This episode of Palestine This Week opens with Israel’s renewed push to promote the so-called “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza, asking whether ethnic cleansing is now being pursued without even the pretence of concealment. We also look at Trump’s proposed Gaza board and warnings that it could create a legal black hole for officials and contractors, before turning to the unprecedented lawsuit filed by ICC judges against US sanctions they describe as an attempt to punish and coerce the court.

The episode also explores growing threats to journalism, from the UK’s State Threats Bill to double standards in how the media defines press freedom, alongside new revelations about the Hannibal Directive during the events of 7 October. We then assess whether Israel’s confrontation with Iran has punctured the myth of Israeli military invincibility, and close with Lebanon, where Israeli media figures speak openly about pushing the country towards civil war as part of a wider regional strategy.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

00:20 Israel revives plans for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza

06:24 Trump’s Gaza board and the creation of a legal black hole

12:11 ICC judges sue the Trump administration over sanctions

21:25 UK State Threats Bill raises alarm over press freedom and journalism

31:11 New Hannibal Directive revelations from 7 October

38:18 Iran, Gaza and the crisis of Israeli military invincibility

45:43 Israel’s strategy for Lebanon: escalation, fragmentation and civil conflict

This week, we begin with Hannah Arendt, the Jewish intellectual who warned that a state built without Palestinian consent would be condemned to permanent war. Her warning now feels less like abstract history and more like a description of Israel today: a militarised society, trapped in endless war and dependent on propaganda to justify the violence needed to sustain its project.

We also look at the casual anti-Muslim racism used by Israel advocates to dismiss equality for Palestinian, the UN Human Rights Council’s findings on Israel’s targeting of children in Gaza, and the rise of settler violence in Hebron and around Al-Aqsa Mosque. The episode ends with Trump’s U-turn on Iran, Lebanon’s central role in US-Iran diplomacy and the pro-war commentators already trying to explain away another Middle East disaster.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

01:13 Hannah Arendt’s warning: Was Zionism destined for permanent war?

10:14 The casual anti-Muslim racism of Israel advocates

18:41 Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in Gaza

26:50 Hebron, Smotrich and the collapse of the Hebron agreement

36:51 Trump’s U-turn on the Iran war: What explains the shift?

40:57 Lebanon as the make-or-break arena for US-Iran diplomacy

46:59 Iran war cheerleaders and the making of another American debacle

In this episode, we examine whether Gaza features in the Iran ceasefire calculation, the crisis facing Israel’s security doctrine and its fear of US abandonment. We also discuss whether the Iran deal signals a deeper rupture in US-Israel relations, Al Jazeera’s shocking investigation into Israel’s abuse of Palestinian detainees and Israel’s strangling of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Watch the Al Jazeera documentary ‘Bodies of Evidence’ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3pApprHfrY 

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

00:19 Did Iran sell out Gaza in the ceasefire deal?

12:05 Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran: Axis of resistance or sectarian politics?

22:10 Why did the UAE unlock billions for Iran while others brokered peace?

27:38 Israel defies Washington: Can it wage war on Iran without the US?

33:42 Israel’s biggest fear: What if America stops coming to the rescue?

38:37 Is the Iran deal the beginning of a US-Israel split?

43:19 Al Jazeera exposes Israel’s torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees

52:23 Is Israel deliberately strangling the Palestinian Authority to death?

With the Iran war passing its 100-day mark, we take a bird's-eye view of what this war has truly revealed. From its roots in the unresolved question of Palestine, to the limits of US power, fractures in the US-Israel relationship — including reports of Israeli intelligence spying on American negotiators — and the crisis of Zionism itself, we ask whether this war has backfired on its instigators and made Palestine more central than ever.

In this episode of Palestine This Week, we examine Israel’s addition to a UN blacklist over sexual violence in conflict, Dr Nick Maynard’s harrowing testimony from Gaza and the wider backlash to evidence of abuse against Palestinians.

We also discuss plans to turn Gaza’s destruction into an investment opportunity, tensions between Trump and Netanyahu over Lebanon, stalled ceasefire diplomacy with Iran and the UAE’s reported role in the regional war. The episode closes by looking at US efforts to integrate Israel’s military with its own, the Democrats’ refusal to confront Gaza’s electoral impact and Western crackdowns on critics of Israel.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & Overview
02:03 UN report exposes Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians
11:00 Dr Nick Maynard’s Gaza testimony and Israel’s targeting of healthcare workers
22:45 The plan to turn Gaza’s destruction into an investment project
28:57 Trump-Netanyahu tensions over Lebanon 
36:52 Iran war ceasefire deadlock
42:36 UAE airstrikes on Iran and the fallout for Gulf politics
47:14 Congress moves to integrate Israel’s war machine with the US military
52:22 DNC autopsy ignores Gaza genocide
57:48 UK bans Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker amid crackdown on criticism of Israel

In this episode of Palestine This Week, we discuss Mouin Rabbani’s Gaza Apocalypse, a real-time account of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the decades of policy, international complicity and failed diplomacy that preceded it. 

We also examine Israel’s plan for the occupied West Bank, described as a staged process of ethnic cleansing: first entrenching apartheid, then emptying rural areas, forcing Palestinians into cities and creating the conditions for mass expulsion.

