Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast

Until recently, Gaza attracted little attention in historical scholarship. This book innovates by examining late Ottoman Gaza’s diverse society, its built environment, and its political dynamics. The introduction sets the stage to better understand the vital contexts impacting the role and status of Gaza as compared to other cities in the Eastern Mediterranean, provides analyses and new resources for the st...

My guest in this episode is Dr Mkhaimar Abusada, He received his PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1996 and is an associate professor at Al-Azhar University of Gaza and the former chair of the university's political science department. He has authored one book, and many academic articles in local and internationally recognized academic journals. He has also written for Project Syndicate, the C...

In this episode I have interviewed Erik Freas that recently has edited a volume published by Routledge looking at Palestinian Christians and the nationalist cause through the late Ottoman and Mandatory periods. 

This book provides an historical overview of Palestine's Christian communities and their role in the Palestinian nationalist movement during the late Ottoman and British mandatory periods. More than ...

Today I had the pleasure to talk to Christopher Burhnham who recently published Sir Ronald Storrs Personality and Policy in Mandate Palestine, 1917-1926 with Routledge. While some may say that we already know enough on Storrs, the reality is that his legacy in Jerusalem is not only fully understood and neglected, but given the lengthy rulership, we still have to uncover more.

It builds upon Edward Said’s wor...

Today it's with great pleasure that I recast and interview that took place on October 2024 between Hawad Halabi and Ilan Pappe, both friends and guests of Jerusalem Unplugged. Ilan Pappe discussed his latest publication Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic.

A special thanks goes to the Friends of Sabeel North American as they allowed me to republish the interview and also the Palestinian Christian&n...

In this first episode of the new year, I had the opportunity and pleasure to talk to Howard Eissenstat who currently is is an Laurentian Associate Professor of Middle East history and History Department Chair at St. Lawrence University and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. With Howard we first looked at the legacy of President Carter in the Middle East and from there we unpack...

There is so much talking about Israel, the war on Gaza, Lebanon and now Syria, but what about Palestinian politics? In this episode I talked to Dana El Kurd a Palestinian political scientist with a deep knowledge and understanding of Palestinian politics. We started our conversation discussing her book published in 2020 Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine, from there we move...

In the first episode of season 6 I have interviewed Maurcio Lapchik, the Director of External Relations at Peace Now (Shalom Akshav), the largest 

and longest-standing Israeli movement advocating for peace through public pressure. While we briefly introduced Peace Now to those who don't know yet 

this organization, we then discussed the current standing of the peace camp in Israel. While the picture is rather...

This is Gaza – a place of humanity and creativity, rich in culture and industry. A place now utterly devastated, its entire population displaced by a seemingly endless onslaught, its heritage destroyed. Daybreak in Gaza is a record of an extraordinary place and people, and of a culture preserved by the people themselves. Vignettes of artists, acrobats, doctors, students, shopkeepers and teachers offer stories of...

In this season 5 finale episode I had the pleasure to interview Oren Kroll-Zeldin, the author of Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine. Unsettled digs into the experiences of young Jewish Americans who engage with the Palestine solidarity movement and challenge the staunch pro-Israel stance of mainstream Jewish American institutions. The book explores how these activists address...

In this very moving and heartwarming interview I had the opportunity to discuss with Fida Jiyris her work, a beautifully written memoir that tells the story of her and her family journey, which is also the story of Palestine, from the Nakba to the present—a seventy-five-year tale of conflict, exodus, occupation, return and search for belonging, seen through the eyes of one writer and her family. Fida reveal...

What is cultural memory? How do settlers use it in East Jerusalem to dispossess Palestinians? In this episode I interview film maker and scholar Yair Agmon. Known for short movies like Once Upon a School (2023), Like a Beating Heart (2022) and Our Heroes (2016), Yair is now working on his PhD at UCLA 'Dwelling on The Past: Memory, Discard, and Dispossession at The City of David National Park,” which explore...

Today the guest of Jerusalem Unplugged is Asaf Elia/Shalev the author of I*srael's Black Panthers* that tells the story of the young and impoverished Moroccan 

Israeli Jews who challenged their country's political status quo and rebelled against the ethnic hierarchy of Israeli life in the 1970s. Inspired by the American group of the same name, the Black Panthers mounted protests and a yearslong political cam...

For the series dedicated to current events, today we have the privilege of speaking with John Lynden, executive director of ALLMEP - the Alliance for Middle East Peace. ALLMEP is an impressive coalition, bringing together over 160 organizations and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis. Their mission is to build cooperation, justice, equality, a shared society, mutual understanding, and ultimat...

Welcome to the first episode exploring the current war on Gaza. In today's episode with Gilad Halpern we'll be taking an in-depth look at the current situation within Israel itself - examining the state of Israeli society and the complex political dynamics at play.

Israel remains a deeply divided nation, with sharp social and ideological rifts running through its population. From the secular vs. religious di...

Welcome back for part two of our comprehensive exploration of Zionism on Jerusalem Unplugged. In our previous episode, Arie Dubnov provided invaluable insights tracing the diverse ideological currents and forces that shaped the Zionist movement from its origins through the tumultuous events surrounding Israeli statehood in 1948.

Today, we continue this illuminating discussion as Professor Dubnov analyzes the...

In this first installment of a special two-part series, Jerusalem Unplugged takes a deep dive into the origins and development of Zionism leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948. I am joined by Professor Arie Dubnov, an expert on the histories of this influential nationalist ideology.  Over the course of this thorough yet riveting episode, Professor Dubnov provides profound insights into the ...

For this episode I had the pleasure to interview Loren Lybarger, a long time resident of Palestine who devoted a few years studying the Palestinian community of Chicago which is home to one of the largest, most politically active Palestinian immigrant communities in the United States. For decades, secular nationalism held sway as the dominant political ideology, but since the 1990s its structures have weake...

In this second episode dedicated to the Balfour Declaration I have republished the presentations made by Professor Avi Shlaim and Salim Tamari at: 'The British Legacy in Palestine: Balfour and Beyond' conference held at the Palestinian National Theatre on 2 November 2017. 

This was a joint event from the Kenyon Institute and the Educational Bookshop, and supported by the British Council Palestine.