Unsettled

“If every time a child does something we detain them, we destroy their future, we make them basically dreamless young men. This is how Palestinian children who go through the system become.” — Yazan Meqbil On December 19, 2017 Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was arrested after slapping an Israeli soldier on her family's property. She was taken from her home in the middle of the night, interrogated without an adult present, and eventually signed a plea deal and was sentenced to eight months in prison. Ahed Tamimi became a symbol of Palestinian resistance, but she is only one out of hundreds of Palestinian children who face Israel's military court system every year. In this episode of Unsettled, we wanted to find out — On what grounds are children arrested? What actually happens to a child once they’ve been arrested? How does child detention impact both individuals and communities in the West Bank? We spoke to Ahed's father Bassem Tamimi, Palestinian student and activist Yazan Meqbil, and attorney Brad Parker of Defense for Children International-Palestine.  This episode of Unsettled was produced and edited by Emily Bell and Asaf Calderon. Music by Nat Rosenzweig and Monplaisir. Bassem Tamimi is a Palestinian activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Since 2009, Tamimi has been one of the leaders of protests in the village against the seizure of the local spring by a nearby settlement. Tamimi spent three years in administrative detention in the 1990s. While he was imprisoned twice between 2011 and 2013, Amnesty International labeled him a prisoner of conscience and wrote that he was "detained solely for his role in organizing peaceful protests against the encroachment onto Palestinian lands by Israeli settlers." Bassem is married to Nariman Tamimi and has four children, including 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested in December 2017 and currently serves an 8-month sentence.  Yazan Meqbil grew up in the West Bank town of Beit Ommar. Growing up, Meqbil became familiar with the ill-treatment of Palestinian children. In 2015, Meqbil joined the American Friends Service Committee and Defense for Children International-Palestine in filming the documentary Detaining Dreams. He has been on several speaking tours and engagements in the US since then advocating for the cause and raising awareness about Israel’s arrest, persecution, and mistreatment of an average of 700 Palestinian children every year. Meqbil is currently a rising senior studying Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Goshen College, in Goshen, Indiana. Brad Parker is a staff attorney and international advocacy officer at Defense for Children International - Palestine. He specializes in issues of juvenile justice and grave violations against children during armed conflict, and leads DCIP’s legal advocacy efforts on Palestinian children’s rights. Parker regularly writes and speaks on the situation of Palestinian children, particularly issues involving detention, ill-treatment and torture of child detainees within the Israeli military detention system, and violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. He leads DCIP's US Program and is a co-leader of the No Way to Treat a Child campaign in the United States and Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Vermont and received his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. RESOURCES Military Court Watch Annual Report 2016/17 Minors in Jeopardy, B'tselem, March 2018 Statistics on Palestinian minors in the custody of the Israeli security forces, B'tselem, May 2018 Unprotected: Detention of Palestinian Teenagers in East Jerusalem, B'tselem, October 2017 Order regarding Security Provisions [Consolidated Version] (Judea and Samaria) (No. 1651), 5770-2009 Israel's military courts 'humiliating charade' for Palestinians, Al Jazeera, February 2018 Separate and Unequal: Inside Israel's Military Courts, Where the Only Defendants Are Palestinian, Haaretz, March 2017 Defense For Children International - Palestine No Way To Treat A Child H.R.4391 - Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act Detaining Dreams Yazan Meqbil: Congressional Briefing - 50 Years of Occupation and Life for Palestinian Children Preview image: Ofer Military Prison, Israel. Photo credit: Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Commons.

