Understanding Israel Palestine

Send us Fan Mail Political scientist Norman Finkelstein discusses the massive protests taking place in Israel, describing them not as a battle for democracy but as a culture war not unlike the tensions seen in U.S. society. He discusses the role and record of Israel's high court, U.S. Jews' shifting relationship with Israel,  the role of the pro-Israel lobby.  A prolific scholar who has...

Send us Fan Mail Acclaimed writer and poet Naomi Shihab Nye discusses her poetry, her experiences as the daughter of a Palestinian refugee, her many trips of witness to Israel and Palestine,  her thoughts on the current tensions there.

Send us Fan Mail Ori Nir, vice-president of public affairs for the liberal Zionist peace group, Americans for Peace Now, talks about tensions within the U.S. Jewish community over Israel. An Israeli journalist for 24 years, Nir says the frenzy of legislation coming out of the new right-wing government in Israel reflects how the anti-democratic nature of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine is now s...

Send us Fan Mail Writer, anthropologist and activist Jeff Halper, chair of the Israeli Committee Against House Demlitions, discusses current conditions in Israel/Palestine -- the Israeli campaign against the last vestiges of resistance to the Judaization of Palestine, the dire choices facing Palestinians today, the acceptance of apartheid Israel by the international community, the massive protests...

Send us Fan Mail Richard Falk, international law expert and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, discusses the significance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent assertion that Israel possesses exclusive right to all of the Land of Israel. In addition to brazenly defying international law,...

Send us Fan Mail Omar Barghouti, iconic leader of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights, disccusses the aims of the BDS campaign against Israeli apartheid and how it differs from the indiscriminate sanctions the West is applying to Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Barghouti discusses the hypocrisy in the West's response to Russia and its response t...

Send us Fan Mail Dov Waxman, professor of political science and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies at UCLA, assesses the likely consequnces of the far-right coalition government taking shape following the November elections in Israel. Waxman discusses how and why the right has grown steadily in Israel over the last 30 years and what policies the new far-right gover...