Podcasts about East Jerusalem

While all eyes are on Gaza, another war is being fought for control of Jerusalem. Hundreds of Israeli police officers mobilised Monday for Jerusalem Day, commemorating the city's total conquest by Israel in 1967. It's an opportunity for Israeli nationalists to reaffirm their hold on the city – and, increasingly, for scenes of violence against Palestinians in the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces stormed and shut down schools in occupied East Jerusalem run by the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees. Pakistan says its forces killed "40 to 50 Indian soldiers" along the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region. Dubai's Emirates airline has posted some of the biggest profits in its history. Israeli forces storm six UNRWA schools in Jerusalem Emirates posts record $5.2 billion annual profit on bumper travel demand Pakistan claims to have killed '40 to 50 Indian soldiers' This episode features Taniya Dutta, contributor; and Shweta Jain, Assistant Business Editor.  

Comprehensive coverage of the day's news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice. Palestine flag (by Makbula Nassar) Mothers hold 24-hour vigil in DC to protest republican cuts to Medicaid, as GAO says millions could lose coverage Democratic lawmakers sound alarm over DOGE plans to cut 80,000 jobs at Dept of Veteran Affairs Democratic senators say republicans want to change rules, weaken CA environmental standards to please Trump and big oil Child malnutrition, starvation on rise in Gaza after 3 months of Israeli blockade of aid Israel shuts 6 UN schools in East Jerusalem, UNRWA chief says storming schools and forcing shut is blatant disregard of international law Recently released Palestinian student activist launches campaign to boost legal aid for immigrants in Vermont The post Mothers hold 24-hour vigil in DC to protest republican cuts to Medicaid; Child malnutrition, starvation on rise in Gaza after months of Israeli blockade – May 8, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Recording of an NJN webinar on April 3, 2025. The conversation, anchored by NJN President & CEO Hadar Susskind, features Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai from Peace Now. Our guests are on the ground, leading the push against settlements and the fight for for peace.  Lior Amihai is the current Executive Director of Peace Now as well as a previous Executive Director of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. He also previously served as co-director of Settlement Watch. Hagit Ofran is the co-director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch program. With two decades of experience tracking developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, she is widely recognized as Israel's foremost expert on Israeli settlements.  Hadar Susskind is New Jewish Narrative's President and CEO. He is one of the American Jewish community's leading progressive advocacy voices with more than 25 years of experience working in Washington DC on both foreign and domestic policy.  To make a (matched!!) donation to Peace Now, click here: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give?comments=2025%20Donor%20Match

 His Week That Was – Kevin Healy, Raids on the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, with co-owner Ahmed Muna, Journalist with Islands Business, Nic Maclellan, focuses on the continuing struggles in the Pacific for self-determination and independence,  Part 2 of the country profile of Suriname in South America – PhD Candidate Sasha Gillies-Lekakis, Longtime activist for Syria, Susan Dirgham speaks about the need for the ABC to greatly improve coverage of conflicts overseas, particularly in the Middle East. Head to www.3cr.org.au/hometime-tuesday for full access to links and previous podcasts

Gaza mourns as Israeli strikes target Palestinians on Muslim holiday "Tragedy strikes Palestinians during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in Gaza. At least 33 Palestinians, including 13 children, were killed in Israeli air strikes, with many more wounded. In a holiday message, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas condemned the attacks as ""brutal Zionist aggression"" and decried the ""siege, starvation, and destruction"" across besieged Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The group accused the international community of remaining silent and blamed the US for supporting Israel amid the ongoing conflict." Netanyahu vows to enforce Trump-backed Palestinian displacement plan "Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to intensify the war on Gaza and advance a contentious, US President Donald Trump-backed plan for Palestinian displacement. Netanyahu's statement comes as an Arab summit proposes a $53 billion Gaza reconstruction plan without displacement—an initiative rejected by Israel and the US. As Israel renews its air strikes on Gaza, the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 50,200 since October 2023. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister for war crimes, while Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice." Greenland makes it clear: US won't get the island "Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen made it crystal clear: The US will not get Greenland. His statement on Facebook is a response to the US President Donald Trump's desire to take control of the Arctic territory. “We determine our own future,” Nielsen stated. Trump told NBC that he ""100 percent"" will annex Greenland, while Vice President JD Vance, visiting a US base in the island, suggested that Denmark isn't securing the island properly, suggesting that the US would do a better job." Trump expresses 'anger' at Putin over stalled Ukraine talks "Donald Trump, in a sharp shift in tone, expressed ""very angry, pissed off"" sentiments towards Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump's fiery reaction to his Russian counterpart comes amidst stalled peace talks regarding Ukraine. He threatened Putin with ""secondary tariffs on all oil exports from Russia"" if a deal isn't reached and blamed Moscow for the continued bloodshed. Putin's remarks questioning Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's leadership prompted Trump's response. Weeks ago, Trump himself had questioned Zelenskyy's leadership." China's banks plan to raise $71.6 billion to boost capital "China's banking behemoths are poised for a substantial capital infusion. Four major state-owned banks have announced plans to raise a staggering 520 billion yuan or $71.60 billion through private placements, with the finance ministry playing a pivotal role. It has been seen as a strategic step by Beijing to bolster its capacity to invigorate the nation's economy amidst headwinds. Analysts say the recapitalisation step is crucial for navigating economic deceleration and challenges in the property sector."

Israel is upping pressure on Lebanon through violations of its ceasefire agreement. Iran says the nuclear deal in its original state can't be revived. The UAE has pledged $64.5 million to a long-standing hospital in East Jerusalem.   This episode features Arab Affairs Editor Vanessa Ghanem and Assistant Foreign Editor Aveen Karim.

Katie talks to Human Rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber and Palestinian-American journalist Said Arikat about Israel's relaunched genocide, Zionism's war on free speech and Human Rights, and the attacks on Yemen. Craig Mokhiber is an American former United Nations (UN) human rights official and a specialist in international human rights law, policy, and methodology. On October 28, 2023, Mokhiber stepped down as the director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In his final letter to High Commissioner Volker Türk, he harshly criticized the organization's response to the war in Gaza, calling Israel's military intervention a "textbook genocide" and accusing the UN of failing to act. Said Arikat is a Palestinian journalist and Washington bureau chief for Al-Quds, a daily Newspaper which has been published out of East Jerusalem (uninterruptedly) since 1951. In addition to his work as a journalist, Arikat is an adjunct professor at the American University. He served as the United Nations Chief Spokesman in Iraq from 2005-2010. He is a familiar face at U.S. State Department press briefings, where he has engaged in sometimes contentious exchanges with State Department Spokespersons. ***Please support The Katie Halper Show *** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: https://x.com/kthalps Follow Katie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kthalps/ #news #politics #youtube

As Trump's global trade war rattles markets and allies prepare for a post-America world, and just after President Putin weighed in on the U.S. Ukrainian ceasefire proposal, Christiane spoke with Trump's former EU ambassador Gordon Sondland about his global realignment. Then, Christiane speaks with exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar who explains why the Kremlin is celebrating the chaos ushered in by Trump, seeing it as accelerating America's demise. Plus, the ACLU's Cecillia Wang breaks down the case of Columbia graduate and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, explaininf its significance for first amendment rights. Also on the show, Nic Robertson reports from East Jerusalem on Israel's crackdown on free speech. And from her archive, forty years since Mikhail Gorbachev became the last leader of the Soviet Union, Christiane revisits her 2012 interview with him.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's effort to reshape the Middle East aligns neatly with US President Donald J. Trump's notion of big power geopolitics. In 2023, Mr. Netanyahu outlined elements of his vision in an address to the United Nations General Assembly. The prime minister held up a map that erased Palestine and showed the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of Israel. Mr. Trump's plan to resettle Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians elsewhere and turn the war-ravaged Strip into a high-end beachfront real estate development has allowed Mr. Netanyahu to officially embrace the notion of ethnic cleansing for the first time, even though ultranationalist members of his Cabinet have long propagated expelling Palestinians from the territory. US and Israeli officials said concern that Hamas may repurpose some 30,000 unexploded ordnances was one reason why Mr. Trump proposed resettlement. Even so, Mr. Trump's plan fits a pattern, following his recognition in his first term as president of Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Since then, Mr. Netanyahu's big power vision of the Middle East has evolved substantially as a result of the toppling in December of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a Turkish-backed group with jihadist antecedents.

Trump issues deadly ultimatum to Palestinians over captives "US President Donald Trump has issued a dire ultimatum to Palestinians once again. He warned that Palestinians in Gaza will face deadly consequences if hostages are not released. ""Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is over for you,"" he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Pledging unwavering support for Israel, Trump vowed to send, what he calls, ""everything it needs to finish the job."" At least 48,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza amid a stalled ceasefire agreement reached on January 17." Israel's occupation is the real issue, not Hamas: Palestinian official "The head of Gaza's Government Information Office Salama Maroofa fired back at US President Donald Trump's call for Palestinians to release Israeli hostages or face death. He stated that Israel's occupation is the core issue, not Hamas. In a statement, Maroof accused Trump of emboldening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enabling further ""crimes against 2.4 million people."" He added that the ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is proof of Israeli crimes." Syria vows to destroy Assad's chemical weapons legacy "Syria's foreign minister has pledged to swiftly eliminate the country's remaining chemical weapons and is calling on the world for support. Speaking at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Asaad Hassan al Shaibani became the first Syrian official to address the disarmament agency. , New government's decision comes after years of controversy, despite Syria's 2013 pledge to destroy its stockpile, multiple probes confirmed chemical attacks by the Bashar al-Assad regime. For over a decade, chemical weapons watchdog's inspectors have faced roadblocks in uncovering the full extent of Syria's arsenal." US nixes intelligence-sharing with Ukraine "The US has halted intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed, a move that could shake Kiev's battlefield strategy. The Trump administration's tough stance aims to push Ukraine toward a mineral deal with the US and peace talks with Russia. President Trump earlier revealed that he received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressing willingness to negotiate. Amid concerns, Ratcliffe suggested it may soon be reversed as Washington reaffirms its support for Ukraine." UN warns of drastic food ration cuts for Rohingya refugees "The United Nations has warned it may reduce food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6 starting April 1, unless it raises $81 million. Bangladesh's top official, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, expressed concern over the potential impact of this cut, noting current rations are already insufficient. The UN's World Food Programme is scrambling for funds to avoid further worsening the humanitarian crisis. With over a million refugees, many already facing hunger, the cuts threaten to undermine basic survival needs."

