PeaceCast

Rafi Nets-Zehngut’s new book (currently in Hebrew only) focuses on the collective memory among Israeli Jews of the question of the Palestinian exodus from Palestine during the 1948 war, the war that Israeli Jews refer to as the War of Independence and that the Palestinians refer to as the Naqba, the catastrophe.

One of his most intriguing and surprising findings is that the biased “official” Zionist narrative regarding this experience has been challenged in Israel and then lost its grounding much earlier than one may think.

How did this happen? Why is it important? How may it impact efforts to advance peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians?

Dr. Nets-Zehngut addresses these questions and others in this episode of PeaceCast.

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Write to Dr. Nets-Zehngut

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Eran Singer covers Arab affairs for Israel Television Channel 11 and for Israel Radio Kan Reshet Bet, Israel’s public broadcast services.

His most recent project was a TV news series on the status of the Arabic language in Israel, among Israeli Jews, and the way in which Arabic is taught in Israeli schools.

This episode discusses this topic.

Questions? Comments? Email [email protected]

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This is a slightly edited version of an August 27th 2020 APN webinar.  Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and a media activist, a leading independent analyst and commentator on current events, and an activist working to advance the freedom of the press in the Arab world. He is currently the director general of the Community Media Network (CMN), a nonprofit media organization dedicated to advancing independent media in the Arab world.

Yossi alpher is the author of Hard Questions, Tough Answers, APN’s weekly analysis of political and strategic affairs. Now an independent security analyst, Alpher is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. 

In this episode, he assesses the various aspects of the Israel-United Arab Emirates normalization deal.

Hard Questions, Tough Answers on APN's web site 

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In a rare decision, Israel's Supreme Court accepted the petition of a Palestinian family against an IDF order to punitively demolish its West Bank home. Jessica Montell, the executive director of the Israeli human rights organization Hamoked, which helped file the petition, talks about the case and about the doctrine and practice of house demolitions in the West Bank. 

Hamoked's web site: http://www.hamoked.org/home.aspx

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Michael Sfard is one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers and the legal counsel of Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) and of the organization Yesh Din.

Yesh Din recently commissioned Sfard to prepare a legal opinion on whether the current situation in the West Bank, the occupation -- regardless of Israel’s intention to de-jure annex parts of the West Bank -- can be defined as Apartheid. Michael issued a report titled “The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion."

In this episode, a version of an August 10th 2020 webinar, Sfard talks about his report and what it means.

A link to the report

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Eran Nissan is a key orgnizer and activist in the current Anti-Netanyahu, anti-corruption and pro-democracy protest movement in Isreal. He is a former staff member of Peace Now, and currently works for Mehazkim, a progressive Israeli activist nonprofit. 

What is the role of the Israeli peace movement in the broader context of the protest movement? What opportunity does this mass protest movement grant to the Israeli peace camp to advance its advocacy? Does the protest movement open a door to highlight the relationship between the occupation and the erosion of democracy in Israel?  Eran addresses this and other questions.

Eran's story on a past PeaceCast episode

Mehazkim's web site

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David Pollock’s new book, A Nation Divided – Palestinian Views on War and Peace with Israel is an analysis of many years of surveying Palestinians' attitudes regarding their relationship with Israel. Pollock's book on the web site of the Washington Institue for Near East Policy Donate to APN

This episode is an edited version of a July 23rd 2020 webinar with Peace Now's Hagit Ofran, one of the leading authorities on West Bank settlements and on settlements in East Jerusalem.

Her recent report, Annex and Dispossess, documents the way in which Israeli authorities have been using the Absentee Property Law to transfer Palestinian real estate in East Jerusalem to settlers. The report points out ways in which Israel's government could emulate this method to dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes in the West Bank once parts of the West Bank are annexed to Israel. 

New Story Leadership is a program that every summer brings to Washington five Israelis and five Palestinians for a program aimed at empowering young leaders who will advance mutual Israeli-Palestinian understanding, tolerance and peace.

Americans for Peace Now has partnered with NSL since its inception, more than ten years ago.

This year, due to COVID-19, the Israeli and Palestinians who were chosen for this summer’s program had to stay home and participate in the program virtually, online. They will travel to DC, COVID permitting, next summer.

In past years, we brough NSL delegates to PeaceCast. This episode is a COVID-era attempt to bring NSL’s voices to you, PeaceCast’s listeners. It’s an opportunity to listen to young Israelis and Palestinians who are acting, separately and together, to build bridges between their communities and to forge hope for a better future.