Episode 045 - Overthrow Abbas with Diana Buttu

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Diana Buttu, a fierce human rights lawyer, former PLO negotiator, Palestinian citizen of Israel and political analyst at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Diana offers her views on the Amnesty International Report and on current events on the ground in the aftermath of the May 2021 uprising. She tells the Palestine Pod the story of how her father’s family was ethnically cleansed from his village near Nazareth. Lara and Diana analyze Israel's absurd relationship to the law, and Michael asks Diana what we can learn from the South African anti-Apartheid struggle. Diana also shares behind the scenes stories from her time negotiating for the PLO.

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

• Diana Buttu (Twitter)

• Diana Buttu (IMEU profile)

Books/Videos

• “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” (President Jimmy Carter)

• Far right MK Itamar Ben Gvir fainted while clashing with police officers (video)

• “Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color” (Michael Fischbach)

Articles

• Defying Fragmentation and the Significance of Unity: A New Palestinian Uprising (Al-Shabaka)

• Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity (Amnesty International)

• World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (United Nations)

• The Racism Walkout: The overview; U.S. and Israelis quit racism talks over denunciation (New York Times)

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

• Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (Human Rights Watch) 

• Fascist Israeli lawmaker, settlers break into Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (WAFA News Agency)

• Israeli Authorities Forcefully Evict Salhia Family, Demolish Home in Jerusalem (Palestine Chronicle)

• Attempted Lynching and Smashed Stores as Jewish-Arab Clashes Spread Across Israel (Haaretz)

• Mass arrests and detention amidst the escalation of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people (Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association)

• Administrative Detention (B’Tselem)

• Israeli Police Round Up Palestinian Protesters Out of Global Spotlight (The Intercept)

• No One Actually Knows Where Israel Ends and the Palestinian Territories Begin (Haaretz)

• TikTok… Boom! Israeli army's social media has “big smiles” and soldiers doing yoga. (Haaretz)

• The Checkpoint (The Atlantic). The Oslo Accords, in 1993, and Oslo 2, in 1995, granted Palestinians the right to govern their own cities, but gave Israel control over the main roads in the territories. Thus checkpoints, which once were few and temporary, became numerous and permanent. 

• U.S. Representative Ro Khanna calling for fewer checkpoints (Twitter)

• American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead (ABC News)

• Israeli Officer Sentenced to Community Service in Beating of Palestinian-American (New York Times)

• Yair Lapid: Extremist Violence Is a “Stain on Israel” (The Atlantic)

• Palestinian olive season begins with settler attacks, arson (Al-Monitor)

• Sheikh Jarrah: Far-right Israeli lawmaker Ben-Gvir refuses to leave makeshift office (Middle East Eye)

• Itamar Ben Gvir dragged off Knesset podium for calling Arab chair “terrorist” (Times of Israel)

• Fact Sheet: Meir Kahane & The Extremist Kahanist Movement (Institute for Middle East Understanding)

• Israel elections: Itamar Ben Gvir, the Jewish supremacist on the rise (Middle East Eye)

• What The Conflict With Israel Looks Like To 2 Palestinians (NPR Interview with Diana Buttu) “Israel came to us. We didn’t come to Israel.” - Diana Buttu

• Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (Institute for Middle East Understanding)

• Israel takes Palestinian FM's VIP pass over ICC meeting, Palestinians say (Reuters)

• Land Day 2017: Israel’s relentless land grab continues (Al Jazeera)

• Israel's Jewish Nation-State Law (Adalah)

• Israeli Supreme Court upholds “Admissions Committees Law” that allows Israeli Jewish communities to exclude Palestinian Arab citizens (Adalah)

• No matter how many Palestinians vote in Israeli elections, we still can’t win (Washington Post)

• The Discriminatory Laws Database (Adalah)

• What is the PLO by Rashid Hamid (Journal of Palestine Studies)

• United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (1975) (Economic Cooperation Foundation) In 1991, the UN General Assembly rescinded their 1975 resolution that declared Zionism to be racism.

• The October Arab-Israeli War of 1973: What happened? (Al Jazeera)

• Palestinian leader delays parliamentary and presidential elections, blaming Israel (Reuters)

• Israel’s new justice minister considers all Palestinians to be the enemy (Washington Post)

• Bennett under fire for comments about killing Arabs (Jerusalem Post)

• Palestinians furious and fed up with corruption of Abbas's “mafia” PA (Middle East Eye)

• Nizar Banat’s death highlights brutality of Palestinian Authority (The Guardian)

• The two sides of Yasser Arafat (Al Jazeera)