The Electronic Intifada

On episode 46, we speak to representatives of two of six major Palestinian rights groups Israel has recently designated as “terrorist” organizations.

And a human rights activist in Burlington, Vermont, talks about working to encourage the city council to pass a resolution in explicit support of the Palestinian-let boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

On episode 45, leading Palestinian intellectual Joseph Massad joins Asa and Tamara for a wide-ranging discussion on the current and historical role of the Palestinian Authority as a collaborationist body with Israeli apartheid, repression and colonization.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-45-palestinian-authority-and-other-collaborators

On episode 44, Nora and Asa speak with the lead organizers of a new initiative calling on musicians to refuse to book shows in Israel and stand in solidarity with Palestinians.

We also feature a conversation with author and educator Mona Hajjar Halaby about her new memoir.

On episode 43, Nora and Asa speak with Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard, the founders of Palestine Action.

Palestine Action was started in the UK last year to take direct action against Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Activists have carried out sit-ins and sabotage against Elbit premises, shutting factories down, smashing windows, damaging equipment, graffiting and splashing walls with red paint to symbolize Palestinian blood.

Palestine Action has taken more than 70 actions against Elbit in its first year, including 20 high-profile occupations of sites and factories.

On episode 42, we speak with several human rights defenders who have been on the front lines of direct action to stop Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

They are just a sample of countless protestors who have taken action in support of Palestinian rights, especially after Israel’s May attacks on Gaza, which killed some 245 Palestinians in the coastal enclave, including dozens of children.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, activists and longshore workers successfully prevented an Israeli-owned cargo vessel from docking and unloading at the Port of Oakland in early June.

The action was part of an international wave of protests – under the banner of #BlockTheBoat – organized by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).

We speak to Wassim Hage of AROC and Aisha Mansour of the grassroots community group Falastiniyat in Seattle, Washington, which supported a protest at the port in that city.

11 participants were arrested at the Seattle action, Mansour told The Electronic Intifada.

Block the Boat protests were held in British Columbia, Canada, as well.

In Prince Rupert, members of the International Longshore Workers Union were punished with unpaid suspension by Dubai Ports World, which operates a terminal at the port.

Dubai Ports World is owned by the Dubai government.

But the suspension was reportedly rolled back, in a victory for the workers.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, members of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), along with local anti-racist groups, held a sit-in protest at the offices of Representative Jan Schakowsky on 10 June.

The action demanded that the member of congress co-sponsor HR 2590, Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act, a bill written and introduced by Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum.

USPCN says that 25 activists “gathered in Schakowsky’s office and insisted that she sign on to the bill, which would place conditions on US aid to Israel so that it could not be used to imprison children, demolish Palestinian homes, or annex Palestinian land.”

USPCN staged another protest at Schakowsky’s office on 8 July.

Protesters hold a sign.

Human rights defenders demand that Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky support a bill that prevents US from funding Israeli abuse of Palestinian children. (USPCN)

And in the UK, members of Palestine Action once again scaled the roof of a factory owned by Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in Leicester, forcing the factory to close for several days.

We feature two interviews of Palestine Action members, Richard Barnard and Ferhat Ulusu who were involved in the factory occupation, conducted in late May by The Electronic Intifada’s contributor Mohamed Elmaazi.

“This is my memory. This is my history. This is my life,” 81-year-old Yacoub Odeh tells us about his childhood and experience of expulsion from the Jerusalem village of Lifta in 1948.

“The beautiful life that I dream … and struggle to restore this beautiful life, to go back home. To go back home. To plan our village, to renovate our houses, and to live … like everyone [else] under the sun,” he says.

On episode 41, we speak to Odeh about Lifta and his community’s 73-year struggle to return to their homes.

We are also joined by Umar al-Ghubari of Zochrot, an organization promoting acknowledgment and accountability for the ongoing injustices of the Nakba.

Al-Ghubari and Odeh both lead political tours inside Lifta, where Odeh and other refugees from Lifta are forbidden to return to live under Israel’s racist laws.

On episode 40, author and editor of The Grayzone Max Blumenthal returns for a wide-ranging discussion.

We begin with his latest article, on the Israel lobby’s manufactured claims of anti-Jewish bigotry in order to distract from the recent attacks on Gaza and Jerusalem.

At exactly the same time there were massive popular demonstrations in support of Palestinians, claims that there was a new wave of anti-Semitism plagued the corporate media.

But Max investigated and found these were entirely without a basis of fact.

On episode 39, Nora, Asa and Tamara discuss ongoing Silicon Valley tech censorship of Palestine-related speech.

We are joined by Omar Zahzah, a member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and the Palestinian Youth Movement, and Saliem Shehadeh, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In late April, Zoom, Facebook and YouTube blocked a live-streamed event featuring prominent activists from Palestine and South Africa.

On episode 38, Nora speaks with Dr. Tarek Loubani about the immediate devastation to Gaza’s medical and public health infrastructure during and after the recent Israeli attacks.

This comes on top of the slow collapse of the medical system due to Israel’s draconian 14-year-old siege.

Loubani works alongside doctors at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s main trauma center.

“All the reports I was getting were saying things I wasn’t used to hearing, from people who I know don’t tend to exaggerate,” Loubani says.

On episode 37, we discuss media suppression and how the corporate press covered the recent attacks on Gaza.

We are joined by Greg Shupak, a contributor to The Electronic Intifada and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He is also the author of The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media.