Arab Talk with Jess & Jamal

Jess & Jamal discuss the recent developments of the Israeli attack on Iran. Professor William A. Schabas talks about the escalating pressure on the International Criminal Court to abandon its case against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Trump recently issued an executive order sanctioning four of the judges presiding over the case. Schabas is a Professor of International Law at Middlesex University, London, as well as Professor Emeritus at Leiden University and the University of Galway.

The Madleen set sail from Sicily on June 1st as part of the renewed Freedom Flotilla Coalition, aiming to establish a humanitarian corridor to Gaza. On board are 12 international human rights defenders from seven countries, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Huwaida Arraf, a human rights lawyer and former chair of the Gaza Freedom Flotillas, stated from Sicily that the mission directly challenges what she described as Israel's illegal and genocidal blockade, as well as its violations of international law. Israel has reportedly instructed its military to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza. The departure of the Madleen comes just one month after Israeli drones targeted and bombed the Conscience—another Freedom Flotilla aid ship—in international waters off the coast of Malta.

Jess and Jamal discuss the ongoing widespread hunger in Gaza. Jens Laerke from OCHA highlighted that Gaza is the only territory where the entire population is at risk of famine, underscoring the severity of the crisis. Recently, a new aid distribution initiative backed by the US and Israel, operated independently of the UN by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began functioning in the region. However, tensions surrounding aid access have led to violence. On Tuesday, at least 47 Palestinians were reportedly shot and injured while attempting to collect aid from a distribution site in southern Gaza. Then on Sunday, dozens were killed near an aid site.

Susan M. Akram, Clinical Professor and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, discusses a significant report she co-authored and published through the University Network for Human Rights. Titled "Apartheid in Israel: An Analysis of Israel's Laws and Policies and the Responsibilities of U.S. Academic and Other Institutions," the report presents a detailed legal analysis demonstrating how Israel's treatment of Palestinians meets the internationally recognized legal definition of apartheid. Building on this conclusion, the report goes further to explore the ethical and legal obligations of academic institutions in the United States when engaging with or supporting a state accused of committing the crime of apartheid. It underscores that, rather than facing punishment, students and others who protest these injustices should be afforded protection under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders.

In an upset victory, Canadians elected Liberal Party candidate Mark Carney as Prime Minister, defeating Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who had been leading by a wide margin as recently as four months ago. In his recent article, "How about a foreign policy that is truly a force for good?" Canadian author and activist Yves Engler explains how Carney's actions so far are not a turn for the better.

Jess & Jamal discuss the drone attack on "Conscience," the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's civilian ship, anchored in international waters 14 miles off the coast of Malta. The ship was scheduled to take on board humanitarian activists from over 21 countries, then cut a humanitarian corridor to Gaza to deliver food, water and other life essentials to Palestinians in Gaza, among them Greta Thunberg and retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright. Israel has imposed a complete siege on Gaza since March 2, not allowing an ounce of food or water in, and the 2.3 million Palestinians there are in imminent danger of starving to death.

Jewish Israeli dissident Ronnie Barkan, co-founder of "Boycott from Within," discusses the First Anti-Zionist Congress to be held in Vienna, Austria, on June 13, 2025. The congress aims to ensure anti-Zionist voices are heard globally, and that Israel is not the single legitimate representative of all Jewish people. Vienna was chosen as the location because it is the birthplace of Zionism. The congress features prominent speakers, such as Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappe, Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos, Nakba Survivor and researcher Salman Abu Sitta, Dalia Sarig, co-founder of the “Not in our Name” initiative founded by Jews in Vienna, and others, including our guest Ronnie Barkan.

Since the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has passed freely through France's airspace in early February and April of this year. French lawyer Sarah Sameur, a member of the Council for JURDI, Jurists for the Respect of International Law, explains how France has been derelict as a signatory to the Rome Statute in not apprehending the plane. She rebuts French officials' claims that France's airspace did not fall under its jurisdiction in this case.

Award-winning independent investigative journalist Lila Hassan discusses her recent article in Drop Site News entitled, "Archiving Gaza: The Race to Save Evidence of War Crimes and Mass Destruction." She talks about the challenges facing journalists, human rights organizations and investigators to collect and save evidence of war crimes, and their dangerous efforts to dodge censorship and document the horrors of Israel's war against Gaza.

