The Gaza Catastrophe: What Next for Israel & Palestine?

Send us a textThis prescient conversation with Richard Falk, international law expert and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Occupied Palestine, anticipates the catastrophe that has been unfolding in Gaza for the past 18 months. In an interview recorded January of 2023, Falk discusses the significance of Israel’s 2018 nation-state law and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that Israel possesses exclusive right to all of the Land of Israel. Brazenly defying international law, the assertion repudiates the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian struggle that has been promoted by the international community for decades. Professor Falk says Netanyahu’s claim on behalf of Israel to all of historic Palestine, including the West Bank, represents the final chapter in the Zionist enterprise. Like successful settler-colonial projects in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, it will entail the elimination or complete marginalization of the indigenous population. Falk paints a somber scenario of what it is likely to mean for the Palestinians unless civil society mobilizes to defend them. 

Send us a textPollster and Middle East scholar James Zogby discusses his recent column on the Drobles plan for Palestine, which he says Israel is advancing in Gaza and the West Bank despite or perhaps aided by its recent attack on Iran. Founder and president of the Arab-American Institute and managing director of Zogby Research Services, Dr. Zogby has written a weekly column on American politics for Arab newspapers for more than 30 years.  He speaks to Margot Patterson about the goal of ethnic cleansing that undergirds Israel and the United States' new aid mission in Gaza (the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation), Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran, the international community's weak response to it and to Israel's brutal war on Gaza,  and the U.N. conference on Palestine scheduled for June 17-20, which has now been cancelled. 

Send us a text Since it's founding in 1996, Jewish Voice for Peace has advocated for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation, apartheid and war. In early May, JVP held its first national meeting since 2017.  Some 2,000 members attended the national meeting in Baltimore, which JVP said was the largest gathering of anti-Zionist Jews in history. The convention drew well-known figures including Angela Davis, writer Naomi Klein, Congressman Rashida Tlaib, journalist Amy Goodman and others to discuss and organize how  to end U.S. support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza in the face of increasing government repression.  This episode airs some of  the speeches from that meeting. It  includes remarks by Stephanie Fox, executive director of JVP, and Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a board-certified  emergency medicine physician  at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago who has provided emergency care to wounded patients in Gaza. 

Send us a textHow have humanitarian organizations managed to deliver life-saving aid to millions of Gazans despite the dangerous and difficult conditions since Oct 7? Despite their success, why have the US and Israel set up an alternative mechanism for distributing aid under the auspices of the secretive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)? What principles guide the field of humanitarian relief, and how does the existing UN-backed mechanism compare with the practices of the GHF? Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America, joined the show this week to answer some of these questions and call on the world to allow her colleagues to do what they do best: deliver life-saving food, water, and aid to the people of Gaza as the UN announces that the entire population of the enclave is now at risk of famine.

Send us a textUniversity administrators have imposed an unprecedented array of repressive measures designed to squelch student protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Faculty have been affected as well, with many losing their jobs for advocating for Palestine. Margot Patterson talks to NYU Professor Andrew Ross, the secretary of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, a national network of 130 campus chapters supporting student protesters and academic freedom, and Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), about the repression of dissent on campuses, the weaponization of antisemitism and the new McCarthyism. They say what's involved is not just pro-Palestine speech but an effort to destroy American universities. | 

Send us a text Zeiad Abbas Shamroukh, Executive Director of the Middle East Childrens Alliance joins the show to talk about the conditions people in Gaza are facing, as Israel's total blockade on food, water, and medical supplies enters its third month and international groups warn of starvation and famine setting in. 

Send us a textIsrael is calling up thousands of reservists to escalate its war on Gaza. Its vow to conquer the entirety of the Gaza Strip, rescue the hostages and eradicate Hamas comes after 19 months of a brutal assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians but has not dislodged Hamas. Khaled Elgindy discusses how a far-right ideologically driven government and a prime minister desperate to stay out of jail are prompting Israel to declare new war aims that include holding territory in the Gaza Strip indefinitely and forcing the Palestinian population into a small area in the south. The war plan approved May 4 by the Israeli cabinet comes as Israel maintains a total blockade on food, water, fuel  and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip imposed March 2. Middle East analyst Khaled Elgindy is the author of Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump. He teaches at Georgetown University, is a frequent commentator on the Middle East for the BBC, Al Jazeera and other news outlets and is the former  director of the program on Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the Middle East Institute.

Send us a textMiddle East analyst Khaled Elgindy discusses Israel's continuing bombardment and total blockade on food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, the U.S. role in the ongoing devastation there,  and what lies ahead for Palestinians and Israelis when Israel finally ceases its onslaught. Elgindy is the former director of the Middle East Institute's program on Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and the author of "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump." 

Send us a textThis week we are rebroadcasting an interview we aired on June 28, 2024 by my co-host Margot Patterson. She interviewed journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha, assistant manager of We Are Not Numbers, a non-profit in Gaza that pairs young Palestinian writers with professional journalists to help them tell their stories to an English-speaking audience. Mahmoud had left Gaza for Egypt just a month before the interview, in which he describes the harrowing conditions he and his family faced in Gaza. The conditions that Mahmoud describes have only intensified since his interview in June 2024. On March 2, Israel resumed its blockade of humanitarian supplies and on March 18 the ceasefire collapsed after Israel bombed Gaza, killing 400 people in one day. On April 3, Mahmoud published an article for 972 Mag entitled “In Gaza’s devastated hospitals, treatable patients face ‘slow, quiet death.’ In the piece, he describes the well-documented massacre of Red Crescent paramedics on March 23 and the almost complete collapse of Gaza’s medical system.

Send us a textIn a talk given on Thursday, April 10 at the First Presbyterian Church in Hartford, Issa Amro reflects on the challenges he and Palestinians have faced in nonviolently resisting Israel's ethnic cleansing in and around Hebron following Oct. 7. Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights activist who has dedicated his life to peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation in the West Bank city of Hebron. Together with the activist group he founded, Youth Against Settlements (YAS), he has become a leading voice in the non-violent movement, striving to create a future where Palestinians live freely and with dignity.