Episode 026: They Never Wanted Peace

This week Lara and Michael cover the recent UK Labor party’s passing of a motion recognizing the “ongoing Nakba in Palestine” and declaring Israel an apartheid state, echoing the findings of Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations. It also called for sanctions against Israel’s illegal settlements that usurp Palestinian land as well as a halt to the UK’s sales of arms to Israel. Delegates further demanded an end to Israel’s belligerent occupation of the West Bank and 15-year siege of Gaza, and upheld “the right of Palestinians to return to their homes” - the right of Palestinians to return to the homes they were expelled from by Zionist militias and later Israel since 1948 that is enshrined in international law but increasingly ignored by western states. Lara applauds the passage of this motion by a prominent political party in the UK and hopes that it can serve as an example for US counterparts. Michael reminds us that AOC did cry though after switching her vote to “present” during the vote on funding the Apartheid State’s Iron Dome. Lara and Michael also discuss the Israeli occupation army’s killing of 5 young Palestinians in Occupied Jenin and Jerusalem this week as well as the anniversary of the Second Intifada and what it meant to Palestinians in exile. Lara breaks down some of the news from the UN General Assembly including Mahmoud Abbas’ curious ultimatum giving Israel one more entire year (they have already had 54) to withdraw from the occupied territories failing which the PA would revoke its recognition of Israel. Michael reminds us that attacking 3 year old children and maiming a farmer’s goats on his land are - despite what the Zionists suggest - not part of Judaism.

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

Books/Videos:

1. Episode 015: Royal House of Mandela Stands with Palestine Pod

2. Israel’s First Lady of Human Rights: A Conversation with Shulamit Aloni (Democracy Now)

3. Michael's video on Yaakov Sharett

Articles:

1. Labour conference votes to back sanctions against Israel over 'crime of apartheid' (Middle East Eye)

2. Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (Institute for Middle East Understanding

3. Israel/OPT: 10 things you need to know about “annexation” (Amnesty International)

4. A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid (B'Tselem 2021 report)

5. Call for End to Israel’s Impunity in occupied Palestinian Territories (United Nations)

6. Ocasio-Cortez apologizes for her ‘present’ vote on Iron Dome funding. (New York Times)

7. Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, respecting an investigation of the Situation in Palestine (International Criminal Court)

8. Israeli police targeted Palestinians with discriminatory arrests, torture, and unlawful force (Amnesty International)

9. Palestinian Intifada: How Israel orchestrated a bloody takeover (Al Jazeera)

10. Behind the lens: Remembering Muhammad al-Durrah, 20 years on (Al Jazeera)

11. Demanding a demilitarized state (Al Jazeera)

12. Bennett: Israel won’t annex territory or establish a Palestinian state on my watch (The Times of Israel)

13. PA: Biden’s commitment to two-state solution good, but insufficient (Jerusalem Post)

14. Israel Captures Last 2 Palestinian Inmates Still Free After Prison Break (The New York Times)

15. Five Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank (Al Jazeera)

16. Scenes from a Jewish pogrom (+972 Mag)

17. Palestinian toddler 'in critical condition after 'unprecedented' Israeli settler attack in Hebron (The New Arab)

18. Israeli diplomat pressured UNC to remove a teacher who criticized Israel (The Intercept)

19. Jewish Voice for Peace on Kylie Broderick (Twitter)

20. At UN, Abbas Gives Israel One-year Ultimatum (Haaretz)

21. Israeli occupation cost Gaza $16.7 billion in the past decade - UNCTAD estimates (United Nations).

22. Column One: Mowing the lawn in Gaza (Jerusalem Post) & Mowing the lawn in Gaza (Foreign Policy in Focus)

23. Gantz: Abbas’s 1967 lines ultimatum ‘will be hard to climb down from’ (Times of Israel)

24. ‘Shocking and horrifying’: Israel destroys AP office in Gaza (Associated Press)

25. Palestinian Bodies Held Hostage by Israel (Foundation for Middle East Peace)