Disillusioned

Sharon Dolev is a peace, disarmament, and human rights activist focused on eradicating nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and beyond. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) and the founder of the Israeli Disarmament Movement (IDM), a partner organisation of ICAN (the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons), awar...

Roei is one of the leading figures in the up-and-coming “Faithful Left” movement, holds a Master's in Jewish History, and has a record of over a decade teaching Judaism to diverse audiences. He is an activist in the “Bnei Avraham” protective presence group and the founder and head of the Midrasha Emunit, which translates to “The Faithful Freedom School” in Hebrew. And, he is a pirate. Check ou...

Tami is an urban ecological artist and a witch, a fierce challenger of patriarchy and its entanglement with Zionism. Through her daily work in the ecological household, she nurtures both the earth and the human spirit. She is the founder of City Tree, a pioneering space in the heart of Tel Aviv that served as an urban-ecological hub and a radical feminist sanctuary for 16 years. In recent months,...

Yair has recently been accepted to work in a human rights organization, but he hasn’t begun his training as planned, since on his first day on the job, he got arrested during a march to the Gaza Strip to oppose the genocide together with 300 activists. He has been in house arrest since, and I’ve come to visit him and hear about this experience. . Check out my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Yehav...

Today, Dov is an intern in a human rights law firm. Up until a decade ago, he was active in what is termed the “Hilltop youth”, and participated in incidents of settler violence, some of which he was convicted for. He is a prominent figure on social media in Israel and writes often and with detail about his past and present from a political point of view. Dov currently lives with his wife and two...

Becca Strober is a political strategist and educator. They are a co-founder of ‘Freedom School’, a former Senior Director at Breaking the Silence, and current chairperson of the board of the Jewish-Palestinian educational organization, Sedaka-Reut. They run the Instagram page and podcast Becca.explains.the.occupation, which aims to deepen the understanding of the actions and policies in the Palest...

Sapir is a community organizer, lecturer and a law phd candidate. She is the co-founder of Breaking Walls, a feminist grassroots organization, and the founder of "Mizrachion: The People's Archive for Social and political Movements in Israel." Her work spans legal advocacy, grassroots activism, and feminist community organization, focusing on poverty eradication, and support and solidarity between...

Aharon was hosted on the podcast a few months ago and felt he wanted to say more. I recommend listening to his full interview, and then listening to this very special conversation we had about his late brother, Mohammed Bahar, and about retrieving our humanity. Check out my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Yehavit  **** A few important disclaimers: I created and funded this podcast privately. I do...

As the genocide in Gaza continues, we felt there is a need for Jewish, Israeli voices who oppose it. Music is our way of expressing this. For the people of Gaza, for the Palestinian people, and for our own humanity. **** This is a bonus episode of the podcast 'Disillusioned. I recommend listening to Ayelet's interview first and then listening to the musical session: https://open.spotify.co...

Ayelet is an opera singer, prayer leader, and full-spectrum doula - which is a care worker who offers support to people during the full spectrum of pregnancy and the different gates of life in a holistic manner – from menstruation through preconception, to birth to abortion to miscarriage to adoption and so on. She Believes in bringing music, spirituality, and collective prayer back into activism,...

Aharon grew up in a settlement in the West Bank, and has come a long way since. Today, he lives in Tel Aviv, writes and teaches about crypto-currencies and blockchain technologies as a means for change, and is currently completing his Master's degree in public policy at Tel Aviv University. Following the 2011 Israeli social justice protests, Aharon co-founded several cooperatives, and in the p...

Arnon served in the Israeli Air Force intelligence unit which was operating in Gaza during the early 2000s. A few years later, once the war with Lebanon broke out, he decided to stop serving in the military. Throughout the years he was active in different joint initiatives with Palestinians and other groups, and today works as an educator in a kindergarten and as an eco-therapist. Arnon is constan...

Dr. Assaf David is the Director of the Israel in the Middle East division at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is also the co-founder of the Forum for Regional Thinking, a think tank of Israeli progressive Middle East scholars and activists. He teaches political science at the Hebrew University and has taught in the Department of Middle East Studies and the Department of Politics and Government...

