The Palestine Pod

This week, Lara and Michael talk HR 2590 - the monumental new bill proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) on April 15, 2021 and co-sponsored by over a dozen other representatives that seeks to hold Israel accountable for land theft of Palestinian land, Israeli house demolitions of Palestinian houses and Israel’s jailing of Palestinian children. The bill is wider in scope than previous bills related to Palestinian human rights co-sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum and establishes annual certification and reporting obligations on the Secretary of State to show that no U.S. funds have been used by Israel to support the prohibited activities included in the legislation. The bill also requires oversight reporting detailing Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians. Lara and Michael break down the significance of its co-sponsors and 75+ supporting organizations (including Movement for Black Lives, Justice Democrats, Working Families Party, Detention Watch, Center for Constitutional Rights and more) as well as the ensuing public meltdown by AIPAC who, as Rep. Betty McCollum tweeted earlier this week, apparently *wants* US tax dollars to be spent on demolishing houses and jailing children. While it is notable for example that “liberal Zionist” group J Street has endorsed the bill, Lara and Michael remain critical by recent attempts of so-called “progressive Zionists” to paint Zionism as rooted in Judaism and compatible with Palestinian human rights by citing to the scholarly work of Rabbi Shapiro who explains clearly in his interviews and writings that Judaism has nothing to do with Zionism and that the latter was born out of secular European settler colonial movements. Lara and Michael put out a call to action encouraging everyone to call their representatives and ask them to support HR 2590. In other Palestine-related news, Michael reports a recent BDS win in Canada where the New Democratic Party, passed a resolution, “[e]nding all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine,” becoming Ottawa’s first major political group to endorse a partial boycott of Israel, with 80% of the party voting in favor of the boycott. In an extension of last week’s discussion on political prisoners, Lara mentions Israel’s recent arrest of a Palestinian dabke dancer whose only known “crime” is dance and recalls the story of the Holy Land 5, five Palestinian-American political prisoners in the US who were prosecuted more than a decade ago on dozens of charges including material support to a foreign terrorist organization, even though there was not a shred of evidence against them. Lara and Michael roast Ted Cruz and bond over homemade pizza dough.

Lara and Michael provide an update on US policy re: Palestinian rights. While the Biden administration recently announced the lifting of sanctions (finally) on the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor and the renewal of funding to UNRWA, Lara offers a word of caution: the US may have lifted sanctions on the ICC, but its position opposing the ICC investigation has not changed. As to UNRWA, Lara calls on us never to lose sight of the big picture (i.e. UNRWA should not even exist because Palestinians should not be refugees to begin with since they should be allowed to return to their homes in Palestine). In light of the recent viral video of Majd Barbar, a Palestinian father and husband from East Jerusalem who was released from Israeli military prison following a 20 year sentence for his role in resisting Israeli colonization, the rest of the episode focuses on political prisoners. Lara and Michael shout out congresswoman Betty McCollum, who, in 2019 co-sponsored a bill to prohibit American tax dollars from being used by the Israeli military to detain, interrogate, abuse or torture Palestinian children. Lara highlights the twisted reality that Israel jails Palestinian men, women, and children for engaging in what would otherwise be protected freedoms in democratic societies, like the freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the right to protest. Michael quotes Rick Ross. 

This week we sit down with journalist, activist, author and editor of The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman to discuss BDS victories, campus activism, and the Palestine exception to free speech. Condemning the push to codify the new IHRA definition of antisemitism as well as its recent alternative, the so-called "Jerusalem declaration" definition of antisemitism, Nora sets the record straight by recalling the regular old definition of antisemitism. Lara reminds us that the reason why Zionists have been busy pushing to change the definition of antisemitism is due to the fact that BDS, which threatens the inequalities perpetuated by Zionism, is itself an anti-racist call expressly condemning antisemitism and all forms of racism. Utterly unable to discredit BDS, which does not target individuals or entities because of who they are but because of their complicity in oppression, Michael says Zionists have been left with no choice but to "move the goalpost" by lobbying to change the meaning of antisemitism itself. Nora tells us more about her anti-Zionist Jewish upbringing and long-standing commitment to justice and Palestinian human rights. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss the latest Israeli elections and the voter suppression that rules in the "fauxonly" democracy in the Middle East: 5 million Palestinians whose lives Israel controls in the occupied West Bank and Gaza cannot vote in these elections at all whereas Palestinians who live within the territory declared Israel in 1948 and are technically allowed to vote have been the target of racist campaign rhetoric by political candidates and are filmed as they vote to deter them from voting. Michael talks voter suppression in the US as well as his shocking experience working on both Bernie Sanders campaigns. Lara comments on the latest move by the US to give 15 million to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza for COVID-19 and expresses frustration with the U.S. policy on Palestine under Democratic administrations. Lara shows how thus far Biden IS Trump on Palestine (not an exaggeration and she has the receipts to prove it). Michael explains to Lara what gefilte fish is. 

