Unpacking Zionism

Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine and the author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nikki Keddie Book Award and the 2023 Palestine Book Award. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.Shownotes:Nadim's book: https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/transnational-palestineWeavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism by Peter Winn: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/weavers-of-revolution-9780195045581Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah Gualtieri ucpress.edu/book/9780520255340/between-arab-and-whiteExtra readings from Nadim:Nadim Bawalsa with the Arab Center Washington DC: https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/transnational-palestine/On the limits of Palestinian-Chilean solidarity with Palestine today: https://fromtheperiphery.com/2025/09/29/206-the-limits-of-palestinian-ness-w-pablo-abufom/A special issue in JPS on Palestinian migration before 1948: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpal20/46/2?nav=tocList

Episode's resources:Iran and the US Anti-War Movementhttps://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/25872/Iran-and-the-US-Anti-War-MovementIran in Crisis: Seven Essays on the Obstacles to Freedomhttps://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47192/Iran-in-Crisis-Seven-Essays-on-the-Obstacles-to-Freedom-IntroductionRaha Iranian Feminist Collectivehttps://www.rahafeministcollective.org/Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repressionhttps://web.archive.org/web/20230209153914/http://havaar.org/category/campaign/https://www.instagram.com/feminists4jina/https://www.instagram.com/decolonize_anarchism/

Introducing a new series of podcast shorts: In Flames. Episodes are anti-Zionist hot takes on what's happening right now. With rotating hosts from the Institute's Collective and Advisory Board. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes.

In this episode, Alex and Lara interview Linda Quiquivix about radical histories and traditions of resistance to colonialism, with a focus on Zionism and its instantiations in Latin America.Palestine 1492: A Report Back by Linda Quiquivix, available for free here: https://wildoxbooks.org/books/palestine-1492/Jimmy Johnson & Linda Quiquivix, "Israel and Mexico Swap Notes on Abusing Rights" found here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-and-mexico-swap-notes-abusing-rights/12475For Zapatista communiques see: https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/Mentioned in the episode: México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization, found here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292708433/

This episode is a recording of a webinar titled "The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond," hosted by Scholars for Justice and Human Rights in Professional Associations on February 9, 2026. The focus of the session was the Anti-Defamation League's November 2025 report falsely alleging that over a dozen professional academic associations were riddled with antisemitism, based on interviews with a small number of pro-Israel voices inside these associations. Panelists discussed how we should understand the ADL today — an organization that once claimed to serve civil rights but is now partnering directly with the white nationalist right — and how we can configure resistance. The panelists included Emmaia Gelman, Amira Jarmakani, Isaac Kamola, and Lara Deeb, with commentary from Amy Hagopian and Roy Eidelson of SJHRPA. Emmaia Gelman is director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, co-chair of the American Studies Association Academic and Community Activism Caucus, and author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State (forthcoming from the University of California Press). Amira Jarmakani is a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and LGBTQ+ studies at San Diego State University. She is a core member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and a Member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective. Isaac Kamola is a professor of Political Science at Trinity College. He currently directs the American Association of University Professors’(AAUP) Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, which is committed to the pursuit of knowledge free from intimidation and retaliation. Lara Deeb is a professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Scripps College. She co-chairs the Middle East Studies Association’s Task Force on Civil and Human Rights. The task force tracks the changing political and legal context as it impacts scholars of the Middle East and produces resources to support faculty and students. Amy Hagopian is a professor emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. She has been a leader in the American Public Health Association for over two decades, recently serving as chair of the editorial board of the Association’s journal. Last year, after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association’s International Health Section, the Association revoked her membership when an anonymous complainant claimed they were made to feel unsafe by her work for Palestinian health justice within the Association. Roy Eidelson is the past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence of the American Psychological Association. He is the author of Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror.Video recording available here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jbInc34588

In this first episode, ICSZ founding collective member, Lara Sheehi, is joined by advisory board member and co-host, Alex Aviña. Using Alex’s concept and analysis of the Palestine-Mexico border as an orienting frame, they talk about why this series feels especially urgent now, and also discuss his newest analysis about the US imperial aggression on Venezuela.Alex Aviña, “Notes from the Palestine-Mexico Border,” NACLA (Sept 3, 2025), https://nacla.org/notes-from-the-palestine-mexico-border.Alex Aviña, “The Cult of Hercules-Mammon is Back,” Foreign Exchanges (Jan 13, 2026), https://www.foreignexchanges.news/p/the-cult-of-hercules-mammon-is-back.