In February 2025 Israeli forces raided the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem. The bookstore is one of the oldest in the city and is frequented by Palestinians, Israelis and international patrons. It is a staple in Jerusalem, and the Israeli raid prompted international outcry. The Israelis claimed that the bookstore was promoting violence – something which is abjectly false. The Educational Bookshop sells books on a wide range of topics from Palestinian liberation to Zionism to English literature. It features authors from Palestine and Israel and beyond.If you enjoy Kalam Podcast and want to support the show, there is an excellent way to do so - by signing up to our Patreon. For just $3/month you'll gain access to full length interviews with all our guests and lots of bonus material - including our series Kalam Shorts: 10-15 explainers of concepts like Zionism and Orientalism. Join at patreon.com/kalampodcastFor continuous updates on the podcast and content about Palestine and the Middle East, follow us on Instagram @kalampodcast Please subscribe to Kalam Podcast in whatever podcast application you're listening to right now - and give us a rating. It helps other people find out about us.

08:00 – Mohammed El-Kurd, poet, journalist and organizer from East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine; culture editor at Mondoweiss and Palestine correspondent for The Nation. He is out with a new book of essays entitled Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal. Perfect Victims is being offered as a premium this fund drive. Find that book and others on our support page. The post Mohammed El-Kurd Fund Drive Special appeared first on KPFA.

The PM responds to accusations he's been silent over Islamophobic attacks; dismay over the closure of four UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem; and, in sport, Australia's Adam Scott weighs into the debate about the PGA reunifying with LIV Golf.

The PM responds to accusations he's been silent over Islamophobic attacks; Dismay over the closure of four UN agency schools in East Jerusalem; And in sport, Australia's Adam Scott weighs into the debate about the PGA reunifying with LIV Golf.

In our news wrap Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul met with political leaders in Manhattan to decide whether to remove NYC Mayor Adams from office, all living Israeli hostages set to be freed under phase one of the ceasefire deal in Gaza will be released by Hamas this weekend and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided and closed four of its schools in East Jerusalem. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Rabbi Dunner explores what it truly means to be “People of the Book,” reflecting on the Torah's timeless mission to elevate and enlighten. Using the recent arrests of two East Jerusalem booksellers accused of incitement, he contrasts the Jewish commitment to using books for good with the misuse of books as tools of hatred. A compelling call to uphold the sacred power of the written word in a world where it's often weaponized.

! JOIN US AT SAMFIRE'S EP LAUNCH PARTY TONIGHT ! This week's political news reads like a playbook in fascist propaganda - and rule number 1 is throwing minorities under the bus. Whether it's Trump's America, Merz's Germany or Starmer's Great Britain, leadership apparently now means bowing to the myths of the masses - myths the media has miserably failed to correct. Is there really a ‘migrant crime wave'? We review worldwide data to equip listeners with the facts missing from the mainstream media. What about ‘the war on women's sports'? How many transgender athletes does it take for the Trump administration to ceremoniously sign a national ban? (Apparently, just 10 - we wonder what Musk's ‘Department of Government Efficiency' makes of that use of federal funds.) And guess who predicted Hamas' hesitation over hostage releases, following Trump's plans to “take over” Gaza? The families of those hostages. So why did their concerns barely make the press? We finish News Watch with Eyes On Palestine: new frontiers of war emerge in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia) The music is by Samfire (@samfire) Follow us @mediastormpod Support us on Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Egyptian, Jordanian leaders stress 'unity' of positions on Gaza "Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II reaffirmed their united stance on Gaza, emphasising the urgent need for a full ceasefire, continued hostage releases and humanitarian aid. The joint statement came a day after Jordan's king met with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Both leaders also pushed for a swift reconstruction plan for Gaza, opposing Trump's plan, which the US president suggested rooting out Palestinians from their lands." UN warns Israel's genocidal acts in Gaza could be repeated in West Bank "Israel's genocidal acts in Gaza could spread to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, warns UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Speaking to Anadolu in the Netherlands, she said Israeli attacks have escalated, with 830 Palestinians killed and over 300 detained from October 2023 to October 2024. Many detainees have faced torture, rape and even death in custody, she noted. Albanese condemned unchecked settler violence and urged the world to act: Even if you don't conclude that this is genocide, doesn't matter. There's an obligation to prevent a genocide." Trump says he will likely meet Putin in Saudi Arabia "US President Donald Trump says he will probably meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Saudi Arabia—a step towards ending the Ukraine conflict. ""I'll be dealing with President Putin, largely on the phone, and we ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he'll come here, and I'll go there, and we're going to meet also, probably in Saudi Arabia,"" he told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump downplayed Ukraine's NATO membership and cast doubt on its full territorial recovery. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Trump's interest in achieving peace, insisting that global unity can pressure Russia into ending the war. " North Korea demolishes war reunion center: South Korea "North Korea is tearing down the Mount Kumgang Reunion Center, a site that once brought together families separated by the Korean War. South Korea has condemned the demolition as ""inhumane"" and demands an immediate halt. Since 1988, over 133,600 South Koreans have registered as separated families, yet only a fraction have reunited. As of 2025, around 36,000 are alive, according to official data. The last meeting between the two was in 2018. Pyongyang now labels Seoul a “hostile state.”" NASA warns astronomers about asteroid's updated trajectory "NASA's latest update has astronomers on high alert: Asteroid 2024 YR4, a 90-meter-wide rock, now has a 2.3 percent chance of striking Earth on December 22, 2032. While the risk remains low, the increase from 1.3 percent has sparked renewed focus on its trajectory. Experts assure there is no immediate threat but emphasize the importance of planetary defence. If it were to hit, the asteroid could cause severe seismic activity and regional climate disruptions. Ongoing research and improved tracking methods aim to refine predictions and mitigate potential risks."

President Donald Trump threatened cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in Palestinians from Gaza; meanwhile the agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees - is still operating in East Jerusalem, even though Israel's ban on the agency went into effect last week. The U.S. has declared famine in part of Darfur; VOA talks with refugees who fled. Plus, a look at the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: what it means and why the president might have wanted to suspend it.

An AI summit in Paris brings together world leaders, scientists and tech executives to discuss the groundbreaking impact of artificial intelligence, with EU nations and India playing “catch-up” to the US and China. Also, Senegal renames its streets that were named after French colonial figures to those of prominent Senegalese. And, Israeli police arrest two Palestinian bookstore owners in occupied East Jerusalem, with Arab and Jewish supporters protesting their detention in front of a Jerusalem court. Plus, conservationists build "sloth bridges" in Costa Rica to keep the animals safe.Listen to today's Music Heard on Air. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

President Trump has said he'll announce further tariffs on America's trading partners in the coming days, including a 25% charge on all steel and aluminium imports. We'll hear from the country most exposed - Canada.Also on the programme: Can an Artificial Intelligence summit in Paris deliver new global rules; and the East Jerusalem bookshop raided by Israeli police, and its owners in court, over disrupting public order. One of their brothers says it's an assault on free speech.(File Picture: Workers weld steel at Steelcon, a structural steel design and fabrication company, January 31, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio)

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on an Israeli police raid on a Palestinian bookstore in East Jerusalem.

Arab nations slam Netanyahu's comments for Palestinian state on Saudi land "Arab nations have fiercely rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal of a Palestinian state on Saudi land. Saudi Arabia slammed the idea as a diversion from Israel's actions in Gaza, while the Arab League called it ""detached from reality."" The Saudi foreign ministry said Netanyahu's statements aim to divert attention from the continuous crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Regional outrage followed, with Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates denouncing the remarks as violations of international law." No power can force Palestinians out of their homeland: Türkiye "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that no force can expel Palestinians from their homeland. ""Palestine, including Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, belongs to the Palestinians,"" Erdogan said. Speaking in Istanbul before departing for Malaysia, another nation opposing Israeli war in the region, Erdogan dismissed US proposals on Gaza, calling them unworthy of discussion." Dozens killed in terror attack in Mali "At least 25 gold miners were killed, and 13 injured in a brutal terrorist ambush near Mali's Gao region, the army confirmed. The attack targeted a convoy of miners under military escort. In swift retaliation, Malian forces eliminated 19 terrorists. The assault, near Kobe, saw militants fire on fleeing civilians. No group has claimed responsibility, however, Daesh and Al-Qaeda-linked factions operate in the area." Colombia's Petro urges ministers to resign ahead of reshuffle "Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for the resignation of his entire cabinet ahead of an approaching reshuffle. The decision came after Environment Minister Susana Muhamad's resignation in protest of Petro's appointment of Armando Benedetti, citing concerns. Petro says the changes aim to better fulfill his administration's mandate." US funnelled $472 million for 'state propaganda': WikiLeaks "WikiLeaks has unveiled shocking details in a report, claiming that the US funnelled $472.6 million into Internews Network—a global non-governmental organisation accused of covert censorship and media control. USAspending data shows 87% of the funding —equivalent to $415 million — came from USAID, while the US State Department added $57 million. With ties to Soros and Clinton initiatives, Wikileaks also said Internews trained 9,000 journalists and backed social media censorship. As Trump freezes USAID's budget, critics call it a “state propaganda network.”"

