The Palestine Pod (Lara E. and Mikey B.)

This week we sit down with journalist, activist, author and editor of The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman to discuss BDS victories, campus activism, and the Palestine exception to free speech. Condemning the push to codify the new IHRA definition of antisemitism as well as its recent alternative, the so-called "Jerusalem declaration" definition of antisemitism, Nora sets the record straight by recalling the regular old definition of antisemitism. Lara reminds us that the reason why Zionists have been busy pushing to change the definition of antisemitism is due to the fact that BDS, which threatens the inequalities perpetuated by Zionism, is itself an anti-racist call expressly condemning antisemitism and all forms of racism. Utterly unable to discredit BDS, which does not target individuals or entities because of who they are but because of their complicity in oppression, Michael says Zionists have been left with no choice but to "move the goalpost" by lobbying to change the meaning of antisemitism itself. Nora tells us more about her anti-Zionist Jewish upbringing and long-standing commitment to justice and Palestinian human rights. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Plestia Alaqad, one of the leading voices from the ground in Gaza. She’s a primary source who survived and documented the ongoing genocide in Palestine in real time. Plestia shares reflections on the notion of believing you will have more time, survivor’s guilt, Gaza’s culture and close knit community and the fiction of choice when it comes to being a victim of Nakba.

Lara and Michael provide an update on US policy re: Palestinian rights. While the Biden administration recently announced the lifting of sanctions (finally) on the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor and the renewal of funding to UNRWA, Lara offers a word of caution: the US may have lifted sanctions on the ICC, but its position opposing the ICC investigation has not changed. As to UNRWA, Lara calls on us never to lose sight of the big picture (i.e. UNRWA should not even exist because Palestinians should not be refugees to begin with since they should be allowed to return to their homes in Palestine). In light of the recent viral video of Majd Barbar, a Palestinian father and husband from East Jerusalem who was released from Israeli military prison following a 20 year sentence for his role in resisting Israeli colonization, the rest of the episode focuses on political prisoners. Lara and Michael shout out congresswoman Betty McCollum, who, in 2019 co-sponsored a bill to prohibit American tax dollars from being used by the Israeli military to detain, interrogate, abuse or torture Palestinian children. Lara highlights the twisted reality that Israel jails Palestinian men, women, and children for engaging in what would otherwise be protected freedoms in democratic societies, like the freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the right to protest. Michael quotes Rick Ross. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Hala Hanina a Palestinian dentist, PhD researcher in sociology, and 4th-generation Palestinian refugee from Gaza, Palestine. She is a former volunteer in hospitals during previous Israeli aggressions. We hear from Hana about how five generations of her family suffered under Zionism (from her great-grandfather experiencing the 1948 Nakba, all the way up until her family home was destroyed in the 2023/24 Nakba and genocide) as well as her reflections on this current moment.

This week Lara and Michael discuss Israel's expansion of its Nakba and ongoing genocide into Lebanon, with a word on the pager terrorist attacks, and the history of Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Turning back to Gaza, Lara reminds that by now 902 Palestinian families have been wiped off the civil registry and will no longer be a part of a Palestinian future. With over 1000 Palestinians now also the only surviving member of their families (including many children), Michael notes that this is the Batman origin story. 

This week (technically last week) Lara and Michael sit down with Ru'a Rimawi, a doctor in Palestine and sister of two Palestinian martyrs, Jawad and Thafer Rimawi. Both brothers were murdered by the Israeli occupation on the same day in November 2022. We sit down with Ru'a and talk about Jawad and Thafer's lives, their hopes, their dreams, the impact they had on their community, and the gaping hole left after their martyrdom. We discuss Ru'a's campaign to seek justice and the plight of so many Palestinians who have had family members stolen from them by the illegally occupying zionist entity. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss the bombshell Washington Post article exposing a vast dragnet surveillance system used by the IOF against Palestinian society. Programs Blue Wolf and Wolfpack use state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to track and identify all movements by Palestinians, and has been called "a secret Facebook for Palestinians" according to an IOF soldier. Palestinians are given ratings and the programs use flashing colors to indicate whether the Israeli soldier should arrest, detain, or leave Palestinians alone. Squid Game anyone? The system was built in part by incentivizing the occupation's military units to take pictures of as many Palestinians as possible from children to elders by awarding prizes to those units that took the most pictures. The Palestine Pod covers the work being done to expose the occupation by Citizen Lab in Toronto and provide an update on the use of Israel's Pegasus spy software against Palestinian human rights organizations recently deemed "terrorist" organizations by the Apartheid State. Michael also discusses how Zionism is suffocating academic freedom in the UK with the termination of Professor David Miller and Lara reminds that these restrictions are related to the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism, which has so far been adopted by around 30 countries. Lara and Michael chuckle at Biden's milquetoast platitudes towards funding UNWRA as their financial situation deteriorates by the day. Finally, we talk about how the occupation is attempting to acquire Bunker Buster bombs from the USA because bombing above ground is so early 2000s. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Mike Africa Jr., author and Legacy Director of MOVE, a Philadelphia-based activist collective and liberation movement. Mike recalls the history of the MOVE and the 1985 Move bombing, during which Philadelphia police fired thousands of rounds at MOVE members in their homes killing six adults and five children. Mike Africa Jr. addresses police impunity and efforts to seek justice for the MOVE bombing, which are ongoing until today. Mike Africa Jr. expresses solidarity with Palestinians undergoing genocide and describes his awakening to the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Lara asks Mike Africa Jr. what justice would look like for him. Mike Africa Jr. responds that it begins with getting back his family's house which was taken by the US government through the legal process known as eminent domain.

This week Lara and Michael react to the introduction of a zionist character into the Marvel universe, named after the massacre of Palestinians. We cover the immediate and inevitable backlash that comes from any time zionists try to colonize popular culture. We give an update on the Shenstone location Palestine Action encampment and provide ways to get involved. Lara covers the increase in violent raids and assassinations in the West Bank of Palestinian resistance fighters. We chat about one of the many murderers turned Israeli celebrities, Elor Azaria. We provide an update on the ongoing litigation between Foodbenders and the JDL in Canada. Finally, we cover the disgusting escape room that lets zionist settlers cosplay as the 6 Palestinian prisoners who broke out of Gilboa prison. 

This week Lara and Michael cover Israeli massacres in Jabalia and Jenin. Lara covers how the last two functioning hospitals in Gaza are being besieged by the Israeli occupation forces and have been without clean drinking water for days and in international law developments, how the ICC Prosecutor has applied to the pre-trial judges for arrest warrants of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in relation to possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

This week, we catch up with the prolific and thoughtful Palestinian-American scholar-activist, author, and speaker Dr. Steve Salaita and do a deep dive into settler-colonialism. What is happening in Palestine is often reduced to unexplainable cycles of violence in a “conflict” between two sides who both make good points (the liberal zionist narrative) and between "chosen" people and terrorists (the zionist zionist narrative). Neither frameworks are rooted in the historical reality. Dr. Steve Salaita helps us understand Israeli settler-colonialism in Palestine by explaining its deep ideological connection to settler-colonialism in America. We also discuss the notion of indigeneity and its implications as well as the US and Israel's philosophical justifications for their policies and the ways in which Palestinians and Native Americans have been and are responding to systematic land theft and ethnic cleansing. Steve describes the basis of Native-Palestinian solidarity starting in the 1960s which mirrors the solidarity between Black Power and Palestinian activists in the same time period and offers a solid basis for continued solidarity today. This conversation also explores the role of reparations and how (if at all) it may fit into the broader conversation on justice in Palestine. Steve offers a word of the wise to oppressed peoples calling on them never to concede a right in an attempt to advance the cause. Lara points out that this approach as always failed to yield any results in the struggle for justice in Palestine. This conversation is an essential primer on the source of the so-called "conflict" in Palestine. It provides the historical context needed to understand the plans of early Zionist leaders to arrive as "settlers" in the land of Palestine and establish a Jewish colony at the expense of the native population - the Palestinians. It also allows us to make sense of all Israel's polices today towards Palestinians including the apartheid system, house demolitions, the building of Jewish settlements on stolen land, the uprooting of olive trees, the forced expulsions, restrictions on movement, the brutal violence committed against Palestinians in Gaza (and more) as all parts of the settler colony's ongoing policy to rid Palestine of its native population to the benefit of a foreign settler population. In doing so, this conversation centers the "setter-colonial" framework in the discussion around the Zionist movement and is especially useful for understanding the most recent efforts by Israel to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, including Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. #SaveSheikhJarrah #FreePalestine

This week we take a stroll down memory lane and relive the best moments from the first 15 episodes of The Palestine Pod. From its inception in March 2021, we hear the most influential moments from guests including Amer Zahr, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Miko Peled, Dr. Steve Salaita, Massoud Hayoun, Adnan Barq who reported live from the ground in East Jerusalem during the assault on Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza in May 2021, Anwar Hadid & Vin Arfuso up through the interview with Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela from the Royal House of Mandela. It's an episode full of highlights you won't want to miss!

This week on the Palestine Pod, Lara and Michael cover the ongoing genocide in Palestine with updates from on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank including Israel’s bombing of the Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital (again) on August 31, 2024 and the invasion of multiple cities and refugee camps in the West Bank including Jenin where Israeli occupation forces besieged the city, destroyed 70% of the city’s roads in a manner of days and, at the time of recording of this episode, killed 22 Palestinians. Lara reminds us this is all part of the plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine which has been ongoing since Day 1 over 76 years ago noting that Israeli officials are even calling for the “temporary” displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank, a tactic which has historically never proven to be temporary and has only ever been used as a means by Israel to steal more Palestinian land. Lara and Michael also critique a recent move by NYU to propose that “Zionist” be considered a protected class under the school’s code of conduct, a move which comes on the heels of social media giant Meta announcing that content targeting Zionism or Zionists could be removed under the company’s hate speech policy. Finally, the Palestine Pod recalls the brutal killing of the brilliant Palestinian content creator Medo Halimy and the legal case for the mainstream media’s role in perpetuating the genocide of the Palestinian people.

