This week Lara and Michael sit down with the founder and CEO of Palestinian Hustle, Samer Fidy. Samer shares the journey that led him to start the Palestinian-owned small business that donates a portion of every sale to charities in the United States fighting food insecurity, and NGOs on the ground in Gaza providing clean water. Samer speaks of his desire to teach his children about responsibility and giving back to both local and global communities. Michael jokes about Samer’s affinity for Starbucks and contemplates whether or not one should strike up a conversation with your barista about Palestine. Samer surprises the Palestine Pod with stories of his past career pursuits then shares wild memories from his time living in Palestine. Finally, The Palestine Pod announces a limited apparel drop in collaboration with Palestinian Hustle, available on both our websites.

This week Lara leads us on a deep dive into the legal frameworks that came into place in the aftermath of the Nakba, including the absentee property law, the law of return, and the nationality law. All these legal devices helped codify the actions of ethnic cleansing and land theft by the rogue Zionist militias into the "legal" actions of a state. We also cover the various ways Zionists stopped Palestinians from returning to their native lands. Lara discusses the examples of Iqrit and Kufr Bir'im, both towns where the Supreme Court of Israel had in one case already ruled in favor of Palestinian return, and the other where the case was pending before the court. In both cases, the IOF demolished the villages so as to render the return of Palestinians impossible. Lara talks about the many thousands of Palestinians who did try to return despite these measures who were murdered in cold blood. We discuss how these policies like the Nakba are ongoing and not something rooted in the past. Finally, we switch gears, covering the censorship of Palestinian content on Tik Tok as a strategy passed down from region-specific moderation teams where Israeli moderators set the standards and Arab moderators were kept in subordinate positions.

This week Lara and Michael discuss RIFQA, Mohammed El Kurd’s newly released book of poetry. We reflect on some of the book’s messages like “anger is a luxury we cannot afford.” Indeed, Palestinians are expected to be calm and composed while being ethnically cleansed. We discuss mental health and the toll Palestinian liberation takes on the lives of those who engage in the work. Lara talks about the passages of the book that resonated the most with her, including “I cried not for the house but for the memories I could have made” inside. We imagine what could have been if not for the gangs of Zionist militias who stole Palestine, and expelled and murdered much of the native population. Mohammed El Kurd writes it’s been over “70 years and we have not yet lived a day.” Life and time stand still for Palestinians who are waiting to return to Palestine, waiting for rights, waiting for justice. Finally, we discuss a recent B’Tselem report that connects settler violence to the state policy of stealing Palestinian land. Michael makes the parallel between the extracurricular terrorist activities of the settlers in Palestine and the KKK in the US.

Refuseniks, Decolonize Palestine, Right of Return, Antizionist Jew, Weaponizing Mizrahi Identity to further settler colonialism

Land theft, Nakba, Noura Erakat, Ethnic cleansing, post-Nakba, Law as a colonial weapon

Palestine Action, Direct Action, Elbit Systems, Drones, War Crimes

Blue Wolf, Wolfpack, Facial recognition, Israeli spyware, Pegasus, Academic freedom, UNRWA

Sexual Assault, Rape, Settler Colonialism, Nakba, Ben Gurion, Zionist militias, Israeli occupation army

Palestine on a Plate, Joudie Kalla, Baladi, Nakba survivors, anti-Palestinian media bias, Divide and Conquer

Instagram censorship, Human Rights Watch, UN Security Council, Colin Powell

Gaza, Unity Uprising, Israeli war crimes, Al-Wehda Street Massacre, Al-Shifa Hospital

Jenin, Al-Aqsa Intifada, Palestinian Resistance

UK Labor Party, Ongoing Nakba, Right of Return, Settler Violence, UN General Assembly

Rifk Ebeid, Free Library, Anti-Palestinian racism, Censorship

The Great Escape, political prisoners, Palestinian prison break, Zionist spyware

Palestinian Art, Gaza, Siege, Malak Mattar

Ben & Jerry’s, BDS, ethnic cleansing, Palestine Legal, settlements

This week on the Palestine Pod, we sit down with Hadar Cohen, a Mizrahi feminist multi-media artist, healer and educator originally from Jerusalem with lineage from all over the Middle East including Iran, Iraq, Syria and and Palestine. Hadar is a Jewish mystic with Sephardic roots who works to build decolonial frameworks for worshiping God. Her artistic mediums include performance, movement, writing, weaving, sound and ritual. During the global intifada of unity, Hadar came out as a strong anti-Zionist Jewish voice from on the ground. She speaks to us about her family's presence in Palestine harkening to a time long before Zionism, the power of memory as a liberation tool, and the meaning and importance of decolonizing the mind. Lara quotes Hadar's fierce rebuke of Zionism while imagining a life in Palestine post Zionism. Hadar insists on reclaiming the Arab Jewish identity as something separate and unique from European notions of Judaism in response to Arab Jewish trauma that resulted from the Zionist movement. Michael and Hadar dive deeper into the Zionist weaponization of anti-semitism and Michael reminds us that "nobody does anti-semitism like Zionists do."

This week, the Palestine Pod interviews Lyla June, an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) nations from Taos, New Mexico. Lyla speaks to us about the ill-effects of colonialism in Turtle Island (i.e. the United States) especially on food and ecosystems and Lara draws comparisons to Palestine. Lyla describes what makes a sustainable culture and recalls the sustainability of indigenous culture as well as the suitability of indigenous food to indigenous communities on a personal level. We speak about the importance of Land Back in Turtle Island and the Palestinian right of return and Lyla shares with us her journey to learning about and supporting the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Michael queries how white settlers in Turtle Island can best get involved in a Land Back movement.

Palestinian Authority, PA, political prisoners, Suha Jarrar, Silwan