Arab Talk with Jess & Jamal

Jess and Jamal discuss both the Democratic Party’s platform on foreign policy and President Trump’s cognitive abilities. Cookbook author and host of "Feast in the Middle East," Blanche Shaheen, shares delicious heirloom Palestinian recipes to help people cope with sheltering-in-place during the pandemic.

Guest Ronnie Barkan describes his ordeal along with two other activists who are facing trial in Berlin for disrupting an event which was held in June 2017 at the Humboldt University for member of the Israeli Knesset Aliza Lavie. To learn more about the Humboldt-3 visit: https://medium.com/humboldt3/ Jess and Jamal discuss Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decree ordering the Hagia Sophia to be opened for Muslim prayers. A top Turkish court had revoked the 1934 decree by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic, that had turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum.

Guest comedian and writer Amer Zahr says that Arab Americans should not be counted as white in the US Census. Does being legally white turn this oft-sidelined community into a ‘legally invisible’ entity? Jess and Jamal discuss the recent brouhaha with Peter Beinart’s editorial making the case for a binational Jewish-Palestinian state.

Diana Buttu, legal analyst and former legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian negotiators, explains the planned Israeli annexation of illegal colonial settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Jess and Jamal discuss the recent arrest of Jeffrey Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell and her father’s ties to the Israeli Mossad.

Arab Talk guest Eman Jamal shares her personal experience fighting COVID-19 after contracting it along with her family in Dubai, UAE. She also provides tips about ways to cope with the illness. Jess and Jamal discuss Jamaal Bowman’s victory over Rep. Eliot Engel marking a major defeat for the Israel lobby.

Our guest, Rev. Michael Yoshii, talks about race relations and solidarity between Japanese Americans and Palestinians. Jess and Jamal discuss the book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton that President Trump is trying to stop from being published.

Arab Talk guest Dr. Hatem Bazian talks about racism and Islamophobia in the United States and Europe. Jess and Jamal discuss the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights saying that France violated the freedom of expression of pro-Palestinian activists who were convicted for campaigning to boycott Israeli goods. They also discuss the US and Israel’s efforts to intimidate the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Jess and Jamal discuss the recent developments in the murder cases of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. They also talk about how US law enforcement agencies have been receiving training on crowd control, use of force and surveillance by Israel’s national police, military and intelligence services. Amnesty International has condemned these practices: https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/

Jamal interviews Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, who has recently won the prestigious Georgina M. Smith Award from the American Association of University Professors. She discusses the significance of the award and the systematic attacks on her by hate groups. Jess & Jamal discuss the brutal murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, who was pinned down to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for about eight minutes. This murder was captured on video as Floyd pled with the officer, ”Please, please, please, I can’t breathe.”

Arabic violin virtuoso Georges Lammam talks about his collection of works and how he has been coping with the shelter-in-place orders. He also performs live on Arab Talk. Jess and Jamal discuss the latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent declaration to end “all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments.”