Disclose! Divest!: Behind the Fight Over College Endowments
As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students’ demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there’s a lot we should be asking about college endowments. We take a look at what an endowment is...
Borders: What are they good for?
What are borders, and why do we have them? And how is violent border enforcement at the US-Mexico border connected to Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza? And what happens when borders cross living land and communities? We’ll dig into these questions in this week’s episode with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. And then we’ll hear a story brought to us by In...
The Origins of Zionism
In this episode with a brief report from Gaza-based journalist Rami Almeghari, we talk to Rashid Khalidi about his book “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine” to learn about the early history of the Zionist movement and his argument that it was, from the start, a settler-colonial endeavor. Featuring: Rami Almeghari – Palestinian reporter from Gaza Rashid Khalidi – Historian and Edward Said Professor of...
Gaza, Solidarity, and the Movement for Palestinian Liberation
For weeks people around the world have been witness to Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza. Today, we uncover the military corporations profiting from the war, and highlight the activism in every corner of the world in support of Palestinian liberation. We’ll hear from Rami Almeghari, a Gaza-based journalist, to get insight on the conditions on the ground in Gaza before zooming out with Nora Barrows-Friedman to look at...
Statement of Palestinian Solidarity
We want to acknowledge that recent events have thrown into sharp relief the violence, displacement, and apartheid that Palestinians in Gaza have lived under for decades. As a media organization, we bear responsibility for telling the truth about the historical context leading us to this current crisis, one founded on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. Making Contact staff have joined other solidarity media makers and...
The Nakba: 75 Years On
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or the “catastrophe” in Arabic. It refers both to the events starting in late 1947, when Zionist militias expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, and the ongoing destruction and occupation of their lands. Today, Palestinians continue to commemorate the Nakba by reclaiming their history, resisting the occupation, and calling for their right to return. We start...
Jerusalem Calling from Kerning Cultures
The Palestine Broadcasting Service started airing in 1936, from a brand new transmitter tower in Ramallah. It was a British station in three languages, aimed at promoting the message of the mandate government throughout the region. But over the following decades, as Palestine saw political upheavals, bloody conflicts and power shifts, the radio station found itself in the middle of it all, and became a unique capsule of the...
Operation Boulder from Kerning Cultures
Since 9/11, US governmental agencies have poured millions of dollars into spying on Arabs, Muslims and Arab Americans. Their surveillance has changed countless lives as ordinary citizens all over the country were interrogated, arrested or had their homes raided. But this didn’t start in 2001. Invasive – and even illegal – surveillance programs against Arabs and Arab Americans have a long history in the US, going all...
The Nakba, the Naksa, and the Future of Palestine
In 1948 Zionist militias expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their villages and towns. The event, and the ongoing destruction and occupation of Palestine are referred to as the Nakba, “The Catastrophe.” How did the events of 1948 shape Palestine and its diaspora? And now, 70 years later, how are Palestinians fighting to return home? As news spreads of recent violence against Palestinian demonstrators calling for their right to...
