Occupied Thoughts

Last week, a Palestinian political activist, Nizar Banat, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority and died soon after in their custody. His family accuses the PA of murdering him. Following his death, Palestinians in the West Bank gathered for protests, and the PA responded with violence and repression. According to the Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq, PA security forces - both in u...

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 ongoing battle to prevent Israel from demolishing the West Bank home of a Palestinian-American mother and her children, as an act of collective punishment for a crime committed by her estranged husband. For more on this...

featuring Leena Dallasheh (Humboldt State University), Shay Hazkani (University of Maryland), Sherene Seikaly (University of California, Santa Barbara) with Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP). In recent weeks the world’s attention turned to Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods fighting forced displacement from their longtime homes — displacement that, in the eyes of many Palest...

FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to political, policy, and advocacy strategist Rania Batrice about the changing political landscape in the grassroots and in Congress with respect to Palestine. For resources and bios, visit: https://fmep.org/resource/podcast-winds-of-change-in-the-grassroots-congress-on-palestine/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, Lara Friedman asks Omar Baddar what it is like to be Palestinian American in U.S. politics, government, and media. They also discuss to what extent the issue of Palestine is undergoing a transformation across these fields, and how the Biden Administration is choosing to navigate these changes. For bios and more info, visit: https://fmep.org/resource/the-aliena...

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” Lara Friedman speaks with Elizabeth Tsurkov about extremist trends in Israel and how they are manifest in the latest elections and coalition building, in Israeli policies across the Occupied Territories (including Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah), in the violence that swept through “mixed cities” during the recent Gaza War, and in Israel’s relations - and normaliz...

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," Lara Friedman speaks with Dr. Maha Nassar about changes in the U.S. discourse on Palestine and Israel, shifts in US media that make room for Palestinian voices, and the history and dynamics of Black-Palestinian solidarity. Original music by Jalal Yaqoub

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” analyst Yousef Munayyer joins FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin to discuss the implications of a potential new government in Israel, in which Naftali Bennett would replace Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister and head a coalition that includes the far-right, the so-called center-left and Zionist left, and Ra'am/the United Arab List.  Original music by Jalal Yaqoub

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin is joined by Nareman Shehadeh Zoabi, a social and economic rights attorney working with Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, to discuss Israel's mass arrests and militarized policing targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel who participated in recent protests. Original Music by Jalal Yaqoub

Featuring Amjad Iraqi (+972 Magazine), Ahmed Alnaouq (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor), Lara Friedman (Foundation for Middle East Peace) with Haggai Matar (+972 Magazine) While the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has provided some respite from two weeks of death and destruction, there is no calm. We are seeing a new round of police aggression in Jerusalem and cities in Israel, with the authoritie...

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," Kristin speaks with Fayrouz Sharqawi of Grassroots Al-Quds to unpack what is happening in Jerusalem and across Palestinian communities in the wake of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. For resources mentioned in this podcast, please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/podcast-palestinians-rising-from-jerusalem-to-umm-al-fahm-ft-fayrouz-sharqawi-kristin-mcc...

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” Professor Sherene Seikaly offers historical framing and comparisons necessary for understanding what’s happening with Palestinians now, from the general strike to the ongoing Nakba to questions of Palestinian leadership. For full bios, see: fmep.org Original Music by Jalal Yaqoub

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Kristin McCarthy is joined by Salem Barahmeh to discuss the general strike Palestinians across Palestine led on Tuesday, May 18th. Salem Barahmeh is the Executive Director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD). For bios, please visit: fmep.org Original Music by Jalal Yaqoub

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with Nooran Alhamdan about Palestinians in the US, shifts in American politics, where she finds Palestinian leadership, the Nakba, and what gives her hope. Nooran published this recent column in the Washington Post and co-moderated the recent event, "The Palestinian Nakba: What Happened in 1948 and Why It Still Matters" (which...

On this episode of "Occupied Thoughts" FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin interviews Widad Assaf, the Legal Coordinator of FMEP partner Human Rights Defenders Fund (HRDF), about the connections between Palestinians inside of Israel and in Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the diaspora. Widad describes the discrimination, human and civil rights violations, and police violence that Palestinian citizens of I...

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin talks with Sawsan Zaher, the Deputy General Director of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. In this conversation, she describes what the last week has been like for Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have faced enormous violence from Israeli Jews and been incited against by Israeli politicians, misrepresente...

In this edition of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks with Dr. Carol Daniel Kasbari (Middle East Institute) about the the violence today in Israel/Palestine, including both its immediate triggers and its deeper causes linked to the Palestinian experience - on both side of the Green Line - of the Nakba not as a single moment of dispossession and tragedy, but as an ongoing process that c...

FMEP hosted a conversation with three Palestinian thought leaders - Ines Abdel Razek, Zaha Hassan, and Nadia Hijab - to discuss what is happening now and reflect on how the events unfolding over the past several weeks speak to the larger story of Palestinian dispossession, Israeli domination, and the international community’s failed approach to resolving the question of Palestine.

The struggle in Sheikh Jarrah is again on center stage this week. Once again, Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah are facing imminent evictions, approved by Israeli courts. And once again, Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah are resisting efforts to remove them from their longtime homes — and they are once again being met with violence and repression from Israeli authorities and settlers. To discuss this stru...

In this new episode of "Occupied Thoughts," Peter Beinart interviews Zaha Hassan and Daniel Levy about the new Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report, "Breaking the Israel-Palestine Status Quo," co-authored with Hallaamal Keir and Marwan Muasher. The report aims to offer new ways forward, arguing that "[i]nstead of reviving a moribund peace process or simply abandoning U.S. engagement,...

In this new episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” Peter Beinart interviews Sulaiman Khatib and Penina Eilberg-Schwartz about their new book, In This Place Together, which the publisher describes as a “narrative meditation on joint nonviolence, opening a window to the questions of power, multiple narratives, and imagination that touch on struggles for justice everywhere.” More information at fmep.org Ori...

The Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) hosted an eight-part webinar series for members of the House and Senate and Congressional Staff discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. policy. The series is co-moderated by FMEP’s Lara Friedman & MEI’s Khaled Elgindy. Access the series at FMEP.org Original "Occupied Thoughts" music by Jalal Yacoub

Ft. Peter Beinart, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Diana Buttu, and Orly Noy. Last week, Israelis went to the polls for the fourth time in two years to elect a new government. In parallel, Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem are now — for the first time in nearly 15 years — preparing for presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for May and June. What are the prospects for the...

In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” Peter Beinart interviews Nathan Thrall about Thrall’s new essay in the New York Review of Books, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.” The essay describes a Palestinian father’s search for his son following a bus accident, detailing layers of neglect, danger, and abuse faced by Palestinians living under Israeli control, whether in the Jerusalem, the West Bank,...

When Israeli citizens go to the polls on March 23rd, one thing they will be voting on is whether to bring followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane into the Knesset as part of a new party, “Religious Zionism.” The sudden political ascent of the Religious Zionism party was orchestrated by Benjamin Netanyahu in exchange for its support for keeping him in power, leading one Ha’aretz commentator to name him a “l...