Welcome to This Week In Palestine, where we feature the Palestinian voice speaking out of and to the horror of a stifling Israeli occupation which is consuming their homeland and perhaps even their culture. Probably not the latter because of their non-violent resistance to this occupation which slowly but steadily is beginning to gain the attention of the international community. We need to amplify their voice, their story, their cause. We need to make visible their humanity in the face of the overwhelming military subjugation by the United States and Israel. We must challenge the US-Israeli narrative of deception, which would have us believe that Israel is the victim here, that black is white, that myth is reality. The Palestinians are up against not only their military and their bulldozers, but their lies and distortion of the truth reflected in their talking points, which are parroted by the mainstream media and believed by a majority of the American people.
This Week In Palestine tries to parry the distortions of the Israeli public relations machine with authentic voices that reflect the reality of this occupation.
Today we have two of those authentic voices for you, a journalist and a poet. Because of people like journalist Amira Haas and poet Lisa Majaj, there is hope. As long as there are voices to speak the truth, there is hope. Each of these remarkable women struggle with use of language to reflect and ultimately challenge the realities of the Israeli occupation as well as the Palestinian resistance. Journalism certainly, and yes also poetry have a role to play in the use of language to counter the weapons of destruction that consume Palestinian landâ¦but as long as there are the words of Haas, Majaj and their like, never their culture.
Amira Haas is an Israeli journalist who writes for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. However, she does not live in Israel, she lives in Ramallah in the West Bank, and also lived 3 years in Gaza because she feels strongly that to cover the occupation, one must live the occupation, and she does.
Lisa Majaj has a Palestinian father and an American mother, born in Iowa; she was raised in Jordan, but spends much time in Palestine where she finds her true identity.
They both spoke at a forum in Boston sponsored by Consequence magazine where This Week In Palestine recorded their presentations.
We begin with Amira Haas, followed by Lisa Majaj.
This Week In Palestine (a weekly part of Truth and Justice Radio) is an award-winning three-quarter-hour segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. It speaks from the point of view of Palestinians and those who care about them. It's a regular part of Truth and Justice Radio, aired Sundays 6-10am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming and archived for two weeks at wzbc.org; TJR's website, truthandjusticeradio.org, has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008; earlier editions are obtainable from radio4all.net or by navigating through our playlists. (At this important time, TJR has been airing a lot of Palestine coverage IN ADDITION to that provided by This Week In Palestine.) We hope you'll write to us at tjr@bluebottle.com if you rebroadcast our work, or have questions or comments.
This Week In Palestine 5-22-2016
Amira Haas and Lisa Majaj: authentic voices parrying the distortions of the Israeli public relations machine