This week Lara and Michael cover an "Israeli diplomat" being ejected from the African Summit in Ethiopia. We also cover other BDS wins like Barcelona cutting ties with the occupation after 100 groups and over 4,000 residents urged their government to divest from the apartheid state. We cover the occupation plan to strip Palestinians living in 48' of citizenship and forcibly transfer people to the West Bank in violation of international law. Michael covers Israeli meddling in 33 elections worldwide, 27 of which were successful according to the person who engineered the elections.  

This week Lara and Michael cover the heinous assassination by the Israeli occupation of the beloved Palestinian journalist for Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Akleh. Lara and Michael discuss the audacity of murdering Shireen in broad daylight while still trying to gaslight people into believing something else happened. We note how Israel murdering journalists is actually par for the course, having murdered over 45 journalists since 2000. Lara and Michael cover Shireen's funeral procession which was attacked by Zionist occupation thugs while the world watched and the persistence of the Palestinian spirit to fend off the occupation army and honor Shireen in the streets of Palestine. Lara points out how Abbas is always late the to the party, and Michael honors the memory of Shireen as well as her body of work which lives on through every person she inspired.

This week Lara and Michael cover the zionist occupation’s genocide against the Palestinian people via their renewed assaults against the people of Gaza. We talk about the growing resistance in Nablus and AIPAC bragging about purchasing US congresspeople. Michael points out the deafening silence from everyone with a Ukrainian flag in their bio. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down to talk about the recent zionist pogroms in Turumusaya, a town in the occupied West Bank. We share accounts of some of the victims of the pogrom, some of them Palestinian-Americans visiting home for the first time in twenty years. Lara recaps her family reunion and gives a fiery speech. Finally, Lara and Michael cover the recent Haaretz article “Zionist Militia’s Efforts to Recruit Nazis in Fight Against the British Are Revealed” further to release to the public of documents last month by the Israeli State Archives proving the coordination between Zionists and Nazi Germany. Michael reads excerpts from a book called, The Secret Contacts, which elaborates on this sinister relationship.

This week Lara and Michael discuss the Zionists’ genocidal assault on Rafah during the evening of the Super Bowl, targeting at least two mosques containing sheltering families and dozens of Palestinian family houses and tents containing displaced families. During this night, Israel killed Sidra Hassouna, 7 years old. The pressure from the impact of the bomb catapulted her body, which hung by a wire when she was found. We cover the reports concerning Egypt’s construction of a so-called “fortified buffer zone” in the Sinai — a concentration camp presumably intended to hold Palestinians in the event of a mass expulsion of Palestinians by Israel, which remains looming as Israel continues to promise a mass escalation in Rafah, the very area it has spent the last 4 months concentrating the majority of the Palestinian population in Gaza.

This week (technically last week) Lara and Michael follow up on the Marvel story to show the direct connections between Marvel executives and the zionist occupation of Palestine. Along the same lines, we pull up an email chain from 2014 published by Wikileaks known as "The Sony Archives" wherein powerful executives and producers colluded to protect the image of the apartheid regime. Lara takes us through some of the viral videos that circulated the internet this week, including children at a Kindergarten in occupied Jenin terrified at the sounds of zionist bombs dropping. We cover the murder of 7-year-old child Rayan Suleiman who was chased to death by occupation soldiers, and uplift the other martyrs this week from Jenin, and Jerusalem. We discuss the story of Ariel Koren, a Jewish antizionist former Google employee who publicly resigned over the $1.2B Project Nimbus, a contract between the tech giant and the Zionist Apartheid state. We refer to the new AI gun installed at a Zionist checkpoint in occupied Hebron that all Palestinians in Hebron are going to have to pass through daily. Finally, we discuss the insane propaganda video of Israeli women claiming to stand with the women of Iran, pointing out that US imperialism has never improved the conditions of women in the countries it has occupied and stolen the resources of.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with student and activist Soha Khatib, a senior at UIC and board member at Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at her University. We discuss the events that led up to her and her classmates teaming up with Palestine Legal to file a civil rights lawsuit against the University for their disparate treatment of Palestinian students. She explains how she and other members of SJP were barred from entering an informational Zoom setting pertaining to a study abroad program inside 48. While flyering she explains the university staff called the cops and one police officer grabbed a female student by her hijab. She also tells us about subsequent meetings she's had with study-abroad personnel and the climate for Palestinian activists on campus at UIC. The episode speaks to the overall connections between oppressive state forces like the police, zionist think tanks, and higher education institutions in the United States. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Palestinian-American journalist and advocate Hebh Jamal. Hebh is based between Berlin and New York. We discuss her recent trip to Gaza and she describes the harrowing journey and traumatizing experiences with the Egyptian military and how they are profiting off the oppression of Palestinians. She tells us about the beauty within Gaza and how she still found people with hope despite the occupation's attempts to crush people's spirits. We speak about her journalism in Germany surrounding anti-Palestinian racism and how Germany thinks their problem with antisemitism is imported vs. homegrown. She talks about the time she casually did a TED Talk, and we honor the fallen martyr of Palestine, Ibrahim Nabulsi. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss Liz Truss’s statement saying that she wanted to move the UK embassy to Jerusalem, and how this constitutes an act of aggression. We cover the self-commissioned Facebook/Meta report that admits the company censored Palestinians and favored Hebrew content during the moderation process in May 2021. We joke that we knew that already because we were on the business side of the censorship. We discuss the Chilean President recently standing before the UN, calling on all nations to protect Palestinian human rights as well as his cancellation of a credentials ceremony for an Israeli ambassador after finding out about yet another extra-judicial assassination by the occupation, and the political fallout that ensued as a result. We also cover how every week there is a new body, a new state, and a new media outlet that has come to the conclusion that the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh was in fact intentional, and carried out by the Zionist regime. To which we say, no sh*t sherlock.  

This week Lara and Michael sit down with language teacher, musician, and Jewish anti-zionist activist Nur. A video of Nur being attacked by settlers in Massafer Yatta went viral and she sits down with us to recount the incident. She describes how the settlers threw a rock through her car window injuring her and how the occupation forces followed suit by assaulting her and her friends. The settler who attacked Nur and her friends was not even held for questioning (obviously). We discuss the plight of the people of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. Nur tells us that everyone inside ‘48 must go through a mental transformation that allows them to connect with their hearts and not their minds, or nothing will ever change. 

This week Lara and Michael sat down with the CEO of Zaytoun Publicity, 2x Award-winning Palestinian storyteller, and TEDx speaker, Jenan Matari. We talk about how she found her voice as a Palestinian woman and developed the courage to speak out for Palestinian liberation. Jenan asserts the importance of Palestinians in exile in the collective liberation of Palestine. We cover how she was forced to leave the corporate world and how that incident helped her take control of her own destiny. Jenan takes us through her family history dating back to the early 1300s when one of her ancestors. a Sufi sheik opened up a center in Al Quds/Jerusalem that was frequented by Muslims from all over the world. Jenan tells us the inspiration for starting Zaytoun Publicity was to center BIPOC entrepreneurs, actors, directors, and other creatives that don't get the media coverage or publicity they deserve. Zaytoun Publicity seeks to bridge that gap. Michael cracks jokes the whole episode like it's an involuntary tic. 

This week on the Palestine Pod, we sit down with Hadar Cohen, a Mizrahi feminist multi-media artist, healer and educator originally from Jerusalem with lineage from all over the Middle East including Iran, Iraq, Syria and and Palestine. Hadar is a Jewish mystic with Sephardic roots who works to build decolonial frameworks for worshiping God. Her artistic mediums include performance, movement, writing, weaving, sound and ritual. During the global intifada of unity, Hadar came out as a strong anti-Zionist Jewish voice from on the ground. She speaks to us about her family's presence in Palestine harkening to a time long before Zionism, the power of memory as a liberation tool, and the meaning and importance of decolonizing the mind. Lara quotes Hadar's fierce rebuke of Zionism while imagining a life in Palestine post Zionism. Hadar insists on reclaiming the Arab Jewish identity as something separate and unique from European notions of Judaism in response to Arab Jewish trauma that resulted from the Zionist movement. Michael and Hadar dive deeper into the Zionist weaponization of anti-semitism and Michael reminds us that "nobody does anti-semitism like Zionists do." 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with famed Palestinian human rights lawyer, scholar, and professor of law, Dr. Noura Erakat. We discuss how international law was shaped by colonial powers in order to facilitate imperial expansion and how international law in practice has favored the settler-colonial project far more than Palestinians. We chat about a time when Palestinians used "guerilla diplomacy" to their advantage to champion the cause of Palestinian liberation. Dr. Erakat tells us that there is no silver bullet for what will bring down the occupation, but we all ought to be kinder to each other in our various pursuits whether our strategy is armed resistance, legal, political, or cultural. She posits that it is the combination of all these things will provide Palestinians the ability to claim freedom one day.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Nida and Zaira Abu Baker, daughters of Shukri Abu Baker one of the Holy Land Foundation 5. Shukri is a political prisoner prosecuted in a wave of unjust rulings following post-9/11 hysteria. The ACLU said the prosecution was part of a pattern of the US government targeting faith-based charities "on the basis of unsubstantiated evidence and without even basic due process protections". We discuss the resurgence of the campaign to Free Shukri Abu Baker and the other two members of the HLF5 who remain unjustly imprisoned. We talk about the absolute delusion of the largest exporter of terrorism in the world (the US government) convicting a Muslim family and community man on preposterous charges related to terrorism. In doing so they destroyed the lives of all 5 families and a charity that helped to improve the conditions for impoverished people across the world. 

