When the Palestinian Nakba (or the catastrophe of 1948) is discussed it's commonly understood to refer to the destruction of villages and the displacement of about 700 thousand Palestinians. What gets left out is what happened to the people who remained in the borders of what became Israel and the transformations the new state created on the land, natural resources, the public space, and urban development. This week Mira Nabulsi speaks with Palestinian architect and urban planner, Lama Shehadeh about Israel's settler-colonial project and how it manifests in urban planning within the 1948 Territories and how it impacted Palestinian citizens of Israel. Lama Shehadeh is a Palestinian architect and urban planner based in Haifa. Shedadeh’s research focuses on the intersection of architecture and urban planning with spatial justice, environmental and political conflicts, and social formation. she is currently she works on master plans for Palestinian towns and villages within 1948’s borders. Additional Resources: In the Israel-Palestine conflict, urban planning is the ultimate weapon https://www.fastcompany.com/90640935/in-the-israel-palestine-conflict-urban-planning-is-the-ultimate-weapon The Rewriting of Palestinian Cities: Spatial Dislocations in Haifa and Akka https://www.araburbanism.com/magazine/rewriting-palestinian-cities Articles from EI https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gentrification ISRAELI MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES: A STORY OF NATION BUILDING, NATURE TRANSFORMATION, AND ALIENATION OF PALESTINIANS FROM THEIR ENVIRONMENT https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/67020 Acre - عكا: Akka: A Palestinian Priority https://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Acre/Story12400.html

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Israeli Settler Colonialism and Urban Planning inside 1948 Territories with Lama Shehadeh

Shadyar Omrani is a journalist, Poet, Novelist, Researcher and Public Lecturer. https://twitter.com/shadyaromrani?lang=en Resources: https://iranhumanrights.org/2021/06/oil-industry-workers-go-on-national-strike-in-iran/ https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-oil-strikes-contract-workers-engulf-industry

Petrochemical Contract Workers Striking in Iran Over Wages & Conditions with Shadyar Omrani

Since its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has practiced a policy of Jewish-only settlement expansion over Palestinian land. A land that the International Community designated as the territory of a future Palestinian State. Jewish-only settlements constitute a violation of international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, but they have remained a stable policy of consecutive Israeli right-wing and left-wing governments. Even with the upheaval inside Israeli politics, the Israeli cabinet still had the time to green-light the construction of over 500 new settlement units in the Bethlehem region, in May. And as protest and legal challenges to forced evictions, of Palestinian families, continue in East Jerusalem, we take a look at the the American non-profits supporting Israeli settler expansion in the occupied territories. Mira Nabulsi speaks with journalist Alex Kane. He is a contributing writer for Jewish Currents and +972 Magazine. His work has also appeared in The Intercept, Vice, In These Times, Al Jazeera and more. In the second half of the show, Malihe Razazan speaks with Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi about her recent film "the Present". The Present was nominated for this year's Academy Award for best live action short film and won the BAFTA Award for best short film.

US Nonprofits Supporting Israeli Settlers & "The Present" with Farah Nabulsi

Khalil Bandib speaks with Samia Errazzouki about the rising tension between Spain and Morrocco after thousands of migrants crossed from Morroco into the North African enclave of Ceuta, considered Spanish territory. It is believed that Moroccan border guards eased the crossing of the migrants in response to Spain's hosting of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, which campaigns for the independence of Western Sahara. Samia Errazzouki is a PhD candidate examining early modern Northwest African history. Prior to UC Davis, she worked as a journalist based in Morocco reporting for the Associated Press, and later with Reuters. Samia also worked as a research associate in Morocco with the University of Cambridge, researching the dynamics of surveillance and citizen media in light of the "Arab Spring." She is currently a co-editor with Jadaliyya. Her work and commentary appeared in various platforms including the Washington Post, BBC, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, the Carnegie Endowment's Sada Journal, and the Middle East Institute, among others. On Twitter: @S_Errazzouki. More Resources: Ceuta and Melilla: Spain's enclaves in North Africa https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57305882 Spain Sends Troops to African Enclave After Migrant Crossings Jump https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/world/europe/spain-migrants-ceuta-morocco.html

Thousands of Migrants Cross into Ceuta & the Moroccan-Spanish Dispute with Samia Errazzouki

