The Palestine Pod

This week, Laila El-Haddad, co-author of the Gaza Kitchen, joins the Palestine Pod. In honor of the publication of the third edition of the book, Laila shares with us some of the new recipes that she learned on her last trip to Gaza in 2019. Laila paints for us a culinary picture of Gaza and explains how intimately the history and politics, including in particular the Nakba of 1948, affect the local cuisine. Laila and Michael go back in time to recall a rich history of Gaza since Alexander the Great. Laila provides an update on her family in Gaza further to Israel's latest assaults which she notes focused on Gaza's commercial hub and city center unlike previous Israeli assaults which tended to focus on the periphery of the besieged enclave. Lara queries where Gaza's love for the chili pepper came from. Laila recalls that conversations about Gaza's resistance should never lose sight of the fact that resistance itself is not the goal: Liberation is the goal and resistance is the means. Michael instigates bamya-gate part two.

This week we sit down with Farah Nabulsi, Palestinian-British Oscar-nominated, and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate. We do a deep dive into The Present exploring its themes, the thought process behind certain characters and exchanges, and the notion that we learn just as much about Palestinian cultural tendencies of hospitality and compassion as we do about the realities of life under Israeli military occupation. Farah also clues us into the only part of the Present which is fictional and reveals why she chose to focus this film around the checkpoint - just one of the settler-colonial state’s violent many structures and apparatuses. We discuss the importance of language in a liberation struggle and the interplay between the dehumanization of the Palestinians and the oppressor’s capacity to oppress (shoutout Stanley Milgrim). Farah and Lara talk Fanon and Michael recall Chomsky’s warnings about the emergence of Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Apartheid Israel. Farah suggests Lara and Michael go into radio.

This week, Lara and Michael sit down with Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, Amir of the Royal House of Mandela, tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, member of Parliament (MP) in the South Africa National Assembly since 2009, grandson of the anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and a fierce advocate of Palestinian liberation. This episode is a deep dive into Apartheid South Africa, the parallels between South African Apartheid and Israeli Apartheid, and the deep bonds between Palestinian liberation activists and South African anti-apartheid activists. It is also a moment of education into what the Palestinian liberation struggle can learn from our comrades in South Africa. Nkosi Mandela speaks of the importance of armed resistance, BDS, and direct action, the politics and legacy of President Mandela, the importance of youth activism and more. Lara queries how far are we from liberation in Palestine by drawing from the history of South Africa and Michael asks Chief Mandela to set the record straight on letting the oppressor define modes of resistance and identity politics.  

A Palestinian-American Lawyer & Jewish-American comedian break down the latest Palestine-related news with commentary & interviews every week.

This week's main story is the arrest of Abdul Khaliq Burnat and Muhammad Burnat, two brothers from the occupied village of Bil'in and the children of Lara's dear friend Iyad Burnat, a community organizer from the village. Abdul Khaliq and and Muhammed were kidnapped by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in two separate middle of the night raids on Iyad's house in May 2021 where the IOF destroyed the Burnat family's personal belongings including their personal electronics and beat the boys before throwing them into the back of a military vehicle. No charges have been brought against Abdul Khaliq and Muhammad and all evidence suggests that these arrests have been entirely arbitrary. As of June 2, 2021, Iyad and his wife still have no idea of the whereabouts of their two children who join the hundreds of other children being unjustly held by Israel. Iyad Burnat is a key figure who, for years now, has been resisting Israel's land theft of his village's land. Israel started uprooting Bil'in's olive groves and stealing thousands of dunams of the village's land in order to build the Apartheid wall (which was deemed illegal by the ICJ in 2004 and which Israel has yet to dismantle in 2021). The portion of the Apartheid wall that cuts through Bil'in separates people like Iyad and his family from their land which was intentionally placed on the other side of the wall to allow the illegal Jewish settlement Modi'in Illit to expand in line with Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement. Lara and Michael discuss BDS wins like the campaign named Musicians for Palestine where over 600 musicians signed a letter pledging to boycott Israel and calling on other musicians of conscience to do the same as well as the news that over 600 Amazon employees urged Jeff Bezos to cut ties with the Israeli military following the recent news that Amazon was entering into a billion-dollar contract with Israel, in which they would be providing cloud services for the government and Israeli armed forces for at least seven years. Michael brings us more news of anti-Zionist rabbis and goes down the rabbit hole to expose the link between Israel's economy and the (blood) diamond industry which funds its military and intelligence services. Lara and Michael affirm that they are not depressed and have no suicidal tendencies.

This week we first provide updates on some BDS wins (go Abby Martin!) and recent actions by workers and activists to disrupt the sale and manufacturing of weapons intended for Israel. Lara and Michael also share their thoughts on the wins and losses of this ongoing global intifada of unity before getting into this week's interview with journalist and author Massoud Hayoun. Together with Massoud, we discuss his book When We Were Arabs, a colorful tale of his family's origins, which interweaves personal anecdotes, political vignettes and elements of cultural history that paint very clearly for the reader what the Jewish Arab identity meant to this family, not only in the past, but also how Massoud understands and lives his identity today, which includes Massoud's ethical stances as an anti-Zionist Jewish Arab in support of Palestinian liberation. Lara makes a Ja Rule joke.

