Unpacking Zionism

Welcome to Battling the IHRA Definition, a new podcast by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. This trailer is a quick introduction into “the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” which has been weaponized by Zionist institutions and policymakers to equate criticizing Israel with antisemitism and equate Zionism with Jewishness. The IHRA definition is a tactic used by political actors — particularly the right — to obscure Zionist politics, paper over US and other imperial interests in dominating Palestine, and to attack the anti-genocide movement. The IHRA definition has been adopted by institutions and corporations, used by media outlets, and become a widely-used talking point for smearing anti-Zionists, Palestinians, educators, human rights advocates, and more. And as popular resistance has grown for Palestine – popular resistance against Zionism – the IHRA definition is being used as a tool to attack it from many angles.And that’s why we are Battling the IHRA Definition. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes.

In this episode, we talk with Jennifer Mogannam about “refugees” as a keyword for thinking about Zionism. Our conversation considers how Palestinian refugee resistance to the condition of Zionist colonization permeates culture, community, politics, and sense of the future — not only for Palestinians but for everyone — and how that resistance poses a major challenge to the narratives that Zionism relies on.You can read the transcript of this episode and the forum we discuss, "Locating Palestinians at the Intersections: Indigeneity, Critical Refugee Studies, and Decolonization" by Jennifer Mogannam, Eman Ghanayem, and Rana Sharif on our website.

In this special episode, we share a talk on a new (really!) right-wing attack on Palestine-related organizations: a U.S. federal "anti-terror" bill that would strip progressive organizations of their ability to function, and wouldn't require scrutiny or due process. Legal scholar Darryl Li and policy expert Lara Friedman discuss the new legislation and its relationship to the avalanche of new proposed "anti-antisemitism" bills currently before Congress.This conversation rests on Darryl Li’s recent report “Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of U.S. Antiterrorism Law”, published by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Lara Friedman’s most recent legislative round-up which she publishes at the Foundation for Middle East Peace website.

In this episode, we are joined by Sai Englert to discuss settler colonialism as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. Sai’s work considers the role of labor in the settler colonial conquest of land and accumulation of resources, and its particular importance to the Zionist project. This conversation explores the logics and contradictions of settler colonialism, and Sai makes a compelling case for paying closer attention to exploitation as a key structure of Zionism.Sai Englert is a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands and the author of Settler Colonialism and Introduction. This conversation is grounded in his most recent article, “Gaza and Settler Colonialism” in Spectre, from that journal’s April 2024, special issue on Palestine. Sai and Spectre have generously shared his article for podcast listeners. It is available on our website and through the show notes.

This episode with Dylan Rodriguez takes a look at the Stop Asian Hate campaign, and some of the organizations behind it, as a way to consider hate as a keyword for Critical Zionism Studies. This is also the first of several episodes we hope to bring you where we’ll talk about the intersections of Asian and AAPI politics, in the US and globally, as they intersect with Zionist politics.Dylan’s article, which is the basis of this conversation, is called “How the Stop Asian Hate Movement Became Entwined with Zionism, Policing, and Counterinsurgency.” It’s on the website of the Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, and on our website.

In this episode on Zionism and anti-Zionism, we talk with Ronit Lentin. She outlines the processes by which Zionism adopts race science and rewrites history and Jewish identity to fit it. This is a wide-ranging conversation that draws on research, family history, and decades of antiracist work — and ends with exile.

This special episode maps the wide-ranging counterinsurgency against the anticolonial Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S., and opens a conversation on strategy for resistance. Lara Friedman, Amira Jarmakani, and Emmaia Gelman talk through campus safety narratives, Zionist “antisemitism watchdogs”, and a mushrooming landscape of federal and state legislation. This panel was recorded as part of the American Studies Association May 2024 Mini-Conference.This week's episode is accompanied by a trove of materials. In the show notes, listeners can access the slides for Dr. Jarmakani’s talk, Lara Friedman's essential work on tracking legislation, and Emmaia Gelman's article on “Astroturf Antisemitism Watchdogs” in Jadaliyya along with the zine that goes with it. We're also linking to work from the Palestinian Feminist Collective on sophicide, Devin Atallah's article "Beyond Grief," the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition website, and a report on the politics of the IHRA definition from scholar Jamie Stern-Weiner.Lara Friedman, Foundation for Middle East PeaceAmira Jarmakani, San Diego State UniversityEmmaia Gelman, Sarah Lawrence College

