Palestine Deep Dive

Behind the Lens: Live with Palestinian Photographers Najib Joe Hakim & Ahmad Al-Bazz

Mark Seddon speaks to multi award-winning Palestinian photographers Najib Joe Hakim & Ahmad Al-Bazz about frontline photojournalism under apartheid & the power of cultural resistance in the diaspora.
 
Najib Joe Hakim is an award winning Palestinian-American documentary photographer and artist based in San Francisco, CA. He is the recipient of the 2020 Rebuilding Alliance Storytellers Award for his projects Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay, Born among Mirrors and video Cooking Lessons: A Palestinian American Story. In 2019 he was an Art Fellow at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and his digital collage "Sending Wings instead of Arms" placed 1st in a global competition sponsored by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
 
Ahmad Al-Bazz is a multi-award winning Palestinian video-journalist, photographer and documentary filmmaker based in Nablus, occupied West Bank. In 2012, he became a member of the Activestills documentary photography collective. Ahmad regularly reports and publishes pieces at Mondoweiss and +972 Magazine and also works as a freelancer for Defence for Children International - Palestine. In 2020, he was shortlisted for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award. Between 2015-2019, two of his short documentaries received several regional and international awards, including the Al-Jazeera Documentary Channel Award for Best Arab Short Doc (2015) and the Alexandria Short Film Festival Award (2019). Ahmad’s first feature length documentary was recently pitched at Cannes and should be released later this year.

Richard Burden | How can Political Parties in Britain do more to Uphold Human Rights & International Law in Israel & Palestine?

Mark Seddon is live with Richard Burden, a former Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield (1992 to 2019). He also chaired the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group (2001 and 2019). He is a Trustee of the Balfour Project and Vice Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. He also served for 10 years scrutinising government as a member of the House of Commons International Development Committee.
We DeepDive into the UK government’s current performance when it comes to Israel & Palestine and also look ahead at what Keir Starmer’s Labour Party could do differently in power if it is genuinely committed to upholding human rights and international law in the region.

Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot | End Israel’s Impunity: The West’s Century of Broken Promises towards Palestine.

Ambassador Husam Zomlot, Head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom speaks to Palestine Deep Dive’s Mark Seddon. The ambassador illuminates the U.K.'s century of broken promises and missed opportunities towards Palestine, including the lack of leadership of the British government for continuing to refuse to recognise the State of Palestine.
He places responsibility for Israel’s ongoing impunity on the West for refusing to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.
The ambassador highlights how the U.S. is at risk of losing impact and influence on the region by refusing to reverse Trump’s policy decisions, and predicts the continuation of Israel’s far right trajectory, if the West continues to allow Israel to be unaccountable on the world stage.
The pair also discuss the rise in awareness of the apartheid discourse surrounding Israel and Palestine, Western media bias and the ambassador’s hopes which lie outside of the political elite, but instead at the feet of ordinary people on the streets of the Arab world and across the United Kingdom for bringing about meaningful change from the bottom up.

Israel’s Extreme Far Right Government & the Palestinian Response Live with Diana Buttu & Omar Baddar

Mark Seddon is live with Diana Buttu and Omar Baddar for a Deep Dive illuminating the latest iteration of Israel's evermore extreme right wing government. 
We'll be exploring the Netanyahu-led government's rhetoric and actions which have already included explicit calls for more land grabs across the West Bank and the expulsion of more Palestinians from their homes.
We'll also be questioning the nature of the ongoing protests in Tel Aviv and what they reveal about the wider concern among the Israeli public, or lack of it, for the millions of Palestinians enduring Israel's ongoing occupation.
Diana Buttu is a lawyer and analyst based in Haifa. Her commentaries have appeared in the NYT, Washington Post, Boston Globe, CNN and the Guardian among others. She is also a DAWN fellow. 
Omar Baddar is a Palestinian-American political analyst. He previously served as communications director for the Institute for Middle East Understanding, deputy director of the Arab American Institute, a co-host and producer with Al Jazeera, and executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts. He holds a master’s degree in political science, with research focusing on U.S. policy toward Palestine and Israel, and his media appearances include MSNBC, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among many other outlets.

