Unpacking Zionism

Today’s episode is a double release with Nothing Never Happens – A Radical Pedagogy Podcast. In conversation with Tina Pippin and Lucia Hulsether, Unpacking Zionism co-hosts Yulia Gilich and Emmaia Gelman discuss ICSZ’s vision of producing resistive critical knowledge about Zionism in service of the movement for Palestinian liberation and with the explicit commitment to dismantling Zionism and colonialism.

Coalition to End Zionist Repression

Toolkit: Demand “NO IHRA”

Journal for the Critical Study of Zionism

Fayez Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (Palestine Research Center, 1965)

ZINE: C. Heike Schotten, TERFism, Zionism, and Right-Wing Annihilationism

You can find more resources on our website criticalzionismstudies.org.

Today’s special episode is a recording of the launch of the inaugural issue of the Journal for the Critical Study of Zionism (JCSZ). Our guest speakers, Diana Buttu and Robin D.G. Kelley, reflect on the devastation wrought by Zionism over the past year and the past century. We asked Diana and Robin to help us think through the question of how Zionist historiography and memorialization of October 7 is used to gin up anti-Palestinian racism, justify this latest chapter of the Nakba, and rationalize colonial violence.

We recorded this event before the US presidential elections so it does not come up all that much in the conversation. Except, Diana and Robin both highlighted the importance of the Critical Study of Zionism as a necessary tool of the anti-Zionist, anti-colonial struggle and that struggle continues no matter which genocide supporter was ultimately elected president of the United States.

Video recording of the launch is available here.

In this episode, founders of DecolonizePalestine.com Rawan Masri and Fathi Nimer discuss abolition as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. In June 2023, Rawan and Fathi published an article titled “Imprisoning Palestine: Zionist Colonialism through an Abolitionist Lens” in the Scalawag magazine. This piece connects abolition and decolonization by highlighting the centrality of carceral and punitive systems and structures to how Zionist settler colonialism operates.

We recorded this conversation in September 2024, but it may be even more pressing now, since two weeks ago, on October 15th, 2024, the United States and Canada sanctioned and blacklisted the Palestinian prisoner support network Samidoun. The abolitionist lens that Rawan and Fathi offer us in their piece demonstrates that these attacks on and repression of organizations dedicated to Palestinian prisoner support are not isolated incidents, but a very obvious extension of those carceral and punitive systems that Zionism requires to function.

Resources:

DecolonizePalestine.com

Rawan Masri and Fathi Nimer, “Imprisoning Palestine: Zionist Colonialism through an Abolitionist Lens” in Scalawag

Myth: Palestinians Fake their Own Atrocities (Pallywood)

This episode with Eli Meyerhoff looks at “antisemitism training” as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. Eli Meyerhoff is a fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, which is part of the American Association of University Professors.

Last week's episode is related to this conversation — that one is about tacking anti-Islamophobia messages onto discussions of antisemitism — as in we’re worried about antisemitism… oh, and Islamophobia. So make sure to listen to both.

Links:

Eli Meyerhoff, Unmasking Indoctrination (Duke Chronicle 6/26/24) https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/06/062624-meyerhoff-unmasking-indoctrination

Costs of War Project https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/

DropHillel.org

PARCEO: antisemitismcurriculum.org

This week we’re looking at Islamophobia as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. But it’s necessarily also about anti-Palestinian racism and DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is a special episode — rather than an interview, we’re bringing you leading thinkers and educators in conversation. We’re joined by Evelyn Alsultany, Nadine Naber, Nina Mehta, and ICSZ collective member Amira Jarmakani. This talk is called “Oh… and Islamophobia!” It was organized by ICSZ as part of the launch of the Coalition to End Zionist Repression, which is at bit.ly/campus-alliance.

This talk was recorded on Oct. 16, 2024.

Speakers:

Evelyn Alsultany, University of Southern California

Nina Mehta, PARCEO

Nadine Naber, University of Illinois - Chicago

Moderator:

Amira Jarmakani, San Diego State University

Presented by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

(criticalzionismstudies.org)

as a launch calendar event of the Coalition to End Zionist Repression

(righttorejectzionism.org)

See the full calendar here: bit.ly/campus-alliance

Links shared:

Information:

- decolonizepalestine.com/rainbow-washing/faithwashing

- uscpr.org/activist-resource/fighting-faithwashing-and-islamophobia/

Curriculum/training resources:

- project48.com/curriculum-overview

- antisemitismcurriculum.org

DEI training resource:

- parceo.org

This episode with philosopher John Harfouch considers “propaganda” as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. We’re looking at the work of Fayez Sayegh — the incredibly prolific Palestinian-Syrian-American scholar who was instrumental in theorizing Zionism and defining Arab American politics. Dr. Harfouch walks us through Sayegh’s studies of how Zionism works as a colonial process in Palestine and as a system of politics and messaging in the United States.

Syllabus: Philosophical Approaches to the Question of Palestine (American Philosophical Association)

https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/resmgr/inclusiveness_syllabi/inclusiveness_syllabi_2/philosophical_approaches_to_.pdf

Fayez Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (Palestine Research Center, 1965)

https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC12_scans/12.zionist.colonialism.palestine.1965.pdf

Fayez Sayegh, “A Strange Concept of Reward and Punishment” (The Caravan, Mar. 26 1959) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ituULMZPUkHZzhug3ylQHunksB7euOze/view?usp=drive_link

John Harfouch's diagram of the Zionist movement as theorized by Sayegh https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j4JLKC62xVHJnUrj5h_M8bfZkl_3A4Qx/view

There’s another Unpacking Zionism episode on the work of Fayez Sayegh: Zionism and anti-Zionism with Miriam Osman.

