The Palestine Pod

This week Lara and Michael celebrate the 50th episode of The Palestine Pod. We do a quick recap of guests and share our appreciation for everyone who has enjoyed the project so far. We cover the various shootings that occurred over the past few weeks. Some at the hands of the occupation, and some at the hands of Palestinians resisting. We discuss the difference in reaction when Ukrainians resist using violence vs. when Palestinians resist using violence. We dissect how the Israeli media is trying to justify the occupation of Palestine while supporting the right to self-defense from the occupation in Ukraine. We discuss the real origins of terrorism and the gravity of the violence that Palestinians face every single day. A former Israeli general promises Palestinians another Nakba. The so-called “safest place for Jews” needs to recommit itself to security apparently, by beefing up its police budget. We cover the occupation's reaction to Palestinian resistance which includes a stupidly named “Operation Break the Wave” and how that includes tear gassing hospitals. US Senators obstruct justice in the name of “fighting antisemitism” and we also cover Land Day and the various protests around the world commemorating the Palestinians who lost their lives protecting their land. We talk about how the Israeli lobby is gunning for Lowkey, and the New York Times finally mentions the Amnesty International Apartheid Israel report, some 52 days late, and only as a footnote.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Palestinian journalist, documentary filmmaker, and GQ heartthrob, Ahmed Eldin. Ahmed joins us to discuss his upcoming documentary (which is still under wraps) and how the terminology surrounding Israeli apartheid and occupation of Palestine is shifting in the public arena. We chat about overt and subtle media censorship from Instagram deprioritizing certain videos to outright banning accounts, and the inability to speak freely when working in a major newsroom. We cover some of the most recent egregious double standards from the Russia/Ukraine situation. We also talk about how Palestinian resistance has been criminalized in an effort to scare people away from talking about justice for Palestine. We end with a lighthearted conversation about how the Palestinian people are not waiting around for their so-called leaders to take action. Individual Palestinians both on the ground and in exile are taking liberation into their own hands.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the New York-based revolutionary activist and organizer Nerdeen Kiswani. Nerdeen is a 3L at the CUNY School of Law where she is the head of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She's the chair of Within Our Lifetime a Palestinian-led community hub that organizes Palestinians in the diaspora whose goal is to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of the Palestinian community abroad in pursuit of a free homeland. Her account @wolpalestine and @thepalestinepod were deleted off Instagram without warning or explanation. We discuss the efforts we underwent to get our accounts back, censorship, and the erasure of all Indigenous peoples in the world and on the internet. 

This week Lara and Michael do a deep dive into the hypocrisy, double standards, and outright racism exhibited by media when covering Ukraine vs. Palestine. We muse about what makes someone civilized and why the media glorifies armed resistance in Ukraine but deems any such action by Palestinians as terrorism. We cover how both pictures of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi and videos of bombs being dropped in Gaza were manipulated to garner support for Ukraine until people found out both happened in Palestine. We cover the preferential treatment Ukrainian refugees receive in contrast to refugees coming from Africa and the Levant. We also discuss how Black people are being stopped from fleeing in Ukraine and the existence of Nazis (funded by the US and Israel) within the ranks of Ukrainian resistance. We talk about a former Air Force Captain for the IOF who says the Israeli government and military are "terrorist organizations run by war criminals" and has started a movement to encourage soldiers to quit. Finally, we discuss an article about young Jews dedicating their social media presence to undoing the brainwashing of Zionism, where Michael is mentioned by name. 

