Groundwork – Details, episodes & analysis

On October 7th, Vivan Silver, a lifetime peace activist with Women Wage Peace, AJEEC-NISPED, Road to Recovery, and many more, was murdered in Kibbutz Be'eri. This week, we’re talking to her son, Yonatan Zeigen, about honoring her legacy through his own peace activism. Join us as we talk to Yonatan about his work and the challenges facing peace activists on the ground.

Learn more about the Vivian Silver Impact Award, given to one Palestinian and one Jewish Israeli each year.

Organizations supported or founded by Vivian Silver:

AJEEC-NISPED (Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development) is an Arab-Jewish organization for social change

Road to Recovery is an Israeli Association of volunteers who drive Palestinian patients - primarily children - from checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza for life-saving treatments in Israeli hospitals.

Women Wage Peace was founded in the aftermath of the 50-day Gaza War/Operation Protective Edge of 2014. Women Wage Peace (WWP) has grown to 50,000 Israeli members, the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel today, alongside its Palestinian sister movement Women of the Sun.

B’tselem is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel.

Alliance for Middle East Peace is a network of more than 160 Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilding organizations.

Project Rozana is committed to building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians through the field of health care, the only area of civil society where people meet on such a broad scale with mutual respect.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. 

In Israel today, there are only nine bilingual schools. These are schools where Palestinian and Jewish Israeli kids learn alongside one another and lessons are taught in both Hebrew and Arabic. These are the only formal educational institutions where kids learn one another’s histories and cultures, and from an early age, play, study, and work with each other. This week, we’re talking to Mohammad Kundos, a principal in one of these schools. Mohammad’s school is part of a network called Hand in Hand. We talked to him about how and why bilingual education can have an exponential impact on the future, how learning your own history as well as that of your neighbor impacts young people, and the ways that Hand in Hand schools aren’t just imagining change, but doing and living it every day on their campuses.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

We’re back this week with our one-on-one series, Ground Report, where we sit down with an activist to have a conversation about who they are, what motivates them, and what kind of future they imagine for the region. 

This week’s guest is Robi Damelin, from an organization called The Parents Circle – Families Forum. It’s a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization that includes over 600 bereaved families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the conflict. They believe reconciliation — reckoning with one another's pain —  must be a part of any sustainable, peaceful outcome in this region. Just hours before their biggest event of the year, The Joint Memorial, we sat down with Robi to hear about her personal story of loss and her journey to find reconciliation.

Groundwork is created and produced by Dina Kraft and Yoshi Fields. Ground Report is reported by Sally Abed, with content and audio editing by Yoshi. Yoshi also scored the piece. Additional content editing by Elisheva Goldberg and Nick Acosta. Art and design by Nick. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

Watch the Joint Memorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxbkR9_ZTrw

Organized crime and violence within Arab communities in Israel is one of the top issues for most Palestinian citizens of Israel. This issue comes ahead of even the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Today we follow activist Maisam Jaljuli, as she visits the recently bereaved families of those that have lost family members to this violence. And we learn about the underlying reasons for the situation. As noted in the episode, you can check out these resources for even more information:

Women Wage Peace

Women of the Sun

AChord

Abraham Initiatives Groundwork is hosted by Sally Abed and Dina Kraft and produced by Yoshi Fields. Today's story is by Maria Rashed and scored by Joel Shupack. Art and design by Nick Acosta. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

NOTE: This episode includes descriptions of gun violence, death, and bereavement. Consider before listening.

This episode is different. Every month, in addition to our regular program, we’re going to release an episode where host Sally Abed sits down for a one-on-one, candid conversation with an activist. Dov Khenin, our guest today, is a Jewish Israeli politician who served in the Knesset from 2006-2019 first with Hadash and then with The Joint List. He famously introduced more legislation while in office than any other politician. He is a political scientist, lawyer, and environmentalist. In our conversation you’ll hear a little about his political origin story, why he decided to leave the Knesset, and his thoughts on the political moment we are in right now. Groundwork is created and produced by Dina Kraft and Yoshi Fields. The Ground Report is reported by Sally Abed with content and audio editing by Yoshi. Yoshi also scored the piece.  Additional content editing by Elisheva Goldberg and Nick Acosta. Art and design by Nick. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

We're going to the West Bank. On January 5, 2022, leading Palestinian activist Hajj Suleiman was run over and killed by a truck subcontracted by the Israeli police. Underneath the story of his death lie stark truths about how Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank live.  And, how the Israeli government abuses its power and willfully neglects the Palestinian residents.

Groundwork is hosted by Sally Abed and Dina Kraft and produced by Yoshi Fields. Today's story is by Elisheva Goldberg and scored by Joel Shupack. Art and design by Nick Acosta. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

We’re starting the season off with a developing story: Historic protests are happening all across Israel. Many are afraid that new government policies will mark the end of any semblance of democracy here. We take you into the streets to meet one activist - Eran Nissan - who is leading the charge. But he also sees something else in this moment: an opportunity.

Groundwork is hosted by Sally Abed and Dina Kraft and produced by Yoshi Fields. Today's story is by Yoshi Fields and scored by Joel Shupack. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

In our new season we tell stories of people on the front lines.

Israel is about to have its most extreme-right wing government in the country’s history. Religious Zionism- Otzma Yehudit - now the country’s third largest party - calls for full annexation of the West Bank. There were recent bombings in Jerusalem. Deadly violence in the West Bank spiked in 2022. Everyone is asking what might happen next. And we’ll be be honest, sometimes we feel hopeless. But that’s not the whole story. Long-time activists are gearing up for a new level of action. 

Groundwork is a partnership project of Alliance for Middle East Peace and New Israel Fund.

Haifa is our final stop in the Mini-Series. It's known as the poster child for co-existence in Israel. But here too violence broke out in May. Among those at the protests against the violence were longtime Haifa residents and activists, Jafar Farah and Merav Ben-Nun. We speak with them about how Haifa has changed over the years, what they think led to the recent violence, and what needs to change. 

The show is hosted by Sally Abed and Dina Kraft. We are powered by the New Israel Fund and The Alliance for Middle East Peace. Learn more about our show at Groundworkpodcast.com

Jafar Farah lives in a primarily Arab neighborhood of Haifa called Wadi Nisnas. It’s where some of the recent violence took place. He is the founder and director Mossawa, an organization that promotes equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. 

Merav Ben-Nun is a founder of the bi-lingual Arabic and Hebrew Hand-in-Hand School in Haifa and a longtime civil rights activist in the city. 

This episode was produced by Dina Kraft and Yoshi Fields. Edited by Yoshi Fields. Scoring by Joel Shupack. Theme music by System Ali. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions. 

In May, Lod was the epicenter of the worst inter-ethnic fighting between Israel's own citizens since 1948. There were shootings in the streets, neighbors attacking one another, lynching. In this episode we speak with Lod activists Rula Daood and Dror Rubin about the complicated history of Lod, what they think led to the interethnic violence in May, and what’s next.

The show is hosted by Sally Abed and Dina Kraft. We are powered by the New Israel Fund and The Alliance for Middle East Peace. Learn more about our show at Groundworkpodcast.com 

Rula Daood is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who lives in Lod. She’s the national co-director of Standing Together, a grassroots movement of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis. 

Dror Rubin is a Jewish Israeli and a community organizer.  He works at a joint Jewish-Arab community center in the mixed neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol, the epicenter of the recent clashes in the city. 

This episode was produced by Dina Kraft and Yoshi Fields. Edited by Yoshi Fields. Scoring by Joel Shupack. Theme music by System Ali. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.