 

This week Lara and Michael do a deep dive into the hypocrisy, double standards, and outright racism exhibited by media when covering Ukraine vs. Palestine. We muse about what makes someone civilized and why the media glorifies armed resistance in Ukraine but deems any such action by Palestinians as terrorism. We cover how both pictures of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi and videos of bombs being dropped in Gaza were manipulated to garner support for Ukraine until people found out both happened in Palestine. We cover the preferential treatment Ukrainian refugees receive in contrast to refugees coming from Africa and the Levant. We also discuss how Black people are being stopped from fleeing in Ukraine and the existence of Nazis (funded by the US and Israel) within the ranks of Ukrainian resistance. We talk about a former Air Force Captain for the IOF who says the Israeli government and military are "terrorist organizations run by war criminals" and has started a movement to encourage soldiers to quit. Finally, we discuss an article about young Jews dedicating their social media presence to undoing the brainwashing of Zionism, where Michael is mentioned by name. 

This week Lara and Michael covered the child martyr Mohammed Tamimi murdered by the occupation. We also discuss the case of CUNY Law graduate Fatima Mohammed who gave a commencement speech in support of Palestinian liberation and was viciously attacked with racist slurs by media and local politicians. Finally, we discuss Lara's trip to the EU to advocate in the halls of government with Adnan Barq and other Palestinians from on the ground. 

 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the talented and outspoken Palestinian rapper, Tamer Nafar. We speak to Tamer about his music, the recent uprising in May, his family history and what it's like being a Palestinian living inside the occupation. Lara contemplates what it would mean for her to return to Palestine, and Tamer talks about the inspiration for his songs, including a song about refugees returning home and why he would want them there. Michael geeks out about Tamer's rap lyrics, and we discuss living in the moment, especially when the moment is historic. 

This week Lara and Michael (mostly Lara) break down the significance of the ICJ ruling in the Genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel from the perspective of a Palestinian lawyer with an emphasis on international law. While this decision will not in and of itself compel Israel to stop bombing and starving Gaza, it gives us a useful tool to be used in furtherance of the freedom struggle. As Nkosi Mandela said when he appeared on the Palestine Pod in May 2021, all forms of resistance must be applied at once to cause the disruption necessary to bring about the collapse of the settler colonial apartheid Zionist regime.

This week Lara and Michael sit down to talk about the zionists' recent calls for genocide in an op-ed, the New York-based charities that are getting tax write-offs for supporting war crimes while members of the Holy Land 5 Foundation are still imprisoned for charity, and the story of the IOF officer who was reprimanded for visiting the firing range naked + much more! 

 

 

A Palestinian-American Lawyer & Jewish-American comedian break down the latest Palestine-related news with commentary & interviews every week.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Palestinian-American ER physician, Dr. Mohammad Subeh. Dr. Subeh came to the US as a Palestinian refugee during the Gulf War after his grandparents were expelled from Palestine during the Nakba. He speaks to the Palestine Pod about his recent experience providing medical care for five weeks in Gaza a field hospital with the International Medical Core in Rafah during Israel's ongoing genocidal assault. In addition to detailing the realities of Israel's attacks against civilians in Gaza as well as Israel's decimation of the Palestinian healthcare system, Dr. Subeh paints a picture of a people committed to "ihsan", the concept of seeking to achieve excellence in all aspects of life while facing annihilation. Lara reminds that the Palestinian people refuse to disappear in the face of the zionist settler colonial project which requires extermination of the indigenous people. Instead, the Palestinian people currently undergoing genocide continue to insist on life with excellence. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the new lawsuit brought by Palestinian-Americans and DAWN against the U.S. State Department under the Administrative Procedure Act seeking to oblige the U.S. government to comply with the Leahy law and cease military assistance to Israel which is involved in grave violations of human rights through the conduct of its occupation forces in Gaza and the West Bank. Michael comments on Israel’s occupation of hundreds of square kilometers of Syrian land in the aftermath of the vacuum created by the fall of Bashar Al-Assad and Lara characterizes this as an act of aggression under international law which has hardly been described as such by mainstream corporate media. Lara refers to the latest reports from international organizations characterizing Israel’s conduct as genocide including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Lara mentions an Israeli massacre of seven children from the same family in the Northern Part of Gaza and the frustration that accompanies the lack of policy change in the face of the most horrific admissions by Israeli soldiers of their crimes reported by the leading Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. 

This week, Lara and Michael sit down with Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, Amir of the Royal House of Mandela, tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, member of Parliament (MP) in the South Africa National Assembly since 2009, grandson of the anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and a fierce advocate of Palestinian liberation. This episode is a deep dive into Apartheid South Africa, the parallels between South African Apartheid and Israeli Apartheid, and the deep bonds between Palestinian liberation activists and South African anti-apartheid activists. It is also a moment of education into what the Palestinian liberation struggle can learn from our comrades in South Africa. Nkosi Mandela speaks of the importance of armed resistance, BDS, and direct action, the politics and legacy of President Mandela, the importance of youth activism and more. Lara queries how far are we from liberation in Palestine by drawing from the history of South Africa and Michael asks Chief Mandela to set the record straight on letting the oppressor define modes of resistance and identity politics.  

This week Lara and Michael discuss Mayor Eric Adams of NYC visiting the occupation, legitimizing land theft, and generally being a bad person. We discuss the upcoming film Golda and how it normalizes the oppression of Palestinians by framing a war criminal as the movie's hero. We also cover the story of the Russian-Israeli citizen who is likely a Mossad spy and was captured by a Shia militia in Iraq while claiming to be doing field research for Princeton. Spoiler alert: Princeton does not claim this woman. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the recent UK Labor party’s passing of a motion recognizing the “ongoing Nakba in Palestine” and declaring Israel an apartheid state, echoing the findings of Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations. It also called for sanctions against Israel’s illegal settlements that usurp Palestinian land as well as a halt to the UK’s sales of arms to Israel. Delegates further demanded an end to Israel’s belligerent occupation of the West Bank and 15-year siege of Gaza, and upheld “the right of Palestinians to return to their homes” - the right of Palestinians to return to the homes they were expelled from by Zionist militias and later Israel since 1948 that is enshrined in international law but increasingly ignored by western states. Lara applauds the passage of this motion by a prominent political party in the UK and hopes that it can serve as an example for US counterparts. Michael reminds us that AOC did cry though after switching her vote to “present” during the vote on funding the Apartheid State’s Iron Dome. Lara and Michael also discuss the Israeli occupation army’s killing of 5 young Palestinians in Occupied Jenin and Jerusalem this week as well as the anniversary of the Second Intifada and what it meant to Palestinians in exile. Lara breaks down some of the news from the UN General Assembly including Mahmoud Abbas’ curious ultimatum giving Israel one more entire year (they have already had 54) to withdraw from the occupied territories failing which the PA would revoke its recognition of Israel. Michael reminds us that attacking 3 year old children and maiming a farmer’s goats on his land are - despite what the Zionists suggest - not part of Judaism. 

This week Lara leads us on a deep dive into the legal frameworks that came into place in the aftermath of the Nakba, including the absentee property law, the law of return, and the nationality law. All these legal devices helped codify the actions of ethnic cleansing and land theft by the rogue Zionist militias into the "legal" actions of a state. We also cover the various ways Zionists stopped Palestinians from returning to their native lands. Lara discusses the examples of Iqrit and Kufr Bir'im, both towns where the Supreme Court of Israel had in one case already ruled in favor of Palestinian return, and the other where the case was pending before the court. In both cases, the IOF demolished the villages so as to render the return of Palestinians impossible. Lara talks about the many thousands of Palestinians who did try to return despite these measures who were murdered in cold blood. We discuss how these policies like the Nakba are ongoing and not something rooted in the past. Finally, we switch gears, covering the censorship of Palestinian content on Tik Tok as a strategy passed down from region-specific moderation teams where Israeli moderators set the standards and Arab moderators were kept in subordinate positions.

This week Lara and Michael cover the formal announcement by Apartheid Israel of the plan to not allow for the return of Palestinians to the Northern part of Gaza while it continues to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from there towards the center and southern part of Gaza. Michael comments on the recent fiasco in Amsterdam where Israeli hooligans chanted genocidal songs celebrating that there were no schools in Gaza because there were no children left, while committing acts of violence and destruction of property. Predictably, the Global North's politicians and media painted the incident, whereby genocide apologists were confronted by locals for their anti-Palestinian threats as "anti-semitic" and a "pogrom". Michael explains his theory as to why it happened, namely to strike fear into Jewish communities in Europe for the purpose of recruiting more people to settle in Israel and the OPT. Lara references Professor Avi Schlaim's findings that Iraqi Jews left their homelands after Mossad orchestrated terrorist attacks in Baghdad in the 1950s. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was wrongfully kidnapped at the age of 18, sold to the CIA, and spent 15 years in Guantanamo before being released without charge or trial. After surviving the torture and terrorism of the United States government, Mansoor is now working tirelessly for accountability in accordance with international law, including an apology, reparations, and the closure of the torture facility where 15 detainees remain, their fates unknown. Released in parallel with the 23rd anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay, this episode hopes to contribute to the urgent campaign to close this abomination of the US so-called "War on Terror." For more on Mansoor's experiences, check out his book "Don't Forget US Here". 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the founder and CEO of Palestinian Hustle, Samer Fidy. Samer shares the journey that led him to start the Palestinian-owned small business that donates a portion of every sale to charities in the United States fighting food insecurity, and NGOs on the ground in Gaza providing clean water. Samer speaks of his desire to teach his children about responsibility and giving back to both local and global communities. Michael jokes about Samer’s affinity for Starbucks and contemplates whether or not one should strike up a conversation with your barista about Palestine. Samer surprises the Palestine Pod with stories of his past career pursuits then shares wild memories from his time living in Palestine. Finally, The Palestine Pod announces a limited apparel drop in collaboration with Palestinian Hustle, available on both our websites. 

This week we are joined by Israeli-American author, activist, and speaker Miko Peled. Author of The General's Son and Injustice, Miko Peled reflects on his path from growing up the son of an Israeli war general in as "strong of a zionist family as you could possibly have" to becoming an anti-zionist activist for Palestinian rights, and supporter of BDS and the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for all in historic Palestine. Miko dismantles the myth that there can be a liberal zionism concluding "there never was, there never is, and there never can be a good version of a racist ideology" and that "zionism is a form of neo-fascism." The Palestine Pod sends its solidarity to Palestinians in Jerusalem who are currently resisting expulsion from their homes and racist violence by Israelis and Miko refers to the "Judaization of Jerusalem" as "ethnic cleansing 101" and warns that Israel is hell-bent on destroying Jerusalem, an ancient city and its Muslim holy sites. Miko reveals the antisemitic origins of the Zionist movement. Lara commends a recent episode of Miko's podcast which shed light on demonstrated attempts by the zionist lobbies to suffocate Palestinian history by infiltrating the US K-12 educational system and intimidating teachers who dare depart from pro-zionist lesson plans. Miko offers a word of advice to Palestinians in the diaspora who encounter Israeli intelligence at the airport or crossings when trying to visit Palestine.

This week Amer Zahr joins the Palestine Pod and tells us how he uses comedy as a means of expression, advocacy for Palestinian rights, healing, and art. He shares with us some of his comedy icons and admits what he really thinks about white male comedians (sorry Michael). Commenting on the recent storming of the capitol and attempted coup of the US, Amer contemplates how “unbelievably awesome” whiteness is. Amer reflects on his viral video “Akhaduha Mafroosheh” (Arabic for "they took it fully furnished" referring to the Zionist takeover of Palestine as the theft of a fully furnished land, society, and culture) including scenes that did not make it into the final cut. Amer tells us what “Akhaduha Mafroosheh” meant to his family by describing the displacement of his mother’s family from Akka, Palestine: “Israel is a lot more than ethnic cleansing. It is ethnic replacement. They literally moved into our grandparents’ houses.” By relying on the findings of researchers Ronald Ranta and Yonatan Mendel, Lara dispels the common myth that dishes claimed by “Israeli cuisine” like hummus, falafel, and knafeh are the gifts of Mizrahi Jews coming to Israel from Yemen and Iraq. In fact, these foods were taken from the local indigenous Palestinians who were eating these foods on the land of Palestine for centuries upon centuries. As Amer says, “it’s not that hard. Go to a Israeli hummus place […] and then go to a Palestinian hummus place in Ramallah and […] they taste pretty much the same and guess what - the Ramallah guy has been there for 200 years and the Tel Aviv guy just got there. So you figure it out. They are copying our hummus […] the food of the land and of course they are.” Lara asks Amer to tell us some of his favorite Palestinian food memories from his “older than Israel” grandmother. A fierce bamya debate breaks out between Lara and Amer (thanks Michael).

 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with heavy hearts to commemorate the passing of Lara's sido. We talk about how zionist gaslighting impacts the grieving process and the pressure Palestinians feel to publicly share information about their family and lineage because of ridiculous zionist claims about Palestinian existence. Lara shares that her grandfather died stateless, without a passport, and he's one of the millions of Palestinians for whom that is a daily reality. We also commemorate the passing of The People's Bubbie, longtime antizionist Jew, feminist, and abolitionist, Shatzi Weisberger. We end by briefly covering the zionist dust-up surrounding the new Netflix movie, Farha. 

This week we recap episodes 16-38 and rediscover some of the highlights with guests including Farah Nabulsi, Laila El-Haddad, Qaher Harhash, Lyla June, Hadar Cohen, Malak Mattar, Rifk Ebeid, Jon Elmer, Joe Gaza, Joudie Kalla, Max from Palestine Action, Noam Shuster, Noor Elkhaldi, and Samer Fidy. It's an episode that catches you up to the present with some of the best of from 2021. We'll be back next week with brand new content! 

This week Lara and Michael cover the US blocking the UN Security Council vote on a permanent immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Lara reads through just one day's worth of death and destruction updates from Telegram. We also cover the assassination of beloved poet and academic Refaat Alareer and his sister's family in a targeted airstrike on his sister’s home in Gaza.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Diana Buttu, a fierce human rights lawyer, former PLO negotiator, Palestinian citizen of Israel and political analyst at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Diana offers her views on the Amnesty International Report and on current events on the ground in the aftermath of the May 2021 uprising. She tells the Palestine Pod the story of how her father’s family was ethnically cleansed from his village near Nazareth. Lara and Diana analyze Israel's absurd relationship to the law, and Michael asks Diana what we can learn from the South African anti-Apartheid struggle. Diana also shares behind the scenes stories from her time negotiating for the PLO.

This week Lara and Michael cover the story of the missing 6-year-old child by the name of Hind whose terrified phone calls circulated worldwide and the tragic disappearance of two civil defense workers who went looking for her. After recording, it was confirmed that Hind and the defense workers were killed by Israeli occupation soldiers. Lara covers stories of Israeli settlers blocking the entrance of aid into Gaza in violation of the ICJ order on provisional measures while Palestinian children die of starvation in Gaza as well as the discovery of a mass grave of 30 bound numbered bodies in a school in Northern Gaza. Michael comments on the long-term impact on the freedom struggle of the public narrative shifting to discuss the genocidal intent of the Zionist ideology.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with our favorite Pallestalion filmmaker, Vin Arfuso to talk about his upcoming documentary Walled Off. The documentary centers around the Walled Off Hotel in Occupied Bethlehem, Palestine as a means for show asking the brutality of Israeli occupation and apartheid. The hotel has the largest collection of Banksy artwork in one place. The film employs quick cuts and archival footage to dispute zionist propaganda, entertaining the audience with its humor and fast pace. It provides a historic overview of the major players in the story of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, where we are, and how we got here. Stay tuned for more information about the release of Vin's documentary, Walled Off!

Lara and Michael welcome you to The Palestine Pod! Lara discusses her family’s history and origins from Yaffa and Gaza, Palestine including how her family became stateless refugees, the broader history of the Palestinian struggle including the expulsion of the majority of the Palestinian population in 1948 as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel on top of historic Palestine, Israel’s ongoing land theft of Palestinian land as well as its oppressive system of apartheid, occupation, and siege which continue until today. Lara reflects on her college activist years and the path that led to her pursuing a career as an international lawyer focusing on refugee rights. Michael focuses on his experience growing up in a pro-Israel Jewish household and his evolution to becoming an anti-Zionist including his realization that Israel was an apartheid state, involvement in campus activism, and absurd encounters with his former IDF frat brothers. Lara and Michael explain the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and the weaponization of the latter in order to suppress any discussion of the very harmful consequences of the implementation of the Zionist project in Palestine: the creation of the world’s largest refugee population (8 million Palestinian refugees today out of a global population of 13 million people), the majority of whom remain stateless and prevented from returning to their land by Israel as well as the daily deprivation of rights by Israel of the Palestinians who continue to live in historic Palestine (whether in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza).

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the President of the Amazon Labor Union, Chris Smalls. We read the ALU statement of solidarity with Palestine, talk about the history of unions both good and bad when it comes to the Zionist colonization of Palestine and resistance against it and the importance of organizing your workplace to get us closer to a place where we can call for a general strike.

Lara and Michael break down the media coverage surrounding the massacres in Jenin vs the Palestinian resistance response. Unsurprisingly Israelis are humanized, and Palestinians are dehumanized. People received buzzing notification alerts from various news agencies the second a zionist is injured but Palestinians are murdered and maimed every day and nobody gets a notification. Michael clarifies where exactly the shooting took place because the media lied about the location. Lara breaks down the latest polling surrounding normalization with the occupation and Algeria and Mauritania come in strong at 99% opposed to normalization. We cover the life of Khalil Sakakini, one of Palestine's early intellectuals who kept a vibrant journal that tells us about the good times in his life like building and securing his house, to the bad times when the zionist militias stole his house and the apartheid state gifted it to a so-called feminist organization. Finally, we talk about a Holocaust survivor who has resigned from the Labour party after threats of expulsion for talking about his life experience of zionists collaborating with Nazis resulting in the death of the majority of the Jewish Hungarian population. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Noor Elkhaldi, Palestinian-American fashion model/influencer, and host of the popular podcast Arab-American Psycho, discussing the success of her podcast, its origins, and the meaningful conversations she has had on it with Palestinians like her mother, Hawaiian activists, and other people impacted by colonialism. Lara and Michael do a deep dive into Noor's family history learning that she only found out her parents were refugees this year because of their reluctance to relive past trauma. Noor reflects on traveling to Palestine as an American citizen and the privileges she experienced over Palestinians on the ground. Noor reminds us of Zionist cultural appropriation of Palestinian food, and the beautiful and rich Palestinian food community in New York. Finally, Noor enlightens the Palestine Pod on her experience being a visibly Muslim woman in fashion, with the perils and the joys included. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the Pro-Publica report that internal State Department recommendations advise sanctioning and cutting military funding to Israel, a recommendation that Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has been ignoring since December 2023. Lara and Michael also cover the phenomenon of college campus Gaza solidarity encampments including those at Columbia, Harvard, and Yale. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the Israelis. Lara shares gruesome updates from her family on the ground. We bring you the news the corporate media won't. 

