Occupied Thoughts

In this episode of FMEP’s Occupied Thoughts podcast, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Ahmed Abuznaid (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights - USCPR) and Diala Shamas (Center for Constitutional Rights) about the lawsuit filed by the Jewish National Fund against USCPR -- which was dismissed by a U.S. federal judge in March 2021 and is now being appealed -- as well as about what can be learned f...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, Jehad Abusalim (FMEP 2022 Palestinian Non-Resident Fellow) speaks with Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP Director of Programs and Partnerships) about the political and historical context of current escalations and his expectations for what the coming weeks and months will bring. The conversation draws from Jehad's recent article, "The West Bank is on the Brink of Collap...

In this second episode in FMEP and Al Shabaka's four-part series, Learning and Unlearning Palestine, this panelists Dr. Muhannad Ayyash, Dr. Lana Tatour, and Dr. Yara Hawari examine various limiting paradigms that, in spite of their liberal facade, have sought to contain the Palestinian experience and limit critique on the Israeli settler colonial project. This will include a critique of the inter...

In this episode of FMEP's Occupied Thoughts podcast, Kristin McCarthy (FMEP's Director of Grants & Operations) speaks with Ziv Stahl (Executive Director of Yesh Din) about the phenomenon of settler violence, including it's goals and utility, the totality of its affect on Palestinians, how it is used as a means for land takeover, and the complete lack of accountability or protection provided by the...

Welcome to the first episode in a new webinar series co-hosted by Al Shabaka and the Foundation for Middle East Peace: Learning and Unlearning Palestine Part 1: Who Can Speak on Palestine? Featuring Nour Joudah (UC Berkeley), Dina Matar (SOAS, University of London), in conversation with Maha Nassar (University of Arizona). This conversation examines the history and current reality of the erasure o...

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Hebron-based activist Issa Amro and Israeli activist & playwright Einat Weizman about the new documentary play that Einat wrote based on transcripts from Issa's trial in the Israeli Ofer Military Court. In January, 2023, Issa and Einat came to New York for a staged reading of the play. In this podcast, they speak with Pe...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts -- which comes in the context of ongoing violence in Palestine that only lately broke through to mainstream headlines when the casualties were Israelis -- Inès Abdel Razek (Executive Director, the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy) speaks with FMEP's Lara Friedman about what journalists need to keep in mind when reporting on Palestine, and what the publi...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Kristin McCarthy talks to Dr. Suhad Bisahara - the Legal Director of Adalah - about the new Israeli government coalition agreements that spell out it's policies of domination, suppression, annexation, and control. Resources: "Adalah’s Analysis of the New Israeli Government’s Guiding Principles and Coalition Agreements and their Implications on Palestini...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to Francesca Albanese -- international legal expert and the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 -- on ongoing and escalating actions by Israel to forcibly eject more than 1200 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank region known as Masafer Yatta, located in...

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” FMEP Non-resident Fellow Peter Beinart is joined by Ken Roth (formerly Human Rights Watch) and Harvard professor Kathryn Sikkink to discuss the recent controversy over Harvard's decision to cancel its offer of a fellowship to Ken Roth, based on accusations of anti-Israel bias by both Human Rights Watch and by Ken.

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP Non-resident Fellow Peter Beinart is joined by Ziv Stahl (Yesh Din) to sketch out what the new Israeli government has said - and in some cases already started to implement - its policy on settlements, outposts, and Palestinian life in Area C will be. In addition, Ziv discusses the deepening challenges facing human rights organizations and their employee...

FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with FMEP Fellow Jehad Abusalim about antisemitism, ranging from the views of 19th century Palestinian intellectuals to responses to the Holocaust and Zionism, from the first Hamas charter to today's rising accusations of antisemitism to delegitimize Palestinian rights. Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Pro...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Rebecca Vilkomerson, author of the recent report "Funding Freedom: Philanthropy and the Palestinian Freedom Movement." They speak about the trends, impediments, and dynamics around funding Palestinian rights, how and why funding decisions are political, and how funders - both institutional and individual - can begin or deep...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to investigative journalist David Armiak about the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, in drafting, promulgating, and promoting legislation in U.S. states targeting values-based protest and grassroots activism, These legislative efforts in the first instance targeted Palestine-related protest and...

A new anthology, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, features personal narratives and political essays from Palestinians in Gaza "imagining the future of Gaza beyond the cruelties of occupation and Apartheid." This podcast features two of the anthology's editors - FMEP Fellow Jehad Abusalim and AFSC's Jennifer Bing - as well as one of the contributing authors, Dorgham Abusalim, who discuss the i...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to international legal expert in business and human rights Tara Van Ho about the current controversy involving the Chicago-based financial services company Morningstar Inc. and its subsidiary Sustainalytics, over how it deals with Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories. Specifically, the podcast explores Morningstar’s recen...

In this episode of the Occupied Thoughts podcast, Dr. Maha Nassar speaks with FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin about how to talk about Zionism and anti-Zionism in ways that acknowledge different definitions of Zionism and, at the same time, take seriously the power asymmetries between anti-Zionists and Zionists/supporters of the state of Israel in Israel/Palestine and the U.S. public spheres. Speaking fro...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, Dr. Alana Vincent (Umea University, Sweden) joins FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin to discuss how she moved from supporting the use of the the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Working Definition of Antisemitism to opposing it. Dr. Vincent describes the chilling and silencing effects of the IHRA definition, the shortcomings of European Union research...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to Sarah Posner, renowned expert on American pro-Israel evangelicals, about U.S. pro-Israel evangelicals and their agenda in the context of both the recent Israeli elections, the recent US midterms, and the race for the 2024 White House.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with internationally-acclaimed documentary filmmaker Julia Bacha about the growing campaign against “woke capitalism,” and specifically the attacks on what is known as ESG – shorthand for the movement to take environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into account in investing. This podcast seeks to answer the quest...

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin conducts a series of short interviews with analysts and experts discussing what's new and what's not new in the results of this week's Israeli elections. Tune in to hear: Yousef Munayyer, non-resident fellow at Arab Center DC Amjad Iraqi, editor and journalist at +972 Magazine Dr. Maha Nassar, associate professor at the University of...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, Natasha Roth-Rowland, Orly Noy, and Peter Beinart join FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin to discuss Jewish Supremacy. Some analysts (Orly Noy and Peter Beinart among them) use “Jewish supremacy” as a way of explaining Israeli political and social structures broadly. At the same time, Jewish supremacist politicians are predicted to gain significant power in the Israeli...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to Sheryl Nestel, co-author of a new report published by Canada’s Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), entitled, Unveiling the Chilly Climate – The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada. Sheryl discusses why the report was necessary, the research methodology it entailed, the key findings, what the authors and IJV hope the report...

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, journalist and human rights activist Basel Adraa joins FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin to discuss the acceleration of threats and violence from the Israeli army and settlers in Masafer Yatta, both inside of Firing Zone 918, which is under special unique threat of expulsion and forced population transfer, and outside of it, including in A-Twani, Basel's village. See w...

In this episode of FMEP’s Occupied Thoughts podcast, Jessica Montell, Executive Director of the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, joins FMEP’s Lara Friedman to discuss the latest version of Israel's new procedures -- published, updated, and due to be implemented on October 20, 2022 -- governing all entry of foreigners solely to the West Bank. As Hamoked has noted in its September 14, 2022...