Unsettled
96 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 102 ratingsUnsettled is a podcast about Israel-Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. We're here to provide a space for the difficult conversations and diverse viewpoints that are all too rare in institutional American Jewish communities.
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Episodes
Rasha Budeiri: Sheikh Jarrah
May 14, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBThere’s a lot going on right now in Israel-Palestine. Right-wing Jewish Israeli mobs are attacking Palestinians in cities like Lod and Haifa. Israel is bombing Gaza. Hamas is firing rockets into Israel. Just last week, Israeli police were attacking worshippers inside Al Aqsa mosque. This round of violence began in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. A number of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are facing imminent eviction from their homes, to be replaced by Jewish settler...
Sam Bahour: Confederation
May 03, 2021 11:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MBWhen it comes to peace in Israel-Palestine, the two-state solution has been the party line for much of the international community for a long time. But lately, many experts and activists have been saying the two-state solution is dead. If that's true, what’s the best path forward? According to Palestinian entrepreneur Sam Bahour, it’s time to try confederation. In this episode, Ilana Levinson talks to Sam about why he believes a confederal model is best for Israelis and Palestinians. Unset...
Will this Palestinian matriarch get to keep her Jerusalem home?
April 12, 2021 11:00 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBFor the past year, as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, home has become an especially important source of shelter and safety. While some governments have responded to pressure from activists and paused evictions, Palestinians in East Jerusalem still face uncertainty. That’s the case with the Sumarin family, who live just outside Jerusalem’s Old City in the Palestinian village of Silwan. The Jewish National Fund and the Elad organization have long been promoting Jewish settle...
Anan Maalouf: The Joint List
March 08, 2021 12:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBIsrael is about to hold its fourth parliamentary election in the past two years. The last time Israelis went to the polls, in March 2020, the Joint List — a coalition of four Arab Palestinian political parties — won an unprecedented 15 seats in the Knesset. But since then, the Joint List has fractured. Why? And what does this mean for the future of Palestinian politics? Producer Max Freedman speaks with Anan Maalouf, former chief of staff and policy advisor to Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint ...
Liat Berdugo: The Weaponized Camera
February 22, 2021 12:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MB“So it becomes this dance of cameras where the whole goal of the Palestinian camera is to document a human rights violation, to take back some kind of power. And the goal of the Israeli camera is to block that power from being taken through vision.” — Liat Berdugo B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, has been running its Camera Distribution Project since the early 2000s. The project distributes video camcorders to Palestinians, training them in documentation, and building an arch...
Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick: The Limits of Progressive Politics
February 08, 2021 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBIn recent years, a term has emerged in leftist activist circles: “progressive except for Palestine,” or “PEP” for short. It describes a person whose values and political leanings are consistent across issues of racial justice, homophobia, healthcare, immigration and more—but on Palestine, they are either silent, or actively hostile to a progressive point of view. It’s a worldview that permeates media spaces, academia, and Washington. What causes the progressive exception for Palestine, and a...
Lara Friedman: What will Biden do?
January 25, 2021 12:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBPresident Joe Biden campaigned on the idea that he'd bring the country back to “normal.” But that message has raised some eyebrows, as many have pointed out that America’s “normal” doesn’t necessarily mean good, or right. In this episode of Unsettled, producer Ilana Levinson interviews Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, about what is considered normal U.S. foreign policy on Israel-Palestine, the relationships with Israeli and Palestinian leaders that Biden inh...
Samiha Hureini: Youth of Sumud
January 11, 2021 11:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBSamiha Hureini is a university student from the village of a-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills. She is one of the founders of Youth of Sumud, a group of young people who came together to defend their community in the wake of a dramatic direct action (chronicled in the very first episode of Unsettled). In this interview with producer Max Freedman, Samiha explains how Youth of Sumud has maintained a Palestinian presence in the caves of Sarura despite the constant threat of violence from soldi...
Joshua Leifer: The Tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn
December 28, 2020 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MB"Five years ago, Jeremy Corbyn brought Palestine solidarity politics into the heart of the largest left-wing party in Europe. And [his leadership has] ended with criticisms of the occupation being untenable in British politics." How did this happen? The unlikely election of Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party in 2015 appeared to signal the renewed political viability of both socialism and Palestine solidarity. But under Corbyn's leadership, Labour was consumed by a series of anti-semitis...
Noura Erakat
November 19, 2020 12:00 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBWhen we first pitched our documentary "The shepherd and the settler" to be part of the "Rulebreakers" series on the BBC World Service, we started with a question: What are the rules, exactly, where Palestinian shepherds and Israeli settlers live side-by-side? Who makes the rules, and who’s breaking them? To better understand the legal landscape in the occupied West Bank, we turned to Noura Erakat: a human rights attorney, a scholar of law in the Middle East, and the author of Justice for So...
Amiel Vardi
October 29, 2020 11:00 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBAmiel Vardi is a professor of Classics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the founders of a grassroots movement called Ta'ayush: Israelis and Palestinians striving together to end the Israeli occupation and to achieve full civil equality through daily non-violent direct action. Amiel was with our producer Max Freedman when he visited Rashash to report "The shepherd and the settler" for the BBC World Service. Listen to the full documentary, then return to this episode to learn ...
Aviv Tatarsky
October 22, 2020 11:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBWe're back with another extended interview from "The shepherd and the settler," produced by the Unsettled team for the BBC World Service. Aviv Tatarsky is a researcher for Ir Amim and one of the founders of Engaged Dharma Israel. Aviv was with our producer Max Freedman when he visited Rashash to report "The shepherd and the settler." Listen to the full documentary to hear Aviv's close encounter with a settler on an ATV, then return to this episode to learn about how Aviv uses meditation to ...
Muhammad Jahaleen
October 15, 2020 10:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBThis is the first in a series of extended interviews from "The shepherd and the settler," produced by the Unsettled team for the BBC World Service. Muhammad Jahaleen is a 30-year-old Bedouin shepherd in the occupied West Bank, living with his family in a remote place called Rashash. Listen to "The shepherd and the settler," then return to this episode for more of Muhammad's story and more details about his life under threat from the settlement next door. Unsettled is produced by Asaf Calde...
The shepherd and the settler
September 23, 2020 10:00 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBUnsettled producer Max Freedman spends the day in Rashash, a small herding community in the West Bank, with a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammad. Muhammad's family has been herding sheep and goats in Rashash for 30 years, and in Palestine for generations. But since Israeli settlers recently moved in nearby, it has become difficult for Muhammad to graze his flock undisturbed. After watching this conflict in action, Max sets out to understand what he saw in Rashash. "The shepherd and the settle...
Introducing School Colors
September 27, 2019 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MBBedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. But Bed-Stuy is changing. Fifty years ago, schools in Bed-Stuy's District 16 were so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Today, they're half-empty. Why? "School Colors" is a new podcast from Unsettled producer Max Freedman exploring how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Listen to the first episode here, then find "School Colors" in your podcas...
Introducing "School Colors"
September 27, 2019 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MBBedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. But Bed-Stuy is changing. Fifty years ago, schools in Bed-Stuy's District 16 were so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Today, they're half-empty. Why? "School Colors" is a new podcast from Unsettled producer Max Freedman exploring how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Listen to the first episode here, then find "School Colors" in your podcas...
Energy (Gaza, ep. 4)
April 01, 2019 11:00 - 34 minutes - 46.8 MBIsrael’s blockade of the Gaza Strip shapes people’s lives in many different ways. In this episode, we focus on the chronic energy shortage. Because energy is needed for much more than turning on the lights; water, sewage, and hospitals, schools, farms, and factories — they all depend on a steady supply of electricity. First, producer Max Freedman speaks with Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, to learn why Gaza’s energy infrastructure can only meet about half of the demand. Then, the s...
Hamas (Gaza, ep. 3)
February 25, 2019 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBToo many conversations about Gaza begin and end with one word: Hamas. And conversations about Hamas too often rely on reductive talking points. In this episode, producer Max Freedman speaks with Tareq Baconi, author of the new book Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. They discuss the origins of Hamas, its position in the Palestinian political landscape, and its governance of the Gaza Strip. This episode was produced and edited by Max Freedman. Fact-checkin...
Refugees (Gaza, ep. 2)
February 04, 2019 12:00 - 36 minutes - 33.9 MBHilmi Hammad was 18 years old in 1948 when Israeli forces entered his village. He became one of about 200,000 Palestinian refugees who ended up in the Gaza Strip at the end of the 1948 war. The site where Hilmi's village once stood is located today in the center of Israel, and though Hilmi has spent his life in Gaza, his home is still in that village, to which he hopes to return. In the second episode of Gaza, a series from Unsettled, we hear from Hilmi and his son Isam. Isam was born in Ga...
The Great March (Gaza, ep. 1)
January 14, 2019 12:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBAmerican and Israeli politicians, religious leaders, and dignitaries met in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018 to mark the United States moving its embassy there. While they celebrated with songs about peace, thousands of Palestinians assembled at the fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip for the Great March of Return. This mass demonstration was originally planned to last six weeks, but has continued to this day. How did it all begin, and who are the protestors that continue to risk their ...
Trailer: Gaza, a series from Unsettled
December 20, 2018 12:00 - 3 minutes - 3.18 MBIn January, Unsettled is launching a series about the Gaza Strip. As Gaza has kept coming up in the news this past year, you’ve probably had questions - and so have we. Why did thousands of people risk so much to take part in the Great March of Return? Why does a majority of the population identify as refugees, even many who were born in Gaza? How are Gazans innovating in order to survive? How can art be used to upend conventional narratives about Gaza and its people? These are just a few ...
Ita Segev
October 15, 2018 07:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MB> I feel like in some ways, for the first time in my life, I’m standing on my own two feet. Because I know the truth about where I’m from. A few years ago, you would have found Ita Segev in the Israeli army, training to patrol the West Bank. Today, Ita is a transfeminine performance artist and anti-Zionist activist in New York City. In this episode, Ita tells her story: how gender and Zionism shaped her early years, and how learning the truth about her home created space to understand and e...
The Nation-State Law (with Amjad Iraqi)
July 24, 2018 12:04 - 21 minutes - 20.2 MBThe Nation-State Law is actually affirming a lot of the practices that were in place for decades. In many ways, it’s nothing particularly new, and the right wing is just making it more explicit. The center-left wants to keep it delicate enough so that you maintain that democratic image. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, these two debates are unacceptable. We’re not looking for an overt system that legitimizes our inequality, and we’re not looking for a delicate system either that sti...
Child Detention
June 13, 2018 11:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBIf every time a child does something we detain them, we destroy their future, we make them basically dreamless young men. This is how Palestinian children who go through the system become. — Yazan Meqbil On December 19, 2017 Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was arrested after slapping an Israeli soldier on her family's property. She was taken from her home in the middle of the night, interrogated without an adult present, and eventually signed a plea deal and was sentenced to eigh...
Nakba Day (with Ahmed Mansour)
May 14, 2018 12:00 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBFor the last three weeks, my Nakba was losing my best friends, covering the march with their press-marked vest. Every week, every day I have like personal Nakba, and this is the case with every Palestinian. With every Palestinian around the world, they have their own Nakba. — Ahmed Mansour Every year, when Israelis and many American Jews celebrate the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinians remember their people’s expulsion, or what they refer to as the "Nakba," the Arabic w...
The 7th Annual AbuRakia-Einhorn Palestinian Freedom Seder
March 30, 2018 10:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBI think it’s a wasted opportunity to only talk about Exodus every year, and our own story of liberation. Because if we’ve been lucky enough to get this free, we owe it to everyone else, we owe it to look back while we’re standing in the Red Sea and make sure everyone is behind us. — Becca AbuRakia-Einhorn This Passover, we talk with Becca and Waseem AbuRakia-Einhorn about their annual tradition: the Palestinian Freedom Seder. In this seder, everything from the Haggadah to the food...
African Refugees in Israel
February 16, 2018 11:30 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBIsrael is now turning 70, and for 70 years we’ve brought in millions of Jewish refugees from all over the world. And now, for the first time in 2000 years that we have some kind of Jewish sovereignty and we have a political body that is able to protect others, we have non-Jews seeking asylum in the Jewish state. If Israel sends off my Eritrean and Sudanese friends to Africa...if I haven’t done everything in my power as a human being and as a Jew to stop it, I don’t know if I’ll be able...
Episode 6 Preview (plus Campaign Update)
February 06, 2018 13:00 - 3 minutes - 3.69 MBWith your help, from online donations and our fundraising party, we made $3,233: more than a thousand dollars more than our goal! We’re humbled by your support, and more committed than ever to continuing this work and growing the audience for it. We’ll be back next week with a full episode, about African asylum-seekers in Israel -- tens of thousands of whom are at risk of being deported. Here’s a preview of our interview with Sudanese refugee and activist Mutasim Ali.
Listener Stories: Arielle Rivera Korman
January 29, 2018 11:00 - 5 minutes - 4.91 MBExciting news: if you’re in the New York City area, Unsettled is throwing a party -- this weekend! You can help support the podcast, and meet other Unsettled listeners, by joining us for #GetUnsettled this Saturday, February 3rd, at Starr Bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Tickets are just $5 in advance or at the door. We’ll have Unsettled merch, including stickers and t-shirts, and there will be a raffle with amazing prizes: a signed copy of Dov Waxman’s book, Trouble in the Tribe; the new album b...
Listener Stories: Rivka M.
January 22, 2018 12:00 - 7 minutes - 7.18 MBWe are so thankful and excited to announce that over the past two weeks, we have made it just over halfway to our fundraising goal! No matter the amount, each donation will help us continue this work. If you've learned something new from listening to Unsettled, if your views have been challenged, if you want to hear more, or all of the above -- please visit gofundme.com/unsettledpodcast and donate $18, or whatever makes sense for you. This week's featured story comes from our list...
Listener Stories: Rivka M.
January 22, 2018 12:00 - 7 minutes - 7.18 MBWe are so thankful and excited to announce that over the past two weeks, we have made it just over halfway to our fundraising goal! No matter the amount, each donation will help us continue this work. If you've learned something new from listening to Unsettled, if your views have been challenged, if you want to hear more, or all of the above -- please visit gofundme.com/unsettledpodcast and donate $18, or whatever makes sense for you. This week's featured story comes from our listener Rivk...
Listener Stories: Toby Irving
January 16, 2018 12:00 - 5 minutes - 4.92 MBWe're back with another listener story, part of our January fundraising campaign to support the future of Unsettled. In just the first week, we've raised over 700 dollars! Thanks to you, we're on our way to reaching our goal of $2018 in the first month of 2018. In this episode, Unsettled listener Toby Irving explains what brings her to a critical conversation about Israel-Palestine. If you think it's important to create a space for this conversation, please visit our fundraising campaign a...
Listener Stories: Becca Litt
January 08, 2018 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.63 MBWe're launching our first-ever fundraising campaign for Unsettled! Donate now to help us raise $2018 in the first month of 2018. These funds will support our operations and growth, including: keeping our website running, editing software, recording equipment, and access to a sound studio. To accompany this campaign, each week in the month of January we’ll release a personal story submitted by one of our listeners. We asked you: Why are you here? How did you get engaged in this conversation...
Bonus: Dan Fishback
December 29, 2017 12:00 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBI believe in the liberation of the people of Palestine, and I believe in the liberation of the Jewish people. And those things are not just not mutually exclusive, they require each other. — Dan Fishback This is a bonus episode featuring extra content from our December 4th episode on Cultural Resistance. Playwright and musician Dan Fishback explains the difference between boycott and censorship, why he uses the word "apartheid" to describe Israel-Palestine, and why he wants to sta...
Jerusalem: Leena Dallasheh
December 22, 2017 14:00 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBSo if you want to really learn what Jerusalem is and what happens here, come here and go to both sides. Come here and talk to Palestinians. — Leena Dallasheh This is the sixth installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this episode, Unsettled producer Emily Bell interviewed Leena Dallasheh, assistant professor of history at Humboldt State University. They spoke about what East Jerusalem is l...
Jerusalem: Rabbi Steven Wernick
December 14, 2017 12:00 - 18 minutes - 17 MBWhen nobody’s happy, you know you did the right thing. Especially if you’re a centrist. — Rabbi Steven Wernick This is the fifth installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision on December 6 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this episode, Unsettled producer Ilana Levinson spoke to Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which serves and represents Conservative congregations across North America....
