Unsettled

Before there was a state of Israel, there was the Jewish National Fund. The JNF, or Keren Kayamet L’Yisrael in Hebrew, was founded in 1901 to buy land in Palestine for Jewish settlement. Today, most American Jews know the JNF for its tin tzedakah boxes and tree planting campaigns. But KKL-JNF owns 13% of the land in Israel — which it allocates exclusively to Jews — and has been involved in evicting Palestinians in the Negev, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson. Music by Nat Rosenzweig and Blue Dot Sessions.

When Hisham Abu-Hawash ended his 141-day hunger strike last month, he had been imprisoned by Israel for more than a year without charges or a trial. He was just one of about 500 Palestinians held in “administrative detention.”In this episode, we speak to Milena Ansari, International Advocacy Officer at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. Milena explains Israel’s military court system and how Palestinians are fighting to end administrative detention.Unsettled is produced by Emily Bell, Asaf Calderon, Max Freedman, and Ilana Levinson. This episode was reported and produced by Ilana Levinson. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Mahmoud Muna is part of the family that runs the Educational Bookshop: the only English language bookstore in East Jerusalem. The current iteration of the Bookshop was opened in the 1980s by Mahmoud’s father, Ahmed. Today, the shop has multiple locations and thousands of titles on its shelves. "Any book on Palestine-Israel that has ever [been] written," Mahmoud says, "there's a good chance we have it."When Unsettled producer Max Freedman visited Jerusalem at the start of 2020, he stopped by the Educational Bookshop and sat down with Mahmoud. In this episode of Unsettled, they talk about the history of the bookshop and what it means — to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and people around the world.Unsettled is produced by Emily Bell, Asaf Calderon, Max Freedman, and Ilana Levinson. This episode was reported by Max Freedman and produced by Emily Bell. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.MAHMOUD’S PICKS: NON-FICTIONJerusalem in History by Kamil AsaliI Saw Ramallah by Mourid BarghoutiPalestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother’s Kitchen by Joudi KallaIn Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada KarmiThe Palestinian Table by Reem KassisJerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag MontefioreOnce Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari NusseibehThe Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine—A Tale of Two Narratives by Padraig O’MalleyThe Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown by Afif SafiehPalestinian Walks by Raja ShehadehThe Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World by Avi ShlaimHollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation by Eyal WeizmanMAHMOUD’S PICKS: FICTIONMornings in Jenin by Susan AbulhawaSalt Houses by Hala AlyanOut of It by Selma DabbaghThe Parisian by Isabella HammadThe Children of the Ghetto: My Name is Adam by Elias Khoury

Unsettled producer Asaf Calderon grew up in Israel in a household of “smolanim”: leftists. His parents raised him to think critically and to fight against injustice, even if it means going against what most people consider normal. But today, even while their values remain the same, there is a deep ideological rift between them when it comes to Zionism. In this episode, Asaf sits down with his parents, Nissim and Rivka Calderon, to learn about their political development and discuss whether Zionism is compatible with left politics and Palestinian rights.These episodes of Unsettled was produced by Asaf Calderon and edited by Ilana Levinson. Unsettled theme music is by Nat Rosenzweig with additional music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

Unsettled producer Asaf Calderon grew up in Israel in a household of “smolanim”: leftists. His parents raised him to think critically and to fight against injustice, even if it means going against what most people consider normal. But today, even while their values remain the same, there is a deep ideological rift between them when it comes to Zionism. In this episode, Asaf sits down with his parents, Nissim and Rivka Calderon, to learn about their political development and discuss whether Zionism is compatible with left politics and Palestinian rights.This episode of Unsettled was produced by Asaf Calderon and edited by Ilana Levinson. Unsettled theme music is by Nat Rosenzweig with additional music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