Katie is an entrepreneur in the sustainability and agricultural sectors, and an expert in the Gulf countries' society and economy. Her background is in academia, research, venture capital, and unique governance structures. She has spent years being active in different initiatives promoting justice for Palestinians here in the land and in other parts of the Middle East. . Check out our bonus ep...

Idan Landau is a political blogger, who began writing his Blog "Do not Die as a Fool" in 2008. There, he posted hundreds of pieces, many of them extensive, investigative articles on the occupation, with emphasis on the topics of land confiscation and settlement expansion, military violence, social injustice, arms trade, Israeli surveillance technology, media and propaganda, and more. Ida...

Ita Segev is a writer, performance artist, and organizer from Jerusalem who’s been living and making work in NY for the past 12 years.  In this episode, she charts the complex map she’s found towards her freedom as a trans woman, its relationship to Palestinian liberation, and her commitment to dismantling the split that allows people to dehumanize others while loving those they perceive to be “li...

Uri was born in Tel Aviv and worked as a journalist, history teacher, and gardener. In his twenties, he was one of the founders of a political movement called "Anarchists against the Wall", which was active at the beginning of the 2000s. He’s been living in Portugal for the past 16 years and holds a special place in his heart for the topics of food autonomy and education. Check out bonus...

** TRIGGER WARNING ** (suicide, self-harm) *** “Yoni” didn’t question for one second that he had to serve in the Israeli military when he was 17 years old. And even once he was there, and suffering immensely, he couldn’t imagine the option of finding a way out. Today, he makes political graffiti art that aims to make 17 year old Israelis ask the question that he didn’t dare ask himself at the time...

Yuval Gal Cohen is a conscientious objector who refused to serve in the Israeli military, a feminist human rights activist, and a singer. She's 27 years old and currently living in Leipzig, Germany, where she co-initiated JID, a local group of Anti-occupation Israeli activists. Join our conversation about all that and more. Check out bonus episodes on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/47fLR8i⁠⁠   ****...

Alon Mizrahi is a Working class intellectual & freedom philosopher. He is also a Speech writer, Copywriter & columnist who writes about becoming Disillusioned from Zionism, Capitalism & Americanism. Growing up as a Mizrachi Jew, Alon shares deep insight into the connection between the Zionist ideology’s erasure of “the Arab within” in addition to the erasure of the Palestinians. Author...

What does “Liberal Zionist” mean? And what is it about this concept that made Rotem question, and eventually dismisses it completely? After training in the elite units of the Israeli military, he began researching the Nakba and everything we weren’t taught about it in history class. Then, through intense solo Arabic studying, he was able to really listen to Palestinians and their stories. Today, h...

Rita, now in her 30s, immigrated from Ukraine With her family as an infant. While struggling to assimilate as a teenager living in the city of Beer Sheva, she was introduced to some different ideas about the world than the ones she was used to hearing. This led her to decide not to serve in the military even though the law required it. At 17, without knowing anyone else who had done this at the ti...

Eran is a healer in every sense of the word, using different methods to help himself and the people around him deal with the immense pain that the violence in our lives has caused. In his work, he addresses the concepts of forgiveness, both inner and outer. And even though he’s one of the best listeners I’ve ever encountered - he’s got a lot of wisdom himself to share with anyone who’s willing to...

Odeliya grew up in the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Ha’Natziv, which is according to international law an illegal settlement. Her father, a firm believer in Zionism, taught her how to use the art of debate - which is why she’s now such a good advocate for the rights of the Naqab (Negev) Bedouins, and the Palestinian struggle at large. Odeliya is one of my biggest inspirations; she is currently get...

Raised by a father who was heavily involved in the Israeli forces, Sharon was very motivated to serve in the military. But during his service in the West Bank, he realized something was very wrong. Today he doesn’t want to ever hold a gun again, but the process he went through took years. Listen to his story of becoming disillusioned. Sharon is an activist and a long-time friend of mine. And thoug...