This week Lara and Michael speak with Jon Elmer, Canadian writer and photojournalist specializing in the Middle East and Canadian foreign and military policy. He has lived in and reported extensively from the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza - specifically based in occupied Jenin, Bethlehem, and Gaza City. He has covered the al-Aqsa intifada, the so-called Israeli "disengagement" of Gaza which was followed by the imposition of a siege on Gaza as well as factional strife in Gaza. His work appears in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Le Monde diplomatique, and The Progressive. He is also the co-host of an amazing podcast called “The Brief” with Nora Barrows Friedman, a dear friend of the Palestine Pod. In light of the recent 21st anniversary of the Second Intifada, Jon speaks to us about his time reporting on the Second Intifada while he was in Palestine. With first-hand accounts from occupied Jenin, to analysis on the tactics used by Palestinians to resist Israeli colonial violence as well as the impact of the Second Intifada on Palestinian life until today, Jon paints a complex, layered picture of life in occupied Palestine, the cost of resistance to daily life, and the bravery and heroism of Palestinians fighting for their freedom. Lara reminds us that Palestinians are in a rights-based struggle and Michael recalls that Jews of the Warsaw ghetto used similar tactics of resistance as Palestinians, calling anyone who supports the former but not the latter fundamentally inconsistent in their approach to the right to freedom.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with acclaimed Rabbi, author, and rabbinical scholar, Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro to discuss what it actually means to be Jewish. He dives deep into Jewish history and shows how the Zionist movement belonged to Christians before Theodore Herzl came around. He explains how the founders of Zionism hijacked the religion while holding a lot of the same beliefs as the antisemites of their day. He defines what it means to practice Judaism and how the future of Jewish identity hinges on defeating Zionism

This week Lara and Michael cover the martyrs murdered by the occupation in the first week of January. We discuss the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Masafer Yatta, as well as the irony of the settlers in 48' protesting this new government as if it's actually different from previous governments (it's literally Bibi, again). We cover the phenomena of zionists online endorsing BDS and talk about Netanyahu's fascist decree about an unquestionable, and exclusive right to settlement. Finally, we cover the story of the former Executive Director, Ken Roth at Human Rights Watch who had his fellowship rescinded by the Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down to talk about how every day we wake up to the news of another Palestinian being martyred, another child snatched from their home in the middle of the night by the occupation forces. Every day another house or village is demolished, and more childhoods, adulthoods, and entire lives are stolen inside the occupation's concentration camps. We discuss specifically the cases of the Burnat brothers, Ahmed Manasra, and other political prisoners. We talk about the aftermath of Biden's visit, as well as the phenomena of Zionist settlers trying to sneak into mecca. The zionists set up another illegal outpost, and families and teens are encouraged to attend! 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Palestinian journalist, documentary filmmaker, and GQ heartthrob, Ahmed Eldin. Ahmed joins us to discuss his upcoming documentary (which is still under wraps) and how the terminology surrounding Israeli apartheid and occupation of Palestine is shifting in the public arena. We chat about overt and subtle media censorship from Instagram deprioritizing certain videos to outright banning accounts, and the inability to speak freely when working in a major newsroom. We cover some of the most recent egregious double standards from the Russia/Ukraine situation. We also talk about how Palestinian resistance has been criminalized in an effort to scare people away from talking about justice for Palestine. We end with a lighthearted conversation about how the Palestinian people are not waiting around for their so-called leaders to take action. Individual Palestinians both on the ground and in exile are taking liberation into their own hands.

This week we sit down with Joudie Kalla, also known to the world as @palestineonaplate. A Palestinian-British chef hailing from a family of Nakba survivors who spent time in Syria before settling in London and author of two best selling Palestinian cook books, Palestine on a Plate: Memories from my Mother’s Kitchen and Baladi: A Celebration of Food from Land and Sea. Joudie talks to us about anti-Palestinian media bias she experienced, how divide and conquer manifests in the culinary world, and whether Palestinian cuisine would make a good fusion cuisine. Listen to find out Joudie’s recommendation for the best introductory recipe for a newcomer to Palestinian cuisine and hear Michael instigate bamya-gate part 3. Joudie’s dogs provide the soundtrack to this episode. If you liked this episode, join our Patreon where you will get exclusive access to an additional 45 minutes of footage from this conversation where we dive deep into trauma, memories, and exile and play a round of rapid fire questions to get to know Joudie better. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago. They made headlines by becoming the first (progressive) Jewish congregation in the United States to add anti-Zionism to their core values. We discuss why they changed from non-Zionist to anti-Zionist. Rabbi Rosen talks about uplifting Jewish life in the diaspora and how diasporic consciousness serves our understanding and solidarity with all marginalized groups. We cover, what it means to be a Jew? Does being a good Jew mean supporting a settler-colonial apartheid state or are there other ways to express your Judaism? Rabbi Rosen explains how Zionism not only has nothing to do with Judaism but it's not supported by Jewish tradition. We discuss the internet's reaction to the decision to identify as anti-Zionist and the media coverage. Rabbi Rosen makes the point that Zionism actually requires anti-semitism to prosper. This explains the various ways Zionists have collaborated with antisemites over the years, including collaboration with Nazis, which continues to this day with support for the Azov Battalion in Ukraine. We talk about defining Zionism by its actions. We close by reliving Rabbi Rosens' personal path to anti-Zionism, and how it's never too late to change your mind when confronted with the facts and morality. 

 

This week, Laila El-Haddad, co-author of the Gaza Kitchen, joins the Palestine Pod. In honor of the publication of the third edition of the book, Laila shares with us some of the new recipes that she learned on her last trip to Gaza in 2019. Laila paints for us a culinary picture of Gaza and explains how intimately the history and politics, including in particular the Nakba of 1948, affect the local cuisine. Laila and Michael go back in time to recall a rich history of Gaza since Alexander the Great. Laila provides an update on her family in Gaza further to Israel's latest assaults which she notes focused on Gaza's commercial hub and city center unlike previous Israeli assaults which tended to focus on the periphery of the besieged enclave. Lara queries where Gaza's love for the chili pepper came from. Laila recalls that conversations about Gaza's resistance should never lose sight of the fact that resistance itself is not the goal: Liberation is the goal and resistance is the means. Michael instigates bamya-gate part two.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with rapper activist and revolutionary, Immortal Technique. We discuss his path to learning about the Palestinian struggle for freedom and his lyrics critical of mainstream media and western democracy which helped to educate generations of liberators. We also provide updates from the ground of the ongoing genocide in Palestine committed by the zionist regime and its fanatic genocide supporters and enablers.

This week we first provide updates on some BDS wins (go Abby Martin!) and recent actions by workers and activists to disrupt the sale and manufacturing of weapons intended for Israel. Lara and Michael also share their thoughts on the wins and losses of this ongoing global intifada of unity before getting into this week's interview with journalist and author Massoud Hayoun. Together with Massoud, we discuss his book When We Were Arabs, a colorful tale of his family's origins, which interweaves personal anecdotes, political vignettes and elements of cultural history that paint very clearly for the reader what the Jewish Arab identity meant to this family, not only in the past, but also how Massoud understands and lives his identity today, which includes Massoud's ethical stances as an anti-Zionist Jewish Arab in support of Palestinian liberation. Lara makes a Ja Rule joke.

This week, the Palestine Pod hosts Yousef Mema aka @JoeGaza93. Yousef is a nurse, social media activist, and humanitarian. His Instagram profile rose to prominence during the May 2021 Israeli assaults on Gaza where he spent every day of the 11-day attacks showing the world first-hand accounts from life in Gaza. He shared photo and video (including live) footage from his home in Gaza City during the shelling as well as from Al Shifa Hospital, one of the main hospitals in Gaza where he was working at the time as a nurse in the orthopedic department. Joe talks to us about what it was like to survive these Israeli assaults. Lara recalls filming an Instagram live with Joe in May while he was at home during the shelling and the sound of Israeli drones and missiles interrupting the conversation every couple of seconds. Lara and Joe discuss one of the most brutal nights of the May assaults, May 16, 2021, when Israel committed the Al-Wehda Street Massacre, and heavily shelled one of the most prominent residential and commercial streets in Gaza, leveling entire apartment buildings and killing entire families including Dr. Ayman Abu al-Ouf, one of Gaza’s leading doctors, and several of his family members as they slept. The Israeli occupation forces are said to have used 11 advanced precision-guided missiles along several meters of Al-Wehda Street without warning, leading to the killing of around 50 Palestinians and significant damage to the street and infrastructure. In response to international condemnation, the Occupation forces said that the casualties were an unforeseen “freak” consequences of an attempt to target tunnels under the street. Michael queries whether anyone really believes their outrageous claim that this was unforeseeable (they did use advanced weaponry designed specifically to kill on one of the densest residential streets in Gaza after all - what else would you expect to happen?). Joe reminds us that the Israeli siege is intended to keep Palestinians in Gaza preoccupied with basic needs such as food and electricity to hinder the pursuit of liberation. Michael compliments Joe’s beard and Lara suggests Michael’s facial hair resembles that of Julian Assange.

