On the Nose

In the last two years, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have begun using the word “apartheid” to describe Israeli rule over Palestinians, marking a significant shift within the human rights establishment. But Palestinian intellectuals have been critiquing Israeli apartheid for decades—albeit in a different fashion. As scholars of international law Noura Erakat and John Reynolds wrote in an essay published in the summer issue of Jewish Currents, a rich archive of Palestinian writing from the 1960s and ’70s frames apartheid as “an inevitable outcome of Israeli settler colonialism,” and a key “vehicle for its continuance.” Erakat and Reynolds argue that if we understand apartheid as a tool of settler colonialism, it appears to “require the same remedies as other manifestations of colonial rule and foreign occupation: collective liberation and land restitution.” By contrast, the human rights organizations have advanced a more legalistic understanding of apartheid, and suggested accordingly that the solution  is to institute formal legal equality in Israel/Palestine—in other words, to extend equal rights to all who live in the land. Alex Kane discusses this and more with Erakat, Reynolds, and Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch.Articles and Reports Mentioned:“Understanding Apartheid,” Noura Erakat and John Reynolds, Jewish Currents“A Threshold Crossed,” Human Rights Watch“Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity,” Amnesty International“The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid,” Michael Sfard, Yesh Din“A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid,” B’Tselem “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” Eve Tuck and K. Wayne YangThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Dave Chappelle’s controversial monologue on the November 12th episode of Saturday Night Live, which found much to laugh at in Kanye West’s and Kyrie Irving’s recent antisemitic remarks, set off a new round of discourse about blackness, Jewishness, power, and the entertainment industry. Chappelle’s monologue, which some viewers accused of propagating antisemitic tropes itself, also revealed that part of what is at stake in the current contretemps is comedy—specifically, the nexus of Black and Jewish comedy, where an American idiom of humor about insiders and outsiders, envy and identification, privilege and suffering was born. What makes us keep returning to this well of humor, and what happens when the laughter stops? Jewish Currents senior editor Ari Brostoff, JC contributing writer Rebecca Pierce, critic and essayist Jasmine Sanders, and writer and Know Your Enemy co-host Sam Adler-Bell discuss.  Articles, Books, Films, Tweets, and Clips Mentioned:Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, dir. Ronald Dalton Jr.Dave Chappelle’s Saturday Night Live monologueJonathan Greeblatt tweet about Dave ChappelleKanye West performs on Chappelle’s ShowDonald Trump on using tax loopholesOreo by Fran RossThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” 

In last Tuesday’s Knesset elections, the Israeli electorate delivered a big win to Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition in the fifth Israeli election since 2019. The right-wing bloc won 64 Knesset seats, which will likely give Netanayhu and allied parties enough votes to form a stable and ideologically coherent coalition government. Netanyahu’s probable return to power is thanks to the strength of the Religious Zionism coalition, consisting of three of the most extreme parties in Israeli politics. The coalition won 14 seats, the most it has ever gotten. Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke to editor-at-large Peter Beinart, contributing editor Joshua Leifer, and contributing writer Elisheva Goldberg about the rise of the Religious Zionism coalition, the commonalities between that coalition and the Israeli center-left, and how these elections might affect the US-Israel relationship. Articles Mentioned:“Kahanism’s Raucous Return,” Joshua Leifer, Jewish Currents“Israel’s Ascendant Far Right Can’t Be Understood by Analogy,” Peter Beinart, Jewish Currents“U.S. unlikely to work with Jewish supremacist expected to be made Israeli minister,” Barak Ravid, AxiosThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

In the last week and a half, Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, been photographed with far-right provocateur Candace Owens wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt, and tweeted that he was going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” (which landed him in social media jail). Redacted footage from the Fox interview revealed that Ye made a number of antisemitic comments there too, referring to Hannukah as a vehicle for “financial engineering” and casting Black people as the real Jews, with non-Black Jews as imposters. In the wake of these comments, Jewish organizations have raised the alarm about worsening antisemitism; meanwhile, tensions have been rising online between some Black and Jewish people, playing out familiar grievances about acknowledgement and allyship. What, if anything, can we learn from this instance of high-profile antisemitism and this latest round of Black–Jewish discourse? And is there any path to solidarity between those targeted by Ye’s anti-Black and antisemitic ideas? Jewish Currents contributing writer Rebecca Pierce, Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, and Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel discussed Ye’s antisemitism.Note: This episode was taped on Friday, October 14th, before it was announced that Ye plans to buy the right-wing social media platform Parler. Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a postscript from Pierce and Angel on this new development.Articles and Tweets Mentioned:“Watch the Disturbing Kanye Interview Clips That Tucker Carlson Didn’t Put on Air,” Anna Merlan, Vice “Musk and West, Inc.,” John Ganz’s Substack“What Kanye Can Teach Us About Anti-Semitism,” Yair Rosenberg, The AtlanticKimberly Nicole Foster’s tweets about antisemitism“Black Antisemitism Is Not Inherently ‘Left Wing,’” Rebecca Pierce, Jewish Currents“Beyond Grievance,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents Sarah Silverman’s Jewish grievance tweet“Kanye West to acquire conservative social media platform Parler,” Brian Fung, CNN Business“An Antisemitic Judge, a White Supremacist System,” Rebecca Pierce, Jewish Currents Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

