February 15, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Feb 15 2009

A two-hour special: we talk with Al Jazeera correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, the only major network journalist in Gaza during the Israeli assault; the blowback effects of Israeli actions on college campuses and in the world of sports; the rise of hardliner Avigdor Lieberman in Israeli politics; plus an interview with feminist artist Nancy Spero.

Episode segments
  • The View From Gaza
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Ayman Mohyeldin is an Arab American journalist based in the Middle East and the Gaza correspondent for the English language Al Jazeera.  He was the only foreign correspondent broadcasting from Gaza during the Israeli invasion and media blockade.  The Haaretz correspondent, Gideon Levy, called Mohyeldin his "hero of the Gaza war," for his physical courage and honest, restrained reporting.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Since early November, 2008, the Israeli Government has banned the foreign press from Gaza.  During the recent bombings and ground invasion, both activists and journalists had to rely on a combination of internet and telephone sources to learn what was happening.  The major exception was Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent, Ayman Mohyeldin, who, aided by a team of Palestinian journalists resident in Gaza, reported throughout the conflict.  We talk with Mohyeldin about that experience.

  • Hampshire College Divests
    American Politics, Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Israeli Matan Kohen is a student at Hampshire College and an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).  In Israel, Cohen was an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Hampshire College--the first U.S. college to divest from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa 32 years ago-- has become the first higher education institution in the U.S. to divest from companies involved in the Israeli Occupation.  We talk with SJP activist Matan Cohen about their two-year campaign, their criteria for divestment, the companies they've targetted (Caterpillar, ITT, Motorola, Terex, United Technologies and General Electric), and the college's response to a barrage of criticism from, among others, Harvard law professor and right wing Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz.

  • The Sports Blowback
    Israeli Politics, Israel/Palestine, Occupation

    Dave Zirin blends sports and politics in a weekly internet sports column Edge of Sports.  His most recent books are A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press) and Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports (Haymarket Books).  Zirin writes about sports for The Nation, SLAM, the Progressive and The LA Times.  He has written about sport fans' responses to the Israeli assault on Gaza in The Guardian.

     
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    It's a rare event in sports for political protests to force a match's cancellation.  Indeed, when demonstrating pro-Palestinian fans forced Israel's Hasharon basketball team to forfeit a game in Ankara Turkey in early January, it was the first such event since 1981 (when fans forced the cancellation of a South Africa Springbok rugby team match in New Zealand).  We talk with Dave Zirin about the growing intrusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into the world of sports.

  • Israel's Elections
    Israeli Politics, Israel/Palestine

    Michel Warschawski (Mikado) is an Israeli journalist, writer, activist and founder of  the Palestinian-Israeli Alternative Information Center,  His books include: Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society, On the Border, and The 33 Day War: Israel's War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Its Consequences (with Gilbert Achar).

     

     

     
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    The biggest surprise in last week's Israeli elections was the rise to third place of Avigdor Lieberman's extreme anti-Arab Yisrael Beitenu party.  We talk with Michel Warschawski about what Lieberman's rise in popularity, especially among younger voters, portends.

  • Our City Dreams
    Feminism, Visual Art, Film, Arts & Culture

    Nancy Spero is an artist, anti-war activist and feminist.  She was married to and collaborated with artist Leon Golub. Spero was at the forefront of the feminist movement of the late 50s and 60s and her work continues to question the polemics of sexual identity and warfare.

     

     
    Esther Kaplan

    Esther Kaplan interviews Nancy Spero who is featured, along with artists Marina Abramovic, Ghada Amer,  and Kiki Smith in the film, Our City Dreams, directed by Chiara Clemente.