Unpacking Zionism

Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
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Unpacking Zionism Podcast

Produced by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, this podcast features conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Unpacking Zionism is a process and a long-term commitment that we at the Institute are making to the Palestinian liberation struggle and the struggles of all people affected by Zionism. To resist the current moment of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we must understand Zionism. So join us on this journey as we are Unpacking Zionism one episode at a time. Please subscribe to Unpacking Zionism so you never miss new episodes. To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website https://criticalzionismstudies.org

  1. AUG 19

    Pinkwashing with Hussein Omar

    In this episode I’m talking with Hussein Omar, who is a writer from Cairo currently based in New York City. After completing doctoral research on anticolonial political ideas in the Arab world he’s now writing a five hundred year history of Egypt as told through its cemeteries. He also writes about sexuality, aesthetics and psychoanalysis, and he organizes with Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG). Hussein’s recent essay titled Homo Zion: How Pinkwashing Erases Colonial History, is in Parapraxis Magazine. Expanding our thinking beyond the usual rejoinders to pinkwashing claims, this essay pushes us ask what it is about us that makes pinkwashing a workable tactic. Additional resources for this conversation: Christina Hanhardt, Safe Space (2017) Kramer, Report from the Holocaust (1990) Boyarin, Unheroic Conduct (1997) Al Qaws, Beyond Propaganda: Pinkwashing as Colonial Violence (2020)

    36 min
  2. Alana Lentin on Zionist Claims of Indigeneity in the Racial Regime of Nativism

    JUL 29

    Alana Lentin on Zionist Claims of Indigeneity in the Racial Regime of Nativism

    Today, we are releasing an episode that we previously shared on our other podcast - Battling the IHRA Definition. This episode continues our series of keywords in Critical Zionism Studies and helps unpack the term we have not yet discussed - Indigeneity. You will hear a recording of Dr Alana Lentin speaking at our October 2023 conference titled Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism. Her talk is titled “Zionist Claims of Indigeneity in the Racial Regime of Nativism.” Dr Lentin explains how the IHRA definition fits into the broader landscape of repression within the so-called war on Critical Race Theory or the war on woke. She looks at Zionist claims of Jewish Indigeneity to Palestine in conjunction with Indigenous politics and settler colonial context of Australia. In October 2023, during our conference, Australia held a referendum called Indigenous Voice to Parliament which if passed would have established an advisory body comprised of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to represent the views of Indigenous communities in Australian parliament. This referendum, that Dr Lentin references, ultimately failed to pass. For more details, check out the episode notes or our website criticalzionistmstudies.org

    19 min

  3. JUL 15

    Hindutva with Pranay Somayajula

    In this episode, Pranay Somayajula helps us unpack the term hindutva as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. Hindutva is a strain of ethnic supremacy and Indian nationalism that Pranay will help us unpack in the episode. It is specifically anti-Muslim, and – like Zionism – it has been fueled by British colonialism. In the present, Hindutva is more and more entwined with Zionist politics. In our conversation, Pranay untangles hindutva’s parallels and connections to Nazism and to Zionism. In fact, this episode covers a lot of ground - we discuss the close military, political, and diplomatic relationship between India and Israel, the ideological underpinnings of the two countries’ nationalist regimes, the growing alignment of Hindu American organizations with the Israel lobby groups, and the solidarity and collaborations between anti-Hindutva and anti-Zionist organizers. Pranay Somayajula is an Indian-American writer and organizer, based in Washington, DC, who currently serves as Organizing and Advocacy Director for Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). Pranay recently completed a MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where his dissertation research focused on preventive detention and the legacies of colonial rule in postcolonial India. Prior to studying at LSE, Pranay worked at HfHR as Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator. He received his B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs in 2022 from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. Today, we are sharing a lot of resources so our listeners can dive into this topic much deeper: Vijay Prashad’s article “How the Hindus became Jews”Pranay Somayajula’s senior thesis at George Washington University “The ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and the ‘Jewish State’: the Ideological Foundations of Ethnic Democracy in India and Israel”Pranay’s more recent essay called “we are all palestinians: notes on solidarity and collective resistance”Aparna Gopalan’sarticle, “THE HINDU NATIONALISTS USING THE PRO-ISRAEL PLAYBOOK” published in the Jewish Currents in 2023ICSZ Battling the IHRA Definition Podcast

