Otherwise Occupied Ami Kaufman

As the Israeli parliament dissolved this week and we are now headed to our fourth round of elections in two years, I'm happy that my guest today is a professional politician: Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament Heba Yazbak (Joint List).Yazbak belongs to the National Democratic Assembly, known as the “Balad” party, a Palestinian nationalist party that supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories Israel occupied in 1967 and opposes Israel’s definition as a Jewish sta...

My guest this week is an activist for Palestinian rights from East Jerusalem. Kefah Abukhdeir is a Palestinian-American who co-directs and teaches at EduReach, a local Palestinian educational and learning organization, and I had the honor of speaking with her about her family’s deep roots to the holy city, her American roots, and what she thinks about the end of the Trump era.But what I’m really thankful for in our conversation is, first of all, the glimpse that Kefah gives me about life in E...

My guest this week is someone I am very excited to talk to, being the foodie that I am. Ronit Vered is a researcher of food culture, she’s a journalist, an author of food and travel books. Since 2007 she’s been writing a weekly column about food in Haaretz. It’s a wonderful column, with photographs from an amazing photographer named Dan Peretz. Together they document people, food, disappearing preparation methods that they encounter every week, as they crisscross the country looking for good ...

David Lehrer is the Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. As a partner of the Ben Gurion University, the institute brings Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international students together, promoting the idea that nature knows no political borders is more than a belief. "It is a fact, a curriculum, and a way of life," as their website says.I spoke to David while he was in the institute, in a Kibbutz called Ketura, where he has lived now for many years since immigrating f...

There's a first time for everything, right? Well, this is the first episode where I shed a tear during recording. My guest this week is the first female Palestinian photojournalist in Gaza. Eman Mohammed started her career at the young age of 19, not only dodging bombings, but also misogyny from her colleagues and surroundings, who thought a woman was not cut out for the job. But that didn’t stop her. She eventually became one of the most well known photographers in the region, her ...

What really makes my day is talking to an amazing and inspiring artist.She’s a singer. A musician. A songwriter. She is an actress on stage and on the screen. She is a screenwriter. She’s an activist for women’s rights, for Palestinian rights. She was even in the Eurovision! Today I am so honored to speak with Mira Awad, one of Israel’s most famous artists, famous abroad as well, who has been challenging norms since childhood, norms in Arab society, in Israeli society, constantly giving ...