The podcast discusses the devastating impact of Israel's blockade on Gaza, including the lack of electricity and personal stories of loss. It explores the role of Gisha, a human rights organization in Israel, in advocating for Palestinians in Gaza. The chapter also talks about the challenges faced in obtaining permits and the growth of Palestinian resistance against Israel's crackdown. It emphasizes the empowerment and unity of Palestinians in their ongoing fight for freedom.

In the wake of the recent extensive New York Times investigation into Hasidic yeshivas, a fierce and often acrimonious debate has emerged about the ethics of covering the Hasidic world from the outside, how private institutions that receive government funds are accountable to the broader public, and religious minority communities’ right to insist on their way of life, even when it brings them into conflict with the state. On this episode, Jewish Currents Contributing Editor Joshua Leifer hosts a conversation between Naftuli Moster, executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), and Frieda Vizel, a writer and tour guide of Hasidic Brooklyn. Moster and Vizel—who both grew up in, and later left, Hasidic communities—draw on their own educational experiences to offer very different perspectives on the Times article and reactions to it, on the best way to advocate for change in the Hasidic world, and on what’s at stake in the fight over secular education.Articles and Podcast Episodes Mentioned:“In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money,” Eliza Shaprio and Brian M. Rosenthal, The New York Times“Thoughts on the NYT exposé on Hasidic education,” Frieda Vizel“Progressives Have Abandoned Haredi Children,” Naftuli Moster, Jewish Currents“The Great Yeshiva Slander,” Commentary podcast“Private Religious Schools Have Public Responsibilities Too,” Nomi M.Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, The AtlanticThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

On this episode, Jewish Currents Editor-in-Chief Arielle Angel talks with her mother, Jeri Cohen, co-founder of the Women’s Emergency Network, the first abortion fund in South Florida. Cohen, who spent 28 years as a judge in child abuse and dependency court, retired two years ago and has since gotten back into the struggle for reproductive justice. But the movement has changed since the peak of her involvement in the ’70s and ’80s, rooting itself in different political frameworks and organizing cultures, and she now finds herself a fish out of water—a committed liberal on the cusp of 70, learning the mores of the contemporary left. Cohen discusses the process of reacquainting herself with the struggle that defined her young adulthood and which has subsequently transformed.If you liked this podcast, please donate to the Women’s Emergency Network, an abortion fund serving women in South Florida.

