The Palestine Pod

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...

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 als...

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 rig...

This week Lara and Michael sit down with the acclaimed Palestinian researcher, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, a Nakba survivor who has dedicated his life to the Palestinian liberation struggle. Dr. Salman Abu Sitta is the founder and President of the Palestine Land Society in London, dedicated to the documentation of Palestine’s land and people. He is the author of over 400 articles and papers on Palestine, as well as several books. Notable...

This week, we discuss the bizarre declaration by Milekowsky (aka Netanyahu) that he is proudly committing war crimes by imposing a total siege on the Gaza Strip cutting of all food, medication, fuel, and other aid from entering the besieged territory. We also refer to a number of the Israeli violations of Phase 1 of the ceasefire and cover the onslaught of colonial violence in the West Bank dubbed Operation Iron Wall as well as oth...

This week, Lara and Michael do a deep dive into the kidnapping and torture of Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Edwan Hospital, and a Pediatrician by Israeli occupation forces starting in late December 2024, following months of steadfastness and advocacy aimed at stopping Israeli attacks on the hospital and ending Israel's siege on the Northern part of Gaza. Lara critiques mainstream media's reporting of his abduction and Mic...

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was wrongfully kidnapped at the age of 18, sold to the CIA, and spent 15 years in Guantanamo before being released without charge or trial. After surviving the torture and terrorism of the United States government, Mansoor is now working tirelessly for accountability in accordance with international law, including an apology, reparations, and the closure ...

This week Lara and Michael cover the new lawsuit brought by Palestinian-Americans and DAWN against the U.S. State Department under the Administrative Procedure Act seeking to oblige the U.S. government to comply with the Leahy law and cease military assistance to Israel which is involved in grave violations of human rights through the conduct of its occupation forces in Gaza and the West Bank. Michael comments on Israel’s occupatio...

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Mike Africa Jr., author and Legacy Director of MOVE, a Philadelphia-based activist collective and liberation movement. Mike recalls the history of the MOVE and the 1985 Move bombing, during which Philadelphia police fired thousands of rounds at MOVE members in their homes killing six adults and five children. Mike Africa Jr. addresses police impunity and efforts to seek justice for the MOVE ...

This week, Lara and Michael sit down with Damia Taharraoui, a lawyer at the Paris bar, who recently filed a criminal complaint for complicity with genocide and incitement to genocide in Paris against an NGO whose members blocked the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza and posted about it on social media, calling on others to join them in their efforts. Damia explains the importance of holding perpetrators of atrocity crimes acco...

This week, Lara and Michael sit down with acclaimed Lebanese-American journalist, Rania Khalek. Reporting from Beirut, Rania comments on Israel’s use of a 2000-pound bunker-buster bomb on a residential building filled with families in Central Beirut on the evening of November 22, 2024. Noting that killing sleeping families was a policy first rolled out in the Gaza Genocide through the use of the Israeli AI “Where’s Daddy”, Lara ask...

This week Lara and Michael cover the formal announcement by Apartheid Israel of the plan to not allow for the return of Palestinians to the Northern part of Gaza while it continues to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from there towards the center and southern part of Gaza. Michael comments on the recent fiasco in Amsterdam where Israeli hooligans chanted genocidal songs celebrating that there were no schools in Gaza because there we...

This week Lara and Michael sit down with Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian activist and lawyer who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement. We discuss her previous efforts to break the Israeli siege on Gaza with various flotillas over the years. One was successful, having successfully docked in Gaza without Israeli permission while in 2010, Israeli commandos attacked one of their ships (the Mavi Marmara) in international waters, ...