"Killing and Starving children is not Jewish. Fighting antisemitism demands decoupling of Jews from Israel." Since many people don't have time to read full articles anymore, I want to start by linking to two poignant interviews I've had the privilege of conducting over the last few years: - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital: lost his wife to leukaemia aged just 43, leaving him with their 8 children. Just four months later,during the 2008-9 Gaza War, three of his daughters and one niece were killed. And yet Izzeldin has dedicated his life to using health as a vehicle for peace.  https://play.rtl.lu/shows/en/in-conversation-with-lisa-burke/episodes/n/1612726 - Bassam Aramin, Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, Israeli, are members of The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF), due to the most painful loss of their daughters at different times due to the intractable Israel and Palestine conflict. They have become 'brothers' and advocate constantly for solidarity and peace in their land. https://play.rtl.lu/shows/en/in-conversation-with-lisa-burke/episodes/n/2171062 Last week saw the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It also saw the return of Palestinians to the north of Gaza. This juxtaposition of events hits hard. The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz had 56 survivors of the camp in attendance; down from 200 survivors for the 75th anniversary. We are losing the voice of those who experienced violence, discrimination, hatred and genocide first hand in these camps of torture and death. Of course we must add it was not only Jews that suffered in these camps. Meanwhile, anti-semitism is on the rise since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza and Lebanon. This sudden attack on 7 October was not out of nowhere of course. It follows in a line of attacks on both sides, and in the greater region, over decades, despite various ‘agreements', ‘accords', political handshakes… nothing has yet brought peace. On my show this week I have four strong and learned voices on the region, the culture and the law: - Dalia Hader, a Palestinian living in Luxembourg who is asking for petition signatures here so that the Government of Luxembourg discusses this topic in the chamber: “Luxembourg must sanction Israel for its policies in Palestine.” https://www.petitions.lu/petition/3231 - Martine Kleinberg, President, Jewish Call for Peace a.s.b.l. - Dr. Michel Erpelding, International lawyer specialising in this region - Dr. Engy Ali, President of MSF Luxembourg Dalia Hader, is a Palestinian from Jerusalem but grew up primarily in Amman, Jordan. Like so many Palestinians, families often move if they have a choice as it becomes untenable to ‘live' and raise a family in Israel / Palestine. Current records show the state of Palestine to have about 5.5 million inhabitants. The Palestinian diaspora is numbered at about 7.4 million. About one third of Palestinians living in Palestine are under the age of 15; only about 3% live to be over 65. We discuss one definition of genocide with Dr. Michel Erpelding, which targets the killing of children to minimise population growth. Access to care and medication Dr. Engy Ali, President of Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF Luxembourg, is specialised in Critical Care medicine and public health, working for over 20 years in the medical and humanitarian field; 12 years with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders. She has worked in Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Haiti, Liberia, DRC, Philippines, Pakistan, Gaza and Europe.   The MSF team in Gaza have lost 9 members since 7 October 2023. This loss is deeply felt by the MSF family as they dedicate their lives to giving access to health to all, equally. ‘Access to care and medication' is, according to Dr. Ali, the driving force of MSF. Dr. Ali reminds us that MSF has been present in Gaza for years. She herself was working Gaza in 2020, trying to organise medical evacuation programmes for complex trauma cases (but then Covid 19 happened.) “Our humanitarian action in Gaza is guided by our core humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality, but we do not stay silent about humanitarian crises as in Gaza. We publicly speak out and report attacks on healthcare facilities, shortages of medical supplies, and obstacles to access care, ensuring that humanitarian needs are recognized.” The testimonials you hear in this interview are from from Nadia Abo Mallouh, MSF medical coordinator from Rafah, and Abu Abed, Deputy Medical Coordiantor. Impunity reinforces antisemitism Martine Kleinberg, President of Jewish Call for Peace (JCP) has worked unceasingly to increase the clamour of Jewish voices that do not want to be connected with the direction of Israel's government and want to work with Palestinians for peace. This is a growing movement around the world with the Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Not in My Name refrain. https://jewishcallforpeace.lu Martine is herself trained in conflict resolution and prevention.  JCP is a founding Member of the European Jews for Palestine launched in October 2024, with more than 20 organisations in 14 European countries, a member of Global Jews for Palestine, and a Member of Luxembourg Collectives for Palestine. On 1 February Martine organised a conference to discuss: “Exploiting Memory: the Holocaust and the distortion of antisemitism” In organising this event, Martine faced cultural decision makers in Luxembourg who did not want their venue associated with such open conversations. Neimënster said no; the Culture Bar said yes. Neimenster said this event did not “correspond to their values…the title leads to negative interpretations against associations and institutions partnered with Neimënster. As a public establishment we remain a neutral entity and cannot be associated with this type of event” Martine is extremely clear in her own reckoning of what the Israeli government are doing to use Judaism as an instrument of war: “I refuse the instrumentalization of my Jewish identity for colonialist supremacist purpose, that has nothing to do with Judaism. My commitment is the solidarity with the oppressed and deconstruction of antisemitic prejudices.” Martine believes strongly that there is a “weaponization of the Holocaust memory and antisemitism by Israel, to gain impunity, which is destroying international law”. “Fighting antisemitism demands decoupling of Jews from Israel.” Martine Kleinberg is aghast on why almost no religious leaders, of all religions, cannot speak out with clarity that the violence against a trapped civilian population in Gaza is indefensible and wrong Does International Law have any power anymore? Michel Erpelding, is a legal scholar in the history of international law, with an additional degree in Middle Eastern studies, and works on international law particularly related to colonialism and individual rights. We speak about the definitions of international lawyers and the International Criminal Court of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and apartheid.   Israel was viewed by the UN, well before 7 October 2023, as an occupying power in Gaza, and as such remained bound by international law to meet the essential needs of the civilian population. Israel can control water going into Gaza. It can exert decisive control over Gaza via land, air and sea. We explore the notion of ‘double standards' in political discourse when it comes to annexation (for example, Putin annexing Crimea; Netanyahu annexing East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank). Naturally the 7 October attacks by Hamas was the catalyst to this most recent war, but there is also the legal notion of ‘proportionality' in war. Dr. Erpeling and Dalia discuss why the Oslo Accords of 1995 did not work. “Oslo led to a clearer apartheid reality in the West Bank and Jerusalem” says Dalia, and goes on to say how certain Palestinian segregation means one cannot drive on certain roads, cannot visit certain parts of Palestine without the ‘right' passport, requires a certain number plate, will be held up for hours at check-points to be humiliated, and so the layers of discrimination continue. This un-ending story of war sits in a region where, fundamentally, humanity has been abandoned. And this humanity at its core, will find not much difference between Israelis and Palestinians, just like the Irish and Northern Irish, just like the Ukrainians and Russians. When the Ukraine war started, how often did we hear the line, “But they are our brothers and sisters?”  Humanity is a source of life and support. Borders, walls, check-points, active discrimination and suppression are not the acts of humans who, with a religion or not, know what is right in their heart. Let's end with a recent poll in the French newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, which showed that when 986 people aged between 16 and 24 were questioned about the Holocaust, one in five had never heard of it (18%), and almost one in five had heard of it without knowing more (17%). Let's try to remember what has gone before.  Let's try to break the circles of hatred in history. Get in touch  Contact Lisa on LinkedIn or via her website. Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Watch on RTL Play. Tune in to The Lisa Burke Show on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon, and Tuesdays at 11am.

UNRWA, the United Nations' Palestinian relief agency, said it remains operational in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem despite an Israeli ban. The law passed in October forbids UNRWA from operating on Israeli land and from contact with Israeli authorities. Nick Schifrin discussed more with William Deere of UNRWA and Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was this week ordered to stop its operations in occupied East Jerusalem, three months after Israel's parliament voted to ban it. UNRWA is the main provider of humanitarian aid and other public services for Palestinians. In East Jerusalem, it runs 12 facilities that provide critical public services, including schools where more than 1,200 children are enrolled and free clinics that serve more than 70,000 people. But the impact of the ban would extend across the West Bank as well, where the organisation offers primary healthcare services and 47,000 children go to UNRWA schools. The move would also affect its work in Gaza. During Israel's war on the enclave, up to a million people at a time have sought refuge in UNRWA shelters. Pressure from the international community and pleas by UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini at the UN Security Council to stop the ban from being put into effect have failed so far. Israel insisted the ban would not be reversed and the US backed its “sovereign decision”, saying UNRWA is not the only provider of aid to Palestinians. Despite the legislation, UNRWA has stated it will continue to do its work for as long as it can, but fears are growing that the ban will have far-reaching consequences. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA's director of external relations and communications, about the toll this could take on Palestinians in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and how the agency will be able to carry out its work going forward.

UNRWA, the United Nations' Palestinian relief agency, said it remains operational in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem despite an Israeli ban. The law passed in October forbids UNRWA from operating on Israeli land and from contact with Israeli authorities. Nick Schifrin discussed more with William Deere of UNRWA and Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

A new law went into effect yesterday, preventing UNRWA from operating in Israel and Palestinian territories. This move is expected to leave tens of thousands of residents in occupied West and East Jerusalem without access to education, healthcare and other essential services. We speak to Juliette Touma, UNRWA Communications Director.

Argentina's president reverses a law that established femicide as a crime. Also, a new report shows that the majority of young people in the UK would prefer to live in a dictatorship, and many of them also want the army to be in charge. And, the Israeli government has banned the UN's Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, from operating in Israel land in East Jerusalem. Plus, Spanish guitarist Antonio Rey's latest flamenco album is up for a Grammy Award in the Best Global Music Album category.Listen to today's Music Heard on Air. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With new Israeli legislation coming into effect on Thursday outlawing Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, international staff have already been forced to leave the agency's headquarters in East Jerusalem for Jordan, after their visas were cut short.The UN is bracing for the “nightmare scenario” which would mean a halt to all operations – a major blow to “all the people it serves” in the region, UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler told UN News's Ezzat El-Ferri from Amman, Jordan.The move represents another blow to multilateralism worldwide, he said.

* Israel says UNRWA must leave East Jerusalem by January 30 Israel's United Nations envoy, Danny Danon, has told the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA must "cease its operations in [East] Jerusalem, and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city" by January 30. A law banning UNRWA's operation on Israeli land and contact with Israeli authorities takes effect on January 30. * Pete Hegseth confirmed as defence secretary after Vance's tiebreaking vote Vice President JD Vance has broken the Senate's 50-50 vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as the US Secretary of Defense despite questions over qualifications and allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behaviour toward women. The voting late on Friday was at a 50-50 tie before Vance broke the tie. Rarely has a Cabinet nominee faced such wide-ranging concerns about his experience and behaviour as Hegseth, particularly for such a high-profile role leading the US military. * UN peacekeepers locked in 'intense' fighting against M23 rebels in DRC The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said that its peacekeepers are "engaged" in "intense" fighting against M23 rebels, who have almost encircled the main city in the country's east. The UN said in a statement that its mission's Quick Reaction Forces have "been actively engaged in intense combat" over the past 48 hours, carrying out heavy artillery fire against M23 positions. The mission reported that heavy clashes were ongoing for the control of Sake — a town in DRC's eastern province of North Kivu. * Sudan army breaks RSF's siege on Khartoum HQ, reclaims oil refinery The Sudanese army has said it broke a siege of its headquarters in Khartoum by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which had encircled it since war broke out in April 2023. In a statement, the army said troops in Bahri (Khartoum North) and Omdurman across the Nile River had "merged with our forces stationed at the General Command of the Armed Forces". A military source confirmed that "the arrival of the forces from Bahri completely lifted the siege on the command". * Experts look for clues as mysterious deaths grip India-administered Kashmir Authorities in the India-administered Jammu and Kashmir region are probing the mysterious deaths of 17 people in a remote village, which has led to a lockdown. Over the past month, 17 individuals from three connected families, including 12 children, have died in the village of Badhaal in the Rajouri district, situated along the Line of Control, the boundary between India- and Pakistan-administered parts of the disputed Kashmir region. The deaths took place between December 7 and January 19. Around 200 people have been quarantined, while six others have been hospitalised and are in stable condition, according to officials.

In this hard-hitting episode of Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael, we welcome Chris Gunness, former Director of Communications and Advocacy for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), to discuss Israel's controversial ban on UNRWA and its far-reaching consequences for both Palestinians and Israelis. With the Knesset's legislation poised to expel UNRWA from Jerusalem and restrict its humanitarian operations, the episode delves into the grave repercussions of this move, including its impact on over 63,000 Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem and the broader implications for regional stability. Gunness breaks down how this decision not only undermines UNRWA's vital services, such as education, healthcare, and food aid, but also sets the stage for the de facto annexation of Jerusalem in violation of international law, as highlighted by the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) recent ruling. Tune in for a compelling discussion that unpacks the complex layers of this issue and why it's not only a humanitarian crisis but also a political and moral one that could harm not only Palestinians but also Israel itself. We will discuss Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem in the course of this conversation and Chris will answer questions about some of the attacks that have been made on UNRWA in the past year. This is a must-listen episode for those seeking a deeper understanding of the intersection between international law, humanitarian aid, and the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine. Don't miss it!

