Podcast Ep 71: Palestine in 2022, part 2

On episode 71, we continue our discussion with Ali Abunimah about the most significant stories of 2022, taking a deeper look at Palestinian and international response and activism to stop Israel’s crimes.

In 2021, six Palestinian human rights groups were designated by Israeli officials as “terrorist organizations” – and ever since, staff and lawyers for the six groups have been barred from traveling. The groups’ offices were raided and ransacked this past August.

Ali Abunimah says that the European Union – which funds many projects of these human rights groups – refused to comment or take any action to protect the groups against Israel’s attacks; highlighting the ongoing complicity by Western governments to let Israel off the hook for its crimes.

And US President Joe Biden pledged to shield Israel from accountability in July, on a Jerusalem visit one month before the Israeli army ransacked the groups’ offices.

The Guardian had reported that a classified CIA report “shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision” to designate the Palestinian groups as terrorist organizations.

The US agency received intelligence from Israel regarding the designations but, like multiple European countries, “did not find any evidence to support the claim,” The Guardian reported, citing “two sources familiar with the study.”

Less than two weeks ago, Salah Hammouri, a French Palestinian lawyer for the Palestinian prisoners advocacy group Addameer – one of the six organizations – was expelled by Israel to France.

Israel’s pretext for expelling Hammouri is the human rights lawyer’s “breach of allegiance” to an occupying power that has subjected him to various forms of persecution, including several terms of imprisonment since he was 15 and to which he owes no loyalty whatsoever.

From March until his expulsion, Israel held him in “administrative detention” – imprisonment without charge or trial based on supposed “secret evidence.”

We also get into an in-depth discussion on Asa Winstanley’s forthcoming book, Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn, and the ongoing smear campaigns to silence critics of Israel around the world.

Much of Asa’s reporting was published exclusively in The Electronic Intifada. “We were able to report the story when so many other publications in the UK and even outside the UK didn’t do so, or wouldn’t do so – or were even complicit in the smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn,” Ali says, referring to the leader of Britain’s Labour Party between 2015 and 2020.

Ali gives us an update on the legal battle by ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s to keep its products out of illegal Israeli settlement colonies.

And we focus on the growth of Palestinian armed resistance, especially during the August attacks on Gaza and continuing into the last several months in occupied West Bank cities such as Jenin and Nablus.

The episode is part two of a two-part series on our top stories of 2022. Part one is below:

Articles we discussed

“US gives Israel green light to Israel’s attacks on human rights groups,” Maureen Clare Murphy
“Israeli army shuts down prominent Palestinian rights groups,” Maureen Clare Murphy
“Do not expel Salah Hammouri, France tells Israel,” Ali Abunimah
“Kicking aside French protests, Israel expels Salah Hammouri,” Ali Abunimah
“Announcing my new book: Weaponising Anti-Semitism,” Asa Winstanley
“Labour sabotaged pro-Corbyn candidates in 2019 election,” Asa Winstanley
“Bogus anti-Semitism report sank Jeremy Corbyn,” Asa Winstanley
“Secret document reveals Israel lobby’s dominance of Labour,” Asa Winstanley
“Israel lobby fabricates anti-Semitism crisis at UC Berkeley,” Nora Barrows-Friedman
“Has an Israel lawfare group declared open season on US students?,” Nora Barrows-Friedman
“Video: Why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism,” Nora Barrows-Friedman
“Jewish ‘self-determination’ or Jewish supremacy?,” Joseph Massad, Middle East Eye
“Nonviolence is only one part of a strategy for liberation,” Omar Zahzah
“A new spirit of resistance,” Ahmed Abu Artema
“Ben & Jerry’s repudiates Israeli ice cream sold under its name,” Ali Abunimah
“Ben & Jerry’s owner Unilever admits it melted under Israel’s threats,” Ali Abunimah
“Ben & Jerry’s sues parent company to freeze Israel sale,” Ali Abunimah
“Ben & Jerry’s settles lawsuit, freezes out Israel,” Ali Abunimah
“Palestine Action puts Israel’s war industry on trial,” Kit Klarenberg
“Palestine Action is legalizing the smashing of Israeli arms factories,” Asa Winstanley

Video production by Tamara Nassar

Theme music by Sharif Zakout

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