This week Lara and Michael speak with Nisreen Salem, a photojournalist from Occupied East Jerusalem. She conducts the interview from inside a family’s house in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah where she documents protests that occur every night. We provide updates on the situation in Sheikh Jarrah with the Salem family and others. Nisreen breaks down the specifics of the Jerusalem court freezing (but not cancelling) expulsions, and ordering Palestinian families to pay the courts and the Israeli police. She explains how Sheikh Jarrah is the last stand for Palestinian freedom of movement in Jerusalem because 4 of the 6 areas in East Jerusalem have already been ethnically cleansed by the Apartheid state. Nisreen tells us about the Afro Palestinian experience, including racism from both Israeli and Palestinian society amounting to what she describes as “double apartheid.” Nisreen describes how she was assaulted and abducted by the IOF for doing journalism. We discuss how the occupation uses the trauma of Black Jews to advance settler-colonial aims while deporting Black Jews, invalidating their Jewishness, and in some cases sterilizing Ethiopian women. We conclude with the story of how Nisreen's family was displaced first in Africa, and then again from 1948 Palestine.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Diana Buttu, a fierce human rights lawyer, former PLO negotiator, Palestinian citizen of Israel and political analyst at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Diana offers her views on the Amnesty International Report and on current events on the ground in the aftermath of the May 2021 uprising. She tells the Palestine Pod the story of how her father’s family was ethnically cleansed from his village near Nazareth. Lara and Diana analyze Israel's absurd relationship to the law, and Michael asks Diana what we can learn from the South African anti-Apartheid struggle. Diana also shares behind the scenes stories from her time negotiating for the PLO.

This week Lara and Michael discuss how several Palestinian youth were murdered, execution-style, by the Apartheid State’s Yamam Brigade responsible for dressing up as and infiltrating Palestinian circles. Michael reminds us that zionists do not just murder people for armed resistance, but they also assassinate thinkers, people who can sway public opinion, foreign generals, and most recently scientists. Michael also throws back to the very first anti-zionist Jew murdered by the Haganah in 1924, Jacob De Haan. Lara provides a BDS update that includes Texas lawsuits, Harvard students boycotting Sabra, and Death on the Nile. Michael covers how Lebanon broke up an Israeli spy ring and the Palestine Pod discusses the latest in US and Israeli reactions to Amnesty International’s report finding Israel guilty of running an Apartheid regime.

This week Lara and Michael hash out the good and the bad from Amnesty International’s recent report documenting Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians and dissect the Zionist response (i.e loose cannon false accusations of antisemitism and/or terrorism). Lara queries how many more reports we need before we will believe Palestinians and demand an end to the Apartheid regime? The Palestine Pod somewhat rejoices following news of Meta’s (formerly Facebook) recent removal or various Israeli cyberstalking accounts because as Michael reminds us: only Facebook gets to spy on our data! Lara relishes in the fact that FOX News inadvertently promoted the arguments against zionism and settler-colonialism in one of its articles by heavily quoting a recent University of Chicago SJP Instagram post and failing to present any convincing rebuttals. Lara and Michael conclude this week’s episode by chatting about Yair Lapid's response to the ADL letter on settler terror, calling it a “stain" on Israeli society that he will totally look into and not ignore.

On this episode of The Palestine Pod, Lara and Michael do a deep dive into firsthand accounts/primary sources of the massacre at Tantura. We cover it both from the testimonies of the perpetrators and the few people who survived. Lara reads a survivor's account included in The Palestinian Right of Return Under International Law, a book by Professor Francis Boyle. Michael dissects footage from an upcoming documentary entitled Tantura that just premiered at Sundance as well as the attempts by Dr. Illan Pappe and graduate student Theodore Katz to bring the horrors of the massacre to light, and everything the Israeli government did to silence those who dared to speak out. Michael covers the demolition of the Salhiya family home and provides updates on what has been happening in Sheikh Jarrah since much of the world stopped paying attention.  We reference the Occupation’s war on Palestinian elders and the ADL asking Israel to tone down the terrorism. Lara provides a brief update on the Burnat brothers, and the episode concludes with updates on the successes of Palestine Action in their efforts to kick Elbit Systems out of the UK.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the talented and outspoken Palestinian rapper, Tamer Nafar. We speak to Tamer about his music, the recent uprising in May, his family history and what it's like being a Palestinian living inside the occupation. Lara contemplates what it would mean for her to return to Palestine, and Tamer talks about the inspiration for his songs, including a song about refugees returning home and why he would want them there. Michael geeks out about Tamer's rap lyrics, and we discuss living in the moment, especially when the moment is historic.