Is Free Speech on Israel Under Attack? Kenneth Stern, Drafter of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism

Mark Seddon speaks with Kenneth Stern: Is Free Speech on Israel Under Attack?
Kenneth Stern is the director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. He is an award-winning author and attorney, and was most recently executive director of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation. Before that he was director of the division on antisemitism and extremism at the American Jewish Committee, where he worked for 25 years.
Mr. Stern was the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's “working definition” of antisemitism. In December 2019, Stern published a piece in the Guardian: "I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/13/antisemitism-executive-order-trump-chilling-effect

Kenneth Roth: On Harvard University Ban & Why Human Rights Campaigners won’t be Silenced over Israel

Palestine Deep Dive and the Foreign Press Association (New York) are live with the ‘the Godfather of Human Rights’ Kenneth Roth, for a DeepDive into Harvard’s reported decision to block him from taking up a fellowship over his organisation’s criticism of Israel’s human rights record.
The Harvard Kennedy School has allegedly bowed to pressure, according to the Nation, during a period when major donors and prominent Jewish organisations were particularly unhappy that Human Rights Watch, which Roth directed from 1993-2022, has recently accused Israel of practising apartheid.
According to Human Rights Watch’s 213 page report published in April 2021 illustrating the nature of Israel's apartheid, Israel systematically oppresses the Palestinian people both across the occupied Palestinian territory and within Israel itself.
Join Mark Seddon and FPA President Ian Williams as we learn why Roth feels his senior fellowship position at Harvard has been blocked, and what challenges human rights campaigners are facing today over criticism of Israel.

Andrew Whitley: How can Britain Help Right the Historic Wrong that it Committed Against the Palestinian People?

Mark Seddon is live with Andrew Whitley, founder & executive director of Geo-Political Advisory Services (GPAS) & Chair of the Balfour Project. Andrew has had an expansive career first as a journalist for the BBC & Financial Times, before serving as the New York Director of UNRWA & then as Policy Director & interim Chief Executive of The Elders.
Tune in for a DeepDive illuminating Britain's historic and ongoing role in the oppression of the Palestinian people, and hear what Andrew thinks Britain can and should be doing today to start to undo these injustices.

Israel’s Detention Without Trial: Salah Hammouri & the Palestinian Administrative Detainees

This podcast was produced on Monday 28th November.
On Wednesday 30th November, Leah Tsemel, Hammouri's lawyer, was informed that Israel intends to deport Salah Hammouri, resident of occupied East Jerusalem, to France on Sunday 4th December.
Mark Seddon, former speech writer for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon & Al Jazeera English’s first UN Correspondent, is live with two very special guests:
Francesca Albanese – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967
Leah Tsemel – Human Rights Lawyer and Legal Representative of Salah Hammouri

Israel’s Election Lurch to the Far Right – What Does this Mean for the Palestinians? | Ian Williams

Receive the most important news & analysis on Palestine & Israel straight to your inbox!
Sign up to our newsletter, Deep Dive Daily: https://bit.ly/3LrCUxE
Mark Seddon is live with Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association, New York & Columnist for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'.
They discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's lead in Israel's fifth election in four years with vote counting almost complete, setting him up to form what may be the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

In Conversation the Makers of Al Jazeera’s The Labour Files | Richard Sanders & Peter Oborne

Leaks, Lies & Spies: The Scandal the UK Media REFUSED to Touch. An Exclusive Conversation with the Makers of Al Jazeera's the Labour Files
Since the mainstream media won’t do its job, we'll do it for them!
Mark Seddon is conversation with makers of Al Jazeera's The Labour Files exclusively for Palestine Deep Dive.
Richard Sanders is an award winning film director with over 25 years experience. He was Senior Producer on the Labour Files and made the second film, on antisemitism.
Peter Oborne is an award winning journalist and author who features in the series. He is a former political commentator of the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. He now writes about politics for Open Democracy and Middle East Eye. He is the author of The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism.