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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.
In May a decades-long legal battle ended with the Israeli Supreme Court ruling that Palestinians living in an area in the south Hebron Hills in the Occupied West Bank could be forcibly expelled from their homes to make way for an Israeli firing zone. The ruling affects some 1200 Palestinians living in the Masafer Yatta region and paves the way for what could be the biggest mass expulsion of Palestinians since the Six Day War in 1967. Roy Yellin, director of public outreach for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, discusses the ruling, its legality and significance, the history of the 22-year legal case Palestinian residents brought against the Israeli Defense Forces, and the resistance to displacement Palestiians living in the area are putting up. Later in the program Beth Miller, political director of JVP Action, the political and advocacy arm of Jewish Voice for Peace, discuses the unusual amount of support Palestinians in Masafer Yatta are receiving in Congress. Some 83 Democratic legislators have written U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to urge U.S. action against Israel’s eviction of 1000 families in Masafer Yatta. The law-makers say the evictions violate international law and could spark violence.
