The Electronic Intifada

On episode 66, we speak with sociologist and activist Sheryl Nestel about the impact that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Anti-Semitism (IHRA) has had on Canadian activists, academics and students.

Promoted by Israel and its lobby, the IHRA definition conflates criticism of Israel, on the one hand, with anti-Jewish bigotry, on the other. It has become the Israel lobby’s key weapon in North America and Europe to enforce censorship about Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

Nestel co-authored a brand-new report, “Unveiling the Chilly Climate: The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada,” as a project of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-66-how-anti-semitism-smears-impact-palestine-activists

On episode 65, we speak with Donald Wagner, a long-time Chicago-based activist for Palestinian rights, a Presbyterian clergyperson and the author of a new memoir, Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land.

Forty years ago this month, during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Israel’s then-defense minister Ariel Sharon sent Lebanese militia forces, the Phalangists, into the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut on false claims of so-called terrorism.

Thousands were slaughtered in a three-day massacre and no one was ever tried for war crimes.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-65-sabra-and-shatila-40-years

On episode 64, we speak to contributors of a new literary anthology, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, in which essays, poems and artwork illuminate the Palestinian experience of Gaza.

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-64-light-gaza

On episode 63, we speak to Refaat Alareer, a professor, writer and father in Gaza, about the latest Israeli military assault on Gaza that killed nearly 50 Palestinians, including 17 children, in early August.

"What Israel is doing is nonstop campaigns of mowing the lawn, killing as many Palestinians and putting us [in] a corner where we can't do anything to defend ourselves and our rights," Alareer tells us.

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-63-raising-children-under-israels-bombs

On episode 62, we talk to activist and journalist Basel Adra about the situation in Masafer Yatta, an area in the South Hebron hills in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli military is attempting to turn Palestinian villages into a firing zone.

In May, the Israeli high court rubber-stamped the forced expulsion of more than 1,000 Palestinians from eight villages in the area.

If Israel carries through with the forcible transfer -- a war crime -- it will be one of the single largest expulsions of Palestinians since 1967.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-62-defending-masafer-yatta

On episode 61, Nora speaks with Dov Baum from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), about a major divestment victory and what activists can learn from the two-year campaign leading up to it.

General Mills, a US-based food corporation, announced on 31 May that it had sold its stake in an Israeli joint venture.

This means that the company has divested completely from its Israeli business.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-61-how-general-mills-divested-apartheid

On episode 60, Nora speaks with Mohammed Abujayyab, a small-scale farmer and food security activist, about Palestine's agricultural economy under ongoing occupation and settler-colonial land theft.

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-60-history-wheat-palestine

On episode 59, Nora and Asa welcome back journalist and researcher Jon Elmer to discuss Palestinian resistance to Israel’s escalations across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Elmer is a journalist and researcher, and he co-hosts The Brief Podcast with Nora. He spent years as a reporter inside Palestine, and covered the situation in Jenin and in Gaza.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-59-jenin-rises

On episode 58 of The Electronic Intifada Podcast, we discuss the significance of a recent statement by the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and Palestinian liberation.

The Crimson editors say they “regret and reject” their previous position that maligned BDS, and now recognize the potential the movement has for empowering Palestinians to fight against Israeli apartheid – especially on campuses.

They also asserted that “support for Palestinian liberation is not anti-Semitic,” noting the “wake of accusations suggesting otherwise.”

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-58-how-students-are-fighting-adls-smear-campaigns

On episode 57, we speak with members of the NDN Collective about their recently released position paper on Palestinian liberation – “The Right of Return is LANDBACK.”

Krystal Two Bulls, Demetrius Johnson and Nadya Tannous of the NDN Collective tell us that the resistance by Indigenous peoples to the US’ centuries-long programs of ethnic cleansing and forced relocation is strengthened by Palestinian resistance to Israeli settler-colonialism.

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-57-landback-turtle-island-palestine