Episode 006: Our Mandela is in Jail Right Now

Lara and Michael provide an update on US policy re: Palestinian rights. While the Biden administration recently announced the lifting of sanctions (finally) on the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor and the renewal of funding to UNRWA, Lara offers a word of caution: the US may have lifted sanctions on the ICC, but its position opposing the ICC investigation has not changed. As to UNRWA, Lara calls on us never to lose sight of the big picture that UNRWA should not even exist because Palestinians should not be refugees to begin with because they should be allowed to return to their homes in Palestine. In light of the recent viral video of Majd Barbar, a Palestinian father and husband from East Jerusalem who was released from Israeli military prison following a 20 year sentence for his role in resisting Israeli colonization, the rest of the episode focuses on political prisoners. Lara and Michael shout out congresswoman Betty McCollum, who, in 2019 co-sponsored a bill to prohibit American tax dollars from being used by the Israeli military to detain, interrogate, abuse or torture Palestinian children. Lara highlights the twisted reality that Israel jails Palestinian men, women, and children for engaging in what would otherwise be protected freedoms in democratic societies, like the freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the right to protest. Michael quotes Rick Ross.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Background/Contextualizing Sources

• IV Geneva Convention_Occupied Territories (UN)

• Convention on the Rights of the Child (OHCHR)

• Fact Sheet_UN Conv Rights of the Child

• A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid (B'Tselem)

• Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: crime against humanity (Amnesty International)

• A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (HRW)

• Israel’s 55-year occupation of Palestinian Territory is Apartheid (OHCHR) 

• Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba ("Catastrophe") (IMEU)

Videos/Social Media References

• The Palestine Pod_Ep. 04 - The Charade (youtube.com)

• Majd Barbar (YouTube)

• Palestinian Majd Barbar has just been released for a second time. Barbar was released (youtube.com)

Articles/References

• USA removes sanctions on ICC officials (Coalition for the International Criminal Court)

• Ending Sanctions and Visa Restrictions against Personnel of the International Criminal Court 

• UNRWA USA Welcomes Biden Administration's Re-engagement 

• Resolution 194 | UNRWA

• US to restore aid to UN Palestinian refugee agency cut by Trump (Al Jazeera)

• Obama’s Final Drone Strike Data (Council on Foreign Relations)

• Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes (thebureauinvestigates.com)

• Majd Barbar released after 20 years in jail, re-arrested by Israel (Middle East Monitor)

• #WeWillNotBeDefeated – Majd Barbar  لن_نهزم# (Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network)

• USA: A life in the balance - the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Amnesty International)

• Bio_Dr. Mutulu Shakur (mutulushakur.com)

• Assata Shakur in Her Own Words: Rare Recording of Activist Named to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists List (Democracy Now!)

• BLA’s Jalil Muntaqim is home after 49 years (New York Amsterdam News)

• Free Breakfast Program, Panther Jerry Dunigan (vmfa.museum)

• Honoring the 44th Anniversary of the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast Program (Movement Generation)

• Close ‘disgraceful’ Guantánamo camp – UN experts urge incoming US administration  (UN News)

• Statistics | Addameer

• General Briefing: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israeli Prisons | Addameer

• Race and ethnicity | Prison Policy Initiative

• Defense for Children Palestine (dci-palestine.org)

• Video shows Israeli troops detaining Palestinian children (Al Jazeera)

• Resources on H.R. 2407, Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act | Congresswoman Betty McCollum (house.gov)

• The Palestinian Arab Revolt, 1936-1939 - PALESTINIAN HISTORY TAPESTRY

• interactive encyclopedia of the palestine question – palquest | great arab revolt, 1936-1939 (palestine-studies.org)

• Roots of Resistance: 25 year retrospective on the first intifada (Mondoweiss)

• Peace activist rabbi attacked by Israeli settler (Al Jazeera)

• Rights activist rabbi beaten in settler attack near illegal West Bank outpost (The Times of Israel)

• Jump Out Boys win appeals after Sheriff's Department firing - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

• Children | Addameer

• The Present (Short 2020) - IMDb

• In Pictures: Israel’s illegal separation wall still divides (Al Jazeera)

• International Court of Justice finds Israeli barrier in Palestinian territory is illegal (UN News)

• Israel’s separation wall endures, 15 years after ICJ ruling (Al Jazeera)

• Palestinian Scholar Noura Erakat: Israeli Forces Killed My Cousin on His Sister’s Wedding Day (Democracy Now!)

• Save the Children | occupied Palestinian territory

• Diaspora pedophiles increasingly use Israel as 'a haven,' activists charge (The Times of Israel)

• Patients in the Gaza Strip unable to obtain Israeli-issued permits to access the healthcare (WHO EMRO)

• Female patients from Gaza and Israel's medical exit permit policy (The Lancet)

• ’54 Palestinians die’ as Israel refuses medical permits (Al Jazeera)

• WHO: Children, Elderly Patients Denied Permits to Leave Gaza for Treatment (Palestine Chronicle)

• World Health Organization_Right to Health Report 2019-2021 (who.int)

• Mapping Israeli occupation (Al Jazeera)

• Israel: A Carceral State | Institute for Palestine Studies (palestine-studies.org)

• Israel: Sixty teens declare refusal to serve in the army | War Resisters' International (wri-irg.org)

• Israeli Teens Challenge Military Conscription: A Closer Look at Conscientious Objectors (trtworld.com)

• Israeli conscientious objector released from military prison (The Times of Israel)

• A Taylor Swift Fan Spent Time In Prison For Refusing To Join The IDF (graziadaily.co.uk)

• G4S sells off Israeli security arm after pressure groups’ protest (London Evening Standard)