Arab Talk with Jess & Jamal

Jess and Jamal discuss the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran as it enters its second week. U.S. and Israeli forces continue striking Iranian military and energy infrastructure, including targets near Tehran, while Iran has launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks against Israel and U.S.-linked sites in the region. Leaders on all sides say operations will continue, raising fears...

Jess and Jamal discuss the latest developments and global repercussions following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick, joins the show to discuss a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court against the heads of FIFA and UEFA. The case centers on allegations that the organizations permit Israeli footbal...

Close to 11,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, the majority without formal charges or convictions. During this recent period, nearly 100 Palestinians have died in custody, with extensive evidence indicating that many of these deaths resulted from torture and medical neglect. Based on its findings, Physicians for Human Rights has stated that these patterns...

In his opinion piece published in Al Jazeera, titled “Here’s Why Israel Is Allowing Record Murder Rates in Its Palestinian Towns,” Dr. Neve Gordon argues that the crime epidemic within Palestinian communities inside Israel is not merely a failure of governance, but part of a broader political strategy. He contends that the state has effectively allowed violence to escalate while simultaneously wea...

In the aftermath of the war on Gaza, a proposed “Board of Peace” emerged on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2025. The body was envisioned as a temporary entity with a two-year mandate to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and economic recovery. Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, discusses the proposed Board of Peace and examines the impact of the United States’...

President Donald Trump stated that he was holding off on striking Iran out of respect for what he claimed was Iran’s agreement to cancel 800 executions of protesters. Separately, but around the same time, officials from several Arab countries—Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar—as well as Israel reportedly urged Trump not to strike Iran, citing fears of Iranian retaliation. Joining us to discuss...

Dr. Andrew Hammond discusses the UAE’s notable involvement in multiple conflicts around the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, in partnership with Israel. The two small countries seek to maximize their regional power by controlling key positions along the Red Sea’s maritime corridor, while also gaining a foothold in Africa to secure future influence there. Dr. Hammond is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre...

On January 1, 2026, Israel banned 37 international humanitarian aid organizations from operating in Gaza. Among those affected were Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Oxfam, Caritas, ActionAid, the International Rescue Committee, and World Vision. Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, explains the underlying reasons behind Israel’s ban and its impact...

Jess and Jamal look back at 2025 and the turmoil in the Middle East. While global attention remained fixed on Gaza, Israel accelerated land seizures in the West Bank. The year saw a record number of new settlement approvals, alongside a sharp rise in settler violence.

Dr. Ezequiel Jimenez discusses his article published in Opinio Juris, “The 24th Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute: Time to Act.” In the article, he explains that, given the ICC’s current state of polycrisis, it is imperative for member states of the Rome Statute to take concrete action to confront the Court’s existential challenges rather than continue the status quo of...

Supported by Israeli security forces and enabled by government policies, settler violence has become a central component of the Israeli state’s strategy to forcibly displace Palestinian communities in the occupied territory. This approach aims to establish full Israeli control over the area and facilitate further settlement expansion, despite such settlements being illegal under international law....

A March 2025 report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that sexual violence by Israeli forces and settlers was extensive enough to be considered systematic. Dr. Samah Jabr, co-author of the paper "Torture as a Tool of Domination: The Logic Behind the Use of Torture Against Palestinians," discusses the long-term impact of sexual and gender-based violence used against Pa...

After two years of relentless Israeli air and ground assaults on Gaza, much of the territory lies in ruins. Many of Gaza’s two million residents have been displaced and are struggling to secure basic necessities. Jaco Cilliers, the current Special Representative for the United Nations Development Programme’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP), outlines the vast scale of destr...

Jess and Jamal discuss the recent surge in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which have reached unprecedented levels. This escalation is marked by increased frequency, severity, and coordination—often occurring with the support or presence of Israeli security forces—and has led to casualties, widespread property destruction, and the displacement of numerous Palesti...

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has applied for a summons in the magistrate’s court in the United Kingdom in an initiative to prosecute a British citizen who they allege fought in the Israeli military against Palestine and Palestinians. It states that the individual was in breach of the UK’s Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which proscribes any British citizen from fight...

Professor Liat Kozma explains that Israel has been systematically working to delegitimize and restrict international NGOs and human rights organizations operating with Palestinians in the occupied territories. One of the largest of these organizations, UNRWA, which has provided services in Gaza for many years, has been banned from operating in areas under Israeli control — including East Jerusalem...

President Trump has named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the newly formed Board of Peace, which will oversee the reconstruction and governance of Gaza. Blair has reportedly been involved for months in developing proposals for Gaza’s postwar future. However, his controversial legacy—stemming from his role in the Iraq War and his limited success during eight years as the Middle East Qua...

Acknowledging Palestinian sovereignty is increasingly seen as a necessary—but not sufficient—step toward a just resolution of the conflict, particularly among those who also call for an end to what they view as Israeli impunity. Human rights attorney and activist Stanley Cohen argues that countries recognizing Palestinian statehood should also be barred from aiding or abetting Israel in actions ag...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed Palestinian independence, and he recently reaffirmed that there will be no Palestinian state as long as he remains in office. He also vowed to take retaliatory measures as a second wave of recognitions is expected at a U.N. summit in New York this week. Around 10 additional countries—including the UK, France, Canada, Australia, and Portuga...

The 80th United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Week begins on September 22, bringing together heads of state to deliver speeches and set the policy agenda for the year ahead. The prospect of several major Western powers—such as the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Canada—formally recognizing Palestinian statehood has drawn significant media attention. At the same time, it has prompted...

Can a Gaza reconstruction that excludes Palestinian heritage, silences their participation, and denies their suffering truly succeed? Journalist and analyst Sean Mathews argues the 'Gaza Riviera' is doomed to fail.

In addition to the United States, several key European governments continue to provide intelligence and arms to the Israeli military—support that enables the ongoing genocide in Gaza and obstructs the path toward a political solution. Germany is among these governments, and its complicity is particularly striking given its own history of genocides in the 20th century. In a recent article for Middl...

Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association, discusses the targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Williams, who is also an author, writer, and broadcaster, highlighted the silence of western journalists and the growing toll on Palestinian media workers in the besieged territory. Israel has systematically targeted and killed Palestinian journalists in Gaza for nearly two years....

The number of international human rights organizations, genocide scholars, public officials, and UN representatives making this assertion continues to grow. Now, two well-respected Israeli human rights groups have released reports concluding that Israel is committing genocide. One is B’Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The other, Physicians for Human Rights I...

Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, discusses the growing evidence of famine and widespread starvation in Gaza. Famine is officially confirmed when three core thresholds are breached: a drastic decline in food consumption, high levels of acute malnutrition, and deaths caused by starvation. However, gathering...