    38 min
  4. Future with Eman Abdelhadi

    JUL 8

    Future with Eman Abdelhadi

    This is part 2 of our ongoing mini-series on “future” as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. We talk to Eman Abdelhadi who explains that every liberation struggle is ultimately a struggle for a different future, one that rebels against the unjust present and past. Eman Abdelhadi is an academic, activist and writer who thinks at the intersection of gender, sexuality, religion, and politics. She is an assistant professor and sociologist at the University of Chicago, where she researches American Muslim communities. She is co-author of "Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072," a sci-fi novel published in 2022 with Common Notions Press. Her academic work has been published in numerous sociology journals and covered by press outlets such as the Washington Post, Associated Press, and NPR. Her public writing has appeared in In These Times, Jacobin, Truthout and other outlets. She is based in Chicago, where she is also a community organizer with the Salon Kawakib Collective, Faculty for Justice in Palestine and other formations. Eman and her co-author M. E. O'Brien wrote a speculative novel about a liberated future called Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072. Eman and M. E. also published a short story that is a continuation of the novel. The story is called “Sharaner Maash, or a haunting from the time before.” And in the episode, we mention a Truthout podcast “Palestine Solidarity Encampments Are a Rehearsal for Liberatory Self-Governance” that Eman was recently on.

    35 min
  5. Future with Nayrouz Abu Hatoum

    JUL 1

    Future with Nayrouz Abu Hatoum

    In this episode, we talk with Nayrouz Abu Hatoum about “future” as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. This conversation demonstrates that despite the violence that the Israeli state inflicts on Palestinian daily life, violence that affects their ability to imagine and predict the future, Palestinian struggle for liberation is always already future-oriented. Nayrouz Abu Hatoum is associate professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Concordia University. She was the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University for 2018/2019, and is a co-founding member of Insaniyyat: Society of Palestinian Anthropologists. Her research explores visual politics in Palestine and focuses on alternative imaginations, peoples' place-making and dwelling practices in contexts of settler colonialism. Currently, she is working on her ethnographic project that examines the politics of visual arts production and its role in expanding Palestinians' imagination. This episode is the first in a short series of conversations about future and how central it is to the Palestinian liberation struggle, to the anti-Zionist struggle, and in fact, to all anti-imperialist, decolonial, abolitionist, liberatory struggles. You can read the transcript of this episode and the article we discuss, "Decolonizing [in the] future: Scenes of Palestinian temporality" by Nayrouz Abu Hatoum, on our website.

    34 min
  6. Christine Hong on Securitizing California’s Ethnic Studies

    JUN 27

    Christine Hong on Securitizing California’s Ethnic Studies

    Today we are sharing the first episode of our new podcast Battling the IHRA Definition. You will hear from Christine Hong, speaking at our October 2023 conference titled “Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism.” Christine Hong is a founding collective member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and a professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her talk is titled Securitizing California’s Ethnic Studies. Check out our website, criticalzionismstudies.org, to access the transcript and a video recording of this talk, as well as many more conference videos, transcripts, and papers, with new materials being regularly added. You can also find more resources about the IHRA definition and how to resist it.

    21 min
  7. Introducing: Battling the IHRA Definition

    JUN 24

    Introducing: Battling the IHRA Definition

    Welcome to Battling the IHRA Definition, a new podcast by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. This trailer is a quick introduction into “the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” which has been weaponized by Zionist institutions and policymakers to equate criticizing Israel with antisemitism and equate Zionism with Jewishness. The IHRA definition is a tactic used by political actors — particularly the right — to obscure Zionist politics, paper over US and other imperial interests in dominating Palestine, and to attack the anti-genocide movement. The IHRA definition has been adopted by institutions and corporations, used by media outlets, and become a widely-used talking point for smearing anti-Zionists, Palestinians, educators, human rights advocates, and more. And as popular resistance has grown for Palestine – popular resistance against Zionism – the IHRA definition is being used as a tool to attack it from many angles. And that’s why we are Battling the IHRA Definition. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes.

    6 min
  8. Refugees with Jennifer Mogannam

    JUN 11

    Refugees with Jennifer Mogannam

    In this episode, we talk with Jennifer Mogannam about “refugees” as a keyword for thinking about Zionism. Our conversation considers how Palestinian refugee resistance to the condition of Zionist colonization permeates culture, community, politics, and sense of the future — not only for Palestinians but for everyone — and how that resistance poses a major challenge to the narratives that Zionism relies on. You can read the transcript of this episode and the forum we discuss, "Locating Palestinians at the Intersections: Indigeneity, Critical Refugee Studies, and Decolonization" by Jennifer Mogannam, Eman Ghanayem, and Rana Sharif on our website.

    36 min
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About

Produced by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, this podcast features conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Unpacking Zionism is a process and a long-term commitment that we at the Institute are making to the Palestinian liberation struggle and the struggles of all people affected by Zionism. To resist the current moment of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we must understand Zionism. So join us on this journey as we are Unpacking Zionism one episode at a time. Please subscribe to Unpacking Zionism so you never miss new episodes. To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website https://criticalzionismstudies.org

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    Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
  • Years Active
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  • Episodes
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    Unpacking Zionism

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