Unpacking Zionism

Taylor Miller is a writer and researcher based between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. She earned her Ph. D. in political geography from the University of Arizona. Taylor is a Contributing Editor and writer for Columbia University’s Avery Review , and other recent works are featured with Social Text , Al Mayadeen , Weird Economies, The New Inquiry, Protean, with forthcoming essays in Yale Scho...

Bios: Lara Sheehi: is a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa’s Institute for Social and Health Sciences, a licensed clinical psychologist, and the host of the Psychic Militancy podcast. Lara’s work focuses on psychoanalysis, the psychic refusals central to liberation struggles and life-making in the Global South, the psychic dimensions of resistance and revolution, and critical Zionis...

Episode's resources: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/stop-calling-right-wing-criticism-of-israel-anti-zionism/

In this episode, Alex and Lara talk with Danya Nadar about the ways Zionism  is implicated in the ongoing destruction and plunder of land and resources in Guatemala, especially  through imported land-based practices and irrigation technologies, and  the ways that Indigenous people continue to resist. Bio: Danya Nadar is an Egyptian-Canadian PhD candidate affiliated with the Institute of Developmen...

Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine and the author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nikki Keddie Book Award and the 2023 Palestine Book Award. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies . Shownotes: Nadim's book: https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/transnational...

Episode's resources: Iran and the US Anti-War Movement https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/25872/Iran-and-the-US-Anti-War-Movement Iran in Crisis: Seven Essays on the Obstacles to Freedom https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47192/Iran-in-Crisis-Seven-Essays-on-the-Obstacles-to-Freedom-Introduction Raha Iranian Feminist Collective https://www.rahafeministcollective.org/ Havaar: Iranian Initiative Again...

Introducing a new series of podcast shorts: In Flames. Episodes are anti-Zionist hot takes on what's happening right now. With rotating hosts from the Institute's Collective and Advisory Board. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes.

In this episode, Alex and Lara interview Linda Quiquivix about radical histories and traditions of resistance to colonialism, with a focus on Zionism and its instantiations in Latin America. Palestine 1492: A Report Back by Linda Quiquivix, available for free here: https://wildoxbooks.org/books/palestine-1492/ Jimmy Johnson & Linda Quiquivix, "Israel and Mexico Swap Notes on Abusing Rights" fo...

This episode is a recording of a webinar titled "The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond," hosted by Scholars for Justice and Human Rights in Professional Associations on February 9, 2026. The focus of the session was the Anti-Defamation League's November 2025 report falsely alleging that over a dozen professional academic associations wer...

In this first episode, ICSZ founding collective member, Lara Sheehi, is joined by advisory board member and co-host, Alex Aviña. Using Alex’s concept and analysis of the Palestine-Mexico border as an orienting frame, they talk about why this series feels especially urgent now, and also discuss his newest analysis about the US imperial aggression on Venezuela. Alex Aviña, “Notes from the Palestine-...

Empire's Laboratory is a mini-series co-hosted by ICSZ founding collective member Lara Sheehi and advisory board member Alex Aviña. Empire's Laboratory will provide a  critical analysis of Zionism in Latin America. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes. Learn more about the series, our co-hosts, and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism on our website - https://criticalzionismstudies....

This episode looks at the keyword “normalization” in conversation with independent writer and researcher Reem Farah. Our discussion draws on Reem’s 2024 article “Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Cookbook, Jerusalem: Israel as Frame and Palestine as Subject” in the Jerusalem Quarterly. Reem analyzes the cookbook as an example of the normalization of Zionism, and explains why opposing normalization is a pill...

This week we bring listeners a rich and concise episode on “disarmament” as a keyword for the critical study of Zionism. It's a short talk by Bikrum Gill, a member of the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective and faculty at Virginia Tech, excerpted from a panel on Critical Zionism Studies and political theory at the 2025 American Political Science Association conference. Bikrum Gill, The Political...

In this episode we’re with Dr. Nicole Nguyen to talk through securitization as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. From manipulations of the idea of “safety” to tech giant Palantir’s dystopian “digital kill chain” in Gaza and surveillance-to-deportation machinery in the United States, we connect the dots between Zionist and U.S. militarisms. This interview was recorded in June 2025. Nicole Ngu...

This episode is a recording of a webinar on Confronting Zionist Expansionism. Moderators Jennifer Mogannam & Amira Jarmakani talk with Abdaljawad Omar on Zionism’s territorial drive and Natalie El-Eid on weaponizing Druze in Palestine and Syria. This event was recorded on August 6 and is available as a video recording on our youtube channel .

Most of the organizations we’ve covered so far in this mini-series purport to represent Jewish communities’ opinions. But the one we’re covering today is different. It’s not about opinions, it’s about putting the armed, carceral muscle behind other organizations. We’re talking about the Secure Community Network (SCN). There isn’t much research on the SCN, so rather than interviewing a scholar or j...

Updates about our podcast: wrapping up "From Above," announcing new mini-series, and inviting your feedback. You can find us at criticalzionismstudies.org and on Instagram at @institutecsz.

This interview with Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at Arab Center Washington DC, is about lawfare. Lawfare refers to the use of law as a political weapon that is more concerned with inflicting damage on an opponent than prevailing with a particular legal argument or proving facts based on evidence. We discuss Zionist lawfare, who formulates its goals and targets, and who fun...

In this episode we are looking at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with journalist Alex Kane, senior reporter at Jewish Currents. This is the first of several episodes we'll have on the ADL, in an effort to grapple with its scale and long history. Lots of links in the show notes. History: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-w8y83byMLcxFd1gvI1xqpcDUaCo1WW/view?usp=sharing https://jewishcurrents.org/...

In this episode, we discuss the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) with the veteran of this podcast Amira Jarmakani, ICSZ collective member and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies at San Diego State University. NCRI, presenting itself as a research institute interested in studying false and hateful narratives online, often flies under the radar as a Zionist organization. A...

This episode with Akhil Gopal and Matyos Kidane of Stop LAPD Spying Coalition looks at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is the parent organization of the Museum of Tolerance and a go-to Holocaust education provider. We look at how its work relates to what L.A. organizers call the "stalker state", and how anti-poor and racist politics – especially policing – are interwoven with Zionist politics a...

In this episode, Sean Malloy and Meira Gold discuss the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which has been working behind the scenes on campuses, advising many of the administrators who have been imposing the repressive measures that we've seen throughout the Israeli genocide. AEN claims to have trained 3000 university administrators since 2020 and set up presence on 320 campuses. Along with the AD...

In this episode of “From Above,” we discuss the Helen Diller Family Foundation – an organization that claims to support “global Jewish needs.” And while it indeed funds Jewish Studies Programs as well as hospitals, art museums, and playgrounds, what the Helen Diller Family Foundation is actually invested in is Zionist global needs. We will talk about the Helen Diller Family Foundation’s massive fi...

WARNING: the word "rapist" appears in this episode several times in the context of Zionist smears. At the 15'48" mark, there is a mention of a Jewish man being shot by a CAMERA-affiliated agitator. In this episode on CAMERA and the Camera Education Institute, we’re hearing from education organizers Sana Fadel, a member of Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, and Nora Lester Murad, of...

This is the second episode in our series From Above , in which we look at Zionist institutions that wield their power to advance fascist repression of anyone who speaks against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians. My guest today is herself an example of how this repression works. I am joined by writer and scholar Maura Finkelstein to talk about Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus...