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.
September 22, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Is Israel an apartheid state: three experts weigh in
We listen to excerpts from a panel discussion about the documentary film Is Israel an Apartheid State, a panel sponsored by Voices From the Holy Land for its January 2023 online film salon. Three experts 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. You can listen to the entire discussion at www.voicesfromtheholyland.org.
ListenSeptember 15, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Rock the Boat
ListenSeptember 8, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Water Apartheid in Israel-Palestine
Eyal Hareuveni of the Israeli human rights organziation B'Tselem discusses how and why Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank face a chronic shortage of water. He is the author of a new study by B'Tselem called "Parched: Israel's Policy of Water Deprivation in the West Bank," which examines Israel's discriminatory use of water to control the Palestinian population. Nancy Murray of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine discusses the dire conditions not only in the West Bank but also in the Gaza Strip where 98 percent of the ground water is contaminated.
ListenSeptember 1, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Mutual Aid and Palestinian Sumud: the HIRN Model
In this episode Hamed Qawasmeh describes the work of the Hebron International Resource Network (HIRN), a collective coordinated by him that helps Palestinians facing threats from the Israeli occupation such as land confiscation, home demolitions, and difficulty crossing checkpoints. Our discussion turned to the challenges of responding quickly to people's needs using grant money and the pitfalls of the international development agenda. Finally we turned our attention toward the fate of the residents of Masafer Yatta, now living under threat of eviction after an Israeli Supreme Court decision last year.
ListenAugust 25, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Palestinians Face Desperate Choices
Writer, anthropologist and activist Jeff Halper, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, talks about the conpletion of the conquest of Palestine, the dire choices facing Palestinians, now restricted to non-contiguous bantustans on 15 prercent of the Occupied West Bank, and the irony in Jewish Israelis demonstrating en masse to save their democracy while ignoring the apartheid system in the Occupied Territories and Israel. This program repeats one aired Feb. 17, 2023 under the title "Message toPalestinians: Submit, Get Out or Die."
ListenAugust 18, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Breaking the Siege of Gaza: Freedom Flotillas since 2008
In a challenge to Israel’s total blockade of Gaza a boat sailed in 2008 all the way into the Gaza harbor, greeted by thousands of enthusiastic Palestinians. The book Freedom Sailors, written and edited by the people who lived this first step, is a vivid description of amazing courage and fortitude.
Since 2008 flotillas bound for Gaza have been blocked by Israel. In 2010 Israel attacked the Mavi Marmara, one of a 6-ship flotilla, while it was still in international waters, killing 9 of the crew. The crew was totally unarmed.
Alex McDonald was on the Freedom Flotilla boat that sailed to Northern ports this summer to raise the world’s awareness of the flotilla movement. The same boat sails to Gaza in the spring of 2024.
Video footage of the 2010 attack is shown in The Truth: Lost at Sea, the documentary chosen by www.voicesfromtheholyland.org for its August online film salon.
August 11, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Israel’s Identity Crisis; Palestinians’ Predicament
Yousef Munayyer, Senior Fellow and head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C., discusses the complexity of Israel's internal fissures, changing battlefield dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians, the waning power of the Palestinian Authority and what may lie ahead for Palestinians.
ListenAugust 4, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Rock Climbing as a Revolutionary Act: Resistance Climbing in the Occupied West Bank
In 2014, American Tim Bruns moved to Palestine with his friend Will hoping to set up a climbing gym in Ramallah. Almost ten years (and hundreds of sends) later, the film Resistance Climbing, about the burgeoning rock climbing community in Palestine, premiered at the Reel Rock Film Festival. On the heels of the film's release, I invited Tim to reflect on the journey and the growth of the rock climbing scene in Palestine. We discussed what climbing can and cannot do for the political situation there, how climbing connects Palestinians to their land, and the process of setting up the nuts and bolts of rock climbing in Palestine, among other topics.
ListenJuly 28, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Crisis in Israel : Observations of the Peace Camp
A da after Israel's passage of a highly contested bill to curb the power of the Supreme Court, Mickey Gitzin, director in Israel of the New Israel Fund, a non-profit that works to advance liberal democracy in Israel, and Nivine Sandouka, a Palestinian who heads the NGO Our Rights, discuss its significance, the dangers of the far-right government, the paradoxes in the Israeli protest movement and some new signs of progress. Gili Getz, chair of the board of American Friends of Combatants for Peace, which sponsored the discussion, moderates.
ListenJuly 21, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Jenin Refugee Camp resists Israeli raid
Dr. Hani Murad discusses the July 3 raid on the Jenin refugee camp and Palestinian resistance to the occupation.
Listen