“For the last three weeks, my Nakba was losing my best friends, covering the march with their press-marked vest. Every week, every day I have like personal Nakba, and this is the case with every Palestinian. With every Palestinian around the world, they have their own Nakba.” — Ahmed Mansour Every year, when Israelis and many American Jews celebrate the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinians remember their people’s expulsion, or what they refer to as the "Nakba," the Arabic word for catastrophe. This year, on the 70th anniversary of both Israeli independence and the Nakba, the United States is moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Our guest for this episode, Palestinian filmmaker Ahmed Mansour, calls this a "double Nakba and double catastrophe." Producer Ilana Levinson spoke with Ahmed about his childhood in a Gaza refugee camp, why the timing of the U.S. embassy move is so inflammatory, and how the Nakba continues to permeate Palestinian life. Ahmed Mansour’s film, "Brooklyn, Inshallah," follows the 2017 campaign of Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian-American Lutheran pastor who became the first Arab-American to run for New York City Council. To learn more and to contribute to his fundraising campaign, click here. This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson and Max Freedman, and edited by Max Freedman. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig.    Ahmed Mansour , a New York-based filmmaker, is a NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute - News and Documentary Program - graduate. Ahmed was born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza Strip, Palestine. He worked as an organizer, translator and guide for international journalists covering the 2014 war. He made a series of short films highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip after three successive wars. He has also worked as a reporter for the Washington Report on the Middle East Affairs in Washington DC. Ahmed has received residencies and fellowships from Duke University and Story Wise Program.   RESOURCES Trailer and fundraising campaign for "Brooklyn, Inshallah"(LaunchGood) Eric Adams,"Why Only Israel Can Customize America's F-35 (At Least for Now)" (Wired, May 10, 2016). Jonathan Cook, "Critics blast US shipment of fighter jets to Israel" (Al Jazeera, April 26, 2017).  Daniel Kurtzer, "How terrorism helped found Israel"(Washington Post, March 13, 2015).  Asaf Calderon, "What It's Like to Have a Jewish Terrorist in the Family"(Haaretz, May 3, 2017). 

“Israel is now turning 70, and for 70 years we’ve brought in millions of Jewish refugees from all over the world. And now, for the first time in 2000 years that we have some kind of Jewish sovereignty and we have a political body that is able to protect others, we have non-Jews seeking asylum in the Jewish state. If Israel sends off my Eritrean and Sudanese friends to Africa...if I haven’t done everything in my power as a human being and as a Jew to stop it, I don’t know if I’ll be able to live with myself, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to live in the state of Israel.” — Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg Israel has a complicated history with refugees. Many Jewish refugees found shelter in Israel after the Holocaust; many Palestinians, on the other hand, became refugees after the 1948 war. But in this episode, we talk about Israel’s other refugees, those you may not have known about: African refugees who come mostly from Sudan and Eritrea escaping oppressive regimes and persecution. Mutasim Ali is a Sudanese refugee, one of 35,000 African refugees currently living in Israel -- but one of only 13 to have his refugee status recognized by the state. As of December 2017, all of the others are at risk of deportation. Israel has already started sending refugees to countries that offer them no status or security. In this episode, Unsettled producer Asaf Calderon speaks to Mutasim and advocate Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg about the unfolding crisis. Why did so many African refugees choose Israel? Why doesn't Israel want them? What does Israel's treatment of these refugees say about the state of the Zionist experiment? And what can Americans do to help? This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Asaf Calderon and edited by Ilana Levinson. Music by Nat Rosenzweig and Podington Bear. Mutasim Ali is a law student at the College of Law & Business, Ramat Gan and former executive director at African Refugees Development Center (ARDC), a community-based organization to protect, assist, and empower African refugees and asylum-seekers to advocate on their behalf. He is an advocate for change and democracy in Sudan. Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg is an American-Canadian-Israeli Jewish educator-activist. Elliot is a senior educator at The Kibbutz Movement and BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change and the central shaliach (emissary) for Habonim Dror Olami in North America. Currently based in Chicago, Elliot leads activities and teaches throughout North America. Elliot is an activist for Jewish pluralism and inclusion, refugee rights, LGBTQ rights and human rights, and his educator-activist approach focuses on the application of Judaism for social change. Elliot is co-chair of Right Now: Advocates for Asylum Seekers in Israel, a blogger for The Times of Israel, and has published in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Week, and elsewhere. A native of Chicago, Elliot earned a B.A. from McGill University, and an M.A. in Jewish Education and Jewish Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Elliot worked in the field of Jewish education in North America before making aliyah to Israel in 2011, where he served as Director of International Communication for BINA and became a leading activist for refugee rights in Israel. REFERENCES RIGHT NOW: Advocates for Asylum Seekers in Israel "I am my father's son: Mutasim Ali at TEDxBGU" (2014) "We want freedom - demonstration and voices of refugees, Tel Aviv, Israel"(2014) Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956 (Clarendon Press, 1997). Michael Bachner, "Netanyahu says Africans slated for deportation 'not refugees'" (Times of Israel, January 21, 2018).  Associated Press, "Rwanda, Uganda Deny Reaching a Deal with Israel to Accept Refugees"(Haaretz, January 5, 2018).  Xan Rice, "China and Russia 'sell jets to Sudan'" (The Times, November 17, 2004).  Ilan Lior, "Israel to Pay Rwanda $5,000 for Every Deported Asylum Seeker It Takes In"(Haaretz, November 20, 2017).