This week, our guest is Adnan Barq, a young Palestinian student of English literature and journalism from occupied East Jerusalem. Adnan offers his perspective on the latest Palestinian uprising which was born out of resistance to two forms of colonial violence in Occupied East Jerusalem: the settler-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and interference and violence inflicted by the IOF against Palestinian worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque during the month of Ramadan and in particular on the most holy day of Ramadan - Laylat Al Qadr. Lara shares updates from the latest military assaults on Gaza which have, by May 19, 2021 killed over 210 Palestinians, half of them being women and children with, in numerous cases many members of families being massacred together. She also shares reports from her friends living on the ground in '48 including by reference to the widespread destruction of Palestinian businesses as well as the lynching of Palestinians in the streets by Zionist mobs. Lara and Adnan, a Palestinian refugee in exile and a Palestinian in occupied Palestine comment on the meaning of this uprising, its possibilities for the future as well as its role in the history of the struggle for a liberated Palestine. Michael gets kicked off the call 7 times most likely due to heavy censorship. 

This week, we catch up with the prolific and thoughtful Palestinian-American scholar-activist, author, and speaker Dr. Steve Salaita and do a deep dive into settler-colonialism. What is happening in Palestine is often reduced to unexplainable cycles of violence in a “conflict” between two sides who both make good points (the liberal zionist narrative) and between "chosen" people and terrorists (the zionist zionist narrative). Neither frameworks are rooted in the historical reality. Dr. Steve Salaita helps us understand Israeli settler-colonialism in Palestine by explaining its deep ideological connection to settler-colonialism in America. We also discuss the notion of indigeneity and its implications as well as the US and Israel's philosophical justifications for their policies and the ways in which Palestinians and Native Americans have been and are responding to systematic land theft and ethnic cleansing. Steve describes the basis of Native-Palestinian solidarity starting in the 1960s which mirrors the solidarity between Black Power and Palestinian activists in the same time period and offers a solid basis for continued solidarity today. This conversation also explores the role of reparations and how (if at all) it may fit into the broader conversation on justice in Palestine. Steve offers a word of the wise to oppressed peoples calling on them never to concede a right in an attempt to advance the cause. Lara points out that this approach as always failed to yield any results in the struggle for justice in Palestine. This conversation is an essential primer on the source of the so-called "conflict" in Palestine. It provides the historical context needed to understand the plans of early Zionist leaders to arrive as "settlers" in the land of Palestine and establish a Jewish colony at the expense of the native population - the Palestinians. It also allows us to make sense of all Israel's polices today towards Palestinians including the apartheid system, house demolitions, the building of Jewish settlements on stolen land, the uprooting of olive trees, the forced expulsions, restrictions on movement, the brutal violence committed against Palestinians in Gaza (and more) as all parts of the settler colony's ongoing policy to rid Palestine of its native population to the benefit of a foreign settler population. In doing so, this conversation centers the "setter-colonial" framework in the discussion around the Zionist movement and is especially useful for understanding the most recent efforts by Israel to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, including Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. #SaveSheikhJarrah #FreePalestine

This week, Lara and Michael discuss the absurdity of "settler Jacob," the American settler who can be seen in a recent viral video brazenly attempting to the steal the home of Mona al-Kurd, a young Palestinian woman who hails from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem which is currently facing a mass ethnic cleansing campaign at the hands of Zionist settlers who are protected in their colonial pursuits by the Israeli army on a daily basis. #SaveSheikhJarrah because Palestinians, like all humans, deserve to live in their houses without foreign settlers invading and taking over talking about "God said so." Lara provides an update on the lawsuit before the Israeli Supreme Court in relation to the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah and spoiler alert, it is loads of garbage and can only be described as quintessentially "Zionist logic." Michael considers that Zionists are like "New York and New Jersey mobsters who intimidate people by hanging them off a bridge" except they do that with logic (lol). Lara insists that the horrific expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah demonstrate that Israel is only interested in stealing more and more land, and that no amount of stolen land will ever be enough when the goal is a Greater Israel, which "map" covers several other countries in the region. Lara and Michael also reveal how Israel's repressive policies extend beyond its borders. For example, Israel provides Mexico with training and weapons in its counterinsurgency against the Zapatistas in Chiapas. Michael underscores the importance of connecting Palestinian activism with May Day solidarity by pointing to Israel's extraction of wealth from Palestinians. Lara provides an update on the Palestinian legislative elections and (spoiler alert), it's not looking good. Lara and Michael share the disturbing results of a global study on the effects of tear gas on reproductive cycles and also shoutout Foodbenders, the Toronto restaurant made target of several baseless lawsuits brought by the Israel lobby (including the terrorist JDL) seeking to crush its displays of Palestinian solidarity. Lara proposes an unusual solution to ending Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid in Palestine. 

This week we are joined by Israeli-American author, activist, and speaker Miko Peled. Author of The General's Son and Injustice, Miko Peled reflects on his path from growing up the son of an Israeli war general in as "strong of a zionist family as you could possibly have" to becoming an anti-zionist activist for Palestinian rights, and supporter of BDS and the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for all in historic Palestine. Miko dismantles the myth that there can be a liberal zionism concluding "there never was, there never is, and there never can be a good version of a racist ideology" and that "zionism is a form of neo-fascism." The Palestine Pod sends its solidarity to Palestinians in Jerusalem who are currently resisting expulsion from their homes and racist violence by Israelis and Miko refers to the "Judaization of Jerusalem" as "ethnic cleansing 101" and warns that Israel is hell-bent on destroying Jerusalem, an ancient city and its Muslim holy sites. Miko reveals the antisemitic origins of the Zionist movement. Lara commends a recent episode of Miko's podcast which shed light on demonstrated attempts by the zionist lobbies to suffocate Palestinian history by infiltrating the US K-12 educational system and intimidating teachers who dare depart from pro-zionist lesson plans. Miko offers a word of advice to Palestinians in the diaspora who encounter Israeli intelligence at the airport or crossings when trying to visit Palestine.