This week Lara and Michael hash out the good and the bad from Amnesty International’s recent report documenting Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians and dissect the Zionist response (i.e loose cannon false accusations of antisemitism and/or terrorism). Lara queries how many more reports we need before we will believe Palestinians and demand an end to the Apartheid regime? The Palestine Pod somewhat rejoices following news of Meta’s (formerly Facebook) recent removal or various Israeli cyberstalking accounts because as Michael reminds us: only Facebook gets to spy on our data! Lara relishes in the fact that FOX News inadvertently promoted the arguments against zionism and settler-colonialism in one of its articles by heavily quoting a recent University of Chicago SJP Instagram post and failing to present any convincing rebuttals. Lara and Michael conclude this week’s episode by chatting about Yair Lapid's response to the ADL letter on settler terror, calling it a “stain" on Israeli society that he will totally look into and not ignore. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the occupation siege on the Palestinian town of Huwara, where the zionist settlers are carrying out pogroms daily. We also discuss the siege on the Shu'fat refugee camp following some success from Palestinian resistance. We hold space for the names of the martyrs killed by the occupation this week and talk about how because of the brutal conditions, Palestinian are unable to live life on the most basic of levels. This is why resistance is the only option. We chat about the efforts of Palestinian resistance to repel the zionist colonial settlers and soldiers in Sheikh Jarrah and Isawiya. Lara sheds light on the early Zionist plan to poison the drinking water of Palestinians as a part of a multipronged effort of murder and forceable displacement. War criminal Netanyahu released a new book, and Michael is speechless as The Jerusalem post concedes that anti-zionist Jews have existed for longer than Zionist Jews. 

This week Lara and Michael sat down with award-winning journalist for Al Jazeera, Jamal Elshayyal. We cover the occupation's continued attack on the press in the wake of the execution of Shireen Abu Akleh. The occupation once again killed another Palestinian female journalist, Ghufran Harun Warasneh, and attacked her funeral procession (but you probably haven’t heard about this because she doesn’t hold an American passport). Lara talks about how terrifying it is that the occupation is doubling down and murdering more journalists. Jamal provides us the context that it might be that they are acting out most because they are near the end of their tether. Jamal relives his experience aboard the Mavi Mamara in 2010, the humanitarian flotilla headed towards Gaza that was shot at in international waters by the occupation commandos who then boarded the ship and took everyone hostage. Jamal's was the last signal broadcasting before the Israelis cut power. Michael queries Jamal about the insides of Gaddafi's intelligence compound where Jamal discovered some wild stuff in the wake of the Libyan revolution.

This week, Lara and Michael talk HR 2590 - the monumental new bill proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) on April 15, 2021 and co-sponsored by over a dozen other representatives that seeks to hold Israel accountable for land theft of Palestinian land, Israeli house demolitions of Palestinian houses and Israel’s jailing of Palestinian children. The bill is wider in scope than previous bills related to Palestinian human rights co-sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum and establishes annual certification and reporting obligations on the Secretary of State to show that no U.S. funds have been used by Israel to support the prohibited activities included in the legislation. The bill also requires oversight reporting detailing Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians. Lara and Michael break down the significance of its co-sponsors and 75+ supporting organizations (including Movement for Black Lives, Justice Democrats, Working Families Party, Detention Watch, Center for Constitutional Rights and more) as well as the ensuing public meltdown by AIPAC who, as Rep. Betty McCollum tweeted earlier this week, apparently *wants* US tax dollars to be spent on demolishing houses and jailing children. While it is notable for example that “liberal Zionist” group J Street has endorsed the bill, Lara and Michael remain critical by recent attempts of so-called “progressive Zionists” to paint Zionism as rooted in Judaism and compatible with Palestinian human rights by citing to the scholarly work of Rabbi Shapiro who explains clearly in his interviews and writings that Judaism has nothing to do with Zionism and that the latter was born out of secular European settler colonial movements. Lara and Michael put out a call to action encouraging everyone to call their representatives and ask them to support HR 2590. In other Palestine-related news, Michael reports a recent BDS win in Canada where the New Democratic Party, passed a resolution, “[e]nding all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine,” becoming Ottawa’s first major political group to endorse a partial boycott of Israel, with 80% of the party voting in favor of the boycott. In an extension of last week’s discussion on political prisoners, Lara mentions Israel’s recent arrest of a Palestinian dabke dancer whose only known “crime” is dance and recalls the story of the Holy Land 5, five Palestinian-American political prisoners in the US who were prosecuted more than a decade ago on dozens of charges including material support to a foreign terrorist organization, even though there was not a shred of evidence against them. Lara and Michael roast Ted Cruz and bond over homemade pizza dough.

This week Lara and Michael cover the details emerging around the massacre at Al Shifa Hospital, predicting that this massacre will be remembered in the same way as the massacres at Deir Yassin and Tantura. Reports indicate that the Israeli occupation forces separated people by color-coded bracelets before detaining some, torturing others, and killing patients, displaced people, and doctors who refused to abandon their patients. 

 

 

This week Lara and Michael cover the martyrs produced by the zionist raid on occupied Nablus. The spirit of Palestinian resistance can never be broken. We cover the story of Uday al-Tamimi who was gunned down while resisting occupation. He had inspired many Palestinian men to shave their heads in an attempt to thwart Israeli surveillance. Michael rants about how Zionists are being amplified and turned to as experts on antisemitism. They're experts alright, nobody does it better than them. Michael takes zionists to task for pretending to care about Jews while they are beating up elderly Jewish antizionist activists and funding literal Nazis in Ukraine. We also address the Kanye situation and the proliferation of antisemitism and anti-Blackness we've seen in Los Angeles recently, and how all liberation of oppressed people is linked. 

This week Lara and Michael celebrate the 50th episode of The Palestine Pod. We do a quick recap of guests and share our appreciation for everyone who has enjoyed the project so far. We cover the various shootings that occurred over the past few weeks. Some at the hands of the occupation, and some at the hands of Palestinians resisting. We discuss the difference in reaction when Ukrainians resist using violence vs. when Palestinians resist using violence. We dissect how the Israeli media is trying to justify the occupation of Palestine while supporting the right to self-defense from the occupation in Ukraine. We discuss the real origins of terrorism and the gravity of the violence that Palestinians face every single day. A former Israeli general promises Palestinians another Nakba. The so-called “safest place for Jews” needs to recommit itself to security apparently, by beefing up its police budget. We cover the occupation's reaction to Palestinian resistance which includes a stupidly named “Operation Break the Wave” and how that includes tear gassing hospitals. US Senators obstruct justice in the name of “fighting antisemitism” and we also cover Land Day and the various protests around the world commemorating the Palestinians who lost their lives protecting their land. We talk about how the Israeli lobby is gunning for Lowkey, and the New York Times finally mentions the Amnesty International Apartheid Israel report, some 52 days late, and only as a footnote.

This week Lara and Michael are back to break down the latest in Palestine-related news. We start by covering the latest decision of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled (after some funny business) that BDS is not a protected form of free speech. This decision runs counter to the bevy of other judges across the nation who have found the opposite. The ACLU is poised to take this case to the Supreme Court and let those old gargoyles of jurisprudence weigh in on the matter. We also cover the recent decision by the European Union to resume funding to Palestinian human rights organizations the occupation baselessly accused of terrorism. The EU stated that there was no evidence to support the claim, but that didn't stop them from freezing funds for over a year! Lara covers a motif that appears in various news outlets wherein a story of an Israeli being "lightly wounded" takes the front page over the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israelis. We take time to cover the story of Ahmad Manasra, a child who has been tortured by the occupation in their jails since he was 13.  We ridicule Pelosi’s reading a settler-colonial poem in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the PA’s decision to turn over the bullet used to murder Shireen Abu Akleh to the Americans for some reason. Israel is keeping the US out of the loop on covert attacks in Iran and Ukraine takes the occupation to task for failing to provide medical supplies (likely because they are too busy disfiguring Palestinians).

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Associate Professor of Law at Queens University, Dr. Ardi Imseis. Dr. Imseis is the author of the UN and the Question of Palestine, a study into what historically went wrong in the UN’s treatment of the Question of Palestine since its inception. Dr. Imseis exposes how at various critical moments in the last century, the prevailing international law of the time was flouted by the UN in favor of policy that violated Palestinian rights and democratic principles. The work reminds us how the law can be used as one of many tools, but certainly has its limits. Laws can be oppressive (like the Nuremberg laws, South African Apartheid laws) and the choice to respect them or not is inherently political. We discuss how a lack of accountability for Israel’s violations has only caused the Zionist occupation to become more entrenched over time, what public international law principles require of Israel in terms of reparation for its international wrongs against the Palestinian people, and the handful of current legal efforts brought by Palestinians and their allies to use the law for emancipatory aims including the ICJ case in relation to the illegality of Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinians Territory, a case where Dr. Imseis acted as part of the legal team.

This week Lara and Michael discuss how several Palestinian youth were murdered, execution-style, by the Apartheid State’s Yamam Brigade responsible for dressing up as and infiltrating Palestinian circles. Michael reminds us that zionists do not just murder people for armed resistance, but they also assassinate thinkers, people who can sway public opinion, foreign generals, and most recently scientists. Michael also throws back to the very first anti-zionist Jew murdered by the Haganah in 1924, Jacob De Haan. Lara provides a BDS update that includes Texas lawsuits, Harvard students boycotting Sabra, and Death on the Nile. Michael covers how Lebanon broke up an Israeli spy ring and the Palestine Pod discusses the latest in US and Israeli reactions to Amnesty International’s report finding Israel guilty of running an Apartheid regime.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the Michael Ratner Justice Fellow at Palestine Legal, Amal Thabateh. We talk about the growing support for Palestine on college campuses that intersects with other anti-racist struggles. We cover how this support is increasingly being censored and chilled by lobbyists, think tanks, and apartheid apologist groups in a way that harkens back to McCarthyism in the 1950s. We chat about the environment at CUNY that is producing some of the best Palestinian legal minds in the country, and finally, Amal assures us that most of the people who get involved with this work come out whole despite the difficult odds we face. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Israeli comedian and activist, Noam Shuster Eliassi. We talk about Noam's family history, her mother is an Iranian Jew and her father was born in Jerusalem to Romanian parents who survived the Holocaust. We chat about Noam's desire to preserve the traditions and return even just to visit the birthplace of her mother and honor her Iranian lineage which spans back thousands of years. She expresses her empathy and understanding of Palestinians desire to return to Palestine. We discuss why both Noam and her father refused to serve in the IDF, and the trials and tribulations they faced as a family for being refuseniks. Michael discusses the story of Givat Amal a once Palestinian village ethnically cleansed by the European zionists who resettled the Mizrahi's in areas without adequate infrastructure. Only to also kick them out violently in order to build high rise condominiums. Noam talks about how her Mizrahi identity and her upbringing around Palestinians allowed her to better sympathize with the plight of Palestinians. We conclude by cementing that we all play our own roles, Noam from on the ground, Lara as a Palestinian in exile, and Michael as an American Jew. It is not radical to demand equality among people, and freeing Palestine will free Israeli Jews from being occupiers.