This summer, New York City’s Astor Place hosted a bat mitzvah ceremony unlike any other: the Anti-Zionist Bat Mitzvah, an all-day musical extravaganza created by Morgan Bassichis and Ira Khonen Temple. The event started with tutoring sessions on Palestinian popular resistance and the weaponization of the Torah, and ended with a celebratory dance to “Hava Nagila” remixed as an anti-police anthem.In this episode of Unsettled, producer Ilana Levinson talks to Morgan and Ira about their collaboration, and the importance of joy in collective liberation.The Anti-Zionist Bat Mitzvah was first performed on July 4, 2021 on Rashid Johnson’s Red Stage in Astor Place. The performance was commissioned by Creative Time and curated by Diya Vij. Performers: Morgan Bassichis, Ira Khonen Temple, Emma Alabaster, April Centrone, Zoë Aqua, and Pam Fleming. Tutors: Shirly Bahar, Brooke Lober, Izzy Mustafa, Tamar Ghabin, Dean Spade, Rabbi Miriam Grossman, and Ita Segev.This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson and edited by Emily Bell. Original music by Nat Rosensweig.Special thanks to Aleksei Wagner and Creative Time for performance recordings.

In October, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared six Palestinian civil society organizations “terror groups." These groups work in issue areas like women’s rights, children’s rights, and agricultural labor. The "terror" designation is based on alleged connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small political faction. But so far, Israel’s evidence has failed to convince many international leaders. In this episode of Unsettled, we look closely at one of those groups, Al-Haq: its founding principles, its role in Palestinian society, and the impact of Israel's terror designation on its ability to continue documenting Israeli human rights abuses. This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson and features Jonathan Kuttab and Khaled Elgindy.Archival footage courtesy of Al-Haq. RESOURCESTareq Baconi: Hamas, Explained (Unsettled Podcast, 5/17/21)‘They targeted us for one reason: We’re succeeding in changing the paradigm’ (Yuval Abraham, +972 Magazine, 10/25/21)Israeli dossier on rights groups contains little evidence (Joseph Krauss, AP, 11/6/21)Israel/OPT: Designation of Palestinian civil society groups as terrorists a brazen attack on human rights (Amnesty International, 10/22/21) 

"Grief is something that, alas, as human beings we're just going to keep experiencing over and over and over again in all of its many manifestations. And I think poetry can help us know that we're not alone in experiencing it, that it's a place to place our pain, and to place our unresolved questions, our mysteries." - Naomi Shihab NyeNaomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian-American writer, educator, and editor. Her published work includes poetry, children’s books and essays, and she has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle. She has also spent decades as an educator, visiting classrooms all around the world. In this episode, producer Emily Bell speaks with Naomi Shihab Nye about finding inspiration in her father's notebooks, processing grief, and writing about Palestine. Naomi shares a selection of old and new works, including two from her book "Transfer."CREDITSUnsettled is produced by Emily Bell, Asaf Calderon, Max Freedman, and Ilana Levinson. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.BIOPalestinian-American writer, editor and educator Naomi Shihab Nye grew up in Ferguson, Missouri, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she continues to live.She is the Young People’s Poet Laureate of the United States (Poetry Foundation). Her late father Aziz Shihab was a journalist and author of Does the Land Remember Me? A Memoir of Palestine. She has been a visiting writer in hundreds of schools and communities all over the world for more than 40 years and has written or edited 35 books including collections of poetry, novels for teens, picture books, essays, very short fictional stories, anthologies of poetry. Her books Sitti’s Secrets, Habibi, This Same Sky, & The Tree is Older than You Are: Poems & Paintings from Mexico have been in print more than 20 years. Her volume 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Recent books include Everything Comes Next, Cast Away, The Tiny Journalist, and Voices in the Air. She is on faculty at Texas State University and won recent Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Book Critics Circle and the Texas Institute of Letters. The Turtle of Oman (Greenwillow) a novel for children set in Muscat, will soon be followed by its sequel The Turtle of Michigan.RESOURCESNaomi Shihab Nye at the Poetry FoundationWorks by Naomi Shihab Nye at poets.org“This Court Decision in the Gavin Grimm Case Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes” (American Civil Liberties Union, 4/10/17)“A memorial to a great Arab American Journalist, Aziz Shihab” (Ray Hanania, The Arab Daily News, 10/28/07)“Texas journalist Aziz Shihab on 'Does the Land Remember Me?: A Memoir of Palestine'" (Michael King, The Austin Chronicle, 7/20/07) 