What makes a perfect victim?For Palestinians fighting to keep their stories alive in the media, it often feels that they must audition for the sympathies of their Western audiences.If they don't fit the mould - then their voices are ignored.In 2021, Mohammed al-Kurd was catapulted into the spotlight when his family's home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah was being forcefully evicted by Israeli settlers.Since then, he's been one of the most outspoken and unapologetic Palestinian voices, using his social media presence, as well as his poetry and journalism, to push back against the media's skewed narratives of his people.He is the author of the celebrated poetry collection 'Rifqa', and the upcoming book 'Perfect Victims'.This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with Mohammed al-Kurd to talk about flipping the script on how Palestinians are expected to speak and behave in the public eye.We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at mh@middleeasteye.org or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

J.J. and Dr. Aaron Koller tremble in fear of this awesome Biblical episode, but they still manage to discuss fascinating theological and historical interpretations of the story. Follow us on Twitter (X) @JewishIdeas_Pod to sacrifice time on the altar of scrolling. Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice!We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.orgFor more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcastsAaron Koller is professor of Near Eastern Studies at Yeshiva University. Aaron has held research positions at Cambridge University and in the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, he has been a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and was a fellow at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in East Jerusalem and the Hartman Institute in West Jerusalem. He is the author of Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Unbinding Isaac: The Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought (JPS/University of Nebraska Press, 2020), among other books, the editor of five more, and is currently working on a cultural history of the alphabet. He lives in Queens, NY with his partner, Shira Hecht-Koller, and their children.

It's #GivingTuesday so naturally, our latest episode is with Giving Tuesday CEO Asha Curran, who takes us behind the scenes of a movement that's revolutionizing global generosity. With real-time tracking of $3.1B in donations across 105 countries, Asha reveals how data is reshaping philanthropy's future. She challenges traditional giving narratives, showing how everyday acts of generosity create lasting community transformation. Through rich storytelling and compelling insights, she illustrates how Giving Tuesday has evolved from a single day of giving into a year-round force for positive change.   In our previous conversation, Sean Carroll shares his remarkable journey leading Anera's $100M humanitarian mission across the Middle East. Drawing from 25 years of experience and personal insights from living in East Jerusalem, Carroll offers a powerful perspective on transforming communities through innovative aid. His leadership spans from delivering critical medical relief to pioneering tech training programs that create sustainable economic opportunities. Carroll's intimate knowledge of the region and dedication to building lasting change shines through in this compelling discussion.   These conversations will transform how you think about global impact and the power of giving. Listen now on BBBGive.org or your favorite podcast platform.   #HeartOfGiving #GivingTuesday #GlobalImpact #Philanthropy      

This week, we continue our two-part series on one of the most the challenging questions about Israel today: Is Israel an Apartheid state? In the second-part of the series, we'll dig deeper into East Jerusalem and address the broader historical, political, and social context of this fraught and heated topic. Click here for the sources we used in this episode. ------------------- This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a division of OpenDor Media. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Jewish History Nerds Wondering Jews Soulful Jewish Living

This week, we're diving into one of the most heated and challenging questions about Israel today: Is it an apartheid state? Yeah, it's uncomfortable—and complicated. In this first part of a two-part series, Noam Weissman unpacks the history of apartheid, walks us through the situation in the West Bank, and lays out the daily realities for both Israelis and Palestinians. No slogans, no “talking points,” just an honest look at the facts—and the feelings—that shape this conversation. Whether you're yelling “of course not!” or “absolutely yes!” (or somewhere in between), this episode will challenge what you think you know. Stick around for Part 2 next week, where we'll dig even deeper into East Jerusalem and what this debate means for Israelis, Palestinians, and the rest of us. ------------------- This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, a division of OpenDor Media. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Jewish History Nerds Wondering Jews Soulful Jewish Living

On 11/28/24, despite warnings by the international community against such a step, Israel's Knesset voted overwhelmingly to adopt two laws that effectively ban the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency that has served the needs of Palestinian refugees since 1949, from operating in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories (West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). Experts weigh in on what these laws say and what they will mean for Palestinian refugees. Find resources and speaker bios at: https://fmep.org/event/israels-unrwa-ban-what-it-means-for-gaza-the-un-and-the-world/

The Knesset has voted to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, prompting much concern, even from Israel's closest allies. Two bills were passed on Tuesday with overwhelming majorities: the first to halt the relief agency's activities in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, and the second to ban the Israeli state from interacting with the organisation. The move would make it almost impossible for UNRWA to operate in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. It would hinder the agency's financial operations and break aid supply chains into the enclave, where the north has already been starved, bombed and besieged for about a month. More than 43,100 have been killed in Gaza since the war began. This isn't the first time that UNRWA, and the UN more broadly, have come under attack from Israel, politically or physically. The war in Gaza has been the deadliest for UN workers, killing more than 220 staff members from the agency. UNRWA funding was cut by western states after Israel accused some of its members of being involved in the October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and led to the start of the war. Although most have since reinstated their funding, the US – the largest donor – has yet to overturn its suspension. The ban deals a blow to the 75-year-old organisation, which serves six million Palestinian refugees across the region. World leaders have warned that the consequences could be serious. Legal experts say the Knesset's decision may be breaching international law. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the effect of the UNRWA ban on Palestinians in Gaza, and examines the legal consequences it could have on Israel and its standing at the UN. We hear from Chris Gunness, former director of communications and advocacy at UNRWA, and international human rights lawyer Saul Takahashi.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.globaldispatches.orgUNRWA is a unique humanitarian agency. It is both a humanitarian relief provider for millions of Palestinians across several countries, and in many places, it functions as a de facto municipal government, providing services like schools, healthcare, and trash collection. Together, UNRWA provides a social safety net for 2.5 million people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.And now, all of that might end.Unlock the episode: https://www.globaldispatches.org/

UNRWA is a unique humanitarian agency. It is both a humanitarian relief provider for millions of Palestinians across several countries, and in many places, it functions as a de facto municipal government, providing services like schools, healthcare, and trash collection. Together, UNRWA provides a social safety net for 2.5 million people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.And now, all of that might end.Earlier this week, the Knesset passed a bill that would effectively force UNRWA to cease operations in the Occupied Territories and Gaza. The bill establishes bureaucratic barriers that prevent the Israeli government from cooperating with UNRWA, effectively dismantling it by making it impossible for UNRWA to operate in the West Bank and East Jerusalem without Israeli consent. In Gaza, it technically could continue its operations, but practically, UNRWA would not be able to function. It would lack the ability to coordinate with the Israeli government to ensure the safe passage of humanitarian goods or interact with Israeli inspectors who vet all goods entering the Gaza Strip. UNRWA is the single most important humanitarian agency still operating in Gaza, and when this bill comes into force, it will simply be unable to function in that capacity.On this special episode of To Save Us From Hell, Anjali Dayal and I take a deep dive into the implications of Israel's decision to evict UNRWA. We discuss UNRWA's unique history as a UN agency, its singular role in Palestinian life, and explain why a wildly diverse set of countries — from Cuba to the United States — has condemned Israel's actions against UNRWA.This episode is available exclusively to our paid supporters. Subscribe to unlock all our content, including every episode of our new UN podcast.Substack makes it very easy to access these paid episodes on either Spotify, Apple Podcasts or directly in the Substack App. Once you get a paid subscription you'll receive instructions. If you have any questions, just reach out This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.globaldispatches.org/subscribe

*) South Africa files 'evidence' of Israel's Gaza 'genocide' with ICJ South Africa has filed "evidence of a genocide" committed by Israel in Gaza with the International Court of Justice. The evidence shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza. It supplements facts and arguments in South Africa's ongoing genocide case against Israel. The parties to the case have already argued that Israel's actions such as using starvation as a weapon of war, and depopulating Gaza through mass killings and forced displacement of Palestinians amount to genocide. *) Israel bombs eastern Lebanon, kills 60 people Meanwhile, Israel continues to bomb Lebanon as the death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanese villages in eastern Lebanon's city of Baalbek has risen to at least 60. Israel has already blocked the only route for the displaced families fleeing from a crossing from Lebanon into Syria. The land crossing on Lebanon's northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria's Homs province. It was put out of service last Friday when the Israeli strike created a large crater that blocked vehicle traffic. *) Massacre of a massacre: Thailand's Tak Bai Muslim victims denied justice A court in southern Thailand dropped a case against former state security personnel and officials over the killing of 85 Muslim protesters in 2004. Families of the victims of what is known as the Tak Bai massacre in April accused seven soldiers and government officials of murder, attempted murder and unlawful detention. The court however said that while there was enough evidence for an indictment, the case was unable to proceed as no suspects were arrested and brought to the court. As a result, the 20-year statute of limitations expired on Friday. *) Israel bans UNRWA in occupied territories Israel's Knesset has passed two bills aimed at ending the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) across the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, drawing increasing international concern. The UN expressed "profound concern" over the Israeli parliament's bills. The bill bans the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. The UN Secretary-General wrote to the Prime Minister of Israel, expressing his profound concern about those bills and their impact. *) US finalises curbs on investing in Chinese tech The Biden administration has said it is finalising rules that will limit US investments in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China. The rules will apply to semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems and cover technologies like cutting-edge code-breaking computer systems or next-generation fighter jets.