On this episode, Jewish Currents Contributing Editor Joshua Leifer talks with Oren Ziv—co-founder of the award-winning photojournalist collective Activestills and reporter for +972 Magazine and its Hebrew sister site, Local Call—about Oren’s decade-plus experience documenting protest and resistance in Israel/Palestine. Since the Activestills collective’s founding in 2005, Ziv and the group have captured some of the most iconic, and often painful, images of social and political struggle: from the demonstrations against the Israeli separation barrier in the late 2000s, to the campaign for African asylum seekers’ rights in the 2010s, to the opposition to gentrification in the Mizrahi neighborhood of Givat Amal, and much more. Ziv’s own dogged reporting has made him one of the most perceptive journalists in the field; through his camera, Ziv has opened up the injustices of the occupation to the world. Ziv discusses his journalistic method and the experience of documenting the violence of apartheid.One note: This conversation was recorded before August 18th, when Israeli forces raided and sealed the offices of six leading Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations in the occupied West Bank.Articles, Statements, and Websites Mentioned“Bil’in: Photographing a decade of popular struggle” by Activestills“Desperation and hope in the eviction of Givat Amal” by Haggai Matar“Reconstruction of Umm al-Hiran killings disproves car-ramming claims” by Yael MaromVisual investigation of Umm al-Hiran incident, by Forensic Architecture and Activiestills“Joint militias: How settlers and soldiers teamed up to kill four Palestinians” by Yuval Abraham“Sent to Rwanda by Israel: ‘We have no food or work. Don’t come here’” by Oren Ziv“At Tel Aviv rally, a Mizrahi-asylum seeker alliance is born” by Joshua Leifer“Israeli gunfire killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, U.N. says” by Bill Chappell“Secret Israeli document offers no proof to justify terror label for Palestinian groups” by Yuval Abraham, Oren Ziv, and Meron Rapoport“‘You will pay the price’: Shin Bet threatens Palestinian NGO directors” by Oren Ziv“‘We killed a little boy, but it was within the rules’” by Yuval Abraham“Netanyahu’s authoritarian rule is turning Israelis against the state” by Meron Rapoport“Peace Now is taking direct action against settler outposts. Can it succeed?” by Oren Ziv and Meron Rapoport“The End of the Green Line—Two Views” by Haggai MatarThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Last week, Graywolf Press released Civil Service, the debut poetry collection by Jewish Currents Culture Editor Claire Schwartz. The book is a daring study of the violence woven into our world, from everyday encounters to the material of language itself. The poems unfold in three main sequences: a quartet of lyric lectures, a fragmentary narrative that follows a cast of archetypal figures named for the coordinates of their complicities with power—the Dictator, the Curator, the Accountant, and so on—and a series of interrogation scenes centered on a spectral, fugitive figure named Amira, who gives us a glimpse of another world. To celebrate the release of Civil Service, Schwartz spoke with Managing Editor Nathan Goldman and the book’s editor at Graywolf Press, Chantz Erolin, about the book, as well as poems by Paul Celan and Edmond Jabès that deeply informed it. They discussed dispersed responsibility for state violence, thinking as feeling, and the political possibilities of poetry.Works Mentioned:Civil Service by Claire Schwartz“Lecture on Loneliness” by Claire Schwartz“Mourning and Melancholia” by Sigmund Freud“The Felt House That Moves Us: A Conversation with Saretta Morgan,” a conversation with Muriel Leung and Joey De Jesus“The Concept of Character in Fiction” by William H. GassThe Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois“Death Fugue” by Paul Celan, trans. Pierre Joris“Stretto” by Paul Celan, trans. Pierre Joris“Celan’s Ferryman,” a conversation between Fanny Howe and Pierre JorisVoyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis“Robin Coste Lewis: ‘Black Joy is My Primary Aesthetic,’” a conversation between Claire Schwartz and Robin Coste LewisThe Book of Questions by Edmond Jabès, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop“Rosmarie Waldrop: The Nick of Time,” a conversation with David Naimon Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, trans. Anthea Bell“The Ga(s)p” by M. NourbeSe Philip“Fred Moten’s Radical Critique of the Present” by David S. WallaceMinima Moralia by Theodor AdornoReconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò“Assuming the Perspective of the Ancestor,” a conversation between Claire Schwartz and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò“Perennial” by Claire SchwartzThanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

On this episode, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with two Germany-based writers and organizers, Emily Dische-Becker and Michael Sappir, about the bizarre and worrisome ways that Germany’s understandably zealous Holocaust memory culture is playing out among Jews, Palestinians, and other Germans in contemporary Germany. An anti-BDS resolution passed in the Bundestag in 2019 has led to draconian repression of speech across German society, much of it directed not only at Palestinian Germans, but also at some critical Israeli Jews, upward of 10,000 of whom live in Germany. These politics are complicated further by the prevalence on the left of an “anti-Deutsche” tendency, characterized by strong support for the state of Israel as part of a nominally antifascist politics, and also by high numbers of German converts to Judaism who sometimes bring different assumptions about Jewishness to the table when weighing in on questions of communal concern. Recently, Dische-Becker, a German American leftist Jew, has become a target of the ongoing German anti-antisemitism hysteria. As one of the organizers of the recent Hijacking Memory conference in Berlin, which sought to explore the ways the global right is appropriating Holocaust memory, and as an erstwhile adviser to the German art fair documenta, which has been embroiled in antisemitism scandals for months, Dische-Becker has emerged as the latest bogeyman for Germans eager to prove their anti-antisemitism bona fides. In this conversation, Dische-Becker and Sappir lay the groundwork for Germany’s upside-down politics and discuss the meaning of the recent attacks.This is Part 1 of a two-part series on Germany. Part 2, featuring different guests, will cover crackdowns on Palestinian identity and political expression, particularly in German media. ARTICLES, STATEMENTS AND WEBSITES MENTIONED:“The Challenge of Defending Memory in Germany” by Joshua Leifer“When ‘Antifa’ Is the Enemy,” an interview with Michael Sappir by Isabel Frey“In Germany, a Witch Hunt Is Raging Against Critics of Israel. Cultural Leaders Have Had Enough” by Itay MashiachAbout Blank FAQ on Israel/Palestine politicsGoethe-Institut rescinding an invitation to Mohammed El-KurdHannah Tzuberi’s lecture on “Desiring Victimhood: German Self-Formation and the Figure of the Jew” at the Hijacking Memory Conference in Berlin“Documenta Was a Whole Vibe. Then a Scandal Killed the Buzz.” by Siddhartha Mitter “Rethinking empathy: emotions triggered by the Holocaust among Muslim-minority in Germany” by Esra ÖzyürekThanks to Sophia Steinert-Evoy for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”