Otherwise Occupied

As the Israeli parliament dissolved this week and we are now headed to our fourth round of elections in two years, I'm happy that my guest today is a professional politician: Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament Heba Yazbak (Joint List).

Yazbak belongs to the National Democratic Assembly, known as the “Balad” party, a Palestinian nationalist party that supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories Israel occupied in 1967 and opposes Israel’s definition as a Jewish state.

It’s members have been targeted by the Jewish right wing and they see constant attempts to block them from running for office. Yazbak herself was almost disqualified for past statements on social media where she was accused of supporting terrorists, but the Supreme Court eventually let her run.

We talk about those efforts, about the upcoming elections of course, and the situation that the Joint List is in these days, and a whole lot more.

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My guest this week is an activist for Palestinian rights from East Jerusalem. Kefah Abukhdeir is a Palestinian-American who co-directs and teaches at EduReach, a local Palestinian educational and learning organization, and I had the honor of speaking with her about her family’s deep roots to the holy city, her American roots, and what she thinks about the end of the Trump era.

But what I’m really thankful for in our conversation is, first of all, the glimpse that Kefah gives me about life in East Jerusalem, which I’m not sure is really known to most people who think they have an understanding of this conflict.

And I’m also grateful for her willingness to share a bit of her connection to Mohammed Abukhdeir, her 16 year old cousin, who was brutally murdered in 2014 by Jews. It was a murder that horrified this region, and it was part of the chain of events that eventually led to the 2014 Gaza war. Last year, HBO produced in Israel a show called "Our Boys," based on the events of those days.

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My guest this week is someone I am very excited to talk to, being the foodie that I am. Ronit Vered is a researcher of food culture, she’s a journalist, an author of food and travel books. Since 2007 she’s been writing a weekly column about food in Haaretz. It’s a wonderful column, with photographs from an amazing photographer named Dan Peretz. Together they document people, food, disappearing preparation methods that they encounter every week, as they crisscross the country looking for good stories.

She also writes for international culinary magazines and books, she gives lectures and moderates international panels about cuisines and identity, food and politics, the Jewish kitchen, Israeli cuisine, and so much more. She really is one of the best in her field. 

We talk about food and identity in Israel and Palestine, about what covid-19 is doing to the food business, about hummus, sabich - even schnitzel! It was, if I may say so myself, a delicious chat.

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David Lehrer is the Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. As a partner of the Ben Gurion University, the institute brings Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international students together, promoting the idea that nature knows no political borders is more than a belief. "It is a fact, a curriculum, and a way of life," as their website says.

I spoke to David while he was in the institute, in a Kibbutz called Ketura, where he has lived now for many years since immigrating from the States. We talk about the amazing work they do in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan, about how environment work can promote peace, about living through the Trump era as an environmentalist, and his hopes for the future for this region and the world.

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There's a first time for everything, right? Well, this is the first episode where I shed a tear during recording. 

My guest this week is the first female Palestinian photojournalist in Gaza. Eman Mohammed started her career at the young age of 19, not only dodging bombings, but also misogyny from her colleagues and surroundings, who thought a woman was not cut out for the job. 

But that didn’t stop her. She eventually became one of the most well known photographers in the region, her photos published in all the major media outlets around the world, until THAT day, that one day of bombing in another Gazan war, that hit close to home. Way too close to home. Her daughter was injured. 

We’ll talk about that horrific day, about her becoming a speaker for TED and a senior TED fellow, about living in America during the Trump era, why she decided to remove her hijab, and so much more. 

But first - an apology. I screwed up. I messed up the settings in this zoom call, and instead of recording my voice on my fancy microphone, it was recorded by the computer mic - which is pretty bad. A real rookie mistake, I admit it...  I was thinking about re-recording, but I thought that since Eman’s voice is still heard very well, and she’s the important one here and I’m just a bit muffled here and there - it wasn’t worth trying to replicate the whole conversation. I promise, though, that you will still enjoy this episode AND that I have learned my lesson the hard way.

