The +972 Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In the occupied West Bank today, life looks completely different than it did just two years ago — with unprecedented levels of state-backed settler violence, arbitrary arrests, new road closures, and mounting economic pressure. But resistance, too, is changing. Veteran activist Munther Amira connects this moment to earlier chapters of the Palestinian struggle and reflects on what it means to keep resisting when survival itself has become the fight.

Additional Reading:
From the Cemetery of the Living: A Plea for the Rights of Palestinian Detainees
‘They intended to kill us’: Masafer Yatta reels from bloody settler assaults
My father was jailed for believing Palestine must be free

Follow +972 Magazine:
972mag.com
Instagram, Facebook, and  X

Support +972 Magazine:
Become a Member
Sign up for our newsletters

Theme music by Ghassan Birumi

Support the show

Two years after October 7, Israeli public opinion remains shaped by fear, grief, and a siege mentality. But could the fragile ceasefire mark a turning point — or will Israel slip back into an “October 6 way of thinking,” ignoring the root causes of the violence and paving the way for future wars? Political analyst, public opinion researcher, and A Land For All member Dahlia Scheindlin joins us to discuss how Israeli attitudes toward the war on Gaza have evolved, whether there’s any possibility of a public reckoning, and what it would take to begin a process of genuine political transformation between the river and the sea — from both within Israeli society and the international community. 

Additional Reading:
Dahlia Scheindlin’s archive at +972
‘Israelis are frustrated, but do they want to stop the war? Not exactly’

Follow +972 Magazine:
972mag.com
Instagram, Facebook, and  X

Support +972 Magazine:
Become a Member
Sign up for our newsletters

Theme music by Ghassan Birumi

Support the show

Earlier this month, American ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced that will stop selling their products in Israeli settlements located in the occupied West Bank.

The company’s decision has sparked an uproar by Israeli politicians, from the far-right to the Zionist left. Along with cries of “antisemitism” and “economic terrorism,” the Israeli government has called on U.S. states to sanction the company through domestic laws that effectively punish any boycotts or divestments relating to Israel.

In the latest episode of The +972 Podcast, editors Edo Konrad and Amjad Iraqi discuss the significance of the company’s decision and the backlash it continues to face, the shifting opinions among American Jews, and what this moment could mean for the movement for Palestinian rights.

The music in this episode is by Ketsa and Crowander.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

Support the show

It was in the early days of the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research that one of the researchers stumbled upon a document that had disappeared since first being published in the mid-1980s. Dubbed the Immigration Document, the 18-page memo authored by an Israeli intelligence officer in 1948 lists the Palestinian villages and towns that had been depopulated by Israeli forces, as well as the ways they had been depopulated.

“It says, among other things that some 70 percent of Palestinian depopulation in Palestine, up to that point in early March of 1948, was due to activities by Jewish forces rather than what we learned, a result of Palestinian leadership calls for people to evacuate or other similar reasons,” explains Lior Yavne, the founder and director of Akevot.

On the latest episode of The +972 Podcast, Yavne and Akevot researcher Adam Raz talk about the need for archival research in human rights work in Israel, the impact that concealing official documents has on Israeli society, and the challenges the organizations faces in their efforts to declassify and access records.

The music in this episode is by Ketsa and Unheard Music Concepts.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

Support the show

In late May, Israeli police launched the largest nationwide crackdown against Palestinian citizens of Israel in decades. The campaign, known as Operation Law and Order, has led to the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians who participated in last month’s wave of protests, sparked by the imminent expulsion of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, the police raid of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the war on Gaza.

The editors of +972 Magazine sat down at the height of the crackdown to discuss what led to this moment, the synchronization of the Palestinian struggle from the river to the sea, and how Israeli and international media have been covering recent events.

The music in this episode is by Ketsa.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

Support the show

In this episode, we interview +972 contributor Orly Noy about the shocking display of racism and brutality in Jerusalem last week, when hundreds of Israeli Jews, many of them young men, marched through the streets of the city chanting "Death to Arabs.” The march was organized by Lehava, a notorious extreme right wing organization, after several videos posted on TikTok showed Palestinians harassing ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Noy, who witnessed the violence that night, spoke about how Lehava preys on disempowered young Mizrahi and ultra-Orthodox Jews, how the Israeli and international media got the story wrong, and what kind of hope, if at all, she has for the city she has called home for most of her life.

You can also read her essay, titled "I write to remember the brutality of Jewish violence I saw in Jerusalem," here.

The music in this episode is by Ketsa.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

Support the show

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world this past year, home has become an especially important source of shelter and safety. While some governments have responded to pressure from activists and paused evictions, Palestinians in East Jerusalem still face uncertainty.

That's the case with the Sumarin family, who live just outside Jerusalem's Old City in the Palestinian village of Silwan. The Jewish National Fund and the Elad organization have long been promoting Jewish settlement in the area — often at the expense of the Palestinian residents. 

In April, after a decades-long legal battle, an Israeli court will finally decide whether the Sumarin family will be forcibly evicted from their home. On this episode of the +972 podcast, we teamed up with Unsettled Podcast to tell the story of the Sumarin family and their struggle to remain in the house they've lived in for generations.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

Music in this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Support the show

On June 23, 2020, Ahmad Erakat crashed into the Container checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. Border Police officers shot him six times in two seconds, claiming he had attempted a car-ramming attack. But a new forensic investigation undermines the authorities’ version of events.

At the request of the Erakat family, Forensic Architecture, a research agency that relies on spatial and media tools to investigate human rights violations, in collaboration with Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, examined the incident. The visual reconstruction was published this week, eight months after the crash.

The investigation sought to establish the circumstances of of the car crash, the use of lethal force, whether Ahmad received medical care after being shot, and how the various Israeli authorities at the scene treated Ahmad’s body.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

The music in this episode is by Circus Marcus, Daniel Birch, and The Joy Drops.

Support the show

Israel is heading into its fourth election in less than two years, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing rather uncharted territory. Like previous rounds, these elections are in many ways a referendum on Netanyahu. But there are bigger factors that could determine if the fourth contest will be different from the last.

+972 Magazine Editor-in-Chief Edo Konrad and Editor Amjad Iraqi sat down to talk about how the elections are pitting different strands of the Israeli right against each other for control of the government, and the reasons behind the disintegration of the Palestinian-led Joint List.

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

The music in this episode is by Ketsa and Crowander.

Support the show

There was palpable relief, and even joy, throughout the progressive movement when the U.S. presidential race was finally called for Joe Biden at the beginning of November. Four years of an administration that relentlessly attacked every minority group imaginable would finally be coming to an end, and with it, perhaps, a move away from constant firefighting.

Yet Biden's election was by no means welcomed by progressives as an unmitigated win. Beyond the unimaginable wreckage left behind by the Trump administration — damage that will likely outlast Biden's presidency — those in the movement are also clear-eyed about the limitations of a centrist Democratic government.

Nowhere does that assessment ring as true as in the Palestine movement, where, as Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, tells the +972 Podcast, activists have to reckon with an administration that is "no friend of Palestine." 

At the same time, Tamari stresses, there is cause for optimism: unlike the Trump White House, a Biden administration is "a target that can be moved." The current generation of Palestinian activists are more than up for the task, Tamari adds, calling them "more fearless and unapologetic than ever before."

Visit +972 Magazine and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Support +972 Magazine: 972mag.com/donate

The music in this episode is by Ketsa and Unheard Music Concepts.

Support the show