Professor Tugal speaks with Shahram Aghamir about the so-called Turkish liberal Islamic model once hailed by the US as a model to the Muslim World, what's left of that and what are the limitations of this model. Cihan Tuğal is a professor of sociology at UC Berkeley. He studies three interlocking dynamics: 1) capitalism’s generation and destruction of communities, livelihoods, and places; 2) the implosion of representative democracy; 3) the crisis of liberal ethics. His ongoing research focuses on populism, the radical right, and neoliberalism in the United States and the Middle East. Tuğal’s most recent book, Caring for the Poor (2017, Routledge). Additional resources: TURKEY AT THE CROSSROADS? newleftreview.org/issues/ii127/art…t-the-crossroads

Turkey At The Crossroads? With Cihan Tugal (Part 2)

Professor Tugal speaks with Shahram Aghamir about the so-called Turkish liberal Islamic model once hailed by the US as a model to the Muslim World, what's left of that and what are the limitations of this model. Cihan Tuğal is a professor of sociology at UC Berkeley. He studies three interlocking dynamics: 1) capitalism’s generation and destruction of communities, livelihoods, and places; 2) the implosion of representative democracy; 3) the crisis of liberal ethics. His ongoing research focuses on populism, the radical right, and neoliberalism in the United States and the Middle East. Tuğal’s most recent book, Caring for the Poor (2017, Routledge). Additional resources: TURKEY AT THE CROSSROADS? https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii127/articles/cihan-tugal-turkey-at-the-crossroads

Turkey At The Crossroads? With Cihan Tugal (Part 1)

Beshara Doumani is the inaugural Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies, the first chair of its kind dedicated to this field of study. He is also the founding director (2012-2018) of Brown's Center for Middle East Studies (CMES), and founder of New Directions for Palestinian Studies, a CMES initiative since 2012. From 2012-2020 he was the Joukowsky Family Distinguished Professor of Modern Middle East History. Doumani's research focuses on groups, places, and time periods marginalized by mainstream scholarship on the early modern and modern Middle East, with a focus on the social, economic, and legal history of Eastern Mediterranean. He also writes on the topics of academic freedom, and the Palestinian condition. His books include Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, and Family Life in the Ottoman Mediterranean: A Social History. He is currently working on the modern history of the Palestinians through the social life of stone.

KPFA Fund Drive with Professor Beshara Doumani: 73 Years of Nakba & the Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing

On April 3rd, rumors started circulating about the arrest of Jordan’s former crown Prince Hamzah Bin Hussein, and some senior officials. A brief statement by the army denied the arrest but confirmed the prince was asked to stop, what the statement called, activities that were employed to target Jordan's security and stability. In a leaked video, Prince Hamzah said that he was placed under house arrest anddenied involvement with foreign powers and aligned himself with the Jordanian street which is growingly frustrated by what he called the corruption and incompetence of the system. How can we understand this turmoil inside the royal family and is there truly a rift at the highest ranks of the jordanian regime? How do these events link to the public discontent around the country's suffering economy? And how will it impact civil liberties and the social and political movements already bearing the brunt of restrictive anti-terrorism and cybersecurity laws. Vomena’s Mira Nabulsi spoke with Dr. Ziad Abu-Rish, the director of the MA program in Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College. A historian by training, his research focuses on popular mobilizations and state formation in Jordan and Lebanon. Abu-Rish is also co-editor of Jadaliyya e-zine.

A Royal Dispute or an Attempted Coup in Jordan, with Dr. Ziad Abu-Rish

Al Jazeera network has launched a new digital platform Rightly, which aims to target US conservative audiences. We speak with Adel Iskander, professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University about Aljazeera move into the right-wing media ecosystem in the US. We also celebrate National Poetry Month by bringing you some of the poetry of the Middle East’s celebrated poet Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon

Al Jazeera's new platform "Rightly" with Dr. Adel Iskander

From pacifica radio, this is voices of the middle east and north africa Since the beginning of Ramadan in mid-April, tensions have been rising in the old city of Jerusalem. Palestinians have been protesting an Israeli court decision to evict four Palestinian families from their homes in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to make room for Israeli settlers. Four other families will also be facing eviction in August. The families in question have lived in their homes since 1956. At the time, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were under Jordanian control. The families which were made refugees as a result of Israel's establishment in 1948, were given the land by the Jordanian authorities and were able to build the homes with assistance from the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees. Since the 70's Israeli right-wing settler organizations have been trying to evict these families under the pretext that the land originally belonged to Jews before the establishment of Israel. According to a 2020 survey by the United Nations, at least 218 Palestinian households in East Jerusalem, including the families in Sheikh Jarrah, have eviction cases filed against them. If implemented 970 people, including 424 children will be displaced. Palestinians say the evictions are a continuation of Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing. The protests and sit-ins have been faced with settler violence backed by the Israeli police, which used rubber-coated bullets, tear gas canisters and even high pressure skunk water to disperse protestors. In recent days, Israel has escalated its repression in East Jerusalem, by radining the Al Aqsa mosque compound and even shelling of Palestinian worshippers. Further south, Israel has also launched its latest war on Gaza, hitting civilian buildings and killing over 40 people, including at least 14 children. To better understand the events that are unfolding in East Jerusalem, vomena’s mira nabulsi spoke with Nidal Rafa', a Palestinian journalist and TV producer based in Jerusalem. Nidal is a board member for several Palestinian civil society organization including ADALAH (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), Al SIWAR feminist organizaton in Haifa and The Arab Journalist Club and Khalil Sakakini cultural center in Ramallah. With Marwa Jbara Tibi, she is co-director of the documentary ''ABBAS 36'' Nidal Rafa', a Palestinian journalist and TV producer based in Jerusalem. Nidal is a board member for several Palestinian civil society organizations including ADALAH (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel), Al SIWAR feminist organization in Haifa and The Arab Journalist Club and Khalil Sakakini cultural center in Ramallah. With Marwa Jbara Tibi, she is co-director of the documentary ''ABBAS 36'' together with

Journalist Nidal Rafa' on the Situation in Sheikh Jarrah

This week, we’ll discuss the COVID-19 pandemic in the besieged Gaza Strip in a conversation with Dr. Monda El-Farrah, the Director of Gaza Projects of the Middle East Children's Alliance and a member of the Union of Health Work Committees Later in the program, we speak with Professor Isis Nusair and Huwaida Arraf two members of The newly formed Palestinian Feminist Collective committed to Palestinian social and political liberation by way of confronting systemic gendered and colonial violence, oppression and dispossession.

COVID-19 Situation in Gaza & the Palestinian Feminist Collective

On January 1, 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his appointment of Melih Bulu, a long-time affiliate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as the new rector of Isatnbul’s Boğaziçi University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities. The appointment trampled a long-standing tradition of electing rectors from within the university. Three days later, thousands of students gathered in front of the university to protest Erdoğan’s top-down decision aimed at controlling one of the few universities previously able to maintain some degree of institutional autonomy and academic freedom. In spite of governments’ heavy handed response, resistance to the government’s actions has continued. To understand the government’s actions at Bogazici University, the ruling party’s strategy for institutions of higher education, the ramifications of this strategy as well as the resistance by the students, the faculty and the staff of these institutions, we turn to Ayça Alemdaroğlu and Elif Babül, whose auricle entitled “Resists Authoritarian Control of the Academy in Turkey”was published on MERIP.org in February.

Assault on Higher Education And Academic Freedom In Turkey

In his acclaimed new book “When we Were Arabs,” Los-Angeles-born journalist and author Massoud Hayoun recounts one north African family’s epic journey, step by step, from Tunisia all the way to California after it was senselessly uprooted from its ancestral lands and catapulted into a cold new world by two successive waves of European colonialism.

Massoud Hayoun on "When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History- Part 2"

Massoud Hayoun on "When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History-Part 1"

The Kurds In Iran by KPFA: Voices of the Middle East and North Africa

The Kurds In Iran

Voices of the Middle East and North Africa is a weekly program hosted by Malihe Razazan and Mira Nabulsi. It explores the richly diverse and fascinating world of culture and politics of the Middle East and North Africa through a complex web of class, gender, ethnic, religious and regional differences. Voices of the Middle East and North Africa airs on KPFA radio, 94.1 FM, in Berkeley, CA. Online on kpfa.org or subscribe to iTunes.

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VOMENA at KPFA

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