With your help, from online donations and our fundraising party, we made $3,233: more than a thousand dollars more than our goal! We’re humbled by your support, and more committed than ever to continuing this work and growing the audience for it. We’ll be back next week with a full episode, about African asylum-seekers in Israel -- tens of thousands of whom are at risk of being deported. Here’s a preview of our interview with Sudanese refugee and activist Mutasim Ali.

Exciting news: if you’re in the New York City area, Unsettled is throwing a party -- this weekend! You can help support the podcast, and meet other Unsettled listeners, by joining us for #GetUnsettled this Saturday, February 3rd, at Starr Bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Tickets are just $5 in advance or at the door. We’ll have Unsettled merch, including stickers and t-shirts, and there will be a raffle with amazing prizes: a signed copy of Dov Waxman’s book, Trouble in the Tribe; the new album by Dan Fishback’s band, Cheese on Bread; a ticket to see comedian John Mulaney; a juggling lesson from producer Emily Bell; and more! If you’re not in New York, there’s still time to help Unsettled grow by donating online. We’ve got just $500 left to reach our goal of $2,018 in the first month of 2018. Can you help us cross the finish line? This week's listener story comes from Arielle Rivera Korman. 

We are so thankful and excited to announce that over the past two weeks, we have made it just over halfway to our fundraising goal! No matter the amount, each donation will help us continue this work. If you've learned something new from listening to Unsettled, if your views have been challenged, if you want to hear more, or all of the above -- please visit gofundme.com/unsettledpodcast and donate $18, or whatever makes sense for you. This week's featured story comes from our listener Rivka M.

We're back with another listener story, part of our January fundraising campaign to support the future of Unsettled. In just the first week, we've raised over 700 dollars! Thanks to you, we're on our way to reaching our goal of $2018 in the first month of 2018. In this episode, Unsettled listener Toby Irving explains what brings her to a critical conversation about Israel-Palestine. If you think it's important to create a space for this conversation, please visit our fundraising campaign and donate $18, or whatever you can.

We're launching our first-ever fundraising campaign for Unsettled! Donate now to help us raise $2018 in the first month of 2018. These funds will support our operations and growth, including: keeping our website running, editing software, recording equipment, and access to a sound studio. To accompany this campaign, each week in the month of January we’ll release a personal story submitted by one of our listeners. We asked you: Why are you here? How did you get engaged in this conversation and why is it important to you? The first answer comes from Becca Litt. 

