "Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out", this will be a timely discussion illuminating the process of producing this compilation of perspectives which aims to provide a new Palestinian discourse fit for today's challenges to achieving Palestinian freedom. We'll be hearing whether recent new-found unity across Palestine in protest against the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah and the devastating bombardment of Gaza, in what has been called the "Unity Intifada", already points to the materialisation of a new vision. Prof. Ilan Pappé is a distinguished Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press).