Arab Talk With Jess & Jamal

Journalist Max Blumenthal accuses the Israel Lobby of deceptively editing videos and making up dubious allegations, manufacturing an anti-semitism epidemic to turn the media’s gaze away from dead children in Gaza. Jess and Jamal take a look at who will potentially replace Benjamin Netanyahu in the Israeli government. They also discuss the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.

Jess & Jamal discuss the Irish Parliament’s motion condemning the “de facto annexation” of Palestinian land by Israel. They also talk about the recent denunciation of the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian by Benjamin Netanyahu for saying the word Apartheid. Arabic Violin Virtuoso Georges Lamman and renowned Latino Guitarist Gabriel Navia talk about their musical collaboration and perform a gift to Palestine.

Journalist Abby Martin discusses the recent Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Jerusalem. She also talks about the US media’s bias towards the Israeli narrative. Her documentary, “Gaza Fights for Freedom,” is now available on YouTube. Jess and Jamal discuss American attempts at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while the US ignores Apartheid and human rights violations by Israel.

More than 100 Palestinians, including 18 children have been killed in Gaza due to Israeli airstrikes & bombardment, while Jewish mobs attacked Palestinian families and businesses in Haifa, Jaffa and other towns. Both White House and US State Dept. spokespeople avoided reporters’ questions about whether US President Joe Biden believes Palestinians have a right to self-defense. Discussing this and more, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Director of AMED Studies at SFSU.

Israeli-American activist and author Miko Peled says that only through boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) imposed on Israel can the international community force an end to Israeli Apartheid and ethnic cleansing practices. Jess and Jamal discuss the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, as Israeli Colonial Settlers push to evict Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Human rights attorney Diana Buttu praises Human Rights Watch’s report on Israel and says that Palestinians have experienced Apartheid under Israeli rule for decades. Jess and Jamal discuss whether all the reports and findings about Israeli abuses by Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem and the International Criminal Court will force US politicians to stop giving Israel a pass. Also, will Palestinian elections happen as scheduled?

After Zoom and Facebook succumbed to Israeli Lobby pressure and deleted their event “Whose narrative? What Free Speech for Palestine?”, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) Studies at SFSU, and Dr. Sean Malloy, Dept. of History at UC Merced join the show. Jess and Jamal discuss how attacks by Israeli Settlers on Palestinians in Jerusalem and Hebron receive hardly any coverage in US media, but an errant missile fired from Syria into Israel becomes headline news. They also talk about how former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts for the murder of George Floyd, yet far right-media outlets cast doubt and characterize the verdict as not impartial.

Dr. Hatem Bazian talks about what Muslims can do to help one another and communities in need during Ramadan with COVID still devastating many people. He also discusses the raging Islamophobia in Europe and the United States. Jess and Jamal discuss the recent attacks by the powerful Israeli lobby AIPAC targeting Rep. Betty McCollum (D) for introducing multiple pieces of legislation that would bar Israel from using US military aid to arrest Palestinian youth. They also talk about the recent killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter.

Award-winning journalist and former Ferris Professor at Princeton University Daoud Kuttab discusses the “Royal Feud” in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He also talks about the future of Palestinian elections. Jess and Jamal talk about racist remarks by the chairman of the far-right Zionist party & Israeli lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich, who recently threatened to expel Palestinians from their ancestral land.

Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi talks about the making of “The Present,” which was nominated for the 93rd Academy Awards in the Best Live Action Short Film category. Jess and Jamal discuss Emmanual Macron’s government’s anti-Muslim rhetoric as the French presidential elections approach. They also talk about the trial of Derek Chauvin who knelt on George Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s cries for help for over nine minutes leading to his death. The landmark trial is set to be a defining moment in the nation’s reckoning over race and policing.

Palestinian legal expert and analyst Diana Buttu weighs in on the Israeli and upcoming Palestinian elections. Jess and Jamal discuss the recent mass murders in Atlanta and Boulder and the intractable problem of gun control in the United States.

Dr. Stavit Sinai talks about why she'll refuse to pay a fine to a German court for disrupting a speech by a former Israeli Knesset member. Jess & Jamal discuss the protests in Jordan due to the tragic death of COVID-19 patients in a hospital. They also talk about the rise of racist verbal and physical attacks on Asian Americans.

Guests Palestinian-American activist Suhair Nafal and her lawyer Haytham Faraj discuss their win over a defamation suit brought against Nafal by Rebecca Rumshiskaya, an Israeli soldier. Faraj calls the victory “important for preserving the Arab American and Palestinian communities’ First Amendment rights to free speech, including political speech.” Jess and Jamal discuss the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for May 22. They also look back at how the pandemic has upended our lives, one year later.

Attorney Yafa Jarrar talks about the Israeli military court sentencing of her mother, Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar, to two years in prison. Jess and Jamal discuss opposition to the International Criminal Court's decision to proceed in investigating Israel for war crimes. The US claims Israel has been targeted unfairly. Phil Pasquini reports from Washington, DC about QAnon and the myth of Donald Trump's re-inauguration.

Jess and Jamal discuss the recent shifts on discourse about Israel in the United States, with recent comments by politicians and challenges in US media. Also, former students at AMED at San Francisco State University, Dr. Loubna Qutami and Saliem Shehadeh, describe the systematic attacks on the program by hate groups and the lack of support by the university’s administration.

Jess & Jamal discuss global warming and the cold weather that triggered a wave of blackouts across Texas, leaving millions of residents shivering in the dark. Our guest this week is Sani Meo, publisher of "This Week in Palestine" (http://thisweekinpalestine.com). Sani Meo talks about the different themes the magazine has been featuring for the past twenty years, and the challenges he is facing to keep publishing a quality magazine under Israeli occupation and additional restrictions due to COVID-19.

Legal expert Diana Buttu discusses the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ruling that it has jurisdiction over the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, opening the way for an inquiry into allegations of Israeli war crimes in the region. Jess and Jamal discuss President Biden’s approach to human rights in the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia and Palestine. They also discuss Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Jewish Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan says that Israel is demonstrating “Medical Apartheid,” and not vaccine leadership, by not providing COVID-19 vaccines to approximately five million Palestinians who live under Israeli rule. Jess and Jamal discuss the saga of Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green who faces a House vote to strip her from committee assignments, over her history of trafficking in racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and baseless conspiracy theories.

Jess and Jamal discuss a recently discovered video showing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon-supporting Republican, trying to force Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their congressional oaths on the Bible. They also discuss “A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This Is Apartheid,” a position paper released by B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human-rights organization https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid

Jess and Jamal discuss the challenges that President Joe Biden faces repairing the damage caused to US allies overseas, while domestically confronting COVID-19, soaring unemployment and undoing many of Trump’s executive orders. Phil Pasquini reports from Washington, DC about the heightened security that will remain in the US capital for weeks to come, even after Joe Biden’s inauguration.