Introducing the new weekly podcast “Unpacking Zionism.” It will feature conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Whether you’re an activist or an academic, whether you’re new to these conversations, or you’ve been thinking about this for a while, we’re making this podcast for you.
To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website criticalzionismstudies.org. And please subscribe to “Unpacking Zionism” so you never miss new episodes.
Transcript
Introducing: Unpacking Zionism
[00:00:00]
Yulia Gilich: Hello, and welcome to the Unpacking Zionism podcast. I am Yulia Gilich, a media artist, scholar, and community organizer.
Emmaia Gelman: And I’m Emmaia Gelman, director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. Yulia and I are part of the founding collective of the Institute and the hosts of this podcast. Yulia, what’s this podcast about?
Yulia Gilich: This new podcast will feature conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. And we’re going to look at it in a lot of different ways: as an ideology, a settler colonial project, we will talk about the experience of living under Zionism.
Emmaia Gelman: And the reason we want to do this is that Zionism is affecting all of our lives.
Yulia Gilich: But do you really mean all of our lives?
Emmaia Gelman: I do. Zionism has an outsized [00:01:00] impact on Palestinians. It’s responsible for the ongoing dispossession and violence against them, and it’s enacting a genocide in Gaza right now. And we hope this podcast can support the efforts to stop that genocide.
Beyond that, Zionism impacts everything from policing to agriculture to how we think about freedom around the world.
Yulia Gilich: And if you, our listener, are not used to hearing about Zionism in this expansive context, we hope this podcast sparks your curiosity and helps you gain new understanding.
Emmaia Gelman: Whether you’re an activist or an academic, whether you’re new to these conversations, or you’ve been thinking about this for a while, we’re making this podcast for you. We are starting out with a series on some keywords that are important in critical Zionism studies.
So our first few episodes will cover things like Zionism, violence, diversity, equity, and inclusion, decolonization, and we have a lot more planned. We also have agriculture, freedom, astroturf…
Yulia Gilich: pinkwashing, brownwashing, disinformation. I will talk about my work on Zionism and innocence at some point. There is a lot to discuss. But Emmaia, will people come away from this podcast knowing everything there is to know about these keywords?
Emmaia Gelman: Oh, definitely not. Because these conversations aren’t about finalizing definitions. They’re about opening conversation.
Critical Zionism Studies is an emerging field that’s being shaped by conversations like this, which, by the way, have been going on for a long time. So this rests on work that’s already being done by activists, artists, and scholars.
Yulia Gilich: Unpacking Zionism is a process and a long term commitment that we at the Institute are making to the Palestinian liberation struggle and the struggles of all people affected by Zionism.
To understand and resist the current moment of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we must understand Zionism, [00:03:00] its politics, ideology, institutions, and interactions with other modes of power.
Emmaia Gelman: This is what the podcast, like the work of the Institute overall, is venturing to achieve.
So join us on this journey as we’re unpacking Zionism one episode at a time.
Yulia Gilich: And if you want to learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, please visit our website criticalzionismstudies.org. And please subscribe to Unpacking Zionism so you never miss new episodes.