Occupied Thoughts Occupied Thoughts by FMEP

In this episode of "Occupied Thoughts," FMEP non-resident fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Sapir Sluzker Amran about her identity as a Mizrachi, queer activist - and her recent action to document and disrupt right-wing Israeli settlers attacking a convoy of aid at the Gaza barrier.

For bios and resources, please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/a-look-from-the-radical-israeli-left-a-multi-front-battle-against-fascism-jewish-supremacy/

On Nakba Day 2024 - commemorated amidst Israel's ongoing genocidal war on Gaza - FMEP is re-releasing a very special podcast produced last year in partnership with Project48. This project was created to commemorate the 75 years of the Palestinian Nakba, sharing the voices of 10 powerful Palestinian artists, sharing their works and that of other iconic Palestinian creators.

Featured artists are: Ahmed Abu Artema, Hala Alyan, Suad Amiry, Zeina Azzam, Cherien Dabis, Fady Joudah, Tamer Nafar, Raja Shehadeh, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Waleed Zuaiter – reading their own work and that of other iconic Palestinian artists. Bios and links to the works of each artist can be found below.

The Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”) is the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land, and the destruction of Palestinian society during the creation of the State of Israel – a destruction that continues today. Learn more at: project48.com. For more programming from FMEP on the Nakba please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/nakba-resources/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Professor Sahar Aziz of Rutgers University about the current attacks on academic freedom and why the US House of Representatives is investigating Rutgers and its Center for Security, Race and Rights, which Sahar directs. They also discuss the dangers of exceptionalizing Israel and the future of American universities more broadly.

Sahar Aziz is distinguished professor of law, Middle East Legal Studies Scholar, and Chancellor’s Social justice Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. Professor Aziz’s scholarship examines the intersection of national security, race, religion, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, religious, and ethnic minorities.  She is the author of the book The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights. 

Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator.

Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Non-resident Fellow Rania Batrice speaks to Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate justice writer and essayist. The two discuss the intersection of the movement for Palestinian liberation and the movement for climate justice, why and how the two converge around indigineity and people's relationship to the land - - as well as a holistic vision for organizing for justice that centers the ongoing settler colonialism happening in Palestine.

Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with analyst Seth Binder about the technicalities of U.S. aid to Israel. They discuss the ways in which U.S. aid to Israel works differently from U.S. aid to other countries, the legal requirements & questions surrounding U.S. aid to Israeli military units that commit human rights abuses, and the question of whether, and in what ways, the debate over conditioning aid to Israel is changing. 

Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator.

Seth Binder is Director of Advocacy at the Middle East Democracy Center, a merger between POMED (Project on Middle East Democracy) & The Freedom Initiative. He is an expert in arms sales, authoritarianism, human rights, national security, security assistance and U.S. foreign aid and foreign policy.

Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

This podcast is the audio recording of a webinar featuring Miranda Cleland, Defense for Children International-Palestine, & Hamdi Shaqqura, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, in conversation with 2023 FMEP Fellow Dr. Yara Asi. To see links to the resources mentioned in the webinar, go to the landing page for this webinar: https://fmep.org/resource/dead-disabled-displaced-detained-orphaned-the-toll-of-israels-war-on-palestinian-childre/

Israel’s war in Gaza and the increased violence in the West Bank – now known as the “Quiet War” – have affected Palestinian children in particularly horrific ways. Human rights researchers have documented these specific harms: Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 13,800 children, turned 19,000 into orphans, and made more than 1000 into amputees. More than 1 million children have lost their homes. Dozens of children have already starved to death, and up to 60% of the children in northern Gaza are experiencing acute malnourishment in a famine that is spreading at the fastest rate of starvation on record anywhere in the world, and which may constitute the war crime of deliberate starvation. As UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini put it, “This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.” And in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian children continue to face arrest and detention, home demolitions and expulsions. Over the past six months, increased violence at the hands of the IDF and the IDF-backed settlers over the past six months has killed 117 Palestinian children.

In this webinar, public health expert Dr. Yara Asi spoke with experts from two premiere Palestinian human rights organizations: Hamdi Shaqqura from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), a Gaza-based organization which continues to operate and collect data in Gaza even under the most difficult circumstances; and Miranda Cleland from Defense for Children International-Palestine, which focuses on the rights of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation.

Bios: 

Dr. Yara Asi is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics, and a visiting scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, where she is co-director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights. Her new book with Johns Hopkins University Press, How War Kills: The Overlooked Threats to Our Health, examines war as a public health crisis.

Miranda Cleland is an advocacy officer at Defense for Children International - Palestine and lives in Washington, D.C., where she leads the No Way to Treat a Child campaign and advocates for the human rights of Palestinian children. Miranda is a writer, speaker, facilitator, and campaigner with expertise in children's rights, the Israeli military detention system, and Israeli military killings of Palestinian children. She holds a bachelor's with honors from American University in International Studies and Arabic language and has taken additional coursework in international law and the protection of children in armed conflict.

Hamdi Shaqqura is a human rights defender who lives and works in Gaza. He holds a master’s degree in political science from Illinois State University in 1990. He has been working at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) since 1995, and is Deputy PCHR Director for Program Affairs as well as the Director of the Advocacy Program.

Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.