Palestine in Perspective

Kicking out Israeli apartheid from FIFA: In conversation with Lina Abojaradeh, Jonathan Kuttab and Karen Rodman

In this episode of “Palestine In Perspective”, host and Toronto-based writer for the Palestine Chronicle, Paul Salvatori, is joined by a unique guest panel: Palestinian visual artist and writer, Lina Abojaradeh; Palestinian lawyer and co-founder of the well-known human rights organization Al-Haq, Jonathan Kuttab; and Canadian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist and director of Justice Peace Advocates, Karen Rodman. The three explore and discuss, from diverse points of view, the deleterious impact that Israeli apartheid has had on Palestinian football, as well as FIFA’s continued failure to sanction Israel on account of it. This—in keeping with international humanitarian law and the football organization’s own human rights policies—would effectively involve banning Israel’s team from the football organization til they entirely dismantle its regime of apartheid, subjugating both Palestinian footballers and non-footballers alike. Each panelist shares the important creative, political, and other work they’re doing to help achieve this end, including the “Kick Out Apartheid” campaign that ran parallel to the recent World Cup tournament in Qatar and is still ongoing. *** “Palestine In Perspective” is a newly featured podcast on The Palestine Chronicle and a sub-series of the social justice and human rights-focused podcast, The Dark Room. Through candid interviews and discussions with pro-Palestinian voices—from scholars and activists to artists and intellectuals—“Palestine In Perspective” illuminates key issues of Palestinian justice, resistance and the international struggle against Israeli apartheid. The show is hosted by Toronto-based writer, activist and musician Paul Salvatori. (Thank you to Peter Restivo for the sound mixing of this episode.)

Resisting the Illegal Israeli Occupation of Palestine: In Conversation with Issa Amro

In this episode of “Palestine In Perspective”, host and Toronto-based writer for The Palestine Chronicle, Paul Salvatori talks, with Palestinian human rights defender and activist, Issa Amro. From an undisclosed location where he’s had to take refuge to ensure his safety, Amro shares his experience of being the ongoing target of harassment, violence, abuse, and arbitrary detention—on the part of the Israeli military—as well as of Israeli settlers who terrorize him similarly, often with both the protection and support of the military itself.Paralleling the United Nation’s urgent call for the assault against Amro to stop, as well as for Israel to lift the “closed military zone” it has established around his home—in violation of international humanitarian law—Amro suggests how listeners can pressure their governments to ensure the call is heeded.

Dismantling Israeli Settler Colonialism: In Conversation with Francesca Albanese

In this episode of “Palestine In Perspective”, host and Toronto-based writer for The Palestine Chronicle, Paul Salvatori, talks with Francesca Albanese—current United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. Albanese shares the findings of and challenges in producing her most recent report, in the capacity of the key UN role. Building off the findings of her predecessors she, in addition to viewing Israel as an apartheid state, stresses how—central to understanding its criminal subjugation of the Palestinian people—Israel is deeply invested in a settler-colonial project that involves the large-scale destruction of Palestinian life. As in her report, Albanese here reminds listeners that countries internationally have a legal obligation to both help end and hold Israel accountable this, rather than—as has been the case for decades—allow it to enjoy Salvatori and Albanese also discuss the sensitive but important topic of the right of resistance and the extent to which Palestinians, enduring brutal Israeli occupation, are entitled to exercise it—in accordance with international law. Unlike much mainstream discussion this further illuminates how there is no “war” happening in Palestine but, through dehumanizing and violent means, an ongoing attempt by Israel to ethnically cleanse the nation. Listeners are here invited to think about and find ways of challenging the war myth, often perpetuated by corporate news media, while—in solidarity with Palestine—mobilizing others to fight against Israel’s protracted campaign to eliminate Palestine altogether. —“Palestine In Perspective” is a newly featured podcast on The Palestine Chronicle and sub-series of the social justice and human rights-focused podcast, The Dark Room.Through candid interviews and discussions with pro-Palestinian voices—from scholars and activists to artists and intellectuals—“Palestine In Perspective” illuminates key issues of Palestinian justice, resistance and the international struggle against Israeli apartheid. The show is hosted by Toronto-based writer, activist and musician Paul Salvatori. (Thank you to Peter Restivo for the sound mixing of this episode.)

The Myth of Liberal Zionism: In Conversation with Miko Peled (PODCAST)

In this episode of “Palestine In Perspective”, host and Toronto-based writer for The Palestine Chronicle, Paul Salvatori, talks with pro-Palestinian Israeli activist, journalist, and author Miko Peled.Peled shares why, despite it presenting itself as progressive, “liberal Zionism” is a myth and how all forms of Zionism amount, in practice, to the denial of fundamental rights and freedoms for the Palestinian people.

The Zionist Distortion of Palestinian History: In Conversation with Rashid Khalidi

In this episode of “Palestine In Perspective”, host and Toronto-based writer for the Palestine Chronicle, Paul Salvatori, talks with Palestinian-American, historian and Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, Rashid Khalidi. From both a historical and political point of view, Khalidi explains how the myth or falsehood that there is a “war” between Palestine and Israel—rather than an ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the latter against the former—came to be, how public discourse (reproduced through mainstream media) sustains the myth and how the West directly supports Israeli criminality while shielding it from legal and other accountability. (Thank you to Peter Restivo for the sound mixing of this episode.)