Occupied Thoughts

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Lara Friedman speaks with Inès Abdel Razek and Munir Nusseibeh about developments in Jerusalem and their broader context and implications. Inès is the Advocacy Director for the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, PIPD. Munir is a human rights lawyer and academic based in Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub

Palestinians face a growing matrix of mechanisms geared towards removing them from their land, dispersing their communities, and threatening their livelihoods. Join FMEP and B’Tselem to discuss the situation on the ground: what Palestinians in Area C (and increasingly in Area B) are facing and how they live under the shadow of dispossession, at the hands of the Israeli government, its security forces, its courts, and its private citizens. Panelists This webinar featured two Palestinians from Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron hills, an area in Area C whose residents are under particularly heightened threats and regular attacks, as well as video interviews with additional Palestinians living under threat. Basil al-Adraa is an activist, journalist, and photographer from the village of A’Twani. Twitter: @basel_adra Eid is a photographer. In addition, Sarit Michaeli (@saritm0) and Eyal Hareuveni of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories -- joined the webinar and speak about B’Tselem’s recent report, “State Business: Israel’s misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence.”FMEP President Lara Friedman (@larafriedmanDC) moderated the discussion.

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin interviews Jehad Abusalim about his background, his research, his analysis of this moment in time and Palestinian history, and his plans for 2022 as an FMEP Fellow. The Foundation for Middle East Peace is delighted to announce our new Palestinian Non-Resident Fellowship. FMEP’s 2022 Palestinian Non-Resident Fellows are Dr. Maha Nassar and Jehad Abusalim. 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. Follow Mr. Abusalim on Twitter here: @JehadAbusalim

Dr. Maha Nassar is an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, where she specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of the modern Arab world. Her award-winning book, Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World (Stanford University Press, 2017), examines how Palestinian intellectuals connected to global decolonization movements during the mid-twentieth century. A 2018 Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project, Dr. Nassar’s analysis and opinion pieces have appeared in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, +972 Magazine, The Conversation, and The Hill. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, son, and daughter, and she is working on her next book, a global history of Palestine’s people. Follow Dr. Nassar on Twitter here: @mtnassar. Interviewed by Sarah Anne Minkin

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts FMEP's Lara Friedman speaks with +972's Amjad Iraqi about recent developments -- what is happening and how it fits into the status quo that defines Israeli policies and rule over Palestinians, framed by Amjad's incisive analysis: “Cruelty is baked into Israeli apartheid. And today’s destruction of the Salhiyeh home in Sheikh Jarrah — in the freezing cold before dawn, after their defiant stand against the police on Monday — is designed to be cruel, both to the family and to all Palestinians watching. Cruelty is needed to terrify, demoralize, and incapacitate Palestinians. The state needs us to feel this powerlessness, to feel trapped by the sense of failure, to rob us not just of the will to resist, but the will to live. It needs our total submission, or our complete erasure. That intentional cruelty was on full display this past week: in the mass funeral of Haj Suleiman, who was run over by a police truck in Umm al-Kheir; in the arrests of young Naqab Bedouin for protesting their dispossession; in the shuttered gates of besieged Gaza; and much more. Many Palestinians felt that pain sharply today. Many of us felt helpless. But then came our rage. And then came our resolve. A ‘resilient’ society is a tortured one, often relying on plain stubbornness to pull it through. But it’s what defies the cruelty when nothing else does.” For more resources and biographies, please visit:https://fmep.org/resource/we-dont-have-another-place-to-go-threats-settler-violence-and-resistance-in-masafer-yatta/

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks Oren Ziv (photojournalist, a founding member of the Activestills photography collective, and a staff writer for Local Call) about the latest twist in the story of Israel’s assault on Palestinian human rights NGOs. This twist comes in the form of a blockbuster report, co-authored by Oren and published January 13th by +972 Magazine, entitled "Israel’s new secret document still fails to tie Palestinian NGOs to ‘terrorism’" For more resources and panelist biographies, please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/israel-again-tries-fails-to-connect-palestinian-ngos-to-terrorism/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with activist and author Ali Awad about the threats of dispossession and state-backed settler violence facing Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills. Ali's most recent article, co-authored with Awdah Hathaleen, describes extreme violence against a village elder in a non-violent protest in Masafer Yatta: "Israeli police shattered this Palestinian elder’s bones — and drove away."  Bios Ali Awad is an activist from the village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills. Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD, is FMEP’s Director of Programs & Partnerships. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” FMEP's Lara Friedman speaks with Nuriya Oswald (International Advocacy Officer at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian human rights NGO founded in 1999 and based in the Gaza Strip) and Yael Stein (Director of Research for B’Tselem, Israel’s preeminent human rights organization) about how manifestations of Israel's apartheid regime with respect to the Gaza Strip, both in general and specifically in the context of the Great March of Return. NOTE: In December 2021, Al Mezan issued a new report, “The Gaza Bantustan: Israeli Apartheid in the Gaza Strip,” and Btselem, together with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, issued a new report, "Unwilling and Unable: Israel's Whitewashed Investigations of the Great March of Return Protests." Bios Nuriya Oswald is the International Legal and Advocacy Director at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.Nuriya is a human rights advocate with ten years of experience in advocacy and coordinating legal initiatives. At Al Mezan, Nuriya manages various activities with the objective of bringing justice to victims of international law violations and informing international stakeholders of the human rights situation on the ground. She has lived in Gaza and Ramallah and has been working in Palestine for over a decade. She holds an LLM in international humanitarian law, an MA in human rights and a BA in political science and French studies. She previously worked for Medical Aid for Palestinians and ChildFund International. Nuriya has appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera and other media outlets. You can follow Al Mezan on Twitter @AlMezanCenter. Yael Stein is the Research Director of B’Tselem. She holds an LLB from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in human rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. Yael has authored several of B’Tselem reports, including The Occupation’s Fig Leaf (2016), Getting Off Scot-Free (2017) and Fake Justice (2019). You can follow B'Tselem on Twitter @btselem. Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). She is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad. 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 tweets @LaraFriedmanDC. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Lara Friedman hosts Palestinian organizer Fadi Quran and FMEP Non-resident Fellow Peter Beinart for a wide-ranging conversation about 2021's most defining events when it comes to the lived reality of Palestinians and Israelis on the ground, as well as U.S. politics on the issue. The trio also take on predictions for what might unfold in 2022. For panelist biographies, please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/2021-review-2022-preview-challenges-opportunities-on-the-road-to-palestinian-rights/

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," Peter Beinart interviews Bahia Amawi and Gadeir Abbas about the fight for the right to boycott Israel in Texas. Bahia is a speech pathologist in Texas who sued the state after losing her school contract because she refused to sign an agreement promising not to boycott Israel. Bahia won her case - and in response, the Texas government amended their anti-BDS bill so that it only applies to larger companies. A few weeks ago, CAIR - the Council on American Islamic Relations - filed a lawsuit challenging the new amended Texas law.  Gadeir Abbas is Senior Litigation Attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).  Bahia Amawi is a Palestinian-American and a speech pathologist in Texas.  Peter Beinart is Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and a CNN Political Commentator. Original Music by Jalal Yaquoub