Lara and Michael cover the upsetting pattern whereby Palestinians on the ground document in real time their lived experiences as victims of Israeli apartheid and colonialism but are dismissed. On the other hand, time and again mainstream media investigations confirm the veracity of Israeli crimes months after the fact and validate what Palestinians have been saying all along. The latest example are the settler attacks on occupied Huwara which were thoroughly documented by the Palestinians who lived them only to have CNN now carry out an investigation confirming what we already know. Lara and Michael continue with an update on Israeli impunity and critique the occupation’s habit of exonerating itself from its crimes. This week, the IOF declared that nobody would be reprimanded in the killings of 2 year old Muhammed Tamimi who was shot in the head sitting in his car with his father in their driveway by an Israeli sniper and the elderly Palestinian American man, Omar Assad, who was murdered by the occupation after being left bound and gagged on the ground in a street in his village last year. Meanwhile, a Ryan Air pilot was reprimanded for saying “Welcome to Palestine”.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Jewish anti-Zionist activist and writer Amanda Gelender. Amanda argues that the Jewish community has a fascism problem through its support for Zionism while imploring fellow Jewish folks to do more in support of Palestine and Palestinian freedom and liberation. 

This week Lara and Michael reflect on the rise in hate crimes perpetrated by zionist settlers against Palestinian Christians, and Muslims at their places of worship. Whether it's a church or a mosque, zionist settlers are determined to make life a living hell for Palestinians living on their land trying to celebrate their holy holidays. We cover Israeli top officials lamenting the bad PR image of beating worshippers during Ramadan and another zionist commander's admission that there's no difference between the army and the settlements. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss two recent reports challenging the stagnant death toll in Gaza: a recent article by Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa in the Electronic Intifada, concluding the Israel has most likely killed, in 9 months, 194,768-511,824 people in Gaza. Such findings were corroborated weeks later by an article published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, providing evidence-based data that the real death toll is likely at least 186,000 Palestinians. These earth-shattering findings are contrasted with the phenomenon of genocide denial and erasure in the US political landscape and the urgent need to stop the annihilation of the Palestinian people. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss Israel's latest scheme to recruit African asylum seekers to the genocide effort and the frozen death toll in Gaza in the mainstream media despite Israel's continue daily livestreamed massacres. Lara covers a recent piece indicating an economic collapse in Israel based on available data since the genocide began. 

This week on the Palestine Pod, Lara and Michael cover the significance of the shows of Palestinian solidarity at the World Cup in Qatar by players and fans. The Pod then covers the murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl Jana Zakarneh by Israeli snipers who shot her 4 times as she stood on the roof of her home in occupied Jenin during a recent occupation raid on the Palestinian city as well as the reckless reporting by Western outlets such as the BBC, CNN, and the NYT that followed, acting as cover for Zionist crimes by failing to publish who killed her in their headline, and worse, acting as an arm for the Zionist propaganda machine by swiftly publishing the official Zionist response (that they “unintentionally” sniped her) without the slightest bit of scrutiny. Lara explores the chronic state of hypocrisy that is the Zionist ideology, oscillating between lies like the land was empty, the Palestinians don’t exist, they left freely and occasional spurts of truth like the recent bombshell admissions portrayed in the documentary Tantura by Israeli filmmaker Alon Schwarz who interviewed elderly Zionist terrorists giddy to describe the murder, ethnic cleansing and rape they committed of Palestinians on camera. Michael continues to remind us that none of these people have any right to represent Judaism which is categorically opposed to this evil that they spread. Lara and Michael finish by commenting on the recent interview of Israeli MP Zvika Fogel where he explained that Zionists were too merciful to Palestinians leading Michael to conclude that this just means they want to do even more murder.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Janaya Future Khan, a Black liberation trans activist, model, and comedian to talk about the long-standing connection between Black and Palestinian liberation, BLM's decision to adopt a resolution supporting Palestine, and how Future uses comedy as a tool to influence culture. We discuss Future's trip to Palestine, and the importance of seeing where the conversation will be, not just where it is now. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the one and only Amanda Seales. Amanda shares her path to learning about and speaking up for Palestine as an artist, explaining that it takes about seven minutes to figure out what is going on, especially if one is armed with knowledge and understanding of white supremacy and colonialism. She invites listeners to check out her latest project, “What would the ancestors say” which explores Black-Palestinian solidarity amongst other social justice issues through a comedic and artistic intellectual lens. Amanda understandably reminds us of George Bernard Shaw’s saying that “if you’re going to tell people the truth, make them laugh them or else they’ll kill you.” Lara teaches Amanda Arabic. Michael wonders why Amanda still moves her own boxes. 

This week, our guest is Adnan Barq, a young Palestinian student of English literature and journalism from occupied East Jerusalem. Adnan offers his perspective on the latest Palestinian uprising which was born out of resistance to two forms of colonial violence in Occupied East Jerusalem: the settler-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and interference and violence inflicted by the IOF against Palestinian worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque during the month of Ramadan and in particular on the most holy day of Ramadan - Laylat Al Qadr. Lara shares updates from the latest military assaults on Gaza which have, by May 19, 2021 killed over 210 Palestinians, half of them being women and children with, in numerous cases many members of families being massacred together. She also shares reports from her friends living on the ground in '48 including by reference to the widespread destruction of Palestinian businesses as well as the lynching of Palestinians in the streets by Zionist mobs. Lara and Adnan, a Palestinian refugee in exile and a Palestinian in occupied Palestine comment on the meaning of this uprising, its possibilities for the future as well as its role in the history of the struggle for a liberated Palestine. Michael gets kicked off the call 7 times most likely due to heavy censorship. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the egregious story about Zionist female soldiers who forced Palestinian women to strip at the threat of attack dogs and automatic weapons. We discuss Netanyahu's proposal to deport "all African migrants" after flare-ups in the Eritrean communities inside 48. Lara breaks down the reality of navigating a maze of 21st-century settler colonialism in which all the most physical locations for your life are interrupted by checkpoints, violent settlers, and a literal apartheid wall. Also, we talk about online censorship as The Palestine Pod was recently demonetized on Instagram for no other reason than our reporting. 

This week's main story is the arrest of Abdul Khaliq Burnat and Muhammad Burnat, two brothers from the occupied village of Bil'in and the children of Lara's dear friend Iyad Burnat, a community organizer from the village. Abdul Khaliq and and Muhammed were kidnapped by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in two separate middle of the night raids on Iyad's house in May 2021 where the IOF destroyed the Burnat family's personal belongings including their personal electronics and beat the boys before throwing them into the back of a military vehicle. No charges have been brought against Abdul Khaliq and Muhammad and all evidence suggests that these arrests have been entirely arbitrary. As of June 2, 2021, Iyad and his wife still have no idea of the whereabouts of their two children who join the hundreds of other children being unjustly held by Israel. Iyad Burnat is a key figure who, for years now, has been resisting Israel's land theft of his village's land. Israel started uprooting Bil'in's olive groves and stealing thousands of dunams of the village's land in order to build the Apartheid wall (which was deemed illegal by the ICJ in 2004 and which Israel has yet to dismantle in 2021). The portion of the Apartheid wall that cuts through Bil'in separates people like Iyad and his family from their land which was intentionally placed on the other side of the wall to allow the illegal Jewish settlement Modi'in Illit to expand in line with Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement. Lara and Michael discuss BDS wins like the campaign named Musicians for Palestine where over 600 musicians signed a letter pledging to boycott Israel and calling on other musicians of conscience to do the same as well as the news that over 600 Amazon employees urged Jeff Bezos to cut ties with the Israeli military following the recent news that Amazon was entering into a billion-dollar contract with Israel, in which they would be providing cloud services for the government and Israeli armed forces for at least seven years. Michael brings us more news of anti-Zionist rabbis and goes down the rabbit hole to expose the link between Israel's economy and the (blood) diamond industry which funds its military and intelligence services. Lara and Michael affirm that they are not depressed and have no suicidal tendencies.

