Divesting from Genocide at UCSB with Jwan Haddadd

This week Lara and Michael reconnect with artistic intellectual Amanda Seales to talk about the release of her book What Would the Ancestors Say. We dive into the attempts to cancel Amanda from performing standup, how recommitting to the written word is revolutionary in a time when everything is controlled by crypto-fascist oligarchs, and Amanda calls Lara jolly. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Omar Zahzah the author of the recent book on big tech censorship called, Terms of Servitude Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle. Omar has written for the Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, and other publications. He covered the story of Michael's Instagram being deleted by Jordana Cutler, and is a strong advocate for Palestinian liberation. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Jenin, the Palestine representative of CODEPINK to discuss Francesca Albanese's report "From economy of occupation to economy of genocide." We talk about how Airbnb and other corporations profit from the forced displacement of Palestinians. The company has over 300 listings in illegal settlements in the West Bank and we chat about the upcoming litigation against the company, as well as the campaigns spearheaded by CODEPINK to encourage people to boycott Airbnb. 

This week, Lara and Michael sit down with Abdulrahim Harara, owner of Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland, California. They explore Abdulrahim’s family history in Palestine and his vision for the café as a space for community organizing and connection. The conversation reflects on the importance of building community in the face of state violence designed to isolate and fragment. The episode concludes with Abdulrahim’s account of the incident that led to Jerusalem Coffee House becoming a target of the latest wave of lawfare, involving the DOJ, the ADL, and other Zionist organizations.

This week, Lara and Michael speak with Palestinian-American comedian Sammy Obeid. They discuss the ups and downs of working in comedy as a Palestinian in this current moment and critique how complicit media narratives distort reporting on those killed by Israel as part of the ongoing genocide, for example by making it seem like such individuals died of "natural causes" as opposed to as a result of targeted state violence. Sammy also shares an anecdote involving a stay at Michael’s apartment.

This week Lara and Michael cover Israel's forced starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has reached Stage 5 for many people in the besieged territory, the US sanctions levied against United Nations Special Rapporteur on the oPt, Francesca Albanese, and the odd resignation of all members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the oPt in the days that followed. 

This week Lara and Michael discuss the uprisings in LA and the solidarity seen at the protests. They also cover updates around the groundbreaking lawsuit brought by Palestine Pod alum Damia Taharraoui which seeks to hold Israeli/French citizens accountable for complicity in genocide and incitement to genocide before French courts. 

Lara and Michael sit down separately this week. Lara reads from her submission on the political economy of the Gaza Genocide prepared as part of her work for the Gaza People's Tribunal's Sarajevo session and Michael talks about being digitally disappeared from Instagram by one of Meta's main executives who used to work for the Israeli government as part of an application-wide sweep of several accounts advocating for Palestinian rights. 

This week Lara and Michael cover the Israeli continued forced starvation campaign against the Palestinian people for the last two months which serves as an escalation of its ongoing genocidal campaign. 

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Professor Maura Finkelstein, a formerly tenured professor who was one of the first people targeted in academics after the Al Aqsa Flood. Maura is one of the many Jewish antizionist voices that rejects normalization. We discuss academic repression, the disappearance of students for political affiliations, and the horrors we see coming out of the genocide in Palestine every single day.