This episode, with Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), goes right to the heart of the matter. We’re unpacking Zionism and anti-Zionism as keywords for Critical Zionism Studies, as we talk over Palestinian historical writing about Zionist colonialism. We discuss how understanding Zionism as a project of various powers — states, empires, and capital — is essential for defining anti-Zionism. Our conversation draws on Fayez Sayegh and Faris Glubb’s work on British and Nazi interest in Zionist colonization, then turns to the role of the United States. Miriam also explains PYM’s approach to political education about Zionism and anti-Zionism, and the importance of centering anti-imperialism.Fayez SayeghZionist Colonialism in Palestine (Palestine Research Center, 1965)https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC12_scans/12.zionist.colonialism.palestine.1965.pdfL. Allday and S. Al-SalehZionism as a Fascist Ideology and Movement: Zionist Relations with Nazi Germany by Faris Yahya Glubb (Liberated Texts, Oct 2023)https://liberatedtexts.com/reviews/zionism-as-a-fascist-ideology-zionist-relations-with-nazi-germany-by-faris-glubb/You can find the transcript on our website criticalzionismstudies.org

For this episode, we invited Sara Kershnar to unpack antisemitism as one of the keywords in Critical Zionism Studies. In October 2023, Sara spoke at the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism's inaugural conference about Israel, U.S. white nationalism, and transnational right-wing alliances and you can view Sara’s talk on our website. In today’s conversation, we will pull on some of the threads Sara introduced in that talk, including why it is hard and contentions to define antisemitism, how accusations of antisemitism are weaponized to advance Zionist politics, and how Zionism is inherently antisemitic.Sara Kershnar is the co-founder and international coordinator of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network established in 2007. Sara began her Palestinian solidarity work during the second intifada. Sara is also a co-founder of Generation FIVE, an organization working on transformative justice approaches to addressing child sexual abuse and works towards prison abolition in solidarity with currently and formerly-incarcerated people. After her father tested positive for HIV, Sara began her organizing and social justice work in the movements to reduce drug-related harm. Sara is the queer mother of a fabulous nine-year old. Sara has coordinated and been a lead writer on several publications including the The Business of Backlash: The Attack on the Palestinian Movement and Other Movements for Social Justice; Israel’s Worldwide Role in Repression focused on the role of Israel’s government, its military, and related corporations and organizations in a global industry of violence and repression; Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover Up – an eBook; and was a producer of a documentary film, “Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the JewishNational Fund.” Sara has also published several articles on reducing drug-related harm and a manual on implementing transformative justice approaches to child sexual abuse.

In this episode, we invited Amira Jarmakani and Sean Malloy to talk about DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as a crucial term to unpack in order to understand how Zionist politics are working.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 Plus Studies at San Diego State University. And most importantly, Amira is on the advisory board of our very own Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. Sean L. Molloy is a professor of history and critical race and ethnic studies at the University of California, Merced. And Sean is also, most importantly, a collective member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.This conversation builds on Amira’s talk From “Zionism is racism” to “antisemitism is racism” Sean’s talk From the “New Antisemitism” to the IHRA: The Evolution of Zionist Countermobilization that they presented at the Institute’s conference Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism in October 2023. During the interview, Amira also mentions a Vox article “How Republicans are weaponizing antisemitism to take down DEI.” And last, Sean’s article titled “A Safe Space for Apartheid, Zionist Organizations, and the Counter Mobilization Against Palestinian Solidarity on U.S. Campuses,” is coming out very shortly in the Critical Ethnic Studies Journal and we will post it when it’s out.You can find the transcript and episode notes on our website criticalzionismstudies.org

In this episode, we invited Arun Kundnani, a member of the founding collective of the Institute, to talk about the idea of terror and how it relates to Zionism.Arun is a writer and a thinker whose work is on race and racial capitalism, Islamophobia, surveillance, political violence, and radicalism. Arun wrote a recent article “Israel, US campuses, and the fragility of the coloniser” that is published in the New Arab. Arun also wrote a book called The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror.You can find transcript and episode notes on our website criticalzionismstudies.org

For this first episode, we have three guests and we're excited to launch the podcast in conversation with Rabab Abdulhadi, Lara Kiswani, and Dylan Rodriguez. We discuss what Critical Zionism Studies is and what it can offer us in this moment.To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website criticalzionismstudies.org. And please subscribe to "Unpacking Zionism" so you never miss new episodes.

Introducing the new weekly podcast "Unpacking Zionism." It will feature conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Whether you're an activist or an academic, whether you're new to these conversations, or you've been thinking about this for a while, we're making this podcast for you.To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website criticalzionismstudies.org. And please subscribe to "Unpacking Zionism" so you never miss new episodes.