This week Lara and Michael discuss Instagram censoring our profile by announcing that as of October 25, 2021 we would no longer have access to the link button on @thepalestinepod account for purported violations of community guidelines. Lara queries what threshold Instagram is applying to make this decision to deprive users of critical features since @thepalestinepod account has only ever had one post removed from its account (which in any event did not violate Community Guidelines). Several other Palestinian content creators have received the alert that they too would lose access to the link button with the application providing no recourse to challenge this decision. This unfortunate move appears to be a coordinated effort to continue to crackdown on free speech on the platform especially as it concerns Palestinian human rights. This is all the more so since Instagram’s decision to deprive certain users of the link feature comes only a week after a Human Rights Watch report detailing censorship of posts and accounts by Instagram including with specific reference to posts unjustly removed from Lara’s account @gazangirl. Instead of heeding the call by Human Rights Watch to carry out an independent investigation into the censorship of Palestinian content, Instagram has doubled down by unjustly depriving Palestinian content creators of their right to link to further sources through their profiles. Lara and Michael also cover the recent meeting of the UN Security Council where the US envoy to the UN made some ludicrous statements condemning Hamas for allegedly holding two Israelis prisoners while nearly five thousand Palestinian men, women, and children languish inside Israeli political prisons. Lara provides an update on the Burnat brothers, and sadly Muhammad Burnat, the younger brother remains imprisoned by the Apartheid State without charge with a so-called court date that continues to be postponed. The Palestine Pod also discusses the pivotal role Colin Powell played in getting the United States on the course to invade Iraq, something the Israeli lobby took credit for. Michael covers an article in Jewish Currents that exposes American Jewish businessmen who are funding the Palestinian activist blacklist, Canary Mission.

This week Lara and Michael speak with Nisreen Salem, a photojournalist from Occupied East Jerusalem. She conducts the interview from inside a family’s house in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah where she documents protests that occur every night. We provide updates on the situation in Sheikh Jarrah with the Salem family and others. Nisreen breaks down the specifics of the Jerusalem court freezing (but not cancelling) expulsions, and ordering Palestinian families to pay the courts and the Israeli police. She explains how Sheikh Jarrah is the last stand for Palestinian freedom of movement in Jerusalem because 4 of the 6 areas in East Jerusalem have already been ethnically cleansed by the Apartheid state. Nisreen tells us about the Afro Palestinian experience, including racism from both Israeli and Palestinian society amounting to what she describes as “double apartheid.” Nisreen describes how she was assaulted and abducted by the IOF for doing journalism. We discuss how the occupation uses the trauma of Black Jews to advance settler-colonial aims while deporting Black Jews, invalidating their Jewishness, and in some cases sterilizing Ethiopian women. We conclude with the story of how Nisreen's family was displaced first in Africa, and then again from 1948 Palestine.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with student, activist, and burgeoning journalist 22 year old Yara Eid who comes to us from Gaza, Palestine. She takes us through the events of the latest Israeli assault of August 6-8, 2022 when Israeli shelling and bombardement mercilessly killed over 45 Palestinians including 16 children. She describes the impact of this assault on people and animals in Palestine, sharing with us several horrific scenes her and her news team witnessed, including Israeli attacks on a watermelon horse cart driven by a man bringing groceries and cake back to his family, a cemetery, and Jabaliya refugee camp. Yara shares with us her disappointment and frustration after being subject to racist interviewing by an RT reporter who both sides-ed her as the Apartheid state shelled her neighborhood. We cover the assassination of resistance leader Ibrahim Nabulsi earlier this week. Lara remarks that resistance fighters like Nabulsi are the real leaders of the Palestinian struggle. Michael jokes about the IOF and veganism.  

Trigger warning: Rape, sexual assault, coercion. This week, we cover the phenomenon of rape, sexual assault, and psychological warfare threatening rape and sexual assault employed by Apartheid Israel against Palestinians, whether they be political prisoners, male or female, younger or older, friends and family of political prisoners, or simply Palestinians on the land of Palestine. Lara notes how this phenomenon is nothing new and goes back decades to the Nakba of 1948 and the founding of the state of Israel when these violent tactics were employed against Palestinians by Zionist militias, in a manner fully consistent with the express beliefs of Zionist leaders like David Ben-Gurion, during documented massacres in order to intimidate and threaten the indigenous population to flee their homes. Lara also ponders the intersection between the celebration of the military, advanced weaponry, and mandatory service, which is at the center of Israeli society and the propagation of rape culture. She concludes that rape and sexual assault (or the threat of it) is used as a tactic in a systemic matter by the colonizer against the colonized reinforcing the colonial violence central to settler colonialism, the inequality at the heart of the Apartheid system, and the dehumanization required to sustain both forms of oppression. Michael covers recent stories illustrating the connection between Israel and human trafficking as well as the emergence of Israel as a “safe haven” for Jews fleeing prosecution in the US for sex-related crimes. There are not many jokes in this episode.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with one of our generation's most courageous investigative journalists, Abby Martin. Her current work can be seen at Empire Files and she directed the acclaimed documentary "Gaza Fights for Freedom" (2019). Her work took her to Palestine and got her banned from it. She takes us behind the scenes of what it was like to film in Palestine and recounts moments like her infamous interviews where everyday Israelis casually endorse genocide. Abby talks about spending time with the Tamimi family and the warmth of Palestinian culture. Abby shares that many journalist colleagues have emplored her not to talk about Palestine if she wants to keep her job, but she knew that you're not being human if you're not using your platform to call for the freedom of Palestine, and all indigenous peoples and land protectors.  

This week we sit down with the vibrant 21-year old Palestinian female artist, painter, and activist Malak Mattar coming to us straight from Gaza, Palestine. Malak takes us through her experience growing up in Gaza under Israeli siege and surviving four Israeli military assaults from early childhood to adulthood. She tells us about her path to painting, the inspiration behind the subjects in her art, her favorite Palestinian painters, and how the Israeli siege on Gaza has affected her ability to travel as an artist and sell her art (she operates an Etsy store based in Turkey to avoid censorship by the Apartheid State which would have to approve the packages she sends out of Gaza). She describes the current situation in Gaza since the latest assaults in May including heightened restrictions on the entry of goods due to Apartheid Israel's blocking of chocolate, wedding dresses, and certain acrylic colors (like white and black paint colors). Malak evokes the meaning of living as a free Gazan woman against the backdrop of the brutal siege and occupation. She critically reminds us that "Peace is no longer a priority; Freedom is" and takes us through her dreams for the future. The Palestine Pod queries whether there are breakfast burritos in Gaza.

This week, the Palestine Pod interviews Lyla June, an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) nations from Taos, New Mexico. Lyla speaks to us about the ill-effects of colonialism in Turtle Island (i.e. the United States) especially on food and ecosystems and Lara draws comparisons to Palestine. Lyla describes what makes a sustainable culture and recalls the sustainability of indigenous culture as well as the suitability of indigenous food to indigenous communities on a personal level. We speak about the importance of Land Back in Turtle Island and the Palestinian right of return and Lyla shares with us her journey to learning about and supporting the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Michael queries how white settlers in Turtle Island can best get involved in a Land Back movement. 

This week, Lara and Michael discuss the absurdity of "settler Jacob," the American settler who can be seen in a recent viral video brazenly attempting to the steal the home of Mona al-Kurd, a young Palestinian woman who hails from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem which is currently facing a mass ethnic cleansing campaign at the hands of Zionist settlers who are protected in their colonial pursuits by the Israeli army on a daily basis. #SaveSheikhJarrah because Palestinians, like all humans, deserve to live in their houses without foreign settlers invading and taking over talking about "God said so." Lara provides an update on the lawsuit before the Israeli Supreme Court in relation to the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah and spoiler alert, it is loads of garbage and can only be described as quintessentially "Zionist logic." Michael considers that Zionists are like "New York and New Jersey mobsters who intimidate people by hanging them off a bridge" except they do that with logic (lol). Lara insists that the horrific expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah demonstrate that Israel is only interested in stealing more and more land, and that no amount of stolen land will ever be enough when the goal is a Greater Israel, which "map" covers several other countries in the region. Lara and Michael also reveal how Israel's repressive policies extend beyond its borders. For example, Israel provides Mexico with training and weapons in its counterinsurgency against the Zapatistas in Chiapas. Michael underscores the importance of connecting Palestinian activism with May Day solidarity by pointing to Israel's extraction of wealth from Palestinians. Lara provides an update on the Palestinian legislative elections and (spoiler alert), it's not looking good. Lara and Michael share the disturbing results of a global study on the effects of tear gas on reproductive cycles and also shoutout Foodbenders, the Toronto restaurant made target of several baseless lawsuits brought by the Israel lobby (including the terrorist JDL) seeking to crush its displays of Palestinian solidarity. Lara proposes an unusual solution to ending Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid in Palestine. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss the deja vu of watching Zionists desecrate portions of the Al Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramadan. The occupation also assaulted journalists, men, women, and children, locking people inside the mosque so that Israeli settlers could waltz around the Al Aqsa compound. We held space for the seemingly neverending list of Palestinians murdered by the occupation in recent weeks. We talk about western media never affording Palestinians the opportunity for self-defense, whereas those same media outlets provided how-to guides for resistance in Ukraine. We talked about how every time the occupation murders a Palestinian, the only thing they have to say is "we'll look into it" and nothing ever comes of those so-called investigations. 

This week, Palestinian model Qaher Harhash joins the Palestine Pod. Qaher speaks first hand about his experience receiving a barrage of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic messages from Zara's head of design, Vanessa Perilman, in response to an Instagram story he posted from his room showing the infamous black water tanks on top of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem compared to the Jewish Israeli rooftops which have no tanks at all since they are hooked up to water 24/7, highlighting the racist distribution of resources on occupied Palestinian land to favor to occupier and disadvantage the occupied. Michael recalls Zara's long history of racist policies and practices towards employees and shoppers alike. Lara dismantles Vanessa's racist diatribe and the Pod revisits how some of Vanessa's comments are an extension of Israeli pinkwashing, the official government policy to paint Israel as being this haven for LGBT+ folks in an effort to conceal its apartheid policies towards Palestinians and divert international condemnation by associating itself with freedom and liberal values. Qaher reminds us that even the notion of Israel being an LGBT+ safe haven is an awful distortion of the reality of life for LGBT+ folks in Israel. Qaher lets us in on what it is like to work as a Palestinian in high fashion and Michael reminds us why Palestinians can never see "eye to eye" with their colonizer.