*) South Africa files 'evidence' of Israel's Gaza 'genocide' with ICJ South Africa has filed "evidence of a genocide" committed by Israel in Gaza with the International Court of Justice. The evidence shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza. It supplements facts and arguments in South Africa's ongoing genocide case against Israel. The parties to the case have already argued that Israel's actions such as using starvation as a weapon of war, and depopulating Gaza through mass killings and forced displacement of Palestinians amount to genocide. *) Israel bombs eastern Lebanon, kills 60 people Meanwhile, Israel continues to bomb Lebanon as the death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanese villages in eastern Lebanon's city of Baalbek has risen to at least 60. Israel has already blocked the only route for the displaced families fleeing from a crossing from Lebanon into Syria. The land crossing on Lebanon's northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria's Homs province. It was put out of service last Friday when the Israeli strike created a large crater that blocked vehicle traffic. *) Massacre of a massacre: Thailand's Tak Bai Muslim victims denied justice A court in southern Thailand dropped a case against former state security personnel and officials over the killing of 85 Muslim protesters in 2004. Families of the victims of what is known as the Tak Bai massacre in April accused seven soldiers and government officials of murder, attempted murder and unlawful detention. The court however said that while there was enough evidence for an indictment, the case was unable to proceed as no suspects were arrested and brought to the court. As a result, the 20-year statute of limitations expired on Friday. *) Israel bans UNRWA in occupied territories Israel's Knesset has passed two bills aimed at ending the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) across the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, drawing increasing international concern. The UN expressed "profound concern" over the Israeli parliament's bills. The bill bans the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. The UN Secretary-General wrote to the Prime Minister of Israel, expressing his profound concern about those bills and their impact. *) US finalises curbs on investing in Chinese tech The Biden administration has said it is finalising rules that will limit US investments in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China. The rules will apply to semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems and cover technologies like cutting-edge code-breaking computer systems or next-generation fighter jets.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in ToI's Jerusalem office for today's episode. Yesterday, prosecutors announced that seven Israeli citizens were arrested last month on suspicion of spying for Iran for as long as two years, carrying out hundreds of tasks at the behest of the Islamic Republic. This morning, another Iranian espionage case was announced in which seven East Jerusalem residents have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks in Israel, including the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and a mayor in central Israel. Horovitz discusses these incidents and other similar Iranian efforts. The IDFs on Monday declassified intelligence on the Hezbollah terror group's finance hub, including a bunker hidden underneath a hospital in south Beirut that it said contains hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold. We observe the way this cynical use of a hospital played out in international media. The Israel Aviation Authority briefly halted and then resumed takeoffs at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport yesterday around the time in which the IDF said that helicopters and fighter jets intercepted and shot down five drones over the Mediterranean Sea, before they entered Israeli airspace. Horovitz speaks about Israel's increased isolation during this time of war. Almost a week after the elimination of Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, Horovitz weighs in on leaders' predictions that this is a turning point in the war. For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Seven Jewish Israelis arrested for spying for Iran on security figures, IDF bases Air Force pounds Hezbollah's Beirut stronghold after civilians told to evacuate area IDF: Hezbollah hiding $500 million in gold, cash in bunker under Beirut hospital Ben Gurion briefly halts takeoffs as drones downed over sea; rocket lands near Tel Aviv British Airways suspends all Israel flights until March 2025 amid escalation fears Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. Illustrative image: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to a speaker in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, October 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the world watches, Israel and Iran are squaring off for a potential war. Meanwhile, a Texas evangelical preacher, who runs the biggest Christian Zionist group in the world, is cheering on the coming apocalypse—as predicted in his 2005 book, Jerusalem Countdown. John Hagee even flew to DC to persuade Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, to jam through another military aid package. Julian examines the real-world significance of conflicting religious prophecies focused on one particular piece of real estate in East Jerusalem as the “shoreline of eternity”—the portal into God's Kingdom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tareq Abu Hamed, Ph.D., and Rabbi Michael Cohen talk about the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel's Negev region. The nearly 30-year-old academic and research institution brings together students and faculty from Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and elsewhere to build relationships and solve pressing environmental challenges. Arava is partnering with a Palestinian organization on a new plan to meet needs for water, sanitation, hygiene and energy in a devastated Gaza Strip that's years away from being rebuilt. Abu Hamed and Cohen each share how they hold on to hope in a seemingly hopeless time for those dedicated to regional peace. Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1 This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org (https://ReconstructingJudaism.org). Special Guests: Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Rabbi Maurice Harris, and Rabbi Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump rallied with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the same site where a lone gunman attempted to assassinate the former president earlier this year. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris was in North Carolina over the weekend helping with the ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene. She's scheduled to do a series of sit-down interviews this week with a slew of different outlets, from '60 Minutes' to ‘Howard Stern.'Today also marks one year since Hamas militants broke out of the Gaza Strip, killing roughly 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostage in the deadliest attack on Israelis in the country's history. It prompted Israel to immediately declared war on Hamas, and in the year since, the Gaza Health Ministry says around 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's military. As the threat of a wider war mounts in the region, Yonatan Zeigen, the son of an Israeli peace activist who was killed during the attack, and Nivine Sandouka, a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem and regional director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, talk about the work they're doing to help bring peace the region.Show Notes:Alliance for Middle East Peace - https://www.allmep.org/Vivian Silver Impact Award - https://www.viviansilver.com/Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday   