Geopolitical analyst and journalist Sean Mathews discusses his article for Middle East Eye, "How Trump's Gaza ceasefire imploded". More than 700 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them women and children, have been killed by Israel since it broke the ceasefire. Netanyahu described the strikes as “just the beginning." However, the United States bears responsibility for the ongoing carnage because it is U.S.-made 2000-pound bombs that have been annihilating entire neighborhoods, killing mostly noncombatants and infants.

Dr. Lama Rimawi discusses anti-Palestinian racism in the US, which aims to censor and erase Palestinians and their narratives from the public sphere either directly through punitive measures or indirectly by eliciting fear of punitive measures to deter anyone from sharing Palestinian narratives.

Jess & Jamal discuss the renewed fears of starvation during the holy month of Ramadan as Israel blocks aid to Gaza, violating its ceasefire deal with Hamas. Over a dozen human rights experts have denounced Israel for resuming what they described as "weaponized starvation" in Gaza.

Dr. Karameh Hawash-Kuemmerle and Dr. Nidal Jboor co-founders of Doctors Against Genocide talk about their organization's work to prevent future genocides and stop Israel and other countries from targeting hospitals, patients and medical staff. They also talk about the medical community's moral obligation to safeguard life and enhance health universally.

In his recent article in The Babbler, "A Ceasefire Is Not Enough – Resisting the next phase of ethnic cleansing in Gaza," Tariq Kenney-Shawa details how this ceasefire could be nothing more than a pause for Israel to regroup and continue its killing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their ancestral lands. Jess & Jamal discuss Trump's "owning Gaza" and turning it into "a real estate development for the future."

Jewish Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan discusses how in Europe measures to repress dissent are rapidly accelerating and becoming more draconian. Laws are rapidly altered to circumvent international law to shield Israeli politicians charged with war crimes, while cracking down on critics of Israel.

Jess and Jamal discuss the release of four female Israeli soldiers held by Hamas, as Israel raided the homes of freed Palestinians, warning their families not to celebrate or speak to the media. They also addressed President Trump's proposal to relocate 1.5 million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

Human rights attorney and activist Stanley Cohen discusses the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, its long-term outlook, why it wasn't enacted eight months ago, and whether Biden or Trump deserves credit for it.

Dr. Mads Gilbert, anesthesiologist and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø, Norway, discusses Israel's 14-month onslaught on Gaza's healthcare system, killing more than 1,000 healthcare workers, with many others disappeared and tortured. Dr. Gilbert spent more than 20 years working and training Gaza doctors.

Dr. Mohja Kahf talks about the fall of the Assad regime and the aspirations of millions of Syrians to see the birth of a democratic and pluralistic Syrian government. Dr. Kahf is a poet, scholar, and professor of English at the University of Arkansas. She was born in Damascus and grew up in the Midwest.

Human rights attorney Stanley Cohen discusses Amnesty International's report which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid. Jess & Jamal break down what's behind the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

Saul Takahashi, Professor of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Osaka Jogakuin University, explains why Israel must be expelled from the United Nations. He also discusses the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.

Former field organizer for Biden's 2020 campaign and co-founder of Project 1948, Adam Abusalah, explains how the Harris campaign alienated Arab and Muslim American voters in Michigan with her support for Israel's actions in Gaza, which he argues contributed to her defeat in this swing state. Trump won Michigan by approximately 80,000 votes.

Wasting no time in taking advantage of the aftermath of October 7, Israeli settler organizations recognized an opportunity to immediately expel Palestinians from large swaths of West Bank villages, as well as to lay the groundwork for the more ambitious systematic displacement and reoccupation of Gaza. In his recent article in +972, "Copy-Paste the West Bank to Gaza: Hundreds Join Gaza Resettlement Event," Israeli journalist Oren Ziv explains how the Israeli resettlement movement is gaining plausibility.

Kamala Harris' campaign is struggling to gain traction with Arab and Muslim Americans in the swing state of Michigan. Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan's 11th district, shared his experience with the Harris campaign. He was invited to attend a Democratic rally in the Detroit area, where Harris appeared alongside Liz Cheney, but was abruptly removed without explanation. Ghanim was informed that if he did not leave voluntarily, the police would escort him out by force.

