Just World Books Podcasts

Just World Ed president Helena Cobban reads the column she had on this topic on Mondoweiss on March 13, which asked whether the Great March of Return movement that has swept the Gaza Strip for the past 50 weeks, may be the third great political movement to be born in Gaza. In the second half of this episode she discusses the Great March of Return with British-Palestinian author and activist Dr. Azzam Tamimi.Support the show

Just World Ed president Helena Cobban first of all reads the column she published March 6 on Mondoweiss, "The two-state solution is dead. Let's plan for the one state." Then, she discusses the issue of one-state vs. two-state with special guest William B. Quandt, former Middle East advisor to Pres. Jimmy Carter...Support the show

In this episode in our "Story/Backstory" miniseries, JWE president Helena Cobban first reads, then reflects on her most recent 1,300-word op-ed on U.S. policies in the Middle East. For more details on this project, visit the blog on our website.Support the show

This is the first episode in our new "Story/Backstory" miniseries, which combines both the reading by JWE president Helena Cobban of her most recent 1,300-word op-ed on U.S. policies in the Middle East, with a slightly longer segment in which she reflects on some of the issues raised by the op-ed. For more details, visit the blog on our website.Support the show

In this episode you’ll hear a conversation I held recently with Laila El-Haddad, a political analyst, author, and rights activist who is from a family deeply rooted in Gaza, Palestine, though she currently lives near Baltimore, Maryland. Laila is the author or co-author of three Gaza-themed books, including the famed "ethnographic" cookbook, The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey.In this episode, Laila talks about how it was to be a Gaza Palestinian living outside Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, while knowing that her parents and many other loved ones were trapped inside the city. She and Helena discuss U.S. policy during and after Cast Lead, the best ways for international civil-society people to support Gaza today, and the new emergence of the Palestinian "Cultural Pride" movement.Support the show

This episode features a conversation Just World Ed President Helena Cobban held  with Alice Rothchild, who’s a member of our Board of Directors and a veteran activist in the field of health and human rights. Alice is a recently retired OB/GYN who has authored three books on the health and rights situation in the areas currently under Israel’s control. The latest was Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine, which was published by Just World Books in Fall 2016.Dr Rothchild has spent significant amounts of time in Gaza on three occasions, in 2005, 2015, and 2017 and currently serves on the board of the Gaza Community Mental Health Foundation.Support the show

In this episode, you’ll hear a conversation that Helena Cobban held recently with Joe Catron, Just World Educational's Director of Outreach, about the legacies of Cast Lead. Joe is a veteran social-justice activist who spent three-plus years in Gaza, from March 2011 through Fall 2014.  This is the fifth episode in a special mini-series we’re releasing as part of our “Cast Lead Plus Ten” project, which started on December 27th will run till at least January 17th. This project marks the anniversary of the “Operation Cast Lead” assault that Israel waged against Gaza during these same 22 days, exactly ten years ago. More details are on our website, here.Support the show

In this episode you’ll hear the second half of a conversation I recently held about Cast Lead and its legacies, with Dr. Basem Naim. At the time of Cast Lead, Dr. Naim was the Minister of Health in the Palestinian government in Gaza.  Today, he heads the Gaza-based Center for International Relations.This is the fourth episode in a special  mini-series we’re releasing as part of our “Cast Lead Plus Ten” project, which started on December 27 and is running for 22 days. This project marks the anniversary of the “Operation Cast Lead” assault that Israel waged against Gaza during these same 22 days, ten years ago.  In this episode, Dr. Naim discusses many of the painful after- effects of Cast Lead-- and of the tight siege that Israel has maintained around Gaza continuously since the Spring of 2006. He also discusses the notable nonviolent, civilian mass action called the Great March of Return, that citizen activists and political groups launched in March last year… and that continues to this day… an action that, D

This episode of our podcast is the third in a special mini-series we’re releasing as part of our “Cast Lead Plus Ten” project, which started last December 27 and is running for 22 days. The project marks the anniversary of the “Operation Cast Lead” assault that Israel waged against Gaza during these same 22 days, ten years ago.  In this episode you’ll hear the first half of a conversation I had about Cast Lead recently, with Dr. Basem Naim. At the time of Cast Lead, Dr. Naim was the Minister of Health in the Palestinian government in Gaza.  Currently, he heads the Gaza-based Center for International Relations. In this episode, Dr. Naim re-lives some of the most painful moments he experienced during Operation Cast Lead —both as the Minister of Health and in his personal life -- from the first moments of the massive air assault on Gaza City that Israel launched in the late morning of December 27, 2008, when Dr. Naim was in Gaza largest medical facility, Shifa Hospital… until when the ceasefire was reached 21 da

