Groundwork

Unlearning Political Helplessness

You know that feeling when you look around, and everything just feels too big? Like you just can’t make a difference? That’s the feeling the Tzedek Centers were created to fight. We talked to the co-founder and co-director of the Tzedek Centers, and to an activist from Rehovot whose very small fight represents something very big. In this episode reported by Elisheva Goldberg, we learn about how political change really happens: slowly, gradually, and with a lot of grit.

This episode was produced and edited by Julie Subrin. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

A New Anthem in Jerusalem

Since Israel was established in 1948, Jerusalem’s diplomatic and international status has been controversial and unresolved. The city is often the center of discourse around the political future of the region. Yudith Oppenheimer, a Jerusalem resident herself, is the Executive Director of Ir Amim (City of Nations). In this brief conversation, we spoke to Yudith about her time as a young activist living in South Africa, lessons learned and her inspiration, and Ir Amim’s efforts to make Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinian who share it.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

Bonus: The Vivian Silver Impact Award - A Land for All (Two States, One Homeland)

Not too long ago, we sat down with Yonatan Zeigen, the son of Vivian Silver, a woman who in both life and death was an iconic peace activist. She was murdered on October 7. In that conversation, Vivian’s son told us about a new award, the Vivian Silver Impact Award which would recognize two women who embody Vivian’s values and work—one Palestinian and one Jewish—every year. 

Yonatan just announced the recipients of the inaugural award: May Pundak and Dr. Rula Hardal, the Co-Directors of Land for All. You may remember the story we did about May last season…but in case you don’t, we’re offering it again in our feed right now so listeners can learn—or remember—the work of organizations like Land for All.

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Two States, One Homeland (Season 2)

In Israel-Palestine today, many people feel trapped in century-long circle of violence. The closest breakthrough came thirty years ago in 1993, with the Oslo Accords. In this week’s episode, we hear a story about May Pundak, Executive Director of A Land For All. May is the daughter of one of the architects of Oslo, Ron Pundak. But she thinks she may be onto a different model for peace that can break the cycle where Oslo went wrong. It’s not a two-state or one-state solution, but an idea that requires that we renew the conversation with some new thinking – one homeland.

Groundwork is created and produced by Dina Kraft and Yoshi Fields. It is hosted by Dina Kraft and Sally Abed. They also reported this episode. Content and audio editing by Yoshi Fields. Additional content editing by Elisheva Goldberg and Nick Acosta. Joel Shupack scored the piece. Art and design by Nick Acosta. Groundwork is a joint production of New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

Choosing Nonviolent Resistance

Growing up in East Jerusalem during the Second Intifada, Mai Shahin’s childhood wasn’t easy. She was stopped and held by soldiers on her way to school. She saw home raids and increased separation. Even after she joined peace protests during those early years, she saw violent clashes with the military in the streets, and support for violent resistance was growing. But a job working as a translator showed Mai a challenging world, the world of Combatants for Peace. Founded by former armed combatants, Combatants for Peace calls for a different approach. Learn more in our latest interview with Mai Shahin.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

The Road to Gaza

Last May, Sapir Slutzker Amran went viral for her work documenting and supporting aid trucks on the journey to Gaza as they were attacked by people destroying humanitarian aid. As a Mizrahi Jew, a woman, a feminist, a human rights lawyer, as an activist, Sapir doesn’t see Palestinians as just her neighbor. She sees them as her own people. We sat down with Sapir to hear more about her experiences, the power of solidarity, and her work with marginalized communities.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

A Mother's Fight for Israel's Hostages

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis fill the streets alongside Einav Zangauker, shouting, “Deal! Now!” Einav’s son Matan was taken hostage by Hamas almost one year ago, and she has since become a leading voice for the hostage families. Her demand is simple–that her son, and the rest of the hostages held in Gaza, come home. This episode tells the story of one mother’s fight, against great odds, to demand better, to bring her son home safely, and to lead a movement for change.

This episode was reported by Dina Kraft and produced and edited by Julie Subrin. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Scoring by Joel Shupack with music by Blue Dot Sessions. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

Steadfastness in a West Bank Village

Last season, Elisheva Goldberg took us on a trip to Umm al Khair, a village in the West Bank carrying on the legacy of the late peace activist Hajj Suleiman. Now, amidst home demolitions and settler violence, we return to Area C for an update on the people living there and the solidarity movements working to support them.

Listen back to Elisheva's first piece, “A Quiet Transfer,” from Season 2 of Groundwork.

 

Learn more about these movements below:

Combatants for Peace

Breaking the Silence

Yesh Din

Center for Jewish Nonviolence

Shatil

Rabbis for Human Rights

Achvat Amim

Vivian Silver's Legacy: From Grief to Action

On October 7th, Vivan Silver, a lifetime peace activist with Women Wage Peace, AJEEC-NISPED, Road to Recovery, and many more, was murdered in Kibbutz Be'eri. This week, we’re talking to her son, Yonatan Zeigen, about honoring her legacy through his own peace activism. Join us as we talk to Yonatan about his work and the challenges facing peace activists on the ground.

Learn more about the Vivian Silver Impact Award, given to one Palestinian and one Jewish Israeli each year.

 

Organizations supported or founded by Vivian Silver:

AJEEC-NISPED (Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development) is an Arab-Jewish organization for social change

Road to Recovery is an Israeli Association of volunteers who drive Palestinian patients - primarily children - from checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza for life-saving treatments in Israeli hospitals.

Women Wage Peace was founded in the aftermath of the 50-day Gaza War/Operation Protective Edge of 2014. Women Wage Peace (WWP) has grown to 50,000 Israeli members, the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel today, alongside its Palestinian sister movement Women of the Sun.

B’tselem is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel.

Alliance for Middle East Peace is a network of more than 160 Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilding organizations.

Project Rozana is committed to building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians through the field of health care, the only area of civil society where people meet on such a broad scale with mutual respect.

 

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. 

The Educational Divide

In Israel today, there are only nine bilingual schools. These are schools where Palestinian and Jewish Israeli kids learn alongside one another and lessons are taught in both Hebrew and Arabic. These are the only formal educational institutions where kids learn one another’s histories and cultures, and from an early age, play, study, and work with each other. This week, we’re talking to Mohammad Kundos, a principal in one of these schools. Mohammad’s school is part of a network called Hand in Hand. We talked to him about how and why bilingual education can have an exponential impact on the future, how learning your own history as well as that of your neighbor impacts young people, and the ways that Hand in Hand schools aren’t just imagining change, but doing and living it every day on their campuses.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Theme music by System Ali. This show is a joint production between the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) and New Israel Fund. You can learn more about them on their websites www.allmep.org and www.nif.org. On this podcast, hosts and guests express their views. These do not necessarily reflect the official views or stances of the organizations.

We're back

We’re back with season 3 of Groundwork, a podcast about activists on the ground working to end the occupation, stop this endless bloodshed, and demand justice, peace, and equality for all. This week, we’re introducing a new host, activist and comedian Noam Shuster. Noam joins co host Sally Abed to introduce the new season and talk about what these last several months have been like for activists working on the ground in Israel and Palestine.

This episode was produced and edited by Yoshi Fields. Groundwork is produced by Elisheva Goldberg, Nick Acosta, Yoshi Fields, Julie Subrin, and Dina Kraft. Music is by System Ali. The show is a joint production by the New Israel Fund and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

Learn more about the show at www.groundworkpodcast.com