Unpacking Zionism

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

This episode with Akhil Gopal and Matyos Kidane of Stop LAPD Spying Coalition looks at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is the parent organization of the Museum of Tolerance and a go-to Holocaust education provider. We look at how its work relates to what L.A. organizers call the "stalker state", and how anti-poor and racist politics – especially policing – are interwoven with Zionist politics and the War on Terror.Also mentioned: The Anti-Defamation League.

In this episode, Sean Malloy and Meira Gold discuss the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which has been working behind the scenes on campuses, advising many of the administrators who have been imposing the repressive measures that we've seen throughout the Israeli genocide. AEN claims to have trained 3000 university administrators since 2020 and set up presence on 320 campuses. Along with the ADL, the AEL has now turned its attention to scholarly associations -- sites of growing solidarity with Palestine, and accordingly sites of concern for Zionist institutions.Also mentioned: Anti-Defamation League, Israel on Campus Coalition, Faculty Against Antisemitism Movement, ISGAP, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Israel Action Network, Brandeis Center, Hillel, Betar, MEMRI, Canary Mission, Amcha Initiative, Milstein Fund, Schusterman Fund, Marcus Fund, Heritage Foundation, American Jewish CommitteeResources:On Project Esther -https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/jvp-rejecting-project-esther/Previous episode discussion AEN - https://criticalzionismstudies.org/2024/04/01/amira-sean-dei/

In this episode of “From Above,” we discuss the Helen Diller Family Foundation – an organization that claims to support “global Jewish needs.” And while it indeed funds Jewish Studies Programs as well as hospitals, art museums, and playgrounds, what the Helen Diller Family Foundation is actually invested in is Zionist global needs. We will talk about the Helen Diller Family Foundation’s massive financial contributions to Zionist, reactionary, and far-right white supremacist organizations directly responsible for the genocide in Palestine. Our guest today is an organizer with JAWS, Jews Against White Supremacy, at UC Santa Cruz, Max Sárosi.Max Sárosi is a founding member of Jews Against White Supremacy UCSC and an undergraduate student of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies and Agroecology at the University of California Santa Cruz. Max is passionate about cultivating diasporic and decolonial Jewish community and comradery in solidarity with the Palestinian movement for liberation. Max's research interests include the entanglements of race, whiteness, and zionism as well as the histories, radical possibilities, and limitations of Jewish agroecologies.Also mentioned in the episode: Jinsa, Regavim,  Jewish Community Federation, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Family and Children's Services, ADL, AIPAC, the Canary Mission, Friends of the IDF, The Israel Fund, CAMERA, The David Horowitz Freedom Foundation, AFDI, TPUSA, Beitar.Resources:JAWS UCSC @ UC Peoples' Tribunal: Testimony on Helen Diller FoundationThe Worst Evictors of San Francisco and OaklandNotorious landlords support attack campaigns against rent control ballot measures : IndybayUC Berkeley's Helen Diller Anchor House dorm sparks controversyNew UCSF hospital gets boost from the Diller Family FoundationHelen and Sanford Diller Family Endowment for Jewish StudiesMidwife who worked in Gaza punished in California for watermelon pin

WARNING: the word "rapist" appears in this episode several times in the context of Zionist smears. At the 15'48" mark, there is a mention of a Jewish man being shot by a CAMERA-affiliated agitator.In this episode on CAMERA and the Camera Education Institute, we’re hearing from education organizers Sana Fadel, a member of Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, and Nora Lester Murad, of Drop The ADL from Schools. We talk through how Zionist institutions are using education as a platform for much broader political leverage, the split between the ways those institutions aim for respectability in the policy arena while using smear and violence in the streets, and the interconnections among Zionist organizations and figures. Be sure to read Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar on the history of these institutions, linked in the show notes.Also mentioned in this episode: Academic Engagement Network, Jewish Leadership Project, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Campus Watch, The Daily Wire, The David Project, Faculty Against Antisemitism Network, Hillel, Islamist Watch, Israel on Campus Coalition, Middle East Forum, Scholars for Peace in the Middle EastLinks:droptheadl.org // droptheadlfromschools.org“Resistance to Repression and Back Again: The Movement for Palestinian Liberation in US Academia” (Lara Deeb & Jessica Winegar) https://www-tandfonline-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/doi/full/10.1080/19436149.2024.2375669A CAMERA With the Wrong Focus, https://www.pbs.org/publiceditor/blogs/ombudsman/a-camera-with-the-wrong-focus/Leaked NYT Gaza memo tells journalists to avoid words ‘genocide,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘occupied territory’ https://theintercept.com/2024/04/15/nyt-israel-gaza-genocide-palestine-coverage/What Goes Unsaid, https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/what-goes-unsaid/Neocon Man, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neocon-man/

This is the second episode in our series From Above, in which we look at Zionist institutions that wield their power to advance fascist repression of anyone who speaks against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians. My guest today is herself an example of how this repression works. I am joined by writer and scholar Maura Finkelstein to talk about Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. In 2024, Maura was fired from her tenured professorship at Muhlenberg College for a social media post critical of Zionism and Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. We discuss what it means for Israel to be “at the heart of Hillel’s work” as their own website proudly admits, the role that Hillel plays in the repression of students, faculty, and staff, and what campaigns and organizations resist Hillel and its hegemony over Jewish campus life in the United States.Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. She is the author of The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, published by Duke University Press in 2019. In addition to academic writing, her essays have been by Post45, Electric Literature, Allegra Lab, Red Pepper Magazine, The Markaz Review, the Scottish Left Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera.Resources:https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45918/Astroturf-Zionism;https://palestinelegal.org/hillels-actions;http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/23/how-the-israel-lobby-captured-hillel-international-college-campus/;https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/the-campus-does-not-exist;https://drophillel.wordpress.com/history/

