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Understanding Israel Palestine
This show is inspired by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, a local group that has advocated for 20 years for a fair and even-handed U.S. foreign policy that recognizes the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. Our program offers interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists to offer multiple perspectives, and to clarify the underlying issues that are often obscured by headline news.
A report by the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East concluded that 2023 promises to be the most violent year since 2005. The UN report also called attention to numerous other factors – including the expansion of illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in the West Bank – which “threaten to worsen the plight of the most vulnerable Palestinians.” Threats to Palestinian lives are increasingly heard from elected representatives in the Knesset, with some calling for outright ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Meanwhile, the obstacles imposed on Palestinians in Gaza only get worse. Regular aerial bombardment of Gaza—what Israeli military strategists have called “mowing the grass”—remains the Israeli government’s preferred approach to the people under siege for more than 15 years.
In this episode we listen to excerpts from a panel discussion about the documentary film Is Israel an Apartheid State, a discussion sponsored by Voices From the Holy Land for its January 2023 online film salon. You can listen to the entire discussion at www.voicesfromtheholyland.org.
Three experts on the panel explain why Israel meets the legal definition of an apartheid state and how laws, policies and practices of the Israeli government constitute apartheid both in the occupied territories and inside what is known as Israel48. Jonathan Kuttab, attorney, author, and Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America, moderated this panel discussion.
