Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have not returned home, fearing for their safety after death threats and an escalating official campaign against them. Culture Minister Miki Zohar has called for revoking their citizenship, while military lawyers have considered legal action. The threat is chilling. A democracy that punishes artists for exposing alleged atrocities is not defending itself—it is silencing conscience.
#Israel #NAZA #Gaza
Israel does not merely tolerate settler violence; it enables and deploys it. These crimes form part of a broader policy of dispossession: driving Palestinians from their land and hastening annexation. Yet, instead of demanding that Israel stop committing these crimes, Trump continues to arm Israel. This is complicity in crimes against humanity.
The next episode of my podcast is this upcoming Tuesday, October 13, at 10:00am EDT with Serap Fišo, an independent researcher, freelance project expert, social activist, and storyteller. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science and Sociology from the International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2023. Her doctoral research examined forced migration, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and identity construction in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Listeners can register for the live podcast recording on Zoom at the link in my bio.
Archived episodes will be released the following day, on Wednesdays at noon. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, including Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify, to be sure to always get the latest episodes.
Today’s podcast guest is Michael Wuthrich, Associate Professor of Political Science and the Associate Director for Global & International Studies at the University of Kansas. He is co-author of the book, Beyond Piety and Politics: Religion, Social Relations, and Public Preferences in the Middle East and North Africa.
In this episode, we discuss the intersection of religion and politics, particularly in the non-Arab Muslim countries of Turkey and Iran, what has been behind the growth of Islam globally, changes in secularism in Turkey under Erdogan, and the impact of the Islamic Republic on religiosity for everyday people in Iran.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full bio
Mike Wuthrich is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Associate Director for Global & International Studies at the University of Kansas. He received his PhD in Political Science from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey in 2011. His interests are Middle East politics, particularly Turkish, Kurdish, and Iranian politics, parties and party systems, electoral behavior, religion and politics, women and politics in Turkey, and nationalism. His publications have appeared in Journal of Democracy, Political Research Quarterly, Parliamentary Affairs, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Journal, and Turkish Studies among others. He is co-author of the book, Beyond Piety and Politics: Religion, Social Relations, and Public Preferences in the Middle East and North Africa, with Indiana University Press in 2022. His book, National Elections in Turkey: People, Politics, and the Party System was published in 2015 with Syracuse University Press.
ISRAEL’S ALIENATION OF DIASPORA JEWS IS UNPRECEDENTED
Darian’s ties to Israel flourished, faltered, and ultimately ended, despite having grown up, lived, and worked at the heart of the American Jewish community. Zionism and unconditional support for Israel had shaped Darian’s identity, relationships, and sense of belonging. Developing a critical view of Israel therefore meant detaching from much of what had defined that life—a painful rupture that left a lasting wound. By the early 2000s, without a single decisive turning point, Darian concluded that foundational assumptions had been false, particularly the belief that only Israel could guarantee Jewish safety. Though those who taught this may not have understood its implications, Darian could no longer call himself a Zionist or accept the idea of a sovereign Jewish state as morally justified.
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THE TRAGIC DISILLUSIONMENT OF JEWS ABOUT ISRAEL
Darian’s attachment to Israel and Zionism was once inseparable from his identity. Raised, educated, and employed within the American Jewish community, he was taught that unconditional support for Israel was essential to Jewish belonging and security. The belief that only Israel could protect Jews shaped his relationships, values, and life direction. His disillusionment came gradually, not through a single event. By the early 2000s, he concluded that the assurances he had absorbed were fundamentally false—no matter how sincerely others may have believed them. What he once regarded as a source of safety and pride became an unbearable moral contradiction. Deeply saddened by years of illusion, Darian could no longer call himself a Zionist or feel any association with Israel’s national project.
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Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have not returned home, fearing for their safety after death threats and an escalating official campaign against them. Culture Minister Miki Zohar has called for revoking their citizenship, while military lawyers have considered legal action. The threat is chilling. A democracy that punishes artists for exposing alleged atrocities is not defending itself—it is silencing conscience.
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Instead of starting a public discussion in Israel about the massmurders in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, they starting a hypocrite chase on sincere journalists that try to find the truth.
THE RAIN OF HORROR IN GAZA IS GENOCIDE BY
INTENT, DESIGN AND EXECUTION
Hamas’ attack of October 7 was a horrific war crime and crime against humanity: civilians were killed, families shattered, and hostages taken. I share the trauma and grief of those who lost loved ones. But Israel’s response soon inflicted catastrophic harm on Gaza’s civilian population. I was reluctant to use the word genocide. But the Genocide Convention defines it as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group. It need not resemble the Holocaust or involve the destruction of an entire people. The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry has concluded that Israel committed genocide, citing killings, destructive living conditions, and evidence of genocidal intent. Israel's vehemence in castigating those who called it genocide; action will not absolve Israel’s moral bankruptcy.
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Thank you for providing an honest explanation of October 7th and the aftermath .
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hamas killing their own people
The only protected groups in play are Arabs (racial-ethnic) and Muslims (religious). Setting out to annihilate them would be a big ask for Israel.
So all those sticks with all photos on them is grave sites ?
Why are some of those buildings still standing
What else can you do but have to eradicate the infrastructure of the terrorist territory called Gaza. They had a chance in 2006 to take all the billions of dollars they were given and make it beautiful state according to their claim desire for two State solution. But they didn't they voted in Hamas and allow them to create 600 miles of terror tunnels. Convert the basement of every hospital every orphanage every school into an armory. Teach their children in schools that dying while killing Jews was the most virtuous thing that wouldn't be rewarded with 42 virgins... Gaza is not just just a failed state it is a failed people used as pawns by those who want to continue to exert pressure to eliminate Jews and Israel. And in the process of eliminating this terrorist threat from the south if innocent women are killed this is entirely on the sick depraved radicalized Muslim.
