In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart interviews Professor Katherine Franke, former faculty at Columbia University’s law school, about student activism and escalating repression at Columbia since October 7th, 2023. Katherine Franke just retired from Columbia, saying “I have come to the view that the Columbia University administration has created such a toxic and hostile environment for legitimate debate around the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or conduct research.” Peter and Katherine discuss the specific circumstances that led to Katherine's retirement, including extensive harassment; the conflation of Palestinian rights advocacy with antisemitism; and how the Israel/Palestine dynamics on campus point to broader threats to teaching, research, and activism on a range of issues.  Resources:  Katherine Franke’s statement about her retirement, (Center for Constitutional Rights, 1/10/25);  A Columbia professor criticized Israeli students. It put her job at risk. (Washington Post 1/22/25) Columbia Professor Says She Was Pushed to Retire Because of Her Activism, (NYT 1/10/25) “Campus Has Become Unrecognizable”: Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza (Democracy Now! September 2024) Letter from Columbia Law School faculty requesting an inquiry into Katherine’s termination from the faculty; Katherine Franke was, until January 2025, a professor at Columbia University's law school, where she served as director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, on the executive committees of Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender, and the Center for Palestine Studies. She is among the nation’s leading scholars writing on law, sexuality, race, and religion drawing from feminist, queer, and critical race theory.  Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with writer Ahmed Moor, one of FMEP’s 2025 Palestinian Non-resident Fellows, about his family and background, the values that guide his writing, and how he understands and engages with Palestinian survival in this moment. They also discuss urgent questions around navigating activism, policy change, and fraught conversations in a reality in which, in Ahmed’s words, “ the urgency of the need in Palestine isn’t met by the pace of change.” Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD, is FMEP’s Director of Programs & Partnerships. She leads FMEP’s programming, works to deepen FMEP’s relationships with existing and potential grantees, and builds relationships with partners in the philanthropic community. She earned her doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley. See more here: https://fmep.org/resource/introducing-fmeps-2025-fellow-ahmed-moor-how-to-act-when-the-urgency-of-the-need-in-palestine-isnt-met-by-the-pace-of-change/ Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's 2025 Palestinian Non-residential Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN, a research and advocacy organization focused on U.S. policy in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region. They discuss DAWN's approach to analyzing U.S. interests and policy as well as a range of mechanisms for accountability, including this December 2024 lawsuit regarding U.S. military support for Israel.  Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of DAWN. Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004 – 2020, overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Whitson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is on the boards of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, Artistic Freedom Initiative, Freedom Forward, ALQST for Human Rights, Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, Action for Hope and the Armenian Bar Association. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Atalya Ben Abba and Mattan Helman of the Israeli Refuser Solidarity Network. They discuss what makes a person refuse to serve in the Israeli military, how the Israeli military treats refusers, and the surprising solidarity inside military prisons.  Resources:  Refuser Solidarity Network: https://www.refuser.org/ Instagram: @VoicesAgainstWar X: @againstwarvoice Atalya Ben-Abba is the media manager for the Refuser Solidarity Network, running the page @VoicesAgainstWar. She refused to enlist in the Israeli army in 2017 and spent 110 days in the military prison because she wanted to publicly condemn the Israeli occupation and not take part in its practices. She has been an activist for the past ten years, working mainly in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Mattan Helman is the executive director of Refuser Solidarity Network. Mattan also spent 110 days in Israeli prison for refusing to join the Israeli army and refusing to oppress Palestinians as part of the army.  Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Nour Joudah speaks with Cal State University-San Bernadino Professor Ahlam Muhtaseb. Dr. Muhtaseb is co-founder of the Phoenix of Gaza XR, an interactive virtual reality experience that captures the untold stories of Gaza’s people and its transformation and provides a deep dive into the lives of those who endure and rebuild. The project itself started well before the current genocide, but as a result has taken on a new form and meaning. Professors Joudah and Muhtaseb discuss the Phoenix of Gaza XR as a project and how audiences are responding to it, as well as the relationship between technology and social justice and the challenges and changes they've seen over many years of teaching on Palestine in the U.S. Phoenix of Gaza XR: https://www.gazaxr.com/ Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb is a professor of media studies and the graduate coordinator of the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, San Bernardino and the Ida B. Wells Senior Data Justice Fellow at Princeton University . She is also the recipient of numerous community and research awards including CSU-SB’s Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activities and Faculty Mentor awards, the 2019 Rebuilding Alliance “Story Teller” award, and has been recently named the 2024 Women Support Organization’s Distinguished Woman of the Year. Prof. Muhtaseb co-produced and co-directed the film 1948: Creation & Catastrophe, a documentary focusing on the catastrophic consequences of 1948 for the Palestinian nation. It has been screened at over 20 film festivals and at universities and community organizations. In 2019, the film won the Jerusalem International Film Festival’s Special Jury Award. She is also the producer and lead researcher of the documentary 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime which centered the three young Muslims murdered in Chapel Hill in 2015 and discusses the state of hate crimes, Islamophobia, and racism in the United States. Nour Joudah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at UCLA and a former President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at UC-Berkeley (2022-23). Dr. Joudah completed her PhD in Geography at UCLA (2022), and wrote her dissertation Mapping Decolonized Futures: Indigenous Visions for Hawaii and Palestine on the efforts by Palestinian and native Hawaiian communities to imagine and work toward liberated futures while centering indigenous duration as a non-linear temporality. Her work examines mapping practices and indigenous survival and futures in settler states, highlighting how indigenous countermapping is a both cartographic and decolonial praxis. She also has a MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, and wrote her MA thesis on the role and perception of exile politics within the Palestinian liberation struggle, in particular among politically active Palestinian youth living in the United States and occupied Palestine. Prof. Joudah is a 2024 FMEP non-residential Fellow. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart and analyst Maha Yahya discuss the new developments in Syria. They look at how Syria's new leaders governed in the areas they controlled over the last few years, why some Syrian minorities are fleeing to Lebanon, and whether Turkey will pursue the Kurds in Syria. Maha Yahya is director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where her work focuses broadly on political violence and identity politics, pluralism, development and social justice after the Arab uprisings, the challenges of citizenship, and the political and socio-economic implications of the migration/refugee crisis. Prior to joining Carnegie, Yahya led work on Participatory Development and Social Justice at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). Yahya has worked with international organizations and in the private sector as a consultant on projects related to socioeconomic policy analysis, development policies, cultural heritage, poverty reduction, housing and community development, and postconflict reconstruction in various countries including Lebanon, Pakistan, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Yahya  is the author of numerous publications, including most recently Unheard Voices: What Syrian Refugees Need to Return Home (April 2018) and The Summer of Our Discontent: Sects and Citizens in Lebanon and Iraq (June 2017). Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP's Sarah Anne Minkin speaks with attorney and activist Meisa Irshaid, activist and author Rela Mazali, and Professor Jonathan Metzl about the proliferation of guns in civilian spaces in Israel/Palestine. They discuss the the acceleration of organized crime and gun violence in Palestinian communities inside of '48 Israel, the mass armament of Jewish Israeli citizens, mostly men, on both sides of the Green Line, spearheaded by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and the links between militarization, occupation, and crimes against humanity. Meisa Irshaid is an attorney and an activist, legal advisor to the NGO Gun Free Kitchen Tables, board member at the Human Rights Defenders Fund and former attorney in the Public Committee Against Torture-Israel. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, Meisa is also co-founder of the group Women Against Weapons, focusing on fact finding among Palestinians in Israel combining perspectives on gender and ethnicity. Rela Mazali is a writer, independent scholar and feminist anti-militarist who co-founded Gun Free Kitchen Tables, where she now serves as the coalition coordinator. Rela was born Jewish in Israel, where she has lived most of her life, which–as she sees it–places her in a position of privilege, that she has resisted since 1980 by actively opposing Israel’s militarization and military occupation, co-founding the New Profile movement to demilitarize society and state in 1998 and the small arms disarmament and gun control project, the Gun Free Kitchen Tables Coalition, in 2010. Dr. Jonathan Metzl is a psychiatrist and sociologist, and Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and the director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Jonathan works on a wide range of issues, including mental illness and gun violence and race and whiteness in America. He is the author of many books, most recently What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms. Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD, is FMEP’s Director of Programs & Partnerships. She leads FMEP’s programming, works to deepen FMEP’s relationships with existing and potential grantees, and builds relationships with new partners in the philanthropic community. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Dr. Tammy Abughnaim, an American physician who has been to Gaza twice since 10/7/23, serving as a humanitarian physician and has worked at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex; and Dr. Yara Asi, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics, and visiting scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, where she is co-director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights. Dr. Asi is also a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, a 2020-2021 Fulbright U.S. scholar to the `West Bank, and a 2023 Palestine fellow for the Foundation for Middle East Peace. For show notes/resources see: https://fmep.org/resource/eyewitness-to-is…ocalypse-in-gaza/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with writer and editor William Shoki about the history of South Africa and Israel, how South Africa's government sees its global role, and how South Africans think about Israel/Palestine in comparison to post-apartheid South Africa.  William Shoki is a writer and editor of the online magazine & archive Africa is a Country. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa. Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNBC Political Commentator. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Non-Resident Fellow Peter Beinart talks to Eyal Weizman about his work at Forensic Architecture and the recently released "Cartography of Genocide" - an interactive platform that maps Israel's genocidal bombardment of Gaza and use of mass evacuation orders to destroy civilian life. Along with the platform, Forensic Architecture released a 827-page report documenting Israeli war crimes and has presented its evidence and findings to the International Court of Justice. For resources, please visit: https://fmep.org/resource/the-cartography-of-genocide/

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Nour Joudah speaks with journalist Mariam Barghouti about reporting from the ground in the West Bank, views on the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian resistance, and understanding Israeli violence in Gaza and the West Bank within the larger frame of Palestinian history.  Mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian writer and commentator based in Ramallah. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Al-Jazeera English, Huffington Post, +972 Magazine, International Business Times and more. Nour Joudah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at UCLA, former President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at UC-Berkeley (2022-23), and 2024 FMEP Fellow. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.