This episode of our podcast is the second in a special mini-series we’re releasing as part of our “Cast Lead Plus Ten” project. In this episode of our mini-series you can hear the second half of the conversation Helena Cobban had about Cast Lead, with the distinguished international jurist Richard Falk. In the previous episode, Cobban and Falk had discussed mainly what happened during the Cast Lead assault, ending with the ceasefire that Israel and Hamas reached on January 17, 2009. In this episode, they  discuss the broader strategic impact and lasting legacy of “Operation Cast Lead”, including the whole saga of the UN Fact-finding Commission which was headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, and the role Cast Lead and the fate of the Goldstone Commission both had in galvanizing new generations and new forms of activism in the worldwide Palestinian-rights movement.Stay tuned for the next episode in this mini-series, to be released January 3!(The automatically generated transcript that follows has not yet been clea

This episode of our podcast is part of a special mini-series we’re releasing as part of our “Cast Lead Plus Ten” project, which will run for 22 days, December 27, 2018 through January 17, 2019, to mark the tenth anniversary of Israel’s brutal “Operation Cast Lead” assault against Gaza, which ran for precisely those same 22 days, ten years ago. In the first episode in this mini-series you can hear the first half of a conversation I had about Cast Lead with the distinguished international jurist Richard Falk. In this episode, we covered the period from when Falk was named the UN Human Rights Council’s Special rapporteur on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, earlier in 2008, through the main aspects of the 22-day assault, concluding with the ceasefire reached on January 17, 2009.Support the show

We are pleased to present an interview that JWE President Helena Cobban conducted July 24th with Peter Ford, who was Britain’s ambassador to Syria, 2003 through 2006, and who has remained an informed and close observer of Syrian affairs ever since. He was also, for several years after he left the British diplomatic service, the representative of the UN agency UNRWA to the Arab world, based in Amman.In this half-hour interview Ambassador Ford discussed aspects of the situations of both Syrians and Palestinians. A digest of the conversation will be posted shortly on our blog at www.justworldeducational.org, where you can also find links to the interviews Ms. Cobban conducted with Professor Falk and a wealth of informational resources about Palestine, Syria, and other issues of war and peace in the Middle East. Support the show

In this second half of Helena Cobban's recent conversation about Turkish politics with Prof. Richard Falk, they discuss the implications for Turkey's regional and to some extent global policies.Support the show

The distinguished international jurist Richard Falk, who's a member of Just World Educational's Board of Directors, has had a long association with Turkey, where he spends most of his summers. Recently, there was an election in Turkey for both the 600-person legislature and the presidency in its new, enhanced "executive president" form.On July 10, JWE President Helena Cobban recorded a wide-ranging conversation she held with Prof. Falk, who was speaking from his family's summer home in southern Turkey. This podcast contains the first half of that conversation, dealing mainly with the domestic implications in Turkey of these recent developments-- as well as with some of the misapprehensions Prof. Falk has identified, that seem to affect how Turkish politics gets covered by the Western corporate media.Prof. Falk earlier published this reflection on the elections in Turkey.Be aware that some renovations were underway in the home right above Prof. Falk's, so you will hear a little (q

Helena Cobban introduces "Understanding Gaza and Hamas", the factsheet she produced for Just World Educational, which demolishes seven key myths the Israelis have fostered regarding these crucial topics.Support the show

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Ian Williams joins Just World Educational on #UNDay to discuss the United Nations, the U.S., and the world.See www.justworldeducational.org for updates on Ian's speaking events.Book information and purchasing at justworldbooks.com/books/untold/Support the show

An interview recorded in early August 2017 with Karín Aguilar-San Juan. The interview covers the book she coedited with Frank Joyce called "The People Make the Peace: Lessons from the Vietnam Antiwar Movement" (Just World Books 2015) on U.S. antiwar activists and combat veterans against the Vietnam War and their efforts at citizen diplomacy through travel to Vietnam. The interview touches upon the new Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War and what Aguilar-San Juan calls America's "Forrest Gump-ified" memory of the Vietnam War.Support the show

Super-skilled peace activist Doug Hostetter talks about his groundbreaking work on the "Peoples Peace Treaty" that students from the United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam concluded in early 1971... about how his peace activism has evolved over the years and why he's long been a big supporter for the rights of Palestinians... and why he supports Just World educationalSupport the show

In this episode of the Just World podcast, Helena Cobban talks to Dr. Sarah Ahmed, another very inspiring young Iraqi who’s been working to provide direct relief to the news waves of refugees and internally displaced people inside Iraq. Dr. Sarah is the Director of Operations for a UK-based charity called the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. She talks with passion and conviction not only about the work she’s been doing with some of the deeply traumatized survivors of ISIS’s torments, but also about her opposition to the idea that bombing or any other military operations can improve the situation of the many Iraqis whose plight she knows only too well. As all the talk continues in the western countries and elsewhere about using military violence to try to “defeat” ISIS, Dr. Sarah’s voice and analysis both definitely need to be heard. Support the show