The King of Commercial Real Estate joins us to discuss office, hotels, apartments, retail, industrial and warehouse real estate. Many office building values are down 80%+. Is it headed straight to purgatory? According to Moody's, the national office vacancy rate is 20%.  Offices have the double-whammy of higher interest rates and lower demand. Learn how feasible office to residential conversions are. For two years now, momentum has swung from Airbnbs to hotels. More apartment syndications will blow up from forthcoming interest rate resets. Commercial real estate often has higher prices than residential. Learn from our guest, Dolf de Roos, on creative ways to make low down payments.  Learn how to vet commercial tenants. We discuss adding carports to residential RE. Rich people are often vilified. They're called “filthy rich” or “stinking rich”. Resources mentioned: Attend Dolf's free live training: www.DolfLive.com For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREmarketplace.com/Coach Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation   Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze   Keith Weinhold 00:00:01  Welcome to GRE! I'm your host, Keith Weinhold. There are many commercial real estate sectors. Large apartments, office, hotel, hospitality, retail, warehouse, industrial. Well, what's thriving? What's been beaten up so bad and is never coming back? And what's in a dip that's ripe for opportunity? Also creative deal structuring if you don't have a lot of money. It's the debut of the King of Commercial real estate here today and get rich education. When you want the best real estate and finance info, the modern internet experience limits your free articles access, and it's replete with paywalls. And you've got pop ups and push notifications and cookies. Disclaimers are at no other time in history has it been more vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that actually adds no hype value to your life? See, this is the golden age of quality newsletters, and I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor and it's to the point to get the letter. It couldn't be more simple.   Keith Weinhold 00:01:13  Text gray to 66866. And when you start the free newsletter, you'll also get my one hour fast real estate course completely free. It's called the Don't Quit Your Daydream letter and it wires your mind for wealth. Make sure you read it. Text gray to 66866. Text gray 266866.   Corey Coates 00:01:41  You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold 00:01:58  What does your read? From Tuscarora, Pennsylvania, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Whitehill, and you're listening to get Rich education. Today's guest, the king of commercial real estate, is talented, dynamic, global, articulate, has both a wide range of knowledge and an expansive palette of creative strategies in both commercial and residential, where you can buy with little out of pocket. And he's going to share that with us today. That's coming up here shortly. Now, when we think about residential real estate, of course, that is a really wide world in itself.   Keith Weinhold 00:02:38  From condos to single family homes to tiny studio apartments. You could also divide it into short term and mid-term and long term rentals. And then you could also parse it by all of the geographic markets. Well, of course, the commercial real estate world has a ton of segments too, one of which is office, which I want to talk about because it's probably been the most downtrodden and beleaguered since 2020. But there are still some things that are misunderstood within office and even dividing things up that much. Let's take care not to broad brush stroke office real estate itself some smaller segments of office might be in decent shape today. Other office segments are in real trouble. Like we're talking about tall concrete and glass, office towers and a lot of business parks, too. Yeah, business park, sort of a campus like areas, like maybe what the comedy The Office had. He had Dunder Mifflin was in a business park.   Steve Carell 00:03:43  I'm just helping you invest in your future, my friend.   Oscar Nunez 00:03:46  It sounds like a get rich quick scheme.   Steve Carell 00:03:48  Yes. Thank you. You will get rich quick. We all will.   Keith Weinhold 00:03:52  yeah. I guess that's what Steve Carell's character. What Michael Scott from The Office says about prudent investing. Let's talk about office real estate and how that intersects with the housing market. And really a lot of this comes down to the office vacancy rate. Moody's tells us that 1 in 5 office spaces in this economy are empty. And that is the highest ever. And a lot of people think that it's going to go higher right now. Dayton, Ohio is the highest in the nation at 28%. These are office vacancy rates. Charleston, West Virginia's 27. Tulsa, Oklahoma 26. And Houston, Dallas and Austin are all in the top ten for the worst office vacancy rates. Now, a lot of city officials, they want to turn that into housing, and they want government funding in order to make that transition happen from office to residential. This is most attractive to cities if you can partially convert a building to have housing on upper floors, and then you just maintain some offices on lower floors and see that mix right there, that makes for a vibrant, lively downtown community, because that way you don't have downtowns that go quiet at 5:00.   Keith Weinhold 00:05:10  But a lot of these renovations, they just aren't that feasible. They call them ritzy conversions. That's kind of what this is known as. So office to residential. I mean that means you often got to deal with huge floor plates, overhaul mechanical systems, and you've even got to consider things like the fact that windows don't open in office buildings. And they've often got to for resin conversions. Well, with this prolonged high vacancy in offices. Well, where do these people that would have been in offices spend their time instead? Well, of course at home in their residential real estate. And oftentimes it is a one for one. You have one less person occupying an office for lots of that waking day, and that means one more person occupying their home. Well, that's one reason that people are increasingly willing to spend and pay more for homes because they're spending more time than ever there. And ever since the work from home movement and zoom from home movement, if you will, since that became commonplace for urban workers coming off the pandemic, you soon saw the hashtag auto.   Keith Weinhold 00:06:27  The return to office movement that began is where you've got to come into the office 2 to 3 days a week, and then a lot of companies try to ramp it up to 4 to 5 days per week. Some companies even said, yeah, come on in here. You've got to in order to be eligible for promotions. Well, a lot of people don't want to come into the office. We found that out now, especially younger workers. In fact. Did you ever hear of the term coffee bagging? Yes. Some workers are trying to game the system. Coffee bagging. That is the art of returning to the office to a quick hit. Just have a quick hit. You only badge in, get coffee, chat and peace out of there. Well, more people are doing this or they're staying at home than what you're often led to believe. So despite the RTL movement that you hear about the share of employed persons that work their average day from home, last year it rose to 35%, up from 34%, and that's per the BLS.   Keith Weinhold 00:07:31  Well, that's a little interesting to know, but it all comes down to that office vacancy rate, which is, like I said, a stubbornly high all time record 20% nationally, and it could go higher. If you're going to invest in office real estate today, I mean, you've really got to have some insider knowledge and invest smart.   Donald Trump 00:07:55  Did you use the word smart? so you said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college. You didn't go to Delaware State. You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don't ever use the word smart with me. Don't ever use that word. Oh, give me a break. Because you know what? There's nothing smart about you, Joe.   Keith Weinhold 00:08:16  oh, dear. Oh, one of those two men is our current president, and the other could be our next president. Oh, well, love him or hate him, I guess the Trump. Hey, he is the Art of the deal author. And when you think about the Trump name, you should think about seeing those letters on tall office buildings in hotels coming up on the show here in future weeks.   Keith Weinhold 00:08:39  We are stacked with great guests an NFL All-Pro, the president of the Mississippi Institute, the return of the tax free wealth author Tom Wheelwright, and also the incomparable financial firepower of Garrett Gunderson. That's all coming up here in future shows. Let's talk to the king of commercial real estate. This week's guest is a former high tech engineer turned real estate mogul and New York Times best selling author of the book Real Estate Riches. He is globally renowned for his ginormous real estate ventures and his mentorship. But his approach to real estate isn't just transactional, it's about strategic creativity and leveraging property investment for financial independence. Known as the King of commercial real estate. Hey, welcome here for your great debut. Joining us from Malta today. It stopped the roost.   Dolf de Roos 00:09:38  Thank you very much. It's my absolute pleasure to be here.   Keith Weinhold 00:09:41  Oh it's great to finally speak here on the show. And I know that a good segment of our international audience has been anticipating this episode. And often we think about commercial real estate today. Problems come to mind immediately, like the large apartment space with interest rates blowing things up over there, and then the office sector, which just seems to be dying and never coming back.   Keith Weinhold 00:10:03  So first of all, why don't you give us an overview on how various commercial sectors are doing today?   Dolf de Roos 00:10:09  There's always the things that you see on the surface, what you read in the newspapers and what you lead yourself to believe just on the sheer balance of probability. And then there's the reality of what is truly going on. And I'm always amused at the chasm between them. There's a big difference. And in fact, your ability to do well in real estate is largely dependent on the arbitrage between the markets perception of where things are at and the reality. Now, if we all follow the trends, you know, real estate doesn't go up linearly as mathematicians would say. It goes up in fits and starts with each peak a bit higher than the previous peak and each trough a bit higher than the previous trough. But in addition to that, real estate markets always overshoot so that when things are going well, when the public perception is that things are going well, Interest rates are low. There's good capital growth.   Dolf de Roos 00:10:59  People think it's going to go on forever. It will never end and they pay way too much for properties. We have the greater fool theory where no matter how big a fool you are to pay too much for a property, it doesn't matter, because next year they'll be an even bigger fool to pay even more for it. So everyone jumps into the market, overshoots, and then there's a strong correction. A bit like the 2008 GFC. It was on the cards. It was. The writing was on the wall, as they say, and then it corrects. But instead of correcting back to where it should be, it overshoots on the downside as well. And in Phoenix, where I'm based, at one stage we had 90,000 homes into foreclosure simultaneously, and they were selling them on the courthouse steps at the rate of one every 56 seconds for initially 20,020 5000, and people thought, why are these fools buying these properties? The market's crashed. It will never recover. And yet when you live long enough, which unfortunately I have to say, I've done now like I've been around a while, I've seen a few cycles.   Dolf de Roos 00:11:59  No, I'm serious though, Keith, because when you experience your first downturn, you think it's the end of the world. But when you've been through three and you've seen that despite all the bad press and saying it's doomsday to never recover, it not only recovers, but it actually far exceeds where it was before it crashed last time, then you know that the time to take action is when everyone else is panicking. You have to be countercyclical when everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon and paying too much for properties. That's when you should get on a plane and read some good books on a beach somewhere, preferably in a foreign location. Why a foreign location and being disloyal to the home country? Note just explore something. Expand your mind. And you know, I know I'm waving around a bit from topic to topic, but one of the great things about reading books on foreign beaches is that you get to see different ideas of real estate that you can bring back home. So when you bring back these ideas that can help correct the market, then you almost you don't wish for a crash, but you think when it happens, well, there's got to be some good aspect to this and you can actually find some stunning deals from people who are too scared to think it might recover well.   Keith Weinhold 00:13:05  So those places where you might find stunning deals are in some of those commercial real estate sectors that are suffering today. Tell us a bit more about some of those sectors in their health. We're talking about five plus in the department's office, hotel, hospitality, retail, warehouse, industrial. Let us know what's going on with some of those sectors.   Dolf de Roos 00:13:27  In a state of flux. And it's a very good question. Let's talk about hotels for a moment. When the pandemic set in, we were all told to do this thing called to be socially distant. We've almost blissfully forgotten that expression. But social distancing was the thing. So hotels fell out of favor because you're in a foyer with a concierge and a reception area and hundreds of other hotel guests checking in and checking out. So Airbnbs became very popular and the value of hotels plummeted. Many couldn't meet their mortgage obligations because their revenue from room sales did not cover their own loan commitments, so they were being sold off at ridiculously cheap prices. I know of one hotel in the Atlanta area, admittedly a very old hotel.   Dolf de Roos 00:14:09  It was converted into a storage facility. When you think about it, hotels are all compartmentalized and have good little cubicles for story. Yeah, and Airbnbs took off. And we all know people, and people wrote books about it and had courses on it. I know in Phoenix, one statistic in a 12 month period from July 22nd to July 23rd, the availability of Airbnb's went up by 23% and all would have been good and well if demand had kept on escalating. But as the pandemic sort of wound down and people realized they did need to be socially distant anymore. And what's more, when you went to an Airbnb, what you found is that there was a long laundry list of items you had to do, but the sheets through the washing machine no more than one bed at a time. Well, four beds worth of sheets is going to take you three hours and do this and do that. People thought hotels are much easier, so there was a massive swing by tenants of rooms back to hotels, and the value of hotels went back up.   Dolf de Roos 00:15:04  And in the meantime, the value of houses used as Airbnb's, it sort of peaked a bit and it's going down rapidly. How far it will go down? I'm not so sure. So my point is, with hotels in a very short period of time, like three years, the values plummeted and then they came back up again. Office space is suffering a bit of a longer cycle downturn. It's fair to say, I think, that offices are in a very dire straits. Something like $785 billion of mortgages secured against commercial office space that is coming up for renewal, and there's not enough revenue to cover them. There is a pair of hotels on Union Square in San Francisco, for instance, the park Renaissance and the Renaissance itself. They had $745 million of mortgage funding, and the operators of those hotels handed the keys back to the bank and said, we can't make this cash flow. There's a lot of commercial space that is being sold off a ridiculously cheap prices. So there are two ways of looking at this, Keith.   Dolf de Roos 00:16:02  One is if you happen to own office space right now, unless it's boutique space, I've got quite a bit of office space, but it's a very much a boutique classification, and they'll always be demand for boutique office space from unique operators like interior decorators and people like that. But for the general concrete and glass office towers, demand for that has plummeted. The values have gone down and I know of one building in Chicago. It's sold for 315 million. It's on the market at 60 and dropping, and there's not a buyer in sight. And you might say, well, it's got to be a bargain. But no. Here's the challenge. With commercial real estate. Unlike residential, residential is valued on the basis of comps. We all know that if you have a four bedroom, three bathroom home, certain age, certain size, certain condition in a certain suburb, then and if it's sold for, say, $480,000, then a similar sized and aged house up the road, down the street around the corner is going to sell for about the same amount.   