Today's guest is Jamal Nablusi, a diaspora Palestinian writer, researcher, and organizer. And the term he is helping us unpack in this episode is “Indigenous sovereignty.” In 2023, Jamal published an article called “Reclaiming Palestinian Indigenous Sovereignty” in the Journal of Palestine Studies, and that's the text that's guiding our conversation today. This interview was recorded in early September 2024, before Israel’s invasion of and attacks on Lebanon.

​Dr Jamal Nabulsi is a diaspora Palestinian writer, researcher and organiser, living as a settler on Yuggera and Turrbal land. He currently works at the University of Melbourne, while holding research grants from the Antipode Foundation, the Institute of Human Geography, and the European International Studies Association. He is a Founding Collective Member of the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, a Global Indigenous Member of the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures at Macquarie University, as well as a member of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. His academic work has received international awards such as the 2024 British International Studies Association Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Paper Prize.

This conversation with Sophia Azeb is the third and last (at least for now) episode in our mini-series about “future” as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. We talk about Palestinian futurity and its entanglement with Palestinian history and memory of the past.

Sophia Azeb (she/they) is an assistant professor of Black Studies in the Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sophia's current book project, Another Country: Translational Blackness and the Afro-Arab, explores the currents of transnational and translational blackness charted by African American, Afro-Caribbean, African, and Afro-Arab peoples across twentieth century North Africa and Europe. Prior to joining the faculty at UC Santa Cruz, Sophia was a member of the faculty collective that founded the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Sophia is a frequent contributor to The Funambulist platform.

Sophia Azeb, “Who Will We Be When We Are Free? On Palestine and Futurity”

Sophia Azeb, “The “no-state Solution”: Decolonizing Palestine Beyond the West Bank and East-Jerusalem”

Funambulist podcast with Sophia Azeb, “The “No-State Solution”: Power of Imagination for the Palestinian Struggle”

Funambulist podcast with Sophia Azeb, “A Moment of True Decolonization”

Workshops4Gaza - Sophia Azeb’s workshop “Black Studies and the Black Radical tradition,” Nov 3, 4-7pm PST on Zoom.

“Reclaiming Knowledge Production, Resisting Zionist Enclosures” is a recording of a panel discussion among scholars, organizers, and faculty labor leaders who are resisting Israel’s genocide of Palestinian in Gaza and also resisting the upsurging forces of intellectual and cultural repression in the US. The panel is moderated by Black studies scholar and ICSZ collective member Dylan Rodriguez, with brilliant talks from Heather Ferguson, Pranav Jani, Aaron Kirshenbaum, and Karim Mattar.

We’re also really proud to announce that with this talk, we kick off the Coalition to End Zionist Repression — and its first campaign, called the Right to Reject Zionism. The coalition is a powerful new US-wide effort that brings together the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism with Palestine Legal, the National Lawyers Guild, the Palestinian Youth Movement, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, National Students for Justice in Palestine, National Faculty for Justice in Palestine, Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), and more. We’re working within the Campus & Academia Alliance within that coalition. You can find resources and events online at bit.ly/campus-alliance

0:09 - Intro

5:44 - Opening remarks by Dylan Rodriguez, UC Riverside Center for Ideas & Society, Decolonizing Humanism (?) Programming Stream

9:48 - Heather Ferguson, AAUP AFT Local 6741

16:12 - Pranav Jani, FSJP & Advisor, SJP-Ohio State Univ. & President, AAUP OSU

30:38 - Aaron Kirshenbaum, Drop Hillel & Judaism On Our Own Terms (JOOOT)

43:48 - Karim Mattar, MLA Members for Justice in Palestine & Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network

55:43 - Q&A

1:20:58 - Closing remarks

1:29:15 - Outro

Resources:

Coalition to End Zionist Repression and its inaugural campaign the Right to Reject Zionism

Adalah resource on megadonors

Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism "No IHRA" toolkit

OSU Jews for Palestine

Drop Hillel

MLA Proposed Resolution 2025-1 –

Linguistics for Domination, Michel DeGraff

Tracking repression on campuses since August 2024

Mondoweiss on repression on campuses since August 2024

AAUP-organized National Day of Action for Higher Ed

In this episode I’m talking with Hussein Omar, who is a writer from Cairo currently based in New York City. After completing doctoral research on anticolonial political ideas in the Arab world he’s now writing a five hundred year history of Egypt as told through its cemeteries. He also writes about sexuality, aesthetics and psychoanalysis, and he organizes with Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG). Hussein’s recent essay titled Homo Zion: How Pinkwashing Erases Colonial History, is in Parapraxis Magazine. Expanding our thinking beyond the usual rejoinders to pinkwashing claims, this essay pushes us ask what it is about us that makes pinkwashing a workable tactic.

Additional resources for this conversation:

Christina Hanhardt, Safe Space (2017)

Kramer, Report from the Holocaust (1990)

Boyarin, Unheroic Conduct (1997)

Al Qaws, Beyond Propaganda: Pinkwashing as Colonial Violence (2020)