The groundbreaking ICJ case proposed by South Africa against Israel has just closed, and Lara and Michael (mostly Lara) break down what it means. It’s important to remember that South Africa didn’t call for a ceasefire, as this is not legal terminology. All six counts brought against Israel were ruled in South Africa’s favor; these are 1) Israel must take all measures within it’s power to stop murdering & harming Palestinians and preventing their birth, 2) Israel must ensure that it’s military follow all measures from point 1, 3) Israel must prevent and punish all genocidal intent, 4) Israel shall ensure humanitarian aid to Gaza, 5) Israel must not destroy evidence related to these allegations, and 6) Israel must report back to the court in one month’s time. Lara does an excellent job of summarizing the court’s findings, and highlighting the myriad wins that stem from this case. This is among the first legal decisions to attempt to hold Israel accountable for their actions. Michael and Lara speak about how legislation + activism + boycotting as a unified force is the only way to ensure the Palestinian right of return and the end of apartheid and violence against Palestinians.

Lara and Michael are honored to welcome Plestia this week. 22-year old Plestia reported from Gaza from October 7th until recently, having spent over 100 days capturing the violence against Palestinians. She talks about what life was like in Gaza before October 7th, reminiscing about her favorite restaurants, cafés, and shopping areas. She gets candid about the bleak conversations she would have on a daily basis with her co-journalists, and she touches on survival guilt and how difficult it became to not pit one tragedy against another. Plestia is now safely in Australia but still involved in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and actively calling for a ceasefire.

This week, Lara and Michael have the pleasure of speaking with Chris Smalls, the President of the Amazon Labor Union. Chris highlights the need to organize for social change. Michael speaks about the Histadrut, a 1920’s labor union created to ban Palestinian workers from equal access to jobs. The pod discusses the overlaps in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and that of workers from Google, Amazon, and Starbucks, and the importance of community and solidarity. Chris touches on the AFL-CIO and talks about his experience creating his own union. This week’s episode is a call to action for all employees, regardless of your sector.

Immortal Technique shares his wealth of knowledge today. The Peruvian-born rapper & activist talks about the lessons he learned growing up, when and why he became active in the Palestinian fight for freedom, how the US used the aftermath of 9/11 to start a war in Afghanistan, and how Christian Zionists are funding much of the occupation’s actions.

Michael kicks this week off by speaking about how Zionism has coopted Jewish traditions, garb, & symbols while operating from a place of hate following the recent branding of the Star of David onto a Palestinian man’s face. Lara points out how repressive state violence is shared between the US and Israel. The team jokes about the Israeli Arab boyband that Lara describes as a ‘shell company for a band’ as they don’t have any music. Coming back to the news, Michael celebrates a recent article citing settlers running each other over with cars, rather than Palestinians. However, Lara cites a recent statistic; there have been 591 fatal settler attacks compared to just 25 by Jewish Israelis in a short period of time, highlighting the extreme violence of the settler mindset. Israel has recently seen democracy protests, proving that even among them, there is a growing divide and dissatisfaction with their government.

Michael and Lara talk in depth about zionist propaganda in mainstream media, and how brainwashing and specific victim branding is built into their messaging. Looking at a recent attach in Jenin, the two point out how the West Bank has been occupied since 1967, and how an occupying power cannot claim self-defense against the entity they’re occupying. They then turn to US propaganda, and look at how Aipac controls congress person messaging. Jenin is threatened with ‘Gazafication’, which translates to the increased Israeli policing, drone bombs, and security checkpoints. In the news, Gaza was bombed, but the coverage of it was overlooked. The occupation continues to claim that drones are targeting Hamas when civilian refugees pay the price. Netanyahu promised that the raids will not stop, lending to his genocidal intents. Finally, Lara addresses the murder of 17-year old Nahel in the suburbs of Paris, and how his death has stoked the flame of colonial oppression everywhere in the world. France, like other colonial entities, continues to collect taxes from the countries it once colonized. Most famously, it took Haiti more than a century to pay France reparation debts, greatly contributing to its economic woes.

Lara shares personal stories from her extended Palestinian family reunion. Her family members have been in exile from Palestine for multiple generations, yet many still have the land deeds to their plots in Gaza dating back hundreds of years. She speaks to the generations of resistance by Palestinians, going all the way back to Alexander the Great. She also shares her experience being rejected from entering Gaza at the border. Michael shares updates from the resistance in Jenin, and he and Lara reflect, once again, on the lack of western media coverage after a Palestinian man was murdered by a Zionist pogrom. Many of the battles happening in occupied Palestine are between American Israeli’s and American Palestinians. Lara shares that 40% of all West Bank settlers in 2021 are from the US, and how Israel’s nuclear and military power against Palestine resembles that of the US. Michael speaks to the history of zionist militias attempting to recruit nazis, zionist literature calling for a ‘unifying race’ in Israeli, and the Haavara negotiations of 1933 between nazi Germany and zionist German Jews.

Michael and Lara break down the newly released ‘US National Strategy to Counteract Antisemitism’ and find, unsurprisingly, that it’s rooted in support for the state of ‘Israel’ and received little to no coverage by the western media. Furthermore, 50 organizations across the US have been found to be involved in fundraising for illegal Israeli settlements, and much of this ‘fundraising’ masquerades as charitable activity. A recent law that was proposed in New York to prohibit charitable organization from funding illegal settlements was met with backlash from the Israeli lobby, despite this being agains the Geneva Convention. Money laundering is just another way that the state of ‘Israel’ uses and controls the US, who in turn shell out 4 billion dollars to them each year. Michael goes on to expose the IOF officers caught at a shooting range, naked. This shines more light on the relationship between weapons, sexual violence, and destruction that sits at the root of zionist logic. Sexual violence has been used as a tactic to eradicate Palestinians, and the sexualization of IOF members has been used to attract American spouses for IOF soldiers. Despite the open calls for genocide by the IOF and its supporters, pro-Palestinian support is still classified as antisemitic, and the US media and government are still controlled by the Israeli lobby.