Dolf de Roos 00:17:02  Whether it's tenanted or not, that doesn't even matter. But when it comes to commercial real estate, the value of a commercial property is literally a multiple of its rental income. Technically, is the rental income divided by the cap rate? Which cap rate is short for capitalization rate? It literally means the rate at which you capitalize the rental to arrive at the value. So if we can figure out a way of doubling the rental, then we've doubled the value. And by the same token, of course, if you lose the tenant and you have your rental, then you have the value. And that's why the value of so many of these commercial office buildings has plummeted, because there are no tenants for them.   Keith Weinhold 00:17:40  Yeah, well, there's a lot there. And back to the Airbnb thing. Yeah. About two years ago, there seemed to be this well well-documented Airbnb bust. And my gosh, I personally had awful Airbnb experiences recently, including checking into an Airbnb where it hadn't been turned over, it hadn't been cleaned yet, and that I can never unsee what I saw.   Keith Weinhold 00:18:00  Then I had to stay there. That was really rough. I think what you're getting at here is once you hit a bottom, that's where the opportunity is. So there are going to be some of those opportunities somewhere in the commercial real estate sector, commercial real estate syndicators, many of them imploded from high rates. So when we talk about finding the bottom link with these large apartment buildings, how many more apartment syndicator implosions do we expect from the higher mortgage rates?   Dolf de Roos 00:18:27  Many. I'm indifferent to it. I'm not saying I don't have sympathy for the people who own them, and I'm not gleeful for those who buy a bargain. But here's why I'm indifferent. I think it's fair to say that I've made most of my money in real estate by finding either vacant or semi vacant buildings, and that goes against the grain. Most people think they need to look for a building with a good tenant, because it's the tenant that pays the rent, and that's not incorrect. That's accurate. And then if you've got a building that you buy and say 8% return and your mortgage interest is 7%, hopefully that 1% margin covers your property taxes and your insurance and your maintenance.   Dolf de Roos 00:19:05  And then you just wait for time to do this thing where slowly, over time, the rents creep up and the property value creeps up. I don't have the luxury of waiting that long, and I never had the cash to buy properties like that, so I literally sought out semi vacant or even vacant buildings. Now, I didn't buy them because if I bought a vacant building, I still have to pay property tax and insurance. But what I would do before buying it is see if I can find a tenant, and I can give you a specific example. I came across a vacant building that was a funeral parlor, and most people don't like to think of what goes on in a funeral parlor. But they have these stainless steel trays where they put the product of their business on, and they insert these hollow stainless steel tubes and suck up the blood and replace it with formaldehyde and all kinds of things we don't want to think about.   Keith Weinhold 00:19:52  That's even worse than my Airbnb experience.   Dolf de Roos 00:19:55  No one knew what to do with it.   Dolf de Roos 00:19:57  So I found it. And it was being sold for a song because it was vacant. And what I did is I employed someone at the then going hourly rate of $8 an hour to phone every funeral director, going further and further from this place until she found someone who said, oh my gosh, I've always wanted to operate there. And I was just open and honest. And I said, well, there's a funeral parlour premise for sale. Go and check it out if you want to buy it, buy it. Why would I offer it to him, Keith, when I really wanted to buy it? Because the last thing I want is a tenant to be gracious. The fact that the only reason he's paying me rent is that I'd beat him to it. But I knew that in all probability, he didn't want to buy real estate. That's not his gig. And he said, no, I don't have the money or the inclination he had to look at. He said, listen, I love it.   Dolf de Roos 00:20:40  I want to operate there. What would it take? And I said, well, if you're willing to sign up a heads of agreement, an alloy, we're subject to me buying it. You will become the tenant, then I'll have a crack at buying it. And his response was, were not so fast, I need you. I'll only do it if you give me a long term lease. Well, that's exactly what I want. So I'd found a tenant by adding the tenant to this otherwise vacant building. The value of it doubled. And when I went to the bank to apply for a mortgage, they said, well, we're only going to give you 50%. Well, guess what? 50% of double the value was the purchase price. They lent me all but the last $10,000 to buy that property. So the magic sauce here is finding the tenant. Could anyone else have gone through at the time? This is before the internet, the Yellow pages and phoned every funeral director going for. Of course they could, but no one thought of doing it.   Dolf de Roos 00:21:33  And that comes to part of what you had in your title, that this is all about creative real estate. The thing I love about real estate is it's about the only investment vehicle where you can actually use your creativity. I mean, if you're a really creative person and you buy a portfolio of stock, IBM stock and Microsoft and biotech, what.   Keith Weinhold 00:21:53  Can you do to improve it?   Dolf de Roos 00:21:54  Can you deploy your creativity? How can you deploy what you've seen in your travels to make your stock portfolio worth more? Zero. Absolutely nothing. Not with stocks, not with bonds, not with futures. Options, certificates of deposit, Treasury bills, nothing. But with real estate, the sky's the limit, I love that.   Keith Weinhold 00:22:13  Well, you talked about getting into commercial real estate sectors with little or none of your own money. That's part of the creativity. A lot of our audience is interested in investing in residential property, a single family home. You might still be able to get one for 150 K now, 20 to 25% down payment on that 30 K plus.   Keith Weinhold 00:22:34  I mean, that's still pretty manageable for a lot of people, but many are somewhat intimidated by commercial real estate. I think one of the first things they think about is how do I come up with the money? So we talk about creativity in funding that down payment. Tell us more about some good strategies for doing that, and kind of overcoming that daunting feeling of higher commercial real estate prices.   Dolf de Roos 00:22:52  You're absolutely right. Most people think commercial real estate is more expensive, where you might be able to buy a home in a cheaper market, a cheaper price point at one 20,000, say the commercial property is going to be half a million, or if homes are $1 million and a fancy suburb and the commercial properties at 3 million. That's true, but not all properties are like that. My smallest commercial building was a little corner shop. It was a wet fish supply shop, so they sold fish but not cooked fish. And it was a horrible looking thing. But I paid all of $79,000 for it and it's been rented on a full commercial lease from the day I bought it, so it needn't be liked.   Dolf de Roos 00:23:31  In fact, we tend to only notice the big ones for the For Sale sign. You're in the downtown of some city and you see a big one of the big firms, CB Richard Ellis or Jones Lang LaSalle or something for lease or for sale sign, that's for sure. And you don't tend to notice the small ones. The trick in finding good value real estate. Be it commercial or residential, again, has to do with the fact that it's not an automated market like the stock market. You buy stocks through computers on a share market. Everyone pays the same price. But when it comes to real estate, the seller may choose to go through a real estate agency. It might be a national one, and then it's vetted by many agents. But we have a thing known as fizzbuzz or for sale by owner. And why would a seller choose to circumvent a real estate agent? Well, probably because he's hoping to save on the 6% commission. By the way, that's the highest in the world.   Dolf de Roos 00:24:21  And the rest of the orders? 2 or 1 and a half or 3%, it soon to be lowered in the States. But even so, they want to save on that commission and more sinisterly. Perhaps some of them think, why should I entrust my property, the sale of my property to some snooty, nosed 22 year old kid just out of school who doesn't even live in the suburb. I have lived here for 59 years or whatever, he says. And I know what it's worth. And in pricing it, he's either way too high or way too low. Now, if he's way too high, you and I aren't going to buy it because it's just way too high. We know that. But what if it's 100,000 below market value? It happens every day of the week, and if we stumble across one of those, then we might just make 100,000 that day. Not in terms of cash, not in terms of folding hard cash, but in terms of equity. And we could sell it the next day for a hundred thousand more.   Dolf de Roos 00:25:08  But we don't because we want to invest in it. And these things are real key. These happen. That's why I encourage people don't take the same route home from work every day. If you've finished work, get in your car, take a different route, keep your eyes peeled, look for visible signs of a sale by owner, or look for abandoned properties, ones where the grass is a bit high in this litter blown up against the fence and the windows are a bit grimy, and then do some research to find out who owns it.   Keith Weinhold 00:25:34  Sometimes the greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity. But often we talk about, say, if one has overcome the money in the down payment thing, you know, in effect, when we go ahead and get a loan, whatever sector we're investing in, the bank underwrites either us or the bank underwrites the property. But in a sense, us as the investor is we're sort of underwriting the tenant that's in there. Now, when we buy a residential building, you know, we can look at the tennis credit scores and their work history.   Keith Weinhold 00:26:00  You know, we know that the residential tenant is going to pay us to live there. We have a good sense of faith about that. But when it comes to commercial real estate investing, say, I want to buy a plaza with eight businesses in it. I think a lot of investors feel overwhelmed because they're like, oh my gosh, like, how do I study the validity of these eight businesses? And how do I know that they're going to be solvent and sustainable going forward? And do I need to understand all this, or can you speak to that and help break that down for us a bit? Basically the investor underwriting the tenant.   Dolf de Roos 00:26:31  That's all true. And yet there isn't that much to learn. Because if we take your imaginary shopping plaza with eight tenants. Yeah, I think we'd all agree that if one of those tenants was a Gloria Bean coffee and tea or whatever it's called, or Seattle's Best or Peet's Coffee, not to mention Starbucks, that's a global change, but one of those lesser brands.   Dolf de Roos 00:26:51  I think we would be pretty comfortable that they can pay the rent every month. And similarly, the bank underwriting that loan was like, well, a Peet's Coffee or Gloria, that they're a good tenant And, you know, just to name others at random rosters for less, that's a nationwide chain store. I think if we had them as a tenant, that would all go well. And you might get a couple of independents, but they would have a track record. They've leased those same premises for the previous eight years, and they moved there from other premises, which ended up being too small for them. That means they're expanding where they were for 12 years, things like that. Give a picture to any novice in this game to say, wow, they're probably going to be here for the long haul. And beyond that, what happens when you develop the skills to attract new tenants? You don't worry about that even because you know that when you lose a tenant, it's easy to get one lesson.   Dolf de Roos 00:27:42  I've got 101 ways of getting tenants for buildings, and I'm blown away that people don't deploy even one of them. And I'll give you an example from last week. I was with a client in the UK in Bournemouth, which is way in the south of the country, and we were looking at a commercial office building there and it had been vacant for 18 months. And I said to the agent what seems to be the trouble with getting a tenant? And he shrugged his shoulders and said, well, I don't know. It's been on the market for 18 months. And I said, has it ever occurred to you to put a sign outside the property? A big canvas sign hanging on the side of the building signs, and the grass verge saying, this building is for lease. Enquire within or go to this website. And he was stupefied by that thought. He said, what an amazingly good idea. You have to let people know. They think that they're going to go to their office because they're looking for office space.   Dolf de Roos 00:28:34  So now, would they be guaranteed to get a tenant within a week by putting a canvas sign on the building? Of course not. But I know we won't reduce the chances. And that's why if I can find a tenant before committing to buy the building, I'm pretty confident we'll get there. And I've got all these other techniques, Keith, of doing it like one that I really love is, let's say you've got a vacant warehouse and it's an ugly, horrible warehouse in a sea of similarly ugly and vacant warehouses. If you and I bought that, I would hesitate to suggest that we would have a tenant within a month. And here's how we'd do it. We would spend no more than $10,000, and we would go to the manager's office, because ultimately, the person who decides whether to lease our warehouse as opposed to another one, is not the CEO and the head office in New York or LA or wherever. It's not the cleaning lady or man who's going to sweep the floor. It's going to be the manager is going to manage it.   Dolf de Roos 00:29:28  So I get rid of the linoleum and I put in commercial grade carpet. I put in triple glazed or dual glazed windows. Keeps the noise out and the warmth in. I replace the fluorescent tubes with LED lights and replace the locks with electronic locks so he can never forget his keys. I put on an 80 inch LCD screen and tell him it's good for corporate training videos. We know he's never going to watch corporate training videos on it, but those TVs you can buy for $500 now, I put on a little coffee machine and make sure it's brewing when it looks, and have a fridge for end of week drinks, celebrations, and our unsuspecting manager, who's looked at seven ugly warehouses so far that day when he comes to our ugly warehouse and he opens that door to the manager's office subconsciously, or maybe consciously, he thinks, oh my gosh, if I lease this one, this is where I'm going to be packed for 40 hours a week for Lord knows how many years. He says I'll take it.   Dolf de Roos 00:30:17  And he hasn't even asked the rental. You might say that's bribery and corruption, but I think it's just offering a better product than the competition. No one else does this.   Keith Weinhold 00:30:27  Oh well. This is another brilliant example of using creativity in real estate investing. We're talking with the king of commercial real estate, Dolph Thomas More. We come back including some of his psychology and insights from the rich. This is general education. I'm your host, Keith Whitehall. Hey, you can get your mortgage loans at the same place where I get mine at Ridge Lending Group Nmls 42056. They provided our listeners with more loans than any provider in the entire nation. Because they specialize in income properties, they help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire. With leverage, you can start your prequalification and chat with President Ridge personally. Start now while it's on your mind at Ridge Lending group.com. That's Ridge Lending group.com. And your bank is getting rich off of you. The national average bank account pays less than 1% on your savings.   Keith Weinhold 00:31:31  If your money isn't making 4%, you're losing your hard earned cash to inflation. Let the liquidity fund help you put your money to work with minimum risk. Your cash generates up to an 8% return with compound interest year in and year out. Instead of earning less than 1% sitting in your bank account, the minimum investment is just $25. You keep getting paid until you decide you want your money back there. Decade plus track record proves they've always paid their investors 100% in full and on time. And I would know, because I'm an investor, to earn 8%. Hundreds of others are. Text. Family 266866. Learn more about Freedom Family Investments Liquidity Fund. On your journey to financial freedom through passive income. Text family to 66866. What's up everyone? This is HGTV Star Kombucha. Listen to get Rich education with Keith Wine hold and don't quit your day dream. Welcome back to Get Syndication. You're listening to episode 513 of the show that's created more passive income for busy people just like you than nearly any show in the world.   