Lara and Michael have the pleasure of interviewing renowned journalist Jamal Elshayyal this week. Jamal began his field experience aboard the Mavi Marmara as part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The first time he witnessed someone being killed in front of him. Jamal also highlights his colleague Shireen Abu Akleh’s career and her murder by Israeli forces, which still demands an investigation. He touches on the murder of a number of journalists, Ghufran Harun Warasneh being one of them. Many names have not received as much attention despite the ongoing targeting of journalists attempting to cover the Palestinian right to resistance.

Jamal also speaks of the BDS movement, specifically companies like General Mills and Ben & Jerry’s who have divested. Finally, he touches on what it was like to cover the news of the Arab Spring and Muammar Gaddafi’s death.

This week Lara and Michael sit down with human rights attorney, American activist, university professor, and legal scholar Dr. Noura Erakat. Dr. Erakat discusses the legal structure of Palestine from the Balfour Declaration to the Oslo Accords through ongoing UN claims and treaties. She touches on the four types of international law as defined by the International Court of Justice; 1) international conventions, 2) international custom, 3) the general principles of law, & 4) judicial decisions. Dr. Erakat frames the Palestinian resistance movement through the lens of legal precedents and examines ways in which the international court has failed to guarantee Palestinians basic human rights.