Part I: The Origins of Zionism

Send us a textIn a 2023 Christmas Eve sermon entitled “Christ Under the Rubble” that drew global attention, the Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem charged the Western church with complicity in genocide in Gaza. Rev. Isaac delivered another sermon - "Christ is Still in the Rubble" - one week ago on December 20, 2024. In light of this, we're reposting our September 2024 interview with David Wildman, executive secretary for human rights and racial justice with the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries, who attended the Christmas Eve 2023 service in Bethlehem. In his role, he serves as a liaison to the United Nations, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He talks with Margot Patterson about the truth of that charge and what Christians are and are not doing to stop atrocities in Palestine.

Send us a textChristians in Bethlehem will mark Christmas this year, but in a subdued and reflective fashion as they pray for an end to the unfolding genocide in Gaza and the intensifying settler attacks in the West Bank. In the face of this, Sami Awad, in his position as Co-Director of Nonviolence International, works to create spaces to heal intergenerational collective trauma and develop leadership, especially youth. We discussed the challenges of doing this in Palestine and Israel and of the nuances of creating a container for the pain of all affected by violence in Palestine while remaining resolute and focused on the necessity of creative nonviolent resistance in the face of Israel's occupation. 

Send us a textThe author of two books on the intersection of gender, politics and religion in the contemporary religious right in Israel-Palestine, Lihi Ben Shitrit discusses Religious Zionism and the role of settler women in feminizing and mainstreaming the Israeli Occupation.  Shitrit is the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University. She is the editor of the recent book "The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas." She talks with Margot Patterson about her books, the ascendency of the right wing in Israel, and the need for thoughtful reflection during a time of war.

Send us a textProfessor Arie Dubnov discusses the development of the Zionist movement during the British Mandate for Palestine. A historian who specializes in the study of Jewish nationalism, he holds the Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University where he serves as director of the university's Middle East program. 

Send us a textDr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is the second half of our conversation. The first half aired the previous week.  

Send us a textDr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is the first half of our conversation. The second half will air the following week.

Send us a text Barry Trachtenberg, the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University, continues his discussion of the origins and early development of Zionism. A minority movement within Judaism until World War II, Zionism faced opposition from many Jews who believed it transgressed religious law and tradition. It was frequently facilitated by Christian Zionists who saw in Jews' return to Palestine after 2,000 years a fulfilment of Christian eschatology and a way of resolving what some saw as Jews' problematic presence in Euopean society.  From its inception, Zionism was a settler-colonial project that reflected European assumptions of cultural superiority.

Send us a textIn the first of a new series called "What Is Zionism?" Professor Barry Trachtenberg talks to Margot Patterson about the origins of Zionism in the late 1800s. By the turn of the 20th century, Jews living in Eastern Europe had experienced two decades of rising anti-Semitism. Some sought to change the conditions of the societies they lived in; others responded to emerging nationalism in Europe by developing ideologies of Jewish nationalism. Unlike other European peoples, however, Jews lacked territory. Those seeking a place where Jews could gather and establish a state eventually fixed on Palestine, where their quest for land and sovreignty almost immediately brought them into conflict with the people living there.  Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University, where he teaches courses on the history of Zionism

Send us a textSwarthmore students have faced unprecedented repression in their Palestine solidarity organizing in the past year, despite using tactics embraced in earlier campus struggles. A recent graduate of Swarthmore involved in campus divestment organizing details the double standard that exists at Swarthmore for Palestine-related speech. Students speaking out against the Gaza genocide, many of them low-income and/or people of color, face an array of administrative charges in an internal justice system that affords them few rights.

Send us a textMichael Lynk, professor of law at the University of Western Ontario and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967, discusses international law, Israel's defiance of it and its recent attack on U.N. peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. He notes that undergirding Western support for Israel is the residue of colonialism and the influence of a powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.