This is the first episode in a mini-series called "From Above," which looks at the Zionist organizations that have been laying the groundwork for Trump-era fascism and are now helping it advance. This mini-series isn’t so much a “how did we get here” as an effort to demystify the ongoing structures of Zionism that underwrite this present moment. In this episode, we’re joined by Zach Samalin from New York University to discuss the group called Mothers Against College Antisemitism (MACA), which was among the first Zionist groups to publicly embrace Trump’s deportation machine. RESOURCEShttps://www.nyu-aaup.org/aaup-nyu-report-nyus-president-mills-interfered-with-student-disciplinary-process-at-request-of-islamophobic-anti-palestinian-group/https://theintercept.com/2025/01/31/nyu-gaza-protesters-deport-maca-antisemitism/ https://politicalresearch.org/2024/10/30/understanding-rise-multiracial-right-and-why-it-matters

"From Above" is a new mini-series in our Unpacking Zionism podcast. It launches next week, but our teaser this week is a mini-show in itself. This series looks at the Zionist institutions that have been smearing, doxxing, and fueling ICE abductions and deportations in their efforts to shut down criticism of the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians. To kick off the series, we talk with researcher Hil Aked about the important idea of Zionism as "a social movement from above." Listen here and read Hil's book Friends of Israel for a more detailed explanation.

In this episode, we are joined by Mama Ganuush, a Palestinian drag artist and activist, to unpack “Cultural Boycott” as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies. We discuss San Francisco’s Civic Joy Fund, its Zionist backers, and the joy-washing event the Fund is organizing on April 5 – the Tenderloin Eid Night Market. Mama Ganuush shares the investigative report into San Francisco’s Civic Joy Fund and explains why it is imperative to boycott that Eid event, other Civic Joy Fund’s activities, and all expressions of Zionist culture and propaganda. Mama Ganuush is a Palestinian drag artist, activist, and cultural organizer whose work is rooted in anti-Zionist, anti-colonial politics. They are a founding member of theHALACollective.com and co-host of the AIPACZombies.com podcast. Ganuush also founded the JAHAFilmFestival.com, a radical, joyful celebration of queer and trans voices through cinema. Through their drag performances and community organizing, they aim to build joy-centered spaces of intersectional resistance across all communities while centering trans voices, blending their artistic practice with their political activism to foster collective liberation.

In this episode, we’re unpacking “corporate capital” as a keyword in Critical Zionism Studies with our guest Felice Gelman. We are discussing the article she wrote for Mondoweiss titled “The ADL’s war on socially conscious investing is in service to Israel and the new oligarchy.” It is about the investment research firm Morningstar that earlier this year caved to an ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) pressure campaign and exempted Israel from the firm’s socially responsible investing ratings. So in unpacking the entanglements of corporate capital with Zionism, our conversation touches on the ADL and its long-standing campaign against the BDS movement, the Trump regime and the new oligarchy, and the broader implications of Morningstar’s decision to exempt Israel from investor accountability.Felice Gelman had a 25 year career on Wall St. as an investment manager and securities analyst, specializing in analyzing and investing in banks and other financial companies. She worked for two investment banks and then started her own asset management business which became the largest firm specializing in financial company investments. She has participated in Palestine solidarity efforts for 20 years.

In this episode we’re talking about building liberatory institutions — institutions of resistive, anti-Zionist knowledge production. We’re with Bassam Haddad of the Arab Studies Institute, the parent organization of Jadaliyya, Gaza in Context, and multiple other projects. Join us to talk about knowledge-making as a political project, escaping the constraints of capital, countering the power of conservative think tanks, and refusing the limits of the university.

In the fifth and final episode of “The Trouble with White Feminism” series, Jessie Daniels talks to ICSZ founding collective member Lara Sheehi about maintaining clarity about the material reality of Zionist settler colonialism while resisting psycho-affective tactics that Zionists use to unsettle us.Sheehi, Lara, and Stephen Sheehi. Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine. Routledge, 2021.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429487880/psychoanalysis-occupation-lara-sheehi-stephen-sheehi Sheehi, Stephen. "Psychoanalysis under occupation: Nonviolence and dialogue initiatives as a psychic extension of the closure system." Psychoanalysis and History 20, no. 3 (2018): 353-369.Stovall, Natasha. “Whiteness on the Couch,” Longreads, 12 August 2019.https://longreads.com/2019/08/12/whiteness-on-the-couch/ The Zionist playbook is literally thisHasbara Handbook: https://www.middle-east-info.org/take/wujshasbara.pdf Mary Louise Fellows and Sherene Razack, The Race to Innocence: Confronting Hierarchical Relations among Women, 1 J. Gender Race & Just. 335 (1998), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/274.Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang: "Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor," Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40. Wekker, Gloria. White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. (2016). Duke: Durham, NC. https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/86/White-InnocenceParadoxes-of-Colonialism-and-Race