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What really makes my day is talking to an amazing and inspiring artist.

She’s a singer. A musician. A songwriter. She is an actress on stage and on the screen. She is a screenwriter. She’s an activist for women’s rights, for Palestinian rights. She was even in the Eurovision! 

Today I am so honored to speak with Mira Awad, one of Israel’s most famous artists, famous abroad as well, who has been challenging norms since childhood, norms in Arab society, in Israeli society, constantly giving the middle finger to the patriarchy - as one should.

She has courage and bravery like I’ve never seen, never ending talent, and if you ask me - a voice to die for. Honestly, it’s angelic. Obviously I was a bit star struck during this one…

So, sit down, keep on jogging, or cooking or whatever you’re doing - and have a listen.

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My guest this week is the busiest reporter in Israel, based on the amount and pace of scoops he publishes. Barak Ravid is probably the most well known diplomatic correspondent in this country. He worked for years in Israel’s leading broadsheet Haaretz, then moved to TV - until he got fired, for reasons we’ll discuss in our chat. He now works in two news organizations, Walla News here in Israel, and one of my favorite websites in the US: Axios.com.

Not many people know the Mideast political and diplomatic arena like Barak does, and we get to talk about that, about media in Israel, about Trump’s legacy and Biden’s challenges, the way he works his sources and how he maintains a relationship with them, and he gives me a very honest answer to the podcast question about what should be between the river and the sea.

I hope you enjoy it - and if so - share this episode!

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My guest today is Simcha Rothman. Recently named by the Israeli financial daily "The Marker" as one of the 100 most influential people in Israel. I know Simcha from my TV days hosting the Spin Room, a debate show, and Simcha, being the attorney that he is, was a fierce and formidable rival for the folks I put up against him. 
He is the co-founder and legal counsellor of an NGO called Meshilut, the Movement for Governability and Democracy and he recently wrote a book called “The ruling party of Bagatz – How Israel became a legalocracy”, which is basically a tearing down of what he believes is the Israeli Supreme Court’s over-interventionism.
Now, I know I set out at the beginning of this podcast journey to listen to everyone and anyone between the River and the Sea, but I have to admit, this one was a challenge. Simcha is a settler, he doesn’t even live in a settlement, he lives in an outpost! He’s hardcore, Jewish right wing. Otherwise Occupied is not supposed to be a debate podcast, but I think at times this episode came close to that...
I’ll let you be the judge. Tell me what you think.
Here’s me and Simcha.

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Today I am talking to Makbula Nassar. While I’ve never met Makbula, she does writes for Local Call, the sister site of the website I co-founded, +972 Magazine, and I have always wanted to get to know her better.

Makbula is one of the most dominant voices in Palestinian society today. She started out as a social worker, but veered towards photography and journalism, hosting one of the most popular talk shows on Arab radio, leading feminist causes in Israel and in Arab society in particular, and so much more.

I really like how this one turned out, because we talked about so much: how it was to grown up in Arabeh; her project of photographing abandoned Palestinian towns and homes; about one state; about the holocaust... We even talked about the media storm swirling around one of the most famous Palestinians in the world these days, the video blogger Nuseir Yassin, better known as Nas Daily, 

It’s a great one, folks.

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My guest today is a comedian who is very quickly making a name for herself in Israel and abroad. Noam Shuster Eliassi has an amazing life story, and she’s only in her early 30’s! She grew up in a very unique place, Neve Shalom, a small village of Israeli Jews and Palestinians, an experiment of sorts. In the podcast, I ask her if she thinks the experiment was a success...

She's worked in Rwanda, she’s worked for the UN and other NGO’s, but then - she dropped all that and started telling jokes. She began to use comedy as a tool to make bridges, to forge alliances, to give hope.

But it’s the past year that really rocked Noam’s world - beginning a fellowship in Harvard, that was midway put on hold because of no other than Covid-19. She decided to go back home to Israel - and... guess what happened just a few days after she landed…. 

You’ll just have to listen to find out…

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