In her recent report published by Brown University's Watson Institute entitled, "The Human Toll: Indirect Deaths from the War in Gaza and in the West Bank," Dr. Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, a cultural anthropologist and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bard College, explains how death will continue to outlive the war in Gaza. She demonstrates what a realistic assessment of the true loss of life and long-term suffering involves.

Serge Bakalian, Executive Director of the Arab Film and Media Institute, and Managing Director Maya Labban present the 28th Arab Film Festival. The festival opens on Thursday, October 24th at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The festival will feature the documentary film "Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza" by Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly, and special guests, such as Alana Hadid, LIunr, and MC Abdul.

Dr. Rania Masri, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network's Co-Director of Organizing and Policy, discusses the recent attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. A supporter of Dr. Jill Stein, Dr. Masri believes that Vice President Kamala Harris is worse for world peace than former President Donald Trump.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA's Director of Communications, discusses the difficult work the organization is facing to deliver aid in Gaza, while Israel continues to thwart all its humanitarian efforts. Jess & Jamal discuss the implications to the region due to Israel's assassination of Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.

Dr. Anise Germany describes the rigging of pagers and other electronics that killed at least 37 as barbaric and an act of state terrorism. Among the dead were children, and the attacks wounded over 3,000 people in Lebanon. The explosions went off in crowded supermarkets, on busy roads, and in homes, schools, and hospitals.

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the Accountability Program Director at Defense for Children International in Palestine, discusses the findings in a newly released report entitled, "Targeting Childhood: Palestinian Children Killed By Israeli Forces and Settlers in the Occupied West Bank." On average, Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian child in the occupied West bank, including East Jerusalem, every two days since October 7, 2023. In Gaza, Israel has killed more than 16,000 children to date.

Human rights attorney and political activist Stanley Cohen discusses why Israel is consistently allowed to be the exception to U.S. law and ethical norms in the United States Government, even when its soldiers and settlers kill American citizens.

Jess & Jamal explain why time is running out for Kamala Harris to distance herself from U.S. policies that enable Israel to continue with mass murder and Genocide in Gaza. During her recent CNN interview, Harris remained in lockstep with President Biden's unconditional arming of Israel, angering uncommitted voters and shrinking her chances of defeating Donald Trump. Huge U.S. shipments of weapons and bombs to Israel keep allowing it to massacre and starve civilians of all ages while violating federal statutes as well as international law.

Canadian author and activist Yves Engler explains that the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked the tax-exempt status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Ne'eman Foundation because these organizations used donations to build military infrastructure for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), thereby violating Canadian tax rules.

Jess & Jamal discuss the impact of "uncommitted voters" in swing states in the US presidential election. Uncommitted delegates representing more than 800,000 Americans across the country who cast protest votes against then-candidate President Joe Biden for his military support of Israel are looking to VP Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention to articulate her Israel and Gaza policy and commit herself to preventing major loss of Palestinian life with US-funded weapons.

Israeli BDS activist Tali Shapiro discusses the torture and rape Palestinian prisoners suffer from Israeli soldiers in detention centers, particularly the notorious Sde Teiman military and torture facility. Israel has refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners held at Sde Teiman, which is described by human rights activists as "the Israeli Guantanamo."

Our reporter Phil Pasquini covered the "day of rage" demonstration, as approximately 400,000 pro-Palestinian protesters descended on Washington, DC to protest Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech in the US Congress. Demonstrators carried placards calling for his immediate arrest, referring to him as a "War Criminal." Netanyahu, who could soon face arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes in Gaza, presented Congress with a slew of claims for which he failed to provide evidence, according to several fact-checkers.

Laila Al-Arian, Executive Producer of Al Jazeera's Fault Lines and co-producer of the riveting documentary "The Night Won't End: Biden's War on Gaza," discusses the stories of three Palestinian families in Gaza. She highlights the devastation and anguish the ongoing genocide has brought on these families and their struggle to survive.

Sociologist and author David Miller discusses Meta's policies and practices to silence voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook. Miller recently prevailed in an employment claim against the University of Bristol for unfair termination due to his criticism of Zionism.

Veteran journalist Rami Khouri discusses the US Presidential Debate, Israel's threats to Lebanon, and how the narrative on Israel is shifting on US college campuses. Rami Khouri is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington and Distinguished Fellow at the American University of Beirut.

