Occupied Thoughts

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with FMEP Fellow Jehad Abusalim about the aftermath of the most recent escalation, the relationship between the Nakba and the ongoing violent realities of Gaza, and questions of how to talk about and envision Gaza within broader frameworks of Palestinian liberation and freedom.  Jehad Abusalim is the Education and Policy Coordinator of the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee. He is completing his PhD in the History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies joint program at New York University. His research focuses on Arab and Palestinian intellectual discourse on Zionism, antisemitism, and the plight of the Jewish people in Europe between 1870 and 1948. Jehad also studies the social and political history of the Gaza Strip, focusing on the continuing impact of the Nakba on life in Gaza before and after 1948. Mr. Abusalim has been published in the Washington Post, al-Jazeera, the New Arab, and Vox.  Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD is FMEP’s Director of Programs & Partnerships. She leads FMEP’s programming, works to deepen FMEP’s relationships with existing and potential grantees, and builds relationships with new partners in the philanthropic community. She is an affiliated faculty member at University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Right-Wing Studies.  Resources from Jehad Abusalim:  Twitter profile: @JehadAbusalim, and his threads about the recent Gaza assault.  Most recent publication, the co-edited anthology Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, published by Haymarket books.  May 2021 Washington Post article, The Gaza cease-fire is no excuse for the world to look away May 2020 Journal of Palestine Studies article, The Great March of Return: An Organizer's Perspective An AFSC resource for learning more about Gaza: https://gazaunlocked.org/ Original Music by Jalal. Yaquoub.

FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Dr. Lana Tatour about the recent Israeli Supreme Court decision that opens a legal path for the Israeli government to revoke citizenship of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and what this decision both reflects and demonstrates about the fragile status of Israel's Palestinian citizens. Dr. Tatour is an assistant professor in global development at the School of Social Science, University of New South Wales, Australia. She was the 2019–20 Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University. She is currently completing a book provisionally titled Ambivalent Resistance: Palestinians in Israel and the Liberal Politics of Settler Colonialism and Human Rights. Follow her on Twitter at @Lana_Tatour. Links to articles mentioned in this podcast & further resources can be found here: https://fmep.org/resource/israeli-supreme-court-opens-door-to-legalized-ethnic-cleansing-inside-the-green-line

In mid-July, President Biden is expected to make his first visit as President of the United States to Israel and the Persian Gulf. What is the point of his visit? What does it mean for U.S. policy vis-a-vis Israel and the Gulf? What does it mean for Palestinians? To explore these and other questions, FMEP and Jewish Currents held a conversation with U.S.-based experts Peter Beinart (CUNY), Dana El Kurd (University of Richmond), Lara Friedman (FMEP), and Trita Parsi (Quincy).  Participants:  ​​Peter Beinart teaches national reporting and opinion writing at the Newmark J-School and political science at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, an MSNBC political commentator, and a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a nonfiction author and former Rhodes Scholar. His first book, The Good Fight, was published by HarperCollins in 2006. His second book, The Icarus Syndrome, was published by HarperCollins in 2010. His third, The Crisis of Zionism, was published by Times Books in 2012. Peter tweets at @PeterBeinart Dana El Kurd is an assistant professor at the University of Richmond, a non resident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington, and non resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in the Palestine program. Her work focuses on authoritarianism, international intervention, and state-society relations in the Arab world. Her book, Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine, was released in January 2020 with Oxford University Press. She tweets at @danaelkurd. Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, Lara is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on Israel/Palestine and the role of the U.S. Congress. In addition to her work at FMEP, Lara is a Contributing Writer at Jewish Currents and a non-resident fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP). Prior to joining FMEP, Lara was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, and before that she was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. She holds a B.A. from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service; in addition to English, Lara speaks French, Arabic, Spanish, (weak) Italian, and muddles through in Hebrew. Lara tweets at @LaraFriedmanDC Trita Parsi is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. He was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington DC in both 2021 and 2022, and preeminent public intellectual Noam Chomsky calls Parsi “one of the most distinguished scholars on Iran.” He tweets at @tparsi. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Ali Awad about Masafer Yatta and particularly Firing Zone 918 and what has changed there since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in May authorizing the Israeli military to expel the Palestinian residents of the firing zone. Ali's most recent article on +972,"'They're not arriving with trucks to deport us, but the goal is the same'," was published on June 29, 2022. Ali Awad is journalist and activist from the village of Tuba in Masafer Yatta. He is co-founder of the new media project Humans of Masafer Yatta. Sarah Anne Minkin is Director of Programs & Partnerships at FMEP. Resources mentioned in this podcast: Humans of Masafer Yatta on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humansofmasaferyatta/ Humans of Masafer Yatta on Substack: https://humansofmasaferyatta.substack.com/ #SaveMasaferYatta campaign: https://savemasaferyatta.com/en/ Youth of Sumud on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthofsumud/?hl=en Youth of Sumud on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youthofsumud/ Ali Awad on Twitter: @Ali_awad1998 Ali Awad's archives on +972 Magazine: https://www.972mag.com/writer/ali-awad/ Ali's newest article on +972, "'They're not arriving with trucks to deport us, but the goal is the same'" FMEP's recent podcast with Sameeha Hureini, activist with Youth of Sumud and resident of A'Twani village, "'It's our responsibility to turn on the light': Masafer Yatta, Apartheid, and Youth Activism": https://fmep.org/resource/its-our-responsibility-to-turn-on-the-light-masafer-yatta-apartheid-and-youth-activism/ Original Music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Lara Friedman speaks with preeminent journalist Dalia Hatuqa about the killing of her friend and fellow journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022, the myriad investigations that have been carried out, and the imperative of getting justice, which requires accountability. For resources related to this podcast see: https://fmep.org/resource/the-imperative-of-accountability-for-shireen-abu-aklehs-killing/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Sameeha Hureini, an activist and university student from A-Twani village in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. Sameeha is one of the founders of Youth of Sumud and, together with her brother Sami, was recognized with the 2021 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," journalist and FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Waleed Shahid, spokesperson and communications director of Justice Democrats. Bios: Waleed Shahid is the spokesperson and communications director for Justice Democrats, the grassroots progressive organization that recruited and helped elect Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman as well as Congressional candidate Summer Lee, and launched the campaign for a Green New Deal. He is a member of The Nation’s editorial board. Twitter: @_waleedshahid ​​Peter Beinart teaches national reporting and opinion writing at the Newmark J-School and political science at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, a MSNBC political commentator, and a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a nonfiction author and former Rhodes Scholar. His first book, The Good Fight, was published by Harper Collins in 2006. His second book, The Icarus Syndrome, was published by HarperCollins in 2010. His third, The Crisis of Zionism, was published by Times Books in 2012. Twitter: @PeterBeinart. Original music by Jalal Yacquoub.