This week Amer Zahr joins the Palestine Pod and tells us how he uses comedy as a means of expression, advocacy for Palestinian rights, healing, and art. He shares with us some of his comedy icons and admits what he really thinks about white male comedians (sorry Michael). Commenting on the recent storming of the capitol and attempted coup of the US, Amer contemplates how “unbelievably awesome” whiteness is. Amer reflects on his viral video “Akhaduha Mafroosheh” (Arabic for "they took it fully furnished" referring to the Zionist takeover of Palestine as the theft of a fully furnished land, society, and culture) including scenes that did not make it into the final cut. Amer tells us what “Akhaduha Mafroosheh” meant to his family by describing the displacement of his mother’s family from Akka, Palestine: “Israel is a lot more than ethnic cleansing. It is ethnic replacement. They literally moved into our grandparents’ houses.” By relying on the findings of researchers Ronald Ranta and Yonatan Mendel, Lara dispels the common myth that dishes claimed by “Israeli cuisine” like hummus, falafel, and knafeh are the gifts of Mizrahi Jews coming to Israel from Yemen and Iraq. In fact, these foods were taken from the local indigenous Palestinians who were eating these foods on the land of Palestine for centuries upon centuries. As Amer says, “it’s not that hard. Go to a Israeli hummus place […] and then go to a Palestinian hummus place in Ramallah and […] they taste pretty much the same and guess what - the Ramallah guy has been there for 200 years and the Tel Aviv guy just got there. So you figure it out. They are copying our hummus […] the food of the land and of course they are.” Lara asks Amer to tell us some of his favorite Palestinian food memories from his “older than Israel” grandmother. A fierce bamya debate breaks out between Lara and Amer (thanks Michael).  

In this episode, Lara and Michael cover the latest assertions of the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and the UN Gilad Erdan who, following a trip to the "American south," said he was touched by learning about segregation and the Jim Crow era calling it an "incredibly moving trip." The Times of Israel reports that the ambassador compared slave plantations in the US to concentration camps but said there was "no comparison" between Israel's treatment of Palestinians and struggles for racial justice in the US. Lara and Michael play a quick round of “Sounds like Jim Crow or Not” to test the ambassador’s unsupported assertions on the reality of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians which according to Michael “fold like a house of cards after Kevin Spacey got accused.” Lara and Michael reject the ambassador’s attempts to exploit the Black struggle in the US and erase a deep history of Black-Palestinian solidarity going back to the 1960s and existing until today. Citing the book Black Power and Palestine, Lara and Michael cover the positions of leading Black activists throughout the ages including Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, and Angela Davis, and describe the anti-imperial, anti-colonial, and anti-racist connections that undeniably form the foundation of the solidarity between Black liberation and Palestinian liberation activists. Lara and Michael coin the term “crocodile sympathy” to refer attempts by Pro-Israel apologists to posture themselves as compassionate supporters of equality in situations not involving Palestinian rights, meanwhile hypocritically participating in the system that deprives Palestinians of the very rights they purport to support elsewhere. Lara and Michael offer other examples of crocodile sympathy, including (i) IDF soldiers’ social media posts about donating their hair to cancer patients as they participate in the very institution that denies Palestinians access to health care by bombing hospitals in Gaza, denying permits to seek health care elsewhere, restricting importation of medicine and medical equipment, preventing pregnant Palestinian women from reaching hospitals at checkpoints, and (ii) Israel’s provision of COVID-19 vaccines to Honduras and the Czech Republic while blocking the entrance of COVID-19 vaccines to Gaza, denying 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza vaccines in violation of its international obligations as an international power, and the demolition of a COVID-19 testing site in the occupied West Bank earlier this year.

Lara and Michael welcome you to The Palestine Pod! Lara discusses her family’s history and origins from Yaffa and Gaza, Palestine including how her family became stateless refugees, the broader history of the Palestinian struggle including the expulsion of the majority of the Palestinian population in 1948 as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel on top of historic Palestine, Israel’s ongoing land theft of Palestinian land as well as its oppressive system of apartheid, occupation, and siege which continue until today. Lara reflects on her college activist years and the path that led to her pursuing a career as an international lawyer focusing on refugee rights. Michael focuses on his experience growing up in a pro-Israel Jewish household and his evolution to becoming an anti-Zionist including his realization that Israel was an apartheid state, involvement in campus activism, and absurd encounters with his former IDF frat brothers. Lara and Michael explain the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and the weaponization of the latter in order to suppress any discussion of the very harmful consequences of the implementation of the Zionist project in Palestine: the creation of the world’s largest refugee population (8 million Palestinian refugees today out of a global population of 13 million people), the majority of whom remain stateless and prevented from returning to their land by Israel as well as the daily deprivation of rights by Israel of the Palestinians who continue to live in historic Palestine (whether in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza).