The Electronic Intifada

On episode 5 of The Electronic Intifada Podcast, co-hosts Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley are joined by researcher and activist Stephanie Skora.

Skora's recent report, "Pride with Prejudice" questions the activities of A Wider Bridge, a pro-Israel group that claims to be concerned about gay, lesbian and transgender rights. The report demonstrates how the group relies on donors who have supported right-wing political campaigns.

With co-hosts Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley. For more, read: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-5-how-gay-rights-group-uses-right-wing-funding-promote-israel

Music: "Send It" by Indigo Mateo ft. Lauren Jimenez (https://soundcloud.com/indigo-mateo)

Production assistance by Sharif Zakout.

This week on The Electronic Intifada Podcast, co-hosts Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley are joined by Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and chair of American Muslims for Palestine.

Bazian talks about being the target of a black ops intimidation campaign reportedly organized by Psy-Group, an Israeli intelligence firm staffed by former Mossad agents, which spied on activists and professors on US campuses.

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-4-how-israel-spies-us-campaigners

Theme music and production assistance by Sharif Zakout

Music: "Dheisheh" by Excentrik (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua9rCY1gza8)

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Podcast Episode 3: Demolishing the two-state fantasy

This week on The Electronic Intifada Podcast, hosts Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley are joined by their colleague Tamara Nassar to discuss Israel’s recently increasing policies of rampant home demolitions and erasure of Palestinian villages.

We also focus on the increasing collaboration between Israel and dictatorial Gulf states.

Show notes with links: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-3-demolishing-two-state-fantasy

Photo: Palestinian protesters take part during a demonstration against Israel's plan to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, in the occupied West Bank, 5 October 2018. Shadi Hatem/APA Images

For the second show in our new podcast format, hosts Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley are joined by Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone Project and co-host of the excellent Moderate Rebels podcast.

Read more about this episode here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-2-how-israel-helps-latin-american-death-squads

As someone with long history with The Electronic Intifada, there was a lot to discuss with Max, and the conversation is wide-ranging and global in outlook.

We take a look at the Integrity Initiative, a covert disinformation operation funded with millions of pounds from the British government’s foreign and defense ministries. The Grayzone Project has done some of the leading reporting on this shady outfit.

"If you want to understand not just Russiagate but how our media is acting as a permanent arm of the national security state, both in the UK and the US, you have to understand the Integrity Initiative scandal," Blumenthal says.

Run out of the offices of an obscure London think tank called the Institute for Statecraft, just what is this “initiative” up to?

How is it working to subvert Labour, the Democrats and the wider left in the UK and the US? Exactly what is its right-wing extremist agenda?

Since recording took place on the day the attempted coup in Venezuela was launched, we also talk about what's been going on there.

While Palestine is the top of the list of "foreign policy" issues that some social democrats are too quick to wave the white flag over, Venezuela is another clear example.

How does the US-led subversion of that country show that Israel is a leading part of a transatlantic alliance against progressive governments?

Finally, we also discuss "Russiagate" and how it is being weaponized against the left in the US and the UK, including against Palestine solidarity.

Photo: Palestinians in Gaza rally in support of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in front of the UN headquarters in Gaza City, 28 January. (Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

Music: Go Down Standing by Excentrik

Production assistance by Sharif Zakout

Joining Nora Barrows-Friedman as co-host for the first time is her colleague and fellow reporter Asa Winstanley.

This week we take a deeper look at Asa’s latest investigative article, “Fake Labour accounts fueling ‘anti-Semitism crisis’,” which went viral soon after publication. We discuss how the story came about and the wider background of events in the UK Labour Party over the last few years. Who is behind the “anti-Semitism crisis” in Labour? Is this media narrative having an effect? How is Israel like ISIS? Has there been any official response to the story? What would Asa say to Jeremy Corbyn if he had another chance to interview him? And why do people who try to ban the term “Israel lobby” annoy the hell out of us?

Image: UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, 2016 (Sophie J. Brown, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremy_Corbyn,_Leader_of_the_Labour_Party,_UK.jpg)

Music: Go Down Standing by Excentrik f/Rythmatic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75IBELKprro)

Production assistance: Sharif Zakout

On this episode of The Electronic Intifada Podcast: Student supporters of Palestinian rights resist smears, repression and intimidation from UCLA administration, Zionist groups and local lawmakers; Professor Rabab Abdulhadi is vindicated in a fight against a lawfare suit intending to keep her silent. For more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-las-israel-lobby-fails-ban-conference-palestinian-rights (Photo: National Students for Justice in Palestine)

On this episode of The Electronic Intifada Podcast: University of Michigan punishes professor for refusing to write a recommendation letter for a student wishing to study abroad in Israel; Major Jewish communal organizations fund far-right wing, Islamophobic and homophobic groups.

Guests:

- Radhika Sainath, staff attorney, Palestine Legal

- Stephanie Skora, researcher

Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-michigan-professor-punished-supporting-boycott

(Photo: Emily Mathews/Flickr)

The US and Israel have long exchanged programs to share practices of police militarization, mass surveillance, violent repression of communities and movements that both governments define as a threat, and racial profiling. Plus: A Palestinian American secretly recorded her interrogation by Israeli officers at Ben Gurion airport. More here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-how-israel-helps-refine-us-tactics-repression (Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace - Philadelphia)

On this episode of The Electronic Intifada Podcast: The Episcopal Church takes action to support Palestinian rights; Germany implements municipal and national crackdowns on Palestine activism. More here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-episcopal-church-votes-refuse-profits-israeli-crimes (Photo: Members of the Episcopal Church join a protest outside an immigrant detention center in Texas. Photo by Jennifer Bing)

Activists with the Virginia Campaign for Human Rights talk about how they are fighting the proposed changes by Israel advocacy organizations that deliberately distort or omit Israel's historic and current violations of Palestinian rights. Read more here: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-israel-lobby-seeks-erase-occupation-virginia-schoolbooks (Photo: Israel's illegal wall in the occupied West Bank could be described as a "security fence" if Israel lobby groups are allowed to edit Virginia's textbooks. Najeh Hashlamoun / APA images)