Episode 048 - Erasure with Nerdeen Kiswani

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the New York-based revolutionary activist and organizer Nerdeen Kiswani. Nerdeen is a 3L at the CUNY School of Law where she is the head of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She's the chair of Within Our Lifetime a Palestinian-led community hub that organizes Palestinians in the diaspora whose goal is to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of the Palestinian community abroad in pursuit of a free homeland. Her account @wolpalestine and @thepalestinepod were deleted off Instagram without warning or explanation. We discuss the efforts we underwent to get our accounts back, censorship, and the erasure of all Indigenous peoples in the world and on the internet.

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

Books/Videos

• Ep. 10 - Decolonizing Native America & Palestine with Dr. Steve Salaita (Palestine Pod)

• Ep. 42 - The Tantura Massacre (Palestine Pod) 

Articles/Websites

• Within Our Lifetime

• WOL’s Instagram post removed on Women’s Day

• Palestine Legal

• Handmade Palestine

• Palestinian Youth Movement

• Israel killed up to 192 Palestinian civilians in May 2021 attacks on Gaza (The Intercept)

• Social media giants repress Palestinian content (Electronic Intifada)

• Palestinian prisoner, Hisham Abu Hawash, infected with COVID-19 while in Israeli hospital (Middle East Monitor)

• Israel/Palestine: Facebook Censors Discussion of Rights Issues (Human Rights Watch)

• TikTok Hires Israeli Lobbyist After Israeli-Palestinian Violence Goes Viral (Haaretz)

• Facebook temporarily allows posts on Ukraine war calling for violence against “Russian invaders” (CNN)

• Israel pulls the plug on its anti-BDS app — “a failure from the start” (Mondoweiss)

• CUNY School of Law, Statement on Palestinian Activism (CUNY)

• We’ve Got Some Complicated Feelings About Birthright (Hey Alma) referring to Jewish and Israeli experiences with sexualization of soldiers on Birthright

• As Israel avoids sanctioning oligarchs, 14 private jets arrive from Russia — report (Times of Israel)

• Russia-Ukraine war: “Bennett wants us to surrender,” says senior Kyiv official (Middle East Eye)

• Tensions Rise Between Ukraine & Israel After Zelensky Reportedly Told “Surrender” (ZeroHedge)

• Putin is using Bennett as a mediator for surrender, not peace - opinion (Jerusalem Post)

• Ukraine trusts in Israeli mediation, denies Bennett advised caving to Russia (Reuters)

• Jewish and non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees arrive to different treatment in Israel (NPR)

• Social media erasure hits creators on Instagram advocating for Palestine (Al Dia)

• Biden a veteran friend of Israel, settlement critic, may be at odds over Iran (Times of Israel)

• Historian on King David Hotel Bombing: “It Was an Act of Terror” (Haaretz)

• Jewish Defense League (Southern Poverty Law Center)

• 22 Years of Unbreakable Palestinian Resistance in Ramadan (Muslim Matters)

• Palestinians vow to defend graves in Jerusalem cemetery (Al Jazeera)

• Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs (Haaretz)

• Israel can no longer bury the Tantura massacre (Middle East Eye)

• Minister of the Interior of Israel Ayelet Shaked (Twitter)

• Palestinians in Gaza call for right of return on Land Day (Al Jazeera)

• Planned protests force cancellation of JNF and Friends of the IDF fundraiser in Scotland (BDS)

• Israel’s plan to wipe Arabic names off the map (Electronic Intifada)