April 10, 2011

Broadcast Date: 
Apr 10 2011

The Israel Defense Force creates a special department to monitor Western activists; reproductive rights are under assault across the United States; plus the tragic assassination of West Bank theater director Juliano Mer Khamis.

Episode segments
  • Update on the BDS Movement
    American Politics, Israeli Politics, Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Cecilie Surasky is Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace and founder of Muzzlewatch, JVP's acclaimed blog documenting efforts to silence open debate about Israel Palestine policy.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    As the taboo against speaking about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions among American Jews increasingly shatters, the Israel right or wrong crowd pushes back. We talk with Cecilie Surasky about efforts to block a shareholder resolution at TIAA-CREF, to keep JVP's Brandeis chapter out of Hillel, and to criminalize pro-Palestinian activists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

  • The 2011 Budget's Sticking Point? Planned Parenthood
    National Politics, Christian Right, Electoral, Domestic Policy
    Jodi Jacobson is Editor-in-Chief of RHRealityCheck an online community and publication committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    In the budget battle that ended last Friday, negotiators finally agreed on $38.5 billion in spending cuts, thereby avoiding a government shutdown.  The sticking points, until the very end, were several social policy riders, among them, federal funds for Planned Parenthood.  The attack on Planned Parenthood was framed in terms of opposition to abortion but, according to Jodi Jacobson, abortion serves as both a wedge and a smoke screen for a long-term concerted assault on poor and low-income women and their families.

  • Juliano Mer-Khamis
    Theater, Israel/Palestine, Palestinian Politics, Arts & Culture, Occupation, Obituaries

    Udi Aloni is an Israeli writer, film maker, activist and director of the film program at the Jenin Freedom Theater.  His book, What Does a Jew Want?: On Binationalism and Other Specters,will be published this fall by Columbia University Press.

     
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Last Monday, Juliano Mer-Khamis, actor, director, filmmaker, political activist and founding director of the Jenin Freedom Theater was shot dead outside his theater at the Jenin Refugee Camp.  Juliano Mer-Khamis, whose mother was an Israeli Jew and father a Palestinian, embodied bi-nationalism in his life work and his physical being.  His film about his mother's work with the children of the Jenin Refugee camp, Arna's Children, won numerous awards at film festivals around the world.  We asked Udi Aloni to talk with us about him.