“I believe in the liberation of the people of Palestine, and I believe in the liberation of the Jewish people. And those things are not just not mutually exclusive, they require each other.” — Dan Fishback This is a bonus episode featuring extra content from our December 4th episode on Cultural Resistance. Playwright and musician Dan Fishback explains the difference between boycott and censorship, why he uses the word "apartheid" to describe Israel-Palestine, and why he wants to start identifying as a "liberationist Jew." This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Max Freedman. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Recorded at The 'cast Sound Lab in Brooklyn, New York on November 6, 2017. Edited for length and clarity by Ilana Levinson.  Photo credit: Sammy Tunis Dan Fishback is a playwright, performer, musician, and director of the Helix Queer Performance Network. His musical “The Material World” was called one of the Top Ten Plays of 2012 by Time Out New York. His play “You Will Experience Silence” was called “sassier and more fun than 'Angels in America'” by the Village Voice. Also a performing songwriter, Fishback has released several albums and toured Europe and North America, both solo and with his band Cheese On Bread. Other theater works include “Waiting for Barbara” (New Museum, 2013), “thirtynothing” (Dixon Place, 2011) and “No Direction Homo” (P.S. 122, 2006). As director of the Helix Queer Performance Network, Fishback curates and organizes a range of festivals, workshops and public events, including the annual series, “La MaMa’s Squirts.” Fishback has received grants for his theater work from the Franklin Furnace Fund (2010) and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists (2007-2009). He has been a resident artist at Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania, the Hemispheric Institute at NYU, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, where he has developed all of his theater work since 2010. Fishback is a proud member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Artist Council. He is currently developing two new musicals, “Rubble Rubble” and “Water Signs,” and will release a new album by Cheese On Bread in 2018. references Letter calling on Lincoln Center to cancel Israeli government's "Brand Israel" theater performances (Adalah-NY, 2017). "5 Myths About Israel Boycotts That Every Theater Lover Should Consider"(Dan Fishback, Forward, July 21, 2017). Lincoln Center Festival page for To the End of the Land, presented July 24-27, 2017. Lincoln Center Festival page for Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination, presented July 9, 2017. "PACBI Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel" (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, July 16, 2014). "Governor Cuomo Signs First-in-the-Nation Executive Order Directing Divestment of Public Funds Supporting BDS Campaign Against Israel" (Governor's Press Office, June 5, 2016). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2002), which defines the word "apartheid" in Part II, Article 7 (page 5). 

“So if you want to really learn what Jerusalem is and what happens here, come here and go to both sides. Come here and talk to Palestinians.” — Leena Dallasheh This is the sixth installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this episode, Unsettled producer Emily Bell interviewed Leena Dallasheh, assistant professor of history at Humboldt State University. They spoke about what East Jerusalem is like for its Palestinian population and the stark differences between East and West Jerusalem. This episode was recorded on December 19, 2017 and edited by Ilana Levinson. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. _Note: At 4:30, Leena Dallasheh says synagogue when referring to the site at Mamilla Cemetery. She intended to say cemetery in this instance. _ Leena Dallasheh is an assistant professor of history at Humboldt State University.  She received her PhD in the joint History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies program at NYU. Her work focuses on the social and political history of Nazareth from 1940 to 1966, tracing how Palestinians who remained in Israel in 1948 negotiated their incorporation in the state, affirming their rights as citizens and their identity as Palestinian. She has published serval articles and book chapters, including “Troubled Waters: Governing Water and Struggling for Citizenship in Nazareth,” which appeared in IJMES 47 (2015). Before coming to NYU, she received a law degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dallasheh is currently in Jerusalem for six months, working on her book manuscript, “Contested Citizenship: Nazareth’s Palestinians in the Transition from British Mandate to Israel.” The project is a communal biography of the Palestinian Arab city of Nazareth from 1940 to 1966, telling the story of this Palestinian community as it lived through the Nakba (the “Catastrophe”) of 1948. Through this, it presents a history of the early encounter between Palestinians who became citizens of Israel in 1948 and the Israeli state. The research during this period is supported by a fellowship from PARC-NEH/FPIRI.