Empire's Laboratory is a mini-series co-hosted by ICSZ founding collective member Lara Sheehi and advisory board member Alex Aviña. Empire's Laboratory will provide a critical analysis of Zionism in Latin America. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes.Learn more about the series, our co-hosts, and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism on our website - https://criticalzionismstudies.org

This episode looks at the keyword “normalization” in conversation with independent writer and researcher Reem Farah. Our discussion draws on Reem’s 2024 article “Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Cookbook, Jerusalem: Israel as Frame and Palestine as Subject” in the Jerusalem Quarterly. Reem analyzes the cookbook as an example of the normalization of Zionism, and explains why opposing normalization is a pillar of the fight for a free Palestine.Notes:1) This is the last episode in our keywords series, at least for now. As we’re wrapping up the keywords, we have a new mini-series in the works dedicated to the movement that emerges out of K thru 12 schools in the US to resist Zionist attacks.2) If you are listening to this episode on Spotify, this is the last episode that we publish on this platform. After this episode, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism is pulling our content from Spotify and will not be using the platform for our materials. This decision is a response to Spotify's chief executive, Daniel Ek’s $700 million investment in a military startup Helsing. Ek has now also become the chairman of Helsing, which is a company specializing in AI-powered combat drones and military software. Multiple musicians, including Massive Attack & King Gizzard,​​ already pulled their catalogs from Spotify and many users are canceling their subscriptions. We are joining this principled call to boycott Spotify over its ties to military technologies and manufacturers.Follow us on Apple podcast or other platforms.Other resources:Reem Farah, “Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Cookbook, Jerusalem: Israel as Frame and Palestine as Subject”Yara Hawari, “Arab Normalization and the Palestinian Struggle for Liberation”Jumana Manna’s film ForagersRabea Eghbariah, “The Struggle for Akoub & Za'atar: On Edible Plants in Palestinian Cuisine and Israeli Plant Protection Laws”

This week we bring listeners a rich and concise episode on “disarmament” as a keyword for the critical study of Zionism. It's a short talk by Bikrum Gill, a member of the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective and faculty at Virginia Tech, excerpted from a panel on Critical Zionism Studies and political theory at the 2025 American Political Science Association conference.Bikrum Gill, The Political Ecology of Colonial Capitalism: Race, Nature, and Accumulation (2024) - https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/300/monograph/book/133572Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective - https://www.anti-imperialists.com/

In this episode we’re with Dr. Nicole Nguyen to talk through securitization as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. From manipulations of the idea of “safety” to tech giant Palantir’s dystopian “digital kill chain” in Gaza and surveillance-to-deportation machinery in the United States, we connect the dots between Zionist and U.S. militarisms. This interview was recorded in June 2025.Nicole Nguyen’s selected writings: https://clj.uic.edu/profiles/nicole-nguyen/Mohammed El Kurd, Untitled essay on Substack (8/29/25)Pro-Israel Group Censoring Social Media Led by Former Israeli Intelligence Officers (Lee Fang and Jack Poulson, 7/11/24)What Big Tech’s Band of Execs Will Do in the Army (Wired, 6/28/25)Foundation to Combat Antisemitism “Command Center”

This episode is a recording of a webinar on Confronting Zionist Expansionism. Moderators Jennifer Mogannam & Amira Jarmakani talk with Abdaljawad Omar on Zionism’s territorial drive and Natalie El-Eid on weaponizing Druze in Palestine and Syria.This event was recorded on August 6 and is available as a video recording on our youtube channel.

Most of the organizations we’ve covered so far in this mini-series purport to represent Jewish communities’ opinions. But the one we’re covering today is different. It’s not about opinions, it’s about putting the armed, carceral muscle behind other organizations. We’re talking about the Secure Community Network (SCN). There isn’t much research on the SCN, so rather than interviewing a scholar or journalist who wrote about it, in this episode Emmaia and Yulia talk about SCN based on the reporting that is available.

