Occupied Thoughts

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” host Peter Beinart interviews Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, co-authors of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. This wide-ranging discussion covers progressive politics on Palestine & Israel as they are today and as they might become if progressives engage more deeply and consistently with Palestine & Israel. Marc, Mitchell, and Peter talk about policy, history, and the different roles that racial, ethnic, and religious identities and communities play in progressive politics. This conversation is both timely and robust.

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” host Peter Beinart is joined by Palestinian human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab, who recently published the book “Beyond the Two State Solution.” Kuttab argues that a Palestinian state with no sovereignty or substance cannot deliver freedom or independence and it is time to look beyond the “false mirage of the Two State Solution.” He lays out in detail how a single, shared Palestinian and Jewish state would be structured - from roles in the military to language learning in schools - and how it answers the urgent needs for justice, equality, and security.

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” host Peter Beinart is joined by Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director of Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, to discuss B’Tselem’s new report, "“A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid.” Unlike frameworks that see the state of Israel as separate from the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem argues that there is a single Israeli regime in both the Occupied Territories and Israel: an Apartheid regime, organized to advance one group, Jews, over another, Palestinians. Peter Beinart is a 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. Hagai El-Ad is the executive director of B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Previously he was director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI, 2008–2014) and the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH, 2000–2006). In 2014, El-Ad was among Foreign Policy’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers”. In 2016 and again in 2018, he spoke before the United Nations Security Council calling for international action in order to end the occupation. He lives in Jerusalem and tweets at @HagaiElAd.

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," host Peter Beinart is joined by Palestinian academics Rashid Khalidi and Nadia Abu El-Haj to discuss a recent statement on the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, signed by 122 Palestinian and Arab thought leaders. Peter Beinart is a 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. Nadia Abu El-Haj is Ann Olin Whitney Professor in the Departments of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University, Co-Director of the Center for Palestine Studies, and Chair of the Board of Directors, The Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia. The recipient of numerous awards, including from the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner Gren Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Harvard Academy for Area and International Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, she is the author of numerous articles and essays published on topics ranging from the history of archaeology in Palestine to the question of race and genomics today. Abu El-Haj has published two books: Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (2001), which won the Albert Hourani Annual Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association in 2002, and The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology (2012). While Abu El-Haj’s two books to date have focused on historical sciences (archaeology, and genetic history), her third book, forthcoming from Verso, considers the post 9/11 wars and contemporary U.S. militarism through an exploration of the complex ethical and political implications of shifting psychiatric and public understandings of the trauma of American soldiers. Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He received a B.A. from Yale University in 1970 and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1974, and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, and the University of Chicago. He was President of the Middle East Studies Asociation, is co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. He served as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993. Khalidi is author of eight books, including The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2020), and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (rev. ed. 2010), and has co-edited three other books and published over 110 academic articles. He has written op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other newspapers, and has appeared widely on TV and radio in the US and abroad.

The topic today is Israeli settlements, with our focus on Psagot -- a settlement located deep inside the West Bank that according to news reports will enjoy a history-making visit soon from US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. To discuss this visit and Psagot settlement, this episode features Dror Etkes, settlement expert and founder of the organization Kerem Navot, together with Fadi Quran, Campaigns Director at Avaaz, whose family's land was confiscated for Psagot, and Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

On this episode of “Occupied Thoughts” FMEP non-resident fellow Peter Beinart is joined by Ami Ayalon - a retired commander of the Israeli navy, the former head of the Shin Bet (Israel’s top internal security agency), and a former member of the Knesset. Peter and Ami discuss topics touched on in Ami's newly published memoir - "Friendly Fire: How Israel Became Its Own Worst Enemy, and the Hope for Its Future."

We are shining FMEP’s spotlight on Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, a necessary and transformative initiative cultivating and elevating the voices of Palestinian experts on policy issues which impact the Palestinian people. Listen to this podcast with Al-Shabaka’s co-founder and Board president, Nadia Hijab, and Senior Policy Fellow, Dr. Yara Hawari.

On this episode of "Occupied Thoughts"  FMEP non-resident fellow Peter Beinart is joined by Ghaith al-Omari and Neri Zilber to discuss the end of PA security cooperation with Israel -- including examination of what that cooperation has accomplished, how it has evolved over the years, and what are the context for and implications of the PA ending that cooperation now. Gaith and Neri are co-authors of the report, "State with No Army, Army with No State Evolution of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces, 1994–2018."

Learn more about ACRI and support its work: https://www.english.acri.org.il/

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