Citizens for Justice in the Middle East provided our inspiration for this show. For twenty years CJME has advocated for a fair and even-handed U.S. foreign policy. CJME believes an even-handed policy should recognize the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. An even-handed policy should work for a political solution promoting those rights. Thus, CJME’s mission has been to educate people about the injustices created by the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories.
This show extends that mission. For anyone confused about the current impasse, we offer historical information that helps explain it. For anyone who has been hearing only a one-sided narrative that lacks balance and context, we offer a balanced narrative.
Accordingly, we broadcast interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists who provide perspectives from both sides. In contrast to headline news that focus on the what but not the why, our programs clarify underlying issues. The programs reveal the counter-productive role the United States has played over the years in supporting one side over the other.
Public debate about the oppression of Palestinians continues to be stifled. For this reason, we offer these programs as a resource for those seeking truthful, uncensored information about relations between Israel, Palestine and the United States. Furthermore, we hope these programs get people to listen, learn, and do their own research into what is and has been taking place in Israel Palestine.
Recent Episodes
May 13, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Documentary Tantura chronicles massacre during 1948 Nakba
Jonathan Ofir, Israeli musician, conductor, blogger and writer, talked about Tantura, a recent documentary that chronicles the 1948 massacre of Palestinian civilians in the village of Tantura during the Nakba. More than 50 years after the massacre a firestorm erupted among Israelis following media exposure of the Master’s thesis that lies at the core of this story. Jonathan grew up with Teddy Katz, the academic whose career was sabotaged over his Master’s thesis. Tantura is currently included in the 2022 Sundance Film festival.
ListenMay 6, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Palestinian Art As Resistance
In this episode we interview two guests; both promote Palestinian art and cultural production as necessary for the survival of the Palestinian people. Susan Greene has been enabling communities in Palestine to create public murals since 1989.
For our second interview we heard from Mohammed Nabulsi, vice general of the Palestinian Youth Movement, an international organization which began in response to the 1993 Oslo Accords. The PYM gives voice to the millions of Palestinian refugees who live outside of Israel 48 and outside of the West Bank and Gaza.
April 29, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Turbulence at al Aqsa Mosque and artists standing up for Palestinians
Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace speaks about tensions in Jerusalem as Palestinians, Jewish settlers, Israeli Police and IDF soldiers all staked their claims for control of the al Aqsa Mosque and its surrounding area in April 2022. The episode concludes with stories about artists who have stood in solidarity with Palestinians.
ListenApril 22, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
U.N. Rapporteur Says Israel Guilty of Apartheid in Occupied Palestine
Michael Lynk, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, discusses the special report he issued at the end of March finding Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He discusses the reasons why, the conditions that prevail there, the similarities and differences with apartheid South Africa, and the ongoing failure of the international community to hold Israel to account for its abuses of human rights.
ListenApril 8, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Palestinian Activists’ Use of Smartphone Video
Cultural Anthropologist Rebecca Stein, author of Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine, discusses the impact of Palestinian activists' video recordings on the struggle for justice.
ListenApril 1, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Omar Barghouti Compares Sanctions on Russia and Israel
Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions Movement for Palestinian rights, discusses the aims of the BDS Movement and compares its targeted sanctions with the indiscriminate sanctions the U.S. is leveling against Russia as well as other countries. Russia should rightly be condemned for its invasion of Ukraine, but the Western response to it highlights Western hypocrisy and racism. Barghouti discusses apartheid in Israel and his hopes for the future.
ListenMarch 11, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
International law on Russia in Ukraine and on Israel in Palestine
Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law and practice at Princeton University and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, talks about international law as it applies to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to ongoing violations committed by Israel both in the Palestinian territory it occupies and inside Israel.
ListenMarch 4, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls — “From the Architects of Repression to Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home & Abroad” with Walter Hixson (3-4-22)
Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls — “From the Architects of Repression to Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home & Abroad” with Walter Hixson (3-4-22)
For this week's episode, producer Jeremy Rothe-Kushel speaks with diplomatic & cultural historian, Walter Hixson about his book "Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy," an analysis both of the Lobby's US domestic history of power politics and how it has provided narrative armor for Israeli state-sponsored military atrocities in Palestine and beyond, and, additionally, about the conference in Washington DC this week that he is helping to introduce, titled Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home and Abroad.
Most Recent Books
https://www.israellobbycon.org/
https://www.irmep.org/conferences/
ListenFebruary 25, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
An apartheid state would continue in a two-state “solution”
Jamie talks with Virginia Tilley, professor at University of Illinois, about why the two-state solution would still leave Israel an apartheid state.
ListenFebruary 18, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Criticizing Israel out of love
Madeleine Cereghino of Americans for Peace now, a Jewish pro-peace organization, discusses why settlements threaten a two-state solution, why the organization is calling for U.S. aid to Israel to be conditioned on Israeli behavior, and how the organization is responding to Amnesty International's recent report finding Israel an apartheid state
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