Keith Weinhold 00:32:55  I'm your host, Keith Whitehall. We're at the king of commercial real estate, Dolph Durst. Just like he has a lot of creative, proven types of things that you can do to improve commercial real estate. He also has a lot of those ideas for residential because he's been around the game for so long. So tell us about some more of those creative ways to add value to residential real estate.   Dolf de Roos 00:33:17  Well, probably. Like most people who end up focusing on commercial real estate, I got started in residential and that's where I first deployed some of my creativity. And I noticed, for instance, that I'd have a rental property that had no garage and no carport. And when you think about it, a tenant's biggest asset because it's not their home, it tends to be their car. One could argue that because they waste money on expensive cars every two years, that's why they can't afford to buy a home. But we won't go there. So if it's their car, if there's no carport and no garage, that means their biggest asset is in the rain.   Dolf de Roos 00:33:49  The sleet, the sun, the shine, the hail, you name it. So by building a carport, we can protect their biggest asset and it's worth a lot more to them by any means. If you have a carport on a house, that house will rent for about $80 a month extra. An 80 a month times 12 is 960. Call it $1,000 extra, a rent in a year. And Keith, I can build a carport for $1,000 easily. It's simply for one in each corner and then a roof with a bit of a slope. Why the slope? Well, if it rains, the rain falls off. If you're really cheap, you can get away with three posts. It still stands, you know. But no. And I'm being silly, but we sometimes make them with two posts and cantilever them. They're a bit more expensive, but then there are no posts out front so I can build a carport for $1,000, and then I get $1,000 extra a year coming in. And when you think about it again, which other investment can you think of that once you've consummated the deal, once you own it, you can spend an extra thousand dollars and then get 100% return on that money.   Dolf de Roos 00:34:49  And as they say in the infomercials. But wait, it gets even better. Because think about it. Let's say we have that carport built, but we haven't paid for it yet. And so we've got our thousand dollars a year extra of rental coming in. We go back to the appraiser and say, we want a new appraisal With an extra $1,000 coming in, he's likely to appraise it at $10,000 more. With that increased appraisal of 10,000, we go back to the bank and say, Mr. Bank manager, remember I got a 70 or 80% more. I've got now got an appraisal for 10,000 more. Will you give me a modest 70% loan on that? Well, banks are in the game of lending money and making a profit. So they say yes. So you get 7000 from the bank. Let's use 1000 of that 7000 to pay for the carport. It's now paid for. That leaves us with $6,000 cash. And the question is, is it earned income? And the answer is no, it's not earned income.   Dolf de Roos 00:35:42  There's no income tax on it. Is that the sale of something? Nope. Didn't sell it. No sales tax, no capital gains. It's tax free money. And you might say but hang on, you've now borrowed $7,000 that you have to be interested. Even at a ridiculously high 10%, that would only cost 700 a year. But we're collecting an extra thousand a year. So when you build this carport, you have two choices. One is pay cash for it and get 100% return on your money. Or the second one is don't pay any money for it, but $6,000 of tax free money in your pocket and get $300 a year surplus cash flow index for inflation for the rest of your life. Like, why would you not do that?   Keith Weinhold 00:36:25  Well, and it's a terrific example of how to accidentally improve the property. And it's so interesting that you bring this up, Dolph, because just a few weeks ago here on the show, I talked about garage real estate. I mentioned how adding a carport can often be more cost effective for a landlord from an ROI standpoint, than constructing a garage.   Keith Weinhold 00:36:43  I also talked about the future with autonomous cars. If people are going to need garages as much as they will, but that's into the future, and that's another subject in itself. All for one really important thing. I know that probably even more important than the actual investing is getting people in the right mindset to do this in the first place. You've studied this in really unexpected psychology behind wealth creation. I think a lot of it is counterintuitive, but it kind of makes sense because if you come from a scarcity and conventional mindset and you just do mediocre stuff, you're only going to get a mediocre outcome. So why don't you talk to us more about breaking down that psychology that most Americans and most residents of everywhere in the world really struggle with?   Dolf de Roos 00:37:28  Well, my pleasure. I had been teaching real estate for about 15 years and I decided why? I don't know, but I decided to run a survey to find out how many of my students became a millionaire within 18 months. That was my expected time frame of reasonableness.   Keith Weinhold 00:37:43  Is that I was actually wealthy.   Dolf de Roos 00:37:45  Right? And I was pretty confident. But when the results came in, I was devastated because it was fewer than 4%. And in my mind, 4% wasn't even statistically significant. Meaning if you take a thousand people, a random 4% are going to become millionaires. One's going to marry into money, one's going to win the lottery, one's going to win at a casino, and the fourth one's going to fall over a paper bag and looks inside. And we just believe that there's a million bucks there. So I vowed to stop teaching until I'd cracked the nut, because my dilemma was, how is it that when you give people all the tools you think they need to become fabulously wealthy, they still don't do it right? And what I found is that it had nothing to do with my rate of speech or my accent. Not that I have one, of course, or the content of my information or the sequencing of it. It had everything to do with the subconscious mind of the student, the fear.   Dolf de Roos 00:38:38  And he has that stance. You're a young kid and you say, hey, mom or dad, I want a bicycle. And they say, well, what do you think, kiddo? That money grows on trees and I know where the parents coming from. Hey, money's not that easy to come by. Temper your expectations of what you'll get for your bet. But this kid is. Our money doesn't grow on trees. Meaning money's hard to come by. And how often have we been told money can't buy you happiness. And money is the root of all evil. And when I say that, someone always points out no, the full saying in the Bible is for the love of money is the root of all evil. There's a big difference. And I'll say, yes, there is a big difference. But to the subconscious mind, it's still here's money and evil in the same sentence, and it's unconsciously makes that association. And the religious even say that it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.   Dolf de Roos 00:39:24  In other words, if you're rich, you're condemned to hell. And that's a nice, strong belief system to take on board, even subconsciously. And by the way, most people don't know what the eye of the needle is. The eye of the needle was the entrance to East Jerusalem and even camels. And I've been there. I've said the camel said to get down on their knees as a sign of respect before they could enter. So there's a reason behind all these things, but the subconscious mind takes aboard. Money can buy you happiness. Money's hard to come by if you work hard for it. You don't deserve that money's root of lever. You won't get to heaven. You condemned to hell. And how do we describe the rich kids? We say they are so rich. That filthy rich. They're so rich. That stinking rich we associate being rich with filth and stench. So that is why in the United States and every Western nation, when someone wins the lottery and we no longer win 10 or $20,000, it's 300 million or 800 million or 1.2 billion when people win the lottery within five years of winning, 80% of the winners are back to where they were before they won.   Dolf de Roos 00:40:25  Right? And why is that? I discovered that it's because subconsciously, even though they're happy they won it and they going to tell their boss they're going to quit and they're going to buy their parents a nice home and they're going to get a new car. But subconsciously they feel they don't deserve it because they haven't worked hard for it. They're not going to be happy. They're now evil people. They're not going to go to heaven, and they're filthy and they stink. And the only way to overcome that is to get rid of the source of the problem, which is the money. And you'll see it happen again and again and again. So what we do is we dissolve what's in the subconscious mind, all these things that we've been saying without realizing it over and over and over again and replace them with more empowering beliefs. And the great thing about the subconscious mind is, initially, you don't even have to believe the thing that you're going to say over and over again to replace those old ones, but it could be something as simple as money is good or a bit more sophisticated.   Dolf de Roos 00:41:18  My poverty helps no one, but my wealth can help a lot of people.   Keith Weinhold 00:41:22  The more you have, the more you can give.   Dolf de Roos 00:41:24  Exactly as the reverend says, I'm a magnet for money. And so when we get into this mode of thinking differently, then all of a sudden people find that the money starts flowing and we give people specific exercises to do. And it's you think by how is that going to make difference? But it does. And so what I found when I introduced these concepts into my real estate teaching, the success went from under 4% to over 80%. And if that's not evidence enough that this works, I don't know what is.   Keith Weinhold 00:41:56  Yes, it really takes changing that mindset to break down these old stereotypes and have the confidence to say and act upon things like financially free beats debt free. But if you raise to think that money is a scarce resource, you think that retiring debt is a good thing, or don't focus on getting your money to work for you. Focus on getting other people's money to work for you.   Keith Weinhold 00:42:17  A lot of people don't even know what that means. But yeah, it takes breaking down some of these simple things that we all began to learn when we were age five or something like that. Golf is we're winding down here. You operate globally. You play globally. That intimidates a lot of people. They don't really know how to do that. But it's giving you this wherewithal to say that real estate is the only profession that can truly be played globally. Tell us about that.   Dolf de Roos 00:42:44  Well, when you think about it, if you study to become, say, an attorney, you can't just up and leave the US and go to Germany or Peru or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to practice, you've got to study their local laws and set the bar exam. If you're a physician, you can't just go to another country and conduct frontal lobotomies on patients. You've got to study and hit the bar exam. I had a friend who was a dermatologist, a skin doctor from Austria. He moved to Australia after eight years of study to get his qualifications.   Dolf de Roos 00:43:13  They wouldn't accept them here to start all over again. And he said that's ridiculous. And he became a farmer and was very happy doing that. But when you think about it, not only our real estate investors welcomed all over the world, but they think that you're going to bring money with you. You don't have to, of course. In fact, if you're going to invest as a US citizen in another country, I would not recommend bringing U.S. dollars with you. I'd recommend borrowing locally, because if you bring U.S. dollars with you, then you're subject to exchange rate fluctuations. So just borrow locally and then you've got no risk from that at all. But despite the fact that the other countries, the host countries think that you're an investor, you're going to bring money. So they welcome you with open arms. I think it's the only profession where you are never discriminated against. Your welcomed. You're made to feel welcome. They want more of you. They encourage you to come with delegations of other investors.   Dolf de Roos 00:44:05  It's kind of good gig to be on.   Keith Weinhold 00:44:08  Make the World Yours. The UN recognizes 193 world nations. Get out and see them and invest outside your own home country if you have the ability to. Well, Duff, you've got this interesting combination of commercial real estate focus, a great grasp of the mindset and how to help people with the wealth mindset. And then thirdly, you also operate globally. So it's been really interesting to speak with you. You help people in so many ways with a lot of your teaching resources. So why don't you let our audience know how they can engage with that?   Dolf de Roos 00:44:41  We have a lot of programs that we run from time to time. I mentioned I saw a client in the UK. He was an example of someone we did a fly out for. I'd spend three days just with that one client to help him with his portfolio. But the thing I've got coming up is a live training and people can get a free seat to attend and learn more at my website called Dolf Live.   Dolf de Roos 00:45:03  So Dorfman and Dolf and then live Live.com golf Dolph Live.com. You can see what we've got coming up there. It's entirely free to attend. And then, you know, once that event's gone, I'm sure we'll post other things there, but that's the best way of staying informed with what I've got going. Part of my passion, Keith, is sharing it. You know, it's pretty boring doing it on your own. And one of the biggest thrills I get is when you get feedback by email or however, from someone who said, well, when I heard this or saw that or read this, I wasn't even sure if it would work and I certainly wasn't sure if it would work for me. But look at what I've done since then, and that gives you a feeling that you can't describe in words. That's pretty cool. You change someone's life and you don't even really know who they are, then that's kind of that's fun stuff.   Keith Weinhold 00:45:48  The ruse has been helpful to me in our audience today. The King of Commercial Real Estate, thanks so much for coming on to the show.   Dolf de Roos 00:45:55  Hey, thank you so much for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it.   Keith Weinhold 00:46:04  Check out Dolph Live.com. It looks like he's got a live event coming up this Thursday night, and if you missed that more afterward, like I was saying earlier, a ton of great episodes coming up here on the get Rich education podcast, just stacked. As always, you'll get lessons from me when I'm going to break down. Is any debt worth paying off? Which debts are which are not and why? That's going to help you know what to do with every debt for the rest of your life. And that's besides what I mentioned earlier, both new guests and very popular returning guests. I hope that you learned something today. I'll run it back next week when we meet again. Until then, I'm your host, Keith Weintraub. Don't quit your daydream.   Speaker 8 00:46:54  Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own.   Speaker 8 00:47:05  Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss the host is operating on behalf of get Rich education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold 00:47:22  The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building. Get Rich education.com.

Last week, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling on the status of Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel is currently facing several challenges through the international legal system. The ICJ has also been hearing a South African case that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza. And the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant.John Reynolds, a professor of law at Maynooth University and the author of Empire, Emergency, and International Law, joins Long Reads to discuss these developments. John previously spoke to us back in January after the ICJ gave its first response to the South African genocide case.Find John's articles for Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/author/john-reynolds Also see recent investigations into Israel's covert war on the ICC at +972 and The Guardian.Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine's longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.