In the spring, the prominent twin activists  Muna and Mohammed al-Kurd were regularly speaking out about an Israeli settler takeover of their home in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. But just after Muhammad and Muna started to get international attention, they were detained and interrogated by Israeli authorities. The al-Kurd twins are not alone. Palestinians say they’ve been subject to censorship from social media companies and by the Israeli authorities for decades. On this episode of Unsettled, Marwa Fatafta, the Middle East and North Africa Policy Manager at Access Now, talks about censorship of Palestinian voices.  CREDITSUnsettled is produced by Emily Bell, Asaf Calderon, Max Freedman, and Ilana Levinson. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.Marwa Fatafta leads Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region as the MENA Policy Manager. She has written extensively on technology, human rights, and internet freedoms in Palestine and the wider MENA region. Marwa is also a Policy Analyst at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network where she co-led the organization's policy work on questions of Palestinian political leadership, governance, and accountability. Previously, Marwa was the MENA Regional Advisor for Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin and served as the Communications Manager at the British Consulate-General in Jerusalem. Marwa was a Fulbright scholar to the US, and holds an MA in International Relations from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She holds a second MA in Development and Governance from University of Duisburg-Essen. RESOURCESAccess Now's statement on Facebook and Twitter systematically silencing protests  (5/7/2021)Access Now's 'Facebook Stop Silencing Palestine' campaign"Elections or not, the PA is intensifying its authoritarian rule online" (Marwa Fatafta, +972 Magazine, 4/29/21)“Facebook's Secret Rules About the Word 'Zionist' Impede Criticism of Israel" (Sam Biddle, The Intercept, 5/14/21)

Groundwork is a new podcast about Palestinians and Jews refusing to accept the status quo and working together for change. When war broke out between Israel and Gaza this past May, some of the worst inter-ethnic fighting in Israel’s history erupted between its own citizens. The violence showed that even in mixed cities, where people often talk of coexistence, there are deep political, ethnic, and economic divides.Lod was the epicenter of this recent violence: there were shootings in the streets, neighbors attacking one another, lynching. In this episode, Groundwork’s hosts Dina Kraft and Sally Abed speak with Lod activists Rula Daood and Dror Rubin about the complicated history of Lod, what they think led to the violence in May, and what’s next.CREDITSSally Abed is a staff member and an elected member of the national leadership at Standing Together. In recent years, Sally has become a prominent Palestinian voice in Israel that is putting forward the holistic view that identifies the interrelation between the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories, growing social and economic disparities within Israeli society, the threat of climate change, and attacks by the government on democratic freedoms and Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.Dina Kraft is a veteran foreign correspondent based in Tel Aviv where she’s The Christian Science Monitor correspondent. She began her overseas career in the Jerusalem bureau of The Associated Press. She was later posted to AP’s Johannesburg bureau where she covered southern Africa. She’s also reported from Senegal, Kenya, Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Russia, and Ukraine. Dina has taught journalism at Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Boston University. She was a 2012 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and a 2015 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.Dina hosted “The Branch” podcast, about ties between Jews and Palestinians and her work has also been published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Haaretz among other news outlets.Yoshi Fields is the co-founder and producer of Groundwork and has worked in the podcast industry for about 5 years. In 2018, he moved to Israel-Palestine and has worked on several podcasts in the region, focusing on both political and human interest stories, including as a producer at Israel Story, The Branch, and Unsettled.Through his work, Yoshi aims to empower the voices of others, and facilitate the expression of their stories. He has previously hiked the Himalayas while carrying out a research study on the intersection of love and Buddhism, and worked in a hospice for a year writing about the experience of mortality for health workers.Groundwork is powered by the Alliance for Middle East Peace and the New Israel Fund.