Legal recourse as an alternative to end Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza has brought an unprecedented number of filings in international tribunals -- three by South Africa and other signatories at the International Court of Justice, and another referred by the State of Palestine at the International Criminal Court. Dr. Richard Falk is an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years, where he was professor emeritus. In his recent article in the “Middle East Eye”, "Civil ICC case against Ursula von der Leyen raises stakes on genocide complicity," Dr. Falk discusses the recent initiative by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute calling on the ICC to investigate the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for alleged complicity in war crimes and genocide committed by Israel.

Joe Biden's support for Israel during its eight-month war in Gaza has spurred at least eight U.S. administration officials to quit, accusing the U.S. president of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian enclave. Lily Greenberg Call was the first Jewish political appointee to resign on May 15, having served as a Special Assistant to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior Chief of Staff. “I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden's disastrous, continued support for Israel's genocide in Gaza,” Greenberg Call wrote in her letter of resignation.

Israeli anti-Apartheid activist Dr. Stavit Sinai calls for an end to arms shipments to Israel which fuel its genocide in Gaza and occupation. She talks about Germany's role in suppressing any display of support for Palestinians. Jess and Jamal discuss whether the US provided support to Israeli forces in the rescue of four hostages in Gaza.

Jonathan Purcell, Senior Public Affairs Officer for the International Centre of Justice for Palestine (ICJP), discusses the ICJP's role in submitting evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza to the ICC. Evidence submitted was collected from first-hand eyewitnesses, many of them medical professionals who had been in Gaza since October.

Arwa Damon, former CNN Senior International Correspondent and founder of INARA (International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance), talks about the scale of the humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza. She says that there are no humanitarian safe zones in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and sit-ins are spreading at universities across the United States and to campuses around the world. From the US to Australia, students are calling for their universities to divest and sever ties with Israel. Will this affect President Joe Biden's re-election prospects? Our reporter in Washington, DC, Phil Pasquini, interviewed students from George Washington & Georgetown Universities.

Dr. Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History and Chancellor's Chair at the University of California Berkeley, discusses Israel's ongoing Genocide in Gaza and the growing global anti-Israel movement led by students demanding an immediate ceasefire. In the United States, students have initiated several demonstrations and sit-ins on college campuses that are reminiscent of the anti-war outcry during the Vietnam era. The most recent is at Columbia University in New York.

Ahmed Benchemsi, Advocacy and Communications Director for Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division, discusses HRW's recently released report entitled "Gaza: Israel's Imposed Starvation Deadly for Children." The report gives a grim assessment of an ongoing famine in Gaza. Since January, humanitarian organizations have been warning that famine in Gaza is imminent. Famine is now a reality, and Palestinians in Gaza are dying from starvation, with the overwhelming majority being children. Eighty percent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide now are Palestinians living in Gaza.

Jess & Jamal discuss Israel's military killing of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza. WCK has called for an independent investigation, saying that the Israeli military “cannot credibly investigate its own failure”. Several aid agencies described the attack as emblematic of the Israeli military's systematic disregard for the safety of civilians, including aid workers, during six months of war. The killing of the WCK staff – six of whom were internationals – has drawn strong rebuke, including from Israel's main allies, the UK and the US.

Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), discusses why some Arab and Muslim-American organizations and individuals living in the San Francisco Bay Area boycotted the San Francisco City Hall Iftar, stating that Mayor London Breed and several city officials have made racist, harmful, and dangerous comments about Palestinians, Muslim and Arab-American communities during the ongoing Israeli Genocide in Gaza where more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, and while Israel is deliberately starving 2.2 million Palestinians by denying the entry of food and other essential supplies into Gaza.

Why does the Israel lobby wield such power on American politics? Author Walter Hixson deconstructs AIPAC's influence on U.S. politics. His book entitled "Architects of Repression: How Israel and its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy" is a comprehensive history of the crucial role of the Israel lobby.

Francesca Albanese is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. She talks about the continuing aggression and killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel's imposed famine on Gaza, and the imperative of the signers of the Genocide Convention to act. She has stated that "Arms embargo and economic sanctions on Israel are the only way to stop the genocide in Gaza."