Jerusalem: Dov Waxman
December 11, 2017 12:00 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBI think most American Jews are probably not aware of the simple fact that when they think of visiting the Western Wall, for example, they think of entering the Old City, they’re actually entering what is officially, according to international law, East Jerusalem. And therefore, according to international law, occupied territory. — Dov Waxman This is the fourth installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as the ...
Jerusalem: #StopTheMove
December 10, 2017 13:00 - 7 minutes - 6.51 MBI am a proud American Jew. I’ve been part of this community my entire life. I went to Jewish day schools for 13 years. I cannot stand what the occupation is doing to my community, and I’m not willing to put up with it anymore. And my community needs to make a choice. — Eliana Fishman This is the third installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision this week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this episode, Unsettled producer Max ...
Jerusalem: Rani Al-Hindi
December 08, 2017 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.61 MBToday, it’s a new event. Part of the same pattern. But we will still resist, as we have always resisted. And this declaration means nothing to us, just as all the other declarations and all the other events meant nothing to us. — Rani Al-Hindi This is the second installment of a special miniseries responding to the U.S. President's decision this week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this episode, Unsettled producer Yoshi Fields attended a Palestinian-led prote...
Jerusalem: Shira Robinson
December 07, 2017 12:00 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBWhat is new is that Trump is putting people on notice...that he’s happy to flout international conventions, and he is no longer concerned with continuing this charade of U.S. support for some kind of political negotiation to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. — Shira Robinson On Wednesday, December 6th, the President of the United States formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel -- breaking with more than sixty years of official U.S. policy. Why did this happen? Wha...
Cultural Resistance
December 04, 2017 09:54 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBCulture is the only human practice that can actually dig into the root of a trauma and try to undo it in the first place. And this is why people are so afraid of culture, and in particular theatre. ‘Cause when there’s a human being in front of you having an experience, it’s very difficult to ignore them. It’s hard to ignore a play. — Dan Fishback Dan Fishback and Motaz Malhees both made waves in the New York theater scene this fall with plays about Palestine. Motaz performed with ...
Sulaiman Khatib
November 06, 2017 12:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBSulaiman Khatib is a co-founder and the current Managing Director of Combatants for Peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian nonviolent movement to end the occupation of the West Bank. In this interview, Souli explains how he began to see Israelis as potential partners, rather than the enemy. He talks about the value of ex-combatants in the struggle to end the occupation, and addresses some of the the criticism that his organization has received from other activist groups. This episode of Unset...
Sarah Brammer-Shlay
October 09, 2017 10:16 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBSarah Brammer-Shlay is a first-year rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and a founding member of IfNotNow. In this interview, Sarah explains how she went from feeling like a "bad Jew" for thinking critically about Israel, to directly confronting the violence of the occupation. As a radical rabbi-to-be, she reflects on the High Holidays, and shares her vision for the Jewish community she hopes to lead. This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Emily ...
Rachel Roberts
September 08, 2017 11:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBRachel Roberts is a DC-based attorney who has been a Jewish activist for Palestinian rights since 2003. She recently worked with the Education Team from IfNotNow DC to pilot a curriculum called "Occupation 101." In this interview, she talks about her own journey from "Israel, right-or-wrong" to Palestinian solidarity work, then explains some of the history and everyday realities of the West Bank under Israeli occupation. This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Max Freedman. Original music b...
The Story of Sumud
August 04, 2017 10:51 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBFor our first episode, we interviewed three American Jewish activists who recently traveled to the South Hebron Hills to help build the Sumud Freedom Camp. Established by a coalition of Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews from the diaspora, Sumud is an island of resistance, reconstruction, and solidarity within one of the most brutally controlled areas of the West Bank. This episode is hosted by Ilana Levinson and features Tom Corcoran, Naomi Dann, and Jeremy Swack. Edited by Yoshi Fields and...
Teaser
June 28, 2017 17:47 - 1 minute - 1.32 MBTRANSCRIPT: MAX: Welcome to Unsettled, a new podcast featuring news and views on Israel-Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. We are here to provide a space for the difficult conversations and diverse viewpoints that are all too rare in institutional American Jewish communities. ASAF: My name is Asaf. EMILY: I'm Emily. ILANA: My name is Ilana. MAX: And I'm Max. ASAF: Make sure to check out our first episode, interviewing Jewish activists who helped in May to build a Palestinian resistance...