The episode also covers Mladenov’s Gaza plan, Ben-Gvir’s humiliation of flotilla activists, the normalisation of Israel’s far-right politics, US' "suicidal empathy for Israel", Trump’s efforts to link Iran negotiations to the Abraham Accords and reported US-Israeli moves to strip Jordan of its custodianship over Al-Aqsa

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

01:18 Key arguments of Gaza Apocalypse and why Mouin Rabbani wrote it

04:27 Who is Gaza Apocalypse for?

09:03 Writing books in the age of social media

11:40 Mladenov’s Gaza plan and the “Board of Peace”

21:50 From apartheid to transfer: Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse the West Bank

26:57 Ben-Gvir, the Gaza flotilla and the Israeli far right

35:15 US “suicidal empathy” for Israel

44:25 Iran war negotiations, Trump and the Abraham Accords

47:56 US-Israel efforts to strip Jordan of Al-Aqsa custodianship

In this week’s episode, we take on some of the most persistent myths used to justify Zionism, erase Palestinian dispossession and rewrite the history of the Nakba. We begin with the claim that Arab conquest expelled Jews over the centuries, before examining how this distorted reading of history is used to present Zionism as a “return of Jews to their ancestral homeland” rather than a colonial project.

We then turn to the Nakba, challenging claims that Israel was founded on legally purchased land, that the 1948 war was a war of annihilation against Israel and that Palestinians left because Arab leaders told them to evacuate. The episode also unpacks the accusation that Palestinians want to “push Jews into the sea”, before addressing post-Nakba myths about Jewish refugees from Arab states and the claim that mass displacement after the Second World War makes the Palestinian case unexceptional.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & Overview

02:05 Myth #1: “Arab conquest expelled Jews over the centuries”

16:17 Myth #2: “Zionism is not colonialism”

29:19 Myth #3: “Israel was founded on land purchased by early Zionists”

32:59 Myth #4: “The 1948 war was a war of annihilation against Israel”

44:45 Myth #5: “Palestinians fled because Arab leaders ordered them to evacuate”

51:11 Myth #6: “Palestinians want to push Jews into the sea”

56:42 Myth #7: “Jewish refugees from Arab states cancel out the Palestinian right of return”

57:02 Myth #8: “Population displacement was normal after WW2 — why single out Israel?”

In this episode, we mark Nakba Day with a special discussion on the historical roots and continuing reality of Palestinian dispossession. We place the Nakba within the wider settler-colonial project that shaped Palestine from the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate through 1948, 1967, Oslo and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The episode examines whether Gaza represents the final and most violent stage of a century-long project to erase the Palestinian people, or whether this moment marks the beginning of the end of Zionism as a settler-colonial system. It also looks at the crisis of Palestinian political leadership, the collapse of Israel’s claim to moral legitimacy and the regional fallout from Gaza, including Iran, Trump and the limits of US power in a changing Middle East.

Get your copy of ‘Gaza Apocalypse’ by Mouin Rabbani: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gaza-apocalypse/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & Overview
01:09 The Nakba in the historical context of the Palestinian question
08:38 Gaza and the possible final stage of Israel’s century-long settler-colonial project
11:16 The impact of 7 October and the Gaza genocide on global understanding of 1948
19:39 Zionism’s survival in a post-colonial world
26:08 Zionism’s framing as Jewish self-determination, refuge and biblical return
33:03 The Nakba and the fragmentation of Palestinian political life
36:15 Palestinian leadership in the final stage of Israeli domination
48:02 New York Times coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees
54:50 Iran, Trump and the strategic limits of US power

In this episode of Palestine This Week, we examine Israel’s expanding control over Gaza through the shifting “Yellow Line” and the emergence of a clandestine “voluntary migration” programme, before turning to the occupied West Bank, where the JNF is cutting funding to settler farm outposts as Israel’s wider strategy moves from “conflict management” towards annexation.

We also discuss fresh allegations against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, Israel’s application of the Gaza model in Lebanon and Barack Obama’s claim that Benjamin Netanyahu pushed him towards war with Iran before making the same case to Donald Trump. The episode ends by looking at the growing regional divide between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Israel, Iran and the future of Gulf security.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & Overview
01:20 Israel expands Gaza’s “Yellow Line” and undermines Trump’s ceasefire plan
08:54 Israel’s clandestine ethnic cleansing programme under the guise of “voluntary migration”
18:54 JNF cuts funding to West Bank settler farm outposts
27:22 Israel’s West Bank policy shifts from “conflict management” to annexation
33:14 Allegations against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan as pressure builds over the Netanyahu case
41:21 Israel applies the Gaza model in Lebanon
45:41 Obama says Netanyahu pushed him towards war with Iran before making the same case to Trump
51:20 Saudi Arabia and the UAE split over Israel, Iran and regional security

In this episode, we assess Israel 78 years after its founding, examining whether the Zionist project has reached a point of crisis. We explore competing interpretations of what “went wrong,” from claims of ideological failure to arguments that the current reality reflects the logical outcome of a settler-colonial project. Drawing on historical evidence and contemporary developments, the discussion addresses Israel's genocide on Gaza, the erasure of Palestinian, ongoing patterns of dispossession and looting, and the wider regional and international dynamics shaping the conflict today.

00:25 78 years on: has Zionism reached its breaking point?
10:23 What went wrong: the collapse of Zionism’s founding promise
23:07 Was genocide built into the Zionist project?
26:08 From the Nakba to Lebanon: the looting that never ended
31:05 The 2,700-year claim used to erase Palestinians
36:13 Engineering collapse: is Israel undermining the Palestinian Authority?
51:39 How the US justifies its war with Iran
53:33 Israel, the Gulf and the new regional war map