Updates about our podcast: wrapping up "From Above," announcing new mini-series, and inviting your feedback.You can find us at criticalzionismstudies.org and on Instagram at @institutecsz.

This interview with Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at Arab Center Washington DC, is about lawfare. Lawfare refers to the use of law as a political weapon that is more concerned with inflicting damage on an opponent than prevailing with a particular legal argument or proving facts based on evidence. We discuss Zionist lawfare, who formulates its goals and targets, and who funds and carries out these efforts.Resources:Yousef Munayyer, “Spaces Beyond Borders: Israel’s Transnational Repression Network,” in Suppressing Dissent: Shrinking Civic Space, Transnational Repression and Palestine–Israel (2024).Emmaia Gelman, Astroturf Antisemitism Watchdogs, Jadaliyya (2024)Charity & Security Network, The Alarming Rise of Lawfare to Suppress Civil Society: The Case of Palestine and Israel (2021)

In this episode we are looking at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with journalist Alex Kane, senior reporter at Jewish Currents. This is the first of several episodes we'll have on the ADL, in an effort to grapple with its scale and long history. Lots of links in the show notes.History:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-w8y83byMLcxFd1gvI1xqpcDUaCo1WW/view?usp=sharinghttps://jewishcurrents.org/the-anti-democratic-origins-of-the-jewish-establishmenthttps://www.bostonreview.net/articles/emmaia-gelman-anti-defamation-league/https://criticalzionismstudies.org/2024/10/26/from-the-new-antisemitism-to-the-ihra-definition/Reporting & Analysis:https://jewishcurrents.org/adl-shutters-flagship-anti-bias-programhttps://jewishcurrents.org/scoop-internal-adl-memo-recommended-ending-police-delegations-to-israel-amid-backlashhttps://jewishcurrents.org/examining-the-adls-antisemitism-audithttps://jewishcurrents.org/how-the-adls-israel-advocacy-undermines-its-civil-rights-workhttps://criticalzionismstudies.org/2024/05/28/the-anti-defamation-league-counterinsurgency-and-the-palestinian-liberation-movement/https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/educators-beware-the-anti-defamation-league-is-not-the-social-justice-partner-it-claims-to-be/https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45918Resistance to the ADL:www.droptheadl.orgRelated episodes:Unpacking Zionism: Mothers Against College AntisemitismBattling the IHRA Definition: The new 'terror' billAlso mentioned:Canary MissionAmcha InitiativeAmerican Jewish Committee

In this episode, we discuss the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) with the veteran of this podcast Amira Jarmakani, ICSZ collective member and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies at San Diego State University. NCRI, presenting itself as a research institute interested in studying false and hateful narratives online, often flies under the radar as a Zionist organization. Amira Jarmakani debunks NCRI’s claim to be a small, neutral, not-for-profit institution and clarifies that it is actually an online surveillance organization, closely tied with major US policy-making institutions, and a purveyor of the War on Terror. We look at the work of NCRI and its reports demonizing leftist organizing, conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, attacking BDS, and labeling Palestine solidarity organizing as “terrorism.”Also mentioned in this episode: Anti-Defamation League (ADL), AMCHA Initiative, Hetz, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), Charles Koch Foundation (CKF)Resources:Cox, Joseph. “Inside ICE’s Database for Finding ‘Derogatory’ Online Speech.” 404 Media. October 24, 2023.Poulson, Jack. “The Australian ad-tech firm secretly fueling 'psychological warfare' against U.S. university students.” All Source Intelligence substack. June 10, 2024.NCRI received $335,000 from Israel on Campus Coalition in 2021 “for a grant to build social media analysis.ICE contracted Giant Oak from 2014-2022 to flag people for deportation, according to AFSC.On FARA: Fang, Lee and Jack Poulson. “Leaked Israeli Docs Reveal Effort to Evade Foreign Agent Lobbying Law.” August 17, 2024.ISGAP received 80% of its annual revenue from the Israeli government (Aiden Pink/ The Forward)Joel Finkelstein's presentation to DHS,The FBI identified SNA as a valuable tool for law enforcement as early as 2013.Stop LAPD Spying, "The Algorithmic Ecology"Stop LAPD Spying, "Before the Bullet Hits the Body"Hate with Dylan RodriguezTerror with Arun Kundnani