As Palestinians commemorate 74 years since the Nakba, FMEP’s Palestinian non-resident fellow Dr. Maha Nassar talks with Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb, professor of media studies at California State University, San Bernardino, about her award-winning documentary, “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.“ (www.1948movie.com) Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

Featuring Rania Batrice (Organizer, communications and legislative strategist, mediator, and advisor to elected officials, candidates, and non-profits both domestic and around the globe) & Peter Beinart (Newmark J-School and CUNY Graduate Center; editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, MSNBC political commentator, and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace) in conversation with Lara Friedman (President, the Foundation for Middle East Peace). Israel/Palestine has long played an outsized role in US politics and elections. Candidates’ views on issues like aid to Israel, the status of Jerusalem, settlements and the two-state solution, and sympathy for Palestinians and Palestinian rights are actively elicited, to be used as levers to mobilize financial and political support for chosen incumbents and challengers, or as cudgels to to attack their opponents. On the Hill, members who express even mild support for Palestinian rights, or criticism of Israeli policies, or reservations about additional aid for Israel, open themselves up to being attacked as anti-Israel or antisemitic. In the run-up to the 2022 mid-term elections, Israel/Palestine has come up over and over, including with the decision by AIPAC’s new political action committee to endorse a long list of Republicans who sought to overturn the last presidential election; the huge investment by pro-Israel organizations and funders in targeted races, including in Michigan and Ohio; and the controversial recent decision by a Jewish Democratic pro-Israel organization to endorse a (non-Jewish) candidate in a primary battle against a (Jewish) incumbent previously endorsed by that same organization, apparently as retribution for the incumbent’s slightly more progressive views on Israel/Palestine. Original music by Jalal Yacquoub.

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Jehad Abusalim (2022 FMEP Fellow) and Dana El-Kurd (University of Richmond) about what the Abraham Accords and normalization agreements with Israel over the last few years have opened up in the Arab world, including state-sponsored efforts to cultivate acceptance of Israel and suppress support for Palestinians. Dana speaks about her research on Arab public opinion as well as pro-Palestine activism, and Jehad draws from the historical context of the long history of Arab Jews as well as Palestinian responses to Zionism and antisemitism before the establishment of the state of Israel.  In February, Dana published this brief, "Pro-Palestine solidarity in the UAE: A view from Emirati activists." See also this article from the Economist in January 2022, "The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews."   Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.